WOTNOPOLIS: 4

Chapter 4

A soft breeze blew through one of the brand new windows and into the sun-brightened room. After several days of work, the miniature gang had finished their interior work on the bar, giving the once charred and burned floors a new and fancier gleam. The neon sign, which was never replaced ever since the gang entered the building, was finally replaced with a painted sign, sporting a fancier look. The chrome and plastic that had replaced the old wooden planks gave the place an impeccably clean appearance. The group looked at their work with smiles of pride and relief.
“Fresh Cherry Cokes all around!” Q shouted in celebration of their job finished, pumping his left fist into the air. Bano and Yoyo groaned quietly while Clair shook her head. Even though she was the newest addition to the group, she had quickly learned the gang leader’s main interest: Cherry Coke. It was the only thing he seemed to ever talk about, and if it wasn’t included in the topic they were discussing, more than likely it would be quickly added in.
Temari, however, did not even look up at the group as she ran a rag over the new countertop. “Nope,” she responded to the cry for the beverages.
Yoyo casted a mocking smile at the frowning leader. “Hah, see? Even our manager knows that Cherry Coke is completely tasteless,” Yoyo taunted as she slid onto the stool next to Q.
Temari looked up at them, her hair gliding over her glasses. “Not to sound ungrateful, but you guys have run up quite the bill. I did say the rooms were free, but not the drinks. There's also the case of calling someone in to haul the dead bodies from the other day and fixing the road, the repairs to the shop from the fire, and the list goes on.”
“But, it’s cherry!” Q rebutted.
Temari took a piece of paper out of a drawer from under the counter and set it in front of the two. Yoyo picked it up and stared at it blankly for a long time. Bano and Clair came up together and peered at the piece of paper themselves from either side of the girl. Their eyes widened.
“You guys just need to cut back a little,” Temari finished, crossing her arms across her stomach.
Yoyo turned to her right and glared at Bano. “You, you don't even do anything all day! You lazy pig!” she growled.
“So?” Bano asked, not understanding her point.
“So, you need to quit pigging out so much! You're making our debt deeper!” Yoyo hissed.
“Oh yeah, and now you're the keeper of the cash?” Bano fought back.
“What cash? We've got none!” Yoyo cried wildly.
“That seems to be a problem,” Clair confessed, standing aside from the fight.
“No more fighting,” Temari said sharply, leaning over the counter to break them apart. “I don't want you guys becoming the Squid gang on me.”
“Yeah guys, just because we have to wait a while for our drinks, you'll be okay,” Q tried. He turned to Temari with a smile. “Make sure you get no ice in mine.”
Temari was a bit speechless, and everyone else felt that awkward moment of explaining what happened to Q coming. “Um, well… Q…” Bano began, rubbing a nervous hand on his neck.
“Let it go,” Yoyo shrugged. “Besides, I have an idea. We do this in teams. Girls verse boys. Whoever comes back with the most money wins.” She grabbed Clair’s hand and rushed to the door. “See ya!”
Bano glared at her disappearing figure. “Shoot, she did that on purpose to leave me with the idiot.”
Q just sat there waiting for the Cherry Coke that was never going to come, his fingers gently tapping the countertop. Bano glanced at him and sighed. “Q, come on, we can't lose to Yoyo.”
“Lose? Are we playing a game?” Q asked brightly.
“Yes, it's called ‘Split up and look for cash’,” Bano explained quickly as he exited the door of the bar, only to be confronted with Q holding his hand up at him outside.
“Wait a sec, what are the rules? Is there a time limit? I am pretty sure I haven't seen a referee, and if we are on a team we need a cool team name. I am suggesting Blue Tigers.”
Bano ran from the spot and left Q there rambling. He was determined not to be stuck with him.

Yoyo moved quickly and quietly. Her shoes scuffed the pavement and picked up small clouds of dirt. Her katana holsters bumped against her legs with each step that she took forward. She felt bad, considering she had sort of abandoned Clair on the way, but she had no choice. This was a spot that she could take no one else to. It was too important to her. No matter how many terrible memories it held for her, its hand welcoming her back into its dark palm.
She jumped the same rickety wooden fence she had jumped so many years before, the rotting wood beneath her almost snapping. Her feet landed on a worn down street that lead to a place she had promised she'd never go again. She wasn't even sure what was pushing her so hard to go there now. Usually she didn't much care for people, but now she wanted to help her gang no matter what. Because they were the only people she had now.
A few people meandered around on the nearly empty street. A drunkard old man bumped into her shoulder and muttered a slurred “Scuse meh.”
Yoyo's sword graced the side of his neck in a blur. “What did you take?” she seethed, her eyes narrowed sharply at the man.
“I din’ take nothin’,” the man jumped in surprise. Drunk this early, not like I remember you old man.
Yoyo put her swords away and had turned to leave when the drunk old man grabbed her sloppily by the shoulders. “Hey, I know ya…yer lil’ Yo—”
“Finish that sentence, and it'll be the last you ever say.” Yoyo stared angrily as she replaced the sword to the man's neck. The old man opened his mouth, but just hiccupped and turned away laughing. Yoyo’s glare didn’t move from the back of his head, making sure she burned it into the back of his skull, into his memory so he never, ever said her name again. He didn’t turn back to her. The alcohol was blocking the glare from entering his memory right.
She decided he was no longer worth the time to glare at and turned away, back onto her mental path. She walked a few feet forward and jumped another wooden fence into an empty parking lot. Her eyes grazed over it, a frown replacing her straightened face. “After all this time, it's still empty,” she muttered quietly.

---

Bano, to say in the least, was bored. He had walked around the city for the past hour, and still no ideas had come to him for getting money. He grunted and sat on the curb of the sidewalk, playing with the strings of his black hoodie. “What did people normally do for money, anyway?” Bano asked himself. He laughed suddenly. “Get a job, I guess. Hah, like any gangsters are weird enough to do anything like that.”
“Ello!” a sweet and chipper voice called to him. He turned his head to the sound and smiled slightly at the sight of the dark-haired new member.
“Oh, it’s you,” he greeted back, standing back up on the sidewalk. “What happened to Yoyo?” Bano questioned, looking around for the enemy, waiting for a loud ‘I’m right here, pig-head!’
She shrugged. “She ran off saying something about the destruction of man. I got distracted by some cute little puppies I saw in a for sale box. My God, they were so adorable!” She looked at Bano’s look of discomfort, the talk of fuzzy puppies obviously beating down on his manliness. She put a fist to her mouth and fake-coughed into it. “Anyway…” She took her hand away from her lips and smiled at Bano. He felt a thick sweat drop roll down the back of his head.
“So, I guess that means you had no luck collecting money?” Bano asked disappointingly.
“No, but even though the bill was 20,000 dollars, I've picked up 4 cents in pennies,” Clair smiled, holding them up triumphantly in her outstretched palm.
“I don't think that's enough,” Bano groaned. “Maybe Q will somehow get the money together?”
Clair only smiled. She knew very well in her mind that, no, their leader would not get a job. Probably not in a million years.


Or, perhaps she was wrong.
The crumbling sidewalk led Q to a decently sized store with a door framed with metal. Q walked into store as soon as he picked his head up to see where exactly he was. His smile carried to the serving counter, where a young woman was cleaning a tall glass with a white rag. She looked up at him as he leaned on the counter, staring at her with his intent smile. “Hello, I need to work here and then I need my check,” he said to her cheerily.
The girl looked a little confused as she stepped back from his overbearing smile. “Erm, I can get you a job here, if that's what you mean?”
Q nodded. His black eyes began to shine.
She waved him over to the lift-up part of the counter with her hand. “Okay, then, follow me around back. Any particular reason you want to work at Smoothies ‘N Smiles?”
“It had two S's in a row,” Q answered, following her.
“Of course, of course,” she chucked nervously as she went to the back. After a few moments she handed Q an apron. “Put this on, and I guess just start taking orders over there.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Q smiled. As he put the apron over his head and went to tie the strings behind his back, the woman stopped. This guy's personality was so upfront she hadn't even done any interviewing.
“Wait, what's your name? What do you do?” she asked quickly before he turned to leave.
His head was turned behind him as far as it could stretch as he fumbled with the strings. “My name’s Q, and I'm a dangerous gangster,” he answered, smiling proudly to himself.
“Oh, sure…” she muttered in response. She stopped her hand from hitting her forehead as he turned back around, proud of the knot he tied behind him. As he looked at her with his dark eyes and large smile, she couldn’t seem to get to the conclusion of how she gave him a job. What a ridiculous name! One letter. And a joker, too. No way a gangster would look for a job, especially at a smoothie shop. Am I being had? She pushed her rambling thoughts away and crossed her arms across her chest. “Call me BriexChaotic.”
However, Q had already gone his own way as he saw a customer lean against the counter drowsily.“Hi!” Q greeted the person as he slid behind the counter.
“Yes, hello,” the person mumbled, clearly uncomfortable by Q's overly large smile and friendly spirit at eight in the morning. “Can I get a medium blueberry smoothie?”
Q cringed. “Er, well, of course you can, but…why would you want to?” Q asked the moaning customer with a frown. “I find that if you really want something tasty, a cherry smoothie does the trick—”
Q was bumped out of the way by BriexChaotic, who thanked the customer and got them their blueberry smoothie. She slid the money into the register and waved the person goodbye with a smile.
She turned back to Q as soon as the door closed. “You can't do that! Correcting a customer's order with your own preference is stupid!” she shouted, annoyed.
“But they were wrong,” Q tried to point out, still frowning.
BriexChaotic continued to glare. She put her fingers to her temples and rubbed them, sighing. “Okay, here, I'm going to go find a radio and play some music while we work. You can have the simple job of sweeping.” She pointed out the broom to him, and turned the knob of the radio as she got to it.
Q wrapped his hands around the broomstick began sweeping. Suddenly the radio on the counter picked up a random rap station and Q listened to the odd sensations of music. After half an hour of sweeping the same spot, BriexChaotic checked on Q. “So, how's it going?” she asked nervously.
“Yo dawg, I be like, you know, and then they be like, mhm,” Q answered.
“I'm sorry?” she asked, confused.
“Yo, yo, it’s like this; this piece of tile. Its not going well in my hood, know what I'm saying? We gotta fix dat with some caps and 42's. That's what's up,” Q said as if he were explaining the obvious.
“Right...I think I'm going to put you on dish duty,” she said disturbed by his lacking coherency.
“VIP I can dig it,” Q agreed, posing a slanted 'peace' sign with his fingers.

Yoyo was surprised it was still there; untouched after all this time. She picked the worn and creased sneaker box out of the rubble of the small corner she hid it in. She never even knew why she saved it. She just had to save something.
She sat down on the dusty dirty floor of the abandoned street. The crumbling walls were still there. The giant gaping holes in the street, as well. Everything about this place screamed at her. She hated it. She wanted to block it out, the memories that yelled at her. She couldn't.

“Good morning, Yoyo!” the friendly vendor called out, waving.
Yoyo turned and smiled, “Hey, Mr. Melson!”
“Getting into trouble?” Mr. Melson asked with a smile and his hands on his waist.
“No, no trouble here,” Yoyo yelled back cheerily as she bounced down the street.
“Here Yoyo,” an elderly woman handed a small bag of strawberries to Yoyo as she passed. “Take these with you, you guys deserve a snack.”
“Thanks,” Yoyo said gratefully, accepting the bag of red fruit.
“No, thank you! You and your group these last couple of years have made this place so civil.” Yoyo nodded in thanks and smiled. As she turned away from the woman, she looked back and waved briefly, thanking her again.
She jumped the wooden perimeter fence and landed onto the parking lot.
She walked happily across the street and opened the door of the hut.
“Hey, its Yoyo,” the leader smiled to her.
“Hi, Mrs. Nelson gave me some strawberries to give you guys,” Yoyo held out the bag.
“Awesome,” said one of the five present as they were quickly passed out and eaten. Yoyo was handed the empty bag. “Go ahead and throw that away for us.”
Yoyo clubbed them over the head with a deep frown. “Just because I'm a girl you think you can eat all my strawberries!” she whined.
“Hey, hey, settle down,” the leader laughed, motioning her hands telling her to relax. “We all love Yoyo, where would we be without her? Sure we'd still be the Saber Tooth Gang, but without the spunk.”
The blonde haired girl waved Yoyo over and Yoyo sat next to the leader.
“Brinck Boss, I hearin' that the Scorpion gang has been moving in on our turf lately,” a gruff voice spoke up.
“The Scorpions, huh? I hear they're tough,” another voice said quietly.
“We'll show em if we have to,” Brinck said enthusiastically. “We keep this neighborhood safe. That's why we created this gang.”
Yoyo watched, amused. “Oh! I also have some money for the box.”
Everyone turned to face Yoyo with surprised faces. “You?”
“Yes!” Yoyo said as she handed a bag full of dollars to the leader. “Unlike you men I clearly have a way with money," she told her proudly, hands on her hips with a broad smile.
“True, but we cash in when we take it from some gang or another,” said the gruff voice.
“Thanks for helping out,” the leader said as she dropped the dollars into the box. Yoyo felt proud of herself. She had worked hard to gather all that money. And the leader was always so supportive.
“It’s too bad you men can't get money without beating it out of people,” Brinck poked fun.
A slight knock was heard at the door of the hut before any of the men could fight back. They all stared at the door for a long moment, until one of the guys slowly got up. He opened the door slowly and stood back. “Mrs. Melson, why are you--"

The body of Mrs. Melson fell face forward through the door as the guy who held the door opened jumped back in shock.
The leader quickly jumped to the door and kicked it open. “Who's there?" she yelled.
Dark black eyes accompanied black hair. A dark suit covered the grinning young man. The leader glared harshly at him.
“You, what are you doing here?" she asked unkindly.
“I have recently found a new job,” the young man said cooly, “and my first assignment is to rid you guys. It's just coincidental that three years ago you threw me from this neighborhood.”
“You killed Mrs. Melson in cold blood, don't think you'll get away with this,”
yelled a person as a knives flew across the room.
Yoyo picked up her swords, but as she did so a giant green wall burst forth from where she had stood before. “Zdrobi de perete,” the young man with a hand to the ground said quietly.
Yoyo screamed. A wall had formed and completely encapsulated the knife thrower and the man who was getting to his feet next to him. She whipped her swords out and dashed across the room, swinging for the young man crouched at the entrance to the hut.
The swords only landed against a crystal wall. She slashed again and then kicked but it didn't crack. She saw Brinck was glaring at the young man, who was only laughing. The gruffy voiced man, Ktito, was standing behind her with his pistols out.
Frustrating.
Yoyo couldn't leave the spot, or she'd miss a part of the fight. Plus she was frozen in fear. At the same time, she had to help, didn't she?
The group of three stared intently for a few moments. However, with a flinch of a muscle, the fight began.
Crystal spikes shot out of the ground in every direction as the young man landed in a hand stand. Ktito had shot a round of bullets and burning smoke filled the area he had stood just an instant before. Ktito dodged the crystals and shot away the ones that were too close to dodge. From behind the suited man's hand stand came the iron leg of Brinck.
“Dispari” the man in the suit spoke and 4 walls of Crystal shot in every direction. Brinck's powerful leg crushed through a wall of crystalline, but inside no one was there.
“Where are you, brat?” she asked. Her long hair waved through the air as the rain of spiked crystals continued to shoot out of the ground.
Brinck's fists gleamed in the evening sun. Her number one move was the ability of her fists and feet to become a light metal that was almost impossible to break. It was also deadly strong. She bent down and punched the ground. “Where did you go!” she screamed, becoming incredibly frustrated.
Chunks of cement flew through the air. Ktito felt it before he saw it. He looked down and saw that crystal had cuffed his feet to the ground.
He bent down and lost his concentration for only a split second. Spikes ripped through his chest. Bullets flew in every direction as he dangerously tried to shoot the spikes coming. But as his feet couldn't move he knew he had no chance. Spike after spike repeatedly sliced through his body. The only thing he was able to do was keep his mouth agape as blood began to spew from it. He coughed terribly. There was nothing he could do.
“Punkfilter you demon,” Ktito choked as blood filled up his lungs.
A large cut was torn into Ktito's back as Punkfilter glided out of the ground and used his arm covered in a crystal edge to cut him through.
“Ah, you call me a demon. How fitting,” Punkfilter laughed.
The iron fist of Brinck hit Punkfilter square in the chest and he flew into the
cement. Chunks of it erupted in every direction till the momentum of his body slowed. Punkfilter got up and growled, “I just bought this suit,” he mumbled, brushing dirt off of it.
“You twelve year old monster,” Brinck teared up. “He still trusted you.”
“Pity,” Punkfilter smiled as he stood up and brushed his jacket off, “Maybe if he hadn't he'd of been more of a challenge.”
Brinck reached the spot with ferocious speed and flung her fist at Punkfilter. He caught it with his own hand. The two began to exchange blows so fast Yoyo's eyes couldn't follow anymore. She couldn't stand it being so useless. She ran out of the little room of the hut she had been hiding in and whipped out her swords. But before she could reach the fight, it had ended.
Brinck threw a large uppercut to Punkfilter, which he caught in his hand then laughed hideously. “Zdrobi,” he spoke as his hand crushed through the iron.
Brinck screeched in pain and backed up. As she did, Punkfilter stabbed his arm through her stomach. He used his other hand to slit her neck. “And so ends the Age of the Saber Tooth,” Punkfilter laughed to himself.
Brinck's body collapsed to the ground and Punkfilter turned to the fear-stricken Yoyo. “Well, I didn't expect to see you here.”
Yoyo stumbled. She didn't understand what he meant till a booming voice behind her spoke up. “Even for you, that's pretty harsh.”
Punkfilter just smiled and turned to walk away. Yoyo's swords whizzed towards him and clanked loudly against metal. “I can't let you do that,” a young man with black eyes said.
“Get out of my way!” Yoyo screamed as her swords began to cut ferociously at the man before her. His short golden hair was topped with a police hat. Her swords had been blocked by a semi-automatic.
“Can't do that, girl,” the man said. “He's way too powerful, he'd kill you.”
“Listen to the nice little police dog,” Punkfilter mocked without turning around. “I had a grudge against the Saber Tooth Gang, but I don't know you, girl. Go away.”
A large man landed in front of Punkfilter and his commanding voice rocked the street again. “You're not getting away!”
“Then stop me, commissioner Teikiatsu,” Punkfilter whispered as four crystal walls shot from the ground. “Dispari.”
Yoyo's energy suddenly left her. The will to fight had ended. She slumped to the ground on her knees with her swords splayed in front of her. She was alone.
“Amaterasu, erase that hut. It's no use anymore and could lead a trail back to us,” Teikiatsu muttered quietly.
“Yes, chief,” Amaterasu obeyed as he rolled a grenade to the hut. “I suppose we were too late to stop this, huh? The only good gang that we could count on.”
“Yeah. TFK's new man was just as foreboding as the reports said. This will just make things worse for all of us,” Teikiatsu muttered. “Make sure no evidence connects us to the scene. Even if this was the best gang to ever grace WOTNopolis, they'd have our heads for working together with them.”
“Today is a sad day,” Amaterasu concluded.
Tears crossed Yoyo's face as she ran for the hut. The two officers turned to her to stop her, but she shoved them away and continued to run. As soon as she stepped inside, the explosion set off. Her body slammed against the street outside. She looked around fiercely but the two men had already disappeared. And in an instant Yoyo's entire world had crumbled.
Just. Like. That.

Yoyo didn't recall standing up, but there she was, in the middle of the wreckage that was once her home. She was staring at it. A box. A large shoebox. The only thing that had survived. The crystal fragments of the men that had been encapsulated had stood there and took the blast.

Yoyo picked up the box from where she had hidden it so long ago. She then left the ruins. This time she really wouldn't ever go back.
Never ever again.

---

“Now God bless Animea and you have a good day, ya 'ear?” Q smiled and waved to the customers as they left. Country music quietly rumbled out of the little radio in the store.
As the small group of customers left, a young girl with short brown hair entered, apologizing to one of the leaving customers as she accidentally bumped into him. She turned back to the store and went to finish her job. She walked up to the counter, where Q smiled at her.
“Well howdy lil miss,” Q greeted.
The girl smiled and laughed a little. “Hello,” she greeted back. Out of the corner of her eye, the girl saw BriexChaotic changing the music to a station with classical violin playing. She turned her eyes back to Q.
Q's demeanor immediately changed. He stood up straight and his smile was plastered over with a serious face. The young girl looked at him oddly with a small smile.
“Can I have a large strawberry smoothie please?” she asked him.
“Excellent choice, milady,” he responded.
She laughed, a little embarrassed. “I think so, too.” As BriexChaotic got along to making her smoothie as Q cleaned the counter, the girl put part of her hair behind her ear. “I think you’re new here, right? I’ve never seen you before.”
“That is right, milady.” BriexChaotic was now blending the mixtures together in the tall cup. “However, I do not just work here. In my time off from this lovely place, I spend enlightening my fellow gang members,” he continued, smiling softly.
“Oh, you're in a gang,” she laughed. No gangster gets a job.
“Of course. We're quite dangerous. I've been attacked by both the mafia and several dangerous gangs among the East,” Q replied in a calm manner.
The girl just smiled at this guy's notions of being in a gang. None of it added up.
“So, what do you do milady?” Q asked as he was handed her smoothie by his boss. The girl waved to BriexChaotic, and she waved back.
She giggled. Being called milady is so weird. “Well, I do stuff here and there,” she answered, non-committed.
“How very exciting,” Q said sincerely. She covered her mouth as she laughed.
She dropped her hand onto the counter as soon as her fit was over, and she leaned over the counter slightly to peer at the nametag on Q’s apron. He stood back a little, looking down at her stare.
“Is something the matter?” he asked. She shook her head.
“Just looking at your name,” she answered. “Q?”
“Yes, that is my name and it sounds beautiful to hear from your lips,” Q said to her as the violin worked into a climax. He watched as her face burned red and her hand covered her mouth. She looked down at her lap, waiting for the red to disperse from her cheeks.
“Oh, milady,” Q said, placing her smoothie on the counter. She looked back up and shook her head to brush her hair back into place. She smiled at him softly and reached in her pocket and handed him the money in trade for the smoothie. She sipped through the straw and turned her head to the clock that was placed above the door.
“Mm! I gotta go!” She hopped off the stool and quickly made her way out of the door, her smoothie nearly slipping out of her hand. Q leaned over the counter as he heard a small clatter. A rectangular object with a cord attached to it. He looked at where the girl was, and back at the object. BriexChaotic looked over the counter as well, and raised her eyebrows slightly.
“You might want to give that back to her,” she told him nonchalantly.
The radio suddenly broke into a commercial. “And that smoothie isn't all there's more! Come back later and I can get you a refill for only 50 cents! If that isn't a deal than I don't know what is! Just try and beat these low prices!”
His boss hit his head. “What in the world is wrong with you?”
Before an answer could form, the girl ran back inside and picked up the object from the floor. “Geez,” she muttered to herself. She stood back up and quickly waved to the two behind the counter. “Bye Briex, bye Q!”
“But wait! Call 555—” Briex knocked him on the head.
“Bye Abby,” BriexChaotic called back. As the girl left once again, Q’s boss stared down at him with an aggravated glare. “What the heck is up with you? Do you have multiple personalities or something?”

Bano and Clair wandered down an unfamiliar street, with Clair still collecting pennies. “Is it worth more if it’s over ten years old?” she questioned Bano as she peered at the date.
“No,” Bano answered, shaking his head.
“Drats,” Clair mumbled.
Bano looked around him, then suddenly stopped walking and grabbed Clair’s arm to make her stop as well. “Um, where are we?” he asked her, now realizing they had wandered down a strange road and into a very shady looking area.
“You don't know?” she asked him, worried.
“Of course not, I've only been here a week or two!” Bano remarked.
“Oh, well I just got here a month ago; I barely know this place either…” Clair defended herself. Bano hit his forehead with his palm.
“Well, well, well. I see what's going on here.” Bano and a startled Clair turned to the voice behind them. There stood a man said in a black cloak. His face wasn’t visible, but from what the two standing before him could see, he was a bit taller than normal.
“You can help us get back to our bar?” Bano asked the man across from him. Bano suddenly realized no cars were on this road, nor were people wearing normal clothes. As he caught glances of some other people walking, there was a large population of only jackets, cloaks, and odd hair colors. This was a weird section of WOTNopolis they had run into. There might as well have been a sign when they entered the odd town saying “Welcome to the Twilight Zone!”
The cloaked man smirked under the shade of his hood. “Psh, I will do more than that.” He jumped into the air and landed only a few feet in front of the two. “I will send you back to where you came from!”
Bano and Clair smiled at him. “Oh, thanks! We were trying to get back there, that was the bar we mentioned,” Bano told him.
The man in the cloak stopped. “Oh, well, that’s, that's not what I meant,” he stuttered. He then threw a rock at Bano, which was easily sliced it in half with his Kama. Bano almost burst out laughing.
“Is this a joke?” he asked through a string of chuckling.
“No, this is serious!” the man whined as he jumped through the air again and went to punch Clair.
“Geez, he's really slow,”
Clair laughed as she side-stepped away from him. He hit the ground with a thud.
“Hey stop that!” the guy whined as he picked his head up to look at Clair.
Bano and Clair laughed and continued walking away from the man in the direction they both knew was wrong.
“Hey, aren't you here to avenge the fight with King of Blades I was sent to start?” the fallen man asked.
“We don't really care, he was weak, and you're weaker,” Clair said to him, turning her head and smirking at him.
He crumpled to the ground and slugged towards them. “Low blow, low blow.”
His cloak was undone and a messy head of blonde was shown. As Bano and Clair looked at him, now stopping their walk, they noticed he was only around 15 years of age.
“So anyway, where are we going?” Clair asked, turning away from the 15 year old.
Several thugs with spiky hair of different colors were now circling around them. “Into our trap,” one with insanely bright orange hair smiled.
“Wow, that was the worst line I've heard,” Bano grumbled. “Can anyone point us back to our bar?” he cried.
“What street is it on?” asked a particularly helpful pink haired man, who was soon hit on the side of the head by a rough-looking green haired man.
“Don't really know?” Bano answered truthfully, shrugging his shoulders.
“Oh, sorry, can't help you then. But! I can help you cross the street of pain and death!” he threw his fist in the air but Bano and Clair just laughed.

“You guys are worse than sluggy,” Bano laughed, pointing his thumb over his shoulder and down to the ground where the 15 year old was still face down and on his stomach. He suddenly turned, annoyed. “Wait, he's still following us.”
The blonde suddenly jumped up. “Aha! Yes, I sprung this trap! Just like with King Of Blades, I was also ordered to send a message to this group.” Clair hit the top of his head lightly, and he let his scratched face return to the ground.
Bano sighed and shook his head, muttering soft “Really?”s to himself. He whipped out his kama and sliced through the figures as if they were paper. Clair clapped behind him, trying not to pay much attention to the waterfalls of blood. “Right on, mate!”
“Yeah, and thanks for not doing anything,” Bano muttered.
Clair just high-fived him and then sat down, almost sitting on the teenager’s head. “Oh are you still here?” she asked suddenly as she sat next to him.
“Yes, I am,” he muttered as he picked up his scratched face from the pavement. Clair flicked a small pebble sticking to his forehead off of him.
“Well, you can take us to the bar, just point us in the right direction,” Bano told him, still standing.
“I can't, I have to kill you,” the man mumbled, now laying on his stomach with his head propped up by his arms. He rubbed his forehead as he muttered a “Thank you” to Clair.
“Oh geez,” Bano moaned. He picked him up by the back of his shirt. “Just point.”
He quickly pointed in the direction they had come. Bano dropped him back to the ground as he and Clair began walking. “And stop following us,” Bano added.
“I can't, I'm killing you, you're just running in fear!” he cried.
“Who's running?” Bano yelled and Clair just laughed.

---

“Seems like the plan worked,” Renden shrugged. He already knew it would. “They easily demolished the Porcupine gang. Now that enough gangs have been damaged we will be able to call together the meeting. And this will lay the beginnings of our domination.”
“Indeed,” Destinykil agreed quietly, pulling his cloak closer to him. The sword sheathed in his belt was whispering for blood.
“The rise of the Serpent Gang is at hand.” Renden smiled as he sat in his alleyway. “Welcome to the new East, Destinykil.”

---

Yoyo was shaking hands with Temari when Bano and Clair arrived. “What happened here?” Bano asked.
“I just won the contest,” Yoyo said. “Unless you have thirty thousand dollars.”
“And ten cents!” Clair said proudly holding up her penny case, adding the extra two pennies she gathered on the way inside.
“Shoot, I should of mugged those losers we beat up…” Bano muttered to himself.
“Sneak attack!” the strange blonde boy yelled. Bano karate chopped him in the face before the loud boy could finish the ‘ck’.
“Who the heck is that?” Yoyo asked, standing over the fallen blonde with an aggravated look.
“Some idiot,” Bano answered, sighing. “I don't actually know his name.”
The boy looked over at Yoyo with an evilly proud face, which he shouldn’t have been wearing. “I'm Jake, the stealthy assassin!” the blonde announced proudly.
“Can he do anything?” Yoyo asked, looking at Bano doubtfully while pointing at Jake.
“So far, no,” he answered.
Clair smiled, “But, he's very nice about how he tries to kill us. He gives us warnings and non-threatening attacks!” she pointed out.
Yoyo laughed a little at Clair. “How sad,” she remarked, stepping away from the idiot on the floor. “Well, anyway,” Yoyo smirked, looking at Bano, “unless Q comes up with tons of dollars, you guys lose.”
As if on cue, Q arrived around the corner of the doorway and waved at them while carrying a box and a grocery bag.
“Hey Q, did you get any money?” Bano asked him hopefully, resigned to the fate of losing.
“Yes! I worked for twelve hours and made a lot! They said they don't normally give checks to people, but if I promised never to go back they'd pay me for twelve hours. They were really nice.” Q smiled at his success.
“A check? Where in the world did you get that?” Bano questioned, becoming suspicious.
“I worked at a smoothie shop!” Q exclaimed proudly.
“Idiot,” Bano immediately said to him.
“Moron,” Yoyo muttered.
“Wow...that's just...wow...” Clair stuttered, unsure of what exactly to say at such a ridiculous remark. Although, this does mean that I was wrong about him not getting a job…
“Woah, cool job! You are a working man! I love smoothies!” Jake positively remarked back.
“Me too! It was fun!” Q told him. Suddenly, he looked back at Jake, who had not yet gotten off of the floor and was looking at him upside-down. “Hey, who are you?”
“Jake, I'm here to kill you,” Jake answered proudly, placing his hands by his head as if he were about to do a bridge.
“That's pretty legit,” Q said with a nod.
“Where's the money?” Bano asked his partner hopefully, interrupting the greeting.
“I spent it!” Q said with pride.
Bano slumped to the ground and Yoyo placed a foot on his chest. “That's right! Girls rule!” she laughed, pumping a fist into the air triumphantly.
“Yes! I got an iPod, ‘cause I like music now. Weird huh?” Q said as if this thought was important for everyone.
“Music? You don’t seem much of the musical type,” Clair remarked. Q nodded in agreement.
“I know, right? But, there was this girl at the smoothie shop, and she seemed to really like it! Well, I mean, I think she liked it since she dropped her iPod and almost came rushing back just to get it! Oh, and there are so many kinds of music, too! I never really even paid much attention to it,” Q told her excitedly.
Clair couldn’t help but tease. “Ooh, a girl, huh? What’s her name?” she went on.
Q paused for a moment, trying to think. “My boss said it very briefly when she had to go…Ally… Addie…Something like that."
“So, what's in the box?” Bano switched the subject, not interested in whoever the Ally/Addie girl was.
“Oh, well, I was walking by and I found found this,” Q said softly. He opened the box that was cradled in his right arm and, after some soft crooning, pulled out a black furry object.
“Awwwww!” Clair squealed. Yoyo just hung her mouth agape and Bano pounded his head onto the street, muttering to himself that he couldn’t believe he lost because of a stupid animal.
“Yes, I got us a puppy! His name is Cherry Coke,” Q said as the small dog yawned. Of course.
“That's a great name for a dog,” Jake commented, getting up and petting the puppy with a smile.
“Hey, don't encourage him,” Yoyo warned, punching Jake’s arm.
“Thanks for paying off your bill everyone,” Temari thanked, swooning over the half-asleep puppy as well. “Who wants a Cherry Coke?” Temari asked the group.
“Not me, I already have one. Haha, get it? I’m just kidding, of course I want one,” Q joked. Jake laughed, and everyone else wondered if that pun would ever get old to Q.

Haha, another awesome chapter, guys.

And puppies!

And Yoyo kicks teh boys' butts.

Weird name for a puppy.
It's finally out, though. :D

Why do you make the Shadow guy the bad guy? D:

death-chan wrote:Weird name for a puppy.
It's finally out, though. :D

Why do you make the Shadow guy the bad guy? D:

Cause everyone loves the bad guys. And your village has the best people for bad guys.

quater wrote:

death-chan wrote:Weird name for a puppy.
It's finally out, though. :D

Why do you make the Shadow guy the bad guy? D:

Cause everyone loves the bad guys. And your village has the best people for bad guys.

You don't kill off the bad guys though, right? :D

death-chan wrote:

quater wrote:

death-chan wrote:Weird name for a puppy.
It's finally out, though. :D

Why do you make the Shadow guy the bad guy? D:

Cause everyone loves the bad guys. And your village has the best people for bad guys.

You don't kill off the bad guys though, right? :D

Yes, we do.

Why wouldn't the bad guys get killed?

I can't read it right now

sad day,

Really? :O

Poor Ama! D:

Oohhh. Chapter 4! :D

Why am I not surprised it was named Cherry Coke ^_^

Aww Jake xD

WOTN has it's own story

Wha?

Yeah, my computer is being retarded and didn't show the rest of the post -_-

Oh! Fill me in! That was confusin!

That was like an hour ago!

Darn you. Now I'll never know what you thought of this chapter =/

Well the revised version was a positive comment for the chapter ^^

D-Dei wrote:Oohhh. Chapter 4! :D

Why am I not surprised it was named Cherry Coke ^_^

Q put that part in, duh it's going to be cherry coke >_> We need a cat named Dr pepper. ^_^

And then we can feed him to Cherry Coke as a chew toy! ^___^

D:

No way ^_^