I'M BAAACK!

The night sky was clear and calm in the city of Vale.

It was mid summer which gave the night air a warm feeling, with the momentary cool breeze that would make someone feel at peace.

Walking down the sidewalk, a man with a brimmed hat strolled through the dying crowd of night goers as they began their journeys home after a day of work, or they were beginning their weekly string of bar hopping. He strangely wore deep crimson tinted aviators, the only light reflecting off of them were from the street lights above and the store lights as he walked past. He wore a charcoal black suit with a white undershirt and a red tie. His freshly polished black dress shoes seemed to click as he walked.

Not many people seemed to take notice to the red scimitar that he had strapped to his waist. If they did notice, they probably assumed he was a huntsman and continued on with their walk.

Cars passed by as he walked upon an older looking building with a neon sign that said BAR (with a flickering B) and was pointing towards a staircase that led to the basement of the building.

He looked around to see if anyone was around or watching him. All he saw were a few people walking around and into restaurants that were on the street. He saw a street performer a block down the road across the street. The performer was swinging around a yo-yo for some bystanders as they watched him in awe as he pulled off trick after trick.

The man shook his head as he turned towards the bar and began to walk down the stairs. People will do anything for money, he said mentally.

A block down the street, said performer was finishing off his last routine of the day as he watched the man down the street walk into the target building.

He quickly turned his attention back to the tricks as he swung his arm out. The yo-yo he swung around, in which he had come to call Karma, was painted black and gold.

The performer seemed to be in his early twenties. He had short, choppy brown hair and azure colored eyes. He had a normal height and was skinny. He wore a simple gray t-shirt and a pair of jeans with a pair of grey and red sneakers.

As he swung out, the yo-yo came in almost contact with the face of one of the women who were standing there watching. He quickly pulled his arm back once again and the yo-yo pulled away from her face.

Slightly stunned by what happened, she saw as the man who performed gave her a small smile, indicating that what had just happened was all apart of the act. Her pleased and awe-struck look restored itself on her face as she continued to watch the performance before her.

As the young man swung his yo-yo once again, he pressed his finger under the string which made the yo-yo curve into the air. The yo-yo rolled around the string a few times until gravity took into effect and it began to fall. He removed his finger from the string and as the yo-yo fell past his hand, he swung the string slightly which allowed the yo-yo to continue spinning.

He pulled the yo-yo back up to his hand and then swung it back out again. For the last trick, he decided to use one of his favorite tricks that he grew to call The Black Hole. He pulled the yo-yo back up halfway and then shifted its course by pressing on the string. The yo-yo curved and went side-ways. With the other side of his hand, he pressed his thumb against the which launched it straight in the air. Pulling the hand that he had the string tied to closer, he pressed one of his fingers on the string of the yo-yo again which led the yo-yo to go down once again. With the limited string that it had left, the yo-yo stopped and continued to spin in the center of a triangle formation. The design of the yo-yo gave a pinwheel visual effect, which added to the nature of the trick.

Pulling the yo-yo back, he caught it in his hand and looked at the small audience. The few people who were there began to clap as they began to disperse. Sitting on the ground in front of him was a fedora with lien cards and small amounts of change filling at least half of the hat.

When the last few people were finally gone, he leaned down and began to count how much money he had been given. After a few minutes of counting he said to himself 36.72 lien. Nice.

As he put the lien in his wallet and the loose change in a small coin pouch that he kept on him, he picked up his leather jacket from the bench next to him and put it on.

On the inside of his jacket, he felt the shaft of his baton, Fate, press against him. A small flashback played through his mind of him forging the weapon during his first year of Signal. In fact, he could see the main building of Signal across the city from where he stood. As he looked at the building, his mind almost went back to his times when he went to the legendary school.

That was long ago, he reminded himself, no need to reminisce in past memories.

Just then, he felt his coat pocket begin to vibrate. He reached into the side pocket and pulled out his scroll. Sliding open the device, he watched as the face of his recently assigned partner appeared on the screen. She had curly brunette hair and electric blue eyes, which at the moment, held the look of annoyance.

"Valerie," he said, "to what do I owe this audience with you?" he asked.

Valerie sighed in annoyance, as if she was already tired of talking to him. "Can the fancy talk, Charlie. You know what I'm calling for. I've been trying to reach you for the past hour. Where have you been?" she asked.

"Entertaining the fine people of Vale." Charlie said as he held the yo-yo up to the scroll.

Valerie pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed once again. "You couldn't have kept your scroll close to you, could you? Let me guess, you also had it on vibrate." she said.

Charlie opened his mouth to speak but was quickly interrupted by Valerie. "Y'know. I don't care. I have you on call now, that's all that counts. Anyway, have you got a position on the target?" she asked.

"Looking at the building that he entered moments ago as we speak." Charlie said as he gazed at the bar down the block.

"Good. We have a team on the way in about ten minutes. Sit tight."

"Ten minutes? That's too long. He could be gone by the time they all arrive. I'm going in."

"What!? No, Charlie! That's a horrible idea. You don't know how many people are on the inside, or what they're armed with. Plus, the captain gave specific orders not to enter until the tactical teams arrived. You can't disobey his orders."

"What they're armed with? What do you think they'll have? A flamethrower? Pfft, I'm sure they'll have the standard dust rifles and pistols. A few swords as well. And I'm sure the captain knows that I am fully capable of taking these guys on."

"Charlie, I don't want you to get hurt. And the captain will probably serve your ass on a platter even if you do make it out without a scratch." Valerie said.

Charlie seemed to mull over what she said for a few seconds. Eventually, he looked at the screen on the scroll and gave a smile. "I'll be fine." he said.

"Don't you dare close thi-!" Valerie was cut off as Charlie did what she didn't him to do. He then slipped the scroll back into his jacket pocket and began to walk towards the bar.

After a few steps, he felt his scroll begin to vibrate again. He pulled out the scroll again and put his scroll on silent mode. As he did, the vibrating stop, and he slipped the scroll back into his pocket.

He made his way across the street and towards the bar. As he approached the steps, the light in the B of the BAR sign stopped flickering and went out.

Walking down the concrete steps of the structure, he felt a cold feeling take over him. It was as if the warm night suddenly turned to winter. Whenever Charlie felt this feeling, he was able to tell that there was going to be something bad in the very near future. Taking the feeling into account, he reached out for the handle of the door and turned it.

It was locked.

Sighing slightly, he knocked on the door and waited for an answer. After a few seconds, an intercom sounded.

"Password." said the muffled voice, indicating that it was an older system.

Password? Charlie questioned in his mind, The intel never mentioned anything about a password.

"Ummm... Beer?" Charlie asked, not thinking hard about it. Damn...

"Really? That's your answer?" asked the person over the intercom.

"Bad guess?" Charlie asked. The silence in response was all he needed to know that it was indeed a bad guess. "Listen, I need to talk to someone inside the bar. And, if you open the door, I'll make it worth your while." Charlie said, trying his best to bribe the man.

He heard the sound of the adjusting of a lens of a camera. He looked up and saw a camera pointed right at this face.

"Show me." said the voice over the intercom.

Charlie reached into his pocket and brought out his wallet. Opening it up, he showed the camera the large amount of lien cards that was held within the old leather.

A few seconds passed. Charlie quietly slipped the wallet back into his jacket pocket, in case it didn't work. Suddenly the sound of locks being opened sounded and the door opened. The man on the other side had a short, bushy, black beard and red aviators.

Just like all the members of this gang.

"Ok, I want five hundred lien for letting you in... Where'd the wallet go?" he asked.

Charlie gave a fake surprised and nervous look as he began patting himself down. "What? I just had it. Where could've it gone? I think I put it right-" He pressed his hand against the baton on the inside of his jacket. "-Oh! There it is!"

With quick speed, Charlie opened up his jacket, showing the baton to the guard at the door, giving him no time to react. Charlie removed the baton from the holster that it was in and it extended into the full form of Fate.

Charlie lunged at the guard and swung his baton right into his neck. The man crumpled to the ground, trying to shout out in pain, but all that came out was a low raspy screech. It sounded something close to a balloon slowly letting out air.

Charlie swung the baton once again and it impacted with the back of the mans neck, knocking him completely unconscious.

Thankfully, between the entrance and the rest of the bar there was another door, so no one was able to see the man fall.

Charlie pushed the guards unresponsive body into the corner of the mud room and shut the door, making sure to lock all three locks that were on the door. He checked the man and found a single standard dust pistol in a holster under his arm of his jacket. Removing the pistol, he ejected the magazine and the one round that was in the chamber. After that, he slid the magazine of the pistol into his own back pants pocket.

After that, he walked through the door that separated him and the full bar. Inside, he found something that was a little more than what he had expected.

Charlie had expected to find an old rustic bar with a crumbling ceiling and a small selection of beers and other drinks. Instead, he found a sight that looked more like something from the future.

There were neon lights everywhere which made some areas of the room hard to look at without Charlie having to squint his eyes from the bright colors. The shelves behind the counter were lined with some of the most expensive bottles of liquor from around Remnant.

The entirety of the room seemed to be built out of a light steel and marble. Everything looked shiny and brand new.

The bar itself was larger than he had expected. It had a ceiling with a regular height but the room was long.

And the one thing that pleased yet discomforted Charlie.

There were quite a few gang members in this bar.

The gang that he and the police department had been tracking for months was lead by none other than one of the most wanted men in Vale, Hei "Junior" Xiong. All of the henchmen that were in the bar all wore similar attire. Black and White suits with red ties and red aviators.

Scanning the room, Charlie did not find the man that he came in for. He was looking for one Junior's lieutenants known as Lee "Buddy" Hong.

Buddy was one of the people who was just as wanted as Junior.

He was in charge of the weapon trading portion of Junior's gang. He was currently wanted on the account of 13 charges of illegal smuggling, 5 charges of murder, and 7 charges of armed robbery.

Hopefully, today would be the day that Buddy would be brought into the light and face a trial.

"Hey!" shouted one of the people in the bar. "Who the hell are ya?" he asked.

Charlie stood there, still and silent.

"I said, Who the hell are you?" the man said as he approached Charlie, who just stood there, waiting for the right moment.

"Well?" The man walked up to Charlie and placed his hand on Charlie's shoulder and pushed him back lightly. Charlie instantly grabbed the man's wrist and punched him straight across the face with his other hand.

At the this, the other gang members began to pull out their weapons, consisting of pistols and swords.

Charlie reached into his pocket and brought out Karma. Unraveling the string, he wrapped it around the neck of the man he just punched, who was starting to recover from said punch. Charlie twisted the man around and held the man in front of him, acting as a shield.

"No no n-!" the man began to say, but he was cut off as bullets began to pepper his chest with holes. He began to scream in agony as blood stained his shirt and began to trickle out of his mouth.

One of the other gang members began to charge at Charlie from the side with a red axe. Charlie saw the man out of the corner of his eye. Using as much force as he could muster, Charlie threw the, now dead, man onto the other charging one.

Swinging Karma around on it's string, the yo-yo shifted. Spikes now covered the exterior of the yo-yo. The string of the yo-yo was no ordinary string, put a highly flexible and strong metal wire that was almost impossible to break. Unholstering Fate as well, the baton extended into its full length form, which attached itself to the end of the string of Karma.

With this, the two weapons weapons combined into their single form, a flail that had been deemed Destiny.

Charlie watched as the other gang members began to reload their pistols, getting ready for another wave of dust bullets. Swinging the flail, he smashed the spiked ball against the ground. As soon the ball made contact with the ground, Charlie activated his semblance and entire the room exploded into a large cloud of smoke.

The gang members began to lower their weapons slightly as they started coughing from the smoke that they breathed in.

"What the hell just happened?" one asked

"Where'd he go?" asked another

"This guy needs to lay of the cig- Augh!" one was cut off and cried in pain.

"Freddie!? Shit, Do you think he can see through the sm- Oof!"

"No," Charlie said in the smoke, "I can just hear you really well."

Three dust rounds suddenly flew past Charlie, missing him by mere inches. "I heard ya, you bastard!" shouted someone through the smoke.

Charlie twisted his head in the direction of the voice, and twirled his baton in his hand. Holding it by the tip, he aimed the end of it towards the voice that he heard. "But I'm not as loud as you though." Flicking a small switching on the side of the baton, a gunshot rang out from the other end of it and an empty shotgun shell ejected from the chamber. Through the smoke, Charlie heard the body fall, with a surprised gasp just before.

Quickly, he loaded in another shell into the chamber and locked it in. Charlie began to swing the flail around and around throughout the smoke. Around the room, the smoke began to dissipate. But it wasn't just leaving the room through vents or windows. The smoke was being absorbed through Charlies hands, as if they were vacuums. After a few seconds the smoke was completely gone. And every gang member was on the ground, unconscious.

"Is that it?" Charlie asked, looking disappointed at the unmoving bodies around the room. "I was hoping you guys would put up more of a fight." Although, there was still one person left. The one cowering behind the counter of the bar should be able to give a little bit of info.

Sitting at one of the stools at the bar, Charlie slung his flail over his shoulder. He could hear the man praying quietly below him. "Hey, you can come out. I need a drink." Charlie said to him.

The man poked his head over the counter so that Charlie and him could make eye contact. "What?" the man asked.

"You heard me. I need something to drink. But I don't drink alcohol, so water would be nice." Charlie said chipperly.

"O-ok..." The bartender said. He poured Charlie a glass of water and handed it to him. When he got the drink Charlie began to drink the entire thing in one go. As he drank, the bartender looked around at all the unconscious and dead bodies that were sprawled around the room. The tension and awkwardness in the air were heavy.

About halfway through the glass of water, Charlie stopped and placed the glass on the bar. "So. What's your name?" Charlie asked him.

"Um... Uh... Aaron, mister." The bartender said, still feeling nervous about Charlies current weird actions.

"Aaron, huh? So, Aaron, tell me. You got a family?" Charlie asked.

"W-why?"

"Geez, you act like that if you say 'yes' I'm going to kill you then them. Not cool, man. Just tell me, you have a family?" Charlie asked again.

"Y-y-yes." Aaron stuttered out. "A wife a-and a young daughter."

"How nice." Charlie said. "Now tell me, how bad do you not want to go to prison and continue to live with your family?"

"What do you mean?" Aaron asked.

"Well, you're working in a place which is a known hangout for the largest organized crime ring in all of Vale and this place currently has one of the most wanted men of said crime ring inside of its walls. Now if you didn't tell me where this man is hiding in your building, I will have to charge you with harboring a fugitive and you will go to prison. Now, if you want this to be prevented, I suggest you tell me where he is. If you do, you can walk right out that door and leave this area and go home to your wife and kid and hug them both. Now doesn't that sound better than the first thing that I mentioned?"

The bartender quickly nodded and ducked under the counter again. When he came up, he had his jacket in his hands. "You'll find Lee through that door." Aaron said as he pointed at a single door at the edge of the bar. "Go through that door and you'll come up on a long hallway. Usually, he's in the room all the way at the end, making a weapon deal or something. I don't know what really goes on down there, I'm just, or was, in charge of the liquor." He said as he finished with his jacket.

"Thanks for the info. You were a great help. Now go on, my backup will be here soon and I don't want them to find you." Charlie said

"Alright. And, Mister... Thank you." Aaron said as he left the bar.

Charlie smiled and finished the rest of the water that he had. He placed the glass onto the bar and stood from the stool and walked through the door that the bartender had pointed out to him. The hallway the door led to was not very long. The door he was told he would find Lee in was about twenty feet away. He got to the door and reached for the handle but stopped just before he turned it.

He pressed his ear against the door and concentrated. Inside the room, there was silence. That silence was broken slightly when he heard the cocking of a firearm. He backed away from the door slightly and thought about what to do. They weren't firing at him yet so they didn't know that he was there. Which meant they were waiting for him to come through the door.

"They're waiting huh?" Charlie said to himself. "hmm..." he began to think. He looked down and saw that the door had a decent sized space between the door and the ground. "bingo."

He crouched down and pressed his hand to the crack. Activating his semblance once again, a thick cloud of smoke began to spew from his hand where a single glyph had appeared.

"What the hell?" he heard from inside. "Where's the smoke coming from? Are they burning the place down!?" Someone shouted.

"He might be on the other side of the door! Open fire!" Another ordered

'Uh-oh.' Charlie thought.

He heard the cocking of many more weapons from inside and another door slam shut. Quickly looking around, Charlie spotted another doorway in the hallway to his left. Quickly standing from where he had crouched down, Charlie busted down the door and fell to the floor with his arms over his head slightly to cushion the fall. When he hit the floor, dust rounds began to tear through the other door. Dozens of bullets flew through the hallway and made large gashes in the floors and walls.

Almost as soon as the bullets started, they stopped. Charlie looked up and saw splinters of wood and shrapnel all over the floor outside the door.

'Close one.' he said to himself, with a silent exhale.

Quickly standing silently, he listened carefully to the voices in the next room.

"You think they're gone?' someone asked.

"I don't know. Go check." said another.

"Me? Why me?"

"Because when the boss ain't here, I'm in charge. Now get in there."

"What do you mean the boss ain't here? He's in the next room over like we told him."

Thanks, dumbass, Charlie thought.

"Shut up!" he heard the sound of a punch, most likely on the arm. "What if they was still alive and they heard you? Now go check!"

"Ow! Fine, fine."

Charlie heard the sound of careful footsteps exiting the room. Quickly bringing out Karma he got ready to swing the string. The man stopped right in front of the room where Charlie was but it appeared he hadn't noticed the busted down door or Charlie.

"I think they're gone." the man said.

"Who are you looking for?" Charlie asked.

"Some jackass trying t- Wait WHAT!?" The gang man turned and saw Charlie standing there. He began to raise his dust rifle that he held.

Quickly swinging Karma, the spiked yo-yo flew towards the man, but it fell a little low and wrapped the string around the rifle the man held.

Woops, Charlie thought as he pulled on the yo-yo. But with the yo-yo, came the dust rifle. Charlie caught the yo-yo in his right hand and the rifle in the left.

Charlie looked at the rifle a little surprised with himself. He then grabbed the grip of the rifle and fired the weapon at the man who dropped after two dust rounds flew into his chest. He put Karma into one of his coat pockets and grabbed hold of the rifle in his right hand. He checked the magazine to see that he had about 20 rounds of ammunition remaining in the weapon.

Shouldering the weapon, he slowly walked towards the door, carefully stepping over the body of the man. He turned his rifle to the right and looked through the doorway in which had been completely blasted open from the previous destructive wave of bullets. Aiming his rifle, he caught one of the other gang members off-guard inside the room and fired two rounds. Each bullet hit their marks in the chest and head. Another two quickly were moving around while bringing up their rifles once more.

Charlie dispatched these two others as well with great precision and without hesitation.

Walking into the room with the rifle still raised, he swepped his eyes across the room to see that all the contacts had been taken care of.

But then, he saw the door that led to the room that the one gang member was referring to. It was a door that was nothing special. Just a plain wooden door. But there were "Do Not Enter" and "Off Limits" signs pasted all over it.

He placed the rifle that he had "borrowed" onto the table in the room and brought out Karma and Fate, combining them once more into Destiny.

Walking to the door, he placed his ear against the door again to listen. But he quickly recoiled when he felt an intense heat on the other side of the door. Then he smelt smoke. He looked down at his hands to make sure his semblance hadn't activated randomly (It had happened before). But there were no glyphs in his hands and the smoke was coming from under the door.

It then sounded like someone had tossed a baseball against the door. Charlie heard a faint Tang from the other side as whatever the object was hit the ground.

Oh Crap! Charlie thought. Without second thought, he flared his aura as the door exploded into hundreds of pieces of shrapnel.

The force of the explosion sent Charlie flying back. His back hit the wall with such force that he felt his teeth rattle. He slid down the all and slumped forward. He gave out a groan of pain as he looked up. His aura had taken up much of the impact. He could hear his scroll beginning to beep in his jackets pocket, signaling to him that his aura was critically low.

"Ouch..." Was all he said.

"How'd that feel?" someone said.

Charlie looked ahead and saw a man standing there. Small flames curled behind him and began to grow around the floors and wall. The door that once stood there was now in pieces all over the floor, the frame of the doorway also had many chunks missing from it. The man that stood there was the man who Charlie was here to capture or kill. Lee "Buddy" Hong. On his back, a large tank of sorts was strapped to him. A hose came around into a rod that had two handles on it. A flamethrower.

Charlie thought back to the conversation that he had with Valerie earlier. He looked down at his yo-yo and thought. I wonder if this is a form of Karma?

"That was one of the new grenades that I just got from Atlas. They sure do pack a huge punch. People over there sure know weapons, but they're not the best." Lee told Charlie.

Charlie stood shakily as he faced Lee. "Lee Hong, I am placing you under arrest by order of the Kingdom of Vale. Put the weapon down and turn yourself in." he said.

Lee just glared at Charlie. "Really? That's it? You're not going to fight me first like you took out all of my men in the other rooms?"

"Not going to turn yourself in, are you?" Charlie asked.

The only response he got was Lee raising the barrel of the flamethrower and aiming it at Charlie.

Charlie just gave a tired sigh.

Lee squeezed the trigger of the flamethrower and watched as the flames engulfed the room before him.

At the last second, Charlie activated his semblance and left a cloud of smoke where he once stood. He jumped it the air, propelling himself over Lee as the flames began to destroy and eat away at the wall that Charlie was pressed up against moments ago.

Charlie swung Destiny in a downward strike at Lee. Lee dodged the attack by simply stepping off to the side. A second after, Lee squeezed the trigger of the flamethrower once again. He swung the pillar of flames that erupted from the barrel in an upward arc. The flames set the ceiling ablaze just behind Charlie.

He landed on the ground in a crouch and swung Destiny again. The yo-yo hit Lee's shoulder with a sickening crunch.

Lee let out a slightly suppressed howl of pain as the Charlie brought Destiny back to his hand.

With great speed, Lee reached into a pocket of his vest and pulled out another one of the grenades that he had been boasting about and had destroyed the door. He pulled the pin and threw it right at Charlie. Bringing up the handle of Destiny, Charlie blocked the grenade slightly, but it still fell to the floor in front of Charlie.

"Shit!" The grenade exploded as Charlie flared his aura once more. This time, the explosion made Charlie black out. When he opened his eyes, he had no idea how much time had passed. Although he saw Lee standing there still, so not much time had passed.

Lee had taken off the flamethrower and it now sat on the floor. He stood there, in the center of a giant ring of fire, rubbing his shattered shoulder.

"I wonder what that yo-yo thing is made of." Lee said. "I'll find out after I take if from your corpse though." He said as he pulled out a large dagger from a sheath in his boot.

He began to step towards Charlie with each step being quicker than the other. Charlie began to think if this was the end. His mind drifted off to him... He would be very sad to not see Charlie come home tonight. It would shatter him. Charlie tried to stand but couldn't. He was still short of breath and the smoke from the flames was not making it any easier. His head still spun from the explosion of the grenade. He could tell that his aura is almost gone because he heard his scroll beeping out of control from his pocket. It meant that one strike from the dagger would pierce right through the remainder of his aura and it would kill him.

Then, as Lee was no more than three feet away from Charlie, a gunshot that sounded like a cannon going off sounded and a bullet screeched through the air and hit Lee in the other arm and made him fall to the ground. Then from the corner of Charlie's vision, a head of familiar curly brunette hair came down on Lee. There was a slight scream from Lee as Charlie heard the sound of a knife being plunged through flesh.

Charlie looked over to see Valerie stand and extract her weapons blade from the now lifeless body of Lee. Her gray bullet proof vest was lightly stained with blood. Strapped to her forearms were her weapons, they were long light metal stips that extended past her hands into giant knives, and at her hand, they extended into grips of Desert Eagle pistols.

The fire began to increase in size in front of her as her back was towards Charlie. She flicked her wrists and blades folded and unextended until they turned into arm guards.

She turned towards Charlie and jogged over to him. She crouched down next to him and looked at him with worry in her eyes. "Are you okay? Can you stand?"

Charlie coughed and began to stand, but about halfway up, his knees began to buckle. Valerie caught him and wrapped his arm her neck and began to pull him along. Charlie had Destiny gripped tightly in his hands, not wanting to leave it behind.

"You get crazier every day, you know that right?" Valerie said as she led Charlie through the burning building.

Charlie didn't get a chance to respond as he blacked out.

Charlie woke up on a stretcher being led to an ambulance. He grabbed the arm of the EMT that was pulling him along and told him to let him off.

After a few minutes of Charlie trying to convince them that he was alright, they finally got him off the stretcher and sat him on the back of the ambulance with a glass of water. A medic was also giving him a few check ups to make sure that there was nothing wrong with him.

Soon after, Valerie came over to him with a furious look in her eyes.

"Hey Valerie." Charlie said.

"Hey Valerie? Hey? That's it? No 'Thanks for saving my life'? No 'couldn't have done that without you'? Wait. That's not even why I'm upset, but that just made me even more upset. Do you have any idea how reckless that was what you did inside that bar?" She asked, gesturing towards the building that was now set ablaze and was being worked on by fire crews.

"Uhhh... Very?" Charlie said, trying to get let off the hook by making it seem he learned his lesson. No dice.

"YES! It was very reckless and you could have been killed. In fact, the medics almost pronounced you dead when I brought you out here until they found a very faint pulse. Your aura gauge was practically empty. What the hell happened?"

"The guy had some interesting explosives that I think I should tell the chief about." Charlie explained.

"He said to tell you when you woke up to tell him tomorrow, he thinks you should get some rest at home. Which, I'll admit, I have to agree to." Valerie said.

"Yeah, well. I was going to anyway. Also, I should in fact say this. Thanks Valerie. I wouldn't be sitting here if it weren't for you. And Lee would probably still be causing trouble around the city. By the way, he did have a flamethrower. Go figure."

Valerie flashed him a smile with a small blush and pulled out a small package of cigarettes. "Yeah, well. I had to. Or else I wouldn't get to hear your dumb jokes around the station anymore."

"I thought you hated my jokes?" Charlie asked with an eyebrow raised.

"They've been growing on me." She said. After a few seconds, the tone in her voice changed. "But don't think you're off the hook for almost dying." she said in a commanding voice.

"Damn." Charlie mumbled.

Valerie lit her cigarette and puffed a ball of smoke into the air.

"Careful with those things, damn things will kill you." he said.

"Yeah whatever Captain Smoke Hands." She said.

Charlie looked at her with an eyebrow raised again.

"Shut up. It's the best I could come up with." She said

"Hey, I didn't say anything." Charlie said between small laughs.

"Yeah, sure." Valerie said as she walked away from Charlie.

"See you tomorrow, Val!" Charlie said.

"Stop calling me Val! And say hi to Sam for me."

"Will do!". Charlie stood up and walked away from the area, walking down the street and towards his home.

Some night.

HELLO ALL!

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

Yeah, Sorry.

Although, as previously stated, I'm back, and with a new story.

"But what about Life Lessons Learned The Hard Way?"

Glad you asked!

I am finally out of my term of writers block and I am writing furiously to get the next chapter out as soon as possible. Now that doesn't mean it will be out within the next week. I still have things to do.

So please review this new story and tell me how you like it!

angelsixtwofive, signing off.