The Prologue After The Epilogue
In the beginning, there was a bedroom. And in that room sat a guy. Just a guy, not a hero, or a conqueror, or anyone special in particular. He was good at two things. One, not sleeping, and two, playing games that involved two (or occasionally more) characters beating each other up.
It was not a glamorous life, but it was a life. Sort of.
And in that room, in the midst of that feeling of satisfaction mixed with hopelessness that comes with the end of finishing a game, watching the epilogue and the credits scroll by, he sat. Nothing was going on in the room. But a lot was going on in his head.
As he sunk into dreamy half-sleep, the walls that separated timelines and universes melted down within him, and the many worlds merged into one. This was a historic event. This was the birth of…
THE FIGHTERVERSE
At the foot of a great mountain, sat a great man, known throughout the world. He was one hell of a fighter, a hero, slayer of demons, inspiration for thousands of shotoclones, and pretty much the polar opposite of Bedroom-guy in every way possible. His name was Ryu.
Every day for the past few weeks, Ryu had sat below this mountain and meditated. Every day, he would close his eyes, and when he opened them again, the same peaceful, tranquil surroundings would still be there.
Not today.
Something was very wrong. The mountain was still there, but the beautiful forest scape that had once surrounded it had been replaced with a city! Everywhere, cars and buses were grinding to a halt, looking up in fear at the mountain which had not been there seconds ago.
Ryu stood up in confusion. "What's happened?" he asked the person nearest to him, a young man in black and gold, with a sunburst symbol on his back. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," replied Kyo Kusanagi menacingly, before lighting a handful of crackling flames. "You tell me."
Somewhere else, two eternal rivals were fighting. Sub Zero and Scorpion, two ninja, nearly identical except for the colors they wore. Sub Zero began to charge up an icy blue freezeball in his hands, but Scorpion interrupted it by sending a rope dart into his chest, screaming, "GET OVER HERE!"
As Scorpion dragged his rival towards him, there was a flash of white light and Sub Zero was gone, replaced by a grey-haired, tan skinned edgy looking guy in shades – K' Dash – and he wasn't happy.
As for Sub, he ended up on a hard, concrete floor somewhere underground, being slapped repeatedly in the face by a cyan-haired young girl, Kula Diamond. Lin Kuei assassins don't much care about the age of their opponents – anyone stupid enough to attack them is stupid enough to die – so Sub Zero kicked her off him, squared up, and a heated battle between the two ice-users began.
Everywhere in the world – in every world, fights were breaking out left, right and center. The sky cracked and changed colors. The ground shook. From above, the Earth looked like a patchwork quilt of different worlds somehow merged into one. Japan became about ten times the size that it originally was. Australia? Well, nobody knows what happened to Australia, and nobody wants to ask either.
On top of Big Ben in London, ex-bouncers Eagle and King were locked in a heated battle, and nobody knew how they had gotten up there. Down below, Ragna the Bloodedge was busy stealing, pillaging, plundering, and otherwise increasing his massive bounty. Even the combined forces of police officers Chun-li, Stryker and Blue Mary couldn't bring him to justice, and nobody from Sector Seven or the Librarium was anywhere to be seen.
Off in a secluded jungle in Africa, Sonson of MvC fame was up against some green-haired monkey-cat-girl-weirdass-thing. It said it's name was Cham Cham, but she was too focused on getting as far away as possible to waste time on introductions.
In the midst of all the chaos, at least some people were finding time to enjoy a bit of food. Or in this case, a lot of food. An unsuspecting restaurant owner had found his place flooded with a massive party of big eaters and all-around fatsos – Chang Koehan, Li Xiangfei, King Hippo, Rufus, E. Honda and Earthquake, just to name a few. Likewise, the bar next door was full up – Shun Di, Chin Gentsai, Soda Popinski, Hwa Jai, Zangief, Bo Rai Cho and more were busy getting absolutely off their respective faces on every liquid in the multiverse.
One fight was watched more closely than any other, and most closely by the males that happened to be in the right place at the right time. It was the ultimate battle of, well, boobs versus booty. Mai Shiranui against Cammy White, and we'll spare you the details on that one. Not today, fanboys.
One lone ninja watched the proceedings from the top of a skyscraper. Strider Hiryu, shaking his head, stepped back and melted into the night.
M. Bison's island lair merged with Rugal Bernstein's Sky Noah, creating a weird floating island skyship thing. Neither villain was very happy about that, and they made it clear to all, with a battle that shook the skies, that they were by NO means on the same side.
A thousand old rivalries were replaced with a thousand new ones, and to put it bluntly, all hell broke loose. Nobody knew who to blame, so they just blamed the nearest person, who coincidentally was blaming them in return, so it worked out nicely. Anyone who couldn't shoot fire or perform crazy martial arts made themselves scarce, hiding under tables and eying the craziness from anywhere safe. The thing about mindless ass-kicking is, it's fun to watch.
The true cause of all the madness, was of course our unwitting creator of worlds, Bedroom-guy. But nobody wants to hear about him, do they? After all, a new world is just beginning. As the sun sets on a day of destruction and carnage, the Fighterverse burns into the night. What does tomorrow hold, though? You'll just have to find out… next time.
That was just a taste of the madness to come! Stay tuned for more Stories From The Fighterverse. Guaranteed violence, villains and some other thing that starts with V, I dunno… victory? Sure, we'll roll with that.