-- Main Arena --
 

For the fifth time this night, Cody wipes off the gathering sweat on his brow with a bandaged forearm, bearing a satisfied grin. Right now, he was in his environment, and that was all that mattered. After all, fighting was the one thing - perhaps the only thing - that could truly satisfy a man like Cody. Some would call it a problem, a dangerous addiction that can only do more harm than good. To Cody, fighting was simply a way of life - it was his life. In his eyes, there were few things that could match the feeling he got from fighting, whether it was from the adrenaline rush, the feeling and sound of his fists connecting with flesh, the blood pounding through and against his veins, right down to the roars of the crowd.

Grinning wider now, Cody beckons Sean with a "come here" gesture, who reacts almost immediately with a short hop airborne, homing towards the street fighter with his Ryuubi Kyaku technique, whilst Cody in turn slides forward slightly, retaliating with the Ruffian Kick. Both attacks meet each other, Sean's leg striking his opponent's shoulder just as Cody's foot retaliates with a swift kick to the midsection. Matsuda, still airborne, is knocked backwards, but manages to land safely onto one knee before rushing forward once more.

"Tornado!"

Leaping airborne again, Sean hurls out three revolving kicks in his personal adaptation of the Hurricane Kick, made famous by Ryu and Ken. Cody, therefore, is no stranger to the technique, raising his arms to block the first two kicks and leaning out of range of the third. Gravity wills Sean back towards the ground, where he attempts to extend his offence with a sweep, only for Cody to leap right over him, landing on the opposite side of the battlefield.

The half-Brazilian rises back to his feet and into his stance once more, pooling on possible ways he could finish the fight. Sean never gets the opportunity to complete his thought, however, for his world suddenly explodes into a burst of pain as something hits him from behind. The blow sends spots into the young fighter's eyes as he stumbles forward from its force, raising one hand towards the back of his head where the source of the pain was. To Cody, the opportunity couldn't be any more open, swooping in for the kill.

"Sean, watch out!" Victoria warns, but it comes too late. Millan watches on helplessly as her fighting partner becomes the recipient of a destructive series of kicks. Several seconds pass before Cody's Dead End Irony finisher comes to a stop, and an additional five seconds before the sound of victory permeates through the cool night air.

"KO! The winner of Round 1 is... Cody!" exclaims the voice announcer over a roaring crowd.

Cody registers the validation of his victory with nothing more than an apathetic expression, seemingly more bothered about the fact his match had now come to a close instead of the win. Shoving his hands into his pockets, Cody trudges along past his face-down opponent just as he slowly drags himself off the canvas, drawing long and deep breaths into his laboured lungs.

"Damn..." a visibly upset Sean mutters to himself. How'd he allowed himself to get attacked like that?! He turns to throw a glare at Pablo, who unashamedly acknowledges his cheap shot attack on Matsuda from behind with a proud smile.

"Unlucky," Victoria consoles, walking up to Sean from behind. "You came close to taking that one."

"Yeah, if it wasn't for-" Matsuda stops abruptly. "Doesn't matter," he finishes. As much as he hates to lose, Sean knows that wallowing in self-pity wouldn't do him any good. "I'll just have to return the favour to him," he continues with a small smile whilst making a quick gesture towards Pablo, who is already on the battlefield awaiting the next bout.

"Cool," Victoria responds, bearing a supportive smile just before Sean makes his way off the battlefield. It soon fades the moment Enid turns towards her opponent. The voice announcer, meanwhile, proceeds on broadcasting the fixture for the current match.

"Looks like it's me against you now," Pablo states with a confident grin.

His words go unnoticed to Victoria. In fact, everything around her goes unnoticed, for Enid's eyes are almost narrowed, and radiating a deep shade of crimson.

~Rage. It's been a while...~ she states mentally, sensing her Emotion's presence trickling unhurriedly into her mind. Silence is all Victoria receives, as the surge continues to wash over her, feeling as though warm water is being poured onto her brain. ~...but not this time, sis.~ The surge casually ebbs away, and Victoria's eyes widen, returning back to their normal state.

This all took place in the space of 5 seconds.

"I guess it is," Victoria replies coolly. She settles into her stance, Kali sticks at the ready. "Bring it on!"

Right on cue, is the voice announcer, "Round 2, ready... GO!!"

Veracruz's gaze cuts across the battlefield towards Victoria, revealing a near-fascinated look in his eyes.

"As you wish, preciosa..."

He then charges forward, clearing the distance between them with impressive speed. Having lured him into making the first move, Millán chooses to stand her ground, waiting for Pablo to reach within a range of attack.

It doesn't take long.

Pablo throws out a hard jab, followed by an equally hard hook, which Victoria blocks. Undeterred, he continues on with a chain of fast jabs and hooks, edging Victoria backwards as she blocks and dodges every strike. Wearing a confident grin, Pablo lets loose a wild hook kick that manages to slip through Enid's guard, catching the Kajukenbo fighter in her gut. Without pausing, Pablo follows through with an elbow to the jaw and then an uppercut that whips Victoria's head back.

Millián staggers backwards, yet does not fall, for Pablo latches a hand onto her wrist, yanking her back towards him, towards an incoming knee to the midsection. Crumpled over on his leg, the next sensation Victoria experiences is the feeling of being thrown. Unknown to her as she hits the ground, is that Veracruz was able to execute this using the same leg that had driven his knee into her prior. Some spectators however, having seen the technique, react with a genuine awe-filled cry.

The referee, meanwhile, begins a count. Pablo waits patiently - or rather, expectantly - for Victoria to get up, who does so by the count of three. The effects of his assault can already be seen; Victoria is wearing a bruise to the cheek, in addition to a trail of blood that runs from her lower lip, now wiped off with one hand. Through her near-hazy vision, she barely has time to part a few strands of hair to the side before Pablo's already clearing the space between them, a jab poised for her face.

Enid sidesteps outside of the punch's path, retaliating with an overhead strike with one Kali stick onto Veracruz' wrist, redirecting the jab. Seeing a potential opening, Victoria sweeps her right Kali stick across the left side of her opponent's face, and then she slams her left Kali stick directly into his abdomen. Sweeping the right Kali stick through the air a third time, this time it connects with the right side of Pablo's face, finishing the quick, deadly combination.

Victoria's eyes, however, show that she is not finished.

"Kali Storm!" Millán calls out. Pablo has no time to react before he receives two Kali strikes to his left cheek, and a third strike to the gut. He lashes out, hoping to cut off any follow up attack, yet an already prepared Enid skilfully guards the strike, finalising her technique with an impressive backward somersault that catches Pablo under the jaw, launching him above ground.

As Pablo rises back to his feet, just before the count of four, Victoria takes the quick opportunity to survey her handiwork. Where the Kali stick bit into his cheek is a gash, along with a small cut on his bottom lip and a few littered bruises. More noticeable than all this, however, is the nonchalant expression he's wearing, in spite of the damage Enid has done.

"Is it Diablo's turn now?" he questions with that same winning smile.

He seems unaffected by my attack, Victoria realises. Unless it's a front. She blinks suddenly as she notes something her mind hadn't registered earlier. Did he just call himself... "Diablo"?

"Snakebite!"

The Mexican snaps Victoria back to reality with the cry of his attack's namesake just as he swipes his arm out in a blurred motion towards her, causing an energy whiplash to blink into existence a few feet in front of him. It strikes Millan just as quickly and sends her reeling. Pablo blurs forward, directly behind the distracting energy wake, and almost as if to rush past Victoria herself, yet his glowing right fist is quick to dismiss that notion. "Parece que si..." (It seems it is) is what Victoria hears before Pablo drives his signature move, the Diablo Fist, into her already damaged gut and forcing out an involuntary cry of pain from her.

With deadly conviction, Veracruz continues on with a short volley of punches, elbows and kicks that ends with a roundhouse to Victoria's left. Enid's shoulder is forced to absorb the final blow, which sends a bolt of pain down her left side as well as sending her to the ground. Victoria takes the impact with her other shoulder, continuing her movement with a quick side roll before pushing herself off the ground, hoping to create some distance between Pablo and herself.

Pablo appears to be almost passive as he sees Victoria do this, more intent on just observing her than continue his offence, going as far as dropping his stance momentarily. "I hope Diablo did not hurt you too much, preciosa," he remarks, whilst Victoria lands into a kneeling stance. It is difficult to tell whether the Mexican is serious or expressing mock sympathy. "After all, it would be rather unfortunate to wilt such a rose as yourself, don't you think?"

Maybe I should've kept Rage around, Victoria jokes to herself. Naturally, she chooses to withhold a response to Pablo's comments, using the opportunity to regroup and consider her options. Enid resists the urge to place a hand to her midsection, not wanting to reveal the extent of her injuries although she's sure her opponent has already surmised that area as a weak spot to exploit.

"Well then, shall we continue this dance?" Pablo offers as he casually settles back into his stance. When silence from Victoria is all that he receives, he simply lets loose an amused grin.

Bearing a renewed look of determination, Enid bursts forward. As he did before, Pablo's wrist flicks out towards her with another Snakebite, yet this time Victoria is ready. Millán falls into an immediate roll at the last possible second, just as the energy whiplash sails above her much to the appeal of the crowd. More impressive than this is the speed Victoria lets loose to close in on her adversary, becoming nothing more than a blur before planting and pushing herself off Pablo's thigh and over him, setting him up for her Hammer Jack, which Millán is certain will catch him before he has time to turn around.

Veracruz, however, recovers faster than Victoria expects, interrupting the Hammer Jack and catching her just under her breasts with his shoulder before hurling her forward. Victoria sails uncontrollably through the air, anticipating the collision that doesn't occur, for she suddenly finds herself being caught by a pair of arms. Half a second later, Sean hurls his partner upwards with as much force as he can gather, counteracting the weight of her fall with the drive of his rising arms, all before Enid has time to fully register what has just occurred.

Sean soon goes from throwing his arms up to pulling them back, bringing his hands together in preparation to summon his Hadou Burst technique, far more refined than in its past. "All right, let's see you handle this, puto!" Sean shouts over at Pablo. The Mexican's features give way to a small sneer at Sean's comment, but revert to a passive façade as Pablo watches the influx of Sean's ki towards his palms.

However, Sean suddenly dismisses the energy, just before a second, different surge of energy presents itself to both fighters' senses. Sean and Pablo look up to see Victoria twist and gyrate in the air with distinct trails of her ki energy pouring into her form before she lets loose an old, once self-taught technique to home in on her opponent with a speed akin to an arrow, as its namesake implies.

"Arrow Kick!"

Pablo stares upward, nearly pausing to watch the Hispanic beauty with obvious awe, until the sudden realisation of his victory inspires him to react. Drawing together the power of his spirit into his enclosed fist, Pablo rushes forward at the plummeting Victoria, a glowing fist ready to deliver the final blow.

Time appears to slow down, Victoria dipping downwards, one leg outstretched whilst the other is drawn back, and Pablo rushing along the ground, arm held out to his side along with a cocked back shoulder. With correct timing, Pablo knows that his Diablo Fist would not only have the power to knock Victoria out of her technique, but with a broken leg, also out of this match. The most Victoria could do, he surmises, is to withdraw her leg at the last minute to avoid it being broken. Yet that would not save her from his Diablo Fist, or the defeat it will grant her.

Time returns to normal, and, as Pablo observes, Victoria realises her own end approaching, to which she desperately withdraws her outstretched leg in an attempt that only delays the inevitable.

Or so it seems.

The two fighters meet, yet there is no sound of Pablo's fist colliding with Victoria's airborne form. There is, instead, a brilliant flash of blue-white energy, an emphatic cry, and Victoria, with outstretched palms, being pushed diagonally upwards slightly from the force of her Soul Blast technique, which she has unleashed in the last fatal second. By doing so, Millán has managed to narrowly avoid the Diablo Fist while being able to strike Pablo with the full effects of her Soul Blast. At such close range, the projectile not only knocks him down, but as it pours itself into Pablo's body it additionally provides a momentary stunning sensation.

So stunned is Pablo by the move, that he's wholly unaware that the referee, as well as the crowd, have begun a five count in unison. It's only when the voice of the announcer reaches his ears does the realisation hit him.

"KO! Winner of Round 2 is... Victoria! Both teams will receive 1 point each!"

"I... beat him?" Victoria says, unable to hide the hint of amazement in her voice. Her eyes flow freely around the stadium, focusing on nobody in particular, but simply allowing them to wander. 'I wonder if Riq, if he's... auugh.' With the adrenaline worn off, Enid collapses to a knee at the pain that immediately replaces it as she favours her midsection with one arm. At her side is Sean, who she places her other arm around for support. "Damn... that bastard didn't make it easy for me, did he?" she smiles, adding to the bruises and blood that litters her face.

"That was impressive," Sean comments. The crowd continues its ovation, easily sharing Matsuda's view. Rushing towards the pair is a group of medical staff who Sean then hands Victoria over to, walking after them soon afterwards. What the both of them fail to see - Victoria especially, due to being semi-conscious, is her opponent drag himself off the ground and dust off bits of gravel from his clothes, neither angry or upset, but once again nonchalant, as if knowing something nobody else knows, just as he breaks out into a wide grin.

"Esto no ha acabado, preciosa..." (This isn't over, beautiful)
 

*~*~*~*~*

-- Maui --

"What the hell is going on?"
 
Locke glanced up to see RJ pacing the floor of the business center of the nine-story hotel.

"And those guys back there...were they from Umbrella?" RJ asked.

"Yes."

"I've heard stories about them, but I always thought they were just rumors..." RJ glanced at him, frowning. "How much do you know about them?"

"Too much," Locke muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing," Locke continued to work on the computer in the business center, occasionally eyeing his surroundings.

After a few moments, he spotted two men in dark suits and sunglasses enter the building. Both went to the front desk and showed the clerk in front a piece of paper.

Locke's eyes narrowed, his intuition kicking in.

When the clerk shook his head, one man snatched the paper from the other and brought it closer to the clerk's face. The clerk shook his head wildly, his hand motions jerky, and he started perspiring under the two men's probing stare. Suddenly, the man holding the piece of paper shot the clerk and rounded the desk.

"Crap!" RJ hissed. "Are they here for Nancy?"

"Probably," Locke agreed. "She's in her room looking through the disc of information Holden had given her..."

The two men left the front desk and headed to the hallway leading to the elevators. RJ and Locke made their way to the front desk, with RJ kneeling by the floor to check on the desk clerk.

"He's alive," RJ announced. "Tranquilizers?"

"If he's lucky," Locke said quietly, skimming the front desk's list of guests. He swore softly. "We put the name under an alias...I thought I told her not to give out her name or any personal information..."

RJ jumped up, looking over his shoulder. "She ordered room service and had it charged on her card..." His eyes widened. "Umbrella traced that? Is that legal?" He asked just as Locke headed to the elevators.

Not one to be left behind, RJ quickly caught up to see Locke pressed up against a wall, peering around the corner.

"Elevator's taking too long..." one man standing by the lift said.

"We could always take the stairs..."

Locke eased the safety of the gun off, frowning slightly. So much for not using a weapon...

Once the elevator bell went off, the doors opened and Locke quickly moved away from the wall and fired before going back into his hiding place.

A scream of agony entered the hallway.

"My wrist! What the fu-! Hey! You can't just leave me here! Somebody's out there-"

"That's your shooting hand, right? Sucks to be you," came another voice.

Then silence.

When Locke and RJ looked around the corner, the elevator was closed and making its way up. With one of the men on the ground, blood slowly leaking onto the floors.

"Damn," Locke muttered. He couldn't be that rusty, right? He'd meant to shoot each of them, making them incapacitated. He quickly took the stairs, leaving RJ behind, making his way towards Nancy's floor.

When he got to her door, it was unlocked, lights left on. He slowly opened the door, seeing her lying facedown on the bed, one arm over the edge, dangling to the floor. His eyes quickly took in everything - from the damaged laptop on the desk to the syringe on the carpet. He quietly blew out a breath.

He was too late.

His eyes moved to the desk and went to open the CD drive.

Disc was gone. He quietly closed the room door as he entered the hallway. He pulled out his cell phone and pushed in a few numbers, holding the device to his ear.

"Where you at?" RJ asked as soon as he picked up.

"She's dead," Locke said flatly. "They took the disc."

"@#%$."

"Go to a house phone and call the police with an anonymous tip. Don't leave any trace of yourself," Locke ordered.

"Right," RJ responded, his voice shaking slightly.

Locke hung up quickly to exit the floor. A part of him felt guilty for bringing the man into all of this. RJ was supposed to only provide him a place to stay, not watch his back. Even though he had done a decent job of it.

Down in the lobby, he met up with RJ and they decided to head back to Ka'anapali Shores. Both men were fairly quiet during the ride.

"You're not like normal people," RJ spoke up a mile away from his hotel. At the brief lift of eyebrows from Locke, he continued, "Your attitude the whole evening...you were so calm about everything...people sneaking into homes to kill people..." At Locke's silence, RJ cleared his throat, "Whoever you really were in Beijing, it doesn't really matter...and in the end...who really cares, anyway? So anytime you need anything...let us know."

"...Thanks."

Locke disposed of their weapons before they got to the hotel.

"What are you going to do now?" RJ asked.

"Go back to Oahu," Locke answered. "Maybe...give this information to the right people..."

It was too late to stop the tournament now. But if it helped expose Umbrella, it was at least worth a shot.

*~*~*~*~*

-- The Makai - Room 105 --

She slid the card-key and twisted the knob when the light turned green, then slipped quietly into the darkened room. She was tired, but not as exhausted as she had been a couple of night ago, when she had come into this same room smelling of blood and gunpowder.

Freckle hopped down from the bed to run over and curl around his mistress' ankle, meowing a greeting. Natalie smiled as she stopped to pet the cat, then began disrobing of the suit she'd been so uncomfortable in. Jin was understandbly already in bed... and upon closer inspection she found that he was, indeed, asleep.

She sighed softly and placed a light kiss on his temple, then went for a shower. As the steaming jets beat down on her body at full blast, she leaned on the shower wall and pondered the small, sick feeling that had been knotting in her stomach since she first laid eyes on her badge again.

The last few days, she been barely able to talk to Jin, save for the night she returned from the bust. She wasn't unused to being away from him - given his job as a courier. But something nagged at her... telling her that somehow, her job might put some real distance between them. She even felt different... as a person. Killing those men had been so easy, and she knew it was because she now had a reason to excel at what she did. A reason Kyle Parker had forced upon her. Yet... was that all there was to it? Or had this colder version of herself been there all along? She hoped that the only way it would affect her relationship with Jin would be through lack of time. Then... there was the possibility of something going wrong on a mission. Or in the tournament, for that matter. Would Jin be in more danger than what Parker had threatened? She knew she would be... but that was something she planned to keep to herself. She coud handle whatever came...

She would have to.

She emerged clean and still damp, towelling her hair dry as she sat on the edge of the bed, watching him. A moment later she was under the covers and at his side, trying to let her mind settle down into sleep. She was probably being paranoid.

Maybe, she thought to herself with a small smile, We could have breakfast tomorrow... then he could meet a certain grouchy colonel... And she would simply turn her cell phone off for the morning.
 

*~*~*~*~*

-- Secluded part of Oahu, aprox. 1:30 a.m. --
 

Enrique Pierantoni walked down the dimly lit street in Oahu, where he was to meet his informant. He could see the sign of the bar from here, neon yellow and green that spelled the simple name of "Jake's". It was far from classy, but a suitable place for the likes of the man he was to meet.

There was almost no traffic this time of night, and Riq couldn't shake the uneasiness that followed him here. Most everyone had put forth all their gathered info in the meeting earlier in the day, and they still had too much to do and too little time to do it. Stepping off the street and into the smoky, pungent atmosphere of the bar. Few patrons were present, so it wasn't hard to notice the red-headed man sitting at the bar. Riq walked up and took a seat two stools down. "You Fallon?"

The man chuckled. "You must be the new investigator." He had freckles that matched his hair, was in his late thirties and if his hair, skin and green eyes failed to give away his Irish heritage, his drinking habits certainly did. In front of him was a line of seven double-shot glasses, and to Riq, the man appeared not the least bit drunk.

"I'm one of them."

"Oh? Who's the other? How many is Uncle Sam riskin' this time?"

"I'm the only one you need to know about." Riq paused and ordered a drink, then spoke in quiet tones without looking at the informant. "This time?"

"Yep. This time," Fallon chuckled, "It's probable better you don't ask."

"So it is. What do you know about a man named Holden Blake?"

There was a pause as Riq received his drink, then conversation resumed once the bartender had returned to the other end of the bar to speak with a patron there. "Mr. Blake... the PR man for Umbrella? Not much to say of 'im. 'Cept that the reason for his termination was that he was about to come forward with something that his employers would've rather kept on the down low, if you get my meaning."

"I could have figured that much," Riq grumbled, then slid a few folded bills beneath one of Fallon's shot glasses. "Tell me what he had."

"What makes you think I'm privy to all that?"

"Your wife worked for Umbrella before she - "

"F**k if I care," the man scoffed and downed another shot of Everclear.

Riq scowled at the man, "Whether you do or not, you have an obligation. You aren't under protection for free, you know. Not with your record."

As Riq swallowed half the contents of his own glass, Fallon smirked, "Did your research, eh? Fine. My guys say that there's a disk floating around with some major sh** on it. They thought Holden had it."

"Did he?"

Fallon shrugged. "Who can say? I can tell you though... Holden ain't the only one you should be looking into."

Riq's brow furrowed, "What do you mean?"

Fallon leaned back and adjusted the collar of his shirt, though it did little to help the disheveled appearance of his clothes. "He wasn't the only one wanted out. Not the first, not the last..." He picked up and pocketed the money, then stood. "Look for a man named Geoffrey Caldwell. He lives here in Oahu. He'll know a lot more than me, about Holden and a lot besides..."

Riq nodded and Fallon went out the back door. The investigator finished his drink, then thought to ask one more question. He laid the money for the drink on the bar and left through the back door, stepping into the alley. "Fallon, who do you think has the-"

He stopped in mid sentence and mid-step. There on the grimey ground lay Fallon, green eyes open in terror, his body resting in a growing pool of blood. Just beyond Fallon stood a little girl, humming quietly to herself as she drew something on a dirty old window. With wide eyes, Riq took in the blood that dripped from the blade at the end of the chain that wrapped around her left arm, so casually. She looked at him, pale skin framed in red hair with marks that matched, her eyes dark and emotionless.

With the flick of her left wrist, the blade was in her right hand, ready to attack. Riq remembered the children who'd been found, altered. Was this what Umbrella had done to them? Made deadly toys of them? Feeling almost sick, he drew his gun, his only option. "Put the weapon down!!"

The girl's eyes widened and fixed on the weapon, he heard her gasp, then she made her move...

She disappeared right before his eyes. He looked around wildly, disbelieving. Where had she gone?

He waited for an attack that never came. Just as he called in to report the informant's murder, he looked back to the window where she had been finger-painting...
 

*~*~*~*~*

-- Umbrella Pacific Research Facility (morning) --

In the cold, white room of the science lab, one scientist leaned forward, peering into the microscope. He sat back and added notes to his journal. The doors of the lab opened behind him, and another scientist entered before quickly setting up a workstation.

"I thought Janice was working today. You covering for her?" the first one asked, puzzled.

"Nope," the other one answered. "Didn't you hear? She was leaking out sensitive information, so she's not working anymore...I heard that she let one of our marketing guys see all our notes and research for the experiments..."
 

*~*~*

The murder was in the next day's newspapers. On the front page was a disturbing image of a smiling face with red hair, drawn upon a window payne. Red eyes, red marks beneath them. Everything was red, really.

The child's painting was drawn in the victim's blood.