“Panther Shot!”

“Whoa!”

“Panther Shot!”

“Yikes!”

“Don’t worry Big Brother! You can take him!”

“Panther Strike!”

“Ha! Take this!”

“Oof!”

“Hot damn I’m good! I've already surpassed him so easily...”

“Don’t waste so much time gloating!”

“What the–?!”

“PANTHER DRIVER!!”

“AAAAHHHH!!!”

“BIG BROTHER!”

Dan awoke with a start. He sat straight up, and his hand went immediately to the top of his chest to see how badly hurt he was. Amazingly, he was alright. How the hell he could have been hit so hard and not have a mark on him? His mind reeled through any possibility, before finally realizing the one critical thing he’d missed.

“Just a dream...” he mumbled, and lay back down on the bed. Or maybe, perhaps dream would have been the wrong word. Memory was far more accurate, though certain parts may have been slightly embellished.

”I still remember that punch....he didn’t hold back for an instant....why didn’t he?” wondered the Saikyo-Ryuu user. Despite the memory of pain still fresh in his mind, Dan smiled.

”He knew I was ready...”

Though Dan was totally unaware, he was being watched. Johnson had picked his hiding spot rather well. The roof of a building across from the man’s hotel, one story higher than the man’s room. Johnson was a tall guy, often recognized by his wearing a dark black trenchcoat all the time. It seemed to be a style many American men in this city liked. Johnson looked through a pair of binoculars, focusing them on the man’s hotel window. He had been there most of last night, watching silently as he had been ordered to.

The man was moving now. Johnson had been afraid he’d had a heart attack when he suddenly sat up in bed and grabbed at his chest like that. He appeared to be fine now. He was getting out of bed. Why was he lowering himself onto the floor? Johnson couldn’t see the man now, he was obscured by the bed. Maybe this spot hadn’t been the best choice after all. Johnson saw a brief flash of color on the other side of the bed, which was quickly lowered and disappeared again. What the hell? It appeared again. It was the man’s back! That’s what it was. Down again.

“Push ups...” mumbled Johnson to the empty air around him. At least he though it had been empty.

“You really thought a so called ‘super hero’ didn’t exercise?” cackled a voice next to Johnson. Cackle was indeed the correct word. It pierced Johnson’s eardrums like a spear. The shrill, screechy “hyah hyah hyah hyah!” made him want to cover his ears and glare at the offending noise maker. He performed neither action, though. After all, he knew who the voice belonged to, and didn’t dare insult her.

“So....glad you could join me up here tonight, madam.” said Johnson. He looked toward the woman-assuming it still had the functioning organs to be called such-who had so stealthily managed to sneak up on him. She was short, but her head was above Johnson’s by a good five inches. Of course, Johnson was sitting down, but the lady’s height was also something wise men did not bring up.

“Yes, yes whatever. Let me see those binoculars, I want a look at this guy who’s been causing trouble.” The woman quickly grabbed Johnson’s binoculars and put them to her eyes, and Johnson thought himself lucky he hadn’t been wearing the strap around his neck. The last thing he needed was to have his face near that withered...thing’s body.

“Oooo, damn he’s hot!” squealed the midget. ‘Mega Dan X’ had apparently either grown bored with his pushups, or had completed them, as he was now standing before the bathroom mirror flexing his arms and shooting his reflection a shiny grin. Part of the woman’s reaction might also have been because the man was wearing only a white pair of boxer shorts. His black shirt and pink karate outfit was folded neatly on a night stand in the main room.

“Maybe I should scrap the original plans and give him some more ‘personal’ duties to fulfill for me” grinned the old woman. The grin seemed to increase her number of wrinkles three fold, pardon the pun.

A circus acrobat would have been put to shame by the flip flops Johnson’s stomach did as he contemplated what the old crone was thinking.

“Change of plans. Instead of normal surveillance, I want to meet this man directly. See that he gets to my shop today.” The crone picked up a walking stick that was a good foot taller than she was, and held it in her right hand. She quickly turned, and walked off the way she came.

Johnson looked back to the hotel window, half to make sure he didn’t lose sight of the target and half because he didn’t want to spare another second’s glance at the old woman. The steady slapping of her feet to the cement and the occasional clack of the walking stick grew dim to his ears as he concentrated on the man. He was getting dressed now. Good, he may be leaving. Johnson needed a chance to move around some, and it was cold up here. Not much time, though. He needed to round up some of the others to properly direct the target to his destination.

Johnson got up and ran to the left side of the building. Gauging the distance to the ground-a good three story drop-he jumped over and was gone.

Dan walked out of the hotel room, glad to be up and about. The hotel hadn’t exactly furnished a continental breakfast, but the manager was kind enough to let the towns new super hero have a quarter for the vending machine. Word sure seemed to travel fast here. That’s the way small towns are.

As Dan walked down the street, occasionally taking a morsel from the bag of stale pretzels in his hand, he took in some more of the local ‘scenery’. Along one street he would see only rows of crunched together tenements. The dull red bricks appeared to be on the verge of collapsing, along with the cracked and broken windows that reflected shards of sunlight along their jagged edges. Occasionally Dan would spot some children running around in the streets. It seemed a relatively safe place as Dan couldn’t remember seeing a single car as long as he’d been here. The children were all wearing clothes caked with dirt, the innocent beauty of their faces were similarly covered by the browns of the earth. Dan offered friendly smiles and waved to each of the children as they, in turn, waved to their new hero, ‘Mega Dan X’.

The ‘business’ section of town was, structurally speaking, a little better. At least most of the windows were whole. The painted words of ‘General Store’ and various other businesses seemed like ancient markings as they slowly faded in the sunlight. Though some may have considered it rude, Dan looked into each of the windows as he passed by. After all, they were places of business, so why shouldn’t he look?

Dan stopped short as he reached one of the last windows on the street. Apparently the owner of the establishment, a kindly old Eastern gentleman, was having a bit of a customer service problem. If you call a guy in gang attire punching you with some brass knuckles a customer service problem, that is. Dan did a quick 180 turn, and whipped the old wooden door to the general store open so hard the hinges nearly broke. The thug dropped the old man, who seemed to be dangling on the edge on consciousness, and faced the pink clad warrior before him.

“Who’re you!?” grunted the punk. The brass knuckles shined dully on his left hand as he shook his fist in a ‘menacing’ manner at Dan.

“Well well well, I must say this is a step up from the McDonalds caper. You all are certainly moving on up!” Dan clapped in that sarcastic manner that only he seemed able to do, which only infuriated the hoodlum more.

As everyone knows, pissed off punk+punk’s own low I.Q.=one of the worst attacks possible against a practitioner of Saikyo-Ryuu. This particular punk chose to take a running leap at our hero, with his left arm completely outstretched for the brass knuckle to achieve ‘maximum’ damage. Dan ducked under the man’s arm, bringing his own left arm to chest level. The thug, still moving forward and past Dan, never expected such a deft dodge or the counter about to happen.

Dan, jumping out of the man’s way to his right, thrust out his left hand. With a resounding call of “Gadoken! (Self Taught Fist!)”, a crackle of blue energy shot out of Dan’s left arm and into the face of the still flying hoodlum. Said hoodlum’s trajectory took a slight turn to the left, placing his forehead square in the middle of a grocery shelf. The idiot fell onto his back, and blindly scrambled backward to get away from the pink wearing warrior. The look in his eyes was priceless when his back hit the wall, and he realized he couldn’t get away.

The gangster got to his feet, still blindly staring at Dan and holding his arm out, showing off the brass knuckle like it would ward off the Saikyo-Ryuu practitioner. As anyone would have guessed, the tactic didn’t work. Dan was at the man’s side again, crouching to the ground as he wound his fist backward under him.

“Koryuken! (Shiny Dragon Fist!)” yelled Dan, as the punk sailed across the room and came to land in a box of conveniently placed watermelons. While most of the melons were luckily sparred from damage, a few burst like bombs and covered the bumbling bad guy with melony innards.

“Hey hey, you okay buddy?” asked Dan, his voice holding as much sarcasm as the Hoover Dam held water, “You’re looking a tad...green.”

The punk momentarily lost sight of Dan as a watermelon half fell over his eyes.

“That has to be the worst looking hat I’ve ever seen!” yelled Dan. He looked to his side, and saw that many of the neighborhoods inhabitants were watching from the large front window. Dan flexed and waved his fist at the dripping bandit. After all, it never hurt to put on a show for spectators, right?

Wrong. It did hurt. Or rather, it would have if the punk had been able to see straight. Dan heard a resounding ‘BOOM!’ and looked back to see the punk had risen unsteadily to his feet, removed the watermelon from his head, and was aiming a gun at him. Not aiming very well mind you, given the visual acuity problems mentioned earlier.

Dan looked quickly for some means of defense. Saikyo-Ryuu, while one of the strongest style known to Dan, er, known to man that is, was still far from bulletproof.

As if struck by some divine intervention, Dan had the strangest urge to look up. Lacking any real reason not to, he acted upon this urge. Why this particular general store had a stack of aerosol cans on the top of the shelf was anyone’s guess, but Dan didn’t argue.

Dan spun on his left foot, bringing the right one up to slam into the side of the stand-alone shelf. As luck would have it, the cans fell to the ground, with one coming down right between Dan and the punk who was getting better at aiming by the second. As Dan came to the end of his full circle spin, he jumped towards the can.

“Dankuukyaku! (Dan Cutting Kick!)” he yelled. Instead of Doing the three-kick combination, he simply stopped after the initial knee thrust. His knee hit the still-dropping can, sending it flying straight at the punk. As luck would have it, the can hit the gun barrel dead on, knocking it up as the gangster pulled the trigger. With a deft twist on the laws of physics, the can exploded as the bullet ripped through it and harmlessly hit the ceiling.

The punk staggered back, as the metallic shrapnel blown from the can (accompanied by a gooey yellow substance) drove it’s way onto, and in some regions, into, the punks face. The man clawed wildly at his face, trying desperately to get the implements of metal out. Finally, a combination of pain, exhaustion, and humiliation caused him to lose consciousness and sink back into the box of melons.

Dan turned to the audience still gathering outside, and thrust his fist above his head, grinning wildly.

“Yatta Ze! (I did it!)” he shouted, and the crowd broke into applause and mimicking his pose. Dan heard an odd groan among the chorus of adulation, and turned towards the counter from which it emanated. Not that the counter was groaning, but the old man behind it was. Dan helped him to his feet, putting one of the mans arms over his shoulder to balance him. While Dan was a bit large to function as a crutch, the old man gave no complaints.

“What...happened? Where’s that brute?” asked the store owner.

“Hey hey, don’t worry grampa. No one causes trouble for long while Dan Hib–I mean, while Mega Dan X is on the job!” replied the enthused warrior.

“But how could you stop an armed man?” asked the older man.

“No mere mortal is a match for Saikyo Ryuu Karate and...” Dan looked down at his feet, as one of the metallic can’s from the top shelf had rolled and bumped into his ankle, “Cheez-E-Spray?” Dan, while a fan of both cheese and spray-based products, did not think the two should have anything to do with one another. But that was a concern for another time. Medical attention to wounded old men took precedence over such matters. Dan located a first aid kit behind the counter and managed to treat the old man’s injuries, which were surprisingly few and not too serious. A few bruises, some bleeding spots, stuff even Dan could fix up.

“Thank you my boy, but it’s my fault. I haven’t seen the fortune teller this week, so I didn’t know they would be here.” said the shop owner.

“Fortune teller?” asked the befuddled fighter.

“There’s an old woman living on the edge of town who tells fortunes. Once a week most of the local merchants go see her and ask about the gangs in the area. If she says they’ll attack, they will. So the owners are usually smart and close for a few days.” the old man explained, “But I was so busy here on Sunday I forgot to go, so I wasn’t prepared. And as you can see” the old man waved his arm to the disheveled store “I paid the price. It’ll take me all night to clean this up.”

Dan looked to the window, where most of the onlookers had gone away but a few still remained loitering around. Dan rushed to the door and waved them inside.

“Would you guys mind helping this guy clean his store? There’s money in it for you all if you do!” declared the pink wonder. After the volunteers agreed, Dan took a few of the last bills of currency he had in his pocket and gave them each some. The heartfelt thanks and instant hard work reminded Dan just how bad this village seemed to be.

”Something’s rotten in Denmark. Or was it San Francisco? Ah to hell with quotes. I need to get to the bottom of this...”

“Uh...Mister Mega? Or is it X?” the old man tried valiantly to snap our hero out of his cogitation, an effort which eventually succeeded.

“Huh? Is there something else?” asked Dan.

“If you’re looking for more of those criminals, the fortune teller may be able to help you. Her shop’s past the north edge of town. I’d hurry though, she closes up in about an hour.”

“Well any leads would definitely be great. Thanks old man, I’ll go see her!” declared the Saikyo-Ryuu practitioner before bolting out of the door and running for the north part of town. The sun was declining over the horizon, and its golden rays were slowly diminishing to orange, a perfect prelude to the darkness of not just the night, but the unsuspecting Dan’s future.

The old woman stared out of the window in her little shack, patiently awaiting the young man. There he was! Who else would wear that ridiculous pink karate suit? His bare feet were leaving small imprints in the dirt. Better break out the carpet and get into position.

Dan stopped a yard from the shacks front door, reading the large sign painted on the upper portion of the wall. The background was black with stars all surrounding the words “Enya’s Mystical Services”, which were painted in red letters. Dan spared his glance around the rest of the shop. The wood was old, and the paint was peeling is several places. All in all, it did look better than the village buildings. Even though that wasn’t saying much. Dan stepped forward, grabbed the doorknob, and let himself in, just as the “Open, come on in!” sign in the window told him to do.

The first thing he noticed was that the room was very dark. The only light was from the minute source the setting sun provided though the window in the front of the building. The walls were wooden, with no paint covering them. Large, multicolored, and very dusty drapes and curtains hanging from everywhere. Even if the effect was meant to appear mystical, it just made Dan think he was going to fall through a concealed hole in the floor at any second. In the center of the room was a table with a draping white cloth over it, and on top was a crystal ball. Behind the ball was someone sticking their head over the top of the table, someone with an ugly green hat and uglier grey hair. Dan couldn’t really make out any specific features due to the darkness. He didn’t know how lucky that made him.

“Why...are you here?” asked the thing behind the crystal ball.

“I have come...to validate my parking!” answered the pink wonder.

“Ah, the humorist has finally arrived! I was beginning to worry you wouldn’t show up!” the thing seemed glad to see him, at least. It leapt from the table and landed near him, grabbing his hand in a surprisingly hard grip and half-lead, half-dragged Dan to a seat at the table. Dan was exceptionally surprised at how small the person was. It’s height seemed to hardly come up past his legs. Once Dan was properly situated in a seat, the thing scuttled around the table and jumped onto it’s own chair.

“Now now young man, you are here about the gangs, correct?” inquired the old person.

“Wait a sec, first tell me who you are.” said Dan.

“Me? Isn’t it obvious? I’m Enyah Gail, but you can call me Mother Enyah if you like.” replied the old woman.

“Okay Mother Enyah, tell me about these gangs. Where’s the ringleader, for one.”

“Hmmmm” hummed the woman. She waved her arms over the crystal ball, and it gave out a very faint glow in the dim light of the room. In the light of the ball, Dan thought he saw something odd about the woman’s hands. The glow quickly disappeared before he could clearly focus. “I see....they have come from the north east, from a city called Taiyo. It appears their leader–“

”Did you say Taiyo!?” interrupted Dan.

“Yes, is that important? Oh ho ho ho, I see now...” The ball gave off another glow. “That’s where she is, isn’t it?”

“Is she okay? Nothing happened to her, has there?” asked Dan. A powerful gang in the area was just the sort of thing she would want to cover. She was always sticking her nose where it didn’t belong....

“I shall try to locate her.”

“Hmmmm” she hummed again. The woman’s eyes closed, and her head rocked backward, letting her sway in her seat for a few moments. Her eyes quickly opened and she put her hands on the table. “She is in danger! The criminals consider her a threat. I believe they may have already made their move.”

“No! She wouldn’t get caught!” Dan sprang out of his seat, and bolted for the door.

“Wait young man!” Dan turned back to Enyah, already half out of the doorway. “It is a three day trip to Taiyo on foot. Your unprepared.”

“I’ll get there by tomorrow night. I, Dan Hibiki, the worlds most powerful user of Saikyo-Ryuu, will not stand idly by while she is in danger!” declared the pink wonder. He ran out of the shack, slamming the door on his way out. Enyah was left alone in the partial darkness for a second. The seconds turned to minutes, when finally a voice spoke from behind her.

“So he took the bait?”

“Yes Johnson. He’ll probably run half the night through those woods.” replied Enyah.

“Madam, what about the plan?” asked Johnson, stepping from a doorway in the back.

“The plan is the same, I just want to have a little more fun. I doubt he’ll be a problem now. Speaking of fun, why don’t you go to town? Set a puppy on fire or something, just enjoy yourself. I need to be alone to start phase two.”

“Very well, madam.” Johnson took out a cigarette lighter, and calmly walked out of the front door.