Chapter 16: Errbody in the club*

Texas fired wildly into the rapidly retreating group until they were completely out of sight, shooting her last few rounds into the wall of the hallway, hoping she'd get lucky.

"Should we pursue?" Washington inquired, turning to Carolina.

"We haven't seen any proper action in weeks," Carolina pondered, "So how about we let them run and regroup for now,"

"Let's make this fun, shall we?"

Meanwhile, in the cloak room, Team LADS and GENTs were gearing up.

Mostly.

"Alright," Jack announced, pointing to a laminated floor plan stuck to the wall, "Once we get the Freelancers split up, we're going to have not one, but five simultaneous attacks, okay?"

"How the fuck is that gonna work?" Geoff probed, confused smirk on his moustached face, making an O with his right hand and repeatedly sticking his index and middle finger of his left hand through it.

"We split into groups," Jack replied, sounding surprisingly confident with his plan, "Geoff, you are Eagle One. Caiti, Eagle Two. Ray, you're Eagle Three. Michael and Lindsay, you two can be Eagle Four. As for Gavin,"

"Well, you can be Gavin."

"What?!" Gavin squawked, shooting a pleading look towards Jack, "Why?"

"Because I said so," Jack retorted, Gavin sighing and beginning to finger his hand alongside Geoff in acceptance. "Eagle One and Gavin, you will be fighting Agent Washington. Eagle's Two and Three, you will be dealing with Agent Texas. Eagle Four, do you think you can handle Agent Carolina on your own?"

"You be doubtin' our abilites Jack?" Lindsay and Michael shot back, death-staring Jack.

"Alright," Jack chuckled, turning to face Ray, who had his hands raised above his head, shaking them jazzily.

"Note the decreasing speed," Ray smiled flatly, Jack simply shaking his head, completely forgetting what he was going to say to Ray.

"Okay! everyone got it? Good! Let's Heist!"

"Uhh, I mean, Let's do this."

The Four Eagles and Gavin began readying themselves, discussing strategies and battle plans as they did.

"Uhm, Jack?" Caiti asked quietly, tapping on his shoulder, "What's your team?"

"Well," Jack stroked his beard, thinking hard, "I think I might go with Overlord."

"Oh," Caiti sighed disappointedly, staring down at Jack's orange mace, "How about, you know, what if, you, teamed up with, me?"

Caiti looked up at Jack, who was already smiling down at her, his face as soft as his beard was scruffy.

"I would love to Caiti," Jack smiled, taking her hand, "I'd love to be Eagle Two too, for you."

Yang was struggling to contain herself through the sudden burst of alliteration. Pausing for a second, she listened, hearing the collective "Awwwee's" of her romantically-minded female friends, and the disgusted "Eugh's" of Jaune, Ren, and Weiss.

Taking a deep breath, and settling herself, she continued.

"Ray!" Michael exclaimed, turning to face the seated Puerto Rican, "What, exactly, did you say to Lindsay before?"

"I tol' her to shu' da fug up," Ray muffled back, the chewy caramel and crunchy biscuit pieces of the other half of the Twix he had shoved in his mouth impairing his speech. Michael turned to face Lindsay, who was fiddling with the straps of her Gauntlets.

"Is that seriously all he said?" He asked Lindsay, caring but serious look on his face, the thought of losing Lindsay making him slightly overprotective.

"I guess," Lindsay replied, shrugging absently, too busy with her gauntlets to care.

"I GUESS!?" Michael roared, completely misunderstanding the entire situation, "What the fuck is that supposed to mean!?"

It was at this point that Lindsay realised what Michael was doing.

He was trying to get mad.

"I guess it means that we totally slept together, Michael." Lindsay shot back, hoping it would push him over the edge.

It did.

Michael turned, slowly, towards Ray, his breathing slow and deep. His face as red as a rose.

"Lindsay?" Ray swallowed heavily as he stared into Michael's burning eyes, "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Ray," Michael whispered, slowly beginning to chuckle, brown hairs starting to cover him from head to toe as his body began heaving.

"You fucked up."

Michael started laughing maniacally, louder than ever before.

All of a sudden, he stopped, and the room was filled by nothing but the sound of his heavy breathing.

And then he exploded.

Michael let out a deafening roar, shaking the windows violently. His body started to change, doubling, tripling in size in only few seconds, almost completely covered in thick, brown fur.

It was over in mere seconds, but when the roar had finished, it was replaced by the sound of heavy, wet, panting.

Mogar was ready.

The entire room was in shock, everyone's eyes wide, as they saw a fully-grown, brown bear, wielding a blue-and-purple glowing sword, angrily ramming itself into the lockers, denting them with loud, metallic crunches.

And then Mogar saw Ray.

Lowering himself onto all fours, Mogar began plodding towards Ray. Reaching him, he inhaled heavily. Ray was pressed up against the wall, scared for his life, standing directly in front of the laminated floor-plan Jack had been using. Ray and Mogar locked eyes, and almost as if Ray had read Mogar's mind, he jumped and rolled out of the way at the same moment Mogar raised a large paw high into the air, and slammed it into the floor-plan, completely obliterating the wall it was stapled too.

When the dust cleared, the only thing left was a pile of rubble, and large hole, leading back into the bar.

In plain view of the Freelancers.

As Jack looked sadly down at the pile of crushed bricks and plaster that was his floor plan, Geoff pushed past him and stuck his head through the hole in the wall, smiling and waving at Team LNCR.

"Hi guys," Geoff teased enthusiastically, pointing to Mogar and smiling broadly, "We have a bear now!"

"Uhh, did I miss something?" Washington asked with slight hesitation. "If anyone else can see the giant Bear, say Aye."

Carolina and Tex both muttered "Aye" in a somewhat unsurprised tone.

"Fuck," Washington sighed angrily, "I was actually hoping that wasn't real."

"Real or not," Carolina remarked blankly, "We're going to deal with this the same way we deal with all our other problems."

"With excessive force and violence." Texas cut in, a hint of bloodlust lining her words, "Got it."

With that, Mogar let out a deafening roar, and began charging towards Texas.

Over the sound of Mogar's thundering bounds, a squeaky, British voice echoed from inside the cloak room.

"Ooh! It's all kicking off!"

Texas couldn't help but laugh, choosing not to open fire with her gauntlet mounted guns, simply lowering her arms and readying her stance, grabbing ahold of the charging mass of brown fur with no effort at all.

To the surprise of the rest of Team LADS and GENTs, the armour clad huntress easily transferred the momentum of Mogar's charge, swiftly grabbing him and lifting him over the top of her head, throwing the writhing mass of brown fur down along the catwalk.

Mogar slammed into the DJ booth, hard, the sound akin to someone smashing a sledgehammer against the side of a tank.

The DJ booth sat as upright as it had been all night. Mogar, on the other hand, lay in a crumpled heap at it's base.

"Well," Washington sighed, sounding somewhat disappointed, "not going to lie, that was a bit of a let down."

Ray had not been having the best of nights, that was obvious, and after everything that was going on around him, he had had enough.

"It can't handle this shit," Ray said to himself, head in his hands as he leaned against the battered lockers, "I stole a Twix. I'm, I'm a criminal. I- I'm a true Puerto Rican."

Silently, Ray got to his feet, and as the rest of his friends stared through the wall, he screamed.

"FUCK YEAHHHHH!"

As his team mates held their eye contact with the Freelancers, Ray ducked out through the door of the Cloak room and into the hallway, back the way they came.

"This is gonna be sweet!" Ray laughed to himself, making his way further into the darkened hallway. As he worked his way down the corridor, he checked all doors. Most were locked, but the few that weren't offered quite a few surprises, his favourite of which being opening the door of a private dressing room to find the bar's owner, Yahtzee, crying quietly to himself on a lounge in the foetal position.

Ray finally came across the exit he was looking for, a door marked 'Backstage Entry: Staff Only'. He jiggled the handle, and the door swung open immediately.

"So much for fuckin' staff only," Ray smirked, easing open the door. As he peeked out onto the darkened stage, Ray saw Team LNCR, standing at the end of the catwalk, eyes still transfixed on the magical bear.

"This is all fucked," Ray thought to himself, silently closing the door, "If we're going to brutally beaten to death here tonight, I wanna be brutally beaten with some phat beatz." He slowly opened the door once more, looking out onto the main stage area, when a tall, shiny booth, elevated at the back of the stage caught his eye.

The DJ Booth…

"Oh fuck," Ray whispered excitedly,

"This is gonna be fuckin' awesome."

Mogar lay limp at the base of the booth, his impact's echo finally fading, leaving the bar in a stunned and confused silence.

Then, from the silence, the speakers began blaring a soothing, yet saddening, saxophone solo.

Still a little shaken (literally), from Mogar's impact, Ray slowly began to stand from behind the cover of the DJ booth, before jumping forward onto the edge of it, bringing himself into full of Team LNCR, deliberately trying to grab their attention.

Ray raised his fists triumphantly above his head, microphone in one hand, scroll in the other, both of which were connected to the DJ Booth by their own black cable.

This was the source of the saxophone…

Determined look on his face, Ray lowered the microphone to his mouth, and began to sing, with all the heart and soul he could muster.

Which, according to reports, was a mix of all of it, and none at all...

"I'M NEVER GONNA DANCE AGAIN!" Ray screamed at the tops of his lungs, bringing almost everyone in the bar to their knees, clutching their ears,

"GUILTY FEET AIN'T GOT NO RHYTH-"

Ray's 'singing', was rather abruptly halted by Tex, who had drawn her pistol and fired a precise shot towards him, severing the microphone's cord.

"Wow," Ray, coughed, inspecting the cord, "That wasn't very nice, now I have to change the damn song!"

Snippets of many popular TV show intros played in sequence as Ray skipped through the music on his scroll, prompting Tex to fire another shot, this time directly at his scroll, exploding it in Ray's hand.

"Fucking Christ! Oww!" Ray screamed, clutching his hand as the hundreds of pieces of destroyed scroll rained down on the DJ booth controls, randomly pushing buttons and flicking switches as they fell.

In a moment of pure coincidental harmony, the largest piece of the obliterated device happened to fall directly onto the most important button of all.

The Power Button.

Suddenly, the entire bar was filled with fast-paced, high-intensity electronic music.

# I go to sleep. Open my eyes. I'm looking down… whenever you're callin', baby you know I'll turn around #

Ray looked down at the booth below him, watching the Level Meters bouncing furiously with the beat.

"Aight," Ray shrugged, using his left foot to crank up the volume, "Guess this is my song of the day."

Ray jumped down from the booth, springing off the limp Mogar and landing on his feet at the start of the runway, Machete's drawn, ready to strike.

# I see your face. Not one sound. Whatever is callin', baby you know I'll turn around #

Geoff and Gavin moved to face Wash. Geoff grabbed his rifle, Puma, which he had slung over his shoulder, and held it at his hip. Gavin readied his bow, taking an arrow from his quiver and loading it onto the string. Geoff grinned at Washington when he realised his gun was bigger.

Washington drew his own rifle from his back, smirking as he expanded it until it was full sized, laughing at a rather emasculated and despondent looking Geoff.

Carolina stepped forward and drew her two shock-staffs from her back, connecting them together and spinning it above her head, slamming the end down on the catwalk to point straight at Jack.

Texas simply cracked her neck.

"Alright you cunts!" Geoff screamed, "Chaaarge!"

They all began sprinting towards Team LNCR, Ray included, all bellowing as they ran.

# Baby you know I'll turn around #

Texas dropped onto her back, using her legs to catch the charging Ray, kicking him over her. Using her legs' momentum, she then jumped up, caught a punch thrown by Lindsay, and fluidly folded her arm behind her back. Tex then ducked and threw a sideways punch at an oncoming Ray, who narrowly missed becoming rather acquainted with the raised edges on Tex's gauntlet knuckles.

Tex shoved Lindsay violently, causing her to stumble and fall to the floor. In the same motion, she caught a knocked-back Jack, who had been thrust her way by Carolina, and swiftly kicked him back to her.

Carolina caught the incoming bearded figure, and kicked him straight back to Tex , who, after she had once again thrown off Lindsay, grabbed him and performed a perfect German Suplex, flooring Jack instantly.

Carolina, after feeling the vicious crunch made by the back of Jack's head meeting the catwalk, spun around and grabbed her hand-gun from her waist, firing at the only female member of Team GENTs on the dancefloor.

What came next took Carolina by surprise.

Caiti deflected the bullet with ease.

Taking everyone else by surprise.

Caiti stood calmly in the middle of the dance floor, a small pink lollipop stick jutting from her mouth. It appeared to be glowing a bright lightish red colour, with a soft blue outline radiating from it. She held a spear no one but Jack recognised in her hand.

Suddenly, her body became bathed in the same soft blue glow.

And then she vanished.

With a bright flash of blue, Caiti appeared right in front of Carolina. She slammed the handle of the spear into the catwalk, anchoring it, and vaulted up the pole and swung herself around it horizontally, launching a brutal kick straight towards the side of Carolina's helmet.

The kick Caiti landed was blocked, but sent Carolina skidding backwards nonetheless. Immediately after Caiti's kick made contact, and while she was still in the air, there was another bright blue flash, with which Caiti disappeared and reappeared again, this time right in Carolina's face. All of a sudden, the spear split apart into seven segments, each segment being linked by a chain.

With another flash, and with a flick of her arm, Caiti spun the chain-link spear around herself.

Carolina took a step back just as Caiti sent the spearhead rocketing towards the cyan-clad warrior.

Carolina spun her own staff to block it, but before she could intercept Caiti's attack, there was another bright flash, and she vanished once again.

There was another bright flash of light.

Above Carolina.

Caiti reappeared directly above Carolina, still mid-way through her ground attack. Carrying this momentum, Caiti arched her swing to the left and pointing the spearhead straight down. The spear's shaft quickly reformed itself as she transferred her built-up momentum into her weight.

Caiti drove her spear straight down, towards Carolina.

Carolina jumped and flipped backwards, moments before the spearhead was occupying the same area her skull used to be. Caiti didn't falter, instead, she slammed the spearhead straight down, embedding it into the dancefloor, resulting in a shockwave so violent it knocked Carolina off her feet.

As she tumbled, Carolina extended her own staff back and fired it behind her, a pulse of arc-plasma propelling her back towards Caiti. Carolina swung her staff upwards, into a overhand strike.

Caiti ripped her spear from the catwalk and shifted in a two-handed upwards block.

Washington had Geoff and Gavin pinned down, gaining the advantage of elevation by climbing his way to the observation floor suspended around the outer edge of the room, giving him a nice view of the battle taking place on the catwalk and dancefloor below. Washington's precision with a rifle was made very clear to Geoff and Gavin, with Gavin's head almost instantly being blown off as they reached the top of the first floor stairs. As they struggled to counter the controlled and precise bursts of ammunition from Wash, their battle became less about shooting back, and more about not getting shot themselves.

"Well this is a right bloody gaf innit!" Gavin yelled to Geoff, who was taking cover behind the same, upturned table as him, "What should we do?"

"What do you mean 'we'?" Geoff shouted back, obviously agitated by more than just gunfire, "I have a big-ass gun, he has and even bigger-ass gun, and what do you have? Hmm? That's Right! A fucking bow and arrow. You ain't gonna be doing shit dude."

"What if we both jump out at the same time!" Gavin squawked, loading another arrow onto the bowstring, "He can't his both of us at once!"

"Hmm," Geoff pondered Gavins statement, stroking his moustache, "There's a chance you could die Gavin, you know that right?"

"Of course I know that Geoff!" Gavin shot back, rolling his eyes at the moustached man, "bloody idio-"

Gavin was cut off by Geoff screaming overly enthusiastically,

"OkayThat'sGoodJustCheckingWe'llGoOnTheCountOfThreeOkayOneTwoThreeYouBeBaitGOOOOO!"

They both rolled to either ends of the upturned table, and opened fire, only to catch the glow of Washington's aura illuminating the first-floor bar he had was firing from.

A circular, burning holograph materialised over Washington's left eye, over his visor. His gun began to sear brightly with a similar burning golden glow, his rate of fire nearly tripling as his already deadeye accuracy increased even further.

"Jesus!" Geoff cried out to Gavin, both rolling back behind the surprisingly resilient table, "I think our time is up Dude!"

Time.

Gavin's eyes grew wide.

"Geoff!" he screeched, jumping to his feet and drawing his bow as Washington reloaded, "Grab my waist!"

"Dude," Geoff sighed, staring at Gavin confusedly, "I know we're about to die and everything, but that's kinda ga-"

"Just do it!" Gavin screamed, feeling Geoff tightly latch onto his right leg as he watched Washington finish reloading and aim straight for his head.

He steadied his arm, drew his arrow back, and fired.

"MARK NUUUUTTTT!"

Geoff opened his eyes as a dull humming sound droned in his ears for a second. Unlatching himself from Gavin's leg, Geoff stood up and looked around the room, immediately noticing the lack of motion and noise.

"What the fuck is this?" Geoff asked loudly, hesitantly beginning to walk around the room, poking at tables and chairs and pieces of floating debris as he made his way towards Gavin, who was already power-walking towards the bar.

"This-ss is-ss my s-semblance Geoff," Gavin hissed, shuffling left and right intermittently to avoid the slow-moving bullets, "I fire an arrow and ss-scream Mark Nutt! And thiss-s happenss-s."

Geoff watched as each flash from Washington's triple-burst fire filled the room with bright, white light. He turned to look at the table they had been hiding behind,watching the first few projectiles slowly drift through where Gavin would have been mere seconds ago. At least, he assumed it was seconds ago.

"How is it affecting me?" Geoff asked, turning to face Gavin, who had jumped the bar and was aiming an arrow at the floor beside Washington.

"I think it's-ss because you were hugging me," Gavin shrugged, firing the speckled-arrow into the floor and jumping back over the bar, making his way to the edge of the balcony and readying another arrow.

"What do you mean think?" Geoff stared quizzically at Gavin, who aimed an arrow towards the DJ booth and fired, the arrow arcing gracefully towards it and silently freezing in the air the moment the arrowhead touched the 'next' button.

"Didn't like that toss-ssing song anyway," Gavin said to himself, pulling a final arrow from his quiver and tossing it lazily to Geoff. "I don't know how it works-ss, but I thought if you hugged me when I did the thing, it might work for you too!" Geoff sighed, catching the arrow in his right hand and walking back to the table they were taking cover behind with Gavin.

"You could have told me!" Geoff blurted, annoyed with his British friend, "I was freaking the fuck out dude!" Gavin simply looked at him, and shrugged, annoying him even more.

Reaching their surprisingly strong table barrier once again, and vaulting over it, they both seated themselves safely out of harms way. Geoff stared angrily at Gavin.

"How long until this slo-mo shit wears off?" He asked, examining the arrow in his hand.

"I dunno," Gavin shrugged again, checking his watch before realising the pointlessness of it, "I'm guessing a minute or so, for us of course. So that's like, what, 10 more seconds?"

A rather pissed-off Geoff looked at Gavin just as Gavin looked away, giving Geoff time to shove the speckled arrow he was holding through a loose fold of Gavin's jeans and into the floor.

5.

A rather shocked Gavin turned to face Geoff.

4.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR YOU BLOODY IDIOT!" Gavin screamed at Geoff, trying to remove the arrow before realising it was frozen in place.

3.

"What's the problem?" Geoff chuckled at Gavin , watching him frantically trying to move away from the arrow, "It's not like these things explode or something."

2.

Gavin stared wide-eyed at Geoff, who, after a few seconds, Stared wide-eyed back.

1.

"THEY FUCKING WHA-"

Three violent explosions rocked the bar, one from the DJ booth, and two from upstairs.

All commotion in the bar stopped for a moment as the floor shook and the music stopped, leaving the bar with nothing but the sound of an explosion, which slowly began ringing and fading into the night.

Suddenly, music began to blare through the speakers again. This time being sung by a concerningly young sounding girl.

# Teen drinking is very very very bad. Yo I got a fake ID though...#

"What the hell is this?" Lindsay asked confusedly, to no one in particular.

# Yeeah. Yeeah. Yeeah. Yo. 2 step with me, 2 step with me. 1, here comes the 2 to the 3 to the 4, Everybody drunk out on the dance floor...#

Tex stood over a defeated Ray, whom Lindsay assumed had just felt like a nap, there being no way he could have been knocked unconscious from being punched in the thigh.

Tex clicked her neck and shoulders, and started marching towards her.

#...if not I gotta move on to the next floor...#

Lindsay threw the first punch, Tex ducked, going straight for the head with her counter. Lindsay smacked the armoured arm aside, moving with fluidity, she returned the counter with a back-hand strike.

Tex used two hands to block, and Lindsay took advantage of her opening, landing a fast uppercut strike to the jaw of Tex's helmet.

Tex countered straight away with a brutal headbutt.

#Now errrbody' in the club gettin' tipsy. (Errrbody in the club gettin tipsy)#

A kick to the gut and a straight elbow to the face was enough to really piss Lindsay off. 'This bitch thinks she is soo fucking tough...' Lindsay thought angrily to herself.

She swung, but it was too wide, and Tex caught her hand. Grabbing her other arm, Texas pushed Lindsay back, just far enough so that she could land a brutal side-kick straight to Lindsay's chest, launching her across the room, straight into the ground floor bar, smacking her head on the edge.

#...now errrbody' in the club gettin' tipsy. (Errrbody in the club gettin tipsy.)#

Lindsay staggered to her feet, her head spinning. Her arm swept across the counter, randomly grabbing a bottle from the countertop.

She rushed Tex, bringing the bottle high in an over-arm strike. Tex raised her left arm to block.

Glass would never penetrate armour.

# Now errrbody in the club gettin tipsy. (Errybody in the club gettin tipsy.)#

But the contents might…

And unluckily for Texas, Lindsay had managed to grab Gavin's unattended drink…

A volatile concoction of Sunny D, and Vodka.

# ...now errrbody in the club gettin tipsy. (Errybody in the club gettin tipsy.)#

Riot Punch.

Tex's gauntlet sizzled as an alarming amount of sparks began to pour from it. Her arm flopped to her side. She evidently tried to swing it, but it's unresponsiveness forced her to try and repel Lindsay with an oddly placed blow with her right arm.

Lindsay began to advance, Tex resorting to using her one good arm and her legs to parry Lindsay's blows.

# 2, here comes the 3 to the 4 to the 5, Now I'm lookin at shorty right in the eyes...#

Lindsay began to get ahead of herself. She threw a reckless punch, only for it to be caught by Tex.

Texas jumped up, and wrapped her right leg around Lindsay's outstretched arm, and using her left, she swept out Lindsay's feet, bringing her crashing to the ground. Tex carried her momentum and spun in the air, completing two full rotations before landing gracefully on her feet, successfully completing the worlds first human-skateboard double-kickflip.

Before Lindsay could stagger back to her feet, Tex slammed her foot into Lindsay's side , sending her sliding across the floor. When Lindsay next opened her eyes, she was slumped over the table where Team LADS and GENTs had been seated nearly a whole chapter ago.

Tex tramped towards her, limping slightly to the left as her decommissioned arm hung limply, swaying with the motion of the armoured black warrior.

Lindsay knew what she had to do.

Texas was sure she had nearly beaten her surprisingly persistent opponent, but she hadn't quite anticipated Lindsay to throw an entire table at her.

Lindsay's tactic had worked perfectly. In battle, Tex had showed that she takes the most direct route to her adversary, going through obstacles rather than avoiding them. The table was no exception.

Tex raised her good fist, and punched the airborne table head-on, smashing it in two, and as the pieces parted in the air, Lindsay was right in front of her.

Lindsay had grabbed two dark coloured bottles, which had been left there by Michael and Gavin, flipped up the table they had been sitting on, and kicked it across. She used the table as cover to get right up to Texas.

Lindsay jumped, and brought both the bottles crashing down on the top of Tex's helmet.

Sparks erupted from the whole top half of Tex's armour, like a fountain of sparks and electricity. It looked as though Tex's whole armour suit had completely shut down.

Lindsay jumped again and spun, landing an extremely satisfying kick straight to Tex's immobile helmet, sending the nearly rigid black suit tearing towards the wall.

Tex slammed against the wall, hard, and slid down it, into a slumped sitting position in a dark corner of the dancefloor.

# Now errrbody in the club gettin tipsy. (Errybody in the club gettin tipsy.)#

She was then sent tumbling to the side as Caiti was thrown directly at her, leaving the pair in a tangled heap.

Carolina was eager to challenge the girl who had seemingly beaten Agent Texas.

A Cyan blur dashed straight up to Lindsay.

No mercy was shown.

You couldn't be blamed for mistaking the following sound for a gunshot.

The sound of an arm breaking is quite similar…

Carolina dashed straight up to Lindsay, and landed a brutal flying kick to her chest. From there, she ducked to the side and landed several rapid punches into Lindsays spine. Carolina swung Lindsay's arm around behind her back.

And bent it completely sideways.

Snap.

Lindsay let out a bloodcurdling scream.

A scream heard by all, but most so, by Michael.

Suddenly, the unconscious Mogar's eyes slammed open, fixing his gaze on the cyan-suited warrior.

Carolina.

"Y-you whore," Mogar whispered under his breath, slowly clambering onto all fours and turning his huge brown mass to face her.

"YOU FUCKING WHORE!" He roared, rearing onto his hind legs as the bellowed sentence escaped his mouth, "Don't you ever touch my girlfriend like that again!"

Time froze as Mogar screamed those words with all the emotion he could muster. He tilted his head, to see Lindsay, eye's wide, staring at him.

"G- Girlfriend?" Her eyes seemed to say, confusion and wonder mixing to form one on her slowly-falling face,

"Yes," Mogar whispered, in an attempt to reply, "Will you, Lindsay Tuggey, be my girlfriend?"

Mogar could see the tears forming in Lindsay's eyes, from the joy of his proposal, of the pain of Carolina's attack, he wasn't sure. He scanned her face, looking for a sign, a response, anything. Then all of a sudden, with tears willing Lindsay's eyes shut, she nodded her head, and mouthed one, simple, word.

"Yes."

In that instant, the world exploded back to full speed, Lindsay's body slumping to the floor. Mogar's huge mass quickly picked up speed as he charged down the runway, wanting to hit Carolina as hard as he possibly could.

Unbeknownst to him, however, was a certain British individual, standing on the second floor, covered in soot, bow in hand, arrow sailing through the air, and completely aware of their conversation.

"That's-ss-s the way my boii!" he hissed, glancing at the arrow stuck in Mogar's back, and to another piercing Lindsay's sleeve. His vision once again turning a sickening green as an excited grin covered his face, "It'ss-ss-s time to ss-s-save Lindsay."

Mogar tore down the runway, the gap between him and his target closing fast.

Something Gavin had not considered though, was the stray arrow Carolina had been inadvertently standing on slowing time for her as well, and giving her lots of time to prepare.

Mogar lowered his head, bracing himself for impact with the armour-clad figure.

An impact that doesn't occur.

Carolina had been assessing her situation during the slowed time period, using Lindsays facial expressions to confirm her suspicion that a bear was looming down on her with great speed. As soon as she had predicted Mogars impact, she turned to the side, staring into the eyes of the the massive furry mass hurtling towards her.

She shifted and sidestepped, now side on to Mogars charge. She spun on the spot, going for an open-palmed strike.

Backspinning, she swung her arm, landing a brutal backhanded pimp slap straight to the side of Mogar's bear snout.

With a crunch that could only be described as utterly devastating, Mogar was propelled back the way he came, once again slamming into the surprisingly durable DJ booth, much to the shock of Gavin, who was still standing on the first floor balcony, watching the mayhem unfold with his mouth wide open.

With a sudden, strange burst of gusto, Gavin ran to the railing next to Geoff, a fist sized object in his hand.

"What the fuck is that supposed to be?" Geoff asked quizzically, patting black dust from his favourite shirt, pointing to the lumpy item in Gavin's hand.

"It's one of their special emp grenades!" Gavin squealed back, hearing a exasperated groan emanate from behind the bar that Washington was currently occupying. Geoff couldn't help but chuckle, instantly recognising the item in Gavin's hand.

"Yeah, riiight," Geoff nodded sarcastically, leaning his rifle against the railing as he did the same, wanting to watch these events play out, "Have fun with that."

With an encouraging 'pat on the back' from Geoff, Gavin half-vaulted, half-tumbled over the railing, landing surprisingly gracefully on the floor below.

With his newfound confidence, Gavin arced his arm back in expert form, and threw the object straight at Carolina, screaming "Mark Nuuuutt!" as he did.

Carolina had just pimp slapped a bear across a dance floor, which was surprisingly not the strangest thing she had done this evening, and to her surprise, this was immediately followed by another unexpected event.

A skinny British man with large nose hitting her in the back of the head with a heavy object while making strange "cooing" noises.

She definitely was not expecting that.

Gavin immediately spun around to face away from Carolina, whipping out his brand-new aviators as quickly as humanly possible and slamming them on his face with pinpoint accuracy.

"Cool guys don't look at these!" Gavin cried, his voice a mix of excitement and desperation. He put his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest as far as he could, which didn't work in the slightest.

Something else that didn't work in the slightest, was Gavin's 'grenade'.

Gavin stood, stock still, waiting for an explosion behind him.

The only explosion to occur, however, was Geoff bursting out into delirious laughter above him.

"You fucking moron!" Geoff cried between exasperated laughs, pointing at him disparagingly, "I can't believe you actually thought that was a fucking grenade!"

"WOT?!" Gavin squealed back, quickly taking off his aviators and and hanging them from the neck of his shirt to keep them safe.

"That was a rock you fucking idiot!" Geoff laughed hysterically, flipping him off from his elevated position, embarrassing Gavin even more.

Meanwhile, Washington had come out from behind the bar counter, out of cover, to see what the hell was going on.

He joined Geoff at the railing, looking down at Gavin, who looked back with an utterly priceless look on his face.

"Did he just do what I think he did?" Washington asked slowly, pointing down at Gavin while turning to look at Geoff.

"Yep!" Geoff exclaimed, still laughing hysterically, using the railing to support himself, "I fucking told him, but that dumb sonofabitch didn't listen, did he? He actually thought it was some kind of explosive!"

"Seriously?" Washington asked, tilting his head slightly in disbelief, "A rock?"

"Yup," Geoff replied, slowly managing to contain his laughter.

"He threw a rock... At Carolina..." Washington asked again, his brain struggling to process the situation. "Wow, that was the worst, fail, ever. Of all time."

It was at that moment, that a Cyan blur dashed straight up behind Gavin.

Geoff turned and opened his mouth to patronise Gavin some more, but stopped as he saw Carolina, moving at blistering speed, reach Gavin, grab him the sides of his head, and jump into the air. She flattened herself out in the air, legs raised, with her back to the floor.

She slammed Gavin face-first into the ground with a sound so sickening it was only comparable to that of an intense wrestling match.

A sound accompanied by the high-pitched squeal Gavin had sustained for the entire trip up and down.

"Oh, and it's an RKO!"Ray hollered at the top of his lungs from the corner of the room, "RKO OUTTA NOWHERE!"

Washington and Geoff simply looked at each other, nodded, and vaulted over the railing to laugh at Gavin from a closer position.

Carolina, seeming rather satisfied with her work, dashed away, and returned to fighting Caiti.

Geoff, who was squatting down next to Gavin, stopped poking his downed friend's reddened face and looked up at Carolina, watching her completely cream his friends over and over again, with every futile attack.

Washington wasn't really fussed with fighting, the pool cue in his hand proving so, obviously not as zealous as the team leader should be.

"It looks like she's really enjoying beating us to a pulp," Geoff remarked, lazily pointing towards Carolina as he poked Gavin's now limp body with his foot.

"Yeah," Washington sighed, tapping the end of the cue on the ground roughly, causing it to snap in half jaggedly. Eyes wide, he awkwardly placed the two pieces down on a nearby table, "She gets a little, excessive, sometimes."

"Haha," Geoff chuckled,Reaching for an unattended glass on the same table, "She fights like my Ex."

"Oh?" Washington turned to look at him, an invisible quizzical eyebrow raised.

"Was that Brittanyyy#?" Gavin mumbled, stirring from his unconscious state almost instinctively.

"Not her, you dumbass!" Geoff cringed, kicking Gavin in the head, quickly returning him to his unconscious state. "Not her you dumbshit. I'm talking about Alison."

There was a moment, where everything seemed to slow.

Carolina was mid-air, about to land a brutal down-cut to Jack, Washington found himself standing calmly, beside Geoff, and the Bar's music continued to act as score to the combat. A new song had begun to play, and the lights had adjusted accordingly, with enough strobing lights to induce disorientation in almost anyone.

Almost like the music knew…

The scream that Washington made right after, was the most real thing anyone had heard the whole night.

Carolina's jump turned into a fall. Landing with a loud crash on the floor, clutching her Cyan helmet in her arms in searing pain, her screams of pain not being nearly as loud as that of her comrades.

Washington was clawing at his own helmet, like it was suffocating him. Writhing on the ground in what was immediately clear to be pure agony. His voice orchestrating the pain he felt through the screams he made.

Everyone stood perfectly still, shocked beyond the capacity for words or action.

Washington began to smash his head on the floor, trying to remedy his pain with one of equal or larger force.

The lights of the bar began to dim, the strobes now sickeningly slow, their intensity searing with the pluses of the beat.

But the screams in his head said otherwise.

Something about a goodbye...

Strobe.

Washington made a grab for his handgun.

Strobe.

He raised the gun to his head, his voice shaking with the vocalisation of both screams and tears over the beat of a song that willed him to do it.

Strobe.

He made one last cry of desperation, brought the barrel up to his left eye, and pulled the trigger.

Flash.

Washington's head jerked back at a sickening pace. The gunshot ringing. The sound intertwining with the shallow pulses of bass projected by the speakers.

The flashes from the club's strobe lights glinted off the the network web of cracks covering his visor.

His writhing on the ground was perfectly synced with the strobes of the lights, each new flash brought a new feral position of decoherent desperation.

Clawing.

Scratching.

Hammering.

Pounding.

Grasping at the helmet that was the sole reason Washington was alive.

Something about a goodbye…

Strobe.

"D-Damnit Wash," Carolina spoke through gritted teeth and searing pain.

Strobe.

**Warning. Helmet structural integrity compromised. Visor damaged. Defensive utility at fifty four percent.**

Carolina seemed to be regaining control over herself, although still struggling with the pulses of the sound interweaving with the sounds of a man desperately trying to get the voices out.

Strobe.

The gun was back in his hand.

Strobe.

**Warning. Helmet structural integrity compromised. Visor damaged. Defensive utility at twenty three percent. At current rate of decay, defensive utility will fail to provide adequate user defense.**

Flash.

The next bullet was applied to the side of his head, as indicated by the direction Washingtons head was violently propelled.

It seemed Washington's neck had given up all hope of supporting his deranged mind. His head simply hung, encased in a helmet now seeming to act more as deadweight than something for defence.

**Warning-ing-ing. Helmet-t structu-ural integrity-ity compromi-sed. Defensive utility at nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-utility at six percent.**

Carolina staggered to her feet, gripping her sidearm like her life depended on it.

The music seemed to have reached a lapse.

Carolina slowly started moving towards Washington, forcing herself through the pain.

Washington raised his head to stare at her, swaying dizzily, left arm holding the side of his helmet to support it, helping to steady his gaze.

A trembling hand raised the gun once more to his head, right on the largest crack, between his eyes. Laughing.

Something about a goodbye...

Carolina knew Washington was looking straight at her.

"Oh no… No, no, no!" Carolina stuttered, pain filling her voice completely, taking her over, "N-No! Wash! You… Don't you dare-DAVID!"

Flash.

Authors' Note/s:

Happy halloween pigeons! Here's your chapter! Trick or Treat? Let's go with Treat…

Hello there! LastJourneyHome and Sabre Allicia here, and first off, let us just tell you all how grateful we both are for your continued support! Your feedback is what keeps us going! So if you'd like to see this continue, feel free to Follow, Favourite, or Leave a Review! We love hearing from you lovely people out there, so if you have any requests or ideas, or even just want to say 'Hi', feel free to leave a review!

Now, with all the formalities out of the way, time for the fun stuff.

Phwoar! What did you guys think of that?! It's been quite a long time in the making, and it's finally here!

Mostly…

That's right! This fight isn't over yet! So you guys and girls can look forward to more spectacular action from Mr. Sabre Allicia.

Speaking of which…

I need to take a moment to give a shoutout to Sabre Allicia. He really saved my ass with this chapter. As many of you long-time readers will know, I am, not the best, with fight scenes, and in my quest to give you guys the best possible content, I enlisted the help of one of my favourite writers, who can actually write action!

Truth be told, Sabre probably wrote nearly 60% of this chapter, so I would really like it if you guys were to go and check out his work, it's actually surprisingly good! Plus, I edited for him, so it's got to be great!

Anywhosers, you have anything you want to say Sabre?

"I've never written a fight on this scale. I've barely written fights at all. So future note for when I eventually write another one. NEVER use this many friggin characters..."

Oh… Well, uhh, oh damn it….

"You really know how to make my job just that little bit more interesting don't you?"

You readers have NO idea how many times I've heard that statement...

"Hey, for the record, I'm sitting here at 1:28am to finish this. *In Weiss voice* So you had better appreciate all my hard work Peasants... I could have been doing much more important things like my actual school-work and studying for exam- Yea… Bugger if I'd be doing that. xD

Hope you guys enjoy what we poured our virtual blood, sweat, and tears into writing for your entertainment!

Anyway, if you guys actually like what I've written here, feel free to check out my own story.

Just search up "The Day of Reclamation" and look for the one written by yours truly, 'Sabre Allicia' I've started work on the follow-up chapter, so new additions and chapters should be uploaded much more frequently. Once my exams are over… *Snort* Education..."

As you are aware (I hope…) there was music playing throughout the fight sequence. Sabre does this because it 'helps him with pacing'.

Or something.

Anyway, wondering what on earth kinds of songs were playing in that bar? Well, here's the list:

Grabbitz - Turn Around

errbody in the club gettin tipsy (Nyanners cover)

Anyway, from both of us on the writing team, we'd like to wish you readers a candy-filled Halloween. =^_^=

Thanks for reading!~

Do Svidaniya~