Dead Pool

The Dead Pool is an arena in the Mortal Kombat series. The Dead Pool debuted in Mortal Kombat II and later reappeared in two sequels.

The Dead Pool is said to be a place for punishments and sacrifice. Captives would be bound with chains, then lowered into the acid below. Shao Kahn was said to have favoured this method of punishment. The Dead Pool was a particular form of punishment sentenced to those condemned by the Kahn himself. The acid itself is a mass of residue of past creations from Shang Tsung's flesh laboratories.

Overview
A 3D version of the Dead Pool appeared in Mortal Kombat: Return of The Dragon King. Instead of a straight walkway across the acid, players fight on a square patch of concrete in the middle of the acid. Players who are close to the edge can be knocked into the acid to perform a death trap, where an "Awa" would be heard as tribute to the MKII secret. Jarek watches over the arena from a balcony, dressed in his original MK4 outfit.

The Dead Pool appears in Mortal Kombat 9. The arena returns its original design: a single bridge that goes across the pool. The chains are now manually operated, handled by two executioners using a large reel. Prisoners are bound and suspended above the acid by the hooked chains where they are promptly dipped into the acidic pool after a few moments. They are then dragged back up and their flesh is proceeded to disintegrate. In MK9, when using the stage fatality, instead of falling into the acidic pool and resurfacing as a skeleton, the victim will flail around in the pool as the acid dissolves their flesh and leaves behind a face-down skeletal frame.

In the Story Mode, Sonya Blade is held here at the start of the second tournament, with Sheeva and several guards watching her. Jax eventually defeats Sheeva to rescue her, killing one of the other guards by throwing him into the acid in the process.

Trivia

 * In MKII, holding the down button during the Stage Fatality will make the voice of Dan Forden say "Foul Ball".
 * There were a few rumours concerning the Dead Pool, which mainly involved the chains hanging from the ceiling. One such was that it was possible to knock an opponent into the hooked ends, and that such chains acted as a mechanism to unlock something if body weight was applied to them. This rumour was included in Mortal Kombat: Return of The Dragon King.
 * In MK9, ghostly screams can be faintly heard, especially if the music volume is turned down low enough.

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