Sodom awoke in the room he was training in. He let out a loud moan as he rubbed the top of his head.

“What the hell just hit me?”he said.
He then remembered that sumo he fought with.
“That son of a----!”he said. “—he got lucky last time,but next time we meet in the tournament—I’M GONNA DE-FLATE HIS HIDE!”
 

The samurai then went back to his training,more determined than ever to become the best of the best.

THE NEXT DAY….

Ken,Sean and Dudley were this time at the same gym with Ryu and the others,and they were doing the bset to pump up their training.

Ken and Sean practiced their best Shoto-moves on various target boards and sandbags,strengthening the famed moves such as the Shoryuken and Hadouken.

While the brit boxer Dudley slammed his boxing fists against a heavy sandbag,hardening the knuckles of his fists for the opponents he would face in the arena.

Guy and Ryu watched the whole thing near the doorway.
Ryu smiled. “Nice to see those guys can take their training just as seriously.”he said.
“Yes,”said Guy. “but will it be enough for what we’ll be facing?”
“We’ll see.”said Ryu. “We’ll see.”
 

A SECRET LAIR,DESTINATION UNKNOWN…

A strange shadowy figure scanned the faces of the actual street fighters who would be participating in the contest this Friday. The pictures were from stolen files from secret organizations that classified such things from past world warrior tourneys and events from Metro City.

They were of the following:
RYU,
SEAN,
KEN,
CHUN-LI,
DUDLEY,
GUY,
MAKOTO,
S.
and R.Mika.

“Some of them have the most interesting potential.”said the unknown.
“But some aren’t even worth the bother. But the ones known as Ryu and Chun-Li will suit my plans most considerably.”

Just then,someone entered the room and adressed their master.
“My lord.”said a woman. “Some of us have met up with the fighters and have witnessed their fighting strengths.”
“Good.”said the man. “What is the report on some of them?”

“Some of them like the two shoto’s Ken and Sean as well as the boxer Dudley showed great potential when they fought it out with some low level goons from that absurd syndicate known as Shadowloo.”said the woman.

“Bison’s trying to cut a slice of the pie…?”said the man. “When the time comes,he and his cohorts shall be dealt with…severly!”

“Yes.”said the woman. “And one of our agents reported that the former Mad Gear member named Sodom was a very strong opponent,but not enough to defeat his opponent in a simple training room,he shall pose no immediate threat.”

“I’m sure.”said the man. “Even though,we must be on our guard against all this Friday. Now…dispatch the last of our agents to meet the other street fighters concerning the contest. I shall be there soon enough.”

“Yes m’lord.”said the woman as she left the room.

“Soon,Ryu…very soon now.”thought the man.
His eyes then both glowed a bright red. “I shall slay you and drink your power,all in the name of my glorious ancestor! HAHAHAHA!”

BACK AT THE GYM…

Ryu sat cross legged in the steam cabinet,a towel around his waist and on his head.
Beads of sweat poured down his forehead and chest as he tried his very best to focus his inner ki powers.

He then recalls all the past battles he had in his past journeys,battles as well as toruneys.
His fights with Ken,
His battle with Sagat,his battle with Akuma,as well as Bison and even Garuda once.

He remembers each time he fought,and either won or had a stalemate,he learned how to increase his inner power and made it stronger each time he fought. How he overcame the obstacle of the dark hadou in his life and became greater than he would expect himself to be when he defeated Akuma for what seemed to be the final time.

But then….he remembered the day he spent mediatating,and the horrid image of the demonic creature that was calling to him.

He still remembers what it said in that terrible voilent and dark voice….

"COME TO ME RYU! COME AND FACE ME IN AMERICA! COME SO I CAN DRINK UP YOUR POWER...RAAAAGHH!"
 

Ryu’s eyes shot open once again,his senses wrought with fear and tension.
His breathing was rushed and shallow.

He had not sensed this feeling since he first fought Akuma,the fear of losing himself not only to him,but the dark rage of the Shin Hadou,the evil that would make him what made Gouki become Akuma.

What was this deep fear he was now cursed with,who or what was the creature he saw,and why did it say..come to america? Did it have something to do with the contest and case that he and the others were charged by Interpol to attend? And what would happen if he did face it?

These questions would haunt him the rest of the day….
 

While back in the training room where the rest of the fighters were,another group of fighters then came in.

They were all being lead by the same woman Sean and the others met yesterday,Tana So Moon.
“Hey Sean…”said Ken. “…your girlfreind’s back!”
Sean inwardly groaned at the mention. “Just my luck to find a hot chick…and she’s more of a world class fighter than I’ll ever be!” he thought.

Tana this time was dressed differently than her short figure hugging skirt.
She wore a mandarin style dress similar to Chun-Li’s except that it was purple with yellow trim and had two hooks in the front.

She also wore orange leotards,a pair of lavendar laced boots,matching bracelts on her arms and a white sash wrapped around her waist,and her hair was now braided into a single pigtail in the back with a thin green ribbon.

Needless to say,even dressed in fighter togs,she still looked ravishing.
Sodom whistled in a low tone. “Mmmm-hmmm…like to take her to my room sometime.”he thought.
“This is your friend from the bar I take it?”Chun-Li said to Dudley.
“That’s her all right.”said Dudley.

Tana then walked up to Ken and Sean and bowed to them both.
“Nice to see you both again.”she said. “As you can see…I am now dressed for battle,and I admit your own gi’s certainly bring out the…man in both of you.”

Sean blushed. “Uh..heh-heh…thanks Tana.”he said.
“I would also like you to meet my assocaites…”she said.

Four more fight practicioners came forward to the others.

One was a black man in his early thirties and was dressed in a pair of brown cargo pants and hiking shoes similar to Charlie’s and had on a pair of black grip gloves and a pair of silver dog tags hung around his neck,and his head was shaved but had a black moustache on his face.

The next person was dressed in a fiery red gi like Ken’s except it had a grey belt around the waist with short strings on it,as well as bandaged fists and a pair of light grey sneakers on and a mane of strawberry blonde hair.

The third person was a young asian girl like Makoto.
She wore a black and white set of chinese clothes that was a black shirt with white cuffs and hooks down the front of the shirt as well as matching pants and slipper shoes.

She also had shoulder length black hair done in a single pony tail,and a cute round face with blue eyes.

The fourth and final person was a tall and sturdy chinese man who wore an Aikido style outfit of a light grey gi shirt with rolled up sleeves,a black pair of Hakama pants and sandals,he had a chisel looking face with wavy black hair and deep dark eyes.

“The solider here is Lt.Fred Wilks,retired from the marines,and champion kickboxer.”said Tana.
“This is Ted Durst from Arizona…”

“You mean the Ted Durst,of the judo karate championship league?”said Ken.
“The same.”said Ted. “And you must be Ken Masters,the once reigning champ of the all-american fighting circuit.”
“That’s right.”said Ken. “I saw you fight in New Jersey once,you were great!”
“Thanks,I saw you in action during the World Warrior contest in 92 against that Balrog creep,you were kickin’!”
 

“Ahem,yes…”said Tana. “I see you know each other. Anyways,this young girl is Juno Ku-Wang,skilled brown belt in karate and kung-fu. And this….built man is Chen Yung,champion Aikido fighter from Hong Kong.”

We along with our chairman are of a martial arts group who travel around the world to become the greatest in the world. We are known as…the Heavy Hitters!”

There was a long silence in the room,as well as a muffled laugh from Sodom.
“Uh…yeah..nice name.”said Ken,trying to look enthusiastic.

“Hey,you got a better name jack?”said Fred. “You tell us!”

“Calm down now.”said Guy. “We mean no disrespect.”said Guy. “Even if we are going to be rivals in the tournament this Friday.”

“Of course.”said Tana. “We came here to train as well,and to see what other opponents we are facing. So…be prepared my friends---for anything!”

Tana then turned to the others.
“Come my fellow hitters,let us begin training.”she said.

The other four fighters turned to the training equipment and began their own sessions.

Fred swung out several fast and hard kicks at the sandbag,they were all either american or thai style kicks that would give either DJ or Adon a run for their money.

Ted and Juno went up to some training dummies and began to punch at them with several well placed blows.

Chen stood on a blue mat,placed both of his fists at his sides and began a short series of breaths,tensing and steadying his inner ki,till he was ready to strike!

He then strode forward to a stack of bricks stacked on a small stand for fighters used to strengthen their hand chops.

He raised one of his hands in the air,and then brought it down hard on the stack---and the stack was reduced to a pile of concrete crumbs.

Tana then lashed out several kicks and punches in the stlye of Kempo and Tae Kwon Do on another sandbag.

Once they were all finished,the sandbags and training equipment was either used beyond repair or damaged.

Ken and the others stood with looks of awe and shock on their faces,from the intense display of powerful moves their soon to be competition diusplayed.

Tana then bowed before them.
“I thank you for allowing us to train in your room.”she said. “But I’m afraid we must depart for some better and much stronger training. Thank you…and see you at the tournament.”

“Yeah see you there man.”said Fred.
“Good luck Ken.”said Ted.
“Later.”said Juno.
“I also look forward to facing you in the arena as well…Chun-Li.”said Tana grinning wickedly.
“I uh—look forward to it.”said Li.
Sean went over to a barbell and was about to adjust the settings until Chen walked up beside him.
“One side squirt!”he said as he shoved him aside.

“Unff!”said Sean as he fell to the floor.

“Hey!”said Ken as he rushed to Sean’s side.
“How rude---doesn’t even begin to describe it.”said Dudley.

Guy then jumped up over Chen and was in front of him.
“Out of my way,ninja.”said Chen.
“Not until you apologize and excuse yourself for that.”said Guy.

“I’ll pass,thanks.”said Chen. “Now out of my way!”

Dudley lightly hit Chen in the shoulder.
“I say you do what he says,sir!”he said. “Unless you want trouble!”

Chun-Li then came up between them all.
“Stop it guys!”she said. “This should be for the contest anyways.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”said Tana. “Chen,you get back with the others and stop fooling around!”

“Yes m’lady.”said Chen. “Excuse me….”

Chen then left the room.

“Pompous ass jerk!”said Sean. “There’s always one or more of’em in every crowd!”
“Yeah,you said it!”said Sodom. “And that haas gotta be the worst looking Aikido unifrom I ever saw.”
“Don’t let him do that to ya in the ring Sean.”said Mika. “We gotta show jerks like that a lesson they won’t forget!”

“That’s why we gotta train as hard as ever,Sean.”said Ken.
“You bet I will!”said Sean.

“I’m really sorry about Chen there.”said Tana. “Over the years,he has let his own pride and arrogance rule what passes for his brain after all the victories he claimed.”

“Well,don’t take this personally Tana.”said Li. “but we intend to defuse that hot pride of his when we get through in the contest.”

“Well,do your best.”said Tana. “See you there.”

“Man,whatta bunch of weirdos.”said Mika.
“I’ll say.”said Guy. “Somehow,there was something not quite right…about their fighter ki’s.”

“Yeah…and what kinda name is..heavy hitters?”said Sodom. “Maybe they should try out for a baseball team if they’re gonna call themselves that?”

“Well,one thing’s for certain.”said Ken. “We gotta train harder than ever before the tournament starts—and beat them at their own game!”

“I couldn’t agree more Ken.”said Ryu as he appeared in the doorway.
“Ryu.”said Li. “About time you showed up.”

“Sorry,I was busy meditating in the steam cabinet.”said Ryu. “So it seems we have some major comepetition on our hands.”

“Well,at least they’re not from Shadaloo or the Utopia.right?”said Ken.
“Even I wouldn’t know.”said Li. “But…even aside from that punk Chen,they seem to be an effective fighting group—like ourselves. We won’t know their true nature till after the tournament is over.”
 

“That’s true.”said Ryu. “So we’d better keep moving on---and hopefully catch this killer—before it’s too late.”

Later that evening,Chun-Li placed a call to Interpl HQ to Charlie Nash.

“Hello..?”said Charlie on the other end.
“Hello,Charlie?”said Li. “It’s me.”
“Nice to see you’re still in one piece Li.”said Charlie.
“What do you mean?”she said.

“Didn’t you hear?”said Charlie. “The police claim they may have found another murder---near the gym you and the others were.”

“WHAT?”said Li in surprise.
“That’s right.”said Charlie. “One of them was probably a cop as well.”
“That’s bad.”said Li. “Well,if the killing took place near here,then it confirms other supsisions that the killer may be a fighter like the rest of us attending the contest.

Anyways,Charlie…I want you and Cammy to look up a certain fighting society called..the Heavy Hitters.”

“Heavy Hitters?”said Charlie. “Never heard of them.”
“My thoughts exactly.”said Li. “So try to look it up okay?”
“You got it.”said Charlie. “Good luck at the contest.”

“Thanks,see you then.”said Li before hanging the phone up.
 

While atop a nearby building,someone watched the action of the gym take place,for he was about there as well.

“They’re all here at last.”thought the man in darkness. “Ryu,you and I shall face off sooner than you think.”