Chickboxer

!SPECIAL EFFECTS! "THOUGHTS"

Chapter One

!CLAP!CLAP!CLAP!CLAP! Performing a triple somersault in mid-air, a brown-haired, little girl landed on the ground with her arms in the air.

"Why are we here, Marlo?"

"My employers want us to nab a certain girl. You know that, Rocco."

"But I was thinking we'd head out to a college or something. What do we need a bunch of little girls for? We oughtta at least go to that nearby high school. There'd surely be some hot babes who are more ripe for the picking."

"Do me a favor, Rocco. Don't think. I've been good enough to bring ya's along because I needed the muscle and Sal's expertise with electronics," Marlo said to the larger muscular man. "But don't think I can't find another guy to help me out here. We've been pals for years now. If ya can't handle..."

"Take it easy, Marlo. Jake just don't get why we even need to be at this gymnastics competition? These girls is scrawny. Won't we get more money for something with a nice rack?"

"Listen for a moment, Sal. The people who hired me, us, want a specific little girl."

"What do they want her for?"

"They're probably just a bunch of pervs or somethin like that."

Marlo gave Rocco a sharp look for a moment. "That's really none of our business. They're paying a lot of money for this girl and I aim to collect."

"Who's the mark?"

"The girl's name is Babette Trois. She's here at this competition with her nanny. Her father is a French businessman who's pissed off our employers. No more stupid questions. Curiosity killed the cat and all."

"I bet they just want someone they can raise to be what they want. There have been a few times when some of these teenage girls would put up a fight and have to be put in their place. Sometimes the girl would end up dead. They like breaking these girls but sometimes they want to break these girls in early. Know what I mean?"

Marlo then gave Sal a sharp look. "When we deliver the mark to the buyer I want both of yas to keep it quite. The last thing we need is for these people to think we got big mouths or something like that. Capiche?"

"Oh, I get it. What does this girl look like?"

"Here's a picture of her."

"She's cute. Joan Benet, eat your heart out."

"Her eyes are striking. I wish I could bag this girl when she's a lot more ripe."

"Yeah. Despite her young age, she has the most kissable mouth."

"Enough already!" Marlo demanded. "Look! There she is with her nanny. You guys know the routine."

"Right, Marlo. Let's do it."

!CLICK! "Who turned out the lights!"

"Mmph."

"I'm going into the backroom to turn the lights back on. We might have an electrical short of some kind!"

"Can you get there?! Which direction are you taking?!"

"Door on my left. I'm on the way!"

A few minutes later. !CLICK! "They're back on! What happened?!"

"I thought we might have had an electrical short or something but I think someone turned the lights off."

"Be that as it may, I'm going to have an expert electrician check the system," the owner of the auditorium stated.

"Babette. Babette? Babette!" The nanny turned to see that what she was holding was a doll which was the same height as her charge. "Babette! Babette! Somebody help! Babette is missing!"

While this was going on, the three kidnappers drove off with their prey in a black car through the streets of New York City. "Make sure the kid's out cold, Rocco. Did ya nerve pinch her like I taught ya?"

"She's out cold, Marlo. Forget about it."

"I'm not going to relax until we get this girl into the hands of the people who want her. Don't forget that, Rocco. So no slip-ups!"

"If I didn't know better, Marlo, I'd think you were scared to death of these people."

"You don't want to know, Sal. You don't want to know." Marlo drove the car into a dark alley. "All right. We're here. Let me take her. I'll be right back."

"When do we get paid?"

"I'll give you your money when I get back. Heck, you guys are in my car right now. I'll be right back." Marlo got out of the car and took the unconscious girl in his arms.

"All right, Marlo. Get back as soon as possible." At that point, a sliding door opened from a wall in the alley, surprising Marlon's two friends.

"Good evening, Mr. Sardono. I see you have what we wanted."

"I got what you wanted. I got what you wanted right here."

"Excellent," the tall slender man said, looking the sleeping girl over.

"What do you need with a ten-year-old girl, anyway?" Marlo asked as he walked inside.

"You don't need to know, Mr. Sardono. Let's see about getting you your money."

As soon as Marlo had finished walking through the door, it disappeared, seeming as if it had never been there.

"What the F#k!"

"These guys is strange."

In a few minutes, the door materialized within the red brick wall, allowing Marlo to walk out.

"All right, guys. Let's go," Marlo said, getting in the car and driving off.

"Where's the money?"

"In a minute, Rocco. We'll split the take when we get back to base."

A few minutes later, they were at their hideout. "Here's yours, Rocco, and here's yours, Sal."

"A whole grand for an hours work! Wow! You know how to pay somebody, Marlo," Rocco said with a smile on his face.

"Don't fall in love with it, Rocco. This was an event. Don't expect to be paid this much for jobs like this."

"Sure, Marlo. If there's another job like this you can call us. I for one would be happy to oblige ya," Sal replied.

"I'll keep that in mind but you both gotta keep your mouths shut about this. Not only have I paid you for your work, but I've also paid for your silence as well."

"For this much money, I got your silence. I got your silence right here, pal."

XXX

A couple of days later, the father of the kidnapped girl, Marcel Trois, who had finished his business ventures was talking to his nanny who was shaking with shock and fretting horribly

"What happened, Rita?"

"I don't know, Mr. Trois. The lights went out and by the time the lights went back on again, I found myself holding this life-sized doll instead of Babette. I just don't know how all of that could have happened."

"All right. I want you to answer the questions of Inspector Matt Payne. It's very important you answer his questions completely."

"This isn't the first time something like this has happened, Mr. Trois. There have been a lot of young girls around here disappearing. After seeing what your daughter looks like I'm not surprised."

"Yes. A couple of months ago a group called Shadowlaw approached me, wanting me to get involved in illegal and dishonorable business dealings."

"What did you do?" the inspector asked, turning towards the Frenchman.

"I refused them, of course. At that point, the shady figure threatened me. I didn't pay attention to it at the time but now I wish I had. To think my beautiful Babette is in their clutches. What will I do? You must find my daughter, I beg you!"

"Take it easy, Mr. Trois. If it's at all possible I'll find your daughter. But the chances of finding her in a city like New York is unlikely. I have to be straight with you on that."

While the police inspector questioned the old woman, in another part of town Babette found herself inside a room with a bunch of other little girls, all of which were strikingly beautiful or cute. Some of them were Caucasian, some were Asian, some of them were Chicano.

"It's about time you woke up," an ugly, short man said in accented French with a sneer.

"Where am I?" !SLAP! "Oww!" Babette cried.

"Silence! You'll speak only when spoken to. You'll soon learn your place and what you are to do. In fact, I think I'll break you in myself. Come here, you."

"Huh? What are you..." !SLAP! "That hurt!"

"It will hurt even more if you don't do as I say!" the man said as he dragged the little girl towards a backroom. "Get in there!"

!RIP! "What are you doing?! Stop it!"

!SLAP! "Shut up. Now get on your back!"

"Aaaaaiiii!"

XXX

A few days later in another part of the world, two mad scientists were at work. "Are we almost done?"

"Yes. The treatments we've given this cute little girl will make her even more beautiful, bringing about a much larger price for her services," the head doctor said as Babette lay unconscious on the operating table. The room in which they worked was much like a hospital emergency room except darker and grimmer.

"I noticed you injected this girl with more of the serum than usual. Is that such a good idea?"

"Don't worry, Dr. Wong. This girl is a lot stronger than most. I can tell by her musculature that she can withstand more of the treatment."

"But there's a small chance that the beauty treatments you've given her which are designed to make her more vital and healthier might well make her stronger and more resilient as well if they don't kill her first."

"Nonsense! I know what I'm doing. Besides, the keepers have already broken her in. So even on the small chance, she might become physically stronger her spirit has already been broken. And if she dies, oh well. Plenty more where she came from."

XXX

Over the course of months, Babette had endured unimaginative horrors as a forced prostitute but despite all this, she planned her eventual escape.

"The mind over matter techniques I learned from that nice old lady in Singapore while my father was on a business trip there, has been really helpful in my training, making the dynamic tension I learned from my first gymnastics instructor, designed to increase my strength and vitality even more effective," Babette thought to herself.

"What are you doing?" the manager of the brothel at which Babette worked demanded, walking inside the room and surprising her.

"I'm just exercising, Mr. Manager. I want to stay firm."

"Hmm. I see." The manager regarded her shrewdly for a moment then left the darkroom she was in.

"Whenever I get the chance I've practiced the gymnastics I've been doing all my life by working in the savate kickboxing I've trained in as a little girl in my homeland of France. In addition to that, the year's worth of jiu-jitsu I went through while my father had that business trip in Brazil has also been helpful.

It's just fortunate I had a chance to practice grappling with a few of the customers who actually liked wrestling with me before they F*#ked me. Even though I had to be playful and sexual while this was going on, pleasing the customers at the same time, but despite all that it has helped me a lot, especially with the various types of wrestlers and martial artists who have been here."

"The people here have insisted on putting all of us in bonds and fetters. That contortionist who tended to me when I was four years old while my parents were at all those parties taught me how to escape bonds and ropes in order to keep me from running around too much. Ever since I've lived this life I've practiced that skill even to the point of escaping my restraints and putting myself back into them whenever one of the guards showed up. When the time is right..."

"Babette! Where are you, you usurper!" At that moment one of the other prostitutes stormed in, glaring at Babette who stopped her workout.

"What is it?"

"How dare a foreigner like you attempt to take my place as the best whore of the house?!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Everyone on the street is saying that you're the prize jewel of our brothel; I won't allow it!" the beautiful Chinese woman in her early twenties threatened.

"I don't control anything around here and neither do you, Rose!"

"Oh, yeah?!" Rose immediately whipped out a small blade. !SLASH!SKIT!

"Hey!" To the surprise of both women, there wasn't so much as a scratch on Babette's throat.

"What are you made out of? I'm going to tell the manager about this. I'm also going to tell the manager about your late-night martial arts training. I have no idea who's been training you but it will stop now. When the manager finds out he'll have your head. I'll make sure the ax he uses is strong and sharp enough though."

"If I'm going to die I've nothing to lose by killing you right now," Babette said, looming over the shorter woman who began to back away.

"Babette! Mina! Rose! Taia! Kitty! Hanna! Anna! Tania! Ciana! Dara! Come here!" a voice called out prompting the girls to come running.

"Yes?" the girls said, standing at attention in the middle of the beautifully decorated parlor of the brothel that was the first thing a customer would see when he walked inside.

"Go along with these men. You are to service the champion of Thai-Kickboxing again. This time his best student Adon will be there. Don't embarrass me. You better make them happy or else!"

"Yes, Mr. Manager!" said the girls including the twelve-year-old girl who had developed so quickly that she actually looked a whole lot older, standing at a statuesque five feet seven inches tall.

"I think I should tell you that Babette has..."

!SLAP! "Silence! You'll speak when spoken to. Now go!" the manager demanded.

As the strikingly beautiful girls left with the crime enforcers who were there to make sure they didn't run away, the manager turned to his boss, the crime boss who ran the whole city. He was taller than most, being thick and muscular, wearing expensive clothes. He resembled a darker, evil-looking version of Pops Racer(Speed Racer's father) as he came out of the shadows.

"You've done a good job at my brothel, Ping. You've always had brains while we both were growing up which is why I brought you along as I became king of this city," the boss said to the slender, hawk-nosed, beady-eyed man.

"Thanks, Boss Nobo. But I'm concerned about one of the girls."

"Which one?"

"Babette. She hasn't stopped growing ever since she's gotten here! Have you seen the muscles that girl has?"

"She's just fit. We always have the girls exercise to keep them from getting fat. You worry too much, Ping. What can she do? She's only twelve years old. And the body she has just doesn't quit! She has several years of making us a whole lot of money before she gets too old and we have to get rid of her."

"That's just the point. Not only is she inhumanly beautiful, but if she's so tall at twelve years old how much taller will she be when she's eighteen?"

"Hmm. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For the time being, don't worry about it. I'm sure Sagat will enjoy her the way he always has. This time he wanted as many as ten girls from us for the party he's running, paying even more than usual. He really wanted to celebrate his hard-fought victory over Pak Ten, forgetting the fact that he has almost lost."

"What kind of chance did he have against Sagat?"

"A really good chance. In Sagat's entire history Pak's the one that came the closest to beating him except for that guy from Japan named Ryu Hoshi who actually beat him."

"How closely did Pak defeat him?"

"Close enough to have knocked Sagat down several times, coming close to knocking him out. If not for that ranged energy attack Sagat used Pak probably would have beaten him. Pak simply wasn't ready for that. Sagat was so angry at almost having his ass kicked that he broke both of the man's legs."

"Did this fight happen about a month ago?"

"Yes. Sagat has had his planners set up this party for some time now. That's why I insisted you make sure Babette and the girls I called out were available to today."

"Yes. I understand he even hired girls from other brothels in nearby cities."

"That's true. In fact, word out on the street is that Sagat's number one student, Adon, had his goons kidnap Pak Ten's two daughters and use them for his own brothel. They're hot but nowhere near as hot as Babette."

"Really?" Ping said with his eyes widening.

"Yeah. And with Pak Ten beaten up and broken, there was nothing he could do about it. In fact, I heard that Adon raped Pak's wife and daughters right in front of the defeated man. Since his wife was fairly attractive but too old to use as a prostitute Adon gave her over to Sagat's henchmen after he and his friends were through with her."

"What happened then?"

"Those guys were so brutal that she eventually died from their treatment. Pak Ten was a fool to challenge the Emperor of Muy Thai. Sagat has almost as much power as I do. After all that Pak was so ashamed that he left for the wilderness, living in secret. No one knows where he is now."

"How could he have left for the wilderness if his legs were broken?"

"Some of the family's of Pak's students who took pity on him took him to a fancy hospital and had a specialist help him to walk again. But as it was he still walked with a limp."

"So Pak had a kickboxing school?"

"Yes. He probably thought he could make a name for himself and his school by defeating Sagat. Heck, he even trained a few foreigners in an attempt to market his school. But he's nothing now."

"Hmm. That's all very interesting. But I still think that girl is a potential problem. Do you remember how fast she healed whenever she was beaten with whips? Eventually, she didn't even cry all that much when she got hit. It's as if her pain threshold had been increased. The main thing that worries me is that her spirit hasn't all together been broken."

"I doubt that, Ping. You don't think she could take on someone like Sagat or even Adon, do you?"

"No, of course not. But I'd like to tell the men to keep a closer eye on her when they return. I'm going to keep her on an even shorter lease."

The crime boss regarded the brothel manager for a moment. "Sure. Go ahead. That girl is the prize that makes us the most money. So I'm sure the men guarding her won't let her out of their sight."

"Where'd you get her from anyhow? I'm impressed that you would be able to get your hands on such a jewel."

"I got her from my contact at Shadowlaw of all places. After making her a guinea pig for all kinds of experiments they demanded a ransom from her father, but get this. When he paid it in full they kept the girl anyway! From what I heard her father had a nervous breakdown when someone mailed him videotapes of his daughter being raped and abused. He never recovered from what happened to his little girl. Shadowlaw had already had his wife killed by then so this guy had no one else related to him. Therefore he died in a fit of grief. Eventually, Shadowlaw agents in France took over his business anyway, doing what they would have done in the first place. The French have always been weak but this guy should have complied while he had the chance."

"I see," Ping replied. "I supposed Babette knows nothing of this."

"Of course she knows! I even showed her a video of her father's and then her mother's funeral so she wouldn't have any hope of anybody rescuing her. She cried like a baby then. But right now she's mine, lock, stock, and barrel. This girl is worth a mint by herself with her looks. Her long gorgeous, golden-brown hair! Her curvaceous body! Talk about sexy!"

For a moment the brothel manager regarded his boss for a moment who had a huge smile on his face as he stared off into space. "Boss Nobo?"

"Uh? Oh, yeah. Anyway. The men know not to let such a great piece of ass like that get away from them. And even if she ran away, where would she go? I own this town including the cops. So there's nothing to worry about."

"We also mustn't forget that we both answer to Shadowlaw who practically actually owns this country. Their cut of your business profits must always be paid."

"I know that, Ping. There's no need to remind me of that! But Shadowlaw or no Shadowlaw I run this city."

XXX

"That tall foreigner is a lot stronger than she looks. I've watched her from the shadows for a long time now. I bet she could endure my gung fu and iron body training. I can tell that from here. I've always believed women could be just as competent in hand to hand combat as men. Because that tall girl over there has strength and toughness that's somewhat unnatural she'll be even more able to prove my point."

"It's bad enough that the men running some of the cities in this country think women are only good for one thing. There were other girls who had potential but their parents forbade me to train them. I can only hope this girl will take to my training. But I must start with her quickly. I'm getting old and if she stays too long doing what she is doing she'll be no good to me. Fortunately, as it is she still has a streak of defiance in her."

The small, aged Thai and Chinese woman looked on as the girls began to walk towards the palatial estate belonging to the Emperor of Muy Thai. As their captors motioned them forward, Madam Pai attacked!

!POP!CRACK! "What the?!" a henchman cried out as he noticed a few of his comrades dropping to the ground.

"Hello there!" Pai said, appearing and disappearing at will.

"Gun her down!"

!BLAM!BLAM!BLAM!

"I don't think so," the wily old woman cackled, easily dodging the bullets in dark. "Don't you guys know about the laws forbidding the use of guns in Thailand?"

"Shut up and die, bitch!" !POP!POP!

While the henchmen were shooting at shadows and Babette had walked into a darkened area, Madam Pai stealthily appeared right behind the girl, whispering in her ear. "Do you like being a whore or would you rather be free, little girl?"

"Free!" Then Babette caught herself. "Who are you?"

"Keep it down. All right then. Come with me and be quiet about it."

!BLAM!BLAM! "Where did she go?!"

"I don't know. Let's get the girls inside quickly. Sagat has paid Boss Nobo a lot of money for the services of these girls, the French bitch especially."

"Um."

"What?!"

"Babette's missing."

"What?! Find her, you idiot!"

"I'm willing to bet that crazy lady took her. If we find her we'll find the girl," one of the enforcers commented.

"You might be right. But what will we tell the boss?"

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks for reading. Please leave a review. The more reviews I get the faster I'll update.