Disclaimer: Rikuo (Aulbath), Aqueria, Ricky (Alba), Micky and all canonical characters and places from the Darkstalkers video game series are the sole property of Capcom. The author does not own any rights to these characters.

"Hey Dad! Over here!" Rikuo Aulbath could barely believe his ears. Just five minutes ago, following the final battle between him and his friends and the demented Jedah, he'd been ready to give his beloved son up for lost, another innocent casualty of Jedah's insane plan to "reshape" the world. Now as he was wondering how he'd go on with the loss and how he was going to tell Aqueria that he'd failed in his attempt to rescue their child, his heart felt as if it would explode with all manner of joy, pride, relief, and love at hearing his son's words.

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After the first battle, he and the other Darkstalkers had waged to rid the world of Pyron's tyranny, Rikuo, like the others, had decided to settle down from fighting. He'd met Aqueria, together they had brought Ricky into the world, and despite the assumption that they were the last of their kind, they'd managed to live a peaceful life. Still, it does get lonely not having others to play with when you're still a child and Ricky's loving parents had done what they could to keep him from becoming bored. Rikuo had even taken them up topside for land bound excursions to meet some of his other friends and allies that he'd fought alongside and Ricky had quickly made friends his own age (presumably) like Jon Talbain's students, Felicia's catgirl friends and the children from her orphanage, and even some of the Sasquatch youth from Quatos's village. But mer-people can only survive out of the water for so long and they always had to cut the playtime short and return to their rightful environment. And unless some of Ricky's land-dwelling playmates knew how to scuba dive or pilot a submarine, the notion of Ricky having visitors of his own was basically out of the question.

So it was only natural that Ricky would pass the time by exploring his watery domain. His mother and father had often cautioned him not to swim too far from their coral home without one or both of them to accompany him and he usually obeyed. He was also flawless about making it home at reasonable times and he never sneaked off either. So one day, when Ricky had gone out to explore a nearby undersea formation and didn't make it home in time for curfew, Rikuo and Aqueria were concerned. Concern became frustration; frustration gave way to worry and worry, if not satiated soon, evolves into all out panic. Before long, Aqueria was in hysterics and Rikuo vowed that he'd circle the entire planet as many times and as much time as it took to bring their son home safe and sound. And woe betide (pun intended) anyone or anything that dared get in his way.

He didn't bother entertaining the thought that some undersea predator might have snagged Ricky…he'd taught his son too well about how to avoid dangerous forms of sea life and what to do if he encountered one. Not only that, but Ricky was a natural in the skill of mimicking…changing the morphology of one's appendage or even full body to appear as that of another aquatic creature. Ricky's favorite mimics were the lionfish, and sea wasp, both of which were considered deadly poisonous and thus not at the top of most predator's menus.

Rikuo had searched extensively in the oceans. Finally out of desperation, he'd gone onto land, thinking perhaps that Ricky might have attempted to visit one of his land bound friends by himself after all. Not only had this proven fruitless but it made things all the more mysterious. Talbain's dojo had been his first stop and he was surprised to find it closed and empty, despite his arriving at a time when a class should have been in session.

There was an extensive amount of damage inside, as if a battle had been fought, wolf claw marks everywhere, but no sign of Jon or more importantly, his son. Next he'd gone to Felicia's orphanage. The children and workers there (at this point let's just assume he was in some sort of disguise or has the ability to mimic land-based humans) informed him that she'd gone off to "take care of something important" and hadn't returned since. At her home, her cat friends had little more than this to tell him either, although Pico, her closest friend suggested that she may have gone off looking for Jon and they all mentioned something about changes taking place in the Makai realm since Pyron's defeat. None of them had seen Ricky though, and they bade him well in being found without harm. Most perplexing was Quatos's village. It virtually wasn't there. No Quatos, no Sasquatches, no sign of life. The entire village was empty although Rikuo noted that several fires had been left burning. It was as if something had come along and frightened or taken the Sasquatches away. The search for Ricky, however, continued.

Searching the oceans yet again, Rikuo then heard, for the first time, his son's cries of distress, and strangely, at the same time, he had a vision of a particular place, familiar and close to home but somehow different. Putting all suspicions aside, Rikuo made a beeline for the place and quickly realized that it wasn't what it seemed. A huge vortex sucked him in before he could even get a good layout of the place and he lost consciousness.

Rikuo came to and was greeted by a smiling female face with bright blue eyes. "Aqueria?" he wondered aloud. "Sorry Rick, ol' buddy. I know you want me to be your wife but I'm already taken and cats hate water," a sassy feline voice replied. Sure enough, it was Felicia. He felt something warm and furry at his back and looked up to see Quatos's fangs grinning down at him. Not far away, Jon Talbain lay in wolf form, snoring loudly and Victor Von Geldenheim was there too, his normally impassive golem face full of genuine concern. Much to his dismay, he did not see Ricky among his friends. Telling them his story, he was given an explanation that really wasn't what he'd wanted hear.

The Makai realm was dying out and Darkstalkers were basically being evicted by this, forced out into the human world. An ancient lord from Belial Aensland's court, one Jedah, was trying to rectify the situation albeit in the worse way possible--destroying everything that had existed in the old Makai realm and rebirthing it via a vile Shintai being that was even now being nursed in its womb. In order for this to be brought about Jedah needed souls, from powerful warriors nonetheless and having been the crew that saved the world from Pyron, Felicia explained, they fit the bill.

Worse yet, the reformatting of the Makai world was actually nothing more than a dry run, the Earth Realm was next. Realizing now that everything they all held dear was in danger of perishing and that finding his son wouldn't matter if the very planet he was somewhere on no longer existed, Rikuo grudgingly agreed to fight the good fight once more. He soon came to realize that his son was likely being used as bait to lure him here and that the other Darkstalkers were experiencing similar circumstances. Before long, the multidimensional battlefield was drawn and all the players made themselves known. And not all of them were on the good guys' side...

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(I'm going to skip the details between here and the time Rikuo finally catches up to Ricky b/c:

1. It would take too long and the focus of this story is Rikuo finding Ricky and everything that occurred thereafter;

2. If you really want to know how things went down, there's a ton of fanfics out there that novelize this. Either that or you can play the game Darkstalkers 3 aka Vampire Savior. Just get a Playstation, hunt it down at the arcades or download a MAME emulator and track down the rom for it.)