All is silent, everything is dark. The VFX studio waits with ever-growing anticipation for the show to begin. And then, suddenly, a spotlight is lit at the center of the stage. In the cold light stands Reverend "Dropkick" McMurphy, microphone raised in the air. As he lowers it towards his mouth, the entire audience draws in air as one, and for several moments the world stands still. Peeeeeeeople of the univeeeeerse! He suddenly exclaims, still frozen in time, like a statue, AAAARE YOUUUUU READYYYY?!? And then, as he thrusts his right fist into the air, the studio explodes in an orgie of sound and lighteffects. All the screens are turned on at once, displaying the VFX loggo in front of the most cherished moments of the last tournament and intimidating images of the new fighters. The background music is extremely high paced, the base powerful enough to push people of their feet. Needless to say, the crowd goes wild. We're finally back, from the dead, here once more to give you the best of entertainment and violence that you've ever experienced! And, I say, if that sound your making right now isn't no Hallelujah, I don't know what it is! We're glad to be back folks, and you sure sound happy to have us! Tell you what, rev, I'll be damned if I've ever seen the likes of such an audience before! Man, the only thing that could ever beat a display like that would've to be the one our fighters are gonna give us tonight! Amen, brother! Glad you brought it up, cuz it's time to introduce them, don't you think? Why am I asking? I know you do! So, listeners and viewers of the VFX, clap your hands and stomp your feet for the buster of ghostbusters, Jerald! And let us hear what you're made of now when you start cheering for the predator, Haedor! Yesyesyes, YES! That's what I wanna hear! So, where'll these two awesome combatants be fighting, then? You ready? Here it comes: MADISON SQUARE GARDEN Located on Manhattan and opened on the eleventh of February 1968, this grand stadium today prides itself with the being the worlds most famous arena, a statement that might very well be true. It's ticket sales are the third highest in the entire world, beaten only by two English stadiums in London and Manchester. The arena can house as much as 20000 people, and the seats will be filled to the very last one tonight! The New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers are showing off in a dazzling battle of basketballs, and so thousands of people from all across America has come to see the giants compete. Our fighters have been smuggled into a specially built maze below the scene, but the arena floor is frail and so the fight might just pour out into the unsuspecting crowd and players... So, people! If you're ready then I am, too! Fighters, on your toes! The first fight of the second VFX tournament begins now! LET! THERE! BE! BLOO- It's so excitink! *facepalm* *facepalm* Wat? Oh, hiello there all! Here is Natacha, too! Yes... Well, uh... Where were we? Um, you were just about to yell - Ah, yes, right. Ahem... BLOOD! BEGIN! (You have until Wednesday night to squash eachother. Good luck!)
With a bass swoosh the camera dives through the floor, penetrating the maintenance layer before it reaches the concrete maze beneath the complex. Slow steps echo from the corridor as the view stabilizes on a weak light bulb illuminating the dungeon. Water condensation increases around the bulb as steps draw near, and quenched by overwhelming cold, the bulb explodes. Within the shadows, a tall man in a long coat advances toward the junction at the end of the corridor, cold steam surrounding him. "Looks like Jerald watched the predator movies, cooling the place down like that. The predator won't be able to relay on his heat-vision, the whole maze will be like one huge cloud of cold to him." The camera followed Jerald, concentrating on webs of frost that quickly grew over the concrete and steel walls, shining, almost glowing in the low light. The tall man stopped in front of a wall at a T junction and the camera moved away as he raised both hands above his head. A burst of air blew away the long white hair, showing in the distance a glimpse of his bandaged face. He whispered a spell that echoed throughout the halls with unnatural resonance and a sphere of frost appeared between his arms, visibly freezing the leather gloves and stiffening the sleeves of his coat. The bubble burst and a wave of cold exploded throughout the halls, chasing after the fleeing camera, exploding the lights it swallowed. In the darkness, a shivering exhale was heard, followed by the sound of a cocked shotgun. Then a few steps and a quick fall, a faceplant by the sound of it. "Slippery fuck...!" Several grunts and sneezes later, the fighter was back on his feet and cursing the weakness of his host. Up above, a pool of frost started forming on the basketball court, Resulting in several nasty injuries and a significant amount of confusion. The ghost continued to walk around the labyrinth, hoping to run into the predator. By the sound of it, the body didn't take the cold as well as Jerald wanted it to.
One of the cameras followed Haedor, but lost sight of him when he suddenly became invisible. Nothing. He saw no heat because the cold affects the operation of the heat-vision. Therefore, his opponent was smarter than he thought. That meant that he must deal with this enemy differently, and he knew how. Haedor looked around, and saw that the maze was long and there were broken light bulbs to the iron walls. Then he saw that the arena floor was frail. Now with the use of the Plasma caster he made a big hole in the floor, and destroyed a part of the arena. After that, he climbed through the hole and came into the arena. There he began to shoot at the people and much stuff began to collapse, making it very difficult for his opponent to get into the arena without making himself vulnerable. The frost meld as well. The spectators, who survived, ran for their lives. Everywhere lay corpses without heads, body parts or people who had large holes through his plasma caster.
Shadows moved in the depths beneath the arena, as Jerald, ever since he heard the caster shots, stealthily followed his opponent. Shrouded in freezing fumes, he managed to stay beyond his opponent's detection. As the predator went amok and started wrecking the arena however, there was little time left to hide in the cold. The flames spread too quickly. That wasn't an entirely bad thing for Jerald, since he managed to fix his host with some cheap tatts, fire-shield runes that some asian immigrant agreed to do for a little extra. Seeing the blurred figure was apparently distracted by a bunch of players beating up each other, he grasped the opportunity and silently leaped at the enemy. Still under the freezing spell, among the flames he looked like a giant frost bolt launched at the monster. Through the waves of distorted air protruded the shotgun pointed straight at the predator and just as the opponent noticed the ambush, Jerald pulled the trigger. *crack* Jerald's right hand splintered into shards of frozen flesh upon receiving the gun's recoil, causing him to mutter curses under his breath. The remains of the frost spell covered his immediate surroundings with sleet, allowing him to skate away from his opponent upon landing on what remained of the basketball court. As his back hit a steel beam protruding from the collapsed part of the building, Jerald pulled out an ice covered mac10 and pointed it at the monster, looking for signs of damage dealt by the surprise attack.
While he was occupied with killing off the fighting players, a sudden movement caught his eye. Then a shot fell. Ambush! Haedor ducked to dodge the bullet, but it still made a flesh wound in his lower left arm. Now taking cover, he turned the heat-vision off, and scanned the area for his opponent. There! At the basketball court! With a cruel smile, he began to shoot at his opponent.
The moment the first plasma bolt sparked from the caster, Jerald hissed a spell through his teeth. The vibration seemed to shake the building at its base, draining all the fires for a split second. Dozens of fiery auras appeared around the fighter, fooling predator's aiming system into missing. The short while before the caster switched to direct fire mode was enough for him to get back on his feet and jump away from the incoming fire. Jerald bounced off the crumbling structure several times, stray plasma bolts obliterating whatever structural integrity the dome had left. The host's body was making increasingly unhealthy noises as it absorbed the impact of all these landings, making a final gut wrenching pop at it launched itself directly above the predator. While in position, he emptied the mag at the opponent and discarded the steaming weapon. He landed on one knee, directly behind the predator, making a dent in the court floor and setting the wooden panels on fire. The stump of his right hand was beginning to thaw and leak thick globs of dark blood.
Seeing that his opponent emptied the mag above him, Haedor dodged the hail of bullets by rolling behind a large pile of debris. Luckily, the most of the bullets were absorbed by his armor. Only one bullet grazed his left arm, the other light wounded him in his right leg. Many of the survivors died through the shootings that were caused by them. Haedor looked behind him, and saw that his opponent has his back towards him. Using this fortunate opportunity, he quickly sneaked behind him and stabbed his opponent. After that he grabbed and throwed him into the hole.
That last fall was too much for this old body. He wanted it to run but clearly it refused to move, either a broken spine or simply shock levels even the deep trance he induced could not overcome. Having stayed still for so long, the blades that impaled him were no surprise. Yet there still was a spark of life within this shell, and Jerald would never let it go to waste. First cracks of light appeared soon after the predator lifted him off the ground, propagating across the trembling body and igniting the clothes. As he fell down the hole, he burst into a large fireball, illuminating the corridors below. And Jerald had cheated his earthly death once more, freeing himself from a used up host. The burning man exploded into a huge conflagration, the flames chasing after the ghost as he separated from the body. Jerald, in his flaming ghostly form, shot out from the center of the inferno, the camera following him up and above the arena. In the background, explosions shot out of every exit and hole in the building, scorching the fire and police crews. As he lost velocity, the flames surrounding Jerald faded away, leaving him in a translucent, shadowy form. There was a look of surprise in his eyes as he stopped in midair, his back to the ground. For a moment he hang there, suspended in slow motion, as a flash of the secondary explosion shined straight through him, blanking the screen with a huge lens flare. When the delayed shock wave rattled the view, he slowly started falling, head down into the inferno. He aimed for one of the police helicopters that somehow stayed in the air, and before the cameras caught up with him, he was already looking for the predator through the scope of the police sniper's rifle.
Right after he thrown Jerald into the hole; he burst into a large fireball and then exploded into a huge conflagration. Many explosions shot out of every exit and hole in the building, scorching the fire and police crews. Through the explosion, Haedor fell down on his back. Shit. After that, he stood up, (with some light burn wounds on his right arm.) and scanned the area again for he had heard about the certain powers of his opponent. “This is the New York police! Drop your weapon NOW, Lie on the ground, and put your hands behind your neck!” he heard from one of the helicopters, who hover around the remains of the building. Everyone here was dead or dying, so that means he must be in one of those helicopters. Using the flames as cover, he sneaked into the shadows, so that they cannot snipe (sp?) him. Then he took a shot at the helicopters. Edit: The falling man burst into a large fireball....
Just as he got comfortable with the scope, bolts of plasma started exploding the helicopters around the scene. The sniper carefully set his gun on the floor, pulled out the sidearm and shot the pilots through the head. Even though his skills were mostly those of his current host, Jerald was confident he would be able to crash the helicopter on his own. He was on the verge of doubting his judgment when he finally hit the right switch and the machine stalled, falling more or less where the plasma bolts came from. The sniper jumped out of the falling helicopter, making a soft landing on the roof of one of the nearby buildings, and quickly situated himself at the edge. There he waited, hoping the crash would smoke out the predator.
“There he is! Johnson, and Larry get him!” shouted a dark-skinned (Is this correct?) cop. Then he and the two others jumped upon Haedor. Unfortunately, they should not do that, because Haedor blasted a big hole in Johnson’s chest, beheaded the dark-skinned cop, and cut Larry in halve. The above part of Larry tried to get to his severed lower part, to get his gun, but the last thing that he saw was a red dot on his head. Oh, well, this human head was not that good enough for the collection. Suddenly he saw that one of the helicopters began to drop latitude. As the helicopter crashed down on the remains of the building, followed by a large explosion, Haedor already ran out of the way of the radius of the explosion, and hid behind a wall of one of the surrounding buildings. Looking up, he saw that his opponent was on one of the roofs waiting for him to come into the open area. He sneaked into the building, and came on the roof, behind his opponent. Before Jerald noticed the ambush, Haedor already jumped onto him, and stabbed him with his blades. Edit: Typos and corrections.
This was taking too long, but it was too late by the time Jerald realized it. By then, there was a predator pouncing at him with the wrist blades, and there was nothing he could do to avoid the attack. Luckily, this body was in better shape then the previous one, and he was wearing body armor. While 26 layers of Kevlar could not entirely stop the wrist blades, the vest prevented them from cutting the cop in half. Despite the blades jammed in his guts, the cop instantly managed to pull out his pistol and shoot the predator several times in the neck. He started casting a spell, this one taking longer then usual, while wrestling the blades out of his gut. Arcs of electricity appeared between metal objects near the fighters, and a powerful EMP blanked the screen. The feed switched to a distant camera, showing a highly zoomed, shaky picture of the cop on fire, falling off the roof and the predator blown away, covered by pieces of red hot metal, his equipment heated in the blast. While falling, Jerald noticed a SWAT team running up the stairs in the building. Without much thought, he discarded the wounded body, letting it splatter all over the pavement, and jumped to the last guy in the column. "Hey Simons, you alright ?" "Shit, someone just fell off the roof!" "Well then report it and keep moving!" He remained in formation for the time being, running up to the roof with the rest of the squad.
Through the explosion, Haedor was blown away, covered by pieces of red hot metal, and his equipment heated by the blast. He rolled untill he fell into a swimming pool on a fancy penthouse. As he climbed out he noticed the SWAT team on the roof of the building. It seems that they did not saw him fall into this pool. While he was watching the movements of the team, Haedor bandaged his wounded neck and checked his equipment. Plasma caster...okay, Cloaking device...not good, but still functioning, armor dented, but good. Seeing that the SWAT team is on the other end of the roof (still looking for the wounded, and angered predator), he jumped and grabbed the edge of the roof, and pulled himself up. Knowing that their armor can take the blades, he sneaked and hid into the shadows. There, he surprised the team by shooting plasma bolts at them.
The SWAT team dispersed immediately after being attacked and returned fire, spraying the attacker with hot lead. Jerald knew the odds, and ran for cover instead. Just as he hid behind a huge air conditioner, another one on his team was blown open by a burst of hot plasma. While the predator was busy massacring the cops, Jerald knelt behind the fixture and touched the roof. As he started to cast a spell, the whole building shook and shifted a little. Most of the windows shattered from the vibration, the fire escapes gave way and fell off. Even though it only took seconds for the incantation to be complete, by the end the building was wrecked as if struck by an earthquake. There were people jumping out of their windows and pouring out the doors, choking on the dust that shot out of the building. The roof beneath the predator dropped, producing a void leading all the way to the ground. Wherever he would step or jump, his footing was gone. Concrete arms shot from floors beneath, trying to grab and pull him in. The whole structure was trying to encase Jerald's opponent, its edges growing taller as the center collapsed completely. The quake caused by the spell caused one of the nearby buildings to fall apart and shattered the nearby streets. Raptured water and gas pipes turned the street level into utter chaos, causing all the emergency crews to pull out. Jerald jumped on top of the living building and looked for his opponent, with the shotgun ready to fire. The cop looked about twenty years older now, blood running from his ears and nose.
The hole created in the roof of the building, dragged along Haedor. Luckily he could still hold on to a railing of a staircase on a lower floor. With great difficulty he pulled himself up, (as he fired at the concrete arms who shot from from the floor beneath, trying to pull him in.) and landed roughly on the stairs. There on the stairs he came up with effort, and shot at the remaining arms. The arms that were shot, fell apart in a cloud of concrete, and took some of the lower parts of the stairs. An arm which had survived the shots, hit Haedor down. On his back, he shot the last arm. Haedor stood up, and bandaged his wounds. While checking his equipment, he scanned the area for a way to get unnoticed by his opponent. His plasma caster still worked, but his cloaking device worked on half power. Then he saw that there still was a staircase that went up, but there are missing pieces. He jumped on the remaining parts, and came on a balcony. Seeing that his opponent was still looking for him, and did not saw him, he jumped and pulled himself up onto the roof. Before his opponent noticed him, he already kicked the shotgun out of the hands of Jerald, and hit him hard in the face.
The punch dented the cop's face pretty badly, spilling his teeth all over the place. He tried to pull out his gun, then then his knife, but was disarmed instantly both times. Finally, he rushed the predator head on, disregarding the lethal wounds he received before he even got close. He bought enough time. The building opened up below their feet, this time swallowing both fighters instantly. Jerald held down the predator, making it even harder for him to stop the fall. Both the grapple hook and the wrist blades failed - the building simply crumbled away as he embedded them in the walls. There were no floors between levels, no ceilings or walls inside, only a pit leading to a dark void below. Before the building finished forming a dome above the pit, the cameras caught a glimpse of the horrors that awaited the victim. Concrete arms pulling off his gear, steel rods twisting around his limbs. The predator was being crushed, impaled and torn apart in the depths of hell that Jerald animated. The dome was sealed. All tremors ceased for a while, the clouds of dust fell revealing the ruins of nearby buildings. Almost everything had collapsed in the surrounding city blocks. Somewhere around the second floor, the wall of the cocoon shaped building was blown open by a bolt of plasma. The predator was thrown out with enough force to bounce him off the next building. He managed to grab onto a balcony but it fell off instantly, bringing a part of the facade down with it. A golem of concrete and steel leaped out of the cocoon building to pursue Haedor. Both the disc and the combo stick were embedded in the creature, to no significant effect. It had four arms, two legs and a number of steel tentacles that served mostly to stabilize the monster as it moved. The predator had no strength left to fight or flee. Before the steel whips had reached him, he punched in the self destruct code. Before the counter reached zero (or the equivalent in the weird predator numerals), Haedor had already been massacred by the golem, looking like a huge splat of glowing green blood. And then he exploded, leveling another ring of city blocks. It was a bit of a problem for Jerald, being nuked like that, but with some effort he managed to posses the body of the nearest survivor and was eventually found and taken to a hospital, where he had more then enough souls to restore his powers.
