(at the determined battle ground...)
“I don't care what you say! Get lost, geezer!”
“I can't!” the older man says, showing some unworldly fortitude and determination, standing up to Nyarlath. The red demon stands away at a distance, angry and ready to get this battle on. “Mayor Mack Mayor called me for my help with special battle. He told me this is battle will have 'Epic Staring Contest' rules. So, therefor, Mr. Referee is the only man for the task!”
The geezer flings off his cloak and underneath is an official, sanctioned, referee uniform, fit with a rosy-red bow tie. Some people appear impressed by this. Nyarlath, on the other hand, is not. He grumbles impatiently waiting for his opponent, SatelLight, to show up.
“If he doesn't show-”
“Easy, Nyarlath,” Mr. Referee interrupts, as if his love for refereeing has blinded him to the fact he's back-talking a giant demon that could kill him within seconds. “We all know SatelLight has been facing some technical difficulties lately. For all we know, Blake has to carry him to this battle. Either way, I am confident he'll show up.”
Just as Mr. Referee suggests, Blake approaches from a distance, pushing the large orb body of SatelLight in an over-sized wheelbarrow.
“This isn't fair!” Nyarlath shouts. “This stupid robot isn't even functioning! I refuse to battle it when I would be forced to outmatch something that never blinks!”
Mr. Referee hums for a quite second wondering if this accusation is true. He skips over to Blake.
“This time, Nyarlath has grounds to have a grievance, Blake,” Mr. Referee informs Blake, regretfully. “SatelLight must actually be in working condition to compete in this battle. If he's not, Nyarlath will win by disqualification.”
“To be honest,” Blake replies. “I think I have everything sorted out, but I am not sure. I haven't tested everything fully. I am sure there are plenty of kinks I need to iron out, but I just didn't have the time to.”
“Does he boot up?”
“He does, Mr. Referee.”
“Good enough for me!” Mr. Referee shouts, throwing his hand into the air. “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to this monster battle! This monster battle has been declared an 'Epic Staring Contest'! So on behalf of the Alternae fighting commission, I will act as referee, me, Mr. Referee! The rules are simple: the first monster to blink his eye or eyes will lose the battle! ...Okay, let's battle!”
The match officially starts and Nyarlath locks a convincing glare of hatred and terror. He shouts and howls, trying to psyche out his opponent. Blake, shaking from the size and intensity of Nyarlath, turns on his robot.
“Here goes nothing,” he says, unclear what to expect next.
Suddenly, upon activation, a giant laser beam ejects from SatelLight's unflinching eye body. It rockets across the battfield and connects against the demon, sending him toppling backwards.
Mr. Referee instantly begins to sprint towards the demon. On the balls of his feet he pushes forward, hoping his split-second reaction wasn't too slow. He dives in the dust cloud, uncaring the filth that will cling to his cloths. He just wants to make this match as clear and fair as possible. Mr. Referee is now quite close to the demon, however it is unknown how close, the cloud of dust still fogs up the area. Everyone wonders if he's still okay. Maybe the evil demon destroyed him, they think. But, then suddenly...
“He blinked!” Mr. Referee shouts. “This battle is over! SatelLight is the winner!”
Peering down at his controller, finally Blake is relieve a malfunction went his way. Finally some luck.
(outside a pizza joint...)
“Well, I guess, I couldn't have done it without the support of all my fans,” Blue Mantis says, unenthusiastically. The complete lack of fans attending his Bronze Medal Speech probably has taken the wind out of his sails. “Without your undying love and support... I... ugh....”
A tumbleweed blows by.
“...couldn't be the hero you all see on the outside, on the inside.”
Suddenly someone approaches: the manager to the pizza joint.
“Thanks, Blue Mantis,” he says, “But I'm having complaints from paying customers that you're being loud and blocking their way to the restaurant. I'm going to have to ask you to leave.”
“Oh.... Okay...”
Blue Mantis leaves, but not before swiping a piece of pie off a table.
(in front of the entire world...)
“Ladies and gentlemen of Alternae, we have witnessed some of the most competitive and excellently fought battle in the last few weeks,” Mayor Mack Mayor proclaims, shouting through a megaphone. “Valiant heroes around the tetrahedron have been a tournament to see who will be the new King of the Monsters! And now we are on the final lap of the Monster City Hero Invitational Tournament!”
On each side of the mayor, stands the two participants, staring each other in the eyes. Citius stands on one side and Axel the Mutated Shark on the other, both looking for the go-ahead to settle the final round of this tournament. Around them, helicopters and blimps, fully-equipped with camera crews, record the event for live television.
“Citius, are you ready?”
Citius nods.
“Axel, are you ready?”
Axel nods, as well.
“Then, we have it!” the mayor shouts. “Both participants are now ready! It's the final round of the Monster City Hero Invitational Tournament! Let's see who's the new King of the Monsters! ...And GO!!!”
Citius immediately goes to charge up his energy weapons. As they heat up, Axel closes in. He locks up, grabbing Citius' shoulders. With a strong, tight, grip, he flings the city golem to the ground, following up with some elbow drops. Citius blocks the last of the attacks and comes to an equal base. He struggles back, but Axel is there to lift him into the air and tossing him over.
“Early dominance by Axel,” a news reporter shouts, hanging from a helicopter. “Citius might not be able to overpower him.”
Citius comes back around, but immediately has to go on the defense. Axel is quickly back on him with punches and kicks, most of which are blocked. Alex goes in big with an attempt at a scissor kick, but Citius sidesteps it. Free from attacks, Citius fires from his, now fully-charged, Tesla Coil hand cannon. It zaps into Axel's side, shocking him to the ground. Charged up as well, Citius deploys his mini lasers that float around independently. Axel gets up and goes in for a counter-attack, but the mini lasers get to him, pelting him from every direction. He moans and grimaces, unable to find a defensive angle.
“Once Citius' firepower is charged, there is little stopping him,” the reporter continues. “Axel's strategy of closing the gap and fighting this battle toe-to-toe is sound, but when it slips up, it really slips up. I hope Axel has a back-up plan.”
Citius stomps the ground, rippling the street towards Axel like a large cement wave. It catches him, flings him to his feet, but Citius is there to clean him out with a clothesline mid-air. Axel falls back towards the street, gasping for air.
Suddenly a robotic roar echoes down the street, catching Citius to turn around.
“It's MechaAxel!” the reporter in the helicopter shouts. “He's not in this battle or this tournament, but he's obviously bitter about his unresolved beef with Axel.”
“Get your machine out of here, Lesser Power!” the mayor screams, through his megaphone. “This isn't your fight!”
MechaAxel or it's controllers don't listen. Their intention is obvious. Their surprise attack is to catch Axel off-guard, maybe wounded or beaten, and to finish him off for good. Mecha advances, his glowing red light-bulb eyes firmly affixed onto his rival. Axel looks up and sees there's another shark on his blood trail. He fights to get to his feet, but his muscles are still shocked and tensed up from Citius' blasts. MechaAxel leaps onto him, clawing away.
Citius barges in, shoulder blocking MechaAxel off. The robot tumbles over, landing a good distance away. Citius turns from him and holds a hand out to Axel, helping him up off the ground. There wasn't words shared, but they understood what had to be done: their battle to decide the final round of the tournament was effectively on hold until MechaAxel gets his ass beat.
Mecha comes back to his feet. He lets out a vicious roar, hungry for another chance to drag his claws along Axel's fleshy skin, but that mood changes quickly, now that he notices he is outmatched. A look of discomfort, maybe panic, comes over him for just a second. Then, he throws it away, uncaring about what happens. He just wants to hurt others, and Axel in particular.
Citius and Axel ready themselves at the fishy robot charges forward. Mecha fires off kicks and punches to one foe while releasing lasers and tail whips to the other. Missile pods eject deadly warheads that crash and rumble the ground.
“It looks like Lesser Evil hasn't been wasting their time watching the tournament,” the news reporter suggests. “MechaAxel is greatly upgraded with tons of firepower and deadly weapons. Maybe they have more in store under his plates of metal too?”
The heros have most, if not all of the attacks, blocked and parried. They go in for a volley themselves, attacking the robotic beast from opposite angles. Citius aims for exposed eletronics, hoping to use his weaponry to fry important operation circuits. Axel does the brute work, pummeling the mass of his rival with elbows and knees, denting and cracking the surfaces.
Mecha shakes off their attacks, throwing them off to a distance. He then releases his hunter missiles that whistle through the sky, searching for his foes' signatures. Citius' floating mini lasers to what they can to stop them from getting closer, but they are turned to dust by the fiery comet. A missile closes in on Citius, forcing him to summon a wall of building material in front of him for cover. The missile connects, igniting an enormous blast, one much larger than expected. A mushroom cloud plumes into the sky between skyscrapers.
“Oh, no! Those weren't just hunter missiles!” the reports gasps. “Those were altered to be nuclear bombs! Those were nukes! I hope Citius is okay down there! MechaAxel has gone from crazy to just psycho!”
The second nuclear missile soars after Axel. The Mutated Shark swerves and bends around the turns in the city, trying to evade the tracking nuke, but it's close on his scales. He leaps and tumbles into a parking garage, hoping that could block the blast. The missile collides quickly after, it too discharging a large cloud into the sky, and bringing down the entire garage on top of the shark monster.
MechaAxel surveys the damage and lets out a digital laugh. He finally did it. He finally killed Axel.
“My god! This wasn't supposed to happen at all!” shouts the mayor. “You've killed our heroes! Who's going to step up to be the King of the Monsters now?”
“Wait just a sec'!” grumbles Citius, dragging himself from the rubble.
“That's right!” echoes Axel, popping his head out of the wreckage. “We're not dead yet!”
Both the mayor and MechaAxel are stunned they are both still alive. Only the mayor looks thrilled by it. Axel charges back into battle, clubbing the robot with an overhead fist. Citius hangs back and zaps him with his lasers. Axel batters him up, then hoists him up into a suplex and then drops him on his head. Citius then too runs and adds to the damage, laying down elbows and knees.
As they overwhelm Mecha, smoke and sound of grinding gears begin to creep through his damaged areas. This isn't all too unfamiliar to past ass-kickings but, this time, it appears to be comical to the robot. As they beat him down, he laughs softly, and as the beating continues, it grows. The heroes only stop when they notice Mecha beginning to glow red. Their eyes begin to widen. They know it's time to take for cover again.
“He's gone nuclear!” the mayor shouts on his megaphone. “Take cover everyone! He's going to blow!”
The heroes turn and dart for cover, leaping behind whatever is nearby. Mecha blinks red more rapidly, until, in one concussive event, he self-destructs, leveling everything nearby and turning it into a fine sand. The heroes, hunkered down, watch as the radius of where Mecha once stood is nothing but a open, clear, circular, pit. As the dust settles, they slowly move from cover. Citius comes out first, looking around. Axel follows. Without a threat nearby, the heroes understand their battle is back on.
Axel quickly takes the opportunity to restart their battle, tackling Citius into the pit. They tumble and roll as they fall towards the center, taking blows. Axel drops heavy elbows and knees, some land, and then Citius flips him over. Both monsters are now very exhausted and battered. With his last bit of strength, Axel gets to his feet and dives toward Citius. He tackles him to the ground, slamming him against the wall of the pit.
“That was it,” Axel says solemnly, slumping to a knee and breathing heavy. “That's all I had left. If you can continue to fight, I have to concede.”
“That's not important, my friend,” Citius says, hoisting the shark back up to his feet. “MechaAxel is dead now. You have defeated Lesser Evil. That alone is something to celebrate.”
“We defeated Lesser Evil, my friend,” Axel replies. “And we'll be right here if they ever want to come back to mess with us. And if they do, Citius, our King of the Monsters, will be there to put them back in their places.”
“That's... right...” a voice interrupts, from above the pit.
It's the Might One: The Mighty Mjaeder, in the flesh and recovered from his injuries. He stands on the edge of the pit, looking down at the battered and beaten heroes, arms crossed.
“Congratulations are in order, Citius,” Mjaeder says, uncrossing his arms and clapping. “You have become another, not the only, King of the Monsters. I assume you understand we have things to settle now. Only one can be called King.”
