Chapter 2: good morning my sweet, whoever-you-are

Disclaimer (Run for your lives! It's the disclaimer! NO!.): I, Grey Rayne, do not own anything, whether it be items, characters, place names or anything within The King of Fighter's universe. I do own a few miscellaneous characters within this story, but they may be used freely by all.

King of Fighters is a trademark of SNK Playmore.

A woman slowly opened her eyes. It was very dark around her, as far as she could tell, but then light seemed to swim into her vision. Her head, which had seemed to be clouded over at first, seemed to clear. She noted that her face was in contact with a blood red carpet and that she felt like she had been there a long time. She tried to move, but a wave of dizziness suddenly came back and she put her hand to her head, it eventually went away and she tried to move again. Her bones protested slightly as she stretched her back, trying to get out the uncomfortable stiffness. She suddenly felt a chill as a draught of cold air washed over her, forcing her to realise her predicament.

"H-huh?" she stuttered as she looked down at herself. She was lying on a carpet absolutely naked. She looked about herself in panic. The room was extremely spacious and the walls were wooden, although it seemed to be night-time, there was light in the room emanating from two wall lanterns. The floor was wooden also around the outskirts, but a large square carpet covered most of the floor. She turned over onto her other side, trying to ignore the feeling of tingles along her naked skin from the carpet rash. Her eyes widened. A man, as naked as she was, was lying about 5 feet away from her. Luckily his back was too her, so she could not see any of his extremities. He appeared to be tall. His hair was blonde and about shoulder length, although it was splashed out onto the ground at the moment. He lay perfectly still, but she felt suddenly angry at him. Had this man raped her? why did none of them have any clothes? She looked about herself, trying to locate any clothes at all, to no avail. The room was almost completely barren apart from themselves. If she had been raped, wouldn't she remember it? She couldn't remember though. In fact, she couldn't remember anything... In a moment of growing fear, she realised that, apart from a few things, her mind was a complete blank. Name. Age. Nationality. She knew nothing about herself! She knew she could speak, which was a huge relief, and she knew what the items in the room were called. She stared at the man accusingly, anger bubbling inside of her. She was going to get some answers. She covered herself up with her hands as best as she could, she cursed herself for having large breasts, before she practically inched her way across the room towards the seemingly unconscious man. She stared at the back of his head as she was within striking range of him, and then she held out a hand and quickly nudged him on the shoulder, before quickly covering herself over again. No response.

"Hey, you, whoever the hell you are, wake up!" she growled in anger. The man seemed to stir. "Don't turn over!" she warned as he appeared to be conscious. The man froze solid, and she saw as his head turned down to look at himself. His hands suddenly shot down to cover himself over, and she edged backwards quickly at his sudden movements. They both noticed at the same time, the mans right arm was missing just below the elbow. A low cry of astonishment came from his throat as he examined it with shocked interest.

"What?" he said hoarsely. His left hand, which he had forgotten completely to use to cover himself up with, inched up to his face, for what reason she couldn't tell. He sat up, still turned away from her, although she didn't know if he was aware of her at all.

"You." She said, not knowing what to think or feel at the moment. He suddenly turned his head to her quickly, as if becoming aware of her for the first time. "Don't look at me!" she shrieked. He turned away almost as quickly, realising she was naked.

"What the hell is going on here?" he said, sounding more frightened than she did.

"I was going to ask you the same thing, buster!" she growled. "What have you done with me? Why am I naked?"

The man tried desperately to remember. Had he harmed her?

"No, I didn't. I couldn't have." he said, noting to himself the slight accent in his own rather rough voice, he couldn't tell what the accent was though. He was completely naked, with a naked woman close by, in an almost empty room, with only one arm and one eye, and he couldn't remember how, when, where and what he was doing there. As far as he could tell, the woman had short brown hair, but he didn't recognise her voice and he hadn't seen her before. "How could I harm you, when..." He waved his right arm so that she could see it. The woman felt sudden doubt, and she looked at herself. She seemed to be rather strong and quite tall herself, but she then looked at his muscled back, he must have been at least 200 pounds. Although, she wondered, wouldn't he be wearing a prosthetic or something? why would he take that off too?

"Did we do drugs?" she asked in horror, wondering what kind of drugs could make a person lose their memories. The one-armed man seemed to consider this for a while, looking around without turning in her direction.

"I don't see any syringes or anything, and besides, I don't feel any after effects..." His voice trailed off as he recalled the dizziness he had felt when he first woke up. The first thing they needed to do was find something to wear, then they could try and figure out this mystery.

"We need clothes." She suddenly muttered, as if reading his thoughts. "I think we're in a dojo or something." she continued slightly louder, doubt riding on her words.

"Hmm, wouldn't there be robes or something of that nature?" He said thoughtfully. He heard the sound of bones popping as the woman stood up.

"You wait here, I'm going to go look around." she said as he heard her walking lightly towards the far end of the room. There was a sliding door there, which she quickly flung open. As she looked down a rather long, dark corridor, she was taken aback by a strange but beautiful painting along the wall to her left, illuminated by the light coming from the room she had been in. The painting appeared to be of some legendary battle. Two men, both wearing Japanese samurai armour, stood side-by-side, facing off against a strange enemy. A white haired man stared across a battlefield at them, a smirk on his face and a strange purple glow in his eyes. She noticed several banners on the battlefield, but she couldn't tell who's they were and what they signified. A black sun on a white banner and a white crescent moon on a black banner. Many dead bodies lay strewn across the field, presumably killed by the white haired demon. She tore her gaze away from this significant artwork, remembering that she was on an errand. She opened another sliding door and glanced in, the room inside was small, and as her eyes grew accustomed to the lack of light, it appeared to be mainly used for storage. She wondered to herself whether she should look in the various boxes and crates in the room, but decided just to take a note of it and continue searching. Another room down the hall gave similar results and she frowned at the large amounts of barrels. She popped her head into the next room and turned to look at her surroundings. Although it was dark inside she could see benches were lined along the four (4) walls and there were hooks above them. She looked at a group of lockers and calculated her chances of getting into any of them, that would be too noisy, and she didn't even know if her and her one-armed assailant/companion/lover/whatever-he-was were alone in this building. She quickly looked about the corridor around her, before something in the locker room caught her attention. Along the far wall, almost invisible in the gloom, was two long sliding doors with many horizontal slits along them, giving it a very closet-like look about it. She crept over to it and pushed one door open quietly. Bingo! in the closet was a large selection of karate-type gear, including white and black baggy trousers, baggy shirts, belts of various colours and plain black robes. She grabbed a pair of white trousers she guessed to be about her size and quickly rammed them on. She decided against a shirt, but decided to wear a robe instead. The feel of the garments made the sides of her lips curl up in a small smile, after the feel of rough carpet this was like velvet. She looked over the gear, wondering what would fit 'him' She grabbed some black trousers, a shirt and a robe carelessly and walked slowly back to the room she had left him in, feeling better now that she wasn't naked, but still apprehensive about this man.

She peeked into the room before entering it fully, to make sure he was turned away. Luckily, he was in the same position she had left him in, sitting on the floor. She stared at his back as he didn't seem to realise she had returned, his skin looked sore from the carpet, as hers was; red and lumpy. She walked forward slowly, and he looked up from the ground as he heard her approaching.

"Is that you?" He asked perplexedly, although feeling awkward that he didn't know what to call her.

"Yes." She said. He still didn't turn around.

"Did you find any clothes?" He asked in the voice of one who has to have faith in someone he doesn't know. She threw the set of clothes at the ground just beside him and turned away so he could dress. "Thank you." He said graciously as he quickly dressed, noting that the garments were slightly too small for him. He put on a pair of black trousers and a black shirt, but left the robes. She felt a blush creep onto her face as she heard the rustle of clothes behind her, she was surprised she hadn't blushed earlier, but she was so angry she didn't have time to feel embarrassed. "You can look now." He said, feeling slightly awkward in saying it. She turned and got her first good look at him as he seemed to scrutinise her as well, although she realised he only looked at her face and didn't let his eyes wander, which made her trust him slightly more. She noticed instantly the empty socket where his right eye should have been, but she tore her gaze away from it and looked at him fully. He had very majestic looking blonde hair running down the sides of his face. He also had a black moustache. He had a very strong jaw-line and thin eyebrows. He was handsome in a sort of rugged way, she had to admit, and even with the baggy shirt you could tell he was well muscled.

He saw her cringe slightly as she first saw his eye. He couldn't blame her, though, most people hadn't seen an empty eye socket before. He used his left eye, which thankfully was good, he must have been 20-20 vision when he had both eyes, to look at her. She had fine eyebrows which seemed to naturally curve downwards into a sort of scowl. Her lips were thin and she had a perfectly curved jaw-line. Her sparkly brown eyes scrutinised him with interest as well. Her short hair came down her face slightly, not quite up to her eyebrows. She was attractive, he had to give her that. He suddenly stepped forward, which made her blink and step back slightly in anticipation. Seeing her reaction he stopped, but then held out his hand in a polite manner. She looked at his hand for a while and then looked up at him. She couldn't see any hostility in his eyes, only anticipation, so she took a step forward and took his hand. They shook hands lightly.

"Pleased to meet you." He said politely, although he didn't have an introduction to give her.

"Likewise." She said.

Goenitz pulled another chunk of his hair out, which instantly grew back, it always did.

"Humph, bunch of screw ups!" he seethed, turning his back on the other three.

"What, you're saying this was our fault?" Yashiro retorted. "You're the one who's been losing focus lately. Maybe you should stop being such a hypocrite and admit your own miserable failures!" Yashiro continued harshly. Shermie and Chris gasped. Even Orochi's mouth fell open slightly. If an angry expression was money, Goenitz's face was his fortune. His eyes flared purple and he grit his teeth so hard that a crunching sound could be heard.

"You'll pay for that remark, you little shit!" Goenitz roared, raising his hands in order to call the power in his veins to strike down Yashiro where he stood.

"Enough of this in-fighting!" Orochi bellowed. Goenitz turned an angry gaze at him, but conceded. Yashiro 'humph'ed and folded his arms. "The problem was not with any of you..." He said, as if thinking out loud. He focused on them as they stared at him in anticipation.

"Could there be...an outside force preventing this?" Goenitz said, comprehending what Orochi was implying. Orochi grinned slightly to himself, which made the 4 kings even more nervous than they already were in his presence.

"It wasn't prevented. The two you tried to resurrect have indeed come back to life, but there has been interference which caused a flaw. The flaw being their personal memories have been wiped clean..." Orochi remarked casually, without apparent interest. The 4 Kings exchanged glances. "Fear not, for they are still remembered by their enemies. All you have to do is position the pieces correctly and the game will play out on its own." Orochi's smile turned into maniacal laughing, and he threw his head back. Goenitz joined in and soon they were laughing in unison. Chris started to laugh maniacally as well, but Yashiro and Shermie gave him a look and he stopped and blushed in embarrassment.