Conspiracy Ch. 15
By Ryu Dragon

“Ungh !” – Chun Li, as a hard punch from Bison landed on her cheek, sending her flying to the wall. She stands slowly, staggering from the impact, only to be rewarded with a Psycho Shot, stomp on her head and punch to her face. She lays down, nearly unconscious and breathes heavily. Her face and body full of bruises, wounds and cuts. Ever since Bison took down Ryu, the fight had goes one side, to Bison favor of course.

Bison hovers near the almost unconscious Chun Li. He grins evilly. “Admit the defeat, Miss Xiang ?”

“Not…(huff) in… (gasp) a million years (puff) Bison.” – Chun Li. She tries to get up again. Her feet feel like jelly. Took about forty-five seconds just to get up.

“I admire your spirit, but I don’t have time for this. I’ll finish you with my strongest attack just to honor you.” – Bison. He raises his energy, ready to launch his strongest Psycho Charge.

“Shinkuu Hadoken !!!” – a voice from Bison’s right side. A large blue and white beam streams through the air. The beam hits and sweeps Bison off his feet, blasting him to a computer nearby.

Chun Li turns her head to the voice source. “Ryu !!! You’re alive !!!”

Ryu, still standing on his technique stance, lets out a big breath. There is blood runs down his forehead. His body is full of bruises, cuts and burn wounds. His top gi, battered and burned, barely covered his muscle mountain body. He relaxed, and falls on his knees.

“Ryu !!!” – Chun Li. She runs toward Ryu and kneels down. “You’re alive !!! You’re alive !!!”

Ryu smiles and looks up to Chun Li. “Yes, I’m alive.” Seeing tears run down from her eyes, he was caught surprise. “Chun Li ?”

She smiles and wipes the tears. “You jerk !!! You had me dead worried. Seeing you down and didn’t breath… you…” She falls onto his chest.

Ryu was stunned by her words. “Chun Li… I…”

Suddenly, the room is flashing red, and there is a loud computerized female voice “Attention, attention, Self-destruct sequence is now on. All personnel are to leave the base. You have five minutes to leave the base.”

Chun Li snapped back, her face and eyes are red. “We have to leave now, Ryu. C’mon.” She helps him gets up onto his feet.

Suddenly Bison materialized in front of them, about fifteen feet away (Writer: you’ve expected that, have you ? c’mon, tell me the truth ^-^). “You two are only going to h*ll.”

Ryu and Chun Li quickly prepare their respective stances. They waits patiently and summons their strenghts, both fighters know that they only have one last attack each.

As if reading their minds, Bison said “Let’s finish this.” He also summons all his power, ready for the strongest attack that he ever launch. Thirty seconds past, Bison moves first. As he launches his attack, a one feet thick blue purplish ellipse shape aura was formed, ready to mow down anything in its path.

Chun Li launches her attack first “Kikosho !!!” she yells as forming a large white and blue sphere of pure energy in front of her. The sphere’s diametre is about three feet long.

Both attacks collided. Chun Li’s sphere of pure energy has the power to suck and blast at the same time and it rocks Bison’s Psycho Charge, but didn’t cancel or change its course, in fact Bison is now moving slowly into the sphere and keeps coming in. Although the pressure keeps coming, Chun Li refuses to give up. She strains every muscle in her body, trying to muster more and more energy. “Ryu !!!” – she yells.

Chun Li didn’t have to ask for help, Ryu is ready to launches his attack, he is waiting until Bison is in the middle of the sphere and then he launches his attack “Shinkuu Hadoken !!!” he yells. A large blue and white beam of pure energy streams from both his extended hands into the sphere and hits Bison.

Three marvelous powers fight, two powers of pure energy become one against the other power. The effect of the fight was so devastating that the rooms was threathen to collapsed on them.

At last, Bison cannot hold any longer, the blasting and sucking powers were so great that not even his strongest attack can hold on. He gave in and yells in defeat and desparate tone as his body is ripped into pieces “No !!! This can’t be happening, I’m immortal, I can’t be defeated !!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!!!!” The blast of pure energy keeps continue until it destroys every cell and energy left out after Bison’s death.

Ryu and Chun Li stumble forward. They were so tired that they can’t even lift their fingers. When the darkness is about to overcome them, Chun Li hears someone calling their names, and they fall into the darkness.

***

Natalie lands on her bottom. “Ouch.” – She gets up and rubs her bottom. She was nearly become minced meat if its not for her reflex. The monster is really fast for its bulk body, too fast. She leaps back avoiding the monster next slash. She lands gracefully three feet away, but was sweep off her feet by its foot. Didn’t expect the monster would attack like this, she lands hard on her back head. She fells like spinning and wants to vomit. The monster stands near her, its right hand is lifted up in ready-to-stab position. Feeling dizzy and weak, she can only lays and waits for its claws to drills into her stomach.

The creature stabs.

Two rounds of Python’s bullets shot into the creature’s right shoulder, pushing the creature back two steps. Two more rounds shot into the creature’s chest and another two went into its cheek and forehead.

Natalie looks up (from lie down position) and sees Jill standing, about ten feet away. Her hands holding a gun that she (Natalie) don’t know what kind of gun is that. Smokes come out from its barrel.

“Stay down, Natalie, take a rest. I’ll take it from here.” – Jill. Her tone of voice is so cold. Natalie was actually shivers hearing her tone of voice.

The creature staggers from the shots that it took. It looks at Jill, sensing a new target, and charges toward her.

Jill swaps her gun to the automatic and shoots at the monster. Being hit many times, the monster stops and staggers. After she runs out of ammo, the monster starts to walk again, this time, slower. About two feet away from Jill, the monster slashes. Jill quickly steps aside avoiding the slash and step in close to the monster. She summons her chi and punches the monster on the gut. The monster bends down. Doesn’t waste time, Jill charges up her chi and slams onto the monster, a yellow half-circle energy is formed on her front, adding damage power into her technique. The monster is slammed away across the room into the wall.

Natalie’s eyes nearly popped out from seeing the scene. She never thought that Jill is that strong. Feeling a new hope, she gets up and joins with Jill. “Hey, when did you became that strong ? I never saw you did that.”

Jill only smiles weakly. “I trade that power if it can save Chris.”

Natalie frowns. “Listen, Jill. I don’t know what the creature was made of, but I’m certain that your friend is not in its body. I can’t sense a soul inside it. That’s why my fire couldn’t harm it.”

“A… are you… sure ?” – Jill.

“Hey, bet my life on it.” – Natalie smiles.

“B…b…but whose face that then ?” – Jill still feel unsure.

“Dunno, maybe a flaw in the experiment ?” – Natalie shrugs.

“Then we can beat the crap out of it.” – Jill grins. She still feels a bit unsure, but somehow she feels that she can trust what was Natalie said.

“Sure we can.” – Natalie.

The monster growls from inside the wall. When it comes out, both fighters were shocked, the monster had changed. Its claws grow longer, only about one centimeter from the floor. Its hair and tongue grows longer. Its wounds already closed and healed.

“Got anymore ideas ?” – Natalie.

“If I had a rocket launcher…” – Jill. She takes out her shotgun and pumps it. “But this should do.” Turning to Natalie, she said “I need to get a clear shot on its head and heart, ‘think you can make it hold still for a sec ?”

She thought about it for a moment and nod. “Yeah, I can do that.”

The monster charges, its speed increases one and a half time before. Both fighters quickly leap away, Jill to right side and Natalie to left side. The monster turns to left searching for Natalie. It attacks Natalie furiously, doesn’t give a chance for her to counters or uses any of her technique.

“Jill, I can’t use my technique if it like this !” – Natalie leaps, barely avoid being knock down.

“D*mn.” – Jill. She aims at the creature’s legs and shoots while Natalie is in the air, so she can be sure that she won’t accidentally shoots her. The shot hits its right leg. The monster turns and changes its target. It charges toward Jill.

Lucky for Jill that she took some distance with the monster. Natalie did not waste the time that the creature charges toward Jill. She draws energy of red fire and shoots toward the monster. The fire encircled the creature, stopping it in the middle of its charge. Like having one mind, Jill reacts instantly, raises her shotgun and shoots at its head once and its red heart once. Its head and heart explodes. From somewhere inside the creature, a growl comes out, and it falls down.

Both fighters don’t make any moves or sounds, as if expecting the monster to suddenly gets up again. After waiting for a while (about one minute), the creature still lays down. Natalie falls onto her knees from exhausting and relief. “We did it, didn’t we ?”

“We sure did, Natalie, we sure did.” – Jill smiles. She walks to Natalie and helps her up. “Are you okay ?”

“Yep, I’m okay. So that’s it ? We just let the creep go away ?” – Natalie.

“We’ll wait for the next encounter.” – Jill smiles. “Hey, you’re good enough to be in S.T.A.R.S. team, you know. Wanna join in ?” – She chuckles.

Natalie grins “Yeah, right, and probably I’ll burn every bad guys with my fire and I’ll get a nickname ‘Roaster’.”

They laugh. As they walk out of the room, suddenly, the lights are flashing bright red, and there is a computerized female voice announcing about self-destruction sequence.

“Crap, they really make more damage on their own properties than us do.” – Jill. “C’mon, we have to get out of here.”

“But what about Ryu, Chun Li and Ryu Dragon ?” – Natalie.

“We only have time to help one out, which one ?” – Jill.

“I… we…” – Natalie.

Jill shakes her head “We can’t risk finding Ryu Dragon at the moment, I say we find Ryu and Chun Li then we get out of here.”

“B…b…b…but…” – Natalie.

“Look, Natalie, as much as I want to find Ryu Dragon, we have to save our life too. C’mon, we don’t have much time left.” – Jill starts to run toward the hallway where Ryu and Chun Li went.

Natalie can only shakes her head and prays for Ryu Dragon that he can make it to get out from this base. Then she runs following Jill.

When they reach the secret room where Ryu and Chun Li fought Bison, they found both fighters lay down on the floor.

“Ryu, Chun Li !!” – Jill. She and Natalie quickly check on their conditions and glad to find that they still alive. The room starts to shake furiously as if it’s about to explodes. She quickly instructs Natalie to carry Chun Li while she pulls Ryu onto her back. She grunts at the weight and stands up. They run like being chased by ghosts, racing against time to reach the exit.

***

Ryu Dragon swings the sword down. Ignoring the pain, Daimajin rolls away. The pain from his right hand’s wound shoots him like being stabbed many times.

Ryu Dragon walks toward Daimajin, ignoring the puddle of Daimajin’s black blood splashing on his feet. “C’mon Daimajin, quit playing, we both know you’ll gonna die anyway, so do yourself a favor for and make it easier.” His eyes glow brighter and his smile becomes more evil.

Daimajin keeps pushing away until he reaches the corner and just sit there.

“Ah, you’ve chosen your place to die. Good boy.” – Ryu Dragon with mocking tone. He walks until close enough to Daimajin and brings his sword up. When he slashes down, he felt something growing inside him, a sense of darkness and light at the same time, fighting for control of his body. He feels like being torn apart. He lets go of the sword, and it clangs on the floor and disappears. He holds his head with both hands, trying to fight the feeling being torn apart. “No… no… what is this inside me ? I… I feel like… oh God, I…” Looking up, he screams in pain and agony, then there is a glow coming out of his body, half dark black, half gold.

Seeing what is happening, Daimajin smiles “It’s time.”

When the glow disappears, Ryu Dragon was lie down on the floor, nearly unconscious, his golden armor is gone. Near his feet, there are six gems with the same color as his elemental and soul gems, the only difference that the colors of the gems that are on the floor are much darker. Chuckling evilly, Daimajin takes all the gems with his left hand.

“Wha… what happened ?” – Ryu Dragon still in confusion.

Daimajin laughs hard “You, boy, had brought up your own death and gave my power that I ‘lent’ to you back, with profits of course.”

“What are you talking about ?” – Ryu Dragon.

“You still remember the fight in the other realm ? When you got shot with my Black Wave Ball ? That time, I had infiltrated part of my power into your body, clever, eh ? Then with time grows, you used your great power many times, and it also grew my power inside you, like a weed that grows with the plant. and of course, this battle, and your hate feeling also make the power grows stronger and faster. By that time, my power had make a separate part within your power and created new elemental and soul gems, like this.” – he shows Ryu Dragon the dark colored gems.

Ryu Dragon groans in unbelievable feeling and pain. Now he understand why Natalie stated her curiosity about her holy fire being able to burned him when they sparred.

“Feeling helpless now, eh ?” – Daimajin with mocking tone. He absorbs the gems into his body. Then he begins to raise his power and then, his right arm grows and in seconds, his right hand has fully recovered. “Neat trick, eh ? Now, what should I do with you ?”

Ryu Dragon tried to gets up, but his body refuses to cooperate. He lie down again. “Quit wasting time, Daimajin, go ahead and kill me.”

Daimajin chuckles evilly “Okay, if that’s what you want.” Suddenly, when he is about to raised his hand, he felt the gems inside his body react. “What… what is this ? What is this feeling… no, it can’t be… no…no… stop growing… no.” His body suddenly bends one hundred and eighty degrees back and his stomach grows bigger and bigger until… he explodes into pieces and pieces.

Still amazed at what happened, Ryu Dragon can only stare numbly at the small pile of Daimajin’s pieces. *What the heck was happening ? Ah well, I guess that took care of the big sucker.* - he thought. He tried to absorb some power to heal his body faster. After five minutes meditation, his power had returned about half. He gets up slowly, still feeling shaky and exhausted from what had happened.

He looks down and sees the gems that were in Daimajin’s body. As he about to picks the gems, suddenly, the gems dissolved, along with Daimajin’s pieces. He frowns and sensing someone behind him. He turns around and feels shocked beyond anything. There, stood a young man, looks really identical to him, the only difference is that the man wears casual clothes but in black colors, his gloves also in black colors and looks like a bikers gloves rather than fighters gloves.

“Who are you ?” – Ryu Dragon prepares his fighting stance. He senses a deep evil aura from the other man.

“Me ? I’m you, a part of yourself to be exact. A part that you rejected, or maybe pushed out ? It doesn’t matter. What I know is that I will make you suffer, ‘brother’.” He said the word ‘brother’ with a mocking tone. “Oh, and you can call me Dark Warrior. We’ll meet again sometime.” After saying that, he vanished.

“Wait !” – Ryu Dragon tried to reach but too late. *Brother ? What is he talking about ? It can’t be… Is he truly a part of me ? The dark side of mine ? He… This doesn’t makes sense, but I can sense that he possessed the same power as mine, only more evil. I can’t worry this now, I have to find a way out of this mad place.* He walks back to where he leave Rogue's body and picks her body up. He then gathers his other friends’ bodies and burns them (except for Rogue’s). While watching the fire, he weeps silently. He felt a stab of guilt in his heart and that wanted to jump into the fire, but he knew that can’t do that. His friends had sacrificed their life to make him live and he’s surely won’t waste their sacrifice just like that. *Time to go, my friends, I can only pray that all of you will be accepted in heaven.* Turning around, he picks up Rogue’s lifeless body and starts to find his way out. As he runs, the flashing bright red lights and the announcement of self-destruction sequence started.

***

Jill felt like she nearly collapsed, running while carrying Ryu’s heavy body had drained lots of her energy, but she can’t stop, the exit is only a block away and she’d be d*mn sure that they’ll make it.

Running along on her side is Natalie carrying Chun Li on her back, she had offered Jill to trade ‘passenger’ but Jill refused, saying that it’ll only wasting their time. And she was right, had they stopped to trade, they won’t make it to the exit. They only have a minute away, and half of the secret base is already collapsed.

Running as fast as they can, they saw the entrance door. Natalie quickly pushed the button to open the door. The door remained unmoved.

“What happened ?” – Jill.

“I don’t know, this thing won’t work !” – Natalie keeps pushing the button several times.

Jill swore. “Try other buttons !”

Natalie tries pushing other buttons but the door remained still. “Nothing worked !!”

Feeling frustrated, Jill pounds on the door several times. “D*mn !!!” Then she heard a familiar voice from outside.

“Jill, is that you ?” – man.

“That’s Barry ! Barry, is that you ? Helped us, we’re trapped, and this door won’t open !” – Jill.

“Move away from the door, I’ve got a rocket launcher and I’m gonna blast the door !” – Barry.

Both fighters moved back several feet away. “Okay Barry, do it now !!!”

Then with a blasting sound, the iron door shattered, revealing a big man. “Hurry get out !” – Barry.

“You don’t have to tell twice !” – Jill and Natalie together. They quickly pick Ryu and Chun Li up and run through the door. They moved away from the entrance just in time of the explosion.

***

Ryu Dragon runs along several hallways looking for way out or at least pointer for way out, but couldn’t find any. He stumbles into a room filled with transportation devices. He picks one of the flying motorbikes and studied its control. Lucky for him that the instruction was in English language, so it’s not too hard for him to ride it. He tied Rogue’s body using his black belt. Next, he looks for the exit. Time is ticking away and he only got one minute before this place blows up. Finding the exit, he started to rides like crazy. He took twenty-five seconds to ride to the entrance of the tunnel. The exit was sort of a tunnel, a long tunnel. By the time was up, he was only half way through. Looking back, he saw flames roaring like hunter and he was the prey. He raced the bike faster, ignoring his own safety. The flame was about to catches him when he passes out the exit, holds Rogue’s body and leaps from the bike to the outside world. He rolls away from the tunnel. The ground shook violently as the explosion occurs, a pillar of flame comes out from the tunnel like a dragon roaring to the sky and fades out in mere seconds.