Part 2

(back at Bison’s super-duper-secret-hidden-base-of-evil)

Dolls name: Enero , Fevrier, Marz, Aprile, Satsuki (sword), Santamu (spear), Xiayu (nunchaku), Jianyu (quarterstaff), Noembelu (hatchets), Decapre (masked)<<<

Ryu raised his hand to block the incoming sidekick from Enero and sidestepped swirling punch from the other attacker, Fevrier. The twelve killer dolls that were waiting for the escaping fighters in the training room had picked an opponent, two assassins for each fighter.

The fight went on, Ryu being defensive and waited for opening as his normal fighting style and the two dolls working together closely and made the living hell out of Ryu. Fortunately for the Shotokan fighter, he was a patient and experienced fighter, anyone who have less patience would had super difficulties facing them.

The fight went on, then suddenly Ryu found himself between the two assassins, both assassins leapt and kicked, but Ryu quickly countered with jumping Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku. The counter technique knocked the two assassins backwards, while using the technique, Ryu was moving toward Enero.

As he landed, Enero was about to stand up. Ryu feigned a hook to the face, but just about halfway to the face, he changed to spinning trip, and again, Enero was knocked down. Fevrier came charging from behind, but Ryu had already rolled away safely under Fevrier’s attack. He finished his roll in crouching position just behind the assassin and…

“Shoryuken!!”

The strongest technique of the Shotokan’s special techniques hit the assassin and sent her hurtling above her partner. Fevrier landed rather painfully on the floor.

Enero got up again and attacked with a spinning kick, which was blocked, side elbow, which was evaded, and a straight right punch, which was diverted to the side. As he diverted the assassins punch, Ryu countered back with his own punch to the face, the punch was blocked, and the following straight kick was evaded, but the next spinning kick to the face sent the pretty assassin spinning in the air for a while before she finally hit the floor.

As he expected, Fevrier had recovered and charged at him again. Ryu expertly evaded the incoming punch, then jumped back from the following punch. At this time, Enero had recover and quickly joined in the fight. It was a hard fight for Ryu, but it was what he had in mind to defeat the two assassins effectively and efficiently. He now fought not only with his techniques, but with his soul by focusing all his attention into the fight. By this, he could sense what his opponents were about to do, kinda like ESP, but not exactly.

Just as he felt that Enero was sending a kick and Fevrier was about to launch a punch, he knew that this was the time. Spinning his upper body a bit backward to prepare for his special technique, he avoided the kick to his head and diverted the punch to the side quite hardly, then…

“Shinkuu…”

“Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!!!”

The suction power from the super technique was so hard that the two assassins were quickly engulfed in it. While Ryu spinning furiously in mid-air, with his right leg outstretched, the two assassins received painful fifteen kick each around the waist above. When the technique was done, Enero and Fevrio were knocked away several feet, unconscious…

(Back to the wonderful world of cabins >elevator music plays<)

Jin let loose a soft sigh, his back leaning against the wall outside his room. What was he doing? Why was he really doing this? He could have just left her somewhere he thought was relatively safe, with her friends, maybe. But here he was, waiting to take her with him to someplace safer. Somewhere out of Naar’s reach. Why did he feel such a need to protect her? It must be out of obligation to the promise he had made to her brother, he told himself. It couldn’t be anything more. He simply could not - and would not - allow it to be.

A small voice somewhere in the back of his mind seemed to question the prospect, however. If this was meant to be nothing but obligation, then why did she cause the reactions in him that no one else could? Why was he now so anxious to get her somewhere safer? Why was it that being so close to Natalie caused thoughts and feelings he didn’t think he could have? He leaned his head against the wall with a small thud, a little too hard, but he chose to act oblivious to the pain.

Staring down briefly at his attire, Jin acknowledged with quick realization that he’d have to at least change his shirt before they met up with Astaroth. Naturally, the latter wouldn’t appreciate all the blood Natalie had lost, particularly because it was at Jin’s own hands. Of course, that was an issue that Astaroth need not know about at the time, the Kushina warrior noted. His attention soon shifted towards a nearby window, at the near-approaching sunset, before his eyes slowly narrowed with what appeared to be slight annoyance. She was taking too long. Deciding she’d had plenty of time, he politely knocked on the door and waited a moment. No answer. He raised one brow just barely and knocked again.

“Natalie?”

When she still did not answer he slowly opened the door, golden eyes immediately scanning around the surroundings cautiously as he slowly trudged inside. He exhaled a short breath, something between a huff and a sigh, when he saw the bathroom door open and heard the sink running, implications of what she was up to already amassing themselves into his thoughts. With his tone slightly flat, Jin uttered, “Natalie, we need to go.”

Natalie soon emerged from the bathroom, now wearing the oversized black shirt and a towel on her head, blinking once at him. “We have to go now? Where?”

“Somewhere where they won’t look for you. When they discover you’re gone, if they haven’t already, they’ll know it was either your brother or I that took you,” he stated in his usual emotionless tone, looking her over briefly and realizing, for the first time, just how much thinner and smaller she was compared to them. Astaroth and Jin were roughly the same size and build, and Natalie looked somewhat amusing wearing such a large shirt over her baggy jeans. With the sleeves running past her elbows, and the hem reaching her upper thighs, one side of the collar hung, somewhat awkwardly, off her left shoulder. She looked… frail, almost like a small child trying to wear grown up clothes. Jin knew, however, that looks could be deceiving…

“Oh, sorry, I… had to wash some blood out of my hair. I’m ready now.”

Her voice broke his thought pattern and he nodded once to her. “Wait outside, I’ll be out in a minute. We’ll find Astaroth then,” he said. She nodded and walked out, closing the door behind her. Rubbing the towel roughly over her wet hair, she turned with the intention of walking to the fridge when something, or rather someone, materialized before her…

(*chants* Fight! Fight! Fight!)

Both opponents hit one another and were sent hurling backward. Shadow Dragon grunted heavily as the projectile rammed into his chest with all the force of a tow truck, sweeping him off his feet and sending him flying backward. Zorkaan was not in much better shape, the Zero blast forcing him to spew the air out of his lungs as he was thrown onto his back.

Both combatants quickly rose to their feet, once more locking in an intense, hateful gaze before Zorkaan’s eyes emitted a dark, murky black glow. A vicious psychic assault was unleashed on Shadow Dragon… the latter, though, was left unfazed by the Dark one’s attempts, his Kai discipline of psionic screening building a impenetrable protective shield around his psyche, much to Zorkaan’s frustration as rage seemed to crawl all over his features.

But soon the dark psychic’s façade turned to a content one as he chuckled, “Behind you Kai lord…” he said and approached quickly. Shadow Dragon was about to turn to gaze momentarily behind him, before Victoria’s voice rang in his head, [Don’t be an idiot, that’s the oldest trick in the book!] she said and cut his line of thought. Shadow Dragon maintained eye contact with Zorkaan, who was looking more and more giddy as he closed the gap between them.

[Vic, I got a bad feeling this isn’t a…] He retorted before he exhaled sharply and was pushed forward by a huge rock, telekinetically sent forth from behind him, as he failed to notice due to the distraction.

Zorkaan grinned as he leaped forward and rammed his fist into the momentarily winded Shadow Dragon, forcing his face backward and his body being forced an inch or two back due to the crushing blow’s force. Shadow Dragon turned to block Zorkaan’s follow up blow, his hand accommodating his left handed punch and swatting it off course.

Zorkaan’s intent was that exactly and he planned to lift his knee to ram into the female body Shadow Dragon inhabited at the moment, but he found his trick being predicted as Shadow Dragon lifted his leg and prevented him from initiating his plan.

Shadow Dragon turned the momentum of the battle back to his own advantage as he rammed both palms into Zorkaan’s chest, sending him stumbling backwards. Then Shadow Dragon yelled audibly and his power flashed around his entire body momentarily in bluish-silver glamour before he lunged forward with inhuman speed…

Zorkaan tried to dodge the Kai master but failed to, due to his previous slight pause following the blow which left an odd pain in his chest. The body he was inhabiting was obviously not in its prime, dull pain and exhaustion lingering from time to time and making the battle more difficult than he would expect while inhabiting such a powerful body.

All these momentary notions were cut short as Shadow Dragon’s knee rammed forcefully into Zorkaan’s body and sent him lurching backwards due to the momentum and force behind the blow. Bending forward involuntarily and exhaling sharply, Zorkaan snarled in frustration as the pain was immense and the instinctive reactions of the human body powerful enough to override the will of even the most powerful of psychic beings. He knew he was now left open for an attack, one which would without doubt be very painful.

Shadow Dragon then unleashed a barrage of powerful kicks all over Zorkaan’s upper torso, flickers of Shadow Dragon’s aura lacing his foot as each blow connected forcefully and infused very intense pain upon Zorkaanm, every hit making his host body shudder and exhale sharply.

Then Shadow Dragon rammed one kick against his chin forcing him slightly backwards before stepping forward and clasping both hands onto the clothing covering his own true body, launching both of them into the air.

Zorkaan felt oddly dizzy and disoriented as Shadow Dragon suddenly somersaulted backwards while turning them both upside down in midair and suplexing him with explosive force against the ground, Zorkaan being bathed in the silver blue flames of the Kai master’s Ki.

Shadow Dragon leaped backwards quickly and resumed his stance, his emotions on his actions mixed, for he must hurt Zorkaan bad, but at the same time try not to mutilate his body completely, for it would spell his ultimate demise. He had to find a way to force Zorkaan out of his body somehow, yet the means of such an achievement still eluded him.

Zorkaan groaned in pain and rose to his feet, coughing lightly. His body was not reacting in the speed and succession he had expected, something out of the regular was amiss, and he needed to hit this accursed little Kai lord harder if he hoped to retain this body.

“It’s ironic, isn’t it Kai lord? Kill me and you kill yourself, don’t kill me, and you doom yourself nevertheless, both options spell your demise; appealing fate you have, isn’t it?” Zorkaan mused as he stood, sensing the Kai lord collecting his energy and forcing it to mass into a powerful surge of power.

Zorkaan turned his gaze to lie upon Shadow Dragon as he unleashed the cylinder force known as the Zero blast, the projectile approaching him with break neck speed. Zorkaan attained a neutral façade and allowed it to come closer and closer in a steady agile pace, faking attempts to escape while inwardly preparing to unleash a gamble of an attack. As it was about to hit him, Zorkaan suddenly slashed his hand across his body, his power erupting to life and shielding him, forming a concave shaped shield which absorbed the blast, the explosion erupting nevertheless and bathing Zorkaan in Shadow Dragon’s flames.

Unaware of the trick Zorkaan had played, Shadow Dragon awaited to press his attack forth. Suddenly, something hit his chest and knocked him off his feet, the air forced out of his lungs and ghastly, nauseating chills running up him and sending an infernal buzz into his mind for several long moments.

He landed on his back and was left surprised as Zorkaan stepped out of the fiery remains of his previous attack, now wielding a long double edged broadsword of black metal that seemed to grow out of his hand. The blade was inscribed with runes of an ancient arcane language of the dark god, a reddish glow emitting from the runes, bathing the blade in the cursed light, the flat side of the blade protected by the magical carvings.

Shadow Dragon rose to his feet, the subtle signs of exhaustion bugging him as well as he spat some saliva and gulped as he remembered his blade was in Zorkaan’s possession, and he was quite unarmed.

[SD, my daggers] Victoria reminded him, catching onto his thought which filled her psyche which he was inhabiting at the moment. Shadow Dragon blinked and unsheathed them quickly, tensing for a split second as he fused them with a silver blue aura, fusing his soul into the blades and making them act as an extension of his own body.

Zorkaan laughed and swung his blade in a wide arc, waves of telekinetic power being sent forth. Ripples of dark energy expanded in Shadow Dragon’s direction, the air charging up with the corrupt power, the rocks on the ground being tossed aside as the force creates a distortion in its wake.

Shadow Dragon leaped over the blast vaulted himself toward Zorkaan while slashing with both daggers at the Dark one. Zorkaan swung his blade to meet the dual daggers, the audible clang and clash of auras filling the dark landscape, lightening the darkness with the swirl of opposite colors which flare to life…

(Fighter’s Inn)

The door to the inn flew open as Guile, Volpe, John and Crimson walked in.

“Shock……… wave…” Volpe started before seeing the wreckage spread across the room in the form of broken tables and chairs. All fighters immediately walked around the room and looked for any signs of their comrades.

Guile and Crimson found a semi-conscious Dan laying on the floor, one hand covering a bleeding gash on his head, “Damn…” the fallen warrior muttered.

“You ok? What the hell happened??” Guile asked as he and Crimson helped Dan slowly get to his feet.

Dan shook his head a bit to clear his thoughts, “Some guy… came in here and started fighting us… He was freakin’ good too… Hey… where’s Shocky?”

With a heavy sigh, Volpe kneeled and picked up something, “Probably in the same place as dear Iwa and Kumori…” he said, showing ShockWave’s quarter-staff. A grim silence fell over the others for a moment. Guile turned to Dan again, “What’d the guy look like?”

“LONG black hair, umm… tall, really weird blue eyes… Hmph, and he was so pretty-boyish that I never expected him to pack that kind of power…”

Suddenly, a high female voice chirped, “He was… BISHONEN???”

All the men blinked and turned to see Miko and Lilly standing in the doorway, Miko having a dreamy look on her face.

“Umm… yeah, whatever, what’re you guys doing here?” Dan asked.

Lilly smiled, “Some guy named TS told us you’d be here, heh. Anyway, what happened? Where’s Shockwave?”

Guile sighed, “Now missing along with Kumori and Iwa… It seems whoever this might be is after the Essences, meaning you and Crimson should be careful…”

“Oh… but we have to help find the others! We’ll be fine, right Crimson?” Lilly asked.

Crimson nodded, “I’m not gonna hide while my friends get hurt or worse, hell no. We’re helping.”

Guile sighed in slight frustration and nodded, “Fine.” Though in his mind, he knew this wasn’t a good idea. “If it is Natalie’s brother doing all this for that Naar character, we could be in a sh*tload of trouble…” he thought.

“Let’s go!” Miko chirped, heading back out the door with Lilly in tow and the others following. Little did they know the figure watching them from a short distance, it’s red, cybernetic eyes scanning and calculating, “Targets sited, two Essences and five companions heading North-West from Fighter’s Inn, request orders…”

A small beeping sound was heard, before the cyborg spy replied, “Affirmative.”

He continued following from quite a distance, awaiting the arrival of the Essences’ future captors…

(*talks like Chichiri* More fighting, no da.)

Skillwise, Ken Master was surely above these two assassins. They were fast, but he was not a slug either. So why did he keep getting hit (or kicked) by the two assassins, Marz and Aprile?

The answer was that Ken was not as focus as his rival, Ryu in fight. In fights, Ryu had more focus and could sense his opponent more accurately, thus allowing him to plan his strategy. Ken, however was more brash and reckless. Although he was not actually fight like a raging bull, nevertheless, the lack of focus in fight gave away some of the advantage that he had against these two assassins, and especially since the two assassins were trained to fight together, it made the fight harder for Ken.

After a fourth (who’s counting really?) time gotten kick on the back by Marz, then followed by a punch and sweep kick by Aprile, Ken landed painfully on the floor. He was angry and pained. How could a champion of American martial artist and one of the best fighters in the world could be treated like a little child against bullies?

He groaned and got up. He stood facing the two assassins waiting to kick his butt again. He went into his stance and waited. The first one to make a move was Aprile, she ran toward him and followed by Marz just a couple of steps behind. Then, an idea clicked in Ken’s head. He sidestepped Aprile’s attack, knowing that the real thing was from Marz. But instead of facing Marz, he concentrated on Aprile. He caught Aprile’s shoulder in mid-sidestepped and rammed his knee to her gut. Marz came a second later with a Drill Kick technique similar to Cammy’s.

Ken however was ready for it. Still holding Aprile’s shoulder, he threw her toward Marz, who could not stop in time to avoid the surprise counter. Both assassins went down in a tangle. Surprisingly, Ken did not after the opportunity for the concern of being countered, he waited until the both assassins got up again before he started.

As both killers started to get up, Ken reacted. He charged toward Aprile who still a bit dazed, but in mid-charge, he change to Marz. Caught surprise, Marz only able to block the first punch, but the next attack caught her on the face…

“Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!!”

The attack did not throw her away, but did stun her so that Ken was able to get a flaming Shoryuken in. She was hit three times and landed a few feet away. Ken’s upper hand was not quite long, though. Aprile came to her partner aid, she leapt just when the Shoryuken reached its peak and caught Ken with her leg. She flipped around, still holding Ken and rammed him to the floor.

They got up again and circled at each other before the fight started again. Aprile jumped and Ken and kicked, but Ken countered with his super technique, Shinryuken. The techniques caught Aprile like a tornado, hitting her about eight times and sent her almost to the ceiling. She fell and hit the floor hard, and unconscious.

As Ken landed, he noticed Marz charging at him. He sent a roundhouse kick, hoping to stop her charging. But his opponent quickly slid under the attack, catching the supporting leg. Ken was flipped involuntarily ninety degrees, but he managed to break his fall by a tap to the floor with his hands and flipped back. He landed in horse stance to absorb the fall, then kicked back as he sensed Marz coming at him. The assassin blocked hastily, didn’t know that Ken was able to recover that fast. The kick pushed her back a couple of steps.

Ken turned and sent a Hadouken toward Aprile. The chi projectile hit Aprile on the chest, sending her crashing to the wall. He charged toward stunned Aprile and sent a couple of punches and kicks that sent Aprile to unconsciousness.

She gasped, taking a step back, only to exhale in relief as she saw it was Astaroth. “It’s you…” she said.

“How did you get here? Did Jin bring you?” His voice sounded somewhat concerned, for once. She nodded before noting the odd look he was giving her, or rather the shirt she was wearing. “Are you ok?” he asked, calming slightly.

“Yeah, I’m fine… thanks to Jin,” He also silently noted the way she said Jin’s name, but said nothing of it. Instead he walked past her to Jin’s room, Natalie following out of curiosity.

He walked in, just in time to see a shirtless Jin picking a new shirt from a drawer. Astaroth raised a brow as Natalie peered from behind him, blinking and tilting her head slightly as she eyed Jin. The latter turned to face them, blinking once in mild surprise. He was about to say something, when Astaroth spoke, "Ready?"

Jin pulled the shirt over his head and nodded. Astaroth idly glanced around the room and caught sight of Natalie's old shirt, laying ripped on the floor, with dark red staining the edges of the already red shirt. His slightly narrowed eyes then looked at the white towel, smeared with the same crimson. He turned back to Natalie, his eyes betryaing some concern, "You're not fine. What happened?"

She gulped slightly, "I... Naar had someone beat me for resisting... it's fine now, really. It's healed really fast..." she said with slight hesitation, leaving out the detail of who beat her.

Astaroth’s eyes didn't seem to believe her. Gently yet quickly he turned Natalie around so he face her back, slowly lifting the back of her shirt just enough to see the bandages that had been placed there. She looked at Jin and smirked slightly, rolling her eyes at her brother, which, unsurprisingly, brought no response from Jin. Astaroth sighed quietly as he let her turn back around. He looked at Jin, “Thankyou for taking care of her…”

Jin only nodded once in response. Astaroth thought for a moment before asking, “Does Naar know she’s gone?”

Jin shook his head, “I don’t think so, he thinks I took her back to the cell and that I’m with you capturing the Essences…”

“Damn…” Astaroth cursed as he remembered them. Natalie looked at him with slightly wide eyes, “Are they ok? Did… did you really take them to Naar??”

“I did… I’m not sure what will happen to them, but Jin, we need to do something quickly, Naar will soon know you weren’t with me when I captured Shockwave…”

Jin nodded, quickly slipping on his previously forgotten shirt, followed by his jacket and Murasame.

“But we have to help them! We can’t just let Naar kill them!!” Natalie protested. Both men looked at each other for a moment, each knowing that now, there was little they could do…