It has been a long, LONG time since I've even thought about this place. I'm sorry. Honest. I've had a bunch of stuff I've been meaning to post up here for the past...oh...three and a half months now. Yike. That's longer than I'd intended to let this site slide. Anyway, the usual personal excuses apply: my job, my classes, and my social life have all taken higher priority than this site, which is perfectly excusable.

But, completely ignoring the fact that my site has passed 2000 hits is inexcusable...so I'm not going to. Thanks so much, guys! You are the ones who make this site popular or unpopular, and while I'm by no means the most well-known Strider site, I do like to think that the diehards enjoy this place. If you don't, you've got me fooled, because this isn't a site for newbies. You won't find a "What is Strider?" page on this site...not now, not ever. You guys already know what it is, and if you don't, Michael Varley will be glad to tell you.

Anyway, I've got a lot of stuff for you guys this time around. I've got a new piece by Burning Hiryu, in his archive; I've got a brand-spanking-new archive by John Beckwith; and of course, this recon message.

There was a post on the Moralos Interface recently concerning the manga, its general plotline, and the differences between it and the NES game. While I can't go into exhaustive detail (due to my inability to read Japanese), I can give a fairly accurate synopsis of the manga, so I shall.

One thing before I start, though: I don't know the names of half the characters, but I can figure out what their titles are. So, I'll refer to them by title, rather than name. Also, I'll be assuming a little bit about the plot, as I can only tell you what I can figure out from the illustrations. Sorry for the inconvenience.

It begins in Kazakh, with Kain and Sheena guarding a military base of some type. They are in a break room with a few other soldiers (non-Strider, I believe). Kain hits on a pretty female Russian soldier and generally establishes himself as a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, while Sheena is more serious, sitting in a corner and drinking coffee with her gun slung over one shoulder.

Kain

Sheena

Then an explosion rocks the building, breaking open the blast doors and causing the ceiling to cave in. The female soldier Kain just hit on is killed by falling rubble. He rushes outside to see what caused the explosion and comes face-to-face with a futuristic tank, which is decimating the ranks of the grunt soldiers. Kain gets up on top of a building and shoots one unassumingly small bullet into the tank's top hatch.

It explodes, causing the tank to explode. Kain strikes a cool pose.

He leaps over the side of a building and nearly falls off, encountering an enemy helicopter. It fires its Gatling guns at him, but he drops to the snow-covered ground and begins to run at an impressive rate. He soon outruns the Gatling guns' range, but the soldiers in the helicopter fire missiles at him to make up for that. One buries itself in the ground right behind him and the resulting explosion hurls him against a brick wall. He falls to the ground, managing to land on his feet, and finds himself cornered, surrounded by enemy troops.

At that moment, Sheena decides to jump into the fray. She fires her blaster rifle at the helicopter's tail, it spins out of control, and explodes in midair. The other troops scatter, or disappear, or something. Sheena pursues them, hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Kain decides to head back to the base.

On his way there, he runs across a small child lying facedown in the snow, and bends down to see if it's all right. It gets up and shoots him with a tranquilizer gun. He keels over, and the commander of the enemy troops steps into view. He was controlling the child. He examines Kain's body, finds the Strider tattoo on his wrist, takes him captive, and leaves the child to die in the snow.

Sheena shows up again and takes the child to shelter, where she learns what happened to Kain and contacts Matic at the Strider base in the Gobi (?) desert. Matic decides that the situation calls for drastic measures, and goes off to find Hiryu.

Now, Hiryu has been retired for about five years. He's living in a small farm village, presumably in Japan somewhere, where he's enjoying life with a girl named Rin.

Hiryu

Rin

Matic

He's having a picnic lunch with Rin by a grave when he hears and sees Matic's plane coming from very far off. He takes off in the direction of the village at a speed that would make the Flash jealous, leaving Rin wondering what the heck is going on.

When he reaches the village, Matic's causing a commotion by kicking sheep and interrogating the locals. After a tense moment, Matic kicks off the conversation by asking Hiryu to go on a mission. Hiryu refuses and starts to walk off, but Matic calls after him, saying that Kain has been captured. Hiryu still refuses.

At this point, Rin shows up. Hiryu panics and tells Rin to get out of there, but Matic calls up two Strider newbies to attack her and take her hostage.

Hiryu goes ballistic at this point, kicking both of their asses. He channels up some impressive energy and uses it to cut the forearms off of the newbie Striders with his bare hands.

The townsfolk react very negatively to this, though Hiryu just saved them from death. They call him a demon and run away from him very quickly, leaving Hiryu with little other choice than to go on Matic's assignment. He's not very happy about it, but he agrees to do the one mission.

They go back to the grave and Hiryu plunges his hand into the earth at the base of the headstone. He pulls Falchion out and proceeds to channel his energy through it, splitting a decent-sized boulder in two with a single swipe. The other newbie Striders are impressed and probably more than a bit scared.

Retirement's Over

Hiryu suits up and is about to leave the village, when one of them shows up (Rin's father?) and says something to the effect that its okay for him to come back after his mission. Hiryu grins at this, and heads off in Matic's jet.

Cut to Kazakh. Sheena's roaming around in the underworld, the rubble of the building that had been demolished. She enters one room and completely fails to notice a cloaked figure sitting in a darkened corner behind her. She does, however, notice a small paper airplane at her feet.

She picks it up, unfolds it, and reads what is written on the paper (it probably says something like, "Turn around.") She whirls around and sees the stranger for the first time. He stands up slowly and throws his hood back. It's Hiryu! Sheena's quite relieved and more than a bit excited by this, and she asks what he's doing there.

Hiryu explains the bit with Rin and shows her Falchion, which is wrapped in fabric. Presumably, he says he'd like to get Kain back without killing anyone.

Together, they infiltrate the enemy base using the paper airplane to distract the guards. They find the General's room and he wakes up to find them sitting on his bedposts looking very pissed off. He tells them where Kain is being held and Hiryu rushes off to find him.

The General

Kain's been chained to a wall in a warehouse somewhere, and he's very unconscious. In fact, Hiryu thinks he might even be dead. He and Sheena hijack a car and take Kain and the General to a small cabin outside the city. A blizzard whips up.

The commander, being tied to a chair, makes some bluffing comments about how Hiryu and Sheena won't get away with this, and Sheena just brandishes her pistol. Meanwhile, Hiryu is musing over Kain's lifeless body, remembering their time together as kids (apparently, Kain is older than Hiryu, as he remembers a time when he was about thirteen...and Kain looks to be about seventeen).

Hiryu and Sheena sit by the fire for a while, waiting for the blizzard to die down. Kain wakes up rather abruptly and is vocally unresponsive. Sheena tries to engage him in conversation, but Kain just picks up his cipher and gets a wicked gleam in his eye. Hiryu figures out that something's wrong and shouts at Sheena to get back.

With astonishing speed, Kain spears Sheena through her left shoulder, sending her reeling against the far wall of the cabin. She's just gushing blood, and he figures she'll be dead soon, so he goes after Hiryu.

Hiryu shouts at Kain to stop, but he continues to advance, so Hiryu picks up Falchion. In one swank-ass move, he pulls the cover off and defends himself against Kain's assault. The two of them battle all over the room, waking up the enemy commander in the process.

Hiryu escapes by leaping out a window, but Kain follows close on his heels and the two clash again in a clearing just outside the cabin. Hiryu wheels, pouncing on him, but Kain blocks effortlessly. Sheena slips up from behind and gets Kain in a nelson. Kain reaches behind his shoulders, throws her over his head onto the ground in front of him, and stabs her through the solar plexus.

She collapses on the snow, and Hiryu goes absolutely fucking nuts. Screaming Sheena's name, he reaches into his gi and pulls out some throwing knives, which he charges with ki and hurls at Kain.

One of them strikes his neck, and he has a mental breakdown. He stumbles off into the woods a short ways, cussing up a storm. He finally collapses onto the snow himself, and Hiryu goes over to where Sheena is lying prone, barely clinging onto life.

He cradles her in his arms as she whispers her last words, and he's overcome with grief when she passes away. This whole scene is quite moving, and my words really don't do it justice.

Anyway, Hiryu goes back to the cabin, covers Sheena's body with a blanket, and places Kain on a bed. He finds a small, button-like transmitter embedded in the flesh of Kain's neck. He's in no mood to be trifled with, so when the enemy commander starts with his comments again, Hiryu demands some answers. The commander explains that it's a Zain transmitter, along with some other things that his scientists discovered about the way the human brain operates, and is interrupted by Kain's awakening.

Hiryu drops into a ready stance, but Kain simply complains of a headache and stumbles over to the bed where Sheena's body lies. Hiryu shouts at him not to remove the blanket, but Kain does so anyway, and wonders why she's dead. The General says something to the effect of, "You did it...because I ordered you to."

Kain goes berzerk and tries to kill himself, but Hiryu quickly stops him, pausing only to deck the General, who's still tied to a chair. Kain's really upset about killing Sheena, but Hiryu pins him to the wall and shouts that it's not his fault.

He explains that his sister had been affected in the same way that Kain had. Hiryu's sister had gone on a killing spree, murdering several Striders before he was able to stop her. He was forced to kill her, but he'd noticed a similar bulge on her neck in the same general area that he'd found the transmitter on Kain's neck. He retired after he'd killed her, because he couldn't bring himself to do it anymore.

Hiryu's sister

Kain makes the connection between himself and Hiryu's sister and gets quite pissed off. After a brief arguing session with the General (in which the General reveals where the Zain testing takes place), Kain wants to kill him. But Hiryu steps in, saying he's got a better idea...

The two of them bury Sheena, and Hiryu cuts off his ponytail, vowing to avenge her. He places it on her grave as a symbol of the vow, and the two of them set off for China.

Cut to China. China is home to the primary Zain research facility. In the main laboratory, the head scientist updates his superior on his progress via videophone. He displays his latest invention, shells which fire Zain transmitters instead of slugs, and his superior speaks briefly of the effects of their research on humans. Failed attempts at mind control left the test subjects as little more than zombies.

After the update, the Scientist turns to a burly guy stretched out in a chair. They chat for a bit, then are interrupted by some security guards bursting into the room. The guards inform the burly guy and the scientist that there's been a break-in. They all go to the main entrance, where the General from Kazakh is bound, gagged, and sitting cross-legged on the floor with a flag mounted in the ropes on his back.

They read the flag and fan out, searching the building for whoever put the General there. The Burly Guy is confident they'll be found, but the Scientist is doubtful.

Zain Administrator

The Scientist

The Big, Burly Guy

Meanwhile, Hiryu and Kain are busy infiltrating the building through the sewers. After leaving the General on the mezzanine floor, they'd exited again and entered through the underground network of pipes.

They are attacked by a pack of apparently rabid dogs, unaware that the Scientist is tracking them via a network of cameras in the sewers. They defeat the dogs easily and with their bare hands, but the Scientist attempts to keep them from entering the building by dropping a blast door.

Hiryu and Kain barely make it under the door, only to be greeted by a swarming, crudely armed group of Zain rejects. One of them hurls a knife at Hiryu, which he swiftly blocks. He goes into full-on attack mode, rushing the crowd at full stride and completely massacring them. This scene is really spectacular, featuring Hiryu leaping and flipping around above the crowd and attacking them faster than they can even think to react.

The scene ends dramatically (and rather gruesomely) with Hiryu leaping on high and descending to the floor at a highly accelerated pace, bringing Falchion down upon the crown of one of the rejects' heads. He completely bisects the guy bilaterally, causing those left standing to slowly back away.

Half The Man He Used To Be

Kain's standing there in awe, marveling at how little skill Hiryu's lost during the time he's been retired, and the two of them decide to go off in search of the Scientist who'd set them up. Hiryu breaks through a wall, and the two of them stumble into the waiting arms of the Burly Guy.

Naturally, Hiryu's in a take-no-crap mood, so when the Burly Guy starts talking shit, he just darts right over to him and shoves Falchion right through his heart. It's pretty funny how it happens, actually: the Burly Guy brandishes a knife and Hiryu's cypher is in his chest before he can even move to block it. Hiryu crosses about 25-30 feet in a matter of half a second.

Right From the Heart

After he keels over, Hiryu busts through another wall and they encounter the Scientist, who's scared shitless. He backs up against another blast wall labeled "Zain" as Kain starts interrogating him. He asks the Scientist who's behind The Zain Project, tossing some papers at him as he does so.

The Scientist stutters out that Matic is behind it, and Hiryu gets gravely serious, threatening him if he's lying.

The Scientist doesn't get to answer, because at that moment, the Zain terminal behind the blast door breaks through and attacks Hiryu and Kain. He pleads with Hiryu not to destroy the terminal. Disregarding his pleas, Hiryu does the whole leap-on-high-and-slash-as-you're-coming-down bit again, and bisects the terminal quite nicely.

Zain Terminal

The entire building starts to crumble around them, and the Scientist starts to cackle maniacally, telling Hiryu and Kain that it doesn't matter if they destroyed this terminal, because there's another in Africa. He spontaneously bursts into flame (?) and wanders into the Zain terminal's rubble. Hiryu and Kain exit the building and we fade to black.

...and that's as far as I'm going to get in this installment. We're halfway through, so...someone please remind me to update this site? Email me if it's been two weeks and I haven't updated yet. Flood my inbox (not literally, please), IM me, something. 'Til next time, I'm outta here! Enjoy the updates, my friends!