METROCITY
SBA Arena: Commissioner X Office 90 Minutes Ago
Commissioner X was worried. Siren was suspended and according to security logs was out of the arena since yesterday. And now he could no longer sense Ms. Blitzen within the complex. He wasn’t tracking her, it’s just that ever since their encounter a few weeks ago he was just continually… aware… of her presence.
There was a knock at his door and a few seconds later SilverStar poked her head through the door. “Commissioner, you got a sec?”
“Sure, SilverStar. Glad to see you up and about.”
“Yeah,” she muttered and ran her fingers through her hair nervously. “Good as new once I had a chance to heal… but, uh, there’s something weird going on.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was just talking to Lucky Star earlier. She said… she… well…” Sarah scratched her chin. “A couple weeks ago she came to Ms. Blitzen and me and told us that we should stop fighting as a tag team and fight solo. But just now she said that she never told us that.”
Charles twitched and activated his intercom, “Smith! Activate Doppelganger Protocols.”
Sarah looked at him, “You have a doppelganger pro…”
“Where is Em- Ms. Blitzen now?” he looked sternly at her.
“I don’t know.” Now Sarah was worried. “And her cell was off.”
“Blast!” Commissioner X pounded his knuckles on his desk. He hated dealing with shapeshifters. They cause discord and confusion. And if one’s been active in the arena, at the same time that two royal descendants from warring nations were here. “You need to collect your partner. Bring her back to the complex until we can sort some things out.”
“How do I find her?”
His eyes glowed behind his shades. “I’ll find her for you.”
METROCITY
Underground Arena – NOW.
Emily was spent. She collapsed to her knees in ring center, her lungs burning from the heat of the flames. There was no thrill of victory, just pain and exhaustion. The flames extinguished and immediately her sweat began to cool and she felt a chill down to her bones.
At first the only voice she heard was Siren, twitching outside the ring making a sucking noise. The crowd was making only a strange murmuring noise. After a moment Emily realized that none of the voices were English. She heard fragments of Atlantean and some Lemurian. Some languages she recognized but didn’t speak.
Finally a lone, cloaked figure approached the ring. Emily had an ominous feeling in her gut. The figure pulled back her hood and shed the cloak revealing an orange-skinned woman with vaguely reptilian features. “Sssoo easy to manipulate.” she hissed. “Daughters of Atlantis and Lemuria. Burning with hatred.” Emily realized she had heard that accent before. “Now helpless, all your rage reduced to ash.” The snake-woman crawled into the ring and Emily struggled to stand. “With your deaths, both your empires also will be reduced to ash. Long live the Kraken!”
“Wha?” before Emily could utter a word the woman grabbed her by the throat and threw her from the ring, smashing her into some nearby machinery.
“Lemuria be blamed for killing you. Atlantis blamed for killing their royal spawn. Fire spread across the oceans!”
Ms. Blitzen lay there only partially conscious. She was helpless. She knew that she was only moments away from death.
“Get away from her!” yelled Sarah and a massive explosion of silver light filled the entire stadium instantly blinding everyone inside. Emily heard the angry hiss of the creature in the ring, then felt her friends hands lift her up. “I’ve got you, Em.”
“Siren…” gasped Emily. “Sarah, you have to get Siren.”
“One of my light duplicates has her.” Sarah answered. “She’s right behind us.” Even though Emily was still blinded she could sense the coldness in her friend’s voice. After all, Siren had beaten SilverStar nearly to death not long ago. “I’ll get you both to safety, then I’ll take care of the shapeshifter.”
“Kumari… assassin…” Emily heard Siren struggle to speak, obviously in great pain. “adaptable… won’t stay… blinded… long.”
“Two of my light duplicates are keeping her busy in the ring.” Sarah answered.
“Smart girl.” Emily said and tried to squeeze her friend reassuringly, but her arms didn’t seem to work.
“Hey, we’ve got super powers.” Sarah said as she placed Emily gently on the ground. “We don’t need to solve all our problems by punching them in the face.” Emily heard a thud and a groan as Siren was dropped on the ground near her.
SilverStar turned and faced back towards the entryway to the ring where the sounds of battle could be heard echoing. “Alright you ugly witch. Let’s finish this.”