Early afternoon
The Makai Hotel - One of the rooms allocated to the fighters.


With his feet propped on a chair and his eyes trained on the world map he had taped up on his wall, Ming studied the five locations he had marked with a red pen. The information his sister had given him had been very helpful, but it still didn't explain what was going on.

Yesterday, he had stopped by the business center on the bottom floor of the Makai and managed to print out a large number of pages that recorded the weather for the last four weeks in all those locations. Honestly, Ming didn't know where to start so he figured he'd start with what he had experienced first hand.

He had only gone through half of the sheets of paper. There were a couple things here and there that he'd follow up on, but nothing that seemed too strange. Picking up the group of papers held together by a binder clip, he continued on his reading, hoping to find something... anything that would tie in to what his sister had told him.

Ming had read for about an hour before he looked over his last page twice.

"Must be seeing things..." he muttered, reading again.

Picking up his phone, Ming searched for the phone number of someone he hadn't seen in a long time. Almost a year, to be exact.

After dialing, he waited a few minutes, glancing at the clock on his nightstand.

"¡Bueno!"

"Esperanza? It's Ming."

"Ming?!" The woman switched to English. "It's been a long time...how have you been?"

"Good. Still recovering from that tour you gave me in the Yucatan."

Over the years, he'd kept a few contacts with people all over the world. Thanks to his and his sister's jobs, it was nice to have casual friends in different places. Never knew when one might need a favor...or information.

"It wasn't that bad. Besides...you can always blame your sister for sending you instead...she was the one who decided to take another job at the last minute..." A teasing tone could be heard in her voice. "So where are you now?"

"Hawaii," he answered. "So how have you been doing?"

"Good. Just a few days ago I helped two colleagues enter Yaxkin's tomb...apparently their employer had sent them to retrieve some artifacts for their museum."

"Artifacts? Not bodies?"

"No, surprisingly, Juli said her employer didn't wish to take burial remains."

Ming couldn't help but cringe at the name. As common as it was, still...

He was so caught up in his own thoughts he nearly missed the rest of her sentence.

"Pablo seemed fascinated with the jewelry that the young king had worn. Bracelet, rings...standard royal identification marks..."

Ming must have heard wrong. Did she say Juli and Pablo in separate sentences barely a minute from each other?

"Juli? Pablo?"

"Yes...the two colleagues I helped find the temple. Their employer needed some items for his museum's grand opening."

What the hell??

"Hey, let me ask you something," Ming spoke up quickly. "How often do you go outside Cozumel to work?"

"Well..." Esperanza thought for a moment. "Several times a week, I'd say."

"Have you noticed anything strange going on...anything that seemed out of the ordinary...while you were out on site visits? In England not too long ago, there was a large temperature drop at Stonehenge. Arctic freezing temperature," he added.

"Actually..." Esperanza cleared her throat. "I was taking a small group of students to an old city...but we must have been a good thirty miles away before we reached pouring rain. This happened several weeks ago... I thought it was odd since it wasn't the season for rain..."

"Were any other sites nearby?" he asked.

"Only Yaxkin's tomb..." the woman trailed off and was silent for a second.

"Ming...if there's something you know and don't want to tell me..."

"Why would-?"

"What's this about? The truth, please," Esperanza interrupted him. "A few days ago I wouldn't have thought it strange that a museum sends two employees to retrieve items for the collection. But after talking to you... What's going on?"

"I honestly wish I knew," he declared. "Sorry, Esperanza..."

After he hung up, he headed off Honolulu to do a little research. Time to find out what his 'old friends' Pablo and Juli were up to...

----------

The Makai Hotel - One of the floors allocated to house the fighters.


It had taken some time to finish their meal considering Ryu's appetite. Chun Li had eaten lightly as her next match was due soon. They were heading back to her room to freshen up before her match.

"We're being followed," Ryu whispered.

"He's a clumsy one too," she acknowledges as Ryu slid behind a pillar while Chun Li continues onward to unlock Ryu's room. When their stalker came within range Ryu grabs and hauls him into his room while Chun Li locks the door. "Who sent you?!" Chun Li demanded of their struggling captive.

"I'm not telling!"

"Who sent you?" Chun Li repeated again.

"Mommy did." The blond boy leapt into Chun Li, hugging her neck. "Well at least I think she wants me to. Since she ask me to give you this." Mel fished around his pockets.

The couple of course knew of what happened to Mel that day, since the first thing Ken did was to attempt to beat Ryu up the moment he laid eyes on him. There was nothing much he could do about it other than saying that he'll go kick some sense into her head if he ever saw her and drag her back home, make her scrub the dojo on top of running twenty rounds around the mountain. It took Ken every ounce of willpower not to explode when the wayward young lady eventually showed up on the island.

"Mom said you'd know what to do with it." He pulled a little gift box out and handed it Chun Li. Proud satisfaction upon his face knowing that he completed his task.

"What happen that day?" Ryu eventually spoke up. If his ward did indeed endanger Mel he would punish her accordingly.

"I'm not allowed to tell anyone," Mel said in a low voice, his bright eyes darting left and right.

"You can tell us," Chun Li coaxed him, carrying him to the couch.

"I promised Iwa jie not to."

"If it's about Iwa you can always tell us." Ryu squats down by the boy, placing one hand gently on his tiny shoulder.

The boy mulled over his words, looking at Chun Li and then Ryu. The look upon his face showed that he had come up with a perfect idea to this. It made Ryu worried on seeing Ken's cheeky look mirrored on the boy's face.

"I'll tell you on one condition." The boy placed his fist in front of Ryu, again mirroring Ken. Chun Li chuckled in amusement seeing that cornered look on Ryu's face.

"Name it." Ryu gently tapped his fist to Mel's.

"That you stop being mad at Iwa and let her come home. Her hanging with the buffalo man is not a good thing." The boy said solemnly.

"Buffalo man?" Chun Li chuckled at Mel's reference to Bison.

"I will. I'll tell her myself when I see her." Ryu promised the boy.

"You must not tell anyone, even Daddy or Mommy," Mel continued in a low voice. The couple moves in closer to hear what the boy would unload upon them. "I think. Iwa jie is playing spy games with the Buffalo man. The less people who know about this, the less danger she will be in."

"You saw him that day?" Chun Li put her arms around the little boy.

"No."

"What about the other three."

"Nope. Not the giant, not the boxer and not even the weird guy."

"Then where did she take you?"

"The arcade, a park where she made a couple of cats do tricks, a comic shop where we spent a long time browsing and irritating the owner over a couple of over priced action figures. An internet café, a shop where she stocks up on nuts for Maru-chan and then the place where she had her fights that night."

"She didn't take you to see anyone at all?"

"Well there was the master." The boy said thoughtfully

"The Master?!" Chun Li exclaimed

"Yeah the Master at the arcade. He beat Iwa hands down on a game called Tekken. Her favorite Kazuya got owned by the Yoshi guy."

The couple rolled their eyes in annoyance. On one hand they were relieved that she did not have any intention to bring harm to Mel, and that they do see why there was a need for deception. The boy was sharp enough to think that Iwa was going undercover; they had to give him credit for that. But still. For his sake, the less he truly knew the better.

"You mustn't tell Mommy or Daddy!" They boy reminded them again.

"We won't." Chun Li ruffled his hair.

"And you! You promise to stop being mad at Iwa and let her come home." The boy glares at Ryu.

"I will." Ryu ruffled the boy's hair only to have his hand slap away in annoyance.

"I have to go. Mommy will kill Sean if she knows he lost me." The boy hops off the couch and leaves.

The moment they had the room secured again, Chun Li unwrapped the little gift box. This little thing had distressed Eliza and pretty much angered Ken. Within the box is a thumbdrive storage device.

Removing the Internet cable from the computer in the room, Chun Li plugged the thumbdrive into the USB connector. The program within ran automatically and a screen pops up with a sprite of pre-Shadowlaw Iwa fighting against current Shadowlaw Iwa. Words appeared below them

"Ryu is god and Chun Li is his priestess."

24 little blanks then appear, following that letters that made up their names fill some gaps

_ h i n _ h _ r y u _ _ n _s _ _ n _ _ i r _ n _ _

Looking at the annoying sprites and the way they spar, Chun Li figured out the rest of the sentence. And entered the remaining letters. Clicking the 'super move' icon. Shadowlaw Iwa flashed brightly once and launch into a combo and at the end of it splits the screen into a new one.

"She has too much time on her hands." Chun Li commented.

The words 'Metal Gear Squirrel' appear on the top. Worded buttons appeared as well. 'Paranoid Squirrel', read one icon, the next one said 'Squeaks of Liberty' and the last one said 'Nut Eater'. When the mouse moves over them more sub menus appeared. Chun Li clicked the first one.

It opens up a screen showing blue sky, the camera pans downwards showing them a bird's eye view of an island and then moving into a military encampment. The bottom-right side of the screen shows the longitude and latitude degrees. A little black dot of sorts was moving on the ground. At each building and certain object it touches there was a live link that pops up showing what each building and object was called and would even allow them to click the link to read more about it.

As the camera descends the moving black dot looks very much like a certain squirrel. Eventually the camera came to rest on a gloved arm. The camera pans again to show Iwa with an entire head of dyed red hair.

"No, this falcon is not my new pet. Just testing how far my influence can go. I still prefer working with four legged animals. I believe you're smart enough to figure out what I've just shown you. Master will be very much displeased if he knows, but as long as you're both happy." The young woman shrugged. An icon that leads them back to the main menu appeared.

"Squeaks of liberty? Where does she get these lines?" Ryu commented when Chun Li clicks the next icon.

They are now moving along in a tunnel and at certain grills the camera pans to show that one Spartan room belongs to Sagat and another well furniture room belonging to Balrog (boxer). They were eventually led to a room with a hat stand holding a number of differently colored military caps. Exploring the room, the camera eventually led them to a large computer monitor. Tiny paws nervously pushed the mouse, waking the monitor.

A winged skull wallpaper greeted them, tiny paws pushed the mouse and clicked one of the tabs. A window pops up show the main subject to be an artifact of some sort, much analysis have being done upon it and a few links were available.

Another tab and the window showed profiles of various fighters, both veterans and new blood with potential; live links appeared, apparently Iwa already had Maru record down the various contents. The main subject in question was Ryu himself.

"I see he hasn't forgotten about you." Chun Li looks at Ryu who was squatting beside her. The frown on his face shows his displeasure of being remembered as a potential host body.

"I think he wants you too." Ryu said tapping his finger where her name is. It made them wonder if Bison would try to divide his powers into two separate bodies to better contain it. The thought brought down a shudder and Chun Li returned to the main menu and clicked upon the last icon.

"I blame you. Yeah you. I hate you for this." Iwa pointed angrily at them, her dark hair now highlighted with red streaks and by the look of the date below, it was almost three months after Ryu had refused to save her. Ryu swallowed a lump in his throat and Chun Li strokes his back in support. Was she really angry with them? They couldn't tell.

The last time they saw her she looked not much different and yet they can't be sure. Was it a right thing to do in letting Bison have her? They worry that to a point that it might have warped her mind. The material within this thumbdrive contains more than enough to track down Bison's main base. Yet it has to go on as planned.

"I blame you for what you are about to see. Yeah you. You and quite a number of people made him this way after you mangled his face. I don't know why Maru found this a fascinating thing to film because I really need therapy after filming this. Oh yeah and it goes as planned." Iwa ended her outburst with a wink.

The screen faded to another and names are on it this time

Night of Fire - Chun Li
Hot stuff - Ryu
Genie in a bottle - Cammy
Hit me baby one more time - Sakura
That don't impress me much - Rose
Milkshake - R.Mika
I'm too shexy - Feffiroth!! : Bonus digitally enhanced track.


Clicking 'Night of fire' they were taken to a room filled with fur rugs and mirrors. The Maru-cam pans to the person within the room, and the audio picks up the familiar song. The dancer dressed in a pink and purple cheongsam similar to Chun Li, had her blond hair wrapped up in a bun and similarly coiled. She carried a feathery fan in each hand as she dances to the fast beat on top of the dance mat.

"I'm going to be sick." Ryu grimaced in disgust, sitting on the floor trying to hold his meal in.

"I thought you like strong legs." Chun Li teased him

"Yours yes... but this one." He shuddered in disgust.

The dancer turned around to face the couple. The couple immediately turned pale on seeing the beautifully made up face of the Spanish ninja. Ryu scrambled to the toilet to release his meal while Chun Li switches off the program immediately. She shuddered at the thought of looking through the other videos.

With the thumbdrive in hand Chun Li looked around Ryu's room. She had to find a suitable place to hide this and her own room would not be feasible. Then it hit her: she proceeds to drag Ryu's duffel bag out and dump all its contents onto the floor. The stench of eternally unwashed gis swept her off her feet but he caught her in time. She wondered though what in the world make her fall head over heels in love with this man?

"You okay?" he asked sheepishly

"How long have you not washed your gis?" she accused him.

"Uh.... When I sent Iwa back to you." Ryu grinned, removing the offending items. That was almost over a year or so ago.

Chun Li groggily takes stock of what remains. A zip locked bag of clean gis and underwear, a set of normal clothes and a pair of shoes, his passport, a document holder containing currency from different countries. A water bottle, a few packets of Meals-Ready-To-Eat, the thought of which made her grimace in disgust on remembering the last time he forced her to try 'Could be Chicken'. She glared at him before returning to her task.

A slim photo album hiding the fact the eternal challenger is a big softie when it comes to his sensei, buddy, the strongest woman in the world and his annoying kid. A hardly used shaving kit with an equally underused bar of soap and a well-stocked first aid kit. The GPS device that she left within is still working.

Soon she found what she was looking for. She unscrewed the canister and took in the fragrance of the Japanese tealeaves.

"Thank you Gouken sensei," she whispered. Securing the thumbdrive to the hollow cap and re-screwed the canister. She allowed Ryu to keep his unwashed gis in his bag a little longer. Nobody in his or her right mind would ever dig into that.

Chun Li planted a sudden kiss on a surprised Ryu's nose.

"What's that for?" he was amused.

"For luck. Let's go. I'm expected to kick some sense into my disciple's head." She smiled leading Ryu out the door where they ran into an equally surprised Linda who started to blush uncomfortably away as she followed them to the designated battleground.


--------

The lobby of the Makai Hotel.


The crowded lobby was filled with people milling about. There was a bunch of unruly tourists making a commotion at the reception counter and the staff was trying their best to appease them.

She spotted her target leaving the lift. Moving into action she strides confidently towards the shorter woman and rams strongly into her knocking her target off her feet.

"Sorry luv," The tall blond said, squatting beside the Asian woman and began brushing her off and helping her to her feet. "Hope I didn't hurt you. Much apologies luv." She smilingly backs off before the shorter woman got a good look at her.

"Good job Lita." Cammy whispered into her earpiece.

"Too easy."

Cammy snaked through the crowd as she headed towards Lita, she saw Iwa frantically patting her pockets on regaining her senses and realization of something missing.

There was a sort of squeal and Iwa was onto Lita's tracks, pushing through the crowd. Cammy and Lita pass each other behind a pillar, effectively blocking off Iwa's view of them as Lita hands Cammy the phone and continues onwards. Cammy waited for a moment, ensuring that Lita is still the one being targeted before moving towards McCoy.

"She's onto you!" came Ginsu's frantic voice, spotting their target suddenly stop in her tracks and turning towards Cammy's direction. However Cammy ducked behind McCoy and with Ginsu, they split up into three different directions.

Lita watches and filled the others in as Iwa stopped in her tracks doing the one thing she could think of. She ennie minnie minie moed them... and ended up tracking Ginsu. She almost had him but the PA systems announced that her match would start soon. She cursed and headed for the tourney grounds instead. Delta Red breathes a collective sigh of relief.

------

Some minutes later
The temporary headquarters of Delta Red

The Delta Red team had regrouped; they have completed one of their mission objectives and are now in the process of decoding the password. It had been quite a close call since their target seems to know which one of them had her phone.

Ginsu's computer did a diagnosis of the cellphone and SIM card. It dug up quite a number of SMSes, ringtones and games. One file in particular was password protected.

"Right! I cracked the password there!" Ginsu proudly announced at the end of a tune called Wildarms. He clicked the file entitled nuteater2.avi. The video started to play and the song 'Genie in a bottle' was heard in the background.

"Fancy room." McCoy commented, noting the fur rugs and mirrors. "Ginsu. You shouldn't be watching this." McCoy clamped his big hand around the boy's face.

"I can't see! I can't see!" The boy protested

"Is that Decapre luv?" Lita squinted at the dancer on the screen. The dancer was as blond as Cammy right down to the two pigtails. She wore a sky blue Doll uniform of the same design that Cammy used to wear when she was known as the Killer Bee. At the same time she was twirling a feather boa about.

"Nice muscle tone."

"I can't see!!!!! Stop that McCoy! I can't see!!!!"

"No. She seems taller than her."

"I wanna see!!!"

"Those are such incredible t-"

And then the dancer in question turned around to reveal 'her' true identity.

"BLIMEY!!!!!!!"

"BLOODY HELL!!!!! I'M GONNA NEUTER THE BASTARD!!!!!!!" Cammy screamed and stomped out of the room.

"WHAT?! I can't see!!!! I can't see!!!"

"I need to wash my eyes!" Lita exclaimed leaving the room with the equally dumbfounded McCoy lugging the struggling Ginsu out.

A while after the video was left playing, a line of words began to appear at the bottom of the screen

.... Downloading... bug_gprs.exe......
.... Copying C: drive.....
.... Opening mailing program....
.... Attaching file... bug_gprs_cdrive.zip.....
To: "All hail the master" evildictator@hugemail.com
BCC: "Sifu" clxiang@gendojo.com.hk
From: "Killer Bee" <cwhite@mi6.gov.uk>
Subject: whoever stole my dammed cellphone :P
.... Sending ......
.... Deleting history ......
.... Attaching file... nuteater2.avi
.... Somewhat random email generator.....
To: "Natalie" < bunnyundie@bleh.com >, "Ming" < hateboulder@dragonrider.com >, "Victoria" < pr_princess@wow.com >, "Enrique Pierantoni" < e.pierantoni@fbi.gov >, "Okami" < jheagy@mi.gov.us >, "Reno" < tseng_reno@sacrededge.co.jp >, "Cana" < verdandi_cana@sacrededge.co.jp >, "Meliza" < meliza.rinaldo@rinaldohotels.com >, "Broomhead" < wfguile@mi.gov.us >, "Flyboy" < cnash@mi.gov.us >, "Timbuktu" < magicgal@rivendell.com >, "Thunderthighs" < clxiang@interpol.org.hk >, "Dull-lunk" < boringryu@masters.com >, "blondie-Ryu" < kenmasters@masters.com >, "Dev" < dcai@chinatownflowers.com >, "Luke" < Blaze@hotmail.com >, "Shing Venom" < svenom@yahoo.com >, "JKushina" < goldeyes@bleh.com >, "Songbird" < linda@lindacath.com >, "Dan" < mightydan@saikyodojo.com >, "Zangief" < zangief@russianbears.com >, "Guy" < guy@bushinryu.com >, "Sakura" < ryufangal@saikyodojo.com >, "Karin" < kkarin@kanzukizaibatsu.com >, "Rose" < rose@soulfortune.com >
From: "Cammy" < cwhite@mi6.gov.uk >
Subject: Beautiful fighter dancing
.... Sending ......
.... Wicked dictator laugh ....
.... Looping nuteater2.avi ....