Beer, Blood and Beatings }{ (Open)

[Onas Knox]

(Set in the days priar to meeting Ari.)

Onas, Justin and Nick walked into The Final Bout well into the evening and the place was allready packed. Callin this place a simple bar would be a sore missplacement of words. It was a huge round building and tonight looked to bolster more than seven hundred patrons. Above the main stage, was a prompt screen that read the betting statistics for the fights on the five stages, and three cameras trained the center stage at all times, broadcasting to the verse. Onas was estatic to be there that night, Nick and he had come plenty, but this was his brother's first night. Onas was determined that J would enjoy it.

They stepped up to the front of the line, a bouncer checked them in saying, "I need your ID, credit card, and place your hand on the scanner till it goes green." Onas did so and after the machien beeped, he motioned his brother to do the same. Justin gave him a quick odd glance and then went ahead. The bouncer handed their effects back and instructed in a bored tone, "Your prints are good for the night. All transations and bets are final as soon as they clear, don't ask about a refund because it will not happen. No fighting outside of the rings, no drinking in the center ring. Don't go to the upper deck unless you rent a booth. If you want to fight, sign the waver at any table or the bar. Enjoy your evening gentelmen, good luck."

"You too Val," Onas said to the bouncer, then he nudged his brother and said, "Come on J, you can put your stuff in these lockers. Hurry up bro, you gotta check out this bar... Oh man, hello hottie." He said turning on his heel and continuing backwards, as he passed a scantly dressed woman.

Justin followed him a step or two past the woman, and caught his arm as Onas was still walking backwards, "Onas did you and Nick just put your fingerprints in a scanner?"

"It's a closed loop thats wiped every night, your fingerprint now controls your tab, your bets, even these lockers." As Onas finished, he thumbed a scanable locker and deposited his weapons, id, gold jewelry and sunglasses. "Ya'll want to just use the one?"

"Naw dawg," Nick answered opening the adjacent, "Last time I did that, I had to lift your unconsiece body off the floor to get my stuff."

"Which was awesome!" Onas laughed.

"No it wasn't."

"Come on," Onas hurried them. He led his brother over past thrawls of patrons to the main perimeter bar, stopping only to watch major moments in the ongoing fights, or to look at wemon. He stepped up to the bar and showed his brother how it worked. Under the glass was 'the list' Onas had told Justin so much about. It was name after name of drinks avalible for order, some were drinks that had to be shipped to order, and had a time table if you wanted to wait. Justin looked at it in awe, they were in the "H's."

"Where do they store all this," He asked.

"Rumor mill is there's a basement as big as this room under it, filled with alcohol, but ya gotta work here to see that." Nick answered. He put two fingers down on a label and swiped them apart keeping contact with the glass. A window opened showing the prepared drink's picture, and a description of what was in it. Justin looked at Nick and declared;

"Oh that's just shiney."

Nick smiled and lamented, "Not bad right?" With that he slid his fingers down at the same time and the image clicked with the words 'Order placed'

"What," Justin said, then he tried it for himself, "What if I want whiskey, I got to walk to the W's?"

Onas put his fingers down as Nick had and spread them apart, this time, he slid them up the screen and the box went clear with a mic prompt. Even over all the noise, it registered Onas saying, "Whiskey." And in the box a list off all the whiskeys in the joint started. "When you open a search, you can take your hands off and start again inside the window. It gets fun when you get ta drinkin and can't see as good."

"Desiel," Justin said smiling. He tried it out. He now noticed his own name faintly in the background of his window, "That's awesome, Whiskey."

After playing with the bar for a minute, the got themself's a table, and Justin noted it had the same system. After a few minutes of talking and drinking, Onas ordered a plate of Silk Eeel and three bags of wafers.

[Onas Knox]

Onas sat chatting with Nick and his brother while they waited for the food to be brought out. He showed justin that placing a bet could be done from the tabletop in the same manner as ordering a drink or food, the touch screen registered bets, and had triple warnings before placing one. Problably in place to answer the growns of those who mistakinly placed bets once they were drunk. You could also open a window on the table that showed the video feeds of games on major cortex servers, major news feeds or even of the main fight in the center ring. They were close enough to the rings that it wasn't nessisary, but still, it was a nice touch. All in all, the owner really had a state of the art establishment going for himself, for an outer planet.

"So the thumb prints, that's kind'of an easy mark for a grab, how do they keep theft down," Justin asked.

Onas smiled with the edge of his mouth, cocked his head sideways, leaned closer and answered looking around the room, "Only an idiot would snatch from here." Onas waved his finger across the breath of the building, "This whole place is mafia backed. A long peace back, like, thirty years or something, the owner expanded it to this and got a really big selection of drink. But he couldn't afford it on his own, so he went to Minerva for a front. She cut a deal wit him instead, protection. So she supplied the booze, and the muscle, he did somethin for her."

"What?"

"Whatever it was, it must have been good. I know that she still collects a peace of the action even today, from the drink and the bets." Onas cut his talk short as the waitress came up with the Silk Eeel. It was a large bowl of thick milky looking cream. Onas stirred it with a knife, and stringy meat could be seen swirling in it, and then sinking back to the bottom. Onas tossed Nick a bag of wafers, and handed one to his brother, then took two out, and spooned some of the Eeel inbetween his wafers, and ate the whole thing. Nick did the same and Justin truely looked as though he'd lost his appetite. Onas chuckled as he and Nick exchanged glances. "Try it bro."

"You done fallen an bumped yo head twice," Justin spouted with a grimace, "I ain't touchin that nasty albino la shi."

Onas and Nick busted out with laughter, and Onas clapped his brother on the shoulder, "That was basically my first reaction. It's good though." Onas and Nick continued to dig into the bowl while Justin continued to ask questions about the fights. Onas explained that only the middle ring had rules, but as he'd never gone in it, he didn't know them. The four outside rings though, had no rules, just a knockout or a quit. Anyone could tap out or quit, other than that, it was whatever. Most guys fought in pants only. No shirt, no shoes, no belts. Nothing your opponent could use against you. "You can hit someone with anything, if it's in the ring when you start. See those guys?" He pointed to ring four, "They got drinks on the mat, problebly theirs right? Well if one of em grabs one of em, they can smash em over the other guys head and it's no foul."

"Your kidding."

"Nope, that's why.. OOHHH! Ta De Tou" Onas yelped with Eeel in his mouth. In the ring they had just pointed at, the winner had cracked his opponent's head against the turnbuckle. Blood was everywhere. Nick slapped Justin's arm and bounced in his chair. Onas shook his head smiling, "Like I said, no rules. But that's why there's a waver."

Onas reached up with his left hand to scrach his ear, as the owner clasped his shoulder. Onas turned and his eyes widened. Not a surprized look, but one of, 'I haven't seen you in a while' You know the one. "Hey! How's it been?" He exclaimed spinning to face the man.

"It's been," The owner said with a practiced smile. Good natured though. He wasn't what everyone expected, and old man, short grey hair, and all of his teeth. He was tall next to Onas, but then, who wasn't? And he was thin, thinly built too, he wouldn't have lasted long in his own rings, even in his prime. But he had a likeness to him, how one might feel for a favored grandfather. "How are you boys doing tonight?"

Onas wiped his mouth and quickly responded, "Were good sir, real good. You remember Nick, and this is my lil bro Justin."

"Nick, I thought you left the world." The old man asked. Not like a question, but not of disinterest. The man had a way of talking.

"I'm back for a while to help Onas sir," Nick answered, directly.

"And Justin," He looked with peering eyes, "I don't think I remember you at all, Onas, you've never told me of your kin?"

"No sir."

"Good to meet you, sir," Justin opened shaking the mans hand, and added, "You can call me 'J,' everyone else does."

"Justin will do fine son. Are you going to try out a round," He asked Jr directly, holding both hands over an unnessisary cane, nodding towards the bloodied ring.

Justin's eyes widened as he leaned back, waving his hands in defeat, "No sir."

"Aw don't you believe it sir, he will once we get some drinks in him." Onas said 'toasting' his drink towards his brother.

"No he will not, not even with a few drinks in me." Justin defended.

"And you Onas, your fingernails are cut, hairs shorter, are you fighting tonight?" He asked Onas.

"Yes I am sir," Onas nodded.

"Glad to hear it." His eye's looked to each of them, then he nodded his head and excused himself saying, "Gentalmen."

"That was the owner?" Justin looked to Onas.

"Yeah yeah yeah. Me an Nick did a gig for 'em. I know what yur thinkin, and don' make a big thing of it. Everybody here's done somethin for him at some point." Onas excused it so mildly, that it seemed worse.

Nick wiped his hands as Onas took the last scoop of Eeel, and announced, "Boys and girls, it's drink time."

"Dri' 'im," Onas asked before swallowing more food than he could manage quickly.

"Dri' time, " Nick repeated, "What we havin J?"

Justin opened his search and typed a second, then he smiled as he found something, and opened the window larger under the tableglass, "Sprout thirty!"

"Mm-mm," Onas shook his head no, as he wiped his mouth, "No we're not."

"Yes we are," Nick said eagerly, "What! They have sprout thirty five... Sprout fourty! What is that?"

Onas shook his head, "I will do one, maybe two shots of '30, I'm not doin thirty five, and Sprout fourty, what is that, two hundred proof? I'm sorry guys but I'm a smoker, and I'm not bursting into flames here."

Justin nagged him ordering three '35s. "Where's your sinse of adventure?"

"No, no. No adventure here. I don't like my throat on fire. Or pukin," They talked for a bit more, while Onas reserved a spot in ring four.

The waitress came back and put the drinks down, as she did, she added, "Three brave souls."

Onas tapped her tip pad while it was still tucked against her chest and generously tipped her with a wink. She curtsied, smiled with very clean teeth, and strutted away.

"Mm.." Onas whatched her wander off, then he turned to his friends and they all toasted and drank. I will describe their reactions only as such; They knew what Sprout thirty five was before they drank it, but it didn't really help.

Two more rounds of that, and Onas' number was up. He got down to the ring, and stripped down to just his jeans and tank top.

[Clairabella Corinth]

Clairabella had found her way to The Final Bout the last six nights. watching and learning how the people around here fought. It was quiet the rough place exactly the kind of place she had found herself fancying more and more as she got older. Today was going to be different though she had tossed her name in and signed up to fight. There had been a lot of repeat fighters in the place and she had learned most of how they worked they would be easy targets for her tonight.

Unlike most of them she hadn't had a drink no instead she planned to stay sober and keep her wits about her while they loosened themselves of for a tough night in the ring. She had ordered a drink though, a double of Sprout fourty to take in the ring with her. That would be more then enough to slow someone down for a moment and that was all she needed. Most of the other fighters were big and lumbering compared to her and her agility would give her control of the fight.

She watched on as a few fights began and ended with one poor sap bleeding or out cold. Soon her turn was coming. She walked over to one of the lockers and removed her Jacket and ear rings. Leaving her wearing a skin tight blue shirt that had no stretch to it, along with a pair of black pants that give her a good range of movement. Unlike the men she wasn't going to be doing the fight shirtless so she had to have something that would give little chance to be used against her.

As her ring cleared of the last set of fighters she walked down to the ring and looked it over before climbing in. She could see the glistening of moisture on it from the prior fights on it tonight. She removed her shoes and socks setting them outside the ring. She would have better traction with bare feet in this ring. Then she set her glass on the side of the ring and slid between the ropes and up in to it. The crowd roared when she did, likely due to her small stature compared to any of the other fighters. The 5'5" woman was likely one of the smallest to step in to the ring in a long time.

Her eyes gazed over the crowd looking for who would be her Challenger. Person by person she looked over the other fighters she had seen before waiting for one of them to walk forward.

"Come on who is it." She said to herself as she continued to scan the room, spotting one of them moving closer she took a deep breath and felt a bit of relief this one would be easy. It was then that he stopped and took a seat, not him it appeared. "Come on."

[Onas Knox]

Onas checked with the ref and then climbed into the ring. His opponent was a thin woman, only a few inches shorter than himself. She didn't look like much to be honest. A few folks near the ring jeered at him being put against a women, and Onas couldn't help but chuckle a little, he turned so she wouldn't see it. He wasn't poking fun at the las, but still. Oj took a big drink of his beer, and set the bottle near his stool. Fighters in these rings had no rules, so stools didn't get a lot of use. But he'd seen, in fact been in fights were both fighters agreed to take a minute and they would go to their corners. Ethier way, almost every fight had some kind of alcohol on the mat.

The ref walked to the middle and looked to each of them, Onas walked closer and stood there smoking his cigarette while the man gave what must have been the shortest ref speech in the verse;

"When one of you quits, taps out or goes limp, the fights over. Keep it in the ring people. Touch up."

Onas took one last full toke from his cigarette bfor thumping it out of the ring, and blew his smoke out heavily before extending his fist to hers. The ref dropped his hand and that was it, no horn, no bell, no whistle, just fight. He smiled breifly. Onas threw his hands up and started closing right there. He threw two quick left jabs, and then followed up with a strong right punch, pivoting on his heal for added force.

If he landed that last one, he planned to follow it up with a low tone, just enouph for her to hear him, "Your in the ring now."

[Clairabella Corinth]

Finally a challanger walked up and joined her in the ring. She hadn't sceen him fight before, that would complicate things a bit, at least he wasn't not as big as many of the other people she had expected. The question now was what was his skill level and how fast could he move, surely not as fast as her. Before moving forward to meet him in the middle she took a mouthful of the drink. Her face puckered from it and she clinched her teeth in responce to it.

The fact that he smoked would mean his endurance wouldn't be as great but that would only matter if the fight was a long one. After the ref gave them the the rules or lack there of she touched fist with him and was ready to begin.

She allowed the man to make the approch allowing her to opt for a bit of defense at first it was best to get to know what he had in him before she made her plan of attack. she blocked his first jab with easy and swung her body to the right to avoid the second one moving her in to the path of his right.

It made clear contact with her knocking her back slightly. He had alot more force behind those hits then she had expected of someone his size and he was fast too. Then she heared his comment almost causing her to laugh. Now it was her turn to welcome him to the ring.

She bounced back forward getting in close to him slamming her left fist forward toward his stomic then lowering herselve closer to the ground and slinging her right leg at the back of his knee in hopes of buckling him to the ground. She wasn't going to make this easy on him that was for sure.

[Onas Knox]

She smiled at his comment. That really should have been a sign.

Her fist came up clean into his stomach, right below his ribcage. It wasn't a full blown uppercut, and it lacked follow through, which was problably the only reason she hadn't knocked his breath out right then and there. All the same, the sprout 35 in his system didn't help his equilibrium when she brought her legs full bore in behind his right kneecap, slamming his knee to the ground.

Keep your mouth shut and fight, he told himself. The crowd "Oohhed" as their hits landed, and "OOwwed" when his knee got chopped, Onas didn't have time to get up, she would surely be splitseconds from another attack.

He clenched his bared teeth in anger and pain, and brought the bottom of his right fist to her shin as hard as he could from one knee! If he got her, he'd follow up by grabbing his left hand with his right, and combining them in one fist, swinging them with every ounce of energy he could muster, slamming into her exposed left kidney. He'd been punched there once, in a real fight, and it had been severly painful. If he got all that off, Onas needed to get back to his feet as soon as possible, that'd be his moment. Wemon were well known for submision takedowns in the ring. Onas had seen it, but this was his first intergender fight in the ring. He damn sure didn't plan on losing.

[Clairabella Corinth]

The crowds reaction only encouraged her and built her confidence as the fight continued. This was going to be an easy fight. When he was to the ground she saw her chance she would put him to the ground for good and show them all she was able to hold her own.

Then her attention was pulled back to the fight as she felt a pain in her shin. He had managed to continue to strike from his disadvantaged position. She clinched her left fist only to have it grabbed by him and driven in to her side before she could move out of the way. The pain coursed through her body and she too dropped to a knee. Her right hand went to meet with their combine fist grabbing hold and ripping it free from his.

Her options were more limited now as he began to pull himself back to his feet. She had to react fast and gain herself a moment to regroup again. She dropped to her back and kicked with her left leg, her more powerful side to try and send him back a few feet. If it all worked as she planned she would kip up to her feet again and be ready before he approached again. All she had to do was push through the pain she felt in her side and put him back down to the mat this time making sure to be ready or his attempts to rebuff her efforts. No this time she would make sure he couldn't get a clear approach on her.

She was impressed at his speed and ability to fight with his level of intoxication she could spell it on his breath. At this point she was wishing she had a bit in her system to dull the pain as well.

[Onas Knox]

It was a satisfying feeling to land the blow to her kidney, and it hit with all his force. He even staggered her. She looked to reel back for a moment, and Onas took his eyes off her to jump his right foot back under him. He'd just stood up when she in one smooth motion fliped to her back, or her shoulders, and managed to kick him squarly in his right side, slinging him flailing to his left several paces.

Before he got himself sorted, she did some fancy ninja thing and jumped back to her feet. Onas whatched two of the woman for a moment, but they quickly mearged back in the middle and became one target for him. Oj craned his neck, holding his right side limply for a moment. He shook it off, rolling his right arm over at his shoulder, letting it fall back into place in front of him. He angled his body to the left and put his left foot forward a step. Then he bounced on his feet, coming forward agian.

Three bounds forward. That's all it took to close the gap, Onas knashed his teeth in anger as he closed. When he got close, he shot a hard left jab at her face, and imediantly spun on his left foot, cutting hard around, bringing his full bodywieght to bare with the back of his right fist. The ferocity he put into this backfist would remind this las of pain.

[Clairabella Corinth]

She could feel herself fighting to keep herself upright with the pain at her side but it wasn't going to stop her just yet. When he came in she saw his lead off with his left again going for a jab.

She quickly rolled herself around to the left dodging it again. This time she made sure not to move to the right to fall in to the next hit. unfortunatly for her, her side slowed her down allowing his right swing to land on her. As it did she sprayed the liquid from her mouth she had been holding the whole fight toward his face.

With the forces of the hit she left herself roll with it placing a hand on the ground and swinging her foot up around to his side as well in hopes of landing another blow. Then as she came around and tried to go to her feet she felt her foot slip and feel to the ground front first, leaving her back toward her target.

She could feel her arms shaking from the blows she had taken and couldn't bring herself to her feet just yet hopefully the spray had landed on her target to buy her a short moment of peace before the fight continued.

[Onas Knox]

Onas connected his jab, and though his momentum carried his spinning backfist through, she managed to spray his face with something that felt like ethonal, both his eyes lit up like a christmas tree, and it took a little something out of his attack. The world was a spinning blur, but he connected again, he could feel her take the hit.

Onas reared back, wiping his eyes with his forearm. Then he tried to get his thumb and finger to them and clear away the burning alcohol in his vision. She had that in her mouth the whole time? 'Ruttin freak' he thought, just as his shaking hand reached his searing eyes. That's when her other foot slammed his side. Luckily his left arm was tucked in from his recoil, and absorbed most of the kick's bite. Still, it jarred him hard, she had a lot of her body behind that one. One more of those, and he'd lose his balance alltogether! Onas worked hard now to clear his eyes.

His vision was strainded, but nontheless he hazily made out that she went to her belly after that kick, Onas reached out and snatched her ankles up, pulling her whole body towards him before she could get away. One of the advantages to having a hundread pounds over your adversary. When he got her slid under him, he dropped her legs, and grabbed a fistful of her hair. With his left hand against the ground as leverage, Onas yanked her head up, and poised to slam her head into the mat!

[Clairabella Corinth]

As his vision was strained from the alcohol hers was blured from the hits she had taken. Unluckily for her he didn't lose to much time because of it all. As she began to lift her body off the floor he pulled her back by her left dropping her back to the ground again.

Once she stopped sliding on the mat she could feel the full weight of him drop on to her back, followed by a stinging pain in her head as he pulled her hair. She kn ew her long hair would be a hinderance and had this been a real life situation and her equipment was with her she would have pulled her knife and just cut her hair free. It would be better then the alternitive in this situation. Since that wasn't an option she slid one of her arms forward infront of her placing her chin on her palm to stop him from being able to slam her face to the ground.

it did immobilize one of her arms but still gave her the other to fight with. She still had sommething up her sleeve. as he pushed to bring her head forward she rocked him forward on her body to off balance him if only slightly. Enough for her to reach around and try to grab his arm he was balancing on and try to pull it out from under him.

If she could manage this she could get him to the ground as well. Then it would be a matter of wrapping her rolling herself and wrapping her legs up around him from behind him.

[Onas Knox]

Onas slammed with his right hand, but her head went nowhere! She had gotten her hand under her chin, and kept her neck stiffly locked, controling his force. That was unexpected. His left hand jerked out from under him as she ripped his wrist around and he fell rolling to the left. She spun on his arm, and got her legs around him, it was exactly what he feared, she was going for a controlled submission lock. If he didn't stop her here, he'd black out.

Onas pushed his shoulders forward of his neck and tried to breath but was no good, she had it locked up tight. He tried to get his hand under her leg, and open a gap for airflow. Anything to cut this attack off quickly. When that failed, he rammed his elboes into her, but her legs abosrbed the angle too well, and he couldn't get the point of his elboe into her. He was losing too much time...

Onas tried again, this time with his own legs, kicking for her arms if they were planted. But it was still no good, she was balancing herself with this deathgrip around his neck, and she had to much advantage. Onas cleched his teeth and broadened his neck, then he caught a gasp. Just one. One good clean wisp of air, and with it, he put both hands on the mat, pushed up, and got his right foot under him. She may have had legs like a gorram vice, but she still only wieghed a buck ten at the most. If she stayed on him, then it would be her end. Onas had a mind to stand as much as he could, and then dive to his back, crushing this squirly biao zi yang de under him. If that didn't work, he'd drop kick her! With both feet.

Either way, three minutes of this la shi had proved two minutes more than he'd wanted!

[Clairabella Corinth]

Clairabella continued to tighten her grip on him now was her chance to finish this figt off. He would black out in no time and she could see him struggling to get in air though a little seeped in it didn't seem like enough to get him much more time.

Then though he began to git to his feet with her legs wrapped around him she continued to hold on as he lifted up. She had to react and fast though to prevent him from being able to do anything that would change to momentum of the fight. She used her small frame to her advantage and pulled herself up and folded in half swinging a fist toward the back of his head.

Just as she did he was in a position to drop back on her but it might have been to late. she grabbed on to him with her other arm and began to let her legs loose from his neck in hopes of getting them to the ground before he could drop on her, though it would be close at least if he did fall back on her she would be in a better position as opposed to folded in half and crushed under his weight. At this point though she needed to keep from going back to the mat or she wouldn be getting back up.

[Onas Knox]

Onas got up to his right leg, and she managed to stay on his back, balancing, her grip not loosening. When his left foot started up, she finnally let go with her legs, and they slid down his body as he rose. She was trying to bail out of his attack. He brought his forearms up, catching both her legs, and pinning her to himself, then he thrust backwards, and for a moment, both were airborn.

Onas and the squirly woman landed with a crashing bang against the stage! Her body went limp from a momentary knockout, and the ref called it right there. She was only out a second, but that was all the fight needed to be called. Onas stood ringing his neck, and looked at her on the ground a moment, his breathing heavy from their bout. He smiled with half his mouth and extended his hand down to her as an offering. The crowd had mixed emotions. Likely in favor of betting calls.

"Now that was fun," he said and chuckled with ragged breaths, "Come on," he encouraged her, opening and closing his hand for her to take it, "I gotta buy you a drink." The ref came over to have them clear the ring, and Onas pointed back towards his table as he gathered his gear and lit a cigarette.

[Clairabella Corinth]

As her legs slid down his back she thought she was going to be able to slid away from this one but just as hope began to show she felt her legs get cought up y his arms. A sinking feeling fell over her as she could feel them glide through the air she tride to exhail the air from her lung before they hit the grond to prevent the wid from being kocked out of her but it wasnt enough.

Next thing she knew the ref was calling the fight, it appeared she had blacked out if only for a second, long enough for itto be over. 'No, gorram it.' she thouht to herself but she had to be graceful about the loss.

When the man reached his hand out to her to help her up she smile. "would have been more fun if it were me offering you the hand but I agree either way." She said as she took his hand. "Names Clairabella but most people find that a little logn so Cliar or Bella works too." she said as he pulled her to her feet, she hadn't expected this outcome but atleast he asfriendly afterward.

She had expected him to be gloating if he won, but instead he was offering her a hand and then a drink "Is this how you usually pick up women. knock them out then get tem drunk and all?" she said as she let out a laugh.