SW10: January 2010 #3: Return of the She-Ra Fight Club

[Scott Eiler]

Author's Note:  I'm catching up on concepts.  This story occurs before
my two most recent posts to RACC, but that's not important to the
story.  Here is posted all text from the story as it currently exists,
but updates are still likely online, and hyperlinks to further content
are there.  The story is best accessed via http://www.eilertech.com/stories/2010/index.htm#shera,
because I'm likely to move it so as not to have six big stories in one
file at neworbit.htm under that same directory.

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 Return of the She-Ra Fight Club.   Commentator: Julie Wolcott.

---

I woke up in a wrestling ring, circular with padded walls. I'd heard
of women who'd woken up that way. I hoped I'd get a chance to avenge
them.

---

Most people know me as "Mrs. Ellipsis", the wife of the world's most
powerful superhuman. We're not like Superman and Lois Lane in the
comic books, though. My husband Stephen uses his energy powers and his
huge intellect to help scientists. I gave up my career as a newspaper
journalist to help run his business.

I've had superpowers for a few years too. Mine is telekinesis, from a
power stone. A friend of Stephen used to carry the stone, but she gave
it to me. The stone's barely small enough for me to hold with one
hand, so I usually don't carry it. But the stone usually knows where
to find me when I want it.

Last year, billionaire businessman Malcolm Dunevoy tried to smear me
and my husband and drive us out of business. With the help of
Dunevoy's son Michael, we made Malcolm flee instead. But that wasn't
good enough. I wanted to find Mal Dunevoy.

Dunevoy used to work in Nashville, Tennessee. I went there on the 15th
of January to shmooze with his old associates at a Friday-night
cocktail party. They were mostly happy to talk with me, because I was
in and Dunevoy was out. There was this one drunken millionaire who
tried to convince me that every Friday was Pantsless Friday down on
Lower Broadway street. I'm convinced he believed it. I found out from
him, though, Dunevoy was probably working with New Russians - who act
like Russia is the Wild West all over again and they're the robber
barons.

But that's the last thing I remember from that night.

---

In the wrestling ring, I tried to figure things out. This must be the
same fight club that some sick men were running on the Moon. Their
secret Lunar base got destroyed, so they must have moved. I didn't
feel like I was spinning in a centrifuge, so I figured I must still be
on Earth.

They must have drugged my glass of wine at the party. I figured they
might. That's why I left my power stone with Stephen, and stayed in
telepathic contact with him. In fact, I'm surprised he didn't feel it
happening and wake me up.

But I was sore on one shoulder. I then remembered feeling shocked
there. They must have tasered me!

But how could they even do that without Stephen finding out first? ...
Hey, I think I saw Yon Schmidt at the party. He's a superhuman
businessman himself, so I didn't think much of it. But he's also a
mercenary hunter of superhumans. I'd just been hunted. And I knew I
was being watched in my cage. So I said for the audience, "You're all
going to feel a world of pain for this."

"Not at all, Ms. Wolcott." Now I knew Mal Dunevoy himself was
watching. "You've been transported and shielded from detection. I'd
rather have captured some of your less short and dumpy compatriots,
but no matter. You are ours to play with."

"Yeah, right. Figure the odds."

"The odds are, you get mauled sometime in the first six minutes."

A teenage boy much taller than me entered the ring through a door in
the wall. He rushed me. But as "Mrs. Ellipsis", I'd been trained in
self-defense long before. I sidestepped and stomped his instep. As the
boy collapsed in pain, I said, "I don't play the way your sick fight
club does."

"Oh, you will." Another boy came in. He was more careful, but I
feinted toward his foot and then kicked him in the balls.

"Don't worry, there's more." This one looked like an actual high
school wrestler. He actually grappled me. I had to bloody his nose to
get free.

Dunevoy blathered on, "Oh, and we'll be dropping a power item into the
ring sometime during the match. You'll have to actually beat your
other contestants to it." Meanwhile, the wrestler with the bloody nose
kept coming. Now he was swinging at me. But he hadn't trained at
blocking, so I downed him with a palm strike to the chin.

"Oh, that will be quite enough... Boris, pobedit' yee." I started
checking the fallen wrestlers for nose plugs, because I figured they'd
be gassing me. But Dunevoy continued, "Oh, don't worry about gunfire.
Boris is leaving his gun with me. He'll be smashing you with his bare
hands."

A big guy in a suit came in. I went into full defensive posture. But
Boris still almost knocked me over. I thought, "Stephen, where are
you?"

Then... Unlike Boris, I was watching for other hazards. So I saw
something drop from the wall. Hey, power item! I had to duck under
Boris to get it, but I got it.

I was hoping for a taser, but it was just some kind of pendant. Oh,
crap.

Boris grabbed for my hands around the pendant. But there was a force
field around them! I thought, my stone does that too. Cool! I expanded
the field and smacked Boris back. But it was lots weaker than my
stone. Boris punched it back, and I felt it.

What else could I do with the pendant? I shoved a spice of force as
far up as I could.

Then I tripped while backstepping from Boris. He planted his foot on
my chest, and started leaning. Even when I grabbed his leg and lifted
with all my strength, I could barely move it enough to breathe.

Then the lights went out. No, not for me, for the whole ring. And I
finally felt the voice in my head. Stephen was here! "Dunevoy. I have
tracked you across the world."

I had to break in: "Stephen! Help!" Boris promptly fell over.

The lights came back on in my ring, as Stephen continued: "You did not
think to hide..." But then the lights flickered, and I lost Stephen's
voice!

Stephen said I'd gone around the world. Dunevoy must be in Russia, and
using some kind of superweapon against him!

I ran for the door where Boris and the wrestlers had come in. I found
a hallway, and a side stairway leading up. I guessed, go up.

There was a room, with spectators looking into the ring. Mal Dunevoy
was there. I said, "Your bodyguard's gone. You want some of this?"

"Unlikely. Your husband's been neutralized, and this room is full of
bodyguards."

Then the roof smashed open. And I felt something in my hand. My power
stone had come to me!

I had the stone pulse once. Someone near Mal was typing something on a
screen, but it went blank. And I felt Stephen's voice again: "Dunevoy.
This ends now." Mal Dunevoy slumped, drooling.

"You others: You are now prisoners of my wife. Teper' zaklyuchennye
moyei zheny."

---

The other spectators were arrested by Russian police. These are New
Russians, so no charges will stick. They'll be back.

But I'd done what I wanted. I'd gotten Mal Dunevoy.