Fighting Spirit

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rufusluciusivan
Posts: 1225
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2017 5:08 pm

Fighting Spirit

Post by rufusluciusivan »

Hello everyone. Just a random idea that popped in my head a few days ago. If you want a break from the more serious moral dilemnas and political discussion of my other current series, this is a shorter sillier story just for fun. I'm sure many will recognize the reference to a well-known mainstream scene at one point.

Fighting Spirit

**************

Even though it wasn't her first fighting tournament, Jessica was having butterflies in her stomach. She knew herself well enough to accept the fact that she would never get rid of her anxiety, therefore she had learned to accept it. And even to turn it into a strength.

The most important thing wasn't winning anyway. It was giving the audience a good show. A decent chunk of the crowd wasn't here for the sport, but to see cool-looking masked combattants fight each other while wearing cool-looking (and slightly fanservice-y) outfits.

There would be for all tastes: shirtless buff men, tall muscular women, hunks, women wearing tight or revealing costumes...

Jessica was a woman in her late twenties who had puffy light brown shoulder-long hair and brown eyes. Her skin was light, and her face was round-shaped with a perky petite nose. She was the kind of woman whose face looked cute instead of beautiful or sexy. For a masked fighter, she wasn't very muscular – though her body was, of course, fit-looking since she was working out a lot. She was in the featherweight category and, against her opponents, she favored agility over strength.

Currently, Jessica was sharing a changing room with another contestant. Both were putting on their 'masked fighters' costumes, as they were about to take part in the Iron Eagle Tournament, one of the most famous wrestling tournament of the world.

The other masked fighter was roughly the same age and built as Jessica. She had short straight neck-long deep black hair and deep brown eyes, as well as a pale skin. Her face was angular, with sharp cheekbones, and a pointy chin. She was wearing a black and dark purple wrestling outfit: trousers and a tank top, as well as a purple cloth sash tied around the waist and black gloves. Her shoes were black. Her wrestling mask of matching colours, was designed to look like an owl's head, with the 'beak' covering her nose. Fake black feathers were adorning the mask and the collar of her tank top, as well as her cloth sash. The mask wasn't covering the lower part of her face though. She was wearing black lipstick.

She was sitting on a bench of the changing room, her back against the wall, and was looking as nervous as Jessica.

“So, this is your first time in the Iron Eagle Tournament too?” the woman finally asked, probably to think of something other than her fright.

Jessica nodded. “Yep. Name's Jessica. 'Firecat' on the ring.”

“It explains the costume.” the black-haired contestant commented.

Jessica was indeed wearing a bright red leather wrestling bodysuit with long sleeves and trouser legs, red shoes, as well as a matching leather wrestling mask covering the top and the back of the head as well as the eyes, but not the nose, the mouth and the chin. The mask also had cat ears.

Jessica smiled sheepsishly. “It was my manager's idea...” she explained. “Though for the record, I'd like to say that I did fire him later. However, by the time I did, it was already too late. The name had caught on, the costume too... What about you? What's your stage name?”

“It's 'Blender'.”

Jessica frowned. “Like the kitchen appliance?”

“No. Like the supervillainess.”

“Supervillainess?”

“Yes. A mistress of disguise. Haven't you seen the blog? Or the strawpoll? There's even someone drawing a webcomic now!”

“Never heard of it.”

“Some people say she's a real criminal. Personally, I think it's a hoax to advertise the webcomic. But she still sounds cool. So I took her name.”

“Still a strange stage name if you ask me... Though I guess it's not stranger than Firecat.” Jessica commented. “Is it rude to ask your real name?”

“It's Paige. I hope I'll do well. It's actually my very first tournament, you know? I'm very nervous.”

Jessica sympathized with her. “This isn't my first tournament, but I'm still as nervous as if it was...”

“Really? Which tournament did you take part in?”

Jessica grimaced. “My latest gig... didn't go very well... Some crazy chick stole my costume... trussed me up... locked me in my locker... Then, somehow, she accidentally set fire to the stadium... had to hop my way out of the building... It's a complicated story! Anyway, I decided that I needed to change air. Therefore, I'm here.”

The other masked fighter was looking awed. “What a story!” she commented. “Well, I hope we won't get into trouble with this tournament. I heard that they already had problems with...”

Paige was interrupted by the door of the changing room.

Two women entered. Both seemed to be in their early or mid-thirties.

They were clad in the loud tacky clothes that only some tourists could stomach wearing: bright colourful caps, shirts and pants that were hurting the eyes. One had a light skin, brown eyes and bluish black midback-long loose hair. She was wearing a backpack. The second had a light skin, hazel eyes, and red hair tied into midback-long twintails. She was carrying a handbag.

“Oh, hello! Hello!” the redhead said. Her accent was thick. She was clearly a foreigner.

The two tourists seemed a little confused and lost.

“Excuse me, but you must have taken a wrong turn.” Jessica said to them. “This part of the building is reserved for the fighters. It's forbidden to the public.”

“No. No. We follow rules. We lost.” the redhead added while her friend was nodding vehemently.

“Of course. I'm not accusing you or anything.” Jessica said. “Here, I'll show you the way...” she proposed.

The redhead bowed her head. “Thank you! Thank you!”

“So nice of you...” Paige teasingly commented.

“Well, what can I say? I'm a Face.” Jessica joked back. She was starting to think that the current was passing well between she and the other contestant.

“Thank you! We give you money, yes?” the second tourist intervened.

The black-haired woman took her backpack in her arms and rummaged through it.

Jessica shook her head. “Oh, that won't be necessary! I'm just happy to hel-GAH!”

The black-haired woman had taken something in her backpak. However, it wasn't a wallet. It was a spray of sleeping gas.

And she had just sprayed a copious dose of sleeping gas at Jessica's face!

Already, the masked fighter was feeling woozy. While coughing, she staggered and tried to rub her eyes.

Paige tried to rise up from her bench. “Hey! You're-ARK!”

The red-haired tourist sprayed the second masked fighter's face with her own canister of sleeping gas, taken from her handbag, without giving Paige the time to accomplish anything.

The two masked fighters coughed and gasped for a few seconds, then blacked out. Jessica 'Firecat' fell on her knees and landed face down on the floor with a 'thud'. Paige 'Blender' fell back in a seated position on the bench, her back against the wall and her chin resting on her chest.

They were now deeply asleep.

**************

“This is our most ingenuous plan ever, if I do say so myself.” Selena commented.

Lucina shrugged. “How is it any different from what we usually did when we had to infiltrate a place with Reka?”

“What I mean is that lesser persons trying to rob the safe containing the money for the first prize of the Tournament would have taken the place of security guards. Or of the cleaning ladies. But we're more clever than that. We're taking the place of some of the contestants themselves! I'm sure nobody ever had that idea! Simply ingenuous...”

“If you say so...”

“Besides, we took care of choosing two newbies whom nobody's here has heard of. Because we're smart!” Selena said while tapping her forehead.

“I think I liked it better when you were pretending to be dumb...” Lucina snarked back.

The redhead didn't take offense, since it was in friendship. Taking jabs at each other was one of the things they tended to do.

“Can we start stripping them now?” Lucina added while starting to unzip the red wrestling suit of the woman she knocked out.

The two accomplices had taken the time to memorize the stage names of their victims, that they read in the program of the tournament.

“I'll take Firecat's costume, you'll take Blender's.” Selena instructed her friend.

“Fine by me.” Lucina shrugged, leaving Firecat to grab Blender and lay her on the floor. “I'm actually glad to not receive the fanservice-y outfit...”

“I don't see how it's fanservice. It covers all the body, even the legs.” Selena objected while she finished unzipping Firecat's wrestling suit. “Yours actually show more skin!”

“Well, it has this 'cat girl' angle... Not to mention the leather.”

“Don't you have an 'owl girl' to strip?” Selena interrupted her friend while removing Firecat's mask and then her shoes.

Lucina complied and removed Blender's owl mask. Then, she pulled off the black-haired wrestler's tank top, took off her shoes, undid her sash, and shimmied down her pants. At the same time, Selena was peeling out Firecat's red leather full bodysuit.

Firecat was wearing a grey set of underwear (sports bra and comfortable knickers that wouldn't hinder her movements), as well as white socks. Blender was also wearing a set of undergarments designed to facilitate her movements during the fights, although her sports bra and her boyshorts were light purple, and her socks black.

Lucina grabbed a few coils of rope and two rolls of thick brown tape in her backpack. She gave her friend one of the rolls and half of the ropes.

“Quick and efficient.” both women said to each other.

They were fast and dilligent in their ropework.

They wrapped their ropes around strategic parts of their victims' bodies, to make sure that these fit athletic women wouldn't be able to break free: ankles, knees, wrists, and upper arms both below and above the breasts.

To gag the two wrestlers, Lucina and Selena chose to not be jerks and used clean hankerchieves from their backpack to fill the women's mouth, then they taped two strips of tape over the women's closed lips, forming an X.

The two fake tourists took the time to check the restraints of their victims. Trussed up and gagged while lying half-naked and deeply asleep on the floor of the changing room, the masked combattants looked a lot more vulnerable now.

“The lockers?” Lucina asked.

“The lockers.”

The two wrestlers were stashed in adjacent lockers. Once again, Selena and Lucina wanted to show that they weren't monsters: they didn't put both women into the same locker. Firecat and Blender were lucky to each have their own private locker.

Selena and Lucina closed the locker doors at the same time, concealing their two trussed up occupants.

Then, they used two un-occupied lockers to store their tourist clothes, and slipped into the costumes of the two wrestlers they neutralized. Selena was now the Red-Haired Firecat, as the wrestler outfit she stole was matching her hair colour, and Blender's costume also looked good on Lucina. Thanks to their past as soldiers and henchwomen under the service of Reka, the two impostors had fit athletic bodies that were allowing them to pass for trained fighters.

“Safe room, here we go!” Selena commented.

**************

The fake Firecat and Blender were walking across the corridors of the stadium that was going to host the Iron Eagle Tournament. They passed next to several other fighters, both men and women, as well as members of the staff. Nobody batted an eye or exposed them.

The two women they were impersonating were truly complete strangers for all the regular fighters, and almost noboy truly knew about their appearance. Selena and Lucina were lucky to not come across the few staff members who enrolled their victims and therefore knew their faces.

Selena and Lucina were a few corridors from the safe room when, suddenly, the redhead grabbed her friend's shoulder.

“Wait! I think I heard something...”

“Heard what?”

“Listen!”

There was a maintenance closet nearby.

A thumping noise was coming from the other side of the door.

For people who spent a good chunk of their recent carreer under Reka's employ, the sound was unmistakable.

“No way...” Lucina whispered. “Can it be...?”

Reflexively, they approached the closet.

“Should we... open it...?”

The door of the maintenance closet suddenly burst open in front of them.

A trussed up body fell at their feet. The woman was bound with bright pink ropes and gagged with a lime green cloth gag knotted behind her neck.

Selena couldn't believe someone would be tasteless enough to associate such a colour combination with their restraints.

The woman herself was in her mid-thirties and had a spiky pixie cut. One pointy bang was covering the left side of her forehead. Her hair were sunny blond, with one stripe that was dyed electric blue. She was white-skinned, tall and athletic-looking, with a square jaw and icy blue eyes. Two black lightning bolts were painted on her cheeks, one on each.

She was also half-naked: with only an electric blue triangle bra and matching cheeky panties to cover her private parts.

The unfortunate woman had managed to loosen the cloth gag tied around over her mouth. She freed her lower face and spat the balled up bright orange cloth shoved into her mouth.

“Please, help me...” she begged. “I'm Tempest... One of the contestants... Some woman jumped me and stole my identity... and my costume!”

Selena and Lucina hesitated. 'Tempest' of course couldn't know that they were in truth impostors. However, to avoid unwanted attention and to be able to perform their theft in all tranquility, their best course of action was probably to swiftly knock her out, put the gag back in place, and throw her back inside the maintenance closet.

However, before they could take action, several people arrived, drawn by the noise. Several security guards, including two burly men, as well as a tall muscular male wrestler with a huge blond beard and long blond hair.

Lucina immediately played along. While Selena was always more outspoken when there were only the two of them, Lucina was a lot more at ease when it came to handling social situations. “We just found that woman!” she explained. “Someone stole her identity!”

None of the newcomers questioned her story or her own identity. The Iron Eagle Tournament was a huge event, gathering roughly a hundred of competitors. Nobody would bat an eye at new faces.

“Goodness! Not again!” one of the guards exclaimed.

Two security guards started to untie Tempest.

Selena frowned. “Again? You mean that infiltrations and muggings for disguise are a recurring occurrence here?”

The security guards ignored her. “Call the manager!” one of them exclaimed.

To not arouse suspicion, Selena and Lucina stayed with the guards and the wrestler, and even helped them untie the unlucky woman who was mugged for disguise – a very strange experience, as they were rarely the ones rescuing victims of uniform stealings.

The manager himself arrived shortly after.

He took a brief glance at the disaster, and exclaimed: “Really... Again? Did Aisha seriously try to illegally enter the tournament AGAIN? That's the fourth time she mugs a masked fighter!”

“The fourth time?!” Selena couldn't help but exclaim, annoyed to see that her supposedly clever unique idea... wasn't very unique after all.

Everyone ignored her.

“Sir, Aisha's still in prison.” one guard said.

“Didn't she break out after mugging a guard?” the manager asked.

“That was her latest attempt. She was re-captured afterwards.”

“So you mean that it's another uniform stealer?”

“Afraid so.”

The manager raised his arms in fury. “What do they all have?! Did they spread the word?! I mean... Do they think they're clever? That they're being original? We have at least one infiltrator per tournament ever since the first iteration! What a bunch of sheeps!”

“Maybe this wouldn't happen if you didn't insist on offering the money to the winner in cash, sir.” a security guard commented.

“A suitcase of money is more telegenic. The audience loves it.”

“They also love the uniform stealings...” a guard said to another. “I heard that there's betting ring that doesn't bet on the winner of the tournament anymore, but on which contestant is going to be mugged for her costume...”

Selena's face fell as she was fully understanding how unoriginal her idea was.

“Enough!” the manager interrupted them. “We'll-”

“Look!” the blond muscular wrestler suddenly exclaimed.

A tall athletic-looking woman was passing in a nearby corridor. She had a tanned skin, midback-long frizzy dark brown hair, and hazel brown eyes. Her costume consisted of white elbow-long gloves, a sleeveless half-blue half-white top, a thick belt of which the buckle was adorned with a lightning bolt, electric blue pants and matching boots. Her mask was also electric blue with yellow lightning bolts and white edges around the holes for the eyes that were also shaped as lightning bolts.

The newcomer briefly froze when she realized that everyone was looking at her.

“She's the one!” the real Tempest, still only clad in her underwear, exclaimed. “She's the woman who stole my costume!”

“What?!”

“The impostor!”

“Get her!”

The woman's eyes widened. “Crapbaskets!” she exclaimed.

Then, she hightailed.

“After her!”

Everybody ran after her. The manager. The security guards. The blond wrestler. Even Tempest, as she was eager to get her revenge – and to get back her clothes – even if it meant running after her mugger in her underwear.

Only Selena and Lucina didn't move. They watched everyone else run, feeling slightly dismayed.

**************

A few moments later, Selena was walking in the corridors of the stadium in which the tournament was taking place. They were strangely empty. Apparently, everyone was busy chasing after the infiltrator.

The redhead was feeling glum.

Lucina casted her a worried glance. “So... You don't want to steal the money anymore?”

“What for? They've taken away all my motivation...”

“Come on! Because an idea's unorignal, it doesn't mean it's bad... On the contrary! A good idea's always stolen!”

“Let's just go back to our hotel room... I want to fill myself with junk food and sweets... and booze. Lots of booze.”

While they were talking, the two accomplices suddenly came across the door leading to the safe room.

Two women that were part of the security team were guarding it.

Selena suddenly realized that only two security guards were watching the door of the room in which the money was stored, as all the others were chasing after the impostor.

“You know what? On second thought...”

**************

The security guards were sharing an uncanny family resemblance. They were most likely sisters.

Their hair were the same shade of chestnut, with slightly red natural locks. Their eyes were the same shade of hazel brown, with a few golden specks. They had the same pointy chin and tall nose, the same diamond-shaped face, the same almond eyes and tanned skin. One was slightly taller than the other though, she was probably the older sister – in her mid thirties – while the youngest sister was in her early thirties. The younger sister had a shoulder-long bob cut, the older sister's hair were tied up into a tight neck bun.

“Sooooooo booooooooring... Why were we the ones left behind to watch the safe room?” the younger sister complained. “Everyone else is chasing after the impostor!”

“That's because you bragged that you were betting on which contestant was going to get mugged while the manager was within earshight!” her elder retorted. “You know how he's triggered by the mere mention of uniform stealings, especially when it involves the new betting ring...”

The younger sister grimaced. “Sorry sis.”

The other woman rolled her eyes. However, she couldn't help but ask – after checking that the manager wasn't within earsight. “By the way, who did you bet on?”

“Firecat and Blender. The secret is actually to always bet on the new faces: they are the most likely to be mugged. Uniform stealers are so predictable...”

Oh, girl! I won't forget that! Selena thought to herself.

She and Lucina nonchalantly approached the security guards, who were quietly chuckling.

Two knees to the stomach and two neckchops later, Lucina and Selena were dragging the unconscious guards inside the safe room.

“We should take their uniforms. Two wrestlers carrying a suitcase would look suspicious. It won't be the case with two security guards.” Lucina commented.

“It looks a little risky... What if someone notices that these two aren't at their post?”

“Come on! All these idiots are chasing after that dumb infiltrator who thought she could steal our thunder...” Lucina insisted.

Selena looked at the security guard who dared call her 'predictable', decided that she wanted to indulge in petty payback, and nodded. “You're right. This is worth the shot.”

**************

And indeed, nobody bothered them. Their slopiness was even starting to annoy Selena. Nobody was able to notice that the security guards watching the safe room had disappeared in 15 minutes?!

In this time and era where everyone was improving their anti-uniform stealing tactics, these people were decades behind...

What a bunch of amateurs! No wonder they're being infiltrated every time!

The two security guards were wearing grey tank tops as underwear. To cover the lower part of her body, the older sister was wearing hot pink boyshorts with black edges, and the younger one... white panties adorned with brown little teddy bears.

“Goodness! Was it 'bring your daughter to work' day?” Selena complained while rolling her eyes.

Since they couldn't bring their backpack with them while disguised as masked fighters, they had to make do with what they had when it came to restrain the two real guards.

Each guard was carrying a zip-tie strapped onto her belt. However, there only was one zip-tie per sister. Therefore, unfortunately for the two captives, Lucina and Selena removed their victims's tank tops as well, revealing their respective white bra adorned with little teddy bears for the younger one and hot pink corset bra with black edges for the older one. The infiltrators teared the tank tops into crude makeshit strips to bind their legs. They used the zip-ties to bind the wrists. The women's socks were shoved into their mouths to serve as a gag, and another crude strip of tank top was used as a makeshift cleave-gag.

Selena positioned them on the floor so that each woman's nose was next to the other's feet. She chuckled.

Lucina rolled her eyes. “Goodness Selena, you're such a petty jerk sometimes...”

“They shouldn't have insulted my intelligence.”

They slipped into the security guards' uniforms.

**************

While everyone was still busy pursuing the fake Tempest, two fake security guards quietly left the building. When reaching the service exit, a briefcase full of money at hand, Selena and Lucina shared an awkward look.

“Well, that was easy...” Lucina commented.

“Somehow, I'm feeling more disappointed than joyful at our success...” her friend added.

Still, they'd be stupid to turn away easy money. They opened the door leading outside the building. In the backyard of the stadium, reserved for the service entrance, they came across a surprising sight.

There were two women.

The first had ashen blond hair tied into a waist-long braid and aqua blue eyes. Her skin was dark. She was slightly shorter than average, with a well-toned body. The woman was wearing casual clothes: a green shirt, beige pants, and brown shoes.

The second was another contestant of the Iron Eagle Tournament. Of average size, fit and athletic-looking, with a light skin, green eyes and collarbone-long auburn hair tied into a ponytail. She had a long pointy nose and a tall diamond-shaped face. Her costume consisted of a half-black half-white leotard, a white left glove and a black right glove, a crimson red belt, a black left boot, and a white right boot. A black and white wrestling mask was on the ground near her. She was also unconscious and lying on the ground.

The first woman was currently busy with divesting the contestant of her masked fighter costume.

Selena saw a cigarette on the ground, and deduced that the costumed fighter was taking a smoke break when the woman with ashen blond hair assaulted her for her clothes.

The redhead also couldn't help but notice that the uniform stealer didn't seem very methodic. Her victim was already gagged with two strips of transparent tape covering her mouth while forming an X, but the ashen-blond-haired woman hadn't finished stripping her yet.

When the mugger noticed Selena and Lucina, with their security guard uniforms, she got up and raised her fists, ready to fight.

“Easy now. We're not real security guards.” Selena said to calm her down.

The woman frowned.

“You're indeed not part of the usual security crew. Are you infiltrating the tournament too?” she asked.

Selena grimaced. She didn't want to be reminded of how unoriginal her idea was... Still, she confessed: “Yes.”

The ashen-blonde looked at the two newcomers warily. However, since they didn't look hostile, she didn't try to attack them.

“Let me guess... Your name's Aisha?” Selena asked.

The woman frowned.

“How do you know my name?”

“Lucky shot. I take it that you want to take part in the tournament?”

“Of course! I'm a true champ! Way better than all these losers combined! They're just too narrow-minded to see my potential!” Aisha smiled manically. “But this time I'll show them... I'll win this competition for sure!”

Selena sighed. “Yeah, whatever... Not my problem anyway. Have fun.” She glanced at the unconscious woman. “By the way, at least hide your victim in the specific paper and cardboard dumpster, so that she won't end up covered with smelly trash. Just because you're stealing her clothes, it doesn't mean that you have to be a jerk about it.”

“Unless she's a security guard who just unknowingly insulted your intelligence...” Lucina slyly commented.

“Low blow, Luce'. Low blow. Let's just leave. I want to use the money to buy some booze. I need to forget everything that happened today...”

**************

Jessica should have been scared, but in truth she was more angry. It was the second time a uniform stealer was ruining her day!

However, after what happened last time, she had prepared herself in case such an occurrence would happen again.

She used her shoulder to hit the door of the locker.

When she succeeded and the door bursted open, Jessica jerked her body to make sure she wouldn't hurt herself when falling on the floor.

The light-brown-haired woman took a deep breath. First step to freedom... completed.

Now, she had to locate where Paige was locked.

The task wasn't hard though. Jessica could hear muffled cries and mewls coming from the locker to her right.

She rolled on her back and kicked the handle of the locker's door until she managed to open it.

“Mhhh!”

Paige fell from the locker.

She started to squirm on the floor, though she was lacking the skill or the strength to free herself.

Jessica crawled next to her.

“Chlm dhwn. Chlm dhwn.” she tried to say.

It took Jessica several minutes of muffled urgings, but she managed to finally calm down her companion of misfortune.

“Fhllhw mh lhhd.” she instructed her.

Jessica rolled on her back to gain momentum, then rolled again and moved her bound legs to squat. Then, she carefully stood up on her legs. It wasn't easy with her bound limbs, but she kept her balance.

Paige managed to imitate her.

Jessica nodded to encourage her.

“Jhmp bhhhnd mh!”

Jessica hopped to the door, followed by Paige.

Once near the door, Jessica managed to turn to have her back facing the door. She grabbed the handle with her bound hands.

Should have tied my fingers, jerks!

**************

Aisha followed the instructions of the red-haired fake security guard. After divesting the masked fighter 'Equinox' of her costume, she stashed her in the paper and cardboard dumpster.

The unlucky fighter was down to her flesh-coloured t-shirt bra and control briefs. She was bound with transparent packing tape.

Now, Aisha was walking through the corridors of the stadium, wearing the stolen costume.

There had been a huge commotion in the stadium. Apparently a thief had mugged that jerk Tempest and stolen her outfit, and OTHER thieves had taken advantage of the situation to knock out the security guards watching the safe room, take their place, and leave with the money.

Aisha was passing near a door leading to a changing room when a trio of guards stopped her.

“Excuse me, but who are you?”

Aisha briefly froze. Then, she exclaimed while disguising her voice:

“Who am I? WHO AM I? I'm the mysterious masked fighter Equinox! That's who I am!”

One of the men raised his hands. “Fine. Fine. No need to get crabby. We simply-”

Suddenly, the door of the changing room was opened.

Two trussed women in their undergarments hopped outside.

Aisha's eyes widened when she saw the woman with the light brown hair. It was Firecat! A masked fighter she mugged at another tournament!

The light-brown-haired wrestler's eyes had also recognized her former mugger. Her eyes widened and she glared daggers at Aisha. Firecat tried to insult her, though luckily her tape-gag was silencing the smutty words. Still, for a bound-and-gagged woman, she was looking downright terrifying.

“It wasn't me! I swear! I didn't steal your costume this time!” Aisha exclaimed to defend herself. “And it also wasn't my fault the stadium caught fire!”

Then she realized her blunder. Because of her surprise, she didn't disguise her voice.

“I knew it! It's Aisha!” a guard exclaimed.

“For the third time!”

“No! The fourth!”

“Get her!”

“Call the police!”

Aisha ran away. She was laughing maniacally. “You'll never catch me alive! Suckers!” she screamed.

Everyone ran after her.

Jessica and Paige shared a glance. They were also sharing the same annoyance. Nobody had bothered to untie them first...

They hopped in pursuit of the others.

**************

The following day, Selena woke up in the middle of the afternoon with the worst case of hangover she had ever experienced. While she was drinking one litre of coffee to try to recover, she checked the latest news on her phone. One article in particular caught her attention.

Local madwoman ruins the Iron Eagle Tournament.

THE END
tirepanted3
Posts: 1934
Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2017 11:40 am

Re: Fighting Spirit

Post by tirepanted3 »

Though (as you can probably guess) I prefer longer stories for their depth and complexity, I enjoy a fun little side-trip now and again. Like an extra little treat to lighten the mood from the heavier stuff.

Of course I recognized the reference (before the name "Firecat" had even been uttered), and I believe you alluded to this as one of Selena/Lucina's escapades at the end of "Final Gambits." One wonders if we'll get to see their other adventures as well... ;)

Speaking of Selena and Lucina, it was nice to see them again. Selena remains one of the more sympathetic villains in these stories - I hardly think of her as a villain at all. I would have liked for the story to focus more on the interactions between her and Lucina, since they delivered some big laughs. (Her reaction to the "tasteless" combo of pink ropes and green gag was terrific.)

That said, the story itself didn't really work for me. It had its good share of funny lines and clever moments, but as I may have mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of USB scenes that involve silly or flamboyant costumes. Just a personal preference, but I prefer more traditional clothes and uniforms (like the guards) over "loud" and distinctive outfits.

I liked the idea of Selena realizing how unoriginal her disguise idea was, although I would have been interested in learning more about the woman who mugged Tempest. Not sure if we were supposed to know who it was.

Also, I was a bit thrown off when Aisha herself was mentioned and appeared in the story. She probably wasn't meant to be the exact same Aisha as in Outlaw Star, but clearly the comparison is meant to be drawn. I find these "crossover" moments to be a little distracting - they pull me out of the story by reminding me of a completely different series. I think it's great that the "Utopia" series features so many fresh memorable characters; it just feels anticlimactic when a character from some other media pops up.

Still, as you say, this was not meant to be a deep or serious story, but an amusing side trip, and it did the job well enough. Selena and Lucina remain an excellent duo, and I'd be happy to see them again. I just had some issues with the story around them.
meditions142
Posts: 1254
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2018 2:51 pm

Re: Fighting Spirit

Post by meditions142 »

Love the scene with the two sisters guarding the safe room. Obviously their conversation before the attack was fantastic and a fun set up. I also just loved how Lucina and Selena made such quick work of them.

And definitely enjoyed the younger one's rather silly choice in underwear.
Trackman281
Posts: 1600
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2018 6:08 am

Re: Fighting Spirit

Post by Trackman281 »

I was focused on Vigilante that I almost missed this one, good thing I didn't. :)

Hahaha, the blender getting a webcomic :lol: Can you imagine it

Also Jessica / Firecat is awesome as I know she's a direct interpretation from the show "Outlaw Star", which is great because I absolutely love that scene so I'm very pleased you managed to include it in one of your stories. :D

Seeing Lucina and Selena return for another infiltrating assignment is never a bad thing and I always look forward to seeing them. :D

Well that entire scene afterwards certainly escalated quickly, well apparently Lucina and Selena aren't the only one's in slight dismay as even couldn't believe how that went down haha, nicely done. :D

I really enjoyed this little side story too, it broke things up nicely, it was an enjoyable and fun little adventure with plenty of little jabs and gags here and there, so it was very enjoyable. Fantastic work. :D :D
rufusluciusivan
Posts: 1225
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2017 5:08 pm

Re: Fighting Spirit

Post by rufusluciusivan »

You guys are so fast at commenting, I can barely keep up! Thanks a lot! :lol:

Tirepanted: Selena and Lucina are back! Indeed, the short format of this story doesn't allow them to shine as much as they could have had.

As you guessed their epilogue was meant to be open-ended precisely to allow me to potentially feature them in other adventures. Their briefly mentioned escapades at the end of Final Gambits are meant to open doors for potential stories, so maybe they'll come back one day in a bigger story... (And yes, the Outlaw Star adventure was referenced as wel, as you saidl.)

The humorous lines of this part, especially centered around Selena's discovery of the USB craze surrounding the tournament and her unoriginality, were the main reason why I wrote this short story. Well, that and writing a story directly inspired by the scene from 'Outlaw Star'...

I see your point about flamboyant costumes, though personally I like to use them from time to time in order to bring more variety. After all, there's only so many traditional uniforms you can use and in the history of the board, I think they've all been used at least once.

Personally, I don't mind using characters from existing series, especially as they sometimes help me find ideas for appearances. (Lucina and Selena themselves are directly inspired by characters from Fire Emblem when it comes to their physical appearance.) Aisha was a direct reference to the Aisha of Outlaw Star, though I was that direct because of the gag-nature of this story. I can reassure you that I won't feature crossovers with real stories in the main series ;) .

I guess Tempest's mugger is named something like 'Edith GagCharacter' and her main job is probably to serve as a punchline for my lame jokes. :lol:

meditions: The security guards were a late addition, made to not have only 'masked fighters' costumes, though I was happy to find a way to humourously connect them to the running joke of the story with their dialogue about the 'USB betting ring'. Silly choices of underwear are a staple of USB stories. ;)

trackman: You could say that this is ironic punishment: Catalina got the fame she's always dreamt of... under the nickname she hates the most.

Firecat's scene in Outlaw Star is also a favorite of mine, one of the first USB scenes I came across - before even being part of the old Board.

Glad you found this story amusing. Gags and jabs were its main reason to exist! ;)

(Quick note: I had the silly idea to try another self-imposed challenge of posting three stories during the same day. Obviously, it didn't work since I posted the third post the second day, but it actually ate a lot of my time, so due to things to do in real life it may take me a few more days to react to the other comments and read trackman's story, just so you know. I started with this story because I knew it'd be the fastest one!)
Trackman281
Posts: 1600
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2018 6:08 am

Re: Fighting Spirit

Post by Trackman281 »

Rufusluciusivan - Relax and take your time, my stories / chapters are here for members to just read and enjoy, please don't stress yourself as I know you'll read it when you get time and that's perfectly fine. :D

Haha, I was just about to say the same thing of where even I couldn't keep up, but this amazing, three stories of yours over the span of twenty four hours, I know it's difficult for you but I have greatly appreciated all the work you've done so far and I'm enjoying reading every single one of them, all the work you do really pays off as they are all perfect. :D

Hhhmm, thinking about it I think the "Outlaw Star" scene was one of the first USB scenes I came across as well before I discovered the USB forums (the originals) so I guess that's why I remember it so fondly. :D
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