It's Getting Personal

Author's Note: Hello, readers. I have been going through some writer's block lately. At least I have thought of more concepts for this story. Enjoy this new chapter.


After E2 had gone to the hospital to help treat the injuries he had suffered at the hands of DMX's boys, he had thought that the ambush was a way of DMX sending a message to his old boss. But somehow something else rose to his mind, like maybe another reason he wanted to put him out of commission.

A cab pulled up right in front of the Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center and out walked Cindy J, E2's girlfriend. When she talked to him on the phone late at night, she wondered why her boyfriend sounded the way he did. He had trouble breathing and he couldn't speak in a coherent manner. She suspected that something may have been wrong.

Cindy J walked up to the front desk. "Hello, I am here to see Evan Esparza. He's my boyfriend. Which room is he in?"

The lady at the front desk told Cindy where E2 was in.

Meanwhile, E2 lied in the hospital bed thinking about what he went through hours before. He couldn't fall asleep because of the beating. Not because the pain was so strong, but because he should have seen something coming when he set up the meeting with his adversary. It was not like DMX had set up the whole thing to lure him into a trap. E2 was the one who wanted to speak to DMX in person to challenge him to a match to see who the better man is. The question on E2's mind is why would X need to have his boys jump him instead of actually giving him the beating himself. There was just something that was not right about that.

As he stared blankly at the ceiling, out of the corner of his eye he noticed someone walking in. He quickly turned his head to the door and despite the pain he was in, he was not in that much pain enough that he can't defend himself.

A woman's voice said. "Hey, E, what's going on? Are you okay?"

E2 shook at hearing a voice and looked around to see what just happened, only to see a familiar face in the doorway.

"Oh, it's just you, Cindy," E2 was relieved at seeing his girlfriend. He lied back in his bed.

"What happened to you?" Cindy J said. She took a closer look at his face and saw that he was badly bruised. "You sounded bad on the phone."

E2 sighed. "I was ambushed tonight."

"Ambushed?" Cindy J said. "By who?"

"DMX and his crew," E2 said.

"What? He did this? Why?" Cindy J said.

"I don't know, but something tells me that he needed his own boys to do his dirty work," E2 said.

"What do you mean?" Cindy J said.

"D-Mob and Blaze have told me that X is a straight-up unstoppable fighting machine," E2 said. "I have seen that fool fight and he is definitely no slouch in the ring. He can fight and he is that damn good, but why would he need his own men to beat me up when he is supposed to be a great fighter who could handle his own shit?"

"I don't know, but they beat you pretty badly," Cindy J said. "Those guys are ruthless."

"Tell me about it," E2 said as he turned his head to his left. "X's boy, Proof, kicked me hard right in my face. That guy is a beast."

"Why did you go over there anyway?" Cindy J asked.

"I wanted to challenge DMX to a fight at Club Murder," E2 said. "That is all. Nothing more, nothing less, but for him to gather some of his guys to kick my ass, I doubt he wanted to make it as fair as possible. I suspected that he would have some guys around but not to do some dirty work."

"Do you think you might be able to fight in the coming weeks?" Cindy said.

"I don't know," E2 said. "But I won't be able to fight really soon. They banged me up badly. I was barely able to walk on my way here."

"Listen, why don't you get some sleep?" Cindy J said. "I will stay with you tonight."

"Thanks, baby," E2 said as Cindy leaned in to give him a kiss on his forehead.


HOURS LATER:

A limousine pulled up in front of the hospital and out walked D-Mob, Blaze, and Doc. All three men walked up to the front desk of the hospital.

"Hello, we are to see Evan Esparza," D-Mob said. "We are friends of his. Can you tell us which room he is in?"

The three men were told where to find him. They went into the room and saw E2 lying in the hospital bed and Cindy sat there by his side. They were watching the news and then suddenly a knock was heard on the door.

The couple looked up and saw the three men.

"Hey, E," Blaze said. "How you doing, man? Cindy filled us in on what happened last night, so we thought we pay you a visit."

"That's very thoughtful of you guys, but you didn't have to do this," E2 said. "It was a fucked up thing what I went through."

"What happened?" Blaze said. "It looks to me like you got your ass beat."

E2 scoffed. "It was a little more than just a beating that I took. I got jumped."

D-Mob's eyes widened. "By who?"

"The Ruff Ryder Bloodline Crew," E2 said. "I was ambushed by DMX's crew. I thought I set up a face-to-face meeting in hopes that I can set up a one-on-one fight between me and him."

Blaze, D-Mob and Doc all looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Before you guys tell me that I made a stupid mistake, hear me out," E2 said. "I was the one who set up this meeting and I went alone. I wanted to challenge him to a fight, whether it's at Club Murder or anywhere else, like .357 or The Red Room, it doesn't matter. I just wanted to challenge him to a fight. But then some of his guys came out and surrounded me. They all jumped me. You can say that I was set up or that I walked into a trap, but make no mistake that I called for the meeting and I guess I should have known that something would happen regardless."

"Well, I am glad that you realize that, E," Blaze said. "The question in our minds is do you think that you might be able to fight in a few weeks? You look pretty bad. You should probably recover."

"I don't know, Blaze," E2 said. "I barely managed to move when I got out of there. I was lucky enough to find a cab rolling by when I did. X's boy, Proof, kicked me really hard in the face. There's something about that guy that strikes me the wrong way."

They all paused for a moment as none of them had any idea what to say.

E2 looked at D-Mob right then. "Oh, and D, X said he wants to fight you, one-on-one."

"What?" D-Mob said. "He wants to fight me? With all the shit we have been going through, I accept his challenge."

"Just like that, D? Are you sure that you want to do this?" E2 said. "You have told me that he is dangerous and I have seen him fight."

"Yes, I do," D-Mob said. "I know he is dangerous, but I know that I can take him. I have sparred with him many times and I know his every move and I know I can break him."

E2 looked at his boss with confidence, knowing full well that despite everything that is going on, D-Mob will not back down from a fight against his rival.

"So what's going to happen with this big fight card at Club Murder?" E2 asked. "I don't know how long it take for me to recover. So what is the deal?"

"We'll just have to see," D-Mob said. "We may have it planned, but it has not been made official yet. Anyway, you should get some more rest. We'll see what we can do about our problem soon enough."

"Okay, I'll hit you guys up later," E2 said.

D-Mob, Blaze and Doc all walked out of the hospital. From a distance a couple of familiar-looking men see the trio go into their limo.

"Hey, do you see those guys over there?" a man said.

"Yeah, I do," said the other guy. "I think I'll call X right now."

One of the guys got out his phone and made a call to DMX.

"Hey, X, this is Jadakiss," said the man. "I think I know where that guy E2 is. Styles and I just saw a few of his boys walk out of a hospital in Bronx Lebanon."

"Good, then we know where to find him," DMX said. "I got a little surprise for him later."

X got off the phone. He sat there and thought of another thing.

I will make sure that D-Mob and his boys get what they have coming. They better wait.


MUCH LATER ON, IN THE EVENING:

With very little for the crew to do when there is no fight going on in any of the clubs, some of the members were given messages on their phones for a special meeting.

Each of the crew's members hanging around various clubs or other venues in order to keep themselves busy. WC and Mack 10 were seen hanging Club DTP with Ludacris just to watch the ladies dance.

Out of nowhere, both WC and Mack 10 received text messages on their phones from an unknown sender.

I need for you guys to meet us outside the Seventh Heaven club. It's urgent.

"What the fuck?" Mack 10 said. "Hey, Dub, I just got a strange message about meeting outside this club."

"Really? I got the same thing, too," WC said. "I don't know what the deal is here, but this is crazy."

The two guys saw Luda hanging around with I-20 and Chingy and approached them.

"Hey, Luda, you got a minute," WC said. "Mack and I got some weird-ass messages telling us to meet them outside. Did you get one?"

"Nah, dog, I ain't got no message," Ludacris said.

"Well, we better go see what the deal is," WC said. "If anything happens, come out."

"Got it, dog," Ludacris said. "We all got your backs."

WC and Mack 10 walk outside the strip club to see what is going on. Out of nowhere someone attacked Mack 10 from behind with a crowbar, which caused WC to turn around and notice that Mack 10 was on the ground while the masked person tried to whack WC with the crowbar. Right when the crowbar was close to Dub's face, he grabbed it and tried to hit the assailant only for him to be attacked from behind, too. Three masked men kicked the two men while they were down and one of them picked up the crowbar and whacked WC right in the gut. One of the other assailants hit Mack 10 in the gut with a baseball bat.

"I think they are hurt enough," said one of the men. "Let's get the fuck out of here."

All three masked men took off. Right when they left, Luda walked outside and saw how his two crewmates were badly hurt.

"Holy shit, Dub? Mack? Are you two okay?" Ludacris said.

The two men couldn't say a word because of how badly hurt they were.


AT THE BABYLON CLUB:

It was a crazy night at the Babylon, enough that Joe Budden and Scarface had to act as backup bouncers in case things got crazier on the dance floor. Out of nowhere, those two get similar messages.

I need to talk to you. Meet me outside the Babylon.

Both men walk towards the door, not having any clue what just happened.

As Scarface approached the door, Joe was right near him and the two looked at each other.

"Wait, you got a message, too?" Joe said.

"Yeah, I wonder what it's all about," Scarface said.

Both men walked out and were attacked by people who wore masks, the same way how Mack 10 and WC were jumped not long before. A man and a woman who were dressed to go clubbing witnessed the beating that the two men took and called 911 the moment the masked assailants walked away.


CORONA, QUEENS. NEAR THE HEIGHTS:

Capone and N.O.R.E. both walked into The Limit, despite that D-Mob has no ownership of it. However, the bosses of the place weren't there that night, so they decided to go have a drink. Suddenly, the bartender approached the two and told them that some guys were looking for them.

Both men were confused about this, but the bartender told them to meet them outside the bar.

Capone and N.O.R.E. walk outside. Out from the shadows walked up two men who were familiar to them.

"Hey, Capone, N.O.R.E.," said the man. "How are things going? It's been a while."

"What the…?" N.O.R.E. turned around and wondered who was calling for their attention.

Once light hit the two men, the men started to seem more familiar than before.

"Wait, Prodigy, Havoc?" Capone was confused at the sight of the two. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We wanted to discuss some stuff with you," Prodigy said. "You see, we have thought that maybe we should take The Heights back."

"Bullshit, you ain't taking that back," N.O.R.E. said. "Besides, you have no one to represent anymore."

"That is where you are wrong, homie," Havoc said. "Our new boss wants to take over. We have some new connections, or is it old but we went back."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Capone said.

Out of the shadows another person came out, an even more familiar face.

"Hello, guys, how are you two doing?" said the man, with a few people by his side.

"Wait…" N.O.R.E. took a closer look. "Nas?!"

"That's right, it's been a long time," Nas said. "You see, we want to know if you would like to join our crew. We were all connected at one time until you moved on to work for the powerful D-Mob."

"Wait, hold up, you guys had re-formed the old crew?" Capone said. "That's great, but we're not interested. We all have each other. We are all loyal to D-Mob."

"Well, in that case," Nas said. "You guys are against us. Prodigy, Havoc, do your thing."

Nas turned over to a few of his other men. "Nature, AZ, you two fuck them up as well."

Capone and N.O.R.E. were confused at that moment as they did not know what to expect in that moment. Both men used to ride with Nas and other people from Queens, along with AZ and Foxy Brown, both of whom are from Brooklyn. At that moment, four men began to assault Capone and N.O.R.E. It did not take long for Nas to join in on the beat-down.

Both men lied on the ground bloodied and bruised. Nas leaned closer to them.

"I bet you didn't know that we had a presence again, huh?" Nas said. "Now that we are connected with the Ruff Ryders, we will be more unstoppable than ever before."

Neither man said a word but nodded their heads while still in pain. As Nas and the others walked away, N.O.R.E. said something to Capone.

"It looks like DMX is gaining more power than we all realized."

Capone retorted, "We have to find a way to gain what is ours again."


BACK AT THE HOSPITAL:

Throughout the whole day, Cindy J stayed with E2 to help take care of him. Even with his lovely girlfriend by his side, the main thing that was on E's mind was the ambush from the night before.

Fredro Starr and Sonsee really want to avenge Sticky's death, huh? They beat my ass last night, so is that not revenge enough? And why in the hell is Proof going along with DMX? There is something not right about this. I have heard the story from D-Mob about when he dealt with that guy, but there has to be more than meets the eye with him. Why on earth would he just get back to fighting? And why was he so aggressive? I may have to talk to D about this.

Cindy looked at E2. "Baby, is something on your mind? You haven't said a word in a few hours."

"Oh, it was about last night," E2 said. "The guy who kicked me in the face. He just seemed like he was ready to fight me right then and there. I had heard that this guy beat D-Mob's ass before and that prior to being with DMX, he was mostly a motorcycle street racer. What was his motive for wanting to come back? And he seemed like he was really into it, like he was really bloodthirsty."

"I don't know, E, but some people are just like that," Cindy said.

"There was something off about him, I felt it," E2 said.

Meanwhile, outside of the hospital, two women walked in wearing scrubs and surgical masks. One of them looked up on the list to find E2's real name somewhere.

One of the women tapped the other on the shoulder. The other women looked over while the one who tapped the shoulder points up.

While the two were in the room, the two "nurses" came up with a case. One of the women opened it up and pulled out a syringe. They approached the room and entered.

"Hello, we are here to give Evan a shot," said one of the nurses. "I think it is time for a shot, Mr. Esparza."

"Wait, I don't think I need a shot," E2 said. "The doctor told me that I don't need one. Just a little more care for my condition, but I don't an injection for anything."

Cindy looked up and took a closer look at one of the nurse's eyes. She looked familiar to her all of a sudden.

"Hold up, I know you two," Cindy said. "You're Eve!"

She looked at the other nurse. "And you're Kashmir!"

The only thing that Cindy could do in that moment was react by kicking the syringe out of Eve's hand and then hit her right in the face with a hard haymaker. It prompted Kashmir to attack Cindy, who then fell to the ground. Kashmir picked up the syringe and approached Cindy and stood over her. She bended over with the syringe coming closer to her neck, only for her hand to be grabbed by E2, who had gotten up from the bed. E pushed Kashmir to the wall, who then her head against it and was knocked out at that moment.

"Thanks, baby," Cindy was relieved.

Eve got up and tried to attack Cindy but she quickly dodged Eve's attacks. Cindy grabbed Eve from behind and put her in a sleeper hold to knock her out.

"What the hell just happened?" Cindy asked.

"I don't know, but we need to get out of here," E2 said.

E2 found his clothes in the closet and put them on. Despite his condition because he was still in a lot of pain from the night before, but he was not about to stay there and wonder if he will be killed by anybody else next. E2 limped but struggled to get out of the hospital with his girlfriend. There was no time to check out as the two women could regain consciousness at any given moment.

"TAXI!" Cindy yelled as soon as she saw a cab pull up.

The couple quickly got into the cab and told the cabbie to their place. E2 wasted no time in taking out his cellphone to call D-Mob about what had just happened.

"Hello, D?" E2 said. "Hey, it's E. Some crazy shit just went down at the hospital. A couple of X's girls tried to take me out while disguised as nurses. I don't know what the hell this was all about but Cindy and I got out there okay."

D-Mob sat in his room at his place with a blank stare not knowing what to think. He shook his head in shock, but at the same time he is not so shocked.

"E, I heard that WC, Mack 10, Scarface, Joe, Capone and N.O.R.E. all got jumped in different places," D-Mob said. "I think X's guys are trying to take everyone out so that they can have control of the territory."

"What about the Club Murder fights?" E2 said. "Are those still on?"

"I think DMX doesn't want them to happen at all," D-Mob said. "That is the vibe that I am getting. I told you that I didn't set up the event yet, but it seems like now they won't happen at all."

"I see, well what are we going to do?" E2 asked. "DMX has already gotten a few of our guys. They are probably in no condition to fight. What else can we do?"

"I will think of something, E," D-Mob said. "I think I will have to make a few calls. I will hit you up soon when I got something."

"Alright, D, talk to you later," E2 said.

The conversation had ended and D-Mob had no other choice but to look in his contacts list to see who he can call for help.

And then suddenly a new message had popped up in his inbox. It was from DMX.

Take my advice, D. Get out of here while you can or else I will have more people go after your crew. In case you didn't know, I have new connections now. I now have Nas and his crew from Queens and Brooklyn on my side, along with some others. You ain't got nobody else. So don't even try it.

Rather than respond to DMX's message, D-Mob found a contact of someone he had not spoken to in a while, who happens to run some parts of Jersey near the New York border. D-Mob made the call to this person.

"Hello?" The voice said.

"Hello, Dana," D-Mob said. "It's been a long time."

"Dana? How do you know my name?" the person said. "Who is this?"

"Dana, it's me, Darrell," D-Mob said. "It's been a long time."

"Darrell? As in Darrell Lewis?" Dana said.

"That's right, it's me," D-Mob said.

"Oh, man, it's been a long time," Dana said. "How are you? Why are you calling me this late? I haven't heard from you in, man, I don't know how long it's been."

"Dana, I need your help," D-Mob said. "I am having some problems right now. I can't discuss them right now. I want to know this: Are you still running shit in Jersey? Do you still have your crew?"

"Yeah, I do," Dana said. "What is wrong?"

"Like I said, I can't discuss it now," D-Mob said. "I want us to meet up sometime tomorrow. How does meeting near the George Washington Bridge on your end? We need to talk."

"Okay, sounds good," Dana said. "I will see you tomorrow."

The conversation had ended. D-Mob even saw a few more contacts to try to call. He came across Teck and Briggs.

Well, Briggs, it seems like I need your help now. I think Teck will be a worthy asset to this war. Don't worry, X, we will have our fight, but with the shit you're putting us through, it might happen sooner than you would want it to.