Counterparts - A DC Animated Fanfic

- 11 -

 Once betting had stopped, and the cashiers booth had closed down, Damian was ushered off into the cage in the middle of the room, destined to fight an unknown opponent for money and entertainment. Not justice. Not honour. Not skills. Money and Entertainment... It was degrading.

Damian took a split second to survey the cage. The actual cage was made of a sturdy material, most likely, reinforced steel wiring in a mesh pattern. There was no getting through it, no over it either, for while it didn't touch the ceiling, it camp fairly close. The floor was also made of solid metal plates, so he couldn't go under either

Apart from going through, going over, and going under. The only way out of the cage was through one of the two doors that sat on opposite sides of the cage, they were roughly 15 and a half feet apart.

Even if there were a reasonable escape method, Damian couldn't escape, not if this was Noah's plan. Hopefully this was apart of Noah's plan and not some easy way to clear his debts.

The guy in the flashy tux stepped up beside the ring. "Hey uh kid. What do you want me to call you?"

"What?" - Damian asked bluntly.

"Most fighter's have a nickname or stage-name they like to use... what do you want me to call you?" - The presenter explained.

He mulled it over for a second. 'Damian' was too obvious. 'Robin' was even worse. So what did he want to call himself? 'The Assassin'? 'Al Ghul?' 'Vigilante'?

"I don't have all day kid." - The presenter mentioned, obviously annoyed.

"Hey!" - Noah called out to the present, gesturing him over, they talked for a split second before the presenter turned and walked away, Noah giving him a thumbs up as he did so.

The lights in the room dimmed and a bright spotlight shone on Damian, before sweeping across the room and highlighting the presenter in his flashy and some what reflective tux. 

He took a breath before speaking into his microphone. - "Ladies and Gentlemen." - He said confidently. - "Are you ready for the fight of the Century?" - He paused, and waited for the cheering to die down. - "In the left corner." - He gestured to Damian. - "We have an up and coming fighter, trained by some of the greatest martial artists in the world." - 'Up an coming' - Damian thought. - "We have Prometheus!" - There was a half hearted applause from the audience. 

"And in the right corner." - The presenter gestured to the other side of the cage where the door had opened and his opponent stepped in. - "The reining champ of the underground... We have the Electrocutioner!" - Everyone cheered as the 'Electrocutioner' stepped through. He had tanned skin, short black hair, and had some untreated burns on his neck and face. He also wore some high-tech suit with red accents and welding goggles with red tinted lenses.

He flexed for the crowd before eyeing Damian up and down, and shouting at him. - "I'm going to kill you, then jump-start your heart and kill you again!" - He trash-talked.

Ding-Ding-Ding - The presenter rang a bell while shouting. - "Round One!"  Electrocutioner flicked a switch on his chest-plate which powered up his gauntlets, before falling into a boxer's stance, he tried psyching Damian out by began moving back and forth, and throwing a few random punches, with each swing punctuated with a crackle of electricity.

He quickly got bored of teasing and advanced on him, and threw a few real punches which Damian easily dodged, he followed up his 6th dodge with his own swing, which Electrocutioner narrowly blocked. The repeated the same actions over and over again with Damian dodging all of his attacks before following up with one of his own, which was blocked.

Someone from the audience shouted at the pair. -  "Stop playin' with your food!" - Everybody cheered at this and Electrocutioner smirked but still followed the same pattern of throwing easily dodgeable hits, Damian threw another hit that he presumed would be blocked, instead, when he threw a punch, his arm was grabbed and held for a brief moment before he was shoulder checked, throwing him across the cage.

He landed on the fence back first, he tried to scramble to his feet, but was pinned back to the fence by his opponents leg, in a normal situation, he could've easily escaped the pin, but this wasn't a normal situation, the moment he got pinned, he immediately got shocked with 20,000 volts. While 'Electrocutioner's leg had him pinned, his hands gripped the fence and gauntlets pumped it full of electricity. 

The electricity ran through the fence and into Damian, leaving him foaming at the mouth and with a searing pain in his back. It was lucky that his mask wasn't engulfed in flames, Electrocutioner gauntlets beeped, and he stopped shocking him and retreated to the other side of the cage while Damian collapsed.

"1... 2... 3..." - The presenter began, but Damian staggered to his feet. He took a deep breath through his mouth in an effort to not smell his barbequed skin fused with the coat's plastic, and to steady himself. Using his adrenaline fuelled strength, Damian launched at his opponent, putting all his focus into his attacks, ignoring the pain in his back and ringing in his ears.

Electrocutioner kept his guard up, but Damian never let up, chaining attacks, soon enough the situation was reversed, this time Damian was the one hitting, not the one with his back to the wall. Soon Electrocutioner threw another electrified hit, trying to escape Damian's wrath but all that happened was him being thrown into the centre of the ring.

The second Damian's opponent slid to a halt, Damian leapt at him, chaining hit after hit, which left his face a bloody pulp. He then kicked him in his leg, dropping him to his knee's, and began a series of attacks, Electrocutioner took a blind swing, which Damian butterfly flipped over, landing behind him, he then delivered another flury of attacks before Electrocutioner took another swipe.

Damian caught his arm mid-swing, and struck his elbow with all his might, the only thing louder than the crack, was Electrocutioner's scream. Which only lasted a second as Damian twisted around and knocked him out with punch to the jaw, which hit so hard, he cracked the lenses of his goggles.

"1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8... 9... We have a winner!" - The presenter announced, the audience applauded and cheered at his victory, while he moved to the cage's door, feeling the adrenaline wearing away and the pain setting back in.

Noah clapped his hand onto his shoulder, and Damian flinched at the contact, which emphasised the unbearable pain in his back, which was enough to have Damian collase, Noah and one of his guards caught him before he fell. Everything sounded so muffled it was like he was underwater but Damian swore he could make out the words 'med-bay'. Before he fell unconscious.

Thanks for reading Ch.11 of 'Counterparts' and i'm sorry for the repeated use of 'Electrocutioner' I hate repeating words, again and again, but I couldn't figure out another way of describing him but I also tried to minimise it as much as possible. Anyway... hope you comment, vote and read Ch.12 - MM