Death's Arena

[Wes]

ON: Darso, Gladiator's Arena

Shadow paced back and forth in the "pressbox" of the arena. He had not had the proper amount of time to prepare his fighters for the tournament, and he just hoped they had enough skill to wing it. Taking a deep breath, he walked to the window and looked over the gathered crowd. "There are more people here today than ever before....Why? What is so special about today?" Shadow whispered to himself. Just as he finished, a massive scaled hand came down onto his shoulder. "Because, Markus, Today is the day I finally prove you are a nothing, and a nobody, to Dar....and then once he sees what a failure you are, he will get rid of you, and hire me and my band of bounty hunters, to take over..." Gilo said with a sick grin, as he too looked out on the collisium. The structure was built with Roman influences. There was a dirt floor that was surrounded by a wall of fifteen foot tall smooth stone, and then seats went up from the top of that wall, in stadium fashion, for hundreds of feet. The structure easily held over fifty thousand, screaming, blood thirsty, fans. Some brought weapons they would throw down to their favorite fighter to help swing the battle in thier favor, but most just brought food to eat as they watched the fights.

Yuuko sat outside the gates on one side of the arena, feeling not-up-to-par. The chemicals the Mishhuvurthyar had pumped into her small body were still effecting her, making her vision blurry and her sense of fear and pain quite strong. The smelly hired guards had fondled her teasingly and given her a dirty, blood-stained loincloth and a small off-white top they'd found somewhere. In order to increase her chances, Yuuko had been concentrating on mentally preparing herself. At the moment, despite the difficulty she was having staying upright, she felt she was ready for anything! Good old combat pilot arrogance was her friend.

Tyriel, on the other hand, was down in the gladiator pits under the main floor stretching and preparing himself to fight. Any shred of niceness was gone replaced with a near animalistic need to fight and survive. He'd use any advantage he could get or create to win.

Across the arena, behind thick, metal, bars, Yuuko's opponent was making his way down the dimly lit corridors. He was dressed in worn, blood soaked clothes that consisted of loose pants, torn at the knees to make them into shorts, and a shirt missing the sleeves, made from some course fabric. His body was one of nightmares. His muscles bulged obscenely, obviously enhanced with who knew how many chemicals. There were side effects of course, like the nervous tick that caused his whole body to shudder every few seconds, and the wild look in his eyes. The guards had to keep his arms and legs shackled, just to keep the beast of a man contained. He roared and fought against the chains, staring out into the open pit where his next victim would come to him.

One of the guard-types unnecessarily prodded Yuuko in the ass with a taser prod, causing her to reflexively try to stand; in her condition, she managed only to stumble forward and collapse in the dust inside the barred gate to the arena, resulting in her back being harshly poked several more times, followed by kick to her side. "Get up!" the guard commanded, and Yuuko drowsily did so, placing her hands on either side of the doorway to steady herself as the gate was raised in front of her.

The "creature", on the other side of the arena was slowly led to the gate, and it was raised before him. The guards smiled sadistically as they released the chains, and the man quickly spun them around his hands to make metal boxing gloves of sorts. He roared again, and then started running full speed towards Yuuko, stopping when he was twenty feet away, and just laughed, showing his yellow, decaying teeth. "Come on, Little girly...I'll let you have the first shot...Come on..." He patted his cheek. "Right here..."

Yuuko sneered, stepping into the arena. The dust at her feet blew outward in a wave of hot air and a aura of steam appeared around the Nekovalkyrja's figure as she burned off what chemicals she could. She took of toward him in a run, and swing a heavy blow at him, her body weight spiking off at around three times what it's actual mass was. She would use her inertial abilities to try to put her on even footing with him.

The man's head spun around, looking as if she would break his neck with one punch, but after a few stumbling steps back, he turned back to face Yuuko, spitting out a few teeth, and a mouthful of blood. The dusty floor was stained with his blood, and he grinned. "MY TURN!" He shouted, and swung his huge, dinner plate sized fist at the neko as he took a sort of running start to use his own inertia to add some more to the punch.

Yuuko tried to dodge backwards by shifting her center of gravity, but the drugs screwed up her balance and she ended up haphazardly wobbling off to his non-punching side, causing his fist to miss but accidentally positioning herself to be tackled or stampeded.

"Ooh, crafty one..." He said as she dodged, but he didn't slow down and drove his shoulder into her body, pushing her backwards towards the stone wall. If she didn't act fast, she would be sandwiched against the wall. Meanwhile, Shadow had been watching, and was silently cheering Yuuko on, but he had other business to attend to, and went in search of Tyr.

Tyriel was still where he was instructed to be throwing a few punches to work the rust out, in a place where he wouldn't nail anyone else. He didn't like the idea of being unable to fly down here but he'd make due with it until it was his turn; even if he couldn't fly out there he could use his wings for a speed boost. Tyr stopped his workout in a moment and sat on a bench nearby resting a little.

"Ungh!" the girl choked out as she was slammed against the side of the arena. Her ribs flared in pain. She desperately stabbed her sharp claws at the man's eyes to try to get the pressure of his bulk to subside.

The man roared in pain as he claws slashed over his eyes. Judging from the amount of blood dripping through his fingers, she had done some serious damage. He stumbled back, grunting and cursing, but finally dropped his hands and looked at her with his good eye, the other one just an empty socket, as her claws had actually punctured his eye. He closed his injured eye and huffed through clenched teeth. "Now...That wasn't very nice...."

Yuuko gritted her teeth, baring her fangs at him, and then kicked up a shower of dirt at his face, hoping to blind him, at least temporarily. When he moved to try to shield himself, she'd kick with all her strength at the bottom of the bulge where his pants legs met. She was going to fight as dirty and vicious as possible; this was a battle without honor and an opponent she felt no respect for.

Shadow found Tyr in the "locker room" and quickly hurried through the large crowd of combatants, all who looked at him with a look of hatred. Shadow licked his lips and spoke quickly with Tyr. "You have a match next, Tyriel. I had to pick you an opponent, but I couldn't show favoritism over the other fighters, so I hope you are ready, you are fighting one of my creations...Something I created from some of you companion's memories. That's all I can say right now, other than, be ready for a tough fight....I know you can do it." Then, he stood up and hurried out of the room. Back in the arena, Yuuko's opponent had not fallen for the oldest trick in his business, and when she kicked up the dirt, he turned his head slightly to use his nose to shield his eye from the dust, and when the kick to his groin came, he grabbed her leg, twisted quickly and looked to throw her right back into the wall.

The crowd roared with excitement at seeing the brutal nature of this battle. Many people jumped up and down out of their seats with brutal glee. One plump man with a missing eye stood on his chair, and tossed a crudely made club, constructed of a piece of wood with nails driven into it, into the arena. After seeing this one man toss in a weapon, many other spectators decided to toss in their own weapons. Things such as chains, clubs, sharpened sticks and various types of blades were tossed down into the battle area. The crowd roared loudly, and a few spectators near the border of the ring chanting names of the fighters, trying to get their warrior or choice to grab a weapon.

Tyr nodded to Shadow and popped his joints in his arms and stretched, preparing for it. A tough challenge...it could be worse he supposed. One of Shadow's creations...Tyr ran through his mind what his opponent could possibly be.

Though Yuuko wasn't the best martial artist by far, luckily the training the Star Army had given her enabled her to perform a lot of countering moves, including one for just a circumstance. When her enemy had taken hold of her leg, Yuuko miraculously managed to send her entire body into a rapid horizontal spin, sending a kick and the man's face. The collection of crude blades, bats, and assorted maiming paraphernalia didn't escape her notice.

The man, in hearing the support from the fans, wasn't paying attention, and took the kick to the face fully. He didn't let go of her leg, though, and with a roar of fury, brought his other arm down right over her kneecap. Then, he would once again try to throw the neko against the wall. Blood still oozed from his destroyed eye, and dust was coating the blood that was on his clothes and face.

Manifest Silver: The crowd roared loudly, some in anger, some in joy and some just drunk with the excitement and violence.

Yuuko let out a squeak of pain as his elbow hit her hard kneecap, easily thrown against the wall in a rag doll fashion. The impact made her even more dizzy, and she couldn't manage to strike back, only to limply bounce off of the wall and fall towards the sand.

Shaking his head, the man stumbled away from Yuuko, looking through his good eye for something to use to further put the fight in his favor. Finding a large sword like blade, he picked it up, and wrapped the end of his chain in it, then held the weapon at the ready.

The girl rose to her feet and slowly crept towards him, waiting for him to strike. Dirty and scratched up, she was still in much better condition than the muscular man was. She was sure she could win. "Catch the sword," she told herself silently, imagining the way the blade would slide to a halt between her two palms.

Two fans in the crowd started brawling because of disagreements about the fight. The rough looking guards quickly separated them and attempted to them both out of sight, but as they were doing so, various crowd members attacked the guards for stopping this freshly occurring battle. The chaotic atmosphere of the arena had obviously gotten to the crowd. Hell was even breaking loose between spectators. The crowd continued to roar.

Tyriel had gone up to the gates to watch the fight from behind them and noticed Yuuko go flying. "Stupid neko can't fight well enough to get us out of here?" He asked himself and looked for a way to open the gate and rush out and help her. Spotting the lever to open the gate nearby, the elysian flipped it to open the gate and took a step out and rushed toward the guy's open back, using his wings to beat once and give him a major speed boost and flew at the psycho's back to shoulder him in the spine.

Shadow was just getting back to his skybox when he saw the elysian go flying from the gates, interrupting the fight in progress. Looking at the fans and spectators all around, then to the fight, all hell had broken loose. The guards were so busy dealing with the riotous crowd, they did nothing to stop the interference. Shadow was about to say something, when Dar, the head of this brutal form of entertainment spoke over a speaker to him. "Isn't this wonderful...The ratings will be through the roof! We'll be millionaires by the end of the day!" Shadow wasn't so sure. He had more riding on this battle than just money...His pride was at stake as well, and that was why he would make sure this was the best battle ever. He walked over to the phone and called down to a special area of the arena. "Release him. We have a brawl on our hands, and the winged one is involved...." He smiled softly to himself, hoping that he had gotten everything right from Yuuko's memories. In a matter of seconds, that seemed like hours, a tall, wolven figure walked out of the other side than Tyr had flown in from. With a flick of his wrists, two large metal blades deployed from his wrists, and the wolfman went down into a three point football stance, sizing Yuuko up from behind. With a snarl, he took off. The original fighter, however, was crumpling from the blow to the back, the sword sliding from his hand, but still wrapped in chain.

Many of the spectators started throwing garbage and pieces of various food at the Geshrin man. The screamed and yelled in utter excitement.

"Huh?" Tyriel said, hearing the other gate slide up and noticed Sergei take off, he swiped up a short bladed sword from the litter of them and took off in a couple wingbeats to intercept the wolven warrior. Moving as fast as possible to stop the guy from nailing Yuuko, he managed to slide in between them and readied himself to parry or absorb the hit

Sergei had not been expecting the winged fighter to get in his way, and could not stop the powerful uppercut that was being dealt from his running. The reaver's claws sliced deep into Tyr's soft midsection, even exiting his back slightly and sending blood everywhere, especially covering himself, and Yuuko behind Tyr.. With a deep growl, and a narrowing of the glowing purple eyes, he stood up fully, lifting Tyr with him. "How dare you...." He growled, staring down the elysian.

"I..." he coughed up blood. "Couldn't let you hurt...my captain...." Tyr said as his eyes slowly went blank.

Manifest Silver: The crowed cheers and roars almost deafeningly upon seeing the blood spray and splat everywhere.

The sword spun around in Yuuko's hand, but once again either her lack of unarmored combat or the drug caused her to fumble it, just as the beast came charging her from behind. Seeing Tyriel confronted by the Fenyaro, she scrambled on the ground and grabbed a long, greasy-looking knife someone had thrown into the arena. She held it by the blade and slung it at Sergei's face.

Manifest Silver: Fans of the large male combatant continued to Boo and toss garbage at the unconscious and possibly dead Geshrin.

"Yuuko..."He had a grip on Sergei's arm. "loved......" He never finished his line as he totally bled out and went limp.

"Nooo!!" Yuuko shrieked. He had to hold on until she could get some of her HS blood in him to heal his wounds!

Sergei saw the knife coming, and used Tyr's body to catch it. With him no longer being of use, the Fenyaro flung him aside, staring down the neko. "You killed my people." He licked the blood from one of the blades, "You killed my love" He snapped his arm down to his side. "I think it's only right I kill you...Don't you think so, Yuuko?" The violet eyes narrowed to slits, the anger on the Fenyaro’s face told the whole story, as he snapped into a fighting stance. Up in the box, Shadow was on pins and needles. He wanted his creation to win the fight, but he also wanted Yuuko to win, to show that she was the woman from the Texts. He walked over to the intercom, and pressed the button. He had an announcement to make, and it was now the best time to make it. He cleared his throat. "Excuse me, everyone...This is The Shadow....I have been watching this bloodbath, and I want to know what you think of it....Pretty good, isn't it?"

The body limply bounced and skidded across the dusty floor, and did not move at all and continued to bleed, quickly forming a decent sized puddle

The crowd roared loudly in approval, then started chanting loudly. "Kill.. Kill! KILL!! KILL!!" Various phrases from individuals in the crowd could be slightly heard under the loud chanting. "Kill that bitch! I bet my house!!" yelled one man. "Quick!! Get up and kill that beast!!" yelled another. "Lets see some blood!!" Another man screamed.

Yuuko looked from Sergei to Tyr, and back to Sergei. Knowing it would cost her, she grabbed another knife and backed towards Tyr, slicing a deep gash into her arm and letting the red liquid stream out onto Tyr's wounds, hoping that it would be enough. She kept her eyes fixed on Sergei as she attended to the fallen Elysian.

"Stop her!!" a plump man yelled over the roar of the crowd.

Shadow smiled softly, the crowd was in a frenzy, and that was a good thing for the people putting on this fight-fest. The day had gone well, and this main event was turning out to be better than anyone could have guessed, but the real twist would be coming very soon. "Glad to hear you all are appreciating the entertainment tonight, but I want to ask something of someone....Yuuko....You have a decision to make, so I will ask that the Fenyaro stand down for just a moment, until the woman has made her choice. The dilemma is this, Yuuko, this arena has been wired with a very powerful fusion bomb. Someone in this arena has the detonator, and has left their demands for me to read..."

The crowd quickly grew silent upon hearing the announcer’s words. They listened with concern.

Unfortunately for Yuuko, it was too late for him, the body might heal but the spirit was gone; Tyriel had always been prepared to die to protect Yuuko and was satisfied in it's duty and wouldn't return.

Quite a few people started running out of the arena, finally realizing that THEY might die today. Though just as many that ran, decided to stay. These were the ones that were hooked on the brutality and excitement. They couldn’t help but stay, risking their own lives, just to experience what would happen.

Shadow rustled some papers, and then continued. "The demands are simple. If you decide to continue on, and win this fight, the bomb will be detonated, killing all those here today, and yourself....or, you can choose to willingly forfeit this fight, and become the slave of Master Dar. The choice is yours, and you have five minutes to make it. And don't bother trying to escape, I will be watching, and if I see you try to leave this arena, I will push the button, and send us all to a quick death."

Many more spectators quickly decided to exit the arena. Many guards had also ran off, locking the doors behind them. The remainder of the crowd was trapped. One man had not even moved from his seat during all of this. He seemed strangely calm and at peace. It was the plump, one eye man. he had his arms crossed to hide a small but functional energy pistol. It would seem he had bet a large fortune of some sort on this battle, and was prepared to interfere if needed. The now trapped spectators tried breaking down the doors to no avail. They quieted down and returned to their seats, figuring they might as well relax before they die. A few were praying to unknown gods. Two men could be seen hugging and shaking hands as the apologize for various shortcomings and lies.

"What the fuck kind of fucked up fucking choice is that?" Yuuko demanded of Shadow.

Shadow looked out the window, to the neko far below. "I don't know, Yuuko. I am just reading the demands that were given to me by one of the guards....I know the choice is an...odd, one.

A still drunk and clueless man in the crowd laughed loudly upon hearing the Neko's comment. Someone quickly shushed him, and the crowd was silent again.

"Well, I technically can't agree to that...being property of the Star Army and all..." Yuuko pointed out. "But if it means all these people's lives...I will submit to this 'Dar' character."

Many cheered.

Shadow smiled softly, he wouldn't have his life cut short today, and neither did the people trapped in the arena. "So you are choosing to be a slave to Master Dar, and will forfeit this fight?" Shadow asked, to make sure that he understood her choice. The original fighter slowly started to rise from where he had been knocked over, and knocked out. He grabbed a knife and slowly started advancing on Yuuko.

The odd plump man glared down at Yuuko. His hand tightened around the pistol hidden behind his arm. The crowd watched silently, now afraid to comment on the battle.
Yuuko was still concentrating on Sergei. "I'll forfeit this battle," she said.

The man slowly walked up behind Yuuko and wrapped one arm around her waist, while the other brought the knife up to her throat. "Well, isn't that just peachy then?" He asked in her ear, his breath reeking of decay and disease.

The man with the pistol grinned sadistically, then yelled loudly, " KILL!!" Quickly after this, the remainder of the crowd slowly joined in, and started their "kill" chant again.

The girl froze.

Shadow shook his head. "No, there will be no killing of the woman...Bring her up to my office, so that we can finish the terms of her surrender." The man let off the intercom, and turn to look at Gilo, who was holding a small black box. "You did well, Shadow, and in the end, we both get what we want. You will get to keep your funding for your experiments from Dar, and I.....I will get a new love slave...Permitting Dar gives her to me, for giving such a great show." The reptilian said. "You disgust me, Gilo. You would wire the arena with a bomb, just so that you could get another slave? What if she had decided to keep fighting?" Shadow asked, brushing past Gilo, and heading for the door. Gilo smiled and shrugged, even laughed. "We'll never know."

The crowd roared angrily, one man could be heard yelling, "Kill her anyways!"

With a flicker of movement, Yuuko slapped one of her large cat-like ears across the man's remaining eye, gripping his arm simultaneously with an extremely hard grip to overpower the man and pull away the knife (if he could manage to hold it still), and twisted so that she could elbow him in the nose.

Some cheered, while others booed, but nonetheless, everyone waited for the end of one of these warriors.

The man was not expecting this, and took the hit to the nose, and had the knife twisted out of his hand, but as he turned to give Yuuko a hard punch, another knife flew just over Yuuko's shoulder, embedding itself in the man's eye. Sergei had been looking to throw it through his temple, but with him turning, the blade just went into his eye. The Fenyaro sighed and turned, walking out of the main arena.

The whole crowd fell limply back into their seats, almost simultaneously. Some of them were already passing off lost money from the bet. Without anyone seeming to notice, the Plump pistol wielding man stood, pointing the energy pistol towards the neko. He was shaking with rage. His hand shook as he held the pistol. He obviously had never used a gun before. "Hey guy, what are you doing!? The battles over!!",Yelled a nearby spectator. "Put that down!" The man with the pistol then turned and pointed the pistol at the disagreeing crowd-member, glaring sadistically.

Yuuko stormed out of the arena after one final look at Sergei, ready to be escorted to meet "Dar."

The man had missed his chance. He quietly walked out of sight. Someone had finally opened the doors. And the crowd left, in various moods.

The guards led Yuuko up through the halls of the arena. Finally, they arrived at a large, wooden door. They knocked twice, and then opened the door. Behind a desk, with a window overlooking the arena behind him, was Dar, a fat man in a pinstriped suit. He brushed a hand over his bald head and motioned to a chair across from him. "Good afternoon Miss Yuuko...You fought well down there, and let me express my condolences about your friend..." From a door off to their right, Shadow and Gilo walked in, taking positions behind their boss, and watched Yuuko.

Yuuko twitched as she looked at him, her rage, despair, and a thousand other emotions swirling within her. She took slow, unsteady steps towards him, her dark, shiny black eyes smoldering.

Shadow watched Yuuko, knowing just how violent she would be at the drop of a hat. The other men just waited until she was seated before continuing. "Now, Miss Yuuko, as per our agreement, you have forfeited your prize, which appears to be," Dar looked down at a paper that lay in a file folder on his desk, "freedom from Mr. Shadow's experiments, and fighting in future tournaments. You have given that up, to save the lives of all those in attendance today, as well as yourself. That takes alot of heart, to give up your life to save many..." His voice trailed off, as he just watched her.

The young woman continued to glower, darkly speaking. "The Star Army will rub you out," she told him, looking him in the eye. She told herself that she would make sure of it as she closed in on the lardass. "You will suffer."

Dar sighed, and Shadow shook his head. "Well now, those are awfully big words from someone who's life is in my hands. No one knows where you are, Yuuko, and if you keep steaming as you are, no one ever will. You see, as you were being led up here, I was talking to my advisor's here, " Dar motioned over his shoulder, and Gilo waved his hand, which still held the little box. "They advised me that perhaps you would not be fit to be a slave in to pits, but according to Shadow, better suited as a companion sort of woman..." He leaned on his desk, canting his head slightly to the right as his eyes narrowed for a moment. Then, he leaned back in his chair and folded his hands on his chest. "So once again, the ball is in your court, Yuuko. You have three choices now. First, you can wipe that glare off your face, face up to your fate and go willingly into our service, where you will be treated fairly and justly, so long as you return the gesture. Second, you can keep scowling at me, yet still agree to be a slave, and I will make you the main attraction on my show, where you will be paraded around like an animal at the zoo. Or, Third, You can keep scowling, refuse me, and I will turn you over to Gilo and his men, to do with as they please....The choice, is yours."

Yuuko could not or would not make herself look happy for him. She was at this very moment visualizing how she was going to ram her fingers into the man's eye sockets, wrap them around the inside of his cheekbones, and rip out the front of his face from his skull, nose and all. She imagined the sick brain inside sliding out and bouncing onto the floor for her to step on. She remained silent for the moment.

Shadow held his breath, praying that she would be, just for once, considerate and kind....Dar was not a man to go back on his word, and if Yuuko tried to fight against him, and declined his offer, there would be no qualms for having her turned over to the sex starved pirates that worked for Gilo, or just having her killed.

"Stop being such a chode," Yuuko suddenly said. "You think you're all high and mighty and yet your shitty influence and everything you have means absolutely nothing to people like me. You are doomed to obscurity and death. You're not even good enough to drink my urine, you fat tub of shit; what make you think I would ever allow myself to be even seen with you? Yeah. Try to sit there looking smug. Today is the day your life changes for the worse, and it will never get better unless you let me walk away...right now."

Dar shook his head and sighed. "Kill her." He waved his hand dismissively, and Shadow walked around the desk. "I'm sorry, Yuuko...I was going to try to convince Dar to let you live, but I can't go against orders...I will bring you back to my lab, give you one last meal, then turn you over to the Mishhu from my ship..."

"And you," Yuuko gave Shadow the evil eye as he approached, trying to suppress thoughts of the Mishhu, "You do this guy's bidding?! Let that one rattle around in your head for a minute and see if you still think it's a good idea..."

Shadow nodded to the guards, who took hold of her and lifted her out of the chair. "I don't do his bidding, I do what I have to to get paid. He is offering me more money than I have ever been paid in my life, and all I have to do is turn you over to a that creature from my ship....Easy money."

Yuuko struggled with the guards for a bit, screaming various obscenities and something about out paying Dar before she was dragged away.

"It really is a shame, Shadow, that she wasn't more like how you said. She was quite the fighter, and I am sure that she would have made a fine security sentry for your ship, or your lab...." Dar said, shaking his head. Gilo smiled sickly. "That, and she had a nice rack..." Taking a deep breath, shadow followed after the guards. "I'll go make sure that everything goes as planned." With that, he shut the door, and hurried after the guards, and the neko.