"Well, little brother," Cranky said clapping a hand on Kenny's shoulder, "let's get back and finish of this fight with Shadowlaw once and for all. Whaddaya say?"
"Yeah," Kenny replied with a renewed fire burning in his eyes. "Let's."
Cranky's eyes snapped open suddenly, awoken by the resolve he'd made with Kenny in ... that dream? He slowly became aware of his surroundings, as the memory of the dream faded rapidly into a fog. He took note of the leather sofa upon which his body lay, the airplane windows lining the walls of the space in which he'd found himself through which the evening sunlight shone through, the details of the dream began to elude his memory, though one thing remained consistent. Kenny needed his help.
The sofa groaned, and his body ached as he used whatever strength he found in his arms to lift himself into a sitting position. The world was spinning around him, and as soon as he was sitting upright, Cranky brought his hands to his temples to stop the roller coaster. He breathed deeply in the effort to provide his brain with enough oxygen to stabilize his balance.
It took a few rounds of deep breathing for him to fully realize where he was - Ken Masters' private jet. A glance to the left revealed that the emergency hatch was open, an inflatable slide leading outside and ground-ward, beyond the cabin's confines. The skin on his face and chest burned, having last absorbed Genta's Psycho Drive projectile. His joints cried bloody murder from having laid still from God knows how long. He knew he needed to rest, especially after eating two energy blasts from Genta, but the thought of Kenny's struggle drove him onward.
"I'm sorry, Kenny," he muttered under his breath. "I should have never let you been taken by Ryu ... by Shadowlaw." The regret Cranky subconsciously held on to as a teenager plagued him still, as an adult. "But I swear, you won't have to fight them alone anymore."
Forcing himself to stand, Cranky lumbered towards the front exit of Ken Masters' private jet which, fortunately, was much smaller than a commercial airliner. With every step he took, he regained more and more of his balance. With every breath, the world around him stabilized. Upon reaching the exit, he noticed that the steps leading downward had not been retracted into the body of the plane. Sure, it allowed him ease of access to the ground but there was nothing stopping anyone from coming in. Wherever Masters and the others went, they must have been in a hurry.
Cranky descended the steps just as the hot, humid air hit him. The sun had begun to set but the heat of the day remained suspended in the atmosphere. He could see the silhouette of the Buddhist temples in the distance where the tournament fights were held. Locking his sights on the temple, Cranky broke into a jog, already feeling the sweat begin to condense on his forehead and the underside of his jaw.
The terrain beneath his feet gradually shifted from the comforting wild grass to the cracked pavement of the temple's foundations as he neared his destination. He ran through the open gates but stopped short in his steps when he was suddenly greeted with the sight of hundreds, thousands of tournament spectators laying seemingly lifeless on the ground.
"What the ..." Cranky said it reflexively, not even realizing he was speaking out loud. There was no blood, no gore. They looked as if they had all simultaneously fallen asleep. His first instinct was to try and figure out what had happened here but Cranky suddenly remembered Kenny and decided that this could wait until later. He pressed on, stepping over the fallen forms carefully, getting slightly frustrated at the obstacles in his way that slowed his progress, yet trying to remember that these were Shadowlaw victims that he subconsciously scowled at.
Cranky spotted the silhouette of a man waving him down in the distance. The upended cone shape topping his head told him instantly who it was. "Guile!" he cried out, racing towards the figure.
"Crankurt!" the silhouette called back.
As the two of them neared each other, Cranky could see Guile too was exhausted, a sheen of sweat coating his face and arms. "We need to get to the others," he gasped between breaths. "Chun Li ran ahead. There's a battle going on - "
Guile was cut off by the resulting sound wave of a nearby explosion. They turned their heads in the direction of the source of the sound and caught the fading light of the detonation, followed immediately by an opaque dust cloud that slowly made its way over to their location. They exchanged worried glances and nodded at each other, sharing the silent understanding of where they had to be next.
Cranky chest heaved for breath as his feet pounded the ground mercilessly, each step bringing him that much closer to his little brother. Cranky was fit in terms of strength and size, but his endurance left much to be desired as he suddenly became aware of that fact too. Guile seemed to fair a little better, though the signs of fatigue were showing in the way he carried his pace.
The first thing Cranky noticed was the battle unfolding before them. To the left, the silhouettes of Ryu and Ken danced around Akuma's with fluid kicks and punches, well timed flips and deadly force. The demon was caught between the two of them, parrying their strikes with what appeared to be little effort. Fireballs shot forth from Ryu and Akuma's palms occasionally, directed at the other but were usually dodged or canceled out of existence by another. The battle was punctuated with Ken's flaming dragon uppercuts, and impressive ribbon of fire wrapping around his body as he rose spinning higher and higher into the air. The only thing that would've satisfied Cranky more is if Akuma had been caught in the move, where he no doubt would have been battered with hits at the rate of machine gun fire. But the demon was too deft, blocking, parrying or dodging anything that came his way.
In stark contrast, Kenny and Genta were locked into their own battle to the right - and Kenny was on the defensive. There were no fireballs here, just quick, silent, daft strikes and dodges. Genta's body and clothes were dark with ... Cranky squinted to get a better look. His entire silhouette was just that - a silhouette, dark with a faint green glow emanating off him like an aura. And then Cranky recognized what it was - he could never forget what he saw all those years ago when he found the corpses of his adoptive parents burned to a crisp at the house fire. He remembered finding little Kenny, then just a six year old boy, walking slowly towards him from the flames of his burning home, looking exactly like Genta did now. His body and clothes were dark as night, his eyes glowed even more brilliantly that the heart of the flames that engulfed the remains of the house. And now, nine years later, it was Genta who harbored the Shadow Technology and he had tapped into it, while Kenny remained very much flesh coloured, human but worse, weak and weary.
Upon registering what he saw, Cranky was overwhelmed with the urge to jump to Kenny's aid and found his energy once again. He picked up speed and made a bee line for the fight but Guile reached out and seized Cranky by the crook of his arm before he could get any momentum going.
"No, Crankurt!" Guile shouted, over the explosions of the fight. "It's too dangerous!" The force from the fight threatened to knock both men off their feet.
"I don't care!" Cranky yelled back. "I lost him once, and I'll be damned if I lose Kenny again. You don't know what the Shadow Technology can do!"
"I lost my best friend to it," Guile retorted, "and I won't stand here and watch -"
"Then why are you subjecting me to the same fate as you?!" Cranky cried. Although he hated to do it, he gave Guile a rough, adrenaline powered push that felled the army veteran. Guile normally wouldn't have hit the ground as hard as he did, but the powerful gusts of energy emanating from the battle added to the force with which Cranky shoved him. He tucked into a roll as his shoulder blade came into contact with the ground, softening the landing. Cranky looked down regretfully at the older man. "I'm sorry, Guile. But you understand more than anyone else here why I had to do this. It's not too late for Kenny." Cranky left Guile with those words and raced after Kenny and Genta, leaving Guile choking on the cloud of dust he kicked up as he departed.
Akuma rained down a flurry of fireballs at Ryu. There was no time to counter, only to block. Each energy ball pummeled his forearms, pushing him into the ground with their force. He could feel his energy leave his body with every blow, leaving less strength in him for a successful counter attack. The power of the Satsui no Hadou coursed through Akuma's veins and Ryu could feel its aura, beckoning him to employ the same negative energy. But he could not give in - it would have gone against every Master Gouken had instilled in him as a young warrior. Ryu might not have had the strength to retaliate once Akuma recovered from the move, but thankfully, Ken had joined into the fight just as the demon landed from his move.
"Shippu, Jinraikyaku!" Ken launched Akuma into the air with a devastating flurry of hurricane kicks, knocking the demon higher and higher upwards, ending with an overhead hook kick that sent Akuma sailing towards the ground. A split second before Akuma's body could hit the ground, Ryu caught him in an energy beam of his own.
"Shinkuu ... Hadouken!" The beam that sprouted forth from Ryu's hands battered Akuma with a multitude of hits. As soon as the beam dissipated to reveal Akuma's uninjured form, Ryu gasped in shock as the demon countered with a version of his own.
"Messatsu Gou Hadou!" Ryu was pummeled by the blast, knocking him every which way. Ken once again countered, this time with a forward kick that Akuma failed to block, following up with a flaming dragon uppercut.
"Shoryuken!"
But once again, although he ate the damage, Akuma stood as Ken landed from the move, seemingly unfazed. He taunted the pair of Shotokan fighters, folding his arms across his chest.
"Pathetic, the pair of you," he said. "You are both still pups, begging to be crushed beneath my fists. Is this Gouken's legacy? Pitting two amateur children against me with his weak techniques?"
His words bounced off Ryu's psyche harmlessly but they seemed to have struck a nerve with Ken. "You're not worthy of uttering Master Gouken's name!" he roared, racing towards Akuma with an overhead strike.
"He's taunting us, Ken!" Ryu screamed his warning, but it fell upon deaf ears. Akuma now turned his attention to Ken, countering his offensive with a powerful mule kick that sent Ken bouncing off a nearby rock. Akuma's fist connected with Ken's chin as he bounced towards him, successfully connecting with an uppercut, ending the combination attack. Ken's body hit the ground hard, but the bounced back to his feet, significantly weakened from having absorbed the attack. He wiped away a trail of blood dripping down a cut lip and sneered.
"That's rich," he said, "coming from a so-called fighter relying on the Satsui no Hadou to secure his victories. Master Gouken taught us to find our own strength within ourselves while you search for an external source. I can't think of anything weaker than that."
Akuma retaliated against Ken with a flurry of punches and kicks, beating the street fighter champion into submission. "Your psychological taunts have no impact on me, pup!" Akuma declared. Ken's taunts had earned him more action than he had bargained for, now desperately defending himself against Akuma's strikes. Akuma knocked Ken's feet from under him and brought a foot down on his chest. But before he could follow through with anything that could cause significant damage, Ryu had caught his attention again.
"You will not harm him!" Ryu declared, attacking with a left hook, countering the demon's assault with his own. "You will not harm anyone any longer!" Ryu found the strength in his blows, every strike that connected with Akuma's unprotected body fueled him to carry on further. Akuma didn't block but continued to let himself get hit.
"Yes, Ryu," he said, head twitching to the side as Ryu's fist connected with it. "I feel the Satsui no Hadou in you. Don't resist."
Ken jumped from behind Akuma and brought a knee down to the back of his neck. Using the demon's torso as leverage, somersaulted backwards to a safe distance. Akuma's body on the other hand, was thrown forward, jaw meeting Ryu's fist. "Shin!" Ryu struck again with his other fist. "Shoryuken!" Both men sailed meters into the air leaving a streak of blue chi energy in their wake, but both Ken and Ryu knew that if Ryu wasn't going to use the Satsui no Hadou, it would take more than that to defeat the demon.
Akuma recovered at the peak of the uppercut before Ryu could and prepared to pummel him with another assault of air fireballs. Before the first one could leave his open palm, an orange beam appeared beneath him, through which Ken sailed. "Shinryuuken!" Akuma was once again swallowed into a multi-hit uppercut.
Ken completed the move and descended, followed a few meters higher by Akuma's falling body. Ryu was already on the ground and yelled, "Tuck and roll, Ken. Get out of the way!" A split second later Ken made contact with the ground and did was he was told, giving Ryu the space he needed to catch Akuma's body in a vertical Hadouken beam.
"This isn't over, Ryu!" A voice rang in his mind. "You will come to realize your true potential some day. I promise you this." As the Hadouken beam dissipated, Akuma's body could not be found.
"W...where'd he go?!" Ken cried, looking up, then around him in confusion.
Ryu was still, breath heavy from having expended so much of his life force in the fight. Wind whipped at the tails of head bands. "He retreated, Ken. We fought him off." Ryu rested a hand on Ken's shoulder. "Thank you for fighting with me. I'm not sure I could have done it otherwise, without resorting to the Satsui no Hadou. That's exactly what Akuma would have wanted."
"He killed Master Gouken, Ryu," Ken said. "There was no way I was going to sit out on this fight and let you go at it alone."
Ryu turned to look at Ken, but something behind it caught his attention instead. Ryu's eyes widened with fear. "I might have resisted the Satsui no Hadou, but it looks like Kenny has tapped into the Shadow Technology."
"Shit!" Ken hissed. "I'll take care of this ..." He raced off towards Kenny, who now had Genta floored and was about to kill him.
Kenny didn't know how much more abuse he could take from Genta. The pain felt insurmountable. It radiated from his shins and forearms, that he used to block Genta's offensive. It came from his ribs, shoulders, and back from when he'd failed to block an attack. It was embedded in his chest and head as his smoker's lungs struggled for breath to fuel his energy, though only resulted in him breathing in what felt like fire. Genta on the other hand showed no signs of slowing down. The Shadow Technology harnessed the energy surrounding his body, and manifested it through the power by which his fists, elbows, knees and feet pummeled Kenny into submission. Genta's face was blank, emotionless. There was no sweat, no expression twisting his face into a grimace of struggle. His body had been turned into a machine, raining down the strikes onto his target with only one objective - termination.
He could feel his body weakening. It had been awhile since Kenny threw his last punch and gradually sunk into a defensive tactic, but even that was failing him now. His reactions slowed, blocking less, taking more damage. Darkness enclosed rapidly around him. He could only pray for a quick end as his body, now curled up into a fetal position, took more and more abuse. But his thoughts were interrupted by an angry cry.
"Get away from him!"
The familiar voice rang in his ears. Instinctively, Kenny began to calm. Cranky was here, and though he would die before ever admitting it verbally, Cranky's presence usually meant that everything was going to be all right. Kenny's breathing slowed, and he forgot the pain, knowing that his big brother was going to shoulder the rest of it and put an end to Genta. Even the blows that rained down on him had stopped. Kenny was on the ground, vision swimming before him. He forced it into focus and as quickly as Cranky's presence had relieved him, what he saw caused the panic to rise from the pits of his stomach, and into his throat.
Genta, no older nor bigger in size than Kenny himself had Cranky by the throat, lifting him into the air with a single arm. Cranky, standing almost foot above their heads, easily outweighing either of them by at least a hundred pounds of muscle was gasping for air, desperately grasping at Genta's fingers with his hands to release the strangling grip that held his heels inches over the ground. His legs kicked helplessly in the air as he choked in Genta's grasp. The young Shadowlaw protégé's face was twisted into a smile as he spat the final words he intended for Cranky to ever hear.
"Rest assured, your brother will be joining you soon."
Genta's words were the cherry on the cake, and it was at that moment that Kenny lost control of his body. All he envisioned was Genta's face crumbling beneath his fist, his life being snuffed out by the force of Kenny's hands around his throat. Kenny vaguely registered kicking his body up into standing, nor the roundhouse kick he threw at Genta's armpit, forcing him to release Cranky. He thought he remembered delivering an uppercut to the jaw, sending Genta into the air and leaping after him to deliver a knee, side kick, hook kick aerial combination attack before sending him crashing back to the ground with a head stomp.
Genta hit the ground in a plume of dust, and Kenny followed a split second later, his foot aiming for Genta's face to use as a landing pad but he rolled away instead into a standing position. He retaliated with an double-fisted overhead smash as Kenny recovered from his landing. But he swung his torso to the side to avoid the blow and countered with an overhead hook kick, trapping Genta's arms between his calf and thigh. Kenny twisted his body, sending his rival tumbling to the ground by his arms and he felt the satisfying snap of Genta's broken bones in the process.
"You can hit me," Kenny remembered thinking bitterly as he ripped Genta from the ground and twisted his broken arm behind his body. "You can beat the stuffing out of me until I'm an the last few inches of life." He drove his knees into Genta's face repeatedly, alternating between them and when he was done, flipped Genta in the air, forcing him to land on his back as he hit the ground, never releasing his grasp on Genta's arm. "Hell, you can even kill me." Kenny brought his shoe down upon Genta's Adam's Apple and slowly forced his strength and weight on it, realizing his desire to kill his adversary. "But you never, ever lay a finger on my family." The Shadow Technology was in recession now and colour was returning to Genta's face as his glowing eyes were faded back into normalcy. His expression transformed into a mask of fear, his tongue sticking out of his mouth as he choked and gasped for air. The sight brought a perverse pleasure to Kenny, satisfying his deep hatred for the Shadowlaw youth, everything he stood for, and consequently everything that had happened to him.
Before Genta's life force could be snuffed out for good, however, Kenny was hit with what felt like the force of a truck. His body met the ground hard, painfully absorbing the impact along with the weight of his surprise assailant. He opened his eyes to see Ken Masters beaten, bloody and bruised from his fight with Akuma, but whatever was going on had apparently forced him to abandon Ryu. Ken stared at him, eyes wide his fear, scared half to death. His hands pinned Kenny's shoulders to the ground with crushing strength.
"Snap out of it," he whispered with horror, staring Kenny straight in the eyes. "Look at me." The rage was calming down now, the tunnel vision disappeared. The adrenaline subsided and the pain rushed back into his battered body. "Damn it Kenny, look at me!"
"Uncle Ken," he finally croaked in response.
"Yes, yes it's me," Ken coaxed, "Come on back to us. The battle is over, Shadowlaw is destroyed. You can rest now."
Kenny tried to figure out what Uncle Ken was talking about, the memory of the battle with Genta already fogging up, like a dream he'd just awoken from. "Genta," he said, grasping at the memories slipping from him, "he tried to hurt Cranky. I couldn't let ..."
Ken gave it a few seconds before releasing the youth, but the shock had Kenny on an emotional breaking point. "Did you have any idea what you were doing?"
"I don't know, Uncle Ken," he sobbed, fighting back hot tears that threatened to spill from the corners of his eyes. "I just saw what he was going to do to Cranky and I just ..."
"So you broke Genta's arms," Uncle Ken said shaking his head in disbelief, and a hint of pride.
"I wasn't thinking," Kenny admitted. "I was just ... doing. It was like muscle memory, like my body just knew what had to be done."
Uncle Ken nodded sympathetically. "That's how the Shadow Technology works."
Cranky pried desperately at Genta's fingertips wrapped like a vice around his throat. The air supply to his lungs had been sealed off and he used whatever strength he had to remedy that. At the same time, he realized this was his first brush with a fighter under the influence of the Shadow Technology. Genta, like Kenny was a five and a half foot tall, skinny teenager. Yet here he stood, suffocating a much larger Cranky effortlessly.
"Rest assured," Genta hissed, "your brother will be joining you soon."
Cranky's pride had been completely deflated and now Genta was promising certain death to Kenny as well. He aimed a kick to Genta's knee but lacked the strength to completely follow through. The tip of Cranky's shoe tapped his kneecap instead. Panic mode had set it for only a second, as he grasped at any other options for escape. Just as he was about to give up, he was released from Genta's grip and fell to the ground landing on his knees. Cranky hunched over onto the ground and coughed violently, feeling like he was about to throw up a lung. He looked up at the battle and realized it was Kenny who had rescued him, and was now engaged once again in his battle with Genta. The difference now was that Kenny was no longer flesh coloured, but donned the same dark silhouette as his opponent. The only difference being that the aura emanating from Kenny's body was blue, and not green.
Seeing his little brother move like that that shocked, even scared Cranky. Given Genta's death-grip and now how Kenny moved like a seasoned, almost inhuman fighter, it was suddenly no wonder how as a six year old, Kenny was able to take down the small army Shadowlaw sent after his parents. Unfortunately, it had been too late to save Tai and Mei by the time Cranky found the boy. But now nine years later, Kenny was once again engulfed by the power his father's work bestowed upon him. He knocked Genta into the air effortlessly and sent him crashing back to the ground. The deafening snap of breaking bones forced Cranky's heart to leap into his throat, but he was granted mild relief when he saw that it was Genta rolling on the ground in pain, his arms dangling uselessly by his sides.
But Kenny wasn't done yet - and the savagery he displayed left Cranky speechless as Kenny brought his heel down onto Genta's windpipe and began putting his full weight on it, grinding his foot downward as if he were putting out a stubborn cigarette. Genta's legs flailed, his arms unable to move to knock Kenny's foot away. He was in the same position that he just had Cranky in seconds ago. Karma was a bitch, but Cranky wasn't expecting it to bite Genta in the butt so soon, and through Kenny of all people. He had turned the situation around in mere moments. Cranky promised himself in that moment that he would never underestimate the power of the Shadow Technology again. He'd been fortunate this time, but it took Kenny tapping into its power to save him. And then he smiled to himself - not only was this his first brush with the Shadow Technology, but it was also the first time Kenny had actually saved him from harm. Cranky looked back over at him with a mixture of awe, pride and fear as Kenny slowly forced the life out of Genta's body.
This had to stop.
Cranky brought himself to his feet and neared Kenny but Masters was faster. Having witnessed the Shadow Technology at work before, Ken Masters knew exactly the kind of force it took to combat it. He launched himself into a flying tackle that hit Kenny at the waist and grounded both of them. As soon as they had hit the ground, Cranky saw the colour returning to his face. Ken had the teen by the shoulders screaming at him to come back into his senses by the time Cranky reached them. He had pulled Kenny into a sitting position, elbows resting on his knees.
"Kenny!" Cranky cried dropping to a knee at his side. "Are you all right?"
"He's back with us now," Ken assured, "but be careful what you say. Memory loss is the first thing that sets in."
Cranky shot him an inquisitive look and Ken stood up, signaling for him to do the same. Ken nodded his head in the opposite direction of where Kenny sat, still composing himself and stepped into pace, heading back towards the group.
The Delta Red team were down for the count; uniforms ripped, dirt caked on their faces, blood splattered randomly in patches over their torsos. Cranky wasn't able to tell whether it was their own, or someone else's. Katarina sat on her side, holding herself up with her arms. Her lab coat was torn, hair disheveled. Chun Li stood a few steps away, walking towards Katarina with her arms extended trying to help the woman get to her feet. Wagner knelt on the ground, carrying the limp body of Juli in his arms. His head was bent down, their foreheads touching. Wagner's lips moved, mouthing silent words to Juli as if they would somehow revive her. But bloodiest of all was Julian Marquez, the red stains covering his white wife beater, shoulders, arms and the lower half of his face. Cranky approached him first.
"Marquez," he gasped from the run here, "Are you all right? What happened here?"
"I'm okay," Julian assured. "This blood," he motioned at the bloodstains adorning his torso, "it's Kenny's. He got shot and I carried him over here. But as you can see," he nodded towards Kenny in the distance, "he's more than all right."
Cranky's jaw dropped. "How the hell is he still breathing?"
"Kenny is in the possession of the Shadow Technology," a voice interrupted, confirming Cranky's suspicions. He spun his head to see Katarina approaching him. To him, she was definitely a sight for sore eyes with her curvaceous hips, ample breasts, and stick straight jet black hair. But he shook the image from his mind and took the former Shadowlaw scientists by her shoulders.
"What did you do?" he demanded, shaking her slightly.
Katarina showed no sign of intimidation as she looked him straight in the eye and replied, "I injected Kenny with a dosage to save his life." The tone she used wasn't one of shame, but of the usual pride she carried herself with. "He would be dead otherwise."
"Do you realize what you've done to him?" Cranky hissed angrily. "Do you know what he's been through because of that shit?!"
Unfazed, Katarina replied, "All I know is that it's the only reason he's standing there right now, and not a corpse at your feet." The imagery her words painted in his head made Cranky's shoulders sag with realization of the truth the spoke and he release his grip on her. Seemingly satisfied with his reaction, Katarina continued, adding insult to injury. "Perhaps you could educate me on my own sibling, and what he's been through."
He released Katarina and returned his attention to Ken, who now stood by Ryu, Chun Li and Guile, who grimaced angrily at Cranky, likely after having his ego bruised by being shoved so unexpectedly. "All of this," he spoke angrily, motioned at their surroundings. "Everything about this Shadow Technology shit. We're talking about it like a conversation topic over Sunday brunch while Kenny sits over there alone."
"He needs space, Crankurt," Ryu stated simply, "and time to calm himself after being gripped by the powers."
"Coming out of a Shadow Trance throws his memory into a flux," Ken elaborated. "It looks like he's retaining more memories this time, but the most severe was when it happened in Osaka during the Alpha tournaments. He'd forgotten everything except me. 'Uncle Ken'. The worst past wasn't him forgetting, though. It was remembering." Ken said that last bit more to himself.
"What I'm curious about," Chun Li chimed in, altering the course of the conversation, "is that I never suffered from memory loss after transforming back from being Shadow Lady. Short term, yes but nothing long term."
"That's because you were likely prepped to receive it," Katarina offered, "Much like Genta over there and Bison's bodyguard panel. But from what I understand, in Kenny's case, he was literally cut open and had the first samples hidden inside him by our father. He was never prepped. He was just packaging for the Shadow Technology - a living, breathing walking, carrying case. Nobody expected it to manifest within him, and since it did, it seems like memory loss is one of the side effects."
"That was Dr. Feng's version," Guile said, "but what he has right now is yours." Guile pointed at the empty vile in the breast pocket of the tattered remains that was once her lab coat. She waved him off.
"The Shadow Technology was always something designed to be administered in dosages, their effects temporary," Katarina explained. "It was so that Lord Bison could have complete control over his Shadow Soldiers. But Kenny wasn't given a dose. The entire package was stored and manifested in him. His body grew and developed with the technology and continues to do so. It's in his bloodstream, his organs, his flesh."
"So Shadowlaw extracting it from his body," Chun Li said, thinking aloud as she spoke, "is kind of like removing a tranquilizer dart after getting shot with one. It's too late, the drugs are already in your body."
"Then why inject him with a dose today?" Cranky asked bitterly.
Katarina pointed at Julian's bloody form. "Because Kenny was bleeding out faster than his body could have healed itself. I gave him a boost."
"It's true, Crankurt," Julian said. "He would have died."
Cranky glanced at Kenny again, sitting apart from the group, hunched over with his head between his knees, completely still. They were all discussing intricate details of his life, and there he sat in complete silence, not hearing anything. It didn't feel right.
"Is this what it was like for him in Raccoon City?" Cranky asked, trying to keep his rage in check. He sure as hell hoped they would not confirm his suspicions. "Was this what it was like?!" Cranky repeated, louder this time. "Everyone sitting here in a happy circle, talking things about Kenny that he doesn't even know about himself? Was he alone this whole time with no idea who he is, isolated from the people who care about him because we were 'giving him space' from some memory wipe?
"We had no choice, Crankurt," Ken spoke in their defense. "There was no other way to keep him off Shadowlaw's radar."
"Everyone stop talking," Kenny said, rejoining the group, sounding very much like himself again. the way tha the carried his body revealed fatigued - shoulders slumped, baggy eyes, dirt smudges over every visible patch of skin. His dark hair clung to his forehead in sweat-matted clumps. "My head hurts."
"Whatever happened to him after the Alpha tournaments," Cranky took Kenny's head and pulled the teen to his side, shaking his own head in disbelief. "I won't let that happen again."