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Cid’s bar was dull, as it normally was. The only regulars that were there everyday was a weequay and a momaw, the batch whenever they returned from Cid’s so called ‘missions’, and the rare irregulars that would drop by for either a drink or to freelance Cid’s various jobs. The juke box and its mellow tunes was always a big improvement to the overall atmosphere. While the rest of the batch was on a mission, Wrecker and Omega were left behind. The mission Cid had given them was low risk, low reward. And so there wasn’t a need to bring the whole crew along.
“I’m bored.” Wrecker steadied a mop against the bar counter and slumped down on a stool next to Omega.
Omega had her head resting on the bar while idly tracing a sponge in circles over the bar’s surface. “I wish we were on that mission right now. It would be less boring than here.”
“Why did Tech need to go too?” Wrecker crossed his arms, feeling that it was unfair, considering the nature of the mission Cid sent them on; the marauder had become a postal shuttle for parcels.
Omega lazily shrugged. “I guess they needed the extra help.”
“Well, we could’ve helped too.” Wrecker huffed with bored exasperation.
The two of them sat in utter boredom at the bar. The establishment was clean. Well, mostly. Neither of them liked being reduced to janitors, but Cid wasn’t supervising them that closely anyhow. They could afford to slack off a bit while Cid was busy in her office. Or perhaps, she was just lazying around like the both of them. The boredom had dulled their minds enough not to wonder or care.
A pair of humanoids walked out of Cid’s office, a nikto and a houk. The nikto was grinning at the satisfying weight and clink of credits chips repeatedly being tossed and caught in the palm of his hand.
“Say, “ The houk turned his buddy towards the bar counter. “I could take on that guy.”
The nikto’s eyes were glued to the credit chips in his hand, counting them. “Heh! We’ll bet with them like usual.”
“If I win, they give me twenty credits.” The houk sauntered over to the bar.
The large brute houk walked up and tapped Wrecker’s shoulder, which got the clone to look over his shoulder. “Hey pal, wanna test your mettle against me?”
Wrecker shook his head. “No, I don’t wanna. Not looking for trouble.”
Omega swiveled her stool around with a crooked look of wariness towards the strangers.
The nikto came up and placed a couple of credit chips on the counter while keeping his hand over it. “Twenty credits more if you win. If you lose, you give us twenty credits.”
“We can’t fight in Cid’s bar.” Omega said.
The houk smirked. “Doesn’t have to be a fight. Could be an arm wrestle.”
Omega held her chin in thought as she swiveled her stool to look at the credits on the counter. After a couple seconds, she swiveled to face the humanoids. “Challenge accepted, for thirty credits.”
“Thirty credits then.” The nikto responded.
“Huh?” Wrecker looked at Omega.
Omega gave a couple pats of encouragement to Wrecker’s armplate. “You’ll win an easy thirty credits.”
“C’mon pal.” The houk gestured for them to come over to the table he chose at a glance.
Wrecker moved himself from the barstool and to the small table opposite of the houk who was already prepped with an elbow on the table. The match commenced as soon as Wrecker took the houk’s hand. Despite being caught off guard by that, Wrecker slowly inched their hands back to the midline of the table where they initially began. Cid’s two regulars turned their attention to Wrecker and the houk, and now they also placed bets, but among themselves.
“Five credits the human wins.” The weequay nudged his friend with an elbow.
“I say the houk wins.” The momaw countered.
A dowutin strolled into the arcade, initially headed to Cid’s office, but the arm wrestling match caught her eye. The houk strained with groans of exertion while Wrecker was concentrating on the match. Slowly, the houk’s arm was giving way. And eventually, Wrecker had enough leeway to slam the houk’s fist onto the table. The houk grunted with a frown, rubbing his sore arm. The nikto behind him scowled.
“Thirty credits.” The nikto said venomously, placing the exact amount of credit chips on the table.
“That was the easiest thirty credits we won!” Wrecker scooped up the credit chips and handed them to Omega.
“I want a rematch.” The houk immediately said.
“How much are you betting?” Omega glanced up at the houk while she was counting the credits.
“Same as before.” The houk replied with a more gruff tone, disappointed in losing.
“Bring it on!” Wrecker placed his elbow back on the table.
The houk took Wrecker’s hand and immediately commenced the match. Wrecker was more prepared for the stranger’s tactic of wordlessly starting so suddenly, he held steady. Just as before, the houk’s fist was slammed down onto the table.
“That’s another thirty credits!” Wrecker pointed at the nikto.
The nikto’s frown deepened even further as he produced the thirty credits to place on the table. “Let’s cut our losses right now.”
Rubbing the soreness out of his arm, the houk left the table without a word and followed his buddy out of the arcade. But the dowutin who had been watching, took the place of the houk who had just left.
“I’ll have a go.” She placed her elbow on the table.
Wrecker had beaten the dowutin twice in a row. Somehow, that attracted more and more of the rough and tough types into the grungy arcade by word of mouth alone. With time, the arm wrestling matches Wrecker consistently won had turned into jostling matches. The arcade games and tables had been carefully relocated to make room for a ring that was drawn on the floor with a stick of chalky material. The liveliness of the crowd that now gathered in the arcade was enough to crack Cid out of her office.
“Whoa whoa whoa, what’s going on here? Break it up!” Cid pushed her way through the crowd to see Wrecker and another humanoid testing their strength against each other.
“Don’t worry.” Omega reassured, holding a backpack that was detached from Wrecker’s armour. It didn’t hold nearly as much as the other batch’s supply packs. Wrecker’s bucket could hold more, but he was currently wearing it. Most of its contents were detonators and cables, but there was still enough space to hold onto the credits Wrecker had won. “We’re winning credits, and there are ground rules to keep destruction to a minimum.”
Cid eyed the credits in the supply pack, then at the match that was going on. Wrecker shoved his opponent out of the boundary drawn ring and celebrated his victory, cheering with the crowd. “Fine.” Cid finally said. “But I get ninety percent of the cut. This is my establishment.”
“We’ll give you fifty.” Omega offered.
“Fine, fifty.” Cid said after a moment of consideration. “But if anything gets damaged, you owe me more than fifty percent.”
“Deal.” Omega agreed, turning back to the match.
“Yeah!” Wrecker was loud and lively, raising both fists high into the air, clearly enjoying the challenges of the ring.
And so far, he was on a winning streak. This was far more entertaining than cleaning the establishment, or sitting around and twiddling their thumbs until the rest of the batch returned. And return they did. Not to the usual relaxing jukebox background tunes, but to a crowd placing bets. Hunter had noticed something was different far before he, Tech, and Echo entered the basement arcade. He picked up on the noise at a distance that would normally be out of earshot for everyone else. The trio descended down the entryway stairs.
“What’s going on?” Echo asked once the crowd was in view.
Tech adjusted his goggles, helmet remaining on his head, noting that the crowd wasn’t packed around the dejarik table. “It appears to be a physical altercation.”
Hunter was the first to approach and squeeze through the crowd to get a better view of what was happening. Wrecker was now jostling with a new opponent, and he pushed his opponent out of the ring, who landed on their rear near Hunter’s feet.
“Oh, Hunter!” Wrecker took notice of the sergeant standing there with arms crossed.
“What’s happening here?” Hunter demanded to know.
“You’re back!” Omega lugged the supply pack of credit chips with her as she rounded the ring towards Hunter. “We started a jostling competition, and we won a few extra credits while you were away.”
Hunter shot a look of disapproval at Wrecker. “What did I say about laying low?”
Wrecker sheepishly rubbed the back of his helmet. “I thought this might be helpful.” He asked Omega, “How many credits did we win?”
Omega dug into the supply pack, doing a quick count of the credits earned. “Nine hundred credits. But Cid will get half of it.”
Hunter’s dissatisfaction and disapproval was apparent on his face. The amount of credits versus the attention they were drawing didn’t seem to be worth it. But credits were credits, and they desperately needed it.
“Why the sour look? You’re getting half, if muscles here doesn’t break anything.” Cid was still among the crowd, entertained enough to stick around and watch.
“Four fifty additional credits will be a decent amount for extra supplies and rations, or minor ship components.” Tech remarked.
“Hunter, get in here!” In his excitement, Wrecker reached to grab Hunter’s arm and tug him into the ring. But one look from the sergeant was all it took to deter Wrecker from dragging him in.
“Echo!” Wrecker called out.
“Oh no no no.” Echo immediately weaved out of the crowd.
“Tech, get over here!”
“Why-” Tech was immediately yanked into the ring by Wrecker. Tech caught his balance after stumbling.
“Ha! Look at that guy!” One of the spectators pointed at Tech.
“Wrecker, I did not agree to this match. Furthermore, I do not know the rules, if there are any.” Tech said with little inflection and a tone exasperation.
“The rules are simple. You win by pushing your opponent out of the ring. No striking, but you can grapple.” Omega explained.
Wrecker smacked his fist into his own palm, chortling gleefully.
Tech voiced his objection. “This is hardly a fair fight. I suggest-” The match had seemingly already started. Tech quickly dodged away from Wrecker’s lunge. “That opponents are matched based on weight specifications.”
Wrecker pivoted around to face Tech. “Who cares? The crowd’s having fun, I’m having fun, let’s jostle!”
The crowd started booing within a couple minutes into the match, Tech resorted to dodging every one of Wrecker’s attempts to grab him. His sole tactic was to eventually tire Wrecker. However, Wrecker was a soldier, and that would take quite a while.
“Tech, you have to push Wrecker out of the ring!” Omega shouted above the jeers of the crowd.
Wrecker had found a grip on Tech’s armoured backpack. Tech quickly detached his supply pack from his armour. “That is easier said than done. I am busy trying to stay alive.”
Wrecker tossed Tech’s supply pack outside the ring, right by the edge of the line. “You’re making the crowd unhappy.”
Tech sighed. “Fine.”
Tech charged at Wrecker, looking for a quick conclusion to the match, however undignified it may be. Despite Tech being a featherweight in comparison, Wrecker braced himself firmly on the floor. The brute of the two barely budged when Tech failed to tackle him down. Wrecker took the opportunity to lift Tech off the ground and up over his head.
“Yeeaaaaaahh!” Wrecker exclaimed. He was having multitudes more fun than Tech for that matter.
Tech did nothing, having resigned to his fate long before. The crowd’s boos returned to cheers, excited to see a proper match return again. Wrecker didn’t use his fullest strength to slam Tech onto the floor, the aftermath would have been far more devastating otherwise. Tech landed on the floor with a heavy thud. Although the armour and Tech himself could withstand worse, the impact was harsher than he would have preferred. Without delay he rolled away from the underside of Wrecker’s incoming boot and picked himself up. Tech made another attempt to tackle Wrecker down, ramming into the brute clone’s side. Just as before, Wrecker didn’t budge. He placed both hands on Tech’s shoulders and pushed him towards the edge of the ring. The treads of Tech’s boots slid outside the marked ring, further smearing the smudged linework. Wrecker gave a light shove and celebrated his victory with the crowd, pumping his fists into the air.
Cid clapped her hands together a couple of times to tell the crowd, “Alright, that’s enough excitement for today. Wrap it up folks.” She started shooing the crowd away. “Scram.”
“Awe, the fun’s over.” Wrecker’s shoulders sagged.
Some of the spectators left immediately afterwards, most were reluctant to leave. Soon it was just two of Cid’s regulars and only a few spectators who wanted to linger around. Hunter, Echo, and Tech parked themselves at the bar counter. Tech had taken off his helmet and placed it on the bar counter.
“I’m gonna collect my percentage of the cut now.” Cid held out her claw to Omega.
Omega dug into the backpack and placed the credits into Cid’s hands. It took Omega a few handfuls to transfer the right amount of credits.
Cid pocketed the credits. “Now, I want you boys to put everything back where it was. And clean up that circle you drew on the floor.” She said as she pointed to each and every batch member, and then retreated to her office.
Quietness had found its way into the arcade once more, giving the space a breather from the excitement of the crowd that was here not long ago. No one had started the cleanup and furniture rearrangements yet.
But the weequay with his umteenth drink in hand pointed at Omega. “Hey kid, one hundred credits to fight the big guy.” He slurred.
“Me?” Omega pointed to herself, then looked at Wrecker. “I can’t win.”
“One hundred credits?” Wrecker grabbed his helmet from the bar counter and placed it on, scurrying over to the circular ring that was now rather faded and smudged. “We can’t pass that up!”
“Wrecker.” Hunter said, more than tired by witnessing the unofficial jostling event and the menial mission from much earlier.
“But it is one hundred credits…” Omega made her way into the barely visible ring.
“Money motivates everything.” Echo took a small sip of his beverage.
“Unfortunately, it would seem so.” Tech simply said.
“C’mon Omega! You and me, right here right now.” Wrecker pounded his fist into the palm of his hand.
Omega shrugged. “Well, here I go.”
Being about half Wrecker’s size, and even less in weight, Omega still put all of her effort behind her attempt to charge Wrecker. The smallest of the batch was surprised that she could even make Wrecker budge. But she caught on quickly that he was feigning. Placing both his hands on her shoulders, Wrecker dramatically pretended to strain with exertion as he attempted to push her back. He still provided resistance, Omega needed a good chunk of her strength to push Wrecker backward.
Wrecker fell outside of bounds onto his rear. “I want a rematch.” He said with play huffing and panting.
Omega raised a brow. Wrecker picked himself up and re-entered the ring. Omega accepted a rematch, and Wrecker let her win once again. Somewhere along the way, the rules of the ring no longer applied to Omega. Punching Wrecker’s helmet and watching him fling back, or dramatically yelp when she gently twisted his wrist to get unpinned brought chuckles and a smile to her face.
Cid came out of her office to check up on the progress of rearranging her arcade back into place. “You still haven’t moved everything back into place? Enough dilly dallying, this place isn’t going to organize itself back together.” Her scaly lips frowned.
Hunter leaned his back against the bar counter, cup in one hand. “We’ll move things back. Just let the kid have fun.”
That earned a disgruntled ‘hmph’ from Cid before she headed back to her office. The rest of the spectators that lingered around after the jostling matches finally decided to head out. The noise of Cid’s bar had returned to what it was before. The quiet chatter of the momaw and weequay, the batch resting at the bar counter, and the jukebox playing idle tunes. But now with Wrecker letting Omega beat him up for the fun of it.