Tai stared around in amazement as he took in his surroundings – his fully equipped lab at Shadowlaw headquarters. Despite having been employed and working here for the past few months, he was still impressed with his office, never having the same kind of facility as he did was with the old firm in Beijing. The walls were painted white, the tables nice and metallic. There was a computer, printer, scanner and fax machine set up in a cozy working desk tucked into the far corner of the room. A partition traveling width-wise across the room divided it into two sections, one for paper work and the other for experiments. He headed over to his equipment right away, his eyes devouring the sigh of rows upon rows of clean new beakers, test tubes, Bunsen burners, eyedroppers … everything he needed was here. He was like a kid being introduced to his new room stocked full of the latest state of the art toys. And to think that all of this was his and his only to use!

For a young, upstart company, Bison or whoever ran this joint seemed pretty well off, investing a nice sum of money to build this base right into the mountainside of Mt. Fuji. As he was being introduced to the establishment, Tai had been sworn never to reveal the location of the base, not even to his family. He thought it was a little odd given the location of the base but he supposed private enterprises deserved their privacy too.

Tai headed over to his desk and set his briefcase upon the finish while turning the computer on with a click of the button on the tower. He extracted multiple storage disks from his briefcase, all to be uploaded onto the hard drive of his new personal computer. He had been at the base for a little over two hours now, the tour and introduction to the facilities having taking about ninety minutes, and another half hour for him to find his way back to his office. Considering their lunch break wasn't till another three hours, he wanted to get started on his project right away – oddly enough, that's what Bison asked him to do. There were no other experiments that needed his expertise or his tending to. "Just work on your project and I would like to meet with you when this tour is over, back at your lab."

Right … Bison was on his way here. Tai instinctively looked around to tidy the place before his boss's arrival, but having just entered the establishment for the first time, there was nothing to make presentable. And where was Bison anyway? Tai hadn't known him for very long, but he could already tell it was unlike the man to be late for a meeting … unless Tai had taken too long in returning to his station that the boss just grew fed up and left. What a great way to make a first impression! But it wasn't his fault the base was so damn big!

He waited anxiously at his work desk, continuing to upload his data files while he did so. Tai couldn't afford to make any bad impressions on Shadowlaw. Sure, the boss was interested in his work and hired him for his progress, but he didn't want the company to like him solely based on his personal project and not any of his other capabilities. He wanted to prove himself as a scientist to them.

The metal sliding doors that led to his lab opened with a quiet mechanical whirr, catching Tai's attention. Bison, dressed traditionally in his maroon suit and black tie stepped in, flanked by a rather effeminate looking bodyguard, dressed in a similar business suit, only it was black. He had long flowing blonde hair, almost as soft as Mei's that reached down to his shoulders. His face looked like that of a porcelain doll, delicate features and flowing eyelashes. The only thing that gave away this man's masculinity was a strong, developed neck.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I, Doctor?" Bison asked from the doorway.

"Absolutely not," Tai replied. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yes," Bison said.

"Please, have a seat."

"I'd like to introduce you to one of my security guards," Bison said, motioning to his companion. "This is Vega de la Cerna, one of Spain's finest matadors and a top notch martial artist." Vega bowed politely as he was being introduced. Bison continued. "We here at Shadowlaw hire only the very best. Our personnel are the cream of the crop in their respective departments. It should not come as a surprise to you that I expect a lot out of you, Doctor."

"I won't let you down, sir."

"After reviewing the notes on your project that you gave me during our initial interview, I still have no doubt that your work will be nothing short of spectacular. But after consulting the other scientists in your department, I'm getting a little skeptical about our plans for your project."

"I … I don't understand."

"One serious shortcoming is an energy source for the technology. And to provide a permanent source of energy, we will have to connect it to the Psycho Drive. The problem is, the Psycho Drive already has the ability to enhance subject in an organic manner. But this is an unstable process. What I want is the ability to monitor a subject's growth and strength levels by technological means. And that's where your work comes in."

"But there are also biological enhancing elements to my project as well," Tai explained. "Combining that ability with one of a similar kind as present in the Psycho Drive would yield unpredictable results."

Bison smiled. "My thoughts, exactly. So what I want you to do is eliminate the biological aspect of your work so that it becomes purely technological. I want you to create a technology that aids in and controls the enhancement of subjects. Are you able to do that?"

"Piece of cake," Tai smirked confidently. "But I'll need to understand how the Psycho Drive works in order to tweak the technology to make it compatible."

Bison and Vega exchanged worried glances. A silent conversation was exchanged between the both of them for a brief moment. Bison turned back to Tai and smiled. "The Psycho Drive is a top secret project we've been experimenting with. Not even our most respected scientists have even stood in front of the Drive itself."

"I'm sorry," Tai said, "I didn't mean to be so bold."

"But you have good reason to be," Bison said, putting his hand on Tai's shoulder. "Because you haven't the slightest clue how much I expect from you. Please come with us. The Psycho Drive awaits."

"I'm glad you trust me with this," Tai said, as they headed out of the lab.

"Only because I want to," Bison replied. "The Shadow Technology will be the new base upon which our organization's technological advancements will be built. I can see it now."

"The Shadow Technology?" Tai asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"You're good at what you do, Dr. Feng, but you seem too passionate about this project to have even properly named it. There was nothing in your notes indicating the title of your work."

"Oh …" Tai rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. Bison was right. He wasn't too sure what he called it himself, whenever talking about it with Mei. But the "Shadow Technology", huh? It sounded a little … a bit evil to Tai, with connotations that he would rather have not associated with anything he worked on.

"You don't like the name?" Bison inquired curiously.

"Oh, no, sir," Tai lied. "The Shadow Technology … I like it …"

XXXXX

Mei sat on the veranda of their home, a quaint little house built in the traditional Japanese style, situated in the outskirts of Osaka City. She was surprised Tai was still willing to take the job, even after discovering that the home purchased for them by Shadowlaw was this much of a distance from his work place. Tai worked the regular 9-5 shift, but she doubted he'd be back on time, understanding what his job meant to him. But the fact that he had to commute regularly to the Kansai airport for a private plane that would fly him down to his workplace … did it have to be so inconvenient?

Mei shrugged. "At least I'm not the one having to do it," she said to herself. Mei turned her attention to Kenny, her little bundle of joy sitting contentedly on her lap, gazing out at the street beyond their property with intense curiosity. He seemed to examine every car that went by, smiling delightedly at the sight of such speedy inventions.

A little European boy, around nine or ten years old was running down the streets. Mei could hear his voice from a distance as it gradually grew louder as he approached. She didn't recognize the song he was singing. He paused at their gate and noticed her staring curiously at him. The boy was skinny, had light colored skin contrasted by a head of fiery red hair and just a few freckled on his cheeks and the bridge of his nose.

"Hey, are you the new neighbor?" he asked her in English. Mei's heart leapt into her throat. She'd taken night courses in English to upgrade her skills at her old job back at the high school in China. But then Kenny was born and she had to put her plans on hold. She smiled at the boy who looked at her with such interest from the gate and walked up to him with Kenny in her arms. She wanted to talk with this interesting, outspoken boy but didn't want anyone else to hear her broken English.

"Yes, we just moved here a few months ago," Mei replied with a heavy accent.

"You guys wanted to come to Japan too, huh?" the boy asked.

"It's very nice here," Mei said. At this point, keeping her sentence structure simple and short took priority over telling the complicated truth.

"My parents wanted to move here too," the boy explained.

"Do they like it?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. I don't have any parents."

"But didn't you say …" Mei was getting confused.

"Well people say I don't look like everyone else. So that must mean my parents came from somewhere else."

No … Mei felt sorry for the boy, having been told he was different at such a young age. Children should have to learn these differences through education, learn why people look different and the variety of cultures in the world – not through crude street culture.

"My name is Mei," she said, introducing herself. "What's yours?"

"I'm Craig," the boy replied. "Nice to meet ya!" They shared a handshake between the bars of the gate.

"Where do you live?" Mei asked. If he didn't have any parents, she wanted to know who was looking out for this boy.

"Oh, I have my own house. It's not big, but I feel safe there." Mei could tell he was uncomfortable discussing the topic when he suddenly changed the subject. "That's a cute baby," he said, pointing at Kenny. Can I pet him?"

"Uh … sure," Mei replied, feeling slightly offended that he was referring to her child as if he were some kind of baby animal. Craig reached for Kenny and stroked the side of his face gently.

"Wow, he feels soft," he commented. Kenny took Craig's index finger in his small hands and stared at it curiously for a second. After he was done looking, he bit down on the finger with surprising speed for a baby.

"Hey, stop that, Kenny!" Mei ordered, trying to free the boy's finger from her son's mouth.

But Craig was giggling in delight. "It's okay, Mei. It doesn't hurt!"

Mei pulled Kenny away, holding him a safe distance from the boy. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "He doesn't mean any harm … don't you, Kenny?"

"Nah, I'm okay!" Craig declared proudly. "I have to get going. It was nice meeting you!" He started running off.

"Come back any time!" she said, as he disappeared gradually into the distance.

XXXXX

It was time to go home, finally. Tai glanced at his watch, only just noticing he had stayed after work for more than just the "few hours" he told Mei he'd be. Working in the underground lab, it was impossible to see outside, but his internal clock told him the sun had set long ago. And if it didn't, his watch certainly did a good job. Quarter past ten at night and his checkup call with Mei had been made five hours ago. He couldn't help his dedication to his work – it was a passion, and it didn't even feel like he'd stayed for that long. Tai was working his dream job and he knew it – and to think that it couldn't have gotten better at the old firm. Well, it did with Shadowlaw. True, the name of this new company gave him the creeps when he first heard it, but upon hearing how they were willing to invest with him, that was enough to turn off any doubts in his mind. At last, a company that shared the same passion for bio-technological science as he did!

Tai finished tidying up the office, stuffing discs of data files into his briefcase. He closed it shut and headed towards the door of the lab, making sure to shut off the lights has he heading out of the automatic sliding doors. Outside, he swiped his keycard into a slot just beside the knob and punched out, the electronic device locking the contraption shut until the next morning.

The halls of the facility were dark, almost eerie especially with no other human contacts. This would take a little getting used to, as they were filled with movement even after hours. But this late at night? Tai couldn't remember the last time he'd spent this long at work and loving it. But now he wasn't so sure he should've stayed. That was just his animal instinct kicking in.

"Come on, buddy," he told himself, "a grown man with a family and we're still afraid of the dark?" He continued walking down the halls towards the exit where he could meet the last flight out for the night. He lived far enough away to have to take a plane to work – and that was proof of the monetary power Shadowlaw had. Sure, he loved what he did, but if he climbed up high enough in the company, there would be no limits to the kind of life he'd be able to provide for Mei and Kenny. Tai whistled an elated tune to keep his sanity in the strangely dark and empty corridors.

A distant cry caught his attention, sending cold chills up his spine. He stopped dead in his tracks, his ears pricked up, higher than the hairs on the back of his neck. It was a cry made more out of sheer terror than desperation – the kind you hear in horror movies. Had Tai simply imagined it from his overactive imagination? No, that couldn't be it. He never had an imagination for as long as he could remember. There was definitely someone in trouble in the lab. Perhaps a co-worker had accidentally come into contact with some dangerous chemicals? No … the scream was more out of fear than anything else. His curiosity getting the better of him, Tai spun around on his heels and headed deeper into the facility, unsure of where to go.

He jogged down the twisting corridors, confident that he'd remember the way out when he tried to leave. And if he didn't, that wasn't important to him right now. He wanted to find whoever made that scream. But the deeper he got into the facility, the more faded his hopes got. He wasn't going to find whoever was in trouble if they didn't scream again …

"AAAAAHHH!"

"Somebody need help?" he called back. Tai was close, definitely close. There was no response to his inquiry, even after a few seconds that seemed like an eternity. His eyes darted around desperate to spot some sign of movement, anything that would give him some sort of a lead. There was nothing. He had no idea where to go.

Only then did Tai get a good look at his surroundings. It looked as if he had left the facility for another building. The Shadowlaw laboratories had sterile walls and floors, everything in a white or a pale shade of gray. Now it looked as if he was viewing the interior of some alien spaceship. The walls were metallic, with elaborate pipes and wires snaking around in some random pattern. The flooring consisted of thick metal grating, lit from underneath by a strange, radioactive looking light. There were no corridors here, just one giant room with rows upon rows of human-sized tubes filled with a liquid glowing pale blue. The hum of machinery could be heard in the distance, though given the sheer size of the room, it was difficult to tell where it was coming from. The giant tubes were lined up in units of ten, grouped together by aluminum coated clasps that prevented them from touching each other, holding them in place. Tai walked up and down the aisles of tubes, looked into every single one as if hypnotized by their glow. He almost forgot the fact that he was looking for someone who might be in serious danger – but the person hadn't screamed since he entered the room.

Tai's walk led him to the edge of the room, where he noticed the perimeter lined with what looked like prison cell doors built right into the metal. Why in the world would there be prison cells in a science facility? Unless Shadowlaw was more than just a scientific firm … Tai suddenly realized that he should've done more research on the company instead of hopping on board just because they showed a willingness to support his work.

He walked along the rows of cell doors, careful not to look inside in case something unexpectedly humped out at him. Tai had to admit he'd watched one too many horror movies as a kid and if he did have any sense of imagination, it would've been spawned as result of those terrifying experiences. In order for him to get a good look at the insides of the cells, he'd have to press his face up against tiny viewing window about the size of a size ten envelope. And he wasn't about to do something like that, especially not at this time of the night, at an underground base no less.

Just as he walked by what seemed like a random door, a bloodied figure slammed up against the window. Tai was never athletic, but he'd never jumped so high in his life. He let out a startled, terrified scream and nearly landed on his rear as his feet came back into contact with the floor. It was a girl, a young girl no older than fifteen or sixteen. Her black hair was disheveled, falling in sweaty strands over her greasy, bloody face.

She cried in horror, pounding at the door in desperation. "Jiu Ming!" she cried, utterly horrified. "Qing ni ba wo fang kai!"

Chinese … she was speaking Chinese – or Mandarin, more specifically … Tai couldn't believe it. He had almost forgotten the sound of his native language. It had been a few months since he and Mei made the move, but they were slowly incorporating the local Japanese dialect into their everyday speech. The poor girl was begging to be released.

It took Tai a second to calm his rattled nerves as he stared in surprise and confusion at the girl trapped in the cell. "Hold on," he said, replying in Mandarin. "W…what are you doing here? How did you get in there?"

"I want to go home!" the girl cried. She seemed to have calmed down a little, no longer in complete hysteria, but certainly on the edge of it.

"Where do you live?" Tai asked.

"Beijing. But I haven't been home in … God, I've forgotten how long. It's horrible here. Please let me out. I don't care if I don't get home, just get me out of here. Please!"

Beijing … this was from the same city Tai came from. But how did she get here? Well there would be time to answer that later. For the time being, what was important was letting the poor girl out from the cell. He noticed a card reader beside the cell door. He swiped it, causing a red light to flash from behind the reader. That was odd. The lights usually flashed green. It made sense to him though. He was no longer in his department … wherever this place was.

"I … I can't seem to get this thing open," he informed her regretfully. Tai grasped the door handles and pulled. But the metal slab of a door wouldn't budge.

"Oh no … I'm going to die in here," the girl sobbed.

"H…hold on, don't say that. I doubt you're going to be killed. Have you committed some kind of a crime?" Tai remember Bison remember saying something about a military that Shadowlaw owned. Perhaps they were somehow responsible for keeping order in the city? Was this girl some kind of street child? But she was Chinese … it didn't make sense that she would be a street child in a Japanese city.

"I was walking home from school when they took me and my sister. I haven't seen her since we got here. I hope she's alright, but everyday I hear these horrible screams. They're too terrified, to panicked to tell whose they are. But I fear they might be hers …"

"And they just left you in here?" Cold sweat was beginning to break out on Tai's forehead. Just who was he working for, exactly? Why in the world would a rich, powerful company bother capturing pre-pubescent girls? Was there some kind of child-sex trade going on here that he didn't know about? All of a sudden, the name Shadowlaw was making more and more sense to him. "What have they done to you? Have they touched you in … sensitive areas?"

The girl gulped, swallowing a wad of saliva. "Everyday they hook me up to this huge machine. The machine … it goes into my mind, into my thoughts and … and …" She was starting to break down just by retelling her ordeal.

"You don't have to tell me if it's too painful for you to remember .." Tai said.

"That's the thing," she continued. "I don't remember. Every time they put me back here after they unhook me from the machine, I start to forget things. It becomes harder to remember …"

"Can you tell me your name?" Tai asked. It sounded as if this machine she spoke of had the ability to annihilate memories. But that was purely science fiction. There was no possible way that a machine could cause someone to gradually lose their memories unless it simulated some kind of electric shock that killed that part of the brain. Yet still, the memory loss wouldn't be gradual – it would be sudden. But if the girl could remember her city and her sister, chances were she could still remember her name. At least if Shadowlaw was involved with trafficking children, he could look up the her name on the missing person's list and determine where exactly this young one came from.

The girl nodded and thought for a few seconds. Tai found himself gulping down his own saliva with relative effort in anticipation. "My name," she replied, "is Xiayu."