Character Scramble Season VIII Round 2B: Dinner Bell

[u/Cleverly_Clearly]

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The Character Scramble is a writing prompt tournament where people compete to write the best story they can. At the beginning, everyone submits characters that meet the guidelines, then those characters are randomized and distributed evenly. From then on, each week there's a new writing prompt for everyone to follow. At the end of the week, everyone votes for who they think should advance, until we have our winner at the end. The winner at the end of the tournament gets to choose the theme, tier, and rules of the next scramble, along with a nice custom flair as their reward. The current theme is based on Part 6 of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure manga, and the tier is 2-8/10 against Captain America or Batman.

Without further ado, here we go!

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This round is only Matches 24-30! Check the pairings to see who you’re fighting!

(♫)

It’s dinner time in the prison schedule. The many inmates of Green Dolphin Street shuffle towards the canteen to fill their stomachs. But they’re in for a surprise. Your team needs to build up their rep among the other prisoners if they’re going to stand a chance in this prison, and an easy way to do that would be cooking up something tasty for them. So your team signs up for the kitchen’s prison labor program and heads down to the kitchen thirty minutes before dinner to fix up some grub for the inmates.

However, you aren’t the only prisoners in the kitchen tonight. Four other convicts are cooking right alongside you. Not working alongside you, no- they’re cooking something entirely separate. And they won’t let you help them or help you with your meals. What do they think this is, a competition or something? Well, it’s not going to help your reputation if these other guys cook something that’s way better than what you cooked, so you have to cook something that can blow their dish out of the water.

Pots are bubbling on the stove, the temperature is rising, and temperatures are flaring! All it’ll take is two hands reaching for the bell peppers at the same time for things to boil over and for this cooking contest to devolve into a full-blown fight. You’d better hurry up, though. Outside in the canteen, the prisoners wait, hungry like the wolf.

Yes, just like the Duran Duran song, “Hungry Like The Wolf”. See, there’s a reason I put that song there.

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Normal Rules

People Living In Competition: Look at all these obscure characters in the scramble! Give a brief summary of your characters in your post. Be sure to mention things like powers, personality, weaknesses, just stuff that the average reader should know before reading.

All I Do Is Win: The Scramble is a game, and in the end the player always wins the game. This time the player is you, champ! That means that when your write your story, your team always comes out victorious. Even if the odds of you winning are 1 in 100, explain those odds in the analysis and then show us that 1 miracle run.

Take Your Hand Out Of My Pocket: Characters are assumed to be at the same power level they started the tournament at at all times. To clarify, this means you would not be able to loot Captain America of his shield if you beat him in a previous round, or otherwise gain a competitive advantage based on anything that happened in a previous round. This is to aid your opponent in research of your character.

Ballots Not Bullets: If you don’t vote, you don’t win. Simple. Voting qualifies you for each round, which means forgetting to vote gets you kicked out, regardless of whether or not you would have won. That means that when the voting goes up (after the due date), you should probably take care of it pronto-like.

Due Date: The night of Saturday, the 15th

Round-Specific Rules

• Round Goal: Cooking By The Book! You’ve got to whip up a totally kickass meal for the other prisoners, or at least one that’s better than what the other team can make. Whether this involves pure culinary skill, sabotaging the enemy team, straight up pummeling the other team so that they can’t cook at all, or some other method, what you’re cooking has got to be better than what they cook.

• Whatever You Like: This is a totally professional kitchen with access to a wide variety of fresh ingredients, allowing you to cook pretty much whatever you want. It’s like something out of a cooking show. Why do the cooks feed all of you slop instead of using the ingredients to make real food? That mystery may never be answered.

• Let Them Eat War: There’s a lot of hungry prisoners out there! You might not be able to cook enough food to feed them all, but you should try to feed as many of them as possible. You don’t want the ones who go hungry to gang up on you and shiv you in the showers, do you?

[u/LetterSequence]

“Alright guys, time to group up.” Daredevil 'looked' at the rest of his team who were staring down the other team already stationed in the kitchen. Tapping on a table with a baton, he finally got their attention, and motioned them to the corner of the room. They reluctantly followed, huddling up around a table with a turkey on it and a few choice vegetables.

“So, how are we all getting along with the other guys?” The answers were about what he expected.

“The girl has an attitude I do not like. She needs to be taught her place.”

“A man should not intermingle with technology he does not understand.”

“...He said some mean stuff about the way I look.”

“Great, doesn’t matter. We’re just gonna make our food, then we never have to see these guys again. Now, does anyone know how to cook?” He was hoping the cooking wouldn’t have to be left to the man who doesn’t even know what the ingredients he’s using look like, but it seemed that would have to be the case.

“Choujin such as myself only know how to cook meals so rich with protein, a regular person’s heart would explode from one bite.”

“My creators did not install a cooking module within my unit.”

“My mom taught me how to cook a turkey. It’s an old Ricker secret.”

“Ricker?” It was at this moment that Dragonfly realized he spoiled his secret identity.

“Did I say Ricker? I meant… Biker. Yeah, biker.”

“Your last name is Biker.”

“Yes, I’m a Biker. My real name is Rick-”, Again with the secret identity, he had to act fast. “I mean, Dick. Dick Biker.”

Daredevil pinched the bridge above his nose, wanting the nonsense to stop. “Just… Just stop.”

“You see, my mom really liked Dick, so I guess it-”

“Dragonfly, I couldn't care less right now. Can you cook a turkey or not?”

“Y-yes, I can.” He looked over the turkey, then scanned the kitchen for ingredients. “Alright, I can work with this, but I’m gonna need some ingredients not in this kitchen.”

“Like what?” 2B looked at her pod. “My pod can scan the area for any object and secure it for you within seconds.”

“Let’s see… I’m gonna need two bottles of straight vodka, a carton of cigarettes, a cat, a bible, some perfume, a couple of cranberries, and a second turkey.”

The entire group was shocked. “What, pray tell, would you need all of that for?” Neptuneman was almost scared to ask.

“The stuffing, duh. My mom makes it for us every thanksgiving.”

“I have eaten many unnatural things in my day, but this… I would not serve this to an inferior choujin unworthy of life.”

Daredevil had given up. Maybe this turkey was why he ended up the way he did in life. Still, in the end, it was up to him as usual. He was known by many as ‘The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.’ It was time for him to become ‘The Devil of The Real Kitchen.’

“Alright, let’s completely ignore that idea. It looks like I’m going to be the one cooking all the food today. Just… try to listen to what I say, and don’t mess anything up. Not like I’m gonna make something complex anyway.” He pondered what to make for a brief second. The prisoners would eat anything at this point after what they’ve been through. That’s when Daredevil thought back to his days in New York.

There was always the famous New York Pizza that tourists come to the city just to try. Especially Ray’s Pizza on 51st street, way better than Famous Original Ray’s on 7th avenue. Of course, the comparison was pointless since he had no idea how to make their pizza. What about hot dogs? Then again, New York hot dogs were terrible. Better than the prison food, but not by much. That’s when it finally hit him. Something simple to make that’d be loved by everyone.

“Let’s make burgers. Nice and easy, the crowd will love it. Beef, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and onions in between two slices of bread. It’ll be easy to make.” Daredevil walked over to grab some beef. This ended up being a vital mistake.

“There’s plenty of beef to go aroun-” Feeling a shift in the air, he reeled his hand backwards. This was just in time too, as a kitchen knife was flung in his direction at amazing speeds, just narrowly missing his fingertips by centimeters.

“This beef is ours. We are using it for cooking at this moment in time. Feel free to help yourself to something else, but refrain from the beef.” Everyone looking at her could notice a definite shift in attitude, but Anna seemed entirely devoted to cooking at this point, and was perfectly willing to take out anyone who tried to ruin that goal.

“I’m not trying to impose. Let’s just split it in half, we need it for our burgers.”

“I don’t think you heard me.” Anna took a handful of oatmeal in her bare hands and squeezed tightly, leaving nothing but a fine powder when she let go of her grip. “All of that beef is ours. If you try to take any from us, I’ll be forced to act.”

“Fine, suit yourself.” Daredevil began to walk away, but quickly turned around and flung a baton at her. She made a move to catch it, but the baton was knocked off course and simply fell to the side of the ground. She looked at Johnny, finger aimed right at the path it was taking.

“Mr. Daredevil, we wish to avoid conflict for now. Please attempt to make another dish, or things could get ugly.” Daredevil heard Johnny’s words, but was completely confused by the chain of events he just witnessed. One moment the baton was flying in the air, the next it wasn’t. The only evidence of foul play being that for a split second, he could sense a small projectile coming from Johnny, possibly a bullet. Yet, as far as he could tell, he wasn’t holding a gun.

The two groups stood on opposite sides of the kitchen in a sort of Mexican standoff. It seemed to be for a petty reason, but both teams had ambitious goals that needed to be carried out. Neither side would start the brawl, for neither were sure how it would turn out.

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“Fuck it, food fight!” Of course, Gangryong decided now would be a good time to cast the first stone. He took an onion and threw it right at Dragonfly’s face, the electricity he stored within the vegetable coursing through his body. On top of this, the build up of energy caused the onion to explode, making Dragonfly cry from the sheer odor of it. The pain caused Dragonfly to collapse on the ground. “One down!”

“Gangryong!” Johnny tried to get him to stop, but it was too late. He hopped over a table and swung a punch right at Daredevil, who swiftly dodged the hit and countered with a baton to the chin. Tanking the hit, he reached into his pocket and threw a thick dark powder in his eyes.

“Pocket Pepper!” Of course, Daredevil was blind so this didn’t exactly hinder him in any real way, but getting something in your eye still hurt enough to hinder you in a fight. Gangryong used this opportunity to punch him in the gut, sending electricity flowing into his solar plexus. The pain was great, but they don’t call you the man without fear if you can’t take a taser or two.

With a quick backflip, Daredevil jumped up onto a table to gain the height advantage over Gangryong. This proved to be ineffective however, as he simply kicked over the table, sending Daredevil into the air once more. With his baton, Daredevil released the rope on the top and tied it around a light fixture. “Come down here and fight me! Or are you that scared of getting your ass kicked?” The quick to anger were always the easiest to trick.

A quick pull was all it took for Daredevil to pull down the light, sending it and the large chunk of concrete it was attached to onto Gangryong’s head. This had the intended effect, and knocked him down to the ground groaning in pain. “Whose ass was getting kicked again?” As he got closer to make sure he didn’t kill the guy, he noticed a quick shift in his heartbeat. Never a good thing to hear. Gangryong grabbed onto Daredevil’s ankle tight and wouldn’t let go.

“Playing dead is the easiest trick in the book. You must be a rookie fighter to fall for that one!” He tried to jump away, but it was too late. Gangryong quickly sent a surge of electricity throughout Daredevil’s body with a much higher voltage than the first punch. This had the intended effect, and while he was able to break free of Gangryong’s grip, he felt like his whole body was on fire and could barely stand up.

“You look so weak and tired that one punch would take you out.”

“Heh, never felt better. Is that all you got?” This simply caused Gangryong to smile. Another opponent who thought he was better than he was. Another opponent who would end up with their ass on the ground. Daredevil decided that he would need to risk it all if he was gonna win this match. He threw his baton at Gangryong, then rushed in after it. Gangryong easily dodged the baton, but couldn’t react to Daredevil in time, and ate a giant punch right in the face. The impact felt good, he had delivered just enough force where he could feel the crunch of his nose under his fist. This knocked Gangryong on the floor once more, but he didn’t let him play dead again. He jumped in the air, aiming a large kick at the martial artist that was laying flat on his back.

“Seriously? Is this weak shit all you can muster?” Daredevil realized once again that this was a trap, but couldn’t fix his trajectory in time. Right before the kick landed, Gangryong rolled out of the way and got to his feet. It didn’t seem like any sort of technique used to dodge, just pure speed. In the short time they had been fighting, had he really memorized the timing of all his movements and used that to calculate when to dodge? Regardless, that was the last thing that went through Daredevil’s mind, as Gangryong delivered a swift uppercut to his chin, making him stagger back a few steps. To end off the fight, he kicked Daredevil right in the ribs, feeling a nice crunch as he flew back and crashed into a table, covering him in the various fruits laid about on there.

“Two down!” Gangryong turned around and pointed right at 2B and Neptuneman. “And two to go!”

[u/LetterSequence → u/LetterSequence]

“Guys… shouldn’t we stop him?” Johnny realized how drastic this situation was, but the other two members of his team didn’t really seem to care.

“He’s fighting so that we can cook.” Anna had just finished searing both sides of the beef, and was beginning to set up the foil to wrap it in, a huge grin on her face the whole time. “Let him defend our honor and show off his strength.”

“Let the kid get his ass kicked. He deserves it.”

Johnny knew that if he was gonna get him to stop, he’d need to do something himself. Mustering all of his strength, he leapt out of his wheelchair, flying through the air over the crying limp body of Dragonfly until he landed right on Gangryong’s back.

“Get the fuck outta my way you damn cripple!” With a quick Judo throw, Gangryong threw Johnny over his shoulders and onto the cold hard ground underneath him. The impact reverberated throughout his body before being cut short below his waist, but he could still feel the pain and the message he was trying to send. ‘Don’t get in my way, or else.’

Leaping into the air, Gangryong went for a leaping superman punch on the largest man in the room, Neptuneman. “You’re first, you big fucker!” Putting all of his force behind the hit, he knew that he would need to supercharge the punch for it to affect someone of that size. With more lightning than he would normally use, the punch connected right with the giant hulk’s chin, but it did little more than cause him to stagger a mere step backwards.

“I must admit, that had some good force behind it. But a user of electricity will never be able to lay a scratch on me.” He cracked his knuckles, looking at the small teenager below him. “Still, you have potential. I shall test if you truly are worthy of facing someone as strong as me.”

“What the-” Without warning, Neptuneman grabbed both of his arms and put Gangryong in a shoulder lock that he couldn’t escape, no matter how much force he used or how much electricity he output. A few quaint moments later, Neptuneman released the lock with a look of disappointment.

“You are but a cruiserweight choujin, incapable of fighting a heavyweight. Good, but not good enough. Go train in the mountains and die. Perhaps if you beg God enough in the afterlife, you’ll be reborn as someone strong enough to be worthy of my time.” With this, he turned his back on the korean martial artist, refusing to fight him.

“What kind of pussy excuse is that?” Fueled by anger, Gangryong threw another electricity filled punch at Neptuneman’s back, which still didn’t do much to hurt him. To his surprise however, Gangryong couldn’t manage to remove his arm. It was completely stuck to the muscle bound wrestler’s backside.

“Ah yes, I forgot to mention. My body is essentially a magnetic field. Your puny electricity must be forcing you to be stuck to me. An embarrassing way to die, to be sure, but a fitting one. Your foolish recklessness will be your downfall.”

As he exerted more force to pull his arm away, he saw out of the corner of his eye the android woman rushing toward him with her sword out. At the rate she was moving, she’d be on him in the next three seconds. He needed to think fast, or else he’d become chopped liver. Magnets attract opposite polarities, right? That means that whatever shit this magnet was on, it was the opposite of his lightning fist. Which would mean he just needed to fill his ki with the same charge of the magnet to dissipate the effect.

“Thunder Break!” Using his free hand, he punched Neptuneman one last time, filling his fist with negative ki to negate the positive ki from his earlier electricity. This had the intended effect, and freed him from his capture. Quickly turning around, he faced 2B head on, ready for the sword to come crashing down into him. When she was only a few inches away, he activated his secret plan.

“Half step!” With minimal movement, Gangryong shifted his body to the side completely dodging the attack. By 2B’s calculations, it would have been impossible for him to dodge given the timing and positioning, so she wasn’t able to stop her movement in time. The sword continued on its movement path and stabbed Neptuneman with full force. He let out a scream of pain from the shock, causing 2B to reel backwards from regret. The perfect opportunity to strike.

Dashing forward, Gangryong wrapped his whole palm around 2B’s face. “Get overclocked, you bombacious bucket of bolts!” Using his other hand, he grabbed the back of her head, not being gentle with her hair whatsoever. “Electric Yo-Yo!” By flowing a steady stream of electricity between his hands, 2B became a battery of sorts, absorbing all the electricity he had within him. Of course, every battery reaches its capacity at some point, and the same was true of 2B. Eventually, she reached a point where her body wouldn’t handle any more power, and her systems began to short circuit until eventually her body shut down. When he felt the machine go limp in his hands, he threw her to the side and looked back at Neptuneman.

“One left.” He gripped the sword still stuck in his back and jammed it in further, relishing in the wrestler’s screams before finally pulling it out and throwing it to the side. “Nah, if I’m gonna beat you, it’s gonna be with my own strength.” Sending a negative ki charge throughout his whole body, he gripped onto the weakened wrestler as best he could. “Let’s see how you handle one of your own moves.” With his arms wrapped firmly around his abdomen, Gangryong used all the strength he could muster and fell backwards, lifting the wrestler above him the whole while. At the last minute, he let go, throwing the oversized man into a table with the perfect form of a german suplex. It was clear that the wrestler was out for the count.

“Fucker’s gotta be broken in half after that one. I don’t care who you are, going through a table is enough to end a match.” Tired and out of breath, Gangryong looked around to admire his handiwork. Four prisoners, each with strength comparable to his own, beaten in one foul swoop. Shit, five prisoners if you count Johnny, but he couldn’t put up much of a fight.

“Shit, is that all? I was expecting a challenge! I guess no one here can defeat the legend known as Gangryong Ma!” The thrill of battle got to his head once more, and he triumphantly lifted his hand in the air. Chuck didn’t seem to give a shit, Johnny looked on in horror, and Anna seemed to actually stop cooking for a moment to give him a short round of applause.

Sadly, it seemed that his fighting wasn’t over yet. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a certain green costumed dumbass begin to move. To be fair, all he did was throw an onion at his face, so he didn’t get a proper beatdown. Gangryong caught his breath and walked over to Dragonfly, who had managed to muster enough strength to lift himself off the ground and look up at Gangryong.

“Yo, you ready to get your ass kicked?”

“Can I get a raincheck on that? I kinda have a thing later.”

“Not a chance.” Gangryong stretched his hand out to Dragonfly, who looked at him in confusion. “I don’t like to fight an opponent who’s down. Get up so we can fight like men.” Dragonfly nodded and took his hand, only to be met with a constant stream of electricity. The pain was too much for him to handle, and he let go of the hand while flopping back onto the ground with a gentle thud. “Hah, did you really think I’m gonna show respect to someone like you? Now get back up! I’m not done with you!”

Dragonfly instinctively reached out his hand for Gangryong to pick him up, simply confusing Gangryong before he kicked him while he was stuck on the ground. “I said get up!”

“I don’t even like Disney movies!”

“...What the hell are you talking about?”

As Gangryong’s anger and impatience reached its peak, his blood chilled as he felt a painful sensation in his abdomen. Looking down, he saw a large sword peaking through his body covered in blood. His blood. The sword was swiftly redrawn, and Gangryong used the last of his strength to turn around, only to see the robot woman from earlier, standing tall. She grabbed his head and slammed it to the ground, making a small crater on the floor next to Dragonfly. Satisfied with her work, she turned around and looked to the rest of the kitchen.

“System reboot successful. Various targets remaining in the immediate area.” She wiped the blood off of her sword and looked right at Johnny. “Eliminating hostiles.”

[u/LetterSequence → u/LetterSequence]

2B knocked over a table on her way to Johnny, making it clear that nothing could get in her way from eliminating the friends of the man who assaulted her whole team. Quickly realizing that attempting to talk down the angry robot woman wasn’t really a good idea, Johnny raised his ring finger toward the android.

“Act 1!” His fingernail spun at incredible speeds before firing away from him and right at her face. He hoped that it would be enough, but despite the power of the spin, it wasn’t enough to penetrate her exterior and she simply kept walking towards him. “Crap, her skin is harder than metal! Act 2!”

Using his pinky, he fired another nail at her, but to his dismay, the bullet just barely missed its mark and landed on the wall across the room, leaving a large hole. While it began to move toward 2B, at the rate it was going it wouldn’t reach her in time. The only chance for Johnny to do anything here was to fire another nail at her, but at this range, if the nail didn’t kill her instantly, it’d be all over. His hands began shaking, knowing that a single mistake at this point would cost him his life. He held his breath, ready for whatever fate held in store for him.

2B raised her sword, ready to strike down when out of nowhere a blast of plasma struck the side of her head, singing off a chunk of hair on her head. While it didn’t manage to melt through the metal exterior of her body, she did note that repeated blasts would eventually lead to structural damage. She turned her head to look at the cause, and it was none other than the man from earlier with the machine for an arm.

“Hey, I wanna thank you for shutting that kid up from earlier, but I ain’t gonna just let you kill the only guy in the last month who hasn’t pissed me off yet, ‘specially if I’m stuck living with him until we all break out.”

“Excuse me, but it seems my fight is not with you today.” She turned away from Johnny and raised her sword at Chuck. “A man who intermingles with technology he doesn’t understand is a much better target than a man who cannot even stand on his own two feet.”

As she walked away, Johnny looked at Chuck awestruck. In a few moments, his hands calmed down and his breath became even again. If he made this a two against one fight, they should be able to take her out easily, but she could easily kill Johnny in one strike. He would need to attack her in a way that made her unable to know it came from him. That’s when he remembered that he still had the nail bullet hole. All he had to do was position it properly, and he could blow out one of her legs and give him an advantage.

All he had to do was bring the nail a couple of feet to the right, up her leg, and activate it right at her kneecap. If her anatomy was anything like a human, that would be the weak point to aim for. A fire lit in his eyes, completely ready to destroy this robot if it meant his team members would be safe. That is, until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey Johnny. You alright?” Johnny looked up and saw none other than Daredevil looking at him with a look of worry on his face. “I’m real sorry about all this. My team is… usually a bit more in control than this.” By reading the heartbeats of everyone in the room, he could tell exactly what everyone was feeling. He knew exactly who was knocked out, who was still up fighting, and where they were in the room. So when he looked down at Johnny, and saw the way his heart was beating, he knew something bad was about to happen.

The heartbeat of a man with nothing left to lose. The heartbeat of a man willing to do anything to achieve his goals. The heartbeat of a man about to shoot another man. That’s what he sensed from Johnny, and he wasn’t sure if he could talk him out of it. He reached behind him for the batons he picked back up before talking to Johnny, just in case he tried to pull anything out. Johnny simply raised his hand to Daredevil and pointed at him. Why would he point at him unless…

“Oh my god. You don’t have a gun. Your finger is the gun!” It was too little too late, as Johnny fired a fingernail from his middle finger right into Daredevil’s shoulder. The nail went in deep, spinning through his muscle fibers until it began to cut into the very bone embedded deep within his body. The spin eventually stopped, but it certainly left his mark on his body. Daredevil threw a baton at Johnny, but as soon as the object left his hand, he sensed his opponent bring his hand right up to his own head.

Was he trying to shoot himself? He didn’t want to be responsible for a suicide in the prison, especially a suicide from a physically disabled person. Might be good for his case, but definitely not for his conscience. Before he could say a word though, Johnny simply… disappeared. The baton flew past him and landed on the ground, but Johnny was nowhere to be seen. It was something he had never experienced before. What kind of trick was this? Teleportation? A technique that stops his heart and breathing? As he contemplated how this was accomplished, he suddenly sensed Johnny again right behind him. Right as he turned around, he fired another bullet into Daredevil’s leg, causing him to stagger onto the ground. He threw his other baton at Johnny, but all that accomplished was making him disappear once more.

This was gonna be a long fight.

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Two members of her team were fighting for their lives, one of them was unconscious or possibly dead, and two of the people on the other team were still convulsing from an electricity fueled attack. The perfect setting to cook a beef wellington, in all honesty. Anna had finally wrapped all the beef she could find in the kitchen, and just put them in the oven to bake. All she needed to do was wait a minute for the soup to settle before blending all the ingredients together, and put all the cookies to bake, but that’d have to be done after the beef to prevent possible contamination.

Neptuneman was in a different predicament, and it had nothing to do with cooking. He had finally gotten up from being thrown through a table, and as he looked around saw nothing but his team members in combat. He too wished for the thrill of combat against a strong opponent, but since the man who sent him through the table was probably dead, he was left with little options. He had delegated himself to staying on the sideline, and went back to talk to the woman from earlier. She ignored him as he approached her, but he began speaking anyway.

“Combat, does it not thrill you?”

“Not really, I have no interest in that sort of thing. I only fight when I need to.”

“Oh? I should have expected as much from a woman such as you.”

“Let me guess, you think it’s a woman’s job to stay behind and work in the kitchen?”

“Well, you are here in the kitchen cooking, and there the men are, fighting. It simply makes sense, does it not?”

“What of that woman over there, with the silver hair?”

“She is an android, she does not count.”

Anna shot Neptuneman a dirty look, then went back to her cooking.

“Go away. I’m busy.”

“I shall leave, but first let me have but a taste of that soup. Surely it must be done by now.”

“No, I still need to blend it.”

“Did you not say you would blend it earlier?” Neptuneman reached for the soup regardless of her warning, and was met with Anna gripping his hand tightly while bending it backwards.

“I said the soup is not ready yet.”

“Young woman, you do not know the consequences of your actions. Let go, or you shall face a death worse than any pain you can possibly imagine.”

“I’ll let go when you’ll leave me alone.” This was not the answer Neptuneman was looking for. He put her in his signature shoulder lock to determine how powerful she was. What he didn’t expect was for her to break out of the shoulder lock by slipping an arm through to her waist, and breaking the hold with her free hand.

Perhaps Neptuneman simply miscalculated his strength, after all he was used to grappling with large muscular men and not frail asian women. He went for another hold, but Anna quickly ducked and kicked one of his knees hard enough to make him stagger onto the ground. She then jumped on his back and with all of her strength pulled his arm backwards. It was a perfectly executed arm bar.

“Oh, so the little girl thinks she is a mighty Choujin? Well then, let’s see if you’re able to last in the ring, or if you’ll fold under pressure.” Neptuneman, being a clean couple hundred pounds larger than her, was easily able to power his way to a standing position and shake her off of him.

For a while, both opponents simply looked at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. This girl had the strength to compete, but did she have the skill? Neptuneman wasn’t quite sure yet, and wanted to play it safe before going all out to destroy her. At that moment, Anna heard something that scared her more than any opponent could. The ding of a timer, notifying her that it was time to blend the soup. Worse yet, Neptuneman took this sound as an opening bell, and rushed at her ready to crush her bones within his grip.

She began to wonder if the other prisoners even deserved to get food after all this.

[u/LetterSequence → u/LetterSequence]

Turns out, being stabbed in the gut fucking hurts. Clutching the wound on his body, Gangryong struggled to his feet and was pissed off to find that everyone he knocked out before was back up and fighting the rest of his team. Those were his fights! As he tried to take a step forward, a sharp pain bolted him to the ground. He wasn’t going anywhere. Which meant if he was gonna fight anyone, he was stuck with…

“Hey, do you have the time? There’s no clocks in here and I was planning on brooding at like, 3:00.” ...this dumbass over here. Gangryong took one look at him and sighed. He didn’t bring the same thrill as four opponents at once, but he’d have to do.

“Alright, here’s the deal. I’ve got maybe like, five minutes before I pass out again from blood loss. In those five minutes, I’m gonna beat the shit out of you until you’re crying for your mother.”

“Hey, my mother is dead! No one insults the family of the great hero, Dragonfly!” He struck a triumphant pose, before being punched in the face and knocked backwards.

“You know, I really hate you superhero types. Lemme guess,” Gangryong struck him again in the shoulder, “You wound up getting your powers one day and decided to dress up in a dumb costume before saving people from regular criminals.”

“Woah, how did you know my origin story?”

“Because every hero has the same fucking story!” A swift uppercut knocked Dragonfly back onto the ground, but the pain of his injury prevented Gangryong from following up with a kick. “Here’s a radical idea. If you wanted to save people, you would’ve been trying to become a cop before you got your powers! You would’ve donated to charity!”

Dragonfly jumped up and tried to hit him, but it was an easily telegraphed punch, letting Gangryong do a half step followed up by another Lightning Fist. Truth be told, this fight was incredibly boring, but at least it was fun to hit something.

“That’s not true! I became a hero to help people!”

“Bullshit!” Gangryong delivered a swift elbow to his chest, sending him back a few feet. “I’m gonna take another guess and say you wear that shitty mask to keep your identity secret.”

“I mean, yeah! I can’t let anyone know I’m Rick Riker!”

Gangryong paused out of confusion, before punching Dragonfly in the face again. “Exactly what I’m talking about! A real hero would save people without putting his family in danger. Admit it, you just like the thrill of beating the shit out of people who can’t fight back, don’t you? You love fighting, just like me!”

If he didn’t know any better, he would think Dragonfly was crying. “W-wait, I think there’s still a chunk of onion in my eye.” Unable to really do much besides stand, Gangryong watched while he stood there crying for a solid three minutes. The obvious black makeup under his eyes washed away, showing that under the mask was nothing but a pasty white boy trying to act tough.

“I’m nothing like you!” He wiped the tears from his eyes. “There’s one thing I learned in my life. The spirit is stronger than the body! The hero comes from within!”

“Did you just quote Celine Dion?”

Dragonfly let out a war cry, screaming in abject horror as his body pushed out a foreign object from his back. With one last push, his transformation was completed, and the Dragonfly had grown wings. “I’m gonna show you what it means to be a true hero!”

“Ah fuck.”

---

Anna delivered a swift punch to Neptuneman, but when you have a career consisting of being punched in the face, you learn how to take a hit, even if it’s from someone stronger than you. Her mind began to race in panic. If the soup overcooked without being blended, it would taste slightly burned and wouldn’t be as enjoyable. If that was the case, her entire meal would be ruined. She just needed to blend the food, but there was no whisk in sight for her to stir the food with. The only person who could blend it at this point was…

“Johnny!” She called out to her crippled companion, but he was nowhere in sight. That is, until he popped out of a small hole in the ground.

“Anna, what is it?”

“I need you to use your spin powers to blend the soup!”

“What?”

“Do it quick! We’ll swap opponents real quickly!” Before Johnny could protest, Anna dashed off at blinding speeds and delivered a running clothesline to Daredevil, flipping him in the air before he fell flat on his back. Johnny was shocked that a woman could run faster than the standard racehorses in America. Sure, Soundman did the same thing, but that was through technique and not through sheer speed.

Johnny quickly turned around and saw the giant man towering over him. Anna really picked a fight with this guy?

“I will not face an opponent who is so weak he can’t even stand.”

“Good, then this makes it a lot easier for me!” Johnny raised his other hand up and fired two nail bullets right into Neptuneman’s chest, knocking him onto the ground and possibly even killing him. He crawled forward a bit, then leapt into the air until he landed right on the stove top. Since he had no feeling in his legs, the heat didn’t really bother him. This next part was going to be painful though.

Johnny gripped both sides of the pot, feeling the intense heat on his hands. Still, he gripped on tightly, and began to spin the liquid inside of the pot, making a blending effect inside of it. The liquid began to go from a dark red to a bright orange. “Anna, it’s working!”

“You seem to underestimate my strength, young one. A simple gunshot is not going to stop me.” Johnny knew he was boned at this point. He regrew three nails over the course of the fight, but that left him with around five nails at this point. Would five nails really be enough to take out both this raging wrestler and Daredevil?

Before he even realized it, Anna had run back and delivered a swift dropkick to the back of Neptuneman’s head. This had the intended effect of causing him to stagger. All the damage he had taken throughout the fight was finally beginning to build up.

“Young woman, you are beginning to test my patience. Be satisfied, as you get to witness one of my prime techniques before your death.” Anna went for another punch, but he caught it with ease and twisted her arm behind her back. Swiftly, the wrapped her other arm between his legs, then pulled with all of his might. “Behold, the Quarrel Special! With this, your arm will be broken and your spirit as well.”

Anna screamed out in pain as she felt the muscle fibers begin to tear in her shoulder. Within another few seconds, her shoulder would become dislocated and she’d become useless. She needed to act fast. Anna mustered up all of her strength and broke her arm free from between his legs. Then, with her free arm, she delivered a swift elbow to the ribs of Neptuneman. He wouldn’t budge, so she did it again and again and again until finally he relented and freed her from his grip. That’s when he finally realized that he didn’t mess up the grip at the beginning of the match. This woman was simply so powerful, so was able to escape from his grips. Could a choujin that powerful truly exist?

Out of nowhere, as soon as she escaped from the grip, she grabbed Neptuneman with strength that seemed to be from another world. She lifted him above her head, flipping him upside down so that they were shoulder to shoulder. Following up from that, she wrapped her arms around his, pulling down to break his arms the same way he tried to break hers.

“Th-this is!” It was a perfectly executed Kinnikubuster. Anna pulled down as hard as she could, but faced surprisingly little resistance. Within seconds, she felt the satisfying crunch as both of his arms were broken. She threw him to the side and look at his limp body. The fact that he didn’t scream out in pain meant one of two things. Either he was so hardcore that he didn’t care about the pain but passed out from it, or he was passed out long before his arms were broken. Whatever the case, at least the fight was over.

Anna and Johnny looked around at their surroundings. Gangryong seemed to be back up, but kept getting hit without moving from his spot. Chuck also seemed to be struggling, as fighting an opponent faster than him was probably something he wasn’t used to. Daredevil also seemed to be getting back up from that clothesline, albeit slowly.

“Anna, help Gangryong! I’ll deal with the robot, then we’ll all group up to take out Daredevil.” She simply nodded before running off. Luckily for Johnny, he still had that nail hole from earlier in the fight ready to go. It was time for that robot to shut down.

[u/LetterSequence → u/LetterSequence]

2B had faced easy opponents before, but this was a whole different league. All the man with the metal arm had done the whole fight was dodge and block attacks. It was more akin to training with a punching bag than trying to murder someone.

With another swing of her sword, Chuck simply raised his metal arm to deflect the attack, but made no attempt to retaliate.

“Why do you not fight back?”

“Y’know, I’m the one who picked this fight with ya, but I didn’t exactly have a plan going into it.”

“Tell me, are all humans this terrible at making decisions?”

“Nah, just most of ‘em.”

Chuck fired his plasma pistol at her legs, which make her stumble a bit, but didn’t do much in the long run to stop her assault. She swung the sword again, which Chuck managed to narrowly dodge, and followed up by punching her in the face with his metal arm. It’s usually effective in taking down humans, but it seems androids wasn’t on the list of “things to turn into a puddle of blood”.

The android kicked Chuck in the gut, before running behind him to try and remove the metal arm in one clean cut. It was the only thing keeping him alive at that point, so if she removed it, this fight would be over. Just cut from the shoulder down and it’d come right off. Before she could even lift her sword, Chuck swung around and shot her in the face with a plasma pistol. This time, the only thing that melted was the headband she kept around her eyes, revealing them to the world. All he could see was the determined look of a woman who wanted nothing more than his death. So basically the same look he got from almost every woman.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Johnny waving at him. When Johnny caught Chuck’s attention, he pointed at a hole in the floor. It seems the old crippled guy came up with a plan. He just needed to keep her in place long enough to execute it.

Chuck ran up to the girl and grabbed her arm, gripping tightly. His metal arm was strong enough to even dent the metal in hers, but not by much. Still, it was quite effective, as she couldn’t swing the sword if she couldn’t move her arm.

2B realized this and threw her sword into the air. As it flipped numerous times, it began to come back down, at which point she caught it in her teeth and gripped tightly.

“You’re insane!” He ducked quickly as she swung to aim for a quick decapitation. He backed off quickly, allowing her to put the sword back in her hand.

“Let’s finish this.” 2B jumped into the air and brought the sword downward. It look like it’d be the end for Chuck. That is, until a certain one eyed dog jumped in her path. The shock of this caused her to stop mid attack. Her fight was with the man, not the endangered animal. As she stood back up, she simply looked at animal in front of her, growling and snarling the whole time.

She wondered why an animal would be so dedicated to a man so vile, but her thoughts were quickly cut short when she felt a giant hole appear in her kneecap.

“Act 2!” Johnny had managed to bring the nail bullet from the very start of the fight over to her, and activated it at the last minute. The nail bullet bypassed the strength of her steel, and blew out her whole leg. Chuck followed this up by firing multiple blasts into her other leg, firing until it finally melted through the metal. Now, with no legs left, 2B was unable to fight.

She simply looked up at Chuck, eyes now filled with confusion. “Why? Why are you intermingled with a machine? Don’t you know what it does to your humanity?”

“You may not get this cuz you’re nothing but a bucket of bolts,” Chuck pulled out a cigarette and lit one up, putting it in his mouth before continuing, “But when you give humanity a choice between life and death, they’re always gonna choose life, regardless of what it does to them. I’m one of the people who chose life.” With that, Chuck walked away, leaving 2B with a philosophy she would never forget.

---

When you can’t move from one spot, hitting a flying opponent becomes a real pain in the ass. Especially when they just spin in a circle flying around, excited that they can finally fly. If only he’d managed to learn those long range techniques from Lightning Tiger, then he’d shoot him out of the sky like a bird.

Anna ran up next to Gangryong, nervously speaking to him.

“Hey, you need anything?”

“No, go away.”

She looked over his body, and noticed him clutching his gut. Then she saw how much blood his clothes were covered in.

“Oh my god, what happened to you?”

“Got stabbed. Ain’t an issue.”

“You need to go to the doctor!”

“What I need is to kick this guy’s ass!”

“No, we’re going to the doctor right now.”

“I ain’t moving until this guy’s beaten. It’s the only thing I can think about right now.” He looked at the green dumbass still flying around in the air. “Problem is, I can’t move at all.”

“Fine, what do you want? I can bring him down if you’d like.”

“Nah, that’d never work. He’ll just start flying again.” He looked around, then finally met his eyes with Anna, and got a brilliant idea. “You’re strong, right?”

“Well, what I have to be.”

“Throw me.”

“What?”

“You heard me! I can’t fuckin move, so you gotta force me to move! Pick me up, throw me at him, and I’ll take the fucker down with one shot!”

“But what if-”

“Do it now! Hurry the fuck up!” Intimidated by his yelling, Anna grabbed him by his waist and lifted him over her shoulders. Her breath stopped for a brief moment when she felt how firm his muscles were, but she regained her composure when she remembered how little time he had left to fight. Using her superhuman strength, she flung Gangryong across the room. He only had one chance to do this, otherwise he’d end up face first on the ground.

Luckily, Anna’s strength also came with great precision, as he managed to land right on Dragonfly, who was still flying and completely forgot he was in a fight. When Dragonfly saw who grabbed onto him, he gulped audibly.

“So uh, what brings you up here?”

“Oh, you know. Got a bug problem. That’s bad for the food.”

“Sounds like a real shame. Did you try calling an exterminator?”

“You're the bug, you dumbass. Besides, I like to get rid of my bugs the old fashioned way. You know how?”

“Uh… by opening a window and hoping they fly away?”

“I was thinking something more like a bug zapper!” Gangryong surrounded his entire body with electricity, essentially becoming a human taser. Dragonfly tried to break his grip, but it was the only thing Gangryong was focused on, and he refused to let go. The electricity was beginning to take its toll, and Dragonfly couldn’t handle it anymore. The wings retracted into his body, and the two of them crashed into the floor.

Still, Gangryong refused to let go. Dragonfly’s screams of pain grew louder and louder, but this was simply fuel for Gangryong to keep going. When the screams stopped, Gangryong held on a bit longer, just to be sure. Eventually though, he did finally let go and look over his handiwork. The Dragonfly, as shitty of a hero he was, did manage to hang on for a long time. For that, he had to give him respect.

“If everyone else wasn’t knocked out right now, I would’ve said… that you’re the first on my path to a second gauntlet run.” As he looked around, he saw Daredevil getting back up. Finally, another target. As he took another step forward, Gangryong collapsed on the floor, too tired to continue. The last thing he heard before passing out was the sound of Anna’s worried screams.

[u/LetterSequence → u/LetterSequence]

Five Hours Later

Gangryong woke up in a panic, finding himself surrounded by his cellmates back in their jail cell.

“Oh, it’s just you guys.” He reached for his gut, which was now bandaged up to prevent bleeding. “So, what’d I miss?”

“Not much.” Johnny rolled around to get closer to him, just to make sure he was still alive and well. “After you passed out, Daredevil gave up and just helped us cook.”

“Why the hell would he do that?”

“Said he didn’t want to fight a 3 on 1 fight. Didn’t want to get beaten by the guards for not doing anything either. Didn’t like his team anyway, apparently.”

“Right right, whatever.” Gangryong stood up and stretched out his back. “How did the food turn out?”

“Everyone loved it!” Anna excited jumped up and down, bringing Gangryong’s attention to her for obvious reasons. “In fact, I even got promoted to head chef! They’re gonna let us all out early during lunch to cook the prisoner’s meals from now on.”

“Nice going. That’s some free time to roam around every day now. Maybe we’ll find a way out of here with that.”

“In fact, I got so excited that I even got a surprise for all of you!” Anna pulled a package out from behind her back. “I made a batch of cookies just for us!” The group got excited. Not only did they get to have some food that wasn’t complete garbage today, but they even got to finish it off with dessert!

Johnny took the first bite of his cookie. “Ah, the vanilla really goes well with the oatmeal, leaving a nice consistent flavor throughout your mouth! Excellent job!”

Chuck then had a cookie of his own. “This is safe to give to dogs, right?” Anna nodded, and he gave a cookie to Snoop who happily ate it up. “It’s good.” She was delighted to hear the praise from her team members, but she was most excited to see how Gangryong would enjoy his cookies.

“Hmmm, this don’t taste like any vanilla cookies I’ve had before.” He shoved the cookies in his mouth two at a time, finishing the pack within a minute. “What’d you put in these things? They tasted kinda sweeter than usual.”

“Huh, they weren’t that sweet,” remarked Johnny.

“That’s because I made a special batch for you, Gangryong.” Her face became a bright pink, and her breathing became rapid. “You see, whenever I’ve thought about you ever since your fight three weeks ago, I get this incredible feeling in my lower regions. A thick liquid comes out of there anytime I think of you, signifying the love I have for you. I’ve tried putting the love fluids on your bed but you didn’t notice them, so I finally got tired of it. I wanted you to taste it so badly, so I made a batch of cookies using that fluid. Those cookies were baked with my love nectar!”

Confusion, shock, horror, and arousal were the only things that went through his mind. This girl was batshit crazy, but she was super hot while doing it. There was only one appropriate response that could go through his mind at a moment like this.

“So… can I get seconds?”

<======[To Be Continued]======