An Alternate Universe: A Re-Telling of the SuperBeast Saga 3


Mike goes home, and sits at his table. Pouring out a shoebox containing papers. He jostles them around, and picks one up. He stares at it. Fighting back tears, he goes for the liquor cabinet, and chugs a bottle of Crown Royal. He passes out. His nightmare begins again. It begins on a rooftop, Cammy hanging from the ledge. It warps to Ryu's fist, slamming against Mike's face and Mike retaliating. It dissolves to Mike holding Ken in his arms as he sobs uncontrollably. Mike begins to scream until he wakes up. He wakes up having slept through the entire day and night. He's on his living room floor, covered in a pool of vomit. He goes to the bathroom and throws up more. He groans as he falls back, leaning against the bathtub. Tears slowly stream down his face. He looks at his watch, 10:34 AM.

Mike: Fuck.

He has an appointment. He cleans the vomit from his living room floor and changes his clothes. He drives down to his appointment with Dr. Claire Mizuki, Izuna's highest paid psychologist. He walks in and sits down on the sofa. Dr. Mizuki welcomes him with coffee.

Mike: Thanks, doc.

Dr. Mizuki: Have you been having the dream again?

Mike: I really don't want to go over it.

Dr. Mizuki: We must.

Mike: It begins that day. Bison had been resurrected. Cammy, Ryu, and myself had tailed Bison and his generals to the top of Izuna Square Building. Guile had come with reinforcements too late. Ryu had his hands full with Sagat. Cammy went after Bison. I should've. After what he had put her through, she insisted, and rushed straight for him. Balrog and Vega kept me at bay. Vega moved like lightning, and Balrog's hits felt like a force five hurricane. When I finally got the upper hand, I caught Vega in mid-air and threw him at Balrog. Bison had Cammy...

He takes a sip of his coffee, choking back tears.

Mike: He had her by the throat, he dropped her over the ledge. He disappeared into thin air. I dove to catch her, barely grabbing her hand.

Cammy's voice fills Mike's head.

Cammy: Don't let me go, Mike!

Mike: I got you, baby! Hold on tight, I got you!

Mike: Bison appeared beside her. He lunged back and spearheaded himself towards us. His force caused me to lose my grip of her hand. She fell. Fifty stories. I can remember her eyes meeting mine as she fell. I remember her screaming. My arm had been glowing purple. I remember hearing a chopper above us, with Vega and Balrog boarding with a bloody Sagat. Bison had teleported into it as it flew away, with his blood stained teeth smiling at me.

Dr. Mizuki: I'm shocked you remember that in such detail, Michael. What about Ryu?

Mike: He tried to comfort me. I responded the only way I knew how to at the time. Anger. Fury. Hatred. I had punched him as hard as I could. He almost fell himself. Guile and his troops had came too late. By the time they found me, I was on my knees crying, three bones broken in my left hand.

Dr. Mizuki: And the funeral?

Mike: I slept through it. I stood there, like a corpse, watching my wife of seven years being put into the ground. Ryu was there, and he tried to comfort me again, the true friend he was. I attacked him once more. As people tried to seperate me from him, I remember telling him if he was such a better fighter he would have helped me hold off Bison long enough to pull Cammy to safety. I haven't seen him since. That was four years ago.

Dr. Mizuki: Have you made any attempts to contact him?

Mike: Ryu has no permanent address. No phone. He lives off the grid. I wouldn't know what to say to him if I did.

Dr. Mizuki: And what of the reported Shadowlaw sightings?

Mike: I don't know. I wouldn't know where to start.

Dr. Mizuki: And your drinking?

Mike: It's gotten worse. I might as well sit next to Ken in that shithole bar he likes to go to so much. He depresses me even further, so I try to see him as minimal as possible.

The rest of the appointment goes this way. Mike goes home, and sits himself at the table again, watching the news as Shadowlaw sightings plunder the airwaves. All he can do is sit back, watch, and think. Think about that fateful day his love was killed, and how life as he knew it came to a violent, blood-curdling screaming end.