Deadpool was currently wearing a lab coat covered in mysterious glowing green stains, a pair of safety goggles, and was aggressively shaking two test tubes filled with brightly colored liquids.
"tum, stand back and put on your safety glasses, because Ring 11 is about to violate several laws of thermodynamics!" Deadpool shouted, accidentally spilling a drop of green liquid onto the desk, which immediately burned a hole through the wood. "This is the battle of the 'Billion-IQ Brains'! It's the Stone World Savior versus the smartest mammal in the multiverse! It's Senku Ishigami against Rick Sanchez! It's a contest of primitive ingenuity versus aggressively drunk sci-fi!"
Ring 11 was a bizarre hybrid of a pristine, high-tech laboratory and a dense, untouched prehistoric jungle. Half of the arena was filled with vines and rocks, while the other half was sleek metal and glowing monitors.
Heimdall was broadcasting from inside a heavily shielded Faraday cage. "Match Number Thirty! The founder of the Kingdom of Science, Senku Ishigami! Versus the dimension-hopping genius, Rick Sanchez!"
The Stone and the Flask
Senku stood on the jungle side, holding a glass beaker filled with a bubbling, dark purple compound. He had his signature confident smirk, a piece of celery casually hanging from his mouth. "Ten billion percent chance this guy is compensating for something with all that shiny metal. You think relying on black boxes makes you a scientist, old man? Real science is understanding the fundamental rules of the universe from scratch."
Rick stumbled out of a green portal on the high-tech side, taking a long pull from his silver flask and burping loudly. He wiped his chin with the back of his hand. "Yeah, burp, real cute, kid. You made a lightbulb out of bamboo and think you're Galileo. I turned a black hole into a garbage disposal before breakfast. Let's just get this over with, I've got a reservation at a dimension where the tables are made of living pizza."
The Chemical Warfare
Senku didn't waste time arguing. He tossed the beaker at Rick's feet. The glass shattered, and a massive cloud of highly concentrated, blinding sulfuric acid vapor erupted.
"I analyzed the wind currents in this arena ten minutes ago," Senku called out, striking a pose. "That vapor will corrode any exposed wiring and blind you temporarily. Now, for the kinetic finisher!" He pulled a lever he had quickly assembled from vines and pulleys, launching a massive, perfectly spherical boulder down a ramp straight toward Rick.
Up in the booth, Deadpool dropped his test tubes. "It's a prehistoric trap, tum! Senku is using pure physics and chemistry to take down a guy who casually defies gravity!"
Rick coughed, waving a hand lazily through the sulfuric cloud. "Oh, wow. Acid. Burp. How retro."
Rick didn't even move. A small, floating robotic orb popped out of his lab coat collar, instantly projecting a molecular-rearrangement shield. The acid cloud was instantly converted into harmless helium. The giant boulder hit the shield and bounced off with a pathetic tink, rolling harmlessly into the jungle.
The Sci-Fi Beatdown
Rick sighed, pulling a heavily modified, glowing laser pistol from his coat. "Look, kid, I respect the hustle. You're a big fish in a literally petrified pond. But you brought a rock to an antimatter fight."
Rick fired the pistol. It didn't shoot a laser; it shot a localized gravitational anomaly. The beam hit the ground near Senku, instantly reversing the gravity in a ten-foot radius. Senku yelped as he was violently launched straight up into the air, floating helplessly upside down.
"Fascinating..." Senku muttered, pulling a tiny abacus out of his stone-world clothes to calculate the exact gravitational pull he was experiencing. "This completely breaks Newtonian physics—"
Before Senku could finish his thought, Rick pressed a button on his watch. A tiny mechanical boxing glove extended on a metal spring from his wrist, flying across the arena and punching the floating Senku squarely in the jaw, knocking him out cold.
Rick lowered the gravity field, letting Senku drop gently to the jungle floor. "Class dismissed," Rick muttered, taking another drink from his flask.
"Match Thirty winner... RICK SANCHEZ!" Heimdall announced, peeking out from the Faraday cage.
Up in the booth, Deadpool clapped his hands, sending a cloud of green smoke into the air. "The drunk grandpa takes it with zero effort! That's 30 winners down, 21 matches to go in Round One, tum! If you need me, I'll be trying to figure out how to build a portal gun out of bamboo."
The Acrobatics are Next!
We're moving away from the laboratories and back into pure physical skill and agility!
Match 31 (Ring 13): Mikasa Ackerman vs. Spider-Gwen. (High-Speed Acrobatics! ODM Gear vs. Web-Shooters!)
Match 32 (Ring 16): Spike Spiegel vs. Vash the Stampede. (Space Cowboy vs. Humanoid Typhoon. Gun-slinging goodness!)
Match 33 (Ring 3): Meliodas vs. Black Star. (Small Guys, Massive Egos. The Dragon Sin vs. The Assassin!)