Scientists scurried about working like ants, making sure that everything was working according to specifications for science was an art of precision. Dr. Hojo smiled as he took it all in, with Shadowlaw’s funding Hojo now found himself at the head of some of the greatest minds in the world, evil minds that schemed to take his position to be sure, but brilliant nonetheless. He watched as laborers rolled in the second container, a cylindrical glass with steel top and base. Within contained the failure of one of his rivals, the poor fool had been ordered to create an artificial Essence.

        Hojo was glad he had not been given that assignment, Lord Bison did not take failure lightly, and it was a doomed project from the start. Essences were not created via humans themselves, apparently they were chosen through some strange mystical force… which Hojo as a scientist, of course, did not believe in.

        He managed to snatch a little silver lining out of his rival’s dark cloud however when he mentioned that the failed subject could be use for his project, Project Lambda. Their purpose, of course, was to genetically enhance a human body to become the ultimate Shadowlaw soldier. They did not expect to succeed today; these subjects were merely to be tested upon so that they may further refine an application of the procedure. And so he watched as they erected the clone’s container next to the doll unit’s.

        A beautiful specimen, the doll, they had managed to refine the creation of an actual human being quite well. Attired in a two piece to protect sensitive areas of the body, he wouldn’t mind fancying some pleasant moments with her, but alas scientific progress waited for no man and he couldn’t risk contaminating the subject. She was in a much better condition than the clone beside her; he had been Shadowlaw’s first male clone and was suffering from a familiar case of cellular degeneration.

The early dolls had it and they managed to refine the process out of them, though it was probably the difference in their gender which created the problem. Well, for this experiment they had given him a solution which would temporarily inhibit the degeneration for about a month. That and the other strengthening chemicals they injected would make them rival Lord Bison himself if they had any will of their own.

        “Sir, everything’s ready,” a technician said from his side.
        “Good, good.” Hojo smiled. “Tell them to start.”
        “Yes, sir.”

        The lights were immediately dimmed so that the scientists could better focus on the two subjects bathed in a liquid that glowed neon green. The liquid was a Shadowlaw creation; it increased the healing factor of organic substances within which in turn was a useful tool for keeping test subjects alive longer.
        Hojo stirred as the machines hummed alive and the light from the containers glowed brighter. Here it was, the beginning of his glory…

        The room shook, the lights spluttered.
        “What the hell was that?!” Hojo demanded.
        “Seismic activities, sir!” a technician reported.
        “Idiot, this is an artificial island!” Hojo screamed. “We made sure there were no underwater volcanoes nearby when we created it!”

        “Well, something’s moving down there!”
        “Power outages occurring, sir!” another technician shouted.
        “Shut it down, shut it all down!” Hojo screamed. What the hell was happening? Everything was going according to plan; Hojo had even woken up this morning to practice his success speech and the presentation to Lord Bison himself. Lord Bison would smile, praise him and promote him as head scientist above all the other worms and oh that snotty Jenkins would just eat his own liver.

        “I can’t, sir!” the technician screamed and then bolted from his seat. “Its gonna blow!”
        “Nooo!” Hojo screamed in dismay, falling on his knees watching his chance at greatness explode right in front of him as everyone else ducked and scurried back each one looking out for themselves as they tried cramming through the exit.

        One capsule, the clone’s, was being bombarded by electricity possibly 300 million volts, Hojo guessed, the amount found in a bolt of lightning. He watched in fascination was the body within spasm yet it did not show any other physical signs of a human body being electrocuted. The chemicals they had used to fortify his body were quite powerful. When it became so bright that Hojo could no longer look directly at it, another explosion occurred and Hojo expected to find unidentifiable piece of the human body scattered about. He was surprised to find the clone on his hands and knees panting. His hair had turned red somehow

        The next tube did not follow a similar process and with horror Hojo realized that it was being burned. Fire from the previous explosion had engulfed it and were already becoming too hot for the glass to contain, it would break! Coming to his senses now, Hojo scurried back to the exit with the throng of people trying to cram themselves through. He took a moment to glance back and saw that the tube indeed did break and the body was burning… no, it wasn’t burning; she was surrounded by flames but wasn’t burning. Fascinated, Hojo watched as the human conflagration walked towards the clone. What would she do? Would she finish the job the first explosion could not?
 

        She just stood there, looking at him, as if expecting something. The Essence’s clone looked up in a daze, returning her look with confusion. Oh crap, they just gained consciousness! This wasn’t supposed to happen.
        “What’s going on here?” a deep, dark voice growled.

        Hojo turned around and stared in shock at Lord Bison. The Master’s usually impeccably clean and well pressed clothing were in tatters and his cape was gone, everyone else had immediately stepped to the side of this man more fearful of him than the earthquake. He strode up to Hojo, who cringed away and wished he were anywhere but here for Bison did not look pleased. Well, rarely was he pleased, but today much less so than usual.

        “The earthquake… the test subjects…” Hojo stammered.
        “So, you failed.” Bison hmphed as Shadowlaw soldiers marched in; guns raised at the test subjects who finally noticed they were not alone. The Essence’s clone was still on his hands and knees and started coughing heavily, the fire was extinguished from the doll unit and she kneeled down to touch the clone.
The coughing, Hojo realized, was a signal of cellular degeneration about to take place if they did not apply the chemical solution within 24 hours the clone would die, perhaps what had happened had burned away the chemical solution they had injected into him earlier.

        “Kill them.” Bison ordered.
        The soldiers opened fire.
        Some of them were lucky enough to still be alive. The doll unit was suddenly surrounded by flames again as she shielded the clone, when the bullets hit the flames they ricocheted back towards their respective shooters.
        “Well, perhaps it wasn’t a complete failure…” Hojo heard Bison murmur, the lord faced him so quickly that Hojo almost soiled his pants right there. “You have the clone’s treatment on you?”

        “Y-yes, Master.” Hojo squeaked as he pulled out the syringe from his breast pocket, he didn’t realize his hands had been shaking as Bison snatched it away from him. When Bison finally turned away and strode towards the two subjects, Hojo did soil in his pants and collapsed on his knees with a hint of drool at the corner of his mouth, he immediately started babbling.

        “He won’t survive the week.” M. Bison said loudly as he stopped within a yard of the experiments, the doll had given him a sharp glance as she tended to the clone. “He has a genetic flaw,” Bison held up the syringe, “he needs this to live for another month and for every month after that.” Bison tossed the syringe which the doll deftly (and carefully) caught out of the air. She looked him at him suspiciously and Bison only laughed, “I have no use for dead subjects, you know I’m not lying… this time.”

        And she should, every doll unit was created and connected to Bison telepathically. The previous twelve and Cammy had managed to break that link, but this one was still new and inexperienced. The clone seemed to also have a connection with the doll as well, because he didn’t struggle and held out his arm in the correct manner. They were strong, Bison could feel it, even when the chemical enhancements would fade away they would still be fighters to reckon with… after being properly trained, of course. This tournament had weakened Bison more than he liked and he needed to surround himself with strong fighters until he regained his strength.

        “What do you want, Bison?” Kay Lee’s clone finally gasped out, feeling the warning effects of the cellular degeneration fading.
        “You’re a smart lad; you want to stay alive don’t you?” Bison chuckled.
        “…”
        “I won’t ask for much… just your loyalty.” Bison mused. “And in return, I’ll provide you with the serum you need to stay alive.”
        “You killed my family!” the clone shouted.

        “Are they really your family?” Bison laughed. “Tell me, boy, do you remember everything? Do you remember your mother’s face? Your father’s? Or are these only flashes that come up whenever I talk. Our cloning process is not perfect, your cellular degeneration is an example of that… and the memories you have are incomplete at best and soon most of it will fade away in time.”

        “You bastard!” the clone snarled, lunging at Bison. Bison grinned wider as he allowed the young man to grab him by the front of the shirt, the clone pulled his hand back ready to strike with a tiger claw, but stopped and stared at the electricity curling around his hand.
        “Yes, I thought so, you’re much more useful to me alive than dead.” Bison laughed. “And I’m the only one who can keep you alive.”
        The clone’s grip went limp and he fell down on his knees staring at his hands which had currents of electricity running across the surface of his skin.

        “Those memories aren’t yours.” Bison taunted.
        Kay Lee’s clone screamed, putting his hands to the side of his head and a pillar of lightning surrounded him as he tried frantically to claim what he thought was his.

        “So, which will you choose an abrupt life or a long one?” Bison laughed, pleased at this show of power. Yes, it had been quite an unfortunate day, but he would pull out every silver lining out of this dark cloud and prepare for his return and then… the world will know true fear.

        The subjects were given cloaks to cover themselves with as they made their way to Bison’s jumbo plane which was packed with Shadowlaw staff and equipment. On the plane, the three of them stood at the command center and watched as Naar’s fortress erupted from the sea, shattering the artificial island into pieces. They watched tiny dots which were people struggling to get away from the mystical catastrophe.
        “So, do you have a name or do you want me to pick one out for you?” Bison said nonchalantly to the silent clone beside him.
 
 

Five years later…

        “Reno Tseng?” a creepy voice asked on the other line.
        “Yeah?” Reno replied as he dried his hair with a towel, he had just come out of the shower when the cell rang.
        “The Lord has mailed you a package that requests your immediate attention,” the voice continued, ignoring Reno’s insolence.
        “I already know what’s in it.” Reno said nonchalantly as he turned on the blow-dryer. “How’s the family, Smith?”

        He could feel the contempt suddenly turn into fear.
        “That’ll be all, thanks for the heads up.” Reno replied and turned off the cell as he blow-dried his hair he called out to the woman watching television in the bedroom. “Cana, call the lobby and tell them to send that package up?”
        “All right,” he heard the television click off and Cana using the hotel phone to tell them to send their package up.

        When he finished dressing, Reno picked up his cell phone again.
        “Hey, Fuuma, moshi moshi.” Reno said as he leaned against the wall adjacent to the door. “Yeah, it’s me. Yeah, it was a great gig last night, Cana and I really had fun. Hm, they want us back again? That’s great to hear. Yeah, sure, of course we’d love to be back. Wait. Damn, that’s gonna be a problem. I’m sorry, man, some family problems I gotta fly back home. Oh, thanks. Yeah, we should be able to come out alright. I’m sorry, man; I know how important all of this is for you. Wait, hold on a sec.” Someone knocked on the door.

        “Delivery for Tseng and Verdandi-san,” the deliveryman called.
        “Hai, that’s us, arigatou.” Reno opened the door and tipped the man.

        Closing the door, he picked up the phone again, “Hey, Fuuma, yeah sorry about that, delivery.” He walked into the bedroom and placed the box on the desk, with one hand he opened a switchblade and cut the tape away. “Hai, we’ll be okay, thanks for the concern. Cana will appreciate you asking about her. Iya, I have no idea when we’ll be coming back, hopefully soon. Hai, thank goodness we got our album out just in time.” From the box he pulled out a roll of vials which he carefully setted aside, he opened an envelope inside and found two plane tickets, first class. And at the very bottom he found the yellow flier.

“Say, Fuuma, Hideki’s been getting better with the Gibson… huh, no, of course not. I’m just saying Hideki could play in my place while Cana and I are gone for a bit… and Chie’s singing has improved a lot as well. Don’t worry, don’t worry, we won’t leave the band.” He went over to Cana who was sitting on the left bed reading a magazine and sat at the foot handing her the yellow flier.
“Hai, as soon as possible. You have to get going now? Hai, we’ll talk soon.”

        “When are we leaving?” Cana asked, handing the flier back to him.
        “Tomorrow night, at 10.” Reno took the flier and placed it back into the box. “He knows our schedule pretty well; it’s our last gig on the tour.”
        Cana said nothing.

        Bison didn’t ask much from them and Shadowlaw had been keeping a low profile in the last five years with their crimes, instead biding their time and gathering their strength. He was free to go where he went and do what he liked… but Cana followed him. He resented her presence, because she was probably spying on him for Bison. He had told her off once, and she left, but he had felt compelled to get her back and he never did it again. He spent the early years of his “life” fighting on the streets because Bison wanted him to perfect his control on his new powers, somewhere along the way he managed to pick up the guitar and for the past two years had been playing in an independent rock band in Japan called, “Sacred Edge.” Yet, even with all this success, he felt empty inside.

        What Reno didn’t realize was that he had been manipulated from the start; he had no memories prior to coming to the previous tournament so his instinctual hatred for Bison felt baseless. Bison offered him a life that Kay would have immediately turned down just because he was Bison. Beneath the cool and friendly exterior he showed others was a haughty and sadistic man, yet even deeper was a sad young man who had lost his way. He had killed, and he didn’t regret it.

        Cana… he didn’t understand Cana. She stayed by his side all these years, loyal and protective she had also joined the band much to his dismay as a singer and bass player. What kept them together?
        “Its time for your medication.” Cana said.

        “Yeah, I know.” Reno replied, he stood up and went over to the roll of syringes. Rolling up one of his sleeves, he dabbed his arm with a swab of alcohol before injecting the amber serum inside his veins. He could take it in orally if he wanted, but it left a pretty disgusting after taste that left his tongue feeling numb for hours.
        He stared at the bundle and wished he could just throw them into the trash and be done with it, but each one was one more month of life… and five years worth of life was unsatisfactory.
        “I’m going out for a drive; I’ll meet you at the gig later tonight.” Reno slapped a band aid on, grabbed his jacket and left.
        Cana stared at the door.