4.20

Hunter, Jimena, Silas, and Freja made their way down to the slate. The energy down here was electrifying. It was frightening.

Hunter looked across the slate at their opponents, Loose Change. Tobias, the tiger was snarling at them. Tatsuta looked at them with a kind amusement. The other two were indifferent.

“Can the two teams please decide on who will fight first?” said the announcer.

“Who should go first?” asked Freja.

“I don’t want to go first,” said Silas.

“I dunno,” said Hunter.

“I will,” said Jimena.

“Are you sure?” asked Hunter.

“I don’t see why not. Joining this tournament was my idea, so I should go first.” Jimena approached the stage and watched as Tobias stepped toward the stage on the other side.

“Well folks, if the tournament so far has been any indication, then this fight should be just as exciting. The first match between Loose Change and Justice Punch. Can the fighters please ready themselves? Ready?” Tobias bent his knees and lifted his arms. Jimena stood, still and cool. “Go!”

Jimena stood completely still and waited for Tobias to make the first move. She wouldn’t let her team know, but she was nervous. She had been in plenty of scraps as Quagmire before back in Athena City, but this place had spectators. It had people who were dedicated to fighting. If she lost, people would see it.

Luckily, Jimena snapped her attention back to the present moment just in time. Tobias was upon her. His arms were raised, and he had charged her.

Jimena side-stepped out of the way just in time. Tobias stumbled a little, surprised that his opponent had dodged his attack. Pivoting on the spot, he slashed forward with his claws, catching Jimena’s back. Jimena’s costume held, but she could feel the bleeding wounds underneath. It burned.

“Hehe, I landed the first hit. You sure you want to be here?” Tobias chuckled. His voice had a grating edginess to it, almost like it was something he put on.

“Duh.” Jimena did a hand flip to get some distance between herself and Tobias. She readied one of her slime balls and waited for Tobias to charge her again.

Tobias readied himself for another charge and rushed himself at Jimena. He failed to notice that Jimena had readied her attack.

Jimena shot the slime ball and it landed with a wet whack, covering his eyes. Tobias staggered to a stop and growled. He wiped the gunk from his eyes.

“That was a cheap shot,” he snarled.

“You should’ve seen that attack coming. I wasn’t secretive about it.” Jimena readied another slime ball and waited for Tobias to rush her again. She was toying with him.

Tobias charged again but this time he remained focused on what Jimena was doing. He watched her punch her arm forward and send the slime ball his way. He flashed to the side, dodging the attack. He left an after image of where he was, which dispersed from the impact of the slime ball.

With the gap closed, Tobias swung his arm up from below, his claws out. He took a swipe at Jimena’s stomach. She leapt back just in time to lessen the impact of the attack. She felt the blood pool beneath.

“I haven’t even begun using my powers against you. I suggest you take this fight seriously if you don’t want to see me use everything I’ve got. You’ll regret it if I use it all.”

“You’re so full of it, I know why your eyes are brown now.” Jimena couldn’t help herself. It was something out of character for her to say, but there was just something about this Tobias that got under her skin.

“You’re gonna regret saying that.” Tobias roared. It echoed through the stadium and for a moment, the crowd was silent.

Tobias’s face changed to an expression of deep concentration. Jimena readied a huge slime ball on her arm in anticipation.

“This is only a part of what I can do.” Tobias looked up and locked eyes with Jimena. She watched as there was now three of him, moving in perfect unison. “The problem for you is, there are no fake ones among us. We can all hurt you.”

The three tigers all laughed at Jimena. The laugh was so deep and exaggerated that his shoulders bounced as he did so.

“That just gives me more targets to shoot.” Jimena wasn’t as confident as she sounded.

The three tigers rushed at Jimena. Only a few feet out, the tigers split. One to her left, one to her right and the other head on. Jimena shot her slime ball at the one in front and turned herself into her slime form just as the claws of the other two slashed down at her.

The two tigers passed through Jimena and now stood on opposite sides of where they started. They both whirled around and looked at Jimena, stunned. She had shifted back to her normal form, and she looked her body over.

“I didn’t expect that. That was pretty cool,” said Tobias.

“Thanks. Now are we fighting or what?” asked Jimena. She forced the nerves deep down into her stomach. She had no idea how she was going to overcome three opponents.

“Sure, but just know, I offered for you to forfeit before. You’re going to regret that you didn’t.”

The three tigers rushed Jimena once again, and the four were locked in an intense melee. Jimena shifted between her slime and normal form, dodging as many attacks as she could. She punched, kicked, and shot slime as fast as she could, but the Tobias’ were quickly wearing her down with their claw attacks.

“This is a little something I’ve been working on.” Jimena shifted back into her slime form and grew in size. She engulfed the three tigers who were all caught by surprise.

“Did you know she could do that?” Silas asked Hunter.

“Nope. That’s definitely something new.”

The three tigers desperately tried to escape the slime. But something seemed to be holding them in place, like the very slime itself had a grip on them.

Within a few minutes, the tigers passed out. Two disappeared and the last one was shot out of the slime. Jimena reverted back to her normal form and smiled, panting. It had taken a lot of her energy to do that. She didn’t know who was going to pass out first, her or Tobias.

The announcer counted to ten and just as he reached ten, Jimena collapsed into the arms of Hunter and Silas. She was sound asleep.