PROLOGUE: PART 1

"Bing, you're a genius, he's going to be playing in there. Let's run those tests again, don't want to see any more errors." Ella said, patting the back of the android she was walking with into the entrance of the warehouse.

Karma, the third member of the party came in slowly behind them, the hood of his sweater over his head and his hands in the pockets of his grey jeans. His face was not very visible under the hood, and what little of his flesh was visible was pale like no other.

"It's not showing any of those glitches we had last time. He should be calculating fine." Bing said, tapping away at the tablet he was holding as he walked, not paying any mind to his surroundings as he was running one last diagnostic on Karma's software. He had nearly been killed two weeks prior when there were some unexpected glitches. That was not something they were willing to let happen again.

"Yeah, that last headware update seemed to have fixed that huh?" Ella said, looking over his shoulder at what he was doing on the screen, trying to suppress the fidgeting she was doing with her hands and instead focusing on making her voice not shaky. What looked like interest was merely a front to hide her nervousness.

The warehouse looked abandoned by all means. It was old, run down, visually falling apart, decorated with rubble on the floor and broken glass from shattered windows and fluorescent tube light fixtures that line the ceiling in two rows. Only about three quarters of them were intact, and they did a very poor job of lighting the long corridor they were walking down. It smelled of mold and wet garbage, and the flickering of some of the lights that were soon to fail only played with Ella's senses, making it harder for her to focus on what Bing was doing. She heard the sound of glass shards crunching beneath their feet as they walked over them, a sound that made her wince and shudder. It was an irrational distaste for the sound, she couldn't explain it, but she was not enjoying that sensory stimulation on top of everything else.

What remained of the windows were covered in dust, and Ella had to give credit to the owners for making this place look worn down and abandoned. She was not a fan of the gangster dressed security guards outside which had let them in, even she thought they had the wrong place. However, the whole image did a great job of making sure no one unwanted showed up, and that the police wouldn't think twice to check the place out.

At the other end of the mock industrial warehouse was a set of elevator doors that seemed to open for them as they got close. Ella had figured it was a sensor, when she saw someone step out alongside three more security guards. It was a woman with long, braided dark hair and tattoos from her neck that flowed all the way down her arm, extending out even to her fingertips. She wore a navy-blue sleeveless blouse and long black pants.

"Good evening." she called to them as she walked over with her guards behind her.

Ella and Bing stopped, but Karma had walked past them and the woman. "Piss off." He said in an annoyed, monotone voice. There was zero hesitation, zero care. He only stopped when the guards lined up in front of him, blocking his way to the elevator. His hands never left his pockets, and he didn't even look up at them.

Ella and Bing watched the woman turn around to face Karma, they stood out of the way, not wanting to create a scene. "I'm here for you." The woman said.

"Not interested." Karma shot back.

The woman sighed. "I run this event."

Karma rolled his eyes under his hood. He turned around to face her too, not looking up at her either, or freeing his hands. "What do you want?"

"I want you to lose tonight's match." She said.

"Fuck off." Karma said. "You're asking me to die?"

"I'm asking you to yield." The woman corrected.

Ella just looked between the two as the back and forth carried out, Bing was still tapping away at his tablet, seemingly uninterested in it all.

"Yeah, and start from the bottom rung? Dying sounds better than that. Why the fuck would I do any of that?"

"We had a no show, unfortunately." She woman said. "Your opponent bailed; you're now fighting someone else. I had a lot of money on them, and now that you're here-"

"Don't care, not my problem. Gambling was your choice, don't make it my responsibility."

"You will be paid handsomely. More than you will for winning, and you will walk away with your life." She said, trying to make the deal sound worthwhile. Ella thought it was reasonable, if it were her, she would've taken it.

"If you're paying me, you lose money either way."

"Less money. Was a large bet." She explained. "Look, this isn't easy for me. I'm simply playing with the hand I've been dealt."

"And now you're dragging me into it. Fuck you, fuck off. If I lose, I lose. It won't be because I was paid off by some middle-aged bimbo." Hs said and turned for the elevators. The guards failed to stop him as he shoved them all aside. They were all twice his size. Karma was a tall, lanky, skinny boy. He was dangerously skinny, so much so it looked impossible that he was even walking, yet the three men were thrown aside with ease, one of them falling prone while the other two hit the walls with their backs. They got up and went to draw their weapons, but the woman lifted her hand and stopped them, and just watched him head for the elevator.

"One loss for more money that you've made so far? That's what I'm offering you here. With your skill you can easily get back-"

"Did you not hear him the first time?" Bing asked, still not looking up from his tablet.

Ella's eyes widened, not expecting an interjection from the android. Now she was fidgeting, not sure what to do as the woman and guards turned their attention on them. She watched Bing walking forward, finishing what he was doing before lowering the tablet and looking up at her. The light glistened off his artificial skin, his one blue eye seeming to shine as the other was dark, having been damaged long ago and never repaired. His hair was dark with yellow colouring at the tips, and he wore all black. In a moment of panic, Ella made her way to meet up with Karma, not wanting to be in the middle of the scene, which Bing had just dragged them into.

"Fucking business types." Bing said, shaking his head. The guards started to step forward, but the woman stopped him. She was taller than him, she was taller than Karma, the six inch heals she was wearing helped that quite a bit. She looked down at him as he came up close to her.

"He said no. Leave it. He's not doing this for the fame, or the show, and definitely doesn't do any of this to sooth your troubles. He does this for the money, and his status gives bigger payouts. Your short money gets him nowhere and you will leave it at that." Bing explained.

"I don't think you understand just how much I' offering here, Android. Four hundred fifty thousand!" She said.

A typical winning for Karma was a quarter of that. Ella looked over at him in the elevator, clearly tempted. He, however, was unwavering.

Bing shook his head again. "When he was four, he was taken by an organization that sought to turn him into a weapon. He endured twelve years of hell. His humanity, his rights, his life, all stripped from him as he was made to suffer. Constant tests, augmentations, operations. He endured the pain of it all. No anesthetic, no medicine, no treatment, no food. He was deployed to fight wars that weren't his and was classified as government property. His power is said to top the charts, and he means to keep it that way, so he'll never be used again. So don't try to change his mind, you can't convince him as shit. You know what he does to those he beats in the ring. Keep pushing him, and he'll do it to you too." He warned.

There was silence. The woman, unsure if she believed anything the android had just said, stepped back and nodded. "Very well." She knew that no matter what, she'd never convince them to do it anyway. Thus was the plight of gambling. "Can't win them all."

Bing rolled his eyes and stepped away, giving an exaggerated curtsy with outstretched arms before his body became statis and glitchy. He seemed to disappear and reappear rapidly around them, leaving after images all over the place. His body looked like an old television glitching as he seemed to wave and cut in and out. After a second, the after images stopped, and he was back to normal next to his friends in the elevator, all of them looking outwards as the doors closed.

"Best of luck, contestant number five." She said as she saw them off.

Ella and Bing both rolled their eyes just as the doors finished closing, and down they went.

Ella leaned against the Elevator wall and sighed in relief as she looked up at the ceiling and closer her eyes. "Thank god that's over." She said, decompressing. She was finally calming down now that they were out of that creepy corridor. She crossed her arms and looked back at Karma, "They didn't warn us of the change in opponent, you still wanna do this?"

Karma nodded. "We need the cash." He said simply.

Ella just nodded slowly. There was nothing else to say.

The elevator doors opened three hundred meters down. The air they were greeted with was already thicker, clearly artificial and recycled as it was dispersed throughout the facility from vents all over. It was harder to breathe, even harder to fight in, but they had grown used to it. It was just another aspect of the cruel way of their occupation, just another part they had to deal with, another hazard to overcome. Their ears were popping from the altitude change, and Ella took out a stick of gum form her pocket and tossed it in her mouth to help her ears pop.

They stepped out into a large open room that was in as good of condition as the corridor they had come in on, but this time there were wooden floorings, and an active bar further back. This room was crowded with people who were clearly high paying spectators, contestants and their teams, and staff. There was loud electronic music playing with powerful beats and heavy bass, and the people were all sitting and standing around, talking, drinking, some even dancing. Karma never liked noise and hadn't been expecting a party.

They were all the biggest venue in the area, they hadn't seen what was so special about it until the elevator doors had opened. None of the other venues had a foyer like this. Never were there parties before and in between fights, and he wasn't too sure how to navigate it. However, looking lost in such a place was not a good way to present oneself. He walked forward, his hands still in his pockets, his head down and covered by his hood. The other two followed behind him as they made there way through the room, ignoring the looks of the people they passed. Everyone was covered in scars, tattoos, piercings, and were the epitome of the people she did not want to see when walking alone at night.

They were all loud, rowdy, some of them cat called or shouted at her as she passed, but none of them seemed to do anything, and she ignored them as best she could. Most of them were drinking or smoking strange substances which filled the air of the enclosed room with rank smells that invaded her nostrils and made her feel queasy.

Ella was not nearly as calm as Karma or Bing, she had nothing to distract herself with, and she seemed to get more attention than the other two given the two large wings she had protruding from her back. One was made of beautiful white feathers that were impossible to miss, and the other was made of metal, with detailed metal feathers all laid on top of each other in layers. They were beautiful wings, and quite unexpected. It was not something anyone saw often, and her bird like timidness did not welcome the attention her mutation got her.

Eventually, Karma saw a set of feet on the floor in front of him, and a smaller set beside them. He stopped and looked up to a man who was about his height standing in front of him with a tablet, and a shorter, brown-haired girl beside him who looked around his age. She was innocent looking, though was obviously trying to hide it with the dark makeup, ripped jeans and leather jacket she was wearing. He could see through it, and knew she was the type who should have been far from where they were. It was painfully obvious in her fidgeting and lack of eye contact. She was more timid than Ella, and much worse at hiding it.

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"Name and business?" The man asked, not looking up from his tablet. He was a bald man with an unshaven face with tattoos on his arms. His eyes were dark, and his face looked grim and beaten. He looked much older than he sounded.

"Contestant number five. Here for my fight.:" Karma said.

The man slowly looked up at him. There was a pause, then he slowly pointed at the elevator. "Wait, did you just see-"

"Not interested in her bullshit, take me to my waiting room."

The man coughed, cleared his throat and looked back down at the tablet, tapping away at something. Karma had no idea what everyone was doing with them, and he sighed loudly as he waited.

"Right." He said, and then put his hand on the girl's back and brought her forward. "This is Avery, she will be looking after you guys tonight." He said, then turned on his heal and left them there. Karma was disappointed. He had seen better hosts at much cheaper, lower end venues.

Karma slowly looked over at the girl who was awkwardly standing before them, she hadn't said a word, and seemed to flinch a bit as she saw the red eyes and white hair that fell over his face under his hood.

She coughed. "Um, right," She said, "right this way." She said, turning and waving them to follow her.

Karma looked back at the others, who responded with shrugs before he led them after her.

Their waiting room was a small living space with a few couches and a love seat. A couple stairs at the doorway lead inside to the lowered floor, and despite the noise outside, it was rather quiet inside. The girl led them in, stepping aside to let them settle, and the trio fanned out as they stepped in. It wasn't much, there was a bathroom in the back, a coat rack by the door, and a table in the middle of the couches.

"I'll let you know when it's time. Would you guys like anything while you wait?"

"No." Karma replied, sitting down hard on one of the couches that faced the door. "But have some drinks prepared for after the fight."

The girl gave a slight smile. "You seem pretty sure you're going to win."

"If I don't." He replied, looking over to her. "I'm sure my friends will want a drink or two."

She was unable to make eye contact with him still. She was looking down, with one arm across her chest, grabbing the other, and she was fighting with her feet, twisting the palm of her foot into the hardwood floor. She was mostly taken back by his appearance. The pale skin, the white hair, the red eyes, and above all else, how thin he was. His face was so sunken in, he looked malnourished, like he hadn't eaten in weeks. His eyes looked tired, his breathing was heavy, no doubt from the thick, artificial air around them, and his face looked old, like it had seen a lot.

She just nodded at his request and headed for the door, stepping out and leaving the three of them in there alone.

It was quiet for a few seconds before Ella broke it. "I don't like this, something seems off." She said.

"Besides the hospitality, this place isn't too different from any other." Bing said, and then sat down on one of the other seats.

"This is different. I feel like we're dealing with a different kind of people here. I didn't know people gambled on this stuff."

"This is more organized. Probably a crime family at the head. It doesn't matter. We do what we have to do, get our cash, and get the hell out."

Ella sat on the arm rest of the love seat, her wings making it near impossible for her to sit on chairs or couches with backs. Her feathered wing tucked back quite well, but the metal one had a harder time with it, not being as flexible. They both still stuck out, and were routinely a hassle. Between shedding feathers, having to cut out backs from all her shirts, or wearing shirts with no backs, she could never part from them. They were heavy, and she had to lean forward when she stood and walked just to counter the weight. "You seem sure you'll win. Every time you go in there I-"

"The woman came to me sure that she would lose her money. Doesn't that tell you something?" Karma interrupted her, not interested in her worry. "She knows that if I don't yield, there's a good chance my opponent dies. If a gambler loses confidence, there's a reason why. If she thinks she may lose her money, then I'm feeling pretty good about this fight."

Ella brushed her hair out of her face, and tightened the red bow that most of her hair was tied back into, save for the side bangs that she left hanging which framed her face. Her hair was very blonde, and even tied up, it still landed mid way down her back. It was straight and silky, hair that came with no easy feat of maintaining. Out of the three of them, she was the only one that looked healthy, or normal.

"Maybe you should yield. If this is a crime family like you said they might be, defying them might not be the best idea. Last thing we want is another group chasing us. We've dealt with enough of that."

"She's right." Bing added, "we don't want to piss these people off if they're powerful."

"I wouldn't worry about that. They weren't powerful enough to stop us from fighting. You don't pay someone off when you can just dispose of them easily. Besides, when she loses this bet, I'm sure she'll have other problems."

When their time had come, the three found themselves walking down a long hallway toward the colosseum. They could hear the muffled noise of the hyping music and jeering crowd ahead, which got louder and louder the closer they got. As they walked, Ella and Bing just behind Karma on each of his flanks, the hallway seemed to morph from the run-down, beat-up warehouse they were in to a more, elegant look. Black lights enhanced the neon light strips that lined the walls and ceilings, and the old, broken wooden flooring transitioned into crystalline tiles that gleamed in the dark, neon colours with an amazing shine.

The lights created a beautiful pearlescent effect on the tiles as they walked though, different colours bouncing around the hallway all while the noise just got louder and louder. The effect was mesmerizing, the air around them seemed to change as a strange sense of excitement filled their bodies. Their stomachs churned, their breathing got heavy, there was anticipation, there was energy, and suddenly Karma felt more in his element.

The black lights also changed them. Once invisible details on them appeared in colour as they faded from obscurity. All of them had blacklight strips on their clothes that began to show colour, blacklight tattoos, once invisible on Karma's face, started to glow, all of them a light blue, almost white. There was a 002 on his cheek, and more designs and details around his face. Ella's hair ribbon glowed under the light, as did the makeup on her face which showed designs around her eyes and face with a bright orange. The top of her cybernetic wing, the mechanical arm that was the base of all the feathers glowed blue, and her metal feathers glowed two, a different colour for each layer of them. It created a gradient from light blue to dark purple. On one of the feathers at the wing's border, with a background of purple, was a glowing decal of a monarch butterfly, which stood out in contrast.

Bing had L.E.D strips in his black hoodie and pants that lit up highlights around his figure, creating lines up his sleeves, torso, and legs. His blue eye glowed, as did the yellow in his hair. On his flesh were white designs of bones, and a skull on his face. His clothes seemed to follow suit, with what looked to be ribs forming on his chest under the most intense of light.

Most people who fought in the rings had such looks, to be hidden under daylight, and only shown when in the ring or at night clubs where such things were encouraged and accepted. Karma had always thought it was nonsense but being in the scene meant he had to show face, he had to play the game and be part of its culture. Ella had wanted no tattoos, and accepted makeup and customizing her cybernetic wing. Bing, feeling no pain, and not caring otherwise, had no issue with any of it. Karma was much less decorated than his friends, but the pain of the tattoos was nothing compared to what he had endured in the past. He got enough to be acceptable, and no more.

The entrance ahead was covered by a set of translucent curtains. The spotlights trained on their stage shined through with a blinding white light, the beat of the heavy music and the cheers of the crowd only seemed to enhance their effect. They had never heard a crowd so loud, nor had they ever seen such a venue. They had only seen their entrance hallway, and that had already beaten everything else they had seen in appearance. Karma actually felt a bit of excitement as a strange weight seemed to fall upon him and he felt a little restless.

They walked through the curtain, a wave of light seemed to pulsate off them as they stepped through, a lightshow playing on them as if they were a screen. They were greeted by the full force of the crowd's fury as they saw Karma, the champion and one of the biggest fights in the scene enter their ring. The crowd had gone ballistic, standing, cheering, clapping. They were waving flags, posters, throwing ribbons and other colourful things. The energy of the room was insane, and the awesome power of it all had got him feeling more confident about the fight he was asked to lose. The easy fight, the fight that he clearly had the advantage over, that he would play to in order to get his winnings.

Bing and Ella fanned out to either side of the stage as Karma walked forward to the edge. They too were taking it all in. Ella was slowly turning and looking up at everything, taking in the massive crowd and all its glory before them. She stood there with her wings stretched out, her mouth open in shock. She had never seen anything like it. The whole colosseum was built of the same crystalline tiling, the same neon stripe and black lights, a light show shot ribbons and designs all over them, the floor, the walls, everything.

Bing registered something similar to surprise but was more noting how much bigger this venue was than anything they had been to before. There were thousands of people, tens of thousands. He wondered where they all came from, where and when they had all come in, and how something like that went unnoticed.

Looking up, the seats were in levels that went over twenty high, all over a dozen rows deep that circled the stadium. They were surrounded by cheering fans, in circular seating areas stacked on top of each other. The people on the top few rows had no way of seeing the actual stage from their angle but screens up top were hanging from the ceiling of the colosseum to stream everything happening below. The colosseum itself was easily a hundred and fifty meters tall from the very bottom of the fighting pit. It made sense why the elevator took them so low.

The fighting pit was a solid stone hole in the middle of it all. The only way down was to jump from the stage, one had to be able to land. It was entirely flat stone, the only way out was to be let up by people up top who cast down ladders for the victor. Once entering the pit, the only way one was getting out was if they were a winner. Of course, yielding was allowed, though frowned upon.

Yielding was the quickest way one could ruin their reputations. Some sort of hatred of cowardice that the people got railed up for. Settings like these were so high on energy, people forgot they were cheering for real people to be killed, the lives of the fighters didn't matter, so long as they won. Karma never liked places like these, or the people who did. A part of him felt like a tool again. Though not someone's weapon, he was someone's entertainment. A lot of someone's'. It was a fact that came with the work.

Karma was thinking about it all when he heard the crowd erupt again. He hadn't even registered as they died down a bit. He looked up across the pit to see his opponent enter as well. A man came through with his entourage, his arms up and cheering with the ground, roaring and yelling, taking it all in. Karma had expected something less, a more cautious look. He had figured the guy knew he was fighting in someone else's place, but realized he was not likely told about the bet, the odds, any of it. The man was living in blissful ignorance and knew everything would change within the first few minutes of the fight.

A sense of doubt seemed to fill him, something present in the back of his mind that made him wonder what if? What if he was strong? What if the odds weren't on Karmas side? Karma shook his head. No. That was impossible. It didn't make sense. It was a fight like every other, he had to enter it the same. The odds didn't matter. 'Just fight.' He told himself.

His opponent was a tall, bald, muscular man with light skin and a broad build. He was dressed as everyone else around, with black, leather, tattoos, the whole bit. After a while, everyone seemed to look the same to Karma. The crowd seemed to respond better to the man as he actively cheered with them and prompted responses from them, hyping them to be louder. Karma never gave the crowd anything to work with, they were irrelevant to him. Karma had no interest in the glory, the fame, the show, and he was sure that was why he never lost. He didn't waste time with distractions. He had one goal to focus on, and that was it. Win the fight, get paid.

From a platform on the side of the arena to Karma's left which was raised above the contestant stages came a large, burly man dressed like all the rest who wielded a microphone. There was a ring as he turned it on and tapped it a few times. The people seemed to quiet as he put it to his mouth.

"I would like to thank you all for coming tonight." He said, he had a heavy Russian accent and an aggressively deep voice. An effective voice for an announcer of such an event, however. "Tonight, is a big night. One that you all have been very excited for. Two crowd favourites with extraordinary powers come to town at long last. It will be an epic, a brutal, an unbelievable fight! To the death! Place your bets my friends! For only one of your favourites will be going home tonight..." He said, finishing in a mysterious tone that got the crowd rattled up once again.

"Coming in from my right, a man on a hot, yes, very hot winning streak with a very mysterious power we have never seen before. I know you have all been trying to figure it out for months now! I give you, SOLSTICE!" He shouted, pointing over at Karma who was unzipping and taking off his sweater, handing it to Ella who had walked over to grab it for him. The crowd exploded in cheers and energy as he was called. Karma paid them no mind as his hands went back into his pockets as he looked down into the ring before stepping off the edge of his stage and penciling down to the floor below.

He landed hard, lowering to a crouch, the ground beneath him cracked and shattered upon his impact, and a shockwave was sent up the colosseum to the very top. Everyone felt the force of it, and the gust of air it created. The people at the bottom were thrown off balance as hair, outfits, ribbons and anything else light enough to be taken by it was blown back.

The crowd went silent as it hit them in an instant. A second or two of mere silence before they erupted again, this time with more fury than ever before. To feel such force from his power was something that always got the crowd roaring. Though he didn't care for the show, a display of prowess usually brought more money in on the bets, and that had to be done before the fighting started, before all the bets were already placed.

Karma looked up toward the announcer as he stood, the man had let the crowd cheer for a while before he kept talking. "And on my right, coming back for his second round tonight, a true champion with the highest win rate in the county, I give you, RAMPAGE!"

Once again, the crowd went crazy. Karma didn't even see the man jump down as his attention was elsewhere. He only heard the impact and turned to see the man with chunks of rock coating his arms and legs as he looked up, stretched his limps out wide and curled his massive arms of rock into fists. He roared and bellowed the crowd, getting more and more cheers before he slammed the ground with his fists like a gorilla.

The crowd was loving his display, it was much more visual than Karmas. Karma straightened up and focused on the man. That was not a power he was expecting. He knew the fight was all going to be about physical prowess, strength, brute force. That was something Karma was well versed in. He only smirked and waited.

Bing was on his tablet back on the stage, looking over Karma's vitals and software. "Everything checks out, he should be good."

Ella nodded to him, then looked back down to Karma, she had a worried look on her face.

"ARE! YOU! READY?!" The announcer shouted and backed away from the stage, and a bell tolled.