Chapter Thirteen

Chun-Li jumped up and came down with a kick that Guerrilla dodged, if just barely. He swung his massive at the same impressive speed he still managed to move at. She avoided the strike and hit him with a palm strike across the face. He tried to kick her but she dodged it and kicked him in the side. He absorbed the blow with a grunt and they began to trade ferocious blows with one another. He grabbed her arm as she tried to strike him in the face again. He lifted her up and tossed her against a wall and took a second to catch his breath.

"You stupid woman!" Guerrilla gritted.

Chun-Li started to get to her feet.

"Do you really think this matters?! Any of it?! You?! Your friends?! Your husband?!"

Standing up, Chun-Li gritted her teeth as she started to growl.

"Burn this place to the ground! Take me in, if you think it'll matter! It will change nothing! I am destined to rule this world! I will find a way! Because that is who I am! I have the power! I have the knowledge! I have the cunning! You! What are you?! You were the most capable fighter! You were a great investigator! Even once, you were the strongest woman in the world! Now, look at you! LOOK AT YOU!" He seethed. "You are now… no more… than a HOUSEWIFE! What are you to me?! Eh?! WHAT ARE YOU?!"

She stared at him for a handful of seconds and, in a calm voice, gave her reply, "Shut the hell up." She ran at him at blinding speed and kicked him across the face.

Ryu charged at Akuma, running full speed and did not hold anything back. They entered into a straight fist fight. After a few exchanges, Ryu threw in a kick that, much to both of their surprise, had enough speed and force to catch Akuma right across the face. Akuma stumbled back and stopped. He looked at Ryu and dashed at him, giving him a devastating punch to his gut, taking away all of his air. A swift knee and a hard left across the cheek sent Ryu skidding along the ground. The pain was great but Ryu didn't feel it, anymore. As soon as it registered, though, he pushed it away from his mind. He got up just as Akuma was on top of him and gave Akuma a Tatsumaki. A two punch-one to the stomach, hard foot to the knee, and a knee to the face slowed the Dark Hadou master's momentum but not for long. Akuma immediately retaliated with a combination of his own but Ryu was becoming just as relentless. They entered into another furious duel of punches and kicks. They jumped back from each other and charged again, their fists colliding a causing a brilliant light.

Vicious kicked Ken across the face, causing the Hadou fight to spin around and, temporarily, lose his bearings. When got ahold of himself, he saw Vicious charging at him. Ken ducked a punch, sidestepped a kick, and blocked another. Ken grabbed by Vicious by the collar of his coat followed by pulling the assassin as he rolled backwards, throwing Vicious to the ground. Vicious was disoriented as Ken fist collided with his jaw. Vicious struggled to get to his feet as Ken entered his traditional fighting stance, bouncing on his feet.

"Ya know?" Ken breathed out. "I'm used to having someone to jaw jack with while I fight 'em. Even Ryu can throw in some conversation every now and then." He put arms out in a pleading motion for a second before putting them back in traditional stance, bouncing all the while. "C'mon, man! Gimme somethin'!"

Vicious spit and stood up. "I will kill you."

Ken thought about that and gave a slight nudge of his head. "Dark. But I can work with that."

Vicious ran at Ken, leading with a flying kick. Ken dodged the kick and tried to answer with a spinning one of his own but Vicious ducked under and landed a forearm blow to Ken's jaw. Ken backed off a second, Vicious ran and gave him a dropkick that threw Ken to the floor.

Ken rubbed his chest and looked at his opponent. "This is gonna be a little tougher than I thought."

Guile and Kirill struggled with each other until Guile pushed Kirill against one of the keeps and missed a follow up punch. Kirill stomped Guile in the side then punched him across the face. He shoved Guile against another jeep and began to try and strangle him. Guile was already starting to turn read to Kirill's grip. But the harder it got for him to breathe, the angrier Guile was getting; he smack Kirill's elbows and headbutted him as hard as he could, throwing Kirill away from him and causing both of them to have trickles of blood to come from their foreheads. They both stumbled for a second from the blow but Guile saw his opportunity. He ran and booted Kirill across the side of the face and grabbed him by the shirt, starting to punch him again and again in the face. Kirill interrupted one punch and punched Guile in return, giving him three more in succession. Guile blocked one of his, ducked down, and kicked him in the side of the leg then uppercut, sending Kirill flying into the air and landing on the hood of a jeep.

As Guile stalked over to Kirill, a H.A.T.E. soldier ran at him with a gun drawn. In a flash, Guile grabbed the gun, elbowed the soldier in the face, kneed him in the gut, and tossed him out of the way, knocking him out as he hit another vehicle.

Kirill crawled away to give himself space to get up. He did so and pulled out a combat knife.

Guile stared at him in disbelief, huffing, "Really? You didn't use that sooner."

"Scared, American?" Kirill asked.

"Hardly." Guile smiled. "All you did was make this interesting."

"I'll carve my name in your corpse."

"We'll see about that. Let's go, sweetheart."

Having enough of his insults, Kirill greeted his teeth and lunged at Guile.

Kelly flipped over Cammy and dodged a kick from the MI6 agent. Cammy gritted and went for a flurry of rights and lefts that Kelly. Kelly caught Cammy's arm during a punch and threw her down the hallway. Cammy looked just in time to dodge being stopped by the ninja and hurried back to her feet. She swung at Kelly, catching her across the jaw, then kicks her in the chest, that forces her against a set of the bars. Cammy went for a roundhouse to Kelly's head, narrowly missing the ninja's head as she ducked out of the way. Kelly came back with a kick to Cammy's gut, forcing her away. Kelly got to her feet and punched Cammy in the face twice. Cammy shook off the punches but received a sudden and powerful kick from her opponent that sent sailing down the hallway before landing hard.

Cammy shook her left arm as she landed on it awkwardly, getting the feeling back into it. She looked back at Kelly, who had an arrogant smirk on her face. Cammy vowed she would eliminate that smirk, once and for all.

Ludge ran at Sagat and tackled him back into the previous hallway and forced him against a wall. Sagat lifted his fist and crashed them into Ludge's back. Ludge recovered and came back with an uppercut. Sagat retaliated with a punch of his own and kicked him in the side. Ludge scooted back and began to bounce his toes and take a traditional kickboxing stance. Sagat gritted his teeth and they both battled it out with hard blows that would easily break any normal person. During the exchange, Ludge landed a well place strike right into Sagat's gut with his knee but Sagat shook off the blow and landed a hard strike right across the face of the villain.

Ludge backed off and growled.

"So, you wish to demonstrate your power using knee strikes?" Sagat asked. "I, gladly, accept. I don't like to bring it up, boy, because it sounds self-indulgent… but I'm not called the 'Emperor of Muay Thai' for now reason."

Sakura ran as fast as she could, using the advantage of being able to jump fences to her advantage as the black car gave chase to her. She made to some of the more populated areas of the neighborhood, coming to a lot of businesses and busy streets. She was sure she was attracting a lot of attention but she figured that could be in her favor for keeping her pursuers busy while she came up with a plan.

Which, she just realized, she, completely, forgot to do.

All she had in mind was getting the unwanted company away from the house. She had absolutely no idea how to bring this chase to an end. She zigzagged through the busy streets of the L.A., getting to even more populated areas where she hoped she could stall her pursuers or stop them, if she could. She finally came to an area where they were so hell bent on catching her that followed her right into an intersection. The direction they were running was facing a light just turning yellow. Sakura saw a garbage truck coming from the other street, knowing the light would be green by the time it got there.

Not the best plan was brewing in her mind, she could admit, but a plan was a plan.

She moved faster for the intersection, making sure to stay in sight, and, once the light turned red, she gunned it and ran full speed through the intersection. The car followed and the tail end was caught by the garbage truck, causing it to spin out of control and stop.

Sakura stopped running, severely out of breath and looked at the scene. She smiled and leaned over, trying to catch her breath. She thought she was in the clear until she heard tires screeching behind her and she saw another black car coming for her.

"Oh, come on!" Sakura took off running again.

Viper and Juri were exchanging attacks with one another but were countering frequently as they both knew each other all too well. They were quite evenly matched for the most part; both women knowing that the basics wouldn't do a thing but prolong this fight. Juri went for a kick that Viper ducked under and punched Juri across the face. Juri jumped up as Viper approached and kicker with both feet, right in the chest, sending Viper back. Charging her Thunder Knuckle, she rushed at Juri and hit her hard enough to take her off of her feet. Juri growled as she got up and used her Senpusha to knock Viper back.

Viper stood up, rubbing her chin. "Guess there's no point in hold back, is there?"

Juri chuckled. "Between us? Perish the thought!"

"Alright." Viper tightened her glove, letting the electricity crackle. "You asked for it."

Juri's Feng Shui Engine glowed, "Bring it!"

With a battle roar, they ran at each other.

After their last exchange of blows, Akuma punched Ryu, sending him skidding across the ground, throwing the punch from a crouched position. As Ryu came to stop, Akuma stood up straight and he considered how this current contest was going. He knew that Ryu was capable of so much more and he wanted to see it. He needed to see it. Akuma walked over to Ryu as he struggled to get to his feet, with his back to Akuma.

"Why are you restricting yourself?" Akuma asked.

Ryu didn't have time for such questions. For his insults. "Akuma…" he said in a warning tone.

"If you plan to defeat me… even kill me… you cannot hold back."

Ryu was starting to breathe hard but not from fear. His anger was boiling to the surface.

"You still have fear. If you hold on to it, you will lose everything that you are fighting for."

Ryu gritted his teeth. His fists tightened.

"You claim that you fight for Chun-Li, for your wife. For your daughter? Your family and friends? Is that all you can muster for them? Can you not do more than this? Do they mean so little to you that you will not do everything possible for them?"

Ryu started seething as his aura darkened.

"Come, Ryu. You mustn't hold it back. This is no longer the time. Release your fear, release your humanity. Show me your true power."

Ryu threatened to crack his own teeth if he bit down any harder. He saw no reason to disagree with Akuma. He had to save Chun-Li and protect Mei; he had to save Ken, Guile, and Cammy. He couldn't let any of them down; they came so far for him. He had to be willing to do the same. He could only pray that, one day, everyone would forgive him for what he was about to do, especially Chun-Li.

"You want it?" Ryu's voice became so deep, it nearly matched Akuma's. He slowly got to his feet and turned to look at Akuma. His began to glow red. "You got it."

Now, there was no turning back. The Dark Hadou had taken over.

A/N: Oh, boy. Now, the stakes are even higher. I don't even know if I have the words set up the next chapter. You just have to be here.

Don't miss it.