I.O.F Chapter 8: There can be only one

Batman and the Hero had gotten to know each other very well by the time they had arrived at the base of the tower. They had talked about their pasts, the reasons to come to this island and the strenght that both of them possesed. They had agreed that Batman would use his cunning and guile to be the brains of this attack while the Hero would be the main defence of both of them and the brawn. They also had decided that should one fall, the other would continue to fight and take out the host of the tournament.
Neither fighter knew what to expect in the tower and both of them prepared for the worst.
After having arrived at the building, Batman had spend the full night to find a hidden entree or weak point to the tower but he was unable to do so.
Knowing that time was of a issue, the two needed to get into the tower before the host would find out where they were.
"I am going to regret this.' Batman spoke as he put explosive gell on a wall.' 'regret what?' The Hero asked. 'Fighting alongside you while you kill people.' Came the answer. It was something that had gnawed at him the whole night and he wished he had thought about that earlier. The Hero chuckled. 'Either we kill them or they kill us. Now you do not want to kill and I am fine with that but that does not mean that I won't kill.'
Batman thought about it and even though he did not like it, he had no other option. He now wished that other members of the justice leage were here. Together, they would have be able to take out the leader without resorting to killing. But the justice leage was not around and Batman had to manage on his own.

'Ready?' Batman asked. As a response, the hero only nodded. He was holding his sword and stood stood ready to jump into action as soon as the wall got blown away. The Bat then pushed on a button and a explosion took part of the wall away. The hero stepped into the hole a second later and saw stunned soldiers in front of him. He first slashed at the opponent most close to him and hit the unmasked guard in the neck. He then speeded forwards to the middle of the room and rammed his fist on the ground. A ring of fire erupted from  the flour and took out the other three guards.
Batman stepped into the hole in the wall and saw that they had entered the sleeping quarters of some soldiers. As he made his way towards his ally, the door opened and two guards appeared. Batman quickly threw two batarangs that disarmed the clones and the Hero moved in. The Hero slashed the first one in the neck, just below the helmet and delived a thrust into the chest of the other one. The two clones went down quickly and Batman grabbed one of the rifles. He had never seen such weapons before and after shooting a wall, he found out that the weapon fired beams of energy instead of bullets. Batman was not shure if his armour would deflect these bolts and he was not planning to find out the hard way. Suddenly a alarm sounded throughout the building and that gave the two warriors a painfull realisation. The opponents knew that they were in the tower.
The two walked into a long hallway and Batman opened a door, only to see the barrel of a rifle close to him. Batman reacted swiftly and pushed the weapon into the face of his opponent and then pulled the weapon away. He followed up with a punch to the face that send his opponent to the ground. Batman pulled the mask off and delivered  a knock out blow.
He looked at the face and it struck him again how all the soldiers looked alike. He had seen this oddity when entering the tower and was really suprised by it. Batman quickly reminded himself to research these strangers and their weapons more as soon as he had taken out the leader and then continued.
As the two walked around a corner, they saw a full squad of guards with their weapons aimed at the two heroes. The clones fired the weapons and the duo was just able to turn around the corner they just came from again to avoid being shot. The Oakvale warrior held up his hand and suddenly, a fireball formed in his hand. As the warrior held the fireball, it become larger and gave out high sounds whenever it became bigger. When the fireball was very large, the Hero stepped around the corner and fired it. As the ball hit the group of soldiers, the clones fell on the ground. The hero took out Skorm's bow and fired arrows at the clones that survived the fireball. These three soldiers went down also and the journey could continue.

Shang Tsung walked down a pair of stairs. One of the two surviving warriors had managed to enter the tower and was causing havoc.
When the sirene had sounded, Angst had ordered Shang Tsung to deal with this person. 'Shut the alarm off.' the sorcered commanded a guard as he entered the dining room.
There, he met up with another clone who saluted and told Shang Tsung about how Batman and the Hero of Oakvale were thrashing the place.
Shang Tsung realised that these two were forming a larger problem then he thought. They were destroying the plan of Tsung and if he did not act soon, he would not be able to betray his master.
These two also proved more of a problem then Shang Tsung anticipated and he suddenly got scared that they might overwhelm him. He had five clone soldiers with him in the dining room and knew that he could not take any risks now. Shang Tsung took the orb and looked into it. He then moved his hand while he muttered. The first soul he took into him was that of Eric Cartman. He had aimed for another one but this one popped up for some reason. After the soul was fully consumed, Shang Tsung got slightly fatter and he suddenly got a hatred of jews, hippies and redheads. Shang Tsung then consumed the second soul, which was Sub-Zero. He felt the powers of ice entering his body while his arms got a blue colour. The third soul was that of Reaver and Shang Tsung noticed that his eyes became more narrow and he could see sharper.
Shang Tsung then reached for the soul of Ryu Hayabusa but before he could consume it, something hit his hand and he dropped the orb.
The orb shattered and Shang Tsung yelled in anger as he saw how the souls escaped their prison and fled through the ceiling.
Shang Tsung looked at the ground and saw a black metal object on the ground. Realising who threw it, he turned and saw the two enemy warriors running towards him. He fired burning skulls at Batman and the Hero and saw how they hit target and send the two backwards. His new powers really helped well. He then froze the Hero with a freezeball while Batman turned a table to hide behind.
Shang Tsung was happy with his new power and knew that he would have absorbed the souls sooner if he had known that he could chance the effect by simple magic. He would first kill these two idiots and absorb the souls. He would then walk up to Angst and kill the master of fear once and for all.

Batman spoke quicky to the Hero and outlined his plan. Just as he was finished, the table and got shattered when a burning skull hit it.
'let us do it now.' Batman spoke as he threw a smoke grenade at Shang Tsung. When the smoke surrounded the sorcerer, the Hero of Oakvale ran towards him with a sword in the hand and yelling loud.
Shang Tsung could not see anyhing and knew he had to act soon. He morphed into the blind swordsman Kenshi and used the telekenetic powers of Kenshi to slam the Hero in a wall. Shang Tsung then stepped out of the smoke and morphed back into himself. Just as he was himself again, a batarang with a rope connected to it flew around him and tied Shang Tsung up.
Shang Tsung burned the rope and was free seconds after being tied up but did not see that Batman flew from the ceiling and hit Shang Tsung in the chest. While the Hero was distracting Tsung, Batman had been able to his grappling hook and get a height advantage on the opponent. Now it his turn to distract the sorcerer.
Shang Tsung fell on the ground with a suprised look on his face and as Batman was walking up to him again, Tsung used a freezebeam to cover Batman in ice. Shang Tsung stood up and before he could deliver another blow to his frozen opponent, he felt a pain in his back. The pain soared through him and he saw how the tip of a sword came out of his body. Batman thawt out as Shang Tsung fell to his knees. Just after the Hero had pulled the sword out, green energy started to leave Shang Tsung as all of his victims were finally free.
After the souls had left, Shang Tsung started to change. He become older with the second and stopped when there was only a skeleton left, that collapsed to the ground.
'Damn. I have seen some skeletons but this one is the ugliest.'  The Hero commented. Batman smiled slightly. He was happy that the plan had worked perfectly and they had now taken out a dangerous opponent, altough he still regretted that the man had to be killed for it.

The two heroes stepped through the other door of the dinnerroom and as they enterered another room, a clonesoldier saw that the sorcerer had failed and raised his weapon to fire it. Before hey could accomplish it, Batman grabbed the weapon and forced it out of the hands of the user. He then hit the clone trooper with the gun he just took from the same opponent.
After having walked through another room, a hallway and two sets of stairs, the two fighters came walking into a large room where 8 clone soldiers waited for them.
The two ducked away to avoid being hit. The Hero then rushed towards the guards and when he was near, he used berserk. The guards got knocked away as the Hero grew in size and strenght. He then slashed at the guards around him and took them out one by one. The last one died when the clone recieved a thrust with the sword in the back of his head.
After the Hero of Oakvale was done, the two warriors continued their travel.

Angst sat silently in front of his tv, which was turned off. He hated waiting for he was used to get what he wanted as soon as he wanted. He now had no choise but to wait for his opponents to come.
Angst was completely unprepared. It had never crossed his mind that the warriors from the tournament would succeed into getting in the tower and it had flabbergasted Angst and he was really happy that he had decided to aborb the souls of two of the warriors. If the fighting would be brought here, these powers would help.
The master of the tournament had heard from a clone soldier that Shang Tsung had died and that the orb was broken. Angst did not care much about Tsung, the fool wanted to attack Angst anyway and this way, he did not need to kill the sorcerer himself. It was the orb he was angry about because that meant that the past months of preperation and this whole tournament were for nothing and that he needed to start all over again as soon as these two pests had been dealt with.
Angst heard a cry and less then a second later, his door exploded into his appartment. Followed by the door was the burned body of the clone soldier who had the job to guard it.
When the two intruders entered the apartment, Angst spoke. 'How dare you enter my domain, You fools. You will be destroyed.' Batman spoke in return. 'There are two of us and only one of you. You cannot fight both of us without your soldiers so I suggest that you surrender now and accept your punishment.'
Angst smiled after hearing Batman and used his newly found psychic powers to lift up the tv and throw it at the Bat.
The tv missed target and the two warriors instantly reacted to fight the creater of this madness.

Batman threw two batarangs at Angst but the former god used a shield of fire to protect himself. The Hero then closed the distance on Angst and let sword fly. The firewall blocked the attack and Angst grabbed his mace. He moved it downwards and the Hero fell on his knees. The Oakvale Hero suddenly saw his sister die and following her, he saw how Whisper and the Guildmaster died because he had not been able to protect them.
While the Hero was in trance, Angst attacked Batman with fire while the latter kept his face hidden in his cape.
When Angst stopped, Batman attacked. The detective started with disarming Angst and then kicked him in the chest. When the mace fell on the ground, the Oakvale Hero suddenly opened his eyes again.
Angst recieved the attack of Batman and used his psychic abilities to push Batman away and drew his sword.
The batsuit got some serious hits before Batman could respond and Angst then used his telekenesis to throw the dark knight into a closet. The Hero of Oakvale responded and attacked with his own sword.
The two warriors fought as beasts with their longswords. each blocked and attacked the opponent. Both of them also used their special powers to inflict damage on the other. \
Angst touched into the fear of the Hero and as soon as the man fell down, Angst unleashed a powerfull fireattack and followed up with some slashed and send the Hero on the ground. Before Angst could finish his opponent off, Batman flew at him.
Batman rammed his foot against the hand holding the sword while his left hand delivered a uppercut.
Angst fell on the ground and Batman closed in to finally take this monster down. Before he could do that, Batman suddenly saw his parents die in front of his eyes.
Using his psychic powers and the fire that was now everywhere, Angst manipulated the fear of Batman. Instead of seeing his parents die, Bruce now saw Gotham City burning. While his worst fears came true in his mind, Batman did not feel the punches that the mace delivered on his armour. Before Angst could slam the mace into the head of Batman, he got tackled.
The Hero had raised again and had used his bigger self to attack Angst. Angst avoided a first swordblow and took his sword in his free hand. Using a combination of weapons, Angst blocked a attack with his sword and attacked with his mace, hitting the helmet of the Hero.
Batman had also awakened again and the weakened warrior threw a batarang. The batarang hit the shoulder of Angst and the former god cried in anger and pain. 'You do not attack a god!' He yelled out and pushed the two away with his psychic powers.
Angst used his powers of fear to attack both opponents again but Batman had quickly broken through the illusions and had thrown a batarang that Angst was just able to block.
The almost god then used his psychic powers and the two weapons in his hand to enhance his next attack of fear.
While Angst was summoning his power, Batman took a batarang that had Scarecrow's fear toxins in it and the hero prepared himself for a will attack called devine fury.
As the batarang hit Angst and unleashed the toxins, the Hero used devine fury and Angst unleashed his power.
This strange combination of attacks made for a unusual result. The flames in the building became high and shadows suddenly appeared in them. It took very little time for Angst to see what happened. His own story, his only fear was played out in front of all three warriors.
From the fire leaped two people. One older person and someone who looked like Angst. The two, armed with a mace and a sword walked towards a throne where a third person sat. At once, the two started to attack the man on the throne but were held off by the man. Seconds later, other people appeared, dressed in various clothing. The two attackers were quickly surrounded and after a little struggle, the largest of the two attackers went down while the other was held tightly.
The man on the throne created a big black hole out of thin air and lifted the downed attacker up and the black hole sucked the man in. The black hole then dissapeared and left Angst standing.
One of the other men took a knife out of a sheath and after muttering a incartation, he ripped a rift, similair to those where Batman and the Hero came through. The man then grabbed Angst and allowed the man on the throne to finish a incartation. A blue appeared around Angst and when it dissapeared, he got dragged away by the man who created the rift. Before he could be thrown in, Angst took his sword while his captor was frozen in place. He then stabbed the man with his sword and ran to fetch the mace of his father. The other people were all stunned in suprise as Angst took the dagger from the dead man and jumped into the rift.

'Nooooo!' Yelled Angst and the people in the flames dissapeared. He pushed the Hero away with telekenetis but Batman threw two batarangs and disarmed Angst. After the almost god dropped his two weapons, Batman jumped towards him and kicked Angst in the stumach.
Batman then tried to grapple Angst while Angst himself took a dagger and thrusted it in the face of Batman. The dagger hit the lower teeth and cheek of the Bat and another thrust missed the big neckvessel by mere inches.
Angst took his mace from the ground and slammed it with all his power in the face of Batman while the bat himself thrusted a batarang into the arm of the master of the tournament.
Angst dropped his mace in pain as he looked at his wound. Before he could pick his mace up again, Angst got pushed away by a large fist that struck him. He dived for his sword and was pushed backwards by the now larger Hero who wielded his sword with ease.
As the tower started to shake, Angst teleported away.
the Master of the tournament landed on the grass just as the whole building collapsed.
Knowing that Batman was dead and hoping that the Hero was dead also, the master turned to look for his mace in the rubble. The fight had taken more energy then he had wished for and Angst knew he would have not been able to continue fighting any longer.

Suddenly, a man appeared from the rubble. It was the Hero of Oakvale. He was not shure if it was because he was a hero, the spirit of Batman that aided him or any other reason but he had survived. Feeling the spirits of Batman and Storm burning inside him, the Hero took his sword in a steady grip and attacked without mercy.
Angst got pushed backwards by this sudden but powerfull attack and lost space. He then changed the defensive position into a offensive one and the blades met with power.
The two fought very hard and put all their power in their strokes. Angst manages to slash the Hero across the chest but recieved a deep cut into his side himself, followed by a stab that took Angst in the left shoulder.
Feeling his power drain from him, Angst knew he had to act quicky or he would die. Dying meant that he would not see his plans succeed and he would never become the master.
In one last attempt to escape, Angst summoned fire that reached into the fear to distract his opponent. His powers of fear would not hold long and he would not be able to finish his opponent off. There was only one thing he could do now and that was escaping through a rift.
The Hero saw Oakvale burning but with the help of the two spirits in him, he managed to understand the illusion and it dissapeared in front of his eyes. The Hero then saw how his opponent was creating a rift and he created a fireball that hit the opponent in the back. He then followed up with a slashing attack and hit the exact same spot.
Because Angst had not finished his spell, the rift was open and unpredictable. While the two warriors were fighting, The Hero pushed a attack while Angst tried to defend himself with his dagger and sword. The dagger was dropped soon when his shoulder became too painfull and as the Hero pushed his attack again, both warriors fell through the rift.

The Hero fell through the rift and landed hard on his butt. He was weakened from the fight and he had entererd a strange world. His opponent was no-where to be seen and the rift had dissapeared also.
After he had been walking around this strange world with strange people and strange machines for a time, three men approached him. The first one had the upperhalf of his face covererd, the second was blue and very odd while third man had knifes coming out of his fist. 'We are the X-men.' The blue and hairy man spoke before the Hero could ask a question. 'You appeared from a portal that made a friend of us dissapeared in.' The man who had his eyes covered spoke.

Angst fell on the ground in pain. He did not know where the rift had brought him and he only hoped that it was somewhere where he would not have to fight soon. He was weak and about to collapse but he opened his eyes to see a red hairy think talk to a green hairy thing in a trashcan. Not shure which universe this was, Angst noticed that someone was walking towards him. He turned to see who it was and saw a coloured striped shirt, a long yellow face and black hair. The man that approached him had a large nose and a unibrow. Before Angst could do or say anything, he fainted.