Murders at the Docks

[Warehouse DF3, Dock 7, Port Shelby | 1820 Central Time, Day 2]

By the time the quartet arrived on Dock 7, the flames blazing from Warehouse DF3 were visible to where they were standing, painting the sky around it in a hot orange shade.

"Not a single drop of rain, they got rain shamans or something?" pondered Sui.

"A pain shaman--a what now?" asked Becks, confused.

"Rain shamans," answered Sui. "Saw them in action when I went to Indonesia for summer a couple years back. There was this festival held on the streets--it's in Jakarta I think--with food and music and stuff, but then it was starting to rain--and rain ain't exactly good for a festival being held outdoors, you know? That was until I saw one of them--chanting and praying to the sky by the looks of it, putting incense on the ground, and lo and behold, the rain stopped soon after."

"So you're saying they can control the weather?" asked Becks again.

"I wouldn't exactly call it 'controlling' the weather, my friend told me it's more like they are appealing to the forces that control the weather to stop the rain--anyways, what are we doing here again?"

Foy cleared his throat. "The firetrucks are having trouble getting to the docks. The dock workers are blocking their path, so it will be a while until they can arrive to put that fire out. In the meantime, we need to secure the warehouse before they arrive."

"Didn't know this Sanchez guy has that kind of pull. Always thought of him as a scrawny little bitch," scoffed Becks.

Mendez scratched his chin. "Serizawa must've bought the entire dock worker union."

"Serizawa did not have to pay that much," answered Foy. "Sanchez have always had a sizeable loyal following, even before you came to the fight club."

"Not like you only got 10 followers, right?" asked Sui.

"One of my boys said there are 60 of them at the warehouse," said Foy, somewhat dodging the question.

"How many of 'your boys' do we have?" enquired Mendez.

"I believe we have 40." answered Foy. Could be worse, thought Mendez.

"I assume they already made a move?"

"No, they are all standing by until all of us are gathered like you said."

"Alright then," instructed Mendez. "Put those guns away. No shooting, no killing."

"What's with the surprise Batman move?" questioned Becks, puzzled.

"These people aren't exactly BP. Just some pissed off and likely desperate dock workers and prize fighters looking to turn a buck, not trigger-happy mercenaries selling people. No killing unless they pull a gun on you."

When Mendez and his crew arrived at the warehouse, the building was already smoldering. An inferno of fire was dancing on top of a mangled construction of steel and concrete. Even if the structure itself survived, there is no way its contents stayed intact. The fight club was definitely torched to ashes.

And in front of it all was the person responsible: Sanchez, backed by tens of men armed with an assortment of improvised weapons such as lead pipes, chains, 2x4 wood blocks and wrenches.

Against Sanchez stood Mendez and his quartet, now joined by Foy's faction with their own armaments, not so different from their opposition. Only difference was that there was one person armed with a collapsible baton: Sui.

"Hello, Sanchez. How's your fingers?" asked Foy.

Sanchez held up his hand, showing Foy his fractured fingers. "I don't need my fingers to bring you down, Foy. I mean, look at what I've done," he said as he gestured towards the burning warehouse.

Foy nodded at the burning warehouse, almost looking impressed. "It was Serizawa, was it?"

"Serizawa paid me to torch the warehouse, but that was just to send a message that can get your attention. The real target here was--"

"--me," finished Mendez. "Promised more if you can get me, right?"

"Yeah!" shouted one of Sanchez' men. "That's why I brought this!" he exclaimed as he drew a pistol from his pocket--

BANG!

--but Mendez got to his first, killing the henchman in a single shot. The move caused Sanchez' faction to slightly retract their initial aggressiveness.

Sanchez took a glance at the now-dead henchman, then back at Mendez. "I learned my lesson, Fernandez."

The mention of Mendez' BP alias caused him to raise an eyebrow. "Then I assume you're smart enough to guess the next lesson I'm gonna give you?"

"If you live long enough to teach it, sure," quipped Sanchez as he retreated into the advancing crowd.

In response to Sanchez' faction moving up, Mendez nodded to his crew and charged their opposition head-on. Foy however, as Mendez noticed, did not move from his spot.

The two crowds charged against each other, roaring at every step of the way.

Then they clashed, and all hell broke loose on Dock 7.

First thing Mendez did to the first thug was not to punch him; rather, Mendez ducked under his punch, kicked him at the back of his knee, and drove his knee at his face. That is one down... out of sixty.

Amidst the chaos, Mendez managed to find Becks; his purple hoodie, capris, kneepads left over from the Hotel Elisa raid, and hi-tops made for an easy find.

Problem is that he is in trouble; he is on the floor with one of Sanchez' man standing over him. Must have gotten knocked down. Mendez also noticed the thug has a pair of brass knuckles on each hand; must have been the reason he got knocked down.

Mendez' solution? Intervening with a punch across the thug's right cheek.

The thug staggered but didn't fall. He pulled back his arm, looking to return Mendez the favor. Instead of ducking or dodging or even blocking the blow, Mendez braced and stood his ground as he was hit across the face with the steel-laden fists.

The punch squarely connected to Mendez' cheek, but he did not budge, nor did he flinch. He had just tanked a brass-knuckled punch.

The thug was taken aback for a moment, a moment that Mendez used to launch a counter-jab of his own. As soon as the counter-jab hits, the thug tried to launch another counter-counter-jab; Mendez ducked under it, launched his knee to his diaphragm, and elbowed him on the spine while he was still reeling from the knee, driving him into the ground.

The thug rolled in pain from Mendez' combination of blows... only for Mendez to stomp on his face mid-roll. He is out of commission now.

Mendez took the now-bloody brass knuckles off the thug and tossed it to Becks. "A little gift," he said.

Right after Becks, Mendez found Sui. He was the only one with a collapsible baton in the crowd, after all.

Seeing a thug going after a preoccupied Sui from behind him, Mendez drove his boot in a mid-height side kick, knocking the thug off his feet.

Sui looked around, and then rushed to cover Mendez by striking a thug on the stomach and following it up with a bash on the back of the head, knocking the thug out.

Meanwhile Mendez clinched another one of Sanchez' thugs, kneed him on the face, then shoved him at Sui's direction after which Sui responded with striking the stunned thug square at the face. Impressed, Mendez nodded at Sui before shifting his focus yet again.

It was then when he spotted Foy among the crowd, slowly marching through the clash of fists and steel unscathed as if he was not there.

That is, until one of Sanchez' henchmen stepped in front of Foy, seemingly unaware of Mendez' presence. In response, Mendez sprung up from behind the henchman and locked his arms, immobilizing him and making him a soft target for Foy.

"Please let him go, Mendez," instructed Foy calmly.

Mendez was a bit surprised, but saw Foy's logic and let the thug go. "Interesting," he pondered as he stepped back to watch the fight unfold.

It ended faster than it started. After parrying the thug's right hook, Foy stunned him with a body blow, took him to the floor with a double leg takedown, and pounded on his face until the thug was out cold. If Mendez had looked away for a moment during the fight, he would have missed the entire thing.

Realizing he had been idle in an all-out brawl for a little too long, Mendez instinctively turned around while swinging the back of his fist. It connected to one of the thugs which utterly stupefied him, although not enough to bring him down; Mendez fixed it by kicking the thug's ankle like a football, sending him into the concrete and into dreamland.

Looking up from the thug he had just taken down earlier, Mendez noticed that the opposing side was down to Sanchez and a handful of thugs left around him. Matter of fact, Sanchez was the closest to him compared to his thugs.

Mendez glanced backward, finding Foy just about finishing off a fight with another thug. He could have easily humiliated Sanchez for the third time, but not this time. This time, it was better for Foy himself to set things straight with Sanchez. With that in mind, Mendez marched forward to stall Sanchez until Foy can step in.

Sanchez chambered his right arm. Anticipating the moves Sanchez was going to make, Mendez shuffled his feet and squared his hips. Sanchez threw a right, then a left, then another right--all of which Mendez weaved away from. Then a big right hook, which Mendez weaved under. With how it was going with Mendez, Sanchez would have had a better luck catching a fly.

Mendez glanced back--Foy was just a few steps away. Now would be a good time to give Foy a big opening to step in--by making Sanchez commit a slow and easily telegraphed move. To be precise, baiting Sanchez to perform a slow move.

And so, Mendez let himself get hit from one of Sanchez' flurry of blows.

It didn't hurt as much as it looked, but Mendez had to 'sell' the hit in order to trick Sanchez into thinking he had the advantage. Mendez pretended to be staggered, groggily stumbling backwards as Sanchez prepared for a right-handed haymaker, and then...

...Foy caught Sanchez' fist square on his palm.

Mendez straightened his posture. "All yours, buddy."

That was before Mendez got kicked at the back into the curb. There were still some thugs left after all.

After rolling into a crouched position, Mendez saw one of the thugs trying to kick his face--which he promptly blocked and countered with an uppercut to the thug's diaphragm. The uppercut was so abrupt, it sent the thug into a curled-up position. Mendez saw the opportunity, stood up, and fired his knee at the thug's face, knocking him out.

Not a second later, Mendez was held from the back, the same way he held someone for Foy minutes earlier. There was also another one of Sanchez' thugs approaching him from the front, although he doubted this thug would have had Foy's sense of gallantry. Once the approaching thug was in range, Mendez kicked upwards and jumped with both his legs pointing forward--kicking the thug in the face--and then crouched as soon as he landed, flipping his holder over his shoulder. Problem solved.

Once Mendez' holder was on the floor, he saw that the thug that was about to gut-punch him was still standing, albeit a bit dazed. In response, Mendez stepped on the holder thug and lunged at the other dazed thug to punch him.

However, Becks drove his fist at that same thug's cheek at the last second and knocked him down while Mendez was still airborne, practically replacing the thug in position. As a result, collision was unavoidable.

"Man, are you for fucking real?!" exclaimed Becks irritated after the crash.

Mendez dusted his rainjacket off. "Sorry 'bout that. Not like I can cancel mid-air, though."

Foy glanced around the warehouse front area now littered with bodies reeling in pain from all the fighting. "That should be all of them. Hold up, where's Sui?"

As if on cue, Sui collapsed beside Becks and Mendez just as Becks finished his sentence, all battered and bruised, his collapsible baton now stained with blood.

"And what about Foy--" stopped Becks mid-sentence as he noticed the standoff between Foy and Sanchez. "Oh, right."

***

Sanchez stumbled after receiving a blow from Foy.

"Why burn the place down?" asked Foy.

"Why not? Serizawa promised a bigger, place than just 'a warehouse down at the docks'," replied Sanchez as he wiped the blood off his mouth. "Now let me ask you this: why stick with the losing side? BP has more men, more power, more influence, more money, you name it."

"Mendez has one thing BP does not," argued Foy. "My respect."

Sanchez scoffed. "Respect? For what? For beating you in that ring?"

Foy shook his head. "In the club, that is precisely how respect is earned, through a fair fight in the ring. It is not bought or sold like how BP does things. That is what the club is for. It is more than just people fighting each other, but how they form bonds of kinship through combat. To better each other and push each other to be the best versions of themselves."

"Bullshit!" shouted Sanchez. "People still earn money from beating each other."

"You might be right, but have I ever allowed anyone get killed in the ring? I have never cared much about earning money in the club, all those side bets go to the fighter's pockets. I have never earned a single cent from the bets that people place on the fighters," lectured Foy. "This is a place for people like us to push our limits, not for people like you to satisfy your bloodlust."

"Doesn't change the fact that joining Mendez let to your precious place burning right here," gestured Sanchez at the burning building beside the pair.

"No," stated Foy calmly. "It only brought out the rotten side of this club: you."

As soon as Foy finished his sentence, Sanchez took a swing at his face. Foy caught it yet again, only this time he followed up with twisting Sanchez' arm. Sanchez responded by throwing his free arm at Foy, only for Foy to catch it by the forearm instead. With Sanchez deadlocked by the arms, Foy sprawled backwards and threw Sanchez over his body using one of his legs, sending the thug flying behind him.

The rough landing sent Sanchez reeling from pain, but not enough to knock him out as he got back up.

This time, Sanchez delivered a flurry of punches at Foy, all of which got blocked. At the last jab, Foy unexpectedly sidestepped and caught Sanchez' forearm while tripping him in a single motion. Once Sanchez is on the ground, Foy pulled his arm the other way, breaking it.

Sanchez screamed from pain while holding his right arm, but he got up nevertheless. It took him a while and it was a slow process, but he was eventually up on his feet.

As a desperate attempt to attack Foy, Sanchez tried a middle roundhouse kick, which was predictably caught by Foy. While still holding Sanchez' leg, Foy elbowed it by the thigh and punched Sanchez in the face, knocking him down. Once Sanchez hit the concrete however, Foy did not let go; instead Foy clutched Sanchez' ankle as he went down, and hyperextended Sanchez' leg to its breaking point.

Mendez could swear he heard 'snap'.

There was a wail of pain coming out of Sanchez, this time louder than before. There was no way he is winning that bout with Foy, or his next twenty bouts for all that matter.

The fight was over. Foy won.