Final Match: England VS France

Warwick Castle, Warwick, England

Local Time: 02:15

Fewer than normal staff were present. Torches lit up the stone walls of the castle, removing the grips and gaffers. Audio team was mostly absent from the echo chamber. The teams lined up against the stone brick walls, wordlessly understanding what they had to do to each other. Luckily for the exhausted teams, this was the final match.

Soar made the final introduction. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to The King of Fighters! In the final match, Team France will face Team England for the ultimate title. And what a location, Princess Blaze! Warwick Castle will once again serve as a battlefront. Manic,

The film team were the ones truly exhausted. They hopped up on caffeine to stay alert for the millions of viewers likely doing the same. Millions of pounds were bet on the match. After all filming gear was rolling, Manic and Blaze got up for the first round.

Blaze was the first to speak. "By American standards, I believe you'd be called a lowlife."

Manic smirked. She made a valid argument. "By English standards, you're a spoiled brat who's never done any real work in her life."

"We have laws of slander in this country." She fired back.

Sonic braced himself. He knew Manic was up to something. "Does the truth hurt, Miss Blaze?" Manic taunted.

The cat summoned fire from her hands. "Half a millennium ago, England burned criminals alive. You will join them."

Ready to make good on her threat, Blaze took her stance immediately. Manic laughed. "Poor kitty." He giggled. He took his stance as the eagle returned.

"Well, this is it. Round one of the final match. Teams ready? ENGAGE!"

Blaze sidestepped Manic immediately. While he charged for pursuit, the cat leaped at him, seizing four of his many quills. She endured two punches and knee shots to the gut as she held the hedgehog in place to ignite his quills.

Unknown to him, Manic was now on fire. He kept hopping back and forth, confusing Blaze as to his next move. With no indication, he launched his entire body into a left cross. Blaze fell backwards and hit her managed to right herself quickly, but was very off balance.

Manic was unable to predict her erratic movements. He hopped twice to the right and sent out a powerful right cross, but completely missed. Blaze stood up from crouching and landed her fist directly into Manic's stomach. He bent over, clearly in serious pain from that hit. She kicked him square in the chest and he lurched backwards, falling over.

He began screaming as his head caught fire from his quills. He yelled for Amy to come in as he focused on putting it out. She faced an old friend. Blaze tried a standing push kick to Amy's head, but caught her heel in the handle of Amy's hammer. She flicked it to spin Blaze and struck her powerfully in the lower back, sending her stumbling into a wall. Blaze hit her head on a torch and collapsed.

Manic had stood up, but still hunched over, slapping his head to put the flames out. He had mostly stopped screaming and managed to completely extinguish himself.

Soar stood beside an unconscious Blaze and delivered the ten count, as if that would make her recover. On ten, Manic practically collapsed into Amy's arms. Sonic helped guide him back to Sonia, where a medic treated him for severe dehydration. Sonia applied burn relieving gel to his quills.

"A touching scene as Manic is returned to his family." Soar narrated. "And here come the hedgehogs to retrieve Blaze. Medics confirm she is not badly injured; England has nothing to worry about. She rests in Silver's arms as he waits for round two. We will be right back!"