Chapter 17

Chinatown, Wood Oak City.

Blaze cautiously glanced behind herself as she paced around the corner of the street. On her way here, she stole a black hooded coat off one of the market stalls in the street. She placed it over her leather jacket then blended in with the crowd as soon as she noticed a couple of police cadets patrolling the streets. Every police siren or officer in close proximity was a threat and Blaze had just about managed to escape beyond the two mile radius from Tim's bar. But it was a struggle and she was nowhere near out of danger.

Blaze left with no phone, no money, no keys, not to mention her personal belongings which were somewhere between her old apartment, her dance studio as well as Tim's place. It was impossible to go back to any of these areas and by now, Blaze was certain that Tim would have the cops patrolling them like hawks. Even the other familiar places that she knew were now too risky to return to. If Blaze had any contact with Adam, Max or Zan, the police would take the opportunity in a heartbeat to intercept and arrest her without a second thought.

Tim had dirt on her and if he betrayed her once, he was willing to do it again. Even if the police were to arrest Blaze for acting as a vigilante, they would still turn a blind eye to Murphy as an accomplice. The entire precinct was now corrupt and Blaze couldn't help but feel annoyed with herself for ever trusting Tim in the first place. What made things worse was the fact that if anybody caught her, nothing would stop Barbon and his gang from repeating the same atrocities as before.

The 9pm market was crowded and lit full of red lanterns swinging and hanging from above. The streets were cobbled narrow and the smell of incense and various authentic Chinese cuisines dominated every inch of the night market. Blaze lightly brushed past the noisy crowd who barely noticed her presence amongst them.

She was wounded, both physically and mentally. The initial shock of meeting Barbon earlier along with finding out the truth about what Tim had done, now started to wear off. Blaze felt livid about the situation and the flashbacks of that night were as clear as the reality that took place seven years ago. Every punch and kick Blaze suffered played out over and over again in her head to the point where her body could still feel the pain.

Eventually Blaze found the place she was looking for. It was a restaurant on the corner that served a fusion of Asian cuisines. It had a Japanese name called Kagami. Blaze stood outside in the rain, glancing up at its flashing neon sign. The place was decorated with purple and silver which made it unique to many of the red-gold shades that made up the other nearby restaurants in competition to it. It also had large decorated mirrors surrounding its interior, possibly to complement the name of the place.

Blaze could see six other fighters watching her every move in the distance by the kitchens as she approached the entrance. An old, short, stocky man immediately approached her, "do you have a reservation miss?"

"No. I haven't come here to eat. I need to speak with your boss", Blaze answered.

"I'm sorry but he only takes appointments in advance."

"And I don't make appointments!" Blaze impatiently folded her arms. It didn't take long for the six fighters to quietly step forward to close in on her.

"Sorry, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," the man answered.

"If you want to avoid a blood bath right here in front of your customers, I'd suggest you tell those fighters there to back off and take me to your boss!" Blaze demanded.

"Miss, I….." the old man shrugged.

As he struggled with his sentence, another woman who was a similar age and height as Blaze strutted forward, holding up one hand in the air to signal to the fighters to back down. She appeared to be Japanese in ethnicity and was wearing long black boots with a tight fitted black crop top, skimpy dark shorts and a long thin black jacket to match her attire. Her jet black hair with blue streaks was also slicked back into a tight ponytail. This woman was definitely a fighter by the way she walked and was likely hiding a sharp weapon or two underneath that jacket of hers.

She muttered something to the server in Japanese before turning towards Blaze.

"Can I help you Miss Fielding?" The lady let out a coy smile as she stepped in front of Blaze.

"Who the fuck are you?" The brunette frowned.

"I'm Rudra, the boss of this place. What do you want?" She snapped straight to the point, this time with a sterner tone than before.

"That's bullshit", Blaze laughed. "I wanna speak to the real boss right now, or else!"

"You know what your problem is Blaze? You're too quick to use your fists to resolve an issue. Why don't you come back tomorrow huh? My brother Leon is away tonight. Shall I leave him a message for you?" Rudra casually tilted her head to one side as she stuck her neck out forward, attempting to patronise Blaze.

"You don't know shit about me and what I can do with my fists" Blaze snarled. "Tell Shiva I'll be back again tomorrow" she turned to walk away.

"No problem chicka!" Rudra grinned.

After Blaze walked out, the Kunochi gave the six fighters in the restaurant a brief nod. They then cautiously followed Blaze back out into the night market, maintaining a distance behind her through the crowd. She swiftly passed through groups of shoppers, weaving in and out of the stalls without turning around to look at them.

"Make sure you keep up with her!" One of the kickboxers spoke through an earpiece he was wearing as the fighters trailed Blaze from various angles.

Then suddenly, she was gone.

"Hey, I think we've lost her!" There was a worried reply in the kickboxer's earpiece. He stopped for a moment in order to scan his own surroundings, but Blaze had disappeared out of sight. As he stepped past the entrance to a dark alley, the heroine suddenly pulled him back, slamming his head into the brick wall. Blaze wasted no time, jumping high then crashing her foot into his chest as he stumbled back. He ended up tumbling over and array of metallic trash cans.

"Why did you follow me?! And where is Shiva?!" Blaze demanded as she started to drag the fighter up off the ground by the collar. He remained unresponsive and instead, he glanced up towards the entrance of the alley behind her.

"Shit!" Blaze muttered to herself as the other fighters appeared at once.

She was quick to jump back up to standing where she threw an array of kicks and elbow strikes towards the other five other kickboxers that circled her. One of them attempted to dash forward with his fist, but Blaze judged the timing well, blocking his arm before somersaulting forward using her signature hishousouzan strike. The impact struck like a blade through the man's chest. After that, she cartwheeled backwards towards the next fighter who tried to grab her from behind, slamming her feet into the side of his head on the way down.

With ease, Blaze was ready to take down the last three enemies as she held her fists up in her own fighting stance. She dashed forward, elbow striking the next kickboxer who attacked towards the front of his neck, before grappling and throwing him backwards on the ground. As soon as she jumped up to her feet, Blaze executed a fast spinning back kick that painfully caught another fighter in the stomach. She placed one arm around his neck then swung her body around his to lock his neck into a choke hold from behind.

"Tell me where your boss is!" Blaze shouted at the last fighter standing opposite her as she restrained his colleague.

Unexpectedly, she felt a small sharp stab on one side of her neck. Blaze moved her hand towards the pain as she backed off away from the fighter she was holding. She then realised that a small pin had caught her skin which she had to painfully pull it out.

"I told you that trying to resolve shit with your fists doesn't work!" Rudra smirked as her heels clicked through the alley.

"What the hell is this?!" Blaze threw the small needle-like pin on the ground. She instantly started to feel light headed.

"Goodnight!" Rudra waved one hand, laughing amused whilst Blaze collapsed on the ground. She instantly fell asleep, sedated.

7 years earlier.

A repetitive siren rang aloud through the building as Shiva broke open the main entrance. He ran as fast as he could towards the lab where Dr Dahm was based, but the scientist was missing. Shiva could see the burnt fragments and remains of Robot Y scattered around the floor where his enemies had been fighting only minutes earlier. He also spotted a pool of blood that trailed off into the distance, but whoever it was had now gone. Only a blood stained tommy gun on its handle was left in the middle of the floor. A timer was ticking and Shiva's boss was nowhere to be seen. Something was badly wrong.

Shiva knew that following Mr X's orders to remain at City Hall was a bad idea. Here is where he should have been so that he could take down his enemies and defeat those vigilantes once and for all. As he inspected the lab, Shiva could see that the main missile that was targeted for Wood Oak's City centre had been disarmed, and everything around him in the building was soon to self-destruct.

Then, he suddenly heard the sound of a helicopter above. So Shiva sprinted up the stairs as fast as he could towards the roof.

"Leon! Leon, help me!"

Shiva could see one of his colleagues fighting for his life. He was heavily bleeding and huddled up in the corner of the roof.

"Jet?! What are you doing here? You and your men were supposed to remain in the City!"

"I know, but we were called here after they busted out the real Chief of Police!"

"Hang in there!" Shiva rushed to his friend's aid.

He immediately swung the bald fighter's arm over his neck as he helped him to stand.

"We gotta get out of here, the whole place is about to blow! Where's the boss and the Dr?"

Jet shook his head in response. "They were downstairs in the lab. Mr X told us to wait up here on the roof but we were gunned down by a police chopper that started firing at us!"

"So Mr X never made it up to the roof then?" Shiva queried.

"For the last time, no! Did you not pass the lab downstairs where he was?"

"Yeah, but there was no one left in there. There was blood, but the place was empty!" Shiva sighed, unsure of Mr X's whereabouts after the Syndicate boss and his army of robots had fought hard against Axel, Blaze, Sammy and Zan at the factory.

Shiva was ordered to remain at City Hall where he held the city Chief's family as hostages during a national press conference. His task was forcing a replica lookalike of the official to stand up and address the nation under false pretences whilst the fate of the city hung in the balance. When Axel and the team learned of this plot that was going ahead in order to distract the population from the real threat of a missile strike and bombings, they shared the news with Max and Adam as well as the rest of the police force. Eventually, they saved the real Chief who was found in a derelict building before they raided City Hall to try to arrest Shiva and stop the press conference. Even though the briefing was never completed and the Chief and his family were rescued, Shiva still managed to escape.

By the time he made it towards the outskirts of the city however, it was too late. Their Syndicate army and their boss had already been defeated.

"Come on, we have to get out of here!" Shiva insisted as he practically carried Jet all the way out of the abandoned factory and into the forest that surrounded it. By now, the helicopter Adam was flying was long gone. Shiva glanced down at his watch, realising that they only had a minute left. The other jetpack thugs who remained in the city were arrested, whilst those who fled to the factory were left badly injured or dead on the roof. It was now too late to save them.

"Keep your head down!" Shiva instructed as he and Jet took cover with their faces pressed against the soil and their arms over their heads. The factory and its lab violently exploded into an inferno just over a mile away from where they were laying. The bright light from it was blinding and was highly radioactive.

"Come on, we only have half an hour or so to get out of here before the fallout spreads!" Shiva vigorously shook Jet on the ground by his shoulders as own his ears started to ring.

"Jet, can you hear me?" He asked, but it was too late. The fighter and one of his closest friends laid still on the ground, dead.

Shiva placed the back of his hand across his own forehead, wiping away the sweat that dripped. "I'm sorry," he softly whispered to Jet with regret before he started running.

As Shiva sprinted through the forest, he reached for his phone, hoping to get any signal possible.

"Sister? When you get this please come and find me. It's urgent." He breathed heavily whilst he ran away from the vicinity of the explosion as fast as he could.

Present Day.

"Wake up!" He threw a bucket of cold water forward.

Blaze tiredly opened her eyes as she laid on her side across the ground with her hands tied with rope in front of her body. As her vision cleared, she glanced up to find Shiva standing over her in the light with his arms folded. Rudra was also close by, stationed behind him as the two of them glared down at her.

"You said you wanted to see me?" Shiva spoke.

"Is this really necessary?!" Blaze spat as she remained on the floor.

"You tell me?"

"I'm not here to fight you! I've come with a proposition for you. Untie me now and I'll explain…"

"I know why you're here," Shiva answered, crouching down in front of Blaze.

"You aren't seriously thinking about talking to this bitch are you?" Rudra barked from behind them.

Shiva turned to glance back at his now pissed-off sibling as he gave her an annoyed stare. "No one asked you!"

It was clear that he was in charge here, despite what Rudra thought. "Go and make yourself useful and find her a change of clothes!" Shiva ordered, sending his younger sister away even more annoyed than she was a minute ago.

Blaze chuckled to herself before her gaze met Shiva's brown eyes. "Does this mean we can be friends?"

Shiva's eyes widened as he stared down at her with caution.

"I'll talk to you. But first, you gotta do something for me…"

"What?!" Blaze frowned.

He reached into her jacket pocket then he pulled out the small bag of pills that remained on her.

"Hey! That's mine! You can't just….!" Blaze shouted. Her old foe simply ignored her then crushed the bag of drugs inside one fist. He then threw the bag up in the air before projecting a small white flash of lightning that burnt the whole lot into a crisp.

Blaze looked up from the floor with her jaw wide open. "You had no right to do that!" She angrily switched on him, but again, he ignored her complaints. Instead, Shiva dragged her up off the ground by the arms, then he pushed Blaze, forcing her forward towards another room once she was standing.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?! If you wanna fight me, grow some balls and do it properly! Untie this shit around my wrists right now! You ain't the only one with that kind of power around here!" Blaze yelled, kicking and fussing.

"Save your energy…" Shiva advised.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!... HEY!"

Before Blaze knew it, he had pushed her into another room that he locked the door of behind her.

"Hey! LET ME OUT!" Blaze kicked and pushed against the door. The room was near enough empty with no windows, but at least it had a bed, a TV and a bucket for emergencies inside it.

Blaze repeatedly kicked and barged the door for a good half an hour or so, but she couldn't escape.

"No one goes in there and she doesn't come out. Understood?" Shiva ordered several of his bodyguards as he placed the key to the room inside his pocket.

"Yes boss!" They answered.

"Good", the fighter nodded before walking away.

AUTHORS NOTES:

So at this point, the story has already started to transition from game 3 to 4. But I wanted to have a flash-back scene linking to the endings of the 3rd game (with a little bit of the twist - see if you can figure it out ;-) ). It's something that I am currently baffled about with regards to the 3rd game if you have ever made it to the ending at City Hall.

More of Shiva's backstory and how he became good will be shown in the next chapter coming soon! I hope you enjoyed this one :-).