2014-12-01 - The Bet: Round Four

Cassandra grins and nods, actually looking kind of flushed in the cheeks, not counting the bruise. If one didn't know better she might actually look like she really enjoyed that. Which is actually possible. "Good...luck. Fights getting...harder."

And there's a *click* as the loudspeaker comes on again, and the voice from above says, "Not sure how to top those last two matches, folks, but we're going to try! We're drawing challengers from the ranks of these two's own home planet now, keeping the show going for YOUR ENTERTAINMENT! We don't ever stop because you asked for it!"

The crowd cheers, but an astute person would note that the people on the far side are now being called 'the challengers'. Which means that Kara and Cassandra are NOT.

"Next we've called fort not one, but two great warriors from the planet we found these two ladies on. Please welcome, for your blood-soaked and terrifying pleasure, THE GREEN UGLY THING AND HAMMER HORSE!"

Appearing as if teleported, The Incredible Hulk appears in the arena. Next to him, what appears to be Thor, but with an alien almost equine face. He does, however, have the hammer, and he says most eloquently, "I apologize, ladies. It appears that one of us must die. And, I'm afraid, It will not be me."

And Beta Ray Bill steps forward. Hulk doesn't though, hanging back, and the announcer calls out, "Get in there, Green!" The Incredible Hulk turns slowly, looks up at the announcer, and says, "Hulk not greedy. Wait turn."

Kara Zor-El blinks when the new opponents are announced. First, because aside from Earth not being her home planet, which was a forgiveable mistake, Beta Ray Bill definitely did not look like he was from Earth. Which he wasnt.

Kara pauses, "Er... first, I don't know who you are. And second, why are you dressed like Thor?" She crosses her arms. "Oh yeah, and third, this isnt a battle to the death." She looks around and sees an announcement board in the sky, "Round Four - DEATH BATTLE!" She looks around. "Seriously, I'm not killing anyone!" she says sternly.

Unfortunately, the announcer isn't feeling chatty enough to answer Kara at this point. He is, however, chatting amiably about the wonderful locations found on Earth; the crystal caverns of Norwegia, and how the forests of Byzantium are known for their wonderful red branches, stained after many years by the blood of the warriors bred there. A fearful place it's certain.

Beta Ray Bill however, says, "I am unable to keep from fighting to my utmost, lady. Please understand this is in no way my choice." His utmost, however, appears to be taking his hammer and swinging on Kara with both massive arms. He's quick, too, having the speed of an Asgardian, and he has enough combat skill to know how to do it right.

Dr. Banner in the form of Hulk is somehow resisting his urge to kill at the moment, though the effort is making him annoyed. "Who ever speaks in Hulk's head, shut up. Making Hulk mildly irritated."

Kara Zor-El watches Beta Ray Bill, her arms crossed. "It's okay, I'm invulnerable and it's not like you'll even be able to hur- *WHAM* Kara gets hit with the hammer and goes flying backwards, across the entire arena and into a wall with tremendous force, causing a lot of the wall to crumble around her.

Then the wall falls on her.

A few moments later, the rubble is pushed aside and Kara trudges out of it, rubbing her jaw. "Owwww..." And unlike her retort with the Gragg Brothers, this 'ow' was serious - she even seem to have a bruise where she got hit, although it is already healing up. "What hit me?" she says confusedly.

After the horribly one-sided fight she gave the Gragg Brothers, this was definitely a surprise to the audience. "Let me guess." She says, still waiting for stuff to settle down in her head. "Magic hammer?" she asks as she stumbles forward.

Beta Ray Bill walks toward Kara, his hammer pulling back, and he says, "Very much so, that only the truly worthy may wield it." He then throws it at her with all his not inconsiderable strength behind it, adding, "May the gods have mercy on my opponent." Which is not without irony, as statements go.

Hulk flicks a speck of rubble off of his arm, and Bat-Mite appears next to Him, saying, "Why aren't you fighting? Seriously, she needs a fair opponent and you have NO idea how much I want this to be a good test can you even imagine what it'd be like having someone talk to you for an eternity if he could lord over you like 'oh do you remember that time I beat you I beat you?'

Hulk frowns, looking at Bat-Mite, and growls. "Little bat go away..."

Kara Zor-El gets the cobwebs out of her head just in time to see the hammer flying at her. And does what she probably should have done the first time, had she not been so used to being able to tank stuff hitting her. She gets out of the way in a blur of speed, "Says the guy trying to kill the girl who is NOT trying to kill him. Nice and hypocritical, horse face..."

"You have no reason to trust me, I am aware. Yet I do not lie," says Bill as his hammer returns to his grasp. He seems able to track her movements even at speed, and raises the hammer over his head. Lightning falls all around the area, striking nearly everything but Bill, making Cassandra duck back into the pit for a moment.

As soon as the lightning has fallen, Bill swings on Kara once more, trying to break her with his mighty weapon. "In truth, I would imagine there is a great magical being forcing me to do this somewhere nearby."

Hulk stands quietly, being spoken to by Bat-Mite in the background. He looks ...more annoyed than he did before.

Crap, Kara thinks as the hammer flies back to Bill. Fortunately, she's a lot faster than this Thor wannabe is. "That... okay that's probably true. A really annoying one t-nnngh!" she says, getting cut off as magical lightning then hits almost everything, except for Bill. "Ow.... again...." she says before he swings down at her again. "Sorry in advance for this." she says before her hand quickly whips up to grab his wrist. Her other hand then slams up up into his arm, just under the shoulder - it was a move that Artemis taught her how to do, which she thought was just viciously unfair given her powers, so she didn't use it before now.

But the move was good for, to quote Artemis, 'keeping an enemy from being able to hoist his or her weapon.'

Kara's fist hits under his arm, intentionally dislocating Beta Ray Bill's shoulder. It shouldnt be permanent damage, but would be painful and enough to make him hopefully drop that hammer before he could do more magic on her.

The impact successfully pulls Beta Ray Bill's arm out of the socket, and also lifts him off the ground a bit! He makes a small noise, but lands and tries to hit Kara with his other hand. Not with the hammer arm, it's not really working right now.

The hammer loosens in Bill's grip, but the magic of it keeps it from actually falling from his hand. Even with his fingers completely loose and the arm nonfunctional, it won't fall. He does, however, put the hammer down as he tries to shift it to his other hand, and it's sitting on the ground for a moment. He knows she can't move it anyway.

"You are well trained, mortal. A credit to your instructors."

Kara Zor-El makes a mental note to herself to thank Artemis... and Diana... and Bruce for all that time teaching her additional fighting styles as she blocks his other hand hitting at her. Fortunately, she was a lot more invulnerable against this Horse Thor's fist vs that hammer. She takes a breath, looking at the hammer that he sets down. "Thanks..." She thinks a moment about how to just put this guy down - if they just traded punches, she wasnt sure how hard to hit him or not where it might kill him or something. If he's anything like Thor, she wasnt sure if she'd need to be trying her hardest or not.

Then she decides something else, grabbing at the handle of the hammer. And says, "... I'll pass along te compliment to them." And surprisingly lifts the hammer up to swing it at Beta Ray Bill! He must have been wrong about the whole 'only the worthy can hold it' thing. Anyway... hopefully his hammer will do the job.

His fist bouncing off of Kara's block, Beta Ray Bill gets put off balance just enough to let Kara at the hammer. Normally he would be more careful, but he honestly didn't expect, didn't believe...

His eyes widen as he reaches for his hammer and finds her hand upon the handle. And when it begins to move, he stops COLD. "What..." he says, almost like he means to ask a question, disbelievingly. And the hammer being actually lifted and wielded against him? As Kara swings the hammer at him, he brings his arms up to block (even the dislocated one) and takes the hit, sending HIM across the arena into the opposite far wall, just as he'd done to Kara.

And the wall falls on him.

From above, the announcer says, "and there goes our budget for repairs for the week. Get me the insurance guy."

Kara Zor-El rubs where she got hit by the hammer. At least it's not bruised but still hurts. "See how you like it. I hit harder." Then drops the hammer again, not realizing that what she did was very unusual for people to be able to do. And it wasnt from strength, apparently - it was from worthiness - something Kara with her occasional lack of self confidence doesnt always see herself as being. Someoen should probably let her know that a hammer was far more objective about an assessment of 'worthy.'

Beta Ray Bill, though no-one has called him by that name yet, gets up from the place he was tumbled. He too is quite the combatant, but he looks bruised, badly. His face is a bit swollen, and he seems to be quite hurt by the impact. He is, however, still ready to fight, until...

A large green fist slams into him from the side, and Bill flies upward and out of the arena. His hammer, once dropped by Kara, flies into the air after him, to wherever he may be going, and a large, extremely angry Hulk howls in his direction wordlessly.

Beside Cassandra, Bat-Mite appears. He looks at her and at her guard, and says, "I just talked to him, I have no idea why that would make anyone so angry, so I pulled him aside and talked to him some more, for a little while. He just kept getting angrier and angrier and angrier, and I think maybe he actually grew a bit. Do you want to talk him down? He doesn't seem to like me.

Mxy, the guard, looks at Bat-Mite, and rolls his eyes, as Worldbreaker Hulk turns to find another something to smash. Spending time alone with Bat-Mite apparently has him a little perturbed.

Kara Zor-El hadnt been that concerned about Hulk. From what she had been overhearing during her fight with Beta Ray Bill, he seemed to be in one of his calmer moods. Almost regularly coherent even. Maybe they wouldn't have to fight even. And if they did, she had heard how the Hulk is not as strong when he's not enraged anyway.

Apparently 5 minutes with Bat-Mite was enough to get him to levels of rage that would normally have taken him months of continual rage-building without a break. Wow. Not that Kara knew that sort of thing about Hulk.

On the other hand, he did just finish off Beta Ray Bill's part in the fight. "So.... I don't suppose we can just talk, right?" she says to the Hulk.

There's a pause, while Hulk breathes in as if considering a response to Kara's question. The answer comes, but at the cost of a section of the ruins, as the gutteral and mountain-shattering shout from Hulk's mouth sends a section of the debris littered around the battlefield away from him by pure force of wind, and sends the audience scrambling for cover!

Hulk looks around for his opponent, and says, "LITTLE MAN" with no punctuation in his sentences, then he pauses. Spotting the people by the pit, Hulk immediately bends his knees, plants his feet, and leaps toward the place where Cassandra and her guard are leaning.

Giving some indication of power, the ground from where Hulk leaped? It pulverizes under the strength of his feet, sending waves out that crack the concrete of the stadium on that side of the area. And that's not where he's TRYING to hit.

Kara Zor-El flies off of the ground a bit before the battlefield gets broken up. "Okay... I guess you arent in a talkative - Rao, crap!" she says when she sees where Hulk is attacking - the annoying Bat-Mite.... with Cassandra right next to him. She makes a bee-line through the air to hit into Hulk from the side - fists forward, full strength.

Struck in mid-air just before impact, Hulk's body feels like hitting reinforced adamantium to Kara's fists. Which is to say, it gives, but just not as easily as most things. Kara's move deflects him into the wall. The wall, however, is far less resistant, and that part of the arena implodes around him with concrete crumbling in all directions.

The crowd for that section begins retreating to less destroyed sections before their actual seats start to be affected, which seems to be likely at this point. Hulk, in the wall, brushes the stone and rock out of his way like so much tissue paper and swings at Kara if she is in range with the fists that could sink a continent. He does not look like he's going to stay down easily.

Kara Zor-El decides, after the whole thing with that hammer, that maybe letting the opponent hit her is not the best strategy, even if she was able to do it to the brothers Gragg and Abomination. She did remember hearing SOMETHING about how, even though Abomination was around the same strength level as the Hulk, the Hulk had something about being mad making him stronger - and he did look pretty mad. Then again, Bat-Mite... so she couldnt blame him for that.

Kara ducks under the fist which misses her. At least he's still just a brute strength brawler.

"Look, I know Bat-Mite is an annoying little..." She flies up behind him and launches another punch right to the back of his head, again at full strength. "Nnnngh... TWIT... but you're not exactly on my 'nice to see you' list either!"

A full strength punch from Kara Zor-El sends the Hulk flying again, across the arena to the other side. The place is taking a serious pounding this fight, and part of the actual stands falls into the crevice now. The announcer speaks up, saying, "Perhaps at this point we could begin an orderly evacuation to the upper stands..."

A little late, and the concept of 'orderly' may have been lost on the minor rout that's going on in the stands. Not surprising, since the moment Hulk gets buried into the wall, the building gives way before him like a missile ploughing a tunnel through the wall to the outside, where the concrete and debris go out into what serves as a parking lot outside.

Hulk, to his credit, actually GETS UP AGAIN. But it takes him about thirty seconds.

Kara Zor-El floats there in front of Hulk for the 30 seconds it takes him to recover from her punch. "You want to calm down, or do I have to do more?" Her fists are clenched, thinking of a few ways to try to take this opponent down which wouldnt involve massive devasatation to this planet (wherever it is), massive collateral damage to people, or killing him. Because that punch really should have knocked him out, but didn't.

Hulk rises to his feet amidst falling hunks of concrete, looking like he's rising from the depths of a demolished civilization. Which could still be the case, if not handled right. He may have been unconscious, but after thirty whole seconds of healing, he shows absolutely no effects of Kara's punch. To the head.

If anything, even angrier than before, The Incredible Hulk spreads his arms wide and slams his hands together, causing a shockwave that tears a cone of wall out from his location forward, aimed at Kara Zor-El, and follows it by leaping at her aiming a many, many megaton punch of his own at her! His eyes are narrowed in bestial fury as he tries to punch a hole clear through the person in front of him!

Kara Zor-El manages to withstand the Hulk 'Thunderclap' though her hair does get a good blowback from the shockwave as she steadies herself against the wave. It gives her enough time to see him slam his fist towards her. She brings up both hands to catch his fist before it can hit her, causing her to dig her feet down into the ground as she gets pushed back from the force, until she manages to stop the punch's momentum. "Yeah... definitely getting into harder fights..." she says to herself. Getting a firm grip on the gargantuan fist in her hands, she makes a grunt of effort as she pulls it behind his back in an armlock. "I don't want to hurt you!" Which might not have been shown when she hit him in the back of his head with a punch that could have levelled a mountain. She tries this one thing she talked about with Batman once.

Hulk did have certain weaknesses in a powerhouse fight.

He couldnt fly - just jump with no real directional capability.

He was a brute force brawler - no real fighting skill.

He was nigh-invulnerable, but still could get hurt. He just healed incredibly fast - that she learned from She-Hulk.

Gas worked on him, because he needed to breathe - but he could hold his breath for several times longer than a human being.

That last one was the one she thought of in particular here - he needed to breathe - so doing something that bypassed the whole 'lungs holding his breath thing.'

Ie, a sleeper hold.

Kara, while while behind the Hulk, wrenches his arm a bit to give her some additional time on this - she knew she'd be having to tank some punches, but at least they were going to be difficultly done punches. Then she wraps her arm around the green behemoth's powerful looking neck, and locks it with her other arm - and squeezes as hard as she could, trying to cut off the oxygen to the brain.

An elbow slams into Kara very quickly after she begins to squeeze, Hulk's brain being VERY good at staying alive! It's kept him alive through some of the most dangerous situations in all the history of his planet, and his punches have been strong enough to make even the mighty Galactus take note, at this level.

With his arms free, Hulk tries elbows, then tries to punch up over his head with his amazingly LONG arms, and finally he simply grabs at the little arm that's managing to squeeze his titanically strong neck. He goes down onto one knee, and pulls. Then he pulls harder, his entire body actually getting even stronger as it draws on the reserves that held up against everyone he has faced so far in his long, violent life.

And for the first time, the Hulk's strength isn't enough. He sinks down to both knees, still straining, and slowly starts to...shrink? Kara finds her strength rapidly becoming more and more effective, as Hulk changes colour from green to pinkish, and shrinks in size.

Kara Zor-El mmmfs as she steels herself against the punches - fortunately ones that are not as hard when he's trying to punch something behind his back as he was a punching something right in front of him. And while this guy was probably one of the toughest opponents, strengthwise there was still a definite favor for the Kryptonian girl when he tries to use his hand to pull at her arm. It just makes her squeeze and grip tighter. Finally, they reach the point of diminishing returns for the Hulk after he draws on his 'reserve strength.'

At which point, the more she deprives his brain of oxygen, the calmer he's forced to get. The calmer he's forced to get, the easier it is for her to exert the sleeper hold on him. When he gets down to his knees, she can feel him FINALLY weakening. "Cmon... go to sleep already..." she says through grit teeth. Then he starts changing color, and starts shrinking, and Kara tries to make sure to keep the sleeper hold going while lessening how much force she's putting into it, using X-ray vision to make sure she uses enough to maintain keep the air from getting to his brain, without doing something like... well..... removing said head.

Fighting other superstrong opponents when you're trying to be non-lethal is very iritating.

Finally, the Hulk passes out, in the form of Bruce Banner, at which point Kara's able to release her grip on him and set him down lightly on the ground. "Yeesh." she says to herself.

Cassandra Cain leaps in the air, actually cheering from the remains of her side of the arena! She comes running over to Kara, pausing as she glances at Dr. Banner, and actually says, "Good Fight!" as if she really means it. She grins at Kara, and before she can say anything else she's interrupted by the announcer from above.

"Well. Hrm. So, we're going to have to tone things down a little long enough to do some repairs on the stadium, folks! It appears we're a little short on seats suddenly. Anyone in need of medical attention please tap on your grav bracelet. Remember friends, if the grovnok beside you is unconscious, you can use his finger to tap it for him without being charged! This message from your local good works society."

Kara Zor-El rubs her chin a bit. Because that hammer REALLY DID HURT. "Yeah. Great fight..." she says in response. "Remind me - in the future I should dodge all things thrown by Thor wannabes in case they're magic. Plus the Hulk was stronger than I thought he'd be. I was told a lot that he was Abomination's big opponent so I figured he'd be a little easier. Guess Bat-Mite made him REALLY mad." She looks around, then back at Cassandra. "I wonder how many more fights we have to go through before we can stop doing this..."

Kara Zor-El thinks. "Because I'm really not sure where they can 'amp it up' from there." Actually she did know - Doomsday, Darkseid, people for whom that non-lethal thing would HAVE to get pushed aside. And she was not wanting to kill for these stupid imps' amusement, but those two in particular were beings that she would.

Cassandra Cain lifts her hand to Kara's chin, tipping her head back a little so she can look at the injuries. She cups the girl's chin for a moment, then nods satisfiedly and lets her go. "You will...live," she states. Then glances at the loudspeakers again, /also/ wondering what they could possibly throw at her that would be harder than what they've been through already.

"Well?"

Kara Zor-El lets Cassandra check her out. Yeah, the bruise has already healed and gone away, but hey - it did still hurt. Magic hammer to the face. "Doesn't mean I like getting hit in the face with enchanted hammers." She then looks to see what the loudspeakers are going to announce this time for Cassandra. She really should have read up more on Cassandra in the Oracle Files.

After a few minutes, bots have melted the surface of the area, then re-solidified it, to fix the arena floor, while worker bots have re-built the walls and stairs. Audience members are slowly ushered back in, and the loudspeaker starts up again, "Well! Wasnt that a fight! Lets hope the next one doesnt involve Quantum bombs, right? HA! Our next fight for Earth Girl Batgirl is-"

Kara murmurs, "They're pretty slow on the current events huh Cass?"

The loudspeaker continues while Kara was murmuring. "... who we found has an incredible, metal like structure - infused with her very bones! Lets hear it for the next challenger, Nail Metal Bone Girl!"

Kara then says, "They really need to get better name generators. And in, surrounded by four guards, is Lady Deathstrike, at which point she yells, "That is ENOUGH!" and her nails grow into blades, at which point she slashes at two of the guards in decapitating moves. The other two have just a chance to turn around before she guts them as well through their chests. They're dead before they hit the ground.

Lady Deathstrike walks over the corpses and says, "And it's LADY DEATHSTRIKE!" yelled at the loudspeaker.

Kara looks at Cassandra's opponent, noticing something with her X-ray vision.... and whispers to her before she has to go back into the arena, "She has the same type of metal that Wolverine has in her. Be really careful, okay?"

Answering Kara's earlier question, Cassandra says, "Slow...but Batgirl is a...proud name." She doesn't seem to mind being called that. She watches things being fixed, taking the time to recuperate. After all, she got pretty beat up earlier.

When the next challenger comes in, she goes very very still. "Killer," she says before even the woman moves. Her voice is cold, and she says, "Yes. Very careful," as she watches the guards die. Narrowing her eyes, she turns and puts a glare of absolute sternness on Bat-Mite, then turns back to Kara and gives her a nod, then starts running toward Lady Deathstrike to try and minimize collateral damage by taking her out before she kills anyone else.

Possibly the shortest fight in the history of the arena by time, Cassandra sprints up to Lady Deathstrike and jumps a little, turning sideways and passing right between the woman's first attack sweep, and catches her left arm.

Using her momentum, she spins Lady Deathstrike around and slams her head directly into the concrete wall behind her, rebounding her face off of it and sending her to sprawl in the dirt.

And Cassandra skids to a halt, feet spread wide and one hand lightly brushing the ground.

The loudspeaker continues to talk as Cassandra goes into the arena, "I think we're going to see yet another real knock down drag out fight. Our most recent challengers killed 20 guards since we purchased her from the two small traders who have given us most of our fighters today! She's out for blood! And our new champion seems intent! And she's -"

The loudspeaker stops as Cassandra rushes at her, catches Deathstrike's arm as she swings at Cass, then swings and slams her head into the concrete wall and falls down, rather clearly unconscious.

Total time, 1.6 seconds.

".... and she's down." You could almost hear crickets chirp as Deathstrike says quite unconscious. "And our champion wins again! Earth Batgirl!"

Kara waits for Cassandra to come back. "Or maybe I shouldnt worry so much, huh.... That looked like it hurt."

Cassandra Cain walks over to Lady Deathstrike and knocks her one on the head to make sure she stays down, then turns away and puts her hands on her hips, cocking a hip and posing saucily. Then she walks back to Kara, taking her time as the announcer tries to fill time he wasn't expecting to have to cover.

Cass says, once she reaches Kara, "She uses...old moves." Then she shrugs and glances back. Just in case. When she looks back to Kara, she has a cocky little grin and a twinkle in her eye that suggests that she enjoyed that a little too much, after watching the woman slaughter her guards.

Which is interesting, since the guards on the wall seem to be giving Cassandra a bit more respect themselves.