Time and Time Again....

A year had gone by and all of the Fatal Fury Teammates had been training hard, the king of fighters tournament should be coming up in two months.

'Yeah!! Team Fatal Fury is gonna kick some major ASS!!' yelled joe right after he knocked out the last competitor in the kickboxing competition.

'Yeah!! We're gonna be number one!!' cheered Mai as she stood overtop of her opponent in a Mixed Martial Arts competition.

'We Will Win' said andy alone in the woods standing on a small rock amidst a raging river.

'Oh Yeah!' yelled Terry as he knocked out another competitor in an underground bare knuckle boxing competitoin.

Rock couldn't help but stare in wonder at these giants among men. Joe decided it was time to start rock's training, 'come on rockey, you wanna be big and strong like me right? well you'd better start now.'Joe took rock on a trip to a local boxing gym.

'Hey there if it isn't the ol' champ himself joseph!' an excited burly old man roared when the two walked in.

'Yo Marco!' replied joe in his normal abnoxious manner.

'Haven't seen you since you left 5 years ago for that king thingee'

'Ya well i've been busy'

'Too busy to see yer old marco? I made you, know that? of course you do!'

'Damn strait i know that! Now i need your help again, this here is rockey'

'Look at the lil guy, kinda scrawny ain't he, nothing like our joseph when he got here'

'ya well think you can do anything with him?'

'i can do anything with anybody'. The two of them had a good laugh with that joke. That day Marco spent a lot of time showing rock the ropes of Muay Thai kickboxing. Stances, moves, blocks, counters, and even some throws. Rock performed every move beautifully almost flawlessly after seeing it only one time. 'Goodness this kid is something else' marco told joe in his office while rock waited outside. 'Your tellin me' joe thought to himself, 'think you can do anything with him?'

'yea deffiently, just keep him comin'

'you got it'

Every day for the next week Joe took rock to marco for training. After the 3rd day rock asked if joe could let rock go alone. After checking it with terry joe got the ok and allowed rock to go it alone, but if rock ever needed moral support joe would be the first guy there to cheer him on. Rock spent the rest of the days taking his time walking there, and leaving a little earlier each day. Marco did not seem to care since rock was picking up on every technique with little effort. After a week of drills and training Marco thought it would be time to test the boy's skills. 'Hey rockey, why don't you get into the ring w/ one of my upper-class boys?' Marco suggested 'think you could hold your own against him. i do.' Marco put the head gear on rock, gave him his gloves, and armbands.

So there rock was, standing in a blue corner of a ring wearing nothing but boxing gloves, a padded helmet that didn't even cover his face, boxing shorts, a mouth protector, foot gear , and armbands staring at a 16 year old guy staring at him in the opposing corner. 'Hey cheif how old is this kid?' asked the other guy in the ring. 'He's eight, but don't take it easy on him...heh... he might be better then you....GAME ON!' With a bloodthirsty look in his eye the boy charged rock. The boy swung and rock dodged easily, a roundhouse kick to rock's head was blocked by rock's forearm. Every attack the boy used rock blocked with ease, for 3 minutes this was going on...only one problem. Rock hadn't attacked once yet, and this was leading to a disadvantage. Rock was getting tired while the boy was keeping his energy up. 'Come on, hit him!' yelled marco to rock, but rock would not comply. Finally a blow broke through, rock missed a block and got nailed in the sloar plexes by a front kick. This took him out, he ran to the ropes and jumped over them and curled up into a ball. Marco came over and kneeled down next to rock, 'ain't cut out for this are ya kid?' He was answered by the silence and rock ripping off his gear and walking out with his head facing the earth in defeat. Rock never went back to that gym. Joe understood, 'i'm sorry rockey, my style isn't for everybody...but don't worry i know you'll be big and strong one day!' joe smiled and flexed for rock. 'Thanks joe' replied rock.

Mai wanted to take her shot with rock. She thought that if he wasn't ment to be strong and hard like stone mabye he was meant to be swift and nimble like a leaf in the wind. A proper Ninja must be like water, fluent and ready to change direction at any time. Mai showed rock some techniques: she gave him a fan and threw one of hers at a small tree, her fan almost cut it in half. Rock threw the fan mai gave him, it opened while it was flying and slowly hit the ground. Mai tied a rope with a rock onto rock's waist and showed him her RYUUEN-BU move. The wooden ball connected to her outfit moved through the air with speed and grace, leaving a large indent in a rather big tree. Rock tried but did not judge the distance correctly and ended up hitting himself in the groin. Mai decided to see how well rock could 'fly', mai showed him how to do a backflip. He did it perfectly, then mai did a backflip onto a wall, propelled herself off of the wall and landed on the ground with her hands and did a handspring onto her feet. Rock tried but forgot to put his hands out and landed head first into the ground. Lastly Mai wanted to see if rock could peform the KOYASEN TORI. Mai did a cartwheel and used the momentum of her cartwheel to elbow a nearby bamboo tree, knocking it down. Rock perfomed the cartwheel and got the momentum but missed the bamboo tree and hit his face onto the tree behind it. 'I'm sorry Miss Mai, i can't do it.' rock apologized.

'Don't worry about it kiddo, i'm sure if anybody can make you strong it'll be andy' replied mai 'why don't you go see him, he should be down by the river.'

'But Miss Mai i don't....'

'Don't worry about it, i'm sure andy'll be happy to teach you. Now quit wasting time and go on down there.'

'Yes Ma'm'. Rock obediently walked across the woods to the rapid river where andy was jumping from tiny rock to tiny rock in the middle of the rapids.

'What is it rock?' andy asked coldy. 'Uhhh...Miss Mai sent me to....' rock replied almost scared.

'Ooohh, she wants me to train you? Well if you want my help it'll be hard.' andy almost cracked a smile at the thought of being in control of someone 'kopoken is one of the hardest styles to learn, it will be hard but most worth it.'

'Yessir.' With that andy began rock's training in the art of kopoken. First andy told rock that a strong upper and lower body were the most important things nessicary to complete each technique. Therefore rock needed to do 10 sets of 100 pushups and 200 situps. Rock could only do 30 pushups and 64 situps, andy seemed very dissapointed. 'Ok we can work on that, how about your strikes?' stated andy 'they need to be accurate and deadly, you must be able to hit your opponent 30 times but be able to knock him out with one.' Andy had rock hitting a solid tree until he left indents, unfortunatily for rock he only accomplished making his hands bleed. 'Uhhhh....' moaned andy in complete and uttre shock at rock's complete lack of skill.

'You don't even care do you!?' andy scolded rock for his lack of enthuasium.

'Well, i don't want to fight....' said rock, obisouly saddend by his scolding.

'You don't want to fight? then what are you doing hanging around here! you need to be strong in order to survive!' a shocked andy replied, not knowing what else to say.

'I...I'll....I'll leave....' weezed rock, holding back his tears.

'Maybe you should' a chill went down rock's spine when andy said that.

Rock went to his room that he shared with Terry and packed his bag full of his clothes. He took all his provisions and made his bed. 'They'll all be better off without me, i'm just making them weaker....i'm making terry weaker' rock began to cry thinking about that. Rock made his way past Mai who was jumping from tree to tree pratcing her fan throwing, he snuck past joe kicking trees with his shins till the trees began to crack. Until he made it to the steps of the shrine, he looked down at his bag considering it to be his only friend. As he looked up he saw terry, in the only outfit he ever wore, smiling down at rock. Terry took a quick look at rock's bag, 'leaving now are we?' Rock began to cry uncontrollably and tried to walk past Terry. Terry stood in front of him 'hey, before you go i should take you out to dinner ya know?' terry never stopped smiling. Rock looked up at terry and cried even harder, terry picked him up and put him on his sholders. Terry took him to an 'American resteraunt' for some burgers and soda. Rock wanted to be around terry so bad, but the thought of what rock was doing to terry's fighting spirit made him sad. 'Terry, do i make you weak?' rock asked between sipping his coca-cola through his straw. 'Not at all, as a matter of fact i'm happier now then i have been in a while.' Terry replied without a second thought, 'I'd really miss you if you left us, heck we wouldn't even be a team anymore without ya.' Rock couldn't help but think about what terry said. 'How bout ya stick around for a while, and heres the deal' terry leaned over as if to whisper to rock 'you don't have to fight, you can do whatever you like and i'll be behind you 100%' Rock looked up at Terry.

'Deal?' asked terry.

'Deal' replied rock.

And with that being said terry took his red cap off his head and put it on rock's head.