0800
The café in the Makai

Sitting at the café Mel was bored out of his mind. There was always someone accompanying him whether he liked it or not. There are his parents of course, Aunt Chunny and good old Uncle Ryu. He couldn't understand what the fuss over him was all about, all he'd done was go with Iwa and now he was constantly watched over. Right now his dad was at the other end of the room waiting in line at the ice cream counter. Every now and then he would glance back at Mel to see if he was still there. Apparently Dan was having much trouble making up his mind about what flavors he wanted and was trying each one out.

With a sigh he reached for the nuts on the table, just before a furry blur leaps onto the table and stole the biggest nut right out of his hands.

"Maru-Maru chan!" the blond boy exclaimed as the squirrel gobbled the nut. "You shouldn't eat too much of those, they're salted," he said, covering the container with his palm.

The squirrel looks at the container, at the boy, and back to the container again. Spitting out an acorn hidden in his cheek pouch he aimed it at Mel knowing full well that the boy knew that in his paws a nut is a dangerous thing. His whiskers twitched in annoyance.

"No," the boy said firmly, watching the squirrel shrink in disappointment and the acorn disappear back into his cheek pouch. "That's better now," he said, patting Maru on the head.

The squirrel then grabbed Mel's hand and began pulling him.

"You know I can't go with you."

A pleading look answered the boy and the pulling became more urgent. Looking back at the counter. Ken had gotten into an argument with Dan over Dan's indecisiveness on flavors.

"I'm gonna get sent home for this…" Mel sighed. Hopping off his chair he lets the squirrel lead the way.

-----

1000
The security-monitoring center of the Makai

"There! Freeze it there!" Ken pointed at the screen, where it shows Mel getting up from his seat. "Magnify that!" Part of the screen zoomed into the spot he was talking about; a furry little thing was on the table.

"It's that dammed rat again." Ken growled.

"That's it?" Chun Li asked as she viewed another monitor.

It would seem that the commotion with Dan had attracted a lot of onlookers, which had allowed Mel to be spirited away without being caught by the camera in the corridor. Using all his influence, Ken had the hotel's room service staff discreetly check Iwa's room and for that matter her partner's room as well while they were away. And still they found nothing. Whatever security available that could be spared from minding the conference were still out searching for the boy. How hard could it be to find one child? Just why was Iwa targeting Mel of all people?

"She took him from right under my nose!" Ken punched the wall.

"The cameras had caught sight of her at the garden cafe during the time of the incident, Mr. Masters."

"It's her damn squirrel! She doesn't need to be there! Should've let the rat drown when I caught him!" He stomped out of the room with Chun Li following at his back

-----

1030
The Makai – Iwa's room

"WHERE IS HE???!!!!!!" Ken roared as he burst through the door. Chun Li rushed in and caught him before he could lunge at Iwa.

"Master is taking a spin in the Psycho Drive, he's gone to the conference and he's probably choking on his meal on account of your outburst. No worries Okami-kun, it's just family visiting. No need to get the guns out." The calm young woman pointed at her earpiece, to the door of her partner's room and finally at the vase beside the door before returning to clean her sword.

"Where is my son?!"

"I have no idea. Haven't spoke to the little guy since I left San Fran."

"Quit playing games! Leave Mel out of this if it's us that you want," Ken spat as Chun Li struggled to hold onto him.

"Must I be responsible each time Mel runs away?" She sheaths the sword and puts it away.

"Security camera caught a shot of your little rat taking Mel away. Where did you hide him?!"

"Beats me. He hasn't come back. You could always check with the Okami if I hid anyone in my room. The little pervert has been monitoring my room. All things considering, you probably made him do it." She got up, glaring at Chun Li.

"Tell me where he is or I'll beat it out of you!"

"You're welcome to try." Iwa inches towards the balcony. Ken broke loose and rushed towards her.

"Kisatsu!" she fires off a qi shot forcing Ken to block as she leaps over the balcony and drops down onto the flowery beams of the walk way and swings down to the ground. She made a run for the far end of the courtyard. It would lead the way to the lobby and she could probably lose him in the crowd.

Before he even touches ground Ken fires off a Hadoken to cut off her exit from the courtyard, it narrowly misses her but it was enough to throw off her direction. A few curious folks from the upper levels were attracted by the commotion.

"Where is my son!" Ken roars again.

"I would tell you if I knew." Iwa reached for her earpiece, switching it on. "Subject Ken Masters. Perfect backup body number two." She started off, ducking a flying kick. "Ahead of schedule, but what the heck," she mused briefly. "So is the berserker rage what it's cracked up to be?" Iwa then ignited her right fist and dashed in.

-----

1045
The Makai's Dining room

Amidst the murmuring and conversation of fighters, Luke's eyes scan across the room. Currently, he is in the hotel's dining room, converted and arranged in order to gather and accommodate the 8 teams successful in advancing to the tournament's Second Stage, in addition to the press, hotel staff and several COF personnel and sponsor representatives present. Although the number of warriors present at the moment is small, the collective outpouring of ki from them all is close to overwhelming. As he'd easily expected, Ken's team had advanced, drawing closer to what he hoped was a matter of time until their teams clashed.

And then we'll see if all my training has paid off, if I'm strong enough to beat him, he adds silently, balling one hand into a fist.
 

-*-
 

"Ah, looks like we're fashionably late," Fei Long quips as he walks into the room, deliberately ignoring the flashing of camera that his presence creates. Next to him Jin only nods in response, his mind seemingly elsewhere for the moment. Upon seeing E. Honda, both fighters head over to his location where to engage in short conversation.
 

-*-
 

"They could've picked a better place to have this gathering, or not had it at all," Sean comments, elsewhere in the room. "In fact, being here's making me hungry."

He's soon told to hush by Victoria, yet the Puerto Rican reflects on Sean's view with some level of agreement. Of the 16 qualifying fighters, Millan can already see that not everyone has turned up. Out of the people she knows for sure has qualified -- which, admittedly, is rather small -- Ken is absent, as well as Natalie and, she notes unsurprisingly, Riq himself.

While she does see their respective partners present, the total number only reached 11. That meant either two individuals, or a whole team was missing. I wonder which...? she thinks with curious interest.

The sound of doors closing immediately causes all conversation and activity to come to a halt, just as a tall Oriental figure makes his way onto the platform, enabling him to overlook many of the people in the room. After a small period of silence, the figure then speaks.

"Greetings, warriors," he starts. "I am Kenzo Yamato from the Champion of Fists Committee, and welcome to the Second Stage of the Champion of Fists tournament." His voice faded into the silence of the room.

"This Stage is unlike the last one, for it will be of single elimination, in one-on-one matches." As several confused, estranged looks and murmurings rose from the audience, Kenzo merely speaks on. "Matches will be decided should a fighter become unable to return to a ready position from the ground after a time period of 10 seconds. Victorious fighters will then advance to the Quarter Final Stage."

"So now it's one-on-one?" Alex questions. "Fine with me. You were holding me down, anyway."

"Heh, more like the opposite," Luke replies, laughing off Alex's joke. While unexpected, the new rules were fine with him as well. A part of him then questions why had team-based matches been set up in the first place, but after failing to conceive a suitable answer promptly resumes back to listening to Yamato, now wondering how long his speech will continue until he gets to announcing the matches.

"...And now, onto the matches," Kenzo says, as if having read Blaze's mind. Behind Yamato stands a large white projector screen, which now flares to life to broadcast a tournament flowchart. Some seconds pass, eventually followed by the qualifying fighters' names materializing onto the screen and thus filling up part of the chart, under the 'Stage Two' heading.
 

-*-
 

"Cool, I get to fight first," Sean remarks upon seeing his name. "Against... Makoto?"

"She was Ryu's partner," Victoria explains. Her name hadn't come up on-screen yet, but she can see Riq's, so she curiously looks to see who his opponent is. The name is not familiar to her at first, but then the recollection sinks in. Wait, hasn't he...
 

-*-
 

...fought him before? Luke asks himself. Yeah, it was Enrique Pierantoni, Blaze confirms to himself as he looks back at the chart. And if I beat him this time, I'll face the winner of the Ken vs. Charlie match. A warm, confident smile grows across the American's face at the realisation. You better not lose, Ken. Not until I beat you...
 

-*-
 

"Woah…" Sakura trails off, her heart fluttering with a mix of excitement and nervousness. "Of all the people…" Her body tenses reflexively as she feels a hand place itself on her shoulder, quickly turning around to its source only to see her scheduled opponent staring back at her.

"Sakura," he says with an encouraging smile. "Do your best. I'll expect nothing less from you when we fight."

The young fighter nods in response as she matches the smile with her own.

"Hai, Ryu-san!"
 

-*-
 

"Look at who has it easy," Fei teases. "I get paired up with Vega, Honda gets the Street Fighter Champion... and this guy gets his girlfriend to frolic with."

"As if the outcry from human rights groups wasn't enough," Honda chimes in with a chuckle. "Imagine if domestic violence groups found out about this match."

Jin simply reveals an easy grin at the statements. "What can I say? It is what it is." Back in Tokyo, the both of them had once joked about the possibility of being drawn up against each other; now it was a reality, except there were now various undertones behind the situation. In typical fashion, chances to spend time with Natalie -- or Mien, as the flowchart states before his line of vision -- were almost rare, which seemed to grow the more Natalie became further delved into her Federal tasks.

Or rather, the more Parker forced Natalie into taking deeper, time-consuming assignments -- something he was growing to suspect. Subconsciously, and unknown to Fei and Honda, Jin's hand clenches into a tight, embittered fist at the thought, though the expression on his face remains unaffected.

"Yeah, true," the action star replies. "Make sure not to do anything that gets you into trouble outside the arena, and it's a wrap."

"Ain't gotta tell me that," Jin responds coolly. "You guys just make sure you meet me at the Quarter Finals, alright?"

Both fighters turn to him.

"Deal."
 

-*-
 

"Aw hell no!" Sean bursts out, which initially draws a few looks towards his direction. "You could end up advancing without even fighting in a match!"

"Well...I don't think she'll just throw the match after getting this far," Victoria replies. I didn't think she'd make it as well, let alone end up facing me, Enid thinks with some admiration. Things were certainly becoming interesting indeed.

"I'll be surprised if this 'Iwa' character shows up," Sean continues. "She ain't want it with our team in the last Stage, so she'll probably duck your match too. In fact, I don't see her at this gathering either, so what's that tell you?"

Victoria giggles at Sean's remarks, aware that his comments aren't serious, but is merely another one of his common jests with the occasional points of truth sprinkled within, as further proven by the wide grin on his face. Over a year had passed since her and Iwa had spoken, since the Wushu disciple had stopped replying to her emails and inexplicably severed any other forms of contact.

Even now, on the same island, Iwa had displayed the same, mysterious attitude towards her on that brief moment they'd crossed paths in the hotel. As if Riq alone wasn't a problem in that department, she mused. Then there were the rumours...
 

"Me and her definitely have some catching up to do," Victoria says to Sean. "If she 'wants it' with me, of course," she quickly throws in with a wink.
 

-*-
 

"......More details on your respective matches will be sent to your hotel rooms over the next few hours," Kenzo concludes. "The first match will take place in the next few days."

One by one, the fighters exit the dining room, many with looks of anticipation and others simply in thought, leaving the press behind to begin their bombardment of questions.

-----

1055
A surrounded courtyard for one wing of The Makai
 

A sharp pain in her arm reminded her of what she was doing and where she was, bruised and battered she was still hanging on. Seriously, some people can't handle truth, Iwa thinks. She really didn't know where Mel went, or should she say she really didn't want to know where Maru took Mel. Well, it was still the truth. She knew his rage was building but it was not enough. The Master would not be pleased with such half done work.

Her mind was wandering again as Ken repeated his question once more. It was a little hard to answer back since his hand was gripping her neck with his other hand cocked back into a fist as he threatened her once more. All she caught were bits of words.

"Dammit!!!!…games…Ryu…Chun Li…given up on you…But…I want…son back!!"

Her attention span was starting to waver again as she tried to shake her head. These days it's just hard to focus on anything at all, but as long as the Master's orders kept coming it was something to focus on.

Another punch to her stomach made her eyes bulge. This guy really means business. Surveying her environment through somewhat bloodied eyes, she noted the few onlookers watching from the balcony while on the grounds Chun Li held back the frantic Eliza for her own safety.

Good, all players are in place. The Master would be pleased,' she thought.
Her attention went back to Ken. Equally bruised and majorly angered. Seeing that smug look on her face serves only to anger him.

"Where is my son?!" Ken said through gritted teeth.

"The hell I know," she answered, bringing her hand up and smashing a ball of qi in his chest. The qi explosion sent him flying back allowing Iwa to catch her breath. Her hand reaches up for her earpiece again; even though the thing is damaged she proceeds to report. "Yes Master? You have seen all that you need? Understood. The boy is expendable," she said with smile.

Ken snapped when he heard the words. With a roar he flew towards her blindly attacking, even with her good reflexes she finds it hard to block the fast and furious attacks. She had to defend herself from the raw power of his attack. The Master would like the ferocity of this, but–

A Shoryuken interrupted her line of thoughts as its force pulls her up the air. In a desperate attempt to recover she managed to grab hold of one of the flowered walkway's outer crossbeam and swing aside to avoid the second Dragon Punch. She lands and chases him when he descends with a Tensho Kyaku, striking him sharply in the chin.

A little worried that he doesn't seem to feel it, they both land around the same time but Ken demonstrates his quick reaction time and speed, catching her with a roundhouse kick that throws her across the courtyard.

Shaking her head to get her bearings, Iwa leapt over the oncoming Hadoken and stomped upon Ken's head, using it as a stepping-stone to escape from Ken who begins a Tatsumaki to chase her. She grabbed onto a nearby lamppost, using the momentum to swing herself anti-clockwise, allowing her to come behind Ken where she smashes her shin right into the back of Ken's neck.

Releasing the lamppost on the second swing, Iwa used the build up force to chase the somewhat stunned Ken, igniting her fist before she smashed it hard into his spine. Masters crashed him right into the wall, whilst Iwa uses him to cushion her landing.

Hoshi limps to her feet, and seeing that he won't be getting up, rummages through her pockets and took out a new earpiece. Slipping the processing chip from the damage piece into the new earpiece she switched the new one on.

Hopefully he would not get up until she's gone. It would not be to her advantage to take Ken on in a long drawn fight. May the Master be satisfied with the way things went.

"Berseker rage…tends...to blind...Not quite Satsui no Hadou...The Serious One...next…?" She could barely get the words out as she limps away, ignoring Eliza who rushed towards Ken and ignoring Chun Li who was watching her with concerned eyes.

-----

1100

While Chun Li had gone back to update Ryu on the situation, a battered and bruised Ken returned to his room with Eliza. Stepping out of the lift, Ken limps his way back with Eliza for support. And there it was, a large cardboard box sitting outside their door. Just a box with the words 'Canned meat.'

A bad feeling rumbled in Ken's stomach at the pun in those words. He glanced at Eliza who had feared the worst. Someone had gone too far and there will be hell to pay. He shrugged off Eliza's arm and limped his way over.

Although afraid of what he might see within, he glances over to Eliza to assure her before opening the box. His heart was thumping away madly. Gingerly he peeled open the covers, blond hair peeked out from within.

"DADDDYYY!!!!!" The boy squealed as he leapt out of the box and into Ken's arms throwing the blond warrior off his feet. All his pain was forgotten for now as he has his son back safely. His wife stumbled towards them, joining in a hug, wholly relieved that he was unharmed.

-----

1102

Small beady eyes took the whole scene in. Satisfied with a job well done Maru scurries over to the nearest window and leapt down to the nearest balcony to make his way back. He stops when he thought he smelt sake through the slightly open glass door. Making a detour he entered the room in search of it.

Searching around all he found was a recently empty bottle of sake, some complementary hotel nuts and odd bits of kibble. Disappointed he turns for the glass door only to come face to face with a black cat with sharp gold eyes. Maru's fur bristles as he spat out an acorn to aim at the tail-twitching cat.

The stare-down seems like an eternity until a huge spider passes beside them. The cat pounces as Maru launches the nut at it. A hit on the cat's head surprised it allowing him a moment to scurry straight out to the balcony opening where he makes for the courtyard. The annoyed cat follows him in hot pursuit. It's a long way back to the safety of Iwa's room...