[h1][color=orange]Archie Davis[/color], [color=IndianRed]Reyna Baker[/color], and [b]Arianna[/b][/h1]
[i]Written with [@SepticGentleman] and [@Spoopy Scary][/i]

[hr]
[b][i]The night before, within the Microcosm...[/i][/b]

"Folks!" The man announced, in something of a Bostonian accent, "The last fight of the quarter starts in two minutes!" He was met with a spike in volume from the crowd. He waved his hand and continued speaking.

"But before that, we'd like to take a moment to get a word out for our favorite servicers and establishments this week!" He pulled out a few notecards from his pants pocket and proceeded to call out, "Special mention for Harmon's Official Unofficial Electronic Repair Service! If your phone's just not cooperating with you, or your laptop's being a huge bitch, hit him up. Next, the Odo Brothers' Bath House is back open for business on its twenty-four-hour schedule after the, uh... [i]mess[/i] left by last month's incident, parties responsible now appropriately reprimanded."

"It was almost as bad as the first one! But you know what they say, you can never beat the original!" The co-host chimmed in.

"And lastly, Carlyle's Frontier Expeditions have received a limited-time expansion into unknown territories! See the strange sights and bizarre creatures of the Microcosm from the leisure of the open air!" He lowered his microphone for a moment, taking in the applause, much of it in the direction of the parties mentioned. The man continued on to say, "Now! We, being Ted Harvey..."

"And Theodore Cotton, of course!" Cotton said, stealing Ted's microphone and speaking into both of them at once.

"Are proud..." Ted said, ripping his microphone away from his co-host, "...to announce our two opponents for the final match of the night, as well as this quarter of the year 2022, for the fifth running year in our meta-brawling enterprise!" He pointed to one side of the arena, and announced, "Our first contender! A man that is no stranger to the fray of battle! The scourge of Tokyo, the psychological surgeon, the veteran himself - give it up for Doctor Olin!"

The crowd roared, and a massive humanoid clad in sweat pants and a hoodie stalked into the ring. Bestial in nature, judging by the large and muscular tail that trailed behind the fighter's body and ashen-scaled snout that poked out from under the hoodie. The fighter reached upwards, and pulled off the hoodie- revealing a his muscle shirt clad torso. The man was built like a truck- with broad shoulders that were easily over five feet in width, and cadillac sized arms. Armored scaling could be seen poking from underneath the back of his shirt. He tapped his claws against the cement flooring, awaiting the announcement of his combatant, but gave no audible acknowledgment of the crowd.

Cotton proceeded to speak on behalf of the behemoth's opponent. "And our second contender, former wild man-dog turned pit fighting champion wannabe! One-armed and dangerous, never skips leg day, almost bit my hand off that one time! The Broken! Hyena!"

He pointed to the opposite side of the ring, and from an entrance below the rungs dashed a tall, but not as tall as Olin, dog-like figure of a man. Jointed legs covered in an assortment of cloth wraps, leading up to a pair of black brown cargo shorts, a tattered red shirt, and a black scarf around his neck. His right arm led down to a hand full of curved, sharpened claws, wrapped in a fingerless black glove. The other only ended just above the elbow, at a plain stump. A head of wild, dark brown hair rested upon a jutting face, eyes underneath a pair of black goggles with red lenses. His ears were pointed, though the right one was messily clipped in half. He stopped at the ring, listening to a good portion of the audience cheering for him. In return, he raised his head and bellowed, not quite a howl, not quite a cackle - something in between, with a hint of a man's voice in it.

"Take a look at this, Ted." Cotton announced over the microphone. "It appears that Doc is stepping forward to meet the Hyena halfway."

The co-host wasn't lying. The behemoth was in fact pacing towards the center of the ring, with the Hyena meeting him there. The giant stopped a few feet away before putting one of his hulking arms outward, with his fist closed. The Hyena did the same, and in unison they knocked their knuckles together in a sign of sportsmanship. The Broken Hyena, however, added a snapping of his mangled teeth - though somehow, it didn't seem out of malice. The larger reptilian man nodded to him, and began stepping back, his gigantic frame quickly picking up speed as his feet weaved back and fourth below him. His whole body almost seemed to bounch. It was... very Mohammad Ali-esque.

Ted and Cotton began to step away from the two. "You know the rules, boys!" He said, raising his hand. "Three... two... one..."

The contenders locked eyes, poised and ready to strike.

"Fight!" Ted called out, quickly swiping his hand down and getting out of the way. "Cherry!" He called out, turning his head towards one of the upper rungs. Three figures stood there - an African-American man wearing a pair of hunting glasses, a Caucasian wearing aviators, and a shorter, redheaded girl wearing heart-shaped sunglasses. She was sat while the other two were upright, with instruments ready - a drum set and a guitar respectively, both decorated and plugged into the appropriate equipment. The girl, Cherry, raised her finger, waving it a bit, timing the beats. The guitarist, Somilo, began to strum silently, and the drummer Jiver followed with accompanying beats. This was how they started - low, riding into the high as the battle picked up.

The two fighters quickly moved forward, getting within striking distance of one-another. The Doctor had his hands lower, one arm occasionally moving outward at a moderate speed, as if testing the waters. The Broken Hyena was fast however, and with his smaller size, weaved through the punches, and moved past Henry, landing a solid elbow with his only remaining (right) arm. 

"Look like Broken Hyena strikes first blood!" Cotton announced into the microphone.

The giant man stepped forward, through the blow, relatively unaffected, and quickly turned to face his adversary again, sweeping his massive tail and taking the Hyena by surprise. The appendage swung like a tree trunk and took out the fighter's legs. However, the massive man did not press the advantage. He waited for the Hyena to get back up.

Once the thinner fighter rose to his feet, the giant began advancing upon him again. The mountain of a man wound back his arm, which Hyena began to back-step in order to avoid, only to be met by a powerful kick to the exposed torso- sending the Hyena stumbling back several feet. The punch had been a fake, and it had worked. The mammalian recovered, and much faster than Henry was advancing. The two began circling once again.

"This is the David and the Goliath of boxing matches." Ted commented.

The Broken Hyena advanced, ducking under a powerful but slow hook that Henry threw, and hopping over the tail. He kicked the back of Henry's knee forward, forcing Henry to fall onto one knee. He spun on his heels and delivered a solid punch to Henry's snout, causing the monster of a man to fall backwards. Henry turned into the fall, and landed onto his hands and knees. The Broken Hyena pressed, taking advantage of Henry's exposed back. He delivered a few, powerful kicks to the floating rid region of Henry's flanks, and attempted to strike Henry's skull again, only to be met with by an arm that swung backwards like a baseball bat, nailing the Broken Hyena and sending the dog-man barreling backwards.

As both fighters regained their footing, the Broken Hyena quickly advanced, pivoting on his heel and jumping in an attempt to deliver a flying roundhouse kick. The kick landed, but was absorbed mostly by the Doctor's shoulder and arm as Henry grabbed the Hyena's torso with one hand and moved straight down, falling to his knees and slamming the Hyena into the ground with both of their weights using a devastating combination of power, skill, and gravity.

The Hyena spat blood onto the floor from the force of the slam, and heaved on the ground. Fractured- maybe broken ribs, potentially broken back. Henry weighed over two thousand pounds and had a massive frame compared to the Hyena's tall and slender one. The two were classed into different fighting brackets. It had been an unfair fight from the start.

Henry stood back up to his full height and looked to Cotton and Ted, narrowing his eyes at them before kneeling down and slapping the floor twice- tapping out and forfeiting the fight.

He stepped backwards to allow the healers to step in to do their job. He looked around the now almost quiet fight ring, and stalked out of the arena. The band fell off their rhythm, now silent.

It took a moment for Ted to raise his microphone and speak up. "Well..." He began, "Folks... it seems Doc Olin's had enough." He stepped forward, just as the two assigned healers finished fixing up the Broken Hyena. "So, that makes the Broken Hyena our winner!" As the Broken Hyena stood upright, Ted grabbed his good arm and raised it up. The crowd cheered, especially the ones who had been supporting their favored contender from the start - but a good number of them just clapped halfheartedly, and the rest didn't react at all. The Broken Hyena immediately tore his arm away from Ted's hand, and looked in the direction that Henry had gone off in, following at a slightly quicker pace. [i]Growling[/i] somewhat. Ted, the healers, and Cotton just stood in confusion, until the former grew a look of disapproval on his face and too, followed in the contenders' path. As he went, Cotton made a quick decision to wrap things up in the Circle.

"Well, uh, that's it for the final match of the quarter, folks! Hope you all enjoyed the fight, I'm... gonna go that way!" He said, turning to follow his partner, until the lot of them were out of view. And the audience was left to itself.

...

"'Ell..." Zach said, as the group of six made their way out of the Circle. "That sucked."

"It was a good fight up until the end." Said Archie's phone. The group came to a stop and he continued, "Maybe Henry's just not feeling it anymore. Being champ for eight quarters in a row must have that effect."

"Coulda least took a dithe. 'Ake it look good." Zach replied, "Hyena dun like an unthair 'ictory. Ah, 'ahtether." He sighed and turned his head towards Veronica at his side, saying to her, "'Anna guh chill?" Veronica shook her head, then proceeded to raise both her hands in a thumbs up fashion, palms facing her torso, and waved them up and down a little. Then she brought her hands together and pulled them apart on a slant, and then straight down, parallel. "Ah." Zach replied, nodding a bit. "'Kay, yeh do that. I'll 'e at the lahnge 'en yer done." He turned towards Harmon and said to him, "H?"

"O-okay..." Harmon replied, nodding a bit.

"Arch?" Zach continued, turning towards Archie, who typed in response, "I'll catch up with you later. Gotta handle stuff."

"Ai'ght." Zach replied, waving over Harmon. The two wandered off in one direction, Veronica in another. All that was left were Archie, Arianna, and Reyna. Archie turned towards the both of them and typed out, "Sorry about the fight. Doctor must be having some issues."

Reyna didn't seem to mind, who was whooping and hollering from the stands through the fight. Though disappointed at its conclusion, it did little to curb her enthusiasm. 

"Me!" She yelled. "Come on, let me fight the winner! I had dibs!"

She turned to face Arianna with a smug little smile and said,  "Whatever man, he's probably a little bitch anyway."

"Unfortunately, the quarter's over." Archie typed out in Reyna's direction, "Ted won't have the next tournament going for a couple of weeks at least."

"Fine," Reyna grumbled, then turned to stick her head out to where the fighters were squaring off before, "I didn't want to get in trouble for kicking around some dog, anyway!"

"Of course. Anyway." Archie continued, stepping towards Reyna. "If you're cool with what you've seen so far, you can stick around as long as you want. There's rooming available, plus the Odos' place to freshen up, the lounge, lots of fun places and friendly people. What do you say?"

Reyna shrugged. It didn't really matter to her, she had no place to go. As far as she was concerned, the safest place was either with Ari as she already claimed responsibility, or turning to the RAVEN base. The latter involved betraying this lot - but it wasn't like they were best friends or anything, and Reyna might even be able to get off without such a huge punishment of she explained the truth. 

But the fact that she was still here went to show that Ari wasn't keen on just letting Reyna out her. God, why did she feel even a [I]little [/I] hesitant?  These people took her against her will! 

Finally, she sighed. "You know what? It's been fun and all, but I gave it a shot, and my mind isn't changed."

Reyna huffed. 

"Take me back." She said. Facing the issue helped to make her feel a little more sober.  "I'm gonna face RAVEN and make my appeal, or I'll take responsibility for knocking Styles down or whatever."

Archie turned his head towards Arianna slightly, nodding in acknowledgement. "Brave girl." He typed out, "Alright. But if you could, leave out this whole place during your explanation. Plenty of folks here are already not on DOVE or RAVEN's nice list."

"I never wanted to run off with you two [i]in the first place.[/i]" Reyna retorted. 

Ari looked Reyna over, trying to decide if she was serious or not only to shake her head and sigh. She turned  "Alright, Archie. Take us back."

She looked back to Reyna, her jovial gaze replaced with a colder and more calculating one. She took a step away from Reyna and finally produced a facial expression. Although it was a frown.

"As soon as we get back, I'll call off the clone and give you a ride back to Strong-Gold. That'll be it. But, only on one condition."

Reyna rolled her eyes and leaned to the side with a hand on her hip. "Yeah, and what's that?"

"If you ever see any of us again, tonight never happened." Arianna said, turning her gaze away from Reyna, as telling her that it was non-negotiable. "Archie, ready when you are."

Reyna narrowed her brow, not entirely understanding her meaning, but as far as Reyna was concerned, she wasn't given much of a reason why she should spare them any grief - they hadn't done the same service to her. Regardless, she didn't care for Arianna's reason. There was one question that was really bugging her now.

"What's with the sudden change of heart, huh?" Reyna pried. "You didn't seem to care when you first tried to [i]'help'[/i] me."

Ari gave her a sideways glance and crossed her arms, looking down at her feet. "One of my rules is to 'Not get invested'." Arianna explained, looking back up to Reyna. "I broke one rule 'Don't hurt anyone', and I thought I'd be able to make up for it by breaking another one. I thought wrong." Arianna stated.

While she would never admit it, Reyna was the closest thing Arianna has had to a friend in a long time. The decision Reyna had come to, while not illogical, felt like a form of rejection to Ari. So, as any person with a self serving bias, Arianna receeded into herself and clammed up, bringing her walls back up in an effort to prevent herself from getting hurt any further.

Reyna crossed her arms, and a smirk was beginning to creep onto her face.

[i]'Projection.'[/i] Reyna thought smugly to herself, alluding to what she said earlier in the night at the bar. She made a sigh to herself and bowed her head as she combed her fingers through her hair, which then trailed further down where she began scratching her neck. [i]'This bitch sure can make a girl feel bad for[/i] nothing.[i]'[/i]

"Well..." Reyna began to pipe up. God, she was going to regret this. "I'm still not totally sober yet. You think it might be a better idea to wait for that before I make the appeal to save my [i]life?[/i]"

Reyna made an uncomfortable laugh. "Once the buzz wears off, I'm gonna be hurting again. Maybe they'll even have [i]sympathy[/i] for me."

Arianna looker her over, her eyes hopeful but her mind unbelieving.

"Yeah. Sure." Arianna said, halfheartedly. "I'm staying the night here. You can take a room near mine." She said, stepping towards Archie and patting the man on the shoulder. "Have a good night. Thanks for all the help." Archie didn't issue a verbal response. He just nodded his head, turned away, and went in the direction Zach and Harmon had gone.

She took a few paces down a road, only to stop and motion for Reyna to follow. "I'll lead."

Reyna hesitated for a moment, but started following after Arianna. Her eyes lit up a moment as she noticed a man staring at the two of them in a nearby alleyway. It was difficult to discern the figure, save for a white cloth around his neck, and the rays of a street-side light glistening off of an absurd number of bugs flying around the area. Reyna shook it off as another strange person in this strange place. She continued on. In a moment of epiphany, she asked, "Where can we get pain-killers so I can sleep tonight?"

"We can stop by a shop on the way to an inn." Arianna commented offhandedly. "This place has a little bit of everything."

"I'll say..." Reyna muttered, remembering the strange man she saw earlier. Her eyes continued to trail around this crazy place, until they landed on a bee that was on one of the brick walls. Another bug. Reyna looked awkwardly back at Arianna, "Let's just get today over with."

"It's like you read my mind, love."