Barley's wide eye processed the room. Unbelievable! So many... ruined walls, broken tables and chairs. Absolutely despicable...!
The customers who weren't involved had fled, except for the older man in a red shirt who sat at the bar and watched with an intrigued grin. Even Spike had hopped the counter and watched cautiously from the other side.
Crow stood without cover, targeting anyone who he caught moving with his poison-dipped knives. He flung out a set in Colt's direction, then hopped back fluidly to avoid one of Brock's rockets.
Rolling out of the way, Colt spotted Bull running toward him. He shot in his path, making him stop. Bull tried changing direction, but was quickly put to a stop by him again. Colt smirked. "You know, dancing suits you. Maybe you should quit and take that up." He taunted.
Bull glared with a ferocity beyond words. "I'll make you eat those words." He growled.
Someone's warning of 'taking things seriously' were but a distant memory far from his mind. Colt spun one of his guns, keeping only one trained on Bull. "Give me all you got."
Bibi craftily made her way through the crossfire, and remained unseen by 8-Bit as she made her way toward him. She was just about to bring her bat over his head as hard as she could, but a line of Ricochet's ammo cut in between, forcing her to step back. 8-Bit turned in surprise.
Crow jumped into the air and landed behind the robot faster than he could process. The bird drew back a knife and plunged it into Ricochet's shoulder.
In response, Ricochet narrowed his eye and shoved back, making Crow stumble, leaving the knife in. He whirled his upper body around and let loose a torrent of his ammo on Crow.
Meanwhile, Shelly's eyes were set intently on Brock. He was perplexed- honestly, the reason they came in here was to give Ricochet a final night of peace before being handed over to the bigwigs. He shot a couple of rockets to try and keep Shelly at bay. How ironic. Look around. This wasn't peace.
Shelly ducked behind an overturned table to take cover and catch her breath. Peering over, she saw Brock looking over in her direction, and he fired several rockets at her.
She had only a second to react, so she threw herself to the side. The table fragmented and its pieces flew everywhere. The smoke it created was the perfect cover, she realized, as she pushed herself up. Brock just made things easy for her.
She sprinted to his position before he noticed. Sliding to a stop beside his cover, she pointed her shotgun at him. "Right next to you, weasel." She announced, grinning wickedly. Brock faced her, visibly irked at the nickname.
Barley continued his anxious-filled surveillance. He'd have to replace the upholstery, fix the walls and floors... but anything more than a scorch mark he'd have to replace entirely! Where would he even begin?
On top of it all, the offending parties gave no indication of stopping, so damage percentage increased by the second. Barley's eye twitched. Did these barbarians have no manners!? His fret began to convert itself to anger. He reached up to the shelf behind him for a bottle. He'd teach them a lesson...
"I'll handle this for you, darling," came a sweet voice from beside him. The bot turned to the blonde woman in a blue dress, a parasol held in front of her. He lowered his hand, and his anger faded away. "That is, if you don't mind just a tad bit more damage."
Barley looked at her and closed his eye gently. "I'd forever trust your judgment, Piper."
"Thank you kindly," Piper said, before she brought out a cute, blue grenade. She pulled the pin and tossed it over the counter. It rolled until it came to a gentle stop in the middle of the room.
Colt stopped shooting in confusion when the bomb rolled from behind him. Coincidentally, it was in the middle of Bull's charging path toward Colt. Bull felt himself step on it, and the grenade was kicked back as he lurched forward, toward the other three pairs.
Ricochet and Crow were grappled against each other, trying to shove the other off. 8-Bit had grabbed Bibi's wrist to prevent her bat-swinging, and was struggling with protecting his screen from her strong kicks. Shelly was about ready to blast Brock point blank, but that rolling grenade caught everyone's attention at the last second. They all turned to it, a split second before it set off.
It burst in a powerful explosion, kicking up the ample amounts of shrapnel nearby and having enough force to knock down everyone and give them cuts and dents.
Bull and Colt were out of range, but fate had other plans for them. Since Bull couldn't stop his momentum after slipping, he decided to take Colt down with him. He managed himself in a final semi-awkward push, and tackled the redhead full force, knocking the wind out of him. He grinned as he heard Colt's grunt but then realized that the man was standing in front of a perfectly intact table. Maybe there was such a thing as too petty? Either way, the lesson was learned too late. They hit it, and their combined force toppled it over and broke it in two.
Piper walked from behind the bar to admire her handiwork. She looked around. Everyone was in pain and miserable. Good. The offending Brawlers were starting to groan and pick themselves up.
"Now that I have your attention, would someone care to explain what in Sam Hill started all this?" she asked.
εїз εїз εїз εїз εїз εїз
It took some argumentative story telling, reminders of not talking over each other, and the start of a headache, but eventually, Piper was able to piece together the story. In the meanwhile, Barley had taken it upon himself to start cleaning up. He was currently looking over what could be saved from the ruins.
"I see," she considered her next few moves. "In that case, everybody except for you," she pointed at Ricochet, who reacted in slight surprise. "Get out."
Crow seemed unbothered and Bull shrugged. Like they haven't been kicked out of places before. Bibi, on the other hand, frowned. She was upset, but held her tongue for the moment. They walked out of the bar together without further trouble.
Spike climbed back up over the counter, and joined Shelly and Colt as they began their walk out the door too.
Brock rubbed his arm, "Well. Actually, Piper, he's with us. 8-Bit and I.. were going to head over to the main building here to report and have him assigned." he explained.
"Why, of course you were, sugar!" Piper smiled sarcastically. "After all, the bar is easily mistaken for the skyscraper, isn't it? You must be exhausted, dear. Which is why I'll take over from here."
Brock faltered, realizing that she was taking the mission away from them. "...I.. understand."
8-Bit frowned, and began to vocalize the unfairness of that, but Brock shot him a warning glare, and he begrudgingly let it go.
Shelly overheard that last part just as they reached the door. She turned and was about to give some spiteful remark no doubt, but Colt grabbed her wrist and shook his head sternly. Shelly rolled her eyes, and that trio walked out too. Spike waved goodbye cheerfully as he did.
Brock sighed and turned to the robot. "Well, Ricochet..." Brock began, "I know it hasn't been long, but... this is where we part ways. Hope to see you again soon." he said.
The robot blinked. It felt like everything up to this point has been fast forwarded, so he couldn't entirely enjoy the mere day he had gotten to 'choose.' Nevertheless, he didn't regret it. "...I hope so too. Brock." he told him. "I will not forget these last 24 hours."
8-Bit beeped to get his attention. Ricochet looked down to him. He was frowning, and hesitated before saying. "It's too bad we couldn't have spent more time together. I'll look for you around the park if you cannot find me or Brock."
As he spoke, there was an underlying set of beeps. Morse code?
Ricochet blinked in confusion. He missed the first part, so it made no sense. He'd run back the recording later and see if he could decipher 8-Bit's message. "Of course. I will."
Barley turned his head at the group of four, fixating on 8-Bit for a few seconds, before turning around once more to lift a table up.
"I do regret breaking up this little fest, but it is getting late." Piper reminded. "I'll make sure our new friend here gets where he needs to."
Brock nodded. "Okay. We'll be on our way." Ricochet waved goodbye once more, and Brock and 8-Bit returned the gesture before walking out.
Piper hummed, looking over Ricochet's.. unseemly and battered figure. "Ricochet, was it? I'm going to make a quick phone call, so just hang tight, darling." She didn't wait for a response, and hurried away, out of sight behind a red curtain.
Ricochet blinked, and sat down on one of the upturned chairs silently. He looked around, studying the room idly.
The old man at the counter sighed softly, as if in disappointment. Then, he placed a good amount of gold coins on the counter top, smiling as he hopped off his seat. "Same great drinks with that exciting show, Barley! See you next time!" he laughed.
"Have a swell night, Mike." Barley set down a stack of chairs. Ricochet watched the exchange, and watched the old man, Mike, leave with a skip in his step.
Barley... "This is your restaurant." he realized.
"The very same you partook in destroying." Barley smiled.
"...Sorry." Ricochet responded awkwardly.
"Quite." Barley said.
Ricochet stayed quiet. Should he offer to help? He felt like he should, to fill the silence... but there was still Crow's knife in his shoulder. He didn't think he'd be efficient in helping out. Luckily, Barley spoke up again after a few seconds.
"If you don't mind me asking, Sir." He lifted a stack of boards and turned to look at him. "Your eye... If I'm not mistaken, you're a Bot from the Army. The same one that's been a fuss around here lately, I presume?"
Ricochet paused, then nodded. "You are not mistaken. I was created within the ranks."
Barley nodded. "I see."
There was some tone to his voice, Ricochet noticed, that if he were merely human, he would have missed. Barley's eye shifted to the side, and he smiled back at him. "Pleasure talking with you, Sir." He turned back to working on organizing the mess.
Confused at the sudden shift, Ricochet was about to ask on that subject, but then Piper came from behind the curtain, hands clasped together. "Okay, everything is settled. Can you handle things here, Barley? I'm going to drop off Ricochet."
"No problem." The robot lifted his hat. "Stay safe, Ms. Piper."
"Will do," She lifted her parasol on her shoulder with a wink. "Good night Barley. Ricochet, if you will, follow me."
He felt as though he couldn't joke as easily with either of these two, so he simply nodded. Piper walked ahead to the door, and he followed.
εїз εїз εїз εїз εїз εїз
They were around two blocks away from the Bar when the woman spoke up. "I realize you may think ill of me, Ricochet. I scolded Brock for not taking you to the correct place, but," she smiled, lifting a hand to politely cover her light giggles. "I'm taking you somewhere else first, too!"
Ricochet tilted his head. "To where?"
Piper paused, choosing her words carefully. "I'll tell you now. That scrap you just got into isn't uncommon. This Park...is one of a kind. You need more than luck to survive, but I suppose that's true no matter where you are in life, isn't it?"
The robot whirred his head to the street ahead of them. Interesting thought, but that didn't exactly answer his question...
It was as if she read his mind. "I know it seems like I avoided your question," she said with amusement. "But I would prefer to let you see him for yourself. It'll help in the long run, I believe. If you're lucky, you won't have to get rewired after all."
Ricochet turned to her in question. "I could be rewired?" he asked, narrowing his eye.
"I'm no fan of it either, believe me, sweetie." Piper told him. She sighed, placing a hand on her cheek and closing her eyes. But then she came back down to Earth. "That's why I'm glad that bar skirmish happened - I'm able to pull a few strings here and there for your sake. ...Just don't tell Barley I said that." she laughed lightly.
He considered her words, and slowly nodded in acceptance. That made sense, for now. If it meant.. being a step closer to leaving all this behind him, he'd take it. Genuinely, he didn't want much more than that..
The duo continued to walk forth quietly on this night, chilled air around them and the bright moon in the sky.