"YURI SAKAZAKI!" (KOF96)
Thanks to Mai, "Here Comes The Bride" accompanied Yuri's entrance into the ring.
As she walked down, she looked around for Ryo and Robert. Robert she saw waving at her from one of the upper decks (he would've been hard to miss; somehow, he'd managed to get a sign that read "YURI CHO UPPER!" and was waving it crazily), and she saw Ath ena sitting by herself, but no Ryo.
"The universe better not be in trouble again, dammit," Yuri muttered.
"BILLY KANE!" (RBFFS)
No one came out.
"BILLY KANE!" (RBFFS)
Still, no one came out.
"I SAID, BILLY FREAKIN' KANE!" (RBFFS)
"Just go on to the next fighter, man."
"Roger that."
"KYOSHIRO!" (SS4)
As the kabuki fighter hopped crazily down to the ring, a minor altercation broke out in the locker room.
"That... that beast!" Kabuki Jo was mad as hell. "He's stolen my look! I worked on this for a thousand years!"
"You didn't work on it hard enough," the nearby Choi Bounge told him. "You look like a vicious mime. Siddown."
Jo did, grumpily. There would be vengeance, he vowed. But it would wait until he entered the ring.
Sub-Basement 8-12-23, RumbleDome Hotel
"I cannot believe what I am seeing," Blackheart said incredulously.
The demons looked like they'd been fed through a garbage disposal. Twice. The exceptions to this were Asmodeus and Jedah; one, because he was bigger than most, and the other, because his fighting style involved effectively feeding himself through a garbage disposal and then healing very quickly.
"If all it takes for you to fight amongst yourselves is for me to leave the room, then this alliance was, perhaps, doomed before it began." Blackheart blasted Ogre into a wall on general principle. "But that will not stop me from taking souls, even if I must destroy you all to do so."
"By what authority do you do this, Blackheart?" Ogre said, getting up in a careful crouch. He was ready to spring.
"By my own. Are you willing to challenge it?"
"No." Ogre stood up straight.
"And the rest of you?"
"I aM sTiLl YoUr AlLy," Asmodeus rumbled. He seemed distracted by something.
"I am as well," Jedah said. "That was fun. I hope we can do it again."
"You're insane, dear boy," Ogre said.
"Yes, and I enjoy it a great deal."
"I am still with you, Blackheart," Shinnok said quietly. "Even if there was no power to be gained here, I would do so to punish Quan Chi for his idiocy."
"You're all wiser than you look." Blackheart surveyed his forces. "Heal your wounds. Maximov was recently eliminated, and I saw many fighters combing these catacombs looking for him. We need not tarry here any longer--"
The wall behind Blackheart was reduced to powder, throwing the king of Hell on his face.
"I'M THE JUGGERNAUT!" Cain Marko declared, raising his arms to the sky and glowing red. "Which one of you is Asmodeus?"
Asmodeus was jerked from his attempts to contact Deimos by that voice. "WhO sUmMoNs Me?"
"I do, sleazeball!" As he walked across the room, the Juggernaut absently flattened half the demons in it. Grendal was thrown the length of the room and punched through a wall. Nina Williams, zombie though she was, ran like hell. Jedah was crushed undern eath one of the Juggernaut's feet, but didn't seem to mind. "You ain't gonna get the chance to try and take me out!"
"Do YoU fAnCy YoUrSeLf A dEmOn HuNtEr, ThEn?" Asmodeus rasped, drawing himself to his full height. "AlLoW mE tO rId YoU oF tHaT dElUsIoN."
"You ain't gonna live that long, pal."
Back in the shadows, Demitri watched the demons scurry away from the two titans, and smiled quietly to himself. Marko's helmet was a marvelous thing, but even without telepathy, he was so easy to manipulate it was almost sad.
Everything was, for once, going according to plan.
The Ring
"Yo, bosses." Kelly sounded bored. "Kane's checked in. He says he was in the shower or somethin', and he's ready to enter the ring."
"It's about time."
"BILLY KANE!" (RBFFS)
"Hey, hey, hey!"
Billy, winded from running all the way up from the basement, took a moment to catch his breath and then walked down the aisle with an electric guitar in his hands, strumming out something that vaguely sounded like "Anarchy in the U.K.".
He hadn't found the Mind Gem, true, but there was King, and if Billy wasn't mistaken, she had a Gem of her own. That'd be worth some coin to Geese for sure, and Lily's birthday was coming up.
Billy tossed the guitar away, caught his staff as one of the security men tossed it to him, and leapt into the ring.
As he did, a slow bass line came out of the speakers. The doors to the ready room swung open on their own.
"AND NOW, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN..."
Birdman turned down the lights as he spoke.
A massive trophy was wheeled out from the ready room. It was almost too big to fit in the aisle, and it took four strong men to even push it along. A stenciled "UVR2" was clearly visible on its side, even in the dim light.
Slowly, a humming bass line rose up from the P.A. system, intersecting the one already there. A slow tide of applause from the audience came up to underscore it, filling the air with an electric current of tension.
"HIYAA!"
The trophy, crushed and dented, tipped over. A man flipped over it and dashed towards the ring in a dead run, not even waiting for his announcement.
"PRESENTING, THE CURRENT CHAMPION OF THE ULTIMATE VIDEO RUMBLE, FROM STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3, GUY!!"
The audience roared as Guy concluded his Bushin Run with a flying side kick, throwing himself over the "ropes" and clocking Iori in the back of the head in the same fluid motion.
In the booth, Wanderer turned to Birdman. "You want to tell them the next one, or should I?"
"You do it."
"Cool."
"BISHAMON! (DS3)"
The audience, not sure they'd just heard that, shut up and turned towards the ready room doors.
"GUY!" the suit of armor roared, striding in from the ready room. "COME GET SOME!"
"You idiot!" the sword whispered to the armor. "That's not how Bish talked!"
"What would he say?"
"'Challenge me', maybe?" one of the flames offered.
"Oh, all right. CHALLENGE ME, GUY!"
"That's better," the other flame said.
Guy turned around and watched Bishamon come. Slowly, a smile found its way onto his face.
Skybox Seats, RumbleDome
"Clear the couch! Give him someplace to lie down! Rancid, what in the hell did you get yourself into?"
"...fought some guy... he looked kinda like cottage cheese gone bad."
"Figures."
"Is Rancid-sama injured?"
Matrix looked up. "Musashi, I thought you were--"
"Drunk? No. I was merely meditating."
"Forsooth, friend Musashi, your style of meditation is wondrous strange. It appears to be virtually indistinguishable from someone passed out in his own--"
"We shall not speak of that now, Wulf-san." Musashi moved next to the couch. "Rancid, what or who did this to you?"
"This..." With effort, Rancid dropped a rock about the size of a Sunday newspaper onto the couch next to him. It looked like iron ore, but glowed the same shade of green as he did. "...don't touch it."
Wulf snatched his hand back guiltily.
"Yes, the Ore is a tempting thing, is it not?"
Matrix sprang to her feet, powering up her lightsaber as she did. Wulf drew his broadsword at the same time as Musashi pulled both his blades from their sheaths.
A woman stood in the doorway to their skybox. She wore an elaborate contraption of vinyl and synthetic leather that showed more than it covered. She was accompanied by what appeared to be a cyborg--Orion yelled something obscene at it from the floor--and a man who, once he stepped into the light, was revealed to not be a man at all, but a mobile statue.
"I am Pagan. That is a sample of the Ore. It is coming with me, and, while I think of it, your mutated friend."
"The hell he is, bitch," Matrix snarled. "Where'd you get the outfit? Did you melt down your record collection?"
"Witty," Pagan mused. "No, child, your friend really has no choice but to come with me. He is of our kind now, and is no longer the man who you knew. He is now a War God, and deserves to be with his own."
Wulf's eyes bulged out. "Monstrous! A fate worse than death!"
"Those guys suck," Leif volunteered. He rolled over and passed out again.
"Do not trifle with me, mortals. I wield forces you cannot hope to comprehend." Pagan sneered.
"Fine. I don't have to comprehend those forces if all I'm doing is shoving them down your throat backwards." Matrix leapt over the couch. "Get 'er!"
"This will end badly," Musashi murmured, but ran into battle.
Sub-basements, RumbleDome Hotel
Ryo leapt out at the man coming down the corridor. At the same time, the man flung himself forward at him, and his fist burst into an orange blast of flame.
"Whoa! Hold on, Kyo! It's me!"
"Sakazaki. Good to see you alive." Kyo caught himself before the punch landed, but did not extinguish his hand. "You seen Beni or Goro?"
"Not since I was separated. I took down a couple of them, but it was way too easy to get away."
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. You get the impression we're being herded?"
Ryo nodded.
"Good." Kyo looked like a demon in the light from his hand. "If they've done something to Beni or Goro, they're gonna have a hard time dying."
"I don't doubt that. Come on."
The two of them quietly snuck around the subbasements. The echoes of some far-off confrontations were all around them, making them both extraordinarily jumpy.
"Hold on." Kyo held up his hand.
"What?"
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear wha--"
The Juggernaut was thrown through the wall between them, skidding into and through the wall on the other side of the hallway. He was up and on his feet just in time to meet Asmodeus, who shot through the hole he'd made, with a Juggernaut Punch.
"Oh, *hell*--" Kyo started.
"Split up!" Ryo yelled. "Get back to the surface!"
Kyo nodded, and both men ran like hell in the opposite direction.
The Ring
"ZANGIEF!" (MvC)
Zangief roared and turned in place, both arms in the air, as he walked down the aisle, milking the crowd for all the applause he could. Someone in the back started a chant of "BEEF! BEEF! BEEF!" that grew until it shook the 'Dome.
"LUTHOR!" (I&B)
Once again, no one came out. Even five minutes later, there was no sign of Luthor.
"Screw it. Let's move on."
"Got it."
"ZANKURO!" (SS4)
Luthor and Zankuro came out of the ready room doors in a shower of sparks. The two men duelled each other all the way down to the ring, giving those fanboys who'd stuck their arms through the bars on either side of the aisle one hell of a surprise .
"In the name of Helm, I shall send you to the Hells, tyrant!"
"My reputation precedes me, I see."
"Aye, a reputation of evil! Prepare to die!"
"Prepare to have your illusions shattered, little man." Zankuro struck at Luthor with a two-handed slash that cut through the air itself.
"FEEL HIS WRATH!" At the same time, Luthor thrust his sword towards Zankuro's stomach.
They hit at the same time. Both men fell down, clutching their wounds.
"...you foolish... I will cut you... in half..." Zankuro keeled over.
"No, creature... you will... cause no more harm..." Luthor toppled.
The fighters went quiet.
"I have absolutely no idea how that happened," Rimururu declared.
"HUGO!" (SF3:2I)
"Auf der Bohle und in das Licht / ein Wesen mich zu gehen drängt / für die selbe Sache und das alte Leid / meine Tränen mit Gelächter fängt..."
"'Rammstein,' right?" Birdman asked.
"Yup." Wanderer was underneath the counter going through the CD box.
"Do you have any idea what they're saying?"
"None whatsoever."
"Okay, Hugo, you know what to do. Get in there, and kick some ass." Poison was speaking animatedly, her hands moving in intricate patterns. "...Ryu's still a tough one, and Dudley's strong, but you can do it, big guy! These other guys ain't nothin'!"
"Okay, Poison. If you say so." Gingerly, Hugo climbed into the ring. As he stepped over them, Luthor and Zankuro slowly climbed to their feet and resumed fighting.
Eliminated Seating_
"...98...99...100." Mordos Kull put the gold coins away into his breastplate. The Pool of Radiance node, it turned out, had a standing bounty on goblin ears. It had been a profitable fifteen minutes.
He walked into the Eliminated seating, smoothly dodging the running battle between Kazuki and Sogetsu as he did, and headed straight into the hotel to do some reconnissance.
Rather, he tried.
"You seek a child."
Kull turned to Xiao Long. "You need to stop doing that, monk. It's unsettling."
"It is my nature." The monk got up and walked beside Mordos. "You go to fight evil. I seek to join you."
"Why's that?"
"I sense that we are unwittingly in the center of a great many plots, Mordos Kull. I know none of the plotters, but the Mace of Tanis will undoubtedly come to be vital to one or many of them. I desire to fight them, and your quest will, for the moment, b e a step towards doing this."
Kull considered this. "Fine. Just don't get in my way."
"You will only know I am there if it is necessary."
"Good enough. The child's name is Jan. His captor is named 'Geese Howard', and he's got a lot of friends. Do you still feel like coming with me?"
"Of course."
"I figured as much. Let's go."
The Ring
"HORNET!" (FM)
*beep, beep!*
The audience had been wondering why UVR staff had been hastily setting up a ramp in front of the ring for the last couple of minutes. Now, that question was answered as a race car revved its engine and shot down the aisle at 100 mph.
Billy Kane looked up and watched it zoom towards them. "What in the bloody hell--"
The car jumped into the ring, landed on its back tires, and punched Billy in the face with one of its front rims.
"Yes, ladies and gentlemen, from Fighters' Megamix, it's Hornet, the fighting car!" Wanderer said into the mike. That's four mystery fighters down, and eight to go, here at UVR3!"
And, the final fighter of this Section...
"KASUMI TODO!" (KOF96)
Kasumi walked down to ringside slowly and calmly, watching Hornet zoom around the edges of the ring at a high rate of speed. As she hopped in, she hit it in the driver's side door with a Kasaneate, knocking it offcourse and thus managing to sideswipe hal f the ring.
She dusted her hands together as Dudley ran up. "Hi! What's your name?"
"I'm Dudley, miss." Dudley shook her hand. "Look, if you don't mind, don't harm the car, please?"
"What?"
"That's a 1997 Rushback Racer! It's running a V8 with four hundred horsepower, fuel injection, with a top speed of one hundred and eighty bloody kilometers an hour. It's a very nice automobile indeed. If you could avoid hurting it, I'd be most--"
Kasumi gave him a look.
"Oh. All right, then." Dudley sketched a bow and ran off again.
Kasumi sighed. "This is gonna be weird. Hey, King! Wait up!"
WHO WILL LIVE?
WHO WILL DIE?
HOW MANY LAWS DOES HORNET VIOLATE?