Quade and Peritzal... remain lying against the ground, the former having helped the latter off of him so that they were lying side to side. His hat returned now that his disguise was over, both of them contently staring off.

"... so... if you had brought Papaya..." Quade trails out, remaining limp against the sidewalk.

"Papaya would have been able to shoot the gangsters while I was shielding us from the front," Peritzal explains. "Your strategy was excellent in protecting us, but I have the upmost faith that Papaya and I would have been unbeatable, and Papaya would not have been injured after. Plus, she would have been able to shoot the gatling gun gangster before my power completely depleted and my 'bones' are unable to move. However, do not blame yourself for this, I understand your reasons."

"I see..." Quade noises, sighing.

Another silence between the two.

"... so, I have killed most of the attackers," Peritzal admits, staring up at the sky. "Do you believe that we are prone to further attack after this?"

"Maybe... but I hope not... I still got minutes before I can get up. My organs are still bruised from takin' on all those pistol bullets..." Quade responds, sighing. "Armadillos ain't completely bulletproof. That's just a myth, one I quickly needed to do to protect us. Guess we're both stuck in this situation, your body depleted of all them- electrolytes? Whatever it is that lets you move... while mine's workin' hard to fix itself with what lets it move. Gonna be here for a while, really opens us up to danger..."

"I see," Peritzal comments, hmming.

The clouds above them pass by, sun shining brightly down upon them. Currently lying in the midst of the "gangster aftermath". Survivors lying amidst bodies, getting themselves ready and back in working order.

Meanwhile, back at Niagara Straws...

"Huh..."

The other three stare as one glass is placed before Giichi. Innocent enough, looking very... refreshing. The bartender didn't prepare anything alcoholic, suspecting Giichi to be the... youthful type. The type of girl that can't have alcohol yet.

The gangster bartender nods to Giichi, smiling professionally. "Here you go. Enjoy, I'm gonna go out back and take out the garbage..." Walking out the back door.

Giichi stares at the cup in particular, curiously thinking about the possibilities of poison... before holding onto it, intending to drink. "Welp! Bottoms up-"

"Wait-" Papaya stops Giichi, before she can. "Wait a moment. We don't know if he's telling the truth for sure, Giichi, and we also know that you're still able to be poisoned. Let's... let the professional handle it."

"Professional?" Giichi asks, tilting her head.

Rosemary.

The red mist lingers out of Giichi's mouth, Giichi waiting as instructed as Rosemary examines the drink's contents for anything- weird. Just floating and lingering in the iced tea for quite some time, really examining it.

"..." Caspian looks around for a bit. "Guys, it's... suspicious that there's no other gangsters here... I'm gonna go out front, see if anyone's coming in."

"Sounds good, dude- stay safe," Papaya calls out, nodding as the prince leaves the building.

And eventually, she gives her verdict: "... drink's clear. It's just normal iced tea, with squeezed lemon juice inside of it. You are good to drink."

"Huh..." Giichi noises, as she smiles to the others. "Alright. Bottoms up, finally!" Promptly leaning back and starting to drink-

Suddenly, something hits against her back. Giichi, startled, accidently shakes the hand that was holding the glass. Seconds later, a man's voice shouts: "E-Eh?! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Giichi, Papaya, and Nyx were too focused on Giichi actually drinking the stuff that they didn't notice the white suited man standing right behind her. Both Giichi and Papaya stare at this guy, not even having realized he was here to begin with.

Was he- was he a gangster? If he wasn't, why was he in a gangster bar, drinking-

Before they could properly think about this, the white suited man grabs Giichi tightly by the shoulder and forcibly pulls her out of the chair. "Well?! Gonna do something about this, b----?!" He violently shouts, staring straight at Giichi. "Doesn't look like you have cash on ya, and this here's a hundred thousand dollar suit!"

Giichi stares with mild shock and worry, caught off guard and panicked by this. "U-Uhm-"

Before she could apologize one bit, the man continues to shout. Pointing to the back of the back door. "C'mon! Let's take this to the back corner! Then I'm gonna make you pay-!"

The man is immediately interrupted upon making this threat, as Rosemary takes over Giichi's body and uppercuts the man in the jaw. The sounds of his jawbone breaking as the man falls onto his back, collapsed over with absolute anguish on his face.

"So you're our next goddamn gangster!" Rosemary shouts to the others, crouching down and violently staring at the man. Gritting her teeth and brightly grinning.

"W-What?!" Papaya shouts, the panic on her face going away as she glares down at this white suited man. Both girls staring down at this white suited gangster, glaring at their next enemy.

"So-" Quade starts to speak, back at the street with Peritzal. "... do you actually want to know about the situation between me and Nyx?"

"I do not care all that much," Peritzal honestly answers. "But do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really, no," Quade honestly answers. "But it's on my mind and all... happened yesterday."

"Then feel free to. I do not care, but I also do not mind. We have nothing to do but talk, anyway," Peritzal explains.

"If you say so... see, it began when I received a call on... my... my phone!" Quade exclaims, eyes wide and looking to Peritzal. "Peritzal- my cellphone. I can call someone for help!"

Peritzal- looks to Quade. "Y... Yes! You can!"

Quade- Quade nods, starting to use his phone. "Okay, okay, someone to call- should I call Papaya?"

"No, no, there is the possibility that the gangsters are deceiving us. Bluffing about how many of them are left. The bar could be full of them, and Papaya and the others could ultimately be in danger. Maybe even hiding," Peritzal idly explains, thinking to herself. "... don't you have any nearby friends you can call?"

"I'm not bringin' them into this, in case any guys show up and- y'know, kill 'em..." Quade responds, sighing. "Has to be someone we both know, who's readily available to-"

Immediately, Quade- then receives a call from... the hospital?

That's... weird. He doesn't know anyone who works at the hospital. Did... someone get injured? Oh... oh, no, an emergency contact situation at this time...? This is a real bad time to be getting one of these. Quade- just answers anyway, holding his phone up to his ear. "... hello?"

"Quade! Quade, Quade! Someone's- someone's out to get Giichi. She's got a mafia on her!"

Quade... blinks at this, staring at the phone. "... huh? Odette? You're- ... wait, you know about-?!"

"L-Listen, they're sending guys to- oh god, oh god-" Odette exclaims, hyperventilating. "Y-You gotta get Giichi and get out of town- she's not safe, they'll-"

"Odette, slow down, we already know!" Quade exclaims into his phone.

"You- ... w... what?"

"Yeah... it... we know, Odette," Quade calmly answers, his eyes... narrowing. Staring at the phone, explaining the situation... with building skepticism at Odette knowing this information. "Y'see... some of them attacked the apartment, they DID find Giichi. She's still alive, she's at the bar where they apparently gather, and we've been dealing with them for most of this morning."

Peritzal looks over to Quade as he speaks, also... starting to be skeptical. Overhearing what Quade was saying, watching as the man was on the line with a hyperventilating ally that hasn't been informed whatsoever about the situation.

So, she immediately asks: "... the question is, Odette... none of us told you or Verness about this. How exactly did you find out that those men are after her?"

"... uhhh sorry no speak English need to go bye-"

Quade blinks as Odette just hangs up, looking back to Peritzal. "... he knows something."

"Yep. Call him back. He has a personal phone?"

"Yep, got it saved," Quade answers, before glancing back at the phone and-

BAM.

A shot rings out of nowhere. The bullet pierces the phone and breaks the screen, making it impossible to make calls.

Quade watches as his phone contently breaks, keeping his hand still as he... discerns that the shot came from a building down the street. Able to see a sniper that just missed his head, even though they were stationary targets. "... Peritzal- sniper! W-We need to move, now-!"

"Not exactly a lot of options..." Peritzal groans, before she... clenches her teeth. A metaphorical lightbulb lighting up. "... Quade-! Phone! Mouth- put what's left against my mouth-!"

"W-What?!" Quade shouts at this demand. "H-Hold on, repeat that?!"

"Now, McMurphy!" Peritzal shouts, closing her lips together.

Quade- nods as he does so, putting the phone onto Peritzal's mouth before the sniper could reload.

"Don't even try it, gangster!"

Back at the bar, Rosemary and Papaya crowded around the man and began viciously kicking his side and stomping on his body. Really taking this guy out, making sure he was down for the count before his buddies show up.

Nyx watches as this happens, staring at it for some time as she glances at Giichi's iced tea. Reaching over and taking a small, gentle sip of the tea, smacking her lips lightly.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

This was some good iced tea...

"You tryin' to start trouble, eh?!" "Take that, and that! And one of these!"

And in the next moment, Nyx follows up as she begins to stomp on the man's backside, violently growling and grunting as the group beat the man up.

Aggressively violent noises come out of all three of them, ganging up on this gangster with no mercy - beyond being nonlethal, of course.

"..." Nyx then- clears her throat and stops. "Hold it. Rosemary- Papaya- I don't think this guy is a gangster."

"H-Huh-" Rosemary noises, looking up at Nyx as the three others stop as well.

"Look. The man's unconscious," Nyx tells them, pointing down at the absolute trainwreck of a man. "He's just a random man. No gangster affiliation."

"Y-You're kidding...!" Rosemary exclaims, her eyes flickering as Giichi immediately regains control. The latter of which shouts: "A-Are you for real?!"

"Yep. Typical Rosemary moment..." Caspian suddenly chimes in, entering the bar again after hearing what they were doing. He looks down at the guy, staring at him for some time.

"W-What do we do?!" Giichi exclaims, shaking with worry and concern. "W-We can't pay for his suit...! H-How are we gonna get a hundred thousand dollars?!"

"Wait, he said how much?" Caspian asks, closing the door and taking off his visor. Staring at the man's suit with his beautiful, sky blue eyes. "There's- no way that this is a hundred grand..."

Papaya trails a finger on the suit as well, sighing. "... well, expensive or not, we just gotta wash the stain out, then we'll let him go on his lil' merry way... say that he got jumped by gangsters, then move on."

"..." Giichi- takes an uncomfortable deep breath in, and... nods. "Sounds good... but- in case the stain doesn't come out, should- should we at least pay for his dry cleaning or something?"

The other three, and Rosemary, all collectively say no to Giichi.

"No- nonono, don't! Please-!"

The sniper, back near Quade and Peritzal, stares in horror as the pure, condensed light of the Sun shines into his eyes. A reflective surface floating in the air, burning the man's eyes with an unyielding brightness that passes through his eyelids.

Peritzal has Quade's cellphone against her mouth. Her tongue wrapped around the exposed wiring, sapping as much static electricity as she could from its battery as she uses her shield's material to shine sunlight into the man's eyes. Very visibly licking the phone, just juggling it like a cherry. "Lick lick lick lick lick lick lick lick lick lick lick lick lick..."

"... so you're- going to fix my phone after this, right...? I'm a little attached to the phone and SIM card on it, people need that number..." Quade comments.

Peritzal gives a proud thumbs up, before her eyes flicker.

"H-Hey!"

Quade and Peritzal look over to the voice, seeing... Verness. The eight of her just approaching with backpacks and all.

"Oh- Verness, uh-!" Quade hesitantly- noises, extremely- very much extremely concerned about the children being in the area with dead gangsters. "Y-You- uhm- I-"

"Gang war?" Monochrome asks, chuckling. "Like the guys on TV?"

"..." Quade just- nods. "Y-Yes, and uhm... we... can't move. So-"

"Say no more! We got this!" Monochrome exclaims, running down the street and starting to charge at where Peritzal was shining the light. Immediately lunging at the wall and climbing in, then throwing herself into the open window and inflicting a comedically large amount of child-handed violence on this grown man.

Unbeknownst to Quade, all of the Vernesses are mostly just desensitized and ignoring the fact there were so many dead bodies around right now. The exceptions were Cyan, Monochrome, and Red. Cyan, who was just... outstandingly panicked by the sight and is just keeping quiet to calm down, Monochrome, currently punching and beating up a now blind gangster with her child-sized hands. And Red, who was wearing a blindfold because the Vernesses agreed that she was too squeamish to handle seeing any violence whatsoever.

The other seven- well, six, Verness Red can't see right now, the six of them watch Monochrome run off before looking down at Quade and Peritzal.

"S... So, do you, uhm, n... need some help...?" Verness Red timidly asks... fidgeting as she holds Orange's hand.

"... we would love some help," Quade tells them. "Can you take us to the hospital? It- it hurts me to walk right now, and Peritzal can't move whatsoever, so-"

"Oh, s-sure!" Red comments, standing idly aside as the other six start to surround Quade and Peritzal. With the combined strength of these six little girls, four of them alone proceed to effortlessly lift Quade up, with the other two dragging Peritzal by the shoulders.

Verness Red then- idly wanders over to grab Peritzal by the ankles, lifting her up and using the other two Vernesses to guide them along.

"Monochrome! You can stop beating that man up, now!" shouts Orange, letting out a silly little chuckle. "We gotta go!"

Verness Monochrome peeks out of the window and nods. "Aight!" Jumping out of the window now, descending as she carries along the sniper rifle and begins running after.

"..." Quade just hms, sighing with relief as the Vernesses were escorting them to safety. "S... So, why exactly are you girls out here?"

"Oh, because, uhm, Mom dr-dropped us off at Giichi's for today, a... and she w-wasn't home, so we looked all around for you..." Verness Red explains.

"We even asked this nice man where you guys were, and he ended up saying: 'A-Are you with those lunatics?! J-Just- just go to North Starveil, leave us alone!'" Orange answers, smiling widely as she does her best impression of one of the gangsters.

"Personally, I find his attitude a little bit concerning. Are you guys dealing with bad people?"

"M... Maybe they are..." Cyan speaks up, visibly frowning. "Q-Quade, is Giichi in trouble? S-Should we go help?"

"It's fine- Giichi's with the others. You kids are too young to understand what's going on," Quade begins to explain-

"Gang violence, we know," Monochrome bluntly speaks up, continuing to follow with her new sniper rifle. "We saw the men on TV, huge crime spree. Looked pretty cool."

"I see- well, uhm, you're still too young to-" Quade then watches as his entire body suddenly rotates 90 degrees, as the Vernesses were now walking up a building with their spider legs. "... w-why are we going up a building?"

"W-Well, we're going to a hospital, right? There's a hospital in this direction, and time is short..." Cyan responds.

"Shortcut!" Green exclaims.

Quade just- nods, sighing. "... alright. Just- be careful and all..."

Back at Niagara Straws, those four have effectively cleaned up the white suited man. Putting him in the corner with sunglasses on, the man passed out against a table while a glass of iced tea was spilled against the table.

"So... you're saying that guy took your iced tea and is now drinking in the corner?" the gangster bartender asks, having come back to whatever scene those four were doing.

"Yes, indeed," Papaya contently answers, smiling at the bartender. "Guy took our drink and spilled it on his $100k suit, so-"

The gangster bartender pbffts audibly. "$100k? Suuuuure... that's an 80 dollar suit."

"... 80 dollars?" Giichi asks, blinking. "R-Really?"

"79, actually, but... yeah. Point is, ain't no way that thing's breaking into 3 digits," the bartender comments. "In fact, seen him a buncha places. He goes to places full of drunks, and exploits the dumb looking ones. They never even realize he's there when he does it."

"Ohhhhhhhhh...!" Papaya and Giichi noise, looking at each other. "Oh, phew...!"

The bartender nods, putting four empty glasses on the counter. "So. You four want some drinks?"

After their little- beating up incident, the four of them were more open to the drinks. They could potentially trust this bartender.

"Sure. Four iced teas," Caspian tells the bartender.

"Coming right up." The bartender picks up his pitcher and pours more iced tea, contently placing all four glasses in front of them. "And here you go!"

"Thank you!" Giichi tells them, as all four of them grab their cups with their right hands. Conveniently, beating up a dude and standing outside on a sunny day puts up a nice thirst. Thus, they coincidentally move at the same time, drinking down the iced teas at the same time.

Then the cups are put back down on the counter.

"Ahhh! Phew! Y'know, you're alright, dude!" Giichi exclaims, smiling at the bartender. "Sorry that we're kinda going after your employers and all. Maybe once all of this is over, we could have some more drinks here!"

"Aww, really?" the gangster bartender asks. "That's nice of ya. Sure."

Giichi nods contently. "Cool! Though- I mean, wouldn't hurt if we had some more, how about-"

"Wait- Wait, Giichi-" Caspian speaks up, covering his mouth. Being the most... liquid sensitive of the group, he- shakes and covers his mouth. "Oh- Oh god."

"... Caspian, what's the- ma... matter...?" Papaya asks, blinking as her vision distorts. "... oh- oh crap-"

Nyx- twitches her eyes as she was starting to have her vision distort as well. "... the... the drinks- they-!" she exclaims, looking to the bartender in horror. The devil knight didn't taste any of the poison with her tiny sip earlier, and- the bartender didn't do anything to it! It was just the same pitcher of iced tea... "Y-You made that in front of us- how did- how did you... how did you spike it...?!"

"..." The bartender narrows his eyes, grinning and revealing his trick. "I wasn't lying when I said I don't tamper with the drinks... I served you a pitcher of lemonade. Plentiful amounts of ice and all."

It dawns on Papaya, being the first to realize. "Y... You... used... poisoned ice cubes...!" she exclaims, staring at the bartender. Reaching down for her gun... her fingers unable to grab it, before she falls down against the counter.

Soon, Nyx and Caspian are the next to fall, Nyx falling backwards and hitting the floor, while Caspian falls to the side and knocks Papaya over- both of them falling to the floor. The devil knight didn't taste any of the poison with her tiny sip earlier, but... the... the ice cube theory...

"Heh..." the bartender chuckles, grinning deviously. His slight chuckle turning into maliciously evil laughter as he stares at the poisoned victims, glaring with pure delight. Watching them die before his eyes. That's right, die. In a matter of minutes, these four were going to die!

The bartender was congratulating himself, knowing full well that the Boss was going to reward him handsomely for killing these four. Not an ounce of remorse or regret, watching as he reveals his bartender code of honor to be fake. As he lets his gangster ways poison them from the very beginning!

... as he turns to Giichi and seeing that she wasn't on the floor. She was - in fact - still awake.

Her eyes glaring with a bright red, a murderous gaze on her eyes after seeing this bartender drug her friends. Sure, Giichi is probably poisoned and is at risk of dying... but that just leaves Rosemary in her place, to take over with the drive to correct her mistake now that the poison melted into the iced tea on her watch.

"... n... now, before you do anything you might regret-" the bartender speaks up.

Rosemary promptly interrupts him and grabs the bartender by the throat, lifting him up into the air.

"I'm not going to regret any of this," Rosemary calmly tells the bartender.

Afterwards, the girl promptly proceeds to hop over the counter and throws herself forward. Her hand slams the bartender's body into the glass protective case, the glass shattering behind him with a loud smash. This bartender now face to face with an enraged girl with the strength of a dragon behind her hands.

"Y... You...!" the bartender shouts, reaching for his-

Then, forcefully, Rosemary runs along, dragging the man's body to break every single bottle of alcohol this bar has before he could grab his gun. Countless alcohols that the gang's bar owned, the bottles' shards falling to the ground as this bartender is forcefully dragged through them.

The man is thrown over the counter when they reach the end, and he screams in agony as Rosemary throws him against the wall. Back against the brick, the man breathing heavily at Rosemary, hyperventilating. His maliciousness going away now that fear courses through his veins.

"Y-You- it's- it's just a job! It's just a job! It's JUST BUSINESS-!!!"

Rosemary punches the bartender in the stomach, punching the air out of the man's lungs as he coughs.

"AND THIS IS PERSONAL, YOU PIECE OF S---!"

Aggressively beating the man against the wall, punching and pummeling him against the wall. Rosemary was angry beyond all belief, knowing full well that - on her watch - Papaya, Caspian and Nyx were going to die. Giichi, possibly, too. It was because of Rosemary they dropped their guard. Each punch, the gaseous entity attempted to make up for this, all mercy Giichi and Rosemary had left for these guys gone.

Violent amounts of draconic growling echo out as Rosemary attacks, as her growls turn to intense roars. Roars that echo throughout the bar, roars that start to bleed through the walls of the bar. Drowning out the man's pure screams of agony as he was a man face to face with a monster.

These sounds could be heard as Quade, Peritzal, and the Vernesses- were walking along the roofs of buildings. Giichi's roaring echoing out, with the spider girls raising their eyebrows.

"W... What is that? Is that Giichi?" Verness Cyan asks.

"A-And is she b-beating a man up...?" Verness Red asks.

"Oh, boy! Where's that happening?!" Verness Monochrome exclaims.

Peritzal and Quade just- blink as they listen to this. "... Vernesses, we-" Quade begins to speak, about to explain where Giichi and the others were.

Then, immediately, Rosemary throws the bartender through a wall. A massive hole bursting out of the bar as his body is launched through, the Vernesses having a clear sight.

"T-THE ANTIDOTE-!" the bartender screams. "THERE'S AN ANTIDOTE-!"

"THEN WHERE IS IT?!" Rosemary screams at the top of her lungs.

"... n- not on me right now! I don't have any! B-But- but there IS an antidote for-!"

Rosemary lunges forward and picks the man up, throwing him into the air. Wings immediately sprouting out of her back as she flies up into the air, soaring straight at the gangster.

"P... Poisoned?!" Peritzal shouts.

Quade immediately shouts. "V-Vernesses! We need to go down there, now! G-Get everyone in a pile and carry us out!"

"O-Okay!" Red shouts in panic as the spider girls run as fast as they can, retrieving the poisoned and unconscious friends in the bar.

Rosemary flies higher and higher to the gangster, screaming at the top of her lungs:

"STARVEIL MAFIA! GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR CITY!!!"

Before promptly slamming her fist into the bartender's stomach, sending a violently brutal message to any remaining criminals that could see this. Punching him hard in the body, air forcefully shooting out of his body and blowing a massive, gaping hole into the clouds above.

The bartender screams at the top of his lungs as he's launched past the clouds, Rosemary effectively sending a man into a death sentence as he leaves Earth's atmosphere. His body simultaneously burning and freezing upon entering space... flying far, far away from the planet with a horrified look on his face.

Eventually, he stops thinking.

Rosemary promptly... flies back down to the ground, seeing the others outside. Quickly picking them all up into her arms and flying as fast as they can. "POISONED! WHERE?! AM?! I?! GOING?!"

"H-Hospital!" Quade shouts, pointing in the direction. "T-The hospital! Quick-!"

Rosemary nods as she carries them quickly to the hospital, flying as fast as possible. "GRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"