Bushin Guy: Thanks! I guess the reason you think my dialogue is good is because I always seem to avoid action scenes! So what else is there left to do but dialogue? I'm a drama kinda guy, but sometimes, too much drama needs to escalate into action – which is what'll be coming up soon in this story. There hasn't been enough action thus far.

Tao Shui: I totally forgot how much I missed your inter-review skits. Good to know you're still reading.

Vammy: That idea of making Julian a pretend priest was a good idea. I'll stick with it. But you gotta start establishing that he was a pretend priest before I can further elaborate on it.

XXXXX

Kenny sat in the darkness with his hands wrapped around his body to provide some kind of warmth. There was barely any light in his cell. What little of it that he could see came from the little gap between the bottom of the door and the ground.

"You'd think being a multi-million dollar crime organization," he thought to himself, "they'd be able to afford better doors. Or maybe they don't want their prisoners losing all form of sanity imprisoned in the dark. At least they not that barbaric."

He'd lost track of how long he'd spent in his cell. The giant, bald Muay Thai warrior that had taken him, Sagat, had locked him in here what seemed like an eternity ago. Since then, Kenny had fallen asleep and woken up about ten minutes ago. "I'm gonna be late for work," he suddenly remembered for a moment and then said, "meh, Mr. Takayama can go screw himself for all I care."

The concrete that he sat on was cold and dusty, but it could've been worse. It could have been wet. There wasn't even a proper bunk in here to sleep in. As far as he could tell, it was just an empty room made purely of cement, about six by ten meters.

The clicking of the lock interrupted his thoughts. Kenny looked to the door that suddenly swung open violently, two shapes standing before him, their features completely shrouded by the darkness. Only their silhouettes could be seen against the illuminated hallway outside. He recognized the tall form as Sagat, the same man that had taken him from Ken Masters and dumped him in here. The second form was shorter, but equally broad with a beret style hat on his head and a large cape that was wrapped around his shoulders.

Sagat spoke. "Kenny, I'd like you to meet your new employer, M.Bison," he said, his booming voice echoing against the walls. Kenny squinted in the dark, trying to make out the form of the other man. They were being awfully diplomatic for a crime organization. Was Shadowlaw always this nice to their prisoners? He stood up and wiped his hands off his jeans, extending one of them to the boss.

"Nice to meet you." Bison gave Kenny's extended hand with a scornful look and forced a smile onto his face and the pair shared a handshake.

"I'm happy that you're back with us."

"I might be a little more bitter if I could remember what I did for you in the first place. And I was brought here against my will so … better to make the best out of a bad situation, I say."

"You will never be happier that you've followed that pattern of thought than today. I can assure you that your stay with Shadowlaw will be rewarding. This is your home."

"I have terms."

"You have no choice," Bison challenged.

"Last time I checked," he shot back, "I was the one who has what you want, not the other way around."

"And should the technology's assets not make up for your liability, you can be sure that I will dispose of you without a moment's hesitation. Remember, child, one the technology is removed from your body, you die."

To add emphasis on his last two words, Bison glared threateningly into Kenny's eyes. And for the first time in his life, Kenny was silenced. He had nothing more to say, no smartass comments, not even a look that he could give. He knew his place. He had to stand there and take whatever Bison threw at him if he wanted to live. After all, Kenny was a prisoner. Being on their grounds, they could do whatever they wanted with him and the authorities would never find out.

XXXXX

So the plan was set then. Tomorrow morning, Ken was going to be contacted by either Guile or Chun Li regarding what they can dig up about any nearby Shadowlaw establishments, and the upcoming street fighter tournaments. Ken had nearly forgotten about the tournaments after Sagat had taken Kenny. It had never occurred to him that he could get to Shadowlaw via the tournaments – after all, they were the hosts! He mentally kicked himself for not seeing the obvious as he drove down the stretch of road in downtown Osaka city, the chilly night air in his face, sitting strapped into the leather seats of a red Porsche convertible.

Ryu sat in the passenger seat looking as grim as ever, the tails of his headband whipping in the wind behind his head. It had been twenty minutes since they parted with Chun Li and Guile, after having dinner with them in Chinatown. But Ken had been too bothered with guilt to eat very much. Ryu was right about him. He should've just left Kenny alone. After all, that's what they decided to do in the first place. But it had felt right to let Kenny know about his past. Ken felt the kid deserved that much but … he'd played this scenario over in his head a thousand times now. And Ken could sense that Ryu was still a little ticked off with him for dragging everyone into this. But Ryu was not a man to live in drama so he didn't pursue the matter.

The ringing of Ken's cell phone interrupted his thoughts. He fished it out of his pockets with one hand, keeping the other on the wheel.

"Masters here," he said.

"K…Ken …" came a raspy voice from the other end, so weak it was almost inaudible. "Hello!" Ken called. "Who is this?"

"It's … Julian."

"Holy shit! I haven't talked to you in …. What's wrong?"

"Watch out – trouble." The man's voice on the other end was weakening, sounding as if he was going to die.

"Are you alright, Julian?"

"Forget about me. Akuma's coming for Ryu." The words sent a chill up Ken's spine. The demon chose the perfect time to make his return. Years ago, he escaped from the Shadowlaw base, weak and defenseless just prior to its explosion. Akuma's return was always a thought that Ken kept at the back of his mind, but he'd eventually forgotten about it. He glanced at Ryu who sat looking stern as ever, his eyes gazing off into the distance. Enjoying the scenery, perhaps?

"What happened?"

"He came to the church looking for you. I said something about the street fighter tournaments … I didn't mean to, Ken. I'm sorry …"

"Let him come and get us," Ken replied. "But if he did anything to you …"

"No," Julian said, "just watch your back." And the phone died. Ryu looked over with mild interest in Ken's direction.

"A friend of yours?" he asked.

"I'm sure you remember Julian."

"I've heard of the man once or twice. He was a comrade of yours, wasn't he? When you joined Shadowlaw all those years ago to rescue a lover within their ranks?"

"Yeah, that was him," Ken replied. "Julian Marquez. But he's got some important news for you."

"Oh?"

"Akuma's back." Ryu took a second to absorb the information. He opened his mouth to say something and closed it again, choosing not to say anything at all. He continued gazing off into the distance, letting the previous uncomfortable silence settle between the two. "We have to do something about this," Ken insisted.

"And when do we have the time to do this?" Ryu asked. "Between the Street Fighter tournaments, hunting down Shadowlaw and finding Kenny, where do we have time to deal with Akuma?"

"This is like a re-run of what happened nine years ago."

"No," Ryu said flatly. "It won't be. I succumbed to the Satsui no Hadou back then. I was weaker, blind with confidence, and stupid. I won't allow that to happen this time."

XXXXX

Guile was pacing back and forth impatiently in his motel room, seething with rage, trying to find some constructive way of taking out his anger. Chun Li sat on one of the beds with a cup of coffee in her hands, sipping it carefully. Guile had his own cup too, but it was sitting on the night stand being completely ignored.

"If you don't calm down right now, we're never gonna develop a plan," Chun Li said. "Just have a seat, calm down a little."

"I don't get it!" Guile bellowed. "Shadowlaw hosts a tournament, so it's obvious they're back in business. And Interpol only recently found out about their new base of operations in Thailand! And what's even worse, they JUST told me five seconds ago on the phone! How can they be so unprofessional!"

"Now hold on a minute," Chun Li said, putting up a hand to cut Guile off. "Let's not forget that the issue with Shadowlaw involves more than just you and me. Interpol must have already contacted their American counterparts about the issue. And being an Air Force pilot, Guile, I doubt you're in very high priority on their list of notification."

"We were sent here to find Kenny, Chun!" Guile said.

"We chose to find Kenny ourselves!" she reminded him. "There was no go-ahead by any of our superiors. This was something we both chose to undertake. As far as our employers are concerned, Kenny's just another child on the missing person's list. They're not obligated to tell us anything, at least not while we're on this mission."

"So what do you suggest!" Guile continued shouting. "We're out of the loop now with things involving Shadowlaw because you decided to go on a mad goose chase for a kid that died nine years ago!"

"First of all," Chun Li said, slamming her cup of coffee down on the nightstand right beside Guile's, "I have reason to believe Kenny's alive because me and Sakura were the last ones to see him alive – AFTER you claimed he died. Secondly, when I find a lead to him, I will follow it. Finally, who are you to accuse me of chasing ghosts after your little endeavors searching for Charlie after you KNEW he died too!"

"Charlie was my best friend!"

"Now THAT was a dead man if I ever saw one!" Chun Li could be such a cold-hearted bitch sometimes. But that was just the way she worked, given the circumstances of her life and he knew that. His first instinct was to reach out and deck the woman for being so insensitive, but he stopped himself because he didn't hit women for one, and also because she could probably hand his ass to him on a platter.

"Look Guile, we're not solving anything bickering like this. Let's just forget about getting at each other's throats and focus on the situation at hand. We go the tournament registrations starting tomorrow and the preliminaries in one week. That is one route we could take to Shadowlaw because they're hosting the tournaments."

"We also know about this new base in Thailand and we could always drop what we're doing, go home, and join the fight against them." Chun Li and Guile looked at each other, deciding without words what their choice should be – the obvious one. Both of them had personal vendettas against the crime syndicate and the opportunity to exact revenge with their bare hands in a martial arts tournament where they weren't bound by the rules that they otherwise would be in the line of duty … this was an opportunity too good to pass up.