Captivity
The room was dark and dimly lit. The only light glared over the center of the room where Jessica. She faced down, eyes closed, like she was probably asleep. Her head moved towards her left shoulder and came upright. Her eyes slowly opened.
"Cody? Cody?" she said. "I had the worst dream…"
All she could make out was the bright light. But her vision became clearer once the chilling sensation hit her body. She started to shiver. The room was cold. There was no heater present or anything like that. Her eyes opened even more once she noticed that she was in her white strapless bra and white panties.
What the hell?! Where are my clothes?! If that wasn't bad enough, she tried to move but noticed that her hands were tied behind her back and her feet were tied together.
"Rise and shine."
Jessica looked up one she heard that. Although the only light present was from the pendant light, an additional glare beamed from a few feet in front of her. Out from the shadows walked a tall and muscular Dominican man with long blond dreadlocks and blue sunglasses. It was Thrasher Damnd. Then more men started to come out and stood next to him.
Jack leaned in towards Schot and whispered, "Man, she's got nice some tits."
Schot chuckled in response. "She is so fucking hot."
But Damnd looked behind towards them with a stern expression.
"Who… who are you?" Jessica said.
Damnd walked towards her. All Jessica could do was stay quiet, but her shaking and breathing told and showed more of how she felt in that moment.
"You know exactly who we are… Jessica," Damnd said.
Mad Gear? Jessica thought. Where the hell am I? How does he know who I am?
But then it hit her. She had to be well known for a number of reasons. Her father, her own father, was a public father. Not just because he was the mayor, but also because he was a well-known wrestler and a former wrestling champion.
"What…," Jessica paused a bit and breathed multiple times. "…Do you want from me?"
"Not important," Damnd said. "But I want you to look over here." Damnd pointed towards a camera in the room. "Smile for the camera, gorgeous." Damnd let out an evil grin.
So much sweat dripped from her body and tears ran down her eyes. Her body trembled, both from the cold and the fear flowing through her body.
Simons carried the video camera and pointed it towards Jessica. Damnd signaled him to start recording.
"Okay, Miss, what's your name?" Damnd said as he stood next to Simons.
"Jessica… Haggar." She didn't look up to the camera. She looked away. She couldn't look at anything around her. All that was on her mind was whether her father or her boyfriend would come for her. It was bad enough that she was stripped down to her underwear. Who knows what would happen next?
"Do you know where you are?"
"No." Her voice cracked. "I don't know where I am."
"Is there anything you want to say?"
Jessica nodded. "Dad… Cody… please, help me!"
Damnd then walked into the frame of the camera's view. Through Simons's perspective, Thrasher Damnd was now in full view in the foreground, fully covering Jessica.
"Listen here, Mr. Haggar, we have your daughter. Do as we say and we will get her back to you. Do you understand?" Damnd had that same evil grin as before and then started laughing.
Simons stopped recording and turned off the camera. He, along with Jake, Dug, Simons, Jack, Schot, Bull, Elijah, many other Mad Gear members in the room, they all walked towards Jessica. Thrasher Damnd put a strip of duct tape over her mouth. Jessica shook her head and her shoulders in an attempt to back away.
Elijah approached her and ran his hand on Jessica's face and down her unclothed body in a very seductive manner. "You're a pretty little thing, aren't you? You got a nice body, too."
Bull looked on with disgust. As someone with a wife and a child, he didn't feel comfortable with his friend's behavior. But he was in no position to stop any of his fellow Mad Gear comrades.
Some of the other Mad Gear members smiled at her in a creepy manner, almost like they wanted to have a little fun with her. Her body trembled some more. She wanted to run, but she couldn't. She whimpered through the duct tape. She wanted to scream, but it wouldn't do her any good. Not just because she was gagged, but she was with a dangerous gang. There were no outsiders around to hear her. More tears ran down from her eyes and her blonde hair was moist from all of the sweat that ran over onto her bare skin. With her in a state of undress, her skin was wet from all of the sweat coming from all the fear she exhibited.
Unbeknownst to everyone in the room, the door was cracked open and someone watched as everything went down here.
Through the crack, Poison watched the entire thing go down.
"What do you see?" Roxy said. "What are they doing in there?"
Poison shook her head. What exactly were they doing in there, she thought.
"I don't know, but I hope they don't…" Poison paused. It was clear to her what some of those guys would do, especially with a defenseless woman outnumbered by many men.
"Follow me," Poison said.
The door slammed open.
"STOP, NOW!" Poison yelled with so much power in her voice.
All the men turned around and saw the two ladies barge into the room.
"Poison, what the fuck are you doing?" Damnd said.
"You assholes are only good for fucking with girls, right? Why don't you try picking on me and Roxy?!"
"Or us." Elissa stepped in with Mary. It seemed that Poison and Roxy were not along when it came to the treatment of the hostage.
Much to their surprise, Elissa and Mary noticed their boyfriends, Robert and Leon, were nowhere to be found. The same with Poison and Roxy noticing that Billy and Sid were not present. Billy and Sid weren't their boyfriends, but more that they mess around with each other at times. All the guys in the room were just Thrasher Damnd's main crew, the ones he usually led.
With Jessica surrounded by all those men, there was no telling what would happen if Poison and Roxy didn't intervene. Because of it, they joined them. Despite their affiliation, the other two women wouldn't stand to see this innocent woman violated like this.
"Fuck you, you can't tell us what to do, you're not the boss," Damnd said.
"You only control these guys, Damnd, but do you think I should tell Mr. Belger about this? Oh, I bet he would love to hear about this."
Damnd's eyebrows raised a tad. One would guess his eyes widened through his shades, but he quickly glared at her.
"Belger's not here, so get the fuck out of here. This shit don't concern you."
"Excuse me, ladies." A male voice was heard. Poison, Roxy, Elissa, and Mary moved out of the way when someone walked in the room with two other men. Rolento was accompanied by El Gado and Holly Wood. Without any warning, Rolento grabbed Damnd and pushed him against the wall. Although Thrasher Damnd was taller and more muscular, Rolento still had enough strength and power to do that.
"If anybody has a say of what goes on here, it is me," Rolento pulled out a knife and pressed against Damnd's neck, but he didn't cut or puncture through his flesh. "You may run the streets with these weaklings, but you're not the boss. You have to answer to me in Mr. Belger's absence. And I say leave the poor girl alone, you got that?"
Damnd nodded his head. The size difference didn't matter with him being outclassed against a military veteran. Not to mention that Rolento was the adviser for the head boss of Mad Gear. Sure, Damnd had his own crew, as well as other thugs to follow him. He was a shot-caller of his own crew, but there were other mini crews within, like Philippe having his crew of followers. However, they would answer to Retu or Sodom, but the two men above them were Belger and Rolento. On top of that, despite the crews within Mad Gear, they were all a unit as a whole.
"Okay." Rolento slowly slid the sharp alloy away from Damnd's neck. "If you need to get something out of her, do as you must, but know this, we DO NOT do things like that!" Rolento then turned to everyone else in the room. "That goes for all of you, you got that?"
Some of the Mad Gear thugs like Bred, Dug, Elijah, and others breathed hard, shook, and nodded their heads in response to Rolento's plea. Everyone left the room except for the four ladies.
Poison led the way for the other three to approach Jessica, who looked up with so much confusion in her eyes. Her mouth was still gagged from the tape.
"I'm going to take this off," Poison said. "I'll be gentle, but promise you won't scream, okay?"
Jessica nodded. Poison slowly pulled off the tape.
"Are you okay?" Poison said.
Jessica breathed and shook, but she inhaled and exhaled. "I'm okay, I think." Jessica's eyes shifted towards the four ladies. "What is going on here? Why am I here?"
"I can't tell you that, Jessica," Poison said. "I just couldn't stand to watch those guys hurt you."
Jessica looked around her. The other two women started to look familiar to her. She remembered them fighting Maki that one night. It was then when something dawned on her.
"You're with them, aren't you?"
"What are you talking about?" Roxy replied to that remark.
"You and Kristina…," Jessica looked at the other two girls. "I've seen you two before, too." Jessica made eye contact with Poison and Roxy again. "You're with Mad Gear? You kidnapped me!"
"Wrong, we didn't kidnap you," Poison said. "And don't call me Kristina, okay? It's Poison now."
"Why are you doing this? Why are you with them?" Jessica asked.
"You don't get it, do you?" Poison said. "Not everyone has a mayor for a dad. Roxy and I have struggled our whole lives and this shit sort of happened. I am telling you. Me and these girls, we had nothing with you getting kidnapped. In fact, I did not think this would happen."
Jessica bit her lip. She understood what Poison meant. Although she wasn't close to Poison and Roxy, she was cordial enough and there was no issue between them. She got along with them enough, but was sometimes suspicious of Kristina, as she remembered her, as Jessica knew that she had a crush on Cody. However, this whole thing changed things. Why would these ladies be aligned with something as cruel and vile as Mad Gear? The same could be said about the other ladies.
"Jessica, I did not think they would do this," Roxy said and leaned in a bit.
Elissa chimed in. "I don't agree with what they did."
"Me, neither," Mary said.
If these ladies were being respectful, or respectful enough, a thought just hit Jessica.
"Hey, do you think maybe you can, you know, let me go?" Jessica said.
Right then, everything went full stop in all four ladies. None of them wanted to hurt her, but they knew if they even tried anything like that, that would be it for them. It was not up to them, but up to their boss. The main boss, who may have had a good reputation to the general, but was far from a nice man to his subordinates.
"I can't do that, Jessica, I'm sorry," Poison said.
Roxy walked in with Jessica's red dress. "Here, we can do this."
The door was sealed. There were no cameras anywhere except for the video camera that Damnd and his crew had. Mary got out her knife and cut the rope that restrained Jessica's wrists together. Elissa cut the ropes around her ankles. Without thinking, Jessica kicked Elissa in the face and ran right past Roxy and Poison towards the door. It didn't matter if she was still in her underwear, nor did it matter if the four ladies were somewhat compassionate towards her, she wanted to get out of there.
Elissa ran and jumped and flipped over Jessica. Without hesitation, Elissa delivered a kick crescent kick to Jessica's face.
"I was nice to you, and you kicked me? You're going to get it now, bitch." Elissa drew her knife. Jessica looked up at her with a scared look on her face and her body trembled once again. Jessica closed her eyes as if she was ready to seal her fate.
"ELISSA!" Poison yelled. Roxy shook her head. Mary looked at her too with the same expression.
"Rolento doesn't want us to hurt her," Mary said. Elissa put her knife back in the sheath.
Roxy grabbed a bottle and smeared the contents into a rag and put it towards Jessica's face. Jessica's eyes widen but after a few seconds, her eyelids slowly dropped. Her head dropped to her left and then her body began to tumble. Mary grabbed her and set her to the chair once again.
Poison saw her dress on the floor. Despite Jessica's instinctual behavior, Poison was kind of enough to help put the dress on her, as well as her shoes. But given that they were under orders, they couldn't let her go. Mary and Elissa found some more duct tape and restrained Jessica once again. Poison went up to Jessica's unconscious body, restrained to the chair.
"Sweet dreams, Jessica," Poison said.
Poison led the other three ladies towards the main area of the hideout, where everyone was hanging out. Some others were present like Slash and Axl, as well as Two-P and J, and others. Some were also new recruits.
But Rolento stood at attention with El Gado and Holly Wood by his sides. Poison went up to him.
"We had a little problem back there," she said.
"What happened?" Rolento said.
"She tried to escape," Elissa said.
"But don't worry, she's safe," Mary said.
Roxy chimed in, "But she asked if we could let her go. I don't know about you, but I felt for her back there."
Rolento saw where Roxy was coming from. "Listen, it's not up to me about this whole thing. I didn't want to abduct her. This was all Mr. Belger's plan, not mine."
"I thought you said that you were in charge of things here right now," Roxy said.
"I am only here to make sure that some of these guys don't try anything stupid with her," Rolento said. "That means no raping, no torturing, and no killing. Besides, Mr. Belger wants her alive."
Poison replied, "What does he want with her?"
"He wants her father to work with him, and this was his way to get him to play ball," Rolento replied.
So everything made sense now. This was all about Mayor Mike Haggar. This was Mad Gear's way to get him to bow to them. They understood why they kidnapped her, but they didn't agree with their boss's motives. In fact, they knew that their boss was an evil man. While Rolento was no saint, either, but at least he had a sense of honor compared to their boss.
It was morning. Cody's eyes started to open a bit and turned his body towards his left. It was flat on that surface. Cody's eyes opened some more. There was no one there.
"Jessica? What the…?"
Where was she? Where could she be? Did she come home at all last night? That was all he thought.
Cody got out of the bed and went into the living room. Maybe Jessica was in the living room. Could she have passed out on the couch?
Nothing.
Another door opened. Kyle walked out and saw Cody sitting and looking. What could have happened?
"Cody, are you alright?"
Cody looked up. "Kyle, when you came home last night, was Jessica here?"
Kyle shook his head. "I didn't see her. You were asleep. I thought she would come home late. Anyway, I got to tell you something about last night."
"What happened?"
"Well, you see, I was out with Vanessa and then—"
RING! RING! RING! The phone rang.
"Hold that thought." Cody went and picked it up as soon as it rang. "Hello? Maisie, hi."
"Hey, Cody. I got to ask you something. Did Jessica come home last night?"
"No, why? I thought she was with you."
"She was, but we weren't out that long. All we did was just go to dinner."
"So you didn't go anywhere else?"
"No, but there is one thing I need to tell you. There was something off about her bodyguard last night. I can't explain it, but I saw that something was up with him. I also saw a couple of cars driving like they were together going in their direction. I'm not sure."
"Do you know what the cars looked like?"
"All I saw was some silver sedan and a black SUV. That's it."
Then it hit him. It couldn't have been them, could it? Cody remembered the night when he was cornered by those lowly Mad Gear thugs. But what would they want with Jessica?
"If you hear anything, please call me again. Please leave a message if I'm not here, okay?" Cody said.
"I will," Maisie said.
"Thanks, Maisie." Cody hung up the phone.
"Hey, so what was that?" Kyle said.
"Jessica's friend Maisie, she asked if Jessica came home. I said no. There is something not right about this."
Cody couldn't think straight. He couldn't breathe. What could have happened to her? Could she have gone to her dad's house? Jessica would have told Cody if she was going. Even then, there would be a good reason for her to go if she had to speak to her father.
"Look, I am worried about her, too," Kyle said. "I'm sure she'll come home soon. As your brother, maybe you should blow off some steam. How about we go to the gym?"
Cody looked at his younger brother. He had a point. Although Cody was worried for Jessica's safety, he needed to get his mind off things. He had to think positively.
"Sure, let's go get ready."
It was a Saturday in Metro City. Mayor Mike Haggar went into the office to do some extra work. Though he had seen that the crime problem has gone down a bit, he needed to look into the education system, as well as some of the issues in the industrial area of Metro City. Some factory workers felt that they weren't paid well enough, at least compared to one of the factories in that area.
"Good morning, Janet. How are you?" Haggar said as soon as he walked out of the elevator.
"Oh, you know, the usual," Janet said.
"You know, you didn't have to come in today," Haggar said. "Don't you think you should be with your family?"
"It's fine, my husband is coaching my son's baseball game. My daughter slept over at my sister's house. She wanted to spend time with her cousins. Besides, I know you have a lot going on and I'm willing to get you anything you need."
"It's fine, I'll be in my office." Haggar went into his office and sat down at his desk. He took a deep breath. It was going to be a busy day today.
"Actually, there is something. I got a package with your name on it. Here." Janet handed it to him.
Haggar looked at the packaging. It read "TO MAYOR HAGGAR. PUT THIS ON AS SOON AS POSSIBLE."
"I'll look at it soon, thanks," Haggar said.
It was only a few minutes after he started looking at some documents for his plans to help the city and to help oversee any operations for any building projects when Janet's voice came on the intercom.
"Mr. Haggar, I got a caller on line one."
"From who?"
"I don't know, but this guy sounds demanding, like he needs to speak to you."
What was this all about? Who would be calling to issue a demand like this?
"Put them on." After a few seconds, Haggar said, "Hello, Mike Haggar here."
A laugh was heard through the phone. "Mr. Haggar, so pleased to make your acquaintance. I believe you know who I am."
Haggar had a confused look on his face. The voice started to sound familiar, but who could this possibly be?
"Don't hang up! We have a little business proposition for you. Your daughter for your cooperation…"
Haggar's eyes widened. Jessica? What could have happened to her?
"…And we'll throw in a good sum of money to your monthly salary if you work with us."
"My daughter? Jessica? What happened to her? Who the hell are you?"
"Did you get the tape that we sent you? I'm sure your assistant gave it to you. Put that tape on, now."
Haggar looked over at the package. He wasted no time in ripping it open. It was a video cassette. There was a label on it. It read, "WATCH ME." Haggar placed the tape in the VCR and turned on the TV. He put his phone the ear. As soon as the video feed came up, the first thing he saw was a visibly-terrified Jessica in a state of undress, and it wasn't long until a large Dominican man came on the video frame. Suddenly, when he talked, the voice sounded very familiar, and similar to who he was talking to.
"You son of a bitch, what the fuck did you to her?!"
"Oh, nothing… at least not yet. It's not like we wouldn't enjoy the opportunity with that pretty daughter of yours."
The man started to laugh again, which further infuriated Haggar.
"Just hear me out, okay? Why make your job harder than it already is? You've been fucking with our business, just some other people have. Just let us do our thing like Mayor Rudolph used to."
"What about Jessica?"
"You'll have to talk to my boss first. Don't worry. She's fine, for now."
"What do you want?"
"I already told you what we want."
"No, what do you want so that I can get Jessica back? How much?"
"You think this is about money? Take it up with our boss, and we'll give her back."
Haggar had a bad feeling about all of this. For all he knew, they would probably kill her before any negotiations would be made. He could try to go to the police, but there was no use given that some precincts were in Mad Gear's pocket. And as for his boss, there was only one man who he suspected was responsible for all of this.
Horace Belger.
"Fuck you. I'm coming for you assholes."
There was another laugh through the phone. "I'd like to see you try."
Haggar quickly hung up and ejected the tape from the VCR and threw it to the wall. Janet walked up shaken and confused.
"Mr. Haggar, are you okay?"
Haggar breathed hard and turned to the doorway. "Janet, consider this a day off for you. Go and be with your husband and your son at his game."
Janet took a deep breath and nodded her head. "I hope you get better soon, Mr. Haggar."
"Thanks," Haggar said.
At Tom's Gym, Cody punched the bag really hard. Kyle looked over at him and figured he was steamed over Jessica not coming home. Guy happened to be there as well and approached him.
"Are you okay, Cody?" Guy said.
"I'm okay."
Guy saw Cody's facial expression. He could barely look at his friend. He looked away. There was something wrong here.
"If you need to blow off some steam, let's do some sparring in the ring," Guy said.
"I'm not in the mood, Guy," Cody said. "Maybe some other time.
While Kyle was on the exercise bike, he looked up at the TV and there was a breaking news report. One thing that stood out was a photo of Jessica Haggar was shown. There were two photos. One with her father Mike, the other with her boyfriend Cody.
"Oh shit," Kyle said under his breath.
The text at the bottom of the screen read, "Jessica Haggar kidnapped." Kyle immediately got off the bike and rushed towards Cody and Guy.
"Um, guys," Kyle said.
"Not now, Kyle, we're talking right now," Cody said.
"Bro, this can't wait, look over there," Kyle pointed towards the TV. In fact, various TV sets in the gym had the same thing on the feed. The reports stated that this was the work of Mad Gear. Cody's eyes widened and soon enough, his expression changed into a venomous glare. With the rage brooding inside, he let out a fierce right hand to the punching bag.
"I can't fucking believe this!" Cody said. "Jessica has been kidnapped!"
Guy looked up. He could not believe it, either.
Cody said, "She was my sweetheart since we were kids. The Mad Gears will pay for this."
Guy put his hand on Cody's shoulder. "Cody, she is my friend, too. I'm in."
"Thanks, Guy, but I think I will handle this."
"You won't get very far alone. This is something that won't go unpunished. You'll need all the help you can get."
"Count me in, too," Kyle said.
"Sorry, Kyle, but you can't be a part of this," Cody said.
"Cody, I was going to tell you this earlier, but Mad Gear jumped me last night," Kyle said. "They almost kicked my ass, but Vanessa's brother saved me." Kyle paused. "Look, Jessica is a part of our family, too. You're my brother, and I have your back. I'm in, whether you want me to be or not."
"He has a point, Cody," Guy cut in.
Kyle just remembered when Guy and Maki saved him that night. Maybe this could be his way of returning the favor to him.
Out of nowhere, Tom walked up to Cody and the other two.
"Hey, Cody, you have a call at the desk, it's Mayor Haggar," Tom said.
Cody walked to the phone. "Hey, Mike. What's up? Yeah, I heard. Meet me at my house. I may need to make some calls. I'll see you soon."
Author's note: I hope you all enjoyed this. I will level with you on some things here. The first thing you must know is that Jessica being stripped down was a callback to the Japanese version of "Final Fight." I was not going to go any further than that, though there were some indications that it could have gone there. I made a point to show when Jessica had her dress put back on her.
Regarding the video recording scene, I remember way back when, there was a fan-made trailer on YouTube for a possible movie of "Final Fight." Not one of those ones with footage from other films and shows edited together, and certainly not one of those videos with AI-generated images of the characters. This was sometime in the late-2000s when I saw this, and it was shot like it was a class project, but it was so wonderfully done. I think it's long gone.
Some of the dialogue with Poison was a reference to "Street Fighter: The Duel." I was a bit inspired, especially with her having some disputes and concerns over Jessica's treatment.
Again, I hope you all enjoyed it. Until next time, peace out.