Back Alley Beat-Down
Author's note: Hello, readers. Here I am in my long overdue update of my Final Fight 3 novelization. I know I started this almost five years ago, but I have been on somewhat of a hiatus because I either kind of lost my heart for it or had put more time into my other projects, as well as real-life getting in the way.
But I didn't lose my heart for it completely as I had been telling myself to get back to it. Because I had found a way to play it, as well as watched some long-plays on YouTube, I had been regaining my interest in doing this. This won't be that long of a story, either, as like my Final Fight 1 story, it's basically a novelization of the game's story as each of the chapters will depict the game's stages.
Also, over time, I had grown and changed up my style as a writer. So there will be quite a difference in how I wrote things when reading the first two chapters and then you see how it goes in the third one onward.
Regarding the random enemies, I will probably not name some of them and have them be just random thugs who are new recruits. Because there were palette-swaps of some of them in this game, I might have them be underlings of the main person. For example, in the first game fic, I had some other girls dressed like Poison and Roxy, same with other Andores.
Now that I think about it, I wonder what it would be like if (or when) I do a Streets of Rage fanfic, especially since there were lots of palette swaps for each of the random thugs, as well as boss characters. When the time comes, I shall see.
As for Final Fight 2, I am still on the fence about that one. But here is chapter 3, which is basically level 2 of the game. Enjoy!
The quartet walked around and saw that there were several MCPD cars parked with the lights flashing. It was clear that the riot was just a smoke-screen, as it was to keep the cops busy while the Skull Cross Gang breaks someone out of police custody.
Haggar, Guy, and Lucia were all informed about Dean's motivations for taking down the Skull Cross Gang, who had quite a bone to pick with them, as his family was slaughtered by them. This was far from the first time that Metro City had gone through the ravages of a street gang trying to rule it with an iron fist. But what was the motive for the Skull Cross Gang? That was the real question.
The four vigilantes walked down a walkway into an alleyway near a broken chain-link fence adjacent to a building looked to be built out of marble. It had a Middle-Eastern vibe to it. Right in front of them were some Skull Cross members just hanging out.
Haggar looked towards Lucia. "Hey, maybe you should go check on your fellow officers to see if they need help."
"I just called for some backup," Lucia said. "Besides, many other fellow officers have either been injured or worse, killed, and I want to take down these guys as much as all of you do."
Guy said, "It was only the three of us when we took down the Mad Gear Gang about five years ago. I think we got this."
"Silence, all of you!" Dean said. "I know a lot about these guys. I will lead for all of you and with these scumbags, we need all the help we can get. Follow me."
Haggar, Guy, and Lucia had no choice but to follow Dean's lead. A couple of thugs were just hanging around. One was about to light a cigarette and then looked up.
"Oh shit, hey man, we got company!"
The other thug looked up. In that moment, he went forth to approach them, as did the one who was about to smoke. Haggar wasted little time and grabbed the two as he got close to them and then bashed their heads into each other.
More thugs came out from behind and were ready to fight, but Guy quickly reacted and ran and did a spin kick right to one of them. While Dean went ahead and punched the criminal a few times until he shocked one of them. While Lucia jumped up and delivered a flying spin kick and lit yet another thug on fire in the process.
Guy looked over at that, but after having gone through various fighters who throw fireballs or even a human beast somehow knowing how to shock people, nothing surprises him anymore.
Haggar grabbed another and delivered an overhead belly-to-belly suplex and even for a guy his size and shape, he jumped up and delivered a flying clotheline to another thug.
One thug tried to attack Lucia from behind, but she thought ahead as she quickly spun around and delivered an elbow to the man's gut. Though she was probably the weakest of the four, she was quick and used that to her advantage. Right after that, she quickly jumped up and did a few spinning kicks but it took the criminal upward as she spun and kicked him until he dropped to the ground. She jumped right to her feet after that.
"Is that all of them," she asked.
"It looks like it," Haggar said.
"Let's keep going," Dean said. "I think I know where the next Skull Cross lieutenant is."
Dean led the way down the street. It wasn't long until they came to what appeared to be a dead-end as they walked right by a hot dog/sandwich shop. They reached an alleyway with garbage cans and bags lined up against the wall.
But that wasn't all as they found some more gang members hanging around there. It was mainly guys like G, Johnny, and Billy. Like before, they came in with their stances up and initiated attacks. Haggar quickly grabbed G's arm after he tried to throw a punch and launched him towards Johnny. Lucia delivered a few quick kicks right to Billy and sent him flying towards the garbage bags.
Guy looked around and noticed that the three lowly thugs lied there in pain. Something was amiss, however. If there was one thing that his mentor Zeku, as well as Master Genryusai had taught him, is that a ninja senses things all around him, or her if the ninja was female. He felt that something was behind him.
He quickly turned around and saw a man with a tan skin-tone wearing a white tank-top and some shorts, and also gloves with claws on them. The man was Dirk, one of the Skull Cross members. Going toe-to-toe would be big mistake as he would easily cut him.
He swung the claw right towards him. Guy bent backwards and quickly got his body up and jumped back to get out of range.
Guy spun around and delivered a hard elbow right to the claw-wielding thug and then jumped up and delivered another elbow to his face, sending him falling backwards. He sat up and then took a breather and rubbed his head a bit.
In that moment, the quartet went down the alleyway and it wasn't long until they reached another path that was close to apartment buildings. More lowly thugs tried to go after the vigilantes, but were met with attacks that sent them flying to the ground. They walked towards the end.
"This is definitely the place," Dean said.
"What is it?" Lucia said.
"I know the guy who runs that establishment over there," Dean said pointing towards what appeared to be a bar or restaurant, but the neon light said "club."
"Hey you! What are you doing here?" A voice said calling attention to the four vigilantes. They turned their attentions to what appeared to be physically-imposing obese men. Though they were rather overweight, it looked like they also packed some muscle in their system, like maybe they were also former football players or sumo wrestlers. One of them had a beard on his face and a bandana covering his head like a pirate. The other was clean-shaven and had a Mohawk. They were wearing a vest with a muscle shirt and shorts, and oddly enough, they were barefoot.
"Hey, Arby," said the man with the Mohawk. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Hell yeah, Fat Jack," said the man with the bandana. "Let's waste these assholes."
The two overweight men looked to have been standing guard in front of a club that was located at the end of the street. It was called Club Sims. It was daytime, so the club wasn't open for business, but that didn't mean that any Skull Cross members weren't hanging out in there at that point.
Arby approached Haggar. "Well, if it isn't our mayor trying to clean up the streets again. Yeah, I heard how you cleaned up the streets from the Mad Gear Gang a long time ago, but those guys ain't shit compared to us. Why don't you and your little team just piss off?"
"I don't answer to scum like you," Haggar said. "If you don't let us through, then we got a serious problem."
Dean then cut in. "We're here to see Callman."
"He ain't here," Fat Jack said.
"I didn't ask if he was here," Dean said. "I said we're here to see him, because I know he's in there."
After Dean said that, some more Skull Cross Gang members started to walk from the opening on the opposite end of the street. Guy and Lucia signaled to Haggar and Dean that they'll take care of them, while Dean and Haggar deal with the behemoths.
Fat Jack tried to run towards Dean to tackle him, but was met with a few punches and BZZZT! Fat Jack shook from the final touch, as Dean shocked him with an attack.
Jack fell to the ground, but quickly sat up and glared at Dean. That shock was not fatal, but it made him get up and charge right at him with a tackle. There were only two things to try to do in this situation. One, be smart and dodge the attack. Or two, endure the attack. There was a third option and that was to try to go on the defensive.
But Dean played it smart and dodged the attack but out of Fat Jack's field of vision, a blue shoe came right to his face, as Lucia jumped in and delivered an Air Twister kick as he knocked Fat Jack back a bit, as well as another thug from behind her.
"Thank you," Dean said. Lucia smiled at him.
Dean used this opportunity to grab Fat Jack. Surprisingly, he started to glow with an electrical charge and threw the fat man to the ground and quickly picked him and jumped up high and threw him to the ground once more, knocking the wind of him.
Meanwhile, Haggar had his hands full with Arby. While Haggar was heavy with all the muscle he was packing, Arby was surprisingly quick for an obese man. Some of that weight was muscle. He even knocked the mayor down after he tackled him.
But Mike quickly got up and charged at the fat man and delivered a hard tackle of his own. Arby stood near the door to the club and the moment Haggar tackled him, the door broke down and they both ended up inside. Haggar was right on top and saw that Arby was knocked out a bit. He got up and Dean, Guy, and Lucia followed him inside.
It was clear that the place was not open for business at this hour, but some other Skull Cross members were seen hanging out in there.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" A thug said. "Don't you know this place belongs to the Skull Cross Gang? It's off-limits!"
"Um, that's not the idea I had," Guy said. "Besides, isn't this place open to the public at night?"
"Whatever, man, we just want to mess you up," another thugs said.
"Not so fast!" Just then, what sounded like a British accent came from the other end of the club. "I'll take care of this problem."
All four of the vigilantes looked at the other end of the club and there was a tall, muscular bald man wearing a button-down shirt with rolled-up sleeves and bow-tie. He even had fingerless gloves on. Surprisingly, he had a few lowly thugs there, dressed like G, as well as a couple of female thugs by his side. The two female thugs had a similar style with a revealing outfit showing their cleavage and midriff, as well as having some knife gloves.
"Well well," the man said. "Nice to see that you are reconsidering joining us, Dean."
"Shut up, Callman," Dean said. "We're here to teach you all a lesson."
"You know, I'm sorry what happened to your family, I really am. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy," Callman said. "But you decide to crash and trash my business. For that, I shall make you all pay."
"Hold it right there." Haggar intervened. "If you want to take on somebody, it will be me."
"Oh, so the mayor wants to take me on? Bring it on!" Callman said. "I'll have you know. I'm one of hell of a brawler, chap!"
The two female thugs approach Lucia and Guy. May, the blonde one in the purple outfit approached Lucia, while Mary, the black-haired one in the orange outfit approached Guy.
"Come on, this doesn't have to be painful," May said.
"At least we'll try to be done with you quickly," Mary said as she slashed one of her blades towards Guy, who quickly dodged the attack.
May tried to do the same thing as she quickly tried to slash and stab Lucia in her bare midriff, but she dodged the attack, but not by much. She noticed that the blade was barely an inch way from her stomach.
Lucia raised her foot to deliver a kick, until she saw May jump up and straddled her legs on both sides of her neck in front of her. She flipped backwards and delivered a Frankensteiner attack.
May sat right over Lucia and raised her arm like she was about to punch her, and with the blade on her hand, one could only guess what she would do.
But Lucia saw May ascend right to her feet and get thrown towards a table, breaking it in the process. She saw Dean standing right before as he extended his hand to help her get up.
Guy said to Mary. "I usually try not to hit ladies, unless there is a situation involved, like this."
Mary tried with all of her might to slash Guy, whether it was in his midsection or on his neck, anyway that could be fatal, but he blocked and dodged every attack.
"I have dealt with some of the greatest female fighters all across the world," Guy said. "Some of them were very honorable and didn't have to resort to using knives like this!"
Mary tried to do a Frankensteiner on Guy. She quickly flipped backwards to execute the attack, only to see that she was a bit higher off the ground and that Guy didn't land on his back, as he powerbombed her through a couple of wooden chairs.
"Man, that had to have hurt," Lucia said as Guy turned his attention towards her.
Meanwhile, Dean only had his hands full with any of the lowly underlings. It was a walk in the park for him.
Haggar tried to deliver a couple of chops, punches, and axe hammers to Callman, but he dodged every attack and delivered a couple of body blows and a left hook to Mike's face. With Callman being taller, he had quite a reach and showed that he probably had a boxing background.
Haggar got up and saw that Callman charged right towards him to tackle him, but he thought ahead and grabbed him and delivered a vertical suplex right through a table and a chair.
But that wasn't the end right there. Though Callman preferred to be honorable, he found a stick that was broken off one of the chairs. He looked to Haggar.
"You ruined my restaurant!" He said with so much rage in his voice. He seemed like he was going to puncture Haggar right in his bare chest with that stick. However, Haggar grabbed Callman and flipped him upside and jumped up to deliver a spinning piledriver right to the ground. Callman lifted his head up, but then dropped again.
Lucia came in and grabbed one of his arms by the wrist and felt a pulse. "He's alive."
"Well, we need to find out where more of these guys are," Haggar said.
"I can tell you, but I think there are more out there than we think," Dean said.
Guy said, "This guy didn't seem all that evil, but rather just upset that we trashed his business."
It was only about a minute until Callman had regained consciousness.
"You're still here?" he said. "What do you all want?"
"We want to know where to find the leader of the Skull Cross Gang," Haggar said.
"Also, where…is…Stray?" Dean said.
"You know Stray is one crazy bloke, right?" Callman said. "You'll be lucky to find him if he doesn't finish the job that he did on your family."
A scowl grew on Dean's face and a charge started to emit from his hand, but then Lucia intervened and told him to calm down.
"Relax, Dean, you will avenge your family soon," Haggar said and then turned towards Callman. "Where else can we find others?"
Callman had little choice in this matter. He wasn't sure if Stray or Black would come and kill him for selling them out, but then again, who knows if the other lieutenants would even try on him? Or even Dave for that matter, even though Lucia bested him in their battle.
"I can tell you to go to the junkyard, Chinatown, and also the docks," Callman said. "You'll find more people there. They might tell you where to find Stray and Black. Me, I'm just a restaurant owner who gets a lot more money from Black. I may work for the Skull Cross Gang, but I am not like the others." He turned towards Dean. "Like I said before, your family did not deserve what happened to them."
Dean nodded his head. "Okay, we'll take your word for it. We'll find a bus or a train to get to where we all need to go. Thank you."
Dean then led the way towards another door to the outside of Club Sims. It was adjacent to a park with benches and trees. They all walked down in silence. The nearest bus stop was not too far from there, as it was close to a car dealership. The question on everyone's minds was where should they go or at least where they should go first. Who knows what kind of answers they will find. Only time will tell.
Another note: Okay, I must note that if you played this level in the game, there were two routes to go through. You could go inside the club and fight Callman in there or go into the back alley near a park and fight him there. Personally, I found the part of going inside to be a better setting for the fight because in reality, I don't see why he would be waiting for you outside. Second time mentioning Streets of Rage, but at least in SOR2, when you fight Barbon, you go into the restaurant/club first and then do the back alley brawl with him.
Also, I have something planned for the next few chapters. The next chapter will be Round 3, but you'll have to see what I am going to do. Also, I am going to try updating this more as the interest is back in full-swing.
Until next time, peace out.