Black Market Merchant

Nicky looked around nonchalantly at her office coworkers carefully. She had to be sure no one was paying attention to her. Being the closest desk to the main door and copy machine, it was hard for her to do her work without prying eyes. Now was the time to put one of her specialties to work, spying. This was the reason for nearly all her victories and her Fighters easy wins. Knowing your enemy is knowing half of the battle after all.

Taking out from the top drawer of her desk an ordinary black pen case, Nicky set it next to the hard backed display screen for her computer. Only Rickshaws office had a holo-projected screen. Carefully picking at a crack on the back of the pen case, with her well-manicured fingernail, she pulled out a USB port and plugged it into the computer. A small tab immediately pulled up on the bottom left corner of the screen. The on the tab was a paused video image of Rickshaw's office.

Nicky had sneakily placed into his office months ago a small micro camera. The camera was disguised as plant support stick in one of Rickshaws many cactus pots. No one would expect a stick to have a camera hidden inside, the perfect spying tool. From its position on a shelf off to one side of the room, Nicky could see and hear everything he was doing in the office.

Putting her Air Pods into her ears she thought to herself gleefully, "Ok Rickshaw, let’s see what you told Saul. I am sure it will come in handy for me."

Taking one more glance around her, she was satisfied no one was eavesdropping on her. Then she rewound the video to where Saul had entered, and Jackson had left. She next hit play and immediately minimized the tab, but the tab continued to play the audio. While listening, she half pretended to be working on some documents.

As she listened, much of what they were talking about was mostly useless questions or things she already knew about. Things like teaching your Fighter timing, how to approach an opponent, switching tactics, staying mobile and other similar things. It wasn't until Rickshaw started talking about Queen and Golem's fight that she really started paying attention.

"Finally, that refresher chat was boring! Now, what mistakes did you find old man? Tell me how to break mousy Sadie's hot shot Queen." Nicky chatted to herself.

This is what she heard.

"So here is the start of the fight." Rickshaw started explaining to Saul pointing at the holo-projection on his desk. "She is clearly ok with a close ranged fight. The fact that her weapon was not being used at the beginning is proof of that. Saul, you should have warned Golem to focus on finding an opening and chipping away at her defense. Instead, he charged recklessly right in, exposed him to her counter and ended up flat on the floor."

"But she charged right at him at the same time. How was I supposed to know she had such power and could do that to him?" Saul asked.

"Golem is a tank type fighter." Rickshaw replied. "He should have let Queen make the first move and use his armor to his advantage. Despite her speed, as we had seen from those rapid palm strikes, the hits only managed to force him back. They didn't actually hurt him."

"Ok, but she did take off his helmet from that one hit." Saul said apparently pointing at the screen. Nicky could hear the electrical indicator sounds of him tapping on the holo-screen of Rickshaws computer. Probably fast forwarding the fight to that referred to moment. "What should I have told him to do at that moment, other than using his Inducement?"

"Well, you made the right call, and he did attack her in the right manner." Rickshaw said voicing his thoughts. "If he had managed to grab her and break something or further restrict her movements, than it might have ended there. Yet she escaped. What I would have done was, as soon as she grappled his arm, told Golem to pin her into the ground. Her back was completely exposed."

"Ah, I see." Saul said with a sigh. "It's obvious now."

"Continuing, when she did break free and got away from him. Golem should have tried grabbing the helmet really quick and putting it on. Even if Queen used that moment to attack, he still could have protected his head."

"Hmm, alright. What else?" Saul said after a moment of thought.

"Well, rewinding back to the start, you have when she stabbed his foot after jumping from the fence." Rickshaw elaborated and the sounds of him tapping were again audible to Nicky. "After stabbing his foot, which was a smart move, Golem swung at her and she let go of the sword to break away. That now meant that he could have either used the sword or tossed it out of the ring. It was a careless error for the both of them to let the other get the sword."

"Good point." Saul replied. "I should have told Golem to chuck it further away. She didn't have any other weapons on her anyway."

"Any weapons that we could see." Rickshaw corrected. "Look here at her boots. Don't the bottoms look a bit thick?"

"Maybe?" Saul replied sounding unsure. "I really can't tell."

"It's just my speculation, but there could have been hidden blades in them. Many fighters have some tricks hidden on them" Rickshaw said. "I did not notice this until rematching the replays. Since she didn't use the supposed blades, I can't be sure that this is the case. Just keep that in mind."

"Alright." Saul replied. Nicky could hear the chair squeak around as he adjusted himself noisily. "What else do you have to show me?"

"Her sudden speed increase was most intriguing." Rickshaw said and the electrical sound of him tapping on the holo-screen returned. "This was actually quite strange to me. I saw no indication of anything being used by her to cause this change. If she had used an Inducement than there would have been a noticeable physical change, even a minor indication like in her eyes, skin or blood vessels. Like Golem’s Inducement caused him to have his blood vessels nearly burst and facial muscles tighten into a creepy smile. Yet she had no such side effects. If it were an Augmentation than there was a good chance that we could have seen signs of them. Of the areas exposed of her skin, I can't see anything like that could be considered an Augmentation surgery scar or lump. Perhaps under that skin suit of hers there could be signs or the Augmentations themselves, but it's still unclear."

Rickshaw cleared his throat. "That only leaves Alterations. However, which of the three subcategories does she use? If it were genetic alterations that would be the easiest to explain and account for no physical signs of any work done on her body. Yet for someone to have such a thing done to them, out here in the middle of nowhere, starting out their career is unthinkable. Genetic alteration users are normally rich or part of a syndicate. As far as we know, she has no such connections."

"I don't think she's had genetic alterations either." Saul replied. "Golem and Queen fought for a five-minute sparring match a week before their main fight. There was one thing that I did see that was difficult to explain."

"Oh? Really. You fought her before and still didn't take precautions?" Rickshaw said with a twinge of noticeable disappointment. "What was it?"

"Click!"

Nicky paused the video right then. Someone was coming to the copy machine and just to be sure that they didn't overhear she paused it. While the coworker was scanning his papers, Nicky used that time to stretch. Arching back, she could feel the stress from sitting so long fade slightly, especially around her chest. Then there came a loud click coming from the door leading out to the hall.

Nicky stopped stretching in mid-stretch to clasp her hands behind her head. Upon seeing who it was coming in was rather shocking. It was Sadie and behind her was a young man she hadn't seen before.

"Well, well. This is a surprise. I wonder what she’s doing here?" Nicky thought. She then decided to watch the two in silence.

Sadie didn't go back to her old desk, like Nicky guessed. But rather, Sadie headed straight for Rickshaws office. The young man followed right behind her. He kept on looking around curiously at everything. It was apparent that he was unaccustomed to seeing such surroundings. An outsider.

"Did you bring some country boy here? Pathetic." Nicky thought to herself. Getting up casually Nicky started to follow them.

As the two went up to knock on the already open glass door to Rickshaws office, Nicky went to a spot that she liked to listen in on anything being discussed in that office. From here it looked like she would be getting something from a series of file cabinets without a rousing suspension.

"Um, Rickshaw?" Sadie called out softly as she rapped on the glass door. "Do you have a moment?"

"Sure, I guess I can spare a few moments, but hurry I already had one meeting earlier and need to get my own work done." Rickshaw said leaning back in his seat. As he did, he picked up a mug from his desk and took a sip of its contents.

Sadie and Zane stepped inside, leaving the door open. Sadie reached into the small backpack she had on and took out a small blue folder.

Nervously Sadie pushed her glasses up her nose some before speaking. "I have filled out a new Match Fighter application form." Sadie said holding out the folder. "I would have sent it electronically, but I have no signal outside the compound."

"A new fighter?" Rickshaw said skeptically eyeing the man standing behind her. "You already seem to have enough work with Queen. Are you sure you’re ready for a second?"

"I-I think so." Sadie replied still nervous. "I plan on taking it slower with Zane. He's more of your standard type."

"Standard?" Zane thought a bit annoyed hearing this, but he stayed quiet. He knew that from the fights he had witnessed, Sadie wasn't all that wrong.

"Hmm, let’s have a look then." Rickshaw sighed taking the blue folder from Sadie. Unsealing it he pulled out the form. He took a few moments and flipped through the pages checking over everything. "Um, well everything looks to be in order and the potential Fighter is present. All he needs now is a test fight. Let's see if any manager here has someone that they can put him up against." Saying this, Rickshaw got up and walked by them.

He stopped in the doorway and looked at Sadie. "Oh, and one more thing. Next time make sure you staple the form in the correct order. You had the last paper first and it was all in reverse order." He let out a sigh. "Be more careful next time. It's things like this that make me worry."

Sadie could feel her face turn red with embarrassment. Zane stifled a chuckle and luckily Sadie didn't notice. In their short time together, he had noticed Sadie made small mistakes often and found them funny, but cute at the same time. Then the three walked out of the office and past Nicky.

Nicky had to cover her mouth faking a cough after overhearing what just happened. Otherwise, her cover would have been blown. "You silly mouse! Even the simplest assistant knows how to staple papers together!"