Fenris Perrywinkle: The Great Galactic Duel
Chapter 7: Flying Fists amid the Stars

Jennifer narrows her eyes and looks Amanda up and down. “So who is she anyway? Some tramp you impressed with your new alien powers?”

Amanda steps out from behind me and approaches the Deepdarc champion with as much confidence as she can muster. She extends her hand in friendship. “My name is Dr. Amanda Vincent. I’m very pleased to meet you, although please know that I had no idea Fenris had a fiancée until just now. Yes, he and I have become close in recent days, but I would not have allowed that to happen if I had all the relevant information.”

Jennifer looks at Amanda’s outstretched hand, then locks eyes with her. “What? Do you think we’re going to be friends now or something?” She bats the brunette’s hand away.

Amanda nods, looks down and takes several steps to the side. “I understand and do not begrudge you your feelings in this matter.”

Wait, did she just... kind of toss me under the bus? She knew my memories had been affected. She could have mentioned that.

Jennifer strides up to me and gets in my face. “Well? What do you have to say for yourself? I mean, I get it – you saw me get sucked into an alien space craft. You probably thought I was dead or something, but you could have at least mentioned me to your new girl!” She gives me an alien powered shove and I stumble back a few steps. “Did I really mean that little to you?”

I look to Amanda to volunteer the whole memories thing, but all I get in response is a glare.

Jennifer goes to shove me again, but I catch her hands and hold them. She’s strong. Really strong. “Jenn, I know how this looks. And I know what I’m about to tell you will sound like I’m just making crap up...”

She wrenches her hands free from mine.

“...but after you were captured, I was captured by the people of Everbright. The Everbright craft crashed and I was injured. I woke up in a prison and had no memories of my former life. Nothing. Not even of you.”

“Pretty convenient story, buddy! Kind of sounds like something a cheater would say when he gets caught red-handed!” She launches a power slap that connects with my cheek. The impact of the blow spins me around several times before my butt meets the earth below.

Amanda finally comes to my rescue. “His story is true. I was his primary care giver in prison – that’s how we know each other. I can confirm that his memories were affected.”

Jennifer whirls around, her eyes glowing with alien energy. “You don’t get to speak! I should disintegrate you right here, right now!”

“Don’t touch her!” I react. In retrospect, I really shouldn’t have, but when I saw my Amanda in apparent danger, I just... reacted. My hand replaces Jennifer’s ankle and the next thing I know, I’ve tossed her a hundred feet in the opposite direction.

She jumps to her feet after skidding to a stop, her Deepdarc uniform now covered in dirt. “Well, I guess that confirms it then. Screw you, Fenris Perrywinkle! Screw you and your little tramp, too! I’m going to tear your arms off during our duel. First your arms... and then your legs. All three of them!”

Jennifer looks to the sky and rockets upward into the clouds. Amanda runs into my arms as I stand. Her body quivers against mine as I hold her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her like this before. “Amanda? Are you alright?”

Tears begin streaming down her cheeks as she buries her head in my chest. “Did you really not know? Don’t lie to me. I deserve the truth! She’s horrible! How did you ever love a woman like that?”

I gently stroke the back of her head and consider her words. From what I could now remember, Jenn had always had kind of a fiery temper, but I couldn’t ever remember her like this. “No, I promise I didn’t remember until just now. And I dunno, I don’t remember her ever being so vicious. Maybe the Deepdarc power infusion affected her emotions? I dunno.”

Amanda pulls away and wipes her nose. She takes several deep breaths and manages to bridle her emotions. “Well, now we know what you’re going up against. Come on, we’ve got to keep practising or she really will...” Her emotions flare up a little again and she takes a moment before continuing. “...will kill you in a couple of hours.” I’m not sure if she completely missed the fact that I just said ‘I dunno’ like twice in three seconds, or if she was just too upset to scold me right now.

For the next hour or so, I blast every boulder in a quarter mile to dust. We test my strength and replace that I can lift almost a thousand pounds over my head. I’m fast too. Not comic book fast, but fast enough to probably keep up with a car on the highway while running. In the air, I’m even faster. Like, ‘jet plane’ fast. This would all be super cool if not for the fact that someone was going to die later today – and that someone was either going to be me, or a woman that I once loved.

The afternoon comes to an end and Little Green again appears over us. Benson bobbles beside him as they look down on us from within the fuzzy white room in the cloaked ship. “Champion Fenris, the appointed time is upon us. You have made remarkable progress in the last few earth hours. Benson is very enthusiastic about your chances against the Deepdarc champion!”

I stare at the two aliens floating above me. There’s something I have to ask. “Did you know?”

Little Green looks puzzled. “I know many, many things, Champion Fenris. To which allocation of knowledge are you referencing?”

“The Deepdarc Champion, she’s my former fiancée, Jennifer. Did you know that fact?”

Little Green and Bubbles Benson make some alien screeching sounds back and forth. “You were to join the Jennifer woman in a life partnership?”

I nod. Amanda’s face clouds over.

More alien screeching. “We will notify the galactic facilitators at once. They will be most pleased to know of this additional information!”

“Most pleased?” Amanda asks.

Little Green nods enthusiastically. “The heightened affections of the duelers will make for a most compelling display!”

I cover my face with my hands. I guess they didn’t know, but now that they do, they’re going to use it as a hook to sell more tickets to my execution. That’s great. That’s just great.

“You should be ashamed of yourselves!” Amanda screams. “This whole thing is shameful! Shame on you, the bubble thing and your civilizations! Shame on everything and everyone!”

I pull Amanda close. She throws her arms around my neck and starts to sob. It’s so strange to see her acting like a normal woman instead of a professional caregiver. It makes me feel like I need to protect her instead of the other way around.

Benson whirls around in a little tornado. Little Green nods. “Has something upset you, follower of Fenris? Do you require us to...?”

I shake my head and wave my hand to signal for silence. Nothing they could say would make her feel better right now anyway.

Little Green gives a little bow. “Then come aboard. The future of our people is in your hands now, Champion Fenris.”

I fly Amanda and me up into the cloaked ship and the wall closes behind us. The wall on the opposite of the fuzzy white room slides open to reveal the space craft’s command deck. A dozen other little green men float about the bridge maintaining the ship’s function.

Little Green motions for us to sit against the wall. A chair forms as I do so – I keep Amanda on my lap and hold her close. She’s begun to tremble again.

She sits up a little and looks into my eyes as the ship speeds up and out of earth’s atmosphere. “We just got together. I don’t want to lose you after just getting together. This isn’t fair.”

I carefully give her a little squeeze. I have to be careful, because with my new abilities, I’m pretty sure I could crush her into paste if I wanted to. I don’t want to. I do however, lean forward and give her a little kiss.

She snuggles into me and rests her head on my shoulders. “This isn’t fair,” she whispers again.

Truth be told, although I am enjoying the moment, my mind is a million miles away. Memories of Jennifer have continuously been streaming into my brain – like I’m downloading a movie from the internet or something. We had known each other since college. I was an art major, and Jennifer was a model in the life drawing class. I remember how much I started to love those classes.

We dated throughout our senior year and had moved in together shortly thereafter. I was never able to replace employment with my degree and ended up working in a coffee shop. Jennifer had studied political science and had parlayed her way into working for the city. We often took walks in the woods together outside of the small town in Texas where we lived. Our life together had lasted several years. We finally decided to marry to please her extended family.

And then we were abducted.

Amanda runs a hand down the side of my face. “You’re thinking about her right now, aren’t you?”

I don’t see any reason to lie, so I nod my head.

“Were you two together for long?”

I nod again.

Amanda squirms on my lap and pulls away a little. “How together? Did you live together?”

I let out a little sign and nod again.

“Of course. Of course you did,” she says softly and slides off of my lap. A chair forms beside us and she sits. “Of course you did.”

I really have no idea what I’m supposed to do or say right now. What could I possibly say? Yes, I love you Amanda, and oh, by-the-way, apparently I still have strong feelings for the woman that I just remembered I was going to marry? I briefly entertain the fantasy of having them both in my life at the same time, but quickly discard that and feel ashamed that I could be so base in my thinking at a time like this.

“Behold, the stadium!” Little Green says and points to the main display monitor.

I’ve never been so glad to see the place where I’ll probably die. At least that was simple and easy to understand.

Amanda turns her head away from me, but I can still see her eyes moistening.

I look at my covered hands and flex them into fists. My veins shine with power in response. This was really happening.

Walking from Little Green’s ship to the massive space stadium took forever. At least, it felt like forever. In reality, I’m sure it only took a few minutes, but I swear it was the longest walk of my life.

The inside of the craft was bowl shaped, just like a good stadium should be. We don’t have anything like this on earth though. Our largest stadiums hold, what... twenty? Thirty thousand people? The sides of this craft must have stretched a mile high at least. There has to be close to a million aliens on this bird.

Looks like things are split pretty much straight down the middle too. To my right is a sea of oversized green heads. To my left, orange heads. I can only assume those are the people of Deepdarc. They all look very similar except for the color of their skin. I guess earth isn’t the only place where that causes all sorts of problems.

The wall of green people roar for joy as I step out into the open. There are colored streaks all over the floor – badges of dishonor documenting the terrible acts that have doubtless taken place in this space. The lingering scent of death still hangs in the air.

I see my Jennifer step out of a tunnel at the far end of the war floor. All the Orange beings on my left lose their minds and make it heard.

A cluster of circular orbs gather in the air above us. Somehow they transmit a live feed of Jennifer and I to enormous screens hung all around the area. Doubtless, those same images were being broadcast all over the known universe as well.

What I can only assume to be some sort of force field crackles to life in a dome shape over our heads. I guess it just wouldn’t do to be smacking each other into the blood-thirsty crowds.

Jennifer continues walking toward me, her eyes never leaving my own. She stops fifty meters away and crosses her arms. All the veins showing through on her alien bodysuit light up and she starts to glow. Well crap. I have no idea how to make my whole body do that.

Then I hear a familiar sound that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. A familiar drone buzzes into view.

“Citizens of Everbright. Citizens of Deepdarc. Welcome to... The Contest of Champions!”

I glare at the familiar face displayed on the tiny flying display. “I should have known.”

The warden ignores me and continues pandering to the crowd. “Tonight, two earth beings will battle for the glory of procreation! Tonight, we will see who will return to Alphamaximus!”

The crowd is deafening. I can seriously feel the sound waves in the air. This is insane. It suddenly dawns on me that these aliens haven’t ‘got any’ in a very long time. Everyone in this room must be horny as hell!

The warden continues. “And as a special treat, your champions are known to each other. Yes, they once were lovers!”

The crowd makes very loud ‘Oooing’ sounds. Oh yeah. Horny. Just like I thought.

“Tonight, a battle of champions! Tonight, a battle of lovers! Tomorrow, some of you will make babies!”

Again, the noise is deafening.

“And now, for the millions in attendance...”

The crowd roars some more.

“And the trillions watching at home...”

Somehow the crowd roars even louder.

“Males and females... let’s get ready to ruuuuummmmmm—”

A burst of energy suddenly explodes the warden’s drone and bits of plastic impact the force field all around us. All eyes go to Jennifer, who slowly lowers a glowing hand. The crowd goes silent for a moment as they process what she just did, then everyone begins shouting and clapping.

I give the ex-love of my life a smirk and a little nod. Was it my imagination, or did she return the smirk?

Loud music suddenly begins playing and Jennifer takes a fighting stance. I can’t help but think of an old episode of Star Trek involving Kirk and Spok. Damn that was a good show. Back when television was innocent, you know? I wish producers would try and—”

My thoughts are rudely interrupted by a burst of Jennifer’s energy and I’m sent flying backward into the force field. The people of Deepdarc are on their feet and going crazy in the stands.

“No fair. I wasn’t –”

I’m cut off again as my gorgeous opponent lifts me off the floor by the face and savagely hurls me into the force field at the opposite end of the war floor.

More cheering from the orange section.

I stand slightly dazed only to have the wind knocked out of me by a flurry of punches to my abdomen. I manage to look Jenn in the eye just before she cycle kicks me straight up into the top of the force dome.

After hitting the floor again, I catch a glimpse of the green section. Most of them are covering their eyes at this point.

I’m slightly dazed as she picks me up by the head again. She hisses in my ear, “Fight back, damn you!”

I’m blasted backward toward the wall by beams of alien energy emitting from her eyes. She pins me there with her beam attack and slowly begins advancing. The Deepdarc energy feels like it’s trying to strip away my flesh and burn a hole straight through me.

“Fight back, damn you, fight back!” Jennifer screams as she presses her attack.

Despite my guts turning to sludge at the moment, I still replace the idea of striking the former love of my life repugnant. I’m not the type of guy that hits women anyway, but this was Jennifer. A woman every bit as hot as Amanda, and someone that I had once planned to build a life with. No. I’m not going to lift a finger against her.

She ends her energy attack and I slump down against the low wall surrounding the stadium floor. My chest is on fire. Like... I literally think my chest is on fire. I’m pretty sure I smell burnt flesh at this point.

Jennifer stands over me with her hands on her hips, gazing off toward the people of Everbright. I know she’s deliberately leaving herself open at this point. I’m still not going for it. I strain to see what she’s looking at.

The green bobble-headed people of Everbright have lost all hope. Many are crying and holding each other. It’s as if I can feel the hope of their offspring evaporating right before my eyes.

Jennifer looks down at me, her eyes belaying the stern look on her face. “Will you not fight... for them? Look at them, Fenris. Look at them. All their hopes are riding on you winning against me – and you’re not even going to try?”

As if in answer, a beam of energy strikes the back of her head and Jenn is knocked over on top of me. She whirls around with a little growl to see the other object of my affection standing at the opposite end of the war floor.

Amanda stands firm holding a large alien canon in her arms. “Get away from him, you monster!”