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.
Authors Notes Pt1: Well this is the last chapter of this story everyone. Thanks to everyone who read it, special thanks to everyone who reviewed. Big big thanks to LegendarySuperNamek for his suggestions on the sequel as well which will be forthcoming, but certainly won't be being put up as fast as this one has.
Epilogue - Location: Kane residence, London
It had been a month since that incident. Now the band was well into writing its second CD, starting to produce some of the tracks as the band worked hard through the day and sometimes into the night. The band was working to a tight schedule, the success of their first album continued to soar, as it broke through the Australian market, and the Canadian market after its US and UK success. They were launching in Asia soon, hopefully, they would do just as well. Kai spent more time at home with his family, as Joe and Lilly's relationship intensified, somewhat, though Billy still tried to interfere. The laundromat continued making money, giving Billy some time off from his band job, he still sat there strumming away sometimes, on the weekend, behind the counter.
Joe had also begun teaching Lilly some Muay Thai to keep her from being such an easy target for kidnap, much to Billy's chagrin who began to teach her as well how to fight with a staff, Kai and Kaia of course, butted in as well, teaching Lilly some other basics of self-defence, though not their personal styles. Kaia continued to work in intelligence, but when she wasn't on missions, she was seeing Billy, much to the delight of her own brother, who was delighted with the amount of blackmail material that he was coming up with. Kaia and Billy came up with some ways to play pranks on Kai, in return for all the ones that he had pulled on them, having success.
Kai, Kaia and Billy started sparring in the mornings to keep healthy and in good fighting trim, which was important for Kaia because of her work in Intelligence. Kaia won most of the time of course, against her brother, with Billy, somehow she had less success, perhaps because of his fighting style, the jabbing staff really got her annoyed as Billy probed away at her defence, usually frustrating her into presenting an opening. When Kai and Billy sparred, they were evenly matched with their different styles. Sometimes Joe came too and they would fight two on two, inventing new combination moves.
Kai kept tabs on Iori's whereabouts just as a precaution: though he was currently in Southtown, and Kai was not going to visit anytime soon, but seriously, he didn't want to fight Iori, though sometimes letters of challenge came through the fanmail which he just ignored. He got into contact with Kyo though, to ask him how he handled Iori's unwillingness to quit and constant death threats. Kyo did give him a few tips, but they weren't so useful.
Duke had escaped and returned to Southtown, where the gang war intensified, as Heinlein made a big push for more territory countered by both the Meira's and Duke's gang making pushes themselves, the gang warfare was getting really bad, so Terry, Mary and Rock had dropped by to visit for a while, also to visit Joe, who was now grudgingly accepted as Lilly's boyfriend, and Billy was now able to entertain the notion that Joe was going to be his brother in law someday, though he still claimed to totally dislike it.
Terry, Mary and Rock stayed over at the Kane house, and Kaia came over every night for dinner as well. One night, after a particularly satisfying dinner, Billy, Kaia, Rock, Terry, Mary, Joe and Lilly sat around the lounge room drinking coffee, wine and other beverages, just enjoying themselves, away from the fighting that had plagued for most of their lives. Kai had left early, for work he had to do before tomorrow morning, and a wife and kids to go back to as well. That adventure had been taxing on Kai's marriage, though his wife was used to him being away, he had missed his child's birthday, and he had spent more time with his kids as a consequence.
"The situation's pretty bad in Southtown now," Mary said, as she and Billy were in the kitchen, "Heinlein's making overtures to Rock, by dangling his mother's past in front of him, we're worried that he might rush into things. I think that he could benefit from staying here a while, with you and Kaia, while Terry and I do some searching. Don't want Rock to get in over his head."
Billy thought about it, as he made more coffee, "mmm...yes, that's probably for the best, though Kaia could probably help you guys with finding information on Rock's mother, if you just tell her the name, she'll turn up something."
They went and rejoined the others in the lounge, Billy pouring more coffee for his guests. Apparently, Kaia, Terry and Rock had been talking about fighting styles while they had been in the kitchen.
"You have to spar with Kaia sometime, she's absolutely ruthless if you give her any opening at all," Billy interjected emphasising the last two words, laughing afterwards.
"Yeah, I am, though you're no fun, jabbing that stick at me all the time, forcing me to throw projectiles at you, and then you just dodge or cancel them with that stick of yours, forcing me to charge you, it gets a bit boring," Kaia replied leaning her head on Billy's shoulder.
"Are you that good now?" Mary asked, "wanna spar tomorrow?"
"Of course," Kaia replied, "my brother comes too, he's pretty decent, though his style is a lot different to mine, he's a lot more unpredictable," emphasising the lot in her sentence.
"I wouldn't mind a spar tomorrow either, we'll all meet tomorrow morning," Terry replied.
"it'll be fun, when I get to beat you Bogard," Billy said, smirking.
"Yeah right, it'll be you who's getting beat up by me," Terry shot back.
"Why you..." Billy began, face turning red.
"Boys," both Mary and Kaia said at the same time, both surprised at their reaction, blushing.
"Save it for tomorrow," Joe drawled from where he and Lilly had been sitting, as they all laughed at Billy and Terry's expense.
Thankfully, the two now friendly rivals calmed down, and went back to their drinks and moving to other topics, gossiping about the latest news of the other fighters in Southtown and what romantic trysts and triangles there were, laughing at the anecdotes of all the antics of Andy and Mai, who were still to get any closer to being married.
The topic moved onto other things, like music, art and other parts of life, other than fighting and sparring. These were the good times in England and the travellers were enjoying their time away from the fighting and the crime infested streets of Southtown, where the Meira's, Heinlein and Duke continued to battle for control.
When they had finished, Joe and Kaia said goodbye as they left for their respective homes, and the rest of the Kane household and their guests turned in for the night, ready for some friendly, or not so friendly, sparring tomorrow. Billy climbed into his bed, and as he closed his eyes, he reflected over what had happened in his life, from orphan to criminal from criminal to laundromat owner, from laundromat owner to rock star, from nothing to everything back to nothing and everything again. From a life of constant danger, hopefully to a life of relative peace. Finally, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, looking forward to tomorrow.
THE END
Author's Notes Pt 2
1. Boss team - Sure they may appear as the 'boss'.
2. So more info about the sequel - it's going to be round robin style before going onto elimination matches, like the Soccer World Cup.
3. Proposed Groups -
Group1 - Ash team, Benimaru Team, Fatal Fury Team, Women's team
Group2 - HMK team, Kyo/Iori team, Korea Team, Ikari Warriors
Group3 - Neo Psycho Soldiers, Outlaw team, MOTW, Anti-Ash team
Group4 - ADDES team, Kyokugenryu, Anti-Kyokugenryu, K' team
Suggestions are welcomed for changes...
4. Just wait till you see the plot line I have installed, I will guarantee that you will be surprised, shocked and riveted
5. Finalised teams for HMK 2: (if there are any glaring errors please point out)
Ash team - Ash Crimson, Ron , Elisabeth Blantorche
HMK team - Rock Howard, Kai Mellion, Billy Kane
Sacred Treasures/Kyo Iori team - Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, Shingo Yabuki
K' team - K', Kula Diamond, Maxima
Fatal Fury - Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi
Korea Team - Kim Kaphwan, Choi Bounge, Chang Koehan
Alba team (Anti-Ash team) - Alba Meira, Luise Meyrink, Oswald
Kyokugen team - Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia, Yuri Sakazaki
ADDES team - Soiree Meira (brainwashed), Nagase, Duke (braincontrolled)
Neo Psycho Soldiers - Duo Lon, Sie Kensou, Athena Asamiya
Ikari Warriors - Leona Heidern, Ralf Jones, Clark Steel
Women's team - King Sakazaki, Mai Shiranui-Bogard, "Blue" Mary Ryan-Bogard
Anti- Kyokugen - Malin, Kasumi Todoh, Eiji Kisaragi
Outlaw - Ryuji Yamazaki, Lin, Gato
Benimaru team - Benimaru Nikaido, Shen Woo, Seth
MOTW team - Bonne Jenet, Hotaru Futaba, Tizoc
Nb. Though I may decide to switch Shen Woo and Oswald...I can't decide this one...