Managed to post Chapter 3 of the story. Took me a while to tinker around with one part as it felt like it was an obvious paste of a joke. However, I do hope you enjoy this third chapter as I'll be working on the fourth one.

Naomi belongs to  joe-schmendrik (and thanks to him for helping me give some valuable tips for fixing the segment, as well as proofreading)

the characters belong to me as always


Chapter 3

Charlotte’s mad sprint from the bulletin board bordered on exhausting as she began to look around the street block for wherever that place could be. Once she caught her breath, she continued her search, with certain questions in mind.

How am I going to find this place? I’ve been looking around this area, and I’m starting to think it’s not here.

The firebird would be right on the last part as she arrived at her destination. A modern two-story house stood before her, protected by a wrought iron fence and a mechanical gate. The firebird smiled to herself as she approached the front of the gate. She could see a speaker and dial phone at the entrance of the gate. The lens of a camera shined in the light of the sun as it beamed at Charlotte. She looked back at the flier, very confused and uncertain if this was the right spot. She had no choice but to ring the button. What felt like an hour -- when it was actually twenty-five minutes of her pushing that button -- Charlotte could hear the voice of a middle-aged man asking her the question, “Do you have an appointment?”

“Uh, no. Is this is the right address? I have this advertisement and it brought me here to the address,” Charlotte explained as she held the flier until it was in the camera's view.

“Yes, that is correct,” the male voice replied. “So, do you have an appointment?”

“I don’t have one,” Charlotte replied. “The flier mentioned nothing about scheduling an --“

The male interrupted her as he explains to the firebird, “Sorry, ma’am, but all guests are required to have scheduled an appointment with Miss --“

Suddenly, a commotion between the male voice and what would sound like an old female coming echoed from the speaker. She could see the camera focused on her as the lady's voice took over.

“What is it? Who are you? What do you want?” the voice repeatedly asked as the camera remained focused on Charlotte. She replied to the voice, “But, I thought I would have to need an appointment."

“That won’t matter," said the old lady. "Just ask me what do you want. You look like one of those college kids not too far from here. No, I’m not going to do an essay. I have so much to --"
The voice rambled on until Charlotte had to show the flier again to the camera. She was determined to prove she wasn’t lying. For a brief moment, she could hear the voice mutter, “Someone actually answered that advertisement? I wonder.”

The electric gate suddenly opened.

“Come in, right away!” the old lady's voice invited. Charlotte’s hopes for a sponsor rose as she walked up the long driveway and toward the house. The house turned out to be much larger than she imagined. While Charlotte approached the doorstep, Mizuki tried to catch up with her, only to get cut off by the closed gate.

“So, that’s where she ran off to,” Mizuki thought. “Sheesh, that place is huge!” The human adjusted her glasses as she began to ponder a way to get over that fence.

Charlotte, on the other hand, was inside a pretty large foyer that had a mix of European, Japanese and some African works of art. Copies of Impressionist artwork, Renaissance statues, Japanese and Chinese tapestries and tribal masks and war paintings from the many clans of Africa decorated each wall of the grand hall.

“Whoever this person is, they’re really loaded,” Charlotte said to herself as she continued to admire the interior of the works of art. However, as she continued her self-tour, the corner of her eye caught a picture of a short female rodent with a bowl cut and a thin Siberian tigress next to the woman. Charlotte felt as though she'd seen this tigress many times before. As she began to admire the picture and ponder who this tigress was, she could hear an old, female voice behind her. It was the same as the one from outside.

“Would you believe that she would be one of the top fighters in this fighting sport? The voice asked, causing Charlotte to turn around. However, she would see no one in her line of sight.

“Down here.”

Charlotte looked down to see a small cat woman, dressed in a red business jacket and pants of the same color. The feline’s hair cut with a bowl shape. She wore a pair of large glasses that made her eyes bigger than they truly were.

“I take it you must be the new candidate," said the cat lady. "I've never worked with an avian before. What’s your name?”

“Charlotte Ishizu,” the firebird replied with a bow. “I’ve just signed up for the World Fighter Plus Tournament and I’m looking for a --“

The feline interrupted Charlotte with a “tut-tut-tut” as she continued. “You already told me that when you entered. Now, let us speed things up, as I know we’re a bit behind schedule. My name is Kella Elise, and I’m the president of Venus Incorporated.”

Upon hearing this, Charlotte immediately realized who this person was and what kind of company she ran. “Wait," said Charlotte, "Not the Kella Elise? And that thin tigress in the picture would be?”

“Would you believe that was the legendary Naomi Hayami before she became a sumo? And yes, I’m pretty much famous in this line of business, darling. I was known for turning those with potential into fabled champions of this sport, and many other forms of hand-to-hand combat as well. From Naomi Hayami to the first Japanese woman of the sport Ayama Kushi, I’ve groomed them all.” The feline then sauntered from the foyer, “Now come, come! We've got to get you accustomed to the facilities I’ll provide.”

“Provide?”, Charlotte asked the feline. “What do you mean?”

The feline led Charlotte to a large kitchen. She explained, “Why, I have to ensure your training, feeding, and comfort. It’s all part of being the sponsor and I’m willing to do that. The only catch is you don’t disappoint me. I’m not so generous to failure, you see.”
She would show off a huge, empty kitchen. It resembled more of a small diner than a run of the mill kitchen.
"This is the kitchen, staffed by world-class chefs for the competition.” Charlotte began to inspect the kitchen to only see nobody was here.

“Uh ... where are they?”

“They’re out gathering supplies, dear. Once things are settled, it’ll be set up for you. Specific diets to ensure your get the proper nutrients and sometimes the occasional dessert,” the feline explained. She beckoned the firebird to resume with the tour. While Kella showed off every facility that she could, she hastily moved on without a pause. When they passed the bathroom, the bedroom, and the recreational room, Charlotte couldn't help but wonder if they were always like they were in a giant's castle or if they were remodeled this way.

Before Charlotte could even ask, Kella raised a hand to cut her speech off. “No interruptions, please. I’ll answer your questions once we’re done with the tour.”

Now, the tour was nearly over. Kella wore a massive grin on her face that would make the Cheshire cat's smile look like a frown.

“Now we get to the best part of what I’ll provide for you,” she said to Charlotte. “Here is where I mold the potential, hammer out the details and can transform anyone into titanesses!”

Automatically, the double doors opened wide to show off a gym room, massive enough to be its own mini gymnasium.

“I haven’t seen this many training equipment before!” Charlotte said in awe as she walked up to a set of dumbbells. “Hell, even the college gymnasium doesn’t have any of this.”

“Oh, puh-lease," said Kella. "Those small-town gyms totally lack the appropriate equipment that I have. Usually, you’d have to pay a ton of money just for their services. Not only that …”
The feline walked up toward computer terminal with humanoid robots of varying sizes and builds. They didn’t have anything unique to them save for just a head that had a television screen for a face while the rest of its body seemed to look like the build of an inpachi dummy.

“I bought these from Silicon Valley in the United States," said Kella. "These are called Inpachi Training Dummies, or ITDs for short. As you can see, they take on a variety body sizes to ensure you do not fight the same body type twice.” Kella explained as she headed toward the computer terminal and began to boot up the program. “But these things also have the data on all fighting styles including those of past and current WFP fighters. I could show you one but --“

The feline heard her phone ring.

“This had better be good, Timothy,” growled Kella, ready to chew out the guy on the other line.

“Sorry to interrupt you, Miss Kella,” he said with a bit of fear in his voice. “But, the security system has detected an intruder on the grounds.”

The feline rubbed the bridge of her nose in agitation. “Oh, for the love of -- just send someone to deal with the trespasser. I'm extraordinarily busy."

“Wait, who’s on the ground?” Charlotte asked. She dreaded the idea of Suzuka's trying to sabotage her chances of a sponsor. The firebird began to bolt toward the entrance. Kella tried to stop Charlotte, but she ended up following her.

Meanwhile, back outside, Mizuki was, more or less, wandering around a zen garden. She found herself near a koi pond as she continued searching for a back door into the house in her search for Charlotte. However, as she continued her investigation, she found herself surrounded by security guards. When one of the guards whipped out a taser, Mizuki threw her hands up high, trembling.

“Whoa! Don’t tase me, man!” Mizuki yelled. “I’m just looking for a friend of mine who’s inside, and I just --"

Charlotte arrived just in time before anything bad could happen. She yelled out Mizuki’s name.

“Mizuki! What made you rush onto this place?”

“Charlotte?!” replied Mizuki in shock and surprise. Charlotte barged through the security guards, leaving them puzzled and confused. Kella managed to arrive and diffuse the situation in the nick of time.

“How in the world did you get in here?" asked Charlotte. "This place has a ton of electrical fencing!”

“Well, it’s simply climbing the non-electrical parts of the fence," replied Mizuki.

The two friends continued to chatter about the place as the agitated feline finally shooed the last security personnel out of the area. Kella turned to the human girl with a cross look on her face.

“Care to explain your tripping the alarms and nearly getting paralyzed on my property? What made you crazy enough to pull this off?”

Mizuki stared at the diminutive feline woman as she began to explain, “Well, I was following my friend Charlotte and --“

Before she could finish her sentence, Kella placed her hand on the human girl’s lips to hush her. The feline crooked her eyebrow at that statement before turning to Charlotte.

“Do you know this girl?” asked Kella.

“Why yes”, Charlotte said. “She’s been my friend since childhood.”

The feline fashion designer began to ponder the situation before she came to her conclusion. She simply told the two college students, “I believe that will do. Miss, you can wait in the foyer while I finish up my discussion with Charlotte.”

“Really? You’re not going to call the cops?” Mizuki asked.

“Why would I call the cops on the friend of a future champion?” Kella questioned the human girl. “Besides, it's clear that you’re not here for a sponsorship anyway.”
Kella then grabbed Charlotte’s hand, “Come now, we’re wasting precious time outside when we should be continuing the tour!”

*******************************************************

Once the tour was over, Charlotte and Kella finished up in the main living room of the building. It was a pretty spacious, filled with some interesting modern furniture that stood out. To Charlotte, it felt like she was inside something you’d see in a home magazine about a fashionista house. Kella motioned Charlotte to sit down on a vauld stool while the feline sat on a futon.

“Now with the entire tour over, I want to know more about you, Charlotte,” said Kella. “What made you want to be part of this competition?”

Charlotte began to drum her chin as she started her explanation. “Well, I have always been a fan of the World Fighters Plus since I was a girl. Since then, I always dreamed of competing for these tournaments. And, I won't lie: sometimes, I've felt like I'm, um, too small and thin. It took me a long time to decide, but now I've decided to enter this year's tourney."

The feline nodded as she began to pull out a medium sized notepad as she began to feel her muse at work. “Mm-hmm, I see,” she nodded. “Now, here is the big question. What are your fighting styles?”

“My fighting styles?” Charlotte returned. “Oh! You mean how I fight! Well, I am someone who’s pretty knowledgeable about kenjutsu, aikido, and martial arts.”

“Kenjutsu? As in, a type of swordsmanship? That may be interesting to do, but the WFP doesn’t allow weapons." Kella explained to Charlotte. “But, if it was more like judo, that would be good. However, aikido and what other styles you got may suffice as well. For now, I’d say forget about using kenjutsu, unless it’s not using an actual weapon.”

Charlotte sighed, feeling a bit annoyed over the notion. “It’s not a weapon-based training; rather, it's used for disarming.”

“Alright, just giving you a bit of a notification on the rules,” Kella said as she began to draw various designs of outfits that would be used for the competition. “Hmm … I could try this. Though ...” Taking a pause from her drawing, Kella inquired, “Tell me a bit about yourself. What do you usually do, besides college?”

The firebird answered, “Well, I do live at an old dojo nearby that my grandfather owns. That dojo's been around for a pretty long time, and Sofu always said it was once used to train samurai."

Upon hearing that, Kella’s inspirational juices flowed as she went back to her notebook. “Ah! Samurai! Shogun! That could work! Perhaps, something similar to what they had while training! It'll be bold! Stupendous! Fantastic! Something that shows that you are not some prissy nobody!”

“Yeah!” Charlotte shouted with enthusiasm. “And I can be as flashy as Naomi! Complete with a hip check like the Shogun Slam that’ll -- “

On cue, she was hit with a wad of paper as Kella yells out “no butts!”. The firebird quizzically looked as Kella gave a bit of a scowl that would be obstructed by her notebook. “Wait a minute…what do you mean ‘no butts’? I thought it was my decision on stuff like signature moves?”

“You are a fan of the sport yes?”, Kella asks, “Does the name Bahiti ring a bell to you?”

“The Egyptian hyacinth of the Nile? What about her?” Charlotte asks

“Bahiti’s fight with Iverem of the Congo during the Egyptian Nile Cup seven years ago, you must have seen it. The entire battle was going so smoothly as she was ready to use her signature move. That is until she got the horn where it hurts when she landed on the rhino’s head”, Kella explained to the Firebird. The Firebird couldn’t believe this as she just dismissed the ordeal with “Why would you use Bahiti? She wasn’t really someone you’d expect to be that tactical-“

Kella interrupted with another example, as she was going to prove her point. “Lilian Voss of Sicily, she overshot and landed on the Queen of England when attempting to use a hip check! She was lucky the queen wrote that off as an accident. Biggest blunder for the European Union Cup since 1999’s WFP Championship”

“Hey! You can’t just generalize your opinion just because of a few accidents-“, Charlotte interjected but found herself beaten by another round of Kella’s examples.

“Donnella McKracken of the United Kingdom, Naomi Hayami of Japan, Leona Gia of the Dominican Republic. Each of those girls either got themselves hurt from another species natural defense, damaged expensive equipment or outright just made an ass out of themselves. I do not like seeing my start fighters becoming a laughing stock let alone getting themselves injured!”, The Feline demanded at Charlotte before she regained her composure. “Now that I got that off my chest, I expect you to be ready by tomorrow”

“Tomorrow? What do you need me to do tomorrow?” Charlotte asked.

“Why, your training of course! You have six weeks to get yourself ready.”

Charlotte began to curiously wonder on what kind of training regime she was going to go through for this.