[Quarter Finals] Bandit & Kerrigan vs Skeletor & Kuzuru

[Karl Jak]

The two teams beamed down and immediately felt 110% different.

“What?” Bandit muttered as she looked down at the tuxedo that somehow perfectly fit her physique. She glanced over her back and saw a dark cape fluttering in the breeze. A glimpse down showed that she was flying. “Oh, whaaaat?”

“What is this?” Kerrigan scowled as she tried to rip at the outfit. Her efforts were in vain. “What ridiculous nonsense is this?” She growled as she glimpsed around the city.

“Some awesome shit,” Bandit spoke as she lifted her hand in front of her face. The marauder’s fingers started to stretch as she wiggled them. “I think we got upgraded.”

“This is a downgrade,” Kerrigan muttered, still agitated by the clothing in which she was encased.

From a nearby rooftop, Skeletor and Kuzuru stood. The latter had an expression of wonder, much like the floating bandit. His companion? The warlock was nearly a mirror image of the frustrated Zerg queen.

“First a horse, and now this?” Skeletor rasped. “This is preposterous,” he added as Kuzuru effortlessly leapt into the air and did a backflip.

“Let’s kick some ass!” He declared with a wide grin.

Word Limit: 900
Posts: 2
Time Limit: 48 hours
Random Elements: On
Damage Meter: Off

Time limit starts at 12 pm CDT on July 15, 2018

“Battle of the Gods” – The Fight Area is a nondescript city. Much like MegaCity One but not. The Fight Area encompasses the entire city (20 square miles), as well as 50 feet underneath it and 300 feet above the tallest skyscrapers, which are 1000 feet tall). All four contestants are teleported and arrive in tailored tuxedos with capes. These tuxedos are indestructible. The suits radically change everything about you. Defeat your foes.

Stipulation: Everyone arrives in tuxedos and capes (regardless of your character’s gender identity). These suits DISABLE all non-weapon Moves, all Transformations, all Super Attacks/Defenses/Utilities, Healing and Fusion/Symbiosis. The suits GRANT all the other Powers on the list. The suits make the Flight power effortless to sustain. The suits change it so that everyone’s stats are as follows: ATK – 20, SPD – 12, DEF – 12, TEC – 12

[Bandit With No Name]

The nameless woman pinched the corner of her bowtie and tilted it back and forth, more mussing it than correcting it. She reached back and plucked her massive hammer from her back, marvelling at just how weightless it felt. She twirled it between her fingers effortlessly, its head blearing with manic speed. With a flick of her wrist, it spun into the sky.

“Yo, Kuzuru! I guess the man upstairs got tired of seeing me get punched a lot and having my limbs cut off. Balanced things out a bit,” she boomed, her proclamation carrying over the cityscape like the voice of god.

Slowly drifting forward, she extended a hand towards the man she had met at the bar only a few minutes prior. “To a good match?”

Not much interested in friendly banter, Skeletor blurted out an acidic, “MYAH!” and sent a titanic wave of magical power towards her. The hammer fell at the exact right instant for her to snatch it from the air and batter the beam aside, sending it into a nearby building, eradicating an entire level with a glorious explosion of steel and mystic force.

She brushed a dread from her cheek with a self-satisfied grin. “Ah man, I could get used to this.”

The man she thought was Kuzuru scowled, and without a word of warning, vanished. The nameless warrior barely had a moment to furrow her eyebrows before he reappeared behind her and slammed his heel into her lower back, sending her careening down into another skyscraper, plowing through the face of it with a crescendo of shattering glass.

Another blur of movement and a set of bladed wings swung at him, only for their target to dodge with superhuman speed. His follow up was evaded in the same manner, and the two locked into battle. They exchanged a flurry of punches and kicks, only to be blocked and deflected by their opponent. Limbs moved with such wild fervor that they quickly became nothing but a smear of clashing attacks, the sound of their blows rumbling in the sky like thunder.

Skeletor soared around the edges of their perception and leveled his rod. As his sorcery began to flow, a titanic hand erupted from the structure below him and swatted him aside like a gnat. A line of energy sliced through the skyline, carving through roads and concrete alike while tumbled to a sudden terminus in a crowded intersection, obliterating a sedan in his crater.

The now-titanic marauder slowly rose, her gigantic brown eyes glaring with wild glee at the remaining combatants. “I GOT REAL BIG!” she bellowed in a jarring baritone, then lifted a laser rifle the size of a semi-truck. A terrible red grew in the throat of the barrel, and the pair jetted off in opposite directions as it cracked out a nightmarish flash of catastrophic energy which consumed the penthouse of a nearby college dormitory.

”LET’S GET CREATIVE, YOU LOSERS,” she rumbled, admiring the devastation.

The cloak of invisibility tumbled away from Skeletor, only inches away from the bandit’s titantic head. “That blithering blaggart Kerrigan wouldn’t know creativity if it beat her face in!” He reached down and pushed his hand into an exposed pillar of steel, his purple flesh melding with it. Wrenching his arm upwards, a twenty-foot column ripped free and crashed down onto the woman’s cranium, which shrank back down as she crumbled.

As he gloated, a cloud of insects swarmed around the mage’s fleshless face, stinging and biting as he thrashed in irritation. The creatures swirled together as they reassembled into the Queen of Blades, her heroic grip already upon him.

“You aren't fit to speak my name,” she preened, the final few bits of her fingers taking form around his meaty throat.

A shockwave burst out in every direction with the force of Kerrigan’s punch, setting off car alarms and blowing out windows. As he smashed through layer after layer of offices and disappeared into the distance, the infested terran’s attention fell to her teammate recovering hundreds of feet below.

In a flash of light, she appeared beside the bandit, who was dusting off chunks of rubble from her bloodied shoulders. Even as she limped to her feet, the massive gash in her head slowly began to seal up. “I know we’re superpowered, but that shit still hurts a lot.”

“It seems you’ve accustomed yourself to your newfound power rather quickly,” Kerrigan quipped, looking around for the next sign of attack.

The woman chuckled, “Just gotta feel it out. Get weird, ya know?” She cracked her neck, and strode up to her partner’s side. “By the way, do you know Skeletor? You two seem to have beef.”

A feral curl of Kerrigan’s lip confirmed her suspicion.

“Well if y-“ the woman cut herself off as an image entered her mind. Screaming, flames, deep marshes, high walls, and death. Suffering. Agony. Satisfaction. The Siege of Darkshire.

She blinked away the memory, and her mouth hung open in shock. “How…” she stammered, taking a stunned step back. “How could you?”

850 words

[Skeletor]

Skeletor screamed out of the rubble with blinding speed, cape flowing behind him as he sped towards his foes. Taking advantage of her lapse of focus, he smashed into the barbarian woman, the two crashing into a nearby apartment complex. Concrete and plaster yielded with equal fragility as the primes crashed through several walls, finally colliding with one of the building’s steel supports.

“How could she? Nyeheheeehee!” Skeletor cackled, his havoc staff pressed into the Ass-Kicker’s throat, “Because the fools inhabiting Darkshire dared to question our superiority! Ask her how she created that breach in Darkshire’s walls… I’ve never seen such an inventive use for refugees!” The Bandit gasped for breath, unable to shift Skeletor’s grip while pinned against the deformed support. A sharp right hook struck Skeletor in the jaw, sending him end over end through a wall. The lich burst back through almost immediately, flinging a rebar spike into her gut.

“I’ll keep this straight to the point, but-Yagh!”

Skeletor’s taunting was interrupted as Kerrigan materialized nearby and tore into his exposed flank with her serrated wings. The warlock disengaged, quickly blinking in and out of existence through the city. With a flash and a slightly sulfurous stench, the warlock landed on a rooftop near his strangely reticent ally.

“This is glorious! Karl’s power is truly impressive to behold.” Skeletor crowed. The former demon gave him a sideways glance.

“I don’t think you’re seeing this for what it is.” Came the swordsman’s curt reply.

“And I don’t care for your dour tone, Blade-man! The arrogant autarch Kerrigan is mine. Do what you will with the blunder-headed oaf.”Skeletor scoffed, then leapt off the building.

Skeletor fell stories in an instant, pulverizing a parked car with a satisfying crunch as he landed. Yes, he could get very used to this. The warlock dashed through city streets at incredible speed, scanning for his hidden foes. His senses seemed amplified beyond his wildest imaginings yet yet he was still unable to detect either of his enemies amidst the city. The immediate carnage had turned eerily still, as the bloodless city held its breath. What were those tricksters planning?

Growing frustrated, Skeletor took to the sky, flowing cape clearly visible as he crested the rooftops. The warlock tore loose the top of a nearby water tower, metal sheets bending like paper as he folded them into a conical shape.

“Kerrigan!” Skeletor shouted into his improvised megaphone “Show yourself, you negligent, knob-spined numbskull! Once I’ve beaten you I will track down every last one of your meddlesome mutations!” Skeletor’s insults halted before he could continue. Memories of Darkshire flooded his brain. The tunnel, his defeat at the hands of two insufferable fools. His death. His failure. The pounding in his brain swelled, and Skeletor clapped his hands to his temples, struggling to maintain his focus. A swarm of insects streamed in from the surrounding air, coalescing into Kerrigan’s smug features. The Queen of blades hovered in front of the shuddering Skeletor watching him with a predatory gaze.

“Flying about and yelling, Skeletor? Why are you always thinking so small?” Kerrigan smirked, then swept her arm out wide. Chunks tore free from the nearby buildings, battering Skeletor the moment Kerrigan ceased her psychic attack. Concrete and metal crushed together, with the warlock at its center. Kerrigan flung her hands downward, sending the mass hurtling to the surface below. Skeletor shrunk, halting his fall. With an unnatural speed and sight, he darted between the chunks of debris, escaping the

He flew towards Kerrigan, growing in size as he neared. The Zerg queen turned to fly but the now two-story Skeletor snatched her out of the air. Skeletor smashed her against a nearby building, then flung her downwards. The Queen of Blades vanished, reappearing above Skeletor’s head and using her momentum to deliver a solid blow. Skeletor reverted to normal size as the two primes tumbled through the air, locked together, trading blows of staggering power.

“You can’t hope to win this matchup, you dreadlocked dolt! You don’t have the same experience wielding this kind of power!” Skeletor cackled, an uppercut snapping the Zerg queen’s head backwards with a sick crunch.

“Whatever the outcome of this tournament, you cannot oppose the swarm in the end. We will overwhelm the Omniverse” Kerrigan responded, claws raking Skeletor’s skin through the suit.

“Well, if you can’t beat them, join them!” Skeletor shot back. He began to change, taking the form of one of the Zerg beasts he remembered from Darkshire. Kerrigan paused her assault for an instant, more out of surprise than hesitation to injure her brood. It was enough. Skeletor spun in the air, landing a solid kick to her face. He returned back to his normal form and then teleported into her path. His arms grew to ridiculous proportions as he sent her abruptly downwards with a double-handed overhead punch. The queen of blades struck asphalt with a satisfying explosion.

“No need to rush things on my account, I’m enjoying this one!” Skeletor gloated.

837 words according to google docs

[Sarah Kerrigan]

Kerrigan was dimly aware of the explosion that surrounded her body. Its flames burned hot enough to incinerate flesh, its force was enough to rip apart a tank like toilet paper, and the sound wave would be deafening to any human being within a hundred meters.

All of it was as irrelevant to Kerrigan as the lich chortling at his impending victory above her. The fact Skeletor felt he deserved to stand in the same air Sarah breathed on a daily basis was a monument to the limits of an imbeciles arrogance.

Sarah casually flicked the few tonnes of rubble that made up her newly created tomb away with a telekinetic flick. She took her getting back up, standing with all the speed and robotic movement of a zombie. She floated upwards slowly, deliberately, Kerrigan let her hands rest directly at her side as her body let out an involuntary shiver of rage. Her claws shook as she stared the Skeleton right in the eye-holes. For a second, she simply stood in the air, regarding the Necromancer as he looked for any opening he could find. Her frown was uncompromising as she regarded the skeleton.

Without a trace of humor or playfulness on her face, she slowly lifted a single hand.
“You’re in my way, Skeletor. Be smart. Surrender now. I’ll make use of you another time.”

Skeletor’s head tilted forward as his enchanted staff shook in his hands. “You miserable wench-”
Sarah’s eyes flashed, and the skeletal warlord was cut off by a fist of spectral energy pinning him into one of the nearby buildings.
The Queen of Blades stood motionless in the air, her face completely neutral, as her body grew, the queen becoming a hundred meter tall giant. “I’ve a partner to attend to, and your flailing is eating into valuable time I need to spend elsewhere.”

The queen of blades focused her energy, testing the limits of the powers Karl Jak had bestowed upon them. It was clear he intended this to be a battle of titans, reminiscent of the ancient superheroes of yore. A straightforward brawl between superhumans.

Of course, that was the thing about the zerg. They never do what you expect.

Kerrigan stretched out her hands as she grew to her enormous bulk, looking at Skeletor’s pinned form… and exploded into a shower of flapping, batlike wings, supporting worm-like bodies with misshapen teeth. Hundreds of mutalisks, accurate to the millimeter, save that Kerrigan’s essence made up their forms, right down to their biological ammunition. Skeletor looked from side to side at the huge swarm, before lifting his havoc Staff, the ancient weapon glowing with arcane power.

He was too slow, however, and a large, carnivorous worm spat at high speed by one of the monsters knocked the ancient staff from his hands. The mutalisks descended like a swarm of locusts upon Skeletor from every direction, firing their organic ammunition with the perfect coordination and utter finesse that only Sarah Kerrigan could offer. For after directing the actions of billions, perfecting the actions of a few hundred was easy. Kerrigan took themoment to enjoy this moment as a hive mind of billions once more, wielding the sheer, unchallenged power of an omniscient god.

Still, it was a pale imitation, and as Skeletor blasted apart one leather-winged terror after another, their pale bodies falling to the floor, Sarah knew this wouldn’t be enough to take out the Master of Evil by itself. The sorcerer was already learning just how to lead his shots with the havoc staff, and individual mutalisks were finding themselves knocked into a building with a casual slap.

“You really think your minions are enough to stop me? You think too little of me, Queen of Blades!” Skeletor roared with an upraised fist.

Skeletor’s bleating fell upon deaf ears, as Kerrigan ignored the pompous buffoon. She was more concerned with repairing her partnership with the Bandit. Losing the marauders trust was a tactical disadvantage that could haunt her for the rest of the tournament. Besides…

She’d started to find her scarred partner amusing.

The mutalisks metamorphosed in the blink of an eye, changing into pale white creatures with the wings of a pterosaur and the frame of a maggot. The scourge rushed the warlord with a high-pitched squeal. Skeletor Fired a lime-green blast, sensing the danger, and sent half a dozen of the creatures to hell, but the rush was simply too quick, as the creatures exploded into green sludge.

Skeletor recoiled as if struck, only…
“What is this? Is the great extent of your powers to cover me in snot, Kerrigan? Even beast-man’s capable of such a disgusting feat!“ the Warlock jeered, wiping a sticky bushel of fluid from his skull.

He was answered by the sensation of claws digging through his rib-cage and piercing deep into his body, as the re-formed queen of blades dug her nails into Skeletor’s back. “Tell me, Skeletor, since you seem to lack a throat to squeeze - what organ do I need to remove to shut you up?”

844 words according to wordcounter.net

Kerrigan used the disassemble, hive-mind, shapeshifting, flight, and Growth powers in very heavy quantities to become swarms of mutalisks (and their physical glave wurm ammunition) and scourge to attack Skeletor. If anyone needs a picture or two, just ask. She also stabbed him in the back with her claws.
She's got a few light cuts and scrapes across her body representing the individual zerg Skeletor took out in their battle.

Skeletor used his havoc staff and repeated slaps and backhands.
Off to you, Kuzuru!

[Kuzuru]

Serenity. For the first time in several millennia Renji’s world was silent. Standing atop a skyscraper the scene before him was one of tranquility and despite the battle of titans raging below this moment was one of calmness. Kuzuru was silent. The countless souls captured in his cursed blade ceased their incessant wailing. Now unfettered by the demon’s constant influence and unburdened by the countless lives he had slaughtered, Renji found a kind of clarity reserved for the dead. He smiled and cast his sword aside. There was no gnawing desire to keep it close, no aching temptation to bath in its unholy embrace. Freedom tasted sweet.

But he wasn't free, was he? This was just a larger prison. Sure Kuzuru was buried, but he was just that -- buried. Soon enough their bout would be over and Syntech would strip him of the only thing that had managed to keep the demon impotent since he had come to the Omniverse. His life sans Kuzuru was measured in minutes and the hourglass sand was running out. Renji sighed. Were he capable he would have stretched those few precious minutes out until the heat death of the God-damned Omniverse.

“YO KUZURU CATCH!” Bandit bellowed.

Renji’s introspection was cut short as the belligerent woman ripped a streetlamp from the ground and chucked it like a spear. Fired with as much force as a harpoon from a cannon the lamp skewered the top of the building and exploded into a cloud of rubble. A stream of water followed the length of metal and drizzled onto the concrete below. Bandit shielded her eyes from the sun. Even with her newfound abilities she couldn’t pierce the haze of debris now floating down from the top of the skyscraper. She didn’t have to wait long as the water coalesced into a vaguely humanoid form. Renji’s body materialized in a matter of moments, but he did not move to strike.

“You’ve got me mistaken, I’m not Kuzuru,” he said, flicking some loose droplets from his fingertips.

Bandit chuckled and answered, “could’ve fooled me, you look just like him.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” Renji answered, “how about we sit down and smell the proverbial roses? I’m not in a rush.”

“Nah, I don’t really got time to fuck around with you and this split personality shit.”

With that said the dreadlocked vagrant rushed forth, summoning Sledge’s ridiculous hammer as she did. Her hammer screamed as the built in engine revved up and spit fire from its exhaust. Renji stumbled back and moved to defend himself, but the woman slammed into him with blinding speed. A dry crunch reverberated through his skeleton as Bandit’s hammer connected with his upper arm. One moment he was standing and the next he was sent sailing end over end across the battlefield. The swordsman’s world became a flurry of snapshots as he tumbled through the air. Just as he had begun to register what had happened his ragdolled body slammed into a parked car. Warm blood trickled down the length of his shattered arm and his eardrums rang with the after effects of a point-blank shockwave. With a groan Renji peeled himself from the metal sarcophagus and stood on a pair of trembling legs.

“No wonder Kuzuru likes her so much,” Renji muttered.

Twisted and mangled, his right arm hung useless at his side. Every moment sent lightning bolts of pain coursing through his body as bone fragments scraped against one another. Renji slapped his hand against the wreck of a vehicle behind him. The metal pulsed and began to flow like liquid as it burrowed into his flesh. It was hard to say which sensation was worse, that of liquid metal snaking through your body or the pain of a pulverized limb. Underpinning the sound of shearing metal was that of bones snapping and cracking back into place. Violently his ruined arm writhed as the metal fused with what remained of his humerus. Renji gasped and stumbled as the final joint snapped into place. Pain receptors screamed at him as they scratched against the foreign object embedded into his skeletal structure.

A glint of light caught his eyes and he glanced up just in time to see Bandit come crashing down from above. The roar of her hammer tore through the air as the business end threatened to tear through his dome. Renji’s body flickered and the weapon phased right through him, burying itself into the tattered remains of the car behind him. Stepping aside and reaching out with his mind Renji grasped what was left of the vehicle. Bandit grunted as she tried to tear her weapon free but found that the steel husk began to  collapse around her weapon. Steel and aluminum twisted around the hammer, knitting itself into an impossibly tight cage. Renji smirked as the last knot was tied.

“If you were a real warrior you’d fight me without a weapon,” Renji baited.

Relinquishing her hammer to its tomb she turned to face him.

“That a challenge?”

“I’m not sure what else it’d be.”

Bandit spit on the ground and raised her fists, “Not that it matters much either way righ’ now. Fist, weapons, either way you gonna lose some teeth.”

Renji raised his infused arm and responded, “it isn’t me you should be worried about, but I appreciate the sentiment.”

[Bandit With No Name]

“Ye, I know,” the woman said, then tilted her head to the side. A spear of magical energy flew just wide of her ear, shredding a storefront with a hellish explosion. Her body flickered as Skeletor’s fist thrust into the place where she had just been standing, and she buried her elbow into his gut. The coattails of her tuxedo flourished as she spun in place, her rifle appearing in her hand before she ingloriously crammed the barrel into the mage’s open mandible.

“Can you two just-“ she slipped under a brutal kick as Renji retaliated, then shoved the muffled, mumbling warlock into him, “give us some space?”

“For a few seconds.” Before either could gather their thoughts, her heel slammed into Renji’s back with a crack, hurtling them through the air fast enough to break the sound barrier, a supersonic shockwave rippling out with a wave of dust and shattering glass.

Skeletor’s hand strained under the immense G-Force to attempt to pry the full-length weapon that had been shoved down his throat, only to notice the blinking red light near the power cell. If he had eyes, they would have looked worried.

The AER9 detonated, white-hot plasma devouring an entire city block, surrounded by arcs of lightning and a red-hued mushroom cloud.

The nameless woman stared at the absolute destruction she had wrought, but she knew that even it wouldn’t be enough to finish either of her opponents off. “Maybe work on foresight while the adults talk.”

Her eyes glowed as she swept the city with her superhuman senses, and then vanished in a flash of light.

Kerrigan sat at the small high top table beside the floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking maelstrom from fifty stories up. Her feet rested on the seat’s foot bar, her elbow propped up on the table. She knew her partner was there, but she didn’t look away from the flames that consumed the city.

The woman walked over to the high class bar and leaned over it, pulling free a pair of glasses and a bottle of liquor. She strode over and plopped down in the seat across from the Queen of Blades and set the cups in front of them. Holding up the whiskey she flicked the tip of it off with her index finger, sending the cap through a nearby wall, and filled both to the rim.

“So,” the bandit said, lifting the glass and taking a sip.

"So," Kerrigan replied evenly, sitting across from the Bandit as she crossed her legs. She looked at the marauder with a neutral expression, her usual smile completely gone. "You're angry, then?"

The pint glass shattered as the bandit’s fist crushed down in frustration. “Oh don’t FUCK with me, Kerrigan! I would rather kill you myself than help another self-appointed ruler of the Omniverse make a name for herself. This competition is just another way to pass the time for me, and I don’t like spending time with people who would have used me as a fuckin’ bomb if I had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Kerrigan rolled her eyes at that statement and the woman across from her visibly restrained herself. "I've already told you this. I've no interest in ruling the Omniverse."

The queen of blades closed her eyes and sighed in frustration. "Where I came from, the galaxy I was shaped in, I was the one woman every single person in the galaxy wanted to kill.” Her long fingers traced the rim of her glass, and her eyes stared down into it.

“I was betrayed by the one person I thought I could trust, enslaved by another creature against my will, and designated the enemy of sentient life even after I'd regained myself. Before I came here, everyone was against my continued survival." Kerrigan said, a bit of steel in her voice. It quickly faded.

"...I had no idea things might actually be different here. All that prime-hood meant to me was another reason to fear being enslaved for the third time in my life. That the brief moment of lucidity I'd fought tooth and nail to achieve for thirty years was going to be threatened, again, right after I'd finally achieved something akin to safety. I had no idea things would be different here. I had no reason to think it ever would be."

The nameless woman’s shoulders relaxed, and her features softened. She sighed, and looked out at the hurricane of destruction she had created to keep the other competitors busy. "We don't really live with consequences here, Kerri. Not you and me, at least. But,” she paused, “secondaries do. That was the only shot they had. The only life they had."

She took up the bottle and slugged some of it down. "We can change this world however we want. We can be and do whatever we want." Her eyes lock with the Queen's, for a moment. He hand drifted down and fell onto her partner’s hardened claw. "And we have to want to make this place better. For them, for us.”

“We have to try.”

[Skeletor]

With a grunt, Skeletor emerged from the debris. The warlock dusted off his tuxedo and spit out the remainder of the bandit woman’s vile weapon, telekinetically shredding it for good measure. Nearby Renji rolled aside a large concrete slab and stood up. Skeletor was grim with rage as he spoke.

“I’ll make sure those bimbos go out with a bang for this indignity.” The warlock’s super charged senses prowled the city for his quarry, “When I find those blithering bumblers I am going to…” he stopped his rambling mid-sentence, unable to articulate for a moment.

“They… TCH! They’re having a drink? In the middle of our grand conflict? THEY DARE TO MOCK ME SO!” Skeletor’s empty eyes shown red with rage. He floated away from Renji, gathering speed as his fury took further hold of his senses. They didn’t even view him as a threat? Well he would change that!

Skeletor sped through the city, screeching to a stop near the building his foes sat in. He could see them, sitting in the board room staring at each other. So smug. So confident in their superiority. He would not stand for it!

Turning away, Skeletor flew down to a nearby apartment complex, and punched one hand straight though the concrete wall.  Clenching his other fist he sunk both arms into the building up to his elbows. Every resource was tapped,  eldritch power, Syntech enhancements, all were fuel for the fire of his rage as Skeletor tore upwards. He strained, back arching as even his immense powers neared their limits. Cracks spread through the wall as Skeletor continued to lift, using his telekinesis to uproot the building like a stubborn log. Skeletor growled, muscles trembling with exertion, then heaved up and backwards with his full might.  With a mighty crash the top three stories ripped free.

The jagged mass balanced precariously above him, Skeletor floated backwards slowly. He struggled to balance the unwieldy burden, chunks crumbling loose to fall to the street below. Skeletor spluttered, his arms screamed warnings of collapse, but rage fueled him. Slowly, he tilted, aligning his trajectory, then with all of his remaining strength, pushed himself forwards. Like a fury powered rocket, Skeletor and his building picked up speed.

Kerrigan and the bandit broke off their stares as they spotted the incoming projectile.

“DON’T MIND ME CRASHING THE PARTY! NYEHEEEHEEHEEEE!” Skeletor shouted at full volume, as his missile exploded into the boardroom. In an instant, the boardroom was obliterated in a cataclysm shattering glass,exploding concrete and rending steel.

Renji watched from the street below as the building collapsed into a massive cloud of dust and smoke. He stood firm against the shockwave, and was enveloped in the cloud of dust. Eyes shut, he focused his senses, tuning out the clamor of destruction. A pair of raggedly approaching footfalls registered and he ducked backwards.  Kerrigan snarled as her claws swept through empty air. Renji planted a kick at his foe and pushed off, fading as he did so, his body becoming one with the dust that surrounded them. Kerrigan waited, scanning the cloud around her for his next attack. She started in alarm as Skeletor burst from the ground behind her.

“Remember that move from Darkshire?” Skeletor cackled, grabbing her legs as he rose from the ground. He spun her around at dizzying speeds, while Renji solidified near a broken I-beam.

“Overtrumped louse against solid steel. Batter up!” Skeletor spun full force as Renji stepped into the path, steel beam at the ready. He landed a solid swing as Kerrigan came whipping around, sending the Zerg hybrid flying away into the rubble with enough force to disperse the dust cloud.

“That’s not quite enough to clear the bases, Blademan! You’d better start running before I…” Skeletor jest was cut off as Bandit ploughed into him full speed, driving them both through the windows of a nearby deli and into the wall.

“Yo! We were talking!” the woman said, as she slammed Skeletor’s head upward into the ceiling, “Not cool bro!”

The warlock fell with a splutter, vision blurring as Syntech’s power started to ebb. He jumped to his feet, and swung. Bandit sidestepped his swipe and rammed a gut punch  hard enough that he doubled over. Skeletor blinked out of existence and reappeared a few feet away, breathing heavily.

“You know, if you ever want to take that tattoo to the next level, I have experience in the matter!” Skeletor crowed, before hurling an aisle shelf at the bandit. She shouldered it aside with only mild concern, then swung another haymaker at Skeletor’s face. He shrunk down to half size as her punch sailed over him, then snapped a full fist into the side of her left knee, hearing a satisfying snap. The bandit yelled and Skeletor leapt, using the distraction to land a solid uppercut to the jaw. She staggered back and Skeletor cackled in triumph.

“Size matters not to my fists, you nameless ninny! NYEHEEEHEEEHEE!”

830 words on google docs.
On to you Kerrigan!

[Sarah Kerrigan]

Kerrigan’s eyes went wide as she saw the Bandit sent flying to the winds. The marauder was sent careening through a building by the force of the punch, and the Skeletal Overlord was quick to follow up with a blast from the Havoc staff. Kerrigan glared at the bandit with glowing yellow eyes, and a telekinetic push knocked the dizzied warrior out of the way and more, sending the Marauder almost out of view.

Kerrigan breathed out with some relief. She’d pushed bandit out of the battle temporarily, where she could regain some energy and strike again when an opportunity was created.

“Tired of your companion, you overgrown insect?” Skeletor asked with a shrug of derision, turning to stare down the queen of blades. Sarah knew that the being that was supposed to be Kuzuru was right behind her, her enhanced senses catching him in her radar easily.

Skeletor wasn’t completely wrong. Listening to the desert raider’s moralizing and plea to useless empathy sounded both hypocritical and aggravating to her. It was a conversation she’d had with Jim several times since her transformation, and her stance hadn’t changed. Most humans had earned no sympathy, no mercy, no interest from her with the short lives they were given.

Still…

Bandit had marked herself as one of her exceptions, and an amusing one at that, and these two new opponents had happened to help drive a wedge in between them.

It was a bad decision for them to make.

“Skeletor.” Kerrigan spoke in a cold, low tone. “It’s obvious by now that even simple concepts have an issue flowing through your mind, so I’m going to hammer this lesson in: Don’t ever soil someone that belongs to me with your touch ever again.”

Skeletor’s response was an unhinged jaw that failed to set itself for a moment. “...what?”

Kerrigan didn’t bother to respond. Instead, she re-focused. She’d been fighting this battle as the queen of the swarm, thinking 3 moves ahead, with an army at her back. Here, in a battle where her control of the zerg broods were so limited, her normal methods of attacking a situation didn’t apply. She’d have to take different measures.

The Queen of Blades’ body melted, softening to a smaller frame, a more lithe form. insectoid chitin gave way to a grey hostile environment suit and pale skin, Tendrils were replaced with scarlet hair, bound in a ponytail, and glowing gold gave way to a piercing blue.

Sarah Kerrigan glared at a nearby broken piece of rebar, and the metal bent and twisted to her whims, taking the rough shape of a combat knife, before leaping into the former ghost’s hands.

The only thing that stopped the Queen of Blades from being the spitting image of her former self was a familiar slasher smile.

“You ruined a perfectly-”
Whatever Skeletor’s taunt was, Sarah didn’t give him time to complete the sentence. In an instant, she cleared the distance, and Skeletor’s brain was too occupied with dodging the blade to his neck to finish his response. Sarah followed up with a shot to the gut that sent Skeletor straight for a skyscraper window, but Kerrigan got there first, and caught the warlock’s neck with her shin. Hooking him on the momentum of a kick, she sent him flying into an old brick building, before turning around to catch a wooden clog.

The swordmaster took a brief instant to scan his opponent, even as he flew out of the way just in time to avoid a vicious cut from Sarah’s knife. “You… you’re acting completely on instinct right now.” he stated.

Kerrigan couldn’t reply, for the veteran fighter was completely correct. In Sarah’s current state of mind, the only thing that had hold on her mind was the next move, the next strike, the next parry, the next kill. It was a deadly mindset she hadn’t accessed since she’d evolved into the Queen of Blades, but it had come to her call like an old friend the moment she needed it.

Kerrigan dashed forward, and Renji dodged through an endless stream of thrusts and cuts , feints and closed fists from the psychic assassin. Kerrigan tried for a cut to the jugular, and Renji flew backward to avoid the strike. The former ghost didn’t let the opportunity slip, and punched forward - hard!
The blow displaced the air and accelerated Renji’s momentum to knock him through the glass shell of the skyscraper behind him, and then through the office space behind it, smashing through desks, computers, and the cheapest drywall money could buy.

Kerrigan’s legs almost crumpled after that, as she focused her breathing, trying her hardest not to hyperventilate from the experience. She’d used more energy than she’d realized, utilizing that little mental trick, and it was starting to show.

Exerting effort, she managed to force herself up to a standing position, but a shadow danced along the edge of her senses, and she prepared herself for an uphill battle.

Thankfully…

“Hey.” The bandit smirked wryly. “You look different. Did you do something with your hair?”

849 word according to wordcounter.net.
On to you, Renji!

[Kuzuru]

Warm blood ran down Renji’s chest like a river. He rolled onto his side and clutched at the gouge in his shoulder. A talon of glass had carved into his flesh and left a near-mortal wound. Sand filled his mouth as he watched the growing puddle of his own blood stretch across the floor. Using telekinesis the swordsman fumbled around the room, running a mental hand across every available surface. He threw open a desk drawer and wrapped his telekinetic fingers around a small cardstock box. Closing his eyes to concentrate he pulled the box closer and tore it open. A deluge of staples tumbled from the shredded container and were subsequently suspended mid air. Carefully he broke apart the rows of staples and began twisting them together. Unfettered by the clumsiness of physical fingers he was able to form several chains of twisted staples. He floated the makeshift sutures towards the open wound. With a grunt he sat up and used his two free hands to hold the wound together. Once they were lined up he plunged the three inch long staples into his shoulder. They burrowed through his flesh and pierced through the otherside of the wound before twisting themselves together and sealing the laceration.

Now no longer at the immediate risk of exsanguination Renji crawled to his feet. Slowly he began to retrace the path that his ragdoll body had drilled through the building. As he walked his mind scooped up every errant sliver of glass, pulling them behind him like a crystalline parade. His sandals, now soaked in blood, clapped against the floor and left behind bloody stamps. Outside he could feel the others waiting for him. He could smell the sweat on their bodies and the blood on their hands. The swordsman cursed himself for casting aside his sword, it was as if he had willingly lopped off a limb. Despite that raw sense of vulnerability he pressed forward. Combat was adaptation and if he couldn’t defend himself without Kuzuru then he deserved to die.

It was with a torrential explosion of glass that Renji emerged from the building’s innards. He said nothing as his tornado of shattered glass slammed into Kerrigan and Bandit. The ghost swatted away several chunks before becoming incorporeal and fading into a nearby building. Bandit, however, yelped as the shards sliced into her flesh. Blood sprayed into the air and a faint rainbow could be seen in the misty viscera. The vagrant dove behind a car and braced herself as another torrent of glass crashed against the battered Civic. Skeletor cackled madly and came up besides the swordsman.

“Good work Blade-man,” Skeletor said, “Now, stand aside and allow me to show you the terrible might of Skeletor!”

Renji shot a glare and him and commanded, “Don’t be reckless, keep an eye on the other one.”

Leaving the somewhat deflated Skeletor behind Renji pushed forward, focusing his tempest on the poor Honda. As he walked towards his quarry he reached out and grabbed a telephone pole. With the suit’s strength he easily ripped the pole from the ground, sending a shower of sparks cascading across the sidewalk. He lifted the pole over his head like a javelin. Renji’s body tensed and he launched the makeshift spear towards the car. Several of his stitches snapped free as the pole left his fingertips. With a horrifying crunch the telephone pole skewered the Civic deadcenter. The force of impact dented it inwards and pinned it to the nearby building. Renji’s glass storm halted and he willed the shards of glass into the sky. Slowly he approached the vehicle. Kuzuru would’ve been upset to end the fight in such a lame manner, but Renji was glad for the moment of respite.

This moment of relief was short-lived. The hair on the back of his neck snapped to attention and his heart caught mid-beat. There was no time to react and Renji squeezed his eyes shut. Bandit phased out from the ground below him, wrapping her hand with a chunk of asphalt as she did. In one glorious moment her reinforced fist sailed upwards delivering perhaps the most devastating uppercut to have graced the Omniverse. Bandit grinned and could practically hear the millions of Omniversians cheering at such a wild upset. Renji’s jaw all but exploded as he was sent soaring into the air. With a defeated thud he landed on the sidewalk next to the exposed wires from where he had uprooted his javelin. Renji’s grip on the shards of glass loosened and they plummeted, showering the two combatants in a hailstorm of sharp objects. Bandit flinched as a shard cut her shoulder, but smiled as a chunk of glass skewered Renji’s gut. She stomped towards the fallen swordsman, ready to bash his head in.

“It was a good shot,” she admitted, “But you’re messing with the best in the game.”

Renji tried to speak, but only a sloppy sputter escaped his decimated jaw. Bandit straddled him, blocking out the sun as she did and raised her weapon high. Renji wrapped his hand around her ankle and threw his other hand to the side. In an instant their bodies were lite up with electricity. Renji’s metal-infused hand was wrapped tightly around the bare wires next to him, sending several hundred thousands of volts through their bodies.

[Karl Jak]

Face to Face
#23 Skeletor & #39 Kuzuru vs #36 Kerrigan & #22 ‘Ass Kicker’

Kerrigan and Skeletor turned at the sound of crackling electricity and the stench of barbeque that came with it. Bandit and Renji were still on the ground—their chests moving just slightly enough to let the viewers at home know that they were both technically alive.

“Let’s finish this, then,” Skeletor hissed as Sarah came at him. The skeleton backed up as he tried to stand firm against the former ghost’s attacks. Despite his best efforts, he was running out of space to maneuver, and after a few moments, he found himself pinned against a wall.

With a sneer, he threw himself at the woman. He tore open part of her cheek before a blow to the ribcage doubled him over. A moment later, everything went black.

[spoiler]
<The four of you are welcome to collab on your own ending at some point but this is all I can really comfortably muster at the moment because of hand injuries>

Skeletor and Kuzuru will face Pennywise and Shantotto in Match M of the Consolation Bracket.[/spoiler]