The Arena

Kimberley and Jason are entered into an annuel tournament to test their capabilities up against other organisations similar to their own. Meanwhile Emily, Nate and Merik run into some dangerous mercs.

Early in the morning the next day, the sound of rotors are heard outside the facility, Kimberley, Jason and Octavia walk quickly towards the helicopter which would take the two of them to the arena they will be competing in.

“Remember, these guys are not to be taken lightly, they will hit hard and their kicks harder. Tread lightly, we’ll be watching from the sidelines.” Octavia says as they board the helicopter. “Good luck!” She shouts over the noise as she slides the door shut, snow flew unpredictably around the helicopter as it lifted off the ground. The tournament is going to give them a break from the whole fighting to the death deal that has been happening constantly around them, no one should die in the arena but sometimes accidents happen and unfortunately it always does, the last tournament Titus accidently killed a man because he would keep standing up and he didn’t have a choice, the man had a knife he snuck in through security checks and Titus managed to use it against him. The weird part is that even when he drew the knife, none of the snipers with tranquiliser darts fired a round, nothing was heard over the speakers from the administrators of the event, they let it happen. It was Octavia and Titus who entered five years ago, they were disqualified after that incident with the knife, it didn't matter that he had no choice it was against rules to kill the other contestants...

30 minutes before the first round…

A small and scrawny man, mid thirties, wearing navy blue camo with a symbol of two horns with H.C stitched on to the sleeve begins to walk over to Kim and Jason.

“So you are the Salvation contestants then...” The man says analysing Jason and Kimberly. “I’m Paul, one of the contestants from Hell's Core.”

“I’m Jason Viviani, this is Kimberly Lamb.” Jason says standing up showing the difference in size. Kimberley finishes strapping on her MMA gloves and stands up.

“Huh, I can really see the… Er… Relation between you and… ‘Hell’s core’.” Kimberley says mockingly.

“Funny.” Paul says looking to the ground and shaking his head, Kimberley lets loose a smug smile. “I best be getting back to my team, you guys know the rules right, well I say rules, I mean rule. You can take one item from your organization each. You should get thinking.” Jason and Kim look at each other as they instantly decide what to take with them.

“Do you think they know how technologically advanced we are?” Kimberley asks Jason.

“I don’t know if they don’t and will then s**t them selves or if they are just as advanced.” Jason says looking around the room. The lockers behind them swing open and two packages drop down into them, one with a red bow and the other black. Kimberley opens the red one and finds her enhanced boots she had requested a few days before, Bill must have worked on them during the move. Jason opens the black one, inside was the gloves used to activate his power armour, Jason chuckles.

“You know what, I really want them to have something nuke like, they can use it to try and beat me and I’ll just brush it off like nothing happened.” Jason says sliding the electronic gloves onto his hands. A speaker system erupts throughout the facility.

“Contestants please make your way up to the main arena please. The opening ceremony is about to begin!” The narrator says.

“Let the party start.” Kimberley says hopping off the bench.

“First up, we have the two sister organisations… Jesus we have a few here… Hell’s core and Heaven’s core!” The narrator’s voice echoes through the arena and four silhouettes walk onto the stage, a huge screen flickers on and shows names and pictures of the fighters. They soon move off the stage to the other side. “Next up our second set of sisters, Aqua division and Avian division!” the contestants proceed to enter the stage, the crowd roars as they move to the other side of the stage.

“Someone’s popular.” Merik says as he sits back down with popcorn and a hotdog

“They are quite well known, I mean they did win the last one that was held. To be honest I’m not sure Jase and Kim can beat ‘em.” Octavia says brushing her hair out of her face, Merik begins to laugh and ends up choking on his popcorn. He coughs the corn back up and spits it onto the floor.

“Oh god don’t make me laugh!” Merik says wiping the tears from his eyes. “They got this…”

“Next in the lineup is Tempest and Gale!” The narrator says. Again four figures move on and off the stage. So far nobody looked anything special, but they all know that they will be a force to be reckoned with. “Blade and Chamber!” He shouts again. Four figures cross the stage once more. “Contingency!” These two seemed to stand out, they didn’t look excited to be there, they didn’t look nervous. They looked calm, collected. Ready. “Third from last is Blackout!” Two silhouettes walk on and off again.

“Hey, Titus, aren’t they the organisation we faced last time we were here?” Octavia says pulling her hand out of her popcorn.

“Lets hope they don’t pull any tricks this time ey, anyway Kim and Jason can take them easy, especially if they chose to show off our… Technological advances…” Titus says begging to chuckle under his breath.

“Second to last is Team Cosmos!” These two looked a little inexperienced, one of them wore a lab coat and a smug smile to go with it... “Alright, last one’s to come and show their faces are… Salvation’s Kimberley and Jason!” The narrator says, John and Merik are heard whistling and generally making a mockery of themselves in the crowd. Jason and Kimberley walk up the stage, Kimberley salutes the crowd with two of her fingers. Jason gives an awkward wave. They both walk off the stage when they hear the two fighters from Heaven’s core gossiping about them both. It almost felt like time slowed down, Kimberley brushed her hair back from her eye and gave them a mocking wink and a cocky smile.

20 minutes after the opening ceremony the first round had begun, in one side of the arena, Kimberley and Jason appear, the other side the operatives from Heaven’s core. The fight has not started yet, they are still in standby mode watching the clock count down to the start. Kimberley taps her boots and a white light emits from the bottom of them, she stretches her arms and neck. 20 seconds is left on the clock now…

“The battle has begun!” The narrator shouts in anticipation, Bleed it out by Linkin Park sounds around the arena. Pillars rise from the ground generating cover for everyone to use. Kimberley sprints for cover and begins to navigate her way through the arena. A large amount of air brushes over Kimberley when she see’s her opponent flying with technology made angel wings. She lands and begins to walk towards her. She jumps up and flies into Kimberley forcing her into a pillar, Kimberley quickly regains her balance kicks her in the chest sending her back a little. The angel throws a punch but Kimberley grabs her arm and flips her to the ground with her foot on her throat. The other man quickly runs up and attempts to punch Kimberley but she backflips out of the way on top of a pillar.

“Jason! Need one of these distracted!” Kimberley shouts, kicking the man in the face.

“On it, Princess!” Jason shouts. “Sorry forgot this ain’t a mission!” Jason runs over and tackles the man pinning him. “So what do we do now?” The man squeezes his hands and his gloves charge up.

“You get off me!” The man says holding his hands to Jason’s waist and stomach, Jason falls backwards crashing onto the cold ground behind him, the man raises his arms to show victory to his organisation in the stands.

“That was shocking, but, I bet I’ve got a better magic trick…” Jason says standing up. He brushes the dust off his shoulders, puts his left leg backwards and prepares for his opponents next attack.

“You know for an angel, you really are fragile.” Kimberley runs up to the angel and wraps her legs up her arm dragging her to the floor. Her wings brush Kimberley off her and she picks her up and flies into the air, she drops Kimberley, the arena quickly changes scenery and it switches from a pillar based landscape to a rooftop penthouse. Kimberley switches into a dive and lands into the pool that had just appeared. The angel comes crashing down into the pool after her, Kimberley jumps out of the water and runs inside the newly made building, she chases her inside, where Kimberley is hiding after finding a glock that had been left from the arena change…

Jason gets thrown off by the wall that just materialized in front of his face and stumbles backwards, the man punches his way through the wall and lands several blows to Jason making him fall down.

“What the f**k is he doing?” Merik says watching him on the monitor “He’s getting his arse kicked!”

“I reckon he has a plan.” Nate says nudging Merik with his elbow “See that look in his eye? He’s getting ready to armour up.”

Jason turns to look at the camera.

“Well was that not just a brilliant performance from… Erm… Sorry I didn’t quite catch your name.” Jason starts to smile as he spins back to face the man from Heaven’s Core “Ahh well, never mind, the show must go on, and… I think it’s my turn!” Jason slaps his hands together sending a pulse that knocks his opponent off his feet. Jason’s dark red armour wraps itself around his body, steam is let loose of the ports on the back as Jason propels himself forward into the enemy, with one punch Jason sends him flying back out of the penthouse and into the wall of the arena.

“Salvation is currently in the lead as Jason “Demon” Viviani takes out the first member of Heaven’s Core!” The announcer screams. The angel is thrown off from the announcement and left herself open to an attack, Kimberley runs from cover and puts two rounds into the wings making them malfunction, the angel sprints towards Kimberley when she throws the gun from her and dodges a punch, she kicks her in the right side of her stomach, then the left, then the right again. Kimberley punches her in the side of the head with a right hook then walks up to her.

“Tell me. Did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Because this is going to hurt a lot more.” Kimberley says before throwing her leg up and kicking her in the face knocking her out cold.

“Now that is what I call a fallen angel! Salvation win the first round of the tournament!” The announcer shouts. The crowd roars, Kimberley again gives a salute with her two fingers to the crowd. John drops his popcorn after witnessing the final blow, Emily catches the popcorn and begins to eat them, John’s jaw still dropped.

Kimberley and Jason are in the waiting area for fighters, regaining there strength. Kimberley drinks half a bottle of water when she looks up at the monitor with the Hell’s core vs Aqua fight still ongoing.

“Gotta say, I underestimated that Paul kid.” Kimberley says to Jason, monitoring the match.

“I gotta say he’s pretty god damn fast.” Jason says finishing his Snickers candy bar.

“Huh, might be a challenge. The first fight was a little personal though, I don’t like being gossiped about by people I don’t know…” Kimberley explains.

“It was fun, wonder if they are gonna take precautions when fighting us now.” Jason says while sitting down on a bench.

“Yeah, we have no more secrets. I don’t think I’ll be pulling my hits anymore either.” Kimberley says mockingly. They both watch as Paul ends the round with a finishing blow, the man was twice his size but his speed outmatched his strength.

“Hell’s core wins the second round!” The narrator shouts once again. “We will now take a 20 minute break for Hell’s core to regain their strength to fight Salvation!” Kimberley begins to swipe through information on a nearby terminal, she comes across all the possible terrain that could be used, there are hundreds. It is damn near impossible to guess which one will be chosen and when. Emily walks away from the arena seats and back into the lobby where the food and drinks are being sold. She purchases a large coke with a straw when she overhears some people talking.

“And you’re sure this’ll work?” A man whispers.

“Of course, now get out of here before someone notices!” The other man says. Emily follows one of the figures. It’s a member from Blackout placing something in a package into his jacket. She follows him into a storage area somewhere on the outskirts of the arena. He opens the package and sees a glowing knife be pulled from the bag. She enters the room and confronts him.

“That looks like an EMP device. Maybe one to disrupt a certain friend of mine’s armour systems?” Emily says with a scowl.

“Listen girly, don’t get involved unless you want to be found in a body bag.” The man says.

“Aw, that’s cute.” Emily says before grabbing him by the crotch and gradually tightens her grasp. “Give me, the f*****g knife.” He drops the knife and she picks it up.

“You will die for this…” He says to her.

“I have heard worse, and trust me. The people I work with, you should be nicer to me.” She says turning her back to him. He begins to walk faster towards her. She sighs then turns around and breaks his arm over a railing and kicks him to the ground. She walks back out and picks up her drink taking a sip. She makes her way back up to the rest of them. “Bill, take a look at this.” She tosses the knife to him and he catches it perfectly.

“This is… This looks like the same systems I used to get John’s armour to deactivate when he was knocked into a coma!” Bill says with a shocked face.

“Thought so.” Emily says leaning against a chair front of them.

“Give it here…” Octavia analyses the knife. “Blackout?”

“One of them has a broken arm now, they tried to smuggle that into the arena to f**k with Jason’s armour.” Emily explains, still sipping from her drink.

“How many of you know Jason? Like before he joined, I’m sure that if he try harded he could beat them without the armour.” Nate says lifting his head from the popcorn.

“He used to be a boxer.” Merik sings to the tune of ‘So you wanna be a boxer’ from Bugsy Malone.

“The round between Salvation and Hell’s core is about to begin! Would both teams make their way towards the entrances of the arena!” The narrator says. John notices across the arena that the team of Blackout seem to be concerned, one of them is holding his arm. He chooses to ignore it but keeps an eye on them in case one of them goes to leave.

Kimberley and Jason enter the arena once more to be met with a coliseum style terrain.

“You want speedy or the other guy?” Kimberley asks Jason.

“Hmm, unknown or Speed...” Jason pondered “I think I can take our Paul over there.”

“Alright, I’ll handle the… Other… Guy... “ Kimberley sees a large man appear from the entrance. She kicks her boots a few times making them glow once more. “Okay. Why not. It’s easy. Just gotta find his weak spot and abuse it.” The timer quickly counts down to nothing and the round begins. Jason moves over to Paul who instantly starts to beat the living s**t out of Jason.

“Okay, time to try now.” Jason says blocking every hit Paul throws at him. Paul stops and wipes the sweat from his forehead.

“Bloody hell mate, you’ve got some skill, what did you say your name was?” Paul says catching his breath.

“Jason.” Jason says wiping the blood from his mouth and begging his assault on Paul.

Kimberley had already begun fighting the other member of Hell’s core. She kept on repeating to herself in her head. “Gotta find his weak spot. Gotta find his weak spot.”

After missing a punch to her as she dodged it she notices an opening to the side of his stomach and she quickly launches a kick into it, he shouts and crouches a little. She quickly rotates to the back of him and kicks in the back of his leg.

“Allison. Give me ears on their conversation…” John says looking over to the Blackout organisation.

“Done, John.” She replies.

“I don’t give a f**k if the first time wasn’t successful, some blonde bimbo is not going to stop us from losing this! Find something and do something with it now! And take the other two with you.” The leader says. John stands to his feet.

“No one calls my sister a f*****g bimbo.” He mutters under his breath. He begins to stand when Allison appears on his shoulder and pulls on his ear.

“That is not a good idea, if someone was to see you stirring trouble here it could land us in serious trouble. I’m sure if they come for any of us we can stop them anyway. I believe you once said that ‘we’re us right?’.” Allison says.

“Okay. Thanks Allison, sometimes you’re the only one that keeps me grounded.” John says, settling back into his seat.

The man stands back to his feet and faces Kimberley, he throws a punch she attempts to dodge it but with no prevail she is thrown into a wall, when she regains her balance he is sprinting at her. She quickly moves and he runs into the wall, before he can react Kimberley runs up his back and kicks his head into the wall once more. He regains control quickly and takes Kimberley’s leg and throws her over the wall and he soon comes crashing through it after her, she quickly wrapped her arms around a spear in the center of the coliseum, swings around it to reach the ground once more and releases it from the sand, the spear is not lethal as it only sends electricity through those touched by its tip. She spins it over her head and points it towards the man that was coming towards her without a second thought she dodges the punch as if she had faded through his fist, she quickly begins attacking his legs using both ends of the spear before he kneels down in pain and she flips herself around his right arm to the back of his neck, she throws the spear around the other side and chokes him till he is unconscious.

“A devastating blow to the large man of Hell’s core! All that’s left now is one!” The announcer screams, a roar of applause erupts in the arena and clapping is heard in sync from everyone. Kimberley takes a moment to take it all in before regaining composure. Jason throws Paul into a wall and begins to back off a little bit, Paul regains his balance and Jason catches his breath, Paul breaks into a sprint, and jumps at Jason. Jason blocks and equipts his armour activating the empowered gloves, Paul does a backflip off Jason.

“C’mon lad be a bit more fair!” Paul says laughing. Jason removes all armour but from his forearms.

“Better?” Jason says “I want a harder hit.”

“Okay, well It’s still my turn..” Paul says once again sprinting at Jason. Jason blocks again this time going for the counter, Jason uppercuts Paul and then jumps up to being just above him, Jason then uses all the power in his gauntlets to smack him down to the ground, dust fills the arena blocking the camera feed, when the dust clears Jason is helping Paul back to his team.

“He won! He’s pretty damn fast for a giant!” Paul shouts.

“And that’s the match ladies and gents! Salvation knocks out Hell’s Core and moves on to the next round!” the announcer screams.

“Hey Paul, you may want to take an x-ray, any medical costs lemme know, I’ll pay. I just really want to win here.” Jason says while laughing and walking away.

“I’ll hold you to that!” Paul shouts pointing his finger towards him.

“Nice going Jason! The big guy was pretty tough but nothing I couldn’t handle.” Kimberley says walking with him back to the waiting area for fighters.

Kimberley walks out of the bathroom holding an icepack to her jaw, her nerves begin to get the better of her but her composure remains. The second to last round she thought. Is she gonna make it to the last round? Are they going to win the tournament and make a reputation for Salvation for all of those who put their lives on the line to protect it? Questions like these flood her mind constantly, all her training had prepared her to kill whoever she needed to. She begins to lose sight of why she was so intent on winning this, but then it hit her. Her team. The ones who would put their lives on the line to protect her like she would them, if she can’t win this for herself, win it for Emily, Nate, Merik, and John; she owes them that at the very least she thought. The rest of them would never admit it, they would say that she doesn’t owe them anything, that they would do the same if given the chance, but she was the one asked alongside Jason. Kimberley had been given the pleasure. No. The opportunity; to show them that the training she had been given from Octavia was not going to go unnoticed. Kimberley removes the ice pack from her jaw and places it down on the table steadily, takes her seat on the couch and watches the ongoing fight.

Nate makes his way back to the stands after going to get everyone from Salvation a snickers, two brutes wearing full black stop him from getting back to the rest of the audience, one takes a Snickers from the pile Nate is carrying.

“That was Emily's…” Nate says tilting his head to the side, his eyes widen “By your...tacky...outfit I can tell you two are Blackout yes? The same group who tried to f**k with my friends yes…” Nate pauses and places the rest of the Snickers on a bench in the corridor. “You two really don’t know what you are getting yourselves into. I may not be the strongest of the bunch but that doesn’t mean I’m easy!” Nate punches his rings together and a blinding white light fills the corridor, as the light fades Nate’s armour fades back into the rings and the two thugs are left unconscious, their clothes and skin as white as the light that left them blind. Nate went back to the concession stand and bought another Snickers for Emily and sat back down with the rest of Salvation. After the Snickers had been passed out, he explains to Octavia and Titus his run in with Blackout.

“I’m scared for them, what if they go after John or Merik...” Titus whispers to Bill and Octavia.

“They’re fucked if they do, more so than if they went after us.” Octavia says giggling.

“Especially if they piss them off!” Bill says breaking out into laughter.

Meanwhile at the other side of the arena.

“What do you mean they can’t see? And what do you mean about a wardrobe change?” The leader of Blackout whispers down a phone “They did go after the wimpy looking one right?”

“That’s what they say they did.” The voice from down the phone says.

“We may have bitten off more than we can chew...” The leader says looking over to Salvation, John and Merik staring back while Octavia, Bill, and Titus are still laughing to themselves. John patches through the sound he is hearing from the phone to Octavia’s radio hidden in her ear underneath her hair. She stops laughing and listens. The call abruptly ends, they must have found out they were listening in…

“What do you think of it ma’am?” John asks curiously.

“We have done a good job it seems of disrupting their plans to sabotage the tournament.” Octavia says, she wonders whether it is time she should step in, but decides against it. If push comes to shove this entire place will become an arena regardless. She peers back over to John who seems to be growing restless, which is understandable, one of them attempted to hurt his sister. That would have been a good enough reason to put them all in the ground. Octavia is surprised that John is even keeping his cool, when it comes to Emily he usually loses himself in some kind of rage. John is tapping his foot heavily on the floor.

“Allison run the simulation again.” John says again, he has been watching a simulation of what would have happened if he had gone and attacked the leader and his subordinates if Allison hadn’t have stopped him.

“Ladies and gentlemen! Contingency deals a devastating blow not only to that poor guy's face! But to their reputation as a whole! Now, before moving onto the semi finals let’s have a look at our unlucky contestants! First to be taken out was Aqua when Hell’s core brutally put them down without breaking much of a sweat! Second to be knocked out of the tournament was Heaven’s core as Salvation’s Kimberley Lamb and Jason Viviani struck the other two down not only quickly but with style, gotta say I am a fan of that suit of armour and that fiery tempered temptress! Third to be knocked out was Cosmos after Contingency used some fighting style no one has ever even heard of, must be new! Fourth was Blade that was blown out of the competition by Tempest, pun intended! Fifth to go down was Chamber as Avian pulled the trigger on their chances of moving to the next round! Sixth was Gale which was easily dispatched by last years victors Blackout, no surprise there, I see them heading to the finals! Seventh to be knocked the hell out was Hell’s core, when my favorite temptress took down a man twice her size with one hell of a trick and the armoured giant had no problem turning the fight around after taking a beating from Hell’s core CQC expert with a brutal knockout!  Eighth to be taken out was Avian when Blackout turned out the light in their eyes! And of course we just had Tempest lose to Blackout, currently not many have put up a fight against Blackout which is no surprise after the last tournaments performance! But let’s not count out the teams that are putting up one hell of a fight, and certainly not these two! Next match we have Salvation verses Contingency, this is surely going to be a fight to remember! We have a short break before we begin the next round, see you in 15 minutes!” The announcer counted down all of the losing teams and quickly shut off the microphone.

“You ready?” Kimberley’s asks fixing her gloves around her hands and checking her boots.

“Yeah, Yeah.” Jason replies throwing a Snickers wrapper into a bin before putting his gloves back on.

“Watching their game earlier was pretty entertaining. I can see why people are rooting for them.” She says, although she is sure that they have their own fan base by now regardless of other contestants. The announcer says over the intercom for them to approach the starting platform and prepare themselves for the round. They begin to walk over to the platform. Kimberley stretches her arms and loosens her neck. The platform begins to move, they can feel the vibrations from the mechanics pushing them up beneath their feet. The platform stops at the top and they can see the members of Contingency on the other side of the arena.

“Let the first semi-finals round begin!” The announcer shouts, through the intercom. The entire arena erupted with cheering. The floor of the arena quickly changes, bushy walls rise from the ground in a random order. They have been thrown into a maze…

“I guess we don’t decide who we fight this time, I’ll stick with the right turns, you go left.” Kimberley says walking past Jason and into the entrance and turning a corner.

“Okay cool” Jason takes the first left and continues into the maze. After ten minutes of each team aimlessly wandering the maze Kimberley and Jason meet in the centre clearing.

“Take it you had no luck finding them huh” Jason says resting his hands on his knees. She looks around them, then looks into the water of the fountain in the center.

“Yeah. Something ain’t right…” Kimberley says, looking around her.

“It's like their ghosts or something…” Jason says slowly, he walks to the fountain and splashes some of the water out of the pool the water stops as if it had hit a wall in the middle of the maze.

“Kim, they’re here” Jason equips his armour knowing this would be a hard fight.

“So how is this gonna work then? We do an EVP session with real people or they gonna jerk us about for a little while?” Kimberley says mockingly, she peers down to the ground and see mainly sand mixed with dirt, she has a plan.

“You thinking what I'm thinking?” Jason says smiling under his helmet.

“Just follow my lead.” She says with a smile creeping up her face. She quickly drops to the floor and swipes her leg across the ground throwing it into the air revealing two figures as the sand rests on their bodies. She breaks into a sprint towards the nearest figure. Jason jumps into the air and slams into the ground behind the other opponent knocking him off balance then punches him in the back. Sparks fly off the man as he is uncloaked.

“Kim, hit his back!” Jason shouts.

“I would if I could hit it!” She shouts throwing kicks at the figure but it keeps dodging her every move. She drops to the ground and swings her leg towards the legs and it knocks it to the ground, it uncloaks after the impact destroyed the systems, thick brown hair falls into view, blue eyes, freckles and a sinister smile.

“Well, there goes our equipment.” The girl says looking at their teammate. “Hey red. How about a little game of hide and seek?” The person runs past Kimberley and into the maze.

“I’ll deal with her, you handle this!” She shouts chasing the other out of the center.

“Hmm you look like a Terry, are you a Terry?” Jason says holding his arms by his sides.

“No.” The man says.

“Don't you want to chat? Make this more fun?” Jason asks

“No.” The man says

“Can you say anything else?” Jason asks

“Yes.” The man says

“Like a brick wall…” Jason mutters, he breaks into a sprint and punches the man square in the face moving all of the power in his suit into his fist breaking the man's nose and jaw, the man stumbles backwards before shaking his head preparing to attack and then falling flat on his face.

“Jason from Salvation takes out Dimitri from Contingency! Only one member left!” The announcer screams.

“If he was so easy… S**t Kim I'm on my way!” Jason shouts realising Contingency’s main threat that was carrying them through each match was the girl playing hide and seek. Kimberley soon loses track of the girl and wanders in the general direction she ran in.

“Swear to God, this is some Medusa type s**t…” She mutters under her breath. She hears Jason shouting for her. “What the?” Before she can finish her sentence a foot flies out of a bush and hits her in the stomach. “Oh you son-of-a-b***h!” Kimberley runs at her throwing punch after punch, switching her fighting style each time but the girl was reading her every move. She stops to catch her breath when the girl flicks her hair back mockingly, Kimberley throws a punch and breaks her nose.

“T-That was cheating!” The girls says before kicking Kimberley to the ground. “First I deal with you, then I deal with your friend.” She bends over Kimberley and places her hands around her throat. Kimberley attempts to break free but she didn’t leave herself open to a counterattack.

“Or you could deal with her friend now.” Jason says smacking her around the back of her head.

“Cheat! Cheat! Cheat! Cheat!” The girl says throwing a tantrum she hits Jason six times in the chest causing his armour to lose power.

“Oops…” Jason says jumping back to Kimberley. Kimberley coughs trying to recover from the pressure that had been around her neck. She struggles to find her footing before standing straight, she cracks her neck and looks the girl in the eye.

“I. Don’t. Like. To. Lose.” Kimberley says tapping her feet together till the boots emit a brighter glow than they had before. The boots propel her into the air and thrusts her forward into the girl where Kimberley punches her in the stomach as she flies into her, punching at her face as she lands. The girl quickly maneuvers in a way she had never seen and Kimberley had been thrown off of her.

“F*****g scripts” Emily says watching the fight from the stands.

“Wait what?” Nate asks still eating his snickers.

“Nothing!” Emily replies smiling.

Jason looks to Kimberly and thinks to himself ‘I need to get her still, without my armour Kim will hit harder’.

While the girl is still gloating over knocking Kimberley off her feet again Jason crashes down on the girl's right leg breaking it, then while she is down Jason shifts over to the left leg and breaks that too.

“Kim! Your turn!” Jason shouts over the girl’s shrivelled screams of pain. Kimberley stands opposite them with her hair hanging over her face. Her eye can just be seen through her thick fringe. Her fist clenches and she runs shouting at the girl, holding her fist just behind her, she sprints and throws her fist into the girl’s stomach forcing her to cough up blood, Jason is forced to stumble backwards after the punch. The girl collapses to the ground unconscious. The announcer left speechless.

“Can we get a medic in there?!” The announcer shouts over the intercom, the maze disappears and two men in white run over with a stretcher and carry her out of the arena. “I- I have no words for that performance… Salvation moves onto the final round…! Holy s**t I need a bourbon…” Another voice is heard from the intercom.

“You’re still on the button…” The voice says.

“Oh f**k!” The intercom fades once more. Kimberley looks down at her fist. If she had hit any harder, if she could have hit any harder she would have shattered her hand. She walks towards the platform that would take them down, then stumbles a little on the way there. She carries on a little further before collapsing, her legs have given out underneath her, Jason crouches next to her.

“Want me to help you walk?” Jason asks cautiously not sure if he should.

“I-I’m fine…” Kimberley says before stumbling back to her feet and dragging her feet back to the platform. That fight has taken all her energy to finish, ‘That girl really isn’t a person, that thing is a weapon’ she thinks to herself. They enter the waiting room for the final match to begin in an hour to give them time to regain their strength. Kimberley falls on the couch.

“You sure you’re alright?” Jason asks yet again.

“Hmpf… Need… Sleep… Shh…” Kimberley says with her voice muffled by the cushion she has buried her face in. The entrance to the waiting room slowly opens and two figures walk through, one of them shuts the door after checking the hall. Octavia and Titus walk towards them. Kimberley jumps up half expecting an attack, and rightfully so. Octavia walks over and looks Kimberley over.

“Are you alright? Looks like you took quite a hit there.” Octavia asks worryingly. Kimberley takes Octavia’s hands away from her face and gives her a smile.

“I’m fine. I kinda overdid it huh?” Kimberley says jokingly releasing a small laugh. Octavia sits down opposite them.

“Listen. These Blackout guys. They are not to be trifled with.” Octavia says with a stern look.

“Mmmm trifle…” Jason says “Sorry, sorry. Really hungry.” Octavia looks at him with a brow raised.

“What do you mean?” Kimberley asks leaning a little more towards her.

“They already tried to attack Emily and Nate. We’re lucky they haven’t tried to attack John or Merik.” Octavia informs them.

“Bloody hell... “ Kimberley mutters, she leans back until her back is pressed against the leather rest. Titus walks up to the vending machine and rolls a quarter into it, presses some buttons. The candy bar gets stuck. He begins to shake the machine in anger; Octavia looks over to him with a confused and annoyed expression.

“Really Titus?” Octavia says throwing her hands out.

“It’s stuck!” He shouts shaking it some more before getting. He places his head on the machine and with the slightest tap the candy bar falls down. “Oh you cheeky son-of-a-”

“Titus! Get over here!” Octavia shouts over to him.

“Yes ma’am!” Titus jogs over and begins to eat the candy bar. “What the boss is trying to say is that we are certain they are going to fight dirty. I don’t mean cheap shots or anything like that. I mean they will find a way to smuggle something in to win the fight. I don’t know why, it’s not like they win anything except a title, it’s weird.” He takes a bite out of the candy bar and scratches his beard.

“We’re going to do what we can from the outside, if anything goes south down there, we’ll have your back in seconds.” Octavia says trying not to discourage them. Emily walks in without anyone noticing her. She spots Kimberley stood leaning on the back of the couch.

“Kimy!” Emily runs towards her. Kimberley turns around with a look of pure horror on her face.

“Oh God how did she get in here?!” Kimberley says inching backwards as she runs at her. Emily wraps her arms around her.

“You’re doing awesome out there!” Emily says tightening her clasp, Kimberley begins to pat her on the back. Emily lets go and looks up at Kimberley. “Get us this win okay Kim?”

“You know I will give it a bloody good shot Em.” Kimberley says fist bumping with her. Emily realises that she may have interrupted and gives an awkward smile slowly backing out of the room. Octavia stands up, sighs and gives them both a smile.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself. Good luck out there guys.” Octavia says before dragging Titus out with her. 5 minutes passes by without a word, they both are psyching themselves up for the final fight. They have watched some of Blackout’s fights before this one, they really are messy…

“Fighters! Please approach your platform!” Kimberley shakes off whatever doubts she has and steps forward, Jason following her. The platform begins to rise again; cheering engulfs the arena like smoke from a fire. They can hear people chanting ‘Salvation!’ and others chanting ’Blackout!’. The platform halts, the crowd is deafening. At the other side of the arena they spot their opponents, tall, bald headed and damn scary; like they just came out of a maximum security prison. They both wearing leather jackets and jeans.

“They… They… They ruin the look! Those jackets need a certain look!” John shouts, standing out of his seat

“How could they. Leather jackets are not suppose to be worn like that!” Kimberley shouts with anger.

“You take ugly one, I’ll take ugly two.” Jason says trying to cover Kimberley's eyes to break her view of the monstrosity that is the Blackout uniform.

“With pleasure.” Kimberley says. The ground begins to shake and the ground opens revealing a medieval castle, the two of them walk inside of the arena and stone brick walls rise behind them blocking the entrance. Kimberley begins to count in her head. 1… 2… 3… She assesses the environment, 6 towers in total around the castle piecing it all together into one fortress. One of the members of Blackout sprints into what looks like some catacombs. “I’ve got him!” She sprints down some poorly crafted stairs and runs further into the catacombs. The halls are dimly lit by torches, the walls made out of skulls and bones. She doesn’t care that possible corpses lie around her, those that are dead are already gone, the smell is something grim which only adds to the possibility of the bones being real... From the looks of those men, they are surely bigger fans of brute force than technique when it comes to hand to hand combat; Kimberley can surely use that to her advantage; Using strength to fight is useless if there is no where to put it. The tight enclosed spaces in the catacombs are perfect for her fighting style, no matter where they meet it will have to be close quarters. Cameras have been fitted into the skulls with the footage showcasing on several huge monitors for the audience to see what is happening underground.

Jason wanders round the outside of the castle walls admiring the craftsmanship ship of the walls until the second member of Blackout knocks it down.

“What's up buttercup” Jason says, the man from Blackout remains silent, “Not much of a talker ‘eh. Alright then if you want this to be boring it can be boring”

Kimberley gingerly walks around a corner only to be met by more skulls and bones, she sighs heavily.

“Never thought I would see a place with more skeletons than Merik has in his closet…” Kimberley says jokingly, she suddenly wonders if this place has microphones and if the crowd can hear them. Kimberley shrugs her shoulders and continues down the narrow skull path. She stops and listens out for footsteps, a sound echoes through the catacombs where she came from, she begins to wrap her hair around her finger like a shy schoolgirl and walks towards where the sound came from.

“Come on, come on, come on…” Emily repeats. John leans back in his seat and throws his arms behind his head.

“They're gonna be fine,” John says before looking at two separate monitors and seeing that Kimberley and the Blackout soldier are approaching each other unknowingly of their whereabouts. He leans forward, “you got this, Kimmy…”

Kimberley walks towards a corner of the catacombs when she hears heavy footsteps around the corner, she times the movements and how close they are before throwing her leg up and kicking a skull on the corner and it flies and hits the man in the jaw, she sprints around the corner kicks him repeatedly in the stomach before he grapples her leg and throws her into one of the walls, the impact took the wind out of her and she slowly gains her balance again while trying to get her breath back. The Blackout soldier paces quickly towards Kimberley and she dodges a punch by inches as his fist flies into a skull’s rotting jaw, he winces at the pain and grips his wrist, Kimberley recovers her breath before placing her foot behind the man’s leg and kicking them out from under him he falls to the ground on his back and he goes to stand back up again but Kimberley wraps her arms around his throat while he sat up in a sleeper hold, before she can react the man grabs her arms and throws her over him and pins her down; again just as quick Kimberley headbutts him and he falls off her, she climbs back onto him and drags a skull out of the wall, she raises it and goes to smash it into his face when the catacombs begin to shake and rubbles falls from the ceiling. Kimberley drops the skull and stands up to escape, she stops and kicks him in the face knocking him unconscious while the ceiling begins to collapse. Kimberley races up a set of stairs leading to the inner courtyard as the catacomb entrances are blocked by rubble, she falls to her knees in a desperate attempts to catch her breath. Shouting is heard from behind her in the catacombs, the rubble explodes and the man stumbles out with what looks like a grenade pin on his finger and blood streaming down his face.

“You’re f*****g dead, b***h…” The man says before breathing just as heavily as Kimberley.

“Hold on…” Kimberley takes a moment to catch her breath. “Now is that anyway you treat a woman?” Kimberley says with a smug grin. The man lets out a roar and charges at Kimberley, unprepared he picks her up and pins her against a tower wall.

“This ends here!” The man screams in her face. Kimberley giggles to herself and lifts her head to face him.

“Yeah. You’re right, it does.” Kimberley says bending her knee and placing her boot on the tower wall, it glows a bright white and the wall behind her explodes, the man shouts yet again, Kimberley struggles free and she kicks herself off the man’s chest as the huge tower collapses on top of him. “S**t!” Kimberley shouts and begins to sprint through the inside of the walls as the tower continues to collapse and cause chain reactions along the wall, the roof above her collapses and she throws herself forward where she lands and scrapes her chest across the jagged floor. Kimberley pushes her feet and they slide behind her and she attempts to run again, she sprints down the rest of the wall failing to find an exit. Kimberley stands still and thinks for a moment. “Can’t find an exit, f*****g make one.” She mutters, she spins on one leg and lifts the other and throws her boot into the wall and it blows a hole into the courtyard again she rolls through the hole before the wall collapses anymore, she slips and slides on her feet trying to find her footing but fails and falls to the ground exhausted.

“That was incredible! She did not want to be buried!” The announcer shouts, a flying camera approaches her in the arena. “Let’s see if we can get her reaction for the audience, a peace sign? A salute perhaps?” Kimberley spots the camera as she drags herself and leans against one of the remaining walls, she flicks her middle finger up at the camera, her face covered in dirt and blood running down her chest to her abdomen. “Couldn’t have put it better myself!”

“She did good.” Octavia says to Titus confidently, he shrugs his shoulders.

“Doesn’t look like Jason will be getting her help, but who’s to say he needs it?” Titus says digging his hand into a pile of popcorn and stuffing a handful into his mouth.

As the dust from the collapsing castle settles around them Jason and the Blackout grunt continue to stare at each other.

“You blinked! I win” Jason says as the grunt wipes his eyes, Jason sprints at the grunt and T-bones him knocking him to the ground.

“F*****g b***h!” the grunt shouts as the announcer announces Kim victory over the other Blackout member.

“You speak!” Jason shouts in amazement “But you don’t talk about my friends like that”

“You f*****g what?” The grunt says knocking Jason off him and pulling out a detonator.

“What’s that for darlin’?” Jason asks getting to his feet and brushing the dirt off his jeans.

“Your ticket to the afterlife!” The grunt shouts as he rips off his clothes to reveal a highly concentrated and unstable nuclear reactor strapped to his body “One wrong move and everyone in a 5 miles radius eats it.”

“You have me in a bit of a predicament here...” Jason says looking towards that tranq snipers sat on watchtowers at the edge of the arena. “Just what am I to do…”. Jason looks to the camera following the progress of their fight and looks to the main monitor to see if it is still working “S**t, what am I actually going to do here?” Jason thinks to himself “If he has to press the button to blow himself up I can use the shockwave from my suit to knock him off balance, then if it’s linked to his conscious state I can cover it with my body...” Jason looks back at the man who is now running at him with the reactor still strapped to his chest.

“Psst. Bill,” Merik whispers “reckon I’m right in saying that the reason that the snipers aren’t knocking that guy out is because they know he’s actually a robot?”

“What do you mean?” Bill asks giving a curious look.

“Look at the way the cable runs into the f**k from Blackout,” Merik says pointing at the main monitor that is now showing an enlarged image of the Blackout Grunt “it runs into his skin.”

“Huh, you’re right, but why would they want to use a robot instead of an actual person? Unless they are both robots and it was their plan all along to blow up the arena,” Bill says “Jason remembers his suit can hold that blast right?”

“Oh I hope he does.” Octavia and Titus say in unison.

Jason smashes his hands together equipping his suit, the shockwave does nothing to the Blackout Grunt.

“The f**k!?” Jason says as he is tackled to the floor by the grunt. “I’m not done yet!” Jason grabs the grunt by the reactor and holds him in the air before piledriving him into the floor causing the robots metalic head to break. The reactor goes into meltdown as the robots head comes of, Jason rips the legs off the robot and throws the reactor to the ground before covering it with his body. 10 seconds later the reactor explodes, Jason’s suit reroutes the explosion through his suit converting the energy into power for the suit, Jason stands up radiating nuclear green glow from his suit. The camera comes in close to Jason as Jason takes his helmet off, winks at the camera and then grabs it and throws it to the ground.

“Salvation take down Blackout in the finals as Jason takes out… erm… We don’t have his name on file… what do we do now?” The announcer says unprepared.

“Make something up I don’t know...” a voice in the background says.

“Greg from Blackout meaning that Salvation are the winners!” The announcer shouts awkwardly laughing after.

“That’s just weak.” Nate says looking over to Blackout’s boss. “Hey Em, wonder why they went with robots and not people…”

“Think about it, if their plan was to blow up the arena why would they sacrifice their own soldiers? It’s smarter to use something that is expendable, hence the robots.” Emily says, she leans back into her seat and ponders why the snipers didn’t have a contingency plan if they knew that they were robots, it just doesn’t make any sense. Gotta be rigged, Emily thinks to herself. “Wait a minute…” The dust settles in the arena and the Blackout soldiers from the crowd drop into the arena with their leader behind them. The announcer panics.

“Erm! Everyone remain calm! Where are our snipers!?” The announcer shouts, he looks at the sniper posts to see none in sight. Emily quickly stands and vaults over the seats in front of her and jumps down into the arena. Octavia watches what is happening.

“Let’s get tactical!” Titus shouts, Salvation jump into the arena and they face the rest of Blackout.

John reaches for his hunting knife attached to his belt, he unsheathes it and looks it over before dropping it in the ground and taking off his jacket. Octavia rushes over to Kimberley who is in no shape to fight.

“You alright?” Octavia asks crouching down and looking over her wounds. Kimberley opens her eyes and looks at her.

“Nothing I can’t walk away from, my legs just,” Kimberley looks down at herself. “need a rest…” Octavia nods understandingly and walks over to the rest of Salvation.

“Walk away, Blackout!” Titus screams over to the Blackout soldiers. A tall man stands out from the rest, wearing a long black trench coat like he is hiding something under it, Emily looks at the man and suddenly becomes uneasy. The man lifts his head and reveals a scarred face and a grey beard.

“Titus… It’s been a while,” The man begins, Emily looks over to Titus and sees him gritting his teeth. “well since you murdered my friend in cold blood.” Titus takes a step forward and locks his boots firmly on the ground.

“He pulled that knife on me,” Titus starts shouting, “he ended his life the moment he stepped foot in this arena!” The man begins to laugh cynically before stopping and taking a step closer and tilting his head.

“Octavia… It’s been a while as well hasn’t it?” The man says looking past Titus.

“Not long enough.” Octavia says assertively. The man scoffs at her reaction. Emily is suddenly overcome with anxiety, was this the man they fought in the previous tournament? This feeling Emily is so unfamiliar with riddled in her body like bullets from a 50. Cal. Emily looks behind John and towards his left where Octavia is stood, she’s so calm… Titus walks to stand next to Octavia catching glimpse of Bill sat on his own in the stands

“Where the f**k are Nate and Merik?” Titus whispers to the group

“Merik went to get popcorn just before s**t went down...” John says with a disgruntled tone

“Nate is up there.” Jason says nodding his head to where Blackout was sat in the stands

“Brilliant.” Titus says turning to face the Blackout Boss. A soldier runs up beside the Blackout leader holding his own arm tightly.

“That’s the b***h that broke my arm!” He shouts pointing at Emily. Before anything can be said John is already walking towards the center, a Blackout soldier runs at him and John thrusts his hand into the soldier’s throat and throws him to the ground and continues towards the leader and the soldier that insulted Emily. Octavia shrugs her shoulders and takes a couple steps forward.

“Guess that’s our move.” Octavia says, with Titus following her. Emily runs towards her brother as she notices a couple of soldiers coming at him from his flank, he’s too focused on being overprotective he’s leaving all his flanks open. Emily rolls forward and swipes the legs out from underneath a soldier and jumps right back up again to land a kick into another soldier’s jaw. A few meters away Octavia is dropping soldier’s left right and center with Titus handling two more just in front of her.

“Erm what the hell is going on!? Shall we cover this?” The announcer says yet again forgetting that the microphone is on.

“Yeah, sure, might be interesting.” A voice in the background is heard saying.

“So it seems that most of the rest of Blackout has jumped down onto the field, with four members of Salvation going to match them, it seems to me that they are a bit out numbered but they are going strong against the odds! They might just be able to win this!” The announcer shouts.

Merik walks back into the stands not noticing what is happening in the arena, he meets Bill who is still sat looking at the action.

“Hey Bill, where did everyone go?” Merik asks filling his face with popcorn. Bill darts his head back and forth from Merik and the arena.

“You should be down there! Why aren’t you down there!?” Bill shouts frantically jumping up and down, Merik slowly raises his popcorn and puts it in Bill’s face.

“Popcorn.” Merik says slowly “What’s going on down there anyway?”

“Look you spoon!” Bill shouts pointing to the arena. It takes a while for Merik to realise what is actually going on, with a blank expression suddenly turning into that filled with determination Merik vaults over the side of the arena activating his armour filling the arena in a thick layer of smoke, a bright green flash and a large gust of wind clears the smoke from the arena as Merik shows up holding up two of men three times Meriks body weight above his head before smacking them into each other and dropping them leaving them unconscious on the ground.

“Holy s**t! Looks like Jason isn’t the only member of Salvation to have that fancy armour, a new fighter joins the arena and by the looks of it Blackout are out of luck, with that armour user storming in they will need a miracle to catch up now!” At this point the announcer is taking speed to keep up the pace needed to document all of the action. “We have just received the names of the Salvation members, file photos should now be showing on the main screen, first we have Salvations leading members Octavia and Titus, next up is brother and sister combo, John and Emily, both ex-military, both the best in their field, both scary if you get on the wrong side of them, and finally we have a newly found armour clad speedster Merik, a college drop out… Really, erm he... Erm has a… He has a lifetime ban from IKEA… A criminal record longer than the line at the Chinese drive-thru… Well they see something in him!” The Blackout leader stands firmly in place as John walks towards him with death in his eyes, the leader chuckles. The leader throws his fist towards John in a right hook, John stops the punch with both his hands gripping the leader’s bicep; with one quick motion John moves his right foot behind the leader’s leg and sweeps it back towards him causing the leader to smash onto the ground, John crouches down and places his knee on the leader’s neck.

“Thanks!” Emily says walking in a strut towards them, the others finish off the remaining Blackout members and watch from a distance. John removes his knee from the leader’s neck and before he can get back up Emily places her boot on the leader’s chest knocking him back into the ground again. A soldier attempts to get back up again but is met with a kick in the face by John.

“Salvation wipe out all of Blackout’s forces and they made it look easy! It is clear who the winners of this year’s tournament is!” The announcer shouts, the remaining crowd cheers with some walking out disheartened that Blackout lost in the end. All of a sudden, tournament guards come storming into the arena and surround the Blackout leader and his men, Emily removes her boot from the leader’s chest and they are carried away leaving the rest of Salvation in the middle of the arena. Emily walks over to John who has his hands firmly tucked into his denim jeans, she runs round to face him with a devious smile and she bends forward a little bit so she’s at the height of his chest looking up at him.

“That help blow off some steam?” Emily asks tilting her head a little to the side.

“Oh yeah.” John says smiling back at her, Kimberley comes limping over to them all, she comes to a halt and looks at them happy about their win.

“Whoo, yay. We won. Good job, go team, comradery,” Kimberley says, they all turn to look at her, “can we go home so I can take a shower and sleep in a comfy bed for like an hour, maybe a couple days.”

“Blackhawk is on one of the helipads on the outside of this thing, let’s get a move on.” Octavia says walking towards the exit.