I had pretended to be asleep as the ships captain looked over at us and talked with one of his subordinates. They assumed I was an Earthling and all but ignored me, while they spoke only of Superman and how he was a great specimen considering he was a powerful being and the last of his kind.
I couldn't help but scoff at their words. Powerful being? sure I guess, but while he was knocked out from the blast, I was still awake. They didn't know that though, I haven't stopped pretending to be knocked out this whole time. I ignored them and continued to pretend until we arrived at War world.
War world was basically a world where people were ruled over by Mongul a horrible dictator that taxed its population to death. He created a gladiator arena so that the people of the world focused on something other than him and also had a place where they could vent their emotions as they decided the life or death of the losers within the arena.
Superman and myself found ourselves within the holding area of the arena. John was nowhere to be found. I watched as the arenas strongest gladiator kicked Superman in the chest, waking him up. "Pathetic, the whole lot of you, not a real warrior in the bunch. You. the Kyrptonian, you're the biggest disappointment of them all". The Gladiator said before spitting in Supermans face and then walking away.
Superman had better self control than me, because I would have let my anger get the best of me if he had spat in my face. After seeing the Gladiator walk out of sight, Superman broke his chains and looked my way. "I'm going to look for John and then we will all three escape this place".
I nodded and then broke my chains as well. "I'll come with".
After a little bit of walking around, we found John. They were stacking bodies next to a pool of water, some of them not dead, but deemed worthless. The people of this world were incredibly dumb if they thought John Jones was worthless. We arrived just in time before a monster from the nearby water swam up and tried to eat him. Superman knocked the monster back into the water and then went to Johns side. I stood guard and watched the scene play out.
After that we all 3 looked for a way out. I knew better. I knew that only John would be able to escape due to his phasing and Superman plus myself would be left behind to fight as Gladiators until the rest of the Justice League showed up or we fought our way out somehow.
Finding a hole in the dungeon, Superman helped John up as we all flew towards the invisible barrier that only I knew was there. John successfully got through as Superman fell back in pain. I pretended to stop after noticing he hit the barrier. I saw no reason for me to fly into it like he did. I didn't want to leave yet anyway. I wanted to fight some real powerful opponents.
Hovering robots came and started firing at us as Superman pleaded for John to leave without us, saying he had a better chance to help us from outside the dome. A number of beams hit us, knocking out superman, but had no affect on me. I didn't pretend this time and instead picked up Superman and took him to the holding cell we had left.
The robots seeing us go back went away. The dome had cut Superman off from the sunlight, making him weaker by the hour. After returning to the cell, I sat down and waited to be called upon to fight, while Superman slept like a baby.
It wasn't till the next day in the early afternoon that I was called. They were saving Superman for the main show against their strongest Gladiator and though they I would be quick cannon fodder against him until his fight with Superman. I didn't feel like feeding into their delusions. I planned to win in a beautiful fashion.
As I was escorted out into the arena, I heard the chants of the crowd as the called out "DRAAGA! DRAAGA! DRAAGA!"
Draaga was this Arenas champion. He was similar in strength to superman, only a bit weaker, but he made up for that with his fighting ability. He was skilled in hand to hand combat. Superman and him in the original work fought evenly until Superman eventually won. I'm sure there were a lot of factors in play that made it so, but his strength wasn't fake. He was a strong being, but I knew I was stronger.
As I was waiting for the fight to start, A robot came over and took off my cuffs before giving me an axe made of an unknown metal. I looked up to see Draaga also holding a similar weapon. With his eyes looking my way I threw the axe away and then stood with my arms crossed, waiting for the battle to start.
My actions were met by many loud boo's from the crowd as well as Draagas annoyed face.
Mongul who sat high above us in his own personal place within the stands sitting in a throne spoke up. "Are you ready Earthling?"
"Are you?" I scoffed.
Mongul frowned "I doubt you will be that brave for long Earthling. I bet you won't last but a few seconds against the current Champion in WAR WORLD!". He emphasized 'War World' before the fight started, beaming Draaga and myself to another location with a red sky and rocky terrain.
I didn't wait for an invitation as I began using Draaga as my own personal punching bag. I wasn't here to fight him, I was here to fight Mongul. I saw no reason to waste my time as I pounded his face in repeatedly with my fist. With my martial arts, his learned hand to hand combat was no match. I still chose to not use Ki as we fought, but it was still too easy. He stood no chance, I was not only a better fighter, but I was also faster and stronger than him by a mile.
I beat his face in until I heard a whimper "Please kill me" I looked down at him and hit him one last time, knocking him out cold.
Mongul seemed beyond shocked as he spoke to the crowd. "The earthling is victorious, beating all odds. What say you?"
The crowd called out for bloodshed as they boo'd towards the champion that they not long ago cheered for. It was a disgusting sight to take in.
"The people have spoken, Finish him" Mongul said, obviously speaking to me.
"Fuck you" I replied before spitting into the robots camera that was videoing me and relaying the image back to the crowd and Mongul himself on a big screen.
Mongul frowned. "Kill the Earthling" He ordered the robots.