"WELCOME MY FAMILY!! WELCOME TO THE PIT!"

He stood atop his platform, his throne behind him, his stage before him, his actors prepared to enact the forbidden play. All was well! He was particularly excited tonight, as he had a fighter people had been asking for ever since she'd first come to the pit. She had a unique ability that per her in a great place to entertain the crowd, and while he had yet to put her up against anyone too dangerous, as he was afraid of losing such a great asset before she showed her full potential.

That said, tonight the likely the last fairly easy fight he would give her; she needed to earn her keep after all... The crowd went silent after a hand wave, and he stepped forward to the edge of his platform.

"My people, tonight we are going to start things off with a bang. I bring you... IN THE BLUE CORNER! Stepping out of a 5 fight winning streak, The~ REVOLVER! REGINALD SPRIGGATE!" A large man stepped into the arena, his arms out, hands open, his chest bare, his brutish figure displayed for all of the world to see. He was quite the crowd winner, but he'd gotten cocky lately, and had started demanding more for his fights. What a shame. The man turned up him, winked, and pointed at the giant cockroach. Even as the man's hand shifted into a revolver, the host stood still. The man laughed, and shifted his hand back, walking out into the arena in a cocky display of bravado. Without comment, Roach continued announcing.

"IN THE RED CORNER! Well... this combatant needs no introduction, She entered moments ago, actually. What... you didn't notice?" He would be smiling if he had a mouth. The revolver glanced about, a confused look plastered on his face. He didn't see anyone... The audience did, though. "BEGIN!"

A large grey tarp was sitting near the wall of the pit. The tarp was actually a homemade poncho that covered Seyta from head to foot. Contrary to her opponent Seyta simply stood up removed the poncho and hung it on a hook that also held a crowbar. Now dressed in the remains of some jeans and what had once been a dress, now a shirt, Seyta stepped towards the middle of the ring. Glancing up at their Master of Ceremonies she shook her head, she had been sitting there for almost ten minutes.

As Revolver looked round trying to see her Seyta simply walked up to him, a pair of pruning shears in her hand. Roach had told her to take her time, show off to the crowd. Her powers let her do just that, in the two years since the bombs went off she had learned and expanded them. At this range Revolver would never get an exact position on her. Walking in a circle around her opponent she pointed the shears at him, pausing now and them to tell where the crowd cheered the loudest.

"Seems they want me to humiliate you... I guess it can't be helped." She turned and shrugged to him, he might have heard her but it wouldn't be enough. Working quickly she cut several of the belt loops on his pants. Even normally people wouldn't notice the change until they started moving. Snipping off the last loop she grinned stepping back and yelled at him. "Hey dumb*** over here!"

Revolver wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box. He was good at fighting, and was clever enough to exploit weaknesses and fight dirty, but when it came to higher reasoning skills, he didn't make the cut... So it wasn't until he heard a yell, and turned to find no one that he started to grasp who it was he was fighting.

"It's that damned wannabe ninja, huh?" His hand shifted into a revolver, and he took a step toward where he heard the voice... and then his pants fell down. "AGH!" He fell right on his face, and tried to scramble to his feet again, firing blindly around him as he did so. The bullets, made of energy, were non-lethal, but it was clear they packed enough of a punch to cause screams of pain to echo out from the audience members he hit. Roach chuckled... The audience knew the risks; he was sure that many of them even reveled at the fact that they could die at the arena... These ones were only just getting hurt. By now they weren't screaming as much as they were laughing at the poor man in the arena. Seyta had a way of making a spectacle of fights; he found her to be one of his most successful opening acts.

Revolver got up again, and pulled his pants off, his tighty whiteys showing, but his look of rage balancing out the embarrassing lack of pants. "COME OUT YOU LITTLE B*#$%! I DARE YOU!" The crowd laughed again... The girl clearly wasn't hiding.

Seyta stepped to the side as one of Revolvers bullets flew past her. Luckily his aim was pretty bad given his position.

>> "COME OUT YOU LITTLE B*#$%! I DARE YOU!"

Seyta rolled her eyes and continued to circle around him, looking over the walls for a better weapon. Most of the weapons within reach along the walls where blunt force, crowbars, bats, hammers and the like. She preferred knives, quick simple and easy to manage. About three feet out of her reach was a Ka-bar. A very good weapon, which explained why it was higher the wall. Grabbing the nearest throw-able weapon, a hatchet in this case Seyta tossed it over Revolvers head.

Fingering a reply to the spectators who complained that she missed Seyta waited for the hatchet to crash against the opposite wall before climbing up to the Ka-bar. She grinned knowing Revolver was going to shoot at the noise from the crashing and hopefully ignore the movment Seyta caused as she grabbed her knife."Roach, I'll be keeping this when I'm done!" She grinned waving the blade in the air and winking at him.

Dropping down to the ground she tossed the blade in her hand crouching slightly. She was still going to give the crowd a show, but petty jokes where for the start of the fight. Now it was time to ruin her opponent, to death if need be...or if it maked the crowd happy.

Roach could tell right away what had caught Seyta's eye. He silently cursed at his henchmen; They'd just gotten that knife in trade... they'd gotten a good deal, too. A week's spectatorship in the arena, and one rat-kabob each day, with water rations on the side. He'd meant to clear out all of the really choice things for someone who had a rather small chance at actually getting their hands on them.

Seyta would get it with no problem, as evidenced by her tossing of the tomahawk, which drew a- "Hah! Gotcha!" And several shots in the wrong direction, albeit to the joy of the crowd members who weren't caught in the cross fire. Roach eyed the climbing woman for a moment, and then rolled his head side to side in a defeated, but lighthearted posture. "Alright, but I'm taking it out of your paycheck, young woman."

Revolver looked to him as he talked, and then turned to where Roach was looking... oops. The man grinned cruelly, and raised the hand-gun in her direction, firing concussive blasts blindly. Roach sat down and relaxed, silently hoping he hadn't just given the big buffoon the fight; he would hate for his fans to watch as he killed the pest in cold blood right after winning a match... Maybe he could find some lions to throw at him afterward... He'd always wanted lions in the pit... or sharks with lasers, but he was willing to compromise... Maker... lions please?

>> "Alright, but I'm taking it out of your paycheck, young woman."

Seyta cursed silently as Revolver realized where she was thanks to Roach. Se ducked quickly but was still grazed on the left shoulder by one of the shots. Her eyes watered as she refused to let herself scream. Shaking herself to refocus Seyta concentrated on Revolver's hand. She wasn't sure if it was still flesh and bone, not wanting to damage the new knife her best bet was to go for the wrist.

Staying low she moved along side him and aimed a slash for the back of his wrist. Stabbing would ave worked better but she wasn't going to risk losing the knife if when he jerked his arm back. Jumping back a few feet to the right she waited. Seyta needed a clear opportunity to move in and take out his other hand. Once she could do that, Revolver would fall.

The revolver didn't stop firing until he felt the painful slash on his wrist, which caused him to pull back, and then lash out violently, a cry of rage tearing from his throat as he did.

His hand shifted back to normal as he backed himself up to the wall, cursing lously. "AAAAGH..." He looked down to his wrist, staring at the deep wound, which cut clean through the tendons and caused his hand to hang uselessly. "YOU B$%#@! YOU STUPID B@$%^! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME!" His other hand shifted, and he started firing in random directions as quickly as he could, keeping his back to the wall.


BLAM! BLAM!
"I'll kill you, I'll kill you!"

BLAM!

Roach had taken to watching in a reclined position, one leg crossed over the other neatly. A stray blast bounced off of the grate next to him, and he sat up quickly, huffing, and leaning back once more.

"Seyta, dear! If you would disable him before going in for the kill, I would appreciate it greatly!"

Seyta jumped back and did her best to avoid the blasts from Revolver. His constant threats of killing her was almost comical though, since he was likely to pass out from blood loss in a few minutes.

>> "Seyta, dear! If you would disable him before going in for the kill, I would appreciate it greatly!"

"Yes sir!" Seyta spat out in reply saluting Roach with her middle finger. Of course he wants this to be interesting. People don't want to watch gladiators fight to exhaustion, the final blow is never as satisfying.

Ducking under a shot Seyta rolled towards Revolver, slashing at his right thigh before rolling back away. If Roach wanted him disabled then that's what Seyta would do. At least until Revolver bled to death. Without waiting to see if she had actually cut him Seyta stood, bringing the knife up towards his good wrist. Even if he caught her, at this angle she would likely still slash across his arm.

Roach chuckled at Seyta's display of one particular finger; he supposed he deserved it, having pointed her out... Still, it really did make the fight more interesting. Maybe he would do it again during her next fight.

The cries of rage and blind shooting seemed to be less effective than Revolver had hoped, much to the amusement of Roach and the crowd.

Before he knew what hit him, he had a shiny new laceration on his thigh, which caused him to fall to a knee, more in surprise than anything else... When the knife came for his other wrist, he'd already withdrawn it enough to make it so the blow merely cut a deep gouge in his hand. He howled in pain, and stood with a surprisingly quick responding straight kick at chest level. The man was an experienced fighter, after all.

The kick found contact, and the man stood, turning his agression not on his opponent, but on their announcer.

"You... YOU DID THIS! You think you can kill me?! Huh?! I OWN this arena you disgusting freak! My fans won't stand for this... I'll kill you first!" With that he raised an injured hand and, woozy from blood loss, fired off rounds at the still lounging Roach. As the shots came in, The pit leader slowly stood, seemingly stoic, even as a shot managed to glance off of his shoulder.

"My poor, sad, misdirected child... You thought you had so much, but you never realized how little you really were... Those fans who adore you so much... They are about to stand and clap as your blood stains the floor of my pit..."

His eyes wandered up as Revolver fell to his knees once again, the blood loss becoming too much for him.

"My dear... Make it gruesome..."

Seyta felt the kick and sprawled across the arena floor, dropping her knife in the process. She blinked, still lying on the ground. The kick had hit her hard, she took a deep breath. Pain but not overwhelming, so she was bruised but no broken or cracked ribs. Revolver was shouting.

Pushing herself up Seyta noticed she had actually hit the wall when he kicked her. That was why her head hurt. She blinked a few more times to clear the spots from her vision. Her knife was a few feet away on the ground. Walking over she leaned down and picked it up. "Damn that hurts..." Bending wasn't a good idea with bruised ribs.

>> "My dear... Make it gruesome..."

That was her cue, she looked to Revolver, kneeling on the other side of the pit. Seyta turned the knife over a few times in her hand and walked towards him. The crowd was cheering, they loved this part. It was sickening to Seyta, but she liked it to. She was good at it, and she knew it. As much as she hated the war for killing her family she was glad they couldn't see her now. Her mothers little girl walking away from her most recent victim.

Seyta did her best to wipe the blood off her hands as she walked towards the grey tarp hanging on the wall. Pulling it on she stood by the door waiting for Roach to let her out. She won, the pit was freshly painted red, the crowd was happy. She put the ka-bar back into her belt, turned to face the stands and smiled. There, she accepted her victory. Now Roach could let her go.

"Amazing! A true master at her trade!"

He shouted as the OO's and AH's of the audience turned into applause... She really was getting good at finishers, though he had to admit he did feel some pity for Revolver in the end. Still, the people had to know that crossing him meant a painful, shameful death, and this did get the message across quite well.

He gave the gate guard, a nod, and the guard looked at him questioningly for a moment, and then realized that the girl was probably at the entrance. He opened it wide.

"Do remember to come and pick up your rewards at the end of the night, my treasured child! I wish to have a chat!"

The rest of the fights went smoothly, though it left him thinking that perhaps he should have saved her for last... She was simply progressing way too well to be and opening act anymore.

~~~~

He'd designed this room for such an occasion; it was long, and had him seated in a comfy chair with guards at the ready, one cockroach minion, and a squat looking mutant being his top security picks. At the other side of the room was a table with some supplies on it, and a counter with a barred room, shaping the building much like an L. It acted as his requisitions and reward room, where the champions could talk to him, without getting close enough to kill him if they so desired. The supplies the people had won were placed on the table, and if they performed well enough, he would allow them to trade at the counter for weapons, special equipment, and general trade.

"Come in, come in! Amazing fight, my little ninja! Simply darling if I do say to myself! You were born for this!" He said as waved the door man to invite her in.

"You know the drill... your supplies are on the table. Do be careful not to step too close to this side of the room... we do want me to be able to see you, after all." The two guards at his side were informed and ready in case she tried to move within her ability's range.

"I took the liberty of removing some supplies in order to make up for the lovely gem of a knife you acquired. I hope you don't mind."

The clean water jugs glistened, and the bread and cheese, bandages and other necessities would look insanely inviting to anyone who lived in this day and age... hence why people always came back... even after being captured for their first fight. It was like... forcing someone to take a drug the first time to get the addicted... He mused at the thought; the drug here was survival, and he was most of the city's best bet.

Seyta headed up to the rewards office. She hadn't even washed up after the fight; the smell of filth, sweat and blood that stained her arms and clothing seemed stronger than normally because of it. Reaching the door she knocked twice.

>> "Come in, come in! Amazing fight, my little ninja! Simply darling if I do say to myself! You were born for this!"

Seyta stepped inside and glanced around the room. This was not her first time here, nor would it be her last. Still she took a mental note of everything each time, especially the guards. The door man was different but the mini roach and the squat guy where the same. At least she thought the mini roach was the same, they needed numbers on them.

>> "You know the drill... your supplies are on the table. Do be careful not to step too close to this side of the room... we do want me to be able to see you, after all. I took the liberty of removing some supplies in order to make up for the lovely gem of a knife you acquired. I hope you don't mind."

"No, it technically is fair for a ka-bar knife." She grinned motioning to the guards. "Though at least in my case, you really need to add an adapted to the ranks for these little meetings."

Browsing over the table Seyta took her time to weigh her options. Water and food, both available in high quality compared to what Roach allotted for the fighters rationed meals. Medical supplies, again higher quality than what was normally available: clean sterile bandages, pain killers, and rubbing alcohol. There was a few other things, useful but not directly beneficial to Seyta.

"Well... Thanks to you I have some nasty bruises on my ribs, so I'll keep the pain meds. As for everything else lets work some deals and I'll just take whats left over as well." She looked at Roach blankly and pulled the pain meds away from the rest of the rewards. Negotiating was always tricky, and she had already toed the line by taking the knife. Then again in a place like this you needed to step right over the line to get anything.

"No, it technically is fair for a ka-bar knife. Though at least in my case, you really need to add an adapted to the ranks for these little meetings."

He tilted his head a little bit at the mention of an... adapted, was it? Silly girl, those were just rumors, right? Superstition was cute, and all, but he wouldn't do anything to squash Seyta's dreams about being noticeable to anyone near her because some magical human managed to cancel out her powers... Still, it reminded himself it was important to keep and open mind, and there were mutants like Lenna around with powers that mirrored the fictional 'adapted' phenomena; he assumed they were where it came from.

"Noted, though I think our defenses are fairly secure on their own... And, well... what is a family without trust?" He opened up his mandibles and frilled his palps in the closest thing he could do to a smile, which would probably make some people pee a little if he was closer.

He watched her closely as she eyes the supplies, trying to pick and pull what was most important for her. His mandibles clacked audibly just once, denoting a feeling of... An opportunistic joy, though little would be able to decipher it as such.

"Seyta, you know I'm always willing to talk business, don't you? You have been in and out for some time now, fighting, drifting, and fighting some more..." He paused as if to collect his thoughts. "What if I told you you could have everything on that table, and more?" The question came out as if it were a kind offer, though nothing was ever as such with him.

"Of course... It would be in exchange for something... You know how these things work..." He sat up, a motion that caused his guards to snap to attention, and train their sights on her. He held a hand up, and they relaxed. "Let's get right down to it. I want your guarantee that you will fight once more, though I doubt you wouldn't do so at this point in your rising career. More importantly... I wish to have access to services only one like you could provide... Namely, should I call on you for a favor... well... You'll be there." His antennae twitched in apprehension as he stared her down. "In return, you will be full when you wish to be full, you will be thirsty only when you get bored of water, and you will have a place to stay that is warm at night and cool during the day..."

...

"So... what do you say?"

>> "...Let's get right down to it. I want your guarantee that you will fight once more, though I doubt you wouldn't do so at this point in your rising career. More importantly... I wish to have access to services only one like you could provide... Namely, should I call on you for a favor... well... You'll be there. In return, you will be full when you wish to be full, you will be thirsty only when you get bored of water, and you will have a place to stay that is warm at night and cool during the day..."

Seyta nodded along, this was more than the normal negotiating for more fights. Roach was planning something. Something big. And he as offering her a slice of the pie for her to agree to take part.

>> "So... what do you say?"

She wasn't sure what to say. If it was some kind of extra special pit fight then no problem. If not then his promice of more that the goods on the table would have to measure up. Judging from his tone he sounded sincere, which wasn't like the Roach she knew. Refusing this offer wasn't a good idea. She glanced at the guards again, the two at the door were within range of her. The others would be as well if she got to the other side of the table, but Roach would have them kill her before she moved.

"I don't suppose it's healthy for me to say no is it..." It wasn't a question, but She wasn't going to just blindly follow him either. "I agree but I want to know what I' agreeing to exactly. Also, since I'm still going to be entertaining people in the pit, I want a sheath and whet stone to keep this lovely knife in good condition."

He had the hook, firmly set in bait, and she was biting.

Good. It would have been a terrible waste to lose having her on his side. Especially because ammo was so hard to find these days, and producing your own was a pain... not to mention no one was supposed to know he had the means.

"I don't suppose it's healthy for me to say no is it..." He chuckled, relaxing in his throne as she went on.... "I agree but I want to know what I' agreeing to exactly. Also, since I'm still going to be entertaining people in the pit, I want a sheath and whet stone to keep this lovely knife in good condition."

"You're a clever girl... That's why I like you. That's why I want you on my side... You see... In the end, cunning is what marks a true survivor. Having brute force, endless supply, or even hope... those are all nothing compared to wit sharp enough to cut." It may have been obvious to her that by brute force, he referred to the Amazons, Celeste's bunker fell under endless supply... and... well... a couple places were still clinging on to hope. "In the end, though... we all compete for resources, here... I have carved a niche, yes, I want more for my family... Unfortunately, that means less for some of those other groups."

He was serious, now... At some point in his speech he went from friendly, and humorous to sullen and stoic. He wondered if, perched atop his throne, he looked like a king? It truly didn't matter, though, did it? Whether he looked it or not, a king was what he would be. All he needed were the right knights.

He perked up again suddenly. "The sheath will be easy; Aura recently mercilessly slaughtered a cow she'd spent insane resources on all to make a spectacle in the pit; it was hilarious. I can have someone craft a bit of leather for you. The whet stone... that will take a little more time, if you want a proper one."