Ninja Gaiden III The Fury of the Dragon Written by Jeff Nussbaum deuce@scsn.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter Seven It was hot. Hot, bright and humid. Ken woke to the sound of his mother shouting. Was he late for school? No... couldn't be, this was summer. It didn't sound like she was shouting at him... she was angry, but at something else. He opened his eyes... ...and saw her tied to a wooden stake which had been forced into the ground. Her hands were bound above her head, and she was glaring furiously at a man wearing a hooded cloak. He couldn't see who it was she was talking to (or more accurately, shouting at) because of the hood. Odd that someone would wear something like that in a hot place like this. "Mom!" he yelled, as his senses returned. He took in all there was to see in as short a time as possible. Two large men hovered over him, and he was lying on the rocky ground, his hands cuffed behind his back. Irene looked over at her son. "Ken! Are you all right?" The cloaked man said, "He'll be fine as long as you both behave." She glared once more at the man and said, "Foster, you bastard." Ken's eyes went wide. So this was Foster? This was the ghost of his parents' past? His mind reeled. "You'll never succeed, you maniac," continued Irene. "Ryu will be here soon enough." She was supremely self-assured. Foster smiled under the hood. "That's exactly what I want, dear Sea Swallow," he said, referring to her by her old CIA codename. She struggled against her bonds, wanting more than anything to attack this man. "Oh dear," he said. "Don't do that, you'll hurt yourself. I'm not out to hurt either of you." "Then what do you want?" demanded Ken. Foster knelt down by the young Hayabusa, and said, "I'm waiting for your father... and when he gets here, I will kill him. Slowly. As for the two of you, I don't care whether you live or die." Ken blanched for a moment, then steeled his nerves. "What makes you think you stand a chance against my father?" he said defiantly. Foster shrugged, his face still hidden beneath the cloak. Only his chin was vaguely visible. "I have my ways." Irene's scowl had not faded in the slightest. "Why are you doing this, Foster? What did Ryu ever do to you?" At this, the cloaked man stood and rounded on her. His hand came up and gripped her neck painfully, cutting off her air supply. "What did he do to me...?" he asked, anger visibly welling up within him. "You dare... to ask WHAT HE DID TO ME?!?" His voice had risen to a scream. "Mom!!" said Ken. He was desperate to help her, but he was bound, with no way of escaping. Even if he had, the two men pointing guns at him would finish him off before he could lift a finger. Foster released his grip on Irene's neck and moved his hand to the hood. "THIS is what he did to me, you self-righteous bitch!" He pulled back the dark cloth, exposing his face to the harsh sunlight. Hundreds upon hundreds of scars crisscrossed his visage. He was truly a grim sight. His left eye was slightly sunken, due to some nerve damage, and his mouth was wider than it should have been, due to a scarred gash in his right cheek. The patterns made an oriental rug look simplistic. Irene stared, aghast. "Ryu... did THAT?" she whispered in shock. Foster nodded, his fists clenched at his sides. "But... when? How?" "Many years ago," said Foster, "he hurled me face-first through a very large mirror. I spent months in the hospital, but they were completely unable to reconstruct my face. I will look like this for as long as I live." He turned to Ken, who was completely white. "How does it make you feel to know that your 'heroic' father committed such a vile act?" Ken was too shaken to speak. Foster swept on, "When that ninja gets here, I will show him the true meaning of horror... revenge WILL be mine!" Irene was appalled, both at the sight and at the thought of Ryu doing what Foster had said. But she had to believe in him... she knew he loved her and Ken with all of his heart. A lump was forming in her throat, but she swallowed it and spoke. "Foster... let us go. If you do, Ryu may not hurt you when he gets here." The scarred man grinned, and it was a truly gruesome spectacle. "Oh, he may not? I prefer my method... he WILL not. It's his turn to feel the pain I have felt." He motioned to some more of his men, and they set about putting gags on Ryu's family. "He should be on his way to the airport now...," he said. *** Back in the subway tunnel, Ryu had been making his way through the tunnels. It was rough going. Subway trains came by periodically, and he was forced to duck into alcoves in order to avoid being flattened. Even so, the noise reverberating through the metal tunnels nearly deafened him. After a lengthy distance, he found a passageway which would lead him into the city's sewer system. He knew the general direction he needed to go to reach the airport. As he opened the hatchway, the stench of filth assaulted his senses, and he silently cursed Foster once more for forcing him to endure this, in addition to everything else he had already done. Holding his breath, he slipped through the grime-covered hatchway, into the underbelly of the city, which no one likes to think about. As his feet touched down, he felt a rat scurry across them. He frowned, and continued on his way. Fortunately, his path was to be a linear one. He held his hand up and concentrated. A dim glow emanated from the Dragon Sword momentarily, and a small fire burst into being in his open palm. The soft orange light illuminated his surroundings just enough to allow him to pass through unhindered. He tried to avoid the murky water in the center of the passageway, but that was not always an option, and he found the sheer stagnancy of it almost as disgusting as the smell. He was eager to get out of this place, as soon as possible. The ninja made it a point to check every possible manhole he could. His exit from this place could not come too soon. Peeking aboveground also enabled him to keep his bearings, and he was able to keep from getting lost in the labyrinthine tunnels of the sewers. After what seemed like hours, Ryu came to the end of his journeys in the true underworld. There was a ladder leading up, and he was comfortably certain it would indeed be the one closest to the airport he sought. He began his climb. The hatchway at the top was not a manhole cover, however. He was forced to unscrew the seal, and when he opened it and climbed up, he saw another ladder leading up on the other side of the odd room into which he had entered. The more intrigueing thing, however, was the man looking at him with small, dark eyes. At least, Ryu thought it was a man. It was humanoid, and looked like a hunched-over middle-aged man, who had been in the sewers for years. He also looked extremely muscular. But the humanity ended there. An odd colorless slime coated the man's skin, and dripped off of him in a foul, viscous rain. He looked at the ninja and spoke with a voice like rocks rattling in a rusty can. "Wh... what do... y-you... wannnt?" he said, as if he had difficulty speaking. Ryu had no trouble believing that to be possible. Ryu held up a hand (the one that wasn't holding a bright flame) and said, "I'm only here to pass through. I mean you no harm." In response, the man looked down at his arm and ran his other hand along it, scooping up some of the slime. And suddenly, with a lighting-fast motion, he hurled the glob of viscous goo at the ninja. Almost in a panic, Ryu dodged to the side, not wanting to touch the slime, though a small part of him wondered how it could be any worse than the slime that he'd been wading through for the last half-hour. A split-second later, his wondering was granted an answer. The slime struck him on his left side, just at the bottom of his rib cage, and he immediately noticed a burning sensation. This stuff was acidic! Without even a moment's thought, he brought the fire in his hand to the slime, which evaporated away instantly. There was a sizeable hole in the cloth, but he was not burned too badly. It would be red and swollen right there for some time, though. "Gooooo... a-a-awaaaaaaayyy!!!" screamed the sewer-dweller. Its voice sounded full of pain. "Ha-haven't you d-d-done enough?" This caught Ryu by surprise. What had he done? "Who did this to you?" asked the ninja carefully, trying not to appear threatening. If he could avoid a fight, he would. "Fffff--" began the creature. "Fffff..." Ryu's eyes widened in astonishment. It couldn't be... Foster wouldn't stoop to THIS, would he? Could he have somehow transformed this poor man into a monster? What sort of unholy energy was he playing with? "Foster?" he asked. The creature roared. "FFFFOOOOOOSSSSTTEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!" it screamed. "YOU D-DID THIS T-TO M-M-MEEEE!!!!" It charged at the dumbstruck ninja with fists outstretched, evidently confusing him for its tormentor. Ryu had almost no time to react. Fury and pain had given this half-man speed and power unlike any he had ever encountered. In its mad dash, one of its fists caught Ryu full in the chest, knocking the wind out of him and burning him with the acidic slime. He went flying back into the wall, and a pip caught him solidly in the back of the neck. The world went hazy for the Dragon Ninja, and he had only the vague knowledge that there was danger approaching. He could not see, and even his hearing felt a bit off after that jolt. He clumsily with- drew the Dragon Sword from its sheath, and slashed forward. The blade bit into the creature's chest, causing it to cry out once more in pain. As horrible as the sound was, it was nothing compared to its screams of torment at its own existence, which now seemed endless. "FFFFOOOSSSTTEEERRRRRR!!!" it cried out, and raised both fists to crush the Ninja Dragon's skull with a hammer blow. This time, however, Ryu gave a scream of his own... one born not of pain, but of anguish. Anguish for his family. Anguish for what his old enemy might be doing to them. Anguish for what had been done to the former human he was now forced to fight. The Dragon Sword burst into bright yellow flame, and Ryu hurled the focused energy at his opponent. Barely a moment later, the world ignited. The air in this room was stagnant, flammable, and filled with unpleasant odors. In his emotional state, Ryu had failed to comprehend the explosive nature until it was too late. The flames were gone as quickly as they had come, and nothing was on fire. But the concussive force had knocked Ryu back into the wall, giving him another nasty blow to the head. That, and the oxygen in the room was now almost completely burned away. It would be a matter of minutes... and the Dragon Ninja would be no more. Or perhaps less. The creature, though severely wounded, was still conscious, and very angry. With a low growl, it staggered over to Ryu with the light of hatred and pain burning in its eyes. Its intended target was unconscious, slumped against the far wall. Closer it crept. Closer... closer... and soon it would all be over. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TO BE CONTINUED ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ninja Gaiden, Ryu Hayabusa, Irene Lew and all characters are the sole copyright of Tecmo. This document is meant for public distribution in its ORIGINAL FORM ONLY, and should not be sold at any price. All events portrayed in this story are the inventions of Deuce, and do not reflect the "proper" story as shown by Tecmo (even though Tecmo screwed the pooch on the NG3 story).