"Welcome to the Gotham Underground!"
They walked down a tunnel until they arrived at an opening and he got a view of the first room he would be exposed to. It was a large rounded cavern. In the center was a deeper pit where he could make out a fight between people. Then along the edges of the arna he could see a bunch of people cheering and chanting.
He could also see several other tunnels. Some of them were raised above ground like this. Then there were a few on the lower levels. As he was staring he suddenly felt something clasp around his neck he brought his hands up and grabbed the metal collar.
"It is an explosive collar, I suggest you do not try to remove it." The fake doctor explained and then nodded in a direction. Rico looked in the direction of the nod and could see a set of rock stairs descending down the wall. He followed it down as he looked in the direction of what could only be an arena.
"Who runs this place?" Rico asked as he descended the stairs.
"A few different gangs run a piece of the action. We try to avoid getting involved with those psychos upstairs. They draw far too much attention from Batman." The fake doctor began explaining. "The corrupt guards and officials at Blackgate run the fighting arena."
"So you just kidnap your own prisoners and force them to fight." Rico figured, "how do you avoid drawing attention? I am sure someone has caught on to the disappearing prisoners."
"We fake the prisoners' deaths. For instance, you managed to piss off the skin heads. So when you were transferred back to the block you ended up shanked to death the next morning. Put in a corpse that got shanked to death and cremate it." The fake doctor outlined what they would do to make him disappear. "There goes all the evidence."
Rico nodded his head, "clever. I am guessing these explosive collars are restraining devices to keep your prisoners in line."
"Not quite." The guards chuckled as the fake doctor spoke again, "They are to keep the slaves in line. There are many like you in here that think they still have rights. Fortunately I already got you a debut match to sell you off so you will not be my problem soon enough."
Rico growled as they reached the bottom of the stairs and he was escorted down to a lower level. "So what type of fight should I be expecting?"
"Here in the underground the rich rule. So the better the fight, the more profit I can make." The fake doctor began explaining as he stepped in front of him and wrapped his knuckles against a metal door. "So after seeing your skills I made sure we got something no normal human could fight barehanded."
The slot in the metal door slid open. A pair of eyes looked around and then zeroed in on the fake doctor. They then grunted and then the slot slammed shut. A moment later the door pushed open.
The fake doctor led them inside. He entered the dim underground section of the arena he saw earlier. The first thing he spotted was a bunch of dirty men with various weapons at the ready playing a game of cards. The second thing was a few cages.
The nearest ones had skinny men that looked like they were starving. He was pushed in one direction followed by shoving until they arrived at a cage that had bars leading out to the arena. He stepped in and a set of metal bars slammed shut behind him.
"Hands." The fake doctor ordered, Rico put his hands through the bars and the fake doctor took off the handcuffs. "I would say have fun, but there is a good chance we will be carting you out as a corpse." He then turned and walked away.
Rico turned back to the external bars and watched the current fight as it finished up. On one side was a group of those skinnier prisoners in some gladiator-like armor. Almost made like a joke. While on the other side was a literal lion, scars and all. The lion was tearing through the terrified prisoners.
It was a one sided slaughter. After a few more minutes the fight was over and the lion was chewing on the torso of one of the humans. A pair of metal doors creaked open and the lion jumped up only to howl in pain and claw at the collar around its neck as several people in full riot gear came in on four wheelers.
They rolled in with a massive wagon behind them and while two of them poked the lion forcing it back to a cage door. The cage door closed and trapped the lion again but instead of resisting it went back further into the cage like this had happened several times before.
The other people in full riot gear were tossing the weapons and body parts into the wagon. Using shovels for the chunks of innards they could not pick up with their hands. Then after only a few minutes they were leaving again.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have another show for you today! This time we have another new slave fighter for sale! To show you his strength we are going to have him go up against the decimator of warriors! The slaughterer of men! Gotham's very own Venom Bear!" The announcer's voice was quickly accompanied by chanting from the crowd.
The bars in front of him raised into the air. He stepped out of the cage and into the arena. Still in his bright orange jumpsuit. He then watched across from him as a larger metal cage door opened and he could see a glowing green eye in the dark. Then as it lumbered forward he could see the scars that covered black bear, which was far larger than any bear he had even heard of. This would be an interesting fight.
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