Texas does not slow down.
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*SWOOSH*
The car drifts harshly into a corner.
*SCREECH*
And it finally slows down.
...
"We're here." Texas announces, taking out the keys and walking out.
"We're here?" Bison asks mystified, whiplash being only one of many things he's experiencing right now, "Ah, we're finally here."
I open the car door and jump down, Sora following.
Exusiai vaults from the back seat and joins us on the ground.
Croissant stays, tapping Bison, hoping to get him off the car seats.
...
The tapping turns to poking.
...
The poking turns to light slapping.
...
The slapping turns to-
"OKAY! I'm up!" Bison yells, finally running out of the car, "I don't understand how you guys can be fine after whatever the hell that was! Any regular person would be puking right now!"
"You'll get used to it, don't worry~" Exusiai says before walking over to Texas, ignoring Bison's confused stammers.
"Is that a block party?" Sora asks as she walks over with Exusiai, looking across into the festival.
"Appears so." I say joining them, "I can't think of any other place that would have so many people and vendors in Lungmen."
"Vendors?!" Croissant says jogging over to the possibility of money, "We shouda' gotten ourselves a booth, coulda' made a bundle!"
"Not a chance." Texas says, "The air is so sweetly polluted, I can't imagine staying here for more than an hour."
"Well we better hurry up then." I say, "Gotten anything from the boss yet?"
"Not yet, I think he got drunk and passed out somewhere." Texas answers.
Silence works itself in for a couple of seconds.
But Bison interrupts it by finally snapping out of his car-riding delusions, and meets up with us.
"There are so many people here, if the enemy finds us here, they'll get all mixed up with civilians." He says, not reading the mood at all.
...
Knowing the gang, we would probably take his simple observation and turn it into a conversation about guitar picks or something.
But our minds are taken off course with the appearance of two characters I completely forgot were in this story.
Jaye and Waai Fu.
...
"Ah" Jaye gets out.
"It's the Penguin folk" Waai Fu follows.
"And you're the girl from the detective agency." Texas says.
"And you're the infamous knife-wielding helmsman from the docks!" Exusiai says out of nowhere.
"What? No. I'm just a normal hawker trying to make a buck during the festival." Jaye says, "that's the craziest version yet." He says under his breath.
Waai Fu walks up to the group, facing Texas head-on, "And you must be Texas? Something crazy has happened today, don't act like you don't know." She gets out sternly.
Texas just stares at her, while I move back a bit, not wanting to be bothered with fighting if things get hostile.
"You guys cause innocent people to end up hurt, destroy their property, and so many other things. Can't you think like normal law-abiding citizens for once?"
Texas is silent.
The entire street corner is silent.
...
"So what?" Texas says.
"So we must correct your defiant behavior." Waai Fu answers.
"Sure." Texas says before anyone gets the chance to speak up, not that anyone seems to be bothered.
"Let me just give you a disclaimer, so much stuff has happened today that is either completely out of our control, or just plain baffling. All of it was exhausting." Texas says, "So I'm just not in the best mood. You hear what I'm saying?"
"I do hear what you're saying, and I do not care." Waai Fu answers, "One on one right here, right now. If I win you guys simmer down... for at least a month."
Bison slowly deflates, not being able to process the words he's hearing.
"And if I win, all your goldbricking busybodies have to mind your own damned business." Texas says, setting the stakes.
"Fair, fair" Waai Fu says, agreeing to said stakes, "But I won't go easy!" She says before heading in with a high kick.
Texas immediately parries before returning with a kick of her own, which is in turn blocked by Waai Fu.
They trade blows for an exorbitant amount of time before a crowd of drunkards slowly approach and begin egging them on.
"Hella yeah! Two hot girls fighting Kung-Fu! WOO!" One of them yells to many, many cheers from the crowd.
Even Exusiai and Sora seem to get in on it, cheering on Texas every hit she gets.
...
It's a sight, to say the least.
It's also a loud one. A very loud one.
Loud enough for me to have to move back in order to not irritate my stupidly sensitive ears.
...
"Soda, want some?" Someone says behind me.
"No, I'm fine... Aren't you going to try to stop this?" I ask them.
"No point, you know that's not in my abilities." The man, who reveals himself to be Jaye, answers.
"So you just wanna watch?" I ask him.
"Sure, nothing like seeing a fist fight between two people in the middle of one of the most celebrated events in the city's history."
"Mhmm" I agree, deciding to pull out a cigarette.
I'm pretty sure that in Terra, races here are much more powerful than regular humans, so smoking shouldn't be as harmful to me.
...
But that's probably just a cope, smoking makes me feel cool and it helps me stay level-headed, so that's probably why I do it.
"...Want one?" I offer a smoke to Jaye.
"Sure, thanks." He says taking it, using a lighter from his own pocket.
...
For some reason, everything has just hit me now.
I just passed a cigarette over to a half-depressed cooking polar bear while watching my co-worker and a detective have a kung-fu street battle during probably the biggest night in a futuristic city that can literally move on a whim.
Life's really weird sometimes. Terra's really weird most of the time...
But damn if it isn't fun.
...
I lean back, smiling to myself.
*Crackle Crackle*
Until the sound of a radio turning to life gives us the familiar sound of a penguin across the city block.
"Aight, you seem to be able to hear me." He says.
"Now, everybody, quiet down! Quiet down please!" he continues, "Lend me your ears. And bow before me."
Slowly, right when drunkards realize that the man on the broadcast is emperor, music begins to fade in, and almost everyone leaves the fight to start dancing to the stuff.
Texas and Waai Fu slow down for about a second, seemingly exchanging small talk before heading right back into the fighting.
...
It's an even more interesting sight than before.
...
"Uhh... Did, did he just kill emperor?!" One of the drunkards scerams.
"OH MY GOD, HE DID!" Another says.
"WHAT DO WE D-
*CRACK*
The three screaming drunkards are all on the ground, their heads begin bashed by baseball bats and such.
People dressed in black surround us, holding all sorts of weapons with blank faces.
...
"Isn't this an ambush? A really bad one for that matter?" Jaye asks me before reaching over for another cigarette.
"I think it is." I reply while handing him the cig.
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"Of course." Texas says annoyed, looking around the area, "The Rat King is the master of the slums, no doubt he would have his hands here."
"So we're surrounded? Six deep on all sides?" Croissant says.
"Appears so." I say walking over to them, throwing the cigarette bud into the crowd of lackeys.
This seems to enrage them a lot more than it should as almost the entire group begins rushing us.
...I guess they're soft.
"Here they come, hit hard, but try not to kill them." Texas says getting her swords out.
"I'll try my best to refrain~!" Exusiai says, starting to shoot.
I make my swords and follow right behind Texas. Sora is helping in the background while Croissant and Exusiai are grouping together to take out mobs.
Bison seems a bit checked out, talking to himself on something.
*Slash*
"Focus, Az." Texas says, casually incapacitating a guy in front of me.
"Sorry, just observing the field. You know me." I say.
She subtly laughs, "I know you well enough."
...
One unconscious body turns to two.
Two turns to three.
And three spirals into something uncountable.
...
"Slash, Slash, Slash" I mutter, trying to give myself something to do...
"Slash, Slash, Slash." Because throwing people halfway to death's door is surprisingly boring after a couple minutes, but...
"Slash, Slash, Slash." Eventually, something should happen, either they'll run out of people or The Rat King comes down...
"Slash, Slash, Slash." I'm pretty sure in the story the-
*WOOSH*
Mostima appears and immediately clears out a quarter of the hecklers.
The others quickly run away after she raises her staff again. Intimidation is always as powerful as actual ability after all.
...
"Good thing you guys were able to deal with so many so quick." She says walking down, "I was worried for a second until I remembered Az joined back, with his BS power you guys should be good."
"Thanks for the compliment." I say, "And I don't think The Rat King has seen me fight yet, so my 'BS power' should be even more helpful."
"What will be helpful?" The Rat King himself says while joining us on even ground, "...You youngsters always overestimate yourself, you need to be taught a lesson on confidence compared to arrogance."
"Sorry, Sorry. Just mentioning that you haven't seen me fight yet... and that I haven't seen you fight, so thinking about it... It's pretty even." I mention to him knowing damn well everything he has up his sleeve.
...
"Looking at it, it seemingly is even..." The Rat King says after a pause, "How's your Sauin going so far?"
"Sa'll right. Kinda like a hangover-
"I was asking the boy." The Rat King says before sighing, "Sorry for the interruption, you all have yet to surprise me, and I was hoping that maybe this young man would be the first. But I guess you are too naive to let me speak with him. If that's how it is, then that's how it is. We will speak all together with our weapons, may the finest claim victory."
Without warning he spurts sand across the entire playing field, covering himself in a makeshift shield.
"Pffft! What's with all this sand!" Exusiai says spitting it out of her mouth.
"He still has all this strength?!" Sora yells.
"Everybody focus." Texas says throwing the sand off her face, "This is like nothing we've faced before, one mistake could lead to your death."
That shuts everybody up. Everybody but The Rat King.
"Sauin must be a lively event! Show me with my own eyes the freaks that emperor raised!" He yells through his sand barrier.
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Texas heads in and immediately breaks her blade across the sand shield.
She retreats, nearly missing a sand vortex that followed her from the shield.
Exusiai process to shoot up at least 20 rounds into the shield, to which nothing happens.
She reaches over to tell Croissant to attack, but stops seeing that she's already gotten her hammer stuck.
I position myself, seeing Mostimia prepare her staff.
"Is this it Penguin Logistics? This is all you have?" The Rat King teases from his shield. Not even noticing my the-moment-I-get-the-chance-you're-dead stance I'm giving him.
...
"That's not all." Mostimia says moving her staff.
A short burst of blue energy forms at the top before rushing towards The Rat King's shield.
He throws up pillars of sand, but it does nothing than dampen the shade of blue.
The particles appear across his shield, slowly chipping it away, exposing him.
"He's open! Now Exu-
*ZOOOM*
I lose hearing of Mostima the moment I notice the opening. I push myself as fast as I can with my sword pointed right at him.
A sand vortex comes from the right side.
I move to the left side.
A sand vortex comes from the left side.
I move to the direct center, now only a couple meters in front of him.
A sand vortex comes from the direct center.
And I finally activate my arts.
...
Ice covers the ground as pillars sprout from the sheet and break up the sand vortexes.
I'm point blank with nothing blocking me. I can barely hear Exusiai fire her gun from behind me.
I angle my sword right to his neck.
And I don't attack him.
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I land past The Rat King and clear out the ice where my foot landed, allowing me to immediately pivot the hardest I can make my foot before thrusting my blades to him.
In his attempt to make sure he comes out unscathed, The Rat King dodged out of the way of the feint, leaving him open with no grip on the icy floor for the actual attack.
But savviness is a trait that only gets better with age.
...
The Rat King somehow manages to move a couple of centimeters away from my blade's center, avoiding a lethal strike.
He begins to bleed from the neck and throws up his arts in defense for another melee attack.
So rather than turning on him with my second blade, I let myself fly past him.
And pull out my revolver.
...
*BANG*
With a single shot, The Rat King's left foot is hit.
Right about now, Exusiai's bullets finally arrive after what seems like ages, right in front of his legs.
But The Rat King's late defense for my bullet ends up an early defense for hers.
And Exusiai's shots fling away up into the Sauin night.
He sets up his original sand barrier again while slowly covering his wounds with his coat.
"I've never seen someone pull off a feint so well." He speaks slowly, "And a Lungmenite owning a gun, how unordinary is that?"
Mostimia raises her stuff in preparation for a counterattack.
"I don't think the penguin would have been able to raise someone as talented as you." He continues, "It would make sense if his kids could have cut my coat, but forcing me to use it as a bandage for an actual wound? That is something I would have never imagined. This coat was a gift from my daughter you know."
...
I let my blades melt but keep my gun shown, "Sorry for ruining a gift. Didn't know it was precious to you."
"Apology accepted." He continues, "Being genuinely surprised by someone is well worth any material thing nowadays."
"I'll take that as a compliment." I say, "I'll pay you back for the coat if you leave us alone for the time being."
...The Rat King is silent for a second...
"Though I'll have to leave anyways, I'll take you up on that young man. What's your name?"
"Azrael."
"Heh, I wish you luck Azrael, we will see each other very soon." He says before walking off, letting his sand serve as a barrier, preventing us to follow him.
...
I look back to the group and take a seat.
Their faces are about what you would expect.
"...You know, when you don't see someone fight for a whole year, you really forget how powerful they can be." Exusiai stammers out after a couple seconds.
"R-Really." Sora adds.
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After a tiny bit of sitting around, The Rat King's sand barrier finally begins to let up.
None of us make a move though, given that he's most likely already kilometers away if he's willing to remove his barrier.
But right after his barrier begins to disappear, something just as confusing appears.
A man in a tall black suit walks up to us as the final bit of The Rat King's sand clears out.
"Well, I guess my services weren't needed." He says.
Everyone looks over. All of us are confused, well... all of us except Bison.
...
"Wh-What are you doing here?" Bison stammers out.
"I was sent to protect you, young master." The man says, revealing himself as a butler.
"...Are you saying I was bait? D-Did Father know about this and send you in order to-"
"Young master." He says, getting Bison's full attention, "Things are not as they seem, they will never be. Me or the master of the house never had any intention of exploiting you in any way. Concerning Penguin Logisitcs, I'm sorry for dragging you all into this large mess, but I need to leave and finish off The Rat King, personal orders."
...
"It's fine... No one needs to hear your explanation right now." Texas says after a bit of silence.
"Thank you for your understanding. Now, young master, take care." He says before running off into the night, following the blood trail left by The Rat King.
...
...
...
The wind overtakes us.
Bison is silent, gripping his shield hard.
The rest of the gang looks either slightly surprised, or completely tired with all the turns this night has had in store.
...
With all the silence between us, it's Mostima who finally takes the initiative.
"Alright, now isn't the time to phase out. The Rat King still promised to give us a "gift", even before the whole tangent about "meeting Az soon"."
"It might be a bomb." Exusiai says, "Those guys seemed to really like bombs.
"Hmmm" Texas ponders for a second, "Mostima and Bison and go find The Rat King's "gift". Me and the rest of the gang will clear out the rest of the leftover mafioso and such, I don't think The Rat King's henchmen will be touching us as long as we have Az with us."
"Alright. It's a plan." Mostimia says, grabbing Bison, "We'll see you soon!"
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"I forgot how powerful you were." Sora says while we're cleaning out random mobsters in the street, "I mean, it was always in my head, and you always said that you fought best in open grounds, but I just couldn't imagine it fully."
...
"Yeah, having the element of surprise probably did around 90% of the work, and Mostima was the one who opened up the barrier anyways. I just did the slashing."
"And you did the slashing beautifully." Sora says moving in front of me with a smile, "You knew your job and you executed it perfectly."
...
I chuckle to myself, "I guess so."
The final few mobsters in front of us just run away seeing how casually we're destroying his co-workers.
Seeing this I check the time.
11:58
...
I take a seat and motion for Sora to sit next to me.
She does, and as the clock hits 11:59 I look up into the sky.
She follows.
...
I remember the final of the Sauin story was a celebration of fireworks or something like it at midnight.
Given how long of a night it's been, just enjoying the show should be a good send-off.
...
...
...
*BOOM*
A small explosion is shown a little bit in front of us.
Little... things are launched up in the air, too small to see.
But not too far to smell.
"It's that sweet smell again." Sora says before the things fall into viewing distance, "It's... Candy? The sky is raining candy?"
The smell Texas mentioned earlier has returned in droves as candy begins falling down.
...
"Close enough to fireworks." I mutter under my breath.
"Hmm? Did you say anything Az?" Sora says, catching my words.
"Ah nothing, I just... Didn't expect to be rained on by candy today."
"Yeah, it's a bit... unexpected." She says before getting a look up at the sky, "Definitely not unwelcomed though!"
She laughs a bit before watching the candy fall down, she grabs a couple from the air and stuffs them in her pocket.
...
The last of the candy finally reaches the ground, the clock reaches 12:01, and Sauin is official over.
Sora and I stay in the same spot for a couple more minutes.
...
"Let's go find Texas."
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"So you're saying that the entire thing was just a farce set up by the boss and The Rat King." Sora says to Texas, who seemingly figured it out much earlier.
"Yes, it seems all of it was staged for whatever reason." Texas confirms.
...
"It was staged?" I say, "Now I feel bad for cutting up The Rat King."
I actually forgot that the entire thing was staged, I knew that emperor wasn't actually dead, but the whole "just staged" thing passed my mind.
But it worked out in the end, so who cares? The motto of Penguin Logisitcs is "Go with the flow" after all.
"Don't feel bad for cutting him up." Exusiai says walking over to me, "I mean, he seemed pretty happy to have someone quote on quote "surprise" him."
I just nod and take a seat with the rest of the group.
I pull out a cigarette and put on some music for myself.
...
"Az! We're heading to the afterparty! Come on!" I hear Exusiai shout after a couple of minutes.
"I'm coming." I lightly yell while pausing my music and taking the cigarette out of my mouth, throwing the bud into the nearest trash can and heading to the car.
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"1..."
"2..."
"3..."
*POP*
"Cheers!!" We all say together, holding an assortment of drinks to toast.
Hell, Exusiai even got a bottle of champagne after hearing Texas's explanation of how the entire thing was just a farce, meaning that all the stuff that got destroyed here will end up paid back in full.
So she got herself a bottle, opened it up with a *POP*, and is going to break it afterward just to say that it was damaged during the mafioso's attack on the bar.
Speaking of the bar...
"I forgot how trashed this place got while we we'rnt here." Croissant says, "But the thought of havin' someone else foot the bill just makes me all warm inside!"
"Yeah, it really just puts a bow on everything!" Exusiai adds in, "Though, if you knew then you probably should have told us Texas."
"...I just guessed." She defends.
"You're a really bad liar." Sora says.
"...Well that's all behind us now!" Exusiai says, raising the mood, "The boss had everything all planned out from the start. Afterall, eating, drinking, and fighting is good for the soul. No need to sweat it~"
I lightly chuckle to myself for a second, "She's right. It's all behind us now, so no point in dwelling on it. I mean, I enjoyed my time back if that's anything."
"Yeah! Who cares if the bar got trashed if we got Az back in return!" Sora says, standing up, "I mean, just seeing Az again after all this time should be a good enough reason to be happy about the past couple of weeks."
Texas takes a sip and nods, "Looking back on it, I'd say it was worth fighting all those mafiosos if our reward in the end was having Az back in the gang."
"And we even got a Mostimia back as well!" Exusiai says, "And Bison as well! Wow! We got a lot of people out of these couple of weeks didn't we?"
"We did." Texas says.
Sora laughs as she raises her glass again, "C'mon guys, let's have another toast! This one for everything we got out of these past couple of weeks!"
I raise my glass first, Exusiai next, Texas smirks and raises hers, Croissant joining right after.
...
"Mostima!!! Bison!!! Get in here!" Exusiai says across the room, "If you're going to be sulking the entire party, at least give us this!"
"Alright, Alright, we're just discussing stuff." Mostima says walking over, dragging Bison along.
"You know I can't let my eyes off you, you might just disappear again." Exusiai says.
"Heh, maybe I will, maybe I won't." Mostima replies with a smile, grabbing her and Bison a drink.
...
"Well... Raise your glass everyone!" Sora says, "This has been a long couple of weeks, but we ended up with so much more than we put out. In other words, a complete victory! So, we should celebrate that victory. Cheers to us!"
"Cheers to us!"
(Well isn't this something? A 4000-word chapter written in only a week. Can I explain how I deviated this much from my normal schedule? Not at all. Can I explain how I got this much motivation in such a short amount of time? Not at all. What I can explain however, is how much I really enjoyed writing this chapter. That should be obvious by the length alone, but it was really fun writing this. It felt like writing chapter 5 all over again, which is funny given that chapter 5 was the start of Code of Brawl, and this is the end of Code of Brawl. It's been really fun writing this, as it's the first "arc" I've ever fully written, even if I started at the halfway point of it. Chapter 13 should be coming in my regular time of 2 weeks, but my schedule has been fully disregarded after this chapter, so who knows? But, all that aside, I hope you've enjoyed this longer chapter and the end of the first arc, Thanks for Reading :)
(Also, I'm wondering if people like the way I approached writing combat. Please put your thoughts about it here. Stuff you liked and stuff that you didn't like. Thank you :)
Uploaded on July 10, 2022. 4224 Words.