An Unlikely Triad

Chapter 6 - Monkz

readers: will you put a suspenseful song or an angsty song or an arcane song?
lee: yes

TW: Violence

Exactly four years after the bank incident.

The crazed roaring of the crowd sounds in my ears. I hear it every day, every second of my waking life, because it's my job. My creation. And I love it.

"Next up, the Mob Cavern's undefeated champion, Tai!" the announcer yells, and the audience starts to cheer.

Tai, Tai, Tai, the crowd chants excitedly, thirsty for blood. A pale, dark-haired man steps out from the crowd. He wears a crown on his head, etched with the names of the unfortunate competitors he's beaten. Unfortunate, because Tai killed them.

"His opponent: A rookie who goes by the name of Black!" the announcer booms as an arrogant smile curls on Tai's lips. A large margin of booing, because the audience almost always supports Tai, but that doesn't seem to bother the female as she strides into the ring, her steps smooth and resolute, not at all intimidated by Tai's large physique, the hungry look in his bright, silver eyes. But that's how they always are, until Tai smashes them to nothing more than fine powder.

He cracks his knuckles threateningly, but the eyepatched woman only cocks her head. And waits.

"Tai's gonna win this for sure," my friend and bodyguard, Imagine, whispers to us. "That lady doesn't stand a chance."

"Oh, I don't know," Boby, my other friend and bodyguard whispers back. "She looks pretty confident."

"I'm betting on Tai," I murmur to them both. "A hundred bucks." Imagine nods his head in agreement, and Boby nods too after an afterthought. Don't want to be losing money for the smallest sliver of a chance that the woman might actually win.

But when the announcer yells for the fight to start and I watch the female shift into position, I know that I've made a big mistake. Because, from her stance, I could tell how she would strike.

Tai strikes like a ram. But Black... she strikes like a viper.

She reaches out to him with a punch to the face and retracts her fist before he can even react. Tai growls, touching his cheek, but Black doesn't even give him a second of rest as she whirls, jabbing her elbow into his throat. Tai chokes and lunges blindly toward her, his fist outstretched, but she grabs his arms and pins them behind his back, kicking Tai in his sensitive spot and forcing him to his knees. The crowd oohs in sympathy.

"His upside-down T must hurt like hell," Imagine says gleefully. He has a weird obsession with those. I shush him to watch the show.

Black isn't done. Tai tries in vain to get up, but she grabs his face and smashes it to her knee. Tai crumples, unconscious. She looks up at the audience and gives them a suggestive look. "Call it."

Time stops for a moment, and then every single audience member turns their thumbs down, me with them. Tai is our moneymaker. If she kills him, we fail.

She frowns with distaste, muttering a string of curses, then turns away from Tai and heads out of the ring to collect her money.

"Damn," Boby says after a long moment of silence. "Well, boys, we just wasted three hundred bucks."

I'm filled with amusement. "Yeah, but I own the place," I smirk. "The lost bet money comes to me."

Imagine and Boby look at each other for a second, then understanding dawns on their faces and the twins grin, for once looking exactly like each other in expression. They both have dark hair and wear dark suits, each having strange, glowing white eyes that they hide behind their sunglasses. The only difference between them is that Boby seldom smiles, but Imagine can't seem to stop.