A solid bump eventually awoke Kendall from unconsciousness. Still dazed, he rolled over on his side to discover that the ground was a lot different than he remembered…

He was then snapped awake with the realization that he wasn't in his own bed, at the Estate, or anywhere else he could remember for that matter.

"What the…?"

Startled, he jumped up to truly check his surroundings. He got a good look at the inside of a militaristic-looking aircraft, as well as the only other people in it, those being Cammy and Carlos.

The latter was pretty much still unconscious (not that he could blame him) while the former was awake as well, her arms folded.

"You're awake. Good."

"Where the hell are we?"

"At this particular point? International airspace."

This answer did next to nothing to soothe away Kendall's annoyance. "Why?"

Cammy seemed to mirror his feelings. "Chun-Li took pity on you four, basically. There isn't much more to it than that."

From there, she quickly rattled off an explanation. After a confrontation with James back in the Estate's hallway, Chun-Li had gotten the feeling that no matter what she had said, the four boys wouldn't have just stayed in their rooms and let the women do their jobs. So, with the help of Cammy, Karin, her butler, Shibasaki, and some of the remaining ninjas on hand, they organized a little test for them. They would have let the band go unchallenged if they could get through all the ninjas and defeat the two of them at the end.

"Objectively speaking, you failed, though I guess I respect your efforts and...I guess I can see where you're coming from, too. That's why you're even here."

That last bit was delivered with an unusual amount of softness for her.

It didn't take him much longer to notice the absence of his other friends, but before he could open his mouth to bring it up…

"Logan and James are with Chun-Li. They're on another plane searching for FANG and your sister. We'll be doing the same with Vega and your mother."

Still trying to process this load of new information, he had to ask, "Gustavo and Kelly...?"

"They know all about it. Who do you think we planned that little scheme out with?"

Despite everything, he perked up at the obvious implication made about the two. "So, they're okay?"

"About as well as they can be... Gustavo's busy recovering under the care of some of the world's top medical practitioners and his wounds weren't fatal, thank God. Kelly's holding up about as well as you might expect. She's terrified, but still very much alive."

"How do you know?"

"I checked before we left. The plane also has a video screen that we can use to communicate with the others." Cammy motioned towards the screen connected to a dock hovering above their seats.

"Um... May I ask where we're going?"

"Us? We're headed overseas. Have you guys ever performed in...Metro City?"

In the plane that the other two boys and Chun-Li were in...

"Nayshall?!" James and Logan exclaimed before the former looked at the smarter of the two expecting some exposition, which he was happy to give.

"Nayshall's a small country in Eastern Asia. It's developing quite nicely, from what I hear..."

James gave him a certain look. The same look Kendall would whenever he wanted him to _not_ go on a lengthy diatribe. Logan rolled his eyes, looking surprisingly disappointed.

"Anyway," the Chinese woman said, getting their attention, "we're going there to follow a lead we have to one of FANG's hideaways."

"ONE of them?!" the taller teen burst out, jumping out of his seat. "We don't have time for this!"

Chun-Li crossed her arms. "Did you have a better idea in mind?"

Every shred of the boy wanted to retort with something...but the blank he was drawing only frustrated him more.

"In fact, let me ask you. What would you have done if the two of us hadn't been there to stop you? Wing it until you guys miraculously managed to bump into your family--twice--before the worst could happen to them?!"

James lacked a good answer for this, too.

She looked to Logan. "Well, you've been quiet..."

He threw up his hands in surrender as he replied. "What's there to say? You got us."

He looked to his brother in all but blood and tried to communicate that message to him non-verbally.

It worked well enough to force the pretty boy to grumble and rub the back of his head...

...only to realize a horrible, horrible truth.

Panic seized him as he frantically searched his pockets for it. If he didn't find it...

He practically tackled his friend, bowling him over where he sat, with desperation in his eyes.

"WHERE IS IT?!"

Chun-Li just watched, bewildered by this turn of events. She considered intervening, but something about the lack of surprise in Logan's features made her want to wait and see where this went.

"I-I don't know... Maybe back at the Estate hundreds of miles and counting from here!"

"What's he talking about?" The Interpol Officer finally ventured to ask.

The smarter of the boys threw a casual look back at her. "His 'lucky comb'. He thinks he can't live without it..."

Logan didn't voice that he himself doubted whether he actually could. Could Carlos live without his helmet? Technically, _yes, but...

"That's probably in the trash, or in an evidence locker. Either way, you might wanna go shopping for a new one..."

James' vision immediately shifted towards the purveror of such a blasphemy. "You have no idea of what you speak, woman." Finally getting off his friend, he faced her properly. "Take that back!"

She gave him, and then Logan, a weird look as James fussed around with his hair.

"You'll get used to this..." He trailed off before remembering something very important.

"What're we gonna tell them...?"

James got a bit more serious again once his friend made his point. "Uh, we _could_ just tell 'em that we're on tour for Karin. That was kind of the plan anyway, right?"

"That'll only work for so long. If your friends are smart, they'll eventually see right through that..." the Chinese woman interjected before even Logan could. "...but we'll see what we can do about that. Speaking of which..."

Going over to a nearby console, she tapped a few buttons until some familiar faces made an appearance.

--

On their end, even Cammy took note at Kendall's features relaxing in relief when his friends appeared on the monitor.

For the first few minutes, the group, including a newly-awoken Carlos, expressed their gratitude at each other being okay and tried to catch each other up on the plan as well.

Once Vega and FANG were inevitably mentioned, however, he promptly tensed up, as if ready to attack.

"Don't do anything rash, now..." She had to warn ominously, more to keep him in check. In response, he glared at her as if he really didn't like that statement and wanted to do something about that. She had a feeling that she would have to keep a particularly close eye on him going forward...

She (secretly) kind of wanted to thank Carlos when he managed to pick up on the tension enough to try to change the subject to some sort of childish yet strangely endearing game. The topic at a certain point turned to presenting an alibi for this little excursion, which would likely be a challenge in and of itself.

They would have to think all this up on the fly when the time came.

Either way, both sides were headed for Metro City and Nayshall respectively, and none of the four musicians had the slightest clue what the world of street fighting had in store for them there...