Tekken - Rebellion of Fury

Chapter 35 Messenger Raven

She moved faster than what Bryan could ever have remembered her being able to, and Bryan idly remembered Jin disabling her safety protocols. Whatever Bryan had seen of her over the last weeks needed to be taken at arms distance, as he had no idea whatever it was Jin had activated within her.

Quickly pulling out his combat knife, he twirled it into a reversed grip in his right hand, clenching his left fist in front of him in his combat stance. Whatever was coming, Bryan was sure he hadn't seen the last of her chainsaw blades.

Just before Alisa came upon him, she dropped to the ground, spinning in a furious motion while her blades ejected. Throwing himself out of the way as she nearly bisected him by the middle, Bryan rolled back onto his feet. With a kick of her feet, Alisa spun sideways up into the air, bringing one of her blades down on him vertically.

Knowing a feint when he saw one, Bryan sidestepped and saved his knife to block. As Alisa's blade slammed into the glass panel where Bryan had stood in less than a second ago, she quickly righted herself into a swipe.

Reacting quickly, Bryan stepped forward and brought the knife to meet her swipe before it began. Effectively blocking her move before it began, Bryan slammed his left fist into Alisa's face before lopping his right arm around one of Alisa's.

Using her body as leverage, Bryan pulled her into his lightning fast machine gun punches. Repeatedly, his fist struck into Alisa's body, but she made not a single sound as they hit.

Using her free arm to slash after Bryan, he managed to grapple the wrist of her free hand, trapping both her arms.

Snarling angrily, Bryan launched a harsh knee strike to her gut.

A click suddenly rang out and Bryan lost his balance in surprise as Alisa detached herself from him.

...With her arms still in Bryan's hands.

In morbid fascination, Bryan watched as an armless Alisa backdashed away from him before standing still at a distance.

Looking down in his hands, he saw her arms suddenly shimmering up in a blue light before beginning to dissipate, shocking him enough for him to drop them as if they burned him.

Setting his eyes back at Alisa, he saw a blue shimmer grow from her shoulder sockets, flowing out into the form of arms, before dying out and revealing a new set of arms.

Despite the unfortunate situation, Bryan couldn't help but be impressed.

Before he could reflect further, Alisa suddenly raised her arms straight towards him, making Bryan wary again.

Rocket fins sprung out from her shoulder blades and Bryan immediately recognized their function.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?", Bryan snarled as Alisa's arms detached from their sockets, soaring towards him like rockets. He didn't know if they were explosive, or what kind of explosives they were installed with, but Bryan didn't care to find out.

Sprinting hard to the side, he notice a slight tracking ability the her rocket arms, but he could still outrun them. Dodging them somewhat narrowly as he ran to the side, the explosion singed off his back as it hit the wall not too far away.

Running straight for Alisa before she could fire again, Bryan launched a flurry of strikes against her.

While managing to get in a straight fist into her face, Alisa flipped backwards and away, unsheathing her blades in the same movement. Before Bryan could move she was already up in his face with her blades at the ready.

Had he fought her like this a week ago when his perpetual generator was still damaged, Bryan knew she would have made short work of him. Lee had been true to his word that he would grow more and more powerful until he was at his best again, but that was not just yet.

Swiping for his throat, Bryan swayed under her slash.

Suddenly, her upper torso spun with the slash, rotating her entire upper body back around for another slash while her legs stood still.

In his shock, Bryan was barely able to bring up his knife to block, but the force still sent him off balance. Swaying back again from another swipe for his throat, she surprised him with a boosted kick that landed square in his chin before he could react.

Vision blinked white as the kick sent him spinning through the air before landing with a long slide upon the ground.

Spitting blood as he quickly got to his feet, Bryan growled as Alisa flew straight at him.

"...Screw this...", Bryan snarled and prepared himself as Alisa barreled towards him.

Stabbing towards his torso with both of her arms, Bryan redirected her stab with the knife before slamming up with his knee.

Alisa wheezed as her breath was driven from her lungs. Grasping unto her hair, Bryan began to repeatedly slam his knee's into her stomach, aiming to inflict some damage as quickly as possible.

...And then nearly shouted in shock as her head detached from her body.

A split second of fright filled him as he though he'd killed his former lover, but seeing her headless body quickly fly away drew him out of his stupor.

With an enormous bang, her head still in his hands exploded with the force of a high explosive grenade, singing Bryan and sending him flat on his back.

Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs in his vision, he saw Alisa regrow her head with a small apathetic giggle in the same manner in which she had regrown her arms.

Anger flowing through him, Bryan snarled as he got to his feet deciding enough was enough.

Flipping to his feet, Bryan dashed straight for Alisa whom leveled her arms towards him in order to fire again.

Steeling himself, Bryan ran straight forward instead of dodging to the side as the rockets blasted off her shoulders. Just as they were about to hit, Bryan dropped to his knees and leaned back, sliding under the rockets, the fire from their igniters singing across his chest.

Heaving himself onto his feet, Bryan spun into a kick as he fell upon Alisa, delivering a shattering sidekick to her stomach.

With a yell, Alisa took the full brunt of the damage, her arms having not yet fully regenerated. She soared through the air towards the wall.

Grimacing in determination, Bryan leaned back with the knife he held in his hand and aimed carefully, before throwing it with full force towards Alisa.

As Alisa hit the wall with her back, her eyes widened a fraction, barely dodging her head to the side before Bryan's knife lodged itself into the wall where her head had been, a thin cut opening across her cheek.

Bryan had already began moving as he threw his knife, and before Alisa could get away, Bryan had her with her back up against the wall.

Launching a two hit strike combo towards her face, Alisa failed to block the lightning fast knee strike to her stomach which came right after. Seeing her stunned, Bryan set his face in a scowl and shifted his feet in a broad stance to better his stability.

Rotating his entire upper body into a right handed strike, his fist slammed into Alisa's chest, her body shaking from the force of his hit. Before she could react he shifted direction with his upper body, throwing his entire weight into his left hand as another fist slammed into her chest.

Having achieved a stable stance, Bryan kept slamming strikes into Alisa's chest, going faster and faster with each strike. After what felt like an eternity as Alisa's body shook painfully from each strike, Bryan ended his combinations with a powerful knee to her stomach.

The force as it pushed Alisa's body into the wall sent a resounding thunder throughout the room, spider web cracks bursting from the wall around where her body had been.

Needing to regain his breath, Bryan jumped backwards into his proper stance, eyeing Alisa warily as she slumped forward onto the ground.

Silence filled the hall and Bryan frowned, unsure whether or not she was actually down or faking it.

Carefully shifting his feet closer to her body, Bryan cleared his throat thickly.

"Alisa?", he murmured with a certain amount of trepidation. He somewhat doubted it would take so little to kill her, and he didn't think he had it in himself to kill her while she was unconscious. Fighting her was bad enough as it was.

Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, flaring red before her wings ejected again.

Backstepping away, Bryan narrowed his eyes and steeled his combat stance again as she hovered above ground for a moment.

Going rigid for a moment, Alisa suddenly faced towards the glass ceiling.

"Disengaging."

Before Bryan could move to stop her, Alisa suddenly sped up into the air towards the glass ceiling.

"NO!", Bryan snarled, throwing himself after her. He would NOT let her get away and back into Jin's manipulations.

While his enhanced legs were powerful indeed, it was not enough as his fingertips barely brushed against her feet before she was forever out of his reach. The glass ceiling broke easily as she flew through, broken glass falling down around Bryan like rain.

"ALISA!", Bryan roared.

He had let her get away! It was probably Jin who commanded her from afar, forcing her to get back to his side.

The thought made him sick!

"FUCK!", Bryan screamed before falling to his knees, slamming his fists into the glass panel floor. "Fuck, fuck fuck, god fucking damn it!"

The silence which filled the hall as Bryan stilled seemed like the loudest sound Bryan had ever heard before in his life. He had failed, simple as that. Alisa was lost and he had failed in his task.

His Alisa...

Refusing the follow that line of thought, Bryan snarled at himself with a harsh shake of his head.

He doubted Lee would let him be on his way as it was, still remembering the dead man's switch in his chest.

Sitting back on his ankles, Bryan looked down on his hands and chuckled at his own uselessness.

"God damn it Alisa...", Bryan murmured. He guessed he shouldn't pity her too much, considering that Bryan had his own 'master' to return to. At least he still had his free will, unlike Alisa who seemed like a slave to her programming.

The thought left a bad taste in his mouth.

"You alone?"

Snarling in surprise, Bryan dashed to his feet to face the direction the voice had spoken from.

Above on one of the rafters stood an individual Bryan recognized after a moment of scrutiny.

"You..", Bryan murmured with narrowed eyes. "...The one from the tunnel." He was easy to recognize, the X scar on his face a very distinct mark.

The man looked at him for a moment before dropping down.

Bryan considering falling into a combat stance, but he honestly didn't care if the man killed him or not right then and there. Consider how easy he had taken down the war machine down in the service tunnels, it wouldn't surprise him if he found it an easy task.

"Where's the girl?"

His voice was gritty and deep, much like Bryan's own, but held an interest which made Bryan all the more suspicious.

Why did this man want to know where Alisa was?

Shrugging, Bryan gave a glance towards the glass ceiling before chuckling morosely. Standing up slowly, Bryan ignored his instinct and turned his back on the mysterious stranger, going towards his knife still embedded in the wall.

"Are you done then?"

Bryan frowned and stopped, his hand raised to pull out his combat knife from the wall. Glancing over his shoulder, Bryan gave the man a critical look.

"Jin is long gone and so is Alisa."

"Maybe so.", the man shrugged. "But i know where he is."

How interesting.

A smirk grew on Bryan's lips. Yanking the knife out of the wall, he idly began inspecting it for damage.

"Is that so...", Bryan trailed off.

"My organization have been keeping track of him and his assets for a long time-"

"Who the fuck are you?", Bryan interrupted, fixing Raven with a harsh glare, pointing his knife at him meaningfully. "How long have you been following me?"

The man crossed his arms, looking completely unintimidated by Bryan's posturing.

"Codename Raven.", the man said and Bryan smirked at the cliche codename. "Obviously my organization will remain nameless, but i have been following you ever since you began to interfere in the war effort between the rebels and the Zaibatsu."

"Why?", Bryan narrowed his eyes.

"To determine whether or not to eliminate you as a threat.", Raven continued on with the same apathetic stare, eyes hidden beneath his shades. "Considering your recent change in alignment, id rather cooperate with you than make an enemy of you."

"I could just kill you.", Bryan smirked condescendingly, but despite his threatening words disarmed the situation by pocketing his knife.

"True, but then another would just take my place.", Raven shrugged. "So how about it?"

Staring at Raven thoughtfully, Bryan eventually directed his gaze towards the hole in the ceiling.

Alisa. Alisa was still within Jin's grip.

Chuckling, Bryan shook his head in amusement before fixing Raven with a sinister grin. He would not let Alisa remain a slave and Jin would pay with his life for what he had done.

"Yeah...", Bryan chuckled darkly and nodded at Raven. "...Kazama and i have unfinished business."

Raven nodded.

"Then lets get moving."