The punk's knee was halfway to my crotch with crooked bar slanting at chest above, before my tongue could un~bundle from mid-sentence. I nipped some taste buds before straining a forearm parallel to the metal arc path (something Siggy once showed me to absorb a bruising gash rather than suffer deep fracture) hoping the base of my elbow would shelter my ribs, while folloWriSTailside swipe may staple the Tyrant’s milky teeth against his suppLEan jaw.

Neither collision ever registered, as a souRed pole disrupted the momentum of the crowbar with a hideous CLANGgg! Capone’s descending chest was clothes~lined by unyielding me2ool-inch circumference all crash once !*=;< we both howled as the shockwave deflected iron off his forehead & spun back to drag the inside of my wrist; his boot-heel then clipped across the right of my groin *_> #- A stern force arrived around my shirt collar as I doubled over with a flurry of Copper betwixt the bottomed out Kingpin. My scraped arm magniFried in sting.

Without holding involved, i might have wormed a path between Blockers & dove down on the fiend (I did play defense for the football squad after all). Instead, Pheo's machete blockade, coiled astride my collar. My instincts wilted to tango further. Still I was winning with her Tall radiation of Flame tightening hips against my flank.

Clumpy, auburn haiRuffled above her ProwdLaced freckled shoulders, doing nothing to soften a frame around her chippy facial structure. Rovone had me from behind like some kind of emo Ogre, but his restraint fell away from my reality as her smooth rigidity, & cushion of Bosom consumed my senses. Bathing amidst this Beauty, I reasoned further disputes were a waste of time.

Rovo lingered his gnarly fork tips down at Caphony for about two seconds, to make sure he didn’t scamper up until Sigg & Trent could properly raise & restrain his arms. Together they fidgeted him several feet back. “Get your greasy mitts off!” Teeth squeaked defiantly. “I’ll teach that two-tongued, slimebucket some manners!” Tubby trent was having trouble controlling a thrashing arm-side amidst maintaining a golf club in his own, but jiu-jitsu-enthusiast Sig sent reluctance into The Scum’s resistance, by angling his elbow back at an awkward position.

“Swing as a team player, eh, Pyro?” Sigg begged me; thin frown lines triggered around the cleft jaw of his rubbery hispanic features. “The chips not in our favore to begin wid.”

“Sure, we’ve been dealt a bad hand, but I bet if we traded in that card,” I jerked my head towards Capone, “we’d end up takin’ the center Pot.” At this mention, the Jack{ass}Pot snarled, flooding color through an eruption of nigh incoherent quacking.

6′4+Rush of Rovone stationed before my body, nullified my line of vision without needing to shake his head beside that sand-blasted Trident ( hewn from the glassy residue of detonation sites & hijacked by myself before ever fully unloaDad to my father's humble townhall museum). But A’Gain, the current mushroom Cloud of PhoeNIXed sharpness simplified other motorheads, fracturing the hazy segment of climate around us. Two embers reflected my face, sizzling nearly on par with my nose, melting away my aggression. Oddly, i thought i saw them spinning at each pupil’s perimeter, but I had to write it off as my own mind falling prey to hypnotic waves.

“What in Houdini’s suitcase are you trying to pull?” she hissed, acorn arrows bombarding down her nostrils, piercing my blank defenses; a corner of my thoughts were sliding to somehow inviting a kiss from this ripe, full chin bouncing before me. “Your childish games could put us all in jeopardy. If you are against one of us, you’re chafing us all. Don’t get all self-righteous just because the opportunity arises to pat yourself on the back. Got it? You better get it!”

She had a reputation for deterring people with that Ghost Rider glower. I sorta jiggled my head in defeat. Then she shoved me at her brother.

Self-righteous! Did they think I was being inconsiderate by trying to do justice on Too-Cool-for-School over there?? Whatever, I wasn’t going to bark with my affections for her in the way. Besides, if I tried to retort she might deck me in the ribs or something, and I already couldn’t seem to find my voice.

Rovo swepTight for a millisecond & whispered: “Lay traps later...”

Siihhgh. They had points. My tactic to exploit our cluster's isolation was useless for the time being. “Stay in one piece,” he added. Although scarcely a year younger than her, at seventeen, she wasn’t about to let him wander off into some danger zone alone -- even if he was a brick wall. Being the eldest of four, and their parents deceased, she watched the remaining nest like a mother hawk.

“Do I look like I’m still raving to attack? Go settle on punk-ass Capone! Jeepers guys, Trent looks like he’s riding a merry-go-round,” I brought to the Prowleys’ attention. Averting their gazes, they beheld the scene. Pudgy Shore was jackknifing all over the place -- clenching even his tongue to maintain grip on Teeth’s custom-fit, faded blue sleeve. He looked a little green around the gills. “Ahm,” they remarked in unison, and Rovo released me to discourage turbulence, while Pheo stayed anchored to my shoulder.

When short Shore saw rescue coming, relief seeped into his widened eyes, and he crumpleDown rather dramatically into the water. The exertion hadn’t lasted 15 seconds, but I’ll lend him the benefit of health and claiMaybe it was the previous slogging that was the biggest fatigue factor. As far as Siggy’s physique, he only gave the appearance of being slim, unlike his deadbeat prisoner, yet when Trent aborted, the still smoldering Dictator nearly wrenched free (like 2 buttons off his denim jacket)—only to watch Rovo stretch out a monstrous paw against approaching.

All resolve to reach me vanished from the Try-rant’s face. His breath stalled a few gasps; before he acknowledged that conflict was at an impasS;Ettled to flip me the *Ugly bird*. “You’ll fetch my crowbar now, Cauldron-Head. On hands & knees,” he uttered, shaking off the last of Sigmund’s hold, Nutty orbs hacking at me like fire alarms beneath moonlight. “Or else tomorrow, I’ll treat you to a greasier floor-scrubBagging.”

I supposed I owed him that mucHelp. My sporadic spell could cost me Grime of mind for who knew how long beyond this bog—I couldn’t risk resisting this Order. “Did you happen to spy its descent among your own? My Liege,” I wretched.

"I always keep my eye on the trophy," He growled, rubbing around a hot-pink Wedge-mark creasing against his hairline witHard purple blot. "It's somewhere here between us."

"I never would have guessed that narrow," I responded narrowly, & stooped to rummage around for about half a minute til I felt something unusually rough,& resurrected the gray crook. "Here," I tossed it in an arch to him. "Don't cock yourself out of actStaiNexTime."

When he caught the delivery, he noticed how some of the buttons were absent his belly, dangling two lonely seams - to reveal his midriff bumps. "You owe me a new shirt asshole," he growled as I headed to helPick Trent from shallow panting. The ascent created a human waterfall from his gray trousers, & I clapped him on the back of his slimy centipede shirt. “See, not so funny when it affects you.”

“Your fault,” he wheezed. “PyrRisk.”

“It was pretty strange funny,” Pheo clipped sluggishly. "Why you begged him to attack you.”

Dudley was propped up against a mossy tree trunk cozily as ever, if not a smidgen disheartened that the fisticuffs had resolved without living up to each ounce of its twisted potential. Sigg & Rovo went muttering something back & forth. Buck made a drama of stretching away from the tree, before musing: “I thank it’s awful caw-yoot how you two always be getting ’long so happily ever after.” The Dick’tater had stormed off hastily in the direction of the rendezvous Gunshack, & the rest of us were still just standing around in a poor excuse for a pentagon.

“Gotta applaud your social charm mi hombre,” Sigmund attested.

“We're in the forsaken Wild,” I shot back, "Heading to a black market," {stomping at a soggy branch.} "I'm suspending inputs of courtesy."

Rovone snorted. “Inputs? What are you now, a droid?”

I rubbed at my forehead, suppressing the urge to inform him that his family [being so Hard-Boiled] were likely robos.

I shifted the focus. “Following's not my idea of fun, nor harassment ~ but 'staBlessing Liberty requires misconduct.”

Capone whipped around from about 20 strides distance. --> “You should see a Shrink for as many times you spout about social Rights. I’ma wait for you pricks to catch up so Pyro doesn’t convince more hired hands to jump me back there.”

"Your solution is to ignore impoverished feelings?" I mounted. "Meet a stranger for pretentiously calm, indoor bonds, to wound my faith with complacent acceptance of all conditions I'm offered like a pretty pet? Encourage me to patiently sit when I hear danger approaching just beyond the Yard?..."

"Where do you get these notions of being lulled into submission?" the Dictator requested at the sky. "Authority will teach you how to blend a profit, & then you can produce whatever."

"You imagine it that simple because you think self-serving small;" I stationed. "Institutes declare how much recreation is allowed where and when, depending on who is registered for owning influence, by their official procedures, & therefore priority. How can one climb Ranks to capitalize when the currently wealthy are determined to maintain their own rules & deflect competing voices?"

"So all rich people are bad guys?" he coughed away the seasoning of which I had basted my ArguMeat. "Not quite what I said, no - jusTendenSeat leans that way."

"Plus," Trent suddenly supported me. "People like yourself, Dee, condemn unusual activity as freakish."

"Like me?" I think Capone was offended by conjoined minds. "As they should; people connect to topics I discuss -- while anti-social recluses like the lot of y'all act like mutants are going to hatch every time a new medicine hits the shelves."

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And in such manner we resumed our strolling— bickering on & off.

* * *

In the aftermath, I felt sworDumb for lighting his fuse too early & tattering the element of surprise. That flaky, snakey lump of coal... The only reason to even act hospitable is on behalf of the group objective to get away clean with the Payload from those Waylaying--

A slurPrickly sound SHatTowereDancinGlow* ~ tossed my scourge of animosity down the drain.

When my gaze panned out to widespread area, swiveLights scooted into my vision, among a consternation of flabberG@SplasHesiTrance of paniCompany curioScooTraining over an unidentifieDrifting humpStrands that seamed organic -- or to once have been. I blinked periodically two a disparate rythym; what floated before us I hoped was simply warpeDriftwood twinkling beneath splatter-shot sunrays embedding sway across the tropic floor. It appeared either flayed python… or perhaps disemboWounded bird, sparkling with sLimEchoSilvers and bruise-color blues. Ambling closer to the scene, middle of pack with Sig, i could make out three flowers and maybe a small cup or glass had been wrapped and bound to small chunks of wood, into sort of a patrol cruiser: luminescence was channeling blends around the edges as milky and pink petals pinwheeled, focusing miniature brasSearch lights with rosy rumples.

Trent wondered aloud: “Who misplaced their cute toy motorship?...”

Buck marched past him without natuReluctance: “I don see no motor, bud i dam Shore see sum feather quills on this bygone SirPlant.” He plucked some part on the opposite side of a large lily. It proved to be a tiger-striped feather. “The coloRinse beg whetha mayhaPlanted done of Prowley prank biz’Nast...” he alleged, as he twisted and stroked it.

“Buck,” Rovo warned. “Leave that filthy crap alone.”

“Please Stagdollar," hisSister wageRevoked. "That stuff’s gotta be festeRotting!”

Dudley rubbed along the baggy scales of drift~weed. “DanGuys, it’s smooth and leath’Ray! No chunKay meat hangin' round...”

“For Pete’Sake,” gripeDallas. “We shouldn’t be slowing to inspect diseaseDrifting tools! Somebody else may be nearby, and we don’t needa cross paths.”

“MelTeam harmony...” I marveled, murmuring beside Sig's ear. “That’s even cooler than half the getups your brother assemBolts. Or is this truly part of his collection as well?”

“S’not very likely Sal's, cause he ain’t combed here ahead of us…” RiveRAin’s eyes bllustered atop his weBlack suit. “But ya know how vegetation get tangled around carcass sometimes… really’s jusTrap feather hat's boaTowering me.”

“Hmm, what strikes me fishieSig,” I funneled to finance: “How come the vines loop neaTwice twined around each piece of wood?” Feeling uneasy, he raised his voice at Buck: “Is the feathore damp, dude?”

“Yap, like a used towel,” confirmeDud, fanning himself. “Boat somehow stuck stiff as a glued mule!”

“What in Tar#Nation," I stuttered. "That sounddDiz like it’s been polished or baked…”

“Some bastards might be spying on us as we speak,” Capone scanNecked around. “Somebody phone Becca and see if this is her doing. But let’s keep walking in the meantime.”

Rovo started to extract a phone from his sister's backpack.

“I’ma throw it at a tree and see if it sticks like a dart!” - Buck dud’Sidedly announced.

“(Do) NOT a braid idea!” Command’Sig and Pheo, who moved to likely go wrest the object from his grasp. “Put it back where you found it, fungus boy.”

“NaWay!” Buck curled his fists around the quill, looking for a place to stuff it in his pants. “Fine-Darts, KeeParts an’ all them lucky leftover stuff.”

“Stop acting like a numbskull/harebrane,” both prowleySaid. “Nothing about this is healthy,” Rovo grouched.

“Hey,” Trent had crept overhead the mess, leaning upon a golf-club. “Is there a glowing raspberry down there, or is that an ac’Jewel ruby?”

At mention, flower petals flattened and the diverse array fizzled into a sulleNarrow rusty hue. WhateveRemained of the serpenThrashed partially unDrag the lagoon, lurching a spurTowarDudley’s unassue-mid-speeChin. Trent sprang back like a spookeDog, almosTripping over himself: "Holy Moses!!" he uttered. Banana-like pudding stretched out above Dudley’s socks, tugging at his jean cuffSoftly, while a mucuSnail shriveLumPearced above the dingy water, four noodleSlaPlucking suction quavers as they did. “FlexX cruiSeweed, JawBliss TamPilferer..” gurgled out a mumbled speecHasty. “Unpleasant crABenDive unassorTraDEpth forMaDueLake!”

I was unaBelTranslate the second part to distincTabulation. But was pretty sure the introduction was like excuse me, jobless meddler.

The interlopeRoiled into a fit mere steps from touching Trent, and we witnessed his golf club shakily rise, to send a defensive smash beside Buck’s foot, sending up liquid. I saw metHaullow pole bend lame in the middle, & then Trent slip as he tried to raise a second whack, momentariLifting the crustacean above the surfFace as he tumbled down askance the aquatiCreature. The club somehow rebounded at Pheo, who batted it aside with Machete and hastened her pace forward.

The lob’distorThing redoubled charge, lunGELiding like a water skimmer back onto Buck’s shoe-heelLacings even as he fled back toward the Prowleys, pleading maniacally. It appeared as if trying to yank it clean off. Every repetitious tug flashed side-saw mandibles, & some violeTongue more like a hose? I failed to identify.

My chesTightened, constrict'Lung developing straighTerror to my core ~ I became hypnotized by a vortex garden of purple ichor on its chest, curdling and boiling like a swarm of piranha, sending out some bony clic>k’z as it struggled hold with a big-mouth at leasTen fold its own size. A rotten-banana hill of shell domed around its midsection like a barrel, tapering to a stack of bifurcaTail rakes. Its underbelly pulsed like glossy oil, circulating purple ooze.

(confounDamn, I desired a piece of the brawl too, but I didn’t have a proper weapon!) I glanced around for a thick branch -- but better yet, spotteDallaStanding around like a numb specter. His crowbar was lifeless hanging, begging me to animate. With a grunt, I snapped from trance & pushed into the Uproar of shouThickeNow between water displacement and unbridled wailing, to defenDispatchers as Buck went high-stepping in desperation to dislodge the pest. I saw the rakes pop the top of his shoe like a soda can. There was probably blood in the water or his sock by now, but I couldn’t decipher under the canopy and commotion.

I churned past Capone & snatched the tool from his agape grip, scuffing my toes against his Achilles heel (cause he’d never be able to prove I did it deliberately). I heard, “What thu-- Flipp..? RagScalloPyro!” as I began to secure the metal & brought its energy toward a more effective pose.

I’m confident Rovo could have pitched his Fork like a spear at any threat within a dozen paces, but not in this case, if it would risk skewering Buck’s leg into an extra pair of shoe-laces. Pheo arrived and tried to scrape the assailant from Dudley’s lengthy size FIFTEEN shoe all in one choke-hold style maneuver. I could heaRough connection but the pest didn’t come loose, only shifted warily in position.

Buck let loose a despairing howl, anDanced around like a fire juggler having botched the act.

In the Background Rovo yodeled, “Back off sis; Trident incoming!” (Okay i guess he was waiting for the proper moment). She grabbeDud's soccer shirt. “Hold your breath!” & with a nod, she pileDudley down into the murk, stabbing her blade at obscured tailfins, before rolling away. The bugger arched back like a cougar, with tongue of shoe sticking to its chest, & one pincher missing as well. Any bioLawGraph would have received the shock of their career.

Rove rumbled fortHurl at its sturdy turtle goop face, which actually made it reconsider extending siege - but therEchoed a ((Thump-Bloom)) burgeoNoise as it spun in a pirouette, (horribly mammalian in sweepinGrace) & left me to wrestle with it like overcooked spaghetti, unable to quickly untangle. “BEHIND'JAW!!” Rovo thundered as he crawled to retrieve the Trident, and he clamped his ears in writhing motions, for a sound like compresSteam cuRattLED into our bones, rising and sweeping relentlessly like a Train whistle shreds.

Yet I was more intent on driving the tip of the bar right into the center of the aquatic nightmare. I twisted to one side, half-dazed in blurry vision, befoREcognizing the crustacean hurtling at me in a wobbling quiver fashion, like a bounding discus after it impacts the ground. There was a plopping inside my ribs like ice cream slipping off a spoon, and all I could manage to do was lift the Crowbar at a beneficial angle to prevent the beast from its goal of my stomach. My body tipped backwards as its shell bowled into me. I felt a slicing and burning across my left wrist as it scuttled off to one side -- next thing I knew my head plunged beneath the lagoon.

Time seemed to slow as the marsh cushioned my fall. My sight was obscured by syrupy liquid and I gained a sincere understanding of how aquatic animals could sneak through the murk so well. At least the High-pitched wail in my head literally seemed to be flushed away by the submerging. I swiveled my head to check if the vermin was closing in from anywhere, & was relieved to conclude it didn’t seem to be pursuing me. That’s when I noticed something strange. There was a soft crimson glow coming from maybe 5 yards just north of my head. And it wasn’t just a glow, i realized; it looked like… a patch of looping tubes.

I extended my left arm to grab hold of a thicker log and pull myself toward a straighter view of it. The crimson iridescence rippled, and an image simply Pressed into my retinas like a stamp... some abstruse symbol. In the lingering flash, I could tell it had smaller depictions mingling inside of it, but I just tried to absorb the overall shape in hopes i could chew it down later if i needed to.

Drinking in its Fullness had me thinking of a steamy pie, ascending into crookHard edge of proud stance, pawing center like Gryffin with something of slippery feathers that each seemed moving to their own accord, curling itselFolding the broader impression of vine-sprawlinGardens. I somehow favored the wiggly impression it sent through me, like a refreShine smear of welcoMEMbrane, a granteDiversion froMomentouScorn. Shortly after my eyes entranced around the features, I realized I was seeing an illumination emitting from the actual undercarriage of this odd Armored beast. At least it wasn’t coming my way, as I observed the lower body dancing madly and re-situating in some kind of power struggle above the surface.

A moment later, an Arrowhead pierced into the mud, severing a portion of the tail. Siggy, I deduced. The stroke was followed by a larger scimitar shape of what must’ve been Pheo’s blade. This lopped away one of about 10 appendages. The crabby thing recoiled & tucked up completely under the surface; and when it did so the hideous Face angled almost squarely toward me. Cranium short and narrow, giving something of a wispy motion, and a muzzle resembling the snout of a Razorback with ruffled, pineapple spines dribbling down around its chin. I convulsed, as it furiously began digging its way into the swamp bed, jolting up from my prostrate position, sucking for air in the direction I’d last seen combat taking place.

Sigg0 was actively back-peddling, stunned twitches locking over his tawny face. Pheo was close by in a crouch, hair dangling on the water’s surface, scanning the the liquid with machete at attention. Sigmund locked gazes with me as I sprung up. Frantically I gushed, “You discouraged it, but It’s burrowing! Get to Gutterson’s fast!”