Ch. 1: Solar Flare!
It is the year 2065…
On a bright and sunny day, a young man is running with great haste to get to an exam. He screams as he ran, "Ahh! I am late; I am late! Today is such an important day, but the train is still late. This is also the test given to me." He screams out, "Wait for me, Global Martial Arts!" He is late on this important day because his train was behind schedule. He appears to be in his 21st year of age, but already seems like he was training for years to be his best. He's got his black hair in a long shag hairstyle mane. He's dressed in average citizen's clothing. He continues dashing for the entrance exam center. His name is Mark Hanson.
In a park, there's a muscular man in his forties but in a red & black martial arts ghi walking through it. While passing through the park, he accidentally runs into another man and falls to the ground, "That was the last time I'd ever think to go through the park." The man Mark bumped into proudly said, "Don't say stuff like that; the park has its many uses, as it is the only natural preserves in the city." Noticing a nametag on his shirt, the man that Mark bumped into understands the motives of the young adult, "Are you going to take a test at the GMT training institute, Mr. Hanson?" The younger man nods, "Yes, sir."
The older man smiles, "Don't worry, I'll bet that they will except whatever hidden talents you have on the Global Martial Arts Tournament Circuit. Remember, their main goal is to try to find the best fighters in the world and recruit them before Neo Shadoloo does." Mark says, "I am totally aware of that, sir." The man in ghi asks Mark, "Are you man enough to fight with someone against you?" Mark nods. The gentleman martial artist bows to Mark, "Try your best and best of luck to you, Mr. Hanson." then he leaves. Mark resumes his rush to the exam site at the docks.
Neo Shadowlaw (or Neo Shadoloo) is an international crime syndicate that carries the same initiatives and goals as the original. However, about 50 years ago, General M. Bison has mysteriously reappeared and created Neo Shadoloo, which is even worse than the original.
The Global Martial Arts Training Institute is a corporation funded by the allied governments of the Allied Nations and Interpol (International Criminal Police Commission). Their goal is to take down Neo Shadowlaw by recruiting whatever good fighters with good souls there are left in the world. It was established 25 years after Bison created Neo Shadowlaw.
The exam takes place inside a building next to the harbor. Many new recruits are taking the exam on several courts while a group of testers evaluate them. Only participants that pass can go through to the next step.
On one court, a feeble young man named Elliot Wagner taking the combat exam has one of his punches blocked by his opponent. Watching from the audience are a lovely brunette named Zoë Xiang, a strong-looking martial artist/movie star named Siegfried Wagner, and a young music fanatic Jamaican fellow with an MP3 player named Andrew Jefferson; they are accepted recruits. Outside the exam site, registration is closing. Suddenly, Mark appears from out of the blue, introducing himself, "I hope I made it in time."
Mark hurries into the exam site and sees that the exam is already in progress. On one court a candidate named Michael Daniels is up against a combat testing robot. Mike appears to be an ordinary teenager from India going into manhood; he appears tall and skinny, but still retains his muscle build. His black hair has been cut down to be light and comfortable. The robot is sleek and agile, but with a lot of strength and endurance to back it all up with. Mike won against the robot without breaking a sweat after two rounds (both won by yours truly). The human tester next to it congratulates Mike on his victory.
A small group discusses the great performance of Mike Daniels; "Oh, man! That skinny dude is seriously strong!" "I can't wait to see him in action against Neo Shadoloo." And other stuff like that. The leader of their group, Jimmy White (a handsome young blonde from England), just says, "Oh, please! That Mike Daniels' skill is nothing compared to my off-world martial arts. Besides, there can be only one king in GMA." He was most likely referring to himself.
Watching from afar, Mark blew a whistle because he was most impressed by Mike's martial arts. Elliot, standing beside him, said to him, "Mike Daniels is certainly very strong. It's said that the legendary fighting yoga monk Dhalsim is his ancestor." Mark asks, "Well, he could very well be." Elliot says, "Although he did win the match, he may not get recruited since he has a low-level candidate number of 119." After hearing this, Mark tries to encourage him.
The committee members talk about the last candidate, no.1 Mike Daniels. While they think that everyone has already taken the exam, an old man called Professor Vincent Cadby says to his fellow committee members, "That's it." A committee member reports to Cadby, "Excuse me, sir. There is one new eager recruit left: someone that goes by the name of Mark Hanson." Pr. Cadby scoffs, "That's ridiculous: a dropout boy like him doesn't even deserve the luxury of going into a street fighter's arena. I believe that further testing for anybody incompetent isn't really necessary."
However, the other committee members argue to him, "Bison is a madman; are you going to let him get away with recruiting anybody who may fight for our future?" Pr. Cadby laughs, "I've got better plans and I'm going to deliver them to those eager-to-die recruits." He steps out in front of new recruit for the GMA…
Pr. Cadby says to the new recruits, "I'm going to pay Bison to cease all operations. I believe we can deal with him." Elliot Wagner steps up and objects, "How much are you going to pay him?" Pr. Cadby answers, "25 billion American dollars." Siegfried Wagner backs up Elliot, "You don't think it going to not stop Bison to think of taking hostages next month and asking for $50 billion; $100 billion afterwards? And so on and so forth?" Pr. Cadby asks the questioning recruits, "Have you lost your common sense, your minds, or your sense of belief in reasoning?" Siegfried and Elliot let out some air, growling out, "No."
Pr. Cadby says to the latest recruits, "Young recruits! I have new orders for you to receive. I say this war with Neo Shadoloo is cancelled, and you can all go home. Bison is going to be paid off for his crimes, and your friends will have died because of this institute battling against that syndicate will have died for nothing. But you can all go home. Meanwhile, ideals like freedom and justice get packed up. But you can all go home."
Mark Hanson stood up, stepped forward, and called out, "Really? Well… I'm not going home. I'm gonna get into GMA, and I'm going against Neo Shadowlaw, and I'm going to kick that reincarnated and super-empowered bastard Bison's butt so hard… that he will never come back to continue his reign of terror and that everyone of the next Bison wannabes are gonna feel it. Now who wants to follow those ridiculous orders and go home… and who wants to go with me?"
Naturally, every one of the new recruits cheered in agreement; they are willing to go up against Neo Shadoloo!
Pr. Cadby steps up to Mark and yells at him, "You certainly lost yours, young man." Mark retaliates, "No, you've lost your guts, pops!" Cadby growls, "If that's so, then let's fight! If you win, we'll go meet our doom. But if I win, Bison will get paid to stop his crimes."
Pr. Cadby removes his shirt to reveal a still lean and muscular fighter's body and his glasses before going into battle! He silently revealed that he has several laser cut scars on his back and on his chest from way back. Mark and Pr. Cadby steps out onto an empty arena, a metal pole rose from each corner and they developed a cage of laser beams around the arena.
A young female Native American committee member gulped, "This is will be the toughest laser cage fighter since V-Cat." Elliot looks at her and asks, "Who was V-Cat?" She answered, "He was the greatest, most popular, most intelligent, and most powerful laser cage fighter of the age 5 decades ago. The 'V' stood for 'victory'." Zoë asks her, "Whatever happened to him?" The same committee member answers, "He retired… and became Pr. Vincent Cadby."
Pr. Cadby asks Mark, "Your name before I defeat you, please?" Mark answers, "My name is Mark Hanson, son of the late Johnny 'Lionheart' Hanson, and one of the few survivors of the Santa Leo Bombing." Pr. Cadby nods, "I see; you're in this so you'd get revenge for your city on Neo Shadowlaw and the former governor of it, who are both responsible of it. But that was thirty years ago and you don't look a day over 21." Mark growls and smirks, "As they say… 'It's in my blood.'"
Jimmy White's group wonders why Pr. Cadby himself would come down to conduct an examination—— "Why would a great champion like the former V-Cat go up against a new guy?" "I'm uncertain of this Mark Hanson's chance of victory, laser cage fighters are some of the toughest forces on the planet." "Yeah, he seems too unworthy to take on such an opponent." "If he loses, Bison would get what he'd want." Jimmy said curiously, "Really? I'd like to see him try to win." Zoë Xiang silently said, "You can do it, Mark! I know you can!"
Cadby charged in first, Mark let him come at him; soon it became a battle of strength, Cadby is surprisingly pushed back by Mark's strength! Cadby was impressed, "Impressive, I've rated your strength as an ordinary weightlifter-class; a rating of 16. But you're proving me wrong, you've got the rating of 26: superhuman level 2; extremely rare for a male of the age of 21." Then he paused… "Unless——" He flipped Mark over, sending him flying toward the other side of the laser field!
A piece of Mark's shirt's back was burned by the laser beams, luckily he was able to use friction of the arena floor to stop his movement. Cadby moved in and Mark flipped out of the way, Cadby looked at Mark's back; a tattoo-like mark in the shape and color of the planet Earth, plus a gray moon, on Mark's left shoulder blade.
Elliot asked out loud "What is that? A tattoo?" Mark answered, "No! It's a birthmark!" Mike explains "Sometimes, the most mysterious things can appear on us even when we were born."
Meanwhile, Jimmy's group is discussing Pr. Cadby's fighting style; "Vincent Cadby analyzes his opponent during battles? That's amazing!" "I wonder if he was planning to trick Bison with the payment and break his spine." etc. Jimmy scoffs, "In a laser cage match after 4 decades, I can hardly believe that no one can defeat the legendary V-Cat." Zoë feels sorry, "Poor Mark, he must face such a powerful opponent, just for all of us to take our chances and face Neo Shadowlaw." Siegfried sternly says, "I think that Mark does not know about V-Cat's legendary moves and techniques."
Pr. Cadby wasn't done yet, yet Mark doesn't seem to be worried at all and is actually enjoying the fight. He is curious to see what Pr. Cadby is going to show him next.
Cadby leaps back and clings onto some ladder steps that are on each pole, aside from the laser generators, and climbs towards the top! Zoë sees that it is the legendary technique Siegfried was talking about. Mark is surprised by the great fighter has a few ideas that allow him to find disadvantages within the arena's advantages. But instead of being frightened, Mark is impressed by the great movement of the former V-Cat. The recruits watching the fight share the same feeling.
They are simply amazed by Pr. Cadby's still able to fight after a few years of retirement. Pr. Cadby bombs in at Mark!
"Iron Meteor Fist!"
The attack shook the arena, throwing Mark to the ground! He does take a lot of pain from Pr. Cadby's combination attack; even so, Mark seems fine. "I really like the fact that you're being serious in combat as you should. That's just what I'd want." Pr. Cadby is very annoyed by Mark's reaction, "I think that the young lives mean nothing to be thrown away for nothing."
Mark declared, "From now on… I'll show you my real strength." As he is about to strike back, he hears the voice of another… in his head, ("That's right, Mark. Show him that you're not fighting just for your own personal vendetta, but for the sake of the world.") He wonders where this voice could be coming from. Mark saw in his head was a vision of a tall and well-muscled man with blond hair worn longer than normally allowed, but like a brush. American flag tattoos are on his upper biceps. He's wearing a green tank top, camouflage pants, and combat boots. A set of dog tags hangs around his neck. Mark understands that' the voice he heard was of the spirit of Colonel William F. Guile. He decides to trust Guile's words.
Mark smirks at Pr. Cadby, "Are you man enough to fight with me, V-Cat?" Pr. Cadby lowly growls, "You will choke on those words, young man." Mark dodges V-Cat's punch, climbs up on of the ladders by three steps at a time, and flips over Pr. Cadby in midair, moving through the air like crazy! Within the process of each leaping off climbing bars, Mark knocked the bars off: now it will be tough to gain additional height for swift-falling attacks!
V-Cat asks, "How is it possible for someone with marvelous strength to have superhuman stamina and agility as well? How are you able to do such work, young one?"
The computer called a time out, but nobody was operating it… no one but… General M. Bison that is. He is as tall and very broad, with a well-muscled build as he was less than a century ago. M. Bison's eyes lack pupils, leaving them a ghastly white color. His hair is black and kept cropped very short, while his eyes burn blue with restrained Psycho-Power. He's regained his somewhat handsome if brutal face. His new general attire consists of Soviet-like military uniform made of blood-red synthetic leather-and-fabric-like materials, along with large silver-colored armored shoulder plates, wristbands, and shin guards (armoring over his steel-tipped boots). On his black-colored cap is the skull insignia of his new crime syndicate. He's also sporting a grey-blue colored cape.
Pr. Cadby growls at the holographic figure, "Bison." Bison turned his attention to Mark and coldly smirked, "Mark Hanson, what an honor it is to see such a perfect genetic soldier's son to survive the bombings your former governor has given orders to." Mark smiles and nods, "Out of the son-of-a-bitch's own petty jealousy of my father, he joined forces with you turned him over to you, ordered your measly bands of cronies to fly over Santa Leo to destroy it, and you broke my old man's neck afterwards. But since you don't care, days like those are just any other day to you."
Bison smiles and nods, "How correct you are. Except for the part of it being just any other day to me." Pr. Cadby stood aghast, "What?" Bison simply said, "To me, actually, it was 3 o'clock on Friday." Bison noticed Pr. Cadby, "Ah! The legendary V-Cat has come out of retirement. Are you still holding out that appointment to offer me that heart surgery, after what I did to your son twenty years ago? Your planned bribe will not work for me; for it will take 40 billion times that amount to convince me to stop our fighting."
Pr. Cadby asks, "How this can be possible? You couldn't know anything of what I was planning for twenty years!" Mark explains, "Unlike you, I've done my homework on martial arts, genetics, history, and other things like that to know that someone like General M. Bison would never be trusted and that he's a powerful psychic." Pr. Cadby asks, "Psychic? Aside from psychotic?" Bison nods, "Yes, that is right." Mark grins, "I've been training hard for twenty years for the moment we'll meet, Bison, you raving lunatic!"
Bison asks, "Don't you know that you can surpass everything you have, Mark? Especially everything your father has given you? I've given him power when I created him and several others. But he was pathetic."
Jimmy stood up aghast and exclaimed, "Neo Shadowlaw Laboratory's runaway genetic chimera street fighters!" Bison overheard and nodded, "Exactly. Genetic perfection is always the way of the future, granting the subjects or creations longer-lasting life spans, slower aging processes, superhuman attributes, etc. Even combining the legendary beings of old to create the future anew, is a very complex but successful process. But let's hope when we meet on the battlefield, young Mark, that we will face each other as one fellow warrior to another… in respectful combat… then if you lost… I will break your neck. Two genetic failures killed by the same hands. Until then, farewell." Then the holographic figure vanished!
Mark and V-Cat looked at each other, "Now do you believe me? Regardless of those plans, you must have to really mean it! He will go and bring hostages for excessively high ransom money! And if he's not paid, he will kill them all… or worse… convert them into perfect killers. That's the purpose of the Global Martial Arts Training Institute; a mission to bring down Neo Shadowlaw until Bison won't return again. Just planning to pay him for his excessive crimes, it will just prove you're a coward and you will have done nothing to save the world. And one man said that if good men do nothing… that is evil enough. Well, I am not going to sit back at burned up ruins I used to call home and do nothing! I'm going to face Neo Shadowlaw face-to-face on the battlefield, where we could engage each other in respectful combat. Then I would send his evil soul so deep into the underworld, so he'll never return. He's a mad warlord! All I want to do is support GMA and fight as one of them. Not for pride, not for joy of battle, but for revenge. I will be the first of all these new recruits to take the fights out into the world–– No! The whole world as far as Neo Shadowlaw will travel. We will march against him and his evil forces! We're gonna get into GMA, and We're all going against Neo Shadowlaw, and we're all going to kick that demon lord bastard Bison's ass so hard… that he will never come back to continue his reign of terror and that every next Bison wannabe is gonna feel it. Now who wants to go with me?" Everyone cheered for the words Mark spoke out!
Zoë is amazed, but cheers for Mark's inspiring words anyway, "Wow! Mark has developed courage like no other since I last seen him."
As Mark readies himself for the match to continue… Pr. Cadby cups his palms side-by-side and shouts out "THUNDER CRUSH!" V-Cat unleashes a powerful burst of static electricity from his left hook! Mark easily dodges it, "Bioelectricity used as a weapon just like an electric eel or the jungle legend, Blanka!" Pr. Cadby said, "The arena isn't an expert laser cage fighter's power!" Mark also said, "Power is what you use to do what's right. And I fight with honor and fairness; along with those I've developed in 25 years: courage, kindness, integrity, fitness, loyalty, and discipline."
That was when the temperature was starting to rise like crazy! Elliot wipes his forehead, "Man, is there an instant heat wave or is someone turning the heat up?" Siegfried was looking on, "No, Mark is just starting up a special battle technique like none has ever been witnessed before." Drew asks, "Whoa! This should be awesome! Judging from the rising heat, that little firecracker is going to burst into a mighty inferno!" Mike said, "This is his very first technique ever used, I can see it in his eyes from here." Jimmy was looking surprised at this, "WHAT? HE'S GOT A BATTLE TECHNIQUE?"
Pr. Cadby puts up a bioelectric force field around himself to protect himself from that upcoming attack coming from Mark, whatever it's going to come out as. Flames began bursting around Mark like an inferno, yet he's controlling it with his own will!
Mark thrusts his hands forward and shouts, "SOLAR FLARE!" The fire attack snaked its way towards Pr. Cadby, his bioelectric shield was protecting him well, but the electricity is making the fire get bigger and hotter each passing second! The computers seem to malfunction and the laser generator poles deactivate and collapse!
Mark ceased his attack, opened his eyes, and said, "It's over… I've won."
What is left of V-Cat and his arena from the result of Mark's Solar Flare attack; was nothing more than a shocked fighter and a destroyed arena, and a victorious Mark.
Pr. Cadby realized, "Your genetics and the bombing that affected Santa Leo; your genes must have had some of the legendary fighters' genes and powers and the bombing fallout's energy has helped you developed your own powers and abilities. The Solar Flare appears to be a pyrokinetic attack with a touch of magnetism!" one thing is for sure, Pr. Cadby is furious, but he knew Mark is right and everyone of the recruits have to go and defeat Neo Shadowlaw as soon as possible!
The recruits can hardly believe that Pr. Cadby a.k.a. V-Cat lost, but at the same time they're glad that they can go and take out Neo Shadoloo. Jimmy is shocked, "I can hardly believe such power could exist in a single fighter!" Zoë thinks to herself, "Mark, you've certainly become a very interesting man now." Elliot is also glad that Mark won, "GREAT JOB, DUDE!" Mike jumps to his feet and sighs, "He may help us defeat Bison."
To be continued…
(A/N: Feel free to send out ideas for future battles.)