o no

Terry was walking through a dream.

Nothing was real. Nothing was solid. He felt like he was watching a movie of himself sneaking through Kain's compound.

His throat was dry. He felt the discomfort from a distance.

His vision was fuzzy, as if bloodshot.

The power in the ground rumbled up from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. He was bursting at the seams with the strength of the earth. He prowled through the darkness, wild and hungry. Nothing could stand in his way. Everyone who did - armed or otherwise - found themselves facedown, bloodied and unconscious. Today - Terry Bogard wasn't messing around.

Alright Rocky… I dunno what's going on with you - but you're coming home…

His mind wandered as he stalked the streets. Historically, Terry had been hands-off with his adopted son. He felt it was better for Rock to make his own way in the world. To make mistakes. To learn from them… but ever since his boy had been hired to work with Iori Yagami - the stakes had been getting higher and higher. Too high for Terry to simply stand by idly.

Kid, I'm going to ground you for eternity...

Two months ago, Rock had disclosed to his father the details of Iori's 'Pacific Tour'. According to him, the tour - which should have been straightforward - was instead shot through with murder, conspiracy and gang activities. All of this was shocking enough, but Terry had a sense that Rock was withholding the more grisly details. The actual events of the Tour were certainly much worse than what Rock had confessed, and exacerbated the one-sided hatred Terry was nursing against his son's employer.

Yagami… I'm going to break your neck if my kid gets hurt… I can't believe you did this to him...

It'd been about two days since Iori had forced Rock at gunpoint to participate in Kain's operation, then skipped town to bunker down in Japan. How selfish could a person be?! Iori was a Mafia heir! He surely had ample resources for this sort of unsavory business. He didn't need to use his naive teenager guitarist to fight a gang war against Geese, but he decided to do it anyway.

Does that bastard think this is funny? Is he just screwing around for fun - putting people's lives in danger to feed his sadism? Dammit… somebody needs to put him down.

Terry would never forgive Iori for this sort of malicious behavior. For now, he was bottling it up. He needed to focus. He would deal with Iori once Rock was safe… and by 'deal' Terry meant 'punch his teeth through the back of his head'.

Okay… chill … take care of Rocky first…

Terry exhaled through clenched teeth, his breath hissing in the cold nighttime air. The darkness ahead was inky and black, cut occasionally by dirty yellow streetlamps which cast cones of light on the cracked pavement. The area was mostly abandoned, and everyone Terry had encountered so far had been part of Kain's paramilitary cell - judging from their equipment at least. These guys were armed to the teeth, and Terry absolutely couldn't see Rock running with these kinds of unsavory characters…

But then again, Yagami's worse than all of them… dammit Rocky! What's wrong with you! How do you get involved in this nonsense! Agh!... Right...focus...

Phew.

He cleared his head and continued to prowl forward.

Behind him, he had left a winding path of unconscious soldiers. Surely the alarm had been raised by now, and it was very possible Kains forces were alerted to his presence. Terry pushed forward nonetheless. He wasn't scared of anyone. The power buzzing through his head left no room for fear. As long as somebody had two feet on the ground, they didn't stand a chance against him. He could track the movements of anyone in a small vicinity. Their footsteps fed him information via vibrations through the ground. Hell - he could blow them thirty feet in the air before he even laid eyes on them…

But of course, Terry wasn't about to kill anyone. Not intentionally at least. It just never crossed his mind to do so - even under such dire circumstances. Terry leaned his back against the corrugated metal wall of a nearby warehouse and shut his eyes. He focused. Listening for the faint rumble of footsteps.

One, two… five? That's it?

Terry frowned. He was fairly sure the news had reported roughly twenty five people were involved in the SouthTown Central Bombing this afternoon. How could it be there were only five people in the compound, plus the seven Terry had left in unconscious heaps?

Maybe they're all sleeping? Are they all on the second floor of some building? Hmm… It's not even that late…

Terry blinked and crouched down to plant both palms on the ground just to count once more. There weren't many places a twenty man Vigilante crew could spend the evening unnoticed, so it was strange for such a large force to go missing from the primary compound.

No… only five… is Rock there?

Terry blinked in confusion, and stood back to his feet. Were there troops waiting for him in parked vehicles? Were the troops just standing completely still? (no way) Maybe these guys knew how he detected people, and had taken the appropriate precautions... There were alarms going off in his head, but Terry couldn't turn back. There was no time to go home and gather support, because Rock needed to be extracted right now, before Iori and Kain made him do anything else incriminating.

Can't turn back now...

According to Mary, Rock was already being listed as a major player in Howard Connection. In light of recent events, the Sheriff had been eager to lump Rock in with his hated biological father. Terry knew that Rock was trying to bring the organization down, but obviously, the police didn't. If Rock were caught by the police now, he'd likely be charged with conspiracy and manslaughter.

Bet that's a prison sentence… the next infraction might bump him up to the death penalty. Shit...

Terry didn't really have any solution to these legal dealings. Mary probably had better insight... Would they have to flee the country? Perhaps somebody in power would help them? Maybe the courts would understand? Unlikely… What if he gets convicted? If Rock's a felon, then what sort of future is he going to lead? I… ugh...

Terry sighed and cast the thoughts away. All he knew for sure was the longer Rock stayed in that vigilante group, the worse things were going to get. He steeled himself and peeked around the corner.

Five men, standing in a clearing. They appeared to be smoking and minding their own business, but were obviously very tense. They glanced to and fro as they muttered to each other - keeping a lookout. There didn't appear to be anyone else in the area… where are the rest of them?

Well, no matter. Terry wasn't here to put tabs on everyone. He was here for one person only. Iori's Volkswagen was parked around the back - and knowing how private Rock was, Terry guessed he wouldn't tolerate sharing barracks with a band of mercenaries. Rock was likely sleeping in the car. Best case scenario, Terry snuck his way to the back of the warehouse, found the car, found Rock, and drove them both out of there.

And if I need to beat him up a bit, then so be it… I'm not gonna let Rock continue this nonsense... He won't be happy, but that's the least of my worries at this point...

Now, all Terry needed to do was distract the guards. Simple enough. He placed a palm against the cold asphalt and concentrated. There. Thirty feet away, a small explosion launched a number of oil barrels into the air with a deafening bang.

The five guards jumped to attention and ran over to point their guns at the disturbance. Once they were out of sight, Terry quickly crossed the courtyard to reach the parking area. He walked as quickly and quietly as possible, keeping his eyes to the ground, and carefully keeping tabs on the footsteps of the guards behind him. They were still far off… they seemed to have… run off?

Weird… whatever… now, where's the car…

The night was eerily silent - uncomfortably so - as Terry approached where he remembered seeing the Volkswagen. It was dark - but Terry could make out the small hatchback parked against the chain linked fence. He made a beeline towards it, and rapped the window. He whispered loudly.

"Rocky?"

No response. Terry frowned and peered through the window. There was a thick blanket in the backseat. It looked a bit flat, so Rock likely wasn't wrapped up in it… Rock wasn't a particularly heavy sleeper either.

He's not here… where could he b-

*KA-CHANK*

Oh fu-

Light.

Blinding, white light - splitting the night and searing Terry's eyes until they hurt and watered. He reeled and shielded his face from the… is that a floodlight?

It was a floodlight.

"Who the hel-"

"Well, well well! Looks like Daddy Wolf showed up!"

… I know that voice… damn… guess it was a trap...

"We knew you'd be coming here sooner or later. You conked some of our men this morning. Don't worry, they're fine…"

Terry gritted his teeth and squinted though the light to glare at Kain with all the hatred he could muster. The willowy man was grinning triumphantly from his balcony. Beside him were lined up a firing squad's worth of rifleman. It was at that point when Terry realized his own person was dotted with laser sights.

"Rock!"

But In that moment, the fifteen guns pointed at him were the very least of Terry's worries. Because kneeling beside Kain on the grated metal floor, was Terry's own son. The boy had his hands zip tied behind his back with a pistol held against his temple. He More the look of defeated resignation. When Terry looked at him, the teenager averted his eyes, clearly ashamed with himself. His expression made Terry's heart hurt.

"Rocky!? Kain you bastard! Let him go!"

"Haha, let him go? Rock came here willingly, all on his own." Kain leered at him. A sickly sadistic light in his eyes.

"Besides, you're in no place to be worried about him, Terry Bogard. Let's start worrying about you!"

daddy wolfff nooo!