This was it, the moment I had been training for. I looked right at my best friend and smiled.
"You're going down, Dev!"
"I think you've got that backwards, Kali."
He smiled back but as soon as the instructor said go, I made the first attack. I went to knife-hand him, but he quickly dodged. We fought back and forth for a few minutes, each of us landing hits on the other but neither one of us surrendered. Finally, Devon managed to knock me down and get me in a "kill" position. The bell rang, signaling the end of the match...and Devon as the winner.
"Devon Daniels wins the first round of the karate tournament. Kalindi McCall has been eliminated," the instructor announced. People clapped as my best friend helped me up.
"You put up a good fight, Kali. Almost had me a couple times," he smiled as we walked off to the side. The next two competitors got on the mat. We sat down at the booth and ordered some drinks.
"Yeah well, almost isn't good enough," I said defeatedly. I wasn't mad at him, he earned it. I was upset at myself for not training harder.
"Hey, look at me," Devon said and I looked up at him. "You did your best. You're an amazing martial artist. I just got lucky somehow. Remember how many times you've beaten me in normal sparring matches?"
I smiled a little and nodded. "Thanks, Dev."
"Devon!" we heard an all too familiar voice say. We turned and saw his dad, and he didn't look pleased. "I thought you were going to that job interview I set up for you."
Before Devon could say anything, I stood up. "I'm sorry, Mayor Daniels. It's my fault, I entered Devon in the karate tournament at the last moment because I wanted to see if I could win against him, and like the best friend that he is, he did it with me," I lied, standing up for him. My best friend gave me a look. His dad eyed me warily, then nodded once.
"Next time, I'll set up an interview for both of you. There's no sense in wasting your time with karate. If you're not going to study, might as well do something useful like work. Come on, son, we're going home," he said simply.
Devon sighed and stood. He gave me a hug and I hugged back. "Thank you, Kali," he whispered. "Catch ya later?" he then asked in a normal voice level.
"Yeah, you know where to find me," I smiled a little.
He smiled back then went off with his dad. I sighed and sat down again. I knew how hard his dad was on him, my parents were the same way-always trying to get us to be like them or do more rather than play video games and karate. That's how Devon and I became best friends a couple years ago, and our parents know very well that we hang out a lot. They just never have the chance to hang out with us, with Devon's dad being the mayor, my dad being in the military, and my mom being the lead engineer for Tech-tonic International.
I stood and packed my things after a few minutes. There was no reason for me to stay and watch the rest of day 1 of the tournament without Devon.
I changed out of my karate uniform and then walked down to the plaza. I sat on a bench, reading my favorite Ranger history book for the millionth time, the one about the Wild Force Rangers. I got lost reading it again and suddenly I was jolted from my focus by screams and people running away. I immediately jumped up and ran the opposite direction, towards whatever was freaking people out, leaving my stuff behind.
That's when I saw a motorcycle monster and weird robot dudes creating havoc. "Hey, freaks! Don't you know it's rude to scare people off?" I called. In an instant, their attention was turned to me. That's when the fear kicked in.
YOU ARE READING
The Beast Inside
Fanfiction*A Power Rangers Beast Morphers fanfic* Kalindi McCall (known by her friends as Kali) always felt like an outsider. She was into karate and video games, things people wouldn't expect a typical young adult girl to be into. On top of that, she was a h...
