Chapter 23: One on One
It didn't take long for them to find rubber bullets for me. I had ammo for both my handgun and my sniper. I was sure that the propellent wasn't as strong for my sniper since that would still cause serious damage in the close distance. I took the ammo, although it was limited in total—only a couple of magazines for my sniper and five for my pistol. I swapped out my magazines, and we all moved to the warehouse.
Ura looked excited, and Uppo and the other black four-limbed creatures also looked excited. "I haven't seen a one-on-one since my days in the military," Ura gushed. "Last one I saw ended with an Officer losing his honor and ego," She said fondly, "Such a good one-on-one, and I found a couple of contacts when I found the betting tables," This time, her smile turned more predatory. "Go out there and get em' Sleepy Wonder!"
It seemed that the warehouse was filled with Cargo containers in long alleyways with a good sorting system. There was even a track and crane inside to move things around easily. The Gang quickly made an opening in the middle, and I walked into the center loaded with rubber bullets when a four-limbed black guy came out with a harness on. In both were handguns, and he was smiling. "Cat, You need a sniper to beat me?" He asked, but I could hear some laughter around, and I felt there was an inside joke that I didn't get.
"Only if you run away fast enough," I replied and pulled out my handgun. I heard more laughter in response while the guy's face turned serious. I remember Pistols only matches in the pro scenes. They were not easy, but far from the most difficult parts of the match. I looked at his holster and noticed that he was carrying two different types of handguns with magazines for them on the opposite side. This guy probably carried one handgun at a time but had both visible to throw people off. However, I could be wrong about that too.
"You think you could hit me if I ran?" He asked.
"Depends on how much practice you have being a coward," I replied with a larger grin, and I saw him getting angrier.
"Real fucking funny, Cat," He replied and turned without another word walking over towards Appo.
Watching him go only for a moment, I took in more of the combat arena they set up. It was empty of cargo containers in the center, with a group gathering on the rafters and catwalks above to watch. In each corner of the cleared space, there was a hallway between the cargo containers where you could move through and move. In the clearing in the center, as I looked around, they set up small barricades that you could use for cover and boxes in the clearing. It seemingly looked random, but I could see a slight pattern with the thick metal boxes moving into it.
"These are the rules!" Appo suddenly called out, "Sleepy Wonder here will be going against Ricky. One Versus one, If any of you ruffians interfere, then you will have a nice bit of tungsten or lead or whatever I fucking feel like it in a leg or two, depending on how much you interfere. That goes for you, Ura. Cheering from the sidelines is forbidden, or you lose your bet. Both these two will need silence, and just our presence can interfere with some experts." Appo seemingly stared down some particular people, and I nodded. I liked there wouldn't be cheering as my ears in this game were sensitive. "Now the boundaries are no leaving the red line around these cargo lines. IS THAT UNDERSTOOD, RICKY?!" Appo turned to him.
"Understood, boss," Ricky replied, turning to me and smiling menacingly.
"IS THAT UNDERSTOOD, SLEEPY WONDER?!" Appo exclaimed, now turning to look at me.
"Understood," I replied. I was feeling Ichy start shooting, and Ura closed the distance with me touching my arm. I reached over and kissed her quickly before Ura stepped back.
"Now time to get the audience above. This all will start with ringing this bell when I reach the rafters," Appo said, pulling out a rustic-looking hotel bell to call people. I nodded, and Ricky nodded a moment later.
Appo left without looking back, and I could hear people stepping up the stairs while Ricky and I stared at each other. My finger felt a need to pull out my handgun as we were only a couple of meters away from each other. "Scared, Ricky?" I asked with a grin. "Ready to retreat, so I have some target practice with my sniper?"
Ricky glared at me, and I wondered if I was getting into his mind or if he was trying to act like I was getting to him. His smile was bright, but I could see a little tick on the corner of his mouth. Then he brought his two underarms together, crossing them while his upper arms put a fist into the other with a loud slap noise. Then an audible crack from his knuckles sounded in the rapidly quieting warehouse as the audience reached the rafters.
Soon everyone stopped moving as we glared at each other, and I felt my tail start to still instead of slowly moving back and forth behind. Anticipation rose in me. I hadn't one on one with someone in this game yet, and I hadn't done it since my old gaming days when I was in my late teens. I felt excitement growing in me as I watched Ricky.
Suddenly a bell chime echoed into the warehouse, and I drew my handgun and jumped to the side as Ricky already had a gun aimed at me. My eyes widened in surprise at that reaction speed and movement. His underarms were loose and hanging on the side while the two upper arms were holding the gun in a proper gun position that would make most police trainers happy.
I dove towards the corner of the clearing as he moved to aim at me again. I dove behind a metal box and rolled into the cover. I skidded as I felt a bullet pass by, almost hitting my tail. I turned and blind-shot back at him, and I heard him quickly move as I used the sound of his heavy steps as a place marker for him.
My ears tingled from the sound of the gunshots. I wanted to lay them flat to stop the sound, but I needed them more, constantly following his movements as I got back onto my feet. His feet started to move to my right and were looking to flank me. I turned and moved to the left, moving around the box, trying to be as quiet as possible. I heard him move more to the right, and I peeked out and saw him looking in the wrong direction of where I was and felt suspicious of that.
If this was their best, and I could hear his movements while he couldn't hear mine, then what did that make a noob like me?
I moved quickly to the next cover, and Ricky turned as I moved as quietly as I could while trying to be quick. He turned to me, and I dove backward toward the cover. I was just scrambling my feet and overdid it as I did a back roll and came up to my knees and turned at the same time aiming at Ricky.
That black four-limbed man looked surprised as he was moving to see me on the new side of the cover I was at, and I rose to stand and began shooting at him. Ricky was all he was cracked up to be, and he dove when he realized that I would have aimed at him first. It was like he knew a moment earlier than I did that I was going to win in speed at this moment and dove for cover. I followed him, shooting out a clip while stepping out of this close encounter, and leaped into the hallway.
I heard those footsteps following me, but I had a second or two before he cleared the corner as I ran while dumping my previous magazine in my handgun. I reached the corner just as Ricky cleared the corner, and I turned the corner and finished loading the new magazine into my handgun. I turned and blind-shot around the corner. I heard a curse and scrambled back towards the corner. I turned the corner and aimed just as he dove back into the middle clearing.
Grinning as I made him back off, I started to move and quickly noticed the red line in the corners of this hallway and realized this fighting map was small. I wanted to set up some traps, but that wasn't the best idea. Camping wasn't the best strategy, and I no longer heard him in the corner as I watched the hallway I came in through. I thought about the look of the map and realized that he could hide in a new spot if I couldn't hear him.
Instead, I looked up and Saw Ura watching with a face of mixed emotions. I grinned back at her, and I smiled as I remembered the rules. There wasn't anything against this, and I looked at the small gap between cargo containers. I didn't know if I could pull it off, but I climbed a bit of rock climbing when I was younger and could pull up my own weight at least.
Quickly I jumped and realized that my leg muscles were stronger than I thought. My sensitive fingers found the seams in the cargo containers, and I quickly started to climb up the containers till I reached the second one and pulled myself up on top of them. I couldn't help the grin as I began to crawl properly.
Proper crawling was something that many people didn't actually know how to do as it wasn't intuitive. It was something that needed to be properly trained into someone, and an ex-boyfriend taught me. It wasn't anything kinky, but he was a veteran of the military, and I was curious since I heard it was different from some friends. In order to get his Girlfriend's approval, he taught me for a week, and I thoroughly used it in some games.
I dragged myself slowly and stealthily I dragged myself across with proper crawling technique along the top of the cargo containers and slowly took off my sniper rifle as I reached the edge. Soon I heard the soft sound of breathing and looked up and didn't see anyone on the rafters too close to me. Some watched with fascination, and others were looking like they wanted to shout something. I moved, no longer looking up, and finally, I reached the edge. I looked down into Ricky's eyes, and his eyes widened, looking up at me.
We both moved, and I pulled back as I heard him shout, "OH FUCK!" He cried, and as I was pulling back, I looked up to see a person pointing up while looking down. I pulled my gun and decided to take him by surprise, and I shot forward again as I heard him step back. I pointed down, stepped forward, shot his center of mass, and fired again and again just before I heard his gun go off and shoot again and again, missing as his arms moved back as I shot him in the chest again and again.
"SLEEPY WONDER WINS!" Uppo yelled, his voice laced with intense anger.
Ricky fell to the floor, grasping his chest as I had finished my clip into his chest, which was at least five rubber bullets. He was wincing, and I turned to grab my Sniper rifle. I turned and moved to the edge of the containers, letting my body fall while holding the top of the containers before jumping down the rest of the way. Pain laced my breasts as my boobs hit the lip of the second container, and I couldn't help but curse," Fuck!" Pain laced my breasts as I turned, and I saw people filtering in from up above after coming down the stairs.
"IMAN! GET THE FUCK OUT HERE!" Appo said as he came down. "RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE WITH SLEEPY WONDER AND RICK!" He yelled.
I looked to the hallway of Cargo containers, and a woman walked out with large breasts. She was very tanned skinned with four arms that were not muscled. As she walked into the center, she looked scared as Appo stared her down. "What Appo?" She asked, looking a little frightened but keeping her back straight.
"You know what," Appo said, "You pointed up and showed Ricky that Sleepy Wonder was above him on the cargo containers. I told you what would happen," Appo said, taking a gun from under his shirt and pointing it at her. The woman's eyes widened, and I flattened my ears to my head just as a loud gunshot went off with all the propellent of a real gunshot.
Her scream sounded in the warehouse, and she fell to one knee as she held her leg, which blossomed with a very dark red color. Dark red, almost black, blossomed from her leg, and she cried. "Cheaters are punished, and I know you and Ricky are a thing, Iman. I will punish you with both legs if it ever happens again." Appo turned to me with a frown. "I am so sorry Sleepy Wonder," He said, "I will give you my Vouch that you know what you are doing. Although this was a play match, you ran laps around Ricky. You have our gangs vouch, and in compensation for my gang member's cheating, I will give the best thing there are for Rish'an Locktor," Appo smiled and turned to one of the four-limbed members near him.
I watched as he whispered something to him, and Ura came and joined me with a smile. We watched the guy run off together, and Appo turned to us again. "He is running to get something your cats like. Trust me on that. I have to ask how you kept cover between you and Ricky at the start there. He is quick on the reaction and start; If it was a straight duel where you have to stand in a spot, he would be undefeatable." Uppo said with a grin.
"The man stomps around the floor like a madman," I replied with a grin as everything was moving so fast.
Appo laughed and nodded, "Yes, he does!" Appo replied, turning to look at Ricky as he finally regained his breath, "You need to work on that, Ricky! If you don't, you will always be weak to those who can jump out of the way quick enough!" Appo said with a mischievous grin.
That man that had run off was now running back with a bot behind him and ran up to Appo. He said something in his ear, and Appo nodded. Appo turned to me and shook his head, "So, normally, I would give you just a gun, and most would be happy. But everyone knows Rish like to make their guns. So here you are," He said and motioned the bot forward, and notifications hit.
I opened the box, and my eyes widened as I started to read the notifications. I couldn't help but smile reading it.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone