Disclaimer: We don't own Star Trek, Harry Potter, Ranma 1/2, or anything thusly related. What
we do own is all the other fun characters.
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| Budoka no Jinsei:
| EPISODE 2:
| Beyond Redemption
|
|
| The Trekkian Influences in this episode brought to you by:
| Nemesis
| Whacky martial arts mayhem by:
| Spam_BIT, Nabiki, opaj, and ragingtofu
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***Hogwarts***
A cloaked figure paced back and forth inside the Chamber of Death. Cursing and muttering under
its breath, the figure glanced back and forth between the rotting walls that were covered with
rotting corpses. Finally, as if making a decision, the figure walked up to one corpse that was
crawling with maggots. Cursing one final time, the figure reached out a rather pale hand and
pushed the eyeball-less head. However instead of spewing a horrid torrent of blood and worms,
the head vanished, revealing a pure gold switch. Heaving a sigh of relief, the figure pushed
the switch, and upon which a secret door opened. The figure hastily ran into the new opening,
the door closing just as quickly. Looking around, the cloaked figure removed its cloak...
***Aboard the U.S.S. Life-C***
Admiral Life King Lee slammed a very angry and very closed fist onto a polished desk. With a
snarled breath, Life snatched up another report.
Such reports had grown common to the Galaxy renowned Admiral Life. Having captained the now
infamous U.S.S. Life-C, Life and his crew had come to fame and ranking through many high
priority, albeit highly secret, Starfleet missions. Accomplishments ranging from the halt of
the secret Borg Offensive and the stopping of the Bombos invasion to the stop of the third Borg
Offensive with Special Ops. to the dangerous Fallout Mission, the U.S.S. Life-C and her allies
had swelled quickly in the eyes of the citizens and officers of the United Federation of
Planets (and gained much honor in the eyes of other Empires). Now an old and very tired
Admiral, Life was at the end of an era. But a new era had quickly arisen.
During the second Borg Offensive the UFP, Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire had allied
together to fight the Borg. While the Borg succeeded in assimilating the Alpha Quadrant in one
timeline, the U.S.S. Premonition was able to alter time in such a way that the end result was a
free Alpha Quadrant (however, the U.S.S. Premonition was destroyed in a successful attempt to
save the U.S.S. Enterprise-E). But now, forty years after the second Borg Offensive and five
after the Fallout Mission, the Galaxy was once again at war.
To make a long story short, the Cardasians, the Romulans, the Klingons, the Borg and the
Dominion were all gathering their forces to take control of the Alpha Quadrant. In essence, the
skirmishes that were being reported and plopped onto Admiral Life's desk were leading up to a
huge and, ultimately, morbidly damaging war. Not just a war; in fact, the first Galactic War.
And there was nothing, absolutely nothing, Admiral Life could do to stop the events at hand.
And so Life slammed his fist on his desk, for that was all he could do.
Knowing the chaos that was about to ensue, Life sank into his large chair, thinking about the
past, about the present, and about the ugly looking future; thinking about how much time was
left, how much time there was, and...
And then it hit the Admiral. It hit him like a sack of dilithium: go back in time to sort out
things, where there is more TIME.
And so Admiral Life King Lee, not too sure what he was doing, ordered his ship, the U.S.S.
Hero's Flame, to prepare to meet the U.S.S. Pipe, Deppy's ship. With one final thought, Life
strode onto the bridge to handle his startled crew.
*****
Peter Thanes dropped his cloak, cackling under his breath. Those fools, thought Peter, they
never suspected me. Moving with extra speed, Peter crossed the new, yet bland, room to a
floating ball in the center of the room. Pulling out his wand and muttering a special
incantation, the globe began sputtering white fog, and then began spinning counter-clockwise.
As Peter raised his wand for the final incantation, he was suddenly struck with the thought of
Robin the Ravenclaw at the Omega Tournament. Waving his wand over the glowing globe, Peter
pondered the easy defeat Robin had suffered, and why the defeat had occurred.
And through Peter�s time wasting thoughts a dark figure managed to catch up with Peter.
Matika, a member of the magic race known as the Magicas, grabbed Peter Thanes' wand. "NO!"
screamed Matika, "YOU CAN'T! YOU CAN'T DESTROY MY MASTER!"
Peter attempted to tear the wand out of his adversary's grip, but to no avail. "Let go! This
incantation is unstable! There's no telling what will happen if I don't complete it!" yelled
Peter with just as much fervor.
Matika didn't comply with the reply. "YOU CAN'T!" screamed Matika, and with that he swatted the
wand into the globe.
Both Magica and human stared in horror at the turn of events (mainly at the globe) and watched
helplessly and the Chamber of Death crumbled away under the sheer power. Both beings were
thrown into darkness...
A messy looking robe floated around what remained of the Chamber of Death. There was no more
physical substance to be had in the area of Hogwarts, to be sure, but the messy robe was
perfectly comfortable in the destroyed zone. Swimming in an odd yet magical fashion, the messy
robe wandered its way to the huge glowing sphere in the center of the room. What looked like a
hand, yet not one at the same time, pulled itself out of the robe and with it came a funny
looking wand. Tapping the sphere with the wand, the messy robe gave a grunt of approval.
Seemingly finishing its task, the messy robe made its way to the portal in which it had
arrived, muttering the words, {I do hope you succeed, Captain Life.}
*****
Peter Thanes woke up on one of the lawns of Hogwarts. Letting out a wail of defeat, Peter threw
his fists at the sky, screaming, "DAMN YOU MATIKA! YOU FOOL!!!!"
***Somewhere in the Canadian Tundra***
The deceivingly youthful-looking Asian looked on in approval as the energetic redhead went
through the new katas he had taught her. He recalled the aura he had detected on her when they
first faced at the Omega Tournament; he only had the memory, as that strange energy hadn't yet
resurfaced. Still, Kenji Nakamura knew what he sensed, and he was determined to train Nicole
Peters until he found out what was so special about her.
Right now, however, he had something else on his mind.
Nicole excelled in all the hand-to-hand techniques he had taught her and learned katas as if
they were second nature. And now was the time to extend her training into the "mystical," to
teach her how to focus and utilize her ki. But there was a problem.
Kenji knew over 50 different ki techniques, each designed to suite special people with special
personality traits. Most of his knowledge was useful to people with unusual amounts of a
certain emotion or element in their aura. And Nicole, it seemed, had neither.
He could remember when he first saw her, entering the tournament. He barely even took notice of
her, just caught a glimpse of her through the corner of his eye. He could still recall an
unusual amount of confidence, enough to fire off a deadly Moko Takabisha. But that confidence
melted away as she witnessed the other fighters, and realized that she wasn't even in the top
five as far as skill went; she was number ten, if she was lucky. That confidence was replaced
with desperate determination, and, while determination can make a powerful ally, it becomes
useless when tainted with fear and jealousy.
It was as Nakamura was contemplating these things when he heard the cry of his faithful black
panther, Tiger. Something was amiss.
Suddenly the scenery started to blur, and a golden light engulfed him. He spread his senses
out, trying to discover the source of this odd occurrence. He felt as if he was both nowhere
and everywhere at once, as if his body had been stretched out to the point where it was just a
handful of atoms hurtling through space. He could sense Tiger and Nicole near him, in similar
condition. And he could feel the natural laws of nature being bent to allow this strange
transportation to occur.
As his vision cleared, he could see that he was in a large, spacious, metallic room with some
barrels, also metal, lined against a wall and a futuristic control panel near the barrels. He
saw a door with no doorknob on the wall to his right, and he saw a startled Nicole, finishing
her kata with more force than intended, smashing a barrel into pieces.
"Where are we?" she asked, trying to contain her confusion but not doing a very good job of it.
***Somewhere in the Russian Tundra***
"YOU'RE WORTHLESS!!! YOU'RE THE SCUM UNDER MY FEET!!!! NO, TO CALL YOU THAT INSULTS SCUM ALL
OVER THE WORLD!!!!" Each of these sentences was accompanied by the crack of a whip. The Russian
known as Mirsky was standing out near the small town where he usually "trained" his pupils. The
villagers had seen him do it before, and weren't stupid enough to stop him for fear for their
lives.
The peasants could tell that the tall, muscular, blonde-haired boy he was beating must be from
an English speaking country, mainly because Mirsky was yelling at the boy in English. He must
have been saying some pretty mean things, because the boy was near to tears.
Mirsky would almost always go after the most powerful students he could find, but for some
reason he valued a student with a big ego over a student with big muscles.
Mirsky smirked wryly as he gave the teenager one last whip, charging the weapon with jet-black
energy, that sent dark sparks flying over his victim. The boy started to cry out in agonizing
pain as a strange golden light engulfed them and finished with a pitiful gurgle as the light
faded, leaving them in a very strange and very large room, not quite alone...
"NAKAMURA!" Mirsky cried in surprise.
"MIRSKY!" Kenji replied, spinning around to face his enemy.
They both began to emit their dark auras, when several more forms materialized...
*****
In a place without time, without light, a place that lies both here and there...
Somewhere in the shadows Kyorei sat, pale and unmoving, her eyes affixed into the distance, no
longer the same blood red but a pale ice blue. Dark circles under her eyes and an unnatural
paleness of her skin were also notable. All was quiet; the voices were gone; but she was lost.
She fingered a small token and wondered how she would be able to find that fighter again, the
one who had both freed and condemned her at the same time.
She shivered as screams shattered the stillness of the air. Kaimettsu-Sama had found someone to
play with, it seemed. Perhaps he would leave her alone then.
Suddenly the air seemed to vibrate. She cried out as she felt an odd distortion rip through the
air, and everything went black.
*****
Ma'ang hummed to himself as he prepared dinner. Ah, how he had missed real food. Ma'ang was
glad that the tournament was over and that he could get some peace. His eyes shadowed as he
thought of Kyorei. She had been out of it since the demons had been banished. Such an
occurrence had only happened once before and she had been a wreck, until they had taken
possession of her once again. She couldn't live without them anymore, it seemed.
He blinked and quickly pulled the steak off the grill. {Oops, better pay attention here,} he
thought. Ma'ang sat down and sighed happily. "Ah, food... Itadakimasu!" he said in glee. But
just as he was about to take a bite into his meal the whole world seemed to shift and change.
The next thing he knew he was standing in a metal room, with 2 fighters from the tournament
looking about to kill each other. Still grasping his fork and knife, he looked around and was
startled to see the unconscious Kyorei appear on the ground beside him. Sighing, he wondered
where the hell they were now and how he could get back to his dinner.
***Hokkaido, Japan***
Shinichi Mamono flew eight feet backwards and was about to hit the ground. That was until he
did a mid-air back flip and did a handspring to bring himself back to his feet. He eyed his
sparring partner with an amused grin.
"Not bad, Fuante. You may just beat me yet," said Shinichi
Fuante grinned back. "You mean how I beat you at the tournament, and virtually every battle
before that?" he retorted. "It seems to me that someone here needs a lesson in humility. Allow
me to teach you."
With that, the two fighters flung themselves into the center of the sparring circle once more,
engaging in a flurry of punches and kicks way too fast for the normal human eye to catch.
Shimitsu Kyojin, Fuante's father, watched the fight from a distance. Both fighters had
increased their skills substantially since the end of the tournament. Fuante's bones reset
themselves in a week and a half, quite standard for a martial artist of his level. Shimitsu
continued to watch the fight until he saw the mailman driving down the road. He sat up and
intercepted the mailman at the gate. It was best that no one enter the gates while Shinichi and
Fuante were sparring. At their level, even people at a distance could get hurt.
"Ohayou gozaimasu, Kyojin-sensei," the mailman greeted Shimitsu in Japanese and bowed.
"Ohayou, Umanoke-san," Shimitsu returned and also bowed.
Umanoke handed him the mail and went on his way. As Shimitsu was walking back to the house, he
saw a letter without a return address addressed to Fuante. Normally he wouldn't open his son's
mail, but he had a strong feeling about this one. Reading the letter over, Shimitsu found that
it was a challenge letter, and that the challenger would be coming around at 3:30 P.M. Shimitsu
checked his watch, which read 3:27. He sighed. He hated interrupting sparring matches; maybe
one of them will win quickly.
Indeed, Fuante saw an opening in Shinichi's defenses and lashed out with a strong kick to his
opponent's midsection, sending him sprawling to the ground. He wiped off the sweat from his
brow and helped his friend to his feet.
"Good fight," Fuante said. Shinichi nodded his agreement.
Shimitsu chose that time to approach the fighters and quickly informed Fuante of the challenge.
"So," Fuante began, "he'll be here soon, then?"
"Correction," a voice behind them said. "I am already here."
The three spun around, all ashamed at not being able to sense the newcomer's aura. The newcomer
was dressed in white robes not very different to Mu Tsu's. He hopped into the sparring circle
and assumed a rigid fighting stance.
"I'm Fuyuitai Samuike of the Samuike School of Kasumi Ken Martial Arts. I challenge you, Fuante
Kyojin."
Before Fuante could respond, however, a bright light surrounded the four fighters. When the
light cleared, they found themselves in a large, gray, metallic room with a door without a
handle. They also found themselves not to be alone.
***U.S.A.***
Jake and Dave were walking to school. Best friends for quite a while, they were pretty alike.
They both liked science fiction, and each had a temper that was easily triggered. They were
also both in ninth grade, enrolled at Blue Acres High School. They had to take a History test
that day, and each was bit nervous.
"Man, I feel like I'm falling to pieces..." Jake muttered to himself.
Suddenly Dave yelled, "In a way you are!"
"What do you mean by that -- what the..." Jake noticed that he was slowly disappearing.
In mere seconds Jake was completely gone.
"That's not something you see every day," Dave thought to himself.
Then he noticed himself disappearing...
***
Jake had a sensation of falling, or something of the sort. After a bit of haziness, Everything
came in to view. It looked like he was on some sort of space ship. {Where am I?} Jake thought
to himself. He looked around. Dave was there.
"Man, that was weird. What happened?" asked Dave.
***
Chief Engineer Mark T. grumbled as he ran down the corridor to Cargo Bay 18.
The grumbling, of course, was because of the strange readings in the Cargo Bay.
Readings that tied in with the power surge that put Ian and Life into sick bay(Mark had a
distant thought about why they sent Ian, an android, to sick bay).
Rounding the corner that led to the Bay, Mark looked over his shoulder and swore in silent
anger. His Engineering Team was a bunch of rookies, and they were having trouble keeping up
with Mark. Waiting patiently for his team to catch up, Mark finally had a chance to clear his
thoughts.
He then began to speak. "Engineering Team ALPHA, welcome to your first major crisis aboard the
U.S.S. Life-C." Mark glanced at an engineer that was sweating; he looked extremely scared. Mark
continued. "I don't know what Real-Life training you had in the field, if any at all, but this
is something major, so I don't want any of you running away crying, because we're a few
thousand light-years away from home... that is, for all of you that are from Earth." Mark felt
a tinge of awkwardness as he realized that there was a Vulcan in the group, and, not
surprisingly, the Vulcan was the one with the most impassive face of the entire group. Clearing
his thoughts again, Mark said, "We are now going to head in. From this point on, you will
listen to my every word and you will obey my every command. If worst comes to worst, you will
need to follow your own judgement. And," Mark glared at the group as he said this, "judging
from most of your scores, we will have to pray that that situation does not occur." Quiet gulps
ensued, and Mark grimaced inwardly.
Turning on his heel, Mark pressed a rapid override pattern, and the cargo bay doors opened...
Mirsky spun around from the recently entered engineer to the recently entered teenager. "I see
now!" He exclaimed. "This is a trap! Well, you'll regret taking me on!" He began to build up
his black aura, emitting depression ki that--
At that moment, Kenji Nakamura slammed his fist into Mirsky's chin. The tailed Japanese quickly
followed with a jab to the gut and a kick to the chest, slamming Mirsky into the wall. "That'll
hold him." Turning to the engineer, he said, "Please excuse my friend's rudeness, but he has a
point. Why are we here? You seem to be the leader, right?"
Ma'ang looked down to see Kyorei lying unconscious on the ground. He quickly knelt down and
checked to make sure she was ok. Her breathing was shallow but otherwise she appeared no worse
for the wear. Ma'ang grunted as he lifted her off the ground.
"You're not that light, Kyo. Maybe you need a diet or something," he joked.
"I heard that," came her groggy response. "Put me down, you baka."
However, as Kyorei was in no condition at the moment to refuse help, Ma'ang just ignored her
whining and sized up the odd stranger in the room now. At least that troublesome Mirsky guy had
been taken care of for now, it seemed they had bigger problems brewing here.
{Well, Kyo, what have we got ourselves into this time?} he wondered.
"Uh, my name is Jake, and my friend's name is Dave... do you know what's going on around here?"
Jake asked.
Mark T. brushed off his ruffled uniform, mumbling about retirement. Pointing a phaser toward
the intruders, Mark raised his voice as high as he could raise it, yelling, "All right, I don't
know who or what you people are, but you will accompany me to the Brig, or be sent there...
forcefully!"
The rookies that were accompanying Mark got the hint and quickly pulled out their own phasers,
pointing them in the same direction.
And with an earth-shattering kaboom, an energy torpedo struck the U.S.S. Life, hurling the
entire crew to their knees.
Kenji somehow managed to maintain his balance through the "earthquake" but only by relying on
his tail as a stabilizer. Tiger simply lay on his stomach as Nicole and Luke crashed to the
ground.
"We mean you no harm, and I, for one, have no idea how we even got here," Kenji replied,
seeming almost oblivious to the situation.
Suddenly, before they could fire, Fuyuitai was in front of them, and within a blink of an eye
had delivered several crushing blows to two of them, one of whom was Mark, knocking them to the
ground and probably breaking a few ribs in the process. Then, all hell broke loose.
Chief Engineer Mark T. was barely able to take in the happenings before he crashed to the
ground in morbid pain. When one of the strange people that had arrived had suddenly and
unexpectedly attacked, Mark and his rookie followers barely had time to react. One of his
Ensigns had taken a crushing blow, and Mark followed with the same. Feeling something broken,
Mark lay clutching his chest in severe agony. Then, the ship began to shake violently, only
adding to the Ensign and Mark's physical problems. Out of the corner of his eye Mark saw the
other rookies getting back on their feet and firing at the attacker, and accidentally hitting
the passive ones, too. From what Mark could tell, the peculiar man that hadn't fallen in the
rocking got hit with a phaser blast, as did the other man and the only animal, the panther ({A
panther?} thought Mark), one of the two teenage boys, the two young males that had been just
standing there, and the man that was squatting over the passed out female. Before Mark passed
out from pain, he saw and noted the remaining figures that weren't hit: a male teen, the
attacking man, and the red-headed female teen that fell over in the turbulance.
***
Chief Medical Officer Luke Lee strode patiently and carefully down the corridor toward the
cargo bay. Luke was constantly scanning the life signs of the ship, and the new arrivals had
shown weak ones. Luke, of course, didn't want anyone to go without treatment, so it was only
natural that he was heading toward the bay. And yet, Luke thought, there is something...
different about this, something strange and not of pattern. Luke shrugged. The U.S.S. Life had
been through plenty, and Luke had been through it all. Then a sudden and abrupt shaking seized
the Life-C, and only quick movements saved Luke from collapsing on the corridor floor. Before
the shaking vanished, Luke broke into a dead run amidst the wavering ship toward the bay. Upon
arrival, Luke noted the fallen in the bay, and especially noted the man that, according to
Luke's In-Visor readout, was getting an extreme rush of adrenaline. Luke pushed away the
gasping engineers (Luke had read Mark's hurried report and recognized the crewers) and motioned
them to put their weapons away. Luke moved into the bay and began to speak.
"I am Luke Lee, Chief Medical Officer of the U.S.S. Life-C, the NCC-83447. We mean you no
harm," Luke paused and stared at the pumped male, "but I warn you that if you wish to battle, I
can make a ferocious foe!"
"Well, this is quite a strange situation," said Jake. Jake pulled out a medium sized gun, the
likes of which most had never seen. "Now, where was it..." Jake muttered to himself as he
rummaged through his pocket. "No, that's a number 7... that one's a 15... ah, here it is!" Jake
quickly pulled out something that looked like a bullet for a handgun, only bigger. "Have you
ever seen a caster? Because here's one now!" A white flash emerged from Jake�s gun, heading
toward Luke...
"I don't think so," Luke exclaimed, pressing a button on a device he wore on his wrist. A flash
surrounded him just as the caster was about to hit, and the two cancelled each other out. The
device shorted, and Luke dropped it to the floor. {So much for the prototype portable shield.}
"You might want to stand down," Luke added, pointing his phaser at Jake.
{That's unusual,} Jake thought. A caster never "dissipated" before. Now looking at the phaser
pointed at his head, he remembered that he had one caster left. But he couldn't make any sudden
moves. Suddenly, Luke fired! Jake pulled up his light shield, which stopped the blast mid
flight. Jake puled out the second caster, loaded it, and prepared to fire, when... {The gun
jammed?! Oh great. It will need at least 5 minutes to be fixed...} Jake thought.
CMO Luke Lee blinked non-chalantly at the gun's jamming. "Very impressive, using a light
shield: using light to block light." Luke pointed his phaser at the boy once again.
"Man, stupid gun. Why doesn't it ever work when I--" Jake started to say.
"I just set this thing to full power: your light shield can't block that. Stand down now or
suffer the conciquences," said Luke.
"Hey... maybe we can work something out? I mean, we're all friends and--" Jake started to say.
Then, he decided to run as fast as he could. He grabbed his unconcious friend's body and ran
for the nearest door.
Luke raised an eyebrow as the young man suddenly grabbed his fallen ally and darted for the
cargo bay doors. Clearing his throat, Luke called out, "Computer, lock Cargo Bay 18's doors,
command code Lamba Luke Lee." The computer beeped, and the doors locked with Jake still runnng
full speed.
Jake stopped just in time. The door slammed shut right in front of him, sealing his only exit.
"I hope that my gun is working..." Jake thought to himself. There was no escape this time. He
had to fight, unless there was something that got in either persons way.
{Here goes nothing,} he thought, aiming his gun. That was the last thing he thought before
everything went dark.
Luke turned around to see the reinforcements that had just charged in. Surveying the room, he
nodded to himself. All of the intruders had been neutralized.
*****
Jake woke up. The last thing he could remember was a strong, sharp pain that knocked him out
cold. "Hey, are you all right?" said Dave. "You aren't looking that great."
"Oh, yeah. I'm fine. How long have we been here?" asked Jake, still a bit woozy.
"I'd say about twenty minutes," replied Dave.
"Oh man, we have to get out of here. I'll try a number 15," said Jake, pulling out his gun. He
aimed at the door lock, and fired. The shot bounced off an energy field, and right back at
Jake. He quickly dodged the shot, as it smashed into the back wall, doing no damage whatsoever.
*****
Nicole looked around the cell she had been dragged to. She listed everybody sharing the cell,
noticing that they all seemed to be connected to Master Nakamura. The elderly Russian, Mirsky,
was from what she could tell Kenji's arch-enemy. Luke Masterson was the guy who fell to Kenji
in the first round of the Omega Tournament. And of course, Tiger was the giant panther that
always hung around Kenji.
Just then, her cellmates started to stir. She moved to Kenji to see how he was doing, and he
looked up at her. "Nicole." He quickly took in his surroundings. "What happened?"
"These men in strange uniforms shot at us with strange beam-weapons. They got the others who
were in the room with us, and took us here."
"And you wanted to make peace with them."
A mocking voice came from the corner, where Mirsky sat in the darkness. "Kenji, Kenji, Kenji.
You always were an optimistic fool. Thinking that the very ones who whisked us here would mean
peace?"
"At least I don't leap before I look," Kenji retorted. Tiger growled his agreement.
"So, now what? I suppose that you're just going to wait here until they decide what they're
going to do with us. If you hadn't knocked me out, we wouldn't be in this mess!"
"That's what you think. They have energy weapons that we can't defend against. I tried."
"Don't try to fool me!" Mirsky jumped to his feet and headed for the side where there was no
wall. "There is no such weapon, I assu--" At that point, he walked head on into the force-field
and collapsed.
"Well, if you insist, go for it," was all Kenji could say to keep from laughing.
*****
Kyorei sat alongside Ma'ang in the cell. She was still rather unbalanced from the whole ordeal
and rather weak to begin with. The combination of these two things really pissed her
off. That damned force field was keeping them in here, but... maybe there was a way past
that...
*****
Kenji and Mirsky kept their eyes on each other, while Tiger guarded the exit. The energy in the
room slowly began grow heavy as the two slowly raised their dark auras.
Suddenly, they heard the commotion outside, and Mirsky took advantage of Kenji's temporary
distraction. Jumping into the air, Mirsky's foot slammed into the side of Kenji's face, sending
him sprawling. Tiger jumped at Mirsky from the other direction, and clamped his jaws onto the
elder's arm. As Mirsky struggled to free himself, Kenji jumped up and wrapped his tail in a
choke-hold around Mirsky's neck.
"Nicole," Kenji said coldly, "find out what that is."
Nicole, used to the warm, older-brother-like Kenji Nakamura, could only stare on.
"NOW!" came his repremand.
"Ye- yessir!" Nicole jumped to her feet, and looked out just as some of the ship's crew walked
in.
*****
Shimitsu Kyojin sat in meditation. He, along with his son Fuante, adopted son Shinichi, and the
young man named Fuyuitai, had been apprehended and placed in a cell. However, this was no
ordinary cell. Three of the walls were simple and metallic, whereas the fourth was nonexistent.
When he had tried to walk out, however, he found that an invisible force field had blocked his
path. This field was the reason that they were still in the cell. Well, not really. Shimitsu
had already figured out a simple escape plan, but he had thought it best to wait until the
others figured it out as well. He couldn't do everything for them, after all.
Meanwhile, Fuante, Shinichi, and Fuyuitai had decided to engage in a little three-way sparring
match while they thought of an escape plan. Fuyuitai had proven himself to be a most formidable
opponent. He never blocked, always choosing to dodge, which said a lot about his speed. Not to
mention the fact that he never seemed to emit the tiniest shred of a battle aura except when he
was attacking. Even then, his aura would shoot up from nothing to full power in an instant. He
would then proceed to deliver about 15-20 punches and then drop his aura again just as quickly.
This highly efficient use of his aura was probably why after ten minutes of constant fighting
he wasn't showing any signs of fatigue.
Since they didn't know what was on the other side, they had all agreed that no one use any ki
blasts in case they take down one of the walls. However, as Fuyuitai dodged one after another
of Shinichi's attacks (Fuante had actually managed to deliver a decent amount), Shinichi had
had enough. With a shout of "Goten Taiyou Houkudan!", a gold beam of energy shot out of his
right palm. Fuyuitai dodged this as well, which meant that the blast's target was the force
field. However, instead of impacting upon the field, it passed right through, making a small
crater on the opposite wall. The fight stopped instantly and all three fighters realized what
Shimitsu already had: the field didn't react with ki. This gave them a wicked idea.
As two of the ships's guards came in to see what the big noise was, they noticed three things:
1) There was a small, smoking crater in the wall; 2) two of the occupants of the cell were
pointing their hands at the guards; and 3) said hands were filled with balls of gold and white
energy. The one with the white ball(Fuante) spoke. "You have two choices: deactivate the force
field or deactivate your lives."
One of the soldiers stared at the persons making threats against him. Laughing, the soldier
turned to his fellow troops to converse... only his fellow troops weren't there.
Gaping holes had somehow found their ways into his friends. The soldier shot his head up, along
with his Type-3 Phaser Rifle. At that, ten spikey beings bounded into the Brig, weapons
blaring. Dodging a few shots, the soldier muttered, "Jem'Hadar...but what are they doing here?"
The soldier never got the answer. The Jem'Hadar forces caught the running Federation officer
before any return fire was let loose, killing the Lieutenant instantly. The genetically altered
beings turned to face the prison cells. One began saying something and waved his arm.
Instantly, the Jem'Hadar fired round after round into the corridor. After a few moments, the
Jem'Hadar looked satisfied, and turned to face the cells.
One sneered, then, "What shall we do with them?"
Another glared at the prisoners. "I say we kill them," he said.
All the Jem'Hadar raised their weapons...
*****
Jake stared at the newfound enemies. They did not look friendly, considering the dead bodies
lying on the floor. "Great. Just great. Hey Dave, you got any ideas?" said Jake.
Dave, all this time, was quietly reading a book, but still knew exactly what was going on.
"We're outnumbered, Jake," he said. "Best to just let them do what they want, for now."
"WHAT?!" Jake replied. "They might kill us, for all we know!"
"Don't worry. You DO have a Number 6 Caster, don't you?"
"Well, yeah. But how is that supposed to -- oh... I get it," said Jake.
"Okay, we'll go with you. But try not to kill anyone. It would really leave quite a mess."
*****
Nicole merely gaped in horror. She didn't register Luke's oral report of what was happening to
his master; she didn't register the kick to the face that Mirsky administered to Kenji, and she
didn't register the large feline body that fell limp next to her. Only when she was forcefully
jerked out of the way did she realize what was happening.
"Move!" Mirsky said, taking Nicole's place at the cell's opening. He frowned contemplatively.
Because of his skirmishes with Kenji and Tiger, he had not gotten a chance to scan the energy
of the place. Well, now was his chance.
In the cells directly next to him, he could detect the demon girl and her companion, as well as
the boy he had offered to train and his friends. In the cell furthest from him, against the
wall opposite the door, he could sense the two youngest captives, the ones with the strange
projectile weapons.
"I suppose I shall simply let the others handle this," he muttered as he dodged a back-attack
from Kenji. "After this new threat is eliminated, I shall go about removing the old." He
blocked a double punch from Kenji, and trapped his age-old rival in an arm-lock. Smiling, he
nailed Kenji on the chin with another kick. Now, all he had to worry about was the tailed
Japanese.
*****
Kyorei smiled at the Jem'Hadar as her unique demon energy glowed. "Hello boys. Let's play a
bit! Ice needle!" A barrage of deadly shards of ice materialized, glittering dangerously above
their heads. Before they could even take a step for safety the daggers drove downwards,
severing arteries, limbs, and other useless organs. Kyorei laughed as a spray of fresh hot
blood splasheded against the forcefield, leaving a sickening decaying scent in the air. She
focused in on one of the poor creatures still left alive and delighted in his screams of pain
as his eyes burst before his skull cracked open and the jellylike goo poured across the floor.
Ma'ang turned a sickly green and clenched his eyes shut.
"Ah... That felt good. Now, when the hell are we getting out of this place?" She moved towards
the wall and rested, exhausted from the strain. She wasn't as strong as she had been before and
hadn't recovered from the drain the "voices" had burdened her with...
*****
Fuante and Shinichi grinned at the horned fools that dared challenge the two greatest students
of Dragon's Cry martial arts. The green and gold orbs in their respective hands instantly
became blasts of awesome yet deadly energy. Before they knew what had happened, the Jem'Hadar
found that two of their friends now sported smoldering holes all he way through their chests.
They were soon to follow as the two demons (for what else could posses such horrible power?)
fired again and again and again. Seeing that their foes were now dead, the two fighters lowered
their hands. They breathed twin sighs of relief and accomplishment. However, with everyone
outside their "cage" dead, there was no one to let them out.
Shimitsu smiled at his two students and sons. He still could not believe that those two
six-year-old neighborhood menaces had developed into such powerful fighters. {No, not fighters.
Fighters are those who fight. My two sons are now warriors. For we are indeed at war here.}
Still, Shimitsu knew that with all the guards dead, their previous escape plan was now lost. He
still had a ace up his sleeve that would them to easily escape, but given recent developments,
he decided that it would be much easier to face whatever else was out there if they were still
behind this "wall". Escape could wait.
Somewhat satisfied with the current scenario, Shimitsu sent a telepathic message to an old
friend and rival. [Kenji. Kenji, can you hear me?]
*****
Kenji dodged Mirsky's fist by mere inches. He blocked a straight-forward kick, and then jumped
back to avoid the his opponent's foot. While he wasn't taking any hits, he also wasn't even
getting a chance to throw a few of his own. Kenji was at a serious disadvantage ever since
Mirsky KOed Tiger.
Just then, he heard something. [Kenji. Kenji, can you hear me?] It was Shimitsu Kyojin! Kenji
could remember seeing him in the cargo bay, but he hadn't had a chance to scan for Kyojin's
energy since waking up.
Kenji replied. [Shimitsu? I hear you. But where are you? I'm in some sort of strange,
futuristic prison cell, and I'm locked in here with Mirsky, the Russian who had tried to
recruit your son. As you might have guessed, I'm somewhat preoccupied.]
Kenji took a punch to the gut. There were just some things that a person needed to give his
full attention to, and this was one of them.
*****
Shimitsu Kyojin chuckled to himself as he monitored the fight between Kenji and Mirsky via his
sixth sense. Sensing that his friend was slowly losing the battle, he decided to intervene. He
just hoped that it would be enough.
[Kenji, stand by. I'm sending you a little treat. Dobu no Kami Ha Revised: Energy Transfer.]
Utilizing all his concentration, Shimitsu began to focus his energy and send it to the tailed
martial arts master. {I just hope that it will be enough. Good luck, my friend.}
*****
As another explosion ripped through the U.S.S. Life-D, Captain Life Lee skidded to a halt
before the entrance to the Brig. Leaping with a cold sweat running down, Life activated his arm
phaser-
-Only to see fifteen fallen Jem'Hadar waarriors.
Gasping both for breath and surprise, Life stared at the still closed cells. Life's Borg eye
patch suddenly activated itself and upon scanning the bodies detected high energy residue in
the gaping wounds. Fear and excitment filling his body, Life began to speak to the captives.
Kenji, Tiger, and Mirsky's fight was interrupted by Life's voice.
"Fellow soldiers, it has suddenly come to my attention that you have the ability to use energy
as power," glancing at the Brig controls, Life continued, "that is unaffected by our
force-fields. However, we are in a sticky situation." Life trotted over to the Brig controls
and tapped a few buttons, the force-fields dropping down. "We are currently in orbit over a
planet controlled by the Jem'Hadar, the brutal soldiers that you just wasted." Life motioned
toward the dead bodies. "They are enemies of the Federation, murderers to the core and, while
trustworthy, are only trustworthy to kill you the moment they have the chance." Life
deactivated his arm phaser, then, "I am Captain Life King Lee of the Starship Life-D. As an
officer of the Federation I ask for you assistance." Life tilted his head to the side, waiting
for a response, as another direct hit rocked the ship.
Shimitsu judged the man. Reaching out with his ki, he managed to probe Life's emotions. The
main ones that he detected were desperation, fear, and sincerity. {Not a good combination. But,
at least he's trustworthy.} Shimitsu smiled and stood up.
"My good sir, we would be happy to aide you. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Shimitsu
Kyojin." Gesturing to the other three he said, "These two are my sons, Fuante and Shinichi, and
this young man is Fuyuitai Samuike. Judging by how easily my boys took out these Jem'Hadar of
yours, I don't think that we'll have any troubles if we join forces."
Mirsky hmphed and turned away, which Kenji strangely took as a "yes". Shaking his head in
amusement, he redirected his attention to Life.
"I believe I speak for us all when I say that we accept, even my ill-tempered... associate in
the corner. Although, I'd keep my eye on him. He's not the best choice for an ally." Tiger
growled and Nicole nodded in agreement at this remark. Mirsky hmphed once again and turned back
to Life.
"I'll handle this," said Dave. He knew that Jake would do something stupid if he were to talk
to Life, so he decided to himself. And so, Dave introduced himself.
"My name is Dave, and this is my friend Jake," Dave said as he motioned to his friend, who was
inspecting the dead bodies. "We would be happy to help you, if you would give us some
information on the current situation. And please excuse my friend about the little fighting
trouble earlier... he doesn't look before he leaps." Jake heard this, and took great offense at
Dave. Jake threw a punch at Dave, and fighting ensued. Another explosion made them stop. {I
wonder what's causing those explosions, and how long the ship can take them?} thought both Jake
and Dave.
Kyorei rose to her feet and brushed off her clothing as she exited their cell. Kicking a corpse
out of the way in disgust, she motioned for Ma'ang to follow her. "Who ever wants our help, you
must be pretty desperate. I can take pleasure in killing you later. For now, I will grant you
my services," she said calmly as explosions echoed through the ship.
"Um... yeah... What she said, kinda... sorta..." Ma'ang said as he looked around nervously.
{Weaponless with a pyscho on an exploding... ship I think... I really wish I could be at
home... My steak...}
Kenji looked around the room, at the faces both familiar and unfamiliar. He cocked an eyebrow
as, for the first time, he noticed a major difference in Kyorei's ki. While the last time he
had seen her, at the omega tournament, it had been as hot as fire, now it was ice cold...
Mirsky noticed Kenji's distraction. {The fool! If he thinks I'm going to help these dolts with
their petty problems, he's got another thing coming!} With that thought, Mirsky jumped at the
person nearest to him: Ma'ang. He grabbed Ma'ang by the throat, and dampened his victim's ki
with his own dark energy. Ma'ang's struggling quickly weakened, as he found that he could no
longer exert any force.
"Make one move, Kenji, and this one dies!" He quickly turned to the elder Kyojin, and said,
"That goes for you, too!"
"Mirsky, this is our fight," Kenji responded. "Don't drag those who can't defend themselves
into it."
Mirsky's countenance darkened. "Are you calling me a coward?" He smirked. "Kenji, always afraid
to take a life. You try to be a defender of justice, a pure super-hero to the rest of the
world. Well, face it, your soul is as tainted as mine, if not more so! No matter what you do,
we are both destined to meet again in hell some day!"
Captain Life King Lee stared in horror as the events began to unfold before him. Waving his
cybernetic arms, Life bellowed, "What are you doing? This is NO time to battle! We need to get
down to the transporter room, NOW!"
Shinichi could only stare in shock. He had known that Mirsky was not the epitomy of moral
character, but to threaten an innocent bystander's life just to get at Kenji was an appalling
concept. This wasn't right, he had to do something. But, what? Mirsky was about as strong as
Shinichi's father (well, adopted father) Shimitsu. What chance was their of defeating such a
monster?
Suddenly, everything went dark. Shinichi turned his head wildly from side to side, but he could
not hear, nor could he see. Just when he was about to panic, he saw a tiny pinprick of yellow
light.
Shimitsu barely hid his smile as he concentrated on working down the barriers that existed
within the deep recesses of Shinichi's ki. It was time the boy knew just who he was descended
from. It was time the boy knew what he could do. {This will change everything. Shinichi will
soon be as powerful as Fuante. He is truly his father's son.}
The yellow pinprick had grown rapidly and now shone like a blinding sun. Then, without warning,
the light began to draw closer to Shinichi's body. Before he could respond, the light drove
itself into Shinichi's head. Shinichi could see again. He could also see that his body was now
covered in a bright yellow aura. Needless to say, this got everyone's attention.
Before anyone could respond, another explosion ripped through the ship, causing the impassive
computer's voice to say, "Hull breach on Deck Ten... Jem'Hadar signatures entering ship..." An
instant later fifteen Jem'Hadar soldiers filed in, grabbing the good captain before he could
fire, dragging him out of the brig in an instant.
A moment later a bulkhead shimmered to life and suddenly became a human figure. As the head
formed it said, "Okay, that's it. You guys, we've got to get out of here! Come with me." With
that the figure formed a Starfleet uniform about (on) himself and motioned to the exit.
Dave decided it was useless to break up the fight that was going on behind them, and decided to
follow the strange entity that (litteraly) appeared out of nowhere. After grabbing Jake's
attention, and keeping them out of the fight, Dave forcibly pulled Jake down the hall after the
entity.
Mirsky payed little attention to all the happenings around him. The only people who were
important now were Kenji, Shimitsu, and the Mamono boy. With a sneer on his face, he pumped
more of his dark aura into Ma'ang's weakening body, causing Ma'ang's face to contort in pain as
his muscles began to shrivel. "Stop that now! If that boy's power raises one more ioda, this
boy dies!"
Meanwhile, Kenji stealthily gathered the ki that Shimitsu had sent him into his right hand.
The strange entity gaped at the still bickering fighters. Looking at the two boys that stood
near him, the entity spoke. "Okay you two, seems like you both have common sense... Here." With
the stroke of key two Type-2 Phasers appeared in the entity's hands, which he handed to the two
kids. "These are currently set to Medium-Kill, which is enough to down a Jem'Hadar. By pressing
the button on the left (your left) you down the setting, and to the right you up the setting.
Downing means to stun and up means to vaporize. Be forewarned, dudes, that stun can't get a
Jem'Hadar and vaporize expends the phasers' power cells quickly. Otherwise, they should last
this encounter." Looking back at the fighters and then to the boys, the entity muttered, "Oh
yes, and you can call me Morph." Suddenly, a large group of Jem'Hadar soldiers marched into the
Brig, and upon seeing others began firing. Tapping another key, a larger Type-3 Phaser Rifle
(Compression Version) materialized in Morph's hands, which he began downing Jem'Hadar with.
Motioning toward the boys, Morph dove for cover into a sparking Brig cell.
As Dave quickly followed "Morph", Jake was interested in the blaster-type weapon he held in his
hands. After changing around the settings, he was able to vaporize a few Jem'Hadar, and decided
that he had better run when they started to get a little too close. "If you have any common
sense, I suggest that you run!" he yelled to the few fighters. Since they didn't respond to
anything, Jake decided to run himself, following his friend Dave and Morph.
Shinichi wanted to stop. He knew that even with his new power he couldn't defeat Mirsky.
Nevertheless, his power didn't seem to want to stop growing. He couldn't control it. The gold
light just kept on getting brighter and brighter. Finally, Shinichi couldn't it in any more and
gave out a loud battle cry. With bottomless desperation and a major adrenaline rush, he flung
his glowing body at the Russian martial arts master.
Mirsky had no patience left. He tossed a disentegrating Ma'ang to the floor, leaving a pile of
dust barely resembling its original form, and gave a war cry. Quickly converting his depression
energy into anger energy, he fired a huge ball of heat at his young opponent.
Kyorei watched with wide eyes as Ma'ang, her partner, ceased to exist. The link they had
shared, the energy, was gone. If anyone should have killed him it should have been her. He had
been the one who had bound him to her all those years ago when he had stumbled into the Makai
and with a misfired spell trapped her.
Kenji simultaneously released his Dobu no Kami Ha energy into the fireball, deflecting it so
that it struck a group of the volatile aliens, leaving even less of them than what was left of
Ma'ang. The force of the blast stopped Shinichi mid air, causing him to pause. Kenji then
glanced to Shimitsu.
[Try to help Shinichi. I'll keep these others at bay for a while.] With that, the tailed
warrior charged into the Jem Hadar.
Less than a second after that, a newly-awakened Tiger stepped up to Shimitsu's side, ready to
offer his assistance were it needed.
Something inside her snapped, Kyorei was angry and... something else. Her icey aura flared up
and eyes narrowed as she turned to Mirsky. "I am free of the weak human finally..." She gave
her patented dark smile. "However, that does not mean I can condone your actions." Kyorei would
never admit that even though she hated the human, at one time she had... loved... it. Love was
a weakness that only humans felt, not demons like herself.
Seemingly drawing energy out of the air itself, her hands cupped together as a swirling ball of
blue energy filled them. A strong bone chilling wind circled around her. Eyes flashed brightly
as she released her attack. "Ice Tornado!" directly at Mirsky. A twister of pure demon energy
and ice drove at him as she fell to her knees breathing heavily.
Mirsky released a volley of his own dark energy, matching the attack's power to his own. The
tornado passed through him harmlessly, as he only needed to shatter the impeding blocks of ice
as they swirled by. He looked back at the demon girl and frowned.
"Only a fool abides by the wishes of others," he said, and split his attention between his two
young assaulters.
Meanwhile, Kenji was doing his best to stave off the hostile aliens. He knew from previous
experience that he couldn't block their attacks, and so had to rely purely on speed. This in
turn forced him to abstain from using the Heavy Fist, in order to avoid the decrease in
dexterity that it produces.
Shinichi lashed out with a fist charged with highly-condensed ki. Mirsky blocked that punch,
but he did not nor could he block the flurry of punches and kicks in surprise, each one charged
with the same ki. Staggering back, he growled and channeled all of his energy into his Heavy
Fist.
Shinichi stopped to catch his breath, but found that he didn't have to. The power that he now
possessed had super-charged him. There was so much energy in him that he couldn't contain it
all, so that it was seeping out his body and crawling along the floor. Then, another vision
came into his head.
He saw two men fighting outside a temple on a dark, rainy night. The one with the battle axe
smirked and prepared to crush his opponent. Said opponent, who was obviously a priest by his
garments, gathered his ki and...
Shinichi smiled. Raising his hand, just as his ancestor did, he yelled out, "SEI KEN HA!" A
blue-white beam, five feet in diameter, shot out of his hand. Its holy energy reacted in an
unexpected way to Mirsky's dark aura and sent him flying into the wall. Mirsky tried to get up,
but he found his face at the business end of Shimitsu's sword.
"That's enough fighting between ourselves. One soul has already left this realm, we do not need
more, save those of these Jem'Hadar. You will fight alongside us or not at all." Growling,
Mirsky nodded his consent and sat up.
Then, all hell broke loose.
Kenji slammed his foot into one Jem'Hadar's head as he disintegrated another with his dark
energy. He wasn't sure who this Morph guy was, but he could sense his good intentions. Mirsky
leaped alongside Kenji and tossed a flailing alien at his foe, which Kenji easily deflected.
{Will he ever give it a rest?} Kenji thought to himself as he ground another opponent into the
floor.
Meanwhile, Nicole stood back and watched in awe as the two masters of the Heavy Fist worked at
obliterating the intimidating creatures. She shook her head, admitting to herself that she
could never achieve such levels. Luke Masterson stood beside her, thinking about how much more
damage he could do if he weren't so badly damaged himself from his master's "training."
At last the Jem'Hadar warriors were all fallen. Morph crept out to check that no bodies were
moving, then darted for the exit. Morph quickly turned around, blaring, "C'mon, you guys, there
are still Jem'Hadar littering the halls! Follow me: we need to get to the shuttlebay so we can
get down to the planet!"
Noting that a few fellow warriors looked confused, Morph continued, "The planet is where
these... things are being spawned. We stop the spawner, we stop the enemies. Er...I know you
guys like blasting them, but in time they may adapt to you, PLUS they have my Captain! So
c'mon, be a pal and follow!"
With that, Morph made for the shuttlebay, blasting any opposition.
Kenji looked to Nicole, and gestured to the door with his head. "You go ahead and help keep the
way clear. I'll help watch our back."
Mirsky glared at his nemesis. "You go too, boy."
At this, both Nicole Peters and Luke Masterson jumped to attention and moved to the exit, the
former with an uncertain step and the latter with a confident trot.
Jake and Dave decided it was best to follow. As Dave closely followed Morph, it was Jake's job
to blow away any enemies that came upon them. Jem'Hadar were blown to pieces, and blown clear
through, while the rush to the shuttlebay continued.
Shimitsu looked at the gathering of Jem'Hadar corpses and breathed a sigh of relief. Glancing
at his two sons and Fuyuitai, he motioned for them to follow the creature known as Morph. "Go
ahead, I will be with you in a second." As the three left, Shimitsu noticed that Fuyuitai was
breathing somewhat heavily and that glittering sweat decorated his face. For some reason, the
boy was having trouble maintaining the supreme focus for his Kasumiken. Shimitsu became worried
at that. {Something is causing him to lose focus. The boy is emitting a thick battle aura of
excitement mixed with fear. It is almost as if this is his first real fight. Hmm, interesting.}
Shimitsu then turned to his remaining companions, the three masters of the Heavy Fist. The four
looked at each other silently, memories resurfacing.
** Flashback **
"Laaaaadies and gentlemen!" roared the announcer. "Welcome to the final match of the Sankami
Ten Budoukai! May I present the two remaining contestants. To my right, Shimitsu Kyojin of the
Kyojin School of Dragon's Cry Martial Arts. To my left, Kenji Nakamura of the Mirsky School of
Heavy Fist Martial Arts. And now... let the battle begin!"
With the ring of a bell, a much younger Shimitsu Kyojin charged his opponent, all the time
gathering a bright green aura around his body. Said opponent gathered a thick black aura around
his own body and prepared for the onslaught. Shimitsu let loose with his Sen Ryu Boki attack,
while Kenji countered with a flurry of ki-charged fists and feet. At first, it looked as though
the two were equally matched. Then all of a sudden, Kenji broke through Shimitsu's defenses and
delivered a hailstorm of brutal punches, dropping the Kyojin to the ground. Shimitsu jumped
back up onto his feet. With a desperate cry of "Ten no Hi Dan" a blinding fireball shot from
his outstretched palms. However, Kenji barely managed to dodge and delivered a final kick; a
kick which sent Shimitsu flying out of the ring and ending the match. Kenji had won.
** End Flashback **
Shimitsu and Kenji, now eighty years older, stared at each other and grinned. They would fight
again someday. Someday.
*****
Masterson slammed his fist into one Jem'Hadars chest, then kicked the next in the chin. As he
moved on to the third, the first, which wasn't even stunned, slammed it's own palm into his
jaw. As Masterson sprawled on the floor, the second kicked him as the first and the third
lifted him up again and pushed him against the wall. Luke tried to gauge his attacker's eyes,
but his wrist was intercepted and broken. The alien then smashed his own head into his
victim's, and pulled him in closer and kneed him in the stomach. Luke felt his opponent's
fingers grip his neck, slowly squeezing, ready to take his life...
Nicole ran full-speed into one menacing alien, attempting to tackle him to the floor. The only
thing that resulted from her powerful charge was that the monster was pushed back a few inches.
In response, he balled his fists together and slammed her to the floor. Turning over, he lifted
his foot over her throat, preparing to end her short existance in a single stomp...
Mirsky, Kenji, and Tiger walked at the rear of the party, their dark auras raised, causing any
back-attacks to be squelched fairly quickly. As they watched their students lose all too
easily, Mirsky's dark countance changed to one of glee. Kenji scowled at his enemy's mirth, and
touched Tiger on the forhead with his finger. The large, black cat than bounded ahead to join
the rest of the group.
Nicole closed her eyes and prepared herself for the life beyond life, holding her breath. It
didn't come. She opened her eyes to the site of a black panther fending off a small group of
Jem'Hadar. She thanked him and got to her feet, prepared once again to fight.
The fingers squeezing the life from Luke suddenly released, and he fell to the floor. He never
even saw the enseign who had saved his life before he slipped into unconsciousness. Mirsky
simple hoisted his bruised and bleeding student onto his shoulders.
Fuante, Shinichi, and Fuyuitai charged down the hall at the Jem'Hadar, tearing them apart in
seconds in a fury of kicks, fists, staffs, and swords. Fuante and Shinichi, having drained a
decent amount of energy via wasting the aliens before, had resorted to more... conventional
tactics. Both had drawn their weapons and they were hacking away as fast as players in a
Whack-A-Mole game. Heads were removed and vital organs crushed as the warriors plowed their way
through.
Fuyuitai, meanwhile, was demonstrating his signature technique (his only technique, actually),
the Kasumiken. Faster than any eye could follow, save those of Shimitsu and the Heavy Fist
masters, he fractured ribs, broke arms, broke legs, and snapped necks.
Shimitsu was locked in indecision. He sensed that many more of the Jem'Hadar were elsewhere on
the ship, and it was only a matter of time before they came here. It was also only a matter of
time before one of those energy weapons found its mark. Shimitsu could not risk that. He had a
technique that would instantly remove the problem, but others might get caught in the wake if
he was not careful. Finally, Shimitsu made his decision.
"Everyone, get behind me." Seeing how as no one listened to him, he added, "NOW!" and began to
gather the required energy. The others got the hint and did as they were told. Extending his
arms and crossing them at the wrists with the palms facing forward, just as his son did in the
Omega Tournament, he prepared for his strike. "Dragon's Cry Martial Arts Semi-Ultimate
Technique: DAI RYU SATSU HA!!!" The serpent-shaped tornado formed once more and hurtled towards
the hapless aliens. Said aliens were quickly crushed and flung against the wall. Only said wall
was not there, as it too was destroyed and so the aliens were flung into the hallway.
At long last Morph reached the shuttlebay with his new allies in hot pursuit. In the battles
that had ensued, the corridor had been literally blasted into pieces, but it didn't matter; the
ship was just a temporary one anyways.
With a stride and a bound Morph slapped the Cargo Bay doors closed, and upon turning around
counted all his friends inside. Sadly, the doors could not stand fifteen concentrated energy
blasts and quickly melted. "Cover me!" bellowed Morph, "I need to activate one of these
shuttles!"
Jake and Dave decided it was best if they did what Morph told them. After Jake pulled out a
second gun and gave it to Dave, they scooted a few inches away from the martial arts experts
(for safety reasons) and started blasting. (Author's Note: Here comes the fun and gore.)
A powerful caster blew off a Jem'Hadar's head, leaving a body that quickly fell to the ground,
bleeding. A second knocked a hole clear through a second one, which revealed vital organs... or
what was left of them. As shots were fired, so were balls of energy and other powerful skills
from the martial arts masters. Blood flew everywhere, and so did Jem'Hadar body parts.
Fuante, Shinichi, and Fuyuitai quickly assumed battle stances in order to buy Morph some more
time, but Shimitsu waved them off with a hand. "You three rest. I will fight them."
{Wow!} Fuante thought to himself. {It's not often I get to see my dad fight. This is going to
be good.}
And good it was. With blinding speed, Shimitsu unsheathed his katana and was suddenly in the
middle of the Jem'Hadar squad without ever appearing to move(except to the Heavy Fist Trio, of
course). Two flashes of light and a couple of the aliens dropped to the ground, their heads
following an instant later. One of them was fast enough to turn and fire at the martial arts
master, but he was ready this time. Even though a normal blade would have melted, Shimitsu
casually deflected the shot back at its point of origin, not unlike the Jedi Knight style.
Shimitsu was in his element.
Kenji nodded in approval as he watched Shimitsu work. There was no need to lend a hand.
"Got it!" bellowed Morph. As the fighters glanced at the Federation officer's sudden outburst,
Morph leapt into the opening Type-9 Shuttlecraft. "Everybody in! Time to go! Uh... might be a
tight squeeze..."
Then, all at once, the Jem'Hadar fell back. Enter a strange, passive looking male, Type-3
Phaser raised. "Pardon me, but may I join?" Morph glared for a moment, then, "Hey
Lieutenant-Commander Ian! C'mon, we've got your brother to save and a planet to raze! Everybody
in!"
Dave eyed the newcomer suspiciously. Where had he come from? Why did the Jem'Hadar fall back at
his arrival? Why was his name Ian? Who was his brother? {Why am I asking so many questions?}
Although he remained a bit edgy around this new individual, Jake seemed to like him, and took a
warm welcome to him.
In the meantime, they crammed into the shuttlecraft, and waited for launch to this planet that
they had heard about.
As the shuttle filled up (past capacity, but he didn't care), Jem'Hadar warriors blasted the
shields. Gaffawing in what little space was left, Morph lifted the shuttle off, darting away
from the USS Life-D. Peering out of viewport, Morph casted a quick glance at the fading figure
of the damaged Akira-class vessel. {A fine ship,} thought Morph to himself. {A very fine ship,
indeed.} Turning about in his seat, Morph began to address his fellow "inmates", when Ian
suddenly piped up. His passive voice seemed strangely amplified(by artificial or natural means
was unknown) in the confines.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I refer to you the outside," said Ian. With that, viewports sprang from
everywhere, allowing for an open view of the infinite outside. "As you can see," continued Ian,
"we are in space. Therefore, I insist that, for lack of room and rather obvious factors, you
restrain from fighting until our landing. Thank you." Morph shrugged, turned, and got back to
his piloting...
Nicole gaped at the vast expanse, and was left breathless. Kenji and Mirsky merely nodded; it
is a very difficult task to surprise these two.
Meanwhile, Tiger was taking a cat-nap on the floor.
Fuyuitai could barely hear what Ian was saying. His breathing was painful and it was taking all
his concentration just to stay consciouss. He felt ashamed. The practitioners of Kasumiken
martial arts were known around the world for their unimaginable stamina and speed. He had been
fast all right, but he let his fear and excitement take control of him. Thus, he had wasted a
lot of energy that could have been put to much better use. If he could not be relied upon in a
fight, what good was he? Fighting had been his entire life. It was the only thing keeping him
going. After he witnessed a street gang gun down his two older brothers when he was six, the
Art was the only thing he had left. That and his father. His father... What would he say if he
saw Fuyuitai now?
As everyone else looked out the windows, Fuyuitai broke down in tears.
Kyorei stared calmly out into the blackness of space. Being in this enclosure annoyed her,
finally free of their damned confinement and now this. She was tempted to hurt someone and let
out a little frustration. {Hmm... Kaimettsu might be interested in that one they call Mirsky,
he has enough dark aura to be drawn to our side nicely...} She frowned as she noticed the
fighter Fuyuitai crying. Tears annoyed and scared her. Feeling, except for anger and the
satisfaction of pain or a good kill, were virtually unknown to her. She shuddered and looked
back outside.
*****
After a while in the cramped confines of the space capsule, Jake and Dave were getting a bit
irritated (especially with the "viewports" showing them the wide open view of space). Since it
seemed it would be quite a while since they got to the planet, they decided to play their own
RPG. (Not unlike Dungeons and Dragons, without the board and such.)
After a while, that got boring, so they started talking about different things. "Hey, do you
remember the TofuBot?"
"Yeah, that sure was weird. Took them six months to fix the damage to city hall...."
They decided to change subjects when they realized everybody was staring at them.
Jake watched the viewports as stars passed by. Dave pulled out a small book, titled "Japanese
for Dummies". It was going to be a long flight...
*****
"Get ready everyone, I'm taking this little diddy in!" shouted Morph. With a bump, thump and a
rumble the Type-9 shuttle entered the atmosphere- only to be blasted at by a passing Jem'Hadar
ship! Sparks flew and small explosions ensued. Morph caught some of his new allies reeling
back, including Ian. "Shields down!" called out Morph to no one. "I'm taking her down!" And
with a sickening explosion, the shuttle's engines exploded. "Oops..." muttered Morph, "That
wasn't supposed to happen..." More explosions ensued, and the little ship began a downward
spiral to the surface.
At this, the Jake and Dave made two totaly different reactions. While Dave pulled out a small
book entitled "Survivor's Guide", Jake immediately tried to find a way out. After a few
minutes, he got so desperate that he ran right into a video window, knocking himself out cold.
Dave continued reading, not taking notice of Jake. "Lets see here. Bear attack... alien
abduction... car hanging from a cliff... charging bull... ah, here it is. 'How To Survive a
Type-9 Shuttle Crash On an Unkown Planet.'"
The shuttle continued to hurtle through space toward the planet.
Shimitsu quickly analyzed the situation and frowned. This was definitely not good. Something
had to be done quickly or the shuttle could be torn apart. [Kenji, can you hear me?] Shimitsu
mentally projected. About thirty seconds of psychic conversation later, Shimitsu and Kenji,
masters of their respective schools, stood up, clasped hands, and began to gather their ki.
Then... they started. Reaching out with their minds, they summoned strong winds to gather
around the ship. Like sculptors using clay, they formed the winds and commanded them to beat
against the bottom of the ship. All of a sudden, the ship began to slow down and right itself.
Morph looked on in stunned awe as the ship began to right itself. {How,} wondered the
changeling, {can they this be happening?} Upon turning around, however, Morph noted a few
figures concentrating. "Must be those dudes we picked up," muttered Morph.
It looked as though the day would be saved. But then Fuyuitai, who had been trying to stand,
lost his balance and came tumbling into Kenji, thereby breaking his concentration. The winds
flew out of control, and the ship resumed on its chaotic descent. Shimitsu and Kenji sighed
collectively. This was going to be fun.
To make matters worse, another passing Jem'Hadar ship decided it didn't like a floating
shuttlecraft, and drilled the ship with a quick phaser blast.
The resulting explosion reactivated the thrusters, but, unfourtunatly, the thrusters were
pointed at the surface at the time...worse still, the thrusters were activated at full power.
"Uh oh..." muttered Morph.
"Uh oh, indeed," responded a calm looking Ian.
Very quickly, the shuttecraft slammed into the surface, peeling into pieces....
****
Darkness begat darkness as Kenji's eyes slowly opened. He extended his senses outward, detected
the surroundings. "We must've crashed," he said to himself in his native tongue.
He arose and walked to his student, Nicole. With a frown, he noticed that she was still
unconcious. The battle, the escape, the crash- it was too much strain on her body. He glanced
to his right, and noticed that Luke was in even worse condition, with at least two broken ribs
and one broken arm.
"Stop worrying! My brother didn't raise you like a woman!"
Kenji spun around at Mirsky's rude(and politically incorrect) insult. "Sympathy is no
weakness," Kenji returned. "Would you rather your disciple die?"
Mirsky's face distorted into one of evil mirth. "If he can't even survive a simple crash, he
obviously doesn't deserve my knowledge."
Dave woke up before Jake did. As he looked around, he saw the other people surveying their
surroundings as well. "Well, that book worked after all," he muttered.
And now they were here, in this dark cave. Dave didn't want to get in anybody's way, so he
leaned against a cave wall and waited to hear what the others had to say.
However, he had some time to think. What were his friends and family doing? Were they worried
about him? But they were questions that he couldn't answer. All of this made him sad, and a
single tear ran down his cheek.
"I can't stand this," he said quietly. "I just can't stand it. We have to get out of here..."
Kyorei blinked wearily, as consciousness returned to her at last. In one moment it seemed all
hell had broken lose. Her body hadn't fully recovered yet and the strain was already taxing
her. She winced slightly, her head swimming with the images of the others slowly coming to. Her
shoulder twinged slightly, might be out of place. Everything was blurring again. Trapped in a
broken down ship with these damned fools. There must be a way to... Kyorei slipped back into
the darkness.
Morph carefully prodded a snoring Ian awake.
"What huh?!" muttered the awakening Engineer, then suddenly realized the situation.
Morph nodded at Ian's silent realization, saying simply, "How long till the rescue crews come?"
Ian whistled, calculated, then, "At least a few hours."
Nodding, Morph turned to the other "captives", saying, "We're going to have to hold tight for
now. Try to piece yourselves back together. If you need medical attention, I was trained back
at the Academy, so..."
Shinichi slowly awoke. Lazily dragging his body off of the rocky floor, he dusted the dust off
of his gi. After waiting for his companions to awaken, he and Fuante departed further into the
cave. Silently, they assumed battle stances. Then, without warning, they began.
Shinichi couldn't believe how well he was doing. Whenever he and Fuante used to spar, Fuante
was clearly the superior fighter. Now, Shinichi's body was somehow pumped with increased speed,
strength, and more surprisingly, new techniques. It was as if an outside force was feeding his
brain knowledge of how to pull of some pretty cool moves.
Fuante fired a roundhouse at Shinichi's chest. Shinichi countered by dropping to the ground and
extending his own right foot at Fuante's stomach. With a yell of, "Shinpan Keri!", a dome of
ki-charged wind slammed Fuante and sent him flying. As Fuante jumped back to his feet, Shinichi
followed up with "Eraiija no Hono!" and a small pillar of fire was sent traveling along the
ground towards Fuante. Said fighter jumped out of harm's way as the pillar dissolved after
hitting the wall. Both fighters then began to channel their ki into their hands, preparing for
the final gambit of the match. Almost simultaneously, Fuante unleashed a white beam of "Shinsei
na Kyuu!" while Shinichi fired off a white basketball-sized ki blast called "Shiro Zan Dan!"
As the dust settled, the match appeared to end in a draw as the two fighters walked over to
each other and shook hands. Meanwhile, Shimitsu stood and watched, recalling a similar battle
with a certain man by the name of Kirin Mamono.
After watching the lightning fast battle between the other fighters, Jake and Dave decided they
would try their martial arts. They did not have the strange "ki" moves that the others did, but
they could fight nevertheless.
Dave made the first move, with a sudden kick towards Jake's head. Jake managed to duck just in
time, and grabbed Dave's back leg, which was slightly extended. From this positon, Jake could
easily slam Dave to the ground. Instead, he send Dave hurtling toward the wall using their
momentum. Dave managed to right himself just in time, and litteraly bounded off the wall ending
back where he started.
They continued to fight. A flurry of punches and kicks ensued, and while Jake was well trained,
he did not have the agility and speed of his friend Dave. Jake was able to trip Dave at one
point, and Jake came down with a hard hammer drive, but instead smashed his fists into the
ground, as Dave had rolled out of the way.
The fight continued for several minutes, with Dave litteraly jumping off the walls, and Jake
sliding under some of Dave's attacks. The final attack came from both of them. They threw a
punch at each other, and their fists smashed together, which easily ended the fight.
Like the end of the fight they saw earlier, they shook hands and talked about how the other
could improve in their technique.
Suddenly, with a roaring explosion, the cave tore itself open. The insiders looked on in
surprise (having not sensed any approach) as the dust began to clear- And standing in the
clearing was a Borg Drone.
"Damn," muttered Morph, "Damn, damn, damn! It's the Captain!"
Ian simply unholstered his phaser and fired.
The Drone easily absorbed the shot, then said, "We are the Borg. Resistance is futile. Prepare
to be assimilated."
"Damn," muttered Morph again.
"Oh man, you have got to be kidding me," said Jake, staring at the mechanical figure (known as
Borg) standing before him. Instinctively, he pulled out his blaster, loaded in a caster (number
17 to be exact) and fired.
Dave was facing a moral dilema, however. He knew he could do something, but he didn't want to.
He had once criticaly injured a friend doing that... He decided against it. He couldn't use his
techniques, at least not yet.
Shimitsu, Fuante, and Shinichi, reacting from near-perfect reflexes, instantly turned around to
face the newcomers, dropping into battle stances. Fuyuitai stepped in front and waved them away
with his right hand. "Stay back. I fight for real now."
Showing himself to be a true Kasumiken fighter, Fuyuitai leaped towards his opponents with
blinding speed and unbreakable resolve.
Kenji stepped back as the two warriors attacked. There was something strange about this
opponent. He dropped to a ready stance, as did Tiger.
Mirsky smirked at what he considered Kenji's over-reaction. He'd show them; he could take these
jokers sitting down. So he sat down.
Kyorei glanced at the new opponents and shrugged. Nothing she couldn't handle, of course. She'd
fought a lot stranger looking things in her lifetime. Kyo held out her hand and her bardiche
formed and glowed with her aura. "Playtime!"
The caster dissapeared in a flash around the Drone, a flash that sent Fuyuitai flying back
several yards.
Gaping, shocked, and semi-sure of what to do, the surrounding warriors gathered their energy
and readied their stances. Whatever the reason the Drone was unaffected by their powers, the
combined forces of their wills, at least they knew, would somehow challenge this awesome and
mysterious power.
And in the midst of the cultivating of power, a dozen or so Federation warriors leapt into the
heat, phaser rifles ready. But through the thick of it all, at least five times that number of
Jem'Hadar appeared, with strange items strapped to their backs.
Ian eyed Morph wearily. "What are those Jem'Hadar wearing?" questioned the officer.
Morph scratched his head while peering at his tricorder. "Near as this little gadget can tell,
they're some sort of energy modulators. Near as _I_ can tell, those babies allow them super
fast movement and the capability to fire energy blasts, just like our fine fellows (and maybe
felons) here."
The Martial Arts Masters in the crowd turned at the description (and the comment). As each
warrior reached their full potential, Morph took a moment to squint at his tricorder once
again. "Wait a second," muttered the Chief of Security. "What's with this? It says that there
is some sort of power surge in the Drone... Er, the Captain."
Ian's eyebrow arched. "And?"
"Well, if we fire at the right frequency (that is, your Type-2 phaser), we should be able to
overload the Dr-- Captain, allowing our friends here to flash back to their realities, maybe
even their memories erased of these events... but that's a maybe."
Ian readied his phaser. "I will set it to the frequency... but I think we will need our
friends' help with this," Morph told the Lieutenant-Commander the frequency, then waited on
bated breath.
All the warriors looked to Ian, ready to battle. Had Ian the capability, a tear would have come
to his eye.
The Drone hovered, and with a wave of the finger, the Jem'Hadar swarmed.
When Dave saw the large quanities of Jem'Hadar appear before him, he knew that it wasn't going
to be easy to get rid of them, or the "Drone." And in the blink of an eye, he was gone. He had
one eye on the other fighters, and making sure he didn't get in their way, while his other eye
was on what he was attacking. Heads rolled, limbs were lost, and there were a bunch of really
nasty flesh wounds. But there was something strange about Dave that Jake had never seen before.
While he did all this with unnatural speed, he was literally glowing a faint blue.
After Dave had killed his a good share of the Jem'Hadar, he re-appeared back to where he was
standing, and watched the rest of the fighting. And before Jake could ask his question, Dave
just said, "Some things are better unknown."
Fuante and Shinichi felt stupid. They had foolishly squandered most of the energy they had left
from fighting on the ship in the "little" sparring match they just had. They were in no shape
to fight now.
Shimitsu leaned comfortably against the side of the cave wall. There was no reason for alarm,
Tiger alone could handle these pathetic aliens. Besides, if Kenji and Mirsky were going to
relax, why couldn't he? Suddenly, a horrible thought occurred to him. All of them had ripped
clothes and were caked in dirt, mud, and blood. When he got back home (if he ever got back
home), his wife was going to kill him!
Fuyuitai weaved in and out of the blue aliens' inexperienced attacks. For what appeared to be
trained killers, they were quite inept. However, these ones seemed to be different than those
they had slaughtered on the ship. They were slightly stronger, faster, and apparently had the
ability to fire weak energy blasts from their hands. No matter.
Within the span of a second, the young Kasumiken fighter had broken the necks of three
Jem'Hadar. {This is kind of fun, actually.}
Kyorei chuckled to herself when she saw the two foolish aliens rush her. Her original plan was
to stay out of the mini-battle and "spar" with the Kyojin boy who had defeated her before.
However, these two Jem'Hadar would be a nice warm-up.
Standing up, she quickly disarmed them and flipped in the air, landing behind them. As the two
surprised men turned around, she jabbed them both in the stomachs, sending a wave of cold ki
into their innards. The two fell to the ground, gasping for air as their lungs quickly froze.
After a few seconds, it was over. Kyorei grinned a satisfactory smile.
Suddenly, she felt a VERY familiar battle aura being raised. Turning to her right, she saw
Fuante standing up and emanating his signature green aura. He looked furious. "What are you
doing?" he demanded. "Killing them is one thing, but don't prolong their deaths."
Kyorei sneered at him. "Idiot. Mercy is for the weak. The weak are killed. Do you want to die
like these two?" Fuante hesitated for a moment, then dropped his aura and sat down, the same
furious expression on his face. "Thought not." {What a pathetic coward.}
With that, she grabbed a Jem'Hadar who had tried to sneak up on her by the throat. Turning his
body so that Fuante could see, she drew her bardiche and slowly cut off each limb one by one.
She ended by cutting out his heart.
Unleashing another blast of phaser power, Ian gave a quick glance at the floating Drone.
Suddenly finding himself on the losing end of a fist, Ian quickly went back to hitting enemies.
With unparalleled speed, Morph wrapped, threw and pummeled a number of Jem'Hadar into the dust.
And all of a sudden, a roaring explosion ripped through cavern.
"GET DOWN!" bellowed Ian-
And an even more powerful explosion tore through the hollow cave.
The remaining Jem'Hadar scattered in random directions. Looking up, Ian noted a flinching
Drone. Readying his phaser, Ian unleashed a modified blast in its direction. Very quickly the
Drone collapsed, causing any faithful Jem'Hadar to virtually vanish.
More teleporation beams appeared, but suddenly the fleeing Jem'Hadar returned with all due
haste, attack with unseen guile and finesse at the recently arrived Starfleet warriors.
"GO!" yelled Ian at the Dimension interlopers, and released a phaser blast at a glowing piece
of machinery.
Something exploded, causing a flickering gate to appear.
"GO!" yelled Ian again.
The warriors leapt through with haste, but their memories of recent events began to fade...
*****
Tiger landed gracefully into the snow, followed shortly by Nicole and Kenji. Kenji sat down
immediately and closed his eyes, while Nicole sprawled out on the floor, still unconscious.
Kenji looked at his pupil. Something had happened. He didn't know what, but that didn't matter:
she needed medical attention.
So, he simply scooped her up and walked back to their tiny hut.
*****
Mirsky stared down at his student, who had somehow been transformed into a bloody pulp. He
frowned in thought. How had this happened?
{On that starship...} He thought. He shook his head. {Starship? What am I thinking?}
He shrugged, grabbed Luke's leg, and started dragging the young American into town. Whatever
happened could only have been good, seeing the effects it had rendered upon his only student.
Anyway, Mirsky had more important things to attend to.
After all, his revenge would only be a matter of time, now...
*****
Dave looked back, as he and his friend, Jake, ran toward the "portal". What he saw was
indescribable. As he was pulled through the portal, things seemed to fade away, as if
everything he had done was forgotten.
Jake landed on the pavement... hard. He was followed shortly by Dave, who rolled a bit, and
quickly stood up, without a scratch. Dave checked his watch. {Two fifty?} he thought to
himself. It seemed that they had been standing there for five minutes doing nothing.
"Hey, Dave, why did you push me?" asked Jake, dusting himself off.
"Huh? I didn't push you," said Dave. "You must have tripped."
Finally, they arrived at Dave's house. "Hey, Star Trek is on!" said Jake, happily. The program
began, and the title started. "Space, the final frontier," said the voice. As the program
continued, Dave thought something was missing.
"Hey, where is Life?" he asked Jake.
"Life? There is no Life on Star Trek. I thought you knew that," replied Jake, a bit puzzled.
"Oh. You know, I don't watch this as often as you do," said Dave.
Still, Dave thought about where he had heard of Life. Suddenly, he remembered something. Life
was the captain of that starship... but he couldn't remember the name. But there were the
"Jem'Hadar", and he remembered some names, like "Kenji", "Kyorei", and "Shimitsu".
{Maybe I was dreaming,} Dave thought to himself. {But it was too real to be a dream...}
*****
Kyorei looked around at her surroundings. Something was amiss. Couldn't quite put her finger on
it but all was not as it seemed. Something had happened. Her energy level was depleted and
bruises were there where none were before.
"So you have decided to grace us with your presence again, Kyo-chan." Kyorei spun around to see
her father walking towards her. "Its time for some retraining, girl," he said as he grabbed her
by the hair and yanked her to eye level. "Where have you been?"
"I... don't know," she stammered. Kaimettsu slammed her against the wall.
"Haven't you learned never to lie to your Father? Let's go." Kyo whimpered as he dragged her
out of the room. "You will become stronger even if it means I have to kill you. A weak pathetic
excuse of a lifeform you are. Bah. You sicken me, girl. Don't think I haven't forgotten about
that human tournament you took part in and lost. There will be repricussions. I have plans for
those mortals." As Kaimettsu slammed wave after wave of dark energy, Kyorei hoped the darkness
would overtake her soon.
*****
Shinichi, Fuante, and Fuyuitai staggered for a bit, having become disoriented from traveling
through the dimensional rift, which none of them remembered save as a dream.
Fuante and Fuyuitai continued where they had left off and began to spar. Shinichi looked at his
hands and felt the new power surging through his body. He knew it had all been a dream but...
certain parts had seemed so real, especially... "Shinpan Keri!" he yelled as he performed a
jump kick, which was now surrounded by a dome of dark, red ki. {Amazing!}
Shimitsu sat on the porch bench with his wife Ryoko and smiled. Thanks to his incredible mental
control, he had been able to maintain the truth of what had just happened. He would tell them
all about it later, of course... maybe.
Ryoko looked and saw Ukyou, her future daughter-in-law, standing to the side of the fight
watching her iinazuke(fiance). Ryoko smiled, then something occured to her. {What am I doing
sitting around? I've got a wedding to arrange and only two weeks to do it! Ahhhhh! Let's see,
there's the cake, the guests, the gifts, the dresses.... Yes! This will be the best wedding
ever! Nothing but the best for my little boy!}
Shimitsu slowly edged to the side of the bench, scared by the crazed smile on his wife's face
and the bright red battle aura emanating from her. {Oh, dear.}
***EDITOR'S NOTES***
Hello again, it's good to see you all again. I know it's been a while since the first episode
was released, but we at Budoka no Jinsei have been wrestling with some major issues,
such as:
1. How much power can be exercised by any one writer in the creation of the story?
2. What can we do to insure continuity in the story?
3. Which are better, circles or squares?
Well don't worry, for not only do we have this new episode at long last, but we have answers!
1. As much as he can and still get away with.
2. Nothing. Mwahahahahahaha!
3. Circles are infinitely better than squares, and as human beings, we all know it at the very
core of our beings.
Well, that's about it. The next episode will be released shortly(Believe it or not, it was
completed long before this one, which I just finished editing last night.) Let's just
say that we are going to be delving deep into the world of spiritual entities, a la Spam_BIT...
The characters Peter Thanes, Life King Lee, Matika, the Messy Robe, Mark T., Luke Lee, Morph,
and Ian Lee were created by Nemesis.
The characters Fuante Kyojin, Shimitsu Kyojin, Shinichi Mamono, Fuyuitai Samuike, Ryoko Kyojin,
and Umanoke were created by Spam_BIT.
The characters Kyorei, Ma'ang the Red, and Kaimettsu were created by Nabiki.
The characters Nicole Peters, Luke Masterson, Tiger, Kenji Nakamura, and Mirsky were created by
opaj.
The characters Jake Hazuki and Dave Ryo were created by ragingtofu.
The concept of the ensigns and the Borg were created by Gene Roddenberry.
Ukyou Kuonji and Mu Tzu were created by Rumiko Takahashi.
Deppy is Deppy.
Everyone else is duck on a water's back.
On to Episode 3: Demons Released
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