The Pit Fighter

Part Three: Fight to Survive

A funny thing happened as Obsidian continued to train. Workers at the Shamoon forge heard about Tiffany's training area, and wanting to see the popular pit fighter train, they spent their lunch breaks watching her and offering words of encouragement. Soon, word got out and the crowd grew, first the workers' families, then any fan who wanted to watch Tiffany Solomon, their local hero train with the legendary Sentients. When Obsidian ran from the forge back to the estate, the road was lined with crowds who shouted and cheered, offering her water and words of encouragement. Some even ran along with her, and more than once Tiffany was asked for an autograph or to pose for a picture. Never had she known this kind of support, Mitchell Crater had kept her from the crowds, she was not allowed to interact with fans except for the ones that could afford a backstage pass. Near the day of the fight Tiffany was truly realizing how many people here wanted her to win, and what she meant to the average person in her hometown.

Near the end of her training, Tiffany made her daily run from the forge, with Silver, Arrow and Jammer running beside her. While the three sentients weren't accustomed to performing for a crowd she loved it. She picked up a young Bedouin boy who ran alongside her, lifting the boy onto her shoulder, then a young Zulu girl. More of the kids along the path begged to be carried, and laughing Obsidian lifted a few more onto her broad shoulders as the crowd roared. Tiffany carried them and realized she hardly noticed the extra weight. . .she was growing stronger. Before Tiffany met the sentients, most of her workout was focussed on bodybuilding. Now that she was more focussed on cardio and endurance she wasn't wearing out like she usually would on a run like this. Toi beat Thorson Rock-Biter, Tiffany knew she would need endurance, it wasn't going to be like any other fight. She wasn't just warming up the crowds now, she was fighting for dominance, her freedom, her honor. Her new friends, were fighting with her.

As the group approached the Shamoon Estate they noticed another ship parked on the lawn next to the Sentients' troop carrier. A chrome ship with Scrapper markings that Arrow Recognized as a Scrapper Lancer. Most of the ones he was familiar with were patrol vessels or troop carriers but this one didn't seem to be armed and lacked military designations. Probably a civilian vessel, something Arrow didn't see a lot of during the war.

"Shit, looks like Jabbar's clients are here." Silver growled. "Better make ourselves scarce."

"They're just buisinessmen," Jammer said.

"He's right Silver, these are soldiers." Arrow said. "And if I'm reading the markings right, they're not even from a tribe that was attacking us."

"Still. . .we killed a lot of scrappers." Silver sneered. "What if they hold a grudge?"

"Then we'll make ourselves scarce, but I'm sure they're fine." Arrow said. "Scrappers aren't all bloodthirsty warriors."

Inside the Shamoon home, Arrow saw the unmistakable faces of two Scrappers. The space-based civilization had very distinctive characteristics that made the stick out in comparison to humans raised on land worlds. First all of them had dusty brown hair they kept shoulder-length and strait. Their skin looked tan and mottled from cosmic rays and they almost always had eye colors blood-red to more rose colored. Their arms, legs and fingers were just long enough to be noticed as different, and they wore the long silk scarves and synthetic leather jackets that were the traditional garb of scrappers regardless of gender. As always the two scrappers wore belts with emergency life-support systems even though they were on a planet with a stable atmosphere, as Arrow understood it Scrappers rarely removed their emergency life-support belts since they spent more of their lives on spaceships that were centuries old. As Arrow entered the two scrappers were sipping cups of thick turkish coffee and laughing at a joke Arrow had missed.