Chapter 7: Spinning Webs
"Ryu has been spotted" A Shadaloo operative called out as he does a swift key stroke. The monitor zooms in to show Ryu boarding a personal jet. The large screen illuminated the facility chamber, where many Shadaloo operatives were busy at work.
In the center of the chamber, sitting in a technologically advanced throne was none other than Bison. The evil master eyed in on the ownership of the plane. " 'MASTERS' eh?"
"Yes my lord," The operative confirmed. "Our satellites are locked onto the aircraft location. He'll be in the USA airspace in an hour."
"Good!" Bison, said in a booming voice. "Unfortunately we'll have to disappoint Mr. Master and deny his reunion with his friend. Have some men there to greet Ryu in the Chicago's city limits! I think it's time I end this myself."
Suddenly Dr. Borskovich came running to Bison in a panic. "Master Bison, I have urgent news!" He said in a nervous tone. A grumble and sigh of frustration came from his lord in response.
"Speak!" He commanded, his white eyes barely peering through the his militaristic hat.
Our laboratory in Mexico is under heavy attack from S.I.N. forces. Both sides are losing great casualties, but we will soon be overwhelmed, sir!"
"Mexico?! I thought we bolstered our defenses there!"
"We did sir, but S.I.N. simply sent more...! They're coming at us with a vengeance. And if they should take the facility, they may learn of the boy! It was the facility where we created him..."
Bison's hands gripped the metallic arm of his chair tightly as psycho energy began to form around him. As he gritted his teeth, his eyes began to glow red.
Juri, he thought. You are so determined for vengeance, you're willing to bring your own company into the ground doing it! You foolish, reckless girl! If they find out about the boy, it could possibly ruin everything!
"Change of plan!" Bison stated loudly. "I will be going to Mexico myself. It is time to show that foolish woman what it means to start a war...and to suffer casualties!"
"What of Ryu sir?" The subordinate at the monitor requested.
"Have our men in the surrounding areas keep close tabs on him, apprehend him if possible. I had already sent Balrog to Las Vegas, yes? Get him over to Chicago within the hour." Bison's stream of commands run clear, and the men saluted him as Bison rose from his seat and left the bridge.
In a small office in military base, a man sat down looking over documents of past Shadaloo activities. After looking through the last page, he placed the document aside. Letting out a sigh he looked over at the end of his desk and looked at a couple framed photos.
The first was of his wife and daughter smiling. They were both so beautiful, and it pained him that he has to be away from them so frequently. Serving as a reminder as to why it had to be this way, was a photo of him and his best friend, Charlie Nash. Not a day went by when he thought about his disappearance and whom was responsible. There has been numerous times where Guile went looking for his dear friend. It took years to finally accept the loss of his friend. Now he driven by vengeance, to take down Shadaloo for all they have done.
Guiles thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the phone on his desk ringing. He glanced over and noticed it was a long distance number. Picking it up he held it to his ear. "Hello, Captain Guile speaking" He said strongly.
"Long time no hear Guile." A familiar British accent said. The American military officer knew the voice all too well.
"Well this is a surprise. What's got you calling me, Cammy?"
"Is the line clear?"
"Yes."
Guile, Chun li and Cammy have all worked very closely together for the past two years. They've gotten in the habit of encrypting their calls and checking for bugs so that their currupted juristictions couldn't find out what they were up to. The fingers of Shadaloo and S.I.N. reached every faction in every country. So the three had little choice but to form their own group with the three of them.
"Chun li is hurt. She's been hospitalized." Cammy said, getting straight to the point.
"What?!" Guile shot up from his chair.
"They found her crawling out of an alleyway in Tokyo, she serious intense injuries. Fortunately they got her to a hospital and stabilized her. They said she should make a full recovery in a month."
Guile sat back down in his chair in relief. He paused for a moment and leaned forward on his desk. The worst of his worries was over. But now he needed answers. "Was it Shadaloo? S.I.N.?" He inquired.
"I am not sure. I did some investigating and I managed to find out that she was in the city investigating a Shadaloo attack on a dojo." The British MI6 agent began to explain." They brought a man for her to interrogate. Ryu. Apparently they tried to abduct him but failed. After that I wouldn't be surprised if Chun li approached him, maybe even followed him expecting Shadaloo to make another move."
"Bison is still after Ryu after all this time?" Guile asked. "What does he want from him?"
"Remember, Seth was after him for the BLECE project. I wouldn't be surprised if Bison would be after something similar from him."
Cammy's detective abilities has always been top notch. In the past she was always able to get to the bottom of conspiracies created by the evil organizations. Her intellect and response time was always an important asset to the team, though it often times gets her into a lot of danger.
"Ryu is on his way to America," Cammy informed. "Apparently he hopped onto a chartered flight owned by the MASTERS Corporation, probably to see Ken, your brother in law. I wouldn't put it past Shadaloo to make another move."
Guile knew all too well what this meant. "I'm on my way."
Ryu's flight was uneventful, but he did always enjoy the view of the landscapes from up in the air. Descending from the plane steps holding only his duffel bag, the warrior was grateful to have his feed on solid ground again. It always gave him a sense of control to not be in a vehicle. Walking through the airport he made his way past a skirmish of people racing around with luggage.
It was then at that moment Ryu felt something in the air, a sense of hostility, attack even. On instinct Ryu let go of the rope on his luggage and pivoted on his back foot. He raised his left arm just in time to stop a kick. The impact was strong, fierce, and familiar.
"Hey Ken!" Ryu smiled, remaining in his stance.
In front of him was a blond haired handsome warrior. He was wearing a white business shirt and red tie, followe with a pair of dark grey slacks. He looked liked the rich billionaire he was. The confident green of his face grew wider. "I can see you're still on top of your game!"
Ryu smiled. "Yeah, I don't think the master would approve if I..."
Mentioning his teacher, reminded the world warrior of the destruction of the master's dojo. The smile from his face faded."
Ken knew his best friend enough to know what was going through his head. He picked up Ryu's worn-out bag and put his other arm around Ryu's shoulder and started leading him out of the airport. "Hey man, don't worry about it." Ken said smiling. "I already made some arrangements to repair the dojo."
"What?!"The vagabond looked over to his friend.
"Don't look so surprised, man! You don't think I'd leave the master's dojo in shambles do you? Consider a birthday gift for you and the master. By the time you get back, nobody will tell the difference. Not like I needed another car anyways."
"Ken...thank you."
The bond between the two were that of brothers. Both knew each other inside and out. Although Ken did make it a habit to keep changing the tempo and throw Ryu off a bit. If it was one thing the American taught his Japanese friend, it was being unpredictable.
This was a significant reason why Ken made the perfect rival for Ryu, no matter how many times they fought, American champion would come up with something new, and force his rival to adapt. They were almost evenly matched, but Ryu would somehow have more wins than his friend.
The two made their way to Ken's sports car, which must have cost him at least a million dollars. Upon entering the vehicle, Ryu got a dark feeling. He briefly looked around, but maybe it was only his paranoia of being in a vehicle again. After a moment of hesitation Ryu got into the car, and they both drove off.
At the Chicago city limits Shadaloo operatives blocked off the roads into the city. They waited for the vehicle of Ken Masters so they could apprehend Ryu. One of the agents lifted a radio to his mouth and spoke into it. "Any sign of the target?" He asked in a soft commanding voice.
"Yes," One of the subordinates responded. "They just left the airport, sir. I suspect they'll reach your destination in fifteen minutes."
"Roger, Rattler out."
The commanding officer turned to his men and ready his tranquilizer rifle. "Alright men!" He shouted as his men stood at attention. "When they come by here, we have to down the target fast, don't give him a chance to exit the vehicle. Lord Bison would like to apprehend Ken Masters too if at all possible, but Ryu is our main target."
"Sir!" They all responded as they lowered their gas masks, load their suppression weapons, and checked their smoke grenades.
They got into their positions. Three of them behind the vehicles blocking the road, and a couple pairs hiding in the foliage one on each side of the road. The soldier of Shadaloo sat in wait for their target. "Red-1 in position" One soldier stated as he carefully poked out from the brush, his rifled trained onto the road.
"Red-2 in position"
"Unit-A in position"
There was a pause, on the radio and the commanding officer lifted the radio while looking over to the foliage to the right side of the road. "Blue-1, blue-2, are you in position?" He commanded to know, but the radio stayed silent. "Blue-1, blue-2, respond!"
The men looked back at their commanding officer as he lowered his rifle. He thought as to why they aren't responding, but then a voice could be heard from behind them.
"Oh don't worry about them," A sadistic voice purred. "They're on permanent leave."
Juri's voice was menacing, and how she managed to sneak up on them was beyond them. But as the officer tried to turn around to shoot her, she knocked the gun out of his hand with a round house kick, sending the gun crashing into the other soldiers face. The malicious fighter followed the roundhouse with a spinning back kick with her other foot and kicked the leader of the group into another soldier. Thrown off balance the soldier that the superior crashed into knocking the aim of the gun towards his associate and shot him by accident, rendering his ally unconscious in a few short seconds.
A shriek of sadistic laughter could be heard as strange purple chi surrounded her and ruthlessly spin around kicking bother her legs out like a pinwheel rendering the staggered soldier unconscious.
"Two left." She giggled to herself as she casually walked around the vehicle blockade.
The two last soldiers open fire at their attacker, but the tranquilizer rounds would merely bounce off from some strange energy barrier around her. They emptied entire magazines on her, and none of the projectiles cam within two inches of her.
"Useless..." She said as she sashayed towards them. Suddenly she bursted out with god-like speed. "It's USELESS!"
The cries of the last two men echoed through the air.
Ken and Ryu continued to drive down the road reaching the city limits. Then they saw a strange couple of black cars totaled on the side of the road. There was severe damaged as if they were hit by a truck, but on vehicle was on each side of the road. What made it more strange was there wasn't any sign of people either. It was not entirely unheard of people abandoning totalled vehicles outside city limits so they don't have to pay a fee dropping off their old cars to the dump, but these vehicles looked new with the exception to the collision dents and damages.
"Whao..." Ken said as he slowed the car down as they were assing through. "Those weren't there when I drove my way to pick you up..."
A strange feeling dawned over Ryu, he didn't know what to make of it. A strange energy in the air. Shaking it off, he looked over at best friend. "Lets get going Ken."
"Yeah..." he nodded and he accelerated the vehicle. "That gives me the creeps though."
You and me both, Ryu thought to himself.