Changes Can Be a Real Whack Across the Head

Betty meets new friends, new enemies, and a new mechanic!

By Mongoose750 (mongoose750@yahoo.com)

At Barefoot Betty's Auto Shop, the owner and chief mechanic, Betty Conrad, hummed to herself as she put the finishing touches on another car repair. Things have been rather quiet since her adventure in Indiana, and since her nemesis Sheila was mysteriously admitted in the hospital. Well mysterious to everyone except Betty, who realized it was a thank you gift from LS Chang, now LS Chang-Spaulding for helping out.

The adventure was exciting, she had to admit, but every spare thought would be spent wondering how her "baby," that is, the shop was doing. Her coworker Irena kept things running smooth as she thought she would, but she missed the place. Another thing about her adventure was during those few days, she had whacked more people across the head than she had in the past year; maybe the past two years. With no foes dropping by to challenge her, she just had her belt test in Tae Kwon Do to look forward to. That was fine with her. Now she could focus her energies on other things, like getting a third mechanic to join the crew. If business kept increasing the way it was, Thanksgiving and Christmas would be the next vacation days she had. And she didn't want to increase her hours or her schedule.

Betty stretched her 5'7" frame, and walked over to a workbench where she sat and wiped a spot of motor oil from her bare foot with a wet rag. A lifelong barefooter since ' well about forever it seemed. Her working sans shoes had been a trademark and an attraction to the shop. She looked at her coffee cream colored skin, her hands specifically, and grabbed a small brush to work on her fingernails to get the grease out. She glanced in her reflection of the side view mirror of a nearby car to see her new hairstyle, another unexpected memento from her Indiana adventure. Gone was her long ponytail that she had for years until the desperate swipe of a samurai sword cut it off. Now her hairstyle was short and shaped like the actress Halle Berry in ' what Bond movie was it ' Die Another Day. Upon her return, she sought out a hairstylist friend of hers to ask how to take care of it. It wasn't as practical as her ponytail, but it grew on her. Though she thought others might think it strange, she still kept her ponytail in her front desk drawer in her office.

As she got up and walked to the office, she met her friend and fellow employee, Irena Bresnev, a 5'5" brunette who immigrated from Russia. She already was starting the procedures for closing the shop. She looked up and saw the look on her employer's face.

"You look happy, boss," Irena said. "That vacation did you some good, huh?"

"Vacation? I'm happy to be back to work so I can relax," she said. "The last few days I was out started to feel like I was dropped into the middle of a spy novel. Next time something like this happens again, I'll send you. Who knows, it might be like what you read in your Clancy or Ludlum novels."

"I'll keep that in mind. However, I had my own adventures here."

"So I've heard. Hey, could you call Mr. Collins and tell him his car will be ready for him in the morning? I'm going to go to the restroom for a minute."

As Irena called the customer, a familiar-looking pickup truck pulled up, and a muscular 6'4" Hispanic woman stepped out. Loretta DeGarmo strolled over to the office, and greeted Irena when she got off the phone.

"Hola Irena," Loretta said.

"Hello; hey, what's wrong with you?"

A look of confusion came over Loretta's face. "Why nothing's wrong. What makes you say that?"

"If you smiled any wider, your white teeth would be blinding and you'd be floating in the room," Irena replied.

"So I'm happy, is there anything wrong with that?"

Irena looked at her suspiciously. "Yes, comrade."

Betty, emerged from the restroom. "Hey Loretta, what's going on?" She said.

"Not much; I came by to see how you two were enjoying the new additions to the shop. Your employee thinks I'm up to something because I arrived smiling," Loretta replied.

"Little Miss Sunshine thinks you're up to no good because you're smiling?"

"I didn't say you're up to no good, I said you're up to something," Irena stated.

"I think someone's been working too hard," Betty said. "I'll go ahead and finish up; you go home, go out on the town with Billy or something."

"I'm fine. Besides, I'm not doing anything with William right now; he's being disciplined."

"Disciplined?" Loretta asked.

"Oh, this ought to be good. What did my brother do this time?" Betty said.

"What I used to do, the Russian Cage Matches, he thought, no, he just assumed it was like professional wrestling, no, worse, like mud wrestling. He thought I was one of those over-busted bikini-wearing bimbos who squirm around in mud and who knows what else like a pig," Irena replied icily.

"Yeah, that would upset me too," Loretta said.

"My brother can be a real nice guy usually, but sometimes he can be rather oblivious. Sometimes you need to give him that whack across the head I've been telling you to give him every once in a while," Betty commented.

"I may keep that in mind," Irena said.

"Boy, I hate to be your boyfriend," Loretta remarked. "Every time he messes up, he'd get a whack on the head, painful."

"We're not talking about my boyfriend, whoever that may be, we're talking about my brother here. I lived with the man, I should know."

"How long will this discipline last, Irena?"

"Until I can see him and not be tempted to put him in a headlock," Irena replied.

"I'd like to see that." Betty received dirty looks from both women. "Okay, I'm kidding, but I'm sure Billy learned his lesson by now. I would've thought the other guys would've corrected him by now."

"They tried, but it still didn't work."

"Billy also has a bit of an ego as well. He once bragged to me about how he was in this prestigious school of engineering, and how smart he was, blah, blah, blah. I just told him next time his car quits on him, he can use those so-called smarts to fix it. If not, shut up and stop playing king of the mountain. That took care of it."

"He's never done that with me," Irena mused.

"He won't dare, I took care of that. He finally realized that it took just as much gray matter to fix or recreate a car as it does to make those fancy things they do where he works. When I was at college, the "smart ones' knew that right away if they wanted their car fixed."

"I found people don't have many bad things to say to you when they found out you built your own house," Loretta replied. "But Betty's right; he's probably has suffered enough."

"We'll see. Betty, what are you staring at?" Irena said.

"I should've known it'd be too good to be true," Betty murmured as another car pulled up, and two women came out. Both were about 5'5". One was a dark-skinned Indian with a slim figure with well-toned muscles and long black hair in a ponytail. The other woman was of Samoan descent, and stocky with big muscles. Her hair was black as well, the long strands blowing in the wind.

"Irena, could you check my calendar please? I think I'm free this coming Friday," Betty said. "My vacation is over."

Irena glanced at the window. "No, no, they come in peace. They're er, fans of mine," she replied.

"Good," Betty sighed. "People come from all over to fight me, yet you have a fan club? How is that?"

"First go to Russia, win a title, and make sure you're televised when you've done so. Jealous?"

"No, relieved. My life is crazy enough."

The two women opened the door, smiling broadly, and then gave both Irena and Loretta a hug, Loretta almost coughing when the Samoan hugged her.

"That's some embrace you've got there," Loretta grunted, "but I like my guts where they are."

"I'm sorry, I sometimes get carried away with those," the Samoan replied.

Betty almost subconsciously rubbed her ribs, remembering fighting a woman who seemed impervious to harm, and strong as a bear.

[Author's Note: That would be in the classic novel, Barefoot Heroines, available in my bookshelf now. I'd tell you where the fight scene was, but I'd have to look it up myself ' Mongoose.]

"Excuse my manners," Irena said. "Betty, this is Shelly, and this is Mia, from India and Samoa respectively."

Both came to hug Betty, who held them off. "If it's okay with you, I'll settle for a handshake. My sides are a little tender," she said.

Mia and Shelly had no problem shaking hands. Both were wearing sleeveless white T-shirts, blue jean shorts, and barefoot.

"So what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Irena asked.

"Four things, actually. One was to see you and your boss under better circumstances, and to apologize for the show Shelly and I put on when we were here," Mia said. "The other two was to deliver some news to you."

"Good or bad?"

Shelly shrugged. "Take your pick."

"I guess Leah and Diana are licking their wounds right now," Loretta remarked.

"That's one of the news items. We're suspended from that fight club by their order."

"Why?"

"Because we failed to aid them in their "time of need.'"

"Did they forget they had the whole place gang up on us?"

"We told them that, but it didn't matter," Mia said. "Truth is, we wouldn't do that to anybody regardless of who they were. They told me the fans love it."

Irena shook her head. "So what did you do?" She asked.

"We started attending the other fight club further down the road. Much better; we should have joined it sooner. Better fighters, better audience, and they have some rules."

"What's the third thing?" Loretta asked.

"We both agreed to deliver this," Shelly said, "but your victory at the "Battle Barn' was ruled null and void."

"What?" Loretta exclaimed. "We took down almost all of them! How can they declare that "null and void'?"

Mia rolled her eyes upward. "You had an illegal fighter using an illegal fighting style," she said.

"And who was that? It better not be me, because I was the one invited," Irena said, arms folded.

Betty cocked her head, a little confused. "Irena knows Sambo, which is a little like judo, which Velvet knows, and Loretta knows Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which is similar to both of them. How could you ban one, but not the other?" She asked.

"Please remember, we didn't come up with this," Shelly explained. "It's in the club's bylaws. They even showed it to us."

"Jasmine was the illegal fighter," Mia said.

"That's right, she was there, I forgot," Betty said, while Irena and Loretta were open-mouthed. "She practices aikido; you mean to tell me that's illegal?"

Mia and Shelly nodded.

"The next question I have would be "why,' but you don't know, do you?" Loretta asked.

Shelly and Mia shook their heads.

"That is stupid," Irena huffed. "Perhaps I should see Leah and Diana, and show them my displeasure."

"They didn't write it, but they made sure to use it," Shelly said. "We want to see Jasmine, so we can break it to her ourselves."

"If you wait a few minutes, we'll come with you," Betty said. "Irena, clean up while I put things away. I'll shower and change when I'm through."

"Okay," Irena agreed. "I am curious what Jasmine's reaction is to all this."

At her dojo, a high school gym, Jasmine fell into a chair, her sides bursting with laughter.

"Nice to know she's taking this well," Mia said with a smirk.

"Illegal, eh? It must've been the chloroform I had on my gloves," Jasmine remarked.

"But you weren't wearing any gloves," Mia replied, a second later realizing she just delivered a perfect straight line.

"Then it must've been the metal chair I pulled out of my tights!"

"But you weren't wearing any ' never mind, I got it."

"My sister's sense of humor must be making an influence on me. Give me a moment to compose myself."

Velvet Jones, who was picked up on the way, said, "Whether they say we won or not doesn't matter to me; I just want to know why Jasmine was considered illegal. Maybe it was the way she threw everybody all over the place."

Shelly turned to the muscular 5'9" black woman, and said, "It's not the matter that Jasmine is illegal, it's the fact that her fighting style is illegal."

"And they told you this when?"

"Right before we were banned. They even showed us the bylaws."

"That place has bylaws?"

"Jasmine, you appear to be taking this real well," Loretta observed.

Jasmine took a breath and spoke for the first time without chuckling. "You see, aikido is one of the martial arts that gets no respect, and is picked on a lot. Many people think it's not a usable form of self-defense. On the other end of the scale, there are some aikido studios who don't teach the art at all. They just teach the philosophical thoughts of the founder. We call them "Yoda dojo,' and we make it a point to have them avoided by everyone. But yeah, we're used to being picked on."

"But your discipline is supposed to be the "peaceful one.' If I remember correctly, aikido is a descendant of jiu-jitsu, right?" Betty asked.

"The Japanese version, yes," Jasmine replied. "I see you've done your homework. But let me ask, you and Irena are also taking up krav maga, right?"

Both Betty and Irena nodded.

"Krav Maga, I have heard of it, but I don't know much about it," Shelly replied.

"Krav Maga is a martial art composed of a few things, judo being one of them. It's so effective, the Israeli army uses it. It's so deadly, when it was offered to the general public, it had to be toned down so old ladies wouldn't end up killing purse snatchers, and children wouldn't cripple bullies who try to steal their lunch money," Jasmine explained.

"Huh," Mia replied.

"And jiu-jitsu, the Japanese version, has all these other disciplines derived from it because it can be deadly. There are some versions of karate, kung fu, and tai chi that you couldn't even spar with in public without possibly injuring someone."

"I get what you're saying; if you're going to ban something, it should be those arts," Betty remarked.

"That's right. Even though there are now many variations of aikido, the general idea is still the same. Even when one of my students started teaching Street Aikido or "Black Aikido' as it's often called with chokes and more blows, the general idea of not beating your opponent into the ground is still there. If you do it correctly, of course."

"Wait a minute," Velvet interrupted. "You have students teaching their own classes now?"

"A few."

"How come I just now heard this?"

"It's not considered proper etiquette to brag about how many "children' you have in the martial arts community," Jasmine continued. "Those who do are either considered liars or owners of one of those black belt factories that claim to be a legitimate dojo."

"Mia and I were taught wrestling in a gym, so I'm afraid I don't understand the term, "black belt factory,'" Shelly said.

"I'll answer this one," Loretta explained. "A "black belt factory' is a place where the martial art is either taught by a lazy instructor who'll teach you just enough of the basics to get you by, then award you with a belt after you've been there a while, whether you deserved that belt or not. The sad thing is those teachers were taught by some sluggard as well. The sadder thing is you have these students who think they've been taught everything there was until they're in a confrontation."

"You can usually find the ads for these places in the back of some martial arts magazines, right beside the ad for this fighter who's been banned in several countries because his style of fighting is so deadly; but for $39.95, he'll impart these fighting secrets to you in a DVD or book," Velvet replied.

"Oh yeah, I know who you're talking about, except I thought this guy fought in several "death fights,'" Irena remarked.

"I think in his latest ad, he said he can kill someone with a tap on the shoulder," Betty said.

"It must be difficult asking someone for directions," Mia replied.

After they laughed, Jasmine said, "And that's why linage is or can be an important thing when finding a good teacher. If I want to learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for example, and I find out the instructor was a disciple of Loretta, then I know she or he will be a good teacher."

"Why thank you," Loretta said, giving a mock bow.

"No problem; besides, I don't hang around with bad instructors."

"You checked me out?"

"Loretta, I check everyone out. If there's someone who's not doing their best and sending out incompetent students, I want to know about it."

"I think I may have encountered one of these people a month ago at the Battle Barn. She claimed to be a third degree black belt in some type of karate," Mia said.

"So what happened?" Irena asked.

"I had her down in ten seconds, and I gave her arm an extra twist for calling me fat."

"I have a cousin who has the same build you do," Jasmine said. "Some people learned real quick the difference between muscle and fat."

"Once I had to pry Shelly off her opponent who claimed to be the same rank my opponent was. She had the nerve to deliver an ethnic remark."

"She could still walk out," Shelly replied defensively.

"Barely. It was the rest of her that wasn't so great," Mia remarked.

"Well moving along, we just wanted to let you know you're a "forbidden fighter,'" Betty said. "I know you're heartbroken over it."

"My heart weeps," Jasmine replied sarcastically.

"Since they came to my garage, I am a little curious about this. We're going to the Battle Barn next. Want to come?"

"I appreciate the invitation, but I have an upcoming aikido convention to attend in Indiana, plus I'm going on a road trip with my closest friends, one of whom hasn't seen the free world in four years. So you'll excuse me if I place my "illegal status' at the bottom of the list."

"No problem, it's completely understandable." The others nodded their agreement.

"What I can do is send someone in my place. Debbie, Mina, Li, could you come here for a moment?"

In moments, three young athletically fit women appeared and stood in front of their teacher.

"Ladies, as you know, I will be headed out of town to spend time with close friends, and attend the aikido convention in Indianapolis," Jasmine continued. "There seems to be a little matter that requires my attention, but I can't make it. Are any of you free later today?"

Debbie, a Brazilian 5'8" brown skinned, brunette, muscularly built woman wearing a yellow sports bra, matching shorts, and barefoot shook her head. "Sorry teacher, I had plans with my fianc#e tonight," she said.

Li, a 5'6" Korean-American woman with long black hair, an athletic build, and an outfit similar to Debbie's, except hers was blue, shook her head as well. "My two roommates and I are having a girl's night out. Sorry."

Mina, a 5'6" woman with creamy tan skin, a build similar to Li and Jasmine, and short straight black hair, was wearing her standard workout garb of a plain black T-shirt and white linen pants cut mid-calf replied, "I'm free. This doesn't have anything to do with those karate people we beat up recently?"

Jasmine smiled. "Mina, in cases such as what we were involved in, "beat up' sounds so brutal. "Defeated' would be a more appropriate word," she corrected. "Besides, this has to do with something else."

"Beating up "karate people?' Sounds like you've kept busy while some of us were gone," Betty remarked.

"Oh there were some students from some karate dojo who barged in my dojo and demanded that I hand over a DOA teacher who was my guest," Jasmine explained.

"What did they want her for?"

"They claimed that the DOA have been taking over their dojo, and since my guest happened to be a DOA member who's a teacher, they targeted her. The interesting thing about it is the woman doesn't even use a dojo."

"Where does she teach?" Loretta asked.

"The great outdoors, year round," Jasmine said, extending her hands in a grand gesture. "On that scale, she's cheaper than I am. To sum it up, I said go away, they said no, they resisted, and we beat them up, er, defeated them. By the time I arrived home, I had some extra frustration to burn off, so Irena's call came at the right time."

Mina and the other two students started giggling.

"Yes I know I said "beat up.' Do as I say, not as I do," Jasmine snapped in mock annoyance.

"Yes, oh great one," Liu remarked as she and Debbie trotted away.

"Anyway, Mina, we don't need you to "defeat' anyone; you just need to represent Jasmine. We'll tell you the rest on the way," Irena said.

"I left something at the other fight club. Could we make a quick stop there?" Mia asked.

"Sure; I'm curious about the place, and as long as we don't get jumped by the audience, it's not a problem," Loretta answered.

Mina had a confused look.

"The others will explain," Jasmine told her. "In the meantime, I need to pack and recheck my shoe closet. I think I missed a lock."

"You lock your shoe closet?" Shelly said.

"I have an interesting family, let's leave it at that."

As they left, Mina bounced in front of the group and asked, "Now none of you wear shoes, right?"

"Whenever Mia and I can get away with it, we sort of "forget' them," Shelly replied.

"There's a few occasions I wear shoes, along with church on Sundays. Other than that, no, I'm free," Betty said.

Irena, Loretta, and Velvet nodded their agreement.

"Cool!" Mina shouted as she tossed her flip-flops into a nearby car.

"I assume that car was yours," Irena said.

"No, it's Debbie's, but she won't mind. Our teacher talks about how you ladies go barefoot all the time, and somehow get away with it."

"And you were hooked?" Betty suggested.

"Yes! It's a great feeling. Our teacher doesn't tell us not to go barefoot during our lessons, but every now and then, she'll look at our feet and shake her head," Mina giggled.

"Sounds like Jasmine is a "nonconformist,'" Mia quipped.

"She is when it comes to shoes, or rather, not wearing shoes. That's why we call her our "tenderfoot.'" Velvet said. "Considering she's your teacher, Mina, I wouldn't say that to her face."

"But she has a great sense of humor," Mina objected.

"Maybe, but you may find yourself on the receiving end of a training exercise or something painful or embarrassing. Teachers always find a way to get you back."

Loretta raised her hand. "As a teacher, I can attest to that."

"What do you teach?" Mina asked.

"Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu."

"Cool!"

Via Mia's request, they decided to travel to the other female fight club located further up the road. It too was a former barn transformed into an arena.

"I'd like to meet the person who rebuilt these barns," Loretta said. "Quite a piece of work."

"And you say there's a number of these fight clubs scattered along the Midwest?" Mina asked Shelly and Mia.

"That's right," Shelly replied.

"Cool! Well, kind of cool. Aren't there some issues they have to deal with, like legal issues, possible injury and stuff?"

"Leah and Diana never told us all the details, but that's supposedly taken care of," Mia said.

"It sounds like one of those deals where the less you know, the better," Betty said. "And they're all free-for-alls?"

"It depends on the place. At the place Irena and the others fought at, that was the case, but then, they don't have a stable set of rules to go by. Most other places are set up where the audience stays where they're at, while the fighters, one on one, go at it. The winner usually wins something, like cash. And most of these places have catchy names like the Battle Barn, the Ice Box, the Sand Pit, the Upper Room, among others," Mia continued.

"And what's the name of this place we're going to?" Irena asked.

"Flying Fists of Thunder."

"Sounds like a Bruce Lee movie," Mina laughed.

"Actually, that's not correct. The proper title is The Flying Fists of Thunder," Shelly corrected.

"Oh excuse me!" Mia replied.

"Whatever it's called, let's go in, I'm curious as to what this place looks like," Betty said.

"Oh I think you'll be impressed," Loretta replied.

And true to what Loretta said, Betty was impressed. The biggest part of the barn was transformed into what resembled a rustic version of a Roman coliseum with raised bleachers, and even a box for the master of ceremonies to sit. The pit was an area on the barn floor covered with sand, lots and lots of sand. There was a smaller area segmented from the arena that appeared to be where the combatants changed clothes, tended their wounds, etc. Near the front door was a lobby area, restrooms, etc.

"Wow!" Betty said. "So who did this?"

Both Mia and Shelly shrugged. "You got me," Mia said.

"If anyone ever finds out, send them to Russia," Irena remarked. "They could find lots of work there."

"I remembered from the DVD that the cages and the ring wasn't in the best conditions. I'll be right back," Mia said as she went into yet another area that was where the personal lockers were.

"So not much goes on during the day, eh?" Velvet asked Shelly.

"Again, it depends on where you go, but at this one, no, it's rather quiet. Well, except for these folks," Shelly said.

On one side of the arena was a woman that stood 5'6" in height. Her straight brown hair was cut at the chin line and covered one eye. The hair revealed an oval face that had an expression of meditation. She wore a long-sleeved, white scoop-necked top with brown slacks cut an inch above the ankle. She was barefoot. The reason for the serene look on her face was the tai chi exercises she was performing.

"Beautiful form," Mina said, impressed.

"It looks like ballet in a way," Irena commented.

"One move flows into the next," Shelly observed.

"It's hard to believe that something so beautiful can be so deadly," Loretta replied.

"It took me forever to get to the level where it flows," Mina remarked. "In the beginning, it looked like I was doing the Robot."

Mia returned to join the group, and was about to ask what everyone was staring at when she saw the woman's movements.

"I knew a fellow Samoan who stood a couple of inches taller than me, and almost twenty pounds heavier," she began. "Not the type of person you'd expect to do tai chi."

"Really?" Velvet said.

"But when she did it, you can see her glide across the floor. Nobody could lay a hand on her either."

After the woman finished, someone applauded. The group, needing no prompting, applauded as well. After a few seconds, they looked around to see who started it. They saw a black woman who stood about 5'9" with dark brown skin and short curly black hair. She wore a long-sleeve rose-colored leotard with rose colored footless tights. Her toenails were the same color as her outfit.

"Very good Esther, very well done. Your moves are just like water," the woman said.

Betty asked Shelly and Mia a quick question, and then led the group over to the woman's location.

"Excuse me ma'am, are you one of the uh, head people here?" Betty asked.

The woman turned and smiled. "Me? Oh no, I just have permission to use their facilities during the day. Hi, I'm Florence," she said, extending her hand.

Betty shook it, and gave a quick introduction of the others.

"So you're the Betty the mechanic, the toughest girl in town?" Florence asked.

"Yes," Betty sighed. "I'm really beginning to hate that title."

Irena made a remark about "Betty's fan club," but Betty chose to ignore it. She instead asked, "If you don't mind my asking, what do you use these facilities for?"

"Not at all. I run a security service."

"The type that has bodyguards and stuff?" Mina asked.

"Yes, the type that has "bodyguards and stuff,'" Florence replied, smiling.

"Cool! Well we couldn't help noticing your student, I mean employee there going through her movements. It'll take me forever to be that smooth."

"So you practice tai chi? Who's your teacher?"

"Jasmine Chang."

Florence's smile grew even wider. "Ah, really? Well rest assured, with her, you'll be fluid in no time. How far along are you?"

"I know my movements and applications well, but they're not smooth yet, plus I'm a black belt in aikido."

"Offhand, I'd say you're very far along. Oh, excuse me. Esther, you can sit down now, sorry about that. Fiona, get yourself and the others ready for your dogpile exercise."

"Dogpile?" Loretta asked.

"You'll see in a minute. In this region, we appear to have a need for clients who need protection, but at the same time, not need someone the size of an NFL linebacker to do it. And that's where my ladies come in," Florence explained.

"And they practice here?" Velvet asked.

"Only during the time when our facilities are being worked on. By the way, love your hair."

"Thanks, I love yours too," Velvet smiled, patting her hair which was fixed in the same style. "Great shoes, too."

"Amen to that," Betty added. "I'm just curious about this place. I lived here in town all my life, and this is the first time I've heard of this place, not to mention the other one down the road."

"They can be rather secretive. However, you're in luck. I know someone who has access to one of the people who started these fight clubs," Florence responded.

"Great! Give us the name, and we can contact them," Irena replied.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple," Florence said. "I have to do some of this cloak-and-dagger stuff before I receive a response. I think in your case though, they'll talk to you. Do you have a card?"

Betty, ever the businesswoman, magically produced a card.

"Excellent. Now excuse me for a moment. Fiona, are you ready?"

Another woman, a little slimmer than Esther, but the same height, stepped out onto the arena floor. She had shoulder length blond hair, and wore a pair of khaki pants with the legs rolled up above the ankle, and a plain white T-shirt. Like Esther, she was barefoot. "Ready!" She said.

"All right. Dogpile!"

Seemingly from out of nowhere, six men of various shapes and sizes rushed the woman and piled on top of her, making a, well, a dogpile.

"Well that takes care of that," Betty said.

"Not so, watch carefully," Florence replied.

The living pile of people started to slowly turn clockwise, then one by one, a man would be thrown from it. Finally, the last two people were thrown simultaneously upon the sawdust-covered floor. Some of them rose up to attack her anew, only to be thrown down again. Florence clapped her hands, ending the exercise.

"And that takes care of that. Brilliant job, Fiona," she said.

"Okay, I'm impressed," Betty replied.

"Me too, but I must ask what practical purpose this exercise serves," Irena asked.

"Me too," Shelly added.

"We had a client attacked by a mob of people a couple of years ago," Florence began. "The woman we had to guard the client was very skilled in tae kwon do, but her abilities were rendered almost useless in that situation."

"Ouch," Betty said.

"Don't take it too hard, Betty. I don't think Kim teaches her students with the idea of being a personal guard to some celebrity or important figure," Irena replied.

"Quite true; defending yourself and defending your neighbor are two different things. We have to work on adapting the mindset and the skills with every new recruit," Florence added.

"I guess it's silly of me to ask, but Fiona's discipline is aikido, right?" Mina asked.

Florence smiled back. "Oh yes," she answered.

"I've got a long way to go. It'll be forever before I can clean up dogpiles or fight off half an arena."

"Half an arena . . . so it was you folks who were involved in that little dust-up at the other club."

"No, just my teacher, Irena, Loretta, and Velvet."

"I was out of town," Betty said.

"We were there, but we don't count," Mia added, pointing to her and Shelly. "It was something."

"My word, I thought there were more of you," Florence said.

"We won, but we were "disqualified' because we had someone fighting "illegally,'" Velvet remarked, rolling her eyes.

"We wondered what was so illegal about using aikido over there. We were going over there to ask them," Loretta added.

"Well if you find out, you can tell me. It's illegal over here too," Florence said.

"What?" Shelly exclaimed.

"That makes no sense," Velvet said.

"Now I know why my teacher was laughing," Mina remarked.

"I've known that fight club to do some crazy things, but this no aikido rule at all these clubs is just plain ' stupid," Florence said.

"Well I still have some things to ask the ladies in charge over there, so we better be going," Betty said. "Pleasure meeting you, Florence."

"Oh don't leave yet, you'll miss the show," Florence replied.

"What show?"

"Normally the festivities start a little later, but there's a special bout that'll be starting in," Florence checked her watch, "in about two minutes. Clear out everybody! Thanks for your help, gentlemen."

Fiona joined Esther in the bleachers while the men rushed to the locker room. A small crowd of people, mostly women came in and sat on different ends of the small arena.

"I was asked to act as a judge in case things get messy, but this won't take long," Florence said, "but you'll be impressed."

"After seeing the tai chi presentation and the "dogpile' trick, I think anything else wouldn't be able to beat it," Loretta replied.

"Oh you'll see. Sit down, sit down, please."

The group had a seat by Esther and Fiona, neither one looking like they broke a sweat. Shortly after everyone sat down, a 5'8" blond woman of medium build appeared. It was obvious from the way she looked, she was a woman who worked out regularly. Her long hair was fashioned into a ponytail, and she was decked out in a teal tank top, and black boxing shorts. Running shoes with lo-rise socks completed the outfit. Almost as an afterthought, she pulled on black fingerless gloves. She jogged in place and shadow boxed a little to warm up. A small group of supporters cheered her on.

Out of the other side of the arena, another woman appeared, receiving a hushed silence. She stood 5'7", and though her build was covered up by a fleece outfit, it was no doubt athletic. Her long black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but not braided. With her hair being pulled back, her oriental features were displayed. Her fleece outfit was royal blue with large teal patches on the knees, elbows, and a large stripe across her chest. Unlike her opponent who wore gloves and shoes, this woman wore neither, being barehanded and barefooted.

"Uh oh," Shelly said.

"What?" Betty asked.

"You'll see," Mia answered.

"Doesn't anybody get introduced?" Velvet asked.

"Normally, but with a match this early, and the fighters well-known, they don't bother," Florence said. "By the way, the blond woman is Julie, and the other woman is Wai Lana."

"Thank you."

A woman wearing a black and white stripped shirt like a referee's brought together the two fighters to give the rundown on the rules. The blond tried to bore a hole through Wai Lana with her eyes, while Wai Lana looked like she couldn't have cared less. After the referee finished, both fighters took different sides of the arena, standing about ten feet apart.

A shout of "Begin!" from the referee started the match. Julie lunged forward and delivered four fast punches. Wai Lana slapped each punch away like she was shooing flies. The slaps on the arms seemed to echo through the arena. After the fourth punch, Wai Lana spun to Julie's right. She delivered three blows to different parts of Julie's body (though later, some debated the number). Julie fell face down in the sawdust and was still.

And the fight was over.

Wai Lana returned to where she came, and those who came for the fight either left, or sat still, waiting for the next match, which was an hour later.

After the group sat in silence for a few moments, Betty finally said, "I'm glad I didn't pay money for this match."

"Match? I'm still waiting for one," Velvet added sarcastically.

Betty turned to Shelly and Mia. "This is what you said "uh oh' about, isn't it?" She asked.

"Yeah, Wai Lana is one of our "high risk' fighters," Shelly said.

"High risk?"

"Yeah; if you want to risk your life, you can go ahead and fight her," Mia replied.

Betty quickly shook her head. "No thanks."

Florence flashed her wide smile and said, "See, I told you it wouldn't take long. Wai Lana is known as "The Whirlwind,'" she said.

"They got that right. How many times did she hit that woman?" Loretta asked.

"Three if I counted correctly," Irena said.

"Good economy of motion with her strikes," Mina added. "She only used the strikes she needed to knock Julie out. Uh, she is out, right?"

As if responding to Mina's question, a loud groan came from the prone form of Julie. Two friends ran over and helped her up.

"I hope she doesn't ask what hit her, because I couldn't tell her," Velvet said.

"So have you and Shelly ever taken her on, Mia?" Betty asked, to be answered by a vigorous shaking of the head from both women. "Don't blame you. Florence, is Wai Lana in your employ, or does she assassinate people for a living?"

Florence laughed, and then said, "No, she runs a floral nursery on the other end of town. She drops by once a month or so."

"Well I would definitely buy flowers from her."

"Why's that?"

"If she puts as much effort into growing things as she does her discipline ' kung fu, I'm guessing ' she probably has some of the best plants in town."

"Excellent theory."

"Also her hands aren't delicate looking; you can tell they're used for digging, and striking. And her feet look pretty tough too."

"Cool!" Mina said.

Irena put an arm around Mina. "You know, I knew there was something I liked about you," she said. "Stick with us, and we'll show you the true art of being barefoot."

"And on that note, we must be going. It's been a pleasure, Florence, Fiona, Esther," Betty said as she and the others left to go.

Florence waited until they were out of earshot, and then motioned Esther and Fiona over.

"Okay ladies, that tan woman with the black T-shirt and short black hair? Her name is Mina, and she has a black belt in aikido, and is quite well versed in tai chi," she said.

The two women nodded their heads, still listening.

"Furthermore, she's one of Jasmine Chang's students."

"Oh," they both said.

"What do you want us to do?" Fiona asked.

"I want you to find out everything about her. Befriend her, and I eventually want you to bring her to me so I can hire her. I'm also betting she'll lead you to more of Jasmine's students that I can hire too," Florence said.

"It'll be a pleasure. She appears to be a pretty nice person," Esther said.

"Who can be one of the fiercest people to protect others. Now go catch them, I'll see you later."

"Okay, let me get my shoes," Fiona started.

"Shoes? They weren't wearing shoes, so why should you? Get going!"

As they left, Florence leaned back and smiled. Ever since she met Jasmine and found out she taught others her disciplines, she's wanted to hire a few of her students. Surprisingly, the normally easygoing martial artist became somewhat maternal on the subject. Florence decided to honor her wishes for a time. After all, Jasmine was always happy to carry out a few short-term assignments for her every now and then. That was provided no one else knew, and the assignments were out of town. She said her sister would throw a fit. That clause also prohibited Florence from making recruiting visits to Jasmine's dojo.

However, business was going well, excellent as a matter of fact. So well, she was running out of bodyguards to watch over her clients. People like Jasmine, Fiona, and Esther were great, but they could only guard one client at a time, and part-timers like Jasmine had other commitments. So Florence couldn't go to Jasmine's classes. But what if one of her students came to her?

If Jasmine got a little miffed at her, it'll be no big deal in the long run. In fact, both their businesses will benefit. Florence glanced at her watch. She had some time, might as well watch the next match while she was here.

Meanwhile, Betty and company were making their way to the exit.

"At least that woman got a workout," Shelly said, remarking on Wai Lana's match.

"That wasn't a workout," Velvet objected. "With a workout, you at least break a sweat. She wasn't even breathing hard."

"Then what would you call it?"

"If I was Julie, I'd call it painful," Irena said.

The group's laughter was interrupted by a voice from behind them.

"Betty Conrad!" The voice said.

The group stopped in their tracks and slowly turned to see who it was.

"Yes, I'm Betty Conrad," Betty said, expecting the gauntlet to be thrown down any moment. She inwardly groaned when she saw it was Wai Lana.

"You are Betty Conrad, the mechanic?" Wai Lana asked.

"That's me."

"I understand you run a busy shop, per your reputation."

Betty took a good look at the gardener/fighter. She was still dressed in the same outfit, and Velvet was right, she hadn't broken a sweat.

"Yeah, we keep ourselves occupied," Betty replied.

Wai Lana laughed lightly. "Then I know of someone who can help lighten your load a little."

Betty inwardly exhaled a little, and glanced at Irena before looking back at Wai Lana. "You mean an assistant mechanic?" Irena said, hopefully.

"Yes. I was actually planning to drop by your shop. You see that white pickup outside? She almost literally rebuilt it from scratch," Wai Lana explained, pointing a finger toward a late model pickup. Betty and Irena went over to it and started examining the vehicle. "She found the shell in a farmer's garage and replaced it with everything new. I think it may even run better than my later model car."

Betty and Irena were still examining the truck, nodding their heads to let Wai Lana know they were still listening.

"What are they doing?" Mina whispered to the others.

"It's a mechanic thing," Loretta replied. "Sort of like Jedi Knights with a wrench."

"The way they're circling the truck, I was thinking they may be doing a sort of Vulcan mind-meld," Velvet said.

"As long as my car runs, I don't care what they do," Mia remarked. The others grunted their agreement.

Wai Lana laughed lightly and leaned against the driver's side door. "I can have her on your doorstep tomorrow morning," she said.

"Yes mam!" Betty replied, very impressed with the work on the truck. Irena nodded.

"A few other things that you may find of interest," Wai Lana said as she climbed into her seat. "Like us, she doesn't like shoes, but she's fond of socks. Her name is Kym with a "y," and she is a third degree black belt in hapkido, and very strong. She can be very effective in getting rid of . . . unwanted customers."

With that, she closed the door, started the truck, rolled down the window, and drove off.

"Tell her she's hired!" Betty yelled. Wai Lana waved back on her way out of the parking lot.

"Well that takes care of that," Loretta said.

"Not that I claim to be an expert on hiring people, but don't you need to see this woman's resume or something before you hire someone you've never seen?" Velvet asked.

"I did," Betty said, pointing to the pickup going down the road. "Granted, I'll ask her some things when she shows up tomorrow, along with some paperwork, but the work she did on that truck is quality stuff. Only a trained eye could tell you that the truck in its original form was ten years old."

"Ten years old?"

"Cool!" Mina exclaimed.

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Mina," Loretta replied.

"I think I need to change mechanics," Mia said. "The one I go to charges too much, I think."

"Who is it?" Betty asked.

"Mac Duffs."

"And you still have a car left?" Irena said. "You better come to us, we know how to treat a car. Many of our customers used to go to Mac Duffs."

"Many of the problems we fix are from customers who used to go to Mac Duffs," Betty commented.

"I knew something was up when they charged me $45 for an oil change," Shelly said.

"Forty-five dollars? Was that with or without the gun?" Mina remarked.

"The only reason I haven't exposed him is because he's too sneaky. But if somebody asks for more than twenty dollars for an oil change, go somewhere else," Betty said.

"Let me guess, that's how much you charge for an oil change?" Shelly asked.

Betty just smiled.

"Now that you gained two more customers, let's check out the other fight club before they suddenly come up with a reason not to answer questions," Velvet said.

"Hey gang!" A couple of voices said behind them.

"We'll get there eventually," Loretta remarked as she and the others turned to see Fiona and Esther trot toward them.

"We were through with practice, and had nothing better to do. Can we come along with you to the other fight club?" Esther said.

Betty turned shrugging her shoulders to the others who shrugged their shoulders in return. "I knew there was a reason to take two cars. Sure, why not?" She said.

The trip to the other fight club wasn't long, and it wasn't eventful, on the surface. Esther and Fiona wasted no time hanging with Mina and bonding with her. Before they arrived, they had dinner plans with Mina, and her classmates Debbie and Li. After a persuasive speech from their boss, the three will be signing bodyguard contracts in no time. Florence would be pleased.

The fight clubs' festivities hadn't started as of yet; they were still determining who would be fighting who. Though she had never been there before, Betty noticed something familiar.

"These women look familiar," she said.

"You know, I didn't say anything last time, but you're right, they do look familiar," Irena replied.

What really capped it off was when Betty glanced over at a muscular black woman reading a roster on a bulletin board. When she glanced casually in Betty's direction, her eyes narrowed when she saw the mechanic. Recognition instantly registered in Betty's mind as she turned to Irena.

"Now I know," she said. "Remember that woman who wanted to wear my pelt as a coat?" She cocked her head slightly toward the woman glaring at them, nostrils flaring.

Irena saw her out of the corner of her eye. "Yes, you gave her a roundhouse kick to the head several months ago. Oh my!" She said.

"So are you going to tell us what's up, or are you going to leave us in suspense?" Velvet asked. "And what's with this beast looking at us like she wants to eat us?"

"My friends, I must apologize," Irena began.

"For what, girl? It's not your fault we had to fight the whole arena," Loretta replied.

"What Irena is trying to say is we've fought at least eighty percent of the whole arena before," Betty explained. "And if they came down and "invited' you out of the blue . . ."

Irena smacked her forehead. "Then it was a setup! Why didn't I catch that?" She explained.

"I swear to you, we knew nothing about that. We thought it was just a challenge, not a plan for revenge," Shelly said. "We had no idea." Irena placed a hand on her shoulder and on Mia's.

"I believe you; but I suspect Leah and Diana knew that all along." She replied.

"I admit there was something strange about it, but I didn't know what," Loretta replied. "So what happened to our lady friend here on that day? I would've remembered her."

"She was unfortunate enough to be in Jasmine's way. She pushed Jasmine, Jasmine didn't move, then she pushed back, and the woman went flying. It looked like she did it with the touch of her hands too," Velvet said.

"That's my teacher!" Mina added with a touch of pride.

"You should be proud; they attacked her, but she just calmly threw them away like garbage."

Esther and Fiona were about to agree with Velvet's assessment, but remembered they needed to feign ignorance about Jasmine's abilities.

"I'm sorry to admit it, but I feel a little relieved. I thought they were mad at us," Mia said, pointing to her and Shelly.

"No harm done, I'm kind of used to it," Betty smiled as they approached the arena area.

"Betty, I know I've just met you and everything, but you seem like a pretty nice person. So why do all these people not like you?" Mina asked.

"It's a long story. I'll explain it to you later, but right now, let's find out what they have against your teacher," Betty replied as she saw more angry looks sent her way.

Standing on one side of the arena were Diana and Leah, the leaders of the Battle Barn, debating with two women where they would be fighting on the night's roster. Diana was black with long hair in a ponytail, and Leah was white with long blond hair also in a ponytail. Outside of those obvious differences, they both stood 5'9" with the same slim athletic build. They both wore silver sports bras with firm black biking shorts, white socks, and black and silver running shoes. They both regarded Mia and Leah with a sneer as the group approached.

"It's bad enough you didn't help us out, now you have to bring them in here?" Leah snarled.

"And hello to you too," Shelly replied.

"We have questions and we want answers," Irena demanded.

"We don't owe you anything," Diana said dismissively.

"Hello Diana," Loretta said. "How's your head?"

"There's a nasty bump on your forehead; how did that get there?" Velvet added.

That raised the ire of the duet as they approved Velvet and Loretta, ready to do battle. Betty jumped in-between them.

"Now, now, ladies, let's settle down a bit and talk things over," Betty said.

"Betty," Diana said as Leah and her sat down, making the name sound like a curse.

"You're Diana, right? And you're Leah? Okay, this is my first time meeting you. I don't understand the hostility, but that's your privilege. Irena, Loretta, and Velvet, you would have a bigger reason for the animosity, but Shelly and Mia are friends of yours; why put the hate on them?"

The two were silent.

"An answer sometime tonight would be nice," Betty added.

"They didn't help us," Leah spat out.

"Help! You had the whole place fight us!" Velvet said.

"We told you we weren't going to gang up on an opponent, there's no honor in that!" Shelly exclaimed.

"But when you two agreed to take on Irena, you instead befriended her and dropped out completely," Diana hissed.

"That's because we agreed one of us would take on Irena in a simple match, and that was before we found out who she was! Someone supplied us with bad intel," Mia said.

"So because of this, you're hanging around with the enemy," Leah commented.

"The "enemy?' We only did this on a competition basis; we had no idea you were going send all of their old foes against them. What did that slug of a boyfriend start telling you, anyway?" Shelly almost yelled.

"I'll let that pass about our boyfriends, but Diana wouldn't have been injured if you helped like you were supposed to."

"Because Jasmine had the good sense to move out of the way before you kicked Diana in the head?" Velvet quipped.

In the midst of the fire, Mina giggled at Velvet's remark.

"That's my teacher!" She remarked.

"And who are you?" Diana asked like she was addressing a cockroach.

"I'm Mina, one of Jasmine's students."

"Jasmine wasn't able to make it today, so she sent one of her senior students on her behalf," Betty said. "We're a little curious about the fact you can allow all types of fighters, and have all types of contests, yet you ban one fighter because she uses aikido."

Diana snapped her fingers at someone nearby, and a shorter red haired woman in gray sweat clothes appeared, and she ordered her to get the black book lying on her desk.

"You have servants now?" Mia asked.

"Yeah, maybe we do. What's it to you anyway, you and Shelly are banned right now, so don't worry about it. Yes, thank you Jenn. Here, I marked it for just in case. Here it is: "All Female Fight Clubs will welcome all of the various fight forms, styles, disciplines, and their variations, with the exception of Aikido and it's parent art, Daito-ryu. Any victories won in such a match using either of these styles would be considered null and void with the fighter disqualified.'"

"Let me see that!" Irena blurted out, then restrained herself. "Please."

Diana presented the bylaw to her and the others like it was a hard-won trophy. She snapped her fingers again, and Jenn materialized to take the book and bring it back to the office.

"Any questions?" She asked.

"Yes, who came up with that rule?" Velvet asked.

"Whoever decided to create these clubs in the first place. Who they are, I couldn't tell you!"

"Can't or won't?" Loretta asked.

"I don't know who they are, okay? When we assumed leadership, the woman who led before us said read this book, follow it, and outside of that, do anything you like," Diana replied, growing a little tired of the conversation.

"I see," Betty commented.

"Whenever you see the woman who wrote those bylaws, you may want to tell her that her history is a little inaccurate," Loretta remarked.

"What are you talking about?" Diana erupted.

"Aikido originated primarily from two martial arts, Daito-ryu and Jujitsu. Throw in some Kendo for the evasive maneuvers, take out the potentially fatal holds, and you have aikido. Of course jujitsu by itself is the parent to a few other disciplines, such as Brazilian Jujitsu . . ."

"Sambo," Irena piped in.

"And judo!" Velvet replied.

"So if the founder of these female fight clubs wanted to ban something, she should have started with jujitsu and its variations. Of course that would knock out half of the martial arts that came from Japan alone. At least there's still the martial arts coming from China, and other places like the Philippines, but all you would have left, well, there wouldn't be much of anything left, would there?" Loretta said.

"Okay, okay, I got the point. Now unless you plan on fighting tonight, we really need to get started. I'm sure you all can show yourselves out the door." Diana made a grand gesture towards the exit.

The group turned and started to make their way toward the exit. Esther and Fiona, who decided to remain silent during the encounter, couldn't help noticing the hostile looks sent in their direction.

"You know," Leah said to Diana as they were leaving, "It's a shame that woman ' Jasmine was her name, right? ' isn't allowed to fight here. Against you and I, she got lucky. She might be fine against unskilled fighters, but against people who know what they're doing, she's worse than useless. Maybe that's why her style was banned, to keep them from being slaughtered."

As they laughed to each other, Mina, who was within earshot, turned around and headed back towards the duo.

"Excuse me, but did you say something about my teacher being "worse than useless?'" Mina asked.

Fiona and Esther noticing that their prospect did an about face, acting more out of instinct than thought, turned around and pursued her. Loretta, who was observing the hostile reactions from the women ' many of whom she had a hand in defeating ' causally looked behind her and saw three women going the other way. She nudged Velvet, who tapped Irena on the shoulder. She placed one hand each on the shoulders of Mia and Shelly, who were each dwelling on the possible end of a friendship. They also turned around and headed back. By the time Betty touched the door, she realized that no one was behind her. She turned and saw everyone headed back to the arena. Shrugging, she sighed and followed them.

"Oh that's right, I forgot, you're one of her pups, aren't you?" Leah sneered.

"I am one of her students, thank you very much, and regarding her abilities, she is far from "useless,' many people could testify to that," Mina said in rebuttal.

"Really? So how good a teacher is she?"

"One of the best. She could take the most complex moves and explain it so simply, a ten-year-old could understand it."

"How good are you?"

"Oh, pretty good, I guess. Good enough to move out of the way of a roundhouse kick. I can say that because I've done it."

Leah walked a little closer to Mina, examining her with distain. "It's a pity your art is banned, otherwise I'd enjoy wiping up the floor with you, and throwing your sorry butt out of here."

"You forget, my teacher knows two disciplines, aikido and tai chi. Tai chi isn't banned in your precious bylaws, are they?"

"You going to use that old people stuff on me?" Leah laughed. "Bring it on then."

Everyone in the arena could sense an impromptu fight was brewing, and started coming closer to see the action. Velvet, Irena, and Loretta, remembering the free-for-all that occurred the last time they were there, started to form an informal line of defense so the two wouldn't be interrupted.

"Mina, you don't need to do this," Betty said.

"Maybe not, but I need to teach her a lesson. My teacher is not here to speak for herself, so I am not going to allow her name to be defiled in my presence," Mina replied.

Leah was now bouncing around, taunting. "So what are you waiting for, little girl, huh?" She said.

"I'm waiting for you," Mina said neutrally.

Not wasting the opportunity, Leah waded in to perform her left-right combination with a left kick. This time, instead of aiming for the head like she did Jasmine, she decided to aim for a lower risk target, the upper chest. Mina performed the movement known as Wave Hands Like Clouds, normally a graceful hand movement in a solo form, in this case it parried all of Leah's punches and kicks. Angered by this, Leah charged in close to pound Mina. In response, Mina gave her a push, which propelled Leah back several feet before she fell over on her side.

Calm and composed, Mina walked over to the surprised kickboxer, and asked, "Is that all you've got, little girl?"

With a scream, Leah lunged at Mina, who caught one of her arms and flung her to the side. Leah replied with a low kick to the shin, which Mina sidestepped, threw two more punches, and then ran into Mina's fist. At least that's what it looked like; no one seemed to know where it came from, except Mina and Leah. However, Leah was no longer available for discussion, as she fell down on her back like a felled tree.

The arena was silent. Many were stunned. Diana didn't even have the chance to root for her friend. At the moment, jumping in to avenge her didn't seem to be a good idea.

"Does anyone else want to doubt the power of my teacher?" Mina asked, giving the crowd a calm stare. Suddenly everyone had something else to do. Even the tall muscular black woman saw something on the other side of the arena that needed to be attended to.

"I think we know our way out," Mina concluded, and walked toward the exit. It took the rest of the group an extra second to realize she was leaving, and went after her.

"I'll join you in a second, ladies; I'm going to have a little talk with Diana for a moment," Betty said as she stepped over Leah and sat down next to Diana.

Diana snapped her fingers frantically, and Jenn, needing no prompting, ran over to Leah's side to revive her. That done, she slowly turned to Betty.

"What do you want?" She breathed; keeping an eye on Leah to make sure everything was all right.

"I just want to talk to you a second, that's all. I came in peace, remember?" Betty said.

"What?"

"As you know, I am a mechanic, some say a pretty good one, but that's neither here nor there. Being a mechanic, one of the things I know how to do is put things together. That sometimes requires taking things apart, but again, that's beside the point."

"So what is your point?"

"My point is I know you and Leah, or somebody set this up as a plan to get me. Since I was out of town at the time, I suppose you figured beating up my friends would be the next best thing. Then you folks would probably come and get me while I was in shock or something."

"What gave you that idea?"

"Don't play ignorant, it doesn't suit you. Ever since I opened my garage, I've been challenged by all sorts of people. All sorts; but they have generally one thing in common, a reason. They either want to be the toughest person in town, prove a point, or even earn a few bucks, believe it or not. But a fight club suddenly coming out of nowhere to challenge me? Come on! I wondered what was the deal with that, until I came in here and saw all the people I've whacked across the head. Tell me, Diana, did they pay you, do you enjoy beating up people, or was it just a fun idea?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Diana said indignantly.

"Right. You know, Mia was right, your boyfriends didn't send you good information. Irena, as Shelly and Mia told you, has a black belt in Sambo, and at one time was a winner of the cage fights in Russia, and from what I understand, those fights could get pretty brutal. Velvet is an assistant instructor of judo at The Iron Foot, a name after my own heart. Loretta teaches Brazilian Jujitsu, and some of her students have gone on to train other fighters for mixed martial arts tournaments, where one of them recently won a title. And Jasmine, otherwise known as Xerox, the Magician, and numerous other nicknames, could be considered one of the most dangerous people around. Count yourself lucky she was not angry. I've heard stories about her that would blow your mind. But that's not my main point."

Diana glanced over towards Leah, who was showing signs of coming around. Betty grabbed her chin and jerked it toward her.

"My main point is this. You better consider it a good thing that my friends have won, because if they didn't, if you harmed one hair on any of their heads, then you have to deal with me, and believe me, while I don't have the graceful moves of Jasmine or Mina, or a throwing expert like Velvet or Loretta, I can kick your head clean off, and that's when I'm in a good mood. Do not come near my friends or me again.

"And speaking of friends, I should whack you across the head for how you used two of yours. Mia and Shelly were good friends with you and Leah, but you knew they would not go willingly into some plan to gang up on yours truly and company for no reason. So instead, you make up this cock-and-bull story about how mean a person I am, and how I do things like beat people up at the drop of a hat for any reason. Like friends would do, they believed you, but your story had a few holes."

Diana opened her mouth to deny the charges, but Betty stopped her.

"Don't even try it; Shelly and Mia told us, and it doesn't sound like something they'd make up on a whim. Do you know the reason they were big fans of Irena when they watched the Russian Cage Fights? It's because of how they fought, and her personal sense of honor. They thought she looked familiar when they saw her at the garage, but they thought nah, she couldn't be here in the states. When she mentioned she fought in Russia that night at the Battle Barn, that pretty much did it for them. I believe you two knew all along, but you decided not to tell them. Your boyfriends would catch the heat, but hey, they never liked them to begin with."

"They're jealous," Diana mumbled in a low voice. Betty burst out laughing.

"Of them? Irena, Loretta, Velvet, and Jasmine described them to me, along with additional insight from Mia and Shelly; and the big mystery to us is why them? I heard you two even used to be nice people before you started seeing these guys. I'd recommend you keep those two heavily guarded, because Shelly and Mia vowed to give them great bodily harm next time they see them. They were going to wait for you two to break up with them first, but since that ain't happening . . ."

"Are you finished?" Diana nearly shouted, trying to glance at Leah and glare at Betty at the same time.

"Yeah, I'm finished. I need to thank Mina; I was going to tell you two this later, but I'm glad I got it out of the way," Betty said as she rose to go.

"Don't come here again," Diana replied, barely audible.

"And now you threaten me. I didn't even know this place existed until you showed up at my garage a month or so ago. Now you threaten me for responding to a plan to take me out. You're a real piece of work. Go tend to your friend. She's probably all you have left."

Irena, Velvet, and Loretta trotted in as Betty left Diana.

"Are you all right?" Irena asked. "When you didn't come out right away, we started to wonder."

"I'm fine," Betty replied, "I was just giving Diana some facts of life. Let's stop by someplace to get a bite to eat."

At their cars, Velvet asked Mina, "What did you hit her with? I didn't even see it!"

"It's called the one-inch punch," Mina replied. "It's not a part of either of our disciplines, but Jasmine insisted we need to learn it. She said you'd never know when it'll come in handy. Leah just happened to be in range, so, boom!"

"The one-inch punch, eh? I'm sure Jasmine has an interesting story about that," Betty said.

"Really? Tell me."

"No, I think Jasmine will share it with you, eventually. Me, I just want to go somewhere I can relax, eat some food, and not have a thousand eyes staring at me. Anyone else game?

Friends are as precious as gold, and much more valuable; that was a quote that Betty's dad once told her long ago. He also went on to say a fool and his money are soon parted, but he who loses his friends frivolously is truly a fool. Being in a business where personal contact was just as important as quality service, Betty heeded those sayings.

As she got ready for work the next day, she couldn't help thinking about the lost friendship between Shelly and Mia and Leah and Diana. As she shared her thoughts with Irena who came over and joined her at the breakfast table, she asked her the one nagging question, why?

"No telling," Irena responded. "We may never know. Diana and Leah may know, but they may never mention it to anyone, even themselves."

"If we don't have anything else going on, maybe we could invite Mia and Shelly to dinner or something. They looked pretty down last night," Betty said.

"Good idea."

As they made it out to the garage, they saw that Wai Lana was true to her word. For sitting on the front steps of the garage's office was Kym, her own toolbox laying at her feet. The woman was Asian American, later revealed to be Korean in ancestry, and stood 5'6" in height. Her build was stocky, similar to a weightlifter's build, and about as solid. Her arms alone were big and muscular. She had short black hair that was no longer than her earlobes, and a comely face with eyes that could clearly show anger to concern with a crease of the eyebrow. At the moment, they displayed excitement as Betty and Irena approached. She almost looked like she would be playing a backyard game of basketball, for she wore a yellow tank top basketball jersey, and yellow shorts with bright white socks. No shoes were anywhere to be found.

"I have heard so much about you two!" Kym said as she gave each woman a firm handshake.

"All good, I hope," Betty replied.

"That Camaro you rebuilt for one of the businessmen in town is a thing of beauty. Wai Lana told me that you made that car. And I saw one of the trucks you've rebuilt, Irena. When I saw them, I knew I had to meet you. It'll be even greater working for you both."

"Actually I like to think you'll be working with us, and we saw the work of art you did with Wai Lana's truck."

"We started calling it the "Time Machine' because of how you updated it," Irena added.

"Like it? I did that same approach with a '67 Thunderbird a year ago. Somebody bet I couldn't do it," Kym said. "After I was through, I added a custom stereo and a GPS system to boot."

"Did someone buy it?" Irena asked.

"Buy it? People nearly got into fistfights just to touch it. I had to conduct a silent auction to prevent bloodshed."

"Well let me give you a little secret," Betty said. "We have a few businessmen and businesses who like buying souped up classic cars. Some have gone as far as taking me to the junkyard, pointing out a chassis to me, buying it, having it brought to the garage, and tell me what they want when I build it."

"That keeps us very busy," Irena replied.

"So busy, the two of us don't have the time to get to all the requests. If you can do your magic on our regular customers, you can start work on one of our backorders. And the profit from the sales of the custom made cars you build is all yours."

"This was more than Kym could take. "When do I start?" She blurted out.

"Soon. First we need to get you some coveralls to wear in place of this yellow," Betty replied. "What about your socks?"

"Don't worry about them, I buy them in bulk."

"And you can greet our first customer," Irena said as she saw a car approach. "You can greet them with a smile, and tell them . . . oh no."

"What's wrong, Irena? What are you . . . oh man, not now!" Betty said as two women got out of the car. One was Jenn, Diana and Leah's maidservant, dressed in a one-piece swimsuit, and the tall muscular black woman, dressed in a black sports bra and short shorts. The outfit could almost double as a modest bikini, because the outfit looked so small against her frame.

"Let me guess; I made Diana mad, so she sent you two to get me," Betty started.

"No, we came on our own; you made her cry," the large woman said. "We don't like that."

"Is this part of the interview?" Kym asked.

"No! No!" Betty and Irena said.

"We figured a nice little visit in the morning would make her happy, if you know what I mean," the black woman continued.

"Look, what I said about yesterday was between Diana and me, and Leah if she was conscious to hear any of it. Somehow, I don't think she shared that with you," Betty explained.

The black woman stared at Betty for a moment, and then smiled and shrugged. "You're right; I don't need much of a reason to crush you anyway," she said.

"Who is this woman?" Kym asked.

"Some woman who came by one day, and said she wanted to wear Betty's hide like a coat," Irena said. "Betty gave her a kick to the head, and laid her out."

"And what about you, Jenn? You here to earn brownie points with your bosses?" Betty asked. Jenn just shrugged and smiled.

"We came here first thing in the morning so you wouldn't have to pencil us in. Isn't that nice of us?" The large woman taunted. "Of course you wouldn't be in any shape to work, but what can you do?"

"What can I do? I can give you a whack across the head like I did last time if you don't leave here now," Betty began, but Kym placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Betty, I got this," Kym said.

"I appreciate that, Kym, but-"

"Aside from assisting you on cars, Wai Lana also sent me to take care of . . . pest control. Now go ahead and do what you normally do to open the garage. I'll take out the garbage." And before Betty could object, Kym walked toward the giantess.

The large intruder looked at Kym, and asked, "And who might you be, little China?"

"Why I'm the new sheriff in town. And if you want to address ancestry, that's Korea, not China. Now if you have a problem with Betty, you take it up with me," Kym replied.
"Kym, wait a minute!" Irena shouted.

"The same goes for Irena as well. Now will you leave peacefully, or do I need to "escort' you off the premises?"

"You're nothing to me," the woman said as she attempted to push Kym aside to get to Betty. "Now move out of my way or I'll crush you too."

What happened next took only a moment. Kym grasped the woman's left wrist. The tall woman immediately pivoted with a right fist speeding toward Kym's head. The sucker punch was designed to knock out or at least stun its victim long enough for a finishing move, or in this woman's case, to reach Betty, her actual target. But the hand Kym used to grasp her wrist, she snapped it up to deflect the blow. The unexpected parry threw the tall woman a little off balance. Kym then took her other hand (her right hand) and slammed it against her neck, using a knife hand blow. Kym sidestepped just enough to allow the big woman to fall down like a redwood tree.

Jenn, who just sat back and watched the whole thing, smiled and gave everyone the two-finger peace sign as she checked out the fallen woman. Then to everyone's surprise, she lifted her up and hoisted her on her shoulder.

As Jenn carried her off, Kym said, "There is a new tough woman in town! Anyone who comes to fight Betty fights me instead. Tell your neighbors!"

Jenn nodded her agreement as she loaded the black woman in the back seat of the car, waved, and drove off.

"That was great, Kym; but are you sure you want the responsibility of handling my headaches?" Betty said.

"Yes; when Wai Lana saw my skills, she told me that there was probably room in your garage for another mechanic. She also told me about your problems with "pests and varmints.' We agreed that if I were hired on, I would take on the role of "the new toughest girl in town.' And yes, I've had extensive experience in that department, but hopefully what you just saw bore witness to that," Kym said.

"Do you work out? Well, it's obvious you do, but what do you do?" Irena asked.

"Powerlifting; I try to balance it out among work and my few remaining classes at the college nearby."

"Working around your school schedule shouldn't be hard, right, Betty? Betty, what are you looking at?"

"Just thinking," Betty said. "Hey, how much do you know about Jenn?"

"Not too much," Irena replied. "Velvet thought she was a woman she threw around a couple of times that one night, but it was someone else. Why do you ask?"

"When I saw her yesterday, she was doing every whim Diana and Leah wanted her to do. The funny thing about it is she's about as muscular as Kym. I find it hard for someone like that to be someone's flunky."

"I remember her now," Kym said. "I saw her at the Thunderdome once."

"Thunderdome?"

"Fist of Thunder, Thunderdome, something like that. Every now and then, I went with Wai Lana; she would show up once a month to keep her skills sharp. She thought she might be getting rusty."

"Rusty? I can't imagine what she'd be like at the top of her game," Betty replied.

"Me either, kind of scary. Anyway, she, Jenn that is, was taking on some mixed martial arts woman one day. It wasn't long."

"Did she win?" Irena asked.

Kym made a dismissive gesture. "She destroyed her! Her fighting style seemed to be similar to Wai Lana's, quick and brutal."

"Really?" Betty replied.

"You know, I remember seeing Jenn that night we were at the Battle Barn," Irena said, deep in thought. "She was sitting in a secluded part of the bleachers. I saw her out of the corner of my eye. She was the only one still sitting."

"Frankly, I can't imagine why she would hang around the Battle Barn. That would be a step down from Thunder- the other place," Kym remarked.

"And she didn't show up at the free-for-all at the barn, and she came with Godzilla so she could see me whack her across the head, I guess," Betty said.

"I'm confused," Irena replied.

"Actually it reminds me of a movie I saw once. And no, Irena, it didn't have any car chases. It had these five crooks; all of them were thugs except for this stringbean who was bent over and had a limp. That guy would deliver orders from a "Mr. Big,' or something like that. This guy was the only one who was allowed to see Mr. Big. When he wasn't delivering orders, he would get ridiculed and abused by the other thugs. I forgot all the details of the main plot, but while they were trying to get this major score, it went well, but in waiting for the heat to cool down, several of the thugs would end up getting arrested or shot.

"Finally there was only two left, a thug and the cripple. The thug tells the cripple that Mr. Big can keep the money; it's not worth it. He jumps in his car and drove away. After he's gone, the cripple suddenly straightened up and strolled down the street, no limp. It turned out he was Mr. Big after all."

"I saw that movie! The end, I never saw it coming!" Kym exclaimed.

"So if Jenn is playing a role . . ." Irena reasoned.

"It means Leah and Diana have a much bigger problem than illegal fighters or me," Betty said. "But you know what? It's not my problem!" She slapped Kym on the shoulder. "C'mon Kym, let's get you some coveralls. We might have some that will fit over those broad shoulders of yours."

"I should be fine unless I turn green and grow three more feet," Kym quipped.

"Than we'll just remember not to make you angry, comrade," Irena laughed as they walked into the office.

Later that evening, Florence poured herself a ginger ale and sat back in her recliner to watch one of her favorite shows. She wore a flowing black robe over a purple leotard. She crossed her bare feet on her footstool, and took a sip when the phone rang. Reaching for the end table, she answered it.

"Hello?" She said.

"How could you do this!"

"Well good evening, Jasmine. How are you?" Florence replied.

"How do you think I'm doing? I arrive at my dojo to say goodbye, and I hear three of my students bubbling over with the news that they're going to be bodyguards."

"And good ones too. You should've heard what Mina did with that Leah woman. It was-"

"It was all I could do to keep from pulling my hair out!"

"Oh come now, Jasmine; that's not like you."

"We had a deal, Florence!" Jasmine shouted.

"Yes we did, I don't visit your dojo to recruit, lest your sister, cousin, and/or friends find out. But Mina literally walked into my session, my "dojo,' so to speak, where I was working with my ladies, so she was fair game," Florence explained.

"But that was Mina. What about Debbie and Li?"

"Oh I had little to do with the whole process. I just had Esther and Fiona befriend Mina, and the rest was history."

"Your two little henchmen, I should've known. So after they entrapped Mina, they went after Li and Debbie."

"Not at all. The three became great friends, and Mina called Li and Debbie to tell them about this "cool opportunity.' They almost begged me to sign up. Goodness, Jasmine, you make it sound like I staged a coup or something."

Jasmine sighed.

"And the five of them plan on having pizza and a movie this weekend, shoes optional," Florence continued.

"What?"

"Yes; after the other day, Mina was singing the praises of the barefoot life and how she felt so free once she left her shoes at home, how the earth felt fabulous beneath her feet, and all that. She talked the others into doing it. She said she wished she did this sooner."

There was an audible groan from Jasmine's end of the line.

"Jasmine, are you okay?"

Jasmine replied more to herself than to Florence. "I can't blame Rini for this, she's too far away; no, this started with Kim and LS, from the stories I told about them. Yeah, they're to blame for all this."

"Jasmine?"

"Excuse me, I was thinking of someone to pin the shoeless thing on. Anyway, did you tell them how potentially dangerous this stuff could be?"

"Yes, Jasmine, I gave them the same spiel I gave you, and no, your name was not mentioned anywhere in there. They have no idea that you're also employed with us."

"Maybe you could put them on some probationary period until they-"

"Jasmine! These are your students, not your children. They are adults, and able to make their own choices. As far as their abilities, your class fought off a karate dojo, and Mina took out that kickboxer with only two or three tai chi movements, and that one-inch punch technique you taught them. What more do you want?"

"Wait a minute, she used the one-inch punch?" Jasmine asked.

"Yes; she didn't tell you? Well of course not. It knocked Leah flat out. Most everybody didn't see her move her arm, much less the punch," Florence explained.

[To see one of Jasmine's old friends use that punch, the one who taught it to her, you could check out No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, on sale now in my bookshelf. Okay, it's free, but it's there if you want to read it. ' Mongoose.]

"Well maybe they'll do fine, after all. But you better take good care of them."

"Yeah, yeah; don't you have an aikido convention to go to?"

"I'm almost there; I entered the city limits a little while ago. I waited until I was at a place with little or no traffic so I could yell at you," Jasmine said.

"That's nice of you. I should've known you were using the headset; your sister is usually home at this time," Florence replied.

"Florence, just make sure they're okay."

"You know I will."

"I'll hold you to that."

"Since the first place you'll go to will be your parents, give them my love, and have Jon give me a call."

"I don't think so," Jasmine said defensively of her brother.

"Tell him I want to take him out for dinner sometime."

"Not happening."

"Look Jasmine, sooner or later, somebody is going to nab your brother, so it might as well be me."

"No way."

"Especially when I see that trim body-"

"Florence, no."

" ' and that face, with those lips you long to kiss-"

"We're not having this conversation, Florence -"

"I like that sweet little laugh of his, it makes me melt -"

"That's enough, Florence."

"No, tell you what, forget dinner, I'm just going to give the man a big kiss on the mouth."

"Goodbye, Florence."

"Goodbye."

Florence leaned back in her chair and laughed. Nothing could get Jasmine off the subject faster than mentioning her baby brother, who Jasmine and her sister Kim are so protective of. At the moment, the chances of her going out with Jon would be slim, but the way the sisters were watching over him, he'd be lucky to go on a date before he's forty.

In any case, the fact was she now had three new bodyguards to train, and plenty of clients who'll need her services. Ah, life is good.

Suddenly the phone rang again. Glancing at the caller ID before she picked it up, she said, "Jasmine?"

"I was just thinking; I may have another potential bodyguard for you," Jasmine said.

"Another student?" Florence asked.

"No, a close friend. We trained and belted together."

"Well if she trained with you, she ought to be good. When can you bring her in?"

"I don't know, because I haven't asked her yet. But I'm sure she'll be looking for a new start."

"A new start. Are her skills rusty?"

"Hardly, she used them quite a bit. Look, I was giving you a head's up. I'm at my folk's house now, I'll call you later, bye."

Florence put the phone down as she looked at the screen, her interest of the TV show was lost to her. She couldn't help wondering who this mystery woman was that Jasmine talked about.

For comments, suggestions, or story ideas, email the author at shrewsberry@juno.com.

#2009 Barefoot Heroines, Inc.