Ch. 15: Love and Hate

As Orion put his faith in Zephyr, Zephyr put that faith right in the dumpster next to him as he made out with the beautiful woman.

"God this feels good," He whispered as she moaned in agreement, licking his earlobe.

"You must be looking to lose all of your money if you're here at the casino," The woman said with a giggle, a hand placed on Zephyr's chest as he shrugged.

"I'm just showing my intern the city, he was fascinated by the architecture or something, as for what I'm fascinated by…" Zephyr looked down. "I'd say the architecture as well."

"Oh? Then should we go somewhere…" She leaned in close, kissing his cheek. "Private?" She whispered sweetly into his ear.

Zephyr was quick to be led away by the woman, leaving the casino without a second thought.

Meanwhile, Orion was being watched by everyone in the casino, their hungry eyes boring into him as they tried to see how he was cheating.

He was up 12 million dollars, in his currency it would be just about 6 million.

As he won another game of blackjack, a man stepped up behind him, dressed extravagantly despite everyone else basically wearing rags.

"You seem to be quite the lucky boy?" The man said in a soft soothing voice, eyeing Orion up and down as the boy just gave an innocent smile.

"Guess today is my day huh?" He said, shrugging as he collected his chips. "But I think I'm done."

"Done? What's with that nonsense? Gamblers like you should be in the vip room, with what you've won tonight you can buy yourself in and still have plenty to gamble with…"

Orion eyed the man. He was clearly the owner of the casino, this casino that is. He doubted the true owner of swinger casinos was anywhere in this dump of a city.

"I don't know I've already earned a lot-"

"But these are special gambles," The man said as he leaned it. "It's fighting between the superhumans, I'm sure you would enjoy it sir…"

Orion looked at him with a blank expression. Superhuman fights? In a casino? It seemed dangerous. But as he followed the man he decided it wasn't anything he couldn't handle, the last superhuman he'd seen was tied up next to a crashed hovercar.

"Welcome sir, to the war room!" The man yelled as he opened up two doors deep into the casino, there was a fighting ring in the middle where a man and a woman were fighting, blood splattered the floors and walls.

"Get him Eva!" Someone in the small crowd yelled. All these people looked rich except for the fighters, who were huddled into a corner giving each other dirty looks.

"Take a seat sir, you just enter the amount you'd like to bet at your seat, it's all digital nowadays," The owner said with a smirk, walking off as Orion sat down.

'All digital? How?'

Orion looked at the glowing tablet screen in front of him, showing a simple interface where you could bet on either red or blue.

He tried to hack into it, but no luck. How were they able to do this yet still block his tech? It made no sense to him.

Eva, the short blonde who was in the ring, teleported behind her opponent, grabbing a broken machete blade off the ground and slashing up from the small of his back to his skull.

The bulky man yelled in agony as he died slowly at her feet.

"Eva wins!" The referee yelled, laughing into the mic as the crowd cheered for the woman as she was handed a briefcase, yet she shook her head and walked to the corner where the other fighters stood waiting.

"Eva has declined her 100 million! She wants to risk it all and earn twice that in her next fight!"

"Crimson Eva! Crimson Eva!" The crowd cheered in unison. As they quieted down the referee spoke up.

"Fighters Atom and O are up next! Place your bets folks! Now this will be serious!"

"Silver ranger!!" The crowd roared at the announcement, rapidly tapping at their screens as Orion sat there, hoping Zephyr was learning some valuable information.

As a black man entered the ring, raising his hands, the crowd booed.

"Dirty cheat!" One yelled.

"Standing at 245 pounds, six feet and eight inches, going 12-0 and earning 500 million, it's ATOM!"

There was more heavy booing as the man named Atom flipped them all of, laughing.

"And our champion! A seasoned veteran! Standing at five and eleven inches, weighing 185 pounds, going 125-0 since his debut 2 years ago, our champion and Silver Ranger, O!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Orion's widened his eyes as he saw the next competitor, he was covered in blood, and his eyes had heavy bags underneath them, but there was no mistaking it, it was him down there.

…

10 Years Ago

"Alright Orions, today we will start you off with close quarters combat, choose a partner and warm up," Zeke said, smoking a cigarette as he looked at the 13 kids, all barely 5 years old with heads of silver hair growing past their eyes.

They were dirty, bruised, and had the eyes only killers had. The ultimate weapons.

"Cmon Zeke, isn't it too early for combat," Howard said, yawning as he walked into the room, looking at the boy as he sipped coffee.

"Well… Whatever, let's get started kids," He said, ripping off his shirt.

"Seems we're uneven again today, who wants to spar with me?" Howard said with a sadistic smile, looking at the scared kids.

"You do this everytime fatass," Orion said, his shrilly voice cutting through the tension as he walked up to Howard.

"Ohh, Orion 13, what a surprise."

"God, the same lines every ti-"

Orion was kicked back, slamming into the wall enough to crack the polished stone. "Rule number one in close quarters combat, whoever gets the first hit wins," Howard said sadistically as he stood over Orion.

"Hah… Fuck you fatass," Orion said, gritting his teeth and lunging at the former special forces soldier…

…

The Present

Orion looked at himself, or rather, one of his brothers.

"Orion 1?" He whispered, his heart thumping in his chest. He wasn't prone to emotion, or being surprised, yet he felt many things as he looked at the bloody copy of himself.

'Is this why the owner actually brought me here?' He wondered as the fight started.

"Get ready silver Ranger!" Atom yelled as his body glowed. "Imma send you back to nothingness!"

Shink

Atom's body fell to the ground in little diced up pieces. O stood over him, covered in fresh blood as he retracted his sword like fingers.

"And The Silver Ranger wins! A true god of combat!" The referee yelled as they cleaned up Atom's dead body.

"Is there truly no one who can stop-"

"So you're alive huh?" Orion said, standing in front of the ref and looking at Orion 1, who stared at him blankly.

"Do I know you?" The man said, his fingers slowly elongating back into swords.

"Geez… More of this bullshit, acting like you can't recognize your superior?" Orion said with a smirk, noticing the twitch in Orion 1's face.

"Still have that carefree attitude, must be nice to be seen as the best Synthetic…"

"Ladies and gentlemen, it seems our Silver Ranger knows this… Boy? He's quite young, handsome though… Wait what was I saying? Oh yes it seems-"

Orion grabbed the microphone. "Your little champion is weak as fuck, he just fights even weaker people so he's seen as strong, I'm willing to bet all 10 million of my earnings tonight that I'll beat him."

The Silver Ranger now had a nasty expression.

"Beat me!? You were the weakest of us all! You just got special treatment because you were just like Instructor Jenson's son! We all were supposed to be!"

O jumped at Orion, eyes glowing blue as he lunged at the boy.

"Yeah, but you just weren't compatible, I thought you all died?" Orion said, jumping out of the way of the swords.

"Ladies and gentlemen our next fight is commencing, place your bets!" The referee yelled into a new microphone.

"They all did, but I survived, cause I was lucky… But you didn't have that problem did you? Since instructor Jenson betrayed Vanguard and left The Orion project, along with his favorite pupil…"

Orion noticed O was getting faster, expending more effort to match his pace.

"It's a shame you didn't die," Orion said, jumping instead of dodging and slamming both feet into O's face, sending him flying across the ring. "Since I always hated you."

"Oh yeah?" O said, rising up with a crazed expression. "Then try and kill me now fucker."

O lunged at Orion.

"Will do." Orion answered with a smirk. Coming to the casino had been the right choice. He'd found how they were able to manipulate the emp field this way, and he was right in front of him.

"Let's kill each other."