Author Note: Whoo! Let's keep reading this story people; we're getting close to a thousand hits and maybe fifty reviews by the time college football starts! (Update) Just found out I got over a thousand hits! Thanks and keep reading.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Darkstalkers in any way. However, if I did, I would make sure that the Felicia/Jon pairing was erased from existence. (sigh) Why Capcom? Did you have to pair Felicia with Jon? Damn, even I could have come up with a better pairing. (clams down before he blows a vein) Maybe this installment will clam my nerves. (yea right!) So don't SUE!
Episode 13: A Warrior's Challenge
The clock above the counter reads eight-thirty as Joe sweeps the floor while Jeff counts up the money from a hard day of feeding the masses at their restaurant. Jeff comes out of the back room and tosses a bundle of money at Joe who catches it and counts it. "We had such a great day I put a little extra in your cut." Joe stuffs the wad of money in his pocket and puts the broom in the closet just as Felicia walks in wearing a large hooded trench coat. "Hey, can I do you guys a favor?" The two brothers look at each other as Felicia makes her request. "Can I decide on dinner tonight?" Jeff nudges Joe in the arm and motions his to give her permission. "Fine Felicia. You can decide on dinner tonight." Before Joe can reach for his wallet, Felicia's tail grabs the bundle of money out of his pocket and smiles. "This should be enough. Thanks." Felicia walks out of the door leaving Joe speechless and broke. "So…" Joe punches his perverted brother in the arm just as he figures out the rest of his sentence. "Not a word."
A half hour later, Felicia has used Joe's money to buy enough fish to feed a small army of humans or in this case six cat women and two humans. She decides to take a shortcut by jumping over the next door neighbor's house and walks up to the back door. Suddenly, someone grabs Felicia causing her to drop her bags and spill all of the contents onto the back porch. The frightened cat woman claws at her attacker's arm only to fail at freeing herself. Her unseen attacker presses down hard on a pressure point on her neck causing Felicia to collapse to the ground. The attacker picks up the passed out cat woman and walks into the night.
Meanwhile, Jeff and the cat women have become impatient with Felicia's late arrival. Joe is leaning against a wall with his eyes closed waiting for Felicia to arrive with the food. He looks up at the clock and realizes how long his friend has been gone. Maybe she is just taking her time coming home. But, the store is only five minutes from the house… Joe's hair for a moment flashes silver just as someone rings the doorbell at the back door. Thinking its Felicia arriving with the food, the three kits run to see who would be the first one to answer the door. But Joe has other ideas to who has rung the bell. "Don't go near the door!"
The three girls stop a few feet from the door just as a dagger smashes through the small window on the door. It flies past everyone and ends up sticking to the wall only three inches from Joe's head. He pulls the dagger out of the wall and looks over the weapon as the others want an explanation. A secret compartment opens up from the handle of the dagger and a piece of paper falls out. Joe unrolls the paper and finds it is written inJapanese. "Can anyone read this?" Nana raises her hand and Joe hands the paper over to her. "It says…"
I challenge the warrior who is strong enough to battle the Dark and be able to turn one of them into his slave to a duel. If you do not arrive at the location I have picked by midnight, I will kill your woman. Come alone.
"Other than the location, this note is nameless." While the others try to make sense of the note, Joe walks into his brother's room unnoticed and grabs what looks like an inactive light saber. He walks out of the room and finds the younger catscrying. "Felicia is in troubleGrace! We have to find her."
"Don't worry, I'm sure we can find her and help her."
"Sorry guys but this isn't going to be a "we" mission." The cats turn and look at Joe with confused looks. "You heard what the note said, I have to go alone." Joe heads for the front door and is cut off by Lucy. Grace is trying her best to calm the emotional girls while Lucy gives Joe a piece of her mind. "What makes you think we would let you go alone to help Felicia and why does it say "your woman"? Maybe this is some plan to take her away that you two humans thought up." The human walks right past Lucy and to the door drawing more anger from the cat woman. "That's it!"
Lucy turns around and swings a powerful kick for the back of Joe's head. Sensing the incoming attack, Joe falls to the floor and kicks Lucy's other foot out from under her body causng Lucy to fall backwards and land on her head. Joe turns away from the defeated Lucy and walks out the door. The others keep their distance as Lucy tries to recover from her failed attack on Joe. "Ugh, what just happened? How was he able to block me without looking?" Jeff throws Lucy an ice pack for her head and sits down to explain the sudden in his brother's behavior. The explanation echoes through the air as Joe walks down a dark street towards the site of his midnight duel.
"When Joe is focused on something, he will strive to complete whatever his mind is set on until he completes his objective. Nothing will be able to stop him." Lucy stands up and holds the ice pack against her head. "What could have caused him to become so die hard?" Jeff looks over at a family photo hanging on the wall. "I think it was when our grandfather died. Since then Joe's attitude and abilities have become sharper and even if the odds are against him, Joe will never give up." Jeff's description of his elder brother gives the others a small look into Joe's unpredictable mind.
Somewhere in a deserted part of the city an unconscious Felicia is just waking up. She finds herself kneeling down on a jagged wooden board with her arm and legs tied behind her body. Felicia struggles to escape but is unable to break free of her restraints. "You won't be able to break my "Soul Chains" with your pathetic strength woman." I know that voice! A tall, thin monk walks out of the shadows with a staff and a large round hat on his head. "Oboro! Why have you taken me against my will?" The monk removes his hat showing Felicia is dark red eyes. "I have heard of a fighter who may be able to break the cursed armor's hold from my body." Oboro looks up at the new moon and drops his cane. "Please forgive me for what I am about to do."
The kind hearted monk's body is engulfed by a flash of light as several pieces of armor cover his body. When the light fades the blood thirsty samurai Bishamon is standing in Oboro's place staring at the defenseless Felicia. "So, the warrior has not arrived?" The armored Darkstalker draws his sword and points it at the chained Felicia. "I believe your blood is mine since the warrior has not appeared to face me. I'll make your death as painful as possible!" Bishamon charges forward with his sword out in front of his body ready to strike down Felicia when a beam of energy cuts him off causes him to break off his attack. "Who dares to interfere with my blood harvest?"
"You will not get a drop of blood from that girl Bishamon."
"Joe?"
The silver human walks confidently towards the murderous Bishamon as his hair is illuminated by the moonlight. He fires another burst of energy at Bishamon to drive him away from Felicia then steps between the two of them. "Did he hurt you Felicia?" The cat woman looks up and shakes her head. "No, thanks to you." Joe reaches into his right pocket and pulls out the device he took from Jeff's room. "Hold still for a second Felicia." Joe swings his arm and a flash of light surrounds Felicia, the light fades and Felicia's chains have been removed. Bishamon looks on with great wonder as Joe helps Felicia to her feet. This is the one! He is the strongest human I have ever faced and I must bathe my sword in his blood!
"Felicia, leave before things get rough." Felicia protests leaving Joe alone with the deadly Bishamon. "I'm not going." Joe senses another attack and defends Bishamon's sneak attack with the "borrowed" device. A beam of green energy comes out of the top of the device taking the form of a blade and blocks Bishamon's demon sword from striking him. "What sorcery is this? You own a demon sword as well?" Joe forces Bishamon back and takes an offensive stance. "I don't need magic when I got a brother who can make kick ass weapons like this!" Felicia dashes home to get assistance for Joe while the two fighters' swords trade slashes and cuts at lighting fast speeds. Joe's good, but he just doesn't have the skill needed to fight on Bishamon's level yet.
An out of breath Felicia reaches the house after a hard run and barges through the back door without knocking. "Guys we have to go help… you ok Jeff?" The door swung open and cracked Jeff right in the head dropping him to the ground and leaving a large bump on his forehead. Lucy falls over laughing as Jeff groans in pain. "Hey, I can take you on Lucy."
"Anytime, anywhere human!" Sparks fly between Lucy and Jeff as they stare at each other, the standoff would have gone on forever if Grace didn't interrupt them. "Uh, isn't Joe fighting to the death right now?" Felicia quickly explains on how Bishamon kidnapped her and about the weapon Joe is using to duel Bishamon with. Jeff runs into his room and comes back with an incomplete version of Joe's weapon in hand. "That looks like the same one he's using!"
"Dammit Joe! Why do you have to be so stupid?" Jeff turns the weapon over and points out a small dial on the bottom of Jeff's beam saber. "How much did he turn this dial Felicia?" Felicia cannot remember how much Joe turned the dial. "This isn't good. If Joe turns the dial past ten, the saber will overload and explode!" Jeff throws on his shoes and grabs his car keys. "We have to find him now!" Jeff's scanner makes a quick sweep of the city and picks up nothing. "I can't find them. Felicia where is the duel?" Felicia scratches her head in an attempt to remember where they were. "I remember smelling something metallic… before Joe arrived." Jeff grabs his jacket and heads for the back door. There's only one place they're at and that's the warehouse district by the canal!
Grace and the young girls jump into Jeff's car while Lucy and Felicia run ahead of them as they hurry to get to Joe. While backup is on route to his location, Joe is having a hard time trying to keep up with Bishamon's movements. Joe is barely able to dodge his opponent's simple attacks while trying to defend against his more powerful cuts with Jeff's sword. Bishamon charges in for a forward thrust allowing Joe enough time to jump up and drop kick him in the head. Joe's kick forces the sword-wielding Darkstalker to back off and regroup. "Not bad human…" Bishamon jumps high into the air away from the human and creates two small will-o-wisps from his armor. "…let's see how you handle this!" The two small fire balls come crashing down towards Joe once Bishamon points his blade at the human as if ordering the fire to attack, Joe jumps over the attack only to come face to face with his deadly opponent. "Too slow."
Joe tries to move away from Bishamon but is slashed by his razor sharp sword in the left shoulder. A large amount of blood sprays through the air as the close range slash drops Joe to the ground and he lands flat on his chest. Contact with the ground causes Joe to lose his grip on his beam saber, he watches helplessly as the sword deactivates and rolls away from him. As Joe reaches for the weapon with his right arm, Bishamon appears and steps down hard on his arm. "You put up a good fight human…" Bishamon raises his blood covered sword over his head and laughs. "…but all good things must come to an end!" Joe watches as the sword freezes in mid-air and refuses to deliver the finishing blow. "What have you done to my sword! It refuses to kill you?" Confused, Bishamon lowers the sword and licks some of Joe's blood off of the blade. He coughs and tries to spit out the blood from his mouth. "Your blood is awful! How could a human have such disgusting blood?" Angry with Joe's foul blood, Bishamon stabs Joe's already injured left shoulder and causes Joe to yell out in pain as the blade cuts through skin, muscle, and tendons. "I'll make you suffer for dishonoring my sword with your blood!"
"Suffer this!"
Bishamon turns around and is hit with a super sized beam of energy and is sent crashing through the steel door of a nearby warehouse. Jeff lowers a smoking beam cannon from his shoulder and rests the weapon on the ground on the other side of the canal. Wow, this "H-Cannon" really packs a wallop without any recoil whatsoever! Felicia jumps over the canal from the roof of a building and rushes to Joe's side and slowly helps him to his feet; the sudden shock of being stabbed has knocked Joe back to his normal state. "Felicia… we have to…"
"We aren't doing anything except leaving! You need medical attention right away Joe." The ears of all of the cat women start to twitch as the bloodied Joe is helped by Felicia to the side of the car. Lucy spots something flying towards the back of Felicia's neck from the top of another building. "Felicia look out!" Felicia turns her head and finds Bishamon's sword coming straight at her with out its owner in sight. She watches in horror as the sword is blocked by Joe using his own body as a shield. The sharpened blade finds its way into Joe's right shoulder and splatters the side of the car with his blood. A look of absolute horror comes over Felicia's face as the blood spray just misses her. "Oh God! Joe are you ok?" Joe places his left hand on the handle of the sword to stop the weapon from doing any more damage. "Felicia… back away… I'm going to…" Bishamon appears and laughs at the wounded human. "You are not the opponent I was looking for. Kien, return to my hand so we may finish this unworthy human off!" The sword remain dug into the human until Joe slowly pulls the blood coated weapon out of his shoulder spilling more of his own blood onto the pavement. Felicia backs away from Joe as his blood trickles down both arms in large drops and splashes onto the pavement. "Why won't my blade return?"
"Your sword has found a stronger partner…" Joe's hair explodes to its long silver color as his eyes become as red as the blood dripping off of his body. The blade of the demon sword also turns red as Joe tightens his grip on the weapon. Bishamon looks on as the bleeding Joe continues to walk towards him with his own dark weapon in his side. "Kien, return!" Joe lunges at Bishamon with the sword at his side and is picked off of the ground by a large white hand coming out of the "mouth" of the armor. The chest plate of Bishamon's armor comes to life as it squeezes more blood out of Joe's body. "You dare to use my own partner to defeat me? You are a fool!" Several small chuckles come out from the bloody Joe leaving the living armor confused. "You laugh at your own demise?"
"No. I'm laughing because you are finished." Joe explodes his aura around himself and shatters Bishamon's grip on his body. Bishamon looks up as the hand vanishes to find the red eyed Joe coming down with both hands on his weapon for a strong overhead slash. In a flash of steel and blood, Joe has created a large cut in the chest plate of the armor between the "eyes" of the cursed armor allowing Joe the opening he needed. He throws Kien away from both fighters and picks up the beam saber he barrowed from Jeff. "Your armor is tough, but how can it handle an explosion from inside?" Joe jams the weapon into the cut just as the armor begins to repair the damage and cranks the dial to eleven. "You lost Bishamon." The blood from Joe's wounds has dyed his white shirt a deep shade of red as his energy runs out. Damn, I spent all of my strength… Joe's body returns to normal as he loses consciousness.
The sword returns to its master as the wounded human hits the ground, blood begins to pool around Joe's unmoving body as Bishamon moves in for the kill. "I will never be defeated by a mere human!" Bishamon slashes at the beaten Joe only to miss thanks to another well placed shot from Jeff's shoulder mounted beam cannon this time from behind the blood driven samurai. The blast sends Bishamon, sword and all, over a warehouse into the dark water of the canal. Jeff puts down his weapon back into the trunk and grabs his fallen brother from a pool of his own blood. Joe's breathing has slowed down to near death status as his friends get him into the back seat. "We have to move! The saber will explode any second now!" The car peels out as Jeff floors the vehicle away from the area.
Under water, Bishamon puts his weapon back in its holder attached to the back of the chest plate and sits on the canal floor to meditate. That human has not defeated me yet. I'll return for his life another day. The red armor Darkstalker laughs loudly from the bottom of the canal floor as the beam saber goes critical and detonates from within his armor. The resulting explosion destroys several docks and heavily damages the nearby buildings on both sides of the canal. Jeff serves the car tossing his passengers around while dodging flying metal debris from crushing the car like a grape. "So that's how big the explosion is when my saber explodes. Awesome!" Lucy smacks Jeff in the back of his head and yells at him about his overpowered weapon. "That thing nearly killed us and you are happy?" Jeff turns and smiles. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Joe lets out a small groan as he flails around in pain on the back seat, Jeff quickly stopped the car and grabbed the extra first-aid kit from under his beam cannon to try and patch up his brother's wounds. "Damn, you just had to pick a fight with a blood crazed, sword swinging Darkstalker didn't you?" Except for Lucy, everyone holds down the flailing human as Jeff works to slow his brother's blood loss.
"That's not funny…"
Jeff stuffs both of Joe's shoulders full of gauze to slow the bleeding and sticks everything together with plenty of duct tape. He jumps back in the driver's seat and heads for the nearest hospital to get Joe more professional help. "Jeff… no hospitals." Joe begins to shiver uncontrollably from the blood lost as Jeff speeds down the street. "Sorry Joe, but you have no choice in the matter. There's a blanket under the seat Felicia, can you put it over him?"
"Sure."
As Felicia stretches the blanket over Joe, Lucy nearly pukes over the amount of kindness to the injured human. "Oh come on, can't you see he only fought to win some affection from you Felicia?" Jeff slams down on the brake nearly giving everyone a serious case of whiplash. "You know he went to save Felicia and that's all! Even if he had those intentions, why are you so against the idea of Felicia becoming more than friends with Joe?" Lucy looks down at the floor and doesn't answer Jeff. You have no idea how cruel humans can be to us. A cough from Felicia draws everyone's attention to her. "Uh, can someone help pick Joe off of me?" The duct taped human is laying face down on top of Felicia in an unwanted position.
Once again, the car drive off towards the hospital but this time there are two figures watching the vehicle from a distant location. "That human is as dumb as they get, huh sis? Rushing headlong into a battle he almost lost and losing a lot of blood just to save his "friend"." Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling watch Jeff's car until it leaves their sight. "What's the deal with this silver haired guy sis? Is he a Darkstalker or a human?" Mei-Ling closes her eyes and thinks for a few moments. "He is a human but there's something about him that makes him more dangerous than a Darkstalker."
"What could be more dangerous than a Darkstalker?"
"I don't know." She opens her eyes and finds Hsien-Ko looks around for something. "What's wrong Hsien-Ko?"
"Where's Donovan? He and Anita took off after that strange robot attacked us when we arrived to this city." The two sisters turn around and sigh as they look at their wrecked car that was once operable. Hsien-Ko grabs three daggers from under her sleeve and impales them into the driver's side door. "If I ever see that tin can again, I'll turn him into scrap!"
(End Episode 13)
Trailer for the next episode…
Jeff: Three blood transfusions, six hours in the ER, and this damn bill! Next time, I'm gonna let you die Joe. It's cheaper for a funeral than it is to save your life.
Joe: (sweats) Gee, thanks for the sympathy Jeff.
Jeff: So, who's your roommate?
Joe: No idea, the doctors said the police found him unconscious so they brought him here.
Next time on Darkstalkers: A Chaotic Life… Episode 14: A Boy and his Robot
Joe: What is Phobos doing here! It seems to be searching for something or someone…
Author Note: Well, I got the next episode up. (God I hate using public computers...) Ok, this last chapter proves that my OC can be hurt and he bleeds like everyone else. However, if he were to die now the whole point of him being the main hero would be shot out a thirty story window and slammed down on a bed of nails. Don't forget to review!