Chapter 4: PSYCHO BBBBAAAALLL!!!!!
The sun shone down upon a parched, barren desert.
Cawing, vultures circled overhead, waiting for an unfortunate victim.
Movement! There, on the sands below!
Two figures faced one another, just barely visible in the shimmering heat. Around them, a vaguely circular barrier had been set up. Cameras circled, capturing these moments for eternity.
The vultures circled ever inward. There would be much food today.
Then, a blade flashed upwards, clawing a vulture from the sky. With an unceremonious thud, it struck the hard desert sand.
Andro reached down, and yanked the blade out, cleaning it on the thing's feathers. He sniffed. "Damn birds. The smell's never gonna come off."
He looked at his opponent. Bao, for his part, blinked, staring straight back. The little boy was more than a little freaked out, watching Andro calmly wipe his weapon clean.
"I got up at 6 a.m. and took a plane here for this?"
Well, better to get this fight over and done with.
Andro bowed to his opponent…
And ate a Psycho Ball.
Cursing, he shook his head to clear it, and crouched, ready to block. NOT a good start.
"PSYCHO BALL!!!"
A second blast, as irritating as the first, flew towards him. With a leap, Andro evaded it.
"Blade Toss!"
Andro flung a knife forward, neutralizing the next shot.
"PSYCHO BBBBAAAALLL!!!!!"
Yet another ball struck him. Now, that was a bad, bad tactical mistake. Andro hated opponents with cheap fireballs.
"PSYCHO…Huh?"
Bao scratched his head, wondering where the bad man with blades had gone. Just to be safe, he let off a Psycho Ball, flinging the blast straight ahead…
Except that Andro was behind him.
"AERIAL SLASHER!!!"
Andro comboed Bao into the air with unnecessary force, forming a spinning disk of razor-sharp edges. Tattered cloth fluttered down, as the blades reduced Bao's Communist outfit to shreds.
"What goes up must come down, kid! SPIKE SLAM!!!"
The warrior slammed the weapons, hilt-first, into Bao's back, before kneeing him into the ground. Bao promptly curled into a little fireball, and almost seared Andro's hands off.
The energy ball bounced, striking Andro in the stomach.
Andro grabbed Bao by the collar, and yanked him to eye-level, moments before he unleashed a powerful kick that sent the boy into the sky once more.
Boos rang from the audience. They had come to watch a battle. This was a…a mockery. A freak show.
"Get it over with, dumbass!"
Seated at the side of the combat, Athena sniffed.
"Oh…Bao's so brave…But I should never have asked him to come…"
Kensou, however, simply watched Andro perform the Final Slicer DM, filling the air with a maelstrom of blades, promptly reducing Bao to a bleeding wreck. His latent psychic abilities sparked, and began working overtime.
Careful observers would note that Andro avoided any face or hamstringing blows. Still, it didn't make the slicing and dicing any less painful. In a way, it must have hurt even more, as Andro worked away with both knives like a surgeon, cutting away at a piece of meat.
"WINNER IS…ANDRO!!!"
Kensou's eyes burned with psychic energy and with hate. He was next up, and anxious to reduce this heartless upstart to a pulp. Biting into a meat bun, he vaulted into the ring, ignoring Master Chin's half-sober entreaties.
"Time to die, Andro! You're gonna pay for what you did to him!"
Andro, for his own part, simply cleaned his blades on Bao's shredded T-shirt. "Hey, don't blame me. I didn't sign him up for this contest. Blame yourself, for not taking care of him."
These were fighting words.
"SEN SHIPPO!!!"
"SHADOW EDGE!!!"
And the fight was on.
It was a vicious, hard-fought battle. Andro was a deadly fighter, made even more powerful by the weapons he wore. Kensou was powered by rage.
Andro slammed his head into Kensou, loosening a tooth and ramming him back. Kensou hit Andro with a psychic blast that smashed him ten feet away. A blade promptly sprouted from his knee.
A Dragon Claw smash was met by a Flashing Blade Spin.
The Arcing Thigh Drill was countered by the Really Painful Slash.
Cameras spun madly, trying to keep up with the action, which had become a maelstrom of fists and steel.
A continuous ringing sound filled the battlefield, as Kensou somehow managed to turn aside sharpened steel with his bare hands.
Finally, Kensou knocked Andro down with a Tiger Hand Slap.
Andro turned to one side. "Chan! Help!"
Kensou got ready to deal a Dragon Barrage…
And was shot with a handgun.
The Psycho Soldier, incredibly, ignored the pain.
"CHORYUU RENKEN!!!"
Kensou exploded into a 14-hit combo, mercilessly pummeling Andro.
"Die, damn you, DIE!"
***BLAM***
Chan placed a second shot in his stomach.
Andro laid open Kensou's leg with a slash. Still Kensou fought on. He cancelled into a Shinryuu Seiou Rekkyaku, with several cracks that told of breaking ribs. Andro twitched several times, attempting to close his hand around his weapon. He failed, struggles finally ceasing under a relentless barrage of blows.
"WINNER IS…KENSOU!!"
With a thin smile, Kensou ate an energy-restoring meat bun, before pointing at Ryan in classic "You're NEXT" fashion.
Underneath Ryan's hands, the steel bar he gripped crumpled.
He was ready to vault over the railing, when…
"I'll handle him."
"Ogion? You mean…"
"Yes. All his abilities have been enhanced by his limited psychic powers. Therefore…"
The psychic let the sentence trail off.
"Okay. Good luck."
"I have no need for luck."
"Cocky bastard…"
Ogion floated over the railings, and landed in front of Sie Kensou.
"Get ready."
Kensou lunged, about to perform the opening movement of the Sen Shippo…and froze.
Both him and Ogion just stood there, locked in psychic combat. The crowd began muttering. Neither moved. In the air between the two combatants, green fire flickered. Clusters of frost materalized, despite the heat.
Suddenly, Kensou slumped, falling to one knee. Beads of sweat trickled down his face. Athena gasped. Chin, suddenly sobered up, ran to help his disciple…
***BLAM***
"Don't. Interrupt. Them."
At the same moment, Ogion looked up. And smiled. It was not a nice smile.
Kensou flew straight back, slamming into the barricades with bone-crushing force. All concerned winced, as telekinesis pinned him there. With a sharp pop, the first rib snapped.
Kensou slumped, completely limp. All the fight had been beaten out of him.
Ogion shrugged. There was a second pop, and a crack that told of snapping bones.
"And you call yourself a psychic?!"
With a regretful shake of his head, Ogion turned away, dismissing Kensou as harmless.
"Goodbye, Sie Kensou."
There was a last blast of P.K. force, and Kensou slumped, sliding slowly down the wall. He would recover, but only under srious medical care.
"KENSOU!!!!"
Athena and Chin ran over, attempting to return him to consciousness.
Ogion turned, and bowed to the audience. Desultory clapping began. Most were too shocked to do anything else.
*******************
However, Chan and Ryan had different ideas.
"What the hell happened?"
"I don't know! He's never been like this before!"
Chan groaned.
"I think we really hurt Kensou, you know. Maybe we should pull Ogion back."
"No way! He's just won the fight!"
"Exactly! And look at him!"
Ryan looked. Truth be told, Ogion looked a little funny. He was breathing heavily, and barely visible flickers of fire licked along his hands.
"But so what? There's only one more fight."
"Okay, Ryan. One more fight, and we're pulling him back for a big dose of tranquilizers."
And so it was decided.
*******************
Athena entered the ring, almost beside herself with fury.
Sure, it was a tournament. Sure, people got injured.
But this other psychic was taking it to a whole new level. As Athena stepped in, jaws dropped, and phone numbers went up.
The clamor was immense.
Athena turned, staring Ogion in the eye. She wanted to see the look in his eyes as she hit him with a Phoneix arrow…
But she couldn't look away, as a stabbing lance of will jabbed into her mind. It was like dangling above a pit of acid. What waited for her in Ogion's mind was horror. Pure horror. It wanted to burn her, kill her, tear her to shreds…
Athena tried to scream, but the words simply couldn't come out.
*******************
"Okay. Enough is enough. Call Ogion off now."
"That's what I told you before, Ryan."
Chan leaned over the railing.
"Ogion! That's enough!"
No answer. It was like talking to a brick wall.
"Can you hit him or something?"
"I can't! I used my last Striker Bomb stopping the old man!"
Help, however, came in a most unusual form. Chin realizing his last student was in danger, leapt from the stands, howling a warcry.
Ogion turned, reacting to the sudden danger. A massive fist of sand slammed into Chin, forcing him back. But the damage had been done. Athena took the chance, and hit Ogion with a Psycho Ball.
Before Ogion could recover, a sword of fire slashed him across the face. Stubbornly, he still stood, summoning the energy for a Big Sand Wave.
His defiance promptly melted, as a look of utter horror spread across his face. Blood poured from his nose. With an audible "Thud", Ogion hit the ground. With a display of sheer will, he attempted to get up, but only managed to knock his head against a nearby rock.
*******************
Ryan slumped into his seat.
"Whew. Thank god that's over."
"Yeah. I'll get Ogion's medication."
"You do just that."
He had just started to relax, when a horrible thought entered his mind.
He was next.
"Oh, no."
*******************
Athena watched, as yet another man entered the ring.
She recognized him instantly, just like the first fighter.
"You're the boy Kensou met!"
Shamefacedly, Ryan nodded. "Yeah, that's me. Sorry 'bout Ogion. We forgot to restrain him."
"Okay. No problem." Athena managed a small smile, though she didn't really feel like smiling. With a wave to the crowd, she slid into an attacking pose.
"By the way…What did you do to stop him?"
Well, there was no harm in telling this normal person, was there?
"I implanted an image in his mind…Of me in my older outfit."
"Huh?"
Athena sent Ryan a short telepathic image of exactly what she meant.
Swallowing, Ryan nodded.
"That explains the nosebleed."
*******************
Chan, the last conscious fighter for the DHS Team, fiddled with his video camera, recording the conversation for all eternity.
"Man, wait till the guys at home hear this!"
*******************
"WAVE CANNON!"
"CRYSTAL SHOOT!"
This battle was far more even than the Kensou/Ogion slaughter.
Athena used her projectiles, and wide range of tricks, to escape from Ryan. Ryan, on his part, managed to counter every incoming projectile, sometimes managing to land a lucky punch or kick.
Then, he tripped over a prone figure, lying on the ground.
"Huh?"
Chin kicked Ryan into the air, clubbing him with his bottle for good measure. Bleary-eyed, the old man shook a finger in Ryan's face.
"And thash tach ya to keep ya hands ofs ma shudents!"
Ryan bowled him over, and flipped upright.
"Sorry, old-timer!"
"Haaa…SHINING CRYSTAL BIT!"
With one glance at Athena's new outfit, Ryan's eyes glazed over, and went a bit unfocused.
Hell, half the ring's eyes fastened onto that last part. A number of front- row fanboys fainted dead away. In the sleep of the barely conscious, Sie Kensou and Ogion twitched, and promptly began bleeding again.
*******************
Chan fiddled with his video camera, hammering at the "RECORD" button with nerveless fingers.
"Man, wait till the guys at home see this!"
*******************
{Hmm?} Athena thought, noticing Ryan's reaction. {Let's try that again.} She repeated the super, and Ryan's eyes glazed over a bit again.
"PHONEIX ARROW!!"
*zap*
"OW!"
{And one more time!}
"NO YOU DON'T!!!"
Ryan had gotten up from the attack, utterly pissed. His eyelids twitched. Athena tried to pull off her DM once more, knowing that it was probably too late…
"THAT…WAS…CHEAP!!! Prepare yourself…STORM…OF…VENEGANCE REMIX!!!"
Far, far above, black storm clouds gathered.
And for once, in the barren desert, it began to rain.
*******************
***FOOPM***
Chan opened an umbrella above his head.
Somehow, he wasn't really surprised.
When one hung around a psychic, a psycho, and a Jeet Kun Do exponent who could control the weather, you kinda expected things like this to happen.
*******************
In the stands, the crowd scrambled for shelter. The desert temperature hadn't lent itself to many umbrellas, despite the few massive ones already positioned as sunscreen. Those who had counted on a suntan were suddenly severely disappointed.
Cursing, the cameramen lugged their heavy rigs into the comparative dryness of their trucks. At least a few would still work there.
Knife-like streaks of lightning crackled down, bracketing Athena. She tried to teleport, but who could outrun lightning?
A well-aimed blast blew her onto her nicely rounded behind, blinding Athena for a brief moment. Then, a bar of electricity hurtled earthwards, literally connecting heaven and Earth.
As quickly as they had appeared, the storm clouds dispersed.
Humming "Singing in the Rain", of all things, Ryan raised his hand in a victorious salute.
*******************
Benimaru, eyes fixed on the television screen, blinked hard, shaking his head to clear it.
"I'll have to ask him how he does that."
Somewhere else, in Shingo's apartment, the teenager sulked.
"It's not fair! Kusangi-san gets fire. Benimaru gets electricity. Iori get cool purple flames. And he gets to control the weather! It's not fair…"
*******************
Chin, now completely drunk, looked up into the suddenly clear sky.
"{Hic} Is eisher raining or dry. Maks up yoush mind. {Hic}"
Geese Howard's agent ran over to Ryan, waving a sheet of paper.
"I knew it! This is a Thunder Break ripoff, according to here andhereandhereandAARGH…"
The last words were pronounced with a croak, as Ryan's hands locked around his throat. The man gulped, as he saw a pair of eyes, crackling with energy, stare into his.
"I. Don't. F*cking. Care."
"Please don't kill me…pleasepleasepleaseplease…"
"STORM OF VENEGANCE!!!!"
There was a universal sigh of disgust, as people began fighting for shelter once again.
***FOOPM***
Sighing, Chan opened his umbrella once more. He was getting really sick of this.
(Whew. Well, as you can see, Ogion and Andro are VERY different from Ryan and Chan. Just call them the "Dark side of DHS." I actually hadn't planned to involve them in this battle, but realized that they hadn't made a serious appearance yet. : ( Okay, they're both murderous psychopaths who would put Ryuji Yamazaki to shame. Especially Ogion. Man, that character literally writes himself…Nevermind.
By popular demand, the next fight will be against…THE AOF TEAM!!! As always…please R&R. Thank you very much, and god bless. Merry Christmas. Oh, and by the way, if anyone wants to make any story/character love interest/special moves suggestions, feel free to e-mail me, at burnout02urza@yahoo.com )