Subject: [FFML] R 1/2 SF Crossover "Iron Fist, Iron Warrior" Ch 5
From: dyellope@norfolk-county.com (David Yellope)
Date: 5/30/1998, 3:45 PM
To: ffml@fanfic.com

Ohayo, everybody. Time for Chapter Five. Time for a big fight chapter!
:) 

	As always, Requests for Prior chapters, my other fanfic
(currently in dustbunnies but I may continue working on it after a few
more chapters of this), comments, critiques, and MSTings are all
welcome at dyellope@norfolk-county.com. Flames are also welcomed, (I
feed them to my Dalek security staff, I think it gives them a fiery
disposition <G>)

Chapter Five of "Iron Fist, Iron Warrior"

"Fight To The Finish: Nakajima Productions vs The Lightning Fists"

	The press conference over, Akane half helped, half carried
Ranma up to his room. Ranma was still in quite a bit of pain from the
knee to the groin administered to him by the leader of the Lightning
Fists, and Ranma swore to himself quietly that should he be so lucky
as to get his hands on one "Backhand" Bonnie Brown during the match
tommorrow, he was going to repay the pain, IN FULL.

	Akane threw Ranma on his bed and slammed the door behind her.
She then turned to Ranma, "And what the heck was THAT about Ranma?"
She turned her force four glare on Ranma, who was too busy trying to
stay conscious to answer. "This isn't the polite fights you've been in
before Ranma, the Lightning Fists believe that rules as well as bones
are made to be broken! You expect them to fight clean, they're going
to clean up on you. And you'll let your team down."

	Akane took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. She had been
doing a lot of reading while Ranma was practicing with the rest of the
Nakajima Productions fighters. The Lightning fists were one of the
dirtiest fighting teams on the circuit, and Ranma just waltzes up to
that bitch and basically gave her a free shot on him?

	Akane then continued, "Ok, what's done is done. We can't
change that. Tonight, you and I are going to go over this fight Ranma.
And by the time you go to sleep, you'll be ready. I won't let you let
the team down." She then got up, and closed the door behind her,
leaving Ranma still vowing revenge.

	Akane then went back to her room, still steaming about what
had happened. She was kinda shocked by how quickly and how viciously
she had responded to what that little bitch had done to Ranma. But
then again, it had felt so GOOD to deck her, and the look on her face
was PRICELESS when Akane threw her into her teammates. But now, Akane
decided, we have to fix what Ranma and I started.

	An hour later Akane headed back to Ranma's room, and found
Ranma sitting on the edge of his bed, deep in thought. Helooked up,
smiled briefly and went back to his thoughts. Akane didn't like the
look on his face. She called his name, and then put her hand on his
shoulder.

	Ranma then looked at Akane again, but didn't turn away.
"Sorry," he said, "Just trying to figure out how badly I'm gonna hurt
that bitch. If I have my way, she'll be called "No Hands." Bonnie
Brown. Akane sighed. Looks like I'm going to have to do this the hard
way, she thought to herself.

	Akane then slapped Ranma. HARD.

	Ranma shot to his feet. Only his discipline prevented him from
answering the slap physically. "What the heck did you do that for?"

	 Akane had prepared for this. She spoke quietly, but her voice
had great emphasis. "You know, your dad would be cursing you out right
now. He taught you to be a warrior. Not a whiner. Not someone going
out and looking to hurt somebody. And right now, you don't have focus.
If you headed out there to fight the Lightning Fists, you'd be wild.
You'd take chances. And you'd lose. You're a martial artist. Time to
act like one."

	Ranma stood there for a few seconds, absorbing the impact of
Akane's words. His feet fell out from underneath him, and he fell back
into a sitting postion on the bed. Akane nodded as she saw Ranma's
reaction. "The Lightning Fists WANT you to get mad Ranma. When the
fight starts tommorrow, they want you charging THEM. That way, you're
not working with your teammates, you're by yourself, and you're an
easy target."

	Ranma took a deep breath, tried to take all the anger and
hatred he felt for the Lightning Fists, and in particular, their
leader, and exhaling, pushed it out of his system. Looking up, he saw
Akane smile. "Thanks, Akane," he said quietly, "I guess I needed that.
So, what are we going to do about the Lightning Fists?"

	Akane smiled wolfishly, the bracelet that her sisters had
given her bounching against her neck. "The team's going to do the
worst possible thing we can do to Miss Brown. We're going to beat them
in the ring, and we're going to ignore them afterwords."

	The two spent the rest of the night talking about strategies
that Ranma could possibly used. Akane had acquired a bootleg tape from
Ian, showing the last couple of fights that the Lightning Fists had
taken part in. Akane shook her head. They might be able to beat them,
but in truth, the Lightning Fists were a very good team. They combined
size, with speed and strength. But anybody could be beaten. You just
had to take the right strategy.

	As the night was coming to a close, Ranma shut off the room's
TV, and started the tape rewinding, and sat back down. Turning to
Akane, he said, "I guess I owe you some thanks. I probably wouldn't
have been able to fight properly, if I went into the fight mad."

	Akane giggled, "Well, somebody has to help you, 'sensei', and
I guess that somebody has to be me sometimes. We're a team, right?"

	Ranma nodded. "Yes, 'sensei' ", turning her nickname for him
when he was helping her learn a new technique around and back on her.
The two shared a laugh, then awkwardly, they said their good nights,
and went to bed.

	The next morning dawned clear and sunny, but Ranma wanted
nothing better to do then to go back underneath the covers and get a
few more hours of sleep. But Akane was nearly battering the door down,
he could hear her calling his name, trying to wake him up.

	"Just a second," he managed to croak, throwing on his red
shirt and pants, and opening the door. When he finished opening it,
Akane had grabbed him by the hand, and yanked him out. Ranma tried to
protest, but he had just woken up, and Akane had, in his opinion,
entirely too much energy for this time of day.

	The team was enjoying a light breakfast, mentally preparing
themselves for the match. Akane let go of Ranma's hand, but only long
enough to say something to Ian, who nodded, and left. Akane turned to
Ranma, "Get a quick glass of orange juice. You and I are going to head
over to the stadium early, Ranma"

	For a second, Ranma thought about complaining. What gave her
the right to bully him around like this? Then he thought it over, and
decided whatever she had in mind, she hadn't done anything without a
reason before, so he acquiesced, shrugging his shoulders when Vernon
asked what Akane was up to.

	Todd interjected, "Ah, that Akane is a high spirited gal. Just
the way I like them." Ranma prepared to take umbrage at this, but Ian
showed up at the entryway, and Akane came back, and started propelling
Ranma to the waiting limo. Ranma just shrugged again, and sipped his
orange juice and resigned himself to his fate.

	They showed up at the stadium, and showing a pass to a member
of a "work" crew, (really security making sure that no one interfered
with the fight), entered the stadium. Ranma and Akane sat down, in the
front row of the stadium's seating. The ride had taken so little time
that Ranma was just finishing up his orange juice when they sat down.

	"Ok, Akane, you've gotten me here. Now, what's this all
about?" Ranma asked, his former indigation having faded away to
curiosity. He hoped Akane had a good reason for this.

	Turns out she did. "There have been rumours that the Lightning
Fists have used tactics to weigh the fight heavily in their favor
before the fight even started. In their last fight, there was two
fighters who were in a mysterious car accident just two hours before
the fight. The Lightning Fists took on the weakened other team and
crushed them easily." Akane explained. 
	
	Lacking much else to do, she had done her research on their
opponents (all funded by Mr. Nakajima, who understood Akane's caution
and desire to understand their opponents). Akane then said, "Seems to
me that if she's going to do anything, she's going to want to hit
either you or me, or if she's in a REALLY sadistic mood, both of us. I
wanted to make sure that we not only got here safely, that we were in
a public place, so she couldn't pull any of her tricks. That way, it's
a fair fight, something our little Miss Brown won't approve of."

	Ranma saw one hole in that plan. "What about the rest of the
team? Will they go after them?" He fretted slightly, wishing she had
told him before, so he could just give a word of advice to his
teammates.

	"Relax, I said something to Ian. he's going to go pick them up
and bring them here." Akane said, sitting back and relaxing. She had a
wait ahead of her.

	Back at the hotel, another person's wait was coming to an end,
but his thoughts were far less peaceful. Dark, cold eyes scanned the
door, searching for his targets. His employer's instructions were very
detailed. If he saw either of the two people he had seen in pictures,
his job was to take them out. Not kill them, but the option he
preferred, cripple them. He cursed the traffic that morning. He had
gotten here 20 minutes later then he planned.

	He smiled as he saw the team inside get up and start to file
out for the van. His smile quickly faded when he realized his two
targets were not there. "Damm, the two must have left early," he
thought to himself. His employer wasn't very tolerant, and would
probably turn him into the hunted instead of the hunter by putting a
price on HIS head if he went back to her now and reported failure.

	He scanned the team. Well, he thought to himself, at least I
can do something to report, that I can report to her as a success.
Silently, he inched forward to the corner of the motel. He'd take the
first one that came out of the building, and give the advantage to his
employer that way. She'd appreciate that at least. He reached into his
vest, and slipped on the metal fanged claw he used as his weapon.

	As the first person stepped out and took a step towards the
waiting limo, he popped out and charged the heavy-set boxer. Taking
five quick steps, sprinting towards the man like a leopard in flight,
he got to within two steps of him, as the boxer turned, he had sensed
that SOMETHING was wrong, but by then it was far too late.

	The man leaaped forward, spinning in mid air, hands grabbing
the boxer by the hair, the metal claw gouging several bloody furrows
into the man's cheek. As he flipped over , he threw his body forward,
and heaved the boxer over his head. Finishing hiss move by rolling to
his feet, he watched the man fly  ight into and through the windshield
of the limo. 

	The Spanish ninja smiled. The injuries should be enough to
keep this one out of the fight, he thought to himself as he heard the
first startled shouts from behind him, as he started running, hoping
to lose himself in the crowd. Neither Bonnie Brown, nor his true
master, the World Warrior Vega, would be totally satisfied, but he had
done his best.

	Lei Chong Ling and Todd Vanderstreet took off in pursuit of
Vernon McCracken's assailant. Ian and Igor ran over to the limo and
tried to staunch the blood that was streaming from the many cuts and
scratchs on the boxer's face and scalp.

	The spanish Ninja noted that he had pursuit, and ducked into
an alleyway, noting possible escape routes, using the few seconds the
sudden turn had given him to try to find a place where he could escape
pursuit. Finally, he saw a fire escape ladder about 12 feet off the
ground. Tensing his leg muscles, he sprang into the air, somersaulting
several times, and catching the bar of the ladder in both hands.

	As quietly as possible, he swung himself up to the fire escape
proper, and was out of sight before Ling and Vanderstreet could catch
up with him.

	Two hours later, "Backhand" Bonnie Brown, (who had a habit of
breaking the bones of anyone who was foolhardy enough to refer to her
by her nickname) cursed to herself. The fool was supposed to take the
kid and that bitch out! 

	Then she composed herself and smiling, turning to Mustafa,
said, "Well, at least we got one advantage. One of my sources tell me
that Venton McCracken was admitted an hour and twenty minutes ago,
suffering from multiple lacerations, and a pretty serious concussion.
He won't be fighting. And there's no sign of those two teenagers
either. Looks like we'll be fighting five on two!"

	Mustafa, as he usually did, took the information without
blinking. Brown shivered slightly. For all people knew, The Thai
Kickboxer wasn't born, he was chisled out of ice. For the longest
time, he was only happy when he was breaking somebody's bones. Now he
smiled more, because he now got paid to figure out how best to cause
pain and agony.

	Brown was mad at the fact that the two who had embarrased her
the day before hadn't gotten hurt yet. But she had learned patience.
She chuckled to herself. The two were probably a couple of countries
away by now, she thought to herself with a wicked smile on her face. 

	They could run, but sooner or later, she'd find them, or she'd
hire somebody to find them. Then they'd pay. "Nobody, and I mean
Nobody, crosses the Lightning Fists OR Bonnie Brown." She said,
quietly enough that only her teammate could hear.

	Mustafa smiled. He hoped that he was the one who found them.
There were so many bones, and so many ways to break them. Then when he
was through, he'd try out some of his new poisons on them. There would
be so many interesting ways he could kill them. He smilied again,
considering the possibilities.

	The team showed up at the stadium and quickly found Ranma and
Akane, who hopped over the barrier and quickly joined them. One look
at the tight set frowns on their faces, plus the fact that one of them
was missing, told Akane all she needed to know. She only asked a one
word question, directed at Ian. "Who?"

	Ian replied, "We think it was a hired hit man, probably from
our opponents. Whoever it was, it was Shadoloo based. Only Shadoloo
fighters use a claw like Vega."

	Akane had a thousand more questions, like who this Shadoloo
was, and how they could extract vengeance for their injured teammate,
but there was no time. Fans had started to file in. Nakajima
Productions headed to their dressing room, all preparing to wreak
vengeance for their friend.

	Ian and Akane had disappeared, but Ranma had no time to
consider where they had gone. Lei Chong Ling, who seemed to be the
most experienced fighter, had stood up and started pacing quietly
around the room. Ranma went through a mental exercise to calm himself
down, (which he sorely needed to calm himself down after he heard what
had happened), and waited for the team captain to speak.

	When Lei spoke, it was quietly, but with great force. "Ok, my
friends, we are in quite a bit of trouble. They have us outnumbered,
and probably have planned their strategy already, knowing we're hurt.
We have to come up with something, and quick."

	The team spent the next couple of minutes planning strategy.
Finally, they decided that even though the attack plan had been
designed for a full complement of fighters, they had no choice but to
attack straight ahead. "Remember," Lei reminded everybody, "They have
an extra fighter. WATCH YOUR BACKS."

	It was time. Each fighter slowly stood up, lost in their own
thoughts, and preparing mentally for what could be the fight of their
lives, they slowly filed out of the locker room, and strode out into
the harsh light. The crowd swelled in anticipation, it was about time.
Then several voices murmured in confusion as they only saw four
members of the Nakajima Productions team.

	But then the confusion was replaced by a roar from the crowd
as the Lightning Fistts stalked on to the field, and slowly walked
over to the boundary of the fighting area. Ranma's eyes were glued to
Bonnie Brown, and Ranma had to stop himself from muttering several
curses.

	Bonnie had a vicious smile on his face. "So, kid, you got more
guts then I thought. Too bad I'm going to have to spill those guts
now," she called, her voice carrying over to the other side. "Heard
your boxing friend had a little accident, ain't that a shame? Guess
we'll have to beat you five on four." Suddenly a voice from behind
Ranma answered Brown's words,and made everybody turn and gape. 

	"Guess again, bitch. This is going to be five on five." came
from Akane, now clad in her fighting gi, and stepping forward on the
pitch. When she had found out that they had hurt Vernon, she realized
that she would have to fight for her teammates, even if she wasn't
ready yet. She wasn't going to let her team get hurt, and she wasn't
going to let this bitch get the satisfaction of winning the match.

	Ranma wanted to run, to tetll Akane that this wasn't her
fight. But he stopped. He wasn't going to make her decisions for her.
Plus the look of complete and utter frustration on The Queen Bitch's
face  (his new nickname for Bonnie Brown) He called back, "I guess
it's a fair fight now. Shall we do it?"

	A voice over the loud speaker carried to the 5,000 fans who
had learned about the fight and paid a high fee to get in. "Ladies and
Gentlemen, these are the rules for the team fight. Each team has five
fighters, and a team will only be eliminated when all five fighters
are out of the fight. A fighter will be judged out of the fight if
they are knocked out, or are knocked off the fighting area, (which was
marked as a red square on the soccer field) and they do not return
within 45 seconds. Fighters, to your places!"


	Ranma walked to his team's corner. He spared enough time to
look at Akane, her jaw set, her eyes upon her opponents. He smiled.
The team was all together now. Five people with a mission. To defeat
the Lightning Fists. And may the fates have mercy, on the Lightning
Fists, because Nakajima Productions weren't going to.

	"FIGHT!" came the voice from the loudspeakers, as the crowd
roared. Ranma tuned out the voice and the crowd, and slowly advanced
with his team.

	The Lightning Fists had no such restraint, they came charging
out quickly. Fixer threw a whirling kick at Igor who blocked it with
one of his fists, while Mustafa seemed to have Akane singled out. Todd
wasn't able to break free, as he had to dodge the hammering punches
and slaps from the Sumo of the Lightning Fists, Santo Hidetoshi,
Hercules Harrison slowly stalked Lei Chong Ling. That left two
fighters who wanted to fight each other more then anything.

	Ranma set himself as Bonnie Brown came into strikeing range.
Hoping to unnerve the younger fighter, Brown started whirling around,
throwing high roundhouse kicks, combining with low foot sweeps, trying
to catch Ranma off guard, but Ranma easily ducked the high kicks, and
leaped over the foot sweeps, resetting himself in the guard position
and hitting her with a jumping side kick when she was off guard.

	Brown took a couple steps back from the impact of the kick
"Nice try kid, but you're gonna have to do better then that." she
leaped into the air, throwing her foot around in a roundhouse blow,
which Ranma dodged easily, side stepping the kickm but Brown had her
own plans. She had reached into a pouch on her belt, grabbed a white
powder, and turning from the landing, she heaved it in Ranma's face.

	Ranma screamed in pain as the substance made his eyes water.
Brown laughed. "Never should've shown me up kid, first you and then
the bitch are gonna get it." Ranma's eyes watered as he tried to
defend himself from the measured blows Brown was laying in, but each
time one landed, he groaned in pain. It was hard to see where a punch
was coming from when his eyes were watering!

	Akane ducked under a vicious kick by Mustafa, and landed a
couple punches of her own, but Mustafa showed no expression. He
knocked back Akane with a side kick, but while Akane was recovering,
hit Todd Vanderstreet with a kick to the back oif his head.,  that
Todd couldn't have seen. sending the Karate fighter sprawling forward
unconscious from the blow.

	Akane swallowed nervously as she saw the grim smile on
Mustafa's face, as the crowd roared. First blood to the Lightning
Fists.

	But the odds were evened quickly as Akane threw herself into
the attack. Lei Chong Ling charged Harrison leaped, actually used
Harrison as a base to leap from and kicked him twice to the face with
a leaping kick. The force of blow knocked Harrison down, and as he
tried to get to his feet, Lei kicked his arms out from supporting him,
and laid in several vicious elbows and forearms to the back and head
of Harrison, who was soon rendered unconscious. But his victory was
short lived, as Santo grabbed him from behind in a punishing sumo bear
hug.

	Fixer spun through with a Double Dread Kick, first a side kick
drove his Sanbo fighter opponent back, then he whirled in the opposite
direction with another kick, stunning him temporarily. But he made a
mistake. He hadn't gone far enough away to get out of the reach of the
Sanbo fighter, and that was the moment the big Russian waited for.

	Igor grabbed Fixer by the throat, lifted him off the ground
and threw him a good 25 feet, but the canny verteran kickboxer,
minimized the impact and rolled through the landing.

	Mustafa smiled. Several kicks had left Akane reeling, blood
pouring from her nose. One more kick should do it. Bonnie would be
pleased. He raised a hand to the crowd, who roared in anticipation,
and prepared to hit a dazed Akane with an ax kick that would surely
render her unconscious.

	As the foot came down, Akane raised both her hand above her
head and neatly caught the foot on her shoulder, minimizing the
impact. Before the gaping Mustafa could extricate his foot, Akane
smiled. Evily. From this position, it was easy to throw a snap kick.
"Payback's a bitch", she said, and threw the kick where it would hurt
the most.

	Mustafa screamed in pain as the entire crowd that was watching
winced in sympathy. Mustafa went down, tears streaming in pain, hands
holding his injured groin. Akane stood over him. "Since I can't do
that to your leader, I guess you'll do. If you or anyother person of
that goon squad ever do  that to Ranma or any of my teammates ever
again, next time I won't kick them. I'll rip them off." And with that,
she laid him out with a palm blow to the temple. 

	Jensen had grabbed Fixer in a sleeper hold, cutting off the
supply of oxygen to the brain, Fixer tried to fight out, but his blows
had no offense behind them. As he was blacking out, a last, desperate
offense came to him. He let himself fall, dragging Jensen with him.
Fixer's head  jammed right underneath the chin of the bigger Jensen,
and Jensen fell back to the ground, unconscious. Fixer tried to move,
but he could only lay there, gasping for air and oxygen. In the
portion of his mind that still worked, he knew that the judges were
watching him, and he knef that if he didn't get up in a few seconds,
he would be judged unable to continue. But his body refused to answer
his commands. 

	The crowd murmured as the announcement that Fixer was judged
out of the fight. It was rare to see a double KO like that, but now
Nakajima Productions had lost two fighters, while the Lightning Fists
had lost 3. The Electronic Scoreboard read

Nakajima Productions 3
(Ranma Saotome, Akane Tendo, Lei Chong Ling)

Lightning Fists 2
(Bonnie Brown, Santo Hideoshi)

	Brown had knocked down Ranma with a foot sweep that he
couldn't see due to his eyes. And she was laying in vicious kicks to
the stomach. Ranma was able to dodge several kicks that would have
laid him out as he desperately tried to get his eyes cleared.

	Santo kept the bear hug on the smaller Lei, shaking him around
like a dog ripping apart a stuffed animal. Santo then lifted him up,
and threw himself forward, landing with his full 600 pound weight on
top of the Kung Fu champion. A small groan escaped Lei's lips as Santo
slowly got to his feet, but other then random twitching, he didn't
move. 

	Akane had a tough decision to make. Help Ranma, or attack
Santo while he was still making sure Lei didn't get up. Either way, if
she made the wrong choice, not only she would pay, but so would Ranma.
After a second, she came up with an idea. She shouted at Ranma,
unknotted the sash that closed her gi, and tossed the sash to his
outstreteched, groping hand. Then she ran over to Santo.

	Santo hoped his oppoent was alright, he never really wanted to
really hurt someone, the rest of the Lightning Fists thought he was a
bit weird. But having made sure Lei was in no immediate danger, he
turned to see what he could do to help his teammates. He didn't like
what they did, but they were his only family. He prepared himself, but
turned as Akane ran, and set her feet.

	Akane lept into the air, her loose gi flying off from the
force of the flip, leaving her top only covered by her bra, but
conneced with Santo's chin solidly with both feet, sending the Sumo
Fighter sprawling back over Lei's body. Akane finished her flip, and
not even knowing or caring that her gi top had flown off. She checked
Santo quickly to make sure he wasn't faking unconsciousness. But then
her eyes turned to see that Ranma had rolled to his feet.

	Ranma had used the sash to clear his eyes enough to see, and
Brown, realizing her predicament distanced herself from her two
remaining fighters, cursing as she looked around to see if she had any
support, and eyes widening, realized it was just her left.

	Akane stood behind Ranma, (not wanting him to see her  without
her gi and get distracted). Both stood on guard. Brown  realized that
she could only do one thing. Attack. She charged both her remaining
opponents.

	Ranma calmed himself. As he prepared himself for a move to
finish Brown off. He mentalkly checked to make sure he was doing this
for the right reason. He was doing this for his teammates, and to make
sure she wouldn't hurt anyone else on his team. He smiled rimly as he
gathered Brown's battle aura. He would turn her own anger, her own
hatred against her.

	 This only took a second, and as Brown stopped, eyes widening
in suprise, Ranma screamed "HIRYU SHOTEN HA" and relased the ki blast
at Brown, who tried to block it, but it was trying to block a
waterfall. Brown was blasted back and flipped end over end, finally
slamming into the  base of the arena seats, smoking from the blast and
unconscious.

	The crowd in stands were going crazy with applause. Some of
the male members of the crowd whistled appreciatively at Akane. Ranma
turned to see what the whistling was about, and nearly was bowled over
by a bear hug by Akane, who was yelling "We Did IT! WE BEAT THEM!"

	Ranma accepted the hug for a moment, then realized the state
Akane was in and staggered back, nose bleeding as he realized Akane
was missing her top. Akane remembered what had happened, and she
blushed fully, at least Ranma thought she was having a full body
blush, considering the parts of her he COULD see! She quickly
retrieved her gi, and slid it back on and redid the sash when a
blushing Ranma handed it back to her.

	Ian helped Igor, Lei and Todd to their feet, and to the chants
from the crowd, the victorious fighters raised their hands to the
crowd, as doctors and technicians checked over the Lightening Fists to
make sure they were in no immediate life-threatening danger.

	The victorious fighters, waved to the crowd as they sat in the
winner's box, to watch the final fight of the five of the evening.
This was the World Warrior between Balrog and Fei Long.

	"Ladies and gentlemen, our final match of the evening is a
World Warrior fight. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to FISTS OF FURY!"
came the now familiar voice from the loudspeaker. "First of all, he is
a practitioner of Wing Chun Kung Fu. He has a record of  69 wins, with
only two losses, one draw, and 58 of those wins were by knockout, the
Hong Kong movie star, The Jade Dragon, FEI LONG!"

	The crowd applauded, the recovering Lei Chong Ling applauding
as  he studied his fellow Kung Fu martial artist, trying to learn from
watching. He had a friendly bet with Vernon, since they both shared a
style with one of the World Warrior.

	"And his opponent, hails from the United States of America.
He's a former united Heavyweight Champion Boxer of the World. He comes
into tonight's fight with a record of  128-6 -3,with 118 by Knockout.
Fists of Steel, the master of the Dashing Punch, BALROG!"

	The two briefly acknowledged the cheers of the crowd, but it
was obvious that they were intent on the fight. There were no rules in
this one, either they'd fight until they were both two tired to
continue, or until one was knocked out.

	As the two clashed, Ranma turned to Akane. "Thanks for the
loan of the sash to clean my eyes. Sorry about the way it left you."
Akane blushed, but then smiled.

	Akane giggled, remembering the look on Ranma's face when he
realized she didn't have her gi top on. "That's ok. I'm just glad we
won, we got revenge for what they had done to Vernon and to you, and
we both made it through." She blushed, deeply this time and whispered,
"Did you like the look, Ranma?" 

	Ranma suffered another nosebleed as he realized that Akane
didn't mind that he had taken a peek. He thought to himself, "So much
has changed since the first time I accidentally walked in on her.", he
then recovered a little of his bravado and told Akane, "Just as long
as next time you try to get me to take a peek at you, it's not in
public."

	Akane ALMOST summoned Mallet-sama at that remark, who said
that she WANTED him to look at her, then sighed. I guess he really
does think me uncute, she thought to herself. But then again, he HAD
taken more then a peek when he noticed. She shook her head, not
knowing if she was happy or mad that he had looked, then looked back
at the fight. Uncomfortable, Ranma turned back to the fight.

	Fei Long had Balrog dazed, and apparently wished to finish the
fight, had leaped in the air, and summoned his chim and as his leg
actually burst into fire, hit Balrog with a screaming Dragon Kick that
sent the Boxer flying back, unconscious. The crowd erupted.

	A few days later, a bruised and battered Bonnie Brown appeared
in front of her Master. Bonnie had once swore that she would never bow
down to anybody, but she was terrified out of her mind at what this
person could do. "I beg forgiveness. I wish to kill those two, to try
to make up for my failure."

	A throaty chuckle came from the man sitting on the chair. "No,
my dear, you did exactly right. I was the one who told your manager to
sign this fight. I needed to see if Vega's reports were correct. He
was. Consider the loss erased from my mind. Go and serve us well. We
have a shipment going to Thailand tonight. You and the rest of the
Lightning Fists are to guard it. And one last thing. We have OTHER
plans for the two of them. Do not take any retribution."

	As Bonnie Brown saluted her Master, and quietly fled his inner
sanctum, she felt like she was the luckiest woman on the face of the
earth. People who tended to disappoint her Master were either killed,
or if they were unlucky, faced a fate that was probably worse then
debt. But she whispered to herself, "It's not over. Someday, some way,
the Lightning Fists will get their revenge. Whatever Bison has planned
for you, I hope it hurts you."

	M. Bison stood up, calmly walked over to a view screen, and
pressed a single button. "Get me Vega", was all he said. Almost
immediately, the handsome Spanish Ninja's face filled the screen. 

	Vega never liked to be summoned so pre-emptorily by Bison, but
he knew Bison would never call him unless he needed something. "Yes,
Lord Bison?"

	"I am pleased. Your reports of the fighter Saotome were right
on mark. He would be a welcome addition to Shadoloo. I will send two
Revenants to join you shortly. You are to use them as you see fit. We
already have enough troublemakers opposing our might, without adding
two more. If they resist, or refuse to be swayed, kill them."

	Vega smiled. "I am sure that the Poison Haze will work. He has
a great spirit, but he lacks control. My usual fee?"

	Bison hated bargaining. "Yes. Just make sure you get the job
done." and he clicked a button, and the face of Vega disappeared from
the screen. He walked back to his throne, and started laughing
quietly. The laughter turned from the chuckle to a full fledged laugh.

	Bison had just played another move in his game of human chess.
People were so predictable, just like the pieces on a chess board. You
just had to realize their patterns, and they fell down at your feet,
asking for your control. "Soon enough, it shall be Check, and mate.
Welcome to hell, Ranma Saotome. I do hope you enjoy the trip." Bison
whispered. The laughter continued well into the night.

------------------------------------------------------------

Well folks, another day another chapter. This one was the hardest to
write so far, but finally I got past my writers block and it flowed as
best as it could. I hope this is as good as chapters 1-4, but the only
judges of that will be you, the reader.

As always, comments and critique are welcome at
Dyellope@norfolk-county.com. If any of you have ICQ by Mirabilis (a
program I can't recommend any higher, it's very good.) look me up. I
am 177814, (nickname Fozzie)

Till the next time all, tenatively titled "Secrets and Shadoloo: The
Poison Haze"

Ja Ne, y'all

D.M.Y

May 30th, the year of Ranma 1998