Starbound: A Space Odyssey

John quickly gave his information to the female Floran and signed as a participant.

He and Lenny were just about to enter in the participants' room when he heard the female Floran say.

"By the way. My name is Peri. It was a pleasure to meet you, John Connor." She said.

"Oh..." Lenny, that was beside John, smirked, "You didn't messed up in your fist encounter with the opposite sex-"

"Shut up." John rolled his eyes.

Lenny scratched his chin and mischievously said, "I didn't knew you liked interracial relation-"

"Shut up!" John kicked Lenny right in his buttocks, "Can't you keep your mouth shut. Dammit!" The alcoholic beverage from before was taking the effects, John got more social interactive and outspoken.

Once they entered John's waiting room, Lenny found the couch and immediately sat down. He looked at the side and opened the freezer.

"Want some?" Lenny took a bottle of whiskey from the freezer and offered to John.

"No." John rejected it, "I'm going to fight. I need to keep my body at top notch performance." He walked toward the changing room, he must put a clothes that allowed him more freedom of movement than a jeans and a hoodie.

Lenny let out a hearty laugh, "You're right. You don't need now, but you'll need..."

John entered in the bathroom and took out his clothes.

He searched for clothing in the cabinets until he found some blank, blue and elastic sport shorts, he wore it.

Lenny was casually seating in the safe when he heard the door of the bathroom being opened, "Have you finished changing..." Then he stopped speaking and blankly stared at John.

"Is it bad?" John saw that Lenny was staring at him. He looked at the mirror and saw that it was okay. He was wearing nothing but the sport shorts.

"Damn..." Lenny clicked his tongue in displeasure, "I hadn't took a closer look before, but your body is really top notch isn't. Despite you looking very slim and weak when wearing normal clothes, you sure have a muscle body."

"Really?" John flexed up his arm and looked at the mirror, "Those guys at the line surely have a lot more muscles than me."

"Yes, they have. But their muscles aren't earned through a long period of exercise. Those are probably muscles that were grown using medices, drugs and going in intensive bodybuilding." Lenny stood up and circled around John, "Your body was carefully trained throughout years under a military training with the proper food diet and exercise. Your muscles aren't overgrown, they allow you to use a lot of strength while maintaining the elasticity and not increasing the weight by much, allowing you to make fast movements."

"Is this good?"

"Good?" Lenny took a long sip in the whiskey bottle, "It means that now you have a lot more chances to beat up those guys."

Lenny walked over the sofa and casually fell on it, "You know why I brought you here, especially today?"

"To test if I can control the power... Bullet Time...?"

"Yes. But I brought you today because it is the day of the amateurs to fight in the arena. There will be almost no profissional fighters today. Also since its amateurs' day, the fights won't be death battles. Yes, this place has death battles, fights whereas the opponents go all out to kill the other side. Some people make a living fighting that way, it's their profession."

Lenny finished drinking the whiskey and loudly burped, "In other words, you might have a easy time in the arena, or you might get beaten up to pulp." Lenny wildly laughed imagining this specific scene.

"Participant 0368..." John and Lenny looked over the speaker on top of the door that lead to the arena, "... John Connor, please go over to the stage 6."

"It's your time, lad." Lenny took another whiskey from the freezer, "Try not to be beaten so badly on the first round."

"Wait..." John looked at Lenny, "First... Round...?"

"Yep, I signed you to the Amateur Tournament. It is 10 rounds. One after another with only 10 minutes of rest between them."

"Fuck..." John cursed. He shook his head and threw away all the distraction thoughts away, [Since I'm already here... I'll treat this as just like another day of training.]

The metal door opened and John went through it.

Lenny stayed at the room, but he turned up the holovision of the room and changed it to the channel 6.

Holovisions are the type of televisions used by most of the people. They are little machines that is connected beneath a large glass screen and once it is turned on, it project the holographic image over the whole glass surface.

John walked through the narrow corridor for a while until he entered in a elevator.

"Please, place your hand over the panel to confirm your identity." A robotic voice came from the speakers of the metallic elevator.

John placed his hand over the black panel, beside the floor buttons.

"Identify confirmed. Have a nice fight, John Connor." The voice trailed off and soon the elevator started to descend until it stop by the floor 6.

John looked over an saw that the building had 10 underground floors and 2 floors at the surface of the Underworld Facility. Probably the main events, fights, happen at the surface, while other types of events happen at a more closed place.

After the elevator stopped, John walked out of it and was soon inside a very white room. There was only one sofa in the corner of the room. John looked around and saw that the only door of the room had a back screen of top of it that showed numbers slowly going down.

"Ladies and gentlemen..." John was able to hear the anouncer's voice coming from the door, "... Welcome to the Iron Fist Amateur Tournament..." And soon John heard the sound of loud applauses, "Today we have two amateurs here. Fighter number 0056 in our right side. It's a male Apex with the height of 1.98 meters and the weight of over 130 kilograms. Let's welcome him..."

When John heard the announcer he started to curse, [How the hell I'm going to face a Apex with over 100 kilograms and 1.98 of height.]

John heard the cheers probably coming from the live audience when the Apex entered in the arena.

"Now... At our left side. Fighter number 0368. It's a male Human with the height of 1.85 meters andthe weight of over 87 kilograms. Let's welcome him..."

After the announcer finished his lines the door at John's room slowly opened and he heard the robotic voice, "Please, fighter 0368. Proceed to the Arena."

"Well..." John stood up, "Let's do this."