Questions and Reasons

Brad Wong, the self made Drunken Master sat in the woods with his Chinese fiddle, playing a sweet tune. He had a terrible headache, and many horrible bruises given to him by a combination of his sweet nature, a white haired psychotic woman, and creature that was unleashed in the world. Two days before he had been fighting, and fighting hard in DOATEC's towers. The day after he had soothed his wounds with a strong wine he called "Genra" in honor of his master. Perhaps THAT was also a mistake, for it had put him in a drunken state for a full day. He was now playing his fiddle to get the spinning images of himself fighting nothing out of his mind.

He finished his tune, and sighed. He had gotten closer to his answers…yet he was still far away, and managed to make a few extremely dangerous enemies along the way. On a plus side, he had made a few friends as well. He would keep tabs to see how things progressed with them, just as a matter of interest. A sigh of despair escaped Brad's mouth however. One of his new enemies, Helena Douglas, knew him now. Not only that, but she knew him down in small details of his life before Zui Quan. A moment of weakness unveiled his true sobriety when fighting, which gave her significant advantage over him. He had to wait for the next DOA tournament to make his moves, and at the SAME time do what he could to help defend from this NEW threat, a creature which had escaped from the towers. Brad sat there, and recalled many different encounters he had made with fighters, three in particular. He was very impressed with the warriors. Each one individual, and hailing from a back round that was worthy of authors in a way.

His first major encounter, an old master named Gen Fu. Brad had heard Sifu Chen speak of Gen Fu's legendary fists, but Brad was too drunk at the time to understand. He remembered his words.

"The Iron Fist is no legend. I may very well kill you with it." Gen Fu had told him.

Brad simply laughed drunkily. "Old man, if you can even touch me, I will buy you drinks from now till hic some time that's really far…hic off." Brad was stumbling all over the place trying put his words out. He remembered seeing Gen Fu sadly shake his head. Brad now assumed that he felt sorry for him. The battle consisted of Brad dodging Gen Fu's slow steady attacks. It took Gen Fu one single strike to end Brad's winning streak in the tournament. He woke up hours later, Gen Fu standing over him.

"Boy, you have potential I will tell you that. What you lack is self-confidence. Do you honestly think you need to be drunk to win with that style? Let me guess…master Chen taught you." Brad (now sober from being hit so hard) blinked in disbelief. Gen Fu knew master Chen. Brad went on to explain that he had to use the wine to win his fights. The way he blurted it out was childish, and petulant. Gen Fu laughed at this, then helped Brad to his feet. He told him that belief was the key to mastering himself.

"Trust me, Brad Wong. I have seen you fight in this tournament. You would be better off without that poison that you drink. You just need plenty of meditation. And you should remember your master. Did HE need to drink to be good?"

Brad took Gen Fu's advice, and meditated for a straight month. To Brad, it felt like years. But he emerged victorious in himself.

Brad, still sitting in the woods, laughed. That first tournament felt like an adolescent phase of himself. His hairstyle, his drinking, his attitude…now he was more ready to fight. In the next tournament he had met a girl (previously mentioned) named Kokoro. This encounter was rather embarrassing for Brad, seeing on how he was trying to flirt with her when he first appeared. The fight lasted a short while, with no apparent victor. But she had made a claim that she knew who he was. Brad was shaken, seeing as how her claims were not only accurate, but entirely true. How she found the information was troubling. But the two had found common ground. Their pursuit of being free was something that connected them. After a formal exchange of names, Brad said that he hoped for her to do well in the tournament. In his gut he knew it wasn't the last time he would encounter her. In the constant meeting of new people, he had not forgotten the words "Mugen Tenshin"

The next encounter he had made was with a boy named Eliot who seemed to know him. He had addressed him by full name while he was relaxing.

"Brad Wong? Master of Drunken Kung Fu?"

"Zzzzzz-wha!" Brad jumped from his sleep. He had the uncanny ability to nap anywhere he felt the urge to sleep. He nearly rolled down the stairs of the temple he had been at.

Eliot formally bowed to Brad as soon as he looked up.

"Sorry to disturb you…"

Brad rubbed his head, still drowsy. "Naw…naw its ok. I was about to get up anyway. Sorry….but do I know you?"

"oh! Yes. I mean no…my name is Eliot. Im a student of Gen Fu…I remembered he was speaking of you. He has a lot of respect for you…you know…"

Brad laughed again. "He does, does he?"

"Yes…and I was wondering…could I talk to you?" Eliot seemed to be depressed. The look on his face said it.

"Sure. Whatsup?" Brad asked. It was about Eliot feeling inferior to his master. He did not think that he possessed the right strength to follow in Gen Fu's footsteps. This reminded Brad of himself in a way. He knew that Gen Fu was fighting for his Granddaughter, his only living relative, other than that, he knew little more. Brad figured that Gen Fu was lonely, and needed a student to teach. And that's just what he told Eliot. With that, he also told Eliot what Gen Fu had told him.

"You can master the fighting if you can master yourself"

It interested Brad in a way. It made him think of his own training those years back. To find out more, Brad fought Eliot to test how well he would do. It was a similar way that his previous two masters had done it A few punches and open palms later, he found out that this boy was well chosen by Gen Fu. Eliot had potential.

Brad snickered a bit as the fight ended. He emerged the victor, and helped Eliot back on his feet. He still looked downtrodden.

"See? I lost." He said, looking down. "I'm not good enough to be here…"

"Well you didn't loose before you pounded my face kid!" Brad replied, patting him sharply on the back. "Listen Eliot, you have potential. A strong old guy like Gen Fu wouldn't have chosen you if you didn't have what it takes."

"You think so?" Eliot said hopefully, looking up.

"Yes, its like what he told me. To master the fight, you must master yourself. Don't sweat it kid."

Eliot and Brad parted ways after that. Eliot's attitude had changed since that meeting. Brad had heard from a very loud dark skinned American man that he had been beaten by some kid from England. Brad knew that it was Eliot, fighting his way up.

Brad laughed again, sitting on his stump in the woods. Every thing else was unhappy from there on. He met a person, fought them, and repeated until he reached the towers of DOATEC. That's when his good memories ended. Fighting at DOATEC was frantic, unlike anything he had done previously. He had not forgotten about the questions he wanted to ask. And he would try to find Helena Douglas to have them answered. Surprisingly, he fought his way through a small amount of guards. The rest seemed to be preoccupied elsewhere. He was quickly irritated, because he heard fights happening, but only saw stairs and more stairs, and many elevators. He was around a steel structure…when he smelled it. The smell those two ninja's had. Only this stench was much more potent. He followed his nose until it became so unbearable, he became angry. The memories of the stink made him increasingly enraged. A large steel door opened in front of him, and he walked in to see some bizarre creature fighting an equally bizarre woman. (What was bizarre about this woman was that she was dressed in odd wrestling garb.) Brad was now only moving on anger, and approached the fight. The wrestler tried to halt him, but he only walked past her, taking a swing at her as well to get her out of the way. In retrospect, Brad felt bad for that. The tone of her voice suggested that she was merely trying to keep him from harm, more impressively since she had no idea who he was. Brad assumed that she was one of the morally strong warriors of DOA. Brad thought he should have listened to that as well. A minute into his thrashing about, the female looking creature had him beat. It angered Brad even further. He was shouting out unintelligible words at the monster, but it didn't care or understand. Being so close to its smell, and not being able to do anything made him feel helpless, just like on that night when his master was taken. When he looked up, the creature had taken down the wrestler, and had blown completely through the wall, escaping out, and headed up. Brad first checked the woman, who appeared to be more annoyed than hurt. As soon as he was sure, he ran out, and headed up again to try and find the monster. But before he could find the monster, he was halted again. Two other women were fighting. He recognized one as Kokoro, and the other he had seen before, very briefly. He assumed it was Helena Douglas. While the two were fighting, Helena was speaking to Kokoro, like she was strolling through a park instead of fighting. Her moves were devastatingly graceful. Kokoro was throwing punches and kicks, Helena blocked and dodged like they were nothing. She asked mockingly rhetorical questions.

"Do you love your mother, dear? Do you know what she is like? Did you ever know your father?"

Brad did not want to interrupt this fight, but he was worried. He knew that Kokoro was not about to win this fight easily. He had recalled when he told her 'good luck'. And before he could assume anything else, Helena scored a perfect hit on the younger girl. With the full force of her palm, she struck the side of Kokoro's kneecap, causing her to fall to one knee. Helena finished the job with a knee to the side of her face. Kokoro yelped a bit before falling on her side, a tear escaping the eye of the side she was hit on. Brad was not about to see how this ended, and suddenly jumped into the fray. Helena was about to instep onto Kokoro's head, when Brad jumped in front, and redirected the foot with a sweep. Helena, surprised by this new comer did not fall, but stumbled back as Brad unleashed a barrage of strikes. Helena was fast enough to block but was pushed back regardless. Brad huffed, and scowled at her, simply at what he saw transpire. He turned, and bent down to check on the girl. He heard one word escape from her.

"momma…."

The word made a million things cross his mind. What kinds of questions was she seeking? What would bring her to this place, where danger threatened her life? Did her parents know? Did she realize that these fights could kill her? Brad sighed again, feeling bad for her. He thought for a moment again. Maybe she didn't care about her parents either, like he didn't. Maybe she disliked being sheltered, and desired to be thrown into danger, like Brad had. But then why would she call for her mother in such a state?

His thought was distracted, by the sound of a gun being cocked. He looked up in time to see Helena Douglas with a pistol, aiming not at Brad, but Kokoro. A gunshot fired, and Brad instinctively stepped directly in its path. As he was hit, a million MORE questions hit his brain. The main one was, what possessed him to just do what he did at the expense of himself. His shoulder was hit, and he grunted trying to not appear at all hurt. It wasn't a fatal shot, so he had enough energy to be angry.
"Are you INSANE!" Brad shouted. "What in the world could possibly possess you to try and kill this girl!"

Helena smirked. "Brad Wong. Master of Zui Quan are you? Always drunk, so you are unpredictable, and utterly stupid. That's what your file says. Its funny. You seem sober enough to come to this little urchins rescue, and take a bullet, AND be collected enough to waste words with me."

Brad stammered. She had got him now. She saw through the thing he had worked so long to perfect out of anything in little less than a second. "Shit…"

"Understand this. This has nothing to do with you. What's going on is between me and this girl."

Brad snorted. "Well now I'm in on it. If you don't tell me what's going on, I'll beat you to a pulp!" Brad said indignantly as he clutched his wound. Helena only laughed at him again.

"You're a very determined man, aren't you? Well all you need to know…is that I don't want some half relative to worry about in the back round…it will come back to haunt me later. Besides…" she said, looking at Kokoro with a look of hate. "She shouldn't even exist. Her being born was never supposed to be."

Brad scoffed. Such a ridiculous thing to say. To him, everyone had an equal chance for everything. But try convincing the rest of the world to think that way.

"Im not trying to be the villan." Helena announced to Brad gently, as she held up the gun again. "Im just trying to make it so this all ends quicker, with less death than it needs to…please try to understand."

"I DON'T understand." Brad snapped back. "there is no reason to take a life, no matter how much or how little you take!."

"Then explain the two dead Mugen Tenshin ninjas that I read about. Don't tell me about your reasons…your no purer than any other fighter in this tournament." She cocked the gun again.

Brad, quickly reacted, and threw his bottle at her. She quickly shot at it, shattering it. But the water inside splashed on her face. She rubbed her eyes, only looking up in time to see the wounded, bright haired man fly at her. A few quick strikes made her drop the gun. During a quick fight, an explosion rocked the area, which made them loose focus on eachother.

"What the…"

Brad looked around, as did Helena. Brad looked forward again, to see yet another person come at him. She struck him directly in the bullet wound with a snake fist. It sent sharp pains all through his arm and chest, and he quickly backed off. Helena, addressed her as Christie, and the two exchanged some words. Brad was busy breathing out the pain, when he saw Christie turn on Helena.

"Just how many girls are in this contest?" He wondered to himself out loud…

Another explosion rocked the area, but the other two were too consumed in the fight to care. Brad quickly turned, and grabbed the semi conscious Kokoro, and carried her out as things became increasingly dangerous.

He reached a safe distance and set Kokoro down gently. He sighed angrily, realizing he had forgotten to ask Helena about the Mugen Tenshin entirely, making his fight up to the towers completely wasted. Which took him back to where he was now in the woods. Brad's bullet wound was healing, and he wagered it would not be long before it would be gone completely. He still was asking question after question. That's all he had right now. Questions without answers, and reasons he couldn't explain. Why he was targeted by the ninja, why he would automatically sacrifice himself for another, why a girl like Kokoro thought that answers would come through fighting to the death. He smiled suddenly while sitting on his stump. She was grateful that he rescued her at the last second. Maybe that was an answer to one of his questions. Maybe it was who he was to try and help whoever he could. Her grateful smile was a rather good reward in his eyes. She had told him that she wasn't going to stop fighting until she knew what she wanted to know. Maybe his fight up to the tower wasn't wasted after all. He managed to save a life. He laughed again. He was feeling better about the situation now. Even though the bad outweighed the good, he felt accomplished. He stood up off his stump, and made his way out of the forest. Perhaps now would be a good time to get more information. Information to answer his questions.