Chapter 26: Chaos in the Underground

The stands at the Underground were packed, but the crowd didn't seem any wilder than normal. Certainly nothing like the Slayer match. Though Rick had arrived and been able to talk to Tom a little, the other man didn't give him any information about what exactly he suspected was wrong.

So all Rick could really do was keep his eyes open. In the days before the event, he'd trained himself extensively with the Bunyan's Step, raising the core to the second stage. More importantly, he felt he had a solid grasp on how to use it, so his new speed wouldn't end up being a liability. He didn't know if that would be enough, but he'd done all he could to prepare.

If Granny Whitney had been there, he could have asked her, but she was still absent. The only person who might know much of anything was Alger. As usual, the Underground's owner sat in the cheap seats, eagerly watching through the chain link fence. Did he seem more manic than usual, or was that just the power of suggestion?

"Yo, Rick!" He heard Henry's voice and turned to see his friend shouldering his way through the crowd. "You don't come check out fights very often."

"Tom asked me to come as some sort of backup."

"Shit, you too?" Henry got close enough to him and lowered his voice to a level that could barely be heard under the roar of the crowd. "I got pretty much the same thing and I don't even know the guy all that well. The two of you at least fought together."

Rick frowned at that. "You don't suppose Tom is the one setting up some sort of scheme?"

"No idea. He's certainly been moving up the low ranks quickly, but could he really do that? I think it's a lot more likely that the owner has something weird in mind for him."

They sat down together and let their auras burn just a little, which was enough to keep the crowd from bumping into them. The match started not long after, but it was nothing special. Just an advanced melee, Tom against another group of people of comparable level.

Not identical, though - Tom was showing his skills well. In addition to bolts arcing in every direction, he had some kind of new technique that let him slide across the ground on lightning. Ever since Alger had taken him on, he'd been getting quite a few advantages and was shooting up the ranks.

Watching the fight wasn't going to do any good, Rick decided. For one, it would just irritate him. But more importantly, everybody was watching the fight. If anything was going to go wrong, it probably wouldn't happen there.

He looked around for anyone suspicious, though he wasn't sure exactly what that would look like. Lots of different people came to the Underground, but they tended not to be clean-cut family types. All he really noticed was that there was betting going on, both formally and a few men just grabbing bills and apparently tracking bets in their heads.

Would it be rational to try to bet on the matches, or just throwing money away? Uncle Frank had always said gambling was a waste of time, and Rick had an aunt who blew every dollar she got in casinos. But this wasn't exactly pure gambling, because he thought he was a better judge of strength than the average customer, both due to experience and increasing knowledge of the fighters involved.

Of course, the odds would be in favor of Tom for this match, so he couldn't earn anything that way. Could he bet on himself? Given how many of his matches involved him barely making it through due to Granny Whitney's handicapping, the odds were probably against him.

It was probably illegal to bet on himself, but all of the fights were illegal anyway. Even if they didn't permit it, he could make an arrangement with someone else. Yet that solution seemed so obvious that he had to figure that other people would already have considered it. Perhaps it was too easy, unless others were already doing it and just not talking about it.

Rick shook his head sharply - this was not the time for such things. He was here in case anything strange happened during the match, so he needed to stay focused.

Since the brawl was still going on as normal, Rick instead looked above the main stands, into the private boxes. By design they were nearly invisible behind the lights, but if he peered he could just make them out. All the windows were reflective enough that he couldn't see inside, so that didn't do him much good. Just out of curiosity, he began looking closer around each box, wondering how they connected to the tunnels around the arena and how close they were to the surface.

Could someone hide up there? Unless there were hidden sensors, it would be the perfect place to take a shot. Given the height of the chamber, there was always the possibility of an attack from above as well. But if he had thought of both of those possibilities in a few minutes, surely Alger had thought of them.

The Underground's owner was watching the fight, not as engaged as usual. The way one knee bounced up and down... perhaps he was impatient? That didn't bode well, but it didn't tell him anything more than he already knew from Tom.

In the end, Rick didn't figure anything out before the match ended, leaving him feeling useless. Henry gave a low groan. "Was there even any point in us being here, then?"

"I don't know." Rick kept looking around as Tom waved to the crowd and then headed out. "What else is scheduled for the day?"

"Just some minor stuff to warm up the crowd, Tom's match, then something special... wait a minute, shouldn't the entrances have opened by now?"

Rick sat up straight, realizing that Henry was right: the lucrim defenses hadn't dropped. Tom seemed a bit surprised as well and turned back, just as Alger leapt to his feet, voice booming over the arena.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a special treat for you tonight! We've all seen our beloved Tom rise through the ranks with pluck and vigor! But can he face our special guest, who paid for a chance to face off against our best young warriors?"

A single one of the entrances opened and a short young man walked in. Despite his height, his body was well-built, with the type of bulk that only short men could manage. He wore dark pants and a t-shirt that looked simple yet high quality...

That was when Rick recognized him: the third Birthrighter who had been with Mike.

"Please welcome Magnus Astor to the Underground!"

The crowds cheered, though not as wildly as sometimes. Plainly, this was a bit of a surprise to them too, not like the Slayer round. Magnus strolled into the arena confidently, raising a fist to the crowd, but Rick had stopped looking at him.

For this to be a coincidence seemed impossible, so the question was why. Alger had said he paid for a chance to face young fighters. If that was the truth, then it seemed as though this strategy might have been intended to find or draw out Rick. If that was a front for something else, Rick had no way of knowing what it might be. He didn't entirely like either option.

"Looks like we're about the same age." Magnus walked toward Tom, crackling the knuckles in one hand, then the other. "This is all you have to show for yourself?"

"What I have, I earned." Tom gathered his strength, electricity crackling along his arms. "It wasn't handed to me."

"Let's see if that'll make any difference at all."

Tom raised a hand and released a barrage of bolts that arced across the arena, slow enough to be visible but all converging on his opponent. Yet they exploded against a spherical barrier that had been invisible until the impacts. Magnus grinned and rushed forward.

The fight was on, but Rick barely watched it. His eyes searched through the crowds until he saw them: two figures in dark hoodies moving in his direction. Though the hoods obscured their identities, they looked suspicious as fuck. Now that he saw them, he couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed them before. Worse, they were getting close.

"Henry, he's here." Rick elbowed his friend in the side and jerked his head in their direction. "Mike is."

"What? Where's... oh, they really stick out, now that I notice them. What do we do?"

"I doubt he's coming over here for a pleasant chat. Do fights ever break out in the Underground? In the audience, I mean."

Henry swallowed. "Uh, yeah. They can get pretty ugly."

"Then let's get the hell out of here." Rick turned to go, pushing his way through the crowd... and saw the hooded figures begin to sprint from the corner of his eyes.

Though Rick got moving first, he tried to slip through the crowds while his pursuers barreled through. Rick and Henry managed to get down next to the ground floor, almost to the exit lane. There was a random well-dressed man standing there for some reason and for a moment Rick worried that he might be working with Mike, but the man only looked mildly surprised as he dodged around.

One of the hooded figures smashed through him, sending the well-dressed man stumbling to the side. The hood fell down in the rush and Rick saw that it was indeed Mike chasing him, with Glenn just after him.

Henry turned back to face them, yellow armor forming around him, but Glenn rammed into him shoulder-first. Both of them flew past, the yellow aura exploding as it was overwhelmed by the superior force. Rick wanted to help Henry, but he barely had time to look at him before Mike was suddenly in his face, grabbing the front of his shirt and then punching him in the face.

The blow hurt, but it had only been designed to stun him. Rick stared blearily at Mike, who grinned as he lifted him into the air. "I was going to come fight you in the arena, but this place is beneath me. So I think I'll just beat the shit out of you now."

As Mike raised his hand again, Rick considered his options. Most people were currently watching the arena, so only those they had knocked aside in their fight had noticed. He couldn't count on any help from Henry, given that he and Glenn were fighting. Going toe-to-toe with Mike in the entrance lane seemed like a sure way to lose. That didn't leave him with very many options.

When Mike punched forward, Rick kicked off his chest. Not only that, he activated Bunyan's Step when he did so, propelling him backward with explosive force.

His back burned as it hit the lucrim-reinforced fence, but he smashed through. He hit the ground hard, skidding across the floor with some of the broken links digging into his back. Going through the barrier had hurt more than he expected.

But he was now lying on his back in the center of the arena with everyone looking at him. Their gaze naturally went to the source of the blow and saw Mike standing on the other side of the broken fence, eyes wide in surprise.

"It's the police!" Henry pushed himself away from Glenn long enough to yell. "This is a sting!"

A moment later Glenn grabbed his head and smashed him down into the ground, but that call was enough to unleash chaos. Not only did the crowd begin running and screaming, security forces who usually lingered near the outskirts began to move in. Alger was screaming orders and it sounded like he was contradicting the lie, but it was too late for that.

While Mike stared in horror at the mounting chaos, a tough-looking woman in leather came up behind him, grabbing his shoulder. He hit her instinctively and she dropped back... but not far. Mike realized that the security might be able to overwhelm him with numbers and snarled.

The smart thing to do would have been to run, but as Rick got to his feet, he realized that Mike wasn't going to take the smart option. Rick had a split second to prepare himself and then Mike was sprinting across the arena, sending fleeing crowd members scattering in every direction.

Prepared for such a direct attack, Rick had his first counter ready. Mike launched a predictable punch at him and Rick turned the blow aside with one hand, then jerked his arm back, slamming his elbow directly into Mike's face.

The blow landed cleanly and had all of his force behind it, but Mike had a generation rate of at least 150,000 lucrim. He grunted in pain but then gave him a mocking grin. "That all you got?"

As Mike attacked, Rick did his best to defend himself. He still had an advantage in terms of skill, but that wouldn't be enough to close the power gap between them. If he was going to make it through or even win, he needed to use his environment somehow.

A bolt of lightning seared between the two of them, forcing Mike to take a step back. Rick saw that Tom had released it and the two nodded to each other, but Tom wouldn't be much help because he had his own problems. Magnus looked unharmed, his defensive sphere sparking as he charged toward them.

There were a few audience members running across the arena floor as well, though any one of them could be a fighter. Right now it seemed a general brawl had started and Rick had no idea how long it would take to stabilize. This would be ugly unless he used the crowds to his advantage. If only they would get out of the way... like the well-dressed man from before, who had blundered out into the arena.

At that moment, the well-dressed man calmly kicked Tom in the side of the knee, snapping his leg in half.