Karate Kid
!SPECIAL EFFECTS! "THOUGHTS"
Chapter One
"Are you sure about this, Dr. Phosphorus? You're putting too much of the serum into him," the army scientist said with concern.
"Silence, fool! I know what I'm doing," the middle aged looking man with glasses, medium length, bright red hair and a beard scolded.
"But it looks like you're repeating the same mistake you did with those three other volunteers who died from your experiments," Captain Nordberg commented.
"The last three volunteers were not failures but only setbacks. I've improved my muscle and durability power serum each time those volunteers failed to survive. This time will be different."
"I hope so. After those three 'setbacks' the army forbade you to experiment on anymore subjects. If we get caught doing this..."
"We won't, fool! By the time the army brass finds out about what we're doing my experiment will be a success. Then I will be put in charge of the new U.S. army's Super Soldier Program. My greatness as a doctor and a scientist will be world renown!"
"All right. But this guy, Second Lieutenant Val Armorr, didn't even volunteer. His food was drugged. After he wasn't able to wake up, he was placed in our care via the army hospital."
"I know all about that! I have friends in high places so this man was 'volunteered' for my disposal. Even though he's only five foot eight inches tall weighing only 150 pounds he'll thank me when he's turned into the kind of super soldier that will put Captain America to shame!"
"But why him, Dr. Phosphorus?" Nordberg asked.
"Before he 'volunteered' I investigated him. He grew up, trained in a shorin kempo karate by his maternal grandfather, eventually learning boxing, Thai-kickboxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrestling, wing chun kung fu, tae kwon do, street fighting, military commando training and several other disciplines. In addition to all that he's also a trained acrobat and escape artist. The training he has gone through has made him a lot more agile and stronger than he appears to be. Eventually his family moved to Venice Beach, the bodybuilding capitol of the world. He was so impressed with the powerful looking physiques of all the people who posed and worked out there that he hit the weights himself. He had a hard time packing on muscle but he did manage to become wiry with a lot of muscular definition."
"You really did investigate this guy! I guess you already know that he excelled in physical training, majored in biology and did very well in several other science courses in addition to being in R.O.T.C."
"Yes. This man is very intelligent. But what's even more important is the fact that his genetic DNA will increase the chances that what I'm doing will be much more likely to be successful. Only one in a three million is able to benefit from my experiments. Now that I've found the right subject, my irradiated formula will finally be successful."
"What exactly did you put into him that's so much different from the others?"
"That's my secret. However, the chances of his success and survival are debatable. If he doesn't have what it takes to be one of the greatest soldiers on the planet then he's finished."
Captain Nordberg took another look at their "patient". "If you put irradiated substances into him it might be a disaster! As it is, you put more of that modified serum into him than you did all the others combined! I'm beginning to think..."
"Do me a favor; don't think. We've been working on this guy for about two weeks now. There's another thing called ki about which you know nothing. All of the volunteers had great ki potential but Lt. Armorr here has more than all the others put together."
"He's flat lining! He's going into convulsions! We're losing him!" Captain Nordberg said with a sense of urgency.
"Calm down, fool! I think I can..." !BEEEEP! "Hmmm. He's flat lining! Sigh. It looks like this fool didn't have what it took for greatness either. Oh, well. I'll just find another 'volunteer'. Too bad. I really thought this one would make me famous."
Captain Nordberg looked at the mad scientist with a look of horror on his face. "Don't you understand? This was our last chance! No one will allow us to do something like this again. We're through!"
Dr. Phosphorus looked at his accomplice for a moment then calmly said, "you mean you're through. I was the one who told you that you were putting too much anabolic material in his system."
"What? I warned you not to put so much of your vaunted formula into his body. I also warned you that putting your irradiated serum into him would be a disaster. This is your fault! Not mine!"
"Spare me your melodramatic balderdash! I never actually admitted to putting so much irradiated anabolic serum into him. Besides, who do you think they're going to believe, you, a mad scientist who has had too many experiments blow up in his face and embarrass the army or a great scientist like me? Of course, the fact that I was here at the time will mar my career but the contacts I have in the army will cover me as always. Besides, I'm not really in the army anyway, Captain. So I'm not someone they can go after. Good luck at your court-martial."
"You monster! It's bad enough four good men had to die for your mad experiments, but now you're going to blame me for the whole thing? Well, I'm not going down without a fight. I'm going to tell everyone about what you've done, especially the eugenics! Even if it means the end of my career, everyone is going to know what you're all about!"
"What you've just said will mean the end of your life when it could have just meant the end of your career. For your information, I've tested some of my experiments on myself. I was a little more careful and used substances that were more benign but I'm a lot stronger and tougher than I appear to be. You know that I'm in my sixties yet I look as if I'm in my thirties. There's a reason for that. Here, let me show you." Dr. Phosphorus moved towards the other doctor at an inhuman speed, putting his hands around the man's neck.
"What are you doing? Nooooo!" Nordberg screamed as Dr. Phosphorus musculature increased as he attacked the army doctor, eventually using an especially deadly shiatsu attack in order to put him under cardiac arrest shutting down his heart and killing him.
"Too bad, Nordberg. I might have actually have helped your career if you hadn't been so incompetent and held me back," Dr. Phosphorus thought to himself as he picked up the phone.
"General Tomlin? Yes, this is Dr. Phosphorus. It appears we have another problem."
"Another failure, Dr. Phosphorus? We really can't afford this. I stuck my neck out for you three times already. The higher ranking generals ordered this shut down. But I allowed you to do this because you told me this would be a success. Lt. Armorr had a promising career. The army has spent a lot of time and money training this last man in commando training and as a sniper! He had orders to start going out on missions as an army ranger in a few weeks. Covering this up is going to be horribly difficult."
"Listen, General. I've done a lot for you. Including having your rivals eliminated without anyone else knowing about it. You wouldn't have your two stars at the young age of 30 if it wasn't for me. At any rate, my next experiment will be a success."
"What does Captain Nordberg have to say about that?" the General inquired.
"He couldn't handle the strain of our work so he suffered a heart attack. You don't have to worry about him. But you owe me a great deal, General. I remember some of the other things you've done with my help like getting that under age Finnish girl you bought from that Shadowlaw slave ring."
"She's not under age anymore!" the general said nervously.
"She was only fourteen at the time you first had your way with her. I got you a good deal on that gorgeous blond with the perfect body and passive spirit. It should have cost you a lot more money than it did, but due to my connections you paid a fraction of what she was worth. Are you still enjoying your hot, sexy little love slave, hmm?"
"There's no need for any problems between us," the general said nervously, sweating bullets. "It's just that so many deaths like this are unacceptable."
"The means to my ends are always acceptable."
"What I meant was," the general said nervously, "is that another death by your experiments is unacceptable. "
"Is that so?" the doctor said with more than a hint of menace.
"Now hear me out. I can still fix this. What we can say is that the lieutenant had health problems that you discovered when you gave him a more thorough check up. The health problems were so bad that we had to give him an honorable discharge BEFORE HE DIED. Get the picture, Doctor?"
"All right. We'll do it your way."
"Good," the general said, getting his composure. "I can have his discharge papers pre-dated. I can send some trusted men over there to get rid of him. As far as anybody knows he simply died of the health problems he had before you did anything to him."
"Yes, that will work. I knew I could count on you, General. When will I start my next experiment?"
"We're going to have to lay low on that for a while. Let's clean this mess up first. When we're in the clear, you can start up again."
XXX
In an alternate universe where the Val Armorr of that plane of existence was known as Karate Kid fought for his life against Nemesis Kid on the planet of Orando after having freed himself, his wife, Princess Projectra and some other Legionnaires from the clutches of the Legion of Super Villains.
"It's over Karate Kid. You were never able to defeat me. No matter how skilled or powerful the opponent, I always come out on top. I will enjoy killing you."
"Wrong, Nemesis Kid. You and the Legion of Super Villains are finished! Aargh!"
"Oh, really?" the arch villain replied, having struck Val with a blow he wasn't quite able to block in time. "It's interesting how it took you a lifetime to get your powers while I got my powers within a moment. And now you shall die."
"Huff! Dying in battle is the ultimate honor by my cultural standards. If I must die let it be in combat," Karate Kid said in his horrifically beaten up state.
"No, Val!" Princess Projectra called out from several yards away. "You must destroy the power source for the machines that are moving Orando away from this dimension!"
"All right, Jeckie! Consider it my last gift to you." With that Karate Kid did an acrobatic back flip avoiding Nemesis' attacks, then he used his Legion flight ring to fly up towards the huge ten mile apparatus, striking it with all his might! !KABOOM! "It's over." With that the famous Karate Kid passed out as the explosion engulfed him and the apparatus.
"There was so much I had wanted to do. Would that I could live again somehow. Wait! I could just swear that another version of me is dying in another universe. It must be the effect of the inter-dimensional machine I'm destroying. If I could just send myself there and take over, merging with my doppelganger, I can have another chance at life."
Though he was dying, Karate Kid concentrated, sending his essence into the dying body of Lieutenant Val Armorr from the other plane of existence. "It's working! Good bye, Jeckie. Good bye Legion of Super Heroes. Farewell."
XXX
"He's already been discharged so we'll leave him here," one of the Black Ops agents said.
"Affirmative. This park bench will do. His discharge papers and I.D. are on him, so we'll have nothing to worry about. But one thing bothers me," the other Black Ops agent stated.
"What's that?"
"If he's actually dead, why doesn't he smell bad? In fact he almost smells as fresh as a daisy."
"Forget about it. Ours is not to reason why and all that. We're done here; let's go."
After the men had left, an old man walked over to the seemingly dead man picked him up and carried him home.
XXX
A few hours later in the morning, the old man had put the man he had been carrying down on his back in the middle of his large plush, beautiful garden in his backyard. Not only were plush, large plants there, but the place contained a few fruit trees as well. "He's still not moving even though he's still alive. I've seen many men who were still alive even though they looked as if they were dead but weren't really dead when I was growing up in Hokkaido. They looked so dead even the doctors were fooled. So I'll have to take him out of his coma by touching some shiatsu points."
At that moment Val began to burst out of his clothes, tearing them. Then he woke up with a gasp. "Where am I?" the formerly dead martial arts master exclaimed as he looked around and took account of his surroundings.
"Greetings, Val. It's been a long time." Val's maternal grandfather, Tetsuo Matsuda, regarded him calmly.
"Ah, yes. You're my grandfather, right?. I wonder where I am." Val looked up, regarding the old man before him who appeared to be in his eighties with a powerful physique including well corded muscles despite his advanced age. He was balding with a mustache and goatee, resembling Miyage from the Karate Kid movies.
"You're in my backyard garden. I had a feeling you'd recover quicker out here since you have a strong affinity for nature."
"What happened to my clothes; they're all torn. And what happened to my voice?" Val said, grasping his throat. "It's deeper than I remember. This voice isn't even familiar with the memories of my doppelganger that I absorbed when I merged with this body."
"I believe someone used you for an experiment that went wrong, or so they thought. Some men dropped you off on a park bench in the dark of night. When they left I carried you back here. Ever since then you've been here for a few hours, sleeping during that time."
"Why would they have left me there? I was an army officer who was on his way to becoming an army ranger. I'll have to get back to base before I'm awol." Val said as he tried to get up until he felt pain shoot through his body.
"You really don't have to worry about that anymore. The men who dropped you off were Black Ops. I took the liberty of reading your paperwork. Here are your discharge papers," his grandfather said as he handed the former soldier his paperwork and I.D.
"Hmm. I find all this hard to believe."
"You should read the whole thing. It says here you were discharged due to health problems. I suspect discharge occurred with the onset of your health problems."
The young man got up and read all of the discharge papers, confirming what the old martial arts master had said. "I actually don't remember any previous health problems, but what you're saying makes sense."
"There's much that's different about you, Val. Go to the koi pond nearby and look upon your reflection in the water," the master ordered.
As Val walked over to the pond he saw his reflection looking back at him. "Interesting." The image before him was that of a much more handsome man with golden brown hair instead the dark brown hair he had from before. He was now six feet tall, weighing a much defined, inhumanly powerful 200 pounds of rock solid muscle.
"Your whole ki signature has changed, Val. I just can't put my finger on it. What happened during your time in the army? What do you remember happening last?"
"Have you ever heard of alternate universes and doppelgangers?" Val asked the old man who looked at him in a quizzical manner.
"Only in science fiction. Why do you say that?"
"While I was dying I wished I could live another life again. Well, my wish came true."
"That makes little sense," the old man said.
"I'm actually an alternate universe version of the Val Armorr you knew. The Val you knew died. But I was able to inhabit this body and even assimilate his former memories before he passed on." Then Val explained to his grandfather his life as Karate Kid in the Legion of Super Heroes all the way to how he "died."
"That's all so astounding! But something inside me tells me you're telling me the truth. It's obvious to me that you are an entirely different person now. Since you're here in this plane of existence you might as well train for the upcoming World Class Martial Arts Tournament.
"A tournament?"
"Yes. It's an underground tournament where the greatest martial artists of the world compete to see who the best is. It's a very dangerous"
"It seems I've come to the right place," Val said with a smile.
"I don't know exactly how powerful you are now, so it's important you train and train hard to learn how to control your newly enhanced body. I've trained all kinds of martial artists over the years. But I'm an old man, and I've never been able to prove that our family's kempo karate style is the best in the world."
"Yes. I see. That will be the meat of my martial arts while I'm here, but everything I've learned from other planets and such will be used as well."
"Other planets?" the old man asked incredulously.
"Yes, the plane of existence from whence I've come had space exploration down pat."
"I see. All right, then. We'll begin your retraining right now."
XXX
After a few weeks Val had adapted to his new environment mostly by training hard in his grandfather's kempo karate style. He also learned how to use ki and chi to increase his strength, endurance, toughness, speed, agility and quickness which was already impressive. In addition to that, he learned "overall skill levels" which allowed him to "train" even when he wasn't really training as these skills could be applied to whatever he was doing at the time.
Master Matsuda was impressed with Val's discipline and control over his body which was a lot greater than the doppelganger he had replaced. Val moved with a grace that surpassed any martial artist Matsuda had ever seen, doing katas that seemed more like an alien form of tai chi. Val didn't stop in between katas; he did several of them in one slow motion. His body, mind, and spirit were in harmony as he trained.
"I'm impressed with how fast you've learned what I've taught you. In fact, all you've done is adapt what you've already knew. Now it's time for some more training. Have you ever heard of gung fu, iron skin, tai chi and speed hitting, Val?"
"Yes, I heard of them. I've been learning these techniques from you, have I not?"
"That's right. I've been training you at a gradually slow pace, but now that you have more control over your body, your training in these techniques will increase."
"I can handle it, but I have noticed something."
"What's that?" the kempo master asked.
"My strength is greater than it's ever been. Are my abilities more because of your training or because of what the army did to me?" Val asked.
"Well, I'd say a little bit of both. What I've taught you has helped you a great deal. I guess you already found out that why the army threw you out," Tetsuo said.
"Yeah. But it was as if I was never in the army. Every one to whom I spoke, talked about me as if I was already dead. I also found out that the guy that experimented on me, Dr. Phophserus, has disappeared. No one knows where he is. There's something fishy going on, but never mind that now. I'm ready for the new training you have for me."
XXX
"All right, Val, I've been training you for a year now. You've come a long way; at this point your strength is very impressive. You have some resistance to killing attacks, but you're nowhere near being invulnerable. Keep in mind a lot of these martial artists you'll be facing are very skilled," the martial arts master fore warned.
"I understand, Sensei," Val answered as he wore a copy of what he wore when he was in the Legion of Super Heroes being a white super hero karate uniform with yellow/gold trim, white colored boots, brown wristbands, black pants and a black belt. In order to make a bigger name for himself, Val decided to call himself Karate Kid. The promoters had laughed at the name until they saw Val win his preliminary matches with shameless ease.
"Don't get cocky, Val. The fighters in this underground tournament have moderate super powers," the old man explained.
"Super powers?"
"Yes. Even though the contestants aren't allowed to use super power, many of them use hidden devices to cheat in order to win their fights. Some of the contestants have mild super powers that will help in their fights like teleportation or moderate super strength. Your fighting abilities could be interpreted as super human. Many of the others are very similar, some of them are more. You'll have to be ready for anything, Val. Just be careful and aware of your environment at all times; a powerful and skilled fighter can defeat you if you take him too lightly."
"Hmm. I see," Val answered.
The two martial artists arrived at the underground fighting circuit which was taking place at the
"And now for the Martial arts Tournament match being held at the L.A. Colisium. Presenting Judo Jack from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil!" Judo Jack wore a judo gi that was orange with gray trim and a color matching mask that covered his whole head. He looked to be about six feet three weighing 250 pounds with a barrel chest and large arms, making him look very powerful.
"Hooray!"
"And his opponent is from Venice, California. His name is Karate Kid!" As Val walked into the arena the spectators gawked at him first then cheered. The square footage of the fighting ring was twice as much as the standard boxing ring, being especially made and reinforced for the Underground Fight Tournament.
"So! You're the high and mighty Karate Kid. I'll show how this tournament is supposed to go!" Judo Jack announced as he regarded the half Japanese, half Caucasian man before him.
"Jiu jitsu is a very honorable art. Let's see if you are worthy of it."
"The Brazillian jiu jitsu I know is the best in the world. Maybe you'll give me a good workout with your vaunted karate which is really over rated. All I have to do is put you in a hold and it's all over. You'd have had a better chance against me if you were a wrestler, but now defeating you will be all too easy."
"Just bring it!" Val said as he leaped up into the air and came down in an arc, attempting come down on his opponent and hit him feet first. But the judo master was too aware of what was going to happen so he grabbed Val's feet, using a judo throw to slam him into the ground.
"That was so easy. Next time I'll put him in a choke hold and that will be it," the judo master thought with confidence. However, Val figured he'd throw him. Landing on his feet, he pretended to fall for that trap while setting up a trap of his own.
"This guy hasn't realized that I have gotten behind him. Now to beat the living daylights out of him with some powerful combinations," Karate Kid contemplated as he struck the surprised judo master with several rapid fire punches and kicks, ending the barrage with a left hook, snapping the side of his opponent's jaw to his left.
"Ungh! What kind of steroids have you been taking?" Judo Jack exclaimed. "Nobody has ever hit me that hard!" Judo Jack managed to keep from taking too much damage from Val's recent attack by rolling with the blow, hitting the ground and rolling away out of range. "If I hadn't learned how to take a beating at least a little bit I would have been creamed by now! What is this guy made of? Is he made out of steel? His fists are tougher than stone; that's for sure."
As Judo Jack was contemplating all this, Val moved in on him and struck him with a roundhouse punch that knocked the judo master back several feet. Before Judo Jack could get his bearings Val struck the ground with his right foot causing a shockwave that ended right where Jack was falling causing him to bounce off of the ground in pain.
"Aargh! I don't believe you have so much power. What kind of roids are you taking anyway? I know this is a street fight but sheesh!" Jack exclaimed.
"The very fact that you keep making comments about me taking steroids makes me think you've been taking steroids of some kind yourself. If that's the case, I'm not going to beef about it, but don't go making accusations against me you can't prove!" the karateka answered as he ran over to him and struck him with knee to the groin, followed up by a left uppercut to the jaw, causing the judoka's head to snap back. Since his sternum area was then open, Val decided to end the fight by striking his opponent right there, knocking the judo master to the ground.
"Wow! And there you have it, folks! The Karate Kid has taken the fight world by storm, showing what he's made of today! Nobody knows where Val Armorr came from but only time will tell!" the announcer said to the cheers of the crowd.
"You beat him, Val. You have gone beyond what I thought you were capable of doing. Now, let's get our winnings and go home," Master Matsuda said, hiding the fact he was actually proud of his grandson.
"Val Armorr?"
The Karate Kid turned towards the sound of the voice he heard, taking a good look at the man wearing a dark blue uniform version of Captain America's uniform, wing tips on his head and all. Blue stars and stripes
"Yeah, that's me. What about it?"
"So it is you. I thought you looked familiar."
"Who are you? I don't think you're Captain America."
"No. I'm the Usagent. Last I heard the army threw you out because of your bad health. You obviously look very healthy."
"What do you want?" Val asked suspiciously.
"I have a few words for you," the large man said sternly.
"Do you represent the army?" Val said, regarding the military bearing of the man before him.
"The army is a great place to be. What's your problem with the army?" the agent demanded.
"The army threw me out like so much trash after some guy named Dr. Phosphorus experimented on me and almost killed me. I'll show you my walking papers if you don't believe me," Val responded.
"That won't be necessary. I've seen all the paper work. I'm not accusing you of being a deserter or anything like that. I've heard about you participating in underground fighting championships which you won quite handily. You've even proved victorious in the lower level street fighting circuits and in the speed and agility contests. After the experiments you've benefited from, it seems a bit unfair, don't you think?"
"Hey, I didn't ask for this. And the strength I have is from a lot of training and the weight lifting I did years back before I joined the army along with a lot of chi and ki training by channeling my life force into strength and toughness. I can't help what that mad scientist did to me. I almost died from what he did! Anyway, you're not exactly a weakling yourself.?"
"I'm not weakling in any shape or form, but I'm not here to argue what's weak or strong. The army wants you back. You can start with the rank you had when they 'discharged' you."
"Who said I wanted to come back? I'm fine with what I'm doing now. So you can go back to them if you want. I have some street fights to train for."
"Listen, Lieutenant, the army spent a lot money paying for your college and a lot of time and money training you. You still owe..."
"Don't call me Lieutenant, you Captain America wannabe! I'm not in the army anymore. And I never volunteered for any experiments!"
"We know all about that. The experiments Dr. Phosphorus did on you had been forbidden. He and Captain Nordberg disobeyed orders. When it looked like you were going to die, a high ranking general arranged to have you 'discharged' to cover up what they were doing."
"I've recovered from what happened even though I was in a lot of pain and almost died. Master Matsuda, my grandfather here helped me out when nobody else did."
"I understand all of that. But the general who discharged you has since been court martialed," the USAgent replied.
"What about Dr. Phosphorus? Last I heard he disappeared. Do you know where he is?" the karateka asked.
"Nobody knows where he is, but I strongly suspect he's working for some mastermind super villain," the larger man explained.
"Super villains? I'm not afraid of them or anyone else. It's been nice talking to you, but I have to go. See you around," Val said as he walked away from USAgent with his grandfather beside him.
"Wait! There's a group called the Avengers!" the agent called out to the departing martial artist. "I have to convince him to either return to the army or join up with the Avengers. I can tell this guy has more going for him than just martial arts. I can sense that somehow."
XXX