Street Fighter 2
Chapter 34
Inside the temple, Chun Li and Ryu continued running through
the corridors on their way towards the control room, hoping to
find Cammy. Fighting off several Shadowloo soldiers, they managed
to make their way through.
Chun Li released the empty magazine, letting it fall to the floor,
and pressed home a full magazine, her last one.
"I'm running out of bullets, this is my last magazine."
"Don't worry, it seems we're running out of agents to fight."
Ryu was right, they couldn't find any other agents coming towards
them. They ran through the next set of passageways without any
hindrance.
Suddenly, Chun Li thought she saw Bison walk through a set of
double doors, his cape trailing behind him. Anger went through
her as she saw her enemy.
"Bison." She said through clenched teeth. She started
to run after him.
"Chun Li, wait!" Ryu shouted after her, but she didn't
listen. She continued running to where she thought she saw Bison,
and stood before a set of double doors. Inside, it was all dark,
except for a beam of light which she thought she saw something
inside, an altar.
She stepped through the double doors, and they closed behind her,
separating her from Ryu.
Chun Li looked back and saw herself surrounded in darkness, save
for the altar in front of her. She continued walking slowly
towards it, drawing out her gun. As she stepped up towards it,
she noticed what was on the altar.
There were three pictures, obviously stolen from her apartment
when she was kidnapped with Ryu. One was of her and Cammy, her
best friend, one was of her and Ryu, her love, and the final one
was of her and her father. Each one was surrounded with red roses.
Finally, she saw the stone cross. On the cross, nailed like Jesus
Christ himself, was a stone replica of Chun Li herself.
Chun Li stood in shock as she stared at the stone version of
herself, arms outstretched along the cross, hands nailed into it,
and her head hung down, a perfect form like the crosses she
sometimes saw in church.
She rested her gun on the altar, her hand still holding it, and
bent her head down with her eyes closed.
She suddenly heard footsteps behind her, a metal clanging
accompanying them. A voice called from behind her, and the lights
flickered on.
"Ohhmm. Dominus skodaius sadaius salussalaiussalaiussalus
solorum. "
Chun Li opened her eyes as she heard Bison's voice echo behind
her, and recognised the room as the dining room where she had
dinner with Bison earlier. The voice continued.
"Isn't this religious. Ah."
Bison raised his arms and hung his head like the form on the
cross. "Ah yes. The eternal battle between good and evil,
the saints versus the sinners. But you're just not having any FUN!"
Chun Li whipped round, aiming her gun at Bison, and fired
continuously. Bison's torso weaved around as she fired, becoming
transparant, while his legs remained where they were. The bullets
passed through the blurred images of Bison and embedded
themselves into the thick doors behind Bison. Finally, the gun
uttered a dull click, signifying that the gun was empty.
Bison stopped moving, and raised his arm in front of him. The
altar toppled over towards Chun Li, but she dived to her right,
dropping her gun. The altar smashed on the floor beside her as
she judo-rolled to her feet.
"Heh. Still the agile one as always, aren't you?"
"And you're still the pain-in-the-ass."
"You're not having any fun, are you Miss Li? Why don't you
join us? Try terrorism for hire, blow some shit up, it's more fun."
"Shut the fuck up."
"You watch your fucking mouth!" Bison replied back.
"I'm going to give the biblical plague that this damned
planet deserves. And there won't be much you can do to stop me,
even if you kill me."
He pressed a button on a small box in his hand, and immediately,
the speakers in the dining hall started playing the fourth
movement of Beethoven's ninth symphony.
"I'm going to enjoy this final fight of ours now, Miss Li."
Bison launched himself at the girl, bloodlust in his eyes
"White Knight to the U.S., White Knight to the U.S., come in
."
"This is Captain Guile. Is that you, Cammy?"
"I don't have much time to explain. The thermite plasma has
been neutralised and we're heading out. Blow this place up as
soon as we leave."
Cammy switched off the comms and called down to Dan on the floor
below. "Is there a self-destruct mechanism in this place?"
"No, we never managed to install one yet. There isn't
anything we can do to destroy this place, it's too well protected
from an attack on the outside."
"Shit! You mean we can't blow this place up?" Sakura
said, anxiously.
"No." Dan said.
"Oh yes we can." Cammy suddenly said. "The Psycho
beam! If we direct the satellites to fire at this position, we
can destroy this entire area."
"Great, blowing us up in the meantime." Dan said with a
groan.
"I'm going to time-delay it, idiot." Cammy snapped back.
"Time set it for thirty minutes, that should provide enough
time for us to get out."
"That is, if you manage to get out, which is doubtful."
A voice said behind her.
Cammy turned round and suddenly felt a bullet hit her gun,
knocking it out of her hand. Standing in front of her, holding a
Colt 1911, was Dr. Tanaka.
"It's been a while, my subject."
"You
."
Angry blood flowed through Cammy's veins as she stood in front of
her nightmare, the man that had created the BWA (Brain-Washed-Assassins)
program, of which she was part of. It was he who had studied her
and created her previous persona.
Cammy was about to run towards him to attack, but the doctor held
up a small control panel and pressed a button. On the ceiling at
the far side of the room, two remote machine-guns dropped out and
aimed towards Dan and Sakura on the floor.
"These things are remote controlled. I've got them aimed
towards your two friends down there. Make any sudden moves, and
they die."
Cammy stayed still. "You bastard." She said through
clenched teeth.
Tanaka laughed. "Isn't this great? I've got my finest
subject trapped like the caged animal that you are. And she can't
get out."
"Who are you calling animal?"
Tanaka walked up to her and unexpectedly back-fisted her in the
face, knocking her to the floor. "Animal? ME?"
Tanaka pulled out his gun and fired a round which just missed
Cammy's face.
"You should be thankful Miss White. I was the one who made
you what you are. The strongest woman alive, an expert in killing.
I made you into a powerful fighter, able to defend yourself from
anything that stands in your way of your goals. And I get this
treatment? You are an emotionless machine, Miss White, so
therefore, you are an animal."
"What you did was turn me into an unemotional machine. You
ruined my life, you destroyed my self-control, my emotions, you
allowed me to be raped, unable to have a normal life. I don't
have a family, I'm unable to have children, all because of you!
You made me kill dozens of innocent people. You are the animal."
"You, no family? This entire army was your family, I'm your
family. I'm the only family you ever had!"
Dr. Tanaka, angered by Cammy's comment, fired his gun, but the
bullet struck the platform's floor as Cammy dived away. Cammy
somersaulted away, then ran at him. He fired three rounds towards
her: one of them missed but the others hit, one in her shoulder,
the other in her left knee. She stumbled but didn't fall as she
staggered towards him, vainly trying to get within kicking
distance of his head. A fourth round
struck her left thigh and she flailed and fell.
Sakura watched with fear as she saw Cammy fall from the man.
Cammy was in serious trouble, but despite her weakened state,
Sakura knew she could do something about it. New strength flowed
in her as she charged her energy into her arms. But she held it
for longer than before.
"What are you doing?" Dan asked.
Sakura said nothing as she drew her arms back.
Dr. Tanaka stood over her and pointed the Colt into the middle of
her forehead, "I'm going to ask you one last time to rejoin
us. I won't brainwash you and I'll make sure that you won't be
raped. You'll have a family again, I promise you. If the answer's
still no, something really tragic is going to happen. So what do
you say?"
"Go screw a dog."
Tanaka shook his head sadly. As he prepared to fire.
Cammy looked at him with hatred. "You evil bastard."
She said quietly.
"Say 'hi' to your parents for me.' He pulled the trigger.
It responded with a dull click as the hammer hit towards an empty
barrel. The Colt 1911 only held 7 rounds per magazine, a
statistic that Tanaka failed to notice. He looked upwards and saw
the girl on the floor surrounded with energy. Cammy rolled to her
right as Sakura pushed her hands forward, crying out, "SHINKU
HADOKEN!"
Several large fireballs erupted from Sakura's hands and slammed
into Tanaka, sending him flying backward, dropping the controller
on the remote guns. Cammy dived forward and grabbed the control.
She turned and directed the guns to aim at Dr. Tanaka.
Tanaka looked up in anger at the now-defiant Cammy, holding the
controller.
"You can't do this! I made you!"
"Sorry, Dr.. You made me do this."
Cammy pressed the button, and the machine guns fired their rounds
into the doctor, whose body jerked as the rounds pummeled into
him. Finally, the guns ran out of bullets, and Tanaka was nothing
more than a hole-ridden corpse.
Cammy dropped the controller. Pulling out a medi-kit from her
back-pack, she injected some painkillers and wrapped around some
bandages around her wounds, before limping over to the edge of
the platform. Looking down, she saw Dan hold an exhausted, but
smiling, Sakura. She held a thumbs-up.
Cammy responded with her own thumbs-up.
When the pain-killers took effect, she climbed down the emergency
steps to the floor and ran to the console. Setting the timer to
thirty minutes, she set the targeting position to the Shadowloo
headquarters and pressed the activation button.
She opened up a com-channel to the pilots fighting outside.
"Attention, this is White Knight. I've set the Psycho beam
to fire on this location in thirty minutes. You've got thirty
minutes to finish what you're doing and get the hell out of there.
Good luck."
Before she could get a response, Cammy switched off the
communication channel and rejoined Dan.
"Is there anyway out of here?"
"There's an access tunnel leading to the airfield outside
here. We should be able to get there in time."
"Then let's go."
Dan held the tired Sakura as he followed Cammy out of the control
room and towards the exit.
"Chun!" Ryu shouted, banging his fist against the door.
She was trapped inside and Ryu felt anxious for her safety. He
stepped back, and prepared to fire a Hadoken.
But as he charged up his energy, he sensed something. Akuma.
"Where are you, demon?"
"Just try to find me, I'll be waiting."
Ryu used his senses to a flight of stairs that went upwards
towards the roof of the temple. He had to decide whether to help
Chun Li, or follow to where Akuma was waiting. He decided to take
the latter, before Akuma could escape. He followed the stairs
upwards towards the roof.
Outside, he saw the air-battle blazing around him as the planes
and helicopters fired their missiles. Standing before him on the
roof, was his enemy.
"Akuma."
"Let's finish this."
Akuma and Ryu charged at each other, ready to do battle.