Monster Wars
a
Trust Machines story
by
clancy688
Attention: This story contains extremely brutal violence. You have been warned!
Steve and Mary, a friendly couple they had known for years, had scooped them up this evening with their car and promised them an 'exciting evening'. Both had acted very conspiratorially, and Mary's insistence on taking enough cash for betting with them had puzzled both of them further. Especially since their friends didn't seem to drive in direction of any casino at least Ben and Janice knew of.
Now Mary turned on the front seat and twinkled at her passengers while Steve, who was driving the car, only grinned into the rear-view mirror. "Don't worry, we're nearly there." she said. "And then we'll explain to you everything. Trust me, it'll be awesome!"
"I really hope it is." Ben grumbled. "I'm missing the football play-offs, you know?"
"What we will show you is way better than football." Steve piped in now. "And it's a competition as well."
"Yeah?" Janice interposed. "And it's probably not legal, isn't it?"
Mary rolled her eyes. "Spoilsport! It's not specifically forbidden!"
"So you're saying that it isn't specifically allowed either, aren't you?"
"Pff!" Mary snorted disgusted. "Are you one of those European sissies? They are only doing things which are 'allowed'. We're different. We're doing things which aren't forbidden! Ha!"
Now Janice rolled her eyes, but didn't comment further. Hopefully, they'd be at their destination soon.
And less than two minutes later, they were. Partly. They'd reached a recently abandoned industrial district. It had been huge once, even sporting a mall large enough to spawn the appearance of a Venn Machine. But one by one, the big factories had closed, either because production in other countries was cheaper or because they'd become bankrupt. The mall had stayed until the end, but with more and more factories closing, there were fewer and fewer workers who went shopping after their shifts. And robbed of its customers, it had closed as well less than a year before.
Questioningly, Ben looked at their captors as Steve stopped the car on the abandoned mall's parking space. And theirs was actually not the only car parking here, there were several dozens scattered all over the huge space.
"We're shopping at an... abandoned mall?" he asked sardonically, but Steve only denied and prompted them to follow.
Eagerly, Janice and Ben followed, but their friends weren't taking them to the mall. At first they went in direction to the mall's main entrance, but then they swerved to the side, going alongside a fence which separated the mall from a large, looming factory building. After several hundred yards they reached a spacious hole in the fence which Steve and Mary used to slip through.
This was getting curious but Ben and Janice followed. Immediately behind the hole, there was a door in the otherwise featureless wall of the building. Although the door was guarded by two large bouncers. Actually, large was an understatement. They were gigantic, both topping eight feet and sporting monstrous muscles.
Those can't be real! Janice thought. Their bodies must be venned. My God, both of my arms are probably not long enough to span around their biceps!
But Steve was apparently unimpressed. Grinning, he went towards the left guard.
"Hi, Jorge!" he greeted him and the towering giant grinned back.
"Good to see you again, Steve, Mary." he responded. "You're one of our teams who makes the fights interesting." then he mustered Ben and Janice. "Friends of yours?"
"Yeah. We thought we'll show them the 'Club. Is that alright?"
Jorge laughed. "Every friend of yours is welcome." he opened the door and waived them in. "You're lucky, you're kind of late but they haven't started yet."
Apprehensively, Ben and Janice followed into a staircase. After going upwards for approximately three stories, they emerged onto a large scaffold already populated by at least a couple of hundred people. The scaffold went along the hall's wall, completely rounding the empty floor below. On the opposing side, there was a large edge on which several stalls were erected, selling drinks, refreshments, food - and one large stall which looked suspiciously similar to a betting booth. There was even a section with chairs and tables where customers could consume their food.
At the moment, most of those people were already gathered at the scaffold's handrail and looked down onto the floor expectantly. There was much free space down there, but in the middle of the hall, concrete barriers had been placed, creating a confined space of a basketball field's proportions. Where normally the hoops would've been placed, a gap was left but it was secured by large, movable iron frames. It looked almost like...
"Is this some kind of arena?" Ben asked startled and Mary nodded.
"Exactly. Welcome to the Fight Club. There's a rule that nobody talks about the club, like in the movie, that's why we didn't tell you."
"People are fighting against each other here?" Janice blurted in. "But that's... dangerous, isn't it?"
Steve laughed. "No, that's the beauty. They are venned people. Therefore - no harm done."
Janice gave him an incomprehensibly stare, but Ben came to her rescue.
"Ah, I understand." he said. "People who are venned can't 'die'. When they are transformed and their body is 'killed', they are still be able to change back into their natural body as if nothing had happened. There was a mall shooting last year where a teenager was 'killed'. Only that he had been venned. A couple of days later, his corpse changed back into his living self in the morgue."
"Ahh..." now Janice understood. Although this information had further implications. "So you're saying that people are fighting to the... death in this arena?" she asked appalled and Mary nodded.
"Yeah. It's an all-out fight. Survival or death. But it's funny that you're mentioning the mall incident, Ben. Because another detail of it was what sported the 'Club."
Again, Mary was clueless, but not so Ben.
He looked at the arena again, pondering. "I'm wondering... what exactly is fighting in this arena?" he asked suspiciously, pointing at it. "I mean, look at it. These concrete barriers are massive enough to stop a speeding car without so much as moving more than an inch. And yet there are large cracks all over them. Same goes for the floor. That's concrete as well. And it looks as if a tank regiment has paraded around on it!"
Mary chuckled. "Yeah, you got it. You know, at the mall shooting, one bright kid had the idea to change his girlfriend into a shape which would be able to overpower the attackers, a living being which would be armored and have natural weapons. He succeeded, and she changed him into the same thing - some kind of spider-crab thing with claws large enough to take both of the attacker's arms off with one stroke."
"So you're saying..." Ben started and Steve nodded, grinning.
"Yes. The venned people who are fighting against each other in this arena are not in their human shapes, instead they've been transformed into monsters. Therefore I welcome you to Monster Wars!"
**************************************
Dazed by what Mary and Steve had explained to them over the last ten minutes, Janice stood at the railing, waiting for the spectacle which would begin soon.
Monster Wars had been created shortly after the mall shooting. Mary and Steve had been fairly evasive about who actually organized the thing, but judging from its obvious 'underground' look and secrecy, including the ban of cameras, she was sure that its roots lay somewhere in the organized crime sector. Which, of course, meant that it was neatly organized, safe of any vandalism and unwanted disturbance, and very discreet.
Anyway, what was done here was exactly what the name suggested - people let themselves being transformed into monstrous creatures and fought to their temporary bodies' death against each other. There was an 'entry fee' of 100 dollars per fight, and the winner got his own and his opponent's fee back.
It seemed to be a paltry sum for becoming a living abomination and engaging in a fight to the (temporary) death, as Janice had remarked, but Mary had explained that the money was only a side aspect to the fighters. What actually drove them was the pure adrenaline rush of such a fight and by now Janice even had to acknowledge that the thought of being able to engage in a harmless fight to the death (and wasn't THAT a paradoxical thing?) would probably be intriguing to say the least.
But these fights could be observed and the observers where encouraged by the mysterious organizers to bet on each battle's outcome. An opportunity many of them of them were only too willing to take. This was the organizer's source of income, and apparently, it was a profitable one.
The fighters would be transformed individually in the accompanying mall by their team partner who would act as 'designer'. Much to Janice's and Ben's surprise, despite the mall's closed status, the Venn Machine was still there. Therefore it could be perfectly used to change the fighters into nightmarish creatures without any weak-hearted, noninvolved observer being carried away by a seizure.
Before any fight, the bookmakers inspected both creatures' bodies and set the odds. There was no coherent competition system, it was simply one on one, although the bookmakers kept an eye on all fighters and if there were especially successful fighters, they adjusted their margins accordingly.
Every fighter/designer team had full freedom of choice regarding the change. They could start with different creatures each each time, or use the same one for multiple fights. Although, as Steve explained, this seldom happened because if your opponent knows what you change into, he could design a creature which would able to assault every of your weak points.
Nearly every kind of creature was game, although it had to have a solid body and needed to be agile enough. What exactly qualified as 'not agile enough' was kind of fuzzy and would be decided upon by the judges for each fight anew, but since a fighter whose shape was deemed 'not agile enough' would lose by default (and therefore lose his entry fee), most teams rather decided to err on the side of caution.
These rules made sure that there were no amorphous blob monsters which couldn't be killed by claws and teeth and no walking fortresses with natural body armor thick enough to stop anti-tank missiles, much less other creature's attacks.
Ben had inquired then if that meant that there'd be the possibility of flying and poisonous creatures. Flying creatures were indeed possible, but as Steve had explained, they were rarely used since their ability to fly meant that their body structure had to be lightweight. And would therefore be very susceptible to attack. As for poison, Venn Machines apparently couldn't be used to create poisons, therefore someone transformed into a Cobra would have all of the Cobra's features except the dangerous poison.
Then there'd been another question Janice had put forward. Fighting is fine and dandy, but what about pain? If a monster's ripping your body apart, that surely has to hurt hasn't it?
Mary had only shrugged. Most of the fighters used the Venn Machine to alter the way they perceive pain. Mostly the sensation of pain is replaced by some kind of 'tingle'. It's still unpleasant, but at least it doesn't hurt. Completely numbing a body isn't recommended because then you'd have no idea about the damage your body has received. Trying to attack with a clawed arm which's broken isn't the best possible course of action.
"Look, it's beginning!" exclaimed Mary now and yanked Janice out of her thoughts. A suited figure was walking towards a little pedestal in front of the arena. The man took a microphone to his mouth and coughed slightly.
"I welcome you all to the first fight of the evening!" he shouted and the audience erupted into applause.
"On my left side we have Tyler D. in his third fight!" he continued, and above the host, a video projector came to live, screening the picture of a skinny man in his thirties on the wall. "He's lost his first fight, but battled hard to achieve a draw in his second one. Well, I'm interested if he'll be able to get a victory now, are you as well?"
While the audience answered with a loud roar, Janice leaned towards Mary.
"How can there be a draw?" she whispered. "I thought these were fights to the death?"
"Easy." Mary grinned. "Both creatures die during the fight. The winner has to stay on his feet or paws or claws or whatever for one full minute after he's killed his opponent. Otherwise, it's a draw."
Janice nodded in understanding.
"So let us see in which shape Tyler wants to fight now!" the host cried enthusiastically and now spotlight concentrated on the left side of the hall where a door opened. Purposefully, a scaled creature strode through, at first view it looked like a kind of lizard. But this lizard was easily the size of a cougar and much longer, it sported a six-eyed, evil-looking snout with short, sharp teeth. But its main weapons were evidently the eight legs it used for movement, each leg being equipped with three claws, the middle one having the size of small sickles.
Easily, Tyler walked on his eight legs through the opened gate into the arena and looked into the audience, hissing loudly and scraping his claws on the floor's concrete.
Mary shuddered slightly. A blow by one of those sickles would probably disembowel a human. What eight of them would be doing bore no thinking upon.
"And on the right side we have Jacqueline S., veteran of 15 fights, nine of which she's won!"
Next to Tyler's image, another image was projected, this time of a middle-aged woman who was, judging by her puffy face, slightly overweight. But Mary's attention lay on Jacqueline's current shape which came strutting in through the right door. Whoever had designed her body had been quite ingenious. Her heavily muscled torso was the size of a lion, carried by four equally muscled legs with long, dagger-like claws. But instead of having fur, her entire body was devoid of any hair. Instead it was some kind of dirty white skin, highlighted by brown streaks. And the reason for this became clear when one looked at her head. This body was carrying a massive shark's head, complete with triangular fin. Its maw was slightly opened, displaying rows of inclined teeth, the large eyes being apparently unfocused.
Just like Tyler, Jacqueline moved her body into the arena, but contrary to him, she didn't hiss or growl. Her shark-head probably wasn't capable of making sounds. Instead, she simply opened her jaws and slammed them shut several times, and the resulting whacks were enough to make abundantly clear what dangerous weapon they were. They probably had the force of a hydraulic press!
"Now that's a promising fight!" the host threw in again. "Eight-legged lizard versus walking shark. The bookmakers will announce their odds soon, so whoever wants to wager on one of those two monsters, now is the time!"
Most of the audience started making their way towards the bookmakers' stall, including Steve and Mary, and Janice looked at her boyfriend.
"What do you think?" she asked him and he looked back.
"Of all of this?"
Janice nodded and Ben licked his lips insecurely.
"I... I don't know." he said then. "It's so crazy, really. Part of me wants to howl in disgust, I mean, fight to the death? Even if it's not actual death in the end? That's barbaric! But another part... is totally intrigued by this concept. Becoming such a murderous creature, fighting to the death with someone else... I'm torn really."
Janice sighed. "I know what you mean. It's the same for me. When I look at those two creatures down there I don't see any trace of humanity in them... only... monstrous animals. But they are really thinking, sentient people like us. That this walking shark is a woman like me... that's incredible!"
"What do you think is going through their minds right now?" changed Ben the topic. "Waiting for the beginning of their fight..."
"Hm... perhaps they are both thinking of tactics to deal with their opponent?"
"That's exactly what they are doing!" Mary, who'd just come back threw in. "Although I'm a little bit miffed. The first fight you're seeing and both creatures are kind of boring..."
'Boring'? Janice mouthed and pointed to the two waiting monsters, and Ben only shrugged.
If that's boring... Janice thought, what the hell's interesting then?
She was still pondering this question when the host came back.
"Okay guys. I hope you've all placed your bet. Because we'll start now!"
With a loud 'clonk', guards closed the arena's doors and then a loud, deep rumble sounded three times.
Ben looked at Steve questioningly.
"Subwoofer." he answered simply. "Some creatures don't have ears. Therefore there's a start and stop sign needed which every creature perceives. Such a low sound you do not only hear but also feel."
But Janice only halfheartedly listened to the explanation. Or the encouraging cheers by the audience. Instead her attention was focused on the arena where both creatures started slowly circling each other. Tyler kept hissing while Jacqueline simply waited with open jaws. And then, in a fast blur, Tyler sprinted forward, claws flashing at Jacqueline's right hind thigh. Immediately, Jacqueline turned and her giant jaws clapped shut with a loud 'whack', but she hit only empty air.
Tyler, on the other hand, had been more successful. Jacqueline's thigh was now sporting a large, bleeding gash, but she didn't seem to be bothered by it. Tyler hissed again and started his attack anew.
Janice watched fascinated as Tyler flashed again and again at Janice, opening large wounds all over her body while her jaws only managed to catch empty air. His claws where taking a crimson look, painted in Jacqueline's blood. By now, Jacqueline was starting to become sluggish and Tyler seemed to sense his imminent victory. With a satisfied snarl, he whizzed forward again, this time aiming for Jacqueline's eyes.
Janice stopped breathing, awaiting the inevitable, but then, everything changed. Suddenly, Jacqueline's sluggishness disappeared and with a sudden, in its speed totally unexpected move, she turned her body, opening her jaws wide. Tyler realized that he'd been deceived and desperately tried evading, but it was too late. His body was already too fast and he could only divert by inches in the few moments he had left, not the yards he needed.
His eight-legged shape crashed into Jacqueline and, like before, her jaws closed with the force of a hydraulic press. Only that they didn't close on empty air this time. Janice could hear the loud 'crunch' of breaking bones at her position and with a shocked hiss, Tyler flew past his opponent, impacting on the floor several yards behind Jacqueline.
He tried standing up and failed, then looked incredulous at his body. The left side was untouched, but on the right side, instead of four legs, there were only two left. His front two legs were gone, neatly bitten off only inches below the joints. Red blood was gushing out of both stumps in large fountains, and everybody could see that in those few seconds, he'd already lost more blood then Jacqueline from all her many but superficial gashes.
Calmly, she turned, opening her jaws and spitting out the middle parts of Tyler's legs. Then she started charging towards her seriously injured opponent. Frantic, Tyler tried to evade her, but without his two front right legs and all the slippery blood on the ground his balance was gone. He only managed to slide forward a couple of yards so that Jacqueline's jaws didn't close upon his head but upon his midsection, exactly between second and third pair of legs.
Again her jaws closed shut, but Tyler's body proved to be a tougher opponent then one of his limbs. His remaining six legs wheeled madly around, their claws hitting Jacqueline at random, but she didn't care. Instead she started shaking her head back and forth, and with every shake, her teeth penetrated further into Tyler's flesh like some living saw. Until his body was simply torn apart.
Janice gasped as Tyler's front section flew into one corner of the arena and his wrenched off back section into another. Its four legs and the tail were jerking madly, but Jacqueline ignored it. Instead she walked towards Tyler's upper body. Somehow he was still conscious, weakly hissing defiance at his killer, blood and guts leaking from the large hole where his lower body had been.
The whole audience became silent as Jacqueline almost gently closed her jaws around the already mortally wounded lizard creature's head. And then, with a sharp jolt, she tore it off.
The whole arena erupted into cheers and Steve and Mary high-fived.
"Yeah!" Steve exclaimed. "And won again!"
Mary grinned. "Okay, I take everything back. The creatures weren't that interesting, all right, but the fight definitely was."
Below in the arena, Jacqueline spit Tyler's bitten off head out and slowly moved into her corner of the compound, leaving bloody footprints. Then, the three rumbles sounded again and the gates opened. Jacqueline disappeared and after she was gone, a forklift truck with a box attached to it drove in the arena, followed by several men in oilskins. They loaded Tyler's still twitching rear-body into the box and dropped his other parts in, too. The forklift truck left then, but two of the cleaners stayed, hosing the entire arena with water and flushing most of the blood and gore into drain openings.
"Are they taking his corpse back to the... Venn Machine?" Janice asked.
"Exactly." Steve explained. "Actually they'd need only need a little more than half of his corpse to change him back, but then the rest would be staying around until the chosen transformation time is over. Nobody really wants amputated monster limbs lying around so they are taking all they can easily grab. But say... what do you think?"
"About the fight?"
"Yes."
Janice's eyes flipped to her boyfriend for a second.
"Well... it's disgusting and barbaric. And somehow... intriguing." she confessed.
Mary beamed. "Perfect. Then you'll probably cheer me on when I'm scattering my opponent's body parts over the arena soon."
For a couple of seconds, Janice's face was blank. But then, her friend's statement registered.
"Wait... what did you say?" she blurted out and Steve and Mary grinned.
"Well... you know, Steve and me are fighters as well. In fact, we're veterans. I have 15 fights and eleven kills and he has 18 fights and twelve kills. And my 16th fight is the next one after this, in approximately half an hour. So... you wanna watch?"
"You're doing THAT?" Janice asked again. "You're becoming a monster, you're fighting, tearing your opponent apart, or are even the one who is torn apart?"
"As I said..." Steve put in. "It's an incredible adrenaline rush. The experience is indescribable. And I have to confess that we're probably, well, addicted."
Janice could only stare and Mary patted her on the arm.
"Oh, come on. Please watch my fight. I'll be gone then..."
And with that, she and Steve vanished down the stairs, Ben and Janice staring after them. Janice gulped.
"So... what are we going to do now?" she asked her boyfriend and Ben smiled crookedly.
"Watching Mary's fight." he said. "What else are we going to do. I for one am interested in what Steve will transform Mary into - and how she'll fight. Aren't you?"
Janice pondered. And came to a conclusion. One she not really liked if she'd considered it morally.
"Yes... yes, I am too..." she sighed and together, they waited for the next fight.
**************************************
"Look, there he is again!" Ben told Janice as the host advanced towards his pedestal again. Except for the ruined concrete, the arena was already unsoiled again, thanks to the cleaners' efforts.
Jittery, Janice's eyes were focused on the host who now announced the second fight.
"...so for our next fight, in the right corner, there's Daniel P., a rookie who won his first fight. We shall see how he fares in his second!"
The video projector came to life again, showing the image of a tough looking, broad-shouldered men. And broad-shouldered was a term one could use to describe his current body as well. His monster body was quadrupedal, similar to that of a large dog, but very well muscled and all four paws sporting long, sharp claws. Contrary to a dog, he didn't have fur but scales and a long lizard's tail which whipped through the air impatiently. His muzzle was huge, with many sharp teeth and four protruding canines. It was topped by a colorful crest and two tiny but evilly looking eyes.
Daniel walked into the arena, looking confidently up to the audience and displaying his formidable ivories with several bloodcurdling roars.
Janice felt a cold shiver along her spine while looking at her friends opponent.
My God... and that's what Mary is up against? she contemplated. Those teeth are massive! One bite will shred a human being!
"Now that's interesting!" the host boomed. "Daniel has chosen the same body as in his first fight. So, let's see what his opponent has in store for him. This fight won't be easy, because he's up against veteran Mary L.. Just like Jacqueline before, she has 15 fights accumulated, but she has an impressive eleven kills! Let's welcome Mary!"
Next to Daniel's tough-looking image, a picture of a grinning Mary was projected, but Janice had only eyes for the other side of the arena were she knew her friend would enter in the body of a hideous monster every moment now.
And despite the knowledge that her friend would be transformed into something viciously, Janice wasn't prepared for the kind of body Mary wore as she moved into the arena.
Janice gasped and even Ben ogled disbelievingly as through the right door a giant, nearly featureless worm entered. Mary's body was segmented like an earthworm, and like such a creature she didn't possess any visible limbs or sensory organs. Instead, her front end was some kind of giant stinger. Patiently, she shoved herself into the arena, then reared her front half up. Janice inhaled sharply as the stinger, together with at least one yard of her flesh, seemed to split into four different parts. Like tentacles they swerved away, revealing suckers similar to those of an octopus' on the inside. And in the middle of those four tentacles, hidden from the audience's stares before, a large, sharp beak opened, emitting a terrifying screech.
Ben voiced what Janice was thinking. "Unbelievable that this... thing is actually our friend Mary!" he whispered amazed and Janice could only nod. Below at the arena, the host was summoning the audience to wager their bets again and this time, Ben was leaving as well.
"Where are you going?" Janice asked him and he grinned crookedly.
"I think I'll bet on Mary." he said. "Somehow her worm-form looks utterly lethal. And I think she'd appreciate that we're believing in her to win this..."
He disappeared into the crowd and Janice focused upon the arena again. Daniel was strutting around impatiently, throwing threatening growls at Mary from time to time, but she simply waited, stinger-tentacles still spread and her slightly opened beak tracking every movement of Daniel.
She was so heavily focused upon the two monsters below that the fight's start took her by surprise. Three times the deep rumble sounded again and in this instance, there was no slow circling.
Both monsters dashed forward simultaneously, crossing the space between them in a matter of seconds and then, with a loud bang, both crashed together in the middle of the arena.
Growling and screeching, the creatures tore at each other, each one wounding its opponent. But then, Daniel sensed an opening and jumped forwards, his large jaws closing around Mary's worm body's mid-section, his long canines cutting deep into her flesh.
Furiously, Mary pounded with all four stinger-tentacles the creature which threatened to throttle her body. Her suckers tore large strips of Daniel's flesh off and her stingers penetrated deep, but he was so heavily muscled that her savage blows weren't doing damage to anything vital. She bent her head, trying to bite his head off with her beak, but encountered the same problem here - large muscles protected his neck like some armor and it was to large anyway for her to fully envelop it with her mouth-parts.
Janice was squealing in fear for her friend as Mary changed her strategy. She stopped the futile pounding and instead went for Daniel's legs. These were thin enough for her beak to envelop and she made ruthlessly use of this fact. Her beak closed around his left hind leg, and with an ugly 'crunch', she bit the limb off. But instead of releasing her, Daniel's bite went even deeper.
Frenzied, Mary went for Daniels other legs and it took only seconds until all for of his limbs had been removed. But Daniel must have realized that it was all or nothing for him now. He simply ignored his grave injuries and the blood gushing from his amputated legs and reinforced his grip even more.
Enraged, Mary twisted and shook her body, trying to tear off the limbless predator crushing her middle section by centrifugal force. It was exactly the wrong thing to do.
Daniels power was apparently not big enough to fully bite through her body. The centrifugal forces ripping on Mary's already tormented back, on the other hand, were.
And with a dirty wrench, her worm body's back half, together with Daniel, simply tore off.
Janice and Ben gasped as Mary wreathed aimlessly in the arena, apparently bewildered by the ruin of her body. But then her front swiveled towards Daniel who had been hurled into an edge of the arena, still alive and growling but unable to move thanks to the loss of all of his limbs.
Purposefully, she started slithering towards him, drawing a dirty smear of blood and gore on the arena's bottom. Janice put a hand in front of her mouth as she saw her friend losing what looked like half of her intestines on the way, but Mary didn't care. She arrived in front of Daniel, closing her tentacle-stingers again and then thrusting the so created giant stinger deeply into his exposed chest, piercing his heart.
Daniel gasped once and then stopped moving. Slowly, Mary removed her stinger from the corpse and opened it again, rearing up. The whole audience went silent as a clock appeared on the video screen, counting down from 60.
Janice nearly held her breath. 30 seconds. 20 seconds. Ten seconds. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. The deep rumble sounded again three times and the audience erupted in loud applause. Simultaneously Mary opened her beak and screeched victoriously. But the screech became weaker and weaker, until it was only a faint gurgle. And then, she simply toppled over to the side, her body plummeting down to the floor.
Wide-eyed, Janice looked at the motionless maimed body of the creature which she knew was her friend.
"Is she...?" she asked Ben and her boyfriend nodded grimly.
"Yeah. I think her body has died." he said. "She had still enough power left to kill her opponent and stay alive for over a minute, but with such a wound..."
He shook his head while the clean-up crew appeared again, dumping Daniel's limbless body and Mary's upper half into the box and removing the corpses from the splattered arena.
**************************************
Twenty minutes later Janice was looking at Mary's grinning face and could still not quite believe... well, anything. That she'd been a monster less than half an hour ago. That she'd been killed. And now she was sitting here, looking as if nothing had happened.
"Well..." Mary said now. "This was one of the more interesting fights I had. I promised you body parts all around, but I hadn't counted on those being partly my parts. I think it's actually the first time I've been torn in half. Losing limbs is a given in those fights, happens all around. But torn apart? No, that was new..."
"Interesting?" Janice blurted. "Don't you rather mean 'hurts as hell'?"
"Nah..." Mary objected. "As I said before, Steve had designed my body in such a way that pain is a tingle. But still it's... odd when you suddenly lose all the feelings in your entire lower half and then realize that it's simply gone."
"Speaking of which..." Ben now put in. "How was it? I mean... your opponent was a fearsome creature, all right. But he still had four limbs, a normal mouth. You on the other hand... you were a tentacled worm for God's sake. How did you even see?"
"Easy." Mary responded. "I didn't."
"Errr... what?"
"It's as I said." she assured. "The worm body I had was a worm body. Therefore no sight, no sounds. Blind and deaf. But a very efficient smell sense."
"Isn't that... disorienting when you are blind and deaf?" Janice brought herself back into the conversation again.
Mary simply shrugged. "Not in the slightest. I was completely at ease with only being able to smell. That's what the Trust Machines do. The body knows how to move and use its senses. You have to learn when to let it do its thing, and when to override it. I had no arms or legs - no problem. Instead I had four tentacles and a beak - no problem either. The moment I left the Venn Machine as the worm, it felt as if I'd been in this shape my whole life. You'll experience this as well."
Ben furrowed his brows. "Excuse me, what do you mean with 'you'll experience this as well'?"
Now Mary and Steve grinned at each other.
"The obvious." Steve said now. "I guess the fact that you're interested enough for asking questions instead of horrified enough to run away screaming means that you're intrigued by all this. Aren't you?"
First Ben nodded and then Janice followed shyly suit.
"Perfect." he said. "Then you can try it out next week. There's a rookie event, you can register yourselves today."
Janice's jaw hit the floor. Trying it out? He means fighting as monsters, possibly dying! That is crazy! her mind screamed. Although... I do wonder what it was like for Mary. The exhilaration of having such a powerful body. The adrenaline rush of a fight to the death...
And numbly, she realized, that, despite her qualms, deep inside her she wanted to try it out. And as she looked her boyfriend in the eyes, she saw a mirror-image of her own thoughts.
Both nodded at each other and grinning even more broadly, Steve and Mary pushed two registration forms over the table.
"Well..." Mary said now. "This was one of the more interesting fights I had. I promised you body parts all around, but I hadn't counted on those being partly my parts. I think it's actually the first time I've been torn in half. Losing limbs is a given in those fights, happens all around. But torn apart? No, that was new..."
"Interesting?" Janice blurted. "Don't you rather mean 'hurts as hell'?"
"Nah..." Mary objected. "As I said before, Steve had designed my body in such a way that pain is a tingle. But still it's... odd when you suddenly lose all the feelings in your entire lower half and then realize that it's simply gone."
"Speaking of which..." Ben now put in. "How was it? I mean... your opponent was a fearsome creature, all right. But he still had four limbs, a normal mouth. You on the other hand... you were a tentacled worm for God's sake. How did you even see?"
"Easy." Mary responded. "I didn't."
"Errr... what?"
"It's as I said." she assured. "The worm body I had was a worm body. Therefore no sight, no sounds. Blind and deaf. But a very efficient smell sense."
"Isn't that... disorienting when you are blind and deaf?" Janice brought herself back into the conversation again.
Mary simply shrugged. "Not in the slightest. I was completely at ease with only being able to smell. That's what the Trust Machines do. The body knows how to move and use its senses. You have to learn when to let it do its thing, and when to override it. I had no arms or legs - no problem. Instead I had four tentacles and a beak - no problem either. The moment I left the Venn Machine as the worm, it felt as if I'd been in this shape my whole life. You'll experience this as well."
Ben furrowed his brows. "Excuse me, what do you mean with 'you'll experience this as well'?"
Now Mary and Steve grinned at each other.
"The obvious." Steve said now. "I guess the fact that you're interested enough for asking questions instead of horrified enough to run away screaming means that you're intrigued by all this. Aren't you?"
First Ben nodded and then Janice followed shyly suit.
"Perfect." he said. "Then you can try it out next week. There's a rookie event, you can register yourselves today."
Janice's jaw hit the floor. Trying it out? He means fighting as monsters, possibly dying! That is crazy! her mind screamed. Although... I do wonder what it was like for Mary. The exhilaration of having such a powerful body. The adrenaline rush of a fight to the death...
And numbly, she realized, that, despite her qualms, deep inside her she wanted to try it out. And as she looked her boyfriend in the eyes, she saw a mirror-image of her own thoughts.
Both nodded at each other and grinning even more broadly, Steve and Mary pushed two registration forms over the table.