Match 1-5: World Warrior Team vs. New Generation Team
Author's Notes: More updates! Another match, and at this time a new soundtrack has been unlocked on the Colliding Worlds website. This soundtrack is the battle theme of the World Warrior team versus the New Generation team, and conveys the spirit of the fight; that no matter what happens, these are two worthy opponents facing off against each other purely for the sake of the fight. Enjoy.
Chan Yoruyamatiha: Despite the fact that he's married, Ken isn't all that devoted of a husband. In Gem Fighter his story is basically that he's gotten tired of Eliza and wants to have tea with someone else (and his ending is hilarious: Eliza beats him up when she catches him with Morrigan). Also, in the Street Fighter Flyers there's a story of how Ken tried to pick up another girl during one of Zangief's matches, after SF2. About Mitsukake: he's not really connected with anyone, but I'll try to give him some air time nonetheless.
Nagano, Japan
Three days have passed
"You know, I was buried here," Gouken remarked to Sakura and Kirina. The three of them stood outside the expansive grounds of Red Sparrow Castle, gazing up at its magnificent architecture. Red Sparrow Castle towered some forty or fifty meters above the chosen battleground, Genbu Plains. It featured a number of wooden window frames, screen doors, and the overhanging roofs common to classical era Oriental architecture. The fortress was in great need of maintenance. Further back behind the castle a small side path led to the top of the mountain where Gouken had once been buried. It was three hours past noon in Japan; the mountain air was cool and crisp, lending an exhilarating quality to the atmosphere.
Genbu Plains had been chosen as the battlefield, Red Sparrow Castle towering impressively in the background. The Plains themselves were flanked by a forest to the north and the fortress to the east; to the west and south the plains plateaued off a number of sheer cliffs. There were a number of patches of grass littered about, but otherwise the battlefield was smooth, hard, and devoid of vegetation. At least I don't have to fight on the roof of the castle again, Ryu thought to himself.
"I've been here before," Sakura said.
"Me too," Kirina added.
"Well, I haven't," Mitsukake cut in. "I really wish we could've shown up sooner; I would've liked to explore the place. Very beautiful scenery here; I should've brought my brushes."
Sakura glanced to the side, where Ryu, Sagat, and Darrell were stretching. "It's nearly time. Let's go. Hey, Kirina, how about some tea and ice cream after we finish here?"
"Sounds good to me." They assembled to where the judges were waiting.
"New Generation Team, name your tactical leader," Jedah commanded.
"Me." Sakura raised a hand.
"World Warrior Team, identify your tactical leader," Gill echoed.
"Here." Ryu nodded politely to the judge.
Gill and Jedah noted the entries, then had everyone back away, leaving the center of the field clear to Ryu and Sakura. The eternal challenger was dressed as he had always appeared: red headband, white uniform, and a plain black belt. Sakura, for her part, had brought her sailor outfit - it was a fan favorite, after all - out of retirement just for this battle. She hoped that it didn't give anyone the wrong impression. For a long moment neither of them said anything, until Ryu finally broke the silence. "Sakura ... do you really mean to give up the fight once this tournament is over?"
She nodded decisively. "Yes. I have my own life to pursue now. I'll still train, of course, but I won't be as involved as before."
"So be it. Let's end this with one grand finale." So saying, Ryu dropped into his fighting pose. Sakura followed suit, adjusting her headband and wristguards one last time before nodding to Ryu and adopting her own version of the Ansatsuken fighting stance. They had to wait for only a moment; the light brighter than light flashed and Marin's voice rang around them. Begin!
"And the action is furious right from the start!" Kyosuke Kagami raved. "One thing's for sure, Ryu's not giving Sakura any quarter at all. The lineup on the World Warrior side is Ryu leading, then Kirina, and Sagat bats cleanup. On the New Generation side, Sakura acts as tactical leader, followed by Darrell and then Mitsukake. Jin, what do you think of this fight?"
"The New Generation team is in for a butt-kicking!" Jin screamed.
Kyosuke studied the hologram where Ryu launched Sakura into the air with a crouching uppercut and followed with a Shoryuken. "They're up against two of the top team fighters in the tournament, and you can probably read their strategy right from the lineup. Ryu starts off to wear down the opposition, Kirina keeps them on their feet and prevents them from recovering, and finally Sagat comes in to win the match. But hang on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen, the New Generation Team - that's really a misnomer, come to think of it - isn't out of the fight yet. Look at that! Great assist from Darrell, stopping Ryu's attack cold."
On the ground, Ryu wiped away a bead of sweat from his forehead. He'd taken a pair of punches in the chest and a kick in the shins, but Sakura had fared much worse. She was panting hard; more than ten years ago, Sakura had been very nearly his equal in skill; it seemed that time had been most unkind to her. Ryu cupped his hands, feeling his power build up within him. His palms shone with bluish energy and in a moment he fired. "Shinkuu ... Hadouken!"
Sakura's eyes snapped upwards, drawn by the sight of the beam cannon speeding towards her. Her instinctive reaction was to block, but hadn't McGrath said something about not meeting force with force? Mentally she shrugged and thought to herself, why not? A moment later she rolled out of the way and the beam sped by harmlessly. From the sidelines Gouken smiled in approval. Ryu grimaced; Sagat shouted a few words of advice.
An ugly bruise had begun to appear around Sakura's left eye where Ryu's fist had found its target earlier, but Sakura went on the offensive regardless. To her experience, Ryu always flagged a little after using his Shinkuu Hadouken. He parried a quick rushing attack by Sakura but was caught unprepared when Darrell appeared behind him and landed a solid flaming kick into his back. Kirina showed up at the last moment with a rushdown assist, but Sakura easily dodged the attack and drove home for the kill. Unfortunately for her, Ryu had recovered by this time. Sakura's punch came out first but Ryu's Shoryuken overrode it regardless, sending her flying through the air. Sakura recovered in midair and landed softly.
Darrell jumped in to assist again; this time, Ryu was ready for him and landed a solid Hadouken in his face, Kirina also appearing to launch a Sniping Arrow. In the midst of the carnage, Sakura rolled forward under a high kick from Ryu and swept his ankles. Mitsukake and Sagat also appeared, the latter springing forward with a powerful Tiger Crush. This attack Sakura managed to dodge, while Mitsukake failed to lock Ryu with his Scissor Takedown. Sakura spun forward with a spinning flower kick; Ryu, who had anticipated the move, hopped over the attack. Both of them landed and went for their super attacks simultaneously.
"Here we go!" Sakura cried.
"Shin -!" Ryu began.
Sakura began her technique first, slashing at Ryu with a spinning kick. Ryu himself had crouched low for an uppercut, and to Sakura utter surprise her leg passed cleanly through Ryu without any impact at all. No way! Is this what they mean when they talk about startup invincibility? Unfortunately, she never had a chance to ask. Ryu sprang out of his crouch and his right hand rammed into Sakura's stomach, knocking all the wind out of her. He twisted around and delivered another devastating uppercut into her jaw with his left arm. Finally he spun again and completed the attack with his right arm, jumping off the ground entirely as he did so. "- Shoryuken!"
"And that is a K.O., ladies and gentlemen!" Jin shouted excitedly.
"Check out how far Sakura is flying!" Kyosuke added, somewhat surprised himself. He glanced at his shrieking co-anchor and decided to keep up his commentary. "Good thing the referees are on standby in case stuff like this happens. Here comes Darrell, who was next in line on the battle roster. Ryu looks a little tired himself; still, he can probably take Darrell with a reasonable level of comfort. Mr. Q., what was that move Ryu knocked Sakura out with?" As he spoke, Darrell jumped into the battlefield wearing a black leather jacket and black denim. He wore red wristguards and a red shirt underneath his jacket.
Q.'s voice, as always, was a dull, emotionless affair that Kyosuke found less interesting than a dial tone. "The Shin Shoryuken is one of the strongest techniques in this tournament, ranking alongside Guy's EXCEED Barrage, Bison's Psycho Drive Crusher, and Ernest's MAXIMUM Mayhem Rampage for sheer damage from a single move. It is second only to the so-called Ultimate Techniques. Kyosuke."
"Thanks, Q., you're as mysterious as ever," Kyosuke replied, voice heavy with sarcasm. "Let's consult with the ground correspondent. Alia, how are things looking from your perspective?"
"Kyosuke, Jin, my analysis indicates that although Ryu is somewhat beaten, he's still more than capable of holding his own against Darrell right now. But that isn't what he wants to do, apparently. Any time now, he'll be switching out with Kirina, he's only looking for a safe occasion to do this. You'll notice that the number of striker assists that Kirina has been contributing has tapered off. They're looking for an opportunity to - yes, here it is." On cue, Ryu pinned Darrell down with a Hadouken; a moment later, he tagged down and backed away from the battlefield, Kirina entering to take his place. Darrell missed his chance to hit back during Kirina's window of vulnerability.
Kirina chose Ansatsuken as her fighting style; some of the elements looked familiar to Darrell, who had studied both Sakura's techniques and Ken's. At the same time, Kirina had something else that was hard to pin down. She wore a blue hakama around her waist and a red robe tightly wrapped around her upper body. She sported a headband, but it was blue and not red like Ryu's. The only concession to fashion style that had been made was a single, long piece of white silk cloth that wrapped from the front of her neck behind her shoulders and down her back, where the two ends were pulled through her black belt. On the ends of that cloth the letters "Fu Rin Ka Zan" had been inscribed in heavy ink. When Kirina blocked a punch and retaliated with a roundhouse kick, Darrell saw that she was wearing lotus shoes.
Apparently Kirina was dealing with the phase that all Ansatsuken users faced at some point, the fireball-uppercut trap phase. "On paper, Kirina has Darrell," Kyosuke noted. "However, battles occur on the field, not on paper. Kirina's being a little predictable here, the same fireball-Dragon Punch routine used by scrub gamers in the arcades. She has to get up close and start pulling combination attacks. Here comes Sagat with an assist - no, wait, knocked out of it by Mitsukake. Kirina and Darrell are really battering at each other now." As he said this, Kirina faked a fireball attack and Darrell dodged to the side, zigzagging into hand-to-hand range; he swiped at Kirina with a flaming blade, expecting to slash through her sides. Instead, Kirina ducked the attack and in a moment had knocked Darrell to the ground with a vicious back sweep.
She followed up with an ax kick aimed at Darrell's temple, only that it never arrived; Mitsukake came in at the last second, bringing his leg crashing into the base of Kirina's neck and knocking her out of the attack. Gouken frowned from the sidelines. Darrell rushed forward to exploit the opening and promptly paid the price when he received a faceful of Sagat's knee. Kirina followed by launching him into the air and tacking on a couple of extra hits. "Aerial rave!" Jin screamed into his microphone. "Seven hit combo ending with a midair Hurricane Kick! Great show of technical skill by Kirina!"
Now wary, Darrell tried to circle and put Kirina between himself and her teammates. He was breathing heavily now, while Kirina looked no worse for wear. Darrell staggered a bit, but met Kirina's attack when she rushed in with a low punch. Darrell blocked the attack. Kirina jumped over a retaliatory kick and dove at him with a flying Hurricane Kick. Darrell countered with a ghetto version of the standard Shoryuken, his fists afire. Unfortunately, he was reminded of why he'd never included the Shoryuken in his repertoire when he missed completely. Kirina landed first, but only by a few milliseconds. Expecting a retaliatory uppercut, Darrell settled in for a high block.
So he was completely floored when Kirina switched styles and took out his left knee with a Sniping Arrow. Dimly he was aware that Mitsukake was shouting to him to tag out, but Darrell refused. Kirina came in again; after half a dozen blows, Darrell was no longer able to maintain adequate defense and took Kirina's heel in his chin. He rolled backwards heavily, stars in his vision and tasting blood in his mouth. He'd never run against the Shadowlaw fighting style before but all reports indicated that it was a dangerous and effective martial art. If so, he wouldn't last much longer under Kirina and Sagat's combined assault. But there was one last chance, if he could lure Kirina backwards ...
"Oh, wow, Kirina's really giving it to Darrell now," Kyosuke observed. "She might even -"
"Why isn't Darrell switching out with Mitsukake?!" Jin screamed. "He won't last much longer under the attack! He has to switch out! Now! Argh, the man's so infuriating I ought to have Blodia shoot him full of holes!"
"She has him now!" Kyosuke called, both he and Jin jumping to their feet as Kirina knocked Darrell into the air with a mighty roundhouse kick. Instantly she hyper canceled the move and jumped into a handstand. Then she sprang off the ground, legs locked and twisting upwards like a human drill. "That's the Reverse Shaft Breaker, folks!" Kyosuke proclaimed. "Unfortunately, it was chained off a launcher, so it won't do anywhere near maximum damage, but even so -"
"Kirina is kicking the daylights out of Darrell!" Jin shouted hysterically.
Kirina landed a number of solid kicks, while Darrell signaled in midair for an assist. He tried to fend off the attack as well he could, but now he was dangerously close to the edge of the battlefield and the attack was more vicious than he'd expected. Kirina kicked one last time; Darrell blocked the strike but flew backwards anyway, propelled by the sheer force of the attack. As he and Kirina fell back to the ground, he struggled to maintain consciousness, succeeding only by the barest of margins. But it was enough. Mitsukake slid in and caught Kirina just as she landed, taking advantage of the Shaft Breaker's abysmal cooldown to lock her tightly in the Scissor Takedown. Kirina could neither move nor defend.
Darrell drew as deeply on his ch'i as he could, while a distant part of his brain sounded warning alarms. Charlie had once talked about dangerous levels of ch'i expenditure in the past. The human body only has a very limited about of ch'i, you know, he'd said. In order to pull off increasingly more powerful attacks, you'll have to use more and more of your power. But once you hit the upper limit, that's it for you unless you can draw energy from outside sources. So don't anything stupid. You need your ch'i in order to live. Darrell grimaced and winced; his energy buildup was starting to singe him, something that his flames had never done before. Kirina must have felt it too.
"Sagat!" she cried. "Quickly!"
Now Darrell concentrated his energy into his fists, willing his vital force to flow into his fingertips. He envisioned a river running into his hands. A moment later, both fists burst into bright flame. He threw both hands forward; a pair of molten streams burst out of his palms, twining around each other into one coherent whole that streaked towards his target. Kirina cried out one last time, but her partner was too far away to help. Mitsukake cleared the area at the last moment, leaving Kirina to take the full brunt of the attack. Darrell strained as he attempted to maintain the fire blast for as long as possible while Kirina vanished in a haze of fire and smoke.
The fire snuffed out, the stream from his palms dying with a whimper. But the assault didn't end there. As Darrell watched through curiously swimming vision, a streak of blue light appeared in front of him and widened, giving way to a blue-painted Reploid a moment later. Megaman? As if waiting for a signal, three other machines ran in: Rush, Beat, and Fliptop, each one converging on Megaman with remarkable speed. There was a blinding flash of light and the little blue Reploid seemed to grow to ten times his size. And he looked much, much meaner, sporting a cannon on his left arm that was nearly as big as Darrell himself. A pair of missile launchers popped up from either shoulder pad and machine guns appeared on his sides.
Of course. Mitsukake's Team super attack, Darrell thought wearily to himself. He collapsed on the ground and saw no more.
Megaman fired off a massive beam of energy that dwarfed Darrell's Yugure Hadouken in comparison, at the same time launching a veritable storm of warheads through the air. The attack cleaved a clear path through the battlefield, engulfing Kirina. Sagat, who had jumped in far too late, was barely able to defend himself. Abruptly the onslaught ended and Megaman once more reverted to his normal self, his accessory machines dispersing. He saluted and flew out of the battlefield, Mitsukake himself appearing to take his place.
"Very nice trap by the New Generation team there," Kyosuke commented. "Unfortunately, Darrell must've used up too much of his energy ..."
"It's a double K.O.!" Jin hollered.
"... ahem, anyway, so the World Warrior team is now down one member. However, the New Generation team is back to its last fighter, and he's facing the mighty Emperor of Muay Thai. Mitsukake isn't a fighter by training, so I think -"
"Sagat is going to kick his ass!"
"Whatever you say, Jin. Let's look at the fight in greater detail."
At more than two meters tall, Mitsukake was accustomed to looking down on other people. Sagat, however, had nearly a foot's worth of height advantage over him. He swiftly backed Mitsukake into a corner under a barrage of punches and kicks, by the end of which the one time artist was bleeding and badly bruised. Searching desperately for a solution, Mitsukake called in his one last assist. "Go, Zero!"
And Zero needed no second bidding, dashing through the battlefield with his glowing Z-Saber drawn. The gambit failed as Sagat jumped over the attack and Zero missed his slash. A moment later, the Emperor of Muay Thai had landed and all one hundred kilograms of his weight went into one final attack thrown with full force against Mitsukake. "Tiger ... Uppercut!"
"The World Warrior Team has done it!" Jin screamed. "They've won!"
Osaka, Japan
One day has passed
"Dr. McGrath!"
"Is it important, Vega?" McGrath called back. "I'm rather busy right now!" He was sitting at his desk attempting to piece together the latest parts of the puzzle. Besides Karin and Ibuki and the Darkstalkers, there were more absences to worry his mind. Haggar had been called back to Metro City yesterday to witness at a trial; meanwhile, a call to Yun and Yang had resulted in nothing. McGrath was leaving on an IDC flight within an hour to check on the village himself, Blake Wallis having already gone ahead. Go Hibiki also seemed to be missing. Something wasn't right about this, only McGrath couldn't pin down what it was. There was no pattern to these disappearances.
"I really think you ought to see this!" Vega shouted through the door.
"Alright, coming." McGrath stood up and stretched; his wife had left earlier to train with Guy and Charlie. He picked up his jacket and shrugged it on as he pulled the door open. Vega was there, dressed in a tuxedo and with a worried look on his face. "Give me the details, good or bad."
"See for yourself, doctor." Vega led McGrath into the lounge, where to his surprise McGrath saw that most of the other contestants had already arrived. A large plasma-screen television dominated the far end of the lounge and it was here that most of the attention was fixed. McGrath took the room in one glance. There were a surprising amount of people here and nearly all of them looked either pensive or downright worried. Vega paced restlessly like a caged panther. Then McGrath glanced at the television program and realized why.
"... strange disappearances surrounding the World Collision tournament," a news reporter was saying. "A city-wide alert has already been broadcast over Osaka concerning two girls who have vanished: Karin Kanzuki and Ibuki." The television showed photographs of the girls as well as the phone number where the IDC was coordinating a search and rescue mission. "Information leading to the recovery of one or both girls is currently being valued at ten million yen right now by the Kanzuki conglomerate. If you find a clue, call this toll-free number where the IDC is currently conducting its investigation. The two girls were last seen entering a jewelry shop in downtown Osaka and the IDC has been combing the area ever since."
"Just what we don't need right now," McGrath swore.
"In other news, a variety of unexplained phenomena remain hanging over the World Collision tournament. Besides the rampant speculation as to the identity of the tournament host, M., there have also been sightings of various contestants around Osaka." This time the television showed a brief segment of Blake Wallis, Darrell Markis, and Kenneth Feng fighting with their unknown assailants. After it finished, another short video clip was shown of bloody Dadallent slicing the commandos into pieces. Where had they found those? "Shown in this footage is Dadallent, known in the martial arts community as the Chaos Prince, who is a contestant in the World Collision tournament."
"I think that this is a very dangerous situation," a witness was shown saying. The subtext identified him as the police chief of Osaka. "The man is far too deadly to be controlled by anyone and who knows what he'll do next?"
"And of course, there is the well-known and still unexplained voice at the opening ceremony. Many witnesses clearly identified a feminine voice promising money, glory, and divinity to the winners of the tournament; however, no footage from the stadium has this recording when it supposedly happened. To sum up, many of the events surrounding the World Collision tournament are unexplained. The tournament organizers did not return calls asking for comments. In other news, a derailed train in Tokyo ..."
"Well, what do you think?" Chan asked. Guile hit the remote and the television died.
"Actually, I'm not surprised," McGrath explained. "The World Collision tournament is the second most watched program on television, behind only the 2000 summer Olympics and ahead of the World Cup. It reaches an estimated 1.5 billion viewers per match. It was only a matter of time before someone found out about this. However, that leaves the question: who? It couldn't have been one of us, since there was no commentary on the program from anyone actually in the tournament. So it must have been either an anonymous leak or investigative reporting. I'll be honest with everyone here; the disappearance situation looks a lot worse than they showed on television. Besides Karin and Ibuki, we're missing the Darkstalkers and possibly the Dragons. Rose also remains absent; Bison has been trying to contact her for three days straight with no response. Go Hibiki's gone, too. We really don't need the negative publicity right now."
"If the news gets out on who the sponsor of this tournament really is ..." Captain Commando began.
"It better not beforehand," McGrath replied, "Or else we will never hear the end of it. I've asked my commanding officers to dispatch more manpower to this tournament, but the request was denied; IDC resources are already strained too thin. I hate to say this, but if worst comes to worst your BEAT teams may be pulled from security duty. For now, our priority is locating the missing people."
"Any leads?" Bison asked.
McGrath shook his head. "No credible ones. Listen, all of you. If anyone asks, none of us here know anything about who M. is, alright? Luckily Jin and Kyosuke haven't found out yet, otherwise I'm sure they'd have blabbered it by now. Someone get ahold of Gen and inform him of the arrangements. And let your teammates know that we're keeping a secret when they get back." There were nods from all directions. With that the crowd began to disperse, breaking apart in ones and twos and threes. McGrath remained in the room with a pensive look on his face, troubles clearly building up on his mind.
"He looks so stressed," Regina said to Commando, worry heavy in her own beautiful voice. "I wish there was something I could do for him."
"Regina."
"Yes?"
The captain drew her aside. "Look, Regina, I overheard your conversation two days ago with the cashier in the jewelry shop. You shouldn't have told her who you are."
"Oh?" Regina studied his glasses, behind which his eyes were unreadable. "Should I not reveal the fact that I'm a goddess?"
Commando sighed. "There's no easy way to say this. This world is not as kind as you believe it to be. In my opinion, it was a mistake for you to reveal your divinity to anyone, even us. Those who do not believe you will laugh at you and scorn you. And among those who do believe, there are people who would try to make your power their own, for their own ends. Some of them are in this very tournament. I know that you see a good side and a dark side in everyone, and that you want to believe in the good side. But take this from someone who has seen more than you have: trust no one implicitly. That way, you won't do something that you may regret later."
"I see. Thanks for the advice, captain."
"One more thing." Commando adjusted the ten-gallon hat that he wore. "I heard from the doctor that Bison wanted to speak with you alone, right before Sakura reported that Karin and Ibuki were missing. What did he want to talk about?"
"He was having some problems with a machine of his," Regina replied. "Apparently he couldn't find enough power to keep it active, so he asked to borrow some of my power."
"What?!" Commando seized Regina by the shoulders. "Did you let him?!"
"Of course!" Regina winced slightly; Commando let go and instantly apologized. "No harm done, captain. I siphoned off a bit of my power and gave it to him for his machine. I can't remember exactly what he called it - a Psycho something. Should I not have done that?"
"The Psycho Drive," Commando finished grimly. "Ryu or Charlie could tell you more, but I'll say what I know. Bison planned to use that machine to bring the world to its knees, ten years ago. That time he was foiled by multiple people. The Psycho Drive channels negative emotions from all over the world, which are then used to power Bison far beyond what he is normally capable of doing. Bison's fighting style, Psycho Power, is based on manipulation of negative emotions. If he has a fully functional Psycho Drive ... he could destroy this world, and he probably will."
"Oh no!" Regina gasped.
"How much power did you lend him?" Commando asked.
"Barely any, actually," Regina said thoughtfully. "Let me show you exactly what I did for him. Hold out your hand." Commando did as he was asked. Regina passed her right hand over his and touched palm to palm. Nothing visible occurred, but suddenly Commando was on his knees gasping for breath and clutching at his heart. "Oh dear! I'm so sorry!" Regina cried. "I didn't mean to ... I didn't realize ... are you hurt?"
"N-no," Commando replied, visibly shaken as he staggered uneasily to his feet. "Just surprised, is all. You call that a little power?!"
"Well, of course. It was so insignificant that I could barely sense it at all." Regina passed her hand over Commando's face, searching for any signs of permanent damage. Apparently she was satisfied with what she found, as she made no attempt to heal him. "Please understand, captain. Most immortals never assume a physical form, as being in a human body places a rather severe limit on our strength. Right now I can only wield a small fraction of the power that I would normally handle as a goddess. Gill is an exception, but that's because most of his power comes directly from what Marin lent to him. Still, by my reckoning his power is almost unnoticeable."
"Then your scale is way different from mine," Commando replied. "I thought my body was going to burst from all that power. Why, I could've built Rome in a day with the strength that you lent me. Is Marin as powerful as you?"
"My sister is a class-SX goddess, one of the two highest ranks of immortals," Regina stated, sitting down on a couch. Commando joined her there. Regina brushed back a strand of her hair and continued, "For both sheer power as well as finesse, my dear sister can outdo me easily. She doesn't normally resort to her power, though; she prefers to work things out patiently with skill rather than force. There is only one time that she truly had to use all the power at her command. It occurred just before I was born, but later I heard the story from my angels.
"Marin once loved a god named Eldrin. They courted for many centuries and Heaven predicted their marriage at any time. My sister still refers to those times as the happiest in her life. But that peace did not last after Marin discovered his dark secret. Eldrin, you see, chose a planet and as a demonstration of his power destroyed both of its moons. Obviously no mortal could oppose a god and he reigned unopposed for as long as anyone there could remember, harvesting the souls of the dead and consuming them in order to increase his own power. Strictly speaking, this isn't forbidden under the rules, but it's still an offensive practice nonetheless. The peace finally ended when my sister followed him there and she was truly horrified by what she saw. When words failed, they fought. Guess how long the war lasted?" Regina held up four fingers.
"Four days? No, four hours? Four weeks? Not that either ... surely you can't mean four months?!" Commando exclaimed.
Regina shook her head. "Forty years as you count time," she said softly. "Forty years they fought back and forth across the Heavens and laid waste to an entire galaxy. My sister finally won that battle, sealing away Eldrin's soul in the Void between reality. But, she was heartbroken by the disaster that the war had brought; nearly every star in the sky had been extinguished and the humans on Eldrin's world almost entirely wiped out. So my sister stayed behind to guide them in rebuilding their planet. She lived there for hundreds of years, only returning after hearing of my birth and the death of our mother. I was able to visit that world once, several hundred years ago; last I checked, it was flourishing quite well. Marin still carries a memento from that time; her new weapon, the Rainbow Swallow, which she forged from the stars that fell in the war. She wields it to remind herself of the terrible destruction that would ensue if she ever became careless with her power."
"Forty years ..." Commando said to himself. "And I thought that Dr. McGrath's night-long battle against Dadallent took forever. Tell me more about your sister."
Regina smiled happily. "Besides being my sister, Marin is also my best friend here or anywhere. In many ways, she's the mother I never knew. Marin always took training very seriously; however, that didn't mean that we couldn't have some fun together. She was forever getting me involved in all sorts of activities. Her regimen was rigorous but very enjoyable. Nearly all of what I know now can be directly attributed to something that she taught me. I wish the tournament finals were already here and you could meet Marin. She'd like you, I'm certain of that."
"She sounds like a nice person," Commando agreed.
She sounds like a nice person, McGrath thought to himself as Regina and Commando left the room, leaving him alone to think. But somehow I still cannot shake off the feeling that Marin has some sinister motive in mind. Regina and I talked about this just last night. She was adamant in defending her sister. And if Marin really is as powerful as I suspect, then why hasn't she done anything about these disappearances? If only we had some sort of clue ... I really ought to press Regina - and Sakura and Lloyd, come to think of it - for more information. I'm so terribly confused. McGrath sighed to himself and slowly paced back to his room, lost in thought. He still had a flight to catch in half an hour.
Why did you come here, Regina? he'd asked last night.
Because I heard of the event that my sister was planning, she'd explained. I wanted to meet and befriend everyone first. There really is no other reason. And McGrath had been satisfied with the answer. Regina was, after all, a guileless soul, so that and her alibi could automatically remove her from any complicity with the disappearances or any ulterior motive underlying the tournament. But the doctor was dissatisfied. Regina plainly had no idea on what her sister specifically wanted out of the tournament. McGrath would rather that she knew and be not willing to say, as he knew all sorts of conversational traps and tricks to get someone to reveal information better kept secret. He swung the door open and stepped into his room. In the bathroom, Samantha could be heard singing to herself as she showered.
"Doctor."
McGrath seated himself and did not need to look up to know who had addressed him. "Yes, Dadallent?" He pulled a pen out of the desk drawer and began to write, jotting down notes on the investigation. With his free hand he sorted through a number of photographs lying around. The search had really bogged down due to lack of credible leads.
"About those girls ... you cannot sense their spirits either, can you?"
McGrath shook his head wearily and laid the pen down, turning around in his chair to look at Dadallent. The blindfolded warrior was standing at the far end of the room, arms folded, facing the window so that his face was hidden from view. Behind him, the shower had stopped running. "I don't have your level of spiritual sensitivity, but I spoke with Regina earlier and she couldn't sense their spirits. So, yes, I am considering the possibility that they may in fact be dead. Of course, no one will accept my spiritual sense as any sort of hard proof. Many times I don't trust it myself. But why do you care?"
"Promise me one thing, doctor."
"Before you say it," McGrath responded warily, "first tell me why you would come here expecting anything of me. In case you've forgotten, you tried to kill me three times in the past." Those fights hadn't exactly been pleasant memories for McGrath either; it had taken him a week to recover from Dadallent's Ravage Assault after their first match. The second match McGrath had expended nearly all of his energy with no result to show for it, while the final match had nearly cost both warriors their lives.
"It is precisely that I tried and failed to kill you that I ask this of you. I wouldn't trust anyone else."
"Alright, name it. Then I'll decide whether or not to promise you." Inwardly McGrath braced himself. The three times that they had fought, Dadallent had always offered him the deathmatch right before the battle commenced. McGrath's could've declined to fight at any time - they were both honorable warriors, after all - only that had he not accepted the challenge, Dadallent would doubtlessly have gone searching for other opponents. Underlying McGrath's agreement to do battle was the realization that very few people were anywhere near a match for the Chaos Prince, but he was one of them. Dadallent crossed the room in slow, purposeful strides, bent over and whispered for some time into McGrath's ears.
Then he stood up and straightened. "About Go Hibiki."
"Yes?" McGrath asked, not at all certain that he would like what he heard. Go had been missing for two days without having told anyone where he'd gone. His spirit was a notoriously difficult one to pin down - having been dead and then resurrected did that, McGrath thought - although Regina had done it without any trouble when he'd first vanished, so McGrath still wasn't too worried about him. That is, until Dadallent's next words changed his mind.
"He found me last night and tried to avenge his son."
The doctor sighed; he'd feared that Dadallent would say as much. Go had been a member of McGrath's generation, but McGrath knew of his battle with Sagat, the battle that had cost Sagat his eye and Go his life. Both were accomplished in Muay Thai; they still were, come to think of it. "It was a painless passing, I hope," McGrath voiced. "You killed him quickly, didn't you?"
"Yes. He earned it."
McGrath was about to speak when the door to the bathroom opened and Samantha stepped out, wrapped in a negligee and wearing a pair of slippers. She halted when she saw Dadallent and directed an enquiring glance at her husband, appraising the Chaos Prince item by item as she did so. Dadallent did not move an inch from his position but he must have been aware of her presence. Samantha asked the question a moment later. "Ernest, am I interrupting something?"
"We've just about finished our business here," McGrath replied, still trying to make sense of what Dadallent had asked of him. McGrath stood up and crossed over to the closet, pulling out a robe for his wife. He handed it to Samantha, speaking as he did so. "Why should I do this for you, Dadallent? I've seen your record, all the people you've killed. Many of them were good friends of mine and I wept at their funerals. I repeat, why should I do this?"
"You have no reason to do this for me."
The reply was flat and honest; McGrath had expected no less. Samantha held the robe but did not attempt to return to the bathroom and dress herself. Her eyes darted back and forth questioningly between McGrath and Dadallent, the latter of whom still had not moved after speaking with McGrath. And the Chaos Prince was right; McGrath really had no reason to do it for him, except for a word that they had both left unspoken. Respect. The mutual respect shown by worthy opponents for each other. McGrath nodded. "Very well, after the tournament. When will the time be right?"
"You will know," was the only answer as Dadallent and his black aura faded into nothingness.
Author's Notes: More updates! Another match, and at this time a new soundtrack has been unlocked on the Colliding Worlds website. This soundtrack is the battle theme of the World Warrior team versus the New Generation team, and conveys the spirit of the fight; that no matter what happens, these are two worthy opponents facing off against each other purely for the sake of the fight. Enjoy.
Chan Yoruyamatiha: Despite the fact that he's married, Ken isn't all that devoted of a husband. In Gem Fighter his story is basically that he's gotten tired of Eliza and wants to have tea with someone else (and his ending is hilarious: Eliza beats him up when she catches him with Morrigan). Also, in the Street Fighter Flyers there's a story of how Ken tried to pick up another girl during one of Zangief's matches, after SF2. About Mitsukake: he's not really connected with anyone, but I'll try to give him some air time nonetheless.
Nagano, Japan
Three days have passed
"You know, I was buried here," Gouken remarked to Sakura and Kirina. The three of them stood outside the expansive grounds of Red Sparrow Castle, gazing up at its magnificent architecture. Red Sparrow Castle towered some forty or fifty meters above the chosen battleground, Genbu Plains. It featured a number of wooden window frames, screen doors, and the overhanging roofs common to classical era Oriental architecture. The fortress was in great need of maintenance. Further back behind the castle a small side path led to the top of the mountain where Gouken had once been buried. It was three hours past noon in Japan; the mountain air was cool and crisp, lending an exhilarating quality to the atmosphere.
Genbu Plains had been chosen as the battlefield, Red Sparrow Castle towering impressively in the background. The Plains themselves were flanked by a forest to the north and the fortress to the east; to the west and south the plains plateaued off a number of sheer cliffs. There were a number of patches of grass littered about, but otherwise the battlefield was smooth, hard, and devoid of vegetation. At least I don't have to fight on the roof of the castle again, Ryu thought to himself.
"I've been here before," Sakura said.
"Me too," Kirina added.
"Well, I haven't," Mitsukake cut in. "I really wish we could've shown up sooner; I would've liked to explore the place. Very beautiful scenery here; I should've brought my brushes."
Sakura glanced to the side, where Ryu, Sagat, and Darrell were stretching. "It's nearly time. Let's go. Hey, Kirina, how about some tea and ice cream after we finish here?"
"Sounds good to me." They assembled to where the judges were waiting.
"New Generation Team, name your tactical leader," Jedah commanded.
"Me." Sakura raised a hand.
"World Warrior Team, identify your tactical leader," Gill echoed.
"Here." Ryu nodded politely to the judge.
Gill and Jedah noted the entries, then had everyone back away, leaving the center of the field clear to Ryu and Sakura. The eternal challenger was dressed as he had always appeared: red headband, white uniform, and a plain black belt. Sakura, for her part, had brought her sailor outfit - it was a fan favorite, after all - out of retirement just for this battle. She hoped that it didn't give anyone the wrong impression. For a long moment neither of them said anything, until Ryu finally broke the silence. "Sakura ... do you really mean to give up the fight once this tournament is over?"
She nodded decisively. "Yes. I have my own life to pursue now. I'll still train, of course, but I won't be as involved as before."
"So be it. Let's end this with one grand finale." So saying, Ryu dropped into his fighting pose. Sakura followed suit, adjusting her headband and wristguards one last time before nodding to Ryu and adopting her own version of the Ansatsuken fighting stance. They had to wait for only a moment; the light brighter than light flashed and Marin's voice rang around them. Begin!
"And the action is furious right from the start!" Kyosuke Kagami raved. "One thing's for sure, Ryu's not giving Sakura any quarter at all. The lineup on the World Warrior side is Ryu leading, then Kirina, and Sagat bats cleanup. On the New Generation side, Sakura acts as tactical leader, followed by Darrell and then Mitsukake. Jin, what do you think of this fight?"
"The New Generation team is in for a butt-kicking!" Jin screamed.
Kyosuke studied the hologram where Ryu launched Sakura into the air with a crouching uppercut and followed with a Shoryuken. "They're up against two of the top team fighters in the tournament, and you can probably read their strategy right from the lineup. Ryu starts off to wear down the opposition, Kirina keeps them on their feet and prevents them from recovering, and finally Sagat comes in to win the match. But hang on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen, the New Generation Team - that's really a misnomer, come to think of it - isn't out of the fight yet. Look at that! Great assist from Darrell, stopping Ryu's attack cold."
On the ground, Ryu wiped away a bead of sweat from his forehead. He'd taken a pair of punches in the chest and a kick in the shins, but Sakura had fared much worse. She was panting hard; more than ten years ago, Sakura had been very nearly his equal in skill; it seemed that time had been most unkind to her. Ryu cupped his hands, feeling his power build up within him. His palms shone with bluish energy and in a moment he fired. "Shinkuu ... Hadouken!"
Sakura's eyes snapped upwards, drawn by the sight of the beam cannon speeding towards her. Her instinctive reaction was to block, but hadn't McGrath said something about not meeting force with force? Mentally she shrugged and thought to herself, why not? A moment later she rolled out of the way and the beam sped by harmlessly. From the sidelines Gouken smiled in approval. Ryu grimaced; Sagat shouted a few words of advice.
An ugly bruise had begun to appear around Sakura's left eye where Ryu's fist had found its target earlier, but Sakura went on the offensive regardless. To her experience, Ryu always flagged a little after using his Shinkuu Hadouken. He parried a quick rushing attack by Sakura but was caught unprepared when Darrell appeared behind him and landed a solid flaming kick into his back. Kirina showed up at the last moment with a rushdown assist, but Sakura easily dodged the attack and drove home for the kill. Unfortunately for her, Ryu had recovered by this time. Sakura's punch came out first but Ryu's Shoryuken overrode it regardless, sending her flying through the air. Sakura recovered in midair and landed softly.
Darrell jumped in to assist again; this time, Ryu was ready for him and landed a solid Hadouken in his face, Kirina also appearing to launch a Sniping Arrow. In the midst of the carnage, Sakura rolled forward under a high kick from Ryu and swept his ankles. Mitsukake and Sagat also appeared, the latter springing forward with a powerful Tiger Crush. This attack Sakura managed to dodge, while Mitsukake failed to lock Ryu with his Scissor Takedown. Sakura spun forward with a spinning flower kick; Ryu, who had anticipated the move, hopped over the attack. Both of them landed and went for their super attacks simultaneously.
"Here we go!" Sakura cried.
"Shin -!" Ryu began.
Sakura began her technique first, slashing at Ryu with a spinning kick. Ryu himself had crouched low for an uppercut, and to Sakura utter surprise her leg passed cleanly through Ryu without any impact at all. No way! Is this what they mean when they talk about startup invincibility? Unfortunately, she never had a chance to ask. Ryu sprang out of his crouch and his right hand rammed into Sakura's stomach, knocking all the wind out of her. He twisted around and delivered another devastating uppercut into her jaw with his left arm. Finally he spun again and completed the attack with his right arm, jumping off the ground entirely as he did so. "- Shoryuken!"
"And that is a K.O., ladies and gentlemen!" Jin shouted excitedly.
"Check out how far Sakura is flying!" Kyosuke added, somewhat surprised himself. He glanced at his shrieking co-anchor and decided to keep up his commentary. "Good thing the referees are on standby in case stuff like this happens. Here comes Darrell, who was next in line on the battle roster. Ryu looks a little tired himself; still, he can probably take Darrell with a reasonable level of comfort. Mr. Q., what was that move Ryu knocked Sakura out with?" As he spoke, Darrell jumped into the battlefield wearing a black leather jacket and black denim. He wore red wristguards and a red shirt underneath his jacket.
Q.'s voice, as always, was a dull, emotionless affair that Kyosuke found less interesting than a dial tone. "The Shin Shoryuken is one of the strongest techniques in this tournament, ranking alongside Guy's EXCEED Barrage, Bison's Psycho Drive Crusher, and Ernest's MAXIMUM Mayhem Rampage for sheer damage from a single move. It is second only to the so-called Ultimate Techniques. Kyosuke."
"Thanks, Q., you're as mysterious as ever," Kyosuke replied, voice heavy with sarcasm. "Let's consult with the ground correspondent. Alia, how are things looking from your perspective?"
"Kyosuke, Jin, my analysis indicates that although Ryu is somewhat beaten, he's still more than capable of holding his own against Darrell right now. But that isn't what he wants to do, apparently. Any time now, he'll be switching out with Kirina, he's only looking for a safe occasion to do this. You'll notice that the number of striker assists that Kirina has been contributing has tapered off. They're looking for an opportunity to - yes, here it is." On cue, Ryu pinned Darrell down with a Hadouken; a moment later, he tagged down and backed away from the battlefield, Kirina entering to take his place. Darrell missed his chance to hit back during Kirina's window of vulnerability.
Kirina chose Ansatsuken as her fighting style; some of the elements looked familiar to Darrell, who had studied both Sakura's techniques and Ken's. At the same time, Kirina had something else that was hard to pin down. She wore a blue hakama around her waist and a red robe tightly wrapped around her upper body. She sported a headband, but it was blue and not red like Ryu's. The only concession to fashion style that had been made was a single, long piece of white silk cloth that wrapped from the front of her neck behind her shoulders and down her back, where the two ends were pulled through her black belt. On the ends of that cloth the letters "Fu Rin Ka Zan" had been inscribed in heavy ink. When Kirina blocked a punch and retaliated with a roundhouse kick, Darrell saw that she was wearing lotus shoes.
Apparently Kirina was dealing with the phase that all Ansatsuken users faced at some point, the fireball-uppercut trap phase. "On paper, Kirina has Darrell," Kyosuke noted. "However, battles occur on the field, not on paper. Kirina's being a little predictable here, the same fireball-Dragon Punch routine used by scrub gamers in the arcades. She has to get up close and start pulling combination attacks. Here comes Sagat with an assist - no, wait, knocked out of it by Mitsukake. Kirina and Darrell are really battering at each other now." As he said this, Kirina faked a fireball attack and Darrell dodged to the side, zigzagging into hand-to-hand range; he swiped at Kirina with a flaming blade, expecting to slash through her sides. Instead, Kirina ducked the attack and in a moment had knocked Darrell to the ground with a vicious back sweep.
She followed up with an ax kick aimed at Darrell's temple, only that it never arrived; Mitsukake came in at the last second, bringing his leg crashing into the base of Kirina's neck and knocking her out of the attack. Gouken frowned from the sidelines. Darrell rushed forward to exploit the opening and promptly paid the price when he received a faceful of Sagat's knee. Kirina followed by launching him into the air and tacking on a couple of extra hits. "Aerial rave!" Jin screamed into his microphone. "Seven hit combo ending with a midair Hurricane Kick! Great show of technical skill by Kirina!"
Now wary, Darrell tried to circle and put Kirina between himself and her teammates. He was breathing heavily now, while Kirina looked no worse for wear. Darrell staggered a bit, but met Kirina's attack when she rushed in with a low punch. Darrell blocked the attack. Kirina jumped over a retaliatory kick and dove at him with a flying Hurricane Kick. Darrell countered with a ghetto version of the standard Shoryuken, his fists afire. Unfortunately, he was reminded of why he'd never included the Shoryuken in his repertoire when he missed completely. Kirina landed first, but only by a few milliseconds. Expecting a retaliatory uppercut, Darrell settled in for a high block.
So he was completely floored when Kirina switched styles and took out his left knee with a Sniping Arrow. Dimly he was aware that Mitsukake was shouting to him to tag out, but Darrell refused. Kirina came in again; after half a dozen blows, Darrell was no longer able to maintain adequate defense and took Kirina's heel in his chin. He rolled backwards heavily, stars in his vision and tasting blood in his mouth. He'd never run against the Shadowlaw fighting style before but all reports indicated that it was a dangerous and effective martial art. If so, he wouldn't last much longer under Kirina and Sagat's combined assault. But there was one last chance, if he could lure Kirina backwards ...
"Oh, wow, Kirina's really giving it to Darrell now," Kyosuke observed. "She might even -"
"Why isn't Darrell switching out with Mitsukake?!" Jin screamed. "He won't last much longer under the attack! He has to switch out! Now! Argh, the man's so infuriating I ought to have Blodia shoot him full of holes!"
"She has him now!" Kyosuke called, both he and Jin jumping to their feet as Kirina knocked Darrell into the air with a mighty roundhouse kick. Instantly she hyper canceled the move and jumped into a handstand. Then she sprang off the ground, legs locked and twisting upwards like a human drill. "That's the Reverse Shaft Breaker, folks!" Kyosuke proclaimed. "Unfortunately, it was chained off a launcher, so it won't do anywhere near maximum damage, but even so -"
"Kirina is kicking the daylights out of Darrell!" Jin shouted hysterically.
Kirina landed a number of solid kicks, while Darrell signaled in midair for an assist. He tried to fend off the attack as well he could, but now he was dangerously close to the edge of the battlefield and the attack was more vicious than he'd expected. Kirina kicked one last time; Darrell blocked the strike but flew backwards anyway, propelled by the sheer force of the attack. As he and Kirina fell back to the ground, he struggled to maintain consciousness, succeeding only by the barest of margins. But it was enough. Mitsukake slid in and caught Kirina just as she landed, taking advantage of the Shaft Breaker's abysmal cooldown to lock her tightly in the Scissor Takedown. Kirina could neither move nor defend.
Darrell drew as deeply on his ch'i as he could, while a distant part of his brain sounded warning alarms. Charlie had once talked about dangerous levels of ch'i expenditure in the past. The human body only has a very limited about of ch'i, you know, he'd said. In order to pull off increasingly more powerful attacks, you'll have to use more and more of your power. But once you hit the upper limit, that's it for you unless you can draw energy from outside sources. So don't anything stupid. You need your ch'i in order to live. Darrell grimaced and winced; his energy buildup was starting to singe him, something that his flames had never done before. Kirina must have felt it too.
"Sagat!" she cried. "Quickly!"
Now Darrell concentrated his energy into his fists, willing his vital force to flow into his fingertips. He envisioned a river running into his hands. A moment later, both fists burst into bright flame. He threw both hands forward; a pair of molten streams burst out of his palms, twining around each other into one coherent whole that streaked towards his target. Kirina cried out one last time, but her partner was too far away to help. Mitsukake cleared the area at the last moment, leaving Kirina to take the full brunt of the attack. Darrell strained as he attempted to maintain the fire blast for as long as possible while Kirina vanished in a haze of fire and smoke.
The fire snuffed out, the stream from his palms dying with a whimper. But the assault didn't end there. As Darrell watched through curiously swimming vision, a streak of blue light appeared in front of him and widened, giving way to a blue-painted Reploid a moment later. Megaman? As if waiting for a signal, three other machines ran in: Rush, Beat, and Fliptop, each one converging on Megaman with remarkable speed. There was a blinding flash of light and the little blue Reploid seemed to grow to ten times his size. And he looked much, much meaner, sporting a cannon on his left arm that was nearly as big as Darrell himself. A pair of missile launchers popped up from either shoulder pad and machine guns appeared on his sides.
Of course. Mitsukake's Team super attack, Darrell thought wearily to himself. He collapsed on the ground and saw no more.
Megaman fired off a massive beam of energy that dwarfed Darrell's Yugure Hadouken in comparison, at the same time launching a veritable storm of warheads through the air. The attack cleaved a clear path through the battlefield, engulfing Kirina. Sagat, who had jumped in far too late, was barely able to defend himself. Abruptly the onslaught ended and Megaman once more reverted to his normal self, his accessory machines dispersing. He saluted and flew out of the battlefield, Mitsukake himself appearing to take his place.
"Very nice trap by the New Generation team there," Kyosuke commented. "Unfortunately, Darrell must've used up too much of his energy ..."
"It's a double K.O.!" Jin hollered.
"... ahem, anyway, so the World Warrior team is now down one member. However, the New Generation team is back to its last fighter, and he's facing the mighty Emperor of Muay Thai. Mitsukake isn't a fighter by training, so I think -"
"Sagat is going to kick his ass!"
"Whatever you say, Jin. Let's look at the fight in greater detail."
At more than two meters tall, Mitsukake was accustomed to looking down on other people. Sagat, however, had nearly a foot's worth of height advantage over him. He swiftly backed Mitsukake into a corner under a barrage of punches and kicks, by the end of which the one time artist was bleeding and badly bruised. Searching desperately for a solution, Mitsukake called in his one last assist. "Go, Zero!"
And Zero needed no second bidding, dashing through the battlefield with his glowing Z-Saber drawn. The gambit failed as Sagat jumped over the attack and Zero missed his slash. A moment later, the Emperor of Muay Thai had landed and all one hundred kilograms of his weight went into one final attack thrown with full force against Mitsukake. "Tiger ... Uppercut!"
"The World Warrior Team has done it!" Jin screamed. "They've won!"
Osaka, Japan
One day has passed
"Dr. McGrath!"
"Is it important, Vega?" McGrath called back. "I'm rather busy right now!" He was sitting at his desk attempting to piece together the latest parts of the puzzle. Besides Karin and Ibuki and the Darkstalkers, there were more absences to worry his mind. Haggar had been called back to Metro City yesterday to witness at a trial; meanwhile, a call to Yun and Yang had resulted in nothing. McGrath was leaving on an IDC flight within an hour to check on the village himself, Blake Wallis having already gone ahead. Go Hibiki also seemed to be missing. Something wasn't right about this, only McGrath couldn't pin down what it was. There was no pattern to these disappearances.
"I really think you ought to see this!" Vega shouted through the door.
"Alright, coming." McGrath stood up and stretched; his wife had left earlier to train with Guy and Charlie. He picked up his jacket and shrugged it on as he pulled the door open. Vega was there, dressed in a tuxedo and with a worried look on his face. "Give me the details, good or bad."
"See for yourself, doctor." Vega led McGrath into the lounge, where to his surprise McGrath saw that most of the other contestants had already arrived. A large plasma-screen television dominated the far end of the lounge and it was here that most of the attention was fixed. McGrath took the room in one glance. There were a surprising amount of people here and nearly all of them looked either pensive or downright worried. Vega paced restlessly like a caged panther. Then McGrath glanced at the television program and realized why.
"... strange disappearances surrounding the World Collision tournament," a news reporter was saying. "A city-wide alert has already been broadcast over Osaka concerning two girls who have vanished: Karin Kanzuki and Ibuki." The television showed photographs of the girls as well as the phone number where the IDC was coordinating a search and rescue mission. "Information leading to the recovery of one or both girls is currently being valued at ten million yen right now by the Kanzuki conglomerate. If you find a clue, call this toll-free number where the IDC is currently conducting its investigation. The two girls were last seen entering a jewelry shop in downtown Osaka and the IDC has been combing the area ever since."
"Just what we don't need right now," McGrath swore.
"In other news, a variety of unexplained phenomena remain hanging over the World Collision tournament. Besides the rampant speculation as to the identity of the tournament host, M., there have also been sightings of various contestants around Osaka." This time the television showed a brief segment of Blake Wallis, Darrell Markis, and Kenneth Feng fighting with their unknown assailants. After it finished, another short video clip was shown of bloody Dadallent slicing the commandos into pieces. Where had they found those? "Shown in this footage is Dadallent, known in the martial arts community as the Chaos Prince, who is a contestant in the World Collision tournament."
"I think that this is a very dangerous situation," a witness was shown saying. The subtext identified him as the police chief of Osaka. "The man is far too deadly to be controlled by anyone and who knows what he'll do next?"
"And of course, there is the well-known and still unexplained voice at the opening ceremony. Many witnesses clearly identified a feminine voice promising money, glory, and divinity to the winners of the tournament; however, no footage from the stadium has this recording when it supposedly happened. To sum up, many of the events surrounding the World Collision tournament are unexplained. The tournament organizers did not return calls asking for comments. In other news, a derailed train in Tokyo ..."
"Well, what do you think?" Chan asked. Guile hit the remote and the television died.
"Actually, I'm not surprised," McGrath explained. "The World Collision tournament is the second most watched program on television, behind only the 2000 summer Olympics and ahead of the World Cup. It reaches an estimated 1.5 billion viewers per match. It was only a matter of time before someone found out about this. However, that leaves the question: who? It couldn't have been one of us, since there was no commentary on the program from anyone actually in the tournament. So it must have been either an anonymous leak or investigative reporting. I'll be honest with everyone here; the disappearance situation looks a lot worse than they showed on television. Besides Karin and Ibuki, we're missing the Darkstalkers and possibly the Dragons. Rose also remains absent; Bison has been trying to contact her for three days straight with no response. Go Hibiki's gone, too. We really don't need the negative publicity right now."
"If the news gets out on who the sponsor of this tournament really is ..." Captain Commando began.
"It better not beforehand," McGrath replied, "Or else we will never hear the end of it. I've asked my commanding officers to dispatch more manpower to this tournament, but the request was denied; IDC resources are already strained too thin. I hate to say this, but if worst comes to worst your BEAT teams may be pulled from security duty. For now, our priority is locating the missing people."
"Any leads?" Bison asked.
McGrath shook his head. "No credible ones. Listen, all of you. If anyone asks, none of us here know anything about who M. is, alright? Luckily Jin and Kyosuke haven't found out yet, otherwise I'm sure they'd have blabbered it by now. Someone get ahold of Gen and inform him of the arrangements. And let your teammates know that we're keeping a secret when they get back." There were nods from all directions. With that the crowd began to disperse, breaking apart in ones and twos and threes. McGrath remained in the room with a pensive look on his face, troubles clearly building up on his mind.
"He looks so stressed," Regina said to Commando, worry heavy in her own beautiful voice. "I wish there was something I could do for him."
"Regina."
"Yes?"
The captain drew her aside. "Look, Regina, I overheard your conversation two days ago with the cashier in the jewelry shop. You shouldn't have told her who you are."
"Oh?" Regina studied his glasses, behind which his eyes were unreadable. "Should I not reveal the fact that I'm a goddess?"
Commando sighed. "There's no easy way to say this. This world is not as kind as you believe it to be. In my opinion, it was a mistake for you to reveal your divinity to anyone, even us. Those who do not believe you will laugh at you and scorn you. And among those who do believe, there are people who would try to make your power their own, for their own ends. Some of them are in this very tournament. I know that you see a good side and a dark side in everyone, and that you want to believe in the good side. But take this from someone who has seen more than you have: trust no one implicitly. That way, you won't do something that you may regret later."
"I see. Thanks for the advice, captain."
"One more thing." Commando adjusted the ten-gallon hat that he wore. "I heard from the doctor that Bison wanted to speak with you alone, right before Sakura reported that Karin and Ibuki were missing. What did he want to talk about?"
"He was having some problems with a machine of his," Regina replied. "Apparently he couldn't find enough power to keep it active, so he asked to borrow some of my power."
"What?!" Commando seized Regina by the shoulders. "Did you let him?!"
"Of course!" Regina winced slightly; Commando let go and instantly apologized. "No harm done, captain. I siphoned off a bit of my power and gave it to him for his machine. I can't remember exactly what he called it - a Psycho something. Should I not have done that?"
"The Psycho Drive," Commando finished grimly. "Ryu or Charlie could tell you more, but I'll say what I know. Bison planned to use that machine to bring the world to its knees, ten years ago. That time he was foiled by multiple people. The Psycho Drive channels negative emotions from all over the world, which are then used to power Bison far beyond what he is normally capable of doing. Bison's fighting style, Psycho Power, is based on manipulation of negative emotions. If he has a fully functional Psycho Drive ... he could destroy this world, and he probably will."
"Oh no!" Regina gasped.
"How much power did you lend him?" Commando asked.
"Barely any, actually," Regina said thoughtfully. "Let me show you exactly what I did for him. Hold out your hand." Commando did as he was asked. Regina passed her right hand over his and touched palm to palm. Nothing visible occurred, but suddenly Commando was on his knees gasping for breath and clutching at his heart. "Oh dear! I'm so sorry!" Regina cried. "I didn't mean to ... I didn't realize ... are you hurt?"
"N-no," Commando replied, visibly shaken as he staggered uneasily to his feet. "Just surprised, is all. You call that a little power?!"
"Well, of course. It was so insignificant that I could barely sense it at all." Regina passed her hand over Commando's face, searching for any signs of permanent damage. Apparently she was satisfied with what she found, as she made no attempt to heal him. "Please understand, captain. Most immortals never assume a physical form, as being in a human body places a rather severe limit on our strength. Right now I can only wield a small fraction of the power that I would normally handle as a goddess. Gill is an exception, but that's because most of his power comes directly from what Marin lent to him. Still, by my reckoning his power is almost unnoticeable."
"Then your scale is way different from mine," Commando replied. "I thought my body was going to burst from all that power. Why, I could've built Rome in a day with the strength that you lent me. Is Marin as powerful as you?"
"My sister is a class-SX goddess, one of the two highest ranks of immortals," Regina stated, sitting down on a couch. Commando joined her there. Regina brushed back a strand of her hair and continued, "For both sheer power as well as finesse, my dear sister can outdo me easily. She doesn't normally resort to her power, though; she prefers to work things out patiently with skill rather than force. There is only one time that she truly had to use all the power at her command. It occurred just before I was born, but later I heard the story from my angels.
"Marin once loved a god named Eldrin. They courted for many centuries and Heaven predicted their marriage at any time. My sister still refers to those times as the happiest in her life. But that peace did not last after Marin discovered his dark secret. Eldrin, you see, chose a planet and as a demonstration of his power destroyed both of its moons. Obviously no mortal could oppose a god and he reigned unopposed for as long as anyone there could remember, harvesting the souls of the dead and consuming them in order to increase his own power. Strictly speaking, this isn't forbidden under the rules, but it's still an offensive practice nonetheless. The peace finally ended when my sister followed him there and she was truly horrified by what she saw. When words failed, they fought. Guess how long the war lasted?" Regina held up four fingers.
"Four days? No, four hours? Four weeks? Not that either ... surely you can't mean four months?!" Commando exclaimed.
Regina shook her head. "Forty years as you count time," she said softly. "Forty years they fought back and forth across the Heavens and laid waste to an entire galaxy. My sister finally won that battle, sealing away Eldrin's soul in the Void between reality. But, she was heartbroken by the disaster that the war had brought; nearly every star in the sky had been extinguished and the humans on Eldrin's world almost entirely wiped out. So my sister stayed behind to guide them in rebuilding their planet. She lived there for hundreds of years, only returning after hearing of my birth and the death of our mother. I was able to visit that world once, several hundred years ago; last I checked, it was flourishing quite well. Marin still carries a memento from that time; her new weapon, the Rainbow Swallow, which she forged from the stars that fell in the war. She wields it to remind herself of the terrible destruction that would ensue if she ever became careless with her power."
"Forty years ..." Commando said to himself. "And I thought that Dr. McGrath's night-long battle against Dadallent took forever. Tell me more about your sister."
Regina smiled happily. "Besides being my sister, Marin is also my best friend here or anywhere. In many ways, she's the mother I never knew. Marin always took training very seriously; however, that didn't mean that we couldn't have some fun together. She was forever getting me involved in all sorts of activities. Her regimen was rigorous but very enjoyable. Nearly all of what I know now can be directly attributed to something that she taught me. I wish the tournament finals were already here and you could meet Marin. She'd like you, I'm certain of that."
"She sounds like a nice person," Commando agreed.
She sounds like a nice person, McGrath thought to himself as Regina and Commando left the room, leaving him alone to think. But somehow I still cannot shake off the feeling that Marin has some sinister motive in mind. Regina and I talked about this just last night. She was adamant in defending her sister. And if Marin really is as powerful as I suspect, then why hasn't she done anything about these disappearances? If only we had some sort of clue ... I really ought to press Regina - and Sakura and Lloyd, come to think of it - for more information. I'm so terribly confused. McGrath sighed to himself and slowly paced back to his room, lost in thought. He still had a flight to catch in half an hour.
Why did you come here, Regina? he'd asked last night.
Because I heard of the event that my sister was planning, she'd explained. I wanted to meet and befriend everyone first. There really is no other reason. And McGrath had been satisfied with the answer. Regina was, after all, a guileless soul, so that and her alibi could automatically remove her from any complicity with the disappearances or any ulterior motive underlying the tournament. But the doctor was dissatisfied. Regina plainly had no idea on what her sister specifically wanted out of the tournament. McGrath would rather that she knew and be not willing to say, as he knew all sorts of conversational traps and tricks to get someone to reveal information better kept secret. He swung the door open and stepped into his room. In the bathroom, Samantha could be heard singing to herself as she showered.
"Doctor."
McGrath seated himself and did not need to look up to know who had addressed him. "Yes, Dadallent?" He pulled a pen out of the desk drawer and began to write, jotting down notes on the investigation. With his free hand he sorted through a number of photographs lying around. The search had really bogged down due to lack of credible leads.
"About those girls ... you cannot sense their spirits either, can you?"
McGrath shook his head wearily and laid the pen down, turning around in his chair to look at Dadallent. The blindfolded warrior was standing at the far end of the room, arms folded, facing the window so that his face was hidden from view. Behind him, the shower had stopped running. "I don't have your level of spiritual sensitivity, but I spoke with Regina earlier and she couldn't sense their spirits. So, yes, I am considering the possibility that they may in fact be dead. Of course, no one will accept my spiritual sense as any sort of hard proof. Many times I don't trust it myself. But why do you care?"
"Promise me one thing, doctor."
"Before you say it," McGrath responded warily, "first tell me why you would come here expecting anything of me. In case you've forgotten, you tried to kill me three times in the past." Those fights hadn't exactly been pleasant memories for McGrath either; it had taken him a week to recover from Dadallent's Ravage Assault after their first match. The second match McGrath had expended nearly all of his energy with no result to show for it, while the final match had nearly cost both warriors their lives.
"It is precisely that I tried and failed to kill you that I ask this of you. I wouldn't trust anyone else."
"Alright, name it. Then I'll decide whether or not to promise you." Inwardly McGrath braced himself. The three times that they had fought, Dadallent had always offered him the deathmatch right before the battle commenced. McGrath's could've declined to fight at any time - they were both honorable warriors, after all - only that had he not accepted the challenge, Dadallent would doubtlessly have gone searching for other opponents. Underlying McGrath's agreement to do battle was the realization that very few people were anywhere near a match for the Chaos Prince, but he was one of them. Dadallent crossed the room in slow, purposeful strides, bent over and whispered for some time into McGrath's ears.
Then he stood up and straightened. "About Go Hibiki."
"Yes?" McGrath asked, not at all certain that he would like what he heard. Go had been missing for two days without having told anyone where he'd gone. His spirit was a notoriously difficult one to pin down - having been dead and then resurrected did that, McGrath thought - although Regina had done it without any trouble when he'd first vanished, so McGrath still wasn't too worried about him. That is, until Dadallent's next words changed his mind.
"He found me last night and tried to avenge his son."
The doctor sighed; he'd feared that Dadallent would say as much. Go had been a member of McGrath's generation, but McGrath knew of his battle with Sagat, the battle that had cost Sagat his eye and Go his life. Both were accomplished in Muay Thai; they still were, come to think of it. "It was a painless passing, I hope," McGrath voiced. "You killed him quickly, didn't you?"
"Yes. He earned it."
McGrath was about to speak when the door to the bathroom opened and Samantha stepped out, wrapped in a negligee and wearing a pair of slippers. She halted when she saw Dadallent and directed an enquiring glance at her husband, appraising the Chaos Prince item by item as she did so. Dadallent did not move an inch from his position but he must have been aware of her presence. Samantha asked the question a moment later. "Ernest, am I interrupting something?"
"We've just about finished our business here," McGrath replied, still trying to make sense of what Dadallent had asked of him. McGrath stood up and crossed over to the closet, pulling out a robe for his wife. He handed it to Samantha, speaking as he did so. "Why should I do this for you, Dadallent? I've seen your record, all the people you've killed. Many of them were good friends of mine and I wept at their funerals. I repeat, why should I do this?"
"You have no reason to do this for me."
The reply was flat and honest; McGrath had expected no less. Samantha held the robe but did not attempt to return to the bathroom and dress herself. Her eyes darted back and forth questioningly between McGrath and Dadallent, the latter of whom still had not moved after speaking with McGrath. And the Chaos Prince was right; McGrath really had no reason to do it for him, except for a word that they had both left unspoken. Respect. The mutual respect shown by worthy opponents for each other. McGrath nodded. "Very well, after the tournament. When will the time be right?"
"You will know," was the only answer as Dadallent and his black aura faded into nothingness.