THE DEAD ZONE ~ Marhinki

.13

She stood there holding a baseball bat in her hand, and a gun holstered at her hip. She was waiting, she had been for hours. But she knew he would come. She knew that tonight would be the night that she would face him. And so she continued to wait, rolling the baseball bat between her hands. Tapping her nails on the metal of it and listening to the soft ring it emitted. 

She was highly aware of Wes circling the roof of the rundown building to her left. She could almost feel FLitz lurking in the shadows. And Lasercorn's presence was brought to her attention to the soft clicks of his lighter as he turned it on and off. And Sohinki was on her right. He was standing inside the building that laid there, watching her from his steady spot near the window. They were playing the waiting game, and Mari was prepared to play it all night. She was going to end this war tonight. She was going to end it tonight even if it killed her. 

The sound of footsteps brought her back to her present. She didn't turn, she just kept tapping the baseball bat. But whoever approached her had to know that she was listening. For the footsteps stopped and she could feel breath on her neck. She just kept tapping the bat, feeling him out, waiting to see if he would make the first move. And when he didn't say anything? When they continued to just stand there, too close together, she knew that she had complete control.

"So how are we going to do this?" Mari asked, finally turning to face the man she knew was standing behind her. She released the bat with one hand, letting the tip of it drag on the ground. "Are we going to do this old school?" She adjusted the bat, bringing the man's attention to it. "Or new school?" She dropped her gaze to the gun holstered at her waist. The man didn't follow her eyes, he kept his stare trained on her face. He was trying to intimidate her. He was refusing to look anywhere but her face and he was standing way to close for the same reasons he wore a tight T-shirt. He was trying to scare her. He was trying to prove that he was strong. But Mari knew that she was stronger, and she knew that she would win the second she laid eyes on him.

"Old school," He finally said, dropping his hand to her waist. He grabbed her gun, removing it from her holster and throwing it to the side. He was still way to close. She could smell his breath, but she did not step away. He finally took a step back, removing his own gun from it's place by his own waist, and throwing that too off to the side. Mari ignored the movement towards the newly discarded weapon, and ignored the person who holstered it. Sometimes it was nice to have resourceful people on your side. She barely watched as the man removed a knife from its place on his thigh. She shouldered her baseball bat, staring straight into the man's eyes.

She knew why he picked something so physical. He was much larger than her, and they both knew that if he managed to get his hands on her, she wouldn't stand a chance. But little did he know, that if he had chose a gun he might have stood a chance. Mari may be small, but she was quick. She didn't put years into ballet to be slow. She worked way to hard for this. There was no way she was losing.

"Rules?" Shayne asked, he was already getting into a ready stance. Mari cocked an eyebrow, before drawing her lips into a smirk.

"No guns." And she flew at him. 

It didn't take long for him to follow suit. He slashed at her frame once she was in his reach. He missed and Mari used this opportunity to slam her bat into his outstretched arm. He cried out in pain and made another desperate slash for her, only to have Mari duck under it and swing her bat around. She smashed it into the same arm and the Shayne cried out again, this time louder than before. As he was distracted she swung around again and struck more towards his shoulder. This time he didn't cry out, he only whipped his around around, managing to slash his knife across her face. 

Mari jumped back, blinking blood out of her eyes and curled her lips into a snarl. She charged again, dancing around his wild attempts to hit her again with his knife. She got lucky with a wild swing, this one crashing into his skull, snapping his head to the side and breaking his nose with a loud crack. Blood was dripping down both of their faces, but that only seemed to fuel the rage that both of them felt. Shayne charged first this time, and he got lucky. His blade caught her arm, tearing away the skin that resided there and releasing a flow of blood. She hissed in pain, and reached into her boot, snatching her knife that she had hidden there. She had wanted to do this with blunt force, but now she had to improvise. 

She tossed her bat to the side and dashed forward. She whirled around, kicking her leg up and delivering a kick to his side, before twisting again and sinking her knife into his side. She yanked it out, her muscles burning with the effort. And almost at once they both charged each other, with the intention to end it. But only one of the two had a real plan. 

He was aiming for her heart. She could see it in his eyes and so she charged at him, and this time, she didn't dodge out of the way.

She couldn't help but scream as his knife sunk into her chest, but he didn't even get the chance to scream as she drove her knife into his neck. And with that final effort, both fighters collapsed.