Chapter 11: Requiem
"Move it! Outta my way!"
Andro was getting irritated. He and Chan had waded into the sea of panicky, fleeing refugees from Southtown, in an attempt to find some decent medical aid. Instead, all they had received was aggravation.
The hospital was less than half a kilometer away, yet it seemed more like several miles. The sea of humanity shoved at them, pushing them ever further from their goal. Several times, Chan liberally applied the heavy handle of the Mage Cannon to those in his way, leaving a trail of unconscious people in his wake.
This was often followed by a polite comment, such as "Look out" or "Excuse me!" True, it was completely worthless, as no one was even listening to him. However, he felt a great sense of moral relief right after each apology.
Andro was less discriminating. He simply bashed heads as he went along; stomping once on those who went down to make sure they stayed down. The young man was pissed beyond the ability of the English language to describe, his irritation slowly simmering into a full-blown rage. He was tired, injured, and in no mood for any distractions. He simply wanted to find some place to lie down and sleep for several hours.
Ryan's face was an unusual shade of grey, probably due to exhaustion and dehydration. He had stopped bleeding ten minutes ago-Which was either a good or bad thing, considering whose point of view you looked at it from.
On one hand, the other two were sick of getting all his blood over their nice, relatively clean clothes. On the other, it was definitely not good, from Ryan's own point of view.
Chan realized that they weren't making much headway, against the onrushing tide. The moment Andro removed one person, another would dash in to take their place. There were simply too many shoving, pushing bodies.
"Chan…"
"Yeah, Ryan?"
"Lend me your handgun for a second."
"Okay."
Gingerly, Chan passed the weapon into Ryan's weak grip.
Ryan waved the gun, and yelled, "GET THE F*CK OUT OF OUR WAY!"
No response.
Ryan emptied the entire clip into the air, causing it to resound with the thunderous roar of high-caliber gunfire.
The crowd cleared a respectful distance around this maniac, with no one intending to get in the way of that rather large and menacing weapon. Sure, the civilians were panicking. But they still weren't stupid. Most decided to risk probable death under the feet of others, rather than certain death at the slugs of the Mage Cannon.
*********
Zero was in a world of pain.
He was tied securely to a chair, hands wrapped around the back with some kind of chain. It actually was rather redundant, as he couldn't move anything below his neck, forcing him to crane his head back and forth.
Behind him, one of the women-Diana, wasn't it?-turned his chair around, to face the monitor screen.
"Now watch. Watch as all your plans are undone," she hissed into his ear, in a voice full of spite. Somewhere else, the other one prowled, just out of sight. Foxy didn't seem to be truly interested in the going-ons. She hadn't said a word, since her fencing foil had prodded Zero, just to make sure that he was conscious.
"Diana, hurry up. Let's just get out of here, before Kula nukes Zero with his own cannon."
Inwardly, Zero shuddered. Nuke him? With the Zero Cannon? That sounded really bad. There was no sound, no outward sign, but he suddenly realized that Diana and Foxy were gone.
His eyes were involuntarily drawn to the screen that gave him a great view of his weapon. Far, far above, it was turning.
**********
Igniz, leader of NESTS, watched everything on his monitor screen. He let off a faint chuckle, mildly amused.
Zero had been a fool. All the while, he had thought that he could outwit NESTS. In the end, NESTS had outwitted him. It was surprising; the way Zero hadn't suspected anything till the last moment. Every cent of the funds used to build the Zero Cannon came from the organization itself. People from NESTS were even slipped into the massive construction project, adding Igniz's careful alteration to the designs…
Very slowly, Igniz drew a small remote from his pocket, a twin to the one already captured by Ryan. But this was the master control, with power over the other one. What happened next would be fitting retribution, killing the traitor with his own weapon.
Feeling far more satisfied than he had in a long time, Igniz tapped a finger on the 'FIRE' command.
**********
Once more, in the sky above Southtown, the gates of hell opened.
A red tracer, bright enough to burn the eyes, flashed straight down, marking a spot some distance away. It was gone in a moment, leaving those who saw it blinking, in an attempt to clear their eyes.
But it was only a prelude of things to come.
The DHS Team noticed the massive tracer, having already seen the effects of the Zero Cannon once. They were right in front of a hospital, an old building, packed to the brim with wounded and the dead. There had been no one left to treat their wounds, though they had managed to secure some hemostatic medicine, and a mild dose of morphine.
Ryan was looking more like his old self already, albeit a rather woozy version.
The crowd had thinned out. Most people were already long gone. Those who hadn't were either dead or unconscious…Not that anyone really cared.
For a second, all Chan could think was that, at one point or the other, he'd been cursed. Cursed. Somebody wants me dead, that's all there is to it.
He realized, with numb horror, that there was already a massive glow, one that lit up the clouds. Ryan and Andro saw it too, staring in unblinking terror at the unholy light.
But even then, it wasn't real…Not until Ryan broke the silence.
-"Maniac's gonna fire," He breathed, eyes comically wide. Then, as one, the entire group turned, feet pumping. They began to run for cover, even though there was no cover to run to-
Whiteout.
For a long moment, they couldn't see anything at all.
Very, very slowly, as if afraid, sight returned. Where the hospital had been, there was now a perforated, flaming ruin. Many objects had spontaneously combusted, leaving many, many small fires burning in the background.
"Are we dead?"
Andro's voice was muffled by the pavement, as he refused to look up. Chan cautiously turned his head to the side, making sure all appendages were still intact. He was relatively unscarred, with his coat just slightly singed.
"No. Don't think so."
"Pity."
The ray hadn't been aimed at them. Instead, Zero's headquarters was the one that received the blast. A weak shockwave had rocked Southtown, but that was a small price to pay for survival.
That must've used up all my luck. There can't be any left after that.
And it was the karmic balance of the universe, that a good luck was quickly replaced with bad.
A second volley, half the strength of the original, arched down once more from above. Many beams strafed Southtown, as the Zero Cannon stations went berserk, after the destruction of the command centre.
Igniz had underestimated Zero. Everyone had underestimated Zero. No one had thought that, in his twisted mind, Zero would have planned this as his ultimate revenge.
A single ray stabbed, heading straight for the pathetic group. It was massive, as thick as a full-grown tree. Reality warped around it, as it came down, down…
Impact.
Paralyzed, all Andro could do stare, even as his doom approached-
-There was a sudden flash of light, as World-Eater's shield came up-
-And Chan screamed in sudden, horrible agony. He doubled over, with no visible wound any could see. But his eyes, his eyes were horrible. A foot above them, World-Eater held its shield up, impossibly holding back the blast of the Zero Cannon.
"RUN!!"
Andro and Ryan didn't need to be told twice. Their feet were already in motion, carrying them away from the point of impact. It wasn't that they were cowards. It was simply that there was nothing they could do against something like this.
Agony ran through Chan's right arm, as he too experienced the pain of trying to hold the energy. He couldn't move. He couldn't even cry out.
Above him, the shield held, held, held-
-Broke.
The shield shattered, component atoms scattered to the four winds. The blast came right down. Chan eyes bugged out, as he realized he was as good as dead.
Then, something was between the ray once more, armored form taking the blast meant for him-
-Agony lit up his entire body, as impact occurred. World-Eater let off an unholy howl, one that trailed off into a wet gurgling. With a kind of horrified astonishment, Chan watched the spectacle with wide eyes.
The Stand was melting.
Armor sloughed away under the heat, warping and fusing with the organic heat. The fragments of the shield were somewhere in the mess too, reforming somewhere else. Even the weaponry was mixed up in the mess, shifted somewhere else against its natural form.
It was utterly disgusting. Even at this time, with his body feeling like it was being burned alive, Chan's senses recoiled from the monstrosity. Vainly, he tried to pull away, even as metallic talons reached up from the reforming slime to snare him…
Light shone down. In it was power, enough power to burn away the nightmare around him. Chan reached up, and pulled all he could straight in.
At his side, the Mage Cannon glowed, overcharged.
**********
"Chan! CHAN!"
No response. Andro stopped yelling. It was no use. The last they had seen of Chan, before he had vanished into that massive fog of steam, was him trying to stop the ray before it struck.
A chill wind blew up, whipping the fog away. Ryan's hand was raised, as he channeled a hair-thin breeze. Very slowly, the two took several steps forward, dreading what they would see…
Laughter. Hysterical laughter rang around the area, from somewhere in the crowd. Andro and Ryan exchanged looks. That didn't sound good.
Chan was on his hands and knees at the centre of a smoldering crater, a halo of blue light surrounding him. He looked…Fine. Better than fine, in fact. It was as though all his exhaustion, all his wounds, had been burned away.
"I…I killed it! I FINALLY KILLED IT!"
"Uh…killed what, exactly?"
"My Stand…I burned away the corruption, burned away the monster! It's clean!"
Ryan took a cautious step back.
"Okay. The blast must've scrambled his brains."
All of a sudden, Chan straightened up, businesslike once more. The change caught almost all by surprise.
"Well, that's that. We'll just contact the KOF sponsors, and tell them we've won the tournament. Nothing to it."
Then, as casually as a diner, he adjusted his singed clothes, and began walking off. Chan felt so light, so free. He never even noticed when his legs buckled, spilling him onto the ground.
Andro caught him just in time, before his head hit.
"He's more messed up than I thought."
"Will he be okay?"
"He's just shrugged off a cannon blast. I really don't know."
"What was that crap he was babbling about?"
"Nothing. Just adrenaline overload. He'll recover from that, at least. Not let's get out of this hellhole."
***********
Days later…
"AND THE WINNER OF KOF 2000 IS…THE DHS TEAM!!!"
Cheers rang from the audience, as the DHS Team, now clad in formal dress clothes, strode onstage.
Ryan let out a sigh of relief. It was almost over. They had won.
After Chan's encounter with the Zero Cannon, the group had walked off, intent on finding some way out of the hellhole that was now Southtown. They had hiked their way to the nearest payphone, five miles away at an almost-deserted fuel station.
Fortunately, the attendant there had recognized them as the DHS Team, promptly giving them free use of whatever they wanted. A brief phone call later, a helicopter had arrived, airlifting them to somewhere far safer. Chan had regained consciousness about halfway through the trip. He was strangely happy, as if Christmas had come early. Nothing seemed to bother him anymore- Though he never used his Stand.
Andro had been silent most of the trip. The psychopathic killer seemed oddly…disturbed, with Chan's new behavior. Personally, Ryan felt that he liked the new one better. Still, it was true that something seemed out of place here, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Chan, for his part, didn't seem to give a damn. In fact, he seemed far happier than he had been before. At that very moment, he was busy addressing the audience, hands clasped round the mike provided.
What happened next could best be described by the camera.
***********
(Fade in. Chan stands at a speaker's podium, dressed in a white trench coat with his school badge. Andro stands beside him, looking truly uncomfortable. He shifts in his black tuxedo. Ryan 's waving to the audience, milking this for all its worth. From behind a door, Chizuru Kagura steps out holding a trophy.)
Chizuru spoke.
"Hello again, everyone! Glad you could all make it. As you know, King of Fighters '00 has just concluded, and three members of the winning team are here... "
The crowd went crazy again, many holding up massive banners. Most had something like 'THE DHS TEAM OWNS J00' or 'SINGAPORE DON'T SUCK!!!' There was a sudden rain of flowers, coins, hotel keys…Boxers?
"Just for your information, the fighters are CONFIRMED heterosexuals."
Several boos rang from the male half of the audience. However, this was quickly muffled by the cheers of the females.
"Yeah, get over it, Benimaru. Ahem. Hey, let me tell you, they've come a long way." Chizuru began walking, indicating each member in turn as she spoke.
"Ryan Lim here…" Applause. "He's a deadly fighter in his own right, a master of Jeet Kun Do. Add that to weather control, and you have an unbeatable combination. He's also the most popular among the fans…Scratch that."
Chuckles. Faint laughter.
"Chan, their supposed leader, is one of the most unique people ever seen. On one hand, he can't fight. On the other, he wields the nastiest Stand-and-weapon combo known to man."
Applause, a scattered sprinkling of it.
"And then there's Alistair Andrew Gilllus, who goes by the name of 'Andro'. He's had a rough time of it, considering his past, and his lack of powers. His weapons are considered cheap by many, though they're devastating to behold. Give him a big hand, folks!"
Even greater applause. Andro smiled sheepishly.
"It is with great pleasure, that I declare the DHS Team…THE WINNER OF KOF 2000!!!" The trophy was handed to the group, who proudly hoisted it over their heads.
Thunderous applause. The crowd went crazy. Ryan, Chan and Andro were momentarily blinded by flashbulbs. Cameras zoomed in on their faces.
"And now, a speech by Chan…Take it from here."
Chan swallowed hard, gripping the mike even tighter.
"Uh…Hi."
The response shook the hall.
"I'm here today to explain, why the last member of our team isn't here today. The answer is simple: He died."
Gasps of horror.
"Ogion sold his life, in an attempt to allow us to escape, from a psychopath far more powerful than us all combined. We were carrying an injured companion, see. Without his help, we would never have made it out alive."
Chan's face twisted slightly.
"His ashes are probably resting in the ruins of Southtown. Yes, you heard right. The same psychopath who killed him was the one who destroyed the city."
The crowd began to roar, calling for vengeance.
"Well…That's all I have to say. My friends have something to add…"
Chan passed the mike to Ryan, who promptly shot the nearest camera the 'finger'.
"SEE THIS, NESTS? WE'RE COMING FOR YOU! NEXT YEAR! NO MERCY!"
There was stunned silence for a long moment. Then, the screen cut to a close-in as the team strode off, surrounded by the media. Microphones were thrust in the team's faces, as the news struggled for scoops.
"So, Andro, what do you plan to do next?"
"-Ryan, what will you do with the money?"
"-Chan, can you show us your Stand?"
"Alright."
Ryan and Andro exchanged worried looks. They had already been over this with Chan already, knowing what his Stand had become…
Suddenly, the room was filled with a monstrosity, created of melted metal and flesh. It looked like a golem, two massive weapons grafted to the shoulders. The knight's head completely covered the face, and the old shield had reformed on the thing's chest. The arms were now snarling, drooling reptilian heads. Screams broke out. Many reporters backed away, granting the team a blessed reprieve.
"This is my Stand…Requiem. A Requiem is a song that brings all living things down to death. And this Stand, created by their own weapon, will sound the death knell of the organization that created it."
The scene cut once more, to a reporter further away.
"And so a long, often painful journey has come to an end. A group of troubled young men from oft-neglected Singapore have finally won the tournament. But will they be able to put up the same performance next year? This reporter certainly thinks so, and I know that any true King of Fighters fan would agree with me. Reporting from the post-tournament press conference, this is..."
***********
***CLICK***
There was a faint sound, as the television shut itself off. K' set the control down, wincing at his bandaged arm. He leaned back against the worn-out couch, turning to Maxima, who sat beside him
"Next year, I'm gonna be the one hosting that trophy."
"Over my dead body, clonebag."
"No offence taken."
"None meant."
***********
Somewhere else, at NESTS headquarters, Igniz's fist came down hard enough to dent his steel throne.
"Get me a termination squad. I want them dead."
"That, I'm afraid, is impossible. They'll head back home after the tournament, where we have no ties whatsoever."
"Is there any way we can reach them?"
"Yes. In the next KOF Tournament. They'll be there."
"Good. I want our finest there too."
"It shall be done."
***********
"Whew. It's finally over."
Ryan exhaled a huge sigh of relief, the moment they stepped out from the press conference.
"What's wrong, Ryan? I thought you enjoyed fame?"
"Yeah…But's that's a bit too much even for me. Geez, Chan, I think you went a bit overboard with that Requiem shit. Change your Stand back."
Chan's eyes took on an oddly shadowed look.
"Sorry. Not possible. The Zero Cannon worked, but not in the way we expected."
"You mean…"
"World-Eater's been warped even more. No one could have expected it."
Andro, walking along behind the rest, finally spoke up.
"Well, now what? There're still many ends left untied. Such as Ogion, and that girl you met…"
Chan flushed slightly.
"Hey! I'm over her, man!"
"Really?"
"Well…She was kinda cute, even if she did want to kill me…"
"I'll take that as a 'No'."
***Click***
"You were saying?"
"Hey! Put the gun down!"
They walked on for a bit. The noise faded away far behind, leaving only sweet silence. Far above, a flash of light lit up the night sky, followed by another and another and another. Very soon, the night sky was filled with a spontaneous volley of shooting stars.
"Shooting stars, huh? You don't see that everyday."
"Yeah, well. You learn something new everyday, don't you?"
"Too true. This could mark the beginning of something bigger, far bigger than a group of boys out for revenge, on someone who killed their teammate…"
"Uh…Say what, dude?"
"Never mind, Chan. C'mon. We've won this round, and it's time to celebrate. Let's get drunk, guys! Drinks are on me!"
Laughing, they strode off into the distance, heading off with no thought about tomorrow. Hell, as far as they knew, there was no tomorrow, when they would return to their normal old lives…Till the next year.
(Frame Freeze)
The words: "KOF 2000" scroll across the screen. And the credits begin to roll.
THE END
(Yee-HAH! I FINISHED IT! Sorry for the ending being rather anti-climatic, but this isn't the end. The DHS Team will be back for the next tournament…As soon as I get more ideas. Until then, I'm open to all suggestions, so feel free to drop me a line at Burnout02urza@yahoo.com. Thank you for all your support and patience.)