(The Arena)
Iori casually blocked Billy's staff again and smacked the British fighter in the face. Billy had been furiously attacking Iori ever since the redhead Orochi had entered, but Iori had been blocking the majority of his opponent's swings.
"I need to be extremely careful here." Iori thought. "I can't let the Orochi take control of me here. Not with all of these people here."
Unlike what some people thought, Iori disliked violence, but almost never let it show. The only times he longed for violence was when the Orochi was in control of his body, sending him into Riot of Blood mode. Leona, a blue-haired girl from his node, also had a similar problem.
Slowly, but surely, Iori was starting to gain more control over the Orochi, because if he wasn't he wouldn't have joined up with Kyo Kusanagi two years in a row.
But this wasn't Kyo. This was Billy, whom would take a long time, if any, to drop a grudge. Billy lashed out again, this time at Iori's feet.
Meanwhile, the three-way fight between Mewtwo, Jack-5 and Akuma had turned into a stand-off. The three were circling each other, looking back and forth cautiously between their opponents.
Even still, none of them attacked. It was almost as if they were waiting for their opponents to attack.
Akuma waited a few more seconds before lashing out his hands, launching a fireball at Jack-5. This prompted Mewtwo to seize his chance and send a previously-charged Shadow Ball into Akuma's side.
Jack-5, in the meantime, had blocked Akuma's fireball and looked up in time to see the dark Street Fighter and Mewtwo fighting again. The huge robot lumbered into the battle and swung his fist, striking Mewtwo in the face.
Duke swung his sword down, only to have Kirby parry it with a smaller version of it. Kirby smirked, brushed his hair (or Duke's. Whatever floats your boat) out of his face and lunged at the Suikoden mercenary again.
Duke raised his oversized sword to block Kirby's attack, but was surprised to see the ball of pink fly over his head, spinning like an experienced ninja.
"I can't do that!" Duke insisted as Kirby landed on his feet. "I thought you were copying me!"
Kirby didn't reply. He simply jumped up and kicked Duke in the face with his stubby foot.
(Dome; Lobby)
"Well, this isn't good." D! muttered as the team stood over the beaten and unconscious Nightcrawler. The paramedics had just arrived and had loaded the blue-skinned mutant onto a stretcher. "Is he gonna be alright?"
"If we treat him as soon as we get back to the Recovery Room, then yes." Dr. Tuta replied. "Don't worry, though. We'll get him back on his feet before the night is out."
"Good to hear." D! replied with a nod.
D! looked over his shoulder and saw Nei coming over. "What is it, Nei?"
"I think I'd better go with them." Nei explained. "I'm slightly experienced with healing abilities and I could help Nightcrawler recover quicker."
D! sighed and looked at Nei's nodal companions. "Is it okay if she goes with the doctors, guys?"
Samus nodded. "She's right. She knows almost as much about medicine as any doctor. She could help the poor guy recover."
"Samus is right." Reed replied. He wasn't holding the ice pack to his head anymore, but was sporting a lump right in the middle of his forehead. "Nightcrawler looked like he lost a lot of blood."
Watari, being Watari, didn't bother to add his two cents and nodded without looking at D!. The black boxer looked at Nei again. "Okay. I think we'll be able to manage without you."
"I'm sure you will." Nei nodded. "Hopefully, I'll see you after the tournament finishes."
"What's that supposed to mean?" D! asked as Nei left the lobby, following the paramedics.
"Well, now what?" Falco sighed.
"Stop picking fights for starters." D! replied. "Other than that, we keep waiting for Vivian to come back."
"Hey, guys!" Everyone heard Chonrei shout. They looked at the young-looking fighter and saw him pointing at a circular shadow that was racing into the lobby. "Here she comes!"
When Vivian arrived, she shot from the floor, breathing heavily. "Sorry I took so long, guys." The Shadow Siren panted. "Running from one side of the dome to the other is harder than it looks."
"Did you find out anything?" Cody asked, stepping forward.
"I did! I found out almost everything!" Vivian explained.
"So what's going on?" J. Maxx asked.
"Come over here." Vivian said, directing everyone to a corner of the lobby. "I'll tell you."
(Dome; Hallway)
The Blob lumbered down a hallway all by his lonesome, to where Magneto had informed him to go. The Blob's purpose in this whole plan was to act as a guard, much like Ripper and Hopper were. Blob didn't mind this. He was close to the restaurant, so he could easily grab something to eat if he was ever hungry.
"I wonder if I'll meet up with any of these guys going against Bison." Blob mused. "I would really like to beat some of them up."
Blob leaned his amazingly overweight body against a wall and folded his arms. "I dunno what that Bison guy's planning, though. It must be really big if he didn't trust me enough to tell me about it." He scratched his head in thought. "What's the big deal with all of those kids, though? I don't even know any of them, so they MUST be powerful."
Blob suddenly felt someone tap his shoulder. Looking to his left, Blob's eyes snapped open when he found himself staring down an insanely-ticked-off Toppo.
(The Arena)
Gordon's tonfas swung over Ralf's head as the Ikari Warrior ducked low to the ground. Ralf quickly lashed out his foot, tripping the huge cop and sending him crashing to the canvas, shaking the entire arena.
Ralf quickly stood up and advanced on Gordon, but the giant man jumped to his feet and hit Ralf with a left hook. Now, if it had just been his fist, Ralf wouldn't have had a problem, but Gordon had also struck him with the blunt end of one of his tonfas at the same time. Ralf staggered back and clutched his face.
"Man. That almost hurt." Ralf muttered, rubbing the right side of his face.
The gears in Ralf's mind were turning insanely fast as he tried to come up with some way to eliminate the large man.
"I can't go for the stomach." Ralf thought. "That Percival guy tried that on Raiden earlier in the tournament and didn't fare very well."
Gordon smirked and swung again. Ralf held up his hands and stopped the tonfa from striking his forehead, but quickly struggled to keep it from doing so. Despite Gordon's huge size, he was surprisingly strong, and was slowly, but surely, winning the struggle with the tonfa. Ralf knew that he had to do something extremely quickly to get out of this.
Pushing with all his might, Ralf jumped away from Gordon and leapt at him. Gordon wasn't expecting Ralf to jump away from him, so he couldn't stop himself from swinging his tonfa down at the ground, despite Ralf not being there anymore. Gordon looked up and Ralf kicked him in the face.
As Gordon staggered back, Ralf grabbed his arm. It took a lot of effort and most of his remaining strength, but Ralf was able to thrown Gordon away from him, sending him at Chun-Li.
The policewoman saw Gordon flying at her. "Hmm…That's odd. I never knew men of that size could be thrown so easily." She mused as he jumped into the air.
Gordon flew past the airborne Chun-Li, but the female fighter quickly struck him with her foot, knocking him out of the arena.
Gordon landed in Urban Fight, where he beat the tar out of the two fighters for having a pointless fight.
Rhett swung his halberd at Xigbar, but the Organization member jumped to safety, only to have Q grab him from behind and throw him to the ground.
Xigbar was glad that Zelda had been eliminated, because now he could move around freely and easily. However, even with the Hylian princess off of his arm, Xigbar was having a difficult time dodging attacks from two opponents at once.
Thinking quickly, Xigbar aimed one of his guns at Q's face and fired, sending a laser bolt into the eye socket of Q's mask. Q stepped back and grasped his face in pain, but he strangely wasn't making any noise or cries of agony while doing so.
Xigbar didn't have time to stare at the strange show, because Rhett had taken another swing with his weapon. Xigbar easily blocked the attack.
"Look, kid. You don't really seem like a fighter that much." Xigbar reasoned with the duck. "Did you even WANT to come here?"
"Well, no." Rhett admitted. "My main reason for accepting the invitation was to see what kind of edible delicacies these different nodes have. I would honestly much rather become a chef than a warrior."
"Then why not chicken out and not enter the arena at all?" Xigbar asked, an eyebrow raised. He took a moment to swing his fist behind himself and nail the recovered Q in the stomach.
"Um…Hello? The rule states that if you accept the invitation, you have to enter the arena." Rhett said. "If I didn't enter, they probably would have thrown me from the hotel."
"Yeah, I guess it WAS a stupid question." Xigbar shrugged. "Well, I guess we should finish the fight."
"If we must." Rhett sighed.
Rhett advanced on the cloaked Nobody and swung his weapon again. Xigbar quickly sidestepped it and grabbed Rhett by the back of his shirt.
"Might as well put the kid out of his misery." Xigbar mused as he hurled Rhett out of the arena. Xigbar turned in time to see Q bring his fist down onto his head.
Rhett landed in the node of Looney Tunes. Unfortunately, it was duck season. Rhett spent the next ten minutes running from Elmer Fudd.
Kim Dragon jumped over Blazeman's sword as the TFS'er tried to take out his legs. The Chinese man quickly kicked Blazeman in the face while he was in midair, making his opponent step back.
Blazeman shook his head back and forth to regain his senses and looked at Kim Dragon. "Okay, so you're one of the more talented World Heroes." He said.
"Thank you." Kim Dragon said, bowing slightly. "However, I'm afraid I can't give myself that title unless I score an elimination, like Kidd or Janne did."
Blazeman smirked. "Well, let's see what you've got." He said, motioning for Kim Dragon to advance.
That's exactly what the World Hero did. Kim Dragon lunged at Blazeman in a flying kick (which Mortal Kombat fans noted looked somewhat similar to Liu Kang's Bicycle Kick). Blazeman held up his sword and blocked the first foot, but the second was sent straight into his face.
While the kick hurt, Blazeman ignored the pain and lashed out his fist with Kim Dragon was still in the air. Blazeman managed to catch the World Hero in the jaw, sending the Chinese man to the canvas.
Blazeman, sensing an opportunity, rushed at Kim Dragon and swung his sword. Kim Dragon, having more awareness than half the others in his node, rolled out of the way and sprung to his feet again.
The two fighters stared each other down, breathing heavily. Kim Dragon cracked his knuckles as Blazeman grabbed the handle of his sword with both hands to get a better grip.
Suddenly, the two sprang into action, racing at each other. Kim Dragon swung his fist in the most powerful punch he could muster while Blazeman prepared to swing his sword.
Once the two got close to each other, they acted, attacking each other as they ran by their respective opponent.
The two came to a halt a few feet after passing each other, standing still. Suddenly, Kim Dragon collapsed to the canvas, unconscious.
Blazeman, seeing his opponent defeated, dropped to his knee, grasping his shoulder and panting heavily. Knowing that he was victorious, Blazeman got up, picked up Kim Dragon and pitched him out of the arena.
Kim Dragon's unconscious form landed in Cruisin' World, on top of a running school bus as it raced against the likes of a car, a pickup truck, a monster truck, a taxi and a delivery truck (and the sad thing? The bus was winning).
Duke and Kirby clashed again, both headbands flapping behind them. Ever since Kirby had copied Duke, the two had been fighting. In all honesty, Kirby was starting to get bored of the power he currently had and wanted to get rid of it so he could copy someone else, but Duke wanted to fight and wouldn't give Kirby a chance.
Kirby held up his sword and blocked Duke's with it, but didn't see the mercenary wind up for a kick until it was too late. The pink ball of puff flew across the arena and Duke walked after him.
Kirby landed on his head with a loud 'Oof!' and rolled for a couple of feet. Kirby looked up and saw Duke towering over him with his sword pointing at him.
"Looks like I win, pal." Duke said with a smirk.
Kirby narrowed his eyes, then closed them. All of a sudden, Kirby returned to normal, and Duke's power shot out of him in the form of a bouncing star. In the blink of an eye, Kirby grabbed it and hurled it at Duke's face.
The aim was perfect. The star smashed into Duke's face, then disintegrated once it did. Duke stepped back, thus taking his sword away from Kirby. Grabbing the opportunity, Kirby jumped to his feet, grabbed Duke, slammed him into the ground, climbed on top of him and gave him a flurry of kicks to the face.
Duke shot into a sitting position, making Kirby launch from his face. The mercenary got to his feet and glared at Kirby. "You little punk! You're in for it now!"
Kirby's response was to blow a raspberry at him. This just made Duke even angrier. The mercenary ran at Kirby and swung his sword again. Kirby again leapt over Duke and kicked him in the back of the head, making him stagger forward a few steps.
Duke turned around and stared down the ball of puff that stood before him. "Okay. Enough playing around! You're gonna get it, now!"
Kirby had been wearing a frown for the past thirty seconds, which was the longest time he had ever worn a frown for. Kirby simply stood still as Duke rushed him again. Once Duke got close enough, Kirby jumped.
By the time Duke swung his sword, Kirby was already in the air. Duke looked up and saw his opponent floating high above his head…
…And then turn into a miniature Thwomp.
And as you all know, Thwomps don't fly very well.
Kirby crashed down on top of Duke, finally knocking him out. Kirby morphed back into his natural form, grabbed Duke and tossed him out of the arena. Kirby quickly replaced his frown with a smile and skipped away, whistling a merry tune.
Duke landed in Cel Damage, onto a set of railroad tracks. A train came by and plowed him over (as well as destroy T. Wrecks' car at the same time).
"Icebeam!"
Iceman launched another beam of cold at Duo Lon, but the mysterious ninja swiftly avoided it. Duo Lon had jumped into the fight Iceman was having with Ace earlier and had thrown the mercenary across the ring, resuming the fight with the frozen X-Man.
Iceman, on the other hand, was annoyed. He was actually enjoying the fight with Ace, but now that he was fighting Duo Lon, he had to get used to his opponent all over again. Even still, Iceman didn't show it. He was determined and was confident that he could beat this guy.
Duo Lon dodged another icebeam and smirked. "Not bad, but let me show you what I can do." He said.
Duo Lon stood still for a second before ducking, then lunging his head forward. To Iceman's surprise and shock, a ball of mysterious energy shot from the ninja's forehead. The freakiest part of this projectile was that it looked like it was made out of the ghostly images of several skulls.
Although severely freaked out, Iceman created a shield of ice and held it in front of his face. Duo Lon's fireball struck the shield, but didn't burn through it. Once the attack finished, Iceman put the shield away and advanced on Duo Lon.
Duo Lon watched as Iceman pulled his fist back on the way over and encase it in a boulder made of ice. Iceman swung his arm down, but Duo Lon was quick enough to zoom past the ice mutant in a move that looked somewhat similar to Lucky Glauber's Lucky Vision.
Iceman, however, wasn't expecting this, and the ice boulder slammed into the canvas. While Iceman was distracted, Duo Lon struck him in the back with his palm, knocking Iceman forward.
The ice-coated mutant stood to his feet and glared at Duo Lon. "Okay. You wanna bring it? Bring it!"
Duo Lon smirked as he kicked at the canvas. The ninja's foot went into the canvas and shot out of it five feet away, kicking Iceman in the face.
Iceman rubbed his chin in pain. "How the heck are you doing this stuff, man?" He said. "Actually, on second thought, I don't think I want to know."
The two rushed each other again, and Duo Lon was the first to act, kicking at Iceman. However, Iceman was quicker, and blocked the kick. The mutant quickly jumped into the air and bombarded Duo Lon with another icebeam. Duo Lon wasn't quick enough to avoid this one, and the icebeam slammed into his chest, freezing him.
Iceman landed on his feet, looked at his frozen opponent and smirked. He then picked Duo Lon up and threw him from the arena.
Duo Lon landed in the desert stage of Aladdin, where he quickly thawed out. Seeing that he had been eliminated, Duo Lon sat down, oblivious to Aladdin running by in the background, cutting the belt off of a guard's pants with his sword as he ran by.
(Hotel; Lobby)
Vivian had directed the team over to a corner of the lobby, out of earshot of the woman at the desk, whom was actually more focused on watching the tournament progress on a TV hanging from the ceiling. Once everyone was gathered around, Vivian created a stream of fire from her finger and burned an overhead view of the dome and hotel into the tiles.
"A bit much, don't you think?" Sagat asked.
"You wanna take time to draw it on a napkin from the restaurant? Be my guest." Vivian replied. "Anyway, here's what I gathered. Each of the targets is being placed at specific points around the hotel and dome, forming…Uh…A seven-sided shape. Now, in the-"
"Heptagon." Lucky said.
"What?" Vivian asked.
"Heptagon. That's the name of a seven-sided shape." Lucky replied, slightly sheepish.
"I always thought it was a hexagon." Falco said.
"No, a hexagon has six sides." Ryoko replied for Lucky.
"I could have sworn that a hexagon had seven sides."
"Well, it doesn't." Ryoko said, folding her arms. "A heptagon has seven sides."
"I thought that was an octagon." Cody scratched his head.
Lucky, Falco and Ryoko looked at Cody. "That's got eight sides!" The three said at the same time.
"HELLO? Can we PLEASE get back to the crisis at hand?" Vivian shouted.
The others promptly quieted down and let Vivian continue. "Thank you. Now, right now, they've only got six of the targets. But the way things are looking, the seventh target, Lilly Kane, is going to be positioned right here." Vivian said, burning seven dots into the map and pointing at the seventh one.
"What's the point of having them positioned all around the place?" Jacky Bryant asked.
"If they were all in the same place, it would be too hard to draw off their power because the power would mix, and Bison wants the kids' powers to remain separated until they end up in a storage container." Vivian explained.
"Where IS this storage container?" Guile asked.
"A place where it can easily pick off powers from people scattered in different directions." Vivian replied simply.
Guile was silent before his eyes widened in realization. "Right smack dab in the middle of the building!"
"Bingo." Vivian said, burning another mark into the map. "This is also where the main target is going to be stationed. Once the essences from the seven other targets are forced into the body of this target, he or she will become nothing but a mindless slave for Bison."
"How horrible!" Asuka said, shaking her head.
"Who IS this main target?" Bridget asked.
"That I DON'T know." Vivian sighed. "We still have a chance to stop Bison, because they haven't found the main target yet."
"That's good to hear." Ryu nodded. "If this person becomes Bison's slave, we may not be able to bring him or her back."
"So let's head out, then!" Chang said, standing up. "All this villainy being afoot is starting to make 'The Koehan' desire to destroy it that much more!"
"I'm with him." Jack said with a maniacal smirk, standing up. "When do we get to beat the crap outta these guys?"
"As soon as we can." D! explained. "The sooner we kick Bison's behind, the sooner we can save those kids."
"Well, I say we head out." Clark said.
Everyone agreed and left the lobby, hoping that they weren't too late to stop Bison.
(The Arena)
Nakoruru swung her dagger at Yuki, but the blonde-haired woman blocked the attack with her pole. The two females clashed again, but it produced the same result.
Although neither of them wanted to fight, and both would have preferred to stop all of the senseless violence, but they both knew better and wouldn't be able to get through to anyone. Because of this, the two were reluctant, but had to fight anyway.
Neither Nakoruru or Yuki knew this, but Galford was sitting in the Eliminated Seating, watching the battle, or more rather Nakoruru, with awe. Galford had the biggest crush of the nature girl for the longest time, and was really hoping that Nakoruru could finish the battle on top.
Yuki tried attacking again, and got lucky this time. The blunt end of her weapon struck Nakoruru in the face, making the younger girl stagger back. Nakoruru narrowed her eyes and lunged at Yuki, slashing her dagger.
The blonde, however, saw this coming. Yuki swung her weapon down and blocked Nakoruru's attack with it. Nakoruru, however, was expecting this and jumped to her feet as soon as her attack was blocked, then kicked Yuki in the face.
As Yuki staggered back, Nakoruru jumped at her, grabbed her and threw her away.
Xigbar ducked as Q's foot soared over his head. The mysterious man, making up for his mistake, grabbed Xigbar's shoulder with one hand and drove his other one into the Nobody's stomach. Q then kicked Xigbar in the head, knocking him down.
As Xigbar collapsed to the ground, Q stood straight, smoothed out his trenchcoat casually and prepared to throw Xigbar from the arena.
That's when Yuki slammed into his back, knocking Q to the ground.
"Whew! Thanks for breaking my fall there, sir." Yuki said as she stood up and dusted off her outfit, unaware of Q standing up behind her with a dark expression (or as dark as one could be through a mask). "I was afraid I would have fallen from the arena for a second, there."
Yuki chose that time to turn around, but when she saw Q towering over her, she shrank back.
Standing aside, Nakoruru sweatdropped as Q picked up Yuki and hurled her out of the arena. Q turned around to finish off Xigbar, only to see that he had already gotten to his feet.
Yuki landed in the node of Freakazoid. Yuki would have objected to Freakazoid using such violent measures to defeat villains, but was too busy trying the figure out how he was actually able to pull a huge hammer out of nowhere.
Ever since Iceman eliminated Duo Lon earlier, he and Ace had resumed their fight. Ace was swinging his Sai every chance he got, but Iceman was managing to block or avoid most of the hits. Ace wasn't without damage, either. He still had a couple bits of ice stuck to his arm when Iceman froze it earlier and the mercenary was sporting a painful-looking black eye after receiving an ice boulder to the face.
Even still, neither fighter was letting up. Each of the two wanted to survive the section, but to do that, they would have to eliminate their opponent first.
"Icebeam!" Iceman shouted, firing a beam of cold from his hands, which Ace quickly sidestepped. The icebeam promptly froze one of the turnbuckles.
The fight continued. Iceman pelted Ace with another icebeam, this time striking his leg, freezing it.
"Gah! Just great." Ace muttered as he hit the ice with his fist, breaking it. Iceman used this to his advantage and spiked him in the head.
Rubbing his head, Ace looked at Iceman. "Okay, so that's how you wanna fight, eh?" He asked. "Let's get serious!"
Ace leapt over the ice mutant and lashed out with his Sai, managing to slash Iceman across his back. The ice mutant held his back and collapsed to one knee, but quickly jumped to his feet and glared at Ace.
"Okay, you know what?" Iceman asked. "You wanna swordfight? You'll get a swordfight."
Ace watched as Iceman created a sword of ice in his hands. The womanizing mercenary smirked and got into his stance.
The two rushed each other and swung their weapons. However, Iceman's eyes widened when Ace's Sai cut clean through his sword, sending the top half spiraling across the arena.
Iceman paused and held up the remaining half of his sword. "But…How?"
"Hello? Ice? Really sharp weapon?" Ace quizzed.
"Oh…Yeah." Iceman replied. "Boy, am I dumb."
Ace quickly booted the distracted Iceman out of the arena.
Iceman landed in what looked like a mechanical factory of sorts. Getting up, he looked around.
"Hey! What're you doing on my turf?"
Iceman looked over his shoulder and saw a short Eskimo robot storming over.
"I have a fight with Megaman soon, so leave now, or else suffer the wrath of the mighty Ice Man!"
"But…I'M Iceman." Iceman pointed to himself.
"No way! Ice Man's MY name!" Ice Man replied angrily.
The two continued arguing for the next three minutes. Megaman walked in and, hearing that they were both named Iceman, blasted them both.
Back in the arena, Ace smirked and got out of his stance. "That's three. I've tied with the captain, now." He was about to turn around and seek another opponent and hopefully beat Geddoe's score.
"Spinning Bird Kick!"
However, Ace walked right into an airborne attack from an oncoming Chun-Li. Ace was kicked in the face several times and flew backwards two feet.
"You want a piece of me too, baby?" Ace asked with a smirk. "If I beat you, will you go out with me?"
"NO!" Chun-Li fumed and kicked Ace in the face with all her might, launching him into the air until he landed on his back.
Ace chuckled painfully as he got to his feet. "Now THAT'S a woman." He said as he got into his stance again.
Chun-Li sighed as she advanced. She REALLY hated men like this guy.
Ace swung his Sai at Chun-Li's stomach, but all he got was another boot to the face. Chun-Li quickly continued, delivering two more kicks, these at his chest, knocking Ace back again.
As Ace got to his feet, Chun-Li brought her hands to her side, gathered up a small amount of energy and lashed her hands out, firing a blue orb of energy at Ace.
Ace, however, saw the attack coming in time and swung his Sai, canceling out the energy ball. However, Chun-Li was running at him at the exact same time, and Ace didn't realize this until her foot was sent flying into his stomach.
Chun-Li kicked Ace in the head three more times, then did a fourth kick, launching him into the air again. Chun-Li leapt into the air after him, and delivered a midair kick, firing the mercenary out of the arena.
Chun-Li landed gracefully on her feet, then rushed off to start a fight with Blazeman.
Ace landed in Dead or Alive, where he asked each female adult he came across out on a date. He received several beatings.
Iori calmly stepped over Billy's staff as it went underneath him. The red-haired Orochi jumped back and sent a wave of purple fire across the canvas, striking the elder Kane sibling in the leg. As Billy grasped his injury, Iori ran at Billy and lashed out with his hands, attempting to tear Billy to shreds.
Iori's eyes snapped open as Billy took the attack. "No! The Orochi is gaining control! I can't let that happen!" He thought.
Billy watched as Iori stepped back. Thinking he was winding up for a powerful attack, Billy advanced again and swung his staff again. Iori, not prepared or paying attention, took the blow to the face.
The more Billy pressed the attack, the more Iori felt the Orochi desiring to take control. The red-haired man did his best to prevent this, and block Billy's attacks at the same time. So far, he was doing a half-decent job.
Iori held up his hand and caught Billy's staff in it. Iori lifted his foot and kicked the British fighter in the face, knocking him back.
"How am I supposed to control the Orochi when I'm trying the beat Kane?" Iori thought as he stared down the advancing Billy. Suddenly, a light went on in his head. "Of course!"
Billy smashed his staff over Iori's head, knocking him aside, towards the ropes. Billy wanted to end the fight quickly, so he crouched low and started spinning his staff rapidly. Suddenly, flames started surrounding Billy's spinning staff, forming a wheel of fire.
"FIRE!" Billy screamed, lashing the fire wheel at Iori. The burning projectile slammed into the Orochi with full force and sent Iori flying over the ropes. Strangely, Iori didn't make any effort to get back into the arena as he fell through the portal.
Iori landed in Green Hill Zone in the original Sonic game, where he sat down and smiled at his plan. In letting Billy win the fight, now the Orochi wasn't trying to take over his body. And as a bonus, Billy might think that he had avenged himself at long last and finally stop seeking it.
(Dome; Hallway)
"Screw Upper!" Joe shouted as he created a tornado, lifting Setsuna off his feet. The dark-skinned assassin flew into the air and landed on his back. Setsuna got to his feet, growled at the Thai fighter and jumped forward with a swing of his sword. Before Setsuna could get close enough, however, Joe kicked him in the head.
"Will you make him hold still?" Mystique shouted, trying to aim her blaster at Sodom but wasn't able to get a clear shot in.
"I'm trying, lady!" Ash Crimson shouted back as he sent a wave of green flames in Sodom's direction. Sodom, however, held up his arms and blocked the attack. The American samurai then rushed at Ash, grabbed him and piledrived him into the ground.
Ash slowly got to his feet and narrowed his eyes at Sodom, whom was advancing on him again, Sai in hand.
"You know, Mystique? A little help would be nice here!" Setsuna growled as he blocked a kick from Joe.
"I'm trying to shoot them, but they keep moving!" Mystique insisted angrily.
"You'd be of more service if you'd actually help us fight these guys!" Setsuna shot back.
Joe chuckled. "Man. They actually fight amongst themselves. What's wrong with them?"
Setsuna didn't reply. He simply swung his sword, again. Joe ducked and avoided the blow.
Ash got up and stepped back, glaring daggers at Sodom. "This marks the second time you've annoyed me."
"…Yeah…So?" Sodom asked.
"I hope you realize that I KILL those who annoy me." Ash growled.
"Uh…But you were thrown from the arena in a matters of minutes…And if I recall, you WALKED away from me when we clashed last." Sodom pointed out.
Ash's eye started twitching. "SHUT UP!" He screamed, jumping at Sodom and creating a pillar of green fire around him.
However, Sodom wasn't stupid. He had seen this attack before and stepped back, avoiding touching the pillar of fire. Once Ash's flame pillar died down, Sodom kicked him in the face, then tackled him to the ground.
Ash pushed Sodom off of him, jumped to his feet and lashed out with his foot.
Mystique grunted and shifted her aim back and forth between Sodom and Joe. "These punks are dead." She growled, narrowing her solid yellow eyes as she reached for the trigger.
Suddenly, a shoe bounced off the back of her head. Mystique turned her head and saw Lilly Kane standing there, now wearing only one shoe.
"You leave them alone!" Lilly shouted.
Mystique smirked at Lilly, turned around and advanced. Lilly, suddenly remembering that she was the one they were after, shrank back.
"Why do you insist on standing up for that little shrimp?" Setsuna growled at Joe as he swung his sword.
Joe's eyes narrowed. Setsuna had finally crossed the line. "That 'shrimp' happens to be my girlfriend, you freak!" He shouted as he jumped back. "For talking that way about Lilly, you are going down SO hard!"
The half-naked man lashed out with each fist, one after the other, creating two large tornadoes, which tore across the floor, straight at Setsuna. The two powerful projectiles slammed into the assassin with full force, sending Setsuna flying into a wall. When the attack died down, Setsuna slumped to the ground, once again unconscious.
Ash punched Sodom in the face, making the samurai stagger back. However, because Sodom was wearing a mask, it did little to hurt him. Sodom quickly pulled a Sai into the air and threw it like a ninja star at Ash. The Sai buried itself in the shoulder of Ash's shirt, barely missing his shoulder. However, the force caused Ash to fly back until he hit the wall. The Sai planted itself into the wall, pinning Ash to it.
The white-haired man growled as Sodom approached. "You little punk! When I get off of here-"
Sodom didn't give Ash time to finish the treat. He simply punched him in the face once, knocking him out.
"Well, that's that." Joe said, cracking his knuckles.
"Wait…Wasn't there one more of them?" Sodom asked, looking around the hallway.
"Hey, yeah…You're right." Joe replied, also looking around. He suddenly saw a show laying on the ground and his eyes snapped open, recognizing it as Lilly's. Joe put two and two together. "Oh, no!"
"What is it?"
"While we were fighting these guys, the mutant girl ran off with Lilly!" Joe said.
"We've got to find her!" Sodom said.
"Right!"
"Attention please." Unknown1's voice came through the speakers. "Will Sodom please report to the Ready Room and prepare to enter the arena?"
"You can't be thinking about leaving." Joe said.
"I have to!" Sodom insisted. "If I don't, people will get suspicious!"
Joe sighed, realizing that Sodom was right. "Okay. But you're not going to tell Billy what's happened to his sister if he's still there when you enter, are you?"
"Of course not!" Sodom said. "What? You think I've got a death wish or something?"
With that, Sodom left the hallway, leaving Joe to continue his search for Lilly.
(The Arena)
Akuma jumped over Mewtwo as the psychic Pokemon dashed past him. The dark Street Fighter then sent two aerial fireballs into Jack-5's chest, although it did little more than make the giant robot back away one step.
The three powerhouses had been fighting ever since laying eyes on each other, and no one else in the arena dared cross paths with them if they valued their limbs. The three were dishing out enough destructive power to label their part of the arena a war-zone.
Jack-5 reached out and grabbed Mewtwo. The huge robot wrapped his arms around Mewtwo and gave him a bone-crushing bear-hug, then dropped the Pokemon to the ground. The giant robot then crouched low, folded his arms and did a Russian dance, kicking the downed Mewtwo twice.
However, while Jack-5 was busy with Mewtwo, Akuma jumped in a landed a hard kick to the back of his head. The huge robot stood straight, looked over his shoulder and saw Akuma. His red eyes glowed even brighter.
Jack-5 swung his fist, but Akuma held up his hands and blocked the oversized punch. The crowd then watched in amazement as Akuma started using Jack-5's own arm to push the large robot backwards.
After about five feet, Jack-5 broke away from the grasp of Akuma and punched him in the face with his other hand. The sheer force from the punch would have been enough to send an average fighter across the arena, but because this was Akuma, it just knocked him back a few feet.
"Heh. A challenge, I see." Akuma said with a smirk. "I never thought I'd have so much fun taking out a robot."
The two rushed each other again and Jack-5 swung both fists. However, before they could make contact, Akuma lifted one leg and warped behind the huge robot. Once he was behind Jack-5, Akuma lashed out another fireball, striking him in the back.
"I must admit that you're more powerful than I though." Akuma said, more to himself, as Jack-5 slowly turned around. "However, all those weaker than me don't stand a chance."
Jack-5 advanced again, but Akuma leapt at him and kicked, knocking him towards the ropes.
"And now I shall finish off this bucket of bolts." Akuma said.
Performing a Dragon Uppercut, Akuma lunged upwards and struck Jack-5 in the chin, lifting them both off the ground. The move finished and Akuma landed on his feet. Jack-5, however, flew out of the arena.
Jack-5 landed in the node of Robots. He fit right in.
Back in the arena, Akuma nodded once in satisfaction. He turned around to throw Mewtwo from the arena, but saw that the psychic Pokemon had already gotten to his feet.
"And here I was thinking that robot had defeated you." Akuma mused, stepping towards Mewtwo.
"Despite my scrawny look, I am one of the strongest Pokemon around." Mewtwo replied.
"Indeed, you are." Akuma replied. "I must say that both you and that robot I just eliminated are two of the tougher foes I have battled with, but in the end, I, being the strongest, shall destroy everyone weaker."
Mewtwo smirked. "I think not."
The two advanced and attacked, but Mewtwo was the lucky one, striking Akuma with a claw swipe. As Akuma flew through the air and landed on his back, Mewtwo started charging another Shadow Ball.
Akuma stood up and saw what Mewtwo was doing. Smirking, he brought his hands to his side and started gathering up energy.
Soon, Mewtwo was fully-charged. However, he also saw that Akuma was getting ready to attack. Thinking quickly, Mewtwo let the Shadow Ball fly, hoping it would be enough.
Akuma, in the meantime, lashed out his hands, launching a fireball three times its normal size at Mewtwo. The Shadow Ball flew straight towards the projectile, but because of its funky movement pattern, it swerved around it and continued soaring towards Akuma.
Seeing this, Akuma's red eyes widened. "Impossible!" He shouted just before the Shadow Ball slammed into his chest. Mewtwo avoided the fireball, ran over to Akuma and used his telepathy to throw him from the arena.
Akuma landed in Kung-Fu. While Akuma spent the next ten minutes wisely (by kicking the bad guys out of the tower), Thomas rushed through the tower and saved his girlfriend.
Nakoruru swung her dagger, only to have Billy block it with his staff. Billy then kicked at the nature girl while the two weapons were locked, but Nakoruru saw this coming and held up her free hand, catching it. Nakoruru then spun her hand around, flipping Billy off his feet and making him land on his back.
"Man…How the heck did she do that?" Billy muttered as he stood to his feet.
Billy wasn't expecting a response, so he didn't wait for one. Instead, he rushed at Nakoruru and swung his staff. Nakoruru tried blocking the attack, but wasn't quick enough. Billy's staff broke through her defenses and smashed into her side (resulting in a loud boo from Galford up in the Eliminated Seating).
As Nakoruru collapsed to the canvas, Billy stood over her and prepared to throw her from the arena.
However, just as Billy reached out to pick her up, Nakoruru sprung to life and kicked the surprised Billy in the face, making him stagger back. Nakoruru jumped to her feet and ran at him.
Billy snapped out of his daze and saw Nakoruru coming. He swerved to the side and allowed Nakoruru to run by, then smacked her with his staff again. This time it was Nakoruru's turn to recoil.
Nakoruru turned and saw Billy swinging his staff again. Thinking quickly, Nakoruru spun around completely and raised her dagger, blocking Billy's weapon. The two were now in a struggle war, trying to gain the upper hand.
Sweat dripped down Billy's face as he tried to force the dagger out of Nakoruru's hand. Despite Billy being older, Nakoruru was seemingly stronger than he was. Billy wanted to make sure that he survived the section, but he had to beat Nakoruru to do so, and she wasn't really making things easy for him.
Nakoruru smirked and pulled away. Billy wasn't prepared for this and lunged to the side, because he was still trying to push Nakoruru's dagger out of her hand when she backed off. Billy quickly regained his balance, but wasn't quick enough to avoid Nakoruru jumped in and kicking him in the back.
Billy growled. "Okay, lady. You're asking for it." He said.
The British fighter advanced on the nature girl, whom stood still in a stance, waiting for Billy to dish out his attack. When she saw Billy swinging his staff down at her legs, she smirked and jumped.
However, Billy wasn't aiming for her legs, and knew that Nakoruru would think he was. Instead, Billy shoved his pole into the canvas and pushed himself upwards. Billy launched himself into the air after Nakoruru, and attacked her with his feet.
Nakoruru wasn't expecting Billy to pull the move off and took the blow to the face. The nature girl fell past the ropes as Billy landed back on his feet.
Nakoruru landed in the node of Tarzan. The king of the jungle mistook her for Jane, swooped down, grabbed her and swung off.
Two minutes later and a very confused Jane found Tarzan's beaten body laying on the ground.
(Eliminated Seating)
Galford growled. "How could that guy just eliminate Nakoruru like that? She should have won that battle! When that guy gets eliminated and arrives here, I'll make him wish he was never born!" He shouted in a rage, which was something very out of character for the blonde ninja to do. "I mean, Nakoruru deserves at least ONE elimination! Why did she have to get eliminated so quickly? She could have cleaned up the entire arena if she wanted! Because of that, I am-"
T. Hawk silently smashed Galford over the head, knocking him out and stopping his rant.
(The Arena)
Xigbar leapt back three steps and fired his blasters at Q several times. He mysterious man flinched as the laser bolts struck his chest, but quietly brushed off his trenchcoat and proceeded walking over to the cloaked Nobody.
Xigbar's good eye snapped open. "Nothing stops this guy!" He thought. "How am I supposed to beat him?"
Q pulled his fist back and thrust it out, lunging at Xigbar at the same time. Q's fist connected with Xigbar's jaw, launching the Nobody back several feet.
"He's pretty strong, too." Xigbar thought as he got to his feet, rubbing his jaw. "This is pretty tough. Well, at least that duck isn't helping him anymore."
One he was standing straight, Xigbar smirked and used his mind to reload his guns. "Armed and reloaded!" He said as he rushed at Q again and stared firing his blasters like they were machine guns. Q ran to the side, avoiding the rain of laser shot at him.
However, Xigbar saw this and started turning as well. Q was now running circles around Xigbar as the cloaked Nobody turned with him and continued to fire laser bolts.
This continued until loud clicks could be heard from both of Xigbar's guns, showing that he had run out of ammo again. Q, hearing this, ran straight at Xigbar and delivered an uppercut to the face. However, while in midair, Xigbar regained his composure, turned himself over and landed on his feet. Q noticed that during the time Xigbar had flipped himself over, his hood and lifted up and had gone over his head, shrouding his face in darkness.
Xigbar rushed at Q as the mysterious man did the same. Q swung his fist at Xigbar, but the cloaked Nobody swiftly avoided the punch and ran past his opponent. Once he had passed, Xigbar jumped and turned around so that he was now facing Q and flying backwards. Xigbar reloaded his guns and let four bolts fly straight into Q's back.
This made Q flinch a bit, but he simply turned around and once again smoothed out his trenchcoat.
Xigbar groaned behind his hood. "NOTHING stops this guy!" He said aloud. "How the heck am I supposed to eliminate this freak!"
Q, being Q, didn't reply. He simply advanced on Xigbar again.
"Okay. I just about had enough of this guy." Xigbar muttered as he walked forward.
Q and Xigbar walked up to each other and stopped, staring each other down. Q gazed into the inky blackness of Xigbar's hood, while Xigbar stared into the bright, glowing, yellow orbs coming from behind Q's mask.
Suddenly, they both acted, each lashing out a fist. The fists slammed into each other, stopping each fighter from attacking.
However, that's what Xigbar was planning. The Nobody quickly reached out and grabbed Q's arm, taking the masked man by surprise. Q was equally surprised when Xigbar threw him over his shoulder, sending him out of the arena.
Q landed in Final Fight, inside the top of Belger's Tower. When Q saw the mob boss holding Jessica Hagger at gunpoint, he slowly approached. Belger then turned his attention to Q and started firing his harpoon gun at the masked man, but obviously, nothing stopped him. Belger was so freaked out that he let go of Jessica, whom ran to safety.
Two seconds later and Belger was sent tumbling towards the ground below, Q standing silently at the broken remains of a window.
"Will you hold still?" Ralf shouted at Kirby as he failed another punch to the pink puffball.
"Naaaah." Kirby replied, slamming a puffy fist into Ralf's face.
However, it did little more than make Ralf stagger in place for a second. "Well, at least his punches don't hurt much." He mused.
In the time Ralf had said that, Kirby had already jumped into the air again. Ralf looked ahead and watched as Kirby struck him in the face with his foot, followed by another kick, and another. Within three seconds, Ralf was hit with fifteen rapid kicks. Now, unlike Kirby's punches, THESE hurt. Ralf was sent to the canvas as Kirby cheerily stood on his back.
Ralf growled an shoved himself onto his feet, throwing Kirby off of him. "Okay, I've just about had it with youuuAAAAAAAA!"
That was all Ralf managed before Kirby inhaled him.
Ralf landed on his back, got up and looked down at Kirby. Said ball of pink was now sporting a camouflage bandana. Kirby flashed a cheeky grin up at Ralf.
"Okay, you know what? You've just broke my last nerve." Ralf said, looking down at his opponent.
Ralf walked towards Kirby and kicked him, punting the puffball across the arena. Kirby landed on his head, jumped to his feet and rushed back over.
"You sure don't know when to quit, eh?" Ralf asked.
Kirby once again jumped into the air and slammed his fist into Ralf's stomach. Now, had they been his normal punches, they wouldn't have hurt, but Kirby had copied Ralf, and that meant he had his strength as well. Kirby demonstrated this when he grabbed Ralf and threw him over his shoulder.
"Had I not been a part of it, I wouldn't have believed it." Ralf said, propped up against a turnbuckle upside-down. The Ikari Warrior quickly got back to his feet and rushed Kirby again.
Kirby smirked. "GAWACTICA PHANTOOM!"
As he ran, Ralf's eyes widened. "W-What did he just say?" He shouted, knowing what was going to happen. He tried screeching to a halt, but it was already too late,
*KA-POW!*
That was more than enough. Ralf flew headfirst out of the arena.
Ralf landed in what looked like a dojo. He looked around, confused. "What the heck?" Looking over his shoulder, he saw the huge and ghostly image of a twelve-year-old boy standing in the background. Ralf screamed as he jumped to his feet.
It was then that Ralf noticed several ninjas jumping at the boy, whom swatted them away with a wave of a hand. Ralf was mistaken for one of said ninjas and suffered a similar fate.
Yeah. Life in EyeToy can be like that sometimes.
Back in the arena, Kirby was now doing his classic victory dance as the other five fighters relaxed. Chun-Li was starting to look a little beat up, but wasn't tired quite yet. Billy had a few scratches and bruises, and people would bet that he looked worse underneath his jacket. Xigbar pulled his hood off, revealing his face, which had a couple extra scars, once again. Blazeman, half-surprised that he had lasted this long, sat down and awaited the next wave of fighters to enter. Mewtwo, in all honesty, was starting to tire, but he was doing a good job at hiding it.
Seeing that there were now only six fighters in the arena, everyone knew that the next section was about to start.
(Announcer's Booth)
The phone in the booth once again started ringing. Unknown1 picked it up. "Yes?" A few seconds of silence passed before Unknown1's eyes widened. "Well, you guys had better look into it." With that, he hung up the phone again.
"What is it this time?" SSBFreak asked.
"That was one of the security soldiers." Unknown1 said. "He says that his squad found the Blob laying in a hallway, almost beaten to death."
"That's odd." SSBFreak scratched his head. "I wonder who could have done that."
(Dome; Hallway)
Toppo, Master Sword in hand, silently walked down a hallway, determination written all over his face.
RESULTS
KIRBY (SSB)
CHUN-LI (SFA3)
BILLY KANE (FF)
XIGBAR (KH2)
BLAZEMAN (TFS)
MEWTWO (SSB)
(ELIMINATED)
ACE (S3)
ICEMAN (MC)
AKUMA (SFA3)
Q (SF3)
RALF JONES (KOF)
DUKE (S3)
IORI YAGAMI (KOF)
NAKORURU (SS)
JACK-5 (T5)
DUO LON (KOF)
YUKI (LB)
RHETT (S3)
KIM DRAGON (WH)
GORDON BOMAN (KE)
BONUS MATCHES:
"Lilly's Fight"
JOE HIGASHI (KOF) and SODOM (SFA3)
trample
SETSUNA (LB), ASH CRIMSON (KOF) and MYSTIQUE (MC)
Eliminations: Kirby, Chun-Li, Billy and Xigbar, 2; Blazeman, Mewtwo, Ace, Iceman, Akuma and Q, 1
Current Elimination Leaders: R. Mika (8), King (7), Bruce Irvin (6), Xigbar (5), Billy Kane (5), Peach Toadstool (5), Lucky Glauber (5)
Master of Mystery: With five eliminations and counting, Xigbar is the current leader of the Mystery Fighters.
Get your friends to vote next time: Ace was one Live vote away from surviving the section, and Ralf was one Live vote away from getting another elimination. Just goes to show how much one vote can count.