And he was right: I didn't like it.
        I wasn't sure which part of it I didn't like the most: the fact
that Cammy was a former Shadolu agent, or the fact that SIS hadn't seen
fit to mention that fact.
        To her, I mean.  It wasn't any great surprise that they hadn't
mentioned it to me.

Dun dun DUN.

This probably isn't new to anyone familiar with the source material, but as someone who isn't, I can say this was nicely handled.

        "That's obvious," I snapped.  "Doesn't she have ANY IDEA what
Shadolu is, what BISON is?  This isn't some megalomaniacal attention
deficit case like Cobra Commander we're talking about here.  Bison is
one of the most dangerous men in the world - personally, not just
politically."

...okay, I remember the phrase "megalomaniacal attention deficit case" coming up at some point on the forums, but now I can't place it. Either way, it's a great phrase.

       "It does, rather," the Brigadier said, a little mischievous
light coming back into his eyes.  "Damn near killed her to give me the
go-ahead to ask -you- to do this.  I had to go through all the files
and give her a two-hour presentation proving that you and MegaZone
have been more reliable, more valuable assets to SIS in the past than
some of our own top agents."

I'm just imagining one of those really dull Powerpoint slide-shows with each transition accompanied by a sound effect.

        Even as I asked it, I realized I knew the answer.  It tied in
too neatly with what Lethbridge-Stewart had told me earlier in the
day.  I just hadn't put it together...

Dun dun DU- wait, Logan's a secret agent *too*?

You may have noticed that there isn't a
ninja crime syndicate in Japan called the Order of the Emerald Dawn any
more.  That's because of Logan and me, that summer.

Sounds like two men whose vacations you should never spoil.

 We'd gone over CSIS's
map of the area dozens of times on the kitchen table, planning
rendezvous points, fallback points, entrance and exit routes.  Sakura
had taken to it all with slightly unnerving glee, as if being a
commando might just be even cooler than being a martial artist.

Tough call, but I'd definitely say being a commando who is *also* a martial artist is cooler than either.

        I ended up sort of standing around next to the brook, trying to
stay in a spot where I could duck quickly into the underbrush if
necessary, feeling a bit like I was waiting for a bus - if waiting for
a bus involved keeping one's every nerve tense for the slightest sound
or movement.

Like waiting for a bus, except the wrong bus could kill you? ...okay, I'm definitely overthinking this.

        Sakura said nothing, instead eyeing the equipment the Baroness
was double-checking.  Then, in a low voice, she said, "You didn't tell
me you knew any dominatrixes, Sensei."

What can I say, this whole bit was highly amusing.

      "It seems to me that was why you dumped me," I noted.  "The
second time."  Lara, I recalled, had -really- not approved of the
Baroness. 

Okay, so in that small group of women Gryph had dated, we've got the Baroness and the two Onnatop sisters. Somehow, I'm no longer surprised Lara had disapproved. If I had a platonic male friend who was trying to get into a relationship with the Baroness, I'd not as much disapprove as yell "what the HELL are you thinking?!" and attempt to shake the idea right out of him.

        "The decor brings me back," the Baroness observed dryly.
        "Imagine if the Commander had had the chops to back up his
ambitions," I told her.  "That's Bison."
        "Hm," she said, and I couldn't tell if she looked chilled or
intrigued.

This is a terrible idea... but then, the Baroness seems like the sort of woman who knows it's a bad idea and goes with it anyway because power is shiny.

        We didn't just click, we -ignited-.  We were Fred and Ginger
with fireball fists and eyes in the backs of each other's heads. 

And quite a lot more beating people up, presumably. ...unless in this universe Fred Astaire's movies are *also* far more awesome than in ours. Which is perfectly plausible.

       I went to Cammy's pod, opened it, and repeated the procedure
that had revived Logan.  She, too, came back immediately from wherever
the immobilizer had sent her, her eyes focusing on mine - but unlike
Logan (uh, fortunately), her first reaction was to kiss me.

A moment of "awww..." marred by a tiny bit of "what the heck, man, where's the brain bleach?"

      Something about that struck me as faintly odd, but I was too
busy defending myself to mull over what it really meant.  The other two
commando girls had been kind of snarky.  This one had all the
personality of drywall.  It's funny the things you notice about a girl
when she's trying to kill you.

Keep your mind on the task at hand, Gryph. Next thing you know, you'll either be missing an obvious strike and getting your liver perforated, or worse, getting into another relationship.

 My back arched, I barely managed to stay under a wide two-handed
claw sweep - the phrase "limbo for your life!" raced through my brain -

Ah, the woes of a brain marinated in pop culture. No amount of Serious Martial Arts Training will prevent those references from popping up.

       But I wasn't going to give her half a second, because I was
already executing my all-or-nothing wrap-up - the seven-maneuver chain
of techniques Zoner, in a fit of puckishness, had dubbed "Murder on the
Orient Express". 

That should really be a 12-maneuver chain, with some of the strikes being very weak and- although I suppose there's not much point to a combo where some of the strikes are light?

more
than enough time for the woman in the Shadolu officer's uniform
("Laura", I think he had called her), battered though she was, to bash
him in the back of the head with the shock baton built into her crutch

A shock baton. Built into her crutch. That's... such a very megalomaniacal-organisation thing to do. It's like, what, you want to stay *out* of combat situations until your leg heals? No, that would just not be *evil* enough. Your crutch is now also a shock baton. They'll never see that coming. Now hop back to it.

        "You... you can say that.  After what I did to you."
        "What M. made you do to me."
        "After finding out what I am."
        "What you were. 

Awww.

Further debriefing will have to be conducted later, by
remote link."  As I watched, her face hardened, her eyes glittering
angrily in the dim night lighting of the hold.  "Because, ma'am, I'm
very tired now, and effective immediately, I resign.  Good morning."

Air-punch!

        Not that it would change how I felt about her if there were.  I
knew that, deep inside me, just sitting there looking at her face.
Whoever she once had been, I loved her now, and I had her back.
        That was all that mattered today.

Awww. Warm fuzzies all around.