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A Rare Chance In Life

Chapter Two – Dream Match Revived (Literally)

Dedicated To Barb…

"Wait!" cried Benimaru.

They turned around.

"Hey, I thought you were unconscious!" Barb pointed out.

"It was your angelic voice that woke me up of course!"

Kaori rubbed her temples in frustration.

'This guy probably considers himself as a lothario.'

Barb turned red. She can be embarrassed so easily.

Benimaru raced up to Barb.

"Please. Tell me your name O beautiful one!"

"B… Barb." Bearb was still red.

"Such a LOVELY name! Care to join me for dinner at my apartment?"

"OK, MISTER! We're going to go now!" shouted Kaori as a flame surrounded her now clench up fist.

Benimaru turned to Kaori with a serious expression.

"I have not for gotten you. You knocked me out and you have what seemed to be the Kusanagi flame! You are some kind of clone from N.E.S.T.S. aren't you? Perhaps a perfect clone of Kyo!"

Kaori was confused, even if she knew the whole KOF storyline off by heart. She, a clone? Ha! Benimaru must be nuts!

"Listen…"

But before she could finish, Benimaru charged at her with his 'Lightning Fist'.

Kaori dodged the attack.

'What am I gonna do? I don't really know how to control the flames!'

Benimaru then proceeded to perform his 'Lightning Fist SDM' on Kaori.

'Well, this is it. I'm doomed.'

Kaori squinted her eyes shut, ready to receive the powerful SDM. But Benimaru's fist never made contact with her. She opened her eyes to see Benimaru on the ground not moving.

"Barb!"

Barb looked at her hands. Then she broke into a schoolgirl giggle.

"Hey Kaori! I got it! I got it!"

Kaori looked confused.

"Got what?"

"My powers!"

Kaori looked at her.

"Uh… Do ya have fire power?"

Barb shook her head.

"Watch this!"

Barb turned to a wall. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"PSYCHO BALL!!!" she shouted as she put her two hands together with her palms facing the wall.

A psychic projectile appeared and went flying to the wall, which is now just a pile of rubble.

"My God! Psychic powers?"

"Yeah! Cool huh?"

"But take my advice. Do NOT call your move 'Psycho Ball'. You never if The Psycho Soldiers placed 'copyright' next to their moves."

Barb nodded and smiled.

"I guess we'll have to think up names for our moves now…"

Kaori and Barb took a look at Benimaru one last time before FINALLY heading towards town.

~ Southtown – Somewhere in there ~

The streets were in disgrace as the two girls walked down the pedestrian looking for a hotel or just a place to stay in.

"HEY YOU TWO!" shouted out a bulky looking man.

"Yes." They answered turning to face him.

He took out a knife and held it in front of them.

"Gimmie all ya money!"

Kaori and Barb looked at each other.

"You can. I'm a bit tired." Said Kaori to Barb.

"Ok." Answered Barb as she held out one hand towards the 'robber'. (What can I say? Southtown is an unprotected town. No wonder Robbers come out in broad daylight. And yes, the sun is still up, there.)

"PSYCHIC BOMB!" she screamed (sorry, I just couldn't think up anymore names!). A projectile went flying towards the 'robbery'. He screamed as the projectile reached him. He is now on the ground, barely alive.

"Hmm… I should of know." Said Kaori. "If Benimaru was knocked out by that move, this guy would stand no chance against it."

Barb gestured.

"Ah… Kaori? Can we go and eat now? I'm tired and starving!"

"OK."

~ A Out Of Business Restaurant ~

The shopkeeper looked surprised as the two of them walked in.

"Um… Do you have a menu for take away's?" asked Barb, for they wanted to find some place to set foot fast and did not want to waste anymore time than they already have.

"YES!" he said enthusiastically as he handed them each a yellowed handout menu.

"*Geeze, they must be starving here.*" Kaori whispered to Barb.

"*Well, what do you expect from such a run downed town.*" Barb whispered back.

"A medium fried rice and a coke please."

"Same."

"Coming right up!"

~ King's Bar, Downtown (The hell I would know what the Bar's name is!) ~

After satisfying their stomach, they continued walking until they reached a bar, which sounded quite familiar to them.

They walked in together and saw two identical bar waitresses setting up the place for tonight.

A screaming man (or woman) could be seen screaming at the phone.

"I don't care! I ordered it two months ago and NOW you tell me you are out of stock?! What is up with you people! I have been your customer for… I don't know how long! When I order something, I expected to be on time! You better fix this! Good Bye!"

Kaori and Barb looked at each other.

"That's King alright." Said Kaori.

"But she slimmer than in the game." Said Barb.

They walked towards the place where King is.

King was surprised. Not many people would come to the bar in this hour and the fact that they were so young. But a customer is a customer. She'll serve them anyway.

"What would you two like? But I don't really think that any of the alcohol variety here is suitable for your age. Perhaps some soft drink?"

"No thanks, we just had some."

King thought for a while.

"How about some juices? I have a lot to choose from."

They gestured a bit. How can they ask King if they could stay here for a while? This isn't a hotel…

"Well… we…" said Barb.

King waited for her to finish.

"Well, we were wondering, can we stay here for a while? I mean, we're new here so we don't really know where to go."

King thought again. There aren't really any hotels or motels here. Should she accommodate these two strangers?

"Hmmm… I do have a spare room upstairs, but I'll have to charge you."

Kaori and Barb checked their wallets.

"Ah… How much do you charge?"

"Ten dollars for a night, including food."

'Sounds like a bargain.'

"We'll take it."

"Okay then. Here is the key to your room."

King handed them the key.

"Thanks."

"No worrys."

They walked up to their room. It was quite easy to find, no wonder King didn't lead them up. But she was busy anyway so no surprise there.

The room was dull and there were two mattresses' on the floor.

"I guess ten dollars a night isn't such a bargain after all." Said Barb as she went to one mattress and sat down.

"I wonder if we'll see Ryo and the rest of AOF." Said Kaori as she, too, went to her mattress.

"Maybe. You know, Ryo ALWAYS wants to see King, and the fact Takuma thinks of King as 'Future mother of the Sakazaki heir', I think Takuma would persuade Ryo to come here."

"Say, would you think that King would give a us a job here?"

"Probably not. We're too young!"

They both laughed.

Night soon fell upon them and both headed downstairs.

The bar was noisy and crowded. They watched in amazement as King made the drinks at lightning speed.

"Wow…"

"How DOES she do it?"

Then, they both spotted someone coming through the door.

RYO SAKAZAKI!!!

Followed by…

YURI SAKAZAKI!!!

And…

ROBERT GARCIA!!!

(Wow. BIG surprise!!!)

"Hi guys." Said King as she prepared for another drink.

Ryo looked worried.

"King, are you sure you can handle this?"

King laughed.

"You ask me all the time! I've been doing this for a LONG time! Don't worry!"

Yuri then stepped forward.

"Have you heard? Yet another KOF tournament is held! I wonder if N.E.S.T.S. is behind all this…"

"I think they ARE behind all this." Said Robert, as he helped himself the make a drink. King glared at him. "Oh… Sorry."

"So you should be."

The girls listen to their conversation close by without being spotted.

"A KOF tournament?" asked Barb.

"Yeah. I think it is 'Dream Match Revived'." Said Kaori.

"So, anything interesting happened today?" asked Ryo. (Sooo interested in King)

"Yeah. Two young girls, one about 13 and one about 17 came and asked for shelter. I rented them a spare room upstairs."

"Oh." said Ryo, not that interested.

'So, it's not a MAN staying upstairs. Only two girls, what harm can they be of?' (Big mistake Ryo!)

Barb made a funny face.

Kaori: What's the matter?

Barb: I think I just read Ryo's mind…

Kaori: Really?! That's SOOO cool! I bet Athena doesn't have that power!

Barb: But seriously, it freaked me out!

Kaori: Don't worry, you'll get use to it.

Barb: Hmm…

Barb fiddle with her ruby ring on her finger. She always does that when she gets nervous.

"What's that?" asked Kaori, looking at the ring, admiring it.

"Oh, I had this since I was a little girl. It's a family treasure that was past down from generation to generation."

"Oh, OK."

King and the gang were engaged in their conversation about KOF 2001 and abut which team would they participate in. Once again, Kaori and Barb eavesdropped on them.

Ryo: I think I'll stick to the AOF team as usual. (VERY hard to guess!)

Robert: I'll stick with Ryo. (I should have known.)

Yuri: But, whom should I go with?

King: If you want, you can go back to the AOF team. I'll just back to my old team again.

Yuri: No. Lets discuss this later. Right now I just wanna relax a bit ya know. The tournament won't be on until 6 months later. We have plenty of time.

King: Hmm… I guess you're right. Drinks anyone?

All: Yes please!

~In Their Room~

Kaori: I wanna participate in the tournament too!!!

Barb: Shhh…. Not so loud!

Kaori: Oh, Sorry.

Barb: I wanna participate too, but we need more team members.

Kaori: Let's just SCA-RU the more team members thing and just go! I mean, well, both enter as single participants?

Barb: Nah, that wouldn't be right. We're new, remember?

Kaori: Shingo was new in 97!

Barb: But still…

Kaori: OK, we'll find more members.

Barb: Good.

They rolled on their mattress's thinking about the tournament and where the HELL they would find people to join them?

As they thought more about it, they drifted of the sleep…

Author's Note

I wrote this POINTLESS chapter out of boredom. I just couldn't think of anything to put on chapter two (but, HELL YEAH it's a long one!). Then I realised that King's Bar (Once again, I note that I do NOT know the name of King's Bar) and the AOF team is located in Southtown (and yes, we DID drop in Southtown), so I wrote about the AOF team and King. That got me thinking A LOT and I have a serious case of writers block. But you never know, when the perfect idea strikes me, I will write. Stay tuned for the next chapter!

Kaori