They are the various originals of the new Board Fighter casts!

Ming dismounts his bike and walks forward, he bends down politely. "Greetings to all BF fic readers. We of the BF II casts would like to welcome you to our first chapter of the new BF Megamix fic!!!"

All BF Megamix II casts heroes, villains, and supporting characters alike, cheers and applauds, welcoming readers from all over the world (well, its true, you know :b ).

"Ah, a little message from the writer of the first chapter of this massive collaboration fic." Said Ming. "He apologizes in advance should this first chapter does not meet the readers expectation, 'coz he said that he had not been writing for quite a long time and his skill might be rusty." Then speaking in hushed tone of voice and grins slyly. "Although I think, he's just being bloody lazy."

As Ming finishes his words, he notices a huge shadow appears on the floor where he stands. He looks up and his expression turns into a horror one as he sees an anvil drops down on him...

After an audible loud crash and dust clears...

Ming79: Well, he shouldn't have said that. Even though he is my creation, doesn't mean I'm going to play favorite on him :hat

Anyway, without further delay... Here's BOARD FIGHTER MEGAMIX II: SHADOW OF POWER CHAPTER 1!!!

Justifaiz by ISSA
 
Hirogaru uchuu no naka Can you feel?
Chiisa na hoshi no hanashi wo shiyou
 
In the growing universe Can you feel?
Now let’s talk about a small star
 
Tell me the truth shinjiteta mirai ga
Kuzuresarou to shiteru
 
Tell me the truth the future I believed in
Is about to crumble away
 
Kanashimi wo kurikaeshi
Bokura wa doko e yuku no darou?
 
Repeating sorrow
Where are we going to go?
 
Ima hitorihitori no mune no naka
Mewosamase The time to go
Tsuyoku aru tameni
 
Now in the hearts of everyone
Wake up The time to go
To go forth strong
 
Mata mamoru koto to tatakau koto
Dilemma wa owaranai... hashiri tsudzukete mo
(The) end justifaizu the mean
 
To protect and to fight again
Dilemma doesn’t end… even if we keep running
(The) end justif’s the mean
 

On a desert in the sand country where wonders of the world could be found, a huge black aircraft sat silently on its three metal legs. The aircraft was so huge it easily dwarfed even the biggest jumbo jet in anywhere on this earth. It was not only a mean of transport, but could also become a mobile home for a certain underground criminal organization lord.

In the center of the aircraft was a room designated as the main working area where this crime lord spent most of his time plotting to take over the world. Currently sat on a metallic hovering chair, was a figure in red military attire. His face was hardly seen in the dark, although many people had seen his cruel and menacing face, not only his subordinates, but also his enemies and rivals. At the time, he was alone in this room.

On his hovering stool was a keyboard where he could control the equipments in this room. He pressed a key and the gigantic monitor, the main source of light in this room – other than the tiny LED buttons and gauges – came alive. His fingers danced on the keyboard, summoning a data that he had seen over and over for the past two years.

A computerized human figure came up and some numbers linked to the figure by green lines appeared a half second later. The crime lord, known to the world - especially to many security agencies around the world - as M. Bison, reviewed the statistics shown by the computer on the gigantic monitor. As he reviewed the result, a memory flooded his mind.

Flashback…

It was four years ago in a man-made island called the Fighter Island. He was up against two professional assassins known as Locke and Memphis Long. He had taken down one of them and was in process of cornering the other one. But to his dismay, the assassin that he had Psycho Crusher-ed was able to stand back up and rejoined the fight. The two assassins then worked in a more harmonious effort and in addition to the earthquake caused by the arrival of the dark god Naar were able to bring him down, causing him to fall for his death from the cliff.

Although he certainly was not killed from the fall, he had received a lot of damages from the two assassins. Added those damages with the wounds from the fall, he was certainly nearly losing his life. If not for his loyal subordinates that fetched him from the sea and put him in the stasis tank to recover, he was sure that he would have reincarnated to another realm, probably the hell, given his occupation and that he had killed many people.

Another lucky break for him was that his crime organization could operate on its own as most of his high level subordinates could made decisions on their own without causing the organization to crumble. It took him nearly two years to truly recovered, even that recovery was not without fatal flaw. His psycho power was waning and his body was beginning to lose its cohesion.

Designing a new body was not hard, with the level of genetic engineering and enhancement that he had in his hands, it would probably only took about seven to eight years to develop, or he could kidnapped a strong warrior and with a series of complicated procedure, he could transferred his mind to the new body, after expelling the old one. From the two ideas, the former seemed to be the best of choice at that moment, it is not that he could not bring down a strong warrior, like maybe Ken Masters or Ryu Hoshi, even in his weakened state, but it was certainly less risky than the latter idea.

However, another problem came up in later stages. If he opted for the first option, he needed time and that was something that he did not have. According to his scientists’ calculation, he could probably survive for another two to three years before the process of deteriorating sped up. He had four to five, maybe six years the maximum gamble, to live in this condition.

The other issue in hand was his psycho power. He had his loyal scientist checked. Although it was not truly waning, it seemed that he was losing the control of his psycho power. He thought of building the Psycho Drive machine again, but apparently that only solved the problem temporarily and not really worth the effort.

Later on, from his discussion with his scientist, he found the answer to his problem. He had to find a new source of power that could help him control his psycho power, and perhaps strengthened it.

So the second option for his survival is the key. He would later find a way to gather some of the strongest warrior in the world, pit them in a battle, yes, a tournament is a good cover-up, and lastly, he would take on the winner for his own use.

For almost a year and a half they searched through many information and technology but little did they find the answer. The flicker of hope came from a man who had worked for his organization a few times in the past. This man was an assassin, but an eccentric one at that. He was also a grave robber. Not many assassins to his knowledge had this kind of mix professions.

He was also a smooth talker that Bison could not help but allowed him to become somewhat a freelance worker. Usually the people that he was interested to have in his organization was either joined in or dead, with a few exceptional enemies and rivals here and there. But this man had some way in his talking that somehow Bison was okay with the idea of not joining, but not dead or became enemies. He could feel a strange power within this assassin that somewhat familiar but could not totally understood.

This man came up with the solution of his problem half-a-year ago. This assassin, El ’Diablo’ Pablo brought him a scroll that pointed to a certain source of ancient power that he could probably utilized to his own needs.

After many days of deciphering the scroll’s content, the location was found. It was inside a pyramid in the Egypt. The scroll itself was incomplete, due to some idiot had tear about half of it and probably lost it somewhere.

When Bison got to the location, he was nearly given up hope to see only vast land of sand. But with the aid of advanced technology, he finally found that the pyramid was buried under the sand. The next step was probably the longest and tedious task, he needed to uncover the pyramid from top to bottom as there was not other entrance than on its base and he could not risk damaging the pyramid, so no digging using bomb.

End of flashback…

The excavation had been going on for nearly six months and from the data uncovered by his scientists, he had uncovered about three-quarter of it. The last part of the pyramid was probably going to take about a week or two more at this rate.

“Never mind.” He thought. “Soon enough, the time will come for me.” He pressed a key and the monitor was off and darkness reclaimed the room once again.

***
 

England, morning…

A man sped past bullets shot rapidly by two automatic machine guns. He took out his own gun and shot expertly at the two machine guns. The machine guns went down. He leapt to a metallic ladder attached to a pillar and quickly climbed atop a stone construction. From there, he slid down a rope attached to an eight-foot high pole about thirty feet from the stone construction.

When he was near enough to the pole, he planted his legs on the pole to stop the sliding. He jumped down and rolled forward twice to evade two arrows wheezed at the height of his chest. He sprang forward and reached a set of stone steps. He quickly climbed up and grabbed the golden coin set on a stone table. He raised his right hand high to show the coin to someone not far from the training area. “Bryce, time?”

A slim man dressed in purple t-shirt covered by a Hawaiian shirt, black jeans, and a pair of Converse sneakers hit the stopwatch button and looked at the time. “Bugger!” He exclaimed and slapped his knee.

The young man dressed in black sleeveless t-shirt, black training pants, black and white Nike shoes, and a pair of black fingerless gloves, grinned at the sight of his friend/mechanic cursing. “I take that as a sign that I win our bet?” He walked toward Bryce and flipped the golden coin at Bryce. It landed nicely on Bryce’s opened palm.

“Dammit, Ming. How did you manage to do the obstacles in such a record time?” Asked Bryce as he followed Ming into the mansion.

“Practice makes perfect, my friend.” Said the young treasure hunter as he grabbed a small towel from Hilary, the butler. “Thanks, mate.”

Bryce could only grumble. He lost a bet, an expensive one at that, thinking that Ming could not have done the obstacles in such a record time. Now he had to build a booster for Ming’s favorite motorcycle, not a hard thing to build, but still a tedious task as he only got three days to complete – part of the bet as well.

The treasure hunter/international detective smiled and even Hilary let a tiny smile on his most-of-the-time serious face. Ming went to the luxurious bathroom and proceeded to strip off his clothes and turned on the shower. The warm water hit his lean but strong body and he began to relax.

After shower and getting clothes on – similar to that he had for practice this morning, he proceeded down to the dining room and ate his breakfast. He sat on one of the four wooden chairs around the table. When Lara was here, they would usually eat together. At the moment, though, his stepsister was on an adventure somewhere on the other part of the globe.

He had called her when he got back from his adventure in Vietnam. She said that she would be back in about three days or so. It’s been a while, about six months or so, since the last time he saw her and he was beginning to miss his stepsister, it will be good to see her again even if only for a few days before probably something came up.

After breakfast, he went to the office that he shared with Lara. He sat on the brown leather executive chair and began to rummage through the letters. He read and took notes of some letters that interested him. He divided the pile of letters of requesting his and Lara’s help equally. If there was one thing he knew about Lara, it was that she did not appreciate an unfair division of work. She would demand an equal, if not at times, more chunks of work, especially the ones that needed her to travel around the world. Well, it was not like she could not take care of herself. In terms of tomb-raiding or treasure-hunting (the term that Ming preferred), they were of an equal anyway.

A knock on the door brought his attention. He looked up and saw Hilary on the door. He was holding a business card. Ming gestured him to come in and took the business card. He looked at it and one of his eyebrows was raised in surprise and curiosity. The business card itself was quite plain, white in color and there were a symbol and a few words written in golden ink. It was the symbol and a word on the card that brought his attention and curiosity.

The symbol was a pyramid – not a triangle as some people had mistaken - with an opened eye in the middle of the pyramid. The word that brought his attention was written under the name of a person who owned this business card.

The word was ‘Illuminati’.

***
 

Hong Kong…

It was late at night, but the city was never truly died down in activity, especially with so many night entertainments such as bars, karaoke, nightclubs, gambling, and many others. But our story did not go to those parts of Hong Kong.

A door to apartment located quite near the night entertainment areas was opened, revealing a beautiful young woman in her early twenties carrying a big luggage, a few plastic bags containing her shopping stuffs, and a black leather handbag. She went in and dragged all the stuffs mentioned above in one trip only, as if she had three or four hands.

She closed the door and locked it. She took off her shoes while looking at the stuffs piled on the floor near the shoes cabinet. “Eerrhh… Maybe tomorrow.” She thought. She proceeded to slam herself on the sofa and let out a big breath, releasing the tension and tiredness from inside her beautiful-shape body. She closed her eyes and did a breathing exercise that her sifu taught.

After five minutes breathing exercise, she then dragged herself toward the shower. It took about thirty to forty minutes to complete her bathing ritual before finally climbed out of the bathtub and dried herself. After drying her hair and brushed her teeth, still wrapped in her bathing towel, she went to her room and started the nightly ritual before sleeping, which include applying some cream to her face and body.

While applying some beauty cream on her face, her eyes saw a picture of her sifu and her on the dressing table. Her mind wondered, thinking how was Gen and what was he up to now. It was not that she did not keep in touch with him, only that the contacts were quite rare due to her business that allowed little private time.

But it was okay, she would visit him tomorrow. He had discussed with his manager to take a break from her work for a while. So she would have plenty of time to catch up with her friends. She thought of visiting Gen first and then Chun Li, her dojo-sister, who had trained her a few years back.

She missed her a lot. They had not been in contact for quite a long time, so it would be a good reunion for the two of them. She wondered if she still worked for the Interpol, catching bad guys. She also wondered if Chun Li had revenged her father’s death. She thought of Chun Li’s age and wondered if she already found a man and got married. “Certainly plenty to catch up.” She thought and smiled inwardly.

***
 

Hong Kong…

A man walked down a quiet street toward a certain destination. He stopped in front of a three stories building and looked up. His face was not clearly visible due to the soft lighting around the neighborhood, but he is certainly had a powerful built beneath the expensive clothes that he wore most of the time.

He waited for a moment, reflecting on his purpose in the journey he took about a few months ago. He needed to find information about the event happened at his home and from what he had gather, the person inside this building might have some vital information for what he seeks.

He thought of going in now, but thought the better of it. From the information that he gathered a couple of days before, this person, although old, was reputed to be a highly skilled warrior. He also had two young talented students who worked for him. One or two skilled opponents he might be able to take care, but three would certainly be troublesome, and he had some sort of nagging feeling that his journey would not be a short one, and he needed to be careful.

His past as a head of a crime organization had taught him to be calculative and patience with his plan. No, tonight is not the time to make the visit. He would come back tomorrow morning when the time would be more suitable for his purpose.

With the decision already decided, Shing Venom turned around and walk back to his hotel.

***
 

Somewhere in the U.S.A….

A young woman sat quietly on a park with newspapers opened in front of her. She briefly scanned the news in it while occasionally glanced to her left as if waiting for someone. A rustling sound of bushes behind her occupied a moment of her attention, no more than two seconds.

The rustling sound ceased after a moment later and the young woman turned her attention back to the newspaper. News of a fire incident which cost two children lives attracted her attention, but not fully as she had another assignment needed to be fulfilled soon.

Suddenly, about a few feet behind her, she heard some barking and chittering sounds. She did not need to turn around to guess what was happening back there. A mental picture of a brown squirrel chased by a dog was formed in her mind. The scene would probably continued by the squirrel climbing up a tree, leaving the dog barking down the tree. If the squirrel was annoyed enough by the dog, it would probably throw down a couple of walnuts or whatever things it could find on the tree.

The barking ceased after a couple of minutes, signaling the young woman that the dog had lost interest on the naughty squirrel. As expected, in about two minutes later, a rustling sound on the bushes behind her chair was heard. A few seconds later, a tiny figure was climbing onto her left shoulder.

“So what did you do this time?” asked the young woman with a somewhat annoyed tone of voice to the little squirrel perching on her shoulder.

The squirrel answered in its language with such rapidity that the young woman finally preferred to let the chittering went on while she turned most of her attention to the people in the park.

“Should be here around this time.” Thought the young woman.

***
 

Same park, different spot…

It was quite early in the morning in the park. Some joggers could be seen… well… jogging around the park. Some alone, some with friends or family, while others were with pets.

A certain blond man dressed in blue jogger suits and a pair of white running shoes was stretching near the entrance of the park. After the stretching, he went for his routine track, occasionally greeted a few acquaintances.

Luke Charlton, a.k.a. Luke Blaze, a professional martial artist and dojo teacher jogged slowly at first, then continuing to build up speed. He usually ran the routine track three times which spanned about seven kilometers, then continued with a few light exercises such as push-ups, sit-ups, and chin-ups using a tree branch.

This morning, his routine was broken momentarily by the comic sight of a brown squirrel disturbing a dog. The squirrel was probably one among many he had seen in this park. It was climbing a table which had some nuts or corns on it. The squirrel took some of it and began to walk toward the edge of the table.

Somehow, the squirrel slipped and fell head first on top of a dog sleeping beside the table and then on the ground on its bottom. The dog rose to its four feet and searched for the source of its sleeping disturbance. It looked to its right side and was rewarded with a sight of a brown little squirrel massaging its head and bottom. The dog growled, causing the little brown squirrel to cease the massaging and turn.

It did not take a genius to figure out what happened next. When the dog let out a bark, the squirrel leapt to its four feet and ran. The dog took pursuit a millisecond later. The chase was on and the squirrel seemed to be losing if not for a nearby tree. It climbed up as fast as if it was chased by the devil himself, could be even faster. The dog stopped and began barking, challenging the little brown squirrel to come down and fight, but the little squirrel was too busy chasing its own breaths to bother replying.

Luke, although was worried for the brown squirrel when the chase was on, could not help but chuckled at the sight. Knowing that the squirrel was already safe when the dog left, he continued his morning jog, passing a woman sitting on a bench with her newspapers blocking his view of the woman’s face.

He did not see the woman lowered the newspaper when he was already passes her, nor did he saw the woman looking at him intently.

***
 

Puerto Rico…

Victoria sat on the floor of her apartment in her bedroom. On the bed was her travel bag. She packed lightly so she could move around easily. From what happened last night, she figured she needed to find information elsewhere.

She had made some contacts with her friend, Meliza Rinaldo, but she did not know any clues of the possible perpetrator behind the last night event. She thought of contacting Chun Li, as an Interpol, she should had some inkling to this matter, but she could not get through to her.

She could not contacted Iwa as well, as she had lost contact with her about a year ago. That left Ken Masters to turn to. She called him earlier and said that she would come to see him.

She sat on the bed and her mind turned to her master. Her grandmaster meant a lot to her, more than just a teacher, he was like a father to her. Now he was wounded severely. She feared that the wounds might…

She shook her head, clearing the gruesome mental picture from her mind. She needed to find his attackers, not out of revenge, but to uphold justice. She took out the crumpled yellow paper from her pocket and opened it. It was an ad for a tournament to be held in a couple of months later. “Why? What does this mean?”

She felt uneasiness arising within. This looked almost like the time when she went for the mysterious tournament in the Fighter Isle a few years back. She was drawn to the tournament because she had a purpose there, but what now?

Her mind turned to a certain man he saw in the black Audi. She could felt the strange terrifying aura practically oozing from the man’s pores. There was something within the man that bugged her so. The terrifying aura was somewhat familiar to the one she felt on the Fighter Isle when Naar made his entrance on earth.

There was something sinister and dark, something inhuman coming from this man, but not godly. Maybe that was where the similarities with Naar, or probably Bison.

She sighed. A lot of things she did not understand, but she would find the answer sooner or later. She finished her packing and went to phone a travel agent for a ticket to San Francisco.

***
 

Metro City…

In a familiar dojo for Bushinryu practitioners, a certain familiar man sat in lotus position meditating. His face feature was calm and serene as most of the time even when he is not in meditation.

In a sudden, he could feel something or someone familiar coming at him. He opened his eyes and was surprised to see his surroundings were changed. He was not in the meditation room in his dojo, but he was somewhere in a place that looked like the outer space. Small twinkling dotted the space around him and he could also see some nebulas in different colors.

He stood up and glanced around, while also allowing his other senses to detect anything. The next that came up, he was not prepared. A woman in red gown appeared before him. She also had a yellow scarf around her neck and a pair of high heel boots. He looked at her and nodded. “Rose, should’ve known it was you who do this trick.”

The woman smiled at him. “I’m surprised you cannot guess straight away after all this years.”

Guy looked a bit annoyed, but he could not say anything to that comment. “I take it this is not a social visit, then.”

Rose shook her head. “Unfortunately, no.” She gazed at him. “Guy, a certain dark force had begun to move again. This time, it might become unstoppable.”

Guy gazed at her quizzically. “Are you talking about Bison? I thought he was defeated in the Fighter Isle a few years back.”

Rose nodded. “He was, but he had arisen again as he did many times in the past. This time he was weakening. But he had helps, plenty of them. He is also seeking something that must not be found.”

“What was he looking for? And what does he intend to do with it?”

“He seeks power as usual. And if he finds the means to use this new power, he might be unstoppable.”

“We’ve stopped him before, we can do it again.” Said Guy confidently.

Rose nodded. “Yes, we can. But remember this, Guy, should we fail to stop him, all the past battles that you or anyone had faced before will seem naught to the upcoming event.”

Guy was visibly distraught from hearing what Rose said and the tone of her voice that she used. He wondered what sort of apocalyptic event that might cause such fear to the beautiful mystic. “So what do I need to do?”

“Gather your friends, as you cannot stop him by yourself. New and old powers are needed to stop Bison, Guy, and they will come. But trust is needed to make such union and I fear trust is not something that come easily for warriors.” When she finished her words, she glanced at a certain point. “Guy, I must go, I’ve sent you the warning and I will do the same with others as well, but you need to act as well.” She walked closer to him and placed a finger over Guy’s chest. “Trust your heart to lead where you need to go and do.”

Guy nodded. “I will. Thank you for your trust in me.”

Rose smiled at him and then with a wave of her scarf, she was gone.

Guy opened his eyes and found that he was still sitting on the floor of his meditation room. He stood up and dusted her pants. He looked at the calligraphy of ‘Bushin’ and clenched his fist. He would make the journey and he knew where he should go first.

***
 

England…

A man stood waiting in the lobby part of the Croft manor. He wore a set of formal clothes consisting of white long sleeves shirt, which was wrapped under the grey jacket, a pair of grey pants, and a pair of black shoes. He carried a walking stick, which hung on his left arm and had a bowl-shape black hat on his right hand. He looked about forty-ish and had some shade of grey hair. He was currently admiring a beautiful portrait of Lara Croft when she was still in high school.

“Beautiful, isn’t she?” Came a voice from behind him.

The man turned around and saw a young man in simple black training clothes stood on top of the set of stairs on the second floor. The young man came down in sure steps. He was of Chinese blood and carried an aura of someone of a high class. He was Ming, the adopted son of the late Richard Croft.

The man in formal clothes turned to fully face the incoming youth. When Ming reached the last step, he extended his right hand. “Good morning, you must be Ming. My name is Maximilian Xanon.”

The youth took the offer. Both shook hand and admired each other strength in the handshake. “Good morning to you as well mister Maximilian, and yes, I am Ming.” He offered a smile.

Maximilian returned the smile. “I do hope I did not interrupt you, Ming. Ah, may I call you by your name? Yes? Good. Then, please also call me by my name as well, no need for the formal title.”

“No, I have not yet begun any work, although your… appearance did surprise me. Please, come this way.” Ming extended his hand toward a room on the right of the lobby. “Hillary will bring some refreshment for us.”

The two men went and got settled on the chairs. Ming took on the northern part of the room, while Maximilian took the chair on the southern part. They were separated by the coffee table. “This is a very beautiful house.” Said Maximilian as he looked around the room.

Ming gazed at his guess, taking on whatever he could deduct from his appearance. “Yes, indeed. My stepfather, Sir Richard Croft, and his ancestors had an exquisite taste.” Hillary came in a second after he finished what he said and promptly laid the tea set with the expert ease. He left and closed the door after asking Ming and his guess if there was anything else they required, which both men declined.

Maximilian leaned forward and took the tea. He tasted it and nodded in approval. “Very fine tea, indeed.” When there was a lack of response from his host, he set the cup down and clasped both of his hands. “Now, Ming, I’m sure that you’re intrigued by my coming here, especially with the name and symbol on the name card that I gave you.”

Ming nodded. “I never had any dealings with Illuminati before, it was Lara who had it, and from what I heard, it was not a pleasant one.”

The middle-aged man was visibly winced at hearing what Ming said. He stood up and paced back and forth on the middle of the room, thinking what best way he could explain the purpose of his coming here. He stopped and looked directly at Ming. “You and Lara are correct. Although not entirely.”

Ming waited.

“If I may ask first, what do you know about the Illuminati?”

“Bits of pieces of info here and there, correct me if I am wrong. Illuminati were formed as the result of the unsatisfactory feelings from many people on the scientist community that were prosecuted by the Church around the 18th century if I am not mistaken. The cause of the Illuminati was a noble one, to prove the correlation of science and religion, although the Church at that time did not think so at all, in fact, many were condemned as heretics.” Ming paused and took a sip of tea. “Later, the members were forced to go underground and/or joined with other more reputable and stronger organizations. It did not, however, died down, in fact, it is flourishing everywhere. Currently, there are suspected of many Illuminati members hold key positions in many areas of life and can be safely assumed to be the motor behind many world events.”

Maximilian looked at Ming. He let out a heavy sigh. “Ming, what you’ve said were correct. Partially. There are other things that happened within the Illuminati itself that not many people know. Did you know that the Illuminati were split into two factions?”

Ming waited.

“No, I don’t think so. Not many, in fact, probably only those within the Illuminati that knew the story. Allow me to elaborate.” Maximilian went to his seat. “After the members were forced to go underground, the Illuminati were in chaos, there was no definite leadership, and in short, the Illuminati were split into two factions. One of the factions hold grudge for the Church and tried to do anything to oppose the Church, actually, not only the Church, but practically all religions. The other one, consisting of many scholars, still stands on its first cause, although not as active as we used to. We do not take sides with the Church or any other religions. We’re just trying to search for the truth through higher learning. I am a member of this Illuminati. The one that your stepsister, Lara, had dealings with, was the other Illuminati.”

Ming was silent for a moment, absorbing and digesting the information that he just received. Then he said “That may be so, but how would I know if what you’re saying is the truth?”

Maximilian shook his head. “Other than finding out yourself, I suppose I cannot ask you to trust me. I can take you to see the other members and the historical records that we have, but that might not be enough.” He sipped his tea again. “And besides, that was not the purpose of my coming here.”

Ming was intrigued once more. He shrugged. “Fine, let’s assume for a moment that what you said is the truth. What is your purpose of coming here?”

“Have you ever heard of Shadowlaw?”

Ming gazed at his guess. “If the Illuminati is as powerful and extensive as it’s reputed to be, then you’ve known the answer already.”

The guest smiled. “I’ve said that the Illuminati that I am a member is not the one that you mentioned. We do have resources, although not as powerful and extensive as some people make it look like. Not even true with the other Illuminati.”

Ming masked his irritation well. “My work had brought me some clashes in the past, although not too deep. And yes, I had some dealings with the Shadowlaw, not a pleasant one.” He leaned toward his guest and put up a slightly menacing smile. “Now, if we can let the cat-and-mouse game slide?”

Maximilian grinned. He reached inside his jacket and took out a quite thick yellow folder. He placed the folder on the coffee table and flipped it open. He took a picture and handed it to Ming. “Are you familiar with this?”

Ming took the photo. It was a picture of a pyramid which was half-way dug. There could be seen people working on the excavation site. It was an extensive pyramid by the look of it. “A lot of pyramids in Egypt looked alike. This is a picture of an excavation, so I take it that the Egyptians found another pyramid? So?”

Maximilian handed out a couple of photographs more, which Ming took. He looked at them and his eyes went wide. One of the pictures showed a huge aircraft stood nearby the excavation site, while the other one bore a picture of a skull with a pair of wings located on a part of the huge aircraft.

***
 

U.S.A. military base…

John Heagy opened his eyes when the helicopter was near the airbase it was supposed to go to. He had been meditating during his flight. His mind was filled with the upcoming mission and the people that he knew who were involved in this mission.

About twenty minutes later, the helicopter wheels touched the ground. John took his equipments and step out of the helicopter. He was greeted by two soldiers who told him to come with them to a building near the helipad.

He entered the building and was stunned to see a couple of soldiers whom he had become acquaintance years back. The two soldiers were standing across the room behind a table located at the center of the room filled with papers and maps. He walked toward them and saluted. “Sergeant John Heagy, reporting, sir!”

The two soldiers looked up and smiled at John. They returned the salute and shook hands with him. “Nice to see you again, John. Although if I can prefer a better situation, I would have.” Said one of the two soldiers, Nash. He wore his usual yellow vest, camouflage pants, and army boots. Dog tags with his name and numbers printed on them hung on his neck. He still had his… unique hairstyle as John remembered.

Nash’s friend who also had… unique hairstyle, though different than Nash, gave a smile and welcome greetings to John as well. “It’s been a while and its looks like you’ve grown a lot, John.” Said Guile.

He nodded and thanked the two senior soldiers, then set his equipment on the floor. Guile spoke up. “John, have you been briefed by your commandeer about this mission?”

John nodded. “Yes, Colonel. He told me that I am supposed to infiltrate into a tournament and work with you and other known fighters to neutralize the threat.”

Guile and Nash looked at each other then back at John. It was Nash turn to speak. “Actually, John, there is more to the mission than just entering the tournament, in fact, the tournament won’t be started until a couple of months later.”

Seeing the confused look on John’s face, Guile spoke up. “John, we will talk more about this, later. Why don’t you get settle first.” He motioned for a soldier. “Please escort Sergeant Heagy to his quarter.” He turned to John. “Get yourself some rest. Nash and I will drop by in an hour or two and we will talk more about this.”

Despite the high level of curiosity, the training in John allowed him to hide it well and he did not ask anything else. He nodded and took his equipment, saluted to his two seniors and friends, and followed the soldier out of the office. He did not see but could feel Guile and Nash gaze followed his departure intently.

***
 

England…

Outside the Croft manor, a black BMW was parked. A driver and a passenger could be seen from outside even through the heavily tinted windows, although one would had to have an x-ray vision to see the driver and the sole passenger clearly.

The main door to the Croft manor was opened and two men walked out of the door. One was middle-age and the other was in his mid-twenties. The two men walked down the steps and the BMW driver stepped out of the car to open the car door to let his master in.

Maximilian, the middle-age man, shook hands with Ming, the young man, when they reached the last step. “Ming, I trust that you can use the information that I gave to you wisely.”

Ming smiled. “You certainly gave a lot to think, Maximilian. But I thank you for that and for your trust for revealing this very important information for me. If I get what you’re saying right, I would not hesitate to use every resource that I have to help resolving this matter.”

Maximilian nodded. “I trust that you’ll put it on a good use and act accordingly. I am sorry that I cannot be more of a help.”

Ming shook his head. “You’ll never know. Perhaps there’ll be time in the future that you play a role more than just being a messenger.”

The middle-age man smiled and wore his hat on. “Well, that maybe, but I’ll wish you good luck and please take care yourself.” Then his expression turned serious. “And be very careful.”

Ming’s firm gaze met with Maximilian’s. “Been doing that ever since I started up my profession.” Then he smiled. “But I appreciate your concern.” When Maximilian entered his car, he could see a pair of beautiful legs wrapped in black stockings. He bent down to see the owner of those beautiful legs and was struck by the beauty of the woman. She wore a long blue dress and had a grey scarf around her neck. Ming could see that the woman also had beautiful curves under the clothes she wore. He smiled at the woman. “My lady.”

The woman smiled back at him. Ming was struck even more with the beauty of the woman, but there was something else in the woman’s smile that caught his attention. He stepped back and the driver closed the door.

Maximilian rolled the window down and waved good-bye to Ming. He waved back unconsciously but his mind was not in it. He was thinking of the beautiful woman in Maximilian’s car. There was something that nagged at the back of his mind, yet he could not place a finger on it. He shrugged the feeling and turned back to the manor.

Inside the BMW, Maximilian turned to look at the beautiful woman beside him. “My lady, I’ve conveyed the information to Ming. It took a while to convince him, but he is willing to get into the matter.”

The woman brushed her long purple hair back. “Good, his expertise and skills would play an important role in this scheme.” She turned to Maximilian. “Our enemies are cunning and resourceful, Maximilian. We have to work very hard to win in this fight.”

“You’ve proven yourself to be a mighty ally for Illuminati, Lady Rose. You had helped us surviving for along time and you asked very little from us. We would certainly use everything in our disposal to help with your cause in this scheme. Say what you need that we can provide and you will get it. We’ve got a lot to lose in this fight if our enemies succeed.”

Rose was silent and somehow the atmosphere in the car grew heavier.

***
 

Ming walked slowly entering the mansion. He was thinking of the information given by the mysterious Illuminati member. A part of his mind shouted against delving into the information, after all, he had not yet one hundred percent convinced with what Maximilian said. Yet, another part in his mind reasoned that if this information was real, the level of the catastrophe could be an apocalyptic one.

He had heard of Atenakhen before, a pharaoh that started the monotheism trend in Egypt. Some historians believed that he was the inspiration behind the story of Moses, the famous prophet in the Old Testament. Atenakhen was believed to possess great magic and in his short time of reign had made a bold and bloody movement against the polytheism system that was spread widely in Egypt at that time.

The movement to change the religious system was successful, at least for a short time. Later Atenakhen was murdered by many who despised the way he promoted his new religion. His new religion that revered only to one God - Aten, symbolized by the sun disc - was crushed and the polytheism flourished once again in Egypt.

But the seed of Atenakhen’s new religion had been planted. There were many in Egypt who still believed in Atenakhen’s doctrine and they kept Atenakhen’s teaching and practiced it. Atenakhen was believed to have no heir, thus his line was cut off. But from the information that Ming got from Maximilian, the notion was apparently wrong. Atenakhen had an heir who kept the new religion alive and in fact was said to be the one that was behind the project of building this new pyramid found by Shadowlaw.

Ming knew from his own experience that pyramids were not build as the tomb of pharaohs as many historians and movie-makers mistakenly believed. A pyramid was built by the ancient yet modern civilization – possibly long before the Egyptians – not as a tomb but as a place for initiation for higher knowledge possessed by certain people. A pyramid usually had a special chamber that was built in a complicated architectural design that held many modern historians in awe.

The symmetrical designs, the exact proportions of each side and chambers within the pyramid, the certain position of the pyramid on earth, and the exact alignment of previously speculated ventilation system with galaxies, were just a few things that had been revealed by modern historians about the secret within the pyramids.

A certain society that its seminar he had attended long time ago believed that pyramid was built to collect the universe energy within the specified space in the pyramid. At certain time, this energy would reached a certain level that would interact with the initiate’s mind within the pyramid and would induced a certain brainwave or mindset that allowed the initiate to unlock his potential to received higher knowledge about the how universe work.

Ming had experienced this rare event when he was trapped in a pyramid in China. He developed his power and fighting skills there and came out a different person within a nighttime.

He knew this pyramid was probably built for the same purpose, but could Maximilian’s information be true? If yes, it would certainly become one of major findings in the world of archeology. And yet, what was the significance of this pyramid that it could hold such a great power that this Bison character had his eye on it?

There were a lot of things he could not yet understand and he would not get it by guessing and hypothesizing.

“Well, it’s been a while since I went to Egypt.” Thought Ming as he walked to the office.