Once at the opening ceremonies, a young man began to clean off his sword inside the main hall. He was by himself. He had long reddish hair and a scar on his eye. His name was Kenshin, but better known as Batosai, the man slayer. "I will fight hard, that I will" he thought. Little did he know, he would have to do this earlier than expected.

Inside his little dark lair, Shang Tsung, the evil sorcerer began to think. "Creating androids of Sub-Zero and Scorpion was worthless! But now that neither of them are on my side, I can't send out the real thing. I know, I'll send out two different assassins that are still on my side so I don't need to create androids." With that he called over two shadowy figures. "I need you to kill the one they call kenshin."

"Yea but what's in it for us?" one of them barked.

"We ain't doin' it for free" shot the other one.

"Hmmm..." said Tsung. "If you take out Kenshin, then I will give you each a seat on the throne of outworld when it's taken over!"

The two assassins smiled. "Sure thing boss" they both replied simulentainiously.

Back at the main hall, Kenshin was in a meditation process. He was sitting still with his legs crossed. At a sudden moment, a red beam shot through the door. The door broke in half and Kenshin was suddenly out of his trance-like state and looked at the man who was behind the door.

"My name is Kano" the mysterious man said. "And I am here to kill you."

Kenshin rose. "Come," he said "Let us have an honorable match".

Kano laughed, but kenshin immediately drew his sword and immediately started rushing towards Kano. Kano's mysterious red eye shot out a red laser like beam, and Kenshin was thrown against the concrete wall behind him. Kenshin stayed down. "I cannot get up, or he will shoot me with that beam again. I must strategize."

The amount of time it took Kenshin to get up made kano believe he was already dead, so he started to the door. Noticing that Kano had his back turned, Kenshin got up and jumped into the air. He held his sword above his head. His intent was to bring it down on Kano. Kano felt Kenshin's presence. He turned around, curled himself into a ball and flung himself at the warrior. Kenshin dropped hard. Kano walked over to where Kenshin was. Kenshin was on the floor, panting heavily. Kano was going to drop his fist on him, but before he could, kenshin rolled out of the way, got up, and slashed Kano in the back with one swift motion. Kano was on the ground in pain. Before Kenshin could capitalize on this, he felt two sharp pains in his back. Kenshin's vision was blurry so he could barely make out the person who stabbed him.

The figure began to speak. "My name's Movado. That is the last thing you hear before you DIE!" Movado stood laughing as Kenshin took his last few gasps of air.

Kano got up from the ground. "The only reason I helped you is because I wanted seat in outworld. Now, I will kill you and have sole right over outworld!!" He drew his two swords known as the butterflies, and Movado wished he hadn't wasted his two hook-swords stabbing kenshin. Nevertheless, Movado stood his ground and was ready to fight.

Kano tried to slash Movado, but Movado stepped aside and lande a punch on Kano's face. Kano recovered quickly and shot his eye beam directly at his opponent. Movado was sent flying. Kano prepared for the kill. He stabbed directly into Movado's throat. Movado was dead.

Kano walked out of the main hall with his arms folded arrogantly. "Heh, now when Tsung wins this tournament, I will aid his side and be ruler of outworld!" Kano was now standing outside, in the middle of the opening ceremonies. The big torch was already lit. Now it was time for his leader, Tsung, to make the announcement starting the tournament.

Tsung, was standing on a balcony overlooking the crowd of people who had gathered to see the fate of earth. "PEOPLE!" said Tsung, "THE TOURNAMENT IS ABOUT TO BEGIN! YOU ONLY HAVE A FEW MORE HOURS TO PREPARE!" and with that, Tsung left

the balcony and went back into his chamber. Kano decided to go over and tell him the news.

Tsung heard the knock on his door. "Come in" he commanded.

"Hey boss," began Kano, "I killed Kenshin for ya."

"Did you now?" asked the sorcerer.

"Yes sire I did."

"And where is Movado?"

"He had a much unfortunate accident."

"Oh well, at least the deed is done."

And with that, Kano smiled to himself and left the chamber.

"Well," said Tsung, "At least one of the more ferocious ones is down, but there are still too many left. Maybe between rounds I can do things...heh heh........"

WHO WILL FIGHT IN THE FIRST ROUND? WHO WILL WIN? AND WHAT WILL HAPPEN BETWEEN ROUNDS? FIND OUT NEXT TIME IN THE NEXT CHAPTER "DEATH IN THE EARLY ROUNDS"