Wolverine takes on Peter in a match to the death.
Peter was wondering how he was going to get out of the ring he was in. Somehow he’d gotten involved in a fight club with matches advertised ‘to the death’. High stakes, and high profits for the match organizers. And of course highly illegal. Peter had seen them resuscitate some of the fighters after a match was over. If it was possible, they revived the fighters after a match, as fighters for death matches were rare. They paid the fighters well but they also billed the fighters enormous fees for medical expenses.
This was Peter’s sixth fight. A sad occupation for a six year old. He’d never lost, one doesn't lose in death-matches. Peter's primary tactic was go for the throat and be fast as hell. He was phenomenally strong for his age. He’d only intended to fight for a single match in order to earn the money he needed. He was honest and told his manager that up front. “Just a single match is all I need.” But after the expenses he’d been charged he needed to fight again and again. Peter got the idea quickly, it was a scam to draw fighters into the ring. The fighters weren’t paid enough to be able to leave the fight club at least not until they were useless as fighters and retired or until they were setup for a life of fight. His manager wanted to turn him into a world class fighter if possible, but Peter didn’t want to fight at all. The death matches had offered what at first seemed to be substantial financial rewards which was the primary attraction. Peter didn’t know what else to do that would bring in the kind of money he needed that fast. Peter decided this match was going to be the last one he fought regardless of whether or not he had enough cash. This match was to be against another fighter called ‘the Wolverine”.
The match was to take place in an abandoned factory in a small city in northern Ontario. Setup inside the factory was the fight cage. Inside the fight cage anything goes. The cage served to limit the area of the fight and prevented the fighters from picking up weapons from bystanders. The cage also prevented fighters who got "cold feet" from fleeing the match before it was over.
**********************************************************************************
The fight club’s owner commented to his assistant: “The fight’s grossly lop-sided, Wolverine’s never lost a match, he’ll make mince-meat out of the boy. That’s how we’ll let the boy out of the fight club. Killed by a master. The kid keeps saying he want’s out, that’l show him the way out. Setup 20:1 odds in favour of the Wolverine.”
**********************************************************************************
The Wolverine looked at his opponent with some disbelief. A little kid ? Had the fight organizers been so desperate for fighters that they were now putting little kids in the ring ? Wolverine would have to have a little "chat" with the match organizers, later. He knew now why they wouldn't give him any info on his opponent before the fight; Wolverine was now regretting his statement that he didn't care who the opposition was. He'd kept saying he didn't care who the opposition was. Now he was being taught some humility by the match organizers, in this case he did care. There was no backing out now; they were both in the cage. The fans would riot if there wasn't a match. Wolverine thought: it's amazing what some people would watch as sport.
The announcer bellowed: “Let the fight begin.” And rang the bell.
Wolverine decided to make it look good for the kid. This match was monstrous and he decided it was one he didn’t need to win. A match against a little kid ? Something was wrong somewhere. Wolverine knew the best thing to do was cost a huge pocketbook loss by losing the match. Also, something was bothering Wolverine about the kid. The kid smelled familiar. It was as if he knew this kid from somewhere.
“Come-on kid, take your best shot.” He jeered as he leaned towards the kid slightly. He would play the part of the arrogant opponent. He had to make his loss at least look possible. At least if he wanted any future as a fighter, and as a political ploy to limit the number of people who would think he threw the match. Betters had been known to get even with the fighters when they thought a match was thrown.
He could barely see the kid move: “God that kid is fas…” is the last thing Wolverine thought as he lost consciousness. The kid had torn out Wolverine’s throat with a clawed hand in a fraction of a second. Wolverine didn’t have the time to block the kid’s attack. Of course the Wolverine wasn't really dead, he was just taking some time to recover. But he looked dead enough for the fight's purposes.
The referee raised the kid’s arm: “The winner is the kid in 0.6 seconds!” Suddenly a riot broke out outside of the cage. Too many betters had bet on the Wolverine winning. After a few minutes, the riot subsided, especially since the police were on their way. Somehow the police got wind of the match, probably from a dissatisfied fan. Usually the police didn't interfere; they found out about the matches long after the match was over. But in this case they had found out sooner.
**********************************************************************************
Peter told his manager: “I’m not fighting anymore.”
All the manager could say was “Sure Kid.” All he could think was: “He beat the Wolverine. He beat the Wolverine!”.
The manager had threatened violence in order to keep Peter in the ring, but now he changed his mind. Keeping Peter in the ring could be too costly.
Peter got out of the fight club. His days as a death-match fighter were over.