Strider Cain

Strider Cain is a character exclusive of the Strider Hiryu 1988 manga and its NES adaptation. In the latter's English version his name is spelled Kain instead.
What role he plays in the story depends on the version of the story. Cain is a secondary protagonist in the manga, where he contrasts Hiryu's "brawn" or fighting mastery with his "brains", coming up with plans and strategies for the duo, although this means he remains in the background for the most part during battles. In the NES video game, Cain has decreased screen time but in exchange displays more competence when compared to the manga, having actually learned about Matic being a traitor.
==History==
Cain is a Special-A Class Strider and Hiryu's close friend, having passed together the dangerous Strider training program and succeeded as agents of the highest rank. Cain, Hiryu and fellow friend Sheena worked together as Striders until the fateful day Hiryu left the group following the sudden change of Hiryu's sister Mariya into an aggressive assassin and Hiryu being forced to kill her to stop her rampage.
In the Strider Hiryu Gaiden special chapter, set six months after Mariya's death, Cain found out to his horror that Kuramoto had sent an erratic Hiryu on a mission to save the kidnapped scientist Dr. J Hogan from the Phantom Unit terrorist cell. While Hiryu is no novice, Kuramoto harshly states he does not believe the Striders need any agent carrying emotional traumas. Although shocked at Kuramoto's coldness, Cain eventually comes back to him and tells the aged director that he now understands his ploy: using the mission as a way to force Hiryu to get over his hang-ups, as well as giving him a way to "retire" from the Striders after completing his mission.
The manga proper starts 2 years later, in the year 2048. Cain and Sheena are assigned a mission to assist the rebel army from Kazakh to fight back the government's better-equipped Secret Police. Cain and Sheena attend a meeting between their members which is promptly raided by the Secret Police, which somehow learned of its location. Cain and Sheena spread out and take care of the police's heavy artillery, including the T-48 advanced model tank and a Stealth Chopper. After that Cain finds a little girl lying on the cold snow and, presuming she got hit by the crossfire, approaches her only to be surprised and shot a tranquilizer dart. The girl explains to Cain before he's knocked out that she did this only because they promised her to release her father from prison, and Cain nods off understanding her situation.
The Secret Police Commander carries him away and he's used as a guinea pig in the ZAIN Project, a development program intend on creating the ultimate brainwashing weapon. Following these events, Hiryu is coerced out of retirement to find and eliminate Cain, now that he's a liability to the organization. Hiryu meets up with Sheena and together locate a knocked-out Cain. Not telling Sheena that he's there to kill him, the two carry the unconscious Cain to a secret cabin where he finally wakes up. Initially silent and distant, Cain suddenly turns aggressive and slashes Sheena's arm, then promptly engages Hiryu in a violent battle that ends in Sheena's death. Hiryu knocks Cain out and later finds the brainwashing device implanted on his neck.
Once Cain comes back to his sense he discovers what he did to Sheena and starts harming himself desiring to die as well. Hiryu calms him down and explains what happened to Mariya years ago and how she was also a guinea pig in the brainwashing, setting both Striders in course to take down the ZAIN Project and the company behind it, Enterprise.
Together the two discover a ZAIN laboratory hidden away in a mental institute and infiltrate it, bringing down the ZAIN Terminal installed inside. The institute's director, however, mocks them for their futile efforts as there are many more terminals all over the world. Cain then devices a plan to travel to the research station in the Amazon and locate the main terminal's location through its comm link, then blow it up and await for Enterprise's rescue ships to come pick up the survivors, getting a free ticket into their main headquarters. While waiting for this, Cain gets into problems fighting the Strider assassins Arana and Kubira, requiring Hiryu to save his life.
Infiltrating Enterprise under the guise of engineer "Rein Hardt", Cain plants explosives and uses them to cover their escape when Matic blows their covers. Cain would later come to Hiryu's aid when he's cornered by Matic, allowing them to have a fair one-on-one duel.
His story in the NES adaptation starts the same, with him being captured and Hiryu rescuing him. Cain reveals in a recording he has discovered the ZAIN Project and directs Hiryu to seek Kuramoto's advice, but once Hiryu comes back he's forced to fight his brainwashed friend. Cain is knocked out and Hiryu leaves him in Sheena's care as he goes to destroy the ZAIN Terminals. Cain, however, escapes Sheena's watch and starts pursuing Matic ignoring his untreated wounds. In the end Cain fails to stop Matic and sends Hiryu a final message, revealing the location of Matic's secret Red Dragon base before succumbing to his injuries.
==Personality==
At first, Cain displays a very disrespectful and playful personality, not taking the rebel army's plight seriously and ignoring the rebels' complains as he flirted with a female rebel. This, however, is revealed to be just an act, and when the situation calls for it Cain can take over and make quick decisions, as shown when the place is raided and he's quickly to snap the rebel leader out of his shock and direct him.
Cain holds friendship very dearly, showing concerns over Hiryu's state of mind during the Gaiden chapter, even calling out Kuramoto over ignoring the obvious signs he was suicidal and sending him alone on a mission anyway. He gets incredibly depressed when he discovers Sheena's death, and quickly devolves into self-harm and suicidal thoughts the moment he realizes he was the one who killed her.
==Capabilities==
Cain holds the top rank granted by the Striders, Special-A Class, and is among its greatest members. While he may appear a weakling due to his playful and disrespectful attitude, this is only a mask hiding an agent as capable as Hiryu. The reason Hiryu was selected to carry out his assassination is because Matic claims no other active Strider currently in the organization could have bested him in combat.
Cain's main weapon is a Cypher, a plasma-emitting sword capable of cutting through any material. He demonstrate equal skill using it when fighting Hiryu during his brainwashed state, where he matched him in strength and speed. Cain also favor the use of firearms, showing good marksmanship skills.
While self-admitedly not as strong as Hiryu when he fights all out, Cain displays tactical and observation skills superior to his friend. He noticed the almost-invisible razor wire used by Arana before Hiryu and warned him before he could get hurt, and he came up with several of the duo's strategies, such as discovering the location of the ZAIN laboratory by looking for huge use of electricity and expensive telephone bills in the area.
==Gallery==
Hiryu kain manga.png|Hiryu teaming with Cain.
Kain nes art.png|Famicom Artwork
NP Hiryu and Kain.jpg|Nintendo Power Artwork
==Navigation==
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