"I watched you fight on the vidscreen! You did fantastic!" she whispered into my ear.

Shrugging off the compliment I walked over to my locker. Opening up the door, I placed my arsenal into the container. When I was finished, the locker held my trusty shotgun, my railgun, and my golden spanner. Turning around, I saw Violet looking at the vidscreen.

I turned my gaze towards the vidscreen and wished I hadn't. Contender 11 was fighting some unlucky person. Horrified yet sickly fascinated, I watched as Contender 11 slammed the butt of his rocket launcer into the stomach of his opponent. Calmly, he pulled the trigger, launching a rocket through the now dead fighter. The rocket slammed into the other side of the arena, detonating. Contender 11 raised his bloodcovered fist into the air and the crowd roared. The image on the vidscreen was replaced with the current ladder standings. Interested, I peered closely at the rankings. With my win I had vaulted into 10th place and was scheduled to face Contender 2 in 7th place in four days. Contender 11 had successfully defended his title and was still in 1st place. Violet turned towards me and walked over.

"You want to grab some dinner?" she asked me.

"Sure. Let's go" I replied.

As we turned to walk out, Contender 11 strode in covered from head to toe in his opponent's blood. Brushing past me, he strode off into the fighter's area. Angrily I turned and yelled at him. Big mistake. Contender 11 whirled around to face me.

"You better watch yourself punk!" he snarled, drawing his shotgun.

Several officials quickly rushed towards us. One of them removed the shotgun from Contender 11's hand. As the officials rushed us apart, Contender 11 turned his head and shouted back to me.

"You better watch your ass, motherf**ker!"

It was the big day. I had steadily moved up the ladder rankings and today I became the 1 contender for the title. There was only one tiny problem. Contender 11 was the current title holder and the defending champ. It didn't help that we had had our little run in only a week earlier. Now it was the day of the match. Violet was with me and that probably wasn't a good thing. With my nerves in the state they were, anything set me off. Violet walked up to me and started massaging my shoulders.

"You're so tense!" she kidded me.

"Tell me something I don't know." I growled.

She stopped. I could tell without even turning around, that she was angry at me.

"Now why the hell are you doing this? I'm trying to help you and you're biting my head off for it!" she said angrily.

"WELL MAYBE I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!" I shouted back. Inside, I knew I was doing the wrong thing, that I was playing with fire and fire is dangerous.

Violet looked as if she had been slapped in the face. She opened her mouth and started to say something, but she stopped. Shooting an angry look my way, she stormed out of the fighter's area. Drained, I slumped back down to the bench. I slammed my head against my locker trying to knock some sense into my head. Then a deep chuckle reached my ears.

"Maybe she got sick of being the loser's girlfriend. She knows what a real man is and you aren't it!" Contender 11 said behind me.

I turned around and all the sense I had just knocked into my head flew back out. With a shout, I leaped at him. The look of surprise on his face mirrored my feelings inside. I slammed into him and tackled him to the ground. Then it was a pure melee and punches were flying. Rough hands jerked me off of Contender 11. I gave up struggling as one of the officials warned me to stop. Contender 11 got up, wiping his bleeding nose.

"You'll get yours you prick." he sneered at me.

The crowd was roaring but neither I nor Contender 11 heard them. We stared at each other murderously. The only thing on our minds were beating the living hell out of the other. I gripped my shotgun tighter as I heard the announcer call out his name. The crowd leapt up and cheered wildly. I scanned the crowd looking for Violet but couldn't see her. I planned on looking for her after the match and apologizing if I survived it. Then the whistle dashed my thoughts into fragments. Barely hopping, I charged towards Contender 11. For now, Contender 11 also had his shotgun out. Rushing towards each other, I bashed my shotgun into his side. The shotgun bounced off his body armor, leaving a dent. His shotgun came crashing down on my left hand and shots of pain lanced through my left arm. A cry squirmed its way from my mouth. Grinning, Contender 11 followed up by slamming the butt of his shotgun into my stomach. I doubled over in pain and quickly reversed direction as his boot slammed into my nose.

I was lifted off the ground by the kick and flung backwards. Blood gushed from my broken nose. The iron taste of it filled my mouth. Contender 11 casually pulled the trigger of his shotgun and two shots ripped through my leg. Screaming in pain, I reached down and clutched my leg. As Contender 11 confidently strode toward me, I stood up and squeezed the trigger. Contender 11 staggered back as they hit him in his ribs. A look of surprise crossed his face but was quickly replaced with annoyance. With a new look of determination, he pulled out his rocket launcher. Desperatly I looked around for a place to hide. Then I stopped. I wasn't going to hide like a coward and let him toy with me.

Quickly, I rolled to my left as a rocket blazed past me. I stood up and fired off another two rounds. Not pausing to see if they hit, I rolled to my right. The rocket exploded on the ground next to me. The concussion wave flung me into the air. Falling hard, I landed on my back. Contender 11 stood over me, his rocket launcer shoved painfully into my stomach.

"Now you will die, motherf**ker!" he roared.

With a suicidal move, I grabbed his launcher and yanked. Unaware, his launcher came out of his hands easily. It skidded to a halt several feet away. Contender 11 reached into his backpack and took out his crowbar. He walked menacingly at me, cutting the air with his crowbar. Stepping back, I narrowly dodged his vicious swing. He stabbed downwards at my feet and I jumped over it. Quickly, I squeezed off another two rounds. The first one ripped through his lleft ear and the second one grazed his cheek leaving a small canyon. He began circling me, feinting as if to attack. Slowly, he drove me back until my back was to the protection barrier. Sensing that a kill would be near, he swung the crowbar at me. I rolled to my left as I heard the crowbar slam into the barrier. Sparks flew from the barrier and with a cry of pain Contender 11 dropped his crowbar. Again, seizing my opportunity, I fired off the last rounds in my shotgun. They lodged themselves in his leg, slowing him to a walk. I jammed some more shells into my shotgun. Unaware, I didn't see that Contender 11 had retrieved his rocket launcer. While I was reloading I looked up and saw him standing in front of me.

I flew to the ground as he backhanded me with his rocket launcher. My shotgun flew out of my hands and landed several feet away from it. Contender 11 slammed his boot into my chest, driving the wind out of me. As I looked up at him, I smiled grimly. Contender 11 was a mess. His body armor was shattered with only tattered remnants left. Blood trickled from several wounds. I could see him favor one of his sides, probably broken ribs from my shells. One foot lay twisted under him. Even though I was about to die, I knew he wouldn't forget this fight for awhile.

"Goodbye, worm" he said as he spat in my face.

He pulled the trigger.

Waves of excruciating pain shot through me. I feared to see what my stomach looked like. I felt dizzy and little black dots danced through my vision. I knew I was losing a lot of blood and fast. Contender 11 had his back to me, his rocket launcher lying on the ground. His fist was in the air and he was waving to the crowd. I started to slowly crawl over to the rocket launcher. Every inch was painful. Looking down, I saw a giant hole where my stomach used to be. Blood trailed behind me as I moved. Then my fingers struck a hard object. Contender 11's rocket launcher was in my trembling hands. Over the crowd noise, he never heard me cock the launcher. Almost blacking out, I stood up. I reached out and tapped him on the shoulder. He whirled around, a look of horror on his face.

"Here's my gift to you" I said and pulled the trigger. The rocket blazed out and impacted squarely on his nose, blowing his head off. Fulfilling my last act, I dropped to the ground. Soothing blackness started to wrap me in it's warmth. Then I jerked back to painful reality as I heard a voice I thought I'd never hear again.

"NO!" Violet screamed as she ran towards me. Sobbing, she kneeled in front of me.

"Violet..." I tried to say but it came out as a low moan.

"I'm so sorry! I know you didn't mean what you said to me earlier!" Violet said, looking around for the medics.

"Oh ffs, where the hell are those medics?! EXCUSE ME, HE'S IN NEED OF MEDICAL ATTENTION OVER HERE!" she frantically screamed.

She turned back towards me and dissolved back into more tears. Helplessly, I felt myself falling into a deep black chasm. With the last of my rapidly fading vision I saw Violet looking at me with terror in her eyes. A flash of white cloth filled the corner of my eyes. I knew it was already too late for them to do any good.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. It's too late." I heard the medic say.


I'm sorry my lovely Violet. I didn't even want to fight. I fought to get money for us! And look I won, baby. You'll get the money that I would have gotten. I love you, my precious Violet. Please forgive me. And thinking that, I died.

[ATS]eon's comments: This is a short(semi) story I wrote based on TFC. It's loosely based of Gladiator(I have never actually seen the movie :) ) and mulch_dm. This is really my first attempt at using my writing "skillz" to do a TFC story. I liked how it turned out, but I'm interested in what you thought. Email me at eon@planetfortress.com and tell me what you thought!

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