Firestorm: Rise Of Judgement X (A Streets of RageVirtua Fighter Fic)

by Stefan422

When a new nightmarish organization arises composed of The Syndicate and Judgement Six, Firestorm, along with Akira Yuki, and his niece, Melanie Chan take to the streets of rage to bring peace back to Wood Oak City. But will this new organization be too powerful, even for their combined efforts? Find out as they battle... Judgement X. (A/N: Melanie Chan is my OC)

4. Chapter 03: Melanie Chan

Chapter 03: Melanie Chan

Melanie Chan

Firestorm continued down the neonlit downtown streets in a comfortable silence. The area was noiseless, having been absent of punks, for now of course. They had left the corpses of the previous punks from the fight where they fell, turned several corners, and were now about a little more than 2/5 of the way to the slums. With her team in tow, the red-clad Brit walked confidently ahead with a stride that emphasized her utmost desire to protect the world from the new menace that was Judgement X.

Further back in the group was Skate. He had been making sure to roll delicately so that he would not hit into his teammates in their stroll. While not in possession of the leader-like skills that came so naturally to Blaze, and definitely while not the strongest member of the team, he was still a highly valuable asset to the team. Hell, he was instrumental in the second of the team's escapades into these dangerous streets, and he was years younger at the time. And even when he had turned 15, his resolve hadn't faltered. He would continue helping the out the team-more specifically-being an active member of Firestorm for years, and years to come.

The rollerblading teen was somewhat surprised, but not startled, at the sensation of being nudged lightly in the arm. He had noticed at that moment that he'd been walking right next to Melanie.

"Hey." Came her smooth voice, breaking the silence that had befallen them. She was smirking. "Those were some pretty cool moves back there, especially that thing that you did with the knife."

"Heh, thanks." The teen said with a smile, for some reason uncharacteristically unable to meet her gaze for a split second. "It was nothing really...I just use the momentum to help keep me in the air...and stuff." Melanie nodded, smiling, her green eyes shining bright with fascination. The other members who'd happened to overhear Skate's somewhat embarrassed tone, and smiled to themselves-except for Akira, but this was due to the fact that he was often stoic-faced, and didn't smile much.

"But you were the one that was really awesome out there." Skate complimented, having taken on a slightly more especial tone for him.

"You really were." Blaze agreed, looking back at Melanie, yet keeping her stride. "A bloody good fighter." She saw Axel nod in agreement out of the corner of her eye.

"You got a serious punch on you, Melanie. And you've got a fighting style that you can really call your own. We need more people like you in the ring." Max praised with a chuckle.

"Heh heh, thanks, Max!" Melanie laughed. "But you were killer back there too! I mean, you used the dude as a nunchaku! Awesome!" She said, full of mirth, causing the wrestler to let out another hearty chuckle.

"Your mum must've had no problem letting you come down here and fight, huh?" Blaze asked the young heroine, half jokingly.

In response, Melanie gave a short laugh, and rubbed the back of her neck, looking slightly at the ground. "Well, not exactly."

"Really?" Axel said, genuinely surprised that her mother would be hesitant to let her come, considering the girl's obvious great skill.

"Yes, that is the truth." Akira nodded at Axel, having been there to witness the exchange between her and Pai. "Why don't you tell them, Melanie?"

Melanie smiled, having no problems with the idea. "Sure! Better yet, I'll tell you that, and what happened earlier on the same day. This way you'll know a little about what my life is like. Y'know, learn a bit about me I guess."

Blaze, Axel, Skate, Max and Adam nodded collectively, glad that Melanie was open to sharing information about herself. It was always nice to have a non-mysterious figure around.

Seeing that her idea was met with approval, she began her tale. "Okay, so it went down like this..."

{BEGINNING OF STORY}

Yesterday...

Melanie rested her hand in her palm as her elbow lay propped up on the desk as she sat in her, silent air conditioned Homeroom, with mere minutes left of class. She gazed up at the clock as her leg bounced seemingly a mile-a-minute. It was the last day of Sophomore Year at Eppingswood High School (An American international school in China), and she looked forward to the beloved summer vacation, as every student usually did. Melanie was never particularly deeply fond of school, so needless to say-she was excited. So excited that the only thing she could do was bounce her leg repeatedly to keep from whisper-yelling "Yes!", which would certainly invite some questionable stares from her classmates, and Melanie didn't want that, especially on the last day.

As her eyes remained glued to the clock, watching the seconds tick by agonizingly slow, she felt her phone vibrate in her hoodie pocket. She pressed the power button and saw that she'd gotten a text from Eileen.

Eileen: Wtf melanie

Upon seeing the text, she turned her head around in her chair to meet the humored gaze of her best friend, who was sitting infront of an empty desk that separated them.

"What?!" The tomboy mouthed with a silent laugh.

"THE LEG." Eileen mouthed back, sticking her own leg out and pointing at it for emphasis.

"Well I'm excited!" Came Melanie's silent reply.

"You look CRAZY!"

"Oh screw you! I do not!" Melanie silently laughed once more, turning back around. Luckily, everybody had been engrossed in their phones (They were allowed this since it was the last day of school), so nobody noticed the silent exchange between the two best friends, including the teacher, who was busy grading the History finals submitted by the students.

Mere seconds later, the final bell of the year rung, signifying that school was over, and that summer had officially begun. Almost instantly cries of joy and random chatter amongst groups of friends erupted within the classroom at the glorious sound.

"Goodbye, class," Called Ms. Michaels. "Have a great summer vacation!" She was generally seen as a good teacher, which earned her extra-enthusiastic "YOU TOO's" from the entire class in response to her wishing everyone a fun summer.

"Ahh YES!" Melanie breathed, running a hand through her mid-length blonde tresses in pure relief. "No more school!"

"AMEN to that!" Eileen concurred, slapping her best friend a high five as they walked out into the sea of students pouring out of classrooms and into the halls. "Now where oh where is Mister Washington?" She pondered out loud, referring to Jared, the third member of their little group. Her vision scanned through the mass of students briefly until she spotted a familiar face.

"Hey!" Jared called out, in the process of untangling himself from crowds of people rushing to the exits. "It's like a fuckin' madhouse in here!" He laughed, finally reuniting with his two best friends.

"I know! Isn't it awesome?!" Melanie laughed, finding it funny how everybody was rushing at once, yet could understand exactly why. Eileen shook her head and smiled.

"This is ridiculous!" The Virtua Fighter managed over the extreme chatter in the halls. "Let's wait until these halls have cleared out some!" She proposed, knowing that they'd never make it out in a timely matter of they decided to leave right now. Her friends nodded and waited. After things had gotten a little less crazy out in the halls, the group of friends decided to make their way to their lockers, and get the rest of their stuff to bring home.

"Now that's better." Eileen giggled with a sigh as the three unlocked their lockers, which were all conveniently next to one another.

Jared nodded at Eileen's comment, as the three dug the remaining spiral and composition notebooks (and in Melanie's case, random loose papers) out of their lockers, and putting them in their bookbags before making their way toward the exit at the front of the school. "Man, thank God school is out. Now I can finally sleep in."

"I know right?!" Melanie agreed, being a fan of sleeping in herself. "No more dragging yourself out of bed at 5:30..." she trailed off intentionally.

"No more dealing with horrible teachers..." Eileen put in, pulling a face.

"No more studying for exams..." Jared added.

"And most of all," No. More. MATH." Melanie concluded, pumping her fist a single time in victory. "I can't tell you how happy I am to ditch that shit!" The tomboy grinned, over the moon that her "accursed" Dyscalculia would not be a part of her summer.

"So, plans, guys?" She asked her friends as they continued walking. "Aside from the obvious, that is."

"Probably just getting some training in for the Sixth World Fighting Tournament. It's supposed to start right before school starts next year." Eileen said, before going into a giddy fangirl moment with a gasp. "Oh my God! Maybe this time I'll beat your mom! She's like the best fighter EVER!"

Melanie looked at the brunette in amusement. It seemed that the knowing smile would never cease to make itself present on Melanie's features everytime she expressed her absolute admiration for her mother. Besides her, Eileen was the biggest Pai Chan fan out there, after all.

"You're such a fangirl, Eileen." Jared commented with a grin.

"How can I not be a fangirl of the greatest fighter ever?!" She justified with hand gestures, while widening her huge brown eyes. "It's impossible! But anyway, what have you got planned for this summer, Jared? Other than lying around on your lazy ass all day?"

"I am not laz-"

"Yeah you are." Both girls cut him off in unison.

"I-yeah I am lazy." Jared admitted with a smile, seemingly proud of it now.

"As for me, I got some training to do myself, as well as some videogames to look forward to. Maybe a fight or two..." The tomboy added with a challenging glint in her emerald green eyes, which were now looking over at Eileen.

Accepting the challenge, Eileen let out a sly giggle. "We both know you have trouble keeping up with my speed. But sure, I guess I can own you one good time if that's what you want." She finished with a smirk and a shrug, trying to get a rise out of her friend with those comments, ultimately succeeding.

Already looking forward to their fight, Melanie gazed back at the Virtua Fighter with narrowed eyes and a ready smirk. "Oh it's gonna be you who gets dusted, just watch!" The girls had fought and sparred with each other many a time. Sometimes, Melanie won some, and other times, Eileen would win some. But both fighters enjoyed every bout they shared, and were grateful of the friendly rivalry they shared.

"Melanie!" Called out a voice, suddenly, causing the three to turn around.

It turned out to be a kid none of them knew.

Why's he running up to me like that? She wondered, ever so slightly raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"Oh hey, Melanie, Ms. Michaels forgot to give you this." He said, handing her a stack of papers held together by a bind.

"Thanks!" She called out to the boy as he jogged off. Melanie simply groaned in dismay upon seeing what they were.

"Fuck!" She swore in disbelief. "Are you kidding me right now?" The papers she held in her hand were modified math problems for her to do over the summer. Eileen and Jared looked down at the papers, feeling sympathy for their best friend.

"This sucks." Melanie said dejectedly, idly flipping through the pages at a fast pace before putting the papers in her bookbag. "I was so looking forward to not having to deal with numbers this summer, now it seems I'm gonna continue suffering."

"Take it easy, girl." Eileen said softly, knowing how numbers and Melanie would never mix thanks to her rather bad Dyscalculia. She laid a reassuring hand on her friend's shoulder. "I'm sure your mom's not gonna force it all on you at once. She's nice. She'll probably make it easy on you."

"Yeah. And even if she doesn't, we'll come over and do stuff when she gives you a break. I mean, we still will even if she doesn't, but still, just know that we'll always be by your side." Jared added.

Melanie was quiet for a few seconds, before inviting a tiny smile onto her lips. "Thanks guys. You're really good best friends and I wouldn't trade you guys for anything." Earning smiles from her two closest companions.

"Aww, thanks, Melanie." Eileen said, feeling glad she and Jared were able to make her feel better.

"We wouldn't trade you for anything either." Jared replied with a grin, and causing Eileen to nod in utmost agreement. "And thanks."

Melanie felt her small smile grow into a full-fledged one that reached her eyes, her annoyance at having to do math over the summer being replaced with hope.

"You guys are probably right. My mom will probably won't shove it all down my throat. I mean, last year I didn't get any math to do over the summer. So since this is the first time, maybe she'll be lenient about it." She reasoned.

"Don't worry-she will." Eileen said with a wink.

Rounding the hallway corner, all three teenagers instantly took on a look of extreme annoyance at the sight of a disliked face among the three of them, particularly Melanie.

Erin Anderson.

The popular girl in school. Straight A student, head of the cheerleading squad, and school brat. Redheaded, always wore heels, expensive clothing, and makeup. She looked down on everybody that "couldn't keep up with her status", always traveled with a posse of fellow brats, and never had a good word to say to anyone other than herself. When Andrea got wind of the fact that Melanie was relatively well-known amongst the school due to the fact that she was the daughter of the ever-famous Pai Chan, she'd hated her ever since. The fact that she was a tomboy made her resent Melanie all the more. At first, Melanie thought it was funny how she pretty much had a stereotypical "popular girl" in her school, but as said girl took notice of Melanie, she quickly took a disliking to her, and her insults. But it was just an annoyance more than anything. Melanie never paid Erin any mind, and simply brushed off any insults that she fired. She wasn't going to get upset over some prissy girl's petty insults. And she damn sure wasn't going to ever turn into some brat like Erin either.

"Ugh. It's you. The tomboy."Erin spat upon seeing her, before dragging on her freshly lit cigarette.

"Yeah. It's me. The tomboy." The Mizongquan master replied dryly.

"Loving that outfit, by the way." The stiletto wearing blonde fake gushed, with obvious sarcasm.

Melanie made no comment.

"You know, you shouldn't even bother coming to this school next year. I just get more popular with every year, and by next year, I'll be bigger and badder than you'll ever be."the pompous girl snarked, as her four "clique" members grinned maliciously at Melanie.

That's what she thought this was. A popularity competition. Please.

Melanie sighed. "Look, Erin, I'm not trying to outshine you or anything. I couldn't give a fuck about how popular I am around here. I'm just doing my own thing, alright?" She finished with an edge at the last part.

In response, Erin momentarily left her associates to walk over to Melanie and leaned in close. Their noses were almost touching. The tomboy could clearly smell the other girl's perfume as she unblinkingly stared into her chestnut-coloured eyes-neither of them speaking for several seconds. Eileen and Jared mutely traded troubled glances, unaware of what the girl had in mind for their friend.

Finally, still in Melanie's face, Erin spoke In a lowered voice. "That's what they all say. Then they try to pull some stunt they think will put them higher than me. Don't do anything stupid, don't try to be popular." She then pursed her cherry red lips ever so slightly as if to say "Or you'll be sorry." She then returned to her small crowd.

"Let's go." She prissily asserted to her cohorts, flinging the cigarette to the tile floor as she and her posse strutted off.

"Whatever." Melanie scoffed with a small shake of the head once Erin and her followers were out of earshot.

"You okay, Melanie?" Jared asked with concern, having witnessed the entire exchange along with Eileen.

Melanie nodded in a casual manner, not looking fazed in the slightest, which she wasn't.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well-I mean..." He trailed off before smiling, knowing his friend never particularly cared about anything Erin said. "Actually...nevermind.

"I wonder why Erin never gives the whole "Don't try to get more popular than me" to me." Eileen mused as the three of them walked along the sidewalk, now well off school grounds. "I mean, I'm a Virtua Fighter, one of the world's best fighters. And at least a little bit popular at school."

"It's because she likely associates all fighting with hotheadedness, knowing her." The tomboy started, rolling her eyes, knowing that not to be the case at all. "And because of that, she thinks you'll pop off and kick her ass if she tries to assert her dominance with you. And she'd jump off a bridge before she risks ruining her face."

"That makes sense." Eileen said with a nod. Though she still knew that she and Jared were still looked down upon by the prissy redhead. "Hey, you guys wanna go get some Rita's?" This caused Melanie arch an eyebrow.

"They have that here?" Jared asked incredulously.

"Uh huh. It's not too far from our location, actually."

"Then let's do it." Came Jared's reply.

"Melanie?" Eileen asked rhetorically, with a tiny laugh.

"Totally! Rita's is some of the best stuff on Earth! Why wouldn't I?!" She answered with a smile.

"Then it's settled." Eileen replied. "I think It's like a couple of blocks away from here."

"Awesome." She replied, her smile remained. Water ice was her favorite cold thing to eat, better than ice cream. When her orphanage took a trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States a number of years ago, Melanie had stumbled upon a Rita's while sightseeing. She hadn't known that water ice existed before, and was curious to try it, and did. Something that would be remembered as one of her best experiences in the city of brotherly love. That, along with tasting scrapple for the first time at a diner.

"I should probably tell my mom I'll be home a little late." Melanie brought up, pulling out her phone.

"Yeah, me too. I don't want to worry my grandfather to death by not telling him where I am, either." That was Eileen.

The two girls sent their texts to their respective figures of authority explaining where they would be as the three of them rounded the street corner, seeing their destination in the distance.

"Sweet!" The Mizongquan fighter exclaimed, raising her eyebrows in surprise. "Looks like there really is a Rita's here Hong Kong after all! Not that I didn't believe you Eileen, it's just so weird to see one of them outside America."

"Hehe, yeah, tell me about it." She agreed with a grin, glancing over to the tomboy.

The three of them got in line and got their water ice. With Melanie already getting started on her large cotton-candy flavoured water ice, Eileen holding a medium cherry flavoured one, and Jared holding a medium raspberry flavored water ice, the three best friends strolled over to a nearby small brick wall, which they sat comfortably on as they ate, watching cars go by.

"Hey guys," Jared spoke up, a somewhat sorrowful look about him as he glared at his phone. "You're never going to believe what just happened in Wood Oak City."

The two martial artists both looked at him, and raised one of their eyebrows.

"Wood Oak City?" Eileen parroted, in an inquisitive manner, having never heard of the city before.

"Yeah. It's a city in a country called Lima. It's right near the U.S. The boy explained. "Anyway, I just got a news alert on my phone that some guy just brutally beat a class of third graders on a field trip. He shot the teacher, killed half of the kids and abducted the rest."

They were disgusted at the news.

"Shit..." Muttered Melanie.

"That's horrible!" Eileen replied.

"Are the police at least trying to track down the guy?" Melanie inquired, frowning while raising an eyebrow.

"I doubt it. All the cops they've got in Wood Oak City are corrupt. Murders, rapes, robberies, all that stuff-happen in broad daylight and the cops are no help."

The girls were taken aback.

"This seems like one of the worst-if not the worst city of all time! I mean, what the hell?! Does this stuff happen all the time?" Eileen asked after her little mini-rant.

"Not all the time. The city is actually a happy, peaceful place-that is, before crime takes over. It happens periodically, and now seems to be one of those times."

"Still," Eileen started mournfully, looking slightly downward. "I feel so bad for those innocent people over there. It must really suck for them. I mean, they're plagued by crime and there's nothing they can do about it."

Jared smiled. "Maybe not them..."

"What are you getting at, Jared?" Eileen asked, looking over to her dark-haired friend. As did Melanie.

"There's this vigilante group called Firestorm that personally takes care of the criminals that show up. They're responsible for restoring peace back to the city."

This time, it was Melanie's turn to comment first. "A vigilante group?" She parroted with interest, before her expression changed from an inquisitive one to a smiling one. "That sounds awesome! How decorated are they?"

Jared ran his hand through his dark hair. "Well, I'm not sure exactly, but it's got to be like, 4 or 5 times they've saved their city."

"But isn't that kind of...unimpressive though?" Eileen wondered. "I mean, it makes sense if they're new to this sort of thing."

"Nope. That's very impressive for Wood Oak City. It's the biggest city in the world." Jared remarked.

Melanie nodded understandingly with a smile, impressed, and wanting to know more. "So who are the members of Firestorm?"

Jared shrugged in response. "Not sure. What's weird about these news alerts on my phone is that they don't call any of the members by name. I have no idea what their names are or how many of them there are."

"A little bit of mystery, huh?" Came the tomboy's musing remark.

"Oh boy. Jared," Eileen started with a playful roll of the eyes. "You've gotten her curious."

"Damn right he did." Melanie returned with a smile. "I know we're in China and not Lima and everything, but I can't believe more people here in Hong Kong don't talk about them more."

"Maybe they're just not that known here." Eileen shrugged. "I'm sure that in some other places people know about them. But anyway, it's good to know that those innocent people in Wood Oak City have a team of fighters to keep their city safe." The other two nodded in agreement. Having finished their water ice, the three finally hopped off the wall.

"Well, I better get going, guys." Eileen announced. "I'm sure my grandpa wants me back at the house for training."

Jared unpocketed his phone and looked at it. "And it turns out my mom wants me back home too. Gotta clean the house." He said, slightly disheartened. "But I'll totally text you guys later when I'm done." He said, his tone more upbeat this time.

Melanie smiled. "See you later guys!" She called out to her friends, who had each waved back and started on their own way home, leaving Melanie to do the same. The first thing she was going to do when she got home was squeeze as much information out of the internet as possible on Wood Oak City-especially Firestorm. Thoughts raced through her head as to what the vigilante team would really be like. The mere act of doing so brought a smile to the girl's face. As she walked, she got a sudden and strong urge to listen to her music as her mind raced on. Never one to deny her instincts (especially when it came to listening to good music), Melanie reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone and earbuds, and she went to do just that.

She smiled as she pulled up her massive library of songs. Every single one of them was either R&B, or Hip Hop. They were mostly the classic kinds, too. Those types of music just seemed to appeal most to Melanie. Anything else just wasn't her thing, save for some techno here and there. But she hated Metal, Country, and especially those sappy boy bands. She liked to listen to REAL music. Scrolling down the list, she finally decided on I'll Be In The Sky by B.O.B. It may not have been a classic Hip-Hop song, but it gave Melanie chills every time the delicious melody reached her ears. She stuck in her earbuds, connected the earbuds to the phone, and pressed PLAY.

With the song playing in her ears, Melanie's mind returned to Firestorm as she set her walking speed to a brisk pace, eager to get home as fast as possible. How many members would there be? Would said members be the type of fighter she was used to seeing? Or something different? What intense things had they been through in the past? Who led them? In any case, she knew she would be greatly satisfied with what she found out about the vigilante team. She was so eager to know. So many questions, and no answers to them.

Yet.

Shortly afterwards, the tomboy arrived at her house. After ascending the small concrete flight of stairs, she found herself at her front door, digging through her pockets to find her key, before inserting the small metal object into the keyhole, and pulling on the doorknob.

"Mom! I'm home!" The Mizongquan fighter called out as Her nostrils were greeted by the ever-familiar and comfortable scent of her house. Tossing her bookbag into a nearby chair, she wandered into the family room where her mother and uncle sat on the couch, momentarily putting their conversation on hold to acknowledge her.

"Hi sweetheart." Pai greeted her daughter with a warm, motherly smile.

"Hey, Mom," She breathed, slightly out of breath, before turning to her uncle and giving a small wave. "Hey, Uncle Akira."

"Hello, Melanie." Akira nodded from where he sat. He had been in China for a few days now to get a much needed change of scenery from Japan due to the encouragement of his grandfather to do so. When Pai found out her good friend was visiting China, she insisted that Akira stay with her instead of in some hotel, leading to Akira gratefully accepting the offer and temporarily staying with Pai and her daughter. "How was your last day of school?"

"Pretty good. That History final was nothing. I breezed through it with no sweat." She said, causing both other Kung-fu masters to nod in satisfaction.

"That's good. I'm really proud of you, Melanie." She praised with a big smile. "Did you get those papers your teacher wanted you to do for the summer?" She asked in a casual manner. Her question caused Melanie's jaw to drop.

Wait, what?! She was in on this?! Melanie thought in disbelief before mentally slapping herself on the forehead. Duh! I should've known! She would have had to tell my math teacher to send the papers home in the first place! In honesty, it was just now occurring to her. Back at the school, when she'd first gotten the papers, she had been too distraught by receiving them to consider the fact that her mother could have possibly asked for her teacher to give them to her.

As Melanie was fixing her lips to say something, her mother put up a hand to stop her as she rose from her seat.

"Before you say anything, I know how much you hate math, so I'm only going to have you do a sheet and a half per day." Pai finished with a small smile.

Melanie was overjoyed at this news, evident by the huge smile appearing across her features. A page and a half a day? That was way less than she'd originally thought! Her friends had been right! In order to express her gratitude to the Virtua Fighter, Melanie practically tackled her into a crushing bear hug.

"You're the BEST, Mom!" The teen cried out appreciatively while still tightly embracing her mother.

"Nnnghh! Melanie, sweetheart..." Pai managed to strain out, wincing from the pain. "C-could you maybe relax your grip just a tad?"

"Oh shit! My bad! Sorry!"Melanie apologized profusely as her eyes widened in realization at the fact that she'd been squeezing her mother a little too hard. She instantly let go of Pai, who rubbed her now sore arms.

"Sorry, heh." She apologized once more with a guilty smile. Pai had donned a not-at-all angry look, a smile even, as she rubbed her arms slightly.

"It's alright, I completely understand." Her mother said with a smile. "You're obviously glad that you won't have to do much math. And also physically stronger. I could tell from that strong hug you just gave me."

"Yeah. Working out at the gym'll do that for you." The girl replied with a laugh.

Pai shook her head with a grin. "Such a tomboy." Causing both of them to laugh. They both knew the remark was obviously meant to be a joke. Pai accepted her daughter for who she was, and unlike possibly every mother on Earth, she was perfectly content with her daughter being a rowdy tomboy rather than a lady, and didn't to try and change her.

"I'm just so glad I won't have to do a whole lot of math!" Melanie enthused with a relieved sigh.

"You do know that I'm only making you do it for your own good, right?" Pai asked, raising an eyebrow in motherly suspicion.

"Yes, Mom." Melanie replied with a slight annoyance in her eyes, having been told many times before that extra studying and work was beneficial when it came to math. Pai smiled slightly, satisfied that her point had apparently sunk in.

"Why don't you get a snack? I imagine you must be hungry by now, especially since you didn't have any lunch." Her mother pointed out as she sat back down in the soft chair she'd risen from moments earlier.

As Melanie was about to decline her mother's offer, her stomach let out a starved growl loud enough for them both to hear. Had she really been that hungry?

Pai raised an amused eyebrow at her daughter, awaiting her response.

"Well..." She started, mulling the decision over briefly. "I was kinda in a hurry to get to my room...but... I guess I could eat a little something. Like a bell pepper."

She jogged over to the silver refrigerator, and pulled open the bottom square-shaped compartment, in search of a nice, delectable bell pepper.

"Not the red ones!" The actress called over her shoulder at Melanie. "Those are the ones that I cook with."

"I know. I got an orange one." She called back, grabbing the vibrant pepper and leaning against the counter of the kitchen island. After giving it a gentle squeeze, to make sure it wasn't mushy, she brought it to her mouth and bit into the vegetable as if it were an apple or pear. She smiled as she chewed the crunchy pepper, smiling at its wonderful taste. They were one of her favorite things to eat, and although she liked all kinds of bell peppers, the orange ones in particular were definitely her most preferred-one of her favorite things to eat.

I guess I could try to start looking up Firestorm up now... She thought to herself as she ate. With her free hand, she dug her phone out and opened up Safari, even though the signal was rather weak in the kitchen area of the house. She furrowed her brows in annoyance as she aimed her emerald orbs down at the device. It was flickering between one and two bars and loading Google at under a snail's pace, but she just wanted to get some sort of information on the vigilante team, her sole reason for even attempting.

"So," Pai started, looking over to Akira, continuing their conversation from earlier, her chocolate brown eyes seemingly gleaming with wonder. "A vigilante, eh? I'll be honest, Akira, I never thought I would see you as one. But it's a noble thing to do and I'm glad that you're doing it. Even if it's not permanent."

Before the hot-headed Bajiquan master could give so much as a nod of the head in thanks, Melanie spun around and jumped in the conversation.

"Wait, what the FUCK? Uncle Akira, you're gonna be a VIGILANTE?!" The girl yelled with wide eyes around a mouthful of bell pepper, having not received this news. Like Pai, she hadn't expected Akira to ever get involved with anything such as vigilantism, but her tone carried a clear message that she thought the idea of him taking matters into his own hands when it came to this was awesome!

Akira nodded. "Yes. Tomorrow, I will be aiding a team of vigilantes that go by the name Firestorm."

Melanie simply stared at her uncle mutely, her mouth agape.

"You're helping Firestorm clean up Wood Oak City?! That's epic!" Melanie replied, her tone giving off the impression that she'd been longtime fans of theirs. Pai noted this, and curiously raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know what Firestorm is?"

"Jared told me a little bit about them today. He gets worldwide news alerts on his phone that let him in on stuff like this." Melanie said, leaving the counter in favor of sitting in the chair across from the one that her mother sat in. She then turned to Akira excitedly. So how did this whole thing get started?!"

"One of the members of their team, Axel Stone contacted me and asked me to assist them in their latest endeavor."

Melanie's already big grin stretched even wider at the mention of one of the Firestorm vigilantes by name.

"He's gotta be an awesome fighter with a name like that."

"He is." Akira nodded. A while ago he came to Japan in search for weapons for his martial arts dojo. I saw him on his way out of a Katana store, and we made conversation. I asked him what style he specialized in, and his answer-all of them."

"You challenged him to a Bajiquan match, didn't you?" Melanie grinned knowingly at her uncle.

"Indeed. At my dojo. I managed to beat him, but he came extremely close to winning. I would even say his skills are close to that of a Virtua Fighter.

"Man, wish I could've been there to see..." She trailed off, shaking her head with a smirk. She just could've imagined her uncle going up against a member of an amazing team of heroes. She would have continued to speculate on their fight, but at that moment another question came to mind.

"Is he the leader?" She asked curiously, not breaking eye contact with her uncle while speaking. Despite knowing extremely little about this Axel Stone, something about him said that he might be the one leading Firestorm.

"Not anymore." Akira shook his head. "He held that position in the team's first and second missions, after that, he relinquished that role to his friend, said to have excellent leadership skills.

Melanie nodded understandingly, a smile still on her face. "So what're you guys gonna be going up against?" She couldn't help but ask excitedly.

"Axel told me that J6 has formed an alliance with another criminal organization. We're going to stop them."

A look of pure shock appeared across Melanie's face, the excited expression that had previously been in its place gone. She briefly looked down at her hands contemplatively. Then furrowed in the slightest degree. So slightly that Akira didn't even notice. But Pai did. She'd come to know her daughter nearly as well as she knew herself, and was deeply curious as to what was on her mind at that moment.

"Mom, can I go to Wood Oak City with Uncle Akira and help Firestorm?" She asked suddenly, now carrying a neutral expression.

"Dear God, no!" Pai said, extremely taken aback by the question.

"Oh come on, Mom!" Came Melanie's reply.

"Absolutely not!" Pai frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "I didn't adopt you so you could go to someplace like Wood Oak City and get yourself killed!"

"I wouldn't get killed! I'm a really great fighter! You said so yourself!" Melanie persisted.

"I know what I said." She spoke in a low tone, allowing irritation to seep into her voice. "But I'm not sending you down there with those thugs."

"But that's all they are! Thugs! You're the one who trained me on how to deal with those situations!" She frowned, emphasizing her point with hand gestures.

"We're not talking about a tournament, Melanie." The Asian actress was yelling now. "These are lowlife! Today, a group of kids were shot and abducted! Do you want that to be you?!"

Tears threatened to brim in Pai's eyes at that moment. She had already lost her mother, and she would be losing her father in a few short weeks. The thought of her having to endure the death of another family member was almost too much.

"Mom," Melanie began in a serious tone, desperately wanting to prove her point. "I know that alot of fucked up shit happens in Wood Oak,—"

"Then you would understand why you're not going!" Pai yelled, cutting her daughter clean off.

"—but the city isn't even bad on a regular! The only time it erupts into chaos is when the thugs start showing up!" She paused slightly, only for Pai to use this opportunity to cut her off again.

"Are there thugs running rampant in the city now?" Pai asked. Her head was tilted downward, and she was pinching the bridge of her nose, eyes now closed. However, her voice was full of sudden calmness. But Melanie knew it wasn't genuine. If anything, it only showed that her anger had increased.

Melanie rolled her eyes and responded in an annoyed teenage tone. "Yes, Mom."

Displeased due to feeling she wasn't getting her point across to Melanie, Pai sharply glared at her for a split second before continuing. "Then I don't know what's so hard to understand!"

"No Mom, you don't understand." She started in a neutral tone, yet it was easy to tell that she was serious. "There are three reasons why I feel like I need to help. First off, the city isn't always a place filled with crime. I want to get it back to how it should be. Earlier when Jared told me about Wood Oak City when it's corrupted, I thought it sucked pretty hard for the people who lived there, and felt bad for them. Nobody should have to live that way."

She paused again, scanning her mother's face in attempt to determine what she was thinking—something that proved impossible at the moment due to Pai's unreadable expression. She said nothing, only concentrating on locking her brown eyes onto her daughter's as she spoke.

When Melanie got no interruption this time, she continued talking. "The second reason is because I feel like this is my chance to pay back J6 for what they did to Aunt Sarah."

Pai crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow. "I would have assumed that you wouldn't have wanted to be there to fight her. She is a part of J6 now. And facing J6 would mean possibly facing her, you may very well have to fight her directly." She said, sounding annoyed at the conversation, yet her voice also reflected genuine interest in what Melanie had said, knowing family was extremely precious to her.

Melanie exhaled deeply. "Yeah, I know. But I also know that some things just have to happen for the better."

Pai's irked air vanished completely upon hearing that from her daughter. Upon getting word that Sarah had become an assassin again, she'd sat Melanie down and deeply discussed the matter with her. It was terribly hard on Melanie, knowing one of her family members was evil, and she wasn't herself for a few weeks. But she had eventually gotten through it, much to the joy of her mother and peers.

"And it's not like I'll be going in alone. I'll be a part of a team. Not saying that I won't pull my own weight, but I'm sure the other members of Firestorm would have my back." Melanie persisted, glad to see that her mother's face had softened.

Pai was at least willing to reconsider after that part, it was clearly written across her face, and further proven evident by her shifting her weight onto one leg.

Akira who had been observing all of this from where he sat, decided to throw in his two cents. "Melanie has come an extremely long way as a fighter, and has become a strong warrioress, Pai. She's nearly a master in Ensei-ken, after all.

Both female martial artists turned to look at Akira after he'd spoken. Pai gave a sort of microscopic smile at what he had said, his words causing memories to return to her. Memories of training Melanie to be a Virtua Fighter and seeing her make indescribable progress in mastering the art, even her amazement at her daughter creating her own rendition of it. The pride she'd felt in her daughter's abilities—it was enormous as both a mother and a teacher.

Melanie's smile had been alot bigger, due to her uncle's comment. A warrioress. What a compliment! Such words showed that Akira had faith in her, just as she had faith in herself. But it also bothered her as well. Her uncle saw that she was capable, yet her mother couldn't? She couldn't give up on trying to convince Pai. Melanie simply turned to face her.

"...You have come a long way in Mizongquan..." Pai mused thoughtfully, rolling her eyes at the ceiling in deep thought. In reality, it was no more than twenty seconds, but felt like forever to Melanie at that moment before her own thoughts began running through her head.

What's she thinking? Is she gonna say yes? God, the suspense is torture!

She was snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of a long, sudden breath being let out by her mother.

"I suppose...I'll let you go." She said slowly, closing her eyes.

Melanie beamed extremely wide, bright green eyes widened as well, shining with utter happiness and joy. In honesty, her face could have lit up the entire city at that moment.

"SHIT! THANK YOU SO MUCH! YOU'RE THE BEST, MOM!" The tomboy yelled, attacking her mother in another near-suffocating bear hug. She was obviously excited, and rightfully so.

"Urg!...You're squeezing a bit too hard, Melanie!"

Briefly chastising herself mentally for making the same mistake twice, she immediately released Pai.

"Sorry!" She apologized. It was genuine, yet a smile delicately played at her lips. It evolved into a full-on smile as she launched into another sentence.

"This is awesome! I gotta tell Eileen and Jared about this!" She yelled, racing off to her room, to tell her friends the news. Pai and Akira watched her go. The former starting to wonder if she should change her mind, but decided against it. Even still, the many dangers of Wood Oak City (from what she'd heard from Akira) going through her head, and Melanie's words coming right after. Pai sighed in exhaustion.

"This girl..." She muttered, trailing off, feeling a dull throbbing sensation above her eyes. She instinctively squeezed them shut, in a vain attempt to ease the pain.

"I need a drink." She said tiredly, finally understanding why parents—especially parents of teenagers often did this. She opened the cabinet and took out a bottle of Baijiu and a short glass before turning to Akira.

"Would you like some, Akira?" She asked her friend courteously.

Akira declined her offer.

Melanie excitedly burst into her room, all too eager to share the news. She'd begun to scan her room for her laptop, which she would need to use to Skype with her friends. Though she frowned, due to the laptop being nowhere in sight. But that wasn't a surprise, really. Her room regularly looked as though a tornado had swept through it, and today was no exception. While half of the articles of clothing had landed inside the hamper, the other half lay beside the hamper, (something that annoyed Pai to no end) and there were tons of videogame cases strewn all over the shelves. The only thing that was actually in any sort of order were her Max Thunder posters, with one being on each wall. She took off her bright green Nikes before once again scanning her room.

"The hell is it?!" She grumbled, digging through the masses of her various possessions with her hands, in attempt to find her laptop, to no avail. Mere seconds after she'd let out a frustrated huff and running a hand through her blonde hair in thought, it hit her like a blow to the face, much like the ones she would be handing out in the very near future.

"My TV! That's where I put it!" She exclaimed, snapping her fingers. Melanie spun her head to face her TV, and sure enough, it was in the open compartment right under the flat top of the stand where the TV sat. Despite her intense excitement at that moment, she took a brief moment to smile at her collection of videogame systems. Said collection consisted of a SEGA Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and Master System, and an Xbox 360 Slim—for modern gaming. Constantly winning tournaments meant constant prize money, which allowed her to afford all of the various systems. But it wasn't the money that made Melanie enter. It was her enormous desire to fight.

After flopping down on her unmade bed, she opened the laptop, then turned it on, hearing it softly whir to life. Excitement swirled inside her as she punched out a group text to her friends to jump on Skype while she waited for the machine to boot up. Just as she finished, the glare of the blue login screen faintly illuminated Melanie's excited face as she clicked on Skype, still making no attempt to fight the grin that had appeared across her features ever since her mother had uttered those precious words.

Then by flawless timing, two identical windows popped into view on Melanie's screen. For a second, they were black, until they simultaneously showed her two best friends, Eileen and Jared, in their respective rooms. Their expressions were inquisitive, yet they showed that they were happy to see their friend.

"Guys!" The tomboy started intensely, running a hand through her hair, the news having long bubbled to her inner surface. "You'll never guess what!"

Jared gave a short laugh. "Well you're pretty excited, so it's gotta be something big. What?"

"Alright, you guys are never gonna believe this," She took a tiny pause, almost creating a dramatic effect. "But I'm going to Wood Oak City!"

Eileen could only raise her eyebrows wordlessly. Her mouth hung slightly ajar.

"Wait, you mean the one I told you guys about earlier?" He asked, taken aback, also raising his eyebrows.

A cool, but still excited grin seemed to spread even wider across Melanie's face. "That very one. I leave tomorrow."

"What?! Why?!" Eileen shouted, using wild hand gestures.

"Because I'm going to be giving Firestorm a hand with kicking ass!" She answered, flashing a pearly white smile at the end of her sentence.

She practically heard their priceless reactions before they even said them.

"Jesus Christ! Melanie, you're crazy!" The young Hou-quan practitioner yelled, hands on the sides of her head, not literally thinking that her friend was completely crazy, but just crazy for doing something like this.

"What. The. Hell?" Jared spoke slowly, soon after Eileen's statement.

The reactions the soon-to-be heroine received after giving the news caused her to fall into the bed in laughter. Eileen and Jared both wanted to know more, but couldn't resist the urge to slightly shake their heads as they saw Melanie's guffawing form disappear from view, only to reappear back on the screen seconds later as she moved back in front of the screen.

"Okay, so," Melanie started, getting out her last few snickers. "J6 and this other syndicate have apparently teamed up, so we're going in to put a stop to whatever they've got going on." She finished with a grin, which quickly faded as she remembered to bring up a point, her voice taking on a slightly more serious tone. "And I'm pretty sure this other syndicate has been behind all the crimes that have been happening around Wood Oak City!"

"So if you guys beat them, the crime rate in the city would stop! Or at least go down tenfold." Eileen said, causing Melanie to nod her head.

"They're probably looking to take control of the world again, knowing J6." The tomboy said spitefully, knowing their primary goal ever since the First World Fighting Tournament.

"Are you sure you're up for this, though?" Jared asked with concern, furrowing his brow. "I know J6 are real assholes from what you told us before, and that you hate them for what they did to your aunt..." He trailed off, letting Melanie speak.

But she didn't. Not initially, anyway. Instead she nodded, acknowledging her friend's concern for her. It wasn't a quick nod, nor was it a slow one. "Yeah. I'm positive. I've hated these guys from the moment my mom told me about them. Finally, I get the chance to bring them down." She said, not at all angry, but with an air of decisiveness, before continuing. "You guys remember those three weeks where I was pretty much depressed after my mom told me what they did to my Aunt Sarah?"

They both nodded, not breaking eye contact.

"That's part of why I need to go. I can at last get back at those pricks for tearing at my family." Melanie continued, saying the last part in a firm tone. Her friends nodded in understanding, but not without seeming to tense. They knew that it wasn't directed toward them in the slightest, but they knew all too well that family was indispensable in her eyes. A sudden terrible silence swept over the three teenagers. Melanie, knowing she was the cause of it, spoke up.

"You guys do know I'm not mad or anything right?" She asked with a smirk. Her infectious smile reached Eileen and Jared, shattering the tension between them right after it had formed.

"Well...you just had this look, I guess." Eileen said, blushing slightly while awkwardly rubbing the back of her smooth neck.

"Sorry." Melanie apologized with sincerity, looking down for a split second as her smile slightly faded. "Didn't mean to come off like that, I guess I was just really serious, I guess."

"It's no problem, Melanie. We get it. And we don't doubt you either, it's just that...it would suck if anything happened to you down there..." Jared trailed off, knowing in detail how dangerous the city could get, and frowning slightly at the thought of losing his friend to some two-bit criminal, or J6 themselves.

Melanie beamed, glad to have such kind and caring friends. "Heh, thanks guys. It really means alot. Really does. You guys rock for caring so much."

"Don't mention it girl!" Eileen giggled, her cheery tone indicating that she'd stopped feeling the tension too, and the mere sight of Jared's wide smile said the same for him. "But I do wanna know you even got the chance to go to Wood Oak City." She said, her tone marked with sudden curiosity.

"I'm going with my awesome uncle." She smiled. "He got called down to help out, by Axel Stone. He's one of the members."

"Axel Stone huh?" Jared said thoughtfully.

The blonde girl nodded, idly rubbing her socked feet against one another.

"Axel's not really a common name, though." Eileen noted. "I'm not saying that I don't like it, but still, he doesn't exactly sound like someone I would find in a World Fighting Tournament. I wonder what he looks like…" The young Hou-quan practitioner mused, rolling her big brown eyes up to the ceiling in gentle thought before widening them as she thought of another question for Melanie.

"Will you be able to afford a plane ticket though? They get expensive!" Eileen pointed out with an audible incline in her voice near the end.

"Uh huh. Mom has an extra savings account especially for these things, and it's loaded with money, so getting a plane ticket won't be a problem." Melanie answered with an unconcerned, wave. She would have chipped in herself, but she only had one account in the bank, and it needed to remain untouched for other reasons.

"Well that's g—" Jared started before being cut off by a distant-sounding slamming noise. The group went silent as an also distant-sounding female voice called out.

"Crap. That's my mom." Jared mumbled, easily identifying the sound. "I should go. Sorry guys."

"Aww…" Eileen, said with a slight pout, dejected that one of her friends had to leave the chat. "Just when the conversation was getting good, too."

"It's cool, Jared, I totally understand." Melanie said, resting her cheek in her palm with an understanding air, having just gone through something with a parent herself. Being a teen wasn't as hard as being an adult could be per se, but it certainly wasn't a walk in the park, either.

Eileen adverted her gaze to the bottom left of her screen at something the other two couldn't see, her clock. "I guess I should be getting off too. I remember my grandfather wanted me to do something for him around this time. Guess it's a small world." She said with a smile and a tiny shrug.

"Yeah, really." Jared chuckled.

"Well, I guess I'll see you later guys!" Melanie bade. "I'll text you guys all about it!"

"Sounds good!" Eileen chirped back, speaking for both her and Jared at that moment. "Kick some ass, we love youandBE CAREFUL! Bye!"

Jared simply grinned and gave a 'cool' head bob goodbye, that said the same thing that Eileen had just then, and although obviously less vocal, it conveyed the same amount of affection.

"Oh rest assured, I will! Bye! Love you guys too!" Melanie smiled, glad she and her friends were so close. They all shared a mutual 'love' for one another, but it was the platonic kind of love, the kind that only the best of friends shared. She gave them a sort of two-fingered wave before they'd all signed off of Skype. Jared first, Eileen immediately after, and then finally the soon-to-be heroine—Melanie.

Melanie came back into her room from the shower feeling refreshed later on that night. She had changed into a white short sleeved undershirt, and dark green pajama bottoms. She flopped down on top of her bedcovers, swinging her legs around so that she was facing the proper direction. With a content sigh, she leaned onto her pillow, resting her hands behind her head, feeling her somewhat damp from her shower, but ultimately not really caring.

As the night air from her (cracked) open window regulated her still somewhat hot body temperature, she once again smiled to herself in anticipation and excitement, as she'd been doing all day, really. Akira had told her that Axel was more than willing to have her help out. Her uncle had also told her that they would be leaving for the airport at 3 AM tomorrow. As of now it was 8:50, but Melanie figured that she could sleep on the plane if she still felt tired. As she went to play out another action-filled Firestorm related daydream, there were three gentle knocks at her door.

Melanie's emerald green eyes darted to the the door before widening.

It obviously wasn't Akira—he wouldn't have knocked so softly. And there was only one other person in the house besides her and Akira…

Her mother.

A sudden wave of discomfort washed over Melanie knowing that the she still hadn't cleared the air with Pai yet. After talking to her friends that afternoon, she'd gone back into the living room to ask Akira the details about their travel plans, but her mother was currently there as well. There was no intended malice on Melanie's part—she'd just planned to go in, ask about the details, and take her leave. Yet she practically felt Pai's eyes on her the entire time. She would have spoken, but upon entering the room, she'd felt some pretty heavy tension form between them in an instant. Melanie had definitely planned to diffuse this tension sometime that night—she really did, and would have done so earlier, but at the moment, the feeling had been far too great—she needed to let it settle before talking to her mother. But Pai seemed to want to talk things over now, which was perfectly fine with her. She loved her mother dearly—more than anything else in the world, and wanted to do away with this discomfort now as well.

"Yeah...?" She answered quietly, not taking her eyes off the door. "Come in."

The knob turned, and the door opened without a sound, revealing Pai, clad in her pajamas as well. Her sleeping attire consisted of a sleeveless white undershirt and red pajama pants with white stripes trailing down the legs. Her hair wasn't braided in its usual ox-horn style, instead, her dark tresses flowed angelically down her slim back. Melanie could see that she had a gentle expression about her.

"Melanie," She started gently. "I'm in the living room watching some TV. Care to join me?" The question was rhetorical, given that Pai knew that they hadn't had a real conversation since that afternoon about Wood Oak City, and the love that they held for each other. Something inside of Pai just knew that Melanie would give the response that she did. Said response had consisted of a small nod.

"Yeah, uh, sure." She accepted her mother's invitation, swinging her legs around the side of the bed and getting to her feet. They both padded barefoot out into the darkened hall, Pai in front, with Melanie trailing close behind.

Upon entering the living room, Melanie could see that the TV was already on, playing softly and partly illuminating the dark room with its somewhat faint blue light. The two female fighters seated themselves on the comfortable tan beige couch, with Pai crossing one leg over the other, while Melanie assumed a regular sitting position.

"So...what's this?" The girl asked, seeing what looked to be a romance movie on HBO that she didn't recognize was on.

"I've got no idea, I was just flipping channels." She chuckled with a shrug. "We can watch whatever you want."

"Okay…" She nodded, aiming the remote at the TV and opening the TV guide. She scrolled through the blocks of channels until she came across Top 20 Most Shocking: Chases and Crashes on the truTV channel.

"This good?" She asked turning to Pai for her opinion. When she got a nod as a response, Melanie selected the channel, and sat back after setting the remote down on the glass table that stood next to the couch.

The TV was playing, but Melanie just stared ahead into space. Her green eyes unseeing. All she could think about was the talk that they would have. Not only was it the reason Pai wanted her in here, but to also spend time with her before she left.

When is she going to bring it up? Should I stop waiting and speak up first? She thought, looking down at her hands for a second, not even wanting to risk a glance over at her mother. She shut her eyes, Pai didn't seem to notice.

Fuck it.

"Mom…?" Melanie asked with eyes still closed, shattering the silence between them.

Pai knowingly looked over to her daughter. "Yes, Melanie?"

"I'm really sorry I flipped out at you and stuff." She sincerely apologized, finally opening her eyes to meet her mother's.

Pai put a loving arm around her daughter. "Apology accepted. If there's one thing that I've learned from all of this, it's that sometimes you just have to let your kids do what they've got to do." She said, giving a soft smile, which then faded with her next words. "And I apologize for my actions earlier as well."

Melanie's heart shattered at her mother's words. She guiltily looked down at her feet. "You were just doing your job as a mom. By looking out for anything that might hurt me." She said, taking a short pause. "Thanks for caring about me, Mom."

Pai's heart in turn had shattered at her daughter's words. A powerful wave of emotion swept over her, but she was able to hold herself together. She softly grabbed the tomboy's shoulders, and spoke in a gentle, yet serious tone of voice.

"Melanie Chan," The use of her full name caused Melanie to gaze straight into Pai's chocolate brown eyes, to give her her full, undivided attention. "of course I care about you. What kind of a mother would I be to not? I never want to hear you thank me for such a thing again, understand?" She asked, still retaining that same tone, which showed no signs of anger.

Melanie nodded as a tiny smile came over her lips. "Understand." Her smile got bigger as she embraced Pai in a warm hug.

"I totally get that you only had my best interest in mind," Melanie said, still in the embrace. "And I love you."

"I love you too. With all my heart." Pai smiled back, hugging Melanie tightly. They broke the hug, and the Asian actress looked at her daughter once more. Melanie was glad they'd finally talked, that all tension between them had been dispelled without a trace. She felt as if she could now face her mother again. The mere thought caused her to smile to herself.

"So, a vigilante, huh?" Pai asked her in a soft tone. Melanie found some pleasant irony in this, seeing as she'd heard her mother ask Akira the exact same thing earlier that day. "Are you nervous?"

Melanie happily shook her head.

"I should have known. Nothing seems to scare you." She said with a chuckle. Then she remembered something from earlier that Melanie hadn't touched on. "You said that there were three reasons that you wanted to go with your uncle. What was the third one?"

"I love to scrap, and I've got no doubt that there's gonna be lots of ass to kick down in Wood Oak City." The tomboy replied.

Pai had to laugh at that one, causing Melanie to flash a white-toothed grin, even though it couldn't really be seen that well in the room, illuminated only by the TV's light. When Pai's short laughter died down, there was another silence between them. However this one only lasted about half of a second, and wasn't awkward like the previous one. This one had been comfortable.

"I suppose we'll both be traveling somewhere to fight tomorrow, hm?" Pai asked, putting a motherly arm around Melanie, who looked up at her mother with confusion.

"Huh? What do you mean, Mom?"

Pai looked back at her before shaking her head in realization. "My mistake, I must have forgotten to tell you," Her expression grew somewhat more serious. "I'm meeting your grandfather for a training sabbatical."

"Grandpa Lau…" Melanie gasped, eyes widening slightly. She'd heard of her grandfather through Pai, how she'd been trained by him from her early childhood, his legendary fists, and most importantly, how he'd caused the death of Pai's mother and the resulting rift in their relationship. Melanie never got to meet him face-to-face due to his mysterious nature, always vanishing into the depths of China to hone his skills according to Pai.

"That's right." Pai nodded. "He wants to see me alone, he said so in a letter that he wrote to me. He says he thinks his...time is...almost up." She said sadly, folding her hands and looking at the floor. Melanie knew what she meant, and looked at the floor as well.

"How long will you guys be training for?" Melanie asked after the short silence.

"A week." She answered, before going serious. "That's why I need to be sure to learn everything I possibly can from him. I may have mastered Mizongquan, but I'm not perfect."

Melanie looked at her mother with adoration. She was always so focused and didn't mess around when it came to polishing and refining her own techniques and learning new Mizongquan maneuvers. It was one of the things that Melanie admired most about her mother.

"Well don't let the thought of me in Wood Oak City distract you from your training while you're down there, Mom." She said, placing a supporting hand on her mother's shoulder.

"I appreciate the reassurance, but I will be worrying about you while you're in that city. I'm a mom, after all." Pai smiled. "But at the same time, I know you can do it. You're an incredibly strong young lady—not only do you have incredible fighting prowess, you've also gotten through some hard things that don't have to do with combat...the news that your grandfather has that terminal disease, the situation with your aunt..."

Melanie nodded, her face neutral. She figured that Pai couldn't have been a fan of the idea of her possibly fighting Sarah was good, either. Before J6 had fixed its grasp on Sarah, she and Pai had grown to be incredibly close friends, often chatting and training with one another whenever Sarah could get a break from college, even as those opportunities lessened, their relationship remained intact. It would be brought to a screeching halt and destroyed instantly with the unfortunate events concerning her brainwashing. Learning that Sarah had been under J6's control had been hard on Pai, too. But now, thankfully with time, Pai understood that certain things needed to happen for the better, like Melanie had said earlier.

"But, for the love of God, be careful out there, Melanie," Pai almost begged, placing a french-manicured hand on Melanie's cheek tenderly. "I've already lost my mother, and I'm about to lose my father. I don't think I could bear losing you too."

"I will, Mom, I promise, and I also promise to come home safely." The tomboy solemnly swore to her mother, who gently removed her hand from her cheek, returning it to her lap. "I know you'd kill me if I died on this mission." She said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

"Oh, definitely." She said with a wink, causing her and her daughter to release string of chuckles in unison.

"Oh, wait, I forgot about something." Melanie suddenly said.

"And what would that be?"

"You said you had already gotten the tickets for me and Uncle Akira, but...how? I mean, those can take up to days to get, can't they?"

Pai chuckled. "Being a famous star in the movie industry definitely has its advantages. You get things alot quicker than other people would. I ordered the tickets after we discussed you going to the city earlier. They should be ready tomorrow, which is where we'll be going to pick them up before I drop you off at the airport."

"Awesome! I can't believe you got us tickets this quick! You rock, Mom!" Melanie exclaimed, wrapping Pai in yet another hug, which she gladly reciprocated.

"I suppose it must be late by now, what time is it?" Pai asked herself upon releasing Melanie, glancing at the digital clock. The numbers read 9:54.

"You should be getting to bed, it's already 9:54 and you need to be up early tomorrow." Pai told her daughter. Melanie then turned her gaze toward the digital clock, struggling to read the red numbers, but knew Pai was right, due to it being dark out, causing her to instantly give up on reading the clock. "I should really be getting some sleep too."

Melanie and Pai got to their feet to leave the living room and to go to their respective bedrooms, but not before turning off the TV (which had been completely ignored), off, blanketing the room in darkness.

"Night, Mom." Melanie said, looking back at Pai, even though she could barely make her out in the inky blackness.

"Goodnight, sweetheart."

Melanie looked at her mother a final time before heading off to her room.

In her bedroom, the tomboy slipped under the warm, soft covers, rested her head upon the pillow and tried to sleep, but found she was unable to. It was like expecting her to sleep on Christmas Eve, trying to fall asleep while tingling with excitement. After tossing and turning a few times, Melanie laid her body facing the ceiling.

God, this turned out to be a hell of a day, The girl thought with a smirk, hands rested behind her head. Gonna be taking the fight to J6 personally. I'm finally gonna put those bastards down for good. Her smirk widened, then fell as her thoughts became more sombre. I don't want that to happen to me, though. It'd crush Mom. It must be hell for a parent to have to bury their kid. Bringing herself out of her rather melancholy thoughts and back into her usual confident and optimistic mindset, she smiled. But I won't let that happen. I was trained by the best of them. She then closed her eyes, still awake in bed. I can't wait to see what gets thrown my way down in Wood Oak City. But I'll be finding out tomorrow, I guess…"

And with that final thought, Melanie Chan rolled over on her side and eventually allowed herself to be pulled into a nice, dreamless sleep.

"...anie, Melanie!," Pai was almost shouting, aggressively shaking her daughter in attempt to rouse her from her slumber. "Wake up!"

On any other day when woken up so early, Melanie would have responded with a tired groan, and attempted to roll back over and go to sleep. But on this day, upon gaining her bearings, she threw the covers off of herself in an excited rush. Instantly wide awake, she hopped out of bed and ran into the bathroom to shower, brush her teeth and get dressed.

"I'll be ready in 5 minutes!"

"Of all my years living in this city, I never knew that Hong Kong International Airport could get this busy," Pai said, sitting in the busy airport with Melanie and Akira, waiting for their flight to arrive. "I can hardly see anything past all these people."

"I know right?" That was Melanie. She was struggling to see through the sea of people. It was a ridiculous amount of people present. "It's like the hallways yesterday when they let us out for summer vacation!"

"At least it isn't too hot or too cold in here." Pai shrugged. Melanie nodded in agreement. The temperature was at a nice 70 degrees. So they were comfortable at the very least. Akira sat quiet and without motion.

"ATTENTION TO ALL, THOSE WHO WILL BE TRAVELLING TO WOOD OAK CITY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO GATE NUMBER FIVE, I REPEAT, THOSE WHO WILL BE TRAVELLING TO WOOD OAK CITY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO GATE NUMBER FIVE. THANK YOU." A female voice said over the PA system in Chinese.

"That's us!" Melanie enthused, standing up. Akira and Pai followed suit. They looked over at the line. Miraculously there weren't that many people at all at gate five, allowing them to jump right in line, after saying goodbye, of course.

"I'll check in with you two later," Pai said, planning to call them as soon as her schedule would allow. She stepped toward Melanie and hugged her tightly a final time.

"Wǒ ài nǐ." Pai said softly into her daughter's ear.

"Wǒ yē ài nǐ, māmā." Melanie replied back, her voice also kind of soft. They broke the embrace, and Melanie watched her mother and uncle share a short, friendly hug.

"Goodbye, Akira." Pai said, with a slight smile.

"Farewell, Pai." Akira replied, his face serious, as usual.

With that, Akira and Melanie turned to head through gate five, as instructed. They then showed their tickets, and were granted access to board the plane.

"Have a safe flight." Pai called to them as they stepped through the gates.

"We will!" Melanie called back, waving. Akira turned around and nodded. Refacing the way to the plane, duffel bags in hand, the two fierce fighters advanced down the long, rectangular, reflective silver jetway. Thankfully, the turbines of Hong Kong's airplanes had been improved tenfold, which would make what would have been a two to three day trip a significantly shorter 14 hour one. Nodding their thanks to the man who took their bags to put in storage for the flight, they stepped into the winged metal craft that would unite them with their soon-to-be teammates.

14 hours later…

Melanie (who could barely contain her excitement) and Akira stepped off of the plane and onto the hot Wood Oak City pavement, walked the short walk to the terminal right after. After going through the security procedures, a woman in uniform—a navy blue dress and heels handed them their duffel bags at the baggage claim. but they noticed something about this woman in particular. She wore a deadpan expression and didn't even bother to tell them to enjoy their stay. This was likely due to the current circumstances of the city.

"We're in the city now. Stay alert." Akira muttered to his niece as they walked through the crowded airport. She responded with a nod. Though it definitely wasn't what they were used to, it was much more of a change for Melanie. Going from an Eastern area to a Western-type area was a huge change visually. Different stores and restaurants, the signs on which only had English writing on them, as opposed to the English/Chinese translation on most signs on said signs, not to mention that the area was predominantly filled with Americans. Sure, she'd visited Philly that one time with her orphanage as a young child, but that was ages ago, and she'd partially forgotten what being outside of China felt like. It wasn't a bad thing, though. Upon entering the airport, she was instantly reminded of the pleasant aesthetics of a Western-esque area. A welcome and pleasant sight to see indeed.

Akira on the other hand, was used to seeing diverse sights and types of people. Being a Virtua Fighter had him travelling all over the world in order to reach the venues chosen by J6—Australia, France, Canada, all with their own respective visual characteristics and types of hotels to temporarily stay in. Inwardly, he wondered if there would ever be a World Fighting Tournament hosted in Lima.

"Man, the sun is crazy bright in Lima," Melanie said, catching the sunlight from out of the corner of her vision. She squinted and shielded her eyes from the unrelentingly bright sun that shone through a large window they passed by. The summertime heat itself wasn't an issue for her, in fact, she rather liked the hot weather, but Lima's (or at least Wood Oak City's) sun rays seemed to be intense in particular. But then again, she probably wasn't used to it yet. "What time is it?"

"Ten minutes after four," The Bajiquan practioner answered shortly, having taken a glance at a large clock that from the wall. They walked a ways more until they neared a chain of popular fast-food restaurants within the airport.

"Alright, Melanie," Akira started, stopping at a pillar that seperated a Starbucks and a McDonald's. "Axel Stone told us to wait for him here. He's blonde, young and muscular. We need to keep an eye out for him."

The girl gave a nod. "Got it."

Akira, being on the left, looked ten-o-clock from where they stood, while Melanie, being on the right, started looking two-o-clock for the vigilante. Fortunately the area near the restaurants wasn't as crowded as the rest of the airport, so they were able to get a relatively good view of the area. All they saw were faceless pedestrians pass by—some people dressed casually, others in uniform, people short, tall, skinny, fat…

From slightly afar, a figure came into Melanie's view. He walked strong and with a purpose. Melanie also noticed that he seemed to be walking toward them. Squinting her green eyes to be sure, she could see that he was blonde, and indeed very muscular. As he strode closer, she could see that he was wearing a white t-shirt, blue denim jeans, white sneakers. The deal sealer for Melanie that this was the man they were keeping watch for, was that he wore red fingerless fighting gloves, and that he had a blue headband tied around his head. This man perfectly fit Akira's description.

That has to be him. Melanie thought. It has to be.

She leaned in close to her uncle and nudged him in the arm. He slightly turned his head and saw her subtly point at the approaching figure. "Hey, I think I found him!" She grinned.

"Akira!" The man none other than the one and only, Axel Stone of Firestorm, called out softly with a subtle wave, getting closer to where they stood.

"Indeed," He told his niece, in response to what she had said. Now less than several paces apart, the two dojo owners reached out to shake hands.

"Axel, it's good to see our paths have once again crossed." Akira said with a nod and a tiny smile, glad to be in the presence of his most recent friend that he happened to have so much in common with.

"Definitely. It's been way too long." Axel responded, also smiling, and feeling likewise. He hadn't seen Akira since, he'd taken the trip to Kyoto to purchase weapons for his dojo.

"This here is my niece," He said, nodding to Melanie, his features going serious once more.

"Hi, I'm Melanie Chan," The girl introduced, smiling excitedly, over the moon and excited to be finally meeting a member of Firestorm. "It's so awesome to meet you! Your organization is the shit!"

Axel gave a little more than a slight smile, shaking Melanie's hand. "Heh. Thanks, Melanie. Nice to meet you. Akira told me you were coming to help us out with taking out The Syndicate and these Judgement Six guys my friend's told me about."

An eager nod from Melanie. "Totally!" She easily put two and two together and arrived at the conclusion that The Syndicate was the 'other organization' that J6 had teamed up with.

"Well I'm certainly glad you're eager. The more help we can get against these guys, the better chance we'll have at crushing these two organizations before they can do any further harm." The vigilante said with a somewhat serious tone, especially near the end.

Before either of the two Kung-fu practitioners could concur with the statement, Axel's cellphone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, and after glancing at the caller ID, turned to Melanie and Akira.

"One sec, I gotta take this," He told them briefly before raising the phone to his ear. "Yeah? Yeah, I have them...we're still at the airport, but we'll be heading back to my place soon...alright, I'll see you later then, bye Blaze."

Axel hung up the phone and pocketed it. "That was Firestorm's leader. She wanted to know if I'd ran into you guys yet. I told her we'd be heading back to my place to wait for her and the rest of the team."

"Lead the way." Akira said, giving a nod. And with that, the three began on their way to cross the airport, intent on reaching Axel's parked car outside, to arrive at his house later.

{END OF STORY}

"So yeah, that's pretty much what happened, and what my life is like." Melanie concluded as she continued to walk with the team.

"Well from what you've told us, I'd say you have a really nice life. You're a lucky girl, Melanie." The team's British leader said.

Melanie smiled behind her. "Thanks, Blaze."

Skate dared to speak at that moment. "That," A tiny pause. "was a really cool story…" He had spoken so softly he wasn't sure anybody else heard, despite the otherwise silence all around them.

Melanie looked at him and smiled with a single nod. This particular smile silently thanked him.

"Your mother must really care about you. It's no wonder she almost didn't let you come." That was Max.

"Yeah." Melanie said, looking back at Max and nodded. "It definitely wasn't easy getting down here, but that only proves how much she loves me." She said, happy, as well as wondering briefly how her mother's day went. She was likely asleep right now, so she would ask in the morning at a better hour, assuming their schedule allowed it.

"I didn't know you also came because you had something against J6," Axel said with an interested tone.

Melanie gave a rueful chuckle. "Yeah, I guess it just didn't come up earlier. I wasn't trying to purposefully keep anything from you or anything. You guys are obviously good people, and I trust you."

"Good to know." Adam smiled, looking over at her.

"Besides, I consider myself to be a pretty open book," She added on.

Skate decided to speak up again. Louder this time. "Sorry about those two times you went into depression."

Melanie's smile somewhat faded at his condolence. "It's okay. It just royally fucks me up inside when something bad happens concerning family. And I wasn't even diagnosed with depression or anything. My love for family just runs that deep, I guess."

"I understand," Skate started, frowning himself, thinking he'd said something wrong due to her sudden change of mood. "And I'm really sorry I brought it up—just forget I even said anything."

To Skate's bewilderment, Melanie seemed not to mind at all. "Dude, it's fine," She laughed heartily, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Really. I'm not offended. It was just a really serious topic for me. And I appreciate that you showed your sympathy for my depression periods."

Skate blinked before responding with a smile. "Oh...no problem!" He managed to get out, rubbing the back of his head in a relieved-looking manner. And I'm, uh, glad I wasn't offensive in what I said."

Melanie responded simply by giving him a small but meaningful smile and once again resting her hand on her newest friend's shoulder as he rolled beside her, matching her walking pace. The other members had once again overheard the exchange and smiled to themselves upon hearing the two teens form a bond.

It seems that my niece will never be without a friend in her corner. Good for her. Akira thought to himself. Even he found himself failing to fight the urge to give a tiny smirk knowing his niece had a likable personality that had made her several friends, and was sure to attract even more friends as she went on in life. He was not sure if his smirk went unseen or not.

As Firestorm walked, they noticed their surroundings had begun to change rather drastically. What had started out as bright LED decorated buildings started to become run-down houses held together by rotting pieces of wood, the performance sports cars nicely parked on the side becoming dented car bodies without wheels, and the exotic looking bright blue brick street becoming dark, chipped and worn out. Graffiti had become more prominent, a telltale sign that thugs lurked around this area in particular.

"With JX around, this area of the city is a living hell," Axel said grimly, narrowing his eyes at the filth that lie ahead of him. "And it doesn't help that we're in the slums of all places, either.

"Yeah, no kidding," Adam scoffed, keeping his light brown eyes on the path ahead as well. "I just hope we find Souther in this damned dump fast. The slums were never a favorite of mine."

To each his own, Adam, Max thought with a smile, tightening his fists as he walked at the back of the group. But I'm gonna have some fun.

To Be Continued in Chapter Four.

---

A/N: And here's the next chapter, guys! SO sorry it took this long to update, I'll try to work on getting these up quicker, promise.

As for the story itself, I hope you all enjoyed it, as well as my minor character I created, Jared Washington. I wanted Melanie to have a normal friend, as well as one that was a Virtua Fighter (Eileen), and I think I made a good choice making them all one group of friends in this story.

This chapter was obviously focused on Melanie, one of my OC's for this story (there will be more), but the following and other chapters will keep the spotlight on all of the characters rather than just one. Oh and for those who need a translation, "Wǒ ài nǐ", means "I love you", in Chinese. Similarly, "Wǒ yē ài nǐ, māmā", means, "I love you too, Mom", in the same language.

And on a final note, to those of you that haven't already, GO LISTEN TO I'LL BE IN THE SKY BY B.O.B! You will NOT regret it, it's the best song in the universe, hands down!

With that, see you next chapter,

—Stefan422