DREAM TOURNAMENT IV: ROUND ONE RESULTS
Part One
Where do I find Dream Tournament posts?
1) posted as they come out in rec.games.video.arcade, rec.games.video.sony,
rec.games.video.nintendo, and rec.games.video.sega.
2) available via ftp at brawl.ecom.net, in the pub/dream-tournament/IV
directory.
The results are finally ready, and we apologize sincerely for the delay,
but various unforeseeable circumstances have come up, and have demanded
more of our time than we had anticipated. But here are the results! We
hope you enjoy them, and we'd like to think they were worth the wait! We
promise we'll do better next time. ;)
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MATCH 1: CYRAX (MK3) vs. CHOI BOUNGE (KOF95)
--------------------------------------------
"Well?" asked Choi. "Aren't you going to do anything?"
Cyrax did not move. Not even an iota. Choi figured this would just
be an easy victory, if the robot wasn't going to actually fight. So, when
Kuroko signaled the start of the match, he immediately hopped onto the
cyborg's back and began fiddling with his control panel.
"What are you doing, Dave?" asked Cyrax.
"Huh?"
"You're not trying to shut me down, are you?" continued the cyborg.
"Umm, no," said Choi, "but just sit still a moment."
"I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that," continued Cyrax in a disturbingly
calm voice.
"Want to bet?" asked Choi, and dug his blades into the control panel.
"You're not going anywhere now," he said, once the electricity had finished
giving him a not-quite natural high. If the little man had had hair, it
would all be standing on end. Cyrax was totally inert once more.
Choi gave his opponent a tiny push, and the cyberninja fell over,
completely inert. And down for the count.
[WINNER: CHOI BOUNGE-28 votes, CYRAX-23 votes, DRAW-0, DKO-2]
MATCH 2: SHANG TSUNG (MK3) vs. HAOHMARU (SS3)
---------------------------------------------
Shang Tsung smirked, as the starting bell clanged. "Indeed, ronin, I can think of only ONE way to match your 'legendary' skill," he spat, tauntingly, as his features began to fade and shift. Haohmaru's eyes widened in amazement to find himself staring at a near mirror-image of himself. The figure opposite him sported a similar gi, only blue instead of white, and had fewer scars. "OOOH GOODY!" Shang-maru boomed, "A CHALLENGER! WHO'S STRONGER? HINT. ME!!!"
"WHAT?" replied Haohmaru in a slightly louder voice. The kind that
you can't hear a jet engine over. "MY IMITATION? YOU HAVE GUTS!!!" Both
mirrored each other, taking swigs from their respective sake jugs, and purified their blades with a mouthful of the rice wine.
******
Down on the arena floor, Jolly Green and Deuce were observing the match. "Interesting move," the Jovial one mused. "I guess Shang doesn't know that Haoh's got a few new tricks up his sleeves."
"WHAT?!" Deuce yelled. He couldn't hear his large compatriot over the battle of Legendary (TM) volume.
******
The first round, Shang-Tsung's mistake became _painfully_ obvious. He found Haohmaru dodging off to the side, avoiding many of his slashes, and responding in force. After three painful blows, Shang-maru fell to the mat.
Round 2, Shang was determined not to get within duelling range. He'd witnessed Haohmaru's increased agility and strength, and so was going to have to rely upon the one place they were equal... projectiles. "SENPUU RETSUZAN!!!" the sorceror-ronin intoned, as the force of his slash
created a tornado that barreled straight at Haohmaru.
Haoh leapt into the air above the projectile, just as Shang thought he
would. With a smirk, Shang-maru began a Kogetsuzan, when he heard
something that gave him pause.
"SENPUU RETSUZAN!!!" Haohmaru yelled, as he threw a similar tornado...
from mid air. Shang-Maru was caught up in the blast, turned head over
heels, and then dropped to the ground. As he climbed to his feet, he saw
the ronin charging him. He strained to get his sword up to block, but
Haohmaru was already shouting something... "KOGETSUZAN!" screamed the
ronin, as he charged the sorceror, barreling into him as he began his
Legendary(TM) slash. The pair flew up into the air, locked in combat, and
both fell to earth. Haohmaru landed on his feet.
Shang-maru climbed to his feet, slightly woozy. With a snarl, he
slashed out at Haohmaru, who had his back turned to him, apparently
thinking he had been defeated. Haoh stumbled forwards for a moment
blinking oddly.
"HAH!" the ronin laughed. "YOUR ATTACK WAS THAT OF A CLUMSY CHILD!!!"
With that he drew his beloved Fugu blade back, and struck out at Shang Tsung
with considerable force. Shang Tsung fell to the mat, neatly bisected by
Haohmaru's slash. He threw his blade up into the air. It twirled, and spun,
as it reached its apex, and then fell neatly into the scabbard he held
outstretched, and he grinned. The ronin looked down, as the pieces o'
Tsung morphed back to their true form. "I SLAY MY IMITATION WITH MY SWORD,
TOGETHER WITH MT. FUJI!" he declared, before dashing off to the locker rooms.
[WINNER: HAOHMARU-46 votes, SHANG TSUNG-12 votes, DRAW-0, DKO-1]
MATCH 3: SONYA BLADE (MK3) vs. ANDY BOGARD (KOF95)
--------------------------------------------------
As Sonya Blade fell for the final time, the light of comprehension
(or rather, recognition) fell across Andy's face. "AH!" he exclaimed.
"I remember you now."
Sonya looked up at him, confused and panting for breath. "Wh--
what do you mean? I've never seen you before..."
"Oh, I know," replied Andy, grinning broadly. "I saw your pictorial.
Very nice." He chuckled and gave her a sly wink. Sonya blushed.
"***WHAT?!?!?!?!***" came a cry from directly behind him. Andy
turned to see a VERY annoyed-looking Mai. Andy turned sheet-white when
he realized she had heard him. Worse, she had picked up on what he meant.
Andy felt Mai's hand latch onto his ear. "WHAT did I tell you about
those magazines!!" she exclaimed, outraged. "COME WITH ME!" And she
dragged him away from the platform, completely ignoring his protests or
silencing them with evil looks, and prepared to give him a very good
talking to. Terry silently observed and winced at what he knew was soon
to come, as soon as they were out of sight...
[WINNER: ANDY BOGARD-39 votes, SONYA BLADE-14 votes, DRAW-3, DKO-0]
MATCH 4: STRYKER (MK3) vs. HON FU (RBFF)
----------------------------------------
As the round bell rang, Hon-Fu, still wincing a little as he moved,
started to close in on his opponent. The first two matches had been
close, one going to Hon, the other to Stryker. The two cops now circled
each other warily, until Stryker's attention seemed to suddenly leave the
fight.
"Donuts! Coffee and Donuts!" Cried the vendor in the stands.
Hon seized this opening to step in and scorch the unwary Stryker with
a flaming nunchaku blow...or tried to. As soon as he approached, the New
Yorker planted a patented Mortal Kombat uppercut squarely beneath his
jaw, putting the the Hong Kong flatfoot flat on his back. "Ain't NOTHING
going to stand between me and my donuts!" He roared, and bolted out of
the ring.
As Hon Fu groggily got to his feet, he found that he had been declared
the winner of the match, by Ring Out - a fact by which Stryker, happily
munching on a Boston Kreme, did not seem to be bothered in the least.
[WINNER: HON FU-33 votes, STRYKER-16 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-4]
MATCH 5: MORRIGAN (NW) vs. SAGAT (SFA)
--------------------------------------
The battle had been ferocious. Soul Fist met Tiger Blow, Tiger
Crush met Shadow Blade, and neither of the combatants was willing to give
any ground at all.
In the first round, Morrigan kept up her attack, and would allow the
tall man not an inch of breathing space, nor a split-second to rest. With
her constant string of attacks, Sagat was unable to get in close enough
to land a good combo, and every Tiger Blow he threw out was met by a
Soul Fist. Finally, with a particularly nasty smack with her cape, the
succubus took the big man down.
In the second round, Sagat managed to gain the upper hand, quite
determined that he would not be defeated by a mere woman, supernatural or
otherwise. He let fly with a powerful barrage of Tiger Blows, and finally,
his chance came. She misjudged the distance when he was jumping, and leapt
into a Shadow Blade too soon, and flew back down to where Sagat was waiting.
With a mighty battle cry, he pummeled her with a powerful kick and punch,
finishing up with a Level 3 Tiger Blow, which sent her down for the count.
Both fighters were considerably peeved at each other. In the third
round, they fought tooth and nail, abandoning all special moves and simply
moving in to pummel each other manually. Despite each fighter's best
efforts, neither was able to get a good lead over the other, and finally,
time ran out. They both looked at the lifebars, then at the judge.
"Aiuchi!" proclaimed Kuroko. It was a stalemate. A draw.
"We shall meet again, foolish male," proclaimed Morrigan.
"Forget it, woman. I've no desire to see you again, in battle or
otherwise," replied the tall kickboxer.
"We shall see... we shall see..."
[DRAW MATCH: MORRIGAN-29 votes, SAGAT-23 votes, DRAW-5, DKO-1]
MATCH 6: BLUE MARY (RBFF) vs. SODOM (SFA)
-----------------------------------------
Sodom slid forward, slashing his jitte at his opponent. Blue Mary
expertly caught it, and pulled a taser from her pocket, giving the odd
masked man a severe jolt for his efforts. He resolved to fight more
conservatively, to let her come to him.
Blue Mary, however, had been caught in some of Sodom's more painful grabs... she had no desire for him to play "wheelbarrow" with her face again. She decided to rely more on her counters, which had served her well so far. She would fight defensively.
Unfortunately, with both fighters taking this mentality, the fight never really GOT anywhere after that, so Kuroko was forced, when time ran out (in the fourth round of neither fighter being scratched), to declare the match a draw. Most people were just glad the match was OVER. Not least of these were the tournament organizers. Hopefully the two fighters' next matches would be more entertaining....
[DRAW MATCH: SODOM-25 votes, BLUE MARY-23 votes, DRAW-4, DKO-2]
MATCH 7: EIJI SHINJO (TSD2) vs. ORCHID (KI)
-------------------------------------------
Eiji looked around in the seconds he had, before the starting bell rang. His face betrayed the awe he felt at the size of the tournament. He looked over at his opponent as she lit up her laser-batons. With a nod, they squared off, and prepared to do battle.
Eiji quickly rolled to the side, and hazarded a quick poke to Orchid's
leg. Suddenly a cry arose... but not from his opponent.
"Se magnifique!!!" applauded Charlotte from the Peanut Gallery. "A
beautiful thrust!" she added a second later, and tossed young Eiji Shinjo a rose.
"WHAT?!" protested Yagyu Jubei, "It left him wide open!" He swept his wakizashi in a brief arc for the drama of it.
"You, monsieur, are insane!" accused Charlotte, as Jubei bristled.
"EH?! Insane?! That's MY job!" boomed Wan-Fu, standing up. "As for the lad down there, he needs to display more strength!"
"YOU ARE ALL MISTAKEN!!!" shouted Haohmaru, as he rubbed his wild
mane of hair with a towel. (Do you know where YOURS is?) "THE YOUNG ONE
NEEDS MORE HAIR!!! HIS SWORDSMANSHIP IS ADEQUATE (THOUGH, OF COURSE,
NOTHING IN COMPARISON TO THAT OF I, THE LEGENDARY(TM) HAOHMARU) BUT HE DOES
NOT HAVE THE MANE OF HAIR THAT SUITS A SWORDSMAN!"
Eiji and Orchid just looked at the spectacle in the stands, and then
back at each other blinking a bit. They completely failed to realize that
time had just run out. And the winner was...
[WINNER: EIJI SHINJO-31 votes, ORCHID-13 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-8]
MATCH 8: KUNG LAO (MK3) vs. CHANG KOEHAN (KOF95)
------------------------------------------------
Chang had done everything he could think of to keep the tiny man
away from him. He had even insulted his chapeau in an attempt to distract
him. It worked only for a moment, though, before he sank into the floor
and appeared above him, catching him in the forehead with a kick.
Kung Lao was having trouble staying conscious, what with the stench
of the big man's breath. Plus, a few solid smacks with a solid iron ball
did nothing to improve the situation. But Chang was bleeding in several
places, though his blood had miraculously evaporated as it hit the ground.
Some special nodal cleanup system, obviously.
Kung Lao attempted another teleport kick, and Chang began spinning
the iron ball above his head in an attempt to counter, but the kick slipped
through anyway. And it finally seemed to affect him, through his
supremely thick skull. Chang began to teeter as Kung Lao landed, recovering
from the strain of this extended battle. He failed to notice that Chang
was teetering right in his direction.
And of course, by the time he HAD noticed, it was a bit too late. Both fighters were down (or in Kung Lao's case, under). The pressure of the incredibly huge man began pushing the Shaolin monk right through the platform. And Chang was totally unable to move.
"Ever seen The Nutty Professor?" asked Jeff.
"Umm... not sure," said Mike from the booth.
"So how do we score this? Draw?"
"Yeah, looks like it...," said Mike.
[DRAW MATCH: KUNG LAO-25 votes, CHANG KOEHAN-19 votes, DRAW-5, DKO-3]
MATCH 9: SABREWULF (KI) vs. ELLIS (TSD2)
----------------------------------------
Sabrewulf growled in frustration, as he hurled another bat at the young dancer. With a cute giggle, she nimbly cartwheeled aside. As he watched, she dashed in, and slashed him again, dodging just out of reach.
He howled in pain, and clutched his side. He tried to think of a way to repeat his first round success... He'd managed to drag her in close, but she'd taken to this quick, dashing stuff in the second round, and she was continuing it now.
He howled with rage, as he attempted to charge in close, and stopped suddenly. The entire arena, including Sabrewulf stood watching Ellis in awe, as she demonstrated her deadly new Overdrive technique.
******
Down on the floor, the Jovial One radioed up to the Control Room. "You getting this, Mike?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. What IS it?" came the slightly dazed reply.
"It seems Ellis has learned... THE MACARENA!" Jolly Green said in stunned disbelief.
Wraith's reply came in a single word. "DERG!!!"
******
Sabrewulf couldn't help himself... her movements seemed contagious. Soon, he was moving with her, dancing with her. His tail began wagging, as the clock ticked down to zero.
[WINNER: ELLIS-27 votes, SABREWULF-17 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-6]
MATCH 10: SINDEL (MK3) vs. SASQUATCH (NW)
-----------------------------------------
"Heeeeey, Macarena!" said Deuce, then suddenly caught himself, slapping at his own arms. "NO! Dammit, STOP that! I have more self-control than that!"
Sindel ignored the infectious music and dance as best she could, and charged immediately when the opening bell struck, then stopped short when she looked at her opponent.
Sasquatch was dancing too! And every single person in the crowd was "awwww"-ing at the spectacle. It was so damn CUTE! Even Sindel herself, with her black heart, was almost touched. But she had an evil idea.
"That's it!" she exclaimed. "I will merchandise you!"
Sasquatch looked up at her quizzically.
"Sasquatch the t-shirt! Sasquatch the coloring book! Sasquatch the lunchbox!" she continued.
He still looked at her oddly.
"Sasquatch the FLAME THROWER!" she said triumphantly.
"The kids LOVE this one!" everyone in the peanut gallery said in grand unison.
Being a cold-loving creature and all, Sasquatch didn't like the sound of this at all. So, while Sindel was busy on her advertising tirade, plotting how to use the merchandise to help snatch control of the Earth Realm from Shao Kahn, the abominable snowman walked up to her, opened his huge mouth wide... and et her. Et her right up.
[WINNER: SASQUATCH-42 votes, SINDEL-7 votes, DRAW-4, DKO-2]
"Bet that hurt," remarked Deuce. "Oh well, she'll be fine by this evening... midnight at the latest."
MATCH 11: KAFUIN GAIRA (SS3) vs. SARAH (VF2)
--------------------------------------------
Gaira didn't get it. He'd pondered the situation for as long as he'd
been able, but he could find no possible explanation for it. The girl
was clearly possessed. That much had been obvious from a moment's
inspection, and, indeed from the relentless way she'd pursued him
throughout the fight. However...none of his usual rituals seemed to be
having any worthwhile effect - not even the Nag Blast had proven
sufficient. He had only one trick left to try...
Wraith looked baffled, and turned to Jeff. "Is he doing what I THINK
he's doing?"
Jeff shrugged slightly. "Probably."
Indeed, the large monk appeared to be...lighting incense? He had
seated himself on the platform, legs crossed, lit a small burner of incense
on the ground in front of him, and was beginning some sort of mystical
chant.
Sarah, in spite of the hypnosis driving her to fight, paused for a
moment, and looked about as confused as everyone else. In fact, crickets
could be heard chirping in the background. Then, after a suitably
dramatic pause, she smashed the large monk under the chin with a rising
knee, sending him floating (surprisingly slowly, considering his great
mass) through the air. A quick flipkick, and the chanting ended abruptly
as Gaira fell crashing out of the ring.
----
As Gaira slowly recovered, shaking off the little men with hats and
staves who were circling about his head, and looked up, to see his
opponent standing nearby. Seeing that he'd revived (and her hypnosis was
no longer operating - for the moment), Sarah smiled a little bit. "Good
effort big guy. What was up with that last bit at the end though? One
stupid looking supermove you have there."
It was Gaira's turn to gape. "Ah..but...you....you were....ah...how is
it that...er..." He closed his mouth, shook his head, and went off to
meditate.
[WINNER: SARAH-34 votes, KAFUIN GAIRA-20 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-0]
MATCH 12: KIBAGAMI GENJURO (SS3) vs. IORI YAGAMI (KOF95)
--------------------------------------------------------
Genjuro was impressed. Throughout the entirety of the fight, he'd been hard-pressed to keep up his offensive, and his younger opponent fought with the ferocity of a caged animal. In the first round, Genjuro had fallen victim to a barrage of ground fire, and despite getting off the Three Heavens Death twice, Iori had struck in a moment of vulnerability, and come in with his super, and the powerful string of hits, followed by a direct channelling of the purple flames he had at his control, completely drained the ronin's energy.
In the second round, they squared off again, Genjuro having a newfound respect for this young fighter who so reminded him of himself. Iori was on the offensive as soon as the starting bell rang, coming in with a dashing grab, intended to slam his opponent into the ground and set him ablaze. But it was blocked, and Genjuro was prepared. He grabbed the young fighter's collar and yanked him forward, pulling him off balance, and immediately struck with an elbow smash to the small of his back. He then fired off a Hanafuda card composed of his own chi, striking at the back once again. He followed up finally with a powerful upward slash, the force of which knocked Iori off of his feet and sent him sprawling to the ground, dizzied. Genjuro stepped forward to finish off his opponent, and slashed again, then immediately ran in to follow up the attack with the Three Heavens Death. One... two... three slashes in the air. Iori dimly heard his opponent call out, "Sankyuuzutsu!" as he fell to the floor, unconscious. Round two went to the samurai.
And now, in round three, it had come down to who was going to take the last chance. Both were weakened, their life meters distressingly low. Iori leaped in with a powerful kick, and followed it up with a raking punch at Genjuro's chest, but he recovered before any more damage could be inflicted. In a desperate bid for breathing room, he began the Death of 100 Demons, and began advancing toward his opponent, slashing his sword outward almost too fast to follow. Iori blocked as best he could, but took many nicks and cuts on his arms and legs. Eventually, his stamina gave out, and he began to fall over, only to find Genjuro's hand on his shoulder and his blade at his stomach.
Iori looked up dazedly, knowing he was defeated, and waited to feel the blade stabbing through him, but the blow did not come. "You have lost," said Genjuro, "But not for lack of attempt or ability. I wish to speak to you more later." Kuroko signaled that the round, and the match had gone to the samurai. Without another word, Genjuro strode from the platform, to many cheers, leaving a confused and only half-conscious Iori staring after him.
"Speak to me... why?" he muttered, then staggered off toward the locker room.
[WINNER: KIBAGAMI GENJURO-31 votes, IORI YAGAMI-15 votes, DRAW-6, DKO-3]
MATCH 13: ANAKARIS (NW) vs. CLARK (KOF95)
-----------------------------------------
From the moment Kuroko intoned, "Shoubu!" Clark was on Anakaris like white on rice. He launched into his Triple Vulcan Punch, and managed to get Anakaris in a backbreaker or two, despite the mummy's sheer size. Anakaris soon recovered, though, and would have no more of it.
A hush fell over the crowd as Anakaris cast his Regression Curse, and everyone wondered in quiet awe at what the soldier would become. Some of the spectators who had been around LAST year were a bit nervous, since Kensou had turned into a spaceship and started blasting away. Most had
the sneaking suspicion that Clark was going to turn into a Howitzer or some such.
They couldn't be more wrong.
As the curse overtook him, he seemed to vanish from sight. And everyone looked around, and Anakaris finally noticed there was a small package where Clark had stood. He picked it up and read the label. It read, "Freshly Ground Brazilian Coffee Beans: Soldier Blend." For that extra boost in battle.
Ralf, who was standing at the sidelines, gaped in awe. Most of the other members of the peanut gallery simply laughed. Anakaris chuckled to himself, tore open the bag, and spilled its contents on the platform. Clark reeled under the weight of this experience.
"HEY!!!" cried Ralf, and leaped up onto the platform. "You can't do that! That's a waste of perfectly good coffee!!!" He immediately began scooping up the coffee grounds into his bandana, while Anakaris was declared the winner.
[WINNER: ANAKARIS-32 votes, CLARK-16 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-5]
"Oooohhh, what a rush," said Clark, after the curse had worn off. "That was better than some triple espressos I've had!"
"Really?" asked Ralf, "Maybe I can get him to try it on me..."
MATCH 14: SOFIA (TSD2) vs. JON TALBAIN (NW)
-------------------------------------------
Sofia's breath came in heaving gasps. Never before had any opponent given her such a workout. After all, she was used to a fight that was over after about a minute and a half. Not marathon sprinting.
And sprinting is EXACTLY what she was doing. She took a glance behind her, to make certain that her REASON for sprinting wasn't tiring.
Jon Talbain loped behind her on all fours, a manic grin on his face. "Come on, babe!" he howled. "Quit playing hard to get! C'mon! I don't mind the kinky stuff!"
Sofia rolled her eyes. Enough was enough. She leapt down from the platform, and sprinted for the exit. Jon tried to leap down after her, but was quickly subdued, and dragged back into the center of the ring. He howled in dismay, as Sofia turned the corner and began running for the dormitories, and he was announced the winner.
[WINNER: JON TALBAIN-32 votes, SOFIA-17 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-4]
"You know," Jolly Green remarked to Deuce, "That's the first time I've ever seen anyone so upset about winning."
MATCH 15: KAGEMARU (VF2) vs. KIM KAPHWAN (KOF95)
------------------------------------------------
Kim frowned. He wasn't frowning because he was losing this match. Quite the opposite, as far as he could tell, he had dominated from the beginning. His opponent, Kagemaru, stood a short distance away, in an uneasy guarded stance, breathing hard. No, Kim wasn't worried about his progress thus far in the match. He was worried about his opponent's apparent desire to take it easy on him. "Why do you hold back?" He asked, trying to draw some response from the reclusive man in blue.
The ninja was silent, so Kim flipped forwards with a Hangetsuzan, driving the man back another pace. "You are ninja, are you not?"
Kage lashed out with a kick, which Kim hastily blocked, then nodded.
"So...why do you hold back?"
His opponent almost seemed to frown, though it was difficult to tell. "Why do you taunt me?"
Kim blinked and paused, almost getting hit by a far reaching heel kick. "I do not taunt you. You are ninja. You are supposed to have a great bag of tricks of all shapes and styles - teleportation, invisibility, hidden weapons..."
Kage frowned, "Well...I...don't."
Kim, puzzled, nonetheless lashed out with a Comet Crunch, smashing his polygon based opponent to the mat. "Not at all?" He said as he stepped back.
Kage paused in thought for a minute, then reached inside his costume to produce...a NINJA WORLD BROCHURE!
The Tae Kwon Do champion looked mightily confused, and might've been vulnerable to a nasty energy move combo (had the ninja possessed any) if the round bell had not rung at that very moment.
Wraith announced Kim as the winner as his children scrambled up onto the platform with a cry of "Yatta!" (Allright!). Kagemaru cursed under his breath about his clever ploy being foiled by bad timing, and went to join his compatriots in the peanut gallery in cheering for Hanzo.
[WINNER: KIM KAPHWAN-34 votes, KAGEMARU-17 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-3]
MATCH 16: BILLY KANE (KOF95) vs. JACKY (VF2)
--------------------------------------------
It had been a long match, and all pretenses at making this match some grand gesture of peace between nations vanished within the first few moments. In fact, by the final round, it had pretty much degenerated into something along the lines of the Boston Tea Party.
"You should've stayed a COLONY!"
"I don't know if you've been keeping up on current events pal, but we kicked your asses two hundred years ago!"
"Cultureless punk!"
"Stuck up Brit!"
And it went on... and on...
"I can't BELIEVE you eat those DISGUSTING fish and chips!"
"This from a kid who grew up on the Big Mac?"
Finally, at a loss for any further insults, Billy Kane broke into a heart(and eardrum) breaking rendition of 'God Save the Queen'. Jacky froze, and began to twitch convulsively, as did most of the musically inclined members of the audience. Mike, however, seemed unaffected, and declared Billy the winner after the Englishman KOed a helpless Jacky with a staff to the head.
[WINNER: BILLY KANE-31 votes, JACKY-22 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-4]
MATCH 17: VICTOR (NW) vs. BENIMARU (KOF95)
------------------------------------------
The Jovial one panted, as he arrived at the platform. He made a mental note to make arrangements with a golf game somewhere, to borrow a few karts. As he looked about, his first instincts were to wonder what the problem was. Everything certainly seemed calm.
This, of course, was the problem.
There was no sign ANYWHERE of either Victor von Gerdenheim OR Benimaru Nikaido.
Jolly Green rolled his eyes, as he hurriedly patched into the COM system. "Mike... you there?" he gasped, as he continued to heave air into his lungs. The DreamArena is, after all, a big place.
"Yo!", came the up-beat reply. "What's up?"
"I'm down here at platform 17... no sign of either Benimaru OR Victor." Jolly Green inspected the platform... it barely looked as though it had been touched. "Umm... there are NO signs of a struggle."
"Umm... Jason? I've... FOUND them..." Wraith announced. "If you can get to a monitor, I'll patch the footage through."
Jolly Green sighed, and made his way hurriedly to a nearby monitor-terminal... and was rather astounded what he saw. "Mike? What the heck are they doing on OPRAH???"
"Oh, you didn't hear them talking before their fight?" Wraith asked. "Well, apprently Benimaru offered Victor a makeover... I'd say Victor took him up on it..."
The Jovial one groaned. "Well, at least he'll be looking spiffy...they went AWOL... declare it a DKO?"
"I'm a step ahead of you," Wraith answered, "I've already put it into the computer. At least he'll be looking his best for the melee."
[DOUBLE ELIMINATION: VICTOR-26 votes, BENIMARU-24 votes, DRAW-0, DKO-3]
MATCH 18: RYUJI YAMAZAKI (RBFF) vs. ADON (SFA)
----------------------------------------------
In the first round, Adon made a mistake. He blinked. The instant his eyes closed, even for a fraction of a second, Yamazaki began his assault. A tremendous punch, almost too fast for the human eye to catch, flew across the platform, and woke Adon up. Adon flew in, catching Yamazaki with a Jaguar Tooth, only to blink as, with the same speed, Yamazaki pulled a knife on him, and sliced him. Adon collapsed to the mat, in the first round, vowing to make Ryuji pay.
The second round was a flurry of Jaguar Tooths, and kicks. In close, Adon waited for Yamizaki to move, blocking it, and countering with expert timing.
In Round 3, both fighters attacked with all their might. But the
final error was on Yamazaki's part. He threw a last punch at the kickboxer,
knowing he was too tired to counter it. With a mighty yell of
"JAGUAR-KICK!!" Adon flipped over it, and dealt an overhead kick to
Yamazaki, winning the round. He grinned down evilly at Geese Howard's
flunkie. "I am a Muay Thai master!" he gloated. "YOU are sucking gravel!"
[WINNER: ADON-31 votes, RYUJI YAMAZAKI-16 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-5]
MATCH 19: GALFORD (SS3) vs. JEFFRY (VF2)
----------------------------------------
Jeffry grumbled a bit as he narrowly backed out of the way of one of Galford's slashes. He could've sworn that the ninja was deliberately showing off, with all the flashy moves, flips, poses, taunts and sparkles. Nonetheless though, it was becoming quite apparent that the flashy American was winning - he'd already claimed the first round when time expired. No matter how hard Jeffry tried to keep the pressure on, Galford not only managed to stay cool, but even found time to wave at the white and red clad girl cheering from the sidelines.
Blocking another attack from the ninja's canine sidekick, Jeffry decided he'd had enough. No matter how good this guy was, he wasn't going to let him get away with all this showing off. Bounding in, he swept his opponent off his feet with a crucifix piledriver.
Galford, who had made the mistake of glancing towards Nakoruru's smiling face at that moment, let out a startled, "Yeeeooooow!!!" as he crashed to the platform. As he got up, he was fairly sparkling with energy, his entire body seeming to glow somewhat, and Jeffry began to wonder if this had really been such a good idea.
Just then, both Galford and Poppy vanished. Jeffry uh-ohed slightly, and looked around, trying to remain on his guard, just as the ninja hero dropped from space in front of...AND behind him, unleashing one of just about every slash in his arsenal - from each side - before grabbing the hapless VFer.
"Double Strike Heads!"
Needless to say, after that, it was over. Galford twirled his sword, and gave a rakish grin, as Poppy barked triumphantly. His good cheer faded somewhat as he hopped off the platform and found himself face to face with a frowning Nakoruru.
"Galford-kun...," she said softly.
"Er... yes?"
"Why did you toy around with him like that?"
"Er....um...toy around with him? I...ah...," stammered the ninja, bewildered.
"You KNOW you don't have to impress me...," she chided.
"Er...well, yes, but...um..."
"Good. Now that's settled. I have to get to my match..." With that, the young Ainu turned on her heel and walked off, leaving Galford to tag along and try to explain things as best he could.
[WINNER: GALFORD-45 votes, JEFFRY-11 votes, DRAW-3, DKO-0]
MATCH 20: KANO (MK3) vs. LORD RAPTOR (NW)
-----------------------------------------
It was the most gruesome, repulsive, disgusting match the Dream Tournament had ever seen. And that's not even considering the huge and gratuitous amounts of blood that went flying everywhere.
Kano was in bad shape. This zombie/ghoul/whatever had taken to transforming parts of his limbs into various cutting instruments, and using them on the one-eyed criminal with great zeal.
Not to say, however, that Kano hadn't landed a fair number of hits himself. But it was hard to tell by looking what sort of shape Raptor was in, since his skin was severely dessicated, and it was difficult to make him look worse than he already did. He launched into his spinning ball move, knocking the ghoul for a loop.
"Ow," muttered Raptor as he stood up, patting his bruised posterior. "So, you like to play ball, do you, bucko? Well, let me teach you a REALLY horrifying ball game!"
Kano stood on his guard, waiting for any sort of projectile or what-
not Raptor might throw at him. He had not, however, been expecting Raptor
to simply rush up and grab him.
"What the...," said Kano. "Hey, get OFF of me!" And he suddenly
felt like he was shrinking. He looked up, and there was Raptor, with his
hands around the mercenary's head. Or so it appeared to him. But he was
utterly unable to move.
To outside observation, Kano had suddenly been turned into a
multicoloured basketball. And a multicolored basketball hoop had somehow
appeared on the platform as well. Raptor leaped high into the air, brought
the Kanoball down, and slammed it through the hoop.
Kano landed on the floor, returned to normal size. He was also out cold. Some things, a human was just never meant to experience. Lord Raptor called an electric guitar into existence and began to play some unrecognizable (and unlistenable) riff.
[WINNER: LORD RAPTOR-35 votes, KANO-11 votes, DRAW-3, DKO-5]
MATCH 21: SPINAL (KI) vs. NIGHTWOLF (MK3)
-----------------------------------------
The fight seemed to take forever. Every spirit arrow that Nightwolf
shot was absorbed by Spinal's shield. And every skull that Spinal threw
in return was reflected, only to be reabsorbed.
This went on for far too long, and suddenly Spinal began to glow.
Nightwolf tensed, preparing for whatever attack must surely be coming. But
as he looked more intently, he saw that Spinal looked rather disconcerted,
and was staring at his shield, and seemed to be trying to remove it.
"What the...?" began the Native American, and suddenly had to try and
shield his eyes as the shield began to glow brighter and brighter. Spinal
let out a spine-tingling scream, and the entire platform went up, taking
both combatants with it.
Deuce sighed. "DACS, get the cleanup crew out here, please?" he
said tiredly, then muttered, "Wonder if there's anything left of them? Or
where they went to, if they're NOT in pieces. Oh well, I'm sure they'll
turn up..."
[DOUBLE ELIMINATION: SPINAL-20 votes, NIGHTWOLF-18 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-15]
MATCH 22: SOKAKU (RBFF) vs. LION (VF2)
--------------------------------------
As the round bell rang, Lion fell into his mantis stance, and advanced on the monk. Before he could close into hand to hand distance however, he began to cough, nearly overwhelmed by the stink of the man. Indeed, he fancied he could see strange greenish fumes drifting towards him as the monk planted his staff in the ground.
Indeed, Lion barely had time to cry out, "RAAAAAIIIIID?!?!" before a large demonlike thing delivered eight lightning fast but very PAINFUL punches all over his body, and he dropped to the mat. Round 1, Sokaku.
In the second round, Lion steeled himself against the stench, and
stayed too close to the monk for him to use his formidable long range
arsenal of lightning bolts, demon-things, caltrops, and miniature versions
of himself which made "Eep eep eep" noises. Dodging in and out and
whittling away at the monk, he found the odor no longer bothered him,
and he was able to claim the round.
The third round was messier. Sokaku took steps to prevent the agile
practitioner of Mantis Fist from closing in - and though he was only
partially sucessful, he had the edge in the round. He leapt backwards
again, and then blew across his palm. A small number of miniature
Sokaku's leapt from his hand and hopped towards Lion, making "Eep Eep!"
noises and waving their tiny staves.
Lion fumed, "Would you CUT THAT OUT! Go away! SHOO!" He exclaimed as he stomped on the lead midget, squashing it flat and watching it dissappear in a puff of smoke. The rest of the creatures looked rather intimidated, while everyone else from the Real Bout Fatal Fury node looked rather
sheepish, and wondered why they'd never thought of that.
Sokaku, meanwhile, was aghast. "You...squashed my midget. You squashed my midget! YOU SQUASHED MY MIDGET!" He roared, and rushed at Lion, who waited quite calmly, caught the raging monk, and threw him unceremoniously out of the ring.
[WINNER: LION-40 votes, SOKAKU-10 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-5]
MATCH 23: CHON SHU (RBFF) vs. YURI SAKAZAKI (KOF95)
---------------------------------------------------
Jin Chon Shu glared at his opponent, Yuri Sakazaki, who had not only bested him in the first round, but was standing a short distance away looking almost distacted (actually, she was pondering what she would do with her newfound fame when she won the tournament). The little man
steamed, and spoke in a voice designed to strike fear into the hearts of all who listened. "Foolish mortal! How DARE you not quake in fear before the wrath of _I_ Jin Chon Shu, who have lived for 2200 long..."
At about this point, Yuri hopped forward, grabbed him by his shirt, and slapped him repeatedly across the face, "You're BORING!" She griped, as she knocked him to the floor.
The Jin rose to his feet, growling, only to find the girl yawning at him. "Why YOU!!! How _*DARE*_ you! You would insult me in..."
Once again, he was interrupted with a series of vigorous face slaps, and found himself lying on the ground.
"You... You... you...," he stammered, nearly speachless with rage as the girl stuck out her tongue, then turned and patted her rear. "Why...you... I shall... I shall DESTR-"
*SLAPSLAPSLAPSLAPSLAPSLAPSLAP* >POW< *THUD*
Jin Chon Shu was down for the count.
[WINNER: YURI SAKAZAKI-39 votes, CHON SHU-7 votes, DRAW-3, DKO-3]
MATCH 24: SUB-ZERO (MK3) vs. HISAME SHIZUMARU (SS3)
---------------------------------------------------
Sub-Zero was annoyed. This little brat kept using that stupid
umbrella to deflect all of his ice barrages. What was the thing made of?
Steel? After getting whacked with it a few times, he became convinced that
steel was exactly what it was made of.
So, the former Lin Kuei took to leaving ice clones, in the hopes of
tricking his diminutive opponent into touching one, and thereby freezing
himself. This happened only once. While the boy was frozen, Sub-Zero ran
up and let fly with a very painful combo, sending Shizumaru sprawling to
the platform.
Figuring that this strategy seemed to work, Sub-Zero continued with
his production of ice-clones. But much to his chagrin, Shizumaru began leaping into the air, and holding his umbrella beneath him, using it like a pogo stick to bounce off of the clones!
"You'll have to get close to me before you can hit me, brat!" cried Sub-Zero. He backed away, prepared (or so he hoped) for anything. He was not, however, prepared to see Shizumaru land gracefully right next to him, and give him one good solid hit on the back of the head.
Sub-Zero was so surprised, Shizumaru had to hit him again before he fell down.
[WINNER: HISAME SHIZUMARU-37 votes, SUB-ZERO-16 votes, DRAW-3, DKO-1]
MATCH 25: MONDO (TSD2) vs. HSIEN-KO (NW)
----------------------------------------
The arena rocked with yet another impact, as Mondo dodged out of the way of an anvil, which buried itself in the surface of the platform.
The fighting platform itself was littered with weapons. Sticks of dynamite lay with still-burning fuses... katanas, naginatas, broadswords, scimitars, maces... if it could be used to cut, bludgeon, crush or pierce, you could find it somewhere in the mess.
Hsien-Ko's arms continued moving in swift, flasy motions, as new weapons appeared in her hands. She hurled the hammer she withdrew at Mondo. With a smirk, she reflected that it was a good thing her pockets of weapons were bottomless... still, she was starting to pull out things she'd never
seen before.
In fact, the current item was BIG. She reached into the pocket with both hands, and PULLED!, hoising her new-found weapon over her head.
Mondo gaped stupidly at the tactical nuclear warhead Hsien-Ko held poised above her. Blinking a couple of times, he bowed to Hsien-ko, he turned, and walked calmly down the stairs, and towards the locker rooms.
******
Down on the arena floor, Deuce and Jolly Green stood, with eyes wide and a single bead of nervous sweat trailing down the backs of their heads. Both were utterly incapable of speech.
[WINNER: HSIEN-KO-31 votes, MONDO-12 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-7]
MATCH 26: DUKE B. RAMBERT (TSD2) vs. GLACIUS (KI)
-------------------------------------------------
"*** MEDICAL TEAMS TO PLATFORM 26!!! ***"
Jolly Green, and a squad of Brutes arrived onto the scene, at about
the same time as the vid-docs. The sight they met as they arrived
astounded them.
Glacius ROARED in frustration, as he swatted at the tall Frenchman
who was stuck behind him.
Duke's massive two-handed Vancour blade was deeply embedded into the
frost-being's back. It wasn't coming out. Duke had both of his feet up
against Glacius' back, as he tried to pull his blade free, but it was
apparent that Glacius had simply frozen over it.
Jolly Green sighed, and tapped into the com system. "Ummm, Mike? You might want to take a look at Platform 26. I'm not making a call on THIS one alone."
"How on Earth did THAT happen?" came Wraith's astonished reply. "Why doesn't he just let go of his sword?"
"I don't know, and he can't." answered the Jovial One. "Toshinden doesn't do disarms. He can't let go of his sword." After a moment, he added, "What's it to be? Draw, or DKO?"
A long, protracted "Hmmmmm" was heard, before Wraith answered. "I'd say..."
[DOUBLE ELIMINATION: DUKE-25 votes, GLACIUS-19 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-4]
MATCH 27: TERRY BOGARD (KOF95) vs. LIU KANG (MK3)
-------------------------------------------------
The round bell rang, and the two fighters, both old hands from their respective nodes, circled cautiously. They prodded each other with their respective projectiles, and occasionally closed to exchange a few quick blows, but nothing too substantial. As the clock wound down, the two both
seemingly decided that they needed to do something decisive...
"Hwaaaah!" Kang flew forward with his tried and true flying kick.
"Burn Knuckle!" Terry lashed out with his familiar flying punch.
The two attacks met in mid air, and time seemed to slow as Terry's
blazing fist colliding full force with Kang's advancing...slipper. The
crowd held their breath, expecting the sheer power of the two opposing
moves to cause some sort of impressive visual display. Much to their
dismay, however, that was simply not the case (unless you count Liu Kang
describing a graceless arc out of the ring, and landing on his head.)
The second round, however, the Mortal Kombatant took steps to dominate the combat. These mostly involved yelling 'Pizza Boy!' at the top of his lungs, then taking advantage of the mistakes the clearly enraged Bogard made. As the round drew to a close, he became confident that he had it well in hand...especially when Terry yelled 'POWER GEYSER!', causing a huge explosion of energy to surge up from the ground, but too far away from Shaolin brother to do more than singe his nose. Kang stood there, smiling smugly, right up until the point where a second 'geyser' exploded directly beneath his feet, knocking him, scorched and battered, backwards into a third explosion, which put him down for the count.
Terry grinned and cracked his knuckles, "Heh. Eat energy pal. The ol' 'Triple Geyser' comes through for me again."
----
Jolly Green looked over at Wraith, "Can he DO that?"
Wraith just shrugged. "Well, he just did...I guess being a native of more than one node gives him a little bit of leeway, ne?"
[WINNER: TERRY BOGARD-39 votes, LIU KANG-12 votes, DRAW-5, DKO-0]
MATCH 28: SHUN DI (VF2) vs. JAX (MK3)
-------------------------------------
Snap crackle pop. Sizzle, crackle, KAPOW!
Jax was NOT a happy man. The first thing this drunkard had done was
pour out his bottle onto his cybernetic arms! This was causing all sorts
of interesting sound effects, and a few cheezy visual effects too.
When the arms had shorted out completely, Jax found himself at a
severe disadvantage. Without the use of his arms, he was unable to perform
most of his attacks. Shun was merciful, at least. It only took a moment
for him to knock the big man down for the count.
[WINNER: SHUN DI-36 votes, JAX-13 votes, DRAW-3, DKO-3]
MATCH 29: TAKUMA SAKAZAKI (KOF95) vs. DAN HIBIKI (SFA)
------------------------------------------------------
"DAN-KU-KYAKU!" came the cry from one end of the fighting platform.
"HIENSHIPPUUKYAKU!!!" bellowed from the other end of the platform as the two fighters met in mid-air, trading kick for kick. The pair flew backwards, and landed on their backs. They stood, and Dan tossed Takuma a small object. Takuma caught it, and noted it to be a quarter.
"Here's a quarter," challenged Dan, "Get some new moves!" He shook his fist and growled at the master of Kyokugenryu.
The two traded fireballs for awhile. Well... Takuma threw fireballs,and Dan's pathetic Gadouken managed to cancel them. The two fighters closed, and began trading exactly the same punches and kicks.
"You know the Art of Fighting!" declared Takuma, as the pair simultaneously collapsed again.
The two warriors climbed to their feet once more, and did battle. They collapsed unconscious, at precisely the same moment, and Wraith was astoundingly forced to resolve that the fight was a...
[DOUBLE ELIMINATION: TAKUMA-25 votes, DAN HIBIKI-24 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-4]
MATCH 30: CHUN LI (SFA) vs. HATTORI HANZO (SS3)
-----------------------------------------------
Chun Li fumed. She'd been chasing this ninja character around the ring for the past two rounds, waiting him to stop teleporting long enough for her to hit him. Sure, she'd occasionally been able to land a quick kick or two, but these had always been balanced out by her missed guesses on where the black clad man would appear next, that allowed him to score telling blows with the Ninja-to he carried (always to thunderous applause from that annoying group in the peanut gallery). To make matters worse, she had inadvertantly mentioned her vendetta against Bison, and the ninja seemed to have decided to fill her in on what 'real' tragedy was, incessantly droning on about his possessed son, dead wife, and the strange pain in the muscles down his left side.
"Would you CUT THAT OUT!" she exclaimed in frustration, as Hanzo vanished out of the middle of her Thousand Burst Kick. "I'm SICK of you teleporting all over the darn place! And, while I'm..."
"Very well," came the deep, despairing voice from in front of her. "I suppose I should just end this now and get it over with... kaguko mesareyo...(prepare yourself...)"
With those words, the two combatants went flying skywards, and Chun Li came crashing down in a thunderous detonation. She did not regain her feet. Hanzo, who reappeared a short distance away, was declared the winner as he stalked off the platform.
[WINNER: HATTORI HANZO-30 votes, CHUN LI-22 votes, DRAW-4, DKO-2]
MATCH 31: RUNGO IRON (TSD2) vs. KING (KOF95)
--------------------------------------------
Rungo cracked his knuckles as the opening bell rang, and barely even had time to get his club in hand before King was on him. She shouted, "Trap Shot!!" as she did a backflip, the ball of her foot catching him in the chin. She was instantly on her feet, and pelted the miner with a lightning-fast series of kicks to his torso. He fell back and stumbled to get to his feet.
"Not bad... for a woman," he said, getting himself into ready stance again. He immediately charged at the tuxedo-clad bartender, hoping to take her by surprise. Unfortunately, his size (and that huge iron club) slowed him down, and she blocked his attack, which ended with a vicious uppercut
swing. Despite the block, it still stung like hell. As he slowly brought his club to bear once more, she immediately spun around, yelled, "Tornado Kick!" and flew at him, her foot catching him in the cheek. Before he could even blink, she spun around again in midair, and her other foot hit hard on his other cheek. He spun around for a moment, then fell over again, landing hard on the mat. He was out for the count... round one went to King.
The next round, Rungo resolved to get serious. "All right, little girl, that's it... I went easy on you... well, playtime's over."
"HEY!!!!" shouted Iori from the sidelines. "That's MY line, damn you." Several of the other KOFers chuckled at this. Those who didn't understand Japanese failed to see the inherent humor.
"Bring it on, beefcake," said King, smirking. "You barely laid a finger on me last round, and you won't do it this round either."
Rungo growled as Kuroko signaled the start of the round, and immediately pounded his club on the ground. King smirked at this display of testosterone, but as she looked away for a moment in disdain, she failed to notice the wave of fire headed toward her.
The flames engulfed her, and burned her tuxedo severely, leaving a large hole across the entirety of her chest and stomach, and another which showed off her rather nicely-sculpted legs well. Several audience members applauded and whistled. Not because they were rooting for Rungo, but because this was EXACTLY the sort of thing they liked to see.
"ALL RIGHT!!!!!" shouted King. "THAT'S IT! Damn it, I just GOT this tuxedo, and here we go again. Next time I'm getting fire-retardant material. This burning stuff has got to GO!!"
Rungo looked at her in puzzlement as a wind seemed to come out of nowhere and whip her hair and tattered clothes about. When the wind subsided, she glared at the miner fiercely and rushed at him. With a yell and a leap, she bore down on him with unbridled fury. She landed a powerful kick to his head, and she flipped back a moment, leaping in on him.
Suddenly, he was on the receiving end of a punishing series of punches, kicks, slaps, knees, elbows, etc. It hurt. A lot. The last thing he actually consciously remembered was the evil look in her eyes as she spun around again, delivering a more powerful variation on her Tornado Kick, which sent him flying away, and when he hit the mat, he was out for good.
Kuroko declared her the winner, and the crowd cheered (and many leered). Deuce stepped up on the platform with a blanket and handed it to her. "Here you go, Miss King. And congratulations."
She wrapped the blanket around herself, much to the disappointment of the leering audience members. She smiled and nodded, "Thanks," then stepped down off the platform and made her way back to the locker room, joined by her two teammates, Yuri and Mai, who were congratulating her.
[WINNER: KING-38 votes, RUNGO IRON-9 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-1]
MATCH 32: PAI (VF2) vs. GAIA (TSD2)
-----------------------------------
Gaia chuckled, as he regarded the young woman, and brought his blade into position. "You are not ready."
Pai, wary of the monstrous blade the large man wielded, backed away apprehensively, waiting for her opening. Suddenly Gaia charged her, yelling, "TSUNAMI!!!"
Pai quickly dodged the attack, and delivered a swift kick to the back of Gaia's head. He teetered, and tottered, before finally tumbling from the platform. As he fell, Pai peered over the edge, grinning. "Fly little Plaything, fly!" she taunted. The ring out ended the round.
The second round was a battle, but Pai nimbly evaded most of Gaia's slashes, using her speed against his power. She took hits, but Gaia took more. The decisive moment came, when Gaia used his energy slash. Pai used the split-second of recovery to launch one final kick.
Gaia sprawled on the mat, regarding the lights at the DreamArena ceiling. Suddenly, Pai's face obscured his view. She inhaled for a moment, and suddenly her face got all huge, as she screamed one word at the top of her lungs.
"SEGA!!!!"
[WINNER: PAI-31 votes, GAIA-17 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-3]
MATCH 33: BIRDIE (SFA) vs. LAU (VF2)
------------------------------------
Birdie combed his mohawk, and flashed Lau his 'winning' smile.
Suddenly, as the starting bell rang, he proceeded to swing his head very
hard as he advanced. At Lau. Lau casually stepped aside, and gave Birdie
a swift, firm kick to the rear. Birdie hung precariously in the air, half
on the platform, and half teetering on the edge. Lau raised his eyebrow,
and gently blew in Birdie's direction. Birdie fell.
*RING OUT!*
Undaunted, Birdie climbed back up to the top of the platform, and ran
his fingers through his mohawk. "I NUMBER ONE!" he yelled. At the start
of the second round, he continued undaunted. Once again, he swung his head,
repeatedly at Lau, advancing. Once again Lau casually stepped aside, and
once again Birdie tumbled.
As Birdie sat there, stunned, wondering what could possibly have gone wrong, Jolly Green ambled up to him. "I watched your fight, Birdie...you're big, strong, and not very bright... I think I may be able to find a place for you." With that, he tossed down a rather LARGE T-Shirt. It read "Dream Tournament IV Staff: Brute Squad".
Birdie looked up at Jolly Green questioningly.
Jolly Green looked back down at the hulk of a man. "Um... it's simple. You put the shirt on, and you do what I say. Alright?"
Sudden understanding dawned on Birdie's face, as he nodded. "I NUMBER ONE!"
[WINNER: LAU-39 votes, BIRDIE-8 votes, DRAW-3, DKO-3]
MATCH 34: CHON REI (RBFF) vs. HEIDERN (KOF95)
---------------------------------------------
Chon Rei began the fight with a rushing elbow, "Hyaah!"
Heidern seemed unimpressed, "Such a simple technique reminds of the guerilla resistance we crushed in Panama during the '82 campaign. There were hundreds of them...crawling all over and through the jungles..." And he droned on...
Chon Rei pressed forward with an energy ball, "Tengenken!"
Heidern merely continued, his memory apparently once again spurred by the assault, "My assignment in 'Nam....now that was hell on earth...the thickest jungle any of us men had ever seen, teeming with..."
Chon Rei was beggining to get annoyed, and attacked the green beret with a spinning upwards attack, "Tenjiken!"
Heidern only paused in his tirade long enough to strike the Jin with a Moon Slasher as he landed, "But you have not KNOWN danger until you have looked death straight in the eye, as I did during one of my covert operations in Siberia during the cold war..."
Chon Rei growled in pain and frustration, letting loose one of his most powerful techniques, a gigantic ball of energy, "Teioh ShukumyoKen!!!"
Despite the onslaught, Heidern still seemed more caught up in the past, "You... you're just like those bastards with the chemical weapons during Desert Storm! Why..." He continued, relating a rather longwinded and patronizing tale.
Chon Rei screamed at the top of his lungs, "Will you pay attention and FIGHT ME!?!?!?" as he sent a HUGE blast of fire across the area...
Heidern elegantly flipped forward over the blast, saying, "Since you dare to insult the stories of one who has served so long and hard...then..." He grabbed Chon Rei's neck and flipped down gracefully, driving his hand into Chon Rei's chest. "GO TO HELL!" he proclaimed, and proceeded to drain all of the Jin's energy with the Final Bringer.
Chon Rei fell back when the assault had ended, attempted to stand, reaching for the soldier, but could not manage. He collapsed, unconscious, to the platform.
[WINNER: HEIDERN-30 votes, CHON REI-8 votes, DRAW-5, DKO-7]
MATCH 35: CHARLIE (SFA) vs. CHIEF THUNDER (KI)
----------------------------------------------
It was quick. It was quick and dirty. It was quick, dirty and painful. It was quick, dirty, painful and... unintelligible.
"What the hell are they saying?" wondered Deuce.
"Well, as best as I can make out, Charlie's just saying 'Hup!' many times over," said Jolly Green.
"Ah, okay," marvelled Deuce. "And Thunder?"
"NO idea."
Whilst all this was going on, Charlie was pounding the stuffing out of the large indian. It didn't take long... twenty seconds in, and Thunder looked more like a drizzle. Charlie stretched, victorious.
[WINNER: CHARLIE-39 votes, CHIEF THUNDER-8 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-5]
MATCH 36: SIE KENSOU (KOF95) vs. DEMITRI MAXIMOV (NW)
-----------------------------------------------------
"See? Look! Celerity!" Commented one of the pale, black clad members of the peanut gallery, as Demitri seemed to move so quickly the eye couldn't even follow him, smashing a battered Kensou with a Demon Cradle. As the young man regained his feet, the vampire grabbed him and leapt into the air, twirling, and brought him down on his head. "WOW! Potence!" The same section of the audience cheered.
Sie retaliated with a Dragon Fang, juggling the vampire up into the air for several hits, then letting him crash to the floor. As Demitri rose, looking distinctly unimpressed, he began a barrage of fireballs, one of which crisped his opponent, and dropped him to the floor.
As the psycho combatant struggled back to his feet, Demitri unleashed several massive balls of hellfire, and sent them to blast his opponent, sending him crashing, scorched, back to the floor. A number of the audience members cheered the vampire as he was declared the victor, but peculiar, die hard group in the peanut gallery sat long in confused silence, until one of them muttered, "Um... Chimerstry?"
This resulted in an immediate chorus of assent "Yeah!" "Right!" "That MUST be it!" until Wraith walked by.
"Psst! Guys! I've got something important to tell you. The guys who wrote that game...made it ALL UP." He asserted.
"Uh huh."
"Right."
"Oh yeah? Then how DID he do that HUH?"
"Yeah, come on, if you're so smart, how'd he do it?"
Mike just shook his head and walked off, noting that Athena had chosen to badger Sie about his injuries.
"Look at you! You're all scorched and everything!"
Sie grinned, despite the pain, it was really sweet of her to be concerned about him like this. "No, really, I'm fine."
"Sure you are. Now come on, I'm taking you to the recovery room."
"No, really! I'll be fine in a minute or two." Kensou protested. He'd lost the match, the least he could do was act tough enough to not have to go to the recovery room.
Athena, however, would hear none of it, grabbing her teammate by the
ear and dragging him off the platform. "It's really unkind of you to make me worry like this..."
Sie, if he weren't in pain and being dragged by his ear, would've
been delighted to hear about her concern. As it was however, "No...
really... you don't have to...ouch! worry...I'm fi--ow! Cut it out!
That hurts!"
[WINNER: DEMITRI MAXIMOV-32 votes, SIE KENSOU-22 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-2]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
MATCH 37: BISHAMON (NW) vs. GORO DAIMON (KOF95)
-----------------------------------------------
At the instant the bell went off, Goro hefted a bowling ball into the
air, and began twirling his arm, preparing to release. Suddenly the ball
was off, hurtling along the ground at the undead Samurai, who nimbly jumped
over it. "Ummm... your foot is over the line."
"What?!" Goro shouted in reply. "NEVER! Why, Let me show you! My
foot is... er... hmm. Okay... so I did." Surely enough, Goro's foot was a
toe past a small line drawn on the mat.
ROUND 1: BISHAMON
******
"Ummm...," Jolly Green's voice came across the com-system in the control booth. "Mike? How did Bishamon just take the first round? Both fighters' life meters are still at full!"
Wraith grinned. "Simple! Goro thinks he's bowling... well he's got to play by the rules. He foot-faulted, so he loses the round."
******
Sweat accumulated on Goro Daimon's brow. This was his chance to show
the Multiverse how perfect his bowling technique was... and he had just
foot-faulted. He picked up another bowling ball, and helt it in front of
his face, concentrating, and preparing himself to pull a spare.
"THAT'S IT," shouted Bishamon's sword. "THIS IS SILLY!" The sword
floated towards Daimon, dragging the Samurai along with it. It drew back,
and CONKED the large man squarely in the back of the head. "They cancelled
'Bowling for Dollars' for a reason!"
"Why's that?" Jolly Green asked from the foot of the platform.
"Oh, simple," answered Bishamon. "The powers that be deemed it was
too horrendous a torture, even for souls such as I, who are cursed to live
forever with a smart-assed sword, and armor."
Bishamon's armor began walking him back to the locker room, clearly
intent on having a private word with him. For the first time in known
history, the sword agreed fully.
[WINNER: BISHAMON-39 votes, GORO DAIMON-12 votes, DRAW-3, DKO-2]
MATCH 38: EIJI KISARAGI (KOF95) vs. DONOVAN (NW)
------------------------------------------------
Donovan hadn't felt this cut up since... well... since the last time he had fought Hsien-ko. Well, and maybe Felicia. Come to think of it, Morrigan too. And Talbain... *ahem* Sorry.
Suffice it to say, Eiji was very handy with the blades he carried. Donovan had suffered several nicks and cuts, and a couple of rather nasty wounds which hurt quite a bit. However, Eiji was far from unscathed, himself. Donovan had called on many elemental attacks, and Eiji was feeling a tad... well, cooked.
The two fighters stood across from each other, both at the ready, both panting and gasping for breath. The odd thing was that they seemed to be talking to each other... practically mumbling... throughout the entire fight. The camera mikes seemed to be unable to pick up the meat
of the conversation, but it sounded like they were discussing television shows.
Finally, they charged in at one another again... and both called out.
"X-FILES!" cried Eiji as he drew his blade against the demon hunter's chest painfully.
"BABYLON 5!" replied Donovan, wincing at the cut but still managing to deliver a good, solid punch to Eiji's jaw.
They glared at each other a moment, standing inches apart... then
the bell rang, signaling the end of the round. Everyone looked at the
combatants' life meters... they were even. The match was a draw. Both
men slumped to the floor in irritation.
"X-Files? Babylon 5? What was THAT all about?" asked Jason.
"Well, I had thought that Donovan was just using Eiji's love of the
X-Files as an excuse to attack him as a 'supernatural,'" said Deuce. "But
it seems as though it was more of an advocacy thing... Don there must be
a B5 man."
"He doesn't look like the type to watch much television...," thought
Jolly Green out loud.
"Oh well. Hey DACS," said Deuce, speaking through his communicator to the main computer. "Can you get these guys cleaned up and back to their rooms?"
[DRAW MATCH: EIJI KISARAGI-24 votes, DONOVAN-21 votes, DRAW-3, DKO-3]
MATCH 39: RALF (KOF95) vs. SMOKE (MK3)
--------------------------------------
Things were going badly for Smoke. For every attack he managed to
land on his opponent, Ralf was able to give just as good as he got. Ralf
was an endless flurry of Gatling Attacks and Blitzkrieg punches. The fight
had gone on for two rounds with neither one getting a solid upper hand,
and Smoke had finally had enough. It was time to break out the big guns.
"All right!" the cyborg cried. "That's it! I have HAD it!" The
little doorway on his chest opened up, and for a moment Ralf wondered if
this was the coffeemaker he'd been looking for. This was not the case,
however, as a suitably scary number of bombs flew out, landing all over
the platform.
Deuce winced and was IMMEDIATELY on the horn with Mike. "GET THOSE
PLATFORM SHIELDS UP, NOW!"
Mike wasted no time. "I'm on it!" And the barrier went up JUST as
the bombs went off. A huge squared column of fire went up with the
detonation. Despite the shockwave being absorbed by the failsafes, the
entire arena was still shaken considerably. Many beers were spilled by the
spectators.
"Whoo, that was close," sighed Deuce. "Are they still alive in there?" He peered into the rapidly dispersing black smoke and saw both of the fighters lying unconscious on the platform. "Well, THAT was a bit counterproductive, I think...." He then summoned DACS to get the cleanup detail out as the fighters were carried back to their rooms to recuperate, as they always did.
[DOUBLE ELIMINATION: RALF-24 votes, SMOKE-23 votes, DRAW-0, DKO-5]
MATCH 40: MAI SHIRANUI (KOF95) vs. KAYIN (TSD2)
-----------------------------------------------
"May you fight well, madam," said Kayin, and took up his stance.
"And you, good sir," said Mai, almost laughing.
Throughout the fight, Kayin kept finding himself distracted by Mai's
less-than-appropriate and ridiculously loose clothing. But he maintained
his concentration and dignity as best he could, and fought well indeed.
Mai, of course, had no such distractions, and worked hard to counter
the Scotsman's deadly sword strokes. Many was the time her fans barely
kept her from receiving a particularly nasty wound. She looked down at
the peanut gallery and saw Andy there, cheering her on.
Mai gave as good as she got, but at one point, her luck ran out, and
Kayin's blade cut deep into her side. It also happened to cut the fabric
of her "outfit." This left her exposed for anyone to see, and of course,
Jon Talbain nearly blew a fuse. Andy screamed Mai's name, and wanted
desperately for the fight to be over, so he could go and make sure she was
all right.
Deuce radioed to Mike, "I hope we're censoring this..."
Mike called back, "Yup, it's taken care of."
Kayin suddenly covered his nose. "Damn!" he muttered, but continued
fighting. A quick peek at the life meters showed that his was ticking away
slowly, despite the fact that Mai had not touched him. Eventually, he
simply fell over, and Mai looked utterly confused.
"What? What happened?" She semi-modestly covered herself, and
after she was declared the winner, she went over to investigate. Andy was
immediately up beside her, covering her with a towel.
On pulling Kayin's hand away, they saw he had an incredibly severe
nosebleed. He had passed out from blood loss. "I don't get it," said Mai.
"If he was bleeding so much, how come there's none anywhere other than his
face?"
"Simple!" called Deuce from his desk. "This is the fighting game
world, remember? Nothing evaporates as quickly, or as efficiently, as
blood does."
"Ah. Gotcha," said Mai.
"Come on, Mai," said Andy. "You've given these folks enough of a
peep show for one day." And so, he led her back to the locker rooms.
Talbain so desperately wanted to say that it wasn't enough for him,
but the muzzle kept him thankfully quiet.
[WINNER: MAI SHIRANUI-33 votes, KAYIN-14 votes, DRAW-8, DKO-1]
MATCH 41: DUCK KING (RBFF) vs. FELICIA (NW)
-------------------------------------------
Felicia pounced.
The poor hapless duckling looked at her with big, startled eyes,
right up until the point where she stuffed it into her mouth.
The Duck King gaped for a moment, then yelled, "Duckie!" then seized
the catwoman about the waist, leapt up into the air and flung her to the
ground. As soon as he touched down, he rolled himself into a ball, and
rolled directly over the still prone catgirl.
With a loud 'phut!' a very damp and somewhat chewed on Duckling flew
out of Felicia's mouth, bounced twice, and fell out of the ring. The King
bounded after it, a look of dismay on his face. Felicia just sat there
looking confused.
"Yo! Yo! Like..Medic! M'Ducky is out cold!" As the King escorted his
stunned Duckling off the field, Mike asked him if he'd be continuing in
the tournament, recieving only an absentminded wave in return.
"I take it that's a 'no'?"
"I'm sorry, Duckie dude, yous jes keep gettin' caught in bad spots...we'll rock 'em all next year!"
Shaking his head in mild disbelief, Mike keyed the results into his palmtop, and nodded to Felicia. "Looks like you win."
"Yippee! Yippee! Yippee! Wai! Wai! Wai!" Felicia hopped up and down, then pounced on Mike, knocking the poor fellow(?) over. This was, of course, just as Morrigan walked by. Having just recently drawn vs. Sagat, she was NOT in a cordial mood.
"Just WHAT do you think you're doing?" She hissed.
"Felicia thank nice man for giving her win!"
"Oh really..."
"Jeff! Beam me up to the observation booth now... Jeff... JEFF!"
[WINNER: FELICIA-36 votes, DUCK KING-15 votes, DRAW-3, DKO-2]
MATCH 42: NAKORURU (SS3) vs. SEKTOR (MK3)
-----------------------------------------
Nakoruru opened up the first round in a complete all-out offensive,
utilizing every ability in her arsenal to keep the cyborg on its heels.
Despite Sektor's most valiant attempts, it found it could not stand up to
the level of abuse the young girl was unleashing on it. Round one went
to Nakoruru, easily.
In round 2, Sektor took the offensive first, and tried to keep the
girl at a distance with a barrage of missiles. She most of them with her
sword, batting them away harmlessly, but one slipped through and knocked
her flat on her back. Shikuruu growled and charged into the cyborg,
seeking vengeance on this thing that dared to harm his master.
Nakoruru stood, albeit a bit shakily, and prepared herself for the
next assault. Sektor immediately recovered and launched another missile
directly at her, but she deflected it with a flick of her cape, shouting,
"Kamui Ryuse!" The missile flew back toward Sektor, and it dove out of the
way, letting the missile explode harmlessly on the invisible barricade.
She called to Shikuruu once more, hopped on his back, and charged again,
shouting, "Kamui Shikite!" She proved to be too fast for Sektor, and it
felt her blade, flowing with magical energy, bite through his armor and
into his circuitry. And he was rising, up into the air, as the blade cut.
The blade pulled away, and the cyborg felt her cape slam into his body
with phenomenal force, crushing the armor and destroying many vital
circuits. Sektor fell to the ground, totally inert, and Nakoruru stared
hard at her fallen opponent, her mouth a thin line.
[WINNER: NAKORURU-48 votes, SEKTOR-7 votes, DRAW-0, DKO-3]
"Foul abomination of nature... such is your reward for following the
path of evil." Shikuruu nudged her, and she sighed, relaxing a bit as she
looked down at her companion. She looked around and saw almost the entire
crowd cheering her, not least of all her little sister at ringside.
"You were great, oneechan!" Rimururu cried as the elder Ainu hopped
down. "I hope I can do as well in my fight!"
Nakoruru smiled and nodded, "I'm sure you will... just keep yourself
focused, and you will prevail."
Rimururu nodded emphatically, and walked with her sister back to the
locker room.
MATCH 43: BOB WILSON (RBFF) vs. RYU (SFA)
-----------------------------------------
Bob sighed. He was no pessimist, but this was going exactly the way he'd expected. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to get inside Ryu's guard. The young man stood a short distance away on the platform, flinging Ki blast after Ki blast at the Capoeira artist.
Now, Bob had done his research. He'd heard all about the infamous 'Shoryuken' and had had absolutely no desire to experience it firsthand. That was why, when the first round started, the first thing he'd done was sidestep around a fireball, and do a quick cartwheel forward. Ryu had
looked ever so slightly taken aback by this, but had methodically dragon punched him before Bob could land an attack.
Much of the first round continued in a similar fashion, with Bob trying every innovative technique he could think of to get around those infernal fireballs, all to no avail. Round 1 had gone to Ryu.
Round 2 was a little different. Ryu, apparently having gotten bored of incessantly flinging fireballs, decided to work on some of his other techniques...and Bob had seized the opportunity to show him the power of 'Cooperia' [sic]. The two traded blows for a while, with Bob holding the advantage, until suddenly the light in the arena seemed to fade, "Shinkuuuu...Tatsumakisenpuukyaku!" Ryu lashed out with a furious Hurricane Kick, blue shadows trailing behind it as...Bob blocked.
As Ryu began to land, Bob smiled slightly, and said "Let me show you how it's done... DOBURAH!" as he flew into his most powerful attack, spinning in the air in a vaguely hurricane kick-esque style, his leg moving so rapidly it cut slashes through the air and lifted the surprised Ryu
up...and up and up before sending him sprawling across the ring. The crowd was silent for a long moment before a sort of tentative cheer began. Round 2, Bob Wilson.
In round 3, Ryu returned to his fireball flinging style, and Bob, having failed to invent any new tricks since round 1, eventually lost. Ryu bowed to him, and said, "You have truly shown me the weaknesses of my style. And I trust I have done the same for you." Bob nodded, and left the ring, to thunderous cheers from the audience. Just before he ducked into the locker room though, Bob muttered to himself, "If I EVER hear the word 'Hadouken' again..."
Ryu, meanwhile, had remained on the platform, thinking on his victory. He was jerked out of his reverie however, by a familiar voice.
"Ryu-Sama!"
Ryu winced, and turned to look at Sakura, and then to Wraith, who gave a helpless shrug. "I'd make a break for the locker room, if I were you."
Ryu nodded, and fled the platform.
[WINNER: RYU-41 votes, BOB WILSON-12 votes, DRAW-0, DKO-1]
MATCH 44: RYO SAKAZAKI (KOF95) vs. HUITZIL (NW)
-----------------------------------------------
"Do I *have* to fight this thing?" asked Ryo, looking aside at his father.
"YES!" exclaimed Takuma. "If you don't, you forfeit the match, and I will shun you for the rest of my days for dishonoring me!"
"Oh, THAT old threat," muttered Yuri under her breath. Robert snickered.
"YOU BE QUIET, Yuri. I'll deal with you later," roared the elder Sakazaki. He turned back to Ryo. "You are a student of Kyokugenryu! I know you can defeat this metal monstrosity!"
"...And if you don't, he'll cut off your allowance," said Robert with a lopsided grin. He received a nasty smack to the back of the head.
"BE QUIET!" said Takuma.
"Hey, at least I WON my fight," harrumphed Yuri. Takuma whirled on her and flushed red.
"I DID NOT LOSE! It was a double elimination!"
"Yeah, well, dad, you're still out of the tourney," said Ryo. "And besides, you still couldn't beat that poor excuse for a Shotokan practitioner, with a two-foot fireball."
"ALL RIGHT!" Takuma said finally, "THAT'S IT! From NOW on, I'm going to retrain you to make sure ALL of your fireballs have really short ranges! By this time next year, you'll all have to learn to compensate for the disadvantage!"
"BUT SENSEI!!!!" the three students cried in unison, suddenly respectful.
"No, no buts. It'll be good for you. Build character and all. And besides, I-- huh?" Suddenly, "Mr. Karate" turned to the platform and noticed the robot smoking and sputtering.
"No... more... cannot compute..." said Huitzil brokenly. "Do not speak any longer, or..." For some reason, he couldn't continue.
"You know," said Takuma, in that tone which his students knew denoted a forthcoming speech (Ryo sat down), "You could use some training yourself, robot. Why, if you came under my tutelage, I'd--"
*KABOOM* Robot pieces went everywhere. "Hey, I guess you bored him to death, dad!" said Ryo.
"BE QUIET!"
Deuce stepped up. "Okay, guys... quiet down. Hmm..." he looked up at Ryo. "Looks like your opponent isn't around anymore, so he forfeits the match. You win...."
"All RIGHT!" cried Ryo. "That was EASY!"
"Now, son, don't go getting a swelled head on me... why, when I was your age..." began Takuma, but Deuce left before he hit his stride.
[WINNER: RYO SAKAZAKI-30 votes, HUITZIL-19 votes, DRAW-0, DKO-5]
MATCH 45: RIPTOR (KI) vs. KABAL (MK3)
-------------------------------------
This was definitely not the best of days for the humanoid lizard. Kabal had been using those odd meathook-like blades of his to toss Riptor around the ring like a rag doll. Riptor had managed to land a few good combos, but he simply wasn't able to match the damage that the disfigured nomad was unleashing on him.
The match was quick, bloody, and the outcome was never in doubt. When it was over, Kabal stood triumphant over his fallen opponent, smiling calmly to himself underneath his mask.
[WINNER: KABAL-28 votes, RIPTOR-9 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-13]
MATCH 46: CINDER (KI) vs. CHAOS (TSD2)
--------------------------------------
As the round bell rang, Cinder noted no particular change in his opponent's demeanor. Chaos was still wandering aimlessly around the arena, making inane 'doop-de-doop' noises. Shrugging off his opponent's apparent lack of well...anything resembling mental function, Cinder went on the offensive. Regretably, this didn't seem to work very well, as the strange fellow kept stumbling out of the way of his attacks, or 'accidentally' blocked them with his scythe.
The last straw came when Chaos, driven to the edge of the platform, finally seemed to focus on the firey being in front of him. He then quite deliberately placed the thumb of one hand on his nose, wiggling his fingers, and patted his stomach with his other hand. "nEeeneR NeENer neEenEr!" He announced. Cinder seemed to glow a little bit brighter then, and resolved to finish this wacko off once and for all so he could go on and find a hero to be his arch-nemesis instead of this...loser. He launched himself into his trailblazer, forming himself into a blob of flame and flying forward towards his hapless opponent.
Chaos however, seemed to have been anticipating something like this, and did a somewhat clownish roll off to one side, pulling as he did so on a thread, attached a small lighter a short distance outside the ring. The lighter lit the fuse on a small firecracker, which startled an aging bird, causing it to fly from it's perch, which, being springloaded, rose a few inches, and tripped a lever, which spun gears, which wound a cord until it snapped, dropping a bowling ball onto an incline, along which it
rolled before dropping onto a pressure plate, firing off a catapult containing the world's largest water balloon, which flew gracefully through the air, and landed -unsurprisingly enough- on the bewildered Cinder, extinguishing him from the competition.
Chaos celebrated with a very odd facial expression and an odd, childlike sound from his mouth, the likes of which had never before (or since) been recorded on pay per view.
[WINNER: CHAOS-29 votes, CINDER-17 votes, DRAW-0, DKO-5]
MATCH 47: RIKUO (NW) vs. KYO KUSANAGI (KOF95)
---------------------------------------------
Rikuo leaped into the air to avoid the wave of fire cascading toward him along the ground. "WHAT?" he shrieked. "You never told me you had FIRE attacks!! I HATE fire." He had failed to see Kyo calling up flames into his hand prior to the match.
"Oh, I'm SO sorry," remarked Kyo sarcastically. "KURAE!!!" Another wave of flames sliced forward, burning Rikuo quite badly.
"OW!! OWOWOWOWOWOW! Hothothothothothothothothothothot!" Rikuo
started running around the ring, fanning his butt to cool the area down.
Once this task was finished, he turned around, gave the 'two-fingers up' sign to Kyo, and said, "It'sa meee, Riiikuo!" Kyo nearly passed out then and there.
"All right, that's it..." said Kyo. "I've seen some WEIRD stuff in my time, but... no. Just... NO. Stop that RIGHT now." He shook his head in disbelief, but was too distracted to notice that his opponent was suddenly right in front of him.
Rikuo unleashed a rather nasty three-hit combo on Kyo, making him fall back. Kyo fought to regain his breath. "Dirty trick," he muttered.
Kyo got to his feet and charged. The two opponents proceeded to pummel posterior for a fairly long time.
"Arrgh, I never DID like fish," remarked Kyo.
"Be silent, worm!" replied Rikuo.
Kyo lunged forward and grabbed the fishman by the throat, lifting him into the air. "Dinnertime!" He channelled his energy through his hand, and set Rikuo ablaze once more. Rikuo fell to the ground, charred and smoking as the flames died out... and he did not get back up.
"Hah. Just as I thought." Kyo strode off the platform to much applause, but paid it no mind. He simply went back to his room to rest and recuperate.
[WINNER: KYO KUSANAGI-34 votes, RIKUO-17 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-1]
MATCH 48: JOE HIGASHI (KOF95) vs. WOLF (VF2)
--------------------------------------------
As the round bell rang, Wolf immediately opened up a can of whup-ass on Joe. German Suplexes, Frankensteiners, Tombstones, Clotheslines, the works. And through it all, Joe just sat there and laughed. And laughed. And laughed.
Checking the life bars on the match, Jolly Green was puzzled. Joe didn't seem to be taking any damage. Suspecting something was amiss with the coding, he buzzed Wraith up in the observation booth. "Hey, Mike? Joe's not taking damage..."
"I know," came the response, "But everything seems to be working right on our end. I guess if you believe something hard enough, it comes true, eh?"
"So...what you're trying to say...is that Joe has DISBELIEVED in Wolf's fighting style?"
"More or less."
Meanwhile, it appeared that one of those Vampire fans in the peanut gallery had overheard the conversation. "Disbelieve? Come on! That's like from....AD&D. Yuk."
Jolly Green pointedly ignored him, and turned back to the match, just in time to see Joe, apparently tired of being tossed around, start to punish Wolf with every trick in his repertoire, finally finishing off the hapless Pro-Wrestler with a Screw Upper. The second round went much the same way, with Wolf fighting to the bitter end...all to no effect.
[WINNER: JOE HIGASHI-29 votes, WOLF-24 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-1]
MATCH 49: SHEEVA (MK3) vs. KEN (SFA)
------------------------------------
Ken rolled underneath Sheeva's opening punch, and the instant he
regained his feet, shouted a familiar cry, for the entire arena to hear.
"SHOURYUKEN!!!" Sheeva was carried into the air by the force of the punch.
Ken's assault was merciless. Her fireballs were easily dispersed by his
own, and she learned very soon what happens when you find yourself above a
practicioner of Shotokan karate... even if you DID just teleport there. In
the first round, Ken was a blur of Hurricane Kicks and Dragon Punches,
leaving Sheeva in a world of hurt.
The second round, Sheeva rallied a bit. She managed to put him off
balance by stomping the platform so hard, it shook from the tremors, but
Ken started pelting her with fireballs. With a growl, she resigned herself
to closing to hand-to-hand. Ken put her out of her misery quickly. He
twisted his face thoughtfully for a second, and reached into his gi,
producing a picture, and a pen. He hastily scribbled "To my greatest fan,
Ken Masters" on the picture (which was, incidentally of him) and left it on Sheeva's chest.
******
Up in the Peanut Gallery, Johnny Cage was livid with rage. He screamed into his cellular phone, "What do you MEAN you're busy with OJ's civil suit?!?! Stupid lawyers!!!"
[WINNER: KEN-44 votes, SHEEVA-8 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-1]
MATCH 50: GUY (SFA) vs. TACHIBANA UKYO (SS3)
--------------------------------------------
The crowd hushed, as the arena grew dark, and the lights focused in
on the platform. Ukyo climbed to his feet, using the Drying Pole as a
crutch. Guy nodded, and took his place apart from the champion. The
starting bell sounded, and the fight began.
Guy backed off, eyeing the samurai warily. Ukyo held his blade behind
him. Suddenly Guy charged, leaping into the air, bringing his foot around
in a kick right at Ukyo's head. At the same instant, Ukyo ducked down, and
slashed at the air right below the Street Fighter. The fight began in earnest.
The first round of combat was fast, and furious. Guy kept the
pressure up with his Bushin dashes. He quickly learned to stay out of the
air, when a Tsubame Gaeshi cut his Bushin leap short. The first round went
to Ukyo, when he dodged a kick, replying with a quick slash to the
midsection.
The second round, Guy fought much more conservatively. He stayed
mostly on the ground. Mostly he traded punches and kicks, for fast slashes
from the Drying Pole. He wiped the sweat from his brow, as he looked up
seeing seconds left on the clock. He leapt into the air, and as expected,
the Samurai launched into a Tsubame Geish. Guy drew himself into a ball,
blocking the damaging effects of the slash, and as he landed summoned forth
all his chi, and attacked Ukyo furiously, as he was caught up in a mild fit
of coughing. As the buzzer sounded, Guy had barely won that round.
In the final round, both were on edge. There was no flash... just
skillful fighting, elegant in it's simplicity, neither fighter willing to
risk the opening a complex technique might make. The clock ticked, and the
crowd fell silent. In a slow manner, Ukyo's hand reached inside his shirt,
and withdrew a small object. He tossed it to Guy, who reflexively caught
it. An apple. Suddenly, Ukyo was a blur of motion. The Drying Pole leapt from its scabbard, and his arms moved with a frenzied speed. With a "hmph" Ukyo slipped the Drying Pole back home. Guy looked down at the apple in his hand. It lay, sliced neatly into several slices. He then looked down further to see that his clothing was similarly cut.
He dropped the apple, and silently bowed to the Samurai, and collapsed in a heap.
[WINNER: TACHIBANA UKYO-35 votes, GUY-18 votes, DRAW-5, DKO-1]
MATCH 51: FRANCO BASH (RBFF) vs. FO FAI (TSD2)
----------------------------------------------
"Double Kong!" stated Franco.
"OSHASHASHASHASHASHASHASHASHASHASHASHASHA!!!" replied Fo.
"Power Bicycle!" retorted the kickboxer.
"DO-GYAAAAA!" replied the magician.
This sort of thing went on for quite some time, until both fighters were seeing red and were very tired.
Franco prepared his Final Omega Shot...
Fo prepared his Mystic Sphere Throw...
And both moves connected almost simultaneously. Both fighters collapsed. Both fighters were out. Both were actually kind of relieved.
[DOUBLE ELIMINATION: FO FAI-21 votes, FRANCO BASH-13 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-12]
MATCH 52: JAGO (KI) vs. TRACY (TSD2)
------------------------------------
Jago blinked, and stared at the 'badge' on Tracy's chest, and thought for a moment. With a sigh, he handed his sword over to the female police officer.
Tracy grinned wickedly, as she jabbed the monk with her stun-gun, and beat him about the head with her tonfa. Then she grabbed him in a headlock, and leapt from the platform, headed towards the exit.
As they left, Tracy was heard to be muttering, "...teach you some respect for the law!!!"
Jago was heard to be muttering, "Ouch! OW! Hey, quit it!"
[DOUBLE ELIMINATION: JAGO-25 votes, TRACY-21 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-5]
MATCH 53: SENRYO KYOSHIRO (SS3) vs. ROBERT GARCIA (KOF95)
---------------------------------------------------------
"Weeeeeellllll, isn't THIS fun," said Robert, nimbly sidestepping a wide, arcing slash from Kyoshiro's naginata.
"I'll show you FUN!" shouted Kyoshiro, thoroughly peeved still at the clown comment. He hopped up in the air slightly, shouted something only semi-intelligible (in Japanese, of course), and this HUGE frog popped up out of the ground, and lashed its tongue out at Robert's feet. Robert, thoroughly amazed by this turn of events, failed to block in time, and found himself pulled into the mouth of the beast.
"Mmmmppph-mmmmppppppphhhhh!!!" shouted Robert.
Takuma, down in the peanut gallery, shouted up at his student. "Robert! Stop playing around! You have fighting to do! You must not lose to Bozo here!" Kyoshiro bristled.
Robert was unable to hear clearly, and wouldn't have cared if he had. He was a bit distracted. Not only did it stink in here, it was getting HOT. Really hot, actually. Robert felt like he was in a pressure cooker. And then suddenly....
*POW*!!!
The stomach of the beast literally burst open, sending Robert flying rather gracelessly into the barrier of the platform. The impact knocked him silly for a moment, then he stood back up groggily, to find Kyoshiro's rather impressive bulk standing over him, preparing to deal a finishing blow to this young upstart with bad hair (in HIS opinion, anyhow).
As the Kabuki dancer twirled his weapon around for a powerful strike, Robert made his move. "Ryuuko Ranbu!" he cried, and dashed forward at Kyoshiro. Suddenly, Robert was pelting him with a fierce volley of punches and kicks, and the spectators stared at the lifebars. For some reason,
the attacks seemed to have no effect.
"Huh?" asked Deuce. "Hey Mike?"
"Yo...," came the reply through the communicator.
"Is there something wrong with the damage registers? Robert doesn't seem to be having any effect here..."
"Just a second, I'll check."
Just then, Robert finished up his assault with a massive uppercut, and the damage suddenly registered. Kyoshiro was sent flying, unconscious, and the life meter drained rapidly to nothing... from over 50% full!
"WOW," said Deuce. "That must've HURT."
"Blame it on 95... one of their advantages this year," replied Mike. "Their attacks do royal tons of damage."
"So I'm noticing."
Takuma cheered his pupil. "Very good! I knew you could do it!" Yuri ran up onto the platform and hugged him. Robert hugged back gently.
"That's got to be the weirdest thing I think I've ever been through," said Robert.
"Are you okay?" asked Ryo. "That looked pretty painful."
"Yeah, I'm okay... ow. Just think I smacked my back a little hard," continued Robert. "We can talk back in the room... walk this way."
"If I could walk that way...," Ryo began, but Takuma swatted him in the back of the head before he could continue.
[WINNER: ROBERT GARCIA-38 votes, SENRYO KYOSHIRO-23 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-2]
MATCH 54: ROSE (SFA) vs. RIMURURU (SS3)
---------------------------------------
Rose began the match by flinging a soul spark at her opponent, testing the girl's mettle. As the orb of chi flew from her shawl across the arena, Rimururu conjured forth a mirror of ice, which the projectile rebounded off of, now hurtling back towards its point of origin. Rose, startled only for the briefest of moments, whipped her scarf around, reflecting the spark back towards it's original destination...where, to her mild chagrin, it once again met with an ice mirror. This continued for some time, until Rose finally wearied of the exercise, and absorbed the projectile back into her chi supply.
At this point, Rimururu tossed a piece of shimmering ice at the woman in the shawl, and Rose, realizing that this projectile was solid, and not the chi to which she was accustomed, prudently opted to block, rather than attempt to reflect it. Frowning very slightly, she commented, "Impressive, child."
Rimururu smiled a little bit, and even went so far as to politely reply, "Arigato," before she advanced slowly. As she neared hand to hand distance, she held her palms out towards the ground, willing it to freeze beneath Rose's feet. The gypsy woman slipped, stumbling backwards on the icy slick beneath her heels, and Rimururu followed up with a wicked upwards slash of her kodachi, sending her staggering back further, then paused, looking confusedly at the crowd as some number of them yelled, "Cheap!"
Rose started up an offensive then, but was unable to gain the lead before time ran out, and round one went to Rimururu.
In round two, Rose approached her opponent with more caution, ready to block any surprise attacks she might throw. Nonetheless though, the girl was fast, and the knife she carried was rather too sharp for Rose's liking. It was touch and go for a while, before Rose activated her Soul
Illusion, and battered away at Rimururu with the aid of three replicas of herself. When the round was over, Rose was ahead by a narrow margin.
Round three was similar, but Rimururu, noticing that Rose had won the past round by only the barest of margins, struggled to get every last bit of damage she could. Freezing her sword into an icy blade, lashing out with volleys of icicles, and flowers formed of pure ice, she used every skill she had to stave off Rose's assault. At one point, she hastily ducked around her opponent, and froze the ground beneath her feet. Before she could strike however, portions of the audience once again called out "CHEAP!" The ice maiden turned then, and looked to the stands with a certain measure of dismay in her eyes, and her shoulders seemed to droop a little bit as she returned to the combat. Rose could not help but notice this, and while she pressed her advantage, she watched the girl with a certain degree of concern.
Finally, as the timer began to tick towards zero, Rimururu leapt into the air, hand on the hilt of her sword. Rose leapt to meet her with an Aura Soul Throw, catching the girl in midflight, and flinging her towards the ground, to thunderous cheers from some of the audience. Rimururu landed awkwardly, with a small cry of pain, as Rose fell gracefully back to earth, standing a short distance away.
As the Ainu girl struggled to rise, however, a sharp pain shot up through her ankle, and she stumbled back to one knee. She grit her teeth, and once more tried to push herself up, only to fall again, tears forming in her eyes. As it became apparent to the audience what had happened, some
of them sighed, while others cheered, and a few, mostly in the peanut gallery, made cruel comments.
Rose, meanwhile, was carefully walking closer to her opponent. As she neared the girl, Rimururu lashed out with her sword, nearly taking some length off of Rose's shawl as the woman sprung back. Rimururu fought to gain her feet again, but her ankle would not support her weight, and she dropped back to her knees, tears of pain, frustration and failure running down her cheeks.
"Stop it, little one, that's enough." Rose chided gently, as she once again approached the girl.
Rimururu wiped her eyes, and began yet another attempt to stand. "This isn't...over..."
Rose's voice was firm as she said, "Yes, child, it is. If you try to go on, you'll just hurt yourself."
"But...Oneechan will be disappointed in me..." The girl protested softly.
"No she won't. Come now. Let's get you somewhere where she can take care of you, alright?"
"H-hai..."
With that, Rose stepped in, and placed an arm around Rimururu, supporting her gently, and leading her off the platform to where Nakoruru (with Galford at her side, as usual) waited.
"Gomen, oneechan, I...," Rimururu began between quiet sobs.
"Daijoubu, Rimururu," Nakoruru answered. "You did very well for your first time here."
"Yeah! You did great!" Galford interjected, "Right, Poppy?" *WOOF*
Rimururu smiled a little bit then, as did Rose, "You two can take care of her from here?"
Nakoruru nodded, "Thank you for your kindness." she said as she bowed to Rose, then turned to Galford, "Ne, Gal-kun...can you help me with her?"
Grinning, Galford just scooped Rimururu up off her feet, and carried her to her room, Nakoruru walking along beside, while Rose just stood by the edge of the platform and smiled maternally. She waited until Mike officially declared her the winner, then went off to give the jeering audience members a lecture they'd never forget.
[WINNER: ROSE-31 votes, RIMURURU-20 votes, DRAW-6, DKO-1]
MATCH 55: FULGORE (KI) vs. ASAMIYA ATHENA (KOF95)
-------------------------------------------------
The young idol singer was getting quite frustrated. This robot kept teleporting all over the place, firing off bolts of electricity at her, and generally just not giving her a chance to land any solid hits. As Fulgore continued jaunting about, teleport-happy as could be, Athena was charging up her energy. Finally, she was ready, at her full strength. Now, she would just wait...
Just as Fulgore got close once more, Athena let fly with her Shining Crystal Bit. Energy whirled around her, and globes of pure psychic power spun in a rapid orbit about her. Fulgore teleported just a bit TOO close, and the globes collided with him. This form of energy did not get along
particularly well with the power generator inside Fulgore's metal body.
The result of this rather unpleasant disagreement was Fulgore being somewhat fried. He stumbled around, completely confused, and failed to notice Athena drawing the energy into her hand.
With a loud cry of "IKE--!!" she fired the bolt of energy at her
opponent, and it struck him squarely in the face. This second jolt didn't
do much to settle the argument going on in his circuitry. In fact, it
exacerbated the situation to quite an incredible extent.
Fulgore tried to teleport again, but this was a poor choice. His power centers kicked into overdrive, and he suddenly found himself teleporting all OVER the place. After about six or seven jaunts, he vanished, and simply failed to reappear. Athena looked around for awhile, and shrugged. "Does that mean I win?" she asked Deuce.
"Umm... well, since he doesn't seem to be returning... yes, it does,"
said Deuce resignedly. The afternoon was drawing on, and he was getting
quite tired. "You win... you're up for round two."
Athena clapped, hopped up and down a moment, and cheered herself.
Kensou rushed up onto the platform to congratulate her. She didn't really
notice though, as she was prancing around a little too much in celebration.
Kensou ALMOST managed to get close enough to give her a congratulatory hug,
but managed to get smacked in the temple by one of her flailing arms.
"Ara? Sie, are you okay? What are you doing on the floor?" she
asked, blissfully unaware that she had put him there.
Kensou opened his eyes blearily from being nearly knocked out, and
found himself staring up at Athena's smiling face. "I'm in heaven..."
[WINNER: ASAMIYA ATHENA-35 votes, FULGORE-19 votes, DRAW-2, DKO-2]
MATCH 56: CHIN GENTSAI (KOF95) vs. KUBIKIRI BASARA (SS3)
--------------------------------------------------------
Basara had taken note of Hanzo's victory over Chun Li, and decided to
try his hand at teleporting around a good bit. This didn't go over very
well, as Chin was fast enough to catch him whenever he tried to sink into
his portal of darkness.
So, Basara tried a different route. He unleashed a ball of orange
electrical energy which floated gently across toward the drunken fighter.
Chin just laughed. "That's a very strange technique..."
Suddenly, Basara was right in Chin's face, delivering a quick punch
to his jaw, followed by a painful swipe of his weapon's chain. With his
concentration broken and his guard down, the ball of energy homed in on
Chin and gave him a rather nasty jolt. He fell to the ground.
Chin stood back up and took a long swig from his gourd, and felt his
power building. Basara just eyed him carefully, wondering what trickery
was afoot. And suddenly, the drunkard spat fire! Despite the undead
man's best efforts to block, his life meter decreased at an alarming rate.
"Hmmmm," thought Deuce aloud. "Those are some mighty large block
ticks. Kind of cheezy, there."
When the fire barrage stopped, Basara scowled and suddenly, there
were two of him! One remained where he was, the other stalked forward,
right at his opponent. Chin panicked slightly at this very direct approach,
and tossed his gourd forward in an attempt to stop Basara.
Basara saw his opportunity. The image that walked forward vanished
as the REAL one leapt straight up into the air, and sent his triple-bladed
star hurtling downward at Chin, who had no time to block, and fell backward
once more as the blade struck him.
As Basara landed, he began making more and more images of himself...
some leaping, some walking, some running, etc. Chin was thoroughly
confused, which had been the general objective. He figured that ONE of the
images had to be the real goods, so he charged forward, trying to bowl
Basara over, but ran into a bit of an obstacle...
That obstacle was Basara's blade, spinning forward like a buzzsaw.
It struck Chin full in the chest, opening a very nasty gash, and Chin fell
to the platform, out for the count. Basara just stood there and laughed
maniacally.
[WINNER: KUBIKIRI BASARA-30 votes, CHIN GENTSAI-19 votes, DRAW-3, DKO-3]
Athena and Kensou ran onto the platform to help their fallen master.
Deuce reassured them that he'd be fine, he would just need a night of
recuperation. They relaxed somewhat, but were still kind of nervous. That
would looked pretty deep. But they took him back to his room, and noticed
that it already seemed to have healed slightly. With that in mind, they
were able to calm down more, but they remained in the room with him for
awhile longer, just to be on the safe side.
MATCH 57: AKIRA (VF2) vs. T.J. COMBO (KI)
-----------------------------------------
It really wasn't a pretty sight. Not at all. The match was over in two rounds, with Combo lying on the ground, wisps of smoke rising from his head.
The first round had just started off poorly. The boxer, who was already experiencing some certain technical difficulties due to his low budget cybernetic arms, began to see double. He squinted, trying to make sense of the paradoxical scene before him, when a thought crossed his mind.
"Ah! He must be one of those...ninnies...nannies...ninja! That was it! Ninja! After all, there sure were a lot of them...though he didn't recall this guy being on the list... "Let's see...there was....um... Hanzo...and...and...Sub Zero...and...umm...whatsername... the babe with the fans...and... well, that was at least eight, right...?"
It was at about this time when Akira, in his usual agressive style, KOed the boxer with a fast dashing elbow.
In the second round, the boxer decided to do better, and opened the match with a furious combo, striking his opponent with punch after punch after punch... he was somewhere around hit number thirty seven when his arms shorted out and fried his brain. Round and match, Akira Yuki.
[WINNER: AKIRA-49 votes, T.J. COMBO-5 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-2]
MATCH 58: M. BISON (SFA) vs. SHO SHINJO (TSD2)
----------------------------------------------
Sho winced, as the fiery aura from Bison's Psycho-Crusher flared
against his face. Only his thin blade separated him from defeat. He
could feel the burns, and bruises covering his body. Every time he slashed
at his opponent, Bison teleported.
Bison's aura died out, as Sho hazarded anouther quick slash, before
backing up. He hadn't been able to land any substantial hits... only the
ones that were so quick and light that Bison couldn't react to them.
Sho felt an odd calm wash over him, as he held his blade in front of
him. He looked levelly at the dictator of Shadoloo, as he calmly reversed
the grip on his sword, holding it's tip against his belly. He breathed
regularly, as he began to focus his ki. This was a new technique, and if
he erred, even slightly... he would not get a chance to make another.
As his focus grew to a climax, he thrust the blade swiftly and surely
into himself. A brief flash of light was seen across the ring, and
suddenly, amidst a splatter of blood, the tip, and then the blade of a
sword sprang out of Bison's chest. The dictator screamed, and collapsed.
Sho saw this, as his vision began to fade. He too collapsed to the
mat, a split-second after Bison.
Groggily, Bison climbed back to his feet for the second round. There
was no sign of the sword-wound that had caused his loss. His gaze turned
over to the young swordsman who had managed that feat. Sho lay on the mat,
unmoving... the blade of his sword sticking out of his back.
[WINNER: M. BISON-29 votes, SHO SHINJO-22 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-4]
MATCH 59: URANUS (TSD2) vs. OMEGA RUGAL (KOF95)
-----------------------------------------------
Uranus flapped her wings, attempting to gain altitude... to gain distance. To get away from THAT move!
In the first round, she'd learned how much it hurt. It was the first attack he launched into. No preliminaries... no testing out his opponent... nothing. The move had left her a little dazed. She'd gotten lucky that he'd closed in, where her powerful wings, and the magic of her bow had managed just BARELY to save her.
"GENOCIDE... CUTTER!!!!" Rugal screamed, as his leg bore down on Uranus with might that was known throughout his home-node.
Uranus desperately fired her bow, shouting "EAGLE-RAY!!!" as she returned to the present, but the foot connected, knocking her back down to the ground. As she rolled up to her feet, she swept her wings out around her, defensively.
Suddenly, jets fired out of Omega Rugal's back, as he literally flew
across the platform, grabbing Uranus, and smashing her into the invisible
barrier that simulated a wall. A sickly-sounding *CRUNCH* was heard, as
Uranus toppled over, and lay unmoving on the platform.
[WINNER: OMEGA RUGAL-27 votes, URANUS-18 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-5]
MATCH 60: MOTARO (MK3) vs. SAISYU KUSANAGI (KOF95)
--------------------------------------------------
Motaro was amazed at the speed of the nimble human. Despite how often the great centaurian Outworlder teleported to avoid the waves of fire, Saisyu was on top of him immediately, scorching him with chifire.
Motaro's willpower was giving out about as quickly as his patience. And when Saisyu jumped on his back and grabbed his horns, that was the straw that broke the centaur's back.
"That's it! I have had it! I have HAD it!" bellowed Motaro, and began a very amusing dance, trying to buck Saisyu off.
"Just hang in there, dad!" cried Kyo from the peanut gallery. "Just eight seconds!"
"What a rancid film," commented Blue Mary.
"That's beside the point!" said Kyo.
And indeed, Saisyu did last eight seconds. "All right!" cried Motaro. "You win! I give! Get OFF OF ME!!!" So Saisyu hopped down, a huge smirk on his face and a victory under his belt.
Motaro began to run off to his room, in somewhat extreme embarassment. Saisyu launched a wave of fire off after him, but it vanished at the edge of the platform.
[WINNER: SAISYU KUSANAGI-25 votes, MOTARO-20 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-2]
MATCH 61: PYRON (NW) vs. AKUMA (SFA)
------------------------------------
"Take me to your leader!" taunted the fiery alien, as the fight bell
sounded. Akuma grunted a reply, and launched a red Ha-Do-Ken in response.
The air was full of projectiles... fire flew everywhere, and only the
protective field surrounding the platform prevented the entire arena from
being toasted.
Suddenly, a shout was heard from off the arena. Both fighters stared
dumbly as Guile charged up the platform before the Brute Squad could stop
him. All the monitors flashed "HERE COMES CHALLENGER!"
With a yell, Guile charged Pyron down, and the two were enveloped in a
cloud of smoke. When it cleared Guile was standing over Pyron's crumpled
form. "Welcome to Earth!" he shouted, as he punched the unconscious alien
once more in the head.
He slung Pyron over his shoulder, and leapt down from the platform,
just as Jolly green and the Brutes arrived. They stared dumbfounded as he
walked right up to them. He looked at the Jovial one for a moment, before
saying "July 4th... the day we fight back," and stalking off, bearing the alien on his back.
[WINNER: AKUMA-31 votes, PYRON-14 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-10]
MATCH 62: GEESE HOWARD (RBFF) vs. DURAL (VF2)
---------------------------------------------
Geese flung the robotic automaton across the arena, and flexed, chuckling. This was too easy. The pathetic excuse for a terminator wannabe had barely even touched him in the first round, and had done little better in the second. Most of it's attacks were susceptible to a knockdown blow, and the thing didn't seem to know to deal with his arsenal of Reppukens, either.
Finally, as the round wore down, Dural's processor finally seemed to register the idea of leaping over one of Geese's projectiles. The Southdown crimelord stared at it for a while, as it drifted through the air in a leisurely arc.
"RRRAAAAZZZZIIINNNNGGG STOOORRRRMMM!!" he shouted, creating a gigantic 'cage' of energy around himself, blasting the Virtua fighter clear out of the ring.
"Hahahahahaha!" He laughed megalomaniacally. "This is pitiful. If everyone here is like THAT thing, I should just take over the whole NODE!"
Wraith, who had been watching for something like this, immediately cued a few of Jolly Green's Brutes to the area, making an announcement over the speaker system. "Mr. Howard is being disqualified from the tournament on the grounds of a plot to take over the node."
As Birdie dragged him away, Geese could be heard protesting, "It was a JOKE! Don't you get it! A JOKE! I've learned my lesson! Honest! Really..."
[DOUBLE ELIMINATION: GEESE HOWARD-26 votes, DURAL-25 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-2]
MATCH 63: SHAO KAHN (MK3) vs. EYEDOL (KI)
-----------------------------------------
*WHAM* *BIFF*
*SOCK* *ROAR*
*KAPOW* *BLAMMO*
*OOF* *OW*
*MOOOOMMMYYYY* *SMACK*
*THUD* *THUD*
[DOUBLE ELIMINATION: SHAO KAHN-21 votes, EYEDOL-18 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-14]
MATCH 64: MINAZUKI ZANKURO (SS3) vs. VERMILLION (TSD2)
------------------------------------------------------
Zankuro looked at his opponent with extreme disdain, and his body flared a bright green. "You actually think you can beat me without a blade? Not that you have a chance anyway...."
Vermillion just laughed. "I have no need of a blade, big man." He waved his pistol and shotgun forward a bit for emphasis.
Zankuro sneered. "Let's see how you're going to get past my sword." With that, he began a dizzying display of swordsmanship, his hue blade whirling all about him, almost too fast to be seen. The opening bell rang while he was still swinging his sword in blinding arcs.
It almost seemed fast enough to create a barely visible shield...perhaps fast enough to stop even a bullet.
*BLAM*!!!!!!
Then again, maybe not.
Zankuro fell to the floor, sporting a new orifice directly between his eyes. That would keep him out for a bit longer than the remainder of the round... it would take all DAY for him to regenerate that.
Vermillion just laughed. "You're actually the BOSS of your node? What a joke. NEXT!"
[WINNER: VERMILLION-26 votes, MINAZUKI ZANKURO-19 votes, DRAW-1, DKO-4]
MATCH 65: MASTER (TSD2) vs. AMAKUSA SHIRO TOKISADA (SS3)
--------------------------------------------------------
The hastily erected power-filters encompassing the fight nearly fell on several occasions. The two sorcerers channeled vast energies, tapping every magical resource they could find.
"THERE!" shouted Amakusa triumphantly. "Take THAT!" he continued, as he sent a bolt of lighting streaking across the battleground at the younger sorcerer.
Master growled, as the lightning struck home. He retaliated with a ball of flame. Energies crackled, and the faces of the crowd showed their amazement at some of the combos they witnessed.
Amakusa's eyes gleamed, as another bolt of lightning, a perfect twin to the first shot forward from his fingers.
"Three words," said Master, "Blue Elemental Blast."
Bristling with rage, Amakusa kicked over the table, sending their Magic: The Gathering cards flying everywhere. "This is a foolish game! Come, brat! Your time has come!" His sphere sprang into existance between his hands, and he swatted the youthful sorcerer with it.
Amakusa attacked with a fury that hadn't been seen out of him since
Samurai Shodown 1. He teleported constantly, keeping Master totally off
guard. The final blow of the first round came, when Amakusa's Dark
Destroyer plummeted onto Master from the roof of the Arena.
The second round, Master came to, and fought back. Amakusa would
jump in, only to find himself impaled on the tip of a massive sword, that
simply wasn't there before. With a cry of "SHUREDDO!" Master effortlessly
twirled the blade, slashing out at Amakusa's ankles. In fact, one of these
slashes lifted a Magic: The Gathering card up into the air, and cut it in
half.
Amakusa looked down, at his beloved Icy Manipulator... destroyed.
With a growl he seized Master by the robes, and slapped him. "You bloated
sack! *SMACK* You filthy worm! *SMACK*," he was heard shouting. "You
worthless sack of protoplasm!!! *SMACK,SMACK,SMACK*"
A bruised and bloodied Master fell to the floor.
[WINNER: AMAKUSA SHIRO TOKISADA-34 votes, MASTER-14 votes, DRAW-3, DKO-2]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stay tuned for the Post-Round Show and the Epilogue, coming in the next
couple of days! Thanks for sticking with us through the delays!
Jeff "Deuce" Nussbaum Mike "Wraith" Pureka "Jolly Green" Jason Wright
deuce@scsn.net mpureka@wesleyan.edu jasondw@hargray.com
(
geocities.com/soho/lofts) (
geocities.com/soho)