Royal Galactic Grand Championship Tournament!

[caios]

(( OOC Note: This marks the point of no return in the story. If anyone else wants to participate now is the time. Let me know right away if you have any plans or ideas you would like to contribute. Also if you would like to write up any thing that happens before being transported to the alternate dimension let me know now before the story continues. Thank you and Enjoy! ))

[gothicshark]

((I wanted to participate, but the stresses the last few weeks have made it hard to think about fun stuff, hopefully Skyrim will bring the stress down long enough for me to write some thing.))

[caios]

The Whirl of Blasters powering up filled the Great Hall of the Royal Palace as the entire platoon of soldiers assigned to the Palace responded to this Wormhole invasion. The mysterious, seemingly human intruders looked around them with a mixture of concern and curiosity, though primarily it was clear they were all preparing for a fight.

“Calm Down everyone!” the Queen’s authoritative voice called out grabbing everyone’s attention. “Everyone put your weapons away!” Slowly all of the soldiers put their blasters down in response.

“By the Holy Ancestors, we’re hosting the Grand Galactic Tournament, we really must be better prepared to welcome such guests.” The Queen said in a reprimanding voice.

“I’m sorry, my Queen.” One of the guards said, “but, guests?”

“Certainly.” The Queen spoke as if annoyed that she even had to explain such things, “I can understand that their methods are unusual, perhaps even primitive, but we must be tolerant of the many cultures and customs we will be hosting soon. As in this case. These are obviously additional Tournament Participants from the planet Earth.”

“wait .... What?” ChronoFreak said, even more confused then normal.


Some time later, in one of the many Palatial guest rooms...

“Anyway, so that’s the basics, more or less.” Caios had just finished explaining the situation to everyone who had arrived from Paragon City. “Granted the Queen's got a vested interest in throwing as many wrenches - that would be us - into the Emperor's plans. Still you gotta admit it was pretty quick thinking on her part.”

“So we’ve all been entered in an intergalactic martial arts tournament?” Steve Porter – aka Man With Bat – said excitedly, “This is just like the plot from all the Mortal Kombat games.” After a beat he added, “Do I get to wear Raiden’s Hat?”

“Well technically it’s not just martial arts, pretty much anything goes.” Caios said, “Actually when you think about it, it’s just like Mortal Kombat. So yeah, if you can find one you can wear whatever hat you want.”

“Man, If only I hadn’t lost my bat collection.” Steve added, “I mean I get that I’m probably gonna be way out of my league on this thing already, but if I had my bat I might actually survive the first round.”

Caios considered Man with Bat’s predicament for a moment before looking over at a nearby table. It was a slim profile primarily decorative piece made from likely the finest quality lumber on the planet. But Caios also noticed that the finely crafted legs had a definitive bat-like form to them. Consideration finished, she walked over to the table, reached down, gripped the bottom of the table leg, and simply yanked the leg free to the sound of cracking wood. The wounded table remained standing, barely, on its three remaining legs as Caios walked back over to Man with Bat and handed him the broken off table leg.

“Uh ... Thanks?” Steve said eventually.

"Welcome." Caios smiled.

“That’s great, but here’s a thought,” Warp Factor spoke up, “If everything you say is true, then what happens when we end up going up against each other?”

“We’ll probably burn that bridge when we get to it.” Caios shrugged, “Right now we have bigger problems. What maters isn’t so much one of us winning, but making sure that Emperor douche doesn’t win. That’s gonna be trickier than it sounds because, for one, he will cheat guaranteed, and two, he’s probably really pissed off at all of us.”

“Already?” Warp rolled her eyes, “We only just got here. Why does he have to hate our collective guts so soon?”

“Well … um, I kinda broke his jaw earlier.” Caios admitted.

There was a wave of heavy sighs that crashed across the room while at the same time only about half of its occupants opted to bring their palm to their forehead.

“… Right, well for now we have some level of protection from retaliation since we’re in the Tournament.” Caios continued, “Until the battles begin we shouldn’t have to worry about any new surprises.”

There was a polite knock on the door to their room which provided a momentary distraction. Casually Caios opted to walk over and open the door and was quickly presented with yet another surprise.

“Hiya cowgirl.” Jack Wolfe greeted her with a smile, standing just a bit taller and radiating just a hint of the power typically associated with a super-massive galactic black hole. The only sound in the room came from the recently amputated three legged table which finally succumbed to its wounds and fell over to the sound of even more splintering wood.

[caios]

(( Something for everyone to consider over the weekend.
The first round of the Tournament will be starting soon. The first round will be there just to let everyone have fun with their toons, so the plan is that everyone participating will move on to the second round. This means that you will win your first fight - unless you have any reason why you want to be taken out in the first round. Therefore I want to encourage everyone to write up whatever first round battle you want to put your toons through. Anything goes. If you don't want to write up anything I can work with you and write something for you. ))

[drjackwolfe]

[glow=red,2,300][shadow=red,left,300]Imperial Defense outpost 87 -roughly translated from Imperial Common- middle of nowhere edge of the Imperial Galaxy.[/shadow][/glow]

<Commander, we have a trans-light anomaly approaching the edge of the Galaxy, reads as gravitational tunneling; but in normal space. Probable dreadnought class starship using artificial singularity as power source>

<Mmm? On my screen>

<Perhaps> the commander thought <I'll capture a smuggler and get transferred off this hellhole and back to the real fleet>

<Ensign are these numbers right, your flux capacitor isn't out alignment again?>

<Confirmed sir, object is on course for Armitage and will arrive in less than a day.>

<Not if we can help it, if these power curve projections are right,
we'll all be transferring off this rat trap. Power up the grav-net, let's catch us a large smuggler, a fine prize to make us all rich sentients.>

<Aye sir, powering the nets> the ensign said with smile.

The lights in the station dimmed as it entered battle mode, a signal from its FTL transmitter powered nearly 10,000 small spheres in the targets path. On the station the 8 man crew watched the screens as the zero point power was transmitted to these sphere via quantum entanglement. At 100 trillion kilometers from point X the fore probes began deploying transmitter buds, at 50 trillion probes behind the target did the same. At 25 trillion a gossamer web of energy formed an open ended invisible sphere 1 billion kilometers across.

<Report Net-master>

<Target shows no sign it's detected our net, it will enter the open side in 30 time units and be entangled soon after, we can then send the nanoswarms in to pillage at our leisure.>

<And they won't escape?>

<Not single dreadnought sir, no, a thousand maybe but not just one>

<Good>

<Sir>, the signals officer called out, <Target profile is changing, it's accelerating, Oh Norbu's Claw, sir target's mass is increasing, now reading as Neutron Star>

Science turned from his station <Confirmed sir, target has entered the sphere's radius and is not changing course, but the mass readings are becoming> raising one of its arching eyebrows <troubling>

<Target enclosed sphere closed, target not SLOWING. The net is having no effect>, the Net-Master screamed, <The target seems intent on immolating itself on the far end of force sphere.>

<Science, report> the commander in gold velour screamed.

<Fascinating, mass is now beyond that of the black hole at the galactic core, but confined to a 2 meter area.>

<Will the net wall hold?>

<I...do not know>

<Target is still accelerating Sir, collision in 3,2 ...>

The station shuddered, and the force net shattered, alarms screamed, and the zero-point interface nearly collapsed, emergency station keeping thrusters fired keeping the station anchored in its space.

<Shut those alarms off, Engineering>

<Aye Sir>

<What the hell happened>

<I dinna know sir, the zero-point interface became unstable we almost lost 'er. As ta what hit the station, I couldna tell ya>

The science master once again turned to his screens <I believe, sir, engineer, the station felt the effects of the target punching through fore wall of the net.>

<That's daft..we're no attached to the net, sure the probes draw power from our zero-point interface through quantum entanglement, but that's as near as magic as ye can get, why ta exert a physical pull across quantum entangled atoms you'd have ta exert enough force ta....>

<Indeed engineer, indeed, enough force to shake the very fabric of underspace for the entire quadrant.>

The commander pivoted central chair to the dark female in red, <Comms, warn the fleet, Omega Class threat incoming>

[shadow=red,left,300][glow=red,2,300]Battle fleet Lochnar half a parsec from Armitage. [/glow][/shadow]

<Crew of the Excelsior, the target is inbound, it may have been able to pierce the mesugga new tech Grav-net, but we'll just smash it into submission>

The admirals confidence was well placed, Lochnar was a Home Guard battle fleet group consisting of 17 Vanguard Class Starships, each capable of turning a planet into slag.

<Sir,> one of the many being sitting in the pit to left and right of the command deck called out,<target is holding course no change..wait, we're reading thin graviton streams coming from the target directed at the Holen. What the 9 hells? Holen's shields are down, her fusion core just collapsed.>

The admiral watched as the great triangular ship's readings dropped from his screen. In its place floated a billion tons of floating battle steel with just enough power for life support. Soon the Mercer, Defiant, Ragnar's Red Head, and the White Star followed.

<Sciences, what the hell is happening?>

The Priestess of Science answered from her station on the flag bridge <Sir, target is emitting twin graviton particle streams, each only inches across, about the size of Flexioumoid's ocular orifice. Each particle in the stream has mass of small black hole. As they punch whole through the shields and the armor on fusion sphere the reaction inside simply stops, collapsed as any star would if impacted by a black hole. Elegant really, by snuffing the core the target is effectively powering down our ships without damaging them. All ships have sufficient fuel and power from the solar arrays and auxiliaries to relight the cores, once the containment sphere is patched, it should only take several days build up the charge in the ignition lasers. >

<Elegant? DAYS? Damn you and your prissy ass race, how do we....damn>

Flagship Excelsior shuddered as her shields were nudged by a stream of trans-light black holes, then alarms blared as ablative armor around the great fusion sphere on the bottom of the ship collapsed under the stream of microscopic black holes. Emergency alarms blared and lighting dimmed as battery power and back reactors attempted to compensate for the lost power of the star at the ship's core.

[shadow=red,left,300][glow=red,2,300]Public Audience Throne Room, Royal Palace, Royal Palace City, Planet Armitage Capital of the Galactic Empire.[/glow][/shadow]

<Please master, get to the bunker>

The Emperor smirked at the Baron of System Defense from his throne, the glassteel roof giving him, and his petitioners a beautiful view of the morning. If it weren't for the "threat" he'd be having a great day despite the dull ache in his jaw, still he couldn't be seen to be afraid, so court went on, there was a Tournament to plan after all.

<Really Oxnar, would it do any good? Someone has gone to a
lot of trouble to come for a visit. Imagine, they've overpowered our most advance defense, and our most powerful battle group without killing a soul, we should at least greet these travelers.>

The Baron grimiced, < You Imperial Highness, size reading taken by the Thoran cannons at systems edge indicated the target is less than 2 meters in length, my analysts insist it's a missile coming at us. You should get to the bunker.>

<A missile timed to hit when I am known to hold public audiences? A missile that survived the planet shattering power of your precious Thoran cannons? A missile, with light year range graviton projectors that can snuff star? A missile that changes mass as easily as we change clothes? Gods Oxnar, what damn good would bunker do if that actually hit the palace? Why hit the palace at all? Would the bunker survive the obliteration of the planet, and the snuffing of the star? This is why you'll never be Baron of the Strategies.>

<Your Majesty...It's too late, target is less than a planetary diameter distant.> The PSI nanos in the Baron's head fed the planetary battlenet data to him, nano comps helped him plot moves and counter moves yet he could not stop the intruder, it simply outmaneuvered or overpowered whatever defenses it encountered.

The Emperor recognized the look of a man communing with the world around him, then the surprise that registered on the Baron's face <What is it Oxnar, are we not going to die after all?>

<Target is slowing Your Majesty, it should be here in...oh>

A single pane of the great glass ceiling simply winked out of existence as the graviton beams uncoupled the strong and weak forces that gave it reality. A figure in white a purple floated to the floor, his cape fluttering in the morning breeze, his white hair in a ponytail trailing behind him. Lightly touching down the human, the Emperor believed, smiled.

"Your Imperial Majesty, greetings from the Council of the Well, we hear you're having a tournament?"

<Indeed I am Jack Wolfe, I see no reason why that should be a concern of the Well. Unless you intend to enter? >

"No your Majesty, not enter, Arbitrate."

<WHAT? My forces will arbitrate, my judgment will be final.>

"Ah, then not a true Tournament as you promised, not the great celebrations of your Empire's past, but a pale shadow, I understand., it's a different universe, now, perhaps one that cannot risk a true Tourney."

<Damn the Well Keepers> the Emperor thought, <why couldn't they have sent Ascendant, at least he was rumored to be less insulting and open to negotiation or manipulation.>

<Jack Wolfe, surely you don't question my honor?>

"Oh no Your Majesty, I'm sure this Tourney is as you say, an honest contest with the rewards you promised; but as far back as they go there have been Arbitrators. A 'fair' fight, well as fair as a no holds barred fight can be, two beings enter, one leaves victorious, anything goes. The only rule, once in the Arena, the fighters are on their own. The fights always had a powerful, independant, Arbitrator in the Arena to prevent interference inside the Arena and an independent security force to protect the Arena, City, Planet and even Star System where the tourney was being held. Of course to be effective the Arbitrators had to have the power to enforce the rules, once your empire became the dominant force in this Galaxy the old emperors asked in the Universals, other galactic sized empires or forces capable of enforcing the peace, to act as Arbitrators. In the past the Ancient's Chessman Fleet, the Shadows of Dawn, even the Guardian's Corp acted as Arbitrators, we offer our services."

<There in lies the problem Jack Wolfe, as powerful as you are, you are but one sentient. I have no doubt you could secure the arena perhaps even the planet, but the star system is huge and cheaters need not be close to change the games. The Chessmen Fleet, the Shadows, even those damnable Corp members number in the thousands, you simply cannot keep a close eye on fight and protect system. Why Oxnar's sneaky planet could launch an attack from edge of the system, and in the seconds you were distracted a second attack could change the game, you'd survive the destruction of this world, but would anyone else?.>

The Baron of System Defense looked stricken at the implication his race would cheat in a Tourney, even as his Psi implants ordered his world's fleet back to base. The Emperor though smiled, he had the alien.

<You could enter though Jack Wolfe, though who would provide a suitable opponent has me puzzled, perhaps the being called Ascendant? We would make you and he number 1 seeds in different brackets>

Jack smiled, a smile that made the Emperor and Oxnar uncomfortable, "No your Majesty, Eric and I have an empty universe we use when we want to spar, and if the energy signatures I'm seeing in your dungeon, excuse me guest suites, are who I think, you might need to reconsider your brackets. Still you have a point about the numbers, even I can't be in more than a few dozen places at once," Jack's grin broadened as one of those energy signatures opened the suite door for him in another thread of his consciousness "of course you're assuming I came alone, but I have been saying 'we' "

Looking skyward Jack said "Ok Bishop, bring em in"

A puzzled look crossed the Emperors face, the Bishop of System Defense grimaced in pain as his Psi feed filled will with information. < IMPOSSIBLE Hyper-Space jump points 42 of them, unknown ships transitioning to real space. Working Cruisers, destroyers, carriers, moons...that's no moon that's a battle station..Working Working, Working, Working, please wait, Working, Working. 42 capital ships with escorts and fighters. >

<Impossible we destroyed the Hyperspace beacons, how did they find us, how are they opening gates without anchors ? What is it Oxnar? What have you done old man?> the Emperor's glare focused on Jack

Jack, clearly enjoying the confusion simply added, "Did you know the Ancients played chess with forty-two pieces? Twenty-one on a side, interesting fact that, damn interesting number.

A calming voice hijacked every nano com in the star system announcing the fleet meant no harm; a hologram of a man in leather jacket with a space ranger badge and cowboy hat appeared in the throne room "Dammit Wolfe, you'r a good Irishmen, but ye know I aven't been called White Bishop in centuries, that'd be me daughter Moria. I'm the Chessman Emperor and ye damn well know it."

"Sorry Casey, I forgot, it's a silly name anyway." Turning to face the throne Jack bowed slightly "Your Imperial Majesty may I present Casey Briggs, former Space Ranger, former citizen of the Free Worlds' Alliance, former Hero of Paragon City, onetime Urban Legend (the first group), Irishman, and currently Admiral and supreme commander of the Ancient's Chessman Fleet, all of it. Yeah it's not missing anymore. Anyway I think that answers your concern about the our ability to secure the entire tourney system. Now, Emperor, as we've demonstrated our power, and as we represent two major Universal Powers with no stake in Tourney's results, I must insist, under the old rules you yourself invoked, you grant my petition to act as security, to arbitrate, and to insure the victor gets their reward. "

The Baron of System defense looked stricken as data poured in, the Armitage home guard fleet was the largest and most powerful in the Empire, nearly two hundred ships strong, plus battle stations, orbital fortresses, and ground stations. Against the Ancient's fleet it would not be enough. The little his sensor nets could reveal about the Chessman indicated the wild children's stories about the fleet were, if anything, conservative, in the descriptions of its power. Even now the Knight Battleships, if the children's files he was using for reference were accurate, were accelerating towards fleet yards at over 120,000 Gs. He had no doubt that the Imperial fleet could bring enough force to bare to defeat this collection of ships , but not without significant redeployment, significantly weakling their hold on the galaxy, and significant losses. He sent a simple PSI pulse to his Emperor, indicating he now believed they faced the true Chessman fleet. The Universals had taken an interest in his game.

<You would not be able to interfere> the clearly perplexed Emperor asked, attempting to gain some maneuvering room. He hadn't expected an arrogant representative of the Well to bring help.

Jack shook his head, "No Emperor, we wouldn't interfere, we won't even fight unless engaged or to save lives. I'll keep the fights fair, and the fleet will keep the people safe. Internal politics are your problem; remember, though, that "Prime Directive", Jack smiled at his long forgotten play on words "cuts both ways. We won't be assisting you either, a Galactic Tourney is a big event, an important event, even a fun event; but on a universal scale it is but one on many interesting things going on. So I take it you accept our offer?"

[caios]

For weeks after the official announcement was released the Tournament hype had been building. Endless marketing, discussions, gossip, and propaganda littered the collective consciousness of an entire galaxy as everyone focused their sights on this historic occasion. It was all anyone could talk about as millions of tourists made their way to the Imperial Capitol for a chance to see the Tournament live. Meanwhile trillions more across the galaxy remained focused on various extranet channels all of whom had begun broadcasting their coverage of the Tournament 32 hours a day.

The focus of this media frenzy was the main Arena itself. The entire building was retrofitted to fit the massive audience that would be flocking to it, while the fighting area itself had to be completely re-engineered to handle the caliber of fighters that the event had attracted.

While a circuits of fans, spectators, media broadcasters, and security officials gathered around the Arena building itself, the majority of the fighters themselves were in a nearby building where the Tournament registration was taking place. This was where Azanii now found herself along with the passenger they picked up; a strange alien with a massive sword who called himself Blood Lotus. Alongside stood thousands and thousands of other Tournament hopefuls, all waiting to register their chance at greatness. None of which mattered much to Azanii, who was here for another reason entirely.

“Wow, look at all these guys.” Fred said loudly enough to break Azanii’s train of thought. “This is a crazy level of competition. ‘Shame most of these scrubs won’t make it past the first round.”

“So long as I get in the door that’s all I care about.” Azanii mentioned.

“How ‘bout you big guy? Think you can take on all of these guys?” Fred asked Blood Lotus.

“I have yet to see anyone who could defeat my battle curse.” The tiger-like alien said somberly, “I only hope other fighters prove a worthy challenge.”

“oooh-kay then.” Fred managed to say in response.

At the same moment inside the Arena itself the Heroes (mainly) of Paragon city found themselves waiting in their own locker room. They were all preparing in their own way for the battles ahead, with a few exceptions.

“I wish you would reconsider.” Queen Armitage implored the young ( looking ) woman before her, “The more people who enter the Tournament the more difficult it will be for Zin to accomplish his goals.”

“No way princess!” ChronoFreak told her.

“Queen.” Armitage corrected her.

“There’s already too many people in the Tourny now.” ChronoFreak continued as if she hadn’t said anything, “And I’ve already gotten plenty involved enough as it is bringing everyone else here. If I had known they’d end up being volunteered for a galactic grudge match I’d probably come alone. More to the point, I’m not really much of a fighter to be honest.”

“Very well,” the Queen sighed, “I cannot remain here any longer arguing the point, I must be present when the events begin, and Zin won’t let me out of his sight the moment the Tournament officially begins. I wish you all luck and truly hope one of you wins the grand prize. Until then, keep fighting the good fight.”

She turned and walked away as the Emperor appointed guards fell in around her to “protect” her all the way to her Royal Tournament Observation room.

“I hate her guts.” Angelslaine said once she was far enough away.

“If that’s the case why even bother fighting?” Caios asked the other vampire.

“I'm just here as a favor to you, grandma.” Angelslaine smirked, “Besides, if I manage to win this whole thing I can ram it down her pretentious throat.”

“Ha! Well I guess we’ll see how well you do then.” Caios responded. “Sounds like the festivities are about to begin. Too bad they don’t let the fighters see the first round fights.”

“They don’t want to give any of the fighters a potential unfair advantage,” ChronoFreak mentioned, “But don’t worry, after the first round you can watch all of the fights. Speaking of which, the first one is starting soon.”

“Why bother telling us if we can’t see them?” Caios asked her.

“Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean I can’t.” ChronoFreak smiled, “There’s a reason I scored these awesome front row tickets!” She continued to laugh as she ran off to her seat.

Leaving the others behind ChronoFreak ran through the massive maze-like tunnels to reach the arena floor. She looked around at the massive structure, truly impressed. The Tournament Arena redefined massive. Over a mile across this open air coliseum was made to comfortably hold millions of spectators. It came complete with massive screens spread around the spectator area to allow everyone to get a good view of the actions. One entire section of the Arena held the luxury boxes, at the center of which was the Royal Observation Room where the Queen was now taking her seat.

At the center of the Arena was the fighting circle itself. A gigantic circular block of stone more than big enough for two combatants to go at it, not that they expect all battles to remain within the confines of the stone fighting surface. This is why the barricades between the seating area and the fighting stone itself are set ten feet back from the edge of the stone, and are fitted with high powered shield emitters to protect the audience. Between the barriers and the stone is nothing but the dirt floor, as per tradition.

Behind the barriers the millions of arena ticket holders for this event were slowly trickling into their seats. This is where ChronoFreak now found herself as she approached her hard earned seat right behind the barricade itself. Immediately she sat down put her feet up and greeted whatever random person was seated next to her.

“I can’t wait for the fights to begin.” She said excitedly then added knowingly, “You know this is going to be the best martial competition you’ll see in this galaxy for the next 3,281 years.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Fred responded to her equally excited, “So are you rooting for anyone in particular? I know I got my favorite.”

“Oh don’t worry, you’ll see.” ChronoFreak smiled back at the toad-like alien.

The heavy tune of the full orchestra changed suddenly, featuring the intense beating of a precision drumroll, bringing the attention of all of the spectators to one of the Imperial Herald now walking to the center of the massive stone circle.

“To all the million Gentle humans and non-humans joining us here today, and the trillions of sentients watching this event from across the galaxy,” His voice was fed through the sophisticated sounds system to be heard clearly from every seat and through every broadcast, “We graciously welcome all the combatants hoping to earn the greatest prize, their piece of the future of this empire, and their place in History! We of the great Zin Empire welcome you to the Royal Grand Galactic Championship Tournament!” The Herald allowed a moment for the massive crowd to cheer. “From ancient times this Grand Championship Tournament set the course and the very destiny of our Empire. And now, with the blessing of our Queen it will do so again.” He motioned up to the Royal Observation Room where the Queen stood against the glass waving down to the people. “In the grand tradition of our Ancestors, to the honor of the Empire, and glory for all the galaxy, Let the Tournament Begin!”

The Herald then stepped off the fighting disk and made his way to one of the ringside broadcast booths where he could continue his duties as the announcer.

“To kick off this monumentous occasion, our very own great and honorable Emperor Zin will take the fight battle!” The herald began, “But this will be no simple preliminary fight. It will be a one hundred person battle royal! That’s right! The Great Emperor Zin himself had volunteered to battle not one, not two, but a hundred tournament hopefuls in his first battle!” As he spoke the one hundred opponents walked in clearly confused from one end of the arena. As a group they all managed to make their way to the center of the ring, already many of them were sizing themselves up for the battle ahead. What none of them realized is they had been chosen ahead of time during their registration for being amongst the weakest of the participants. An easy match, in other words, for their only true opponent.

“And now we present to you, in this the very first match of the Grand Championship Tournament, our gracious host and ruler, and future King, the great and honorable Emperor Zin!”

A vast array of pyrotechnics combined with aerial flybys, a custom intro video, and of course very loud full orchestral music, signaled the entrance of the Emperor himself. Zin wore a large grossly decorated cloak as he strutted down to the fighting ring itself. Despite the uselessness of it all, he had insisted that all of the arena spotlights would shine on him during his entire entrance. He waved majestically at the crowd as he climbed onto the stone circle itself. He strode to the center of the ring then let the robe that covered him drop to the ground.

In her Royal booth the Queen stood up and glared with a mixture of rage and shock. With her own technical expertise and familiarity she immediately recognized what the Emperor was using in this battle. He had been planning this event for years, more than long enough to take advantage of genetic and cybernetic enhancements to turn his body into a lethal weapon on its own. But his true threat came from the advanced technological exosuit that served as both his armor and his weapons. Queen Armitage knew this because that suit was clearly based on her own, only Zin had three decades to improve upon it.

“Dear unfortunate opponents,” Zin taunted the other fighters, “Let us begin.”

It wasn’t hard for the other fighters to recognize the true threat after that show. Together they all began to attack Zin directly. However all their blows and attacks did nothing against the Emperor’s Battle Suit. Zin only laughed at them as he allowed them to continue their weak attacks against his armor. When he was satisfied with this show of superiority he simply closed his eyes. The exo-suit was already synchronized to his nervous system, all he had to do was think about it and the suit responded instantly. In this case it build up a charge from the power emitters on the suit’s gloves. Moments later there was an explosion of energy, tossing back those opponents who were lucky enough not be too close to him at the time – they landed hard on the ground beyond the ring, which signified their immediate loss. The rest of the field had most, if not all, of their bodies disintegrated by the intense high energy release.

In a single blow the Emperor had defeated one hundred potential rivals to his throne.

Zin glanced at the Arbiter, his grin proving that, despite the one sided gruesomeness of this battle, there was nothing he had done to disqualify him from his victory. There would never be for the course of the Tournament, Arbiter or not, he was convinced beyond all doubt that he would control this Tournament; he would control his destiny.

Without another pause Zin walked out of the Arena, accompanied once again by the extravagant level of flourish that he had come in with.

[fenix]

Even in the holding pen for the contestants, you could hear the roar of the crowds, screaming for more action. The other assorted fighters and convicts were huddled together around the inoperative view screen, speculating on what exactly went on during the last match.

“Zin took out one hundred of us, man! Who the fuck can do shit like that?!”

“Calm the fuck down, asswipe. Those guys were all pussies.”

“Still, man... A hundred... The fuck is that guy?”

“Dead is what he is, if he goes up against me.”

Steve half-listened to the conversation trying to keep his mind on the match before him. He was the first of the heroes of Earth to go up, and he still didn’t know who he was supposed to fight. He’d heard stories of giant monsters from the other fighters, before they went all Zin-crazy. Would he have to fight something like that giant rock monster that sometimes rambles around Crey’s Foll-

“Hey kid. You’re up.”

Steve looks up at the guard who appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He gives a quick nod and stands up.

Here goes nothing.

Steve found himself quickly ushered into the gates leading into the arena proper. He could hear the crowd’s excitement for more bloodshed and the announcers whipping them into a frenzy.

“Coming here direct from Earth, The Man With Bat!”

There’s my cue.

Taking a deep breath, Steve walked out into the coliseum, with only a smattering of cheers from those who had bet on the long odds and those who really hated his opponent, whoever that might be.

“And from the bowels of Zone 13, with over one thousand convicted murders, Robert “The Butcher of Correlzia” Fuller!”

The Butcher slowly floated onto the arena, his arms bound across his chest and his legs strapped to the gurney that carried him. His mouth was covered with what could only be a Hannibal Lecter mask, his eyes staring intently with a fury that could only be properly described by the finest poets, or the trashiest Lifetime Movie writer.

Somewhere a tone sounded the beginning of the fight. The gurney, and the straps holding The Butcher down, disappeared leaving the insane man to fight with the unarmed man.

Where the hell did I put that table leg?! Ah, fuck, it’s still in the holding pen!”

Weapons didn’t seem to be a problem for Steve’s opponent, who who was lunging with a knife that had probably been hidden somewhere very uncomfortable.

Well, crap.

The blade missed by centimeters, due only to the fact that Steve had been hero-ing long enough by then to have “dodging a knife-wielding lunatic” wired into muscle memory.

“Cut. Cutcutcutcutcutcutcut CUT YOU!”

Another slash, another dodge, this one not being nearly as clean as the last one, leaving Steve with a cut on his right arm.

The fight continued in this fashion for a while, The Butcher swinging wildly, keeping Steve too much on the defensive to mount a proper counter attack. Inevitable The Man With Bat would have tired, letting The Butcher cut out his heart in front of a crowd of billions for a very “tasteful” midday meal.

“Oh, screw this.”

Steve moved his left shoulder into the path of the blade, the knife sticking into the muscle and twisting out of The Butchers grip and sending it flying to the edge of the arena ring.

Ignore the pain, ignore the pain...

He then drove his fist into the face of the Butcher of Correlzia, sending the maniac sprawling to the ground.

“My... Knife...”

The lunatic’s jerky movements seem to calm for a moment, as he got back up to his feet. Fuckin’ hell, what’s it take to keep him down?

“Give me back my knife...”

“Hell no.”

Steve punched Robert in the face again. He then looked to where the knife had fallen out of his arm, and kicked it out of the arena. The Butcher went diving after it, landing outside the arena boundry.

“And it’s over! The Butcher of Correlzia has landed outside the ring! Man With Bat moves on to the next round!”

Great. Wonderful. I do hope they’ve got some good medics here. I’d hate to die from blood loss.

[caios]

Caios waited by the Arena entrance patiently. She could hear the excitement, farfare, and general insanity coming from the crowd just on the other side.

As the Queen's first sponsored fighter, Caios had ended up just behind Zin himself in the initial rankings, and would have fought next after the Emperor. But somehow there had been a "clerical error" and Caios ended up fighting much later. Obviously the Emperor was trying to manipulate the Tournament to put her at a disadvantage. She wasn't worried about the fight itself, however, so she was mainly focused on wondering what other nasty tricks Emperor Zin might come up with.

Finally one of the heralds motioned to her to head out.

If her heart was still beating it would have skipped a beat the moment she stepped to the other side of the arena entrance. Nothing could have prepared her for the experience of seeing the Arena like this for the first time. An Ocean of people, both human and otherwise, stretched out as far as the eye could see. The fighting disk in the center, though large, was miniscule by comparison.

Eventually Caios focused herself on the fight ahead and strode with a purpose towards the battle circle. Unlike the Emperor she didn't have, or need, any fanfare to herald her arrival, so there was no pyrotechnics or special lighting effects for her walk to the center of the Arena, just the same basic generic background music used for the majority of the fighters. Upon reaching the center proper, Caios easily lept up to on the fighting stone. The crowd was relatively quiet as she walked to the stage; most simply did not recognize her while others were afraid that showing support for the Queen would mark them as resistance and bring the eyes of the Empire's secret police upon them.

The main exception was the ChronoFreak, who was cheering loud enough to be embarrassing.

Almost unconsciously Caios nodded to Jack, the Arbiter of this match much to her surprise. Caios had no idea what to make of Jack being here like this. She wasn't yet clear on whether this was the same Jack that she knew or some extra dimensional copy, or something entirely different. He had tried to explain the connection before but most of it just went over her head.

Her opponent, interestingly, had gone through the trouble of bringing his own music to play his entrance - it was a hard almost death metal like cacophony that sounded more like a pig being butchered by heavy machinery. Appropriate, perhaps because her opponent turned out to be a sort of boar-like humanoid alien. At least 8 feet tall, he was extremely large with thick layers of equal parts muscle and fat on his heavy frame.

Alot more people were clearly comfortable cheering for him as he made his way to the battle circle. All the betting houses - both legal and illegal, both in the Arena and around the galaxy - were all too happy to start throwing money on this fighter for this seemingly one sided match.

He wore heavy plates of armor which had been cut into menacing shapes. In his hand he gripped tightly to his weapon, a massive maul with a fusion thruster on one end to generate maximum damage. He bellowed and laughed as he stomped his way to the center of the ring. He looked down on Caios laughing at the tiny creature he would squish into paste very soon.

Caios was not impressed.

"Really?" She asked in muted disbelief and annoyance towards Jack who simply shrugged back at her.

"lee-tel Huu Manz Woa Manz is gonna be Ded soon." the large swine man taunted her.

"Go away little piggy," Caios dismissed him, "Bring me a real warrior to fight."

"U makin fun o' me!?!" her opponent roared, "You get SMASHED NOW!"

The large pig swung his maul the fusion thruster behind it adding even more force to his already powerful swing. The large arc swung straight down as the head smashed into the stone surface they stood on. It was a testament to the strength of the stone they had used for the battle circle that even under this impact it did little more then chip slightly.

It took a moment for the boar man to realize he had not actually hit his opponent. This was a new experience for him. He had no idea how it happened but Caios had simply not been there when the hammer fell.

"See this is what I mean." Caios spoke up from behind her opponent, "I mean, no offense meant ... alright maybe I do mean a little offense, but when I heard I'd be fighting against the best fighters in the entire galaxy I was kinda expecting a bit higher caliber then this."

Her opponent roared again as he turned swinging his maul in a vicious arc where Caios stood, once again his weapon's fusion thruster allowing him to swing the hammer at beyond deadly speeds. And yet once again Caios was simply not there when he expected his blow to strike.

"I guess I can't blame you." Caios said, now standing next to him opposite where his maul ended up, with her arms crossed, "I probably had my expectations a bit too high. Maybe I've been hanging around Incarnates too long. Even so, for my first fight of the Tourny you're just one big disappointment."

Her opponent roared completely enraged. Gripping his maul tightly with both hands he began swinging wildly at Caios, each swing powerful enough to turn a person into paste, over and over and over again, his weapon's fusion thruster set to full power the entire time. It made no difference however as no matter how fast he swung or how many times he tried, every time his target would simply disappear before he could make contact, only to appear somewhere else. Then, after one particularly powerful swing, Caios was suddenly nowhere to be found. He turned around, holding his maul high behind him ready to strike, but she was simply not there, he kept looking around but didn't see her anywhere on the fighting platform. He failed to notice the awed silence that had spread across the audience surrounding him. For a brief moment he wondered if perhaps he had finally bested his opponent, sending her over the side of the ring. A brief moment indeed.

"This is what I mean, no battle awareness at all. It's sad really." Caios said. Still her opponent could not find her. Eventually he turned his head once he realized where the sound was coming from. Standing on the shaft of his weapon as easily as one might stand on the edge of a side walk, Caios was looking down on him.

For a long time he tried to understand how she could stay standing on the end of his massive hammer so easily. When he failed at that he decided to try to get her off of his weapon. He shook it, he swung it, he rattled it in his grip, but despite it all Caios remained on his maul.

"Stop it!" He cried out in frustration.

"Gladly." Caios said.

It was hard to see how she managed it with such grace, but in one single smooth motion Caios reached down and gripped her opponents weapon in one hand pulling against it while simultaneously kicking straight out with both feet landing straight on the pig man's chest. The force of the blow sent the massive alien flying back even as it ripped his weapon from his grip. Under the powerful impact Caios's opponent easily sailed over the edge of the ring, landing hard on the ground beneath. Caios herself appeared to hang in the air for a moment before gravity decided to affect her. She easily landed on the stone beneath her, her opponents weapon still held in her hand.

"Ring out. The winner is Caios." Jack declared officially.

"Bit anticlimactic that one, but whatever." Caios shrugged tossing the large hammer over her shoulder casually as she walked away. The maul itself also sailed over the edge, landing on the boar-alien's head just as he managed to get to his feet, resulting in knocking him out as well.

This time there was a bit more cheering for her as she left then there was when she came in.


((( FYI - I originally wrote this thinking Caios would end up going first after the Emperor, but Fenix managed to beat me to it. Damn Job getting in the way of my forum posting. That's ok, probably works better this way. )))

[caios]

(( Hey, just wanted to bring some attention to this to remind certain folks where Azanii came from originally. ))

(( In fact in the spirit of coimpletionism I want to write out the conclusion of this storyline. Or at least how I would see it going down...

As the grand battles progress many great and terrible fights take place before the galaxy. Throughout the tournament, however, the Emperor's forces, including his agents within the tournament itself, begin systematically taking out all of the major players in the ranks.

Of course many of these agents get caught, many of these conspiracies are found out, but by then most of these fighters are taken out, and of course the Emperor himself simply feigns ignorance every time, go so far as to execute the perpetrators for violation of the Tournament rules

Even so, one by one our heroes get taken out. Until only Caios is left coming into the semi finals. Well, her and Man With Bat, mainly because this whole time everyone's been mostly ignoring and underestimating the plain pitiful human with the wooden stick who only seems to progress through shear dumb luck and stupid determination.

It is in the semi-finals that Caios and the Emperor meet in battle. And what a truly epic battle it was!

*Fill in crazy over the top, completely ridiculous anime battle scene here*

In the end, with most of the tournament colosseum destroyed, Caios stands, severely battered but triumphant, over the broken body and suit of the Emperor. The Emperor begs her for mercy, and she does so - by giving him a quick death.
(Or as she would later claim, "Let him live only to have him come back some day swearing vengeance? Nuh-Uh! Fuck that shit!")

And so in the end the Final Battle of the Grand Galactic Royal Tournament came down to a fight between Caios ... and The Man With Bat.

They stood there, each upon a broken stone, the two pieces being the only part of the once massive stone fighting arena that had survived the prior battles. Tradition demanded that the tournament continue so long as even a piece of the fighting arena remained. Even Jack's avatar was force to float above the ground as he watched, having no more room to actually stand on. Steve just stood there, looking at the deadly creature before him, barely managing to stay upright on the fragile, shattered piece of stone below him which threatened to fall apart at any time.

He didn't even have a bat anymore, or even a piece of broken off wooden furniture for that matter. The remnants of his weapon having completely shattered in his semi-final fight against a particularly massive Qo’Ggan when he swung his weapon as hard as possible against the back of the creature's knee. ( In his defense he was only trying to knock the alien down, he didn't realize that was where they kept their genitals. ) Few people can say they know what it sounds like when a trillion people across a galaxy all cringe at the exact same moment.

But now here he was, at the end of this long journey, his defeat inevitable at the hands of the vampire before him. At least, he told himself, Caios would probably not hurt him, ... much. Well he was confident she would at least keep him alive.

And then the fight began, and immediately Caios just raised her hand to the referee.
"Uh, yeah." she said, "I'll be honest here, I already did what I set out to do here. I'm tired and I really don't much care about the rest of the tournament anymore. So if it's all the same with you all. I think I'll get off here."

And just like that she took a short step off her chunk of stone, landing on the bare ground a step below, effectively throwing the fight.

Thus did a Man with a Bat come to win the Galactic Tournament, and win regency over the largest kingdom in the galaxy.


....

At least that's how I would end it. Assuming Fenix doesn't mind. But feel free to provide your own ending if you prefer. ))