Pop-ex (Population Exchange)

Fight for Freedom

Tiger's view

The time comes to go to the battle arena. Jorman grabs my right hand, and then Valor grabs my left. "We stay together." The space twins say at the same time.

"You two are starting to remind me of creepy twins in old movies." I joke.

They laugh, and we keep walking. The corridors are full of people leaving the ship. The Explorer is being left with a skeleton crew. Everyone wants to see the fight live; even though Captain Zerrva has promised a feed to all interested ships.

We arrive at the arena entrance. Jorman tells the man at the door, "We're family of warrior Vlon."

The man grunts, calls another over and instructs him, "Take them to Vlon's family section."

The escort laughs disturbingly. "You'll get a front row view of the c*****e. Maybe you should have left the young ones at home."

"We're thirteen space years old." They say together.

Jorman adds, "Plenty ready to see Vlon win."

The man laughs again, but leads us to the area reserved for us. Then walks away still chuckling to himself.

Vlon is standing in the corner to my left, talking to Captain James and Arkner in such a way that no matter what angle you're looking from all you see is the back of one of them. Vlon's back is towards the opposite corner, where the Warvians wait.

Their Captain, Vloncar, stands front and center, staring at the back of Vlon, occasionally scanning the crowd. When he spots us standing in the family section he sneers, and stares into my eyes. I realize instantly that they're the eyes from the first half of my dreams.

I swallow hard and whisper to Jorman, "Vloncar is the warrior I saw defeating Vlon in my Nightmare."

"Makes sense." Jorman replies, "A Warvian Captain is technically the strongest warrior on his ship, at least if he took command properly."

Captain Zerrva steps into the center of the Arena floor. Silence falls through the room. He announces, "No one except the two warriors may enter the battle ground. If anyone breaks this rule before the fight is called: the sentence is death."

"He's not playing around." Valor whispers.

Jorman whispers back, "Anything less won't keep an angry Warvian from entering."

Captain Zerrva turns to the Warvian party. "Declare your warrior."

Captain Vloncar steps forward. "I am the warrior."

"Has a replacement been declared in the case of death?" Captain Zerrva checks.

"There has." Captain Vloncar replies, "It won't be necessary, but I have followed protocol."

"Warrior Vlon, step forward." Captain Zerrva calls out.

Vlon steps forward.

I note how perfectly the armor fits Vlon. Then I look at Arkner, standing in his armor, a few inches taller than Vlon, and definitely broader. I realize the armor had to have been adjusted at some point. They've been prepared for the possibility of this day. I start wondering how long Vlon had to stand in one place for the adjustments to be made.

Jorman nudges me. "Don't go trying to force the bond open, you'll ruin everything."

"Why is everyone constantly worried about me ruining everything for Vlon?" I ask in a harsh whisper.

"You'll understand after the fight." Jorman answers, and sits down.

I shake my head. Valor sits down and pulls on my hand. I grudgingly sit in my seat. I look around, and notice Skit is standing as one of the armed guards around the battle arena. A valid reason for him not to be with us in the family section, I note to myself.

Then I spot Kiki in an upper viewing deck, with a well dressed, and standardly pretty female sitting next to her. I nudge Jorman and point to the box they're in as I inquire, "Do you know who is with Kiki?"

Jorman looks and states, "That's Celka, our sister." He closes his eyes for a moment. When he opens them he declares, "They've kept her occupied by treating her like the royalty she thinks she is, and controlling who has access to her."

Captain Zerrva steps out of the Battle arena and yells, "Warriors, battle!"

Vlon's view

I hear the words, "Warriors, battle!" Yelled by Captain Zerrva.

I tune out everyone, except the warrior in front of me, who is also my dad, technically. "What woman birthed you?" He asks, both with curiosity and with mocking intent.

I realize he wants me to be who I am. He never cared if I was male or female. He wanted a child from a Nyrarian, to get a lineage with special fighting skills, one way or another. My mom, without the empathic gene active, made for a perfect victim.

I shrug my shoulders. "She's dead. She doesn't matter."

Vloncar grins and leaps for me. I see his plan to pummel me into the ground, and choose to step to the side, delivering a smack to his back as he crosses where I was. Not hard, just enough to anger him.

He jumps to his feet and goes to put me in a crushing embrace, but I turn around in his arms before he can lock me in place, causing him to adjust his hold to pull my arms up and behind my head, with my elbows bent.

I can see Arkner from here. I give him a friendly wink, and he returns it. As I pretend to struggle against Vloncar's arms they adjust slightly to keep me from breaking the embrace. I know the moment for my favorite surprise move has arrived.

In an instant: I stop pushing against his arms, straighten my arms and drop from his, turning as I do to punch Vloncar's stomach. I turn back as he doubles over and grab his head. I pull down as I push myself into a tumble, taking him with me, and making him take the blow of hitting the ground, followed immediately by my body landing on him.

I let go of him, so I can continue the roll into a standing position.

Vloncar groans.

I quickly turn around and stomp on his left knee.

He roars out in pain, rolls away from me, and gets on his feet, but he's limping slightly.

I can't let this small victory get to my head.

Suddenly I see various ways he wants to hurt me. I can't tell which he'll do. I shake my head to try and focus.

A blow hits my head, and a split moment later another hits my shield, attacking the weakness I don't have. Vloncar laughs evilly. "You're the Nyrarian's brat." He declares with joy, "You're going to sire a wonderful line of warriors."

Another blow to the shield and I hear it shatter.

I return a blow to his shield, and scoot back a few steps to remove the armor. It's considered a bad sign to be the first to lose the shield, but I just need the armor out of my way.

Vloncar doesn't remove his, but I didn't expect he would. Not while his shield is working, and my punches aren't strong enough to destroy one.

I grin and send him the image of me leaping into his shoulders for a tackle as I charge him. Just as I start the leap he scrunches down. If I was going to leap like that I would fly just over his shoulders. Instead I leap onto his bent knee, the uninjured right one, with my left foot, using the momentum to drive my right heal into the clasp shield, shattering it as I continue to push off him, flipping backwards, and pushing him to the ground.

He gets back to his feet as he rips his armor off, sending the smaller clasps flying. I've really angered him now.

I shut the feed of his vibrations down, so he can't hit me with another mental attack.

He leaps at me. Before I can step aside his shoulder collides with the Warvian weak spot. I grunt as we land on the ground.

I bash him on the head. He barely responds, except to grin and whisper, "Sire isn't the right word."

He grabs me under my chin, puts his feet on the ground, and pulls me up with him, still gripping my neck. He's just enough taller than me to be able to take my feet off the ground. I feel myself going weak.

Tiger's view

Vlon started out doing well. That drop and spin after Arkner winked back was wickedly awesome. Then Vloncar did something mentally, judging by the shaking of Vlon's head, and the results made Vloncar happy. After he delivered a few blows to Vlon he exclaims, "You're the Nyrarian's brat. You're going to sire a wonderful line of warriors."

Vloncar delivers another blow to the bottom of the armor, destroying it.

Vlon punches his armor back, but I can tell the punch isn't nearly as effective. Vlon steps back and removes the chest armor.

"Why?" I ask no one.

Jorman still answers, "If the clasp shield gets destroyed, the armor is basically useless to a Warvian."

Vloncar watches with a sneer as Vlon charges him. Then he squats, looking ready to grab Vlon. But Vlon steps on Vloncar's good knee, kicks the clasp shield, and backflips away as Vloncar falls to the ground.

I want to cheer, but Jorman grabs my arm.

Vloncar is back up, ripping his armor off and leaping at Vlon only seconds later. I can see Vloncar's shoulder hit the spot the clasp shield was protecting. As they hit the ground Vlon grunts.

Vloncar grins as Vlon smashes against his head. I think I hear him whisper, "Sire isn't the right word for what you'll be doing."

I don't have time to think about what he said as I watch him pick up Vlon, by the throat. Soon Vlon is dangling in the air, getting weaker by the moment.

Jorman calls out, "No!" And closes his eyes.

I look to Arkner and realize he's doing the same.

Vlon reaches up to pull on Vloncar's hands.

I see the piercing blue eyes of Vloncar staring at me with a grin.

I hear the voice of the child telling me, "You could have saved Vlon."

I push the image away as I notice Vlon's knee is lined up perfectly. I push the connection open, pouring my energy through, along with the image of my view of the situation.

Just before I pass out I see Vlon's knee hit the weak spot on Vloncar. As he falls his hand grabs Vlon's shirt, ripping it. I smile as best I can and think, "Good girl, you heard me."