[Center][h2] Naval Junkyard- Slateport City[/h2][/center] Rai was sure he had to have passed out on his feet. On moment, the roar of the crowds was buzzing in his ears, and the next he found himself roughly dropped into a leather backed seat in an office he never would have guessed existed within 100 miles of the Pit. For a moment, he wondered if the blows to his head weren’t making him hallucinate, though if they were, the [i]very[/i] attractive woman wasn’t a terrible change of pace. One eye was almost entirely swollen shut, but it didn’t stop Rai from following her every move with a half-dazed look on his face. It wasn’t until a young man near enough Rai’s own age climbed out from under Dicky’s desk with a self-satisfied smirk, did his attention pull back away from her. The level of familiarity in the room made Rai wonder, but he’d learned early on, those questions were better left unasked. Still, he was feeling dizzy and lightheaded, either from the blood loss or the almost certain concussion. He couldn’t help the half chuckle and drunken slur as he rolled his head to look back at Dicky with a raised eyebrow. [color=b3f7ad]“You know, If I’d have known you liked my performance [i]that[/i] much, I could have stayed and beat the shit out of more of your people.”[/color] Dicky didn’t seem to hear him though, as his escort brought a cigar to him and smoothly held it out to his lips to puff. It wasn’t until Dicky mentioned not only his name, but his mother’s, that Rai’s blood ran cold and dispersed the comfortable haze around him. A migraine stabbed at his temples, as his brain kicked into overdrive, trying to think of how Dicky had managed to come across that kind of information so quickly, when he spotted his bag and jacket laying in a haphazard pile in one corner of the room. His pokedex. No doubt they’d torn through his things and found it. He’d yet to actually introduce himself to anyone, so that was the most likely culprit and the only scenario he’d ever be able to talk his way out of. [color=b3f7ad]“Went through my shit, eh?[/color]” Rai jerked his head in the direction of his discarded things, [color=b3f7ad]“Dunno the Rai kid. I just jacked his ‘dex before I left the Region. Looked like me enough, I figured it wouldn’t set off the Rangers, ya’ know?”[/color] That was an easy enough story. Pokedex’s were reprogramed all the time, especially when someone needed to hop the next boat out of the region. With any luck, Dicky wouldn’t think twice about him doing the same. His mother had been notorious amongst the Rangers as a Pit Killer, damn near a boogeyman in her own right amongst the underground rings. It made his own name a liability. There were still far too many people even a decade later that would love nothing more than to tie him out in the Pit and flay him alive if they figured out his heritage. Dicky certainly seemed like the type. [color=b3f7ad]“I hope you destroyed that thing if it belonged to that toasted General’s brat.”[/color] Rai spat flippantly, sick through to his heart at his own words. That pokedex was one of the last things his mother had given him. It held the only pictures he still had of their family, one tucked just behind the screen cover as a reminder what he was doing all this for. [color=b3f7ad]“Thing was a piece of shit anyway. Look, if I’m straight with ya’ the name’s Rhode, lotta people in the Pit just called me Typhon though.”[/color] Rai stuck out a bloodied hand to Dicky and was entirely unsurprised when the stout man sat like a stature and didn’t budge an inch. He shrugged it off and stuck his hand back to his still bleeding scalp, trying to staunch the sluggish flow further. [color=b3f7ad]“I ain’t here to waste your time.”[/color] Rai huffed, mild annoyance disguising his own anxiety. [color=b3f7ad]“You’re gonna be down a fighter after tonight. That bitch is never getting back in the Pit. She’ll do it once, maybe, and you’d better bet on her opponent if she does. I know I made you money tonight, and I think the two of us can help each other out. I fight, I make you money, and you put me up and in touch with someone who can help me track down a couple of people who are in serious need of a personalized asskicking.”[/color] The cloud of smoke around Dicky seemed to make the entire room hazy and his already aching head hurt even worse. He was starting to get nauseous and didn’t trust himself to hold out much longer, before the paper-thin façade of bravado fell away to reveal just how awful he really felt. [color=b3f7ad]“Longer we sit here, the more I’m gonna just bleed all over your stuff.” [/color]Rai said, leveling a hard glare right back at the Pit Boss, [color=b3f7ad]"So are we going to do business, or not?”[/color]