| Almost as if they wanted to repeat history, they came for her in the night.
Trixie was relaxing at home when the power went out. That's when the shadow attacked. A shadow monster by the name of Sin assaulted and bloodied Trix, easily evading her attacks and toying with her like a cat might a mouse. Once she was sufficiently injured and the creature had its fill of sadistic torment, it stole her away without a trace.
Unknown to the rest of the world, Trixie had been noticed by the very same organization that helped make the rest of her family vanish. Tartarus: a secret organization aimed at the elimination and exploitation of abnormal humans. They were effectively the anti-mutant Illuminati with fingers in many pockets and many irons in many fires. While Trix was previously just a scared little girl that was not worth their time, she was now an established, powerful mutant hero with potential to make them some serious money in one of their many projects.
Whenever they had a mutant they needed to disappear, that mutant might end up in the Tartarus Arena. A bloody underground fighting ring where kidnapped mutants were forced into bloody, sometimes lethal, combat. Age, race, creed, none of it mattered. If you had a particular kind of mutant you wanted to see thrashed, you could probably find a match for it in Tartarus. Trix was caged in with several other mutants and forced to fight both against and alongside her fellow prisoners as well as her cellmates; Ghost, Frostbite, and Strangleweed.
Of her cellmates, she arguably became closest to Ghost. In large part, this is because of his age. He was only 16, the same age she was when Tartarus first came for her.
She became well known as something of a bleeding heart among the prisoner population. Not only did she try and be friendly with her cellmates, but she would actively reject offers from the arena's owners to get better treatment in exchange for more brutal fights. If forced into a death match, she would purposefully aim to make the fight as short and anti-climactic as possible. In short, while she was a solid fighter, she refused to be broken and did not entertain the crowd willingly. She often spoke to her cellmates about what she did back in Paragon and the allies she had made. She was confident that they wouldn't forget her and come to not just her aid, but the entirety of those jailed there.
Frustrated with their lack of progress in twisting her for their goals, they gave Trix an impossible match. Not impossible in that she couldn't win, but impossible in who she was expected to not just fight, but beat in mortal combat. Her cellmate Ghost. She made a show of it, somewhat to the owner's surprise. However, instead of ending in a kill, Trix simply fought Wes until she had him pinned with her fighting staff to his throat. After that, she simply waited.
The fight might have ended with her victory and a joyous reception from the audience, but she had directly disobeyed orders and let her opponent win. Not only was this the second time she did this, but it was clear that she knew exactly what she was doing. This couldn't be chalked up to ignorance or being new in the arena.
She was sent to solitary confinement and, after several days, was given her true punishment. Troy Mitchels, one of the arena handlers came to her cell with Ghost and made her watch as he snapped Ghost's neck in front of her.
Their intent was to break Trix and force her to realize who was in control. Instead, she solidified her belief that no matter what happened, she was going to kill every last one of the monsters there. This was further enforced when, after letting his real name slip, Trix realized that one of the handlers, Phoenix, was none other than Felix. Her brother who, after being kidnapped and deemed to be "normal" enough for simple reeducation, was eventually placed at the arena as one of the people tasked with maintaining order.
The revelation of their relation shook both siblings, but it didn't sway Trix's view. Tartarus was going to end by her own hands.
Unknown to Trixie, an inside agent was working to dismantle the arena and found a crack in the acquisition of Trix. With a hero group interested in recovering her, he had a solid resource that couldn't be bought off. Not to mention that Trix within the arena was capable rallying her fellow prisoners to fight. So, with the hero group and a select force of UN enforcers, a plan was put into motion.
First, the facility's generator and internal defenses were disabled. Unsurprisingly, Trix immediately broke from her cell and began to rally her fellow prisoners into a full scale riot. While her brother going rogue in this moment and disabling additional defenses was not in the plan, it certainly didn't hurt. While the majority of the facility's security went below to quell the riot, the heroes and UN forces converged on the site in a full scale assault. With both attacks occurring simultaneously, they didn't stand a chance to stop it.
Not all was well, however. When the heroes finally breached the arena's prison and met up with Trix, the pleasantries halted when the heroes made it clear that Lazarus, the owner of the arena, was to be arrested and not killed. The prisoners and, to the heroes' surprise, Trix, were furious. They argued that Lazarus had too many resources, money, and power. If he was arrested, no matter which court he landed in, he would get off. If not as innocent, on a technicality. Or, even more likely, he would vanish before a trial could even take place. Even more to the horror of some of the heroes that had arrived, Trix made it clear that she was by no means playing it loose and had already killed Troy Mitchels with her bare hands upon escaping. She made it clear: Anyone who hadn't surrendered wasn't spared. And she wasn't going to berate any of her fellow prisoners for ignoring surrender.
While the prison failed to break Trix the way they desired, they did accomplish one thing: she was no longer the bright eyed bushy tailed hero she used to be. And, when the heroes failed to stop one of her fellow prisoners from landing a killing blow on Lazarus, she was more offended that they would question her judgement on what had to be done. The arena collapsed the same way it ran: in bloodshed.
|
