A block away from the King of Iron Fist Tournament Arena, a lone ninja perched in the narrow space between the fourth floor of an apartment complex and an old, brick office building. As he kept himself effortlessly suspended with his feet against the former and his back against the latter, he pulled a miniature cell phone from the pocket of his black leather slacks and held it to his ear.

"The spies have been dealt with. You have my attention now," he reported in a deep, rough voice.

"Oh…okay, good…"came the shaky response, interspersed with waves of crackling static, no doubt an effect of the shaky voice's uncontrollable sighs of relief. "Are you sure?"

"Of course." Though his voice was clear of emotion, the dark-skinned, leather clad ninja barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Whew…"

"Carlson, remember the mission."

"Oh, yeah, sorry. He just stopped the car, I mean, van. We're 3.15 miles away from the arena-oh! He just got out. I dunno why."

"Got anything with him?"

"I don't see anything in his hands. No one's following him, either, except, uh, me. From a good distance, of course. He's just walking off into the woods. Oh, crap, I can't see him anymore!"

From between the ninja's lips flashed a set of moonlit, gritted teeth as his face twisted with concern.

"Can you get closer?"

"I don't know if I should. He wouldn't just abandon his car like that, anyway, would he? He's gotta come back." There was more crackling, most likely the sound of the man's fingers tightening around his receiver.

"You need to get him back in your sight. You never know if…"

"What could he possibly do? He's just one guy. Honestly, I'd be more scared of the spies than the 'commander.' He's probably just going out there to take a piss or something. He's been driving out here for…3 hours and 27 minutes, without stopping a si-AAAGHHhh…."

"Carlson!" The ninja's face was lined with worry on top of scars as he back-flipped to the top of the office building. The haunting sound of his midnight-colored scarf whistling in the evening wind was accompanied by only static from his device, intermingled with the unmistakable huffs and puffs of a dying man's final gasps.

"hhh…hh…"

"Damn it!" The ninja considered just crushing the tiny phone in his hand, or throwing it to the alley floor below and letting it shatter. No, that would be unprofessional. He might as well hear what this murderous madman had to say, if he would say anything at all. He shook his head at his own foolishness. He had thought sending one man would be better than an easily detectable team, but obviously, he had picked the wrong person. Carlson had been improving his skills so quickly that the ninja had thought it safe to assign him this task. But, as always, he had underestimated the perils of trying to track his nemesis's schemes.

There was a crackling from the phone.

"You lose." There was a short laugh, toneless. "…Raven."

"Dragunov-"

Crunch.

That was the noise made by the opposite phone as it was smashed under the unforgiving heel of the Russian assassin's boot.

Raven could no longer resist it. He stepped to the edge of the office building and hurled his phone to the alley's depths four stories below, letting his arm complete a full, supernaturally swift swing in the process. As he gave a glance to the arm now extended in front of him, he caught something odd. Upon his wrist perched what looked to be first a leaf, then, judging by the weight and further inspection, a large insect, with black, inverted legs and a pale green exoskeleton. He had just drawn one of his kunai to spear it when he felt a set of fangs pierce straight through his leather gauntlet and into the back of his hand. Grunting with a sudden surge of pain, he was about to swat at the little monster when his whole body suddenly seized up and he found himself lying motionless on the rooftop. There he lay, helpless as he watched the bug fly off…into the ever thickening, sky-broad swarm it had spawned from.