Our Very Own Fight Club

Routine resumed: I ate, I slept, I trained, on repeat. Monotony at its finest until suddenly, there was a spark of change.

"Where are you taking her?" Andreas persisted, following the guard who had roughly shoved him aside before heading to my door. Electricity caught the air as fire burned in my lungs. My senses tingled like an itch I couldn't scratch as my body readied itself for ignition. Something was wrong.

My door swung open with the kick of a boot, as two guards filed in the room. I slowly sat up on my bed, staring at the intruders with cutting daggers.

"Subject Xero is to be taken to the Clearing immediately. No questions asked." He coolly said.

Picking me up by the neck, the more outspoken guard held me close, weathering my hisses and scratches, while the other one restrained me. My collar had been left on, night and day, for the past few months, in an attempt to make my skin more pliable to their wishes after commencing stage two, but it proved ineffective. So instead, they used metal cuffs on my wrists and ankles to limit my fury range.

I bristled angrily.

"But it's not time." Ezra protested, having learnt the schedules and timings of all the events here. He was right. They were three hours early.

They were never early.

Struggling bitterly, I squirmed as they dragged me. Chained and bruised from them bumping me against every possible obstacle in our path, we made our way to the Clearing. Snapping my bound jaws with rage, hisses and growls fitted the scene of an animal being dragged to the slaughter. I played the part well. With Andreas and Ezra in our wake, screaming and shouting swears and curses, we tore through the halls and finally arrived at Hell's gate. Shaw stood outside.

"Ah, so you've brought the entourage." He remarked, purposely mocking Andy's presence as if he were in on the joke. He smirked at him as he crossed his arms, watching and waiting to see how far he could bend him over until he snapped. Andy bristled.

I wanted to curse him. I wanted to bellow little four-letter words until my throat caught fire but I couldn't. Not with the new developments they had forged in light of my increased strength. It was an extension from my collar, attached only during transport, that fitted on like a helmet. Covering the lower half of my face in the same thick metal as my collar, it forced its way into my mouth and clamped my jaw shut. Successfully preventing me from getting mouthy on our travels, I had to give them credit. 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝑜𝑜 𝓌𝑒𝓁𝓁.

"What is going on?" Andy growled at him, tension rippling through this taut skin. The second he saw Shaw he seemed to connect the dots in his mind and I could feel the air's temperature begin to rise. Blood was boiling. My throat started to burn. My Andy was getting angry.

"The same as always, Mr Evergreen. We are testing her, only this time, we're looking for something a little more primal." He chuckled.

The look on his face sent shivers down my spine. 𝒱𝑒𝓇𝑜𝓃𝒾𝒸𝒶. I looked over at Andy whose expression was one of ice that had no intention of melting. I had never seen him this angry before. I gulped harshly as my heart pumped a mile a minute. His anger was like my own. Volatile. Unpredictable. Feverish.

"Let her go." He demanded coldly, his pulse picking up. The throbbing of the vein in his neck told me all I needed to know. It was like a count down. 𝘛𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘬.

"What's the matter, Mr Evergreen? Can't stomach a little blood?" Shaw taunted with a cunning smile, cluing us in on the way he was going to conduct his investigation. He was going to torture me.

Andy took a single step forward, a clear threat, his muscles rippling with dark energy. I could see the steam spilling from his pores as he did nothing to control his temper. The winds swirled under his skin as the hurricane gained speed quicker than I could comprehend. 𝘛𝘪𝘤𝘬 ��𝘰𝘤𝘬. Shaw took a step to meet him head on, his smile filled with a calculated, knowing power. He refused to back down from a challenge: it was too enticing a scent to resist.

𝘛𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘬.

Standing toe to toe, I could feel every nerve ending in my body sing. The tension was thickening. Even Ezra could feel it. The scent of a fight hung in the air, it was brewing like fresh tea. I could almost taste it. My palms began to sweat as Andy's neck muscles tensed. 𝘛𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘬. I had to stop this.

𝒜𝓃𝒹𝓎.

When his hard eyes swung to meet mine, they softened completely. Searching. His jaw was set in a stony line as frost painted his expression. He wasn't going to back down and I needed him to as he clearly wasn't thinking straight. Shaw had an ace up his sleeve as always and we were playing into his hands. So I begged him to stop. I knew what was about to happen and needed him to be strong, to be there when I got out.

No words were exchanged.

He screamed feelings angrily. He wanted to protect me from what he knew was coming. The testing of limits he wasn't willing to push, a dance with death he didn't want to watch. He wasn't one to cross boundaries of this colour. No, he'd rather stand and fight. 𝓘 𝔀𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝓵𝓮𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓶 𝓽𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓸𝓷𝓮. 𝘛𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘬. I protested instantly. I could see but Andy couldn't. He was blinded by love and made impulsive by desperation. 𝘛𝘪𝘤𝘬. I had to clear the windscreen. 𝘛𝘰𝘤𝘬. I struggled towards him to calm him down but it only made the guards pull my restraints harder. 𝘛𝘪𝘤𝘬. I gritted my teeth in pain, attempting to hide it from him. 𝘛𝘰𝘤𝘬. Failed.

𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐦.

The first fist flew as Andy harshly connected with Shaw's jaw in the blink of an eye. His head snapped back like a whip as he fell to the ground, protectively cupping his quickly forming bruise. Like a detonator, the single punch descended the whole room into chaos. Quickly, I snapped alive, coming into action to protect my Andy, who was hastily being surrounded and contained.

My heel rammed into the closest guard's foot, crushing his toes like autumn leaves as I scrambled out of their hold. Surprise pulled my chains from their fingers as I sprang into action. Wrapping the metal around my arms, I flicked it out like a whip, smacking anyone that got too close. The weight made me cry out, with every slash my muscles burning with exertion and my mind reeling with the calculations. Every hit had to land, because I was rapidly running out of fuel.

Working my way backwards towards Andreas, I caught eyes with little Ezra, who had acquired a stun gun from one of the guards. Signalling my way, he shot through the crowd and dragged me to the corner of the room. I stared in confusion as he began to busy himself with his pockets, but I wasted no time freeing myself from the metal with a few of his bullets.

"Here, the key." He huffed, finally yanking it out of his trouser pocket. Wordlessly, he grabbed my head and jerked it towards him, stuffing the key in the lock as I yelped. Metal ground its jaws until the hinges fell slack and the contraption dropped from my face.

"What the hell, dude? Fucking gave me whiplash." I snapped, stretching my jaw as I massaged the aching tendons.

"You're welcome, you whiny bitch." Ezra chuckled, disappearing back into the fray.

Flipping his retreating form the bird, I quickly busied myself with the field, analysing the grounds for my next move.

𝕿𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖊.

"Andy! Andreas, stop!" I shouted, struggling to make my way over to him through the convulsing wall of bodies.

I had to get closer. The smell of him and his calm aura allowed me to pin point his exact location in the midst of the many. Crawling on my knees between trampling legs and dropping bodies, I squirmed towards him, catching a glimpse of his shadow. He was taking them out one by one, sparing none of them mercy. Equipped with senses strangely similar to mine and a rage like his father, he was unstoppable. Fists were flying faster than I could see, grunts echoed and blood was spilled everywhere.

𝒩𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝒽𝒾𝓈.

𝕹𝖔𝖓𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖘.

"Andy!" Finally, my voice reached his ears.

"I'm kinda busy here, babe." He replied, tracing a smile onto my face. 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒶 𝒿𝑜𝓀𝑒𝓇. Granted, he was. It was at least six against one and he was winning so yeah, he was busy, but still.

Manoeuvring like a river, I meandered my way to his side.

"Too busy for me?" I asked cheekily. Catching a fist from behind him, I crushed it in the palm of my hand. The little bones rippled against my flesh as they pushed past their natural laws: the screams were delectable. I licked my lips.

"Never." He smiled with a wink as he punched a guard trying to sneak up behind me.

"Guys, our little squad is kinda under siege so can we wrap this up, please? I wanna be home for dinner." Ezra heaved, taking out another target and rushing to our side. I raised an eyebrow to which Andy shrugged.

𝐿𝑒𝓉'𝓈 𝒹𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈.

Back to back, we attacked. Moving without words, we took out every opponent. They stood no chance and they knew it, so we made a game of it, one I thoroughly enjoyed. Fighting alongside them with a cause, a purpose, gave me a rush like no other. We had each other's back, always. The feeling of closeness, as we stood shoulder to shoulder, was a camaraderie I'd die for. A sense of trust and respect that I'd never forget. We were a deadly combination, a force to be reckoned with.

Standing inside a ring of unconscious bodies, there were two sounds. Andy and I's regular breathing and the rasping and wheezing of Ezra. 𝒫𝑜𝑜𝓇 𝓀𝒾𝒹. He was hunched over, leaning on his knees as sweat dripped from his nose.

"I take it you guys do this a lot then." He struggled to speak over his own deafening breathing. I stifled a smile. 𝐻𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓃.

"More often than not." I shrugged with a smirk.

Uncharacteristically laughing about the scene in front of us, I shook my head. 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓁 𝓂𝒶𝓃. Moments after, Shaw returned with a load of heavily armed guards. Private officials. We all froze. Fighting them would be no walk in the park.

"Right. Let's try this again, shall we?" He growled, sporting a nasty shiner. Andreas stood up straighter in pride. I rolled my eyes as he shrugged at my accusatory stare. 𝒰𝑔𝒽 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝑒𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓇𝑜𝓃𝑒, 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝑜𝓅𝑒𝓃 𝒶 𝓌𝒾𝓃𝒹𝑜𝓌.

𝕽𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖜𝖔? I cracked out my back and let my fangs come out. 𝐻𝑒𝓁𝓁 𝓎𝑒𝒶𝒽. Andy smirked. 𝓡𝓮𝓪𝓭𝔂. Dennis? Not so much. Staring at me incredulously, he shook his head in disbelief.

Here we go again.