Showing What You're Made Of

The next day, Cody was at the gym working whether it was being a personal trainer for a client or showing any patrons how to work certain machines. After talking with Haggar about reducing his stress with having some bodyguards accompany Jessica when necessary, as well as Kyle, it appeared that it helped him more. It had only been a day, but it appeared that his stress eased a bit.

It was late in the afternoon. It was almost quitting time, but one thing caught his attention. Near the punching bags was a fit woman with short blonde hair and wore a blue sports bra and short denim shorts, punching and kicking the bag as hard as she could. It was as if she did this to ease stress.

"Lucia?" Cody said.

Lucia looked up and went to a stop. "Oh, hey, Cody." She then took a deep breath.

"What are you doing here?" Cody said. "You look like you're been here for a while, but I just barely saw you."

"Oh, sorry if I didn't say hello, I just wanted to get my workout in," Lucia said, as she picked up a towel to wipe off some of her sweat.

"It looked like more than just a workout, is something bothering you?" Cody said.

"It's a long story," Lucia said.

"Well, I'm about to head out and go meet with my friend Guy at his dojo," Cody said.

"Was he one of those guys you were with that night?" Lucia said.

"Yeah, he was there," Cody said.

"Well, I'm off work as well, maybe I can walk with you and we can talk about what's going on," Lucia said.

"Okay, sounds good," Cody said. "Let's go."

Lucia picked up a small brown vest and put it on. She buttoned it up, but the vest still looked small as Lucia's midriff was still exposed. However, Cody knew this woman, though, as she was an accomplished martial artist. She knew how to take care of herself.

The two walked down the street. Guy's dojo was only a few blocks away. Jessica checked in with Cody while he was at work and told him that she would meet him over at the dojo with Carlos accompanying her. Ever since Cody and Carlos reached an understanding, he was more than willing to trust Carlos with Jessica, mostly out of respect for Mayor Haggar.

"So what's been bothering you, Lucia?" Cody said. "You were hitting that bag pretty damn hard."

Lucia sighed as she looked down at the pavement but then her eyes shifted in front of her. Despite being off duty, she had to keep her eyes open and she still had her badge on her.

"Some bullshit happened at work recently," Lucia said. "My captain told me that my partner and I didn't go check on an incident at the Surf Bar, and he also accused me of beating up criminals, as if I started the attack."

"The fuck?" Cody said.

"I know, it sounds shitty," Lucia said. "Also, I think a couple of cops on the force are on the take."

"What makes you say that?" Cody said.

"This one cop I know, I saw that he had an expensive watch," Lucia said. "He can't afford something like that with the money we all make. It's making me think a lot."

"Can't you report this to your superiors?" Cody said.

"It's not that easy, I have no evidence," Lucia said. "Besides, my partner and I have been suspicious about what's been going down in the department. Only a few officers checked on an incident that happened at the Industrial Area recently, but some said it was just some gang attack, like it was no big deal."

Cody looked away from his friend as his eyes widened at what he had heard. "Shit."

"I know," Lucia said.

It wasn't long until they reached the dojo. It appeared that any classes with students had ended, as the only people who were seen were Guy, Maki, Carlos, and Jessica, who looked up and went right up to Cody to give him a hug and a peck on the lips. Rena also happened to be there as Maki gave her a ride from work at the restaurant.

Jessica looked up. "Oh, hi, Lucia, I haven't seen you in a while."

"Been busy trying to keep Metro City clean, but it's been a hassle," Lucia said.

"I know, my dad has been seeing a lot of problems with the city lately," Jessica said.

Lucia looked around and saw Guy sparring with Maki. Guy wore his standard orange gi, while Maki wore karate pants and a red sports bra. What drew her attention was that Guy and Maki appeared to study similar fighting styles, with Guy dodging Maki's moves, and vice versa. Also, with Maki having blonde hair, it made her wonder if maybe she could have been the woman who beat up those thugs a few nights prior.

"You're getting better, Maki," Guy said. "Your father taught you well, but Zeku has been a great master to both of us."

"Yes, but only one of us will be the 39th Grandmaster of Bushinryu, and it's going to be me," Maki said with so much confidence in his voice.

"We shall see about that," Guy said.

Carlos applauded as he smiled at what he saw. Jessica and Cody looked on and saw how Carlos looked at Maki. It appeared to be more than just being impressed with her fighting ability.

"Hey, Maki, I'm impressed," Carlos said. "What do you say if we spar one day?"

"Can you keep up?" Maki said.

"If I can keep up with this guy," Carlos said as he leaned in, as well as his eyes shifted to Guy. "I'm sure I can keep up with you."

"We'll see," Maki said with a cocky smile. She then looked up and saw Lucia, as did the others.

"Cody, you came," Guy said. "And you brought along a friend."

"Yeah, you remember Lucia from the other night, right?" Cody said.

"Oh yeah, the cop," Carlos said.

"Yes, I do remember," Guy said. "Pleased to make your acquaintance." He then shook her hand.

Lucia then shook the hands of the others like Carlos, Rena, and finally Maki, who noticed a look on Lucia's face.

"Is something wrong?" Maki said.

"No, I'm just curious about something," Lucia said. "Can you come with me for a bit?"

"Oh, come on, Lucia, can you stop being a cop for one minute?" Jessica said.

"I need to know something," Lucia said and called for Maki's attention to walk with her away from the group.

Now that they were separated, Lucia said, "I was wondering, do you know anything about an attack on three men from the other night?"

Maki shot her a look of confusion.

"You're not in trouble, I'm just wondering because I had heard about something like this," Lucia said. "I was told that the attacker was a woman with blonde hair. Just between me and you, my captain thinks it's me who did it, and also thinks I started the attack."

Maki looked away towards the group and nodded her head. "Yes, it was me, but it's not what you would think. I saw a woman trying to run from some guys. I quickly went around to the other side of an alley where I saw the men try to attack her, and that's when I stepped in."

Just then, Lucia's mouth opened with an expression of "Oh, I see now."

"So you saved that woman's life?" Lucia said.

Maki nodded in response.

"Okay, I understand," Lucia said. "Anyway, I saw your moves back there. Very impressive."

"Do you practice martial arts?" Maki said.

"Yes, I do," Lucia said.

"What do you say you show me what you got?" Maki said.

"Oh, no, I can't," Lucia said.

"Oh, come on, that was just a warm-up back there," Maki said.

Lucia recalled a lot of the tension she had when she was at Tom's Gym. If Maki suspected she was being accused of assault, then maybe Lucia could return the favor.

"Okay, let's do it," Lucia said.

The two women walked back towards the training mat, while Cody, Jessica, Carlos, Guy, and Rena looked on with suspicion, like they didn't know what was going on in front of them. Lucia took off her brown leather vest and set it aside, and then put on some padded gloves.

"What is going on?" Jessica said.

"I don't know," Cody said.

Guy said to Rena in Japanese, ["Your sister, she is confident, perhaps too confident."]

["She thinks she has a lot to prove,"] Rena said.

Carlos said to the couple, ["Maybe she doesn't want to lose her edge."]

Guy looked at Carlos and shook his head a bit. ["Don't underestimate her, my friend."]

Maki and Lucia bowed to each other and got into their stances. Maki threw the first attack, which was a punch, and then a kick. Lucia quickly dodged each time, as well as blocked a lot of Maki's attacks. This woman didn't seem to hold back on all of her attempts, but it didn't stop Lucia from trying to make any defensive attacks. In fact, Lucia showed that with her being physically fit, as well as had muscle definition on her legs, she was light on her feet as she threw some quick kicks and then jumped up to deliver a quick spin kick.

Maki did a quick back-flip, and then another where she landed with her right hand to the mat as she did handstand but then spun her body in 360-degree motion, showing a trick she had learned, or at least innovated herself. It was called a Reppukyaku, which was a spinning handstand kick. It knocked Lucia back a bit.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Maki said and then got up to her feet and then approached Lucia as she let out her hand to help her get up.

"You're good, but you probably got lucky," Lucia said with a smile as she shook Maki's hand as a sign of respect. "Next time, we'll see who the better woman is."

"We'll see about that," Maki said with a smile as well.

Carlos then approached Maki. "Wow, that was some crazy shit. You really know what you're doing out there."

"Thanks," Maki said. "I hear you are a good fighter, too."

"I try," Carlos said as he smirked a bit.

"Well, maybe next time we could see about that," Maki said. "I would do it now, but the clothes you're wearing, they're not the best for training."

Carlos knew what she was getting at as he wore a suit. Carlos brought Jessica over to the dojo as he had escorted her from the campus, as he was still under Mike's employ to be a bodyguard to Jessica. There were other days when he would be the bodyguard for Mike as well.

Jessica looked towards Lucia. "Hey, do you have any nights off soon?"

"Why?" Lucia said.

"Was wondering if we could hang out," Jessica said. "I mean I hadn't seen you in so long."

"I don't know, I got too much going on right now," Lucia said.

Cody cut in, "Lucia, maybe you might need to ease up the stress a bit. Jessica just wants to go out. It's not easy for her being the mayor's daughter."

Lucia sighed. "I'll see. Maybe I'll call you soon, okay?" Lucia said to Jessica.

Rena walked past Lucia. "You're a good fighter, too."

"Thank you," Lucia said. "Are you Maki's sister?"

"Yes, I am," Rena said.

"Really?" Lucia said, but then she saw that there was a facial resemblance to one another, despite Rena having black hair, while Maki had blonde hair, though Maki's hair appeared to be dyed as such. "Well, it was nice meeting you." Lucia said to Maki, "and you, too."

The group then left the dojo and they went off. Who knew what the evening had in store for the rest of them?

Inside a room somewhere in the slums of Metro City, where there was a mini-bar, as well as murals that had Mad Gear symbols, as well as red lighting on the banners with couches and pool tables in the area. Also, there were banners with Chinese symbols and old bookshelves in the back. This place was probably an old storage facility at one time.

But inside a room, there were two guys standing off to the side, while another guy was at the center with Won standing by with a meat cleaver in hand. The two men trembled a bit, but tried to stay quiet, but the other man, who was front and center, trembled a lot more. In fact, these were the same men who were accosted a couple of nights before.

A door had opened, with two bikers named Axl and Slash standing by with Axl holding a chain, while Slash held a lead pipe as if he held a guitar. Through the door walked a large man in a samurai outfit with a red shirt that had a Japanese symbol and had a blue samurai helmet with a mask. This man was known as Sodom. But from behind was another man in Japanese garb with long red hair. No one was certain if it was a wig or natural, but he had on a kabuki mask and a black outfit. This man was known as Retu.

"Oh, fuck me," the man in the center said.

Sodom looked to Retu and said in what sounded like Japanese but sounded like an attempt at an accent while speaking.

["Should we kill him?"] Sodom said.

["No, we must know what happened first,"] Retu said, with his Japanese sounding more genuine.

Sodom approached the man at the center. He pulled out a sai. With Won holding his meat cleaver, and Sodom holding his sai, nothing good could happen from this.

"We were told that you, along with those two," Sodom said pointing at the other two men. "Got your ass kicked by a girl. Is that true?"

"Yes, but…," the man said.

"BUT WHAT?!" Sodom yelled.

The man said, "We were just minding our fucking business, and this girl, she just popped up out of nowhere and just kicked our fucking asses."

"So?" Sodom said as he grabbed the man by his jaw-line and started to raise his sai.

"This wasn't some ordinary girl," the man said. "She fought like a fucking ninja. She did these crazy moves on us."

"Yeah, she did…" one of the other men said.

"Silence!" Sodom yelled.

"No," Retu said, breaking his silence. "Let the man speak."

"Thank you, said the second man. "That girl, she did these crazy moves. She knocked us out with this crazy kick, like she did a fucking handstand and then spins around, knocking us all down. She had a stick, too."

"Wait," Retu said. "What did she look like?"

"This girl," the third man said. "She had blonde hair. She was very quick. I didn't get a good look at her, but she had blonde hair, like she had it up in a ponytail and it was up."

Retu didn't say a word and with him wearing a mask, no one could see his expression, until he said, "I see. Well, you weren't the only one who experienced defeat. Damnd told me that some hoodlum assaulted him at the bar recently. We might be experiencing a problem of our own."

Won and Sodom then looked at Retu.

"What do you want us to do?" Won said. "Should we cut them up?"

"No, because they told us what happened, it seems we have a problem on our hands," Retu said. "That girl Mark spoke of, I think I might know who that is."

Meanwhile, out in the hangout area of the hideout, Damnd sat around with the others like Bred, Simons, Jake, Dug, as well as Elijah, Schot, Jack, and Bull. Poison and Roxy hung around as well.

"I don't hear any screaming back there," Poison said.

"Looks like something isn't their fault this time," Roxy said.

"Just like getting my ass kicked the other night," Damnd said. "That guy was just quick to start shit."

"I don't know, that guy could fight," Poison said. "I hope he shows up on Friday."

"Yeah, I saw the way you were looking at him," Roxy said.

"That fucker only got lucky, mon," Damnd said with his Jamaican terminology, even though he was Dominican, but they were still part of the Caribbean. "I hope we find someone who will fuck him up for good."

By that point, the sounds of yells of pain were heard, but not like they were being cut up, but rather as if they were being hit by something. After a few minutes, Axl and Slash walked out. Poison and Roxy walked up.

"What's going on?" Poison said.

"You know Retu, even if something wasn't too serious, he still needs to make an example of someone," Axl said.

The two men carried their friend Mark out, who was badly bruised and bloodied from some torture. He may not have been stabbed and/or sliced, but he still took a beating, and it looked worse than the beating he took a few nights prior.

"Oh shit," Roxy said as she had look of shock. This should not be much of a surprise as whenever someone went against the gang, there was a price to pay for it. When Rolento, as well as El Gado and Holly Wood caught up to that one man, it was because he dealt with another gang. This was a different case, as someone chose to take a stand against Mad Gear, but one wondered if there was any motive to it.

Damnd saw the battered man, along with his two friends, while Jake and the others saw it.

Damnd leaned over towards Bred and said, "He's just lucky Retu is a little more honorable than the big boss."

Bred nodded his head with his eyes bulging from what he had heard.

The next day, Haggar was in his office talking on the phone as he had some paperwork on his desk.

"Listen, Abrams, I don't know where to stand on all of this," Haggar said. "People are getting mugged out there. Some have also been killed. And you're going to tell me that one of your officers assaulted some innocent men? If you just do your fucking job, we wouldn't be in this shit!"

Haggar swore as if he meant what he had to say. It had been said that the Metro City Police Department had some corruption on the force, but if someone was accusing other cops for any corrupt activities, Haggar needed to get to the bottom of this.

"So what do you want me to do?" Haggar said. "So you're going to have me talk to your two officers, Morgan and Sims? Why can't you have the chief talk to them about it? Well, I see what I could do. I'm already knee deep in the mess of this city. Okay, I'll talk to you soon. Bye."

Through a speaker, Janet spoke into it. "Excuse me, Mr. Haggar, you got another caller coming in. It's from Mr. Horace Belger."

Haggar then looked up. "Put him on." He then answered the call. "This is Mayor Haggar speaking."

"Hello, Mr. Haggar." The voice spoke with a tone of determination. "I was wondering if we could meet sometime soon. I have wanted to speak to you about something."

"Well, we'll have to figure out a good time, I've been busy," Haggar said.

"Oh, I'm aware of that, sir," Belger said. "I'm a busy man myself, too. Listen, there is that gala this coming weekend. I know you're invited, as am I. Maybe this could be the perfect time for us to talk."

Haggar paused for a few seconds. "I'll be there and I look forward to it."

"Good, see you soon," Belger said.

What does this man want? Haggar thought to himself. Belger lost in the mayoral election, but there was something off about why he wanted to speak to the current mayor. Whatever the subject was, Haggar was about to find out soon.

Meanwhile, at Cody's apartment, Cody and Jessica sat at the kitchen table. It was evening and Kyle wasn't home yet.

"I don't know where he is," Cody said. "Shouldn't he be home now?"

"Relax, he's probably out with Vanessa and their friends," Jessica said.

"Vanessa seems nice, better than some of the other girls Kyle tried to go for, who were trouble," Cody said.

"Maybe it's because her brother is a cop," Jessica said.

"That might be the case," Cody said.

"Anyway, did you see how Carlos was looking at Maki yesterday?" Jessica said.

"Yeah, Guy and I fuck with him about it, but he acts like it's nothing," Cody said.

"Well, maybe we should go on a triple date sometime, me, you, Guy, Rena, and maybe Carlos and Maki," Jessica said.

"I thought the same thing, but Carlos is in denial," Cody said. "It's so fucking obvious."

"I know," Jessica said.

The door opened. Kyle walked in through the door. Cody and Jessica got up.

"Hey, where the hell were you?" Cody said.

"Out with Vanessa, and Lou, Celeste, and Paco," Kyle said. "What gives?"

"Listen, you need to start coming home earlier from now on," Cody said.

"Why? So the mayor's bodyguards could watch me and Vanessa do our thing?" Kyle said with sarcasm.

"I'm not joking, brother, shit is getting bad out there," Cody said.

Jessica cut in. "Kyle, listen to your brother, my dad wants what's best for all of us. He has some of his bodyguards watch me, too."

"Yeah, and they get too into my shit, especially when I'm hanging out with my friends," Kyle said, which was odd because he was aware that Vanessa's brother was a cop. "I don't know why they're always on us. Fuck this, I'm going to my room."

Kyle stormed out of their way to go into his bedroom while Cody and Jessica stood there confused at what just happened.

"I can't believe this," Cody said.

"You know he's just a kid," Jessica said.

"Yeah, but it's weird how he bitches about your dad's bodyguards when he should know that if he tries anything funny with Vanessa, her brother will fuck him up if I don't do it first," Cody said.

"You don't think they're…you know?" Jessica said. The pause implied whether she wondered if Kyle and Vanessa were having sex or doing anything else like drugs.

"If they are doing any of that shit, they better know what they're doing," Cody said. "I'm getting out for a bit. I'll be back."

Jessica hugged Cody. "Be careful out there. I'll check on your brother in a little while."

"Thanks, baby," Cody said.

Cody took off for a walk. He went down a few streets. The end of the week was upon them. In fact, Friday was the next day. He remembered earlier that same week that he wanted to try his hand in taking part in some fights at the Surf Bar. He found a phone booth in front of a liquor store and walked up to it and slid a quarter into the slot.

"Hello, this is the Surf Bar."

"Yes, I heard about some fights taking place tomorrow night," Cody said. "How do I sign up?"

Author's note: I'm back. I actually started this draft sometime ago, but I had also been focused on my other story that I am on the verge of finishing. I also didn't know where this story was going, until I watched the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie recently, a childhood favorite of mine, I might add. Anyway, I also read some comics of TMNT and started to get a little inspired.

I must note that the hideout bit was a cross between the basement portion of the first stage in Final Fight 2, the interior bit from Final Fight 2, and the hideout from the Broken Gear movie. I was inspired by all three bits, which was how I described them.

I might do the next one soon. Stay tuned.