Brian and Crista walked down out of the hospital and down the sidewalk of the relatively good sized town. The city seemed normal enough, save the eerie silence. Unlike other towns, this one had no traffic, practically nothing out of place, a small population for such a large place, most of them being store clerks and such. It just seemed to perfect. Crista only added to the suspense, remaining silent as well as they walked on. Brian to remained silent as he walked slightly behind Crista, unsure what to do.

"Umm… I'm sure your friend's fine… he's got to be a decent fighter to even be here, right?" Brian finally spoke trying to offer comfort and breaking the uneasy silence in the process.
"Yeah… it just all seems so weird though… the crash… the island's setup…" Crista replied in low tone then glanced back at Brian, "Besides, he was hurt to."

"There's nothing to be worried about, we're on a island after al-…" Brian started but was interrupted as Crista stopped and turned around to face him.
"I'm not worried about him… I'm annoyed at him! Running away from a hospital… of all places!" Crista glanced around for a moment.

"Maybe the guy had a reason to get out of there?" Brian asked in less than convincing tone of voice.
"No… actually the doctor said that when he'd gone to get a blood sample, John bolted out of there." Crista replied in a rather cold tone.
"I see… could've been shocked too, seeing a stranger with a large needle though. Besides, if he could run and all, it means his fine."
"Perhaps…but when I see him he'll really need to go back!" Crista said and grinned slightly. "Teach him to scare his friends to death."

Brian smiled at the sight of Crista's grin. That's all he really wanted in the first place. Managing to tear his eyes away from Crista for a moment, he around her for a moment and noticed a sign before smiling. Crista turned her head to follow his gaze and smiled as well.

"There's a seafood restaurant. How about some dinner?" Brian inquired as he let his gaze fall back to Crista's lithe form. He never had a chance for an answer as Crista grabbed his arm and pulled him across the empty street.

"Brian, you're my hero." Crista finally said as she and Brian entered the restaurant side by side.
 

Aaron sat inside the rather spacious accommodations of the room Fighter's village flipping through a few papers and documents he had scattered randomly across the bed. Chun-Li was due to be arriving soon and she was going to expect some sort of report. Volpe sighed to himself, wishing he hadn't of waited until the last minute and continued to sort out the chaos before him.

"Oh life… why must ye be so cruel as to bestow upon me such responsibilities?" Volpe asked himself in a melodramatic tone.
"Because life is too busy to fill the rest of us in on the details." a familiar voice replied from the doorway.
*Oh crap! She's here!* Aaron thought as he jumped to his feet and offered her salute.

"At ease investigator… so brief me on our situation." Chun-Li said as she sat down on a chair across from Volpe.
"Okay…let's see." Volpe managed as he begin digging through the pile of photo's and documents before speaking
, "At about 1200 hours today, the plane carrying the fighters for the tournament went down for reasons unknown." And produced a rather sloppy hand-written report.
"Continue…" Chun-Li nodded.

"None of the passengers were killed… only a few were hurt seriously and none of them are injured enough to scratch out of the tournament. Here's a list of the fighters" Aaron continued and handed Chun-Li a clipboard with several papers fastened on.
*So far so good…* Volpe thought to himself as he continued to randomly grab documents and photos.

"There's a lot of these fighters I don't recognize investigator… do you have some individual character profiles?" Chun-Li said and flipped over the pages, reading the names as she did.
"How about this one… Justin Davidson."

"Umm…let's see…" Volpe hesitated as he dug under the top layers of papers and brought up a folder. Taking one of the papers out he glanced over it for a moment and handed Chun-Li a photo before clearing his throat and speaking,
"Ah yes… we believe Mr. "Debo" here is working for Bison…"

Chun-Li glanced over the photo and tried to summarize the man's character,
*Pretty young…probably 19 or so… unknown uniform, I'd say free-lance… and is that a broom?* she stopped her train of though on that and glanced up at Volpe who, to her amusement, was franticly digging through the mess in front of him,
"So… what's his fighting style?"

"Unknown… We think it's a self-taught style… not sure though since no one's seen him fought yet." Volpe replied as he dug through the papers and randomly through them aside or stacked them beside him.
"I see…" the detective continued reading down the list, "John… Hae-…Hee-…Heigy?" Chun-Li squinted slightly and tried to read the name.

"Heagy… John Heagy." Aaron replied and produced another picture before passing it to Chun-Li.

Chun-Li looked over this one as she had the other,
*Young to…hmm… not sure about that gi… oriental… kind of puny looking… but still…* Chun-Li thought and laid the picture aside. "What's his story?"

"He's an unknown factor…South Korean… just joined up and is supposed to be a newcomer… but Bison has been known to hire outside assassins." Volpe replied glancing over the Korean man's profile.
"Still don't got a lot to go on…"

"Keep an eye on him until we learn more… we don't need anymore surprises. I'll wan-…"
"Chun-Li! I'm going to go look around the island some!" a masculine voice rang out from nearby.
"Okay Ryu! But be back before nightfall!" Chun-Li yelled back.
"Ah… bringing the husband along for the trip?" Volpe smirked and leaned back some. Noting the embarrassed look on Chun-Li's face he grinned even wider, "Ah… So am I right?"

"Ahem…well investigator…" Chun-Li managed as she tried to regain her composure.
"I'm listening…"
"I'll expect a VERY detailed report on everything that's happened since you were assigned to this mission by tomorrow morning, is that clear?" Chun-Li said as she stood up.

"Wha-! But…ugr… yes ma'am…" Volpe answered and sighed. Leaning back he mentally slapped himself and made a note NOT to bring this subject up again… for a while anyways.

"You sure your okay ma'am?" the young Korean man asked for the seventeenth time as he walked behind Victoria, Zero1 and Kay Lee. John along paying half attention to his surroundings, the majority of his senses were busy trying to undo the hospital name tag around his arm.

"Yes…. I'm fine…" Victoria managed as she walked ahead of the rest.
"Well, you didn't seem fine a minute ago Miss Vicky." John responded, still tugging at the bracelet as it held firmly to his arm.

In front of him Victoria had stopped suddenly and turned around sharply. Zero1 shook his head and walked on while Kay Lee stopped, barely able to contain a chuckle.

"Is somethin' wrong?" John asked as Vicky drew one of her daggers and walked towards him. "Umm… what is it?"

Victoria remained silent as she stopped directly in front of him, an unreadable expression on her face. Taking one more step towards him she grabbed his arm and brought the blade down in a quick, fluent motion. John never had enough time to even flinch.

"Wha!?" was all he was able to say as he yanked back his arm, grabbing his wrist. After rubbing and inspecting it for a moment he looked up at Victoria. "What did you do that for?" he managed in a rather loud voice, his eyes still rather wide.

"Couldn't let you check into the hotel with that tag on your arm, could I?" she responded as she sheathed the dagger.

"Umm…I guess not…" John glanced down at the wristband, neatly cut right off. "Thanks… I think… you could've gave me a warning though."

"Now where's the fun in that?" Victoria asked as she let a sinister looking grin form on her face. The young Korean blushed again and stood looking dumbfounded for a moment before she added, "Oh… and don't call me Vicky."

"Point taken…" John replied as he ran towards the direction Zero1 had gone.

"Now I wonder where he could've gotten the idea that my name was Vicky…" Victoria inquired, glancing over at Kay Lee who also broke into a run.

"Hey! Wait up!" was all Kay Lee said.

Victoria smirked for a moment before walking the same way the others had gone.

"So… what now Brian?" Crista asked as the walked out of the restaurant, Brian following close behind. Time had passed rather quickly for the two, the sun was already setting.

"I guess we should go check into our acommadations." Brian answered as he stopped and glanced towards the right then towards the left. "I think it was this way…"

"I guess your right…" Crista said as she and Brian walked down the sidewalk. "So… when's your first fight?" she asked, glancing over at Brian.

"I'm not sure… I guess we should try and find out first… maybe some of the other fighters will know." Brian replied as the continued walking down the now rather dark road. "Sure is getting dark… I wonder if..." And just at that moment, streetlights cut on, illuminating the street and rather empty city. "…. there are any lights…" Crista giggled slightly at his actions causing him to blush.

"So… how far away are our quarters anyway?" Crista asked in an attempt to comfort Brian slightly.

"Not far if I remember right… anyway… hey….what's that?" Brian questioned as he pointed in front of them. On the ground there was some sort of bracelet lying. Upon further inspection it appeared to be a hospital band. Brian stooped over and read the name before looking at Crista slowly.

"So, what is it?" Crista asked as she moved beside Brian.
"It's a nametag…." He answered rather slowly.
"Well, read the name."
"Heagy, John….." Brian replied quietly as he let the cut bracelet fall to the ground.
"Oh no…. what if he's in trouble!" she wondered aloud as she begin pacing lightly and speaking randomly almost, "He was hurt… what if he was jumped… where would he go…"

"There's no sense in panicking… let's just head to the fighter's area and ask around." Brian said in a calm voice, "He might even be there." Crista nodded silently and ran down the road, Brian only a few steps behind her.

John entered his room and was rendered breathless. Aside from the fact that he had ran the entire way here, the place was rather nicely stocked. A relatively large bed in the corner, what appeared to be some wooden training equipment sat on the wall, and even his bag with his clothes were here.

"My fight isn't until the day after tomorrow… So I might as well get some training in." John spoke to himself as walked over toward the wall. "Nice bokken." He said as he took the wooden sword from the wall. If he remembered correctly there was some empty area behind his room, perfect for some practice.

Exiting the room rather quickly, he quickly made his way to the grassy yard. There were a couple of large boulders but that was about it. More than enough room.

With this last thought John begin swinging the wooden practice sword around in various katas and techniques. Losing himself in the techniques he begins shouting loudly as he swung.

Crista froze as she heard what sounded like a man screaming. Brian stopped as well and glanced around for a moment before looking at Crista. She simply shook her head and put her finger to her lips, "Shhh… Don't you here that… it sounds like John…. And it sounds like he's in pain!"

Brian nodded then pointed towards a nearby building, "Crista, it sounds like your friends behind there." Several more yells broke the night air. Crista slowly made her way to the corner of the building, waiting just out of sight. Brian followed suite as Crista silently motioned for them to rush around then indicated the number three with her fingers… then two…

John was finally beginning to break a sweat. Stamping forward, he thrust the bokken forward in a stab. Following up he turned toward one of the boulders.
*Time to practice a little self-control. Swing and stop just before impact…* And with that charged straight towards the large rock. Suddenly a couple of loud yells from behind caught him by surprise just as he slashed the wooden blade downwards. Startled, John forgot all about control. The end of the bokken breaking from the impact and bouncing off the rock from the force before smashing directly into John's temple and sending him to his back.

"DANG! It hurts! Ow…ow ow ow…." John shouted as he grabbed his forehead, feeling a knot already beginning to form. Opening his eyes he was surprised to see Crista and some other man standing over him. "Ouch….hullo… ow… Nice to see ya… again… Crista. Ugr… Who's…your friend there?" was all he managed before submitting the throbbing pain in his head and closing his eyes once more.