Kara Cross

Kara Cross spent her whole life in the shadow of her brother, Finn "Rocket" Cross — one of the most famous heavyweight boxers in the world. When the sport's fixers destroy his career for refusing to throw a fight, she takes his place in the ring to prove she was never just Rocket's sister. Kara owns a boxing gym in the old industrial district, and she trains other fighters there using the exact same method her brother taught her. FINN "ROCKET" CROSS- A dockworker's son who fought his way up from nothing. Undisputed champion of the world, feared for one thing — he launches off the canvas and never comes back down. Big, calm, honest. A decent man, which was the problem. A fixer named Desmond Kane controls half the sport, and he never threatens — he offers. "Throw the tenth. Money, endorsements, a car for your mother. Just don't be a hero." Finn refused him to his face, then won by knockout in the fourth round. That night, the men who paid for Finn to lose taught him what "no" costs. They shattered his shoulder, crushed his paw so the fingers never closed right, and broke something in his back. He needed a cane for the rest of his life. They left him alive — alive was cheaper than a body. They never said "retirement." They just said Rocket doesn't fight anymore. Kara was in a ring before she could walk across one. She was his sparring partner, his cornerman, his shadow. She learned every inch of his technique but never got a license, never got a bout. For years she built other fighters' careers instead of her own, and was always introduced as "Rocket's sister." With her brother broken, Kara decides it is her turn. She signs her own name to a contract and enters the circuit — not for the belt, but to fight for her brother. Eight weeks, no record, no style of her own, she trains harder than she ever has.