"The heck's going on here?"

Mina pulled the car around the corner where their workshop was located, and several other cars, each detailed with shining gold and silver in various places, were parked out front with a dozen or so well-dressed, purple armband-wearing youths looking to be around twenty years old standing about displaying varying degrees of amusement and annoyance.

Pertinax was standing at the entrance to his smithy rubbing a hand on his bald head as he watched.

"I'm not quite sure," she said while slowly driving over to park in front of the smithy.

One of the youths, who was wearing a purple vest over a spotless white shirt with tan pants, pounded on the metal door of the workshop. "Get out here, bitch!" she shouted. "Show us what's inside!"

"What's going on?" Carl asked Pertinax in a low voice when the huge man walked up to the driver's side of the car.

"Patties," Pertinax said with a grimace. "Rich kids from D-one who like throwing their weight around in the other districts. This group calls themselves the Reviewers. The one in the lead's got some ability that tells her when something interesting is about, and then they spread the news all over the city. Came by here—"

"You what?" the purple-vested girl shouted angrily, beating her fist on the door again. "Come out here and say that, I fucking dare you!"

"—a little while ago and demanded I open it up so they could look around," Pertinax continued. "Told them it wasn't for me to show since I rented it, but they didn't like that."

"And you're unable to halt their actions," Mina said, leaning forward past Carl to look again at the scene. A number of the Reviewers were now looking back at her.

"It's not something I want to be involved in," Pertinax said, shaking his head. "I might be well-known in D-four and D-five, but D-one's a totally different group. They won't damage anything since that's against the law, but they'll stick around making so much noise you can't even think until they get what they want. Might rough you up too if they catch you while you're coming or going. If you've got something in there you don't want anyone to see, it's none of my business, and I'll give you your money back if—"

"No!" Mina exclaimed loudly. "No, I quite fancy this place." She looked to Carl with a pleading expression. "Surely there must be some course of action we could undertake?"

First those two girls hassling me while we were out, now this? Kids are always so annoying in games. Some things never change, I guess. Carl grunted. "I'll see." Then he considered further Mina's reaction, and his resolve became firmer. Oh right, we've got the freaking sex doll in there. Obviously not something we want anyone to see…

"Careful, Weathers," Pertinax cautioned. "Wherever you're from, these aren't your usual troublemakers. They've got powerful friends in D-one."

Carl waved him off. "Yeah, whatever." Not gonna be afraid of some freaking kids. This seems like a place where I can probably just duel them if talking doesn't work. At worst, I can blast 'em with my spear. Haven't needed it for a while, but even Ir'alith seemed to think it was pretty good, and she's apparently…really strong…

He stepped out the passenger side of the car and started towards the workshop. The relatively jovial conversations among the kids hushed as he crossed the street. "Hey," he called out.

The girl at the workshop door, whose hair was black and somehow curved up over her head from the back in a style that was possible only in games, spun around. Her eyes narrowed when he continued forward between the cars. "The fuck do you want?"

That's kids for you. Always gotta be throwing out profanity to try and seem cool or tough. Carl stopped a few steps away and sighed. Reminds me of me when I was a lot younger. Sort of. "Uh, yeah, you're kinda blocking me out," he said, gesturing to the amassed cars on the street.

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"Master?" Phonia's faint voice called through the thick metal door. "Can I—"

"Stay there, don't open the door," Carl said quickly. Don't want her running out and causing a spectacle. Ugh, that'd be so embarrassing. He turned his attention back to the leader of the hoodlums. "I don't want any trouble, but—"

The weird-haired girl spat at his feet. "The only way you're gonna have trouble is if you don't gimme the keys to this fucking workshop and let us have a look around." She held out a hand. "What's it gonna be?"

"You really came all the way across the city for this?" Carl said with what he felt was enough skepticism for even a dumb kid to notice.

"Marcus, get this dirty fucker out of my face," the girl said, pointing to someone behind him. "Get his keys, too. Seems like victory was easy to find today, eh?"

There were a few laughs and chuckles from behind Carl, and he rolled his eyes in response. "Now hold on," he said, turning to stand sideways so he could keep an eye on this Marcus kid—who looked like he was probably a gladiator based on his bulky build and light armor—as he walked forward. "You guys like victory, right?"

"Obviously," the girl scoffed.

"How about a little contest," Carl said, feeling like he was onto something. I bet I could just arm wrestle everyone in this city if we have disagreements. Nobody beats me in arm wrestling. "If you win, I'll give you the keys and you can look around all you want. If I win, you stop annoying me."

"Nah, just—"

Carl felt his level of annoyance continue to escalate. This girl is super annoying. "Look, let's just—"

The gladiator kid rushed up and punched Carl in the face, landing a right straight that struck solidly against his jaw with a crack.

Carl grimaced.

The kid, Marcus, clutched at his hand, grunting in pain.

Not like I'm trying to show off dev mode, but that kid totally had it coming. "Had enough?" he said while attempting to crack his knuckles menacingly—though it seemed they were once again not quite ready to be cracked.

Marcus seemed to recover quickly enough, taking a step forward after a moment.

Then a foot came through between Carl's legs from the rear and struck his crotch.

Alright, that's just taking it too far. Carl scowled over his shoulder at the smirking, high-haired girl whose smirk was fading at his apparent indifference towards her attack. His annoyance was very nearly reaching the level of being slightly angry at what dickheads these freaking kids were being.

That was when another of the kids drove into Carl in his car.

Carl's head swiveled back around at the impact, staring incredulously at the kid who'd just tried to freaking run him over. "Are you fucking serious?" he said, forgetting himself for a moment. Before he even realized what he was doing, he'd already bent down to grab the metal front bumper. He lifted, the car seeming impossibly light in his hands as he hefted it, and the kid fell over the windshield to land behind him.

With a light grunt, Carl hucked the stupid, annoying kid's car as hard as he could. It soared into the air and before he could blink was already gone into the distance. He turned around to address the now-gawking kids again. Gah, it's that same fucking physics bug from before! He clenched his teeth for a moment at the reminder, then took a breath. They must be freaking out since it looks like… I can probably use this, actually. He glared at the kids, then pointed in a random direction. "Get lost."

The high-haired annoying girl and the car-driving annoying boy had been inching away from him but broke and scattered to his sides when he spoke. "Go!" the high-haired annoying girl called as she jumped into the passenger seat of one of the cars just before it sped off. The others followed, with the car-driving annoying boy diving head first into a car with a couple other annoying kids in it.

Carl glared after them with his arms crossed for a while before he nodded to himself, a small smile playing over his face. Yeah, no freaking kid is gonna be able to play something like that off so smoothly. Gotta be a dad to be able to pretend like you totally meant for random cool stuff to happen.

He started over towards Mina and Pertinax while squinting from the bright sun. Of the two, Mina was by far the more composed, beaming at him in a way that made him feel like the hassle had been worth it. Pertinax, however, was shielding his eyes with his hand and staring in the direction the car had disappeared into with his mouth hanging open. Yeah, he probably thinks I just chucked it… The idea caused him to start chuckling as he walked over.

Still, with the way Mina was smiling at him he didn't want to ruin the illusion. "Well, that's all taken care of," he said casually, executing his low-level Dad Meant To Do That skill. "Not sure what was supposed to be so scary about a bunch of kids," he added.

"That was incredible!" Mina said excitedly with both hands gripping the sheet.

"Uh," Pertinax said, glancing between Carl and the sky.

"I went easy on 'em," Carl said. He felt an uncomfortable sensation in his gut and waved towards the workshop. "C'mon, let's get inside. I gotta hit the water closet."