Chapter 2: Lost and Found
It came to be that time of year, the anniversary of Gouken's supposed death. For years Ryu always made it a point to return to the grave of Gouken, who taught the warrior what it meant to fight, what it meant to find meaning in battle. Ken would usually meet him to pay his respect to the master as well, but both now knew Gouken was alive and well. The grave wasn't even a ten minute walk away from the old Dojo where Ryu and Ken trained for years as teenagers.
It was a little strange for the warrior to be visiting the grave of the man who was now known to be alive. Yet for some reason he felt compelled to still follow his annual routine. At the back of his mind Ryu was hoping to see his master at the dojo, but he had a good feeling that his master would probably be wandering somewhere else.
Walking up the trail he admired the beautiful forest that were on both sides of the path and saw the leaves gently fall down. The gentle breeze blowing past the trees added to the sense of tranquility. It wasn't much of a treck before he made it up the hill he saw the entrance gate to the dojo grounds. It was a traditional structure that had the sign of wind, wood, mountain and fire.
Last year Ryu spent a portion of his funds renovating it, so it was good to see that it was in crisp condition after a whole year.
Ryu continued to make his way towards the dojo itself. It was old, traditional dojo. The tilings on the top of the structure were due for replacement and that's what Ryu was planing on repairing next with his earned fight money. The tiles were chipped and discolored, some even fell off and broke upon hitting the ground. He smiled softly and proceeded to enter the dojo.
The interior seemed completely unchanged, perhaps a bit dusty but otherwise untouched from his last visit. It would seem Ryu was correct in thinking his master wouldn't simply stay at his own dojo. Setting down his duffle bag, Ryu pulled out a crinkled piece of paper and pencil and began scribbling all the replacements he'd need to make and what tools he'd need to replace them.
In a far off isolated location, a helicopter began to make it's landing in a advanced facility, hidden from the world. Waiting for the aircraft decent stood Vega, his mask shielding his face from the kicked up dirt and wind from the properlers force of the aircraft. His hair blew heavily upon the vehicles landing on the launchpad.
Balrog, opened the helicopter door and hopped out with a boy under his arm. The boy was wearing a flimsy patient outfit from a hospital and had some bandages around his arms and head. With a frightened expression on his face, the boy remained silent in Vega's presence.
"Welcome back," Vega said coldly. "I see you brought the boy successfully, allow me to say I'm impressed. I thought hideous brutes such as yourself were only good at smashing their heads into things. It would explain the face."
Such comments were typical, but Balrog decided to go through the motions anyway.
"Watch it girly!" He growled. "Or not even that mask will protect your face what I'd do to it."
The two eyed each other down for a moment and both sneered. They knew that they weren't going to fight; not without Bison's permission they wouldn't. Such insubordination was severely punished, and Balrog didn't want to risk losing his earned cash.
As the ruthless boxer walked past Vega to head inside the facility with the boy, the masked ninja looked over his shoulder at the former proffessional boxer. "Once your done dropping the boy off at the labs, we have another job." Vega reported. "We'll have to act fast if we are to get this one done. We're going to have to bring back that Ryu fighter here."
"Hah! yeah right. Let me know when we find him." Balrog laughed. Even the heavyweight boxer knew Bison had to used every resource he had just to locate him last time and was still barely successful.
"Well we did find him. He's at his old masters dojo in Japan, but there's no telling how long he'll be there. I'll have the chopper refueled. Be ready."
Balrog grunted in responded and headed past the automated doors. "I better get paid extra for this..." He grumbled.
"Refuel the helicopter, and load the cargo." Vega commanded the launchpad workers. "I will not have any delay."
The men acknowledged the Spaniard's command and immediately got to work. Vega grinned from behind his mask. I promise you Lord Bison, we will bring Ryu to you...one way or another...
In the SIN headquarters Juri continued to sit at the monitors and watch Ryu's fights that were caught on film from various sources on the net. They ranged from underground cage fights, to glorified sparring matches in very public events. Wherever the man in the white gi and red bandana went, the results were the same, he was victorious. But after each win, the warrior would just wander off to the next fight skipping any ceremonies if there were any.
Juri's finger lightly glided across her lips back and forth, her eyes focusing on the strange vagabond. Interesting, she thought. He's so interesting... What is he was looking for? What was that strange violent power he displayed when he scarred Sagat, and how was it different from the power that he used to defeat Seth in a single blow?
"Whatever..." She whispered to herself as she leaned back in her master chair. "All this waiting is getting me goosebumps!" Juri was eager to fight this person, she wanted to see how strong he truly was. Why did Seth believe Ryu would perfect the Feng Shui Engine. It could lead to furthering Juri's already formidable eye.
Out from behind her she could hear footsteps approaching her from the entrance of her office. She didn't bother turning around, probably another report about destroying one of Shadowloo's drug dealings, or locating another possible laboratory belonging to Shadowloo.
The individual cleared his voice in hopping he doesn't startle Juri who seemed distracted from watching Ryu's fights. "M-Mistress Juri?" He stuttered. "I have important news to report."
"Spit it out already" She said, in an unimpressed tone. "Make it quick"
"We noticed Shadowloo has sent one of their stealth Helicopters towards Japan. We confirmed that two of Bison's high officers are on board, Vega and Balrog. There's reason to believe that shadowloo may be up to something of great importance to send his two strongest warriors in such a hurry."
Juri sprung from her seat, somersaulting over her large desk and landed behind the informant. The man was startled at how quick she moved, he could barely keep sight of her.
"Reaaaaally?" She smiled as she snatched the files from his hands and began scanning through it. Her lips went from a soft smile to a menacing grin. "Well get my ride ready! Looks like I have a party to crash."
Juri shoved the papers back into the guys chest as she quickly turned away and went to exit her office. Her excitement could be detected in her stride, and the smile on her face couldn't be hidden.
She walked past her subordinates who quickly cleared the way and addressed her while standing attention. "Mistress Juri!" They say strongly. She didn't pay them any mind, they were all pawns, nothing more. But so long as they serve her in accomplishing her own fun it doesn't hurt to keep them around. Even though Juri had thousands of men working for her all over the world, she was more of a hands on kind of girl. There was no fun to be had while sitting in the sidelines.
I have a good feeling about this one, she thought to herself.
Ryu arrived back at the dojo after gathering a large amount of supplied from the town. He now had all he needed to make the reparation for the dojo, most of the load were new tiles for the roofing. The warrior entered the dojo and set down the hammer, nails and other tools against the wall. His arms felt a little stiff from carrying the load from the town, and began to stretch a bit.
I guess I could use a bit of a warm up, he thought to himself. Ryu went to the center opening of the dojo and took up his fighting stance. He closed his eyes and began practicing his techniques once again. But his routine was quickly halted, when he sensed something. A chi, a life force, coming from outside. Ryu held his pause in mid punch as he glanced over. Nobody was at the doorway but martial artist knew someone was there in his gut. Ryu decided to inspect outside, but he kept his guard up, for the chi held a sense of hostility.
Once the warrior stepped outside the dojo, a fist came flying out from the side of the entrance. Ryu's instincts kicked in and he naturally dodged the punch, grabbed the arm and threw the person over his shoulder away from the dojo.
"Uargh!" The rough voice grunted as he landed solidly on the ground. "You'll pay for that you little wimp!" The man was the large black boxer Ryu fought in the second Street Fighter tournament.
"Balrog!" Ryu called out, his face growing into a frown. "Leave!"
The powerful thug got to his feet and punched his two fists together. "Fat chance Karate kid! You're gonna come with us." He sneered.
"Us...?" The warrior wondered.
Ryu then saw a sudden glint of light reflecting from metal coming from above and he quickly moved to evade the attack, but he wasn't fast enough. He felt the cold steel break skin on his left arm as he dashed to the right.
The masked assailant, dropped down from the roof and looked up at his lucky target. "Looks like first blood is mine! he he he!" Vega chuckled from behind his mask.
Ryu took up his fighting stance, and made sure both his foes stayed in front of him. He remembers agent Chun li's mention her encounter with Vega in the past, and how she barely survived it.
After a brief stand-off the two formidable shadowloo agents began to close in.