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The fog of battle fury was before him now.

Cranking the deadly submission holds as soon as they were locked in, KnightMask snapped, tore and twisted apart the cybernetic limbs of Xanatos' winged android soldiers. A German suplex dashed open a robot skull on the hard asphalt. One robot locked its steely arms about KnightMask's waist, only for the convulsive wrench of a Kimura to rip the artificial arm off at the socket.

All the while, Natalia hung from the roof by chained wrists. The site of her in such a state stoked within him a fury that burned away his capacity for reason. There was no consideration of whether or not she was was part of the conspiracy that had taken him to the lot behind the Xanatos Corp, where the android warriors he now battled had fallen upon him.

In those moments, he was simply a barbarian warrior, his rage made no less primitive and savage by the fact that it was vented through an array of refined techniques. And his submission expertise not been so ingrained to his being, he would have been gouging and biting and the robots as they swarmed about him.

Gone from him were thoughts of transcendence in battle. Fled from psyche were pretensions to chivalry and honor. So long as her eyes were on him, his driving desire was that all who stood before him be destroyed. While she watched, none could be his rival.

Springing into a backward roll, he twined about a steel armored leg. The winged humanoid flew into the air, with KnightMask dangling upside down on his limb. With a spasmodic jerking of his back, he snapped the leg in half with a knee-bar. He fell back down to Earth, wielding the lower half of the appendage like a makeshift club.

Chapter 2



From atop the Xanatos Corp. building, Chong Li, the hulking Chinese kumite champion, Tong Po, the savage Muay Thai king and Jason Stillwell, the legendary jeet kune do practitioner stood together in silence, watching the battle unfold from cover of the shadows. They'd come together for a common purpose...revenge against the martial artist who had made each one of them suffer.

Leroy had provided them with evidence that their tormentor was one and the same...and that he was currently operating in the XWF under the name Angelus.

Leroy had proposed a plan for replacing KnightMask with a hired assassin, who could then get rid of not only Angelus, but Sebastian Duke, leader of the Illuminati, an organization which David Xanatos, whose robot warriors even now attacked KnightMask, once figured highly in. The strategy they'd agreed to was to first let the robots wear KnightMask out...then to strike and finish off whatever was left of the wrestler.

"This KnightMask...he fights as a man possessed," observed Chong Li, as KnightMask swung his makeshift club against Xanatos's robot warriors. "Such a man would make a worthy opponent indeed. Bah! To the 18 levels of Hell with this skulking cowardice and scheming! I am a murderer...a criminal...and worse! But ourage in battle is my sole virtue...and I should guard it jealously! If I would contend with such an opponent...let it be as one warrior against another...!"

With that, Chong Li leaped from the roof, into a missile dropkick against an android's chest.

"What a fool!" hissed Tong Po. "Vengeance is the sweetest of all delicacies...to forgo it for a foolish thing like honor....is a mistake worthy of death!"

"Actually, Tong, old buddy, I gotta confession...I was never into the whole revenge thing to begin with. But I figured I'd go along with Leroy's plan for a while...just to see what he was up to...chalk it up a good Samaritan streak I've got...but now looks like as good a time as any to throw the biggest monkey wrench I can into this whole thing!"

"You little fool...do you know who I am...?"

"Yeah...a guy who, for all his skill...isn't man enough to live with defeat...or to fight his own battles!"

Po growled in anger and charged Stillwell. However, before he could reach him, a roundhouse kick to the head leveled the former Muay Thai champion. Stillwell's eyes widened in shock as he looked upon the man who had come to his defense.

"It's...you!"

"We'll talk about it later...for now...just get the girl to safety! I'll handle Tong Po!"


Chapter 3

Stepping over the mangled android bodies that decorated the lot, KnightMask staggered towards her, his body swaying atop legs gone rubbery from exhaustion. And yet he pressed on, catching his balance each time he seemed poised to collapse. The raw, violent feeling that dominated his mind pushed him on.

Closer and closer he came...over the field of beaten opponents...stubbornly resisting the fatigue that bit at his muscles. With each step, the waterfall of silken black hair, the sleek eyes and clearly defined features grew nearer to him. Verging on collapse, he could nearly touch the woman.

And though he could barely think, he began to understand. It was her. It was her along.

She stared at him with the defiance of a wild, cornered animal. Her eyes blazed with...with what...? Was it...triumph...?

He realized then that he had not been led into a trap. He burned with the need to prove himself before her. He would destroy any obstacle she lay before him...until it was finally, at last...enough. Simply by being there...she had destroyed whatever plans were laid against him.

He felt her hand on his cheek. Then she was gone.

The poets had their muses...the sea men had their sirens...and he had...her. His Morrigan...his raven-haired Valkyrie.

Epilogue:

"The woman told you not to free her?" Chong Li did not seem surprised. He shook his head, as if recalling a distant memory. "The things we do for them..."

"What do you mean...?" Jason asked, confused.

"When I joined his battle...he never noticed I was there. It was as if nothing else in the world existed for him...except for Xanatos's winged androids...and her. He kept looking to her...and every time did, his strength seemed to increase two-fold. In a way...you could say that she saved his life...looking at his fighting style...its almost completely designed for combat sports rather than street fighting. And yet...her presence seemed to infuse him with an animal ferocity...it was that which allowed him to survive against those robots as long as he did...before I joined his fight. Of course, when you two stepped in...that was also a great help."

Chong Li nodded at the stranger, whose face, build and body was the spitting image of his old enemy, Frank Dux. Not to mention, Jason's old nemesis, Ivan. A look passed between Li and the stranger. Then they clasped hands, briefly, but firmly.



"So...who are you?" asked Jason. "Are you Angelus...? Are you Frank Dux...? Ivan K--"

"Frank, Ivan, Kurt...and myself...are what you call Universal Soldiers. We were cloned from a man I believe may be Angelus's relative. We were part of a government project to engineer the perfect soldier...but one of the scientists who created us had a change of heart about the project. He ended up dropping us off at various orphanages across the world through a secret network of fellow scientists dedicated to providing normal lives for the creations of the Universal Soldier project. I've followed Angelus from the shadows...and tried to protect him where I could. Of course...he's a real flesh and blood human being...me, I'm just..."

"Wrong. You're not a clone...you're not a science experiment," interrupted Chong Li. "You're a warrior. You're a good man who defined himself with the choices he made. I'm honored to have been able to fight against Dux...and I'm humbled that tonight...I got to fight alongside you."

"Hey, what're you guys doing Wednesday...? I say we try and scare up some Warfare tickets...after all, whether or not anybody ever knows it...we just saved their main event."

"Jason...Li...I think this is the beginning...of a beautiful friendship. Or at least a butt-kicking one.."

....THE END