The Big Damn Fight

"We don't have to fight. I've got a plan."

Zaiza was confused by the blonde-haired flesh monkey. Just in case she had a good reason for being quiet, he responded with a low volume. “Why are you whispering?”

“People at home are watching.” she nodded up towards the drone.

Despite its primitive engineering, Zaiza recognized the purpose of the flying robot immediately. In the Multitech races camera drones were a common fixture. Zaiza felt a surge of confidence. He knew he was outclassed in this battle without his multitech, but at the very least he felt a little more himself in front of an audience.

“And what exactly is this pacifist plan of yours?” Snidely stressing the word pacifist, letting the girl know his thoughts on nonviolence. In his experience, pacifism rarely worked out well for the party practicing it.

Nova understood his concern, at the same time getting a greater insight to his character. “Let me rephrase that, We probably still have to fight, you and I just don’t have to be enemies.”

She gracefully maneuvered out of the body-lock, landing in front of the creature’s mechanical suit. She pushed the dragonoid towards the wall, and winked at him, relaxing the amount of force so he could make his move.

Zaiza understood what she was doing and engaged back in the fight performance. He threw a few uninspired throws her way which she bobbed around. She returned a few punches his way, barely making a dent in the scrap metal of the frame.

Nova no longer saw a need for whispering, “That amorphous blob... Margot, whatever it was, said it might kill as even if we win this bloodsport. And then we wound up here, in space, with cybernetic soldiers trying to murder all of us. We’re playing a game we don’t understand the rules to.”

The girl spoke the truth, as unfortunate as it might be. The few races he lost during his early career were not due to a lack of skill, but a significant misunderstanding of the course or his opponents, and he had resolved never to let a lack of information come between him and a victory again. He doubted he could trust a being who teleported a bunch of strangers to fight to the death to remain amicable and return him home, alive, even if he came out of this as the victor.

“If we work together, form a sort of alliance per-se, both of us stand a much better chance of getting out alive.” She leaned in for one last whispered message, “Instead of murdering each-other right here and now, we collaborate and focus on gathering intel.”

The whispering finally made sense to Zaiza, the girl was posturing to her audience. She clearly didn’t want to tarnish her reputation by having to murder people stuck in the same predicament as her, while streamed live for her people to see. He doubted that if his people were watching he would care enough to do the same, but then again, he’d never been filmed in a battle royale before. Suddenly, the girl stopped ‘fighting’ and extended her arm out toward him. “My name is Alex Albright.. Nova. Whichever you prefer, really. What do you say to being allies?”