Chapter 25: The Bartender Always knows
Shade slowly opened his eyes and rose from the couch. He looked to his left to see Amber walking down the stairs, wearing a gray sweater and blue sweatpants. "Morning Shade." "Morning Amber. Got any info yet?" "No, but I think I know where you can get some information while I look." "Where?" "Across the street is a bar. The bartender there knows things around town. See if you can get some information from him." "Thanks." Shade started towards the door and closed it behind himself. Once he was down the building stairs, he exited and saw the bar Amber spoke of. He walked over to it before a Vullaby in a leather jacket stopped him. "Sorry kid, no minors." He said in an authorative tone of voice. "I don't have time for this." Shade slammed his knee into the vullaby's gut making him bend in pain. Shade spun around, delivering a roundhouse kick to the vullaby's face. He fell to the ground unconscious. Shade walked through the doors, into a dark, alcohol smelling room. He walked forward before he was stopped by a drunken beartic. "Hey, wat are you doin in har kid?" Shade scoffed as the drunk put a hand on his shoulder. "You have three seconds before you get hurt. Badly." Shade was not in the mood for these drunken shenanigans. "You know, when I was your age, I never even…" He never finished his sentence as Shade grabbed the beartic's hand, and flipped him over his shoulder, smashing him into the pool table, breaking through it. The beartic groaned as he lay in pain on the wooden table rubble. "YO!" A voice from across the room screamed. "That little motherfucker just took out Steve! Let's kick his ass!" A Golett rushed towards Shade and swung his fist. But Shade caught it and kicked him in the face, sending him flying into a booth. A Clefable grabbed Shade's right arm, while a mankey grabbed his left. A poliwhirl walked towards Shade holding a broken bottle. The edges of the broken glass shimmered in the dim lighting. Shade pulled his arms together, knocking the Clefable and mankey into each other. Shade grabbed the back of their heads before repeatedly slamming their faces into each other's, multiple times. The poliwhirl charged at Shade, but he caught his wrist and kicked the poliwhirl in the gut. He pulled the bottle from the poliwhirl's hand, before digging the edges into the neck of the poliwhirl. He pulled it out as the lifeless body dropped to the ground in front of him. He heard footsteps behind him and spun around, slamming the broken bottle into the skull of a duskclops. The rest of the patrons backed away, making a walkway down the middle of the bar. Shade slowly approached the counter where a scared zebstrika shook behind. Shade sat on one of the stools before saying, "Soda." The zebstrika didn't hesitate to reach under the bar and grab a bottle of soda. Shade popped the top off and downed the entire bottle in a few seconds. Shade heard groaning behind him and spun around, smashing the soda bottle into the face of the Clefable when it tried to get up. It fell back with a thud, broken glass lining it's face. Shade turned back towards the zebstrika. "People say you're the guy to go to for information. Is this true?" Shade asked almost making the zebstrika piss itself. "Y-Yeah." He stuttered. "I need to get the location of a guy named…" Shade thought back to the computer screen and thought of the simisage's name. "Of a guy named Brett Thoaks." "I d-don't know who that is." Shade grabbed the zebstrika's ear and slammed the side of it's face into the wooden bar. He screamed in pain. "OK! OK! He spends his time at the abandoned warehouse! Just don't hurt me!" Shade released the ear of the zebstrika. "Thanks." Shade got up and walked towards the exit, looks of awe stared him down from the crowd.
Twenty minutes later…
It took Shade three hours to find this warehouse the bartender told him about. Luckily there weren't too many warehouses. A drowzee stood outside the main entrance. Shade approached it. "Sorry kid, this area is off lim…" Shade smashed his fist into the drowzee's face, getting a loud crunch noise from it's nose. Shade kicked it in the jaw, just to make sure it was down. He scoffed before pushing open the door to a huge, dark, crate filled room. "Shit… lot of boxes." Shade cautiously walked down the walkway looking left and right to see if anything was watching him from the shadows. It wouldn't have made a difference because he had night vision. "Come out fuckface! I wanna play!" Shade echoed mockingly to whatever presence he sensed. "Aw what's the matter? Scared that I'm gonna kick your ass?" Shade continued down the path before a bottle fell over and rolled on it's side. Shade turned to the noise to see the bottle still rolling. It must have only just been knocked over. "Come on out! I'll turn your face inside out if you don't!" Before Shade could react, he felt a hard wooden object smash against the back of his head. "FUCK!" He fell to the ground in pain clutching at the back of his head. He tried to push himself up again but couldn't find the strength to do so. "Crap, he's still conscious." A deep voice above him spoke. "Still? He's a tough motherfucker." The next voice sounded like a man in his mid twenties. "Hit him again." "Yes sir." Shade was hit one more time by what he thought was a boot. Everything went black after that.
Author's Note: So guys and girls, how you loving it so far? Sorry I haven't updated sooner, but I have a proposition for you. Whoever the first one is to PM what game the title of this chapter is from will get a shutout in the next chapter, and if you want, include a character idea in the PM if you want. Remember, the one who FIRST PMs me will get a shoutout, and his/her character could be put in the next, or a later chapter. (PS, if your guy sounds threatening enough I'll make him an opponent who will give you, the readers, some interesting fight scenes and will give Shade a challenge.)