Of Love, Honour and Revenge Ch. 35
By Matt Lawson

“I’m going to enjoy this final fight of ours, Miss Li.”

Bison launched himself at Chun Li, bloodlust in his eyes, as Beethoven’s ninth played in the background with its powerful beginning. He turned his body till he was flying towards the detective in the scissor-kick position. Chun Li dived out of the way as Bison slammed his outstretched foot into the wall behind her, then pushed himself off to fly towards Chun Li again, his arm outstretched. He clothes-lined a surprised Chun Li, who was knocked backward to the floor. Bison flipped around, and softly landed onto his feet.

Bison turned and watched with glee as a stunned Chun Li got up to her feet. She had taken the full force of the attack, and felt dizzy. Bison used it to his advantage by attacking a second time, punching Chun Li with an enflamed fist several times from behind, then throwing her over his shoulder into the wall.

Chun Li fell on her shoulders, then landed on her front. Shaking off the dizziness, she used the wall for leverage as she pulled herself back to her feet and faced Bison, defiantly standing in front of her, arms folded. She launched herself at her attacker, only for Bison to suddenly disappear, then reappear behind her. She spun her foot round in a sweeping kick, but again Bison teleported away.

“Stop it, Bison, fight properly!” she said as she searched the room for the crime lord, preparing to attack as soon as he showed up. Bison appeared behind Chun Li again, as Chun Li found out when two burning hands grabbed her and throw her away.

She slid along the polished floor, but managed to forward roll back to her feet. Turning to face her enemy, she threw a fireball in Bison’s direction, crying out “KIOKEN,” but as Bison teleported again, she back-flipped onto her hands.

“SPINNING BIRD KICK!”

She kicked Bison repeatedly in the chest as he reappeared, then flipped herself over to kick downwards onto Bison’s shoulder, but instead sliced through thin air as he managed to teleport again. Chun Li’s heel slammed down onto the floor. She grimaced as the pain spread through her unprotected heel, but managed to control the pain using her willpower.

She got up to her feet and turned to face a laughing Bison, hovering in the air, arms folded in defiance. “Well, well. You managed to strike me. How….interesting. I didn’t think you were capable of it.”

“I’m a lot more capable than you think, Bison.”

“We’ll soon see.”

As the Cellos and double Basses started to play the main tune of the piece in the background, Bison hovered back to the end of the room. Chun Li started to walk towards him, but Bison blasted her back with a powerful burst of psychic energy, causing Chun Li to slide back to the opposite end. As Chun Li staggered back to her feet, Bison raised his right hand. A set of candlesticks that were before standing motionless at the side of the room suddenly jerked into the air and hovered before Bison. With a twitch, he sent them flying forward towards the detective. Chun Li saw them coming, and quickly separated her legs into a frontal splits, tearing her ballroom dress in the process. The candlesticks smashed harmlessly into the wall. Chun Li placed her hands onto the floor, and pushed her body up into a hand-stand, bringing her legs together slowly, her back towards Bison, who watched as her ballroom dress flowed down, revealing her legs and underwear. She lowered one foot to the floor behind her head, then flipped herself upright on both feet, facing Bison defiantly.

“Very athletic, detective.” Bison sneered.

Chun Li didn’t say anything in return. Instead, she simply charged at Bison, who leapt in the air to perform a head stomp. But Chun Li was prepared, springing into the air with a Tensho kyaku, spinning her body and kicking into the air towards Bison. A surprised Bison teleported before Chun Li’s foot could connect. In the end, Chun Li’s attack smashed into the ceiling. Pieces of stone rubble fell to the floor as she landed back onto her feet. Bison reappeared behind her. “This is getting boring.” Bison said with a grin. “You don’t even hit me.”

“That’s your fault, Bison.” Chun Li said, smiling back. “You’re not fighting fair, you take out all the fun that way.” “So be it, I’ll fight you at your own level then. Come on!”

Chun Li didn’t respond. She prepared herself for the fight that was to come, as Bison ripped of his cloak and flung it against the wall. She bowed to Bison politely, then turned her arms and fell into a frontal guard fighting stance. Bison stood still, hands to his side, his teeth clenched and showing directly at Chun Li.

“I’m going to enjoy watching you die, Detective Chun Li Xiang.”

In the background, Chun Li heard the bass soloist start singing. She clenched her fist, and waited.

“O Freunde, nicht diese Tone! Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen. Und freudenvollere.”

At the end of the sentence, the choir joined in with shouts of freude! (joy), and the fight began in earnest.

Bison began by sliding towards Chun Li with his foot outstretched, which she jumped over. As she landed, they turned round and fought close-quarter. Bison lunged several enflamed punches at Chun Li, who effortlessly blocked them, the counterstriked with her own attacks. Bison weaved between the punches that Chun Li launched at him, then launched a kick with his right foot towards Chun Li’s side, which she blocked down, then attempted to left hook her face, which she managed to move her right arm up to block as well. He had to block a counterattack towards his stomach with his free hand, but was open with a chop into his face from the hand that had blocked his right hook. He recovered swiftly enough to punch Chun Li in the stomach, then kick her away.

Chun Li fell backwards, but managed to regain her footing. She looked up to see Bison bearing down on her with a raised fist, then dived backwards to avoid the downward hook that Bison brought. The punch smashed against the floor as Chun Li backflipped away, then somersaulted into the air, rebounding off the wall, then brought her heel down onto Bison’s shoulder with a foot stomp. Bison fell to one knee from the force of the attack, Chun Li landing behind him, then sweeped his foot around to catch her back leg. Chun Li fell down onto her shoulders, then backward rolled away, jumping back to her feet. As she formed a fighting stance, she suddenly had to fall back to avoid a fireball that Bison launched at her. As she fell on her back, she suddenly saw Bison in the air, ready to bring his feet down into his own foot stomp. She rolled sideways to avoid it, hearing Bison crashing into the floor, then backward rolled back to her feet, and launched her own fireball. Bison placed his back foot behind him, turning around, and the fireball skimmed past, dissolving as it hit the wall. Bison continued turning with a back fist, which slammed into Chun Li’s face, causing her to step back. Bison then continued by sliding beneath her feet, causing her to topple over as she was tripped up, falling onto her back. She looked up to see Bison grab her dress with his hand between her breasts, pull her up, place a hand on her stomach, and throw her onto the floor. She managed to recover enough to roll sideways away from Bison, who slammed his foot down into the floor where Chun Li had been.

Chun Li managed to flip herself back to her feet, then jumped into the air with a flying kick towards Bison’s head, which just missed as Bison side-stepped away. Chun Li landed and turned to face Bison, who had launched his own flying kick. She countered by leaping into the air and spinning her body with a Tensho kyaku, knocking Bison with several kicks out of the air. Bison managed to flip round and hover before hitting the ground, while Chun Li landed into a crouching position, and watched as Bison slowly landed onto his feet.

Chun Li launched herself at Bison, fists clenched as she prepared to punch. Bison turned and blocked the first punch, then the second, then the third. He grabbed Chun Li’s wrist from the fourth punch, and elbowed her in the ribs, winding her. Bison followed with an uppercut into Chun Li’s chin, sending her flipping backward, but in mid flip she kept her legs outstretched and managed to kick Bison in the jaw, causing him to lean backward from the force. Bison reverted himself upright as Chun Li landed on her shoulders, then flipped back to her feet and pressed on with the attack, spinning a kick into Bison’s ribs and following it with a high heel kick into his chin. Bison somersaulted back, and landed on his feet a yard away from the detective. Chun Li launched another fireball, trying to hit him before he could recover, but instead Bison launched himself into the air, jumping over the fireball and Chun Li, then suddenly changed direction and hit Chun Li’s head with an outstretched fist. Chun Li fell to her knees as the force pushed her down, and she found herself at Bison’s feet. She kept one hand on the floor and pushed her self up with a low kick, tripping Bison up, then flipped herself round in order to slam her heel into Bison’s stomach. But before she connected, Bison teleported away, reappearing a few yards away from her. Chun Li, seeing this, fell to her side, and in mid fall, twisted her body so that she landed on her back, and backward rolled onto her feet. She stood up and faced Bison, putting her hands in front of her in a frontal guard stance.

The choir stopped singing in the background. Bison adjusted his uniform and bent his neck slightly, causing a quiet crick as he released the stiffness from it. Chun Li started the attack with a front kick to his stomach, which he effortlessly blocked, as well as several punches to the head and the chest. After an unsuccessful knee to the stomach, Bison returned the attacks by punching Chun Li’s chest, then kicking her towards the wall. Bison launched a right hook that Chun Li leant to avoid, which smashed into the wall beside her, then a left hook that Chun Li ducked, which again smashed into the wall. Chun Li punched Bison away, then followed with two side kicks into his chest, then a side kick to the head. She finished by spinning round on her left foot, and kicked Bison in the head. Bison stumbled back into the opposite wall.

Bison looked at his opponent with hatred as she stood defiantly against him. But he was not fazed.

“Very impressive, detective. But you’ll need to do more to kill me.”

As the tenor singer started, Bison ran towards Chun Li and brought his fist down heavily towards Chun Li’s head, which she blocked, but the force of the attack was so powerful it felt like it was going to break her arm. Bison followed with another punch to her stomach, which she also blocked, but when she retaliated with a roundhouse, he blocked it, leaving her open to a punch into her chest. Bison continued the attack by kicking Chun Li’s leg, tripping her up. As she was about to fall to the floor on her side, Bison punched her while she was in mid-air, and she flew back into the wall, smashing into it and falling to the floor, leaving a large dent into the wall. Looking up towards Bison, she placed a hand on the floor and pushed herself up, kicking Bison twice in the chest, forcing him back, and putting herself back to her feet. Walking up to Bison, she launched a punch to her chest, which he grabbed, but span her arm round to release his hold, leaving him open to a series of fast punches to his chest, then following it with a hook-punch into his face. She then brought her right fist down to hit Bison shoulder, but Bison blocked it, the twisted it so that it was trapped in his left arm. He did the same to the other arm, then leant back to avoid a raised knee towards his groin, then pulled himself forward to trap it, leaving the Chinese warrior completely defenseless as he spun her arms to her side and followed with a hard punch into her chest, forcing her back. Bison walked up to her, anger in his eyes, and launched two punches towards her head, which she swerved to avoid. Chun Li tried her own punch, but it was blocked, then held in Bison’s own right arm. Bison punched the open Chun Li in the ribs three times, before he brought his foot up into her face, releasing his hold on her and causing her to stagger back. As Bison launched another high punch, Chun Li stepped to the side and grabbed it with both hands, then countered by bringing her own foot into Bison’s face. She followed with several chops to Bison’s chest, the side kicked him away. Bison retaliated with several punches, until the last one was caught between both of Chun Li’s arms. Unfortunately, he pushed his arm forward, hitting Chun Li, then finished with a powerful punch that sent Chun Li flying backwards, sliding across the floor. As she lay there, something built up in Chun Li’s throat, and she coughed it out. Blood spat out of her mouth onto the floor.

But she wasn’t ready to give up. Managing to get back to her feet, Chun Li wiped the blood from her mouth, then formed her stance, ready to continue the fight. The smile on Bison’s lips disappeared as she put on a frontal guard stance.

Bison ran forward and knocked her hand away, then punched towards her face, but Chun Li blocked it and punched back into his chest. He punched again, but this time Chun Li blocked it, span it round and held Bison’s fist under her arm, attack with a hammer punch to his face. She then grabbed another punch from Bison and held it under her other arm. Bison was trapped in the lock, and Chun Li used it to her advantage, kneeing Bison in the groin and then uppercutting him in the chin causing Bison to stagger back. Chun Li ran after him and jumped in the air, launching four aerial front kicks in the chest and face. When she landed, she attempted to punch Bison in the throat, but just before it connected, Bison managed to grab it. He suddenly choked as Chun Li opened her hand and her fingers dug into his larynx.

She hammer punched the choking Bison in the head, punched him backwards, then side kicked him away.

She attacked with a roundhouse, but Bison managed to hold it between his arm and his torso, keeping Chun Li on one foot. Chun Li tried to break the hold by hammer punching Bison’s head twice, still he wouldn’t let go. When she attacked a third time, Bison raised his arm and blocked, then grabbed Chun Li, pulled her upwards, then flung her against the wall. Chun Li smashed into it heavily, and she fell onto her feet.

She looked up and saw Bison standing before her and suddenly felt several hits to her chest. Bison’s arms were just blurs as they punched rapidly into Chun Li, her body jerking with each hit.

After the attack, Bison grabbed Chun Li’s dress, then flung her away. She felt weak now, the last attack had hurt her badly. Bison knew this, and used it to his advantage. She picked Chun Li up and punched her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. As she gasped for air, Bison put her head under his arm in a strong headlock. Chun Li choked for air as the pressure of Bison’s arm tensing around her neck halted her breathing. She could hear her heart beating in her head.

“Do you hear that sound, Detective?” Bison asked quietly and menacingly. “The sound of your heart beating inside your head? It is the sound…..of your death.”

Chun Li tensed herself, trying to push Bison away from the headlock.

“Goodbye….Detective Xiang.”

Chun Li opened her eyes. The music around her had grown quieter, a period of calm before the storm. She had to escape. Ryu was waiting for her.

“My name……is Chun Li.”

As the choir began the main chorus of the piece, she bent her legs, and with a great effort, pushed herself and Bison upward towards the ceiling. Bison smashed into the ceiling first, forcing to let go of her. Chun Li landed on her feet, as well as Bison, who landed in front of her. With renewed strength, she attacked.

Chun Li elbowed Bison in the face with her right elbow, then did a low punch into Bison’s stomach. Bison staggered back, to be caught by a side kick into the ribs. Chun Li constantly pushed him back with kicks and punches, then when Bison tried to punch her, she deflected it, grabbed his shoulder, and flung him to the floor. Bison flipped back to his feet, only to be attacked in the chin with a high side kick from Chun Li. He somersaulted back to the floor, landing on his back. Chun Li brought her heel up and sent it crashing down towards Bison’s chest, striking it heavily. Bison felt the pain of the attack, and felt even more when Chun Li picked him up and attacked again, kicking him upwards into the chin with a Tensho Kyaku. Bison felt her feet slamming into her chin as she lifted him upwards. Finally, after the sixth kick, she stopped, and Bison fell onto his back, Chun Li landing onto her feet. Bison staggered back up to his own feet, and saw Chun Li charging towards him, attacking with a powerful flying kick.

“SHICHISEI SENPUU KYAKU!!”

Chun Li landed the kick into Bison’s stomach, sending Bison sliding back and skidding across the floor. He banged into it head first, and he felt the pain completely engulf him.

Chun Li stood defiantly as Bison used the wall as leverage to get to his feet, blood leaving a wet, warm taste in his mouth.

Bison wiped it off, and stared at the blood on his hand. He looked at a different woman now, a warrior, one who had made him bleed. In his eyes, her skill was on par with Ryu, the only man to have defeated him in battle.

Rage seethed through his being as he watched Chun Li shake the dust of her body, twirl her arms around her body, and form an offensive stance, her right arm behind her head, her left arm facing forward. Her palm facing upwards, she motioned him to attack.

Bison ran towards her and flipped in the air with a scissor kick, which Chun Li sidestepped to avoid. As he landed on his feet, she spun round and karate-chopped the back of his neck, causing him to stagger forward.

He leaned on the wall, his strength beginning to fade. The last few minutes had been the most painful experiences of his life, and he started to feel fear.

“Do you feel that, Bison?” Chun Li asked Bison sternly. “Do you feel fear now?”

“Shut up.”

“The fear of losing. That is what you fear now, isn’t it?”

“I said shut up!”

“Now you now what the many innocent victims whose lives you’ve ruined or destroyed have felt. Now you see what you’ve done.”

The music changed pace as the string instruments played quieter and slower. The choir followed the music.

“Ihr stürzt nieder Millionen? Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt? Such’ihn über’m Sternenzelt! Über sternen muß er wohnen, über sternen muß er wohnen.”

During that time, not one of them moved. They both waited. The music suddenly shifted to the last couple of minutes of the piece as the violins gradually crescendoed towards the end. Finally, Bison attacked.

He charged up his psycho energy and released it in a powerful Psycho Crusher. Chun Li, unable to run, was forced to stand her ground as she saw Bison, engulfed in blue flames, veer towards her. She raised her hands, and prepared herself.

Bison’s outstretched hands were met with Chun Li’s own as she tried to push them back, concentrating her chi into her hands to absorb the damage of Bison’s most powerful attack. Bison continued pushing forward, however, and Chun Li felt the floor slide beneath her feet. She felt her heel touch the entrance door, and then her back. Still, Bison continued to push forward with the Psycho Crusher, and Chun Li felt that she couldn’t hold it for much longer. The entire room was surrounded in a bright blue glow as Bison pushed forward. Suddenly, Chun Li felt a surge of Chi energy shoot forth from her hands, breaking the Psycho Crusher and sending Bison flying back into the far wall. He staggered to his feet, and saw Chun Li run towards her, bathed in a fiery blue glow.

“THIS IS FOR MY FATHER!! SENRETSU KYAKU!!!” Chun Li cried.

Chun Li ran forward and started kicking Bison in the head, chest and stomach like lightning as she launched her fastest attack. Bison’s body jerked back with every hit, and the wall began to crumble as he was pushed further towards the end. Finally, Chun Li jumped with an aerial spinning kick, and kicked Bison powerfully in the larynx. Bison gasped as his wind-pipe was crushed from the attack. He looked up, and saw Chun Li channel her energy into her hands, twirling it around her head, and charge up her energy for her final attack.

“KIKOU-SHOU!”

Chun Li pushed her hands forward, and the stored energy erupted violently as she was surrounded by a huge blue sphere of energy, which Bison was forced backwards from the sheer power of the attack. The rest of the wall that Bison was pressed against gave way, and Bison was pushed into the open air, flying away from the Aztec temple. Unable to scream from his crushed wind-pipe, Bison could only watch as Chun Li stood in the same position, her hands outstretched, her knees bent, her face a look of determination. Then darkness stole his sight, and Lord M. Bison saw no more.

Guile watched as he saw a blue explosion erupt from the side of the temple, and the body of Bison fly out backwards. Bison’s body flew directly into the path of a Shadowloo Hind-D’s helicopter blades, and his blood showered all over the chopper, including the windscreen, blinding the pilots inside. The Hind-D lost control, and crashed into the jungle below.

He looked at where the explosion had been, and saw Chun Li, standing there in a black ballroom gown, torn at the sides below her waist, a look of satisfaction and defiance in her face. He smiled at the woman who had defeated the most powerful crime lord in the world, and saluted her.

“Guile, the last two MIGS are bugging out, the area is clear. We’re heading out before the Psycho Beam hits.” Charlie’s voice crackled through the intercom.

“Roger that. I’ll be with you in a few minutes. Engage afterburners and get the h*ll out of there.” Guile circled the area, looking for any signs of Cammy escaping from the temple.

Chun Li looked to see the lone F-16 Eagle circle around the temple, as if it was waiting for something. Then, a female monotone voice came from the speakers.

“Attention. The Psycho Beam has been aimed directly towards the area. You now have ten minutes to evacuate.

Repeat….”

From where she was standing, Chun Li suddenly saw a blue blast of energy fly over from the top of the temple. A Hadoken blast.

Ryu!

Stopping to pick up Cammy’s CZ75, Chun Li ran towards the doors, pulled them open, and headed towards the roof, where she hoped that Ryu would be waiting, still alive.