Section Twelve - Results
The Ring
Sophitia was trying her hardest to hit Lord Raptor, but the zombie rocker was just too fast for her. Every time she swung at him, he ducked or dodged, laughing maniacally.
Finally, as Raptor was off-balance, she thrust her shortsword forward. Raptor tore a hole open in his own chest, letting the sword hit nothing at all, and knocked her down with a headbutt.
As Sophitia struggled to get up, Raptor chortled in triumph... right up until a piece of metal dug into his ear.
"Dodge this."
Hol Horse pulled the trigger on his pistol, the Emperor, and watched Raptor fall like a puppet with its strings cut. He took a puff from his cigarette, tipped his cowboy hat to Sophitia, and smiled. "Hey there, miss. What's a pretty thing like yourself doing in a contest like this?"
Lord Raptor, unnoticed by Hol, popped right back up. "That hurt, you son of a bitch."
Hol nearly swallowed his cigarette in shock, and turned to find himself face to face with the blue zombie. The bullet hole healed up before his eyes.
"Boo."
"GAH! CRAP!"
And away the cowboy ran.
Raptor simply snapped his fingers and muttered, "Chainsaw."
Le Malta popped out of the ground and wrapped his mouth around his master's arm. A six-foot long chainsaw tore out of Malta's backside, and Raptor smiled. "Groovy."
The chase was on.
"And so," Clark said, as Hol Horse ran screaming behind him, "those are our orders. Hey, are you listening?" he asked, noting that Leona had her eyes set on something behind him.
Pagan, who had been charging at Clark, pulled up a couple feet short of him when Hol Horse and Raptor run across her path.
"Leona? What-"
Clark didn't get to finish his sentence. The moment Raptor got out of her way, Leona shoved Clark aside and slammed a charging punch into Pagan's stomach. As Leona backed away from her, something on Pagan's back hissed briefly.
Clark dove for cover.
Pagan was engulfed by a loud explosion that sent her flying over the force field... and directly into a storm of laser fire.
Serious Sam raised his eyebrows. He'd expected to blow away a pack of aludron reptiloids. On the plus side, though, whoever the late woman was, the reptiloids were now busy savaging her corpse.
Control Booth
"Two point eight three seconds," Birdman announced. "That has to be the fastest I've ever seen someone bite it."
"I knew the War Gods would leave their mark someday," Wanderer said. "But what about Tak? Didn't he get punched into dust upon entry?"
"Indeed he did. But it took a while for the dust cloud to settle. Technically he lasted the longest."
The Ring
"One of these days," Sakura muttered as she tripped and fell to the canvas, "-oof! I'm going to have to learn to keep my big mouth shut."
While it had often worked with Ryu, trying to engage this "Kyo" guy up close was certainly not going to work. She had heard of fireballs, sure. Those were common. What she *wasn't* used to were people whose hands were on fire. That just wasn't done. Sakura would get in a punch, or a kick... and get a second-degree burn for her trouble. Her dress was singed in more than one place.
"This was fun for about a minute," Kyo said. "If that's the best you can do, though, get the hell out of my way!"
"...hey now," Sakura said. "There's an idea."
As Sakura got up, Ryuji Yamazaki fell down. A low Snake Arm had whiffed, and Casey Jones punished him with a cricket bat to the face.
Casey put the bat away behind his back and pulled out a hockey stick. "Shouldn't make that face or it'll freeze like that, slime bag."
Ryuji growled in aggravation as he made it back to his feet. He threw his weight behind a low sweep, but Casey saw it coming, jumped it, and shattered his hockey stick over Ryuji's head. Ryuji collapsed, as Casey abandoned the broken stick for a Louisville Slugger.
"Got you now, punk." Casey laid into the prone Ryuji with the bat.
"Hey!" Lei Wulong exclaimed, running over. "What are you doing? Do you honestly think that this is how you should fight for justice?"
Casey stopped his attack, and stepped over Ryuji's body. All he could do was stare at Lei.
"Don't you have any sense of honorable combat?" Lei asked. "Do you really think what you're doing is right?"
Casey tilted his head to the side slightly, as if considering this, before nailing Lei in the gut with his bat.
"I think that might makes right," Casey told him.
And with that, mighty Casey swung the bat. Wulong took a home-run shot to the chin that sent him clear over the force field, and for the next fifteen minutes, the roving gangs of Chinatown had more than just Jackie Chan, Stuntmaster, to worry about.
Casey Jones twirled his baseball bat dramatically and put it away, dusting his hands off as he turned around.
That put him face-to-face with a psychotically smiling madman. Ryuji palmed Casey's head and snickered.
As Casey sailed up into the air, he felt a momentary sense of relief; he wasn't going to go over the barrier. Instead, he started falling back down, towards the maniacal laughing of-
Uh-oh.
After an extended series of headbutts, Yamazaki reared back and slammed Casey straight out of the ring.
"What, is that it?" Ryuji barked. "I'm just getting started!"
Casey landed hard on his back on a beach somewhere, in the middle of the night. Casey held the mask gingerly as he stood up, which was painfully digging into his face. Even if he could've seen straight, it was too dark out to see anything.
That included the enormous man skulking towards Casey with an axe in his hands. Coincidentally, Jason Voorhees had just been thinking about getting a new mask.
Sub-Basement 8-23-12, RumbleDome Hotel
"YoU arE a FOol TO cHAlLeNge mE, DoOM!" Blackheart melted into a puddle and appeared behind Dr. Doom, trying to grab him. "fOR mY FaTHer, i wILl deSTroY yOU!"
"Please. To claim this in the name of Mephisto is an insult to Doom's intelligence." Doom went airborne to dodge Blackheart's clumsy grab, and blasted it with both gauntlets. "Your father himself is a foe worthy to have battled Doom many times. It is very much a shame that the apple falls too far from the tree, so to speak." Doom crossed his arms and descended at Blackheart, feet first.
Blackheart intersected Doom's attempt by tossing a meteor to the ground and engulfing Doom in a pillar of ice. Confidently, he slinked over Doom's way and laughed. He stretched his arms out and demonic pawns spawned out of his chest, spreading in Doom's direction. Doom reached out one hand and disintegrated them with some mild blasts. Doom tried a stronger discharge at Blackheart's head, but the demon prince met the energy head on with his Dark Thunder attack. The two concentrated their energy, Doom mostly getting the advantage.
"dOOm YoU FOoL!" Blackheart taunted as he stomped onto the ground and covered Doom with more Hell spawns. The creatures clawed at Doom's armor, trying to get in. Doom did the only thing he could do and allowed Blackheart to zap him... which destroyed the imps.
In another battle, King blocked a slap from Nina Williams. He firmly grabbed her wrist and shoved her into a wall.
"Listen, lady! I got nothing against you. Now go bother the guy with the pointy hat, and let me get a piece of that green freak!"
Nina, with a blank stare, grabbed King by his wrist, flipped him onto his back, and stepped down on a very delicate area.
crunch
King slowly stood back up and pointed at Nina. "Okay, Nina. Now you went and made it personal!"
Ogre just stood in the shadows, unchallenged, chuckling at the brawl.
Magneto was both amazed and annoyed. What should have been a mostly one-sided fight against Jedah was nullified by a quick healing factor that made Wolverine and Sabertooth look like bubble boys. But considering Magneto had a force field at his disposal, it sounded about fair.
It came in handy, too. Jedah attempted to carve the mutant leader from the side with his conjured scythe, but it bounced off the magnetic field and forced the demon lord back. Magneto smacked his foe away with the powerful wave of his hand.
Jedah retained his composure. "Endure your shield as much as you want, human. I'll crack the shell eventually."
"Human? Don't make me laugh."
Q-Bee, taking a page from Blackheart's book, was using her drones to keep Taki at a distance. As fast as she was, Taki was out of her element, and she'd taken a few painful stings. As another drone's stinger connected, Q-Bee readied her own, to put an end to the ninja.
A katana blade parried it.
Q-Bee turned her head and saw the glowing red eyes of Ichiro Tsunami.
Taki nodded and moved on to attack Lilith. Her dagger swipes were dodged again and again as Lilith skipped backwards, with a smile on her face. She went for an uppercut, but Lilith ducked underneath it and grabbed Taki with both arms.
"Baby, that lower half just isn't you, you know?" Lilith said, with a playful squeeze. Her wings became long blades. "You should probably have it removed!"
Before the wings could cut Taki into two pieces, the ninja broke out of the hug and kicked off of Lilith's chest, flipping backward. In midair, she tried diving back at the succubus... only to fly straight into a cloud of bats, which had once been Lilith's clothing.
Ichiro admired the fresh blood covering most of his katana blade. Q-Bee lay by his feet, trying her hardest to get back up. The dark samurai suddenly became distracted and turned away. Even if his ally was taking a beating, a naked woman still has a way of getting one's attention.
He might have cracked a smile if it wasn't for Q-Bee grabbing him by the shoulders from behind. Before he could react, a stinger tore out of his stomach, much to Ichiro's horror. He dropped his sword, and opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
King, meanwhile, finally put Nina down with a powerbomb through a stack of shipping crates. He grunted with satisfaction, and looked around for another opponent. One presented itself in the form of Ogre, who slammed King to the floor with a shoulder rush.
Ogre picked Nina up by the ankle and looked her up and down in disgust. He discarded her body, and grabbed King's swinging fist out of the air without looking. King tried to power out of Ogre's grip, with no luck, and Ogre slapped a bearhug onto him. King struggled weakly, as his ribs began to give.
Taki stood on Lilith's shoulders and flipped backwards, driving Lilith into the ground, headfirst. She pinned Lilith to the ground, prepared to end her existence, but the image of Ichiro caught her eye. Ichiro was in the same position as before, only covered in a yellow crust with a giant bees' nest sticking out of his back.
Q-Bee looked at Taki and giggled. "What can I zzzzay? I've been buzzzzy azzz a- ah!"
Taki pounced off of Lilith and landed over at Q-Bee, driving her Mekkimaru blade into the honeybee's shoulder. In the same motion, she drove her other blade, the Rekkimaru, through the right section of Q-Bee's compound eyes, piercing into her brain.
Q-Bee's response was a high-pitched shriek that almost deafened Taki.
Taki jerked Mekkimaru out of Q-Bee's head and whirled around, cutting across Q-Bee's neck with both blades. The head dropped free; the dead body withered into a skeleton.
Immediately after, the top of the beehive began to crack and a second Q-Bee broke out. She waved at the ninja girl and leaned over, holding her chin with both hands.
"Zzzzzo, what did I mizzzzzz?"
Taki's anger became concern when she noticed Lilith was back on her feet, only now, she was dressed in a tight outfit exactly like Taki's own.
"So, does this make me look fat? And be honest." Lilith posed, her arms behind her back.
Ogre held King's limp body up by the neck, studying the ferocious mask. "Ah, yes. I remember a man with a mask like this. His performance was just as horrible. And the way he cried for his many children..."
King's muscles twitched.
"...so pathetic."
King bent his knees and curled up, shifting his angle. While still held by the neck, he was able to dropkick Ogre in the face and free himself. He rolled to the ground, stood up, and delivered a second dropkick. Ogre staggered backward, and swung once, desperately putting all his strength behind a wild right cross. King easily saw through the attack, and hooked Ogre's arm.
Ogre was picked up and suspended upside-down, back to back with King. The masked wrestler sat down, turning the armbar into a Vertebreaker, cracking the God of the Fight's head into the floor. He rolled backward, picked Ogre up again, and delivered a German Suplex. Without letting go of Ogre's legs, King stood up and swung Ogre around, slamming him into a wall.
Ogre stood back up, but staggered and fell to one knee. King tilted his head and gave an over-exaggerated shrug. Ogre backed off, and walked through a hole in the wall. King followed, making sure there were no interlopers in their brawl.
Taki fell to her back and hopped up just as fast. Things were looking grim for her as Q-Bee, Lilith and a weak, but standing, Nina closed in. However, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Magneto gesture in a way she remembered from their time in the ring. She hopped up and attached herself to the ceiling, hoping it wouldn't collapse.
"SHOCKWAVE!"
The pillars of magnetic force slammed into Q-Bee, Lilith, and Nina, scattering them across the room and knocking all three unconscious.
Magneto, after the Shockwave had faded away, fell to the floor, his cape in tatters. Jedah licked the blood off his fingers. He conjured his scythe up once again and held it up high in order to drive it through Magneto's back.
Mekkimaru flipped end-over-end through the air, and sunk to its hilt in Jedah's forehead.
"Oh, girl," Jedah said, and staggered back like he'd had one too many drinks. "You do know how to treat me..."
"You like pain, do you?" Magneto said.
"Oh, yessss..." Jedah hissed.
"Then you'll truly enjoy this."
Ichiro's katana flew from the floor and stapled Jedah to the closest wall. At the same time, Magneto gestured with one hand, and Mekkimaru shot straight down from the wound in Jedah's head, with a sound like wet paper tearing.
Jedah's scream had a disturbing element of... satisfaction to it.
Blackheart held Dr. Doom up by one hand, as spirits from his Hell flew into Doom's body. In response, Doom grabbed Blackheart's neck and used his other hand to blast a laser off into his face. Both flew backwards.
Blackheart stood back up instantly. "EnOuGH oF THiS! I'm FIniShEd wIth YOu! ARMAGEDDON!"
A shower of stones from Hell itself flew from the air above them, towards Dr. Doom, who simply stood still. The first few rocks missed, but the ones after them simply stopped, shattering against a hovering cloud of debris: Doom's Molecular Shield.
"Away with you," Doom said dismissively.
The Molecular Shield slammed into Blackheart. The demon, and the shower of stone, crashed into a forklift, demolishing it and burying Blackheart under a pile of rubble.
Jedah, with pieces of his body hanging by only a thread, tried to gather the unconscious Lilith and Q-Bee.
Magneto, back on his feet and visibly angry, flew towards Jedah, with Taki at his side.
"This isn't over. You're rid of me for today." A white pillar of light surrounded Jedah and his minions. "But our paths will cross again! Farewell!" Jedah and the other two faded away, accompanied by ominous laughter.
On the other side of the room, Dr. Doom raised one hand. A beam of power from his gauntlet vaporized the debris covering Blackheart's unconscious body.
"Tell Mephisto about exactly what happened today, Blackheart. Tell him about your failure. He will surely be impressed."
Blackheart narrowed his eyes in disdain, and didn't respond. Instead, he melted down into black ooze, and drained into an opening portal.
King ran back into the room.
"You have won the fight, then?" Doom asked.
"You bet. Once I got the upper hand, that green freak turned yellow and ran."
"You seem in good spirits, for one who has lost track of his enemy."
"I'll meet up with him in the Iron Fist, I'm sure of it. But now I know, Doom. Now I know for a fact that I can kick his ass. And I have you to thank, Doc."
Doom nodded. "Fair enough. I believe you'll be needed in the ring very soon. Go off and be careful. If you don't find yourself victorious, come and seek Doom."
"You got it!" King ran off.
Magneto appeared behind Dr. Doom. "I believe I'll take my leave now, Doom."
Doom nodded. "Be cautious, Magnus. We have many enemies, and Doom cannot repay a dead man."
Magneto drifted out of the room and into the darkness. His eyes were fixated on Doom all the while.
The hive that covered the body of Ichiro Tsunami finally crumbled. He stumbled forward and coughed weakly. He was groggy, but the wound in his stomach wasn't life-threatening.
"Clean yourself up, Tsunami," Doom said. "There is more work to be done."
Still on his knees, Ichiro pointed at Nina Williams, who was still out cold. "What do we do with her?"
"Leave her be. She's only a pawn."
Taki picked up her small swords, knowing it would be a good idea to wipe the blood stains off of them soon. She let out a sigh of frustration.
"I failed," she said to herself.
"They were not your demons," Doom said. "You helped foil their plans and perhaps even save this Multiverse we are all a part of. That in itself is more important than the deaths of those who you may never meet again."
Taki put away her daggers and walked away, but Doom was not done speaking yet. "If you are on your way to the Elimination Seating, Doom has a favor to ask of you."
"What would that be?"
"I need you to make a delivery to one Jonathan Talbain."
Magic(k) Security Offices, RumbleDome Hotel
"Huh."
Gabe put down his sandwich. "What is it?"
John pointed to a spot on the large monitor that represented part of the sub-basements. "I noticed an unusual amount of magic from this area."
"That's where..."
"Right. Where the demons tried to steal McWild. The thing is," John pointed at a different monitor that listed the names of the combatants, "these records indicate that Blackheart, Jedah, Lilith Aensland and Q-Bee just left this node."
Gabe started up a game of FreeCell. "You know how those demons are. They'll turn on each other at the drop of a hat. They probably got a little pissy and had themselves a slap fight. They're gone now. There's probably nothing to worry about."
"Yeah. You're probably right."
Sub-Basement THX 11, RumbleDome
Nakoruru and Siegfried stood side-to-side, next to a closet door. The closet itself was cleared of brooms and such days ago. Now it was used as a cell, to hold Demitri's prisoner, Ryo Sakazaki.
The door opened and a slightly peeved Drew Bogard stormed by the two guards. All the while he held onto the Mace of Tanis, his gift from his new master.
Drew sat down on a chair next to Johnny Maximum, who was intently watching a monitor. He spread his legs and leaned on the handle of the Mace.
"So how'd it go?" Maximum inquired.
Drew shifted his eyes and groaned. "Not well. Nothing we've tried has worked. That goody-two-shoes can't be corrupted. Maximov's probably going to just kill him, I guess." He watched the team of Charlotte, Clark and Leona stack the odds against Geese and Yamazaki, and gave a vicious grin. "Stab him, you French whore. Make him beg."
"I just don't get it," the football player said while looking at Drew. "Now you're an evil version of that Andy Bogard guy, right?"
"Yes, that seems to be the case."
"Okay, and this Geese guy, he's evil too, right?"
"Yes, and I know what you're getting at. Let me put it this way, so that even you can understand." Despite the insult, Maximum stayed put thanks to the fear of Drew's weapon. "We both want Andy Bogard dead. As for the rest of Andy's rancid little friends, I wouldn't mind seeing them suffer either, especially that Shiranui whore. But I still hate everything Andy hates. Andy hated Geese, and even though I don't care about what he did to Andy's father, I despise him just as much. Is that simple enough for you?"
"Uh, yes." Maximum turned back to the monitor. "I hate Mai too. She's the only reason why I lost UVR2."
"Sure she was."
Fuuma finished tending to Rolento's wounds. "One more stitch... and... there you go. Good as new."
"Amazing job, Fuuma," added Brocken. "I'm guessing Rasputin's shown you some tricks of the trade, so to speak?"
"Exactly. So now I guess you can go back to searching for the Infinity Gems?"
"Not precisely," Rolento told him. "My men are still out there looking for leads. Once El Gado returns, we'll act."
Inside the closet (hey, shut up), a different conversation was going on. "I've made my decision, Sakazaki. I may not be able to enslave you, but I will not kill you."
This came as somewhat of a shock to Ryo, who was chained up to a chair, gagged, and covered with his own dried blood. He couldn't turn his head to see Demitri behind him, but it was probably better that way.
"I came to a revelation, Sakazaki. You didn't just halt my plans. If that was it, you'd be nothing more than a stain by now. But you sent me to Hell. Do you know what that's like, boy?" Like the blink of an eye, Demitri was suddenly face-to-face with Ryo. "DO YOU?!"
The vampire stood back up and regained his composure. "Of course you don't. I checked up upon your past. Even with your mother dead, your life is easy. Your best friend is a millionaire who would give up all of his riches for you at the drop of a hat. You have a loving sister, and even if he is insane, a loving father who's proud of you. They are the reasons why you are going to stay alive, Sakazaki, because, one by one, Robert, Yuri, Takuma, Athena, and anyone else you hold dear will be tortured... slowly... to death.
"And you... you will be forced to watch them suffer, helpless to save them. Helpless to stop the pain. And once you are an old, decrepit fool with nothing left, I'll end your miserable life in a way so vindictive that it hasn't even been created yet."
Ryo cringed as he heard Demitri's voice seemingly come from inside his head.
"Then you will know Hell."
Outside the door, Siegfried and Nakoruru continued to guard, unmoved by whatever they heard. But yet, Siegfried found himself mystified by a strange whisper.
"Siiiiegfriiiiiied... Siiiiiegfriiiiied..."
The knight quickly scanned the room to see that nobody seemed to be asking for his attention. And nobody else seemed to notice the soft voice.
"Siiiiegfriiiiiied..."
There it was again. This time it sounded slightly louder. Siegfried looked to his left to see Nakoruru, still with an emotionless glare. If she heard the voice, she didn't react.
Above them, listening intently from inside the vaulted ceiling, that strange, whispering voice was the only thing that Eiji Kisaragi didn't hear.
The Ring
Hol Horse was still running from Lord Raptor and his six-foot long chainsaw. The zombie, who seemed to be in a trance of some sort with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, swiped at the gunman. He barely missed drawing blood, but did cut off part of the flap on the back of Hol Horse's outfit. Hol immediately went full steam after that, running for his life.
"Damn it, J. Geil," Hol said out loud. "Where the hell are you?"
J. Geil was a little busy at the moment, paying attention to the team up between Charlotte and Leona against Geese, as Clark and Ryuji duked it out nearby. In the reflective surface of a fan's eye, the Hanged Man crawled out from the mat and stalked over to Charlotte, who was busy trying to turn Geese into a pincushion. The Stand gave a sinister snicker and advanced at her, unnoticed.
"How?! How could you throw out Haohmaru, you creep?!"
Geese desperately dodged and blocked Charlotte's rapier, but a few strikes got through his guard. He still had enough composure to retort, "I believe those are the rules."
Charlotte finally connected a swipe and took Geese off his feet. She pointed her sword at her foe and smirked. "Now I am going to return the favor, Geese How- HEY!" She dropped her stance and turned around. "Whose hand was that?!"
The Hanged Man, noticed but unseen, drifted back into the mat.
Clark, who had just suplexed Yamazaki a couple seconds before, was confused at why Charlotte was looking at him with a look of extreme fury. Geese went to rush the French swordswoman while she was distracted, but Leona intercepted him and delivered a clean punch to the face. In the long run, the interruption was probably a good thing for him.
"How dare you touch me like that?!" Charlotte fumed.
"I beg your pardon?"
Ten seconds later, Clark Steele, a little worse for wear, landed in an abandoned amusement park where a giant cockroach was running amok. Clark got ready to tangle with it, but inexplicably, the roach exploded into goo. The splattered Ikari Warrior turned around and saw a black man in a suit with sunglasses on.
"What was that about?" Clark wondered aloud. He'd seen a lot of weird stuff throughout his year as a mercenary, but nothing like this.
"Sir," J said, "to explain what that was all about, I'm gonna have to ask you to take off those shades and look directly into this light."
"What?"
"I need you to take off those-"
"The shades stay on."
"No, seriously. I need you to take off the-"
"The shades stay on."
J reached to grab Clark's sunglasses. "Sir, I'm gonna have to insist that you take off- AH!"
crack
"Let go of my hand, man!"
"The shades stay on."
"Man, if you don't let go'a me, I'ma gonna-"
WHAM *THUD* POW
Sometimes Ikari Warriors just don't understand.
Back in the ring, Charlotte moved back into the melee, slightly less peeved. The first thing she saw was Leona glaring at her with her arms crossed. She scrunched up her nose to illustrate her disdain.
"What's that look for?" Charlotte wondered aloud. "You saw what happened, right? He groped me!"
Leona narrowed her eyes for a second but then stopped staring at Charlotte. Instead she twisted her neck, and tipped her head back, shifting her blue hair. The hair moved away from her ear, revealing her missing earring... which was next to Charlotte's foot.
The earring exploded, sending the UVR veteran high over the force field and out of the ring. Leona, on the other hand, engaged Geese Howard in battle once again.
"I can't help but find this funny," Geese said.
Leona held her tongue and went after Geese with all she had.
But in Skies of Arcadia...
"My word!" exclaimed a stunned King Enrique. The newly christened ruler of Valua was currently acting quite unbecoming of his title, opting instead to cower behind his golden throne as he stared at the woman who had just arrived, quite abruptly, via portal, into the throne room.
"Mother! You've... you've returned! And you look at least fifty years younger! How can this be?"
Charlotte stayed silent, frozen in place. Shock tends to do such things to people.
Galford had originally thought that he could take on Grendal and Shinnok at the same time with no real problem, but this was rapidly turning out to not be the case. Shinnok had a vast arsenal of projectiles to play with, and Grendal had a very large (and very painful) hammer. Unable to get close to the Elder God, and unable to get away from the gargoyle, Galford seemed to be in a lot of trouble.
Captain America leapt in and stopped Shinnok's Scorpion Spear with his shield before it could skewer Galford, allowing Galford time to dodge a hammer swing that would've taken his head off.
"Need a hand, I see," Captain America said.
"I was just about to ask, in fact," Galford agreed quickly, as Captain America deflected a Sub-Zero Ice Ball from Shinnok. "Poppy!"
Poppy barked. Poppy had been unable to get close to Shinnok, and obviously there was not a whole hell of a lot that Poppy would have been able to do to a creature made entirely of stone. But this time, Poppy had backup.
Captain America saw Poppy take off and slung his shield over and past the charging canine, launching it like a missile towards Shinnok's chest. Shinnok saw the shield coming and knocked it away with a block, but missed what was coming under the shield. Poppy rammed the Elder God with a head butt that folded Shinnok's leg under him and sent him crashing to the ground.
Captain America and Galford whipped around to see Grendal raising his hammer, about to swing it downwards onto Captain America's head. Before he brought the swing down, however, Asmodeus's control faltered again and Grendal swayed, the bright glow in his eyes dimming slightly.
"STARS AND STRIPES!"
By the time his eyes' glow was at its brightest again, Grendal was well past the force field and through the dimensional field.
"Aw, SoN oF a BiTcH," he heard inside his head.
Grendal landed with a heavy thud in a pile of lighting equipment, next to a formerly well-lit stage. In the center of the stage, Eddy Gordo had been about to tell Regis Philbin that he thought A, Ngugi Thiong'o, was the correct answer, when both he and the host saw the vengeful stone behemoth charging at them.
Both Eddy and Regis shrieked, but that was all they had time to do.
THUMP *THUMP* THUMP *THUMP* THUMP *THUMP* THUMP *THUMP* THUMP *THUMP* THUMP *THUMP* THUMP *THUMP* THUMP *THUMP* THUMP *THUMP* THUMP *THUMP* THUMP *THUMP* SPLUTCH
The Ring
"Good job, friend!" Galford smiled and gave a thumbs-up to Captain America.
"It's not over yet," Captain America told him. "Remember, there's someone else you were- whoa!"
Galford saw it the same time Captain America did; Shinnok had launched himself at both of them with Liu Kang's flying kick. Both of them ducked, allowing him to fly over their heads, and turned around to watch him sail clear across to the other side of the ring.
"REPPUKEN!"
Leona's attempt at dashing in and attacking Geese Howard with a ground slash was foiled by the energy wave that knocked her onto her back. Having watched Leona hit the ground Geese saw Shinnok, still in his flying kick, fly over her and straight towards him. Geese grabbed Shinnok's ankle before the kick connected and used the force of his flight against him to casually toss him out of the ring and into the dimensional field.
Shinnok landed hard on the concrete in the center of an alley, somewhere in Liberty City. He stood up and dusted off his costume. He decided to walk around and maybe force a couple citizens to worship him, but he accidentally tripped over a briefcase.
The Elder God growled. He, a god, had been taken down by a piece of luggage. But the worst had yet to come.
"Well what do we have here?" a Triad gang member asked, followed by a dozen of his closest friends, as he entered through one side of the alley. Shinnok looked around to see the other ways out crowding up as well.
"Looks like Ciprani sent a mouse into the trap. Look at this freak. Auditioning for Dead Presidents, dawg?"
"You know not who you speak to!" Shinnok said.
A voice came from the middle of the crowd. "Our bitch, that's who you are!"
Shinnok was able to take care of the first few attackers, but after about ten bullets in the chest and twice as many whaps to the head with metal bats, Shinnok found himself on his stomach. For the next fourteen minutes, Shinnok received the beating of a lifetime. That says a lot considering he was an immortal.
While that was happening, a squinty man in a brown jacket wandered into the alley, picked up the briefcase and quietly walked out. He hailed a cab, shoved the driver out, and drove back to Tony Ciprani's place for further orders.
But enough about that. Let's go back to the ring.
"Too easy," Geese snorted, dusting his hands off.
"I'd have to agree with that," Galford told Captain America.
Captain America nodded, propping himself up against the turnbuckles to catch a breather.
Somewhere else in the ring, Hol Horse was still sprinting for dear life. He peered over his left shoulder to see that fortune smiled upon him as Kagemaru intercepted Lord Raptor. Still running, he laughed to himself...
Right before colliding into Yoshimitsu, knocking both contestants down.
Hol sat up and put his hat back on. He noticed that Raptor had split from fighting Kagemaru and was stalking his way. And he still had that damned chainsaw. The gunslinger panicked and tried to get back up. Yoshimitsu helped him, but held him up by the collar so he wouldn't get away.
"And what are you running from, Speedy?"
The cowboy merely gave a mix of gasping, wheezing and stuttering as he pointed over Yoshi's shoulder. "Zo-zo-z-z-z-zo-zo-zo-!"
"Spit it out!" Yoshi smacked Hol upside the head and across the face a couple times.
"Zo-ZO-ZO-!"
"What are you talking about? 'Zonka?' You're being chased by football great Larry Zonka?"
"No-no-no! Zo-zo-!"
"General Zod is in the ring?"
"Z-ZOMBIE!"
Yoshi calmly looked over to see an angry Lord Raptor coming their way.
"That? You're afraid of that?"
"Yep!"
Yoshi smacked Hol around some more. "What's the matter with you?!"
Hol looked down and huffed. "I don't know."
"Look at you! You call yourself a cowboy?"
"I guess."
"Would Clint Eastwood run from a zombie?"
"I don't know."
"Would Gary Cooper run from a zombie?"
"I doubt it."
"Would the Duke run from a zombie?"
"I guess not."
"Then why are you running?"
Hol looked down and gave a sad puppy dog face. "I'm a baaaaaaad little boy!"
Yoshi turned around and pointed at Raptor, while his right arm was around Hol's shoulder. "Come on, kid! There he is! Show 'im what yer made of, ya bum! I want you to go over there and give him what for! I want you to eat lightnin' and crap thunder! Murder him, kid!"
Hol Horse went straight faced and pushed Yoshi's arm away. "You know what? You're right!" He tipped his hat downward and marched over to the blue menace before him.
Yoshi looked away from the showdown and merely admired the Reality Gem in his hand. "Precioussss... precioussss..."
"So, ready for the slaughter, eh?" Raptor chuckled while his arm-saw gave a loud hum.
"Hey," Hol started. "Put down that chainsaw and listen to me. It's time for us to join in the fight."
"What?!"
"Listen, you want blabbermouth out of here, right?"
"The robot? Oy, you bet!"
"Good. So let's you and me team up and he won't have a chance!"
Raptor considered the proposition. "Okay. But I get to eliminate Laughing Boy, got me?"
"Done and done." The pair nodded at each other. Hol turned around and they both faced the confused Yoshimitsu. Both Hol Horse and Lord Raptor gave slow, synchronized smiles and swaggered in the Manji's direction.
"Survey SAYS!" Yoshi pointed behind him. "This might suck!"
Hol made the first move by summoning his magical snipe gun into his right hand and firing three times. Yoshimitsu bent backwards and made windmill motions with his arms, while still on his feet. The bullets from the Emperor missed their target and dissipated into the force field before Hol tried changing their directions. Yoshi stood straight with a look of bewilderment.
"Whoa... Morpheus was right."
Raptor twisted his body and attacked Yoshimitsu with the Death Hurricane. Yoshi sidestepped the move and met the rocker with a mule kick to the chin that sent him flying back. He cautiously held his blade in front as Hol Horse still had his gun drawn.
"Come on, Sundance. Show me what you got."
Hol fired four shots, each one deflected by the green, glowing sword. He smirked and shot a fifth one. Despite Yoshi's effort to parry it, the bullet arched around the blade and pierced his shoulder.
"Gah! That wasn't in the script!"
Raptor grabbed him from behind and laughed maniacally. "Don't worry, love! We're just ribbin' ya!" He then impaled the Manji with his knife-like ribs. Yoshi quickly tilted his head back, smashing Raptor's teeth in with his enormous, UFO-shaped melon.
"There can be only one!"
With Raptor's grip loosened and his ribs retracted, Yoshi spun around in a full circle, decapitating the zombie in the process. On the second spin, he kicked Raptor's head away and shouted, "Fetch!" It bounced off the force field and rolled around the ring. The body immediately went after it.
Instead of taking the more direct approach, Hol Horse fired upwards, destroying a piece of lighting equipment and sending the shards of glass down upon Yoshimitsu. The swordsman rolled out of the way and took Hol out with a thrust kick to the chest. He pinned the gunslinger to the ground and made sure he couldn't move his gun hand.
"Okay, now stop me if you've heard this one: A robot, a zombie and a cowboy enter a ring. Now the zombie says-"
Hol struggled to talk. "What about the mummy?"
"What mummy?"
"The one right behind you that's about to turn you into scrap?"
Yoshi, cautious as not to let Hol go, looked back over his shoulder to see nothing attacking. Obviously, it was just some sort of ploy.
But the reflection of the lens of a nearby camera said otherwise. In that mirror image, the Hanged Man crept up behind Yoshi and stabbed him in the back with its wrist-knife. Yoshi reeled in pain from the surprise attack, which allowed Hol Horse to free his hands. Quickly, he aimed the Emperor up at Yoshimitsu's torso.
"BUSAMAKERO!"
The relatively small handgun that Hol Horse held fired dozens of bullets that tore into Yoshi and boosted him off the ground. When the attack was finished, the cyborg was already well over the force field. He fell through the dimensional field much to the dismay of the fans in attendance.
Seemingly the entire Rumble Dome booed the cowboy, who merely sprawled on his back and laughed at the turn of events.
Yoshimitsu landed in a strange, psychedelic world filled with blackness and a long chain of arrows that moved by like a river. In the middle of the chaos danced Boldo and Emi, who stopped their contest when they saw the wounded robot. Boldo removed his shiny, purple coat and draped it across Yoshi's shoulders.
"Ugh..." the fading Yoshimitsu said as the dancers helped him up. "Note to self: see into getting bulletproof armor." He walked away from the scene with his two aids until the music started to pick up. It was "Gotcha", the theme to Starsky and Hutch.
Yoshi instantly popped up, discarded the jacket and pushed Boldo and Emi away. Despite his damage, he still danced James Brown-style without the slightest look of discomfort.
"Hooah! Ow! I got to dance, baby! I gots to dance! Haow! Hey!"
For the next fifteen minutes, nobody in the world of Dance Dance Revolution could hope to keep up with the robot.
Back in the ring, Lord Raptor finally got his head back on thanks to Le Malta's help. The fish sidekick then swallowed his master and the two teleported over to Hol Horse.
"Oh, heh. Hello, partner," said the worried cowboy. "W-what's wrong?"
"You stole my elimination. This partnership is over. And so is your pathetic life."
"Feet don't fail me now!" Hol took off once again, leaving Raptor bemused.
"Let's not start this aga- OY!"
Sophitia's sword finally landed, knocking Raptor into the force field. Raptor bounced back and was sliced by a three hit combo that ended with an upward slash, which dispatched him out of the ring.
"I have abolished the vile demon in return for your chivalrous act moments before. Consider it a way of saying 'thank-" Sophitia noticed Hol Horse was long gone. "-you'?"
Sure, Hol heard what sounded like Raptor being tossed out of the ring, but he figured he would play it safe and get the hell away anyway. If it weren't for the sweat in his eyes, he would have clearly seen that Kirby was in his way.
Sophitia didn't follow as she found something lying on the mat. She kneeled down to pickup the strange orange Gem that the eccentric swordsman left behind when he was riddled with bullets.
Lord Raptor, on the other hand, landed on a frail wooden floor. He sat up and admired his surroundings.
"Swanky digs, man."
He stood up and looked around the grimy cabin, noting that it looked really familiar. He couldn't help but recognize the entrance to the attic, the deer head trophy, the dirty mirror and the fireplace.
"Wait, isn't this that cabin where-"
rrrrrrrowwwwrrrrrr
A chainsaw sliced Raptor's head clean off. The zombie's noggin landed with it looking straight up at the big chin of Ashley "Ash" Williams who pointed his boomstick and muttered, "Say hello to disco for me."
*BOOM!*
Room 114, RumbleDome Hotel
Lion hopped over Vice's outstretched arm and kicked the left side of her face. "C'mon, lady! I have maids you can fight better than you!"
Vice staggered back and sent out a barrage of kicks at her attacker. "How dare you speak to me like that!?"
"Maybe you're right." Lion ran around the kicks and poked Vice a couple times in the head with his clustered fingers. He grabbed her, slammed her into the wall and gave an upward knee to the chin. Vice collapsed to her knees.
"I mean it's wrong for me to compare, considering I've yet to see you in a hot maid's outfit. So let's forget about this Iori Yagami stuff and we can go visit this great tailor I know together. What do you say?"
Vice gritted her teeth. "How about we don't?" She swept Lion and backed away. Lion bounced back to his feet upon landing and barely ducked a tossed vase. Vice backed away, over to the door and hesitated. She stood there and decided that if she was to continue fighting, the chances were that Lion would stand victorious. So instead she bolted out the door.
Lion, just as fast, chased after her. "Wait, stop! At least let me tell you about our dental plan!"
The two disappeared into the Rumble Dome hallways, leaving Hsien-Ko to contend with Zankuro and Rimururu to tangle with Mature. With an ally gone for each team, the strategy for the remaining fighters was to try and make it two-on-one as quickly as possible.
In the battle, there was something Rimururu couldn't comprehend. Mature didn't seem to be armed, but when her blade-like swipes clashed with Rimmy's dagger, there was no damage at all. In fact, the impact sounded a lot like two blades colliding. What she did understand, though, was that when they landed, they hurt vastly.
Mature backed Rimururu into a wall and lashed out at her. Rimmy ducked under the attack and responded with an uppercut slash. She called for Konril, and drove her attacker back with a series of conjured icicles. Mature ignored the pain and hopped into the air in an attempt to slash Rimmy from above. Rimmy ducked the attempt, but didn't avoid Mature's whip-like arm, which snagged her leg. Rimururu crashed into the wall and landed on her feet. She still had enough to continue.
Unfortunately, Hsien-Ko didn't. She took one too many of Zankuro's hacks and lay in an immobile heap. Zankuro decided against an effort to see if it was possible for him to finish off a ghost. His teammate was in trouble and reducing Rimururu's vitality was a more important task.
The bad news was that Rimmy was outnumbered, two to one, and she knew it. She was going to fight to the end, but she was aware of just how futile it would be. The good news was that the odds were still a lot better than before when Iori and Taria were still around.
The odds changed even more when part of the wall behind her was broken down by a shockwave of energy. She, Zankuro and Mature looked to see a triad of warriors: a female martial artist with blue hair and a hakama, a medieval mercenary, and a seemingly blind monk.
"Oh please oh please oh please be on my side," she whispered to herself.
Mordos Kull surveyed the combatants in the room. "Okay, monk. Which ones are we after?"
Xiao Long pointed at Mature and Zankuro. "There and there. The others seem to lack evil, though I sense some malicious intent with the fallen one."
Mordos readied his morning star. "Okay, then. So it's just Blondie and the gruesome guy."
Kasumi Todo noticed the angry expression on Zankuro's face. "Ew, he's so ugly."
Mordos nodded in agreement. "Oh yeah. He's an ugly guy." He ran in Zankuro's direction, shoved Rimururu out of the way and dished out his own rendition of the Charging Star, right into Zankuro's stomach. Mordos followed up with an uppercut attack with his morning star. Mature jumped at the mercenary, but stopped in midair. She was stuck in a bubble-like prison made of green energy, compliments of Xiao Long. The monk repeated the attack to cease Zankuro's attacks.
"So this is it?" Mordos questioned to Xiao Long. "This is that big evil you sensed? I've seen swine tougher than these two."
Xiao Long continued to stand still, his white eyes staring into nothingness. "No. There were more. I sense the trail of dark sorcery. One was Taria. There were... three others, it seems."
"He's right!" Rimururu said. She pointed at Mature. "One of them looked like her, only with black hair. She ran off. The others all disappeared to another place in the building." Realizing her safety, Rimururu exhaled and sat on the bed. "Anyway, who the heck are you guys?"
Kasumi kept her foes in view and answered the question. "I am Kasumi Todo. This is Mordos Kull and Xiao Long. We were searching for the office of a man named Geese Howard, but the monk got us sidetracked. And you are?"
"I'm Rimururu. That's Hsien-Ko. Lion was with us but he ran off to-"
"Enough of this introduction nonsense," Mordos Kull interrupted. "Little girl, was one of the others a blonde wench in an armor skirt?"
"Yes."
"Then Taria really is involved. Okay. That makes getting to the bottom of this my first objective. Now let's see what our prisoners can tell us."
RumbleDome, Lower Mezzanine
"So, uh, do you have any idea where Ryo might be?" Sie Kensou asked. He may not have liked the idea of Athena fawning all over someone who wasn't himself, but at the moment, being pouty wasn't going to help anything. Especially if there was another Multiverse-threatening plot going on. Those were never good.
"I don't think I do, really," said Athena as her search party - herself, Sie, and Jeffry McWild - turned a corner into a dark corridor. "The last I saw of him was-"
From the darkness, something shot out, barely seen. However, as it soared closer, it was revealed to be a very sharp, pointed object. And it was heading straight for the Virtua Fighter.
"Whoa! Jeffry, look out!" Sie said, pushing Jeffry out of the way of the thing, which now glinted in the dim light. Now the object, which seemed to be a spear of some kind, was heading directly for him. This was going to hurt. Sie braced himself...
"No!"
Before anyone could stop her, Athena went in front of the spear's flight path... directly in front of Kensou. A second later, it finally found its mark, embedding itself directly into Athena's shoulder, and eliciting a shrill, pained scream from the incarnated goddess, which echoed through the hall.
"ATHENA!" Sie rushed to her side, wrapping an arm around her.
"GET OVER HERE!" a voice called, from the shadows.
And soon, Athena found herself being pulled towards whoever - or whatever had thrown the spear. The damn thing refused to dislodge itself. And it hurt like hell. The only way to keep the pain at a low level was to go with the pull.
Jeffry, assessing the situation, promptly pulled Sie's arm off of Athena. The young psychic resisted, but lost in the end.
"Hey! What did you do that for?!" Sie swiped Jeffry's arm away. "Why did you make me let her go?!"
"I am sorry, friend," Jeffry replied. But with that sharp object in her, your pulling would have only hurt her more."
"Athenaaaaa!" Sie yelled as he stood, helplessly as his not-so-secret love disappeared into the darkness. He rushed forward, arms flailing, trying to keep up, but soon lost his way and had to backtrack before his vision returned to him.
"She appears to be completely gone," Jeffry remarked. He always had been he master of the obvious.
"Gone?! I know she's gone! But where did she go?!" Kensou yelled, his mood now bordering on "frantic". "We've gotta go find her, man. If anything, and I mean ANYTHING happens to her... shoot, it'll be harder for me to get a girlfriend than it is for me already. Damn that girl and her martyrism."
Jeffry nodded. "Let us waste no time then! We go now to find out who this fiend is, and where he has taken Athena!"
"And I have a feeling I already know the answer to that first question," Kensou said grimly.
The Ring
"Hadoken! Hadoken! Hadoken!"
"Ow... ow, ow! Damn it, those things are annoying!"
Staying true to Kyo's request, Sakura had indeed stayed out of Kyo's way, and was now resorting to hit-and-run and projectile attacks. It was working like a charm. Kyo had been able to dodge a few of them, but he was unable to fully escape the wrath of the annoyed schoolgirl, which came at him from all sides, and from above as well.
"Good! I hope they keep annoying you! Singe my dress, will ya..."
On the other side of the ring, there was just as much chaos. And his name was Ryuji Yamazaki. Finally getting back down to business, he strode over to Sophitia, teeth bared.
"May I help you?" the blond warrior asked.
"Yeah, you can help me, lady," Ryuji sneered. "Just gimme that there orange bauble you got, and you can help me not have to slice up your pretty face. How about it?"
"Hmph." Sophitia grinned, and held up the Reality Gem. "Sounds like you want it pretty bad."
"Ain't got all day, sis. Give it here."
"Sorry. You'll have to work for it." With that, Sophitia tossed the Gem to Hol Horse. After all, he seemed like a nice person. He would undoubtedly use the Gem's powers for something positive.
"You stupid bitch!" Ryuji yelled, chasing after the airborne jewel. "I'll be back later to grind you into powder!"
Sophitia shook her head. When would people learn that being uncivilized never got anybody anywhere?
"Hey, sweet!" Sophitia heard Hol's voice from some distance away. "I wonder how much this'll score at the pawn shop back home?"
Sophitia sighed.
Geese approached the cowboy. "Why wait until you get home to cash in? Sell the gem to me now, and I'll make sure you- what?"
Leona kicked the gem out of Hol's hands. "Not today."
"HEY! That was my meal ticket for the next five months!" Hol wailed.
Leona scoffed. "Whatever."
"All right, kid," Kyo finally said in frustration. "You wanna play hardball? Fine! Kore ga..." Kyo glowed red-hot, and wound up his fist.
"Uh oh. This doesn't look good..." As much of an advantage as the schoolgirl had right now, she was still on the side of the limp ropes, and an attack like THAT would definitely do her in. Following her instincts, Sakura rolled around the glowing warrior, just as he unleashed his technique.
"...KUSANAGI NO KEN DA! ...huh?" Kyo found himself facing the ropes, with no Sakura in sight, fried or otherwise. Until...
"Hey, that looked fun! Lemme try. HARU ICHIBAN!"
Five swift kicks hit Kyo in the knees, and one more straight in the gut, sending him into the elastic force field which sent him back to Sakura...
"Sho-ou-ken!"
...whose uppercut knocked him clean out of the ring. Upon his landing, Kyo, wielder of the legendary Kusanagi flames, and just a plain hothead in general... was frozen to a near absolute-zero temperature ice cube by Kickle Cubicle.
"Oooh, shiny!"
"Not today, little citizen!" WHAP
"Yes!" As Sakura raised her arms in triumph, she unwittingly caught something. "Strange. That usually doesn't happen." She brought her hand back down to inspect it. "Hey, neat! It's one of those Gems I saw before! I wonder how you use it?"
Five seconds later, it was raining icicles over the entire ring.
Very sharp icicles.
"Sweet!"
Geese, seeing the young schoolgirl activate the powers of the Gem, turned around to scowl at the ninja who had just kicked the Gem out of the crime lord's hands moments before.
"Look what you've just done," Geese told Kagemaru.
"What of it?" Kagemaru asked him.
"It's going to cost you."
And cost him it quickly did; Kagemaru's attempt at a baseball slide into Geese's shins resulted in his being plucked off the mat and slammed back down hard. Kagemaru threw a high kick as he stood, hoping to put a bit of breathing room between himself and Geese, but was denied again as Geese caught the kick and flung Kagemaru around in the air before once again slamming him painfully into the mat.
"I do hope this isn't all you have," Geese mocked the ninja as he rolled away and rose to his feet.
Kagemaru hopped in close and went for a knee smash, but once again went down hard into the mat. He altered his strategy as he got up and tried to get in close for a shoulder throw but ended up walking straight into a Reppuken and being forced back, at which point Geese dashed in and landed a quick three hits before grabbing him and tossing him over his head into the center of the ring.
Kagemaru, deciding that he definitely wasn't getting anywhere with this, felt that his best option at this point was to attempt to call upon the newly-found powers hidden away inside him.
"Come on," Geese told him, beckoning to him with his hand. "What do you have?"
Kagemaru concentrated deeply, feeling the fire deep within him begin to swell and come to life as though an unchained beast let free to unleash devastating power.
Geese advanced cautiously on Kagemaru, noting that the ninja was beginning to quake slightly and had a look in his eyes that suggested of a dangerous attack to come. Kagemaru screamed, a primal scream of war, and with a lunge of his arm towards Geese let off a tiny speck of flame that would have had serious trouble lighting a birthday candle.
Elimination Seating
"Good for him," Hanzo Hottori nodded, leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed. "At the rate that he's progressing, he may have the art mastered within fifteen years."
"Perhaps not so good for him in the meantime, then," Dudley politely suggested from the row behind Hanzo as they both watched Geese Howard slide forward and pummel the crap out of Kagemaru with his Deadly Rave.
"Perhaps not," Hanzo agreed.
"Ha!" Dan laughed, a few seats away from Dudley. "That has to be the saddest attempt to throw fire ever!"
Both Hanzo and Dudley, as well as half the fighters in the area, turned to look at him quizzically.
The Ring
Kagemaru had nothing left by the time Geese was halfway done.
Geese laid another four attacks into the defenseless Kagemaru before capping it off with an energy blast that blew him just over the barrier.
Kagemaru found himself standing in a small stream in a grassy area staring directly at another ninja, who engaged him in sparring seconds after he landed.
"You know," Kagemaru thought to himself as he and Ryu Hayabusa began trading kicks, "perhaps this means something. Perhaps, as combat with a fellow ninja will show me, it is not the way of the ninja to employ magic and other tricks, but instead to simplify one's attacks and forego flashy offense in favor of a straightforward, effective offensive strategy-"
At this point Hayabusa landed a strong kick that sent Kagemaru flying forty feet into the air then disappeared into thin air, reappeared forty feet up behind Kagemaru and twirled dramatically downwards in a slamming attack that knocked all the remaining strength out of Kagemaru.
"...never mind. Silly me," was the last thing Kagemaru thought before he finally passed out.
"You good, friend?" Galford asked Captain America as he took his breather, sitting on the middle turnbuckle.
"In a moment I'll be ready to go again," Captain America said. "And when I am, we will go after Geese."
"Sounds like a plan, dude!" Galford agreed. Poppy barked.
"In the meantime," Captain America suggested, "keep an eye out for anybody coming over here. They might want to try and take me out."
"Like that guy!" Galford said accusingly, pointing at the approaching and smiling Kirby Horse.
"Well, no," Captain America began, "I mean anybody suspicious." Captain America thought for a second. "Well, hang on," he said to himself, "is he suspicious or not?"
"You! I'm onto you, little dude!" Galford said menacingly, advancing on him. "You're trying to get an easy elimination!"
Captain America, watching Galford advance towards Kirby as Poppy stood guard over the American hero, had to admit that he really had no idea if those were the pink puff's intentions or not. Kirby Horse watched with a smile on his face as Galford walked right up to him and glared down at him.
"Hi-i-ii!" Kirby Horse waved up at him.
"You aren't fooling me!" Galford announced, at which point he grabbed Kirby. One vertical leap into a slam straight down - the Strike Heads - later, Kirby Horse bounced off the mat and over the force field.
"Good job," Captain America told him as he returned. "Ready?"
"Ready!" Galford gave him a thumbs-up.
"Geese Howard!" Captain America called, walking away from the turnbuckles and in front of Galford.
Geese Howard, taking a break after eliminating Kagemaru, turned around to see Captain America staring him down, Galford also glaring daggers at him as he stood behind his ally.
Geese Howard also saw an inflated pink ball float over the barrier and into the ring, behind the American Ninja.
"We're ready to take you out, Howard!" Captain America announced, holding his shield in front of him.
Geese raised an eyebrow as Kirby Horse, who still looked adorable and happy but gave off an intensity at the moment that conveyed the impression of being quite pissed off, grabbed Poppy and bounced the dog over the field.
"What?" an oblivious Captain America asked, watching Geese's reaction.
Geese let off a chuckle as Kirby Horse grabbed Galford.
One vertical leap into a slam straight down - the Kirby Piledriver - later, Captain America turned around to see Galford following his dog out of the ring and through the dimensional field. The next fifteen minutes gave Sir Dan Fortesque a lot of exercise as Poppy chased him around the Hall of Heroes, to Galford's chagrin.
"HI HO SILVA!" Kirby piped.
"Oh," said Captain America, turning back around to face Geese. "Fine. I'm ready to take you down, Howard!"
"Try," Geese invited him, the two advancing on each other.
Outside the Retrieval Room, RumbleDome
When Alex came to, he was disgruntled.
Then again, when you're Alex, you're disgruntled almost all the time. But when he woke up in the devastated Rumble Dome hotel room, he was just plain pissed off. The only thing on his mind, other than getting Torgo some medical attention, was dedicating the rest of the night to tracking down that smug son of a bitch with the beret and breaking all of his bones at least twice over.
After anonymously dropping Torgo off near a nurse's office, Alex angrily stormed through the hallways, looking for Rolento. What he found instead was just as good. A group of a dozen or so men in fatigues could be heard walking in a nearby corridor.
Holly Wood, one of the many in the squad dressed in red, stared at the red jewel that El Gado let him carry.
"Put that away," The Arabian man in gray silently snapped. "We cannot just flaunt these around and let our enemies know what we possess."
Holly Wood sighed and put the jewel in his pocket, next to his many knives. "I guess you are right. I'm sure the Commandant will be pleased. All three of the remaining Gems are ours."
There was no response.
The henchman turned around, causing the others to follow suit. They noted a large hole in the wall - caused from BB Hood hours earlier - that they had long passed. Finally, Holly Wood broke the silence.
"El Gado?"
From the hole in the wall, El Gado's body was tossed to the other side of the hallway. Alex stepped out and pocketed the two Power Stones he seized from the Arabian soldier. He glared at the small army of knife-wielding soldiers and rotated his arm.
Alex got into his fighting stance and smirked. "Remember me?"
Holly Wood soared through the air, upside down with knives in both hands. Alex ducked the attack and grabbed Rolento's flunky by the collar. He body slammed Holly Wood and turned around to deflect the series of projected knives with a Flash Chop.
This left Alex open for a clean knife wound in the back from Holly Wood. Unfortunately, for Holly Wood and the rest of Rolento's men, he was in too much of a hurry to distinguish his knives from the red Power Stone. He realized his mistake while the Stone was airborne.
It wasn't until it made contact with Alex's back that he realized just how grave his mistake was.
El Gado and Holly Wood quickly got to their feet and ran around the glowing Street Fighter, knowing that it would probably be safer to be with the rest of the men. The soldiers all ran from Alex until the light died down. When they turned around, they realized that Alex had changed.
Different looking he may have been, the fact was that he was still outnumbered. Alex didn't seem to mind though, as he stalked the eerily identical militia.
El Gado and the others all pulled out knives and stood their ground. Some of the red-clad men held onto Molotov cocktails.
"Prepare to die, you dog!" El Gado shouted while waving his blade. "There is no escape!"
"Heh. Close enough."
After thirty violent seconds, the vigor of the Power Stones had finally been drained and they spread across the tomb of a hallway. The area was filled with smoke, vapor and lifeless bodies. Alex observed his surroundings to see all the men in fatigues lying in the ruins, all dead or badly injured. Some burnt to a crisp, some shivering. All of them beaten by the lone warrior.
Alex rested his head on a section of a wall that wasn't destroyed. He took a couple deep breaths and composed himself.
"Why?" he asked himself. "Of all the things to become, why that?" He stressed the last word by pounding his fist onto the wall.
Looking down, he noticed one of the three Power Stones near his foot. Though vengeful he may have been, Alex still knew that leaving the Power Stones alone would have been the worst idea since nipples on the Bat suit.
Meanwhile, El Gado somehow sustained consciousness. He looked over to see a knife lying on the floor and crawled towards its direction. El Gado reached his hand out to grab it, but ended up getting his hand stepped on by Alex.
"At ease, loser," the scarred fighter told him. Alex kicked the knife away, reached over and collected the third Power Stone, which he carefully placed in the cap he stole from Holly Wood. Alex set them down and turned to El Gado.
"You like to hang people?" Alex picked El Gado up and suspended him into the air by the neck. "I like to hang people too." His grip tightened to the sound of El Gado gagging. "I'm going to ask you this once: who was the man that attacked me?"
With a raspy, snake-like voice, El Gado responded, "Rolento..."
"Rolento? And where can I find him?" El Gado didn't answer back. Alex tightened his grip even more. "I said where can I find him?"
"Sub-Base... ment... TH... X... 11..."
"Good." Alex let go and dropped El Gado to the floor. The henchman immediately went into a fit of coughing and gasping for air. Alex rolled him over with his foot and looked down at him.
"I want you to go back to THX-11. I want you to find Rolento and tell him what happened. And tell him that if he wants his precious little jewels back, he has to come and get me."
Alex picked up the bag of Power Stones while being frugal not to touch them. He began his search to find refuge for such a dangerous power.
Original Authors
Gavin "Gavok" Jasper
James "The MultiMediocre Knight" Howard
Geson "Racewing" Hatchett
Thomas "Wanderer" Wilde