Disclaimer: SNK owns King of Fighters and all the characters that appear. I own any original character appears. This in no way derogates from SNK's legal rights and obligations.
Chapter 1 - Location World Music Awards, Second Southtown, USA
It had been a year since Heavy Metal Kingz had been formed, a year since that weird and fateful night. He had turned up the next day with his guitar, and found that Kai was in the process of setting up a new band, and that he wanted Billy to be lead guitarist. He had already found a drummer and a bassist, but he had needed a guitarist, and one with a lot of talent at that. He had gotten Billy to play a simple tune, and then had added the bass and then drums into it, seeing how the sound mixed, Kai was impressed as were the other executives and songwriters who were present.
And that day, the rock sensation known as Heavy Metal Kingz had been born. The next six months ran by quickly, even though they were a lot of hard work, playing, recording, writing songs, and now touring. It had meant that he had spent a lot less time at the laundromat, and that Lilly now ran it most of the time. And her deadbeat boyfriend was now at least useful, though he would never actually ever admit to even thinking it, there was someone to look after Lilly while he was away. And he was away often now, touring, promoting, he had never expected that Heavy Metal Kingz would storm to the top of the charts so quickly, their CD was had multi-platinumed in the UK, platinumed in the USA, their hit single Fallen Angel, had spent a solid 10 weeks on top of the charts both in US and UK.
To top it all off, the band had been invited to play at the World Music Awards, and they were also nominated for a couple of awards as well, like Best New Band, best album and a couple more.
Of course, it had meant returning to Southtown because that was where it was being held this year, but he hadn't told anyone about his past yet, it was best that the past remained in the past, though there had been rumours of his criminal past abounding, somehow they never made it to the papers, or were discredited. As a consequence, the rumours only managed to increase the 'bad boy' image of the band, spiking up popularity. The media machine at MusicCo had been working non-stop since the rumours had begun.
And the paparazzi that began to stalk the band somehow just never got pictures. There had been one particularly harrowing time, Billy thought, when they had rushed to a car, expecting that the paparazzi would follow on their motorbikes, but apparently somehow, someone had slashed all the tyres. He had heard that a lot of other bands and artists suffered from paparazzi intrusion, but they never did. Strange, but he preferred it that way, he thought, as their limousine pulled up to the awards ceremony, and the band alighted, and went backstage to prepare, they were leading off the show.
"Welcome to the World Music Awards, this year brought to you live from Southtown, USA", the host began, "this year, we're starting the party with a new band, the rock sensation, Heavy Metal Kingz with their hit single, Fallen Angel." Grey mist covered the stage as the curtains opened, and the band began to rock. The song began to permeate all through the hall and all throughout the world. Lilly was watching on a small portable TV at the laundromat, Joe besides her, dressed in a shirt and shorts, hugging her, as the music began to waft throughout the laundromat, both of them loving the time they were spending together without the bossy big brother of hers. Even though he thought he knew what was right for her romantically, Lilly thought, the fact was he was just as much of a novice when it came to romance, if not more of one. Sure Joe liked to brag and grand-stand, but it was the way he did it that made her like him, and the fact that he was sweet on her. And Joe wasn't scared away as easily as the others who had tried to date her before.
Back in Southtown, Kai was watching from the seating, the empty seats next to him saved for the band when they finished on stage, satisfied that the band had gotten so far in such a short time, really it was a combination of hard work, marketing strategy and sounding out the right people. Of course, those who dug around the private lives of the band members had to be dealt with. But he thought that the paparazzi by now had learnt not to snoop around his band, the first couple had had bad things happen to them, a couple of bashings, even an unexplained disappearance. The performance continued, as Kai sat back and listened to the band play, as the piece crescendoed and built up to its climax and then finished. The curtain closed and the host came back and began announcing the presenters for the first awards.
The band slipped back into their seats, "good job guys," Kai said, no cigarette in his mouth, because it was politically incorrect to smoke at something like the WMAs. And anyway, he really smoked just to annoy Billy, it was like a game, when he wanted to annoy Billy, he just smoked and puffed in his vicinity. And blocked any punches that were thrown his way, the first few times at least. There were a couple of black eyes since then, and a couple of nasty whacks from his staff, but then again, the pain was worth it.
Kai watched the awards from his seat, as they announced the WMA for best new band, he silently hoped that they would win. "And the winner of the best new band goes to the...the host paused as he opened the envelope..."the new Rock sensation, Heavy Metal Kingz." It took a couple of seconds to register in Kai's brain that his band had won, but he saw that his band was just as dumbfounded, "guys I think you should go up there and collect the award." The band walked up onto the stage, and they all shook the announcers hands and held up the little WMA award, Billy went to the microphone, and thanked everyone for attending and everyone who was watching, the other bands, the listeners out there, the recording company, Kai, and a special thanks to the families and close friends of all the band members.
Tears began to form in Billy's eyes as he got to the end of the speech, he had really wanted to thank one man in particular; the person who had given him his beginning, his confidence, but to mention that name would be virtual suicide. (A/N: you should all know who it is). The band sat back down, and the awards continued to be presented. All in all, the event went smoothly and by the end of it, everyone was ready for the after-parties, the biggest one in the Stateroom of Southtown's biggest hotel.
Location: Stateroom Southtown's biggest hotel
The afterparty got into full swing, at the stateroom of the main hotel in Southtown. Most of the big stars were there, the winners of most of the awards, as well as prominent locals that had been invited.
Billy saw that Kai was talking with some other manager, he looked over at the security guards and at the people around the party, and he saw someone, someone familiar.
Her short blond hair still remained short, concealed under a cap, she was dressed in official security type uniform, though it had been augmented by a large belt holding her walkie-talkie, and other stuff.
Billy sauntered up to her, "Hey, Mary, long time no see," he said.
Mary turned around from where she had been sitting, "hey yourself, you shouldn't be distracting me from my job," she replied, a bit startled.
"You part of the security?" Billy asked.
"Head of security, I've got a lot of the other guys here too, the Mayor was pretty serious with making sure nothing untoward happen," she pointed to a man with a blond ponytail, weaving his way through the crowd, "that's Terry," and she gestured behind her, "that's Rock, he's posing as the bartender tonight, we've got it pretty covered."
Billy smiled, not letting his dislike of Terry get the better of him, after all he knew that Mary liked him, "so it seems, Ryan, everything is under control" he said, emphasising the last word.
Mary feigned a hurt look, "You know that things are going to be fine, How are things in England?"
"Lilly's doing well, that boyfriend of hers has finally become useful in some way," he said laughing, but his look saying that if Mary ever repeated that... "he's looking after her and she's looking after the shop, while I tour, it seems pretty unfair that i have to be away so often, but that's life, and I think we're all used to it now. I think she prefers it that way sometimes, less chance for me to pick a bone with that boyfriend of hers. I heard her say that you and Terry were involved now."
"Yeah, we are, he's a nice guy, Terry, Rock and I are sort of a family now, especially since Andy moved to Japan to be with Mai."
"They finally shack up together? Took them long enough." He laughed, the people that he had disliked for a long while, now, they were just mere subjects of idle gossip.
"I hope this place doesn't bring back any bad memories, I thought that you would be gone for good," Mary stated, as she smirked.
"Hey, no fair, I thought it would be longer before I came back," he paused, "and there are still bad memories, but seeing you again is a good thing, and I think I might go visit the grave sometime," Billy replied, being careful not to mention a certain name which was still dangerous to mention.
"Okay, okay, so it is good to see you back here, come by tomorrow and visit, we'll take you around to all the new places." Mary replied, finishing the drink she had been given. "you'll find me here," she said as she wrote her address on a slip of paper and handed it over to Billy.
"Yeah, as long as I don't beat up your boyfriend right," he replied, laughing again.
"Hah, I think he'll be the one beating you up, Billy," Mary replied, smirking again, "he's done it plenty before."
"Hmph, my manager would go psychotic if that happened." They both laughed, finding it hard to imagine.
"I'll be sure to tell him to take you around." Mary's walkie-talkie buzzed as an update about the security situation at the party.
Author's Notes 2:
1. Thanks to my two reviewers LegendarySuperNamek and Evan Jones.
2. I may go back and fill in that year later...but the rest of the story is probably more important
3. Apologies for upcoming OOCness. Gasp! All I will say is that Billy actually shows some maturity. Double Gasp!
4. I hope you all guessed who Billy wanted to refer to in his speech
5. The ending was a bit abrupt but this seemed to be the natural place to end it.
6. Sorry for any Joe-bashing that I'm doing as Billy, but seriously what older brother would not silently bash his sister's boyfriend, especially one that he hated. And similarly for Lilly thinking that Billy was just sticking his nose into her business where it wasn't wanted.