Chapter Sixteen

Mishima Casino, Mishima Island

The morning sun rose from the east above the Sea of Japan, which signaled the very first day of the Mishima Zaibatsu-hosted Shikoken Tournament. Many of the fighters on the company's man-made island started their day with either training or a good breakfast... or at least chose to sleep in until the last minute.

Those who were scheduled for their matches headed down towards the docks, where a circled building that represented the Mishima Casino was located. Inside the casino's ballroom, the fighters headed to their chosen locations via teleporting technology – a machine designed by the scientists of the Zaibatsu some years before. They would be brought back to the Casino after the match by the drones that were recording the event and monitoring the fights from the various locations around the world.

Those not scheduled for a match could view the fights through either the televisions in the casino, at any of the restaurants and bars around the island, or in the comfort of their hotel room. They were already made aware that the tournament would be broadcasted all throughout Earthrealm.

For those who attended the Blood Tournament in Outworld nearly two years ago, it came as no surprise that they would be met with envelopes that were slid through the bottom crack of their room doors. Inside those envelopes were index cards that briefly detailed what day their matches would take place. Unlike last time, certain hours were not written on the cards as everyone knew to be at the Mishima Casino at eight o'clock in the morning as it was announced last night. The last match call would occur no later than seven o'clock that evening. Those who were scheduled but not called out were welcomed back to the casino the next day and will have first priority.

An hour ago after he received his tournament notice envelope at the foot of his hotel room door, Smoke realized that it wouldn't surprise him if this method was somewhat inspired by the old tournament. Sure, at the time he was a cyborg under the control of the Brotherhood of Shadow after they found him abandoned in Outworld, but there were some details, like this one, he still remembered from those dark days.

Either way, he wasn't about to dwell on those times, especially since his index card notified him that he and Matrik were scheduled for their first match today.

As the two waited to be called up in the casino, Smoke took a moment to check out the competition in the waiting room. Some looked as though they could definitely hold their own and had potential to make it far. Others were clearly here just for the money and most likely will be eliminated from the tournament quickly. And then there were those that were a little harder to tell if they could fight or not... not with the crazy outfits they wore that made them more like circus freaks than actual warriors.

And here I thought Matrik and I would stand out, he thought.

Neither he nor Matrik spoke during their wait, though he did notice her scanning the sign that contained the tournament rules. Probably has an notebook app or something in her system to remind her of the rules, Smoke guessed. Other than that, they both watched the competition on the large television screen in the room.

It would be three hours before the call finally came...

"Smoke and Matrik!" someone from up front called out. "Step forward!"

The two cyborgs briefly looked at each other before Matrik nodded to him. He did the same before she stood up and headed to the front of the room while Smoke followed her. Aside from the transporter tech, there were two other men there who stood on either side and dressed in the Mishima Zaibatsu's mostly black uniform. The uniforms contained small red stripes going on the side of the sleeves and pant legs and dark gold accents on the buttons and belts.

Once they were a few feet away from the transporter, one of the soldiers raised a hand up to stop the two cyborgs in their tracks. At first, Smoke was sure that they were being stopped because they somehow broke a rule they didn't know about.

"Remember to follow the rules presented for the tournament," the soldier reminded them. "If you win, you'll remain in the competition as long as you comply with those rules. Also, if you win and both of your opponents are knocked out, leave them where they fell. The drones at your location will transport them back here... or you two if you lose. Also remember, to win a match, both your opponents must either be knocked out, conceded, or do not get up after ten seconds. We'd also appreciate it if you don't kill anyone, accident or not. If that happens, your will automatically be disqualified from the tournament. Any questions?"

Neither Smoke nor Matrik replied, and the guard took that as a no. He pointed his thumb behind him towards the transporter. "You may enter. Your opponents will follow shortly. Once they arrive, you may begin the match at anytime."

With all that in mind, Smoke and Matrik stepped onto the raised platform before they walked through the blue-tinted portal. It only took just a few seconds before they both arrived at their match location at the same time.

The cyborgs gazed at their surroundings. They were outside on a black-tiled platform that overlooked a vast, jagged mountain region, the trees barred some mixture of leaves and white flowers. The sky was heavy with stone-colored clouds and it was hard to tell if it would rain at anytime. On the platform, there were three wooden boxes that laid in the middle as though they were thrown aside without care. Beyond the platform was a cave entrance to who knows where.

"What is this place?" Smoke suddenly asked. That was when he noticed one of the two flying gray drones that would be recording the match. The circled object's camera and microphone was set onto its left side and a single flashlight was set in the middle of the drone like a cyclop's eye.

"Welcome to the Wuling Mountain region in China, Smoke and Matrik." the drone announced. "Your opponents will arrive momentarily."

"Oh no..." Matrik groaned suddenly as though something dawned on her after the drone's announcement.

Smoke turned his head to the green cyborg. "What is it?"

"...This place... it's a former Tekunin base."

That immediately baffled Smoke. "I thought the Tekunin only operated in Japan."

"Yes, but they tried to establish this facility in secret, but they ended up abandoning this place when they deemed it 'unfit.' No reason is given in the files. It hasn't been in operation in at least three years, but... well... this doesn't forebode well."

Smoke shrugged. "Maybe it's just a coincidence. For all we know, the Mishima Zaibatsu found this place to be a suitable location for the tournament. It has a pretty nice view if anything."

That was when a blue-tinted portal appeared ten feet away from them. A second later, two figured appeared through the portal... and it was in that moment that Smoke found himself questioning whether this was nothing more than a coincidence,s or the match set-up was predetermined.

Their opponents were also cyborgs. Both of their machinery were mostly black with a sleek shine to it. One had some blue paint on it's torso while the other had gold.

Great... Smoke thought without much enthusiasm. How much do you want to bet that these guys are Tekunin. He wouldn't be surprised if Matrik was scanning their system right this minute.

The second drone approached the newcomers. "Welcome to the Wuling Mountain region in China, Tixon and Zatax. You may begin the match a-"

One of the cyborgs attempted to slap the drone away as though it was a fly that othered him, but the drone quickly moved itself back before it was hit. He then turned to his ally, who was clearly scanning information on their opponents. That cyborg soon made a discovery...

"The traitors – Units LK-7T2 and TK-6M1 - are among us," Tixon, the blue and black one, said.

Definitely Tekunin.

"Too bad you can't eliminate us here," Smoke conceited. "After all, if you kill us now, you're automatically eliminated from the tournament." He then started to step forward before he spoke to Matrik. "I'll go first. I guess it's about time I get an idea of what I can still do with this newly modified body."

As Smoke approached, the two cyborg opponents looked at each other before the gold and black one, Zatax, chose to step forward. Eventually, the two stood five feet away from each other before they slowly got themselves into their respective fighting stance. For a few more seconds, the two stared at each other in anticipation and waited to see who would make the first move. Smoke had noticed how Zatax's eyes glowed red... it reminded Smoke how his used to be before he went to Dr. Bosconovitch for his procedure.

Finally, it was Smoke who decided to make the first move.

Here we go! he declared in his head right before he took two quick steps forward to deliver a right hook towards his opponent's face. Zatax pulled back before he was hit and forced Smoke to follow with another step and forward punch. Once again, Zatax evaded the attack when he moved away.

This went on this for another few moments before Smoke finally had an idea. He went in for another punch, and as Zatax stepped to the side, Smoke took the opportunity to crouch down and perform a sweep kick, which caught his opponent's ankles. As Zatax fell, Smoke quickly moved to deliver an uppercut to keep him in the air. Finally, Smoke straightened himself up fully before he hit Zatax again with a high kick. The kick sent the opposing cyborg further into the air.

Smoke expected him to simple fall back down and crash, but Zatax had his own plan. While somersaulting back in mid-air, Zatax shot out his right arm just as a compartment opened up just below the outer side of his wrist. A gun emerged from the compartment before his wrist bent downward and back so that his fingers grasped onto the trigger. Without hesitation, Zatax began to fire the gun.

"Shit!" Smoke yelled as he began to make a break for it. In the back of his mind, he couldn't help but wonder – did these two cyborgs really intend to assassinate him and Matrik? Indeed it would mean that the two Tekunin cyborgs would be eliminated from the tournament, but if they intended to kill him in the first place, clearly the competition wouldn't matter to them. Then again, the Tekunin were known to be subtle with their missions. No way they would display an assassination out in the open like this by way of camera drones broadcasted the event.

Still, Smoke wasn't going to take a chance as he ran in different directions in order to avoid what he initially thought were bullets. That was until three of them hit his torso, which forced him to stumble back. He gazed down at his chest and noticed what looked like tiny beetles with 'eyes' that flashed tiny gold lights. One was on his left collarbone, one was on his right pectoral, and the last was right in the middle of his stomach.

"What the-" Smoke started to say when he suddenly felt a sharp jolt within his core. There was only a split second when it stopped before it started up again. Before he knew it, he was instantly on the floor and shook violently like a leaf from the electric jolts the tiny devices delivered through him.

"Argh!" Smoke yelled out in agony. He wasn't sure how much time passed before the jolts finally stopped, and the small devices detached themselves and turned to ash after they fell on the floor. Even with his upgrades and enhancements, Smoke still felt sheer pain through his body, and he could only guess at this point whether the devices messed with his system.

"Fuck, dammit..." he uttered through clenched teeth in vexation.

It was then that Zatax grabbed Smoke by the throat and lifted him off the ground until Smoke's feet dangled in mid-air. Using his free hand, Zatax closed his fist and punched in a back and forth motion across his opponent's face. After that, he was about to pull his fist back to smash it into Smoke's nose when three small orbs suddenly appeared and attached themselves to Zatax's body. He felt the orbs grab on to him like a magnet, which made him briefly look down to see them. He then turned to gaze over at where they came from. On his left, Matrik stood ten feet away, her hand out and the compartment on the palm just began to close after she unleashed what Smoke knew were miniature bombs.

Upon realizing what just happened Zatax tossed Smoke to the side and was just attempting to remove the orbs when they quickly exploded at once. Because there was minimum impact, the explosions only served to stun Zatax enough to be swiftly knocked off his feet just as his opponent had moments ago.

"That's payback for your little trick!" Smoke called out afterwards. Despite being a bit dizzy from the punches he received, Smoke got back on his feet before he turned his attention to his tag team partner. "Thanks," he said with a grateful nod.

Matrik nodded too as she backed away before the drone's five-second count was over. Had time run out, it would've given Zatax the right to call his partner Tixon into the fight and turn it into a two-on-two match instead of the current one-on-one.

While standing in his spot, Smoke waited until Zatax was up on both feet again. Once he was up, Zatax quickly pressed a couple of commands on his left arm panel before he turned his attention back to the fight. With what sounded like a growl, he dashed forward.

Prepped for his assault, Smoke quickly got on the defensive just as Zatax reached him and threw a right hook at Smoke's face. Smoke swiftly disappeared in a puff of dark gray cloud before the punch connected, which briefly stopped Zatax in his tracks. He was starting to search for opponent's whereabouts when Smoke suddenly dropped down from the sky and punched the back of Zatax's head. The force hurled Zatax forward, but he was able to keep himself upright.

When Smoke landed back on his feet, Zatax quickly turned around and delivered a right hook to Smoke's face, which caused his head to snap sideways. From there, Zatax began to rapidly punch Smoke in the face and chest. He never gave Smoke the chance to defend himself. Then, Zatax grabbed Smoke by the gray vest portion of his uniform, spun around once, and hurled him forward. Smoke yelled out as he flew through the air until he crashed back first into one of the abandoned wooden boxes. The box broke it into pieces upon impact.

"Owe..." Smoke uttered in some pain. As he sat up, he noticed two objects that rolled out of the broken box; a pair of silver metal rods with two buttons at the base of each one.

"Hmm," Smoke hummed with curiosity as he picked up the two rods in his hands. After pressing a button on the bottom of each rod, it quickly created an electric current in between them with only blue bolt of light connecting the two on top. With a small smirk, Smoke knew what to do next. After gazing up, he saw that Zatax was running towards him again, just as he was expecting.

"It's not a three-prong electric spear from the chest, but it'll due," Smoke suddenly announced after he stood up. When Zatax was just three feet away, Smoke quickly stepped forward, activated the two rods, and shoved them into the cyborg's chest. Zatax screamed in what sounded like agony as electricity coursed through his mechanics. Smoke only held on just enough to not kill his opponent before he backed away. From there, Zatax fell onto his back and Smoke didn't miss how his glowing red eyes suddenly faded.

When that was over, one of the drones in the area hovered over where Zatax fell, which forced Smoke to back away just in case he was in the way. Unsure of what was going on, he stayed in one spot, at least until the drone made an announcement.

"Knockout detected."

"Nice," Smoke said with a nod as he dropped the two rods to the ground. Now he and Matrik only had one more opponent to go in this match before they officially won the first round of the tournament.

Speaking of whom, the last of the two cyborgs, Tixon, started to run towards Smoke. "As much as I would love to continue to fight, I must give my partner a chance to take you out," he said aloud. With that, he performed a few quick backwards flips towards where Matrik waited. After the last flip, he extended his arm towards Matrik's waiting hand and quickly tagged her.

"Have fun," Smoke told her.

Without another word, Matrik ran towards Tixon and met him halfway. As soon as they were close, Matrik quickly got on the offense and began to perform various high kicks at Tixon, who was forced to duck and dodge from her attacks. Worse was the fact that the bottom of her feet contained a buzzing saw-blade, which attempted to cut through Tixon with each kick.

After what seemed like a while of this, Tixon finally had enough and, at the next kick, he grabbed hold of Matrik's ankle. The saw-blade on that foot buzzed just inches from his face. Even with his cyborg mask, he almost gave her an indifferent gaze before he twisted her leg and forced her to lose her balance. Before Matrik knew it, she crash landed hard on her side.

"Two can play that game," Tixon said as Matrik turned onto her back. Just as she looked up at him, Tixon's hands quickly converted into two buzzing chainsaws that were half the length of his own arms. On the floor, Matrik attempted to back away swiftly and Tixon's chainsaws barely missed her legs. When she tried to get back up, Tixon would step in and try to saw her in half and forced her to roll out of the way.

After a minute of this, Smoke chose to intervene just as Matrik had during his fight earlier. He swiftly disappeared in a cloud of smoke before he reappeared behind Tixon. He slid forward and delivered a punch hard enough to send Tixon flying forward and over where Matrik laid before he crashed ten feet away from them face first. Matrik nodded to her partner in thanks before he teleported back to his waiting spot.

Matrik and Tixon both got back on their feet at the same time before the two met halfway again. By then, Tixon had put away his chainsaws. Matrik tried a right hook to his face, but Tixon ducked underneath it before he struck an open palm to her stomach, the force sent her stumbling back. He then tried to kick her, but she pushed his foot away with her hands. With Tixon suddenly left wide open, Matrik took her opportunity by covering the space between them, grabbed hold of his shoulders, and rolled herself onto her back and took Tixon with her. Once he was above her, she planted her foot into his chest before she pushed him back and over her head and sent him flying five feet away. Once that was done, she rolled over again before she stood up.

Tixon also got up as quickly before a compartment in his chest opened up just as Matrik ran towards him again. She managed to stop in her track just as three blue-colored bladed boomerangs shot out towards her. She was able to dodge away from the first two. However, the third managed to embed itself into her left thigh and knock her back down. After looking down at it, it was lucky that nothing vital was damage. However, the plating in her thigh was definitely going to need some repairs once this match was over.

Tixon let out a low laugh as he approached his opponent. "Now to end this," he uttered to her. He let his right hand turn into a chainsaw again, clearly ready to cut her down again.

In retaliation, Matrik extended her left hand and a compartment opened in her palm. Three gold miniature bombs flew out, all connected to ropes to make it a bolas. The weapon went straight to Tixon and wrapped around his neck twice.

As she expected, Tixon quickly panicked as he attempted to remove the bolas from his neck. With some time left, Matrik stood up and ran over to Tixon before she hit him with two palm strikes to daze him more. She then grabbed his shoulder and lifted him off his feet, jumped up into the air with him, spun around once, and finally threw him across the platform with him just landing hard at the edge.

As soon as Tixon landed, the three miniature bombs exploded and short-circuited his system. Soon afterwards, the glowing red of his eyes faded. Not long after, a drone hovered over where Tixon had fallen to examine his status.

"Knockout de-" the drone started to say.

Suddenly, as though he was a horror film antagonist thought to have been killed moments before, Tixon's system suddenly came back online, and he quickly sat up from where he landed. The glowing red eyes came back and seemed to glare at Matrik with malice. By then, the green cyborg was on her feet again. When she noticed he came back up, she immediately got into a fighting stance.

"Oh... crap..." Smoke said from the sidelines.

"Status changed," the drone spoke up. "Match will resume as before."

Guess it counts for the fact that the drone didn't finish its original knockout announcement, Smoke thought with a sigh.

Tixon, who was now standing up again, turned his chainsaw back on, but only the one on his right arm. With a yell, he dashed forward towards where Matrik stood. He then began to rapidly lash at her with the chain in hopes of shredding her to pieces, not caring if the maneuver ended up killing her. At this point, he figured he would be doing Master Sektor a favor.

However with each move, Matrik would duck and dodge away from the chainsaw ,and it didn't take long for her to retaliate with her foot saws with each kick she performed. At that point, it was pretty much a competition to see who would end up cutting the other first as they both went back and forth in their attacks.

Then, practically at the same time, their respective weapons managed to cut the other... Matrik's foot saw left a gash in Tixon's stomach that didn't go deep enough to damage anything. His chainsaw ended up cutting into her upper left arm and left behind a gash and one wire cut off. The 'wound' sent off some sparks. Upon impact, they both backed away from each other and examined their respective injuries. The damage to Matrik's arm caused her to jolt a bit, but that soon subsided. After looking up, she saw that Tixon was done with examining his gash before he began to take a step towards her again.

Matrik took an opportunity she planned earlier... after looking down, she was grateful for the fact that the blue bladed boomerang stuck in her thigh - the one Tixon shot at her earlier - was still there. With her good arm, Matrik forcefully pulled out the boomerang from her leg, which made a jolt shoot through her. While ignoring the jolts, she pulled her arm back before she threw the boomerang forward.

The boomerang embedded itself into the middle of Tixon's chest. Between the force of the throw and his close proximity at impact, the bladed weapon went deep enough to hit a part of his battery core. Tixon quickly straightened up and jolted multiple times as his system went out of control, which caused him to yell out in agony. Then, when it ended, he tumbled to his side. Once again, his glowing red eyes faded.

Just as before, the drone filming the match hovered over where Tixon fell. They seemed to take their time in this case just to be sure their status was correct, unlike before.

Soon enough, it made it's announcement. "Knockout detected. Smoke and Matrik win the match."

Once their victory was known, Smoke decided to hold off celebrating for right now. He instead walked through the platform to join Matrik, who examined her damaged arm. "Good thing we were all cyborgs in this fight," Smoke mentioned. "I don't think we would've won with that maneuver otherwise."

"That is true," Matrik uttered as she used her right arm to scan the 'wound.' "And luckily, Sub-Zero's upgrades on my system didn't do any real damage. With Sektor's old upgrades, damage like this used to put me out of the game for a while. It nearly killed me two years ago in Outworld..."

"I remember," Smoke said. "Speaking of Sub-Zero, I'm sure his viewing of this fight back at the hotel really got his attention. This is the first time the Tekunin came out of hiding in two years. I wonder what kind of stake they have in this tournament. I couldn't imagine them being involved here unless they had something to gain."

Matrik nodded. "I agree. My guess is that either the Tekunin are here on their own for whatever reason, or they joined in this war somehow... or Outworld for that matter. Either way, their presence doesn't bode well for the Lin Kuei."

Smoke took a deep breath. "Hopefully, we're wrong in our assumption that they're nothing more than just a small nuisance compared to everything else we're dealing with. I guess we'll know soon enough."

Barcelona, Spain

For Vega Fabio de Cerna, it felt good to be home again.

Barcelona was always a beautiful city, especially at night. Known for it's vibrant night life, it came as no surprise that he and his beloved Anna - his tag team partner - showed up here in the middle of a festival. Though it was unclear what kind of celebration it was, it was definitely something to help the city's citizens distract themselves from the current war.

The setting for the match was in a cabaret bar called Rosa Flamenco. The long bar table was set up to one side with spectators who watched from the stools they sat on while they nursed their drinks. On the other side was a traditional dining area with small tables covered in cardinal red cloths. Diagonally from there was a balcony that overlooked the city and its festival. Opposite that was a stage. On the stage were a pair of musicians seated and played their acoustic guitars as three young and beautiful flamenco dancers entertained the viewers on a stage. They all seemingly pretended that the upcoming match wasn't taking place on the cabaret's dance floors. Noting the three dancers, two dressed in black and one dressed in a red, it reminded Vega of the cage matches he used to host during his Shadaloo days.

Too bad there isn't an actual cage tonight, Vega thought to himself. Then it would truly feel like home. After he spent most of the last two years in Outworld, he nearly forgot about the finer things Earthrealm had to offer.

The setting seemed almost fitting for Vega and Anna's opponents as well. A purple-haired lady, known as Satine, wore a long-sleeved leotard in black with a short lavender-colored necktie, netted panty-hose, and black suede Mary Janes. It almost reminded Vega of a Playboy Bunny, only she wore a small black top hat decorated with a see-through lavender ribbon that was pinned into her hair just slightly to the right rather than a headband with bunny ears.

Satine's partner, oddly named Zamboni, was a bald man who covered his head with a regular-sized top hat. Dressed in a tuxedo with a coat-tailed jacket, he also possessed a black cane with a roaring lion's head on top, the material made of nickel. Vega was sure that cane was definitely Zamboni's weapon of choice and not just for show. He'll definitely keep an eye on it throughout the match.

As pretty as Satine herself was, she didn't compare to the beauty that was his lovely Anna. Anna had decided to forgo her red qipao dress for a simple black one that contained a single slit that ended at her hip, and a plunging 'neckline' that nearly reached her navel. She accompanied the attire with a simple diamond bracelet, matching stud earrings, bare-colored stockings, and a pair of simple black high heels. If Vega learned anything in the past two years - no matter if she was going to a nice dinner party or a brawl - Anna always dressed in her best.

"I'll go first," Anna soon announced sweetly. She stepped forward before she gave Vega the chance to respond. As she walked, Satine and Zamboni quietly regarded each other before Satine nodded, which indicated that she'll fight Anna. From there, Satine stepped forward. Neither she nor Anna stopped until they were just a foot away from each other.

Anna looked Satine up and down as she placed a hand on her hip and smiled. "Shame... I was hoping to go against your partner so I can destroy his fine clothes."

"Why? Afraid I'll beat you?" Satine replied with confidence, her French accent heavy.

Anna laughed sweetly. "No honey... I've already beaten you..." She suddenly dropped her smile and gave Satine a look similar to a raging animal before she yelled, "You just don't know it yet!"

Anna attempted to backhand Satine, but the French woman ducked underneath it before it connected. Still, that gave Anna the chance to lift her leg up and knee Satine in the face. With a yell Satine stumbled back while she held her face in pain. Anna grinned as she realizing that she was in control of the match. After stepping forward, Anna delivered two punches before she followed with an uppercut that set Satine up into air. As she came back down, Anna placed a kick to her back and sent her flying away before Satine landed hard on the floor.

"Connerie!" Satine cursed as she stepped away as quickly as possible away from Anna after she got up. Still feeling dizzy from the knee attack to her face, she managed to get to her tag team partner before she raised a hand to tag his palm, which indicated that it was his turn to fight.

"Obtenez elle!" Satine demanded. Without a word, Zamboni stepped forward, ready to fight Anna.

"Oh good, a real challenge!" Anna called out as she ran towards her new opponent. However, Zamboni was ready for her and, once she was close enough, began to use his cane like a bo staff. Not expecting that, Anna was forced to duck and dodge from the attack. However, the cane eventually caught her jaw and with a yelp. She found herself spinning on her feet a few times before Vega managed to catch her. Once that was done, Anna found the room practically spinning.

"Let me get him," Vega offered. As stubborn as she was about fighting for herself most of the time, Anna decided to take his offer and tag him. After that, he settled her down on an empty bar stool so she could take a moment to recover.

"Have fun," Anna said as Vega placed his white mask over his face.

Vega decided to surprise Zamboni with his Rolling Crystal Flash maneuver. He performed a forward roll a few times along the ground until he was close enough to be within arm's reach of his opponent. He then got on his feet and stabbed his right-handed claw, but Zamboni stepped to his right before he pushed Vega's arm away from his direction and completely avoided the claw.

Vega stood fully on his feet after that and began to rapidly lash his claw at Zamboni, who maneuvered himself out of the way before the three blades touched him. Then to Vega's surprise, Zamboni blocked a stab move, however not with his cane... but with a tanto-looking knife instead. Vega then noted the head of the roaring lion at the top end of the blade and realized that he was right about the cane from the start.

"Hmph," Vega huffed aloud. "I figured your cane was meant for more than just bludgeoning someone's head in."

He noted how Zamboni gave him a cocky smirk in response. Unsure of what he had in mind, Vega quickly pulled back in order to give them both some space. A second later, Zamboni stepped ahead and lashed out his blade at Vega, who promptly blocked it with his claws. From there, the two men found themselves going back and forth and lashed at the other with their respective weapons while they tried to overtake the other. Eventually, Vega was able to get a hold of the blade with his claw before he knocked the weapon out of Zamboni's hand and followed a left hook to the face.

While Zamboni was stunned, Vega jumped into the air before he dropped straight down with his claw out. However, Zamboni realized what was going to happen and managed to get away before he was cut open. Just as he turned to face the matador however, Vega suddenly flipped backwards. His feet caught underneath Zamboni's chin and knocked him backwards. Before he knew it, Zamboni crashed back-first into one of the round dinner tables in the room and broke it in half. Beforehand, the young couple who sat at the table realized what was about to happened and managed to grab their glass of champagne - as well as the champagne bottle - before Zamboni stumbled onto them.

At this point, Zamboni was in pain and in a daze. Nearby, Satine called out to him in hopes that he could tag her in so he could get some rest. Upon hearing this, Vega wasn't about to let that happen.

The second Zamboni stood again, Vega quickly slid forward and knocked him off his feet. While still in mid-air, Vega performed a flip kick, which sent Zamboni further upwards. He then waited until Zamboni fell back down. When the right moment came, Vega moved under him and, with a yell, he lashed his three claws into Zamboni's back and cut through his clothes. The attack left behind three bleeding gashes on his skin.

Somewhere in the room, he heard Satine scream out Zamboni's name in terror, more than likely out of concern. Vega rolled his eyes at that. It wasn't like he cut the man deeply enough that he was guarantee to die from blood loss. As a matter of fact, they should count themselves lucky that he doesn't plan to kill either one of them at all, even if the tournament had allowed death matches. To them, they weren't even worth a kill.

Still, Vega didn't feel as though he had any challenge in this match at all... so he decided to eliminate Zamboni from the tournament at least. With a swift kick to the side of the head, the ninja matador guaranteed that his opponent wasn't going to get up for at least a few hours.

"Knockout detected," one of the drones that watched the match announced.

That was Satine's cue to jump into the fight. She quickly grabbed a nearby chair from one of the dining tables and was about ready to bash Vega with it. However, Vega already decided that he wasn't going to bother to fight the young woman. He performed a few backflips to get away from her before he headed to the opposite side of the room where the mini bar was. There, Anna still sat cross-legged on a stool. Apparently at some point during the match, she ordered herself a small glass of iced tea with lemon and decorated the glass with a little green umbrella. Whether or not she spiked it with any alcohol was another question... he doubted it, however. Either way, she only had a few sips from a little straw so far.

Once Vega was close, Anna smiled just as he tagged her in. "You're turn," he told her.

Anna uncrossed her legs before she stood up from her stool. At this point, Satine was a little more than halfway from where they were while still held the chair she planned to beat them with.

"Hold my drink," Anna said as she handed her iced tea to Vega. He obliged and took the drink from her. As soon as that happened, Anna suddenly jumped up on top of the bar table before she used the ledge to push herself forward once Satine was close enough. In mid-air, Anna performed a somersault kick that connected on top of Satine's head and knocked her to the ground face first. The maneuver forced Satine to let go of the chair and it dropped with a loud thud to the floor.

The move only stunned Satine briefly before she stood back up. She was about to grab for the chair again, but Anna wasn't about to let that happen. She connected her heeled foot to Satine's stomach, which caused her to gasp for breath. Anna then followed up with three hands chops, two in the face and once in the upper chest, before a side kick sent Satine stumble a few feet to her right.

Anna quickly covered the berth between them before she used her hands to push Satine back a bit. As Satine stumbled, Anna crouched down before she rolled forward and delivered a low kick that knocked Satine onto her back. The landing was a hard one and it nearly knocked the wind out of her.

After deciding to take advantage of this, Anna stood back up and walked up to Satine. She then raised her foot before she pressed it down onto her throat and cut off her oxygen supply. She kept her foot firmly in place while Satine did all she could to push her foot off while she struggled to breathe at the same time.

After a few more seconds of this, she could see the fear in Satine's eyes. The young woman tried to speak as her mouth flapped open and close like a fish out of water. Anna decided to give her a chance and let her foot off just enough to let her speak.

"What did you say?" Anna asked her in a whisper so only the two of them could hear. "I almost couldn't hear you over the sound of you struggling for your life."

"Je reconnais!" Satine cried out after coughing a bit. "I concede! You win!"

That was when the drone nearby spoke. "Concede announced. Vega Fabio de Cerna and Anna Williams win the match!"

Satisfied, Anna removed her foot from her throat. Satine coughed more and managed to slowly sit up from where she fell. "Au revoir, sweetheart. I told you that you were beaten before this match began," Anna bidded sweetly with a wave of her hand before she walked away. She intended to finish her iced tea before they were brought back to Mishima Island.

Urban War Zone – Russia

For what was probably the fiftieth time today, Juri Han could only wonder how she got herself into this mess. Joining the Mishima Zaibatsu was one thing. Until yesterday, she genuinely looked forward to satisfying her lust for fighting in the Shikoken Tournament.

Then Jin Kazama just had to go and announce that the tournament would be tag-team based.

At first, Juri was almost ready to just forget about the whole thing and leave the Zaibatsu, but she had her reasons for staying. At the same time, she wasn't about to sit on the sidelines and be bored most of the time, especially not with a tournament being presented to her.

"Oh well..." she uttered to herself indifferently at the time. "It wouldn't be the first time I had to adjust to life changes..."

The problem was finding a tag team partner at all. She didn't really know anyone in the Zaibatsu, nor did she find anyone even worthy of being her partner. There was no way she was going to lose within the first couple of rounds.

Eventually, as the deadline approached, Jin called for a meeting for anyone without a partner, at least those he deemed worthy to be in the tournament at all. "Those who are in this room have the highest chances of making it to the last round of the tournament to face me," he said during the meeting. "I highly suggest you attend to increase our chances in securing a victory."

"What's in it for us if we comply?" Juri inquired. "I doubt your enemies are willing to give us any of the bounty if they figure out we're associated with you."

Jin didn't hesitate to answer. "If that occurs, I'll personally pay you the equal amount of G-Corp's bounty on me... plus twenty-five percent."

That was good enough for everyone involved. As long as one lucky team associated with the Zaibatsu won the tournament, it would still guarantee them the bounty on the chance G-Corp backed out. The additional money made the potential deal even more worthwhile.

When it came time to pick a partner, Juri was approached by the young Keisei native, Tira. "You look strong," the girl had said. Perhaps that statement alone was what convinced Juri to accept her offer to tag team together in the tournament.

However, as of this morning, Juri highly regretted taking the offer in the first place.

Juri had been called crazy for years. Personally, she liked to think herself as cunning and sadistic. Tira, however, had proved herself to be... severely insane. Never had she seen anyone so obsessed with satisfying her lust for killing. Tira was like a nymphomaniac who hadn't had sex in months. Her mood swings didn't help the matter either as she would be bright and cheerful one minute, to wanting to tear someone's arm off and beat them to death with itthe next.

Not that Juri was above killing her opponents... as a matter of fact, she loved it when the chance came, especially when the opponents were worthy of it. But it pissed her off that Tira was practically making a mockery out of it with the way she approached it. The last thing Juri wanted was for Tira to ruin the thrill of a good kill after a satisfying victory.

At this point, Juri only cared about winning. She just hoped Tira was a worthy fighter. Her insanity had to be worth something at least.

For their first match in the tournament, they were in an urban setting somewhere in Russia. If the city was announced after their arrival, Juri didn't pay attention. Everything around them was gray from the cracked, broken streets, building, bridges, and even the sky above was heavily covered in clouds. Their exact place of fighting was on an empty highway above a war-torn city neighborhood. Personally, Juri liked this setting and she could tell Tira did too by the way she gave off a creepy smile while her purple eyes gazed at her surroundings.

However, the gray-colored sight made their two female opponents stick out like a sore thumb. Juri nearly wanted to gag the second the drones announced them as Dusti and Justi; twin sisters dressed in one-piece leotards and knee-high wrestling boots, both garments in pink and lavender respectively. Their exposed skins were painted the same colors. There were some thunderbolt-shaped black paints placed here and their on their arms, face, and thighs, and their blond hair was done in a high-top braid that were tied into rounded buns.

"How original," Juri grumbled with sarcasm once her opponents went through the portal. "This will be an easy win..."

However with a yell, Tira jumped into the fray first before there was any discussion as to who would go first. The sisters across from them nearly panicked as the crazed, pigtailed girl quickly ran after them. Of course, they had to decided who was going to face her. However, Tira chose for them as she used her the inner circle of her ring blade to swing it over the lavender-clad sister – Justi – and pulled her towards the Keisei native.

"Can I kill you after this match?" Tira practically begged her cheerfully. "Pleeeaaase?"

In retaliation, Justi pulled something from the pocket of her wristband, brought her hand to her lips, and blew a purple-glittery-like substance into Tira's face, which immediately blinded her. While screaming from the stinging sensation, Tira covered her face with both hands and dropped her ring blade onto the ground and releasing Justi from her hold. Justi took advantage of this by performing multiple punches and kicks on Tira before she grabbed her by the shirt, jumped up into a backward flip, and slammed her face first into the ground. When that was over, Justi got up and left a bit of berth between herself and her opponent.

It took a moment for Tira to get back up (and see for that matter) after that. Once finally on her feet again, she glared at Justi with malice. "I am very displeased!" she scowled with disdain.

By then, Justi closed the space between them and just pulled her arm back for a punch when Tira flipped herself backwards. Her foot connected under Justi's chin and knocked her back a couple of feet. Luckily for Tira, her fallen ring blade was very close to where they where. As she flipped back onto her feet, she grabbed onto the blade's edge and brought it up with her. She then took a step forward and attempted to slash her blade at Justi, who was forced to jump away. From there, Tira continued to slash her blade in different directions at her dodging opponent in hopes of making her bleed at least once.

On the sideline, Juri yawned, which definitely matched well with how bored she was. She was very sure, based on Tira's eagerness to fight, that the Keisei girl wasn't going to tag her into the match anytime soon. For now, Juri decided to chill while she sat on top of the closed trunk of a black, wrecked car that laid where it crashed.

Maybe I'll intervene if I get bored enough in five minutes, Juri decided in her head.

Back in the match, Tira decided on a new plan. After getting Justi far enough from her, Tira spun her ring blade in a circular motion above her head, which created yellow electricity around the blade. Once there was enough of it, Tira swung her blade downward and sent a shockwave towards Justi. Tira grinned as she expected her opponent to be caught in the wave. However to her dismay, Justi was able to move to the side before impact.

"What?!" Tira screamed out in surprise.

She then attempted to turn towards Justi, but unfortunately was met with a hard kick to the face. The impact snapped Tira's head back before she fell back to the ground. Upon landing, her head practically bounced off the ground. Then, she laid still

From where she sat, Juri raised an eyebrow as a drone moved to examine Tira after she fell. Juri was almost sure that Tira was nothing more than dazed, at least until two words were said...

"Knockout detected," the drone filming the event proclaimed.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Juri said as she rolled her eyes. She wasn't sure whether to be annoyed by Justi's cheap maneuver, or Tira's lack of attention... but at least Tira managed to get some good moves in before the knockout. Still, the result pissed her off. Juri jumped off the wrecked car she sat on as she knew that it was her turn to have some fun of her own.

"Oh well... guess it's all up to me," she said to herself indifferently. By then, Justi turned around, anticipating Juri's entrance, and began to run towards her. Juri remained where she stood as she gave the purple-clad woman an unimpressed gaze.

When Justi was close enough, Juri quickly performed a roundhouse kick in the air and unleashed a purple boomerang-shaped projectile. The projectile smacked Justi right in the face and hard enough that it sent her flying and spinning mid-air before she landed hard onto the ground face first. After she didn't move from that, the drone that examined Tira hovered over Justi for a moment.

"Knockout detected," the drone soon said. "Only one fighter per team are left standing."

Juri smirked. "You deserved that after what you pulled," she uttered to her now-unconscious opponent.

Dusti, the pink-clad sister, jumped into the fray and began to run towards where Juri stood. Juri narrowed her eyes as a smirk developed on her face. She then raised a hand and motioned her fingers to Dusti, daring her to come closer.

"You look like you're in good shape," Juri said to her. "Better than your partner at least."

Once within reach, Dusti jumped up to perform a double kick, but Juri evaded by pulling away. From there, Dusti followed with more punches and kicks in hopes if getting a win in this match.

Juri let this go on for a while, mostly out of her own amusement. Eventually though, she got bored and decided to strike. Upon noting an opening, Juri leapt and somersaulted backwards a couple of times. Her foot hit Dusti in the chest and chin as a trail of purple energy followed Juri's ankles. As Juri got back onto the ground, Dusti was able to catch herself, flipped back, and soon landed on her feet.

Dusti then tried to take out a handful of pink glitter to blow onto her opponent's face from the pouch on her wrist, but Juri had expected this after witnessing what happened to Tira earlier. She jumped over the flying glitter and shut only her real right eye to protect it. Then after dropping diagonally, Juri spun in mid-air and landed some strikes with her foot on top of Dusti's head before a roundhouse sent her spinning back before she hit the concrete.

After getting on her feet again, Juri figured at this point that she didn't want to let this fight continue. To her, her opponent was typical and she didn't want to waste any more time than she needed to.

Juri's left eye glowed brightly as the Feng Shui Engine within activated. "You're finished!" she yelled just as Dusti stood again. With a jump forward, Juri spun rapidly as her foot performed multiple high roundhouse kicks, which knocked Dusti up into the air again as a purple energy trailed behind Juri's ankle once more. Juri then followed with a flip kick that knocked Dusti further up. Finally, Juri kicked the air and sent another purple boomerang-shaped projectile that hit Dusti's face. Dusti shrieked as she was sent hurling away before she crashed into a nearby abandoned car back first. The impact cracked the windshield into a spider-web pattern. After that, she rolled off the car's hood before she fell back onto the highway.

Then, Dusti laid still. Juri dusted herself off as the drone hovered over her opponent for examination before it finally said, "Knockout detected. Juri and Tira win the match."

After that, Juri stretched her arms above her head, her expression indifferent. "That was so boring. Maybe next round, I can fight some real challengers."

Grand Canyon Valley – Arizona, USA

The fact that it was hot didn't quite matter to the four men fought at the bottom of what was part of the famous Grand Canyon. What mattered was winning and moving on to Round Two of the Shikoken Tournament.

T. Hawk, one half of T. Hawk and Ganryu, was the one who decided to start off the match against their opponents; two generic-looking masked luchadores that went by Ángel y Diablo. It was far from difficult to tell who was who... Ángel, who T. Hawk faced, wore white while Diablo wore red. The former had gold angel wings printed on the back of their spandex shirt and the latter had added a devil's tail and horns to their attire.

At this point, they were only a few minutes into the match. To T. Hawk, fighting his opponent was like fighting a jackrabbit. Ángel jumped rapidly from place to place and used the canyon walls and large boulders as leverage. He only was able to land two kicks on his much larger opponent since the match began. Neither attacks had much of an affect on T. Hawk.

"Come on!" Ángel yelled out at one point. "You gonna fight me or what?!"

It was the only words the white-clad luchador said to him, but T. Hawk was already irritated by the higher pitch of his voice. He only narrowed his eyes in response, which seemed to annoy Ángel more. With a yell, the much smaller fighter jumped off a boulder before attempted to perform a flying clothesline, his right arm outstretched.

This time, T. Hawk decided to make his move.

"Condor Drive!" T. Hawk yelled as he jumped up before he performed a diagonal body press. Ángel was still in mid-air, so he had no chance to get out of the way in time before T. Hawk landed on top of him, his body crushed into the sand.

"Hang on, Ángel!" Diablo called out before he attempted to run over to where they landed.

Seeing this, Ganryu (who chose to wear his black and white-stripped yukata with the top half folded downward off his hips, and a white t-shirt that said Chanko Paradise Restaurant, Honolulu in between a pair of two palm trees and two bowls of hot steaming chankonabe with chopsticks at the bottom of each tree) counted the tournament's required five seconds after Diablo jumped in. T. Hawk had done the same thing apparently because once the five seconds were over, he called out for his partner. Ganryu then jumped into the match just in time before Diablo had the chance to attack his tag team partner. As part of his sumo tradition, he slapped his own face a couple of times in preparation before he sprung forward. He was able to get to Diablo before the latter was able to reach his ally.

"I don't think so, friend!" Ganryu called out just as he performed a side kick to Diablo's stomach. The red-clad luchador doubled over from the impact, which gave Ganryu the chance to strike him in the chest with three palm strikes before a final push sent him flying back before he landed in the sand on his left side.

One of the two flying drones that broadcasted the match made an announcement; "Five seconds counted after first intervention. Second intervention granted. Match is now two-on-two."

With a growl, Diablo kipped up before he faced Ganryu again. "Come and get me, fattie!"

Ganryu nearly laughed at that. "Fattie? Is that really the only insult you can come up with for a sumo wrestler?"

In response, Diablo flew back before he pushed himself against a wall. At the same time, Ganryu ran towards the direction of his opponent. However, just as he came close, Ganryu realized that he timed his approach wrong and was swiftly bashed in the face by Diablo's fist. The impact snapped his head sideways.

"Owe..." Ganryu grumbled as he held the side of his face that was hit. From behind, Diablo suddenly jumped on his back piggy-back style with enough force to knock Ganryu face-first into the ground with an 'oomph!' From there, Diablo began to pummel the back of Ganryu's head and back with his fists as the sumo wrestler tried to get out of his predicament.

Meanwhile. T. Hawk was blocking some punches and kicks from Ángel. The more time passed, the more frustrated the smaller man was getting. "Oh come on already!" Ángel yelled out in anger after he stopped and pulled away. "You gotta fall down some time!"

T. Hawk rolled his eyes at that. I don't know whose worse... this guy, or that one luchador who owned that restaurant with the worst concoction of food I've ever tasted in my life! Probably the latter... at least this guy is trying not to kill me... I think.

With a yell, Ángel jumped off the ground while he spun his body around in hopes of landing a spin-kick on T. Hawk's head. However, the maneuver left him open and T. Hawk took advantage. First, he lifted his own leg and kicked the front of Ángel's torso. Just as the white-clad luchador flew back, T. Hawk quickly followed with a Condor Spire. The move propelled him head-first. Upon impact, Ángel flew before he landed back-first into the ground. A few feet away, T. Hawk landed safely before he glared at his opponent. He folded his arms in front of his muscular chest.

"You were saying something about falling down...?" T. Hawk mocked his opponent.

Not too far from them, Ganryu was finally able to get back up and push Diablo off his back. He was sure that there were going to be plenty of bruises on his back as well as a big headache after the match. Once he was up, he noted that Diablo was on his back. Getting a sudden idea, Ganryu grinned sadistically as he jumped up and landed in a sitting position right on top of his opponent. Upon impact, he heard Diablo gasp for breath after the wind was knocked out of him.

"That, right there, is the consequence for calling me 'fattie'!" Ganryu declared with a laugh before he got himself back on his feet. He knew that he didn't land hard enough to break Diablo's ribs, but he was very certain the landing hurt like hell.

Still, Ganryu stood in his spot and waited until Diablo caught his breath and slowly got back on his feet. The red-clad luchador took a few more breaths before he let out a roar and ran towards Ganryu. The sumo wrestler waited until his opponent was within arms' reach before he bent down and attempted to sweep Diablo off his feet with his hands. However, Diablo saw this in time and was able to jump out of the way. Ganryu quickly straightened himself up and tried to follow with a headbutt, but once again Diablo got out of the way. The luchador then attempted to land a punch on the side of the sumo wrestler's mid-section, but Ganryu was able to step away before it connected.

Diablo then tried to step closer for another hit, but Ganryu was able to perform an uppercut right under his chin before that happened. Diablo flew upward and Ganryu waited until he started to come back down. Once he did, the wrestler jumped into the air before he landed a headbutt on Diablo's face. Diablo was pushed back twenty feet in mid-air before he landed on his side. After that, he didn't move.

After a few moments, a drone went over to where the unmoving Diablo landed. After what seemed like forever to Ganryu, it announced...

"Knockout detected."

"Phew!" Ganryu called out as he wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. He then turned to see if T. Hawk needed any help, but saw that the young man was definitely taking care of things.

"Raging Slash!" T. Hawk yelled out as he grabbed Ángel in mid-air. From where they were, T. Hawk threw his opponent back first into the ground with enough force to send him bouncing back up. By then, T. Hawk was back on the ground and managed to catch Ángel by his left ankle. T. Hawk then slammed him on to the ground by throwing him overhead and slamming him back down four times like a ragdoll before he somewhat tossed him in the air and grabbed him again by the ankle. Finally, as though Ángel was nothing more than a feather boa, T. Hawk swung him in circles over his head three times until he slammed him to the ground and let him go. Ángel's body bounced a couple of times off the ground until he stopped just a few feet away from where Diablo had landed moments before.

When that was over, Ganryu's eyes were widened with surprise. "Whoa... glad he's my tag team partner and not my opponent..." he uttered.

One of the drones then 'spoke' aloud... "Second knockout detected! Thunder Hawk and Ganryu win the match!"

After that announcement, T. Hawk smirked at his partner before he extended an arm out for a handshake. "Not too bad for our first match."

Ganryu laughed in amusement as he shook T. Hawk's hand. "I agree. Too bad it wasn't much of a challenge."

"I'm sure we'll have better challenges later," T. Hawk said.

"And after that last move you pulled," Ganryu started. "I glad I chose you to be my tag team partner. Hopefully I'll pull off the move that'll win us the next match." He then stretched his arms a bit before he turned to the two unconscious luchadores. "Too bad those two can't say the same. Say, after we get back, what do you want to do next?"

"Let's go to the Okan Bar and get drinks," T. Hawk suggested. "My treat."

Ganryu grinned. "I can't say no to that."