Jason entered the Arena not expecting much. If it was another Goblin or an Orc he was pretty sure that he could handle it without a problem now. His opponent hadn’t entered yet so he took the opportunity to look around. He hadn’t done so the last time he was here, being too upset and freaked out by the Goblin. This time however, he had plenty of time to take it all in. The floor was made of a material that was stiff and to walk on it was like walking on normal ground, but hit it with enough force and it acted like a pad. In the center there was a black circle about 3 meters across split into quarter by perpendicular red lines running from one entrance to the other and one side to the other. Outside of this black circle was a medium grey while edged by black. The Arena itself was shaped as an octagon with only 2 entrances. The walls of the arena went up about 4 meters before a transparent material created a dome presumably to protect the audience who were to sit in the seats that were above the walls. Several benches lined the this area stepped up to allow all to look down into the Arena, but if one couldn’t get a good enough view large monitors were place around that would display the fighters up close along with informations about each. When he looked into the audience seats he couldn’t see entrances into the area, but there must be one that he just couldn’t see, but what he did see were a few figures waving towards him.

Squinting his eyes, he made out that the one waving to him was Rina next to the Tik’rs sitting on the benches on one side of her. On the other side of her was a Sil`phane trying to hide herself from Jason’s eyes. He waved as he tried to figure out who it was. When she turned her head he saw just enough of her face to figure it out. The mysterious audience member was Mittana. Jason chuckled at her trying to hide. He wondered why she was trying to not be seen by him, but put it out of his head and made his way to the center of the Arena to wait for his opponent.

The opponent’s entrance had a red light above its door. It changed to blue as it opened. Jason prepared himself for anything, but what he got was another Human casually walking out started striding to the center seemingly without a care in the world. He had short dark crimson hair, so dark that if you didn’t know better you’d think it was black. On his head looked like white headphones. Jason wondered how he came across those. Strangely the man wore no top. He had what looked to be dog tags on, fingerless gloves, and black pants made of the ARMS material. On these pants he wore a red belt and chain hung off the belt loops on his left side. “Was this guy nuts? Why wouldn’t he wear a top,” Jason thought. He had a athletically muscular body that must have been hard to maintain on Debris, but there was no reason to show off. Jason had been too distracted with sizing up the man and his equipment that he had failed to look at his face. When he did he got a shock. It was his brother. He had a new scar on the left side of his face, but other than that it was the same brother than he had always known with the same annoyingly confident smile on his face.

Jason didn’t know how to react. He was here to fight, but he had never considered what he would do if he had to face someone he knew. He had no time to think this through however, his brother’s fist slammed into his jaw with a weight that felt heavier than the Orcs, sending him sprawling. He tried to regain his footing, but by the time he did he felt the blow of his brother’s opposing fist directly in the center of his mouth. Jason was dropped on his back, his head slammed against the floor. The floor gave him a little cushion, but it did nothing to really lessen the blow.

Blood dripped from his mouth. Jason rolled over to his chest and spit blood on the ground to clear it from his mouth. When he went to push himself to his feet his brother stomped down on his fingers. Jason pulled his hands in instantly, clutching them to his chest, on his side. He had only a moment to deal with the pain before he lost is wind from being kicked in the stomach. He curled into the fetal position, coughing, trying to get a grasp on the situation and find footing, both mentally and in this fight. Of course, his brother knew that he was trying to by time. He also knew how to deal with this situation. A kicked placed to the lower spine, exposed by Jason huddling into a ball. It took a few tries, but a kick finally landed in just the right spot to cause him to break his protective huddle by making Jason’s back reflexively tighten and tense, arching him body up into the air if he had been laying flat on his back. Before his back relaxed, Jason’s brother foot lit up. He pulled back and punted Jason’s stomach as if he were a football.

Jason flew across the Arena and slammed into the dome in front of the Rina. The force was enough that it appeared that he was stuck there for a second. Rina screamed and attempted to run to him. Mittana’s eyes were wide in excitement, watching Jason’s brother. She was seeing something that she hadn’t seen before. Never had she witnessed someone with such little ARMS equipment dominate someone with the standard compliment of ARMS body armor. Jason dropped to the ground with a splat, but the moment he found himself on the ground he moved to get to his feet, this time using his knuckles to stabilize himself. He finally found himself able to, but he was dizzy, unstable, and stumbled back leaning against the wall. His eyes were blurry, but through it he could see the fuzzy shape that he knew to be his brother rushing towards him.

He let his brother come to him. There was time for Jason to pull himself together. His brother’s gloves lit up blinding Jason that much more, but it didn’t matter. As his brother aimed to place another blow on his jaw, Jason dodged to the left, used his off hand to direct the fist away from him, and drew his sword, slashing his brother across the flat of his back. He retreated, keeping his blade leveled at his brother, stepping cautiously backwards. He still couldn’t see clearly, but he had to try to keep his brother from attacking him any more until he caught his breath.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Alex?” Jason shouted at his brother.

Alex turned and simply walked towards Jason calmly, “There’s nothing wrong with me. You’re smart. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t know the objective was to defeat who ever comes through that door. You came through the door so I’m going to kick your ass till you die, give up, or they say I win. One of them will happen sooner or later,” Alex said, reach above his head, linking his hands and stretching with a yawn. “You weren’t even supposed to be here. Maybe you really are trash. Now are you ready to go? You got your vision back yet?” Alex grinned, not showing the slightest bit pain from his wounded back. He dropped into a ready stance, put his guard up, and spread his legs to stabilize his stance.

Jason realized that he wasn’t fooling him. This shook him. He rushed at Alex forgetting any technique and slashed fiercely and repeatedly at his brother. Not a single attack landed. Alex dodged the blade without effort, looking for an opportunity. After a few strikes he found an opening. As the blade came down Alex’s right hand shot out and grabbed the sword by the blade and his left took Jason by the throat. He pulled the sword from Jason’s tight grip and his gloves began to glow again. Alex squeezed the swords blade and shattered it before tossing it away. The moment that Jason saw his sword break his left hand went to his dagger unsheathed directly into cutting Alex’s forearm, attempting to sever a muscle.Alex released Jason allowing him to once again retreat back.

Inexpertly, Jason exchanged blows Alex. Jason’s daggers made numerous cuts along Alex’s arms, but Alex delivered blow after blow to Jason face, arms, and body. Their force dropped with each successive cut that Jason made with his dagger, but Alex took most of the wounds to the back his arms, sapping them of their effectiveness. Soon Jason’s face was covered in blood and swelling. He had lose several teeth and almost certainly had a broken nose. Meanwhile, Alex’s arms and chest were covered in his own blood. Both had blurred vision and feeling light headed.

In the past Jason would never have thought that he could be beat his brother. Alex was an athlete. He was stronger, older, and there had numerous times that he would come home or sent home from school by teachers for having gotten into a fight with someone. Jason on the other hand had never had no interest in physical activity and if he saw a way to not get involved with fights, he’d take it. You’d think that this would let the two brothers live in peace, but how could they ever respect each other. Their outlooks on how to deal with things were completely opposed to each other. The more Alex confront Jason the more that Jason thought of him as a mindless brute that couldn’t control himself. The more Jason figured a way to avoid a fight with him, Alex felt that Jason was nothing more than a weasley coward with no spine and no character. Both sides their reasons for preferring the way they handled things and an objective person would likely say that neither were better or worse than the other. Neither were wrong, but neither were exactly right either. The problem with that line of thinking and believing that it had any ability to keep the brothers from completely seething at each other is that it fails to understand that society had already long ago decided the righteousness of Alex. Alex had friends, his parents loved him, and everywhere he went was praised. And all Jason ever got was pity and the fun experience of overhearing people talk to him. That only strengthened his conviction that people and ideas weren’t worth fighting for. They weren’t worth the hassle. Even they said they loved you. Even if they said that he had made the right decision, the reality was society proved that it had thought it was the wrong choice and it thought less of him for following the rules.

Jason thought he could win. He knew he could win. And he didn’t want to know what would be the consequences of if he didn’t. This time he would stand up and fight against his brother, he would help his friend, and he would show that the way he did things and the decisions he made were the right ones, not his lunatic brother’s brutish ways that lead to such savagery as slavery to begin with. Might didn’t make right, but sure as well would help Jason set things right this time. Justice was on his side so he lose. The world went instantly to black. He didn’t even see the knock-out blow. Set. Game. Match.