The Bout at the Diamond

 *An excerpt from the Mutant Year Zero Campaign I’m a player in, a writing exercise.*

The Mutants gathered in the morning to prepare for Tannis’ fight. Each of them was tired. Tannis and Lily were still badly injured from the night before. Jerry came back from his hiding spot during the gang war. Croc was somehow unscathed after killing Reggie, other than him missing his pants. But that was nothing new.

As they headed out, Croc put out his leathery arm.

“Uh…can we stop by my den first?” He asked.

“Why?” Tannis responded.

“iI got thing for you.”

“No.”

“It’s Reggie’s red coat,”

“…Fine.”

—

They made it to The Diamond on time. Audience taking their seats on the glass cabinets used as makeshift bleachers. The old jewelry store was the perfect spot to turn into an arena, even if it was on Mets turf. They had thrown as much dirt on the floor before lining it with a white chalk. The smell of sweat and blood hit the gang’s nostrils as they entered.

Croc was dealing with the catering he agreed to with his new business, La Familia Tavern. Jerry worked around the crowd trying to bet on Tannis, not noticing the odds had shifted. Lily stayed near Tannis for support. Tannis pulled the blood stained fur coat close.

The masked Commissioner took up their spot and started the processions with–of course– the hymns of the ancients. “*Take me out to the ball game*” the entire crowd sang, most wearing jerseys of some sort showing their allegiance to the commissioner, joined in. Not one of them dared disrespect the song. The caterers, however, kept asking Croc questions and getting unsatisfactory answers. He and the others were preoccupied keeping a lookout for Tannis’s opponent.

“Now, I’ve heard of a certain attack that happened last night. I would like to make it clear, I did not condone those actions. Those that took part, have been removed from the Hall of Fame,” the Commissioner spoke.

When they tapped their barbed baseball bat on the ground, their lackeys took the cue. Removing a drapery that was hiding a crude roster board hanging from the ceiling, everyone saw names in chalk had been crossed out.

The next tap had two enforcers bring out a bloody Jonats. Lily’s knife was gone from where she stabbed him, the wound wide open. They threw him to the floor, dust kicking up as he hit the ground.

“Now there will still be a fight, but first his mid-season replacement.”

Out of the crowd Jerry’s doppelganger, Jersey, stepped forward.

“Dammit, nothing good is gonna come from this,” Jerry whispered under his breath.

With the commissioner’s housekeeping taken care of, it was time to start the battle. The announcer took to the stage.

“In this corner, we have the once great and formidable MVP JOOONAATS” There was a mix of applause and boos from the crowd.

“Win this fight and you might stay on the bench!” said the commissioner from their throne.

“And in this corner, coming in wearing the coat of Reggie the Red, TANNNNNISSS”

Croc walked behind Tannis, clapping to the rhythm of an ancient hymn he knew. The crowd beam Tannis with excitement and whisper as they saw her coming up. Once in the corner Croc leaned over,

“So should I do the heist now while chronickliars not looking?” He whispered, remembering another job they had to do.

“No wait, we’ll have time after” Tannis said keeping eyes on Jonats.

“You don’t have to do everything yourself,” Lily said from the side. Croc stared. She was looking forward, eyes focused on the man that caused her so much pain. She’s been waiting for a long time. Croc hated to admit it, but she was right. Plus, he had caterers to deal with.

Once in the corner, Tannis dropped the robe to the floor. The crowd saw every inch of her naked body, including and more importantly, a slightly flustered Jonats. The announcer gathered himself before continuing.

“Remember ya’ll, this is a no weapon, no mutations bout. Break those rules and death is on the line.”

The crew doubted the commissioner would stop the fight to kill a rule breaker. They never could see past the commissioner’s black fencing mask. Never able to see if there was any truth to their words, hiding every part of themselves.

Jonats stood for a moment, standing in a pool of his own blood. It would be a long while before someone told them it was because of his severed Achilles tendon. A bell rang from somewhere.

Tannis went in first, swinging her fist at Jonats. Connecting with his forearm. Tannis swung again. This time Jontas didn’t try to block. An enforcer’s job was to fight and intimidate. He’s been doing this for a while, he knew it wouldn’t land. He saw his chance. He just had to move a tiny bit. Then he came in for a kill.

He put all he had into one punch. Only to hear his flesh tearing as Tannis’s bat-like nails sliced through his arm. The blood spewed out of the artery onto Tannis’s face, looking up at the big guy. He fell into a deep pool of his own blood.

The crowd shuffled away, it was the only bout of the day. The only event planned, full ring, full crowd. It ended in less than 30 seconds.

Before leaving, The Commissioner gave them a small prize for winning. A map of the Zone. Lily and Tannis stood above Jonats as he bled out. He had mere minutes for someone to try to find a chronicler to help him. Not a single member of the crew, the fans, or the caterers moved. They let him bleed.

Tannis and Lilly watched without moving. Six minutes of watching. Blood spurting out as he taunted them. They just watch. His mouth tried to gasp open, pooling whatever acid he could to spit on them. He sputter, choking on it and his blood more. They watched.

After an agonizing death, people cleared ou. Tannis and Lilly looted his body. It wasn’t much, but at least they got Croc new pants.

Jerry made a pittance on the bets. He was counting the small number of bullets when he noticed a small floating disk that went up to the vents. Before going to work on the ark’s new Workshop, he nudged his friend.

“Hey, yeah so, I just saw a weird thing go into the vent.” All he needed to do was point and Croc was on it. He jumped up and quickly chased through the vents. An exhilarating feeling rushed over Croc as his nails sunk into the metal ducts. The little disc tried its best to get away.

Tannis and Lilly headed back to their respective rooms to clean up. Lilly went to check out some sort of ancient bricks that were given to her after Croc cleared out Reggie’s desk. He said he fixed one with a pencil and forced the black spool back into it. She slammed into a bigger artifact that looked like a mishapen grey brick that supposely ran on the ancient’s energy. They knew that without a generator; Lily, or as her new reputation on the ark dubbed her, “Zap Cannon”, was the only one who could shock life into it.

Before pressing play, she brought some trusted friends who were more technologically inclined. She put in what the chroniclers called tapes, and pressed play.

The ancients had some strange performers. The first tape was catchy; it was a single group of performers with all sorts of ancient technology to play something kind of catchy. The boss started to sing about their personal goals, the importance of trends, and pleasure in conformity. “Hey Osha!” she called her friend over to hear.

They listen to the second tape, “Sweet Music to Jam to Vol. 1” The ancients had a wider variety of their old performances then. Lily was bobbing her head through most of it. Particularly the ones the voice of the ancient on the tape called “Hip Hop from the 90’s”.

The third tape was some sort of recording coming through with a static, and buzz. Words barely audible through the static and buzzing. “The Red Plague…” before losing some of the message, “Alpha J20… Beta F30…Gamma E9…Delta M2…Echo Q18”

Lily looked at Osha. She continued messing with the ancient artifact. They then found the radio. The voices on it got their attention. The first, was from someone who sounded like Tannis, though more talkative and stranger. Throwing words like “Aye” and “eejit,” talking with their old enemy Gaia, through this radio. They were preparing for something. The first voice, Galatea, mentioned they had something on the way to the Ark.

Croc was chasing the metal disc to a hall. The disc turned to try to find the big reptilian mutant. Croc ducked into a closet nearby. He opened the porthole and tossed his new pants out of it to the frozen wasteland. He took a deep breath till he felt his skin change. Stepping out, he followed the disc to see it circle a room near Tannis till no one else was around it.

He went back into the vents and crawled to the grate above the room. It was a grungy room, lit only by the sun as it spewed in from the porthole. The light bounced off the bodies of the two metal inhabitants. One was built as one of the ancient’s famously worshiped edible chip products, while the other was a giant that looked like it could be a rival enforcer. Standing between the two was a feminine body with her chest open to show metal pacing. When there was a tiny knock on the door, she opened the door, and the disc entered her chest. It closed with a small hisss.

“What a strange mutant” Croc thought to himself. He put his ear to the grate to the vent, listening in on their conversation. There was some talk about running away from some people and watching what the mutants at the diamond could do. “Once we get the generator from Marlotte we can leave-“ That’s all Croc needed and left.

He passed Lily as she was running to Tannis’s room. When the Zap Cannon has work to do, Croc wasn’t going to bother her. He knocked on the beings’ door. The “mutant” one opened the door just a hair.

“What you want?” she said

“Hey look, I don’t know what you here for. I want to like, talk, ’cause you know, you know good people, so yeah let’s talk?” How Croc came to lead a small kitchen staff gang, no one knew. Not even him. No one also knew what caused this mutant looking being to allow this large reptilian naked mutant with a katana wrapped in a leather jacket into the room.

Croc had no fear even as he was outnumbered by the three beings. He looked around the room as he put on his jacket.

“Oh so, want to check, you here to destroy the ark?”

“No-“The big one started.

“Cool that’s all- “

That’s when the ones who were trying to destroy the ark attacked. Explosions hit the side of the massive ship called home. They could hear cries of alarm around their ship.

“Oh for Ancient’s sake,” Croc said as he twisted out of the porthole to find the attackers. “First Reggie, now this.”

These attackers were scrawny, laughing, leather-jacket-wearing humanoids. The ark could mistake them for mutants if it wasn’t for some mechanical part embedded into their skin. Two of them made their way to attack Croc.

“The Helldrivers!” the “mutant ” exclaimed. One of the Helldrivers took his knife and tried to slash at Croc. It drew blood. Then it was Crocs’s turn; he raised his katana and smiled.

Around the ark, each mutant had their own enemy. Tannis and Lilly were luckily together to fight off their attackers. Lily had stressed herself enough that wings started to grow out of her back. Croc had one of the metal beings join him in the fight. Jerry while alone was a menace with his guns and his own fire powers.

The Ark was in chaos. Several died from the unexpected attack. betrayed by ones they saved from Gaia. The Ark survived with some wounds. The watchtower which mutants spent days building to keep an eye for this exact sort of attack, destroyed. One day, one attack. The Ark would rebuild, the mutants had troubles before. This time, they were pissed, and for once not at each other.