The Ballad of Alix and Astralfiend

CHAPTER 2

After some time has passed from Alix's training for the day, the gang relaxed at Juniper's place and had some dinner prepared from her half-brother Baxter. "Hey everyone, dig in! I made some spaghetti and meatballs, especially since I've heard Alix here is gearing up for something special soon!" Baxter said while pinching one of Alix's cheeks.

"Ahh, c'mon Baxter, if you wanted to celebrate me going towards the world champ, we all could've just went out to eat somewhere."

"Don't worry about that thought, Alix;" replied Baxter. "you always say that most of the time that when you wanna go get something to eat it's always that one diner or here since you said I was pretty good with making food."

"Oh yeah, you're right, sorry." As Alix started getting into her food, she suddenly remembered that Baxter knew about the world championship thing since she never told him about it. "...hey, Baxter? How did you know about the world championship match? I don't think I told you about it yet if I'm right..."

"That's because you didn't tell him, heh heh, we did." said Juniper. "During that ride to the gym, we called up Baxter and told him about the day today with our surfing and also called him again on the ride home about your training."

"Mmhmm, thanks to Juniper and Rae here, I've been hearing you've been spending a lot of time hitting the gym with that Raymond fella! I bet you've been getting much stronger as a result."

"Yep, I've been training a bunch, getting to some sparring matches with them, throwing jabs at some punching bags, alongside some other things that's making me ready for the match coming up, and I think it's all been paying off too!"

"Hey, Alix, I bet I could beat you in a match one day," Rae jokingly commented. "all I gotta do is just...train like you do, I guess."

"Come on, Rae," Alix replied. "if you do wanna have a little friendly boxing match someday I know I'll go easy on ya and not wallop on you like the people I usually face!"

"...oh yeah, and speaking of training," Alix continued, "I guess I've been going on with that non-stop, huh? Well...since I've been working hard a lot and I've missed hanging out with you guys, I've thought of something: How about tomorrow, I call off for training so I get whole day with you three!"

"That sounds cool!"
"Nice!"
"Alright!"

"Okay, all I've gotta do now is call Raymond to tell him-"

Before Alix could even finish her sentence, her phone started ringing due to a call, which may have make for some good comedic timing, and could make it better or worse is that Raymond wasn't on the other end.

"Hey..." said Rae. "isn't that your phone Alix?"

"It is. Huh...at least I can check if it's Raymond or not." Alix grabbed the phone from her pocket, and to her surprise, the caller ID was unknown. "Well, I don't know this is, but to heck with it, only one way to find out." Alix then accepted the call and hoped for anything that wasn't a scam caller on the other line.

"Ahh, is this the right number?" A somewhat menacing voice was on the other end. "I've been tryin' all day to get the contact info for this person so I'll ask this question: You're the person in the World Boxing League that goes by the name of Alix Reyes, right?"

Alix was stunned that the mysterious voice on the other end knew that they were looking for her for something. "Well, uh, heh heh, can you tell me more about this Alix person?"

Astralfiend replied back to Alix. "Of course; she's an axolotl with golden-colored skin who knows how to take care of business in the boxing ring especially if it's against anyone much taller than her. Oh...you'd happen to know if you're on the other end, Miss Reyes?"

"Yep. That's me. So, what did you call me for?"

"I've called because I've got my attention set on ya; I've heard about your skills and the feats of some other boxers through word of mouth while in space and I went to Earth for the reason of duking it out with all of them, and now on that list I'm ready to go up against ya in a good-ol' exhibition match to see how you fair up against me! Sounds like fun, doesn't it?"

"Of course!" Alix gleefully replied.

"Perfect. Meet me tomorrow at Megapunch and we'll talk some more about the fight." Astralfiend then hung up the call.

"So, Alix," Juniper said. "it sounds like you're busy with your hands with boxing, one way or another.

"Yeah...but hey, instead of training myself against a title, I've got a friendly one-on-one to hype myself towards."

~~~~~~

The day after Alix recieved the call from Astralfiend, Alix and Juniper went down to Megapunch to meet up with the the mysterious fighter, but a few moments before they arrived, the two girls were discussing of Astral would look like since Alix never saw their face during the call.

"Wait, you two seriously think Astralfiend is a big muscled fighter?" said Raymond, doubting the two girls. "When I was fighting, there wasn't anybody with tons of muscle on them."

"Well," Alix replied, "if you got some guesses in before they arrive, Raymond, go ahead."

"Hmm...I'm gonna guess that they gonna be a lean, mean, punching machine." Raymond guessed.

As the three were guessing, a voice suddenly came into the room and interrupted them. "If I wanna join in, then I'm guessing that ya guys were not that far off! Ha ha ha..."

"Gee thanks, I guess that we were-" Alix was gonna finish, if not for the towering figure just entered the gym. Alix took some time studying the man; the features that Alix could take away from them is that the had red skin, two antennae on top of their head, a gold tooth on one side of their sharp-toothed smile, four arms, a big ol' stomach with two outie bellybuttons, and to top it all off, they stood at pretty gargantuan height, taller than the three would've ever imagined. To put it bluntly, the big-bellied individual was one of the tallest (and probably one of the more intimidating) people Alix met in her whole life. "...I'm sorry, sir, heh heh...pleasure meeting you."

"Ahh, come on," said the tall figure. "we talked over the phone yesterday; my name's Astralfiend, remember?"

Alix was stunned upon hearing that this tall, big stomached alien was Astral, so she immediately came back into her senses to talk with the figure. "Wha-oh! Heh heh, my mistake, it's that we never saw your face until now, and our expectations of what you could've looked like were waaaay off." Alix then laughed a bit, as if to laugh off being a bit scared of first meeting Astral.

"Huh, what do ya..." Astralfiend was a bit confused at first about Alix's talk but then realized something: "-ah, I keep forgettin'; I always do the thing of callin' my challengers ahead of time without showin' them anything about my face or anything! But hey, let's put that aside, it's a pleasure finally meetin' ya."

"It's finally good meeting you in the flesh too." The two then shook hands.

"So, there's a few things I've wantin' to ask ya since we're finally talkin', and the first topic I wanna ask is, of course, are ya really are you known for going up against enemies bigger than you?"

"Of course." Alix replied. "I always do that because I always love the challenge of it, and also it makes me more crafty when I fight on the ring too."

"Ahh, I like the sound of that. If you like going up against big opponents, then I'm gonna be the perfect match for ya."

"Oooooh, perfect. And as some bonus, I've also got this big punching bag right here." Alix jokingly said about Astral's stomach while patting the alien's gut.

Astralfiend, however, took some time to get her joke. "Wha...big punching bag...? I don't see any..." Whenever they did get her quip, Astral felt some disapproval about it. "Eugh...I haven't heard that joke in while and I'm still sick of it..." they mumbled. "But enough of my gut, let's get back on topic; have you ever heard of the Intergalactic Boxing League, Alix?"

That kind of league caught Alix's attention. "Oooh, no, but I'm interested. Tell me more."

"Good response, because I know be'd all ears...uh, if those are your six ears. Uh...anyways; the Intergalactic Boxing League is the biggest fighting league this side of outer space, with some of the most crazy creatures and strongest aliens of all shapes and sizes to ever step up to the ring to take the champion title. Oh, and wanna guess who has the title?"

"You? If I wanna be honest, you do kind of look like a kind of guy who'd beat everyone in the league."

"...and you'd be right!" Astralfiend started pulling out the championship belt for the Intergalactic Boxing League in all of it's glory. "Take a gander at the championship belt! Neat stuff, huh?" Astralfiend then carefully handed Alix their title belt.

"Woah, this is some good looking stuff..." said Alix while examining the belt. "...this reminds me, before you came along, I was training for my world championship match, but hey, I guess I can put that off for now so I can fight you for fun?"

"Are ya sure you don't wanna fight for the belt? I've got it right here!" Astralfiend then dangled the belt in Alix's face.

"Nah, I'm good. Besides, even if we didn't play for something like for a title, I know we'd have good time fighting, even if no one showed up. So...when do you wanna have the fight? That feels like a more important question to me, to be honest."

"Ah yeah, right...arrange all of the stuff with your trainer over there, and I bet he'll take of the rest and all that. I'll be lookin' forward to when we get in the ring."

"Me too, Astral, and I'll be ready as well." The two shook hands for last time for that day as they started leaving the gym.

"Well, well, Alix," said Raymond. "looks like you've got a giant pest to deal with soon!"

"I agree with Ray;" Juniper added. "I do hope you know you're going up against someone bigger than anyone that this town has ever seen in their lives!"

"I know," Alix responded. "but honestly, I see Astral as a big friend once you know the guy...even though I can't tell you what they're capable of with those arms of his fight-wise."

After hearing of Alix's response, Raymond had hesitantly agreed with them. "Well, if that's your opinion on them, I guess; I'll go tell a commissioner about the fight, you go ahead and train for it. I'm gonna go cross my fingers if your view on Astral stands by fight night..."

(END OF CHAPTER TWO)