So this took a while, gonna leave some of the reasons on my editor to explain but mainly it was the holidays and well
FEN: My phone broke. I don't have a way to edit elsewhere so had to get that fixed first, sorry for the delay y'all. Thanks for understanding. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 6 we need the money so let's fight!
Later in the ice cream parlor next door
Everyone silently sat in a booth, their eyes were moving back and forth until it landed on the one person who wasn't even looking at any of them AKA me.
"Soooo wanna explain what that was all about?" Hearing the question I gave the resident hacker an immediate glare and he immediately flinched back and held his hands up. "Whoa, I'm just asking."
"Hamish fainted and had an almost near believable heart attack over a number, and to be honest I can't blame him." Xero piped up and I just stared blankly at the table as I remembered the number and shivered.
You could get an apartment and live in it without the need for rent or necessities for more than a year or so with that number and they wanted that much.
In the end I decided against buying the swords and settled with the ammo and a regular dust revolver with a built in blade under the barrel and one of the swords, cause paying for two was just too damn much.
The gun kinda reminded me of the lionheart revolver from FFXV but minus that weird little metal thing where the back iron sights sat and instead of gun metal and a blue accent it was black with red accents instead.
I had the sword on my belt in a scabbard that could be easily detached and reattached to said belt, my new gun now in the right thigh holster.
"You could have gotten them both-"
"Deimos… we are trying not to make an impact. In what fucking universe does your eratic spending and hidden activities count as not making an impact?" I bit out angrily in a hushed tone as the Hacker in question just flinched backwards in shock. "And this goes for you two as well, the car and bike were too much and you know it." Xero looked ready to fire back a sarcastic insult but stopped as I looked at him with disappointment.
And Wank well she already had her head down in shame.
In fact everyone looked away in shame.
"From here on out we need a better source of income that isn't just busting through the system." I said not wanting to be angry with my small group, instead I wanted to find a solution to our current money problem. "What can we do in the time frame before Beacon?"
"We have more than a month until then so whatever jobs we even want to do are going to have to be small." Xero explained, he sounded rather understanding of our blight.
"...I think I have an idea." Deimos suddenly spoke up as he pulled out his scroll and turned it into it's tablet form. "I've been looking around on the darknet and I found something that would be good practice for you Hamish, and depending on the outcome we can make some damn good money in the process."
Placing the tablet down my eyes widened at what I saw.
"Underground fighting?"
"Ah ah ah, no holds barred underground fighting. These put random people in bare knuckle fighting, ranging from a random dude with aura to a straight up farmer." Justt to prove his point he put on a video of such a fight and ooooh the farmer got his ass handed to him. "Knock outs, surrenders and deaths are the only ways to win, and there is a tournament with a big crash prize alongside some rather good betting."
"Thing is though, this is a double tournament so you need to partner up, soooo who's-and Wank already wants in." Deimos exclaimed, looking at the girl who sat next to me she had her hand up over her head almost like she was trying to get the teacher's attention.
So we had an idea that was good, now to ask the serious question.
"When is the tournament anyway?"
"Tonight."
…
…
…
"I'm sorry soon to be dead dumbass said what?"
"Deimos, run."
"I was just thinking the same thing."
"Oh no you don't you-gah get off me Wank I have to kill this dumbass!"
Later
"God damn if you lose the shirt you could be a dead ringer for Sanford, that and if you had more muscles, and you didn't have cybernetic limbs-"
"Are you done?" I asked, looking directly at Deimos as he held his hands up in surrounder.
"Ok ok ok, you two ready?" Deimos asked as he gestured to both Wank and I.
The both of us sat in the back of the car, Wank and I now wearing near identical clothing matching our own physiques. Black t-shirt, hands and forearms covered in bandages, plain white cargo pants, running shoes, black doo rags, black tinted goggles and black face masks with a white lower skeleton face design on top.
"Ready as we can be." I exclaimed, before lightly rubbing my temples. "I feel a headache coming on."
Suddenly I felt a hand on my head that slowly started rubbing back and forth, looking to Wank I found her looking at me with what I'm assuming is a kind smile that was hidden under her face mask.
"Alright love birds, enough with the wholesome niceness. I cased the joint a bit before and I've seen how bad these fights can get." Xero suddenly piped up before he chucked a scroll to us.
Picking it up I turned it into tablet mode and quickly recoiled in horror as I saw an image of half naked man with rabbit ears holding a severed head in one hand and a nasty machete in his other hand, his body was covered in splatters of blood and a headless corpse laid nearby.
"Fuck me." I muttered as I shook and dropped the scroll.
"At the near end of matches the audience can throw weapons into the ring and the fighters can use them to execute each other." Xero exclaimed, Wank casually picked up the scroll tablet and swiped to the next image showing two fighters picking up weapons that were just being thrown into the fenced off arena.
"D-do we really need the money I mean, why don't we just pick up part time jobs to get by?" I actively suggested an alternative.
"Are you having second thoughts?" Deimos asked as he turned to look at me directly.
"Yes, I don't want to die and no offense, as great as it was to get two weeks of training, I'm not exactly all that confident to-Deimos what are you doing?" I suddenly asked as Deimos turned back and started tapping away.
"Oh nothing it's just if we win this fight we can get you this." Deimos quickly turned back and showed me his scroll where I saw the image of remnants equivalent to a portable digital drawing tablet/PC laptop.
"No, you can't bribe me-"
"Damn and I got it for a good price too."
…
…
…
Damn he has me.
"How much is a good price? And by that did you buy it already?" I asked.
"Forty five percent off and yes, it was going to be a surprise gift if you won buuuuuuut since you don't want to do it." I could hear the smugness from his voice alone.
Damn it I've been looking at shit like that for a while now, I know a scroll is great and all but they aren't exactly capable of being up to draw with.
"If I die I'm haunting your ass." I finally said in defeat.
"That's the closest thing we are going to get to a yes." Xero said with a smirk, I quickly flipped him off and he just chuckled in response
"Alright now everyone out, it's not good to be too late to a fight." Deimos said as he got out of the car and pulled his chair forwards allowing both Wank and I to get out.
"Ok what's the escape plan just in case?" I asked as I looked around at the underground parking lot and saw that there were a lot of cars parked.
"I have my bike parked a block away and considering its DNA locked and activated you can just jump on and drive off if either one or two of us are separated." Xero explained as I nodded in understanding.
"Ok, but how do we get out? Cause if I'm right this place is going to be very crowded and rather well bolted together so to speak if shit hits the fan." I spoke up, I was still anxious about this place.
"I'll drop you some weapons to help when we think shit is going to hit the fan." Xero explained further and I felt a little reassured considering he has arguably the best quality weapons on hand.
Walking into an elevator Deimos quickly started pressing the buttons in a weird pattern until the lights turned green and the doors shut, I could feel the elevator shift upwards.
"Stay close, no offense but we don't want you to accidentally start something before you fight." Xero spoke, as to apparently prove a point Wank casually grabbed and hugged my arm.
"I think we'll be fine." I exclaimed as the elevator suddenly stopped and I felt like I was walking directly into Shangchi despite never watching the movie, yeah don't think I'm going to be watching that anytime soon.
Standing in front of us was a corridor with both sides having windowed rooms of people fighting inside, people outside were actively cheering on the fights.
"These are low tier fights." I heard Deimos exclaim as we moved through until I saw a crowd of people gathered up around a large caged arena where people were actively fighting and I didn't need to be close to see that this fight was getting bloody. "And those are where the high tier fights are going to be."
Turning my head away I continued to follow Deimos and Xero as they were walking to a nearby bar.
"Hey we are here to sign up two more to the doubles tournament." Deimos spoke to the barman who looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Tournament? Oh yeah that one, well turns out that's cancelled."
"Cancelled?" Xero piped up.
"Yeah I mean after when people heard that the Ravager and his lover were entering everyone backed out." the bartender said with a casual shrug.
"Ravager? Who the hell is that?" Deimos asked, confused as to who that was.
"That would be me hehehe." Hearing the giggle we all turned and we saw a tall man in a large fur coat and he had a familiar pair of bunny ears on his head.
I pretty much summed everyones thoughts with one word.
"Balls."
"Now what's this I hear about wanting to sign up for the tournament?" the man asked as he casually walked up and sat on one of the bar stools. "Cause I'm pretty sure that was cut off because the pussy's that wanted to fight got scared off." The man exclaimed, the bartender casually placed a martini glass down and the man took a small sip of the beverage. "And my love was looking forward to tearing them up."
"Well we were going to join but since there is no tournament-"
"Oh you're going to leave because the tournament is over please." The man interrupted Xero, "Forget the tournament, why not just have the one fight winner take the prize money." the man continued as he gave us one hell of a deal.
"Really you're just willing to fight with no-"
"Look buddy as I said my lover was looking forward to tearing some pussy up and from what I can see," the man paused as he looked directly at both me and Wank but mainly Wank with a creepy lick to his lips. "This is going to be full of some good pussy."
I felt Wank suddenly tense as she pulled herself closer to my arm. I was unsure of what the girl was thinking but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be fear or anger.
"So how about it me and my lover against you two lovely specimens." the man further continued as he now looked at me or more specifically at my arms. "I mean it's quite fair seeing one of you has some serious hardware, god I'm going to love it when I hear you scream when I rip them off your body hehehe."
I had to lightly bite my lip as to not let out a quick comeback as I knew very well that sometimes I had a tendency to say things to set people off, people that were sometimes near volatile to the point of wanting to beat the ever living shit out of me and this guy already wanted to rip my arms and legs off.
"Deimos." I lightly called out to the hacker.
"Well sorry to say but as good of an offer as that is-" suddenly before Deimos could speak another word I felt Wank suddenly disappear away from my arm and I saw her appear right in front of the rabbit faunas.
"Ohohoho well aren't you a quick one, I guess I take this as a formal challenge then?" the man asked, looking down at Wank who just quickly nodded her head, oh balls this is not going to end well for me.
"Well let's get the arena prepared oh and be prepared because in the next thirty minutes you're going to be screaming!" the man yelled out in joy as he jumped off his bar stool and moved away leaving the four of us to stand there in silence.
Silence that I quickly broke.
"That dude has probably raped some girl in the arena hasn't he." It was less of a question, more of a random statement.
"Actually you're right he did, I looked back and managed to see some videos of his… exploits especially when it involved his lover." Xero spoke up and gestured for me to sit next to him at the bar and I did so with no hesitation.
"How bad?"
"Brutal, necrophilia, full on gore bad, that man is beyond innocent." Xero explained.
I felt chills roll through my spine as I looked up at the bartender.
"Well if shit is going down… may as well do something dumb, bartender give me some shots with the strongest stuff you have." I said to the Bartender as I removed my mask.
"What are you doing?" Deimos asked as I cracked my neck and picked up the shot glass.
"Getting plastered." I said as I immediately took the shot and downed it, I had some trouble as I didn't swallow the liquid in time but I gulped it down and slammed the glass down. "If I'm going to die I would like to at least get drunk for once." I said as the bartender handed me another shot glass.
"Hamish you can't fight inebriated-"
"Xero, you are my friend so please know I mean this with absolute respect… fuck off you mangy cunt." I said before downing the next shot and slamming the glass down on the counter.
"Well you heard him Xero, I'll take a shot too." Deimos suddenly spoke up as the bartender gave him a shot glass too.
"Fine if you're going to be like that don't expect me to save your ass, give me one-make it two." Xero said as the bartender gave us glasses and ceremoniously we all looked at each other and clinked our drinks together before downing our shot appropriately.
I saw Xero have a bit of problem taking his, he had the same problem as me, Deimos took it like a champ and Wank lightly shivered from the liquid.
I could already feel a warmth in my body, coming up from my stomach and spreading about in an even pattern, I knew I was neither tipsy or close to it.
I was in a good spot of calm but I was scared, that guy was almost as scary as a Mark Hamill Joker.
"This guy and whoever his so-called lover is, is going to do everything to piss us off." I finally spoke up with seriousness. "Wank… I know you are confident in your abilities, but I'm not confident in my own, so whatever goes down in that ring please don't think any less of me." I said downing my fourth and final shot before putting the mask back on.
Turning to the arena I watched through my goggles as the staff were quick to clean the arena in a rather efficient fashion.
"It won't be loooong, till I'm gooone." I sang under my breath, shit it's been ages since I thought of that song. "I've got blood on my name." I hummed out the tune as I spotted my supposed opponent from the other side of the arena, standing right next to him was an iron maiden that shook from side to side.
Getting up from my barstool I pulled out my scroll and a pair of earphones.
"I've had enough, I'll be back in a bit." I finally spoke up." I want to be alone for a while." I told everyone as I plugged in the earphones into my ears and tapped a random button and music started blasting through my ears at the highest volume.
Quickly I found a random corner and I quickly sat in it, as I relaxed I took another look at my bandaged hands and just stared blankly at them.
3rd pov
"Well we lost Hamish that's for certain." Deimos muttered as he watched as the tallest of the group walked off in silence. "You think he's going to fight?" Deimos asked as he turned to Xero only to see he had up and disappeared along with Wank. "Wha-oh come on!"
Getting up from the Bar he turned around and just barely saw Xero's azure hair through the crowd, moving towards him Deimos rolled his eyes at how typical for the ninja of the group to up and leave, it didn't help his pride that Wank left alongside him.
Xero was quick to follow after Hamish but when he found him he felt stunned as he saw the teen sitting in a corner blankly staring at his hand, shaking away his stunned feeling he quietly moved over to Hamish and casually stood beside him, leaning his back against the wall Xero decided it was better to just be there than trying converse.
Wank on the other hand saw this and happily moved over and sat right next to Hamish, not bothering to mind her own personal space the girl nuzzled up closer to Hamish.
"Jesus, I found you guys." Deimos exclaimed finally catching up and saw how everyone seemingly relaxed against the cornered wall. "Uh what's going on?" Deimos asked, unsure of what was happening.
"We're taking a break I guess, waiting for the fight." Xero answered unsure of what was really happening, but chose to stand and look out through the crowd.
"Great, well I did some more digging about this guy, and boy you were right, this guy has a record a mile long, but not as long as mine if we go into the killing category. I digress, this guy is bad news, he's on a list of remnant's version of the most wanted alongside some other individuals but I think I found something that will get out ever so confident Hamish back." Deimos said as he handed his scroll over to Xero.
Holding the scroll Xero nearly broke the scroll in his hand if he didn't force himself to not do so.
"I thought I got everything, where did you find this?" Xero asked as he remembered hacking into Arena's own database that held the entire archive that they used to upload onto the darknet but this was something he did not see until now.
"I looked around a little further, this guy makes the agency look good in comparison." Deimos spoke in a very calm fashion.
"This is not going to bring Hamish back his old self, this is going to set him off." Xero muttered angrily as he gave the scroll back to Deimos.
"I know but I don't know how else to bring him back to the fight." Deimos exclaimed.
"At this point, no he's not fighting." Xero said as he metaphorically put his foot down while literally putting his foot down at the same time. "He's not ready and we can't just shove into this."
"Compared to what I had to go through, this is a piece of cake." Deimos argued.
"Oh what you went through, tell me does all your training include throwing a baby chick out of the nest and expecting it to fly without its wings!" Xero yelled back, pushing his face into Deimos's personal space.
"If it means the baby chick is better suited for the future then yes that is exactly what happens!" Deimos yelled back just as loud, shoving his forehead against Xero's own.
"Hello people!"
Hearing the new voice Deimos and Xero paused their argument as the lights went out and the loud noise of a spot light caused them to move their heads to the Arena.
In the centre were a lone man standing wearing a rather flashy golden suit and holding a mic in one hand.
"So after the suddenness of our main entertainment, the doubles tournament was cancelled." the crowd immediately started booing at the mere mention. "Oh I understand, but can you blame them since our champion couple decided to join!?" At the mention of the champion couple the crowd cheered.
"Regardless I have good news, our champion couple have accepted a two on two with a late couple entry so please put your hands together fooooor JAZ AND SILVER!" The announcer yelled out as the spotlight changed to one end of the arena where the man with the rabbit ears walked in along with the iron maiden and with a flourish the man casually unlocked the ironmaid releasing the person inside.
Jumping out from the ironmade was a woman in a gray dirtied straight jacket along with it random belts were tied around her, her hair dark and mattered with old dried up blood and portions of her head had its flesh removed showing the muscle tissue, her eyes were bloodshot and as she opened her mouth she had a pair of elongated teeth.
"No fucking way." Deimos muttered, stepping back instinctively back when he saw the woman's eyes darted around and settled on him and had a large deranged grin on her face. "The fuck is one of them doing here." Deimos exclaimed, catching Xero's attention.
"Deimos, do you know who that woman is?" he asked as he felt unvered when he saw the woman, he had flashbacks to his time fighting the zombies his old teammate turned traitor had resurrected.
"No, but I know what she is and she is absolutely from my world." Deimos spoke, narrowing his eyes at the woman. "She is called an Abomination, the agency had a tendency to test their more disturbing projects on mental health patients from psych wards, it turned them into insane, angry, cannibalistic things that we called Abominations." After he further explained he saw how the man now named Jaz wrapped his arm around the woman's shoulder and pulled her close.
"And if she's here, then our guess about the agency being capable of coming here is more than validated."
"I thought we validated it already." Xero said, tilting his head in confusion.
"No, we quite obviously speculated but this is more proof that the Agency will be coming back."
"Again we kinda validated that the first day we got here." Xero spoke as Deimos let out a tired sigh.
"Just shut up, and you're right we can't let Hamish fight, he's not ready for something like this." Deimos finally said with a shake of his head.
"Uh yeah about that." Xero said as he watched as Hamish and Wank casually moved through the crowd until they got to the other entrance to the arena.
Wank casually walked up with a little bounce in her step while Hamish started rolling his arms and shoulders.
"What the-when did they-how did they-what!?" Deimos yelled in confusion, grabbing his hat covered head trying to understand when they moved.
"Must have moved when we were arguing." Xero said, following his arms and looking at the arena. "Just in case we should probably hack the system." Xero said looking back at Deimos who just let out a tired and annoyed groan.
"Son of a bitch."
Chapter 6 end