"And don't report back until you have something useful to tell me!"
Cammy heard Bison screaming to his subordinates as she crawled across the rafters. She had come by herself ahead of her allies, using her agility and grace to slip into the Shadaloo palace undetected. She could see a bird's eye view of the vast command room below.
After the soldiers left, Bison leaned back into his seat and sighed. Shaking his head, he removed his hat and let it rest in his lap. He raised one of his hands, stared toward his palm, and growled at what he saw. The tremors were even worse than before, taking over his entire arm. Simply making a steady fist was becoming a challenge. Soon he wouldn't be able to hide his weakness at all.
Bison's spirit had an insatiable passion for controlling the world, but all of the physical combat and reckless Psycho Power enhancements were catching up to his body. He would never admit it in front of his followers, but he knew his flesh wasn't going to hold out for much longer. He probably had a few months left at best. The only option was to find someone as brilliant and powerful as himself to appoint as his successor. He had designed an ingenious solution in the past, but there were unexpected complications and now it seemed like all of his chances had slipped from his fingers. He would need the Devil's luck to overcome the one opponent no man could defeat: Mortality.
Today was his lucky day.
Cammy made her move. She launched herself from her secret alcove and pointed her feet straight for Bison's head, turning her legs into a curved bullet. Bison sensed the attack, snapped his attention upward, and dodged away from Cammy's descent just before she reached the ground and reduced his empty seat to splinters. Bison stared at the invader with an enraged scowl. Cammy stepped out of the rubble and entered a fighting stance.
"Bison. When I'm finished with you, you're going to answer for your crimes!"
Bison responded with a humored grunt.
"Still playing the hero, are we? After I defeat you, girl, I'm going to shatter your mind like glass and claim your body for myself. You're a broken Doll who needs to be fixed."
Cammy scoffed in disgust. She had fully accepted her past, that of an artificial clone created in a lab to carry the insane warlord's legacy, but she wasn't going to let it dictate her future. She had made it her mission to protect the world from Bison's tyranny.
Bison concentrated the remaining portion of his energy and flung himself forward with a Psycho Crusher. Cammy cartwheeled over him and landed on one knee. She rolled across the ground and tried to bring him down with a sweeping kick, but he jumped over her attack. She hopped to her feet and managed to stagger him with a knee to his gut and an uppercut to his chin. Bison stepped back and threw a monstrous punch, but Cammy swiftly ducked under his arm.
Cammy stood up and threw a punch of her own. Bison blocked her with a hand that was nearly twice the size as hers and held her arm in place. Cammy punched with her remaining hand, but Bison caught that as well. He twisted her backwards by the arms and trapped her in a headlock. Cammy threw a high kick that extended past her own shoulder, but Bison tilted his head before the front of her leather boot could smash into his face. Bison squeezed his arms together in a combination of anger and desperation, applying more pressure to Cammy's windpipe. She continued to struggle until she started feeling lightheaded. Her movements slowed down as her muscles were deprived of oxygen, then she passed out completely.
Bison kept his elbows locked and rattled Cammy's limp body until he knew she was gone. He lifted his arm from her neck and let her collapse first-first to the floor.
Cammy was rushed into the operating room while she was still unconscious. The surgeons lifted her from a gurney and situated her in a bizarre chair contraption. She was tightly bolted down with metal shackles around her wrists and ankles. A final collar locked around her neck to keep her head in place.
Some of the surgeons cut through the shoulders and neck of Cammy's green leotard with scissors and peeled the form-fitting material down to her navel. Another team pinned dozens of wires to her bare torso. The lead surgeon removed Cammy's beret, carefully parted the hair close to her ear, and rubbed a dab of anesthetic gel in a small circular area on her scalp.
The workers fitted a thin silver sheet over Cammy's hair, leaving her face uncovered. It was designed to insulate electrical currents and it looked almost like a wedding veil made out of chainmail. A crown of power cables was fastened around her forehead over the sheet. The thick cables led back to the enormous machines that lined the walls. The room brightened with digital displays of a human brain painted with red pixels.
A mechanical arm descended from the ceiling and slowly inched toward Cammy. It was equipped with a tiny drill that the lead surgeon guided through an opening in Cammy's head restraints. The machine's low mechanical hum changed to the high-pitched scream of metal grinding through bone as it moved inward. The surgeon pulled the drill away and another mechanical arm moved down in its place, this time equipped with a massive syringe. The needle easily passed through Cammy's cranium and entered the soft tissue of her temporal lobe. The visual monitors showed the needle inserting a microprocessor the size of a grain of rice deep in the center of her brain. The needle was slowly extracted once the device was in place. Cammy's eyelids twitched as the color of her virtual dreams started changing from red to blue.
The surgeons went to work at the consoles. All of the wires and cables attached to Cammy's body glowed with low-voltage currents. Her eyelids violently fluttered open for a brief moment, revealing a haunting pair of eyes that glowed white with Psycho Power. The completely normal nerve spasm ended after a few seconds and Cammy's eyes snapped shut.
Bison watched everything with a greedy smirk. He started to cough lightly, but then broke into a fit that forced him to cover his mouth. When he moved his hand away he saw his palm was covered with blood.
One of the surgeons came to his side while he cleaned his hand. Most of her face was obscured by her surgical mask, but there was a concerned look in her eyes.
"Sir, your condition is getting worse. You should…"
"Nevermind that." Bison raised his hulking arm as he interrupted the doctor. Even in his frail condition, he was more intimidating than any of these scrawny medical workers. "She's more important than this damned decrepit body of mine. How long is this going to take?"
"A couple hours, at least. Then she'll need a few days to fully recover." the surgeon replied. "The implant only nullifies the patient's most recent experiences and reverses the changes to her thought process since she turned rogue. Now we're educating her with your knowledge and stimulating her Psycho Power receptors."
"But she'll be ready once you're done?"
"She'll be just as you ordered, sir." the surgeon answered. "She'll have all of her own fighting skills and she'll gain all of your ambition. She'll be driven to make the same decisions as you once you… become absent."
"Excellent," Bison chuckled. "I may not be around for much longer, but Shadaloo will survive under a new leader. Earth will still have the Queen it deserves."
He glanced toward Cammy with a twisted sense of pride.
"I was beginning to think the Dolls were a complete failure. This one pulled through in the end."
Approaching her, he tenderly brushed his hand against her sleeping face.
"Relax, my wayward daughter," Bison whispered ominously. "You fooled yourself into thinking you could have a life of your own, but soon you'll embrace your destiny. You're going to be the perfect vessel for my will."
Cammy rested in her nightmarish cradle, stripped half-bare and covered in pulsating electrical cords. Her mind drifted through sudden aspirations of conquest while her body silently learned to use powers it never knew it possessed.
Cammy sat on the Shadaloo throne with her thighs crossed and her fingers tucked under her chin. She was wearing a red leotard with an officer's hat and a long gray cape that reached down to her ankles. Directly behind her seat, extending all the way to the ceiling, was a glorious portrait of the late, great Major Bison.
Guile was standing in front of her. His posture showed he was ready to fight, but his expression was filled with regret. Cammy looked back at him and emitted a low, evil chuckle.
Cammy stood up from her seat and threw the cape off her of shoulders. Guile attacked first with a Sonic Boom. Cammy flipped past the projectile and closed in for a series of melee attacks. The two fighters exchanged kicks and punches before Cammy started gaining the advantage. Guile fought with everything he had, determined to end the Shadaloo menace no matter what form it came in, but he couldn't keep up with Cammy's improved skills. She had always relied more on speed than raw strength when they were sparring together, but now every one of her attacks felt like steel beams slamming into his body and her movements were even faster. She nailed him with a Cannon Spike that catapulted him upward and put several meters between them.
Guile hit the ground hard and stumbled to his feet. Cammy spun through the air feet-first, straightened her entire body, and concentrated her strength into her fearsome Psycho Arrow attack. The soles of her spinning metal boots slammed into Guile's sternum, knocking him out completely and sending him crashing across the room.
When the fight was over, Cammy stood with her arms crossed over her chest and her rear toward her opponent. She looked over her shoulder with a tyrannical grin. While Guile remained motionless, Cammy lifted her fingers to her mouth and whistled loudly.
Shadaloo guards marched into the room, saluted Cammy, and surrounded the enemy soldier.
"Should we take him to the execution room, Major White?" one of them asked.
"No. A fighter as strong as him would be useful in our experiments." Cammy replied. A sinister aura crept into her eyes as she glanced toward Guile. "Take him to the lab. I think it's time we created a new friend for Blanka."