THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2001: THE FALL OF NESTS

Chapter 1

It was a typically bright day in Tokyo Stadium, new home of the King Of Fighters Tournament. A long line of people, as far as the eye could see, stretched from one end of the place to another, all waiting for a spot.

A pissed-off Chizuru Kagura sat at a small, woefully undermanned table, dealing with the third phone call, as in many minutes. The crowd was getting restless, as people began to shove one another to see what the fuss was about.

Let's take a closer look.

**************

Imagine, if you will, a world covered in endless water. There is no land, not anywhere. The blue liquid covers the entire Earth, without anything to stop it.

Now, imagine the rush of the waves.

No, louder.

No. Come on, you're not trying. Even LOUDER. We're talking God-knows-how-many millions of square miles worth of rushing, babbling liquid. They crash against each other, they form ripples, waves, caps. And they often do so at *earsplitting* volumes, putting even punk bands to shame.

There you go. That's more like it.

Got that image and volume in your head? Good.             Now imagine that the voice of a single woman is enough to make all of this churning water sound like a pin-drop in comparison.

*************

"NO...NO…NO…AND…NO!!!!!!!! WHICH PART…OF…'NO' DO YOU! NOT! UNDERSTAND! NO!"

Chizuru Kagura slammed the phone down with all her might, snapping it neatly in two.

"Damn the USA Team…Stupid steroid addicts…"

As was the norm, she reached for the aspirin bottle once more…only to find it empty. As always. With a curse, Chizuru flung the bottle away from her in a random direction, not even bothering to see where it hit.

If anything, this year was worse than the last. First came the new teams, as well as the crappy photographs that had been sent in. Who in hell had taken that? He deserved to be fired. Or burned, with those photographs as fuel for the flames.

"Uh…Excuse me…"

"WHAT?"

Chizuru's head snapped up, eyes blazing with rage. A young man stood in front of her, warily stepping back.

"Whoah! I know you're stressed out, but…Remember us?"

"Remember you? I've never seen you in my life!"

But come to think of it…He did seem familiar. As did the other two some distance behind him.

Add several pounds, remove several inches and that white coat, and he'll be the splitting image of 'Burnout'. And the black-and-gold outfit and the mirrored visor…Haven't I seen them somewhere before?

"Hey…wait. You're Chan, right? With the rest of the DHS Team?"

"Yeah! We're back again for one more shot at the trophy…And the money, of course. Never forget the money."

"But…How 'bout last year's prize?"

Chan looked more than slightly sheepish for a moment. He shifted uncomfortably, lowering his voice to a point where it was barely audible.

"Well…Before we left, Ryan decided to throw a party at King's Bar. See, there were some people there who made…comments about us. We didn't take it kindly, and answered with our fists. By the time King had broken up the fight, there were fifteen for the medics, one critical. As you can tell, with the bullets and everything, there was some property damage…Hell, let's not even mention the therapy…"

Ryan scowled at Chan. Like a suspect attempting to convince the judge of his innocence, he turned to Chizuru for her understanding.

"What happened was perfectly reasonable. See, it was like this…"

**************

With an inhuman roar, Chan threw yet another broken, twisted body onto the already huge pile, the fifth opponent he'd beaten to a bloody pulp.

He turned to the few people in the room who were still standing.

"Anyone else think I'm gay??"

"No! No! You're hetero, man!" stammered one of the few witnesses to the carnage.

"A zero on the scale! Yeah!"

"As straight as, uh, the Pope!"

"Glad to hear it," Ryan growled, dropping his opponent onto his knee, not even bothering to listen to the scream of pain that followed. With a twisted smile on his face, he turned to the rest of their opponents.

"Who's next?"

Carrying makeshift clubs and other weaponry, the thugs let off a pathetic warcry, and charged. With a grin, Chan flipped the Mage Cannon into his hand. The gun began to glow, sending small streamers of blue light crackling round the room.

They abruptly pulled up short. Those behind began to scramble for cover, as Chan opened fire.

**************

"…And that's what happened."

Chizuru shuddered slightly, just thinking of the inevitable amount of bloodshed

"Okay…Well, let's get this over with, just for the record. Who are you guys again?"

"Hell, you already know us! Exactly why do we have to do this?"

"Because it's there."

"I'm not going through that again. Andro, you handle it."

The always impassive man stepped forward, mirrored visor pulled low over his eyes. As always.

"The talkative one is Chan. I'm Andro. The guy with the buck teeth is Ryan. Our new member, not here yet, is Jiazheng."

There was a long pause, as all concerned tried to digest this.

"Is that all?"

Chan let off a long-suffering sigh.

"Okay, I'll handle it this time, Andro. But you owe me."

With a sweeping gesture, Chan swung into a well-practiced recital.

"I'm Chan, Stand-wielder and student extraordinaire. I also fire a MEAN revolver. This year, I'm seventeen, and in AC Junior College. But for old time's sake, we're still the DHS Team."

Chan gestured to Ryan. The teenager nodded, a trademark grin spreading across his face. For some reason, it made him look evil.

"And he of the buck teeth and mild alcoholism is Ryan. He learns Jeet Kun Do, and can control both water and the weather. Careful, ladies. He's a real SENSTIVE, CARING GUY!"

"Hey! I heard that!"

"So what? You have the biggest fan club. Only dumb luck allowed us to escape at the airport! Or have you already forgotten that?"

Ryan suddenly shut up.

"Anyway, the grim, psychopathic killer here is Alistair Andrew Gillus. When he's in a good mood. We normally call him 'Andro'."

"It's 'Gill', Chan. Don't forget it."

Somehow, even at ease and visibly unarmed, Andro was like a viper ready to strike. Chan swallowed.

"Okay. My bad."

"Right. And now, the aforementioned new guy is…?"

"Jiazheng."

As one, the entire group turned, in a serious attempt to find the speaker. The voice had seemed to come from everywhere at once, but the speaker was nowhere to be seen.

**************

A friendly-looking, fresh-faced young man stepped in, seeming to appear from the midst of the crowd. He sketched a mock bow, raising his gauntlet/fingerless glove clad right hand above his head.

"At your service. I can introduce myself, Chan. No need to do it for me."

With a grateful nod, Chan stepped back, and gestured for Jiazheng to continue. Chizuru watched the proceedings with interest. This was better than anything else she had seen that day.

Jiazheng adjusted his red jacket, the one with the word "FUGITIVE" emblazoned over a neon kanji rendition of "Sword." He was wearing a shirt, with the words, "You Didn't See Me." In much smaller letters, underneath it.

"Well, I'm something of a swordsman. Andro met me at a bushido tournament, and I managed to fight him to a draw. Then, he introduced me to the others…And here I am."

The teenager slipped a well-made scabbard from his back. It was long and slim, but looked incredibly solid. The thing was obviously made foe a katana or single-edged sword of some kind. But something was missing…

"Where's the sword?"

"I don't need one."

Mentally, Chizuru wrote him off. Another nutter. And he'd seemed like such a nice young man too. With a shrug, she scribbled down the details onto her notepad.

"Okay, that about sums it up. Be at the stadium tomorrow, for your first match."

Chizuru paused, wondering whether to tell them. Eventually, her conscience won out, and she caved in.

"Be careful. Our sponsor, NESTS Cartel, wants you dead. Word has it that they have two teams on their payroll."

To her surprise, Ryan nodded.

"We know. Let them come."

"Oh dear."

**************

Much later that day, in a hotel specially reserved for the fighters, the DHS Team was busy with their...Planning. Yep, that's the word. Planning.

Okay, they lay sprawled out on the couches, staring blankly at the ceiling. No one wanted to actually say anything, waiting for everyone else to solve the problem. They stayed like this for some time, looking for all the world like a group of stoned junkies.

This went on for some time. They were getting nowhere, fast. Outside, the sun set, the sky darkened, yet no one said a word.

At length, Andro spoke.

"We're getting nowhere fast, guys."

Silence.

Snores resounded through the room. All concerned were fast asleep. Andro slowly got up, and shook his head at the sight. He poked Chan, who lay face-down on the sofa, drool trickling from the side of his mouth. No response.

"Damn."

**************

The Next Day…

"Alright, let's get this over wit…"

"Uh…Weren't you the person we met last time?"

Warily, the man backed away from Ryan.

"No. I've never seen you in my life. I'm just the faceless, anonymous rude guy, so let's leave it as that, okay?"

"Hey…You're the guy from the last year! The one who dissed us!"

"Uh oh…"

"Chan, make him scream as he dies."

"No problem."

There was a low whine, as the Mage Cannon began to power up. Ryan grinned evil, and cracked his knuckles.

"Don't worry. We won't kill you. But you owe us."

Then, the two waded in, and (DUE TO HORRIBLE, INDESCRIBABLE VIOLENCE, AND TO KEEP THIS FIC PG-13, THIS PART OF THE STORY HAS BEEN CENSORED.) Suffice it to say that a cartoon-style dust cloud quickly formed, as Ryan and Chan began to lay a righteous smackdown upon their victim.

Jiazheng, watching this, blinked.

"Am I missing something here?"

Andro laid a brotherly hand on Jiazheng's shoulder, perhaps using more than necessary force to hold him still.

"Oh, don't worry about that, alright? They have…issues."

**************

Much Later…

Chan, holding the tournament executive's paper, read through it as fast as possible.

"Right, when we head out there, we're going to fight…The…DHS…Team?! WHAT THE HELL?!!!"

"Wait…I thought WE were the DHS Team."

"Oh, there's a small footnote…'As Sponsored By NESTS Cartel.'"

Evil grins spread across the group's faces, quickly replacing the short-lived scowls.

"Man…This is our chance to show them our true power."

"Mwahahahaha. This is even better than I thought! In one fell stroke, we get rid of a group of fakes…AND tell the Cartel we're a force to be reckoned with."

"Good. Everyone ready?"

A chorus of assent quickly sounded.

"Let's go get them. Remember…No mercy."

"NO MERCY!!!!"

And with that, they were committed.

(Well now, the DHS Team's gonna fight another one! The next chapter should be really…Interesting. Believe me, it's going to be like no other chapter you've ever seen. As always, please read and review. Always feel free to drop me a line at burnout02urza@yahoo.com Suggestions are always welcome.)