It seemed the challenges were going to be hurled at her in many forms. Codi considered this as she strode out into the arena to face the number one contender from the home academy, Darien Fallow. The dark-skinned boy waited opposite her, bouncing lightly from foot to foot in a way that looked almost comical because of his brick-like physique.
So far in the practice tournaments Codi and her companions had enjoyed the lions' share of support, always buoyed by the swelling roars of the Battlecast crowds. The crowds were still there, but they weren't on home turf anymore. On the Red Planet, Olympus Mons were the top dogs and it showed, as huge swathes of the spectator stands were streaked with screaming red.
Trying to block out the noise, she focused on the task at hand. Both of them had a lot on the line in this early stage of the knockout rounds, both being heavily favoured to go the distance. Being drawn now meant that one of them would be going home very disappointed. But Codi had another motivation in mind. She wouldn't get her rematch with Dustin Morto unless she made it through, being drawn in the opposite bracket from the fighter who was fast becoming her new nemesis.
The central Mars arena looked deceptively flat and featureless, but Codi knew better. At the touch of a button whole sections of the black-metal floor would shift and slope, creating peaks, troughs and pits for an unwary competitor to be clouted into. The fights tested situational awareness as much as they tested the combatants' fighting prowess.
She took a calming breath as the noise from the spectators rose in a deafening crescendo, and she could hear the voices of her own supporters cutting through the wall of the Mars contingent. Then the starting klaxon ripped out over the thin Martian air.
Although every fibre of her body was tensed to spring, Codi resisted the urge to go flying headlong into combat, watching and waiting for a few precious seconds. Sure enough, the grind and hiss of machinery mingled with the noise of the crowd as the arena floor started its mad dance.
Only once she saw where the floor plates were going did she then shoot forward as though fired from a slingshot. For his part, Darien Fallow was already halfway toward her, moving with speed that belayed his hulking frame. Codi locked on and turned to meet him.
They met atop one of the gently rising segments and he immediately made a wild, scything swipe at her head with one rock-like fist. She slid under it, carrying her momentum and driving he soles of both feet hard into his right leg. Her tackle landed with such force that she upended her unsuspecting opponent completely, leaving him to crash the ground.
Skidding to a halt, Codi whirled, feeling her blood thundering in her veins as the adrenaline of Gauntlet combat flooded through her. Before he could get up she bolted back towards him, looking to get a serious hit in before he could recover.
She never got the chance. Darien Fallow did something painfully familiar. Guessing her move, he planted his hands against he moving ground and bucked, lashing out blindly with both legs. Caught off guard, Codi couldn't get out of the way and both his feet smashed into her midriff like a battering ram.
The sheer force lifted her bodily and sent her flying across the arena to the accompanying screams of the Mars supporters. Cursing inwardly, she tried to orient herself in mid-air to see where she was going to land.
The view wasn't good.
Dialling up the gravity fields in her exoskeleton Codi sped up her descent and soon hit the ground with a heavy thunk, rolling across the burnished black floor plates towards one of the pits. Gritting her teeth she twisted her body and slammed one hand down against the metal so hard that she put a dent in it, and at the same time gave her fingers something to dig into. Her tumbling slide came to an abrupt halt and she hauled herself upright, smouldering with anger.
Looking up, she saw Fallow looking down from the upper section. She glanced over her shoulder at the pit then back to him.
"If you want to beat me," she shouted, smacking her breast-plate with a clenched fist. "You'll have to come down here and do it the hard way!"
That got a rise out of the spectators. The jeers and howls from the Battlecast supporters galvanised Fallow into action and he leapt from the raised platform with fire in his eyes. Codi smiled viciously, clenched her fists, and stepped forward.
The following exchange ended up being one of the most brutal she'd ever been part of, and given her experiences that was saying a lot. She and the Olympus Mons fighter proved why they were held in such high regard.
Codi blocked his initial barnstorming opener and buried a sold left into his gut, driving her bulky opponent back a pace. He replied with a crunching kick to her left side that sent her wobbling. She bent backwards away from his follow up swing, cartwheeled away, and in the process kicked him in the face.
The Battlecast crowd went wild as Fallow staggered back in surprise, and Codi felt herself following suit. Instinct took over as she started to hit her fighting rhythm; ducking, dodging and pivoting, laying crunching blows wherever she could find a window. She quickly realised, however, that while she had the speed advantage, it was like punching a wall. Fallow reacted to each hit with little more than a twitch and a grunt, even against impacts that she knew would have knocked lesser competitors flat. If nothing else, Darien Fallow was tough.
And he gave as good as he got, too.
While Codi continued landing the bulk of the hits, when Fallow did connect, she knew all about it. After several minutes of kicking and punching each other up and down the arena she was aching all over, and she could see Fallow felt the same from the grimace that now permanently stamped his features.
The fires of determination roared within her. She could beat this guy – she was already ahead if it came to an impact rating. All she had to do was keep up the intensity and not get herself smashed into a pit.
On they went, back and forth in a match befitting two of the Sol System's top academies; more than once Codi had to pick herself up after absorbing a direct hit from one of Fallow's big fists. But that was okay – she could take the odd clout as long as she returned the favour, so each time she went down she came back at her adversary with redoubled fury. Little by little her technique shone through against Fallow's powerful but inconsistent style of brawling.
After a protracted, slithering grapple she eventually managed to work into a position behind him with one of his arms locked up above the shoulder. He wrenched to try and get free and she knew she only had a small window to make something out of it. With a snarl of effort she dropped into a crouch, hauling Fallow off-balance with her. When she felt his heavy frame topple she twisted her body and savagely flung him into the nearest wall. The sound of his exoskeleton smashing into the plating echoed through the chamber and a sharp intake of air from the spectators followed.
Then the klaxon sounded again and Codi looked up in confusion. They should have given her opponent a moment to get up – being knocked down was a long way from being knocked out. Then she noticed the bright neon of the match timer blinking: 00.00.
They'd run out of time. Now it was up to the computers.
She waited, breathing heavily as Fallow picked himself up, a grim expression on his features. He knew which way the fight had gone, even if she hadn't managed to put him down for good. The crowds fell silent, breath held like a dam waiting to burst. Despite it all, Codi couldn't shut out the tiniest niggling doubt in the back of her mind. She must have done enough. She had to have.
Then the voice of the announcer burst over the speakers and her heart skipped a beat.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was quite the contest," he boomed. "But now we have our result. The winner by clear impact rating is ... Codi James of Battlecast!"
The cheers hit her and Codi felt her whole body relax, the tension of the past weeks melting away in a single moment. Now she'd really laid her mark on the contest – knocking off the top competitor from one of their biggest rival academies. Now she was paying back the faith that Bronagh and the academy backers had put in her.
Glancing at Fallow, she found to her surprise that he was smiling, albeit ruefully. He trudged over to her and held out a hand.
"You're better than I thought," he grunted.
She raised an eyebrow, shaking his hand. "Thanks...I think."
"Dust off – I'll getcha next time." Fallow winked at her. "Don't go anywhere."
With that he turned his back and stumped off, leaving Codi with a slightly bewildered look on her face, trying to process his reaction. Yes, when it came down to it, this was a practice tournament, nothing more than a taster of the Gauntlet itself, but that didn't change the fact that she'd just managed to knock off Olympus Mons' top fighter. If she'd been in his shoes she'd have been seething with rage.
But she wasn't.
Feeling a glow in her heart she loped out of the arena to find Thradd and a handful of other Battlecast fighters who'd been watching proceedings on the screens. She grinned breathlessly as they surged forward to congratulate her, shaking her hand and clapping her on the back – it hit her in that moment that this was what it felt like to have an actual group of friends.
Over the years she'd usually had one or two people she would call that, but when she won a match the other fighters of Battlecast showed up en masse to support her. And not just her either. They all flooded from fight to fight – anyone who wasn't in the arena wouldn't be far away. Bronagh Llewellyn's preaching that they won and lost as a team was beginning to ring true. Looking at the flushed, proud faces of her team mates validated Codi's decision all those months ago, to join the academy that, right up until she'd signed on that dotted line, were the enemy.
She notice one face was missing, however, as the group dispersed.
"Thradd," she said, taking her coach aside. "Where's Leela?"
He gave a derisive snort. "Damned if I know – haven't seen her since her fight."
"But...she would have finished up before me, wouldn't she?"
"Oh yeah, she did, way before," he muttered. "One of those bruisers from Olympus Mons kicked the poor kid up and down the arena. Didn't even get a word out of her afterwards."
Codi's elation at her own victory started fading fast. "And you've got no idea where she is now?!"
"Probably went back to the lock-tech to cry it out."
"Wow." She shook her head in disbelief. "You're all heart."
"I'm her coach, not her babysitter." He shrugged. "She'll get over it. It's all good prep for next year."
Feeling her hackles rise at his blasé attitude, Codi stalked off in the direction of the arena lock-tech herself, suddenly very eager to get out of her exoskeleton. It seemed like even Thradd didn't give Leela any chance of reaching the final roster – her own damn coach – it made Codi's blood boil just thinking about it. She was well aware of the younger fighter's shortcomings, but it appeared she was the only person in the whole academy that hadn't written her off as a lost cause.
When she reached the lock-tech she gratefully stepped into the upright cradle to allow the machine to undo the micro-bolts holding the armour together. Bit by bit her exoskeleton was peeled away until she stepped from cradle wearing only her black leggings and a long-sleeved cyan top that hugged her body from throat to waist.
Swinging on the old hoodie that she kept in the cradle, she zipped it up and shook her thick black hair free. It was lank and slick with sweat, but she would deal with appearances later. Right now she had a friend to find. She slipped on the shining pair of Battlecast trainers and set to work.
After a brief conversation with one of the attending techs she worked out where her young comrade had wandered off to. She walked gingerly through the arena halls, still aching all over from her last bout. Up and up, through stairs and rampways she ascended level after level until she found a quiet, secluded observation deck overlooking the lights of Tarshish far in the distance. It was the sort of place she would have gone in the same situation.
Sure enough, when she peered into the room she found Leela sitting on the floor, arms wrapped around her knees, pulling them up against her and tears running freely down her young features. The lights of the city danced in her glittering eyes.
Taking a deep breath, Codi stepped inside, crossed the room and sat down beside her. Leela didn't acknowledge her presence, simply staring bleakly into the Martian horizon. Codi didn't know where to start. She knew how the girl must have been feeling – her own introduction to Gauntlet competition had ended much the same: getting taken apart by a veteran. Nothing was guaranteed to make you question yourself more quickly.
"You okay?" she said eventually, painfully aware of how inadequate that was.
Leela sniffed. "What do you think?"
"I think you're wondering what the point of it all is, right?"
She nodded unhappily.
"I know the feeling," Codi said. "Used to ask myself that question about a whole lot of things. I remember my first practice tournament back at Brax-Delta." She shook her head at the memory. "Leela, I got my ass kicked – didn't last five minutes."
"Really?!"
"We all start somewhere."
Leela wiped a hand across her eyes, and looked up. "How...how did you deal with it? I mean, I feel so...worthless."
Codi shrugged. "At the time I had nowhere else to go. It was a good motivator."
"I could walk away from this tomorrow," Leela said bitterly. "Go back to school, get a job, live a boring life like everyone else in my family."
"But you don't want to."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because nobody thinks I'm good enough to make it to the Gauntlet, and I'm not talking about the Battlecast kids. My friends, my parents, none of them believe I've got what it takes. My mum and dad only let me into the academy to shut me up – probably thought I'd be back home crying in a week." She laughed despairingly. "I guess they were right."
"I wouldn't say that. You're here aren't you?" Codi nudged her with an elbow. "If that's how you feel then you owe it to yourself to see this through. You can do this, Leela. You already made it through the first round – that's better than a lot of people."
"I want to I just...I don't know what to do. I never stood a chance today."
"Then learn from what happened." She slung an arm around Leela's shoulders and ruffled her hair affectionately. "So you've hit rock bottom. All that means is that there's nowhere to go but up."