Splitting Up
Dean led the other three people in his party down a few blocks. There was little that came out of his mouth in that moment. He was so full of determination to take down the Skull Cross Gang, but the question on everyone's minds was how personal it could be.
While he had stated that they had slaughtered his family, it appeared that he knew more about them than the others. While Lucia was a detective in the Special Crimes Unit, she was an honest upstanding police officer who had dealt with various crimes. Even when she was a rookie in blue, she had dealt with the Mad Gear Gang herself. But it seemed like the Skull Cross Gang were something else.
Haggar was no stranger to the crime element in Metro City. For some reason, he had to take a trip away from office to help out another friend overseas to save that friend's sister and father, whom were connected to Guy.
Guy wished that he could have helped out Haggar, as well as his then-future-sister-in-law (now current) Maki, as well as an old friend named Carlos in the fight against the Mad Gears in Eurasia. However, he had his hands full with training, as well as dealing with a mad dictator in his fight against evil.
But the question was how does Dean know so much about these guys? Even though the Skull Cross Gang had gained power over Metro City, their presence was still not as well-known as how the Mad Gear Gang's presence was before. They were also affiliated with Mad Gear before their fall.
But what separated Mad Gear and Skull Cross was that Mad Gear had ruled the city with their racketeering and illegal activity under the rule of Belger, whose financial backing was quite an influence. Skull Cross, on the other hand, is ruling the city with their penchant for civil disturbance and unrest. They didn't even bother to come to Mayor Haggar to put him in their pocket.
They walked a few blocks from Club Sims. The one bus stop that had a route to one of the places they needed to go was right in front of a car dealership. Dean led the way. No one was really the leader of this troop, but with Dean having some ostensive knowledge of this gang, he had to lead the way for them.
"Hey, Dean," Haggar said. "Where are we going?"
"You'll find out soon enough," Dean said.
"You could at least tell us what you're planning to do," Guy said.
Haggar noted, "You know so much about them that you even addressed the last guy by his name. Did they hound you to join them?"
"I will not share any more of this," Dean said.
"Come on, Dean," Lucia said. "We're trying to help you, but we still don't know how you know so much about these guys."
Dean turned around to face them, "You sure ask a lot of questions."
Lucia responded, "We only asked a few. Look, all of us want to help, but can you at least tell us how everything went down when they tried to recruit you?"
Guy then spoke, "Also, how are you able to shock people like that?"
Dean looked at the other three but then raised his head a tad and looked closer and through his eyes was the sight of some unruly riff-raff headed their way.
Guy then looked behind him and saw some more gang members approaching them.
"Now is not the time," Dean said.
"We got company!" Guy yelled.
At that very moment, the quartet was ambushed. It was as if someone sent them to off them. Sure, the Skull Cross Gang may have power across the city, but the way they're approaching them, it's as if they mean business.
The moment someone was about to whack Guy in the back with a hammer, he quickly turned around and fed the guy an elbow to the gut and then quickly spun around and jumped to elbow the hammer-wielding thug in the head with another elbow.
Lucia quickly leaped and delivered a spinning kick to the face of another thug. Right when she landed, someone delivered a cheap shot to her back as she fell forward. It wasn't over for that thug, as he quickly drew a knife.
"Looks like Dave didn't get the job done earlier, as he failed in killing a pig," the knife-wielding thug said. "Looks like I'm taking this pig to the slaughterhouse."
He grabbed her in a stranglehold with the knife in that hand, while he used his other hand and rubbed his left over her bare stomach and to her breasts and cupped one of them.
"It would be a real shame if a pig like you has to get slaughtered like this."
But in that moment, she delivered a hard mule kick to his nuts. She turned around and got behind him and delivered a hard German Suplex to the pavement.
"You are the pig, asshole!" she yelled right to him.
A thug tried to rush Haggar, but his beast-like physique was not about to taken down that easily. The moment he turned around, Mike picked up the thug over his head and then tossed him right towards a window into the dealership. The alarm started blaring in that moment.
Lucia looked up and wondered if any of her fellow officers would respond to this. It would at least get the thugs off their backs.
A few thugs once again tried to gang up on Haggar, but he delivered his spinning lariat to knock them all down. Dean quickly took down a thug and delivered a few punches to him while he was on the ground.
From a distance, a few suspicious looking figures looked on. It happened to be May and some of her cohorts, along with Rick and Dirk, as well as Arby and Fat Jack.
"You think we should join in?" Rick said.
"Nah," May said. "I think more will show up. Besides, Stray wanted them to take care of the problem. He promised he would pay the man who kills that blonde guy."
"What about the rest?" Dirk said.
Arby said, "I think whoever kills the mayor will get paid a high sum."
"Shit, why don't we join in?" G said who walked up at that moment. "I could really use some of that money."
Guy found some nunchucks on ground and started going to town on another thug who tried to attack him. The guy wouldn't budge though, as he picked up the hammer that another thug used earlier. Being the martial artist that he is, Guy just dodged every attack that the man attempted on him and swooped out of his way. The thug turned around and saw that Guy spun around a delivered a hard spin kick right towards the man's face and sent the man flying towards a glass window and bumped right into a car, which caused the car alarm to go off, even with the shop's alarm still blaring at that moment.
From a few blocks away, Haggar noticed a transit bus pulling up.
"Hey, you guys," he said. "This bus goes by a junkyard like that bouncer said."
"Weird that he would just tell us like that," Dean said. "Why would he sell them out like that?"
"Wait," Guy said. "He said that we can find information on where to find who you're looking for."
"For all we know, we could be falling into a trap," Lucia said.
"Okay," Haggar said. "But he also said about other places. We all could try scoping the junkyard first and then Chinatown. The junkyard is close to the Westside, which is where Chinatown and Japantown is."
"But there is also the docks," Lucia said. "Wait, I just thought of something. How about you and Guy go to the Westside, while Dean and I can go check out the docks? There's got to be something big going down there."
"Excuse me?" Dean said.
"I'm just saying we can split up for now. You and I can go check out that area. I have a hunch that something is coming in. I heard that the Skull Cross Gang runs the docks as well. They might have a shipment coming in. Could be weapons, could be drugs, could be counterfeiting. Who knows?"
"That sounds like a good idea," Haggar said. "We'll meet up in Chinatown later."
"Okay, sounds good," Lucia said. "I'll keep an eye on Dean. He'll watch my back as well." She turned towards him. "Right?"
"Yes, I will, Lucia," Dean said. "Let's get going."
Dean and Lucia took off to get to the docks. They had to find a way and found a subway nearby.
As the bus got closer, Haggar looked at the two blonde vigilantes as they walked away. Guy looked at them as well but then looked towards Haggar, as he had a suspicious look on his face.
"What's wrong, Mike?" Guy said.
"I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like Lucia is kind of sweet on that guy Dean."
"What makes you so sure?" Guy said.
"I don't know, but she often helped him and tried to keep him calm, but like I said, maybe it's just me."
Guy turned around and glanced as the two blonde-haired vigilantes walked off. What was noticeable was that Lucia often looked in Dean's direction. It seemed that Haggar had a point. The way she wanted to help him or would be quick to assist him, it almost seemed as if maybe she felt something for the man. Sure, it was possible that she may have been attracted to him, but it seemed that there was more to it than that.
It wasn't long until the bus had arrived and pulled up to the stop. Haggar and Guy stood by the bus stop and got right when it stopped.
Right when they got on, Haggar took a close look at the driver. The man driving was dressed in some gear that didn't appear to be a part of the Uptown Metro City transit system, or even any other districts of the city. No, the driver was dressed in a leather vest and a muscle shirt with black jeans. The hat he wore looked to be stolen from the driver of that route.
Guy walked in to find a seat to sit in. Right when he was about to sit down, he noticed a few passengers on the bus looked suspicious to him. The passengers looked like they could be Skull Cross Gang members. They all mugged towards the two men.
With such cramped room, he grabbed one of them and approached the back exit door and right when it opened, he threw the man out. But it didn't stop there.
Another gang member tried to attack Guy from behind, but was quickly grabbed by Haggar. He carried the man towards the front of the bus and yelled at the driver to open the door and then threw the man out of the bus with such force.
Oddly enough, any other Skull Cross Gang members got up and went to the back door and got out as fast as they could.
Just then, the bus then started moving as Guy and Haggar fell to their left. They grabbed onto a bar on top of a seat and quickly seated themselves.
The two gang members who got out looked on at the bus rolling off and then saw the other gang members lying in pain across the street.
"Damn, looks like our mayor has been busy," one of the criminals said. "We were supposed to pick up our guys and we would go hide."
"I don't think they'll make it," the other guy said. "Besides, Caine will take care of them."
"Weird how they're going over there to hide out. Caine don't like people coming around his place."
"He ain't so bad if you just don't bother him."
"That's true."
On the bus, the driver sped through traffic and intersections. Some police cars had the roads blocked off because of some of the rioting that occurred earlier that day. It was in case if any other riots were to happen in that section of the city.
"That driver is certainly in a hurry," Guy said.
"Something tells me that his bus was supposed to pick up those hooligans that we took care of just now," Haggar said. "We're heading to their hideout."
The two looked at each other in silence.
"There must be somebody there who might know something," Haggar said.
It wasn't long until they had stopped. But it wasn't at another stop to pick up any passengers, whether they were civilians or fellow gang members. Haggar looked up and saw towers of cars stacked on top of each other. Guy noticed the same thing, as well as noticed the driver getting up and quickly getting out of the car.
It was obvious that they were in a junkyard. But why? Does the Skull Cross Gang run this particular junkyard?
"Hey, Caine! We got company!"
Caine? Haggar thought. He must be the name of another Skull Cross lieutenant.
Haggar and Guy got up and walked towards the front door of the bus and got off. Though they figured that this bus was stolen before, it appeared that it wasn't just to pick up any gang members to take them to a hideout. It almost seemed like this junkyard was connected to a chop shop. With another bus parked about 100 feet away, it seemed that the bus they rode was about to get the same treatment.
On top of that same bus, a tall and muscular man with a gray uniform that had ripped sleeves and a gray baseball hat on came walking out. He also had a horseshoe mustache and a pair of protective goggles on, as well as slammed a rather large wrench into the palm of his gloved left hand. He was Caine, who appeared to be another member of the Skull Cross Gang. He probably ran this place, but it seemed void of any others.
"Well, what do we have here?" the man said. "Who dare comes into my inner sanctum?"
Caine looked down. "Well, is that our mayor down there? You know, I don't like people coming in here, especially when I don't invite them. So why don't you two just get out? Now!"
"Wait," Haggar said. "Do you know anything about what your boss is planning?"
"Boss? What boss? I own this place," Caine said. "I tried to ask you nicely to get out. You leave me no choice but to get you out myself."
Guy then leaned in and whispered into Haggar's ear. "Hey, let me handle this guy. I'll talk some sense into him."
Haggar said, "You sure? That guy looks bigger than you. How about if I do this?"
"I have a plan," Guy said. "Besides, I have a feeling that he can't really fight. So I think I got this."
Haggar nodded and said "go" to him. Guy ran and jumped onto a car that was right beside the bus and then climbed onto the roof of the bus.
Guy looked Caine dead in the eye with dead silence.
"I told you to get out and let me do thing," Caine said. "But now I must get you out myself."
Caine started swinging the wrench multiple times. Each time he swung, Guy dodged every attack and backed up. Caine missed each attack. Guy backed up until he noticed that he was on the edge of the roof. Caine walked across and once he saw the number 21 on the center of the roof, it was clear he was halfway.
He spun his wrench around like how a martial artist would swing a bo staff or even a spear. "Okay, I tried to be nice, but you left me no choice."
Caine charged right towards Guy brandishing his large wrench, but Guy quickly got out of his way as Caine fell right off. Before he could hit the ground, Haggar caught the mechanic and then pushed him against the wall.
Haggar looked around and noticed a familiar face walking around. The person's eyes shifted right to Haggar but quickly ran off. Haggar then let go of Caine, who then picked up his wrench and raised it as if he was going to hit him. But right in his field of vision, even through his dark goggles, he saw a man in red jump right in front of him and then his right arm was grabbed, as right when he was about to hit Haggar, the man in red blocked his attack. The man in red turned out to be Guy.
Guy grabbed the wrench from Caine's hand and then threw it to the ground.
"No, we need to talk," Guy said. "While I'm a firm believer in destroying evil, I don't think you're that evil. You're just misunderstood and you don't like people and you have your own form of evil."
"What are you talking about?" Caine said.
Meanwhile, Haggar caught up to the driver and then tackled him to the ground.
"Please, don't hurt me!" the driver said.
"I won't if you tell me what's going on here," Haggar said. "Do you work for the Skull Cross Gang?"
"Okay, yes, we do," the driver said. "But we had nothing to do with the rioting or anything like that. I just took the bus to help bring any of our fellow gang members to hide, and also to deliver this bus to Caine. He usually doesn't like having people around while he handles his own shit. He only likes taking apart cars and appliances and stuff. That's all he does."
"Do you know anything about someone murdering a family?" Haggar said.
"I only heard some shit, but I mainly handle matters for Caine," the driver said. "I'm the closest he has to a friend, even though he doesn't really like people. As for the murders, I try not to get involved in any of that heavy shit."
"Okay, then maybe I'll go talk to him."
It wasn't long until Haggar met up with Guy, who held the wrench right to Caine's neck to keep him still.
"So your friend tells me that you only like stealing cars and appliances for your own pleasure," Haggar said. "So you don't really have much involvement with the rest of the gang I hear."
Caine replied. "I'm not the guy you should talk to. Yes, I handle my own stuff. I rarely go to any of the meetings. I may be a part of the Skull Cross Gang, but I am not involved in all the stuff that everyone is involved in. I only get my money for some of the stuff that Black and the rest of the gang do, but I don't really keep up with what the rest of them do."
"Okay, I get that," Haggar said. "So who should we talk to?"
"You want answers?" Caine said. "Go to Chinatown or go the docks in the Bay Area. You'll find some answers there."
Guy then backed the wrench away, along with backing himself away from Caine.
"Just want to know one thing," Haggar said. "How is it that you are a part of a gang if you don't like to be around people?"
"Money," Caine said. "I may get some money from some of the guys who use my place as a hideout, as long as they stay out of my way. I got nothing else to say. Get out of here."
Haggar and Guy turned around and walked off.
"He said Chinatown," Guy said. "Isn't that in the Westside of the city?"
"Yes, it is," Haggar said. "But he didn't say where to search. We may have to ask around."
Guy then saw the driver from before and then tapped on Haggar's shoulder.
"Hey you!"
The driver turned around. "What now?"
"My friend and I need a favor. As your mayor, if you don't want any jail time for stealing cars and stuff, I am going to tell you to drive us to Chinatown now. Do I make myself clear?"
The driver sighed and then nodded his head. He approached the bus, along with the mayor and the martial artist. He was about to escort them to Chinatown in Metro City.
Author's note: Okay, I'm going to explain a few things.
In the game, there are different routes to go. I had Haggar and Guy complete the rest of the level by heading to the junkyard and fighting Caine. It will then lead to them going to Chinatown. Dean and Lucia will go and handle matters at the docks stage, which I will also get to.
Okay, so there was no fight scene on the bus like how the game has them fighting on the bus. As someone who has ridden on the bus many times (And does it quite often, too), there is not a lot of room, if any, on a bus for a fight sequence to occur. Maybe a one-on-one fight scene, but even it's pretty cramped in it. The subway sequence in the first game seems a lot more plausible as there is more room in a subway train car.
I know that the fight scene with Caine was underwhelming, but really, the character himself, aside from having a lot of health, is pretty underwhelming as well. He doesn't really have a lot of attacks, which only consist of swinging his wrench. It wasn't really a fight scene, either, as it was mainly Guy dodging his attacks and using his wits to take him down, rather than his hands and feet.
Haggar and Guy will go to Chinatown. In my mind, I think it's in the same area as the Westside stage from the first game. Remember, it's still Metro City, so some locations might still be there. The next chapter or two will be with Dean and Lucia. Stay tuned for that.