"The Tournament" - Part Six

Part Six

            Shang Tsung’s throne room was the predestined stage for Margie’s fight with Goro. She didn’t come alone; by her side were Raiden and the Earthrealm defenders. Shang Tsung and Goro had waited patiently for their arrival, keeping the captive Toby restrained the whole time.

            Despite how their last moment together ended, Margie still expressed genuine concern for her well-being. “You O.K.?” she asked her.

            “Might need a change of underwear, but I’m otherwise just fine,” Toby replied.

            The way she light-heartedly handled her predicament helped put Margie at enough ease to focus on Shang Tsung. “Let her go,” she forcibly demanded of the sorcerer.

            Shang Tsung made the stipulations clear: “Defeat Goro, the girl goes free. But when you die, she dies as well.”

            Without warning, the fight proceeded on.

            Margie’s guard was down the second Goro lunged at her. Only by dodging out of his way was she able to avoid all four of his devastating lefts and rights. Unfortunately, one of them clocked her across the face. The impact was powerful enough to send her soaring across the throne room, spitting up blood and a few teeth.

            “NOW!” Raiden instructed to the Earthrealm defenders.

            The Elder God followed along with Margie’s plan, which included letting herself be punched by Goro. It offered the distraction he, Liu Kang, Sonya, and Kenshi needed to attack. Raiden himself was left with the task of assisting Margie in her fight, attacking Goro from behind with a volley of lightning blasts, effective enough to have the Shokan warrior faltering.

            Enraged over the interference, Shang Tsung decided to alter the arrangement himself by killing Toby there and then. His efforts were thwarted once Kenshi hurled his sword at the sorcerer, striking his chest. The assassination was not fatal for the immortal Shang Tsung, merely buying Sonya time to get Toby away and safely back to the T.A.R.D.I.S.

            “We’re not leavin’ Margie behind!” Toby protested. “That thing’s gonna kill her!”

            “All that matters right now is saving your butt,” Sonya told her.

            “My butt’s not the one that needs saving,” Toby retorted. “Look, there’s something onboard the T.A.R.D.I.S. I think might be able to help us out.”

            Seeing Toby escape with Sonya, as well as Liu Kang and Kenshi combating against Shang Tsung, Margie went to work on Goro with Raiden. Despite one of them being a literal god, Goro was exactly the challenge Shang Tsung boasted him as. Margie took the brunt of his attacks, including one critical punch to her chest that fractured her ribcage, caving in her chest cavity. She dropped to her knees, wheezing and coughing out an excessive amount of blood.

            Alarmed over her condition, Raiden immobilized Goro with a close range lightning attack to the Shokan’s face, blinding him.

            “I cannot see,” Goro cried, as Raiden went to Margie’s aid.

            She was not looking good, clearly dying from her terminal injury.

            “Margie,” Raiden said. “What can I do? How can I help you?”

            Raiden detected a faint golden gleam between them. Looking down, he saw Margie’s hands glowing with some type of energy. “I had such little time…to enjoy this body,” she grieved between breaths. “Stubborn determination on my part…I only hope the next one…will be more of a fighter…but also a person who cares for her friends…just as she does to have a little fun.”

            “I do not understand,” Raiden admitted. “What is happening to you?”

            There was no time for Margie to provide him with a thorough explanation, between her verging on regeneration and Goro – having regained his sight – advancing towards them.

            In an act of desperation, Raiden summoned a lightning bolt into the throne room, striking him, Margie, and Goro.

            Within the heartbeat of a second, all three of them vanished.

            Shang Tsung, successful in overpowering Liu Kang and Kenshi, saw Raiden’s hasty retreat. Cackling exuberantly, he taunted, “Coward! He has left his Earthrealm defenders vulnerable! And so will be their end!”

            Just as the sorcerer was about to rob Liu Kang and Kenshi of their souls, his body suddenly turned to ash. The circumstance left Liu Kang and Kenshi baffled, until they noticed how Sonya and Toby had returned. Sonya held a big, strange-looking gun that was aimed at the spot Shang Tsung disintegrated from, mere seconds ago.

            “What is that?” Liu Kang inquired of the weapon that destroyed their enemy.

            “A Mulcher,” Toby answered. “Something I saw Margie use against those aliens that invaded back on my Earth.” Her eyes darted across the room, realizing there were a few individuals absent. “Speakin’ of which, where is Margie? And Raiden, too?”

            “Raiden teleported their battle elsewhere,” Liu Kang stated. “Margie didn’t look too well when they vanished.” His update unsettled Toby, who could only imagine the severity of her situation should Margie die.

--------------

            Hours passed since the end of Shang Tsung and the disappearances of Margie and Raiden. Toby paced around the T.A.R.D.I.S. in Shang Tsung’s garden, waiting alongside Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, and Kenshi for Margie and Raiden to return – preferably with the former alive and well.

            Her skepticism did nothing to ease her anxiety. “She’s gone for good this time, I just know it,” she fretted.

            “Give them more time,” Kenshi urged. “Goro’s not an easy opponent.”

            “And Shang Tsung was?!” Toby refuted. “The only thing that could’ve stopped him was a Mulcher, and Margie doesn’t even have that to stop Goro!” Tears streamed down her face as she quivered. “Let’s face it…Margie’s dead…and I don’t have the slightest idea how to even fly this thing!”

            She gestured to the opened Gallifreyan ship, the doors of which closed, all of the sudden. It then dematerialized entirely on its own, disappearing out of Shang Tsung’s garden.

            Toby didn’t know what to think at first, fearing only the worse from it.

            “Now I’m totally alone,” she wept.

            Sonya stepped in to console the young woman, wrapping her arms around her and giving her a shoulder to cry on.

            Toby’s sobbing was soon drowned out by heavy humming and grinding.

            It was a noise her senses commonly associated with that of the T.A.R.D.I.S. when it materialized in and out between dimensions. She figured she heard the last of it just a moment ago, but then it came back, albeit in a different part of the garden.

            The doors opened and out stepped an Asian woman dressed like Daisy Duke.

            At her side were two oddly-dressed boys – one older and taller, the other younger and shorter – possibly brothers.

            “Didn’t think I would leave you behind, did you?” the Asian woman asked Toby.

            She had never seen this woman her whole life, yet something about the way she smiled at her was eerily familiar. That’s when she realized what was happening…who this woman that had stepped out of Margie’s T.A.R.D.I.S. was.

            She did it again.

            It was another new face, another new body, and another new personality.

            But Toby knew behind it all was the same woman. She learned never to deny that.

            Void of hesitation, she rushed to this new regeneration of Neas and tackled her with the biggest hug, nearly knocking her off balance. Their happy reunion was not without solemnity at the news of Raiden’s sacrifice to defeat Goro. Nonetheless, from the perspective of the Earthrealm defenders, the Elder God went out a hero.

            Together with the newest additions to their traveling team, Greg and Wirt, Margie’s succeeding regeneration (who called herself “Lindsay”) and Toby departed in the T.A.R.D.I.S. As they materialized back into the infinite dimensional corridor, Toby remembered those words from that Howard Jones tune – the one she last heard before Cara regenerated – and how they lulled her journey ahead…

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.

NEXT WEEK!