Victoria, Meliza, and Ayame walked around the island's only real shopping mall- though luckily it was a good-sized one. They pointed at seemingly random males and giggled for no apparent reason, discussed body parts in size and proportion to other body parts, checked out guy's butts, hung out in those Bath and Body Works stores, and other things that only women (and flamingly homosexual men) do.

After looking around for shoes ("Who NEEDS that many shoes?!?" was the common thought of all of the males in the store, who had been dragged there by women), the girls went to store, after store, after store after store after store after store...Though the writer (hi there) is male, and as such is bored to tears by just the thought of describing what young chicks do in a mall. So I'll just be skipping this part...

"Jet Upper!"

The boxer, Dudley, leapt skyward with an uppercut, attempting to take his opponent's jaw with him as he did. And, had his [rather large] gloved fist ever connected with Ryu's head, the momentum of the match would have been swayed in Dudley's favor considerably. But that didn't happen.

Upon landing, Dudley was greeted with a solid uppercut punch to the abdomen, and a small step forward, followed by a very heavy snapkick to the chest. Dudley was knocked off of his feet a few yards.

Too predictable. That had been Dudley's largest problem since the match had begun. Dash in, some formation of jabs, cross punch, Jet Upper, dash out. There had been small variations in the pattern, but that was basically it.

Ironically, it was Ryu, who's moves were much more widely known in fighting circles (and sometimes even studied), who was not having a similar problem.
'If something won't work all of the time, then stop doing it all of the time.' Simple.

And that's how Ryu was in general, but especially how he was during fights. Whether the match had been composed of cycles of complicated head games and positioning strategies, or just simply attempting to overwhelm or tire out an inexperienced opponent, it was all the same to Ryu. It was battle. And when Ryu was in battle, he as in battle entirely- it wasn't as if his mind was in one place, and his body in another. When he fought, HE was fighting, not just his fists or his feet or his body. So unless it had something to do with the fight, pretty much anything short of Bhudda tapping him on the shoulder and inviting him to a poker game, would go unnoticed for the moment.

Dudley and Ryu circled each other a bit, before Dudley dashed it at Ryu, and tossed a few jabs around. Right Cross.

"Jet Uppe...Corkscrew Blow!!"

The tension had mounted to a head. Never was a word uttered, but they stood in their battle positions, their eyes locked on one another's, doing all of the speaking for them.

'Come on. Let's do this,' said the eyes of the first, and smaller warrior.
'Are you out of your little mind?' silently asked the other, teetering between battle stance and walking away.

The first warrior slowly shifted his feet against the earth, and charged at the other. Emitting a shriek, the usually quiet little fighter performed a leaping kick at his opponent. But in mid-flight, it was halted by...

"Maru! Leave Brand alone. You've been cranky all darn week..."

Maru, the squirrel, dropped out of mid-kick, and lowered his head in shame. Brand trotted off in the general direction of a food market, as Maru continued to look at the ground, and kicked a small pebble across the ground a few inches, before resuming his usual stance, on four legs instead of two. Iwa walked back to the hot springs to be alone and think.

Yang sat next to Lilly Yin on the couch at where his grandfather was staying, not quite sure what to say. Being with a beautiful girl you liked, was almost like being on a photo-safari. You had to move slowly...didn't want to scare her off...but you couldn't move too slowly...didn't want to let her get away...was she going to try to get away? He had no idea. He didn't even know what to say to the girl. So he figured he'd figuratively just hide in the brush a little longer, and take some more photos of this magnificent beast...like a rhino on the plains....or something. Oh well, at least that was one thing he knew NOT to say.

"Um, Yang..." started Lilly...but before she could finish, a flying shoe connected with the side of Yang's head, knocking him over. And that shoe was connected to the leg of his brother Yun.

Yun, who had apparently just kicked Yang in the head for no reason at all, was then subsequently chased around the room by the latter.

'Men,' Lilly thought. 'Right when you want to tell them something important, they're busy goofing off...'
 

Cody stuffed a large spoonful of rice into his mouth, much to the disapproval of the others at the all-you-can-eat buffet.

"Don't worry," he reassured the patrons, "I'm eating the whole thing. Not like I'm being unsanitary or anything..."

Cody lifted the pan of rice, and after stuffing some sushi, egg rolls, Jell-O cubes, and sugar cookies into his pockets, he took a seat. Eventually, the others in the restaurant stopped paying attention, and went back to eating.

E. Honda, who was sitting at the table next to Cody's decided to comment, as he watched him dump an entire pan of rice into his now oversized, anime type mouth.

"Um...what are you doing?" Cody stopped looking over at the soda fountain, mentally debating the repercussions of putting his mouth directly on the nozzle to drink the soda, and instead opted to answer Honda.

"I know how some of these so-called 'all you can eat' places work, see?"
"Do you, now?"
"Yes sir I do. Ya see, once they let ya in, they charge you per PLATE, ya see?"
"Uh huh..."
"So, I just strolled in, and started eating. No plates or cup or anything involved. Pretty smooth, huh?"

"Uh huh...and you do know, that this restaurant gives out free food to all fighters involved in the tournament?" Cody stopped eyeing the soda fountain, and dropped his Jell-O cube on the table in shock.
"I see..."
"Yeah..."
"All righty...hmm. Well that means I can get a plate now, I guess..."

"Uh huh."
"...yes..."
"...right."

Cody slapped himself on the forehead, and decided it would just be best to sit there, and await Crimson and Guy.

Ayame was beaming with a smile, as she merrily skipped toward the car of Zero 1. Zero had been extorted into driving to the shopping mall, but decided it would be a more pleasant experience to just sit in his car for several hours with the windows rolled up on a hot day with now air conditioning turned on. The women, however, had made him at least rolled down the car's windows. "We don't want this car all stunken up when we get back," is basically what one of them had said. 'Women,' Zero 1 thought. 'You can yank babies out of them, but a little B.O., and they go nuts. Figures.'

"You guys are SO great for taking me shopping! Come here..." said Ayame, wrapping Victoria and Meliza in a hug, and creating what looked like a very expensive Kodak Moment. "Awwwww... And remind me to model some of this stuff for Kay sometime, heh heh." Meliza looked at a belly shirt that Ayame had bought in one of the stores.

"Where'd ya get that from?"

"Huh? Oh, I got it from the Old Navy, right next to that frame store." Meliza's right eyelid suddenly twitched a few times, as she had a flashback of the authoritarian, anal retentive, power trippy boss she had at a frame store once. She shuddered silently, before moving a little closer to the car door.

"I hate to break up the estrogen party ladies, I really do, but I have to go do man-things, so I'm gonna need my car."
"Man things?" asked Ayame, as she did her best to cram everything she had purchased into Z1's car.
"Uh...yeah. Like...um...listen, I don't have time to explain these things to you all. Can we just go now?"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," answered Victoria, sliding into the front seat and immediately turning on the radio. And, upon hearing the song playing, she decided to turn up the volume and sing loudly.
"OOPS I DID IT AGAIN!...."

Zero 1 shook his head quietly. It was gonna be a long ride home.

Acinomia sat in her "dark room." Not like many rooms she had weren't dark anyway. You would have thought she was alone.

"Hi there."
"Hmph," was Acinomia's response.
"Aww...just cause you're evil doesn't mean you have to be grumpy." He slowly paced back and forth behind her as she sat. "I saw what happened."

"Lousy mortals," she finally spoke.
"For one who was talking so much earlier, you sure are awfully quiet now. Or are you too busy feeling sorry for yourself?"
"Hmph."
"Cheer up kid- and I call you kid, because you're acting like a baby. At least you killed what's-her-name."

"She was right, you know. I have been doing nothing but b*tch for the last two hundred years. I'm so pissed at myself!"
"Well, you really have nothing to do...it's easy for your work to get away from you don't have any. Maybe you need a hobby...playing cards, collecting baseball cards, videogames..."

"Hmph," she repeated.
"Still evil though, right?"
"Yeah," she said, continuing to sit moping in the darkness.
"Okay," he said, yawning. "You know that's gonna cause us some trouble later, with you being evil, and us being friends..."

"I know."
"All right. Well, I've got things to do, and someone to meet. See ya around."

With that, TS vanished from the room.

After emerging from the hot springs and drying her hair at the cabin, she tracked down Kumori, who was reading an issue of Slam Dunk on the couch.

"Happy birthday." Iwa handed Kumori a small stuffed puppy, with a ribbon tied around it's collar.

"Awwww!! It's so cute! Thank you! Awww...cute little puppy..." Kumori hugged the puppy once, and played around with the ribbon a little.

"Nah, it was nothin'. Anyway, I was thinking about having a little get-together at the Fighter's Inn with some of the fellas, for your birthday...you wouldn't mind, would you?"

"Nope, not at all," she said, hugging the stuffed animal a little, and wondering where she would keep it.
"Good, 'cause I'd hate to have to un-invite those people..."
"What?"
"Oh. Um, nothing."
"Okay."
 

"Must...rinse...brain...clean!" Zero 1 bolted from his car screaming, the combination of Britteny Spears and Victoria Enid proving to be too much for him. Victoria and Meliza helped Ayame carry her stuff inside the cabin.

"Say..." spoke Ayame, "you don't think Kay will mind me using his room for the night?"
"Nah," Meliza answered, picking up Zero 1's dropped car keys. "He sounds like a decent enough sucker."
"Where are you two going?" Ayame asked, as she watched Victoria and Meliza exit the room in opposite directions.

"Going to take a nap," answered Victoria, as she entered her room and shut the door behind her.
"And I'm gonna borrow Zero's car for the evening. Ciao."
"Bye bye!" Ayame went into Kay Lee's room, to try on some of her new clothes...

As Meliza exited, she saw a semi-familiar face, and a new guy- Kay and John Heagy.

"Hey guys, Zero 1 is lending me his car for a while...see you later."
Kay and Heagy walked towards the old cabin a little, and then suddenly stopped and turned back to Meliza in unison. Kay stepped forward.

"Lent it to ya, huh? Right. How'd you steal the keys?"
"Well, there was this Britteny Spears song, and..."
"Please," Heagy interrupted, "don't continue. I've seen enough overdeveloped, big-*ssed blondes to last me a lifetime!"

"And where were you seeing these blondes, exactly?" asked Kay, now seeming genuinely concerned.
"My fight with Rainbow Mika, remember?"
"Oh yeeeaaah.... D*mn, forgot to videotape that."
"Why would you?" Meliza asked, looking at Kay.

"Oh, well Zero said it would give me a lesson in physics, or gravity or somethin' like that. Anyway, I'm heading in, see you later."
"Later."

Meliza then sped off.

John and Kay entered, noticing that the place was pretty much empty. Heagy immediately sat down on the couch in front of the TV, trying desperately to find something without hot blonde women, and failing for the most part. Oh, what he wouldn't do for the homely charm of a David Letterman right about now...

Kay decided he would get a well deserved nap, so after eating 4 bowls of cereal, he opened his door, stepped inside, and heard...

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!"

Victoria was sleeping, and rather soundly at that. She was dreaming, too. She was a princess in a castle tower, donned in a white dress. She looked out of the tower window, awaiting her white knight to approach the castle on his steed, and free her from her prison...but he wasn't coming. She knew he wasn't coming. She was so angry, and so sad...and so...relieved? Suddenly, a huge orange and red bird sped past the tower, soaring faster than she had ever seen anything fly. As it passed, everything began to shake and tremble terribly... And then everything went black.

"We need to talk."

Dudley canceled his Jet Upper, which was basically a version of the dragon punch with more emphasis on the vertical movement than the horizontal (that plus a nifty and fashionable boxing glove), with his Corkscrew Blow super move.

Imagine, if you will, a large, manly fist, wrapped in a big, big towel. Now, replace the towel with a spiraling mass of semitransparent energy hugging on to Dudley's fist, throw in a boxing glove, and that's what basically what Ryu got nailed in the chest with. Now right after I pat myself on the back for that horrible analogy, I'll get back to the fight scene.

Luckily though, Ryu had been able to begin his dash attempt backwards (He knew something was up, because no fighter was dumb enough to attempt the same combo 4 times in a row if it hadn't even worked once), so Ryu didn't catch the full brunt of the attack. But it still landed well enough to take him off of his feet, and shake him up a little. Ryu actually didn't mind too much- outside of the pain, and everything. Originality and surprises could be elements of a good fight, if pulled off correctly. And a good fight was always a good thing.

"Shoryuken!" Ryu leapt into the air a short distance as he arose, stopping Dudley's advance by winging him in the shoulder with a dragon punch. At least things were more interesting and less predictable than before, so even though Dudley still seemed a little outclassed, he also looked as if he had a better chance of winning the match (or at least looking impressive) than he had a few minutes ago.

These were actually the thoughts of the crowd watching, mostly. Under estimating an opponent could easily cost you a match. And it wasn't as if Dudley was (consistently) leaving himself open during the attacks, unlike a certain schoolgirl Ryu took it easy on once. Besides, you just can't go around beating up your only fan...

Dudley had, Since the all ready mentioned Corkscrew Blow super move, changed his strategy a bit. Less dashing, slower pacing, and what looked to Ryu to be some very basic positional strategizing. Dudley tossed Ryu a few jabs, followed by a right hook to the ribs, and a cross to the face. And that was, apparently, the last thing Dudley would do before he was knocked out.

Ryu blocked the jabs, blocked the hook, and ducked the cross, and countered with a standing hook punch of his own, followed by...

"Shinkuu..."
"PSYCHO CRUSHERRR!!!!!"

The flaming blue figure streaked through the air, hitting and knocking out both Dudley and the referee.

"Heh heh heh. Tanoshimase te morau!"

"Soul Blast!" The young woman shouted, focusing her energy into the shape of a ball, and hurtling the firey sphere towards whatever it was, that was in the darkness. The burst seemed to connect with whatever it was that was there.
"Boo." Victoria turned around, to see the same set of eyes that had been talking to her earlier. "You didn't hit me, because I was never there. You also couldn't hit me, because I'm everywhere, but that's a whole 'nother thing..."

"Who are what are you?" she asked as she drew her knives, not realizing the futility of the act.
"You don't remember me? I'm a little hurt..."
"Yeah, well you'll be more than a little hurt if you don'...hey! I recognize that voice! Who ARE you, anyway?"
"Let me explain a few things...firstly, you're asleep right now. I'm just paying you a little visit in your dream. Secondly, you wanna do it?"

"...What?!!"

"Hey, it's just a dream. Figured you might go for it so I gave it a shot. Couldn't hurt to ask. Anyhow, I'm here because I'm gonna need your help with something. Something big. Big big. Talk to Kumori about me, she'll know who you mean. And tell her I said 'Happy Birthday.'"

"It's her birthday?"
"Yeah, you'll get invited to a party a little while after you wake up...d*mn! Been almost 8 seconds..."
"Eight seconds? But..."
"It's a whole, big, time delay, brain activity type, thing...gotta go. Might have to save some new guy's *ss in a minute... See you around."

The darkness that had previously enveloped everything, was not gone. In it's place was a wide, grassy field, with hillsides, rolling blue skies, and all of that other stuff. She realized both that the other presence was now gone, and secondly, that she was sitting on the ruins of the tower she had been in previously. From there she continued her dream...

A short distance away from where Bison began do descend from the sky slowly and stand on the ground, Juli stood in the crowd- camouflaged, for a change, in regular civilian clothing.

"Visual contact of Subject Alpha and Prime Command Unit confirmed. Phase Gamma complete. Notify Subject Zeta and initiate Phase Sigma."

"Acknowledged," a cold, yet angry voice responded.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Meliza pulled over to the handsome stranger who was walking by the side of the road. She just couldn't resist a pretty face...well she could, but she wasn't gonna...

Slowing next to him as he walked and unlocking the passenger-side door, she sent a pretty d*mn clear message that she was interested in him. He looked at her, and after recognizing the car, climbed in.

"Hey...the name's Locke...what's yours?"

Brian sat alone on a stump in the woods, unsure of what to do. Everything seemed so pointless now. Why did she have to leave? It just wasn't right. It shouldn't have happened that way, she shouldn't have....wrong. Something was wrong. VERY wrong. It had gotten colder suddenly, but the wind hadn't changed at all. Wai Lim suddenly hopped up and turned around, and he saw the reason for the way he felt, the disturbance. And standing, no less than 2 meters away from him...

was Man Sei.