Section Two - Results
As the fighters rested, Wolfgang Krauser ran in, and launched himself at Sub-Zero after a particularly mean-spirited insult. He was immediately frozen by Sub-Zero, who ignored him (although Earthquake did not). The Lin Kuei was more concerned with Pyron. He gestured at the alien, beckoning him forward. Pyron showed his acceptance by striding forward.
The crowd went wild. As far as they were concerned, there was no other fighting in this ring. They all watched as Sub-Zero flew through the air at Pyron, kicking powerfully. Pyron responded by transforming into a fiery ring. Both fighters were knocked down, but they got up quickly and rushed at one another. Sub-Zero started rattling Pyron with high punches to the alien's jaw. Pyron, a bit dazed, staggered back and teleported away. Sub-Zero, who had examined Pyron previously before fighting him, instantly Ground Iced...behind himself. Pyron teleported in, but couldn't keep his traction on the ice, and started slipping inevitably towards the ninja, who called his shot with his eyes.
As Pyron flew through the air, he landed on Wulf, who had begun dueling with Felicia (who still had Orion's sword). The knight went down in a heap. As Pyron got up, he was immediately pounded by a flurry of high-speed slaps from the experienced Takuma Sakazaki, and fell again (on Wulf again).
As Takuma dashed back, he readied himself, and then cast a Haohshohkohken fireball at Earthquake (he doubted anything else would faze the giant). However, the massive energy wave missed both the Quake (who was Fat Chainsawing Felicia) and the VERY lucky Choi Bounge, who had been tossed in its path by Krauser. Takuma was then grabbed unaware by Lau, tossed down, and repeatedly stomped upon. Lau kept jumping on the powerful Kyokugenryu fighter, hoping to pound him into unconsciousness-an easy elimination. However, he was surprised when Takuma grabbed his descending feet! The master of fighting then levered himself, using his feet to gain leverage, and flipped the Virtua Fighter into the ropes. Lau, shocked by the electrical force field encircling the ring, staggered back to the edge of the ring. He barely noticed when Takuma began to power up. He DID feel the thousand blows Takuma launched upon him, however, which culminated in his flipping out over the ring into the acid.
Just as the gigantic Zeus was entering the ring, Sub-Zero was circling around a stunned . However, he missed his chance to commit a Fatality on the powerful Native American when Felicia rolled and vaulted over the ropes. Sub-Zero was irritated-he had expended a LOT of energy trying to down that fighter.
Suddenly, Akuma entered the ring. After a brief flurry with Takuma and Felicia, he jumped at Pyron in response to the alien's challenge. The tired alien, for all his power, was laid out in a single Dragon Punch. Although Pyron instantly got up despite his fatigue, he was then comboed into insensibility by the karate master. Staggering over to the "ropes", he looked up to see Earthquake slam him with his... ummm... "spear". A wash of blood spouted from Pyron's chest, and he fell down. Earthquake grabbed the dead alien in one hand and flung him into the acid.
"Jesus, Brant, that'll cost us a LOT of money to regenerate that."
"Don't worry. We just sold the video game rights to Atari."
"Ugggh. Not the ones who made..."
As Lord Raptor Skywalked over the ring, he landed with a chainsaw leg on Earthquake, who staggered back. He then teleported behind the powerful Akuma, who had been making mincemeat out of Choi Bounge. Turning away from the diminutive fighter, Akuma received a solid blow from the ghoul just as Jacky arrived.
He rushed at Sub-Zero. "You! You're the one who eliminated Sarah! I owe you one, pal!"
Sub-Zero, not really in the mood to explain to Jacky that this was a competition, and that was kind of the point, simply iced the ground in front of the Virtua Fighter. Jacky, running forward, started to slip, and was slammed by a high roundhouse from Sub-Zero to the back of the head. Jacky stubled forward, right to the "ropes." He then felt ice surround him...
As Sub-Zero slammed Jacky with a freeze blast, he contemplated. He then jumped forward, and checking his motion, uppercutted the frigid fighter into a thousand shards. The Lin Kuei then grabbed the remnants of Jacky and threw them into the acid.
Sub-Zero saw Kung Lao approaching. "Hmmmm. Finally someone I can fight who ISN'T insane or an alien."
Kung Lao, to huge cheers, stepped into the ring. Wulf (who had been dodging MANY blows from Zeus) ran forward to slice him up. However, Kung Lao had been anticipating this. He quickly spun in place, generating waves of weird energy. These waves slammed into the already sore Wulf. Wulf, wobbling just a bit, was easy pickings for the Shaolin as he was uppercutted into the acid pool beneath.
Finally, Haohmaru ran up to the ring, with cheers every bit as large as Kung Lao's. He carried out his prefight plans, then jumped into the ring, sword extended...which slammed through Felicia's shoulder. Kicking the catwoman three times in the jaw to free his sword, he then expelled a whirlwind from his sword, which swept the Darkstalker up and over the ring ropes.
He turned around, seeing Wolfgang Krauser in a duel with Takuma Sakazaki. The ronin rushed forward, but stopped just short of the two fighters.
"HA! I, THE LEGENDARY HAOHMARU, HAVE COME TO FIGHT IN THIS BATTLE! DEFEND IF YOU WISH, BUT ONLY I WILL SURVIVE TO THE END! (pause) OF COURSE, IF YOU HAVE LOVED ONES YOU WISH ME TO INFORM ABOUT YOUR FAILURE, I WILL DO SO GENTLY, AS BEFITS MY LEGENDARY STATUS, WHILE YOU RECUPERATE FROM THIS CONTEST! ALSO...UHHHHH..."
Haohmaru looked around...Akuma was tossing Krauser out of the ring (SPLASH!), while Sub-Zero hop-kicked Takuma over the other side (SPLOOSH!). "HMMMM. NO MORE SPEECHES BEFORE I KILL SOMEBODY...JUST WHEN I, HAOHMARU, GREET THE NEW ENTRANTS!"
Meanwhile, Kung Lao was beating up on the exhausted Earthquake. After a flurry of punches to the belly (well, where else, really?), Kung Lao sized up the nearly-gone fat man. He then removed his hat, and sliced Earthquake down the middle. Half fell into the acid, and the other half fell onto the unfortunate Lord Raptor. The zombie struggled to get up... when he did, he saw Akuma staring at him, eye-to-eye.
"Oh, poof."
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Meanwhile, the remaining half of Earthquake was grabbed by the gigantic Zeus, who threw it at Sub-Zero. The ninja easily jumped over the huge half-corpse, which sank into the acid behind him.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Over in another corner, Choi Bounge was jumping whirlwind after whirlwind from Haohmaru. Suddenly, Haohmaru made another whirlwind motion. Choi jumped upwards, but no whirlwind came from the ronin... instead, he jumped through the air, slicing with his katana at the midget fighter. Choi was hit badly, and fell backwards through the air.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Zeus had been frozen by Sub-Zero. The ninja was walking forward, planning a combo on the giant. However, a running Haohmaru beat him there, Immediately moving into a Sogetzuzan, Haohmaru sliced into Zeus. Zeus, however, did not stumble backward. (Sub-Zero was glad that he HADN'T fought Zeus. Best to conserve his energy, thought the Lin Kuei.)
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! (one second pause) HADOUKEN!
The toasted Lord Raptor fell back to the ropes, where he was easy prey for a Dragon Punch from Akuma. The undead rocker fell into the acid smoothly, with next to no splash.
Meanwhile, Haohmaru was slamming Zeus with Sogetzuzans, one after another. All hit Zeus for damage, but the giant remained unmoving. Finally, as Zeus staggered a bit, Haohmaru stood back, growled briefly, and lept upwards into a massive Sogetzuzan that made his previous ones look tiny. The giant, carried upwards by the force of Haohmaru's attack, fell a long way into the acid below.
Now the four remaining were each waiting in one corner. Akuma stood, stretching out kinks. Kung Lao was also there, in the corner opposite, cracking his knuckles. Haohmaru stood back in the corner, katana in hand. Finally, Sub-Zero, MUCH more bruised and battered than the other three, occupied the last corner, meditating once again, trying to null out various pains.
In The Dressing Rooms
"Man! We're doing all right, huh?" said Dee Jay. "Each time one of us enters, we give a pretty good account of ourselves."
"Yeah, but is it so good that Akuma's our only representation right now?" said Chun Li. "He's with us, but the man is homicidal!"
M. Bison was confused. "What's your point?"
The MK2ers that weren't with Shao Kahn were in great spirits. "Man, Subby's still in there!" cheered Johnny Cage.
"Yes, and so is my brother Shaolin." said Liu Kang. "The gods smile on us."
"Well, of course they do." answered Raiden.
The Samurais were gathered in their dressing room.
"Man, Haohmaru was KICKING ASS!" yelled Galford.(He then immediately looked to see if Nakoruru was looking at him.)
"Oh, certainly." said Nakoruru. (Thank heavens I looked away in time.)
"Yes, I must concur. He is by far one of the best of us... not that any of us are bad." stated Charlotte. (And not bad looking, either.)
"Yup. But don't forget how well Earthquake was doing." quipped Wan-Fu. (Boy, am I hungry.)
"He DID eliminate two fighters! And one of them was PYRON!" said Caffeine Nicotine. (Am I the only one who noticed Galford and Nakoruru staring at one another? And Charlotte seems to have gotten herself wrapped over Haohmaru.)
Meanwhile, Genjuro was ignoring the conversation, as he was busy stabbing pins in a Haohmaru doll while tossing darts at a Haohmaru poster and spitting in a souvenir Haohmaru ashtray.
"DAMN THAT NINJA!" yelled Wolf. "Not only does he eliminate Jacky and Sarah, but the man who eliminated Lau! He must pay!"
"YES! I am by far the greatest of Ninjas at this tournament... he shall pay," promised Kage.
"Not if I get to him first." Akira grinned visciously.
"Hmmmm. Not much luck so far." said Captain Kidd.
"You can turn the tide for the World Heroes, Kidd! And you too, Janne!"
"Thank you, Ryoko." Janne smiled at the young fighter.
"What HAPPENED? We were dominating that sucker, then all three of our guys got themselves dunked!" Demitri Maximov was upset.
"Ummmmm, I think they got eliminated, Demetri." Victor was a helpful sort.
"Well, we're getting our butts whipped." said Big Bear. "Let's face it... we need the Bogards and Joe and Mai and Kim back."
"At least we aren't getting spat on again." Rancid tried to be optimistic.
"We aren't doing so well thus far... but we are many, and we WILL prevail!"
"THANK you for the speech, Rugal. NOW PLEASE SHUT UP." Heidern was peeved.
"Well, Jetta didn't do too well, but she was just the first. We can pull this off, guys!" Blade of the Eternal Champions grinned.
"Easy for you to say. You're ninety-sixth." grumbled RAX.
Original Authors
Chris "Birdman" Bird
Bob "Boobwod" Wood
Brant Rogers
