Chapter Two: The Journey, Reunions, and New Friends

The boats arrived off the shores of Southern China. Chun-Li stood with Ryu. She had two black suitcases. Ryu, as usual, had his gray duffle bag.

There was silence between the two until Chun-Li said, "I wonder where Ken and Fei-Long are."

Ryu turned his head towards her. "I'm sure they'll be here any minute."

That's when they heard someone trip and dropped what seemed like a lot of bags. Chun-Li and Ryu turned around. They saw Ken standing there carrying two brown suitcases. He stared at Fei-Long who was carrying 7 suitcases.

Ken then bursted out laughing. "I told you that you don't need that many bags."

Fei-Long stood up. "So I'm not a light traveler like you, all right?!" Then, he managed to pick up the suitcases.

Chun-Li and Ryu walked over to them. "Let me help you," said Chun-Li.

Fei-Long shrugged. "Fine, I guess."

Chun-Li picked up two suitcases. Ryu picked up three and Fei-Long took the remaining two.

That's when they heard an annoying-like male voice cry out, "Hey, look who's here!!"

The four turned around and saw a man wearing a pink gi. It was no other than Dan Hibiki.

"Hi Dan," said Ken, sounding like he just lost a match.

"Dan," said Ryu. "What made you come along?"

Dan flexed his muscles. "When I heard about the tournament in the island off the Philippines, I figured, why not? Let's try it out." He did a couple of punches in the air.

"(This might be interesting)" thought Fei-Long.

"Well guys," said Chun-Li. "Let's get on the boat and to the tournament."

All five got on the same boat. The boat was a wooden maroon color and the bow was about three feet tall and carved into a dragon. Only seven people could fit in the boat.

The five friends settled themselves. Soon, an old man got on the boat. A minute later, they heard an ear-piercing scream.

"What was that?" asked Ken.

The boat shook a bit and then they heard a young female voice cry, "RYU!!!!!! You're here!!!!!!!! I knew you were going to be in this tournament!!!!!"

They looked over to see a young girl wearing a sailor-senshi outfit and a white headband.

"Sakura??" said Ryu. His brown eyes widened and it looked like they were going to pop out any second.

Ken laughed and said to Fei-Long, "It's his little stalker!"

Sakura jumped towards Ryu. Ryu tried to lean back, but Fei-Long's suitcases were in the way. He gave up as Sakura wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him so hard that Ken thought he was going to burst.

"Oh my Ryu!!" Sakura cried. "I thought I would never find you!! I can't wait to see you fight and I hope you can train me afterwards."

Chun-Li tried not to laugh as she noticed Dan rolled up into a ball at the bottom of the boat. He was saying something to himself she couldn't understand. Also, the old man jumped out of the boat and swam to the boat next to them.

"So, um, Sakura," said Ken. "You're going to fight in the tournament?"

"Yup!" Sakura said finally letting go of Ryu. Ryu wobbled a little bit before straightening himself. "I can't wait too."

"I don't know," said Fei-Long. "I think you're a bit too young for this tournament." He looked at her seriously. "Once you die in the tournament, they take your soul. Trust me, it's not a place to be."

"Then why are you all going?" Sakura asked.

"I'm doing an investigation," said Chun-Li. "It's a bit personal."

"Oh."

Dan started to merge out of the bottom.

Then, the boats started to move.

"Here we go," said Ken. "Whatever-Island here we come!"

The boats began to merge towards the sea. The trip was to be three hours long to the island where the tournament was taking place. Sometimes, Chun- Li would dip her fingers into the water and feel the water pass.

Dan saw this and said, "I wonder if I can catch a fish like that." He dipped his hands into the water.

Sakura was sitting very close to Ryu who was looking out into the sea.

Chun-Li looked at Ryu. Her heart fluttered a little as she stared at his features from head to toe. She sort of had a crush on him for quite awhile, but wasn't sure if her feelings were enough to tell him, well, how she felt.

That's when she heard a yelp and then a big splash. Ken and Fei-Long laughed hard and their boat stopped. Chun-Li saw Dan emerging from underwater and spitting out some water. "Darn!" he said. "I nearly had that fish! I went to reach in deeper and then......"

"Dan," said Ken still laughing. "Let's just wait until we get to the island for food."

An hour later, Sakura fell asleep on Ryu's shoulder. Ryu gently laid her on the bottom of the boat.

"She can be annoying, can she?" asked Fei-Long.

Ryu looked up at him. "I know she wants me to train her, but I still need to learn myself."

"Whatever you say, Ryu," Fei-Long replied.

Before anyone knew it, all the boats landed in the sandy island filled with palm trees. Chun-Li saw Jax and Sonya. They walked over to their boat.

"Hi Chun-Li," said Sonya. "Looks like you did bring a few friends with you. We have others waiting in the cave you're all be staying at."

"A cave?" asked Fei-Long.

"Yeah," said Jax. He grinned. "Don't expect to be hotels here. This island has been deserted for so long. We wonder why this island is nameless."

Sakura woke up. "We're here already?"

"Yup," said Chun-Li.

Everyone grabbed their own and Fei-Long's belongings and followed Sonya and Jax. They followed them for about five minutes before they entered a big cave. There were candles lit on the walls. The trail was long before they entered a big area. Waiting for them were more people.

Chun-Li smiled when she noticed...."Guile!!"

Guile, the Colonial of the US Air Force who worked with Chun-Li against Shadowlaw, got up. "Hey Chun-Li!" They both shared a brief hug.

"Hey look!" cried Dan. "It's Guy and R. Mika!!"

A guy in an orange ninja gi walked up to them. "Hi Dan."

Following him was a girl with blond hair in long pigtails. "Hey Dan," she said with a smile. "Long time no see."

"What?" said a tall guy with a Jamaican accent. "No one's happy to see Dee Jay?"

Ken was the only one who replied to that. "Hi."

Sonya smiled. "Seems like everyone knows each other here?"

"Yeah," said Ken. "We were all in the Street Fighter Tournaments. Look, there's Dhalsim!"

Dhalsim was floating in the air meditating. He opened one of his white eyes and looked at Ken. "Keep quiet! I'm meditating!"

"And there's Edmund Honda," said Fei-Long. Honda was eating a big bowl of fish in the corner of the cave.

"And Rose," said Chun-Li. Rose's body was glowing purple and she seemed in full concentration.

"She's preparing for the tournament," said a tall blond man. He scratched his nose the handcuffs connected on both wrists.

"Cody," said Ken.

"And don't forget me," said a man with a German accent.

"Rolento," said Fei-Long.

"Now," said Sonya. "It's time for all of you to meet my people."

Dhalsim and Rose got out of their concentrations and Honda looked up in confusion.

Four people stood up. One was Chinese and wore nothing but black pants and a red bandana, one was wearing a blue dress, one was dressed all in white that nearly matched his long white hair, and one was good looking and wore expensive clothes and expensive sunglasses.

Sonya pointed to the Chinese man. "This is Liu Kang, he was Mortal Kombat's champion last year."

Dan looked at Liu, then Ryu. He cracked up. "Look at that. Ryu and Liu are wearing red bandanas! They're like long lost brothers."

Unfortunately, Dan was the only one laughing. Everyone else gave him 'man- you're-weird' look. Dan stopped laughing.

Sonya pointed to the man with the sunglasses. "This is Johnny Cage, a good friend of mine."

Fei-Long scratched his chin. "I know you. You're that actor in America everyone's crazy about."

Johnny looked at him. "And you're that famous Hong Kong actor aren't you?"

Sonya continued and pointed to the man with the white hair. "This is Lord Rayden. He'll help you in this tournament."

"Perhaps I will as well," said Rose stepping forward. "I am a psychic who fights with soul power."

"Impressive," said Rayden.

"And finally," Sonya said pointing to the woman with the blue dress. "This is Kitana, someone who knows about Outworld very well."

Immediately, Guy was amazed by Kitana. She was beautiful with long brown hair, dark eyes and full lips. Guy already imagined himself being with her and wanting to protect her from the tournament since he knew the consequence of losing.

Jax noticed the way Guy was looking at her. "Umm, Guy," he whispered. "Try not to react, but I'm just letting you know now that she's ten thousand years old."

"(Ten thousand what?!)" Guy thought.

"Okay," said Jax. "Many of you are aware of the rules of the tournament. The tournament is runned by Shang Tsung, who we believe is one of Shao Kahn's best warriors of the Outworld. Not many of you will make it out alive, so I'd start writing wills if I were you. Are you all sure you want to do this?" He looked at Sakura.

"YES!!" everyone cried. Sakura gave Jax a smile.

"Good. The tournament begins in two days. If you beat Prince Goro, you will make it to the finals in which you must face Shang Tsung himself."

"Who's Prince Goro?" asked Rolento.

"You'll see," said Kitana. Her voice echoed into Guy's mind.

"So everyone, just relax," said Sonya. "And prepare for the tournament."