Day 4/Rest day 1
Jae Hoon had got up early to just get some air and take a break from watching the competition, he wished his father would have allowed him to compete, watching his team continually lose was irritating, especially when the evil outlaws were far ahead of them in the standings, the people who Kim so badly wanted to defeat.
Maybe there was another way to bring them down… if he couldn't get onto his father's team, maybe he could create his own team… He would need at least 3 others in order to make a remotely respectable appearance.
Meanwhile
"Man, it's been ages since I've been home…" Lucky said as he opened the door looking around his place that he hadn't been in for nearly 3 months.
Continuing his far more successful basketball career Lucky had been living a satisfying life style, but of course KOF that one year was a disaster and always left a mark that Lucky and his team mates will never forget. He went over to his neighbour who had been collecting his mail for him, after he got back he flicked through the letters, letter, invite to boring function, this big letter it's unusual…
"No way! It's from the army guy, Heidern" Lucky shouted out in surprise dropping everything else. He often wondered if anybody in the KOF world still remembered them.
Lucky's eyes read on, although it wasn't an KOF invite it was still a KOF relation competition, a KOF Olympic tournament had already started in South town if they went ahead with it by this date, but it wouldn't be too late to make an appearance, but he wondered why he wasn't told by Heavy D! or Brian. He hoped that they hadn't given up hope over the years, he picked up the phone and dialled in Heavy D!'s number as fast as his fingers would allow. The phone rang 3 times before somebody picked up.
"Yo?" Heavy D! answered
"You got the letter from Heidern?" Lucky asked
"Letter from who?" Heavy D! said
It just dawned on Lucky that maybe Heidern only sent the letter to him due to them being out of the KOF circles for so long. Picking it up again he reread that he would have to contact his team mates on the receiving of this letter if they were interested…
"Lucky you there?" Heavy D called out
"Yeah… I have a bit of a confession, and don't be too pissed at me when you hear this" Lucky said
"What is it… what could have you done?" Heavy D! asked
Lucky was quiet for a moment "Umm, well we have to get to South Town there's a KOF Olympic competition there but we already missed the first 3 days" Lucky said
"And how'd you manage that?" Heavy D! asked
"Well, I was away, didn't get the mail until just now" Lucky replied
"... What can we do, but it doesn't matter. Anyway Southtown? Isn't that the town that got hit by that cannon thing" Heavy D! replied
"That's the one, so are you in?" Lucky asked
"What kind of question is that, of course I am in, you are speaking to Brian too right" Heavy D said
"Of course, see you soon" Lucky hung up and called Brian repeating the process.
Soon after Lucky left his house once again.
At Southtown…
"Listen Yagami" Kyo started "The others don't want you on the team, only I was in favour of it before because I believed you'd give us a better chance of victory but you have done virtually nothing" Kyo said
If this was news to Iori he did a very good job at hiding it.
"So, what have you done towards helping your precious team?" Iori smirked
"At least I am trying to help, you on the other hand are hurting the team. I was going to give you a few more days but since your replacement has already come, there is no reason to have you hold us back any longer" Kyo said
"Hmmph whatever, but we shall see Kyo, who is holding who back" Iori replied and then walked off
Kyo didn't know what Iori meant by that, but couldn't care less. Saisyu would take Iori's place in the competition, Kyo called him in after he spoke with Shingo and realised Iori was doing nothing at all to help the medal count and hurting the moral of his team mates, especially Shingo who was very intimidated by Iori, despite his brave face when in his presence.
Jae hoon came to Chinatown and true to its reputation it was like walking into another place of the world when compared to the rest of Southtown. He came to a restaurant and saw Hinako Shijo and Li Xiangfei in one of the restaurants, talking and laughing. Jae walked in and waved to the two.
"Hey its Kim Kaphwan's kid. Jae Hoon isn't it?" Xiangfei greeted Jae
"Yeah, how are things going?" Jae asked walking in taking a seat on the table Xiangfei was at
"Excellent, we are getting some real business with the Olympic tournament being on. Of course we are cheering for our own women's team, although Hinako is a little divided because she was on Athena and Malin's team last year" Xiangfei said
"It does not really matter to me, I like them both…" Hinako smiled
"So you aren't going to compete? I would have thought you'd join up with Athena again Hinako" Jae said
"No, they haven't asked me and I do not wish to be rude" Hinako said
"I see, well I am sort of thinking of making up my own team" Jae Hoon said waiting for a reaction
"Why don't you just join up with your Dad?" Xiangfei asked
"Because you can't have more then 5 members on a team now, so I was going to ask if either of you wanted to join up with me" Jae Hoon finished
Xiangfei and Hinako both went quiet for a moment.
"Maybe, but who else have you got?" Xiangfei asked
"Nobody else yet" Jae Hoon replied
Xiangfei sighed and then smiled "Oh why not, I'm in, what about you Hinako?" Xiangfei turned to Hinako
"Well I suppose I could" Hinako said
Just at this moment, they heard some shouting.
"You stupid jerk!" A woman came running
"Ahhh I didn't mean any harm" A male voice said in a panicked state
"Well… I do!" The womans voice came again
Jae Hoon, Hinako and Xiangfei all get up to see what was going on in the street, Jae Hoon was surprised to see Dong Hwan running from a young woman who looked very ticked off. Fortunately for Dong Hwan he went down an alley way and was able to jump in through the open window of Xiangfei's restaurant.
"Now where did the little twerp go…" The woman could be heard looking around the alley "Mustn't have gone down here…" The woman sounded like she went into the other direction.
Dong Hwan gave a quiet sigh of relief until he saw Jae in front of him. His relieved expression became a sheepish smile.
"Hi Jae" Dong Hwan said innocently
"What have you done now Dong Hwan..." Jae Hoon asked with a bored tone
"Umm… nothing just thought I'd have some breakfast early" Dong Hwan continued his innocent act
"You could at least put some effort in to lie convincingly. Let me guess, you were trying to hit on her, you made an idiot of yourself said something or did something to tick her off and she comes running?" Jae Hoon guessed the predictable chain events
"Yeah, that'd be right" Dong Hwan shrugged
"I should tell Dad to stop letting you go out, if he knew you were such a nuisance to the people…" Jae started
"Oh no, don't tell him, there's no telling what he'll make me do" Dong Hwan said
"Perhaps it would do you some good…" Jae Hoon was tired of his brother's lazy attitude, only able to apply his mind where he wanted it and nowhere else… Jae saw a lot of potential in Dong Hwan and always considered it wasted.
"No! I'll do anything… really" Dong Hwan said
Jae Hoon was about to ignore Dong Hwan's plea but a thought came to his mind.
"Well there is something you could help me with" Jae Hoon smiled
"When you smile like that it means something that requires a lot of effort is in mind" Dong Hwan said
"Correct, 10 points to the hothead in the corner, you see for this Olympic competition I am creating our own team to participate" Jae said.
Jae Hoon didn't need to finish the sentence for Dong Hwan to figure out what Jae hoon's 'terms' were. While using blackmail against his own brother was a little bit evil he needed Dong Hwan at the moment, what was also evil was going behind his father's back to create a team, but there was a greater evil to be defeated.
"Fine, I'll join your team but winter sports are more my thing though Jae you know that" Dong Hwan said wondered what other catches there were to Jae Hoon's 'deal'.
"Still, I bet you can do some good, and you'd better put some effort in… otherwise" Jae gave a slight pause, appealing to Dong Hwan's interests was probably a better way to get the best out of him "you'll never get any chicks if they see you just lazing about all the time" Jae Hoon said
"Of course!
You are brilliant sometimes, I should have thought of it sooner, if I
win loads and loads of gold against some of the strongest fighters
around, I'll get girls begging to go out with me" Dong Hwan
grinned ear to ear
"And in the process defeat the evil outlaw
team" Jae Hoon took a slight hero pose
"Err, whatever Jae, I'll go for my goals and you go for yours, but don't we need a team, I bet we can't enter just the two of us" Dong Hwan said
"Way ahead of you as usual, meet Xiangfei and Hinako, I got them to agree to be on our team" Jae hoon said
"You have good looking chicks on this team too? You've thought of everything" Dong Hwan stood up from the corner to get a better look at his team mates.
"Umm… yes… anyway, what do we call our team?" Xiangfei asked
"We can't be the women's team anymore can we?" Hinako said stating the obvious
There was a bit of a silence after Hinako's comment.
"Hinako you were in the High school girls team last year, cut the girls part and maybe that'll work… you are still in high school aren't you Xiangfei?" Jae Hoon turned to Xiangfei
"Well close enough" Xiangfei said
"Then it's settled, the high school team is formed" Jae Hoon said proudly "I'll meet either of you here later when I've spoken to Heidern to get his okay to enter" Jae Hoon walked out
Jae hoon was heading back to the hotel when Dong Hwan spoke.
"Err…Jae what will Dad say about this" Dong Hwan said
"Leave him to me… I will talk him into it" Jae replied confidently, although he did have his concerns he was not going to talk about them right now.
"Alright, I've got some… things to do" Dong Hwan said sneaking off with a goofy grin on his face
"Be careful Dong Hwan, if Dad catches you like I did, I won't cover for you" Jae Hoon sighed
"Okay, okay… then I'll do something resourceful while you convince Dad" Dong Hwan dropped the goofy look for about half a second before it naturally formed on his face again.
Lucky, Brian and Heavy D! had arrived in South town. They got out of the cab and paid the driver and took their stuff out of the back.
"You wouldn't have thought this place had been hit by that cannon only just over 4 years ago" Lucky said looking around
"Yeah… anyway, where do we sign up for this thing?" Brian looked to Lucky
Lucky shrugged "Let's just check in first, then we can start looking around" Lucky said as they all seemed to go with that plan and headed to the hotel
At the hotel they saw Kim talking to a woman. Lucky dealt with checking in.
"I'm sure I know that guy from KOF" Heavy D! said
"Nah, probably just an amazing coincidence, it's been too long now" Brian replied as they waited for Lucky to finish with the receptionist.
"I'm sorry Foxy but our team is full" Kim said
"That is unfortunate, I have been busy lately so I only received the letter this morning and thought I'd be great way to catch up. I spoke with Diana but her team is maxed out too" Foxy sighed
"Hmm that is truly regrettable… excuse me just a moment" Kim excused himself to get a better look at the 3 giant Americans he thought he recognised, but couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"Alright I'm done" Lucky came to his two team mates
"Lucky, you know that guy who's talking to that chick over there do you? Heavy D! is convinced he's in KOF" Brian said
"Yeah, that's Kim Kaphwan… on the Korea team" Lucky said
"You see I never forget my opponents" Heavy D! declared proudly
"He totally kicked your ass, so I'm not surprised you remember him" Lucky laughed
Heavy D!'s proud facial expression suddenly dropped when Lucky reminded him of that fact
"Aw lighten up man, at least we know we are in the right place" Lucky said
At that moment Kim approached them…
"You are the US sports team if I'm not mistaken" Kim said
"The one and only" Brian said
"You were invited to the competition I imagine... have you spoken with Heidern about your entry?" Kim said
"Not yet... just checking in and working our way around" Lucky replied
"May I propose that Foxy join you…if there are only three of you" Kim said
"Oh no, it's alright, I'll just watch from the sidelines" Foxy said
"They will need the extra member if there are only three of them, all the teams have at least four members now, just so they can stay competitive" Kim said
"Well, we are an American sports team… that's been our thing" Heavy D! shrugged
"You wouldn't happen to play any sports do you?" Lucky asked
"Well I fence pretty well" Foxy said "But listen I don't want to intrude on your team" Foxy finished
"Actually, I think we could do with you to balance out our team, but what do you think guys?" Lucky looked around to his team mates
"Well whatever, there can be no harm in having another member" Brian said
"I suppose she is a good deal smaller then we are which could help us in some events" Heavy D! added "No offence though, but we kinda lose our theme if we take her" Both Heavy D! and Brian obviously had their doubts
"She does play a sport. I admit it's a bit weird to have a basketballer, a footballer, a boxer and then a fencer but if we want any chance of doing well we need balance in our members" Lucky said
"I suppose he's right… and I'm to the point of no longer caring, I just want some strong competition. But I'll see you guys around; I'm just dumping my stuff in the room" Heavy D! then pushed his way past Foxy and Kim
"I'll do the same, see you around Lucky" Brian then followed Heavy D!
"You see, everybody can help each other in this world" Kim smiled towards Foxy "Anyway I must be off. So I wish you good luck in the competition" Kim then went outside the hotel
Foxy then sighed deeply
"Don't worry they are a good group to hang with when you get to know them" Lucky said
"I'll bet" Foxy remarked with a slight touch of sarcasm
Lucky smiled to this "Well I'll see you around then" Lucky then went up the stairs
In the Southtown park
Jae Hoon sat on the bench as he waited for Kim to arrive, a lot of kids ran around the park laughing and playing, while the parents sat and talked with barbeques going and all the usual standard park stuff.
"I must ask you, why did you not want to meet at the hotel?" Kim asked
"Because I know this is the one place where Dong Hwan will not look for girls" Jae said
"Why is that relevant?" Kim asked
"I don't want him to overhear. I…" Jae Hoon started looking guilty. To Kim this look was unusual
"What did you do? Don't tell me your older brother has influenced you into doing something you now regret" Kim said
"No, no not at all. You see for this Olympic competition, I sort of formed my own team… in order to have an extra chance at defeating the outlaws" Jae said
Kim paused for a moment
"Hmm… do you think that my team is incapable of the task" Kim said
"Oh no, not at all… it's just that…" Jae Hoon tried to find the right words, he knew Kim may be insulted and think that he had lost faith in him.
Kim spoke up to break the silence.
"I admit we have struck difficulties lately. Chang and Choi have both been performing to my expectations, but May lee tries hard she is always just a little bit short and with Jhun unable to take his mind off Athena and that is a bit of a concern. We know Jhun can focus his mind when fighting her, so I don't know what his problem is" Kim said "However we will strike back… but if you wish to create your own team, I won't stop you. Just curiously who else have you got to sign up?" Kim asked
"Hinako, Xiangfei and Dong Hwan" Jae said
"How did you convince Dong Hwan to do it?" Kim asked surprised
"Just a little agreement, I think he wants to impress the girls too" Jae said
"Well that alone is a remarkable achievement to get Dong Hwan to do anything, I'm proud of you Jae Hoon. I wish you good luck, but I will not be so kind to you and your team when you are competing against us" Kim said as he walked off
"You know I won't hold back either" Jae Hoon said
Kim seemed to nod in approval as he left.
"Now I just need to sign into this thing" Jae thought out loud.
Jae Hoon returned to the hotel, finding Heidern shouldn't be too difficult. However before he could start, Dong Hwan had come to him.
"Jae, did you speak to Dad? Was he okay about it all?" Dong Hwan asked
"Yes and yes, but since when do you care about what Dad thinks" Jae replied
"I'd rather do this properly, but if I had to do it without his approval you know I wouldn't think twice about it" Dong Hwan said
"I figured as much" Jae Hoon said
"Well since you were speaking to Dad, I bothered to find out how to enter this thing. Some tall dudes were entering as well so I asked one of them who they spoke to… The commander guy what ever his name is" Dong Hwan said
"Heidern" Jae Hoon corrected him
"Yeah that guy, well he isn't doing the paper work anymore, he's left it to some underling guy named Ryan, he was around when I was owning everybody at Neowave, so I kinda know him" Dong Hwan said
"Alright then where is he?" Jae hoon asked
"Err he's around the gym…" Dong Hwan said
"You weren't lying when you said you'd do something resourceful, I'm surprised Dong Hwan" Jae Hoon said, maybe there was hope just yet.
Dong Hwan's true purpose was of course not to be 'resourceful' he just happened to find out by accident. But he wasn't about to tell Jae that.
Jae hoon and Dong Hwan headed to the gym, inside they saw Ryan and Leona sparring. Ryan gave her a back fist but she ducked her head underneath it, Ryan followed through with a second however Leona effortlessly sidestepped, but however landed on the receiving end of Ryan's knee. Leona was seemingly surprised by this so Ryan moved in with a more aggressive style but this played right into Leona's plan as she countered the second follow up kick by holding it with her right hand and hitting Ryan's exposed face with her left before kicking him in the stomach sending him on his back.
"Not bad but you're still a little too predictable Nelson…" Leona shook her head
"Coming from you Leona, that's high praise, I'm only a little predictable and not bad" Ryan replied grinning
Leona shrugged to this "Hmmph, you'll need to do a lot better to get any kind of praise from me" Leona remarked coldly "The Kim kid is back to see you again. I'll leave you to deal with it" Leona said
Ryan stood up and saluted. Leona returned it and left.
"Wow she's a bit of an ice queen isn't she" Dong Hwan said after Leona was out of earshot
"A bit… but hey she's good at what she does, so I respect her a lot" Ryan said "Anyway, are you in or not?" Ryan asked
"Yup… put the pen to paper and get us into this thing" Dong Hwan smiled
"Okay, you say Li Xiangfei and Hinako Shijo and entering as well… lucky for you then" Ryan said
"Why's that?" Jae Hoon asked
"Because your team needs to have at least two past KOF participants, otherwise any idiot could enter. Just put all your autographs on this. That includes Xiangfei and Hinako" Ryan walked over to a pile of papers on a small desk and flicking through them until he finally came up with the 'Official Ikari entry form' with 5 spaces. "Bring it back before start of competition tomorrow and there should be no problems" Ryan finished
"I'll deal with that" Jae Hoon took the form from Dong Hwan after he signed it "I'll see you around Dong Hwan, and thanks again" Jae Hoon said
Later that night.
Lucky was walking along the streets of Southtown, he was going to King's La Illusion bar, he heard it's one of the things in the must do list while in Southtown, Heavy D, Brian and new team mate Foxy were already there. However he was suddenly drawn into an alley way.
"Put me in your team… or else" The voice demanded
Lucky wondered who would try to get their way by intimidating him but when Lucky looked at his face he saw…
"Iori Yagami… but why?" Lucky asked
"None of your concern… just do as I ask" Iori said
"And if I refuse?" Lucky said getting himself out of Iori's grip
"Well I beat your skull in, and judging by your 94 performance that wouldn't be too difficult" Iori laughed "And can you afford to be… 'somehow' taken out of action a day before competition" Iori smiled
Lucky hated giving into intimidation but if Iori's reputation was anything to go by, he didn't stand much chance. He'd just go along with it for the moment…
"Alright… fine" Lucky said annoyed
"You make a wise choice" Iori said before leaving Lucky there
Lucky was fuming when Iori left, he would suffer the consequences of such actions, but it would take some time. When he got to the La Illusion bar none of his team mates were too pleased about the news.
"Iori Yagami? That's absolutely crazy!" Heavy D! shouted
"Iori is known for attacking his own team mates, I've already had a near death experience due to team mates turning, I'm not willing to try my luck a second time" Foxy said
"Do we have much of a choice in the matter… besides he may have a point to prove against Kyo, you know the rivalry thing. He was booted out of their team today" Lucky said
"I suppose we don't have a choice… if we refuse he'll probably hunt us down one by one, and there goes any chance of returning to the KOF scene" Heavy D! said
"He could end up hunting us down one by one anyway" Foxy shook her head
"Not while he needs us for the team events… if he'll do anything it'll be at the very end of the competition like always" Lucky said
"I say we wait and see what happens. This could be used to our advantage if we play our cards right" Brian added
Lucky nodded "But there is no way he's getting way with this. Nobody intimidates me and gets to gloat about it" Lucky raised his fist in anger
"For now though Lucky, we have to live with it. As much as I'd like to take my chances against him, I know that's simply not practical so a better strategy is called for" Heavy D! said
Lucky seemed to reluctantly agree with this line of thought. This is far from the return to KOF he had hoped for.
With all the team shuffling and add in's the changes are thus.
Japan team: Kyo, Benimaru, Daimon, Shingo, Saisyu (-Iori) (+Saisyu)
Sports team: Lucky, Heavy D, Brian, Foxy, Iori
High School team: Jae hoon, Dong Hwan, Xiangfei, Hinako
