"Did you see his face?" Kai exclaimed, chortling wickedly. "He looked like someone had smacked him with a shovel!"

"Hey, Kai." One of his thuggish friends nudged him and nodded over his shoulder. "Hot chick comin' in at three o' clock." Kai turned around, watching the 'hot chick' in question as she approached the group.

"So." Kim stopped in front of Jack's cousin, hands on hips and sporting a tight smile. "You beat Jack Brewer and won the tournament." Kai grinned, sizing her up.

"That's right, doll," he said. "I sure did."

Kim hit him.

He never even saw it coming. One second he was facing off with a pretty blond girl in pink, the next second he was lying on his back, colored stars dancing in front of his vision. Some of them might even have been singing. He wasn't sure.

Shaking his head to clear it, the 'champion' scrambled to his feet and lunged, snarling in rage. Kim neatly sidestepped, bringing her foot up to meet his chin as he staggered past, while simultaneously introducing her knuckles to his temple.

Drat. The singing stars were back.

Before he had a chance to gather his wits, the only female Wasabi Warrior floored him under a barrage of swift spear-hand chops and connected her foot to his side in the exact same place he had scored on Jack. All the air whooshed out of him, and he simply lay still for a moment and wheezed. Kim spared him one contemptuous glance before turning on her heel and heading back towards her friends.

Unfortunately for her, Kai was still a competent black belt, who clearly wasn't above fighting dirty. She hadn't gone three steps before something slammed into the back of her legs, knocking her to the stone walkway. Her head cracked against the hard surface, and her vision faded out for a moment. Acting on instinct, she rolled onto her back and flung a leg up, foot stiff and hard. She was rewarded with a pained grunt and felt a stab of satisfaction, before rolling to the side as the grey fog in front of her eyes started to clear.

On her feet once again, she faced off with the angry teenager, fists clenched and ready. Kai gave vent to an animalistic snarl and lunged for her. Kim sidestepped again, but this time there was a foot waiting for her, and she found herself on the business end of a well-aimed tornado kick. She grabbed his foot to steady herself and throw him off balance, but he simply used her grip as leverage and planted a high kick under her chin. Her head snapped painfully back, and she was forced to her knees from his weight. Kai and his cronies closed in on the lone girl.

Immediately, Rudy and Jerry sprang into action. Two of Kai's friends got their heads banged together while another one found himself being attacked by the weirdest looking Elvis-wannabe he had ever seen. Within seconds, a small but violent war was being waged on top of the famous Wall.

Eddie and Milton, still standing on the sidelines, looked at each other.

"We're still only yellow belts," Eddie said.

"We wouldn't stand a chance against a bunch of black belts," Milton concurred.

"They'd eat us alive."

"And then pick their teeth with our bones."

"...It was nice knowing you, man."

"Likewise."

The two friends firmly shook hands before launching themselves into the fray, ducking flying appendages and returning blows when they saw an opening. They gradually fought their way over to the rest of their group, and the four guys formed a protective circle around Kim as she recovered from Kai's most recent attack, well directed kicks and punches holding the opposing Karatekas at bay.

Kim recovered herself and got to her feet, and the five of them fanned out, forming a line across the Wall and striking ready stances, glaring their defiance at the gang of black belts opposing them. Observing the expressions on their faces, Kai felt, possibly for the first time in his life, a twinge of uneasiness that perhaps he couldn't, after all, win this fight.

Clearly, a strategic and dignified retreat was in order.

Suddenly, the immobile Warriors erupted into action, and the line moved forward with beautiful synchronization, yelling their war cries with a vim and vigor to rival the Vikings of olden days. That was more than enough for the battered black belts, who'd already had their confidence shaken that day, a sensation to which they were entirely unaccustomed.

"Strategy" and "dignity" abruptly fell far, far below "retreat" on their list of priorities. Accordingly, they retreated, lacking evidence of both strategy and dignity.

The four Wasabi students and their sensei watched their opponent's scrambled withdrawal, their faces shining with what could only be called triumph. There was a concerted, "YES!" and a round of high-fiving before Rudy sobered again.

"Come on guys, we should go see how Jack is doing," he said, and the others nodded vehemently in agreement. "Let's see if we can grab a taxi."

There was a concerted "NO!", and for the second time that day, Rudy and Kim exchanged a blank look, followed by a somewhat awkward silence.

"The hospital's just a few blocks away; we can walk there to cool our muscles," Milton said quickly.

After one look at Eddie's and Jerry's faces, the other two agreed.


"Thanks guys. I can't believe you'd do that for me."

"Jack, we're your friends." Kim perched on the edge of her friend's hospital bed, patting his uninjured hand gently. "We'd do anything for you."

They had just spent the better part of forty minutes bringing Jack up to date on the latest developments concerning his cousin. It was strange, Kim thought, how Eddie, Jerry, and Rudy could take a five minute fight and stretch it to an epic battle that took over half an hour.

She could tell from the look on Jack's face that he didn't believe half of it. She didn't blame him.

"I wish I'd been there to see it," he remarked, grinning at his friends.

"Huh, if you'd been there, there wouldn't have been anything for you to see," Milton pointed out enviously. "You'd have taken them out faster than we did." He cast a glance at the other Wasabi Warriors, half exasperated, half amused. They didn't even have the decency to look properly ashamed.

"Apparently not," Jack returned dryly. He waggled his splinted hand at them. "I'm the one in this bed; the rest of you are on it. Oh, and Jerry...I kind of lost feeling in my feet about ten minutes ago."

"Oops, sorry." Jerry clambered off his friend's legs, and, being Jerry, promptly slipped on the shiny floor and vanished behind the other side of the bed. "I'm okay!"

Rudy shook his head at his clumsy student and turned back to Jack, gently clapping him on his shoulder. (The one that hadn't been dislocated.) "You get some rest now, Jack, and heal up good. The doc said the surgery on your hand was a success, and you'll be fine in a while. We'll take turns staying here with you, and the rest of us will be at the hotel if you need us, okay? Milton," he dragged one of the guest chairs over to the bedside, "you get to stay here first. Everybody else, out! Jack needs his rest."

They all filed obediently out of the room, and the last thing Kim heard as she pulled the door shut behind her was, "So Milton, what really happened back on the Wall?"

Kim smiled to herself; she was right, he hadn't believed them.

Smart boy, that Jack Brewer.


I am thoroughly ashamed of myself. I took over a year of Karate, and I can't for the life of me remember how to spell that word! }:( You know, the one pronounced 'key-aye', the shout? I had to use 'war cries' instead, which simply isn't right. So if anybody knows how to spell it, let me know, will you? XD