| Tournament: Match One | |||||
| |||||
| What: A strange tournament with the promise of a 'wish' for those who win. First Match: Shazam vs. Cir-El | |||||
For those who are a Hero most of the time, you'd probably get a call for help from an alleyway. When you got there, you'd literally disappear into the alleyway's shadow.
Those of you who are not 'heroes' would maybe be entering a restaurant, a room in your house, when you open the door, gravity would immediately flip and you'd fall through the door.
And for those who might not like A or B, When you go to sleep at night, you don't go to sleep, you actually are transported to:
Inside of a Snow Globe:
A massive globe of glass surrounds this celestial snow globe with a wood cabin with a fire place in it. It has a few couches but little else in the way of decorations within. The snow seems to scatter about randomly held in place by the globe. Those who were sleeping would find yourself waking up on the couches while those who entered doors would end up entering the cabin, and those who entered the alleyway would sort of just fade into the room as if they were in the shadows of the room with no actual door near them.
Sitting by the Fire is Tenebris at one of those high-back chairs, he's spun so he can see those people who have been 'invited here'.
Billy blinks as he was trying to stop a mugging in an alleyway and then... somehow ends up in a snow globe? He looks around and says, "Holy moley! Now I know how a snowman feels." He looks around and then seeing Tenebris, says, "Gosh! You!"
Cir-El is Multi-tasking. She is patrolling, and she is practicing her flying. She is not really good at flying yet. She is trying hard to fly at moderate speed...and is usually managing not to create sonic booms (but not always). Sometimes that means she is just floating there though. So far, she has Hovering in plsace and flying in a strait line at full speed mastered, moderate speeds and turns, well she is working on those. Actually, usually she has to use her Red Sun Burst as a Rocket Blast to steer, but she is trying to get it wo work right. Still, when she hears the call for help she stops flying and uses her glide cape instead. She frowns, not seeing anything in tha area with her super vision...but inertia carries here into the shadows.
She finds herself being stretched thin, fading like a shadow....until she staggers out of a shadow in the cabin. She exclaims, "Gret Krypton! What was that."
Lunair is - heroicish? She was Deadpool's sidekick. She also adores the Punisher. But she generally does good and does her best. She decides to go home early tonight, instead of patrolling Bludhaven. She unlocks her door, steps in and "OH JESUS CHRIST RIDING A PACK OF WEASELS!" She finds herself with gravity turned off. And then Lunair blinks, looking around. "I AM totally sober."
"And that's for not knowing hot to pick a goddamn mark." Cain lands a final oversized punch into the stomach of a tall, but not as tall as him, man in a trenchcoat. A gun with a twisted barrel is on the ground nearby. Then he fishes the mans wallet out of his pocket, and releases his hair so he collapses unconscious on the ground. Flipping the wallet open, he turns and steps back out of the alley while pulling out the money and slipping it into a pocket of his own, dropping the billfold. Looking up, he blinks a few times as he notices the odd surroundings, "The hell is this?"
Livewire has been planning this little heist for weeks! Now that she has entered the jewelry store through the power lines, keeping herself in electric form to not trigger any movement sensors, she materializes herself next to the door to the basement, where the big jewels are stored! But after opening the door and stepping into the dark room... she ends up somewhere else. Somewhere else that is colder, open, and totally NOT a basement full of pretty, pretty jewels! "What the hell!?" she asks, shocked, and looks behind her as she sees no door to walk back through, "Is this some kind of super-advanced security system? Dropping me off on North Pole!?"
Al was busy doing experiments in his lab. It is what he does. Upon noticing some extra equipment might be helpful for some of his current experiments, he heads for one of his back room, only to find gravity reverse and him 'falling' into the cabin. He blinks slowly after he lands and stands up "...this is going to be an odd day already" he says. Stoically calm, he looks around to see others are here as well
For Moon Knight, it was already a strange evening. An odd phone call from a stranger at an extra-dimensional bar had him behind on his usual rounds, but he's got his gear in the cab and has just pulled up outside a certain skyscraper. He's still turning over the strange story the girl from the park told him when he steps out of the cab...and so he's not at all prepared for it when the shadow doesn't support him as if it was nothing more than a cab-shaped hole in the street.
The next thing he knows he finds himself lurching out of one of the other shadowed corners of the room, startled and on alert as he catches his balance -- and finds himself in a cabin not unlike the Oblivion, already filled with colorful occupants. And the one in the chair he recognizes.
"You!" he snaps lowly, and he's stepping quickly towards Tenebris, a curved silver blade soon snatched up in one hand, even if he's currently dressed in his cabbie clothes.
Tenebris says, "Welcome to the Tournament." He gets up and claps, "I know you all were 'invited'" he makes air quotes with his fingers, "Glad you could all come. We are Nowhere.. The realm which exists between all realms.. The Warp as it is known to some. This is my home so I hoped to make it at least inhabitable for your forms. I borrowed it from some weird show involving doctors." he seems to think a moment, "No matter. The reason why you were all invited here is because my Bosses have grown tired of simple chaos, they want to see conflict, bloodshed, and.. in the end they will offer a wish fulfillment to anyone who makes it through this. You will fight each other, to when you give up or are knocked unconscious. In the end, one of you will remain the victor." He looks to Moon and seems to sigh, "And they invited you. I guess they liked your performance.""
Billy frowns, "Tournament? Golly, like some sort of super gladiator games? That doesn't sound like a really good idea. Holy moley, people could get hurt! What if we don't want to participate?" He crosses his arms over his gauntlets and looks at Tenebris. He's already thinking that him fighting would be very unfair for most of the heroes and villains here, not that he'd want to really fight, even for a wish since he knows how that kind of thing tends to turn out.
Cir-El sighs, thinking it is just going to be one of those days. She is familiar with most of the others. Shazam, well physically she is no match for him, he is better at everything than she is and magical as well...She will try, but realistically she can not win. Juggernaut, she has some ideas...they fought before, she may have a chance...not much of one, but a chance. Big Al...she would not like it, but she can beat him. Moon Knight, well he has some magic, but is not really in her league generally. She does not really know the others.
Tenebris looks to Billy, "Easy. Do you know what Chance is? The chance a meteor hit the town you grew up in? Chance that you don't have an Alien invasion? And Chance that I don't do this." He snaps his fingers and Billy Vanishes and Quickly reappears after about 5 seconds.
Lunair looks uncertain. She's dazed. "Hi there!" She might remember Tenebris from his reading a newspaper, depending on his guise. She's unfamiliar with most of them, but she stands and looks around. Streeeeeeeetch. "I see. Um." She seems uncertain. She doesn't want to fight Moonbuddy. "Oh dear."
Shazam, for a moment, finds himself surrounded by flames, Demons of look at him along with Creatures that have sheen black skin that glitters with green acid. In the background a large black creature with pitch white eyes stares at you and winks and laughs. Then you are sucked back to the cabin.
Al grunts as he watches Billy disappear and reappear "Hmmmm. Well if you can make an alien invasion happen. I would be grateful. It would be a good time to study there biochemistry if I can get my hands on some corpses" it hard to tell if he is joking or not "Great, meet a manic and he the real deal" yup, he remembers all right. "So how long is this tournament going to last?"
Cain squints at Tenebris. "I remember you." He's currently not in his 'work' clothes'. He's wearing a simple red tee and a pair of blue jeans, with oversized combat boots. He's roughly seven feet tall, though his build is the same. So...he looks burly, but there's no immediate signs he's superpowered. Well, other than being here. "So this is the fighting thing. Okay. you need to be a little clearer on what you mean by wish fulfillment." He notices Billy, and stares at him a few seconds. "....who invited the brat?"
Tenebris says, "Until one remains... I will allow you passage back to your world, but you will not be able to bring anyone back with you." A door appears in the back of the cabin that wasn't there before. "When it is your time to fight, you will be brought back here.""
Moon Knight is unimpressed. It's not Tenebris who he's indebted to, and seeing as he doesn't see anyone with a bird head present, he assumes that's still the case. He shoves Tenebris towards the wall, still brandishing that knife. "They want bloodshed? Well, I bet we can arrange that. Don't let it be said Khonshu's chosen never does favors for other gods.."
Billy blinks and then zips quickly to grab hold of Moon Knight's wrist, "Holy moley! Stop it! He sent me to a nether dimension with the snap of his fingers, and besides that, we need him to get back unless you have some way of getting us all home?" He says as he uses his Strength of Hercules to pull Moon Knight away from Tenebris.
Superlass says, "I do not like this, but as we have no choice, set us up and get this over with."
Lunair blinks. She looks between them. "Hi Mr. Knight!" She waves to Moon. "Well. I guess if I gotta..." She looks concerned for Billy. Deep breath and a streeeeeetch. "I'll do my best."
Al watches as Moonknight, Tenenbris and Shazam seem to go at it. He cants his head "Well, seems the fights already starting" he muses. He begins to size up the others. Most of these people he never met or only met briefly. Either through passing or just seeing them on the news sometimes. Fighting super heroes and villains? This is going to be a first for him
Snorting, Cain shakes his head. "So this is gonna be the competition, huh? You might as well just give me the prize right now." He's apparently not impressed by the others. It's perhaps possible he's a bit arrogant. "So when you say a 'wish'...what would the limitations on that be?"
Livewire sees a LOT of faces she doesn't recognize... but a very few she does. Hmm. Someone must be very powerful to have kidnapped all those powerful people at the same time. In silence, she listens to the 'rules', and the super girl knock-off seems to get the question right out of her lips, asking about refusing to participate. The 'big guy' though decides to not answer the question, at least not outright, though he displays some powers that can apparently simply make one 'not exist' anymore. She frowns and remains silent, her eyes scanning the crowd. Poor are those people that were chosen to fall by her feet.
The cab driver who was calling himself the Chosen of Khonshu turns his head just slightly to glare at Shazaam. "Oh, I'm not going to kill him here, and trust me, I intend to get home. Let. Go." he does glance to Lunair with a brief look of concern, but says to the group at large, "You can't trust someone like this. Playing along with his machinations would be crazy."
Tenebris smirks, "I've fulfilled every contract i have ever brokered, I have spelled out my terms here and.." he looks to Juggernaut, "Anything or Anyone can be created to make your wishes fulfilled." He looks back to Moon Knight and adjusts his clothing as well, "Manhandling me is useless gesture. You should already know what We are capable of, or did you want to visit that giant squid at her home. Honestly, I didn't want you here but.. The Bosses disagreed." He looks towards the fire. Voices seem to come from all around... it's like random babbling... out of the many voices some words are heard, 'Order..is.. Death... Chaos is Life... Kill or be Killed. Choose the Fights Now.' Tenebris nods.
Tenebris pulls out a dice.. he looks across the room.. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6"
Tenebris smiles as he looks at Lunair, "And.. apparently the Dice gods have decided you get to have bonbons by the fire." A hot chocholate and chocolate appear in your hands.
Tenebris looks over the rest of them, "Well... I'll flip a coin on whom gets to decide the location for this fight." Big Al enjoys hot cocoa
"I like bonbons," Lunair offers cheerily. She smiles at Tenebris. "Thanks." Lunair accepts it and will find a good spot to sit out of the way.
Tenebris ponders something, "Actually, nevermind..." he looks to Lunair, "you know, since you don't get to fight this round due to... unknown reasons.. you get to choose a place for this first fight. Anywhere in your imagination... my dear."
Tenebris says, "Mad Scientist Den, Dead PLanet, Hell, Heaven, Bottom of the Ocean, Center of the Earth, In the den of the Eldernaps, In the larva pits of Zakoom." he smiles.
Lunair looks thoughtful. "And it's enclosed, yeah?" She asks. After all, open vs closed arenas favor some more than others. "What about - the starry night sky? But with air and a place for people to fight," She offers.
Tenebris seems curious, "Okay, then how about this." The scenery suddenly changes as they are on a field somewhere else... stars twinkle above, it's an open field with purple grass, three moons of difference sizes above. The air feels like a summer night and it's completely quiet no life beyond the purple grass.
He says, "Would this suffice?" He looks to Lunair.
"Totally," Lunair nods. "Purple owns."
Big Al glances towards Cain "For the record. I think they don't hand over prizes to losers" yes, he was making a jab at the man. After all, arrogance should be met with jabs
Tenebris snaps, "ooh and we forgot the audience." The rest of the fighters and also a whole mess of randomly shaped beings appear in bleachers that line the purple grassed field. The beings cheer loudly.
Cain eyes Big Al up and down a few times. "Hope I don't get put up against you. I don't want to have to clean snot-tar off of my boots." He doesn't seem seem impressed by the guy.
Tenebris announces the results of the random selection by the way, he indicates the fighters as they were rolled by the dice (he did roll the dice ICly ironically)
Al grunts and looks to Cains boots "You can clean?" he returns with sarcasm "Amazing" oh yea. He clearly wasn't impressed by Cain either. He glances to Tenebris as the annoucement are made "Welp, you better learn"
The fans in the bleachers cheer, the mixture of ogres, beholders, goblins, trolls, and other such creatures of nightmares all go wild.
The cabbie has stood down begrudgingly since no one else seems on board with refusing this demon's show. He crosses his arms watching the dice roll.. and looks over to Livewire with a groan. "Great." he mutters. She might not recognize him the way he's looking right now, but he seems to recognize her.
Tenebris says, "So.. let's do... Super... her." he points to Cir-El.. "and Mr. V shape..." pointing to Shazam. All three appear on the field, the two super heroes facing each other. Tenebris in a referee uniform, "So, here we are. Two supposed heroes. To fight for a Wish and for the safety of your planet. Remember knock em unconscious or have them give up. That's all."
Billy wasn't exactly thrilled at the draw, him against Cir-El? He turns to Superlass and says, "Gosh Cir... are you sure about this? I really don't want to hurt you." He's already considering withdrawing because he feels he's way too powerful. He knows Cir-El isn't as powerful as her cousin and if this gets to be too much, he'll give up to save her.
Cir-El assumes a defensive stance, when facing a more powerful foe your best chance tends to be to use their power against them. Meanwhile, she has to think of tactics. She has perhaps a handful of tricks Shazam has not encountered, but finding the right time to use them is the question. She says to Billy, "I have fought tougher than you, though admittedly I had help. I do not back down and I do not go down easy. Do your best SHAZAM, I am a hero."
Billy is full of misgivings and says, "Holy moley... alright, if that's what you want..." He moves to where the start position is for him and says, "Ok Cir... I won't hold back then, just... give up please if it gets too rough for you, I don't want to hurt you." This is a friend, a comrade of his from the Titans, such a bad draw for him. He takes a deep breath, pushing all those misgivings aside for the moment and then with a burst of Speed of Mercury, flies at Cir, drawing a fist back, intending to punch her up into the sky.
Cir-El remembers, first rule of dodging, you only need to move your center of gravity six inches to dodge any projectile. Billy is fast, but only ten times as fast as her. She twists out of the way so he misses by inches. Strait line attacks are fairly easy to defend against.
That's true, if Billy didn't have the Courage of Achilles at his command as well, enough to feint so that he spins as he flies by from her excellent dodge and attempts to drop a fist to her temple. Whether it hits or misses, it's clear that Billy is taking this seriously and not trying to hold back too much as the punch is about 70 percent of his full strength.
Superlass points her hands strait down and blasts, while thrusting DOWN with her flight ability. The result being the air is suddenly filled with a huge cloud of dirt...while Cir-El burrows into the ground.
Tenebris sits down next to Lunair, if she's sitting, if not he'll stand by her, "Ooh we got a digger."
Lunair smiles to Tenebris, then looks to the fight. Her eyes widen a bit. "I see. I can dig it." She sips her hot cocoa. She likes sweets!
Billy coughs and waves a hand, blowing the dirt away. He flies up as high as the arena lets him and waits, crossing his arms over his Shazam symbol. He glances around, if she wants to play Mole, he'll let her. He gives her about 30 seconds to get to where she feels safe enough and then raises his hands. Seems someone forgot that the ground is an excellent conductor of electricity. He gathers up the magic that is his to call and directs the lightning towards the hole with a magic word, "SHAZAM!"
Cir-El was not underground long, she used her X-Ray vision to locate Shazam and move under the cover of the dirt in the air to a place behind the bleachers from him. He calls the Lightning down, but she is nowhere near. In fact, she is trying to sneak behind him to try her next trick...hopefully he is distracted by doing his magic...
The beings in the bleachers are electrocuted... sparks fly about and various colored hairs and fur of the races sizzle... they go silent a moment.... and then cheer loudly, "Woot!"
Tenebris blinks a bit, "well, that was a hair raising experience.." he looks to Lunair his co-host for this round, "Can't wait to see you out there. Bet you can level em both."
Big Al cheers with them! Apparently Al has taken to watching in the stands.
Billy likely was a bit distracted, he might be the Chosen of the Gods, but he's not omnipotent or omniscient. He glances at the ground and waits to see where the next attack comes from.
Lunair is a thoughtful co-host. Her hair is soon standing on end. "I can feel the sparks fly," She offers. "And um, probably not. But I would do my best," She promises. "Candy?" She politely offers one to Tenebris.
Tenebris hmms, "Don't mind if I do... Did we have to destroy a civilization for these... I remember one that ate itself nearly to extinction, getting the stink out of my clothes took a long time." he nods.
Cir-El flies up behind Billy and wraps her cape around his head, tying it off and then starts hitting him at super-speed while he is blinded. Few heroes realize what a weapon a nearly indestructible cape can be.
Billy wasn't quite ready for that, and flails as he's being punched at super speed, he gets sent in all directions from the force of the blows and grunts and groans can be heard as he fumbles for the knot. Finally he uses his entire Strength of Hercules to rip the cape off and says, "Two, can play THIS game..." And with that Billy vanishes, using an extremely low level, but effective spell that even a novice can do... invisibility. He floats off quietly, taking care not to break the light, magic invisibility would render Kryptonian vision useless unless she notices the visible distortions.
Lunair lets him take one. She tilts her head. "Did they do that? And I do not know..." She admits quietly. She seems uncertain, thinking.
The cape does not rip, but it does stretch so that it can be pulled off. Shazam has forgotten, or perhaps he never knew, that Cir-El is an accomplished blind fighter. She is not QUITE as good when she can not see, but is far better at fighting an invisible foe than most. Superlass rams a crushing blow at super-speed into his belly...
Billy isn't going to allow that to happen as he flies back at her at his top speed to punch her in the face at full power. He's going to take the hit to make a hit, and banking that his Stamina of Atlas is enough to overcome her own.
Tenebris is quite amazed from the look on his face as he watches the two fight, "This is about as excited as the accidental supernova... Go for it guys!" he yells up to the fliers.
"You can do it!" Lunair offers to them. Poor people. "Sometimes I wish I could fly without help," She muses. A beat. "Don't throw me, please."
There is a tremendous BOOM of displaced air as the two heroes impact. Superlass, powerful as she is, is neither as strong, nor as tough as Shazam. She also has less mass, so she is thrown backwards and lies, unmoving, on the ground.
Billy himself flies backwards, although not quite as far or as hard or as hurt and looks down at Cir-El. His misgivings and conscience pique at him, but he knows that one punch isn't going to knock out a Kryptonian and so he once again raises his hands and calls forth the magic lightning and with his word, "SHAAAAAZAAAAAAM!" and directs it all at Cir!
Tenebris blinks as he sees the supergirl..woman...female fall to the ground and then as Shazam zaps her down below, he shudders a bit, "Wow, Merciless... right.. that is what they call it." looking ot Lunair.
Cir-El has one last trick...she does not know if it will work, but plasma is a terrific conductor. She fires a blast of her Red Sun Burst, creating a conductive arc back at Shazam even as he speaks...
"Yup." Lunair nods. "But it's also wise. If you want to throw someone off their guard or bring them in close..." She considers. She offers the bonbons to Tenebris for him to take one.
Uh oh! That's something he's never seen her do and it's only the fact that he has the Wisdom of Solomon to tell him that plasma can conduct electricity that he avoids being hit and transformed back into plain ol' Billy Batson, as it is the near miss now unsettles him and he stares at Cir-El with wide eyes, "HOLY MOLEY! THAT WAS TOO CLOSE!" He pulls back now, not wanting to use anymore magic lightning if she fire plasma that can arc his lightning back at him. Best to keep it a battle of attrition then.
Tenebris eats another bonbon... "Don't worry, they are just made from energies of dead universes, didn't destroy them myself." He watches the two heroes fighting, "I think we're approaching the end..."
Cir-El recovers her cape and levitates a few feet off the ground, waiting. She knows she can not take too much more, her vulnerability to magic is telling on her, but she will make it as hard as she can, "I warned you, I do not go down easy and I do not give up. You have to actually defeat me to win. Bring it on." She has another trick prepared...
A peer at the bonbons. Lunair looks concerned. Eventually, she just - goes with it. "I don't know. They seem determined. The magic fellow seems like he has a lot of heart."
Tenebris says, "Well.. His magic is quite impressive, I almost wonder what the Sorcerer Supreme would have done against him."
Billy isn't going to play Cir-El's game though and says, "I know you probably have a few tricks up your sleeve, but so do I..." He knows she's hurt and can't take much more, so he's going to end this, one way or another. He has one last trick of his own, if it misses, at this distance he's not going to be able to avoid changing back to Billy and being forced to give up. He lands on the ground and then slams a fist into the ground and yells, "MIGHTY ZEUS! LEND ME YOUR POWER! STRIKE THIS AREA WITH YOUR THUNDERBOLT!" Sounds cease, and then rocks begin to rumble and jump up as the entire arena shakes, bolts of light begin to come out of ground as it cracks and then suddenly the sky turns a blinding white as a bolt of pure God-thunder slams through the ceiling to hit the ground. Billy is sent flying, his hero form fading in the light as he's forced to change, having used up all the gifts the Gods have granted him for this one last attack. Hopefully this will knock out Cir, otherwise he'll have to surrender.
"I am not sure. I haven't met him. But he must be intense if he can hang onto the title of Supreme," She murmurs. Lunair looks concerned. "Ooh..."
This time however the whole area falls to pieces, the stadium seating collapses and the various denizens go sprawling... they don't seem to mind though and they make all sorts of sounds of excitement.
Tenebris is fine with falling to the ground as well it seems.. "And the big boot is put down."
Cir-El is not grounded, since she is levitating, so the effect is less than it would be...but it is MAGIC. It arcs through her and pounds her into the ground with the shockwave. She staggers to her feet, blood coming from her ears and nose, her eyes swollen almost shut. It is clear that only sheer determination is keeping her standing. Whether she actually can do anything but stand is unclear...
Billy is also staggering to his feet, exhausted from using all that magic and stares across at Cir-El and waits to see what she is going to do, he wavers, and falls back onto his butt and starts to back away from her. He's no longer able to defend himself, but due to all that magic, he has no voice with which to call out that he quits. This could be bad, very VERY bad.
Tenebris walks away from Lunair and begins to walk out to the two contestants... "Excellent fight. Bosses are pleased..."
Moving each foot like it weighs tons, Superlass staggers forward...raises her right hand...and collapses on top of the youthful form...
Oh dear. Lunair nods. "I think this match is just about do-- Oh my." COLLAPSEPILE.
Billy is collapsed on and struggles underneath her weight, being smothered... BY BOOBS! Nosebleeds aplenty in the crowd, yes poor Billy is getting full submarine mode as he tries to get out from under Superlass and unable to do so.
The world fades and they are in a brief location of simply darkness and then they fade back into the snow globe near that same fire. All of the heroes are put in their original location they were in when they were here so poor Billy isn't being smashed.
Tenebris nods to Billy, "You won kid. Congratulations." He gives a little fingerwave and suddenly little creatures with blowtorches appear... "Ahh the medics are here. Fix em boys."
Lunair claps from the audience.
The creatures are the size of what you'd picture as gremlins actually that might be what they are.. the blowtorches however are not hot... as they seem to almost mend the flesh like it was indeed metal. The two combatants are restored by the creepy fellows.
Billy lolls up at Tenebris and says, "Huwey Muwey... yer shuch a jherk!"
Tenebris says, "I don't know what I am... I like it that way. Look at this way, you'll be able to get as many buffalo wings as they have buffaloes.."
Cir-El slowly wakes up, and groans, "Wow, you are tough Billy. Hope we never have to fight again."
Billy blinks as he's healed and says to Cir-El, "Umm... Cir? Next time... you should, umm, consider... more..." He waves a hand at her cleavage and blushes bright red, "Covering..."