Street Fighter 2

Chapter 20

Damn, and it was going so well, too….
Chun Li stared into the eyes behind the mask of Vega, while Ryu prepared to square off against Balrog. The two fighters-turned-lovers had been ambushed, and Balrog's huge size cut off their only escape route.
They darted in opposite directions, Vega following Chun Li and Balrog raising his fists against Ryu.
Chun Li was able to dodge Vega's sword swipes and lunges, but knew that she couldn't keep this up. Vega was fast, just as fast as she was, and had a longer range from his sword. Also, the claw could be used as a backup weapon. She managed to make her way to the kitchen, looking for a knife or something she could use to defend herself with. Her eyes sighted a pair of Dip do knives resting on the sideboard. Dip do's are butterfly knives, short length machetes about the same width as a person's hand. On the hilt, a curved point protruded out to trap and control pole and spear attacks. Against a sword….it would do okay.
She grabbed the butterfly knives just in time to block a downward slash from Vega's sword, and kicked him away. Vega looked up and saw Chun Li with one leg raised in front of the other, her knee bent, holding one knife in the air, and the other in front of her raised leg.
Chun Li smiled. Now she had a chance.

Ryu dodged and blocked several punches from Balrog, trying to get his own attacks in. Balrog was relentless, punching Ryu away before he even got a chance of attacking. Ryu launched a roundhouse kick towards Balrog's head, but the boxer managed to duck underneath the foot, and launched an uppercut into Ryu's chin. Ryu's head jerked back from the hit, blood spitting out of his mouth as it did so, but as it jerked back into position, Balrog grabbed it with his gloves and snarled. The boxer leaned back and slammed his head into Ryu's. Ryu would have staggered back had it not been for the fact that Balrog still held his head with his boxing gloves. Balrog leaned back to launch another headbutt, but as he moved forward, Ryu jumped upward and broke Balrog's nose with his own head. Balrog staggered back in pain, not noticing Ryu launched his own attacks. Ryu leapt into the air and performed a hurricane kick.
"TATSU-MAKI-SENPU-KYAKU!"
Balrog's head jerked with each successive attack. Finally, the last hit made him fall, spinning, to the floor. Ryu, thinking the fight was over, turned to help Chun Li. He suddenly noticed someone rising behind him. He turned his head, and saw Balrog getting to his feet, a look of sheer anger on his face.
"That hurt, little man!"
Balrog threw a dashing punch that fully connected with Ryu's unguarded face. Ryu staggered back from the force of the blow as Balrog continued his relentless attacks.

Vega continued using short, fast sword attacks, while at the same time blocking Chun Li's own knife thrusts with his claw. Every time Chun Li managed to make a counter attack, Vega would slam the claw down on the knife, pushing it away and counterattacking with the sword.
Chun Li raised the dip do's into a frontal guard, as Vega drew the sword to his head level, pointing the blade towards Chun Li. Suddenly, he performed a very fast series of upward swings, causing Chun Li to move back instead of blocking, swinging her arms in circles to keep her balance. Vega's attacks was about to force her against the wall, when she span the knife's hilt around her hand, pointing it downwards. As she reached the wall, she brought the knife down and twisted it, holding the sword inside it's protrusion as the sword's tip was about to cut open her stomach. She brought the other knife upwards, caught the sword between the blade and the hilt, and pulled her arms away in opposite directions, snapping the sword in two.
"Mierda!" Vega cursed as he grabbed Chun Li's arm and twisted it, forcing her to drop one of the knives. She lashed out with the other knife, but Vega leaned back to avoid it, and a high forward kick knocked the dip do from out of her hand. As he put his foot down, he twisted his body and launched a side-kick to Chun Li's chest. Chun Li ducked under the kick, causing Vega's foot to smash into the wall inches above her head, then pushed herself away to the right as he brought his extended foot down to the floor. She rolled herself back to her feet, then turned to face Vega.
Now, it was hand to claw.

Bison sat in his throne smiling at the way the fight was going. Balrog and Vega did not stop in their repeated attacks, giving the target and his girlfriend no end of trouble. He believed the fight was already over.
Akuma, however, did not agree. He was more interested in the fight between Vega and Chun Li, which was strange, considering that he only wanted Ryu and no-one else. The woman was surprisingly resilient, showing no signs of fatigue. She did not even let her guard down once. Akuma started to feel a small amount of respect for the woman.
He decided to change his plans accordingly, in the event that the couple would survive.

Ryu was taking a heavy beating from Balrog's relentless attacks. The boxer had improved somehow, using tactics that were normally illegal in the Queensbury rules. Then again, they weren't in the boxing ring.
Balrog, however, was getting agitated now. He was scoring less hits than he should have done, the karate man kept blocking most of his attacks. He decided to try a new tactic.
The boxer took one step back from Ryu and brought his left arm around for a left hook to Ryu's face. At the last minute, however, when Ryu moved his arm to block the hook, he delivered a particularly strong uppercut to Ryu's stomach.
Ryu folded like an origami figure, the wind completely knocked out of him, and hit the floor, clutching his stomach. Balrog lifted him up by his throat and pushed him against the window. He then proceeded to pummel the Japanese fighter with a series of hooks, uppercuts and stomach punches, culminating in a final headbutt.
Ryu slid to the floor, blood trickling down his head. Balrog walked away from him as he got up to his feet, dazed and confused about what just happened. Balrog turned a few yards away from him.
"Don't worry, little man. I'm not going to kill ya. I'm just going to knock you out for a while."
He turned his body and dashed towards Ryu with a powerful turn-punch. However, as he was about to reach the target, Ryu leaned his head away from the fist, grabbed Balrog's shirt with both hands, and put a foot into Balrog's stomach, falling onto his back. He threw the boxer with his foot towards the window.
Balrog's head smashed through the window, and he knew he was going to die from his mistake. Even he couldn't survive a fall from the top floor of an apartment block nine floors high.
"Ohhh…….SHIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"
His scream silenced with a dull 'thud' as he hit the ground.

Chun Li received several scratches to her arm as she tried to block and avoid Vega's claw swipes. Some blood dripped onto the floor, but she wasn't concerned about it. She was more concerned about keeping the claw away from any other area, including her wrists.
Vega slashed with his claw, forcing Chun Li to step backwards to avoid the three blades attached to the Spaniard's hand. When Vega attempted to stab Chun Li in the head, however, she instead back-arm blocked the claw out of the way and grabbed Vega, throwing him to the ground. Lifting her leg up high, she brought it down towards Vega's chest like an axe, only to have it grabbed in mid-swing and pulled to the right, causing Chun Li to fall to the floor. She landed with the back of the head hitting the floor, and the pain caused her to feel dizzy Vega twisted his body and pinned Chun Li beneath his legs. Chun Li struggled to get out, but couldn't get herself free.
Vega lifted his claw high into the air, intending to aim it towards Chun Li's eyes when he brought it down.
"Mi mano, su vida."
Chun Li's hope of getting out of this fight alive turned to horror instantly when she heard Vega say those words. The words he always used before he struck the killing blow.
My hand, your life…..
Unfortunately for Vega, something stopped him from delivering the final strike. It was Ryu's hand, grabbing the three prongs and twisting them. The claw snapped apart, leaving no blades. Ryu then forward kicked the mask off, revealing Vega's face, and punched directly into the bridge of his nose, breaking it. Grabbing the surprised Vega, he threw him over his shoulder, the Spaniard landing onto the floor.
Vega's face twisted into a mixture of anger and madness. His nose hurt like hell, but that wasn't the reason. The reason was that his face was now completely bloodied, and in his mind, it was ruined. It was something he could not take, due to his extreme vanity. To add insult to injury, his favourite weapon, his 'friend', was broken.
"My face…..my beautiful face!" He held his hands up to his face, and raised his head to look at the defiant Japanese warrior.
"YOU MOTHERFUCKERRRR!!!!!"
Vega rushed towards him in a fit of anger, sliding underneath Ryu's feet, sending Ryu falling over forwards, diving into a forward roll as he fell and getting onto his feet. Ryu turned to see a now brutally insane Vega rush towards him and pummel him with a series of punches in the stomach, chest and face. Ryu was kicked into the wall, dazed and badly beaten….
Chun Li looked up in her dizzy state and saw her Beretta 92 handgun lying on the floor in front of her bedside table. She crawled towards it.
Vega withdrew his knife from the small sheath at his belt and was about to cut Ryu's throat open when he noticed Chun Li crawl towards her bedroom. He decided to kill the girl first, make Ryu suffer even more, and then kill the man who had ruined his face. He made a run towards Chun Li, Ryu sliding down the hall he was knocked back into.
The psychopath was just about to attack when Chun Li grabbed her Beretta and pulled herself up. The barrel was an inch away from Vega's head, the knife centimeters from her throat.
"Let's ruin that 'beautiful' face for good, huh?" said Chun Li with a smile.
Vega never saw the bullet that powered out of the Beretta's chamber into his forehead. He jerked back from the bullet's force as it lodged itself into his brain, the blood pouring out of the hole in Vega's head, his mouth open from shock and madness.

Chun Li stayed looking at the now-dead body of Vega when she noticed Ryu sitting against the wall, his head slumped down towards his chest. Kicking the body out of the way, she sprinted to where Ryu was, praying that he was still alive.
He was.
Ryu lifted his head and smiled as he was rewarded for saving Chun Li's life with a kiss.

Bison slammed his fist down on the arm of the throne in anger as he watched the picture of Ryu and Chun Li, still alive.
"I want that bitch killed, NOW!"
"No." Akuma stopped Bison from issuing the order to the back-up team waiting in the floor below Chun Li's apartment.
"Are you fuckin' crazy?" Bison asked Akuma. "She just killed my finest assassin, and you want her to live?!"
"She is a good fighter, don't you think? She maybe quite useful to us."
"And how have you reached that conclusion?"
"You shall see."
"Forget it. I'm going to have her wast……"
Bison was interrupted by a searing pain that occurred inside his skull. Akuma's control still dominated him, and he was going to have to obey.
"All right! I'll keep her alive!"
The pain stopped as Akuma let go of the control. He stood still, watching the screen.
Bison pressed a button on the throne.
"Storm the apartment. I want both of them alive, this time."

Chun Li picked Ryu up onto her shoulders.
"We've got to get out of here. Shadowloo might show up any time."
Ryu opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by several armed men in black uniform and baraclavas stormed into the hallway, pointing their silenced MP5Ks at the couple.
"On your feet, NOW!" ordered one of the men.
Ryu and Chun Li stood up and raised their hands in the air. In their tired state, there was no way they could fight them off, especially when they were armed with automatic machine guns.
"Get the gi."
One of the soldiers grabbed Ryu's duffel bag containing his gi and took it out of the apartment.
At the same time, another soldier came up to Chun Li and slammed his rifle into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Ryu immediately held her, trying to help, but as he did so, the captain of the group approached Ryu with a syringe, and plunged it into his shoulder. Ryu winced in pain as the needle injected a clear liquid into his system.
The captain started talking. "You're lucky Lord Bison wants you two alive. We'd take real pleasure in killing the both of you."
Ryu only heard part of the speech. His eyelids became heavy and he fell to the floor, asleep. Chun Li grabbed him, asking him what was wrong, when one of the men slammed the butt of his gun into the back of Chun Li's head.
The detective never found out what had hit her. The pain set off two explosive charges behind her eyes, and she lost consciousness.

When the Shadowloo agents dragged the unconscious captives out of the building into the van, all that was left of Chun Li's apartment was a pile of broken furniture, a Beretta 92 and other assorted weaponry lying on the ground, a broken window, and the dead body of Vega, left behind as punishment for failing the mission.

Home/Introduction/Next Part