Chapter XV
The bigger they are
The silent streets were disturbed by the sudden thud coming from the bar. The children looked shocked at their trainer who was flung away like a pebble.
“Sledge!” Luna tried running at the man but was quickly stopped by Sledge's scream.
“What are you doing? Get the others out of here! Ill deal with him!” Sledge ordered Luna who quickly realized the weight of her words. The man finally stood up and faced the kids. “You shouldn’t be here!” Groaned the man as he cocked back his fist. Towels suddenly surrounded the man’s arms and held him back.
Sam's hands summoned the towels that held back the stranger from attacking. “Go kids! Now!” Sam shouted at the children to make them move, despite them being frozen by fear.
Luna grabbed the hand of Iiwa and the four of them ran out to the streets. Meanwhile the man pulled Sam over the counter by the towels and slammed him on the ground, cracking the wooden floor. He had to quickly release his grasp on Sam's throat as he heard footsteps approaching him from behind. As he turned, he had no time to react to the sledgehammer hitting his face. Sledge, slamming her hammer with all her might felt vibrations traveling through her arm, quaking the skeleton in her body. The man took the attack without flinching.
“What the hell are you made of?” Sledge looked desperate as she held her arm in pain.
Moments before, in a nearby alley…
Smoke flew towards the sky as two men waited in the shadows. “Man! Who knew Anvil was such a lightweight! We’ve been waiting for him to wake up for almost a day! And can't you go without a smoke break for more than an hour?" A young man's yapping echoed towards his comrade.
“He's a man who respects authority more than anything. Disappointing Master Puppet seemed to take a toll on him, that only alcohol can alleviate. My way of dealing with stress is smoking and let me tell you, your constant complaining makes it hard not to be on edge.” The other more scruffy-looking older man lit up another cigarette as he looked in the direction of the Broken Window.
“He should be happy Master didn't kill him, or us!” The younger man removed his hood to reveal his bob cut blond hair and a white piercing in his eyebrow.
“And what would he tell the new hooded one the Family will send? We got off easy. But I wouldn't say we are lucky either.”
“You're right! Then let's go and try to wake Anvil up, before he goes back to drinking! We should get back into Puppet's good graces asap!” Before even standing up they heard the thud from the bar. They looked at each other worried and ran to the entrance. But the kids bumped into them frantically escaping the pub.
“Get the hell out of my way shitty brats!” The younger man screamed at the kids, who froze as they realized the attire these two strangers had on meant they were hooded ones.
“Don’t bother with them just go!” The older man ordered him, but as he walked forward, Luna gathered electricity in her palm as a warning.
“Oh! You think that’s a wise decision?” The older man looked down at Luna trying to intimidate her.
“All I know is you won’t set a foot in the bar.” Luna and the man shared a look of animosity, keeping their eyes locked on each other.
Ginna tackled the younger man onto the ground. Rosa quickly followed her. As the rougher looking man turned to look at his friend Luna reached towards him, trying to shock him, but the man grabbed her hand and tossed her away.
“You could come at me in the hundreds. Wouldn’t make a difference.” The man took one last hit from his cigarette, before dropping it. The last thing the kids saw was the embers dancing around on the ground, before the entire street was filled with smoke. "I am Chainsmoker! I control smoke! Now give me a reason to spare you!" Chainsmoker words came from every direction confusing the coughing children. The sounds of struggle were heard in the distance where Ginna and the young stranger went, but Lunas vision was scanning for a sign of Iiwa. Taking one step toward what she thought was the right direction only resulted in Chainsmoker's fist digging into her stomach. “You know, I don’t like hurting kids, let alone girls, but you attacked me.” Luna flailed at her enemy desperately, but he jumped back in the smoke. “Your power is electricity, so as long as I keep my distance you cannot hurt me, little girl!”
Suddenly Luna heard running in the distance. She felt this belonged to Iiwa and her feelings were quickly confirmed. "I'll take care of the smoke, Luna! You handle the guy!" Iiwa's choking voice was followed by a dark glow from her direction.
Iiwa Grovi: Powers: Crow-human. She could turn into a crow, which in and of itself was useless in this case, but her determination gave way to innovation. She used a rule the children were yet to be familiar with: The powers you get are only a base. You choose what you do with them. How you build on them. And she put down the first brick.
If I could turn my just hands into wings! With wings that big, I could blow the smoke away! The next second her arms morphed into wings retaining their size. Though she struggled a bit with taking flight, after a few jumps she got used to it and she blasted the smoke away. That’s when Luna noticed the man surprised by the smoke's disappearance. Luna ran to attack the man. She tried to catch him from every angle, some were inches away, but the man avoided them all. When the exhausted girl stopped for a second, he kicked her away. Luna slid on the muddy street, as she stopped, she rolled over to cough, trying to catch her breath and keep herself from puking. Between two deep desperate breaths she heard something that made her heart skip a beat. A gunshot. Before she could look up to search for her friend, she heard Iiwa's body hit the ground. She turned to Chainsmoker who put his gun away. "As I said, you attacked me.”
Luna ran towards him letting out a blood-curdling scream. But before she got to him the smoke came back and the man disappeared.
“Ginna! Where are you? Iiwa is hurt! Help her!” Luna shouted into the smoke, hoping her message would reach her friend.
“You guys have a healer? Thanks for the heads up. I’ll deal with her next.” The cackling of the man came from every direction pressing down on Luna, as she stood there helplessly.
Some time prior in the bar Sledge dropped to one knee as blood trailed from her forehead. Sam in an attempt of distraction threw a towel at his enemy blinding him for a second. As the man tore the towel into pieces Sam punched him square in the head. The hit landed perfectly even shaking the man for a second, but in the end Sam’s hand was the one bleeding.
“What is this guy?” Sledge asked herself awestruck. But she had no time to contemplate that as she heard the gunshot from outside. "The kids! Right, they travel in groups of four. His mates are probably nearby.” She looked at Sam who was clearly in pain after the hit, but her friend still nodded in agreement, signaling that she should go and help the kids.
That’s when their enemy towered over Sam and punched him through the counter. “That gunshot was Chainsmoker. He is a reliable guy. Leaves no mess. Do not worry, the kids will meet swift ends.” The man finally adjusted his cloak to reveal green stripes on the hood. “I on the other hand tend to leave things… people in pieces when I’m done with them. Hear me, your unfortunate foe! I am Iron-skin Anvil. This green marks the level of power I possess. You cannot defeat me.”
Green? What the hell is someone like him doing here? I cannot leave Sam to deal with him, the only chance we have is working together. Sledge thought to herself as she squared up to face the man.
Outside, where the smoke is thinner the younger hooded one was choking Ginna on the ground. She was kicking and wiggling around, scraping at the ground, throwing dirt into her enemy’s eyes, but to no avail. Before the world faded to darkness for her, she heard the grunting of Rosa as her friend pushed the young hooded one off her.
“Finally find you! Don’t just run at the guy like that!” Rosa scolded her friend who was gasping for air too hard to comprehend what Rosa just said.
“Two on one, eh? Better odds for you, more fun for me!” The man licked the corner of his mouth while smiling at the girls.
“EW! What was that?” Rosa said grossed out by the mannerism.
“What?” The smile quickly faded as he felt called-out for nothing.
“The way you licked your lips! We are minors you creep!” Rosa said holding her friend's hand scared by the man.
“Not like that! It was a “let’s have fun fighting” sort of lick.” He explained flustered.
“There is no such thing!”
“Why am I even arguing with you guys? Listen! My name is Pearl! I am a yellow officer of the Ever Family! You guys are in big trouble so just be good girls and get out of my way!” Pearl pointed his index finger at the girls.
“Good girls?” Ginna took a step back, disgusted by the implications of those two words.
“Enough of this! We are fighting!” The man launched pearls out of his fingertips like it was a machinegun. The girls dodged out of the way and behind a thrash can. “No, you will fear the name Pearl!”
“You are a grown man attacking two teenagers!” Rosa screamed from behind the cover.
“Stop with your guilt tripping!” Pearl launched another barrage of beads at the girls who curled up in fear.
“What should we do?” Ginna whispered to Rosa. Her friend looked around for a bit before an idea hit her. She emptied a thrash bag next to Ginna, who almost puked just from the smell. “This is not the time to start littering!”
“I have an idea, but it will take all my energy and put you into harm’s way, so if you don’t want to do it, I understand.” Rosa explained to her friend. Ginna looked at her with complete trust and just gave a thumbs up.
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“Don’t worry girls I’ll never run out of beads to shoot at you!” As Pearl shouted cocky with power, he heard the sound of rattling from behind the bin. Tin cans and bottles of all shapes and sizes approached the man as the water within them was controlled by Rosa.
“What the hell are these?” Pearl started shooting them and all exploded with the water within them splashing everywhere. As his gaze was set on these, he didn’t notice the trash bag full of water flying at him. The bag knocked Pearl on the ground bursting open wrapping the plastic around his face. In that moment of blindness, he felt cold, wet, but none of that meant anything to him, because he also felt Ginna kicking him in the crotch. Again, and again… you get it.
The two girls looked at each other. Rosa was panting from all the water she created, and Ginna from all the kicking. They high fived each other and squirmed in happiness.
“We defeated our first bad guy! Though I feel like dying after creating so much water!” Rosa hugged her friend who flinched from pain.
“He was barely a challenge! Though a pearl did graze me!” Ginna said as they walked into the fog.
“You should heal it!” Rosa said worried.
“No way!” Ginna refused. “You heard that gunshot, right? Iiwa and Luna are in danger!”
“Let’s go help them!”
“And do something about this smoke! My eyes are burning!”
Luna was making her way through the smoke. Damn it! I lost him completely. He’s going after Ginna! But without knowing where she is this is the best thing I can do! As she finished her planning, she finally reached Iiwa. She was on the ground moaning as blood was flowing out of the wound on her shoulder. Luna let out a sigh of relief as she confirmed the bullet's location was far from any vital organs, but the amount of blood she was losing still worried her. She knelt down next to Iiwa and held her hand.
“L…Luna?” Iiwa opened her eyes and slowed her heavy breathing. “You are alright?”
“I am in much better shape than you.” She chuckled answering her friend.
“Damn! It hurts like hell! Like it’s still burning.”
Luna looked at the wound and tore off a piece of her shirt. She crumpled it up and looked Iiwa in her eyes. “This is going to hurt. But I’ll try to limit the bleeding.”
“Have you done anything like this before?”
“I hurt myself on a regular basis but not this much. All I know is that we need to stop the bleeding.”
“Aright! Do it quickly!” Iiwa braced herself for what was about to come.
Luna jammed the piece of fabric into the wound. Iiwa kicked and screamed in pain, beads of sweat pouring off her forehead. Luna wrapped another cloth around her shoulder to keep the wound sealed. Iiwa bit her lip and closed her eyes as the excruciating pain did not subside, her body just got used to it.
“Try to stay conscious!” Luna pleaded with her friend.
“The last time I felt this much pain was when I first did cross fit.”
Luna chuckled but as she looked at her friend's pale face and blood in the mud her tone changed to a more serious one. “Iiwa...”
“What is it?” Iiwa turned her head to look at her friend.
“If we get home safely, and you are all healed…” The words stuck to her tongue and teeth like they were refusing to come out. “Will you go… out with me?” She flinched as if it caused physical pain to say those words.
“Is this my blood loss speaking from you?” Iiwa smiled as she waited for Luna to look at her again.
“Hey! I just asked you on a date and you still make jo-“
“Yes, that sound great…” She let out a weak whisper as her answer.
“Really?” Luna got the answer she wanted but she was still surprised by it.
“There is no backing out now Luna! I am dating the hell outa’ you when we get home!” Iiwa looked at her determinedly. Luna nodded, trying to hide the fact that she was blushing.
“Now that I got that out of my system I need to go and help the girls! That guy is after Ginna! I just need a way to navigate through this smoke!” Luna stood up and started walking. She was stopped by the sound of Iiwa grunting behind her. She turned back to see her standing.
“What are you doing?” Luna demanded an answer.
“I am making a way for you!” Iiwa held her shoulder, breathing heavily as her knees almost buckled under her weight.
“You can’t! With that wound--”
“I know. This won’t last long so use your keen eyes to spot that asshole as quick as possible! Trust me Luna, and don't look back!”
Luna shared a look of pain with Iiwa before she turned around and started running into the smoke. Iiwa turned her arms into wings. The bandage was barely holding it together. With every inch her wings grew, a piece of the fabric ripped. She readied her wings and pushed the smoke away.
“I see him!” Luna exclaimed victoriously. As she got closer, she noticed the man was walking toward Rosa and Ginna, who were cowering in fear. Ginna was barely conscious as blood trailed from her head down her body. Rosa was holding her close protecting her with her body as the man approached.
I won’t get there in time! She was running with all her might, but the wind from behind her halted. Iiwa exhausted herself completely and fell to the ground. The smoke was slowly returning to the street but before it covered Luna's vision completely her gaze met with Rosa’s. She was signaling with her eyes: “Down!”
As Luna looked down, she noticed a puddle covering a large chunk of the street, the puddle created by the trash bag full of water. And Chainsmoker was standing in it with one foot.
“I’m sorry it had to be this way…” He looked at the terrified girls as he put his hand on his gun.
All the muscles in his body tensed up and he shot himself in the foot as electricity traveled through him. Chainsmoker fell to the ground unconscious with smoke coming out of his mouth.
“Gotcha’!” Luna smirked lying on the ground with her hand barely touching the puddle.
Rosa and Ginna walked up to Luna as the smoke cloud evaporated. “You defeated your first bad guy!” Rosa tried to high five Luna but she let her hang.
“No time for this! Iiwa is badly hurt! Ginna how are you?”
“Fine. Really. Just a little hazy. Let’s go and help Iiwa. We can worry about me after her.”
In the bar the second gunshot rang in Sledge’s ear. Unbeknownst to her this time the gun was not pointed at her pupils. She charged the man desperately trying to finish him and get to the girls. She and Sam let out attack after attack looking for a weak spot, but the man either blocked or just plainly accepted the attack head on.
“Two of the kids are down! Give up and I’ll tell Chainsmoker to let the other two live!” Bargained the man in annoyance.
“Those kids are not dead! And after I beat you, I’ll take them home safely! Sam! Give me your strongest booze!” She looked at Sam who in return nodded in agreement and passed a bottle to Sledge. She took a swing of the liquor and threw it at Anvil who smashed it midair. While he flailed at the flying object, he let the attacks from Sam hit, as it mostly hurt Sam himself. But instead of attacking Sam dodged behind Anvil and wrapped a towel around his eyes. Using this opportunity Sledge jumped on the body of Anvil, wrapped her legs around his torso and kissed him, making the alcohol travel from her mouth down Anvil’s throat. Meanwhile Sam let go of the towel and walked up to the entrance of the building. The worn-out man opened the door while Sledge let go of Anvil and kicked off of his body sending him toppling out the door.
“Why...is everything...spinning...” Anvil finally hit the ground completely unconscious.
“Did the booze did that or your kiss?” Sam asked looking at Sledge who just gave him a death stare. She finally ran out the door and saw the girls gathering around Iiwa.
“Are you okay?” Sledge arrived panting form all the action and stress.
Ginna was kneeling next to Iiwa pressing the wound nervously, around her the scattered pieces of wrapping indicated that she was at this for a while.
“She helped us defeat those two guys, but in doing so her wound opened further…” Rosa explained to her with tears in her eyes. Luna was silently holding her hand not taking her eyes off Iiwa. Sledge put her hand on Luna’s shoulder who flinched and broke down into tears. She crumbled on top of Iiwas body weeping. As Luna buried her head in Iiwa she felt a hand touch her head, stroking it gently. She looked up to see Iiwa smiling at her.
“It’s okay. Continue, I like being the center of attention.” Iiwa ordered jokingly. The girls all let out a relieved smile. Ginna finally took a break from healing and leaned back into the mud behind her.
“Gods, I need a four-course meal and a shower so badly!” Ginna moaned as mud soaked her hair.
“I can vouch for that second one.” Rosa said shaking off some of the dirt from her clothes.
“Come girls, Sam can cook us something.” Sledge helped Iiwa stand up. Suddenly the lumbering steps of a man disturbed their banter. Chainsmoker was carrying his two comrades on his back, slowly passing by the girls.
“You will pay for what you’ve done… all of you… especially you…” Chainsmoker looked Luna in the eyes.
But his staring was broken by the hammer of Sledge hitting the ground. “Unlike your friend, you don’t look like the type who could withstand one of my hits, so stop the threats and pay up!”
“Pay??”
“Your superior made a mess of Sam’s bar! You cover the damage you’ve done and never show your face here again, and I let you live. Or do you have something else in mind?” Sledge tried her best to act like she wasn't hurt, even though she was close to fainting from the fight against Anvil.
“Shit… Alright.” Chainsmoker put down his teammates and took money out of all three of their wallets. Five hundred from each of us, fifteen hundred in total. That should cover the damage. No let me fuck off.” He threw the money at Sledge.
“Pleasure doing business. But before we part ways, I have some questions.”
Chainsmoker rolled his eyes and lit up a cigarette. “Shoot.”
“I heard that a member of your group, Turtle was killed in Karta Forest. You guys don’t seem bothered by it.”
“Should we go on a strike about it? Some cleaner took him out. Happens every day.”
“That’s not true and you know that. The cleaners are looking for the killer. That’s why it’s weird you guys are so silent. And what would a green hooded one do here anyway? Usually, you guys send out teams of four with an orange one leading three yellow ones. Or a green one leading three orange ones. This is disorganized.” Sledge looked into the man’s eyes for an answer but only saw unease.
“You ask the right questions. Too bad I value my life too much to answer. If you wonder about the murder, yes it wasn’t a cleaner, but if you want to find out more investigate where Turtle was killed and maybe you’ll find some clues we didn’t. Northern side of Karta, outside of the Younen borders. Go on poke the beehive yourself." Unbeknownst to Chainsmoker, the one who ordered his teammate's execution was none other than Puppet. This information was limited to Anvil, Secretary, Mantis and Wellit... and to the person who killed Turtle. That person was a secret Puppet hid even from the Ever Family.
“How kind of you.” Sledge turned the sledgehammer back into her arm. “Okay, now go! I hope to never see you again!”
“Worry not. The feeling is mutual.”
Sledge and her four apprentices entered the bar where Sam was sweeping the rubble into one corner. At the last swipe the broom fell off the handle into the rubble. Sam, feeling defeated threw the handle on the pile, and walked up to one of the tables still standing and sat down. As he studied the grooves and bottle stains of the table silently, a bundle of cash landed in front of him.
“That should cover the damage and a meal for all of us.” Sledge collapsed into one of the chairs exhausted.
“A meal it is!” Sam jumped up blissfully.
The six of them sat down and ate. The girls explained how the fights went. How many times did Ginna kick Pearl in the pearls. And how heroic Iiwa was. After they recharged, they got in the van.
“Hey Sledge! Tell Roger I said hi! And he should sometimes come visit his brother!” Sam shouted from the bar's doorframe.
“I’ll make sure he visits you. If he comes limping, you know it took some convincing.” Sledge slammed the van door and took the girls home. Ginna and Rosa slept through the ride while Luna and Iiwa shared a warm look as the setting sun brightened their faces.