Street Fighter: Lost Shadow

Round 3

He had no idea how long he was down there. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, none of that seemed to matter. What did matter, on the other hand, was that Avery was still alive. A bit beaten and bruised, perhaps, but still alive. That was an encouraging thought. With that out of the way, he turned his mind towards his next issue: getting rid of those rocks pinning him to the cold metallic ground.

"Stupid… piece of…" he grunted, tugging himself underneath. He leaned his head down and closed his eyes.

He did have some good news. Uncomfortable as his position might be, nothing seemed to be broken, his legs in particular in spite of the gruesome appearance of his current predicament. The mess of earth, stone, and metal managed to only pin his lower half from the chest down, meaning his arms were free. Wiggling his fingers, he still had feeling in his hands, another encouraging sign. If only he wasn't pinned in such an awkward position…

"Ugh… stupid… heavy… argh… fat… son of a… ugh!"

The rubble did not budge.

This will take a while, he thought. Fumbling his hands over the rubble, the mammoth giant began digging out the smaller pieces of dirt off the mound on his body in what he perceived to be a time-consuming effort to lighten the load. He had to count his blessings. When the earth gave way, somehow through some miracle, a ledge of sorts broke his fall, snatching him from the abyss despite the whole world raining from above. The ledge unfortunately gave way, and he found himself falling once again through the dark maw of the abyss once more… then once again, his fall was broken, though instead of a wide rocky ledge, it was several narrow wedges of steel he bounced off of. His tumble was followed by a wall, which he collided hard on his shoulder, before careening off another metallic wedge and into a net of twisted cables. Few moments later, more of the world rained down, which inevitably lead to the cables snapping under the weight, and therefore end up somewhere deep in the bowels of this secret facility.

Thus his current predicament…

Beating against the mound of earth and rubble with his fists, the giant's mind drifted towards his commanding officer, mainly her whereabouts in this godforsaken place. This wasn't simply another mission against an evil philanthropist or a mad terrorist with a bomb; this was a personal vendetta that resulted in the Earth swallowing them whole while spitting purple fire into the air. And he bore witness to Cammy falling into empty space while he was busy being bounced around like a tennis ball, practically having the whole facility break his fall without breaking him in the process. For once, he had a cause for concern…

Avery paused for a moment to catch his breath and looked at the rubble on his chest. One small dent… The scarred man dropped his head back and uttered some choice profanities under his breath.

This sucks…

Rubbing the dirt from his face (a lot of good that did), he placed his right hand onto a large stone lodged to the left of said dent he made and gave it a push. His right hand slipped over the piece of rock the first time. Inhaling deeply, and nearly gagging from the dust, he settled his hand back on the stone and pushed again. His arm strained under the weight, yet the stone didn't budge an inch. Placing both hands onto the stone, he gave it another push. Veins bulged from his forehead as he strained against the stone, keeping a very firm grip on the rock with all the strength he could muster. The rock started to budge, which motivated the giant to continue his efforts with added vigor. A couple more inches, and the stone would soon be dislodged from its entrapment…

Crk… crk… crack…

The stone suddenly flew and tumbled off the mound. With it, many rocks and dirt piled up in its place, putting the mammoth man back to where he had started.

Avery cried out many choice expletives. "Damn it all!" he pounded his fist against the ground.

Grabbing a fistful of dirt, he began the process of digging himself out once more. As he vented out his frustrations on the giant mound, his mind started to wander back to Cammy again. He remembered watching his commander fall into the hell below and, as far as he could tell, get swallowed up by one of the spewing columns. Despite what his eyes saw, he didn't think the petite little woman was dead. In fact, he knew she wasn't dead, and he wasn't being delusional about it either. Or perhaps he was being delusional, he just didn't know it. She was alive somewhere in this doomed facility, and very likely she would be trying to find that 'monster' as she so eloquently put it on her own while searching for her partner. And if she did manage to find Avery, especially stuck in this embarrassing position, she would probably poke fun of him and chew him up for following her into such a dangerous place… or worse.

The giant swallowed hard at the thought.

With renewed vigor, he began pawing at the mound at an accelerated rate. Cammy was alive and well, that he felt certain. If nothing else, the idea of the Killer Bee being alive and well was much easier to digest than the thought of her being killed by that 'thing' they were chasing after. Plus, as much as he was pained to admit it, he would rather be disciplined by the blonde again in the middle of the training room than ripped to shreds by that… 'thing'. Yes… the commander is definitely still alive… With that extra resolve, he continued to push against the mound, digging against the rubble in hopes of freeing himself before either Cammy or that 'monster' find him…

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The purple effigy dug his fingers into Cammy's scalp, the intense heat from his fingertips burning into her skull. The blonde's scream had died down, yet the look of fear in her eyes was still there. The creature leaned closer to her face until both were at eye level with each other.

No… more… Cammy thought, much too weak to breathe a single word from her dried and cracked lips.

As if he read her thoughts, the demon released his searing hold and dropped her unceremoniously to the ground. Cammy collapsed on her stomach, gasping for breath. It had been years since she felt psycho power surge through her. Evil, malevolent, it was the most intense pain she had ever felt in her entire life. Her body may not have felt it for years, but it certainly had not forgotten; it hurt back then, it still hurt now. The wielder chose to clothe himself within the blazing hot aura of this terrible brilliance, but Cammy still recognized the monster underneath. The silhouette was recognizable, six feet in height, shoulders wide of girth, physique chiseled and muscular, the face itself was blurred underneath the purple flames as much as the rest of the body, but the eyes were unmistakable. They were the kind of eyes that sent chills down the spines of even the bravest of men. There was a time she served as a puppet to this beast, a man she couldn't even call human, whose power was surpassed by his lust for more. He was a cruel man to say the least, and through his manipulations, the blonde did his bidding without question or remorse. That was perhaps her biggest regret… to be used by that demon as one of his pawns… no, his dolls.

And yet somehow, it felt worse now than it did before. As one of Shadaloo's dolls, she had no will of her own, then suddenly, something changed in her. She recalled those first moments of self-awareness, and the confusion that went with it. It seemed insignificant in the beginning, but little by little, that awareness grew and blossomed. Now, free from the bondage of his control, having a will of her own, and a new family in the form of the SIS, she exerted that newfound freedom and distanced herself from the mindless slave that was Shadaloo's Killer Bee, and was reborn as the new Killer Bee under the wings of Delta Red. She had fought against her former master, and after a long, hard struggle, she had eventually triumphed. She found freedom, she found happiness…

And here she was, sniveling in the monster's proverbial hand like a broken toy, unable to look straight in the eye. Those white, pupiless eyes… She felt weak and pathetic under that gaze. She wanted to look away, yet those eyes… soulless eyes… burned through her flesh, deep into her heart, baring her soul for the monster to see. All she felt at that moment was pure shame, and she began loathing herself as much as the creature before her. She was better than that, she told herself. This terrible power which she had fought against on numerous occasions, it was no different now as it was then. Why was she like this?

"Wha… what do you… wan…" Cammy murmured.

The effigy straightened himself, watching his prey with fiery balled fists. He tilted his head to the side, as though pondering the very words from her mouth. The flames continued to burn around his rather large silhouette, but the creature remained silent.

Cammy felt tears well up in her eyes, though she dared not let them fall. "Answer me, damn it…" she choked in the most defiant voice she could muster. He was not going to have his way, she told herself.

In an instant, the burning creature snatched the blonde by the collar of her shirt and lifted her into the air. Cammy's feet dangled lifelessly, the blonde paralyzed in his grip. Move… she thought to herself. Move! The woman wouldn't put up a fight, couldn't put up a fight… all she could do was dangle in his grip like some plaything, feeling all the more guilty of herself. Move! Her eyes began to water again, and once more she willed herself not to let the tears flow.

Meanwhile, the monster could have had his way at any given moment, and yet the demon looked perturbed with his catch. In fact, the effigy had no idea what he wanted from her… or why he even captured her in the first place. Why was she so different, he would think to himself. This small, frail, weak little thing… she was no different from the others whom he had killed before, all of them weak, all of them insignificant. They had prodded him, hurt him, tormented him every waking moment, and when he was freed from his cage, he hunted them down and killed them one by one. This woman came to hurt him, just like everyone else in this godforsaken place, and now she is here trembling before his terrible power. It would so easy to kill her… or torture her first, then kill her, it did not matter. It would be so easy… and yet he hesitated. He had many opportunities to do so: he had her by the throat and could have snapped her neck or choke the life out of her. When she awoke, when she attacked him out of fright, he easily fended off her feeble resistance and beaten her. When he held her again by the skull, he could have seared her mind, break her even further before ending her miserable existence. He could have ended the woman's life then, he most certainly could end it now… but should he do so, he would feel a sense of remorse unlike no other.

The fire in his eyes dimmed ever so slightly as he looked at the blonde with confusion. What does this woman mean to me?

The Englishwoman interrupted his thoughts with a hard kick to the midsection. The effigy stumbled back, releasing his hold on the blonde. Cammy fell and landed clumsily to the ground, her face hitting the dirt with a resounding thump. The tears finally flowed, partially from the pain, partially from her welled up emotions, though the dirt masked much of the wetness in a dried layer of crust. She crawled along her elbows all the while willing herself back on her feet.

"Ack!" she cried out, as she felt herself flung against the cold, hard wall.

The purple effigy burned bright, his hatred seething from his eyes anew.

Now she dies!

Fingers twitching, the fiery demon took a menacing step towards Cammy. The creature growled at the blonde like a rabid animal, taking another step while the agent remained dazed and unmoving. Perspiration dripped from Cammy's forehead, her eyes trembling with fear, yet her body remained frozen with her back against thick steel. Though intimidating in his stance, the creature was being cautious in his approach. The demon took a third step, then a fourth, then a fifth…

Move… move… move…

…then a sixth, then a seventh…

Damn it, move you stupid legs!

Standing a mere three feet away, the demon reared his right fist, purple flames of terrible psycho energy bursting forth, and lunged at the helpless woman…

"Piece of… ugh… crap…"

Avery continued digging away at the dirt, managing to successfully clear away the rubble pinning his stomach. If he weren't in such a hurry, he probably would have considered it an accomplishment… or not. At the very least, he would have marveled at the fact that the pieces of earth and metal merely pinned him as opposed to crush him. As durable as his physique was, he still had the world holding him down. Instead, he continued to grapple with the earth, spitting out the most foul words his mind could come up with for every piece of rock, steel, concrete, and dirt he got his hands on.

"Son of a – " he didn't bother to finish his sentence as he slumped back for a breather. He rubbed his eyes with a muscular forearm. His throat felt dry and his lower half felt numb.

Crrk… crrkle…

Startled, the giant quickly removed his forearm from his face and looked. His posture didn't allow him to look very far save for up and to the sides. The debris still covered his waist, preventing him from sitting up, so as far as looking to the rear was concerned, the most he could do was crane his neck as far back as possible. In spite of his lack of visibility to the back, he concluded with utmost confidence that what he heard was nothing more than a couple of stones tumbling somewhere nearby. Given the catastrophic appearance of the facility, and the fact his nose told him the place smelled like a… smoked… barnyard… to put it as politely as possible without resorting to another expletive, it was simply bits of debris falling from the surface above. Other than the awful stench, there was nothing more for him to worry about save for digging himself out of this mess.

Crrk… crrk… crackle… crack…

The giant reaper craned his neck as far back as possible, straining his ears at the crackling sound.

CRUNCH! CRASH! CRACKLE!

"You have got to be kidding me," Avery groaned, the sounds of crashing debris was followed by the crackle of electricity… and servos.

Pinned a fair distance away, a heavily damaged droid began pounding away at the steel pinning its legs down. The machine pushed against the steel girders, yanking violently at its legs to the point of tearing out its own limbs. Its eyes glowed blood red, its face expressionless yet furious at the same time. The scarred man desperately ripped away at the debris, muttering curses under his breath. The dirt loosened as Avery pushed against the mound in his own attempt to yank himself free.

Come on, come on, come on!

With a loud shriek, the droid pulled itself free, though not without losing its legs in the process. Seething, the machine pulled itself along the musty ground with its hands, its eyes blazing with mechanical rage at its prey. The droid's machineguns were rendered useless during the fall, that much Avery was also certain; otherwise he would be a giant bullet-ridden corpse by now. Still, he found the sounds of scraping from the determined machine unnerving, the 'screeching' it made sending more chills down his spine.

"Move… you stupid…"

His words were interrupted by a crashing sound to his left. Another droid tumbled to the ground, missing an arm, and with right leg severed up to its knee. Then came a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, a seventh... by the eighth, he had lost count. All equally damaged as the first, yet all of them glaring at the scarred beast with crimson fury in their eyes, limping, twitching, squealing for blood.

"As if it wasn't difficult enough before…" he grumbled to the air.

Cammy felt the heat of the monster's fist mere inches away from her cheek, certain of her end. Somehow, she was still alive.

"What are you waiting for?" she rasped breathlessly. The Englishwoman dared to open her eye, even so much as make a tentative peek towards her captor. The flame from his fist almost blinded her, causing her to flinch.

The demon remained as he was, still as a statue with arm fully extended and fist clenched tightly next to her face. Tendrils of fire danced on his knuckles, angrily lashing out towards the agent in its bright purple incandescence. The pools of hellish fire in his eyes waved with equal indignation. The chaotic flames surrounding his body erupted in madness, crying out for blood.

He could not budge.

Cammy felt sweat trickling from her brow, her scalp itching and soiled with dirt. She didn't need to look in the mirror to know that her blonde mane was now a tangled mess. She could only imagine that she looked just as haggard as she felt. She felt as feeble as a child before this monster, her mind a fog, yet here he was standing before her open and vulnerable. Weak as she may feel, Cammy was still able and breathing, and this was yet another opening for her to do… something, anything. Hit him, or just run and hide, it did not matter, just do anything…

She could not budge.

Damn you… she thought.

"Damn… you…" the monster uttered the words so suddenly she nearly jumped out of her skin.

The blonde let out a gasp, her knees weak and wobbly, though she still remained standing.

"Damn… you…" the creature muttered again, his arm now trembling as violently as the flames around his body.

Cammy blinked as his fist wavered precariously close to her cheek. It only dawned on her now that this was the first time the creature had spoken. The voice was deep and very familiar even after many years… but something was different. Shifting herself ever so slightly, she turned her head to the demon and dared to look past his extended arm to his eyes. The flames still seeped from his pupiless eyes, though now she realized they were no longer burning with malevolence… or perhaps they never were. What she saw instead was utter confusion. At that moment, she felt her fear start to vanish. Her legs no longer felt wobbly as strength returned to her limbs. Not too long ago, Cammy stood before him a whimpering babe, but now, whatever influence that had gripped her, whatever will he had exerted, all of it melted away. It felt strange that she should tremble before this monster… no, not a monster, this… man. This powerful, yet confused man stumbled back, nearly falling backwards as Cammy straightened herself.

"Who… are… you…" the man rasped, pointing accusingly at the blonde with a trembling finger.

Cammy blinked again. She pushed herself gently off the wall and took a cautious step towards him. The flames surrounding the effigy flickered as he trembled before the agent. Was it fear he felt? No… it was more than fear…

"Who… are… you…" he repeated.

"Who am…" Cammy replied, finding the words stuck in her throat. "I… was your soldier… your slave…" she glowered with contempt. After all he did to her, after all that she been through, for a moment she felt offended that this trembling man didn't even remember her. The fear in her heart melted away. In its place, a wellspring of anger gradually building up within her very being, threatening to explode. This sudden surge of emotion frightened her even more so than the panic she felt mere moments ago, but just as before it took all of her will to keep it barely contained.

"Slave?" The man lowered his shaken arm, looking at her abashed.

This was the man that made my knees quake? Cammy took another step towards him, her newfound rage boiling over. "You don't know? You don't remember the hell you once put me through?" Seething through clenched teeth, she continued, "I was your puppet once… a doll with no will of my own before good people took me in and gave me my own voice. I was your clone… a mere shell for you to house your power should ever your old body expire. Until such a time, however, you had other uses for me. I had taken many lives, killed soldier and innocent alike, and many more atrocities which I can't even bring myself to name." The flames surrounding the effigy lashed out, some to the air, some coming dangerously close to hitting the blonde, but she ignored them. She felt too sick and repulsed to even care. Her blue eyes were fiery from a mixture of pent up emotions, confusion, sadness, regret, but mostly anger. Head throbbing, she clutched her head tightly with one hand, covering one of her eyes as she spoke, "You gave me the code name, Killer Bee. I am Cammy White. And you… don't… remember?"

The man stood his ground silent. He stared at his hands as he absorbed her words. "Cam… my…" he said.

The Englishwoman let out a guttural growl. "Look at me, Vega!" she hollered.

The man snapped his neck back as though lashed across the face, taken aback by that very name.

"Ve… ga…" he mumbled, speaking the name as though speaking a foreign word. "Ve… ga… Ve-ga… Vega… Vega…"

Cammy's anger suddenly subsided, the blonde still surprised at her outburst. Her hand fell from her face to her chest, digging her nails almost to the point of breaking her skin while gasping for breath. What… what just came over me?

Avery managed to grab the legless droid by its head and bashed it hard against the floor. "Just because I'm trapped doesn't mean I'm helpless," the giant declared with a snarl. With added exclamation, he grinded the head further until shattered under the pressure of his grip.

A second droid leapt to Avery's spot and delivered a vicious kick to the head. The giant grunted, his head ringing from the blow, but managed to raise his hands to his face to block the android's foot and push it away. Though the scarred agent didn't put much force to his push, the droid spun clumsily on its heel and crashed, too damaged to keep itself balanced for long. A third android grabbed Avery by his left wrist and, with a quick jerk, pinned his forearm to the ground. Avery snatched the droid's fingers and pried them off his arm. With his left arm free, he gave the robot two quick punches to the face, knocking it on its back. A fourth one punched the giant square in the face. The blow, though solid, demolished the already damaged hand into pieces. Avery took advantage of the opening, pulling the drone by the wrecked forearm and threw it towards the mound, breaking its neck with a sickening crunch.

"You want more of this? Huh! Come get it!"

Just as he said those words, two droids dropped onto the burly agent, one grabbing him by the arm, the other punching the giant's head. In a daze, Avery attempted to fend himself from the onslaught, but another droid joined the attack, holding him by the other arm. The agent struggled valiantly, but soon the numbers overwhelmed him. The remaining droids formed a mob around him, beating him down mercilessly. Blood started trickling from the giant's face, his consciousness slipping to nothingness.

"Vega… Vega… Vega… Vega…Vega…" the man droned, rocking his head back and forth while repeating the name over and over. Dumbfounded, Cammy could only stand and watch while the man hunched down with both hands clutching his head. "Vega… Vega… Vega…"

Suddenly, the room began to shake. Heavy stones and debris rolled along the ground. Massive cables swung violently from their perch, threatening to snap off. Cammy looked over at the distressed man, and watched in dismay at the growing aura emitting from his body. Snakes of purple lightning wrapped their tendrils around the man, slithering more violently with each passing moment.

"Vega… Vega… Vega… Vega…"

The lithe blonde inched back away from the man, though realized no cover would be enough to avoid what was about to happen…

"Vega… Vega… Vega…Vega… VEGA!"

The man bellowed out a hideous roar to the air, and with it, columns of psycho power shot to the sky. The shockwave from the eruption knocked Cammy back, rolling and tumbling along the ground. Only a steel beam stopped her from skidding any further, though she crashed into it with such force that the pain she felt on her back overshadowed the pain she felt from the scrapes along her arms and knees.

"RAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHH!"

"Wh-what the hell…" Avery managed to say.

The droids stopped their attack long enough to notice the room start to shake. They looked at each other with mechanical confusion. Then they looked at the ground, at the fissures forming below their feet. It was the last thing they did before the ground swallowed them whole.

"Huh… yeah… haha… thassit… run away… run away…" the scarred agent sputtered, still unaware of his surroundings.

THOOM!

"Holy – " the last word cut off as a massive beam of purple brilliance lanced through the mound he was pinned under, obliterating it completely. The giant felt himself upended by the force, smacking him against a pillar of steel before sliding through the gaping hole, into the darkness.

For Cammy, time felt like it had slowed down, though mere moments had passed. Pain throbbed throughout her body, though the worst was in her head. She winced as she gently touched her forehead. A small trickle of dark crimson stained her fingertip.

"Where… the bloody hell…"

She stopped mid sentence as she heard a faint noise. Faint, since her head was still ringing from the tumble. Sparkles of light flashed before her eyes, prompting the blonde to rub them with her soiled hands. Damn lights… she thought.

CRRSH! CRASH!

Pressing her scratched palms against the ground, she gradually picked herself off her feet and warily ambled over to the sound. More blood dripped from her forehead down her cheek, gathering down her chin, and falling to the ground. The noise became less faint as her hearing also began to recover. Pain receptors screamed with each step, both from her head and her back, causing the woman to double over momentarily.

CRACK! CRUNCH! WHOOSH! CLANG!

The haze drifted away as her vision also recovered. What were mere flecks of light became a torrent of electricity and flames. By then, the fog in her mind also lifted, and then she realized she was watching someone or something fighting…

WHOOSH!

She lifted her arm to her face as a bright purple ball of energy shot passed her. Quickly, she squared her body (painfully) defensively, raising her leaden arms to her face. Her heart beat fast, adrenaline starting to pump through her veins, and yet nothing attacked her. What she did see, however, was a silhouette enveloped in purple light beating down a man… at least that's what it looked like… beating it down with his fists.

Another man… no, not quite a man, she realized... an android made a futile attack at the glowing silhouette, only to be caught in midair. The drone shook violently, its head crushed by a powerful, flaming hand. A second fist punctured into the droid's midsection, shooting straight through its back before injecting it with its terrible power.

BOOM!

The droid exploded, its metallic remains raining down all over the burning effigy. Cammy let out a gasp, recognizing the attack she had just witnessed. "Psycho Punisher," she murmured the name under her breath.

Noticing the blonde for the first time, the effigy turned slowly to the agent, acknowledging her presence. Cammy felt her body tense, her arms still raised in a defensive posture. In a blink of an eye, the effigy threw out his right hand, releasing a bolt of dark energy to her direction. The agent felt too weary to react, save for a yelp escaping her crackled lips. However, the ball of psycho power sailed passed her head and exploded from behind. Quietly, Cammy turned around, her eyes widened at the sight of an android standing behind her, its arm raised with machinegun pointing at her back. Hit by the ball of psycho energy, the drone fell on its back, shuddering and convulsing along the ground before it shut down permanently.

The threat over, the effigy collapsed on his knees, the purple flames surrounding his body melting away. Underneath was, as she had thought, a man. A weakened, trembling man, his cover of malevolent power replaced with a shadow, hiding his features. Numb, the agent took a few cautionary steps forward, wanting to take a better look at the kneeling man.

"Vega…" she whispered the name.

The man stopped trembling. Grunting quietly, he leaned forward to a small, flickering light, and looked up at the woman. Cammy let out a startled gasp.

"You're not Vega," she said.