"We're finally here...."
The Taitanzu Heads stood in awe of the stadium that the state had provided them with to host Brawlhalla. It was an open stadium with multiple gang banners and logos hanging all over the place, including Taitanzu's. In the middle of the stadium was a sand filled field and scattered here and there were blue sacks that had some odd things sticking out of them.
The stadium was already packed with spectators from wherever and in the VIP section, sat two girls. One was watching everything with interest while the other was barely awake.
"Today's the opening ceremony right? So what's going to happen?" Killer asked Boris who was--as usual--deep in thought.
"They should be introducing all the participating gangs and explaining the nature of this tournament to us"
Boris surveyed the other gangs that were already standing in the sandy field, the only gangs catching his eye being the Fort Lauderdale Warriors and Hades from Tampa, a gang that was famous for most of it's members being almost 25 years old.
All eyes in the stadium were caught by a man walking to the middle of the sandy field with a microphone in his hand.
"Welcome to the opening ceremony of Brawlhalla! I can see we've all been waiting for this for a long time now" Hangman spoke to the audience, making them run wild.
Killer couldn't place it but he was pretty sure he had seen that guy before.
"I'll be explaining the nature of this tournament to you all. Each of the 16 gangs will be put into brackets with 8 people on each side. The first two rounds which will be held today will be 15v15 with only one gang head allowed to fight. Two days later, the quarter-finals will be a 10v10 with one gang head and the semi-finals will be a 5v5 with two gang heads; Two days after that the finals will be a free for all between the two remaining gangs and the winner goes home with a cash prize of $15,000,000!" Hangman stopped to allow the cheers of the crowd and the motivated gangsters pour over him, a barely noticeable smile on his face.
He coughed into the mic and everyone went quiet. Like Boris, he had a certain commanding air to him that gave no room for disobedience.
"Like any other sport, there are rules this tournament has. Violating any of these rules will result in immediate disqualification and a fine. Luckily there are only two rules. No killing or attempting to kill and no use of weapons that weren't provided by us"
The crowd murmured restlessly. They were here to see the bloodshed and not hear about rules.
"If any other things come up I shall inform us all. Now....let the first round of Brawlhalla begin!"
Killer was excited about the tournament finally starting...but something was stopping him from reaching full satisfaction.
He couldn't see his sister anywhere.
**************************
"All worthless...the lot of them..." Amber yawned as she watched the first round of Brawlhalla from her hotel room.
The organizers of the tournament had made arrangements for the gang heads from outside cities and provided all manner of high class hotel rooms for them all.
Currently the first round was underway, a fight between Hades and the Fallen Angels from Orlando; two great gangs in their own right but nothing more than bedbugs in the sight of the 14 year old.
"I still can't believe we missed the opening ceremony because you woke up three hours late..." Joan grumbled from her spot on the floor, annoyance dripping off her tone.
"Oi it's not my fault! I saw a really important documentary last night and I had to watch it! It was about a filmed fight between two wolf packs in the forests of Britain!" Amber defended herself while stuffing her face with a handful of popcorn she had materialized from somewhere.
Joan sighed and watched the action going on the screen, the gang from Tampa eventually overpowering the Fallen Angels and advancing to the next round while the losers packed their bags and went home.
"Hades...the gang with mostly grown men as members. Not even ashamed of busting the asses of a bunch of teens. Pathetic but look like an interesting bunch..." Amber yawned again and spread herself on her queen sized bed.
"Please don't tell me you're about to fall asleep again. You woke up barely an hour ago!" Joan was starting to ramble like Casey. Sometimes the Fort Lauderdale Warriors' commander was an aggravating little shit ball of a human being.
"Just wake me up when that Taitanzu gang makes their appearance. I wanna see what they can do..."
Before the loyal deputy could even reply or protest in any way, the grey haired girl was already snoring lightly.
"Godamnit Alvarez...."
*****************************
"Looks like Taitanzu went straight into the 2nd round..." Sleeper rubbed her eyes and took a sip of the coffee she almost always carried around with her. Contrary to what her associates believed, the coffee did little to keep her awake and she only liked drinking it; otherwise it had no real purpose to her.
"Quite a surprise that they didn't put any gang Heads in the fight but still won the thing. In the span of 5 minutes too..." Freezy remarked with a sly smile on her face as she counted a fat wad of the ticket money that was nestled in her scarred palm.
"Despite the fact that including no commanders would increase their chances of losing he still sent them forward...that Boris seems like a real X-Factor to keep in mind for future matches..." Hangman deliberated as he looked at the replays of the day's matches.
"Fort Lauderdale also didn't include any of their gang Heads in their match and had no difficulty in winning. I'm pretty sure I and a few others can already tell what gangs are going to be at the finals...." The pink and blonde haired man lit a cigar and took a long drag.
"What really caught my eyes was the absence of Amber and The Last Resort. Many people expected them to make an appearance" Freezy said even though most of her attention was captivated by the money in front of her.
"Regardless. The first round of our tournament has gone by without a hitch..." Hangman pulled out a list of the Kiken'na 5 and smirked at it.
"Looks like we're one step closer to achieving our goal"