Untitled Ch.8
By Shadow Dragon

Sodom scanned his surroundings warily. His opponent was gone again, warping away again. Sodom cursed in Japanese.

"Where are you, coward? Come out and fight me!"

In response to his yell, a sharp pain shot from his back as another flaming fireball hit him in the back. Sodom turned around to see Gouki, his red eyes burning with evil. Sodom charged, striking randomly with his jittes in blind fury. Gouki evaded the powerful but clumsy blows easily. Seeing an opening in his foe's offense, he struck again, driving a heel deeply into Sodom's throat.

"Hmph!" Gouki grunted as he launched himself into the air, spinning forward with a barrage of rotating kicks, knocking his opponent off his feet. Before Sodom even hit the ground, Gouki unleashed an uppercut, striking his foe for another two hits.

=====

"Energy level now at 99.825 percent.. initiate loading sequence now!" a scientist mumbled as he watched the fight on a bigscreen monitor. A few keystrokes later, the Psycho Drive which was sitting a few feet away started to hum noisily as a sickly purple light pulsated from its interior. Beside the scientist stood several others, trying to coordinate the Psycho Drive's power feedings.

=====

"Messatsu.."

Gouki stood in horse stance, clenching his fists. Thunder rolled over the dark skies as bolts of lightning arced from the heavens and earthed themselves in a pentagram around Gouki. His arms glimmered, then burst into a kaleidoscope of light as a fiery ball of energy formed slowly.

Sodom dragged himself upright painfully as he surveyed the newest threat to his survival. His instincts told him to run, but he stood, watching Gouki's energies fuse and crackle together.

"GOU HADOU!!"

=====

"This energy is simply fantastic!" a mustached scientist breathed as he saw the power gauges flash, indicating a power level of 5617. Smoothing back his blond hair, he turned to face Bison and bowed respectfully.

"If you please, my Lord, now is the time to reap the rewards of your efforts."

Bison cackled evilly. Behind him stood his trusted lieutenants: Sagat, Vega, Cammy, Balrog and Birdie. Vega was still wearing a cast over his shoulders due to his injury from his fight with Dan.

"At last, the time has come," Bison said in a deep voice. "I shall rule the WORLD!"

Bison stepped towards the Psycho Drive. A maniacal smile was the last thing Sagat and the others before a brilliant flash of light engulfed the Psycho Drive, so bright that they had to cover their eyes. Sparks of electrical fire danced around the Psycho Drive while the constant humming rised in pitch and tempo. Suddenly the machine erupted into a mass of energy in the form of a purple wave, which swept over Bison's henchmen. In the midst of the sight, Sagat could sense a core of power which was increasing in intensity at an astounding pace..

=====

A low rumble echoed softly. Ken looked up in surprise. Suddenly, a powerful energy assailed his psychic senses, and he gulped as he detected that the origins of the power were wholly evil.

"Ryu? You feel something?"

Before Ryu could reply, the sound of an explosion blasted through the city. Ken's throat tightened as a wave of compressed air rushed past him, fanning out his hair. A few seconds later, another explosion sounded, this time accompanied by a burst of white light which shot out like a laser beam from the heart of the city to scream into the cloudy skies. Sakura squinted as she focused her vision on a red figure hovering effortlessly in the center of the white beam. Then a deep voice boomed over the city.

"I.." proclaimed the figure, its robe fluttering behind it, "am Shin-Bison!"

=====

Uhh.. Guy??" Chun-Li stammered as she looked out of a window.

=====

Gouki arched an eyebrow as he heard Bison's words. For the first time in his life, he felt worried. How did that insignificant worm manage to channel so much energy through his form in such a short time?

Gouki turned his attention to the unconscious mass of flesh he held in his left hand, which he hurled to the ground.

"You are not even worthy enough to face the ultimate Killing Intent of Satsui no Hadou."

Gouki teleported away, phasing himself through linear 3D space. He had more pressing matters at hand.

=====

Bison walked leisurely down the street, throwing bolts of energy, razing the city piece by piece. Civilians screamed as they tried to save their lives, running away as fast as they could. Sirens wailed as the police and fire department reacted to the threat to the city. Bison allowed himself a smile as he saw police cars form a circle around him and officers aim their pistols at him and commanded him to stop.

Bison raised an arm at the cars...

And stepped over the charred remains of the poor mortals who dared to defy him. The surviving officers opened fire at Bison, but all they managed to hit was a traffic signal as Bison vanished suddenly, teleporting behind them and frying them with another blast.

"HA DOU KEN!"

Three simultaneous bursts of energy slammed Bison from behind, who turned to see the four Shotokan warriors standing in combat position behind him. Bison cursed silently. He had forgotten about the Alpha warriors. But that problem would soon cease to exist once he was done with them. Bison teleported again to confuse his assailants, then aimed a Scissor Kick at Ryu, but was knocked back by a Shouryuuken.

"I thought you liked to talk a load of crap before fighting, Bison. Why the sudden change?" Dan yelled cheekily at Bison. As a result, four Psycho Sparks came flying at him. Dan twisted his torso, managing to dodge three of the bolts before getting hit by the fourth one.

"Talking does tend to distract you, doesn't it?" Bison replied smoothly and leaped up into the air, performing a stomp on Ken's head. Changing his course in mid-air, Bison turned back and slammed Sakura with his fists, sending her sprawling. Dan came in from behind, delivering a Gadouken but missed as Bison teleported again.

"Ken! Behind you!" Ryu screamed.

"Huh?" Ken spun around on the balls of his feet and caught Bison's fist squarely a mere centimetres from his face. Ken pushed back with his own punch, then sent two jumping kicks at Bison, who blocked them neatly and reversed his body, grabbing Ken and tossing him over his shoulder.

'He keeps teleporting to confuse us,' Ryu thought as Bison warped over to him and exchanged a flurry of blows. Finally, Ryu missed an elbow jab and Bison aimed a kick at his face, which struck home.

"Dammit buddy, you okay?" Ken asked as he helped Ryu to his feet.

"I'm fine," Ryu stood up. "Watch out for his teleport." Even as he spoke, Bison was gone again. "Stick together As a group. He won't be able to surprise us then," Ken yelled, taking care not to take his eyes off the smirking Bison standing a few feet in front of him.

=====

Guile cursed under his breath as the floor trembled slightly under his feet. It reminded him of a computer simulation training back in the Air Force to test his capabilities of piloting crippled aircraft: he hated it. A more pressing worry was getting out of the hotel; if it collapsed, they would be dead meat for sure. He watched as Fei Long scramble up from the bed and leapt for the door. Murmurs of confusion and fear could be heard as the other room guests tried to escape from the building. A few seconds later, Chun-Li, Guy and Charlie appeared.

"Um.. the machine?" Guile asked.

"We can forget that until later," Guy snapped curtly. "First, we have to ensure everyone gets out of this place safely."

=====

Chun-Li grimaced as she saw the bursts of light play from the other end of the city. She could feel five powerful cores of chi energy burning fiercely, which hinted that five beings were engaged in combat. She could recognize Dan's, but the other four eluded her.

"Okay, the authorities indicate the hotel is clear," Guile cracked his knuckles. "Let's go kick some Bison butt!"

"I wouldn't do that, Captain." Guile turned as a shadow fell upon him to see a hulking man towering more than an arm's length above him.

"Sagat." Guile said in a flat tone. "What do you want?" Guy came in from behind.

"The defeat of Bison."

"Knock it off. You're fooling nobody. I'm arresting you for.."

"You are in no position to arrest anyone, Miss Li," Sagat thundered in a harsh voice.

"Bison is destroying the city, and he has to be stopped."

"Now I wonder what stunt you're pulling off this time. You're gonna need further training of you're going to trick us," Fei's voice dripped with sarcasm. He could see that Sagat was trying to suppress his anger on hearing his words.

"Bison is insane," Sagat said. "I worked with him for revenge against Ryu, not for.. this!!" Sagat stabbed a finger at the direction the of the screams and wails were coming from. "And I," Sagat said quietly, "am the only one who knows how to stop him."

There was a silence as they contemplated Sagat's offer. Finally Guy stepped forward.

"Okay, Sagat. We trust you for now. What do we do?"