Chapter 16: A Helping Hand

Narda Chemical Plant, Sahara Desert in Algeria

As stated by Craig Marduk, King did not partake in the latest fight match in Poland. Instead he made it his business to put a hamper on Heihachi's operation to supply chemicals and potions used for youth rejuvenation. Along the way there, he meets up with Detective Lei Wulong at the Algerian capital, Algiers. King managed to call him since he was a detective who always fought at the Tekken tournaments. This time would also be the same. Lei also learn about Heihachi's plan to reverse his age. He believed it would be a never ending cycle of control by the Mishima family if Heihachi successfully achieved this objective. Unfortunately, Lei was injured from his fight with Bryan Fury and Dragunov about a week ago. So he would need King and his partner/captive Feng Wei to investigate the ruins of the Narda Chemical Plant along with the aid of the Algerian military troops. Lei tells King and Feng Wei the plan to break inside as they ride to the plant.

Lei: "Alright boys. This is it! Now there is a possibility that G Corporation is digging their noses at this base as well. If their forces overwhelm the army soldiers then I'm going to need you guys to active the self destruct device. The general informed me it would take about ten minutes for the explosion to spread at a 3 mile radius. So we gotta move it, if that happens."

King: "This will be a good start to take down the Shibata LP. I'm going to make sure Katsuhiro really feels it with his wallet. Heihachi will have no choice but to relieve him of his duties."

Lei: "Oh that reminds me. How did you ever meet up with a guy like Katsuhiro?"

King: "Long story short he promised me money so that I could rebuild my closed down orphanage back in my homeland. Turns out his company is the main reason my orphanage had to close down because of their funding to the cartels for trading guns and drugs."

Lei: "How despicable."

King: "I know right. Now I'm going to make him pay for his deception."

Lei: Yea man, my partner and I ran into Katsuhiro many years back in Hong Kong. Your old boss was just a petty dope dealer back then. He got caught making a deal with one of our more notorious triad gangs. He didn't put up much of a fight though."

King: "Not surprising."

Feng Wei (alerting Lei): "We are here."

Lei (Looks outside, the van stops.): "Yep. The van stopped. Alright, I'm going to stay here and guide you boys in. Remember, look for any clues you can find about this youth elixir. If G Corporation shows up, find the self detonation device and comeback here pronto."

King (Gets out of the car.): "Alright."

Feng Wei (Follows King.): "Let's get this over with."

Lei could only shake his head at the reluctance of Feng Wei as he is ordered to escort King inside the plant. The Algerian troops also posted themselves alongside King and Feng Wei, so they would get inside without a hitch.

The place was abandoned, but the technology was still in working condition. Under the guidance of Lei Wulong, King and Feng Wei walked inside the main elevator, heading into the third basement level, where the labs were located. All was quiet throughout the base. However King smelled something foul within the air. Feng Wei could also sense a disturbing presence, but couldn't make out what it was. Walking further inside, the two men eventually stumbled their way inside a farm full of human bodies trapped inside capsules. It looked as if tubes were coming out of the arms and legs of the bodies and the blood was taken up over the roof somewhere.

King (approaches one body): "This is horrible. What kind of sick twisted minds would do such a thing?"

Feng Wei (Looking around.): "So this is how Heihachi was extracting blood types in order create a formula. He used these refugees as guinea pigs."

Lei (from the radio): "What do you see down there guys?"

King: "We walked into a lab full of dead bodies. Their blood completely sucked out of them. They look like mummies. Oh man, even little children have suffered."

Lei: "I should have known. The Shibata designed this plant to look like a regular petroleum factory. But this is what they were really doing."

Feng Wei: "I found a door at the other side. It's locked. I will break it."

Feng Wei punches the bolted steel door and proceeds to enter inside. He finds a switch turns on the lights. Turns out the blood was directed into these large steel pods, which had large stirring beaters. This must be the area where they mixed the blood along with certain chemicals for experimentation.

Lei: "Okay fellas, this the central chamber for the plant. There is a desk up ahead. All of the computer data about Heihachi's formula is located there. Feng Wei, the jump drive I gave you will have enough storage space to copy all of the work. King, I want you to start flushing whatever is left inside those pods. We can't let anyone get a hold of this elixir."

King: "You got it Lei."

The men wasted no time getting to work. King located the controls to operate the pods. He finds the button that tells him to melt the material inside the pods. King pushes it and the pods begin to activate. The steel turns red, indicating that mixed blood is starting to burn. Feng Wei gathers whatever information could be available inside the computer folders. Some of the folders needed a password to further access them. Since he was no hacker, Feng Wei left them alone and copied the unprotected files. They would have to do. Suddenly the men could hear loud explosions above their heads. Lei alerts them that its G Corporation.

Lei: "Dammit! Guys it's them! G Corporation! They're here! Hurry and find the self detonation switch!"

Feng Wei: "Agh! Where is that damn switch?"

King (walks to Feng.): "Isn't it that large red button covered in glass?"

Feng (Annoyed by King's relative ease.): "I knew that you freak!" (Hits the button.) "There, now let's leave this place!"

King (runs.): "Don't forget the jump drive!"

Feng continues to mean mug at King for his astute thinking. Of course he wouldn't forget. But it's not like Feng Wei gave a damn. All he wanted to do was avoid prison time for raping Asuka Kazama., which is why he became Lei's partner at the tournament.

It took five minutes to finally exit out of the plant. The men dodged falling debris from the plant where missiles struck the tall petroleum pumps. The Algerian troops were struggling to defend themselves against the JACK squadron of G Corporation. Lei using his binoculars with one hand, finally he finds King and Feng Wei running along the sand. With haste, Lei hops in the van and drives closer to the base.

Lei (Opens the van door.): "Glad you could make it out boys. Let's high tail it out of here!"

Lei also informed the general about the plant's self destruct activation. Five minutes later, a large explosion could be seen from the horizon of the sand dunes. The mission was successful. King was one step closer of taking out the Shibata LP's underground operations.

Several hours later at Algiers, Algeria…

It was near midnight by the time King arrived back at the capital. He was exhausted from the latest tension that occurred at the plant. Lei Wulong dropped off King at a nearby mosque where is hotel was located. The cop asked him to stay in touch if he had any more leads on Katsuhiro's operations. After getting closer to the hotel, King couldn't help but feel he was being watched. The hotel was straight away, but King walked through an alleyway to get away from the large streets. Suddenly, tear gas dropped in the alleyway and it quickly spread. King covered his nose but he was tagged from behind by a taser rod. King began to choke on the smoke. He could see masked men wearing bug like gas mask with glowing blue eyes, starting down at him. It was about four of them. They continued to hit King with their rods, until he finally passed out. The men were none other than the special ops force of the Shibata LP. They were too late to save the chemical plant, but had no trouble tracking down King.

Special ops leader: "Mr. Katsuhiro. King has been apprehended."

Katsuhiro (on the phone.): "Well done. Let the boss handle him this time. I'm sure he wants to know the man who just blew up his base in the Sahara Desert."

Special ops leader: "Roger that."

With that said, the special ops team picks up the unconscious wrestler. He will be taken to meet Heihachi himself, the man secretly operation the Shibata LP.

Notes: In the next chapter King is placed in the prison of Heihachi Mishima's Estate in Japan for his latest crime of destroying the chemical plant in Algeria. He meets a fellow Tekken fighter along the way and begin plotting a plan to escape. Also, Julia meets a recruiter for a model agency in order to boost her funds for the forest rejuvenation project.