-Elsewhere in the city,

"So you're the pretty kitty who's been trying to fight her way into the pit huh?" A muscular man said with a sinister smile. A flickering light at the back alley entrance to an apartment complex flickered in the night. Its dinghy orange glow illuminated the man's orange hair and red racing jacket. Behind him over a dozen of rough looking guys standing in the alley, sitting on a dumpster and looking down from fire escapes. All of their eyes were focused on their leader and Shina, who had been corned in the alley after beating the leader's nephew. He had been fighting his way up to earning entry into the pit.

"Look here you little bitch! No one messes with my guys. Especially not my own nephew." He pulled out a switchblade and licked the blade. His goons laughed and shouted with anticipation in the background.

"We saw you. Those claws, that fur, your eyes…" His voice was sadistic, and his words made Shina's skin crawl.

'Impossible…' Shina thought to herself. 'I didn't even completely transform… And it was for a fraction of a second. There's no way he could have seen it, much less all of them.' She was thinking at a mile a minute and couldn't seem to grasp what he was saying. She had used the quick partial transformation to defeat countless powerful opponents and had never been seen. So what was different about this time?

"You can thank my boy Jack up there. That camera of his and his quick eye caught the whole thing. You really are Marvel and we're going to teach you a lesson. For one thing freaks like you should stick to wallowing in the gutter! More importantly though, a female has no place in the pit with real men; you wouldn't want to chip one of those fancy claws now would you?" He mocked.

Shina was enraged by his second comment. Part of what earned her the name Marvel was that she was among histories best mercenaries, second only to her father. She spent years being looked over because of her gender but proved to the hidden world that she was better than almost any man. She truly was a marvel to behold.

"I really can't stand that kinda' crap!" She shouted. She strained every muscle in her body and her eyes began to glow. Making the man and his gang back off a step fearing what would come next.

"You men think you're so strong. Pulling out knives and weapons to fight a woman who you already out number 20 to 1." She snarled. Her body was beginning to emit massive amounts of heat as her skin and hair began to turn spotted and her nails reformed to claws.

"Well then Mr. Man, come show me how strong you are!" He teeth were now sharpened fangs. She clenched her fists and held her arms up in front of her face as he muscle mass grew.

"You think you can beat me because I'm a woman? Well… then BRING IT ON!" She roared and in a flash of light, threw her arms out. The shier force of her transformation pushed the men closest to her into the crowd. She let out a savage roar that reverberated in every piece of metal in the alley. The men looked on in fear and amazement at what they were seeing. Some of the men in back ran out of the alley fearing for their lives. Jack ran higher on the fire escape and aimed his camera shakily trying not to miss another second of what was happening.

The boss snapped out of his shock remembering his knife. He stood and charged the leopard aiming to stab he in the side. But Shina quickly countered be grabbing his wrist and pulling him into a punishing elbow strike that broke his cheekbone and eye socket on impact. He was out like a light and his men began running for their lives, crawling over one another almost stomping their own comrades to death. The cowards ran shouting back "Monster," "FREAK," "DEMON!" All of which Shina had heard before.

A few of the strongest fighters stayed behind for a chance to fight her, but were quickly dealt with. Using her Fang-drop-hammer combination, she knocked out four of the six men. The last two had been keeping back until they could have a clean shot at the leopard. They had not gone unnoticed by the mercenary. After the weaklings were dealt with, she crouched into a fighting stance and prepared for what they may have coming.

"Pretty impressive, huh Xie?" The larger of the two said in a deep and hungry tone.

"Yes Hung, Quite." The smaller man answered flatly. His facial expression hadn't changed in the slightest way since Shina first spotted him.

She took a moment to size the men up, it was clear these were no ordinary fighters. As soon as they spoke, she immediately recognized their accents as Cantonese. The one called Hung was a large burly man with a large head and belly. Despite his round shape his arm, leg and shoulder muscle were as solid as boulders. His hands were very large, even for a man of his size, and covered with calluses and scars. He had to be about 6'5" as he towered over both Shina and his companion.

Xie was only slightly shorter than Shina. His feet were small and his legs were thin and lean. His midsection was firm and solid. His upper body however was massive. His chest, arms, shoulders and even his hands were visibly strong and well defined. It was as if he spent his life walking on his hands.

Shina searched her mind for potentially helpful clues about the two. They were obviously well trained and they were Chinese. Hung and Xie, something was significant about those names.

"I'm getting tired of this." Hung growled. "Lets get this show on the road. If we take her out we can find out where this pit is and show this city what real fighters are capable of." He cracked his knuckles and glared at the crouched cat in front of him. A deep growl escaped her snarling jaws and she flexed her fingers exposing her claws.

"Fine." The smaller man said calmly. He moved over to the dumpster and prepared to watch the fight. When he moved his steps were short and quick. Though his over all speed wasn't any faster than an average walk, his natural footwork caught Shina's keen eye.

'He moves like some kind of bug' she thought to her self and immediately made the connection. Scorpion! Xie was the Cantonese word for scorpion. That would explain his peculiar build and his footwork.

Then another realization crossed her mind. Hung was also a Cantonese word. It meant bear. Just as she had processed that thought, a large palm came across her face. The hit was so heavy that it nearly knocked her to the ground.

She growled at the large man and was prepared for a battle. He may be well trained and incredibly strong, but bear style relied completely on raw power and lacked speed and maneuverability. However, if he was a master, those hands could be a real problem. All the same, he was still a human. Or was he?

As Hung swung his massive arms and clumsily stomped around the alley, Shina took note of his scent. It was strong and gamey; she also noticed that he was not sweating despite his heavy breathing.

'Heavy breathing… No, he's panting!' she thought. 'These two are zoanthropes!' she came to the realization and immediately went on high allert. If their names came from more than just their fighting styles she would have to be careful.

She dodged another one of his swipes and punched him in the jaw and kneed him in the nose.

"AHHHH! YOU DAMN CAT! NOW I'M MAD, SO SEE HOW WELL YOU STAND UP TO THIS!" He planted his feet and dropped into a low horse stance. He lifted his hands above his head before slamming his palms into the ground. In a flash of light, the large man was now covered in thick black fur. His face and chest were a light tan color. His hands were tipped with talon like claws, and he knew all too well how to use them. He was now massive, appearing to be nothing more than a large bear with pants and fingers. He let out a feral roar that shook the city.

'This isn't good…' she thought to herself while ducking and dodging his attacks. 'He's a bear and he's angry. That means any rational he may have had in that simple mind of his is now gone. He's just an animal at this point.' She analyzed her situation and concluded that it would be best to take him out as quickly as possible. His body was too thick for her punches and kicks to be very effective on their own.

'That's it!' After quickly avoiding another of Hung's swipes, she dug her claws into his arm and pulled herself toward his up his body. A well-aimed knee to the face threw him off balance. Without missing a beat she leapt into the air from his shoulders and came down landing a punishing axe kick to the crown of Hung's head knocking him out cold.

Shina was exhausted but knew it was too soon to drop her guard. Xie had been watching the entire fight from his spot at the dumpster and had barely blinked the entire time.

When Hung had fallen he stood from his spot and prepared to fight. Shina raised her arms in a fighting stance and prepared herself for the worst, but her fatigue had made her reflexes slow. Before she knew it Xie was quickly advancing on her. Instinctively she caught his first jab and attempted to counter with a punch of her own. But to her shock it was stopped by a firm grip on her wrist. She snarled at him and attempted to claw at his face, but was stopped by a flash of light. When her vision cleared, she saw that she was holding and being held by a large set of black pincers. She looked to his face to see four gem shaped red eyes glaring back at her. She tried to force her arm forward but his claw clamped down on her wrist with crushing force. In tern she adjusted her grip on his claw and worked her claws into the joint of his hard exoskeleton.

Her attention was averted to a large tail rising from behind him. Its sharp tip dripped venom and she realized that she could not avoid the deadly strike. She braced herself for impact when suddenly Xie was ripped away from her causing her to stumble to the ground next to Hung. She rubbed her sore wrist and looked up to see Xie being flown high above the alley by the tail in the claws of a large bat.

'Jenny!' she growled to herself. 'What the hell is she doing here?' Shina's blood began to boil but her thoughts were interrupted by Xie dropping back into the alley landing in the dumpster, landing with a disterbing crunch.

Shina looked up to see Jenny circling above the alley, and she noticed that Jack was still on the fire escape with the camera rolling. She let out a low growl before snatching up his boss's knife and sending it deep into the core of Jacks camera with the accuracy of a Russian circus performer. The blade went straight into the lens of the camera and the tip poked out of its rear nicking the man's chin. Jack passed out in shock, and a bead of blood dripped down his jaw. Shina used her powerful legs to scale the walls of the alley and get to the roof of the building where she changed back to her human form.

"What the hell are you doing here bat?" She shouted into the sky signaling Jenny to land. With grace and fluidity, the older woman swooped down and transformed only a few feet away from Shina.

"Calm your self tabby, I was just enjoying the night air when some interesting sounds caught my ear. You know bats have VERY sensitive hearing darling." She said with a smirk while touching her ear.

"Do NOT toy with me woman! There are zoanthropes all over the city a roar in the night is nothing special." Her cat eyes pierced through the calm night air directly at Jenny.

"Fine…" She sighed throwing her hands up in defeat. "You're no fun at all, you know that? If you must know it was daddy dearest who asked me to find out why you were coming home beaten and bruised, even having to be carried in by that blue boyfriend of yours on occasion."

Shina stepped back in shock. 'Dammit! The whole reason I moved out was so he wouldn't worry about me fighting and I could finally step out of his shadow. But I see that those old cat eyes of his still didn't miss a thing. Then she her mind snapped to something else Jenny said.

"SHENLONG IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" She roared. Jenny could hear the uncertainty in her voice and decided to test her luck.

"Oh right, I'm sorry. I forgot that Long is the one you're involved with." She smiled and waved her hand whimsically.

"NO!" She shouted defensively. "I'm not with either of them!"

"Aww, but why not? Both of them seem like excellent suitors for a lady like yourself." She mocked. She touched a finger to her chin and looked off into the distance. "Although personally I think Shenlong's wild and dangerous nature seems much more fun than the quiet Master Long"

Shina's blood began to boil but paused at those last words.

"What do you mean "Master Long"? He refused to train others because he said it would only bring about more violence. At least that's what he told me…" She sighed out loud wondering if she had been replaced.

"Didn't you know?" She said coyly. "Well sounds like you and your man have a few things to talk about." She teased "Anyway why is someone of your talents resorting to street fighting? You're not trying to get into the pit are you?"

Shina's eyes bulged, was she really so easy to read, or had Jenny been following her on multiple occasions? One thing was for sure, she had to throw her off the trail, or she would surly inform Gado; and she did not need him ruining her fight in the pit tomorrow night.

"Please! As if I would stoop to such a low level. Do I look like some kind of barbarian to you?" She took a moment to examine herself. "Don't answer that."

She had been convincing so far but now she needed to drive it home and get her interrogator to leave. Plus she had to find out how much her father already knew.

"So now you tell me bat woman. What are we going to do with the Chinese trash down there? I'm pretty sure you cracked the scorpions shell with that little stunt of yours." They both looked down into the alley but to there surprise, both of the men were gone.

"Well that solves that problem tabby." She teased. Shina was officially tired of being referred to as "Tabby."

"Call me Tabby one more time you flying rat! One more fucking time and I swear I will clip both of your scrawny wings!" She growled with a ferocity that let Jenny know immediately her playtime was over for the night.

"Well you wont have to worry about that for a while darling. Papa was invited to a show tomorrow night and I think I will tag along." She said with a wink before transforming and taking flight.

Once she was out of sight, Shina jumped down onto the fire escape and retrieved Jack's camera. Something she learned from her father was that a good mercenary left no evidence behind. That included a totaled camera. From there it was clear what her next move needed to be.

"Now its time for me to pay dad a visit." She said quietly to herself before leaping down from the escape to the street below and walked off into the night.

The following day started almost like any other day. Alice woke her little sister by scaring her out of her skin, followed by her zoanthrope-powered ejection from the room.

Long had been up since daybreak doing his morning tai chi.

Shina who spent the night at her father condo would had come up with a story to explain her bruises that she would share over breakfast. Luckily for her the tears in her close and the bruise on her wrist would actualy serve as evidence to back up her story. She would blame all of her past confrontations on the bear and scorpion. As long as Jenny hadn't been watching her in other fights, there would be nothing to prove she was lying.

Shenlong was meeting with a realtor about moving into a pent house somewhere in the city. With all his money safely in a well-managed account he could buy any place he wanted outright. After choosing to skip breakfast, he decided to head over to the park to relax before his meeting.

Kenji came to the surprise Uriko this morning, by rescuing the madness that was her morning breakfast and walked her to school without Alice or his brother. When he knocked on the door however his plans unexpectedly changed.

"Oh good morning Kenji!" Mitsuko answered the door loudly. "I think it's sweet that you walk Uriko to her school in the mornings." She beamed. "But you're pretty early this morning, why don't you join us for breakfast." Before he could object or Uriko could intervene, Mitsuko was dragging him over to the table full of pancakes, fruit and scrambled eggs.

"Gotta make sure my baby girl has a well balanced breakfast for her big test today." She said cheerfully. A bead of sweat dropped from Kenji's head as Uriko almost choked on her food. She honestly thought she was going to die from embarrassment if she did not get out of there and fast.

"Oh would you look at the time. We really should get going Kenji if we are going to stop by the library on the way there so you can help me with some last minute prep work for my test. Love you mom, love you Alice, bye!" She spewed her words out in a single breath before grabbing her boyfriend and sprinting out of the door with him in tow. But only a few feet away from her front steps she ran into something solid.

"Ow! Who the heck left something in the middle of the sidewa…." She cut her words when she looked up to see what exactly she had run into. It wasn't a thing however; it was a person and one she recognized. She looked up to his face for confirmation but the sun was almost directly behind his head and the glare blocked her vision.

"Master, what are you doing here?" She questioned squinting from the bright light.

"Rin… Rinrei?" the man said shakily.

"Um Uriko… that's not your teacher." Kenji said tapping her shoulder. She held a palm up to block the sun and to clear her vision.

"You're not Master Long!" She said in shock. Her eyes went wide when she saw that this man's face was exactly like her teaches. The only difference was that man had short hair and red eyes. Another notable difference was that her master seldom ever showed emotion on his face, but this man looked as if he had seen a ghost.

"Shenlong what are you doing here?" Kenji asked tensely. Though Shenlong was on good terms with Yugo, his sudden appearance put Kenji on edge. What made things worst was that he was staring directly at Uriko still with a shocked expression on his face.

"Wait, you're Shenlong?" She asked nervously. Having only seen him in his beast form and from behind, Uriko had no idea what Shenlongs face looked like. She never imagined that he would look so much like her teacher.

"You look just like him though." She reached out curiously to touch his face, but the moment her hand made contact he snapped awake from his shock and took off, almost as if he could teleport like Kenji.

Uriko was dazed by what just happened.

"URIKO SWEETY IS EVERYTHING OK?" Mitsuko shouted from the window, snapping her daughter back to reality.

"Huh? Oh, YES MOM, I'M FINE!" she shouted sarcastically.

"I'm right in front of the house. Don't you at least think I can move this far on my own?" She mumbled under her breath.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Her mom asked cheerfully.

"NOTHING MOM! I'M GUNNA GET GOING NOW, SO SEE YA LATER!" She said while stomping off. Kenji himself was a little dumbfounded by what just happened. He only ever saw Shenlong at the gym or with his brother. Granted Kenji didn't go out much, Shenlong was still someone that many of the other zoanthropes didn't trust.

After a few blocks of walking in silence, Uriko looked up at Kenji's toubled face.

"Hey Kenji." She started in a concerned tone. "Is everything alright?"

"Yea I guess. That was just really weird is all." He said trying to relax his own mind as well as hers.

"You can say that again. I honestly thought that was Master Long before you said something. I wonder if they are closely related, or something to each other." She pondered while staring blankly into space.

"Well, at least nothing else happened. If my mom had looked out the window a little bit earlier I'm pretty sure hell would have broken loose." She said with a nervous laugh.

"What do you mean? Does your mom have something against him too?" Kenji asked raising an eyebrow.

"Actually I doubt she even knows who he is." She giggled. "But the fact that I was outside with a strange man is more than enough to send her into a panic. Even though you were there to protect me, she still might have lost it."

Kenji couldn't help but laugh at the truth behind her statement. It was very true that Mitsuko would literally take on hell itself to protect her children. Even Alice who was already grown was still under the boar's protection.

"Kenji… who's Rinrei?" she asked shyly.

"Huh?" Was the only response he could formulate at the moment.

"That's what he called me, and well you seemed to know him, so I thought you might know who he was talking about." Now her mind was racing, and the school was coming into view.

"We can worry about all of that later. For now you just gotta focus on today's exam." He said placing a hand on her shoulder and looking up the steps to her school.

"Heh, your'e right." Kenji knew just how to get her back on track. "I'm ready!" She said full of determination. She ran up the steps to her school and blew a kiss before bounding into the school.

While Uriko had her schoolwork to worry about, Kenji racked his own brain trying to make sense out of everything. Needless to say, his day in school was far from productive.

While the young people were in school a very unpleasant reunion was about to take place at the library.

"So you have been tracking these two men for weeks, and last night they ambushed you?" Gado said full of uncertainty.

"That's the pretty much it, yea." She calmly, confident that her alibi was solid.

"So what was their objective?" he asked in an authoritarian tone.

"The bear said they were here to take over the cities underground fighting ring. They were trying to find a place known as the pit, but I have not been able to locate it either." She answered as if she were back in the army. Gado knew a plenty of information about the pit and its operations. What he needed to do now was assess how much she knew about it.

"What information have you been able to gather about it so far?" He could not let her know he was suspicious of her.

"They are the most powerful underground power in the city. More money is tied to them than in drugs, prostitution and weapons trafficking combined. Their most powerful fighters are zoanthropes, but I do not know who they may be. They currently meet every night at in secret, however I do not know if it is in the same location or in multiple locations around the city. In order to get into the these fights, someone has to either find it and buy their way in or prove themselves in the streets and get brought in by an existing high ranking pit fighter. It's safe to assume that the two I defeated last night were close to getting into tonight's pit." Her report was full and concise.

"I see." He paused to consider everything. Her story was adding up, perhaps too well. "Well done Shina. You really are a great mercenary." He said proudly. Shina lightly blushed at her fathers praise. But then dropped her head as her mind processed how she was going to talk to Long about his student. More importantly why it even bothered her.

"What's wrong?" Gado noticed his daughter's internal turmoil. "Something is troubling you."

"Dad… did you know that Long had a student?" she asked shakily.

"Yes, he speaks quite fondly of her. Why?" He could not tell where she was going with this.

"He does? I see… He refused to train me, not wanting to encourage more violence in my life." Her voice was full of bertayal and pain. "I wonder what else he hasn't told me." She stood and started toward the door.

"Shina I'm sure it's not what you think…" He was cut off by her voice.

"Sorry dad gotta run. I have two classes to teach today. I'll just talk to him myself later. Later pop." She said quickly before slamming the door behind her. Gado sighed to himself and walked out to his balcony looking out into the city.

Elsewhere, Shenlong was still shaken up from the morning events. He decided to kill some timeand calm his nerves in a coffee shop until he heard from his agent.

"There's no way that could have been her." He said quietly to himself before taking a drink of his coffee and looking out onto the street.

'Those eyes… those were Rinrei's eyes.' He thought to himself.

"She died years ago…"

'She knew me.'

"No, she thought she knew me."

'She knows him.'

"Long!" he growled to himself before standing up from his table.

"He's got some serious explaining to do." He scoffed. He left his drink on the table and began to storm off when his concentration was broken.

I'd rather feel pain than nothing at all! His cell phone blared into the city air.

"What is it?"

"Mr. Shenlong I found the perfect property for you, but we have to act quickly. There is some gentleman coming in a few hours to look at the place and this property has one of the best views in the entire city. It's the same style as on a pent house directly across the street."

"Fine where is it?"

"125th west and Washington Boulevard, block from the Washington subway stop. Do you know where that is?"

"Yea I know the way. I'm close, should be there in 15 minutes." Beep.