The Ballad of Alix and Astralfiend

CHAPTER 4

A few days after the hospital visit, Alix was back at home relaxing at her bedroom. She took these couple of days to relax before getting back into the swing of boxing training, as her doctor advised her. As she got out of her bed, gazing at the ceiling, she suddenly recieved a call from Juniper. "Hey, June, what's up?"

"Nothing much Alix; you're at the gym again back at it with training?

"Not this time; I'm relaxing at home for a bit before a get back at the gym. Doctor's orders."

Juniper was a bit shocked at Alix's response. "Woah...uh, Cooper really wants you to rest a bit? Is it because of health reasons?"

"Yeah, he said it was for the best since it would possibly be a risk to my health if I just went out and started to get back into boxing because of how hard I got pummeled by Astral...so anyways, what's up with you, anything?"

"Nothing much..." Juniper then had an idea brewing in her head. "...hey, if you wanna relax, how about we go down to the beach and just surf and chat just like old times?"

Alix felt a bit of excitment hearing Juniper's suggestion. "Ahh yeah, that'll be great!"

"Perfect, grab your swimsuit and your surfboard, I'll be there very soon!" Juniper then grabbed her stuff and rushed off to her van, heading off to pick up Alix for a somewhat chill surf session.

~~~~~~

When the two were at the somewhat empty beach surfing, Alix and Juniper weren't tackling big waves like they usually were; most of the time they were out in the water on their boards, sometimes riding some waves, but most of the time they were relaxing and chatting about things.

"So, did we ever tell you about the wave me and Rae rode when you are the gym that one day?"

"Ooh, I don't think so." Alix replied to Juniper. "Man, I don't how Rae kept you or that wave if it was that massive!"

"She told those surfing lessons from you and me have been working well, and if they were, she put them to good use that day!"

"Yeah...I definitely need to surf with Rae one day too, heh heh...so anyways, what else do you wanna talk about?"

"Hmm...I mean, after that fight with Astralfiend, what are gonna do with your boxing career?"

Alix stopped for a second to think about the subject, since she didn't have boxing on her mind at the moment. "Umm...not much?" Alix said in an unsure tone.

Juniper felt confused about her answer. "Seriously? Didn't you say you were gonna go against the world champ until Astral came along?"

Alix's thoughts then came back into motion. "Ooh, yes. When I get back into training, I'll get back on track to focusing on beating the world champ. So, you ready to get back on land, June?"

"Yep." The two on their surfboards started paddling back to shore.

"Hey, I do wanna say something good though;" Alix told Juniper. "during these past couple days, I never have heard a single word from-"

Alix then was suddenly by voice that was, unfortunately, all too familiar to her. "Well, if my favorite little punchin' bag, Alix!" It was Astral.

"...oh jeez, are they really behind me, June?" Alix told the jellyfish, since Astral was right behind her.

"Ahh, c'mon Alix! Ya should know when I'm here!" Astral told the axolotl.

"...well, lemme turn around and if they're really there..." Alix turned around and, to her disgust, was the tall red alien on the beach, this time donning some gold-colored swim briefs they got to match their golden tooth. "...hey, June, hold this for me." Alix then gave Juniper her surfboard somewhat quickly.

"Wha-wait...why?" The somewhat worried Juniper responded while grabbing Alix's board.

"I've gotta talk to them. Wait here." Alix then marched up to Astralfiend. "Hey, Astral-loser! We need to talk, now!" Alix said in a somewhat angrily tone.

Astralfiend felt some shock in a second hearing Alix's roaring voice, but shruged it off. "Hey, Alix! So, since we're finally meetin' up since that big match, what do ya wanna-"

Alix aburptly cut Astral off. "I wanna cut to the chase, Astral; I want a rematch with you!"

Astral laughed off Alix's response a bit, despite the fact Alix was not amused, then Astral gave a reply. "Ah, ya jokin', right? I mean, I'd love to get back in the ring with ya, but c'mon, I beat ya fair and square the first time, and second, if ya really want to do a proper rematch, I wanna warn ya-" Just before Astral could finish, Alix got tired of their talk and pinched their lower-left elbow to shut them up.

AH! OUCH! HEY, C'MON, PLEASE, THAT'S MY BAD FUNNY BONE! AH-HAH-HAH-OWW! PLEASE, STO-OP-OPP! YEOUCH! C'MON, QUIT IT ALREADY! IF YA LET GO, WE'LL TALK ABOUT A REMATCH, I PROMISE!

Poor Astralfiend was crying in pain and was begging Alix to stop pinching their bad nerve in their elbow, and eventually she let go and Astral started talking about a proper rematch while rubbing their hurt elbow. "Ehh...so, Alix, when do ya want a rematch?"

"As soon as possible. I'll go tell my trainer about this, see ya at the ring again!"

"Heh heh, you too." Said Astralfiend. "Ahh, and hey...next time, please don't pinch my bad funny bone. I don't think I ever told about that, right?"

"Uhh, no, I don't think so. Well anyways, see ya, Astral!" Alix then walked back to Juniper, who the latter saw the whole discussion unfold. "So, June, you wanna take a quick ride to the gym?"

"Didn't Cooper say not for you not to get back into boxing because of health risks?"

Alix put a hand on Juniper's shoulder and gave her somewhat of a grin. "C'mon, I bet it's been enough days, so think it's time to get back into training. Trust me." The two then rode to the gym.

~~~~~~

Alix and Juniper finally arrived at Megapunch Gym, and when Juniper parked the van, Alix finally got out and stepped to the gym's front doors, going immediately towards the front desk.

"Hey, Alix!" Said Donovan with some delight. "We haven't seen you in a while, are you doing well?"

Alix then slammed her hand onto the desk, scaring Donovan a bit. "Yeah, I've been alright. I need a few things from you though."

Donovan then was a bit interested. "...really? What do you need?"

"I need the heaviest equipment, toughest trainers, and the cheesiest training montage mixtape you have. I need to it beat a big smack-talking alien."

"Ooooooh, gotcha; now, lemme see what I got here..." Donovan rummaged through the drawers underneath their desk to see if they could find anything that could help with Alix's request. "Ahh, got it! So: The weights you're looking for on in the weight room, and the numbers for the trainers and that training mixtape are right here," as Donovan held up a casette tape filled with music attached with a paper filled with phone numbers, both held with a rubber-band. "it's also got all the numbers of all of the trainers you need." He then threw the casette tape to Alix, which thankfully she caught.

"Thank you so much, Donny! I owe you one!"

"Hey, don't worry, Alix! Good luck with beating that alien!" Donovan replied as Alix started heading towards the weight room to start her extensive training. A then curious Juniper then entered and approached Donovan.

"Hey, this is Juniper, Alix's friend. You know where she went?"

"Oh yeah." The cactus at the front desk responded. "She went to the weight room to start training to, uh, 'beat a big smack-talking alien', as she said."

"Ah dear...thanks for the help."

"No problem."

Juniper then, in a state of worry, called Dr. Cooper about Alix.

"Hello, Dr. Cooper Premos speaking."

"Hey, it's Juniper, one of Alix's friends."

"Ahh! Hello! It's weird for you to call at a time like this..." Cooper paused on why Juniper called the hospital...but then he finally realized what was possibly going on. "...actually, is this related to Alix?"

"Yep. She's training again."

Cooper then had a big sigh of dissappoint, hearing of what he heard. "Oh dear...so, lemme guess: you want to keep in check if something bad happens while trains herself?"

"Mmhmm."

"You know what, Juniper: Put me on speed-dial. If anything disasterous happens with Alix, call me."

"Got it." Juniper then hung up the call.

"It seems like you're a bit worried about Alix." said Donovan, who overheard the conversation between Juniper and the doctor.

"Oh, um, well, we met Cooper at the hospital and he told her to lay off the boxing for a while because of those hard hits during that match." Juniper responded. "I'm guessing Alix is gonna probably do the same ol' routines she's been doing, huh?"

"Yeah, maybe." said Donovan.

Despite what the two said, Alix's training routine for the rematch was anything but ordinary; she'd been doing stuff ranging from landing loads of punches on a punching bag with a piece of paper that had a crudely drawing of Astralfiend's face on it, catching tennis balls from a machine that she said to help with reaction times, helping people carry all of their groceries to their car (even for the people who had lots of bags of stuff!), and even had some friendly sumo matches back at Megapunch thanks a person named Mayumi who found time to get in some matches with Alix. When Alix finally got done with her extensive training, she felt exhaused, but in the inside she felt much stronger as a result.

When the training was done, the gang decided to go out to eat at the diner and talk about the training and such.

~~~~~~

"Man, you're crazy, Alix," said Rae. "You really did all of that training to prepare yourself against Astralfiend again?"

"Yep." Alix responded. "If I really wanna make sure I wanna beat them, I got make sure I'm in tip top shape. I mean, look on how it paid off!" Alix then flexed one of her muscles hoping it could be a bigger one, but gave up after a while when nothing pretty much happened and that all three of the others stared at them in awkward confusion, which lead Alix trying to laugh it off. "...eh heh, I guess I feel stronger on the inside?"

"Yeah, I think we get it; all the training was pretty good for your strength, huh?" said Baxter. "Oh and yeah, I think Rae might have a point too; you could've just done your usual training instead of all that zany stuff you've been doing."

"That's true, but I've been really wanting to beat Astral's butt, and all of that stuff I've been doing for the past couple of days was not only for training, but to psyche me up for the fight, y'know?"

"That's honestly great!" Juniper responded. "At least you're ready!"

"Yeah! And I can't until tomorr-oh wait...it's not until a couple more days...urgh. I can't believe I miscalculated the whole training thing."

"Nah, don't worry," Rae responded "at least with those extra days, you can relax and spend them with us if you want."

Alix agreed with Rae. "...yeah, I guess you're right."

(END OF CHAPTER FOUR)