Chapter 9

Danny had started experimenting with participating in Lindsey's physical reactions, along with his own, when the two of them engaged in sex. While he wasn't as adept at doing so as Caleb had been, he had managed to improve both his response to Lindsey, and her own reactions to what was being done to her. Feeling what she was feeling went a long way towards showing him the best way to enhance the experience for her. That hadn't necessarily been his primary motivation, improving Lindsey's sexual gratification, but Danny thought of it as an additional side benefit.

For her part, Lindsey wasn't even aware of what it was that had turned Danny into being so much a better lover. She was content to experience the increased sexual gratification his changes had now brought to her. She never even remarked about the changes. For her, it was enough that she was now having better sex than she had been previously from Danny.

Because the sex was now better for both of them, the frequency of their coupling underwent a steep increase. With more experience, Danny managed to gain some additional added competence. This translated to even greater satisfaction for the two of them. With the passage of time, they both became more comfortable with the idea of being together.

Lindsey even started taking an interest in how Danny was presenting himself to the world. She started giving him pointers on how to dress, telling him how he should speak during his interviews with both the sports reporters and any regular reporters or broadcast people. Being Lindsey's boyfriend kept putting Danny's name in front of many more people. That reflected fame started earning him much greater interest from boxing promoters, which then led to even better payday's whenever he actually fought.

Danny was still surprised, and happy, when he received a call from a promoter offering him a title shot. The money being offered wasn't all that attractive, but a chance to hold one of the major Heavyweight title belts was more than sufficient incentive to get Danny to accept the fight and sign all the necessary contracts. He knew this was his foot in the door, and that his possession of any of the belts would eventually lead to him wearing all the belts of a unified championship crown. He was several years ahead of the schedule he'd originally outlined to Caleb.

Danny was given only seven weeks to train for the fight, but that didn't concern him at all. He was in good fighting shape already. Whatever training he did would only be to learn his opponent's style, and to develop a strategy and fight plan that would take advantage of any weaknesses he found from studying the films of his past fights. Danny was supremely confident that he'd have no trouble at all with finding a fight plan that would accomplish his goal.

Danny didn't actually meet his opponent until mid morning on the day before the fight, at the weigh in. It took but a moment for Danny to sense the high level of energy being radiated by the other fighter. Instantly, Danny knew that Caleb of the KAL had invested himself into the other boxer. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Caleb was planning to make some kind of assault on Danny.

Danny had known that his actions with Lindsey and Chico, along with his own survival, when discovered, would be perceived, by Caleb, as prima facie evidence of the increasing threat that Danny posed to himself, and to the KAL. It appeared that Caleb had returned and was prepared to take action. Fortunately, Danny had himself as well prepared as he could possibly make himself. During Caleb's latest long absence, Danny had been busy learning how to better control and manipulate the white energy he was now producing. He knew he didn't have Caleb's experience or abilities in controlling the more subtle uses for the white energy, but he felt confident that some of what he'd discovered on his own could be put to good use in any possible conflict with Caleb.

Knowing now that such a conflict was imminent, Danny managed to control his growing excitement. He'd had many years experience with controlling his nerves before a big fight. This next fight would be the biggest of his long career. Not only was there a world championship at stake, the fate of the entire planet was riding on Danny's ability to contain anything Caleb would be throwing at him.

The fight was being held in Las Vegas, giving Danny a big advantage, since the crowd would definitely be in his corner for the fight. The Russian fighter was much better known, as a fighter, but he was still a foreigner, and unlikely to garner much, if any, crowd support. Lindsey being down at ringside would assure that the fight would be well covered by all the media, not just the sports writers.

There would be the fight with the other boxer, the one the people in the crowded arena and on all the pay per view audience was expecting. The other fight would be one between Danny and Caleb. This was a battle that only the two participants themselves would even realize was being waged. The entire future of the planet, and all its inhabitant's, was at stake. To him, it was a positive sign that Caleb hadn't realized that Danny could sense the high level of energy his investiture in the Russian boxer gave off. Caleb was expecting to surprise Danny, in the ring.

Even before the fight actually got underway, Danny used his white energy to completely encircle the Russian boxer's brain. He could only hope that this tight shield he'd created would be enough to contain Caleb's essence.

Strangely, Danny was curious to see how his own enhanced skills would fare against the other boxer in their match. He knew Caleb was planning on dealing him a mortal blow during the fight, ending forever Danny's ability to aid either himself, Lindsay, or Chico further. Now that Caleb and all the KAL recognized Danny's own energy creating ability, they couldn't allow him to continue to exist. He represented a far greater danger to the Kal than a hundred Feltarian Fleets could ever be.

Danny heard a loud excited murmuring in the crowd, just before the bell rang to begin round one. He looked to his left to see what all the commotion was about and saw Lindsey sliding lifelessly out of her ringside seat. Turning quickly to look behind himself, Danny saw Chico falling backwards, his own eyes rolled up as the last embers of his life extinguished. Danny understood he'd been duped, he just didn't know how it had been done, and more importantly, where Caleb was now. He did realize that Caleb hadn't been inside the Russian boxer at the time he'd created that energy shield inside his head. The bell rang just then, announcing the start of the first round of the boxing match.

Danny was up off his stool as soon as he heard the bell. He knew he couldn't afford the luxury of fighting this Russian at a time when he knew, for certain, that he was facing a much more formidable challenge from an unknown source who was close at hand. Caleb had invested himself in someone, and Danny needed to discover who that someone was before Caleb managed to do to him what he'd already succeeded in doing to Lindsay and Chico.

To that end, Danny raced across the ring and landed nine quick, unanswered, blows to the Russian's head. Just as he was completing the last of his blows, he felt Caleb's energy trying to envelop him. This was when he discovered that Caleb was invested in the ring referee's body.

Fortunately, not knowing before where the inevitable attack would come from, Danny had erected an energy shield of his own around his brain and upper spine, trying to prepare himself, as best he could, from just such an attack. The shield held, but only for long enough to have Danny recognize that the source of all that attack energy was the bout's referee.

The Russian was no longer a problem, having lost consciousness sometime between the seventh and eighth head shot. Danny, in a panic turned towards the ref and blasted him with as much spare energy as he could safely use. The reserves held back were only enough to allow for short term, emergency, life support. Danny knew the ref was dead instantly. The only remaining question was whether or not it had been sufficient to also destroy Caleb's energy life force.

From the force renewing its attack on him right after that, Danny knew he had miscalculated. He'd given it his best shot and it had come up somewhat short. He knew he had nothing left he could fight back with. It would be only a few scant second's before his own shield was completely overcome by the all the radiant white energy being pulsed his way. He stood his ground, stoically waiting for the inevitable, but, strangely, it didn't come. Instead, he felt other energy, besides his and Caleb's, being radiated from just below the ringside. This energy did manage to completely overwhelm the last elements of Caleb's barely failed attack. Confirmed right away by the ref's sudden collapse to the canvas.

In the arena, pandemonium was quickly breaking out. Fans didn't know what had happened, not being able to really concentrate on all the many strange things happening in and around ringside. Just when they started to realize that the boxing contest was over, the ref collapsed, seemingly for no reason at all. To add to the mystery, Lindsay had fallen out of her chair, and one of Danny's second's had collapsed in a heap beneath the ring apron. People were falling like fly's, and patrons were beginning to wonder if some kind of sniper wasn't in the building, shooting people at random.

Lindsay got completely back up on her feet, smiling when she saw Danny too was still standing. She walked over to where Chico was and revived him with a direct transfer of the white energy she still retained as her reserve. As soon as she was certain that Chico was stable, Lindsay climbed up the steps and into the ring. She grabbed Danny and embraced him in a tight clench, appearing to be kissing him to congratulate him on his sudden stunning victory. In fact, she and Danny were exchanging white energy as well as each other's essence which they'd switched, anticipating that Caleb would be too smart to continue on with his apparent plan to hide inside the Russian boxer.

It had taken a high degree of trust on his part for Danny to take such a huge risk on Lindsay. In the end, it had all come down to him knowing that Earth's future was too important to leave to dumb luck and blind chance. To get Lindsay prepared for him to invest himself in her and for her to be invested in him, he had needed to duplicate the same vessels in her that he'd created for himself. She now had the same energy creating ability that he did.