A loud, robust voice sounded over the speakers all around, nearly drowning out the sound of the cheering audience "Oof, a clean hit on Marcus from Olaf! That one won't heal easy, folks!" Marcus felt the numbing pain on his left cheek, hurting, but feeling… tight at the same time. He could also feel a twinge in his gums, it would seem his tooth had been knocked out. "As annoying as he is, the guy's right. That won't heal easily." Marcus thought, having only a moment to think as his head was knocked to look upwards, forced to look at the bright, yellow lights above the arena, giving full view of him and his opponent. "I guess one of the lights is out, when did that happen?" In a fraction of the time any normal human would've needed to think, these thoughts raced through his mind, his neck only just then adjusting to start focusing his head forwards once more, as he contracted the muscles in his upper arms to get back into a better stance after that blow. The fight wasn't done yet. Not even close. His foe slowly came back into Marcus' view, the guy was taller, but only slightly, Marcus wagered. The man in front of him, Olaf, or at least, that's how D-Jae called him, was blonde, and had his hair bunched up in thick strands aside from the hair on his head. He also had some facial hair, but it didn't reach very far. Marcus thought about trying to really grow out a beard when he was younger, maybe he still could, but he decided not to. At least for the time being, anyway. His opponent was letting Marcus get back into position, not that he needed it, but it was appreciated by him, that is, if he wasn't just using that as a ploy to bait him out now or later, Marcus had to keep his guard up.
Marcus got back into an orthodox stance, his left foot forwards, and both fists to the sides of his chest, his left hand further than his right. Only now did Marcus realise that the numbness wasn't the primary feeling in the cheek that had just been hit by his opponent. It felt… cold, too cold. Quickly, Marcus retreated back just a step and used his left hand to swipe his cheek, to confirm what he thought: "Yep, ice. Pretty solid too. Guess the guy knows how to handle his Needle. Man, I just wanted to have an easy time for once…" In a swift motion, barely not too fast for the audience to even notice, Marcus stepped forward with his right foot, and followed that momentum with his right fist, landing it in his foe's unprotected gut. The announcer started speaking again, but Marcus didn't listen, the man in front of him was lowering his right hand, attempting to hit Marcus' with the bottom of his fist, probably to use some sort of technique to freeze Marcus or slow him down. He was fast, but not fast enough, Marcus retreating his own hand before his foe's reached it by turning his back, and following up with an uppercut from his left, Marcus' hand reaching past Olaf's raised fist like a surgeon's blade cutting past bones without a scratch. Olaf's head was raised upwards, like Marcus his own just seconds ago, though the moment felt like minutes to Marcus. His ears tuned back on to what D-Jae was saying, but he only caught the latter half of his sentence "-licious! What a one-two combo from Marcus!" He could talk fast, that one, he noticed the second hit and commented on it before Olaf even got the chance to recover. Marcus took this chance before Olaf had the ability to recover as well, landing one more punch with his right, then one more, alternating between hands, then another, and another, and another.
To the couple dozen people watching, Marcus' punches were less than a blur, not any individual strike, or its motion, being distinguishable from the others. Olaf felt hit after hit, all on his torso, all at a different place. Though nobody but Marcus could see, though, every spot was chosen particularly because it hadn't been hit yet by Marcus, every part on Olaf's body that had been stricken by Marcus' punches immediately red afterwards, Marcus couldn't describe it, he simply observed the heat on each spot, though he knew it wasn't actually red, the hits hadn't had the time to bruise yet. Just as the spots, Marcus' arms became redder and redder as they turned faster. After every part of Olaf's body had been covered in the red Marcus saw, he stopped, about one and a half seconds after Olaf took his uppercut.
For just a moment… the crowd went silent. Olaf stood, his head raised still, his body still completely. Gravity quickly did its task, however. Olaf fell backwards, it lasted for not even a second, yet for Marcus it felt like the fall could've spanned an eternity before the tough body hit the rubber, sending a small vibration throughout the ring that the victor, still standing, could feel move past the bottom of his feet. The crowd erupted in cheers, boos, and everything in between. "And that's why this newcomer has been the recent crowd favourite, people! Marcus has won by knock-out! Icy Olaf is out cold!" D-Jae could be heard through the crowd, but not too clearly. Marcus looked over the fallen Olaf, his hands and the tape around them burning up, but then again, his whole body felt red hot. He heard the clanging behind him he had grown familiar with these past few weeks, and turned around to see the metal bars previously closed behind him raised. Marcus didn't feel like basking in the glory of the crowd, and so simply walked forwards, leaving the flaxen lights behind, into the dark hallway. "Guess the lights must be out here too. Cheap fuckin' pit." The exhausted young man thought to himself. Though, he couldn't help but feel attached to the place, even with its flaws. He unwrapped the tape around his arms, and looked at it, singed, like usual. Seeing little point in keeping it around, he simply dropped it from his hands, it was someone else's problem now. Besides, he saw the more accommodating white lights from the changing room coming up, the light sneaking through the crevice underneath the door and lighting up the wooden floor in front of the doorway a bit.
Marcus reached the door, opening it as he walked through, not closing the door after passing through. In front of him, like always, was the changing room. It was small, just a bench and some lockers with mirrors on them, but big enough to fit 2, maybe 3 people somewhat comfortably. And, like always, on the metal bench was a vest, and a tan guy that would always look at his phone, was a bit short, and had an overconfident voice that was saying how "I was right, dude! Told ya you could handle him with just one shot." The voice belonged to Marcus' 'friend', Zorro. "Yeah, I guess you were right, again." Marcus turned away from his pal, to take a look at himself in the mirror, stretching his mouth open to get a good look at the tooth that was, indeed, now missing from his mouth. "I'm hoping it's also gonna be enough to heal this still." Looking at Zorro through the mirror, he continues "I'd hate to have to take another shot tonight." The man in the mirror stood up from his bench and put his phone and right hand in his pocket. "I'd just wait it out til' next week if I was you. Efficiency and all." Marcus opened the locker in front of him by entering a number combination on it that he made sure the guy next to him couldn't see, and took a shirt out, having been shirtless this whole time. "Maybe. Would be a pain eating like that for a week, though." He pulled the red shirt over his head, revealing the logo of the shirt's designer on it. He winced a little while putting it on, the fabric moving over a sore spot from the fight earlier, then stuck his left hand out towards the man with him expectedly "Could you hand that to me?" The man handed him the black vest that was lying haphazardly on the bench, which was promptly put on by Marcus, taking his phone out from its pocket afterwards, turned it on, and saw that it was automatically blocked because someone entered too many wrong passwords. He glared at Zorro disappointingly for a moment, who avoided his glance by staring at his own phone, again. Whether he did that because he legitimately meant to do something on his own phone or just because he knew what was waiting for him, Marcus didn't know. Marcus shook his head, mostly to himself, and sighed "Let's just get out of here." To this, Zorro perked and looked up immediately "Luce', you wanna head to Ronny's?" Marcus looked at his mate quickly, then looked back almost immediately afterwards "Yeah, sure, whatever." The two walked out of the changing room, the door connecting to the rest of the bar, Marcus went through first, Zorro second, and closed the door behind him, though from this side it looked less like a door, and more like it was part of the wooden wall inside the bar, right next to the bar counter. "You won?" The man behind the bar asked Marcus, probably because he already came back out, and didn't look very hurt. "Yeah. I won." The bartender, Crowley, snickered a bit "Good on ye."
The duo didn't waste any time inside the bar's main area, and walked out of the bar's sliding doorway, out on the street. It was dark out, not that it surprised them, it was dark when they got there. The fight started at 11, so it must've been around 15 minutes past 11 now, the two wagered. The street lights were on, providing some light around them, but the moon was out tonight, so that helped as well, along with the lights of various buildings around. Lights from homes, businesses still running, and advertisements at various places and heights around them, made the street not very dark at all. Sometimes, Marcus thought, that it was brighter during the night than the day, or at least, it felt like that to him some days, or nights, rather. The street itself was not empty, but it wasn't full either. There were still plenty of people out and about, especially in this part of town, but not so much that the streets were crowded either. Every few seconds you'd see someone, or, more often, a small group of people walking past. Like them, Marcus and Zorro were now a group walking down the street.
"Mister Liberté?" The two had taken maybe two steps out the door, to the right of the bar, when the voice was heard to their own right, from a man against the wall of the bar they had been in just now. Marcus looked at the origin of the voice somewhat suspiciously, but also just a bit curiously. "What? Who are you" He faced a man in complete black, his hat covering his head and face from view because of the angle he had his neck, looking down at the ground in front of him, probably. The mystery man's face would not be concealed for long, however, as he looked up towards the man he had addressed. His skin was pale, but not to a strange degree. He was also wearing glasses, partially covering up his caribbean blue eyes. He had a smug look, grinning at Marcus, somewhat revealing his teeth to the younger man in front of him. "I've been waiting for you for a little while now." Marcus, still unaware of who this man was or what he wanted with him, just looked at him, without saying a word, seemingly expecting the man to continue, and so he did. "My name is Zach, I'm a detective with the Conatio City Police Department." Marcus had no response still, prompting the man to continue "There's a crime I'm investigating that I believe you are connected to."
Marcus took a step back "I haven't done anything, so why are you coming after me, then?" The moment Marcus started his sentence however, the man already began rolling his eyes and looking away while Marcus was stating his case "Listen, I'm not investigating anything you've done. I'm here to ask you for information regarding the case, because, as I said, I have reason to believe you're connected to the perpetrators." Marcus just thought to himself what crime he could be connected to, aside from the obvious one that he was inside of not five minutes ago, then came to the most logical conclusion as he started turning his head backward to look at the sly bastard "What the hell did you get me into this…" But, behind him, there was nobody, in fact there was nobody near him at all except for this detective "...time." Confused, Marcus asked the man in front of him "Do you know where the guy I was just with went?" To this, the detective actually became confused himself "You were with him? I thought you just walked out the door simultaneously. He turned around basically the moment you two turned this way and he went the exact other way." "Well, shit." Marcus thought to himself, the bastard must've gotten an idea from what was in for him, though, Marcus realised, from what the detective said, it seemed unlikely the knew one another, so how Zorro recognised the man, Marcus didn't know, yet another mystery with his old pal at the centre of it, it seems.
"You know what, fine, I'll bite. What crime are you investigating, then?" To this, the detective's smug grin returned "I'm glad you've decided to cooperate, mister Liberté." Marcus' face contorted to this, turning but facing the detective still "I didn't say I would cooperate." The detective turned his head to the right, similarly to earlier, but this time, he sighed, and stayed out of eye contact with the man he was in conversation with for a moment, before turning back and looking him in the eyes directly. "Look, according to the Legislation Of The Council 044 from the meeting in 2030, I, as an investigative member of the police force, may implore the assistance of civilians in aiding the investigation of a crime, whether they be witnesses to the crime or not. If you don't comply, I can have you arrested for obstruction of justice." He then looked at the bar for a moment, eyeing it up and down, then made eye contact once more without turning his head, just the shifting of his eyes "Among other things." Marcus closed his eyes and breathed in, so as to remain as calm as possible, thinking something along the lines of "Why did this have to happen to me…" Then opened them again, looking at the detective. "Alright, yeah, I'll help. So, you want my number or something?" At this point, Marcus had a very tired look on him, because he was tired, not exhausted, not sleepy, but tired of this bullshit. In contrast, the man in front of him seemed as energetic as ever "Perhaps later. Would you mind going on a bit of a walk with me, mister Liberté?" "At this point, I may as well." "Great!" Only now did the man stop leaning against the wall, standing up right truly, and he began walking the same direction Marcus was planning to regardless, Marcus following behind him, but close enough for the two to converse without having to put too much effort into making themselves audible for the other. The detective spoke up first after they had taken a few steps. "You asked me what the crime I was looking into was, yes?" Marcus shrugged a bit, aware but not really caring that the man couldn't see him "I guess." "Let me ask you something first." Marcus raised his brow, feeling a little disrespected that his question was answered with another question, but his curiosity was piqued nonetheless "Do you read, or watch, the news often, mister Liberté" Marcus chuckled a little "What, is the news run by lizard people or something, is that the kinda detective you are?" The detective actually chuckled a bit at this "No, no, that's not what I meant, mister Liberté. I mean what is on the news, the case was actually on the front page of several presses today, it's getting a lot of media coverage." Marcus thought for a moment if he happened to get a glimpse of the news today or yesterday, or if anyone had mentioned anything that may be on the news, but… "I don't really read or watch the news." The detective responded in the same tone "Well, that's quite alright, I can fill you in."
At this point, the two had walked past Marcus' original location, the Ronny's on the street getting further and further away, the two leaving it behind, the rate at which increased as the detective took a right, then walking to a pedestrian crossing, where they had to wait at a red light while cars were passing through. It wasn't a very important street, or area, even, so the traffic wasn't a lot, especially not at this time of day. "I assume you've heard of the Naturheim company?" Naturheim… Marcus didn't know them too well, but he knew of the rumours, that they were not all they pretended to be, not even close. "I don't know much about it, but… yeah, I guess." At this point, the light had turned green, the protected screen panel having the lowest of its three circles glowing, as the two crossed the street. Marcus knew that if he was walking with Zorro right now, he would've crossed the street in between the cars… and somehow get away with it without a scratch every single time. Marcus didn't go this way often, usually he didn't go to this part of the city on foot, after all, well, the part they were headed towards, anyway. "Basically, they're a research and pharmaceutical company, with a large focus on the environment, hence the name." The detective paused for a moment, then seemed to think to himself "I think it meant something like 'Natural' in the family's native language" "The family's?" The detective exited again from his minor, trance-like state "Yeah, the company's run by a very old, and very rich, family, it's been one long line of successors, from parent to child." The detective turned around a little, facing the man walking with him, but having to walk sideways to do this, though the detective appeared to do it flawlessly. "Anyway, there was a shipment that they had escorted into the city, it came here by truck" The detective faced forward again seamlessly "Or, I should specify, it would've come here by truck, had it not been intercepted less than 10 kilometres away from the city borders." Marcus immediately had his suspicions about this, with what he had heard of the company. "What was the shipment then?" "The actual goods of the delivery were…" At this point, they had once more reached a pedestrian crossing, once more red, on the other side more of the street and the Eastern Central Park of the city. The detective leaned against the pole of the red light, naturally facing Marcus this way. "...conveniently left out." Marcus rolled his eyes, to this, mostly to himself. "Right."
After crossing the street, the two went through the small metal gate, entering the currently desolate park. "Isn't it illegal to be here at this time of day?" Marcus asked before going in. "Not if you're part of the force" as the detective went through the gate, and continued walking for a little before noticing his footsteps were the only ones he heard, he turned around, to see Marcus standing in front of the gate still. "Or if you're with a member of the force." Marcus then followed.
"Wait, Naturheim's a pretty big company isn't it?" Marcus asked the detective, who was still walking in front of him. Where to, Marcus didn't know. "Yeah, so?" The man in front of him asked and answered.
"Well, who in their right mind would try to steal from such a big company? And, how the hell did they pull it off?" The detective then stopped, having reached the fountain to the South-East side of the park, and sat down on one of the metal benches. The bench was easy to see, but not because of the city's light, rather, the moonlight revealed it, as well as electrical lanterns spread around the park. "Well, who exactly it was is what I'm trying to figure out." He tapped on a spot beside him on the bench "That's why I'm talking to you right now." Marcus sat down, somewhat hesitantly, but so far the detective seemed to be at least a bit trustworthy. More trustworthy than the guy he spent nearly every other day with, anyway. "And as for the how, it was actually pretty well executed for what seems like a small group of assailants." The detective explained "They seemed to have some hacker divert one of the two escort vans, specifically the back one, which would be harder to notice, they then came in, forced the truck to slow down and eventually stop under gunpoint, crashed the escort van in the front by overriding the AI driving it, and finally opened up and emptied whatever was in the trailers of the shipment." He continued, "In the end they got away, with what the victims described to be a weird stealth chopper…"