Persistence
by Bug-chan
Chapter 2 - Plans that go wrong
The next day, everyone woke up, feeling much better and fresher than yesterday. Ryu, Honda, Gen, Dhalsim and Fei Long woke up earlier than the rest and proceeded to meditate in the back yard. Once everyone got up, they stopped meditating and went to get a shower before starting plans for another encounter with Bison.
AN HOUR LATER...
"I see everyone's gathered here," said Ken, looking over to see if anyone was missing. He saw none and continued, "Do we have any new leads or maps of any kind?"
Chun Li stood up. "Intel has reported to me that the tournament will be held ten days from today. Exact location within Cambodia hasn't been confirmed yet."
"Great, that's a start. Anyone else?" asked Ken.
Cammy then stood up. "Here are some satellite images that MI6 has sent to me. Lights please?" Dan, nearest to the light switch, got up and hit the switch, darkening the room. "This is a satellite photo of northern Cambodia. We are going to use this temple here, Angkor Wat, as a point of reference. Roughly 300 kilometers east of here is the border between Cambodia and Laos. Now, near that border," Cammy then zoomed in to that part of the map, "the satellite picked up some activity."
"What kind of activity? It's a border so anything could be going on," asked Guile, analyzing the map and putting it to his memory bank for further reference.
"That's a very good question. It seems like normal border trading between Laos and Cambodia, harmless stuff. Or it could be illegal goods--" answered Cammy before being cut off.
"Which means drugs or weapons," cut off Ken before realizing the relevation and stopping in horror.
"that Bison needs to rebuild Shadoloo!" finished Ryu, vocalizing Ken's thoughts. The room went into an uproar with the anger level rising among almost everyone.
"Now stop!" Gen, who didn't say anything since coming to San Francisco, got up and shouted. The room became silent as quickly as it became noisy. Everyone respected Gen not just for his age, but more for his wisdom. He seemed to have a solution or advice for any sort of problem that people might run into and that was what every other Street Fighter respected him for. "Indeed, the extra activity could point out to Bison. But we are jumping into conclusions. Do not let your anger and your fear cloud your mind and judgement." The rest of the group digested what he said, then calmed down, back into their seats. "I suggest we all have a break to clear our minds." he said, then left the room. Soon, the others followed suit.
Half an hour later, the group reassembled in the room. "As we speak, I am having a private flight prepared to take all of us to Cambodia. This is what we should do first before we can plan anything else. So please go back to your rooms and pack up your belongings." Ken announced. Then everyone went back to get their belongings and a few minutes later, all came down with their bags. A number of cars were called and they all took the fighters to the airport where the plane was waiting.
AN HOUR LATER
Once the plane was at cruising altitude, the group went into the plane's meeting room (A/N imagine the meeting room in Air Force One, only bigger).
Karin decided to speak first once everyone was seated. "Okay, my satellite has taken some video footage of the area that Cammy pointed out earlier in the day and this is what took place." A black-and-white video came up, with a great deal of terrain all over it. Trucks and people went north and south regularly. "Now if you notice here, the trucks move up and down in rather regular fashion, like a heartbeat."
"It's too regular. A border crossing cannot be that smooth at all times," said Fei Long. He could base that on his experience in entering and leaving Hong Kong for China; despite the fact that the border was a strait, it wasn't exactly smooth or regular.
"But as Gen said, it is still too early. We must give it some more time. Karin, can you arrange for a constant recording of this border, even during nighttime?" asked Honda.
"Easy to do," answered Karin confidently. "Guess all we can do right now is to relax and wait for a few days." The group then broke up into smaller groups with differnt people clustered together, catching up with each other.
ANOTHER TWELVE MORE HOURS LATER
The plane finally landed in Cambodia and the fighters proceeded to a hotel to spend the first two nights before they took off for the border. The group checked in and soon two fighters each occupied a room. The tired fighters all fell asleep very quicky. Suddenly, a few hours later, the building shook a bit, like an earthquake, jolting all the fighters awake.
"A bomb?" asked Cammy, looking at Chun Li, her temporary roommate. Then the window broke, followed by two men entirely covered in black. Once they got on their feet, both took out some knives and threw at the two women still in bed. Before either woman knew what was going on, T-Hawk barged through the door, surprising both assassins.
"Condor Dive!!" he shouted before jumping up and crashing into one of the assassins diagonally. He knocked his target out senseless. He then got up to see the second man in black about to chuck the knife originally intended for Cammy or Chun Li at him.
"Kiko-ken!!!" shouted Chun Li, then followed up by delivering her own fireball straight at the man. It hit the mark perfectly and he toppled over, unconscious as well.
"Thank you. I owe you," T-Hawk said after fully recovering.
"No, we are even," replied Chun Li, thinking back to his entrance. Seconds later, she heard another door break and the two women with T-Hawk came out to the hallway to see two more identical men on the floor on top of what used to be a door, then saw Guile and Blanka walk out of the room. "You guys OK there?" Chun Li shouted. Blanka nodded at her along with Guile. "Let's check on everyone else, just to be sure," Chun Li suggested, The rest agreed and started to go to different rooms.
Chun Li went next door, where Gen and Fei Long were staying for the night. One man was down, apparently by Fei Long, but the other was still trying to attack Gen. Gen didn't do anything but calmly dodge all the attacks thrown at him. Then suddenly, to the surprise to all those watching him, Gen kicked the black-clad man high, then proceeded to soumersault-kick him another four more times before he let him come down, knocked out. "Gen! Fei Long! Are you all right?" Chun Li finally asked. Both nodded and went out with Chun Li to look up the other rooms.
Meanwhile, Cammy went next door the opposite direction. Just as she was about to open the door, she heard a THUMP!, followed seconds later by a CRASH! then another CRASH!. She busted the door open and assumed a fighting stance, only to see that there was a hole on the floor in front of Zangief and there was also a pair of black-clad legs dangling from the top. Apparently, Dan's Kouryuuken did the job a bit too well and sent the unfortunate man flying. As if on cue, both men replied, "We're fine" and left with Cammy to check and possibly help.
Guile and Blanka made their way to Ryu's and Ken's room and found it to be oddly silent. He cautiously and silently opened to door only to see that both men were facing both black-clad men in silence, as if there was some form of a staring contest. Then, without any warning whatsoever, Ryu dashed forward, grabbed the man standing directly in his line and pushed him hard against the wall. The other man looked back, surprised, only to see Ryu gathering a massive amount of ki, followed by "Shinkuu....Hadoken!!!" The ki made its way towards the other man and got him on the spot. The multiple hits made him take some steps back, only to realize that his ordeal was only part over.
"Shinryuken!!!" shouted Ken, followed by a trail of fire leading towards the roof. This sent the man flying up like a rocket; he broke through five floors before getting stuck on the sixth. "How's the rest?" he then asked Guile, who now had the door wide open with Blanka.
"Cammy, Chun Li, Blanka, Gen, Dan, Zangief and T-Hawk are OK. We're going to look for the others since you've taken care of business here," replied Guile and took off with Blanka to the next room. Ryu and Ken walked outside as well and went to opposite ends of the hall to make sure no one else came in or was going to come in.
Chun Li, Gen and Fei Long went next door and see Guy and Cody engage with their pair of men in black. "Houzanto!" exclaimed Guy before elbowing his opponent, sending him into a wall. Cody proceeded to give him a new meaning of dizziness with a "Criminal Upper!" giving him a beating and a spinning. "We're clear here," Cody tells them. Then Sakura made herself heard with her own "Shinkuu...Hadoken!!!" sending one assassin into Cody's room. They peek inside to see that other one's down already, at the feet of Karin, who looks down at it disgustingly. A second later, Dhalsim teleported in front of the small group in what was first Cody's and Guy's room, followed by Rose. "Any way you can determine the culprit?" asked Dhalsim.
"I sense a strong evil, stronger than anything else I've sensed before...it's even stronger than Bison!" she exclaimed in shock. Everyone there gasped because they knew despite the fact that tarot card reading and psychic abilities weren't exactly explainable by science, they trusted Rose and her judgement. Soon, a shout brought them back when two bodies were flying through the hallway, with an angry E.Honda being their bullet. He stopped in front of the room and let the bodies fly on, watching it ram into the wall at the end of the hallway. Ryu, who happened to be there, turned back towards the source, who waved back, apologizing.
Chun Li, with all the people she saw, came and met up with Cammy and the group residing in Cody's room. "Do we have everyone?" she asked, doing a head count.
"No, we're missing Dee Jay. Hasn't anyone seen him?" asked Sakura.
"Oh but he's here!" cackled a voice from the other end of the hall, where Ken was supposed to be. Instead, Ken was on the floor, unconscious, and the window was open, with the slender body of a Spanish matador about to step out with a knocked-out Dee Jay on his shoulder.
"Vega! Put him down, NOW!" yelled Ryu, getting into a fighting stance.
"Not a chance! See you all at the tournament!" cackled Vega again, then proceeded to take Dee Jay with him out the window. The group ran towards the window, with T-Hawk trying to revive Ken.
'Shit! Bison's got Dee Jay!' was the thought that went through everyone's head.
TBC
A/N: I made a little mistake at the end of chapter 1. enjoy_your_worthless_life@yahoo.com is my Yahoo Messenger account. I didn't pay attention to that detail. Your positive reviews are all encouraging so I will try my best to keep this going. Till the next chapter...
by Bug-chan
Chapter 2 - Plans that go wrong
The next day, everyone woke up, feeling much better and fresher than yesterday. Ryu, Honda, Gen, Dhalsim and Fei Long woke up earlier than the rest and proceeded to meditate in the back yard. Once everyone got up, they stopped meditating and went to get a shower before starting plans for another encounter with Bison.
AN HOUR LATER...
"I see everyone's gathered here," said Ken, looking over to see if anyone was missing. He saw none and continued, "Do we have any new leads or maps of any kind?"
Chun Li stood up. "Intel has reported to me that the tournament will be held ten days from today. Exact location within Cambodia hasn't been confirmed yet."
"Great, that's a start. Anyone else?" asked Ken.
Cammy then stood up. "Here are some satellite images that MI6 has sent to me. Lights please?" Dan, nearest to the light switch, got up and hit the switch, darkening the room. "This is a satellite photo of northern Cambodia. We are going to use this temple here, Angkor Wat, as a point of reference. Roughly 300 kilometers east of here is the border between Cambodia and Laos. Now, near that border," Cammy then zoomed in to that part of the map, "the satellite picked up some activity."
"What kind of activity? It's a border so anything could be going on," asked Guile, analyzing the map and putting it to his memory bank for further reference.
"That's a very good question. It seems like normal border trading between Laos and Cambodia, harmless stuff. Or it could be illegal goods--" answered Cammy before being cut off.
"Which means drugs or weapons," cut off Ken before realizing the relevation and stopping in horror.
"that Bison needs to rebuild Shadoloo!" finished Ryu, vocalizing Ken's thoughts. The room went into an uproar with the anger level rising among almost everyone.
"Now stop!" Gen, who didn't say anything since coming to San Francisco, got up and shouted. The room became silent as quickly as it became noisy. Everyone respected Gen not just for his age, but more for his wisdom. He seemed to have a solution or advice for any sort of problem that people might run into and that was what every other Street Fighter respected him for. "Indeed, the extra activity could point out to Bison. But we are jumping into conclusions. Do not let your anger and your fear cloud your mind and judgement." The rest of the group digested what he said, then calmed down, back into their seats. "I suggest we all have a break to clear our minds." he said, then left the room. Soon, the others followed suit.
Half an hour later, the group reassembled in the room. "As we speak, I am having a private flight prepared to take all of us to Cambodia. This is what we should do first before we can plan anything else. So please go back to your rooms and pack up your belongings." Ken announced. Then everyone went back to get their belongings and a few minutes later, all came down with their bags. A number of cars were called and they all took the fighters to the airport where the plane was waiting.
AN HOUR LATER
Once the plane was at cruising altitude, the group went into the plane's meeting room (A/N imagine the meeting room in Air Force One, only bigger).
Karin decided to speak first once everyone was seated. "Okay, my satellite has taken some video footage of the area that Cammy pointed out earlier in the day and this is what took place." A black-and-white video came up, with a great deal of terrain all over it. Trucks and people went north and south regularly. "Now if you notice here, the trucks move up and down in rather regular fashion, like a heartbeat."
"It's too regular. A border crossing cannot be that smooth at all times," said Fei Long. He could base that on his experience in entering and leaving Hong Kong for China; despite the fact that the border was a strait, it wasn't exactly smooth or regular.
"But as Gen said, it is still too early. We must give it some more time. Karin, can you arrange for a constant recording of this border, even during nighttime?" asked Honda.
"Easy to do," answered Karin confidently. "Guess all we can do right now is to relax and wait for a few days." The group then broke up into smaller groups with differnt people clustered together, catching up with each other.
ANOTHER TWELVE MORE HOURS LATER
The plane finally landed in Cambodia and the fighters proceeded to a hotel to spend the first two nights before they took off for the border. The group checked in and soon two fighters each occupied a room. The tired fighters all fell asleep very quicky. Suddenly, a few hours later, the building shook a bit, like an earthquake, jolting all the fighters awake.
"A bomb?" asked Cammy, looking at Chun Li, her temporary roommate. Then the window broke, followed by two men entirely covered in black. Once they got on their feet, both took out some knives and threw at the two women still in bed. Before either woman knew what was going on, T-Hawk barged through the door, surprising both assassins.
"Condor Dive!!" he shouted before jumping up and crashing into one of the assassins diagonally. He knocked his target out senseless. He then got up to see the second man in black about to chuck the knife originally intended for Cammy or Chun Li at him.
"Kiko-ken!!!" shouted Chun Li, then followed up by delivering her own fireball straight at the man. It hit the mark perfectly and he toppled over, unconscious as well.
"Thank you. I owe you," T-Hawk said after fully recovering.
"No, we are even," replied Chun Li, thinking back to his entrance. Seconds later, she heard another door break and the two women with T-Hawk came out to the hallway to see two more identical men on the floor on top of what used to be a door, then saw Guile and Blanka walk out of the room. "You guys OK there?" Chun Li shouted. Blanka nodded at her along with Guile. "Let's check on everyone else, just to be sure," Chun Li suggested, The rest agreed and started to go to different rooms.
Chun Li went next door, where Gen and Fei Long were staying for the night. One man was down, apparently by Fei Long, but the other was still trying to attack Gen. Gen didn't do anything but calmly dodge all the attacks thrown at him. Then suddenly, to the surprise to all those watching him, Gen kicked the black-clad man high, then proceeded to soumersault-kick him another four more times before he let him come down, knocked out. "Gen! Fei Long! Are you all right?" Chun Li finally asked. Both nodded and went out with Chun Li to look up the other rooms.
Meanwhile, Cammy went next door the opposite direction. Just as she was about to open the door, she heard a THUMP!, followed seconds later by a CRASH! then another CRASH!. She busted the door open and assumed a fighting stance, only to see that there was a hole on the floor in front of Zangief and there was also a pair of black-clad legs dangling from the top. Apparently, Dan's Kouryuuken did the job a bit too well and sent the unfortunate man flying. As if on cue, both men replied, "We're fine" and left with Cammy to check and possibly help.
Guile and Blanka made their way to Ryu's and Ken's room and found it to be oddly silent. He cautiously and silently opened to door only to see that both men were facing both black-clad men in silence, as if there was some form of a staring contest. Then, without any warning whatsoever, Ryu dashed forward, grabbed the man standing directly in his line and pushed him hard against the wall. The other man looked back, surprised, only to see Ryu gathering a massive amount of ki, followed by "Shinkuu....Hadoken!!!" The ki made its way towards the other man and got him on the spot. The multiple hits made him take some steps back, only to realize that his ordeal was only part over.
"Shinryuken!!!" shouted Ken, followed by a trail of fire leading towards the roof. This sent the man flying up like a rocket; he broke through five floors before getting stuck on the sixth. "How's the rest?" he then asked Guile, who now had the door wide open with Blanka.
"Cammy, Chun Li, Blanka, Gen, Dan, Zangief and T-Hawk are OK. We're going to look for the others since you've taken care of business here," replied Guile and took off with Blanka to the next room. Ryu and Ken walked outside as well and went to opposite ends of the hall to make sure no one else came in or was going to come in.
Chun Li, Gen and Fei Long went next door and see Guy and Cody engage with their pair of men in black. "Houzanto!" exclaimed Guy before elbowing his opponent, sending him into a wall. Cody proceeded to give him a new meaning of dizziness with a "Criminal Upper!" giving him a beating and a spinning. "We're clear here," Cody tells them. Then Sakura made herself heard with her own "Shinkuu...Hadoken!!!" sending one assassin into Cody's room. They peek inside to see that other one's down already, at the feet of Karin, who looks down at it disgustingly. A second later, Dhalsim teleported in front of the small group in what was first Cody's and Guy's room, followed by Rose. "Any way you can determine the culprit?" asked Dhalsim.
"I sense a strong evil, stronger than anything else I've sensed before...it's even stronger than Bison!" she exclaimed in shock. Everyone there gasped because they knew despite the fact that tarot card reading and psychic abilities weren't exactly explainable by science, they trusted Rose and her judgement. Soon, a shout brought them back when two bodies were flying through the hallway, with an angry E.Honda being their bullet. He stopped in front of the room and let the bodies fly on, watching it ram into the wall at the end of the hallway. Ryu, who happened to be there, turned back towards the source, who waved back, apologizing.
Chun Li, with all the people she saw, came and met up with Cammy and the group residing in Cody's room. "Do we have everyone?" she asked, doing a head count.
"No, we're missing Dee Jay. Hasn't anyone seen him?" asked Sakura.
"Oh but he's here!" cackled a voice from the other end of the hall, where Ken was supposed to be. Instead, Ken was on the floor, unconscious, and the window was open, with the slender body of a Spanish matador about to step out with a knocked-out Dee Jay on his shoulder.
"Vega! Put him down, NOW!" yelled Ryu, getting into a fighting stance.
"Not a chance! See you all at the tournament!" cackled Vega again, then proceeded to take Dee Jay with him out the window. The group ran towards the window, with T-Hawk trying to revive Ken.
'Shit! Bison's got Dee Jay!' was the thought that went through everyone's head.
TBC
A/N: I made a little mistake at the end of chapter 1. enjoy_your_worthless_life@yahoo.com is my Yahoo Messenger account. I didn't pay attention to that detail. Your positive reviews are all encouraging so I will try my best to keep this going. Till the next chapter...