-------------------------------
UVR2- THE DESTRUCTION CONTINUES
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SECTION FIFTEEN RESULTS
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_Room 1891, RumbleDome Hotel_

	The world was violet fire.

	Or so it seemed to Kyo Kusanagi.

	All around him, he saw enemies: twisted soldiers out of nightmare;
those who he'd fought in the past, their honor or their friendship gone
and replaced with hate; Rugal, cybernetic eye glowing the sharp red of
fresh blood; Iori, his hands clenched into c laws and sparking with their
own flame; worst of all, his father stood among them. Saishu didn't attack
his son, but instead merely watched Kyo fight with the self-satisfied
expression of someone seeing his own prophecy fulfilled. 


	Kyo screamed, and burned them all. The Source ran from his hands
and eyes in a river, engulfing his enemies and reducing them to little
more than ash silhouettes. But like lemmings, they kept coming, kept
multiplying, and Kyo was forced to draw even more of the Source to combat
them. He was already past his usual limits; the sensations the Source
produced in him were enough to distract him from the fact that he was
being twisted in the Dark Source's image. Kyo had yet to notice that he
was wielding purpl e flames, the same color as Iori's. All that mattered
was killing his enemies before they could kill him. 

	Demitri smiled from across the room. All of this was, of course,
his doing; the boy had already been close to completely succumbing to his
dark side. All it had taken was a bit of a hypnotic suggestion, and voila;
from his perspective, the world actually *was* out to get young Kusanagi, 
and he reacted accordingly.

	Most beautiful of all, the vampire himself and his minions were in
little danger. While Demitri's slaves cowered, Iori Yagami stood between
them and Kusanagi, deflecting Kusanagi's brute forces with hastily erected
barriers of his own. While Iori's tap i nto the Source was smaller than
Kyo's, even that relatively small amount was sufficient to counter
Kusanagi's attacks. Barely. 

	This, amusingly, meant that Kyo's allies--Ryu, Terry Bogard,
Galford, and Liu Kang--were also being dealt the most damage. They were
skilled, but Kyo would wear them down eventually. It was only a matter of
time before they fell. 


	Demitri's smile grew wider. "Things seem to be under control here."

	"That is very easy for you to say," Iori growled through clenched
teeth. Perspiration poured off his face. 

	Ignoring him, Demitri picked up Haohmaru under his arm and slung
the cloth-wrapped bundle over the other shoulder. "Charlotte! We are
leaving!" 

	She hurried over to stand by the vampire's side. Demitri then
frowned at the cage which held Jon Talbain. 

	"You won't win," Talbain said. He no longer seemed as sure.

	"That's not even an issue anymore, Jon. I might as well have won
already. My only question is how and whether to take you with me so you
may see my final triumph." 

	Bison leaped forward. "Do you need help, Master?"

	Demitri sighed. There were some people who just didn't cope well
with being enslaved. Demitri handed Bison the bundle (which squirmed
weakly), then gestured with his head at the silver cage. "Pick that up and
follow me. If you don't keep up, I'll throw y ou off the building."
Demitri and Charlotte vanished. 

	"I'll keep up, Master!" Bison picked up the cage, and immediately
learned some of the basics of werewolf handling when Talbain bit off a
chunk of Bison's uniform. Soon, though, he disappeared as well. 

_Balcony, Room 1891, RumbleDome Hotel_

	Clustered around the window, Ryo and Jago/Doom watched Yoshimitsu
work. The robot scanned Demitri's room quietly, occasionally making a
*ping!* sound as some crucial amount of data reached his attention.
Despite the flashes of heat and light from within Demitri's quarters,
Yoshimitsu remained eerily still. Fortunately, Kyo's pyrotechnics kept the
attention of the room's inhabitants away from the window. 

	Suddenly, the robot straightened. "We are GO, Alpha-Charlie!"

	Jago/Doom studied Yoshimitsu as if he were looking through a
microscope. "I trust you have good news to report...?" 

	"The Yoshimitsu 2000 comes prepackaged with a handy Time-Space Warp
Detector! This unit is capable of tracking the departure and arrival of
teleportation fields within 5000 feet!" 

	Ryo looked blankly at Yoshimitsu, then at Jago/Doom. "What did he
just say?" 

	Jago/Doom chuckled. "The robot is saying that it can find Demitri,
assuming the vampire teleported somewhere within a mile of here. Since you
mentioned it, I trust you have located him?" 

	"Affirmative! Target designate DEMITRI has used a teleportation
field to shift his form and that of secondary target designates CHARLOTTE
and HAOHMARU within the illusion of three-dimensional space to that
location roughly corresponding to the top of thi s building. Target
designate BISON has used a similar effect to shift himself and secondary
target designate TALBAIN to the same point." 

	Jago/Doom translated for Ryo: "Demitri, Charlotte, and Bison
teleported to the roof. Now all that remains to be done is to fly up there
when Storm joins us." 

	Ryo's mouth compressed itself into a thin line. "Not yet."

	"What?" Jago/Doom demanded.

	"I'm not leaving Ryu and the rest alone in there. I should be able
to deal with Kyo, no matter how crazy he is. I've got more tricks up my
sleeve than usual myself." 

	"You are a fool, boy. Demitri threatens the entire Multiverse, and
you wish to save a mere few?" Storm, carrying Heavy D!, set down quietly
on the balcony behind Doom; the X-Man, who knew Doom, had an expression on
her face like she'd eaten something bit ter. Sasquatch, held aloft by a
small whirlwind that he had to himself, came up over the railing a moment
later. "We are rapidly running out of time." 

	"We have all the time we need. I'm not leaving them to die. I
couldn't live with myself like that." 

	"Idiotic. We have no--"

	"There *is no argument.*" Ryo fixed Jago/Doom with the most
menacing glare he could produce; given that he was glowing with
otherworldly power, that was saying quite a lot. A lesser man would have
quaked before it, but Doom simply closed his mouth and tu rned towards the
window. 

	Doom had suspected that something like this would happen sooner or
later; he had battled the "heroes" of his own node for too long to think
otherwise, though he had hoped that Sakazaki might see reason. He let the
issue drop. Sakazaki's vain attempts to save his friends would draw
attention away from Doom; surely, between his mystic knowledge and the
martial arts encoded within the body he inhabited, he could find a way to
win against Demitri... 

	Ryo took a deep breath, trying to ignore the little yammering
voice in the back of his head ("You know what *you* just did? You tried to
stare down *Doctor Doom*! You're an *idiot*!"). "Is everyone ready?" 

	"As I'll ever be, man," D! said, speaking for the group.

	"Then let's go."

	Ryo shattered the window. Flame rushed out to greet him.

_The Ring_

	"Stand up, warrior," Bishamon's voice echoed from underneath his
helmet (or was that just the way his voice was?). "It is not fitting that
I should fight you while you are on your knees." 

	Guy looked up at the samurai, sweat stinging as it ran into his
eyes. He would have done exactly that--really--but his legs didn't seem to
work. While the severe beating he'd favored Kuroko with had won him
*major* points with the crowd, it had cost him what little remained of his
strength. His body felt like one giant exposed nerve ending. 

	"You cannot stand?" Bishamon asked. "If you wish--" he extended his
sword, "--I will allow you hari-kiri." 

	"Um, let me think about that for a moment..."

	"Do I get a say in this, Bish?" the sword complained.

	"No. Not even vaguely."

	"Dammit, man, don't you think I should have *some* voice in who
you're planning to gut with me? I mean, come on! I don't see *you* caking
yourself in gore." 

	"He has a point, Bish," the armor observed. "No pun intended."

	"Would both of you be silent?" Bishamon demanded.

	An idea occurred to Guy. "Um, Bishamon...I think the sword's right."

	"THANK you!" the sword replied. "See, Bish! *He* thinks I'm right!"

	"Of course he does. He's trying to avoid getting eliminated."

	"Be that as it may--"

	The sword was interrupted by King driving her foot into the back
of Bishamon's head. Bishamon, surprised, lost his grip on the blade; the
sword went skidding across the canvas ("OW! OUCH! HEY!"). Bishamon, in his
turn, fell over. 

	King turned away from him and cracked her knuckles. "So, anyway,
Guy, like he was saying; it's nothing personal, but you're too
high-profile to leave alone." 

	"Oh, I completely understand," Guy said sarcastically. The blood
seemed to be returning to his legs; all he needed was a few more minutes.
Judging from what he knew of King, though, it didn't seem that he was
going to get that long. Chun Li lay semiconsc ious on the mat a few feet
away; the Dome's monitors were currently showing an instant replay of King
kicking the crap out of her. 

	King strolled over to Guy, and began to pick him up. As her hands
touched Guy, there was a sudden rush of air as Bishamon's sword
materialized next to her throat. Guy crab-walked backwards as King slowly
straightened up, mindful of the razor edge at her neck. 

	"Would you care to challenge me to my face, honorless one?"
Bishamon asked. 

	King started thinking *very* fast. "Um, what does the sword think
about this?" 

	"Not this time, babe," the sword said softly.

	"You know, Guy's getting his breath back while we're standing here
arguing." 

	"Good. There is no honor in challenging the invalid."

	"Could we deal with him first and then fight each other?"

	Bishamon considered this for a moment.

	Suddenly, Chun Li vaulted between them and Guy. "Before you deal
with Guy," she said, "you will first have to deal with me." She sounded
very sure of herself, despite the fact that she was obviously in a lot of
pain. 

	Oddly enough, Guy thought, he felt no safer.

	Bishamon and King exchanged a glance as Bishamon lowered his sword.

	King shrugged. "Okay."

	They hit Chun Li simultaneously.

_Cellblock Twelve, Security Offices, RumbleDome Hotel_

	"Are you sure that Birdman won't find out about this?" Scott
Johnson asked nervously. A small army of mechanical figures stood around
him, none of which were any taller than his waist. He had come
well-prepared with a precautionary force of fifty cyberpenguins, each
armed with a Plasma Ejector (supplied for the Rumble courtesy of GENOM).
"I don't really want to lose my job." 

	"I'll make sure he never hears a word of it," Brant Rogers assured him.

	Both of them were incredibly calm, given the situation. Inside his
cell, Omega Rugal, hands bound, all but visibly smoldered. Scott and Brant
had made their position very clear to him; if he initiated hostilities,
Rugal would instantly regret it. If the cyberpenguins didn't ventilate
him, the pulse rifles on the security cameras (currently being aimed at
various sensitive parts of his body by Akarui Hitori) would blow him into
a fine mist. And, if Rugal somehow survived *those,* there was always the
orbital laser. 

	It wasn't often Rugal found himself outgunned. He never liked it. 

	Brant walked into Rugal's cell. "So, anyway, Rugal, what were you
doing fighting with Shao Kahn?" he asked conversationally. 

	"Settling a private score. It is none of your concern."

	"I'm one of the organizers of this tournament. It's entirely my
concern. There's no fighting permitted outside the ring. Period. If you
had a grievance, you should have lasted long enough to deal with Kahn
during the Rumble, much less gathered that large of a force and gone after
him on your own. Do you get me?" 

	"Do not speak to me like that, worm. If not for your guns, I could
kill you a thousand ways in the next five seconds. Two thousand, given
time to plan." 

	"I know. That's why I have the guns." Brant sighed. "It's too bad
you didn't feel like cooperating. Enjoy the trip back to your home node." 

	"What?" Rugal said blankly.

	"Exportation is the immediate penalty for out-of-ring combat. Your
possessions will be returned to you by the end of the Rumble, as well as
the further details of your penalization." 

	Rugal's expression barely changed as the teleportation effect
enveloped him. 

	Brant came out of the cell that Rugal had formerly occupied to see
Scott Johnson conversing with a cyberpenguin. It had a notably larger head
than most of its kind, and a pair of headphones were plugged into its left
temple. Scott waved them around as he spoke.

	"Are you sure that's what he was thinking?" Scott asked. "Absolutely?"

	+The probabilities of him knowing that I read his mind are so small
as to be unmeasurable, sir,+ the cyberpenguin replied. +Therefore, I am
forced to maintain that this is the truth so far as he knows it.+

	"We're in trouble." Scott turned to Brant. "The good news is that
the experiment is a success. The Telepathic Cyberpenguin Unit works like a
charm. The bad news is that the plotting we found out about is worse than
we imagined. Demitri Maximov has Haohma ru, and is planning to sacrifice
him by the end of the Rumble. Rugal didn't know all of the details, but
apparently that'll give Demitri immense power. He'll practically be a
god." 

	"Is that all?" Brant asked sardonically. He would have spoken
further, but he was interrupted by a sudden sound, kind of like that which
a log chipper makes while in operation, coming from the security offices.
Immediately, one of the secretaries came sc reaming out into the hallway. 

	Brant watched her run away. "I don't even want to know."

	A slightly drunk Misty John (Official Rumble Magic Authority)
walked out of the office a moment later, shaking the remnants of a coffee
table off of his leg. "Don't you ever answer your phone, Brant? I need to
talk to you." 

	"That makes me nervous."

	"I need you--oh, hi, Scott; you too--to come to my office. We have
a big problem." 

	Brant stared at the mage blankly. "Another one?"

	"What do you mean, *another* one?" Misty John demanded. "This one
I've got is bad enough! We don't need another one!" 

	Brant restrained an urge to start screaming. "I'll come to your
office with you, as long as we don't have to teleport through a table to
get there. Scott, someone has to tell Birdman about this--" 

	"Why me?"

	Brant kept a straight face. "Because you're the man with the
penguin. He won't fire you; I'll make sure of it." 

	"Well, when you put it that way..." Scott, cyberpenguins in tow,
ran off to the elevators. However, at the halfway point, he slowed down
and stopped as something caught his eye. "Oh, dear. Um, Brant...?" 

	"What now?" Brant came up behind him.

	"I *told* you keeping all of our cameras on Rugal was a mistake,"
Scott said, gesturing towards the formerly-thought-indestructible bars of
Cell A5. "Colossus has escaped." 

_Rooftop, RumbleDome Hotel_

	First one step. Then the next. Nothing fancy. Just one thing at a
time. He was too badly hurt to think of anything beyond that. 

	The elevator only went up as far as the two-hundredth floor. Since
then, he'd been gradually working his way up towards the rooftop. He
didn't know why, but something deep within him had learned long ago not to
question these impulses when he got them. T here was something which he
needed to do here. 

	The door to the roof gave slowly when he touched it, swinging open
to reveal a quickly setting sun. He took a moment to savor the sight; he
wasn't at all sure when he'd see its like again. As quickly as he could,
he moved around behind the small shack wh ich held the door, once again
without being sure as to why. 

	It was a good thing he had, however, because Demitri, Charlotte,
Bison, and Talbain materialized in the center of the roof a moment later.
The vampire immediately set Haohmaru down and began marking a pentacle
around the ronin's prone body in chalk. Demi tri's shadow cast a long line
of darkness beyond him. Charlotte, her eyes closed, stood near him with a
disturbingly blissful expression on her face. 

	"Soon," Demitri murmured, loud enough for the eavesdropper to hear.
"Very soon." 

	"Not," the eavesdropper murmured, "if I can do anything about it."

_Room 1842, RumbleDome Hotel_

	Donovan dodged, as Zeus' hand came down squarely on where he'd
been standing. The room shook with the impact. Before Zeus could pull his
arm back, Donovan swung Kilshred in a flaming arc, setting the giant
ablaze. 

	As Zeus swatted at his burning leg, Donovan hurriedly turned back
to Yuri Sakazaki. The girl, somehow, had managed to remain partially
unconscious despite the din. 

	"Would you wake *UP*, girl?!" Donovan shook her roughly, and was
rewarded by Yuri turning over and trying to burrow into the floor. 

	"Damn it, Yuri--" Donovan was reminded that there was an angry
giant behind him. This reminder took the form of Donovan getting swatted
into the kitchen. 

	Seeing this, Dan Hibiki leaped into Zeus' face. As had been
remarked upon in the past, Donovan looked a great deal like Dan's father,
who had been killed by Sagat all those years ago. Intellectually, sure,
Dan knew that Donovan wasn't his father. But emotionally--that was
another matter. And Dan was *not* going to let his father die again.
(Isn't Freudian psychiatry a hoot?)

	Dan dodged around a kick that would have caved in his skull, and
Koryukened Zeus to the floor. As the giant got up, Dan rolled underneath
him to do it again. 

	Dan came up from the roll, and a hand fastened onto the front of
his gi. Brocken then channeled a couple of thousand volts, through his
extendable arm, into Dan; as that took effect, Janne raced at Dan with her
sword held low. Dan noted woozily that she' d found time to replace her
armor. 

	Suddenly, a fireball struck Brocken squarely, who, with his arm
extended, was unable to block. The cyborg fell on its back, breaking
contact with Dan, who, in turn, weakly tripped Janne up as she ran. Janne
didn't fall so much as get launched into the ai r, slamming, sword first,
into Zeus' leg. 

	The resulting scream of pain was loud enough to rattle the windows.

	Across the room, Robert Garcia smiled, but paid for the
inattention. Smoke, who Robert had thought unconscious, sprang up from the
floor, sending Robert into the ceiling with the famous Mortal Kombat
uppercut. As Robert fell, Cyrax wrapped him in an Elec tric Net, drawing
Robert closer to it in preparation for yet another combo. 

	At that moment, Zeus, trying to extract Janne's sword from his leg
(his task was made more difficult by the fact that Janne was still
stubbornly hanging on to it), kicked out wildly. Janne was first flung
into the ceiling, then, as her sword dislodged it self from Zeus' leg,
fell flat on her face with an enormous clatter. 

	This finally woke Yuri up.

	"All right, Daddy! Geez..." Yuri blinked twice and sprang to her
feet; obviously, this wasn't her bedroom. Looking around, she saw Dan and
Brocken fighting, Donovan coming out of the kitchen, Joe Higashi and Clark
pummeling Iceman, Janne in a heap on the floor, and Zeus trying to stem
the bleeding from his leg. 

	She also saw Robert being abused by the cyberninjas.

	For Yuri, the rest of the room then ceased to exist.

	"HAOHSHOKOHKEN!"

	The massively overused fireball slammed into both Lin Kuei at the
same time, violently blasting them away from Robert. Smoke and Cyrax went
tumbling head over heels into the far wall, chunks of wiring and armor
littering their path. 

	Robert ripped free of Cyrax's net. "Yuri! You're okay!"

	"Of course I am, you stupid hunk of--"

	They ran across the room towards each other, and Yuri caught
Robert in a fierce embrace. All they could do was stand there and hold
each other, wrapped up in themselves. Even though neither of them would
ever admit it, they hadn't been at all sure whether they'd ever see each
other again. 

	Romantic moment or not, Clark broke off from pounding on Iceman
and took full advantage. Both of them were struck by half-a-dozen blows
from his Vulcan Punch, sending them sprawling to the ground. 

	"Don't either of you know any better than that?" Clark sneered,
advancing on them. "Truly, I'm touched--" 

	Dan saw this out of the corner of his eye. In front of him,
Brocken dizzily climbed to his feet. Before the cyborg could get his
balance back, Dan grabbed him by the front of his uniform, dropped to his
back, and heaved upwards with his foot, sending Bro cken flying through
the air towards an unsuspecting Clark. Their heads met with a satisfying
dropped-coconut *clonk* sound, and both of them slumped senseless to the
floor. 

	As Robert and Yuri looked to see where Brocken had come from, Dan
shrugged and smiled. "Get a room next time." 

	Suddenly, Dan was jerked backwards as Zeus lifted him into the air.

	"Love the ponytail, little man. It makes you much easier to grab."
Zeus spun Dan around twice by his hair before slamming him into the floor.
Boards cracked. As Zeus pulled Dan up over his head, Robert and Yuri hit
him together, Yuri high, Robert low, t hrowing off his aim; rather than
Zeus sending Dan flying cleanly through the window, Dan hit the wall to
the window's side. Dan reflexively stuck his hands out in front of him
before he struck; that alone saved him from a broken neck. As it was, he
felt h is ribs and wrists give alarmingly as he fell away from the wall. 

	Meanwhile, Zeus was flagging badly against Robert and Yuri. They
had fought Chang Koehan, and so knew exactly how to deal with someone of
his size. Moving as quickly as they could, they constantly attacked Zeus
in his blind spots. More often than not, Ze us would turn around to swing
at an attacker, only to find his field of vision empty and yet another
fireball slamming into the back of his head. 

	Finally, though, Zeus got lucky. Spinning around wildly, he
slammed a size-60 boot into Robert, sending the smaller fighter sprawling.
As Robert dragged himself out of the stereo cabinet, Zeus pressed one of
his feet down on Robert's back and began laughing uproariously. 

	"Nice try, kid. But you can't beat me. Not even you and your
girlfriend--" worlds of derision were packed in that one word,
"--together. *Nobody* beats me--" Zeus realized something. He'd forgotten
Yuri. 

	Yuri used that time to her best advantage. While Zeus was
distracted, she concentrated, focusing every spare bit of chi she could
find. A circle of power formed around her; the air about her hands and
head began accumulating a cloud of energy not unlike static electricity.
Her inner power reached its apex at the same time that Zeus turned around
looking for her. 

	Zeus had one small moment of wondering what the hell Yuri had done
to make herself start glowing before Yuri's feet became an indistinct
blur, hitting against Zeus so rapidly as to appear as one enormous single
strike. The HienHouohKyaku traveled up Zeus' body, the giant jerking
around under its impact and generally looking like he'd invented a new
dance craze. Kicking off of his face, Yuri backflipped into her ready
stance, ready for the giant's retaliation. 

	Zeus' eyes were crossed, and the giant was teetering, but he
remained on his feet; this meant, of course, that one of those feet
remained on top of Robert. 

	His voice muffled by the carpeting, Robert screamed, "Get the HELL
*OFF* ME! HAOHSHOKOHKEN!" Since Robert was on his stomach, the force of
the Supreme Roar knocked the wind out of him and punched a ditch into the
floor, but launched him off the ground like a rocket. Zeus, his balance
now completely gone, teetered on one leg. Unfortunately, this was the
injured one; it buckled under his weight, and the giant crashed to the
floor, out like a light. 

	Now that he wasn't being double-teamed anymore, Iceman's situation
had improved. Joe Higashi was considerably more skilled than he, and a
great deal faster; however, the Muay Thai was only clad in a pair of loud
shorts. When one is fighting someone who has absolute control over cold
and ice, that's a really bad idea. After being coated in ice for the fifth
or sixth time, Joe's skin slowly became an unhealthy shade of blue, and
his teeth banged together like castanets. 

	"Had enough?" Iceman asked. To underwrite the question, a
fist-shaped ice crystal about the size of a watermelon formed around his
hand, and he held it back menacingly. 

	Joe nodded, although it was hard to tell if it was that or just
him shivering. Iceman smiled at him, and gestured; shackles of ice
appeared, binding Joe by his feet and hands. 

	As Donovan came out of the kitchen, he was confronted by Janne,
who, although dinged up considerably, was ready for further combat. She
slashed wildly, her broadsword a silver ribbon extending towards Donovan. 

	Without moving any more than necessary, Donovan parried it. Janne
tried to push through his block, Samurai-style, but she simply wasn't
strong enough to budge Kilshred. 

	"Imagine that," Donovan said with a faint smile. "Size *does*
matter." 

	If Janne had been in her right mind, she would have had a
conniption fit. As it was, she broke off the clash of blades to try a
different attack. As she drew away, Donovan grabbed her sword arm with his
free hand and hit her between the eyes with his sword's pommel. Janne fell
over, unconscious. 

	Unnoticed, Cyrax and Smoke warily got back to their feet. Both of
their CPUs were sending warning messages to their brains; these messages
used phrases, bad phrases, such as +40% operating efficiency,+ +imminent
power core breach,+ and +self-repair systems indefinitely offline.+

	Cyrax quietly submitted a message to his CPU: +Tactical evaluation?+

	+Defeat imminent. Tactics negligible.+

	Smoke, who had reached a similar conclusion, turned to Cyrax and
said, "Requesting permission to engage final recourse programming." 

	"Permission granted."

	Smoke turned back to face the room, and a pair of doors opened up
in its chestplate. A series of small bombs, about the size of apples, fell
out. Despite their size, each one held enough explosive power to devastate
an area the size of Manhattan; as a collective blast, the dozen bombs
Smoke carried were sufficient to destroy a planet, much less the
RumbleDome. Smoke planned to use them all. The fact that the detonation of
the node would prove inconveniencing to Smoke's current employers never
crossed the robot's mind. 

	Fortunately for all involved, the bombs didn't explode.

	"EVERYONE GET *DOWN!*" Iceman hadn't fought Magneto all these years
without knowing a self-destruct attempt when he saw one. Extending his
hands, he hit Smoke--and by association, the bombs--with a high-intensity
stream of sheer cold, as close to absolute zero as Iceman could come
without killing the other people in the room. 

	Smoke took the blast stoically, as befits a ninja of the Lin Kuei
who's...well, who's in the middle of another move and can't block. The
ninja, as well as its bombs, became suspended in a solid block of ice. The
sheer cold caused most of Smoke's systems to malfunction, forcing a
complete systems shutdown; the bombs, their manufacture dependent on the
ability of their internal mechanisms to make a spark, didn't go off.
Iceman, managing to sweat even underneath his icy "costume," breathed a
sigh of relief. 

	Seeing Smoke's imprisonment, and seeing that Dan, Yuri, and Robert
were occupied (Yuri was prying Robert out of the stereo cabinet), Donovan
stepped over Janne's prone form and rushed at Cyrax. He didn't know much
about the Lin Kuei, but he figured that if one of them got suicidal, they
both would. 

	Cyrax threw an Electric Net at Donovan, but Kilshred cut it apart.
Plan B: Cyrax tried to teleport away from Donovan. A small puff of smoke
appeared around Cyrax's body, and the message +Teleport mechanisms
indefinitely offline+ came flashing across its vision. 

	Something very like panic came over the cyberninja. It blocked an
overhand slash with its forearm, and dropped a mini-bomb from its
chestplate. Donovan looked down just in time for it to blow up in his
face, sending him into the air, where Cyrax juggled him for a quick six
hits before allowing him to fall to the floor. 

	Then, unexpectedly, Cyrax's internal alarm systems went berserk. A
message flashed across the top of its field of vision at five-second
intervals: +Warning: Self-destruct sequence initiated. Blast range: 60
yards. Destruction Range: total. All unsanctioned biological units
evacuate area.+

	Cyrax looked down; the control panel on its left forearm was
neatly sliced in half, the result of blocking Donovan's attack. The large
red 'panic button' underneath it flashed madly. All over the cyberninja's
body, there were puffs of compressed air as its systems sealed off, paving
the way for their own destruction; the bombs it stored in its chest were
all ignited at once. Cyrax knew it couldn't override the destruct
sequence, so it merely stood and awaited the inevitable. 

	Donovan looked up to see the robot standing in place and shaking
wildly. Something within its chestplate was making a series of
high-pitched beeping sounds like that of a warning klaxon. Donovan thought
of the bomb he'd just been hit with, and those that Smoke had tried to
release, and made a decision. 

	Before he could think about what he was doing, Donovan threw
himself at Cyrax, tackling the robot and hurling them both out of the
suite's window. 

_The Ring_

	"The question on everyone's mind, folks: how much longer can Chun
Li keep this up?" Birdman said into his microphone. "She's put in five
*very* impressive minutes against Bishamon and King, but she's starting to
wear down fast." 

	"Question on *my* mind is why she's bothering," Wanderer answered.
"Even if she should somehow win, she'd still have to fight Guy, who's
proved himself the meanest mother in the valley here tonight. Why doesn't
she just let one of them eliminate him? It'd save her the headache." 

	"Well, you have to remember that she is from the same node as Guy;
she may be going for a fight she knows she can win. Also, Guy looks *bad*
down there. If she can win against King and Bishamon, Guy would be easily
defeated." 

	"That's a big if." 

	"You know it."

	Fortunately, Chun Li couldn't hear the commentary. She had her
hands full. King and Bishamon, although neither of them meant to, were
working in almost perfect synchronization. No sooner did she counter one
than the other was suddenly upon her, and their styles of combat were so
different that she didn't dare fall into a pattern. She was constantly
improvising; the problem with that was, of course, that she was running
out of tricks. 

	Chun Li canceled a Venom Strike with a Kikoken, moved forward to
avoid one of Bishamon's flying flames, blocked King's Tornado Kick, and
jumped over her to get out of Bishamon's range. As Chun Li moved out of
the way, King made a dash at the still-unmoving Guy; Chun was forced to
step back into Bishamon's range, flipping over King's head (and away from
a vicious overhand slash) to land a knee strike to the bouncer's face. It
was a dance.

	Behind Chun, Guy pulled himself slowly up to his feet.
Concentrating helped him push the exhaustion and pain away into some far
corner of his mind; they were still there, but they were happening to
someone else who lived somewhere far away. Standing, he hesitantly took
one step, then another; he felt his strength slowly returning. 

	Chun Li blocked a slash with her bracelets, and immediately Alpha
Countered; her crouching kick smashed into Bishamon's knee, sending him
spinning to the canvas. As she turned away, she launched a Kikoken at
King, who took it in the back of the head. 

	Guy took another step, and neatly scooped King out of her stumble
forward. He turned her momentum around and sent her skidding across the
canvas at Bishamon, who was just getting to his feet. The two went down in
a tangle of sword, flames, and tuxedo. 

	Guy clenched his fists. Yeah. He could finish this. He smiled.
"How you doing, Chun?" 

	"All things considered? I'm all right. How are you?"

	"I'll know better in the future. Thanks, by the way. I appreciate
the saves." 

	"Of course."

	"Makes me kinda sorry I have to do this." 

 	"What?" 

	Guy was a pragmatist, and he had fought Chun Li before. In his current
state, he would have a lot of trouble beating her, if he could do it at
all. As Chun Li spoke, he Rising Spin Kicked her out of the ring. 

	Chun Li landed on a busy street, in the middle of what appeared to
be China. Boys rode by on their bicycles, hooting occasionally at her
Lycra outfit. Standing across from her in the middle of the road, a
Chinese girl stood watching her movements as Chu n got to her feet. The
girl had her hair up like Chun herself usually did, and wore the
traditional uniform of a Chinese acrobat. 

 	"Good morning! My name is Chun Li," the girl--woman, actually, now that
Chun had heard her voice--said. "May I ask your name?" 

 	"Um, my name is Chun Li, too, actually." 

 	"Really? What are the odds of that?" 

	Birdman shut off the DimensionCam after that. "I don't know what a
temporal paradox looks like, and I really don't care to, thanks all the
same." 

	"Spoilsport," Wanderer accused. 

	Back in the ring, Guy, Bishamon and King formed the points of a
triangle, each watching the other two. Guy had just about decided to rush
Bishamon when, for the second time, a window shattered in the RumbleDome
Hotel, and a figure--actually a pair of fi gures--came crashing out. One
of the cameras faced the hotel now (after the incidents with Bison and
Motaro a few minutes earlier, none of the television crews wanted to miss
a potential ratings moment), and its cameraman focused in on them
immediately, preserving their fall on film. 

	Unlike their predecessors, though, Donovan and Cyrax never reached
the ground. 

	Halfway down the hotel, around the seventieth floor, the sun (by
now almost completely below the horizon) rose again in place of the
falling figures, drowning out the radiance of the 'Dome's halogen lights.
When the light of the explosion faded, there was a gigantic smoking
crater in the front of the Hotel, like a bite had been taken out of it. 

	Birdman, pale and shaking, hit the comm button, but Brant didn't
answer. Birdman tried to reach Scott. He wasn't in his office either.
Birdman, lacking anything better to do, had a fit. Wanderer watched him
slowly turn purple and slump forward on the control panel. 

	*When in doubt,* Wanderer thought, *go with the truth.* Turning on
his microphone, he said to the audience at large: "What in the *hell* was
that?" 

_Room 1842, RumbleDome Hotel_ 

Robert, Dan, Yuri, and Iceman stood at 
the edge of the
broken window, looking down at the blast crater. The smoke stung their
eyes. Tears ran openly down Dan and Yuri's faces. 

No one had anything to
say for a long moment. 

Finally, Robert cleared his throat. "Let's go." 

Yuri slapped him. "How can you *say*--" 

Dan put a hand on her shoulder.
"There's something bigger going on here than just Donovan, Yuri." 

She
looked at Robert, who nodded. "We'll explain on the way upstairs.
Hopefully, Ryo has Demitri on the floor by now." Robert's eyes narrowed.
"In any case, when we get there, since I can't deal with Demitri, I'm
going to settle for handing Morrigan Arn sland her ass in a bucket."

_Hundred and Seventy-Eighth Floor, RumbleDome Hotel_ 

	"DOWN, dammit!" Stryker grabbed Jeffry and pushed him to one side
as the cop raised his Glock-18. Taking a brief portion of a second to make
sure of the setting (full-auto), he aimed at Lord Raptor and pulled the
trigger, sending a hideously quick spatter of rounds into the zombie's
stomach. 

	Lord Raptor obligingly fell backward, but then looked up with a
hideous grin and sat up, the bullets still in him. 

	"Friend Stryker! I do not think your gun is working!" Jeffry
stopped his commentary as Dural advanced towards the otnay-ootay-ightbray
Virtua Fighter. "Oh dear. Dural. Um. How do I beat you again...?" Jeffry
mumbled as he blocked a punch-punch-kick-knee combo from the robot. 

	Stryker yelled, "Think of
something! Anything! Quickly!" Erick advanced on him, but Stryker neatly
hooked Erick's knees out from underneath him with his baton. The World
Hero practically rushed towards the floor, bouncing twice. 

	Charlie, meanwhile, had his hands full. Back-dashing away from
Sektor, he received a knee to the head from Shura, which staggered him
into a kickflip from Pai. He went skidding away, which is better than it
sounds, because this bought him some valuable space--at least it did until
Sektor Teleport Punched him in the jaw. 

	Kung Lao, meanwhile, stayed one step ahead of Ralf. The soldier was an
incredible fighter close-in, but at a distance, he was sorely lacking. He
already staggered as a result of several nasty razor hat-induced cuts. As
Ralf stumbled in and unleashed his Flaming Vulcan Punch, Kung Lao
teleported out of its range. Ralf was left standing in place delivering a
flurry of blows to empty air. 

	"Oh, hell. I have *got* to get a missile--" Ralf felt a seven-hit combination hit him in the back. A loss of consciousness immediately followed.

	*shink* *CHIK* *CHA-CHAK* Stryker, having reloaded his pistol, aimed for Raptor's head this time, but a stray kick from Duraal sent the gun flying.

	"Damn! DAMN! Think of something, Jeffry!" Stryker grabbed a grenade and hurled it at Raptor's chest. The zombie batted it away easily, and it collided with Erick, who fell down again.

	Jeffry, meanwhile, was blocking all of Duraal's attacks, his brow screwed up in concentration. "Um...no...no...oh, wait...no, not that either..."

	Charlie's Flash Kick sent Sektor flying away after a failed Teleport Punch, but as he landed a jumping kick from Pai struck him square in the chest, stunning him, which left him an easy target for a DDT from Pai. He groaned once, then again as Pai's knee
s struck his back.

	Kung Lao dashed in and struck Pai with a diving kick, giving Charlie time to get to his feet without being further trashed. Unfortunately for him, he was busy throwing hats at Sektor when Pai recovered. Four kicks in rapid succession laid Kung Lao out fo
r the night.

	Stryker now fended off Lord Raptor's chainsaw legs with his baton, with little success. Little bits of wood were flying everywhere. "JEFFRY! Now or never...!" (Stryker reflected bleakly that the obvious answer there was "never".)

	"Um...hmmm...no, that never works..."

	Twin missiles streaked from Sektor's chest; one missed and blew up a portion of the wall, but the second homed in with unerring accuracy. Charlie dashed away from it, grabbed Shura, and tossed him over his back, squarely into the missile. Shura fell down
 in a heap of ragged Muay Thai mumblings. Pai, however, was just fine, and she demonstrated this with a chain of punches to the back of Charlie's neck.

	Raptor's cold flesh was suddenly grasping Stryker's shoulders. A maggoty grin stared into Stryker's face, and Stryker could feel the tips of Lord Raptor's sharpened ribcage poking his gut in preparation for a goring.

	"Hmmm...no...wait! Yes! I remember!" As Duraal lunged into another punch-knee combo, Jeffry blocked it, and then followed with a toe-kick. Duraal was momentarily staggered, but "momentarily" was enough for Jeffry to grab its midsection and powerbomb the
 thing down to the floor, then quickly stomp it once for good measure. Duraal shook a bit and was suddenly motionless.

	As Duraal went down, a stray robotic hand came down between Raptor and Stryker, just breaking the contact. Stryker quickly took advantage of this and swept Raptor's legs out from under him with the remnants of his baton. Raptor rolled away quickly to jo
in his ragged company of Shura, Erick, Pai, and Sektor, who had been beating the holy bejesus out of Charlie. The group of five regarded the pair of badly beaten warriors.

	Raptor grinned once more, exposing his rotten gums. (Remember, kids, brush your teeth.) "Get 'em! We've got to kill 'em for the good of...well, we've gotta kill 'em!"

	"SONIC BLADE!"

	A series of four Sonic Booms suddenly pounded into the backs of the five. Most of them fell forwards in a clump. Shura stayed that way, sprawled on the floor.

	Raptor was on his feet the quickest. Suddenly he realized the world was much darker than it should be. He looked up and saw Jeffry, descending  butt-first. 

	*WHAM*

	Jeffry stood up, brushing rotten flesh off the seat of his pants. "Ho! Friend Charlie! We shall beat them yet!"

	As Erick staggered to his feet, he raised a hand to wipe sweat off his forehead. He suddenly realized that he didn't have that particular hand. Or the other one, for that matter.

	"Looking for something?" Matrix, grinning widely, tossed him his missing arms.

	Erick looked at his shoulders, then at the arms lying on the floor. Quietly, he keeled over in a dead faint.

	Suddenly a pair of rockets slammed into Matrix's back, followed by a Teleport Punch. The enslaved fighters were up and kicking. Matrix stumbled forward, blindly chopping at Lord Raptor, but found herself falling victim to a nasty three-hit combo from Se
ktor, sending her into one of Raptor's chainsaw legs. The subsequent goring caused her to pass out.

	Charlie leaned back against the wall, almost totally drained.

	"Stryker! Take Jeffry and get out of here! I'll hold them off!"

	"But..."

	"No buts! We don't have time!"

	Jeffry staggered over to the entrance to the stairwell. "We must hurry! If we are late, we will not be able to stop the bad men!"

	Stryker nearly fell backwards as he retreated, barely remembering to grab his gun before the two departed.

	Charlie gamely assumed his fighting stance, but a fist in the back from Sektor was juggled into a combo from Pai, which in turn met a Death Hurricane from Lord Raptor. Charlie fell, senseless.

	Sektor ran after Jeffry and Stryker, his robotic reflexes feeling little fatigue. However, as the cyberninja entered the stairwell, it failed to notice the small blinking package that had been stuck to the back of the door. As Sektor looked slowly aroun
d to ascertain for itself that none of its enemies were waiting in ambush, the LED light on the package counted down, from 00:00:01 to 00:00:00.

	Sektor's world vanished in a bright white light as the landing exploded.

	Hearing the crash echo up the stairway, Stryker smiled. He just loved to hear them go bang.

	Back in the hallway, the clouds of pulverized cement not bothering him in the least, Raptor surveyed his surviving troops; well, rather, he surveyed Pai. Ralf and Shura were unconscious, Duraal wasn't moving, and Erick was occasionally squirming and mur
muring something about his arms. "Okay! This is how we do it! We'll take the lift and beat 'em up there, then when they arrive, we *SQUASH* the little buggers! They're barely standing anyway! HAHAHAHA!" He and Pai made for the nearest elevator.

_Misty John's Office, RumbleDome Hotel_

	"You see, magickal emanations of this caliber," John said, his voice taking on a professorial tone, "only show up during certain procedures." His grid now glowed brightly enough to read by, the general radiance of the RumbleDome overpowering the smaller
 dots that represented the fighters. Only two lights, one on the roof of the hotel, the other in one of the luxury suites, retained their individuality; both were defying John's best attempts at identification. "One of them would be that someone is trying

 to protect us from some kind of oncoming invasion or attack. However, no terrestrial agency has the kind of power to shield the entirety of the 'Dome like this is doing. The 'Dome's too damn big. Also, there's the fact that I've been scanning the space o

utside this node, and there's nothing out there that would represent a threat; if something was going to attack the 'Dome, all schools of magick I'm conversant with would require they be that close to, if not actually inside, the node." John took a slug f

rom the bottle of Scotch in his left hand. "The only other one I know, and the one that I'm afraid it is, is that someone or something is trying to transform the 'Dome into some other kind of node entirely."

	Brant sat in John's chair, his own drink largely untouched. "What...what's capable of doing that?"

	"I've already done the research. Nobody here, that's for damn sure. Any mortal who so much as felt this kind of power would burn out like a fifth-year grad student. Amakusa, who isn't strictly mortal, *might* be able to pull this stunt, but he ain't her
e, he's technically dead right now, and I doubt he'd try it anyway. Doctor Doom...I don't know. He's definitely capable of doing this through technomagick, but I doubt that even he could completely transform a node without being here to govern the process

, and my records show he teleported out of the node approximately fifty minutes ago."

	John took another drink. "That leaves us with the immortals. Shao Kahn's locked up, and he'd need assistants to work magick on this scale. Shang Tsung isn't anywhere I can find him; I'm guessing he saw this coming and fled the node entirely. Mizuki is n
either smart enough nor skilled enough to pull this off, and none of the Darkstalkers are mages in the strictest sense. Rose...Rose may or may not be mortal. Either way, she couldn't do this, and probably wouldn't if she could. Which leaves us with one op

tion--"

	"Don't say what I think you're going to say."

	"--the Dark Guy."

	Brant responded to this by finishing his drink, and holding his glass out for more.

	After pouring, John pointed at the grid. "The center of the emanations appears to be circling around the base of the Hotel. The scary thing is that the node is starting to take on Dark Guy-esque characteristics. It's getting hotter, for one. Also, if an
yone felt like it, it'd be a lot easier to summon demons or work necromantic magick. Fortunately, no one's done either yet." John finished the bottle. 

	"So, what do we do now?"

	"Damned if I know," John said cheerfully. "We may have to abandon the node entirely. We don't have a clue what the Dark Guy wants, and quite frankly, if we did, I don't know if we could stop him. We don't have the anti-invasion safeguards to keep him ou
t. If we survive this, I'd put that on the list of improvements for next year; hire a Virtual Adept or something."

	"You brought me here, told me this, and then you tell me that we *can't do a damn thing?*"

	John sat heavily into another chair. "That's not entirely true; we can wait. Have another drink, Brant." The mage's face was uncharacteristically sober. "This is probably gonna suck."

_Room 1891, RumbleDome Hotel_

	Ryo didn't like to admit it to himself, but maybe Doom had been right. This could have been a very bad idea.

	Kyo's fire was everywhere. It wasn't any stronger than it had ever been, but there was so much of it that even with Storm stirring up gale-force winds around he and his group, it came dangerously close. Morrigan and her slaves, the succubus' face white 
marble at seeing him, cautiously made strikes against them, adding to Ryo's discomfort. Soon, they'd be overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers.

	Kyo turned entirely towards Ryo, ejecting another cloud of flame with a sweep of his arm. It got close enough to blacken Ryo's gi before Storm dispersed it. Kyo (in his delirium, he saw Iori block an attack) howled in anger. As he did so, the flames imm
ediately surrounding him faded and died.

	Seeing a chance, Galford charged Kyo, his ninja-to in his hand. The ninja didn't like what he was about to do, but desperate times called for equally desperate measures; Kyo couldn't be held back for long. He would apologize to the boy's friends and fam
ily, if he had any, later.

	Kyo saw Galford come from out of the corner of his eye (to him, Galford looked like a black-armored warrior carrying a battle-axe), and didn't bother to turn, simply throwing a sparking wave of death across the floor at the oncoming threat. Obligingly, 
the warrior (and, in the real world, Galford) disappeared upon contact with the blast, leaving only a small pile of ash. The rich smell of woodsmoke filled the air as the "log trick" paid off again.

	Galford reappeared above and behind Kyo, his sword held in both hands like a dagger, and fell upon the boy. His blade described an even arc down towards the base of Kyo's spine.

	Ryo heard himself yell, "NO!!"

	Unfortunately, Kyo was beyond being fooled by such tricks; the primal destructive instinct that was guiding him reasoned that his target, not having been destroyed, was somewhere nearby. The purple flame hungrily reached out in every direction, consumin
g what little furniture and carpeting hadn't already been destroyed. Storm's winds deflected what of it was heading for Ryo and company, while Iori Yagami barely saved Morrigan's side from destruction. Galford, with neither party protecting him, found him

self falling directly into a rising geyser of flame, punching him upward and burning him to a crisp. He hit the floor with all the native grace of a brick, barely alive.

	Ryo swore viciously, and came to a decision. As spectacular as Kyo's blast was, it had, once again, left him vulnerable for a few seconds; Kyo was handicapped by his utter inability to plan. For the second time, Ryo gathered all of the power available t
o him within his arms, and aimed it straight for Kyo. It was even stronger this time; it felt like raw electricity was surging through his skin, like acid was burning him alive. He could have gotten used to it.

	"SHINKUU..."

	From the corner of his eye, Ryo saw Ryu and Terry's eyes widen. More disturbingly, he saw Doom nod in approval.

	"...*HAOHSHOKOHKEN!*" A column of bright white force issued forth from Ryo's outstretched hands. Kyo's flames resurged, almost frantically, to defend Kyo against the blast.

	There was a blast of multicolored sparks that lit up the room as the driving fires of Orochi met Ryo's enhanced power. Ryo proved the stronger a moment later; the Shinkuu HaohShoKohKen slowed, but didn't stop, scattering the flames before it. However, t
he flames had, to Ryo's relief, saved Kyo's life. The kind of force that was powering Ryo could have punched a hole through a mountain, much less killed a man. Instead of being consumed by Ryo's burst, Kyo simply shot backwards abruptly, flying like a bul

let into the wall behind him.

	The room became very quiet for a moment after that.

	Morrigan finally screamed, "What are you *waiting* for, you
*idiots?* GET THEM!!" 

	Her slaves obeyed her command as best they could. Ryo grabbed Wolf
Hawkfield as the wrestler rushed at him, and, keenly aware of the irony in
the situation, tossed Wolf across the room. "Doom, you're with me!" Jago
nodded and fell in behind him. "Storm, cover us!"

	"That is not a problem." Storm rose up in the air, winds picking up
ash around her, and the air within the room darkened. A single drop of
water fell, hitting Mai Shiranui on the nose. Then another. Thunderheads
formed around the ceiling beams. 

	Storm's eyes narrowed. "That is not a problem at all." A bolt of
lightning flashed from the ceiling; it was mirrored in her eyes. 

	In no time at all, the mutant had conjured a hurricane. Fighters
were picked up by the winds and flung about wildly, striking into each
other and the walls like beads in a maraca. What fires lingered from Kyo's
blaze quickly hissed and were gone. Rain pounded downward with sufficient
force to knock a man down. In the middle of this, Storm hovered serenely,
calm in the face of the chaos she'd unleashed. 

	The side of the room with the door in it was untouched. Terry and
Ryu were looking at Storm, to Ryo, to each other, and back to Storm, their
jaws dangling. 

	Trying as best he could to ignore the display, Ryo grabbed Jago by
the shoulder and led him towards the door at a dead run. As he approached
it, he noticed Morrigan, her hair hanging wetly around her head, land
gently next to the door. Their eyes met, and Morrigan faintly smiled. Even
that showed a hint of her fangs. 

	Ryo cursed, and slowed down. Morrigan was powerful and
unpredictable. He and Jago advanced slowly, expecting the fight of their
lives. 

	Morrigan, her eyes still holding Ryo's, slowly and deliberately
turned her back on him, pretending to be engrossed in the wall. As Ryo
came closer, she moved away from the door. 

	Ryo didn't have time to wonder about Morrigan's motivation. He
simply ran. 

_Elevator Shaft, RumbleDome Hotel_

	Lord Raptor laughed maniacally as the elevator carried them
towards Demitri's floor. "I'm gonna get 'em! I'm gonna beat 'em 'til they
can't hold a shape! Donovan, and that cop guy, and the fat wrestler,
and...A-HAHAHAHA!" 

	Pai, figuring it was probably wise, said nothing. 

	Lord Raptor observed that they'd reached the floor they wanted.
"A-HAHAHAHAH! Not too long now! What's the problem, babe? Can't speak? Too
in love with me, huh? I get that a lot." The elevator doors slid smoothly
open. Raptor and Pai stepped out, looking around. "Where are the the
little bastards?" Raptor demanded. "When *I* was alive, it didn't take me
this long to get up a few damn flights of stairs! *I* had *stamina,*
dammit!" 

	The stairwell door opened, and Lord Raptor, once again, chuckled
maniacally (as if he could chuckle any other way). "C'mere, you guys! It
only hurts more if ya struggle!" 

	"I've never noticed that, rookie. BERSERKER BARRAGE!"

	Wolverine came through the door like a bat out of hell, slashing
madly. His claws took large chunks out of the door and its frame as he
barreled towards Raptor, who, expecting Jeffry or Stryker, was taken
completely offguard. 

	"It was very fortunate that we met friends Wolverine and Kim on the
stairs!" Jeffry stated. The sheer lack of irony in his tone was enough to
make Stryker wince. 

	Raptor responded with a chainsaw leg directly to Wolverine's gut.
Wolverine responded by Drill Clawing into--and partially through--Raptor's
torso. Death Hurricane met Tornado Claw. Evil Scream met Adamantium Hell.
It was easily the most grotesque thing any of them had ever seen. 

	Pai moved towards the fight, but a soft whistle from the stairwell
distracted her. When she looked to see what it was, she found herself
looking down the barrel of Stryker's gun. 

	"Go ahead. Help out the zombie. I've had a *real* bad day. Give me
an excuse to shoot something that'll react." Stryker let Kim Dragon down
from his shoulder, never lifting the gun off of Pai for a second. Kim
stood on his own, favoring his left side, while Stryker took Pai into the
stairwell and handcuffed her to the railing. 

	When Stryker came back out, the fight was over. The crucial
difference between Wolverine and Lord Raptor was very simple: 

	Wolverine healed. Lord Raptor didn't.

	Thus, Wolverine was the one left standing. With a satisfied grin,
he clashed his claws together. 

	From the floor, Lord Raptor's disembodied head yammered away.
"C'mere! I can still fight! I've had worse than this! I'll break ya! I'll
tear ya in half! I'll *gum* ya to death!" 

	"If you come any closer to that Monty Python bit, sicko, I'm
gonna...gonna..." Wolverine found himself at a loss for words. Everything
he could threaten Raptor with, he'd already *done.*

	"Come on!" Stryker yelled. "We have to get to Demitri's room!"

	"On my way." Wolverine raised his head instinctively. He smelled
something. "Scratch that, bub. I'll be along in a little bit." 

	Stryker didn't hear him. He, Kim, and Jeffry were already on their way.

	Wolverine calmly stood in the middle of the hallway, feeling his
healing factor working, knitting the lacerations Raptor had left together.
He retracted and reextended his claws, waiting. 

	A moment later, as Wolverine had known it would, the carpeting
blackened and burned outward, heralding the arrival on this floor of
Pyron. The alien, following Demitri's mental signals for assistance, took
a moment to turn around. 

	When Pyron did, it ran straight into a Tornado Claw.

	"Did ya miss me?" Wolverine asked. He didn't wait for an answer
before ripping into it. 

_Room 1891, RumbleDome Hotel_

	Sodom found the bathroom in Demitri's apartment very much suited to his tastes.

	He wasn't the kind of guy who'd shy away from a little fighting. Hell, he was the boss of a soon-to-be-international street gang (really, he meant it this time, Mad Gear was gonna make it to the top); you don't get to that position in life by being wish
y-washy. However, when vampires, demons, magick, and sacrifices, among other things commonly held as bizarre, come into the picture, a wise man knows that it's time to cut one's losses and leave.

	Which is what he would have been doing in an ideal situation. Instead, he and Adon, when Bison called them up to Demitri's room, had said that they were planning to leave. The scene was just too weird for them. Instead, they were rushed by that psycho b
itch Morrigan. Fortunately, Adon had slowed her down enough for Sodom to beat feet out of there. One bite from her, and Adon went instant zombie. Unfortunately, in his rush to get the hell out of there, Sodom hadn't picked the right door. He'd ran into th

e bathroom.

	Fortunately, Sodom remembered his vampire lore, and the shower had a detachable head. By spraying it across the doorway, he'd effectively rendered Morrigan helpless to come after him; apparently, those old movies had been right about the running water. 
They'd sent a couple of their zombies in after him--some fat guy and a tall chick in blue--but he'd sent them back out in a few minutes with a severe concussion for their trouble. That seemed to drive the hint home that Sodom didn't intend to come out for

 anybody. So, he'd been sitting here ever since, waiting for Demitri to leave his freakin' room. He had, judging from what Sodom'd heard, but now, all he heard was fighting.

	Sodom took a chance. He opened the door.

	Heavy D! immediately flew through it. The boxer looked dazed for a moment, then returned to the battle and rocked Ganryu with a R.S.D.

	Sodom looked around the room for a moment. He saw Ryu flinging Hadokens everywhere, and he frowned. If that goody-good was here, he was probably on the other guys' side. He also saw that guy Galford, the one who'd eliminated him, lying unconscious. He l
et himself smile.

	It seemed to Sodom, after a moment's consideration, that Morrigan's side was winning. His path was clear. If he threw in with them and they won, he might be able to get out of this unscathed. If they screwed it up and they didn't sin, then he could make
 a break for it.

	Sodom lunged out of the bathroom, directly at Heavy D!,  and planted a jitte in the boxer's back.

_Stairway to Roof, RumbleDome Hotel_

	Jago was in the lead as they took the last flight of stairs. Ryo was surprised that the ninja wasn't slowing down at all; ordinarily, Ryo would have been, but he had the enchantment holding him up.

	The stairs had become badly lit as they approached the top of the building. All that was stored on the higher floors were air-conditioners and the penthouse apartment (which Birdman had claimed), the latter of which only accessible by elevator. Ryo had 
a distinct feeling that he and Jago were the only living souls to see this portion of the hotel for a long time (correct; Tristan was the only one who ever came up here). Full night had overtaken the RumbleDome, and the darkness was near absolute, illumin

ated only by Ryo's glow. The dust rose in a thick fog beneath their feet. They approached the last landing with relief; no matter what happened when they stepped onto the roof, at least it was open space. The darkness had begun to close in on them.

	As Jago's foot touched the landing, a flicker grew into a shadow as something filled the formerly empty space. The shadow resolved itself into Bison, imposing as ever, barring their path. "You will not harm the Master except over my dead body, louts," h
e declared. Psycho power flared around him, overpowering Ryo's weaker aura and recoloring the stairs in neon red.

	"That is not a problem," Jago said. There was no threat inherent in it; it was the simple truth.

	"We don't need this, Jago. Get out of the way." Ryo began to draw in his chi again.

	"No. We do not need your abilities to deal with this trash." Jago looked at Bison. "Are you ready?"

	Bison's face twisted in rage. "You shall pay for this insult, worm."

	Jago jumped Bison's opening Psycho Shot and landed next to him. That was when Jago exploded.

	His hands and feet moved too fast to be seen, save for the periodic green flash of his sword being drawn. Bison's face and chest rippled under countless impacts, his uniform seeming to shred by itself. Finally, after a solid two minutes of beating on Bi
son, Jago stopped moving, and Bison keeled over.

	Ryo goggled. "How did you *do* that?!"

	Jago/Doom shrugged. "It is elementary, once one has mastered this body's reflexive methods, to master a series of attacks that could theoretically be carried on for an indefinite period of time, be it seconds, minutes, or hours. While I would not care t
o test this hypothesis, I could have dealt this man a 'combo' that, allowing sufficient time for rest and rehydration, would not have finished until three years hence."

	Bison groaned.

	Jago/Doom ignored him. "But that would be overkill, would it not?"

_The Ring_

	"You okay, man?" Wanderer asked. Birdman was finally coming to. 

	"Why can't I just do a nice, simple, incredibly violent tournament
without anything exploding, or crashing out of windows, or taking over the
node, or anything? Why can't it ever be easy?" 

	Wanderer chose to dodge the question. "By the way, we're about to
see who the finalists are. Do you want to watch?" 

	"Oh, shut up." Birdman pulled himself up to the microphone. 

	From safely across the ring, Guy watched King and Bishamon rip
into each other with a half-smile on his face. Whoever won this fight, he
would battle for the title; Guy's only problem was that he didn't know who
to cheer for. 

	Bishamon, on the other hand, considered this a different kind of
fight entirely. "One without honor has no right to fight such a warrior as
Guy!" Bishamon maintained, slashing King's side as she scrambled to get
away. 

	"Would you SHUT UP?" King demanded, her Trap Shot slamming Bishamon
upside the head. "So I kicked you in the back *once*. That doesn't mean I
have no honor at all!" 

	"There are no degrees of honor! One either has it or he doesn't!"
Bishamon came back at her with a quick slash, his blade tracing a
figure-eight in the air; King sidestepped it. 

	"Yeah!" the armor added. "Everyone knows broads don't have any
honor, anyway." 

	King started to get mad. Again. "*Broads*?" 

	Bishamon was startled. "No! It was the armor! Not me! I would
*never*--" 

	"You gonna start bitch-slappin' me, babe?" the armor said. The
mouth on the front of the armor smiled. 

	"You chauvinist bastard! How *dare* you?!" King rushed forward,
starting her Illusion Dance. Bishamon blocked, holding up his sword as
kick after kick crashed into it. The sword made appropriate cries of pain. 

	"That's *three times* you've done this to me," he growled at the
armor. "*Three times.*" 

	"Hey, just admit it, Bish; you wouldn't have any fun without me."

	As King finished her Illusion Dance, Bishamon moved forward,
slashing madly. King was caught off-guard, and, as such, couldn't block or
sidestep the massive-damage chain Bishamon unleashed on her. The last
strike knocked her over the side. 

	As King passed through the field, Bishamon howled to the sky: "How
much longer must I endure it? How much longer must I endure this cursed
sword and armor?" 

	Up in the booth, Birdman punched a button, and a *ding!* sound
went out over the airwaves. "Yes, folks, that's the first time tonight
he's said it! Remember, if you guess the number of times Bishamon says
that phrase over the course of the broadcast, *you*--yes, you, that fat
guy in the back--can win a Jeep Wrangler! Stay tuned after the Rumble for
details!" 

	Meanwhile, King had landed in Revolution X. Headmistress Helga had
made a proposition that King had met with something less than enthusiasm.
Her lack of enthusiasm had resulted, by the time the DimensionCam tuned in
on her, for no less than seventeen broken bones for Helga, and more on the
way. 

_Room 1891, RumbleDome Hotel_

	"I am usually not a cynic, but this isn't going well," Liu Kang
muttered. 

	Terry Bogard took a moment to snarl at him. "I *am* a cynic, and
we're getting our asses kicked!" 

	Liu would have answered, but Kuma was crushing the Shaolin to its
chest. Liu struggled for a moment, but there was nothing in his training,
past or present, that had ever prepared him for a bear attack. 
Eventually, with a groan, Liu went limp, and the bear cast him aside in
search of new opponents. Its eyes eventually settled on Terry. 

	Terry decided against making some statement based on wolves vs.
bears. He let a Power Geyser do his talking for him. As a considerably
less furry Kuma fell away, Terry looked up to check the situation. Nope;
it still sucked. 

	Sasquatch and Storm hovered around the window, staving off
Fulgore, Mai, Wolf, and Cyclops. Ryu exchanged missiles with Morrigan,
Iori, and Mizuki. Yoshimitsu happily (that robot had something seriously
wrong with it) fought Ganryu and Bruce, and Heavy D! was dealing with
Neo-Dio and Sodom (and where in the hell had *he* come from?). And, of
course, Terry got to play with Sub-Zero, Paul Phoenix, and now that damn
bear. None of them were doing well. 

	Terry adjusted his cap. How had he gotten here, anyway? He didn't
even *see* Mary anywhere. Ryo had been here for a second, if that had
really been Ryo (if so, Terry needed to talk with that boy about what
techniques he was using), but then he and Jago had run out. 

	Terry looked up in time to see Sasquatch swallow Cyclops. After a
short period of time where Sasquatch got the strangest look on its face
(Cyclops was apparently struggling going down), Cyclops was spit back up,
encased in an iceberg. As funny as the sight was, it cost Sasquatch
dearly. A series of plasma bolts singed the bigfoot's fur, knocking it
off-balance; Fulgore, having finally found a way past Storm, pressed its
advantage. A second burst of plasma sent the bigfoot spinning out the
window. Sasquatch had time to yell, "CHUFFLE!" (literally translated,
"HELP!") before disappearing entirely. 

	Despite the distance, Terry found himself sprinting for the
window, a cry on his lips. Paul Phoenix tried to get in his way, which was
a big mistake on Paul's part. Terry sent Paul to the floor fifteen seconds
later with two black eyes and a badly broken nose. 

	Storm immediately swept Mai and Wolf away from her with a Typhoon,
lifting them up and depositing them somewhere in the ceiling's exposed
ductwork before diving out the window after Sasquatch. 

	A sound reached his attention over the din of combat. Heavy-D! had
backed Neo-Dio into the corner; now, the corner above the World Hero
bulged under a series of sharp impacts. As Neo-Dio looked up in a daze,
the whole of the wall collapsed down on his head. 

	A figure strode into the room, through the space the wall had
occupied. Although enormous, the specifics of its form were obscured by a
black cloak. From within the hood, a single red eye

	Heavy D! gasped. "You!"

	The figure agreed. "Me." It advanced into the room slowly, the eye
surveying the destruction. "It would appear that you've missed the vampire
entirely." 

	"Ryo Sakazaki's taking care of it. Jago's with him."

	A massive snort sounded from underneath the hood. "Two fighters
against the vampire who would be God?" 

	D! spoke further, but a loud kiap from Bruce drowned it out. The
kickboxer jumped towards the cloaked figure, kicking powerfully. Almost
without seeming to move, the figure reached out one arm and plucked Bruce
from the air. He then guided Bruce towards the floor with impressive
force. Bruce did not try to get up again. 

	From across the room, Morrigan sighed. "Would someone *please*
kill him?!" The succubus, not usually known for her iron self-control,
felt her patience slip that much more. 

	Cyclops, breaking free of the ice, was the first to comply,
opening his visor wide. A Mega Optic Blast issued forth, sweeping towards
the cloaked figure. 

	Just before the blast hit, the figure raised his arm to protect
his face, seemingly in vain. But he stood. The cloak whipped around behind
him, disintegrating in the false wind of the Optic Blast. Most of the wall
behind him faded white, powdered, and flashed apart; the edges of the hole
it had entered through smoothed as if the hole had been cut with a laser.
Neo-Dio, prying his way out of the pile of rubble behind the figure,
looked up in time to have most of the bones in his body broken by Cyclop
s' blast. But the figure stood. 

	Cyclops closed his visor in shock, unable to believe that anything
could have survived that. Even when blocked, his Mega Optic Blast usually
at least knocked people over, and the figure, still clad in the tattered
remnants of the cloak, remained on his feet. 

	"The time..." the figure rumbled, "...for deception..." A single
four-fingered hand emerged from the depths of the cloak. "...is past!" The
hand ripped the cloak away. 

	Kintaro stood revealed, roaring his power and majesty to the sky.

	Terry swore softly, and D! appeared likely to fall over from shock.

	"STAND, VAMPIRESS!" Kintaro bellowed, working his way towards
Morrigan. Slaves flew like tenpins. "STAND AND FACE ME!" 

	"Not bloody likely," Morrigan muttered, jetpacking away.

	Meanwhile, from across the room, Terry swallowed hard. "Yeah. This
is *much* better." 

_Outside the Hotel, Above the Ring_

	Fortunately, Sasquatch was big enough that he created quite a lot
of wind resistance. Even then, Storm warped the weather patterns almost
beyond recovery in the RumbleDome generating enough of an updraft to even
slow the bigfoot's plummet down. The audience shivered as, without warning
or provision in the 'Dome's weather program, the Dome acquired a
jetstream. Popcorn wrappers and programs flew around in minature
tornadoes. 

	"What's happening *now*?!" Birdman demanded.

	Wanderer's eyes ran across the monitor showing the current camera
feed from the Hotel. "Um..." Sasquatch appeared at the top of the screen
and fell out of the camera's view. "...it's raining bigfeet." 

	Birdman inspected Wanderer for signs of being drunk.

	"Reach for me, Sasquatch! *Reach!*" Storm screamed, her words
almost lost in the howling wind. Sasquatch's arm flailed out, and Storm
grabbed--and lost her grip. Sasquatch was too big and falling too fast. 

	Sasquatch jerked away, spinning in mid-air, his mouth moving
silently in what might have been a prayer. 

	Storm gathered her will and gritted her teeth, throwing every bit
of power she had into speed. Wind kicked up behind her, shooting straight
down, and the mutant fired downward like a rocket, ending up *below*
Sasquatch. The bigfoot's eyes widened. 

	Raising her hands, Storm manipulated the flows of air, weaving
them into a Typhoon, this one issuing straight up and above her, catching
Sasquatch and almost completely reversing his momentum. As he began a more
leisurely plummet, Storm looked around frantically for someplace to land,
and found the smoking side of the hotel. She didn't waste any time trying
to figure out how that might have happened. She simply used the column of
wind Sasquatch floated on to throw the bigfoot into the hotel, then landed
next to him a moment later. 

	Birdman rested his head on his arms. The consequences of Storm's
toying with the winds were now being felt; across the RumbleDome, audience
members tried to shelter themselves as a brisk rain began to fall. 

	Behind him, the door to the announcement booth rudely banged open,
and Scott Johnson came in at a dead run, a cyberpenguin with a big head
immediately behind him. "Birdman, I need to talk to you--it's raining. Why
is it raining?" 

	"Ask the mutant over there. Why do you have a cyberpenguin? I told
you, *no* penguins." 

	"I needed it. We were interrogating Rugal as to why he was fighting
with Shao Kahn; that was why Motaro went flying out the window. There's
something absolutely *huge* going on here, Birdman, and we're the last to
know. The entire Multiverse may be at s take." 

	Upon hearing this, Wanderer began sorting through Birdman's liquor
cabinet. 

_Roof, RumbleDome Hotel_

	Jago moved through the door to the roof like shadow over snow. Ryo
felt like a lumbering elephant in comparison as he stepped over Bison's
body. 

	The sun had fully sunk below the horizon a few minutes ago. The
illumination now came from the million-candlepower halogen lights shining
onto the ring, a thousand feet below them, and the emergency lights
blinking from the corners of the roof. 

	Jago reappeared in front of Ryo, and put a finger in front of his
mouth. Ryo nodded, and moved on the balls of his feet, around behind the
small shack that held the stairs. 

	Looking around the shack's side, Ryo finally laid eyes on Demitri
Maximov. 

	The vampire stood at the center of an elaborate circle of runes,
sketched in chalk on the concrete surface of the roof. Beyond him and
outside the circle, Talbain whimpered softly from inside a silver cage,
next to a bundle of cloth. Whatever was inside the bundle groaned weakly
and squirmed.  At least, Ryo thought, now he knew what had happened to the
werewolf. 

	Demitri chanted in a guttural language; despite the fact that Ryo
didn't understand it, the implications of what it *might* mean still made
his flesh crawl. Before him, Haohmaru gently floated on his back, covered
with strange symbols. The ronin's skin glowed white, small orbs of the
radiance detaching and being absorbed into Demitri's blue aura. Next to
Demitri, Charlotte stood with her back ramrod straight and her eyes
closed. 

	What spooked Ryo more than anything else was that Charlotte was
smiling. 

	"Will this work?" Ryo hissed to Jago/Doom. "Has he got everything
he needs?" 

	Doom considered it. "He has Haohmaru, the time grows close, and he
has one who loves Haohmaru." Jago's borrowed eyes grew dark and serious.
"Beyond that, all else is completely meaningless. He could be performing
the ritual in the foyer of the Vatican, and it would be just as
effective." 

	Ryo steeled himself. "Great."

	Demitri switched back to English. "The competition is nearly over.
The time is nigh," He announced, holding a knife aloft. 

	Quickly, Demitri grabbed Charlotte's wrists and cut them; blood
flowed down over Haohmaru's chest. "The blood of love paves the way."
Demitri licked his lips. "Now, the sacrifice's power is ready for the
harvest. Dark Lords, now witness--the death!" He brought the knife down. 

	Jago snarled, "*NOW,* boy!!"

	Ryo stepped out from behind the shack. "KOHKEN!"

	The knife melted over Demitri's hand just before it touched
Haohmaru's chest, white-hot from the impact of Ryo's enhanced fireball.
Ryo, his hands up in his fighting stance, slowly walked towards Demitri. 

	"Sakazaki," Demitri breathed. The vampire took in Ryo in a single
glance, judging and weighing him. He forgot about the molten metal on his
hand. Jago, slightly beyond him, Demitri dismissed as irrelevant. Ryo,
though...Ryo had changed. The enchantment he was under (obvious) was only
a small part of it. 

	Ryo didn't drop his fists. "You probably won't believe me, but
it's over. My friends are beating Morrigan as we speak, and I won't let
you sacrifice Haohmaru." 

	"Actually, you will," Demitri said.

	"What?"

	"You will." Demitri gestured, and the bundle next to Talbain jumped
to his outstretched hand, shedding its outer layer of cloth as it went. 

	"Or," Demitri said with a sneer, drawing another knife from inside
his cloak, "I will kill your father." 

	Above his head, Demitri held the body of Takuma Sakazaki.

_Room 1891, RumbleDome Hotel_

	"This is absolutely ridiculous," Morrigan fumed. Kintaro's
appearance was nothing less than disastrous for her; every time he swung
his arms, another fighter went down in a heap. The odds were evening
quickly.
	
	Wolf Hawkfield dropped down behind Kintaro from his perch in the
ceiling, catching Kintaro in a headlock. Due to his leverage, Kintaro had
a hard time dislodging the Virtua Fighter. But he did so eventually,
bucking Wolf cleanly off of him and through th e open doors to the suite.
Wolf's world accelerated to speed lines, ending abruptly with a *crack!*
as his head contacted the outside wall. 

	As Wolf staggered to his knees, he thought, vaguely, of how much
he hated Morrigan, and realized it was true. He *did* hate Morrigan. The
impact had driven the effects of Morrigan's bite away. Now if only he felt
up to doing something about that... 

	Wolf heard a clatter of running feet from behind him, and he
looked up, immediately regretting it when the world spun around him. 

	"Ho! Friend Wolf!" Jeffry, smiling widely, stood before him. 
Slightly beyond him, Kim Dragon leaned heavily against the wall.

	"Jeff...that...you, buddy?"

	"Yes indeedy! It is me, Wolf! I must say that I am sorry, but
friend Rose told me that you have been brainwashed by the bad men and are
not yourself! Thus, I must do this! I hope that you are feeling better
when you wake up, so that we may go drink beer and chase women!" Jeffry
then kicked Wolf in the face. Repeatedly. 

	Heavy D! took a backdrop from Sodom, and fell. As D! staggered to
his feet, Sodom stabbed downward with his jitte--and was frozen into
modern art from behind. Iceman, casting blasts of ice every which way,
nodded to D! as the boxer Soul Flowered Sodom out of his encasing. The
Street Fighter hit the floor. 

	"Hey, D! When did Kintaro get here?" Iceman yelled, shielding
himself from an Optic Blast. 

	"About five minutes ago! Get this," D! yelled back, "he was that
guy in the cloak!"

	"*What?*"

	"Yeah! Surprising, ain't it?"

	"And you know what that means, D!"

	"What?"

	"You owe *me* five bucks! 'Raiden's the guy in the cloak', my ass.
What were you thinking?" Iceman smiled. 

	D! groaned as Sodom leaped back up.

	Meanwhile, Cyclops, Sub-Zero, and Mai pelted everything they saw
with fans, ice barrages, and Optic Blasts. Terry, the only person in any
position to do something about that, couldn't get anywhere near them. His
Power Waves were dissipated by other attacks almost before they left his
hand, and any jump-ins or dashes were immediately countered. Even Kintaro
was unable to get close. Fans stuck at odd angles out of his chest. 

	With both reeling, and Terry frozen by a lucky burst of ice,
Cyclops opened his visor wide to smash the two fighters with a second,
possibly fatal, Mega Optic Blast. 

	Dan, being of a particularly dramatic mind today, came flying
through a hole in the wall and slammed into the X-Man's side, spinning
around in mid-air as he delivered all three hits of his Gale Kick. As
Cyclops fell down, Dan jumped away, making room for a pair of
HaohShoKohKens from the newly arrived Robert Garcia and Yuri Sakazaki,
introducing Sub-Zero and Mai to the carpet as well. 

	Sub-Zero got up first, and raised his hands to shower ice down
upon both of the KyoKugenRyu stylists. A sudden impact into his sternum
stopped that idea. Stryker then used his nightstick to lever Sub-Zero into
the floor. The ninja remained still after that. 

	"I never liked him anyway," Stryker mused.

	Stryker's world then grew fur. Kuma sprang out from seemingly
nowhere (actually, from behind the bar), its paws snapping around
Stryker's body like a vise. The cop, like Liu before him, had no training
to assist him against an attack from a bear. 

	He did, however, unlike Liu, have body armor. Stryker couldn't
breathe, but he could reach the gun in his shoulder holster. Pulling it
out, he flicked off the safety by memory and stuck the barrel in Kuma's
ear. Unable to think of anything cool to say, he simply put half a clip
into the side of Kuma's head. 

	The 9mm bullets couldn't cause severe harm to the bear, even at
this range; its bone structure was way too dense for that. On the other
hand, they did *hurt* like all hell, and Kuma dropped Stryker in favor of
the more immediately appealing strategy of running around and roaring in
pain. 

	The Fulgore unit, intent upon punishing Yoshimitsu for the sword
cut the other robot had left in its chestplate, did not see Kuma coming
until it was too late. Unfortunately, neither did Stryker. 

	Stryker rolled several grenades across the floor towards Kuma, his
intent to disable the bear. Kuma obscured his vision of Fulgore, who, its
head seconds away from being crushed into tinfoil by a paw swipe, did
nothing to avoid the explosion. 

	Yoshimitsu knew, although Stryker did not, exactly what kind of
munitions the average Fulgore unit carried. That was why it teleported
across the room and safely behind Kintaro right before the first of the
grenades exploded. 

	The resultant holocaust destroyed the Fulgore unit, knocked Kuma
unconscious, shattered the ice around Terry, and flung Stryker away like a
rag doll. The cop's distance from the explosion saved his life, though his
further involvement in this fight was over; sheer concussive force knocked
him unconscious. 

	Hidden from most of their eyes, Kyo Kusanagi stirred. As he got to
his feet, he remembered--vaguely--one of his enemies overcoming his
defenses and knocking Kyo senseless. That would not happen again. He would
make sure of that by wiping them off the face of the Earth. 

	While he'd been unconscious, his enemies had fallen to brawling
amongst themselves. Good. Distracted, he could kill them all before any
knew what hit them. He raised his hands to sweep the world clean, and
jet-black gouts of the Source burst forth. 

	A wave of blue and violet flames stopped them, deflecting them
into empty air. Iori, the fires' controller, stood between Kyo and the
rest of the room, his own Source crackling dangerously between his
fingers. 

	"The world has grown too ironic for us both, Kusanagi," Iori
called. "Stop now, and surrender, or I must put you down for the sake of
all." 

	Kyo snarled, and responded with a crushing wave of ebon flames.
Iori mustered his forces. This would determine it all. Iori shook his head
and laughed. *The universe would surprise us, indeed,* he thought, as
Kyo's flames beat down upon him. 

	Morrigan left Mizuki to deal with Ryu and advanced cautiously on
Kintaro. The Shokan would not be an easy opponent, and Morrigan didn't
trust any of the dupes she'd been left with to deal with him. 

	"HAOHSHOKOHKEN!"

	Morrigan saw the blast coming, and threw herself backwards,
letting Ganryu take it for her. The sumo wrestler did so, albeit with a
massive cry of pain. She turned towards the blast's author, Robert Garcia,
a thin smile creasing her features. 

	"Come get some," Robert snarled, beckoning her onward.

	"This shouldn't take more than a couple of seconds." Morrigan
smiled, floating lazily towards Robert, already planning how to rip his
throat out. 

	"SHINKUU..."

	Morrigan heard the voice from behind her, and whipped around.

	"...*GADOKEN!*" Dan's super fireball slammed into her at point-blank
(like there was any other choice) range. As she cleared her head, Morrigan
looked from Robert, to Dan, and back to Robert. 

	"You could *not* have hit me that hard," she muttered. "I am *not*
seeing double." 

	"Nope," Robert said, grinning fiercely. "I owe you, babe, and Dan's
volunteered to help me collect." 

	"What in the world are you talking about?"

	"Well, first off, you beat the crap out of my buddy Ryo earlier.
Second, you enslaved Mai, who's one of my fiance's best friends. Finally,
you had that slave fight my fiance. Do you need more?" Robert didn't wait
for an answer before slamming Morrigan with his Kick Dance. 

	"MISTRESS!" Mai screamed, jumping up. She ran towards Dan, fans in
both hands, ready to help Morrigan. A hand clapped onto her shoulder in
mid-step, spinning the ninja around. 

	"Excuse me," Yuri said, "but you owe me a rematch--OOF!" Mai's
elbow slammed into Yuri's stomach, who, despite her inability to breathe,
spin kicked Mai in return. 

	Iceman, pinned down by Cyclops, protected himself from his
erstwhile leader with a shield of ice. Dodging out from behind his
barricade, just before Cyclops blasted it into splinters, he saw a
familiar form moving down the hallway. Just beyond him, the unconscious
forms of Jeffry McWild and Kim Dragon sprawled on the floor. Iceman,
though, not seeing them, waved enthusastically to him. 

	"Buddy! What took you so long? We *really* need your--" An enormous
fist clipped him behind his ear, and Iceman dropped in a heap. 

	Cyclops saw Iceman go down and surveyed the room for his next
target. That target, though, found him. 

	"POWER...*DUNK!*" Terry Bogard's energy-charged fist struck Cyclops
to the ground. As he got up, Cyclops fired again, and Terry sidestepped
the Optic Blast. "Let's go! BURN KNUCKLE!" Terry propelled himself towards
the X-Men's leader, ready for anything. 'Anything,' in this case, meant
being cleanly Gene Spliced out of his move and blasted into the ceiling. 

	Terry, upon landing, wiped his mouth and charged again. Now, he
was pissed. 

	Meanwhile, Kintaro grabbed Ganryu and heaved. As Mizuki
discovered, sumo wrestlers make excellent ballistic missiles. She took
Ganryu in the chest, and both of them hurtled against the wall with
impressive force. Ryu, who had been fighting Mizuki, took a breath just
before Mizuki's Demon Dog bit into his leg. 

	Ryu considered the dog for a moment, and, with an ever-so-faint
smile, spoke. "SHINKUU..." 

	The dog's eyes widened as the leg it was fastened to picked up speed.

	"...TATSUMAKI SENPUUKYAKU!" Ryu began spinning around in mid-air, his
foot extended, the force of his spin creating a whirling column of wind.
The Demon Dog, whimpering faintly, was wrenched off of Ryu's leg by sheer
centrifugal force. Flying away from him, it rocketed across the room, out
the window, down to the ring, and through the field, where, separated by
an entire dimension from Mizuki, it reverted to a normal dog--a Yorkshire
terrier, to be precise. 

	Unfortunately, it had landed in Felicia's DS2 stage, and, as such,
the local feline population outnumbered it. The resulting scene can only
be described as "absolutely ridiculous." 

	Ryu came to a halt and landed, favoring his unbitten leg. Mizuki
waited for Ryu to look up and make sure she wasn't anywhere near him
before sending her portal underneath the Shotokan fighter. Ryu felt hands
fasten onto him as he was pulled through; moments later, Ryu, shaking and
white from his trip to hell, reappeared above Mizuki and fell to the
ground. 

	"That," Mizuki said calmly, "was for my doggy."

	"This tournament," Ryu said to himself, shivering and rubbing his
arms, "could not get any stranger." His momentary disillusionment didn't
stop him, however, from once again attacking Mizuki. 

	Kintaro began to go after Cyclops, but an arm fastened around his
neck. Contemptously, he tried to break free--and found he couldn't. The
owner of the arm was as strong, if not stronger, than himself. 

	The Shokan growled and teleported, whoever had ahold of him
letting out a startled yell as Kintaro took a shortcut through space and
reappeared in the hallway. As his grip loosened, Kintaro reached two of
his arms around and grabbed his assailant around the waist, lifting him up
and over into a powerslam that shook the floor. 

	Colossus wasn't slowed in the least. The mutant jumped back up in
seconds and dealt a haymaker punch to Kintaro's stomach. Kintaro felt his
breath leave him in a rush, and smiled. Finally, a worthy opponent. 

_What Used To Be Rooms 746-7, RumbleDome Hotel_

	Storm sat heavily on the remains of one of the beds. "I'm sorry,
my friend, but for us, I fear the fight is over. I spent too much of my
strength rescuing you. I will not be able to fly for some time." 

	Sasquatch chuffled soothingly at her, and coughed up an ice cube.
Wrapping it in a scrap of the bed's comforter, he handed the icepack to
Storm, who smiled and took it. 

	As she raised the ice-pack to her forehead, Storm noticed
something. She'd been too concerned with other matters to feel it before,
but it was there. Her powers gave her a... for want of a better word,
sensitivity... to weather and temperature, and something was wrong. The
temperature, she realized, had jumped; it had not changed by much, but
more than it should have with the RumbleDome's rigid climate control.
Storm got up and walked to the hole in the wall they'd entered through,
hoping that a reason for this would suggest itself with a look around the
'Dome. 

	One did so almost immediately.

	A strong thermal updraft rose from the sidewalk just in front of
the Hotel, from a spot in the pavement that turned, as Storm watched, the
angry red of an infected wound. Rain hit that part of the ground and
hissed into steam. Before her eyes, the pavement split, revealing a portal
into somewhere else. Sasquatch, standing beside her, chuffled nervously. 

	The gateway revealed sights that no one living had ever seen
before without mortgaging their soul. Fire and darkness rippled in equal
amounts, twisting about each other like soft-serve ice cream. Amidst them,
spirits raced, hoping against experience that speed alone could distance
them from their pain. The roars of the audience barely drowned out the
constant screaming--whether it was from the inhabitants of the land beyond
th ther, Storm could not tell--but they could not do so for much longer. 

	Amidst this, a single man sat in a long-backed chair, a drink in
his hand. He appeared to be waiting for something. 

	"Merciful Lady..." Storm whispered. "This is worse than we imagined..."

_Roof, RumbleDome Hotel_

	"Takuma," Ryo murmured.

	"I know you and he don't have the most idyllic relationship,"
Demitri sneered, "but do you truly want it to end at this early point?" 

	Jago remained silent. For once, Doom mused, he understood
another's hesitation. 

	Ryo finally let his hands drop. "No. I don't."

	Doom tensed himself. If he could get to Sakazaki's father...

	Demitri's eyes, despite the darkness and the rain that had begun
to fall, saw the ninja's muscles tense, and flung a Vampire Rage with his
free hand. Jago backflipped, avoiding it, but the point had been made
clear. The vampire held the advantage. 

	But he didn't have eyes in the back of his head.

	Jon saw this last trick of Demitri's, and a red rage began to
overcome the edges of his vision. The bars of the cage were then gone and
he was free, the burning sensation of touching silver remote and cold,
racing towards the vampire with murder on his mind, not so much a werewolf
as a rolling ball of teeth and claws. Demitri heard the cage collapse, but
no being on any Earth could have turned quickly enough to intercept
Talbain. He slammed into Demitri's back, the cloth of Demitri's cape
flying apart under his talons as if unwoven, but even with all his
strength and rage, his claws made no mark on Demitri's skin. The vampire
was like a granite statue. 

	However, Talbain could, and did, make Demitri drop Takuma.

	Ryo screamed, "*JAGO!!!*"

	Jago/Doom was already moving, he had been before Ryo had yelled,
sliding across the rooftop's surface like oiled smoke, easily past the
other man running towards Demitri and Haohmaru. With speed as impressive
as Jon's for the fact that it had been so silent, the ninja was fifteen
feet beyond Demitri with Takuma Sakazaki in his arms before Ryo had
finished his yell. 

	With a snarl that overpowered Jon's own, Demitri pistoned one of
his arms backward, cutting through the blur of motion that was the
werewolf to seize him by the throat. Bringing Jon face to face with him,
Demitri snarled, "It is *over,*" before drawing back and pitching the
werewolf the length of the roof. Jon saved himself from falling to the
arena floor by grabbing onto the cornerstone. 

	Demitri pulled a second knife from his belt, and no one was close
enough to stop him. Ryo stretching out his foot impotently, taking the
first step of a dead run towards the vampire, Jago twenty feet away and
his arms full, Jon Talbain climbing back onto the roof; they all faded
into invisibility as Demitri brought the knife crashing down, through the 
haze his vision became, into Haohmaru's breast.

	It took two full minutes before Demitri realized nothing had happened.

	Looking down in front of him, he saw a man, his face obscured by a
rubber mask of a tiger's head, holding one hand up before him and crouched
over Haohmaru. The man was coated in severe burns; every motion had to be
pure agony. His outstretched hand bled from a deep and recent knife wound,
the blood obscuring something which gleamed in his palm. 

	For a second, Demitri did not move, and he realized too late what
the man was trying to do. 

	In the most eloquent prayer of his life, King held his cross aloft.

_The Ring_

	"Have you rested for long enough, Guy?" Bishamon said courteously.

	Guy stood, testing his limbs. "Yes, I think I have. Thank you for
the chance." 

	"It was my duty to ensure that the fight is even."

	"Hey, Bish!" the sword said.

	"Not now."

	"Why didn't you let Homey-ru rest up like that before you two
fought last year?" 

	"Would you be silent?"

	Guy cleared his throat. "That's actually a good question, Bishamon."

	"Hey, thanks!" the sword said. "I like him. He appreciates me. Hey,
you wouldn't be looking for a sword, would you?" 

	"Actually, no. Sorry."

	"Damn. Oh, well. Keep me in mind if you reconsider."

	Guy continued as if nothing had happened. "Bishamon, seriously,
why did you let me rest if you didn't allow Haohmaru the same last year?" 

	Bishamon looked embarrassed. "Well, um...Haohmaru didn't really seem to need it."

	"Thanks a lot," Guy said dryly. "Shall we?"

	"Of course." They assumed their stances.

	Up in the booth, Wanderer provided excited commentary. "Folks,
this is it! After a hundred and sixty-two fighters entering that ring,
only two remain: Guy, from Street Fighter Alpha, and Bishamon, of Night
Warriors, facing off for bragging rights as we speak! Let me tell you,
tensions are running high up here in the booth!" Wanderer, hearing Birdman
take a breath to yell, quickly flipped the microphone off, muttering,
"Although none of the tension has to do with the ring." 

	"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'LL BECOME A *GOD*??!!?!?"

	"Exactly that. Look, it's not like he's unopposed; Rugal had heard
that Ryo Sakazaki, Rose, and a number of other fighters were trying to
stop him. We won't know for sure until after we've declared a winner."
Scott spoke softly. 

	"So all we can do is wait." Birdman's face grew suspicious. "Is
this a practical joke? This is, isn't it! This is you, and Austin, and
Brant, getting together to make fun of me for being high-strung!" 

	"Imagine that," Wanderer muttered, sipping at the glass of wine
he'd stolen. 

	"SHUT UP! I don't need any crap from the guy who's only been in the
booth for forty-five minutes!" 

	Wanderer did so, seeming to pay rapt attention to one of the
telemetry screens in the control panel. Guy appeared to be developing
arrhythmia. 

	"Birdman, this isn't a joke." This statement came from Brant,
entering the announcement booth with Misty John in tow. Both were about
halfway drunk. "We assure you, we're completely serious." 

	"Great." Birdman slumped down into his chair. "Perfect. All we can
do is watch?" 

	"That's about it, yeah. We only came up here because you have more
booze in here than John does in his office." 

	Tristan hesitatingly poked his head into the booth. "H-h-hey,
g-g-guys, th-th-the a-a-air-conditioning's s-s-starting to b-b-break down
from o-o-overstress. Wh-what g-g-gives?" 

	Birdman waved, his voice deliberately flat. "Oh, hi, Tristan.
We're at the center of a major plot to destroy the Multiverse. Sit down,
have a drink." Ignoring Tristan's protests that he didn't
d-d-drink...w-w-wine, Birdman opened up his liquor cabinet and began
getting bottles out. "Get Loomis and Putrid in here. Let's have a party!"
Sarcasm dripped from every word. 

	Wanderer's voice suddenly cut over them all. "Guys, did you see that?"

	"See what?" John asked.

	"There it is again, from the roof." White light flashed brillantly
for a second time. 

	Brant leaned over Wanderer, instantly cold sober. "I don't know."
He grabbed the walkie-talkie from his belt and spoke urgently into it.
"Get me the helicopter crew. I don't care if they're off-duty or not--I'm
paying them damned well, and I'll double it if they talk to me--Steve?
Brant. Get a camera crew with a spotlight into the air and up to the roof
of the hotel. Do *not* land, and do *not* get too close. There's something
going on there, something big. That's right, I said double your pay. Brant
out." Brant replaced the walkie-talkie and watched the ring carefully,
glancing occasionally at the roof. "We'll see what's happening soon
enough." 

_Roof, RumbleDome Hotel_

	King, barely conscious as he crouched over Haohmaru, muttered to
himself as he pushed the cross towards Demitri. The cross, albeit no
bigger than a silver dollar, shed radiance bright enough to read by.
Demitri recoiled from it, the sheer power of King's faith overpowering
both his own willpower and the resilience granted him by his deal with the
Dark Guy; the latter was actually more of a hindrance than a help in this
situation. A high-pitched sound rose through the air, and Demitri thinly
realized it was himself, roaring in pain as the light tore into his eyes.
The sacrificial knife lay ignored on the rooftop, wet with King's blood. 

	As Demitri backed off from King, Jon Talbain grabbed Charlotte,
her face pale from loss of blood, and looked at Ryo. The werewolf's eyes
widened when he saw Ryo's glow, but he didn't waste any time. 

	"What's the plan?" Jon yelled.

	"Get out of here! Grab Jago, Haohmaru, and King, and go! I'll keep
Demitri back as long as I can!" Ryo's mouth narrowed to a thin line. 

	Jon opened his mouth again, and Ryo, his voice overpowering the
roars of the crowd and Demitri's power-saw-through-concrete scream,
roared, "DON'T *ARGUE* WITH ME!! GO!!!!" 

	The werewolf, cowed, hooked Haohmaru up with his other arm and ran
for the door. Jago/Doom, his eyes unreadable, followed, King over the
ninja's shoulders. 

	Ryo stood alone watching the light die. The chalk pentacle on the
roof already began to disappear under the force of the rain. Demitri
slowly drew himself to his feet. When he saw the space that had held
Haohmaru empty, his gaze turned, inevitably, to Ryo. 

	"Do you realize the kind of planning it took me to get everything
in position for this?" Demitri said conversationally. He might have been
discussing the chances of his favorite sports team. "Do you have the
*slightest* idea what you have interfered with?" 

	"None," Ryo said. "All I know is that it had to be stopped, and
somehow, my friends and I did. You may kill me, Demitri, but you will
never get off this roof before the Rumble ends. I can guarantee that. No
one will become a god today." 

	"Oh, I know that, Sakazaki. I know that." Demitri seemed to be
mourning something. "Just as you may never know what your heroism has cost
me." 

	Ryo didn't say anything. If he had, it would have been drowned
out. The helicopter Brant had sent for rose from the side of the roof, its
spotlight sweeping over the two of them, casting their shadows for a mile.
It remained in orbit a good fifty feet away from the side of the roof, out
of the line of fire. At the side of the 'Dome, barely visible below them,
the 'copter's camera feed kicked in and both of them, standing ten feet
apart, appeared in smaller form on the video screen, sharing room with Guy
and Bishamon. The audience gasped as one as something unexpected entered
their view. 

	Demitri screamed, over the sound of the rotors, "YOU REALIZE, OF
COURSE, THAT I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE?" 

	Ryo nodded. He had not expected anything less. The vampire rushed
him; Ryo did not change expression. 

	Down in the ring, Guy and Bishamon fought for the title, and the
melee continued within what had been Demitri's suite. 

	As above; so below.

*****

FINAL TALLY (43 voters):
---------------------------

BISHAMON (DS2): 34:12 (ratio: 2.83)
GUY (SFA):      23:29 (ratio: 0.79)
*********LINE OF SURVIVAL***********
KING (KOF95):   15:31 (ratio: 0.48)
CHUN LI (SFA):  13:33 (ratio: 0.39)

BONUS MATCHUPS:

CHARLIE (SFA), STRYKER, KUNG LAO (MK3), JEFFRY MCWILD (VF2), and MATRIX (TK)
draw with
LORD RAPTOR (DS), DURAAL, PAI CHAN (VF2), RALF (KOF95), SHURA, ERICK (WHP), 
and SEKTOR (MK3) by 15 to 15, with 13 abstentions. (What the hell?)

DONOVAN BANE (DS), DAN HIBIKI (SFA), ROBERT GARCIA (KOF95), and ICEMAN (XM:COTA)
wallop
ZEUS, BROCKEN, JANNE (WHP), CLARK, JOE HIGASHI (KOF95), CYRAX, and SMOKE (MK3)
by 23 to 9, with 11 abstentions.

CURRENT ELIMINATIONS LEADERS: Guy 17, Haohmaru 13, Rose 9, Athena 8,
Galford 8, Mai Shiranui 6. 

Thomas "Wanderer" Wilde

Editing, suggestions, and contributions:
Christopher "Birdman" Bird

Thanks go out once again to Scott Archer, for being good enough to loan
out his bandwidth (http://www.slack.net/~arctic/uvr.html). 

Coming up next:
the long-awaited conclusion of the Second Annual Video Rumble.

************
To see it's like the strangest dream
To be it needs to still be seen
As loud as any noise you've heard
As quiet as a whispered word
	-the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Break So Easily"