“Ring Out”

At some point between being pushed off the cliff edge and falling into the water below, something had gone horribly wrong.

For a start, Kim wasn't the slightest bit wet, and the surface was noticeably solid. This made little sense considering he had just been pushed off the only piece of solid ground for miles. Although Kim had never been one to think himself intelligent, he understood enough to know that being submerged in water would leave him and his clothes uncomfortably drenched for a long while afterwards.

Standing up, he found that his body was showing little evidence of the previous battle. His white Karate uniform was spotless and his matching headband was tied neatly and securely at the back of his head; even the aches and pains associated with lying for too long on a hard surface were conspicuous by their absence.

Deciding that he was going to achieve nothing by just standing and thinking about the situation, Kim looked about the room for clues as to where he was. The room was large and spacious, but still managed to feel oppressive. The walls and ceiling were painted thickly with the same lifeless ocean grey while the floor was cold, white and featureless. A large, rectangular poster with the word ‘Waiting’ printed across it in bold glared ominously from one wall, while another smaller poster displayed a faded drawing of a large, succulent hamburger with the word ‘Food’ printed above it. Underneath this poster sat a large pile of brass drawing pins.

Two people occupied the room besides Kim: both of them male and neither of them interesting enough to warrant a full description. One sat in one of the many plastic chairs arranged around the edge of the room, chewing happily away at something Kim couldn't discern; the other sat directly opposite him, scowling.

As the scowl struck Kim as the most natural expression for the situation, he approached the second man and smiled in greeting. The man's eyes drifted towards him.

“Heya” Kim said.

“Hi.” The man's eyes drifted away; he kept on scowling.

Kim was taken aback at this response for a second, but it then occurred to him it was the exact answer he'd expected.

“Where are we?” he asked

The man sat upright and looked about him before pointing at the ominous ‘Waiting’ sign. As he didn't say or gesture towards anything else, Kim assumed that the man's knowledge stopped there.

Kim looked around the room again, and noted to his horror that there were no exits.

“How long have you been waiting for?”

“Six weeks.”

“Oh.”

Kim sat down in one of the plastic seats adjacent to his companion. He soon discovered to his annoyance that two of the legs were noticeably shorter than the others. Having nothing else to do, he got up and chose another chair, which was better. Kim chewed at his lower lip for a while before he started to develop a headache. Not having any convenient way of silencing the pain, he came up with another question to distract himself.

“What is there to do around here?”

The prisoner seemed to be slightly thrown by this one. His scowl deepened and his eyes looked around the room. After a moment’s thought, he took a short breath and smacked his lips together.

“Do you like eating pins?” he asked, sounding genuinely unsure as to what Kim’s answer would be.

“No.”

“Then there isn't anything.”

The other occupant of the room looked straight at Kim and grinned, showing his mouth was stuffed full of the already tiresome brass drawing pins. The amount of blood pouring out of the resulting cuts and gouges was really quite disgusting.

While Kim was suitably distracted, two men in tasteless flannel grey uniforms walked into the room, which was odd considering there were no entrances.

“Welcome to Ringland. You will be taken to your rooms in preparation for the coming Sports Day.”

Kim blinked and found himself standing in a completely different room. The walls and floors were made of the same metallic paint, which was starting to become extremely harsh on the eyes. More importantly, this room had a window. Squealing with delight, Kim skipped gleefully over to the window to discover where he was…

Much to his annoyance, the next fight started before Kim finally discovered what was going on. This annoyance didn’t last long as his mind was wiped completely clean and his energy bar filled back up to the top.

Incidentally, the next round was also taking place on The Cliff Stage. The CPU difficulty had been turned down a notch though, so there wasn’t much chance of Kim falling off this time.