Ziggy Malone's Arc

Chapter 7 of 8

Two minutes. Ziggy stared at the ring and every drilled counter turned to smoke. She'd trained to fight a tall kicker at range. Now a short, heavy grappler waited to drag her down and pin her where she had no answer. Her legs felt strong. Her plan felt useless. She needed a new one before the horn, and she had no one to ask. A girl trailing a red balloon slipped under the rope and stopped beside her. Ziggy knew her from camp. She barely reached Ziggy's shoulder, wore rainbow socks, and never seemed to stop smiling. The kid had watched every warm-up from the fence, quiet, soaking it all in. "You're scared of the ground," the girl said. Not a question. "I trained for someone else," Ziggy said. "She wants to take me down. I don't know how to stop her." The girl looked at the grappler across the ring, then back. "You can't stop the grab. She's built for it." She let the balloon bob. "So don't fight the grab. Fall with it." "Fall." "My uncle wrestles. Small guys always fight the pull. They get slammed." She mimed grabbing air, then dropped low herself. "You go down first. On purpose. Then you're not caught. You're already there." Ziggy's mind moved fast. If the grappler bulled forward and Ziggy sat instead of stiffening, the woman's own weight would carry past her. "Then what? On the ground she owns me." "Get your legs up between you." The girl lifted her knees like a shield. "Push her off with your feet. Feet are stronger than her arms. You've got climber legs. I've seen you." The horn blew. Ziggy had thirty seconds and one raw idea. The grappler charged the second the ring cleared. She wrapped low and drove, exactly as feared. Ziggy felt the old instinct to plant and resist. She killed it. She sat back hard and dropped. They hit the mat together. The grappler's momentum threw her past Ziggy's hip. For one breath the woman scrambled to climb up her body. Ziggy jammed both knees in and shoved. Her legs held, the same legs that had climbed the peak. The grappler slid back a foot. Space. Ziggy scooted, hooked a heel behind the woman's ankle, and kicked out. The grappler toppled. Ziggy rolled free and stood while her opponent floundered on her back. The crowd noise changed. The grappler pushed up, breathing hard, her one weapon spent. Ziggy stepped in and cracked a straight punch across her jaw. The woman dropped. The referee waved it done. Ziggy won. Her chest heaved in the thin air. She turned to find the girl at the rope, grinning, balloon nodding. Then Ziggy saw the bracket board past her. Next round. One name waited under a winner's slot, already marked. Jade.