Alice's Point of View
Alice Glass was browsing Natter in her car parked outside "Team Silverback MMA", the gym she'd been training at for the last nine months. She'd just found her favorite target. Some days she really loved this job.
Elron Trask @elrontrask 15 minutes ago
The next Maxwell Maxtruck is now accepting preorders! The public response has been amazing!
The self-aggrandizing posts were the best to poke little holes in the little man's ego. Alice had just the thing.
Replying to @elrontrask
Regency @regencyofficial 2 minutes ago
Scoreboard!
Link: George Stavros takes back spot from Trask as world's richest man after successful robotics deal with Reka Fekete's Regency, read more at wealth.com
For some reason Trask hadn't blocked or banned her account. Maybe he was a masochist? It wasn't even about clapbacks anymore. Alice could admit that she went online actively looking for fights these days, and Elron was just so bullyable.
Blame it on the silverback spirit, I guess.
Her gym was a cult by the way, but after years in the Reka fan club she was kind of used to it.
She checked her notifications one last time before getting out of her car and heading in to the gym.
Yep, already crashing out. It only took one little prick to get the little prick throwing a tantrum for hours. She'd enjoy the thought of him impotently posting on Natter while she got a good workout in.
The head trainer was right there to greet her.
"What's good, young warrior? Hey guys, Silverback Alice is here!"
The whole gym cheered when "Silverback Jeff" dapped up "Silverback Alice".
Silverback Jeff was a middle-aged man with bleach blond hair styled into a spiky mess with hair gel, like he hadn't updated his style since 2003, great trainer though.
The first time Alice came in here she was caught between laughing her ass off and fleeing in terror but the insane positivity of the place was addictive.
A huge black guy, Silverback Mike, their top heavyweight, walked by. "I saw your amateur fight last month, Silverback Alice!" he said intensely, like he was doing a fired up interview for Fight TV. "A lot of other people saw it. You've got the Silverback Spirit, girl. Next time the FCU needs a girl in your weight class you're getting a call!"
"Hell yeah, Silverback Mike, that's awesome! Silverback Spirit!" roared Silverback Jeff.
"Silverback Spirit!" Silverback Mike yelled back.
If you couldn't tell already, this place was a cult. Once you earned your place on "Team Silverback" you were always addressed as "Silverback Insert Name" from then on. As crazy as it was, Alice had to admit there was something to this silverback spirit stuff.
The fighting spirit she used to slay demons in the other world wasn't so different. A silverback is a dominant male gorilla, bold, determined, decisive, and always protects his family. It wasn't a bad animal to base a philosophy on, though Silverback Jeff just wouldn't listen when Alice told him that girls couldn't be silverbacks. He insisted they could, which was endearing in a way.
Silverback Jeff, despite not being a terribly deep person, was a brilliant tactician when it came to fighting. When Alice told him her background was in fencing he instantly crafted a fighting style that would suit her based around boxing footwork and wrestling for takedown defense. The boxing was easy, intuitive to a swordswoman like Alice, but the grappling took longer. She was gradually becoming more and more well-rounded, though.
When Alice tapped into her fighting spirit, no, her silverback spirit, she became one with the silverback. Footwork, angles, distance, timing, it all just came together and she was untouchable. It honestly felt like those early days in the other world where the castle's master-at-arms was teaching her swordplay and marveling at how fast she was picking it up. It was almost like being a Hero again.
No, Alice thought, heroes don't let obvious demon-powered golems serve them breakfast.
Just when she thought Brad and Reka were a normal, if eccentric, couple, they created that Galiban monstrosity. She'd nearly fainted the first time she walked in and saw that dark energy automaton making waffles! Waffles! They were good waffles though...like the kind you could only get at high-end hotels or breakfast places with absurdly pretentious names.
And Galiban didn't have to be so polite! Well, Alice supposed it was better that Brad and Reka made a butler than an assassin. The money was good, better than good now that their robot factory was running at full capacity and Reka gave everyone a huge Christmas bonus. Alice was twenty three years old and seriously thinking about buying a house. How many people of her generation could say that?
...and they hadn't killed anyone else, that she knew of. Maybe it was cowardice; maybe it was complacency, but Alice just couldn't justify leaving such an ideal work arrangement. She set her own hours, came and went as she pleased, had an easy, interesting job, and plenty of time to train her silverback spirit. What more could she ask for?
"Silverback Alice!" Silverback Jeff called out as she left the changing room. "I know you hate it but we need to work on your ground game if you're serious about turning pro. Silverback Grace is here."
Silverback Grace was a pro in the weight class below Alice, a BJJ, or "Brazilian Jiu Jitsu" ninja of the first order. "Rolling" with her was a nightmare.
"You're never going to be a submission master," Silverback Jeff said placatingly, "but we can at least work on defense and escapes so you can get back on your feet if you ever get taken down. We need to prepare for every eventuality. Winners are strong. Champions are strong everywhere," he said sagely.
Grace just smiled at Alice. This was going to be her revenge for getting destroyed in standup sparring the other day, Alice knew.
Sighing in resignation, Alice accepted that she would be getting twisted into a pretzel over and over for the next two or three hours. Her silverback spirit would have to see her through.
*******************
Reka's Point of View
Gladiatorial games were to be held at the local arena and sweet little Alice was participating! The girl had finally gotten over her fear of their butler and was developing into quite the strong monk. Faithful Galiban had not yet constructed a platform that could operate in public without scrutiny so Reka was in quite the bind. Brad had to be guarded at all times and usually they would be together, but she couldn't guarantee that always. It would help so much if she had a human servant that could be trusted with her love's security.
"I've never been to an FCU fight before," Julie said from the back of their MWB car.
They were all dressed in their finest garments. Brad had told her nobles, or "celebrities" often attended such events just to be seen doing so. It would be a fine public outing for the three of them.
"The FCU is huge in the military," Brad said conversationally. "One of my old shipmates was completely crazy about it, even dragged me to an MMA gym on and off for two years."
Reka's interest was piqued. "I didn't know you had any fighting experience, my love."
"Barely any," Brad said dismissively. "We were at sea for half the time, and my sleep schedule was crazy in those days. I'm an eternal white belt, know just enough to watch a fight and kind of understand the strategy of it."
Still, that was a side of Brad that she never knew. Reka cherished stories about his past, the kind of life he led, crafted by fate to be her destined one.
Once they parked the car, attendants escorted them to their "cageside" seats. The crowd was already quite lively, howling for blood as they were, but there seemed to be a great deal of waiting between scheduled combats. In her old world the arena would've brought out animals or public executions to entertain the crowd while the human gladiators prepared.
Julie, relaxed as always, was on her phone while Reka focused her senses on detecting possible threats to Brad. Other nobles came up to greet them from time to time and they were polite enough, though Reka didn't really understand how one could obtain fame from playing a children's ballgame or posting short videos on NikNoK.
"Unemployment is up," her friend said flatly. This had been a common refrain of late. The "economy" was ever a concern in this world.
"Have not my crystals been lowering their expenditures?" Reka asked.
"It doesn't matter if your electric bill gets cut in half if you lose your job, Reka," Julie said, growing more morose as she descended into the "doomscroll" as Brad called it.
"It is not all my doing, Julie," Reka defended herself. "The thinking machines are being used by many firms. The million or so sacked by the Rainforest warehouses are but a fraction."
"But they all run on fusion," Julie said seriously. "Before you, electricity was the bottleneck. Now these AI models have all the juice they need to train and learn how to replace people in all kinds of jobs. Unemployment is about to be double digits. This can't go on forever."
"Julie is right, honey," Brad interjected. "All these out of work people are going to be looking for someone to blame and we're kind of obvious. At first people thought you were a hero but they could flip into thinking you're a villain just like that." He snapped his fingers. "We are getting rich off of destabilizing society. Were things good before? No, but they were somewhat predictable. Millions of people don't know if they'll still have a job when they wake up tomorrow. That's dangerous."
Reka hummed in acknowledgement. Brad and Julie's fears were reasonable, but this was always part of her plan. Uncertainty was her ally. Chaos was her ally. An unstable society was a society ripe for takeover. She'd had to move quietly for years, slowly accumulating money and power, but her automaton army would be ready soon. It was her wish to place a king's crown on Brad's head on their wedding day and Reka was running out of patience.
At last, Alice's name was called and she marched down to the cage wearing the totem of a great ape.
Monks trained in monkey-style, how charming, she thought. The three of them stood and cheered quite energetically for her brave Natter warrior.
Her opponent looked quite dangerous, with tribal runes etched into her arms and her hair held back in a severe braid. Reka couldn't help feeling concerned. She needn't have.
Alice danced around her with all the grace of a monkey swinging from branch to branch, now and again changing direction and striking a fierce blow before dancing out of range yet again.
Before long the tribal warrior's face was bleeding and swollen and Alice went for the kill, striking low to bring her opponent's hands down before hammering her foe against the cage with a flurry of blows. The official had to pull Alice off of her for this bout was not to the death.
With a roar of triumph Alice vaulted to the top of the cage, radiating power and crying "Silverback Spirit!" like a war cry.
There it was, Reka was sure of it. This "silverback spirit" was the fire she needed. Alice would lead her undying legions in battle. Her plans were coming together perfectly.
Once the excitement died down Reka struck up her conversation with Julie again. "So, how fares your congress with faithful Galiban?"
Poor Julie looked quite taken aback. Was Galiban perhaps not to her liking? Her friend had not met her butler under ideal circumstances.
"It's fine," Julie said shortly. "We're doing fine, better than fine. I think we'll have something worth showing soon."
That was well, Reka decided. Hopefully they could get along.
Before the next bout a herald approached and bid them meet the chief magistrate.
"President Blimp is here?" Brad asked nervously.
Reka didn't quite understand the reverence in Brad's voice until she remembered the chief magistrate was also the war chief, a queer system of governance, if you asked Reka. Some of that respect must've lingered from her love's time in the fleet.
It wouldn't do to keep him waiting so she and Brad followed the herald. Julie declined; she was no fan of Blimp at the best of times.
Security was somehow looser than when she met Elron Trask and they were waved right through. Much to her consternation, Reka noticed that same Trask seated next to Blimp, no doubt singing a poisoned song into his ear.
"It's you-" Trask said but Blimp cut him off.
"It's so nice to meet you," he said in a kindly, grandfatherly way. "We've only just arrived. Did you enjoy the preliminary fights? I've heard great things about these young fighters, great things."
Trask looked thunderous at being ignored.
"Reka Regis," she said extending her hand.
"Ronald Blimp," he introduced himself, shaking it.
"And my husband Brad," she said, indicating with her hand.
"A fine young man, a veteran I understand, very patriotic," Blimp rambled as he shook her love's hand.
"Mr. President," Brad said trying to sound confident, but she could tell he was flustered.
Strictly speaking they weren't married yet but it pleased Reka to introduce him in that way. Making Brad's heart flutter was its own reward.
They didn't really speak about anything substantial, just pleasantries. As Reka took the measure of the man, she noticed he didn't seem quite so venal as others had reported, just a flattering, glad-handing old merchant prince the likes of which could be found in any major guildhall.
Trask, though, the longer the conversation went on the angrier he seemed.
"Wrist feeling better?" she couldn't resist taunting him.
The bard licked his lips making him look even more reptilian than usual. "I'll be fine," he said, his tone promising anything but.
This one will have to be dealt with sooner rather than later, she thought. It was not wise to let sore losers linger to plot revenge.
"I believe dear Alice is waiting for us, my lords. Farewell, Mr. President, Mr. Trask."
Soon the likes of them would be quite beneath her notice.