Rage (Galactic Cage Fighters) (2 page)

“Good
. Once your training is complete, we’ll set you up with an identity,” Marks told her.

“Training?
I’m already trained to fight in multiple disciplines.”

The other man in the fancy suit had been silent until now. “Not for this type of fighting.”

“And you are?” She quirked her eyebrow at him.

“I am called
Lesak. I have trained many fighters for the GCFA. I am well known within the fighting circuit. I will be your in. But I must make sure you can fight well enough to be accepted at the tryouts. It won’t be fixed, it will be real.”

“I’m one of the best fighters in the agency.
The best female fighter for sure.”

“It won’t be good enough. You are pure human.
You have only fought other pure humans. The GCFA fighters are mixed species, halfsies. They have to be, in order to sometimes fight full-blooded aliens as their opponents. A halfsie’s alien DNA ensures that they will have superior strength and speed.”

“I think I just got insulted.” Rachel looked ready to knock this guy on his ass.

“It is not meant as an insult, it is simply the truth. You are a good fighter when fighting other pure humans, but you must be specially trained to fight with mixed species and at times pureblood alien opponents.”

Rachel had to admit to herself that she had never gone up against a fu
ll-blooded alien species or even halfsies. The Eastern Quarter of the Omega Region where she lived had mostly pure humans.

“So what species are you?” Rachel knew it was rude to ask a mixed species what they were. It had the effect she w
as looking for. The man’s shoulders stiffened and his eyes narrowed on her.

“I am part human and part
Rasilian.”

Rasilian
? Shit, just shit. They were a tough breed because they were like chameleons. They could transform themselves into other alien forms. A full Rasilian could hold the transformation for long periods of time, but a halfsie Rasilian could only be in his transformed shape for a short time before he went back to his original form.

“How long will the
special
training take?” Rachel asked, hoping to steer the Rasilian’s anger away from her.

“
The GCFA requires their fighters to train for two months prior to the new circuit. You only have four weeks to train with me. The amount of time you spend training for your current position will now be doubled. You will also need to be given a healing implant to help with internal repairs. Once you enter the cage for a sanctioned fight, there will not be a healer on hand until the end of the match. With you being pure human, you wouldn’t live through a match long enough to get to a healer. A healing implant will repair internal damages and sustain you till the end of the match.”

Well
, there went the high she had from beating Trig. Rachel swallowed her humble pie. “When do we start?”

She started her special training with
Lesak the next day. She had been taken off all other assignments so she could focus entirely on training, night and day. She had a feeling Lesak was going to push her to her limits.

Lesak
had sent reports on the GCFA fighters to her PED. Rachel kept coming back to Rage’s file. He was thirty years old. His father was a Bestial and his mother was pure human. The report stated that she died when Rage was five years old. A Bestial was considered two natured, with a humanoid appearance but a beast nature that ruled them on the inside.

Rachel put aside her PED and walked to the training facility where she was to have her first lesson. Only
Lesak wasn’t there. The only person she saw was her partner Trig.

“Good to see your knee all healed
up. Are you ready for another round?” she teased him.

Trig didn’t say anything. He walked up to her and punched her hard in the stomach
, sending her flying backwards to land on her back.

“What the hell?” When she looked up
, she saw Trig’s blue eyes shimmer, and then his body transformed. There were horrible sounds of bones cracking. His body seemed to fold in on itself and when it unfolded, Lesak stood before her.

“Lesson one
: Never let your guard down around anyone.” Lesak told her while reaching a hand out to help her up.

Rachel shook off his hands and stood up on her own. “I knew that
Rasilians could transform into other species, but I didn’t know that Rasilians could transform into
specific
people.”

“Lesson two
: Study your opponent. Learn them inside and out. If you had looked closer, you would have noted the differences. Special Agent Collins has a different shade of blue for his eyes than what I projected,” Lesak told her.

“Sure, the shade of blue was a dead giveaway,” Rachel replied
snarkily.

“My eyes also flickered with a glowing light.
Halfsie Rasilians cannot remain in their transformed shapes for very long. We have an even shorter time frame when we transform to look like specific individuals. Did you study the different halfsie species you’ll be working with?”

She didn’t look him in the eyes.
“Uh … yep.” Well, it was sort of true. She had studied Rage extensively. Truth was, she just kept going back to Rage’s profile. The half-man half-beast fascinated her.

“We were supposed to start your physical training today
, but until you understand where you’ll be going and who you’ll be working with, we can’t make any progress.” He was about to leave.

“Wait, come on. I did read some. Test me and see if I have enough information to get started.” Rachel hated begging
, but finding these missing women was too important.

He nodded his head.
“Fine. Explain where you will be going.”

“First I have to try out for the GCFA. Once I am recruited, I will be traveling with the other GCFA fighters on board a commissioned
GCFA Circuit spaceship. There are eight Regions that the GCFA will be going to. The ship will dock at the spaceports located in each Region where the sanctioned fights will be held.”

“Who are your GCFA team members?”

“There are seven male fighters on the roster. Rage the Bestial halfsie is the current GCFA Champion. The others are: Talon, an Arian; Tipin, a Rasilian; Esan, a Reptan; Taurus, a Priman; Zen, a Felon; and Hammer the Byclops.”

“What about the females?”

“Usually there are a minimum of six female fighters on the roster. The current GCFA Female Champion is Zara, a halfsie mix with Sorian, Bestial, and Human blood. The others already on the roster are: Resa, a Rasilian; Sersan, a Reptan; Alana, an Arian; and Gana, a Priman.”

“Correct. Y
ou will be trying out for the sixth spot.” He circled around her as he asked her more questions. “Who are the substitute fighters?”

“Substitute fighters?” Rachel looked confused.

“In any violent physical sport, there are going to be casualties. To keep the show going till the last Region where the Championship Finale happens, there have to be substitutes that can step in when a fighter, for whatever reason, cannot continue. You should know this already, it was included in your information packet.” He looked frustrated with her.

“Sorry, must have missed that part.”

He shook his head. “The GCFA will pick three male fighters and two female fighters that will remain on standby. Can you tell me what the prize is for the Championship title?”

“Why is that important? I’m not planning to win
, and even if I did, I couldn’t keep the money. I’m bound by my duty to the IDJ.”

Lesak
snorted, “A human win the Championships? That is laughable.”

Rachel was getting pissed. “
So what’s the prize for winning the Championships?”

“One million credits.”

Wow. Credits were the intergalactically recognized monetary source. She knew that each fighter got paid about 5000 credits for each match, but she’d had no idea there was that kind of money involved. She couldn’t speak.

“Al
l right, we’ll start your training now.”

The next few hours
Lesak put her body through the wringer. He said he was testing her endurance. She thought he was testing her resistance to pain, because every exercise he made her endure hurt like hell. He seemed to enjoy it, too. The more pain he caused her, the more the asshole smiled.

“Come on
, human. I haven’t even fought you while in a strong halfsie form yet.” He stood facing her in his normal Rasilian form. His eyes shimmered and glowed, and then his body folded and unfolded. He stood as a Slurchan, complete with the spongy body and ooze coming out of every pore.

“I think I’m going to throw up.” Rachel shivered with her disgust.

“Let’s see how you get hold of an opponent that can slither out of almost anything.”

“L
et’s say we did and call it a day?”

Lesak
didn’t respond to her snarky attitude. He lunged for her, wrapping his gooey arms around her. “Get loose!”

They spent the rest of the day working on getting out of the different hold
s the Slurchan form placed her in. It was only after Lesak could no longer transform into the Slurchan form that he called it a day. She had not been able to get a grip on the soft form long enough for a countdown.

She was relieved to take a shower and wash off all the goo off
her body. It was the most disgusting thing she had ever felt. The smell was awful, too. She didn’t want to know how he managed to replicate the smell.

She found her partner Trig waiting for her outside the locker rooms. “How was training?”

“Fine.” She limped her way over to him. “Wait!” She grabbed his arms and pulled him close to stare into his eyes. She then released him.

“What was that about?” He asked her curio
usly.

“You don’t want to know.”

“I came by to see if you wanted to go to the Galactic Pub and get a few shots?”

She nodded her head. She could use a way to unwind. This might be the last chance she ha
d to just let loose before she went on her mission. Getting her mind off of it for a few hours couldn’t hurt.

Rachel
soon sat beside Trig at the bar. She had five empty shot glasses sitting in front of her. Her partner had twice as many. The TV monitor above the bar was replaying some GCFA matches, trying to spark up interest for the upcoming circuit.

“You ready for this?” Trig asked her.

“Not really, but I will be.”

Chapter 3

Two weeks later at
the GCFA open tryouts

“Get the blood cleaned up and bring in the next victim … I mean, the next candidate,” the muscular female fighter called out. She had black hair and deep blue eyes. She sat beside another female fighter who, at first glance, appeared to have a bald head. As Rachel got closer, though, she realized it was covered in scales. On the other side of the brunette sat a male fighter with long, wavy blond hair that had golden streaks all throughout. He had the face of a male model, but his body was all muscle.

Lesak
came up behind Rachel and slapped her on the ass. “It’s show time, Rachel
Starr.
” She really hated the made up last name. It made her sound like a stripper at one of those sleazy galactic bars her male co-workers sometimes went to. She took a deep breath and stepped out onto the training mat.

She watched as the three fighters in charge of tryouts looked up at her. They sniffed the air. Th
e brunette growled, then stood up. Wow! The woman was freakishly tall, and she didn’t look happy to see Rachel.

“You have got to be shitting me
, Lesak. She is a
pure
human!”

Lesak
stepped up in front of Rachel. He held up his hands as a sign to calm the tall woman down. She looked ready to beat the shit out of someone. “Easy, Zara, I know she is pure human, but that will be her attraction. Imagine the droves of fans that will come to see a pure human fighting halfsies and full-on species.”

The male with
the golden hair turned his head to the side to get a better look at Rachel. “She is hot. I’d want to see her get physical any time.”

The black
-haired woman named Zara was still standing. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Zen. She needs to have more than a hot body and a pretty face. She will need to be able to last at least three rounds to make it worthwhile for the audience paying to see the match.”

Normally
, GCFA matches lasted three rounds, each round no longer than five minutes, with a one-minute rest period between rounds. Championship fights lasted for a maximum of five rounds.

Three rounds?
She had only managed two rounds with Lesak. At the time, she thought he had been too hard on her, but after witnessing the tryouts, she suspected the he had been taking it easy. How was she supposed to last three rounds without getting herself killed?