3.3 A Piece of A

Everyone called her A. Mostly ‘cuz of her most obvious feature, but A liked to think it also stood for attack. She was the baddest bitch in all of Gold-Digger’s. And damn if this honky bastard wasn’t going to make her show it.

She took him for an easy mark when she first saw him. He seemed like the type of cat who would either cave and pay a little for the show or go down with little fight. Instead the pot-bellied redneck wanted to scrap and she was more than willing to oblige.

A knew this shit. She had been in scrapes and brawls since she was a kid. Growing up on the streets she learned how to fight at the same time she was learning to make money from her other assets. Now she could hold her own with the best of them. Nobody could match her with her ‘chuks or the rest of her arsenal, and she fought as dirty as the minds of Gold-Digger’s clientele.

She whipped the nunchuks around and straight at white-boy’s head. He threw his already injured arm up. A sharp crack radiated through the room as the bone shattered in a second place. White-boy shrugged off the injury without even a wince. He pushed forward and drove a shoulder straight in to her gut.

A stumbled back at the blow. She struggled to keep her footing and by the time she regained it, the honky had retrieved an aluminum baseball bat from the floor beside him.

With the bat in hand, she recognized him. They called him The Everyman. He protected a small district a couple blocks north of here. She knew he was a meta, knew he was tough, but now she planned to find out just how tough.

She twisted and threw a blow out with the nunchuks. They struck against Everyman’s bat as he parried. At the same time, A reached for her bracelet and yanked another charm free. Seconds later, she held a full sized scimitar in her other hand.

Everyman swung his weapon. A deflected it away with a stroke of the blade, and then brought the nunchaku up and around the bat’s base. The chain wrapped around the bat, and she yanked back to pull it away from her foe. Everyman’s hands slipped away, but as they did he flipped an almost invisible switch on the handle of the bat.

Electricity raced out the bat, through the nunchuks, and straight in to A. She shook and shuttered as time seemed to stop. After an interminable five seconds the bat clattered to the floor and A dropped down to one knee beside it.

She started to pull herself up, but Everyman’s boot caught her across the right side of the face. She dropped down on her hands and knees. He landed another foot to her gut. A dropped to the floor as she gasped for breath.

Everyman reached down and yanked her up by the red extensions weaved in to her hair. “Bitch, next time you pick a fight make sure it’s one you can win.” He shoved her face back in the floor and A could only hear his feet as he walked away.

Everything went black.

“A! A, wake up!” She opened her eyes. Another woman stood over her in a camouflage tank top and matching cap. Her reddish brown hair was pulled back in to a ponytail. Her large chest stretched the shirt to its limits as the woman stroked a stray hair out of A’s face.

“T?”

“Yeah it’s me, baby girl. What did you go and do to yourself?”

A looked around. They were backstage at Gold-Digger’s. She realized she was on the dressing room couch as a pair of half naked women walked past. She rubbed her aching cheek as she sat upright.

“I picked a fight I wasn’t ready for. That’s all. Next time though I’ll make sure the bastard burns for hurting me.”

T leaned in and kissed her. A sighed as T’s hands ran down her body. The pain seemed to melt away from her as T pulled back and gave her a smile.

“Don’t you worry,” T said. “The bastard will get his. All of the misogynistic bastards in this city will.” A couldn’t help but smile back.