The next few days were fairly celebratory for Eyeball; the news about the twins only served to reinforce the joy he'd felt at learning he'd be a father; though Emerald seemed even happier that a quirk of her biology let her get drunk without hurting the babies; something she had loudly and drunkenly bragged about every single night since learning it. Arrival at the Arena was fairly amusing. As the green-armored figure stepped out of the subway onto the street before the massive structure, the place was just as crowded as any other first day; and for once, people were trying to harass him, ask him questions..
One idiot stepped close as he approached the Contestants-Only door; a man wearing a Packers jersey and a cap of some Nascar driver stepped up to shove him with both hands; at first, he was tempted to dodge before he even touched him... but no. That wouldn't be the Viper approach. The man jeered at him. "Another Viper, huh! You're gonna die just like the last one, only you get to do it on camera! I got fifty bucks saying you die today!"
He let the man shove him... and delivered a quick punch to the crotch with a gauntleted fist, before he kept walking. He didn't turn.. but he could still see the man falling to the ground, screaming in pain, rolling on the concrete. Was that blood? Nice. And stupid. Nobody bet on some particular contestant dying a specific day, the odds of that were just garbage.
He pressed in through the door, glancing up at the signs in the hallway; his own entryway was A-7. Numerous men and women were walking down the hallway, giving each other a quick glance, or a more open study; from the sound and smell coming from the locker rooms, different people were dealing with the stress of a possibly life-threatening day in different ways; after a powerful whiff of pot smoke from one door, he activated his air filter til he reached A-7; and stepped in.
Kidney was already there, as was the Human Shield; both looking a bit nervous as they looked out onto the arena floor; there was an ongoing fight, and they would be up fairly soon. Kidney, for his part, was looking in better shape; still wearing a ridiculous lab-coat, but under it he was wearing a clearly armored red kevlar bodysuit; he could even make out the outlines of ceramic plates, and a logo... of a Kidney. The lunatic actually put a logo on his chest.
Viper burst out laughing as he stepped forward; he'd altered his digitizer to add a faint hiss to his voice. "Good god, Kidney. I haven't seen anyone with a logo on their center of mass since.. ever. Maybe cosplay." He turned to the Human Shield. The man was still dressed like any ordinary man; a baseball bat, a shotgun, a t-shirt, jeans... the only difference between now and when he chose to audition was the lack of dirt and blood on the clothes.
Viper frowned as he stepped closer, looking over the outfit. He shrugged. "So, the docs get you set up? How much did they end up charging you?"
Shield glanced back at him, before returning his gaze to the fight. "It wasn't what I expected. At first he was only gonna charge a couple grand. Everything still hurts, probably will forever, I feel heavy... honestly, its amazing. There were these wires that dug into my flesh like burrowing worms, wrapped around my arms and legs, my ribcage, my spine, and shaped the whole thing. The doc told me that if I weren't a fast healer, this would be dozens of surgeries, one bone at a time, with a lengthy recovery between each... and even for fast-healers they had to sedate them and do it in steps to make sure it all went right. Having someone awake, telling him how it felt, what worked, what didn't..."
He chuckled. "Doc actually ended up paying me after we spent an hour going through the process. He tried a bunch of different shapes actually removed most of it and started over, subjected me to more pain than any normal man could survive a thousand times over. He tells me that he's learned enough to make the process much better for his future patients. I've actually got a standing invite to come back the next time the tech people pass him a new implant."
Viper nodded and stepped up to the glass to watch the fight himself. These were the best seats in the house, in some respects; he could see the group of Klansmen out on the sand being brutally demolished one at a time by what was very clearly a telekinetic wearing a vivid purple robe, with hair dyed to match; floating the men in the air to act as shields against each other's bullets, tearing them bodily apart... she definitely wasn't trying to keep the kill count low, but then again... telekinetics were intensely dangerous. She could probably make it pretter far even if she murdered every single opponent and was forced to fight more than anyone else in the tournament.
"Nice. I'm surprised they didn't get you involved with any of that state-side. I heard a company was working on implants and tech to make people better than normal."
"Oh, I saw some of that. But... they're using that on folks that lost limbs in the war for the most part.... Still can't believe how that ended. Over a decade of work, and in the end... we pull out to go fight a bunch of robots and the bad guys just take everything back."
Viper shrugged, and kept watching the Klansmen getting torn apart. The woman appeared to be enjoying herself. He hated telekinetics. The only good way to deal with one was to kill them before they realized you were there. Even someone with infinite strength like Valkyrie could just get picked up and tossed around by one. "I don't think it was ever gonna end well. If something didn't make us pull out, we'd have been there forever."
As the last of the Klansmen died, the door to the room opened; and Ty stepped in. In place of the simple brown overalls and rough animatronic tail... he was wearing armor not that different from Viper's, in that it was covered with a layer of scales; just brown rather than green. The tail was scraping along the ground behind him, as well. The biggest difference, aside from the tail, was that he wore a scale-covered hood over his head; leaving his face completely exposed.
Kidney turned to glance back at him, and blinked. "Well damn, T-rex! The whole concept is still absurd, but at least you look like you're an actual villain now and not just a nutjob. New tail, too?"
Ty laughed. "Oh, hell yes. I've been practicing with it a bit, but I don't want to use it for much other than a club until I have to." He made a gesture.. and it coiled up, as he sat down on it as an improvised chair. "Awesome as a club, can even use it to help jump or grab something... but I just can't get the gun to aim right unless I put it in my hands."
Viper smiled, shaking his head. "Practice, man. Not gonna get good at it without practice."
He sighed... as the corpses of the Klansmen, and the bloody sand, were being cleared out of the arena... and glanced at the display on his helmet bringing up an alert. "Alright, We're next. And we've got... Huh."
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The three men all turned to face him. Kidney stepped closer. "We've got what? Who are we fighting?"
"Pop and Snap." He glanced around at the others. "Hmm. This could be a bit dicey for you two. Might want to let me and Shield take this one and just hold back."
The door in the side of the room; a heavy reinforced steel panel providing access to a short walkway... and then one of the many small doors to the arena floor. Viper stepped forward, taking a deep breath.
***
The announcer's voice came out over the stands, and the arena floor, as the four started to walk forward. "Alright folks, we have what will probably be a short match-up here; most matches with Pop and Snap are pretty quick, after all. For those of you unaware, the duo made it to the semi-finals two years ago, and are among the most dangerous people on the planet. Their short-ranged teleport ability allows them to wreak havoc on their enemies, either keeping their distance from short-ranged victims or moving in close and literally teleporting pieces off of their slower ones to leave them crippled and bleeding."
Viper glanced back at the group. "Hmm. Kidney, take point. If you can hurt em, do it. Rex, if you can stick behind him, and just lash that tail around at random, fast as you can. Shield, take the right, and just bash em if you get the shot. I'll take the left. Stick together, stay within reach. Don't make any big moves... just react. This is either gonna be a quick and messy fight, or a long, dirty slog."
On the other side of the arena, two figures appeared; a pair of asian women, tall, lean, wearing beautiful ornate red-green dresses over a sleek armored bodysuit, the two sisters weren't identical, but had very similar powers; and as the countdown to start began overhead, the two bowed, presenting their weapons; Snap with her pair of war fans, and Pop with the daggers she had a long belt of hidden beneath the dress.
"I've fought teleporters before. The good ones like these two try to be random, hard to predict. They'll try to distract with a thrown knife, a rock, or let their sister distract you... then teleport in and try to literally pull off your arm when you focus on it. If you see them throw one, Rex, just lash around as much as you can, and everybody else. If we stay close, we can handle this." Viper drew one of his two Khopesh, and the neurotoxin dart gun with his other hand. That should be plenty for these girls armor.
The timer hit zero with the four in a rough formation; Viper, Shield, and Kidney standing in front of the tail-lashing Rex.. and when the buzzer sounded... Shield charged forward, screaming and lifting the baseball bat in the air.
Viper stared for a moment, stunned.. as one of the two girls suddenly appeared behind Shield, reaching down, grabbing his leg... he lifted the pistol, snapping off a single shot... and the girl vanished.. Shield dropping face-first to the sand with his right calf abruptly replaced by a gaping, nasty wound, blood spraying out onto the sand as he let out... a joyous cheer, pulling up to his knee and blindly swinging the bat around.
The dagger-wielding assailant had appeared off to the right, while her sister appeared to the left, looking at the others.. and then back at Shield, seeming a bit confused. Usually, most people were out of action after losing a piece of themselves like that; the shock and pain would take the fight right out of them. The confusion didn't last long; the sister with the daggers suddenly realized... she'd been shot. She reached down, touching her thigh, her hand coming up with blood... and collapsed as the neurotoxin worked its way through her system.
The second sister stared for a moment, and then turned to Viper, looking at the tiny pistol, the giant sword; and spread out the two fans before teleporting again. He could see her before she even moved. She was going to appear above them, drop a grenade, and move again. He could easily just move his sword and let her teleport right onto the blade, killing herself. But... no.
He triggered his Reflex. In the moments before she teleported, the artificial adrenaline flooded his system, the world slowed to a crawl... the girl disappeared. And reappeared. He turned his head up, swinging the Khopesh in a long arc, faster than the girl or his companions could see... and it went right through the girl's hand, connecting with the fragmentation grenade and sending it flying through the air towards the other end of the arena.
Everything seemed to be moving at a slow crawl; the girl hadn't realized four of her fingers were missing, or the grenade was flying away, seemingly slowly. As Viper raised the dart-gun to point at her, pulling the trigger, he could actually see the neurotoxin dart flying out of the end of the barrel... and then time went back to normal.
The girl vanished, leaving fingers and a spray of blood behind.. appearing thirty meters away, dropping to her knees, clutching her injured hand with a screech... and then the grenade went off. Having planned on it going off between the three standing opponents, she'd teleported to the other end of the arena... only now to find several fragments of hot metal piercing her flesh as she screamed, and more of the fragments ricocheted off of the dome surrounding the arena.
She dropped to the ground, shaking.. as Viper reached down to collect the severed fingers.
The announcer's voice came on once more. "And in a stunning display of super-human reflexes and thanks to the distraction created by one of his team-mates, the Viper ends Snap and Pop's run for the season! Our ridiculous foursome will be continuing on to the next round. For those who bet on the Absurd Four over Snap and Pop, you must be crazy, but it's the kind of crazy that just made you tons of cash!"
As medics entered the arena, moving quickly to the three downed fighters, Viper stepped forward, walking up to the pair bringing Shield a stretcher. "Hey. No need. Regenerator, I can drag him off. Can you get these to the docs so she can get them re-attached for me?"
The medic stared at the severed digits and the blood-covered hand for a moment.. and nodded. "Of course. Nice clean cuts... should be workable." He started carefully wrapping them in gauze before accepting them. "The other one. She went down way too fast. Poison?"
"Knockout neurotoxin. Lasts a few hours. I left the antidote with your bosses, she should be fine in minutes. Try to get it in soon... it can cause mild but permanent nerve damage if you let it run its full course."
Ty and Kidney stared at the green-armored figure.. before Kidney started walking towards Shield, to help drag the massive man out of the arena. "Jesus. Why the hell does this guy want us on the team? He could've handled those two on his own, no problem."
Glancing at the blood still covering his gloves, Viper helped grab Shield's right arm, as Kidney took the left, and they headed back for their entrance; the missing calve visibly, steadily, growing back, though it looked like a hideous mass of red veins and twisted muscle tissue at present. "Sure, sure. Super-reflexes against a teleporter? Easy win. But its a rock-paper-scissors thing."
Rex reached out with the tail, extending out out closer to full length to wrap around Shield... only to struggle to support the weight of the tentacle with Shield added on. After considering just how it might work, he realized that, short of a suit of powered armor, the tail couldn't really be used like that... and simply grabbed Shield's legs to help carry him. "Rock-paper-scissors. Alright, explain it for me."
"About a third of these teams include a guy who is bulletproof. Really goddamn tough; someone my swords might hurt, or might not. I've got a couple of armor-piercing shells that might do the job... or they might not... but Rex here? Could probably literally bite their arm off and spit it back at them. And you? Could very well be able to just reach in and yank out... well. A kidney."
Holding Shield's arm with one hand, he cuffed him in the side of the head with the other as the man let out a strange giggle. "And what this idiot just survived would be a career-ending injury for me. If we meet speedsters or teleporters? Let me handle them. When we get to the armored folks?" He thought about the Black Knight; who, assuming he really had been the Green Knight; would be one of his next fights. Nicky's people were still studying to see if they could get a DNA sample; the man always wore that armor. "Well. At that point someone on the outside might wonder why you dragged this useless Viper guy along."