Flying through the air was quickly becoming an enjoyable means of travel. Dynamic entry my favorite means of arrival. Tragically, my aim still needs work. Thankfully I wasn't too far off target, in as far as I hit the wall I was aiming for. Mind I had been hoping to land on top of it, not slam into it with a sound like an eighteen wheeler trying to eat a stopped four door on the highway.

The wall exploded like it was made of Styrofoam blocks instead of cars as I plowed into it. Most everyone froze in shock as rusty, and now badly damaged, cars slid, bounced, and tumbled away from the hole I'd accidentally made in the eight foot pile. A couple of the flying vehicles flew far enough to threaten the combatants.

Half-Breed spotted them coming and whirled about with his mostly regrown horn to smash the pick up sliding towards him to the side with a grunt. Angel wasn't quick enough to dodge the car that slammed into his ankle, causing him to tumble and try to arrest his fall with his hands. He seemed to forget about the man in his hands as he hit the ground with a painfully dry cracking sound. Considering the front third of his arm tendrils had been mashed into a mess of meat and shattered bones, the prognosis on the man he was holding didn't look good. The slug had a minivan land on top of it with a sound like the world's largest squeaky toy being stepped on. They were cussing up a storm, so I guess they weren't too badly injured by having several tons of steel and plastic sitting on them.

"Whoops! Sorry Angel." I cringed at all the accidental damage, "You okay?" He held up the long tendril arms letting everyone clearly see where the lashings holding the arms together had broken, letting the limp, decapitated jackal-snake corpses spill to the ground. "Sorry, I'm still working on aiming."

"Ah shit," Half-Breed breathed, his eyes wide and horrified, "It's him."

"What? This is the guy Jorge went to ki-ack!" The tiger began until Angel managed to wrap his boarilla hands around the tiger's throat and hurl him off his back.

"Will one of you get this thing off me?" The snail squealed with a voice like a wet fart, "This isn't exactly comfortable!"

"Dios mio!" The flier, now clearly a large falcon of some type, landed next to the pile of meat that used to be Angel's arms "Hammer!? You alive in there chompa?"

Half-Breed cast his eyes wildly about at those around him, his mind clearly running the numbers and not liking the results he was getting. When Donald sauntered up next to me looking mightily displeased, the wooly rhino seemed to reach a decision. He promptly flopped over on his side and sighed out a defeated, "I surrender."

"What!?" The six limbed tiger sputtered, looking affronted, "The actual fuck HB? The fuck we giving up without a fight!?"

"Because we were barely winning out against that!" He gestured with his head towards Angel who had finally gotten back to his feet. "And this loco coño killed Bones with one hit, took my best, and has probably killed Jorge and the others if he's here now. I'm tired of feeding my hermanos into that meat grinder. I give up."

"H-he can't be that tough." The tiger said, puffing himself up. "I-I can take him. N-no way Tango is gonna be someone else's bitch!"

Donald's arm snapped out far further than I thought was possible to grab the tiger by the scruff of the neck and yanked him towards his face. Before anyone could react beyond a flinch Donald's massive centipede mandible slammed shut close enough to the cat's face to slice off whiskers with a sound like garden shears slamming shut. Everything was silent for a beat before Donald growled with a rumble like distant thunder, "Listen to your friend, he's trying to save your fool life."

He casually released the kid and gave him a condescending pat on the head and pushed him gently towards the others. The tiger kid opened his mouth but closed it and sulked over towards the falcon to help him pull a horribly broken and moaning meerkat out of the carnage pile of Angel's broken puppet.

I simply watched the proceedings in a bit of silent shock. I'd hopped over here expecting another fight, certainly not a difficult one, but at least having to throw a few people around and maybe sit on them until they agreed to surrender. This sudden anti-climax to our war with Tango Blast had me feeling very wrong footed despite no longer having feet.

"Well," I paused to try and straighten out the thoughts in my head, "I will admit that I didn't see you just surrendering, though I suppose it does make this a bit easier."

"Whatever it is, I take full responsibility." Half-Breed stated, a bit of iron coming into his voice as he stood up, "I had seniority and shouldn't have let Jorge seize control like that. Whatever punishment you have in mind can fall on me."

"Well that won't exactly work considering that we are colonizing your ass," I chuckled before getting serious, "You have all proven yourselves incapable of being allowed to govern yourselves. So we are taking your sovereignty, but seeing as you have offered to take responsibility, I will see about putting your name forward as the local governor. You will still be taking orders and accepting rulership from Wrangler Stadium as we try to turn this mud pit into something that can actually sustain people and give back to the community." I turned to Donald, "Will Veranda be sending a representative to help govern our mutual colony?"

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"You're damn right we will," Donald rumbled, I swore his compound eyes were focused on me, "We will need to make sure this isn't mismanaged." Was he saying he didn't trust our way of doing things? I understand that we were hardly hardened military vets, but not everyone could or should be so militant. That way was as bad if not worse than the corrupted anarchy the Tangos had been flaunting thus far.

Pushing past the implications that may or may not have been there I continued, "This will mean that we will be releasing our prisoners back into your custody," they all looked up at that and I cut in before they could interrupt, "Yes a fair number of your people survived our counter attack, we did execute several for unforgivable crimes and running out of chances, but the rest will be returned.

"Do note however, that some ironclad laws are going to be handed down." I said letting my myoelectric mutagen build enough to let electricity dance between my scales for a moment. Hopefully it would look both cool and fully carry over the threat that breaking these rules carried, "First and foremost, your habits of taking slaves ends now. With the notable exclusion of all active members of the Foritos, everyone living here has their freedom of movement restored and may come or leave any time they wish. Furthermore, this is extended to members of both Wrangler Stadium and the Veranda. We will be sending several skilled professionals or talented amateurs to get this place up to a basic standard of living and any attempts to block or hold them will not be viewed kindly. Lastly, we have heard rumors of cannibalisms, torture, and intentional depravation of your people, allowances will be made for famines or droughts, but your most important objective is to keep your people safe and cared for.

"Be warned." I growled, letting the electricity build enough to start snapping at the air, "Any serious attempts to curtail such freedoms will incur immediate retribution. You are all on your last chance and if you spit on this offer of mercy you will not receive it again." I cut off the flow letting the silence linger for a beat as I hissed, "Am I understood?"

I saw the tiger bristle as I rattled off my, honestly beyond reasonable, offer. A quick glare from both myself and Half-Breed seemed to cow the cat, for the moment. The big wooly rhino sighed, "Yeah, that's probably a better deal than we deserve."

"It is," Donald agree, his voice taking on an odd cicada sounding hiss, "I'll go inform the civies and prisoners and start sorting who's going where in this fuck fuck circus." Donald began marching down the road past the gangers with a sound not unlike rain falling on asphalt.

"Great, you mind getting this car off of me now?" the slug squeaked angrily. I acquiesced, sliding the blade of my tail under the car and flipping it off him with a flick. The slug man immediately 'charged' my tail and draped himself over the appendage, "I got him guys! Dogpile his ass!"

The six legged tiger immediately joined him, lunging forwards with claws out and fangs bared. I honestly even felt the tiger impact me, though his claws did make a noticeable sound as they failed to find any purchase and he slid down my side. I casually lifted the slug off the ground to give him a curious look, his two eye stalks looked at me with the horror of some figuring out he'd seriously fucked up.

Casting a curious look at the other members of Tango Blast I saw the falcon focused on nothing more than keeping his friend awake while promising him that he'd be okay. It was hard to read the half dead body language of Angel's puppet, but I'd be willing to wager the man was looking rather incredulous. Half-Breed just looked terribly resigned.

"Was that supposed to do something?" I asked the snail in amused befuddlement.

"Uh, no." He stated innocently.

–You have taken 1 acid damage–

Ah, acid mucus. That would explain it.

I scraped the slug off on the ground and used a bit of Focused Prehensile Tail to make the blade curl up like a crooked finger. As I leveled the curled blade at the slug man I saw his eyes shrink into his head and he started 'running'. I released the skill and let the blade snap forwards, the flat impacting heavily against the slug in an improvised flick that sent him flying into and then over the car he'd previously been trapped under. The man moaned weakly before going limp.

For the tiger, I simply lowered my head a bit, trapping the cat under the massive mass of my body. I heard a muffled yowl come from down there as I turned to look at Half-Breed, "They're both on strike three now, we have any more trouble from them and they're getting killed." He simply nodded as I waited for the tiger's struggles to lose some of their spunk, "Do you happen to have a priest here? I've been looking for someone to hear my confessions."

He did actually, it was sadly just the priest for the Centrist Bible Church, but I suppose that would have to do.

~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~

That was easily the worst confession I'd ever experienced. Obviously I was too big to fit into a confessional so the tube rat, I honestly couldn't tell his exact species, had us do it in the middle of the church. That was fine, but his constant moralizing at me and outright lying hadn't been.

It had started out simple enough, him accepting my more 'common' sins of not going to church on the sabbath and rampant sins of lust and sloth with a kind smile. The second I brought up killing Jorge he'd looked beyond horrified and interrupted the ritual to ask how it happened. Him seemed aghast that we had violently defended ourselves and not simply let ourselves be conquered.

When I reached the executions he all began to loudly condemn me, all but stating I was a hell bound devil worse than Jorge. He'd even started quoting scriptures at me, and gotten far madder as I began refuting him with scriptures as well. In the end he demanded I leave stating, "No amount of prayer would convince God to forgive a demon such as you."

I managed to avoid putting him through a wall for such blasphemy in a, supposed, house of God. Instead I simply hoped someday that he might become an actual priest instead of simply pretending. That got a collection basket thrown at my face.

Needless to say, I was in a poor mood as I exited the church. Which might have made my tone hold more venom than was appropriate when I found a familiar wooly rhino waiting for me outside.

"What do you want?" I all but snarled at the waiting ungulate.

I was also more than a bit taken aback as he very calmly told me...