Disclaimer: All KOF and KOF-related things are property of SNKPlaymore. I only own the rights to the OC's that are present in this story.
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KOF: New Blood - Act 1
Chapter 10: 70599 Ways to kill a clone…
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After hours of making preparations, reading reports, checking the statuses of units all around the world and dying her hair a light shade of green, Irena was so exhausted, she went to sleep earlier than usual. A good ten hours of rest later, she grudgingly got up for what hoped to be a world-changing day. Stripping out of her usual sleepwear, she immediately stepped into the shower. She let the hot water run down her body for a while, aptly noticing the left over dye that was seeping from her hair. Suddenly, the familiar ring of her phone reached her ears.
Pushing the curtain out of the way, Irena quickly put it on speaker. "Hello?"
"Good morning, Irena." The familiar voice of her boss said. "I see you actually managed to get up for once without having someone bang on the door for five minutes."
"Ha ha ha…." Irena laughed sarcastically as she started to wash her hair.
"I assume that you are going to be ready to take part in the final round soon?"
"Yes, sir. This is what everything so far has been leading up to, right?"
"Exactly. Speaking of which, give me a status report."
The girl stopped a moment to try and recall all of the information she gathered yesterday. "Let's see….units are in place near all our target areas, they are ready to take out our 'men' as soon as you give approval. I'll be leaving shortly to go retrieve the Fatal Fury team from their hotel, and we should be ready to start the final round by the late afternoon."
"Excellent….wait, what is that noise in the background?"
"I'm in the shower, talking to you through speakerphone." She stated as she started washing herself. "I'll be ready to leave in a few minutes."
"In that case, I'll leave you to get ready." The voice said before he hung up. Irena quickly finished with her washing and left the shower, followed by a thorough tooth brushing. After quickly putting on her outfit, she grabbed all her necessary stuff and left the room.
She went past the main part of the building (the office) and walked down a few sets of steps till she got to a medium sized garage. Standing there waiting for her was Krizalid. The sight of him stopped Irena in her tracks.
"Uh, sir?" She said hesitantly. "Is there something wrong?"
The taller man just laughed a bit. "No, Irena. I just wanted to tell you a few things before you leave…there's the chance that my dear sister will be 'joining us' in our little endeavor." He said, crossing his arms. "If that happens, I want to confront her myself."
Irena frowned. "I don't know if I can do that without dealing with her myself."
"I know that you have some sort of grudge against her, but this is something I have to deal with on my own."
Irena nodded. "Okay. You have my word I won't get involved."
"Thank you. I appreciate your hard work." Krizalid smiled underneath the huge coat he was often seen with. "Hopefully this operation will be quick and painless. When this is all over, I'll let you hang out with your new friends for a while, as a reward for your hard work." He patted her on the head.
The though of being able to see the SSC again made her smile. "Thank you, sir. I will promise you that I won't disappoint." She gave her boss a quick hug before running off.
Krizalid watched her get into the large van and speed off, before turning around and retreating back to the building. He needed to get himself ready for what was certainly going to be a big event.
---
It took a good hour for the SSC to find the place where the Fatal Fury team was staying at, and even after they found it, the four teens were stuck with the unenviable task of sitting there and waiting for them to leave for the match.
So, for the next two hours, the SSC sat there in the car that Zyon had stolen. Raven was put on charge of looking out for any signs of movement, Zyon and Xion had both fallen asleep and Krysten was playing video games, per usual.
"Maybe this wasn't a smart idea after all." Raven thought. "Sitting in a car for two hours was not what I had in mind when we agreed to this."
"You know, we've probably look very suspicious sitting at the same place for 2 hours straight." Krysten commented.
"Zyon said that if anybody asks about us, we say that we're waiting on someone."
"For two hours?"
"It's possible. In either case, there's no point in worrying about that." Raven caught view of something pulling up to the front of the hotel. "I see a car!" He quickly shook Zyon, startling him awake.
"Er-huh? What's going on?" He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before taking a look. "A car? Plenty of cars come to pick people up. Do you see something particular about it?"
"Probably that green-haired girl coming out of the car, for one thing." Raven replied.
They both looked on as Irena stepped out of her car. She was dressed rather extravagantly, with a skirt and a long blouse adorning her figure.
Zyon blinked. "I'm guessing that's Irena…..did you say her hair is GREEN now?"
"I guess so. Must have dyed it again after she left." Raven grimaced. "That's not the greatest color for her. Kinda makes her look like a cartoon character."
"Come on, it's not as bad as you think." Zyon said. "Anyway, it looks like she's going to get Terry and the others."
"It certainly took her a good while to get here; it's almost 2 in the afternoon." Krysten said from the back of the car. "I bet by time we get to the wherever they're fighting at, it'll be dark."
"That's just something we will have to deal with, little brother." Raven shook Xion a little to get him back to conscious. "Xion, wake up. We'll be leaving any moment now."
Xion yawned. "Took her long enough," he mumbled.
After a few more minutes, Irena returned to the car with Terry and the rest of the team in tow. Even from their car, the SSC could hear the enthusiastic voices as they entered the car. As it started to pull out of the lot, Xion quickly put the car into gear.
"HEY! We can't just follow them!" Zyon quickly said before Xion blew their cover. "This will be a long ride, and if she sees that the same car has been behind her for all that time, she'll get suspicious. I already got directions of where she'll be going, so we need to wait a few minutes before we actually start tailing the car."
"Wait, how am I supposed to know where to go?" Xion asked.
"I took the map from our hotel room." Zyon said, showing his friend the folded paper in his hand.
Not bothering to comment on the theft, Xion waited about ten minutes before finally driving in the direction Irena went. "Am I going to have to drive the whole way?"
"You're the only one with a license, Xio-kun." The electricity/flame user relaxed in his seat. "Don't worry; it'll only be for three hours…at the least."
Xion shook his head and wondered if he should have just gone home.
---
Tera Kasanari was lying around the house in a fit of boredom. She didn't usually like to mope around all day, but without her brother, things were a little dull lately.
Zyon hadn't called her in more than a day, which was unusual for him, since he would usually take every opportunity to check up on his sister. The last time he talked to her, he was just about to fight in his semifinal round match. Needless to say she was a little worried. Being all by herself was a pretty big risk on its own; if word got out that Tera had been left home alone, her brother would be in trouble with several people who would probably end up removing her from his custody. Zyon had gotten one of his friends to check up on her on a daily basis, so she wasn't alone most of the day, but it was still very lonely being in the house.
"Well, there's no use in worrying about that all day. Maybe I'll stay over Kristal's place tonight." She said to herself as she got up and stretched whatever kinks she had. Kristal, her closest friend, had been spending most of her time over there, trying to keep her company. "Speaking of which, it's almost time to go meet her at the mall."
Tera got herself ready to leave, and after a quick check in the mirror, left the place which they called home. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice the helicopters flying over the city. She did take note, however, that there were a line large trucks passing by her. It was a strange sight to see, since this part of town wasn't the type of place that such vehicles would have been present. They kinda looked like army trucks, and that kind of disconcerting to her. What were they doing here? Could they be connected to that tournament? Was her brother in danger?
Tera frowned at the thought of Zyon being in any real danger. He always seemed to be able to get out of bad situations, but this, of course, was different than getting targeted by some angry gang, or committing an act of vandalism on someone's property. This was an infamous tournament full of unstable and violent fighters who wouldn't bat an eye at the idea of murdering a seventeen-year-old boy.
"NO! Don't even let that thought go through your head!"
Tera knew that she was getting a bit too paranoid. If those strange trucks were indeed part of that tournament, why would they be all the way here? If Zyon and the others were in the area, he would have certainly have let her know.
"I certainly hope things are going well for you, Zyonii." She said to no one in particular. "Please, stay safe, at least for your sister's sake."
---
Meanwhile, at the location of the final battle, Whip was hiding out somewhere amongst the shadows. It was a long way from the city; everything had a sort of barren quality to it. A long stretch of water, which stretched from the treatment plant from way back in the city to its merging point with another river, separated what seemed to be some kind of factory like building on one side, from a cliffy region on the other, which had a path leading down to the bottom.
She was waiting at a bridge that went across the water, just listlessly staring at the reflection while they waited for someone to come so they can start their surveillance. After that fight, she suffered some light wounds, but other than the incredible pain of electricity shooting though her body, she was okay for the most part.
Whip, though she probably wouldn't admit it to anyone, kinda hoped that the SSC won their semifinal match so she could at least apologize to Zyon for being such a pain during their fight. She didn't want things to end on such a sour note. Placing her head on the railing, she felt the pain from the metal touching the still sore part of her body, but she didn't cringe.
"Whip, reports say that the vehicle carrying the Fatal Fury team is on our way." Leona said as she passed by her, but noticing the glum look on her face, she stopped. "What's eating you?"
The brown haired girl just turned to look at her. "Nothing Ma'am. I'm just lost in thought." She straightened up. "When do you suppose they'll be here?"
"In another hour or so, give or take." Leona stated. "Whatever plot is behind this tournament will probably be revealed after this last match."
"And that's what bothering me." Whip thought to herself. "I need to stop worrying and get myself ready for my inevitable reunion with him…"
"Is everything okay?"
"Yep! Everything is fine." Whip gave Leona her most confident smile. There was no need to get her teammates worried over her.
Leona apparently got the idea, so she just nodded. "Follow me; I need to show you where you and the guys need to keep watch at." She left, and Whip, getting her mind to focus one again on her mission, followed her.
---
Zyon, surprisingly, was right about the trip taking a little more than 3 hours to make. By that time, the SSC had been in the car for five hours straight (not counting a brief period where they had to stop for gas). They had to follow Irena's car from a distance, and because of that, they lost her a few times, but managed to keep up.
Trying to keep the four kids occupied for this trip was another matter. At first they had just listened to the radio till the signal to most of the good stations had faded out. Krysten had his games that he played all the time to keep him busy, but Raven and Zyon spent the rest of the ride either arguing about stuff, eating the food that Raven was kind enough to buy for the trip, and harassing other drivers (with Raven spitting out the window and watching it hit other cars and Zyon either screaming insults in Japanese or making obscene gestures to passing cars in order to try and provoke a reaction). Xion's constant complaints that those actions would probably get them arrested and/or caught by the driver they were pursuing fell on deaf ears for most of the ride, and if it wasn't for the fact that they would lose time, he was tempted to pull over and give the two a methodical pounding.
Finally, they arrived at an area that looked like some kind of abandoned factory. Because it would have been a risk to drive through, Xion parked his car at a space near the other side of the bridge. Hidden from sight, they kept watch as she exited the car with Terry and co. in tow.
"That had to be the most boring ride I've ever took part in." Xion placed his head on the steering wheel in exhaustion. "And the fact I'll have to do this again makes it even worse."
"Don't forget that it'll be in the middle of the night, if we're lucky." Zyon stated, "But like I said, the hard part is over. Now, all we have to do is wait and see where Irena and the other's go."
---
"You'll have to forgive me. This path can get kinda confusing."
Irena hurried across the empty factory with the Fatal Fury team trailing behind her. They had parked rather far, so they had to walk all the way back to where the bridge was, but instead of crossing it, they went down the slope that led to the stream of water, which was surprisingly shallow.
"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Mai spoke up. "You're not leading us into some kind of trap, are you?"
"Don't worry, miss." Irena said. "I have no reason to mislead you. Just follow me, we're almost there."
They kept walking till they reached a tunnel that stuck out of the side of a wall. Upon entering, they realized that they were in some kind of underground sewer. Surprisingly, it was lit up with lights that were placed on the wall, so they weren't exactly walking blind. Trudging their way through the increasingly dirty water, Irena started to get very irritated.
"My favorite boots are getting ruined…" She thought to himself, "Lousy organization couldn't think of a better place to hold a fight. Krizalid better pay me some good money to replace these…"
Fortunately, it wasn't long before they reached the main area. There wasn't much to it. There was a pipe that water was flowing out of it sticking out of the side, and it was just big enough for both teams to fight in, and speaking of which…
"I see that the other team had already made it."
Standing there, waiting for the other team, was the slightly unusual team that consisted of the two other newcomers to the tournament, the white-haired named K' and the massive fighter known as Maxima, and the veterans, tournament regular Benimaru Nikaido and Shingo Yabuki.
"Look who it is…" K' smirked. "I guess you need something to do since your job of being those losers' cheerleader is over."
"And it's nice to see you too, K'!" Irena said cheerily, hiding her obvious anger of having her team being called 'losers', "I see you are just as insolent and stubborn as ever."
"Ah…I never knew you were friends with such a lovely girl." Benimaru said slyly, "Is there something I don't know?"
"She is NOT my friend!!" The white-haired fighter snarled, giving him the harshest look he could muster.
Benimaru laughed nervously and stepped back a few paces. "I was just kidding."
Irena stifled a giggle. "Okay, it's time to get down to business." She thought. "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Final match for the King of Fighters 1999. My name, of course, is Irena Toryu, and I will be officiating for the final time. This match will pit the Fatal Fury team against…..er, what's your team's name again?"
"We're the Japan Team, of course." Benimaru answered.
"Benimaru-san, I don't think that K' or Maxima are Japanese…" Shingo corrected.
"In that case, what about the Benimaru team?" The blond retorted.
"Because I'm the leader of this team, not you." K' interrupted.
"Uh…excuse me; I'm the most experienced member of this team. Besides, why would you want to lead the team if you didn't want to be in the tournament to begin with?"
"Because they placed you with us, so since I had to carry your asses throughout this whole tournament, I should be the leader."
"That's it…." Lighting sparked from Benimaru's body. "Looks like you need a little lesson in respecting your superiors…"
K' simply put his glasses away and got into stance.
"Hey! Stop it you two!" Irena shouted, causing both fighters to stop in their tracks. "Calm down. This is the last fight of the tournament, there's no reason for the team to fall apart now, K'," She said sternly. "The match is about to start, so get ready."
Both fighters hesitantly relented.
"Alright then…despite the fact that you don't have a real team name, you'll be facing the Fatal Fury team. The winner of which will win the tournament and go down to meet our sponsor, in order to receive your 'prize'. Will the first fighters for each team please step forward?" Andy and Benimaru were the ones to do so. "Alright. Since you got this far, there's no need to go over things with either of you." She took a deep breath, calming her nerves a bit, before she proceeded to initiate the final match.
Round 1: Andy vs. Benimaru!
…Neither of the teams knew what awaited the winner of this fight….
Fight!
---
The SSC had been keeping lookout for Irena. Since they couldn't disrupt the final round of the tournament, they decided to hide right under the bridge, where they got a good look at the tunnel where the team went into. Alas, they had no option to sit there and wait.
"This fucking sucks!" Zyon shouted. "We've been sitting here for a half hour and nothing has happened! What's taking them so long to have a fight?!"
"Calm down, Zyon." Raven said. "Do you really think it would be better if we just rush in there during the middle of a battle? Think for a bit. We just have to wait a bit longer."
Zyon just crossed his arms and started to mutter.
Needless to say they were all bored. Three and a half hours of driving followed by a half hour of waiting wasn't the thing they had in mind when Zyon and Raven first came up with this plan. Krysten probably wouldn't say anything, but Xion was irritated beyond belief. What was he thinking when he agreed to go along with this stupid plan?
"All of this because Raven has a crush on her…." The hooded boy thought to himself. "He and Zyon are both going to owe me big for this."
Minutes passed by, and by that time everyone was starting to get restless, obviously. The sun was starting to set right behind them, and at this pace they would be driving back to the city in the middle of the night, which Xion obviously wasn't looking forward to. Zyon was trying to get a good signal in which he could call his sister, but it seemed all in vain.
All of a sudden, the tunnel was illuminated by a bright light, of which it quickly faded. The SSC looked at each other, wondering if that was a sign that the fight was over…
---
"Congratulations!" Irena cheered. "You've just won the King of Fighters tournament!"
K' stood over a fallen Terry Bogard, an arrogant smirk on his face. "So I did. What happens now?"
"Hold on, hold on." Irena said. "There's no need to rush things."
Benimaru, in an attempt to separate himself from his condescending teammates, helped Terry up. "You'll have to forgive him…he doesn't exactly have the best attitude towards people," He stated, "Me and Shingo kinda got stuck with him."
"I heard that!"
"Oh, it's no problem. You face one guy like that, you face them all." Terry didn't let his loss get to him. "You just be careful when you meet whoever this 'sponsor' is."
"Believe me; I'm well aware what we're walking into." Benimaru frowned. "But if history has taught us anything, that by the end of the day, everything will be absolutely fine….hopefully." He still couldn't help but be reminded of the fact that Kyo had been missing for nearly 2 years now, but this wasn't the time to think about that.
"Okay, Fatal Fury Team, you did a great job." Irena announced. "I wish you luck in the future, but now I need to show the winners the way to our sponsor. Could you step aside for a bit?"
The team moved over to the side. Irena went to the panel on the wall and pressed a few buttons, and a steel platform slid out from the side of the wall.
"Everybody hop on the floor." She said, and K''s team stepped on to the platform. The floor below the platform opened up to reveal another tunnel below. "Alright, we're going down. Don't worry Terry; someone is there to take you back to the city…"
The platform started to descend, and Irena gave the Fatal Fury team a final wave before they disappeared into the floor.
---
The very moment Terry and his friends emerged from the tunnel, the SSC jumped up and proceeded to make their way towards them.
"TERRY! What happened?" Zyon said once he got a good look at the fighter's battered look. "They really did a number on you, did they?"
"Yeah…these guys are no joke, man. But what are you doing here? I thought you were going back home?"
"That's what I'm asking myself…" Xion sighed.
"We need to see Irena. Has she gone with the others?"
"That girl? She and the guys went underground on some sort of elevator thingy…" Mai answered. "They're going to see the big boss of this tournament."
"Boss? That's not a good sign…" Raven said to himself. Without warning, he broke into a run towards the tunnel.
"Raven?!" Krysten shouted as he started to follow him. "Wait! You don't even know where you're going!"
Zyon laughed. "Poor boy has a hopeless crush on that girl. I have to go catch him…" Zyon followed after the two, with Xion hesitantly backing him up.
"Don't you think we should stop them?" Andy worried about their safety, but Mai just wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled.
"I think this is one of those things that only fate can decide, Andy…"
---
"What the hell…." Leona said as she spotted the SSC running into the tunnel. "Whip, are you seeing this?"
Her fellow soldier, who was in the mist of dozing off after hours of surveillance, snapped out of her daze fast enough to see the team running into the tunnel. "What the….why are they still in the area?"
"I don't know… they could possibly be tailing the team who won that match."
"Can we get Ralf and Clark to try and intercept them?"
"The commander said that he lost contact with the two after they found another entrance on the other side of those buildings." Leona replied.
Whip couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh of frustration. Why…why was the SSC getting involved in this? That was the last thing she wanted to happen. Now they were just about to get themselves killed, and it was probably because of Irena too. "Captain, you have to let me go after them…"
Leona looked at her with a confused expression for a while. "Are you sure?" She asked.
"Yes…this is something I need to do. Please, Leona…"
"If that is what you think is the right thing to do, then I will allow you to do that." Leona said. "Hurry up, or you'll lose them."
"Thank you, ma'am…" She got up and rushed down the hill to follow them, but half way there, Whip realized that if they were going where she think they were going, then they'll probably have to wait for the elevator to come back up. What would she do then? The situation would be too awkward for her to manage. Thankfully, she knew there was more than one way to get in there….
---
Raven and the rest of the SSC rushed down the sewer tunnel, but by time they made it to the end, all they had to show for it was a bunch of water. Where was the elevator?
"So we're going to have to wait here for an elevator to come back up?" Xion panted. "Isn't there another way we can get down there?"
Raven took a glance at the surroundings. There was a path past the place they were currently at, but they didn't know where it headed. They could wait for the elevator and take the safe route, but they didn't know when (or if, for that matter) it was coming back up.
"Wait; there could be an emergency route in case the elevator got disabled or something." Zyon reasoned. "And if there's one, it's probably up further ahead."
"So we're going to just take your word for it?" Krysten said.
"Unless you want to wait here by yourself, you are going to have to." Zyon started on the path ahead. With no other choice, the others followed him, and soon they were wandering down paths that all looked the same. That was until they ran across a doorway. Unfortunately, it required a pass of some sort for the door to open.
"Don't worry. Leave it to me." Zyon gave the keypad a little jolt of electricity, and soon, they had access to some sort of stairway. But waiting for them at the bottom of the steps was more tunnels for them to traverse. They had just decided on which way to go when…
"Either I'm crazy, or there's someone else here with us." Krysten whispered.
"Lucky guess…"
A figure emerged from one of the connecting tunnels. It took a moment, but the man looked all too familiar. The brown hair, the headband, the school uniform with that all too familiar insignia on his back and those gloves…they could only belong to one person:
"Kyo Kusanagi…." Zyon couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"The one and only." The figure grinned. "What are you guys doing here?"
"We could ask the same of you." Raven stated. "Why are you wandering around in a place like this?"
"Nothing much. I'm just making sure that no one intrudes on our boss' big event."
"Event? What kind of event? Is it some kind of winner's party?" Krysten mused
"No, idiot. He meant that whoever is running this show is about to reveal his true intentions for the tournament, just like they do almost every year."
"If that's the case, then why is Kyo not letting us stop him?"
"I have my reasons…" The figure answered. "In fact, I'll give you one right now, just so you'll know what I'm talking about."
Kyo then motioned his head a bit. At that moment someone else emerged from the tunnel that looked almost like a perfect replica of Kyo.
"What's this? So, we have some visitors, I see…" He said to the first one. "Kyo-1, looks like we're going to have some fun after all."
"Guess you're right, Kyo-2. Let's show these wimps what we're made of."
The SSC just stood there, confused beyond belief. Of all the things they were expecting out of this, having to fight two doubles of Kyo Kusanagi was somewhere in the lower part of that list.
"What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?" Raven whispered to Zyon, but all he could do was shake his head; he had no way to describe what he was seeing.
"Are they supposed to be robots or something?" Krysten said apprehensively.
"I don't know. But it doesn't look like we will be going any further until we fight them." Xion pulled his hood over his head and got ready to fight."
"I'll have to agree with Xio-kun. The advantage is still ours, so let's dispose of these…uh…things and get it over with." Zyon added. "The sooner we deal with this, the sooner we can be on our way."
Raven smirked and got ready for the inevitable battle. "Right. It looks like our fight hasn't ended for us, after all."
---
Shikkoku: Hope you liked this one. At this point, I'd say that there will be about 3 or 4 more chapters before this story comes to an end.
Notes:
There will be a fight between the clones and the SSC, but it'll probably be brief. They are merely there as a means to involve the SSC into this whole mess.
I went and touched up some of the earlier chapters, but they're mostly small errors and stuff. The only real difference is that Chapter 7's fight scene between Zyon and Whip was made slightly longer.
Irena's character will be expanded upon a little bit next time, but nothing too big will be revealed, as that is being saved for Act 2.
I recommend that you guys get King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match. It's one of the best versions of the game I've played so far, along with XI. Anyway, depending on how things go for the next few weeks, the next chapter should hopefully take less time to come out. No promises, though, as always.
Next Chapter: The SSC deals with the Kyo clones, but when they finally find Irena, what will their reaction be when Irena finally reveals the true purpose of the tournament? And what will happen when they confront Krizalid?
Until Next Time, Sayonara…