Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2012 18:36:16 GMT -5
Not every day of Carmine's life was spent on the Demon Galleon, and today was one of those days. He found himself wandering Satan City, taking in the sights and sounds, trying to familiarize himself with the place.
But it wasn't the same. It wasn't his city. His city had been destroyed while he went off to a tournament, only to come back with more bad news to add to the pile. Times were tough, and even with heroes like himself around, you couldn't save everyone.
The slums of Satan City were what depressed him the most, he decided. Many and more of the people living in what were little more than glorified tent neighborhoods and shanty towns were refugees from Central City. People who'd had homes and jobs and lives and happiness now only had squalor and uncertainty, not knowing where their next meal would come from.
He recognized a few of their faces, and a few of them recognized him, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything. All he wanted to say was 'I'm sorry'.
What was that? Off to the left, down that alley, some kind of struggle. He half-ran to the alley to investigate, only to find three men pinning down a young girl, no older than 15, threatening her with knives and chains.
"Be real quiet, girly, or you'll never see that pretty boyfriend of yours again!" said the largest one, a fat bald toad of a man with a cigarette in one hand and an ugly knife in the other. The girl whimpered, and one of the other two men opened their mouth to speak.
Too bad for him that Carmine filled it with a Buster shot before he got the chance. Dead or unconscious, Carmine didn't care. All he cared about was that he had their attention.
"Let her go and you live. Try anything funny and you die bad."
The toad of a man dropped his cigarette and turned bright red with apoplepsy. His one remaining crony looked from the toad to the android and knew just what to do - he dropped his chain and ran home post-haste.
The toad remained, however, holding his knife just under the girl's eye, his other hand now securely grabbing her by the hair.
"I don't know who you think you are, mate, but here's my counter offer - walk away and she lives, try anything funny and I'll bring this whole city down around us."
The toad's body began to glow with a sluggish blue aura, as slimy and twisted as the man himself. His power was laughable, however - Carmine could end him with little more than a thought. The girl, however, she didn't need to be collateral today. As much as Carmine wanted to just blast this son of a bitch's head off, he instead opened his mouth as if to respond, and fired a focused Lullaby directly into the toad's ears. Almost instantly the knife fell from his fat fingers and he was unconscious next to the crying girl.
Carmine stepped to her and helped her up, extricating her hair from the toad man's hand.
"What's your name?"
"Miranda."
"You live around here?"
"Yeah..."
"I'll take you home. What was that about your boyfriend, though?"
She started crying all the harder. Carmine put his hand on her back awkwardly - he wasn't much of a comforter, more of a killing machine than a reassurance engine. After a few minutes she choked back her tears long enough to explain.
"My boyfriend, Todd...he's a jeweler uptown. He apparently managed to come across a connection for some really rare gems on the cheap, he was really excited to work with them...but the gangs caught wind, and now he's been captured by one of them. They call themselves the 'Devil's Head' or something. They captured him but he wouldn't tell them where he'd gotten the gems...so they were going to...to use me to..."
She started crying again, and Carmine nodded. He'd heard enough, he understood. He took out the Capsule for the Cyclone, popped the bike into existence, and got her onto it. As he drove her home, she seemed to almost fall asleep on the back of the bike. He told her that once she was inside, she wasn't to leave the house or let anyone in other than Todd or himself. She had to be careful, but he was going to take care of it.
Carmine had fought gangs before, and there was one thing they all had in common - they were all scum. Thankfully, scum all liked the same kind of places. So, Carmine found himself walking into the seediest bar in all of Satan City, with smoke thick in the air, the smell of bad whisky and vomit permeating every molecule, and scarred, busted up strippers on the tables. He sat at the bar and called the bartender over.
"What c'n I get ya?" he asked. He had one eye and white hair, and was missing several teeth.
"What do you know about the Devil's Head?"
"I know you don't fuck with 'em if you want yer family and friends to make it through the day."
"Where do I find them?"
The bartender nodded, and held up one finger to indicate that he needed a moment. He bent down under the bar, and a moment later came back up with a loaded shotgun.
"They find you, ya faggit."
The sound of the gunshot could be heard several blocks down, followed by a brief silence, and then the screaming of busted up strippers and drunks. Inside the bar, Carmine was holding the bartender up by his throat. The shotgun blast had torn away a bit of his face, but only enough to reveal that he was more than met the eye. If anything, it would have tickled.
"You have one more chance you pathetic shitstain. Where. Do I find. The Devil's Head."
The bartender reached up with shaking hands to his shirt pocket, where he produced a pen and a pad of paper. He wrote down an address, and then reached forward and tucked it into Carmine's shirt pocket. His face started to turn purple, and Carmine narrowed his eyes.
"You really thought you'd get to go home tonight, didn't you."
Carmine left the bar through the back door, wiping blood from his hands with a bar rag. He tossed it into a trash can, and when a homeless drunk looked up at him with fear in his eyes, he smiled at the man and told him not to worry, that he was dreaming.
The address he'd been given was on the very outskirts of town, in an incredibly cliched abandoned warehouse. When he pulled up in front of the place, he briefly considered going in quiet, taking them out one by one and saving Todd...but he couldn't be certain Todd was even alive, and he wanted to see their faces when he destroyed them.
So he kicked the door in. Or rather, he Typhoon kicked the door in, which, while excessive, left a very impressive flaming hole where the front wall of the building had once been. He stepped inside while the dust cleared, to find himself faced with three men - two standing, and one tied to a chair. One of the men standing was familiar - the toad from earlier that evening. The other was a taller man in a business suit. The toad looked terrified.
"Lucy...I'm home."
"D-d-d-don't you move a muscle or the jeweler gets it!"
"Shutup, you spineless waste. Let the adults talk for a moment."
"Normally this is where I would deliver a long speech about how I could spare you if you backed down, and how this all could have been avoided if you'd not been tempted by evil. I'd explain why I was here, tell you what I intended to do, and then give you one chance to go home."
"And now?"
"And now...I'm just going to tell you one thing."
"Better make those last words count, then!"
Carmine smiled, and closed his eyes. He turned to one side and drew his sword before looking his enemy, the man in the business suit, directly in the eyes.
"It's time to count up your sins."
Without another word, Carmine was upon the suited man, and after the briefest of exchanges, his sword was through the man's belly. He watched as the life went out of his opponent, and then turned his sights on the toad. The ugly bastard took a step back, once again dropping his ugly knife. He turned tail and ran, but not nearly fast enough to escape someone like Carmine. The android leapt, flipped, and landed in front of the squat, sweaty little man, and in his hand was the bartender's shotgun. He narrowed his eyes as he squeezed the trigger, and suddenly frog legs were on the menu.
He dropped the shotgun and went directly to Todd, still tied in the chair. Carmine, covered in blood, let the young man loose and offered him a hand up.
"Come on. Let's get you home."
"You...you're not going to kill me?"
"Have you made this city cry?"
"What?"
"Tears don't suit this city. Have you made her cry?"
"N...no...I specialize in wedding bands...."
"Then why would I kill you?"
Todd didn't ask anymore questions, and within the hour the two were knocking on the door to Miranda's home. She answered the door excitedly, and after a longer-than-awkward reunion, invited Carmine inside. When Carmine tried to refuse, Todd insisted.
"There's something I want to give you. Please."
"I don't need anything from you. I didn't do it for a reward."
"I know that, but everyone needs money, right? Everyone's gotta eat. Please."
Carmine decided not to explain that he was a robot (it should have been obvious from his facial damage), so he stepped inside and waited. A few minutes later, Todd came to him with a small black velvet bag. He upturned it into Carmine's hand, revealing several moderately-sized purple gems. They were beautiful, flawless, and masterfully cut. Carmine was impressed.
"These are the gems that the Devil's Head was after."
Todd nodded.
"Now I know why they wanted them. Why are you giving them to me?"
"I'd be lying if it was just gratitude. They're a liability, I realize that now. If it wasn't the DH, it would have been someone else. It's safer not to have them. A shame, too, I paid a pretty awful price for them."
Carmine and Miranda both looked confused.
"What do you mean? Miranda said you got them for cheap."
"Financially, I got them for free! But I'm still in debt...see, I bought them with...my soul. Or a favor. The dealer hasn't told me what he wants yet, but if I don't do it, then he apparently is going to take my soul."
Carmine looked at the man hard. "Tell me more about this dealer."
"Young guy, white suit, fair skin and hair. Purple sunglasses. Real silvertongued kinda guy, too. Called himself Sam."
Carmine's jaw dropped open, and he placed a hand on Todd's shoulder. "I think I've met this guy...don't worry about it. I've got you covered."
Without another word, Carmine pocketed the gems and walked out the door. He needed to make a few stops, and then back to the Galleon to have a very special chat with Captain Ryota.
((Zenni Please!))
But it wasn't the same. It wasn't his city. His city had been destroyed while he went off to a tournament, only to come back with more bad news to add to the pile. Times were tough, and even with heroes like himself around, you couldn't save everyone.
The slums of Satan City were what depressed him the most, he decided. Many and more of the people living in what were little more than glorified tent neighborhoods and shanty towns were refugees from Central City. People who'd had homes and jobs and lives and happiness now only had squalor and uncertainty, not knowing where their next meal would come from.
He recognized a few of their faces, and a few of them recognized him, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything. All he wanted to say was 'I'm sorry'.
What was that? Off to the left, down that alley, some kind of struggle. He half-ran to the alley to investigate, only to find three men pinning down a young girl, no older than 15, threatening her with knives and chains.
"Be real quiet, girly, or you'll never see that pretty boyfriend of yours again!" said the largest one, a fat bald toad of a man with a cigarette in one hand and an ugly knife in the other. The girl whimpered, and one of the other two men opened their mouth to speak.
Too bad for him that Carmine filled it with a Buster shot before he got the chance. Dead or unconscious, Carmine didn't care. All he cared about was that he had their attention.
"Let her go and you live. Try anything funny and you die bad."
The toad of a man dropped his cigarette and turned bright red with apoplepsy. His one remaining crony looked from the toad to the android and knew just what to do - he dropped his chain and ran home post-haste.
The toad remained, however, holding his knife just under the girl's eye, his other hand now securely grabbing her by the hair.
"I don't know who you think you are, mate, but here's my counter offer - walk away and she lives, try anything funny and I'll bring this whole city down around us."
The toad's body began to glow with a sluggish blue aura, as slimy and twisted as the man himself. His power was laughable, however - Carmine could end him with little more than a thought. The girl, however, she didn't need to be collateral today. As much as Carmine wanted to just blast this son of a bitch's head off, he instead opened his mouth as if to respond, and fired a focused Lullaby directly into the toad's ears. Almost instantly the knife fell from his fat fingers and he was unconscious next to the crying girl.
Carmine stepped to her and helped her up, extricating her hair from the toad man's hand.
"What's your name?"
"Miranda."
"You live around here?"
"Yeah..."
"I'll take you home. What was that about your boyfriend, though?"
She started crying all the harder. Carmine put his hand on her back awkwardly - he wasn't much of a comforter, more of a killing machine than a reassurance engine. After a few minutes she choked back her tears long enough to explain.
"My boyfriend, Todd...he's a jeweler uptown. He apparently managed to come across a connection for some really rare gems on the cheap, he was really excited to work with them...but the gangs caught wind, and now he's been captured by one of them. They call themselves the 'Devil's Head' or something. They captured him but he wouldn't tell them where he'd gotten the gems...so they were going to...to use me to..."
She started crying again, and Carmine nodded. He'd heard enough, he understood. He took out the Capsule for the Cyclone, popped the bike into existence, and got her onto it. As he drove her home, she seemed to almost fall asleep on the back of the bike. He told her that once she was inside, she wasn't to leave the house or let anyone in other than Todd or himself. She had to be careful, but he was going to take care of it.
Carmine had fought gangs before, and there was one thing they all had in common - they were all scum. Thankfully, scum all liked the same kind of places. So, Carmine found himself walking into the seediest bar in all of Satan City, with smoke thick in the air, the smell of bad whisky and vomit permeating every molecule, and scarred, busted up strippers on the tables. He sat at the bar and called the bartender over.
"What c'n I get ya?" he asked. He had one eye and white hair, and was missing several teeth.
"What do you know about the Devil's Head?"
"I know you don't fuck with 'em if you want yer family and friends to make it through the day."
"Where do I find them?"
The bartender nodded, and held up one finger to indicate that he needed a moment. He bent down under the bar, and a moment later came back up with a loaded shotgun.
"They find you, ya faggit."
The sound of the gunshot could be heard several blocks down, followed by a brief silence, and then the screaming of busted up strippers and drunks. Inside the bar, Carmine was holding the bartender up by his throat. The shotgun blast had torn away a bit of his face, but only enough to reveal that he was more than met the eye. If anything, it would have tickled.
"You have one more chance you pathetic shitstain. Where. Do I find. The Devil's Head."
The bartender reached up with shaking hands to his shirt pocket, where he produced a pen and a pad of paper. He wrote down an address, and then reached forward and tucked it into Carmine's shirt pocket. His face started to turn purple, and Carmine narrowed his eyes.
"You really thought you'd get to go home tonight, didn't you."
Carmine left the bar through the back door, wiping blood from his hands with a bar rag. He tossed it into a trash can, and when a homeless drunk looked up at him with fear in his eyes, he smiled at the man and told him not to worry, that he was dreaming.
The address he'd been given was on the very outskirts of town, in an incredibly cliched abandoned warehouse. When he pulled up in front of the place, he briefly considered going in quiet, taking them out one by one and saving Todd...but he couldn't be certain Todd was even alive, and he wanted to see their faces when he destroyed them.
So he kicked the door in. Or rather, he Typhoon kicked the door in, which, while excessive, left a very impressive flaming hole where the front wall of the building had once been. He stepped inside while the dust cleared, to find himself faced with three men - two standing, and one tied to a chair. One of the men standing was familiar - the toad from earlier that evening. The other was a taller man in a business suit. The toad looked terrified.
"Lucy...I'm home."
"D-d-d-don't you move a muscle or the jeweler gets it!"
"Shutup, you spineless waste. Let the adults talk for a moment."
"Normally this is where I would deliver a long speech about how I could spare you if you backed down, and how this all could have been avoided if you'd not been tempted by evil. I'd explain why I was here, tell you what I intended to do, and then give you one chance to go home."
"And now?"
"And now...I'm just going to tell you one thing."
"Better make those last words count, then!"
Carmine smiled, and closed his eyes. He turned to one side and drew his sword before looking his enemy, the man in the business suit, directly in the eyes.
"It's time to count up your sins."
Without another word, Carmine was upon the suited man, and after the briefest of exchanges, his sword was through the man's belly. He watched as the life went out of his opponent, and then turned his sights on the toad. The ugly bastard took a step back, once again dropping his ugly knife. He turned tail and ran, but not nearly fast enough to escape someone like Carmine. The android leapt, flipped, and landed in front of the squat, sweaty little man, and in his hand was the bartender's shotgun. He narrowed his eyes as he squeezed the trigger, and suddenly frog legs were on the menu.
He dropped the shotgun and went directly to Todd, still tied in the chair. Carmine, covered in blood, let the young man loose and offered him a hand up.
"Come on. Let's get you home."
"You...you're not going to kill me?"
"Have you made this city cry?"
"What?"
"Tears don't suit this city. Have you made her cry?"
"N...no...I specialize in wedding bands...."
"Then why would I kill you?"
Todd didn't ask anymore questions, and within the hour the two were knocking on the door to Miranda's home. She answered the door excitedly, and after a longer-than-awkward reunion, invited Carmine inside. When Carmine tried to refuse, Todd insisted.
"There's something I want to give you. Please."
"I don't need anything from you. I didn't do it for a reward."
"I know that, but everyone needs money, right? Everyone's gotta eat. Please."
Carmine decided not to explain that he was a robot (it should have been obvious from his facial damage), so he stepped inside and waited. A few minutes later, Todd came to him with a small black velvet bag. He upturned it into Carmine's hand, revealing several moderately-sized purple gems. They were beautiful, flawless, and masterfully cut. Carmine was impressed.
"These are the gems that the Devil's Head was after."
Todd nodded.
"Now I know why they wanted them. Why are you giving them to me?"
"I'd be lying if it was just gratitude. They're a liability, I realize that now. If it wasn't the DH, it would have been someone else. It's safer not to have them. A shame, too, I paid a pretty awful price for them."
Carmine and Miranda both looked confused.
"What do you mean? Miranda said you got them for cheap."
"Financially, I got them for free! But I'm still in debt...see, I bought them with...my soul. Or a favor. The dealer hasn't told me what he wants yet, but if I don't do it, then he apparently is going to take my soul."
Carmine looked at the man hard. "Tell me more about this dealer."
"Young guy, white suit, fair skin and hair. Purple sunglasses. Real silvertongued kinda guy, too. Called himself Sam."
Carmine's jaw dropped open, and he placed a hand on Todd's shoulder. "I think I've met this guy...don't worry about it. I've got you covered."
Without another word, Carmine pocketed the gems and walked out the door. He needed to make a few stops, and then back to the Galleon to have a very special chat with Captain Ryota.
((Zenni Please!))
