Black Market Merchant

The kids were facing the side of a massive building, bigger than any that were around their homes. In between the bush they were hidden in and the tan brick wall was a wide white bricked walkway. The walkway was lined with beautiful mountain flowers and neatly trimmed hedges. The children, having grown up in the dingy rundown town and constantly surrounded by a filthy environment, thought that they had entered into the backyard a castle from a story book.

"This is not what we were expecting!" Sorra was the first to speak.

"Shhhh! Not so loud!" Clair hissed nervously looking around them.

"No one is around here." Chase said poking his head out of the top of the bush.

"Get back in here!" This time it was Derrick that pulled him back. "Look at the wall straight ahead."

Chase lifted a branch up to look at the tan wall. There, halfway up, was a security camera slowly rotating to survey the grounds below. At that moment its gaze had passed right over their bush.

"Oops, that was close." Chase said lowering the branch. "My bad."

"Be more careful next time. You nearly got us caught!" Clair said in hushed tones. "Alright we got to see inside. Now let's go!"

Clair turned to go, but no one followed. They all were looking at Hanna, who had her hand raised to get their attention and the other was cupped to her ear.

"Do you all hear that?" Hanna whispered.

The children listened intently. There was a faint sound of people cheering and it sounded like it was coming from the big building. Hanna's curiosity was beyond peaked and the temptation was too great. They had already gone this far, why not go even further?

"Let's go see what is going on inside!" Hanna said looking at the others with an excited gleam in her eyes.

"I thought we were going to just look. Clair is right, it's too dangerous to go further." Rachel replied shaking her head.

"It will only take a few minutes." Hanna persuaded. Then she pointed at a smaller building right up next to the bigger building. "See that dumpster? We can get on it, then climb onto the roof of that small building. From there we can probably peak in through that long window wrapping around the building to see what's inside."

"No." Clair said flatly coming up next to her. "What about that camera? It's going to spot us and then we are all in trouble." She put a hand on Hanna's shoulder. "We got this far. Let's go home."

"My home is gone, Clair." Hanna said sternly. "They took everything. I have to know what's really going on!"

Clair bit her lip, unsure what to say at that moment. She cared for Hanna; she was her friend. If this would help her out, then she should help her. But it was too dangerous for kids like them to be doing stuff like this. Safety should be their priority, but the angry burning look in Hanna's eyes was calling out for the total opposite.

"We need to stay safe, Hanna." Clair said quietly after a few second. "Be quick. I am going to stay here and keep watch."

Hanna smiled. "Thank you."

"So, I guess I'll stay here too." Jillian said sitting down on the ground. Tilly did likewise.

Looking at the others Derrick spoke. "I guess the rest of us are coming with you Hanna. As soon as that camera starts to turn away from that building, let's run for it. Before we run though, lets look both ways first and go one at a time. This way if we get found out we can hide separately in those hedges or dumpster."

Everyone nodded in agreement, as it was a good plan. Hanna slowly peaked out from the bush to go first. There was no one to the right, just an empty walkway that snaked away around the back of the massive building. To her left was a large fountain area. There were lots of people there, but no one was paying any attention towards this area. They were also almost fifty meters away, so as long as they stayed low the trimmed bushes would hide them easily.

The camera had now started to rotate away, and Hanna made a break for it. She dashed forwards, while bending low and made it to the first row of shrubs. Then looking both ways she jumped up and ran to the dumpster. Sliding behind it, she was able to avoid being spotted by the camera when it rotated back. The camera was much slower than the children expected, and the plan was looking rather doable now. Seeing her success, the others followed her route. After a few moments they all were across and not a single alarm was sounded.

"I don't think that the camera will see us up there." Hanna said to the others. "I have been watching it and the small building’s roof is too high up."

"I hope so." Henry said catching his breath, as he was the last to cross over.

As soon as the camera had turned away again, they all came out of cover and scrambled onto the dumpster and clamored as softly as they could onto the metal roof. Luckily, they found that there was a layer of decorative bricks that stuck out from the rest of the wall. They were able to stand on these bricks and get an easy view through the window. They were all able to fit as well, the window was several dozen meters long as it stretched across most of the tan brick wall.

Looking inside they ended up being even more shocked than before! The huge building was filled with a stadium full of cheering people. At its center was a well-lit stage with two men fighting in the center. They were carrying fearsome weapons and fighting each other with great ferocity. The children had never seen anything like this before and at first, they were speechless.

"What is this?" Malik asked with his mouth agape. "This looks awesome!"

"Dude! Those guys are huge!" Chase said pressing his face to the glass.

"Why are there so many people?" Rachel asked. "I have never seen this many in one place before. There's probably not even this many people in town!"

However, Hanna was not as impressed by what they had found. "This has nothing to do with the dams’ blueprints!" Hanna thought discouragingly to herself. "Why did they kill my parents for something like that?!"

At that moment, the fight was decided. One of the men crashed to the ground apparently badly wounded. The children were so far away, that they could only see a puddle of red coming from around the man. The crowd inside cheered so loudly that the window they were looking through started to shake from the noise.

The sight of blood made Hanna start to feel sick. She was about to look away when someone caught her attention. It was a woman. She was tall, fit, and armed with a slender sword.

"Aunt Lisa?!" Hanna shouted.

The others turned to look at Hanna a bit confused.

"Aunt Lisa?" Rachel said. "Isn't she the lady that saved you?"

"She is!" Hanna said sounding bewildered. "Why is she here at the gangsters base? Not to mention getting onto the stage to fight!"

At that moment Lisa had climbed onto the stage and another man was coming into it to face her.

…

Lisa had been looking around at what was being sold in the 'market' and chatted with a few of the sellers. The sellers were all from out of town and told her that many sellers frequented this 'market'. If she couldn't afford something, then all she had to do was wait for their return. Nearly everything being sold by them was a company or industry that was far away in some other city. They ranged from bakeries to metalworks factories, or from technology research to farming industrial products.

Lisa wished she had more time to learn more, but Sadie had just entered the building. Sadie was headed right for Lisa. A look of displeasure was spread all across her face and Lisa knew her fun in the market was over.

"What's wrong Sadie?" Lisa called to her. "Feeling bad about leaving?"

"No. The exact opposite to be precise." Sadie remarked. "You see, there's this coworker of mine…” Sadie went on to explain what Nicky had been saying to her. After hearing what had happened, Lisa felt mildly angry. Being a bully for no good reason just rubbed her the wrong way.

"The nerve of some people." Lisa muttered. "Let's show her up."

"How?" Sadie asked.

"Simple, go get me in a Match right now. We can go to my place after I'm done." Lisa said giving a confident smile.

"Now? But I don't know if anyone is up for having a fight out of the blue." Sadie replied a bit perplexed.

"Oh, that won't be an issue." Lisa said turning to go towards the entrance to the Arena. The sounds of a Match currently going on inside was quite audible. "I just need to make someone mad. I don't care who. You just make sure the Match will count as a legit fight."

Sadie hurried to keep up with Lisa, as she was still carrying her luggage. "I can do that. How will that show up Nicky?"

"It will show her that even though she said all of that trash talk to you, you can still get me into a fight and could care less of what she thinks." Lisa said while looking at a group of tough looking men. "Are any of those guys Match Fighters?"

"L-Let me check." Sadie said stopping to put down the box she was holding. Then opening the box she pulled out a small tabloid like devise. It looked just like the one the security guard had in his hands, Lisa thought upon seeing it.

Sadie opened it and a holo-projection screen appeared between the two sides of the tabloid. Then pointing it at the men's faces, Sadie surveyed each man's face individually. By doing this, the tabloid had started a facial recognition app and a profile page soon appeared. Lisa looked curiously over Sadie's shoulder, this was a new device to her and seemed very convenient.

"That short hairy guy is the lowest ranked Fighter." Sadie said pointing at the screen. There was a Match Fighter profile of a man with a mullet haircut. "You could try fighting him, I guess?"

"Alright." Lisa said. Then she started walking confidently towards him. "Hey! Hairy guy! Ya, you." Lisa yelled out.

The man appeared somewhat annoyed and turned to face her. "What do you want?"

"My Manager says you’re a pushover and would make an easy win. Let's fight!" Lisa said still coming right up to him. "Unless you're to chicken!" She got right up into his face while saying all this.

"Who do you think you are? Get out of my face!" The mullet guy said sounding angry. He then went to push her backwards.

Lisa grabbed his wrist. "Make me!" She said twisting his arm way.

"You know what? Ya, I'll fight you, you psycho chick. You got a death wish or something? Tell me the terms, we can settle this now on stage!" The guy said puffing out his chest and getting up in her face.

"No terms, weapons are allowed and it's one on one. Nice and simple. Hope you don't die on me to quick." Lisa said airily turning to go into the Arena's hallway.

"We will see about that, you crazy freak!" The hairy guy shouted back while stomping after her.

"How did she do that?" Sadie wondered to herself as she gathered her things and hurried to catch up. The hairy man's Manager was following right next to her.

"What's going on now?" The male Manager asked Sadie.

"They, uh, got into a fight and now they want to make it official!" Sadie stammered in reply. "I can explain the details inside."

The previous match had just ended and now the two new Fighters headed onto stage. The announcer was just finishing his commentary on the previous fight when he suddenly saw Lisa and the mullet man climbing up onto stage. At the same time Sadie and the male manager had also come up to him to explain the situation. Moments later things were getting underway.

The voice of the Announcer boomed out over the hubbub of the receding crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen! We have a surprise second match! Stay in your seats, it's starting now!" The intrigued crowd quickly returned to see what was going on.

Lisa was getting ready to fight with a few stretches, while the hairy mullet man was fuming on the other side of the ring. All the while, Lisa was completely unaware that Hanna and her friends were watching from the window above.