Chapter Text
METRO CITY, 1989
A news briefing came on live from the Metro City Honors Ball news briefing came on live from the Metro City Honors Ball.
"We now bring you back to our live coverage from the gala. Mike Haggar has taken to the stage as we awaited his first formal address as mayor in city hall."
Inside a room where news reporters, cameras, other journalists, among other people stood before the mayor himself, Mike Haggar, a former professional wrestler who had retired from the sport just a few years prior. This man was of tremendously muscular build and stood there in a suit at a podium. He wasn't alone, though, as two muscular men with blond hair stood up there with him, as well as a dark-skinned man with long hair.
The two blond men were Lucky Colt and Aleksey Zalazof, also known as "Gunloc" and "Biff Slamkovich," respectively as they were wrestlers who were trained by Haggar. The other man was Carlos Miyamoto, a martial artist whom Haggar also knew and worked as another bodyguard. Although Haggar was known to handle himself in a fight, he figured it didn't hurt to have these three men as his personal security.
Haggar stood at the podium quietly. Many reporters, as well as other gala attendees wondered why he hadn't said anything since coming up to the stage as they all sat at their tables waiting for their mayor to break the silence.
Haggar took a deep breath and looked towards all of the guests. "I apologize for not being in a celebratory mood tonight, and I appreciate the invitation to this fancy event. It's just something has been on mind as of late. Recently, I thought it's time for you all to think about something different. Why struggle when tomorrow brings nothing to live for, a bleak statement that I have heard from a few of our own fellow citizens. Maybe some of you are unaware of the suffering in Metro City, my city."
Haggar pointed towards himself when he enunciated Metro City as his.
"When did prosperity, contentment, and the right to not be murdered in cold blood become such a far-fetched dream? I turned my back on my home once. I no-showed when it was at its weakest, crying out for help. Hell, no one showed. And our apathy gave way for Mad Gear to rise. The Mad Gear Gang is not a threat. They are opportunists, preying on our undeniable weaknesses, turning us against each other, and pillaging us of our individual values, only because…we…let…them. There's a sleeping beast within this city, and once we wake, we return to ourselves, once we care again – the question will not be 'can we stop Mad Gear?' but how long will it be before they beg for mercy. It's time to wake up, not for me, but for our home."
A male journalist stood up. "Excuse me, Mr. Haggar, mayor elect. I got a question. Metaphors about 'sleeping beasts' aside, what have you done for us as mayor elect? The way you're romanticizing our crime problem has me, and I'm sure many of our suffering citizens concerned. How hard is it, and with the full force of the Metro City Police Department standing behind you to round up a couple of punk kids?"
"Are you blind?" Haggar said. "They take control because you think you understand the problem."
"Care to elaborate?" the journalist said.
Haggar sighed. "You don't fight a virus by draining all the blood from your veins. Those 'punk kids' you speak of – they're our kids! They're not the ones running the show. Mad Gear has proved to have caused a lot of shit in our city. Many of our citizens have been suffering and with Mad Gear running shit, it's time we all fix the problem together. Many of the communities need our help."
A female journalist stood and raised her hand. "Excuse me, Mr. Mayor, but I have a comment that I'd like to share. Sources have told me that there have been other sources to help give back to our community to help fix our criminal element, as well as the economy. One example was another mayoral candidate, Horace Belger, who had been providing for our schools in poor neighborhoods, as well as helping out with homeless people. In fact, some people believe that Mr. Belger was cheated out of the election. Mr. Belger had shown to be quite the philanthropist in our city and would have possibly taken the city in the right direction."
"What Horace Belger said or any supporters of his said, for that matter, that's none of my concern," Haggar said. "My main focus is to help clear the problem. Mad Gear had grown stronger as they run all of Metro City. Hell, our previous mayor didn't do a damn thing. I don't doubt that whoever is running Mad Gear had him in their pocket."
With Haggar uttering a minor expletive in his speech, clearly the journalists were trying to make him look bad in some way. He was still mayor elect, but deep down, Haggar knew that there had to be a way to take the problem with Mad Gear.
Meanwhile, out in the streets of Metro City, a young Caucasian man with blond hair in his early-20s was seen jogging in the night. He was wearing a plain white T-shirt, blue sweatpants, and had white tape around his hands. One could wonder what the tape was for as this young man just appeared to be jogging for exercise. This man was Cody Travers.
Cody went to a stop alongside a wall with graffiti. What drew his attention was a long strip of police tape and some blood on the sidewalk. He looked around and it didn't take long for him to see that someone likely got assaulted and badly beaten right here, or worse, killed. Just another night in the hard streets of Metro City.
Nonetheless, Cody continued to jog down a few blocks and then crossed into an alleyway. As he jogged, a young pretty blonde girl walked towards him while he was still focused on his workout.
"Hey, you feel like taking a break?" the girl said. Cody saw this girl as she approached him. She did not look older than 19, but she was dressed in a miniskirt and had a denim jacket on with a crop top. If that wasn't bad enough, the makeup on her face appeared to be hiding some bruises she had received not too long before. He knew what kind of girl she was. Cody wasn't about to have any of it and tried to move along past this girl.
"We all could use an escape sometime, right?" the girl said and touched his body with a smile on her face. "Especially here."
The only thing Cody did in response was touch her shoulder and pushed her out of the way so that he could continue his jog. The smile on the girl's face quickly turned to a look of stress and took a deep breath.
"Wait," she said as Cody walked away and grabbed his arm. "Please, I'm getting behind tonight, and I can't let it…" The girl's voice cracked a bit when she said that and then forced a smile on her face. "I'll be worth your time."
"Hey, man." A male voice caught Cody's attention as he looked up. The girl's expression said "oh shit." Cody saw a man who was a tad bigger than him coming out from around the corner of a wall and wore a red jacket and had a rather mean look about him. Cody knew what this guy was about.
"Going somewhere or what?" the pimp said. The poor girl had that lost and stressed look on her face, like her eyes were getting watery and her eye shadow was going to start smearing at any second.
"I'm just passing through," Cody said.
"Well, in that case, you need to get the fuck on," the pimp said. "Ain't got no time for no broke-ass punks trying to eyeball my bitches for free."
Cody turned right to the prostitute and looked right at the pimp. He felt the poor girl's pain in her eyes. He saw that she was desperate for money and then looked right at the man.
The pimp looked right at the hooker and got in her face. "That guy ain't shit. Let him do his own shit. We're getting the fuck on."
The pimp grabbed her and they started walking away. However, the poor girl turned to look at Cody one more time. Cody saw that the girl wanted to cry, but if she was so much as caught doing so, the pimp would get in her face once more and get it much worse than before. He saw that she had been hit. Who knew she would make it through the night alive if she was behind on her money?
Fuck this shit. Cody thought and ran towards the pimp and jumped to deliver hard dropkick to the man's back. The girl looked behind and saw that Cody attacked her pimp and picked him up deliver a couple of hard punches to his gut and then to his face and then delivered a hard knee to his face, causing blood to fly from his nose and his jaw.
The hooker looked shocked which then switched to relieved. After the pimp was down, Cody walked off.
The girl started to follow him. "Wait, sir, what…?"
Cody turned around and said, "Please don't follow me. I have a girl and go home. Your parents might be worried, and try to stay as far away from this asshole as possible."
The hooker breathed and then nodded and quickly ran on out of there. However, Cody continued his jog, but had started to sprint from all of the adrenaline he had gotten from beating up that pimp. He knew that the girl was going to suffer much worse that time, so he had to free her somehow. If only that pimp wouldn't try to find her.
He sprinted down a couple of blocks so fast that he hit his limit by coming to a stop. He was winded, he need to walk off to catch his breath. He walked down the block and that heard sounds of men yelling from another alleyway, as well as sounds of a person being hit, like this person was being assaulted. He walked towards the opening and found four men standing over a person lying on the ground. It looked like an older lady, and one man held a purse in hand. This man looked African-American, bald headed, had on orange overalls, and wore sunglasses even at this time of night. The man was known as Dug.
The other men there consisted of a man named Simons, who was also African-American and wore sunglasses but had a flat-top haircut and wore a green vest and a pair of green pants. Another was Jake, a Caucasian man with a beard, a blue denim vest and jeans, and finally Bred, another Caucasian man with gray overalls. The four men looked like they were enjoying beating this poor, helpless woman and taking stuff from her purse.
As Cody walked into the alleyway, the first thing he saw was a knife come towards his neck.
"Easy now, don't be a hero." Out from the shadows was a big man of Caribbean descent with a yellow vest and blond dreadlocks. This man appeared to be Dominican and wore sunglasses as well. It was none other than Damnd.
"They do what they need to do and we move on," Damnd said and looked towards his four goons continue to jump the poor woman. "She may have a bruise or two tomorrow, but she goes home, alive. Try something, and you both meet your end."
Cody looked towards the woman and wanted to help her. But Damnd had other ideas.
"I'm saying this for the old lady's sake," Damnd said. "I don't give a fuck about you." Damnd looked at the four men messing up the woman. "Lucky for her she isn't younger, cuter, we may have wanted to take our time." And Damnd laughed. If Cody didn't have a knife to his neck, he would have wanted to punch the guy. He knew he was screwed if he stayed around after messing up that pimp, but this guy would cut him open right then and there.
Simons threw the purse right back at the woman as he, along with Jake, Bred, and Dug walked away while Cody and Damnd watched.
"There, all done," Damnd said. "Now go home tonight proud, son. You're a lifesaver, a real hero." Damnd pointed the blade right towards Cody's chest and tapped it bit before he walked away to go regroup with his men.
After they walked away, Cody walked towards the beaten woman as she slowly ascended to her feet. The woman had bruises on her face.
"Don't, I can endure this," the woman said. "And if I was supposed to be saved, somebody could have done it a long time ago. Will you be here tomorrow? Or the next day? Well, will you? Will you be here everyday that I'm forced to face them?"
The woman shook her head. "If you can't promise me that, then please, don't help me."
Silence was the only thing that came out of Cody in that moment. That woman had a point. It seemed to him that wasn't the first time that this had happened to her. He knew the city had gotten bad, but to what extent was the question.
However, he wasn't about to let them get away with assaulting and robbing this poor old woman. Cody walked towards the other exit from that alleyway. Damnd, along with his entourage weren't too far away from that alley. All Cody did was yell out, "hey assholes!"
Damnd turned around, as did the other four men.
"Yeah, I'm talking to you!" Cody said as he approached the five men. He was outnumbered. He knew that one of them had a knife, but that woman didn't deserve what happened to her. If he beat up that pimp not long before, he could take down Damnd.
Cody was face to face with Damnd. The two men didn't say anything, except Damnd did one thing that Cody didn't expect: he put his right thumb and index finger in his mouth and let out a whistle. Bred, Jake, Dug, and Simons all approached Cody. If that wasn't enough, four other thugs approached him as well. Street lights brought out the colors on their attire, as a blond man with a green hat and shirt approached him. That man was Jack. The other man had a black Mohawk haircut and yellow shirt, who was Schot. Two other men who were mainly bare-chested except had suspenders that were criss-crossed. One was light-skinned with a beard, who was named Bull, and the other was dark-skinned with red pants, who was named Elijah.
Cody was outnumbered by nine men, including Damnd. They were all ready to jump him, maybe kill him as well. Cody wasn't about to go down without a fight. But then out of the blue, a siren wailed, as well as red and blue lights glared along the street.
"Shit, one time! Break!" Damnd yelled. All of nine of the thugs scattered on out of there, with Cody left there alone and turned around. He would have run off himself, but he didn't. All he did was stand there, arms raised in the air as two cops stepped out of the squad car.
"Holy shit, Cody, is that you?" A female voice was heard but the glare from the police car's lights made it hard for Cody to make out who that policewoman was. Another cop stepped out, who was an African-American man. The two were unformed cops.
As the female cop slowly approached Cody, he took a closer look and said, "Lucia?"
Lucia Morgan was young policewoman working her beat right then. She was also an old friend of Cody's as they go way back.
"Do you know this man?" the male cop said. The man was named Sean Sims, who was Lucia's partner.
"Sean, this man is an old friend of mine," Lucia said and looked towards Cody. "What are you doing out here?"
"I'm just out getting my jog," Cody said.
"In these streets, are you serious?" Lucia said. "Come on, I'll take you home."
Lucia and Sean entered the car while Cody went into the backseat. They proceeded to take Cody to where he lived.
After some time, Lucia and Sean dropped off Cody at an apartment building. It wasn't too far from where they were previously. After all, Codydid go out for a jog.
"Thanks for the ride, Lucia," Cody said.
"Don't mention it," Lucia said. "Good thing I was there or else those guys would have fucked you up. I'm sure Jessica would like that, wouldn't she?"
Cody didn't answer the question. He was ready to fight regardless. Besides, if those guys beat up a helpless old woman, then they likely didn't know how to fight properly. Then again, he wondered if he would have been able to singlehandedly take down nine men.
"You're right, and thanks again for stepping when you did," Cody said. Sean got out and opened the door for Cody to get out of there.
As soon as he approached the front door to the building, Sean looked on and got into the car.
"There's something familiar about that guy," Sean said. "Does he have a brother or something?"
"Yeah, he does, why?" Lucia said.
"My sister Vanessa's been hanging out with this guy lately, I think his name is Kyle," Sean said. "The two look alike."
"Vanessa has been hanging out with his brother?" Lucia said.
"Yeah, I don't trust that kid, though," Sean said. "Seems like trouble."
"Well, we'll talk about this later, let's go," Lucia said and then started up the car.
Meanwhile, Cody walked into the apartment and saw his girlfriend Jessica, a real head-turner with blonde hair sitting on the couch watching TV. It wasn't just anything. She was watching the mayor's speech at the gala. In fact, Jessica was the daughter of the city's mayor, Mike Haggar.
Right on the walls had pictures of the two together, as well as a framed picture from her father's final match with him holding her on his shoulder in the ring. Another picture was of her father and her late mother, Nancy Haggar, as well as her when she was a little girl. There was also a photo of Cody and his brother Kyle when they were younger.
"Hey, baby, you're back early," Jessica said.
"Yeah, I needed to cut it short," Cody said.
Right then, Jessica's attention on her dad's speech dwindled as the tone of her boyfriend's voice caught her off-guard.
"Is something wrong, baby?" Jessica said.
"No, just almost got into it with some assholes out there," Cody said. "No big deal."
"Are you kidding me?" Jessica said.
"It's nothing I can't handle me, trust me," Cody said.
"Right, and then I would have gotten a call from the hospital or worse, a cop coming to our door saying that you didn't make it," Jessica said as she approached Cody. "I know you're a tough guy, but shit's getting worse out there. I just hope my dad really fixes this hellhole."
"I would've been fine," Cody said. "Maybe I just need to rest."
"Well, I am getting worried about you lately," Jessica said. "Come over here with me."
The two went and sat on the couch as they watched Haggar continue to give his address.
Meanwhile, back out on the streets, Damnd and his crew regrouped again and met with some other guys. It appeared that Damnd ran this crew. They appeared to be a part of Mad Gear. Some wondered if he was the leader, but he only seemed like the leader of this portion. The true boss was not known to the public.
In the shadows, a man of Japanese descent peered out from a corner as he wore an orange outfit, like a karate gi. What was this man's deal? Why was he watching these men engage in their meeting?