A woman in her early twenties was seen kneeling down in front of a grave in Sunshine City’s cemetery. She was arranging a bouquet of a few kinds of flowers in a glass vase and then put it on the right hand side of the tombstone. The tombstone had a photo of a man smiling crudely attached on it and words sculptured on it. The name on the tombstone was Oni Inomura. He, to the woman, was best friend and stepbrother, although not related in anyway but being each other companion since they were still kids in an orphanage.

It’s been a year since his death. He was a gang leader at that time and a successful one as well if only in certain areas within Sunshine City. She was close to him since they were still little kids in orphanage and when he – thanks to his compulsiveness toward violent behaviours – set the orphanage on fire at the age of twelve, she still followed him living on the street. She remembered the living in the street, it was harsh and dangerous, but she had Oni who could be relied on to protect both of them.

Later though, they went and live under the care of an Irish preacher called Elias. Living with Elias was a wonderful thing, he taught her how to develop and control her mysterious inner energy and taking care of her autism. Later though, Oni decided to leave Elias and she decided to follow him as well, hoping to help him controlling his violent behaviour tendency.

Again they lived on the street and she still had not retain her past memories. Later, she heard about a powerful mystic man who knew much if not everything in Sunshine City. She decided to find the man and asked Oni to help her out. Oni was reluctant to find this man out, Johann, not because he did not want her to find out about her past, but more because of his suspicion.

She should have listened to Oni.

When they met Johann, she found out that he was the leader of the Black Dragon cult that have been terrorizing the city. They, she and Oni, fought Johann when he tried to captured them and made them his loyal subjects. But Oni, what a courageous fighter he was ! He refused to bow down to Johann, even sacrificing himself so she, the weak and foolish dreamer could live.

She managed to escape, for a while. The Black Dragon’s minions managed to catch up with her and caught her. She was imprisoned and tortured for quite some time before finally a group of heroic fighters defeated Johann and released all the prisoners.

After a few days of treatment, she left the hospital without doctor’s leave. She then stole the cold body of her beloved best friend and brother from the morgue and buried him in the city’s cemetery. She left the life on the street and not any wiser of her past memories. She joined with Elias and Alice – also an orphan under Elias’ care – and set to help people who needed help or cure.

She rose up and dusted her white leather coat. She brushed her long black hair absentmindedly and prayed for Oni’s welfare in the next life. She then looked on her watch. Twelve-thirty. She needed to return soon to the church and set the place to receive people who needed help. Elias and Alice had gone to London for a while and soon would return. She smiled when thinking of Elias who she looked up as her father and Alice who was a younger sister to her.

She turned and left the cemetery. As she went past the gate to her small white buggy, she noticed a woman dressed in all black watching her intently. She thought of asking the person if she could help him with something but shrugged the thought and went to her car when he called out her name. “Cassandra Murata.”

In an underground kingdom…

A group of people was attending a meeting in the vast King’s hall. Two rows of ten guards stood on each side of the gloomy looking hall while a group of six people stood in the center of the hall. Six torches, three on each side and a huge chandelier in the center of the room illuminated the room with green rays that came out from odd-looking black fire.

On the dais, were the King’s throne and two people that stood on each side. All of the people in the hall were dressed in black the difference was the garment. All the guards wore a complete set of knight’s armor each and had a sword hung on the left hip and held a shield on the left hand and a lance on the other. The rest, except one on the left-hand side of the throne wore a combination of armor and other clothing materials.

Suddenly, there were the sounds of someone stepping into the hall and walked up the throne. The being that just entered had a pair of black angelic wings and dressed in all black. It contracted its wings and sat down on the throne.

“Hail to the Master of All Being !” hailed everyone in the hall once the being sat down.

“So, what news have you all bring ?” asked the being.

One among the six people on the center of the hall spoke up. “Master ! The Armageddon Project is proceeding smoothly. We are currently in the process of completing the Inter-Dimension machine and can expect to finish within a week.”

The being nodded. “Very good, Greed. You’ve done well and quite ahead of the schedule as I presume ?”

The man named Greed nodded. “Yes Master !”

The Master chuckled. “You meet the expectation of your name, Greed, but remember that if the machine doesn’t work as well as I want and when I need it, you can expect an abundance of punishment as well.” It turned to the old man on the left-hand side who wore a black robe and held a magician staff. “Have you found the dragons, Necromancer ?”

“We have found eight of them, Master. Pride is currently hunting one of them, I believe.” Replied Necromancer while smiling evilly.

The Master nodded. “Those dragons are the bane in our plan to conquer the universe, we have to annihilate them to be able to proceed really smoothly with the Armageddon Project.”

“If I may speak of my thought, Master ?” asked one among the six.

“Your brain is functioning, Lazy ? I’m quite surprise.” Replied the Master.

Lazy, who was used to the banter, grinned lazily. “Every once in a while, Your Excellency.”

The Master laughed. “Speak of whatever in your mind then, I’d like to hear what that lazy brain of yours produce every once in awhile.”

“Your Excellency, rather than annihilate the dragons, why not captured some of them and turned them to our side. We can strengthen our power and weakened the enemy’s power at the same time.”

“Hmm… Your idea has its merit, Lazy. However, the dragons are not easily converted, even in their sleeping state and we have the time factor to contend with.” Said the Master. “But I will think about your idea, Lazy.” It looked up at the others. “Anything else ?” When no one answered. It spoke to the Necromancer. “I would expect you to find the rest of the dragons within two days at the most. We have quite a tight schedule and I don’t want any delays, do you understand ?”

“Of course, Master.” Replied Necromancer while bowing.

“Good.” Said the Master while nodding. “The meeting today is over, go back to your usual duties and Death…” It addressed to the woman with unusual and dark beauty on its right side. “You come with me.”

Japan, to be precised Tokyo…

A woman and a man, each riding a horse with a hawk perching on the woman’s shoulder, rode down on one of Tokyo’s small and quiet roads. They rode slowly while chatting lightly, occasionally laughter or mock anger or pretend offended expressions intruded the conversation.

A while later, they arrived at their destination, a martial art dojo. High wooden fence surrounded the small but uncomfortable dojo and a little house behind it. A pink mailbox could be seen on one side of the gate with the family name of the owner painted on it: ‘Hibiki’.

As they were about to enter, Nemo, one of the riders, paused and looked at the mailbox. “Every time I come here, my attention always got attracted to that mailbox.”

Lilian, Nemo’s sparring and travelling partner, paused and grinned at the comment. “Well, it couldn’t have been the cute colour, could it ?”

He chuckled at the reply. “Could be, or maybe that Dan’s little action figure attached on it.” He pointed at the deformed Dan’s action figure in taunting pose and his trademark pink gi perched on the top of the mailbox.

The two laughed while riding in and parked their horses on the grassy lawn near the dojo. “Ah, coming here had never failed to cheer me up no matter what mood I’m in.” said Nemo as he and Lilian went around the side of the dojo toward Dan's house.

“Hibiki-san ! We’re home !” Called Lilian as they entered the house and Nemo was slammed onto the ground and landed on his butt with a thud as the four years old son of Dan Hibiki, Maoru Hibiki, leapt and hugged him in greeting.

“Maoru !” greeted Nemo as he hugged the cute little boy in return and return the boy’s grin with his own. He stood up and took off his shoes while carrying the little boy with one hand.

A woman’s head emerged from the kitchen. She had shoulder-length dark hair, which was tied in ponytail style, wore a set of white and blue kimono, and a pair of wooden sandals. “Hi guys ! Welcome back !”

“Hi Sakura-san ! What have you been doing ?” asked Nemo. He and Lilian had been friends with Dan, Sakura, and Maoru Hibiki, owners of the Saikyo-Ryu dojo and the house where they had been living for two weeks. “And where’s that taunter husband of yours ?”

Sakura grinned. “Ah, I’ve just been doing some cooking and a little husband-whacking.” Said Sakura, which meant two hours of sparring with her husband that resulted in she mopping the floor using Dan most of the time. “And Dan is in the back, training as usual.” She returned to the kitchen to continue preparing the meal. “So how’s the training going ?”

“Ah, the usual, Nemo lost again.” Said Lilian and followed with a laugh.

“Only ‘cos I held back. After all, I’m your teacher.” replied Nemo with a mock-serious tone and expression. In the next second after he finished the sentence, he yelped and jumping on one foot after receiving a kick on the shin.

Sakura’s laugh accompanied them while they went to the backyard to look for Dan. A series of shouts could be heard from the backyard, indicating Dan was training diligently as usual. They went to the back and were greeted with the sight of sweating Dan practicing his kata while shouting his mighty taunts every once in a while, or actually, most of the time.

They wait for a while until Dan finished with the current kata. As he closed the kata, Lilian called out. “Hey Dan !”

Dan turned to face the three of them with a big toothy grin. “Hello guys. How’s the training ?”

“T’was good, O mighty Saikyo-Ryu creator.” replied Nemo.

Dan laughed heartily at that remark. “Ah Nemo-chan, for that remark, I would reward you with yet another bout of sake !"

“Please.” said Nemo with his right palm facing outward. “I can’t take advantage of your generosity.” And at Dan’s scrutiny gaze. “But I wouldn’t want to offend the owner of the house, so, why not ?”

They laughed together and finally came back into the house to prepare for dinner.

The news of Shadowlaw’s secret base destruction quickly spread out like wildfire. In less than two hours after the destruction, news hounds pack and the authority had surrounded the location like a pack of hungry wolves feasting on a rabbit.

“…The authority from Rome and investigators from Interpol have yet to determine the cause of the destruction of the secret base of the criminal organisation called the Shadowlaw.” The camera then trained from the good-looking reporter to the slaughtering scene, showing the bodies of soldiers, scientists, and many others in the hole the size of a city block. “Shadowlaw was run by a megalomania called M. Bison, a man who stopped at nothing to make his goals come true. He was defeated and the secret base in Thailand was destroyed by join forces of Interpol and U.S Air Force about two years ago. The join forces was commanded by Lieutenant Xiang Chun Li from Interpol and Colonel William F. Guile from U.S Air Force.” The screen then showed the photos of Chun Li and Guile.

The news continued on, but the T.V was turned off by the commander of U.S Air Force in his office. The commander, Douglas Tener, was currently held a meeting with his two best soldiers, Guile and Charlie Nash. Both of soldiers had been involved with the Shadowlaw’s case about two years ago. Charlie was nearly killed by M.Bison, the leader of Shadowlaw, had it not been for Guile, Chun Li, and the other streetfighters that came and helped out with the investigation.

“So, what do you think ?” asked Douglas.

“I can think of a few names of baddies that may have grudges against Bison and have the resources enough to destroy in that scale.” replied Guile.

“Actually Guile, I don’t think those names can be included.” Said Charlie.

“Why not ?” Asked Douglas.

Charlie adjusted his glass before replying, a habit that he usually did when he was about to give a quite long explanation. “The report from the site just came in before you call us for meeting, commander, and believe it or not, Bison’s base was not blown up with any kind of explosives known to human.” He took out a fax from his magenta folder. “There was no trace of radiation of any kind or explosives of any type found in the site. No trace of geological or structural failures as well, they’ve checked and said that the structure of the base could hold out for centuries. They then called out a couple of paranormals and asked them to investigate. As you know, we had the need to use paranormals as well when we dealt with Bison the first time.” He paused and took another breath before continuing. “They got in, looked around, and concluded that the base was destroyed with a massive amount of psychic power, much more that Bison’s.”

Douglas and Guile looked at each other. “You mean we got another god-like type of megalomania, only he or she or it or they is much super stronger than Bison ?”

Charlie shrugged. “That’s what we got at the moment.”

Guile’s shoulders were visibly dropped at the answer. “Man, the last time we fought with Bison, we were all nearly got killed, and now we’ve got someone who can destroy the whole base ?!” He shook his head. “Man, this world is getting crazier in the next minute.”

“I know. I always wonder why it seemed that the earth always got the major bad asses coming around.” replied Charlie.

“Well, whoever it was, we can be sure that we’re gonna need help. You guys got contact with the Interpol, use it. We’re gonna need every help we can get.” said Douglas.

“Why do I always get the big suicidal and apocalyptic case like this, I’m not the Superman ?” grumbled Guile as they got out from the office.

Charlie grinned. “Well, buddy, you’re not alone.” Then the grin vanished. “You’re not alone.”

Hong Kong…

The three friends, Chun Li, Ken, and Eliza were having lunch and enjoying themselves. They went to one of their favourite restaurants where Ken and Eliza always had to go when they were visiting Chun Li.

“So I said, ‘What are you talking about, honey ?’ I don’t understand what you’re saying.” said Eliza.

“Which of course she already knew.” Ken interrupted.

Eliza patted Ken’s cheek lightly. “Of course, honey. We, the women always knew what the male species think.” She and Chun Li chuckled. “And then, he, trembling and all excited, actually I thought he’s going to faint, his face was so pale.”

“I was not !”

“Yes you were.” Eliza laughed lightly. “Where was I ? Oh yeah, he trembling and excited, and kneeling on one knee, probably ready to strangle me at that time, pop the question.”

Chun Li laughed. “Oh well, men, they can fight towering giants or hordes of fighters, but get them to ask the lady to get married, and they’ll be like a child getting flu shots.” At Ken’s sour expression, she chuckled and patted Ken’s hand lightly. “Just joking Ken, I’m sure you did it well. Congratulations, eh ?”

Ken’s face brighten up and a big grin popped up. “Yeah, thanks Chun.”

Eliza grinned her naughty grin. “So, Chun Li, any news in your romance department ?”

The Interpol investigator blushed and stirred her ice tea. “Nah, no one for me at the moment. Been very busy with work, y’know.”

“Tsk, tsk, Chuuun. Don’t put that too long, I tell you. What about Fei ? He’s nice.”

She shook her head. “Nah, Fei and I are just friends. Besides, don’t you know that he already got a girlfriend ?”

Eliza squealed at the prospect of a new gossip. “What, you nevr told me ! Tell me, tell me !”

Chun Li and Ken grinned at Eliza’s enthusiasm. Just when Chun Li was about to tell Eliza, her mobile phone rang. “Hang on a sec’.” She picked up her phone and turned it on. “Chun Li speaking.”

“Hey Chun Li, how are you ?” The familiar voice of Guile transmitted through.

“Guile ?! Oh my god, I’m fine, thanks. How are you ?” replied Chun Li.

“I’m great, Chun, well, not exactly that great considering the news about Shadowlaw.”

“What about them ?” Her expression turned serious.

“You didn’t know ? Their secret base in Rome was destroyed, completely. And if the investigating team there is correct, we’ve got major apocalyptic problem, Chun. Way major.”

“Dang, and here I hope to finally take my holidays. You’re talking Bison like problem ?” At the mention of the Shadowlaw’s leader name, Ken and Eliza’s expressions turned to concern and gloomy.

“Well, kiddo, better hold your holiday then. Charlie and I will be going to Rome the day after and we’re hoping if you can go as well.” said Guile.

“Well…”

“Actually, Chun, are you still in contact with Ken Masters as well ? We might need his buddy and him as well you know.”

“Well, I guess its kind of your lucky day, then. Ken and Eliza are actually here with me at the moment.” “Holidaying.” she added.

“Ouch. Then I guess he’s out ?”

“I guess so, sorry.”

“What about his buddy, Ryu ?”

“I don’t know where he is at the moment, and Ken doesn’t seem to know as well. It’s hard to track him down.”

“I know.” said Guile. “So, you’re coming ?”

“I guess so. Well, it’s not that I’ve been there before. So it’s kinda holidaying as well.”

“Well, that’s the spirit.” replied Guile. “Anyway, let us know when you’ll be coming there, if we got there first, we’ll arrange for a room for you.”

“Okay, Guile, see you there, then.”

“Right, bye, Chun. And say hi to Ken and Eliza for me, will you ?”

“Sure. Bye, Guile.

“Bye.”

Chun Li turned the phone off and looked at her friends with pained expression. “Duty calls. And Guile says hi.”

“How big ?” Asked Ken.

“Nothing that we can’t handle, Ken. Don’t worry. I do however need to go to Rome for a while, so… sorry.” She said with apologetic tone.

“No need to apologise, Chun.” said Eliza. “You do what you’ve got to do. Ken and I can go around ourselves, or hooked up with Fei.”

“Eliza, you’re the best friend a gal could ever asked.” said Chun Li with a grin. She noted Ken’s gaze levelled at her as if searching something behind her words and gestures.

Sunshine City…

Pepe, the holder of the Green Dragon emblem was suffering. He squirmed, scratched his head, squeezed his eyes and hands, but the suffering would not cease. Then, the relief came. The recess bell. As it rang, he breathed a relief big breath. “God, finally.” He whispered to his girlfriend Pupa.

Pupa gave a grin to his blue-haired boyfriend. Their loving relationship had been on for three months. They’ve met about a year ago when she was looking for her brother who joined a cult called Black Dragon. She knew that looking for his brother would not be easy and dangerous, so she asked for help from her friend, Pepe. Pepe, who had the spirit of Green Dragon within himself already sensed that something was not right in the city, combined with the worry of Pupa, he agreed to help her to look for her brother and investigated the Black Dragon cult as well.

The two of them fought alongside other heroes such as the Lee brothers, Lynn Baker, Radel – descendant of a mystic family, Annie – Radel’s future wife, Patrick Elias – a priest, and Alice Carroll – an orphan from aristrocatic family who lived under Elias guidance. They’ve managed to defeat Johann and free other captives and some of the members from brainwash effect, Pupa's brother being one of them.

After the battle, life went back to normal, although they’ve come closer than before the adventure. For a while, they did not thought of moving their relationship to the next step, but after a while, they could not contain their feelings and started dating once, then the next and the next. Until finally three months later Pepe expressed his feelings toward Pupa on a beach. They were just had a date and went for a romantic walk on the beach. He took her hands softly and clumsily expressed his feelings toward her. It did not take long for Pupa to answer, approximately two seconds, and the relationship was officially formed.

They went to the cafeteria for lunch. They got into the line and were served with the food for today, mashed potato, salad, and fried noodle with meatballs. They took their food and sat with a group of friends and enjoyed the lunch.

“So weekend’s still on ?” asked Pepe.

“Of course !” replied Pupa with full of spirit. “I wouldn’t want to miss the concert for the world !”

He grinned at the reply. “Not for anything eh ? how ‘bout this ?” He took out two tickets and gave them to Pupa.

She took the tickets and squealed in delight and horror. “Oh no ! Two tickets for the soccer game ! Pepe !!!” She looked at his grinning face then checked the tickets again. “Wait a minute, this game is next week !”

Pepe laughed. “I never said it’s for this weekend.” He winked and then winced after receiving a vicious kick from the Capoeira practitioner on the shin. “Ouch ! What ?!” He glared at her and she glared back at him, but a moment later they chuckled and laughed together.

“Who are you ? And how did you know my name ?” asked Cassandra to the woman in all black who confronted her in front of the cemetery. The woman smiled arrogantly and evilly and she could feel the chill down her spine. Never had she saw such an evil smile, not even from Johann. She went into her fighting stance, one foot in front of the other and both hands in front of her body with palms opened.

“My name you don’t need to know foolish girl. You want to fight me ? Then give it your all and know that I’ll need only one hand to defeat you.” Replied the woman. She stood straight confidently, not in her fighting stance.

Cassandra could feel the dark energy reeked out from this woman was very strong, much stronger than hers, possibly as strong as Johann. But she was no slouch either. She had keep practicing after the battle with Johann, she had grown stronger and she was willing to prove that.