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"Authoritatively: Hand over your weapons." The elcor at the end of the long table stared at Scarface and waited for him to put his rifle and pistol down. Scarface complied and, with a sneer, forked over a half-dozen knives.

An asari with a cigarette pinched in the corner of her mouth scanned him with her Omni-Tool and nodded at the elcor. "That's all of 'em." She packed the weapons into a crate and stacked it on a shelf behind the table. "These'll be returned after the fight. Well, if you still need 'em, that is." She nodded to her left and muttered around the cigarette, "Go on in."

Lia hung back with Chula, Quint, Dakka, and the two geth platforms as Scarface strode toward the square pit beyond the table. From the look of it, the pit might've once been a cargo bay or large storage room, but was now empty except for numerous old, dried blood stains on the floor and walls. The walls were just high enough to prevent the combatants from climbing out without the help of a ladder, which Scarface used to descend into the pit. He moved to one corner, clenched his fists, flexed his arms, and snarled.

Chula took off her hat and held it out to Lia. "Here, hold on to this for a few minutes, would you?"

"Sure."

"Thanks." Chula sauntered up to the elcor.

"Authoritatively: Hand over your weapons."

Chula reached under her duster, drew her two Phalanx hand cannons, and placed them on the table. She followed up with a sawed-off shotgun, a pair of Locust submachine guns, two swords, a serrated knife from a sheath strapped to each ankle, an assortment of incendiary, concussion, and frag grenades from her coat pockets, throwing stars, more knives of varying lengths and styles, an electro-truncheon, and a pair of knuckle dusters custom built for quarian hands.

Lia shook her head slowly. "Wow."

A full minute later, Chula was still pulling weapons from her pockets and placing them on the growing pile.

The elcor and the asari exchanged an awestruck glance. The elcor turned to look at the pile.

"With increasing horror: Holy fucking shit."

Dakka laughed and Quint grinned.

"I love seeing people's faces when she does that," Quint said.

Dakka barked out another laugh. "I just love seeing her do it."

"You two," Lia said. "You know, I can kind of see it happening."

"Wish Quint could."

He aimed a brief smile at Dakka. "I have to admit, the idea is kinda growing on me."

"Really? About goddamn time."

He shrugged. "I'm a little concerned about being flattened accidentally."

"Hey, I can be gentle. Hell, you can even be on top if you want."

Quint snickered. "Well, the other thing is...let's be honest, it'd probably be like dropping a thermal clip down a mine shaft."

"It's not the Grand Canyon." Dakka rolled her eyes, reached over and fondled his crotch. "Oh, yeah, you're packing enough. You can stop worrying now."

His face turned bright red.

Lia stared at them for a moment, turned her head and coughed, and walked over to lean on the rail that lined the pit. Scarface's crew stood on the opposite side, glaring across at her and the others. Spectators continued gathering around the pit, surrounding both groups.

"That's the last one," Chula said, placing an arm-length metal rod on the pile.

The asari stared at the pile, shook herself out of it, and scanned Chula. "She's clean." She waved her hand at the arena and started loading the weapons into a crate.

Chula waved at her crewmates, vaulted over the rail, did a sort of corkscrew-somersault in the air, and landed in a crouch in the center of the pit. She looked up slowly and held her opponent's gaze.

Scarface's sneer faltered.

Dakka rubbed her hands together. "Think he's starting to realize he fucked up." She activated her Omni-Tool and accessed the local network. "I know who I'm betting on."

"Accessing Omega network," Weyland intoned. "Seventy-nine percent of the bets are against Chula."

"I wonder how much of that is because they think our weak immune systems hobble us that much," Lia said, "and how much is because all of them simply hate quarians."

"I think at least a few of 'em might gain a little respect for you in the next few minutes." Quint entered a bet into his Omni-Tool.

"Percentage betting against Chula is now seventy-four," Weyland said. "Placing our wager in favor of Chula."

Yutani nodded. "Placing our wager in favor of Chula."

"I'd bet on her if I had any money," Lia said with a shrug. "I'm betting on her in spirit, though."

"Don't worry." Dakka clapped Lia's shoulder again, but much less forcefully this time. "When we land an actual gig, the standard fee is always divided equally among the crew, so you'll get your share. Also, any money you 'acquire' during each mission--taking it from bad guys who don't need it anymore, for example--is yours to keep."

"Ah. Good to know." Lia stood up a little straighter, feeling as if a slight amount of the weight on her had been lifted. If her owners really were that reasonable, maybe things were looking up, after all. She focused on Chula, who was standing casually where she'd landed, watching her opponent and waiting for him to make his move. "Now, if those guys don't cheat..."

"Here's how this works." Dakka leaned on the rail, putting her weight on her left foot and crossing her right ankle behind it. "The combatants aren't allowed to bring weapons into the arena, but if any of their buddies decide to throw an equalizer into the pit, well, hey, shit happens."

"So, Scarface's crew could just throw weapons to him and no one would stop it?"

"Yeah, but we can do the same for Chula. We'll wait and see what they do." Dakka glanced at her. "And in case they decide to start shooting because the fight isn't going in their favor, be ready to find some cover. Hide behind me, if you have to."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks." Lia took a slow breath and wrung her hands as she waited for the fight to start. Yeah. Definitely buy some guns at the first opportunity.

#

"So, are we gonna do this, or not?" Chula stood with her hands in her pockets as she watched a LOKI mech pull the ladder up, trapping her and Scarface in the pit. She turned back to the batarian and stared at him.

He glared back at her, baring his sharp teeth.

She planted her feet firmly, clenched her fists and raised her arms into a defensive position, and waited for him to make his first move.

After glaring for a moment longer, he launched at her, sprinting across the pit, snarling and cocking his right fist back just before reaching her.

She dodged to the right, raised her left leg, and rammed her knee into his face. His snarl turned into a howl and he flopped onto his back and skidded into the wall behind Chula.

"Yeah!" Dakka bellowed. "That fucked him up!"

Grinning, Chula backed away and returned to her defensive posture.

The crowd's volume level dropped a few notches as the onlookers took in what had just happened.

Scarface picked himself up, glared at her, and circled around her, keeping his distance for the moment.

She pivoted, keeping him in front of her. If he had any brains at all, he would approach her much more cautiously from now on.

He rubbed his hand over his face and growled. "Just for that, I'll make it even slower."

"Right. You're doing a hell of a job, so far."

"All I have to do is break your faceplate open and breathe on you." He smirked and lunged forward.

Rather than dodge him again, she did the last thing he expected--she charged straight at him. His jaw dropped and all four eyes popped open a split-second before her right fist connected with his chin and her left drove into his gut. She followed up by lifting her knee into his face the instant he doubled over, not giving him a chance to recover. His head snapped back and he staggered away from her.

She kept after him, landing a flurry of blows to his head and chest, pushing him back against the wall, and didn't let up, pummeling him to keep him from getting his hands on her. Finally, a solid uppercut drove his head upward and the back of his skull slammed into the wall with an audible crack. He slumped to the left and collapsed, hitting the floor like a sack of wet shit.

A line of text appeared in her heads-up display: You are being targeted by a sniper. The message ID was Yutani's.

Her heart lurched and she started dancing erratically from side to side, trying to make herself a harder target while pretending to wait for her opponent to get back on his feet. She flicked her eyes upward, trying to spot the sniper without being obvious about it.

She caught a glimpse of Yutani pushing through the crowd, heading for the group of batarians on the right. Just as she spotted a sniper rifle poking out from between two shoulders, Yutani disappeared into the crowd--and a split-second later, the rifle vanished, yanked backward.

The batarians turned abruptly, their expressions confused, and recoiled from what they saw.

The sniper slumped over, the rail catching under his armpits and holding his limp body up, his head hanging oddly, his neck clearly broken. Yutani stood behind him, holding his rifle, sweeping her optic slowly over the rest of Scarface's crew and arching one eyebrow-flap.

Chula laughed. The geth have my back. How fucked-up is that? She turned back to Scarface and waited for him to push himself up onto his hands and knees.

She strode up to him and kicked him in the gut, doubling him over again. She drove another kick into the side of his head, hitting him so hard that she almost fell over. He rolled onto his back, remaining conscious barely long enough to groan.

Chula kept watching him long enough to be sure he wouldn't be getting up any time soon, and took a few deep breaths. "Don't need an immune system to beat your ass, do I?"

Scarface groaned again, blinked and shook his head, and tried to sit up.

Uh...oh, shit. Chula sighed and snapped back into a defensive stance.

Something hit the floor near him with a plink. Chula flicked a glance to the left and spotted a huge knife that one of his crew had tossed into the pit.

"Knife coming your way," Dakka said over the comlink, and Chula looked up. An even larger, serrated dagger tumbled through the air toward her. She reached out and caught it just as Scarface picked up his knife and lurched to his feet.

Chula faced him, holding the dagger ready. Okay. This is where it gets interesting.

#

"Scumbags." Lia shook her head. "They have to cheat as soon as their leader starts losing."

"I've never met a batarian who played fair." Dakka shrugged. "But then, the only ones I've ever met were mercenaries, pirates, and slavers who ended up shooting at me." She smirked. "They're all dead now."

"Ah. Uh, right on." Note to self--stay on her good side. Lia braced her hands on the rail and focused on Chula and Scarface as they slashed at each other with their knives. "I hope she's as good as she made herself out to be."

"She is." Quint smiled and stuck his hands into his pockets, trying to appear casual, but he still looked worried. At least, if she hadn't misinterpreted his tense body language. "After she was nearly killed by those raiders, she made a habit of learning how to use every weapon she could get her hands on and every hand-to-hand technique she came across. She can handle herself."

"She's even taught me a few things," Dakka said. "She developed a fascination with human culture on her travels, and is learning several styles of human martial arts. She's been teaching me what she knows." She smiled. "I've found that I prefer it to the typical krogan roar-and-charge technique."

"Huh. Interesting. A shame I didn't learn some of that before I got stuck on the Citadel; there's a certain volus and a C-Sec officer I would've liked to beat the crap out of." Lia glanced at the other batarians and shook her head slowly in wonderment when she saw Yutani covering them with a geth pulse pistol in each hand, discouraging them from further interference. The confiscated sniper rifle was now hanging on the platform's back.

She returned her attention to the pit in time to see Scarface stagger backward, holding his free hand to his face, and let out an enraged scream.

Dakka laughed again. "If he survives this, his face will be sore for at least a month."

After shaking it off, Scarface snarled, cocked his hand back, and threw the knife at Chula. She tried to dodge it, but didn't move quite fast enough.

The handle struck her chest and bounced off, and the knife clattered to the floor.

Chula let out a sigh of relief.

Scarface stared at her. After a few seconds, both left eyes started twitching.

Chula snorted. "Dumbshit."

Sudden movement flitted through the corner of Lia's eye. She looked toward it and found the other batarians swarming Yutani, piling on it and trying to wrench the guns from its hands.

"Uh-oh," Quint muttered, activating his Omni-Tool.

Four batarians slipped past the struggling geth, jumped the rail, landed in the pit, and advanced on Chula.

On Quint's left, Weyland extended its left arm. Its Omni-Tool flared and a combat drone blipped into existence behind the batarians and zapped the nearest one, dropping him to his knees.

Dakka nudged Lia's shoulder. "Better find some cover." Staring into the pit, she rushed around the edge, pushing through the crowd to reach the batarians. One of them spotted her and whirled, raising a pistol toward her. She dropped him with a single punch to the face and kept going.

Yutani emerged momentarily from the mass of batarians, pointed its Omni-Tool into the pit, and launched a combat drone. The drone darted up behind the batarian on the right and zapped him off his feet.

She shook her head and looked around for something to take cover behind.

Dakka vaulted over the rail, plunged straight down, and landed on top of one of the batarians approaching Chula, crushing him to the floor with a series of truly nauseating crunches and snaps. She rolled and came up in a crouch, glancing around to locate more enemies.

The other batarians turned to face Dakka and the drone. As soon as Scarface's back was toward Chula, she lunged forward, clamped her left arm around his neck and yanked him off-balance. Her other hand came up with the dagger and plunged it into his chest. He screamed and his legs buckled.

Dakka charged the nearer of his cohorts, leaped and spun in the air, and drove a foot into his chest, sending him rocketing into the far wall hard enough to leave a dent when his body crumpled to the floor.

The third backed away from her, aimed his gun and fired. Dakka's shields flared up for the second it took her to reach him. She crashed her left arm down on his wrist and the gun fell from his hand. He yanked a knife from his belt and lashed out. Dakka blocked it and pulverized him with a rapid-fire series of punches and chops, then spun and smashed her arm across his chest, slamming him to the floor and leaving him coughing up blood.

The remaining batarian pushed himself up and was immediately knocked down by Yutani's drone. Dakka walked over to him, waited for him to get back onto his hands and knees, and kicked him in the ass, sending him reeling.

Lia shifted her attention back to the rest of Scarface's crew just as Yutani bashed two of their heads together and Weyland flung another over the rail.

Suddenly, the rest of the crowd surrounded the remaining batarians and the two platforms with weapons drawn, and everyone froze.

"That's enough!" a new voice shouted, and Lia turned to find the asari who'd taken the combatants' weapons striding toward the crowd. "It's over. The quarian won."

The batarians glared at her for a long moment and finally backed off. Weyland and Yutani watched them until they'd dispersed, then the two platforms lowered the ladder into the pit.

Both combat drones evaporated.

Chula squatted beside Scarface, who was still moaning and gurgling. She clapped him on the shoulder, jolting a louder cry from him, and pointed at the knife still buried in his chest. "You can keep that." She stood and walked away as if he'd already ceased to exist.

She and Dakka climbed the ladder. As soon as they reached the top, the asari looked Chula over and aimed a saucy smile at her.

Dakka checked her Omni-Tool and grinned. "Nice little payout we got from this."

"Fuckin' awesome," the asari said, still smiling. "After you get your weapons back, if you're interested, we could go someplace more private."

"Oh, are you saying what I think you're saying?" Chula cocked her head.

"Let me put it this way: Is your neuro-stim software up to date?"

"State of the art, software and hardware both."

Lia walked slowly over to them, suddenly remembering the outback hat she still held. She handed it back to Chula.

"Ah, thanks." Chula put the hat on, tilted at a rakish angle, and turned back to the asari. "Actually, my quarters on my ship are private. And quite...cozy."

"Sounds good. Lead the way."

"Holy shit," Lia muttered, "we're here for a couple hours and you've already got someone wanting to hump you?"

"Well, I'm no Captain Kirk, but sometimes I get lucky."

"Who?"

"I'll explain later." Chula laughed and patted Lia's arm. "Anyway, at least you got to experience the real thing, even if it did almost kill you. I mean, it couldn't have been all bad, given what you said when we met."

"Well, okay, yeah, once I decided to throw myself into it, some of it wasn't bad at all. Kind of weird, though; humans have too many fingers." Lia shrugged, then she crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her head. "Okay, I admit it, I came before he did. Twice."

Chula burst out laughing. "Atta girl!" She turned to the geth platforms. "Well, if you don't mind, I have a guest to entertain."

"Acknowledged," both platforms replied in unison.

Lia watched her and the asari walk back to the corridor leading to the Sulaco. She put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Wow."

"Yeah, no shit," Dakka grumbled. "I was pretty awesome, myself, but once again, no sexy time for the krogan chick."

"Well," Quint said, "I gotta admit, your Goomba Stomp was pretty sexy. And that flying, spinning kick thing you did was hotter than hell."

"Fuckin'-A, it was." Dakka grinned and rubbed her hands together. "So, your quarters or mine?"

"Uh, well, actually, our new crewmate probably wouldn't be comfortable if we leave her alone with two geth platforms."

"Always thinking up excuses." Dakka made a farting sound with her mouth. "Okay, fine. I do, however, reserve the right to grope you every now and then."

Quint mumbled something that sounded like, "Eheh." Then he shrugged. "Nothing I can't live with, I guess."

"Sweet." Dakka grinned and reached over to give his ass a lingering squeeze.

He blushed again.

Lia chuckled. "You two are adorable."

Dakka grinned, clasped her hands, and batted her eyelids. Quint snickered.

"Okay, let's see how much more trouble we can get into before we leave." He headed for one of the doors that led deeper into Omega.

"I'm guessing it won't take long," Lia said, staying close behind him and Dakka.

Dakka grinned. "It never does."