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Story Title: Rhythmic
Chapter Number: Five
Chapter Title: Streets of the Dominican Rep.
Author Name: Dev-Ra Alyn
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Dee Jay walked down a narrow and grey alley. Not at all pleasant looking; it had a gloomy exterior and dark corners. The perfect place to get mugged, really. But it didn't worry Dee Jay at all. He knew he could take care of himself. He always did. Just at that moment, an obviously loud noise came from behind him and Dee Jay quickly whipped around to see who it was. His eyes scanned the long ass alley. There was so many places a person could hide here... behind the dumpster or the larger abandoned crates, the blind corners or on some broken and worn down fire escapes. Then out of the corner of his eye he spotted it. A tiny ash colored cat swiftly leapt upon the roof of the dumpster, up onto a near by window ceil and into the open window. Dee Jay shortly exhaled and turned back to walk on.
Damn cat had me goin'.
As Dee Jays eyes looked straight on a head of him, he saw two figures step from blind corners of the alley. Both looking fit and quite assured. He stared at the two who seemed to be looking past himself. Dee Jay cautiously turned his head a bit to see who was behind him, but all he saw was a large fist slamming into face. Caught off guard, Dee Jay fell back while he cover his hands around the sore area. Without registering what had just happened, he quickly shot back up to deliver a few jabs, but to find that these light jabs were nothing to this large ass man standing tall and thick. Way bigger than the other two men and so much uglier. A smile curled on the thugs lips.
"Hey, that kind of tickles." He coarsely chuckled then back handed Dee Jay. Dee Jay found himself flying into a wall and he let out a loud "oof" at impact. Dee Jay could tell that it was gonna take a little more than just his little jabs to take out this big sucker. He arose from off the hard concrete and could feel a knot already forming on the right side of his forehead. Dee Jay readied himself as the large thug walked closer to him. "Save yourself the trouble." He grunted. "Give us all the contents in your wallet and we'll let you keep the ability to walk home."
"You wan' my wallet Big-and-Ugly. C'mon and get it ya'self." Dee Jay said bravely. The big thug started charging after him, fist readied to make contact with Dee Jays face once more. The two men stood off on the side lines watching their partner. As soon as the thug got close enough, Dee Jay kneeled down and then began a move that the two men watching thought was impossible. "JACKKNIFE MAXIMUM!" Escaped Dee Jays lips as he landed gracefully to his feet and the large thug slammed into the wall across from him.
The large thug slowly pushed himself back up on his feet and literally snarled at Dee Jay. It was quite a scary sight.
At that, the other two men surrounded around Dee Jay and he thought to himself: Oh my GOD!!
The large thug started charging after Dee Jay again, this time, he continued to snarl as he charged. Thinking quick, Dee Jay flipped over the man behind him and the large thug collided into his helpless partner. The other man still standing started throwing punches at Dee Jay and he blocked them all, gave a quick grin and threw a hard punch to his face causing the man to fall back. Dee Jay looked down at the man who was completely knocked out and couldn't help but think how easy that was until he saw a large shadow loom over him. His smile faded off of his face as he slowly turned to see the large thugs arms ready to crash down on him.
Then suddenly, the large thug fell to the ground with a loud thud.
What the hell just happened?
Dee Jay turned to his right side to see a man like him, in similar height and tone yet dressed in military style attire, standing in readied stance. The man grabbed Dee Jay's arm and commanded for them to run. Dee Jay didn't bother arguing about it, running seemed like a good idea. They quickly ran out of the long alley and out into a small street. Dee Jay followed the man, since he seemed to know where he was going, into a large run down apartment building off to the corner side. The man shut the rickety door behind him. Both were panting and Dee Jay leaned against the wall. He placed his hand over his sore forehead and glanced at the man standing in front of him. They both dropped their jaws at each other, both looking so familiar.
"De.. Dee Jay? That you, man?" He whispered lightly in disbelief.
"Mack?" In unison, they both threw up their hands and greeted each other as if they hadn't seen each other in a long time. In fact, they haven't. Both of them carried the widest grins on their faces. "Damn, man. It's been so long!"
"Yeah, man. I know, and you haven't changed a bit. You still got that little lock on the back of ya head." He said flipping the lonely braided piece that was attached to the back of Dee Jay head.
"You ain't changed much too. Ya cut ya hair short, but it looks tight." Dee Jay smiled as he rubbed Mack's well groomed hair. "Damn, Brotha. I thought ya parents shipped you out to America. What'chu doin' here?"
"Man, I lived in America for a while, but moved down here 'cause this be where I'm stationed at now."
"Aw, really?"
"Yeah, man. Takin' care of that business." Mack looked down the hall where he saw the back door. "C'mon man. Let's grab some grub and catch up a bit. I know a great place not too far from here that serves some mighty fine jerk chicken. Nothin' like back home, but it still good."
"Aww yea. You know mi like that jerk chicken." Dee Jay said following Mack down the hall.
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Shadaloo Headquarters - Thailand
"Where's Dee Jay? He should have been here. I've got things that must be taken care of." A man in red impatiently asked.
His thick fingers tapped roughly on the arm of his chair. Looking for a responce from his soldiers who were to escort him into the Shadaloo base, one stepped up away from the others.
"Sir, Dee Jay's flight was delayed in the Dominican Republic for 3 days." A scrawny man in uniform replied.
"Damn." He muttered. His eyes narrowed over to a small girl with long blonde hair pulled into braided pig tails. "I have no time to wait 3 days for him. Cammy, round up a team of dolls and bring me my sight."
Cammy nodded her cherub-like face and walked out of the room. Bison sat his chin on his wide hand for a moment as he thought over his brilliant plan. It wasn't long until he felt his thoughts plagued and knew exactly who it was... Rose. But she would not stop him from what he had planned, no one can; not even himself. He smiled to himself.
"The time for the people to tremble at the mercy of their new commander is at hand." He said lightly.
The 3 men in uniform stood off in the side lines and over heard his clear comment. One of them cringed on the inside at the thought of Bison ruling the world.
Heaven help us all.
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Live raggae bands where playing down the street from where Dee Jay and Mack dined. Steel drums pounded, moraca's being shaken, and a distinct saxiphone giving the music more than just that island-feel, but with a little jazz to it too. Dee Jay couldn't help it, he had to be moving, for the rhythm was too strong for him to deny it. Mack chuckled at his pal as he wiggled around his chair and throwing his head around like he was Stevie Wonder.
"So ya going to Thailand, eh?" Mack asked hoping he caught his attention.
"Yeah, sort of a... business thing?" Dee Jay replied settling down a bit to return to eating his food.
"Oh man. What ya do? I thought you were to be a reggae singer." Mack picked at his salad.
"Yeah, I'm still a musician man. Kingstons up-and-coming dancehall legend." Dee Jay smiled and gestured with silly arm movements as Mack nodded. "And I also do some kickboxing in that Street Fighting Tournament. Usually, after I win the match, I put on a little performance for the people. Ya know, help promote myself musically while using my exsquite fighting skills."
"Cool, man. I've been watching them tournaments and saw ya name. I wasn't quite sure if it was you or not." Mack said as he shuved a fork full of lettuce in his mouth. "Don't they sometimes call you the Southern Comet?"
"Yeah, yea. Nick name that kind of stuck on me while I was training for the tournaments. Man, mi lovin' this..." He said as he took a bite of a piece of chicken drenched in spices and cooked just the way he liked it. "Mmm mmm. So good."
"You sound like ya grandaddy." Mack whispered shadily. "Remember that?"
Dee Jay paused for a long while as he slowly chewed his food. Then he looked up at his friend. "Yeah. I do."
The two men stayed silent for a while as they finished eating the food on their plate. Mack looked up at Dee Jay. He remembered Rai briefing him about some of Shadoloo's newest recruits and he just didn't want to believe that Dee Jay was one of them. But no matter how much he wanted to deny it, it was obvious that he was. The briefing said it all, plus the street fighting and him flying into Thailand for some "business".
How could he mix himself up with them?
Mack cleaned off everything edible on his plate and tossed his crumpled napkin on it. He decided to try his luck at digging out some information from Dee Jay in a casual way. He threw back his arms behind his head and leaned back in his chair.
"So, uh, what kind of business you going to do in Thailand?"
"Ah, not quite sure what I was scheduled to do. I was told that it'd be discussed with me more when I got there. Basically, street fighting business, ya know?" Dee Jay replied. Mack had a feeling that Dee was leaving out some info and continued to question.
"So, ya like, going to Thailand for some street fighting, but you don't know who ya fighting against?" He said, trying to sound like he was getting the picture.
"Uh, yeah. Somethin' like that."
"Well, you know it's either Sagat or Adon." He continued, "Nobody else has registered there besides them." Dee Jay nodded and remained silent. "I thought you already fought both of them in the tournament?"
Dee Jay looked up at Mack and answered. "Yeah, man. I did. But, uh... Sagat wanted a rematch... so, uh... I'm gonna lay that smack down on him again."
"Uh huh. So what'cha doin' after that? Where ya goin'?" Mack continued to inquire.
"China. Then back home so I can kick up my feet and relax a while. I got this hammock on the back porch by the beach, real relaxin', man." Dee Jay answered. He then cocked an eyebrow. "Ya know Mackenzie, I feel like you be interrogatin' me."
"I'm just wantin' to know what be goin' on in ya life. I'd like to hang out more with ya."
"Same here, man. We'll have to set up something were we can just chill out and shit." He wiped his mouth with his napkin and placed it in his vacant plate. "Thanks for taking me to the restaraunt, man. I'da never found it. Mi gon' have to leggo di ends now. I'm stayin' at that Grand Hotel for two more days and then I'll be leaving." He got up out of his chair and Mack followed. "I don't know when we'll be able to talk again, but it be nice runnin' into ya. Next time, I'll save your ass."
The two laughed a bit as Dee Jay hailed a taxi to pick him up.
"Yeah, I'll see you later, Dee."