_The Ring_

	Bishamon watched the light from the roof die. His equipment was blessedly
silent.

	Had Demitri's plan succeeded after all? Bishamon had no idea what the birth
of a god would look like; an explosion was certainly one possibility. But
Haohmaru had not been on the roof, or at least he had not been onscreen, and
there was a new champion of the Rumble. Demitri could not have fulfilled his
plan.

	He couldn't have.

	Bishamon headed out of the ring. He would have to look for himself.

	Meanwhile, Birdman was a little upset. This is an understatement. "Demitri
and Ryo are a '*Special Grudge Match*'? Was that excuse at the bottom of
your box of popcorn?"

	"I find myself noting, Birdman, that you didn't have a better idea,"
Wanderer retorted. "Would you like me to tell the audience that there's a
fight on the roof of the hotel to determine the next God? As bad as things
are, a riot would make them worse, to say nothing of the fact that another
tournament already *had* that idea..."

	"Yeah, I know," Birdman grumbled. "By the way, Brant, is there anything
wrong with that viewer?" He continued sarcastically, "Did Guy go into Golden
Axe II, perhaps?"

	Brant looked up from it. "No, I don't think--"

	"WAIT."

	The audience hushed abruptly, and the relay from the ringside microphones
echoed into the booth. Slowly, the staff looked up from what they were doing.

	Bishamon stopped in his tracks.

	In the control booth, Birdman's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

	Wanderer smiled slowly. "All *right*..."

	Misty John slapped himself in the forehead.

	"This fight...is *not* over..."

	Slowly, Guy pulled himself back into the ring.

_Lobby, Rumbledome Hotel_

	The doors opened, and Doom rudely brushed by a number of maids as he strode
out of the elevator car. The disturbance he sensed was nearby. He could
taste it, like sulfur and wine, at the back of his throat.

	As he walked, the second elevator car opened, and Rose, wearily, exited.
Doom turned, feeling her aura, and nodded his greeting.

	Rose nodded back. "Are you still Doom?"

	"For the nonce," Doom responded in Romanian. "I believe we are here for the
same reasons?"

	"Most likely." Rose spoke in the same language.

	"Excellent. Do you know what we face?"

	Rose's mouth thinned to a line. "I've some idea."

	"Then you may lead." Doom bowed as she walked past him.

	The two of them walked out the front doors, and around. White light died
from the top of the hotel, the fight between Ryo and Demitri distant and
meaningless half a mile above, and a distinct feeling of tension and unease
pervaded the entire 'Dome. To the mundanes, it was completely understandable
at this late date in the Rumble. To Doom and Rose, though, the air was
unmistakable.

	Rose and Doom stood at the edge of a crater visible only to those with the
trained eyes to see. They stared into the mouth of a tunnel to chaos.

	Hell defies description. It always has.

	The Dark Guy had come to the Rumble.

	For a long moment, neither moved. Then, Doom shook himself, seeming to come
awake, and turned Rose away from the hole before they both lost their souls.

	"He's...actually...there..." Rose murmured. "He's waiting..."

	"I know." Doom was calm. He had, after all, done this before. "And I know
for what."

_Wreckage, Room 1891, RumbleDome Hotel_

	Terry was slowing down.

	Cyclops' firing pattern began to cage him in. He dodged around the
onslaught as best he could, and tried to work his way in close, but Cyclops
knew what he was doing. The X-Man, standing against the wall, calmly blocked
Terry into a smaller and smaller space, limiting the room he had to move.

	Finally, it paid off; one blast clipped across Terry's upper arm, drawing
blood, and as Terry clutched reflexively at this new wound, a second shot
struck him in the knee, rendering most of that leg numb. Terry slumped to
the floor.

	Cyclops smiled confidently, and began to draw in power for a final,
consuming blast. Red energy began to leak out from his visor, obscuring his
vision.

	At the same time, Terry's eyes narrowed, and the pain in his leg grew
distant. Cyclops had stopped firing. Terry pushed himself off the ground
with his good leg, chi surging up his body into his extended arm, sheet
lightning engulfing his hand.

	Cyclops yelled, "MEGA OPTIC--"

	Through the haze of energy from his eyes, Cyclops' vision was suddenly
filled by Terry's glowing fist. He caught a brief and distinct whiff of ozone.

	 "*BURN KNUCKLE*!"

	There was a sharp report as Cyclops' jaw broke. More importantly, his
finger spasmed on the trigger in his costume's glove, slamming his visor
shut again. The Mega Optic Blast expended itself harmlessly against the
ruby-quartz shield inside.

	"Now," Terry said with satisfaction, pulling Cyclops to his feet by the
front of his uniform, "we're gonna have words." Cyclops tried to fire, to
knock this madman away from him, but Terry saw his finger twitch and the
visor begin to open. Terry brought one fist back and drove it forward,
crushing the visor against Cyclops' head.

	Cyclops flipped the switch again. Then again. Then back and forth really
fast. He realized that the visor no longer could open. All that happened was
a rapid clicking sound.

	Terry smiled. It was not a nice smile at all.

	Then he kicked some ass.

	Across the room, in an entirely different state of affairs:

	"DIE! DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE...no, wait...yeah. DIE!!!!
AHAHAHAHAHAAHAH!!!" Mizuki's sorceries assaulted Ryu at every turn. The
Shotokan fighter trembled from numerous trips to hell, and wounds from her
gohei striped across his arms and chest. It was a testament to his skill
that he hadn't been transformed into a pig, cut in half, caught in an
explosion, or disoriented, but Mizuki was working on it.

	Ryu leaped over a mystic orb (which struck Sodom), and threw a flying
roundhouse at Mizuki. The kick struck air, and Ryu landed roughly, as Mizuki
cackled and sank into one of her portals, which spat her back out behind Ryu.

	As Ryu jumped a second time to avoid another glowing sphere (which bounced
off the wall into Sodom's back; he started teleporting around the room in a
series of explosions as Heavy D! looked on bemusedly), he turned around and
threw a Hadoken at the priestess, who calmly stepped to the side and let the
fireball move past her. As she turned back to Ryu (ignoring Sodom's
remateralization, both jittes broken, directly in front of the stray
Hadoken), she noticed Ryu moving towards her in a Hurricane Kick.

	She cackled, and sank out of consensual space again.

	Ryu frowned as he landed. In another human being, this would have been
representative of a fifteen-minute cursing streak.

	As Mizuki reappeared from her portal, though, his eyebrows shot back up. An
idea occurred to him.

	Mizuki came forward slashing at him with her gohei. Ryu blocked stoically,
and leapt in again with a powerful kick. As she sank into her portal again
to avoid it, Ryu tucked his legs in and landed at its edge.

	As Mizuki ran through hell to reappear on Earth, Ryu, looking down, glowed
as he concentrated his chi into his hands.

	A Shinkuu Hadoken disappeared into the portal just as it closed.

	The results were appropriately spectacular.

	A moment later, the portal opened behind him, and Ryu was treated to the
once-in-a-lifetime sight of Rashoujin Mizuki, sorceress, high priestess of
the Dark Guy, and scourge of medieval Japan, launched into the air like a
cannonball out of her own portal. She left a plume of smoke behind her as
she flew.

	If he hadn't been in the middle of a fight, Ryu would have smiled.

	As Mizuki came down from the sky, Ryu took two steps towards her, winding
up directly underneath her, and concentrated for a second time. The room
dimmed; Ryu glowed; Mizuki seemed to pause in the air for a moment.

	"SHINKUU..."

	Mizuki's eyes widened for a frozen span of time.

	"...TATSUMAKI SENPUUKYAKU!"

	Pain ensued. Mizuki bounced around under the force of Ryu's kick like a
tennis ball in a dryer. As Ryu slowed, she hit the ground with a heavy thump.

	Slowly, she pulled herself back to her feet, and pointed her gohei at Ryu.

	He tensed, ready for anything.

	She slowly opened her mouth. All that came out was, "...my...doggy..."
before she fell over once more, her eyes rolled up in her head.

	Notably, she hit the ground at about the same time an *extremely* battered
Cyclops did.

	Ryu looked over at Terry. "Are you all right, Bogard-san?"

	Terry adjusted his cap. He was still smiling disturbingly. "Never better. You?"

	"I am also well."

	Suddenly, a harsh crack sounded over the din of the battle. Both Ryu and
Terry looked up and watched as the prone form of Sodom came flying between
them, impacting with the wall next to Ryu and bouncing forward onto his knees.

	Looking up at them both, he weakly said, "Mad Gear...will...destroy you
all..." before falling forward on his face.

	Terry looked confused. "What the hell was that about?"

	Ryu shrugged. "I have often thought this man is insane."

	Heavy D! jogged up to the two of them. "How you guys doin'?"

	Terry clapped him on the back. "Just fine. Nice work."

	D! shrugged. "Easiest fight I've ever had. This guy's got the worst luck in
the world."

	Ryu nodded. "Sodom is not known for his fortune. What shall we do--"

	There was not a lot left of the wall separating the suite from the hallway,
but a chunk out of it vaporized just the same. The smell of scorched plaster
filled the room, but most of the people inside were already used to it.
However, a more disturbing feeling came with it--that of flame, and anger,
and cold fear.

	Through the hole, a figure flew in a ragged arc, crashing to the ground in
a heap directly in front of Ryu. It wore the burned remnants of a
yellow-and-blue uniform, and the claws extending out of the gloves glowed
white-hot with fading fire.

	Wolverine groaned weakly, trying to get back to his feet.

	D! and Terry looked at each other. "Oh, *sh--*"

	"HUMANS!" someone--something--bellowed.

	Pyron focused on Ryu, Terry, and D!, stalking through the rest of the
fighting as though it was somewhere else. The alien's chest, neck, and arms
(or the equivalents thereof) rhythmically bled flame from numerous deep
wounds, gushing down his chest and leaving trails behind it of slow-burning
liquid fire. It seemed a bit wobbly, but no less powerful than before.

	"WHERE IS KYO KUSANAGI?!"

	"Crap. It woke up." D! turned to Ryu and Terry. "Don't tell him."

	Ryu, being very careful not to glance at where Kyo lay, assumed his stance.
"You will have to fight us for that information."

	D! did a double-take. "What the hell d'you mean *us*?" he demanded.

	"He means we're gonna kick this thing's ass all over this node before it so
much as *sees* Kyo." Terry stepped up next to Ryu and gestured for Pyron to
come closer.

	"Very well," Pyron crackled softly. "I shall have to be sure to leave you
voices with which to speak."

_Rooftop, RumbleDome Hotel_

	Ryo waited for his eyes to clear.
 
	Around him, white light fled into the darkness, reflecting off of the
falling rain and surrounding him with short-lived rainbows. It was a
spectacularly beautiful effect that he didn't have time to appreciate.

	A shallow streak of polished concrete stretched the length of the roof away
from him, like a gutter, ending abruptly with a large crater in the side of
the roof. The helicopter, which had been orbiting the roof tightly for some
reason (Ryo didn't notice the camera), now pulled away, keeping a more
respectful distance.

	Demitri stood weakly in the center of the "gutter". His eyes were vacant.
Most of his clothing was gone, blown into nothingness by the force of the
blast, but his aura flared fiercer than ever, obscuring the finer details of
his form in a blinding sheen of blue.

	"I had...no idea..." Demitri said, almost to himself. With the helicopter's
departure, he no longer had to scream to be heard. His back straightened,
and his eyes met Ryo's. "I underestimated both your power, and your
willingness to use it."

	Ryo nodded, waiting calmly for the other shoe to drop.

	Demitri nodded back. "In other times, Sakazaki, I would consider you a
worthy foe. I do not say that about many upon this side of life. Cherish that."

	"Somehow, I doubt I will."

	Demitri's form disappeared into shadow with a slight sound of rushing air. 

	"That, Sakazaki, is your privilege." Demitri's fists struck Ryo in the
back, a blow that would have shattered another man's spine. Ryo rolled with
it, only to find himself in the arms of the vampire a second time as Demitri
teleported ahead of him.

	Demitri slammed him into the roof a second time, headfirst, crushing
concrete into vapor.

	Ryo knew he was in trouble.

	Demitri grabbed his leg and tried to bite into his foot, into the cluster
of veins behind the ankle. Ryo planted his hands on the roof and kicked out,
one foot into Demitri's jaw and the other into his nose, slamming the
vampire's mouth shut with a sound like a drawbridge going down. A fang chipped.

	As Demitri clapped both hands to his mouth, Ryo brought his feet down,
rolled forward, and came up to his feet. As Demitri rushed forward, Ryo spun
on his heel and tried to sweep him off his feet; this failed, largely due to
the fact that Demitri was no longer on the ground. Demitri scooped Ryo off
of the ground and out of his crouch, bringing both of them ten feet into the
air and punching Ryo viciously downward.

	Ryo fell roughly to the roof surface, bounced, and tried to get up. He
couldn't. Demitri's foot was on his chest.

	"Good try," Demitri said, unruffled and calm once again. "Better than most
before you." Ryo didn't answer, busy trying to get up. "But, of course,
doomed to--"

	Demitri fell over like he'd been poleaxed. Ryo's feet had found the inside
of Demitri's free kneecap. 

	Ryo somersaulted backwards. One of his feet found no purchase, and he
scrambled for a second. Looking down, he found himself standing at the
blasted hole in the roof's edge.

	Demitri got to his feet. Both stared at each other for a moment, waiting to
see who would make the next move.

	Then, both began wondering why it had suddenly become very warm.

	A look over the edge of the roof answered that question.

	Below them, a small spot in the pavement before the hotel's entrance boiled
the angry red of infected skin, radiating a rising pillar of heat and steam.
>From Ryo and Demitri's vantage point, it seemed about the size of a manhole
cover, but something about it pulled vision forward. Even from their height,
both Ryo and Demitri could see every detail, from the cracks upon its
surface to Rose and Jago standing at its edge.

	It was a portal, and it led to a throneroom. Neither of them had ever seen
Charlotte's home in Versailles, but if they had, the similarity wouldn't
have gone unnoticed. Draperies, depicting brutalities from throughout the
world, hung upon the walls, and velvet carpeting covered the floor. An
elaborate mural, its brushwork too complex for the mortal mind to follow,
took up an entire wall behind the throne.

	Slowly, as if enjoying the anticipation, the inhabitant of the throne,
surrounded by his 'court' of demons and the damned, rose from his seat.  He
appeared as a man in a carefully chosen gray business suit, tie, and fedora.
Diamonds glittered from his cufflinks and his teeth shone white in a lying
genuine smile. The blood that churned below the surface of his skin gave the
illusion away.

	Demitri's eyes widened, and Ryo swallowed hard.

	HELLO, DEMITRI, the Dark Guy said. Even with the distance between them, his
voice echoed clearly in their minds. I BELIEVE WE'VE REACHED SOMETHING OF AN
IMPASSE HERE.

	"I'm going to give you what you want!" Demitri screamed back at him. "I
just need more time!" The vampire began to sweat blood.

	TIME IS A LUXURY, IF YOU'LL PARDON THE EXPRESSION, THAT YOU NO LONGER HAVE.
YOU PROMISED ME BLOOD AND DESTRUCTION; YOU'VE GIVEN ME THAT, THOUGH IT HAS
BEEN WOEFULLY CONFINED TO THIS PALTRY DIMENSION. MORE TO THE POINT, I SEE
THAT YOU MANAGED TO AVOID REVEALING YOUR PLANS DIRECTLY TO ME THE FIRST TIME
WE SPOKE, AS IF IT MATTERED...DO YOU HONESTLY THINK THAT NO ONE HAS EVER
TRIED TO CHALLENGE ME FOR DOMINION OF HELL BEFORE? OR THAT I DID NOT KNOW
WHEN ONE OF MY SERVANTS INTENDED TO TRY?

	Demitri's expression didn't change.

	I ADMIRE YOUR AMBITION, BUT I OBVIOUSLY CAN'T ALLOW YOU TO CARRY THROUGH
WITH IT. WHAT'S MORE, I WANT THE SOUL OF THE SAMURAI, DEMITRI. HE HAS
INTERFERED WITH MY PLANS TOO OFTEN TO BE ALLOWED FURTHER EXISTENCE. AND,
SEEING AS HOW I DON'T HAPPEN TO SEE THE SAMURAI AROUND ANYWHERE, IT WOULD
APPEAR THAT I'M GOING TO HAVE TO CONTENT MYSELF WITH YOURS. The Dark Guy
made a vague, all-encompassing gesture with his hand. AND, OF COURSE, THIS
INTERESTING LITTLE NODE HERE.

	Demitri immediately rushed at Ryo. Ryo threw himself out of the way; the
vampire's hands instead gouged into the rooftop's surface.

	Ryo came out of his roll standing. "What in the hell..."

	"You heard him," Demitri said, throwing a Vampire Rage. As Ryo flipped
forward over it, Demitri Demon Cradled him out of the air. Ryo hit the
rooftop hard. Demitri teleported again, picked Ryo up, and sent him flying
towards the edge. "He wants my soul. Therefore, he's going to have to
content himself with *yours*."

	As Ryo dodged around Demitri, the Dark Guy's laughter shook their minds.

---
Thomas Wilde
wanderer@ecom.net,  vox_ex_machina@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/3114/index.html
***********
You only see what you want to believe
When you light in the back with those tricks up your sleeve
That don't mean I can't hang
But the day that I die will be the day I shut my mouth
	-Sublime, "Same In The End"