Of Love, Honour, and Revenge Ch. 12
By Matt Lawson

"Colonel Guile, Colonel Nash, Captain White, please report to the briefing room immediately! This is an emergency!"

Guile, Charlie and Cammy ran towards the briefing room, gaining nothing but constant reminders as to where they should go. Cammy was tempted to shoot every single speaker that they came across just to shut them up.

They arrived at the briefing room. The CAG and the General in charge of their operation were inside. The three soldiers noticed a very worried look on their faces.

"Sit down you three, we've got a lot to discuss."

Guile, Charlie and Cammy sat down on the chairs, looking at the General with concern.

"Sir," Guile started, "Has something happened?"

"Our VX has been taken by Shadowloo."

Cammy's eyes widened. "D*mn! And I worked so hard to recover it. So much for American efficiency."

The General stared at her for a couple of seconds, then continued. "We just recovered a black box from Major Sonners' plane. They were attacked by Shadowloo MIGs, but the C-130 was already taken from the inside."

The General clicked on a remote control. The viewscreen showed the last view details of the battle. It showed nothing but a black screen, but the sound could still be heard.

"……Darcine, evade, there are two bandits coming towards ya." They recognized the voice as Major Sonners.

"……Darcine, answer me d*mmit!"

"Darcine's dead, my friend. And so will you. Look up." Cammy instantly recognized the new voice. Vega!

Then they heard Sonners say his final prayer, then there was a muffled explosion. Then, silence.

The General continued. "It gets worse. An hour ago, Shadowloo forces attacked the Chemical Weapons Facility outside San Francisco. They stole every single VX warhead in the place, along with the missiles. All that's left are dead guards and an empty gas chamber."

They were shocked. The facility was a very closely guarded secret. How Shadowloo knew about it was anyone's guess.

"Did anyone survive?" Charlie inquired.

"No-one. This was a carefully planned attack."

"What the h*ll?" Guile stood up. "That's impossible, Shadowloo went completely haywire after Bison died. No-one could have had the planning and strategic thinking of Bison."

"Well some-one has now!" The General stood up from his chair. "And we need to find him and eliminate him before Shadowloo becomes a major world threat again."

"Sir," Charlie took Guile's side. "I can assure you, Bison was the only strong link in Shadowloo's history. Without him, they're nothing. Not even his second-in-command, Sagat had the cunning of Bison."

"Are they? There must be someone in the ranks now that has the capability to attack society the way Bison did. We know that Sagat escaped from a maximum security prison in Hong Kong."

"What's that?" asked Cammy.

Guile shook his head. "We also know that Sagat was just a hit-man. A fighter, not a thinker."

"What's that?" Cammy repeated.

"What's what?" asked the CAG.

The view-screen suddenly flashed. It was connected to the computer and communications array inside the base. Someone was hacking into the system to send a message.

The General picked up the telephone and connected to the array. "What's going on?"

"We're getting some sort of live signal. It's not one of ours and we can't seem to pinpoint its location."

The General suddenly dropped the phone. Everyone went slack-jawed as the image of a man they had never expected to see appeared on the screen.

"My, I did not expect to see such interesting expressions." said M. Bison.

"Bison!" Guile shouted. Cammy's face twisted in anger as she stared at the image of the man who had ruined her entire life.

The General picked the phone up again. "Lieutenant! Is this some kind of a joke?!"

"N…no sir!"

"That's right, General McGruder. This is a 100% pure transmission direct from my new base. Don't look so surprised, Colonel Guile. And don't try to use your locator, it can't help you now." Bison sniggered at the fun he was having at showing his face.

"D*mmit, Bison. You're supposed to be dead!" Guile glared at Bison.

"Supposed to be, but not. Well now, what shall we talk about, hmm? You're VX is now back in my hands, and I have every intention of using it."

"Don't you dare!!" screamed Cammy.

"Ah, yes. My beautiful ex-agent, Cammy. How does it feel to be working for the other side, traitor?"

"Leave her out of this, Bison." Charlie went to her defense. "She's not the brainwashed murderer you once made her into. She's working for us, now."

"Well, it will be a pity to have to miss you, but then again, I have other resources. Which brings me back to my original point. The VX gas."

A sub-image appeared in the bottom, and then grew to cover the whole screen. It was a small village in what looked like the jungle of Brazil. Bison's voice continued. "Let me show you how serious I am."

Suddenly, there was a sound of a missile being launched.

"This is a VX warhead. Now, there is only a miniscule amount of VX in this warhead, about one-fifth of a teaspoonful. But as you already know, it's still very deadly."

A missile appeared in the air and exploded, causing the VX to detonate in the atmosphere.

They watched helplessly as tribesmen, women and children ran out of the house, the effects of the VX apparent. Their skin began to melt as they dropped to the floor, spasming so violently as to throw up their guts to the floor. In a matter of seconds, every single one of them were dead.

Cammy looked away in horror, feeling a little sick herself. In the background, Bison laughed out loud.

"Now, think what will happen to a whole city of people."

Guile, his eyes stabbed through with scintillas of fury, his lips bubbling spittle, said, "You b*st*rd! I'll rip your f***ing heart out!"

"Afraid I don't have one. But there is a way to stop this from happening. You know the man that I want."

"You mean Ryu?" asked Guile.

"Yes. I want you to find Ryu and make him come here."

"What if he refuses?"

"Then tell him I have someone that might pique his interest."

A young girl wearing a Japanese school-girl's outfit was pushed into view. Around her neck, a metal garrote was being pulled from behind.

Guile recognized her as the girl who followed Ryu around. Sakura.

Her face was covered in cuts and bruises. She had been beaten and tortured. Part of her clothes were torn, and there was a deep wound around her leg. Cammy looked in shock when she realised that Sakura was being treated the exact same way that Cammy had been treated when she was captured.

"I'm not going to kill her, yet. But when Ryu hears about Sakura's current condition, we will have to come. I'll be waiting for him. I'll be sending soldiers round to attack another friend of his if he still doesn't comply. And Cammy?"

Cammy looked at Bison's face. Her anger had reached such a high level, Guile and Charlie knew she was about to explode.

"How do you like the way I treated her? Does this remind you of anything. I may end up brainwashing her like I did you. And if I can't stop any of my scientists from raping her like that man did to you, well, that's just to bad. I hope to see you again, my dear sweet Cammy."

Bison sprayed a staccato snigger, which increased into a wild laughter, his eyes washed with mania. Cammy erupted her anger. She screamed at the viewscreen with a Cannon Drill, which shattered the screen and destroyed Bison's image.

She landed, and let out a sob.

"I….I'm sorry."

Guile rested a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. I understand how you feel." The General slumped into his chair. "This is great. Bison's alive. We're gonna be in deep sh*t now."

Charlie walked up to the General. "Chun Li's gonna be pissed. She was the one who saw Bison die."

Guile turned. "Sir. I think we should tell Interpol the news. They have to know that Bison, and Shadowloo, is back."

"Agreed. In the meantime, this is classified information between Interpol and ourselves.

Don't tell anyone else, not even this 'Ryu'. He may do something that could jeopardize this entire operation."

"Thank you sir."

"I'm going too." Cammy stopped sobbing and stood up, remembering how Chun Li had taken care of her when she had recovered from her brainwash. "I know Chun Li a lot more personally than you, begging your pardon, Guile. I'd like to see her again."

"Okay." replied the General

"Wait! Bison said something about attacking another friend of Ryu's. Who do you think he or she is?"

Guile put his hand to his chin. Pondering Charlie "Well, Chun Li's going to be too closely guarded. Which means…….oh sh*t! Ken Masters!"

Guile raised his head. "Sir, I need to get to Los Angeles now. I know who Bison plans to attack."

The CAG considered this, then picked up the phone. "Control, I need a C-130 to Los Angeles, with escort, now!"

He put the phone down. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Trust me sir. I'm not the important player. Ryu is. We have to keep him away from Shadowloo, whatever the cost."

* * * * * * *

Ken Masters was training with his student, Shaun, in the back garden. The garage had yet to be transformed into a proper dojo, and Shaun insisted on his training. Besides, the garden was large enough for practice sparring with his sixteen year-old student. After performing some warm-ups, Ken decided to test his student's patience and understanding.

"Okay, Shaun. We're going to go through your knowledge of the different stances."

"Ah, c'mon Sensei."

"Shihan, Shaun! I'm just a teacher. I don't know whether I can classify myself as a master, yet."

"Shihan, why do I have to do this?"

"Do you want to progress?"

"Yeah, but…"

"You need to know the different stances if you want to progress, Shaun. I had to when I was as young as you are now."

"Alright."

"Okay. Zenkutsu Dachi, mae Gedan Barai. Yoi!"

At the sound of ready, Shaun placed his hands past his neck over the opposite shoulders to his arms, while twisting his feet inwards. He then brought both fists down, facing the ground.

"Kamaitee!"

As Ken shouted action, Shaun raised his left hand behind his right ear, his arm in front of his face. As he brought it down to a low block, his right fist was bent, so that his fist was by the ribs. He brought his right leg back, and performed the forward leaning stance. "Nawre." (rest)

Shaun moved back to a formal stance.

"Sanchin Dachi, Yoi!" Shaun prepared for the diamond stance.

"Kamaitee!"

Shaun sweeped his right foot inwards, then outwards for a little distance. He twisted his feet inwards a little. At the same time, his arms were raised upwards so that his fists were in front of his face, his knuckles facing outwards.

"Okay, Shaun. Perform some Ipponken while were in this stance. I'll block."

Shaun stretched his arms out for the middle knuckle fist. Ken blocked each attack.

Suddenly, Eliza called from the back door. "Ken, It's a friend of yours on the phone!"

Ken rushed inside, leaving Shaun to practice some of his techniques.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ken. It's Fei Long."

"Hey, Fei! How are you doing?"

"Great. We've nearly finished filming on this movie. Director's given us a few days off."

"Yeah? So how's movie making in Hollywood, I heard you were starring with Nicholas Cage himself?"

"Pretty good. Not as good as Hong Kong, but I still have to get used to it. They're so strict on safety here."

Ken chuckled. Fei was always one to hurt his stunt-men a little too much.

Fei continued on. "So how about you? I heard you moved house."

"Yeah. It's smaller than my old home, but it's excellent having my own home with Eliza now."

"Mind if I come round to look at it?"

"What? You're coming here?"

"Sure. I just thought that since I'm free for the next couple of days, and that I've nothing else to do, I thought I might come round to visit you."

"Sure. How does tomorrow sound?"

Shaun continued practicing. It was getting dark, but he didn't want to go back home. He hated having to walk all the way back to the city, and he couldn't let Ken drive him home.

He decided to stay the night at Ken's house. It was way too late to go home now. He would just have to phone his mother. Shaun lived in a pretty rough neighbourhood in Los Angeles, and Ken was a wealthy man. If Ken drove him, the thugs that often walked the streets of his hometown would have tried to attack him.

Shaun knew the feeling. He had been attacked several times by the criminals, no matter where he went. The reason he learnt Karate was so that he could beat back the thugs and protect his family. It was then that he found Ken, a businessman who was an ex-Street Fighter. When he saw Ken defeat four muggers by himself, it was amazing, but it was when Ken defeated one of them with a fireball, Shaun wanted to train under him.

He decided to try it. See if he could perform that fireball. He formed a zenkutsu dachi, and placed his hands one above the other to channel his ki. He concentrated his energy, trying to form the ball of lightning.

At this point, Ken came out of the back door, and saw what his student was trying to do. He stood there, waiting to see what would happen. He knew instinctively that Shaun would sadly fail. He was just not ready.

Shaun pulled his hands back, then, when he thought he was ready, he pushed his palms forward, hoping to release the fireball. Nothing happened. Shaun stamped his foot on the ground in disgust.

Ken walked up to his student and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Shaun. You have to learn to be patient. The Hadoken is a very tiring attack to learn."

"I know, but…..If I learn this, I feel I could take on any opponent." Shaun kicked the ground in front of him in anger.

"Well, first, you're gonna have to learn to control that anger of yours. Why don't you try again? This time, focus."

Shaun placed himself into the Hodoken stance again. He shut out all forms of thought, save for the concentration of channeling his energy into his hands.

For about a minute, nothing happened. Then, Ken noticed small bolts of electricity forming on Shaun's arms.

Could he do it? Ken asked himself.

Shaun pulled his arms back, and then pushed them forward, with a cry. A small ball of lightning formed, and then disappeared. Ken shook his head.

"You're getting there. But it's gonna take a while."

* * * * * * *

Bison smiled as his transmission abruptly ended. Now that he had their attention, he could continue with his plans. The massacre of the village had proved that he was still just as serious as ever, if not more so. What Bison had failed to mention was that VX was not going to be the only weapon he would use.

The Psycho beam satellite was still operational. All it needed was a beam of pure concentrated energy that it could reflect to a different position of the world. NASA had been very clumsy in its failure to find it. It was wise to make those successful bribes to top NASA officials.

Ryu was the key.

Akuma had told Bison all about the evil intent. Ryu's power could be channeled by the intent to greater levels of power, even such so as to charge the ground level generator to fire a powerful beam into the Psycho beam satellite. Bison planned to take control of Ryu to use as a puppet for both his amusement and his plans. The world would crumble under his power. And with Ryu's evil intent, it would crumble earlier than expected.

He pressed an intercom button on his throne. "Proceed with operation. Kill Mr. Masters tomorrow night when you arrive as planned."

The Japanese girl, Sakura, would be useful as bait. Ken Masters' death would be the final nail in Ryu's coffin.

A Shadowloo guard entered the door. "Lord Bison, you have a visitor." A man wearing a pink gi and a small ponytail walked into the room. Bison turned to see the new arrival.

The man stormed up to Bison. "I've been told that I can find Sagat, the man who killed my father, here."

Bison lifted an eyebrow. "Yes, but he's……engaged right now. Can I help?" "I don't want you. I just want Sagat."

"Well, you can't have him." Bison pressed a panic button on his seat. The new arrival didn't notice.

"If you're a friend of his, I guess I'll have to fight you to find him."

Suddenly, a number of Shadowloo troops burst into the room.

"Well, I'm afraid you're going to have to leave, my friend."

"Well, I see that you've made your decision." The man raised his arms. "Now lets see you enforce it."

Bison stood up. "Ah, this is boring the sh*t out of me already. Kill him!"

Suddenly, as a soldier drew two Glock 17 pistols, the man launched a side kick into his face. The Shadowloo agent dropped the two Glocks, and staggered backwards. The man rolled on the floor and grabbed the pistols, firing into the surprised soldiers. Bison looked on as the newcomer floored his agents like insects. Their was no expression in his face.

One of the agents swung a dagger at the man's throat. The man ducked, and thrust his fist.

The fist did not connect, but it launched a ball of electricity direct into the soldier's face, with a cry of "GADOKEN!". The soldier screamed as his face burned from the fire. He grabbed the soldier by the arm and used him as a human shield as he continued firing with one of the Glocks. Bullets were fired in all directions, but neither Bison, nor the newcomer were hit by any of them. The man somersaulted over the agents and launched a roundhouse kick into an agent's head. He then launched a series of flying kicks, hitting one of the agents three times in the head. He rolled head-over-heels on the floor, avoiding the flurry of bullets that were hitting the floor. Suddenly, as he was about to launch his koryuken, Bison raised his hand and motioned for the soldiers to stop.

Bison walked towards the man, who had turned to face him in the array of dead bodies and wounded soldiers. The man raised his remaining Glock, and fired every round left towards the Shadowloo commander. Before the bullets hit, Bison raised his hand. The man stared in surprise as the bullets slowed down, held themselves in mid-air, and then fell with small clatters on the floor.

"What the…..?" stammered the man.

"How dare you do this to my men. I'll personally…"

Akuma stood out from the darkness and interrupted Bison from doing anything. "Wait, Bison. I would like to fight him myself."

The man turned to face Akuma. He then launched himself into the air, and tried to kick Akuma in the head. However, before he connected, Akuma teleported out of harm's way.

As the man landed, He turned and launched his Gadoken. It stopped way short of Akuma.

Akuma channeled his evil energy into his hands. A swirling red vortex appeared between them. Akuma suddenly pushed it forward with a cry.

"MESSATSU GO HADOKEN!!"

A red stream of fire was launched from Akuma's hands and collided into the man with such force it sent him flying into the wall. The man slid down the wall, and choked blood onto the floor. He opened his eyes, and saw a blurred version of the man who had defeated him so easily.

Akuma picked the man up by the throat. And pulled him up against the wall.

"The way you wear your gi, you have been taught by Master Gouken, the one who taught Ryu, yes? You seem to have learnt some form of Shotokan Karate, and changed it into your own style."

"Y……yeah…it's called Saikyo."

Bison walked up to Akuma's side, listening with interest.

"However, your style is pathetic, your form is pathetic, and you are pathetic. For now.

However, you have potential. You have shown it by the way you defeated Bison's soldiers so easily. Under me, you can improve your style and can one day, become stronger than Ryu himself."

Bison chipped in. "Sagat is in the dungeon. He no longer works for me. How would you like to be a member of my army."

"I don't want no pathetic soldier's job."

"I'm not offering you one. I'm offering a position in my council. You will have the freedom to see Sagat whenever you like, and even torture him, if you want."

The man did not need any lengthy consideration. It was an offer he could not resist.

"….Okay."

Akuma put him down. The man rubbed his throat to relieve the pain.

"What is your name?" asked Bison.

"Hibiki, lord. Dan Hibiki."

"You're learning fast. Welcome to Shadowloo, Dan Hibiki."