Chapter Text
FATAL FURY / KING OF FIGHTERS - KING OF FIGHTERS STADIUM
Music Inspiration: Kurikinton (Ultimate Ver.) / Kuri Kinton Flavor
The all-consuming flash of light from the cosmic genocide was the last thing either Venom (and Eddie Brock) remembered. One moment, sheer oblivion; the next, a disorienting, sticky reality. The King of Fighters Stadium sounded like a cacophony of screaming fans. For Eddie Brock, it was the second-worst atmosphere he’d ever experienced, just after being nearly atomized by a god of light.
Venom and Eddie awoke with a jarring thud on hard-packed dirt, the roar of an unseen crowd echoing around them.
“Agh… my head…” Eddie groaned, pushing himself up onto his elbows. The roar of the crowd was a physical force. “Where…?”
“LIGHT! WE WERE DROWNING IN LIGHT!” the voice of Venom, a gravelly and guttural snarl, boomed in their shared skull, a protective, black biomass erupting from Eddie’s back to form a snarling, white-eyed head. Eddie felt a rare alien horror from the symbiote, one of near total annihilation, “WE WERE ALMOST VAPORIZED, EDDIE! WE WILL DEVOUR THAT RADIANT BASTARD! WINGS AND ALL!”
“Take a number, pal,” Eddie clutched his head, the residual psychic terror battling the Symbiote's rage. "Hold on, big guy. I... I heard something." He closed his eyes, recalling a shimmering, almost musical voice amidst the chaos. "Galacta. She... she said 'moving' us, 'pocket dimensions.' She sent us somewhere else, saved us." He straightened up, his eyes scanning the massive arena. "Looks like we landed in some sort of fighting tournament."
“Whoa! Talk about a ringside seat from nowhere,” Beside them, another figure was staggering to their feet, adjusting the brim of a red and white cap. It was Terry Bogard, the legendary Lone Wolf. He dusted off his iconic red jacket, his eyes wide in disbelief, but his signature grin was still there despite the confusion, "But, how are we not spirit-bait right now? I'm not complainin', but that light was not cool."
"Be silent," a low, dangerous growl cut through the stadium noise.
The voice was low, a gravelly rumble of pure, undiluted menace. Kazuya Mishima, already awake and radiating an aura of lethal fury, stood a few feet away, the belt around his gi pants billowing slightly even in the still air. His eyes, one now slightly glowing red, fixed on the cheering and oblivious crowd. He didn't turn. "Your prattling is irrelevant. We were defeated. Humiliated. I was almost reduced to near-nothingness by a glorified glow-worm," He finally glanced over his shoulder, his red eye glowing harshly with infernal promise, "That worm will pay. I will crush it, break it, and then personally decide whether the remnants of this reality are worth keeping."
“YOU? THE DECISION TO DESTROY IS OURS!” Venom roared, surging forward to loom over Kazuya, drool spattering the concrete. “ITS LIGHT BURNED US! WE WILL BE THE ONES TO FEED! IT IS A FEAST OF PURE ENERGY! THE ULTIMATE POWER FOR THE SYMBIOTE'S GROWTH!”
"Hmph. A mindless parasite, driven by hunger," Kazuya met the Symbiote's monstrous glare with terrifying calm. "You are no different than the filth I crush beneath my heel daily. You want to eat it. I want to destroy it. You want to use it. I want to end it. Stand in my way, parasite, and you will simply be the first thing I reduce to molecules today."
The two titans of darkness squared off. Venom’s form rippled, tendrils sharpening into claws. Kazuya’s fist began to glow faintly with a demonic energy. The air thickened with raw hostility. The crowd, finally noticing the tension, began to murmur, their cheers dying down. Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi stepped to the edge of the ring, their faces etched with concern.
“Hey! Break it up, you two!” Terry stepped between them, hands raised. He was the picture of calm, a stark contrast to the embodiments of rage and hunger on either side. “I don’t know who you guys are, and frankly, your fashion sense is wild, but we’ve got bigger problems. That light thing? It wiped out our worlds. We need to save ‘em.”
Kazuya scoffed. “I have no interest in saving worlds. Only in ensuring I am the one to decide their end. That… thing… stole my right. For that, it will be erased.”
“ENDING THE WORLDS IS A WASTE OF PERFECTLY GOOD HOSTS!” Venom countered, its massive head swiveling to take in the stadium. Its tongue lolled out. “SO MUCH POWER… SO MANY STRONG BODIES… THIS REALITY IS RIPE FOR SYMBIOSIS. WE WILL ASSIMILATE IT ALL!”
"WHOA! HEY! Time out!" Terry threw his arms out, stepping quickly between the two enraged powerhouses. "Look, I get it! We're all mad, we all almost died, but screaming at each other isn't saving anyone! Our worlds are in danger, remember?!"
Venom and Kazuya still glared at one another, ready to tear the other apart.
Terry sighed, scratching the side of his head. “Look, you can argue about the real estate market later. Recognize this place? This is my home turf. These are my friends.” He gestured to the ring, where Kyo Kusanagi was watching with a curious frown, and Iori Yagami had his back turned, looking bored but intrigued. “So let’s act like guests, okay?”
Kazuya scoffed, crossing his arms. "I care nothing for 'worlds,' only my own power. But the end of all things should be my decision. Fine. I will aid your pathetic attempt at salvage, but only to ensure I have the privilege of taking the light-thing's life myself."
Eddie's face reappeared and simply sighed, "He's got a point, V. We're in a new world, now. And these guys look serious, and they helped us back there. That light thing almost took us out. Might as well help out while we find a way back home."
Venom retreated slightly, his rage morphing into a calculation. "HMPH. IF THE WORLDS ARE SAVED, THEY ARE RIPE FOR SYMBIOSIS. A PREMATURE ENDING WOULD BE A WASTE OF POTENTIAL HOSTS AND POWER."
"Close enough," Terry said as he finally took a proper look at their surroundings. The massive, cheering crowd, the distinctive blue logo emblazoned on the dirt. "The King of Fighters Stadium... We're home."
Suddenly, the roar of the crowd intensified, and a familiar flurry of faces appeared on the sidelines. Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi, Blue Mary, Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami—the whole Fatal Fury and KOF roster was there, cheering for the Lone Wolf, but their expressions were mixed with confusion, particularly concerning the massive, black creature standing next to him.
Venom leaned down toward Eddie, his voice a greedy whisper. "EDDIE. DO YOU FEEL THAT? THE POWER! THE SKILL! EVERY ONE OF THESE... FIGHTERS... THEY ARE SO STRONG! THEY ALL MAKE SUCH FINE HOSTS! THIS WORLD IS RIPE FOR SYMBIOSIS!"
Before Terry could explain the situation to his worried friends on the sidelines, a new, far more ominous sound drowned out the cheering. A rhythmic thump-thump-thump grew louder, followed by a dark, swirling energy that began to distort the air above the stadium. The sky darkened. Not with clouds, but with a tear in reality itself: a vortex of purple and black that vomited forth a horde of bizarre, robotic, and organic monstrosities. Primids, Roturrets, and Mites descended upon the stadium like an otherworldly plague. Their silent, destructive purpose instantly replaced the festive atmosphere. The King of Fighters roster, professionals that they were, immediately shifted into combat stances.
“We got company!” Terry yelled, instantly dropping into a combat stance. “Looks like the party’s starting early!”
Kazuya smirked, an unholy gleam in his eye, and cracked his knuckles. "Finally. Something to shatter."
He and Kazuya fell into a practiced, back-to-back stance, a temporary truce forged in the face of a common enemy.
But before either of them could move, Venom let out a triumphant roar—a sound that was pure, hungry excitement—and leapt in front of them, his mass rippling and distorting into blades and tentacles.
“FOOD!” Venom bellowed, its rage momentarily redirected. It launched itself forward, a tidal wave of darkness. It engulfed a Primid, the creature’s shriek cut short as it was crushed and absorbed. “MORE! GIVE US MORE!” A Roturret fired a volley of lasers, which Venom simply tanked, reforming a massive fist to smash it into scrap.
Terry unleashed a Power Wave, the energy projectile carving a path through a squad of Nagagogs. “Not bad, big guy!” he called out.
Kazuya was a whirlwind of precise, brutal violence. He didn't waste movement. A spinning heel kick sent one Primid flying into three others. “Mishima Style Fighting Karate: Spinning Demon,” he growled, grabbing another and unleashing a blast of devilish energy that vaporized it on the spot. He fought with a cold, efficient fury, every move a testament to his vow of destruction.
Venom, meanwhile, was a force of nature. It wasn't fighting; it was feeding. Tendrils shot out, impaling Subspace troops and dragging them back into its mass. “THEY ARE TASTELESS! BUT FILLING!” it roared, growing slightly larger with each consumed enemy.
From the ring, Blue Mary took down a Primid with her signature grappling moves, while Kyo Kusanagi flung flames from his hands. Iori Yagami, with a derisive snarl, unleashed his purple flames, clearing a whole section of the stands.
A particularly large and angry Tow-Tow crashed into the center of the stadium, its missile pods opening. Before it could fire, a black tendril whipped out, snatching a screaming Goomba from the air—a stowaway in the Subspace invasion—and swallowing it whole.
“SACRIFICE THE SMALL, TENDER ONE TO THE GREATER GOOD!” Venom explained, before using the same tendril to grab one of Tow-Tow's horn and swing the massive war machine into a cluster of Roturrets.
Terry blasted the now-off-balance Tow-Tow with a full-power Buster Wolf. “Okay! A little unhinged! But effective!”
Kazuya finished the machine with a thunderous Devil Fist, his body blazing with blue energy. “Do not get in my way, parasite. My vengeance is mine alone.”
The three of them stood amidst the wreckage of the Subspace vanguard, the stadium now silent save for the crackle of dying robots. The King of Fighters fighters looked on, a mix of awe and horror on their faces.
Terry crossed his arms, grinning. “Well, that was a warm-up. So… you two still wanna kill each other, or you wanna go find that big shiny guy and teach him what happens when he messes with our day?”
Kazuya’s eyes glowed. “The light being dies. Everything else is negotiable.”
Venom retracted slightly, leaving Eddie’s face exposed. He looked weary but determined. “He says he wants to negotiate the terms of its consumption. I’m just along for the ride.”
Terry’s grin widened. “Alright then. Welcome to the team.” He cracked his knuckles. “Now, let’s go round up the rest of the band. This is gonna be one crazy tournament!”