by WOTNOPOLIS: Chapter One
It was a typical day for Wotnopolis Railroads. It had snowed heavily through the night and had stopped just as the first train of the day pulled into the station. It had gone through the middle of a gang war, so required repairs. By the time it was fixed, a strong, hot wind had blown away all evidence there had ever been snow. It was delayed leaving by a tornado nearby, but eventually departed, though several hours late. The next train expected at the main station was from Crunchyroll, a city several hours away. If they arrived in the next three minutes, they would not only be on time, but they might have a chance for some clear weather.
The station in Crunchyroll was also in the midst of a normal day. The same three types of riders they normally had were boarding and unloading as usual. There were the shady ne’er-do-wells who wished to be ignored, the flamboyant annoyances who sought to be the center of attention, and those who wished to be ignored by all to avoid unwanted trouble.This day, like so many other days, two travelers had boarded that, if questioned, would have claimed to be shady characters. In reality, one was a nuisance and the other wished to be ignored by his excited friend.
“Oh man, look at that building, Bano! It’s huge!” the excited, blue-haired man shouted, pointing out his window at a particularly large building as they flew past it. They had entered the city limits of Wotnopolis and were now heading toward the downtown station.
Bano rubbed his forehead and sighed. “Yes, Q. Wotnopolis is the largest city in Animea; the buildings have to be huge to hold everyone.”
Q was not listening, his face plastered against the window, mesmerized by the new world they had entered. He continued on, rambling about the various sights, wondering loudly what was in each of the buildings they passed. Bano smiled apologetically at the glaring people near them; a blue-eyed girl in particular seemed prepared to slaughter them both on the spot. Even compared to what they were used to, this guy was annoying.
He pulled his hood up over his dark red hair, prepared to try to sleep, but soon became concerned when his friend fell silent. He quickly found out why, as the seat began to vibrate noticeably.
“Would you quite drumming your fingers?” he demanded, not bothering to look at his friend.
“Oh, please, everyone loves a good massage chair!”
“Not when I’m sleeping!” Bano responded, casting him one last glare before returning to his nap. Q returned to prattling on about the scene out his window and Bano eventually fell asleep.
“Fresh off the express!” Q grinned innocently, then added proudly, “It’s funny because it’s a pun.”
“Well, I’m here to teach you how things work in Wotnopolis,” the man said, the small group of men behind him snickering. Q tried to wake Bano up, excited to have found someone to help them, but was interrupted when the man continued. “My name is Silver; give me all your money.”
“Oh,” Q said, dejectedly. “We can’t do that. You see, if we gave you all our money, then we would hardly be making a good start here.”
Silver laughed, but was quickly cut off when he found a hand gripping his face. He was lifted off the ground and found himself staring at Q who was smiling happily. “Did you know that I could send so many sound waves through your head that it would explode? It would only take an instant.”
That said, Q tossed the man across the isle, into the girl who had glared at Bano earlier. She uttered something between a squeak and a growl and shoved the man off her. Silver fell to the ground, too confused and scared to figure out how to respond. Finally, he found his voice and shouted hoarsely, “Get him!”
The car had cleared out by now, all but the two men from Crunchyroll, Silver and his men, and the blue-eyed girl across from them remained, now. Silver’s men, as one, leaped at Q. Bano tackled one out of the air as Q quickly swung his leg out, catching one across the head and slamming him into a third. The fourth had pulled out a knife and stabbed at Q, but he found himself unarmed before he could get within range of the man. Q punched him in the gut, causing him to crumple to the ground unconscious. Bano dropped the man’s knife beside him and stood up, the man he had tackled laying still on the ground.
“Only the one? Did you stop for coffee or something, sleepyhead?” Q teased.
“You grabbed three before I was even up,” Bano protested weakly. “I had been asleep until you started making a racket.”
Q chuckled as he looked back to Silver. The man stood stalk still in the isle a few rows away from them now. He tried to stammer out a sentence, but failed.
“Get out of here,” Bano yawned, scratching the back of his head. “We’re way out of your league.”
The sound of a small explosion rang through the passenger car before Silver could respond. He stared blankly at the two men a moment before collapsing, a small pool of blood forming around his body. At the entrance to the car stood a man in a long, flowing trench coat hanging from his shoulders. He held a handgun leveled at where Silver had been standing. Q and Bano had leaped apart as soon as the gunshot had sounded, wary and waiting for more, though Q looked more like he had been hit in the head.
“You are all under arrest,” he shouted, his voice booming like a rocket. His black eyes flashed dangerously as he examined the car for the first time. “You two. You are under arrest.”
“What for?” Bano demanded, stepping closer to Q. “We’ve only defended ourselves from being mugged.”
“You have ‘criminal’ written all over your faces,” the man stated, training his weapon on Bano. “It would probably only take a few moments to dug up all sorts of vile deeds you have performed where you came from.”
Q rubbed one side of his head and stared at the man. “Who are you? A cop or something?”
The man pulled a wallet out of his pocket, using grandiose motions to prolong the movement. He struck a pose and held golden badge that matched his hair flashed in the light. “I am Seargent Amaterasu, future police commissioner of Wotnopolis. Now, raise your hands in the air or I will be obligated to use force.”
“Oh, please, why would we surrender to a guy with a gu–” Bano was cut off as a second gunshot echoed through the train car. Q fell to the ground, clutching his head, though the bullet had missed him by some distance.
“That was a warning shot,” Amaterasu warned, moving the gun noticeably to aim it at Bano. “You won’t be getting another chance.”
The sound of metal grating on metal sounded, then. Two sets of eyes, for Q was still on the floor, focused on the girl they had all forgotten about. She had stabbed through Amaterasu’s gun, skewering it on a katana they had not noticed. She seemed to float before the officer a moment before kicking him hard in the stomach. The sergeant flew backwards, through the door of the train into the adjacent car. She landed gracefully, snapping her sword out and sending the gun sliding along the ground.
“Stupid men can’t do anything,” she muttered, scowling at Bano and Q. They saw now that she wore a red T-shirt with a random scribble on the front with khaki colored cargo pants. Her shoulder length hair was somewhere between red and brown; her glasses reflected light as often as not. She had one katana still sheathed at her hip. Bano tried to remember seeing her move from her seat behind them, but could not.
“I have a headache,” Q moaned, standing up finally. The woman spoke over him, ignoring him entirely.
“Ama will be back up here another ten seconds or so,” she stated, watching them as warily as she had when they first entered the train. “I don’t normally help men, but for the right price I’ll help you get away from this highly dangerous man–” She was interrupted by shouting behind her. She spun around to find Ama a few paces from her.
“Yoyo, the dangerous criminal from the streets of Wotnopolis. I should have known you would team up with these guys,” he shouted, his coat flaring out behind him as his momentum slowed. “I do believe this is a promotion waiting to happen.” Suddenly, the man held a bazooka in his hands and aimed it at the three.
“Woah, a bazooka!” Q shouted excitedly, his headache forgotten. “That’s very cool. It’s also dangerous.”
“Duck!” Bano shouted, dragging Q down to the ground as Yoyo dove for the floor across the aisle from them. The train car rocked dangerously as an explosion ripped through the back of the train, leaving a gaping hole where once a door stood.
Bano and Q looked at each other, surprised at first, then Q grinned wickedly. He turned and placed one hand on the wall and, in an instant, the metal wall tore away. Without a pause, Q leaped from the moving train, landing hard on asphalt and skidding some distance.
“Idiot’s going to complain about road rash for a month,” Bano muttered, waiting for a patch of grass on which to land. His choice was taken away from him as Yoyo shoved him out, launching herself into the air behind him. Before he had even landed she had begun speaking again.
“I helped you; you owe me.”
Bano managed to protect himself well enough as he landed, rolling to keep from getting too hurt. He was thoroughly annoyed when Yoyo landed more easily than he had. “What the heck, I could have died!” he shouted as he climbed to his feet. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that you were in my way,” Yoyo answered, waving a hand dismissively. “Besides, if you had died then there would be one less man in the world and it would have been a good day.”
Q walked up to them, nearly unscathed from his collision with the hard ground. He brushed some dirt off his white T-shirt and said, “I had kind of hoped he would shoot his bazooka at us after we jumped out. That would have been really neat.”
“No, Q, it wouldn’t have,” Bano said, shooting his friend a look that promised to hurt him if he said anything else that was stupid.
“We need to get out of here,” Yoyo said, her tone implying that we actually meant I. “Ama’s high enough up that he’ll be sending a whole army of dogs and helicopters after us.”
“If I had a dog I would name it Hamburger, perhaps Cherry Coke,” Q stated calmly, causing Bano to laugh.
Yoyo stared at the men then frowned. “What are you talking about? We’re going to die if we don’t get out of here. That guy stands up to the biggest gangs in the city. He fights the mafia bosses and every kind of crime that goes on here. Now he has his sights set on us and all you can think about is what you would name your dog?”
“Mafia bosses?” Q repeated. Yoyo slapped herself in the forehead, almost embarrassed to be around the man. “Oh well, until I can find a dog, we’ll just need to go to our hideout and think of stuff to do.”
Yoyo crossed her arms and shook her head, deciding against her better judgement to follow these guys for a time. Bano stuffed his hands in his pockets and lazily stared at Q who simply stood, waiting happily for someone to start moving. Several moments passed before anyone said anything.
“We need a hideout!” Q shouted in realization. Yoyo slapped herself again in frustration. She then shouted in protest as she was lifted off her feet and thrown over Q’s shoulder. “Lead me to my hideout!”
Yoyo made quick work of the man, leaving him bruised on the ground. She turned to face both men, her feet apart and her hands on her hips. “Are you insane? You came to Wotnopolis with nowhere to stay?” She gave Q one swift kick then added, “Nobody touches me.”
“Hey, Q, do you really think we can trust this girl?” Bano asked, ignoring Yoyo’s presence entirely. “I mean, she’s not in a kitchen, so I wouldn’t trust that.”
Bano quickly joined Q on the ground, rubbing one side of his face in pain. He attempted to crawl backwards, away from the angry woman, but she was on him in an instant. Q, on the other hand, scrambled away as quickly as he could, searching for safety elsewhere.
“I still don’t trust her,” Bano said, grabbing Q by the shoulder and steering him down a street. “She could have just led us to this place instead of being so freaking mysterious about it.”
“She’s probably just off buying Cherry Cokes to celebrate the grand opening of our hideout,” Q said enthusiastically. “She did say she had some errands to run, after all.”
“Yeah,” Bano sighed, giving up. Sometimes it was easier to clean up the mess instead of trying to convince Q to avoid making it in the first place. He looked around, trying to identify which building they were going to. He was both pleased and annoyed to see that the only one-story building on this particular street had the sign they were looking for: a pink neon sign that flashed “Bar and Inn.” True to her word, Yoyo leaned against the wall near the door, her face expressionless as they approached.
When the pair reached the midpoint of the street, tires screeched on the wet pavement and a Jeep flew at them at breakneck speed. Neither man moved, watching it curiously. As it reached them, Q lifted a foot and the jeep hit, crumpling as though it had hit a wall. Curses and shouting issued from the vehicle, followed soon by three men wielding various weapons.
“I think someone is trying to kill us,” Q said calmly, pulling his foot out of the front of the ruined vehicle.
“You think?” Bano said, casting one glance at Yoyo then returning his focus to the men before them. “I told you we couldn’t trust her.”
“No, she’s probably just being used by these guys as bait,” he responded confidently, settling into a crouch.
The men raced at them, weapons ready for combat. Bano calmly dropped down, swinging a leg out and knocking one man down. He reached out with one hand, taking the man’s weapon and using it against him, leaving him motionless on the ground.
Beside him, Q had punched one man in the gut, knocking the breath out of him. The second man had reached around to stab him in the side, but Q had grabbed the man’s wrist, bringing his knee up into the man’s elbow, snapping it easily. The man staggered back, grabbing his arm in pain as the first tried to beat Q with a length of pipe. In his already weakened state, he posed no real threat as Q punched him in the face, knocking him senseless. The pipe clanged noisily to the ground as the final man raced for the door. Bano grabbed the man’s dropped knife and threw it at the escaping man. It landed blade-first in his back and he collapsed to the ground.
“Easy peasy,” Q said, smiling.
“What happens if they see through the trap, boss?” a man to the leader’s left asked. He was not quite nervous, but his fear was obvious.
The man smiled wickedly, making a motion with his hand across his neck that made the rest of the group laugh. “Even if they somehow avoid being run down, they won’t be able to win against the men we have out there–”
Smashing glass and shouting interrupted the man. He glared angrily in the direction of the disturbance, frowning hard as he identified the body that had just crashed through the window and now lay unmoving on the floor.
“My second in command!” he growled. “Find out what happened–” The doors swung open and two men marched in, their eyes set on the man. The rest of the people in the room stared in shock, unsure what to do about the sudden intrusion. The boss regained his thoughts first. “Get them!”
A split second later, the gang realized what was going on and raced forward, weapons flashing in the florescent lights and battle cries rising. Q and Bano were unfazed, dodging attacks here, blocking them there. It was only a matter of moments before everyone realized that the two would destroy them all before they landed a single blow.
“Darkflame, what are we going to do?” the nervous man asked, fear causing his voice to tremble. his question was met by Darkflame’s axe, his skull shattering easily as blade and bone connected. He lowered his weapon dangerously, spitting on the dead body.
“Nobody calls me by my name,” he seethed, suddenly unconcerned with the disruption to his activities. “Only my enemies may call me as such, for they must know who it is they fear.”
“Good to know, Fartflame,” Bano said, dropping an unconscious man on the floor.
Enraged, Darkflame threw his battle-axe at the intruders, a chain connected to the end keeping it within his grasp. Bano and Q dropped to the floor, narrowly avoiding the weapon. Q leaped off the ground, using one gang member’s face as a springboard and landing on the bar behind Darkflame. The large man tugged on the chain to retrieve his axe, but was snapped by his own chain. Bano twirled two kama in his hands, smirking as he kicked half of the broken chain out of the way.
“What? But how?” Darkflame stuttered, backing away from Q but stopping as he realized Bano was walking toward him.
“Like it? They’re like switchblades, but they’re actually kama. They’re quite unique and when I wield them, they’re also quite powerful,” Bano said, twirling them again and smirking.
His entire gang was either unconscious or so terrified that they could not move. He tried to figure out where his plan had gone wrong. He was feared by a great portion of Wotnopolis; his boss was feared by all of Wotnopolis. Yet, two men came out of nowhere and destroyed his gang with such ease. It was impossible!
Q jumped from the counter, landing between Bano and Darkflame, who turned to face him, his eyes wide with fear. Q reached out, grabbing his face with one hand, his fingertips pressed hard against his skull. From between his fingers, Darkflame could see his expression, shocked to find that it was quite serious and nearly angry, but with a hint of sorrow. Then his head hurt, as though he were in the midst of one hundred speakers cranked as high as they would go, then he knew no more.
“Um, sorry about your bar,” Bano said, looking around the room without much interest.
The woman smiled weakly, scrubbing away at the counter with her rag. “Oh, it’s alright. The Squid Gang–that’s who these guys were–were a nuisance. They wrecked the place and scared away customers.”
“Ah,” Bano said, turning to examine the room again, this time with more interest. This time he spotted Yoyo standing near the door. “What do you want?”
Yoyo did her best to hide her emotions, but it was evident that she was both surprised and angry. “You guys were, um, stronger than I thought,” was all she said. She could feel their strength from where she stood, AMP pouring off them in waves. “They need to learn to hide it better.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that you set up a nice little trap for us!” Bano retorted, sneering at the girl. She simply shrugged and looked away.
“Um, I want to say thank you for getting rid of those guys for me,” the woman who so loved to clean one part of the counter said, smiling sadly. “But you sort of destroyed my bar, not to mention my favorite sign. You can stay if you like, but you’ll have to clean up this place. If you continue to keep this place safe,” she added after a pause. “You can even stay here for free, though any drinks will have to be paid for.”
“Done!” Q said, grabbing one of the woman’s hands and shaking it fervently, prompting Bano to sigh and begin the process of moving the Squid Gang out of the bar.. “We appreciate your kindness, um...”
“Temari,” the woman supplied, caught somewhere between relief and apprehension. She managed to retrieve her hand and grabbed two brushes from below the counter, holding them out to the group. Q ignored them and turned to Yoyo, who had not left her spot by the door.
“Say you’re sorry,” he demanded, arms crossed over his chest.
“What?” she asked, startled by the command. Q did not respond and after a moment she shrugged, her face turning a light shade of pink. “Um, well, those guys were– I don’t have– Yeah, I guess.”
“Good, then you can be part of our gang!” Q declared, flashing her a thumbs up.
“What?” Yoyo and Bano shouted together, dismayed and confused.
“As long as she promises to not lead us into any more traps, then she is part of our gang,” Q explained, smiling at Bano.
“I never said I wanted to be part of your–”
“Cherry Cokes all around, please, Temari! We’re celebrating the addition of the newest member to our gang today!”
“No,” Bano stated simply, stopping his work to glare at his friend. “Dr. Pepper is far superior to that crap.”
“I hate to agree with such an uncivilized man, but it’s true,” Yoyo added, shaking her head.
“Who’s uncivilized?” Bano demanded, dropping a body on the ground.
“We’re going to need a room to go with those Cherry Cokes,” Q stated, slapping his hand down on the counter.
“You’re as uncivilized as any pig-headed man I’ve ever met.”
“‘Pig-headed’?” He nearly squeaked with anger, ignoring the dead and dying Squid Gang he had been moving. He stomped toward her, then stopped and smiled wickedly just before he reached her. “Have fun cleaning up this mess, woman. After all, that is a woman’s job, cleaning up after her men.”
Yoyo did not bother to give a verbal response, choosing instead to slug Bano as hard as she could. He reeled away, catching himself on a table and launching himself at her in return.
Temari shook her head, the thought of having more cleaning to do too much for her to handle at the moment. “You guys are going to be quite interesting.”
“You bet!” Q said, waiting impatiently for his Cherry Coke. “We have everything we need: a hideout, a never-ending supply of Cherry Coke, and a gang who loves each other.”
“Very loving,” Temari muttered, looking back at the brawl near the entrance of her bar. “Very loving indeed.”
The station in Crunchyroll was also in the midst of a normal day. The same three types of riders they normally had were boarding and unloading as usual. There were the shady ne’er-do-wells who wished to be ignored, the flamboyant annoyances who sought to be the center of attention, and those who wished to be ignored by all to avoid unwanted trouble.This day, like so many other days, two travelers had boarded that, if questioned, would have claimed to be shady characters. In reality, one was a nuisance and the other wished to be ignored by his excited friend.
“Oh man, look at that building, Bano! It’s huge!” the excited, blue-haired man shouted, pointing out his window at a particularly large building as they flew past it. They had entered the city limits of Wotnopolis and were now heading toward the downtown station.
Bano rubbed his forehead and sighed. “Yes, Q. Wotnopolis is the largest city in Animea; the buildings have to be huge to hold everyone.”
Q was not listening, his face plastered against the window, mesmerized by the new world they had entered. He continued on, rambling about the various sights, wondering loudly what was in each of the buildings they passed. Bano smiled apologetically at the glaring people near them; a blue-eyed girl in particular seemed prepared to slaughter them both on the spot. Even compared to what they were used to, this guy was annoying.
He pulled his hood up over his dark red hair, prepared to try to sleep, but soon became concerned when his friend fell silent. He quickly found out why, as the seat began to vibrate noticeably.
“Would you quite drumming your fingers?” he demanded, not bothering to look at his friend.
“Oh, please, everyone loves a good massage chair!”
“Not when I’m sleeping!” Bano responded, casting him one last glare before returning to his nap. Q returned to prattling on about the scene out his window and Bano eventually fell asleep.
* * * *
“Hey, you new to Wotnopolis?” a gruff voice called from behind Q. He turned to see a tall, if thin, man with bright red hair facing him.“Fresh off the express!” Q grinned innocently, then added proudly, “It’s funny because it’s a pun.”
“Well, I’m here to teach you how things work in Wotnopolis,” the man said, the small group of men behind him snickering. Q tried to wake Bano up, excited to have found someone to help them, but was interrupted when the man continued. “My name is Silver; give me all your money.”
“Oh,” Q said, dejectedly. “We can’t do that. You see, if we gave you all our money, then we would hardly be making a good start here.”
Silver laughed, but was quickly cut off when he found a hand gripping his face. He was lifted off the ground and found himself staring at Q who was smiling happily. “Did you know that I could send so many sound waves through your head that it would explode? It would only take an instant.”
That said, Q tossed the man across the isle, into the girl who had glared at Bano earlier. She uttered something between a squeak and a growl and shoved the man off her. Silver fell to the ground, too confused and scared to figure out how to respond. Finally, he found his voice and shouted hoarsely, “Get him!”
The car had cleared out by now, all but the two men from Crunchyroll, Silver and his men, and the blue-eyed girl across from them remained, now. Silver’s men, as one, leaped at Q. Bano tackled one out of the air as Q quickly swung his leg out, catching one across the head and slamming him into a third. The fourth had pulled out a knife and stabbed at Q, but he found himself unarmed before he could get within range of the man. Q punched him in the gut, causing him to crumple to the ground unconscious. Bano dropped the man’s knife beside him and stood up, the man he had tackled laying still on the ground.
“Only the one? Did you stop for coffee or something, sleepyhead?” Q teased.
“You grabbed three before I was even up,” Bano protested weakly. “I had been asleep until you started making a racket.”
Q chuckled as he looked back to Silver. The man stood stalk still in the isle a few rows away from them now. He tried to stammer out a sentence, but failed.
“Get out of here,” Bano yawned, scratching the back of his head. “We’re way out of your league.”
The sound of a small explosion rang through the passenger car before Silver could respond. He stared blankly at the two men a moment before collapsing, a small pool of blood forming around his body. At the entrance to the car stood a man in a long, flowing trench coat hanging from his shoulders. He held a handgun leveled at where Silver had been standing. Q and Bano had leaped apart as soon as the gunshot had sounded, wary and waiting for more, though Q looked more like he had been hit in the head.
“You are all under arrest,” he shouted, his voice booming like a rocket. His black eyes flashed dangerously as he examined the car for the first time. “You two. You are under arrest.”
“What for?” Bano demanded, stepping closer to Q. “We’ve only defended ourselves from being mugged.”
“You have ‘criminal’ written all over your faces,” the man stated, training his weapon on Bano. “It would probably only take a few moments to dug up all sorts of vile deeds you have performed where you came from.”
Q rubbed one side of his head and stared at the man. “Who are you? A cop or something?”
The man pulled a wallet out of his pocket, using grandiose motions to prolong the movement. He struck a pose and held golden badge that matched his hair flashed in the light. “I am Seargent Amaterasu, future police commissioner of Wotnopolis. Now, raise your hands in the air or I will be obligated to use force.”
“Oh, please, why would we surrender to a guy with a gu–” Bano was cut off as a second gunshot echoed through the train car. Q fell to the ground, clutching his head, though the bullet had missed him by some distance.
“That was a warning shot,” Amaterasu warned, moving the gun noticeably to aim it at Bano. “You won’t be getting another chance.”
The sound of metal grating on metal sounded, then. Two sets of eyes, for Q was still on the floor, focused on the girl they had all forgotten about. She had stabbed through Amaterasu’s gun, skewering it on a katana they had not noticed. She seemed to float before the officer a moment before kicking him hard in the stomach. The sergeant flew backwards, through the door of the train into the adjacent car. She landed gracefully, snapping her sword out and sending the gun sliding along the ground.
“Stupid men can’t do anything,” she muttered, scowling at Bano and Q. They saw now that she wore a red T-shirt with a random scribble on the front with khaki colored cargo pants. Her shoulder length hair was somewhere between red and brown; her glasses reflected light as often as not. She had one katana still sheathed at her hip. Bano tried to remember seeing her move from her seat behind them, but could not.
“I have a headache,” Q moaned, standing up finally. The woman spoke over him, ignoring him entirely.
“Ama will be back up here another ten seconds or so,” she stated, watching them as warily as she had when they first entered the train. “I don’t normally help men, but for the right price I’ll help you get away from this highly dangerous man–” She was interrupted by shouting behind her. She spun around to find Ama a few paces from her.
“Yoyo, the dangerous criminal from the streets of Wotnopolis. I should have known you would team up with these guys,” he shouted, his coat flaring out behind him as his momentum slowed. “I do believe this is a promotion waiting to happen.” Suddenly, the man held a bazooka in his hands and aimed it at the three.
“Woah, a bazooka!” Q shouted excitedly, his headache forgotten. “That’s very cool. It’s also dangerous.”
“Duck!” Bano shouted, dragging Q down to the ground as Yoyo dove for the floor across the aisle from them. The train car rocked dangerously as an explosion ripped through the back of the train, leaving a gaping hole where once a door stood.
Bano and Q looked at each other, surprised at first, then Q grinned wickedly. He turned and placed one hand on the wall and, in an instant, the metal wall tore away. Without a pause, Q leaped from the moving train, landing hard on asphalt and skidding some distance.
“Idiot’s going to complain about road rash for a month,” Bano muttered, waiting for a patch of grass on which to land. His choice was taken away from him as Yoyo shoved him out, launching herself into the air behind him. Before he had even landed she had begun speaking again.
“I helped you; you owe me.”
Bano managed to protect himself well enough as he landed, rolling to keep from getting too hurt. He was thoroughly annoyed when Yoyo landed more easily than he had. “What the heck, I could have died!” he shouted as he climbed to his feet. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that you were in my way,” Yoyo answered, waving a hand dismissively. “Besides, if you had died then there would be one less man in the world and it would have been a good day.”
Q walked up to them, nearly unscathed from his collision with the hard ground. He brushed some dirt off his white T-shirt and said, “I had kind of hoped he would shoot his bazooka at us after we jumped out. That would have been really neat.”
“No, Q, it wouldn’t have,” Bano said, shooting his friend a look that promised to hurt him if he said anything else that was stupid.
“We need to get out of here,” Yoyo said, her tone implying that we actually meant I. “Ama’s high enough up that he’ll be sending a whole army of dogs and helicopters after us.”
“If I had a dog I would name it Hamburger, perhaps Cherry Coke,” Q stated calmly, causing Bano to laugh.
Yoyo stared at the men then frowned. “What are you talking about? We’re going to die if we don’t get out of here. That guy stands up to the biggest gangs in the city. He fights the mafia bosses and every kind of crime that goes on here. Now he has his sights set on us and all you can think about is what you would name your dog?”
“Mafia bosses?” Q repeated. Yoyo slapped herself in the forehead, almost embarrassed to be around the man. “Oh well, until I can find a dog, we’ll just need to go to our hideout and think of stuff to do.”
Yoyo crossed her arms and shook her head, deciding against her better judgement to follow these guys for a time. Bano stuffed his hands in his pockets and lazily stared at Q who simply stood, waiting happily for someone to start moving. Several moments passed before anyone said anything.
“We need a hideout!” Q shouted in realization. Yoyo slapped herself again in frustration. She then shouted in protest as she was lifted off her feet and thrown over Q’s shoulder. “Lead me to my hideout!”
Yoyo made quick work of the man, leaving him bruised on the ground. She turned to face both men, her feet apart and her hands on her hips. “Are you insane? You came to Wotnopolis with nowhere to stay?” She gave Q one swift kick then added, “Nobody touches me.”
“Hey, Q, do you really think we can trust this girl?” Bano asked, ignoring Yoyo’s presence entirely. “I mean, she’s not in a kitchen, so I wouldn’t trust that.”
Bano quickly joined Q on the ground, rubbing one side of his face in pain. He attempted to crawl backwards, away from the angry woman, but she was on him in an instant. Q, on the other hand, scrambled away as quickly as he could, searching for safety elsewhere.
* * * *
It had begun storming and Q and Bano found themselves wandering the murky streets of Wotnopolis alone. Yoyo had told them she would meet them at a bar somewhere on the west side of Wotnopolis and given them quick directions which only Bano had been able to remember. Almost before she had finished telling them where they were going, she had left them, though neither could tell which direction she had gone.“I still don’t trust her,” Bano said, grabbing Q by the shoulder and steering him down a street. “She could have just led us to this place instead of being so freaking mysterious about it.”
“She’s probably just off buying Cherry Cokes to celebrate the grand opening of our hideout,” Q said enthusiastically. “She did say she had some errands to run, after all.”
“Yeah,” Bano sighed, giving up. Sometimes it was easier to clean up the mess instead of trying to convince Q to avoid making it in the first place. He looked around, trying to identify which building they were going to. He was both pleased and annoyed to see that the only one-story building on this particular street had the sign they were looking for: a pink neon sign that flashed “Bar and Inn.” True to her word, Yoyo leaned against the wall near the door, her face expressionless as they approached.
When the pair reached the midpoint of the street, tires screeched on the wet pavement and a Jeep flew at them at breakneck speed. Neither man moved, watching it curiously. As it reached them, Q lifted a foot and the jeep hit, crumpling as though it had hit a wall. Curses and shouting issued from the vehicle, followed soon by three men wielding various weapons.
“I think someone is trying to kill us,” Q said calmly, pulling his foot out of the front of the ruined vehicle.
“You think?” Bano said, casting one glance at Yoyo then returning his focus to the men before them. “I told you we couldn’t trust her.”
“No, she’s probably just being used by these guys as bait,” he responded confidently, settling into a crouch.
The men raced at them, weapons ready for combat. Bano calmly dropped down, swinging a leg out and knocking one man down. He reached out with one hand, taking the man’s weapon and using it against him, leaving him motionless on the ground.
Beside him, Q had punched one man in the gut, knocking the breath out of him. The second man had reached around to stab him in the side, but Q had grabbed the man’s wrist, bringing his knee up into the man’s elbow, snapping it easily. The man staggered back, grabbing his arm in pain as the first tried to beat Q with a length of pipe. In his already weakened state, he posed no real threat as Q punched him in the face, knocking him senseless. The pipe clanged noisily to the ground as the final man raced for the door. Bano grabbed the man’s dropped knife and threw it at the escaping man. It landed blade-first in his back and he collapsed to the ground.
“Easy peasy,” Q said, smiling.
* * * *
Yoyo slid silently through the doors of the bar, watching the goings on without much interest. A man sat at the bar, a large battle-axe nearby for quick access. He was the gang leader, without doubt. The rest of the people in the crowded bar gave him as much focus as they could, hoping for some in return. A short, brunette woman was at the far end of the bar, cleaning one spot religiously, trying to be invisible.“What happens if they see through the trap, boss?” a man to the leader’s left asked. He was not quite nervous, but his fear was obvious.
The man smiled wickedly, making a motion with his hand across his neck that made the rest of the group laugh. “Even if they somehow avoid being run down, they won’t be able to win against the men we have out there–”
Smashing glass and shouting interrupted the man. He glared angrily in the direction of the disturbance, frowning hard as he identified the body that had just crashed through the window and now lay unmoving on the floor.
“My second in command!” he growled. “Find out what happened–” The doors swung open and two men marched in, their eyes set on the man. The rest of the people in the room stared in shock, unsure what to do about the sudden intrusion. The boss regained his thoughts first. “Get them!”
A split second later, the gang realized what was going on and raced forward, weapons flashing in the florescent lights and battle cries rising. Q and Bano were unfazed, dodging attacks here, blocking them there. It was only a matter of moments before everyone realized that the two would destroy them all before they landed a single blow.
“Darkflame, what are we going to do?” the nervous man asked, fear causing his voice to tremble. his question was met by Darkflame’s axe, his skull shattering easily as blade and bone connected. He lowered his weapon dangerously, spitting on the dead body.
“Nobody calls me by my name,” he seethed, suddenly unconcerned with the disruption to his activities. “Only my enemies may call me as such, for they must know who it is they fear.”
“Good to know, Fartflame,” Bano said, dropping an unconscious man on the floor.
Enraged, Darkflame threw his battle-axe at the intruders, a chain connected to the end keeping it within his grasp. Bano and Q dropped to the floor, narrowly avoiding the weapon. Q leaped off the ground, using one gang member’s face as a springboard and landing on the bar behind Darkflame. The large man tugged on the chain to retrieve his axe, but was snapped by his own chain. Bano twirled two kama in his hands, smirking as he kicked half of the broken chain out of the way.
“What? But how?” Darkflame stuttered, backing away from Q but stopping as he realized Bano was walking toward him.
“Like it? They’re like switchblades, but they’re actually kama. They’re quite unique and when I wield them, they’re also quite powerful,” Bano said, twirling them again and smirking.
His entire gang was either unconscious or so terrified that they could not move. He tried to figure out where his plan had gone wrong. He was feared by a great portion of Wotnopolis; his boss was feared by all of Wotnopolis. Yet, two men came out of nowhere and destroyed his gang with such ease. It was impossible!
Q jumped from the counter, landing between Bano and Darkflame, who turned to face him, his eyes wide with fear. Q reached out, grabbing his face with one hand, his fingertips pressed hard against his skull. From between his fingers, Darkflame could see his expression, shocked to find that it was quite serious and nearly angry, but with a hint of sorrow. Then his head hurt, as though he were in the midst of one hundred speakers cranked as high as they would go, then he knew no more.
* * * *
Q dropped the man on the floor and looked at Bano. Bano nodded and looked around the bar. The young woman who had been hiding behind the counter stared at them with wide eyes.“Um, sorry about your bar,” Bano said, looking around the room without much interest.
The woman smiled weakly, scrubbing away at the counter with her rag. “Oh, it’s alright. The Squid Gang–that’s who these guys were–were a nuisance. They wrecked the place and scared away customers.”
“Ah,” Bano said, turning to examine the room again, this time with more interest. This time he spotted Yoyo standing near the door. “What do you want?”
Yoyo did her best to hide her emotions, but it was evident that she was both surprised and angry. “You guys were, um, stronger than I thought,” was all she said. She could feel their strength from where she stood, AMP pouring off them in waves. “They need to learn to hide it better.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that you set up a nice little trap for us!” Bano retorted, sneering at the girl. She simply shrugged and looked away.
“Um, I want to say thank you for getting rid of those guys for me,” the woman who so loved to clean one part of the counter said, smiling sadly. “But you sort of destroyed my bar, not to mention my favorite sign. You can stay if you like, but you’ll have to clean up this place. If you continue to keep this place safe,” she added after a pause. “You can even stay here for free, though any drinks will have to be paid for.”
“Done!” Q said, grabbing one of the woman’s hands and shaking it fervently, prompting Bano to sigh and begin the process of moving the Squid Gang out of the bar.. “We appreciate your kindness, um...”
“Temari,” the woman supplied, caught somewhere between relief and apprehension. She managed to retrieve her hand and grabbed two brushes from below the counter, holding them out to the group. Q ignored them and turned to Yoyo, who had not left her spot by the door.
“Say you’re sorry,” he demanded, arms crossed over his chest.
“What?” she asked, startled by the command. Q did not respond and after a moment she shrugged, her face turning a light shade of pink. “Um, well, those guys were– I don’t have– Yeah, I guess.”
“Good, then you can be part of our gang!” Q declared, flashing her a thumbs up.
“What?” Yoyo and Bano shouted together, dismayed and confused.
“As long as she promises to not lead us into any more traps, then she is part of our gang,” Q explained, smiling at Bano.
“I never said I wanted to be part of your–”
“Cherry Cokes all around, please, Temari! We’re celebrating the addition of the newest member to our gang today!”
“No,” Bano stated simply, stopping his work to glare at his friend. “Dr. Pepper is far superior to that crap.”
“I hate to agree with such an uncivilized man, but it’s true,” Yoyo added, shaking her head.
“Who’s uncivilized?” Bano demanded, dropping a body on the ground.
“We’re going to need a room to go with those Cherry Cokes,” Q stated, slapping his hand down on the counter.
“You’re as uncivilized as any pig-headed man I’ve ever met.”
“‘Pig-headed’?” He nearly squeaked with anger, ignoring the dead and dying Squid Gang he had been moving. He stomped toward her, then stopped and smiled wickedly just before he reached her. “Have fun cleaning up this mess, woman. After all, that is a woman’s job, cleaning up after her men.”
Yoyo did not bother to give a verbal response, choosing instead to slug Bano as hard as she could. He reeled away, catching himself on a table and launching himself at her in return.
Temari shook her head, the thought of having more cleaning to do too much for her to handle at the moment. “You guys are going to be quite interesting.”
“You bet!” Q said, waiting impatiently for his Cherry Coke. “We have everything we need: a hideout, a never-ending supply of Cherry Coke, and a gang who loves each other.”
“Very loving,” Temari muttered, looking back at the brawl near the entrance of her bar. “Very loving indeed.”
