I.O.F Chapter 4: A hot battle

Zuko felt stupid. That fight in the arena kept going through his head and the young warrior still felt like an idiot for what he had done. He had been guided by anger and it almost cost him his life. Fighting the strange man who had forced him to duel was no option but he could have helped defend the grey warrior who had spared his life.

He wished Aang was here. Aang would have controlled his anger and found a way to solve things. To help the grey stranger. But the Avatar was not here and Zuko had to rely on his own judgement and his own inner power. 

It was only a few days ago that Zuko was still a fire lord, who tried to repair the damage done by his father and grandfather. Then, a strange cloaked man came who told Zuko that he knew where his mother was. The heart of the young fire lord jumped up because the one thing that he had given up about, was finding his mother. The stranger had told Zuko that his mother was being held on a island and that he could save her but he had to act quickly and come with the stranger within the hour. After that, the stranger had dissapeared into a portal and left the firebender with a tiny ball of hope. If he had the chance, he would have had asked for Aang and the rest of the gang to come with him and free his mother but there was not enough time. Instead, he wrote a small note to Mai in which he asked her to act as fire lord in his stead because he had to leave for urgent reasons. He then put on traveling cloths, grabbed his swords and went into the portal that the stranger had used earlier. 

The portal was nothing like he ever imagined and when he entered the island, men in white told Zuko that he needed to walk towards a strange arena. It was there that he met his sister again and was clearly suprised. Not only was she supposed to be insane, Zuko had never guessed that Azula cared about their mother. When he tried to talk to her, he found that she was cunning as usual and did not really about their mother. She did not even know that she was imprisoned here. She talked about what a pathetic loser Zuko was and that their father was happy he had a better child. She then talked about how incometent Zuko was and that he would never be able to find their mother. Azula only stopped talking when the stranger started talking but did not stop her from hissing insults at him. It was because of the influence of his sister and the will to survive and find his mother that he had acted hot tempered and angry during the fight. Well, at least he was still alive and able to find his mother. After he had found her, he would destroy the stranger. 

First off all, Zuko needed to survive in this tournament and that meant beating the others. having learned from his mistake, Zuko tried to avoid detection by other people. He did not want to kill them, neither would he like to lose a battle and thereby his life. 

As the firebender was walking around silently, he suddenly saw one of the strange men in white. Hoping that this man could answer some questions, Zuko climbed up a tree and waited for his victim to walk by.

As soon as the man stepped near the tree, Zuko jumped out and delivered a painfull kick to the chest of his opponent. The guard fell down and tried to stand up but Zuko kicked him down again and flung the weapon of the guard away. Zuko then took his dao swords from his backscabberd and held the blades near the head of the downed guard. 'You will answer some questions.' Zuko spoke in a low voice. 

If the man was afraid, he did a good job hiding it while he answered. 'I know about nothing. I am not to be touched and only by threatening me, you will be killed.' Zuko was not happy with the answer he got and asked again, this time less nice. 'You are going to tell me where my mother is or I will kill you.' This time, the guard answered only with a stare.

Zuko was really mad now and lifted one of the dao's in the air to strike when a object hit his hand. Zuko dropped the sword in pain and after checking the surroundings, he saw the object that had hit him. It was a small black metal object in a very strange form that he had never seen before.

Batman watched how the young man was looking at the batarang. The dark knight had another batarang at ready in case this boy was going to try and kill the guard again. It was not that Batman liked the guards or the tournament but he knew that killing was not a option and especially not if that meant that the security would get tighter.
The young boy had fought rash and uncontrolled during the first fight and Batman had not paid too much attention to him. The host was a strange man who had some powers that Batman still was not shure off. He now knew that the host was the person who seduced the Bat to leave Gotham city and kept him on the island. After that first fight when everyone was allowed off, Batman stayed behind and took a good look at the rest of the warriors invited. None but one was known to Batman and the one he knew was his arch enemy, the joker. Altough he was happy that this criminal was out of Gotham for the time being, Batman was not shure why the clown prince of crime was invited here at all.
After everybody else had left and the host had dissapeared together with his wizard, Batman himself made it out of the arena. It did not take long for him to spot the large tower further away on the island and decided to investigate that.
It was on his travel towards the tower that Batman came across the young man from earlier and he saw how the fireuser hid in a tree, only to attack one of the guards.

Bruce now had a choise to make. Either let the boy just kill the guard or fight him. The hint with the batarang had not worked and the superhero had to do something quick. Deciding that taking out this Zuko was the best option, Batman took some quick mental notes. The most dangerous assets of this guy were his fireusing powers and this Zuko's other skils were swordfighting and martial arts. Believing he could take this person out, Batman threw the second batarang to make shure this guy was not hitting the guard with the other sword. Before the young man could do anything else, Batman threw a third Batarang. This one had a rope to the end of it and he managed to tie the arms to the body of this Zuko.

Batman walked out of the shadow of the tree and stepped towards the now fallen Zuko. Using his firepower, he quickly broke free of his bonds and fired a fireball at the man who had attacked him.
As the ball was searing towards him, Batman trusted his fireproof outfit and held his cape for his body. The fire dissolved on the cape without doing any damage but Zuko launched two other fireattacks. None of the attacks did the damage but it gave Zuko enough time to launch a kick at his opponent. Nobody would stop him from finding his mother. 

Batman got knocked away by the kick but he managed to recover. He blocked another punch and delivered a powerfull punch to the face of his opponent himself. Zuko got angry and tried another punch but the Bat managed to get his opponent in a armlock. Batman followed up with a throw that send Zuko on the ground.
Zuko stood up as quickly as possible and saw that the guard was gone. The man must have sneaked away when Zuko was assaulted. Zuko looked at his opponent again to see that he had dissapeared also.
Knowing that the man in the costume could not have gone far, Zuko grabbed his swords and stayed silently to listen to unusual sounds.
He suddenly heard the crack of a twig and sended a stream of fire towards the spot where he heard it. Batman Jumped away from the fire and used his cape to glide towards his opponent. Before his foot could make contact with the head of the young warrior, Zuko moved aside and avoided collision.
He then moved himself and used his dao's to attack Batman.
Using the metallic blades on his gloves, Batman managed to block the attacks and kicked Zuko in the stumach to create distance. He then reached into his boot to grab a small metal stick that he transformed into a full staff within the second.

Zuko walked over to his opponent again and attacked Batman with his swords. The Manbat blocked the attacks using his staff and tried to hit to attack himself. Zuko managed to block the attack and now pushed himself.
Zuko jumped up and moved both swords as scissors to decapitate his opponent but Batman ducked low to avoid the attack and as soon as Zuko landed on the ground again, Batman used his staff to sweep the feet of his opponent. Zuko fell on the ground and before Batman could deliver a blow to the chest, Zuko managed to roll away and attacked with fire. Batman felt the heat go past his face as he dodged the attack and when h could focus on his opponent again, Zuko attacked with his swords held high.
The staff shot forwards horizontally and blocked the attack, after which both warriors tried to use pure strenght to overpower the opponent.
One moment, Batman was still pushed his staff and the other moment, he saw how a fist with a dagger made of fire headed towards him. Batman dropped the staff and blocked the wrist of his opponent to avoid being hit by the dagger. He then slammed his fist in the fist of his opponent. He had blocked the attack and dissolved the burning dagger in one move but he opened himself up. Zuko saw this opening and moved his last dao to hit Batman. Bruce was just able to block the attack with the metal blades on his glove and opened the pouch on his belt. Zuko came with another firedagger and Batman used his wrist to block the attack. Before Zuko could try and attack again, batman reached into the opened pouch and hit Zuko with his stungun while Zuko was calling up a fireshield. Electricity hit Zuko and he stepped backward in pain while Batman was pushed back by the burning shield.

Zuko was hurt by the electricity and Batman was tired. 'I am getting to old for this.' Bruce muttered to himself. Zuko threw another ball of fire and Batman dodged the ball. He then grabbed a batarang and threw it at his opponent, only to see it burned by the firebending of the young fire lord. 'Stop fighting.' Bruce spoke.   But Zuko never heard the words and only saw his mother in his mind. In one last attack, Zuko created fire to distract his opponent and then came in with a powerfull kick at the leg of Batman.
Batman did not see the attack coming and fell down, to be kicked in the chest seconds later. Zuko stood over Batman and created another dagger of fire to hit the Bat straight in the face. As Zuko moved to finish Batman off, he hesitated. he suddenly saw Aang and his big blue eyes staring at him. Aang would never forgive Zuko if he killed his opponent now but he needed to kill the man to save his mother.
In this time of hesistation, Batman kicked out and pushed his opponent away with his feet. He then rolled backwards and as Zuko was recovering Batman threw a batarang with knockout gas at his opponent. Zuko blocked the batarang with a wall of fire and stepped over the weapon. At that moment, the knockout gas escaped and reached Zuko. He took two more steps, before he collapsed.
Batman smiled even though he was very tired. He then proceeded to tie Zuko up and put the warrior under a tree.

Shang Tsung was walking over the island. He usually liked to be at the tower during the night but Angst wanted to have the souls as soon as possible and that meant a trip around the island every night.
Ahh well, it was a hot night and Shang Tsung did not mind the walk this time. He was a powerfull warrior and he had seven clone soldiers to back him up in case Shang Tsung was ambushed.
The idiot, he thought by himself. Angst was a very smart guy to find these warriors and force them to fight on this island. He even liked the idea about collecting the souls of the warriors and using them. There was only one mistake that this would be god has made and that mistake would prove fatal for Angst. The master of this tournament had trusted Shang Tsung and allowed him to collect and hold the souls.
When the sorcerer would catch the last soul, he would ubsurb all the souls and become as powerfull as Angst dreamed of being. Shang Tsung would slay Angst and steal the dagger that created rifts. He would then go and take down the gods and the mastergods. After that, nothing would stand in his way and Shang Tsung would become the master, a position he only recently heard about. Again, thanks to Angst. Shang Tsung would become the most powerfull being ever and he would never again bow down to the likes of Shao Kahn.
But first, he needed to keep the pretense up and act like the loyal servant untill this tournament was over.
Shang Tsung arrived at the last destination of the night and saw the tied up body of Zuko against a tree.
He walked towards the body and took a orb from his robes. He then knelt down to start a incantation. He had only just begun when Zuko suddenly opened his eyes. Shang Tsung was startled and Zuko acted quickly. He first burned the roped that held him and then lashed out with a fire attack that pushed the sorcered backwards. Before Shang Tsung could command his soldiers to fire, Zuko was attacking them.
Shang Tsung quickly transformed himself and when Zuko looked up, he saw a giant beast with four arms. It was almost twice the size of Zuko and was bald apart from the black ponytail. Zuko aimed a punch at the beast but it grabbed both of his hands. While the beast held him, it delivered two powerfull punches. The first one hit Zuko in the stumach and he felt his ribs breaking by the power. The second attack took him in the face and knew that his nose was broken and his jaw was at least dislocated. He then got thrown against the tree by the beast.
Shang Tsung morphed back into himself and drew his longsword. 'If you had played by the rules, I would have let you life but you attacked one of my men and I cannot ignore that.' After that, Shang Tsung thrusted his sword in the throat of Zuko.
Shang Tsung grabbed the orb from the ground and started his incantations again.
A green energy got releashed from the body of Zuko and put into the orb. In a instant, the face of Zuko was shown in the orb but it dissapeared soon again and joined with the others.