Rage (Galactic Cage Fighters) (16 page)

“I’ll do what I can
,” Zara told him.

Chapter 17

The fighters were brought into the arena where the triple cages were already stacked. Rachel could see the opposing team on the other side of the cage. There were two doors. She was told that all the fighters would be led into the cage. The two cage doors would be locked. Once the bell rang, it would be every fighter for himself. The only way out of the cage was if someone was seriously injured and unconscious. A five-second halt would be called to give the healers time to get in and out. Then the fighting would resume.

Rachel looked at the opposing team and felt goose bumps form all over her arms. The whole team
was composed of the worst of the species mixes. There were male and female pairings of Cyclops, Martians, Sirens, Artarians, Slurchans, Leptans, and Voltans. They were seriously outnumbered. This was going to be a slaughter.

“Stay close to me
, human,” Zara said as she stepped up beside her. Rage stood on her other side.

“Do you see your partner?” Rage asked.

Rachel shook her head. “If I can see him then he’s not doing his job right.”

“Keep your eyes open. Know what species you’re fighting. There won’t be any warning and you could
end up fighting men as well.” Rage told her.

The bell rang out
, signaling the start of the fight. It was more like the start of a battle in hell. The opposing team members seemed to produce weapons out of thin air. There were several kendo sticks, a ladder, a steel chair, and a chain.

“Weapons?”
Rachel squeaked.

“Forgot to tell you about that.
This match is anything goes, which includes weapons,” Zara told her nonchalantly.

“Remind me to kick your ass later
,” Rachel growled out.

Zara smirked at her
, but there was no time for a snappy comeback. One of the female Voltans came at Zara, hitting her across the face. Damn! That had to hurt.

Zara responded by punching the
Voltan right back.

Rage tried to stay close to Rachel. He pushed her back a couple of times
, taking on full frontal attacks in her stead. Rachel spent a good deal of time against the bars with Rage in front of her. The commentators were loving it.

“Are you seeing this, Poland? Rage The Animal is protecting the pure human, Rachel Starr.”

“I had heard rumors that they had a thing going on. But it looks like The Animal is trying
protect her like they are mated.”

“She is so much smaller than him, how do they even have sex without him breaking her in half?”

“I don’t know, Johann, but they seem to have found a way.”

A Cyclops and an Artarian charged Rage at the same time. Rachel knew the only reason they were coming at them was because of her. These fighters must have been ordered to take Rachel out. In fact, no one on the opposing team was making an attempt to reach the next cage up. They were all trying to make their way toward her and Rage.

Zara came over to grab one of the three arms of the
Artarian and pulled it backwards at a painful angle, forcing him to step away from Rage. He took advantage and pushed the Cyclops out of the way. Rage took one step forward and found himself jumped on by three more opponents. The Artarian threw Zara across the cage.

Rachel was forced to leave the side of the cage and move forward. The instant she was out in the open
, she became the focus of the opposing team. Shit! Rachel didn’t have a choice. She knew there was no way she could defend herself where she stood, so she ran to the ladder leading up to the second cage.

If she could get to the top cage she would win the match and end it.
Sersan, Alana, and Zen had just reached the second cage and were fighting a few of the opposing team that had also made it up.

Rachel never made it to the third cage. She was immediately taken down by a female Martian. Martians were large and red in coloring. They weren’t fast but they were strong. This one was using every bit of her strength to subdue Rachel.

“You’re going to die
, pure human!” the Martian yelled in her ear as she pushed Rachel to the floor of the cage and straddled her.

“Not today
, red bitch!” Rachel yelled back.

She used her elbows to move the Martian lower on her body
, away from her chest. Rachel grabbed the red girl’s right arm with her hands. She brought her feet up to her ass and put her right foot on the outside of the Martian’s left foot, trapping it. Next she thrust upwards with her hips and rolled to the right.

Rachel took advantage of her new position and used her other hand to slam the Martian’s head over and over on the floor of the cage. It took a few seconds but the Martian’s eyes rolled up
, signaling that she was unconscious.

Rachel had no sooner stood up from one battle to end
up right back down. She had been tackled by the female Artarian. The Artarian used two of her arms to hold Rachel’s arms down while she used her third arm to punch Rachel in the face.

Rachel felt something wet running down the side of her face.
The realization slowly seeped through that the wetness was blood, her blood. She wasn’t going to be conscious much longer.

Suddenly the
Artarian was gone. Rachel looked over and saw that Zara had come to her rescue. She had tackled the other woman knocking her to the floor of the second cage. Rachel slowly rose to a sitting position and watched Zara in amazement.

The Amazon quickly broke the
Artarian’s middle, arm causing her to scream in pain. She then proceeded to punch her in the face with her bare hands until the other woman stopped moving around. She was still breathing but unconscious.

By the time Rachel managed to get to her feet, more fighters had climbed up to the second cage. Rage was one of them. He spared her a glance to make sure she was okay. She
nodded to him. There was no way Rachel would make it to the top cage and end this fiasco early; too many people blocked her way.

She also could not go back down to the bottom level for the same reason. She turned as som
eone yelled out her name. Sersan ran straight at her, then shoved her down. Stunned and confused, Rachel looked up at her roommate only to find that male Leptan colliding with her. Evidently Rachel was the intended victim but her friend knocked her out of the way.

Th
is reptile species was much more aggressive than a Reptan. He was too strong for Sersan. Rachel jumped on his back and started pounding his head. Sersan pounding his chest. There was a snapping sound and the lizard man fell on top of Sersan. They both pushed him off.

“Is he dead?” Rachel asked out of breath.

Sersan shook her head. “Nearly, but no. His body shut down his system to repair the internal damage.”

Right, kind of like a tail
that had been cut off growing back on a lizard. Rachel shivered from the thought of how much pain he would have been in if he remained conscious during the repair process. She stood up and helped Sersan get to her feet. “Thanks for helping me.”

“Incoming at ten and two!”
Sersan yelled, looking at something behind Rachel. Four somethings, actually. Rachel and Sersan turned back-to-back to protect themselves from the incoming attackers.

Hammer threw
a Voltan down from the second cage to the bottom cage. He yelled over at Rage, who had two fighters going at him. “Why does it seem like everyone is going for your human?”

“Because they are!”
Rage yelled back.

Sersan’s
brother Esan tried to make his way over to Rachel and Sersan but he was blocked off by another fighter. “Thisss isss bullssshit! None of thessse guysss are trying to get to the top cage.”

“Help protect Rachel if you can. They want her dead.” Rage told them
as he put one opponent down while the other one came at him with a punch.

Sersan
was grabbed by two of the attacking males and pulled away leaving Rachel exposed. The other attackers were female. One was a Siren. She opened her mouth and the sound that came out did something weird to Rachel’s system. She found her herself slowing down. The other attacker took advantage of the near paralysis that Rachel had and sideswiped her feet, knocking her to the floor of the cage. Both fighters started kicking Rachel in the face and her sides. One more kick to the face, and she heard her name being screamed by Rage. Then everything went dark.

Most of the seriously wounded were put in the bottom cage for the healers to come and get. Hammer, Zen, and Esan were able to make way for Rage to carry Rachel down to the lower level. He wanted to go with Rachel to the healing facility but the security wouldn’t let him out of the cage.

“I’ll take her,” Zara said as she took Rachel in her arms muscular. She then turned to the security and told them that she withdrew from the match.
It sucked that the GCFA only allowed the females the ability to withdraw. The security opened the cage door and allowed Zara to carry Rachel out. When one of the security reached for Rachel, Zara shook him off.

Rage went back to the second cage to help Hammer and the others. He wanted this match over with
. “I don’t care who gets to the top, but someone get the hell up there now!”

The rest of their team worked together
, looking out for one another and helping one another with opponents. It should have been over by now if their purpose was to take out Rachel. She was no longer there. It worried Rage that the match was being drawn out longer than necessary. He hoped that Zara was keeping close to Rachel.

There was an opening near the ladder leading to the top. Rage gave Zen a look and the other man took off for the lad
der. He started climbing with men clutching at him as he went.

The lights were dimmed in the healing facility. The healers did everything they could and left Rachel to heal while she slept. The door to the room opened and Rage walked in. He looked around the room to see that no one else was there. He then glanced at the barely conscious Rachel in the bed. He opened the door again and let another man in a dark suit enter.

“Human
, you have been more trouble than you are worth,” the man in the suit said. He had short blond hair.

Rachel opened the one eye that was not swollen shut and whispered, “Mr.
Talis, I presume?”

The man smirked. “Not my real name, but one I use to do my
side
business.”

Rachel looked at Rage with confusion.
“Rage?”

Rage’s eyes glowed. Then his image shimmered, bones popp
ing and cracking. His whole body folded and then unfolded to reveal not Rage, but Tipin. “It’s going to be my pleasure to squeeze the very life from your scrawny body. The best part will be that your lover Rage will be blamed.”

“I will leave you to it. You have ten minutes before the staff comes back
,” Suit Guy said as he walked to the door. He opened it to find the real Rage standing on the other side.

“Donner,” Rage greeted him. Donner was one of the board members for the GCFA.

“How did you get here so quick?” Donner asked.

“Zen won the match by reaching the top cage. As soon as security opened the doors
, I came here to check on my woman.” He peeked inside at the fully awake bruised woman on the bed. “You doing okay in there?”

“Never better
.” But the voice that spoke did not belong a woman, but a man.

Both
Tipin and Donner looked in shocked fury as the patient slowly transfigured into Lesak. “Sorry to mess up your plans, but Talon asked me to come here in his place to lend a hand.”

Tipin
and Donner tried to rush past Rage. They were stopped shortly after they passed him by huge fighters blocking their escape. There was no way that they could take all these huge men.

“We’ll take it from here
, guys,” a human male said from behind the fighters. He and about ten other men dressed in IDJ uniforms secured the two men with shock collars. The human male introduced himself to Rage.

“I’m Trig Collins, Rachel’s partner
.” He held out his hand to Rage.

Rage stared at the human’s hand. He reached out to shake it.
“Rage.”

“I know. I’m a big fan.”

“Where the hell is Rachel?”

Chapter 18

Rachel woke feeling like she had had a dream that she had been hit by four huge trucks. But other than some tenderness and disorientation, she felt okay. She opened her eyes slowly, grateful that someone had dimmed the lights. She tried to use her arms to prop herself up into a sitting position, but there was a weight holding her down. She glanced down and found that the weight was Rage.