Post by Cylie on Aug 22, 2021 19:17:49 GMT -8
Around two minutes ago, Cylie had infiltrated a warehouse owned by a foreign gang that she had never heard of. Naturally, she tore through the warehouse, sparing none. Those who chose not to get in her way weren't exempt from the girl's wrath, as she was not planning on letting much of them live. The six blades the young woman carried continuously traveled through bodies and clashed against bullets. Cylie's expression remained neutral for most of the ordeal, but by the time she had taken down nine out of the ten hostiles she sensed in the building, she put on her cocky face. The final target remaining had taken cover behind one of the many boxes now scattered across the building. He'd always figured that they'd be caught manufacturing this shady stuff in a place so obvious, but not by some random chick. He peeked over his cover, taking aim with the pistol he held. His face didn't look afraid, but his posture and body language betrayed him. As the swordswoman stalked closer and closer to his position, he grit his teeth. It was all or nothing at this point. Steadying his aim, he squeezed the trigger on his gun, not expecting to do much. The loud 'bang' that came with the shot rang out in his ears. The bullet sailed over the head of his target as she ducked, earning an angry grunt from the man. He shot again, and again, and again, until his ammo had run out. None of his shots had hit its target, despite the man's usual exceptional aim. The woman had managed to avoid all of them, now that she didn't have to worry about being attacked from any other angle. The man figured that he only had mere seconds to live now, so he shut his eyes tightly, trying his best to accept his fate. He was grabbed by the collar suddenly, and he opened his eyes slightly. He was staring in the face of the woman responsible for his current situation.
"Don't sweat it, I'm not gonna kill you if you tell me what I wanna hear. I just wanna know where my guns are."
Her voice was stern, but the man wouldn't respond. Three swords were placed directly in front of his eyes, and Cylie spoke again, "Keep up the silent treatment, and I'll carve your eyes out. Tell me where my stuff is."
After grimacing, the man replied, "What the hell are you talking about?"
Cylie frowned. "Don't pull my leg, friend. The Crimson Wind has lost a lot of hardware over the course of a month, and I've been looking for who stole them. My little… 'investigation' tells me that it's you people who stole 'em."
"You've got the wrong set of guys."
The next thing the man knew, he was on the floor, with a foot planted firmly into his chest. An orb of burning ki formed within Cylie's palm, and it was pointed directly at him.
"You tryna say that all my searching was for nothing, friend?"
The man breathed deeply before bravely responding, "Yeah."
Just then, sirens began to blare. The two bright colors of the police force shone through the warehouse windows as the building was surrounded by cop cars. Someone must've snitched. She could feel around half a dozen new power levels appear just outside. Not good. A loud voice intruded on Cylie's eardrums, most likely through a megaphone held by one of the officers outside.
"This is the police. We currently have the building surrounded. Come out with your hands above your head, and no one gets hurt. Otherwise, we'll have to come in there ourselves."
Damnit. The building really was surrounded. Her energy sensing told her that much. She looked down at the man she stood on, and shrugged.
"Welp. Sorry man, I'm gonna have to dip," Cylie apologized.
The energy in her palm was fired, and the man was no more. Now what was she gonna do? She frantically looked around for a way out, before she looked upwards, her gaze meeting the moon. There was a skylight in the ceiling. A crude smile began to slowly form on her face.
Lucky her.
Minutes later, the cops had grown tired of waiting. The warehouse was broken into, and the authorities flooded the bloody scene. Around ten people lay lifeless on the floor, scattered all over the place. Boxes filled with unregistered weapons cluttered the floor, and bullets were strewn about the building. Pieces of glass lay at the center of the large warehouse, directly below the skylight. The one responsible for the carnage was nowhere to be seen, as if they had disappeared without a trace. The one holding the megaphone began trembling with rage, and threw the red horn on the ground, breaking it. His fellow officers placed their hands on his shoulders, trying to calm him down. The cop began shouting at his colleagues, "How did you let the guy get away?! Spread out and find him!"
A couple minutes later, a few miles outside West City, Cylie was running as fast as her weary legs would allow, her blazing red jacket fluttering in the wind behind her. Her power level was suppressed, and her smile was wide. A few seconds later, she simply disappeared.
The Crimson Wind had been without a proper leader for six months now, and they seemed to be on their last legs. Not only had they been engaged in a conflict with a rival gang called the 'Bleeding Streets' since Cylie's absence, but the constant theft of their weaponry has left the Crimson Wind gang undergunned and with low morale. The only Namekian in the gang, Xylo, was left in charge by Cylie herself, due to him being the strongest of the group. It's been a really long time since he'd last seen Cylie, and regrettably, it's been rather rough without her around. When Cylie's leave was first announced, no one thought much about it. If anything, they'd be able to work without the constant death threats, drunkenness and absurd planning. However, Cylie's absence led to a lot of new problems. Committing the usual robberies and other crimes with her six swords around was so much easier than it is now. A fair share of the gang members have been at death's door more times with Cylie gone than while around Cylie. If things don't change soon, then within another month, Xylo might either end up spending the rest of his life rotting away in a prison cell, or dead. As of now, he was beginning to break. His temporary underlings were probably plotting to kill him by now, Cylie's whereabouts are unknown, and Keisha's been hogging the damn shower for the past hour. He banged on the bathroom door again, and yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Damnit K! I'm still waiting!"
Immediately after he yelled, Cylie herself opened the bathroom door, running into Xylo. He froze. His expression of pure shock, quickly turned into one of pure rage. Cylie figured that the Namekian was understandably shocked and confused as to why his missing superior was in the bathroom, but she explained what had supposedly happened. She claimed to have blindly teleported here after sensing Xylo's power level, and ended up in the bathroom. The Namekian didn't seem too pleased with the explanation.
"...Cylie, you've been gone for six months. SIX MONTHS! You look like a mess! Why haven't you been answering your phone? Do you know what's been happening here? Do you know how many problems your sudden disappearance has caused?!"
The green man was well aware that he had no right to question someone like Cylie like that, but he couldn't help himself. After all, she did look like a mess. Her clothes were torn and stained with blood, and several open wounds were visible on her shoulder and arms. Mud stuck to the bottom of her sneakers, and created mud tracks all over the floor she stood on. The woman rubbed the back of her head gingerly, an apologetic expression plastered on her face.
"Yeah, sorry."
The Namekian faltered. That's it? That's all she had to say? He began to storm off angrily, before Cylie stopped him, "Look, Xylo. I'm here now, okay? Everything that's happened in my absence is all my fault. I'll take full blame for it all. But now, we've got to work on fixing this whole mess. So could you do yourself a favor and save being mad at me for later and just tell me what we're dealing with here?"
The Namekian did not respond immediately. Instead, he produced a long, hard sigh. He eyed the ground for a while as he kept Cylie waiting, taking into consideration the sincerity of her words. After about a minute of silence, Xylo responded, "Fine."
Cylie looked relieved.
"Finally. For a second there I thought we were gonna be here for hours. So, what seems to be the problem?"
"Well, first of all, you should've killed Yangu when you had the chance. We've been fighting him and his gang ever since, and it hasn't been easy. Especially since our weapons still haven't been recovered. However, they are still being stolen."
The woman's brows furrowed. She punched her palm in annoyance.
"You guys STILL haven't figured that out?"
"Well uh…"
Xylo took a few steps back as Cylie took a few steps forward. It didn't take the woman long to regain her position above the Namek it seemed. He took a deep breath, then stood his ground.
"You ever stop to think that maybe the Bleeding Streets are the ones crippling your supply of swords? Keisha and everyone else is sure of that."
Cylie paused for a moment. She somehow completely forgot about them. She did tell Keisha to find out who did it just before she made her leave.
"That makes sense now, but remember, we've been losing weapons before I terrorized that monkey. I never suspected them because of that reason."
"Well regardless, they've been a huge pain in our asses for a long time now. So with you around, we'll be sure to cause some serious damage."
Cylie's expression darkened.
"I look forward to it. But uh, do we have enough manpower and weaponry to do that? Worst case scenario, I'll do it on my own, but even with my strength, taking down the Bleeding Streets is no easy task."
"Well, we do have some good news. Hanna's been collaborating with Keisha lately in order to manufacture her own guns. It's not much, but…"
Just then, the bathroom door behind Cylie opened, and Keisha stepped out. Her face looked rather red. Her voice was shaky, but she still got the message out.
"A-About that actually, I was hoping to show you the weapons Hanna worked on myself."
Cylie smiled warmly and genuinely. A rare sight. Usually her smiles stunk of sarcasm or cockiness.
"Alright Keish."
After Cylie cleaned herself up, she and Keisha had decided to head out to see Hanna. The drive to the lab that had been established a year ago was quiet and peaceful. There weren't many other drivers on the lonely dirt road today, and their absence was welcomed by the tanned woman. There was no need to drive anywhere below the speed limit, and no one would complain about her awful driving. She was currently sitting in the driver's seat of her old red truck, while Keisha sat next to her. The swordswoman had made a mental note of the half fox's behavior. The way she scratched her head, tapped her foot and looked away occasionally… She was nervous about something, Cylie could tell. It might take a while for the fox to get used to being around her all the time again. She might have to go easy on the blondie for a bit. About five minutes into the drive, the long haired chatterbox began her usual ramblings.
"So, Keish. I noticed that you seem kinda scared of something. Is it me? I'll understand if it's me."
"No… it's not you. It's just… I've been thinking…"
Her constant stuttering and hesitation was nothing new to Cylie, but it didn't mean that she wasn't annoyed by it. Cylie then declared that if Keisha didn't spill out what she was trying to say immediately, they'd turn around and drive straight back to the hideout. The halfling sighed at that. She was being treated as if she were an annoying child, as usual. Hesitating was no longer an option, so she finally spoke clearly, "Okay… I just wanted to say that… I missed you, and I'm glad you're back. I never thought that I'd miss someone like you, considering all the awful things that you do to people daily."
Cylie raised her brows. While slightly confused, she responded, "Huh? You mean the murder, the death threats, the everything?"
"Those are… parts of it."
Cylie chuckled to herself.
"You're not so innocent either, Keish. We're bandits, it's what we do. We don't feel any remorse while pulling triggers. If we did, we'd end up pleading guilty in front of a jury."
Keisha quieted down for a moment as she reflected on the half-assed statement Cylie just gave her. She was no saint, she knew that much, but this was the first time that she realized that she never really thought about the lives she took. Her victims were still nothing more than people unfortunate enough to have gotten in the way of the Crimson Wind, however. Just like Cylie said, she never really felt anything as she gunned down her foes. It would have to stay that way. If she wasn't so nonchalant about killing like the other members of the gang, she might've ended up as a victim herself, as Cylie wouldn't have even thought about recruiting her. Even now she wondered what Cylie saw in her. She was a nervous wreck that seemed to be unable to handle anything except combat. Why was she like this? Steeling herself, she glanced at her boss. What about Cylie herself? Was she always so... sadistic? What she said about the Crimson Wind being criminals was true, but Cylie is far more extreme than anyone Keisha knew. Besides, even Xylo had a time where he wasn't a cruel killer, right? Keisha opened her mouth, but remained silent. She tried to speak again, but the result did not change. Cylie interrupted her feeble attempts at conversation, casually taking a hard left as she did so.
"Spit it out, Keish. You can tell me anything, y'know."
Keisha took a deep breath before finally asking, "Have you ever felt remorse?" Cylie thought on the question for a moment, curious about Keisha's current thought process.
"That's it? Well, the first life I ever took was my father's. It messed me up, I have to admit. But hey, it prepared me for what would happen next. Running the Crimson Wind. What about you? Who was your first?"
Keisha was beginning to explore memories that had been left buried for over a decade. Her frown only seemed to become more apparent as she continued speaking, clearly uncomfortable with the current subject. Not that Cylie cared.
“The first time I took a life, it haunted me for years... It took a while to get used to the sound of gunshots.”
Cylie noted that Keisha deliberately failed to specify exactly who was her murder victim. A question sparked in the driver's green eyes.
“It comes easy to you now, doesn’t it?”
“…It does.”
“You've got yourself a warrior's heart, K. Be proud of it.”
“N-No, I don’t think I have a heart at all anymore.”
Perplexed, Cylie glanced over at her blonde friend, eyebrow raised. She couldn't fathom why the beastwoman was so tilted about talking about the topic. Shrugging it off, she notified Keisha that they had arrived at their destination. The building was situated on an unnamed dirt road, formerly a liquor store before it was taken over and converted by Cylie and her gang. The store front looked like any old drink shop, but upstairs, a lot of illegal manufacturing of weapons and other outlawed items took place. It was co-owned and personally cared for by possibly the smartest person in the gang, a woman named Hanna. It was a good thing that no one apart from Cylie and other trusted members knew the exact location of this place, otherwise the Bleeding Streets might've already found it by now. The truck that the gang leader arrived in was parked in front of the store, and out of it came it's passengers. Hanna herself burst through the front door, holding an assault rifle. She was quick to put it away once she saw who it was, however.
"Cylie…?"
The tanned woman confirmed her identity with a solemn nod.
"Ah, took you long enough to return. I'm surprised you haven't been arrested yet. No wait, nevermind, I'm not."
Cylie rubbed the back of her head for the second time today, wearing the same apologetic expression that she gave Xylo earlier. After seeing it for the first time, Keisha could tell that Cylie had practiced the face.
"Yeah, sorry. I had some… loose ends to tie up first."
While Keisha tried to figure out what 'loose ends' were involved, Hanna invited both her and Cylie into the lab.
"Well, c'mon. I'd like to show you what I've been working on."
It didn't take long for the trio to make it upstairs, where all the magic happens. Hanna led the two other women into a room filled with all sorts of trinkets and items and such. The place was a mess, but the three women were used to conditions such as these. Besides, their attention was fixated on only two things in the room. A shotgun and a sniper rifle that lay upon a table. The three thieves walked up to the table, with Hanna explaining what exactly they were. The shotgun shoots shells with a large spread, just like any other. The kicker is that it shoots incendiary rounds, burning through the victim unlucky enough to face this weapon. The sniper shares the same trait, being just like any other rifle, but instead of bullets, it delivers a warm welcome to its targets. Cylie picked up the shotgun while Hanna was speaking, noting its heaviness and unnecessarily stylized design. There were pinkish red lines on the barrel of the gun, and they earned a perplexed look from Keisha. Cylie complimented Hanna on her work.
"Nice, nice. You're a smart girl, Hanna."
"That one looks kinda like a bolt-action, but… these things are just custom blaster guns, right?"
Keisha's question did not go unanswered, as Hanna seemed all too happy to satisfy the fox's curiosity.
"Indeed. They are ghost guns. I just converted them into snipers and shotguns. Why don't you go take them out for a whirl?"
Cylie couldn't contain her enthusiasm, and immediately agreed with Hanna's suggestion.
"Hell yeah. That stupid monkey won't know what hit him."
Cylie then signalled Keisha to follow her out of the lab, but then suddenly halted. The beastwoman walked directly into the Crimson Wind's leader, and she shook her head.
"Uh, boss?"
Cylie abruptly whipped around, handed the shotgun in her hands to Keisha, then ran towards the largest window upstairs. Initially, the other two women were understandably confused, but within moments, they soon realized why Cylie was acting the way she was acting. They followed closely behind the swordswoman, with Keisha loading the shotgun and Hanna grabbing an assault rifle. Sure enough, once all three of them were looking out the window, they witnessed several cars pulling up to the lab, with armed men and women exiting them. 'Crap,' Cylie thought. They must've followed her here. How could she not have sensed them then? Maybe she was too distracted? Regardless of how these people have found her, the Crimson Wind was gonna defend her property. Ferociously. Whoever these guys were, they were about to regret ever stepping to them. It looked like they'd be able to test those weapons. Immediately she gave the signal to open fire, and Hanna grinned darkly. Cylie and Keisha took a couple steps back as Hanna pulled the trigger. The window overlooking the vehicles immediately shattered as bullets went through it, shards of glass hitting the ground directly in front of the building. The invaders immediately took refuge behind whatever cover they could find, as bullets rained down on their position. Cylie shouted at the top of her voice, trying to overpower the sound of the assault rifle while giving orders to Keisha.
"Pick up that sniper and put it to good use! I'm going outside!"
Keisha immediately protested, "Are you crazy?! We need to hold our position up here!"
"Are you giving me orders?!"
Without waiting for a retort, Cylie jumped straight through the broken window, past Hannah. Her ki kept her in the air, and she began floating upwards, intending to land on the roof of the building. Most of the enemies noticed her, and some began aiming upwards. Cylie watched as bullets whisked past her, a few coming dangerously close to striking her. However, through advanced reflexes and a bit of luck, she had landed on the roof unscathed. Her hand travelled down to her hip, and grasped the handles of three different swords. In one motion, they were out of their scabbards. Cylie smirked as three tiny spheres of red hot energy materialized at the ends of her blades. With a slash, the lethal energy was chucked downwards near a certain group of enemies that she saw. Three large, different explosions occurred on impact, a few cars being caught up in them, setting off explosions of their own. The destruction resulted in the neutralization of a good chunk of the opposing forces, however, more began showing up. They were shouting orders to each other as they tried to rearrange themselves, unable to properly deal with their foes without a new strategy. One of the newcomers that stumbled out of a vehicle was carrying energy in his arms. Cylie saw him out of the corner of her eye, but before she could even act, the ki the man held exploded in his hands. Keisha had taken care of it with a well placed shot from her new rifle.
Mentally thanking any higher power that existed, Cylie threw some more energy blasts at the opponents, causing even more damage. It didn't take long for the intruders to realize that this fight wasn't worth it. Their vehicles were continuously being destroyed by Cylie's attacks, most of them were kept under siege by Hanna's haphazard shots, and the ones that did manage to get a good position for a clear shot were eliminated quickly by a thin energy blast shot from the rifle Keisha held. After only a few minutes of fighting, the gangsters began to retreat. About thirty seconds later, Hanna and Keisha burst through the building entrance, still firing at their retreating enemies until they were completely out of sight. A voice was heard above them, "Haha, Look at them running!"
Cylie had dropped down from the roof, landing directly behind the other two women. Hanna looked fatigued, and Cylie's eyes widened at the sight of a bullet wound on her arm. Her voice was incredibly nonchalant considering the severity of the wound.
"Uh, H? I think you're bleeding."
"What are you talking about?"
It looked as if she was blissfully unaware that a bullet had grazed the length of her arm.
"I'm talking about that."
Cylie pointed at the obvious wound on Hanna's arm. The three women looked directly at the bleeding limb, and it was then that the pain kicked in. Hanna dropped her weapon, clutching the arm as her teeth grit. She sucked in air through her grimace, and Keisha took a step back. Cylie frowned in annoyance.
"Dammit, not only do they damage Hanna, but they damage my soul."
The two people that accompanied the tanned woman followed her gaze, noticing the damage done to the drug lab. All but one window was broken, bullet holes covered the walls, and the storefront was littered with rubble and debris produced from the multiple explosions that preceded the current events. Not only that, but there were several burning vehicles on the dirt road they were currently on. The tanned woman bared her teeth as if she were a wild animal, her hands balling up into fists. "Those bastards tore up my lab….. the cheek of it….." Cylie spoke harshly through her white gnashers, brimming with pure rage. Keisha hesitantly spoke up as she attempted to tend to Hanna's wound.
"They're bastards, Cylie. H-Handkerchief wearing bastards."
There was no doubt about it in Cylie's mind. This was the work of that damned Yangu. Not much physical evidence pointed in that man's direction, but Cylie cared little. She stormed straight past Keisha, yelling an order as she exited the scene.
"Clean up the lab, Keish! And get H some Senzu Extracts!"
As expected, Cylie ignited her burning aura and shot off into the sky without awaiting a response from the fox beastwoman.
Cylie landed hard on the Earth's floor, now miles away from wherever the hell that broken down lab was. Across the street from her was a familiar building, one that reeked of alcohol. It was her local bar. For a few minutes, Cylie loitered on the corner by the tavern, keeping her back to the building. Down the dirt street, between structures with weakened, deteriorating concrete walls and rounded facades, two men were looking her way. They were the type that Cylie had learned to avoid. The woman harshly conveyed with her eyes that they shouldn’t draw attention to her. They got the message and faced elsewhere. Cylie settled her gaze on the bar once more, still hesitant on whether or not she should enter. On one hand, she was dying for a good old drink, but on the other hand, she was in some hot water with the bar owner, a hardworking bloke named 'Elroy Gomez'. Cylie vividly recalled the early days of the bar, about eight years ago when the guy was still looking for his place in life. His bar was a huge success, but back then, Cylie was nowhere near old enough to get into a real bar for a drink. Regardless, he served the girl, even helping her avoid the cops, when necessary. He himself had never touched a drop of booze, despite his current job status. Everyone always teased him about that, but maybe that was why everyone respected him. If he didn't have the reputation he currently held, Cylie or anyone else might have killed him already. Steeling herself, she entered.
Instantly, the unforgettable smell of whiskey and armpits slammed against her nostrils, serving as a reminder as to why she and everyone else kept coming back here. Tons of conversations droned on inside, a few halting mid-sentence as Cylie walked by. Nearly all the people in view were men. In a cleared area near the center of the building, two of the drunkards were viciously going at it, exchanging blows and drawing blood savagely. The woman rolled her eyes at the sight. Fights like this usually occur here once every month. It almost was inevitable, considering that the only people that dared to walk in were hardened criminals or seasoned fighters. The owner of this establishment, Elroy himself, was standing behind the counter wearing a black suit and bowtie. Classic bartender wear. His formal appearance was in stark contrast to his customers, who were largely dressed in everyday casual wear, varying in cleanliness. Cylie was no exception, still wearing the same red jacket and sweatpants that she had first donned at the start of the week. She thought of herself as an attractive lady when she tried, not that anyone would seem to really notice. Her reputation was too negative for that. Elroy's eyes locked with Cylie's as she approached him, a frown placed below his neat moustache. Cylie silently wondered why he put up with the dirtiness of the Free Lands when he's so professional.
"Morning, Mr. Gomez."
Cylie tried on her brightest smile.
"Hello Cylie." The man replied, his gaze suspicious. "You're still banned."
"Dude, c'mon," Cylie protested. "My ban's been lifted by now, surely."
Elroy made the 'I wish I could help you' face Cylie had seen so often.
"You left two- no, three of my patrons hospitalized. I'm not letting you just walk back in here after that."
"You bar someone from here every month, and it's getting kinda old. Soon enough, I bet you won't have any customers left. How about I just work off my debt?" Cylie offered. Elroy sucked in air through his teeth.
"My assistants already take care of everything that needs to be taken care of around here. Got no spare chores, and plenty of qualified men waiting for a vacancy. Sorry."
What 'qualified man' would want to work here? Cylie's cheeks burned with shame, and she was beginning to regret coming in here in the first place, but she was stubborn, and she was determined to prove that her stubbornness was a useful trait.
"C'mon, Elroy. Just one drink?"
"You want charity. I'm afraid I have a strict 'no-charity' policy. If you were the only person barred from my establishment, then I might've considered helping you. But lots of people have found themselves in the hole you've dug yourself. If I made an exception for you, I'd have to make an exception for everyone else as well. For the last time, I can't serve you."
Cylie had been dismissed. What options were left now? Sucking it up and leaving? No. She wasn't missing out on a chance at getting her ban lifted.
"It's not like anyone else here deserves a drink than me. Look at those guys fighting with each other to my left. We're all bad, aren't we?"
That statement seemed to do more harm than good. Elroy sneered at her.
"I am not. Unlike you people, I actually make my dough through legal means. I worked hard to get where I am today, and I intend to stay here. The wants of someone like you are not of my concern."
"Hard work won't always get you off the streets," Cylie said, frustration coursing through her. "It won't always keep you off them either. For example, what if your bar burned down?"
Elroy narrowed his eyes.
"Is that a threat?"
"What? Nahhh. I was just sayin', y'know?"
Elroy continued staring at her, forcing another reaction out of Cylie. She tried to deflect the attention over to something else, like the fight currently going on inside.
"Are you gonna… do anything about those two?"
"Yeah. I'll ban whoever wins."
A lightbulb lit up above the woman's head. She walked over to the fight, and grabbed the head of one of the combatants. She then proceeded to slam it against a nearby table, breaking it instantly, and knocking the poor dude out. The bar erupted into a loud cheer, applause breaking out at several tables. The remaining drunk fighter was cheering as well, struggling to stand upright on his two feet as he did so. Cylie grabbed one of his arms, raising it in the air while declaring him the winner as if she were a referee at a boxing match.
"Ding, ding, ding! He wins, now ban him."
"I can't ban him, he's my best friend."
"I thought you said 'no exceptions'?"
Elroy did not respond. Cylie dropped the man's arm, prompting him to collapse. No one seemed to mind him as they went back to drinking and eating. Cylie took a seat at the counter, still appealing to Elroy.
"Well I just saved your friend. I think I deserve a drink for my heroic deed."
She smiled smugly as Elroy shook his head.
"Alright Cylie. You win. But mark my words, if another body shows up in my building, I will not serve you."
Just then, someone else entered the bar. It was a monkey beastman. His build was both large and muscular, featuring fur that was light brown in color. A pair of sunglasses concealed his eyes, and he also wore a red bandana with white polka-dots, a white muscle shirt and blue shorts. He made eye contact with Cylie the moment he stepped in. It was unmistakable. It was him. The guy that was most likely responsible for all of the Crimson Wind's troubles since her disappearance. The leader of the Bleeding Streets, Yangu. He sat right next to Cylie, seemingly unaware of who he was beside. He ordered a tequila, and Elroy obliged. Before he went around the back, he asked Cylie what she had wanted, and she replied by saying, "I'll have what he's having." Shrugging, Elroy walked off, leaving the two to their own devices temporarily. They were silent for a few moments. Yangu coughed. Cylie took a sip from a vial she pulled out of her pocket. After a few moments, Cylie spoke up first.
"Yangu..."
"Cylie."
Out of his mouth tumbled her name. His voice carried weight. It wasn't terribly deep, but like his face, it was full of presence. Clearly a voice accustomed to giving orders. Regardless of the impact his voice had, Cylie seemed at ease.
"Official business? Or just passing through?" She said with a smirk.
"Funny. I was about to ask you the same. Here to threaten my life again?"
Cylie's smirk vanished as quickly as it appeared. Without answering the rhetorical question, she responded, "I'm searching for a certain group of people that might've had something to do with the disappearance of my crew's guns. You wouldn't uh… happen to know anything about it, would you? Cause I suspect that you do."
"I don't. I should know more than anyone to not screw around someone as crazy as you. After all, you're the one that single handedly took care of the MC, weren't you?"
"I am. And you're lying," Cylie blurted, regretting the words as soon as she had let them escape. It was just so obvious. That vial she had drunk from a few seconds ago was the Sacred Water of Korin. After she had swallowed it, her perceptions felt heightened and her alertness sharpened. She could read the way Yangu licked his lips at the wrong time and glanced away at the wrong time.
"You think so?"
"Yeah."
"Well you're wrong. That aside, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but no one here is too fond of the Crimson Wind."
Cylie could feel some of the people behind her shifting in their seats. She was talking loudly enough to garner some attention from a few of the surrounding drinkers, who muttered words of agreement.
“...No regard for us...”
“...Holding up the line...”
“Drink your beer and leave!”
The woman rose from and stepped away from the counter. She only raised her voice enough to be heard. “If anyone cares enough to get in my way, step forward.”
She did not reach for her swords. She made little to no threatening movement, but she was wearing her award winning serious face, and none of her usual humor could be found in her tone. The men who had grumbled found other places to look. A conflict with the swordswoman wasn't worth anything. Cylie turned halfway back to the other gang leader in the room, "I was trying to play nice. Apparently that's not how people do it around here anymore. You aren't doing yourself any favors by lying to me, so you might as well get this over with."
Yangu folded his hands on the countertop. "I've already told you, I don't know shit."
As soon as the full sentence was uttered from Yangu's mouth, a hand was leveled directly at his face. It was Cylie's, and inside it was a sphere of crimson energy. Everything screeched to a halt in the tavern. Drinking men paused mid-sip, and talking in the general area around the counter came to a dead stop. Yangu's eyes widened.
"You said you know not to screw with me, right? Well, I'm pretty sure you're doing it right now. You know you're lying. I know you're lying. So I'm just gonna cut to the chase. If you don't tell me where my stuff is, I'm gonna blow your head clean off your shoulders with this here ki. Now tell me."
Cylie's ultimatum prompted Yangu to frown. Regaining his composure, he responded with a resounding, "No."
Cylie's arm began to tremble with rage, and the other people in the bar began to brace themselves. To their surprise however, the ki inside of Cylie's palm seemed to evaporate, until it was gone. Maybe she wasn't completely insane after all. The woman balled up both her hands into fists, allowing her arms to continue trembling at her sides. The onlookers spotted blood leaking through her fingers. She spoke to Yangu again, her voice even more irritated than before, "You're so lucky that I just made a deal with Elroy."
She then stormed out of the bar, hoping for someone to try to stop her, but none did. She'd have to blow off some steam by punching some random tree in a forest, then. As she exited the bar, someone called out to her, "You forgot your drink!"
Cylie wouldn't look back.
Cylie punched the table in front of her in annoyance. To everyone's surprise, it didn't shatter on impact. However, a noticeable crack was now visible in the attacked area of the wood. The tanned swordswoman looked around at the other faces that surrounded her, all looking rather bewildered.
"Where the hell is Jordan?" She questioned.
Timidly, the blonde half fox we know responded, "H-He's on jury duty."
"Jury duty?!" Cylie exclaimed. "Well, what about Horace?"
A different person responded, "He's been dead for months now, Cylie."
Cylie punched the table again, breaking it this time. She cursed audibly, her fist tightening. She had called this meeting between trusted Crimson Wind members about a week after she had visited Mr. Elroy's bar. Currently, they are attempting to discuss how to deal with the Bleeding Streets. Those in attendance were Cylie's two favorite minions, Xylo the Namekian, and Keisha the halfling. Apart from them were three others, the three most skilled fighters or marksmen of the whole gang. None of them were close to a fraction of Cylie's strength, but regardless, they were reliable enough for Cylie. The woman yelled again, "What kind of hot water are we in now? Anything else I gotta know about?"
The Namekian spoke up next, "Yeah, I wanted to bring up our financial issues."
Cylie began shouting immediately after his sentence concluded, not bothering to wait for anyone else to speak, "Okay, cool. Hika, take your one-dimensional ass outta here and arrange some bank robbery, I'll be there."
"Yes, Cylie."
A short, green haired girl exited the room just then, despite the limited instructions. Her actions prompted a question from Xylo.
"Uh, what about the Bleeding Streets? Aren't they the primary reason for this meeting? Shouldn't we do something about them?"
Cylie paused. She glared at Xylo, who began sweating. After silently noting that Namekians can apparently sweat, she began speaking to Xylo in a slow and monotone voice.
"The Bleeding Streets? We do nothing. Just wrap up some chocolates in a box, then mail it to them with a note saying, 'Thanks for the memories'. Dumbass. What do you think we're gonna do? We're gonna find Yangu, kill Yangu, then record his screams so we all have something to fall asleep to every night. Now… anyone have any ideas on how we go about this?"
The sky was cloudless, and the sun shone brilliantly on the desert lands below. It is the cause of the current blistering heat that plagued the dirty roads, but Cylie appreciated it regardless. She was speeding down the street in a pickup truck, open top with two doors. Her long hair was blowing in the wind as she drove with little to no respect for the speed limit, heading directly to the local gun store. She began slowing down as she neared her destination, driving into the parking lot in front of the building. After haphazardly parking her vehicle, she hopped out, cracked her knuckles, then entered. After seeing that she and the store clerk were the only ones in the shop, she immediately began talking rather loudly as she made her way to the counter.
"Mark, my man. I hear you support local businesses, right? Good, because you're about to give the Crimson Wind a corporate gift of a high powered rifle with a scope and a suppressor."
The seller looked confused for a moment, "'Corporate gift'? What do you mean?"
Cylie rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"It means I'm not paying for them. Now c'mon."
The clerk was silent for a moment as he took in Cylie's words. Looking defeated, he reluctantly replied, "T-Take whatever you want, Cylie. I can't afford another fire."
The woman smirked, "That's what I thought. That sniper on your wall should do the trick. You got a suppressor for it?"
After a few minutes, the details were worked out between the two. Cylie was now holding a large gun in her hands and Mark was shuffling behind the counter uncomfortably. As the woman left the store, she halfheartedly reassured the man, "Aw, c'mon. Wipe that look off your face. You sell guns to the bikers, and none of them have more than three brain cells."
Cylie walked out of the building, and straight towards her red vehicle. The Crimson Wind were ready to put their plan into action.
The Western Free Lands are a harsh place, and the few innocent civilians living there often suffer at the hands of bandits, criminals and thieves. Whether it be through intimidation, weak promises of protection, or straight theft, villagers living in the lawless middle ground of the Central Lands fall victim to extortion, and life is made hard for them. Many of them often turn to thievery themselves, causing the bandit problem that is occurring today. One of these days was one where the exploitation of supposedly innocent people took place, but today was much more brutal than any other day. An average village that housed hundreds people was visited once again by a major gang in the area, mostly known as the Bleeding Streets. They were already regularly occupied by these tough gangsters, but this time was different. People lost their lives defending their home from the ruthless bandits ransacking the village. Some people tried to exit the village, leaving family and friends behind. Entire houses were cleaned of valuables, and multiple were destroyed by stray energy blasts. The criminals patrolled the streets in search of hostile survivors, the sound of gunshots occasionally being heard from some of them being put out of their misery. A few miles outside of the village was a lone watertower. At the top of it was Cylie and Keisha. The latter asked the former, "D-Did you bring what I asked?"
"Yeah Keish," Cylie replied. She handed Keisha the rifle she obtained from Mark's gun store earlier today. "What do you see?" She questioned.
The blonde fox beastwoman grasped the pair of expensive binoculars she had around her neck. Looking through them, she replied, "I don't see the shipments, but I do see a lot of gangsters."
"The shipment's not here. Either way, it doesn't matter. We'll move in soon."
"I-I don't know about this Cylie," Keisha doubted. "W-What if something goes wrong?"
Cylie flashed an angry glare at Keisha.
"If you ever get another doubt in your mind, I want you to imagine that I'm looking at you through the scope of a high powered rifle."
"R-Right, Cylie! Right!"
"As long as everyone does their part, which they will, Yangu will be dead before we know it. Now c'mon, I see Jordan's signal. We should be able to get into the village unnoticed."
Meanwhile, on one of the many cobblestone streets in the village, three armed gangsters were patrolling. They bantered and laughed among themselves, one of them noticing the storm rolling through.
"Could rain soon."
His female colleague responded, "Scared of getting wet?"
He smirked before jokingly retorting, "Nah, unlike you reptiles, I'm a warm-blooded creature."
The trio shared a hearty laugh. The man then excused himself, claiming that he had to take a leak. As soon as he was out of earshot, the general mood of the original conversation took a rotten turn. The girl's tone went sour, "Where does that jerk get off?"
The remaining male attempted to calm her down.
"Easy, now."
"Seriously, I nearly got my damned head blown off while he just watched! I should've shot him instead."
"The guy is supplying us with our ammo. What do you think Yangu would do to you?"
"I was following his orders!"
"Still, what do you think he'd do?"
The girl was quiet for a few seconds, creating a rather awkward silence. Eventually, she said, "Turn me inside out."
"Exactly. Take some deep breaths, and walk it off."
Before she could however, something unexpected happened. A sword flew straight through the air, and halted in her friend's skull. The man collapsed instantly with half the sword protruding from the back of his head, and the woman audibly gasped. She whipped around, but before she could even squeeze the trigger, Three swords pierced the front of her torso. All three were now visible from her back. She dropped her gun immediately, and audibly whimpered. The blades were being held by a tanned hand as if they were a set of claws. Those claws belonged to another woman, who grinned at her evilly.
"Nothing personal, beautiful."
Three more swords entered her body, totaling to six. Then they then exited horizontally. The swordswoman sheathed her bloody weapons as her opponent collapsed, then called out to someone behind her, "The coast is clear, Keish."
Keisha emerged from a nearby alleyway, constantly looking around for possible danger. Cylie rolled her eyes.
"C'mon K. Keep up, or get left behind. I'm trying to close in for the kill."
The beastwoman nodded, "Sorry. Lead the way."
Cylie began running at a reasonable pace down the street, with Keisha following closely behind. The shotgun in her hands and the rifle on her back slowed the duo's speed, annoying Cylie. She had originally planned to make this trip alone, with the other Crimson Wind members entering the village another way, but Keisha would probably get herself killed on her own, so for now, they were a duo. The mission they were on was an assassination mission. Thanks to one of Cylie's subordinates, she learned of the Bleeding Streets' involvement in the crime near small and large villages near the north coast. She also learned that Yangu was here. Of course, Cylie went in headfirst, whether it would be a trap, or otherwise. She and Keisha creeped down the block, keeping their backs to the walls of the buildings that lined the cobblestone roads. Cylie peeked around the corner of this one building, seeing an unusually large number of armed gangsters patrolling the area. Cylie furrowed her brows.
"Lower your power level, will you? It's Yangu's patrol. I don't think we can take them on right now. This way, before they discover their dead."
Cylie ran back down the road they came from, and Keisha almost mindlessly followed. They went down a few alleyways in order to avoid any more direct confrontation with the enemy, passing a few dying villagers along the way. Eventually, they shouldered their way into one of the now abandoned homes. It was in a sorry state. Neither of the women commented on it, but they both were examining it. Furniture was gone, appliances were gone, debris littered the floor and the roof had bullet holes in it. This home once echoed with conversations between family, friends and lovers. No longer. Cylie slowly opened the backdoor to the small home, checking for more enemies. Once she believed the coast was clear, she beckoned for Keisha to follow her back out onto the road. They took refuge behind a broken down truck, most likely belonging to the Bleeding Streets. Cylie spoke softly to Keisha, malice dripping from her voice.
"For months, we've hunted for Yangu. For months, only luck has saved his miserable life. Today, his luck will run out. Hika told me that Yangu inspects the village armory each day. We can use that building to flank one of his possible routes, assuming that Hika did her job."
Cylie pointed at a rather large building on the other side of the street as she talked, and Keisha nodded. They both rose from their cover, and immediately after, a gunshot rang out. It wasn't for a surviving villager. It was for them. A bullet whisked past Cylie's face, causing her eyes to widen. She immediately began yelling, "Sniper! Get to the building!"
She crashed through the front window of the former home, and Keisha followed suit. Another gunshot sounded, once again miraculously not hitting one of the two women. A few small rocks fell from the foundation of the building. Cylie grit her teeth for a moment before figuratively snarling, "Son of a bitch almost got me. We'll have to flush him out before we continue. Upstairs, Keish!"
The two rushed upstairs, their footfalls loud and hurried. They immediately took cover behind the deteriorating walls of a doorway once they reached the building's second floor, as a convenient massive hole was in the wall and roof. It gave the women a clear view of the street below, and the building the enemy sniper was in. Cylie could feel the energy signature of their target in one of the houses in sight. As the two women peeked from behind their cover, Cylie informed Keisha, "Second row down, to the right!"
The beastwoman hastily nodded, brandishing her own sniper rifle. Her heart was racing, and sweat rushed down her face like a waterfall. Cylie's shouting broke through her mind.
"Get ready to take the shot! I'm gonna try to draw his fire!"
"O-Okay!"
Cylie reached into her pocket, producing a vial filled with clear water. Keisha knew exactly what it was. Korin's water. The tanned woman gulped it down in an instant, and threw away the vial. She then creeped into the destroyed room in front of them, while Keisha crouched, partially behind cover. The beastwoman leaned against the doorway to take aim while Cylie made herself an obvious target. Sure enough, another bullet was fired by the enemy sniper, and Cylie dived out of the way to avoid it. The bullet in question buried itself into the ground beside Keisha, which made her wince slightly. She did not pull the trigger, but she did manage to see the flash produced by the other sniper. She looked through her scope in order to properly see through the window the flash was produced from, but no one was there. The enemy was mirroring the women, taking cover himself. It was a game of cat and mouse, now. This wouldn't be easy. As Keisha took cover once more, Cylie yelled again, "Did you catch him?! He knows exactly where we are, Keish!"
Her fox-eared companion yelled right back at her, "I know, I know! I saw him!"
"I'm gonna draw his fire again, get ready to take him out."
Cylie got to her feet, and unsheathed her swords this time. Keisha took position again, taking aim at the window that she aimed at before. After a few seconds, nothing happened, and Keisha lowered her rifle. Just then, she saw another flash. As the bullet ricocheted against the steel of one of Cylie's swords, Keisha brought her scope to her eye once more. She saw her target run past a window, and she immediately began following his movements. Cylie's voice nearly broke her concentration, "I don't think I can risk it again, it's up to you to find him now."
Keisha could've done without the dialogue, but she still kept her hands steady. The other sniper stopped beside one of the windows in the other house, still taking cover. Keisha placed her finger on the trigger. Her finger twitched dangerously on it for a couple of seconds, and then, as soon as her target took aim with his weapon, she squeezed it. Cylie watched the opposing marksman take a shot in the eye, the scope of his rifle shattering. The swordswoman shuddered. Keisha didn't know it, but if the bullet had gone through the scope like that, it meant that both snipers were staring directly at each other when the single shot was fired. A second later, and Keisha would've probably been the one biting dust. She congratulated her companion on her victory, "I didn't expect you to be that useful, Keish. Good job. But I don't think those shots blended in well. We need to get moving, fast."
Cylie did not hesitate to leap through the massive hole in the building, expecting Keisha to do the same. Quite annoyingly, she didn't do it with the same grace. The tanned woman was already in a house across the street by the time Keisha had jumped down, and the beastwoman ran hard to catch up. She constantly checked alleyways and her rear, acting much more careful than her boss. Unlike Cylie, she couldn't sense ki. Soon enough, the duo was roaming through another abandoned building. The situation in this one was similar to the last, ransacked, damaged and littered with debris. Cylie hopped over a table that had been knocked on its side, and Keisha did the same. Then suddenly, Cylie pressed against the wall beside a large window. Keisha followed her lead on the other side of the glass. Cylie gave her the memo in a whisper.
"More of Yangu's pesky patrol. Let them pass."
Sure enough, when Keisha stole a glance outside, a large group of gangsters were passing by the building. They were heavily equipped with guns, swords and the like. The sight almost made Keisha's heart stop. It felt a lot different not being the intimidators. The fox lady immediately flattened herself against the wall, inhaling deeply. She listened to the men talking with one another outside.
"Keep your eyes peeled. And remember, no warning shots. If you see them, take 'em out."
"Think the Crimson Wind's behind this?"
"Maybe. Regardless, orders are the same. Shoot to kill."
The barks of a dog became audible. Keisha held her breath as the same dog appeared directly in front of the window on its hind legs, still barking madly. One of the men outside could be heard screaming, "They're in here!"
They've been found out!
Cylie cursed the sense of smell dogs had, then dove to the floor. Keisha tried to make a run for it, but immediately tripped over her own foot in her haste. As soon as she hit the ground, energy blasts were fired through the many broken windows that faced the Bleeding Streets. They flew over the heads of the Crimson Wind women, and struck the little wooden furniture and debris left inside the home. The already broken house was once again being attacked, and explosions began to go off on the piles of debris. Shrapnel pelted the duo relentlessly. Then, a column of fire was shot through one of the windows. The fox woman caught on quickly and began yelling, "They're trying to burn us out!"
"Shut up, Keish! Just try not to breathe!" Cylie exclaimed.
They both began crawling their way through, but soon, Cylie realized that her enemies were surrounding the building. They needed to move quickly. More and more flames began showing up. A broken closet to Keisha's left nearly fell over on her and crushed her, but it's fall was halted by a table to her right that was left relatively unharmed by the sheer carnage taking place. Cylie saw a flight of stairs in front of her, now realizing that they had to make a run for it. She immediately got up, yelling to Keisha to get her to follow. She did so obediently, and the two ascended the stairs as quickly as possible, narrowly avoiding stray bullets and ki blasts being fired at them by sheer luck. By now the second floor of the building was almost completely inflamed. Cylie's warning to not breathe was repeated, and the two ran for it. For a split moment, the two were meters away from each other. A plank fell from the fragile roof of the building, and landed on Keisha. She was knocked to the floor, now dizzy and stuck due to the heavy wooden pole on her chest. Blood gushed down her forehead as she tried to lift the plank off of her, only for her hands to be seared as soon as they came into contact with the hot wood. The building around her was collapsing, and she could not make her escape. She cried out for help, and seconds later, help came. The plank was off of her in an instant, and no one other than Cylie held a hand out to the beastwoman.
"Dammit Keish! I need you alive!"
Ignoring her boss' harsh tone, Keisha accepted Cylie's hand. The two continued through the building as bullets began breaking the windows on the second floor. Desperately, the fox woman looked around for an exit, while Cylie made one. Fiery red energy began to form in the swordswoman's palm, and within one motion, the ki was thrown towards a wall. The wall exploded and collapsed on impact, creating a sizable hole for them to jump through. Keisha was the first to go, landing hard on one of her knees. One second she worried about a broken kneecap, then the next she was worried about her boss. She put her hands on her head as she watched flaming debris land around her, followed by Cylie. The Crimson Wind leader rolled on the stone road she fell on, lessening the impact the initial fall had. She ended up lying on her stomach, looking rather dazed and woozy. The building they just escaped from would stand no longer. It will burn down, no doubt about it. Sure enough, three armed men began running down the street, quickly identifying the Crimson Wind gang leader. The three men stopped near Cylie, with one of them kicking her in the face, causing her to go immobile for a moment. As the men began to banter in mild surprise at the prize of the gang leader of the Crimson Wind, Keisha tensed up.
"Is this Chizu?"
"Yep. We got her."
"Looks like I was right. Toby owes me a hundred zeni."
"I thought we were supposed to kill on sight?"
"I have a better idea. Dave, still got that lighter?"
The bandits didn't notice her yet, but she couldn't just abandon Cylie, could she? She wondered if her boss would succumb to her wounds right here. They looked bad. Then again, they both were covered in bruises. Cylie could definitely handle it if she could. Just then, more gunshots sounded. Within seconds, the three men fell to the ground, riddled with bullet holes. Then, more armed people came into view. They were Crimson Wind members. Just in time. Cylie slowly picked herself up as Keisha gawked at the lead filled bodies in front of her. One of the rescuers began talking to the two, taking her out of her little trance.
"Keisha? Cylie? How convenient."
"Yeah, thank Kami you idiots haven't gotten yourselves killed yet," Cylie interjected.
The man ignored the fact that Cylie and Keisha were the ones who were nearly murdered and continued, "We were just headed up to the town hall north of here. Xylo and his group are probably headed there as well. A decently high power level is near there. Hika here thinks it's Yangu."
"She's correct. I can feel the asshole's energy signature. Wear your scouters if you have them. We're gonna clear the hall. Keish will provide cover from above. Stay hidden, and wait for my signal. The guy with the most kills gets a cake."
Keisha picked herself up, and Cylie immediately grabbed her hand and flew towards the roof of a nearby building. The remaining Crimson Wind members in the street began preparing themselves.
"Alright everyone, you heard her. Get ready and watch the road for the signal."
Cylie and Keisha successfully landed on the roof without being seen. They had a clear view of the central building of the village, otherwise known as the Town Hall. A decent amount of Yangu's men were milling about, but it was nothing they couldn't handle. Cylie chuckled, "Alright K. Get ready. Load your rifle, and take aim. I'll get the signal ready."
While Keisha followed her orders, Cylie flared her aura. She unsheathed her six swords, grinning. She then shot downwards, soaring like a missile towards one of the unfortunate souls in front of the hall. She hit the ground with a war cry, and immediately, the rest of the screaming began. Toward the end of the path that led to the hall, almost beyond the carefully monitored houses that circled the area, fighting broke out. Men and women squeezed the triggers on their guns, many igniting their auras. Blades began to cut down combatants. As people pressed to get to cover, a Namekian charged through the battle ground. A trio of bullets flew through the air to narrowly miss Keisha on the roof. As she stumbled and fell on her rear, Keisha craned to see the grounds.
Her friends were engaging the rival gang, who were struggling due to being ambushed. Fists met swords, bullets met blasts. Some attacks found their mark. Men and women screamed. Keisha knew much about gang warfare through her association with the Crimson Wind, but until now, she had never seen a conflict so fierce. Both sides harbored fierce resentment for one another, and it showed in their ferocious fighting. In a few brief seconds, she saw death, and more of it than the average person could handle. Energy blasts sailed through the air, bullets pierced skulls, swords cut through skin and fists broke bones. Keisha was having trouble keeping up with the action, often having to stop herself at the last moment from shooting one of her own. She watched as Cylie cut down enemy after enemy, much like she usually does. She seemed to be enjoying herself as she violently met with melee fighters, with that Namekian Xylo rushing to join her. The tanned woman ducked and weaved among the enemies, narrowly dodging attacks and efficiently slashing opponents. Hika and Jordan engaged the enemy with the same strategy they used on the practice floor. They worked in tandem, providing cover, dispatching foes, and pivoting to lend each other assistance.
The fighting soon began moving into the town hall itself. The Crimson Wind engaged their foes in intense room to room combat, and Keisha continued to check her fire as her friends cleared the building. Soon enough, the Crimson Wind emerged as the victors. As Keisha stared at the slain allies on the grounds, Cylie appeared right next to her. Startled, Keisha yelped. With blood flowing freely from her shoulder, Cylie informed Keisha of their next move, "We've taken care of the town hall. Yangu will try to run. We're gonna have to cut off his escape route. Follow me! I know a great sniping position."
Without awaiting a response, Cylie once again took hold of Keisha's hand, and began flying. Her sidearm fell to the ground as she soared through the air, but she couldn't care less about that at the moment. She was currently watching her friends engage more of the rival gang as reinforcements began to pour into the area. Cylie flew through the top window of a broken-down three story building, inflicting Keisha with a series of small cuts and bruises. Before she could complain, Cylie ran towards a large hole in the wall and shouted, "That building over there! That's where Yangu is!"
Keisha rose to her feet instantly, and rushed over to the tanned woman. Following Cylie's pointing, she identified the building Yangu was holed up in. Keisha's attention was still on her friends, however. She wanted to help them so badly, and Cylie seemed to have read her expression.
"We can't let Yangu's men know where we are. There's nothing we can do for them, Keish. But don't worry, Xylo's tough. He'll take care of the others. The death of Yangu will just be the beginning of the Crimson Wind's takeover. He'll soon be in our sights. The sounds of battle will flush him out. For now, watch the front entrance."
Cylie was referring to the front entrance of the building she had pointed at. With hesitation, Keisha aimed with her scope at the door of said building. Sure enough, Yangu stumbled out during the fierce fighting, but he wasn't alone. Four of his men accompanied him, and shielded him from any stray bullets. "Coward!" Cylie exclaimed. The four men joined the main fight after Yangu found cover behind a destroyed truck. Cylie pointed out his location, and Keisha placed her finger on the trigger. Seconds later, Yangu peeked out of his cover, holding a pistol in order to provide aid to his men. Knowing that she had only one shot at this, Keisha took it.
"Hahaha! That's for Horace, bitch!"
A single shot to the head was all that it took to end Cylie's vendetta against the Bleeding Streets. Keisha breathed a huge sigh of relief. Yangu was finally dead. Cylie jumped down to the ground below, her blades cutting down another opponent as she landed. Quickly, she assessed the remainder of her forces. Hika holding a dog back with wide sweeps of her knives. Jordan retreating while reloading a pistol. Xylo hurling a boulder with his strong arms. Cylie's primary attention was reserved for the woman approaching her boldly. Cylie crouched into her fighting stance. Clutching one of the most meticulously crafted knives Cylie had ever seen, the woman sprang toward her, leaping farther than seemed possible, lips peeled back in a hateful grimace. Cylie used one set of her 'claws' to guard against the opposing blade, then spun and slashed the woman on the side of her head. She crashed to the ground in a bloody sprawl.
Looking back up while sheathing her swords, she saw Xylo wrestle with a man taller than him. It wasn't often that you met a human that was taller than a Namek. It's a shame he had to be Cylie's opponent today. Cylie knew more than anyone that there was little room for sportsmanship on the battlefield. When survival was in question, you fought hard and you seized every advantage, because your enemy was sure to do the same. So she ran to Xylo, hammered the tall man on the back of his head, and with a well coordinated assault, she and Xylo took down the large threat. A spray of bullets were fired their way as a machine gunner spotted them. Cylie speared into Xylo, knocking them both into cover. Xylo groaned in pain before speaking, "Agh… Boss? Got a plan?"
Cylie surveyed the battlefield. Yangu had more men than was initially thought. An explosion occurred at the top floor of the building Keisha was in. It looked like their sniper had been found out. She felt Keisha's ki start to flee, so hopefully she'd be fine. Although now they had no advantage. Cylie responded, "Yeah, we're getting outta here. Get the others to flee. We've caused enough damage already."
And so it was. The Crimson Wind fled, split up and spread throughout the village. Xylo was with Cylie, relatively uninjured, but the other survivors, not so much. All but one of them were battered and beaten. It was a grim day for both sides, but ultimately, the Crimson Wind had completed their main goal, which was killing Yangu. It was a blow from which the Bleeding Streets would never recover.
A man was carrying a box filled with drinks through a hallway, passing a few other people as he did so. A few small greetings were thrown about here and there, but then, he ran into someone who didn't look all too happy. His boss, Cylie.
"Where were you Alex? I thought I asked you to pass those drinks around for us twenty minutes ago."
Alex paused for a moment as he recalled the moment he was given that order.
"Oh, pass them round for us. I thought you said 'go to West City and back'."
With an eye roll, Cylie ignored the sarcasm in Alex's reply.
"Whatever, c'mon. The others are waiting for us."
Cylie led the man into a large room, where most of the others were. The aroma of food and beer that was in the air was sweet, but the general feel of this event wasn't as cheerful. It's been a week since Yangu's passing, and the Crimson Wind wanted to celebrate, however, they were also commemorating the souls they lost during the conflict. Cylie and Alex walked up to a group of people who were seated at a round wooden table. Two seats were reserved for them. Soon enough, each chair at the table was occupied. Alex placed the box of bottles on the table, and it didn't take long for everyone to grab one. A man proposed a toast, "To the Crimson Wind." The dialogue was repeated by everyone at the table as they touched drinks. As people began to take sips, some began audibly reminiscing about the day they fought the Streets. Jordan was the first one to speak up negatively about the event.
"Sorry brothers. I couldn't save you. I'll practice with that gun, I swear. I stayed alive, distracted some of our enemies, but I can do better. Next time, Hika. You won't have to come rescue me so much."
The green haired Hika nodded silently, seemingly indifferent to his promise. Jordan knew she cared. She usually remained stoic when talking to someone other than Cylie anyways. He tried not to dwell on certain thoughts. He tried not to picture any of his fallen friends, a few of which now rested below the surface of a fine meadow near a forest, wrapped in their red jackets. He tried not to imagine how he would feel if something happened to Hika. He tried not to guess at all the danger awaiting the Crimson Wind, and the other friends he might lose along the way. Cylie's voice broke through his thought process.
"Don't beat yourself up, man. You did good. All of you did. Enjoy your drinks."
They all began doing exactly that. The Namekian Xylo, who had been drinking from a cold can of water, shrugged and rose from his seat. He beckoned Cylie to follow him. Initially perplexed, Cylie obliged and followed Xylo outside, leaving the others to do their best to finally enjoy themselves. Cylie and Xylo sat on random rocks they found lying around on the sandy ground. After getting comfortable, the woman spoke first, a light breeze ruffling her hair.
"What's on your mind, green man?"
Xylo was silent for a while before he responded.
"A lot. Firstly, now that Yangu's dead, what now?"
"What?" Cylie raised a brow. "You've earned a break, Xylo. I've never felt this happy in my entire life."
"It's just… these past two years have been crazy, y'know? We fought bikers, robbed banks, got in a turf war, established a gun trade, lost the gun trade, then killed a gang leader. What's next? Are we gonna assassinate Queen Furry?"
"...It's on my bucket list."
A look of pure horror appeared on the Namekian's green face. Cylie laughed.
"Calm down, I'm joking."
Xylo rolled his eyes while sighing. He was secretly relieved. With Cylie's unpredictability, it didn't seem all too far-fetched that she would want to do something that drastic. A few minutes of silence passed by. Both were now done with their drinks. The Namek broke the silence.
"You think the cops know about what happened?"
Cylie didn't even look at Xylo as she responded, "Probably. I don't know. We've never had to worry about the police much. Either they don't know, or they just don't care about what happens out here."
Silence again… Xylo stared at the setting sun in the distance. The village where he had confronted the Bleeding Streets was too far away to see. A familiar blonde beastwoman joined them outside.
"Hey guys."
"Keisha. Glad you could join us."
The fox lady had her left arm in a sling, and a few bandages wrapped around her forehead, but regardless, she seemed content. Sipping on a soda, she stood at Cylie's side. Keisha only seemed so at ease around the swordswoman ever since the battle in that unnamed village. The whole gang just seemed grateful that they made it out alive. The Bleeding Streets wouldn't give up, they knew that much. But regardless, they looked forward to the future conflicts that they might find themselves in. Most knew that they would die if they continued living a thief's life, but that was something that they had accepted. Besides, they were far too deep in the game to get out of it now. And Cylie probably wouldn't let any of them leave outside of a bodybag. Either way, they'd stand together. As the Crimson Wind.
Word Count: 12,335
"Don't sweat it, I'm not gonna kill you if you tell me what I wanna hear. I just wanna know where my guns are."
Her voice was stern, but the man wouldn't respond. Three swords were placed directly in front of his eyes, and Cylie spoke again, "Keep up the silent treatment, and I'll carve your eyes out. Tell me where my stuff is."
After grimacing, the man replied, "What the hell are you talking about?"
Cylie frowned. "Don't pull my leg, friend. The Crimson Wind has lost a lot of hardware over the course of a month, and I've been looking for who stole them. My little… 'investigation' tells me that it's you people who stole 'em."
"You've got the wrong set of guys."
The next thing the man knew, he was on the floor, with a foot planted firmly into his chest. An orb of burning ki formed within Cylie's palm, and it was pointed directly at him.
"You tryna say that all my searching was for nothing, friend?"
The man breathed deeply before bravely responding, "Yeah."
Just then, sirens began to blare. The two bright colors of the police force shone through the warehouse windows as the building was surrounded by cop cars. Someone must've snitched. She could feel around half a dozen new power levels appear just outside. Not good. A loud voice intruded on Cylie's eardrums, most likely through a megaphone held by one of the officers outside.
"This is the police. We currently have the building surrounded. Come out with your hands above your head, and no one gets hurt. Otherwise, we'll have to come in there ourselves."
Damnit. The building really was surrounded. Her energy sensing told her that much. She looked down at the man she stood on, and shrugged.
"Welp. Sorry man, I'm gonna have to dip," Cylie apologized.
The energy in her palm was fired, and the man was no more. Now what was she gonna do? She frantically looked around for a way out, before she looked upwards, her gaze meeting the moon. There was a skylight in the ceiling. A crude smile began to slowly form on her face.
Lucky her.
Minutes later, the cops had grown tired of waiting. The warehouse was broken into, and the authorities flooded the bloody scene. Around ten people lay lifeless on the floor, scattered all over the place. Boxes filled with unregistered weapons cluttered the floor, and bullets were strewn about the building. Pieces of glass lay at the center of the large warehouse, directly below the skylight. The one responsible for the carnage was nowhere to be seen, as if they had disappeared without a trace. The one holding the megaphone began trembling with rage, and threw the red horn on the ground, breaking it. His fellow officers placed their hands on his shoulders, trying to calm him down. The cop began shouting at his colleagues, "How did you let the guy get away?! Spread out and find him!"
A couple minutes later, a few miles outside West City, Cylie was running as fast as her weary legs would allow, her blazing red jacket fluttering in the wind behind her. Her power level was suppressed, and her smile was wide. A few seconds later, she simply disappeared.
The Crimson Wind had been without a proper leader for six months now, and they seemed to be on their last legs. Not only had they been engaged in a conflict with a rival gang called the 'Bleeding Streets' since Cylie's absence, but the constant theft of their weaponry has left the Crimson Wind gang undergunned and with low morale. The only Namekian in the gang, Xylo, was left in charge by Cylie herself, due to him being the strongest of the group. It's been a really long time since he'd last seen Cylie, and regrettably, it's been rather rough without her around. When Cylie's leave was first announced, no one thought much about it. If anything, they'd be able to work without the constant death threats, drunkenness and absurd planning. However, Cylie's absence led to a lot of new problems. Committing the usual robberies and other crimes with her six swords around was so much easier than it is now. A fair share of the gang members have been at death's door more times with Cylie gone than while around Cylie. If things don't change soon, then within another month, Xylo might either end up spending the rest of his life rotting away in a prison cell, or dead. As of now, he was beginning to break. His temporary underlings were probably plotting to kill him by now, Cylie's whereabouts are unknown, and Keisha's been hogging the damn shower for the past hour. He banged on the bathroom door again, and yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Damnit K! I'm still waiting!"
Immediately after he yelled, Cylie herself opened the bathroom door, running into Xylo. He froze. His expression of pure shock, quickly turned into one of pure rage. Cylie figured that the Namekian was understandably shocked and confused as to why his missing superior was in the bathroom, but she explained what had supposedly happened. She claimed to have blindly teleported here after sensing Xylo's power level, and ended up in the bathroom. The Namekian didn't seem too pleased with the explanation.
"...Cylie, you've been gone for six months. SIX MONTHS! You look like a mess! Why haven't you been answering your phone? Do you know what's been happening here? Do you know how many problems your sudden disappearance has caused?!"
The green man was well aware that he had no right to question someone like Cylie like that, but he couldn't help himself. After all, she did look like a mess. Her clothes were torn and stained with blood, and several open wounds were visible on her shoulder and arms. Mud stuck to the bottom of her sneakers, and created mud tracks all over the floor she stood on. The woman rubbed the back of her head gingerly, an apologetic expression plastered on her face.
"Yeah, sorry."
The Namekian faltered. That's it? That's all she had to say? He began to storm off angrily, before Cylie stopped him, "Look, Xylo. I'm here now, okay? Everything that's happened in my absence is all my fault. I'll take full blame for it all. But now, we've got to work on fixing this whole mess. So could you do yourself a favor and save being mad at me for later and just tell me what we're dealing with here?"
The Namekian did not respond immediately. Instead, he produced a long, hard sigh. He eyed the ground for a while as he kept Cylie waiting, taking into consideration the sincerity of her words. After about a minute of silence, Xylo responded, "Fine."
Cylie looked relieved.
"Finally. For a second there I thought we were gonna be here for hours. So, what seems to be the problem?"
"Well, first of all, you should've killed Yangu when you had the chance. We've been fighting him and his gang ever since, and it hasn't been easy. Especially since our weapons still haven't been recovered. However, they are still being stolen."
The woman's brows furrowed. She punched her palm in annoyance.
"You guys STILL haven't figured that out?"
"Well uh…"
Xylo took a few steps back as Cylie took a few steps forward. It didn't take the woman long to regain her position above the Namek it seemed. He took a deep breath, then stood his ground.
"You ever stop to think that maybe the Bleeding Streets are the ones crippling your supply of swords? Keisha and everyone else is sure of that."
Cylie paused for a moment. She somehow completely forgot about them. She did tell Keisha to find out who did it just before she made her leave.
"That makes sense now, but remember, we've been losing weapons before I terrorized that monkey. I never suspected them because of that reason."
"Well regardless, they've been a huge pain in our asses for a long time now. So with you around, we'll be sure to cause some serious damage."
Cylie's expression darkened.
"I look forward to it. But uh, do we have enough manpower and weaponry to do that? Worst case scenario, I'll do it on my own, but even with my strength, taking down the Bleeding Streets is no easy task."
"Well, we do have some good news. Hanna's been collaborating with Keisha lately in order to manufacture her own guns. It's not much, but…"
Just then, the bathroom door behind Cylie opened, and Keisha stepped out. Her face looked rather red. Her voice was shaky, but she still got the message out.
"A-About that actually, I was hoping to show you the weapons Hanna worked on myself."
Cylie smiled warmly and genuinely. A rare sight. Usually her smiles stunk of sarcasm or cockiness.
"Alright Keish."
After Cylie cleaned herself up, she and Keisha had decided to head out to see Hanna. The drive to the lab that had been established a year ago was quiet and peaceful. There weren't many other drivers on the lonely dirt road today, and their absence was welcomed by the tanned woman. There was no need to drive anywhere below the speed limit, and no one would complain about her awful driving. She was currently sitting in the driver's seat of her old red truck, while Keisha sat next to her. The swordswoman had made a mental note of the half fox's behavior. The way she scratched her head, tapped her foot and looked away occasionally… She was nervous about something, Cylie could tell. It might take a while for the fox to get used to being around her all the time again. She might have to go easy on the blondie for a bit. About five minutes into the drive, the long haired chatterbox began her usual ramblings.
"So, Keish. I noticed that you seem kinda scared of something. Is it me? I'll understand if it's me."
"No… it's not you. It's just… I've been thinking…"
Her constant stuttering and hesitation was nothing new to Cylie, but it didn't mean that she wasn't annoyed by it. Cylie then declared that if Keisha didn't spill out what she was trying to say immediately, they'd turn around and drive straight back to the hideout. The halfling sighed at that. She was being treated as if she were an annoying child, as usual. Hesitating was no longer an option, so she finally spoke clearly, "Okay… I just wanted to say that… I missed you, and I'm glad you're back. I never thought that I'd miss someone like you, considering all the awful things that you do to people daily."
Cylie raised her brows. While slightly confused, she responded, "Huh? You mean the murder, the death threats, the everything?"
"Those are… parts of it."
Cylie chuckled to herself.
"You're not so innocent either, Keish. We're bandits, it's what we do. We don't feel any remorse while pulling triggers. If we did, we'd end up pleading guilty in front of a jury."
Keisha quieted down for a moment as she reflected on the half-assed statement Cylie just gave her. She was no saint, she knew that much, but this was the first time that she realized that she never really thought about the lives she took. Her victims were still nothing more than people unfortunate enough to have gotten in the way of the Crimson Wind, however. Just like Cylie said, she never really felt anything as she gunned down her foes. It would have to stay that way. If she wasn't so nonchalant about killing like the other members of the gang, she might've ended up as a victim herself, as Cylie wouldn't have even thought about recruiting her. Even now she wondered what Cylie saw in her. She was a nervous wreck that seemed to be unable to handle anything except combat. Why was she like this? Steeling herself, she glanced at her boss. What about Cylie herself? Was she always so... sadistic? What she said about the Crimson Wind being criminals was true, but Cylie is far more extreme than anyone Keisha knew. Besides, even Xylo had a time where he wasn't a cruel killer, right? Keisha opened her mouth, but remained silent. She tried to speak again, but the result did not change. Cylie interrupted her feeble attempts at conversation, casually taking a hard left as she did so.
"Spit it out, Keish. You can tell me anything, y'know."
Keisha took a deep breath before finally asking, "Have you ever felt remorse?" Cylie thought on the question for a moment, curious about Keisha's current thought process.
"That's it? Well, the first life I ever took was my father's. It messed me up, I have to admit. But hey, it prepared me for what would happen next. Running the Crimson Wind. What about you? Who was your first?"
Keisha was beginning to explore memories that had been left buried for over a decade. Her frown only seemed to become more apparent as she continued speaking, clearly uncomfortable with the current subject. Not that Cylie cared.
“The first time I took a life, it haunted me for years... It took a while to get used to the sound of gunshots.”
Cylie noted that Keisha deliberately failed to specify exactly who was her murder victim. A question sparked in the driver's green eyes.
“It comes easy to you now, doesn’t it?”
“…It does.”
“You've got yourself a warrior's heart, K. Be proud of it.”
“N-No, I don’t think I have a heart at all anymore.”
Perplexed, Cylie glanced over at her blonde friend, eyebrow raised. She couldn't fathom why the beastwoman was so tilted about talking about the topic. Shrugging it off, she notified Keisha that they had arrived at their destination. The building was situated on an unnamed dirt road, formerly a liquor store before it was taken over and converted by Cylie and her gang. The store front looked like any old drink shop, but upstairs, a lot of illegal manufacturing of weapons and other outlawed items took place. It was co-owned and personally cared for by possibly the smartest person in the gang, a woman named Hanna. It was a good thing that no one apart from Cylie and other trusted members knew the exact location of this place, otherwise the Bleeding Streets might've already found it by now. The truck that the gang leader arrived in was parked in front of the store, and out of it came it's passengers. Hanna herself burst through the front door, holding an assault rifle. She was quick to put it away once she saw who it was, however.
"Cylie…?"
The tanned woman confirmed her identity with a solemn nod.
"Ah, took you long enough to return. I'm surprised you haven't been arrested yet. No wait, nevermind, I'm not."
Cylie rubbed the back of her head for the second time today, wearing the same apologetic expression that she gave Xylo earlier. After seeing it for the first time, Keisha could tell that Cylie had practiced the face.
"Yeah, sorry. I had some… loose ends to tie up first."
While Keisha tried to figure out what 'loose ends' were involved, Hanna invited both her and Cylie into the lab.
"Well, c'mon. I'd like to show you what I've been working on."
It didn't take long for the trio to make it upstairs, where all the magic happens. Hanna led the two other women into a room filled with all sorts of trinkets and items and such. The place was a mess, but the three women were used to conditions such as these. Besides, their attention was fixated on only two things in the room. A shotgun and a sniper rifle that lay upon a table. The three thieves walked up to the table, with Hanna explaining what exactly they were. The shotgun shoots shells with a large spread, just like any other. The kicker is that it shoots incendiary rounds, burning through the victim unlucky enough to face this weapon. The sniper shares the same trait, being just like any other rifle, but instead of bullets, it delivers a warm welcome to its targets. Cylie picked up the shotgun while Hanna was speaking, noting its heaviness and unnecessarily stylized design. There were pinkish red lines on the barrel of the gun, and they earned a perplexed look from Keisha. Cylie complimented Hanna on her work.
"Nice, nice. You're a smart girl, Hanna."
"That one looks kinda like a bolt-action, but… these things are just custom blaster guns, right?"
Keisha's question did not go unanswered, as Hanna seemed all too happy to satisfy the fox's curiosity.
"Indeed. They are ghost guns. I just converted them into snipers and shotguns. Why don't you go take them out for a whirl?"
Cylie couldn't contain her enthusiasm, and immediately agreed with Hanna's suggestion.
"Hell yeah. That stupid monkey won't know what hit him."
Cylie then signalled Keisha to follow her out of the lab, but then suddenly halted. The beastwoman walked directly into the Crimson Wind's leader, and she shook her head.
"Uh, boss?"
Cylie abruptly whipped around, handed the shotgun in her hands to Keisha, then ran towards the largest window upstairs. Initially, the other two women were understandably confused, but within moments, they soon realized why Cylie was acting the way she was acting. They followed closely behind the swordswoman, with Keisha loading the shotgun and Hanna grabbing an assault rifle. Sure enough, once all three of them were looking out the window, they witnessed several cars pulling up to the lab, with armed men and women exiting them. 'Crap,' Cylie thought. They must've followed her here. How could she not have sensed them then? Maybe she was too distracted? Regardless of how these people have found her, the Crimson Wind was gonna defend her property. Ferociously. Whoever these guys were, they were about to regret ever stepping to them. It looked like they'd be able to test those weapons. Immediately she gave the signal to open fire, and Hanna grinned darkly. Cylie and Keisha took a couple steps back as Hanna pulled the trigger. The window overlooking the vehicles immediately shattered as bullets went through it, shards of glass hitting the ground directly in front of the building. The invaders immediately took refuge behind whatever cover they could find, as bullets rained down on their position. Cylie shouted at the top of her voice, trying to overpower the sound of the assault rifle while giving orders to Keisha.
"Pick up that sniper and put it to good use! I'm going outside!"
Keisha immediately protested, "Are you crazy?! We need to hold our position up here!"
"Are you giving me orders?!"
Without waiting for a retort, Cylie jumped straight through the broken window, past Hannah. Her ki kept her in the air, and she began floating upwards, intending to land on the roof of the building. Most of the enemies noticed her, and some began aiming upwards. Cylie watched as bullets whisked past her, a few coming dangerously close to striking her. However, through advanced reflexes and a bit of luck, she had landed on the roof unscathed. Her hand travelled down to her hip, and grasped the handles of three different swords. In one motion, they were out of their scabbards. Cylie smirked as three tiny spheres of red hot energy materialized at the ends of her blades. With a slash, the lethal energy was chucked downwards near a certain group of enemies that she saw. Three large, different explosions occurred on impact, a few cars being caught up in them, setting off explosions of their own. The destruction resulted in the neutralization of a good chunk of the opposing forces, however, more began showing up. They were shouting orders to each other as they tried to rearrange themselves, unable to properly deal with their foes without a new strategy. One of the newcomers that stumbled out of a vehicle was carrying energy in his arms. Cylie saw him out of the corner of her eye, but before she could even act, the ki the man held exploded in his hands. Keisha had taken care of it with a well placed shot from her new rifle.
Mentally thanking any higher power that existed, Cylie threw some more energy blasts at the opponents, causing even more damage. It didn't take long for the intruders to realize that this fight wasn't worth it. Their vehicles were continuously being destroyed by Cylie's attacks, most of them were kept under siege by Hanna's haphazard shots, and the ones that did manage to get a good position for a clear shot were eliminated quickly by a thin energy blast shot from the rifle Keisha held. After only a few minutes of fighting, the gangsters began to retreat. About thirty seconds later, Hanna and Keisha burst through the building entrance, still firing at their retreating enemies until they were completely out of sight. A voice was heard above them, "Haha, Look at them running!"
Cylie had dropped down from the roof, landing directly behind the other two women. Hanna looked fatigued, and Cylie's eyes widened at the sight of a bullet wound on her arm. Her voice was incredibly nonchalant considering the severity of the wound.
"Uh, H? I think you're bleeding."
"What are you talking about?"
It looked as if she was blissfully unaware that a bullet had grazed the length of her arm.
"I'm talking about that."
Cylie pointed at the obvious wound on Hanna's arm. The three women looked directly at the bleeding limb, and it was then that the pain kicked in. Hanna dropped her weapon, clutching the arm as her teeth grit. She sucked in air through her grimace, and Keisha took a step back. Cylie frowned in annoyance.
"Dammit, not only do they damage Hanna, but they damage my soul."
The two people that accompanied the tanned woman followed her gaze, noticing the damage done to the drug lab. All but one window was broken, bullet holes covered the walls, and the storefront was littered with rubble and debris produced from the multiple explosions that preceded the current events. Not only that, but there were several burning vehicles on the dirt road they were currently on. The tanned woman bared her teeth as if she were a wild animal, her hands balling up into fists. "Those bastards tore up my lab….. the cheek of it….." Cylie spoke harshly through her white gnashers, brimming with pure rage. Keisha hesitantly spoke up as she attempted to tend to Hanna's wound.
"They're bastards, Cylie. H-Handkerchief wearing bastards."
There was no doubt about it in Cylie's mind. This was the work of that damned Yangu. Not much physical evidence pointed in that man's direction, but Cylie cared little. She stormed straight past Keisha, yelling an order as she exited the scene.
"Clean up the lab, Keish! And get H some Senzu Extracts!"
As expected, Cylie ignited her burning aura and shot off into the sky without awaiting a response from the fox beastwoman.
Cylie landed hard on the Earth's floor, now miles away from wherever the hell that broken down lab was. Across the street from her was a familiar building, one that reeked of alcohol. It was her local bar. For a few minutes, Cylie loitered on the corner by the tavern, keeping her back to the building. Down the dirt street, between structures with weakened, deteriorating concrete walls and rounded facades, two men were looking her way. They were the type that Cylie had learned to avoid. The woman harshly conveyed with her eyes that they shouldn’t draw attention to her. They got the message and faced elsewhere. Cylie settled her gaze on the bar once more, still hesitant on whether or not she should enter. On one hand, she was dying for a good old drink, but on the other hand, she was in some hot water with the bar owner, a hardworking bloke named 'Elroy Gomez'. Cylie vividly recalled the early days of the bar, about eight years ago when the guy was still looking for his place in life. His bar was a huge success, but back then, Cylie was nowhere near old enough to get into a real bar for a drink. Regardless, he served the girl, even helping her avoid the cops, when necessary. He himself had never touched a drop of booze, despite his current job status. Everyone always teased him about that, but maybe that was why everyone respected him. If he didn't have the reputation he currently held, Cylie or anyone else might have killed him already. Steeling herself, she entered.
Instantly, the unforgettable smell of whiskey and armpits slammed against her nostrils, serving as a reminder as to why she and everyone else kept coming back here. Tons of conversations droned on inside, a few halting mid-sentence as Cylie walked by. Nearly all the people in view were men. In a cleared area near the center of the building, two of the drunkards were viciously going at it, exchanging blows and drawing blood savagely. The woman rolled her eyes at the sight. Fights like this usually occur here once every month. It almost was inevitable, considering that the only people that dared to walk in were hardened criminals or seasoned fighters. The owner of this establishment, Elroy himself, was standing behind the counter wearing a black suit and bowtie. Classic bartender wear. His formal appearance was in stark contrast to his customers, who were largely dressed in everyday casual wear, varying in cleanliness. Cylie was no exception, still wearing the same red jacket and sweatpants that she had first donned at the start of the week. She thought of herself as an attractive lady when she tried, not that anyone would seem to really notice. Her reputation was too negative for that. Elroy's eyes locked with Cylie's as she approached him, a frown placed below his neat moustache. Cylie silently wondered why he put up with the dirtiness of the Free Lands when he's so professional.
"Morning, Mr. Gomez."
Cylie tried on her brightest smile.
"Hello Cylie." The man replied, his gaze suspicious. "You're still banned."
"Dude, c'mon," Cylie protested. "My ban's been lifted by now, surely."
Elroy made the 'I wish I could help you' face Cylie had seen so often.
"You left two- no, three of my patrons hospitalized. I'm not letting you just walk back in here after that."
"You bar someone from here every month, and it's getting kinda old. Soon enough, I bet you won't have any customers left. How about I just work off my debt?" Cylie offered. Elroy sucked in air through his teeth.
"My assistants already take care of everything that needs to be taken care of around here. Got no spare chores, and plenty of qualified men waiting for a vacancy. Sorry."
What 'qualified man' would want to work here? Cylie's cheeks burned with shame, and she was beginning to regret coming in here in the first place, but she was stubborn, and she was determined to prove that her stubbornness was a useful trait.
"C'mon, Elroy. Just one drink?"
"You want charity. I'm afraid I have a strict 'no-charity' policy. If you were the only person barred from my establishment, then I might've considered helping you. But lots of people have found themselves in the hole you've dug yourself. If I made an exception for you, I'd have to make an exception for everyone else as well. For the last time, I can't serve you."
Cylie had been dismissed. What options were left now? Sucking it up and leaving? No. She wasn't missing out on a chance at getting her ban lifted.
"It's not like anyone else here deserves a drink than me. Look at those guys fighting with each other to my left. We're all bad, aren't we?"
That statement seemed to do more harm than good. Elroy sneered at her.
"I am not. Unlike you people, I actually make my dough through legal means. I worked hard to get where I am today, and I intend to stay here. The wants of someone like you are not of my concern."
"Hard work won't always get you off the streets," Cylie said, frustration coursing through her. "It won't always keep you off them either. For example, what if your bar burned down?"
Elroy narrowed his eyes.
"Is that a threat?"
"What? Nahhh. I was just sayin', y'know?"
Elroy continued staring at her, forcing another reaction out of Cylie. She tried to deflect the attention over to something else, like the fight currently going on inside.
"Are you gonna… do anything about those two?"
"Yeah. I'll ban whoever wins."
A lightbulb lit up above the woman's head. She walked over to the fight, and grabbed the head of one of the combatants. She then proceeded to slam it against a nearby table, breaking it instantly, and knocking the poor dude out. The bar erupted into a loud cheer, applause breaking out at several tables. The remaining drunk fighter was cheering as well, struggling to stand upright on his two feet as he did so. Cylie grabbed one of his arms, raising it in the air while declaring him the winner as if she were a referee at a boxing match.
"Ding, ding, ding! He wins, now ban him."
"I can't ban him, he's my best friend."
"I thought you said 'no exceptions'?"
Elroy did not respond. Cylie dropped the man's arm, prompting him to collapse. No one seemed to mind him as they went back to drinking and eating. Cylie took a seat at the counter, still appealing to Elroy.
"Well I just saved your friend. I think I deserve a drink for my heroic deed."
She smiled smugly as Elroy shook his head.
"Alright Cylie. You win. But mark my words, if another body shows up in my building, I will not serve you."
Just then, someone else entered the bar. It was a monkey beastman. His build was both large and muscular, featuring fur that was light brown in color. A pair of sunglasses concealed his eyes, and he also wore a red bandana with white polka-dots, a white muscle shirt and blue shorts. He made eye contact with Cylie the moment he stepped in. It was unmistakable. It was him. The guy that was most likely responsible for all of the Crimson Wind's troubles since her disappearance. The leader of the Bleeding Streets, Yangu. He sat right next to Cylie, seemingly unaware of who he was beside. He ordered a tequila, and Elroy obliged. Before he went around the back, he asked Cylie what she had wanted, and she replied by saying, "I'll have what he's having." Shrugging, Elroy walked off, leaving the two to their own devices temporarily. They were silent for a few moments. Yangu coughed. Cylie took a sip from a vial she pulled out of her pocket. After a few moments, Cylie spoke up first.
"Yangu..."
"Cylie."
Out of his mouth tumbled her name. His voice carried weight. It wasn't terribly deep, but like his face, it was full of presence. Clearly a voice accustomed to giving orders. Regardless of the impact his voice had, Cylie seemed at ease.
"Official business? Or just passing through?" She said with a smirk.
"Funny. I was about to ask you the same. Here to threaten my life again?"
Cylie's smirk vanished as quickly as it appeared. Without answering the rhetorical question, she responded, "I'm searching for a certain group of people that might've had something to do with the disappearance of my crew's guns. You wouldn't uh… happen to know anything about it, would you? Cause I suspect that you do."
"I don't. I should know more than anyone to not screw around someone as crazy as you. After all, you're the one that single handedly took care of the MC, weren't you?"
"I am. And you're lying," Cylie blurted, regretting the words as soon as she had let them escape. It was just so obvious. That vial she had drunk from a few seconds ago was the Sacred Water of Korin. After she had swallowed it, her perceptions felt heightened and her alertness sharpened. She could read the way Yangu licked his lips at the wrong time and glanced away at the wrong time.
"You think so?"
"Yeah."
"Well you're wrong. That aside, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but no one here is too fond of the Crimson Wind."
Cylie could feel some of the people behind her shifting in their seats. She was talking loudly enough to garner some attention from a few of the surrounding drinkers, who muttered words of agreement.
“...No regard for us...”
“...Holding up the line...”
“Drink your beer and leave!”
The woman rose from and stepped away from the counter. She only raised her voice enough to be heard. “If anyone cares enough to get in my way, step forward.”
She did not reach for her swords. She made little to no threatening movement, but she was wearing her award winning serious face, and none of her usual humor could be found in her tone. The men who had grumbled found other places to look. A conflict with the swordswoman wasn't worth anything. Cylie turned halfway back to the other gang leader in the room, "I was trying to play nice. Apparently that's not how people do it around here anymore. You aren't doing yourself any favors by lying to me, so you might as well get this over with."
Yangu folded his hands on the countertop. "I've already told you, I don't know shit."
As soon as the full sentence was uttered from Yangu's mouth, a hand was leveled directly at his face. It was Cylie's, and inside it was a sphere of crimson energy. Everything screeched to a halt in the tavern. Drinking men paused mid-sip, and talking in the general area around the counter came to a dead stop. Yangu's eyes widened.
"You said you know not to screw with me, right? Well, I'm pretty sure you're doing it right now. You know you're lying. I know you're lying. So I'm just gonna cut to the chase. If you don't tell me where my stuff is, I'm gonna blow your head clean off your shoulders with this here ki. Now tell me."
Cylie's ultimatum prompted Yangu to frown. Regaining his composure, he responded with a resounding, "No."
Cylie's arm began to tremble with rage, and the other people in the bar began to brace themselves. To their surprise however, the ki inside of Cylie's palm seemed to evaporate, until it was gone. Maybe she wasn't completely insane after all. The woman balled up both her hands into fists, allowing her arms to continue trembling at her sides. The onlookers spotted blood leaking through her fingers. She spoke to Yangu again, her voice even more irritated than before, "You're so lucky that I just made a deal with Elroy."
She then stormed out of the bar, hoping for someone to try to stop her, but none did. She'd have to blow off some steam by punching some random tree in a forest, then. As she exited the bar, someone called out to her, "You forgot your drink!"
Cylie wouldn't look back.
Cylie punched the table in front of her in annoyance. To everyone's surprise, it didn't shatter on impact. However, a noticeable crack was now visible in the attacked area of the wood. The tanned swordswoman looked around at the other faces that surrounded her, all looking rather bewildered.
"Where the hell is Jordan?" She questioned.
Timidly, the blonde half fox we know responded, "H-He's on jury duty."
"Jury duty?!" Cylie exclaimed. "Well, what about Horace?"
A different person responded, "He's been dead for months now, Cylie."
Cylie punched the table again, breaking it this time. She cursed audibly, her fist tightening. She had called this meeting between trusted Crimson Wind members about a week after she had visited Mr. Elroy's bar. Currently, they are attempting to discuss how to deal with the Bleeding Streets. Those in attendance were Cylie's two favorite minions, Xylo the Namekian, and Keisha the halfling. Apart from them were three others, the three most skilled fighters or marksmen of the whole gang. None of them were close to a fraction of Cylie's strength, but regardless, they were reliable enough for Cylie. The woman yelled again, "What kind of hot water are we in now? Anything else I gotta know about?"
The Namekian spoke up next, "Yeah, I wanted to bring up our financial issues."
Cylie began shouting immediately after his sentence concluded, not bothering to wait for anyone else to speak, "Okay, cool. Hika, take your one-dimensional ass outta here and arrange some bank robbery, I'll be there."
"Yes, Cylie."
A short, green haired girl exited the room just then, despite the limited instructions. Her actions prompted a question from Xylo.
"Uh, what about the Bleeding Streets? Aren't they the primary reason for this meeting? Shouldn't we do something about them?"
Cylie paused. She glared at Xylo, who began sweating. After silently noting that Namekians can apparently sweat, she began speaking to Xylo in a slow and monotone voice.
"The Bleeding Streets? We do nothing. Just wrap up some chocolates in a box, then mail it to them with a note saying, 'Thanks for the memories'. Dumbass. What do you think we're gonna do? We're gonna find Yangu, kill Yangu, then record his screams so we all have something to fall asleep to every night. Now… anyone have any ideas on how we go about this?"
The sky was cloudless, and the sun shone brilliantly on the desert lands below. It is the cause of the current blistering heat that plagued the dirty roads, but Cylie appreciated it regardless. She was speeding down the street in a pickup truck, open top with two doors. Her long hair was blowing in the wind as she drove with little to no respect for the speed limit, heading directly to the local gun store. She began slowing down as she neared her destination, driving into the parking lot in front of the building. After haphazardly parking her vehicle, she hopped out, cracked her knuckles, then entered. After seeing that she and the store clerk were the only ones in the shop, she immediately began talking rather loudly as she made her way to the counter.
"Mark, my man. I hear you support local businesses, right? Good, because you're about to give the Crimson Wind a corporate gift of a high powered rifle with a scope and a suppressor."
The seller looked confused for a moment, "'Corporate gift'? What do you mean?"
Cylie rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"It means I'm not paying for them. Now c'mon."
The clerk was silent for a moment as he took in Cylie's words. Looking defeated, he reluctantly replied, "T-Take whatever you want, Cylie. I can't afford another fire."
The woman smirked, "That's what I thought. That sniper on your wall should do the trick. You got a suppressor for it?"
After a few minutes, the details were worked out between the two. Cylie was now holding a large gun in her hands and Mark was shuffling behind the counter uncomfortably. As the woman left the store, she halfheartedly reassured the man, "Aw, c'mon. Wipe that look off your face. You sell guns to the bikers, and none of them have more than three brain cells."
Cylie walked out of the building, and straight towards her red vehicle. The Crimson Wind were ready to put their plan into action.
The Western Free Lands are a harsh place, and the few innocent civilians living there often suffer at the hands of bandits, criminals and thieves. Whether it be through intimidation, weak promises of protection, or straight theft, villagers living in the lawless middle ground of the Central Lands fall victim to extortion, and life is made hard for them. Many of them often turn to thievery themselves, causing the bandit problem that is occurring today. One of these days was one where the exploitation of supposedly innocent people took place, but today was much more brutal than any other day. An average village that housed hundreds people was visited once again by a major gang in the area, mostly known as the Bleeding Streets. They were already regularly occupied by these tough gangsters, but this time was different. People lost their lives defending their home from the ruthless bandits ransacking the village. Some people tried to exit the village, leaving family and friends behind. Entire houses were cleaned of valuables, and multiple were destroyed by stray energy blasts. The criminals patrolled the streets in search of hostile survivors, the sound of gunshots occasionally being heard from some of them being put out of their misery. A few miles outside of the village was a lone watertower. At the top of it was Cylie and Keisha. The latter asked the former, "D-Did you bring what I asked?"
"Yeah Keish," Cylie replied. She handed Keisha the rifle she obtained from Mark's gun store earlier today. "What do you see?" She questioned.
The blonde fox beastwoman grasped the pair of expensive binoculars she had around her neck. Looking through them, she replied, "I don't see the shipments, but I do see a lot of gangsters."
"The shipment's not here. Either way, it doesn't matter. We'll move in soon."
"I-I don't know about this Cylie," Keisha doubted. "W-What if something goes wrong?"
Cylie flashed an angry glare at Keisha.
"If you ever get another doubt in your mind, I want you to imagine that I'm looking at you through the scope of a high powered rifle."
"R-Right, Cylie! Right!"
"As long as everyone does their part, which they will, Yangu will be dead before we know it. Now c'mon, I see Jordan's signal. We should be able to get into the village unnoticed."
Meanwhile, on one of the many cobblestone streets in the village, three armed gangsters were patrolling. They bantered and laughed among themselves, one of them noticing the storm rolling through.
"Could rain soon."
His female colleague responded, "Scared of getting wet?"
He smirked before jokingly retorting, "Nah, unlike you reptiles, I'm a warm-blooded creature."
The trio shared a hearty laugh. The man then excused himself, claiming that he had to take a leak. As soon as he was out of earshot, the general mood of the original conversation took a rotten turn. The girl's tone went sour, "Where does that jerk get off?"
The remaining male attempted to calm her down.
"Easy, now."
"Seriously, I nearly got my damned head blown off while he just watched! I should've shot him instead."
"The guy is supplying us with our ammo. What do you think Yangu would do to you?"
"I was following his orders!"
"Still, what do you think he'd do?"
The girl was quiet for a few seconds, creating a rather awkward silence. Eventually, she said, "Turn me inside out."
"Exactly. Take some deep breaths, and walk it off."
Before she could however, something unexpected happened. A sword flew straight through the air, and halted in her friend's skull. The man collapsed instantly with half the sword protruding from the back of his head, and the woman audibly gasped. She whipped around, but before she could even squeeze the trigger, Three swords pierced the front of her torso. All three were now visible from her back. She dropped her gun immediately, and audibly whimpered. The blades were being held by a tanned hand as if they were a set of claws. Those claws belonged to another woman, who grinned at her evilly.
"Nothing personal, beautiful."
Three more swords entered her body, totaling to six. Then they then exited horizontally. The swordswoman sheathed her bloody weapons as her opponent collapsed, then called out to someone behind her, "The coast is clear, Keish."
Keisha emerged from a nearby alleyway, constantly looking around for possible danger. Cylie rolled her eyes.
"C'mon K. Keep up, or get left behind. I'm trying to close in for the kill."
The beastwoman nodded, "Sorry. Lead the way."
Cylie began running at a reasonable pace down the street, with Keisha following closely behind. The shotgun in her hands and the rifle on her back slowed the duo's speed, annoying Cylie. She had originally planned to make this trip alone, with the other Crimson Wind members entering the village another way, but Keisha would probably get herself killed on her own, so for now, they were a duo. The mission they were on was an assassination mission. Thanks to one of Cylie's subordinates, she learned of the Bleeding Streets' involvement in the crime near small and large villages near the north coast. She also learned that Yangu was here. Of course, Cylie went in headfirst, whether it would be a trap, or otherwise. She and Keisha creeped down the block, keeping their backs to the walls of the buildings that lined the cobblestone roads. Cylie peeked around the corner of this one building, seeing an unusually large number of armed gangsters patrolling the area. Cylie furrowed her brows.
"Lower your power level, will you? It's Yangu's patrol. I don't think we can take them on right now. This way, before they discover their dead."
Cylie ran back down the road they came from, and Keisha almost mindlessly followed. They went down a few alleyways in order to avoid any more direct confrontation with the enemy, passing a few dying villagers along the way. Eventually, they shouldered their way into one of the now abandoned homes. It was in a sorry state. Neither of the women commented on it, but they both were examining it. Furniture was gone, appliances were gone, debris littered the floor and the roof had bullet holes in it. This home once echoed with conversations between family, friends and lovers. No longer. Cylie slowly opened the backdoor to the small home, checking for more enemies. Once she believed the coast was clear, she beckoned for Keisha to follow her back out onto the road. They took refuge behind a broken down truck, most likely belonging to the Bleeding Streets. Cylie spoke softly to Keisha, malice dripping from her voice.
"For months, we've hunted for Yangu. For months, only luck has saved his miserable life. Today, his luck will run out. Hika told me that Yangu inspects the village armory each day. We can use that building to flank one of his possible routes, assuming that Hika did her job."
Cylie pointed at a rather large building on the other side of the street as she talked, and Keisha nodded. They both rose from their cover, and immediately after, a gunshot rang out. It wasn't for a surviving villager. It was for them. A bullet whisked past Cylie's face, causing her eyes to widen. She immediately began yelling, "Sniper! Get to the building!"
She crashed through the front window of the former home, and Keisha followed suit. Another gunshot sounded, once again miraculously not hitting one of the two women. A few small rocks fell from the foundation of the building. Cylie grit her teeth for a moment before figuratively snarling, "Son of a bitch almost got me. We'll have to flush him out before we continue. Upstairs, Keish!"
The two rushed upstairs, their footfalls loud and hurried. They immediately took cover behind the deteriorating walls of a doorway once they reached the building's second floor, as a convenient massive hole was in the wall and roof. It gave the women a clear view of the street below, and the building the enemy sniper was in. Cylie could feel the energy signature of their target in one of the houses in sight. As the two women peeked from behind their cover, Cylie informed Keisha, "Second row down, to the right!"
The beastwoman hastily nodded, brandishing her own sniper rifle. Her heart was racing, and sweat rushed down her face like a waterfall. Cylie's shouting broke through her mind.
"Get ready to take the shot! I'm gonna try to draw his fire!"
"O-Okay!"
Cylie reached into her pocket, producing a vial filled with clear water. Keisha knew exactly what it was. Korin's water. The tanned woman gulped it down in an instant, and threw away the vial. She then creeped into the destroyed room in front of them, while Keisha crouched, partially behind cover. The beastwoman leaned against the doorway to take aim while Cylie made herself an obvious target. Sure enough, another bullet was fired by the enemy sniper, and Cylie dived out of the way to avoid it. The bullet in question buried itself into the ground beside Keisha, which made her wince slightly. She did not pull the trigger, but she did manage to see the flash produced by the other sniper. She looked through her scope in order to properly see through the window the flash was produced from, but no one was there. The enemy was mirroring the women, taking cover himself. It was a game of cat and mouse, now. This wouldn't be easy. As Keisha took cover once more, Cylie yelled again, "Did you catch him?! He knows exactly where we are, Keish!"
Her fox-eared companion yelled right back at her, "I know, I know! I saw him!"
"I'm gonna draw his fire again, get ready to take him out."
Cylie got to her feet, and unsheathed her swords this time. Keisha took position again, taking aim at the window that she aimed at before. After a few seconds, nothing happened, and Keisha lowered her rifle. Just then, she saw another flash. As the bullet ricocheted against the steel of one of Cylie's swords, Keisha brought her scope to her eye once more. She saw her target run past a window, and she immediately began following his movements. Cylie's voice nearly broke her concentration, "I don't think I can risk it again, it's up to you to find him now."
Keisha could've done without the dialogue, but she still kept her hands steady. The other sniper stopped beside one of the windows in the other house, still taking cover. Keisha placed her finger on the trigger. Her finger twitched dangerously on it for a couple of seconds, and then, as soon as her target took aim with his weapon, she squeezed it. Cylie watched the opposing marksman take a shot in the eye, the scope of his rifle shattering. The swordswoman shuddered. Keisha didn't know it, but if the bullet had gone through the scope like that, it meant that both snipers were staring directly at each other when the single shot was fired. A second later, and Keisha would've probably been the one biting dust. She congratulated her companion on her victory, "I didn't expect you to be that useful, Keish. Good job. But I don't think those shots blended in well. We need to get moving, fast."
Cylie did not hesitate to leap through the massive hole in the building, expecting Keisha to do the same. Quite annoyingly, she didn't do it with the same grace. The tanned woman was already in a house across the street by the time Keisha had jumped down, and the beastwoman ran hard to catch up. She constantly checked alleyways and her rear, acting much more careful than her boss. Unlike Cylie, she couldn't sense ki. Soon enough, the duo was roaming through another abandoned building. The situation in this one was similar to the last, ransacked, damaged and littered with debris. Cylie hopped over a table that had been knocked on its side, and Keisha did the same. Then suddenly, Cylie pressed against the wall beside a large window. Keisha followed her lead on the other side of the glass. Cylie gave her the memo in a whisper.
"More of Yangu's pesky patrol. Let them pass."
Sure enough, when Keisha stole a glance outside, a large group of gangsters were passing by the building. They were heavily equipped with guns, swords and the like. The sight almost made Keisha's heart stop. It felt a lot different not being the intimidators. The fox lady immediately flattened herself against the wall, inhaling deeply. She listened to the men talking with one another outside.
"Keep your eyes peeled. And remember, no warning shots. If you see them, take 'em out."
"Think the Crimson Wind's behind this?"
"Maybe. Regardless, orders are the same. Shoot to kill."
The barks of a dog became audible. Keisha held her breath as the same dog appeared directly in front of the window on its hind legs, still barking madly. One of the men outside could be heard screaming, "They're in here!"
They've been found out!
Cylie cursed the sense of smell dogs had, then dove to the floor. Keisha tried to make a run for it, but immediately tripped over her own foot in her haste. As soon as she hit the ground, energy blasts were fired through the many broken windows that faced the Bleeding Streets. They flew over the heads of the Crimson Wind women, and struck the little wooden furniture and debris left inside the home. The already broken house was once again being attacked, and explosions began to go off on the piles of debris. Shrapnel pelted the duo relentlessly. Then, a column of fire was shot through one of the windows. The fox woman caught on quickly and began yelling, "They're trying to burn us out!"
"Shut up, Keish! Just try not to breathe!" Cylie exclaimed.
They both began crawling their way through, but soon, Cylie realized that her enemies were surrounding the building. They needed to move quickly. More and more flames began showing up. A broken closet to Keisha's left nearly fell over on her and crushed her, but it's fall was halted by a table to her right that was left relatively unharmed by the sheer carnage taking place. Cylie saw a flight of stairs in front of her, now realizing that they had to make a run for it. She immediately got up, yelling to Keisha to get her to follow. She did so obediently, and the two ascended the stairs as quickly as possible, narrowly avoiding stray bullets and ki blasts being fired at them by sheer luck. By now the second floor of the building was almost completely inflamed. Cylie's warning to not breathe was repeated, and the two ran for it. For a split moment, the two were meters away from each other. A plank fell from the fragile roof of the building, and landed on Keisha. She was knocked to the floor, now dizzy and stuck due to the heavy wooden pole on her chest. Blood gushed down her forehead as she tried to lift the plank off of her, only for her hands to be seared as soon as they came into contact with the hot wood. The building around her was collapsing, and she could not make her escape. She cried out for help, and seconds later, help came. The plank was off of her in an instant, and no one other than Cylie held a hand out to the beastwoman.
"Dammit Keish! I need you alive!"
Ignoring her boss' harsh tone, Keisha accepted Cylie's hand. The two continued through the building as bullets began breaking the windows on the second floor. Desperately, the fox woman looked around for an exit, while Cylie made one. Fiery red energy began to form in the swordswoman's palm, and within one motion, the ki was thrown towards a wall. The wall exploded and collapsed on impact, creating a sizable hole for them to jump through. Keisha was the first to go, landing hard on one of her knees. One second she worried about a broken kneecap, then the next she was worried about her boss. She put her hands on her head as she watched flaming debris land around her, followed by Cylie. The Crimson Wind leader rolled on the stone road she fell on, lessening the impact the initial fall had. She ended up lying on her stomach, looking rather dazed and woozy. The building they just escaped from would stand no longer. It will burn down, no doubt about it. Sure enough, three armed men began running down the street, quickly identifying the Crimson Wind gang leader. The three men stopped near Cylie, with one of them kicking her in the face, causing her to go immobile for a moment. As the men began to banter in mild surprise at the prize of the gang leader of the Crimson Wind, Keisha tensed up.
"Is this Chizu?"
"Yep. We got her."
"Looks like I was right. Toby owes me a hundred zeni."
"I thought we were supposed to kill on sight?"
"I have a better idea. Dave, still got that lighter?"
The bandits didn't notice her yet, but she couldn't just abandon Cylie, could she? She wondered if her boss would succumb to her wounds right here. They looked bad. Then again, they both were covered in bruises. Cylie could definitely handle it if she could. Just then, more gunshots sounded. Within seconds, the three men fell to the ground, riddled with bullet holes. Then, more armed people came into view. They were Crimson Wind members. Just in time. Cylie slowly picked herself up as Keisha gawked at the lead filled bodies in front of her. One of the rescuers began talking to the two, taking her out of her little trance.
"Keisha? Cylie? How convenient."
"Yeah, thank Kami you idiots haven't gotten yourselves killed yet," Cylie interjected.
The man ignored the fact that Cylie and Keisha were the ones who were nearly murdered and continued, "We were just headed up to the town hall north of here. Xylo and his group are probably headed there as well. A decently high power level is near there. Hika here thinks it's Yangu."
"She's correct. I can feel the asshole's energy signature. Wear your scouters if you have them. We're gonna clear the hall. Keish will provide cover from above. Stay hidden, and wait for my signal. The guy with the most kills gets a cake."
Keisha picked herself up, and Cylie immediately grabbed her hand and flew towards the roof of a nearby building. The remaining Crimson Wind members in the street began preparing themselves.
"Alright everyone, you heard her. Get ready and watch the road for the signal."
Cylie and Keisha successfully landed on the roof without being seen. They had a clear view of the central building of the village, otherwise known as the Town Hall. A decent amount of Yangu's men were milling about, but it was nothing they couldn't handle. Cylie chuckled, "Alright K. Get ready. Load your rifle, and take aim. I'll get the signal ready."
While Keisha followed her orders, Cylie flared her aura. She unsheathed her six swords, grinning. She then shot downwards, soaring like a missile towards one of the unfortunate souls in front of the hall. She hit the ground with a war cry, and immediately, the rest of the screaming began. Toward the end of the path that led to the hall, almost beyond the carefully monitored houses that circled the area, fighting broke out. Men and women squeezed the triggers on their guns, many igniting their auras. Blades began to cut down combatants. As people pressed to get to cover, a Namekian charged through the battle ground. A trio of bullets flew through the air to narrowly miss Keisha on the roof. As she stumbled and fell on her rear, Keisha craned to see the grounds.
Her friends were engaging the rival gang, who were struggling due to being ambushed. Fists met swords, bullets met blasts. Some attacks found their mark. Men and women screamed. Keisha knew much about gang warfare through her association with the Crimson Wind, but until now, she had never seen a conflict so fierce. Both sides harbored fierce resentment for one another, and it showed in their ferocious fighting. In a few brief seconds, she saw death, and more of it than the average person could handle. Energy blasts sailed through the air, bullets pierced skulls, swords cut through skin and fists broke bones. Keisha was having trouble keeping up with the action, often having to stop herself at the last moment from shooting one of her own. She watched as Cylie cut down enemy after enemy, much like she usually does. She seemed to be enjoying herself as she violently met with melee fighters, with that Namekian Xylo rushing to join her. The tanned woman ducked and weaved among the enemies, narrowly dodging attacks and efficiently slashing opponents. Hika and Jordan engaged the enemy with the same strategy they used on the practice floor. They worked in tandem, providing cover, dispatching foes, and pivoting to lend each other assistance.
The fighting soon began moving into the town hall itself. The Crimson Wind engaged their foes in intense room to room combat, and Keisha continued to check her fire as her friends cleared the building. Soon enough, the Crimson Wind emerged as the victors. As Keisha stared at the slain allies on the grounds, Cylie appeared right next to her. Startled, Keisha yelped. With blood flowing freely from her shoulder, Cylie informed Keisha of their next move, "We've taken care of the town hall. Yangu will try to run. We're gonna have to cut off his escape route. Follow me! I know a great sniping position."
Without awaiting a response, Cylie once again took hold of Keisha's hand, and began flying. Her sidearm fell to the ground as she soared through the air, but she couldn't care less about that at the moment. She was currently watching her friends engage more of the rival gang as reinforcements began to pour into the area. Cylie flew through the top window of a broken-down three story building, inflicting Keisha with a series of small cuts and bruises. Before she could complain, Cylie ran towards a large hole in the wall and shouted, "That building over there! That's where Yangu is!"
Keisha rose to her feet instantly, and rushed over to the tanned woman. Following Cylie's pointing, she identified the building Yangu was holed up in. Keisha's attention was still on her friends, however. She wanted to help them so badly, and Cylie seemed to have read her expression.
"We can't let Yangu's men know where we are. There's nothing we can do for them, Keish. But don't worry, Xylo's tough. He'll take care of the others. The death of Yangu will just be the beginning of the Crimson Wind's takeover. He'll soon be in our sights. The sounds of battle will flush him out. For now, watch the front entrance."
Cylie was referring to the front entrance of the building she had pointed at. With hesitation, Keisha aimed with her scope at the door of said building. Sure enough, Yangu stumbled out during the fierce fighting, but he wasn't alone. Four of his men accompanied him, and shielded him from any stray bullets. "Coward!" Cylie exclaimed. The four men joined the main fight after Yangu found cover behind a destroyed truck. Cylie pointed out his location, and Keisha placed her finger on the trigger. Seconds later, Yangu peeked out of his cover, holding a pistol in order to provide aid to his men. Knowing that she had only one shot at this, Keisha took it.
"Hahaha! That's for Horace, bitch!"
A single shot to the head was all that it took to end Cylie's vendetta against the Bleeding Streets. Keisha breathed a huge sigh of relief. Yangu was finally dead. Cylie jumped down to the ground below, her blades cutting down another opponent as she landed. Quickly, she assessed the remainder of her forces. Hika holding a dog back with wide sweeps of her knives. Jordan retreating while reloading a pistol. Xylo hurling a boulder with his strong arms. Cylie's primary attention was reserved for the woman approaching her boldly. Cylie crouched into her fighting stance. Clutching one of the most meticulously crafted knives Cylie had ever seen, the woman sprang toward her, leaping farther than seemed possible, lips peeled back in a hateful grimace. Cylie used one set of her 'claws' to guard against the opposing blade, then spun and slashed the woman on the side of her head. She crashed to the ground in a bloody sprawl.
Looking back up while sheathing her swords, she saw Xylo wrestle with a man taller than him. It wasn't often that you met a human that was taller than a Namek. It's a shame he had to be Cylie's opponent today. Cylie knew more than anyone that there was little room for sportsmanship on the battlefield. When survival was in question, you fought hard and you seized every advantage, because your enemy was sure to do the same. So she ran to Xylo, hammered the tall man on the back of his head, and with a well coordinated assault, she and Xylo took down the large threat. A spray of bullets were fired their way as a machine gunner spotted them. Cylie speared into Xylo, knocking them both into cover. Xylo groaned in pain before speaking, "Agh… Boss? Got a plan?"
Cylie surveyed the battlefield. Yangu had more men than was initially thought. An explosion occurred at the top floor of the building Keisha was in. It looked like their sniper had been found out. She felt Keisha's ki start to flee, so hopefully she'd be fine. Although now they had no advantage. Cylie responded, "Yeah, we're getting outta here. Get the others to flee. We've caused enough damage already."
And so it was. The Crimson Wind fled, split up and spread throughout the village. Xylo was with Cylie, relatively uninjured, but the other survivors, not so much. All but one of them were battered and beaten. It was a grim day for both sides, but ultimately, the Crimson Wind had completed their main goal, which was killing Yangu. It was a blow from which the Bleeding Streets would never recover.
A man was carrying a box filled with drinks through a hallway, passing a few other people as he did so. A few small greetings were thrown about here and there, but then, he ran into someone who didn't look all too happy. His boss, Cylie.
"Where were you Alex? I thought I asked you to pass those drinks around for us twenty minutes ago."
Alex paused for a moment as he recalled the moment he was given that order.
"Oh, pass them round for us. I thought you said 'go to West City and back'."
With an eye roll, Cylie ignored the sarcasm in Alex's reply.
"Whatever, c'mon. The others are waiting for us."
Cylie led the man into a large room, where most of the others were. The aroma of food and beer that was in the air was sweet, but the general feel of this event wasn't as cheerful. It's been a week since Yangu's passing, and the Crimson Wind wanted to celebrate, however, they were also commemorating the souls they lost during the conflict. Cylie and Alex walked up to a group of people who were seated at a round wooden table. Two seats were reserved for them. Soon enough, each chair at the table was occupied. Alex placed the box of bottles on the table, and it didn't take long for everyone to grab one. A man proposed a toast, "To the Crimson Wind." The dialogue was repeated by everyone at the table as they touched drinks. As people began to take sips, some began audibly reminiscing about the day they fought the Streets. Jordan was the first one to speak up negatively about the event.
"Sorry brothers. I couldn't save you. I'll practice with that gun, I swear. I stayed alive, distracted some of our enemies, but I can do better. Next time, Hika. You won't have to come rescue me so much."
The green haired Hika nodded silently, seemingly indifferent to his promise. Jordan knew she cared. She usually remained stoic when talking to someone other than Cylie anyways. He tried not to dwell on certain thoughts. He tried not to picture any of his fallen friends, a few of which now rested below the surface of a fine meadow near a forest, wrapped in their red jackets. He tried not to imagine how he would feel if something happened to Hika. He tried not to guess at all the danger awaiting the Crimson Wind, and the other friends he might lose along the way. Cylie's voice broke through his thought process.
"Don't beat yourself up, man. You did good. All of you did. Enjoy your drinks."
They all began doing exactly that. The Namekian Xylo, who had been drinking from a cold can of water, shrugged and rose from his seat. He beckoned Cylie to follow him. Initially perplexed, Cylie obliged and followed Xylo outside, leaving the others to do their best to finally enjoy themselves. Cylie and Xylo sat on random rocks they found lying around on the sandy ground. After getting comfortable, the woman spoke first, a light breeze ruffling her hair.
"What's on your mind, green man?"
Xylo was silent for a while before he responded.
"A lot. Firstly, now that Yangu's dead, what now?"
"What?" Cylie raised a brow. "You've earned a break, Xylo. I've never felt this happy in my entire life."
"It's just… these past two years have been crazy, y'know? We fought bikers, robbed banks, got in a turf war, established a gun trade, lost the gun trade, then killed a gang leader. What's next? Are we gonna assassinate Queen Furry?"
"...It's on my bucket list."
A look of pure horror appeared on the Namekian's green face. Cylie laughed.
"Calm down, I'm joking."
Xylo rolled his eyes while sighing. He was secretly relieved. With Cylie's unpredictability, it didn't seem all too far-fetched that she would want to do something that drastic. A few minutes of silence passed by. Both were now done with their drinks. The Namek broke the silence.
"You think the cops know about what happened?"
Cylie didn't even look at Xylo as she responded, "Probably. I don't know. We've never had to worry about the police much. Either they don't know, or they just don't care about what happens out here."
Silence again… Xylo stared at the setting sun in the distance. The village where he had confronted the Bleeding Streets was too far away to see. A familiar blonde beastwoman joined them outside.
"Hey guys."
"Keisha. Glad you could join us."
The fox lady had her left arm in a sling, and a few bandages wrapped around her forehead, but regardless, she seemed content. Sipping on a soda, she stood at Cylie's side. Keisha only seemed so at ease around the swordswoman ever since the battle in that unnamed village. The whole gang just seemed grateful that they made it out alive. The Bleeding Streets wouldn't give up, they knew that much. But regardless, they looked forward to the future conflicts that they might find themselves in. Most knew that they would die if they continued living a thief's life, but that was something that they had accepted. Besides, they were far too deep in the game to get out of it now. And Cylie probably wouldn't let any of them leave outside of a bodybag. Either way, they'd stand together. As the Crimson Wind.
Word Count: 12,335