The morning comes. Along with the sun, my stress rises. I still don't have a clue what that girl's power is. Tommy came with me, so I thought to ask him for info, but he doesn't know a single thing.

I'll be fine though, I'm sure. I should just go all out from the start and absolutely fill the place with clones, to make sure that whatever she can do, she won't do to me. At least, not the correct me. I'm fairly confident that mind control-type powers won't work unless used directly on the main body, crowd control is technically MY ability, and I'm not nearly as weak as I used to be, so I should be able to hold my own fairly well.

Before all that, I have to eat. This seems simple enough, but there's a commotion in the lobby and I'm still not used to dealing with people, so I just decide to wait it out on the landing area of the staircase, between the ground and first floors. Sounds like whoever's getting mad is hollering in French, which I don't speak. I should learn that, it'd be useful. One more thing to add to the list.

I take a peek and see what I assume to be the angry people leaving the hotel, still very loudly complaining and annoying everyone else. Now that that's done, I can go get my breakfast.

It goes surprisingly well, with no one approaching what looks like a minor eating alone at six and a half in the morning in a place they don't seem able to afford breaking into, much less actually staying in. The eggs were overcooked and the bacon was soft in a strange way, but overall, it was a pretty nice meal.

The real thing starts at eight, so I have to get going. I grab my "gear" and take off on a light jog towards the Super Secret Arena ™. Really though, this place is kinda conspicuous and they rent it every single first day of every single month. That has to be strange to someone out there.

I come inside, give my pass to the guy in front and am directed off to the side, in a sort of common area for the fighters with 32 connected individual rooms. Only two other people are already there and I have no clue who they are, some hispanic-gangster-stereotype-looking guy and what seems like a classic "female official who is very aware of her good looks" cliche, in the flesh. She might actually just be an official, thinking about it.

Upon closer inspection, the rooms are numbered according to the numbers of the competitors. It's just printed sheets of paper with numbers on them, but oh well. They hold this every month, would you expect fancy displays?

In my room are a chair, a locker without a padlock and the door I just came in through. These are only for privacy and I get that, but they really didn't splurge on the accomodation, did they?

After making sure the door is closed, I change into a slightly more appropriate outfit, in the form of a tank-top, tight-fitting bike shorts, slightly used hiking shoes and fingerless gloves, all black. This, combined with the metal bat and the close shave I had done at a barber yesterday, changes my usual look entirely. A full-body mirror I hadn't yet noticed confirms this. In my opinion, the only thing that makes it so this isn't an intimidating look is that, while my body can no longer be mistaken for that of a 14-year-old girl, my height is still at barely 5'4 and my babyface is more prominent than ever.

I hope I can start growing facial hair soon or I'm seriously going to start developing a Napoleon complex.

I'm ready. My casual clothing goes in the duffel, which in turn goes in the locker, which is locked--with a code lock, because I might break any keys I'd need to keep otherwise.

I step out into the lobby area and see three other people have arrived in the few minutes I took to get changed. Taking a choice seat on one of the squeaky folding chairs graciously provided to me, I have to wait another thirty or so minutes before anything starts.

The main area starts filling up, though some decide to stay in the small "private rooms" off to the side. Only a few seconds after the last contestant comes in, the speakers set up in the corners of the room suddenly come to life.

"Good day to you, fighters! This tournament is about to begin. I hope you remember your numbers, because we'll be calling out the matches soon enough! Right then. I have to introduce the crowd to this whole thing, but I'll be back soon, I promise."

A few minutes later, the cheery classic announcer voice comes back on, calling for numbers 57 and 8. I see the girl with the rainbow-splotched bodysuit and the feathery eye-mask from yesterday, showing that same sweet smile she had yesterday, get up along with me. So we are first after all. Fine then, I'll give you a show.

A digital display complete with arrows shows us which direction we are supposed to leave the dramatic entrance... tunnel... thing and which side of the arena we're meant to position ourselves in.

We emerge to a crowd cheering and celebrating, glad that this thing is starting. I mean, I could hear them before, but it's really more impressive now. Good thing performance anxiety was never really a thing for me, otherwise I'd be paralyzed right now. Walking up the stairs and to our designated positions, we get ready for the round.

Oh, I'd also just like to say, a lot of work was done on this place overnight. Instead of multiple smaller platforms, this is one enormous gray-tiled raised floor. We're pretty close to the middle too. It'll take a lot more effort to ring-out someone here.

The referee, in a clear voice, yells out the rules to a now silent and attentive audience, but mostly to us two.

"This match has a time limit of twenty minutes. You can only win by KO, Ring-Out or Decision. Any and all degrees of force, including lethal, are authorized to make sure you win. Did you get that?"

"Yes." "..." with a nod, she confirms.

"Very well. Then, you may fight in three... two... one... BEGIN!"

I immediately start backpedaling while making an absolute swarm of clones. A human wave descends upon the anonymous girl, and she responds in kind by pointing both her arms at it and firing away with what I now discover is a hidden arsenal. So she's some kind of cyborg, and she fires real bullets. Luckily, these boys aren't so weak they won't stop the momentum of the projectiles, but they're still very much a threat.

I stop walking backwards and walk sideways instead, in a circle around her. These inbuilt weapons of hers fire quite fast, but if that's as fast as they go, I can still win. Unless she pulls out something else of course.

The trajectory of her aiming is gradually forced to shift as I keep swarming her, while very slowly accelerating my pace. She still hasn't missed a single one of them, but if I force her to track them instead of just blindly firing forward, maybe she'll mess up.

Also, I don't think she'll be able to keep this up as long as I can. She'll either run out of ammo or time, which means she needs to start being aggressive if she wants to get a decision victory, let alone a KO.

I circle her faster and faster, now at a jog around her. She's still not taking the bait, nor is she slowing down. Are those arm-cannons really all she's got? Well then, let's switch things up.

I break into a full sprint in the opposite direction, still swarming her with clones. Let's pick up the pace!

As I whirl in, edging in closer and closer, spinning faster and faster, she shifts her position. Here comes something else.

It's still only her arms, but now it's the whole thing instead of just the forearms. Two huge, very sharp-looking chainsaw blades whirr to life, and she charges in my direction, assuming correctly that I am indeed the real body.

But she made a mistake in doing that, because she no longer has the means to keep me at range. I run away at full speed, relying on the clones I leave behind to slow her down, keep track of her and hopefully damage her now that they can get in melee range.

The first dozen get slaughtered, but then one gets a slight moment of delay by blocking with his bat successfully. So starts the cycle of blocking the swift swipes of this enhanced human while running away. A few opportunities to hit her arise, and I take them, to no great effect. Still, at least she seems to be incapable of negating kinetic energy, especially since while they may be cloned, the bats are 100% genuine as long as the clone associated with them doesn't take damage.

This means she's got some serious weaponry and power, to cut through metal bats like nothing, move so fast, hit so hard... I might lose on the very first round.

I'm getting close to the edge, though, so if I can somehow manage to make her throw herself off, I can win. It won't be stylish, but it's better than losing.

Now that I have a plan, I need to put it into gear. But how?