Wrong Place, Wrong Time

In the weeks that had passed since Haggar's speech at the gala, there had been some controversy surrounding the things he said, whether it was the expletives he uttered, or the fact that Mad Gear had become a problem for the city.

Some news outlets, however, had stated that some of Metro City's citizens had sided with Haggar on his views of the city and how there needed to be a change in regards to the crime problem.

It was still early in Mike Haggar's mayoral run. Several citizens were confident that there will be a change to the city, unlike the previous mayor.

Early one morning, Cody woke up. It was a few minutes before 6 AM. He was wide awake, like once he woke up, there was no way to get back to sleep. Sleeping beside him was Jessica.

"Jessica, wake up, it's morning," Cody said.

Jessica turned around. "Huh?" She barely sounded coherent. She didn't look up and turned back around.

"Come on, baby, it's time to get up," Cody said.

"My class is not until later today," Jessica said. "Go back to sleep, Cody."

"I can't, I got to go into work today," Cody said. "I have a client coming in at around 8. I got to be at the gym before then."

"Okay, just let me sleep for a little longer," Jessica said.

Cody worked as a trainer at Tom's Training Facility, which was not only a health club for people trying to improve themselves, but also for people to learn self-defense, as well as learning disciplines.

Cody then looked in the room next to where he and Jessica slept. In there lied a teenage boy with blond hair. Cody knocked on the wall. The teen tossed and turned a bit.

"Time to get up, Kyle, you got school, remember?" Cody said.

"Fuck off, Cody," Kyle said.

"Hey, don't talk to me like that," Cody said. "I don't want you to be late again, okay? Now get up!"

"Okay, damn!" Without question, Kyle threw his pillow across the room and got up.

Cody watched as his brother begrudgingly got up from bed to go take a shower. For years, Cody had his brother Kyle in his care. Their father had abandoned them when they were younger. During Cody's teen years, when Kyle was much younger, their mother had some run-ins with the law, whether it was committing some crimes or her drug problems, or a mixture of both. She had been in and out of jail and rehab. These current times were no different.

After a few minutes, Jessica had gotten up and approached Cody.

"What's wrong, Cody?" Jessica said.

"It's just another one of these days with Kyle," Cody said.

"Kyle is just a teenager, he'll come around," Jessica said.

"I know, but I hear he has been getting into trouble," Cody said. "Lucia told me that her partner's sister and Kyle had been caught ditching school at times. I just don't know what to do with him."

"Do you want my dad to come and talk to him?" Jessica said.

"Nah, he's too busy with his own shit," Cody said. "Besides, like you said, he might come around. I know I shouldn't be the one to talk because you and I got into some shit when we were in high school, remember?"

"Don't remind me," Jessica said. "And I know my dad was tough with you at times."

"Now don't remind me of that," Cody said, as a smile rose and let out a chuckle. Cody and Jessica grew up together, as did Kyle. With their father being out of the picture, Haggar stepped in and became something of a father-figure to the Travers brothers. Haggar was a tough guy, with his muscular build and strength to match, and not just physically tough, but also knew when to lay down the law, one of the reasons he had become mayor in the first place. But at the end of the day, Haggar was a loving father to Jessica, and was a good role model to Cody and Kyle.

"I don't understand why we have to live like this," Jessica said. "Dad could pay for a place for us to live closer to him."

"No, I don't want to live with your dad right now, especially if he has that bodyguard staying with him," Cody said.

"I didn't say for us to move back in with him, even though he has a lot of room," Jessica said. "I just said closer. He could try to help us with a more stable living arrangement."

"Baby, let's talk about this later," Cody said. "Besides, even if we moved into a nicer place, this whole city is a fucking shithole that it doesn't matter where you go, Mad Gear has influence everywhere. Besides, he is helping us out right now while I work and you go to school."

"I know," Jessica said. "As for what you said about Dad's bodyguard, Carlos isn't that bad. I wouldn't worry about him."

"Yeah, but I still don't trust him," Cody said with a mild glare in his eye. Cody had met one of Haggar's bodyguards, Carlos, a half-Brazilian and half-Japanese martial artist who got a job as one of Haggar's personal security and on the side trained his craft in various martial arts, as well as moved in with Haggar. One time Carlos tried to flirt with Jessica, which didn't sit well with Cody.

After some time, Kyle had finished getting ready. Anytime he walked, he didn't look at his brother, who had just finished getting ready for the day as well. All Jessica did was look on with confusion. The only thing that was on the minds of Cody and Jessica was that Kyle was going through a rebellious phase.

Kyle walked carrying his backpack, dressed in a dark denim jacket and black shirt and jeans. Cody wore a plain white T-shirt and blue pants. However, the T-shirt looked like a regular shirt with a full-on cotton texture rather than an undershirt.

"Okay, Kyle, let's get going," Cody said and then turned to Jessica. "Bye, baby."

"See you later, honey," Jessica said and then leaned in to kiss Cody on the lips. It was just a simple peck on the lips. The two brothers were off.

Hours had passed that morning. Cody was at work at Tom's Training Facility. After the session with his client had ended, Cody went to a speed-bag and started punching away at it with quick speeds and then quickly moved to a bigger punching bag. Cody had let out multiple punches, which then led to some kicks. Some people had looked on. The way Cody punched, which went from quick jabs to hard hooks and crosses, it looked less like he was training to keep fresh with his martial arts and more that he was blowing off some steam. It caught the attention of a couple who had been working out close by, with the woman being a stunner with white hair and wore a white training bra with green tight pants and a green headband, while the man had an orange tank-top and black gym shorts and had slicked black hair.

"Don't let any anger get the better of you, my friend. Rage only decreases your discipline." That sound of a voice made Cody stop what he was doing and looked up and saw a man of Japanese descent standing nearby wearing an orange karate gi with Japanese kanji symbols on the left side of his gi. To top it off, he also wore some orange and white Nike shoes.

"Oh, hey, Guy," Cody said and slapped dap with him. "You're early."

"Never too early to start," Guy said. "Even then, I am always training when I can."

"Well, let me take a breather before we get started," Cody said. "Besides, I'm looking forward to seeing some more of your crazy moves."

"First, let me practice my moves before we spar," Guy said.

"Go ahead, I got time before my next client comes later," Cody said.

For some time, Guy and Cody had practiced their moves on the punching bags, much to the awe of the couple that was going about their workouts. The two continued to look on, as if they were impressed by their fighting ability.

As Cody continued to practice his punches on the bag, he looked up towards the door to the gym and noticed something was wrong. It looked like four men hassling the young man at the front desk, which then led an older man in the 30s range come out to talk to these four men. The older man was Tom, the owner of the gym.

These men had a distinct look about them. All four were Caucasian, but the main one had green sunglasses and a red Mohawk haircut and had on an orange vest-like coat, which looked like a jacket but had no sleeves and had a dragon symbol on the back, along with a green hooded sweatshirt with no sleeves. That man was known as Two P. One of his partners had a similar style, except his coat was yellow and had the nuclear symbol on the back and had a blue sweatsuit with blond spiky hair, who was known as J. The other two men were Mic and Mark, whom had similar styles with wearing pants and suspenders, but Mic was bald and had sunglasses and blue pants, while Mark had a red pompadour and yellow pants.

"Where's our fucking money, Tom?" Two P said to Tom.

"Look, I paid you guys last week, please leave," Tom said.

"No," J said. "We keep you in business, you have to pay us to keep yourself in business."

"Come on, this is too much," Tom said.

"Too much?" Mark said and laughed. "You don't pay us, you don't want to know what we will do to your precious gym."

"Yeah, so pay up," Mic said.

"Hey." Tom turned around and the four criminals looked up. Cody and Guy approached them.

"Hey, Tom, are these men giving you trouble?" Cody said.

"Relax, Cody, I'll handle this," Tom said.

Two P added, "Come on, let these fine people exercise and handle this outside."

Guy looked at these men, as did Cody. It was clear to both men that they were not messing around. The threats they made implied that if they took Tom outside, then Tom wouldn't make his way back into the gym.

"No," Cody said. "How about we take this outside?"

"Oh, look, some guys trying to be heroes," Two P said. "Okay, guys, let's do this."

The four thugs went outside, while Cody and Guy followed them. Cody and Guy knew they were outnumbered, but better them than Tom. Through the glass door, Tom, along with the front desk guy, and some of the other patrons, including that couple from before went and saw what was about to go down.

Mic and Mark were ready to fight Guy, while Two P and J were ready to fight Cody. The criminals swung, while both Cody and Guy dodged their attacks. Guy spun around delivered a sweep attack and jumped up to do a hurricane kick to both of them. While Cody delivered some hard punches to Two P and turned around to attack J and continued to give Two P a beating until he went down. Cody wasn't done, however, as he delivered a couple of punches to J and then moved on to deliver a hard roundhouse kick to J, sending him to the ground.

All of the people in the gym froze at what just happened. Some were impressed by their fighting ability, others wondered if the thugs will come back and try to do something worse.

"Don't ever let us catch you here again, assholes!" Cody yelled as the four thugs got up and ran off while struggling to walk away from the pain that they had suffered.

Cody and Guy walked back into the gym and were ready to train once again.

"Hey, Cody," Tom said as Cody looked to the owner. "Thank you."

"It was nothing," Cody said.

"No, it was not nothing, I owe you big time for this," Tom said. "Things have gotten worse since Mad Gear had become more powerful and they've been demanding a lot more money."

"Don't worry, after Guy and I kicked their asses, I doubt they'll come back," Cody said.

"I don't know about that," Tom said.

"Hey, me and Guy, we'll keep an eye out for you," Cody said.

"Thanks, I owe you two big time," Tom said.

The couple from before had walked up to Cody and Guy.

"Hey," the man said. "My name is Leon and this is my girlfriend Mary. I saw what you two did out there. That's some impressive shit."

"It's no big deal, we just needed to teach those guys a lesson," Cody said.

"Right, right, but listen," Leon said. "Mary and I think you two should check out some of the fighting circuits here in the city."

"What are you talking about?" Guy said.

Mary added, "There are some fight clubs out there in the city, but the Surf Bar hosts fights every week. If you guys are interested…"

"Um, I don't know," Cody said.

"The money is good, mark my words," Leon said. "Think about it. There's also another big fight club, but it's underground and…" Leon paused for a bit and looked away.

"What?" Guy said.

"The champion is undefeated," Leon said. "No one has beaten him yet."

Guy put his hand against his chin. This sounded like it could be quite a challenge for him.

"If you guys are looking to make money, check out the Surf Bar soon," Mary said.

Cody sighed. "We'll think about it."

Meanwhile, Kyle went out to the industrial area of Metro City with his friends Paco, Lou, Celeste, and Vanessa. It was the five of them and it appeared that Paco and Celeste were a thing, while it was clear that Kyle and Vanessa liked each other and bordered on going out, but nothing was made official. Lou was the fifth wheel, but none of them minded his company. They were out skipping school and decided to go check out the area, which wasn't too far from Chinatown in the Westside district.

They all walked around. Vanessa walked and talked with Celeste, while the three guys walked behind them and goofed around.

"So will Kyle ever ask you out?" Celeste said. "I see that you two like each other a lot, but why hasn't he asked you out yet?"

Vanessa said, "I know he likes me, and I like him, too, but something tells me that he's afraid of Sean."

"Your brother?" Celeste said.

"Yeah, because my brother's a cop," Vanessa said and sighed. "And he doesn't like me hanging out with Kyle."

Meanwhile, Kyle and his two friends goofed off and chatted.

"Just ask her out, man," Lou said to Kyle.

"Lou is right," Paco said. "Celeste and I are going out and things are fine. What are you afraid of?"

Kyle replied, "Come on, you know Vanessa's brother is a cop, right?"

"Yeah, so?" Lou said. "And your brother is with the mayor's daughter, isn't he? Man, if Cody wasn't with Jessica, I'd totally go for that! Your brother is one lucky bastard if he gets to have that every night."

"Hey, man, shut up," Kyle said. "Cody has been with Jessica for a while. Besides, Cody's also been on my ass for skipping school lately and sneaking out of the house. I swear he thinks he's my dad than my brother."

"What Officer Sims won't know won't hurt him, right? What do you got to lose?" Lou said.

Out of the blue, the quintet went to a halt as they saw a man running out into the street, but fell and slowly crawled as he struggled to get to his feet to keep moving. This man looked like he was bruised on his face and had some blood coming out of his mouth. The man looked up and saw the teens standing there.

The man took a deep breath. "What the hell are you kids doing out here? Get the fuck out of here!"

From a distance where the hurt man ran from, an Indigenous-looking man and a Caucasian man whom had a similar fashion sense with skull caps, long-sleeved shirts and long pants but the Indigenous man had a greenish color on his outfit, whereas the Caucasian man's outfit was orange. Both men had knife holsters and looked like they were going to draw some knives, whether to stab, slice, or throw, the kids knew that something terrible was about to happen. So they ran away towards an alley that was nearby.

The Indigenous man got out a knife and threw it towards the man's leg.

"AAAAHHHH!" The injured man screamed in pain from the attack. The man in orange walked up and got out a knife himself and quickly stabbed him in the shoulder.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" The man continued to scream.

The Indigenous man said to his partner, "Hey, Holly Wood, want to take care of him right here right now?"

"No, Gado, we have to wait," Holly Wood said. "They should be here soon."

"What's going on?" The man said. As this was happening, Kyle and his friends hid in the alleyway, while Kyle peered out from a corner. A green 1989 AM General M998 Humvee pulled up.

"Come on, Teddy, you know what you did," El Gado said.

"Look, just don't tell Rolento," Teddy said.

Two men in military fatigues walked up. One was in green camouflage pants and vest and was rather muscular, but small enough that it was believable that he had served. But the real standout was the man in yellow fatigues with an ascot and a red beret.

"Tell Rolento what?" the man in the red beret said. "That you stole money from me?"

"Nothing, man, I didn't steal from you," Teddy said and pulled out a stack of money. "Your money, it's right here."

"The only I hate worse than a thief is a liar, Teddy," Rolento said and pulled out a long bo staff.

Kyle watched as everything started to unfold.

"What's going on, Kyle?" Vanessa said.

"You don't want to know," Kyle said.

"Yes, I do," Vanessa said.

"No, don't!" Kyle said, but Vanessa stubbornly persisted and peered from the corner as well. The two watched as Rolento beat Teddy up with the staff.

Rolento looked at his El Gado and Holly Wood, and his right-hand in this part of the organization, Freddie. They all asked who should get the final blow on Teddy, who lied there and coughed. Blood came out of his mouth. The man could barely move. Teddy knew that he was done right then and there.

"How about if I take care of him?" El Gado said.

"No, both Gado and I cut him up," Holly Wood said.

"Better yet, I didn't get a chance to fuck him up," Freddie said.

"No," Rolento said. "He stole from me, he needs to see what it's like fucking with me, as well as Mad Gear in general."

Rolento had grenades holstered on his chest, as well as a knife and a gun. While the gun would speed things up, he picked up the knife, as he wanted to make this man feel it after what he had done.

El Gado, Holly Wood, and Freddie all went to Teddy and got him to his feet. Rolento had the knife in his hand. He held the knife with the blade going up.

"Please, you made your point," Teddy said.

"Sorry, but you should have thought of that before crossing me, and crossing the big boss," Rolento said and slid the knife from one end to the other as he slit the man's throat from ear to ear. All four men watched as blood came out from the man's neck and watched as he struggled to breathe.

Kyle's eyes widened, as did Vanessa's eyes. Their jaws dropped. They trembled at the sight of the execution. They could have all gotten out of there, but just stayed there and watched.

The four criminals stood there over Teddy's body, however, El Gado looked up and suspected something from a distance.

Kyle and Vanessa quickly went behind the alley.

"We need to get the fuck out of here, NOW!" Kyle said.

All five teenagers ran in the opposite direction and as fast as they could. They didn't stop for anything or anyone, as long as they ran to make sure those thugs wouldn't catch them.

Once they got to a train yard, they stopped to catch their breaths.

"I can't believe what I saw," Vanessa said.

"Me neither, but it's going to be okay," Kyle said.

"Shouldn't we call the police?" Celeste said.

"I don't know," Kyle said. "But I don't think they saw us."

At least I hope they didn't. Kyle thought.

Kyle and Vanessa were clearly shaken over what they had witnessed. Although Lou, Paco, and Celeste didn't see what happened, they heard the poor man's screams and figured it was a gang execution and shook when everything went down. If only they continued moving and let the gang members do their job, but they were witnesses. One would only hope that they weren't caught witnessing the heinous act.

Author's note: The execution bit was inspired by the 1993 film called Judgment Night.

Also, because Kyle and Vanessa were from Streetwise, their friends' names were also the same as Streetwise characters.