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Levius stared down at the girl on the floor as the referee declared his victory. She’d gone down in record time, leaving both him and the viewers unsatisfied. If Levius was honest he’d expected more from her, both from her record and her little jabs at the regulation check. All he could do was stand there, watching as a couple members of her gym pulled her out of the ring. He cringed a little as they knocked her head against the floor, careless in their treatment of the unconscious girl.
Zack, outside the ring, shook his head and mumbled something about the danger of overconfidence. Bill could see him try to look around Levius to get a sense of how Natalia was doing. When Zack watched Natalia’s arm fall slack over the side of the stretcher, he winced.
“At least it isn’t Levius,” Zack sighed.
Bill, Zack, and Levius returned to their corner to wait for the stadium to empty. People left quickly that night, the overwhelming majority just as disappointed as the two teams about the length of the fight. Levius and Zack sat around as Bill packed up the parts and tools that he’d brought. By the time he was finished, it seemed that the place had emptied completely. The overhead lights had already been shut off, leaving only the gentler wall lighting in each team’s corner to prevent total darkness.
“Want to join us for dinner tonight, Bill? It’s early enough that I doubt Ma has even started cooking yet,” Zack said.
Bill considered the offer for a moment, remembered that his dinner plan consisted of wilting lettuce and stale croutons, then accepted. Finally ready to go, he slipped a bag over his shoulder, and asked Levius to pick up his socket set. To Bill’s dismay, he hadn’t bothered to check that it was actually latched shut, and upon being moved spilled its contents all over the floor.
“Sorry,” Levius apologized, immediately placing the case on the floor and reaching for the nearest pieces to put back.
“Let me do it,” Bill replied. “I’ll deal with these and catch up with you later.”
“Alright, we’ll see you soon then,” Zack smiled. He and Levius disappeared, leaving Bill alone in the dark corner of the arena. It took him about ten more minutes to find and repack all the little pieces, but as he was finally about to leave, he noticed light still coming from the other side of the venue. He thought that everyone from the opposing gym had already left, but if anyone was still there, he was tempted to inquire about the state of Levius’s opponent.
Bill, holding his now properly secured tools, made his way over to the other corner. He didn’t see any trainer, or even any lingering engineers. The only person remaining was Natalia Garnet, still unconscious and laid out on a bench.
Bill sat down beside her and shook her gently. “Natalia? Natalia Garnet?”
A moment after he said her name, she seemed to respond, opening her eyes groggily. For a second she seemed completely unaware of what was happening, then snapped fully awake and quickly jerked away from him.
“Get out of my face, four-eyes!” Natalia complained, sliding even further away on the bench. Now that she felt comfortable in her distance, she looked around, and realized that they were alone.
“Hey, what happened?” She asked.
Bill frowned. “You got hit in the head pretty badly. Actually, can you hold still and open your eyes wide?”
Natalia stared at him blankly. “I...guess…?”
Bill pulled a small light out from the bag around his waist and quickly looked at Natalia’s eyes. She didn’t know what he was looking for, but he seemed satisfied after a moment and clicked it off.
“So damn bright,” Natalia complained, squeezing her eyes shut.
“Are you dizzy? Or nauseous?” Bill asked.
“No, I feel decent,” Natalia responded. “Well, except for the fact that I’m sitting here with you . Where did my team go?”
“They left. I doubt they’re coming back for you, either,” Bill replied, avoiding her eyes and sliding the light back into his bag.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Most gyms don’t keep boxers around after a fight that bad,” he said. “It’s not worth sinking any more resources into the person who went down in round one to someone ranked beneath them.”
Natalia glared at him. “Maybe you would ditch someone like that, but my team wouldn’t,” she insisted. She tried to sound confident, but her voice wavered and betrayed her. The man in front of her looked at her with a pity she despised.
Trying to switch topics and regain some composure, she asked who he was. She recognized his face, but wasn’t sure from where. He introduced himself as Levius’s engineer, and it clicked into place that she’d seen him before at the regulation check. Normally she didn’t pay much attention to people besides her opponent, but it had struck her as a little odd that a boxer with a record like Levius’s only had one engineer.
Natalia wondered what would happen to her when she left the building. She balled her hands into fists, squeezing until her nails dug sharply into her own flesh. She refused to be back on the streets where she started.
Bill sat quietly, unsure what to do as he saw Natalia struggling to hold herself together.
“I read a bit about you in the paper,” he said. “The girl from the slums fighting to prevent others from having to grow up like she did. It’s admirable.”
“Doesn’t matter now,” she covered her eyes. “Why bother reminding me?”
“Getting ditched by your team is hard. It’s even harder when you don’t have others supporting you. But I never said it was career ending. You’re being demoted, not barred from the industry,” Bill reached back into his bag and pulled out a notepad and a worn down pencil. He scribbled down something, then placed it beside Natalia.
Natalia looked down at the paper, squinting at the messy handwriting.
“Is this an address?” She asked.
Bill nodded. “That’s where Levius trains, and where I work. While it’s not really my place as an engineer to invite someone to join, I don’t think Zack would turn you down.”
Natalia gripped the edges of the paper. “You really think I can still make it in mechanical boxing?”
Bill shrugged. “I’m no good at judging fighters. But you have a strong record, even with those crap parts,” he gestured to her arms. “Could be interesting to see how you fight with proper maintenance, and at least you’d get a roof over your head. Up to you.”
Natalia looked down at the paper, then back up to Bill. “Tell Levius I’m going to kick his ass in training tomorrow.”