President Gorran looked out the window at the underwater city of Satori from his new PSI headquarters. Ever since the transfer here two months ago, it seemed everything had been moving according to his plans. Just a week ago, the city of Cygnus had come under his control and he was expecting at least three more cities by the end of the month. Though he controlled a third of the world's cities, none of the population was aware of his control.

Yet there were rumors of a Rebellion underground. So far, none of his agents had been able to find any of the Rebellion’s bases. That concerned Gorran because the Emperor was becoming very angry at not being able to find any of the bases or the Rebel HQ.

As he started to walk back to his desk, he contemplated what General Dorrel had said in his report. The General had informed Gorran that the conduit project had been completed at Sol. They could start transporting troops at his leisure. Gorran sat down in his chair and turned on the intercom. "Lacy, please get me the troop manifests for each city under our control."

"Yes, Mr. President," came the immediate reply.

Gorran clicked it off. Yes, he would send troops to this Conduit Project and there he would let Dorrel take care of it. Now I wonder where I should eat for tonight?

The crack of a jaw being broken was heard throughout the arena. The crowd went wild as Duncaan Keriador, kickboxing, Tae-Kwon-Do, and Judo expert had just knocked down his 86th opponent.

He raised his arms to the crowd in a victory celebration, then gave them his usual salute. Doing 3 back-handsprings into a back flip landing on his feet in perfect military attention and giving the crowd his best salute.

The crowd cheered louder. Duncaan smiled at them and jumped out of the ring.

An attendant handed him a towel as he sat down on his bench. It would be around 3 more fights before he had to face his second opponent of the evening.

Looking across at him he started to size him up. He appeared to be from Riatha, and he was not as tall as Duncaan but broader. From reading about him, Duncaan knew that he was a Master at the art of Jeet-Kune-Do, a variation of Tae-Kwon-Do.

Duncaan just leaned back and rested his head against the headrest. This guy will be a piece of cake, he thought to himself.

Duncaan heard his name being called and looked up at a young girl. Her name was Faith.

She was 19 years old, average height, and had long blonde hair in one of the latest fashions. Her eyes were an exotic emerald shade. Right now she was wearing a formal dress of the latest style also. Her parents were his sponsors.

"Duncaan", she called to him above the noise of the crowd, "Please beat all the people soon, I want to go home."

"Alright this next guy is my last, he shouldn't be too hard, I am the best after all."

She nodded at him and sat back down and started talking to one of her friends.

"Jeez," he muttered under his breath, "You would think she doesn't care if they lose money or not."

Faith's parents had sponsored him ever since he had become a fighter seven years ago. When he first started fighting, Faith had been all excited about his matches, but now after seven years of seeing two guys beat each other to a pulp, she was getting tired of it.

"Still doesn't mean she can tell me what to do." Then he heard his name being called. "It's show time," he said as he got up.

Faith watched the ring as she heard Duncaan's name being called. He jumped into the ring and started showing off to the crowd again. She just shook her head.

Ever since her parents had started sponsoring Duncaan in these tournaments, he had always shown that he had a huge ego about himself. But, she thought, he is good at what he does.

Being far above average height, Duncaan had light brown hair, going down to his shoulders in a ponytail. An earring was a recent addition, as was the tattoo on his right arm. A black band going all the way around it with two Scimitar blades in reverse to each other. Fairly broad and solidly built, everything about Duncaan screamed professional fighter. One of the most unnerving things about him were his cool gray eyes, that no matter how hard he might look at you, those eyes stayed the same.

Faith turned toward her friend, "Hey Elaina, 500 that Duncaan will take him down in two minutes or less."

"Yeah right," Elaina responded, "Ha, he's better than that! 1,000 that he will take him down in a minute."

"You're on," Faith said. She turned back toward the beginning of the fight, now silently begging Duncaan to take his time with this guy. Too much money riding on you for you to mess up now big boy.

Duncaan barely had time to turn around before three quick attacks hit him in the side and back.

He quickly rolled and got to his feet. Blocking the first kick of his opponent, whose name he now remembered to be Latark, he responded with a snap-kick of his own.

Latark ducked under his kick and threw two quick punches into Duncaan's gut.

Duncaan groaned as he went down to one knee on the mat.

Latark moved in behind him and grabbed his legs.

Duncaan immediately knew what he was going to do, but he wasn't going to give him that chance. Arching his back all the way behind his him he reached out and grabbed Latark's head.

Latark quickly let go as he felt Duncaan flinging him over his shoulder and onto the mat.

Rolling and getting up quickly he saw that Latark was just now starting to regain his stance. That fall must have knocked the wind out of him. He also knew this was a chance to go on the offense.

Duncaan quickly stepped in and threw three punches and an uppercut to his opponent. Duncaan hit him hard enough that Latark flipped backwards, and right when he was in midair, Duncaan kicked him in the back. He didn't use enough force to break the backbone just enough to cause extreme pain to him.

Latark looked up with rage in his eyes.

Duncaan motioned him. "Come on, give it your best shot, you lame excuse for a fighter!"

At that, Latark screamed in rage and pain and charged Duncaan. That was the worst mistake he could have made.

Duncaan easily used a Judo move to flip him onto his stomach. "Now you lose, you balak fodder!" Then he broke two of his fingers.

A yell of pain met this action and Duncaan proceeded to dislocate Latark's arm. Then he let go of him.

Latark still got up and faced Duncaan.

Duncaan moved in and gave Latark the best roundhouse kick he could.

Latark was lifted off his feet into the air, and twirled around several times before landing on his stomach. He was out, and it was over. The fight had taken just over a minute.

Duncaan looked back to the crowd and pumped his fist into the air. Victory is so sweet, he thought to himself. He looked up to where Faith was sitting and saw her exchange money with her friend.

He smiled, let her have her fun. All I care about is winning. He pumped his fist into the air again. No one can beat me now.

Faith had been waiting beside Duncaan's locker room for about an hour when he finally emerged. Other then a few bruises and a busted rib, he looked ok.

"Nice fight tonight Duncaan," she congratulated him, as they walked out a side door to the waiting street beyond.

"Yeah too bad they didn't have anybody better than that fat dude."

"I think they will next time. You never know." Faith irritatedly brushed aside a strand of blonde hair that had dared to come out of place. It refused to behave, so Faith gave up on it.

Duncaan looked at her. "So how much money did you make off of me this time?" he asked her with a knowing look.

"I was only able to con Elaina into betting 1,000 danras, so not that much this time," she replied.

"Well I hope your parents are happy. I can't fight now for about a month the doc said. That idiot Latark..."

"You will be back in the ring in no time. Now will you quit complaining?"

They had reached their transVec and Faith got into the driver side while Duncaan sat down on the other side of her.

"Yeah you're right," he told her, "I shouldn't be complaining. After all I am the king."