HOME | DD

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

February 16, 2017
6:13 pm
The Space Sanctuary of the Illuminati

When Laura had been informed that the live audience of the tournament, aside from the competitors who wished to attend their peers' matches, would have been made up of five thousand members of the Illuminati Society, mental images had begun gathering in her mind of her fighting in a sort of rarefied atmosphere, the sound of her hits and shouts rapidly dissipating in an ocean of stifling silence, while countless hooded figures, as immobile as statues, looked at her and judged her.

But when the fights actually started, she soon realized how wrong she had been. Excluding about two dozen security personnel with their weird triangular tasers and even weirder two-pronged headgears scattered among the crowd, the view of a sea of faces of every color and ethnicity available on Earth greeted every pair of contenders on the side of the vast elliptical amphitheater not occupied by the oversized window perennially oriented towards Earth, 1600 km down, a collection of people who had managed to be the protagonists of the World Tournament almost as much as the actual contenders. Laura might have performed in front of some pretty loud spectators in her ten-year career as a professional fighter, but the ones in that arena were something else entirely. Despite being little more than five thousand, the amount of noise they produced would have made anyone believe that they were at least four times that number and at every turn they were ready to express their disposition at pretty much any action of the performers, be it admiration, indignation, surprise, empathy or derision. The public was 100% behind every match of the schedule, whether it featured two life-long rivals or two strangers sharing the same ring for the first time. So much participation inevitably spilled on the floor of the arena, with the result that several matches had been affected by the audience being lined up behind this or that fighter.

Unfortunately for her brother, the incessant chorus coming from all over the bleachers, perfectly audible from the recess of the right tunnel, didn't augur well for her brother's chances in his upcoming match at all.

"JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE!"

"Well-- at least the audience is still hot. That's not a given when you're last on the card." She said that mostly to break the eerily silent atmosphere of the tunnel recess, but she knew that it was a very poor way to build up his courage.

He had spent the last minute walking around in circles, after desperately trying to feign indifference at the crowd's sympathies and failing horribly. "I don't get it-- why him? Why??"

"He's the only other fighter left in your round, right? And this is your last match, isn't it?" But she immediately regretted those words. Trying to ignore the real issue was possibly the worst way to deal with Sean when he was like that.

"No, no--" He stopped pacing the small space and faced her, gaze downwards, his left hand touching his cheek with the thumb and his forehead with the other fingers. A clear sign of distress. "I mean: why does he get the whole audience to chant his name if he's at zero victories like me?"

"JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE!"

"Huuh-- because crowds like single-syllable chants? I mean, I heard that that's how it works in pro-wrestling."

"Yeah, as if! I first heard this chant during his second match and it's only grown since then. Why didn't they start repeating my name in rhythm too? It's also one syllable long! Why him and not me? What's the difference? Zero victories! As many as I have." The theme song of the other fighter with zero victories in that match started to fill the arena, its low notes reverberating throughout the whole structure. The crowd reached a state of quasi-frenzy.

"Ok, I see your point. Perhaps it's just because his losses were more--" Recollections began crowding Laura's mind. Decapre going against her usual glacial attitude and slapping her brother's right butt cheek on her way to the changing room, after the curb-stomp he had been inflicted had left him lying on the ground with his behind up in the air and with a serious wardrobe malfunction in the aforementioned sensitive point. Kairi dodging every single attack of his for three straight minutes and then annihilating him swiftly, as if he was performing a mercy kill. Cammy finishing him off with a single Cross Stinger Assault and closing the match in 17 seconds. «Dignified» would have been the correct word in general, but also the wrong one in that particular situation. She opted to rephrase herself.

"Look, I was also cheering for him while he was facing that Kairi monster, on his knees, his face and chest covered in blood and still yelling at his opponent to draw out his best shot if he wanted him to go down and stay there. That's the kind of things that gets an audience behind you." While she was talking, the image on the TV screen changed. The bird's eye shot of the audience changed into a close-up of the amphitheater's left entrance, barely visible due to the artificial smoke. The silhouette of a bare-chested man started becoming more and more visible, highlighted by two spotlights, one red and one blue, converging on him without mingling. Super Star Joe finally came out of the smoke and marched towards the ring in his usual quick, resolute style. He may have not been one of the monsters taking part in that tournament, but he sure knew how to look intimidating even with simple things like the way he approached the fighting ground.

"JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE!"

"Sooooo, are you suggesting that I should fall on my knees in front of Joe and invite him to beat me to a bloody pulp to gain the respect of the public?" If anyone else had dared to try to play dumb with her in a moment of mounting nervous tension, Laura's first reaction would have been an attempt at beating her previous record of twelve Thunder Claps discharged in a single opponent's torso before the effects of an out-of-control rectum became manifest. But almost eighteen years of family life had taught her that repeated attempts at pretending not to understand were a normal reaction on her brother's part when he was trying to cope with a highly stressful situation. So she took no notice. Instead she grasped his head, with the palms of her hands pressed on his cheeks, and gave him a good shake-- the sisterly way.

"Listen, go out there, focus on your opponent and give everything you've got! You'll never conquer their hearts if you don't show them how big yours is and no fighter who was more interested in the crowd's reactions than in the fight itself has ever gone far."

"Oh-- O'ay, shish. Ah'll thow hem whoh ah'm ca'a'hole of. Buh plea'phe--"

"What?"

"Cou'hh 'oo le'h mah fay'phe go?"

"Oh, yeah, right. Sorry."

The low notes of Joe's ominous entry music had stopped reverberating in the air a few seconds before. It wouldn't have taken long for Sean's theme to start and it was time for him to prepare for his entrance. There were so many more things she would have liked to tell him before they had to split up, but condensing them in few, highly-motivating words would have been a hopeless effort for anybody, even with an uncanny predisposition to keeping things brief which she definitely didn't have. Then the loudspeakers started playing a peppy rhythm and it became clear that it wasn't time for words anymore. She put a hand on her brother's shoulder and looked each other in the eyes one last time. Whatever happens out there, I'll never stop being at your side. The corners of his mouth moved a bit towards his ears. He closed his eyes, gave her a little nod and went on his way to the gate. Before he had taken two steps towards the area that was being filled with artificial smoke, she let a "May Jesus be at your side, Sean" slip by. His answer consisted of barely intelligible mumbling that sounded suspiciously like 'yeah, hoping I don't need the Lazarus treatment'.

Her brother by then completely enveloped by smoke, Laura noticed that people in the bleachers had started making noise again. And they were leaving no room for doubt about who was their favorite in the oncoming fight. Not to mention disproving her theory that they just liked one-syllable chants.

"JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU! JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU!"

Crossing her arms on her chest, she turned to the ultra-flat, 60'' monitor mounted on one of the shorter sides of the rectangular recess, the one closer to the perimeter of the amphitheater.

She saw him doing his entrance while performing the usual taunt as his theme transitioned from percussions to woodwinds.

"JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU! JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU!"

He quickly reached the slightly-raised platform where his opponent was waiting.

"JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU! JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU!"

He raised his arms and let out what he clearly thought was a very intimidating yell once Colleen finished announcing his name, origin and weight.

"JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU! JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU!"

Note to self: next time, fewer pep-talks and more earplugs.

"JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU! JOE'S GONNA KILL--"

The crowd's chant was abruptly -- and mercifully -- ended by Sean's furious attack.

Most matches of the tournament had begun with a studying phase of varying length, the two opponents testing each other's strength, reflexes and potential gaps in their guards. The better knowledge of the opponent because of previous fights, the shorter it took to get to the actual action. Sean, on the other hand, had decided to take his adversary by surprise by throwing himself to the kick boxer-turned-wrestler like a cannonball immediately after the bell sound signaling the match's beginning.

As the expert fighter he most assuredly was, Joe had never diverted his gaze from Sean ever since he had appeared amid the smoke of the entranceway. Despite that, Laura had no doubts that being on the receiving end of a Ryuubi Kyaku in the first second of the match wasn't quite what Super Star was expecting from an opponent he had never faced before.

The first few seconds of the match saw her brother in complete control, with Joe being hit by a quick uppercut before he could even reorganize his thoughts and raise his guard. Sean then put some distance between himself and the fighter in red and blue pants for another aggressive move. A perfectly executed Sean Tackle, highlighted by her brother's traditional-- though even more high-pitched than usual-- battle cry, finally managed to make Joe lose his balance and the following double-arm sledge to the mid-section actually took him down for good.

But if one lesson could be learned by the match he had had with Kairi, Joe had some very useful qualities as fighter and being able to take a lot of punishment was definitely among them. Had she been on the ring, she could have probably heard the sound of Super Star's teeth gritting while he got back to his feet with a very choreographic kip-up. In the safety offered by the recess in the right tunnel, Laura was genuinely impressed by Joe's lightning-fast recovery time and she wondered for a split second how she would have fared in a fight against him. Sean, on the other hand, was focusing on a match far removed from the realm of hypothesis and he immediately went on the attack with a second Ryuubi Kyaku. Unfortunately for her brother, three fights against three different adversaries had shown how hard it was to take Joe by surprise twice with the same move and that time he knew very well how to react to the patented wheel kick, which was easily parried.

Now, it was Joe's time to go on the assault, though he was clearly unsure about the best way to approach Sean's furious assaults. He first explored his opponent's defense with a series of quick jabs, which were all intercepted by her brother's guard while the two fighters did the typical circular dance in the middle of the ring, the space between them shortening and lengthening every few steps. When the distance between them was maximum, Sean went on the attack. At first it looked like he was going for a third Ryuubi and Joe raised his guard as high as he could to counter that, just like he had already done. Laura on the other hand could recognize when her brother was going for a feint and knew perfectly that now he was leaving quite a big window of opportunity to his adversary. With a U-turn on the spot, her brother went for a second Sean Tackle. It was the improved version of his trademark move, the one that never failed to thrill her, ever since she had seen him perform it for the first time in front of an audience at the Regional Tournament in 2011. As soon as he made contact with Joe, he grabbed him by his sides and tackled him to the ground with a somersault movement, placing himself in a perfect position for a double punch to the upper section before jumping away. Super Star's recovery was again quite short, though he didn't show off with a kip-up this time.

Laura's excitement had been steadily growing since her brother's lightning attack at the very beginning of the fight and the noise coming from the crowd seemed to indicate that Sean's performance so far had taken by surprise the attendees in a good way. Clenching her fists in front of her chest, she let herself get carried away by that most powerful and ancestral emotion: agonistic support. Come on, Sean, you've got this one!

Joe's attacks also started to get quicker and stronger, first releasing a flurry of lateral kicks alternating between both of his legs, which her brother mostly parried, while the ones he couldn't block didn't seem to affect him that much. Unfortunately, he had lowered his guard in the process and his opponent took advantage of that distraction to hit him with a powerful left hook to the cheek. No, no! Don't leave him openings! He's dangerous with all four of his extremities!

Probably supported by the adrenaline rush, Sean stood fast on his two feet and Joe, visibly surprised by his opponent's lack of a reaction following his last blow, ended up being on the receiving end of an amazing Dragon Smash which elicited a thunderous roar from the audience. Laura too was absolutely ecstatic and in the privacy offered by the recess she threw her fists in the air and a long, primal shout erupted from her throat. Despite Super Star, who had gotten back on his feet with some difficulty, somehow managing to parry the string of uppercuts coming from Sean, she never doubted her brother's odds of winning that match. When the former kick boxer's new assault, a powerful and potentially dangerous cross fist to the face of her brother, completely missed the mark thanks to a very timely Zenten evading move, Laura was sure that the match was nearing its final phase. With his left side completely open, Joe fell prey to a pretty nasty Tornado which sent him to the ground for the fourth time.

While Joe was having some trouble getting up again, the camera focused on Sean's upper body while he was slowly circling his opponent. In that moment, Laura knew with absolute certainty what was going to come. Judging from the sweat covering his brow and by the way he was gritting his teeth, it was clear that he was collecting his ki to perform one of his most powerful moves as soon as his adversary managed to get up. It would have been an almost flawless victory and it was clear that Sean believed in that outcome probably more than he had ever believed in anything else. The crowd too seemed to notice that the final attack of the match was coming and everybody was going absolutely mental and singing a very disorganized chant that sounded like 'Kill, Sean, kill' to Laura.

Super Star finally managed to lift himself from the ground, having previously rolled for quite a bit on the mat until he, perhaps accidentally, found himself almost at Sean's feet. The latter, on his part, went into the stance that preceded a Shoryuu Cannon, the devastating finishing move he had learned during his time in the United States as Ken Masters' pupil. The same Ken Masters who was undoubtedly a member of the audience in that very moment. Despite the-- unfortunate circumstances of their parting, Laura wasn't surprised that her brother had chosen that move in particular to end that fight. He may have stated time and time again in the previous six months that it was sadly true that a person should never meet his own heroes, but she knew that deep inside, all he had ever wanted was to make his teacher proud of him and that he hadn't let that desire go yet. Joe was now on his left knee, keeping his balance with his right hand while he had the other leg outstretched and his other hand massaging his ribs. All was ready for Sean to finish him. Laura's heart felt like it could have jumped out of her chest because of how fast it was beating--

And then tragedy struck.

Joe getting so close to her brother before getting up was no accident. Using his left knee as the fulcrum, Super Star performed a quick circular motion which ended with Sean receiving the father of all leg sweeps and finding himself almost suspended in the air for a split second. And that was still enough time for Joe to break his rotation, getting back on his feet like a spring and hit his opponent mid-air with an absolutely vicious elbow to the solar plexus, turning his fall into a veritable slam. Laura was flabbergasted. After a sixteen-year career in martial arts, after challenging the best of the best, after three weeks on the space station of the Illuminati watching legit monsters like Juri Han, Garuda, M. Bison, Akuma and others performing feats of strength and power that were befitting of demigods rather than humans, she honestly thought that nothing happening on a ring could surprise her anymore. She was wrong. And most unfortunately, Sean had been on the receiving end of that attack, right when he was clearly thinking that victory was at hand.

The thunderous noise from the bleachers became nothing more than a background buzz. The outlines of the space surrounding her became fuzzy. Time itself seemed to slow down. Joe's comeback had changed everything and the shock had caused Laura's perceptions to shrink. Her brain could only process the images appearing on the wide LCD monitor in front of her and the disaster they gradually spelt for her brother.

Sean slowly getting up while visibly in pain and still trying to regain control of his breath.

A wheel kick that missed the intended target of at least one meter.

A roundhouse kick that annihilated any kind of momentum her brother had left.

A savage right hook to lay him flat.

The worst attempt at a Dragon Smash she had ever seen him perform, almost effortlessly blocked by a well-timed fist to the mid-section.

A series of gut punches, all of them reaching their intended target on the wrong side of Sean's totally ineffective guard.

A second roundhouse kick to deck Sean again.

In that moment, Laura knew-- she just knew that Joe's next strike would have been the last. Bringing her hands together right in front of her mouth, she could only stare at the TV screen while the final act of that tragedy happened, every frame seemingly lasting a whole minute, just so that she could bask in her utter powerlessness even more.

When-- almost one week after kissing the canvas, according to Laura's perception of time in those moments-- Sean finally regained his standing. The young fighter who had started his last match in the tournament with the fury of a typhoon in the hope of making everyone forget all his past humiliations had vanished. No composure in his posture. No trace of any remaining determination in his body language. Tears flowing down aplenty from his bruised left eye. Even Super Star Joe seemed to be unsure about the way he wanted to end this match. A very convenient opening for someone in the condition of exploiting it. In other words, anyone but Sean. Joe eventually made up his mind and struck.

Laura had no previous knowledge of Joe's fighting style before seeing him in action for the first time at the Tournament and the pressure of studying the moves and weaknesses of her own opponents had monopolized her attention. The only thing that had left her a lasting impression was the spinning back kick he had seen him using against Cammy during their match. Not a particularly impressive move, but the way the MI6 operative had suffered the blow implied that Joe knew how to perform that move in a way that could potentially win him the match, in the right conditions. And conditions could have never gotten righter than in that moment.

Super Star's heel came into contact with Sean's left temple with the force of a sledgehammer.

The close-up shot of the action made Laura party to all the gruesome details of the action. The gob of blood and saliva coming out of her brother's mouth like a liquid bullet. His right eye, the one still open, creepily rolling back. The way Sean's limbs suddenly didn't look under the control of his brain, leaving him to collapse to the mat like a roll of wet rope.

If that had been a nightmare, that would have been the perfect moment to wake up screaming. Unfortunately, it was all awfully, awfully real. Her heart skipped a beat. Then a second one. Then the next thing she knew was the contrast between the semi-darkness of the right tunnel and the strong artificial lights of the arena, which almost blinded her while she was running out of the right tunnel towards the center of the amphitheater as fast as she could, whey-faced and shouting incoherent invocations.

"SEAN!! SEAN!!! Oh, God, please! No! NO!!!"

She passed a growing crowd of fellow fighters and Society members who was swarming from the bleachers to the fighting ground to celebrate Joe's victory. One that meant jack squat for the continuation of the Tournament, coming after a moment where the crowd had turned against their idol but that still somehow had everyone in high spirits. Speeding past Dee Jay and Eagle, who had lifted the winner on their shoulders, despite being consumed by fear and concern for her brother, Laura couldn't help but hearing the blond wrestler, his voice broken by emotion, shouting at the top of his lungs "MIKE! BROTHER! THIS ONE IS FOR YOU!" From a little corner of her consciousness, Laura could hear the feeblest of voices talking to her. Brother. He's dedicating his victory to his brother. So it's true that everyone is the hero of their story. She tried ignoring it but she just couldn't.

After what seemed like an eternity, she finally reached Sean's motionless body. Mentally cursing the paramedics for their slowness in such a critical moment, she fell on her knees and moved him as gently as possible so that he was lying on his back rather than in a messy heap of limbs. She brought a hand in front of his lower face. He was breathing. Laura quietly thanked the Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary and all the Saints in Heaven. Then, before she could do anything else, Sean opened his eyes-- or better, opened the one which wasn't rapidly swelling up and moved his lips, as if he was trying to talk to her. It took to him a few seconds before he could formulate any coherent sounds.

"Wh-wh-wh..."

"Yes?" she asked, getting her ear closer to his mouth. She probably should have told him that talking could have been too much effort for a person in his conditions, but she was just too overjoyed to hear his voice again.

"Wh-who is this beauty with hair like a night without stars? Perhaps Proserpina, wife of Pluto, descended from her ivory throne to greet this unfortunate soul after his tragic, untimely final fate?"

Oh, great! He thinks he's an ancient Roman lyric poet-- again! Laura's emotions were still in a turmoil, between the relief of seeing her brother awake, frustration at the stupid way he came back to his senses after a beat-down and her many remaining concerns about his actual medical condition. However, in the midst of that confusion, another thought had started forming-- an utterly foolish one at that, an action which she would have vehemently disapproved of in any other circumstance. But flashes of her conversation with Sean before the match ensured that the words came out of her mouth almost automatically. "Quit being a show off with your classical studies and help me getting you up! Perhaps I can still get you over with this audience."

As a matter of fact, the appearance of a tall, athletic woman in a green and gold outfit running towards the center of the arena hadn't completely passed under the radar of the crowd and, as more and more people turned their attention from the winner of the match to the loser and his unexpected nurse, the noise coming from the bleachers was undergoing a radical change.

"Laura..."

"Hey, what's up Laura?"

"Olá, bonita!"

Yeah, you got it. I'm Laura, the Hype Goddess of this tournament. Now, please, re-direct some of your adoration to my little brother here at my side and make both of us happy, willya? Now that her brother was more or less standing again, she lifted Sean's right hand in the air, like a referee would have done with a victorious contender. She knew it was dangerous, since it meant putting a lot of strain on his right arm and back due to the effort of keeping him from collapsing to the ground again simply by holding that hand, but since that was the last chance for Sean to be remembered as anything other than a joke, she had gone entirely into "make it or break it" mode. She wasn't naive enough to hope for a final thunder of applause to honor the defeated fighter, but she flashed her brightest smile and hoped for the best.

"LA-LA-LA-LA--LA-URAAAAAA!"

Oh, no...

"LA-LA-LA--LA-URAAAAAA! LA-LA-LA--LA-URAAAAAA!"

No, no, you morons! Cheer for him! Cheer for him!

"LA-LA-LA--LA-URAAAAAA! LA-LA-LA--LA-URAAAAAA! LA-LA-LA--LA-URAAAAAA! LA-LA-LAAAAAA!"

Laura's smile turned upside down. She let Sean's hand go and went back to support him by his underarms, guiding him slowly towards a sitting position. A group of first responders finally appeared in the arena, storming from the central emergency entry. "Sit down, the paramedics are coming."

"Alas, eternal will be the suffering for this foolish mortal who deluded himself with senseless hopes of walking the green pastures of the Elysian Fields! The endless darkness of Tartarus is the only abode which could ever accept this unworthy soul."

"Zip it, Sean!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TO BE CONTINUED...

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

February 16, 2017
6:13 pm
The Space Sanctuary of the Illuminati

When Laura had been informed that the live audience of the tournament, aside from the competitors who wished to attend their peers' matches, would have been made up of five thousand members of the Illuminati Society, mental images had begun gathering in her mind of her fighting in a sort of rarefied atmosphere, the sound of her hits and shouts rapidly dissipating in an ocean of stifling silence, while countless hooded figures, as immobile as statues, looked at her and judged her.

But when the fights actually started, she soon realized how wrong she had been. Excluding about two dozen security personnel with their weird triangular tasers and even weirder two-pronged headgears scattered among the crowd, the view of a sea of faces of every color and ethnicity available on Earth greeted every pair of contenders on the side of the vast elliptical amphitheater not occupied by the oversized window perennially oriented towards Earth, 1600 km down, a collection of people who had managed to be the protagonists of the World Tournament almost as much as the actual contenders. Laura might have performed in front of some pretty loud spectators in her ten-year career as a professional fighter, but the ones in that arena were something else entirely. Despite being little more than five thousand, the amount of noise they produced would have made anyone believe that they were at least four times that number and at every turn they were ready to express their disposition at pretty much any action of the performers, be it admiration, indignation, surprise, empathy or derision. The public was 100% behind every match of the schedule, whether it featured two life-long rivals or two strangers sharing the same ring for the first time. So much participation inevitably spilled on the floor of the arena, with the result that several matches had been affected by the audience being lined up behind this or that fighter.

Unfortunately for her brother, the incessant chorus coming from all over the bleachers, perfectly audible from the recess of the right tunnel, didn't augur well for her brother's chances in his upcoming match at all.

"JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE!"

"Well-- at least the audience is still hot. That's not a given when you're last on the card." She said that mostly to break the eerily silent atmosphere of the tunnel recess, but she knew that it was a very poor way to build up his courage.

He had spent the last minute walking around in circles, after desperately trying to feign indifference at the crowd's sympathies and failing horribly. "I don't get it-- why him? Why??"

"He's the only other fighter left in your round, right? And this is your last match, isn't it?" But she immediately regretted those words. Trying to ignore the real issue was possibly the worst way to deal with Sean when he was like that.

"No, no--" He stopped pacing the small space and faced her, gaze downwards, his left hand touching his cheek with the thumb and his forehead with the other fingers. A clear sign of distress. "I mean: why does he get the whole audience to chant his name if he's at zero victories like me?"

"JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE!"

"Huuh-- because crowds like single-syllable chants? I mean, I heard that that's how it works in pro-wrestling."

"Yeah, as if! I first heard this chant during his second match and it's only grown since then. Why didn't they start repeating my name in rhythm too? It's also one syllable long! Why him and not me? What's the difference? Zero victories! As many as I have." The theme song of the other fighter with zero victories in that match started to fill the arena, its low notes reverberating throughout the whole structure. The crowd reached a state of quasi-frenzy.

"Ok, I see your point. Perhaps it's just because his losses were more--" Recollections began crowding Laura's mind. Decapre going against her usual glacial attitude and slapping her brother's right butt cheek on her way to the changing room, after the curb-stomp he had been inflicted had left him lying on the ground with his behind up in the air and with a serious wardrobe malfunction in the aforementioned sensitive point. Kairi dodging every single attack of his for three straight minutes and then annihilating him swiftly, as if he was performing a mercy kill. Cammy finishing him off with a single Cross Stinger Assault and closing the match in 17 seconds. «Dignified» would have been the correct word in general, but also the wrong one in that particular situation. She opted to rephrase herself.

"Look, I was also cheering for him while he was facing that Kairi monster, on his knees, his face and chest covered in blood and still yelling at his opponent to draw out his best shot if he wanted him to go down and stay there. That's the kind of things that gets an audience behind you." While she was talking, the image on the TV screen changed. The bird's eye shot of the audience changed into a close-up of the amphitheater's left entrance, barely visible due to the artificial smoke. The silhouette of a bare-chested man started becoming more and more visible, highlighted by two spotlights, one red and one blue, converging on him without mingling. Super Star Joe finally came out of the smoke and marched towards the ring in his usual quick, resolute style. He may have not been one of the monsters taking part in that tournament, but he sure knew how to look intimidating even with simple things like the way he approached the fighting ground.

"JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE! JOE!"

"Sooooo, are you suggesting that I should fall on my knees in front of Joe and invite him to beat me to a bloody pulp to gain the respect of the public?" If anyone else had dared to try to play dumb with her in a moment of mounting nervous tension, Laura's first reaction would have been an attempt at beating her previous record of twelve Thunder Claps discharged in a single opponent's torso before the effects of an out-of-control rectum became manifest. But almost eighteen years of family life had taught her that repeated attempts at pretending not to understand were a normal reaction on her brother's part when he was trying to cope with a highly stressful situation. So she took no notice. Instead she grasped his head, with the palms of her hands pressed on his cheeks, and gave him a good shake-- the sisterly way.

"Listen, go out there, focus on your opponent and give everything you've got! You'll never conquer their hearts if you don't show them how big yours is and no fighter who was more interested in the crowd's reactions than in the fight itself has ever gone far."

"Oh-- O'ay, shish. Ah'll thow hem whoh ah'm ca'a'hole of. Buh plea'phe--"

"What?"

"Cou'hh 'oo le'h mah fay'phe go?"

"Oh, yeah, right. Sorry."

The low notes of Joe's ominous entry music had stopped reverberating in the air a few seconds before. It wouldn't have taken long for Sean's theme to start and it was time for him to prepare for his entrance. There were so many more things she would have liked to tell him before they had to split up, but condensing them in few, highly-motivating words would have been a hopeless effort for anybody, even with an uncanny predisposition to keeping things brief which she definitely didn't have. Then the loudspeakers started playing a peppy rhythm and it became clear that it wasn't time for words anymore. She put a hand on her brother's shoulder and looked each other in the eyes one last time. Whatever happens out there, I'll never stop being at your side. The corners of his mouth moved a bit towards his ears. He closed his eyes, gave her a little nod and went on his way to the gate. Before he had taken two steps towards the area that was being filled with artificial smoke, she let a "May Jesus be at your side, Sean" slip by. His answer consisted of barely intelligible mumbling that sounded suspiciously like 'yeah, hoping I don't need the Lazarus treatment'.

Her brother by then completely enveloped by smoke, Laura noticed that people in the bleachers had started making noise again. And they were leaving no room for doubt about who was their favorite in the oncoming fight. Not to mention disproving her theory that they just liked one-syllable chants.

"JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU! JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU!"

Crossing her arms on her chest, she turned to the ultra-flat, 60'' monitor mounted on one of the shorter sides of the rectangular recess, the one closer to the perimeter of the amphitheater.

She saw him doing his entrance while performing the usual taunt as his theme transitioned from percussions to woodwinds.

"JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU! JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU!"

He quickly reached the slightly-raised platform where his opponent was waiting.

"JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU! JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU!"

He raised his arms and let out what he clearly thought was a very intimidating yell once Colleen finished announcing his name, origin and weight.

"JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU! JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU!"

Note to self: next time, fewer pep-talks and more earplugs.

"JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU! JOE'S GONNA KILL--"

The crowd's chant was abruptly -- and mercifully -- ended by Sean's furious attack.

Most matches of the tournament had begun with a studying phase of varying length, the two opponents testing each other's strength, reflexes and potential gaps in their guards. The better knowledge of the opponent because of previous fights, the shorter it took to get to the actual action. Sean, on the other hand, had decided to take his adversary by surprise by throwing himself to the kick boxer-turned-wrestler like a cannonball immediately after the bell sound signaling the match's beginning.

As the expert fighter he most assuredly was, Joe had never diverted his gaze from Sean ever since he had appeared amid the smoke of the entranceway. Despite that, Laura had no doubts that being on the receiving end of a Ryuubi Kyaku in the first second of the match wasn't quite what Super Star was expecting from an opponent he had never faced before.

The first few seconds of the match saw her brother in complete control, with Joe being hit by a quick uppercut before he could even reorganize his thoughts and raise his guard. Sean then put some distance between himself and the fighter in red and blue pants for another aggressive move. A perfectly executed Sean Tackle, highlighted by her brother's traditional-- though even more high-pitched than usual-- battle cry, finally managed to make Joe lose his balance and the following double-arm sledge to the mid-section actually took him down for good.

But if one lesson could be learned by the match he had had with Kairi, Joe had some very useful qualities as fighter and being able to take a lot of punishment was definitely among them. Had she been on the ring, she could have probably heard the sound of Super Star's teeth gritting while he got back to his feet with a very choreographic kip-up. In the safety offered by the recess in the right tunnel, Laura was genuinely impressed by Joe's lightning-fast recovery time and she wondered for a split second how she would have fared in a fight against him. Sean, on the other hand, was focusing on a match far removed from the realm of hypothesis and he immediately went on the attack with a second Ryuubi Kyaku. Unfortunately for her brother, three fights against three different adversaries had shown how hard it was to take Joe by surprise twice with the same move and that time he knew very well how to react to the patented wheel kick, which was easily parried.

Now, it was Joe's time to go on the assault, though he was clearly unsure about the best way to approach Sean's furious assaults. He first explored his opponent's defense with a series of quick jabs, which were all intercepted by her brother's guard while the two fighters did the typical circular dance in the middle of the ring, the space between them shortening and lengthening every few steps. When the distance between them was maximum, Sean went on the attack. At first it looked like he was going for a third Ryuubi and Joe raised his guard as high as he could to counter that, just like he had already done. Laura on the other hand could recognize when her brother was going for a feint and knew perfectly that now he was leaving quite a big window of opportunity to his adversary. With a U-turn on the spot, her brother went for a second Sean Tackle. It was the improved version of his trademark move, the one that never failed to thrill her, ever since she had seen him perform it for the first time in front of an audience at the Regional Tournament in 2011. As soon as he made contact with Joe, he grabbed him by his sides and tackled him to the ground with a somersault movement, placing himself in a perfect position for a double punch to the upper section before jumping away. Super Star's recovery was again quite short, though he didn't show off with a kip-up this time.

Laura's excitement had been steadily growing since her brother's lightning attack at the very beginning of the fight and the noise coming from the crowd seemed to indicate that Sean's performance so far had taken by surprise the attendees in a good way. Clenching her fists in front of her chest, she let herself get carried away by that most powerful and ancestral emotion: agonistic support. Come on, Sean, you've got this one!

Joe's attacks also started to get quicker and stronger, first releasing a flurry of lateral kicks alternating between both of his legs, which her brother mostly parried, while the ones he couldn't block didn't seem to affect him that much. Unfortunately, he had lowered his guard in the process and his opponent took advantage of that distraction to hit him with a powerful left hook to the cheek. No, no! Don't leave him openings! He's dangerous with all four of his extremities!

Probably supported by the adrenaline rush, Sean stood fast on his two feet and Joe, visibly surprised by his opponent's lack of a reaction following his last blow, ended up being on the receiving end of an amazing Dragon Smash which elicited a thunderous roar from the audience. Laura too was absolutely ecstatic and in the privacy offered by the recess she threw her fists in the air and a long, primal shout erupted from her throat. Despite Super Star, who had gotten back on his feet with some difficulty, somehow managing to parry the string of uppercuts coming from Sean, she never doubted her brother's odds of winning that match. When the former kick boxer's new assault, a powerful and potentially dangerous cross fist to the face of her brother, completely missed the mark thanks to a very timely Zenten evading move, Laura was sure that the match was nearing its final phase. With his left side completely open, Joe fell prey to a pretty nasty Tornado which sent him to the ground for the fourth time.

While Joe was having some trouble getting up again, the camera focused on Sean's upper body while he was slowly circling his opponent. In that moment, Laura knew with absolute certainty what was going to come. Judging from the sweat covering his brow and by the way he was gritting his teeth, it was clear that he was collecting his ki to perform one of his most powerful moves as soon as his adversary managed to get up. It would have been an almost flawless victory and it was clear that Sean believed in that outcome probably more than he had ever believed in anything else. The crowd too seemed to notice that the final attack of the match was coming and everybody was going absolutely mental and singing a very disorganized chant that sounded like 'Kill, Sean, kill' to Laura.

Super Star finally managed to lift himself from the ground, having previously rolled for quite a bit on the mat until he, perhaps accidentally, found himself almost at Sean's feet. The latter, on his part, went into the stance that preceded a Shoryuu Cannon, the devastating finishing move he had learned during his time in the United States as Ken Masters' pupil. The same Ken Masters who was undoubtedly a member of the audience in that very moment. Despite the-- unfortunate circumstances of their parting, Laura wasn't surprised that her brother had chosen that move in particular to end that fight. He may have stated time and time again in the previous six months that it was sadly true that a person should never meet his own heroes, but she knew that deep inside, all he had ever wanted was to make his teacher proud of him and that he hadn't let that desire go yet. Joe was now on his left knee, keeping his balance with his right hand while he had the other leg outstretched and his other hand massaging his ribs. All was ready for Sean to finish him. Laura's heart felt like it could have jumped out of her chest because of how fast it was beating--

And then tragedy struck.

Joe getting so close to her brother before getting up was no accident. Using his left knee as the fulcrum, Super Star performed a quick circular motion which ended with Sean receiving the father of all leg sweeps and finding himself almost suspended in the air for a split second. And that was still enough time for Joe to break his rotation, getting back on his feet like a spring and hit his opponent mid-air with an absolutely vicious elbow to the solar plexus, turning his fall into a veritable slam. Laura was flabbergasted. After a sixteen-year career in martial arts, after challenging the best of the best, after three weeks on the space station of the Illuminati watching legit monsters like Juri Han, Garuda, M. Bison, Akuma and others performing feats of strength and power that were befitting of demigods rather than humans, she honestly thought that nothing happening on a ring could surprise her anymore. She was wrong. And most unfortunately, Sean had been on the receiving end of that attack, right when he was clearly thinking that victory was at hand.

The thunderous noise from the bleachers became nothing more than a background buzz. The outlines of the space surrounding her became fuzzy. Time itself seemed to slow down. Joe's comeback had changed everything and the shock had caused Laura's perceptions to shrink. Her brain could only process the images appearing on the wide LCD monitor in front of her and the disaster they gradually spelt for her brother.

Sean slowly getting up while visibly in pain and still trying to regain control of his breath.

A wheel kick that missed the intended target of at least one meter.

A roundhouse kick that annihilated any kind of momentum her brother had left.

A savage right hook to lay him flat.

The worst attempt at a Dragon Smash she had ever seen him perform, almost effortlessly blocked by a well-timed fist to the mid-section.

A series of gut punches, all of them reaching their intended target on the wrong side of Sean's totally ineffective guard.

A second roundhouse kick to deck Sean again.

In that moment, Laura knew-- she just knew that Joe's next strike would have been the last. Bringing her hands together right in front of her mouth, she could only stare at the TV screen while the final act of that tragedy happened, every frame seemingly lasting a whole minute, just so that she could bask in her utter powerlessness even more.

When-- almost one week after kissing the canvas, according to Laura's perception of time in those moments-- Sean finally regained his standing. The young fighter who had started his last match in the tournament with the fury of a typhoon in the hope of making everyone forget all his past humiliations had vanished. No composure in his posture. No trace of any remaining determination in his body language. Tears flowing down aplenty from his bruised left eye. Even Super Star Joe seemed to be unsure about the way he wanted to end this match. A very convenient opening for someone in the condition of exploiting it. In other words, anyone but Sean. Joe eventually made up his mind and struck.

Laura had no previous knowledge of Joe's fighting style before seeing him in action for the first time at the Tournament and the pressure of studying the moves and weaknesses of her own opponents had monopolized her attention. The only thing that had left her a lasting impression was the spinning back kick he had seen him using against Cammy during their match. Not a particularly impressive move, but the way the MI6 operative had suffered the blow implied that Joe knew how to perform that move in a way that could potentially win him the match, in the right conditions. And conditions could have never gotten righter than in that moment.

Super Star's heel came into contact with Sean's left temple with the force of a sledgehammer.

The close-up shot of the action made Laura party to all the gruesome details of the action. The gob of blood and saliva coming out of her brother's mouth like a liquid bullet. His right eye, the one still open, creepily rolling back. The way Sean's limbs suddenly didn't look under the control of his brain, leaving him to collapse to the mat like a roll of wet rope.

If that had been a nightmare, that would have been the perfect moment to wake up screaming. Unfortunately, it was all awfully, awfully real. Her heart skipped a beat. Then a second one. Then the next thing she knew was the contrast between the semi-darkness of the right tunnel and the strong artificial lights of the arena, which almost blinded her while she was running out of the right tunnel towards the center of the amphitheater as fast as she could, whey-faced and shouting incoherent invocations.

"SEAN!! SEAN!!! Oh, God, please! No! NO!!!"

She passed a growing crowd of fellow fighters and Society members who was swarming from the bleachers to the fighting ground to celebrate Joe's victory. One that meant jack squat for the continuation of the Tournament, coming after a moment where the crowd had turned against their idol but that still somehow had everyone in high spirits. Speeding past Dee Jay and Eagle, who had lifted the winner on their shoulders, despite being consumed by fear and concern for her brother, Laura couldn't help but hearing the blond wrestler, his voice broken by emotion, shouting at the top of his lungs "MIKE! BROTHER! THIS ONE IS FOR YOU!" From a little corner of her consciousness, Laura could hear the feeblest of voices talking to her. Brother. He's dedicating his victory to his brother. So it's true that everyone is the hero of their story. She tried ignoring it but she just couldn't.

After what seemed like an eternity, she finally reached Sean's motionless body. Mentally cursing the paramedics for their slowness in such a critical moment, she fell on her knees and moved him as gently as possible so that he was lying on his back rather than in a messy heap of limbs. She brought a hand in front of his lower face. He was breathing. Laura quietly thanked the Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary and all the Saints in Heaven. Then, before she could do anything else, Sean opened his eyes-- or better, opened the one which wasn't rapidly swelling up and moved his lips, as if he was trying to talk to her. It took to him a few seconds before he could formulate any coherent sounds.

"Wh-wh-wh..."

"Yes?" she asked, getting her ear closer to his mouth. She probably should have told him that talking could have been too much effort for a person in his conditions, but she was just too overjoyed to hear his voice again.

"Wh-who is this beauty with hair like a night without stars? Perhaps Proserpina, wife of Pluto, descended from her ivory throne to greet this unfortunate soul after his tragic, untimely final fate?"

Oh, great! He thinks he's an ancient Roman lyric poet-- again! Laura's emotions were still in a turmoil, between the relief of seeing her brother awake, frustration at the stupid way he came back to his senses after a beat-down and her many remaining concerns about his actual medical condition. However, in the midst of that confusion, another thought had started forming-- an utterly foolish one at that, an action which she would have vehemently disapproved of in any other circumstance. But flashes of her conversation with Sean before the match ensured that the words came out of her mouth almost automatically. "Quit being a show off with your classical studies and help me getting you up! Perhaps I can still get you over with this audience."

As a matter of fact, the appearance of a tall, athletic woman in a green and gold outfit running towards the center of the arena hadn't completely passed under the radar of the crowd and, as more and more people turned their attention from the winner of the match to the loser and his unexpected nurse, the noise coming from the bleachers was undergoing a radical change.

"Laura..."

"Hey, what's up Laura?"

"Olá, bonita!"

Yeah, you got it. I'm Laura, the Hype Goddess of this tournament. Now, please, re-direct some of your adoration to my little brother here at my side and make both of us happy, willya? Now that her brother was more or less standing again, she lifted Sean's right hand in the air, like a referee would have done with a victorious contender. She knew it was dangerous, since it meant putting a lot of strain on his right arm and back due to the effort of keeping him from collapsing to the ground again simply by holding that hand, but since that was the last chance for Sean to be remembered as anything other than a joke, she had gone entirely into "make it or break it" mode. She wasn't naive enough to hope for a final thunder of applause to honor the defeated fighter, but she flashed her brightest smile and hoped for the best.

"LA-LA-LA-LA--LA-URAAAAAA!"

Oh, no...

"LA-LA-LA--LA-URAAAAAA! LA-LA-LA--LA-URAAAAAA!"

No, no, you morons! Cheer for him! Cheer for him!

"LA-LA-LA--LA-URAAAAAA! LA-LA-LA--LA-URAAAAAA! LA-LA-LA--LA-URAAAAAA! LA-LA-LAAAAAA!"

Laura's smile turned upside down. She let Sean's hand go and went back to support him by his underarms, guiding him slowly towards a sitting position. A group of first responders finally appeared in the arena, storming from the central emergency entry. "Sit down, the paramedics are coming."

"Alas, eternal will be the suffering for this foolish mortal who deluded himself with senseless hopes of walking the green pastures of the Elysian Fields! The endless darkness of Tartarus is the only abode which could ever accept this unworthy soul."

"Zip it, Sean!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TO BE CONTINUED...