Almost two weeks had gone by and Karkat was on a patrol. Leaping across building after building gets old very quickly, but it's nice to have the time to be alone. He had been seeing John and Jade almost every day and he texted both of them just as much, he'd even met their father. Mr. Egbert and John had pranked him with a cake filled with food coloring, he came back that day with green teeth that took four hours of brushing to clean.
Karkat landed on a small condominium and his phone buzzed in his inner pocket. He awkwardly felt around for it and pulled it out to see Jade's text: GG: hey karkat, wanna come hang out with us? :) me and john are having a few people over. Karkat was about to respond when his earbud went off with chatter. Dammit, can't even respond. He pressed his finger against his ear and quietly screamed, "What the hell are you fuckers yelling about!?"
Kanaya's voice came in over the airwaves, her normal demeanor had been exchanged for her almost screaming. "Karkat, it's them! Get your ass over here, NOW! Follow the lights!" He could hear what sounded like explosions behind her voice. Karkat looked back towards the ghettos of Skaia-City alight with strobing colors and fire. He shouted back at them as he ran towards the chaos, "Let's rip those fucking bastards a new one!"
Jade picked up her phone again, no new messages. She sat back down on the couch as Roxy and John fought each other on screen with Dave making jabs at both of them. Jade looked over at Rose in the chair she pulled in from the kitchen, "I don't think he's coming." Disappointment filled her, she genuinely was hoping to see Karkat again.
Rose put down whatever macabre book she was reading to talk to her sad friend. "You must really like him to be expressing this level of sadness." She acted like a therapist towards her, she couldn't help it really but she saw herself that way.
Jade got defensive and her face flushed a bit. "No," she said, "It's just that he didn't even respond." She looked back at her phone hoping for a response. "It's been almost ten minutes, he usually is good about responding to these..." Jade looked down at her shoes and hung there in silence, only Rose noticed her emotion. Rose put her hand on Jade's shoulder, "Don't worry about it, I'm sure he's fine." Jade hugged her, "I actually do like him a lot, even Bec likes him! I just don't want anything to mess up my relationship with him."
She flashed her a smile as John motioned them out of their moment. He looked either excited or worried, Jade couldn't tell. He just looked back at the television and said, "Can you guys believe this?" Jade glanced at the screen and her jaw nearly dropped.
On a live news feed, what seemed to be an unreal fight was taking place. Two gangs were squaring off, destroying the derelict houses they crashed through. The Felt and the Midnight Crew had been fighting for years but never anything like this! This was mass chaos, mayhem, destruction. The reporter said that already ten civilians had been taken hostage by the Felt and five more had died in the crossfire already. "This can't be happening," Jade muttered under her breath. The screen looked like a warzone and this wasn't even ten miles from where they were sitting!
The reporter pointed out two men in bright green suits each with a different colored hat on, one yellow and the other blue. She identified them as two of the Felts higher ups who had been sprung from prison in a mass riot. Almost immediately after she said this, a shadow crossed in front of the helicopter window. Three new figures landed on what little roof was left and jumped into the fighting. None of them could pay attention to what the news reporter was saying, only at the blazing fight happening below. John started to ask something without moving his eyes from the screen, "Is that him Jade?" Jade simply nodded her head as the Iron Knight fought on screen.
Fire raged as the bullets hailed from the oncoming assault of Felt gunmen. Kanaya had already taken out about six of the gang members, Sollux was trying to keep the firefight from bringing the building down. He face grimaced with pain as he used his psionic powers to keep the building together as Kanya butchered down below him. Karkat rushed towards two men standing above all the other Felt gang members, directing the other in combat like generals.
Both of them were in the gang uniform, bright green suits except they had hats. The one in the yellow bowler hat with the one was Japanese, he seemed to be constantly on edge and barking commands faster than his mouth allowed him. His companion, a older and slightly larger latino man, wore his blue top hat emblazoned with the number two slouched over the battlefield with a sad expression. He seemed to be slow, not that he had a disability but that he seemed to move slower than everything around him.
Karkat rushed at them a sickle in each hand and his armor encasing him. Leaping through the air, he screamed as he slammed down his blades towards the one in the yellow hat's face. But before they made contact he was gone! Karkat collided with the earth and glanced over to see his target a few yards away, furrowing his brow as green light seemed to flash from his eyes. Shit.
The high ranking Felt member known as Itchy came at him with incredible speed, before he knew what was going on Karkat was kicked against a wall. Since fucking when do these guys have powers! Itchy ran at him again but Karkat hardened his chitin armor before he charged. Itchy's fist collided with the armor and recoiled. The Iron Knight uppercutted him in that brief moment before he darted off to higher ground. He chased after him, strike at him but only hitting his suit. Dozens of cuts littered it as he continued to parlay Karkat's attacks. "I've had enough of you!" Karkat grunted in a deep voice as he kicked Itchy square in the chest. He landed with a loud thud that seemed to wake Doze from whatever daze he had been in. He had been sitting in the background this whole fight, no one noticing him.
By now only a few stragglers were still in the ruined building, Kanaya cleaning them up with the last of the Midnight Crew present. Karkat shouted at Kanaya, "Sanguia! NOW!" She immediately lunged towards Itchy with her chainsaw in tow. She moved with grace despite its size and swung it at her target. He dodged her advances with lightning quickness but what remained of his suit was tattered and cut up. He retreated as both the Iron Knight and Sanguia converged on him, closing in for the kill. Before they could get within ten feet of him, the other one seemed to appear from nowhere. Itchy moved out of the zone before Doze activated his powers, he created a field around himself with Kanaya and Karkat inside. Everything moved extremely slow inside and they were hopelessly stuck mid-attack.
Itchy laughed at them as he moved towards Sollux. Sollux noticed the commotion behind him and turned around to welcome Itchy's fist to his face. He flew back and caught himself mid-air before he hit the wall. Sollux tried to blast him but Itchy was too fast, bullet punch after bullet punch his stamina wouldn't let up. The desperate troll needed a plan, the other trolls are on the opposite side of the city and Karkat and Kanaya are stuck. He's lucky that Karkat was close enough to help them out. Sollux dodged the next punch and launched Itchy back with his psionic lasers. Only one shot, he thought to himself as he fired again but not at Itchy. The shot landed in Doze's field, super-slowed along with the rest of them. Checkmate.
Itchy got up and saw the beam slowly inching towards his comrade. He shouted something in anger and ran through the field like it was nothing, picking up Doze and running off before the others could react. They hit the ground hard, Karkat blacked out a bit before Kanaya held him up on her shoulder. "Let's get out of this decrepit place," she said in her normal calm voice, despite the chaos she seemed fine as she licked the blood of her wrist. As if on queue a black van raced down the street outside and they disappeared into the night.
Karkat took off his mask and wiped the sweat from his forehead, "What the fuck happened out there?!" He leaned back in his chair and tried to relax his muscles but every ounce of his body surged with pain. Sollux took of his mask as well and held his head in his hands. Either he was having a hell of a headache or he was trying to make sense of what just happened out there, chances were it was a little bit of both.
Kanaya sat up, all the blood that had been coating her a moment ago gone, "Obviously there is something that you have missed. Most likely that our combined efforts in slowing the enemy down has not worked as effectively as we thought." Karkat realized she wasn't talking to him halfway through the first sentence. In the front seat, driving faster than the police could track, was a cold gentleman in a black fedora. His icy expression didn't change as he speed through three red lights and a stop sign.
Diamonds Droog without turning around said only these words, "I don't know what you three did but you pissed him off." One the only elite members of the Midnight rode them off into the nightscape and away from the lights of the city. The trolls hung in silence, watching the buildings zoom past them without any knowledge of the time passed. Karkat checked his phone, no new messages. He opened his phone to try and message her but as soon as he loaded up the app a message appeared: GC: BL1ND JUST1C3 R3PORT1NG, WH4T H4PP3N3D OUT TH3R3 K4RK4T? :? Karkat quickly typed up a message saying that he'd rather not talk about it until after the lecture. Before he knew it they were pulling into a dingy "nightclub" (if you could even call it that). Tobacco smoke poured out of the doorway as some gangster flopped out drunk onto the street. The car parked around back where the lights didn't shine on them and Karkat, Kanaya, and Sollux walked down a meat cellar door. They were greeted by a harsh raspy voice, the man's spade pin shining on his blazer, "And where they hell have you three been?!"