My first Street Fighter fic. I hope I did it justice.
This fic is alternatively titled "Captive Audience." I was very attached to that title but I couldn't resist the SF terminology wordplay behind "Reversal." This fic is truly meant to be read as one-shot, but it got kind of lengthy so I decided to pare it down to be two chapters. I'll post the second chapter probably mid-week.
Takes place immediately following Chun-Li's rival battle with Juri. Some minimal references and spoilers to Juri's OVA if you haven't seen it.
On Location: The fic is set in South Carolina. There's nothing to confirm that's exactly where their fight takes place ("North America, drive-in" isn't much to go by) but if you check the map screen for that location the little dot is somewhere between North and South Carolina. A bit of research and Google Maps told me that South Carolina conveniently had a private airfield run by the USAF…so my location was set.
Everyone belongs to Capcom. I would like to dearly thank my beta reader Oryx-the-Bein who read through this fic three times and offered the ideal 'woman's touch' to this kind of fic.
"Suspect is in custody. I'll see you in an hour at the airfield Guile."
"Roger that. I'll be ready. Well done Chun-Li. And be careful."
"I will. See you soon."
Chun-Li punched the "END" button on her cellphone and slid it back into her rucksack, mentally scolding herself for talking on her cell phone while she was driving. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, not only tired from her recent fight, but from lack of sleep. The sky was a damp grey color; rumpled early morning clouds were straggling across the horizon. Chun-Li thought she glimpsed the tail of a coyote or fox vanish into the underbrush along the highway as she sped past. The sun would be rising in a couple of hours and the usually crowded South Carolina highway was completely deserted of other cars, save for her own, a government rental provided to her by INTERPOL upon her arrival in America last night.
Chun-Li's eyes kept flitting up to the mirror above her where she could see the reflection of an unconscious figure sprawled across the backseat. In the silence of the car and early morning Chun-Li could just barely hear her breathing. The once fresh, rental car smell now barely lingered now over the stench of sweat and blood. She had just over an hour to deliver her quarry to Major William Guile at the North Auxiliary Airfield in South Carolina, which was run by a branch of the USAF. Guile's connections there had assured him and her captive a guarded transport out of the United States, as well as the confidentiality of not having to explain her situation to a public airport. And now Chun-Li's job was to get to the airfield and catch her own flight out of the country to resume the fighting tournament. Chun-Li was looking forward to air travel, not particularly because she preferred flying to driving, but so she could finally catch some shut-eye as her drooping frame hunched over the steering wheel.
But Chun-Li had the unfortunate feeling that her captive was not going to remain unconscious for the entirety of the trip.
Sure enough, within the next five minutes, there was a heavy groan from the backseat, followed by a disjointed mix of Japanese and Korean muttering.
Chun-Li set her expression, resigning herself to what was likely to be an hour of immense frustration and irritation, as the battered figure attempted to raise her head. She was rather the worse for wear; a nasty pair of gashes crossed her left cheek where Chun-Li had grazed her with her spiked wrist weights. Her usually elaborate hair was disheveled across her face, and a dark bruise had risen around her jaw from where Chun-Li had scored the knockout strike.
But Chun-Li had hardly left the fight unscathed either. She sported a split lip and a swollen eye, and her side ached from where she had taken a bad kick the ribs. Despite this however she contended that she had fared much better than she had in her first fight with the other woman.
"…the hell..?" her captive muttered dazedly, mumbling an incoherent mix of Japanese and Korean swear words as she struggled to orient herself, which was proving difficult. Chun-Li had wasted no time in subduing the other woman after her defeat at the drive-in at North Charleston. She had removed the woman's spiked gauntlets and replaced them with a pair of handcuffs behind her back. For good measure, she had cuffed the other woman's ankles as well, as Chun-Li knew all too well the damage her feet could cause from her currently bruised ribs. And lastly, as a somewhat extreme precaution, Chun-Li had wound one of her hair ribbons twice over the unconscious woman's eyes, hoping with some uncertainty that lack of sight might prevent the other woman from activating the device in her left eye.
Clearly disoriented and frustrated at being unable to see or move properly, the other woman began shaking her head violently and shouting in Korean, clearly distraught. Chun-Li could not understand much Korean, but the woman's considerable distress was evident, and certainly understandable. Chun-Li didn't know if she should speak up or say something; she had never seen this woman reduced to such a state.
But then to Chun-Li's complete bewilderment, she saw the other woman's mouth slowly purse into a very small 'o' of surprise and dawning comprehension. Her expression of distress and anger faded, to be replaced by a broad grin.
"Alright officer…looks like you got me."
"Juri Han," said Chun-Li, now keeping her eyes firmly on the road, her hands tight on the steering wheel. "You are under arrest by INTERPOL on charges of murder, homicide, assault, espionage, terrorism, attacking a police officer—"
Juri yawned complacently as Chun-Li continued her list of memorized charges.
"…Furthermore," Chun-Li continued. "You are being taken to the North Auxiliary Airfield to be escorted out of the country in the custody of Major William Guile of the United States Air Force to stand trial in Japan—"
"But the tournament's not over yet China Doll," said Juri conversationally, awkwardly managing to tilt herself into a somewhat upright position, swinging her handcuffed feet playfully onto the seat beside her. "Don't you have opponents to be fighting? Secret organizations to be snooping around in?"
"Furthermore," repeated Chun-Li doggedly. "You have the right to remain silent, request a lawyer, and –"
"Alright! Enough already," injected Juri a third time. "Cut it with the legalities and the rights crap. God, are all you cops this cliché?"
Chun-Li fell silent, keeping her eyes fixed straight ahead. She was determined to spend as much of the trip in silence as she could. If Juri wanted to talk herself hoarse the entire trip then she was by all means free to do so.
"So," said Juri. "How long am I stuck with you?"
"We'll be at the government airfield in a little over an hour," said Chun-Li crisply.
"Sounds good to me," said Juri, seemingly unfazed by her predicament, as if she and Chun-Li were discussing a pleasant vacation to Europe together instead of being escorted out of the country in legal custody. "Just you and me China Doll? Some time alone with just us girls? I'm not complaining."
Her tongue flitted to the corner of her lips, licking up a smear of blood that had congealed there from their fight. Chun-Li cringed in annoyance and redirected her gaze back to the road.
"Oh come on, Chunners, why so serious?" said Juri, cocking her head with an almost comical pout that turned into a grimace. "Damn…my jaw is fucking killing me."
Chun-Li mentally growled at Juri's use of language, but she couldn't help but feel a twinge of satisfaction that Juri was still smarting, at least physically, from their match.
"Jeez…overkill much," said Juri, scowling as she shifted in the backseat in a failed attempt to make herself more comfortable. Chun-Li heard the clink of the handcuffs on her wrists and ankles inhibit her from moving much further. "And I can't even enjoy the scenery," she muttered. "You'd better not be speeding; I can't even monitor your driving. This is one of your hair ribbons, isn't it?" she asked suddenly.
Chun-Li was taken aback. "How can you tell?" she demanded.
"It smells like you."
Chun-Li said nothing, abruptly feeling sick to her stomach as she watched Juri's face widen into an exaggerated expression of mock surprise.
"Oh…but I'm flattered, Chunners," said Juri with a nauseating smile. "That you'd share something sooo special with me? Makes me think you're finally warming up to me."
Chun-Li flushed with indignation. She had simply been trying to be resourceful when she had blindfolded the unconscious Juri with one of her hair ribbons, fearing that the Feng Shui Engine's explosive ki might enable Juri to free herself. But now the thought of one of her treasured hair ribbons, worn in memory of her father, being in contact with Juri was suddenly maddening. Juri didn't deserve to wear one of her ribbons, regardless of whether or not she was actually wearing them in her hair. They were something sacred: a tribute to her father; a symbol of purity, not to be touched or defiled those who did wrong or harmed others.
Bitterly glad that at least her hair ribbons prevented Juri from seeing her expression, Chun-Li gritted her teeth and glared at the road ahead, her expression set. Juri had barely been conscious five minutes and already she was getting to her.
"Oh come on China Doll. Am I going to get the silent treatment the whole trip?" whined Juri. "You're hurting my feelings. Can't we talk? Just us girls?"
"Alright," said Chun-Li coolly, tightening her grip on the steering wheel. "You want to talk? You can tell me about S.I.N. and its operatives, as well as the plans behind this fighting tournament, and –"
"But that's so booorrring," cut in Juri emphatically, with an expression that made it clear she was rolling her eyes behind her blindfold. "Please, I don't want to talk about stupid head operatives or dish out the names of weapons suppliers and crap like that when I've got this kind of time you. And why ask me now when I'll just have to repeat myself later. Wouldn't rather wait until I've been brutally locked up in some interrogation room and you've got your kitten with you to listen in?"
Juri was glowering, her bruised jaw set in an expression of bitterness.
"Well, you're the one who said you wanted to talk," said Chun-Li icily.
"Girl talk sweetheart. It's not every day I get a captive audience like this."
Chun-Li was not about to comment on the irony or lack of accuracy in Juri's statement, when Juri was the one in captivity, but she immediately understood with a considerable amount of irritation what Juri had meant. She would have to resign herself to listening to Juri chatter about whatever she wanted as long as she was stuck in the car with her. She fell silent again, willing her eyes not to keep flitting up to the mirror.
"You're not being any fun at all," said Juri, jutting out her lower lip and shifting into an exaggerated slouch.
"This isn't supposed to be fun!" said Chun-Li incredulously.
Chun-Li didn't know whether to find Juri's complete nonchalance baffling or downright infuriating, though the latter seemed to be prevailing at the moment. Any other criminal in her position would have been shouting profanities and threats, struggling, demanding their release…and here was Juri, asking for "girl talk." Chun-Li had long since learned the threats and curses of mobsters and kingpins were nothing to get rattled by. But it was Juri's complete indifference to her situation that left Chun-Li unnerved. Juri was so dangerously unpredictable...and it was that unnerving indifference and playfulness that could so easily and quickly erupt into violence. Why was she so damn calm? Why didn't she care? What was she thinking behind the layers of white silk covering her eyes? As maddening as it seemed, Chun-Li wanted Juri to scream at her, threaten her, demand to be released, anything normal criminals did. Anything but this incessant flirting.
The sooner they got to the airfield, the better. Granted, she did feel guilty about dumping Juri on Guile for an immensely long plane fight, but somehow Chun-Li doubted Juri would be teasing Guile with demands of 'girl talk.'
Juri had now begun squirming rather pronouncedly in the back seat.
"Sit still," hissed Chun-Li.
"Oh, I'm sorry officer," drawled Juri with a scowl. "Forgive me if it's just slightly uncomfortable back here."
Chun-Li rolled her eyes. Damned if Juri was going to try and evoke sympathy out of her. Juri was so much easier to deal with in a fight. Yes, there was the taunting, the teasing, and the banter, but it was their legs that really did the talking. It was this confined contact that left Chun-Li so prone to irritation.
"Oh…am I bothering you Chunny?" asked Juri with a cock of her head, as if she could sense Chun-Li's thoughts. "Maybe you should come back here and shut me up then; teach me a lesson. Here I am, at your mercy. Perfectly helpless. You beat me fair and square. Seems that I need to be put in my place, so why don't you come back here and be the one to do it?"
"You disgust me," said Chun-Li venomously.
Chun-Li thought she saw the flicker of a frown cross Juri's face. Perhaps it was the timing with which she looked up into her mirror, or perhaps Juri was still nursing her jaw.
"Ouch…Chunners…that's cold," said Juri.
"How can you claim to have any kind of affection for me?" demanded Chun-Li incredulously. "You've tried to kill me!"
"Kill you?" repeated Juri, giving Chun-Li what seemed to be a confused look from behind the ribbon. "You thought I wanted to kill you?" The corners of her mouth twitched. Then to Chun-Li's complete and utter bewilderment, Juri threw back her head and crowed with high, harsh laughter.
"I don't want to kill you Chunners!" cried Juri, as Chun-Li gaped at her in the mirror, again glad Juri could not see her dumbstruck expression. "You're too much fun to mess with! God, what would I do without you? Back when you first took me on…oh man. When I really got a good look at you, with your tough cop talk amongst all those bodies…Damn! You were so thrilling! Sure, you pissed me off at first, but that's 'cause you let yourself get distracted by that stupid kid while I was having fun. Come on, I was only being fair. Like you wouldn't have done the same if I'd been distracted. But then afterwards I thought, why would I want to get rid of someone like you? I wasn't about to kill someone so amazing! I wanted to take you on again! And again! I was smitten! And then when I realized what we had in common –"
"We have nothing in common!" said Chun-Li, in an effort to keep from shouting at Juri. "I'm nothing like you. I protect lives. I don't take them. I've never hurt anyone for sport, or murdered innocent people—"
Juri let out a derisive snort. "Please," she drawled. "You cops and your 'innocent people' talk. You pulled that shit back at the theme park too. That's just the term you give to the idiots loitering about who aren't directly involved. Collateral damage. When are you people going to get that no one is ever innocent! No one is perfect! Remember that woman and her kid? She could have been having an affair for all I know. Do you really think she was a perfect, innocent human being?" Juri said with sickening mock sweetness. "And her kid was probably a brat who screamed at his parents and didn't appreciate them. Look, I wouldn't know, but that doesn't make them saints, forever to be deemed 'innocent' by you cops and do-gooders. No one is ever completely innocent. Not even you China Doll. We all just have varying degrees of guilt."
"And who are you to be their judge?" demanded Chun-Li, repulsed and shocked by Juri's flawed logic. "Surely your guilt surpasses that of the child?"
"Survival of the fittest dear. That's a law you and I both know."
"You're twisted."
"Whatever you say, officer," said Juri with a nonchalant smirk.
Infuriated by Juri's warped idea of logic, Chun-Li again refocused her gaze to highway and pressed her foot into the gas pedal, determined to get Juri to the airfield base as soon as possible. But Juri's accusations of innocence and guilt kept playing unbidden through her mind.
"Regardless of guilt," said Chun-Li after a moment. "My father would be proud of how I've lived my life. That's more than you can say."
There was a pause, while Juri seemed to be considering Chun-Li's statement.
"My dad was proud of me," said Juri simply. "My mom was too I guess, but she thought I should be playing piano or something. She didn't like me fighting. It wasn't for girls. She'd get all concerned and say stuff like 'Oh, tone it down a little honey. You don't have to be so rough.' But my dad…My dad loved it. The more I won and the tougher I got the happier he was. Nothing I did ever seemed to bother him. He'd just laugh and say 'That's my girl, doing things her way and taking out anyone who tries to stop her!'" Juri was grinning; the same particular grin Chun-Li had seen her wear when they had fought. It startled Chun-Li to think Juri equated the remembrance of her parents with the same joy she got from fighting.
Juri was still fidgeting agitatedly, and Chun-Li decided against telling her off again. If Juri ended up falling back over Chun-Li was hardly about to stop the car to help her up.
"There was this one time, when I did ever see him really upset," said Juri, almost pensively. "I don't remember what day it was or anything, but I'd just come back from a big tournament and we were going to go out and celebrate because obviously, I won. So I went upstairs to change but I guess I was taking too long…because dad came upstairs to my room to check on me, and walked in on me fingering myself to a picture of my taekwondo instructor."
Chun-Li lurched forward against the steering wheel, appalled. If anything Juri had said thus far had made Chun-Li uncomfortable, it was nothing compared to this. Unbidden, a mental image of the scene flashed through her mind: a young teenaged Juri, her hair short and her eyes unaltered by the Feng Shui Engine, clouded with fear, shock and shame, and her hands…oh god. Chun-Li tried to banish the image from her head. Meanwhile Juri's father stood by, -though Chun-Li had no idea what the man would have looked like- his face mirroring a very different shock. She didn't want to hear this. She felt sick, like some sort of voyeur. Why on earth was Juri telling her this?
"Oh come on Chunners, it's not like you've never touched yourself," said Juri irritably, again displaying an uncanny ability to sense Chun-Li's emotions despite not being able to see her. "She was gorgeous by the way," she added emphatically. "My instructor, I mean." A complacent grin spread across her face. "Looked a lot like you. Even wore her hair in buns sometimes. Maybe that's why I like you so much…makes me nostalgic."
Juri gave a particularly noticeable lurch and Chun-Li was struck with the horrifying thought that Juri was pleasuring herself right there in the backseat. She quickly banished this notion as she remembered with relief that Juri's hands were safely cuffed behind her back.
"So, there I was, playing with myself, and dad just had to walk in on me," continued Juri, as if she were narrating a favorite film of hers. "And he just kind of froze and looked at me and god…I'd never been more embarrassed in my life. And his eyes did this little flick down and I knew he saw the picture of who it was, as if it wasn't bad enough he'd caught me. And he just kind of looked away and muttered something, and walked out. Man, I still wish he's just yelled at me. Knowing he was going to tell my mom and just leaving me there was awful. So I just sat there expecting the worse and then suddenly Dad called up the stairs at me to come down. And he was all, 'Hey kiddo, we're still off to celebrate, right?' and he had this big smile on his face like nothing had happened but I knew it wasn't over."
Chun-Li could feel her composure beginning to slip. She did not want or need to hear this. The last thing she wanted to be told was some awkward story about Juri's sexual fantasies about her taekwondo instructor, which was completely irrelevant to the current time, context or setting. Juri was no doubt trying to play the sympathy card and redirect her narrative back to her bizarre infatuation with Chun-Li.
"Is there any particularly reason you're telling me all this?" cut in Chun-Li.
"Why, I'm offended officer," said Juri, her lips pursing in mock anguish and her eyebrows drawn together above the blindfold. "Here I am pouring my heart and soul out to you and you don't even care?"
Chun-Li did not enjoy being patronized, nor did she enjoy the fact that Juri had decided to play the victim, which was aggravating her all the more.
"So anyway," Juri drawled on. "There I was, in the backseat of the car, just like I am now…well okay, obviously not really just like I am now. And my parents were both so quiet and I was just sitting there, scared out of my mind for what was coming, and then finally my dad looked up and said, 'Juri, is there something you'd like to talk to us about?'"
"And what did you say?" asked Chun-Li coolly.
"Well nothing, because that's when the shooting started."
Chun-Li as if an invisible hand had just squeezed her heart; her breath caught in her chest. How was she supposed to have known that this was where Juri was going with her narrative? This was the absolute last thing she wanted to hear. Why, why, why on earth was Juri telling her this, as she sat there in the back seat with a blank expression as if she told this story all the time.
"Yeah, I don't remember all that much of it" said Juri in a voice of chilling indifference. She might as well have been talking about the weather. "I heard the gunfire and saw the front window break, and the car spun out of control and off the road. My parents were yelling and the next thing I knew was being pulled out of the car by these huge guys. I was screaming and kicking with every move I knew, but they were all bigger than me. I saw them drag my dad out covered in blood with a gun to his head along with my mom, and I just kept screaming and flailing and then finally one of the guys holding me pinned my legs and slammed my head into the hood of the car."
Chun-Li felt a numbed, horrified, sickened. She wasn't sure which alarmed her more, Juri's story itself, or the fact that Juri told it was such casual nonchalance.
"Well, I was ko'd for a while I guess, but when I finally came to I was on the floor of van. My head hurt like hell and everything was blurry, but Mom and Dad were sitting on the floor in front of me with a ton of guys with huge guns standing around them. None of them seemed to notice me, so I tried to get up, but I like…fell right back over because my head was so fucked up. Then one of the guys saw me and pulled his gun on me, and I tried to kick it out of his hands, but it went off as I hit it and shot me in the eye."
Chun-Li felt jolt of horror as if she had just heard the bang of gunfire and taken the shot herself. The child in the images flashing before her eyes seemed impossible to equate with the violent woman handcuffed in the backseat.
"So I was down obviously not getting back up, and I was screaming, my parents were screaming and the men shouting before I completely went out, but I guess they decided they didn't need me if I was damaged, or more likely they thought I was dead, 'cause the next thing I remember was waking up on the side of the road with a bunch of cops and an ambulance hauling me up. So they got me patched up and told me the big news: I didn't have an eye anymore and I didn't have parents. And I got told the biggest lie kids like me ever get told: "Everything's going to be okay."
"So what did you do?" asked Chun-Li swallowing hard as she tried to keep her tone cool and indifferent like Juri's, her palms sweaty as they grasped the steering wheel.
"I got shuffled around a lot," said Juri with a shrug inhibited by her handcuffs. "I mean, come on, would you want to take in an angsty, traumatized, one-eyed teenager? So when I was seventeen I took all my money out of the bank and went off to do my own thing."
"How did you end up working for S.I.N.?" asked Chun-Li.
"Still trying to get information out of me?" chuckled Juri. "See, I was still entering Taekwondo tournaments and I won a lot because I was good, even with lousy depth perception" she added with a grin. "I figured it wouldn't be long before Shadaloo got wind I was still alive and decided to finish the job. Not to mention they were always tracking down fighters. So rather than give them the chance, I went to them. Easy."
Chun-Li gaped at her, completely failing to see any logic in the Juri's response.
"So, on a whim, you just decided you'd work for the organization that killed your parents?" said Chun-Li, not sure whether or not to be confused or downright horrified. "Just so they wouldn't target you? To keep yourself alive?"
"Well yeah…not only that, but how else was I supposed to get to Bison?" demanded Juri, as if this should have been perfectly obvious to Chun-Li. "I figured I keep an arm's length by working for S.I.N. and wait for the opportune moment."
"And murder people."
"Look officer," said Juri, in the voice of one who was tired of explaining a simple idea to someone particularly dim-witted. "It's all well and good to take the 'path of righteousness' and protect the innocent or whatever the hell you call it, but that just really isn't my thing. I've never been the type to 'put others first' and that crap. See, those men that killed my parents and shot me in the eye, they didn't care. That was their job. They slept soundly that night. No guilt, no troubled conscience. And that sure as hell goes for Bison. So I figured," Juri continued, nudging herself awkwardly to the left. "I had to be even tougher, even stronger than they were if I stood a chance at staying alive in world with people like them; people like Bison. So I did what I needed to make that happen. I brought myself to their level, and I got rid of anything that was going to hold me back. I couldn't afford to be vulnerable. And suddenly I didn't have anything to fear anymore, because had the same power as everything I'd ever been afraid of. It was…freeing. "
"So you sold your soul and your conscience for a life of violence and destruction?" said Chun-Li coldly, no longer feeling sympathetic.
"I survived."
Chun-Li was at a loss for words. But she now saw through a mixture of loathing and fear what Juri had meant when she had said that the two of them were alike. It startled her to think that Juri might have been able to become like her, might have actually been a good person, had she chosen a different path. Maybe Juri could have been sitting next to her in the front seat, laughing animatedly while they brought in some faceless, rouge fighter in the name of justice. An eccentric best friend, like Cammy, but more spontaneous and quirky. But simultaneously it chilled her to think just how easily she, Chun-Li, might have become like Juri. Perhaps she would have been the one in the back seat, blindfolded, her hands and feet cuffed, a machine stuck in her left eye and Juri the one escorting her to her fate.
Chun-Li shook her head. She was not like Juri. Juri was twisted, warped and corrupted. A version of Chun-Li who had made all the wrong choices, and she was there to remind Chun-Li herself that she had made the right choices, and had lived her life honorably. She had devoted her life to the protection of others, not destruction as Juri had.
"But then I met you," purred Juri, jolting Chun-Li out of her reverie. "And finally, I had an equal. My other side. And you were such…fun! And I thought, what a pair we could be…"
"I want nothing to do with you," said Chun-Li. "We are nothing, alike." Juri was both right and wrong, as much as Chun-Li did not want to admit it to herself. They were opposites. Yin and Yang. Two opposing forces. Almost the same person, but in versions both good and evil. The choices the other could have made, but didn't.
"Ouch…Chunners. That hurts," said Juri, with a tilt of her head, her eyebrows furrowing above the blindfold. "Think what we could be! Haven't you ever wanted just a little bit of that Chun? That freedom when you can shed your limits? I know it's in you…it's ineveryone. We all just make different choices about how much we indulge it."
Chun-Li's mind wavered to how often had she been so tempted to cross the line and deal out punishment in a manner she felt was more deserving than the simple jail time the criminals she brought in would face? How close was she to crossing such a line? How little was there standing in the way of her becoming like what Juri was?
"The two of us!" continued Juri. "Comrades in arms! We could have whatever we wanted; do whatever we wanted! If we joined forces, no one would stand in our way! The two most powerful women in the world! We-"
"I'd never fight for what you do," cut in Chun-Li, though her thoughts, completely unwarranted, had turned to the prospect of Juri as an ally. If she would serve her time, redeem herself, turn over a new leaf….the possibilities of someone with her strength–"
"Well I'm sorry officer, but I'm not going to be your sidekick," spat Juri, cutting into Chun-Li's fantasy. "And I'm not going to be your sweet, demure little Korean girlfriend sitting at home with a day job while you're out playing heroine of justice, defender of the peace with your little pet kitten."
"Don't you ever talk about Cammy that way," barked Chun-Li, her hands sweaty and locked in place over the steering wheel. "She's not my sidekick and she's not my pet. She's my partner, and my friend."
"Oh, of course," drawled Juri with a distinct bitterness in her voice. "We're even more alike than you realize Chunny. Tell me, Miss 'Strongest Woman in the World,' what's your love life like? Shouldn't be too hard for the strongest woman in the world, winner of countless fighting tournaments to find herself a boyfriend, now would it? Young, single, beautiful, strong and famous? But men don't want women who are better than them. Who intimidate them. I bet you scared all the boys off, didn't you Chunny? A cop and a fighting champion to boot? That's too much for the average male idiot. Because the world's strongest woman is always that one, little, step down from the world's strongest man in everyone else's eyes, no matter how untrue it might be. They can't have a woman's who's legs are twice the size of their own, or a woman who can overpower them. That's their job."
Chun-Li felt a clench of embarrassment. Even her best friends would make the occasional joke about her legs. And she could easily remember the first date she had been taken on by a boy. After winning one of her first fighting tournaments, she had been determined to finally enjoy the fruits of being a young, attractive, single girl. However when a group of thugs had tried to get the jump on her, Chun-Li had immediately took charge and beat them all down without even breaking a sweat, while her date had watched cowed and horrified. She hadn't gotten a second date.
"But a woman," purred Juri, her tongue darting out to moisten her lips. "She'd be your equal. Your partner. You'd be on the same level. You'd simply eliminate the age-old power struggle of men and women…and you'd get what a woman like you deserves. You wouldn't have to worry about overpowering some boorish idiot, or have the shadow of a man dulling your glory as the strongest woman in the world. You've had those thoughts, haven't you Chunny?" Deep down you knew that you, you of all woman, were too good for a man, that a man would water you down. A woman of your status is too good for all that. You need to run the show on your terms, and not find yourself outshined by man. Being with a man would lessen you...you'd be submitting to them, making yourself something weaker. A woman would be your match. And you if you needed to, you could be the man."
"Enough," said Chun-Li forcibly, before she even realized she had said it.
"Oh…so that's what makes you tick," crooned Juri, her eyebrows arching above the white ribbon and nearly disappearing into her bangs. "You're afraid I'm right, aren't you? This has all crossed your mind before, hasn't it? Miss goody two-shoes couldn't possiblybe a lesbian, now could she? Good girls don't kiss other girls. That's not for perfect, law-abiding ladies like Chunny."
"Enough," repeated Chun-Li through gritted teeth. She was thrust forward against the steering wheel; her injured side throbbing.
"Or…" continued Juri, clearly savoring the fact that she'd finally found the right button to push. "Maybe you're worried everyone already suspects it. What's a young, gorgeous, eligible woman doing not looking for a man? Why isn't she trying to settle down? Andof course," drawled Juri. "Why is she sooo attached to the little kitty she keeps around?"
"I told you not to talk about Cammy that way," said Chun-Li, fighting to maintain a level head. She was not even aware of the drastically rising speedometer under the pressure of her foot.
"Why Chunny, are you speeding?" asked Juri with a cock of her head. "Reckless driving from a cop like you? Why, I'm not sure I feel safe back here if this is how you drive."
"Then take back what you said about Cammy!" demanded Chun-Li, making no effort to level her foot off the gas pedal.
"Oh, my apologies," purred Juri. "But really…I never saw such a frigid little kitten who didn't like to play. Tell me dear, does the kitty even like fish? Or does kitty only know how to lick herself?"
Chun-Li slammed her foot into the brakes. The lurch of the car was accompanied by a thud and a cry of pain as Juri was thrown off the backseat and onto the floor of the car.
"Owww…Chunners, again with the reckless driving!" whined Juri, but Chun-Li had already exited the car and thrown open the backdoor, where Juri had fallen tangled between the seat and the floor. Chun-Li grabbed her by the hair and hoisted her up.
"Owwww! Chunny!" Juri whined, shaking her head in aggravation in an attempt to make Chun-Li release her. "What are you doing?"
"Taking your advice," growled Chun-Li. "I'm going shut you up. You can taunt and say whatever you want about me, but I refuse to listen to you speak about any of my friends in such a manner. Especially, Cammy."
"Oh, but Chunners, isn't this police brutality?" said Juri, her thin eyebrows raised over the makeshift blindfold.
Chun-Li let out a harsh, incredulous laugh.
"You'd know all about brutality, wouldn't you?"
To Chun-Li's astonishment, Juri's face spread into a broad, satisfied smile of delight.
"That's what I've been waiting to see," she said quietly, grinning. "I knew you had it in you."
Chun-Li glared, raising her fist to render Juri unconscious and wipe that smirk off her face, when something caught her attention. It was then that she noticed Juri's hands were no longer cuffed behind her back; they dangling at her waist and cuffed in front of her.
Chun-Li barely had time to register this abnormality when Juri's hands shot out and grabbed her by the collar, pulling her into the car. Chun-Li's head hit the doorframe and stars burst in front of her eyes as she landed on top of Juri in a stunned heap on floor of the car.
She struggled, trying to push herself off of Juri, but Juri's cuffed hands held tightly the front of her qiapo. She tried to kick out, but the confined space of the backseat floor wedged her thick legs together, restricting her attacks. She aimed a punch at Juri's face but missed. The restricted space barely gave her room to do more than flail her arms, as Juri yanked her closer by the front of her dress. Their bodies pressed together as Chun-Li fought, Juri's ribcage and breasts mashing into her own chest. Juri's hips were angular and her bent knees dug into her waist, amplifying the pain in Chun-Li's side. Juri's face so close to hers that she could see the swollen blood vessels inside the bruise on Juri's jaw; smell the sweat in her tangled hair from their fight. And suddenly then Juri's lips were on top of hers, biting, gnashing and sucking every part of Chun-Li's mouth they could reach. Chun-Li gave a muffled cry of shock and horror as Juri pulled her closer into the kiss. Juri's tongue forced its way into Chun-Li's mouth, and Chun-Li bit down on it. She gagged as she tasted Juri's blood pool in her mouth and Juri released her with a cry of pain that turned into a crow of laughter.
"That's what I love about you Chun-Li!" she cried.
She attacked Chun-Li's mouth again, their lips mashing together while Chun-Li tried to twist her head away as Juri's mouth continued to probe hers. Chun-Li felt her injured lip split under Juri's teeth and blood and saliva smeared across her mouth and Juri's. Chun-Li was now desperately striking whatever part of Juri her blows would make contact with, trying to rid herself of Juri's hold in the enclosed space that was pinning her legs and rendering her attacks useless.
Chun-Li almost didn't hear it over the sound of their struggle and Juri's mouth gnawing onto her own. A strange little whirring noise, following by a hiss and a sound almost like a chime. Chun-Li felt something hot against face, before she saw the glow of brilliant, pink light.
She took the explosion full the face as she was catapulted from the car in an explosion of neon pink ki. She hit the ground some thirty feet away to land on the dewy grass of the deserted highway. The last thing she saw was the car, clear across the highway, ablaze in a mist of vibrant, fuchsia energy.
