A/N: Before we 'regulate the timeline' so to speak, we'll be starting at a quick rewind. (This Pulp Fiction time-jumping won't be going on too much, don't worry. More or less just to get us where we need to be.)


Scandic Luxury Hotel, around nine PM

"What do you have there?" Adel asked, walking over to Kula who was sitting at the hotel room table with some paper. She seemed to be looking out the window at the lit-up city.

"Oh! Just some skyline stuff," she said, showing him.

Peeking at it, she had worked out a rather impressive looking sketch of the skyline. K' had mentioned how she had discovered art as a way of passing time about a year or so before, and it turned out she had a special knack for it. She particularly liked city skylines, as well as still-life type drawings or other scenic things.

"That looks incredible," he said.

"Thanks," She ran a hand through her hair, smiling shyly. "I always liked the way the cities look when you're up high. Especially at night."

"Have you done many night pieces?"

"A couple. It's easier to do with some color, though." She sketched out a bit more and sipped some tea she had made, preferring it to coffee. Adel was holding a double espresso in one large hand as he stood nearby. "I have one piece I did in neon."

"Wasn't that the one that looked like it was from the 1980s?" K' asked behind her, a tiny smirk on his face.

"That was it!" she said, cheerfully.

Adel grinned. "A bunch of my synthwave albums have that sort of color scheme."

"I'd have to see those," she said, going back to her drawing. Adel patted her shoulder as he walked back over to the other side.

Whip and K' were on the couch, the pair having visited their suite for some coffee and just to hang out for a couple of hours before heading back to their rooms to wind down. Only K' was competing tomorrow-of course, not by his own choice-and he was due up early.

Not that he particularly cared. He'd drink a few later anyway if he wanted to.

Looking over at the other two, Whip smiled as she sat, K' leaning back with his sunglasses still on, despite the time. Used to Clark leaving his sunglasses on whenever as well, she just shook her head and snatched her cup.

"Do I want to ask if you're looking forward to tomorrow?"

"I don't know. Do you?"

"I think that tells me everything I need," she said with a smirk. "Did you do anything today?"

"Slept."

Adel snorted, shaking his head.

"C'mon, K'. We did go for a little walk." Kula glanced over at him and grinned. "You took me to see those sculptures."

"Yeah," he said, drinking another sip of his drink and wondering when he was going to get to go somewhere. Preferably to hide and fall back to sleep.

"Don't look so excited," Adel teased.

K' looked over at Adel, about to say something how the man was lucky he was getting set to likely become his future brother-in-law in a few years but decided not to. He did like the guy, after all. He helped the trio out, treated his big sister lovingly, and was well capable of beating him after a good fight, which impressed him, though he never mentioned that.

Whip could almost read the fact that he had something snarky on his mind and ruffled his hair, as she would, causing him to utter a surly grunt. Which, in turn, caused Kula to laugh before going back to her sketch.

"Anyway, if you must know, sure, I kinda look forward to tomorrow. Might as well see how far I can get into this thing, eh?"

"We'll be watching, of course," Whip replied.

"How's things goin' on your end?"

"Nothing much is happening," Whip said. "Just some general confusion."

Adel shook his head. "I feel like more of this is everyone waiting for something to happen, rather than something actually happening. Unless something is."

After a few more moments of general small talk and finishing up their drinks, making some plans on where to go to dinner, Maxima came walking into the room. He was wearing his more casual clothing, as he would; he didn't even bother bringing his 'combat body' with him to this one.

"Hey guys," he said, always pleasant. "Has Heidern contacted you yet?"

"No?" Whip asked. "Was he going to?"

"Last I heard, he was. I saw him talking to Chizuru for a moment. Not long after that Seth joined them and the three left to go to the commander's room, I think. They looked a bit concerned over something."

"Oh," Adel said, scratching his head. "Heh, I might have spoken too soon."

"About people thinking something's happening, rather than something happening?" Whip said, amused.

"Yep."

"They didn't seem to look panicked, at least," Maxima said, going over to the suite's small kitchen area to grab something for his sweet tooth. "Granted, if the commander looks panicked…"

"That's usually a sign to run."

"He simply looked like he was going about his business," the cyborg mentioned, having discovered a handful of chocolate candies. He slipped one into his mouth before rubbing his perfectly trimmed sideburns. "Just a bit of concern."

At that, Whip's phone buzzed. Looking down, it was indeed Heidern.

"Yes, commander?" she said.

"Could you two come down to the suite?" he said. "Let the others rest. I know K' has to fight tomorrow, and for now I think the trio can relax. You two and the others should be enough."

"Your suite?"

"Yes."

"Gotcha. We'll be there." Hanging up, she looked over at Adel. "He wants us."

"Me too?"

"Seems like it."

"No problem," the blond replied. He was, in any case, giving the commander an extra hand while he was here, given the two's experience working together as well as the young man's experience in running a tournament in the past. Looking over at the trio, he waved. "Guess we'll see tomorrow."

Whip looked over at Maxima. "He said you guys can relax for now, so I guess it's not all that serious…yet."

"Hopefully we can relax the whole time," K' said with a snort.

"See you guys tomorrow?" Kula said.

"Of course. And I'll try to set up another Sky Noah visit this week."

Grinning, she went back to her picture as the pair gathered themselves up and walked out of the room. As they headed toward the elevator, Whip looked over at him and gave him a playful swat on the butt.

"So, what do you think it is this year?" she said.

"Aliens?"

"We'd be so lucky," she said.

The two looked at each other as the elevator door closed, Adel pushing a little bit of her hair behind her ear as he always would, causing her to smile.


Downtown Luxury Hotel, around nine PM

"Are they on their way?" Billy asked Eiji, having just placed a call to Chizuru.

"I think so," he said. "She's going to go get Heidern."

"Damn. Seems like they're gettin' everyone involved," Duck said, eyeing out the window and hoping they wouldn't have to beat a bunch of people up if they came back into the room at an inopportune time.

"Can't be helped," Eiji said.

"Yeah, we ain't in South Town," Billy said. "We're overseas. Need the commander on hand to prevent anything too big, I reckon."

"Since when did you care?"

"I mean, I kinda don't want 'International Incident' on my sheet."

"Off the clock, there, Billy?" Duck snarked. He didn't trust Geese, but he knew that the guy being around also prevented a power vacuum…and that Billy still felt indebted to him all these years later.

He rubbed his neck, sighing. "You can say that, yeah."

Eiji snorted, checking out the corpse again. Now pale, and fairly stiff, it was the wound that interested him. Small-perhaps an inch around-and very clean, like something was stabbed straight into him. The spatter on the back of his coat-he had rolled him over-told him that he was stabbed directly through the chest. The man did not have the build of a fighter, and there were no defensive wounds on him, either. He wondered if he knew his assailant, or if he was just surprised.

Or both.

His phone buzzing again, he checked the message.

"Chizuru had said she's on her way. She's bringing both Heidern and Seth, it would seem."

"When are they gettin' here? Hopefully before this guy starts to collect flies."

"Soon. In fact, can you go downstairs to meet them? It'll look less suspicious if you're there."

Billy rubbed his chin. "How do you figure?"

"You guys have made a presence here. A few of the workers probably think you have rooms. They know about the tournament, after all."

"Huh. Good point. Alright."

"Duck, stay here. Keep an eye out on the balcony for anything weird down there."

Billy adjusted his jacket, heading out of the suite, making sure he wasn't tracking anything anywhere. Duck watched him leave as he went over to the balcony, leaning by the wall to look out. The cool night air blew in as he checked out the twinkling lights.

"This guy was killed," Duck said. "We know he was associated with the guys in the van. What do you think happened?"

"Someone who wanted to mess with the tournament?" he rubbed his chin. "If this guy knows the people involved…"

"Wonder where the host is?"

"Don't know. We'll need to wait until Heidern gets here. He knows more about stuff behind the scenes. Maybe he found out who it is. I'll need to leave at some point."

"That's right. You need to fight tomorrow."

He nodded. "Given the first fights are meant to start in about thirteen hours…"

Duck crossed his arms and looked out over the city.

"I guess we'll find out what's going on soon."


Downstairs at the Downtown Luxury Hotel, around ten PM

Billy raised his hand as he saw Heidern, Seth, and Chizuru arriving.

Heidern nodded in greeting as he arrived, his long jacket blowing behind him. He was dressed casually, however, in order to stay nondescript…or at least as nondescript as the imposing man with the eyepatch could be.

"Who's upstairs?" he asked immediately.

"Eiji and Duck," he said quietly. "And…" he trailed off.

Seth glanced up there. He wasn't wearing his sunglasses-he wasn't like Clark or K'-but he had on his fairly dressy leather jacket. "How bad is it?"

"Fairly clean, to be honest," he said. "Want to go up?"

"Ralf and Clark are arriving with a couple others." Leona was at the show tonight, and Heidern was not about to take her-nor Duo Lon, who would have probably ended up helping as well given the circumstances-away from it.

"The Bernstein lad?"

"And Seirah, yes."

Chizuru nodded. "They said they were coming up soon. I'm just wondering who this is and what's going on."

"When we get upstairs, we'll run down everything," Seth said. "I suppose you guys are staying here now?"

Billy shrugged. "As far as I know, Eiji…seemed to set up something."

Chizuru smiled softly. Billy blinked, cocking his head to the side, and realized that Chizuru had likely fronted him the money for a couple of expensive rooms.

"We're on it," Heidern said with a soft smile.

"I should have known," Billy said, shaking his head.

Looking around and seeing no one in the general vicinity, Seth straightened his jacket. "Have you seen anyone else?"

"Not for the past few hours," he said. "Eiji spotted some of the guys leaving around six. Nothing since."

"I'll set something up around here tomorrow," Heidern said.

"I'm pretty sure we can use a few who aren't taking part," Chizuru mentioned.

Scratching his head, Billy had somehow got the feeling that Eiji had volunteered he and Duck for this. He supposed after getting into what he did recently in South Town, he owed people.

Feeling a buzz on his hip, Heidern grabbed his phone. "The others are around the corner."

Sure enough, within a few moments Ralf, Clark, Adel, and Whip walked up, all of them walking fairly nonchalantly and dressed casually themselves; no one knew who they were really associated with.

"Heidern," Ralf said, carefully avoiding calling him 'Commander' out here, though it probably wouldn't have made a difference, given they could easily have rooms at this place.

"Everything is upstairs, apparently. As are the other two." He looked over at Adel. "Thank you."

"Didn't want to force Leona away from the gig," he said. "I can fill in for them."

"We'll go up bit by bit," Heidern said. They were standing far enough away from the lobby doors at the moment; plus, other groups of people were milling around and talking.

"Sure thing," Seth said. "We'll all reconvene in the penthouse."

"You guys go first," Heidern said to the group who just arrived. "People are used to seeing you all hang out."

Nodding, the four new arrivals made their way into the hotel lobby, looking around.

"What do ya think?" Ralf asked, hands shoved into the pockets of his bomber. They had both otherwise thrown on blue jeans and T-shirts.

"Who knows anymore," Clark chuckled. "I just take these things one step at a time."

"Can't be worse than Alexia Lomta."

Adel blinked, cocking his head to the side. "Alexi-"

Whip laughed, shaking her head. Ralf clapped the blond on the back.

"We'll tell you someday."

Making their way up to the penthouse-ten floors up-they arrived, stepping off onto the plush carpet. The floor was incredibly quiet; it was almost eerie, especially given that it wasn't all that late as to be the middle of the night. Ten o' clock, especially during an 'event week' with a lot of tourists, was generally quite lively.

This worked to their advantage in this case, at least.

"I think it's on the right," Clark said. "On the phone, Heidern said to knock twice, quickly."

Turning, they saw the door; seeing the number line up with what was given to them, he knocked as said; after a couple of moments, a shadow appeared behind the peephole for a brief moment before the door slid open.

The four walked in, looking around for a moment. Eiji nodded toward them, shutting it behind them.

"It's in here," he said.

Ralf looked over at the others. "I'll let the others know soon so they can come up."

Nodding, they followed Eiji toward the bedroom…and the corpse.

"Yikes," Whip said, shaking her head. "Hole straight through his chest." She studied it and the floor around. "Dropped where he stood. Very little spatter. Whoever did this hit hard, fast, and precisely."

"Can you tell what sort of weapon it was?" Adel asked, crouching to take a look.

"Not just from looking," she said. "I'd need to poke around it some more. It wasn't a firearm, at least. There's no residue." Whip was one of the tech-whizzes of the group; while they all had skills in mechanics and weaponry, Whip was a few steps ahead. Always with some tools on hand for a job, as the team's 'jack of all trades' she was able to get her way around computers, and she was skilled in field medicine as well. While by no means a doctor or forensics expert, she had patched herself and Adel up a few times after some of their nastier fights against armed syndicate members in the past, and she was probably one of the people who would have the best chance of telling what did this, though a forensics expert would be likely needed for exacts.

"It's clean, at least," Eiji said, crouching on the other side. "But…I'm pretty sure right now…"

"We wanna know why this happened," Duck finished, having leaned back against the wall.

"Indeed," Ralf said. "Also, who is this?"

"There was a briefcase by the door."

"I think I'll let the boss handle that."

"Good idea."

It didn't take much longer for another knock to appear at the door; Duck went over and checked, confirming who it was. Opening the door, Heidern, Chizuru, Billy, and Seth all walked in, nodding and heading toward where Duck pointed. He closed the door behind them and shot the deadbolt, just in case.

"Commander," Clark said, nodding. "Here we go. You might want to grab that briefcase, too."

"I'll get it." Seth wandered back into the other room to grab it to take it in. Heidern and Chizuru slid up by the others to see the dead man; most of the entire group was now here to take their next steps.

"So…hopefully whatever's in the briefcase will tell us more. You guys didn't look through it?"

"I told them to wait," Chizuru said. "Just in case."

"Seirah?" he asked.

"On it." She slipped a couple of implements out of the pouch she always carried on a job.

Adel chuckled. "Let's hope you don't have to use the other tools."

Smirking back at him, she ran the swab-like thing over the briefcase, just to make sure it wasn't anything strange.

Duck gulped. "Shit, I didn't think it could've been…"

"We didn't hear anything in it," Eiji said.

"Yeah, there's nothing here," Whip said. "To be honest, I didn't think this type of situation would have called for anything like that."

"In hindsight, I think we oughta have put the damn thing outside," Billy chuckled.

"I think you would have heard it if something had been there. I was just there to make sure."

Tossing it on the bed, they opened the thing; nothing really interesting semed to be inside except for a bunch of papers and folders.

"Well, guess we see what's up then," Ralf said. Grabbing some of the papers-as did the others, they began looking over them.

"Names of the fighters on a few," Clark said. "The brackets are probably in here, I'd imagine."

"Here's a few addresses. Mostly just places around the city."

Seth raised an eyebrow at the paper he had. "There's a name on this one. Ivar Andersen."

"We're gonna have to see if this guy has an ID on him or something, I guess." Adel looked in a couple of the nightstands to see what was around.

"I'd do that," Seth said, showing them the paper. "Because whoever Ivar is, he is-or at least was-the host."


Scandic Luxury Hotel, lobby bar

Around the same time as the crew arrived downtown, the other three Agents were sitting at the bar downstairs at the Scandic. They quite enjoyed it there, and they had made it a point to meet here every night to discuss a few things.

Tonight a few things certainly needed discussing; in addition, they were asked to keep their eyes on things, and the bar had an excellent view of the hotel lobby.

"So…the boss said something's gone down at the downtown place," Vanessa started, one of her favored IPAs in front of her.

"Yeah," Mary replied, rubbing her hair, her jacket still on with the sleeves rolled up slightly. "He didn't go into details, only for us to keep an eye out while we were here."

"I suppose we'll get a call soon," Ramón said. "He seemed to move quickly."

Vanessa checked her watch. "Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure I heard the fights start around lunchtime tomorrow," she said. "Or right before. That's just a little over twelve hours from now, so whatever's going on…"

"What are we supposed to look for here?" the luchador asked.

"Anything suspicious, I guess." Looking over, they saw Gato silently having a drink at a table in the corner…also with a decent vantage point. "And it seems Kagura has her own plants."

"I'm trying to figure out why Kagura has a spy army consisting of some of the less personable fighters that we've known."

"Less obvious?" Mary said. "Who would suspect someone like he's working with her? Also, there's some intimidation factor there. Who's going to mess with a trained ninja or a guy who will break your spine with two fingers for looking at him wrong?"

"That is true." He sipped his beer, opting for the basic Norwegian stuff they had on tap. "I guess we'll keep our eyes out for shady looking people in long coats and hats."

"With watches and bootleg DVDs underneath of them?"

"Probably."

Shaking her head, Vanessa took a drink as she heard her phone buzz. Swallowing, she dug it out of her pocket and checked; it was a message.

"It's Seth," she said. "He's calling for a meeting in the private lounge in an hour."

"Really? This late?" Mary scratched her head. "Especially the night before the second round."

"Guess something's really up," Ramón chuckled. "Thought we might get an easy run this time."

"You're optimistic," Vanessa snorted.

"I try."

"Upstairs lounge, right?" Mary fiddled with the napkin on the bar.

"Yeah. It's all nice and secure. Bigwigs use it for their business meetings and everything."

"Can't wait to see what's up this time."

"Well, ladies," Ramón said, lifting his glass. "To another mess."

"Cheers," they chuckled, clinking their glasses and taking long swallows of beer.

Over at the other end of the bar, Ash swirled his vodka cranberry; as was typical, he liked drinks that were colorful. Reds, purples, greens…he even tried Duo Lon's absinthe on occasion.

Elisabeth, sitting next to him with a glass of red wine, took a sip and smiled softly at him.

"Shouldn't you be considering sleeping soon?" she asked.

"It's barely eleven," he replied blithely. "The night is still young, as the old, tired saying goes."

"You have a fight tomorrow," she said.

"And?"

She shook her head, looking at him kindly, as she always would. "You'd think you might want to rest up with who is left."

"Oh, I am pretty sure I can handle what they throw at me," he chuckled. "If not, I will call it a time well had, though I do hope to run into one of my friends." He patted her hand lightly. He still wore what he did today; his tighter jeans, the tank top, and the new large, black boots that he had adopted into his wardrobe, which seemed to somewhat clash, but at the same time, they oddly suited the man.

"Well, I'll hold you to that," Elisabeth replied. "The others are looking prime as well, though admittedly I could not get a good read on Shen," she chuckled.

Ash laughed lightly, twirling his hair as he took another sip of his drink. "Oh, we had picked on him well today for that," he said. "Though it was not Shen's fault. I still do not know what is going on with this tournament, but, well, I sort of thrive on chaos, as you might guess."

"That's an understatement," she joked.

"You pick on me so," he said with a soft chuckle. Looking back to his drink, he held it up and swirled it. "That said, perhaps one or two more for me. I should be okay getting some sleep after midnight."

"I suppose that's about as much responsibility as I can get from you."

"My dear Betty, when have I ever lost a fight due to not enough sleep? The only thing that cost us the one tournament was our dear blond friend oversleeping."

Elisabeth laughed at that; she remembered the story well from the first tournament the trio had entered, back in what seemed to be another time. "I'll be cheering for you regardless. And the others."

"Cheers to that," he said, brushing her hand lightly with his again and clanking his glass.


Oslo City Center, close to midnight

"That went later than I thought," Duo Lon said, a small smile on his face. His hands were in the pocket of his leather jacket.

"Yeah. It did start slightly late, though," Leona replied. She had zipped her jacket up, the Oslo night being around only three or so Celsius.

"What did you think?"

"I loved it," she said. "I never thought I'd enjoy music like this…let alone a show." She yawned, having had two bourbons and one beer. She tolerated alcohol well, and drank slowly, but it was still enough to get her a bit drowsy. "It was nice to…go somewhere like that? Just for an experience."

"It's not something I do often...the bands that I like do not play often, if at all," he said as they turned a corner, the dry leaves skittering around. It was fairly quiet on their walk, with only a few night owls crawling about after they had left the bar.

"Yeah. Crowds…" she said. "They're tiring."

"After a concert, I normally need to recharge a bit," the assassin said. "Tournaments, as well. I'm probably going to go back to my home alone for a week after this."

"I don't blame you," she said. "I think I'm going to shut up in my room."

At that, the two smiled knowingly at each other. They appreciated a lot about each other, and one of those things was the fact they both knew the other liked their own time and space, and could get the urge to withdraw, sometimes seemingly randomly…and they both respected this about the other.

He touched her back lightly for a moment before he reached in to grab his pipe, wanting to have one on their way back to the hotel.

"Was quite glad that no fights broke out," he chuckled. "For once."

"If Shen had been there…"

"Oh, that one fellow would have been thrown over the bar," he laughed.

"You just had to sort of look at him."

He shrugged, finishing packing his pipe. As he lit it, the smoke mixed with the fall night air and made for an extremely pleasant, relaxing aroma.

Walking quietly for a bit more, they had eventually started to pass by the luxury hotel downtown…where outside, they saw a whole bunch of the crew gathering around and talking. Heidern, Ralf, Clark, Whip, Adel, and Seth were all on one side, with Chizuru, Billy and Eiji on the other.

Blinking, Duo Lon looked at the soldier. "What…is going on there?"

"I…don't know," she said. "No one we know is staying there."

Stopping for a moment, they decided to rubberneck; they were too far away to hear anything, but after about a minute, Heidern looked up. He simply nodded, waving his hand as if to signify for them that they could move on, and then made another motion with his hand that said that he would let them know what was going on in the morning.

Looking at each other before looking back, Heidern nodded again, giving them what seemed to be a slight smile, but it was hard to tell from the distance.

"It…seems that he says we can move on."

Leona looked a bit confused; however, she trusted Heidern implicitly. Nodding toward him, she allowed her hand to brush over Duo Lon's free one, grasping it. The assassin smiled at this sudden bit of 'public' affection-even in a situation like this it was rare for her.

"Yes. I trust him. Let's just go back to the hotel."

"I suppose we'll find out what it is tomorrow." He chuckled. "I am curious."

"Same here. But…" she trailed off.

"Too much fun tonight?"

"Yeah," she said. She had enjoyed her first show greatly.

"Want anything to drink back at the hotel?"

"I think the room is fine."

"Same," he said, pausing to gently touch the back of her neck before the two continued on their way.

Meanwhile, outside of the hotel, Heidern finished checking a few things on his small computer. Closing it up, he looked at everyone.

"We will meet in the lounge within the hour so we can figure all of this out."

"Getting the… situation taken care of?" Ralf asked knowingly.

"Yes. I have a few people on that." They knew that Heidern always traveled with a couple of other people on the down low, most of which never even showed up at the tournaments-recon experts and the like. "I have also sent a message to the other agents. They'll meet us there, too."

"What about the two announcers?" Adel asked. "You mentioned them."

"We will see them tomorrow."

"Yeah. About that…" Whip said.

"We'll take care of it," Seth said. "We have a few ideas already."

The rest of the gang looked at each other; they were quite curious onto what the other two men were cooking up.

"Let's head back," he said. "The sooner the better."

Nodding, the now large group turned to head back toward the Scandic, quiet conversation punctuating the walk back.


Hallway Lobby, Scandic Luxury Hotel

Folding his arms and eyeing the snacks, Iori seemed to think.

"You're getting snacks this late?" Athena chuckled. "With your fight tomorrow?"

"You're still up," he pointed out.

"That's…true," she said. She had to chuckle at this.

"I'm just getting something to go to sleep on." He thought the big muffins looked good. A chocolate-cranberry one caught his eye. He'd even consider coffee, not that it would really keep him up.

Athena eyed a blueberry one. "I suppose I can get a little something, too." She rubbed her head.

He looked over at her, cocking his head to the side as he decided on a small cup of coffee after all; it would not keep him awake. Absently paying for the things, he turned toward her as he handed her the bag with the large muffin.

"Something's bothering you," he said.

She nodded. "Feels like something's going on. A lot of…confusion."

"With what?"

"I'm…not sure."

Starting to walk toward the lobby, he noticed it was fairly empty and decided to sit down there for a moment off to the side, as the plush chairs were quite comfortable. Athena sat next to him, and the pair began eating their late-night snacks.

"You don't feel any premonitions of doom or anything, do you?" he asked, a slight smirk on his face.

"No, it's not that bad." He knew that she'd often get pretty big feelings before something very large happened, though she was unable to really prevent anything as said things were already in motion to the point where they were inevitable. "Fairly minor."

As they sat, they watched Duo Lon and Leona enter and start to head upstairs. They turned, nodding toward the pair as they headed for the elevators. The other two nodded back-Iori and Leona were friendly due to, well, everything, and Athena knew Duo Lon through all of the stuff going on with Kensou.

"They're out late," Athena mused.

Iori shrugged. "Seems like a lot of people are."

"They seemed content, though. Relaxed. I'm glad to see that."

After that-the two quite enjoying the huge muffins which were dotted with a sugary, buttery streusel crumble-the doors opened again and the group that had been at the downtown luxury hotel headed in. They seemed to trickle in one after the other, occasionally in pairs; any strangers wouldn't have thought anything of it, but Iori and Athena could tell something was up. The Psycho Soldier didn't even have to try.

Iori just looked over at her as they walked in, one of them occasionally looking over and raising a hand toward them, which Athena returned. He raised his eyebrow.

After the last one passed by Athena just nodded.

"Yeah, something pretty big is happening."

The red-haired fighter took another bite of his food and washed it down with some coffee. Wiping his mouth, he sighed.

"And here I thought we'd be getting out of this one scot-free. I should've known."

"Well…they didn't look panicked, at least. Nor felt it. I'll talk to them tomorrow."

"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough," Iori snorted as he went back to his particularly tasty snack. "I hope it's nothing big. I just want to get this done and get home to the cats."

Athena grinned at that. "You miss them, I know."

"They're small," he said matter-of-factly.

"They'll be fine." It always amused her how he ended up concerned about the cats whenever they would go away for a weekend.

He smiled softly over at her for a moment. "Yeah, you're right."


Scandic Lounge, Around Midnight

"This is unexpected," Ramón said, stretching and yawning.

"C'mon, these aren't that rare," Vanessa chuckled.

"Yeah, remember the other…three tournaments?"

"Were they really this late?"

"I think you slept through one." Vanessa did, however, stifle a yawn.

Mary, who had opted for a small cup of coffee since she wasn't competing and thus didn't need to be up particularly early, sipped it and looked at the other two. "Well, whatever it is, it doesn't seem like an emergency, judging by the message. Important, but I don't think anything is exploding."

"Yet."

At this point, the lounge was quite full of people. Besides all four Agents, four of the Ikaris, Adelheid, Chizuru, Billy, Duck King, and Eiji were all there, too. The last three looked somewhat out of place with everyone here, but nonetheless were caught up in this and were needed. Eiji, at least, had been working directly with Chizuru already.

Closing and locking the door-adding the bolt while he was at it-Heidern turned toward everyone with the briefcase from the room on the table. Rubbing his hair, he spoke.

"So, I'm sure everyone now knows what's going on."

"We're…still a bit confused," Ramón said. "There…seems to be somewhat of a murder mystery, I'm told?"

"You can say that," Seth replied. "The host was killed."

Vanessa blinked. "Usually that happens after they go crazy," she said rather nonchalantly.

"Yeah. Not during. Or even before, possibly."

"In any case," Heidern said. "We have enough of a mystery on our hands right now, along with the fact that we really should keep the tournament going."

Ralf nodded. "If someone took him out for a reason-a big one-we don't want them to escape."

"That's right," Heidern agreed. "If the tournament gets called off, they might take off. We don't know if they're going around, killing hosts…"

"To be fair, most of them are sort of crazy anyway," Ramón snorted. He looked over at Adel, scratching his head sheepishly. "Ahh, I'm sorry."

Adel shook his head, his arms folded. "You're just telling the truth."

Whip rubbed his arm affectionately, though discreetly.

"We'll need to find the hosts," Chizuru said. "They're staying here, but I imagine they're asleep right now. We can try to catch them in the morning, before they leave for the stadium."

"They'll be there early, I imagine," Seth said. "Given the fights were supposed to start in the afternoon tomorrow."

"What's going on with the dead host? Do we even know his name?" Mary asked.

"Andersen. Ivar Andersen."

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Duck said, scratching his mohawk.

"It does, don't it?" Billy said. "I just dunno where I remember it from."

Heidern looked over. "If you remember, please let us know."

"Yes." Duck wasn't sure how to really talk to Heidern. He wasn't in the military, but the tall, intimidating man commanded respect. "Of course." He rubbed his chin, trying to remember where he had heard the name before.

"So, this is what we have. The host, Ivar Andersen, is dead, seemingly killed judging by the wound. The wound is a narrow hole through him, and very precise. It was not done by a firearm-we know that much. He was found dead in a penthouse-possibly one where he was staying-in the corporate luxury hotel downtown."

Seth nodded. "That's all, unfortunately. We still need to go through the briefcase more thoroughly. There were several folders there, but given the time, we had to get the body moved quickly and safely by our own people."

"I guess…that's on us, eh?" Clark said.

"Anyone not fighting tomorrow," Heidern said, "I would like to help out on this, if possible, to help speed it up."

"That means Ralf, Eiji, and Vanessa are spared, it seems."

"If I could ask," Vanessa started, "How do you expect to do a tournament without a host?"

Heidern and Seth looked at each other and nodded, before looking back. It was Seth who answered.

"We're still figuring that out. We do have something in mind, though."


The slim man had been maneuvering through a few alleys, having taken a high road for a short time before landing deftly and adjusting his jacket. Not wearing his typical outfit-it would stand out a little too much here-he chose more casual wear, his long hair pulled back instead. No one would have ever imagined he'd dress like he was-a pullover hooded sweatshirt (useful for hiding his hair), a pair of jeans, and black hiking sneakers.

This was suitable, as low-key was what he was looking for.

He would probably stand by to see what else would be going on with this whole thing. He debated poking in-finding the commander or the lead Agent and showing himself and explaining everything he knew, but he wasn't sure how it would all really work out given the circumstances at this moment…so he stayed in the shadows.

For now.


A/N: Well alrighty then, we had a lot to take in, I guess! Seems like we have a tournament with a murdered host, a murder mystery, and one night to figure stuff out until tomorrow afternoon when the tournament is supposed to re-convene.

Not too many notes needed; Alexia Lomta was the name of the world/land (depending on if it was a different planet, future Earth, or a future different planet) that Ralf and Clark ended up in during the events of Ikari Warriors 2: Victory Road, where the pair got sucked into a portal that led there. SNK never decanonized these games, so, for fun, I just run with this stuff as if it had actually happened in the early timeline (the Ikari unit was formed when Heidern was in his early thirties, and I imagine these events happened around that time-so at least ten years in game time, and maybe more around 12-13 years ago in this timeline since I move it a bit.) The unit treats that incident very quietly, most of the info locked in away in one of Heidern's drawers and sealed.

What will our intrepid gang come up with? Who's the guy? Will something happen to the place that sells buckets of chicken in the stadium? Stay tuned!