Ken and Chun Li's heads snapped towards the direction of the gunshot. They shot a glance at each other, worry etched in their features, their heart rates suddenly climbing within a matter of seconds. They didn't say anything to each other. It was clear as to what had to be done and they raced towards the source of the bang. Ken's stomach grumbled as they ran but the adrenaline in his system made it easy to hide his hunger. They ran as the corridors passed them, each one looking like the one they just passed. Heads twisted and turned at every junction but it was becoming clear to them that the more time slipped by, the more they were losing their way unless they managed to see the violence they just heard.

"It's this way," Chun Li said, pointing right. Ken wasn't entirely sure he agreed with her. She seemed to just pull that direction out of her ass without even thinking about it. There was no way she could tell, with the bang echoing off the walls. It sounded like it had come from all directions at the same time.

"Alright, let's go," Ken conceded. He had his own doubts, but running off in some arbitrary direction was better than just standing there, especially when he didn't have any clue on where to go either. They continued running, scanning every hall that came their way, looking for some sign of blood, a dead body, crying, or screaming, but that was a lot to ask for considering they hadn't even seen another person in their travels, dead or alive.

Chun Li was tempted to stop to catch her breath. A minute had gone by, a full minute that they'd spent running and it was fruitless. It didn't seem like that long of a time period when she thought about it, but the entire journey, proving uneventful as it was, began to slow the adrenaline and her body's weaknesses were starting to overpower her.

"Holy shit," Ken whispered, right when Chun Li slowed down. Her first thought was that he almost crashed into her, knowing that he wasn't running that far behind her. But the source of Ken's exclamation was something else. Someone else.

Chun Li followed his gaze and saw the figure of a man standing before them; an effeminate man with a white rose between his long, slender figures. As his lips spread across his face into a grin, she noticed that they were shiny, as if he'd applied lip gloss to them.

"Vega!" she exclaimed.

"It's been awhile, my flower," he giggled.

Ken and Chun Li raised their fists, prepared for a battle with the Spanish matador, but he remained unimpressed with them, almost scoffing at them as they prepared for the danger he posed.

"How are you enjoying the show?" Vega asked. "My beautiful Katarina has been unleashed and she's doing quite a good job. Lord Bison never approved of one of his best scientists playing a role on the battlefield, but I think he will be most impressed by her results. The Killer Bee stands no chance against …"

"What have you done to Cammy?" Ken demanded, taking a step closer to Vega, putting himself in front of Chun Li. She scowled at the action. Vega was hers to take down. She wanted every Shadowlaw member to fall under her, and she would be damned if someone else got to destroy them before she could.

"Stand down," Vega ordered with a strange superior tone in his voice, talking as if he was speaking to a stubborn child. "You should feel honored that I am willing to show you such beauty and grace by not bringing the mask with me. I have not come here to fight."

"No you've come here to gloat," Chun Li spat bitterly.

"Precisely," Vegan replied. "There will be plenty of time for us to face each other in battle."

"Why bother with that when we could just take you on right now?" Ken challenged, taking another step closer.

Chun Li had allowed him to get as close to Vega as she was willing to let him. She reached an arm out and grabbed his elbow, pulling him back towards her, saying, "No, Ken, not yet."

"You fools have yet to realize that I am one of the four fighters the street fighter finalists will face at the end of the tournament. You will fight me in a caged match in front of an energetic crowd. If you want to get to Lord Bison, your best bet is fighting his three bodyguards in a no-holds barred tournament. Otherwise, Lord Bison is far too wise to show his face in public."

"Then I'll be seeing you there," Ken said, "especially after what you've done to Cammy."

"Old feelings die hard," Vega replied. "You're the stereotypical male, one of aggressiveness, brashness, and ugliness, a stereotype that I have been fighting my whole life. Why do you still fight for the Killer Bee, even though she's left the past you shared with her exactly where it belongs – in the past?"

"Because unlike the cold hearted bastard you are," Ken retorted, "I still care for her."

"That's because she didn't stab you in the heart," Vega stated simply, "literally." He lifted a flap of the dark blue trench coat he wore, revealing his bare chest, and three circular scars on his left pectoral, almost directly above the sternum, a little to the left.

Chun Li reeled back in shock. "Y… you should have died!" But Vega could only stand there and enjoy their reactions.

XXXXX

"No, this can't be happening." The thoughts ran through Cranky's head in a vicious cycle as he and Guile hurried. The recovery quarters were just around the corner. "I almost lost Kenny. I can't lose Cammy now, not after everything we've been through together, and not how it ended." Any anger he harbored towards Cammy was gone now, replaced by an immeasurable guilt and regret. He wanted her to be safe. He begged to whoever was listening in the sky that her life would not end, that he would be given a chance to make things better with her, to make things right.

Then he noticed the footsteps behind him slowly fading. Guile had been following him, but why was he slowing down all of a sudden? He turned around for a quick look, seeing that Guile had slowed down to a trot, attempting to catch his breath. Cranky backtracked a few steps towards Guile, but the older man pointed weakly with a limp arm in the direction they'd been heading.

"Go," he said simply. "Cammy needs you."

"But what about you?"

"I'll be alright. I just came out from a fight and I'm a little exhausted. Don't worry about me." Cranky nodded and continued, his powerful legs pushing his body faster and faster with every step as he sprinted.

Then he found what he was looking for, only not the exact situation he was expecting. That intimidating soldier he spotted on the upper levels earlier that afternoon was standing with his back towards Cranky with a rifle in hand. A normal person would need two hands to get a good grip on the firearm, but this guy was huge. His back muscles were visibly rippling beneath the form fitting black T-shirt he wore. This arm, thicker and more defined than Cranky's own was enough to lift the heavy weapon with little effort.

The soldier stood over Kenny – not Cammy, as Cranky had been expecting. The teen was sitting on the ground, reeling backwards on hands and feet, his eyes focused on a smaller crater in the ground between his ankles.

The soldier spoke. "I'm afraid your skull won't take that round as nicely as the tile did."

"Who the hell are you?" Kenny asked, fear gripping his voice. But he was answered by the barrel of the weapon being pointed at his forehead and a click of the gun.

"Before you die, know this. You've murdered a Shadowlaw legend in cold blood, one of our best scientists – Dr. Tai Su Feng, my FATHER!"

And then the gun fired a second time, but not before Kenny could kick his foot at it, sending the barrel just barely an inch off target. The bullet plowed through the air, skinning his shoulder and ripping his shirt sleeve in the process. Kenny felt warm blood oozing from the open wound. The bullet hadn't entered his body, but it had cut his skin. He looked at his wound, and then back up at the irate soldier, and then behind him and saw Cranky rushing towards the soldier at full speed. Cranky's face was flushed with hate, his lips twisted into a grimace, his green eyes seeing nothing but red.

"Cranky, help!" Kenny cried.

The soldier spun around but it was too late for him to prepare for the tackle that sent him barreling backwards onto his back. Cranky was on top of him like a fat kid on cake, pounding the soldier's face with the force of a sledge hammer. The soldier didn't bother blocking them, only seemed to take the blows unexpectedly well, enraging Cranky even further.

"Don't – you – fucking – touch – him!" Cranky plowed his brick-like fists into his opponent's face between every spoken word. But the soldier just took it like it was nothing, as if he'd learned to take hits from others like that in the past. Kenny didn't want to know what kind of training this soldier went through, and he hoped he'd never have to go through it either.

Cranky dealt another blow after his last word, but it was promptly blocked. Before he could recover from his surprise at the soldier's speed and reaction time, which were impossibly fast, he ate an uppercut to the jaw, throwing him off the soldier, who kicked his body up from the ground.

Kenny ran to help his adoptive brother, but was surprised as Cranky jumped back up his feet without missing beat or slowing the pace of the fight. He'd never seen Cranky like this before. He dealt with this brawl with precision, speed and fighting experience Kenny had never expected to see from him. "A…are you oka-" he began to ask, but was cut off when Cranky's hand shot through the air with the speed and ferocity of a viper and seized Kenny violently by the collar of his shirt, and threw the teen behind him with such force that Kenny nearly lost his balance. He was stunned with such power, such speed that Cranky had obviously possessed, but Kenny had never seen it displayed in his life!

"Get away from here!" Cranky ordered without taking his eyes off his target. "I've got this fucker right where I want him!"

"But I can …"

"Damn it, Kenny, do as I say! This isn't the time to be arguing with me!"

He wanted to ask Cranky where he'd learned to fight like that, why he never displayed such raw power and form, but the teen knew better than to question Cranky, especially when he got riled up and to top it all off, now he was some kind of … some kind of Street Fighter! So he backed away slowly without taking his eyes off his brother, or the crazy soldier who threatened to kill them both.

He instead opted to take Wagner's unconscious body to safety. Kenny bent to the ground and slipped his hands under him, taking one of Wagner's arms and throwing it over his own shoulder. But the young airman was deadweight; over two hundred pounds of it and much too heavy for Kenny. So heavy, in fact, that his limp body had Kenny pinned to the floor as well. The teen thought about his situation and felt deep embarrassment. He knew that if he were in someone else's shoes, he'd be laughing himself and his stupidity. So he did the only other thing he knew how to do, the same thing that saved Guile's life from the wreckage of the car.

Kenny wrapped his hands under Wagner's armpits and dragged the unconscious airman away from the fight. If either Cranky or the mysterious soldier were to step or fall on Wagner, there would be broken bones, no doubt about it, especially given the intensity of the fight. Kenny's thoughts drifted momentarily onto the soldier. Who was this mysterious individual? He must've played an important role in Shadowlaw for him to reappear so suddenly, and just outside Cammy's ward to boot. Did he accompany that woman who Cammy was dealing with right now? That was the most likely scenario.

The man said his father went by the name of Dr. Tai Su Feng, and proclaimed him to be one of Shadowlaw's finest scientists. Was it the same brilliant scientist that created the Shadow Technology, the same scientist who implanted the technology into his son, Kenny when he was just six years old? That couldn't be right. Kenny was an only child as far as he knew. There had to be more than one Dr. Feng. That was the only conclusion he could reach.

XXXXX

The next thing Kenny felt was a ring of cold metal pressed to the back of his skull. He was getting real sick of this real fast. He turned around to face a pair of soldiers who were no doubt with the one Cranky was fighting right now. A quick scan of the pair revealed that they were much smaller in build, and didn't dwarf Kenny quite as much as their officer did. He calculated that it was possible for him to take on both of them at once. He was most likely not going to actually hit them, but force them to somehow take each other out. But how that was going to happen, he had no idea. He was just going to wing it. Wagner couldn't afford anymore damage, especially when he was unconscious and vulnerable lying on the floor like that. Kenny's first priority was to lead the soldiers as far away from Wagner as he could.

He rolled under the firearm, much to the surprise of the soldiers. While he was tucking his chin into his chest, Kenny caught sight of a handgun in the closest soldier's hip holster. The sight brought him back to the survival horror that was Raccoon City and the Rockfort Training Facility where he spent three months training to become an Umbrella operative before barely escaping with his life. The survival instinct kicked in. His arm shot out with blinding speed and snatched the handgun. It wasn't much against the likes of the rifles they were carrying in their gloved hands, but it was better than being unarmed. He gripped tightly onto the cold metal of the handgun, warming it quickly with the heat from his palms.

A trail of bullet holes in the ground followed, chasing after him while he moved. Kenny unfolded his body from the drop-and-roll and jumped behind a wall, where the passageway led to a junction. Kenny gripped the gun, the heavy metal feeling familiar in his hands and suddenly he knew how to use it. It felt like the gun was pouring all its knowledge gained from its experience in its use into his hands and the next thing Kenny knew, his body took on a life of its own and a firefight ensued.

He leapt from behind the one wall, holding his body parallel to the ground, to the safety of the other, firing the gun the whole way. His first shot bent the nozzle of one soldier's rifle, rendering the weapon useless. The second hit the grip of the weapon, knocking it from its user's hands. The third one tore into the soldier's arm, forcing him to clutch it in pain as blood ran in little warm streams down his arm and over his dark uniform, turning it into a pure black where it contacted the material.

The other soldier spun towards Kenny, firing his gun, screaming madly the whole way. But Kenny was already on top of him, flying through the air above the flying rounds, planting both heels into the helmet of the unfortunate soldier. The force cracked the helmet and threw the soldier to the ground, rendering him unconscious. Kenny wasn't able to regain his balance before he hit the ground, and landed with a painful smack on the tile.

XXXXX

"Bitch!" Katarina spat bitterly when Cammy had reached for her hair, and pulled out a few strands. Cammy grimaced at the silky strands in her hands, or at least, more so at the bits of scalp attached to their roots. Katarina jumped at her with outstretched hands, bent into savage claws like a cat. Cammy tried outmaneuvering her foe, and succeeded, escaping with a scratch on her cheek, like Kenny had earlier. Speaking of Kenny, what was taking him so long to get Wagner in the room?

"You … fucking … scratched me!" Cammy cried in dismay, running her hand across her jaw to find a thin layer of blood on the back of her hand.

"Just adding to what my love, Vega, has already started," Katarina hissed. "I worked on you, and Vega worked you in more ways than one. Don't you ever forget – you are our canvas."

"I don't belong to anyone!" Cammy screamed angrily, the years of torture she went through at the hands of Shadowlaw finally coming out as steam from her ears, instead of tears from her eyes. She moved with blinding speed and socked Katarina across the face, the force snapping her head sideways, throwing her off balance and onto the floor. Cammy was going to make sure she wasn't getting up, jumping her as soon as her flesh hit the tile and began choking the woman, simultaneously slamming her head back viciously on the ground. "This is what you get for fucking with me and my family, whore!"

BANG!

The sudden gunshot outside the ward caught both of their attentions, momentarily stunning the two women. The first thought to enter Cammy's mind was Wagner and Kenny, praying that it was one of them behind the trigger of the gun, not on the receiving end. But dread filled her mind when she realized neither of them would've carried a firearm – except maybe Wagner could have. Oh please, God …

Cammy toppled over and it was her turn now to eat the floor, with Katarina now on top. The women wrestled to control one another, rolling over each other, screaming obscenities the whole way. Despite her superior training, Cammy was weak, recovering from a bout that she just won by her opponent forfeiting the match. Otherwise, she knew she would've lost, having been helped off the mat by a herd of striped-uniformed aids. Deciding that she was too weak to overpower Katarina, strong enough only to keep her at bay she realized the only way she'd be making it out of this one was to defeat her with words.

"Do you really think Vega loved you!" Cammy cried out suddenly.

"What a ridiculous question," Katarina said, continuing her expert kicks. They had since gotten back up to their feet and were now going through another series of fist fights. Cammy blocked each one systematically and continued her verbal onslaught.

"He only wanted you!" Cammy continued.

"And I'm sure you'd be the best judge of that, huh?" A punch at her ribs this time, one that Cammy dodged.

"And you think you're the only woman he's ever penetrated?"

Katarina scoffed, letting up her attacks for only a moment. "Well of course he's had his share of women before I came along. But that's over and done with now. He's pledged his love to me. And it had only been a matter of days after that when you stabbed him in the heart with his own claw!" The recollection fueled another series of punches and kicks. Again, Cammy parried them but she was beginning to wonder just how long she could hold out. She forced herself to keep it cool, to continue trying to break Katarina down by revealing the facts to her. She just realized how deluded the woman was by believing that Vega was the monogamous type and couldn't wait to shatter that image of him in her mind.

"For the love of Vega's life like you claim you are," Cammy said, "you sure don't know a hell of a lot about him."

"You don't know the first thing about …"

"He loves things he considers beautiful! How arrogant are you to think that you are the only woman he deems so? Has he ever told you about his sadistic, sexual endeavors?"

"You're full of it!"

"Do you have any idea how I got this scar?" Cammy pointed to her cheek. Katarina remained silent, and her ignorance was irritating. "He fucked me, Katarina." Her gentle features grew with the shock of those words.

"N…no," she said in denial, but the word came out in a weak stammer. Katarina took a step forward to continue her attacks on Cammy, but her body wasn't co-operating, her limbs weighed down by the stab of betrayal in her mind. She looked sadly at the ground, averting her dark eyes from Cammy's crystal gaze, and for a moment, Cammy felt a deep sympathy for her.

She nodded, and continued talking. "It's true. I see the way you fight for him – and it pains me that you've put so much heart and devotion into a false relationship."

"It wasn't false," Katarina insisted, but what little strength she spoke with was vanishing from her voice with every passing word.

"In a true relationship, the feelings are shared equally between the two people involved." Cammy almost let out a laugh, noticing that of all people, she was the one preaching about the ideal relationship when her and Cranky had screwed around with each other for so long. Well, she was right in a way. Whatever shit she put him through, he had put her through as well. Their feelings were shared. But then Cammy remembered Juli, how the woman was so willing to let go of Cranky simply because the feelings she had for Cranky were the same feelings he had for Cammy. She gave herself a mental pat on the back for thinking of a suitable candidate example to validate her words to Katarina.

"What we had was real!" Katarina screeched, lunging for Cammy with renewed strength, driven by her denial. Losing her cool had cost her the victory she nearly assured herself. Cammy was now confident that her foe wasn't in the mental position to win the fight and easily took her down, hooking her leg around Katarina's neck, letting her weight pull them both to the floor. Cammy kept her hold on Katarina until the other woman stopped her violent thrashing and screams.

When things had calmed down a few seconds later, the only movement in the air from Katarina's labored breathing, Cammy released her, and let the beautiful scientist gain some space between them. There was no use in restarting the fight. Any adrenaline that had onced pulsed through Katarina's veins was gone. Now it was her mind that remained, untainted by a feral rage.

"We need to talk," Cammy said, unsure of what was motivating her to be so nice to the woman who just tried to kill her. Perhaps Cammy felt sorry for this woman, who clearly displayed the devotion she had for Vega, a devotion that he did not deserve from anyone. Perhaps she thought it was awful that Katarina had unknowingly poured her heart into this man, and he most likely wasn't giving her any of his, only taking her at face value. She was pretty, after all.

XXXXX

Cranky had the soldier, who he now remembered as Issei, trapped against the wall, crushing his throat with his forearm. It took a lot of effort out of Cranky, who pushed all the strength he could muster into his arm, trying to crush the soldier's windpipe. At the angle that Issei had his head turned, it required Cranky to crush a thick, hard slab of muscle in his neck, which proved difficult. The gunshots surprised Cranky, who made the mistake of looking to see who had fired them. None of the bullets had hit him or Issei. Whoever was doing the shooting was firing at Issei's companions, who had only now come out of hiding and Cranky had noticed them for the first time. And the mysterious sniper had some good aim.

Cranky realized his mistake of allowing more gunshots to distract him and turned back to face Issei. But he was only in time to see Issei's forehead slam into his face, connecting with the bridge of his nose. A sharp, intense pain stung his face and Cranky had no choice but to back off and hold his nose in pain. Issei didn't let up from his attacks and continued, delivered expert, powerful martial arts kicks that slammed into Cranky's midsection, back and chest while he was in pain. Issei moved with fluidity that nobody with that kind of bulk should be able to possess.

The kicks stunned Cranky, but he was not yet out of the game. Issei launched a punch for his temple and Cranky proved his own speed, dodging the potentially devastating hit, seizing Issei's fist with an open palm. He threw his own punch with his free hand, but Issei grabbed it and the two were locked in a colossal struggle, each of them trying to overpower the other in a high-stakes mercy fight. They grappled with each other, heels digging into the ground, fierce breaths from their nostrils but it seemed as if both were evenly matched.

"Who the hell are you?" Cranky asked as they locked their fiery gazes.

"The last face you'll see on earth!" Issei hissed confidently.

"You're the son of Dr. Tai Su Feng?" Cranky reiterated his question.

"The one and only!" With a surprising burst of strength, Issei pushed Cranky backwards a step. Cranky lost his footing and fell on his side while his opponent jumped on top of him and struggled to hold him down. The both of them rolled around on the floor, still, neither one gaining full advantage over the other.

"That's not possible!" Cranky continued.

"And what makes you say that, foreigner?"

"Because Dr. Tai Su Feng and his wife, Shao Mei took care of me when I was a child, and not once have I ever heard of you!"

"LIES!" Issei aimed for Cranky's forehead and brought his fist down, but Cranky cocked his head to one side and Issei's fist met the tiled floor, shattering it on impact.

"Who in the world do you think you are, denying MY past?" Issei screamed. "My parents are dead, murdered nine years ago by that youth you protect!"

"Are you crazy?" Cranky nearly screamed with disbelief. "Kenny would never do something like that. Secondly, he's in his mid-teens. Nine years ago, he was six years old! Are you suggesting your father, the great Tai Su Feng of Shadowlaw couldn't defend himself against a mere child?"

The comment stunned Issei and his grip on Cranky weakened as he backed off a little. "Bison said your friend was responsible for Dr. Feng's death …"

"Bison himself is responsible for killing Dr. Feng and orphaning Kenny!" Cranky cried.

"Kenny stole the Shadow Technology!"

"Dr. Feng was the one who implanted in him! You have no idea how much Kenny has suffered as a result of the Shadow Technology…"

"Stop with your lies!"

"They're not lies! I took care of Kenny when he was a child and I was there to see what he went through!"

Issei stared defiantly into Cranky's green eyes, breathing heavily with raw emotion and physical strain from the battle. Their eye contact was intense, it seemed like an eternity though it lasted a little more than a second, with neither man making another move – one of them worrying what the other would do next, the other considering the information about his past that had just been revealed. Issei was the first to break eye contact.

"I need to stop this," he said, finally, unclenching the muscles in his body. "I can't continue fighting if I don't know what I'm fighting for."

Cranky didn't know if this was some kind of a trick to take his guard down, so he kept his body lose, kept his mind sharp, never taking his focus off Issei. "What do you fight for?" he asked.

"I fight for Katarina and I."

"Why do you fight us?"

"Bison's orders. We owe much to Shadowlaw."

"And it doesn't matter how many people you kill in the process?" Cranky asked, bewildered. "You are helping a madman take more than he deserves. You are helping him kill people and ruining the lives of countless more. Does that not mean anything to you?"

"If it wasn't for Bison, Katarina and I could be one of those countless people with ruined lives."

"And by fighting alongside Shadowlaw, you are doing nothing to make sure whatever you two suffered doesn't happen to anyone else. You are contributing to such suffering! The love of my life, my little brother … those are two of the closest people to me whose lives have literally been torn apart by Shadowlaw."

Cranky knew he was opening up to Issei, beginning to discuss personal matters that he would otherwise never discuss with anyone else. But Issei and Katarina were Kenny's siblings, not an adoptive one like Cranky was. They were his biological brother and sister! Cranky had to get the twins on their side before they ended up doing something they regretted. And better yet, it was crucial to have two of Shadowlaw's best on their side if they hoped to bring down the criminal organization. He was willing to lower his emotional barriers if that's what it took. He was willing to open up to Issei, to get him to understand the kind of suffering he went through so that he would at least consider turning his back on Shadowlaw. It was a risk, but well worth it, so Cranky continued.

"Cammy, her father was murdered by your people when she was just a teenager and had to go into foster care. And even then, Shadowlaw wouldn't let up and she continues fighting them to this day. And Kenny, his family was torn apart, his parents killed when he was six years old, left with nobody else but me to take care of him. When it comes to potential victims, Shadowlaw does not discriminate. Young, old, male, female, no matter where you're from, the color of your skin, they don't care. Everyone falls victim to them in the end. You can't let them continue doing this."

"And why should I care about others? Why should I care about a world who forced my parents to abandon me and my sister when we were kids? What about our justice?"

Issei had to understand what exactly happened to his parents in the past. And Cranky had information about Tai and Mei that would help put the soldier's mind at ease. The trick was getting him to listen. Cranky gulped, realizing just how much he and Issei had to discuss – Tai and Mei, how they helped take Cranky off the streets and sheltered him in their home, how he and Kenny had formed an instant bond as young children, and the demise of the Feng family.

"I have some information for you," Cranky finally said, "if you're willing to listen."

"And what could you possibly tell me about my own parents, foreigner?" Issei asked.

"More than you think." Cranky's words were true, and so desperate was he to get Issei to want to listen, he poured his heart into those few words. If Cranky could just get a shred of his attention, the road to victory would be pretty much set. Convincing Katarina wouldn't be much of an obstacle and Shadowlaw could finally be brought down – hopefully.

"I know the eyes of a liar," Issei said.

Cranky nodded, his heart dropping into his stomach. "As every good soldier should." It was foolish of Cranky to make anyone believe he told the truth. He'd been a street thief his whole youth, a liar, a bum, conning everyone except old ladies out of money, jewelry and goods and he was good at it. If there was one thing he deserved more than anyone else alive, he deserved to be doubted.

"And I don't see them in you."