Miranda J'hana has been defeated, and the world seems to have returned to normal.
Click the above link to read more.
Orochi Resurrection: The NESTS Alpamayo Base
Shermie and Yashiro are returned to life. Iori rescues Kyo. Goenitz is killed again. A man named Zero is met. The Doctor appears to have been killed (by an unknown gunship). Iori and Kyo ride off with an unknown helmeted getaway driver.
Later, Chris parties with a girl named Ingrid in Brazil.
A Callowind at the Graveyard
Gerald Callowind promises to reveal Blackhawk's next plan after his plan to harvest psychic zombie brains is foiled.
(or How I learned to stop worrying and love an Intelligence of 6)
Doki Doki Dash! Chase the Killer Doll!
Two men (Roland and Astolpho) try to unbrainwash one of Bison's killer Dolls, and it takes the party to save them from getting beaten down by the Shadoloo rescue squad.
Roy confronts Rugal over discoveries at the NESTS base. Gloria also visited Rugal for some reason.
A new drug called Elixir begins circulating. Alexi and Barahime discover it funnels a person's Chi to Mir Granka.
Thunderfoot Assault
Bison sends Blackhawk to claim the Thunderfoot artifact he himself failed to get years ago. However, Bison himself appears after Blackhawk fails. Charlie, Nash, Roland, and Xing Long Higgins give assistance to the side of good. Little Eagle and Juni (Juli?) are changed from Dolls into normal girls through the power of Roland's "sword", Durendal. Bison flees, carrying some of his defeated minions with him.
While Bison recognizes Roland as "that child," Xing Long Higgins reveals himself to be Dan Higgins and Ling Ling's son all grown up, having come from the future.
Unknown forces destroy Shadoloo's Elixir distribution capability for Japan. Three large cargo ships are wiped out in the harbor. Hundreds working for the drug cartel are killed.
Charlie Nash makes a startling revelation regarding some information previously obtained. However, he is killed before he can share his discoveries.
Himelayas - Sasquatch
Leanne Valis's forces are defeated, and the yeti Darkstalker is freed. The Shadoloo people are sent to the local prison. That night, the entire police station is massacred, and the bodies are put on morbid display. All prisoners are missing.
Cobra Commander
A rogue agent steals a special cobra-themed suit of armor from the US Military. He is apprehended along with one of Bison's killer dolls although a monkey and a robot had to be fought to capture them.
White God of Death
Julian Sark is pulled out of prison to help apprehend the man who led him down his path of villainy. The players permit Sark to slink off to freedom as he did not betray them, and perhaps, even showed a bit of valor.
Betrayal in China: Hisen-Ko
Leanne leads a force to China to recover a Darkstalker (Lei-Lei). To make her escape with the prize, she has one of her hired mercenaries impaled (Riko), relying on the good nature of the heroes to save that life rather than pursue her.
Click the above link to read more.
Legend of Sleepy Hollow
It is September 1998.
The heroes have a very uncomfortable hibachi dinner . . . they are seated at a table with the most major surviving member of each of their past most major battles. A cosmic coincidence? Perhaps, one last chance to look back.
Lillith leads the group to Tarry Town, New York to prevent the release and capture of one of three remaining Darstalkers, the Headless Horseman. Leanne Valis again leads Shadoloo forces (including Galifrey Blood, younger brother of Wolfgang's Krauser's lieutenant). One of those being led by her, Ryofu Housen, stabs her through the heart and leaves her for dead, thinking the debt has been repaid for Leanne's betrayal of those in Ryofu's employ, namely Riko, whom Leanne had impaled in the mission to China. Not dead despite a bisected heart, Leanne tells the heroes that she cannot die while her master still wills her to live and relates to them her sad tale during this rare moment where she is between true life and true death. During this time, Tres cannot sense certain things and she can speak freely.
However, the Headless Horseman is nowhere to be found. Leanne will reveal that she doesn't believe Tres now has it. A third party must be in possession of it.
Click the above link to read more.
Destination: Spain - Susan's Trap
Susan Castle arranges for the heroes to be in the same location as her teacher by providing an anonymous tip.
At Domina Vasquez's (Susan's teacher) performance, Susan recognizes shouts at a warning and attacks the heroes, starting a fight. Vega appears and finishes the fight, taking all hostage.
Back at Vega's villa, Vega and Susan hold both the heroes, Domina Vasquez, and Kai Bertami prisoners. Vega declares his intention to kill Kai and torment Kai's woman (Domina) and the heroes one-by-one. After Kai is out of the way, Shadoloo will move in to crush the Sicilian mafia run by Karina "The Orchid of Crime" Bertami.
The heroes manage to escape Vega's ingeniuos trap with tricks of their own, and one hero, Wu, now carries scars from having survived his cage match with Vega. Kai and Domina thank the group for teaming with them against Vega, and tell them it will be an honor to have them as either friends or enemies in the future.
Destination: Cardiff - The Bullet of Makai
After a Thanksgiving party, the heroes follow Lilith's lead to an artifact shop in Cardiff.
The heroes manage to obtain the second to last imprisoned Darkstalker after a fierce battle with Balrog, Potemkin, Sondra the Tiger's Daughter, and Galifrey Blood. This Darkstalker was the werewolf (John Talbain), one of the four most powerful of the Darkstalkers.
Meanwhile down the street, M. Bison, Sagat, and Dee Jay captured Ryu and Ken. During which, M. Bison unleashed his new Shin Psycho Sphere on the entirety of Henchmen, Inc., defeating them in a single attack. Needless to say, Kromm Steinberg and his team are quite embarrassed.
Back on Mir Granka, Ryu and Ken succumb to their own Psycho Drives. This unleashes Ryu's Satsui no Hadou.
Having switched Talbain's crystal with a fake, the party sends it to Maxwell Hart for safekeeping.Meanwhile when the fake cracks under Tres's examination, the responsible villains turn pale. Crumbling the remains in his hand, Tres turns to the most boastful of them, Galifrey Blood, and says, "Don't worry. This sort of thing happens. I'm not the sort to hold grudges."
Prelude to Next Session
There are twenty beings of S-Class Darkstalker status on Earth. Six have been free from the start, some of them new lives in old roles. However, only one has yet to be found . . .
*
Lilith pulls back her left hand and looks at it, blinking. Around her wrist and secured by thin chains looping between her fingers, a red
gem gleams in a star-like setting.
With the voice of a pure gentleman, the man tells her, "Use it to light your darkest hour."
Lilith's lips slowly but surely pull into a smirk. She stares intently at the gem with this grin on her face. It
is a grin that, had the gem been alive, would have made it tremble.
The End of the NWO
M. Bison demands that the NWO succeed on their next mission or there will be dire consequences.
Barahime's band goes national, making the American Top 40. She's schedule to appear on MTV's Total Request Live.
The heroes defeat the NWO who attempt to lay siege to an old monastery.
M. Bison mails the heads of the NWO to the heroes afterwards, except for the immortal Testament - undying ancient ninja bound to Bison's whims - who is ordered to murder and destroy everyone and everything from his personal life (specifically the employees and girls at the "gentleman's club" he owned and operated).
Destination: Ireland - Truth and Catastrophes - The Right Arm of Doom
January - Outside Kagero's apartment, Roy encounters Xing Long Higgins. Xing seems pensive, saying, "The time of my departure is approaching. That fork in the road. After that, I can return to my future. I hope yours will be brighter." Roy presses for more and, and Xing relates a nursery rhyme kids recite in his timeline.
"In
the second golden age of man, the stars fall and the four dark generals arise to
rule all.
The Darkness, The Fang, The Hammer, and the Arm . . . the Right Arm of Doom."
While the players make their plans, BB Hood attempts to persuade information out of Jose; however, every attempt of the S-Class Hunter is easily thwarted. She is quite dismayed and lacks the information to follow them.
Lilith leads the heroes to the location of the
last imprisoned Darkstalkers. An old Catholic church on a hill...
"You don't think it could be that church with the dark clouds spreading out
from the sky above it?"
Once Alexi, Kagero, Roy, Wu, and Barahime go inside the church, they notice the crosses look smoldering from within. Metal crucifixes are slowly running. if nobody says, Lilith: "We should hurry."
In the basement is a vault which only the purest of the group, Barahime, can enter. Once they try to exit with the gem containing the Darkstalker; however, Tres reveals his group, while himself remaining hidden, which had waited for the heroes to bring forth the Darkstalker from the vault that no evil counter approach. Leanne, Grummosh the Dark Spirit which inhabits the elements, Chu Lyn - the diabolical Wu Shu gal, and Zetsubo. Leanne demands the gem so that no violence is necessary, but the heroes don't give in.
Lilith is allowed the gem and flees during the fight, taking to the air at first chance. As the battle reaches a turning point, Tres pierces Barahime's torso from behind with his black-stained sword, shouting, "Feel my millennia of evil!" and his sword shines with an impossible darkness. As the blade rips out of her right shoulder, the darkness peels off, emerging from Bara, gleaming and brand new. Barahime falls, screaming with despair.
Jose receives a taunting phone call from Lilith who claims he might not recognize her the next time they meet. The succubus had seduced Jose and had been using him for energy. She tells him straightly that she has always loved... his energy!
The heroes rush Tres who summons Testament before him and Leanne also charges to fight by his side. In a momentary stand-off, Tres transforms Testament's crow into demonic wings and sends the scythe-wielding ninja after Lilith.
Tres summons a titanic hellworm from the ground and rides its razor spinning mouth into the air. Tres shouts: "Leanne!! I release you!" "Cherish the time that remains." The worm closes its mouth and dives deep into the Earth with Tres. As the heroes hurl Grummosh into the hole to follow. Leanne collapses, no longer compelled to obey the father who adopted her, no longer imbued with the unholy powers he had forced upon her. Friends gather at Barahime's side. Her fatal wound is healed; however, her arm is numb and an evil darkness can be sensed within the wound -- nearly 2000 years of evil. She cannot feel her right arm, and what she perceives as the destruction of her street fighting and, more importantly, music career shatters her mind. She demands the death of Tres.
The upgraded Testament easily overtakes Lilith and the two battle in the sky. Lilith is on the ropes and shatters the gem which had been her only goal since escaping from her own prison. From the shards emerges Morrigan, the whole from which Lilith was split and which Lilith wants to absorb. Morrigan easily kills Testament whom Lilith had easily maneuvered to appear threatening to the newly manifested Darkstalker. However when Morrigan turns to Lilith, Lilith pulls her last resort before Morrigan can begin discern what she truly is. Lilith touches the gem of blood on her wrist, opening a portal, a vortex of red, to the Magijen from which Jedah manifests.
The heroes arrive just in time to see Lilith summon Jedah and they decide to charge forward and help just as blood drips from Jedah's joints and strikes the ground, creating a bubble that encloses the area into the Magijen.
Trapped inside what appears to be an organic dimension of blood and tissue, the heroes balk. Morrigan shouts out, "The magijen? I can't believe you actually did it! And you! I thought your 6,000 year reign ended with your death." Jedah proclaims that his death was greatly exaggerated. Jedah then flings shards of his wings into giant spinning sawblades, two of which spread into chains which pin Morrigan while the others create a spinning wall to entrap the heroes. As Lilith leaps onto Morrigan and appears to start absorbing or melding, the heroes struggle in their trap. The sawblades are lethally sharp, but still, Kagero sneaks through and shatters the blood garnet on Lilith's wrist. Jedah is unsummoned and the Magijen collapses. Morrigan throws Lilith off.
In the aftermath, Morrigan thanks the humans and leaves, wanting to fully understand what is happening. After all, she's been imprisoned for hundreds of years. Lilith, in tears, curses the party, telling them that only she or Morrigan can exist. Lilith, who had lived with the party for years, now leaves them. Her prey is loose, and she is in danger. Lilith knows Morrigan is far more powerful than her.
Their Happiest Day
In a few short days, Kain Heinlen and Alexia are set to be wed. The most lavish church in all of Southtown has been set aside. Alexia feels a warming feeling from within her, perhaps from the twins in her womb, that everything is going to be okay. This feeling has stayed with her the last few months since the dream it first appeared although the dream started with a feeling of unfathomable sorrow and horror of innocence being ripped away.
Chizuru Kagura arrives in Tokyo. She takes Barahime to a shrine for a day. Talking to her friends in private, she reveals that there is a half-year ritual which may work on Barahime; however, it might also awaken the evil in her and accelerate a take over. It might also wake that other thing in her. Killing the source of evil (Tres) might free her. Likewise, any concentrated good from him might counteract it. Roy suggests that might be Leanne. However, she is just the sort to sacrifice her life force to heal someone so it is good she was left out of the conversation.
During an excursion to Hong Kong to manage a fight tournament (Roy, Wu, and Cleopatra are in her stable), Barahime's numb right arm snakes free of a sling and pushes a child in front of an oncoming car. Cleopatra and Roy rescue the child, and Barahime drags Alexi off to find better bindings for her arm.
January 7th - At Kain and Alexia's wedding, the heroes all attend, including the wolves of Southtown and more. King even leaves her minor brother Jean in charge of her bar. Roy makes note that for some reason, Barahime presence makes Kain feel queasy.
Rock Howard (the son of Geese Howard and Merry Heinlen whom Kain is raising) and Hitomi Howard are the only ones in the right front row, being the groom's family seating. Alexia's is left empty, having no family at all. Alexia is rather showing, being 6 months pregnant, but none are so crass as to comment out loud. Grant is Kain's best man, somehow fitting into a tuxedo but still wearing his red mask. Leanne serves as Alexia's lead bridesmaid, Alexia having befriended Leanne back during Geese's reign though able to do nothing to help her then. The ceremony is almost thrown off by the arrival of Ingrid who walks in during the vows and sits herself down next to Rock, smiling and stroking his hair. Only Roy and Alexi truly recognize her... as someone who frightens Rugal. However, she causes no trouble and is allowed to be for sake of causing no ruckus. Ingrid leaves just before everyone else gets up.
After the traditional throwing of rice, Kain and Alexia go to enter their limo, and a bullet pierces Kain's left lung.
Obsessions and the Threat from the Looking Glass
Aurora brings Barahime a box of photos that fell when cleaning Hans's room. Aurora, who was rescued from slavery from Barahime, chose to return to Japan with her to become both a maid and a student of the martial arts.
The photo... It's a picture of his dad standing beside Dr. Mengele. On other side of the doctor, is an SS officer. This guy . . .
Barahime has been obsessed with one thing since her injury. In her computer room which is covered with notes and with a pencil behind her ear, she runs facial recognition searches on historical photos, news documents. Decades back... again and again, even some Russian doctor in the 1800s.
Tres . . . Bara's left fist clenches. All her time not spent here, researching, has been spent training her left arm to be her new weapon - an emotionally painful and frustrating exercise. Days and nights pass, Barahime has no concept of them anymore. Aurora enters the room to bring in tea and cringes at the photos of sadists, murderers, and death dealers taped all over the walls. News clippings of horror are the decor now. "Hino-sama", Aurora says, to notify her master that she is present.
"He was a weapons dealer in Bosnia," Bara said, taking the tea without looking at who was serving it.
"Huh," Aurora said.
"He was an advisor to Jean Kambanda in Rwanda," Bara stated next, with the tone of a machine.
"They all look like different people. Their faces are all different," Aurora said.
Barahime's left hand shot out with lightning quickness and clenched around Aurora's throat. Bara stood pushing her back against the wall. Aurora dropped the tray, trembling as the sound of China shattering seemed to make no noise. Bara seethed. "They all have the same face!" Something glimmered behind Bara's eyes, making Aurora go limp. "Can't you see? It's the same man throughout the centuries! Spreading death, suffering, and fear! A chameleon! Varying his degrees of subtlety to the times! Mathematically calculated for maximum horror! You can't see, can you? I'm the only one who can see." Aurora felt a finger of Bara's right hand, pressed up against her torso, twitch as if the arm was confused by the person to which it was attached.
Bara's hand released Aurora as if suddenly bored of throttling her or perhaps Bara just plain forgot she was doing it at all. She walked to a monitor which was flashing by images at dizzying speed. "Who are you? Who are you really?" She spoke to herself.
Terrified, yet not entirely unfamiliar with the situation, Aurora stood forward from the wall. She'd seen some of her masters consumed by their obsessions. And her new master who was usually so good, had now succumbed to that horrible illness. As she carefully backed out of the room past computer banks, she spied one monitor that made her pause. Though not computer literate in the least, she knew that computers used numbers; however, this computer's scrolling formulas were not in numbers. It was crunching musical notes. Perhaps if Hino-sama really did believe she was seeing the things she was seeing, these machines were suffering from the same madness. She had programmed them with her madness.
As Aurora silently left, Bara sat back down as new results came up. In the third Crusade, he was a knight who slaughtered all the men under his command after a long string of bloody victories in 1191. In the first Crusade, he ordered his men to eat men, women, and children when food became scarce during the Siege of Maarat in 1098. The paintings of those faces were very accurate, but this far back, the chances of more results were getting slim. I will find you, Bara thought emphatically. I will discover your past. I will find the source of your evil. I will find your weakness. I will see you killed. But before that, I will mathematically calculate the most painful way for you to suffer. I will find what it is you care about, have it taken away from you, and crushed before your eyes. At some point during these thoughts, she had made her way to the washroom and was leaning forward over a sink, feeling ill. Looking up into her own eyes, she said to the reflection, "this is not me," and smashed her forehead into the mirror, fracturing it. She repeated it several times, splintering the high quality Hino Corp. mirror until it was nothing but cracks and blood splattered her whole face. She looked at the broken image of herself which seemed to grin. "You are nothing but a shadow. That is the last time I will permit you to even whisper. Stay in your prison. Stay out of my life and my obsessions." Bara splashed water on her face to wash away the blood though some of the cuts still bled. She looked down at her bound right arm and bit her lip. "As for you, you'll be dealt with. No more bringing up shadows, or I'll have to cut you off." Tears welled up in her eyes. She thought of her friends and hoped they had some solution in the works, some way to save the day. She bit her lip harder until the tears went away.
Later that evening...
Training
"Hino-sama," Aurora spoke at the doorway. Barahime was in her study, furiously writing. Pages upon pages were pinned to the walls. Looking at the progression, her left-handed penmanship was now nearly indistinguishable from that of her right.
"Hino-sama, your B-team students have arrived."
"Ah," Barahime looked up, setting the pen down. "Thank you, Aurora-san."
When Barahime entered the hall, she found Hiro and Hans waiting for her. She looked at them quizzically. Iggis bounded off of Hans's shoulder onto Aurora's head who tried to eye what was now perched there.
"Hino-sama," Hiro spoke, "we've been noticing you haven't quite been yourself lately. We also spoke to Aurora about the bruises on her neck."
"Yes," Barahime said, turning her back on them. "I haven't quite been myself. I'm sorry I haven't burdened myself upon you with all the details of that. Hiro, I'll fill you in more later this evening."
"That is not so much the issue, Hino-sama, as that you have not before had a history of mistreating us."
"That not true," Iggis said. "Mistress Hino waterboarded me last fall. She did it several times. I got very soggy."
"Iggis, she took you water-skiing," Hans corrected the talking weasel.
"That what I said," Iggis said. "You not worry, Aurora. I'm sure Mistress Hino will soon be waterboarding you too."
Aurora's eyes were pallid and her voice gloomy at that thought. "No thank you, I think."
The sweatbead on the side of Hans's head was growing larger. "Why are you listening to the weasel and not me?"
"The weasel is kind of charming in it's own way," Hiro admitted.
"Aurora-san," Barahime said, turning around. "I was out of line with my treatment of you. I apologize. I'm sorry I'm not the same person that brought you here. I don't know when I will be again. If you wish to be elsewhere, I will give you the best of recommendations."
Barahime quickly turned and proceeded away.
"Well…" Hans said, scratching his head.
"I suppose that went well," Hiro said.
The two men went there separate ways.
Aurora spoke to the empty hall, "Don't worry. I'm used to it."
In the dojo, Barahime fastened the belt on her Suzakuken-Ryu gi while standing in front of her B-team students. Arisa Yamashita , the bassist from Bara's first somewhat informal band, was the team captain. "I want everyone to partner up and stretch for 5 minutes before we start."
Five minutes later, Barahime had them practicing the star smasher maneuver with their partners. The pads the partners were holding to absorb the blows sometimes needed to be replaced after each training session. She could tell who had good technique by which pads needed replacing. The impacts of the heavy cindering punch would eventually leave scorch marks on the vinyl and rather quickly displace the material inside.
Barahime walked around, examining their technique. "Remember to run through your repertoire of punches to not overtax the same muscles in between delivering a star smasher," Barahime reminded them. "Now, switch over to the Hou'ou Ken now." They had perfected the simple and strong star smasher, aka cinder punch, but she knew they'd need some work developing their Hou'ou Ken, aka wingtip punch.
"I'll be seeing you in groups of two. Akemi and Yuri, over here. Karen and Konatsu, partner up."
"Hai, Hino-sensei," they shouted.
Barahime held her class for 2 hours. It was a bit long, she admitted, drying the sweat off of her. However, she found it refreshing, and enabled her to train her own left arm as well. On the plate on the far wall, Arisa and Maya had left the most impressive fireball scorch marks. They'd sure put a lot of feeling into it.
She felt energized as she turned to C-team. Two long classes in a row, some might say it was a bit extreme or far too taxing for a modern sensei. Normally, that would be true for her. For now though, this is what she needed.
Still, B-team was easy to handle and only 6 students strong. C-team was quite a different story, both for the personalities involved and there being 10 of them. She'd had both teams for over a year now. As a sensei, she hadn't really bestowed more than the basic on them, but that was changing now. Besides, a year of preparation before starting the hard stuff was a smart idea. In the future, she would have to think about splitting the students into Advanced and not-advanced groups, or at least, holding a special Advanced class.
"Tamaki, let go Ruri go from that iron claw! Let's keep practice to Suzakuken-Ryu maneuvers, okay?"
Ichigo Kusugawa flew through the air spinning and then burst into flames. Barely landing, she danced around while patting the flaming fringes of her gi and going, "Ahhhhh!"
"Ichigo…" Barahime growled. "I don't believe I've taught you anything like that yet."
"Sorry, sensei-san," Ichigo whined. "You once showed us your legendary Bishamon's Halo technique, and I wanted to try it for myself."
"Ichigo, I know you pick things up very easily, but let your sensei help you from now on." I could probably just perform it for her one more time, and she'd get it perfect, Bara mused.
"Hai, sensei-san!" Ichigo smiled.
"And call me, Hino-sensei, like the other students, okay?"
"Hai, sensei-san!" Ichigo smiled. Barahime grumbled to herself and palmed her face. Oh, well, and the students had even voted her co-captain to Kousaka Tamaki. Bara supposed she was charming, and having the two best students in the class be captains might make sense. However, Kusuagawa Ichigo certainly was dumb as a brick to put it politely.
"All right, class," Barahime clapped. "I want to see those Suzaku no Mai attacks you've been practicing! Then, we'll move onto holding the heads of practice dummies and punching them!"
The class cheered.
Profile Information for The New Suzakuken-Ryu Students.
BARAHIME'S TRAINING: THE EVOLUTION OF SUZAKUKEN
THE RIDDLE OF THE FIST