Kelly smirked as Riddick passed out cold at her command. At least he wasn't going to kill himself trying to move around for a good 12 hours while she went to work…after she changed. She walked out of the spare bedroom of her tiny apartment and quickly changed into clean jeans and t-shirt before grabbing her jacket as she walked out the door locking it behind her.

She pulled her hood up and sighed as she walked through the lobby and out the door into pouring rain. It soaked through the flimsy material of her sweatshirt in a matter of seconds as she trudged westward. Work tonight was going to suck. She sighed again as she wondered why she'd saved Riddick's ass, and of all the people in the world why Richard B. Riddick.

Every convict in the verse had know Riddick's name before he'd pulled the stunt with the Necros and won an entire army. Which brought to mind why he'd been a breathing corpse in a back alley on a planet 200 light-years from New Mecca when it had gone down. Rumors had been flying about what had happened to Riddick and his army. Some said that they were laying low and plotting the best way to destroy the rest of the verse in one fowl swoop, where others were saying that in a fit of rage Riddick had killed everyone of the Necros. Then again they also said that he'd cried when he took the throne. Kelly shook her head to clear it as she swung into a hanger 18 blocks from her house.

"Hey baby," came a smooth voice and a hand to cop a feel from beside her. She growled softly as she grabbed the arm that the hand was attached to and twisted. A horrendous cracking sound split the air as she slammed the screaming man into the ground.

"I told you not to touch anything," came an annoyed voice as a small balding man as he stormed over. His normally happy features were pulled into a scowl as he stopped by Kelly and glared down at the frightened teenager beneath Kelly's feet.

"Get this crazy bitch off me Sam," he screamed up at the older man.

"I should let her take it off, but since she's do on the track in two minutes I'll be nice," Sam snapped, "You're late Kelly. I should find a pilot who knows how to read a clock."

"Fuck off Sam. Like you could find someone better than me," she said dropping the kid's arm and walking over him earning another scream.

"Careful Kelly or I might just call the mercs and tell them where the great Henderson is. After all the bounty on your head is what 8, 9 hundred thousand?" he asked and Kelly laughed.

"And yours is running close to half a mill. Most would rather take an easy bounty like a money launderer than risk their necks trying to take a murderer," she replied. Sam shrugged as they stopped beside a slender black racing pod. It was a single seater made for racing not interstellar travel.

"What the difference? Ever merc in the verse is looking for Riddick," he told her as she climbed up into the cock pit, "And he's somewhere near New Mecca so we're on easy street." Kelly smiled with her back still turned.

"That's your problem Sam. You always assume you know it all," she said as she flopped down in the pilot's seat, "You never know where a guy like Riddick is. He could be anywhere."

"Yeah, and your problem is you're just like him. A cold blooded killer," Sam replied as she pushed the button to closed the pod roof. She shrugged as she strapped herself in.

"Like I'm gonna deny it," her voice crackled over the radio before the engine roared to life. Kelly carefully guided the ship up and out of the hanger. She turned and accelerated upward until she was just out of patrolled air space. She waited until Sam joined her in a smaller ship.

"Haven Rock tonight," his voice came over the com.

"In this rain? That's a hard run even on a clear day," Kelly replied looking over at him.

"Elliot's choice. Besides there's over two mill already bet on this run. Win this girly and we're good for a few months," Sam told her.

"Someone's gonna crash tonight," she replied as she turned the ship and headed east.

"Just make sure it isn't you. I cant afford another pod," Sam said as he followed. Kelly sighed as she made her way east until the city lights began to scatter and finally became a dot on the horizon behind her. The rain was picking up and sounded like hammers banging on the roof of her pod by the time she began to descend. She fell in between four other pods like hers and looked around. Fifty other smaller ships hovered around the racers. The rich and famous come to bet money of the lives of others. Kelly wasn't stupid they wanted a crash; a gnarly, ugly crash that clamed at least one life. And she also knew that they weren't going to be disappointed, the heavy rain combined with the cut throat nature of pod racers assured at least one death tonight. Not that she cared, as long as it wasn't her she wouldn't mourn any of her fellow pilot's deaths. They'd kill her if they got the chance.

"Okay, girlie this is it. Sixty, fifty-nine, fifty-eight…," Sam's voice hissed over the intercom. Kelly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her hand tightened on the throttle and she allowed her eyes to become accustom to the darkness of her eyelids. She was gonna win. One more win after tonight and she was gone. Off this god forsaken planet of scum and on to the next planet where she might manage to get half way decent work.

"…one," Sam's voice crackled and her eyes flew open as she slammed the throttle to three quarters open and flipped the brakes off and grabbed the controls all in one motion that most would have missed. She rocketed forward falling in second behind a red pod with a deep blue one beside her. She flew strait not trying to pass the red pod as they rounded the first corner and she pulled ahead of the blue pod.

She inched the throttle to full as she watched the red pod race into the cliffs. She followed right behind steeling herself for the drop ahead, even so when she pushed the controls forward her stomach lurched as she went into a vertical dive. She could see every crack and rock on the earth that was flying up at her.

"Pull up! PULL UP!" Sam screamed in her ear. Kelly's hand snaked out and she silenced the com with the flip of a switch. Lights flashed red and alarms beeped as she plunged closer and closer to the ground at light speed but she still didn't pull up. Suddenly it hit her, the Rush. Adrenaline coursed through her veins flooding every blood cell and she pulled up barely 20 meters from the ground. Blood pounded in her ears as her vision sharpened and her movement became lighting fast and deadly accurate. She weaved through the cliffs as rain bounced off the window.

In a matter of seconds she'd caught the red pod which had slowed slightly to make his way through the cliff and passed it. The blue pod and was close behind her but neither dared to open the throttle all the way while in the cliffs. A cracked and grooved rock wall raced towards her and she pulled back sending her pod strait up and the screen to her right told her she had two feet clearance between the bottom of the ship and the wall. She shot upward and leveled out flying over boulders and valleys.

The whole pod lurched as the pilot of the red pod slammed his nose into the back of hers. She glanced at her rear view screen and saw that the red and blue pods were right behind her. She growled softly and ignored them urging her throttle a fraction further. The roar of her engine became defining as the red pod drew further ahead and bumped her port side. Her arms stained to keep the beast beneath her strait and she caught a glimpse of the blue pod gaining on her starboard side.

Kelly felt the blue pod slam into her and knew that he was trying to force her into the red pod; at this speed both her pod and the red one would be destroyed if he succeeded. The red pod bumped her again and she looked in front of her trying to find a solution to her problem. There 500 meters ahead was the answer. A narrow passage wide enough for one pod. She raced towards it, before pulling the throttle back and dropping to a meter above the ground. She watched as the red and blue pods crashed into each other at full speed adding flaming metal to the water raining down. She laughed as she accelerated again weaving her way through the cliffs and valleys until she came full circle and stopped beside Sam's ship. She flipped the com back on and heard him yelling joyously.

"That was fucking brilliant girlie!" he shouted over the com, "Let's go get our winnings!" Kelly nodded as she slammed an auto-inject vile into her arm. She closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing as the Clonodeen did it's work.

"I love the rush but hate the meds," she muttered to herself before following Sam to the winner's circle.