Disclaimer - I don't own Black Lagoon. I just own this story.
Feedback would be nice - I am trying to do something different here.
War of the Fascists.
In the streets of the city, close to the harbour, a large cluster of Nazis was struggling to hold the line against the criminals who were firing indiscriminately at them.
Fires rose from destroyed or burning buildings up and down the street, and greasy black smoke filled the air, choking everyone who was still alive while those who were dead were the luckier ones while bullets were shot at random targets at half seen silhouettes and forms through the smoke and the hails of bullets as the Aryan Socialist Union struggled to maintain their grip on this shithole of a city.
The Nazis were doing their best to put up a very good fight, but it was clear even to a newbie who had just arrived at Roanapur for whatever desperate reason, out of desperation or because they had no-where else to go since they were being hunted from somewhere else, they were losing. Badly. The new leader of the Aryan Socialist Union had spent a whole year trying to get his organisation to wise up to the real world, and while many of the Nazis who had flourished under his reign were either those who were realistic enough to have seen and recognised Ratchman and Stanford genuinely did not know what they were doing so the organisation would have always remained fixed in time with nowhere else to go, or those fanatics who had joined the ASU because they had no-where else to go in other of those far right organisations back in the USA, only to be disappointed with what they found since while the ASU was trying to resemble the Nazis from Germany in the 1940s, they were a joke could see they were losing, they didn't want to let go of Roanapur while those cowards who'd joined out of fanaticism towards Hitler and his ideals had already left, only to be slaughtered by any of the marauding groups out there in the city who were going around and killing any Nazi they found without a care about whether or not they were trying to save their own necks or not.
But even those fanatics were not immune to logic or to reality.
The Aryan Socialist Union forces attacking Roanapur were drawing back from the fierce fighting they were having to endure from the various gangs and individual criminals who had no particular affiliation to anyone higher up on the food chain. On a good day many of those same criminals and assassins like Sawyer the Cleaner and Shenhua wouldn't have batted an eyelid for anyone who had a lot of power in the city and held influence over the status quo - usually they wouldn't have even cared if one of them died as someone new took their place. To them they would have simply taken advantage to get fresh work from the newbie and life would have gone on while they kept their head down.
It was typically the law of hive of scum and villainy in Roanapur; if you were to survive, keep to the shadows while offering skills to someone powerful for both protection and anonymity.
The Nazi attack on Roanapur had changed that.
Now everybody was fighting alongside one another. Criminal nonchalance vs Nazi arrogance and ignorance. The criminals in Roanapur didn't care about stupid rules where you didn't shoot anyone in the back since they believed the back and the front, what was the difference? Plus, having Nazis around was bad for business, or good, depending on your point of view since it gave those gangs and pirates who were hungry for an excuse to fight but they had been cowed by Chang and Balalaika and the other more powerful bosses since they did more to preserve the peace than most people thought, though only because a gang war was usually considered bad for business even if it shook the city up, and allowed someone else to get hold of a resource.
It wouldn't last, of course. Soon the status quo of the city would be returned to normal and the gangs would go back to their cold war.
However, in the meantime, they had Nazis to kill.
In a side street, not far from the harbour, a group of Nazis were desperately trying to escape the carnage that was going on all around them. There were only four of them and they weren't lead by anyone of higher rank, though truthfully at that point the group probably would not really care if someone ordered them around or not.
When they had been selected for the mission to Roanapur, they had been excited even if they'd had misgivings. Roanapur had an unsavoury reputation as it was, full of freaks and murderers, but they'd been forced to go with the flow. This group of Nazis were only a few examples of a small minority who had a bit more realism than the average member of their organisation. In comparison the majority were so far up the Aryan backside and believed in their own superiority they were blind to what existed in Roanapur. Now the group were trying to escape. The whole mission had been a shambles because their fellows had either underestimated their enemies or because they were painfully ignorant of the real world.
Now the four Nazis were struggling to escape. They had collectively decided to just leave and forget about the Aryan Socialist Union. There was no way their new leader would let them come back. He had only been in charge for a year now, but he had quickly made it clear to everyone he did not take failure, or betrayal, lightly. Unlike Ratchman and Stanford, he didn't completely follow Nazi philosophy, but he was ingenious and dangerous.
The group had no intention of laying eyes on him again.
Unfortunately, they were so concerned with escape they failed to notice Sawyer before she attacked them. They only realised she was there when she revved up her chainsaw...
"Son a bitch!" Revy screamed in rage when the Nazi's new leader made his little announcement about the bomb underneath the floor, but before she could completely fly off the handle Rock was immediately there and he wrapped his arms around her, and gently kissed her temple.
"Now is not the time, Revy," he whispered gently, waiting for her to calm down. "We need to get out of here."
Inwardly smiling at his two friends, particularly since Revy was beginning to calm down, but taking this whole mess too seriously Dutch studied the floor of the room they were in. The problem was the thin cheap carpeting looked like it had recently been fitted to the floor, so it was hard for him to tell if there really was a bomb underneath the floor. Although he hated to admit it to himself Dutch had to admit this latest sick Nazi fuck had some brains in his head.
Meanwhile, Benny was examining the door before he planted his ear on it. "I think there's someone out there," he whispered, "I can hear footsteps and breathing."
Still in Rocks' arms, Revy scowled. "Sounds like the bastards don't know about any bomb under the floor," she commented.
A quick idea flashed through Rock's mind of persuading the Nazis outside there was a bomb on the ship and that their leader planned to kill them all without a thought but he discounted it immediately. "Is there any way of getting through that door?" he asked instead.
Benny was already checking the lock. "Fuck, it looks like there's a key in the lock."
Rock looked at the door and his eyes fixed on the grille set into it. "Benny," he said, reaching inside his pocket. "Do you think if you had the right tool you can open that grille, you can unlock the door?"
Benny shifted around, grunting painfully as he tried to shift his weight around the uncomfortable posture he was locked in, to face his friend. His brow was crinkled in a puzzled frown. "Sure, why?" he asked.
Revy looked at her new boyfriend and saw him take out of his pocket a swiss-army knife. She gaped at him. "Where the fuck did you get that?" she demanded.
Rock spared her a crooked, lop-sided grin. "I've had it for a while," he admitted while he passed the tool over to Benny who quickly checked each of the tools to see if there was anything there he could use to remove the screws.
Revy snorted and rolled her eyes, and she used her hand to gently touch Rock's cheek. The former Japanese businessman looked at her…. then she slapped him over the head. "That's for not telling me!" she snarled at him while he winced in surprise at the blow, though truthfully she wasn't sure why she was lashing out at him. Very quickly she leaned forward and kissed him while Benny and Dutch quickly averted their eyes, deciding it wasn't worth getting into a fight with the volatile Revy. Instead, they worked on the grille. It didn't take them long to get it off. Benny stuck his head out through the hole to see if there was anybody there to stop them escape, but fortunately, there was no-one in sight on either end of the corridor.
Twisting around as best as he could, Benny reached an arm upwards so he could turn the key in the lock. The hole was narrow as it was, so Benny had to take everything slowly.
"Stay calm, Benny boy," the Lagoon company techno-geek told himself, "remember you've gotten through things much tighter than this." He chuckled at the pun.
And he had. Benny remembered all of those games he had played as a kid and then later as a teenager, learning some basic contortionist techniques when he became bored with computer work in order to expand his IQ. It had been a long time since he had played such games, but while he had grown older in age, mind, and body, he still remembered that the trick to this was to keep calm and to be sure of where his body was while he twisted himself.
It occurred to him while he did this Revy might have been the better choice, or Rock, since the pair of them were much leaner in terms of physique compared to Dutch, who was too big for this type of work, but it didn't matter since Benny was built along the same lines.
At last! Benny grinned as his fingers had managed to turn the lock, but the smile faded when he spotted a Nazi appear down the corridor.
Benny didn't even stop to show any surprise, he just quickly slipped back through the hole. But he did it too fast and he cut himself on the metal of the square hole. Wincing in pain and cursing himself for being too quick, Benny managed to manipulate himself out of it while the Nazi quickly recovered from seeing the shocking sight of seeing one of the prisoners taken from Roanapur sticking his head and arm out of the door to turn the key.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" the Nazi shouted, clumsily reaching for his weapon, but it was too late.
Revy rushed out of the room the moment the door was opened, and she didn't give a damn if there were more Nazis nearby. The Nazi barely had time to react before Revy broke his neck. The infamous "Two-Hands" was not in the mood for a drawn-out fight, so she'd decided to get it over with. The Nazi had barely dropped to the ground before she grabbed his gun.
By the time the rest of the Lagoon company left the room, she was down the corridor looking both ways before she glared back at them.
"What the fuck are you guys waiting for?!" she snapped at them. "Let's get outta here!"
As they hurried down the corridor towards her, Dutch glanced at Rock out of the corner of his eye. "You ready for her?" he asked quietly, hoping Revy did not hear him.
Rock glanced at him. "I think so," he replied.
"I'm happy for yer, really I am," Dutch said quickly, hoping Rock didn't take offence. "Just be careful with her, though I don't think I need to tell you that. Don't hurt her, Rock. Ever."
Rock picked up on the latent threat and glanced at his friend as they ran through the corridors of the freighter. He knew how protective Dutch was as a friend and as a boss, and it didn't really come too much as a surprise he was warning him from hurting Revy, not that he ever would.
Safe in his office in his regular job in the US of A, the Aryan Socialist Union leader leaned back in his chair while he drank some fresh coffee provided to him by his secretary. He glanced at his wall clock to see how long he had before he had to go to the meeting that had been arranged for today, and he saw he had over an hour and a half to go. He felt grateful because it gave him the opportunity to actually think about his current plans. There was no doubt in his mind the Lagoon company would escape just like there was no way those idiots who'd attacked Roanapur would live to see another day unless of course, they had the common sense to see they'd lost.
He didn't care about the Lagoon company. They were small fry and they were based in Roanapur, they wouldn't come after him. They wouldn't know where to begin and besides, he doubted they'd have anything to gain by coming after him. They could have tried to track down Lord Alfred, but they hadn't bothered. If he was wrong, then he was wrong, and then he would need to form a new plan to get rid of them. They had only been a blip on his radar when he'd set up this little scheme.
As he took a sip of coffee from his cup, he thought about the casualties he'd heard about since his men had arrived in Roanapur.
He wasn't surprised they were now trying to escape as a result from the ingenious and rather graphic ways the criminals had for dealing with enemies who made the mistake of wandering around onto their patch. Still, in the long run, it wouldn't be a problem. Sure, he'd lose quite a few people but he didn't care about that since most of those who were dead were the ones who deserved it. The rest would have experienced fighting genuinely for the first time and would have put whatever skills they'd learnt to the test. After all, the old cliche "whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" applied here and now.
Those who didn't pull their weight and believed in so-called Aryan superiority…. well, he wouldn't miss them. If some of them survived then he would not care or bat an eyelid at them. A few more missions like the one in Roanapur would either harden them and make them see life as it was in reality instead of seeing the world through swastika shaped rose-tinted glasses that made them think they were superior since they wore SS-style uniforms (he was tempted to change the design which wouldn't make the Aryan Socialist Union look like a bunch of copycats), without those idiotic parades and recitations of that anthem which didn't do much, though it served its purpose to inspire the whole lot of them to do their mission even if it gave him a headache to listen to it.
Revy hated the guns in her hands even if she had a proficiency with many kinds of weapon. Shortly after they'd left that room and she'd gotten hold of a gun, she had found a pair of Nazis in a nearby corridor, and she had killed them both. She had gotten another pistol from one of the skinheads while Dutch had gotten the other's machine gun. Revy didn't know about how Dutch felt about using a weapon different from his trusty pump-action shotgun forcing him to rely on a different weapon, but right now she couldn't say she cared.
The came across two more Nazis, and she fired on them, but the gun in her right hand clicked empty, so Dutch had to shoot the bastard instead just as she'd lined him up in the sights. Yep. She hated her borrowed guns, she thought to herself as she scowled and reloaded the gun. She was running out of clips for both of the fucking things which only worsened her mood. They felt odd in her hands even if she was okay using shotguns, machine guns, grenade launchers, or even knives like Chinglish used. They didn't sound right either and they felt heavy to hold. To make matters even worse they were two completely different types, so she felt kind of unbalanced in her hands. Awkward. She hadn't expected the problem when she had taken them from the Nazis she had met and killed, nor had it had been on her mind.
But now she was regretting her decision to use two guns in order to give these skinheads a taste of "Two-Hands."
As she and her buddies (and her new boyfriend) ran through the corridors of the freighter to get out of here, Revy found herself facing a problem she hadn't had with handguns in a long time.
It had been a long time since she had held a pair of guns and didn't keep in mind how many bullets she had actually used before the magazine became empty. Oh, she knew the capacity of the magazines in the guns, of course, but she had become so used to her own custom made weapons that she knew just how many shells were being fired and how many she had left thanks to hours and hours of practice and training.
That was one of the downsides to it, really. In her mind, the guns that she'd gotten custom made for her were designed to act as an extension of her own body. But these weapons…. As a kid, she had learnt quickly to be sparing with her shots and so she began testing herself, practicing so then she mentally kept count of how many bullets she fired, and she was mentally trying to do the same here now. She knew the make and the model of the guns in her hands, sure, but she had become so used to being able to deftly fire and reload her guns when she mentally counted how many shots she'd fired, and they were a joy to use.
More than once Revy had fired her new guns and the hammers had clicked empty, and she was forced to pull back - she hadn't experienced anything like this for a long time. Revy had trained herself to keep count of the shells she used for all weapons she had used, but unfortunately, she didn't have time to try to keep count now. All she could do was to keep check of how many times she actually shot the guns and keep check of her supply of clips.
"I'd better get my guns back," she mentally growled to herself, squeezing the guns in her hands and resisting the urge to throw them away, "or else I'm gonna go mad."
Another group of Nazis appeared from both directions blocking their way to the upper deck while the other group blocked off their escape.
Dutch, knowing Revy was having troubles of her own, simply raised his machine gun and fired on the Nazis covering the way out while he took the ones behind.
The sound of the machine gun made Revy grind her teeth as she fired her borrowed guns at the Nazis in front of her, using her training and years of experience to pick one Nazi off and then the other before she made a breakneck rush towards the two survivors and she leapt into the air, thanking her lucky stars though she would never even admit she had them to anybody she practiced these moves every chance she had. While the Nazis were gaping at her like those losers she'd encountered when she and Rock had travelled to Japan to help Balalaika and she'd helped slaughter that bunch of losers in that bowling alley, but on this occasion the weight of the guns in her hands nearly made her drop them but she gripped them tighter as she fired on them.
Revy landed and lifted herself with the grace of a cat as they kept moving upwards. She glanced behind to see if there were anymore behind them, and she nearly stopped when she saw Rock pick up a handgun. But she forced herself to keep moving while she tried to push the knowledge Rock was now comfortable with firearms out of her mind, but it was nearly impossible.
Revy still wasn't sure how she should feel about Rock being comfortable with holding a gun now, but there was nothing she could do about it.
For so long, even if it was just a year or so, Revy had worked long and hard to keep Rock away from that, but it hadn't worked.
She guessed it probably never would have done, and that hurt her more than she would have cared to have admitted to herself. And yet, truthfully, now she and Rock had cleared the air a bit, she could honestly say that a part of her was now relieved Rock was finally trying to help them whenever it came to gunfights instead of leaving it all to her and Dutch, but until she had the chance to properly think through things, she would probably remain uncomfortable.
Pushing that aside, for now, Revy ran with her friends towards the deck of the ship.
As they came out of the stairway into the open air, they came across another group of Nazis. Revy held back the urge to snarl at them. She might like a good fight, but she also preferred a few breaks here and there. Was that too much to ask for?
Lifting up her borrowed weapons after readying herself, Revy opened fire on them, mentally keeping check of the guns magazine capacity in mind as she fired at them. Dutch followed suit and she shot him a brief glare to taking down more of the Nazis than she had, but she pushed that aside as they ran up the stairs.
Spotting two more Nazis on the deck who were rushing towards the stairway entrance where they were coming out, Revy lifted up her guns and took aim and shot them both a couple of times before she looked around for any more sign of others.
Revy was just looking towards the superstructure of the ship when the ship shook with an explosion. Black smoke started to rise from the side of the ship and Revy just knew it was coming from that cabin they'd escaped from. She pushed it aside to focus on getting off this fucking freighter. They had no idea how long they had on this ship before someone else found them.
It was Rock who found a way out. "There are a few boats over here," he called.
The Lagoon company rushed down the stairs towards one of the boats. Dutch was the last one into the boat and he yanked on the mooring rope while Benny rushed to the steering wheel and the engine controls while on the deck of the freighter that towered above them, a group of Nazis fired on them, but they didn't manage to get that many shots off before Dutch floored the engine and the boat sped away from the ship. The boat was a typical speedboat which would be enough to get them back to the city.
Dropping her borrowed guns on one of the seats, Revy let her eyes scan the city as Dutch and Benny worked to guide the speedboat back to the dock where the Lagoon company worked from. Here and there along the skyline of the shithole that was Roanapur were plumes of smoke were rising from the city, and she could hear the sound of gunfire from the city, but it didn't sound as strong as it had before. She didn't know if that meant everyone in the city had managed to drive the Nazis out and were simply killing off the survivors.
Movement appeared out of the corner of her eyes, and Revy turned and found herself looking at Rock. He was offering her a tentative and shy smile, and she smiled back.
Until the next time... which is the final chapter.
