Disclaimer: I do not own KOF.
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KOF: New Blood - Act 1
Chapter 12: Desperation: SSC vs. Krizalid
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Raven, in all of the years that he could actually still recall, hasn't had this much fun in a long time.
Fighting can be very fun, but when your opponents are usually weak, overconfident or just too stupid to know what he or she was doing, it tends to be sort of a buzz-killer. That's why this tournament was like a breath of fresh air. His battle with Terry Bogard gave him a feeling that he hadn't felt in a long time, since the day he received that scar that ran under his left eye. It was a feeling that he couldn't describe; all he knew that it felt wonderful.
Now here he was, standing across from what could be the strongest person he has ever faced. Pushing aside thoughts of what could happen if the SSC lost; Raven mentally prepared himself for the battle. But before he could do anything, he needed to form a plan.
"Guys, leave this all to me!" Raven declared. "I'll fight him on my own!"
"Are you nuts?! Let's just gang up on him already! There's no reason to follow tournament rules anymore!" Krysten replied.
"Does it look like it'll be that easy?! Just look at what happened to those other guys!"
"Raven does has a point," Zyon interrupted, "While I understand that ganging up on him may look like the logical thing to do, but if that happens, all that would do is wear us down even faster. It'll be easier if we take him on one at a time. If that doesn't work, then we'll beat the holy hell out of him together, okay?"
"Fine…" Krysten just stood back and watched. "I hope you're right.
"None of that is going to matter since it will not take me that long to defeat all of you." Krizalid said, "So I don't recommend that you get too…" Raven started rushing toward him halfway during his sentence, "….confident."
He quickly put his hands up in time to stop the elbow that was aiming for his stomach. Raven quickly spun around and attempted to sweep him, but Krizalid quickly stepped back to avoid it. The teen used his momentum to do yet another kick, this time aimed at the head, but that was easily avoided as well.
"If that's all the skill you have, then you are about to be in big trouble." Krizalid said right before Raven finally landed a kick into his midsection, causing him to falter back a bit.
"Yeah, go ahead; keep mouthing off and we'll see who is going to be in 'big trouble'." Raven said. He began to assault him with a series of punches, their targets varying, before finishing with a quick axe kick. While Krizalid was stunned, Raven did a short hop before doing a quick spinning kick that hit him twice in the upper body.
"Ha! How did you like that?"
"You continue to impress me. I wasn't expecting you to attack so suddenly, I'll give you that." Krizalid's suit seemed to glow for a second or two. "But this is only the beginning…"
Raven unexpectedly found himself being grabbed by the shirt and dragged towards him. Krizalid rammed his body into the teen, sending him flying a short distance before landing on the ground. Even with the wind knocked from him, Raven quickly got back to his feet, charged towards Krizalid, and promptly got hit in the face by the sole of his boot.
"Well, that stint of aggression didn't last long." Krizalid walked over, grabbed Raven by the collar of his shirt and pulled him up to his feet. "But I guess you just couldn't handle it, could you?"
"I'll show you..." Raven thought as he shoved Krizalid's arm away. Turning his body a bit to the side, he assumed a defensive stance. "Go ahead…attack me and see what happens."
Krizalid didn't realize the form Raven took. He threw a punch and watched as Raven efficiently dodged the attack, spinning around to avoid the punch before thrusting his elbow into the man's abdomen. It wasn't particularly strong; its primary use was that it left the victim open for another attack when hit. In this case, Raven followed up with a high kick to the head, sending his opponent stumbling.
Raven wiped his mouth instinctively, and noticed the blood that smeared on his sleeve; a product of his attack earlier. "If worse comes to worse, I'll probably end up using that technique. But that should be a last ditch effort right now. At this moment, I should just keep attacking."
Krizalid started to regain his senses, and luckily for him, it was during that time that Raven was closing in on him once again. A small smile appeared on his face.
"Closer…closer…that's right…"
The minute he knew that Raven was in range, Krizalidjumped in the air and performed the Rising Dark Moon. As expected, Raven had no idea it was coming and got hit by it full force. He was sent even higher in the air than the last time, and then he hit the ground with a dull thud.
The impact knocked him out for a brief moment. When he finally came to, Krysten was kneeling over him.
"Owwww…" His body felt terrible. Looking down, he discovered that he was bleeding from a wound in his chest that almost looked like a knife had sliced it. "Bastard…"
"You let your guard down. Bad idea." Krizalid started to walk towards them. "I'll admit that so far you are way more aggressive than my last victim." He motioned towards K', "But you're still no match for me."
Krysten slowly stood up. He knew that his brother would obviously try to get up and continue to fight, but for the moment, he had to protect him. Without warning, he charged towards Krizalid and attacked him with everything he had.
Unfortunately, because Krysten was attacking with blind rage rather than strategy, it was easy for Krizalid to guard against the assault. As soon as he saw an opening, he thrust his foot into Krysten's stomach. With his high leg strength, he lifted the younger Kirishima up before throwing him right into his brother. Now both of them were down.
"Two down. Anyone else?"
"…And it looks like I'll be coming to your rescue once again." Zyon sighed. He was hoping that they would do a better job of wearing him down at this point. Right before he started to enter the fight, Raven tugged on his pants leg.
"Yo, what is it?" Zyon crouched down to listen. Raven grabbed him by the head and whispered something into his ear. "Oh, I see." He nodded. "Fine. If that's what you think, I'll go along."
"So what is this? While adapting your plan as the fight goes on is good strategy, I doubt it'll do you any good." Krizalid said.
"Whatever. You're dealing with me now." Zyon walked towards him and got into his stance. Even though he had plenty of energy to go into one of his modes, he would save those for later. At the moment, he could wear Krizalid down with his normal style, then once he starts to adapt to it, he'll switch to fire/lighting mode, which hopefully throws him off guard enough for Zyon to defeat him.
As soon as he felt he was ready, Zyon broke into a sprint. Actually, it was more of a dash; done so fast that he practically disappeared for a split second (the same technique that Xion uses). Krizalid hadn't exactly figured out how to defend against something like this, so he wasn't prepared when Zyon slammed his leg into the side of his stomach.
Zyon was a lot more relentless with his attacks. He hit him with a fast combination of kicks before ending with a spinning kick to the midsection, and when Krizalid keeled over from the last hit, he kicked him directly in the face. Zyon watched in amusement as his opponent clutched his face in pain.
"I see now why my sister holds such an interest in you." Krizalid thought after a moment. He wiped the blood that was leaking from his injured nose.
"You're not planning on giving up because of a little injury, are you?"
"Hardly."
"That's good. It would be disappointing if you wimped out on me now." Zyon stated, "Let's continue."
---
As the two went at each other again, the team that where originally there was left to sit on the sidelines. Of course they weren't complaining; K' still wasn't all there in the head, Maxima's system was in the middle of trying to repair some minor damage while calculating a plan, and Benimaru and Shingo figured that they could use the time to rest up.
"Shingo?"
"Hm? What is it Benimaru-san?"
"That person fighting right now…" Benimaru asked as he watched Zyon do a complicated spinning attack that completely missed the target. "Didn't you say he goes to school with you?"
"Uh...yeah. That's Zyon Kasanari."
"So he's the one you say can use electricity like me? My, that's quite the talented kid. Hopefully he'll wear him down enough so we can beat him."
"TYPHON RAGE!"
Benimaru sighed as he watched Zyon get thrown back by Krizalid's annoyingly effective attack. "Or I could be very, very wrong."
---
After what seemed to be 5 minutes of close combat with him, neither man had made any headway. Zyon had landed a few hits when the Typhon Rage blew him back, but he was quick enough to get back up close before Krizalid was able to use it again. Leaping up into the air, he twisted around so he landed behind his opponent. Grabbing Krizalid by the neck and started to run to the nearest wall. Unfortunately, the older man managed to reverse it around at the last minute, twisting around so it was Zyon that got slammed against the wall instead.
Before Zyon could think up a way to get himself out of this mess, Krizalid started punching him rapidly. So rapidly, in fact, that it felt like he was getting shot with an automatic weapon.
"Hahahaha! It's time for your punishment!" Krizalid ceased his assault as he reared back for one more strike, as Zyon was still dazed from being hit so many times. With one last punch, the young fighter crumbled to the ground in pain.
"Shit…Fighting normally isn't working anymore. I'm going to need the flames…" Zyon discreetly took the lighter out of his pocket. As he was trying to light it, however, Krizalid found that it was the perfect opportunity for him to grind his face into the floor by stepping on his head.
"You are unique as well. I'm in a giving mood, so I think I'll give you the opportunity to get something out of this whole ordeal." Krizalid said, "How about you work for me?"
"Why? And why ask me in particular?"
"Think about this, I'm sure my staff can help you learn to use your powers more effectively." He stated, "Our technology can do more to help you than 10 years of training could ever do."
"And even though I probably already know the answer, what If I refuse?"
"Well, we'll have to see now, won't we?" Krizalid said, "Though I doubt any other outcome I can think of consists of you and your team actually surviving this battle."
Xion, who for the most part had been worried for his friend's well being, knew that if he could keep Krizalid busy, Zyon would have time to switch to one of his powers. So, without actually screaming out the name of the attack, he threw a fast Koryuga. It wasn't very strong, but it hit him right in the chest hard enough for him to move his attention towards Xion.
"Why you…" Krizalid was annoyed by the black-haired teen's interruption. "You want to play games. Well then, how about we see if you can dodge this!"
From his hand, Krizalid fired a small purple energy spark, which was quickly heading towards Xion's direction. He tried to move out of the way, but it seemed to be homing in on him no matter what he did. With no other alternatives, he threw another one of his fireballs in hopes of the two colliding and them negating each other out.
Unfortunately for him, it didn't work.
"GAH!" Xion took the brunt of the hit. He was so confident that they would cancel each other out, that when Krizalid's attack went through his, it caught him off guard. Despite all that, he still had managed to accomplish his goal of distracting Krizalid long enough.
"Thanks, Xio-kun." Zyon took out his lighter (which, thankfully, wasn't broken from all of the fighting he did) and quickly lit it over the palm of his gloved hand…
"Now then, back to what I was saying..." The moment Krizalid turned around, he got a blaze of blue flames right in the face. He managed to defend himself just in time, but it did some serious damage. He took a look at the person who attacked him.
Zyon was standing listlessly before him. His hair had turned to a shade of white, but unlike with the lightning, it also had a slight red tone to it. The irises on his eyes had also turned red, but contrary to their color, they looked at him with something more akin to a blank stare than a rage filled glare. But the most noticeable aspect was the flames that were coming from both of his hands in all its bright blue glory…
"So this is your power?" Krizalid couldn't help but be astonished, "I never thought I would see someone not of Kusanagi or Yagami blood wielding flames..."
"Yeah…" Zyon's tone was less energetic, and had a darker tone to it. "I figured burning you alive would be a much more fitting fate for you in this case."
"Really? Irena told me that you have a hard time controlling things when it comes to those flames. That only leads me to wonder why you refuse my offer to help you master them."
"Sorry, but I have issues with authority. I have issues with a lot of things, quite frankly." He gave a lazy shrug, "Besides, I'm not interested in being someone's lapdog, especially if it comes at the expense of everyone else."
"If you can barely control your own flames, how can you hope to defeat me?"
Before Krizalid had time to react, Zyon was in front of him and delivered a powerful hook right to his face. That shot was even more painful when you added in the fact that both of his hands were currently on fire. Clutching his now damaged face, he glared at the now grinning flame-user.
"That should be a perfectly reasonable answer, don't you agree?"
---
Raven cringed as he tried to stand with the grievous wound he suffered. During all of that, he had gone to check on Irena, who was still knocked out. Krysten was close by to make sure his brother was alright.
"So what did you tell Zyon before he started fighting?" The younger brother asked, "Do you have a plan?"
"Plan? Yeah. I think I know of a way to beat him."
"Really? What is it?"
"Kakusei."
Krysten face fell at the mention of that technique. "Kakusei? Are you insane? You can't use that technique!"
"Listen! At this point we have no other choice. So we're going to do it like this. Depending on how our friend fares in this battle, I'm going to initiate Kakusei and go at him one last time. If I win, I win, but even if I lose, there's still the other team who will probably be rested up at that time."
There was a long pause after that. "You know when she finds out that you used it, you're dead, right?"
"I know, Krysten. I know." Raven laughed a bit, causing him to cringe because of his injury. "Ow…I certainly hope that Zyon will fare well."
"That certainly will depend on how long he is able to keep his flames going. He seems to be doing a good job so far." Krysten frowned. "I still can't believe he managed to get those. I'm so jealous, I want some!"
Raven just rolled his eyes.
---
"One! Two! Three!"
Zyon punctuated each of his blows with those shouts as he continued to lay into Krizalid. His plan was going well; Krizalid was having a hard time trying to adjust to the new style, and because of it Zyon, had the upper hand for the moment. The flames were stable so far, but he knew that soon they would start to burn his hands, so he had to make this quick.
Krizalid continued to defend himself until he thought he saw an opening, during which he swung his arm around in an effort to turn the match around. But Zyon saw it coming and ducked quickly, countering that attack with a strong uppercut that clocked the man right in his jaw. Krizalid once again clutched his face in pain, but that was enough time for Zyon to knock his legs from under him, sending him to the floor face first.
"So…what do you think?" The blond teen said casually.
After a few seconds of coughing, Krizalid turned around so that he was on his back. "I'll admit. I miscalculated how powerful those flames would be. Thankfully I designed this suit to be able keep from letting those flames fry its circuits." The suit started to glow again. "See? It's downloading your data as we speak. It's only a matter of time now…" A flying ball of fire struck him right in the arm, interrupting his boast.
"Let me remind you that you aren't in the position to act confident." Zyon's voice barely had emotion in it.
"Really? You don't really think that a few attacks will finish me off, do you?"
"Maybe, maybe not." He stepped on Krizalid's chest. "We'll just have to see, right? You'll break eventually. Everybody does. It's just that some are tougher than others."
"I'll have to agree with you there." He panted,
"That's good. Thanks for your understanding." Zyon gave the fallen man's chest a good stomp before stepping back a bit.
"I think if I can hit him with this move it'll be over quickly." Zyon thought to himself. "Or at the least, give him a critical blow."
While Krizalid was slowly getting up, Zyon started to charge his attack. Both of his flames started to flare wildly as he waited for the perfect moment to unleash his attack. He knew that as soon as he did this move his flames would disappear, and he doubted that he would have the energy required to reignite them again. So he had to make this one count. Now, he saw his chance.
"Here it comes…" Zyon reared back for a second, "Now, burn to ashes!"
A huge explosion of fire suddenly surrounded the area around and in front of him. The effect was so overwhelming that it was hard for anyone to know what happened.
"Oh hell…" Raven shielded his face from the overwhelming heat, "I never saw him use that technique before."
"I think I remembered him saying that he had made up a new move the day of our fight with the Fatal Fury team. I guess he never had a chance to use it because we placed him on striker duty." Krysten said.
"So he just used a move that he made up yesterday?" The older Kirishima held a hand to his face. "That idiot, I wouldn't be surprised if he missed it."
The flames finally died down, and when the smoke cleared, Zyon (now back to normal) was the sole person standing. Krizalid was gone, literally. His energy drained, he fell to a knee, trying to catch his breath.
"Where did he…where did he go?" Zyon had a bad feeling about this. As much as he hoped that his flames completely incinerated him, there wasn't any evidence to support that. "I had to have hit him. That was way too big to dodge at that distance."
"So, what were you saying about me not being in the position to act confident?" Krizalid's familiar voice said behind him. Zyon turned around and there was Krizalid. A portion of his suit had been burned, but he still looked to be in better shape then the exhausted teen.
"Son of a…I guess that move needs some kinks to be worked out. But I might still have enough left to…"
Krizalid leaned back and roared, and without warning a giant pillar of flame erupted from the ground. Zyon only had time to cover his face when it hit him; the force was enough to send him flying into the wall (the same one that Krizalid had all but pounded him into a few minutes earlier). As he landed face first into the ground, he remained conscious, his body suffering from the abuse (both from Krizalid and his own body) that has been inflicted upon it.
"You know, if you weren't so cocky and didn't spend so much time charging your 'attack' so you can try and finish the fight with some big flashy move…." Krizalid stopped, "….nah, it'll probably have ended up like this anyway. But you might have had a better chance. But look at you now..." He turned Zyon over with his foot and placed it on his neck. Zyon could do nothing but try his best to glare a hole through him. "Don't give me that 'angry stare because I don't want to admit I'm a hopeless loser' look, it'll only make your last moments look pathetic. You should die with some dignity, at least."
For the second time, something hit Krizalid straight in the back. It was hot enough for him to lose his focus. "Now what?!" He was getting sick of people butting in unexpectedly. But this time the source of that attack was none other than his 'clone'. K' stood definitely; looking recovered enough to fight again.
"I'm not done with you, asshole." He cracked his knuckles.
"Oh. So you suddenly up and ready to get beaten again, huh? I'll assume that you didn't regain consciousness in time to see what I just did to him." He pointed at Zyon, "Because if you really think you have a chance against me after that, then I see right now that I need to uphold some better standards for the test subjects in our next experiment."
"You talk too much, you know that?" K' interrupted, "I understand things now. I guess that shit about me being your 'clone' messed with my head for a bit, but that doesn't matter right now. All I know that I'm not going to be the puppet for you or anyone else in this group anymore."
"And you think you'll be able to stop me?"
"As a matter of fact, I do."
"And don't forget us! We'll be right behind you too!" Shingo said enthusiastically.
"Not if I have anything to say about it. You two stay out of stay out of this. It's between me and this punk over here."
"But we're part of your team…"
"I think that we'd only be in the way, Shingo." Benimaru assured, but then whispered, "Of course, if they get their asses kicked, then we'll get involved…"
"Fine then. I'll deal with you after I get rid of this pest here…" Krizalid looked back and Zyon, surprisingly, was gone. Raven had used the distraction to get him out of harm's way, and he couldn't believe that he wasn't able to sense his presence. If things keep going like this, then his mission would be a failure, and he couldn't afford for that to happen. "Scratch that. I'll take you on right now."
"Good. I'm about to take your worthless ass down."
"Hmph. Let's see if you can try, useless clone."
---
After Raven dragged Zyon to safety, Xion quickly went over to check on his friend. Despite all that happened to him, Zyon still managed to remain conscious.
"Zyon, are you alright?" Xion asked, "You certainly took a beating out there."
"Feh. I have been through worse. Don't worry, I'll heal fast." Zyon struggled for a bit as he sat up. "So what are we going to do now? Let those guys take him on?"
"Well…" Raven trailed off. K's interference put a wrench into his plan, which was both a good and bad thing. Good because it would give himself more time to recover, bad because he didn't have a clue what the SSC should do now.
"Don't you think that we should just let them beat each other senseless? At least that way, we can just pick apart what's left when they're done." Krysten said.
Raven thought about it for a bit, but then he noticed the machinery behind the two fighters, which had continued to routinely blast out a beam of energy every few minutes or so. He didn't know exactly what it was doing, but he did know that whatever it was, it had to do with the plan that Irena had mentioned.
"We need to destroy that machine…" Raven said quietly, even though Krizalid wasn't paying them any attention in the first place, as his focus was being placed directly on K'. "If we do that, then it could turn to our favor."
"Do you really think that would work? How are you going to do it?"
"I have a new plan, and it's going to involve me butting into this fight once again." Raven grinned. "We just have to wait for the right moment. Krysten, I'm going to need your help on this…."
---
*BOOM!*
For the second time, K' and Krizalid faced off. But unlike the last time, K' was no longer distracted with doubt and confusion about his origins. He had a goal to achieve, and that made him more focused, which in turn made him more aggressive, which in turn made it more difficult for Krizalid to defend against. He had to develop a whole new strategy for fighting him, and it was hard to do that when your opponent never gave you any time to think of one…
"OWAAA!" K' blasted him with the Crow Bites. Krizalid was sent to the air but was able to land on his feet. With a reasonable space between the two fighters, he had the opportunity to mount a good defense.
"Typhon Ra-"
"SAAAAAAARAAAAAA!"
*Crack!*
K' had managed to close the gap in quick fashion before hitting Krizalid with a Minute Spike before he could fully complete the Typhon Rage. He fell to the floor in a heap.
"Damn it…" The aura of confidence that he had displayed throughout the battle was beginning to fade, giving way to anger and frustration. "I won't be beaten by my inferior copy!"
"Whatever you say…" K' did an Eins Trigger, "It's not like it'll make much of a difference anyway."
When K' kicked the flame towards Krizalid, he instantly rolled out of the way. In no time, he rushed towards him and gave his 'clone' a hard shot to the stomach. When K' keeled over, he followed up by grabbing him by the throat, giving him enough room for Krizalid to ram a knee into his stomach.
"You deluded fool." He lifted him off of the ground, "You dared to defy me. ME of all people, of all times, of all places. I was hoping that I could help you achieve a better control of your powers, but now that the data is almost finished loading, there's no need to keep you alive any longer. Oh, and before you get any ideas…" He hit Maxima with a Negative Anguish the moment Krizalid thought he was going to intervene. "So what now? Don't you have anymore fight left in you?"
"Yoo-hoo! Don't forget about me!" Raven announced from his place on the other side of the room.
"You again?" Krizalid turned towards him. "Does everyone here have a death wish or something?"
"No… It's just that there's something that you might not know…" He smiled slyly. "Like Zyon, I have a special power as well!"
"Really? And what would that be?"
Raven closed his eyes and started to concentrate. A dark red aura started to surround him for a few seconds, and he muttered a few words under his breath. His hair turned completely black and his irises turned the same dark red color. When Raven let out a long sigh of relief, he knew it was over.
Krizalid was not impressed. "So that's you secret power? Changing your hair color?" He said, still maintaining the grip he had on K's throat.
"No, that's not it, though I admit it looks pretty cool," Raven started walking forward, "It's basically a slight power boost; that's about as accurate a description I can give for it."
"If that's the case, what was the point of doing all that in front of me?"
"Oh nothing much, it's just a brief distraction while that guy you're holding wriggles out of your grip and beats you up."
"What?"
*POW!*
Krizalid got a boot in the face, courtesy of the now-free K'. Krizalid held his hands over his face, lowering his defenses which only ensured that he'd get beaten up even more. Even worse, Maxima got involved and hit him with a Vapor Cannon that sent him across the room.
"Always butting in…" K' muttered, "I had it under control, you know?"
"Heh, I know." Maxima smiled, "I just wanted to pay him back for earlier."
"Whatever." K' looked at Krizalid's form, lying slumped against the wall. "Hey, are you still alive?"
He didn't answer, but slowly he got back to his feet. Everything he had spent so much time planning was going to hell. The confidence that he had exuded so much during the early parts of the battle had long since disappeared. Losing was one thing, but being shown up by someone that was supposedly an inferior version of him was a blow to his pride. The only thing he could think that was good is the fact that Irena wasn't awake to see him like this. He wasn't going to go down without a fight, however. He would….
"Hey! What the hell you think you're doing?!" K' shouted suddenly. Upon realizing that he wasn't talking to him, Krizalid noticed that everyone was looking up. He followed their gazes to find Raven in the air.
"Shinki Hatsudou!"
The next thing Krizalid knew, there was a huge, dark red fireball coming directly at him.
"Oh hell…"
He quickly ducked out of the way, and thankfully, the fireball passed by him…
…And collided right into the machine that was handling the 'trigger' data.
More specifically, the very center of the machine where the energy beams had been shooting out, damaging it severely. With the flow of energy blocked, the rest of the machines started to overload. Sparks started to appear all over the room, as machines over heated and shorted out.
"What's happening!?" Krizalid tried to find a way to shut it down, but the controls was on the other side of the room. With no hope of stopping it in time, he was forced to watch helplessly as his highly intricate plan went down in flames.
Within seconds, the entire process completely shut down. In that same moment, the entire room went dark (the lights was partly powered by the machines). Everyone was left confused for a few seconds before a hologram appeared with the words 'INITIATING RESERVE POWER'. Within a few seconds the lights were back on, albeit slightly dimmer than before.
There was a period of time that everybody just stood there. Krizalid was finally the one who broke the silence.
"I will….I will not lose to either of you…" He said in a low voice. "I can still send the data…things will go according as plan. I just need to deal with these pests that have tried to destroy everything. I'm going to get to the SSC soon enough, but the most important thing to me is finishing things with my incompetent clone. "
"Uh…do you think he realizes that his chances of winning are slim to none?" Krysten whispered. "We've pretty much wore him out, right?"
"He's a fighter. People like them have a hard time admitting that they're defeated." Raven answered.
"So what should we do?"
"We did our part. Let them two finish the fight, it's their problem now."
K' started to charge the flames in his gloved hand, "I think that the best way to settle this is a good fashioned duel, don't you think? Let's see which one of us is truly superior."
Krizalid's face broke into an evil grin. "I like your thinking. I'm going to end this, once and for all!"
He leaned back and a pillar of fire exploded around him once again, but unlike last time, his entire body was in flames when it disappeared. For a brief second, the fire almost looked like they formed wings behind him.
"Now…I will show you my FULL POWER!" Krizalid shouted before he charged towards K', both arms completely ablaze.
A smirk formed on his face. "I'll finish this!" K' charged forward with a Heat Drive.
The seconds their attacks met, there was a small explosion caused by the collision. Everybody shielded their eyes from the dust and smoke that was a byproduct of it. After a minute, things finally started to clear up. Krizalid looked around for his opponent's fallen body, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"But how? It's not like the last time; I saw him come straight at me!"
"Two simple words…" K' said, standing behind him. "Black. Out."
Krizalid realized what had happened. K' had used the Blackout to teleport past him at the last second, leaving him open. As if he had become conscious that his fate was sealed, Krizalid turned to face his fate.
K' hit him with the Heat Drive in extremely close range, and all he could do was stand there and take it. He felt himself fly through the air for what seemed like an eternity before he finally hit the ground, defeated.
"And stay down, you waste of space." K' spat on the ground. He adjusted his glove a bit; it had suffered a lot of damage during the battle. He guessed having to use the flames for so long was something it just couldn't handle.
Benimaru and Shingo let out a sigh of relief. Even if their participation was brief, at least they had won.
"So, you guys are the SSC, right?" K' suddenly turned towards them. "I don't care how you managed to get down here, but what the hell were you doing getting involved in my business?"
"You know, you're right. It seemed like you had him right where you wanted him before we got here." Raven's response was dripping with sarcasm, "Did we get you at a bad moment during the fight, or was getting your ass kicked all over the room all a part of a complex, intricate plan you thought up?"
"Considering how you fared, you shouldn't be talking…"
"At least we managed to do some damage to him…"
"Raven?" Krysten got between them before things could get violent, "I hate to break up your attempts to inflate each others egos, but I think Irena is starting to wake up."
"What?" Raven asked, but quickly remembered who he was talking about, "Oh crap. How are we going to explain all of this to her?"
"Just tell her the truth, okay. I'm sure she'll understand." Krysten assured.
Despite all that had happened during the fight, Irena had remained knocked out the entire time. But now, seemingly almost by convenience, she was starting to emerge from her sleep.
"Ugh…what happened to me? Don't tell me I fell asleep…" She said sleepily. Her eyes slowly regained it's focus; she saw Raven, Krysten and Xion beside her. She also noticed that she was back at Point 70599. "What the? How did I get back here? What are you guys doing?"
Raven smiled. "Nothing much. Your boss was just beat the hell out of us, that's all. Are you alright?"
"I'm okay..." It was about that time that she noticed the condition that Raven was in. "What happened to you?! You're bleeding!" She gasped.
"Don't worry. The wound isn't that deep, so I'll manage for the time being. Zyon took it much worse, thought."
"Oh dear…" Irena looked at Zyon, who had recovered enough to get back on his feet. Besides the minor damage to his hands because he over used the flames a bit, there was a few burns on his arms and chest, and his clothes had scorch marks all over them. "Zyon…"
"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine in a few days." He said, "I'm sorry I had to knock you out like that, but it was important that we had to do this."
"It's okay. Your intentions were good, that's all that matters." She smiled, but quickly realized that she forgot something important, "Speaking of which, what happened to my boss?"
"Well, you might want to ask him yourself." Raven pointed at Krizalid's fallen form.
Irena's eyes widened with shock. "How the hell did that happen?"
K' grinned, "I kicked his grimy ass, obviously. He won't be talking smack anytime soon."
"You arrogant son of a…." She stomped towards him, "If he's dead, I swear to God, I kill you myself!"
"Pfft, yeah right. I'd like to see you try, girl."
"Actually, my readings state that he his still alive." Maxima interrupted before a fight could ensue, "In fact, he's starting to regain consciousness as we…."
Irena was already at his side by time Maxima finished. "Sir…Are you okay?" She patted his face a few times as he opened his eyes.
"Irena…" Krizalid muttered, "I'm sorry….Things wasn't supposed to happen this way…"
"Don't concern yourself with that. We can still make this work."
"Yes…your right." He slowly sat up, "I can still send the data, even if it isn't finished…."
"Actually, that won't be happening…" A new voice said. Everybody started looking around to see who was speaking. "You have failed."
"You…who are you to say that I've failed! I still have a chance!"
"No, you don't. It's over." The mysterious voice continued, "All of the clones have been deactivated. As we speak, forces around the world are at work capturing them while keeping our actions out of the public eye. Accept it, the plan has failed. We have no other choice but to abandon the mission."
Irena helped Krizalid to his feet. "All of my work…ends just like this?" He muttered. "2 years of planning just went down the drain. What do I do now?"
"Don't worry, you won't have to do a thing. As of right now, all operatives involved in this mission are to be terminated."
"What?!" Krizalid and Irena both shouted at once. A bright light seemed to shine over both of them.
"I don't care what you do to me, but leave Irena out of this!" Krizalid demanded
"Irena brought this on herself. If it wasn't for her inability to keep those kids out of this, then things possibly could have gone differently."
"Fuck you. I did what I could." Irena knew that something was off. "Sir, I think we should get out of here."
Krizalid just nodded.
"Guys! We need to leave now!" Irena shouted towards the SSC. "I don't know what's going to happen, but I don't really want to wait here and find out."
"Me neither, Irena." Krizalid looked up at the mysterious light, as if he was watching for "Something just doesn't seem right about this right about this…" Without warning, the light was gone. "What the?"
There was a noise that sounded like a small rumble of thunder, and then something in the ceiling started to crack. It didn't take Krizalid long for him to put two and two together. Someone was trying to destroy the base, but how? He didn't have time to think about that, because large chunks of the ceiling had broken off and was heading right for him.
"You bastard…." He quickly pushed Irena out of harms way right before the debris fell on him. All she could do is look on with horror as her boss was seemingly crushed.
"NO!" Irena screamed. She immediately rushed over to Krizalid; his lower body was covered with rocks and electrical equipment that were too heavy for her to lift alone. Amazingly, he was still alive.
"I-Irena…You…have to….run…." Krizalid groaned in pain. "He…He's going to…kill you..."
"I'm not leaving without you! I will get you out of here somehow!" Irena was in a panic; she needed to get out of here quick, because if this was any indication, she would be next. The SSC (even Zyon, injured as he was) tried to assist their friend in her time of need, but they were only managing to get some of the smaller pieces off.
"Just leave the bastard there," K' said as Maxima went over to provide a little more strength for them to use. "He deserves every bit of what he's getting."
Irena gave him a dirty look, but was given a smirk in return. "Luckily for you I'm feeling generous right now, or else I would make sure that you would be in as much bad shape as your boss is right now."
"Kiren'eki!"
Out of nowhere, K' was struck in the chest by Raven's attack, which was made stronger by the fact that he was still in Kakusei. The force knocked him flat on his back.
"No more smartass comments from you, idiot." Raven was dead serious, "Believe me, at this state that I'm in right now, I can do much, much worse to you than just that. I won't all you to threaten her."
"Why you little punk ass piece of…!" K' was absolutely furious. He stomped towards Raven, looking to pay him back for his insult.
"Stop it you two." Irena had to get between them to keep things civil, "There's no point of fighting over this anymore. This tournament ended a long time ago…"
"Hmph. Whatever you say. He's not worth the trouble anyway…" K' said. Just as he was about to walk away, a strange feeling shot up his right arm. It was almost like his powers were being attracted to something.
"My, my. I didn't think I would run into something like this down here…what a mess you guys caused." A familiar voice said. Every single person turned their head towards its source.
Standing there was someone that hasn't been seen in more than 2 years. His outfit was different than what most people were used to; the school uniform had been replaced by a black shirt with a cross designed outlined on it, blue jeans and a white jacket. But even with that, it was obvious who it was that stood before them.
Kyo Kusanagi, the person that had been cloned by the organization and who's powers was now a part of both K' and Krizalid, had arrived. And he wanted answers.
---
Shikkoku: *sighs in relief* Finally, that's done. This will probably be the longest chapter in the story , even without my usual notes. Of course, this chapter was so long, that there will be 14 chapters instead of 13 as I originally planned.
Notes:
One main issue I had with writing the fight scene was that it was hard to make it so that everybody got equal share of fighting. I had to make sure that the SSC didn't get destroyed by Krizalid too easily, I had to make sure that Krizalid didn't get plowed by the SSC or else it'll make them look too powerful, I needed to keep myself from marginalizing K's role in the fight too much or else it'll make him look unimportant to the plot, etc
I was confused as to how I wanted the fight to turn out. I thought I had everything planned out when I started., but as usual, it kept changing in my head. Raven going into Kakusei state was originally supposed to be a more major event in the fight, but since I ended up reworking the end so that K' is the one to defeat Krizalid (with Raven's assistance, of course), it ended up being a minor thing that probably won't be explained till the next story in this series (the one that takes place between Acts 1 and 2).
Benimaru, Shingo and Maxima barely gotten any mention because I wanted to focus on K' a bit more, after all, the saga is going to revolve around him quite a bit.
Speaking of which , I'm sure that some of you might notice that K' has been a dick to Irena and the SSC this chapter, and you're probably right. He and the SSC (Raven in particular) aren't going to be on good terms, especially leading up to the still unnamed Act 2, so it'll won't be changing anytime soon.
As I said before. With this chapter, there's going to be two more chapters before this is over: One involving Kyo and their little escape from 70599 in the mandatory 'We defeated the boss! Oh shit, the secret hideout is falling apart!' part of the story, and the last one will wrap things up. I'm going to leave a little preview for the next part of this story at the end as well, just to keep you satisfied while I try and catch up with my two other stories that hasn't been updated in more than half a year (Because I was stupid enough to think that I could finish this thing off quickly….)
As always, be sure to tell me how I'm doing.
Next chapter: It's Kyo Kusanagi! What will happen when he confronts K'? Will Irena be able to save her boss? Will the SSC be able to get out of the crumbling base, especially when Heidern sends soldiers out to apprehend K' and the other members of NESTS? And what does Whip want with Krizalid?
Until Next Time, Sayonara.