Street Fighter 2

Chapter 21

A dolorous rain sprinkled its melancholia over the apartment block as Guy and Maki stepped out of the taxi later that morning. They turned after paying the driver and was instantly met by the limp body of a rather large black man wearing boxing gloves sprawled all over the floor.
"Hey, are you alright?" asked Maki nervously as she walked up to the body, realizing that she shouldn't have asked when she saw that his neck and body had been severely broken, the result of a high fall. A tattoo of a broken skull with wings was on his arm, the insignia of Shadowloo. As Maki checked the body, Guy looked directly up from the boxer's body and saw that one of the windows at the top floor had been shattered, the now dripping-wet curtains flowing through.
"Didn't Chun Li live at the top floor?" he muttered aloud, as if he wanted Maki to hear. He lowered his head and stared directly into the eyes of a now worried Maki. After a few seconds, they realised that something had gone wrong, and sprinted all the way up the stairs towards Chun Li's apartment.
The door had caved in, but that wasn't what they were looking at. They were looking at the scene of devastation around them. The furniture was sprawled and broken, shattered glass near the broken window lay on the floor, and a lone hand-gun was on the floor. Maki picked it up and held it in her fingers. Judging by the fact that the magazine held thirteen rounds and one in the chamber, Guy deduced that the gun had recently been used. Chun Li always carried a full gun.
But what did she use it on? His question was answered when Maki stumbled onto the body of Vega on the floor, a bullet hole in his head. By the fact that decomposition had not yet started showed that it had been dead for only a few hours.
Two butterfly knives and a broken sword lay nearby Chun Li's room. From what Guy could presume, there had been a fight between her, Ryu and the two men that were now dead, the boxer and the bullfighter.
But did they manage to escape? he thought. Unfortunately, Maki saw a lone syringe on the floor, the tip covered in blood, near some heavy dents in the carpet where combat boots had once been. Chun Li and Ryu would have never used such a weapon. It was used on at least one of them. They had been kidnapped.
Guy rushed to the phone. At least the phone line wasn't cut off. He punched the emergency numbers in and waited for a reply.
"Hello, I'd like to report a kidnapping……"

Unpleasant company. Wind. Wind and sand and a moaning sky. The pale disc of a burning sun fluttering like a paper cutout beyond the riven atmosphere. A muttering, rising in pitch as a black shadow came with a knife drawn, cutting you, smothering your chest with blood, causing you to scream…..
With a guttural moan Charlie sat straight up in his bed, clutching his chest. He was breathing hard, painfully. Sucking in a particularly deep breath, he glanced around his tiny bedroom. The dim sunlight set through the window behind the curtains illuminated walls with ladies and guns on them, a dresser, a bedside table, and a cupboard, sheets kicked to the foot of the bed. He had been up all night last night and wanted to get some sleep over the daytime. The nightmare cut his sleep short.
He had the nightmare again.
He felt his chest. The scar of his torture in the Shadowloo headquarters still haunted him to this day. Despite all the mental evals, he still couldn't escape the fact that he had been captured, tortured and beaten. For four years he had suffered under Bison's torture-loving bastards. The scars around his body, the times when they cut their knives around his entire body, still served as reminders of that time.
He used a corner of the sheet to mop the sweat from his forehead and cheeks. Fingers fumbled around and inside the nightstand drawer until they found a cigarette. He flicked the lighter and watched as the flame lit up and ignited the cylinder. Something – his head snapped around. Nothing there. Only the soft ticking of the clock. There was nothing else in the room. Only himself and the wind. Not the strong wind he felt in his dream, only a gentle breeze through the open window.
Then the phone rang.
Leaning to his left, he pawed around the bedside table until he managed to grab the handset. He picked it up and held it to his ear.
"Hello?"
"Sorry to wake you Colonel, but…."
"No General, I was already awake. The nightmares happened again."
"I'm sorry to hear that, but we have a situation. Detective Li and Ryu Hoshi were kidnapped several hours ago."
All the sleep that was in Charlie faded away when he heard General McGruder's news. He sat upright in bed.
"Shadowloo?" Charlie asked, knowing already what the answer would be.
"I'm afraid so. A couple who were friends of Detective Li and Ryu arrived at around 10:00 am, Hong Kong time. You'd better come down here. This is something we need to keep a close eye on."
"Any news on the locator?"
"It's moving. Detective Li must have pinned it onto Ryu's clothing. We're tracking it now. Hopefully, it will lead us to Bison's Base of Operations."
"Alright. I'll be there in ten."
Charlie put the phone down and got up to get dressed. Today was going to be a long day.

Cammy ran through the corridors, a sausage roll in her mouth and a cup of tea in her hand, her other hand cupped over so that it couldn't spill anywhere. She ran past a surprised Ken, who was holding Eliza's hand while he held some sleeping blankets in his other arm.
"Hey, what's up?"
"Mmph mmph mmmph mph mmph mmph mmph-mph mmph mph mph mmph!" Cammy spoke in muffle-speak, unable to talk with the sausage roll.
As she disappeared down the corridor, Ken guessed correctly that the English girl he had only just met yesterday said 'Can't you see I've got a sausage roll in my mouth'.
The way she ran in such a hurry so as not to finish breakfast first intrigued Ken. He placed the blankets in Eliza's arms.
"I'll be right back. I just need to see what's going on." Ken didn't wait for a reply. He immediately dashed down the corridor after Cammy.
Eliza shouted behind him. "HEY! I AM pregnant, you do realize that, don't you?!!"

Ken managed to catch up with Cammy just as she reached the briefing room. She pulled out the sausage roll from her mouth, holding the cup of tea in her other hand.
"Hey! This is a classified briefing room. Civvies aren't aloud in here, you know!"
"Has something happened?" Ken asked, panting.
"This doesn't concern you. You'd better get back to your wife, Mr. Masters."
"If it involves Ryu, it concerns me a hell of a lot more than you think! Has something happened?"
"I'll tell you when this meeting ends. This is classified, sir."
"Let him in, Captain White," said a voice from behind the door. It was General McGruder. "He needs to know this as well."
Cammy subsided as Ken opened the door for her, to which she thanked him politely. Ken could see how forced Cammy's smile was. She hated being proved wrong.
Ken sat down with Guile and Cammy. A couple of seconds later Charlie walked into the room, holding a comb in his hand. He sat down next to Ken, realizing why the civilian was here.
McGruder started, "Last night several men, using brutal but non-lethal force walked off with Detective Chun Li and Ryu Hoshi at around midnight, losing two of their men in the process. We recognized their bodies as Vega and Balrog, two of the four lords of Shadowloo, confirming our worst fears. Shadowloo has kidnapped them, and is bringing them to Shadowloo's headquarters as we speak."
Ken couldn't believe this was happening. His best friend and Shadowloo's worst enemy had been kidnapped. What the hell where they going to do with him?
"Do we have any news on the locator?" asked an equally concerned Cammy.
"Fortunately, Chun Li must have managed to fix the locator onto Ryu's clothing, or at least somewhere on her person, and they haven't been able to detect it yet. We're tracking them from Hong Kong right now, and they seem to be heading in the direction of Japan. But we can't be sure about it yet."
"Wait, wait a minute," Ken said, unsure about what the hell was going on, "What's all this about a locator? Are you saying you expected this to happen?"
"We didn't want this to happen, Mr. Masters, but we had to believe the possibility of a capture attempt by Shadowloo. They don't have a reputation for being sloppy."
Ken became angry. This was getting ridiculous. "And you wanted to capitalize on that? That is my best friend out there!"
"Excuse me, Mr. Masters, but I don't like your tone. You're talking to a General."
"With all due respect, General," Guile interrupted, taking the side of his friend, "Ken's not a member of the USAF. He's a civilian."
"So what are we going to do, now?" asked Charlie.
"Hopefully they won't be able to find the locator until they touch down, and we'll attempt a rescue operation. Captain White will sneak into the base, and neutralize the VX gas. Once there….."
He was interrupted when a Commander walked through the door. "We lost the signal."
Guile slammed his fist on the empty chair next to him. The Commander continued.
"But we did manage to make a general discovery about where the headquarters are. Before we lost it, the locator stopped moving in the jungles of Brazil. We believe that that's where Shadowloo's base would be, on account that it would be well hidden. We couldn't pinpoint the location exactly, the base could be miles from that area."
"Well, at least we got one step over Bison. I'm going to the Pentagon to consider our options. Captain White, I recommend getting yourself suited up for a covert operation. I'll discuss it with your commander, but I'm pretty sure he'll give you the green-light."
"Yes sir."
"But sir," Charlie noted to the group, "I'm not sure that Cammy will be able to find the base on her own. This is the jungle of Brazil we're talking about, they could be anywhere."
"You're right, so you're going to need a guide. Do we know anyone?"
"Um….there is someone who might help us." Guile said quietly. Cammy gave him a look as she instantly realised who he meant.
"Oh no, not him…….anything but him."
"Sorry, Cammy," said Guile, a strange smile on his face. "He's our best shot."
"Who?" asked McGruder, confused.
"His name is Blanka. His plane crashed into the jungles of Brazil when he was a baby. Everyone except him were killed in the crash. He's been living in Brazil ever since, away from civilization, but mutated a little somehow. We've had run ins with him a few times before and he's a nice enough character, but he can get very dangerous when provoked."
"I ran into him during a training op in Brazil." said Cammy, not wishing to divulge about anything that happened between them.
"Alright, contact him when you arrive and let him lead you to the base. Then infiltrate it and neutralize the danger."
"Yes sir."
When the meeting finally finished, the USAF pilots walked out of the room. Only Cammy and Ken were left.
"You alright?" asked Cammy, looking at an obviously worried Ken.
"I've known Ryu ever since I was fourteen. I never expected someone like him to have to be under all of this."
"Hey, I'll get him out of there, along with Chun Li. They'll be alright."
Cammy left, leaving Ken to think about what was going to happen to his friends.

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