Hong Kong
The trip was so sudden. Haggar and Carlos took a hasty departure to go help out a friend of Haggar's in Hong Kong. How could this be? How could the Mad Gear Gang have regrouped and taken over Hong Kong? Could there be links to the one from Metro City? The thing that was on Haggar's mind was why go after Maki's sister and father, whom also had links to Guy, as he was engaged to Rena, and trained a little under Master Genryusai before taking Zeku as his mentor.
During the time Haggar had gone to meet Guy and some of his connections, he got acquainted with Maki, whom also practices the same type of martial art that Guy practices. He had gotten close to Guy, enough that he would do this for him, as well as Maki, whom he also considered a friend.
It was so out of the blue. To leave office like that to help out a friend must have had a good reason behind it. Haggar felt like he owed Guy for this. After all, he had joined in on the battle with him and Cody against the Mad Gear Gang in Metro City. With Guy on his own training schedule, whether it's in Metro or going through various countries, there was no way to reach him. He would have a good reason to go after Mad Gear for this. However, there was just no way that Maki could take on these guys on her own. So he quickly volunteered to help in the matter.
But he wasn't going alone. Carlos had been living with the Metro City mayor for a bit, especially after Haggar's daughter Jessica moved to France for her studies sometime recently. He was even living there even before she left. Carlos also knew Guy, as they had trained together and also had a friendship. Guy also helped train Carlos in learning some new moves. So in some ways, Carlos felt like this was giving back to him. But with Carlos admitting that he likes to fight, was this also an excuse just to fight people? No one knew.
It had been a day since Haggar got the call. He and Carlos took a flight out of Metro City to head to Hong Kong.
Once they arrived, Haggar received a call from Maki on his satellite phone to set up the meeting. She had told him that they meet up close to the docks. She had her way to get there all the way from Japan. It was about four to six hours in the air, but she knew that it would take longer for her comrades to arrive.
Haggar and Guy found a hotel to stay at. Carlos packed a katana with him to prepare himself for battle and changed into a blue vest and blue pants. Haggar changed into a pair of dark green pants with brown boots that went over the pant legs and put on a strap over his right shoulder. He paid off a taxi cab driver to get to their destination.
It was around noon Hong Kong time. Haggar and Carlos exited the cab to go look for Maki. They began to walk through a small village.
"So, Mike," Carlos said. "Tell me, who are we meeting?"
"I thought I had told you," Haggar said.
"You only said that we're meeting a friend of yours," Carlos said. "All I know is that she is the future sister-in-law of Guy and that her sister and father were abducted. But you didn't give me a name or anything like that."
They walked around. The area consisted of small businesses. Eateries, markets, this place was sort of in the rougher parts of Hong Kong. Even the slums of Metro City seemed nicer than this. A statue of a Chinese dragon that was close to one of the shops had been shattered, as pieces of the head and parts of the pillar were on the ground close to the broken head. The rest of the pillar was left standing with the broken end. Right around the corner was a pipe blowing out steam.
"As of right now, Carlos, that's all you need to know," Haggar said.
"That's it?" Carlos said.
Haggar paused a bit. "Yes."
He didn't want to tell him much more, but for good reason.
"MIKE!" A female accented voice yelled. The sound of that caused both men to look up. Carlos looked up and through his eyes was the sight of a beautiful blonde Japanese woman in a red kunoichi outfit and boots. Her hair was done in a ponytail with it tied in the back of her head. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped a tad at the sight of her. The woman was definitely a stunner to him.
"Maki?" Haggar said. "You're here."
"Yes, I am," Maki said. "I saw some guys cross through here a little while ago. They might be heading out to docks." She then looked to Carlos. "Who is this?"
"This is Carlos," Haggar said. "He is going to help us look for your father and sister."
Carlos smiled and reached his hand out. "Hello."
Maki reached her hand out to shake his hand. "Hello, my name is Maki. Let's get going."
The trio walked along the area. Maki led the way as the two men followed her. Carlos's eyes shifted up to see his surroundings and then back to Maki, and then right to Haggar, who looked at him with a minor glare and shook his head a bit.
"What?" Carlos said.
"We'll talk about this later," Haggar said. "Right now, we need to focus on our mission."
They passed by a small Chinese food stand with a man handing a bowl to a man right at the counter, as well as a woman eating her lunch with a cat lying on top of a stack of crates.
"What is this place?" Haggar said.
"It seems that Mad Gear is working with a local Triad known as the 800 Dragons," Maki said. "They made a deal with them, like an alliance of some sort. This is the area where one of the Mad Gear ringleaders is."
"But what kind of operation are they running?" Carlos said. "If they're working with the Triad, that means that they are into some heavy shit."
"I don't know," Maki said. "All I want to know is where they took my father and sister. I wish Guy were here to help us."
"No time to worry about that now," Haggar said. "We just need to look around."
At the end of the path, a couple of men who didn't look like they could blend in with the crowd got out of a building. The door had what looked like a banner with Cantonese characters written on it. The building was right next to a broken chain-link fence. The two men were Jack and Schot of Mad Gear. They looked like they were about to start talking.
Haggar, Maki, and Carlos stood around. Haggar saw the two men hanging out. They stood out, alright, as they didn't seem like they could blend in. While outsiders could be in the crowd, they looked like they had just gotten out of that building for who knows what reason. It wasn't only that, as Haggar sort of recognized the two men. They had to have been in Mad Gear when Belger was running things. Even guys like Jake, Bred, Dug, and Simons had some kind of notoriety compared to these two men. Maybe after the fall of that chapter, they had fled the country.
"I think I found something," Haggar said.
Maki and Carlos noticed the muscular man heading towards the two men. The attention of one of the men shifted towards Haggar who was approaching by the moment. The attention of the other man then shifted. Though he saw Haggar coming their way, he then noticed Maki and Carlos behind Haggar. The looks on both men's faces had an expression of "Oh shit." It became apparent that they recognized the woman.
As for Haggar, they had knowledge about when he and two other men took down the Metro City chapter of Mad Gear. They even were a part of that chapter, but after the fall, they went into hiding, but not without joining with any chapter of Mad Gear overseas. Or maybe Mad Gear was expanding to other parts of the world.
The trio was getting closer. At the Chinese food stand, the woman sitting there looked up. She had finished her lunch, but something was a bit off about these three people walking up to that building. To her, it didn't look like they were tourists, but on a mission. She had to see for herself.
The two men quickly went through the door of the building, as the trio was getting closer. Haggar used a lot of his strength to break down the door, as he was sure that they would lock it. The door burst open, and on the other side was a flight of stairs going downward.
"What do you think is going on here?" Carlos said as he looked down the stairs.
"This is likely where their hideout is, I think," Haggar said.
"Rena and my father have to be here, I just feel it," Maki said.
The trio head down the stairs. Inside, the whole interior looked pretty wrecked. There were ripped up banners with Chinese characters written on them, as well as heavily-broken walls. Some of the walls had been broken off revealing some other room on the other side. Some even had large cracks and dents on them. Even the ceiling looked bad. Some of the girders were even showing. The flooring was no better, either, as some of the carpeting looked ripped, and the concrete floor had some cracks. For some odd reason, there were even bookshelves with books on them. What exactly was this place?
As the trio walked along the path, to their right stood a group of young Chinese men and women. They looked at the trio with so much disdain and anger that it was possible, if likely that the two men informed them of these three people.
["What do we have here?"] A young man said in Cantonese. ["You're in the wrong place, assholes."]
Maki walked ahead of her two comrades and said in the same language, ["That's where you're wrong…asshole. Where are my sister and my father?"]
Some of the thugs that stood by seemed flabbergasted that she was able to talk in Cantonese. They all saw that she was of Japanese descent, but that didn't mean that she didn't know any other languages.
The leader thug, who was wearing a black leather vest over a white T-shirt and had black jeans. The other ones had worn muscle shirts, while the girls wore some crop tops and shorts. Some of them had tattoos that said "800 Dragons" and had dragon symbols on their arms. Could they be the Triad that was working with Mad Gear?
"What are you doing here?" the leader said in English. "This is Mad Gear and 800 Dragons turf."
And just like that, he and the others put up their dukes. Carlos kept his katana in his sheath. If any of them were to draw any weapons such as knives or the like, he was prepared.
A fight broke out. The Triads had initiated the attacks, but the trio wasn't about to go down without a fight. For that, the leader had gone after Maki. She quickly reached behind her and grabbed one of her tonfas and got in a fighting stance. The leader looked at her with a smile that mixed cockiness and mockery towards her. She glared at him with determination and said in her native Japanese, ["Let's go!"]
The leader quickly got out a chain and swung it. Carlos and Haggar went after the other criminals. Even some of the women tried to get in on the action. In situations like this, it didn't matter if the aggressor was female.
One girl tried to jump up behind and strangle Haggar, but with his brute strength, he quickly spun around until she let go. Another female Triad member tried to whack him with a 2x4, but he quickly caught the plank before it got on him. He looked directly in the girl's eyes and shook his head as his expression meant, "No no, not going to work here." He threw the board right to the ground.
Surprise and shock had been the expression on the girl's face, before it turned into a look of some sadness. She looked like she was almost about to cry.
"Oh my god, what am I doing?" the girl said in English with her heavy accent. "I don't know why I'm doing this."
"Leave now, I warn you," Haggar said.
The girl continued to look in his eye and then shifted behind him, as the girl gangster from before stood up with another wooden plank in hand. But somehow, Haggar noticed something was amiss about this girl's behavior. First she looked directly at him and then quickly behind him.
But Haggar looked behind him and then in front of him as the girl then picked up the board from before up off the ground. In a quick moment, he spun around and delivered a spinning lariat to both of the girls knocking them down in the process.
Some of the others tried their hand at taking on Carlos, but this was too simple for him. He sensed that some of these gang members weren't martial artists and relied on street-fighting to try to take him. Some others were, however, proficient at some discipline, but not enough to take him on. Even Carlos used some techniques in street-fighting against them.
Meanwhile, Maki had her hands full with the leader, or at least he seemed like he was the leader of their little outfit. Even with all of the techniques she tried to use on him, the man blocked each of the attacks. It seemed like he knew how to handle himself in a fight. If anything, she probably found a good match in him.
She had swung her tonfa towards the man. He quickly reacted and swung his chain to wrap it around her weapon and pulled it right from her hands. The tonfa fell to the ground and he wrapped the chain around his knuckles. He smiled at him and said, "Come on!"
Rather than be mad, Maki smirked at him in a smug way. The thug tried to swing at her but she dodged each attack. At some point, she had her back towards him. The thug extended the chain and moved it upward to try to strangle her. But he clearly didn't know what she was capable of. She quickly spun around and delivered a hard elbow to the face and then jumped up to deliver a flying kick to his face.
Haggar and Carlos were done dealing with their business. They looked on at Maki handling her business. The criminal got back up and tried to rush her, but was met with a high kick to the solar plexus which knocked him out. Carlos even smiled with amazement at her attacks.
Maki then went to the criminal was lying on the ground and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
"Okay, asshole, answer me this," Maki said. "Where are my sister and my father?"
"I'm not the one you should be asking," the criminal said.
"What?" Maki said, and even Haggar and Carlos said the same thing.
"What do you mean?" Maki said.
The criminal replied, "You want answers, you should talk to Won Won. He is outside, right at the dock by the boat."
Maki looked at her partners and then saw a staircase on the other end of the building with red poles surrounding it. There was even a door that likely to the outside.
"Thank you for telling me," Maki said and then let him go. She saw her tonfa and picked it up and put it behind her.
She then went to her two comrades and said "Let's get going."
The three were now off to the outside. Oddly enough, this building was that close to the docks that even the staircase lead right to them. But none of that mattered. It was now time to get their answers.
Right next to the staircase was a large boat with the color purple at the bottom and also the ropes holding it, and also a purple anchor. The boat said "Shanghai" on the side as well. It was clear that they were right by the coast all along.
The trio walked along the dock, until a female voice said, "Excuse me."
The trio turned around and saw what appeared to be a woman in a blue and black outfit and had her done up in two buns on the side.
"What's going on here?" the woman said.
"I wonder the same thing," Haggar said. "Did you follow us? I thought I might have seen you out there at a Chinese food stand."
"I was having my lunch," the woman said. "The question I should ask is what are you three doing."
Maki stepped in. "We don't want any trouble, Miss."
"That's Inspector Xiang to you," the woman said. She then flashed her badge that said "Chun-Li Xiang." It was said that she was an Interpol agent.
"What I want to know is what you three are doing," Chun-Li said.
"We don't want any trouble," Maki said. "We're just looking for answers regarding my missing sister and father. That's all."
"Please," Haggar said. "These two are friends of mine; we don't want any problems here."
Chun-Li then looked at them with a bit of respect and relief. "I get it. I saw that you three took down those thugs in there. That takes a lot of guts and skill. Besides, you're not after what I am after. I am actually looking for the man who killed my father. Okay, I will let you guys do what you feel is necessary. Besides, I am not on duty right now, but I had to make sure what was going on."
Normally, law enforcement doesn't condone vigilantism, but in this case, it would seem that she would let it slide.
"If you want some help from my team," Chun-Li said. "Here is my card." She handed Maki a card with her name on it, as well as a number for Interpol.
Just then, she walked away.
However, there was no time to waste. Haggar, Maki, and Carlos walked along the docks until they saw a big muscular man with a mostly bald head and a long braid. He also had a Fu Man Chu mustache and some strange orange makeup by his eyes. He wore what looked like gray pants and boots with orange laces. The shirt looked like an orange and gray tank-top with one strap broken off. He had a tattoo of a black skull on his right shoulder. To top it off, he was holding a large meat cleaver. So large that it could be mistaken for a machete. He was standing right by the loading area with crates.
"That's got to be the man," Maki said.
"But he's holding a large blade," Haggar said. "You get too close, he'll cut you up."
"I got this," Carlos said with his two partners turning right to him. "I think I can handle this guy."
"No," Maki said. "He must know something. I can do this."
"This guy is huge," Carlos said. "If he tries to cut me, I got my sword. I can handle him."
Won Won then jumped off one of the stacks of crates. "So you guys are the ones who caused all of the mess inside?" He said in English.
"How do you know about that?" Carlos said.
"Some guys came to me and knew what you were up to," Won Won said and then looked towards Haggar. "Ah, the mayor of Metro City. How nice to see you show up. I've heard my share of stories."
"Quiet," Maki said. "I want to know where my sister and my father are."
"I won't tell," Won Won said. He raised his cleaver and then swung it a few times and got into a stance. It was clear what he wanted to do then.
Carlos got out his katana and swung it. He then said in Japanese, ["Let's do this."]
Won Won then chuckled and quickly swung his cleaver right at him, only to be met with the katana touching the other blade. Carlos figured that he shouldn't try to cut him with his sword, because if he kills him, then Won Won wouldn't be able to tell where Maki's family is.
It wasn't long until more of the 800 Dragons, or at least their underlings found where they were. Haggar and Maki teamed up to take them on, while Carlos handled matters with Won Won.
Won Won swung the cleaver around multiple times. Carlos dodged as much as he could and blocked with his sword as much as he could. Won Won swung the cleaver right towards Carlos's chest. Carlos jumped back in quick reaction, as the blade was so close that he almost felt his flesh being cut open right then and there. Carlos delivered a hard spin kick right to Won Won's right hand. The impact of the kick caused the criminal drop the blade from his hand and was so close to the edge that it could drop in the water anytime.
Carlos placed the sword back in its sheath. Won Won figured that he didn't need the blade to take him down. So he swung a few punches to Carlos. The man was big, so the attacks had, well, packed quite a punch. He grabbed Carlos and held him up high over his head. He walked towards the edge of the dock, like he was ready to throw him in the water. But Carlos grabbed onto Won Won's left wrist and twisted it and also hit the man's left elbow causing it to bend and break. Won Won then howled in pain from that. Carlos jumped right onto his feet.
Won Won turned and faced Maki and Haggar. Haggar quickly rushed right towards him using all of his power and tackled him against the crates.
Carlos and Haggar stood over Won Won as he lied there. It wasn't long until Maki joined her two partners.
["So, where are my father and sister,"] Maki said in Cantonese.
Won Won looked up in amazement at Maki speaking that language. After he was defeated, he had no choice but to crack.
["You want to know, right?"] Won Won said. ["Mad Gear's base of operations has been moved to Europe. Joe and Schot were just here a little while ago. They took a boat out of here and headed that way. Some of Mad Gear's operations are in France, Holland, England, and Italy. Those are the countries that some of our men operate in. They even work with some of the local gangs in those countries. You'll have to go look in one of those countries to find your father and sister."]
Won Won reached for his pocket and handed Maki a note. The note had said that they were going to France. What was even more noticeable was the handwriting, as it matched the same type of handwriting when she read the note that was left at her house when her father and Rena were kidnapped.
Maki looked up and turned to face her two partners.
"What did he say?" Haggar said.
She told Haggar and Carlos everything he had told her. He had translated it for them. The real question now was where they should go.
"Let's go check out France," Maki said to the confusion of the other two. "This note says that those men were heading out there."
"I have a feeling that your family might be there," Carlos said.
Haggar replied, "This just seems bigger than I imagined. I didn't think that Mad Gear would expand like this. I just hope you're right Carlos."
"You better be," Maki said. "I can't imagine what they could have done with them. I know my father could handle himself, even though he's getting older, but my sister? I have to go save them."
It was now time to head to France.
Author's note: Okay, that was the end of the Hong Kong chapter. I'm going to level about a few things for this story.
While I am going to do like how I did 1 and 3, with chapters depicting the levels, I am also going to add interludes like how I did in 3. I also feel that there is only so much I can do with fight scenes because if I did nonstop fight sequences, it could get dull after a while. For example, when they walked through that village part of the Hong Kong level, I had it be that they walked through it and likely had pedestrians around.
Regarding the random thugs, I'm going to try having them play a role this time and only so few of them will appear in different chapters. As noted in the prologue, it just doesn't make sense for each of the random thugs to follow the trio to different countries. Ergo, why I am also including some nameless thugs or even have Mad Gear affiliated with some gangs, like how I had them affiliated with the Triad in this chapter.
As some of you had seen, I gave a hint to Carlos's attraction to Maki, as I had depicted them as a couple in my Final Fight 3 story. Don't worry, I'm going to do more with that, but there isn't going to be a forced romantic subplot or anything like that.
As for Chun-Li's cameo, she had a cameo in the game when going through that same level. You could see her eating and I wanted there to be more to it. But she is not going to appear again, but I could have some involvement of Interpol. I shall see.
That's all I can say. I will continue with this soon. Like I said, expect more interludes as well, as I am taking it in a direction similar to how I did for Final Fight 3. Peace out.