Chapter Nineteen

"Do you think it's around here?" asked Kyle as he looked around the city.

"The Mad Gear hideout?" replied Maki. "Well, we got a tip from that old man last night that their hideout was somewhere in the Northeast part of Metro City."

"And this is it," said Kairi pointing around the city.

Only a day had gone by since Kairi, Maki, Kyle, Hokuto, and Nanase decided to help look for Rena and Jessica. The sun was beginning to set after a long day of searching around and asking people around for clues about Mad Gear's whereabouts.

They were walking down an alley filled with garbage disposals and old boxes. Cats walked around looking for food.

"This place is pretty gross," said Hokuto pinching her nose together to avoid smelling the horrible stench.

"That's how all alleys are," Maki said.

That's when the five heard a commotion not too far up.

"Quick," said Kairi as he hid behind some boxes. The others followed him as a group of people emerged from a corner. Kairi put his ear out to try to hear the conversation from the group.

"So what's up tonight?" one of them said.

"Well," replied another one. "The boss wanted us to meet the girl who came in the other night. Let's go down there and see her."

"A boss?" Kairi heard Kyle whisper. "Do you think its Mad Gear?"

"I don't know," Kairi replied and peered over the boxes. He couldn't see the faces of the men, but he noticed that one of them wore a police uniform.

"Maybe a police chief," Kairi concluded. "There's a cop over there. Let's go and see if he knows anything about Mad Gear."

"All right," said Nanase getting up. The others got up as well and walked over to the cop.

"Excuse me," said Hokuto.

The officer turned to the group. "Yes?"

"We were wondering if you know anything about Mad Gear," said Kyle.

"Hey Edi-E," one of the men in the group said, looking at the cop. "The blondie wants to know if we know anything about Mad Gear."

"I know that, Sid," Edi-E answered. He turned back to the five. "Listen, you shouldn't be snooping around trying to find out information about Mad Gear." He grinned at them. "It could be dangerous."

"Oh yeah?" said Nanase.

"Yeah," said Sid. "You never know who you could be talking to. They can be a member of Mad Gear as well and kill you. It could even happen this very minute."

Kairi narrowed his eyes. "Then let's dance," he said and raised his fists.

Edi-E took out his gun and pointed it to the five. "I'm afraid that I'll have to kill you all. Who knows what you've heard about us."

"Sad," said Kyle, raising his fists. "Even a cop joined Mad Gear."

"Quiet!" Edi-E cried out and pointed his gun at Kyle.

"Listen," said Maki. "We know that Mad Gear has the Mayor's daughter and my sister!"

"And you expect us to tell you where they are?" Sid sneered. "I don't think so."

Sid raised his fists along with the three other thugs around them.

"Oh good," said Nanase taking out her staff. "Five against five, that's a fair deal."

Hokuto took out her staff as well and Maki got into her stance with her batons ready.

"I have the cop," said Kairi. "The rest of you take down whoever you want."

Sid walked over to Kyle with his fists up. "Let's see how you fight, blondie."

Kyle smirked at him and tightened his fists. Sid began running over to him. When he was close enough, Kyle threw a quick punch at his face, followed by a knee-blow to Sid's stomach and then elbowed him to the face again knocking him out. Sid's body rolled back a few times before it hit the brick wall.

"Dude," Kyle said. "I'm a beginner and I take you down so easily. Even my Great-Aunt Dorothy can take you down with one blow and she's dead."

Hokuto looked at her opponent. His hair was all colored blue and he wore black sunglasses.

"Let's see what you got there, honey," he said with a sneer.

He began running towards her. Hokuto pushed the tip of her staff into the ground. She grabbed on to the top and swung her body towards him connecting her feet to his chest. The man stepped a few feet back but regained his balance. Hokuto then landed on her feet just next to him and swung her staff hard into the man's head causing him to lose consciousness.

Nanase's opponent began running towards her. She swung her staff at him, but he managed to catch it in his hands. He began tugging at it to pull her towards him, but then she let go causing him to tumble back. She ran over to him as he got up. She threw a couple of punches at him before landing the last one to the face. The man fell back again and hit the garbage cans knocking him out.

"Why are they so easy to beat?" Nanase asked herself as she picked her staff up from the ground.

'Here we go,' Maki thought as her opponent ran over to him with his fist in the air. When he was close enough, he threw a punch at Maki, but she managed to block the move. Then, she bended down and elbowed the man into the stomach. Then, she swung her baton to the man's chest, and followed it with a hard kick to the face sending the man flying into the air. He lost consciousness when he landed hard on to the ground.

Kairi looked at Edi-E with his brown eyes narrowed. Edi-E kept his gun pointed at him.

"Just let me give you one blow to the head," Edi-E said. "Then it'll be over."

"Yeah right," Kairi said and began running over to him.

Edi-E began firing his gun at Kairi, but he would dodge out of the way quickly and performed a couple of forward flips to get closer to him. When he was close, Kairi jumped into the air and kicked Edi-E's gun out of his hands. Then, he threw another kick at Edi-E's shoulder. Edi-E tried to grab him, but Kairi managed to jump back down to the ground before he reached him.

"You little punk!" Edi-E cried and ran after him. Kairi jumped up to Edi- E's large height and threw a couple of powerful punches at his face, then delivered a kick to his face causing him to stumble over and fall flat on his face weakened.

Kyle grabbed Edi-E's gun, walked over to him, and pointed it to the Mad Gear cop. "Where are Rena and Jessica?"

Edi-E looked up in fright. "Please don't shoot! Honestly, I don't know where Belger is holding Rena, but I know Jessica is in that building." He pointed to the brown building next to them. "But they're going to kill-"

That's when they hear a loud scream coming from a female.

"Jessica!" cried Hokuto.


"Finally," said Cody. "The Northeast area."

"Yeah," said Haggar. "But don't forget, it may be a big part of Metro City down, but the Northeast area is still a big area."

"Right," Cody replied.

The two of them and Guy have finally made it to their destination. Now all there was left to do is to find the building that was the main Mad Gear hideout. They walked around what looked like the industrial area. Since finding out that Rena was in the hands of Mad Gear, Guy had been quiet and hasn't spoken much.

Haggar turned his heard towards the Bushin ninja. "You all right there, Guy?"

Guy shook his head quickly. "Um, yeah, I'm fine."

Cody turned to his best friend and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Guy, we'll find her."

That's when they heard someone in a German accent say, "Like you ever will find her."

The three of them turned around and saw a man about Guy's height standing in front of them. He wore a red beret on his head, a yellow military-like uniform, and black knee-high combat boots. In his hand was a black baton.

"And who are you?" asked Cody narrowing his eyes.

"The name's Rolento," the man said. "And I'm afraid that I can't let you though here."

"Why not?" Guy asked, raising his fists.

"Because you're a threat to Mad Gear's operations," Rolento replied. He quickly began to twirl his baton around. Then he jumped into the air, planted his feet against the wall, and darted towards them.

The three of the jumped out of the way as Rolento swung his baton down and ended up hitting the ground. Haggar came from behind him and kicked him on to the ground. Before he made another move, Rolento moved out of the way.

"Damn, he's fast!" Cody cried out. Rolento jumped into the air and darted after them again.

Guy jumped into the air, put his leg out and began spinning around and hitting Rolento multiple times.

"Bushin Senpukyaku!" he cried out. Rolento fell back to the ground hard as Guy landed on the ground on his two feet. Rolento slowly got up.

"Nice move," Rolento said. "But that won't be enough to take Rolento down!"

"We'll see about that," said Cody taking out his knife and throwing it at Rolento. Rolento jumped over it and darted towards them again.

Haggar put both arms out from either side of his body and spun around quickly hitting Rolento multiple times.

As Rolento landed on the ground, they heard a loud female scream from nearby. Everyone turned to the noise and see a blond female in a red dress being dragged out of a brown building by a Mad Gear gang member, a knife in his hand behind her.

Cody's blue eyes widened with horror at the sight. "JESSICA!" he cried out and ran over to where she was. The gang member noticed and was just beginning to raise his knife up before Cody pulled out his own weapon and threw it at him. Just in time, the knife embedded into the Mad Gear member's chest, killing him as he fell to the ground.

Kairi, Hokuto, Nanase, Maki, and Kyle ran out of the alley just in time to see Jessica fall into Cody's arms.

Jessica looked up at her hero. "Cody!" she cried and hugged him, tears falling out of her eyes as she buried her face into his shoulders

Rolento slowly got up, then ran towards them again. By then, Guy was prepared with a kunai in hand and when Rolento was close enough, he turned around and slashed his face with it. Rolento yelled out as the pain hit him, but didn't have time to comprehend the fact that Guy scarred him for life before Haggar punched him from behind, knocking him out cold.

"Jessica!" Haggar cried afterwards, running over to his daughter.

Jessica looked up to see her father running towards her. "Daddy!" she cried and ran over to him. They embraced as soon as they reached each other.

Kairi looked up at the building Jessica came from. "This is one of the Mad Gear hideouts."

Nanase looked over at Guy who looked up at the building. "Guy..."

"I know," Guy replied. "They have Rena. She's got to be in there."

He began running towards the building, but then Jessica spoke up. "Guy, wait! Rena's not in there."

Guy turned to Jessica who walked a couple of feet over to her. "She's at the main hideout in a pink building on 52nd Street. Belger is there and he's the one who has her."

"Then who was those guy who dragged you out?" asked Kairi.

"A Mad Gear operative," Jessica replied. "They were holding me here and Belger had just ordered them to kill me. I wasn't sure where he was taking me, but you guys showed up just in time!"

"Thank you for the information, Jessica," Guy said.

"Before we get going," said Haggar. "I want Kyle to take Jessica back to my office. I'll call the head security there to make sure that she is safe."

"All right then," said Kyle. He turned back to his friends. "Be careful everyone."

"We will," said Nanase.

Cody turned to Kairi. "Didn't Haggar tell you guys to stay put?"

"Yeah," said Kairi. "But after Rena was abducted, we felt the need to help."

After a minute, Jessica and Kyle said their farewells to their friends before departing to the next train ride to Haggar's office, where the security guards there would keep them both safe.

"My little brother better get her back safe," said Cody. "Or I'll personally disown him as a relative."

"Let's go," said Guy. "We can't waste an more time, we still have Rena to save."

"You're right," Nanase said. "Let's go."

The group began running towards the direction where 52nd Street was located.