Guys, I'm not going to lie, I was working on one of the far-future story arcs and I actually started to cry. It didn't help that I was listening to Jar of Hearts all day.
Recap - After a short battle against Kongo, the Hulk is gone and it's only Merida who remains.
Chapter Fourteen: MojoWorld Part Three
MojoWorld - Time Unknown
The mission was originally meant to extract confidential SHIELD data from a third-party enterprise in Rio de Janeiro. Daniel had to go since he was the only one who could break into the mainframe in the shortest amount of time possible and Merida was more-or-less Daniel's bodyguard and combatant strategist for the field. The mission itself was a success up to the point where they jumped out the window and woke up in an outer space wrestling match.
That part was not on Merida's mission plan.
Merida has already witnessed Daniel's Hulk and aliens in the span of what has felt like a few minutes. That's the part her brain is still trying to process. Now, she's standing alone in the middle of an extraterrestrial coliseum. Her friend is floating somewhere in the stars and she's enclosed with the monster that sent him there. And now, she's expected to fight it.
Everything is happening too fast for her. She's all alone in a fight that she isn't prepared for in any way. Too much is going on in her mind. She needs to somehow save Daniel and get their asses out of here. The only problem is that she has no idea what the hell she's going to do since she still doesn't fully know what the hell is going on.
-o-
Merida takes a deep breath as she calms her nerves. As Kongo charges at her, she holds up her loaded bow. The audience claps, energizing the both of them. As Merida fires the arrow, Kongo vanishes. Merida loads her bow once more but holds her fire, staying on her toes. She turns around just as Kongo reappears behind her. Kongo slaps her to the ground. She lands on her stomach as her bow slides out of her hand and past her fingertips.
Quickly, Merida rolls onto her back and begins scooting away from Kongo, making her way towards her bow. Kongo walks towards her with large strides. Without her eyes leaving the cyborg, Merida pulls out a special arrow from her quiver. She snaps that arrow, only keeping the arrowhead in her grip. The moment Kongo is above her, Merida waits for the perfect moment.
Kongo raises his robotic leg in the air in order to stomp on her. Merida takes the electro-tip arrowhead that was in her hand and stabs it into the joint of its leg. As electrical sparks begin to fly, Merida rolls to the side as Kongo stumbles back due to the sudden leg spasms. Merida jumps to her feet and grabs her bow. She loads it again and fires arrows non-stop. Kongo only swats them away.
Kongo roars as Merida begins running. Her only option is to run in a circle since she's literally trapped inside a dome. She turns around and when she sees Kongo leap forwards for her, Merida ducks, allowing the monster to jump over her. That's when Merida skids on her feet and begins heading the other direction. Little does she know that Kongo teleports away and reappears in front of her. It picks up Merida and slams her on the ground.
Merida lies on the ground, limply, and feels Kongo add more of its weight on her. Merida squirms, barely able to move.
"Who's in charge here?!" She exclaims.
The only response she gets is a chant from the audience, yelling at Kongo to finish her. Merida squeezes her eyes shut, ready to take in the pain - but nothing. She feels all the weight being lifted off her and hears it being thrown away. Merida slowly opens her eyes, coughing and catching her breath and is more grateful than ever when she sees green instead of white.
"And look who's back wanting more?!" The announcer exclaims only for entertainment purposes.
The Hulk roars loudly, emphasizing its return as it slams its fists against its chest. The crowd jumps out of their seats and rejoices.
Merida stands up, looking at the Hulk. She has no time to wonder how it possibly got back but it doesn't matter. The Hulk stands in between Merida and Kongo with its focus primarily on the cyborg. It slams its green fist on the ground and roars loudly before charging at Kongo.
As that fight goes on, Merida loads her bow with one of her standard arrows. She looks at the audience and sees the aliens paying no attention to her but to the actual fight. Merida takes this time to inspect the area she's in, looking for any weak spots to take advantage of.
None she could spot right away.
Merida turns around and sees Kongo treating the Hulk like a rag doll, slamming him repeatedly against the forcefield. She changes the arrow in her bow to a rocket-tipped one. She aims it directly at Kongo and fires. Once the arrow explodes, Kongo waves away the smoke and looks at Merida. It drops the Hulk and has its eyes set on Merida.
In response, Merida quickly loads her bow with a sonic arrow. The crowd expects her to fire it at Kongo so their cheers diminished when she aimed it upwards, towards the jumbotron. The moment her current image appears on the screen, she lets the arrow loose. It's sonic waves emit and cause Kongo to fall to the ground and the screen to black out.
The crowd is silent. The Hulk doesn't make a single noise.
Merida huffs, unsure what to do now or what will happen now since she was expecting some kind of response from someone or something. She turns around and looks at the Hulk who just stands there. Merida tilts her head a little and jumps a little when she sees the Hulk fall over.
"Daniel!" She exclaims, beginning to run over.
Merida stops when she feels something prick her neck. She pulls out a tiny dart from her neck, recognizing it from earlier. Last time, it had no effect on her but this time around, she feels herself getting dizzy. Merida falls over, keeping her hands firmly on her bow even though it will render her useless due to her strength fading away. She hears the crowd getting excited for some reason she can't understand.
A countdown finishes and then she hears it.
"And that concludes round one!"
Merida mutters those last two words to herself even though they echo in her head, quickly putting togther that those words imply multiple more rounds to come, before blacking out.
Stay Tuned - Round two is coming soon!