Even after the seemingly endless number of matches, it was good to know that the spectators of the ClashDome hadn't run themselves down enough to not enjoy the final fight of Block B.

The 'Dome itself, however... that was a different story. In the operator's booth, looking down at things such as a broken teleporter device, scraps of metal and the roof which now had a hole in it, Racewing cringed. The needed repairs were *really* going to cut into the whole profits thing... and Dream City contractors were real pirates.

No, really, they were. Ruby Heart was one of the DC Contractor's Union's administrators. But that's digressing...

Oh well. There'd be time to worry about that later. Sighing, Racewing excused himself to go out and score another okonomiyaki from Ukyo's.

LAAAAADIIIIIIES AND GENTLEMEEEEEEEN! WELCOME TO BLOCK B'S FINAL BAAAAAAAATTLLLLLLLE!" Hiro screamed through the mike. "OUR COMPETITORS TODAY ARE BOTH CAPABLE FIGHTERS IN THEIR OWN RIGHT! RIGHT, DAI?!"

"Ahem, yes." Dai responded, as usual, in a demeanor that completely contrasted his partner's.

The lights in the Clashdome darkened, and then lit up as the two their way into the arena. Once Hideo poked his head out, an old Sinatra song began to play...

o/~ Love and marriage, love and marriage... o/~
o/~ Go together like a horse and carriage... o/~
o/~ This I tell you, brother, you can't have one without the other... o/~

Hideo rolled his eyes and chuckled. Three guesses as to who had picked that one out.

"Our first competitor is a language instructor from the Japanese school Justice Academy, recently married: Hideo Shi--oh, sorry, it's Hideo Minazuki now..."

After Hideo's music faded, loud Spanish tunes, the same as he would hear back in his caged arena took over, and a certain clawed fighter stepped from the back...

"Our second competitor is a famous bullfighter from Spain, known for his trademark mask, claw, and tattoo, Esteban Vargas Vega!"

"OOOOOOHHHHH-KAAAAAAAY! BEFORE WE GET THE MATCH UNDER WAY, THE COMPETITORS WILL CHOOSE WHETHER THEY WANT TO DO BATTLE HERE IN THE CLASHDOME OR TO BATTLE SOMEWHERE ELSE!"

At this, Vega raised his claw, and Dai nodded upon seeing it. "Actually, Hiro, it had already been... (ahem) 'requested' earlier that today's match take place in none other than...' Dai ruffled his notes. "Yes, I believe "Hell in a Cell" in the WWF Smackdown node. Yes. Hem. Huh."

Vega nodded approvingly.

Hiro looked straight at Dai, who seemed to be sweating a bit. "You... geez, Dai, you're a wuss."

"What?" Dai sputtered.

Hideo quirked an eyebrow. "Don't I get a say in this?"

Vega looked disdainfully at him. "Not if you know what's good for you."

"Fine." Hideo said, shrugging. "But I don't want that comedically deprived pair of opposites for announcers."

"SO, HELL IN A--WHAT?!" Hiro cried suddenly.

"You read my mind." Vega said, nodding. "But I have no one else to replace them with. Do you?"

Hideo nodded. "As a matter of fact, yes. I discussed it with my wife. Kyoko has volunteered to announce."

"Oh, I see, and praise you constantly while belittling me? Are you that insecure?" Vega sneered. In any case, I don't think so, little man!"

"NOW SEE HERE!" Hiro cut in. "I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND THE AUDIENCE THAT DAI AND I ARE THE ANNOUNCERS!"

"Indeed," Dai added.

"AND YOU LOVE US! RIGHT??"

There was silence.

There was a LONG silence.

"...WELL?"

Finally, a guy's voice shouted loud and clear. "Kyoko's HOT! We want Kyoko!"

"Kyokooooooo!"

"Yeah! WE WANT KYOKO!"

Soon, all the males in the arena were chanting, "We want Kyoko! We want Kyoko!" at the top of their lungs.

"H-Hey!" Hideo cried. "Don't talk about her like that!" Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea...

"Oh, all right already," Vega said. "But if you're going to have your wife as an announcer, I'll want someone on my side. But who?"

"Mr. Vega, sir!" A perky female voice said. "I'll announce for you!"

Vega turned. There, in the front row was his head secretary, Beatriz Cuello Alvarez. "I'll announce for you, sir!"

Vega sighed. Well, it could have been worse. He wasn't sure how at the moment, but... "Alright, fine."

"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!" Hiro cried indignantly. "I WILL NOT BE MOVED FROM THIS SEAT! WE WILL NOT BE MOVED! RIGHT, DAI?!"

Snores were all that replied, as Dai had apparently fallen asleep.

"WELL, I'M NOT MOVING--HEY!"

Kyoko entered the booth. "Move."

"I REFUSE!"

"Move," said Beatriz coming in from the other side.

"THIS IS AN OBSTRUCTION OF MY ANNOUNCER'S RIGHTS! I! WILL! NOT! MOOOOOOVE!"

"MOVE!" Both women said icily as the temperature in the booth dropped several degrees.

Hiro loooked back and forth at the two women's faces, and carefully weighed his options....

"BYE!"

The next thing he knew, Hiro had thrown himself out the window. Lucklily, he survived... and got up just in time to look a certain blond-haired "businessman" in the face.

Geese Howard looked upward, saw the broken glass of the booth, and then looked at Hiro, who had just landed in front of him as he had been carrying his newly-purchased tub of popcorn to his seat. Putting two and two together, he sneered at Hiro, and cracked his knuckles.

"You cannot escape... from copyright infringement." Geese's jacket flew off, and he went into full-on fighting stance.

"...mommy."

Much beating, yelling, and flying of popcorn ensued.

Back in the booth, with Dai now sleeping in the corner, both women took their seats, eyeing each other coolly.

"Alright, then." Kyoko said finally. "The combatants--or rather Competitor Vega, have chosen Hell in a Cell."

"Of course, Competitor Hideo knows that in a cage, Vega cannot possibly lose, correct?" Beatriz said sweetly.

Hideo looked at Vega. "What?"

Vega grinned slyly under his mask. "Oh, you'll find out soon enough..."

In an instant, the four people involved in the match were surrounded by TEN THOUSAND SCREAMING FANS holding signs in the middle of a WWF arena, complete with Titantron, and Spanish announcer's table. And of course, a GIANT STEEL CAGE surrounded Hideo and Vega.

Out of nowhere, Vega began laughing again.

"What is it now?" Hideo said.

"You have no idea how much of a pushover this fight's going to be," Vega cackled. "Tell you what. Since I consider myself a fair man, why don't I balance things out a bit... as well as make this a bit more interesting for the both of us?"

Hideo pondered this. "Well, I'm alrady in this deep. What did you have in mind?"

"Simply put, if you last one minute against me in this ring, I will forfeit the match over to you. Do you accept? Or shall we just fight as normal? Think over this carefully."

One minute... or fight until knockout. Hideo didn't have to think long. "Okay. I accept."

Vega's mask hid his now extremely elated smile. "Excellent! It is decided, then!"

"Of course," Beatriz cut in through the announcer's mikes, "Competitor Hideo knows that in a cage, Mr. Vega is undefeated?"

The almost-too smug smile that Baetriz wore almost caused Kyoko to strangle the girl right then and there. She didn't like her already. "What do you mean undefeated? The cage isn't rigged, is it? I swear, if I see any form of cheating going on in there, I'll kick you and your prettyboy's butts myself!"

Beatriz' smile remained steadfast. "Oh no, the cage isn't rigged, but Mr. Minazuki obviously has no idea of Mr. Vega's ability to scale cage walls. It's an art, really..."

Vega grinned wickedly under his mask. "What was the record for a person lasting in a cage against me, Alvarez? Twenty-seven seconds?"

"Close sir, 29 seconds."

"Ah, yes. Thank you. So, think you can beak that?" Without warning, Vega slashed at Hideo with his wrist-mounted claw. Hideo was barely able to dodge the swipe, but he then saw that his neatly pressed button-down shirt was ripped. Both Hideo and his wife's eyes went wide upon seeing this.

"Wait!" Kyoko exlaimed. "He's actually going to USE that thing?!"

"Mr. Vega fights ALL his matches like this," Beatriz said sweetly. "You didn't know that?"

Vega laughed maniacally. "What, did you think this was only for show? I'm not pulling any punches! In fact, I'm not even throwing any! HA!" Vega swiped again.

Once again, Hideo barely was able to get out of the way, and once again, more fabric was ripped off of his shirt.

"Damn... well, at least now I know I won't have to hold back!" Hideo said, rushing his opponent. "Come on, then! I'm not afraid!"

At the last second, he superjumped just as Vega's claw was about to hit him again, and began raining fireballs from above. "Of course, I'm not stupid, either..."

Cursing under his breath, Vega rolled underneath the fireballs, and leapt up. He quickly assessed the situation, and leapt onto the wall. Using his finely honed wall-scaling speed, he was able to avoid all the bursts of chi which came his way, and jumped off with a start, attempting to knock Hideo out of the air, resulting in yet another graze with his claw. Hideo dropped from the sky and landed on his feet and went into a defensive stance.

"Yes!" Beatriz yelled. "Mr. Vega is putting Competitor Hideo on the run! Look at him go!"

"Will you shut up?" Kyoko muttered.

Hideo raised his hands to block what looked like... a dive? Well, it'd do that crazy claw person no good. Too slow in the execution, that move was. He'd counter with his best when Vega landed!

Kyoko laughed. "Ha! Talk about your telegraphed moves!" He's going to have to do a lot better than that--"

As if on cue, Vega, while in mid-air, caught the blocking Hideo, suplexed him in midair, and threw him to the mat, where he bounced once before landing in a heap, a sickening "thud" accompaniying the impact. Fortunately, these being WWF mats, they had quite a bit of give, but Hideo was still in quite a bit of pain. All he could do was groan and squirm on the canvas.

Kyoko, needless to say, was absolutely flabbergasted. "...that.. that's not fair!

Beatriz merely giggled. "17 seconds! A new record! For Mister Vega, anyway..."

Vega looked disdainfully down at Hideo. "You couldn't even give me 20 seconds! Pathetic!"

Hideo got up, slowly, woozily, holding his head. "Surely... surely that's not all you have... ouch..." he panted.

"No, of course it isn't." Vega dealt Hideo a swift kick to the chest--

--and in another split second, Hideo grabbed Vega's leg, and dragged the ninja toward him. Before Vega could react, Hideo fed Vega his most powerful rising uppercut attack, directly to te solar plexus.

"Hmph. Overconfidence. The downfall of so many," Hideo said as Vega flew.

Kyoko raised a fist in the air. "HA! Take that, you psycho nut!"

"Oh, shut up," Beatriz muttered.

Vega was thrown back to the mat, where he stayed for a few seconds before getting up, shakily, his mask cracked in one place, and his claw chipped. "That's... IT. Now, the kid gloves are COMING OFF!"

Hideo smirked. "As my students are so fond of saying, ninja... 'bring it on.'"

Vega jumped into the air, grabbed the top of the cage, and swung himself up until was is crawling across the top of the cage upside-down, almost like an insect.

"Mr. Vega seems to be recovering well," Beatriz said. "He really is better at this, don't you think? 25 seconds!"

"Not this time!" Hideo superjumped to meet Vega, grabbing onto the ceiling mesh of the cage. He used this perch to kick at the Shadoloo warrior.

"Hmph. So stupid." Without even thinking about it, Vega's hand shot out, grabbed Hideo's leg, and twisted it. Hard.

"28 seconds!" said Beatriz.

Hideo growled in pain, the same pain which then caused him to lose his grip on he ceiling, which then caused him to be dragged along the side of the cage wall by Vega... completely helpless. Kyoko, realizing this, gasped, then not knowing what else to do, made a move to choke Beatriz while speaking in a strained voice: "Make him stop, make him stop, you little bitch..."

"Well, I'll say this for you," Vega said. "You survived longer then I thought you would. Oh well. Goodbye. Vega dropped his payload back on the mat.

"I am afraid Mr. (hack) Vega has already won, Mrs. (glaaaagh) Minazuki," Beatriz was able to make out, as best she could while being choked by a very angry nurse. "There's such a thing (argh) as a sore loser, you know!"

Kyoko released Beatriz, puzzled. "Huh? Already lost? What do you mean?" She looked over to Hideo, who lay on the ground, clutching his leg in pain.

"It's very simple. I see Competitor Hideo is in a very tight spot. If I were him, I would most definitely throw in the towel, as it were. Or else you might be dining alone tonight!"

Vega, meanwhile, used his advantage to leisurely drop from the cage wall. Landing on Hideo, he raised his claw. "And now, my adversary, you must pay the price that all who challenge me do when they lose... namely, your life. As they say in your country... 'Sayonara, Hideo Minazuki!'" Vega began to laugh as he positioned his claw over Hideo's midsection.

"NO!"

Faster than anyone could even see, much less react to it, Kyoko leapt over the announcer's table, ran to the cage, opens the door, and headed in a dead run towards Vega.

"Out of my way, you freak!" Kyoko kicked the startled Vega in the face, sending him slamming backwards, into the side of the cage. She then knelt down and held Hideo in her arms. A sniffle escaped her, despite her best efforts...

"Hideo... Hideo, honey, are you okay? What the HELL did you think you were doing, agreeing to his terms anyway? And if you say the word 'honor' even ONCE, I'm finishing what that nutjob started..." Kyoko smiled weakly.

Hideo did as well. His words came out slowly. "Heh. You know me too well, it seems. But don't worry. I'm not going to complain."

The bell rang.

"Hideo forfeits the match to Mr. Vega, due to outside interference!"

"Fine! You can have your stupid match!" Kyoko yelled at the top of her lungs. "The way he fights, I'm surprised people call him a warrior at all! Can you stand up, Hideo?"

"I think... maybe..."

"I am not letting you out of my sight, dear," Kyoko said concernedly as she helped him up and out of the cage. "When we get back to that hotel, I'm going to patch you up, and make sure you get the absolute best care possible..." Kyoko allowed the slightest hint of seductiveness to creep into her voice, which caused Hideo to grin, in spite of the pain.

Indeed, it was good having a doctor in the family.

Back at the ClashDome...

Dai opened his eyes and yawned. That had been a good nap. It looked as if the match were over, however. He looked around. What happened to Hiro? And why was the glass broken?...

Just then, he heard a knock at the door. Opening it, he found Terry Bogard standing in the doorway.

"I believe this is yours," Terry sighed. "Could you be more careful with him? Next time, I might have to charge. Geese isn't exactly a walk in the park, you know..."

Terry dropped the prone form of Hiro on the ground, and walked out.

Dai just blinked.