A/N: I know I don't normally do this fluffy kind of lovey stuff. My love stories usually have some twisted details, but I assume some people like these kinds of things. Since there's no twisted stuff, there's a lot more dialogue then usual, so I hope you like dialogue. The beginning is only dialogue, but it's not all like that, I swear. There's a reason for it!

Heart Of Brass

Part one

Mission Accomplished

"You will do as I say."

"I beg to differ, old man."

"You are hardly in the position to be difficult. Why must you resist when it is so obvious that resistance is futile?"

"'Resistance is futile.' Man, could you possibly be a more cliché villain?"

"I am not the villain here. Your capture is for the good of mankind, if you would only cooperate willingly. My intention is to capture the devil gene and destroy it."

"That's bull! Everyone knows that's a lie! You have been trying to kill your kids since before you even knew a devil gene was involved, and I got a lil' inkling that the last thing you plan on doing with the devil gene is destroying it. You have some psycho obsession with immortality or something equally moronic."

There was a pause in the conversation, followed by Heihachi's voice saying something quietly in Japanese to what the figure outside the window guessed was a guard. The figure moved deeper into the shadows, thankful that she had dressed entirely in black before she left the hotel. Any other colour would have just been bad planning on her part.

Just as the hidden woman expected, a couple guards came out the large front doors, and started to search around the window area. They had flashlights and were making strides toward her hiding spot. She stifled a panicked squeak as one of the guards stepped on her foot. Luckily they didn't notice. Just as they were about to turn away and give up the search, the hidden woman hiccupped.

The guards swung around, guns ready to aim as they cautiously searched the shadows. A flashlight landed on the woman's face for only a split second before a black mass of a figure bowled them over. There were flashes of a strange bright red colour, skin, and … feathers?

Instead of sticking around to see what would happen next, the woman in black spun around on her heel and started sprinting in the opposite direction. As she ran past the gates back into the street, the security stood there, scratching their heads, wondering if they should still chase her even though she was running away from the place. They looked back to see what the woman was running from just in time to see a man with glowing red eyes and huge black wings, fly over their heads in hot pursuit.

She didn't have to look back to know that what she had thought was a man at first, was on her trail. The sound of the powerful wings beating the air was a significant telltale sign. She wondered why it hadn't reached her yet. It had caught up with her pretty quickly. If it didn't want to hurt her, why was it following? Maybe it was injured and growing weaker by the second. Or maybe it just liked to watch girls run.

The woman came to an abrupt stop as she turned into the trees and smacked right into a smaller person. Both figures fell backward into muddy grass and groaned. One rubbed her arm while the other rubbed her shoulder, and they each stole curios, yet suspicious glances at each other.

"I know you!" The woman in black exclaimed quietly, "You fought in the King Of Iron Fist Tournament! The one I went to… I'm Christie Monteiro, a friend of Eddy Gordo's."

The other woman giggled, "I know who you are, silly!"

"Shhh! Not so loud. I was being followed by something…" Christie looked towards the opening she came in through, wondering if it was still out there. "I'm here to try to figure out something about Kazuya Mishima. I think maybe he knows where Eddy is. Why are you here… Lang, was it?"

"Ling Xiaoyu. Call me Xiao!" The other woman frowned, "I'm here because I saw a bunch of big Brutes attack another person from the tournament and they brought him here. I thought he could use my help. He's a jerk, but they outnumbered him greatly, and surprised him while he was smoking outside the hotel. I figure that even people with bad attitudes deserve a fair fight."

A tree behind Christie shook as the thing landed in it. She gave it a frustrated growl before grabbing Xiaoyu's hand and pulling the girl along with her, back through the gates, which wasn't difficult since the security had disappeared, probably running away when they seen that creature. It still followed them, startling the young Chinese girl into running quicker. Though, strangely, the girl had realization painted on her face, as if she knew exactly what it was.

The front doors of the estate opened and Heihachi came out, followed by a crowd of troops. His eyes fixed on the girls running across his property. He pointed at them and shouted some orders to the men at his side. As the group of men started running at the girls, the creature dived down and scooped the two up and flew off. Xiaoyu and Christie screamed in unison, watching the ground move farther and farther away. They prayed that it wouldn't drop them.

It circled the building, the added weight slowing it down. Finally it perched on a vent and set the girls down on the roof, watching them closely. Having finally got a closer look, Christie recognised the creature as another person from the tournament, though she highly doubted that he had glowing eyes and wings before, and it seemed he had received a few tattoos since.

"Jin," Xiaoyu breathed, "I thought Mishima Heihachi killed you."

The creature didn't respond. It pushed itself off into the air, releasing a call unlike anything a normal human could possibly make. It went straight up, somehow avoiding the bullets being shot at it, and disappeared into a cloud. The girls watched after it for a moment before deciding to assess the situation. They soon realized that they would have to figure out a way to get down.

"The old goat's probably halfway up here by now. We gotta get out of here."

Xiaoyu grinned and pointed to the vent the creature had been perched on only a moment ago. She didn't have to say anything for Christie to understand what was going on in her head.

"No way! That thing probably drops straight into a furnace!"

"You don't know that."

"You're right, I don't, but I really don't want to take that risk!"

Xiaoyu shrugged and started climbing in. "Suit yourself. Give my regards to Mister Mishima. I'm sure he'll let you go. He seemed to be in a pretty good mood."

Christie sighed and followed the younger girl into the vent, muttering as she went. "Damn Mishima's are nothing but trouble. Every single one of them. Whole tournament's trouble. Why'd Eddy have to get involved. Why'd I have to follow his lead? I'm not smart. Not smart at all. To think I thought Jin was cute, but no cute boys grow wings and ditch you on the roof of their tyrannical grandfather's mansion. It just doesn't happen. It's his fault I have to crawl through this filthy, spider-infested vent. I'm sending him my dry cleaning bill. That oughta set him straight."

The young Chinese girl stopped suddenly and whispered, her voice trembling. "Did you say spiders?"

"Hello?" Hwoarang knocked on the door, insistently. "Would you mind letting me out now? I'll tell you the truth. I don't know where the hell he is. Obviously your research department isn't up to spec, because I'm not his friend. I hate his guts. I probably want to kill him more then you do! So if I knew where he was, I'd have already pounded him into a submissive pulp, and probably would still be going at it!" He kicked the door as he shouted, "Who in hell do I have to sleep with to get a smoke around here?"

"Me."

The Korean spun around, falling immediately into his fighting stance, only to be faced with an empty room. He lowered his fists, confused as he strained his eyes to search every shadowy corner. "Who's there?"

"I am the one Mortals refer to as God."

"Stop playing!" Another voice said, giggling, "You're going to get us caught."

He stepped forward, trying to figure out which direction the voices were coming from. "I recognise that voice. In fact, I recognise both those voices. Where do I know you from?"

"A past life perhaps."

"Christie! No more!"

"Hey! You said my name!"

"Oops!"

Hwoarang sighed and sat down. "Perfect. Eddy's pupil, and Jin's girlfriend. That's all I need. Could this day possibly get any worse?" He kicked his combat boots off and stretched. "Might as well get comfortable, if I'm going to attempt to maintain my sanity."

A vent in the ceiling opened and Ling Xiaoyu hopped down, landing on her back, and squealing as the air rushed out of her lungs. When she finally built up the strength to roll out of the way, Christie came down, demonstrating a far more graceful landing. She helped Xiaoyu up and they both turned to face the annoyed Blood Talon.

He arched his brow, amused by the performance. "Please don't tell me you're here to help, because I can't take anymore good news today."

"What's more important?" Xiaoyu asked, "Getting out of here, or your pride?"

"My pride."

Christie grinned and added in, "If you come with us, Xiao and I will make out."

"I'm sold."

"Christie! No! No escape for you! I think I'll lock you both in here!"

Hwoarang laughed and looked up to the vent, "That was pretty brave of you girls. Vents can be very dangerous, but in your brief planning to rescue me, did you come up with how I'd get out? There's no way in a million years I'd fit in there."

Christie shrugged, "Can't we fight our way out?"

Xiaoyu and Hwoarang both stared at her for a moment, then Hwoarang finally spoke up, "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one."

"Hey! What does that make me?" Xiaoyu demanded.

"The dumb one," Hwoarang suggested innocently.

Xiaoyu growled and went into her fighting stance. She cartwheeled to the side of the Korean, and swept her foot down, knocking him to the ground. "Get up and fight me like a man!"

"You see, in normal rescue missions, the hero doesn't beat up the victim," Hwoarang said, sitting up and rubbing his ankle, pretending it hurt. "And since you girls hadn't thought this all the way through, it looks like I'll have to rescue all of us before Heihachi decides I'm in for some more questioning. Now. Let's brainstorm."

Hwoarang glanced over at Christie to see her at the window, giving the finger. He watched Xiao walk over to see what her friend was looking at. The younger girl gasped and started banging on the window and shouting in Chinese, what sounded like pleas for help. The scene did not look very promising, and he really did not want to know, afraid that they were going to get themselves in deeper hot water then he would have liked.

The girls screamed and started running away from the window. Christie ordered Hwoarang to duck as she dived for cover. Xiao stopped mid-stride and looked around frantically, "Help me! Where do I go?"

The redheaded Korean grabbed Xiao and pulled her down behind a couch just in time for the outside wall to explode into a rainfall of drywall, insulation, glass, other random elements, and sparks. Footsteps crunched on the rubble, walking to the centre of the room and waiting there. Hwoarang could hear Christie muttering random Portuguese profanities. And he quickly realized that he was still holding Xiaoyu. As if receiving an electric shock, he jerked himself away from her and stepped out into the ruin of the room.

Jin Kazama stood there, black marks covering his face and chest, and huge wings folded at his back. His loose black pants were torn and bloody, and there was a large gash on his arm. His eyes, however, were unexpectedly normal. Christie sat in a chair, arms crossed in defiance, seeming to have a grudge against the demonic Mishima Offspring. Slowly Ling Xiaoyu climbed out from behind the couch and approached Jin.

"You're saving us again! I knew you wouldn't hurt us."

Jin gazed around the room, his gentle eyes landing on Christie and then moving on to Hwoarang. "My grand-father is on his way. We have to get them out of here quickly."

"Hey, pal," Christie said angrily getting to her feet. "When did we become the damsel's in distress you chauvinist pig? We're not the ones who alerted the whole Mishima Empire of our presence in this room by knocking out a wall! We could have handled ourselves without the assistance of your thick skull."

The dark Japanese eyes drifted wearily back to Christie as he continued speaking to Hwoarang. "Perhaps you should be the one to deal with her, because I don't think she likes me very much."

Christie scoffed, "Deal with me? Like you dealt with me by chasing me into danger and then ditching me on the roof? Is that your idea of dealing with a person? And what makes you think that we're the ones who need dealing with? Because we're girls? Or is it because you suffer from a superiority complex?"

Xiaoyu shook her head, "On any other occasion I'd agree with your anger, Christie, but HEIHACHI'S COMING AND I'M SCARED!"

"Don't you feed into the whole helpless female routine."

Hwoarang rolled his eyes, slipped on his boots without bothering to tie them up, grabbed Christie from behind, and lifted her over his shoulder, cringing as she started to struggle with all her strength. "Ugh, why the hell are you covered in mud? I'm sorry, but you just wouldn't shut up. Let's get out of here."

Xiaoyu watched Jin turn toward the opening, and pouted at him. "No fair!" She looked over at Hwoarang and Christie. "I want to be carried too!"