Tag Archives: Catlin Mi

Champions of Battle: The Very Best – Opportunity #16

Jaquan sat with Justice at the bar in his celebrity cabin.  They talked extensively about the upcoming tournament.  From what Justice was saying, these fights were going to be particularly difficult.  As such, Jaquan wanted to know everything.  Every now and again, he even caught himself fidgeting in his stool.  Was he actually nervous about this?

The Great Champion Jaquan Zu had not been nervous about a challenge for the longest time.  Of course, he never thought that he could lose for the longest time either.  If Justice and Neely were correct, these fights had “next level” written all over them.  This tournament would challenge him to become the best, the very best in the entire world.  Any and all of his past experiences could be called on to do well in the next few months.

Liana was in the cabin, but was too busy to pay attention to them.  She had promised Neely mech armor and was across the room building it now.  It was not nearly as advanced as her suit, but it would aid him greatly in combat.

Neely sat with them.  He was listening in though he didn’t say much.  He hardly engaged in small talk with anyone except Catlin.  He was slightly distant from the topic.  He would not do any fighting in the tournament.  However, he would help Jaquan any way that he could.

Catlin was still in the shuttle working on Brisa.  With her talent sets, she found Brisa immediately.  After that, her disguising enchantments and disarmingly cheerful and charming personality would get all the information they needed.  They needed to know the better details of Brisa’s mission.

There was still a great chance that Brisa was unable to help them or simply would not help them.  Brisa may not forgive them for scaring the life out of her.  If there was any chance of her helping them, they needed Catlin to pull through.

Whether or not Jaquan got news coverage on his travels, he needed to know more about his challengers.  “Why would these fighters be any different than the contenders I beat already,” Jaquan asked.  For the longest time he thought his championship was proof that he was already the greatest in the world.  For the last few days, Justice and Neely have suggested a different story.

“These fighters don’t care about money or titles,” Justice said with all certainty, “they just want to be the best they can be.  In your championship fights, a fighter has to be willing to give up a lot of gold for a chance at your title.”

The corrupt gold factory behind the scenes of his championship title was nothing new.  Technically, any fighter with a good enough record was in the queue to face the champion.  However, it always seemed that the ones willing and able to dish out extra gold were moved to the front of the queue.  The promoters, managers, and venues all loved getting paid, the firestorm of angry calls after he left for West Drop told him that much.

Thinking back, Jaquan didn’t want to say anything about the corruption.  He got a small cut and he knew that he would eventually fight all the contenders eventually.  His only objection was that his championship fights became formulaic.  Often times, the fighter with the most money had less than the greatest skill.  After a while, the fights became just plain easy.  Until now, he just thought it meant that he was that good.  This new tournament promised to be full of skilled fighters.  They only wanted to improve and were hungry to be the greatest.  The concept of joining the fray gave him stomach jitters.

Jaquan remembered when he followed the simple path.  Defending the championship became a simple matter of playing against a single fighter’s weakness.  In tournaments like this, that was never enough.  There was no way to prepare for thousands of different possible talent set combinations and the dozens of strategies involved with each one.  Enchants and gear choices added an additional layer of randomness to the fights.

To excel and compete, each fighter had to simply become the best they could.  Studying your next challenge was always advised, but each fighter always had several different styles and at least one trick.

He was excited about this.  The prefight chills told him so.  No doubt, there would be some new and interesting strategies.  The fighters were always looking for a way to take step up the ladder.

Jaquan had a lot of researching to do.

#1 – Opportunity #15 – Opportunity #17

Champions of Battle: The Very Best – Opportunity #15

Brisa and Catlin talked for well over thirty minutes.  Catlin was very entertaining, nice, and clever.  She was apparently a world traveler.  She had gone everywhere, at least to every major city.  Traveling was one of Brisa’s dreams.  Catlin had apparently done it for a long time.

Brisa named city after city, Catlin told her about one after another.  With Catlin’s storytelling, Brisa was captivated learning about those exotic places.  The stories never got boring.  Catlin described the peoples, buildings, and food in such detail.  Brisa felt that she had there.  One day she would go, but that was for another day.

“Why are you going to West Drop?” Catlin asked.  She then stared at Brisa waiting for the answer.  The question broke into the flow of conversation.  If Catlin’s voice wasn’t so cheerful and high pitched, she would have seemed suddenly aggressive.  However, up to this point, they only talked about Catlin’s travels.  It was only fair they talk about Brisa for a while.

“I’m on assignment,” Brisa said.  She was honest but slightly hesitant to tell everything to someone she had just met.

“Assignment,” Catlin asked intrigued.  She paused slightly then continued as though she may have stumbled onto some secret plot, “what kind?”  Having already been told about Brisa being a reporter, she came up with the best answer before Brisa could say anything, “You’re following Jaquan aren’t you?”

“Well, not anymore exactly,” Brisa said in a defeated tone, “they’ve caught me.  It was horrible!”  Then Brisa told Catlin about the tragic event.  Afterwards she said, “They told me to get lost and I’m going to do just that.”

“I’m sorry,” Catlin said genuine sadness.

“It’s alright, there’s nothing you could do.  It took some ‘encouragement’ from my boss to get me on this shuttle.”  Brisa felt relieved being able to share her worries with someone, even a stranger.  It was nice to have someone concerned about her wellbeing.  “After the next reporter comes from headquarters I can go home.  It shouldn’t take that long.”

“Are you sure you want to stay in West Drop,” Catlin asked concerned again.  “If you’re going to hang around a place like that for any amount of time, you don’t want to stand out at all,” she said reading Brisa’s confusion, “Locals in a lawless town can get a bit restless.  They won’t want to be seen by someone that looks out of place.”

Brisa remembered what she read about West Drop.  The city would have strong warriors.  Warriors that would stay there probably have committed dishonorable acts other places.  They would commit crimes anywhere they could get away with it, even West Drop.  With her inability to fight, she would be unable to stop them in the slightest.

Catlin took a long look at Brisa.  The look of youth and inexperience was apparent on Brisa’s face.  That alone would make her a brilliant target.  “You’ll need a hood,” Catlin said.  “You’ll need some clothes too.  We can get those from the shuttle shop.”

Brisa was relieved to get the help she just realized she needed but there was another problem, “If I leave the cabin, one of Jaquan’s crew will see me.”

“Don’t worry about BigBad,” Catlin said waving off Brisa’s worries, “I’ve learned about Jaquan.  He’s the type to relax in the front to avoid unwanted attention.  Besides, this shuttle is huge.  There’s no chance you’ll be found.”

“Really?”

“Well, almost no chance.”

#1 – Opportunity #14

Champions of Battle: The Very Best – Opportunity #14

Brisa took a deep breath and turned on the hologram window.  Even though the walls were solid, passengers could view the outside with the press of a button.  A hologram of the world on the other side of the hull appeared to Brisa.  One look was all it took to take away all her worries.  The sky was beautiful.  It looked real enough that she could forget she was in the shuttle.

Even with all its troubles, life was going well.  She was on a glorious adventure.  This was the life that she imagined having; the life she always wanted.  It was scary but that made it all the more exciting.

She was really going to a remote part of the world.  A place riddled with danger.  Her stay would be short, but at least she could say she’s been to West Drop.  If anything, she would have pictures to send to her friends.  And a story they would never believe.

Now that she had calmed down a bit, she could take in her surroundings.  She had flown in shuttles like these before but Duard had always insisted on flying the first class cabins.  The scene in economy class was clean, but economic.

Her compartment was cozy.  There was just enough room for an opposing couch and a small walkway in between.  The couch and cushions were cheap.  One of them was discolored; the other was obviously brand new.

There was not a great deal to entertain the passengers besides the advertisements that displayed overhead if the passengers allowed them.  Between advertisements, brief bits of the news would show.  The Mech War still raged on but the new clans were making headway.  Hopefully, they would defeat the machines and bring peace to that area.  It all was too far away for her to give relevant concern.  The holograms changed back to commercials.  Some of them were quite funny but they were still commercials.

The set up in economy class seemed designed to push a passenger out to mingle with the other passengers.  They were to walk out and buy stuff in the shuttle shop and eat in the food court.  It was exactly the opposite of first class where the servers brought everything to the passengers.

There was the lingering urge to obey the commercials and go out to buy things.  Her will and her mission kept her in her seat.  The burning freezing discomfort in her chest reminded her of what would happen if she was caught.  It was too expensive.

She instead decided to keep her mind occupied by researching on her handheld.  She had this one chance to learn what she could about West Drop.

In her readings, West Drop was much more dangerous than she thought.  Reports of violence and lawlessness abounded.  If she was going to be there even for a short time, she would need to be very careful and stay away from the taverns.

There was a knock on her cabin door.

Opening the door Brisa sees a familiar looking lady.  She was only a small amount taller than Brisa which still made her really short. Her perfect skin was green with small tan spots that grew more defined down her neck.  She wore an ordinary red t-shirt, blue jeans, and red sneakers with white highlights.  Brisa couldn’t shake the feeling that she really should recognize this lady, but the memory eluded her.  She could have been someone in economy class that Brisa passed while boarding the shuttle?

“Excuse me,” she starts with a soft voice, “are you Brisa Gan?”

How did she know that?  “Um, yes,” Brisa said as calmly as she could muster.

“My name is Catlin, may I please come in,” she says with a very polite bow.

Brisa paused for a bit, but how could such a polite young lady cause any harm.  “Why sure,” Brisa said happily.  She bowed and opened the way for Catlin to enter the cabin.  This trip was getting even better.  Conversation and meeting a new person would really help the time go by.

#1 – Opportunity #13 – Opportunity #15