Adam sat up in shock. "Who...who are you!"

The tall man wore only a pair of shorts and an eye patch over his right
eye. "It's none of your concern."

Adam found himself asking, "Isn't it cold in only those shorts?" before he
could stop himself.

The taller man shook his head. "Do you want to return to your entourage or
not?"

Adam nodded hesitantly. "Aren't you a member of this gang?"

The large man sighed. "I am, but not by choice. I would prefer to see Bison
burn. But in order to do that, I will need all the help I can get."

Adam got to his feet and brushed himself off. "Well, I lost sight of my
partners when I fell off of that cliff. They should still be up there
somewheres."

The man nodded. "Follow me. If we take this path, it will eventually catch up
with the higher up road."

Adam had to break into a light jog just to keep up with the man's strides. The
walk was quiet and uneventful, until Adam's guide motioned for him to stop.
Adam quietly tiptoed up behind him and peeked ahead.

"What's wrong?" he whispered.

"Guards. Two of them."

Adam grinned. "We should be able to take them no problem."

The man shook his head. "Absolutely not. They are being forced to work here.
Bison holds their families captive in exchange for cooperation. They don't
need to be hurt."

Adam blinked several times. The man in front of him was a lot more
compassionate than he appeared. Finally he realized that they needed to do
something. Taking action, he turned back to the taller man and said, "So what
do we do now?"

The man held his hand up in a signal for silence and walked up to them. Adam
couldn't hear the muted conversation, but when his ally came back, both guards
walked off of the path.

"What happened?"

The man motioned for Adam to follow him and walked ahead wordlessly. Adam
resumed his jog and caught up with him.

"Well? How did you get the guards to let us by?"

"I simply told them to take a break."

Now Adam was worried. Who exactly am I walking with here?

There was the sound of hushed voices a little further ahead, and the pair
stopped to assess the situation. As the sounds grew closer, Adam recognized
the voices. 'That's Chun and Charlie!' He turned around to tell his helper,
but there was no one behind him. 'That's... weird... i wonder who that
was?...'

"Well no reason to wonder at the moment..." He finally muttered before taking
off at a run to meet his 'friends'. He gave a quick wave when they entered his view,
hoping they wouldn't mistake him for an enemy. He let out a sigh when the two
jogged up to him.

Charlie gave him a critical eye, looking for injuries first and foremost before fixing
the boy with a glare that Chun-li imitated. "Good, your alright." He began in a monotone.
"However, your klutz attack nearly cost us the mission. From now on I want you where
Chun-li and I can see you at ALL times, this whole area is crawling with Shadowloo agents,"

'Don't I know it.' Adam thought to himself, nodding as Charlie continued.
"At any moment you could have been killed. Do you know who we could find at
any moment in this area? Shadowloo's big four. Vega, Balrog, Sagat, and M.
Bison himself. Anyone of them could easily end your life on a WHIM. You might
be able to handle the enforcers but you would have NOTHING on them."
Adam didn't look into Charlie's eyes as he mumbled his apology, failing as
well to meet Chun-li's, he kept his head down as they continued the
walk.'Wait...' He started thinking, after all he was currently unable to
bring himself to speak to them so he had time to think. 'Sagat...that name's
familiar... At that moment realization hit him. WAIT! That's one of those
guys Sakura kept talking about. Sagat was Thailand's martial arts
champion...'The Muay Thai Emperor'...' After that he began trying to develop a
mental picture from one of those Sakura had shown him of the greatest warriors
in the world. 'HOLY CRAP! That was Sagat!' He mentally yelled, keeping his
discovery to himself.

"Well, here we are..." Chun-li said, a grim smile on her face. "I can finally
avenge my father."

Charlie gave a curt nod. "We'll observe for five minutes, to insure they don't
send any search parties for us. If the coast is clear we'll enter and plant
the bombs."

"Wait!" Adam broke in at last causing his older counterparts to glare at him.

"What now?" Chun-li asked in what seemed to become her default tone when
dealing with the young man. Exasperation and forced patience.

"If you plant those bombs...the people inside will be killed..." Charlie and
Chun-li gave him a look he didn't quite identify but nodded. "We...we cant kill
them. They're innocent people."

"They work for Shadowloo." Chun-li said acidly.

"But what about those who don't work of their own will? If Bison controls this
kind of area, and is so powerful how many people work for him only because they
fear the consequences if they don't? What about those people?"

"This is a war." Charlie sighed. "And in all wars, no matter how good the good
guys, or how bad the bad guys innocent people ALWAYS get hurt. I'm sorry, but
that's how it is."

"If innocent people always get hurt from both side's tactics what makes the
good guys better then the bad guys?" Adam asked bitterly.

"BECAUSE WE DONT KILL WANTONLY!" Chun-li virtually screamed, grabbing the young
man by his collar. "You wanted to come with us! You wanted to have the thrill
of adventure! This isn't adventure! Its murder, its revenge, its punishment.
Murder...murder of innocents...revenge for all the innocents Bison has
murdered, and punishment for so many unatoneable crimes. This is what
your 'adventure' amounts to. The ONLY reason we do this..." Chun-li was
gradually pulling the boy closer, her pitch rising as she continued.
"Is because someone has too. We're soldiers. This is what we do, we do the
unthinkable, the things no one else can do, and then slink into the shadows,
to mourn our actions for our lives. We do it because if we don't, then monsters
like Hitler...like Bison...then monsters like them go unchecked. This IS the
only way to stop them. And now...now its too late to turn back. If you try to
stop us, we will do what we must."

It seemed at this point the full meaning of the mysterious woman's words was
hitting him. ' "your old life will come to a quick end" this is what she
meant...I've got to choose now...what am I going to do...' After a long minute
of deliberation in which he dared not even breath he finally
nodded. "Alright...I'll...I'll help any way I am able too. If this has to be
done...I...wont hide from it. I'll face it like a man, and I'll give my help."
Charlie gave a curt nod turning his attention back to the base. "We begin
infiltration in thirty seconds."

Chun-li followed suit, however she got onto her feet a bit, crouching low, the
muscles of her legs straining against the tight, thin fabric of her track
suit. They were both holding their bags, which Adam now realized had not been full of
clothes and supplies...well yes they had ONE supply. The bombs.
"Lets rock and roll." Charlie finally said.