San Fransokyo had many claims to fame as the hotbed of culture for the west coast. Tezuka Town was frequented by some of the biggest toons from Japan. The Zaibatsus had built half the state into a thriving center of industry, pulling in researchers from the world over. It attracted countless tourists to see the shining lights of the city of tomorrow.
But for most of its native citizens, there was no greater pleasure in life than bot fighting. There was nothing quite like the experience of watching two bots enter the ring, knowing that only one of them was going to leave, with nothing more than their creators' wits and whatever dirty tricks they were hiding. It hearkened back to the gladiatorial games of the old days, calling on some primal desire for violence, and-
A piece of rebar embedded itself three inches deep in the steel wall opposite the crowd, launched from one of the combatants as if from a railgun.
The crowd roared with approval, and even Mr. Yama himself found himself caught up in the excitement. This is what botfighting was meant to be! Two combatants duking it out with money on the line, no pesky government oversight, no annoying safety measures to get in the way of the action.
"Go!" he roared, waving a massive fist in the air. "Kick Hamada's ass!"
The bot he was cheering for was a segmented purple worm about two feet long whose main advantage was mobility and versatility, sliding around an opponent until it could disable, disembowel, or crush it to death in its coils. The black-haired girl who ran it was a regular on the bot scene, popular enough that Yama was considering actually learning her name. Especially if she could manage to teach the kid some respect.
Hiro Hamada, Yama mused, was an oddity. His first introduction to the boy was being hustled out of fifteen thousand dollars, all those years ago. He'd never admit it out loud but he was still a bit sore at how easily he had been played that night, and couldn't help but feel a twinge of annoyance every time the boy walked through his door. The ten percent he got off of Hamada's massive winnings did a good job of mitigating this.
Hamada's bot was a squat, ugly thing, looking like an amalgamate of several different designs. Carbon nanotube skeleton, plasma emitters on the detachable fists, some sort of magnetic levitation that gave it enough mobility to run up walls. What it lacked in aesthetics it made up for in practicality, and despite his personal misgivings Yama had to admit that Hamada was a skilled engineer.
Sparks flew as the two bots grappled with one another, catching a nearby stack of crates on fire. The crowd roared with renewed bloodlust as a sudden flash of plasma bifurcated the purple worm down the middle, following the attack by tossing both halves into the air, leaping up after it, and setting the entire thing ablaze.
One of the Fujitas- Yama could never keep them straight, not that he would tell them that to the scary one's face- cheered, ringing the gong that signified the end of the match. Hamada's smug grin as he collected his winnings was all it took for the crowd to start chanting his name.
All in all, it had been a very successful night. Aside from the psychopath in the mask who thought he could push him around, things had been going rather well lately. Yama could hardly believe his good fortune when Tomokiri showed up; the girl was as effective as she was creepy, whoever she was. The kanbu made short work of the Triads and left him with the very awkward problem of trying to find new assignments for someone who was simply too good at their job.
Oh, well. That was a problem for later. Hamada's grudge match was the perfect way to cap things off tonight, the previous competitors had been more brutal than anyone could remember, and best of all, the cops hadn't-
"SAN FRANSOKYO! I, EL FUEGO, HAVE ARRIVED! ARE! YOU! READY! TO! CONFRONT! ME!"
What the hell?
Yama looked up to see a masked luchador in a suit of hot rod power armor, complete with stenciled flames. Yama recognized it from the mech wrestling circuit, which made him very confused about what he was doing here, interrupting one of his best moneymakers.
"I SAID I AM HERE TO CONFRONT YOU! SEND OUT YOUR STRONGEST CHALLENGER!"
Despite his grand words, 'El Fuego' was doing a terrible job of working the crowd, coming off as more of an unhinged vagrant than a new challenger. No one cheered. No one even booed. A lot of people were clearly just impatient for him to get out of the ring and let the real action resume. A few even checked their phones.
"YOU THERE, YAMA! I DEMAND-"
A weedy voice rose from the stands. "Yeah, Felony Carl, this guy is terrible!" A purple glob of living slime said as he spoke so loudly he could be heard from the back row. "This guy wouldn't know spectacle if it bit him. I paid good money for this, and I can't stand to watch another second- yes, I know you're two seats down from me, Felony Carl, but I felt the need-" the local abominable goo-man rambled.
"The local abominable goo-man has a point." Hamada's annoying friend added. "Get out of the ring, you underwhelming menace!"
El Fuego turned as if expecting something to get thrown at him, but the guy in the beanie was back on his phone. "YOU GOT SOMETHING TO SAY, TWERP?"
"Uh, no. That's why I'm on my phone."
One person in the crowd gave a half-hearted boo that trailed off after a few seconds. Yama dragged a hand down his face. This was costing him money.
"LET'S SEE HOW COCKY YOU ARE ONCE I'M FINISHED WITH YOU!" El Fuego bellowed as a massive hand closed around Fred's neck.
"Oh my god, he's got him in a Heimlich maneuver!" The purple gloop screamed.
Heimlich- That idiot! Yama thought. That wasn't the Heimlich, that was the worst-executed Atomi-
"Actually this is an Atomic Noogie," Fred commented even as El Fuego started to knuckle his head furiously. "Created by Sergeant Slaughter, first performed circa 1990. It's a really inefficient move, mostly used for theatrics, and anyone other than Sergeant Slaughter using it is clearly plagiarizing." He craned his neck to glare at the wrestler. "I've gotta say, this is pretty disappointing. Attacking the audience? That's just straight-up assault, and I didn't even heckle you first!"
"THEN WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO TO STOP ME?"
"Now normally I would turn into Fredz- I mean call the cops," Fred mused, as if he weren't trapped in a hold by a musclebound maniac "-but this is a bot fight. And I totally disagree with the governor's policy on these things despite being an upstanding member of society. I mean, come on! They're part of San Fransokyo's cultural heritage!"
The crowd cheered their assent, uproariously stating their opinions on Governor Kevin and his antiquated policies. After a few seconds, someone started up a chant. "FRED! FRED! FRED! FRED!"
Yama nodded approvingly. He would sooner cut off one of his fingers than be caught cheering for one of Hamada's friends, but he could appreciate the sentiment.
"WHAT'S THAT? YOU LIKE HIM?" El Fuego jeered. "THEN HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF I BREAK HIM?"
"Dude, what the hell?!" One of the Fujitas asked. "Those are our customers."
"I GUESS THAT MEANS YOU WOULDN'T LIKE IT THEN!" The upper half of El Fuego's mech rocketed up through the ceiling, sending rubble and rebar down on the uninterested patrons. Fred waited in Fuego's hand, his arms crossed in bored resignation.
"Hey, Hamada!" the former owner of the purple worm snapped. "Fifty bucks says I can kick this guy's ass before you can."
"Heh. Keep dreaming, Trina! I already cleaned you out, what do you have left?"
"You're awfully cocky tonight. Make it five hundred!"
"Your funeral." Yama watched as Hamada's bot leapt to life, miniature plasma jets flashing as they tore through the armor on the mech's foot and started to dissect the delicate internals.
Trina's purple worm, despite being bifurcated earlier, was back with barely a few scratches to show for it, opting to go for the exposed hydraulic instead. The bot split itself into segments that were connected by a thin filament, wrapping itself around the shaft and slicing it to ribbons. High-pressure hydraulic fluid sliced through the nearby crates and six inches deep into the wall behind it.
This got a reaction from the crowd. Visceral action, wanton violence, and the threat of death? If you ignored the unimpressive pilot, a mech was just another bot to fight! El Fuego, completely unprepared for anyone trying to interfere, screamed loudly as his mech's feet were rendered useless. Three tons of steel fell through the roof and nearby wall, creating an even larger hole than before.
Fred crawled out of the rubble looking no worse for wear, brushing a bit of plaster dust off of his beanie. "Honestly? Not even in my top ten hostage takings. Steamer does it better."
"SO! EL FUEGO FINALLY HAS CHALLENGERS?!"
"You're getting sloppy, Hamada." Trina grinned maliciously, far more focused on her rival than El Fuego's blustering declarations. "You're putting too much power into those plasma blades, I can see the servos struggling to keep up."
"Not a problem with the new capacitors I designed, and I can use the excess heat to my advantage. What's your excuse for that twitching on the fifth segment?"
"IF YOU DON'T TREAT ME WITH THE RESPECT I DESERVE, THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULD FEEL THE HEAT!" The upper torso of the mech raised its arm from under the rubble and launched a massive gout of flame at the bot ring. The patrons, well versed in dodging discharge from the fighters, moved before anyone could be so much as scorched.
"Okay, I admit it." Hiro said, turning to point at the wrestler's exosuit. "Maybe your bot's a little better built than that."
"Says the guy who's hoping the maglev suspension will compensate for your lack of armor!" Moving together, the two bots leapt onto El Fuego's outstretched fist and burrowed inside the flamethrower, followed a second later by a dull explosion that didn't even get a reaction from the crowd.
"HOW DARE YOU?! I AM HERE AS YOUR CHALLENGER AND YOU HAVEN'T EVEN ADDRESSED ME!"
"What is that running on anyway, an old processor from back in the KreiTech days?" Trina talked past El Fuego. "Obviously not a neural interface, the delay between the reactions and the movement speed is way too long. Haptic or analogue?"
"Analogue! You're one to talk with that performance from a couple weeks back." Hamada turned to address the crowd as his bot slid a blade through the casing around El Fuego's central processor. "Remember that, guys? Ring out in fifteen seconds. One of my better performances even if it was boring to watch."
Half of the crowd started chanting his name as Trina snorted derisively. "That was a fluke! You won because of a glitch!"
"A gitch that you failed to patch out. We call that 'user error'."
"GRAAAAH! FIGHT ME!" El Fuego attempted to interject.
"And what does that make you for taking advantage of it?"
"Richer." Hiro smirked.
Sparks flew from El Fuego's chestpiece as his remaining hand rocketed up into the night, searching in vain for anyone or anything to find purchase on. When it reached the end of its tether the fist fell like a stone, crushing the air conditioning unit atop the warehouse.
Mr. Yama narrowed his eyes. This was going to cost a fortune to repair. The Fujitas pickled up their weapons and closed in on the wrestler who was only now pulling himself out of his ruined mech suit. Whatever else could be said about the man, he didn't seem to be a complete idiot, eyeing each of the geishas in turn and backing up towards the hole in the wall.
"EL FUEGO WILL RETURN FOR REVENGE, I SWEAR IT! SAN FRANSOKYO, YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE LAST OF ME!"
"Wow, he's even stealing Steamer's lines now. At least say it with some panache!" Fred complained.
"That Kabuki creep better not be paying me a visit after this…" Yama muttered to himself, sending a short text to some of his contacts in construction. "Uhhh…" He mentally paused for a minute as he attempted to remember the scary Fujita's name- "You. Make sure nobody got too roughed up and send someone after that idiot!" The Fujitas gave him a lot of sass but they were damn effective when pointed at a target, and he could already picture what he was going to do when they retrieved him. It had been too long since he stepped into the ring himself, but he still knew how to work a crowd and enough throws to make a fool out of 'El Fuego'. Tearing the man's mask off should be sufficient to cow him, right?
He glanced back at the wreckage of the bot ring, littered with broken glass, twisted rebar, and the remains of El Fuego's suit. Hamada and Trina had recovered their bots and were continuing to snipe at each other.
"Pay up!" Hiro grinned smugly. "That was my bot that knocked out his processor, you know it."
"Oh." Trina said with mock regret. "Looks like I'm fresh out of money."
"You'll have to owe me one then." Hiro smirked.
"Or… I could do this."
Hamada's next response was cut off as Trina wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a kiss. It took a few moments before he finally pulled free.
"All right, fine." He grumbled. "I suppose I can give you a rain check."
"I'll buy for our next date." Trina said.