“It’s just a bunch of idiots kicking around a ball, I don’t really see the appeal” Alex says.
“It’s so much more than that-” Paul replies.
“So you admit they’re a bunch of idiots.”
“If you weren’t so terrifying I'd throw the goddamn remote at you.”
“Do it pussy, at least then we could watch something that's actually entertaining.”
“Absolutely not,” Aki interjects, “Last time you had remote privileges you made us all watch Little Lady, Big Town and I will never trust your taste in shows ever again. I mean, honestly, a midget dating a neanderthal, how the fuck does that even work? Like biologically.”
A shiver passes through the group.
“It was sweet” Alex protests
“Sure it was kid,” Elian offers, “The main lead didn’t give stalker vibes at all.”
Alex slumps and accepts her fate of watching the stupid sports with the stupid people.
-
“One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war!”
Alex immediately goes on the assault, going for quick and precise strikes trying to pin Sasha down. The other girl dodges and counters, managing to get Alex’s thumb in a hold.
Aki starts counting, “One, two-”
Alex manages to break free and the fight continues, like two swans in a dance. Alex sees an opening and manages to pin Sasha down. The counting starts “one, two, three!” Aki yells “Alex wins!”
The crowd cheers and Alex basks in the attention as Sasha wallows in her defeat.
“Next contestants, Fergus and Sophia, enter the arena.”
-
Unfortunately, the tournament was interrupted by a grumpy Scar who finally decided to end his slumber. “The fuck is going on here?” at the sound of his voice the group freezes and slowly turns to face the man.
“Uhm, a thumb war tournament sir.” Rania answers
He blinks “A thumb war tournament?” he says incredulously
They all nod.
“Can I join?” he asks.
Aki moves to the board, “Sure, uh, what's your name?”
“Jason” he provides.
-
By the ruling of the general assembly, Jason was required to face all the contestants since he joined the tournament late. The bastard still won by a large margin, Alex blames all the cybernetics. She doesn’t recognize the eye’s but the arms are Taiyō work, Icarus’s wings. There’s a reason why they’re called that. His tolerance must be insane.
“Sooooo” Alex starts “you said you were here to complete a mission”
“I said that I already completed my mission” Jason replies.
Alex raises a brow “and what was it?” everyone stares at the audacity this girl just displayed. Jason simply points at her. Alex points at herself, he nods, then continues eating his peaches as though the conversation were closed. The crowd lets out a collective sigh of relief.
“How’d you find us?” Alex asks that sigh is swiftly regained as they inhale sharply.
Jason swallows his peaches and licks his lips, then he points at her leg. “That fancy little leg of yours has a chip in it. Courtesy of Ellie. Just had to follow the signal here, woulda been pretty easy if there weren’t so many Kingdom and Truth fucks swarming the place.”
“There’s a chip in my leg?!?” Alex gasps
“That's what I said”
“Ellie put a fucking chip-” Aki pushes Alex aside as he rounds on the scar, all his fear forgotten.
“You killed gangers on your way here?” Aki all but demands.
The man takes another bite of his peaches, “yup.”
“That’s an act of war” Aki’s eyes are sharp and accusing, impressive considering the person he’s directing ire to could easily snap his neck. The man takes more peaches, “yup,” he says again. He doesn’t elaborate. Letting the implications of that sit in the minds of those present.
“The dragons…joined the war?” Rania asks slowly.
The man lets a small smile reach his features as he drinks some peach juice, “yup.”
-
There is…a lot to process with the information Jason brought. The Dragons joined the war? Only the wolves are missing from the equation now. All out war has happened before, during the early days, before the gangs were the monsters they are now. Arthas was built on a legacy of violence, and it was encouraged. The corporations made absolute bank thanks to the constant warfare, and their labour force wasn’t really affected. Megastructures hold significantly more people than Arthas proper afterall. It got so bad that the EAU started sending convicts here instead of proper prison. It was chaos, before major gangs started appearing and brought order, brought some measure of peace, and curb stomped the corporations authority. Since then all-out war has been nothing but a fantasy.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Helping in the background is one thing, outright joining is another thing entirely, what is the Dragon thinking? Alex is staring at the wall in silence, all of them are silent, and the house members seem as grim as they are. So many possible outcomes, only one conclusion.
There’s going to be another Arthenien war.
“Are we going back to the upper districts?” Sasha finally breaks the silence.
Jason smiles, it is not a nice smile, all teeth and no kindness. “Smart girl” he says “you’ve probably already guessed, but no, I’ve got targets and you’re all going to help me.”
-
By ‘you’re all gonna help me’ he meant the other three dragons in the room, not the house members. Rania’s got her hands on Alex’s shoulders as they prepare to leave. Alex is taller than the woman so the whole pep talk routine is a little comical.
“Remember little demon,” she starts, “you’re still not at your best. Don’t push yourself, survival first, objectives later. Whoever Ellie is, they sent a walking death machine to find you, so they won’t send you off somewhere to die. If you and your friends need somewhere to hide your always welcome here, just knock twice, then thrice, then twice again.”
Alex just nods and heads off.
-
The TallWinds are…surprisingly normal. Alex has never been ‘cause the few interactions she’s had with Kingdom goons have all been weird, but the streets and houses are…just normal streets and houses. She expected a lot more religious paraphernalia if she were being honest, that and graffiti, but she got neither. She’s never seen suburbs before, houses seen as a waste of space when an apartment complex, or better yet, a mega structure, could be built. Those homes are owned by the middle class corpos who refuse to live in the megastructures apartment floors, or just successful enough Kingdom goons, take your pick.
The wealth disparity in the upper districts is stark, there’s only mansions and apartments, no in betweens. It makes for a lot of people to sell drugs to though, and a few rich people to scam, so it works out.
The TallWinds Is much more evened out it seems, there’s a generous amount of housing and only a few apartments per neighborhood.
There is one weird thing though.
It is very quiet.
And no one walks the streets.
-
Their first target was one of the few apartment complexes in the area, it has about ten floors, and each one is filled with Kingdom goons. Not exactly survivable if they went on their own, but with Jason it should be doable.
They didn’t bother finding a parking spot, simply stopping by the stairwell and getting out, ready for combat. Jason went in front. While Alex would have preferred to be slow and cautious, Jason didn’t seem to give a shit. Walking with a casual stride as they made their way up to the first floor. Eight pairs of eyes turn to look at them.
Jason shoots, and the sound of his gun is ungodly loud.
Five corpses fall to the ground, the remaining three scream and scramble to their respective rooms. Alex’s gun is trained down the hallway.
“I’ll clear any who come to the hallway, you three take the doors,” he says as he unsheathed his Katana.
SD-73 Red Steel
He must be rolling in it to casually be carrying a plasma cutter.
As she finishes that thought Aki trains his shotgun to one of the doors and frowns.
“What?” Alex asks.
“What if there are kids on the other side?” Aki asks
Huh. She hadn’t thought of that. “Let me kick it down?” she queries.
He nods and she breaks down the door.
Only to get tackled to the ground.
She struggles for a bit before she hears the Raptor shoot and the woman is pushed off her. Not killed, pushed. Alex presses her revolver at the exposed brain matter of the still moving woman and fires. She goes limp as she hears Aki shoot his Ramus twice in quick succession. She looks to find a man using his own intestines to try and break Aki’s neck.
Sasha shoots him point blank in the head while the door next to Alex burst open.
Something screams and she moves to it’s tune, barely dodging a bullet that pierces through the wall.
She brings up her Tengu and fires at the wall, someone exclaims “Aw, Fuck!” on the other end. She shoots again and before kicking open their door only to find a man pointing a pistol at her. He tries to say something but she just points her gun at him. He fires multiple times, none of his bullets pierce.
hurts though.
She shoots him in the head and his cranium bursts like a cherry tomato. Someone screams and she turns to find an injured woman staring at his corpse. She’s carrying a rifle, she shoots her in the head too.
Damn she thinks my aim’s gotten pretty good, just a flick of the wrist.
The gunfire reminds her that she’s got shit to do. She exits the room and looks down the hallway.
A mountain of corpses, with Jason at the centre. She looks at her friends, about three dead, they look fine though and that’s what matters in the end. Four people bursts into the hallway on their side. Jason doesn’t move to help them.
So much for clearing the Hallway.
She goes to fire but hesitates, two children are with them. They point their guns but don’t shoot. They stare at each other.
“Just let us through,” says the man “we don’t need to fight”
Alex nods slowly and moves the side as Sasha and Aki do the same, their guns stay trained on the couple as they pass into the stairwell.
“You let them go” says Jason from behind them
“They had kids” Alex says
“Look through the rooms of those you killed, you’ll probably find children there too” He says.
“They fought us.” Sasha says weakly.
“They were defending against an invading force,” He scoffs, “at least know what you are.”
-
Alex is only now beginning to understand the implications of attacking an apartment complex. A lot of the members here don’t have bionics, and their weaponry isn’t enough to pierce through her ribs and she assumes her skull. This isn’t some safehouse, drugden, or lab. It’s just a housing complex that caters to the poorer of the gang, most of the people here fight to protect themselves and/or their families. They let a few go, unwilling to kill those who wouldn’t fight or chose to hide. Jason didn’t seem to really care, but he didn’t show mercy when he would find them. He didn’t ask questions, he just struck with his katana and shot with his monster-pistols. Didn’t touch the children though, but anyone who picked up a gun and started shooting was shown no mercy.
It all made Alex sick to her stomach.
What was the point of this? The gangs have millions under their banner, this apartment is insignificant, in both quantity and quality. Alex thinks she would have preferred fighting a Heretic.
-
It didn’t take long for them to slaughter the apartment residents, they barely put up a fight. Soon they find themselves back in the berkeley, driving off to their next target. Alex is staring at the front seat ahead of her.
“Why?” she says with venom.
Jason doesn’t take his eyes off the road, and doesn’t seem fazed by the question.
“Psychological warfare” he simply “at the end of the day the purpose of any gang is protection. Show them they aren’t safe, even in their own homes, and you make a nice exploitable rift between the gangers and their gang."