Power Level: 2,976
Weighted Power Level: 2,232

"Are you sure this is a good idea, boss?" a squat little fellow who was maybe three feet tall asked of a much taller man with a bushy red beard that was longer than the tangled hair on his head. He wore a pair of goggles over his eyes that didn't seem to hinder him in the dim light of the cave . The squat fellow barely came up to his "boss's" waist, but at least his hair was combed neatly, parted down the center in a ruler straight line. Both were human showing no external signs of being otherwise.

"How many times do I gotta repeat myself, Reli?" his boss said with a shake of his head, "Listen, she ain't gonna be waking up any time soon. And even if she did, we'll just put her down again."

"And why are we keeping her around again?" a thin man who looked more than a little bedraggled could pass for human if it weren't for the tail he had twitching in annoyance marking him as a saiyan, "Why don't we just take all her stuff and ditch her in the desert?"

"Because, numbskulls, there's a price on her head and there'll be a sweet pay off if we dump her off with Loud-Mouth-Lenny," their boss explained with exaggerated patience as if he were spelling a difficult word out for children. Which in his mind wasn't too far off.

"I don't know, Ketcha. Lenny ain't exactly the most reliable of guys," the saiyan said while idly picking his nose, "How do you know there's a pay off that'd be worth it?"

"I saw the contract myself Muhster! Some big shot in West City is ready to pay big bucks to have her delivered to him," the leader growled as he thumbed at his own chest.

"You know I don't doubt you, boss! It's just she really messed up our camp and she was crazy strong, if we hadn't had the electro-zapper..." Reli mumbled while twiddling his little fingers.

"Aww, we coulda taken her. She just caught us by surprise, that's all!" Ketcha flapped a dismissive hand, but his two minions didn't seem completely reassured.

These three were some of the bandits that were attacking people traveling through Diablo Desert. But they were only just a small group in a larger one. They didn't seem capable of procuring the cache of weapons that had been in the camp that Asuka had located. They were little more than grunts doing basic bitch work. Which partially explained why Ketcha was biting at the bit to get a chance to prove their skills and to get rich quick.

The person they were talking about was laying face down in the dirt chained with a chain that had thick links that almost seemed cartoonish on her average frame. Ana was laying there unconscious, dark hair splayed, red scarf dirtied with the desert dust. Most of her gear had been stripped off her, leaving her in her basic weighted clothing, but no less than that. They may be thieving bandits, but they weren't creeps.

These bandits had made the unfortunate mistake to attack the wrong person. Anastasia had looked like an easy target. A woman traveling alone through the desert? It should have been child's play. They had never expected her to be so strong. She had trashed their campsite and nearly trashed the three of them as well. Muhsta and Ketcha had been able to hold their own against her two-on-one. Long enough for Reli to grab the weapon they called the electro-zapper. It was basically a glorified super taser, capable of taking down fighters with a high power level like Anastasia.

When Anastasia was incapacitated it was Ketcha who recognized her from the contract he had seen before. It made sense that this chick had been a pit fighter. On his order the other two reluctantly chained Ana up. They were just debating on what to do about her when they received a warning about the coming sandstorm and ducked into a near by cave for shelter. The sandstorm was supposed to be a bad one, and with their campsite as messed up as it wasn't they weren't sure how well it would weather the storm. Once in the relative safety of the cave Kecha and Muhsta hid their power levels as low as they could, just in case any one else stronger came looking for the girl. (Reli hadn't needed to lower his power level. He was already pretty weak as it was.)

Now all they had to do was wait out the storm, clean up their camp, and high tail it back to the city to trade the chick off to Lenny and get a big ol' pay day!

But things were rarely ever that simple.

Ana groggily opened her eyes, but the bandits hadn't noticed with her face in the ground. She took a minute or two to pull herself together. The taser had done a number on her. Slowly Ana took in her surroundings and remembered what had happened. Damn. Damn. She had been sloppy. She hadn't expected these backwater (back sand?) bandits to have anything like the weapon they had used on her. Damn, it would have been embarrassing if anyone else had cau-

Ana blinked. There was a strong power level not too far off... a familiar one... She groaned inwardly. It was Asuka, the demon she had met in Yunzabit Heights. If ANYONE would mock her to death for being defeated by these three it would be him. Great. She had to break out of here before he showed up and started saying something like her being some sort of 'damsel in distress'.

Anastasia took a few more minutes to gather her strength... then tapped into her Adrenaline Rush and snapped the chain as if it were made of paper. She jumped to her feet, ki rolling off her in waves, and the three bandits gaped in shock at what had previously been what they had thought was a thoroughly chained up woman...

"I TOLD YOU, KECHA!" Muhsta yelled at his boss before Ana slugged him hard across the jaw and their fight began.

Word Count: 1,035