Another sudden lurch and Catherine could tell the machine came to a sudden stop. It then moved slightly and opened up. She moved to step out of the pod and as soon as her feet touched solid ground the pod moved from underneath her, scooping the rest of her out of the pod and then flying off. Catherine stumbled forward, catching her balance before she took in her surroundings.

She was still on the lower layer of the Underbelly in what she assumed to be the center in front of a large concrete building. Standing in front were several armed guards clad in shabby run down armor, a female human in a black suit, and a large bald man standing at 2.1 meters tall wearing some sort of fur armor.

She stared at the man, he looked human but he was huge in comparison to the human guard besides him, not to mention his arms were thicker then them too.

Upon noticing her stare the man grinned “Welcome to my little city little lady!” The bald man said , then continued as he walked towards her “The Underbelly, home to my gang opposing the Organization and their tyrannical rule. My name Is Alexander, feel free to call me Alex, Al, or Boss if we make it that far.” He came right up to her, his body towering over hers.

Catherine’s eye twitched, something about this man annoyed her greatly and him towering over her didn’t help. She stood up straight, looking up to look him in the eye “well, nice to be here. Interesting place you have here.”

“Interesting? Hah! That is an understatement, no where in the universe would you find something like this, shoved into such a small corner.” He laughed, turning away from her and walking back towards the building “True, slums exist. People clinging to life as the people above them laugh, holding the power to squash them when ever they please, but this!” he raised his hands, motioning to all of the Underbelly “A place that is not a slum, but a stronghold that pushes back against the boot that is crushing it… no… this place is one of a kind.” He glanced over his shoulder, grinning from ear to ear the people around him clapping “wouldn’t you agree?”

Catherine’s eye twitched again “ah, yes, *ahem* what ever you say.” She said, clearing her throat and fighting the urge to leap at him. Just put up with it long enough to get out of here and back to the surface.

Alex turned towards her, giving her a quick look over “Hrm? I’d thought you’d readily agree that being one of a kind, unique! Was better? No matter. As leader of this place I am willing to hear your circumstances. I have been informed you escaped from prison? A mighty feat, few escape from that dimension without ending up like your companion.”

Another twitch, at this point Catherine froze the part of her face to avoid reacting. this guy knows something… or is acting like he does. “Yes. We did escape… do you know what is wrong with her? Can you cure her? She is supposed to be my-“

Alex held up a single finger “Yes of course we know what is wrong with her. And we are able to fix her no problem. When the organization has you hooked up to one of those machines, it provides the basic necessities to maintain your body.” He then chuckled to himself “but it also has a fail safe if you ever sneak out…” He then waved towards the women behind him, you stepped forward.

The women tapped the side of her glasses and a holographic screen appeared in front of her “An acute poison with a delayed reaction. If unauthorized release ever occurs the poison will take effect, next time the prisoner goes to sleep they will be locked in that state, until they eventually expire.” She then adjusted her glasses, the screen disappearing “The effects can be stopped by a reaction agent, something we have etiquette supply of.”

Alex nodded “Organization has a lot of bad habits, one I’m sure you picked up on is just *assuming* things go their way. Being locked in that pocket dimension they already assume you cannot get out unless you can fly, even then the exit is so far away from the structure inside good luck finding it. It also loops. With this in mind they assume if you do get free, you have to sleep eventually. Then all that’s left is… “ he brought his finger up into the air, then brought it down into his open palm and acted like it splattered everywhere.

Alex then pointed to Catherine “That means you either haven’t slept since you got you and your companion out, your immune to poison and slipped that by the Organization, or you were never in a machine to begin with.” He then crossed his arms and chuckled “And I’m willing to bet its either option two or three. “he then approached her “So, what was it?”

Catherine stared at him in silence, it was technically all three, but she also was never locked up. She was about to answer when she stopped herself, remembering what people have told her about being too open about what she could do. “Option three” she said.

“FUCK!” “DAMNIT!” “COME ON!” “Bullshit!”

Several of the armed guards behind Alexander started yelling, complaining, and voicing their complaints. Catherine glanced behind the large man to see that a few of them had even fallen to their knees and were shaking their fists upwards. Others looked happy, some even laughing at the others expense.

Alexander turned around “Hey! You are still in front of our guest! Complain about your losses afterwards!” he then turned his gaze to the now very smug looking secretary, he narrowed his eyes and she straightened up, adjusting her glasses. He then brought his attention back to Catherine and huffed “I’d ask you how you managed to sneak in there to get your companion out but let’s save that for later.”

Catherine shrugged, despite being surprised by the initial loud reactions she didn’t care “Sure, what ever, so what now?”

“for now?” Alexander grinned “For now let’s see if you have the ability for us to believe you managed such a feat.” He said, motioning for her to follow.

Catherine gave a small grin, by the sounds of it she was about to get some action, and by the looks of the people around her it was finally going to be her turn to push some people around. She could barely contain her excitement.

Now walking through the concrete halls, multiple guards following behind them, Alexander spoke “These are our glorious training grounds! Usually I wouldn’t meet with every new potential recruit but you my small cat friend, you have piked an interest of mine.” He said “we would also not be throwing you into the training grounds right away, but you seem to be the fighting type, and you broke out of prison. We always will welcome a new fighter among our ranks.”

Catherine followed silently, looking back to the entourage of guards following behind them, then bringing her gaze back to alexander and his secretary. They soon entered a large empty room, Alexander leading them to the center while the guards all gathered on one side and started talking amongst themselves. Catherine listened in, picking up that they were making bets again. Some very eager to make up money lost.

Upon noticing this Alex clicked his tongue “Fuckers starting without me…” he mumbled then turned to his secretary, bending down he whispered something in her ear. Once done she nodded and walked off to the group and started opposing order, while also seeming to tally up the bets.

“Well then, to start we do you have any qualms about fighting certain people? We have mages, knights, a few gunners but if you excuse us, we’d like to reserve ammo.” He said “Do you also need any gear? Forgive me but you are in…. well to put it nicely, rags.”

“No preferences, and I am fine.” She said, eager to start.

Alex raised an eyebrow “You sure? You fight unarmed then?”

Catherine just nodded “something like that.”

Alex shrugged “alright then, it should go without saying but no killing. Cutting off limbs is fine, but don’t go for any instant death crap. Heads are to remain intact; hearts are to remain in the chest. Got it?”

“got it, now come on, lets get on with it.”

“Oh ooooh? We got a cocky one boys!” Alex yelled, the guards on the sidelines cheering “Well in that case lets start off with a harder one, eh? Carlos! You are up!”

One of the guards pushed his way through the crowd that was now chanting his name, a few of them booing him, obviously those betting against him. Carlos made his way to the center, eyeing the cat beast men in front of him “… Shouldn’t we at least give her some leather armor?” he asked.

“I’m fine. Maybe worry more about yourself.” She hissed.

Carlos found himself unconsciously taking a step back, before shaking his head and drawing his sword “Fine then, don’t blame me if you lose a leg.”

Alex chuckled, taking a few steps back “Alright you bastards! First round! The little prison escapee vs Carlos!”

The crowd cheered, Catherine lowering herself to the ground. Her danger sense was not even reacting to this guy. A smile grew on her face, thinking it was a shame she couldn’t kill him, but remembering him take a step back made a shiver run down her spine.

Alexander rose a hand into the air “First one to surrender or being unable to continue loses! No killing! Get ready!”

Catherine remembered the past few events, the people that toyed with her, treated her like a bug on the wall, something that could be kept in on a leash and commanded what to do.

“set!”

That wasn’t her. It was time to remind herself that. To remind herself that she was supposed to be on top of the food chain. She glanced up at the armored man, wearing his shabby armor and holding a fancy sword, she could tell he was a bit hesitant to fight someone who looked like she did. A little cat girl in rags. she also got that feeling from the people on the sidelines. She chuckled, remembering the small figure of a little imp that could reduce her to nothing but a puddle writhing on the ground.

Let’s teach them how wrong they are.

“Set!”

Carlos gripped his sword tighter, facing his opponent he gritted his teeth. She was just an unarmed young girl, sure she was a beastman but even if she had better strength then the average human he still had a sword. While maybe not the best sword, a sharp object could easily cut through the flesh.

He inwardly sighed, he knew they had healers that could grow back a missing arm or two but if he did that to a girl he was sure his peers would not let him hear the end of it. Even with how stoic the girl had been so far just imagining that face on the ground, clutching a bleeding wound and crying….

He shook his head, readjusting the grip on his sword. Just have to knock her out, stick to kicks and the blunt attacks… if she’s a mage or has skills at least it wont look as bad having to actually use the sword… this fucking sucks. He couldn’t imagine what Boss was thinking, sure she escaped from the prison but it’s not like its impossible to just sneak out.

“FIGHT!”

The moment he was dreading happened, cheers broke out and he tightened his grip and readied himself for a spell or some sort of skill, but nothing came. He looked at the girl crouched down, figuring she was also waiting for him to make a move he braced himself, and moved forward with the intent to strike.

Or that’s how it should have been.

He could of sworn he should of taken a step to take a swing at the girl, but instead he found himself falling towards the ground. In his panic he tried to bring his feet to catch his balance but found he could not feel his feet. This increased his panic, and he let go of his sword and bring his hands up to catch himself. Only to find that, those too were not listening to him.

Without being able to comprehend what had happened, he fell to the ground and landed with a thud.

“Head intact, heart in chest, and still alive. Followed the rules to the letter.” A familiar female voice spoke he tried to move his body to see the person talking, but couldn’t.

“What did you say to me at the start of this? “don’t blame me if you lose a leg.” Well, I hope you think the same way about losing yours.”

The room was silent, only her voice echo’d in the arena “lose my…” Still struggling to understand the situation, Carlos kept trying to adjust his position on the floor, his vision eventually landing on an armored gauntlet that looked strikingly familiar “Is that…my…” he tried to move his arms, but couldn’t, a dull pain was now encroaching on his limbs.

A deeper panic started to overtake him, he gritted his teeth, forcing his torso to bend and using his shoulders to lift himself up his stump of an arm came into view. His vision blurred, his breath got caught in his throat.

“I’m just a young girl in rags, right? I should go easy on them, right?” the female voice spoke

Carlos moved towards it, losing his balance and landing on the now wet ground. Tears rolling down his face someone picked him up, it was the girl, smiling as if nothing was wrong “we learned a lesson here today? Yes?” she asked

Carlos looked at what he previously thought was just a little girl, but now he only saw a monster in the body of a girl. He nodded.

“Good, I remember how hard this lesson was for me, but now we all know it, Right?!” The monster yelled, turning towards the silent onlookers “RIGHT?!” She yelled again, seemingly satisfied when she saw a few heads nod.

Carlos was then heartlessly dropped to the floor where he landed with a loud thud on his back, the dull pain finally catching up and intensifying as the reality of his situation became fully realized. He opened his mouth to scream, but the pain was unbearable, causing his scream to catch in the back of his throat.

“So, Al, Do I win or what?”

He heard alexander clear his throat, and the last words he heard before passing out were “The winner! Prison escapee!” and the cheers that followed.