Trapped

Trapped in the midst of metal bars, Cody stood at the center and glared at what had happened. First he got jumped by some ruthless bikers and then he got arrested without being questioned. This made him question the current state of Metro City.

Cody held his arms together. It was cold in the holding area, as if any heating and air system had not been fixed in some time. One could wonder how things were during the summertime. Could this be the Metro City Police Department's way of punishing any criminals in holding for any crimes? Or was the department too cheap to get their heating and air system fixed?

In his company, Cody saw the people inside the cell. There was a man who wore a dress shirt with rolled up sleeves and a tie that looked loose. He had a disheveled look to him, like he had gone to a bar after work and probably drank because his wife probably left him for someone she had cheated on him with. Another man looked Puerto Rican with a driver cap and a small fro, with a glare shining from the ceiling light onto his gold chain. This man was probably a thug, likely sold stolen goods or bootlegs, but it was possible he wasn't a criminal. Maybe he knew some people, but this didn't live up to Cody's expectations of what he would see in a holding cell. But this wasn't his first rodeo and had been around the lowest of lowlifes.

However, two more men sat behind him with their eyes behind sunglasses glued right to Cody, who turned around and saw them. The two men had ripped up muscle shirts with their stomachs showing a tad and wore tight jeans and high boots. One had spiky red hair and the other had the same style but his hair was green for some reason. The one with the red hair was Sid and the other with green hair was Billy.

The two men looked at him with some evil smirks on their face but jumped at the sound of "What?" coming from Cody. Billy and Sid looked at each other and got up and approached him.

"What? You want some?" Cody said. "I got all night."

Although Cody's fight with those hard bikers was primarily self-defense, it would almost seem like he was engaging those two like he wanted to fight them, as if he was looking for another fight. Cody looked away, turned around, and took a deep breath. It wasn't the smartest choice to try fighting these men in a place like this, for a reason being that it was a small place to engage in violent activity and also in a police station. But if those guys were giving threatening glares to him, Cody was not going to back down. After what Cody went through tonight, maybe he need to release some of the rage he got from his arrest, not to mention his got jumped by those bikers, and managed to beat them all.

But at the same time, if he was engaging those two thugs, maybe it wasn't a case of self-defense.

Lieutenant Mark Abrams sat in his office. His desk looked like it had not been cleaned in a week with stacks of papers on cluttered on it, along with folders. This cop was up to his teeth with paperwork. But why? A lot of crime had been rampant across the city and not a lot had been done about it.

"Evans, Walker, what do you got for me?" Abrams said.

Edi. E and Dave stood before their superior officer. It wasn't long since they apprehended that thug who was accused of assault.

"This man has been responsible for a number of assaults, one at the Surf Bar, another near Chinatown, which happened tonight," Dave said.

"We have several witnesses to these crimes," Edi. E said.

KNOCK! KNOCK! Abrams looked up as he heard a knock on the door to his office. Through the window stood a young blonde female cop and a young African-American male cop. Abrams got up and opened the door just a crack.

"What is it, Morgan? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"I need to talk to you now," Lucia said.

"It can wait." The way Abrams responded, it was as if what Lucia and Sean had to say was not important. It would be like if someone gave someone else a note with important information, but the other person just crumpled or cut the note in half and threw it out.

"No, it can't!" Lucia said.

"Listen, Abrams, we need to talk to you about something," Sean said.

Abrams barely looked at the two young officers in the eye. "I'm sorry, but Evans and Walker came to me first. After I'm done, then we can talk, do I make myself clear?"

"But…," Lucia said.

"No 'buts,' just wait, okay?" Abrams said and quickly shut the door on the two young cops' faces.

Lucia and Sean glared at what had just happened. Why was their lieutenant being dismissive towards them?

"Something is not right about this," Lucia said.

Sean scoffed. "You're telling me. Abrams always told us if there is something important that we should tell him right away. He can't be too busy."

"No shit." Lucia glared. Usually when someone had to talk to another person, one could wait and cut the other conversation shorter, but in this case, their captain barely looked at them in the eye.

As soon as the door closed, Abrams walked back to his desk. He sat and gave Edi. E and Dave his undivided attention. To him, it appeared that what these two had to say was more important than what two of his other officers had to say.

"So what were you saying?" Abrams said.

Edi. E spat out his gum into the nearby trash can. "Remember we have had reports of vigilante justice? Dave and I believe that the guy we caught was one of them."

"What makes you so sure?"

Dave added, "We know some people who have been taking a stand against some thugs in the city. The guys at the Surf Bar told us what the man looked like. Then we had heard from other people about some ninjas taking other people down and leaving them tied up."

Abrams looked up when he heard that last part. While it was not encouraged or condoned for people to dispense vigilante justice, it would seem that if whoever tied up some criminals after being attacked, they may have been trying to help the police. However, Abrams had this to say…

"Do these people think they could just uphold the law when it's our God-given right and duty to do our jobs?"

"That's what we were thinking," Edi. E said. "I was also thinking we should look for those other people."

Abrams nodded his head. There was no telling that these ninjas who allegedly assaulted some people were still out there and needed to be brought to justice. However, none of the cops in the room knew what those martial artists were capable of. They would need to figure out to way to trap them.

Dave turned around and glanced out the window of the office. "One more thing, what do we do about Sims and Morgan?"

Why was Dave bringing those two up? Abrams thought. "Don't worry about them. You two just worry about finding those ninjas."

"But sir…," Dave said.

"Enough, they don't know anything," Abrams said. "Now go and find those people."

Edi. E and Dave got up and exited the office. Abrams looked on at both men. Why was Dave concerned about Sean and Lucia? That was one thing Abrams wondered. He knew Dave had a crush on Lucia, so was this a reason to get her involved despite her having no knowledge of anything, or so he thought? At least Edi. E had more of a determination of arresting any vigilantes out in the city.

As Lucia and Sean walked around the station, the continued to talk about the confusing nature of why their boss was so short and dismissive towards them.

Sean said, "Do you ever think that our department just looks the other way?"

Lucia looked up. "Hate to say it, but yeah. The other day, Abrams gave me shit about how I helped some thug, but something was not right about that. Now he would rather not listen to us, when there are more important things to worry about."

"You don't think Evans and Walker have some important things to talk about?"

"There is something I don't trust about those two."

"Why? Because Walker has it bad for you?"

"It's not that. I saw Evans's watch. Something doesn't add up here."

It then hit Sean. The department had been arresting criminals and thugs from other gangs in the city, but there was something off about it. He had heard some complaints from suspects how some evidence was planted on them, or were arrested without any warrants. The real kicker here, however, was that none of whom were arrested were a part of Mad Gear. It made Sean wonder one thing.

"Are we the only honest cops on the force?"

A minor glare arose on Lucia's face having heard her partner say that. No cop can approve of any vigilante justice going on, but if the MCPD won't do anything about the crime problem, then what can be done?

Meanwhile, some time had passed. Haggar had called a cab service to give Jessica ride to his house while he had his bodyguard Bishop with her. The other bodyguard, Summers, stayed with Kyle. When Jessica got to Haggar's house, she was greeted by her father and Carlos, who was coming along to stand guard for both Haggars.

Haggar was anything but pleased about this, and it wasn't because Jessica called him to break some bad news to him. No, he wondered what his daughter's boyfriend had gotten into this time. Mike Haggar may have been something of a father-figure to Cody and Kyle, but that didn't mean he wasn't aware of the Travers' violent streaks. That was one of the reasons why he didn't approve of Jessica dating Cody in the first place. He was afraid he would get her into trouble. Although Cody and Jessica did get into trouble a few times when they were in their teens, it was not as if they nearly got killed. They just had harmless moments of ditching school and going to parties. Cody may have gotten into fights and such, but the last thing he ever wanted was to hurt Jessica or lead to her getting hurt. If someone so much as laid a finger on her, Cody was on them like a sniper.

The three all rode in Haggar's limousine. As they rolled along, Haggar looked at the floor. Jessica gazed at her father. Carlos did the same thing. Although Carlos was Haggar's bodyguard, it was mainly a job to keep himself busy as he was more focused on progressing as a martial artist. Haggar wondered what could have happened that Cody got caught.

Jessica, on the other hand, looked at her father with such concern. Unbeknownst to her father, she heard how Cody sounded when he called. It was not a case of "Hey, I got into trouble, I need to be bailed out," but rather his tone sounded like he was confused in the ordeal, like he didn't deserve to get arrested or anything like that, almost like he endured a wrongful arrest.

"Dad, are you okay?" Jessica said.

Haggar looked up. He knew that his own flesh and blood did not want to hear the same lecture from when he had heard Jessica started dating Cody. This was close to the same feeling he had when he heard his little girl moved in with him. On the plus side, he always tried to be a good role model to both Jessica and Cody. Maybe Cody was also intimidated by him because of how tough Haggar can be. It was not like Cody and Jessica had sired a grandchild for him, at least not yet. Given their current situation, that was probably a good thing.

"I know you don't want to hear this, Jess, but here it goes. Cody may be a good guy, but he's also a hothead."

"Dad, please…"

"Jess, listen to me. You know that he gets himself into all kinds of shit."

"Yes, I know, but…"

"But what, Jess? How many times have I had to bail him out? I lost count a long time ago."

Jessica looked down while gaining a moist feeling in her eyes. What her father said was true. She knew that. But the way her boyfriend talked on the phone earlier that evening was something else. Jessica took a deep breath. She knew she had to say something.

"The cops just arrested Cody! He's innocent!"

Haggar and Carlos looked at her like what just happened was unexpected.

"What are you talking about?" Haggar said.

Jessica breathed and wiped the tear from her eye. "The way he talked on the phone. Something tells me he didn't really do anything he wrong. He said he got into a fight, but it didn't sound like the kind of macho bullshit he does."

"So what you're saying he was wrongfully arrested?" Haggar said. "That could only mean if he got into any fight…"

"He was defending himself," Carlos cut into the conversation. The Haggar father and daughter looked at the martial artist/bodyguard with confusion. Carlos had not said anything during the entire car ride.

"How would you know?" Jessica said.

"Come on," Carlos said. "I grew up in a favela in São Paulo. The streets of Metro City are as bad as São Paulo. Because I grew up learning martial arts from my father, who also taught my mother and my sister to defend themselves, I learned different arts to survive the favelas. I have experienced being cornered by criminals in this city, so I had to defend myself."

Carlos remembered the night he met Maki when he was out with Cody and Guy. If not for Maki, that woman would have experienced extreme harm.

A look of concern arose on Haggar's face. First Jessica had to talk some sense into her father, now Carlos did the same for his boss. If Haggar trusted Carlos to live with him, then he had to also take his word. After all, Haggar knew Carlos came from Brazil, which is known to have rough areas, some rougher than Metro City.

"I got to do something," Haggar said.

Cody leaned on the bars to look to the outside of the holding cell. While the drunk man sat back and the young Puerto Rican man fell asleep on the bench, the two thugs, Billy and Sid, gazed at Cody while he stood there deep in thought.

Billy and Sid got up and reached for their chains that were hooked to their belts on their pants. Normally Cody would be more aware of his surroundings, especially when any riff-raff try to fight him or anything like that, but his thoughts about Jessica and Kyle were all what was on his mind in that moment, enough that he wasn't attentive of his surroundings.

Billy stretched out his chain like he wanted to strangle someone, while Sid wrapped his chain around his knuckles. The two other men in the cell were out. How would they witness anything?

Cody stood there. A quiet sound came to his ear, like a small pitter-patter from slow-moving feet. Cody awoke from his trance. He turned to his right. If he could see anything, it would be through his peripheral version. If he turned around completely, it would be obvious to the two thugs that he would be onto them. Cody moved his fingers into the palms of both hands.

Okay, fuckers, let's do this. Cody thought.

But then the sound of something hitting a wall grabbed everyone's attention. Cody turned to the bars and there walked an older African-American cop carrying a keychain.

"Travers, you are free to go."

Cody sighed in relief. Mike and Jessica came through for him. Now he wondered what to say to them about what had happened. After he exited the cell, he looked towards Billy and Sid with an expression of "I'll see you two again soon." The two thugs rushed towards the bars and screamed at Cody as he walked off not paying them any mind.

The cop guided Cody through the station. Cody looked around for the person who bailed him out. He expected a beautiful blonde stunner and a tall and muscular middle-aged man in a suit with a mustache and a grizzled vibe about him. However, it was the last person he expected as there stood a stunner with long hair that had a shade of pink that was dark enough that it bordered on purple, a leather biker cap, as well as short shorts and a black leather jacket covering a revealing top.

"Hey there, handsome."

"Poison?" Cody looked at her with confusion.

"In the flesh," she said with a smile and a seductive tone.

"What are you doing here?"

"I bailed you out. Come on, let's talk a walk."

"No, I am waiting for someone."

"It's the least I could do. We need to talk, come on, let's go."

Why this woman bailed him out, Cody wondered. Who was she to him? Why did she do this? All Cody knew was that she handled some stuff with the fights. But out of nowhere, he started to get a familiar feeling about her.

From nearby, a couple of young cops saw Cody walk out with a woman.

"Cody?" Lucia said.

After some time had passed, the limousine pulled up in front of the police station. Out walked Haggar with Carlos and Jessica behind him. Haggar wasted no time. He rushed towards the front door and slammed it open. He took a deep breath, while Jessica and Carlos looked him with so much concern. Jessica knew that her father had quite a short fuse depending on the situation. This was one of those moments.

An aging cop, who looked like he was close to his pension, if not already there, looked up at the massive man who stood before him.

"Mayor Haggar?"

"Yes, at your service, I'm here to bail out Cody Travers."

Several cops in the station looked up at him when they heard him say that.

"You just missed him," the old cop said. "He just left."

"What?" Haggar said.

"Someone bailed him out already.

Jessica and Carlos looked at each other with a lot of confusion. No one knew how much the bail was. After all, Cody was only in holding. One could wonder if the justice system was on the take enough to convict Cody on a false charge.

Haggar took a deep breath. "Thank you."

However, Haggar looked over towards Abrams's office and saw him talking with two officers. Haggar grabbed the small gate and just opened it.

"Dad, wait…" Jessica tried to reach for her father but the level of anger that steamed from her father made her plea fall on deaf ears. Lucky for her, Carlos was there to protect her in case something went down.

"Excuse, Mr. Mayor, you can't walk through here," the old cop said, but it didn't matter. Haggar ran the city, so he had enough authority to walk.

"ABRAMS!" The shout from Haggar's mouth made the entire station go quiet. Abrams looked at the mayor with such shock on his face, like how did he get past security.

But Haggar was not going to mince words. "Listen to me, and listen well. I hear that some of your officers falsely arrested someone. I have heard people say that there have been wrongful arrests lately. The next time that happens, I will talk with the governor and see what he'll do about you. I might even call the feds to crack down on this whole fucking department. Do you got that?!"

Abrams, along with Edi. E and Dave looked at him with a glare and a look of fear mixed together. All Abrams could do was nod his head. Haggar nodded his head, too, turned around and walked towards his daughter and his bodyguard.

"Carlos, Jess, let's go," Haggar said.

Darkness fell over the streets of Metro City with only dim lights shining along the roads and sidewalks with the light posts. Vagrants, such as peddlers of stolen goods, drug pushers, and homeless people were scattered among the streets. All it was down to was Cody walking with the lovely Poison.

There was no denying that Poison was a knockout, but the question on Cody's mind was why she bailed him out. He hardly knew her, but there had to be a reason why this woman put some money down for his bail, even though he was in holding.

"So, Cody, what do you think?" Poison said. "After that night, how about you face someone new? I think I know just the person."

Though Cody was up for a fight, this wasn't the time for such a discussion. "Hold on, Poison, I need to ask you something. Why? Why did you bail me out?"

"Come on, you're a good fighter, I couldn't see you go to jail like that."

"How did you know I was arrested? Who are you?"

"Oh, come on, you don't remember me?"

Cody took a close look at her blue eyes and beautiful face. He knew there was something familiar about her from before. The face started to ring some bells, but how could he forget the pink her that he had trouble recognizing her before? The smile on her face just gave him a flashback suddenly.

"Kristina Rayne?"

"Now you remember."

Cody knew a girl named Kristina Rayne from his past. In fact, she went to the same high school as him and Jessica. He also remembered this ginger girl she often hung out with whose name was Roxanne Frederickson, who often went by "Roxy." Just then, he remembered that Roxy was at the Surf Bar those nights.

Oh, no. He thought. "Wow, you…look…different."

"Is it the hair?" Poison said.

Aside from the hair, Cody noticed the way she was dressed. It's not like she was a good girl in school, either, but this woman was dressed in a lot more revealing attire compared to their school days.

Poison said, "If you really want to know why I bailed you out, let's just say that I can't let my best fighter get thrown in jail. You know, you did save me a few times from some assholes back in school, I thought maybe I could return the favor in some way."

"How?"

"Follow me." Poison led Cody into a nearby alleyway. Why Cody followed her, he had no clue, but he went along with her anyway.

Poison faced Cody and gave him a smirk and the eyebrow gesture. She then moved her body closer to him as she rubbed her hands against his clothed pectorals and then moved her face closer to his as her lips nearly closed in on his.

But Cody backed his head a bit and turned away. "I can't."

"Oh, come on, I can tell you want it," Poison said. "I can really tell." Poison's eyes shifted downward towards Cody's pants.

Cody sighed in embarrassment from what had just happened. All he could think about was Jessica. It only took until now who this woman was. In fact, he had some history with her. Why didn't he recognize her at first?

"Is this really what you want?" Cody said.

"Come on, you know I've always liked you," Poison said.

Cody knew. He knew very well that Poison, or has he knew her, Kristina, had a crush on him. He just did not anticipate that he would cross paths with her like this. Under a different moniker and under a different look than he had remembered.

"I know, but I have someone already," Cody said.

"Ah, you're still with Jessica, huh?" Poison said. "She's beautiful and she's lucky to have you."

No truer words had been spoken in Cody's case.

"I have to go home."

"Well, if you ever have any problems," Poison got close to him again. "You can find me and Roxy over at The Ten Foot Pole. We dance over there sometimes."

Poison gave him another smile, but then Cody decided to walk away.

It had been quite a long time since the two had crossed paths, but for some reason, Poison had never let go of her crush on Cody. A woman like her could have any man, but why Cody? There were times she wondered if he was too good for her, or if Jessica Haggar was too good for him, especially with her father being the mayor of Metro City.

But at the same time, she wondered if she would or could have him one day.

It had been more than a half an hour. Cody had found his way home by taking the subway and walking five blocks down Chinatown to get close to his apartment building. This had been a long night.

I wonder if Kyle's in bed by now. Cody thought. He wondered about his brother at that point. What Kyle went through recently was something that made him remember what he did when he was younger. Some guy tried to hit on Jessica, he would come to her aid. Some of the time, he would start a fight with someone by himself. The difference was that he didn't deal with a hardcore criminal like Kyle did. Cody knew what Kyle felt for that girl, Vanessa. One day he'll have to meet her. It seemed she was special to his brother.

When Cody got to the door, he put the key into the keyhole and turned to open the door. As soon as he walked in, the first thing he heard was "CODY!" and then arms wrapped around him.

"I was so scared!" Jessica yelled into his shoulder.

I really am a lucky man. He thought.

Author's note: I started this not long after the previous chapter but I had gone through some stuff for a few weeks. So I wasn't up to writing during that time.

I gave Poison a real name, as well as Roxy. I had heard that Poison's name was based on the band of the same name, but her real name is a mixture of lead singer Bret Michaels's wife (Kristi Lynn Gibson) and his daughter (Raine Michaels). As for Roxy, it's said her name was based on Roxy Music, but her name was also kind of a reference to the pop duo known as Roxette, with her last name being somewhat of a reference to the singer's last name. The singer's name was Marie Fredriksson. She passed away in 2019.

Also, the stuff with Poison, I may go back to one of the previous chapters to give a little more insight about her history with Cody. I might edit those parts.

Until next time, stay tuned for the next chapter.