INSIDE THE WARWORLD NEXT-GENERATION ARENA
Grant felt a chill go up his spine. It was night now he could tell. He heard a soft female voice humming and felt someone gently wiping sweat from his brow. His vision blurred when he opened his eyes. He saw Managal for a second and then his vision cleared.
"Hey, you're awake." Mar'i smiled.
He blinked a few times.
He heard some footsteps moving towards him. Grant moved his head to see Jon throw more wood into a fire.
"Hey. How are you feeling?"
Grant ran his tongue over his chapped lips.
"My leg..." He tried to sit up.
"Woah try not to move man," Jon said pushing him back down.
"My head hurts... did you hit me in the head?" Grant asked.
Jon and Mar'i looked at each other.
He had passed out while they were carrying him.
"It must be from the pain," Mar'i said looking at him.
"We got get him some water or something," Jon replied.
"Look, over there a cave." Mar'i nodded towards a dark cave in the distance.
"Okay let's lay him there I'll go out and get water and you can stay with him," Jon said.
"Got it."
They walked over toward the cave as they walked they could hear some type of growling in the distance.
"Not this shit again," Mar'i groaned.
"Must have not reached their injury quota for the season yet," Jon replied.
"Take him to the cave and I'll take care of them." Mar'i picked Grant up and put him gently in Jon's arms.
"Aye aye, captain."
As Jon was running towards the cave a hound came out from the trees and pushed him to the ground with its head. Jon dropped Grant on his back.
"You guys are making me want to be a cat person!" Jon yelled punching the hound in the face.
The hound cried and went down to bite Jon's arm when Mar'i threw a rock at its head.
"Here boy!" She whistled.
The hound growled and ran after her leaving Jon and Grant behind. Jon hurriedly helped Grant up and moved to the cave.
Mar'i backed up as the hound grew closer. She thought for a moment trying to remember what her dad had taught her. She could not overpower this creature with force. Her powers were still being limited.
"Nice doggy... I am not a chew toy..." She said nervously.
The hound growled and inched forward. An idea popped into her head. She ran in the opposite direction of the cave. She could hear the wild beast behind her, breathing heavily.
Some way back she saw wild Gykura plants. She remembered reading about them in her homeschool studies. They were native to the planet Changralyn and extremely poisonous if eaten. She remembered her tutor telling that when the Citadel took over Changraylyn many of the natives killed themselves by eating the plant.
She saw the purple flowers growing in the distance under a large tree. She began to carefully pick the flowers up by their stems, making sure not to even touch their poisonous petals. They were beautiful flowers, a purple that reminded her of the color her mother wore. It was like her mother and father were coming together to save her.
She turned around swiftly. The beast ran towards her, she could see the snot coming from his nose. She sniffed.
Then she began to run towards the creature. That seemed to confuse it because it stopped for a minute and stared at her perplexed.
"What the hell is she doing?" a watcher from the viewing room asked aloud.
No one but Mar'i knew. The creature seemed to snap out of its gaze and continued to run toward her. She let out a battle cry and the hound roared back.
Mar'i threw the flowers into its mouth and slid in between its legs. The hound stopped. It turned around and swallowed. It blinked for a couple of seconds before convulsing on the ground. It let out a pained scream and rolled around on the ground.
Mar'i swallowed down her fear and walked closer.
"I'm sorry..." she whispered softly petting the hound's head.
The creature let out rabid breaths. Mar'i looked into its eyes. Something was so unnerving about its eyes.
Then everything went still. She let out a ragged breath and got to her feet. She slowly walked towards the cave once more.
"These creatures that Managal has hunting us and everything... where do they come from?" Mar'i asked.
"What do you mean?" Grant asked.
Jon sat down next to Mar'i.
"Like the animals on this planet, are they bred to hunt contestants?"
"Honestly the animals that I have seen when I'm allowed to go out into the city look nothing like the ones in the show." Grant swallowed.
"What about outside the city?" Jon asked.
"There's nothing out there. The countless wars have left it uninhabitable, the Justice League made sure of that... they practically nuked the place when they fought Mongul." Grant answered.
Jon and Mar'i glanced at each other.
"What?" asked Grant.
"Nothing," Jon answered quickly.
Mongul had gotten into fights with the Justice League -primarily Superman- years before Jon was even born. Jon didn't know how he died. Rumors of Darkseid killing him to take over the planet, one of his sons may have killed him for sensing weakness, or a Yellow Lantern may have even killed him. One rumor even said Mongul from a different universe came into this one just to kill him. No one knows it seems. However, there was a rumor that the Justice League killed him in a secret mission. That seemed to be the rumor that Managal believed as truth.
Jon never gave Mongul much thought, why would he? He knew his father would never kill. He knew while some members of the JL would and have killed he couldn't imagine them all taking on this elaborate murder plot together. If this did happen he knew at the very least his father knew nothing about it.
"How often do you get to go to the city?" Mar'i asked breaking Jon deep from his thoughts.
"When someone pays for me."
Nothing but silence filled the air. It was thick and uncomfortable. Mar'is stomach turned in knots, and she suddenly felt like her breath get caught in her throat, suffocating her. Jon cleared his throat but said nothing.
"You guys think that this... place is this savage land and Managal is just what? A minority? You have no idea what this place is like. You don't know what some of these people have done, if Managal dies it won't change a damn thing." Grant stared off into the darkness of the cave.
"There are good people here too..." Mar'i whispered.
Grant looked at her.
"I think the bad people are just louder than the good. I think there are people suffering here just like you-"
"So? People suffer everywhere."
"Yeah, they do," Jon said to Grant.
"Just because some people are terrible and cruel doesn't mean we have to be."
"Getting rid of Mangal wouldn't change anything you're right. Mongul died and someone just took his place and made it worse. But I think sitting here and being angry talking about how terrible everything isn't enough... you need to actually do something." Jon patted Grant on the shoulder.
A bright red light shined into the cave. They all looked around.
"What's that?" Mar'i asked.
"Episode is done, we can come out now," Grant informed.
"This whole thing was live?" Jon asked.
"Of course not. They edit everything."
WARWORLD INFIRMARY
Grant took the shot of medicine like it was water. His leg instantly felt better and he let out a sigh of relief and laid back on the lush bed.
The doors opened and he didn't have to get up to see it was her.
"Well look at you!" Her cheery voice made his ears ring.
"Leave me alone." He whispered staring up at the ceiling.
She sighed and walked over to him. She leaned over him. Her dark orange hair fell to meet his short shaggy blond.
She smiled wide, "you were excellent this episode."
He stood up quickly and backed away from her.
"You sent the biggest hounds after me. You promised me you would never do that."
She rolled her eyes and said somewhat playfully. "The audience likes seeing you beaten and abused. Something about seeing you bloody drives up viewership."
He said nothing.
"I like seeing you bloody too."
"Well aren't you romantic," he responded sarcastically.
"Someone is certainly touchy today."
"You broke my fucking leg!" He yelled standing up.
She looked him up and down.
"It doesn't seem broken to me." She replied calmly.
He laughed drily.
"When did you become such a damn baby?" She sneered.
He stared at her. "What did I do to make you mad at me?"
"You didn't do anything. It was not an emotional decision. But now I'm mad at you because you're acting pathetic."
He threw a punch at her but she caught it and threw him to the ground. Her heel pressed against his lower back and her arm held tightly around his pulled-back arm.
"Ya know I'm starting to think these new kids are a bad influence on you." Her nails dug into the meat of his arm.
"Now," she said calmly "say you're sorry."
"No." Grant spit.
She shrugged, "fair enough."
She broke his arm and he let out a loud scream that seemed to shake the building. He began to cry which seemed to confuse her.
"Why are you crying? I thought I told you I don't like it when you cry."
He let out ragged breaths in response.
She rolled her eyes and got off of him.
He rolled over and clutched his broken arm.
She stared at him wallowing on the floor. Like a scientist observing an experiment.
"It's funny. Looking at you like this reminds me of when you were a kid."
She climbed on top of him and leaned down to whisper to him.
"Don't worry I'll make it all better."