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| Nina woke up and sat straight up in her bed as if she was waking from a nightmare. Was it a nightmare? She looked around the room and found that it was her room back in Florida. She breathed a sigh of relief. She was in no more trouble and everything was alright. Then, the door to her room burst off its hinges and the Toshin came back, lunging himself at Nina-
And then she woke up. Sitting straight up in her bed, waking up from her nightmare, doused in cold sweat. She looked around the room and saw she was back in her allocated room. She pinched herself, but it wasn't a dream. Was her attempt at taking that boy's life a simple dream? She remembered everything from the moment she smashed him through the wall, to the moment she fell unconscious. She deducted that the Tekkenshu simply carried her back to her room and left her there, and if so, why were they so merciful? She tried to KILL that boy! The grandson of The CEO Heihachi Mishima! What if she did kill him? Would they still carry her back to her room? She groaned a pained groan as she tried to get her head around these facts, when-
"Ms Williams to the Arena, Ms Williams to the Arena. Your fight is about to start!" spouted a voice over an intercom.
Nina groaned, she got out of bed to get her fighting clothes, but then realising she already had it on. She sighed.
'I'm seriously losing it!' she thought to herself, and set off towards the arena.
At The Arena.
Nina looked around and saw the loud crowd of people. All clambering around each other like grapevines. They were your usual fight-fan crowd, ranging from amateur martial artists and martial arts teachers wanting to see their own style in action from a safe distance, to simple kids and hicks wanting to watching something different then wrestling.
'Sick freaks,' she thought, 'Enjoying such bloodshed.'
She looked towards the opposite end of the arena and saw her opponent. The brash, flat-topped biker she saw on the first day at the tournament, donned in the very same biker outfit. Something about him just screamed familiarity in her face, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She needed more clues.
"Hey doll face, looks like we're gonna have to get brutal now," he called over to her, "Watch out that you don't break a nail!"
The crowd laughed, at Nina's expense. Nina frowned and glowered at the middle-aged biker.
"They don't allow 'Rebel Without A Cause' rejects here," she retaliated, "So eat shit and fuck off!"
The biker thought to himself one name in the questioning sense.
'Nina?'
Then the intercom voice spoke up again.
"Paul, you were the first person to the arena, which battlefield would you like?"
The name sparked more of that sense of familiarity in Nina. She got images of a motorbike, the oriental martial artist, the biker himself andother things racing through her mind. But she had to shake it off; the fight was about to begin!
"Hmm, battlefield, how about the alley's of #New York, New Yorrrrrrk!#" Paul delightfully sung in response, getting another laugh from the crowds. He was fan-favourite to win the tournament.
The background of the crowd suddenly disappeared behind a mould of a dirty, windswept hovel that was the alleyways of the NYC slums. She shook her head, but saw that the mould didn't disappear. The biker, named 'Paul' walked up to her.
"In case ya missed it," he began, "They make these scenario-deals so the fighter will feel more comfortable and not see loads of eyes staring at them. The crowd can see us, but we can't see them."
Nina fumbled for the appropriate answer, but only came up with a simple retort.
"Ok" she muttered
Paul walked back to his side of the arena, cricked his neck and fingers, and got into a fighting stance: a generic fighting stance with hunched shoulders.
Nina looked back, gave a cutthroat motion towards her opponent and smirked evilly at her opponent before moving into her stance: another generic fighting stance, but with her hands held up, shaking sideways like a metronome.
"Fighters, are you ready?" the intercom voice cried
"Ready as I'll ever be." Nina sighed
"Hell yeah, get on with it already!" Paul replied, eager to fight.
The voice started the countdown.
"321"
"Get ready to have your butt whooped girl."
"In your dreams you pervert!"
"FIGHT!"
Nina cast the first stone as she lunged towards Paul with a hefty flying roundhouse kick, of which Paul blocked in time, Nina then quickly followed up with a low kick, connecting with Paul's ankle, then a head kick that sent Paul on the ground. Paul leapt up and flew towards Nina with both arms out in front of him in a Superman style, this knocking Nina down whilst Paul rolled up to his feet. Nina hopped up and smacked Paul with two severely stinging jabs, followed by a strong spinning back roundhouse kick. Paul locked his arms around the kicking foot, and smirked, retaliated only by a surprised gasp from Nina. Paul spun his arms around, sending Nina spinning through the air and landing on the ground with a hefty thud. That's when the taunting started. Paul got out a nail file and filed his nails.
"Ooh, I broke a nail." He said in a Marilyn Monroe-style voice (or at least the best Marilyn Monroe voice a gruff, tough biker could do)
Nina got up and looked at Paul in the most vicious way. If looks could kill, then Paul would looked even worse then a victim of Jack The Ripper. She got up on her feet steadily and slowly, much to the boredom of Paul, still filing his nails. When she got up to her feet, she looked back and Paul and gave a evilly sweet smile. Paul looked back in confusion. Nina charged at Paul, Paul simply putting away his file and getting back into his stance, but too little too late. Nina struck Paul with 4 stinging jabs to the face, followed by a head kick, moving fluidly down into a low kick, then she came back up quickly to respond with a backhand body chop, followed by another stinging jab and low kick, and then sending Paul skyward with an amazing kick, like a Nicolella, only that it wasn't airborne, and was much more powerful. She called the specific kick the 'Divine Cannon'. Paul flew up into the air and landed back down with a heavy crash.
"Boy, you can't beat me, give it up." Nina mocked
Another count started from the intercom, if Paul wasn't up by the time the count ended, he would be eliminated.
"10987654321.-"
He got up just before it reached zero.
"Match continues!" the intercom voice stated
"Shit!" Nina growled and got back in her fighting stance, her ankle weakened from Paul's counter-attack, this was a battle that wouldn't be ended easily.
Paul wheezed as he got back into his stance. His face bleeding from the numerous jabs to the face, but he still managed to find enough energy to mock.
"Didn't feel a thing. Are you sure you're a fighter?" he yelled to her, though in thought, he was wondering whether this was the girl he met all those years before.
"Just shut up and fight!" Nina responded and rushed at Paul with a vicious flying kick, with a kiai to followed. Paul concentrated on Nina's moving form, and then attacked, smashing Nina out of the sky with an undetected Scissors Kick, and as Nina fell back to the ground, Paul concluded the attack by hitting Nina's just inches before she hit the ground with a quick sweep, followed up with a crushing elbow blow into her stomach. She groaned as the elbow pushed all the air out of her lungs and fell limply back onto the ground, but just getting up with a small amount of energy.
"I will not be beaten" she wheezed painfully, breathing in felt like breathing in fire, "...by the scummy shit that you are!". She lunged towards Paul and threw all her energy into one hefty kick, a kick very popular with women and often used to disable muggers, annoying guys and other inconveniences. Paul's face showed the look of surprise and shock as the kick connected, then the wincing of pain. Paul covered his pain scrotum and hopped around in pain, much to the delight of the crowd. Nina, in all her tiredness and aches, smirked.
"That's what you get for messing with me, chumpstain!" she said, "Time to end this shit!". She used all her concentration, flexing the muscles in her arms and legs, slowing moving into a Crane stance, though she called it the Swan Stance. As she charged, yellow electricity charged around her arms as she reached the climax of her move. Then she threw out her arms at Paul, aiming to connect both her fists into his gut, but she made a mistake, she miscalculated how long Paul would be detained. As she threw her fists into where Paul used to be, he has already jumped to her side. Paul grabbed her stray left arm and spun under it and used all the potential energy he gained from the spin to flip Nina so hard onto her back she bounced. Nina used this bounce to get back on her feet, but second mistake, she didn't keep her eyes on her opponent. Just as Nina turned to Paul, she was met with such a strong punch to the stomach, she nearly threw up. The force sent her rolling along the ground twice before all the force from the punch drained away into nothing. The countdown started.
"1098"
No action from Nina
"765"
Still nothing.
"432"
Nothing.
"10! Paul Phoenix Wins!"
Paul celebrated to the crowd, rubbing his hands then throwing his arm in the air in a suggestive manner.
"Hell yeah! I am the King!" he cheered, whilst medics carried the unconscious Nina to a medical room. Paul looked on and sighed.
'That had to be her!,' he thought, 'And yet it can't be her. Jeez! What have I been drinking?'
Hours later
Nina was patched up with plasters left, right and centre. She felt humiliated, violated and upset after the fight. Beaten in the most embarrassing manner, with one cheap punch, a single punch. She lay there in the medical bed in a very bad mood, which wasn't helped when a certain visitor came along.
"I hear you were beaten in the tournament," a thick Japanese accent spoke
"Mr Mishima?"
"That is correct." Heihachi replied, "I also hear you tried to kill my grandson. You can stop me if I'm wrong"
Nina didn't reply. If she replied, she'd be in for something much worse then a defeat. She stayed silent, much to the chagrin of Heihachi.
"How are you feeling anyway?" he asked, "After all, you have another fight tonight."
"TONIGHT?!?" Nina exclaimed, "I thought it wasn't for the next couple of days!"
"There has been a change in schedule Ms Williams," Heihachi informed her, "After some certain person tried to bump off a family member of mine!"
Nina looked into Heihachi's eyes as he said that. Her eyes in turn showing much surprise, she blinked, then said carefully.
"You want him dead don't you?" she said
"Who?" he replied, playing dumb
"That boy. You want him dead!" she stated, "You don't care about him."
"Shut up!" he growled, "You have another fight tonight, and I'll be reeeally looking forward to it! Good luck, if you have any luck left!"
He turned around sharply and stormed off towards the door. Nina got out of the hospital bed, a nurse was about to stop her, but then a voice cried out from where Heihachi walked off.
"Let her leave!" the voice said, being that of the nurse's employer, she stood to one side as Nina left the medical area and back to her allocated room. The walk was long, and she passed many rooms, buildings, areas, and arenas. As she made it to the block of rooms, she saw the many colourful characters that had made it to the tournament so far, those who would go to the semi-finals, or like her, those who were eliminated. There was a red-haired Korean boy, hanging around a young native American girl and a Chinese girl.
'Heh, real player all right' she thought to herself, stifling a laugh.
She noticed the oriental Bruce Lee-like man that Paul hangs around with, along with the ninja, the scary Bryan Fury man she encountered when watching his preliminary bouts, and a brunette in a red dress.
'Wait, what the fuck?' she thought. She hid round a corner, so that the brunette couldn't spot her, just in case-
'Could it be?'
She didn't stop to ask questions, she just ran up the nearest stairs and headed to her room, locking the door behind her. She then turned around fell onto her bed, aching all over and feeling hot and bothered.
'I've got to get out of this damn suit!' she promised herself, and decided to rid her of its tightness. Purple was her thing, but did it always have to be skin-tight?
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