And so, Super Bowl XLI will be the Indianapolis Colts vs the Chicago Bears. Go Rex Grossman, and go Peyton Manning. Prove all your nay-sayers wrong and put up a good game.
And after 23 episodes, Astaroth is finally taken down...
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Three weeks ago, Hwoarang came to Japan to finally combat his rival Jin Kazama in a decisive fight to see who the greater fighter truly. Accompanying him on his journey were the last two members of his gang from his homeland Korea, Jae and Choi. Unfortunately, Jin and Hwoarang would never have that battle: instead they would work together to combat the golem Astaroth, who had begun to attack Tokyo.
During the confrontation, Jae and Choi were slain by the axe-wielding behemoth. Hwoarang swore vengeance and agreed to side with his long-time rival to bring the monster to justice. Now, after numerous skirmishes with Astaroth, his Lizard-men, and whatever bizarre lieutenant that would occasionally be at his side, Hwoarang would face the golem alone.
The only problem with that is this guy manhandled the others without breaking a sweat, the Tae Kwan Do ace thought worriedly while he watched Astaroth roar while burning in a blue inferno. What the hell am I supposed to do to make sure that I don't wind up like them?
Minutes prior to the situation he was in now, he and the rest of the Tekkenshu Sentai Shinkenger were investigating an abandoned factory in hopes of discovering clues to Astaroth's lair, and possibly information regarding the identity of the behemoth's benefactor. Even though the factory was relatively desolate, they did indeed find the golem, or rather he found them. Like a living tornado, Astaroth ripped through their ranks one by one until only Hwoarang was left conscious. This was not because Hwoarang was any more or less resilient than his fellow Shinkengers, but because the golem knew of the youth's vendetta against him and wished to show him his true strength.
Astaroth raised his axe high in the air while his body continued to blaze in a great sapphire glory. The pigment of the fire seemed to mix with the pigment of his beige skin, giving it a purple hue. At first, Hwoarang thought it was solely from the flame's color, but he quickly dismissed this conclusion when Astaroth's eye color changed from white to a dull yellow. A loud creaking was heard as two bony appendages emerged from his back, each one about as big and thick as his massive arms. His exposed heart shrunk back into his chest and the hole that revealed it closed up, thus removing the only flaw in his intimidating figure.
"What do you think, ShinkenBlack?" Astaroth said as the blue flames finally died down to reveal his transformed state. "Can you feel your bones crushing underneath the weight of your fear, as you finally comprehend who you are dealing with?"
"Yeah," Hwoarang answered while he ran towards the golem with violent intent. "I understand that I'm now dealing with a golem who made himself twice as ugly as he was when he started out!" Lashing out at the monster, Hwoarang spun around and attempted a tornado kick to Astaroth's head. However, even though he hit his mark, Astaroth didn't flinch. He merely looked to his side to see the foot resting on his shoulder and grabbed Hwoarang's ankle.
Giving the foot a twist and eliciting a cry of agony from his foe, Astaroth lifted Hwoarang off the ground and over his head, spinning him around like a lasso before throwing him into the ground as easily as he would do so with a rag doll that he deemed unworthy of his time. Before Hwoarang could roll away, Astaroth stomped on Hwoarang's neck.
"You call that a kick?" Astaroth taunted, referring to the Korean's initial attack while he grinded his heel into the youth's neck. "My boss told me your kicks were world-renowned: what a disappointment!"
Desperate to save his life, Hwoarang's hands glowed as he shot off a quick blast of ki at the golem that had planted his foot on his Adam's apple. The blast hit Astaroth in the face, temporarily blinding him and allowing his foe to roll away and scramble onto his feet. Not willing to give the dazed monster a chance to breathe, Hwoarang shot out his left foot forward and thrust his leg into his foe's midsection.
The force of such a kick would send a normal man toppling, but Astaroth was far above an ordinary man. The attack only caused him to take a few steps back, and he regained his composure quick enough to avoid a jumping roundhouse kick. Crouching down to avoid a right hook punch, Astaroth raised back up to ram his head into Hwoarang's chest. As he reached full standing position once again, Astaroth added an exclamation point to his headbutt by using it to toss Hwoarang behind him. The brash martial artist landed on his back with a sickening thud.
Hwoarang groaned in pain as he gripped his back while he stood back up. Clearly he was at a severe disadvantage without his team. Well, there's no use bitching about it now that the others are off in Knockout Kingdom, he muttered while he resumed his fighting stance. He may be stronger, but I'm pretty sure I'm faster!
Narrowly ducking under a horizontal slash of Astaroth's axe, the Tae Kwan Do ace displayed the power of his martial art with a high vertical spinning kick to the golem's chest. The force of such an impressive blow sent the monster rocketing into the air: a result appropriate of the name Hwoarang had given the technique, the Skyrocket. After some hang time, Astaroth began to plummet back down to the ground. Hwoarang pursued him in the air with a jumping kick. Once that kick hit his mark, he began a series of rapid spinning kicks that made his legs seem more like the propellers of a helicopter. However, when he tried to conclude with an aerial axe kick, Astaroth sprung into action and righted himself in mid-air, grabbing the Korean by the neck and driving his head into the ground as they finally touched down.
"Nice try, worm," Astaroth bellowed while he lifted Hwoarang by the neck as he smashed his face into the back of his axe's blade. "You deserve a consellation prize for that." The golem continued to bang Hwoarang into the blade, again and again, with the clanging of metal ringing throughout the factory. "Here, have some steel to go with the concrete that you'll be eating in a moment!"
Finally regaining his composure, Hwoarang put his hands in front of him and pushed against the blade in an attempt to keep his head from getting smashed into it again. Using all of his strength, Hwoarang pushed backward against Astaroth's hand on his head until he finally broke free and rolled away.
However, before he could get onto his feet, Astaroth's axe came down on Hwoarang's chest. The blade scraped across his chest like nails on a chalkboard, drawing forth sparks and screams of unbearable pain. Suddenly, the blade began to shine brighter than the sun, and Astaroth lifted his axe and Hwoarang along with it like a magnet attracting an iron doll. Oh shit, he cursed to himself as he realized what was going on. I have to break free now, or I'm going to be cleaved in two like an orange!
Mustering all of the power he could muster, Hwoarang put his ki-filled hands onto the blade, hoping that was he learned about magnetism held true. To his good fortune, the charge of his ki was the same as Astaroth's, and thus allowed him to repel off of the blade and falling to the ground to avoid certain death. Rolling away as Astaroth's blade came down after him, Hwoarang resumed a fighting stance.
"I didn't even know that was possible," Astaroth scratched his head in confusion as he casually ducked under a high kick and sent Hwoarang screeching across the ground with a sudden bump of his muscular chest. "You continue to surprise me, ShinkenBlack, but this isn't a talent show: this is a fight!"
Hwoarang jumped back onto his feet and narrowly backflipped away from a vertical slash that left Astaroth's blade stuck in the floor. Not willing to take any chances, Hwoarang ran towards Astaroth and up the hilt of his weapon like a child would try and run up a slide. Once he was in distance, Hwoarang jumped up into the air and bashed Astaroth in the head with an axe kick before landing on the hilt and jumping off.
However, Astaroth recovered instantaneously to snatch Hwoarang out of the air and then toss him high enough for him to crash against the ceiling that almost ten meters in the air. As the Korean plummeted downwards, he was sent soaring as Astaroth whacked him away with his weapon like a baseball slugger would power away a ball.
He was swatted so far away, that Astaroth couldn't even see where he landed. All he had to go by was the loud crash he heard following what he assumed to be Hwoarang's return to the ground. "So it looks our new game will be Hide and Go Seek," the behemoth let out an awful laugh while he dusted off his axe and waded into the field of large generators. "Catch your breath ShinkenBlack, because I promise you it'll be the last breath you'll ever take!"
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Hwoarang moaned quietly as he rose up from the nest of debris and garbage that he landed in which cushioned his otherwise lethal fall. The Korean youth had seen better days to be sure: even though he was relatively young at age twenty-two, he had seen his fair share of heated battles, from tournament matches to even gang wars. There had been many a time when the odds were stacked against him: where there were times when he was alone and the enemy was numerous and bigger and armed. On paper, Hwoarang was no stranger to the kind of battle he was currently engaged in with the murderer of his two best friends.
So why do I have this feeling of dread in my stomach, Hwoarang thought to himself as he listened to Astaroth rant while he hid in the shadows of the numerous active generators so that he could take a much-needed breather. Why do all of my senses tell me to run away, rather than avenge my friends?
Upon repeating that question in his mind, the truth had dawned upon him: he was afraid of dying at the hands of this creature.
Being an orphan, Hwoarang was raised in the ways of Tae Kwan Do by his sensei and father figure, Baek Do San. However, even the disciplined Baek could not tame Hwoarang's wild spirit, and he became so sure of his abilities that he fell into gang activity. During his tenure as the leader of the gang he created himself, he proved himself to be a fearless leader in the face of danger.
When he was with the military, Hwoarang further proved his fearlessness when he rocketed to the rank of Sergeant despite his utter disregard for authority and remarkably young age. Sometimes he was even put in charge of his group. However, here he was forced to take cover and catch his breath while his opponent slowly hunted him down like wolf hunting sheep. Well, at least now I can relate to Jin when he got his butt kicked at the garbage dump, Hwoarang smiled bleakly to himself, and he says that I have no idea what he went through…
Hwoarang slowly turned around and took a small peek from the generator he was hiding behind and looked to where his comrades lay. Damn it, what the hell am I being so negative about? The Korean strengthened his resolve as he saw them move slightly, realizing that they were finally awake. I'm not just fighting for dead friends anymore…I'm fighting for the gang I have now: the Tekkenshu Sentai Shinkenger. And as a member of the gang, it's time for me to prove my mettle…now how am I going to take him out long enough for the others to get back on their feet?
Scanning the small area in front of him, he found a quartet of steel drums with a bio-hazard sticker splashed across it. Hwoarang rubbed the bottom of his helmet in deep thought while he considered the possibilities. Radioactive waste would probably be an effective weapon against the golem, but he might accidentally get it on his comrades and that was not a desirable result.
And then he looked at the lids of the drums and discovered a better idea. Two weeks ago, when Kenichi joined their ranks, they combated a ninja who had a shuriken which, when filled with the user's ki, could be thrown to devastating effect. Jin managed to turn the tide of battle when he caught the shuriken and threw it back at the ninja with the same tactic. Even though he couldn't be certain that a lid would hold up as well as an oversized shuriken, Hwoarang was running out of ideas.
"I guess it's worth a shot," he mumbled while he used all of his power to peel the lid off of the steel drum. The drum made a loud creaking sound, and that almost certainly gave away his location to Astaroth, who had been slowly searching the generators for him. "It's time to put it to the test."
"I've finally found you," Astaroth roared as he stopped searching and turned to Hwoarang, who had just moved away from his spot and into the open. "This time there is no escape! Prepare yourself as I cleave through your soul!"
Pouring ki into his drum lid until it glowed with a purplish light, Hwoarang reared back and shouted, "We'll see who's going to be getting their soul dissected, grape-face. Have a taste of this!" Hurling the lid as an Olympian competitor would throw a discus, Hwoarang watched as his glowing circle of razor-sharp steel at the golem. So swift and so powerful did Hwoarang toss the lid, that the golem didn't even have time to counter the attack properly.
His throat was nicked by the lid and was marked with a shower of blood and sparks…but his axe Kutules was another matter entirely. The hide of the behemoth was so durable and tough that the disc ricocheted off of his throat and headed towards the axe in its hand, slicing through the oak hilt and causing the blade of the axe to fall to the ground.
Astaroth tried to scream, but his throat had been severely damaged, so instead he picked up what was left of his weapon (enough to have a decent hand axe) and ran towards Hwoarang with murderous intent. The Korean martial artist sidestepped the golem's chop, allowing him to instead hit one of the generators and repaying Astaroth's violence with a massive electrical shock that stunned the monster and temporarily knocked him out.
I probably should take him out now, Hwoarang said as he ran over to his comrades, who were beginning to get back onto their feet, but there's no way I'm going to let the others miss out on this. We're so close to taking him out…so we might as well do it as comrades.
"Finally, that blasted venom wore off," Kenichi muttered as he helped Asuka get back on her feet. "That's twice too many times that I've been poisoned the past two months…"
"Is everyone all right?" Jin turned to the rest of his comrades before looking to Hwoarang. "You did well, Hwoarang: thanks for saving a piece for us."
"Yeah, yeah," Hwoarang waved his hand before turning around to wear Astaroth was beginning to rise back up. "Now how about the rest of you guys suit up so that we can have some real fun?"
Astaroth let forth a roar of primal anger as he flipped back onto his feet and growled. "You destroyed my most precious possession. I swear that I'll drink deep in your blood for that!"
"I wouldn't count on it, fiend," Feng pointed an accusing finger at the golem while the others lined up next to him. "Your day of judgment has finally arrived!" As he said that, Feng's morpher sparkled until it uttered the words "standing by." After activating the morpher, his body was engulfed in an orange light as he struck one of his many Kempo stances. "Crushing hundreds offoes with my hands of judgment…" Once his suit had fully formed, his arms spun around wildly before striking another stance, "…Champion of the Three Kingdoms: ShinkenBronze!"
"ZERO," Kenichi's closed fist shot up into the air his body was engulfed in gray light. "Cutting down foes with my undying soul…" Once his suit had fully formed, Kenichi stomped his foot and the floor and got into a horse stance, "…Dazzling Warrior of the Void: ShinkenSilver!"
"ONE," Sticking his left index finger high into the air, Hwoarang fired off a roundhouse kick into the air before entering his Flamingo Stance, his body glowing with purple light while his suit repaired itself from the damage it had endured. "Striking down foes with fatal footwork…Tae Kwan Do-estilo: ShinkenBlack!"
"TWO," Her left index and middle fingers pointing skyward, Asuka's body crackled with white light. "Overcoming foes with daunting defense…" Once her suit had finally encased her body, she got into her traditional defensive stance, "...Aikido-estilo: ShinkenWhite!"
"THREE," Steve stuck up three fingers in the air while his suit began to materialize around his figure in the form of blue shine. "Beating down foes with peerless punches…" After seeing that he was fully encased in its power, he brought his hand down and entered his Flicker stance, "…Boxing-estilo: ShinkenBlue!"
"FOUR," With all her fingers on her left hand up in the air save for her thumb, Xiaoyu smiled as warm yellow light hugged her lithe figure. "Overwhelming foes with blinding speed…" Once the yellow light took solid form as her Shinkenger suit, she brought her hand back down and crouched into her Phoenix stance,"…Kung Fu-estilo: ShinkenYellow!"
"FIVE," His open palm shooting into the sky, Jin's body sparkled with a brilliant red flash. "Smashing foes with the fists of fury…" the flash quickly solidified into his Shinkenger suit, and when it did so, he entered his Power stance, "…Karate-estilo: ShinkenRed!"
Once the rest of his team got out of their respective stances, Jin spoke once again while pointing a finger at their adversary, who had not yet realized that this sestet would probably be his end. "Under the power of our divine fists, chaos shall never thrive!"
The once-dreary factory was now full of hope as the steel canyons of its main floor echoed as the team punched the ground before rising back up and sticking their fists out in front of them while their ki crackled across their bodies and the jewels on their chests flashing violently. Prepared to end what they began three weeks ago, the team shouted out their mighty name. "TEKKENSHU SENTAI…SHINKENGER!"
"Grrr…damn you all," Astaroth hissed before stomping his foot on the ground, leaving a shallow crater in the floor. "Kutules or no, I'll rip you to shreds!" Pounding his chest like an angry ape, Astaroth roared and ran towards his adversaries with his fist raised.
Utilizing every ounce of their power, the martial arts team locked their wrists together and reared back as energy most pure swirled in their palms. Oblivious to their tactic, Astaroth continued to charge with his arms flailing like a man possessed. "Wrong, freakshow," Hwoarang muttered while he and his comrades glowed fiercely. "You're not going to ripping up anyone…ever again!"
"SHINKEN ULTIMATE TEAM-UP TECHNIQUE: TEKKENSHU SEVEN STAR MAELSTROM!"
Seven rays of raw destructive energy erupted from the Shinkengers' hands, blasting Astaroth with indescribable power and wrath. The golem, despite all of his strength and brute force, could not withstand such might. He was blown away like a thistle in the wind as the rays ate away at his near-impenetrable hide. To the team's surprise once they put down their hands, Astaroth got right back up.
However, it was obvious to all of them that he would never bother them again. His right hand was blown off, and his beating heart could be seen once again, along with his ribcage and the cartilage in his knees. "D-damn you," Astaroth said with haggard breath as he slowly limped towards them. "I never thought that one day you bastards would be my end…I must've gotten careless."
"Enough," Jin said as he and Hwoarang walked over to the golem, who had just fallen down onto his back. "It's time you told us why you've been terrorizing the city for so long."
"Heh," Astaroth chuckled before wheezing for a few seconds. After the coughing subsided, he answered truthfully, "I did it because I was told to do so by the one who revived me. As you may have noticed I have limited my attacks to certain locations: otherwise I would've reduced your city to crumbles by now."
"Well, that just makes us feel so much better," Hwoarang commented as he stomped his foot on Astaroth's heart, forcing him to take a sharp breath. "How about you tell us whose errand boy you've been all this time?"
"I'll take that secret to Hell along with me," Astaroth smiled beneath the mask that covered his mouth. "However, I will tell you this: our base of operations is a little less than two miles from here. I won't tell you which direction, though: that would spoil the thrill of the hunt. But first," Astaroth slowly lifted his left arm and motioned his finger towards him, "come a little closer, I have something to tell you that I don't want your comrades to hear."
Jin and Hwoarang, their curiosities piqued, leaned down slightly as Astaroth continued to motion them closer to his face. However, when they finally got close enough, he punched both of them in the face, shattering both their helmets and causing them to back away from them. "What the hell was that for?" Hwoarang shouted as he rubbed wear he had been struck. "We give you a break, and look what you do!"
"The last blow is mine, ShinkenBlack," Astaroth let out one final, awful laugh as he stood back up before falling right back down again, this time on his stomach. "Just remember, Shinkenger: my boss has someone waiting for you at our lair; someone who is quite possibly more powerful than I am. I may die here, but at least it will be that way knowing that you'll be following me to Hell in a couple of days!"
Leaving the golem to his fate, Hwoarang and Jin turned around to join the others on their way to the factory's exit. Well, rest in peace, guys, Hwoarang thought as he turned his head to see the fallen murderer who had killed his friends. Now I can wrap this up once and for all by taking out the scumbag's boss. For now, though, another one bites the dust, courtesy of the Tekkenshu Sentai Shinkenger!
Meanwhile, the dying Astaroth heard a whisper in his ear: the miniature radio that had been lodged in his ear. His blood began to pool on the floor as he took his last few precious breaths. The Black Giant of Ares died with a grin as the human that had earned in his respect, the only one who had treated him not as a tool but as a warrior, said quietly, Astaroth…you have done well...