It was his day off, the first in months, work was pilling up like dirty dishes id the sink, which reminded him it was Revy's time to take care of this, but it could wait now, Rokuro Okajima, most known as Rock was relaxing in a rare and safe spot of the beach near the docks, seriously, he was simply relaxing under a parasol, reclined in a folding chair at the mix of the sound of the ocean and the music playing on the radio, enjoying a good book with a couple cold beers, enjoying a good time without getting shot, or screamed, or shot while being screamed at; you get it.
But soon the universe reminded the Japanese that he only existed to get screwed over and over again and that became clear when directly from the skies a ball of dark reddish fire felt directly over him, hitting him with so much force that he dies instantly…or so he thought.
Next thing he knew, he was sitting at the same spot he was before the impact, actually he wasn't even sure if he was hit by anything at all and was ready to brush it off as just like another strange dream… till he hard in his head a cold and mechanical voice speaking.
"assimilation complete. New host accepted".
"oh god, what is happening?!", he said almost in panic while he felt his body changing from the inside.
"Installing protocols", The voice says while Rock feels a violent flux of information flowing through his mind, and soon enough he not only knows what was hit him, but he also knows how to fully control it, "Installation complete, System online and ready for use".
As if on cue his cellphone rings, he snaps out of his confusion state and answer, from the other side of the line he could hear the sound of shots, explosions and Russians cussing their lungs out.
"Dutch?!, what the fuck is happening?! Where are you?".
"at the Hotel Moscow, Ronny and Abrego joined forces and started sieging the place, Rock, we aren't making this out alive, get the Lagoon and make a run for it with Benny and Revy, in the cabin there's a black note book, the addresses and passwords from the accounts we use are all there… good bye kid".
Rock felt like he was going to puke, but soon enough rage took his mind and soon after his brain was screaming for him to do something, he than remembered of what just happened.
"alright, time to do a test drive".
Meanwhile at the crumbling building that once was the HQ of Hotel Moscow, the battle continued, Balalaika, the Lagoon company and everyone else was trapped with their backs against the wall, those pieces of shit on the outside attacked when most of Balalaika's man were sent to take care of a possible rival's operations on the next town and so they had managed to push then into the defensive and the ammo was running low, the fell man she had at moment were dead or gravelly wounded and the same could be told about the Lagoon Company.
"that's it, it was good while lasted but I believe that the pits of hell await us", Balalaika, the scarred leader of the Hotel Moscow spoke in a more than scary calmness while smoking a cigar, ignoring both the fire storm outside the building and the blood dripping from her forehead, "my only regret is not be able to properly say good bye to Rock, he has been an extremely good lover over the last year".
"wait! so you are Rock's secret girlfriend?!", Dutch exclaimed confused and shocked, "I thought him and Revy were together".
"well, now they can be together, such a shame, he is a man too good for the woman in this city, did you know that he starts foreplay with massage? And he's good at it, he really knows how to use his hands…and his tongue".
"aw fuck, so all those times you and him were alone in your office…", Says Dutch spacing out a little.
"yes, very vigorously at that table, damn, he is the first man a dated that can last eight rounds in a row and be ready for another eight fifteen minutes later, and Bozhe moy! He knows how to use his twelve inches".
"TWELVE?!", Dutch screams in utterly surprise.
"that was my reaction the first time I saw it with my own eyes, I was so shocked that I grabbed a ruler and measured myself, damn, if we make this out alive I gonna make our relationship public".
The conversation was cut short after the fire suddenly stopped after what sounded like the sound a jet makes when the sound barrier and soon followed by horror screams and the smell of burning meat.
On the outside the sky was falling upon the enemy army, the Russians who were outside stood flabbergasted at the scene of bullets stopping mid-air at mere inches of them while a strange dark figure stroked the enemy with a strange torrents of red light that seemed to bend to his will and passed through dozens and dozens of men like they were made of butter and letting behind nothing more than an ever growing pile of burning ashes and melted metals and plastics on the ground, smoke and the awful smell of burning flesh in the air.
It didn't take to long for Dutch and Balalaika to come out of their cover, to watch alongside her men the dark figure dancing in the air, killing enemies like they were flies with a disturbing easy.
"holly shit! what the fuck is that thing?", the Afro-American man exclaimed in utterly confusion and shock watching the one-sided massacre.
"I don't know, but looks like it is on our side", said one of the man.
Soon there no enemies left alive, every single one of them were reduced to ashes in the wing, even Abrego and Ronny didn't make that out alive and in the middle of the smoke screen the figure, a seemingly black plate armor with strange looking turrets in his shoulders, with his helmet exposing seven swords like structures pointing to the sky surrounding his top like a crow and a narrow v shaped red visor, dressed in the rags that resembled a dress shirt, a pair of slacks and bluish green tie came down, scouting the surrounding, searching while the Russians put themselves on guard.
As soon as that thing spotted Balalaika and Dutch it started to walk in their direction, the remaining man were now in complete panic, taking positions trying as much as they could not to show fear, but it was really hard to keep a brave face, especially when most of them were literally shitting themselves, Dutch included, but to their surprise the thing raised his hands, but didn't stopped walking, soon when he was a feel steps from reaching Balalaika and Dutch, the corpses of the Russians that had died during the battles start flouting in the air, being brought closer and closer of that black thing, whose stops at mere inches from the Afro-American and the Russian, with his hands raised he stops, gently putting all the corpses down, laying at the feet of the queen of the crime and when they are all finally resting peacefully at her feet, the black thing blasts in the air two cylindrical objects that rover in the air above the chaos emanating some strange kind of golden light that for some reason was making them feel better and soon enough they discovered why, said light was… healing them and as if that wasn't impressive enough, the dead man who laid all over the ground started to rise up again, chocked and in disbelief, but alive and well if that didn't screamed power nothing more would.
Now all her men were all alive and well again, and so was she, actually she was feeling better than she ever was, but that wasn't the right time to rejoice even after that black humanoid thing had done for her, it still could be threat, one she didn't have enough power to fight.
"what do you want?", she takes the front of the group trying to keep her composure and not show how weak her knees had become.
The thing doesn't answer, instead it makes a mechanical sound and retracts his armor, revealing under it, for the surprise and shock of the group, under that black armor stood Rock with a look of concerning and as fast as he could he dashed to his secret lover, hugging her as (safely) tight as he could while almost crying with happiness.
"I was so worried!, are you okay?"
"I am okay, but… what?!", is all that comes out her mouth.
"oh, right I have explanations to do", he says cleaning one tear that came rolling from his eye.
Fifteen minutes later they are all at the Lagoon office and after Revy, Benny and Boris being called an extensive explanation is given, another demonstration and a lot of awkwardness they all came to understand what was happening.
"so, basically, this… thing is called "Dark Knight System" and is the most powerful weaponry and support system in the universe from a long extinct race, felt on you coming out of the space, replaced all your cells with Nano-machines, downloaded every bit of information on your brain and now you are the most powerful weaponry and support system of the universe", Said Benny recapitulating the highlights of the conversation, "dude, I am royally jealous of you right now".
"no kidding shithead!", exclaimed Revy, annoyed as all hell, "fuck, I wanna one of those".
"well, so you maybe be lucky, there's another one. A sister system per se, the "White Knight System", he says projecting trough his eyes a hologram of the globe with two trajectory lines, one purple and another blue, "the signal of the second system disappeared after entered the planet".
"any chance of recovering this other system?", asked Balalaika without taking her eyes from Rock, especially since he was still dressed in those rags that left his small-framed yet very nice built body at plain sight and that was turning Balalaika on.
"I would say yes, but I'm not sure, there's no signal of the system", Rock answer while blushing, feeling the predatory gaze of his lover burning his neck.
Revy notices that and it pisses her off, there's something going on here.
"alright, the fuck is this?", she points out the silly look on Rock's face while the Russian woman chuckles.
"I believe that I should take this opportunity and make an announcement, seeing that everybody is here", Balalaika says while lightning a new cigar, taking a long drag, letting the smoke fill her lungs before slowing blowing out the smoke, "me and Mr. Okajima are in a serious relationship for almost a year now".
The room felt silent, such revelation actually hit harder than the previous one, Rock and Balalaika in a relationship, one that didn't involve she wanting to kill him?
"wait, so all those times you called him for a solo job you two…", Revy started muttering.
"there was actually work to be done, but that was a secondary reason, other than that…yes", the Russian said while smoking and watching in amusement as Rock proceeded to turn beet red.
"I really didn't saw that coming", the look on Boris face was something that screamed a mix of surprise and a little disgust after the mental images started to form inside his mind.
"nobody saw that coming Sargent", said Dutch, "so what's the plan now?".
"things will be hard", Balalaika says, "I will have to start negotiating with the superiors of those fools who attacked us, meanwhile since our main headquarters is being repaired I will reallocate the troops on the buildings we own at the docs, so per now we are neighbors".
"no offence sis, but this is one hell of a clusterfuck, he Italians and the Colombians were whipped out, Chang must be pissed, there's another fucking killing machine running amok and the fucking cherry on top of this shit cake, you are fucking Rock".
"vigorously I must add", Balalaika says while chuckling, "it's like they say, he's a gentleman on streets and a devil on the sheets, which reminds-me, Rock sweetie, I hope you don't mind if I spent the night at your place".
Rock then opened a smile, a tender and loving smile and like his was bringing his first girlfriend to his house he obliged.
"in this case I have to change clothes and go buy groceries, I am running low on a fell thing".
"mind if I join you?", Balalaika said while putting her cigar in the ashtray, "I really could use a shower right now".
"please, be my guest", Rock answer while standing a hand to his now assumed girlfriend.
Balalaika joyfully accepts the invitation and take his hand into her and then both of them walk to the door.
"Sargent, inform-me as soon you get ahold of our man, we need to reposition them as soon as possible and assess the situation, I hardly believe that the government will let this fly".
"yes Kapitan, they already had started to move, we left a fell behind at the building to guard the local", answers the Sargent.
For a few hours the Lagoon office became the temporary head office of Hotel Moscow, obviously for a fair price and from that Balalaika coordinated the moving a regrouping of her troops around the city, she didn't know if the half wrecked remains of the Bougainvillea Trade Company building were safe to be explored, since half of it was reduced to a pile of rubbish and probably the foundations were damaged, so sending teams to recover whatever could be intact there wouldn't be wise, especially since now Balalaika was enacting her revenge, leading a manhunt so bloody that it would make the inquisition look like a childish game of hide-and-seek, no joke, the vissotoniky was pissed, Chang also was pissed after he heard about it and sure as the sky is blue Balalaika was seeking blood.
They say that hell hath no fury like a scorned woman, today the people of Roanapur learned that hell hath no fury like Balalaika's, half of the city was burning in flames and the other half was praying to not be the next and after three days and three nights of pure hell things started to turn back to what always was, obviously, Rock was neck deep helping to guarantee that Balalaika's men were all safe and healthy giving support bot medical and military, although he switched the configuration of his laser to the non-lethal mode which caused a paralysis that turned the target's body into a prison for 24 hours, which Balalaika and her men where deeply happy about since now they could have the pleasure of torturing and killing Abrego and Ronny themselves and soon enough, the strange black armor that followed the orders of Hotel Moscow's leader began to be known as "Balalaika's pet devil" and in all seriousness, Rock already was Balalaika's pet, so nothing new.
After things calmed down, Balalaika's men and Boris convinced (or most precisely, pressured) her to take a few days off to cool down and relax and she was doing it by staying at Rock's apartment, truth be told it was a small one-bedroom apartment, but it was comfy, spotless clean and the food was good, especially after all the vigorous 'workout' they have daily at the bedroom.
"hum, this meatloaf is divine", said Balalaika, sitting at Rock's table, wearing one of his T-shirts and one of his sleeping Shorts, her new found favorite relaxing attire, "although I wasn't expecting so much company".
"oh, yeah, little miss leatherface here always pop's here", says Revy chugging rum with her meal, "and that ass hat there don't have the balls to kick her out".
"and so do you Revy", answers Rock, "besides, I don't care, she is cool to have around".
"you are saying that because you are afraid of having a chainsaw dildo shoved up to your ass".
"my grandma always said 'wise is the man who fears and respect women' and considering were we live she is right", Rock says causing Balalaika to laugh, "especially considering the track record of my family".
"track record?", Says Balalaika in amusement.
"in the last seven hundred years almost every single Okajima man was murdered by his wife or partner, my grandma for example killed my grandpa 30 years ago with a 60 cm nail".
"seriously?! Holy shit!", says Sawyer serving herself with another slice of the meat loaf.
"that's isn't the end of it, my grandma was a butcher, so after he was dead she took him to the butcher chop, butcher him, sold the meat and buried the bones".
"fuck-me! And how the hell you know that?!", Says Revy really chocked, sure she grew up and was living in a place where things like this might happen, but still.
"she confessed this in her deathbed a year before I got kidnapped, she even told were the bones were buried, suffice to say I didn't eat pork for a year after that".
"oh well, every family has his secrets", Balalaika was really amused with the story, "tell-me you wouldn't happen to have a good counterfeiter in the family, do you?".
"that would be my cousin Yamamoto, but he died five years ago from an OD of Viagra and heroin during an interracial gay orgy".
The room felt silent for three seconds before Revy exploded laughing meanwhile Rock kept a serious face.
"wait, this is serious?", Revy was really, really shocked.
"yep, he was a gay porn actor and a counterfeiter, he died during the filming of 'Asian Slave IV', his artistic name was Minamoto Black Hole".
"holy fuck, I have all your cousin's films", Sawyer said almost chocking on her food.
"you gotta be fucking-me!", now Revy had something to work with.
"and here I am thinking that you didn't have more surprises", Balalaika says before succumbing and laughing so hard that her sides started hurting, "if I knew that having you around would be this good I would had done it sooner".
"I am happy to know that I am being useful", Says Rock getting up from his chair to put his dishes on the sink, but before going to the sink he walks to Balalaika seat and gives her a small kiss on the lips.
"so sis, what's the plan? The Italians and Colombians were whipped and probably won't be setting their foot here for a time".
"per now is lay low for a while, at least till the government is taken care", Balalaika answers while lightning a cigar, "till them we are simply claiming the spoils and forfeiting the assets previously owned by Ronny and Abrego".
"I can already smell the pile of corpses at my door", Says Sawyer, "the stunt those two idiots pulled is killing my crew, at this pace I will need to expand the business".
"at least the city will be at peace for a while, nobody is that dumb to join Abrego and Ronny", Rock says while washing his plate, "speaking of which, how is the negotiations going? Are they trying to start trouble?".
"the opposite actually, those fools are so afraid that I unleash my 'pet devil' on them that they are accepting every single one of our demands without a fight, my superiors on the other hand are on my neck trying to convince-me to let them borrow you".
"sis, tell them to choke on sandpaper cock, the vissotoniki and that dumbass there will cover your back if they try anything funny".
"I am tempted, but it will only cause more problems down the road, besides I still have a lot to do here before I can even think on doing something regarding my superiors".
Soon lunch is over, Revy had returned to her room at the end of the hall and Sawyer was taking a nap at the couch after eating the remaining meatloaf, meanwhile Rock was finishing washing the dishes while his girlfriend smoked a cigar while enjoying a good tea with lemon and honey.
"this hits all the right places, where did you learnt to make such a good tea?".
"with my uncle Sugimoto when I was in college, he was a fine appreciator of good tea and always said that you never will get anywhere if you don't know how to make a good tea".
"wise words, did he was also involved in any illegal activities?", she says chuckling while remembering the counterfeiter story.
"nah, he's a free spirit who won a huge sum of lottery money and loves to travel, he let me live in his apartment after my parents disowned me when I failed my first try at the college entrance exams, if it wasn't for him I would be homeless".
"he sounds like a good guy, maybe someday you can go and see him again".
"yeah, maybe, but what about you?".
"me what?", She says confuse.
"your family, how they are?", Rock finishes washing the last dish, goes to the living room and snuggles with Balalaika for some very welcomed cuddles.
A silence falls over them, sure they lived a life where family was a liability and wasn't worthy mention, but still, if he could speak of his family she could at least answer his question.
"I barely remember most of them, my father committed treason and run away when I was five, my mom changed her name, remarried and must be somewhere in Europe, the only family a had left after that was my grandpa and he was a great man, a war hero…my hero", She felt his arms around her, gently squeezing and involving her with a sweet warmth that she was founding day after day to be more and more addicting.
"are you okay?", he asks with legit worry in his voice.
"yes, yes I am", she answers, while questioning herself how such a good man wasn't already taken, "Rock, tell-me a story, a good one".
"did I told the story of how I almost got mauled by a Doberman?", Rock says assuming be her reaction that he got her attention, "I was around twelve at the time and my brother was around seventeen, our neighbor had a peach tree that gave peaches all year, it was his treasure, he also had Doberman to guard his house".
"yes and…", she Says legitimately curious.
"before I continue I need to explain the layout of my parent's neighbor's backyard. There's the wall that separates my parent's backyard from the neighbor, then in the middle of the neighbor's backyard has a pool and on the far end of his backyard is where the peach three was".
"I get it", says Balalaika noticing that Sawyer had log waked up and was listening to the story.
"well, it was Sunday, our parents weren't at home and my brother had bought a new camera and was making a few homemade tapes and convinced me to jump to the neighbor backyard a steal some peaches, since that old crone never shared them he was at the second store of the house filming and I was at the top of the wall.
"come on, continue", Balalaika was giddy with expectation and so was Sawyer.
"it was simple, the dog was sleeping, the neighbor wasn't home and the tree was loaded with sweet and ripe peaches. I jumped the wall and carefully walked through the yard, but I barely gave three steps and the dog waked up, furious and seeking blood…my blood".
He makes a pause to recover his breath, while calming himself since he was feeling his blood start to boil, but calming down when noticing that his lover was enjoying the story he continues.
"fulled with panic and adrenaline I dashed trough the yard and by the skin of my teeth I ran through the pool, not around, through the god damn pool and when I noticed I was holding myself with all my might to a tree branch, screaming bloody murder while the dog was jumping and barking, trying to get-me".
Balalaika holds down a laugh, gesture that Sawyer doesn't care to do while Rock retells the story, which he does now with a slightly irritate tone.
"but wait, it gets better. The branch broke and I felt with my back to the ground, but I didn't had time to process the pain or the shock because that goddamn dog was up to my ass as soon as I hit the ground and once again I dashed across the yard and in one jump I flew over the wall, through the open window from where my brother was filming everything and I landed face first on the floor".
Now was Balalaika's turn to explode with laughter, spitting her tea all over the place while Sawyer was on the ground howling.
"and the worst part is that after the whole fiasco that son of a bitch showed that tape to the entire family, every year at my birthday, at Christmas and family gatherings", he says pouting while assuming a deep shade of red, "and to top it all I got one hell of an ass beating and was grounded for three months".
At this point Sawyer was almost puking from laughing and Balalaika was red in the face due to the lack of air in her lungs, she was laughing so hard that it was echoing in the entire apartment.
"if we even set a foot on Tokyo again I am going to put my hands on that tape, no matter what!", she says cleaning the tears from her eyes while recovering her breath.
"god help-me if Revy finds out, she would tease-me with that till the day I die", he says stopping pouting after seeing his beloved woman smile at his disgrace, "so, what do you want for dinner?".
"honestly, I have no idea, but I know what I want for the afternoon brunch", if the sultry tone on her voice wasn't a big enough cue, her wondering hand through his manhood was.
There was no need to more words, as soon as he feels her heat on him, Rock tenderly kisses her in the scarred cheek, slowly and tenderly tracing his way to her lips while his hands find the way under her t-shirt to her bare breasts, carefully massaging them, sending their brains into an overcharge of pleasure.
"so, shall we continue in the bedroom?", she says feeling slightly moaning as his lips trail his way from her face to her neck, were he kisses her while taking breaths, savoring her taste and smell, like it was his first time with a woman.
She loved that, he treated her like she was a goddess in bed, always when they had the time Rock would make sure to savor Balalaika, like she was his first, although once he started to heat it up he changed from a shy and meek cherry schoolboy into a beast and Balalaika would be lying if she said that she didn't loved it.
"miss Sawyer, I firmly recommend that you either leave or turn up the volume of the television", Balalaika says while being scooped down the couch in a bridal carry and being carried to the bedroom.
Sawyer whose really didn't wanted to cut her break time short, was inclined to choose the latter, but at the same time she didn't wanted to stay and hear what was about to happen, especially when herself wasn't having any of the fun, so she makes her way out.
"it surprises me that you gave her a key to your place", says Balalaika with her arms around his neck.
"after she destroyed three doors and it became clear that she would continue to break in to hang out o figured it would be cheaper to give her a key", he says holding his beloved firmly", ", truth be told she is a wonderful 'roommate' besides, she is my contact to get good meat".
"seriously? I always tough where did you get such good meat and by the way you cook, no wonder she likes to come to your place, she must be really sad that you are already taken".
"lucky me, I guess, especially when the one who took me out of the market is such a marvelous woman", he says blushing a little, it was unusual for him to have such kind of talk with Balalaika, although now they were officially in a relationship.