By Blaze

Ryu and Cyraqs soon approached the Elite eligibility fight arena. It was here, that Ryu was finally going to become an Elite, This achievement was going to add more to his World Record, that so many honor and respect.

Upon entrance to the next room, dozens of lights blinked to life around the 2 men in the room. It may be hard to catch Ryu off guard, but the sudden flash caught him a bit off guard. As the lights blinked to life; his eye’s had became to adjusted to dim lighting that he found in the Underground and light right now seemed to be a strain on them.

When his eye’s finally adjusted to the lights rays intensity; he looked around to see what the room was like. Ryu’s eyes found nothing but a high wall with a small window near the top, it was to far away for Ryu to make out any faces out that may be behind it, but he somehow knew that this didn’t matter right now.

“State you’re business” a voice stated, since it was computerized it shielded even the gender of the person behind the wall.

Cyraqs came up and seemed to speak on Ryu’s behalf. “We are here to make this man an Elite.” He simply stated back.

The voice continued with it’s questioning.

“Has he met the qualifications?” it asked. “Yes. He has” Cyraqs answered.

It seemed after this, all questions seemed to be focused on Ryu, seemingly focused on his persona

“Name”

“Ryu Hoshi”

“Style”

“The Art of Shotokan”

"Technique of the art"

"Discipline and proper extortion of chi"

"Years of training"

"My entire life"

The questions stopped after this. It took a few minutes before the computerized voice spoke again.

“Ah yes. Mr. Hoshi we’ve heard of you. 3 consecutive tournaments I see. Quite an achievement”

With those few words Ryu became confused, not many people were even aware of his existence; His name was undoubtedly never recorded on a birth certificate. The only people who had a data profile on him were the lead agents of Interpole and that was only data from his previous tournament wins, and Interpole was a secure and secret organization.
Chun Li herself had told him nothing could penetrate their computer network.

‘Looks like Interpole needs a better network’ Ryu thought to himself.



“Well then” the voice stated. “Let us begin”.


And with that the lights went out, and the two men were once again met by the darkness they had been so used to. Only a few minutes later did a small light trail begin down a hallway. Cyraqs was already leading the way with the Japanese warrior still in tow.

As the 2 were still walking down the hallway, Cyraqs took the few minutes they had to try and strike a conversation. The fighter had only known Ryu for only 2 months and he was already elected to be Elite, but hearing how he just heard he had won 3 major tournaments that explained a lot. Cyraqs eye’s snaked over to the side to steal a glance at the stone wall of a man’s face. Ryu’s face was clam, serene.

He seemed to have no emotion of any type on his face. Cyraqs had been known to be able to read a persons emotional turmoil just by reading their face, he caught Asuka off guard many a time with that trick. It was then that Cyraqs thoughts began to kick in ’Wonder if this guy has a family’ he thought to himself. ‘He seems so cool, but emotionless. As if he lost something he can never replace’.

“So Ryu; You have a family?” Cyraqs asked to break the silence.
“My parents died before I was a year old”.
“Who raised you then”
“My Sensei”
“Is the person still alive”
“No. He died when I was 17”
“Oh… I’m sorry”
“You are not to blame”. And with that the walk was met with silence.

And so came the final set of doors.


The room was huge. The Grid seemed to be a small motel room compared to this place. A Large Fight platform was centered in the middle of the room. Rows after rows of soft seats were located far back with a massive crowd sitting in them.

Most of the scenery was that of The Grid but slightly better and more sanitary, The funk of liquor and other smells seemed non-existence.

“Cyraqs, what is this place?” Ryu asked while he stared in somewhat wonder.

“This” explained Cyraqs ”Is the Elite arena, here is where more, as I should say it V.I.P people come to see some of the best fights. We have all the packages of The Grid here and amplified.”

The bet booths seemed to have higher stakes, instead of the regular 100$-$1000 bets, it was 1000$ to even 10,000$.

The people of the crowds seemed to be all dressed in some type of dressed up attire; suits and elegant dresses. Women and men were stiffly waiting there. It seemed that some loved to watch street fights; it was a very entertaining sport. The violent blows and throws, and for the gamblers it was a good source of money.

Ryu was amazed the place seemed somewhat… ”Luxurious”.

Cyraqs, not wanting to waste anymore time, walked over to the entrance of the lower floor of the room.
Ryu followed the dark-haired man into the next room.

The room was the fight preparation center. Weights and exercise machines of all types were inside

"Cyraqs and Ryu sat on a vacant bench inside of the room. It wasn't going to be long before.

A few minutes later the 2 were met by a fight instructor

“Ryu Hoshi” The man said.

“That would be me” Ryu spoke as he stood up to face the man.

The instructor bowed in front of the fighter and motioned for him to follow him to the arena. “Right this way Mr. Hoshi. You’re fight is about to start”. “Ryu asked who his opponent was before wanting to leave out for the match. “Who is my opponent?”

The instructor looked up at the clipboard he had brought with him and checked the sheet.


“Ahh here it is” said the instructor. “You are scheduled to fight Ms. Riana Skysora”

“Uh oh” Cyraqs said.

Cyraqs started to sweat. He didn't think it would be to smart for Ryu to fight Riana. That woman was a death sentence with a great set of legs, but that's besides the point. Riana would murder Ryu, Riana was known to be annoyed very easily; in fact they had to stop a fight because she nearly beat her opponent to death for commenting on how big her breasts were.

Cyraqs leaped off the bench and pounced the instructor and quickly began to shake him wildly. "Are you positive that he is to fight Riana" Cyraqs nearly screamed as he shook the instructor.

The instructor who was increasingly frightened by the man shaking him tried his best to answer as he was still being shook.

"It's uhhhuhhh… been ...decided ...by Asuka herself"

Ryu who was witnessing the entire seen, sweatdropped.

Cyraqs dumped the instructor on the floor who was still trying to grasp the fact he was nearly shooked to death by Cyraqs.

Ryu was in the dark about Riana though so he decided to ask Cyraqs what was so bad about her. "What is wrong with Riana Cyraqs, is there something about her I should know about?"

Cyraqs began his warning on Riana's insanity without hesitation, he wanted Ryu to be spared in torment and torture he might face.

The instructor picked himself up dazily, he was only an instructor he didn't make the rules.

15 minutes later-Location: fighting platform

Riana was growing impatient, which wasn't exactly a good thing considering her bad temper; it would be in best interest if the 2 hurried their arrival.

"Looking for us?"

Riana looked down surprised, up the stairs to the platform came up Ryu in all his glory. With a smirk on his face he questioned the beautiful woman again. "Are you ready to fight"

Riana met Ryu's smirk with one of her own. "You bet handsome".