"whats worth the prize is always worth the fight."-Nickleback


"I don't know why I even let you talk me into this, you know I hate these kinds of things," the all black clad teen looked around nervously as he walked past a stand selling cotton candy and other kinds of sweet treats. "c'mon, you never get out enough, and besides, I wanted to go!" "Well, if you wanted to go so bad, why didn't you go by yourself?" "No one ever goes to these things alone; if I did I'd look like a lonely boyfriend less loser." "Well, that's what you are now, isn't it?" the young teenage girl threw her hands on her hips and looked at her "boyfriend" in an aggressive manner. "Hey, that's not nice!" "I don't really care, you drug me out of the comfort of my air conditioned house, a marathon of code Geas, and all the Pepsi I could drink, to go to this dumb county fair thing. I'd say you're a loser. Oh and one more thing, I'm NOT your boyfriend." black started walking away from the overpowering smell of funnel cake, but was caught by his left arm. He turned to find the girl he had just been standing next to, grabbing his arm in a very hard manner. "Please don't leave, I need a friend!" "No, let go of me." "Please!" "I said no crazy girl, now let me go." "Please please please please!!!" "Ugh, no! Get it through your thick skull you fucking idiot!!" the girl stopped clamoring for her friends love and her eyes welled up into tears, but she didn't cry. At this point people had stopped and started starring at him and his "girl". He quickly looked around seeing that all of the people were staring at him, and looked back to his friend. She had her arms behind her back, and was looking at the ground with a sorry look on her face.

"Sheryl..." "No, its fine. I'm just a big idiot. How could a stupid idiot like me ever even expect to have a boyfriend? I'm just so stupid." "No, Sheryl you're not stupid, I'm sorry. I just blew my top a little, I didn't mean to-" "excuse me, could you step away from this young woman please." the sight that greeted the teen was a 21 year old that faintly resembled jaws from the James bond movies. "Hey bigfoot, can ya give me a minute here?" he turned back to Sheryl, ready to apologize, and possibly spend 5 bucks to by her a corndog or something. "I said get away from her." this time a huge arm reached onto the teen's shoulder and turned him around, but before jaws could do anything, the teen reacted by punching him in the jaw with his right fist. The guy stumbled back holding his jaw with blood dripping from his mouth. "Wow, that kids got one hell of a punch on him. yeah, to make Ryan bleed like that." these were  just two of the comments that the teen heard coming from the crowd of passerby's that were now forming around him and his new opponent in a circle. The teen looked back to Sheryl, but she was nowhere in sight. He looked around almost desperately, and caught a glimpse of her yellow dress heading around a corner at the bathrooms. Before the teen could head off in that direction though, he was caught in the back of the knee with a strong kick, followed by another kick to the back.

He slammed into the ground with the force of a freight train, knocking a tooth loose as his face hit a bare spot of the ground. Jaws laughed behind him, "sneak attack me huh? Well guess what punk; you wouldn't last ten seconds in a real fight with me!" "Think again." the teen rose from the ground, an evil look in his eyes, but the people around him scoffed at the sneak attack, and even laughed at the bloody mouth he sported. He wiped his face free of the blood, spat a bloody tooth out, and raised his fists in the air, pointed at jaws. Jaws sneered at this, throwing a little giggle towards the teen. He ran forward, giant fist ready, but was surprised when a teenager of just 17 years old grabbed his fist, pulled it down, and kneed him in the face. Jaws stumbled back in a daze as the people surrounding the two young adults started yelling. Jaws looked forward, but it was too late, the teen was already pushing a fist into his gut, followed by a kick to the same location, another two punches and finally an uppercut to his already mangled jaw. Jaws was knocked to the ground almost unconscious, when two much smaller teenagers came out of the crowd. One picked up jaws, and the other ran for the cause of his friend's pain. He came running, but the 17 year old clothes lined him, and when he was down kicked him in the side several times. Before the teen could finish off this annoyance, the other guy hit him in the side of his head, stumbling him back a little. He quickly recovered from it though, and ducked to avoid the next punch. He countered with a low blow to the guy's crotch, and left him lying on the ground crying, as another two guys came out of the crowd. This time one of them had a baseball bat. He swung the bat as the other guy cornered him from behind. The guy behind him grabbed his arms and held him fast. The one with the baseball bat swung it at his stomach, it hit, and the teen slunk to the ground. The baseball player came for another swing, but the teen gathered enough strength, took his captor by surprise, and slung him around. The baseball bat hit the guy's side with a definite crack.

Broken back: $2,500

The teen rolled away from the frenzied player and picked up an object lying near him. It was one of those giant inflatable hammers that said "BONK!" on it. The kid rushed the teen and slammed his bat into the ground, just barely missing the wounded teen. The bat cracked as the guy went for another swing, this time landing the blow on a nearby tree. The guy looked at his broken bat, and threw it away.

Broken bat: $45

"Get him Kaje!" came a female voice from the crowd rather loudly. Kaje turned to see who it was, but that was a mistake. The baseball playing son of a bitch kicked him in the gut, but luckily didn't have enough time to act, as an unknown person emerged from the crowd of screaming "fans" and kicked Kaje's enemy in the back of the head. It was a woman dressed in a skimpy red dress like outfit. The baseball player was out cold as one more guy came from the crowd, he was almost as big as the first guy, and was carrying a rather large hunting knife. "I don't know who you are lady, but you're with him, so I'm gona beat you stupid!" "Look who's talking, john boy." came the smart ass remark from the medium sized woman. The country boy lunged after her with the knife, only to have his arm caught and bent backward, making him releases the knife. She punched him in his Adams apple, pulled his arm behind his back, put her foot on his head, and pushed down hard. The guy went down with a thud as the crowd went wild. For the teenagers, this was much better than their average fireman's picnic or any sort of thing like that, for the adults, it brought back memories of high school tussles. Even the rent-a-cops didn't mind when they saw that people were betting money on the fighters and giving it to the charity.

Kaje stood and walked over to the woman in red. She looked past him and pointed, "You're not done yet." Kaje turned around to see Ryan (the behemoth from earlier) standing with a look of hate on his face. "Kid, I'm gona fuck you up so ba-" Ryan couldn't finish his sentence. Before he could, a giant inflatable hammer had found its way to his crotch with the force of a real hammer. His eyes crossed as the blow registered in his mind. He slunk to the ground on his knees as an "ohhhhhhhh....." was heard from the surrounding crowd. Ryan fell forward, face to the ground, and Kaje walked over to his body as the crowd was silent. He kicked him with his foot, he was alive but unconscious. The crowd went into an uproar. They had never even seen this city kid before and they were delighted with the fight. That dark part of human nature that loved to see brutality was definitely there today.

Groin shot with a rubber inflatable hammer: priceless

A hand layed gently on Kaje's shoulder and he knew who's it was. Kaje turned his head slightly and looked out of the corner of his eyes at his friend in red. "So," he began, "what are you doing here?" "Now now, aren't we a nosy one? That need not be explained, I came here on business." "Ah, I see. So in other words, you're looking for someone in this parade of hicks?" "I guess you could say that" she replied. "That was impressive fighting for someone of your situation. Any one of these other people would have been completely useless." Kaje looked away from here. "Yeah, and I want to keep it that way. If I have to be here with these limited abilities, I might as well keep a reputation as one of the better fighters. That way maybe they won't come looking for me, considering they think I'm just an average Joe now." "perhaps." she replied. "So, what started that fight anyway?" "...nothing." "Kaje, you can't lie to me, now come clean. What was it?" he turned to her, getting close to her face with his own. "I said it's nothing, now leave me be." "Hmph." she smiled. "Fine. Just don't go causing anymore riots Kaje. I'll be watching..." with that she walked off into the crowd. Shortly after, she disappeared from sight.

With the crowd dispersing, his enemies gone, and his ally lost to the crowded fairgrounds, Kaje set off for the bathrooms. As he made his way across the field, he noticed some people standing aside. "Respect or fear, it doesn't matter. Just so long as they stay out of my way." Kaje arrived at the front of the bathrooms. They were old and worn down. There was a sign on the male bathroom that said "NO ACCESS" and had graffiti sprayed on it. It was a picture of a guy peeing onto the side of the letters. The female door was without a sign, for it layed on the ground. Someone had obviously been here. Kaje opened the door, and luckily it didn't make a noise. He walked in silently and looked around. The bathroom was decrepit. Broken mirrors, no doors on the stalls, one of the sinks was gone; the walls were wearing away even.

At the end of the room stood a handicapped stall, and Kaje could see a pair of feet underneath the wall, he could also hear crying, almost sniveling, coming from the same area. He walked down to the handicapped stall, door open, and walked in. Sheryl was sitting in the corner facing it with her knees up to her chest, holding them with her hands. Her head was pressed to the top of her knees. Kaje leaned down behind her, and put his arms around her like he was hugging her. She rustled around; trying to move, but Kaje wouldn't let her. He put his head on her shoulder, his face close to hers. He drew her face into his, and gently placed a kiss on her soft tender lips. She stopped trying to move, and let her body become like a ragdoll. A few seconds later and Kaje released his emotional grasp on her. She looked at him with confused eyes. She was so young, only 16 and innocent to the evils of the world around her. He felt sorry for her because of what her hell of a future held. "So why not make her present feel like heaven." he thought to himself.

Sheryl's eyes welled up with tears, and she quickly turned around throwing herself at him. He held her as she placed her head on his chest and wet his black t-shirt with tears. Kaje gently ran his hands through her long brown hair. after about 45 seconds of crying her heart out into his chest, Sheryl rose her head up to look into Kaje's eyes, and even though she had tears streaming down her cheeks, a smile was on her face. Kaje stood up; holding his hand out to her, for the first time since he had came to this dreadful place smiling. Sheryl took his hand, wiping the tears away from her eyes with the other hand. They began walking out of the restroom together, Kaje realizing just how wrong his actions had been earlier. Sure, this girl was immature, but that was no reason to make her want to kill herself. As Kaje and Sheryl emerged from the restroom they were greeted by the sight of Ryan, his 5 cronies, and another man, this one almost 7 foot tall. Kaje readied to fight, knowing that this wasn't good. He might actually be matched for power, and with seven of them he might actually be in-. The 7 foot tall man slapped Ryan in the back of the head. "Now!" he yelled. Kaje was confused as Ryan held out his hand. His vision was stuck on the ground as he grumbled. "sorry bout earlier..." the tall man behind him hit him again, only this time much harder."Do it right!" Ryan looked up to Kaje and actually spoke in a normal voice. "I'm sorry that we jumped you earlier. Shake..." Kaje stood his ground, not even going to sink to this punk's level. He noticed that Sheryl had been hiding behind him up until this moment. She peaked out from behind him when the tall man shoved the kids aside and personally apologized to Kaje. "I'm terribly sorry about this; I hope my kid hasn't caused you too much trouble." "No, just a broken tooth. Nothing bad." Ryan's dad looked back at him. "You little fucker, you broke his tooth? Give me your wallet, now!" Ryan hesitantly pulled his wallet out of his pocket. His father snatching it quickly pulled out all of the money inside and handed it to Kaje. "Here, buy your little lady something nice." he threw the wallet back to Ryan, and smacked him in the head again. "Ow! What was that for?!" "That's for bein a smart ass; now get back to the house!!" Ryan and his troupe shuffled off in the opposite direction. Ryan's dad turned once more to Kaje and spoke for the last time. "I truly am sorry that you had to get into a tussle with ma boy and good luck to ya and your girl." Kaje turned to look at Sheryl, and saw that she was blushing. By the time he looked back to Ryan's father, he was gone, nowhere to be seen. "C'mon Sheryl, let's go."

The rest of the day went without a hitch. No fights, no riots, no abductions, no murders....
Kaje spent the entire day with Sheryl. He even won her one of those obnoxiously large stuffed animals, a raccoon in fact. Next were the rides, the octopus, the scrambler, the screamer, none of them were a match for their riders. With the extra money that he "received" from Ryan Kaje was able to buy Sheryl dinner. A jumbo corndog, an orange shakeup, and a huge mass of fluffy cotton candy. She ate all but the cotton candy, snacking on it occasionally, sharing it with Kaje. Eventually night fell and they somehow made their way onto the Ferris wheel, even though Sheryl was scared of heights. She clung to him the whole time they were on it, even when they were only above the boarding platform. She was scared out of her wits when the Ferris wheel stopped to let people off, with them at the top of course. Kaje had never had someone squeeze him as tight as Sheryl did that night, but he didn't mind it so much.

When they disembarked from the Ferris wheel Kaje noticed that Sheryl looked quite sick. He asked her about it, and she said she was fine. A short trip to the bathroom later revealed that she was lying. When Kaje didn't hear from her for close to five minutes he rushed into the bathroom, only to find her unconscious laying in front of the toilet shivering. He quickly picked her up and felt her head, revealing that she had a slight cold, nothing serious...

Kaje picked her up and carried her home in his arms. He brought her to his house, took her inside, cleaned her, changed her into a clean robe, threw her clothes into the wash, and finally layed down beside her to sleep.