The orb of opportunity
The Justice Heroes Elite
CHP10: The Orb of opportunity
The day to loosen comes and passes quickly leading up to the opening of the second round of the competition. Liu Kang enters into the dome over an hour before the event is set to proceed. As much as the shalion warrior has been trained, he can sense the presence of another individual near by. Emerging from a corner is Wolverine skimming down on a flyer he holds. Liu relaxes realizing there is no danger opposing him.
"If I can remember correctly you're one of the fighters who traveled from another world. So what do you think of the mortal kombat tourney so far?" Liu asks.
"It's actually not too bad; whoever set this thing up picked a good spot. The surrounding turf is striking."
Wolverine walks past Liu continuing on his trail. Once out of site he pushes down on his ear piece located within his cowl.
"I hope you're having better luck than me, why don't we just forget this bat's. Perhaps this isn't a setup, maybe it is as simple as winning this competition. In my opinion you think too much." Wolverine says.
Batman sprints along the top of the dome looking down inside, no matter what anyone says there is a swirl of deception which plays in his head. Batman grapples over to the other side of the dome changing the vision within his lenses, trying to locate something to follow up on.
"You could be right Logan, but I've been around long enough to know when something just isn't right." The caped crusader moves around swiftly noticing Liu Kang walking the opposite direction of Logan, but someone follows him from behind holding an ax! "Wolverine behind you!" Batman yells gliding down.
Wolverine leaps out of the blade's path, uprising the razor claws from his knuckles. The individual who stands before him is a seven ft Viking. Batman comes down on the Viking's back trying to wrestle him to the ground, only to be thrown up against a wall. Laughing is the enormous brute with extent dignity and fortitude. Batman grabs the wrist of Wolverine who attempts to attack the unknown person head on.
"Before any further action, why did you try and attack my friend here?" Bat's asks.
The Viking drops his weapon charging the two grabbing them by their necks, throwing them into a stack of chairs. He looks down on the two laughing frenziedly. Wolverine jumps up kicking into the giant, only moving him back a bit. The Viking punches Wolverine a few feet backwards smiling at how easy it is. Batman roles over to the side getting up while pulling out two batarangs.
"I'm goanna ask you once and only once, why in the world are you attacking us!" Batman demands.
The Viking reaches out to grab the dark knight who jumps over his shoulder. Before getting to his back side, Batman is grabbed by his ankle and thrown in the direction of Wolverine. Bat's pulls out his grapple gun slinging himself to the top of a wall.
"You sure are a clever one, very impressive." The Viking looks up at Batman displaying a huge smirk. "Come down here so I can crush you!"
Trying to catch the giant off guard Wolverine tries to cut at him only to be grabbed by the arm and thrown to the side. What makes it shoddier is the fact he didn't take his eyes off the caped crusader. Batman glides down throwing the explosive batarangs at the obvious destroyer, being grabbed by his cape and thrown to the side as well. The Viking again snickers at how effortless it seems. The Viking falls forward being attacked from his backside. He catches himself before completely falling to the ground. The leviathan brushes himself off turning to his attacker. Standing before him is Liu Kang who is obviously confused.
"I'm not sure why you all are fighting; the tournament will be progressing in less than an hour. There is no need for all of this nonsense." Liu tells.
"Why don't you tell that to this brainless idiot?" Wolverine takes a stand keeping his guard up. "He attacked us and didn't have the decency of telling us why."
Liu turns over to the Viking surprisingly being kneed in the stomach, along with being uppercut ten ft. Wolverine along with Batman charge the giant kicking him back into a glass display. Liu wastes no time joining by their side, watching as the Viking stands.
"Why don't you stop wasting everyone's time and just tell me why you are attacking us?" Bat's asks.
The Viking walks over picking up a table throwing it at the three, who all jump out of its path. At this point the champion of the tournament himself is confused on the actions by this unknown individual. Batman shoots his grapple gun in the direction of the Viking who dodges the sharp tip, which ends up in the ceiling. The Dark knight pulls fiercely on the gun bringing down a huge portion of the ceiling over the Viking.
"It's about time, that maniac was driving me insane. Do any of you have a clue why he attacked us?" Wolverine asks.
There is no time to reply, as the rumble in front of them gradually moves. The Viking busts out of the top, running past and knocking the three of them over. Liu jumps up attempting to go after him, but is grabbed by Batman.
"Let him go, I've placed one of my bat trackers on him. Whatever that was all about, whoever sent him is probably expecting us to try and follow. I will check up on this later, besides if I can recall he is one of the participants in the tournament." Batman tells.
"You can't be to sure about that, for all we know that could have just been some random act." Liu takes a look around at the destroyed area. "Maybe it's best we report him to the tournament hosts, they will have proper consequences for his actions."
Both Batman and Wolverine look over at one another, and it is clear they're on the same page.
"Quite honestly I'm not sure if we can even trust the hosts; there is undeniably a lot more going on than what any of us know. Whatever it is I will get to the bottom of this, it almost feels like we're doing exactly what they want." Batman informs.
Liu steps forward showing apparent signs of a little panic.
"What are you talking about, and who is this person you speak of?"
"He doesn't know yet, but we all need to watch our backs in the meantime. It seems someone might be trying to get rid of a few contestants early. Whatever it is we do, the top priority is to find out what is really the purpose of this tourney." Wolverine adds.
Batman navigates through his utility belt locating the bat tracker. He takes a look at where the Viking travels, immediately knowing that he is somewhere outside of the domes borders still on the move.
"How confident are you on your speculation, do you truly believe that there might be a setup?" Liu asks wanting to be 100% sure.
Batman nods his head looking up from the tracker.
"Now looking back on the events which lead up to us traveling to this world, I'd say we were bated. Someone did a good job of it to, but there is no time to dwell on past mistakes."
The dark knight places the tracker back into his utility belt. The three stand silent for some moments thinking about what they should do next. Wolverine bends down picking up a piece of shattered glass.
"I think we can all agree that the best course of action for now is to just go with the flow. In fact it would do us all well to put this little encounter behind us for the time being, and just worry about our upcoming matches." Wolverine suggests.
The two agree, knowing that if anything they must be alert. Wolverine leads them to the waiting area where they're greeted by other participants who arrived early.
Kahn's castle
Pythena enters the main room with Baraka at her side. Shao Kahn sits at a table in a corner of the room looking over some papers. Pythena walks across the room placing one hand on the table's surface.
"Shouldn't you already be at the arena, setting up preparations with Shang Tsung?" Pythena roles her eyes informing him of her distress. "Whatever you're doing hurry and finish, so you can help with more important things."
Kahn glimpses at the two before looking back down on his notes.
"Instead of wasting time the two of you should be on your way, Shang Tsung might need some assistance. I will be over there as soon as I can." Kahn tells.
Just then the front door to the room opens with that of a seven ft being entering. Pythena turns her attention to this individual. He takes a few steps closer before stopping.
"So were you able to destroy the one called Wolverine? Don't let this be bad news Adalzm, as you can see I'm not in a good mood." Pythena asks.
"I'm sorry to disappoint but he had allies, one dressed as a bat and the other seemed to be some material artist kung fu kinda guy. I figured it best for me to leave the situation. He will be easily disposed of, I knew it would have been better to try and take him down at night fall."
Pythena automatically knows that Batman was present, but has no idea who the other was. She leans up against the table thinking about what to do with the circumstances.
"Did any of them try and follow you? It is very crucial that our plans are kept secret from anyone."
"You don't need to worry about that at all, according to how I was picking the three of them apart so easily I'd say they were afraid to follow. I only left given the fact that I didn't want any other participants to walk in on what was happening."
The two talk back and forth for a little bit longer before the conversation ends. It is at this time that Pythena exits the room along with Baraka and Adalzm, when outside of the castle's front entrance Baraka takes to a different path than the two, informing them he has something that must be taken care of. Pythena nods following Adalzm the Viking to the tournament arena. The Tarkada rechecks his surroundings a few times over before proceeding into a forest area. He sprints down a familiar path reaching the meeting point without much delay.
"I would have been here sooner, but I had to shake the giant and beauty off my trail. Next time we set up another one of these meetings, it will be safer to have them during twilight hours." Baraka tells.
Quan Chi unwraps what appears to be some kind of poster. Reptile sits on an enormous rock tapping a finger over its surface.
"I know the two of you have a tournament to get back to, so I will make this as swift as possible. Based on the information you have given me Baraka, you need to steal the sapphire orb from Pythena."
Reptile steps up interrupting the sorcerer.
"Have the two of you been keeping information away from me. If we're going to work as a team to bring lord shinnok back, I must know all the information which has been gathered." Reptile tells.
"Have a seat Reptile all will be explained, Baraka just gave me this information around three hours ago. As I was saying we must obtain that orb, it contains unimaginable power which Pythena plans to use to power her army to conquer this world. But if we get our hands on it, we'll have more than enough power to resurrect Shinnok." Quan Chi tells.
Inside the
Dome
Over an hour passes with the beginning of the 2nd round. Every seat within the stands has been bought out. The energy and excitement can be felt between everyone throughout the dome. The announcer steps into the ring causing the crowd to get blaring.
"Hello everyone and welcome to round two, before we get started I would like to tell you all a few things. As you should already know there are only 200 remaining participants, and by the end of the day there will only be 100. But moving on to the polls, the fighter favored to win this tournament by your votes is Superman! Now for our first match it is in fact Superman vs. Reg the magician!"
Superman gets up from his chair walking past the many contestants, which some show faces of resentment. He stops in front of someone who frowns.
"If you don't mind I would like to speak with you after my match. You know you can tell me when something is bothering you Diana." Supes tells.
He rubs a hand over her shoulder only to have her shrug him off. She looks the opposite direction of him as he continues his way to the ring. What she had seen the other morning still bothers her a bit, but she figures it isn't her business therefore shouldn't say a word. Supes enters into the ring along with his opponent.
"So where would the two of you like to battle today?"
Reg steps forward with an exceedingly huge smirk on his face.
"I will take on this so called man of steel in Halloween town." Reg quickly says.
Superman nods agreeing to the suggestion. The announcer steps out of the ring as usual. At this time the two opponents are zapped to the fighting area. Superman looks around to dead leaves blowing all around, and the smell of pumpkin pie brings a smile to his face. Supes looks around to see kids trick or treating; the full moon is the last touch which brings on the Halloween spirit completely. The man of steel is so caught up in the moment he doesn't realize when a kid bumps into him falling back.
"Watch where you're going mister!" the kid yells kicking across the leg of Supes.
Superman just smiles not feeling the hit at all, the child runs catching up with his friends. He is brought back to reality with the echo of screaming children. He looks across the way to see children running from a huge fire breath shooting pumpkin! On the top of it is Reg himself.
"Are you ready to begin Superman, I'm goanna prove to everyone that you can be beat? I'd say this would be a great world for your demise!" Reg tells.
Superman fly's into the air soaring toward the pumpkin who blasts fire balls at him. Supes just punches the heat balls out of his way flying forward. He punches right through the pumpkin watching it splatter to pieces.
"Impressive Superman, but I have a lot more up my sleeve."
Reg chants a series of words, within seconds ghosts surround the area along with skeletons ripping out of the bottom surface. Superman steps back taking a deep breath, stepping forward and blowing out his ice breath. The skeletons are frozen solid; Supes then blasts them to pieces using his laser vision! Next he zooms in circles around the ghosts at incredibly expeditious velocity destroying them instantly.
"Just like I've told many others who have opposed me throughout my life, you're goanna have to try harder than that."
Reg stands in place wide eyed, but at the same time excited for the challenge.
"So I see you're the type of guy who likes to get straight to the point. Well fasten your seat belt, because now you're in trouble!"
Reg chants yet another set of words with a large amount of energy forming around him. He begins growing fangs along with claws. Superman takes a few more steps back, grasping he is transforming. It doesn't take long for the transformation to be complete. The man of steel doesn't show much emotion looking up at the now bronzed Tyrannosaurs Rex. The dinosaur swings its tail at Supes who grabs it throwing the 70+ ft T-rex some distance away into a lake. Superman takes to the sky following in the direction of his opponent. The spectators back within the stadium show their appreciation for the Kryptonian's skills. The T- Rex immediately hops out of the lake back onto dry land.
"I think I've had about enough of this." Superman says to himself.
Supes looks around to see many trees coming up with an idea to finish the match. He flutters downward pulling a tree out of the ground, flying over and whacking the Dino across its head! Reg goes upward like a baseball falling to the ground over 100 ft away. Reg returns to his human form knocked out. The two are immediately brought back to the dome. Superman grins at the sound of all the cheers.
"Winner is Superman!"
The paramedics come into the ring and take Reg along with them to the infirmary area. Superman hovers out of the ring waving to the spectators flying to the waiting area. He comes to a stop locating Spiderman standing next to the Green Lantern.
"Hey good stuff supes, that sure was an entertaining match. You seemed a bit out of focus at first, but other than that you were great." Spidy tells.
"Yeah I guess I was huh, it's just that entire area reminded me of some of the Halloweens I had back in Smallville as a child. Those were the good old times."
A few matches pass by with most everyone sitting around with their eyes glued to the screens.
"Next up we have Mokap vs. Ms. Marvel, one of them being another crowd favorite."
Mokap is the first to the ring very energized that he had passed round one. Everyone including Mokap look up to see Ms Marvel enter into the ring, coming down in front of her opponent.
"If it is fine with her, I would like to fight here in the ring." Mokap tells.
She agrees to his suggestion which is when the announcer steps out of the ring. Mokap starts things off fast sprinting forward toward his opponent casting a few punches and kicks which are precluded. He punches at her some more as she counters slapping him to the ground. He takes a stand spitting off to the side.
"That's interesting not only are you super powered, but you know a thing or two about hand to hand combat. Too top it off with beauty makes it just that more sexy." Mokap says.
Ms Marvel catches him off guard by reaching forward grabbing him by his shoulders flying them both into the air. The spectators look up some distance astounded at the site. Ms Marvel rockets down fast sending Mokap head first into the ring's surface knocking him out.
"The Winner of this match, by way of knock out is Ms Marvel!"
Back in the waiting area Batman is approached by that of Captain America along with Spiderman.
"Hey Bat's why do you choose to always be alone, heck it almost depresses me seeing you sitting around just staring into space. It almost makes me question if you have a life." Spidy tells.
Batman looks over at the wall crawler with an eye brow up behind his cowl.
"First off I do have a life; right now I'm just trying to figure out what is going on before it is too late." Batman replies.
"Yeah whatever you say Bat's you keep telling yourself that. If I were you I'd try and relax a little bit, it's obvious you carry to much of the worlds problems on your shoulder. Besides at the end of the day you're just a man with no super powers, don't get me wrong I love all your really cool toys and stuff."
Cap walks over placing a hand on the shoulder of Spiderman applying a tight grip.
"You've said enough, I'm sure he understands what you're saying. Maybe you should think a little more before you speak, do you forget what this man has done. He has worked up his status to a legend."
"Enough lets just forget this conversation ever happened." Batman looks down pulling a stack of cards out of his utility belt. "Anyone for a game of poker?"
Both nod consenting in the idea. Within a back room Goro stands over Shang Tsung who looks over the set of wins and looses so far in round two.
"Since Pythena is so obsessed with destroying those fighters from the other world, why not have them face each other now?" Goro asks.
"Patience Goro, we must keep the spectators hyped for this event. As you should already know a handful of those fighters are crowd favorites."
Shang Tsung continues to observe the matches, watching as several contestants are eliminated.
"Next up we have Sindel vs. Wonder Woman."
Captain America immediately sets down his cards standing up.
"The two of you can start up without me, I'll be back soon."
Batman and Spiderman look up from their cards at one another.
"Its official, Cap has a crush on the Amazon princess. I can't blame him though; she's like everything a man could want and more. Is it just me or did I just repeat myself." Spidy says shrugging his shoulders.
Batman looks around locating Flash who tries to flirt With Sonya and Ms Marvel. He just shakes his head displaying a small smirk.
To Be Continue