Oh god, why was he here?  He tried to contain the tremors in his fingers, but couldn't quite manage it.  This was insane.  Any of the people here could butcher him, much less the champion.  Hell, even the trembling Rat was probably more than his equal.  And yet somehow, through all of this, he realized he was grateful that the police never entered the Blight if they could help it.  They'd catch onto something like this within a minute, there was no subtlety involved.  And somehow, Jack felt grateful.

He took a deep breathe.  He needed a plan.  There was no way he was taking out the Champion on his own.  But as he desperately tried to find a blueprint for a weapon he couldn't seem to form anything usable.  Too many expensive components he just didn't have.  Carbon weave.  A platinum band in the shape of eternity.  Something called Unobtanium...  Nothing that could be fashioned from rotting wood and broken beer bottles (oh how he wished he could at least take one of those, but that probably wouldn't have worked anyways).

And then the time came.  He took a deep breath.  He let it out.  If he was going to do this, he decided, at least he was going to do it good.

His height seemed to fluctuate by about an inch with each step as he walked through the crowd.  The soles of his shoes kept expending out slightly as the pressure of his weight was lifted away, and then compressing at a slow pace as he brought them back down.  The damn spring locks were loose again.  He'd have to be careful not to put too much force on them or they might release without consulting him first.

"Hey high," he said aloud as he emerged from the crowd and wrapped his arm abound the Rat's shoulders.  "Have we met?  I could have sworn I knew you somewhere...

"I'm getting you out of this," he whispered to him through grit teeth.  "So make it look good, alright?

"Oh, I know!  Now I remember, how silly of me.  You sister owes me money!"

Suddenly Jack fell of his feet, his arm wrapped firmly around the Rat's shoulder.  His other arm came up and elbowed him in the chest in a move he could have sworn he saw on TV once, though for the life him he couldn't quite remember where.

He shook the daze from his eyes, and got to his feet.

"Wait, wait, wait!  How could I be so stupid?" he inserted his palm into his face as if coming to a singular bad conclusion.  "High school!  That's where I know this guy from!  I don't even think he has a sister, come to think of it.  Now how am I supposed to get my money!"

He seemed to think on it for a moment.  In reality he was thinking about how all of this was a really, really bad idea.

"Oh!  Wait.  I'm at the fights!  And I just knocked out the challenger!  That means I can probably drop the champ, steal his lunch money, And pay off the Russians!  This is a good plan.  I like this plan."

He walks up to the ring, and steps up.

"Alright Vin Diesel, I'm calling you out!  Come on.  You're Superman, I'm the nuclear bomb.  Let's go!"