> I awoke.
> This was a monumental shock, because it had never happened
>before.

Oh come on. You might be a weapon, but I hardly thing this is the first time you 'woke up'

> Oh, I had -memories- from before my first awakening, but they
>were little more than gun-camera recordings made by a peculiarly
>sophisticated weapons platform.

Ah. Ok, THATS what you meant by woke up.

> It was all horribly confusing.

Yeah, finding yourself as a person after being little more than a killer doll tends to do that.

> I decided I would have to see her again. I knew I would find
>her; that kind of thing is what I was built to do. Find her, and then
>learn whether she could make me feel again. Feel and -keep- feeling.
> And if not, whether she would be strong enough to put an end to
>my pointless existence.

And now we see Sakura becoming SF-G's student in yet another way, she seems to be picking up the same sort of Interesting tagalongs just by being herself that he does! *snicker*

>I'd won my last two official bouts on the World Warrior
>circuit, one at home, one away, raising my average at that ranking to a
>respectable .667.

And since they happend 'off camera', there wasn't anything interesting about them except the fact that G won one and lost the other.

> Cammy and I stood at opposite ends of the playhouse in the back
>yard, which was so new it still smelled of paint and floor polish. It
>wasn't really a playhouse in the traditional sense of a miniature
>dwelling for the amusement of children; it was really more of a barn,
>with timber construction and just one big room inside.

Ah! Thats what you meant by a playhouse. I really had more of the image of some sort of actual KIDS playhouse for some reason when I read the teaser.

> (Say, that would make a good premise for a movie. I'll have to
>remember to pitch it to Ken next time I see him. "Support Your Local
>Street Fighter", a screwball comedy about a young fighter, new to the
>circuit, trying to get his neighborhood on side for his breakthrough
>bout against the wandering champ. Maybe we could finally get Fei Long
>to try comedy.)

*BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!*

>just in
>time to christen it with a party - and a fight. There is a terrific
>photo of me, Sakura, Charlie Nash, and a very sombreroed Jimmy Blanka on
>the wall behind the bar down at Tortilla Sam's now.

Blanka. In a Sombrero. *Boggles at that mental image* Hmm, that was the fight he hosted at home? Was it the one he won, or lost?

>(Sgt. Janet Marshall got that call. She was... amused.)

*snicker* I take it she's familiar with both G and his profession from past encounters then?

>I wound up flat on my back in the center of the floor with
>Cammy kneeling astride my hips, and she took advantage of my compromised
>position quite shamelessly by pinning both my wrists to the floor and
>obstructing my airway with hers.

I suddenly have an inking that several of UF-g's sparing matches with Sumire ended much the same...

> "That's quite a finishing move, 005. I don't believe I've seen
>it used in hand-to-hand combat training before."

Only without interuptions like this one.

> "Then I'm very sorry for you," she said coldly.

Not as sorry as SF-G is about the interuption! *snerk*

> And now here M. was, having come all the way to Worcester to...
>what? Make a final play personally? Maybe even oversee some sort of
>extraction? At the very least she'd managed to kill a very nice mood.

Total buzzkill indeed. Hilarious, for those watching, but...

> M. gave her a patient look. "You're angry with me. It's
>understandable. I don't hold it against you, though I do hope one day
>you'll grow up enough to recognize why I had to do what I did."
> "Go to hell," Cammy shot back.
> "I probably will," said M. imperturbably.

*Sighs* How do you manage to both distill and convey the essances of a charecter so well G? I'd kill to have your skill at that.

> I suppressed a snicker, which made M. glance sharply at me for
>an instant. She probably thought I wasn't taking her elegantly phrased
>death threat seriously, but really, I was just thinking it was a shame
>Cammy and I hadn't suited up for Halloween yet when she arrived. Not
>only would it have made her entrance that much more surreal, she would
>have looked devastatingly funny trying to keep up that frosty deadpan
>while issuing that threat to Supergirl.

Not to mention the thought of seeing Supergirl and Batman engaged in a passionate liplock, though I'm sure given the nature of the 'net there not only are such 'ship fics, but ones where they dont get 'interupted'.

> I could like this woman, as long as I never found myself
>directly answering to her.

Like I said 2 quotes back... you have a definate skill with distilling things to their essance.

> Cammy couldn't help but laugh at that; the living room carpet,
>which Zoner had selected in a fit of... something, was white shag about
>four inches deep, and would have required an act of Congress to get
>blood out of.

Not to mention bones and other bits of gore, though not brains as anyone silly enough to do something like that clearly didnt have any to begin with.

> "Well, there was the time Zoner used your soap without asking."
> "That wasn't so much that he used the soap as what he used it
>-for,-" I said.

and its probobly more humorous leaving that right where you did

> "Sorry," I said. "I was just expecting something a whole lot
>worse. Sure I can teach you about guns. I didn't think you'd be
>interested."
> "I wasn't, but... after what happened when we went to Canada,"
>she said, then paused and admitted, "It scared me. And if I'm going to
>be part of your world, I can't be scared of things like that. I have to
>-understand- them."

From the mouths of students come such great wisdoms.

>We get our major gunsmithing done at a small shop in
>Chicago, but cleaning, small repairs, and the occasional part
>replacement are all things we handle ourselves.

Eheh. But this isnt the first time you've mentioned that Rally, Minnie Mae (and probobly by extension, Bean) are around, is it? It doesnt feel *Where did THAT come from*

>I doubt any kid has ever had
>such comprehensive instruction, not only on the nuts and bolts of how to
>use weapons, but the whys and wherefores of -when- and -why- to use
>them... and not to.

You know, our own courner of the multiverse might be a better place if we required that sort of course of legitimate gun owners. My personal $.02, of course.

>It was just... different, and it's never easy dealing with change, even
>positive change. There's always going to be a period where you look in
>the mirror and think, Is this who I am now? Am I cool with that?
> By the time I got to the house on Cedar Street and pulled into
>the driveway, I had decided: Yeah. I'm cool with that.

Indeed SF-MZ. Things never stay the same, but just cause they change doesnt mean the change may not be for the better.

>"And they always think you've been intimidated into covering
>up or you've been brainwashed or something when you try to tell them no,
>hey, it's all cool."

Mostly because its their job to make sure it really is 'cool' and that your not brainwashed/intimidated/whatever. They worry because of either personal concern or professional paranoia, but the net result is the same.

> "You," she opined, "are a strange attractor."
> "Well," I replied, "at least I'm attractive."

Just works on too many levels to describe

>The masked wrestlers
>of Mexico, los luchadores, are a national institution, and Milmáscaras
>is one of the places where they came from. In Japan I'd once visited a
>village, out in the sticks near Nagano, where everyone in town was a
>ninja. Milmáscaras was, I'd heard, a similar kind of thing, but with
>luchadores.

Or like the district of Tokyo where all the Sumo gyms are

> "Hi, I'm MegaZone," said Zoner, putting out a hand. "Lead
>singer and driver of the Winnebago."
> El Fuego looked puzzled, switching to English: "You have a band
>too?"

Well, not YET. Wouldnt surprise me in the future, though...

> "The money behind it is foreign," El Fuego said. "It comes from
>somewhere on the Pacific Rim.

Mysterious money from that area of the world out to 'redistrict' this particular neighborhood, even though the locals arnt interested. Naaa... nothing there that'd make Zoner's spy sense start tingling. Nope nope nope...

>The Fuerte y Fuego crew
>had turned the stretch in front of the restaurant into a ring with the
>judicious application of some stanchions, ropes, and a canvas-covered
>layer of gymnasium mats, erected simple bleachers at either end and
>along what had been the sidewalks, and strung more banners and bunting
>from all the overhead power lines.

You've outdone yourself again here, I close my eyes and I can SEE the ring, just like it might apear on an arcade machine, if it existed

> "What are you doing?" Kei asked.
> "I'm putting on a mask," Sakura replied.
> Kei gave her a look. "I can see that."
> "Then why'd you ask?" Sakura wondered innocently.
> Kei paused, with the look of someone who is mentally counting to
>some fairly high number, and then said patiently, "I'll rephrase the
>question. -Why- are you putting on a mask?"

Heh. Shades of some conversations I've had in RL as well as in CoX!

> <Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, people of
>Milmáscaras! Please welcome the brave travelers who accepted your
>heroes' challenge! From the United States, El Grifo... > He noticed
>Sakura's mask, sized her up with a quick, appraising glance, and smiled
>to himself as he went on without missing a beat, <... and La Cernícala!>

LETS GET READY TO RUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBLLLLLLLEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!
Seriously, I dunno if its what you were aiming for, but in my head Ray's voice is the same one you hear at pro wrestling events.

> I wasn't convinced that "tatsumaki psychokyaku" was really the
>right name for it, but she'll probably grow out of the barbarous calque
>portmanteau phase eventually.

Orrr, maybe not. It's part and parcel of the genre you're a part of here (both SF AND Luchedor), after all. And again, I was able to visualise ALL the fight, again, just as if I was sitting in front of an XBOX playing it. Only I chose El Fuego, and I'm about to wind up on the wrong side of...

> "TESLA HADOKEN!"
> That, on the other hand, was a move name I was down with.

*VICTORY* *SAKURA*!

> Seeking the girl was easier than finding her. I didn't have to
>think about what I was doing; I had a protocol and I followed it. It
>was comfortingly like the old order. Once I found her, though, I had to
>choose what to do next.

And that, Decapre, is the hard part about being 'alive'. Having to choose, wisely, and learning how to live with the consequences, both of wise and poor choices. Welcome to the world...

>I realized, with another in
>the long series of shocks my life had become, that in this respect his
>method, seen in person, made Lord Bison's seem...
> ... crude.

And will be what finally allows G to triumph over Bison in the final accounting, when it happens.

> Some part of me wondered idly what it was like to have friends.

Just keep hanging around them. You'll find out eventually; most likely after being found out and befriended by them.

> Did you ever have the feeling you were being watched?
> I did during Sensei's fight with El Fuerte, and I still can't
>imagine why.

Oh, dont worry Sakura. You will, once Decapre emerges from the Shado-lu and you wind up befriending her.

>El Fuerte went so completely over backward that he ended up flat on his
>face. For a couple of seconds, nobody moved; even the hometown crowd
>had gone silent.

Hmm. Was that the move combo for "Murder"? or is it even more complex and devestating?

>I'm not a sore loser, but I do
>tend to be rather sore after I lose, if you follow the distinction, and
>it blunts my culinary aspirations somewhat.

IOW, its really hard to whip up a truely fantastic meal when your ribs feel like someone just used them for a zylophone.

> It seemed to make the luchadores hungry, and they were
>spectacular cooks in an intensely flavorful, but not blow-your-head-off
>spicy, variant of the Southwestern style. Dish after wonderful dish
>flowed out of the kitchen, presenting a delicious challenge in balancing
>things tasted against cargo space remaining. The meal finally wrapped
>up, two hours after it began, with a flan that would just about break
>your heart.

*Mou* CURSE YOU G!!! Now I have a total craving for some REAL hispanic cooking, but the only places around here are fast food chain mockeries.

> I turned to Cammy. "Why does this always happen when we're
>having a nice quiet drink somewhere?" I asked.

Because your an attractor G. Just not all the things you attract are as cute and cuddly as Cammy is.

> "Your friend sounds like she's done this before," I observed.
> "Yeah, there was this big conspiracy at her school last year,
>and - tell you what, ask me later,"

Hope not only does SF-G remember to ask, but that we get to see it in print, cause at it sounds really interesting.

> The boy took my fumbling translation of that remark aboard,
>considered it, and then handed over the ball. Natsu took it with a
>gracious nod, tossed it in the air and bounced it off her arm a couple
>of times to get a feel for it, then caught it, tucked it under her arm,
>and said, "Not quite what I'm used to, but it'll do."

Hmm... Martial arts Volleyball, perhaps?

> The man loomed over Hinata, who looked like a little china doll
>in comparison to his rough-hewn, brawny construction-worker style. "And
>if we do?" he asked mildly, his hands forming into big, knobby fists.
> "Better for everybody if you don't," she said.

*Wince* Dude, your not intimidating them. In fact, given the size disparity, I think all your doing is increasing the number of pieces she's going to break you into...

>then, with an explosive KIAI!, she unloaded a sidelong
>kick into his midsection that folded him up like a deck chair and sent
>him skidding across the polished wood floor most of the way back to the
>entrance.

Told ya so.

>Natsu had wound up and served the boy's
>kickball into his face with such force of will behind it that it set the
>man momentarily on fire.

Yup. Martial arts Volleyball. Hang on... I have this feeling that Sakura's school friends are a crossover import that I'm not recognizing. GAH. Now this is gonna bug me till I figure it out or someone clues me in.

> Moving slowly and calmly, Akira zipped up her leather jacket,
>then picked up my older brother Rey's motorcycle helmet from where he'd
>left it hanging on the knob at the bottom of the stairs. Her voice was
>very soft as she said something I couldn't understand to the men.

"I am Akira Montoya. You have threated my charges, prepare to DIE"
(aka, beware the quiet ones)

> She knocked out two of them quickly; the third was tougher, but
>eventually she overpowered him as well. She knocked him right out the
>door onto the stoop with a backflip that was also a kick, landed partway
>up the stairs, and then leaped at him, straight through the door, and
>pounded him with flying kicks all the way down to the sidewalk before
>finishing him off with a spinning elbow that would have done anyone in
>the Milmáscaras Open Fighting Club proud.

Like I said....

> With a neat backflipping follow-through, she caught the gun and
>kicked him for extra distance before he could reach the ground, then
>landed on her feet facing his pals, flipped the weapon over, and field-
>stripped it one-handed, letting the pieces fall to earth. She gave the
>guys a look that said, "I could take -you- apart just that easily too,"
>and they all decided they really ought to find someone -else- to fight.
> I love that girl's style. Have I mentioned that?

Naaaa... not in the last paragraph or so, anyway. :p

>Order, as they say in the newspapers, was restored in
>short order.

Meaning, all the hired toughs still concious ran screaming into the night, or at least tried to.

> El Fuerte snapped his fingers. <You're talking about Shadolu,>
>he said.

Give that Luchedor a Ciiiigar! And also explains why Balrog was mentioned... Balrog IS that first 'boss' you face, the boxer, right? or has my memory become corrupted?

>Had somebody in Milmáscaras
>taken somewhat more, er, -pointed- exception to the whole proceeding?
>Or did we have a third player on the field today? That's all we needed
>was some psycho with a blade and a willingness to use it shadowing us.

Then your in the WRONG line of work Zoner. Though it does kind of explain more why the 'ground pounders' were unarmed. They were mostly there for show, a distraction while the sniper would have done the dirty work had Decapre not done for him first. Like G said last 'battle' "Like Cobra Commander only with the chops to back it up"

> "And who's 'Li'?" Cammy wondered.

Li. Bruce Li. Okay, not; but I just couldnt pass up the joke there.

And I think this chapter was rather like the second fete. It had been so long till 6 that we all sort of tore into it like we'd been starving, where as now we're not starving we can truely take our time and savor just how equisite it is...