Ohayo, everybody. Time for Chapter Five. Time for a big fight chapter!
:)

As always, Requests for Prior chapters, comments, critiques, and MSTings are all
welcome at yelloped@attbi.com. Flames are also welcomed, (I
feed them to my Dalek security staff, I think it gives them a fiery
disposition )

Chapter Five of "Iron Heart, Iron Warrior"

"Fight To The Finish: Nakajima Productions vs. The Lightning Fists"

The press conference over, Akane half helped, half-carried
Ranma up to his room. Ranma was still in quite a bit of pain from the
knee to the groin administered to him by the leader of the Lightning
Fists. Ranma swore to himself quietly that should he be so lucky as to
get his hands on one "Backhand" Bonnie Brown during the match
tomorrow, he was going to repay the pain, IN FULL.

Akane's thoughts were full of violence as well. Some were
directed at Ranma, for putting her in this situation by letting that
bitch get a free shot at him, and some was directed at Bonnie Brown.
She grinned inwardly. She had wanted to lay that bitch out from the
first time she had laid eyes on her.

Akane opened the door, and dumped Ranma on the bed. She picked
a chair for herself, and sat down. She said "Still think females can't
fight, Ranma? Still think that Females can't hurt you? I'll bet you've
changed your mind."

Ranma croaked out, "When I see that bitch tomorrow, I am going
to hurt her. They're going to call her "No Hands" when I'm through
with her!" For the next few minutes, Ranma continued on his rants on
what exactly he would do.

Akane sighed, she had hoped that this wouldn't have been
necessary. She got up and took the two strides to stand next to Ranma,
as he looked up.

She slapped his face. HARD.

Ranma shot to his feet in protest, before his body reminded
him of his injury and sank back down on the bed. Akane winced. Ranma
needed a reminder of what he had been, and what he was going to have
to do. "You've grown soft, Ranma Saotome. You've fought people who
used no rules before. You've had to fight for your life. Tomorrow you
may well have to do it again. You hear Bonnie. she's going to be
looking to break people. Time to grow up. Because if you fight clean
out there tomorrow, you're putting the whole team in jeopardy."

Ranma gaped at the verbal assault. Then he nodded.

Akane continued. "Get a good night's sleep. Then tomorrow,
you'd better be ready to show that bitch the error of her ways."
Without even waiting, she turned and stalked out of the room, leaving
a stunned Ranma in her wake.

Ranma stared at the door, in disbelief, then he fell back to
considering Akane's words. She was right, he had gotten too used to
the rules and the honorable conduct of the Street Fighter circuit.

It was all well and good to play by the rules, but if you're
opponent broke them first, you had to pay them back in coin of the
kind. Not to hurt them, but to beat them. That was what mattered. That
you won, your opponents lost, and those you cared about were unhurt.

He tried to remember one of the early lessons Genma had taught
him. His father's voice came in clear and strong. "Anger can be a
useful force, as long as it is focused. If the anger controls the
fighter, instead of the fighter controlling the anger, he is no longer
a martial artist. His punches and kicks lack control."

Ranma took a deep breath, tried to get all the anger into one
place, and went to work on controlling it letting the anger work for
him, instead of vice versa.

The next morning, Ranma woke Akane up, and the two headed over
to the arena where the fights were to take place, early. Ranma wanted
to see the place where he would be fighting. He seemed well at ease,
like the previous day hadn't happened. The two settled down to wait,
talking about nothing much in particular.

Back at the hotel, another person's wait was coming to an end,
but his thoughts were far less peaceful. Dark, cold eyes scanned the
door, searching for his targets. His employer's instructions were very
detailed. If he saw either of the two people he had seen in pictures,
his job was to take them out. Not kill them, but the option he
preferred, cripple them. He cursed the traffic that morning. He had
gotten here 20 minutes later then he planned.

He smiled as he saw the team inside get up and start to file
out for the van. His smile quickly faded when he realized his two
targets were not there. "Damm, the two must have left early," he
thought to himself. His employer wasn't very tolerant, and would
probably turn him into the hunted instead of the hunter by putting a
price on HIS head if he
went back to her now and reported failure.

He scanned the team. Well, he thought to himself, at least I
can do something to report, that I can report to her as a success.
Silently, he inched forward to the corner of the motel. He'd take the
first one that came out of the building, and give the advantage to his
employer that way. She'd appreciate that at least. He reached into his
vest, and slipped on the metal fanged claw he used as his weapon.

As the first person stepped out and took a step towards the
waiting limo, he popped out and charged the heavy-set boxer. Taking
five quick steps, sprinting towards the man like a leopard in flight,
he got to within two steps of him, as the boxer turned, he had sensed
that SOMETHING was wrong, but by then it was far too late.

The man leaped forward, spinning in mid air, hands grabbing
the boxer by the hair, the metal claw gouging several bloody furrows
into the man's cheek. As he flipped over , he threw his body forward,
and heaved the boxer over his head. Finishing hiss move by rolling to
his feet, he watched the man fly right into and through the
windshield of the limo.

The Spanish ninja smiled. The injuries should be enough to
keep this one out of the fight, he thought to himself as he heard the
first startled shouts from behind him, as he started running, hoping
to lose himself in the crowd. Neither Bonnie Brown, nor his true
master, the World Warrior Vega, would be totally satisfied, but he had
done his best.

Lei Chong Ling and Todd Vanderstreet took off in pursuit of
Vernon McCracken's assailant. Ian and Igor ran over to the limo and
tried to staunch the blood that was streaming from the many cuts and
scratches on the boxer's face and scalp.

The Spanish Ninja noted that he had pursuit, and ducked into
an alleyway, noting possible escape routes, using the few seconds the
sudden turn had given him to try to find a place where he could escape
pursuit. Finally, he saw a fire escape ladder about 12 feet off the
ground. Tensing his leg muscles, he sprang into the air, somersaulting
several times, and catching the bar of the ladder in both hands.

As quietly as possible, he swung himself up to the fire escape
proper, and was out of sight before Ling and Vanderstreet could catch
up with him.

Two hours later, "Backhand" Bonnie Brown, (who had a habit of
breaking the bones of anyone who was foolhardy enough to refer to her
by her nickname) cursed to herself. The fool was supposed to take the
kid and that bitch out!

Then she composed herself and smiling, turning to Mustafa,
said, "Well, at least we got one advantage. One of my sources tell me
that Venton McCracken was admitted an hour and twenty minutes ago,
suffering from multiple lacerations, and a pretty serious concussion.
He won't be fighting. And there's no sign of those two teenagers
either. Looks like we'll be fighting five on two!"

Mustafa, as he usually did, took the information without
blinking. Brown shivered slightly. For all people knew, the Thai
Kickboxer wasn't born, he was chiseled out of ice. For the longest
time, he was only happy when he was breaking somebody's bones. Now he
smiled more, because he now got paid to figure out how best to cause
pain and agony.

Brown was mad at the fact that the two who had embarrassed her
the day before hadn't gotten hurt yet. But she had learned patience.
She chuckled to herself. The two were probably a couple of countries
away by now, she thought to herself with a wicked smile on her face.

They could run, but sooner or later, she'd find them, or she'd
hire somebody to find them. Then they'd pay. "Nobody, and I mean
Nobody, crosses the Lightning Fists OR Bonnie Brown." She said,
quietly enough that only her teammate could hear.

Mustafa smiled. He hoped that he was the one who found them.
There were so many bones, and so many ways to break them. Then when he
was through, he'd try out some of his new poisons on them. There would
be so many interesting ways he could kill them. He smiled again,
considering the possibilities.

The team showed up at the stadium and quickly found Ranma and
Akane, who hopped over the barrier and quickly joined them. One look
at the tight set frowns on their faces, plus the fact that one of them
was missing, told Akane all she needed to know. She only asked a
one-word question, directed at Ian. "Who?"

Ian replied, "We think it was a hired hit man, probably from
our opponents. Whoever it was, it was Shadoloo based. Only Shadoloo
fighters use a claw like Vega."

Akane had a thousand more questions, like who this Shadoloo
was, and how they could extract vengeance for their injured teammate,
but there was no time. She had to do SOMETHING.

Fans had started to file in. Nakajima Productions headed to
their dressing room, all preparing to wreak vengeance for their
friend.

Ian and Akane had disappeared, but Ranma had no time to
consider where they had gone. Lei Chong Ling, who seemed to be the
most experienced fighter, had stood up and started pacing quietly
around the room. Ranma went through a mental exercise to calm himself
down, (which he sorely needed to calm himself down after he heard what
had happened), and waited for the team captain to speak.

When Lei spoke, it was quietly, but with great force. "Ok, my
friends, we are in quite a bit of trouble. They have us outnumbered,
and probably have planned their strategy already, knowing we're hurt.
We have to come up with something, and quick."

The team spent the next couple of minutes planning strategy.
Finally, they decided that even though the attack plan had been
designed for a full complement of fighters, they had no choice but to
attack straight ahead. "Remember," Lei reminded everybody, "They have
an extra fighter. WATCH YOUR BACKS."

It was time. Each fighter slowly stood up, lost in their own
thoughts, and preparing mentally for what could be the fight of their
lives, they slowly filed out of the locker room, and strode out into
the harsh light. The crowd swelled in anticipation, it was about time.
Then several voices murmured in confusion as they only saw four
members of the Nakajima Productions team.

But then the confusion was replaced by a roar from the crowd
as the Lightning Fists stalked on to the field, and slowly walked over
to the boundary of the fighting area. Ranma's eyes were glued to
Bonnie Brown, and Ranma had to stop himself from muttering several
curses.

Bonnie had a vicious smile on his face. "So, kid, you got more
guts then I thought. Too bad I'm going to have to spill those guts
now," she called, her voice carrying over to the other side. "Heard
your boxing friend had a little accident, ain't that a shame? Guess
we'll have to beat you five on four." Suddenly a voice from behind
Ranma answered Brown's words, and made everybody turn and gape.

"Guess again, bitch. This is going to be five on five." came
from Akane, now clad in her fighting gi, and stepping forward on the
pitch. When she had found out that they had hurt Vernon, she realized
that she would have to fight for her teammates, even if she wasn't
ready yet. She wasn't going to let her team get hurt, and she wasn't
going to let this bitch get the satisfaction of winning the match.

Ranma wanted to run, to tell Akane that this wasn't her fight.
But he stopped. He wasn't going to make her decisions for her. Plus
the look of complete and utter frustration on The Queen Bitch's face
(his new nickname for Bonnie Brown) He called back, "I guess it's a
fair fight now. Shall we do it?"

A voice over the loud speaker carried to the 5,000 fans who
had learned about the fight and paid a high fee to get in. "Ladies and
Gentlemen, these are the rules for the team fight. Each team has five
fighters, and a team will only be eliminated when all five fighters
are out of the fight. A fighter will be judged out of the fight if
they are knocked out, or are knocked off the fighting area, (which was
marked as a red square on the soccer field) and they do not return
within 45 seconds. Fighters, to your places!"


Ranma walked to his team's corner. He spared enough time to
look at Akane, her jaw set, her eyes upon her opponents. He smiled.
The team was all together now. Five people with a mission. To defeat
the Lightning Fists. And may the fates have mercy, on the Lightning
Fists, because Nakajima Productions weren't going to.

"FIGHT!" came the voice from the loudspeakers, as the crowd
roared. Ranma tuned out the voice and the crowd, and slowly advanced
with his team.

The Lightning Fists had no such restraint, they came charging
out quickly. Fixer threw a whirling kick at Igor who blocked it with
one of his fists, while Mustafa seemed to have Akane singled out. Todd
wasn't able to break free, as they had planned as he had to dodge the
hammering punches
and slaps from the Sumo of the Lightning Fists, Santo Hidetoshi.

Hercules Harrison slowly stalked Lei Chong Ling. That left two
fighters who wanted to fight each other more then anything.

Ranma set himself as Bonnie Brown came into striking range.
Hoping to unnerve the younger fighter, Brown started whirling around,
throwing high roundhouse kicks, combining with low foot sweeps, trying
to catch Ranma off guard, but Ranma easily ducked the high kicks, and
leaped over the foot sweeps, resetting himself in the guard position.
He gave a short laugh of derision, as if he had no respect for her
fighting abilities.

Ranma faked a left-hand punch, and watched Brown over-react to
the fake, Ranma delivered a kick that sent the Special Forces trained
Brown to the ground. "Not so tough now that you can't get your cheap
shot in, huh?"


Brown took a couple steps back from the impact of the kick.
Ok, the kid wanted to try to humiliate her? "Nice try kid, but you're
gonna have to do better then that." she
leaped into the air, throwing her foot around in a roundhouse blow,
which Ranma dodged easily, side stepping the kick but Brown had her
own plans. She had reached into a pouch on her belt, grabbed a white
powder, and turning from the landing, she heaved it in Ranma's face.

Ranma screamed in pain as the substance made his eyes water.
Brown laughed. "Never should've shown me up kid, first you and then
the bitch are gonna get it." Ranma's eyes watered as he tried to
defend himself from the measured blows Brown was laying in, but each
time one landed, he groaned in pain. It was hard to see where a punch
was coming from when his eyes were watering!

Akane ducked under a vicious kick by Mustafa, and landed a
couple punches of her own, but Mustafa showed no expression. He
knocked back Akane with a side kick, but while Akane was recovering,
hit Todd Vanderstreet with a kick to the back of his head., that Todd
couldn't have seen. sending the Karate fighter sprawling forward
unconscious from the blow.

Akane swallowed nervously as she saw the grim smile on
Mustafa's face, as the crowd roared. First blood to the Lightning
Fists.

But the odds were evened quickly, Lei Chong Ling charged
Harrison leaped, actually used Harrison as a base to leap from and
kicked him twice to the face with a leaping kick. The force of blow
knocked Harrison down, and as he
tried to get to his feet, Lei kicked his arms out from supporting him,
and laid in several vicious elbows and forearms to the back and head
of Harrison, who was soon rendered unconscious. But his victory was
short lived, as Santo grabbed him from behind in a punishing sumo bear
hug.

Fixer spun through with a Double Dread Kick, first a sidekick
drove his Sanbo fighter opponent back, and then he whirled in the
opposite direction with another kick, stunning him temporarily. But he
made a
mistake. He hadn't gone far enough away to get out of the reach of the
Sanbo fighter, and that was the moment the big Russian waited for.

Igor grabbed Fixer by the throat, lifted him off the ground
and threw him a good 25 feet, but the canny veteran kickboxer,
minimized the impact and rolled through the landing.

Mustafa smiled. Several kicks had left Akane reeling, blood
pouring from her nose. One more kick should do it. Bonnie would be
pleased. He raised a hand to the crowd, who roared in anticipation,
and prepared to hit a dazed Akane with an ax kick that would surely
render her unconscious.

As the foot came down, Akane raised both her hand above her
head and neatly caught the foot on her shoulder, minimizing the
impact. Before the gaping Mustafa could extricate his foot, Akane
smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. From this position, it was easy to
throw a snap kick. "Payback's a bitch", she said, and threw the kick
where it would hurt the most.

Mustafa screamed in pain as the entire crowd that was watching
winced in sympathy. Mustafa went down, tears streaming in pain, hands
holding his injured groin. Akane stood over him. "Since I can't do
that to your leader, I guess you'll do. If you or any other person of
that goon squad ever do that to Ranma or any of my teammates ever
again, next time I won't kick them. I'll rip them off." And with that,
she laid him out with a palm blow to the temple.

Jensen had grabbed Fixer in a sleeper hold, cutting off the
supply of oxygen to the brain, Fixer tried to fight out, but his blows
had no offense behind them. As he was blacking out, a last, desperate
offense came to him. He let himself fall, dragging Jensen with him.
Fixer's head jammed right underneath the chin of the bigger Jensen,
and Jensen fell back to the ground, unconscious. Fixer tried to move,
but he could only lay there, gasping for air and oxygen.

The crowd murmured as the announcement that Fixer was judged
out of the fight. It was rare to see a double KO like that, but now
Nakajima Productions had lost two fighters, while the Lightning Fists
had lost 3. The Electronic Scoreboard read

Nakajima Productions 3
(Ranma Saotome, Akane Tendo, Lei Chong Ling)

Lightning Fists 2
(Bonnie Brown, Santo Hideoshi)

Brown had knocked down Ranma with a foot sweep that he
couldn't see due to his eyes. And she was laying in vicious kicks to
the stomach. Ranma was able to dodge several kicks that would have
laid him out as he desperately tried to get his eyes cleared.

Akane looked around at the fight. Her team had the advantage,
but if that sumo wrestler took out Lei, then it would be even. But
Ranma was fighting gamely, but Brown was ripping him apart, because he
couldn't see! After a second, she came up with an idea. She shouted at
Ranma,
unknotted the sash that closed her gi, and tossed the sash to his
outstretched, groping hand. Then she ran over to Santo and her
teammate.

Lei only had a few seconds of consciousness left. His ribs
felt like they were on fire, and although he continued to struggle,
part of his mind realized that there was no escape. Then he heard a
cry from Akane, who was charging. He immediately curled up as best as
he could inside the hold, ducking, as Akane leaped into the air, and
landed a kick to Santo's face. Stunned, the sumo fighter let go of the
bear hug he had on and took two steps back. Lei took a deep breath,
focused his will has best as he could, and dashed forward with a
series of Rekka Ken punches.

Santo tried to block them but the blows just came in to fast
for him to block effectively. As the third and final punch landed
right on the temple, Santo fell back, and fell flat, as Lei howled in
victory. The big sumo wrestler had been taken down.



Ranma had used the sash to clear his eyes enough to see, and
Brown, realizing her predicament distanced herself from her three
remaining fighters, cursing as she looked around to see if she had any
support, and eyes widening, realized it was just her left.

Akane stood behind Ranma, (not wanting him to see her without
her gi and get distracted). Both stood on guard. Brown realized that
she could only do one thing. Attack. She charged both her remaining
opponents.

Ranma calmed himself, and set himself right in Brown's path,
trying to judge the perfect moment to strike, focusing his spirit.
Then it was time.

"TENSHIN AMAGURI KEN!" As he yelled, his spirit blazed, and
his blurred hands actually glowed with the force of the strike. Brown
could not stop in time and literally ran into the punches. She flew
back, flipping end over end from the sheer force of Ranma's punches,
finally ending up twitching on the ground a good 10 yards away.

The crowd in stands were going crazy with applause. Some of
the male members of the crowd whistled appreciatively at Akane. Ranma
turned to see what the whistling was about, and nearly was bowled over
by a bear hug by Akane, who was yelling "We Did IT! WE BEAT THEM!"

Ranma accepted the hug for a moment, then realized the state
Akane was in and staggered back, nose bleeding as he realized Akane
was missing her top. Akane remembered what had happened, and she
blushed fully, at least Ranma thought she was having a full body
blush, considering the parts of her he COULD see! She quickly
retrieved her gi, and slid it back on and redid the sash when a
blushing Ranma handed it back to her.

Ian hopped the railing, and the team helped Igor and Todd to
their feet, and to the chants from the crowd, the victorious fighters
raised their hands to the
crowd, as doctors and technicians checked over the Lightening Fists to
make sure they were in no immediate life-threatening danger.

The victorious fighters, waved to the crowd as they sat in the
winner's box, to watch the final fight of the five of the evening.
This was the World Warrior between Balrog and Fei Long.

"Ladies and gentlemen, our final match of the evening is a
World Warrior fight. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to FISTS OF FURY!"
came the now familiar voice from the loudspeaker. "First of all, he is
a practitioner of Wing Chun Kung Fu. He has a record of 69 wins, with
only two losses, one draw, and 58 of those wins were by knockout, the
Hong Kong movie star, The Jade Dragon, FEI LONG!"

The crowd applauded, the recovering Lei Chong Ling applauding
as he studied his fellow Kung Fu martial artist, trying to learn from
watching. He had a friendly bet with Vernon, since they both shared a
style with one of the World Warriors in the fight.

"And his opponent, hails from the United States of America.
He's a former united Heavyweight Champion Boxer of the World. He comes
into tonight's fight with a record of 128-6 -3,with 118 by Knockout.
Fists of Steel, the master of the Dashing Punch, BALROG!"

The two briefly acknowledged the cheers of the crowd, but it
was obvious that they were intent on the fight. There were no rules in
this one, either they'd fight until they were both too tired to
continue, or until one was knocked out.

As the two clashed, Ranma turned to Akane. "Thanks for the
loan of the sash to clean my eyes. Sorry about the way it left you."
Akane blushed, but then smiled.

Akane giggled, remembering the look on Ranma's face when he
realized she didn't have her gi top on. "That's ok. I'm just glad we
won, we got revenge for what they had done to Vernon and to you, and
we both made it through." She blushed, deeply this time and whispered,
"Did you like the look, Ranma?"

Ranma suffered another nosebleed as he realized that Akane
didn't mind that he had taken a peek. He thought to himself, "So much
has changed since the first time I accidentally walked in on her.", he
then recovered a little of his bravado and told Akane, "Just as long
as next time you try to get me to take a peek at you, it's not in
public."

Akane ALMOST summoned Mallet-sama at that remark, who said
that she WANTED him to look at her, then sighed. I guess he really
does think me uncute, she thought to herself. But then again, he HAD
taken more then a peek when he noticed. She shook her head, not
knowing if she was happy or mad that he had looked, then looked back
at the fight. Uncomfortable, Ranma turned back to the fight.

Fei Long had Balrog dazed, and apparently wished to finish the
fight, had leaped in the air, and summoned his chi and as his leg
actually burst into fire, hit Balrog with a screaming Dragon Kick that
sent the Boxer flying back, unconscious. The crowd erupted.

A few days later, a bruised and battered Bonnie Brown appeared
in front of her Master. Bonnie had once swore that she would never bow
down to anybody, but she was terrified out of her mind at what this
person could do. "I beg forgiveness. I wish to kill those two, to try
to make up for my failure."

A throaty chuckle came from the man sitting on the chair. "No,
my dear, you did exactly right. I was the one who told your manager to
sign this fight. I needed to see if Vega's reports were correct. He
was. Consider the loss erased from my mind. Go and serve us well. We
have a shipment going to Thailand tonight. You and the rest of the
Lightning Fists are to guard it. And one last thing. We have OTHER
plans for the two of them. Do not take any retribution."

As Bonnie Brown saluted her Master, and quietly fled his inner
sanctum, she felt like she was the luckiest woman on the face of the
earth. People who tended to disappoint her Master were either killed,
or if they were unlucky, faced a fate that was probably worse then
death. But she whispered to herself, "It's not over. Someday, some
way,
the Lightning Fists will get their revenge. Whatever Bison has planned
for you, I hope it hurts you."

M. Bison stood up, calmly walked over to a view screen, and
pressed a single button. "Get me Vega", was all he said. Almost
immediately, the handsome Spanish Ninja's face filled the screen.

Vega never liked to be summoned so pre-emptorily by Bison, but
he knew Bison would never call him unless he needed something. "Yes,
Lord Bison?"

"I am pleased. Your reports of the fighter Saotome were right
on mark. He would be a welcome addition to Shadoloo. Continue to watch
him, we will prepare a strike when the time is right"

"I hear and obey, Lord Bison." replied the Spanish Ninja, as
he broke the connection.

M. Bison sat on his throne. Studying a map of the world, and
the forces of Shadaloo that occupied its criminal underworld. It's all
a game of human chess, you just have to know how all the pieces moved,
he thought to himself.

He considered the moves he was now taking. As always, there
were risks, but risks needed to be taken to make the prize worthwhile.
He had just advanced another pawn in his schemes.

Bison laughed quietly, "Soon enough, Ranma Saotome, you will
become another pawn in my games. Welcome to Hell, I hope you will
enjoy the ride." The chuckle became a loud laugh. that continued on
through the night.