The Dark Beyond

A Turn of Events Part 1

Nelson thought these types of thoughts as Miranda walked past them after her overwhelming victory. She stopped mid walk, and came back to talk to him. "You're Nelson, aren't you?" Nelson nodded slowly. Charles and Samuel merely stared wide eyed at her. "Of course I'm Miranda," she continued, "I just wanted to thank you for helping me get rid of my anxiety earlier. You really helped me out." "Of course," Nelson said, awestruck at what he had just witnessed. "I can't wait to fight you next. You look pretty skilled. May the best one win, hmm?" She extended her hand to shake. Nelson nodded and smiled politely, shaking her hand. It surprised him how warm and strong her grip was. "Good luck to you too," he replied. She flashed a suggestive grin before letting his hand go and walking away.
     "Are you nuts?" Samuel asked him, "She doesn't need any luck. YOU do! She's relentless. I feel like she would even give me some trouble fighting her." Nelson gulped. He always imagined Samuel was a more skilled fighter than he, though he had never sparred with him. He hoped he didn't lose. He really didn't want to let any of them down. Especially Anora. He had already been embarrassed in front of her before. He couldn't let that happen again. She'd told him she believed in him.
     "What did she mean?" Anora asked suddenly, interrupting his thought process. "Huh?" Nelson asked, surprised by her tone of voice. "By you 'helping her get her mind off her anxiety'?" "Well.... when I saw she was nervous.. I just tried to cheer her up a little... I mean 'cause I was nervous too and I felt bad...." he trailed off as Anora merely looked annoyed at him. "She didn't need your help," She said plainly, crossing her arms. "I'm sorry..?" He slowly said, "Are you okay?"  "I'm fine." She grumbled and stared off into the middle of the arena. "Nelson Hamilton! Miranda Skylar. Present yourselves!" Nelson sighed nervously and proceeded to walk up to the middle of the arena, face to face with Miranda, who eyed him curiously. Commander Moran was clearly interested to see their match up. It was the only time Nelson ever saw the commanding officer show any emotion. He stared Miranda directly into her deep brown eyes. She almost shied away from his direct gaze, but quickly shook it off. The commander eagerly blew the whistle.
     Miranda entered a cat-like stance, circling him. He allowed her to circle him as he practiced the breathing he was taught. He opened his eyes to find Miranda in the air above him, getting ready to drop-kick him. He sidestepped out of the way and tried to get a quick jab in at her but she rolled out of the way. He frowned with concentration. She suddenly leapt at him with impressive speed and jabbed at him a few times. He dodged them just very barely by guiding them away from his head with his hands and bobbing and weaving. She was so fast and relentless. Fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee or some shit, he thought, trying to remain calm barely avoiding her. If I have a chance to try the 'stinging' part. Fly like a...
He thoughts were cut off but a hard punch to the face. He combat rolled backwards to get out her reach. She smiled at him. "Is that all you got?" She asked, "I was expecting better." Nelson smirked back. She raised an eyebrow. "Allow me to turn up the heat, then," he said, preparing to go all out, all or nothing. He wiped the blood dripping from his nose. He frowned intensely and charged her as an idea came to his mind. She should try to show off and flip over me, just like that chuck dude, he thought hopefully as he imitated chuck in opening his arms in a grabbing motion. "DON'T CHARGE HER HEAD ON MAN WHAT THE HECK?!" He heard Samuel's voice from the audience, though he ignored it. Miranda frowned before jumping over him just as he'd expected. He stopped mid charge by digging his hands into the sand, and then thrusting his feet into the air where he thought she might be, managing to kick her in the side and send her tumbling into the ground before catching her self. Got her ass, he thought with a smile. Miranda stretched her side, looking a bit annoyed. "There's dust on my shirt now," she complained. "There's going to be blood on it soon if you don't quit fucking around," he said as he was already approaching her full speed. He figured she wouldn't make the same mistake twice by trying to jump over him, and she didn't. Perfect. He slid to a stop in front of her and threw an obvious hook, expecting her to dodge. Instead she caught it without even budging. "Don't get carried away," she muttered, before uppercutting him so hard with the other hand that the spit was knocked out of him and he went cross eyed. Thanks to his training with the alien, he was used to being beat up, so it didn't completely throw him off. "Same to you," he retorted, fighting through the pain to land a clean hook across her face, making her stumble. She grimaced before returning the favor, her fist damaging his right eye so bad he could barely see out of it. Nelson decided to roll with the momentum of the  punch and do a 360 spin, elbowing her in the side of the face along the way.
     They continued to trade unguarded punches back and forth for a moment longer, until Nelson landed a hard uppercut to her chin causing her to stumble backwards as if drunk. By this point he couldn't see out of his right eye, and he had pains all over and a headache. Miranda had her left eye swollen shut and bruises all over her face. He found it extremely hard to focus. She charged him once more. He did his best to dodge but he found he could barely dodge half of her relentless assault. As his vision in his left started getting blurry, she spun around and launched a roundhouse kick towards his head that he hardly blocked with his right arm, and send him tumbling to the ground. His right arm was numb. "Shit..." he mumbled. Am I really going to lose right here... he thought, struggling trying to get up and falling back down. "GET UP!" He heard a voice yell somewhere in the other wise silent crowd. He managed to open his left eye a little, and the disappointed look on Charles' face, Samuel had turned his head, unable to watch, and Anora was calling for him to get up. She had a worried, sad look on her face. "Nelson get up!!!" He felt overcome with emotion. Was he really about to get embarrassed again? He felt a tear filling up his left eye. Looks like he wasn't good enough, yet again. Anora's face saddened, then she too covered her eyes, and Charles frowned and looked to his sister. He heard Miranda asking the commander if she'd won. Nelson balled his fist. Was he seriously about to sit here and cry? He felt his vision turning green as he got angry. "Nah FUCK that," he growled jumping up to his feet, his right arm limp. Miranda looked at him wide eyed. His vision was green as he focused in on her. He charged her once more. She braced herself. As he got close to tackling her, she sidestepped and held her arm out to try to close-line him but he ducked it, and spun around as fast as he could and uppercutted her from her back. He thought he heard her gasp for air. She landed and turned around to face him but ended up with his fist in her face instead. He punched her hard enough that blood came out of her mouth. He followed it with a few more unguarded punches before Miranda was able to finally catch his left fist. She struggled with both hands to stop his left fist from smashing into her face. He strained so hard that his right eye, which was swollen shut, opened up a little. He stared viciously directly I to her eyes. Her eyes showed a hint of fear before he jumped up and knee'd her in the chin as hard as he possibly could, lifting her entire body up in the air. His fist overpowered her and went through her hands and punched her hard, sending her tumbling and bouncing into the sand. He landed on his knees, and his vision went back to normal. Glancing at a shocked Commander Moran, he asked, "Did I win?" Before falling over. He thought he heard cheers before he passed out.