"But... We don't kill our own kind!" the secretary snapped at the queen.
"This mutant is a criminal. Call the guards, we will execute him in the square."
"Yes, my lady." The mystic turned, clicked his heels, and left the hall.
We stood there, studying each other. Snezhana was clearly trying to figure out how to jump more skilfully to get to Magna's throat without hitting the ingots flying around her, while Mary was preparing to intercept the guards.
The staring contest lasted about ten minutes, the guards took a very long time to arrive, and when they did, I was very surprised. They were ordinary people with no abilities, I could immediately tell them apart from the mutants by their well-hidden fear and general nervousness. They were tall, with narrow waists and large breasts emphasised by armour bras, and their only weapons were spears with openly phallic tips. The purpose of such "guards" became clear a second later when a creature appeared behind them. It was ugly, of indeterminate gender, resembling a human only in its body shape, and completely naked, as far as could be seen. Short grey hair transitioned into grey skin in completely unexpected places. Its face was covered with stubble, its eyes were red and bloodshot, and long fangs protruded from its mouth.
"Morbius, who are you going to fight?" Erica asked the creature.
"With injustice. I'm an antihero, remember?" the humanoid bat growled in response.
"Spare me the stories about your superhero past! What brought you out of your roost and dragged you here?
"They say you're going to execute this handsome guy.
"For attempting to assassinate the clan leader. He's a criminal first and foremost, not a mutant or a man.
"Was he sentenced by a court?
"No.
"In that case, I demand a trial by combat!" screeched the vampire, spreading his wings. His cry dragged on for what seemed like an eternity, gradually turning into an ultrasonic sound. It was only interrupted by the monster's transformation into a beautiful woman resembling a guardian, only naked.
"Take him to the dressing room.
The guards moved forward, activating their weapons. Contrary to expectations, their weapons turned out to be quite rational" — they were stun guns. I also noticed arrows on their cuffs, sharp enough to pierce a T-shirt, the same stun guns, only remote. Mary tried to protect me, but Snezhana gently pushed her away, whispering something in her ear. The guards came too close and reached out their hands towards me, but I slipped past them, went behind them and put my hands on their bottoms, pulling the beauties slightly towards me. Some kind of show had been going on for a long time, and Magna was asking us to play along.
"You won't need your spears, girls, now you'll be taking care of mine. Come on, no one will disturb us in the dressing room, right?" They didn't answer and didn't drop their spears, but they still led me to the exit.
"You're overacting, rookie!" said Morbius, who was trailing behind. "Act natural, it looks much better."
"Oh, then I'll have to kill them," I squeezed my buttocks harder, and the guards trembled slightly.
"You're not fighting with fire, are you?"
"No, why?
"I didn't have breakfast, and the flames make the blood evaporate or taste bad.
"Are you a vampire?
"A living vampire. It's like those fairy-tale bloodsuckers, only without some of the drawbacks and slavery to Death, I mean" — to her deputy. Although Isabella and I are still friends.
"Isabella?
"The current deputy, you know. Don't tell me you didn't know vampires existed in real life.
"Where are you taking me?
"To the dressing room. Are you deaf in there?
"I can hear you, I just don't understand why. How is this related to the trial?
"I'm not deaf, okay... Then you're stupid.
"I just don't know how things work on your island.
"Court by duel. Mutant clan. Staten Island. Still don't get it?
"Absolutely not.
"How is that possible??? You've never even heard of my show?
"There aren't many TVs in the wasteland...
"It's even shown on the moon! And I'm not exaggerating! Or... Are you one of those who recently returned?
"Probably.
"Well, we're here, and you haven't killed anyone. I have to do everything myself!" Morbius gently, almost tenderly, pulled one of my companions away from me and sank her teeth into her neck. Overcome with emotion, the girl fainted, but the vampire continued to hold her. The second girl ran away in panic around the corner of the corridor. Finally, Morbius finished kissing the guard's neck and laid her unharmed but unconscious body on the floor.
"The show works pretty much the same way. We don't hurt people or mutants, but we do what's expected of us. What the audience is willing to believe. Gladiatorial combat with superpowers, that's what my show is all about. As for you, you're not planning on joining me permanently, are you?
"No.
"Then don't be surprised when you get killed in the arena. Go on in, I've already briefed the make-up artists. And remember: act natural!
There were six or seven make-up artists behind the door; I couldn't count them all. The women were commanded by a small, ugly mutant with a toad's face and a toad's tongue, and her name was Toad. Her talent in the field of make-up was eloquently demonstrated by a photograph above her work table, in which she looked like a human being... Toad refused to work with me: "A face like that is impossible to plaster" — it would only be ruined. Instead, she ordered me to plaster my clothes, as if I had been held in a monkey cage for several days with breaks for interrogations using the "evil cop/good executioner" technique. And yet, before visiting the queen, we had put on the most expensive clothes we could steal, or buy, in Snezhana's case.
A torn sleeve and bloodstains on my chest were a bit out of place with my clean face, so just before we went out, Zhaba personally drew a graze on my cheek and a bruise under my eye.
The sandy arena without stands, surrounded by film cameras and hung with lighting equipment, was located inside a pavilion with green walls. There were no bars separating the fighters from the arena, but there were boards with timers. My opponent and I fought four rounds before the filmmakers recorded everything they wanted, after which the crew hurriedly hid behind bright green armoured panels. The fight was declared to be without rules or restrictions.
My opponent went by the stage name Edward Frost and used ice in the fight. He really was kind of frozen, icy: I couldn't feel any of his emotions. I could sense fragments of feelings from other people around me, but they didn't make any sense, and they weren't coming from him. Apparently, he simply did not feel any emotions.
Just as the fight began, Magna, Mary, Snezhana, and two women I didn't recognise appeared in the VIP box, which I hadn't noticed before. One had horns, hooves, and a leathery tail, while the other was either heavily tattooed or actually covered in tongues of flame. My opponent and I stood a metre apart and, at Morbius' command, began to fight.
Edward waved his hand, and ice rapidly crystallised on it, leaving a new hole in my shirt and a shallow cut on me. Without giving me time to recover, he attacked again with a stabbing thrust and almost pierced me through, but I sensed Mary's excitement, and the icy blade slid off my suddenly hardened skin. Edward was smaller than me, but faster, so the kick to his shin that I intended to break his leg with only knocked him off balance. I continued to build on my success, but my blows were parried by sharp icicles. The harder I hit, the more the ice cut me, and after another blow, I lost all feeling in my hand.
Edward counterattacked instantly and made a successful grab, encasing me in ice and starting to choke me. The ice crumbled from my powerful movements, but too slowly, and my vision began to darken. I thought I was losing consciousness, but suddenly realised that I was standing five metres away from Frost and the block of ice he was using to strangle me. Snezhana was also affected by the fight. My abilities have almost no distance limit; if emotions are directed at me, I can feel them.
The ice mage fired a volley of ice arrows at me, but my cat-like agility and reflexes allowed me not only to dodge them, but also to get closer to my opponent. Seeing the result of his shooting, he ran towards me with an icy spear in his hands, but it was not dangerous at all: he wielded the spear much slower than the arrows, and I dodged them. But I missed Frost's real attack. It turned out that he had three spears, and they somehow pierced me, even though I had become even stronger in the first seconds of the fight. The spears also went very deep into the stone slabs; they must have been incredibly sharp. Both my hands were pinned to the floor, and I couldn't free them, while Frost had already approached my head and began to grow thin icicles from his fingers, right in front of my eyes. I fought in helpless rage and screamed, but the ice kept getting closer.
"Cut!" Morbius announced.
I caught a flash of malice from the gladiator; he wanted to kill, and no orders could stop him. The sharp ice daggers were getting closer to my eyes even faster.
***
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