Showtime
"Now you're going to see a real fight," Rakim told Klein on their way to their seats as they saw the next contestants on their way to take their place in the ring. But what did a real fight look like? The otter climbed up on the rope, using it like a...
The Sincerest Form
Boko's lair had been unlike anything that Klein had ever seen. They'd gone down through a trapdoor in the forest floor and climbed down a ladder into a large, open, cube-shaped room underground. Inside, there had been stairs on the floor, but also...
"The Thin Line, Part WW (and conclusion)
The moment passed, and he leaned back in his chair again, an old mephit once again. the pink colour from the spring-water steam had started to fade a bit. he sighed.
With The Flow
_'I hate this.'_ Afternoon. Cold skyscrapers hid the setting sun with their straight lines and right angles. Mano missed the reassuring ocean depths around her, the protective cocoon of her sub. The bus station was a river, the swarming masses,...
Rods and Cones
From then on, he'd decided, he'd do the opposite of everything that he'd always done. Since he hadn't liked the way that his life had been going because of the kind of person that he'd been until then, to do the opposite would have to be the right...
Pride Rock
"Hey, that's...!" Klein tilted his head at the otter's exclamation quizzically. "What? Cheating?" The therapist sighed, thinking back on his own taunts at the skunk earlier during the fight. "Fair enough," the shifter shook his head resignedly. "So...
Fear to Tread
Life had been strange for Klein after he had moved back to North America. His trip back on the boat with Bridges had gone swimmingly. He'd known what to expect, and he'd had to deal with none of the stress of having started out as a stowaway the way...
Old Wounds
It was raining when he found him. He'd been out looking for the skunk for what felt like far too long, considering how little time he knew he had. Possibly also considering how long it had been, depending on just what he meant by that. But the longer...
And Unjust Alike
The tournaments had never been Soma's favorite time of the year. It wasn't that the healer had anything against martial artists, but every time the tournaments came around, more of them would get hurt. The more of them got hurt, the more of them he...
Bellerophon
Diaz knew that the chimera, having trounced him soundly, and with there being only one fight left, wasn't going to have to leave the ring until the tournament would be over. He certainly didn't expect to see the monster get out of the ring where the...
Rising Tide
Time passed. Mano, working in her sub's lab and garden, came up with an empathy drug, the same one that would be used by Rakim and Ogun when they'd first meet. She hoped to do it as a tribute to Eli, to contribute to creating the more empathetic...
Only In Dreams
Eli rolled off Mano, lying back in bed to grab and light a cigarette from the nightstand. "That was good," she said simply, drawing in and blowing out smoke as she spoke. The poet had always had a minimalistic streak to her. "I hope you liked that."...