With a few tentative steps outside, she looked around to get her bearings. Celestia wept, it looked like a damn nuke went off outside the city. Ruined complexes lined the streets, clearly showing that this was a residential area. Stark lights from the buildings and street lamps created shadows as black as the night sky, neither very welcoming, but both in abundance.

As she carefully went down the steps, her ears picked up a conversation in an alley across the street slowly growing in proximity. This sent her into a panic, gravitating her to the nearest hiding place she could find, the alley next to the hotel. She crouched down against the wall, blending into the shadows as she listened in.

“Damn, all the jobs we could be doin’ right now, and we get stuck babysitting this whore.”, a young but gruff voice said as two more members of the Jury stepped out of the shadows, similarly clothed to the last, save for the young one wearing an olive vest while the other was built like a brick shithouse, the latter wearing a tight black tank top.

The muscle bound one then scoffed and said, “Ah, quit ‘cha bitchin. We’re keepin’ one of the most grade-A evil pieces of shit under lock and key, AND we’re getting’ paid for it? Fine by me. Hell, I’d give her what she deserves for FREE!”

The younger one shook his head and pulled out a butterfly knife. As he twirled it around, he said to the other, “Man, you REALLY take the whole ‘Jury’ thing all the way, don’t ya Homer?”

A hearty laugh escaped the big man and he said with a crack of his neck, “Eh, never hurts to dispense some good ol’ fashioned justice from time to time. You’ll see it before too long, Gasher.” It was then Adagio saw that he had a massive nailed bat resting on his shoulder.

Gasher smiled under the mask and said, “Whatever you say old man.” He then looked at the hotel and scratched his crotch as he said with a growl, “Thinkin’ I might have some ‘fun’ with our guest, though.” With that, he quickly began to walk up to the building.

Adagio went completely pale when he let that thought slip. At first, it was just because of the clear and blatant rape threat, combined with how bluntly he delivered it. He clearly was serious about the idea. Quickly after that, however, a completely different idea chilled her to the core…

The body.

Shit! They were gonna find out she escaped. If they started checking the alleyways for their escapee, it was game over for her. Quickly, she looked around the alley for something, ANYTHING to defend herself with. Her eyes quickly revealed a whiskey bottle, already broken at the bottom. She swiped it up and stood ready, waiting for the inevitable hunt.

“Hey Slapshot! You mind letting me have a go at the--wait, WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!”

Homer’s head immediately snapped to the hotel, seeing his friend come sprinting out of the building towards him. “What the hell happened, Gash?!”, he said with a tinge of worry in his voice.

Gasher panted as he tried to spit out what he wanted to say. “Sla…Slapshot, he’s…he’s DEAD!”, he exclaimed. “His throat, it…fuck, it was like a damn WOLF tore his throat out.”

Homer growled in anger as he looked back at the building and grumbled, “So…little girl wants to play with the big boys, huh?” He then pat Gasher on the shoulder to stand him up and said in a commanding tone, “Look through the alleys on that side of the street. I’ll hit up this side in the meantime. Bitch couldn’t have gotten far.”

Adagio tensed and went further into the shadows. She knew that trying to make a break for it would be a death sentence, especially since the road was blocked off by some old buses. She noticed an alley with an old iron door leading to a staircase that was brightly lit, with a painted arrow pointing at it, but Homer guarded it closely. That arrow almost taunted her, as if daring her to try and make it to it.

“What are we gonna do about this, Miss Dazzle?”, the voice said in almost mock pensiveness. “Two hardened killers…one young woman…”, he mumbled, followed by a chuckle. He then said in a disturbingly joking tone, “Well, I can think of ONE solution that’ll make for a good scene, but they’d probably kill you in the afterglow.”

Adagio gave a quiet growl at this man. This was her guide through this shit, and here he was making jokes about making a sex scene with her? She could tell from a mile off that this was a grade-A, top shelf sicko in her ear, a perverted devil on her shoulder. To keep her mind off that and on the task of surviving, she thought of how she could get these jackasses split up and away from the door. Her gut kept repeatedly growling at her to just kill these two and be done with it. She vehemently denied it for a moment before recalling what the voice said, about their deeds. This made her a lot more…open to the idea. As she looked around, she saw that the alley ended in a dead end and was struck with a moment of inspiration. One last look at the patrols and she went to work.

She carefully walked up to the dead end and lifted her knee up high, keeping it there for a moment as she gathered herself. After a deep breath, she delivered a swift, hard kick to the wall.

“Huh? The flying fuck was that?”

Perfect. It seemed that Gasher took the bait. As she quickly moved back to the shadows near the entrance to the alley, she pressed her back against the wall, lying in wait for her prey. After a moment, Gasher poked his head around the wall and looked all around the alley. When he didn’t see anything, he brandished his knife and stepped in as he approached to where he believed the noise came from, his hand visibly shaking as he walked right past her.

“C-come out here and fight, y-y-you fuckin’ coward!”, he said, his voice shaking like an old bridge close to crumbling.

Adagio took her opportunity when he got to the dead end, positioning herself behind Gasher as she ran full force at his back. Just as he was turning around to investigate the weird sound behind him, she grabbed the back of his head and used her forward momentum to slam his head into the brick wall. His head bounced off it with a sickening crack, indicating something had been broken. This caused the gang member to stumble away, reeling from the impact. Adagio quickly closed the distance and drove the sharp end of the bottle into his inner thigh, the resulting blood gushing into the bottle and out the neck, staining her wrist and lower palm. From what little she knew of human anatomy, she believed she had severed a major artery with that strike. As he fell to his knees and clutched the wound, he could only let out a pained groan with the combination of the blood loss and head trauma. He looked up weakly before Adagio gave him a sneer and said, “Still want to have some fun with me, you bastard?” With that, after Gasher looked up weakly, she planted the bottle into the back of his neck and severed his spinal cord with a twist of it. This caused him to immediately slump to the ground dead.

As he breathed his last, Adagio couldn’t help but look at her bloodstained hands. She still had a slight gut reaction, but it had thankfully lessened. It was a good thing too, given who decided to show up.

“Well, well, well! Little rat crawled out of its shit to play, huh?!”

When she heard this, she immediately grabbed her victim’s butterfly knife and whirled around. At the end of the alley stood Homer, bat held in both hands like a massive battle-axe. They both stood there for a moment, staring each other down. The man with the bat chuckled, confident in his demeanor, as if he had already won. In an instant, he closed the distance between them and swung for her head. Adagio felt her body move independently of her as she dropped into a squat and the bat whiffed over her head. This gave her a burst of adrenaline that she channeled into a full sprint past her attacker, towards the iron door. As she hauled ass up the stairwell of the building, she could hear the door slam open again and Homer plod menacingly up the stairs.

When she got to the top, she saw a door with orange letters spray painted onto it that spelled out the word “ARENA”. Figuring she didn’t have any other choice, she rushed out of the door to reveal…the roof of the building.

Dammit. She looked around frantically for a way off the roof that wouldn’t kill her. She did see that there was a walkway to the next building over, seemingly built from scratch. That option was taken from her, sadly, because of it being raised up on the other side, like a drawbridge into a plague infested city. On the bottom of the walkway, painted in orange spray paint, was a single mocking sentence.

“Earn this, lady”

Adagio closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It seemed it was time to nut up and fight this bastard, face-to-face. As she turned around, she heard in her ear, “Now, don’t you worry, Dazzle. You can handle this prick, no question. Just stay on your toes and go for any opening you see.” He sounded weirdly focused, as though he were actually hoping that she was going to make it out of this.

Confused at the sudden change in demeanor, she slowly nodded her head and said, “Any last-minute advice, Mr. Director?”

With a hearty chuckle, he said, “Don’t be afraid to own your character. In their eyes, you are an evil bitch right out of any demonic folklore…use that. Maybe use some of that innate Siren charm to get in their heads, I dunno. Regardless, get him open and go for his wrists. He drops his bat, it’s good night Irene.” After what sounded like a stretch, he then sighed and said in a friendly tone, “Assuming you take my advice to heart and survive, the name’s Red Room. Sorry I forgot to introduce myself properly.”

Adagio looked around to try to find where the camera was that was watching her here. After finding none, she looked back at the door and nodded her head as she readied the butterfly knife, taking deep breaths to steady herself.

Shortly after that, the door was thrown open, revealing a winded and VERY pissed off Homer, fists balled tightly around his bat. He then began to slowly circle around the arena, Adagio doing the same in turn. They stared each other down for a good ten seconds before one of them spoke up.

“You have no idea how much I wanted you to get out.”, Homer said in an almost gleeful tone. He slapped the center of the bat against his palm three times for emphasis as he grinned at her. He then growled out, “Someone who’s even more of a piece of human garbage than me or the boys? Hot damn, that’s somethin’ to celebrate! I can beat your ass and feel like I’m doin’ a service to the community.”

Adagio thought for a moment before giving a smirk and saying, “Oh, so you’re gonna try to beat a young woman to death?” She then did a couple of basic tricks with the butterfly knife as she said with a raised brow, “What, is what your packing not feeling big enough, Mr. Big Strong Man?”

Homer growled and pointed his bat at her, yelling out, “You watch your FUCKIN’ mouth, girl!” He then gripped the handle and gave a few practice swings, saying in a deep growl, “I don’t gotta take shit from you. You are a worthless piece of shit who DESERVES everything I’m about to do to ya!”

Adagio then gave an evil grin and said in a mocking tone, “Oh I see now! So, it’s DADDY ISSUES huh? I get it. Sometimes, daddy just doesn’t love you enough.” She then gave a giggle, as if to punctuate the insult.

Homer decided that this was the last straw. With an enraged howl, he ran at Adagio swinging wildly.

Adagio immediately dipped under the swings and sunk the blade into his side. As he howled in pain, she immediately hopped back to avoid his retaliation. As he swung for her, eyes wide and wild as a rabid wolf, she turned her attention to his wrists. If she nicked those deep enough with the knife, there was no way he was fighting back. As she thought about this, she saw Homer go for her again. When he swung again, she decided to go bold and try to throw him off with a stab to the back of the ankle. In one swift motion, she reached around and stabbed at the back of his ankle…

And only went far enough to sink a bit of the blade into his ankle. She panicked. She didn’t know what to do. In a snap decision, she tried to go for his thigh next. Just before she could, she felt a pressure suddenly envelop her neck. Before she had time to process what had occurred, she was hoisted up and face to face with Homer, who by now had tossed aside the bat and was growling deeply.

Adagio gasped as he started to choke her. She knew damn well that she’d be dead if she didn’t do something. Her eyes darted around, looking for anything she could use to her advantage. When she couldn’t find any object, she did the next best thing: she delivered a boot to his jaw. This caused him to loosen his grip significantly, which she used to her advantage. She gripped his wrists and used her weight to toss him over her with her foot. In a matter of moments, he was tossed away from her…and sent hurtling over the edge of the roof.

“Ah, AH, AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”, was the last thing Adagio heard from her assailant before a sickening crack and squish cut him off.

Adagio quickly rolled over and crawled to the edge, peering carefully over. At the bottom was a fresh corpse with its head at a completely ninety-degree angle. From the break, blood flowed forth like some hellish river as his eyes stared vacantly up at the night sky.

After a second, Adagio suddenly heard a loud cackle. She flinched, looking around in fear before realizing that it was Red Room. She then relaxed and laid on her back for a moment, suddenly exhausted by all that had happened.

On the other end, there was the sound of repeated claps before Red Room laughed and said, “That was AMAZING baby! The ferocity. The ENERGY. THE CONFIDENCE! That shit rolled off you like water off a duck!!” He gave a holler and finished with, “Man, I KNEW that you were the right choice for this role! A combination of grace and brutality. I LOVE it!”

Adagio let a small chuckle at that. She never thought she’d be getting compliments on her ability to kill people. After short moment, she suddenly remembered something as she adopted a serious tone again. “So…there’s still one of my questions that you didn’t answer.”, she said, trying to subtly remind him.

There was a moment of silence before he said, “Ah, yes. Your sisters.” He then said in an even tone, “They’re fine, don’t worry. They’re all in the same situation you were, captured but safe for the time being. Damndest thing, I don’t know where they were taken. I kinda just let my boys run with their job.”

Adagio gave an angry expression and said in a growl, “How the hell do you not keep track of this sort of thing?”

Red Room immediately tried to calm her down. “Hey, hey, hey, babe. Breathe. I don’t know, but the GANGS have a general idea.”, he explained. He then shuffled a few papers and said, “See, these guys are trying to get you all gathered in the same place, so they can collect a bounty on your heads.” As if he knew damn well that she would react negatively, he said, “Now, hold on Miss Dazzle. It’s not a real bounty. Just…giving the antagonists some motivation, you know?” He continued with, “Anyway, there should be someone in the gang that knows about it. Just head on across this walkway and we’ll go from there.”

Adagio saw the walkway come down slowly. As it set down, she took a deep breath and stood up.

“Don’t worry…”, Red Room said in a calming voice. “Just do what I tell you, and I promise that you’ll see your sisters…before the night is out.”

Author's Note

Sorry for the odd formatting. I’ve been transferring all of this from a Word document and it’s been a bit wonky.