"The Tournament" - Part One

Part One

And do you feel scared, I do
but I won’t stop and falter.
And if we threw it all away,
Things can only get better.

            Howard Jones’s lyrics could not have described Toby’s feelings more over her travels with Cara. They blared over the speakers inside the console room of her T.A.R.D.I.S., specially installed to play her seemingly endless Spotify playlist.

            A teenaged, streetwise Filipino girl who was orphaned at a young age, Toby had been with Cara for three months.

            When she first met her, she was nothing more to her than a crazy white woman.

            Two “kids” (a term she used loosely) were with her before.

            “Gumball” and “Darwin” were their names.

            Toby got to know them for a few or so trips until they returned to their home dimension – left with more memories of their journeys with Cara than Toby herself can hope to inherit.

            Even now, Cara already had their next destination planned.

            “Antarea,” she randomly (and enthusiastically) exclaimed. “Wonderful people. They have a life force energy that’s literally their Fountain of Youth. In some ways, they’re like humble Time Lords.”

            Toby couldn’t pretend to understand what any of this meant.

            She only needed to know how excited it made Cara.

            There hadn’t been a world yet that’s disappointed her.

            Swinging her hips along to the tune of Howard Jones, she piloted her T.A.R.D.I.S. out of the infinite dimensional corridor and materialized it on what Toby presumed to be Antarea when she and Cara stepped out.

            Judging from Cara’s baffled tone, it was not Antarea.

            “…the heck are we?!” she muttered.

            The two women were surrounded by a dark, foreboding forest.

            The trees particularly creeped out Toby; they appeared to be sentient, some with faces that groaned and roared. “Maybe we should get out of here,” she suggested. Before she knew it, she was ensnared by the branches of one tree, wrapping around her throat, lifting her off her feet, and lynching her.

            “Hang on, kiddo,” Cara said. “I’ve got ya!”

            In her moment of peril, Toby wondered how exactly Cara was going to save her.

            She was armed just with her trans-temporal sonic screwdriver, which got them out of more technological scrapes. “Thank God my sonic has a wood setting,” Cara expressed, inadvertently quelling Toby’s concerns.

            However, before she did anything, the Time Lady herself was snatched.

            Another branch wrapped around her legs, dragging her towards the hungry mouth of a sentient tree. It would have consumed her whole had it not been for the katana blade that sliced the branch. Its owner was a blind man with a dark red bandana enfolded over his eyes, yet he was somehow able to see in ways no regular blind individual could.

            Toby was saved from her hanging by another party: a provocatively-dressed military woman wearing a short, tight Special Forces vest that went above her belly button, with two straps buckled up, along with her I.D. badge that read “Sonya Blade.”

            She fired some sort of high-tech weapon emitting pink-colored energy that severed the branch hanging Toby.

            The landing was rough, but Toby was nonetheless glad to be able to breathe again.

            “What are you people doing out here?!” Sonya asked while she and the blind swordsman helped Toby and Cara to their feet. “Don’t you know these aren’t normal trees in this forest?!”

            “Ya don’t say,” Cara teased. “Who are you people?”

            “My name is Kenshi, and this is Sonya Blade,” the blind swordsman introduced. “We’re defenders of Earthrealm summoned to partake in the Mortal Kombat tournament.”

            “And your presence here has not only endangered your lives,” Sonya said, “but it has also interfered in our mission.”

            Loud, straining grunts attracted their attention to another area of the living forest.

            There, they spotted a shirtless Chinese man with shaggy black hair, a red headband, spiked gauntlets, and red/black kung fu pants and boots. He was defending himself against a savage-looking humanoid that had a large mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and blades protruding from its body.

            “What is that thing?” a horrified Toby questioned.

            “A Tarkatan warrior,” Sonya replied. “We were fighting them off before we saw you two in danger.”

            “They are Shang Tsung’s most trusted servants,” Kenshi said.

            “And that Bruce Lee-looking dude’s about to be killed by one,” Cara alarmed.

            She intended to rush to the Chinese man’s aid, but Kenshi barred her with one outstretched arm. “No…this is Liu Kang’s fight,” he told her. “He has made it further than the rest of us.”

            Cara thought the blind swordsman to be insane.

            But, sure enough, the man known as Liu Kang slayed the Tarkatan warrior with a fiery (in every sense of the term) uppercut that sent its head flying right off its shoulders, leaving its corpse to be consumed by another of the sentient trees.

            “Whoa,” Toby gasped. “How did he do that?!”

            Her outcry drew Liu Kang’s focus towards them. “Kenshi…Sonya,” he addressed his fellow Earthrealm defenders, prior to centering on Toby and Cara. “You managed to make some new friends in the middle of all this?”

            “Apparently so,” Sonya condescended.

            “Are you two from Earthrealm like us?” Liu queried Toby and Cara. “You certainly don’t look like you’re from Outworld.”

            “Outworld?” Cara uttered the oddly fascinating name. “What the heck is…?”

            Her inquiry was cut short by the sudden impaling of a Tarkatan blade, as it protruded directly through her abdomen.

            Toby screamed; her friend and fellow traveler skewered right before her eyes.

            Kenshi swiftly disposed of the remaining Tarkatan warrior, decapitating it.

            Its body fell in correspondence with the blade impaled through Cara’s profusely hemorrhaging body, letting her slump into the arms of Liu Kang. “We have to get her some help,” he cried.

            “The…T.A.R.D.I.S.,” Cara rasped.

            Sonya frowned at her baffling words. “The what?”

            “It’s this big black domino-looking thing we came in,” Toby clarified, doing her best to compose herself. “It’s not far from here. It’s the only place where we can take her right now.”

            Liu carried the dying Cara in his arms as he, Sonya, and Kenshi followed Toby along the path back to the Type-Z T.A.R.D.I.S.

            Once they entered inside, Toby realized how little the dimensionally disproportionate interior fazed the three Earthrealm defenders. “You guys aren’t in the least freaked out?” she asked them.

            “Of what?” Kenshi returned.

            “Of the fact that this thing is bigger on the inside,” Toby stated.

            “When you’ve seen what we’ve seen, something like this doesn’t seem all that shocking,” Sonya indicated.

            Their concentration was brought back on Cara, who writhed out of Liu’s arms and stumbled against the control console. “Nobody…panic,” she wheezed. “It’s all…under control.”

            “Tell us what we can do to help you,” Toby pleaded.

            “It’s already bein’ done,” Cara said, indicating her left hand, which started to glow with radiant golden energy.

            Liu looked on it with great amusement. “You’re a sorceress?”

            Cara giggled. “Oh, I’m way cooler.”

            Toby shared in the Earthrealm defenders’ confusion, watching Cara’s faltering body glow brighter and brighter in golden radiance. “I don’t get it. What is happening to you?!”

            “Remember what I said about the Antareans? About their life force energy? How it prevents them not just from getting old but dying as well?” Cara reminisced. “The same’s happening to me right now. It’s called ‘regeneration’…and it’s gonna save me from dying. The only catch is…you won’t be seeing this crazy ol’ mug of mine anymore. Might be old…might be young-er…might be African…might be Asian. Doesn’t really matter when you think of it. I’ve lived a long and awesome life. It’s about time I made a change. Just hope I’ll get it right this time.”

            She held it back for as long as she could.

            But, finally, she regenerated.

            Toby, Liu, Sonya, and Kenshi shielded away from the intense regenerative energy she discharged, basking the entire console room like a hot sun.

            After it passed, Cara no longer stood before them.

            Instead, it was a woman Toby noticed to be Filipino like her, only much older.

            In a voice that sounded more collected than her predecessor’s, her first words to the astounded group were, “Well? Give to me straight. How do I look?”