MEMOIRS OF A BUG-MAN
Chun-Li stood with her hands on her hips, her eyes narrowed as she watched the gathering of countless emergency workers rushing in and out from the network of caves before her.
Smoke curdled in the air, clouding the blue skies and filling her nostrils with an acrid stench whilst, above, helicopters ferried both the dead and the malformed survivors from the mouth of the labyrinthine caves to the city hospitals.
She cursed softly to herself, her attention fixed on the caves and the sprawled forms of the dead, each one of them dressed in a uniform of black, their faces hidden by balaclavas.
Something had happened within these caves, she reflected, something big.
For a long time, Interpol had known of an organisation working out of the mountainous cave system. They had been within weeks of finally gaining approval for an organised infiltration operation, something that had taken months of negotiation and paperwork when abruptly, in the early hours of the morning, someone – or something – had entered the facility and decimated it singlehandedly.
She cursed once again.
Through means of stealth and the acquisition of details, she had been hoping to find either direct evidence that the organisation holed up in the caves was some sort of Shadoloo outgrowth or, at the very least, a secondary crime syndicate that dealt with Shadoloo but now any hope of salvaging such evidence was gone.
Along with the death of countless soldiers – some human, others so hideously mutated that she could not even begin to identify – whoever had dismantled the facility had also destroyed their central computer and all material contained within.
It was as if the person responsible had not been content with simply destroying the base but had also wished to eradicate all evidence that it had ever existed!
One of her aides appeared abruptly, a clipboard in hand and his dark eyes hidden behind thick-rimmed glasses.
"Ms. Chung," he stammered anxiously, glancing down at the shreds of paper he held before him, "M-Ms. Chung?"
Sighing audibly, Chun-Li glanced sideways at him.
"What is it, Yasuda?"
The young man swallowed hard.
"Some of the victims are reporting that their attacker," he swallowed again, "that he…that he was…"
She nodded slowly.
"Spit it out, Yasuda," she said, preparing herself for disappointment. Whatever had happened here, it was not the work of Shadoloo's insidious crime lord or of his three ruling henchmen.
"The victims are reporting they were attacked by some kind of bug-man," he said fervently.
Chun-Li arched an eyebrow.
"Bug-man?" she questioned.
Yasuda nodded enthusiastically.
"With glowing eyes!"
Again, she raised her eyebrows.
"On a motorcycle!" Yasuda added excitedly.
She sighed and cursed once more.
"Next you'll be telling me some guy in a skull masque and red scarf is running around as well," she murmured, "clean up this mess, Yasuda, I'm going to make my report."
And without a further word, Chun-Li turned and walked away.