Hey! You guys forget about us?!" Crimson aksed, as he, Guy, and Cody caught up with Lilly, Inspector Volpe, Kumori, and Iwa. The latter two waved, while Volpe muttered something to himself in Olde English while he chased around some flying insect which had just bitten or stung him.

"Hey!" Lilly responded, smiling as usual. "Good too see you are all right! Where the heck you guys been?"

Well, someone had to go see that Spice Girls movie. Twice." Guy informed, as he and Crimson both looked over at Cody, who had a gfin plastered on his face.

"Wuh? Oh... well hey, I was in prison. So excuse me if I wanted to catch up on some things I missed."
"Yeah, but twice?" Crimson asked, as he and the rest of the group continued to walk. Cody just shrugged.
"Bleh," was the sound Lilly made, as she verbalized her thoughts. "I prefer 98°. I don't think the Spice Girls sing well at all." Cody suddenly stopped walking for a moment.
"......They sing?"

John Heagy say cross-legged on Zero 1's back while he did push-ups. He winced as he touched the spot on his forehead, just above his right eye, where he had hit himself in the head with the kendo sword.
 

"Yo Heager, what happened to your head?" asked Zero, noticing both the shift in weight and the audible wince of pain.
"It's HEAGY. And, uh... I got hit in the head with a wooden sword by some guy." John responded, technically telling the truth.
"Yeah, Haggy, whatever. Anyway, ouch. Sounds like it hurt Heebie."
"HEAGY. And Yeah, the guy was pretty good. Never saw it coming." he said, continuing to poke at the bump on his head.

"Damn He-Man, maybe you need to practice more."
"Yeah, Beero, I guess I should."
"ZERO."
"Whatever."

As the new day had come, while ShockWave ran on about Naar and whatnot a bit more to Christa, Wai Lim was sitting outside on an old wooden porch, looking up at the blue of the sky. And wondering where he was at this moment in time. He let out a sigh. He wasn't ready. Man Sei probably wasn't much better, but he was too busy being insane to notice it. What was he going to do when he and Man Sei were face to face? When the running was over. And when they both had everything to lose and everything to gain?
 

Wai Lim would win. Right? He had to...that was the way these stories ended, wasn't it? The villan loses, and the heros wincs, unscated, with the girl....the girl... with the girl, the treasure, and the fancy hut by the lake. But...this was real life. And in those stortes, gennerally speaking, the 'good guy' wasn't horribly affraid of the bad guy.

He let out a sigh. It all came back to his original question' what was he going to do? He wasn't ready....

"Dan?"
"Yes Sakura?"
"...Did you just fart?"
"Yup!"
"I see..."
As she drove Dan's car home from grocery shopping, Sakura took one had off of the steering wheel, and procede to punch Dan in the head.

"Owww!" was the obvious response from Dan, as he turned on the radio and began to sing his own version of karaoke...
"AMERICAN WOMAN!! STAY AWAY FROM MEEE!!!! AMERICAN WOMAAHAN!! yuh yuh YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! LET ME BEEEE!!!! YEAH! YEAH!! AMERICAN WOMAN!!!!!!!"
Sakura sighed. It was gonna be a long drive back to the cabin.

-A rather small aircraft, tournament area-
 

"Chun Li, are you still naked?" Ryu asked, having hidden his eyes for several minutes now.
"Just a second...there. Okay, done. Thanks for not looking." Chun Li tossed her hair, now in one long braid, over her left shoulder.

"Well...you asked me not to." Ryu responded, removing his hand from over his eyes, and moving his headband back up from covering his eyes to their original post, covering his forehead. Then he looked over at what Chun Li was wearing.
"You look...well."
 

Chun Li was wearing a worn pair of gray sweatpants, a pair of old, worn pink and white tennis shoes, and a worn orange tanktop. All of the items, outside of the shoes, had holes worn in their fabric here and there.
"These are my comfortable clothes. Just things to lounge around in."
"I see...I have some comfortable clothes too."
"Really? What are they?"
"A karate gi."
"...uh...Ryu..."
"Brown gi."
"Ahhh...I see."
"Chun Li? If you don't mind me asking, if you were just changing into your comfortable clothes, why did it take you so long?"

"Well I had to decide what to wear."
"You have that many clothes? Wow..."
"Hehe. Well anyway, Ryu we need to talk...about Iwa..."

"The winner is Man Sei!" The referee shouted, much in tune with the cheers of the crowd of twenty or so people who had gathered to watch the fight. Man Sei looked down at his bloody fallen opponent with a look of disgust. Nothing. Not even worth the waste of energy...but soon...soon...
 

"Kay! Where did you get that hamburger?" Christa asked, noticing Kay Lee gorging himself.
"Bought it before we came out to this forest." said Kay in between bites, with his mouth full.
"Where did you get the money?"
"Stole it from Victoria."
"You what?! She's crazy! She'll kill you!"
"Relax. I'll gladly pay her back for it on Tuesday. She'll never even notice she's missing any money."
"Where the hell are my two dollars!! KAAAYYYY!!!!!!!!" a voice from the next room yelled.
"Uh oh..."
 

Outside, Wai Lim saw figures approaching form the forest. One was small, and was wearing a black robe with a hood over their face. the other, was larger. Much larger. Much, much larger. He was wearing a hoodless royal blue robe, and a pair of wooden thong sandals that seemed to hold up well under the weight of his body, and his large feet. He also seemed to be wearing red paint on his face. The smaller one was carrying a torch, and held it up to Wai Lim's face so that they could get a better look at him. It was sunset, but it made for a cool effect anyway.
 

"Hihihi!! Do you know where...um...Christa! Yeah! Christa Smith! Do you know where she is?" the robed figure said, revealing herself to be a hyper-active female.
"Who's asking?"
"We have a match scheduled for right now." the large, large man said, his confidence and dignity very audible in his speaking voice. Christa, hearing her name spoken, popped her head out of the door.

"Somebody call me?"
"You Christa Smith?" small ref asked?
"Yup."
"Okay! You have a match scheduled for tonight! Let's get movin'!" said the robed figure, as she started dancing around to some music that was only heard in her head, again displaying her hyper-activity.

"Um, what's wrong with you?" Christa asked bluntly, observing the referee's excess movement.
"Hmm? Oh, sorry sorry. Too much orange candy! Man, I love that stuff! Okay, there's a clearing several yards to the east, you can fight there, agreed? Good. Let's go! Go! Come on, move it! Yeah!"
"Uh...okay..."

A woman sat in a dark room, surrounded by candles and the scent of burning inscnesce. Her hair was the darkest violet, and she was dressed in a long silk nightgown, which, if she wasn't sitting, would still have done it's best to hide the exquisite curves and lines of her exquisite figure. Rose turned over the hand-painted tarot cards which she had been in posession of for many years, and were several years older than she herself. When reversed, the face of the final card revealed a large, pillar-like structure in a desolate field. Roses's heart raced. The Tower. This was not good at all. She quickly seemed to whisper to the candles with her tinted lips, so close in color to her namesake, blowing the candles out , and leaving the room. The door closed on it's own soon after.

'Hmm...Guy looks a little like...him...' Kumori thought, thinking of another of her favorite movie stars. 'But no one is a cute as...' Kumori clasped her hands together and breadthed a long sigh. '...him. Oh he's so handsome! And such a good actor!' Kumori continued to grin both inwardly and outwardly, she pictured the movie star with little pink, red, and white hearts floating around his head.

Iwa looked over at her friend. 'Oh gosh. She's thinking about one of them movie star guys again. I just hope she doesn't ask me...'
"Hey Iwa, you know what my favorite scene in that one movie was? It was when..."
"Hey, guys!"
"Wait a second!"

The group stopped to look back, seeing two young men emerge from around some trees.
"Yun? Yang? What're you two doing here?" Iwa asked, quickly recognizing the two youths.
"Gen sifu sent us to be your escorts." Yang answered, nodding to the group, Lilly getting a second, more respectful nod.
"He doubts my mighty and manly ability to do the job?" Inspector Volpe casually asked, flexing and posing as he did so.

"...Whatever. Anyway, Gen sifu said he was getting a bad vibe or something, so he decided that we needed to tag along." Yun informed, casual as he almost always was.

The forest march resumed soon, as the group proceded almost perfectly in-step with the cheerful flute music being provided by Miss Lilly Yin. Guy sped up a few paces and caught up with Kumori and Iwa.

"You know there's some person following us and hiding in the trees with a broomstick, right?"
"Didn't know about the broomstick." Iwa said, not at all slowing her pace or even turning her head much. "Been knowing he's been us for the last 35 or so meteres."
"Do the others know?"
"No idea." Guy nodded towards Kumori.
"Does she?"
"Ha. I doubt it. She's been in 'Kumori-land' daydreaming about some movie star for the last few minutes."

"I see..." Guy slipped from Iwa's left to Kumori's right. "Hi."
"Oh...hi. I've seen you before..." Kumori said, putting her hand to her chin. "Kean...er...Guy, right?" she asked, her cheeks showing a bit of red through her tan.
"Yeah. Kumori, right?"
"Yup."
"Okay..."
"Yeah..."

"...All right." Guy slid back a few paces and started walking with Cody and Crimson, who were not debating the 'fine-ness' of each individual Spice Girl. Guy thought to himself, 'Mental Note: Next time you approach a woman, HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.'

"NEEEEAAR!! FAAARRRR!!! WHEREVER YOU ARE!!! blah blah blah HEART WILL GO OONNN!! YEEAAAHHHH!!!!"

"DAN! Will you PLEASE shut the hell up?!?! I mean....GOD!!" Sakura pulled the car up behind her, Dan, and ShockWave's quarters, carrying grocery bags out of Dan's offensively bright pink car.

After entering the house, Dan and Sakura put whatever was not immediately (or completely) eaten by their houseguests in the refridgerator.

"Hey," Sakura asked, "where's Christa?"
"Ai bumbow [I don't know]" said Victoria, her mouth full of Hershy's Kisses.

"Duskoi!"
Honda went flying into Christa, his head hitting her in the ribs, and knocking her back several feet. The fight was almost over- and Christa wasn't winning. She only had one shot...

"PHEONIX SNIPER!!" Christa popped up from the ground, uncrossing her arms, and conjuring up four spears made of fire that she would send at the bulky sumo champion. But it was too late. Honda slammed his massive exposed palm into Christa's stomach, interrupting her move. She did her best to recover, following Honda's attack with her own flury of kicks and punches. They all connected. The punches to the chest and face, the knee to the stomach, all of them. And they hurt Honda. But he didn't slow down his advance. The massive warrior smashed his hand down into the young woman's chest, forcing her on her back to the ground.
 

"You assume that because I am large that I am not fast. You assume that because I am not the one you seek here, that you could not be beaten by me. You assume that because my body is like an apple, and not the broken twig it comes from, that I am not healthy. You assume that my strength was not as great as your speed. You assume that because I am a sumo, all my time would be spent trying to grapple you. All this time assuming...should have been spent thinking. Speed is worth little if one doesn't know where to use it," Honda preeched, looking down at the fallen girl. "I knew Master Kim. I know he taught you better than this. Both how you fight, and how you act. If he wanted you killed, I'm sure he would have done so himself. Grow up."
 

"One!" the refferee yelled, noticing Christa's lack of movement. "Two! Three!" Christa forced herself up onto her knees. Several of her bones were broken, and her head was spinning...but the fight still wasn't over. She finally made her way to her feet by the count of 'seven.'
 

'Not enough energy left for the Ressurection... But I'm gonna win this match...somehow...' Christa's thoughts weren't exactly focused, but she had a good idea of what she was going to do. She charged him. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, and blasted Honda in the chest with as much energy as she could muster. The impact sent Honda flying through a tree a few yards behind him. He didn't absorb the move without taking damage, and it was obvious. But before the hyper-active referee could even count to 'three,' he was back on his big feet.
 

"It is good that you are taking this battle more seriously," Honda head, strecthing his neck, and after a while, stomped his foot into the grass and earth. "Ikimasho!"

"Shut up and fight!" Christa replied, leaping into the air, and rapidly descending on Honda, her fists ready to strike whatever they came in contact with. Honda met her in the air, taking the brunt of her punches and kicks as if they were nothing, grabbing the young girl and forcing her back to the ground, they collective weight driving her even harder into the ground- though Honda could have made the descent much less comfortable if he had chosen to do so.

The referee winced at the result of Christa's offensive. Honda removed himself from her and took a few paces back. "One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Ni..."
"I quit."

The referee looked over at Honda, not beleiving what she had just heard.
"Sir...are...are you sure?" Honda nodded, his face stern as always.
 

"Yes. Look at this one," he said, pointing to the near-unconcious figure of miss Smith. "She still fights. Her body won't allow her, but she still wishes to get up and fight. That sort of thing...warms my heart. Besides, I have much to do, and she must be allowed to learn from her mistakes. She must learn, or die a fool's death. I am not the one to make that judgement for her." Honda said, picking up his robe and sandals, and leaving-wearing the scars of his battle proudly. After a while, the referee also left, leaving Christa alone with her thoughts...

'I...I...lost?'

"Dude, what's that fish smell?" Yun asked. Lilly stopped playing her flute for a moment.

"Well, when the plane went down, a lot of saltwater and stuff got in the flute. It's dry now, but to answer your question, the fish smell that you're smelling, is probably fish! Heh heh, haven't had a chance to clean out the ol' flute yet."

"Well," Yang started, "...doesn't the flute leave a horrible tase on your lips when you play it?" Lilly stopped for a second.

"Well...now that I think about it...." Lilly's face twisted into sort of a disgusted frown. "Ptui! Yuck! ew ew ew..." The young woman did her best to not further betray her sense of femenine grace by wiping her lips off on her arm. "Well...that's the end of the flute music for a while..." At that statement, Yang frowned, and Yun grinned.

"Go to the west..." a voice whispered, getting the attention of only Iwa, because she was the only one who heard it.
"hmm...you don't sound like one of the regular voices in my head....new guy?"
"You could say that...go west."
Iwa grinned.
"Been looking for some trouble...and I guess west is as good a direction as any...okay."
"Iwa...who are you talking to?" Kumori asked, not seeing or hearing anything.
"Oh...nobody..."
"Okay..."

After heading west for a few yards, the group came upon a small wooden cabin in the middle of the forest.
"Impressive."
"Nice quarters."
"Whoah."
"I wonder if they have cable?"
"I wonder if they have a bathroom..."
"There better be some women in there..."
"Shut up Yun."
"I wonder if they have food..."
"And I am in need manly shower...with some manly, manly soap. Pink soap..."
 

"The essence of power is in there." Iwa said, marching towards the oak cabin at a faster pace than before. The others followed, not really understanding what she had said, but anxious to get out of the murky forest.
  

"Yo Freebie!" 
"It's Heagy damn it! HEAGY!! H-E-A-G-Y!!""
 "Yeah, yeah, whatever, just get the door."
 
 
John walked over to the door, which had recently been knocked on by someone. Opening the door, he was greeted by the sight of a squirrel pearched on a wolf's back.
"Oy...must have hit my head harder than I thought..." A woman quickly stepped into sight to the left of the pair.
 
"Hello...is..." and it was at this point that Iwa realized, she had no idea what the essence of power's name was. So, much to the approval of Brand and Maru, she just shoved Mr. Heagy to one side and entered the structure. Heagy chased her, but left the door open, so the others in Iwa's group entered soon after.
 
 
Outside, behind the cabin, Dan was practicing his taunts against a rather large tree.
 
"Ojo desu ka? No, no that's not right... OJO Desu KA?!?! Yes! Much better..." Suddenly the figure of Justin "Debo" Davidson dropped from the trees, and knocked Dan over the head with what appeared to be a broomstick. He then slung the uncocious body over his shouler.
 
"All right ShockWave, you're coming with me..."
  

"Damn it Wai Lim, I don't need you to baby me! I'll be fine! Now pop my shoulder back into place again."
 "...There. And excuse me for wanting you to go through as least pain as possible!"
 "Thanks. Well it's not needed! I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself!"
"Well you could have fooled me. You almost got yourself killed killed today!"
"I would have been just fine!"
"No you wouldn't!"
"Would so!"
"Would not!"

"So!"
"Not!"
"So!"
"Not!"
"So!"
"Not!"
"Get out!"
"Fine!"
 
Wai Lim slammed the door to Sakura's room, where Crista was staying for the time being. When he walked outside of the room, he noticed things were a lot more crowded. Inspector Volpe, ShockWave, Crimson, Zero1, Cody, Heagy and Guy were all looking straight at him. Though Cody was sitting on the couch looking at a small black and white TV. But the rest soon removed their gazes from Wai Lim, as he angrily exited the building, and went off into the woods.
 
"That's why I don't have a girlfriend," Zero said, reffering to the scene that had just taken place.
"Oh, is that why?" Crimson asked, smirking.
"Shut up."
"Heh heh heh."
 

"Where am I?" Victoria asked herself. Just a moment ago, she had been thinking about her powers...about how she could know what people were thinking sometimes...about how she could see things...things that had happened to other people. But now...she was..where was she? She was surrounded by sky, as far as she could see, in all directions. The sky was black too. And she could see stars.
 
"I brought you here because you wanted to know."
"Who's that?" Victoria asked, drawing her knives.
"Don't bother looking around, I'm not here. About your powers...do you wish to know or not?"
"...Who are you?"
"I'll take that as a 'no...' Goodbye."
"No, wait!"
"Yessss?"
"Who the hell do you think you are?"
"Excuse me?"
"You can't just go yanking on people's brains and asking them personal questions! It's rude! How would you like it if someone did that to you?!"

"Well..."
"Exactly!"
"Heh heh heh. I like this one. Okay, point taken. But this isn't going tho help Shadow Dragon any..."
"What?"
"You could talk to him if I helped you to...If you'd let me. Your choice."
"...What do I have to do?"
"Well you are gifted and all that...but I can still do psychic-type things you can't. So...I need to give me permission to tamper around in your brain a bit... I promise I won't look at anything too private."
 
"No deal."
"Okay then...your loss. Nice meeting you. Buh bye."
"Wait, I..." Victoria suddenly found herself sitting at the kitchen table, her hand to her chin, thinking. Exactly how she had been before that whole...thing, that just happened. "Damn."
 

"Have you guys seen Dan? I haven't seen him since we got back from grocery shopping." Sakura scrathed her head, trying to remember if she had seen him more recently.
"Sorry, nope." Iwa said, looking around for ShockWave. Kumori turned to Iwa.
"Hey! you ever wonder why all these people are here?"
"Nope."
"I mean, it's almost like we're being gathered...."
"Nope, didn't notice."
"...okay. Hey, there he is!" Kumori pointed through the window at the figure of ShockWave, sparring with Crimson.
 
 "Ah ha!! There you are..."
 Iwa, Kumori, and Yun left and headed into the cabin, leaving Yang and Lilly outside.
"Sooo....how about that...uh...El Ninô?" And as Yang was convincing himself that he deserved an award for lamest line EVER, he was tapped on the shoulder. Turning around, he saw a figure in a dark hooded robe.,
 
"Excuse me...are you two Mr. Yang, and Ms. Lilly Yin?"
"I'm Yang. Who wants to know?"
"You two have a match against each other...now."