Chapter 136: Chloe Vs Vexa

"Chloe, wait..." Leo pushed himself up onto his elbows, wincing as every bruise on his body woke up at once. "You don’t have to do this for me."

"I’m not doing it for you," Chloe said, without taking her red eyes off Vexa. "I’m doing it because she hit you forty-one times."

’Isn’t that still for me...?’

Vexa was already rolling her shoulders in the middle of the mat, with her tail swishing behind her in slow excited arcs and her violet eyes shining.

"You counted?" she said, delighted.

"I counted... I have eyes after all."

Leo looked from one of them to the other, then sighed and dragged himself off the mat to sit against the wall with a cold pack pressed to his jaw.

’This is a bad idea,’ he thought, watching Chloe push her sleeves higher. ’This is a really bad idea, and neither of them is going to listen to me...’

"Rules," he said anyway. "Nobody bites, nobody breaks anything, and if somebody taps out, it’s over..."

"Got it!" Vexa chirped.

Chloe said nothing, and the red in her eyes only got deeper.

They faced each other across the mat, and Vexa’s grin slowly thinned out into something sharper.

’I’m going to win of course... Leo clearly likes strong women...’

She settled into her stance, light on her toes, hands loose and high with her tail curled low behind her for balance.

Chloe stood perfectly still with her arms hanging at her sides and the crimson glow in her eyes was so strong now that it tinted the mat at her feet.

’No stance,’ Vexa thought. ’Either she doesn’t know how to fight... or she doesn’t think she needs to.’

Then Chloe moved.

WHOOSH!

She crossed the mat in a single burst, so fast that the air cracked behind her, and her small fist was already driving straight at the center of Vexa’s chest.

Vexa twisted sideways at the very last instant, and the punch passed so close that the wind of it tore her ponytail out sideways and stung her cheek.

The fist kept going, straight into the heavy bag hanging behind her.

KA-BOOM!

The thick leather burst open from top to bottom, sand blasted across the room in a roaring spray, and the steel chain holding it snapped clean through and sent the empty bag flying into the far wall.

CLANG!

Vexa’s ears went flat against her skull.

’That would’ve broken my ribs,’ she thought, staring at the sand still raining down. ’All of them... in one punch.’

Then her grin came back wildly.

"Okay," she breathed. "Okay, little scary one... Let’s actually fight."

She came in fast and low.

SMACK!

A jab snapped Chloe’s head back.

SMACK! SMACK!

Two more caught her cheek and her jaw before she could even raise her arms, and then Vexa spun on her heel and drove a kick deep into Chloe’s ribs.

THWACK!

Chloe slid backward across the mat with her bare feet squeaking, and somehow she stayed standing.

She looked down at the spot where the kick had landed, as if she was mildly curious about it, and then she looked back up at Vexa and started walking forward again.

’She’s fast,’ Chloe thought. ’But she has to touch me to hurt me... and when she touches me, she’s close enough to grab.’

Vexa met her halfway with a flurry.

THWACK! THWACK! SMACK! THWACK!

Every strike landed clean on Chloe’s shoulders, her ribs and her stomach, a blur of fists and elbows and knees from a girl who’d been fighting since before she could fly.

Chloe took every single one of them without blinking, and on the fifth one, her hand shot out and closed around Vexa’s wrist.

GRIP!

Vexa’s eyes went wide.

Chloe pivoted, pulled and threw her with one arm, like she was tossing a pillow.

WHOOOSH!

Vexa flew across the room, flipped once in midair and hit the far wall feet-first, absorbing the impact with her knees bent and her tail snapping out for balance.

THUD!

She kicked off the wall in the same motion and came back across the room like a launched missile, with her knee aimed straight at Chloe’s face.

WHUMP!

Chloe crossed her arms in front of her and blocked it, and the impact drove her back two full meters across the mat in a long scraping skid.

She lowered her arms and looked at the red marks on them then she charged again, and this time Vexa stood her ground and met her head-on.

SMACK!

Their fists collided in the middle of the mat and the shock of it rang through the whole room like a struck bell.

WHOOSH!

Vexa’s arm went numb all the way to her shoulder, and Chloe’s feet skidded back a full step across the sand.

They swung again at the exact same moment, and both punches landed together, Vexa’s fist on Chloe’s cheek and Chloe’s fist on Vexa’s shoulder.

THWACK!

Both of them staggered back, and Vexa shook her arm out with a wince, her tail lashing behind her.

’Ow... ow, ow, ow,’ she thought, flexing her fingers. ’Okay, I am never trading punches with her again... What the hell...?’

Chloe touched her cheek, where the skin was already turning red, and looked up at Vexa with something close to respect.

"You’re strong," she said flatly.

"So are you!" Vexa said, landing light on her toes and bouncing in place. "But you’re slow off the start, and you leave yourself wide open, and you can’t see me... watch."

Her eyes flashed violet.

FLASH!

Three Vexas stood around Chloe in a wide triangle, glowing faintly and every one of them was grinning the same grin.

"Which one’s me?" they sang together.

Chloe turned toward the one on the left and swung.

WHOOSH!

Her fist tore straight through glowing smoke, and the real Vexa came out of the right side and slammed a spinning heel kick into the side of her head.

CRACK!

Chloe hit the mat on her shoulder and rolled twice before she stopped.

Vexa’s copies flickered out of existence, and Vexa stood over her, breathing a little harder now.

"That one was real," she said. "You should stay down for a second..."

Chloe pushed herself up onto one knee.

There was a thin line of blood at the corner of her mouth, and she touched it with the tip of her finger, then looked at the red smear on her fingertip for a long moment.

She licked it off.

The glow in her eyes flared so bright that Vexa took a step back without meaning to.

’Okay,’ Vexa thought, and her tail bristled. ’That was creepy... That was really, really creepy...’

Chloe stood up.

"Again..." she said.

FLASH!

Three Vexas surrounded her again, closer this time, and every one of them was moving.

Chloe closed her eyes.

She tipped her head back slightly and breathed in through her nose... the way she breathed against Leo’s neck every night when she was hungry as the three Vexas circled closer and closer around her.

’Sweat,’ Chloe thought. ’Sweet fruit soap... and something warm, like sun on metal... and only one of them smells like anything at all.’

Her eyes snapped open.

"Cat..." she said.

She spun around and lunged at the Vexa behind her, the one she hadn’t even looked at and the other two copies vanished like popped bubbles.

WHOOSH!

The real Vexa was already mid-kick, and she had no way to stop it.

Chloe caught her ankle out of the air with both hands.

GRIP!

"Wait, wait...!"

Chloe swung her around in a full circle and slammed her down onto the mat on her back.

WHAM!

The air burst out of Vexa’s lungs in a single sharp cough, and before she could breathe in again, Chloe was already dropping on top of her with a fist drawn back.

Vexa’s tail whipped out sideways, hooked around the leg of the weight rack beside them and yanked.

WHIP!

Her whole body slid sideways out from under Chloe, and Chloe’s fist came down on empty mat instead.

KRAK!

The padding split open under her knuckles, and the floor plate underneath it cracked like ice.

Vexa rolled back onto her feet, gasping, with one hand pressed to her chest.

’She found me,’ she thought, staring at Chloe across the mat. ’With her eyes closed... she smelled me out. Nobody has ever found me like that...’

And instead of fear, her heart started pounding with pure joy.

"You’re amazing," she said, laughing breathlessly. "You’re actually amazing... I haven’t had to go this far on foot since I was fourteen."

Her eyes flashed.

FLASH! FLASH!

Five Vexas burst out across the mat in a wide ring around Chloe, and this time they kept moving, weaving and crisscrossing and darting past each other in a glowing violet whirlwind, so fast that the air in the room began to swirl.

Chloe closed her eyes again and breathed in.

The whirlwind had stirred Vexa’s scent through the whole room, and now it was everywhere at once, in front of her and behind her and on every side.

’Everywhere,’ Chloe thought, frowning. ’She’s everywhere...’

THWACK!

A fist caught her in the back.

THWACK! THWACK!

Two kicks hit her ribs from opposite sides, and before she could turn, an elbow cracked into her jaw.

CRACK!

The real Vexa was striking from inside the whirlwind of copies, hitting her and vanishing and hitting her again, never staying in one place for more than a heartbeat.

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

Chloe staggered for the first time, her feet sliding on the sand scattered across the mat, and her head dropped forward.

’Too many,’ she thought, while the blows kept coming. ’I can’t find the right one... so I’ll hit all of them.’

She dropped low, planted both feet and drove her fist straight down into the floor with every bit of strength in her small body.

KRA-BOOOOOOM!

The whole training room jumped.

The mat tore open in a spiderweb of splits, the floor plate underneath it caved into a fist-shaped crater, and a shockwave rolled out across the room in a perfect ring that swept every single Vexa off her feet.

Four of them burst apart into violet sparks and vanished, and the fifth one hit the mat hard and skidded through the sand.

Chloe was on her before she stopped sliding.

WHOOSH!

She landed on top of Vexa, pinned both of her wrists to the mat and leaned down until her lips were a centimeter from Vexa’s throat, with her sharp little fangs bared and gleaming in the light.

But in the same instant, Vexa’s knee had come up hard, and it was pressed right under Chloe’s ribs, coiled and ready, with all the strength of a racer’s legs behind it.

Both of them froze.

For a long silent moment, the only sounds in the room were their ragged breathing and the soft hiss of sand still trickling out of the torn bag on the floor.

"I win..." Chloe said quietly.

"One push and you’re going through the ceiling..." Vexa said, panting.

"My teeth are on your neck..."

"Leo said no biting...!"

"Leo said that," Chloe said. "I didn’t."

"Draw!" Leo shouted, scrambling up off the wall so fast that his cold pack went flying. "It’s a draw! Nobody bites anybody, nobody launches anybody into the ceiling, both of you let go right now!"

For a long second, neither of them moved then Vexa started laughing.

It started as a breathless little giggle under Chloe’s hands and grew into a big delighted laugh that shook her whole body, and her tail started thumping happily against the mat.

"That was incredible!" she gasped. "You smelled me out! You punched the floor so hard you broke my Afterimage! Do you know how many fighters have tried to beat that and couldn’t?"

Chloe stared down at her, and the red in her eyes slowly began to fade back to green.

"...You’re not mad?" She asked.

"Mad? I’m so happy!" Vexa twisted one hand free, grabbed Chloe’s and shook it hard. "Spar with me again! Tomorrow! Every day!"

Chloe looked down at the hand shaking hers, then let go of Vexa’s other wrist and sat back on her heels, thinking about it very seriously.

"...You’re okay," she decided at last. "For a cat."

Then she got up, walked straight across the room and sat down in Leo’s lap, wrapping both arms tightly around his neck and glaring at Vexa over his shoulder.

"Mine..." she said.

"I know, I know!" Vexa laughed, still sprawled on her back in the ruined mat. "He’s yours!"

’And mine too... she hits like a spaceship, the fuck...’

HISS!

The door slid open, and the whole crew piled into the doorway at once, with Harper in front holding a wrench over her head and Camila, Elena, Aoi and Jin-Ah crammed in behind her.

"What exploded?!" Harper yelled. "We felt that all the way down in the hangar!"

They all stopped and stared at the sand everywhere, the split heavy bag, the crater in the floor, Vexa lying flat on her back laughing, and Chloe curled up on Leo’s lap, looking extremely satisfied.

"...What happened in here...?" Aoi asked faintly.

"Training," Chloe said.

Vexa sat up, still grinning from ear to ear, and pointed at Leo.

"Oh, and Leo? Tomorrow, we’re going to see Brann." Her eyes swept over the crater in her floor, and she laughed again. "You’re getting stronger... and now your ship needs fixing too and apparently, so does my floor."