Author's Notes: Hey everyone. Here’s chapter eight, and then I’ll have chapter nine sometime soon too, but it may be the last one for a little while, due to the extensive work on my other fics as well, but of course I’ll write more for this! I never would have thought my biggest hit would be the stupidest thing I’ve ever written and actually put up, but I like writing this! I decided to go ahead and update this sense I already had half of it written anyway, and it doesn’t take quite as long to write as the more serious ones.
Where Did All the Guys Go?
Chapter 8 - Thus Everything is Revealed at the Sparring Match of Doom
Jin and Hwoarang now entered the Mishima Main Frame Dojo, which was one many of the fighters had often trained in. Hwoarang groaned as he took a glance to his right.
“What is it?” Jin asked.
“Just like I said, it’s those damned Jacks.”
“And those weird animals, Alex, Roger, and Gon.”
“Yeah, I hate those things.” Hwoarang cringed.
“Hey guys…”
Jin and Hwoarang then both turned around at the sound of the foreign voice, to see none other than Lei Wulong. “Oh, hey Lei,” Jin greeted, “Are you…feeling ok?”
Hwoarang then sighed at the sound of this, “Yes Jin, I don’t think it’s necessary for ya to ask every single person we see if they’re ‘feeling ok’.”
“Nah, it’s ok,” Lei replied, “I’m fine. It’s just so hot in here.” He then brushed his hand back through his raven bangs, which appeared to be slightly moist with sweat.
Jin’s ebony brows furrowed a bit. “Um, it’s not really ‘that’ hot. It’s actually a pretty cool day.”
“Whatever, well, I’m just going to go train now…” Lei shrugged before heading across the dojo.
“He really didn’t look like he was feeling too good,” stated Jin.
Hwoarang just sighed once more as he shook his head. “Just don’t worry bout’ it. Let’s just get some training stuff in before the sparring matches start.”
“…I’m still a bit curious myself as to who’s really holding this.”
“Oh well, we have to find out some time.”
Hwoarang and Jin then walked away toward the weight area, as Paul, Forest, Miharu, and Xiaoyu now entered.
“Sorry again about what happened earlier, guys.” Xiaoyu giggled.
“It’s cool,” Paul assured, “Just remember not to tell anyone about, you know,” he then lowered his voice, “That.”
“About what?”
“Oh, hi Bryan!” Xiaoyu grinned, as Paul sweatdropped before slowly turning around.
“Er, nothin’. Just talking about, uh—.”
“Random stupid stuff, like Paul always does, heh heh…” Forest quickly replied.
Bryan gave them odd looks. “Well, that does make since,” he said as he looked at Paul, “Anyway, have either of you two seen Lei yet?” Miharu and Xiaoyu then started to giggle at this remark.
Forest gestured a look to the two girls, before speaking up once more. “No, but he’s bound to be around here somewhere. This is just a pretty dang big dojo and all,” Forest declared before turning his head to cough.
“Hmm…” Bryan thought after hearing this. I wonder if...nah, I doubt it. “Oh well, I’ll just go see if I can find him around here somewhere.” Bryan shrugged before walking away, but he turned for a brief second as he swore he heard Xiaoyu whisper ‘so sweet’, before deciding he was being delirious and continuing on his way.
Paul then crossed his arms, while Forest did over the crutches, as they both smirked at Xiaoyu and Miharu.
“What…?” Miharu asked.
Forest just sighed. “Never mind…”
Lee and Kazuya had already been there for a while, and were out back behind the dojo practicing various katas. It was actually quite a beautiful dojo at that, with hardwood floors a dark shade of brown, and walls painted a soft tone of white. Out back, there was a stone-set arena, with various statues, and stairs which lead in each direction from it to the surrounding woods.
Kazuya was wearing his white gi pants, with a fluent design of yellow and orange shades at the leg, in various circular patterns. Lee was wearing tight-fitting jeans, his favourite black vest with a white unicorn on the back, and his silver-chained necklace to top it off.
“Hey Kazuya,” Lee began, “Tell me again why you—.”
“Why I burned that queer ‘Violet’ getup of yours?”
Lee paused from his katas temporarily, as he folded his arms and let out a smirk. “You don’t have to put it THAT way.”
Kazuya now halted from his own kata movements, as he turned to face Lee after rolling his eyes with a sigh. “Lee, you very well know that we’ve been over this a hundred times already. That ‘Violet’ thing, is without a doubt the worst idea you’ve ever pursued in your existence, followed by the ‘Combot’ gig.”
Lee blinked for a second. “Ok, yes, you are right there, I suppose… But still…”
“‘But still’ what? That during the time I was supposedly dead, you lost your mind and turned into a deluded version of Ricky Marin while dreaming of a world ruled by sadistic robot-humanoids?”
“Nice…” Lee sighed sarcastically.
“Yes indeed,” Kazuya replied with a hint of arrogance, “That purple-ruffled-glitter-outfit thing is definitely one of the worst costumes a Tekken competitor has ever obtained to wear, along with that skin-tight yellow bodysuit outfit of Forest’s, my son’s school uniform, and Lei’s various green and purple robed dress-attires.”
Lee then thought for a moment. “But hey, didn’t Paul, Hwoarang, and Bryan burn all of those?”
Kazuya then lowered his voice a bit after briefly glancing around, “How did you know that?”
“It was brought up at ‘the’ meeting, actually.”
“Ah.”
“Hey Lee.”
Kazuya and Lee then both turned their heads to the side to see Nina Williams, who appeared to be wearing a skin-tight, hot pink body suit, complete with knee-high white boots, and pink shades.
“Oh, hey Nina,” Lee replied with a polite smile, as Kazuya growled under his breath.
“Hello, Miss Williams,” Kazuya greeted.
Nina chuckled slightly, “Just call me Nina, Kazzy. After all, when you say ‘Miss Williams’, you could also be referring to my b*atch of a sister Anna.”
“Anna?” Kazuya squinted slightly, “But I—.”
“He hasn’t seen her yet,” Lee cut him off, as Kazuya then realized what he was about to say.
“Strange…” Nina shrugged, “Everyone thought she died at the dance last week, but they were able to somehow revive her at the hospital. I never did find out what had happened to Heihachi, though. I heard a lot of different explanations.”
“Like what?” Lee asked.
“Well, I actually heard several theories. One was how he left on a vacation, two is how he’s playing a trick on us to be an idiot, and three, well, is how he committed suicide.”
“Yea, I heard that too…” Lee replied, “But…oh well! I’m pretty apathetic toward the whole situation myself.”
Kazuya then nodded in agreement. “Me too. I hope he ‘did’ die. That old bag!”
Just then, Eddy walked up to the three wearing his black pants and purple shirt, also carrying a piece of paper in hand. It was a list of the order of matches. “Yo, have you guys seen this yet?”
Kazuya then took hold of the list and eyed it, “What?”
“What is it?” Lee and Nina simultaneously asked.
“It appears these matches are being held in ‘Tag Tournament’ form.”
“That’s why I’m over here,” Eddy replied as he turned to face Kazuya, “Cuz’ it says that you’re my partner for it.”
Kazuya shrugged, “Could have been worse I suppose.”
Eddy shot him a dirty glance. “Excuse me brotha?!”
“Well it’s true,” Kazuya smirked, “I could have been paired with one of those oversized Russian garbage cans, or the fighting log-people.”
“How about you, Lee?” Nina asked, “Who’s your partner?”
Lee then took a closer look at the list, as he sighed aloud, “…Hwoarang.”
Jin is NOT going to like this... Kazuya thought to himself as he shook his head.
Lei was meditating over by one of the dojo’s large windows, when he suddenly heard a voice disturb him.
“Lei!”
Lei jumped, as he turned his head upwards to see Miharu Hirano. “Oh, hello Miharu. Is there something I can help you with?”
“You’re with me, now.” She smiled slyly with a wink.
Lei was a little…confused. “Ex-excuse me?”
“Uh huh,” she replied, “We’re going to do some major ‘action’ together! We’re the perfect pair!” *giggle*
“…………”
“Yep, we’re gonna kick some butt in the sparring matches!”
“Ohhhh… Duh Lei!! The matches are in *cough* Tag battle format?”
Miharu nodded, “That’s what it looks like. I didn’t find out until just a second ago, though.
“O-*cough*-K.”
“…Are you feeling alright?”
Lei sighed and looked down at the floor, “Everyone’s been asking me that for the past couple days. I’m afraid I may have caught something when I when to Hong Kong earlier last week.”
Miharu suddenly backed away. “SARS…”
“Huh?” Lei arched a brow.
“Haven’t you heard? SARS is spreading all over the globe from China!”
“…Actually, I haven’t heard too much *cough* about it, but I think I may just have *cough*, the flu.”
Miharu shrugged. “If you say so… Well, let’s get to training! Er, if you’re up to it, that is…”
Lei smiled and sighed, “Of course I am. *cough*” I think...
Jin and Hwoarang were both lifting weights, when Lee Chaolan and Steve Fox suddenly stopped in front of them.
“Oh, hey Lee, hello Steve,” greeted Jin, “Did you wanna use the weights, or something?”
“Er, no, actually,” Lee replied before looking at Hwoarang, “You’re my partner.”
“Huh?!” Jin and Hwoarang questioned, “What do you mean?” Hwoarang asked.
“Haven’t you heard?” Steve asked, “The matches are in Tag battle format mates, and it says here that you’re my partner, Jin.”
“Well,” Lee began, “Come on Hwoarang, I guess we need to go train.”
Jin gave Lee a not so contented look, and then leaned forward to whisper something in his ear, “Training better be ‘all’ that you do, Lee.”
“Jin!” Lee sighed, “You know very well I wouldn’t do something like that to Ka—.” he suddenly slapped his hand over his mouth as he remembered Steve.
“What?” Steve asked, “Do something like that to ‘who’?”
“…It doesn’t matter,” Lee replied.
Hwoarang then looked at Jin, “See you later ba—er, ‘Jin’…” that was close...
Steve was just confused…
**One Hour Later**
Paul and Forest were currently walking out toward the stone-set arena, where Paul’s, as well as a few of the other’s first sparring matches were to take place.
“Uh-oh…” Paul said as he looked at the list he had just unfolded in his hand.
“What is it?” Forest asked.
“It looks like Lee and Hwoarang are partners.”
Forest started to laugh at this, “That’s funny, I wonder what Jin’s reaction to that was?!”
“And take a look at THIS,” Paul then pointed to the order of matched section, as Forest made the ‘ouch’ look.
“Really,” Paul agreed, “I wonder how it will go with them fighting against each other now…”
A thought then crossed Forest’s mind, “Paul? If I had of never gotten hurt like this, and I was fighting today, and we had to fight each other, what would you do?”
“Hmm,” Paul thought for a moment, “Well, since it’s a ‘tag’ battle, I probably would just try to let my partner fight you, so I wouldn’t have to.” Paul was now expecting one of those ‘aww’ replies.
“…You mean you wouldn’t just try to have it out?! And even after the Chinese Quest for Dominance!!! I can fight just as—.” he then stopped as he noticed several of the fighters within range staring at them oddly.
“…We’ll continue this conversation at another time, Forest,” Paul whispered.
Forest sighed, but nodded never the less as they both headed over to join the crowed of fighters which had gathered around the outside arena for one of the first matches.
Lei and Miharu were getting ready for their match to start at the moment, but Miharu still didn’t know if this was such a good idea…
“I still don’t know if this is such a good idea…”
“Grr, I said I’m FINE!!!”
*The whole crowd looks at Lei…
“…………”
“…Sorry,” said Lei, “I guess that didn’t come out right…”
Suddenly, the crowd parted to reveal the two competitors they would be fighting.
“Oh crap…” Miharu muttered, as Lei ran a hand back though his long bangs and sighed loudly, “Why…?”
It now appeared that it was none other than Ling Xiaoyu and Bryan Fury who had turned out to be their opponents…
Bryan and Xiaoyu looked just as surprised as they did…
“YEA!! Let’s see some BLOOD!!” Yoshimitsu yelled at the top of his lungs, as Lei, Bryan, Miharu, and Xiaoyu all made a weird, yet unreadable face at this comment.
Never the less, Lei went up to the center of the ring, as did Bryan, and they both bowed to each other.
“That’s odd…” said Eddy as he watched this, “I would have figured they’d be a little more rude to each other than THAT.”
And many of the fighters other than Eddy had this thought cross their minds…
Lei then looked around, and noticed the… ‘odd’ looks… “Uh, are you ready to lose?!”
“Are you ready to die?!” Bryan then sneered at him.
“HEY?!! Are we going to see some fighting or what??!” Everyone heard Armor King yell in the background.
Lei got the picture, and went ahead a launched a punch at Bryan, which didn’t exactly turn out to be too hard, even though he had intended it to be harder than it had turned out, as Bryan did however return with a rather hard punch.
“Jin,” Hwoarang whispered, “Does it look like they’re faking at all to you?”
“Actually,” Jin began, “It looks to me like Lei doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing…”
Hwoarang sighed and shook his head, “Jin, for the last time, Lei is not sick, I am not *cough* sick, and neither is Lee, Forest, or anyone else!”
“Lei, do you need to tag out?” Miharu asked with concern, it really didn’t look like Lei was feeling too well, and it was showing…
“Yea Lei,” Bryan rudely replied, “Do you need to have a ‘little girl’ do all of the fighting for you? You’re attacks are so weak right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if hers were better.”
This comment had angered Lei, though rather than launching one of his many attacks on Bryan, he instead slapped him right across the face.
“Is that one of Lei’s attacks?” Kazuya asked Lee.
“Hmm, could be,” Lee shrugged, “He has so damn many of them, that I really wouldn’t be surprised.”
“Weird attack…”
Bryan now didn’t look too happy either, especially after hearing the rather large amount of laughter he had received at this incident. He never was too good at containing his anger, as he then punched Lei pretty hard right in the chest, to send him flying clear across the stoned floor… It wasn’t quite as hard as Bryan could have punched him, but he was still pretty pissed.
Miharu went ahead and took this as her queue to go ahead and start fighting, as Xiaoyu now had a pretty concerned look on her own face.
“Um, was that supposed to happen…?” Jin asked Hwoarang.
“I don’t know, but that was pretty harsh…”
“Well, it doesn’t look like Lei has…moved…in a little while…”
Hwoarang cringed slightly, “…Well…”
“And don’t you even try telling me not to say ‘is he feeling ok’, because it’s obvious he’s not!”
Damn, I hate it when I’m wrong, and even more when I’m wrong and he’s right!!!
Jin and Hwoarang weren’t too far away from where Lei had apparently landed, so they both went ahead and stepped past the boundary line to take a look at where Lei had fallen.
“Er, Lei?” Jin asked as he knelt down, “Are you alright?”
(No answer)
Julia had obviously seen this incident too, as she now came over to join Jin and Hwoarang. “What’s going on?”
“Well, you’re supposed to be a nurse now,” Hwoarang shrugged, “Maybe you can see.”
“Hmm, or dear…”
“What is it?” Jin asked.
“Well,” Julia began, “His breathing definitely is irregular… it looks like he IS having trouble breathing period, I think he needs to get to a hospital ASAP.”
By this time, a bunch of the fighters had gathered around this corner of the arena where Julia, Hwoarang, and Jin were kneeling.
“What’s going on here, Hwoarang?” Baek asked.
“Oh my!” Michelle then suddenly came into view, “He-he’s not DEAD is he??!!”
(The fight stops and everyone looks at Michelle)
“…Well IS he dead…?”
Bryan suddenly ran through the crowed, nearly knocking them all right over as he did.
“What’s going on here?!”
“Lei died,” Eddy shrugged.
“…………”
“That is NOT true,” Julia sighed loudly.
Miharu then ran over with Xiaoyu, as Miharu swiftly shook her head, “I told him not to fight… I think he really DOES have SARS…”
Bryan then went and knelt down next to Lei, “Lei, wake up this is NOT funny!!”
“…I don’t think there is any way this could be a joke, Bryan,” Jin replied.
“That’s it, I’m calling an ambulance,” Julia declared, “And if Miharu’s hunch is right, then everyone’s going to have to be quarantined…”
“Lei…?” Bryan then touched the side of Lei’s face with the palm of his hand, “He’s on fire…”
“Yep,” Julia replied, “He’s got SARS…”
“It does make sense,” said Miharu, “He did go to Hong Kong last week…”
Jin suddenly looked at Hwoarang in shock, as he did the same.
“Oh my god…” Hwoarang muttered, “THEN THAT MEANS WE’VE GOT IT NOW TOO!!!” he exclaimed as Kazuya now looked at Lee in shock, as Paul did the same to Forest.
“Yes,” Julia spoke up once more as she then looked at Bryan, “And that punch you gave Lei didn’t exactly help his current lung condition too much…”
Bryan suddenly raised Lei off the ground slightly, hugging him tight to his body, “Lei, why did you have to lie to me…? Now look what I’ve done… What have I done…?” he then ran his hand back though Lei’s raven bangs as he kissed the side of his face…
(~LOUD Record Scratch~)
(Cricket Sound…)
(Everyone is in shock, and no one says anything.)
Bryan then glared around at everyone, and gave a special series of glares to Jin, Hwoarang, Kazuya, Lee, Paul, and Forest especially…
“I DON’T CARE ANYMORE!! I don’t give a damn what the hell you any of you think!! And besides, exactly how many of YOU can say you’re all straight??!!”
“Hmm…”
*Hwoarang and Jin look at each other*
*Kazuya and Lee look at each other*
*Paul and Forest look at each other*
*Miharu and Xiaoyu look at each other*
*Jun and Michelle look at each other*
*Eddy and Tiger look at each other*
*Julia and Christie look at each other*
*King and Armor King look at each other*
*Alex and Gon look at each other*
*Mokujin and Tetsujin look at each other*
*Ganryu and—(No one wants to know)*
*And all of the other fighters just look deep in thought…*
“That’s what I thought!!” Bryan shouted.
“……err…” Julia began, “To the hospital!! Uh, again…”
A/N: Yes, I know, that was pretty weird… Oh well… Well, er, yea…