------------------------------- UVR2- THE DESTRUCTION CONTINUES ------------------------------- SECTION THREE ------------------------------- Birdman was happy. Big Bear was gone. The two events were related. Down in the ring, all the fighters turned as the music cranked up. "OHHHHHHH, SHAWN!" "SHAWN MICHAELS!" (WWFW) "o/~ I'm just a sexy boy (sexy boy), I'm not your boy toy (boy toy), I'm just a sexy boy (sexy boy), I'm not your boy toy (boy toy)...I think I'm hot, I know I'm sexy, I got the looks-that drive the girls wild...o/~ Charlotte was temporarily tempted to reevaluate her amour for Haohmaru. Up in the booth, Birdman spoke into the Big Bear-less mike. "And that's one of the mystery slots, folks: Shawn Michaels from WWF Wrestlemania. The fighters in this node have perfected the art of throwing people out of the ring...one can only wonder how good Shawn Michaels will be in this one!" "FULGORE!" (KI) Fulgore scanned the arena. "0111010111010110. TARGET RANK 1: SUB-ZERO, REPLACING TARGET HAOHMARU AS PRIMARY DESIGNATE. HAOHMARU IS SHUNTED TO TARGET RANK 10. 01101101001101." "AKUMA!" (SFA) The one known as the Demon jogged forward. He ignored the odd feelings inside his belly, that had been rising and falling all morning long. They were nothing before his force of will. As he jumped into the ring, the forces suddenly grew too much for him to handle. Bright blue light exploded from his chest. All the fighters in the ring had to shield their eyes. Birdman got on the RumbleCom unit. "BRANT! What's going on?" Brant replied. "Some sort of nodal flux! I spotted it earlier...I've been trying to track it down for a while. Looks like we found it!" Birdman grimaced. "But Akuma..." He paused as he saw the aftermath of the explosion. FOUR Akumas stood there. One looked like the original. The second looked thinner and older. The third one looked like the second, but proved himself different by super-jumping up and quickly launching two fireballs at Haohmaru. The final one was taller, and looked somehow more human than the other two. Birdman groaned. "Oh. Great. Now Akuma Inc. is here. The Rumble is as good as gone..." Brant laughed. "Relax. I found an out." Birdman grimaced. "What out could there possibly be?" He was answered as Haohmaru slashed one Akuma across the chest. All four suddenly crumpled in pain. Birdman suddenly understood. "All four Akumas..." "...share the same life bar." Brant finished. "They have increased attacking power, but also have increased vulnerability." "What happens when one gets eliminated?" "I've established an anti-flux ring around the dimensional field. As soon as one Akuma gets tossed, the others will disappear." Birdman nodded. "Okay. Works for me." "KABAL!" (MK3) The strains of "I Need A Hero" blasted through the ring as Kabal ran down to ringside. The first moment he was in the ring, he instantly Spin Ran across the ring, catching Wan-Fu, Wolf, Morrigan, and Shawn Michaels in his wake. Running over to Wan-Fu, he quickly comboed the King of China for seven hits (and LOTS of pain and suffering). "ERICK!" (WHP) The huge Viking waddled down to ringside. Clutching his axe, he screamed "ODIN!" just before entering. Leif, in the dressing rooms, was enraged. "HEY! Only *I* get to scream that! He probably never even sacked Ireland!" "JOE HIGASHI!" (KOF95) The new, improved, three-times-as-arrogant former Fatal Furite jogged down to ringside. Looking up at the carnage in the ring, he stared at it briefly, then began to laugh hard. "You GOTTA be kidding me! I could take any of these jokers in my sleep...." He then jumped in and started punching Galford. In the Eliminated seating, the newly-arrived Janne was chatting with Andy Bogard. "You know, I don't remember Joe being like that. I *did* ask him to marry me, after all..." "Yeah...a few months back, he ran into some guy with purple hair. Yori or something like that. He's been like that ever since. We're just keeping him around until we can find a cure..." Meanwhile, Stryker was busy instructing Sasquatch on the basics of proper baton usage. "JOHNNY MAXIMUM!" (WHP) The big football player bowed his head before entering the ring. "Oh, Gods Of Dark Football, hear my plea! Give me your dark gridiron might so that I may tackle my enemies and keep them from making passes!" Janne looked at him in awe. "One of these days, he's going to find out that Mudman made that up as a joke..." "SILVER SAMURAI!" (XM:COTA) The Silver Samurai looked around, trying to ignore the laughter. "Stop it! Stop it! I've won fights before! I'm not a loser! I'm not! I'm NOT!" He quickly skewered one of Thugg's cousins (Blamm) to prove his point. No one stopped laughing. (Except for Blamm.) "RIKUO!" (DS2) The merman walked towards ringside. "So...it's time to get WET!" Everybody wondered what Rikuo was talking about. "BILLY KANE!" (KOF95) "And this is Billy Kane, looking to avenge his poor showing in last year's Rumble, where he was completely dominated by T. Hawk and only lasted a few minutes." "Yes, Billy is quite the fighter, I must admit. Having hired him many a time, I think it's safe to say that last year's performance was just an unlucky fluke." Birdman wheeled in his chair to see Geese Howard. "What are you..." "I'm your new broadcast partner." and, the final fighter of this section... "LION RAFALE!" (VF2) Lion strode down, his much-disliked stage music replaced by "J.A.R." by Green Day. The audience cheered the only decent Green Day song in the history of music. Up in the booth, Birdman looked at a chart. "Yes, folks, Lion *is* the second youngest fighter at this year's Rumble, older than only Ryoko from World Heroes Perfect. That's young, especially considering that Yuri Sakazaki, Asamiya Athena, Cham Cham and Sie Kensou are all under twenty. Of course, youth often dominates. But there are old fighters, too: note the presence of Caffeine Nicotine, Shun Di, Chin Gentsai, and Wolverine, who's probably older than everyone else here." WHO WILL LIVE? WHO WILL DIE? DOES THE SILVER SAMURAI SUCK?