>
> Ah, Bancroft Tower on a bright and sunny morning in the
> summertime. The smell of the trees and the new-mown grass... the
> looming grey bulk of the monument... the roar of the crowd.
> The crowd?
> Well, maybe not a crowd, really, but a pretty good-sized
> gathering, anyway. The local folks know that Gryphon fights, and a
> lot of them are his fans - whenever he fights here at the Tower, the
> WPI Science Fiction Society turns out en masse, even though some of
> them aren't really into violence, to cheer him on, and a lot of the
> local businesses send their support. After all, a World Warrior-level
> street fighter's reputation has a tendency to keep the streets quiet,
> and he and I -have- stopped a few local crimes just by happening to be
> in various local stores when some unfortunate idiot decided to shake
> the place down.
> I was also pleased to see that the WPI Campus Police had sent
> a representative, or perhaps she had taken it upon herself to come;
> either way, the presence of Sergeant Janet Marshall, in uniform,
> promised to keep the crowd under control. Not that Gryph has a
> problem with unruly fans most of the time, but you can never be too
> secure. Janet's a hell of a fighter in her own right. Once, I saw
> her break up a brawl in the Wedge with her bare hands, five big guys
> with knives and broken bottles and she didn't get a scratch.
> You might find the presence of local law enforcement, in
> uniform but not doing anything, at the site of an illegal street fight
> kind of odd, but it's that way in a lot of places. The cooler cops
> know that the real fighters, the ones who register with outfits like
> the WCMAT Authority, are trained and for the most part know what
> they're doing, and that they accept the risks inherent in the game.
> Nobody ever gets hurt in one of Gryphon's matches who isn't willing to
> get hurt, and, like I mentioned before, his rep keeps the local crime
> rate down. They know he's a straight arrow, and so they look the
> other way, and sometimes, like Janet, they turn up to provide a little
> crowd control and give the proceedings an air of legitimacy.
> Besides, I think Janet's kind of sweet on Ben, though she'd
> probably hurt me if I mentioned it. If I were him I don't think
> it'd hurt my feelings if she were; Janet's not exactly what I'd call
> hard on the eyes.
> Gryphon's "arena" isn't fancy; it's just the square of
> more-or-less-flat asphalt in front of Bancroft Tower's walkway, from
> the two mini-turrets (and the line of Jersey barricades between them)
> to the wall that keeps people from driving off the hill, bordered on
> the sides by the turrets themselves. Gryphon stood by one turret, Ryu
> the other; Gryphon was wearing a black-and-white NIN shirt, his old
> jeans, his gloves and his Batman cap, while Ryu had his usual white
> gi, headband and vambraces.
> Janet separated herself from the spectators, then, and went to
> the middle of the ring, and I realized that she was going to ref for
> Ben, something she does occasionally for his home fights, though not
> always. Whenever she does, it's an extra incentive for his opponent
> to stay in line, not that she had anything to worry about with Ryu.
> I felt a hand on my arm; turning, I was surprised (and
> pleased) to see Meg grinning at me.
> "Meg!" I declared. "How'd you get here?"
> She shrugged. "Hitched."
> "That's dangerous," I pointed out, trying (and failing) to be
> stern.
> She rolled her eyes adorably. "I think I can take care of
> myself. Anyway, I wanted to see the fight, but I figured you'd be a
> little busy to come and pick me up."
> "Well, you're just in time," I said, "I think it's about to
> start."
> Just as I said it, Janet cleared her throat and announced the
> fight.
> "Ladies and gentlemen!" she declared in the clear, loud voice
> they teach at cop school for crowd control. "May I introduce today's
> challenger! A Shotokan Karate fighter from Tokyo, Japan, with a
> hundred and eight wins - ninety-nine by knockout - three losses and
> two draws: Ryu Hoshi!"
> As Ryu stepped out to the middle of the ring, on Janet's left,
> most of the crowd, knowing Gryphon's fondness for politeness,
> applauded. A couple of high-school kids toward the back booed and
> yelled "YOU SUCK!", and I could see Gryphon making a mental note to
> speak to them later. Alone among the spectators, Sakura cheered
> wildly.
> "And Bancroft Tower's champion, an Icon of Stone Ler Drit
> fighter with sixty-seven wins - fifty-four by knockout - two losses
> and no draws: Ben 'Gryphon' Hutchins!"
> Now the crowd cheered as Gryph took his place on Janet's
> right, save those two jerks in the back, who still booed, and Sakura,
> who was entirely silent.
> "OK, you guys, here are the rules. No choke holds. No
> intentional dislocations or broken bones. If the other guy quits, you
> stop. Got it?"
> They nodded.
> "Shake hands," Janet said; Gryphon and Ryu shook, then backed
> up a couple of steps and bowed.
> "Ready?" asked Janet. Gryphon nodded. She looked to Ryu; he
> tightened his headband, then nodded as well. "Fight!" said Janet, and
> she backed up behind the Jersey barricades.
> Ryu didn't waste any time; as soon as Janet was out of the
> way, he leaped up and forward as if going for a drop kick, but landed
> short, trying for a leg sweep. He caught Gryph flat-footed (pardon
> the expression) with that one, tripping him up; Gryph had been fading
> back and preparing a punch counter for the kick, and fell heavily to
> his back on the pavement, but almost immediately rolled to his feet
> and launched a spinning back fist. Ryu stepped smoothly into the path
> and blocked the fist with his left forearm, launching a jab with his
> right; Gryph ducked under it and shot an off-hand ducking fierce into
> Ryu's gut.
> He should've flared it, I thought to myself as Ryu was shoved
> back a little by the force of the blow. Then I realized why Gryph
> hadn't done just that - he was already channeling his Ler, using it
> for the push-off in the second part of his ducking-fierce-to-knee-thrust
> combo. With his Ler pushing him, he exploded up from the crouch, left
> knee outstretched, and the knee plowed up under Ryu's chin, knocking
> him over backward. As Gryph landed, feet spread, Ryu got unsteadily
> to his feet and wobbled for a moment.
> Capitalizing on his window of opportunity, Gryph swung into
> his double high kick; the first blow caught Ryu full in the face, but
> seemed to wake him up. The Shotokan fighter ducked the second kick
> and, while Gryph was still winding out of his spin, Ryu cocked his
> hands at his side, eyebrows colliding. I winced, knowing what was
> next:
> "HADOKEN!" The fireball crashed into Gryphon's midsection
> from point-blank range, drawing an audible grunt as the air was forced
> out of his lungs, and as Gryph stumbled back, Ryu kept his crouch and
> wound into a stance I knew, from watching previous fights, meant
> trouble.
> "SHORYUKEN!" Ryu cried, launching himself up in one of the
> other signature moves of his style. It was a textbook blow, caught
> Gryph right under the chin, picked up him and dumped him on the
> ground, and I could have sworn I saw his eyes turn into little X's at
> the moment of impact. Gryphon didn't bounce to his feet with quite
> the same speed as he had last time, but get up he did, with that gleam
> in his eyes that showed he was really enjoying the fight, and his
> hands flared and crackling with energy.
> Again Ryu wasted no time, launching himself into a Hurricane
> Kick (with appropriate shout), but this time, Gryph was ready for
> him, his flared arms raised and crossed in a block. Ryu's kick shoved
> him back a little, but as Ryu was busy landing, Gryph moved with all
> the deceptive speed his opponents rarely give him credit for, darting
> his left hand forward, seizing Ryu's head face-on, and, forearm
> muscles bulging, lifted him clean off the ground. Ryu raised his
> hands to Gryph's wrist, but he was already completing the throw,
> slamming Ryu down on the ground as if he were spiking a football after
> a touchdown.
> Ryu rolled a couple of feet away and got back to his feet,
> settling into his ready stance, looking battered, but not bowed. He
> nodded, ever so slightly, with respect, and waited for Gryph to make
> the next move.
> Gryphon did not disappoint; reflaring his hands, he swept them
> forward in a crackling arc and unleashed his Psycho Lightning.
> Unfortunately, the sweep gave Ryu enough warning; he jumped over it,
> knocking Gryph back with a flying kick and landing in front of him in
> good position for another Dragon Punch.
> Gryph grinned, just a little, and his eyes gleamed.
> Then he swung into his most complicated combo, the one I'd
> seen him pull off a grand total of three times so far in his career:
> a fast and vicious three-puncher, left jab, right cross, left
> uppercut, that drove Ryu back enough for Gryph to go into a seamless
> double kick. By the first kick's impact, Ryu was already unconscious;
> the second kick juggled him back into a semblance of a standing
> position, and then he toppled over backward and sprawled on the
> pavement. There was one move left in the combo, but Gryphon saw there
> was no need for it and arrested his motion before he could follow his
> falling opponent down on one knee and bounce his head off the asphalt
> with another left jab.
> The crowd went nuts as Janet shouted "Champion wins!"
>
> G
> Ryu was already sitting up and holding his head by the time
> Janet and I reached him; I offered him a hand up, which he accepted,
> and as I drew him to his feet, he clapped his other hand to my
> shoulder and grinned.
> "You're better than you were last time," he said.
> "I beat you last time, too," I pointed out.
> Ryu shrugged. "What is it the fans of the local baseball
> team say? There's always next year."
> As Janet got out a penlight and checked both our eyes to make
> sure we weren't walking around with any lethal brain hemorrhages
> going, we noticed we were no longer alone in the ring; a small figure
> in a sailor outfit had broken away from the crowd and was edging
> toward us, hesitant, with a mixture of concern and appalled shock on
> her face.
> As Ryu turned to face her, Sakura looked up at him and said
> incredulously, "You... you -lost-." She looked somewhere between
> astounded and crushed, as if she'd just seen a street gang mug Santa
> Claus.
> "It happens," Ryu replied, nodding. "Not often, but it
> happens."
> "But - "
> Ken prevented us from ever finding out exactly what her
> protest would have entailed. He hadn't forgotten his promise to take
> on the winner, and now, even if the winner hadn't turned out to be the
> one he thought it would be, his fighter's ego wouldn't let him back
> down.
> I won't bore you with the details of our fight. Did I win?
> Hah! The day I can defeat Ryu AND Ken in succession is the day I go
> to M. Bison's island fortress and rifle his sock drawer.
> When I came to, I thought that somebody, maybe Janet, maybe
> Cammy, was mopping at my face with a wet cloth. Then, after a few
> moments of gathering my brains back together, I realized it was
> actually Fury, and, lacking thumbs, he wasn't using a cloth.
> "Eyagh," I remarked, pushing him away and sitting slowly and
> carefully up. Nothing rattled around too badly, so I tried standing.
> I must confess I accidentally copped a bit of a feel when Janet rushed
> to prop me up with her shoulder, but it wasn't intentional, I wasn't
> in a position to enjoy it much, and she didn't seem to notice.
> Focusing my eyes on the quintet before me, I saw that Ryu,
> Sakura, Cammy and Zoner looked worried, while Ken looked contrite.
> "Well," I grumbled, testing my arm and leg joints to make sure
> everything still bent in the right direction and -only- the right
> direction, "I hope you're satisfied, Ken."
> "Woof," said Fury reproachfully. I scratched his ears.
> Ken hung his head. "I guess I'm kind of a jerk, huh."
> "I guess," I said as severely as I could, but when he peeked
> out at me through his bushy reddish eyebrows, my severity cracked and
> I snickered. "But aren't we all, at times? Tell you what, I'll
> forgive you if you'll forgive Ryu."
> Ken looked dubious for a moment, then smiled and turned to
> Ryu. "OK... put 'er there, pal."
> Ryu smiled and took his old friend's hand.
> "All right. Now I'm gonna get some Tylenol in this head of
> mine, and we're gonna go celebrate. Who's with me?"
>
> The staff at Ping's Garden have learned to roll with it when I
> turn up on their doorstep with a small horde of hungry people. And a
> horde we were, rampaging and ravenous: me, Ryu, and Ken, showered,
> changed and starting to show some bruises; Janet, now off-duty and out
> of uniform in t-shirt and jeans; Charlie; Rose; Sakura; Cammy; Zoner,
> happy as could be since he'd been smart enough not to bet on my
> second fight, or maybe just because Meg Bennett had turned up; and
> Meg, sprightly as always.
> Again, I think I'll just leave the details to your
> imagination. We ordered a ton of stuff, passed it around, swapped
> entrees, cadged each other's appetizers, and gorged ourselves silly.
> We told embarrassing stories about each other, asked personal
> questions, renewed old friendships and began a few new ones. When the
> meal was done, Rose had to get back to Maine, Charlie to wherever he'd
> come from (he didn't mention it and we didn't ask), Meg to Boston and
> Cammy to Scotland; the rest of us, after goodbyes and promises to keep
> in touch and a fresh exchange of phone numbers and email addresses,
> adjourned to Playoff Entertainment (the infamous "Ten-Minute Walk")
> for a raucous evening of video gaming.
> Here, we six, as a group, learned many interesting things
> about each other.
> - I would rather play S.T.U.N. Runner than anything else in
> the joint.
> - Zoner is a big fan of Hard Drivin'.
> - Janet kicks -ass- at Lethal Enforcers. (What a surprise,
> huh?)
> - Sakura is hell on little red sneakers at air hockey.
> - Ken is not very good at Karate Master.
> - Ryu is the galaxy's most inept driver.
> We had a hell of a good time, though. Playoff had a new game,
> the second in Sega's Virtua Fighter series - a unique series, not only
> for its rendered-polygon technology, but also for the fact that the
> characters in the game are based on real fighters, some of whom we
> knew. We all had a good laugh at the thought of the real Jacky
> Bryant's hair being all polygonal and spikey like that.
> "Huh," said Ken, watching Ryu and Zoner go at it on VF2.
> "Y'know, we should get together and with some game company and do
> something like this." He grinned.
> "Oh great," Janet observed. "Next thing you know every
> league's got its own game. What's that second-string circuit where
> they allow body armor and blunt weapons?"
> Sakura snorted. "The Vipers? Nobody'd touch a game with
> -those- sleazebags in it."
> "I suppose not," Ken said, warming to his idea, "but we've got
> charm and class! Only wouldn't it be cool if, instead of this 3D
> polygon stuff, it was a hand-drawn anime-style game, y'know, with 2D
> animated sprites, like a modern version of Karate Master? Yeah,
> that'd kick! I'll have to make some calls."
> "I'd pay real money to see you get M. Bison to agree to be in
> a video game," I remarked.
> "Watch me," Ken said with a smirk. "He'll do it; it'll feed
> his ego."
> "Why hand-drawn?" Janet wondered.
> Ken shrugged. "Looks cool. Cooler than polygons, anyway. If
> you get the right artists."
> "If you're going to make it sprite-based," Ryu wondered,
> pausing for a moment to take Zoner for a ride on Splash Mountain, "why
> not use digitized photos of the fighters?"
> Ken, Sakura, Zoner, Janet and I all winced together and said
> in unison, "Eew!"
> "OK, maybe not," Ryu said, shrugging and returning his full
> concentration to the game.
>
> END BATTLE 03
>
>
>