They shuttle down to one of the planets, a black SUV is at the landing site. The driver looks at Echo and Lit just says “She is with me; she can be trusted.” The driver nods and they pull away from the landing site. They drive into a city, going to the seediest part of the city, they come to an abandoned warehouse.
Driver looks at Lit “This is the location tonight.”
Lit nods and slips out of the SUV and waits for Echo to
slide out. After they get out of the SUV
and close the door it leaves.
Lit walks up to a door, knocking three times on it. A burly
Brutor opens the door.
He sees Lit and smiles “Tigress, good to see you tonight,
we got some good fighters tonight. Some
from the Deathless.”
She looks up at him “Can I kill them in the ring,
accidentally?”
The Brutor shakes his head “You know the rules Tigress
and who is the chick behind you.”
Echo raises a brow, and only barely keeps from opening her
mouth. ‘I’m here for Literia, not my ego’ she things to herself.
Lit cocks a smirk “She’s with me.”
The brutor finally moves out of the way, Lit steps in
motioning for Echo to fall behind. “You have a choice you can either be in
the corner of the ring on the floor, or you can wander around and find a spot.”
Echo nods. “I’ll be in your corner, I don’t want to miss a
second of this!”
Lit and Echo head behind the ring into a makeshift locker
room. There are men everywhere no women
around save ring bunnies. Lit takes off
her leather jacket and throws it into a locker.
She starts to stretch her muscles, there are people of all races and
empires, there are publicly out pirates here from different factions.
Echo distracts herself watching the ring bunnies,
respectfully nodding and smiling as they notice before turning back to Literia.
A man walks up to Lit who is huge like 6’5. “Tigress, we
got a few good ones for you tonight.”
Lit cocks an eyebrow “You said that last time and they
were dropped in less the 20 seconds.”
He is Intaki, “Well they come with victories in the
deathless.”
Lit gets a wicked smirk “Some of them are Deathless
Angels?”
Echo says under her breath, “Definitely won’t be a boring
night!”
The man nods “Yes, Tigress.”
Lit laughs “This is gonna be fun.”
The intake looks at her”5 minutes and you are up”
Lit looks at Echo with look in her eyes that is pure rage
and hurt. She finishes her stretches.
Echo just nods as she sees the look. “You’ll do fine.”
She checks Lit’s bandaging on her hands. “Looks good. Go get ‘em, Tigress!”
Outside the doors of the locker room there is a path that
leads to an area that is roped off, upon peeking out the door two large men are
in the roped area, one of the men smashes the others face and you can see his
jaw move with a sickening crunch, blood sprays into the crowd of people. The crowd roars with excitement, there are
people from all over the cluster, different races, different alliances. The man who was punched goes down and is
out. A small man enters the ring and
motions counting to 10. Then he waves in
the medical staff to get the guy who is down out of the ring.
They let the crowd settle down a bit there are women going
around that are selling drinks both alcoholic and non. After a few minutes the man Lit was speaking
to in the locker room steps into the ring with a mic.
He taps the mic to make sure it is working, raising his hand
to shush the crowd. “Tonight, we got a special treat for you, she doesn’t
come around often for these special events.
Don’t mistake her as someone who is weak or frail, she is the absolute
champion of the Republic’s rings and a legend in the pits. No one knows her true name outside of the
pits, but here she goes by the Tigress.
She is fierce, brutal and deadly, let’s welcome her to the ring.”
The crowd roars with recognition of the name and
cheers. Lit steps out of the locker room
and moves down the path, throwing some shadow punches, walking down the
ring. She is dressed only in her black
sports bra, black tights, black sneakers.
She makes sure Echo is behind her, stepping into the ring raising her
hands up in the air. The crowd goes nuts
for her; she moves back to her spot against the ropes near Echo.
The announcer raises his hands up in the crowd to silence
them. “The Tigress’s opponent is not someone to be trifled with. He is proud of his allegiance to the
Deathless. He didn’t give a name, but he
says he will take the Tigress out.”
Lit scoffs in the corner and her eyes go dark with her focus now solely
on the match.
A man comes out of the other side’s makeshift locker
room. He is huge like 6’7, pale skin,
brick shit house muscles for days as he is shirtless. He looks Caldari, she walks to the middle of
the ring where the man meets her.
He looks down at her and speaks; “So this is the mighty
Tigress, I kinda expected more. I must
say I am disappointed.”
Lit scoffs “The
bigger the are the quicker they fall.”
“Looks like he’s all muscles, no brain. You got this!”
Echo says.
She turns around to go back to leaning on the ropes, waiting
for the signal to start the match but she looks over at him as he watches her
walk away “Remember, real Angels are never far.”
The man laughs mutters about something of having her in his
bed but returns to his spot.
Lit is solely focused on the man in front of her, her eyes
dark but her body relaxed. Her opponent
makes some kissy noises at her, but she doesn’t react.
A bell rings as the match starts. She moves to the center of
the ring along with her opponent, and for a bit they dodge each other’s kicks
and punches.
Then finally the man lands a good punch right to her
stomach. She staggers back and it seems
to fuel her rage. She quickly recovers
and round the house kicks him in the jaw, blood sprays as the crowd goes
wild.
He throws some rapid punches, one nails her in the nose,
blood trickles down her face and she grins sadistically at him.
She speaks “Is that all you got, you hit like a girl.” As
she taunts him, his face goes red, but he can’t speak because his jaw is
misaligned.
Lit moves in, punching him repeatedly in his stomach and
kidneys. His face is etched with pain as
she lands blow after blow. He quickly
responds punching her in the head and landing some blows on her chest and her
kidneys.
He kicks one of her knees, a crunch comes out of her
knee. It loose dislocated. Lit hobbles on it, as he tries to take
advantage of the situation. She spits
blood on the ground and quickly with reflexes parry’s his flurry of kicks and
punches, a few more land.
Her fists up, she waits for the opening because she realizes
that when he goes in for an uppercut, he drops his arms leaving his face
open. With an open palm, she connects
with force to his nose, he staggers back reeling from the blow. A loud crack comes from her; she put her own
knee back in place.
She advances, taking the opportunity that he can’t see
because his eyes are blurry from the blow to his nose. Her fists fly into a flurry as she connects
with his sides and chest, a sickening crunch echoes, like bones breaking.
The crowd is yelling and cheering for their opponent of
choice. He staggers back from the force
of the blows, bruises already forming on her face and body where he
connected.
She smirks at him with an evil in her eyes. She again roundhouses him, this time she
lands it on the side of his head around his temple on his right side. His eyes flutter and they close; he drops to
the ground unconscious.
She moves back to the ropes, almost panting. The small man from before comes in and starts
counting him out, blood spilling on to the ring floor.
Her opponent lays flat, blood coming from his ears. Lit notices and smiles satisfied, her wrath
on him.
They call in medical quickly, they assess him and quickly
move out of the ring, calling an ambulance on the way. The tall announcer comes into the ring and
gives her a look. She shrugs her
shoulders, wincing in pain a bit, but smiles at him.
The announcer raises the mic to his mouth “And our
winner, the Republic’s undisputed champion, THE TIGRESS.” The crowd cheers loudly, their thirst for
seeing blood satisfied for now until the next match.
Lit looks at Echo with a wide smile on her face as blood
trickles down her face from a cut near her right eye, broken nose, she spits
blood and rubs her jaw. She lets the
injuries catch up with her, she limps on her knee, blood coming from her
knuckles, holding her right side of her ribs.
Echo smiles happily. “You were amazing out there!”
She looks over her shoulder at the announcer coming out of
the ring. “15 minutes then again.”
The announcer seems pretty familiar with Lit and her style,
almost a look of worry on his face. “What happened Tigress? Must have been
something pretty big for two matches in one night.”
She shakes her head as she looks at Echo “I don’t want to
talk about it, let the fights continue.
Give me 15 minutes, then find an opponent for me again. You did good, he lasted around a minute,
almost gave me a hard challenge but not bad. “
Heading deeper into the locker room with Echo, Lit grabs one
of the first aid and starts tending her wounds skillfully.
She smirks at Echo “Bigger they are the harder they
fall.”
The announcer comes
back after announcing the next match. “You hit him there on purpose, you
know what that blow could do to him. You
know the rules, no killing blows.”
Lit licks her lips finally having the metallic taste of
blood out of her mouth, all of her facial wounds have stopped bleeding. She is unwrapping her hands and tending to
her knuckles and not looking up “I did not do it on purpose, I didn’t
realize it was going to land there.”
She innocently at him, he looks at her head “Bullshit,
not buying it.”
She giggles as he walks away, whispers to Echo. “He gets
so upset when I do that, but the guy was Deathless and a traitor to the
Angels.”
Echo nods, but doesn’t say anything.
Lit heads to her locker and grabs some two rolls of sports
tape out of her locker. She sits down
putting her left leg up and getting a bag of ice handed to her, putting it on
her knee.
Everyone in the locker room is whispering about her about
how vicious and brutal she is. They
murmur about not wanting to go against her, almost out of fear, well actually
out of fear. One person from the
Republic recognizes and warns the other guys not to get into the ring with
her.
He says every punch; “Every kick is skillfully placed to
do the maximum damage, and she looks for any weakness or flaws in their
fighting styles and capitalizes on it.”
Lit laughs with overhearing the guys talk about her. She starts retaping her hands and wrists,
after they are taped.
She feels her side, she takes a few deep breaths and looks
at Echo “This is gonna crunch but I gotta make sure they are set so they
don’t puncture a lung. Fuck he hit
good.” She takes a few more deep
breaths and a loud crack, then crunch as she resets her ribs. Then she tapes her left knee that had the ice
on it. She then starts to tape her ribs, obviously having done this before. She grimaces the first time actually showing
pain on her face, as she wraps up her ribs and finishes.
She grabs a bottle of water and downs it, smiling at Echo
hoping that she enjoys observing but taking in the atmosphere of the pits, then
grabs another one now sipping on it. “We got about 5 minutes before the next
match. We will see how this one goes.”
“Tigress, you are up.” The announcer yells. She moves
to the entrance into the main area, bruising visible on her face and the rest
of her body that is not taped.
The announcer looks at her “Are you sure you want to do
this?”
She looks up at him and nods “I need to.” The announcer nods and heads out to the
ring. Stepping into it and moving to the
center he brings the mic to his mouth yet again. The crowd muttering as bookies
takes bets going around.
Jared speaks into the mic “Another treat for the night,
Tigress will do another fight for us, will she be taken down off her pedestal
or will she come out on top, yet again.
Bets are open until the bell rings. So I will bring out the Tigress.”
Lit heads to the ring with Echo behind her.
As Echo reaches her place, a few people try to hit on her by offering
her drinks and such.
Echo blushes and looks very uncomfortable with the attention
she is receiving. She looks at Lit, hoping for some help.
Lit looks at him “Fuck off with your drugged drinks
Henry.”
The man moves away and Lit shakes her head looking at Echo “Unless
you get it from one of the girls and see them pour it, don’t take any drinks
from anyone here.” The crowd is a
buzz with people placing bets, some for Lit some against, some on how long the
match will last.
“Yeah, I’ve been in a few places like this in my past. I
don’t accept drinks from strangers, period.”
The announcer, Jared, brings the mic up to his mouth again. “Her
opponent comes from the depths of pits around the cluster and is a champion in
the Federation. Please welcome out the
Hunter.”
Again, a tall man, not as big muscles as the first opponent
but he is well defined all over his body.
He is about 6’3 around 220 lbs of solid muscles, 12 pack abs and eyes
that are brilliant deep green, dark hair.
She shakes her head, almost distracted. She shakes her head to refocus her attention
on the match at hand, her eyes going with a dark look and a sadistic smile
creeps on her face.
The fighters move to the center of the ring, he looks down
at her with a cocky grin “Such a shame to mess up a pretty girl, I’d rather
have you in my bed then fight you.”
Echo gets an angry look and makes a motion, intending to
attack the man herself, but stops. She didn’t want to get Lit disqualified.
Lit rolls her eyes “You guys are all the same,
underestimating me always about getting into bed with one of you. Well, I feel bad for breaking such a pretty
boy.”
She looks him up and down his entire body and then turns
around, as she walks back looks at him, over her shoulder “Never fuck with
an Angel.”
The man stares at her for a second, realizing what she said,
then moves back to his corner.
Lit takes a few deep breaths as she looks over at Echo and
winks, turning back to the ring. Now she
is completely focused on the match ahead as she shakes her head and
focuses.
What feels like eternity, the bell finally rings for the
match to start. They move until they are
within reach of each other.
Lit with her fists up, taking a few pot shots at him with
her fists. He dodges skillfully, he
tries to take a few shots at her torso, she dodges him. She takes a crack at hitting his side when
she connects with a resounding crack coming from his ribs. His eyes widened and he did not expect that
kind of power to come from her. Pain
flickers across his face for a split second before he refocuses.
He lands a good side kick into her ribs, her body shuffles
with the power behind it as pain flashes in her eyes the crack sounds
throughout the room, only those with good hearing can hear it through the
shouts and screams of the crowd.
She quickly recovers not showing the pain on her face or in
her eyes. She has an opening and takes
it, doing a roundhouse kick to his side making him stagger back.
She quickly moves in and flips him onto his back. He lets out a loud groan as he knows his ribs
are broken now too. She jumps on him
straddling him and winks at him as she starts to pummel him with her fists,
some landing on his face, some landing on his chest knocking the breath out of
him. Blood seeps from his mouth as his
lip split deep, his eyes watering from the jabs. A crack sounds as she broke his cheekbone.
He flips her off of him, he quickly gets himself standing as
Lit hit the ground with a thud, pain a lot of pain as she feels her ribs.
She is hiding how much pain she is as he stomps right beside
her head as she rolls on the ground.
She takes the opportunity to flip on her feet as he tries to
showboat that he beats her. His back is
to her as she runs up to him and kicks his knee out from under him, hearing a
crunch as he goes down. She knows, yup
that’s broken. He goes down on his
knees, she walks up to him, now facing him.
She looks at him “Don’t show off before you confirm I am
down.”
She lands a uppercut that reels him off his knees and onto
his back, leaving him out cold. The
small man comes back into the ring as Lit lifts her arms in victory The crowd
goes wild, as the small man counts out the Gallente as he lays on the ground
unconscious.
She looks at him again; something flashes in her eyes almost
like a memory.
She looks up and sees a man watching her that she can’t make
out his face. He stands out because he
isn’t cheering like the rest of the crowd.
Shaking her head again as the medical staff comes out and places her
opponent on the stretcher.
Echo can tell she is thoroughly distracted by this man.
She shakes her head
as the announcer comes in and lifts her hand in the air “The winner the
Tigress.” The crowd cheers as people
collect their bets, this fight was one of her longer ones this lasted almost
two minutes. She returns to Echo,
panting, holding her side. She squats
right there trying to catch her breath, pain etched across her face.
They walk back to the locker room, as they step in Jared
announcing the next match, Lit sits down on one of the benches, grimacing. She untapes her ribs as she whimpers in pain,
the resounding crunch from her ribs as she resets them skillfully like she has
done this many times before.
She looks up at Echo and shakes her head “Fuck, he looked
like Vince.”
Echo gives a sympathetic look. She opens her mouth to say
something, but instead just nods and puts a comforting hand on Lit’s shoulder.
“I understand.”
Still shaking her head, Jared comes in. “You okay
Tigress?”
Lit forces a smile onto her face making it reach her eyes “Yeah,
I am fine, nothing I haven’t had before. How is he?”
Jared almost looks
taken back for a second, she rarely asks how her opponents are doing after a
match. “He has a good concussion, broken ribs, broken knee and cuts and
bruises, but he will be fine.”
Lit nods as she looks down “He did good, around 2 minutes
for that match, he almost matches my skill.
He is the closest anyone has come.
Cover his medical bills and give him an income while he recovers out of
the fund we have, I will replace anything that is spent.”
Jared nods, confused, but nods “I will do that, the other
one?”
She scoffs “Fuck him, he is deathless. But this one
earned my respect. Which hospital is he in?”
Jared cocks an eyebrow, unsure who this is but not the
Tigress he knows “He is in the one on 24th IC station next door.”
She nods “Alright, I am staying on that station.” Her
ice blue eyes flicker down from Jared, she grimaces. “Tell that hospital I
will be there within the hour, to have a doctor ready for me”
Nodding again, Jared looks at her concerned. “Tigress,
what’s wrong?”
She shakes her head not speaking out loud and waves him off “I
am leaving, have a car ready to take us to the landing point.” He nods,
taking out his communicator and calling for a car.
She looks at Echo with a sad smile, as everyone leaves that
area of the locker room. “Can you help me out to the car?” She puts a arm around Echo’s shoulder,
limping and wincing in pain with every step.
Helping her out to the car, another SUV waits for them as she steps out
of the abandoned warehouse. She steps up
as a cry in pain escapes her lips, sliding into the SUV. She slides over watching Echo get in.
“I really had a great time! Maybe next time you can
convince them to let me take a fight or two?”
The door shuts and she looks at the driver “Try to avoid
bumps please.”
The driver nods as he beings to drive off. “Yes Tigress.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars" – Kahlil Gibran.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you push me away. I promise you won’t find me where you left
me. My heart is big but not big enough
but not big enough for people who love me when it is convenient for them. -MOONSOULCHILD
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because while you were out there confused, I am out here
healing. I used to wait; I used to hope
but now I match effort. I protect my peace, and I don’t chase anyone who treats
me like replaceable.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, if you push me away, don’t be surprised when you come
back and find a version of me healed.
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