Chapter 7 – The Gunslinger Pt 2
"I can't believe you took out three beowolves single-handedly when you were eight!" Yang expressed, impressed by Bradly's accomplishment.
"You jumped out a freaking window!" Ruby shouted in excitement. Weiss hang her head low, unresponsive, gripping the bed she sat on.
"But still, how'd you get all those scars?" Yang asked again.
"Well that came in the years leading up to today." Bradly continued his story. "In the few months after running away from home, I lived on the streets. Eating scraps from restaurants, and sometimes even dumpsters. I eventually had to start stealing food from shops when the store clerks weren't looking. But it wasn't enough, I never seemed to have enough food to keep my stomach from hurting out of hunger. Once fall came around, I found myself struggling to find warm places to stay. I slept under discarded rugs, in entrance ways to larger buildings until someone kicked me out...anywhere to stay warm. It got really bad the one night when it rained, it felt like ice falling from the sky. Freezing and starving, I walked along the alleys, trying to find shelter. I ended running in to this man." Bradly smiled. "He saw how desperate I was and took pity on me. He said his name was Sammy and told me to follow him. He was a shorter, middle-aged man with shorter black hair and a large nose, and spoke with an Italian accent. He lead me down an alleyway to a door with a neon sign above it that said "Sammy's." He was the owner of a bar." Ruby and Yang looked on captivated by Bradly, though Weiss kept her eyes averted.
"He brought me in and let me stay in an unused storage room and introduced me to his cook, Mario, a larger quiet man, and his assistant he called Mort. He was an interesting person, short and disfigured, large bulbous eyes and didn't speak. His breathing was loud, gurgled often and he always had this blank stare. Weird man." Bradly had loosely thrown his torn shirt over himself and sat on his bed beside Ruby with Weiss and Yang their opposite. Sammy instructed Mario to 'whip something up' as he walked behind the bar and told me to sit. I sat on one of the stools, and dropped my rucksack at my side, glad to be out of the freezing rain. Sammy told me that I can stay in the back room as long as I needed as long as I didn't tell anyone and I'd need to pay my way for food. Without much option, I agreed. He warned me though, saying that a lot of the patrons who come through aren't the best company in the world but they pay well, so I best not bother them. On top of that, 'things' happen around there and it was in my best interest not to question any of it. I accepted, though curious by what he meant. After all, where else was I supposed to go?"
"What did you do for money?" Ruby asked.
"Well, once Sammy handed me a plate of food, I asked him what the best way for a kid like me to make money was. He said that judging by the guns on my waist, I wasn't exactly cut out as a business man or as a laborer. He told me that I could steal it from people, but it never would pay very well. He told me about a fighting ring down the alley where most of his bar patrons fought and gambled on fights. Then he paused, and leaned in to me and spoke quieter. I've also got a pair of contacts. One that's always looking for people willing to get the hands dirty. He explained that he accepted contracts from people looking to 'remove' certain people and paid hire guns to get it done so that there was never a connection tying him to the crime. It was all done in cash, and he paid well. And another, went by the name Murdoch, who was known to be a human trafficker and paid guys who brought in people he could sell, and cut them a profit."
"Please tell me you didn't become some sort of assassin." Yang scoffed at Bradly.
"I didn't like the idea of killing people." He responded. "I robbed a couple jerks a few times, but that's about as bad as my crime spree got. No, I chose to fight. I figured all my training with my grandma would finally pay off but I had no idea what I was getting in to. The way it worked was you signed up as a fighter, and you were pitted against other fighters at random unless one challenged you or vice versa. You got paid ten lien if you lost, twenty if you won. But I learned that most of the guys who lost weren't paid because they were either knocked unconscious and dragged out or they were killed."
"You guys fought to the death?" Ruby asked, taken aback by Bradly's story.
"Not normally, but since there weren't really any rules to the fights, some guys got carried away. Plus, there were even knife fights, they paid double. It was a rough way to make a living but, it was something."
"How well'd you do?" Yang asked.
"For the first, like, three months I often got my ass handed to me. These guys were fully grown criminals. What was a twelve year old kid supposed to do?" Bradly responded.
"And they were ok with beating up a kid?"
"They didn't care. They saw me as an easy target. I did win one fight though, some drunk dude challenged me and pulled a knife. He could barely stand up and I only threw a few punches before he dropped. I felt pretty cool for finally winning a fight but some of the other guys weren't happy so they all jumped me and beat me half to death. After they finally left me alone, I staggered to my feet, took the drunk guy's knife and walked over to the guy who paid me for the fight. He didn't watch and when he saw that I had a knife, he assumed it was a knife fight and gave me forty lien. I left back for Sammy's and when I got there, I collapsed on the floor. Sammy picked me up and took me to go see someone we only know as 'The Good Doctor.' He fixed guys up off the record for cash so he was known pretty well in the underground. Sammy paid him and he began looking at me. Apparently the guys broke two of my ribs, cracked a bone in my left arm, and cut up my face a bit. He joked that I was bloody and bruised but I'd be ok. He stitched me up, wrapped my arm in a bandage, and gave me some pain killers. Sammy and I left and went back to his bar where I paid for some chicken wings, Mario gave me some extra." Bradly smirked.
"This all sounds awful." Yang didn't understand how someone was ok with living this way.
"It wasn't that bad. Better than being trapped in a room, living under my parents rule. I was at least my own person doing things my way. Living the way I wanted to. Sure it was tough, but I endured. I got better at fighting eventually, started predicting the movements of the fighters as most of them fought the same way. I started winning pretty often too, I was faster than most of them. Only got jumped a few times but I came back swinging every time." Yang smiled at Bradly's resiliency. "As I won more, I could afford more food, and eventually bought some new clothes to replace the junk my parents got me. I think they painted a target on me because they looked too preppy. I bought some simple pants from a thrift store and some socks but then I came across a vest. It reminded me of the painting of my grandfather, so I ended up buying it and a shirt to go along with it. That's where I bought these boots too." Bradly motioned to his feet. "I think my new look rubbed a few guys the wrong way though. When my arm and ribs healed, I went back to the fighting ring and a few tougher guys eyed me when I walked in. This big dude thought to make an example of me and challenged me to a knife fight. He had a denim vest over a black t-shirt, and tattoos down his left arm. I figured I could just out maneuver him so I accepted. I took off my new shirt and vest before the fight so I didn't ruin them, drew the knife I took from the drunk dude and got in the ring. Like I thought, this guy was big and slow and I got a few shot in pretty easily. It made him mad and he charged me, I managed to get out of the way but I didn't expect him to attack again so quickly. He slashed me on my back and jumped at me. He pinned me to the ground and slammed my head in to it a bunch of times. Knocked out a few teeth too." Bradly pointed as some missing molars in his mouth.
"What happened next?" Ruby asked.
"The guy said he was going to carve his name in to my back but couldn't make clean cuts from me struggling. He yelled at me to stop squirming and stabbed me with his knife. That's that deep one you pointed out Yang."
"The one that nearly hit your heart?" She confirmed.
"Yea, the Good Doc said I was lucky to be alive."
"What did you do about the big guy?" Ruby brought Bradly back to the story.
"Well, it's not pretty. He left his knife in my back, thinking he killed me and stood up to everyone's cheers. I was stunned in pain but my mind kept coming back to thoughts of my grandma being attacked my the grim, and the anger I felt about my parents. I lost it and stood back up, I pulled the guy's knife out of my back and held it in my right hand, my knife in the other. I think that's when my aura activated because the crowed behind me started yelling like they were scared or something. I looked over my shoulder and saw a black glow and the pain went away. The big dude notice me get back up and got mad at the fact that I was still alive. He demanded that I give back his knife, I told him to come get it. He was pissed and ran at me. Just as he threw his hand out to grab his knife, I stabbed my little knife through his palm and sent his larger knife up through his head. There was so much blood. He dropped dead in front of me and the crowed went silent. I grabbed my clothes, got paid for the fight and left. The adrenaline of the fight went away and I felt like I was going to die again. It hurt so much. I went to see the Good Doctor again and explained the fight. He cleaned me up and looked at my back, said that aside from some nasty scars, I looked fine. I told him about when the guy pounded me in to the ground and the glow from my back, so he tried something. He took a scalpel and made a small cut on my palm. He told me to think about what went through my mind when I got my head smashed in and focus on the emotion. I started feeling really angry again and the glow showed up from the cut the doc made and it closed up. It left a scar but you can't really see it."
"And that was your aura." Ruby claimed.
"That's what he said, told me he'd never seen anything quite like it before. That night, in bed at Sammy's I practiced activating it. I'd make a cut on my arm with my new knife and focus my anger until it healed up. Did it over and over until both the cuts stopped hurting and my aura got easier to activate."
"That explains all these scars." Ruby pulled at Bradly's closest arm to her and inspected it carefully. "There's got to be a few hundred here!"
"Yup, practiced every day until I barely needed to concentrate. Little ones are easy but bigger ones are kinda tough."
"I wish I could do that." Yang was jealous of Bradly's aura. "So how'd you get the bullet wounds? Someone pull a gun on you at a fight?"
"Not exactly." Bradly hung his head. "There's more to it than that. See, when I left the doc's house, I ran in to this guy out walking his dog on my way back to Sammy's. He saw me go in to the house, writhing in pain and got curious so he waited outside to ask me what was wrong. He told me his name was Paul and he lived up the road a bit but never saw me around town before. I didn't want to tell this guy about me but he seemed nice enough and insisted so I reluctantly told him that I was a fighter who fought for money and that I was saving up to go to school to be a hunter. He told me that he lived with his mother and sister and that his dad was a soldier in the Atlas Military but he was killed in action. His father was the only source of income for the family since his mom was sick and when he died, Paul had to go out to find a job to support them. He was a little more than a year older than me. We talked all evening until he said he had to go home, so we parted ways. I saw him a number of times after that and we became pretty good friends, I even met his mom, Dianne, and sister, Sylvia. They were nice people." Bradly paused hanging his head low again.
"Oh no, what happened?" Ruby asked sensing Bradly's story was about to get upsetting again.
"One day, we got in to an argument, Paul and I. He wanted to know where I lived and I refused to tell him or show him. He was stubborn and persisted, so I decided to leave. But...he followed me, I didn't even notice. I was sat at the bar having a drink when he walked in with his damned dog, saw me and walked over to sit beside me. I demanded that he left, told him his life was in danger by just being there but he didn't believe me. A few guys at a back table near the dart board noticed Paul walk up to me and eyed us." Bradly choked on his words as tears began to fall from his eyes. Ruby and Yang were shocked to see the tough man they knew cry. "Three of them came up behind us, the biggest guy put his massive hand on Paul's head and asked what a pipsqueak like him was doing at this bar. I stood up to stop him but his buddy grabbed me and stuck the end of a large pistol in my back and said if I even flinched, he'd shoot. I recognized the big guy from the fighting ring, must have had a grudge on me or something. He looked back at a guy sitting at another table and asked how much he could sell Paul for. He was talking to Murdoch, that human trafficker. He responded by saying that he'd fetch a decent price, being a young, in shape male, and he could sell him to a slave farm or something. Paul was terrified and began to weep. Murdoch kinda scoffed and said that crybabies never sell well and disregarded him. The big brute turned his attention back to Paul and said he wasn't worth the skin he wore and ordered his other buddy to tie him to a chair. Paul couldn't even fight back. His dog started freaking out and jumping up at the big guy which annoyed him so he kicked the poor animal across the room, toward the table he came from where two other guys picked it up from it's leash, pulled a picture off the wall and hung the dog from it's nail. They started beating the little thing before deciding to use it as a new dart board."
Ruby and Yang gagged in disgust. "Why would anyone do that? Ruby asked upset by the idea. Bradly ignored her question, lost in his own story. He stared blankly in to the room as tears flowed heavily down his cheeks.
"The little dog whined with each dart strike until it went quite, dripping blood on to the floor. Bradly wept as the large man sarcastically consoled him about his friends 'breaking their new game.' Then he said it was his turn to play and struck Paul across his face. The man swung his fists over and over at him, bashing at his face and gut. I heard a few cracks with some of the strikes but none worse than the last hit the man delivered. He threw a strong right hook at Paul's head, knocking him and the chair over. Paul just laid there, still, I couldn't even see him breathing. The man holding me let go and I fell to my knees, staring in shock at my battered friend. His face was distorted, black and blue, with blood running from his eyes, nose and mouth. I heard the big guy order the guy behind me to 'make sure to send him packing' and I jumped in front as the bastard fired his pistol. It struck me in my lower back where you saw that scar. I had never felt so much pain and anguish." Bradly's tears flowed heavily and Ruby put her arms around him in support.
"I felt like I was going to black out, but that's when things changed." Bradly continued, his voice getting stronger. "I started feeling angry, but more than I ever had before. I started feeling really warm, like I was getting sick or something. I focused the anger inward to try and heal the bullet wound so I didn't die of blood loss and the sting disappeared instantly. I felt the anger grow to the point where I couldn't contain it anymore and my eyes shot open. As I stared at my dead friend, all the color around him faded away and I suddenly felt calm."
"Your semblance." Ruby whispered to herself.
"I looked up at Paul's murderer and it was as if time had slowed to a crawl and I felt a burning blood-lust. I moved slowly to a crouch and drew my large knife from my waist band. The man behind me had lunged at me as I moved and tried to grapple me again but I threw my right elbow in to his nose, stunning him. I grabbed his right arm and grabbed the pistol in his hand before spinning around to my left and sending my knife in to the side of his skull. He dropped to the floor as I pulled my knife from his head. At that point, the men at the back of the room throwing darts at Paul's dog caught my eye. I raised the pistol and noticed a red beam in my sight. The beam was lined straight to the first man's head and, although by instinct, I drew the gun to match the red beam. When I fired the pistol, I saw the bullet travel perfectly along this beam and coursed through the man. The beam then disappeared and flashed to the other man standing beside him with the same line marking his skull like a target. I fired the pistol again and like clockwork, the bullet flew along this line until it contacted the man. Time returned to normal as their brains exploded against the wall behind them and their limp bodies fell. I stood confused at what had just happened, until the battle cry of the large man before me came to my attention. I saw a red silhouette of what looked like an arm travel towards my hand that wielded the gun moments before the brute's arm followed it, knocking the gun from my hand and sending it flying across the wall." Ruby gripped Bradly's arm tightly at the gruesome description of the men's deaths.
"I was knocked back from the man but he continued his assault at me. I watched as the faint red hazes predicted each strike, showing me their precise direction of travel and their eventual contact with their target, me. The next strike I saw predicted in my eyes was an open-palmed grasp aimed at my vest's collar, so raised my hand that held my knife and aimed the tip of it's blade at the center of the silhouette. The knife impaled the mans hand, sliding through to the hilt before the man pulled his arm back in pain. After steadying himself, he threw a punch with his other arm, which I saw the prediction of as well. I held my blade to the side of the red mist as his arm slid along it, slicing deep through his skin and muscle. He staggered passed me, dripping with blood from both sides. Desperate, he charged at me, shoving me aside with his massive shoulder and ran toward the exit. My blood lust hadn't been satisfied though and I chased after him. He stumbled away from me, glancing over his shoulder as he ran through the alley, hoping to get away from me. I tossed the knife in to my right hand and thought of throwing it at him, hoping to scare him off for good. I saw the red outline of my knife tumbling through the air in his direction, aimed to land somewhere in his back. Like second nature I hurled the blade as hard as I could, releasing it at the exact moment it reached the red figures. It followed them as it tumbled end over end before reaching it's target in the center of his back, severing his spine." Yang closed her eyes, trying not to picture the horrific sound of metal on bone. Bradly's voice had returned to neutral as his tears suddenly stopped.
"He collapsed on to the ground and tried crawling away under the glow of a lone street light where I finally met up with him. I drew my knife from his back as he winced in pain, letting out a terrible scream. I kicked him on to his back and squatted at his side so I could see the fear on his face. He was petrified at the sight of me and laid perfectly still. No longer enraged, the feeling I had was replaced by the desire for revenge of my friend. I quickly sent my blade in to his chest, and struck him over and over like he had done to Paul. I thought of his mother and sister who would now go without care, and once exhausted, I slowly drove the blood-soaked steel deep in to his throat. Coughing and gasping for air, he attempted gurgling for a breath passed my knife. After convulsing a few times...his movement stopped and his body went limp." Bradly paused for a while, his breath had quickened after reliving his past through his words. The four students sat silent in their room, Ruby and Yang staring blankly while attempting to process the story as Weiss quivered in her seat.
"What...what happened then?" Ruby broke the silence, hardly able to speak.
"I went back in to Sammy's bar and found that his patrons had left and the bodies of the men, Paul and his dog had disappeared. The blood had been cleaned from the floor and furniture put back in their place as though nothing had happened. The color had returned to my vision and I saw Sammy standing at his bar, washing a glass. I sat in front of him still in shock over what I had done. He placed a shot glass down in front of me and held his hand out, motioning for my knife that I still clutched in my grip. I hesitantly gave it to him as he placed it below the counter and brought out a bottle. He poured some in to the glass and told me to drink while he began washing my blade. I stared blankly, grasped the glass in my fingers and shot back the liquid. It burned, but it was oddly calming. I placed the glass back down, leaving bloody fingerprints on it that Sammy noticed. He told me to go in the back and clean up as he took the glass and washed it as well. After returning from the kitchen, I sat on the stool once more and took in a deep breath, trying to calm myself. I wanted to ask Sammy where Paul's body was but as I opened my mouth to speak, Sammy shot me a look that made me remember what he had said before; 'Things happen around here, best not to ask questions.' As I halted myself, Sammy spoke up saying that he had found some things and I might want them. He placed Paul's dog's leash and collar on the counter as well as a silver locket. I stared at the items not knowing what to do with them. Sammy said the locket was in Paul's pants. I held the locket in one hand and the leash in the other and contemplated what to do. Having an idea, I stood up and took the leash over to the wall where Paul's dog died and found the nail it was hung from and placed it back as a reminder to all of what happens when someone messes with me. That was my hope at least. On my way back to the bar, I ended up spotting a jacket someone had left on the back of a chair. The same jacket I wear today."
"What did you do with the locket?" Ruby asked, croaking out her words. Bradly leaned toward his rucksack and pulled it from his other belongings. He held it up in front of him as Ruby and Yang inspected it. Bradly then opened it, revealing a two pictures. One of a man in an Atlas Military outfit and another of a blonde woman with a younger girl and an older boy. Ruby rested her head on Bradly's shoulder, still clinging to his arm.
"Is that Paul?" She asked, already knowing the answer. Bradly nodded before gripping the locket tight. A single tear fell from Bradly's eye.
"He didn't deserve to die." He spoke under his breath, trying not to cry again. Yang stood from Weiss's bed and crossed the room, sitting beside Bradly and resting herself against his other shoulder, opposite Ruby. The two girls silently consoled him as Bradly hung his head low in shame.
"That puts my kill count up to six so far." Bradly pointed out from behind his harsh breathing.
"Six? You killed the big biker dude, this muscle head and his three lackeys. Who's the sixth?" Yang asked.
"Paul." Bradly responded, beginning to well up again. "If it wasn't for me, he'd still be alive." Bradly started to become upset with himself. "I let my guard down, I failed to protect him, I'm the reason he's dead. I killed him." Bradly's blood boiled. Yang and Ruby held him close for a long moment as he sat in despair.
"So what brought you to Beacon?" Ruby asked wanting to hear the rest of Bradly's story. After a pause to gather himself, Bradly continued in his usual neutral voice.
"Well a few weeks later, on a Friday night after some fights, I was sitting at the end of Sammy's bar. The place was packed. Most of the patrons were fighters and eyed me, but weren't willing to try anything. Suddenly the door burst open and three men walked in wearing a bunch of denim and tattoos. One carried a baseball bat, another held a steel pipe and the man in the center wielded a shotgun. Most of the guys in the bar stood and drew their own weapons, reacting to these guys. The one holding the shotgun yelled that he was looking for me. Apparently I killed his little brother a little while ago and wanted revenge. Almost everyone in the bar shifted their attention to me"
Ruby gasped. "What did you do?"
"Well I figured that if I was going to die that night, that I wasn't going to go without a fight. Sammy had just poured me a shot which I knocked back before standing and drawing my pistols. I calmly responded to him and asked what he wanted. He said he wanted to kill me which didn't sit well with some of the other guys in the bar. They all wanted to kill me themselves and before I knew it, everyone was brawling over the rights to take me out. Of course I got dragged in to the fight and was immediately outnumbered. I popped a few guys before getting knocked back in to the bar counter as Sammy walked in to the back room."
"Why didn't he help?" Yang asked.
"He never liked getting involved with any of the bar fights, figured it was bad for business and would only paint a target on his back if he chose sides. But my luck wasn't all bad. A thinner, middle-aged mad with short black-ish hair sat at the bar next to where I was shoved. He asked me if I needed help, and I responded by saying that I should be ok but if he wanted to have some fun as well then I wouldn't stop him." Bradly chuckled to himself. The sisters were glad that Bradly wasn't feeling so upset anymore. "The man got up and drew this weird sword. It was wide and looked like the blade was made in pieces. It even had this odd gear mechanism in the handle. One hell of a fighter though."
"Ruby that sounds like-" Yang looked over at her sister who was enthralled in Bradly's story again.
"Him and I fought pretty well together. I did take a few blows though. The man and I managed to sneak away from the fight and we ended up laughing about it as we walked down the alley. The adrenaline ended up wearing out though and I dropped to my knees in pain. My chest was sliced up pretty bad. That's where I got that big one." Bradly traced the large scar that ran across his torso from his shoulder to above his hip. "The guy asked me if I'd be ok and I told him not to worry about me and activated my aura, closing my wounds. He seemed impressed and made me an offer that brought me here. He said he knew some people that could get me in to Beacon, since he thought that my abilities would be better used as a hunter rather than some low-life bar brawler. I told him that I had wanted to be a hunter since I was a little kid so I spent the remaining few weeks before the semester started practicing how to use my new found ability. Took to it naturally since I had already been a good shot. And then I met you girls." Bradly smiled looking at the two sisters at his sides. Yang collapsed on to Bradly's bed.
"Man...that's a lot to take in all at once dude." She commented. Bradly smirked as he looked down at the floor.
"I don't think you're responsible for Paul's death." Ruby spoke up. "After all, you did try to save him, even though it didn't turn out how you hoped." Her attempt at consolation became awkward but Bradly smiled at the gesture.
"Thank you Ruby, but I don't think I could ever see it that way. It's something that I've learned to cope with and have moved on from." Bradly responded warmly. Weiss suddenly stood after hearing his last statement. She quivered in anger as she glared at the confused man with tears streaming down her face in frustration.
"How could you just disregard everything you've been through and done so easily?" She barked. "It's like nothing ever mattered to you in the fist place!" Weiss stormed out of the room in a rage, leaving the other three members of her team stunned. Yang sat up after she left.
"Where'd that come from?" The blond asked.
"I don't know, but I hope she's ok." Replied Ruby.