Chapter 5: The Rumble Where the Drunks Tumble.
It's been three days since the incident in the forest. Everybody was taking advantage of the quiet time the n00b army unwittingly gave them. Right after the battle at the abandoned arena, Twilight, Psicosis, and Ryuu waited for at least two hours in the rain before Hybird fainted from exhaustion, and he's been unconscious ever since then.
Ryuu sat on a rock watching the almost cloudless afternoon sky, while Twilight was off somewhere with a few soldiers to find nearby plants that could be used to help speed up the healing process for the injured. X an Psicosis however, decided to hit the nearby town, in a place where nobody would expect them to be.
A Tavern.
"Here," X muttered before setting a large mug in front of Psicosis.
"The hell is this?"
"Ale."
"I don't drink dummy."
"Neither do I, that's why I got us Ginger Ale, dummy."
"Smart-a**."
"I aim to please."
Psicosis took a large gulp out of his mug and leaned back in his chair. "How many days has it been since the n00bs disapered...?"
"About three days now.... Why?"
Psicosis sighed. "I'm getting the feeling that they fell back for a reason... Maybe Wyvern Mountain wasn't their target after all..."
"Well, if Wyvern Mountain wasn't what they were after... Why in hell are they here Psicosis?"
"I dunno..." Psicosis sat up. "Maybe they they're only here to test out some new type of weapon?"
X took a gulp of his drink. "New weapon? Like what?"
"Slime's Blood for one thing."
"Feh," X muttered and he slammed his mug down, "oh for crying out loud Psicosis! The n00bs are a bunch of dumb asses, yeah, but not eve they're THAT DUMB to test new weapons out in a obvious, open place!"
Psicosis sighed. "Maybe that's what they want us to think...."
X grew silent, thinking carefully about what Psicosis was suggesting. As he looked up, he bushed his dark grey hair back so that he could stare at Psicosis dead-on. "Okay Psi... You have my attention now..."
While the two continued to talk, somebody else entered the tavern. Except for the person's grey undershirt that covered the rest of his body that his thick silk-like open button shirt, the person's clothing was all black, with blue designs on his shoulders, his back, and the side of his legs. He had on black pants with white stitching, and had dark brown baseball bat hooked to the right side of his pants. His over shirt's hood and his red hair covered his eyes.
The person walked over to the bar and sat down, not saying a word to anybody. The bartender, who was sitting and waiting for somebody to order a drink, to noticed, stood up, and walked over to the man. "May I help you si- oh, it's you again."
"Yup... I'll have the same as yesterday..."
"Common' right up."
The Bartender went into a nearby room, and came out with a mug of blue, soda like substance, and a pizza with green toppings. "One Aqua R.B. and one plate of Serpent Tail Pizza."
"Thanks..."
***
While X and Psicosis were at the Tavern, Twilight was just returning to base. And Ryuu decided to head over to the place where Hybird was resting. When he opened the door, his eyes widened slightly when he noticed Hybird was up, and even unwrapping some of his bandages. Ryuu sighed and shook his head before sitting down on a crate near the bed. "How long have you been up?"
"About an hour or so... I wasn't really counting..."
"You've been out of it for three days now, we were starting to get worried."
Hybird glanced at Ryuu, his eyes still showing no signs of emotion. "What do you mean by 'we'?"
"That's as much you're gonna get out of me on that subject... That's what I mean." Ryuu then looked at Hybird directly. "What the hell were you fighting that night?"
Hybird gave Ryuu a long look before turning around, and kneeling down. He reached under the bed and pulled out a scroll before tossing onto the crate by Ryuu. "Read it..."
Ryuu picked up the scroll, and instantly noticed the black symbol on it. "It's a forbidden Kaze Scroll... Isn't it punishable by death to read this without the clan leader's permission?"
"Just shut up and read the goth damn scroll, will ya smart a**?"
Ryuu rolled his eyes as he opened the seal, and rolled the scroll to read it. As he did, he noticed that it mentioned various types of slime, but he really couldn't understand what Hybird meant by showing it to him. "These are all spells to summon various type of extinct slime... You mean to say you were fighting one of these pip squeaks?"
"Keep reading..."
Ryuu pulled the scroll down even more and noticed the last slime was different from the others. It had no eyes, and it was a sickly colored green. "What in hell is this?"
"It's called an Ooze. Basically, it's the primitive non-evolved form of Slimes and Gellys... Before about a 100 years ago, Kaze Clan mages summoned them for tough battles, but they were too powerful, and too primitive, so they were easy to control and struck major fear into peoples hearts, and made the Kaze Clan #1 assassination targets. My grandfather banned them, to further ensue peace in the elemental region. As well as sealed away all of the scrolls that told how to summon them, and other extinct Slimes..."
"Are you telling me that your Clan had the power to summon creatures extinct for hundreds of years?"
"Not the power... The knowledge..."
"But... H-"
"-There must had been a traitor among my clan... An Elder at that."
"So... where are the other Ooze summoning scrolls?"
Hybird sat on his bed, and brushed his hair back. "it's only an therory... But..."
****
X almost spewed out his soda, trying not to break out laughing. "A-are you saying you shot him..."
"Yup, right up his tail pipe. The thing obviously had it coming! He had no right trying to eat me!"
"Yeah, besides... You probably would have tasted horrible!"
"Now wait a minute!" Psicosis pounded his fist on the table lightly. "That was a low blow X!"
X fell out of his chair laughing. Psicosis was just about to get up and start kicking the funny out of him, until group of large men began to circle around them. "And you are?"
The biggest man stepped forward, and arogently pointed to himself with his thumb. "Were a band of mercenaries called the Rx Squad. We heard that there was a group lookin' to defeat tha n00b army. Are you them?"
X sat up and looked at the leader, utterly confused. "Yeah, but what do you want with us."
"We figured armatures like you would need our help. If you let us in, and take the lead, I assure you the n00b army would be destroyed in no time!"
X and Psicosis looked at each other before giving the group of large, hulking men a blank stare. "Thanks," Psicosis started, "but... No thanks."
"Yeah," X muttered as he stood to his feet, "We good leveled people to join. And to be honest, you guys just don't look like you'll cut it..."
Two of the men started to move forward angry at X and Psicosis' remarks. "What was that you little punks?!"
Psicosis scratched his head, not really looking at the rowdy men. "It's obvious you have the brawn, but we need to brains. Which... Judging by your reactions... You have none..."
The leader's cocky smirk turned into a annoyed frown. "Then I guess we'll have to show you punk outlanders..." The two muscle clad men suddenly side-stepped away from their boss and shot forward, one taking a swing at X, the other at Psicosis. Both X and Psicosis stepped back to the side, and then back wards, letting the two attackers trip and fall. The two quickly got up, and once again, blindly went after Psicosis and X, and again, X and Psicosis easily dodged the two, making the grunts look even worse.
As this was happening, the bartender was shaking his head and sighing. "Not again... Every time those three come in... A fight breaks out... And something valuable breaks..."
The hooded person looked at the bartender. "If you want... I can stop this fight..."
The bartender gave the young man a surprised look, before smiling. "If you can stop them before something breaks, the meal is on me."
"Will do..." The man pulled himself out of his chair and slowly walked torwards the leader. As he did so, he unbuttoned the piece of fabric that held his bat, and took hold of the cotton grip wrappings on the bat. The leader, who was drunk off his high horse, and yelling at his men, who couldn't land a single punch on either X, or Psicosis (who was obviously saying some things to further piss off the over-muscled men,) noticed somebody walking torwards him, and in a drunken stupor, turned around. "And what do you wa-"
CRACK!
The leader of the ruffians suddenly felt the stinging slap of wood hitting his jaw at full impact. It had enough sheer force to make the man fly back and spin four times before hitting the ground. The young man who nailed the bat upside the man's head slung the bat over his shoulder and glared at the other two, who were shock to see their boss knock out with one blow. "Take your chump of a leader and leave. In fact, don't ever come back..." The two men dropped what they were doing and picked up their unconscious, broken jaw boss, then quickly ran out the door. The young man pulled back his hood and placed his bat back into its holder before replacing the button latch. He then looked at X and Psicosis, yet didn't say anything.
X mindlessly brushed himself off before looking at the person. "Hey, thanks for the help... Er..."
"Pohatu," Psicosis finished for X. As X shifted his head to look at Psicosis, he noticed that the room suddenly received a tense feel, and shockingly enough, it came from his usual laid back masked-companion.
"Psicosis..."
"Wait," X looked at Pohatu, then back at Psicosis, confused as to what was going on. "You know each other?"
"In a sense," Pohatu stated, before putting his hood back on, "but it was a short meeting..." Pohatu looked at the barkeeper, giving the man a nod before walking out of the Tavern.
X watched as Pohatu walked out of the door, then looked back at Psicosis. "Mind telling me what that was about?"
"The guy's a n00b hunter... A reckless one at that," Psicosis replied, as he tightened and loosened the grip of his fist.
"Uh... Huh... Uh... Barkeep, check please..."
(Hybird's Note: Yeah... Not my best work... For some reason, the chapter was really holding me back. Hopefully, the flow of the next chapter will be better... And don't think this is the last you'll hear from Pohatu, he'll be back.)
