Chapter 2 – Rivalries
"Nina, did you find out anything about G Corporation?" Jin asked plainly. His hands were locked over his mouth as he addressed the blonde woman.
Nina shook her head as she sat on the opposite side of Jin's large desk in his office. "Not lately. They must be planning something, although I can't completely say what it is..."
Jin closed his eyes, "Well, that doesn't matter... My goals aren't necessarily to destroy G. I just have to destroy Kazuya and rid the world of the Devil Gene. Also, if possible, I want to know if my mother is still alive."
Nina raised a brow at Jin, "Huh, you know... you never really struck me as the 'mama's boy' type..."
Jin sighed and addressed Nina, "Well, my mother is my only family that would probably know what to do about the devil within me." Jin stared blankly ahead, Nina didn't know about Jun's influence on the young man. It was so strong that he was able to suppress the Devil and not kill Heihachi at the end of the fourth King of Iron Fist Tournament.
Nina shrugged, she didn't know about motherly bonds like that, since she wasn't that close to her own mother to begin with, so instead she produced a collection of folders. "Well, how about this, there's a scientist that wants to meet you. His name is Victor Donovan and he has quite the reputation."
Jin studied the files before him on the desk and picked up a collection of photographs of the scientist. "Looks like a shady guy, if you ask me. The type to keep tons of secrets and betray everyone once they've outlived their usefulness."
Nina nodded, "Very shady indeed. He worked under DOATEC and had a secret set of funds put aside for something else. I don't know what exactly he was working with on the side, but his main task was the ultimate bio-weapon. I think he almost succeeded too."
Jin shuffled through more of the files, "Project Alpha? ...Project Epsilon? The Ultimate Fighter? ...Omega Project.. Hm..."
Nina explained a bit more, "Projects Epsilon and Alpha were under the table research developments using live test subjects, countless live subjects, two of which were the only survivors, one for each project. Both survivors are siblings, I believe."
Jin pushed the files back to Nina, "Hm... Well, he seems to know what he's doing... somewhat... I'll send you to meet him, in my place. I'll have a unit on standby as well, should things get out of hand."
Nina nodded. "I'll send him a line and ask where we should meet."
Jin turned away slightly, "Please do. I've got more intelligence to gather here while you're away."
Nina waved and collected the files before leaving the office. Jin took a deep breath and rested his head on his left hand, propping it on the arm rest of his seat. He glared straight ahead for a time before he tapped the desk and pulled up a series of screens and a key board, looking up all he could find on DOATEC and Donovan. While he was getting the information, one of his soldiers sent a message.
'The lightning scarlet strikes twice..'
Jin forwarded the message to Nina, and got the reply, 'Understood. Meeting at the following coordinates...'
Jin read the coordinates and put them in a map viewer. "...The ruins of the Tri-tower incident two years ago? Hm..." He furrowed his brows and pulled more files about DOATEC up in the following moments.
Night fell over the Ruins of the DOATEC Tri-Towers, which was once a very impressive building, as it held the record of 'tallest building' for a short time, that is, before the ninja assault during the fourth Dead or Alive World Combat Championship.
Nina arrived at the scene with the Tekken Force effectively hidden in various places around the area and she was met by another woman. This woman had short snow white hair, steel gray eyes and wore a white bodysuit with black shoulder guards, white gloves, black stripes running down the sides as well as a red snake print running from her left shoulder circling down to her right leg. She completed the outfit with a pair of high heeled black ankle boots. The zipper on her body suit was down to her waist, revealing her black lace bra.
"Who are you?" The snow haired woman asked with an English accent as she put a hand on her hip, lightly sizing up her potential next victim.
Nina folded her arms and replied, "Give me your name, and I'll give you mine."
The white haired lady nodded and stepped forward, her hand extended to shake, "I'm Christie, messenger for Mr. Donovan."
Nina looked at Christie's hand for a second before deciding to shake. "Nina, messenger and right hand of Mr. Kazama."
Christie smiled, and something about the smile hit a nerve with Nina. Christie's smile looked quite a bit like Anna's smile. She was immediately put on edge, and Nina's senses went on high alert.
Anna Williams is Nina's younger sister by two years. The two women are basically polar opposites. Anna is a brunette with a short bob cut and peach skin, where Nina is a bit more pale with long blonde hair in a ponytail. Anna's outfit of choice was a red Chinese dress with a dragon design, matching long gloves that extended to the middle of her biceps as well as matching heels. She also wore black stockings and. Both sisters have blue-gray eyes.
In the distance, a bit out of the range of Nina's Tekken Force unit, the woman in question, Anna Williams, was actually scoping out the meeting. She had a few pieces of equipment, a directional microphone with an added extension to cover her distance, and a favorite weapon of hers, a bazooka. The bazooka was outfitted with a laser pointer and a scope with high zoom capacity, and a few other hidden tricks, however, she was simply using the weapon for observation purposes right now, so the laser sight was switched off.
"Ah, dear sister... You seem a bit tense..." Anna commented with a very sly grin.
Nina's attention was diverted back to the assassin before her as she spoke once again. "My client, Mr. Donovan wishes to propose a sort of collaboration, with the Mishima Zaibatsu..."
Nina narrowed her eyes, "Okay, I'm listening. What can he offer to us?" She was now watching Christie much closer, for any signs of a potential ambush.
"Well, I'm sure you've heard of the Alpha project that was almost completed here, right? Well Mr. Donovan believes his data for the project can help your boss out of his... situation with the devil."
Nina hummed, mulling over the vague offer, before she replied, "Hm... Well, I'll have to discuss more of the terms..."
Anna, back off into the distance, was talking with Kazuya via wireless communicator.
"So, what now boss man? Jin's not here, just my sister and some other woman. Sounds like they're trying to make a deal for something."
Kazuya replied from the other end, "...Interrupt the transaction... Make sure to leave a few marks too, but make sure to make it seem like you're acting alone."
Anna smiled again, "Of course." After her response, she loaded a small missile into her bazooka and used the scope to aim at the ground beneath the two assassins and she fired.
Nina and Christie both stopped in their tracks as the shot from Anna's bazooka surely got their attention, and blew the two women back from one another in a large burst that left smoke in it's wake. Once the smoke cleared Anna strode onto the scene with her usual grace and charm, mostly directing her attention toward Nina.
The explosion was a surprise for both women, but they managed to avoid any real injury, just little bits of debris tore at their clothes a bit but nothing more. Some fire started to make itself known around their immediate area as well.
Not too far away, an auburn haired teen was digging around the ruins, not too far from where the transaction was being held.
Kasumi, former princess of the Mugen Tenshin ninja clan, was searching the rubble of the Tri-towers for something, and judging be her face, the item must have been quite important. However, her search was halted as she heard an explosion.
"A bazooka? Did someone find out I was back here?" Kasumi whispered to herself. She thought about her options, staying and trying to find what she was missing, or escape to live another day.
Kasumi sighed and decided to call it quits on her search, and she turned tail to run, her blood turned cold when she turned around; a silhouette with purple hair and glowing rose colored eyes and a black and purple ninja suit was suddenly before her.
"...A-ayane?"
Ayane, Kasumi's half sister and leader of the Mugen Tenshin Hajin-mon sect stood on a pile of destroyed concrete and sneered at her sister, somewhat.
"Yeah, it's me. I spared you during the destruction of this place," The young tengu began, and waved her index finger as she paused, "But...! My mission is still in place, so, you might wanna let me at least take you prisoner for a proper ruling by Hayate-sama."
Kasumi shook her head, "I can't do that..." Ayane sighed as a response, and Kasumi continued, "I still have things I need to do. Please let me go..."
Ayane put her hands on her hips, and replied with a tone that wasn't very kind, "As much as I'd like to, for old times' sake, I can't. I'm being hounded by the Tenshin-Mon sect and the elders about you. So I have someone tailing me to see if I'm actually trying to catch you." The young kunoichi sighed again, "So, prepare yourself, Nuke-nin. Since you aren't coming quietly, I shall be your judge and jury."
Both sisters got into their respective stances and charged at one another, just as another shot from Anna's bazooka erupted on the other side of the rubble.
Nina grunted as she was pushed into an exposed steel beam, bouncing from it and landing quite roughly on her feet. The explosion from the bazooka was too close for comfort, but Nina still managed to dodge. Anna's strange smile grew as she raised the weapon up to defend against Christie's attempted assault from Anna's right side.
Anna kicked the base of her bazooka so that it flipped the whole weapon into the air, forcing the other assassin to fall back. Anna dashed in, as the bazooka flipped in the air and assaulted her with a string of three high kicks and a rainbow kick which allowed her to flip in the air and catch her bazooka.
Anna's bazooka had a few rounds of small salvos ready, and while airborne, Anna made use of one of the mini salvos, raining down tiny, but deadly, missiles on the two opposing women. Nina was out of breath from being bounced from metal, but regained enough of her energy to take cover behind a medium sized wall. The tiny explosions popped into a larger one, as Anna shot another main missile again, this time aiming for Christie.
With the loud explosion came a large surplus of raining debris as well, which was sent into all directions in the air, and raining down even harder than it was before. When Anna landed, she was rushed by Nina.
Nina's charge consisted of two straight pokes and a roundhouse kick that wrapped around Anna's head and flipped her onto the concrete ground. Nina flipped over her sister and twisted Anna's legs in the figure four leg lock, albeit for a brief moment, before Anna broke the hold and kicked her sister away. Anna rolled backwards to get back on her feet when Christie threw a small needle right past her face.
Anna barely evaded the needle, it was so small, but she did retaliate with an easy kick on the ground, knocking a small stone into the air, taking the next needle thrown by the third party. Anna caught the small stone and threw it back at the snowy haired assassin just moments before Nina got back to her feet and snatched Anna's arm and threw her to the ground.
Anna landed on her back with a hard thud, easily breaking some of the old building below them, and she rose back to her feet quickly to avoid whatever Christie had in her hand. Anna grabbed Christie by her arm, the arm that had some type of weapon, and tripped her. Nina came back behind Anna, but was belted with the body of Christie and both assassins were hurled a small distance away. Anna sighed and walked over to her bazooka. She fired the last two salvos from the side compartments and checked her remaining ammo. The two small salvos of mini-missiles flew in all directions, even out of the battlefield, but most of them managed to hit their mark, and yet both assassins were still standing, if somewhat shakily.
"One shot left..." Anna sighed and took the last shot, aimed at the snowy haired assassin and fired.
As the head of the missile emerged, Christie barely produced a small knife and threw it, with her usual dead accuracy, which forced the missile to detonate prematurely, catching the two feuding sisters off guard, and injuring Anna indefinitely as she was knocked into the air.
The explosion caused much more damage than originally intended, since the few feet of standing walls of the remains of the Tri-towers began to crumble around the area. With Anna gone, Nina shook off the dizziness that was eating into her consciousness, and stole a glance around the area as it collapsed even further. Christie was no where to be found either, which was a little less than expected.
"Well, that could have ended a variety of ways..." Nina stated plainly before walking off the scene.
Jin radioed in after Nina got back on her bike, "Nina, report."
"Not much to say, except Anna got in the way. Although I'm not quite sure if she survived that explosion or not..."
Jin wasn't surprised, "So she found you again?"
Nina sighed, almost in an annoyed manner, "Yes, but I thought you had sentries posted around the area. How did she get through all of them?"
Jin shook his head, despite being on the phone, "I'm not sure. Maybe it could have been that other woman... Although, this simply raises more questions about Donovan's accountability..."
"He might just be trying to use you to get more DNA samples for his projects, you know."
"I'm well aware, which is why I'm going to try to locate the president of DOATEC and see what she has to offer... But what bother's me is how your sister even knew where you were this late in the night..."
Nina replied as if it was common knowledge, "It was expected that my dear sister would cross paths with me again, but I didn't expect that other woman to be prepared the way that she was... Although, I still don't think we should side with this Donovan guy..."
"I agree. I'm not sure why, and your reasons are just as valid. I think we should see what DOATEC has to offer in terms of assistance as well. Since he did defect from that organization... and they funded his strange 'projects'..."
Nina smirked and sped her bike up. "Well, we will just have to see how the pieces fall into place this time, won't we?"
After the Williams Sisters' battle conclusion, a helicopter swooped in a few minutes after Nina left the scene. Anna forced her way out from below what looked like the remains of a roof, or ceiling, and tossed the remains of her now destroyed bazooka into the distance.
"Well, I certainly didn't expect that..." Anna grunted as she struggled to stand up and clutched her waist. Not only was her dress and stockings ripped, but she was injured in more ways than just one, with a bloody side and more.
With a sweeping glance, Anna looked among the ruins once more before a ladder came tumbling down from the chopper overhead. Anna looked around one more time before spotting something purple beneath a toppled steel beam and she'd headed for it.
"What the? It's just a little girl..."
Ayane's form was battered and her forehead was covered in blood; her body and outfit cut and ripped and covered in dust. Anna assumed that the young kunoichi was an innocent in her attack, and despite the massive struggle it was, she took her aboard the helicopter that was waiting.
"...I can already hear him getting on me about this little predicament now..." Anna sighed, and smiled. Wherever she was going next was most likely a base or someplace to stay, and whoever she was thinking about was most likely close to her. She looked up at the chopper as it hovered overhead and dug Ayane's wounded body out of the new rubble of the Tri-Tower Ruins and began to slowly climb the ladder.
Anna's body seemed to slow down for a brief second, "...There was poison on that knife... that white haired woman was definitely out for blood, whether it was intended for Nina or not is a later matter... but for now I have to be careful not to make it circulate too much inside..." and as a result of her diagnosis, she pulled on the side of the rope ladder and the ladder pulled itself up and she was pulled into the chopper and the soldiers on board began to provide little in the ways of medical treatment for her and the injured kunoichi.
After the chaotic night was over for the three parties, DOATEC Headquarters was slightly abuzz as a young lady entered the topmost office, which belonged to current president, Helena Douglas.
"What is it?" Helena's soprano french accent carried throughout the large room.
"Um, Lady Helena, I have something to report..." The young looking blonde girl answered as she entered the office's large oak double doors.
"What's the matter Marie?" Helena turned around to look at one of her many personal assistants.
"Someone was just accessing confidential DOATEC information from a heavily encrypted line... It was brief, so there may be a challenge in deciphering who actually was responsible..."
Helena nodded, "I understand, but please do what you can. I would like to start preparations for the Fifth Dead or Alive Tournament soon, and I'd like to have all things in order before I decide to move forward with this plan..."
Marie Rose nodded quickly, "Yes, Lady Helena... Right away."
As Marie Rose closed Helena's doors, Helena returned her gaze to the window of the office. "Could Donovan be up to his old tricks once again? I can't take this lightly, so I'll need to tread softly for a while. I think I should look into this other Tournament a bit more as well, and see what I can figure out about the Mishima Zaibatsu... It may be beneficial to ally with such a strong military power... but could that tarnish the new reputation I'm trying to build for my company?"
Helena's eyes once again wandered away from the window, but this time she rested her eyes on her computer monitor, on a photograph of the current head of the Mishim Zaibatsu, Jin Kazama.
