"May I ask what the specialty is tonight?"

"Squish!"

"Excuse me?"

"Squish...specialty tonight squish?!" replied the eccentric-looking waiter in a thick Chinese accent.

"No...I mean, uh, food", said Cammy slowly as she mimed the process of eating by pretending to be lifting a spoon to her mouth and rubbing her stomach in pretend satisfaction.

"Yes! Squish?!" said the waiter happily.

As Cammy continued to argue with the waiter, Ken just grinned and took a sip from his glass of tea.

"Hey Fei, your restaurant-choosing abilities have officially been removed," said Ken. The rest of the gang just nodded in unanimous agreement. It was Friday night and they had all decided to catch the new Jet Lu film. Fei Long had insisted that Jet Lu wasn't actually that good and that his moves could be done easily by a grandma with a couple of cables and special FX. Listening to Fei Long banter all night made the group hungry so they decided to go eat in the local Chinatown. Besides, there was small hope that Fei Long would shut up if his mouth was stuffed with rice. Unfortunately, due to Fei Long's celebrity status amongst the Chinese people, they couldn't eat in any restaurant unless they wanted to be interrupted and bothered while they ate. Fei Long suggested that they eat in this underground ghetto restaurant which was usually graced by the presence of old men who ate and played Chinese checkers.

"I've eaten here before and the food's actually not bad," Fei Long answered. He was preoccupied with scooping a fly out of his glass of tea. "Besides, just look at Cammy. She having the time of her life." The sarcasm in his voice was clear as day. He looked up and turned his attention to the pig-tailed blond.

"Can I please just have some noodles?" Cammy asked the waiter very slowly.

Obviously, trying to communicate coherently with each other was impossible. Cammy's stomach grumbled, reminding her of just how hungry she was. Asking Chun Li to help her translate was impossible since she was making small talk with Ryu and Cammy didn't want to interrupt. Asking Fei Long to order for her would be like a death sentence. For all she knew, he would order her a nice deep-fried rat with tails on the side. Not wanting to starve herself tonight, she sighed in frustration and gave in.

"Fine, I'll take the squish."

The waiter happily scribbled onto his pad and hurried off to the kitchen. Chun Li stood up from her eat and straightened her camisole. "I'm going to the washroom...assuming there is one in this filthy greasyspoon." She shot Fei Long an evil look before she made her way to the washroom.

Fei Long held his hands up in a questionable and innocent manner. "What?"

Ken snickered and looked across the table at Dan who seemed uneasy.

"Hey pink-winky, what's gotcha down?" Ken mockingly frowned sympathetically.

Dan squeezed a fist at Ken and turned to Ryu. "Hey Ryu, gettin' any bad vibes?" he whispered.

Ryu gave Dan the confused look of a little boy.

"You know, man,...bad vibes? Aren't you like a vibe person? In touch with everything around you?...You sense things and shit, no?"

"I am sorry to disappoint you Dan, but I do not seem to " Ryu was cut off by an ear-piercing shriek that came from the direction of the washrooms.

Chun Li came power-walking back. She seemed disturbed and disgusted by something. "I don't need to go that badly!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to warn you about the washrooms." Fei Long grinned and took a sip of his tea.

Chun Li kicked his shin underneath the table, raised a brow and shot him a dangerous look. Then she pinched him hard on his arm.

"Aiyah!"

"Like old times, eh, Fei?" she replied with a smile.

As everyone else laughed, with the exception of Ryu (duh), Dan noticed that some of the men sitting at the tables surrounding them were now staring. They didn't look to friendly either. They were gruff muscular men with tattoos and probably concealed weapons. Dan didn't like the way they stared. He nudged Guy, who was sitting to his right and motioned for him to notice the men. Guy scanned the room and looked back at Dan.

"I hope that's ours. I'm sooooo hungry," said Cammy. Her face lit up at the site of the waiter bringing food.

The waiter slowly hobbled over, careful not to drop any plated. He set a dish in front of Cammy and proceded to set down the others. Cammy inspected her dish from all angles and sniffed it. She hesitantly picked up her chopsticks. She couldn't make out what the plate of food was.

"Am I that hungry?" she asked aloud. Her stomach growled in response. "Yes I am."

Cammy dug into her food and began eating. I don't know what squish is but it's bloody good!"

"Looks like chicken", commented Chun Li.

"No, looks more like beef," mentioned Ken.

"As long as Cammy's happy," Fei Long replied. Cammy was eating as though it were her last meal. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying their food.

"See? Coming here wasn't such a bad idea."

Everyone shot Fei Long a dirty look.

"That was one good meal," said Dan as he rubbed his stomach. He stepped out into the cool night air.

Cammy followed behind him, looking pleasantly satisfied. "I still don't really know what I ate, but I'll be back for more." She breathed in the damp and fresh air.

After the rest of the group had come out of the restaurant, they headed down a dark alley for a short cut Dan's idea.

"Do you think this is such a good idea?" asked Guy as he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. "You're shortcut plans don't seem to turn out so well," he informed Dan.

Dan turned and looked at Guy, who seemed nervous.

"What are you talking about?" inquired Ken. He had been longing to know why Guy and Dan had been acting so weird lately.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it," assured Dan, who turned back to the front and kept walking.

Suddenly, a man leapt from above and landed in front of the group. He twirled a chain whip to his side, which was partially wrapped around his great forearm.

"What the-" began Ken as more menacing-looking men carrying chains appeared and surrounded the group, slowly closing in.

"Dan, who the hell are they?!" asked Chun Li, who reflexively got into a defensive kempo stance.

"Don't ask me! Ask them!" yelled Dan as he studied the men, making sure none of them were carrying guns. At least none were visible to him.

"What do you want from us?" asked Ryu who seemed calm and unmoved.

The man who Ryu directed the question to answered by snarling and then spitting on the floor. Without a word he tightened the chain around his large beastly forearm and threw a punch at Ryu. Ryu effortlessly dodged the attack and no sooner than he did so, the rest of the grisly men went in for the attack. Soon every body found themselves fighting in the dark narrow alley.

"What the hell is going on?!" yelled Ken as he crescent kicked a burly tattooed man in the right cheek. With just a grunt, the man got up, swung his chain around his ankle and snapped it out at Ken. Ken slammed into the side of a wall. He paused and the man waited for him to make a move. Tightening his fists, Ken Turned around and went at the man with full force.

"Hey Chun! This is how Jet Lu would act in this situation," said Fei Long to Chun Li, who was busy twisting and breaking the bones in a man's wrist with ease. Fei Long snapped a quick sidekick at a man who ran towards him. "And this is how I would act...don't blink." As the same man came hurdling towards him, Fei Long focused all his strength and slid his feet in a quick motion against the ground. He swung his leg into the air with his body spinning and made contact with the man's chest, throat, and face. He was high above the ground with his fiery leg pointed straight up. He came spinning down as the fire on his leg slowly dissipated into nothingness. Fei Long landed with a smirk. Chun Li, who was obviously unimpressed, rolled her eyes and turned to fight the next half-witt. "Man, I hope none of Fei's dumbassness ever rubs off on me," she thought to herself with a grin.

At last, the men had decided that they'd had enough. Realization had hit them that defeating these fierce warriors was going to be next to impossible. They yelled at each other to bolt. Within seconds, the got up and ran as fast as they could, leaving the street fighters in the pouring alleyway.

Ken was panting quietly. He eyed Dan and Guy who were avoiding any eye contact. "Dan, Guy,...can someone please tell me what the f*$#& just happened?"

Everyone else folded their arms and closed in on the two, hoping for an explanation. Guy spoke up. "Okay, so Dan and I were walking..."

"General, I'm sorry to have to say that the men we hired couldn't kill those tournament contestants."

"My intention was not to have them killed but to test their abilities and see just how strong these street fighters are."

"I think I'm beginning to underst-"

"Do not interrupt me!...Everything is going according to my plan. I am impressed and eager to see how they develop. I have my uses for those young fighters. In time, my intentions will be revealed to you."

"Yes, General."

"Hmmm,.....they exceeded my expectations, especially that one...always the victor..."

"...So that's basically what happened", said Dan as he smoothed back his hair with his hand.

Cammy looked at him annoyingly. "Well why didn't you tell us this earlier?"

"We were afraid it might get out and the next thing you know, Dan and I have to be in the witness protection program," replied Guy defensively.

After pondering over it for a bit, Chun Li spoke up. "We have to go to the police."

"No way!" Dan shook his head. You saw what just happened. This organization...or gang, triad...or whatever will stop at no means to kill us if we do! Besides, I promised my aunt that I would stay out of trouble..."

"What if they send more men again next time?!"

"Listen, we don't even know if those men who just attacked us are even associated with...Shadowlaw...or whatever. I say we just forget about it and see if anything else happens. Then I promise I'll go to the police," said Dan firmly.

"Next time may be to late!" insisted Chun Li.

"I say we do what Dan says," replied Ken. "We're on thin ice at Glenmore already. If we cause anymore trouble, we'll surely be expelled."

Chun Li remained silent.

"Fine, but I'm sleeping with one eye open from now on," muttered Cammy.