Shiva (Streets of Rage)

"Okay. So you've exposed me. Now prepare for law enforcement, syndicate style!"

- Shiva

Shiva (Japanese:シヴァ) is Mr. X's right hand man and the second to last boss before Mr. X in Streets of Rage 2, also serving the secondary antagonist of Streets of Rage 3.

Streets of Rage 2
On Stage 8, when Axel and his friends confront Mr. X, Shiva can be seen standing next to Mr. X, implying that he is Mr. X's right-hand man and bodyguard. Once Mr. X's goons are defeated, Shiva then jumps in to defeat Axel and his friends. Although he did put up a good fight, he was eventually defeated, and Mr. X and his goons jumped in to fight the heroes, only to be defeated.

Streets of Rage 3
The storyline in the Japanese and American versions of the game are completely different. In both versions, however, Shiva has a much larger role in the storyline, serving as both a diversion and later on a mastermind behind the replacement of authority figures with duplicate robots to initiate Mr. X's sinister plans.

In the American version of the game Streets of Rage 3, Mr. X founds the RoboCy Corporation, which serves as a front for the Syndicate's operations. With the help of a scientist called Dr. Dahm, he starts creating robot duplicates to replace all authorities in the city, while at the same time placing bombs throughout the city to keep the police force busy, and restructuring the Syndicate as Neo-Chaos. A RoboCy researcher called Dr. Zan discovers Mr. X plans and decides to join forces with Axel Blaze and Skate to stop Mr. X's plans. Shiva serves as a diversion early on in the game before battling Axel and his friends, bringing in waves of thugs to battle them, from his speed boat. Once he brings in a final wave of hard-hitting and speedy thugs, he sails away, waiting for them later on in the same stage level.

If the Police Chief dies from the poison gas, an alternate bad ending requires Axel and his friends to instead stop the imposter Chief. After defeating the thugs scattered around the town hall, Axel and his friends had exposed the imposter robot by revealing that the real Police Chief was dead. Knewing that he couldn't bluff further, Shiva reveals himself and attempts to defeat the heroes, only to be beaten down.

In the Japanese version of the game Bare Knuckle 3, the Syndicate managed to get hold of a large quantity of a radioactive element called Rakushin. Intending to spark a global scale war and profit by smuggling the material, Mr. X orders the kidnapping of General Petrov, who was against the use of the Rakushin, and sends Shiva disguised as the general to start the war, while he places bombs full of Rakushin all over the globe. Axel, Blaze and Skate are contacted by Dr. Zan, who reveals Mr. X's plot to them. When the heroes rescue General Petrov he reveals Dr. Zan is actually the creator of Rakushin, though he never intended for his discovery to be used for evil purposes.

If General Petrov dies from the gas, Axel and his friends must travel to the White to stop the supposed "robot" Petrov, beating up all of the thugs around the area. As the imposter attempts to reveal his plan, Axel exposes him as a fake. Knewing that he couldn't bluff for any longer, Shiva takes off his disguise and attempts to defeat them, only to defeated.

In both storylines, Shiva serves as a Stage 1 boss and the final boss of the city hall bad ending, disguised as a robot imposter to initiate Mr. X's plans, only to be defeated by Axel and his friends.