It was a long story.
…no, it was a short story, but god, she didn’t feel like going over it.
With her time in LAW not going super well, JJJ was forced to look for alternate flows of cash, ways she could keep her coffers full without doing anything too crazy. After a little talk around the LAW locker room, she’d landed on what she deemed to be a good idea - namely, this weird, possibly illegal fighting tournament taking place on a cruise ship, owned by some Japanese fatcat with too much money to spend on such things. It was an easy payday, she heard, and a free trip on a cruise ship to boot. Who could pass that up?
She should’ve. Oh, wow, she should’ve.
First, as it turned out, she was vulnerable to getting seasick, which was a hell of a thing to learn after your first time on a boat. So she spent no small amount of time on the cruise ship trying to keep her insides on the inside. The food hadn't been all that great, either, with an overabundance of fish, and the room service was pretty much nonexistent. Not to mention that it was boring as all hell. JJJ didn’t know she could learn to hate a large body of water, but here she was, cursing out the Pacific Ocean.
But she could’ve gotten past that - all of that, if her match had gone well. Had it?
Let’s see - she was currently in the middle of the ring on the port bow of the ship, surround by a bunch of dingy, smelly onlookers, staring up at the starlit night sky. She had been put there by a mount of a man, a guy named Bad Brad, who had just spent the past four or five minutes ragdolling her from pillar to post. The dude was huge, close to seven feet tall, and she’d never stood a chance. One slam after another after another, mercilessly bashing her left and right, all while he made sexist jokes about a woman’s place in the ring and other crap. So, no, to put it mildly, it wasn’t going too well.
She laid there, groaning after being pinned, as she tried to muster the energy to just get out of the ring. Defeat to a guy like this would’ve been bad enough, but to make matters worse, he was taking the time to gloat, standing tall as he stormed and stomped around the ring, with a microphone in hand. ”See that? Y’all see that!” He gave his chest a good thump, like a proper gorilla. ”That’s what a real man can do! That’s what happens when LAW isn’t trotting out a bunch of weakass jobbers to get their asses kicked by every little dominatrix bitch that comes along. Anyone want to prove me wrong? Step in, try your luck! Bad Brad’s ready!”
The crowd gave him a proper booing, but JJJ couldn't help but notice that none of them were brave enough to take the challenge. She couldn't say she blamed them, either. Yeah, the guy was a jackass, but he was a massive jackass, and they’d all seen the hell he’d put her through. Nobody in their right mind would be in a hurry to step up to something like that.
Bad Brad is ready!
