When Ronny and Bolin had first decided to team up, they had done so more out of convenience than necessity. They were skilled enough to handle things on their own. It just so happened that things went a bit more smoothly and easily when you had someone watching your back.
Not to mention between his work and old hood connections, and Bolin being so trusted by so many people in the neighborhoods, they could piece together just about anything they needed to find and shut down as much gang activity as they could. But, as convenient as it was to work together, sometimes they had to split up to get it done.
Bolin had a family and students to look out for after all, so he wasn't always able to make every single outing. He made time for the real important stuff, but when it was just staking a place out or something Ronny handled it on his own.
Or sometimes it was just what they had to do. Two different operations, or one that was going down in two different locations, meant they had to split up. Just like they did tonight.
He and Bolin were supposed to be breaking up a weapons deal going down tonight, and they were planning on killing two birds with one stone. While Bolin went to the meeting place and took down the guys brokering the deal, he would head to where they were keeping the shipment and get rid of them.
He parked his truck a few blocks away from his destination, the pier, and cracked his neck and knuckles. It was time to go into stealth mode. Get close, load the explosives, and then light the bitch up like the fourth of July. Maybe beat up a few fools on the way if he could spare the time.
As he started making the walk towards the pier, he kept his eyes sharp. He knew when deals like this went down, they liked to play things safe. They probably had guys walking around the area just to make sure there weren't any heroes or cops running around and coming across them by accident.
Luckily he was neither. As far as they knew, he was just another black dude taking a stroll at night. They hadn't made a big enough splash to be recognized by the smaller gangs yet.
As he got closer, he spotted a suspicious looking guy walking into his phone. The man looked like he was in a hurry as he made his way around a corner and into an alleyway. Ronny scowled. The guy hadn't spotted him, had he? No. He couldn't have. He wouldn't have called it in so quickly. He'd have at least followed him for a bit.
So what was going on?
He casually walked towards the alleyway to see if this was anything he needed to lookout for, only to see the man come flying and hit the ground hard. He looked up and then saw a familiar figure walking out. "Aw shit…" he said scowling. He knew things weren't going to go smoothly tonight.
"Don't go aiming guns at me unless ya got the balls to pull the trigger sweetie," Basteta said, smirking and putting her knives away as she walked towards the now unconscious thug. As she approached, she noticed Ronny and then raised an eyebrow. "Well, if it ain't the old man? Just what are you doing here?" she asked.
He grumbled as he reached down and picked up the unconscious body. "Never you mind what Ronny is doing here," he said annoyed. "You just take your tail home and stay out of his way before you mess things up even more." He had to find a place to hide the body and get moving before they noticed he was gone.
Basteta narrowed her eyes. "Excuse me? I ain't messing up anything. I got a call from my friend saying they've been seeing a bunch of real shady dudes lurking around here, so I came to kick some ass and scare them off. Now I don't know what you're up to, but I got work to do," she said.
Ronny sighed as he opened the dumpster nearby and, not so carefully, threw the thug inside. "Nah, you don't! Because if you start making too much noise, they're gonna notice something is up, and Ronny's job gets that much more difficult. So you best get on out of here and pretend you didn't-"
"Wait a second, you're planning on busting up some gang shit, aren't you?" Basteta asked. That would explain why they'd been crawling around here lately. "Damn, should have figured something was going down. Where at?"
"Hell. No," Ronny said glaring at her. "Ronny ain't letting you tag along and drag him down. He already got a plan to follow, and it doesn't involve bringing along no stray cat."
Basteta crossed her arms. "Well, that's too bad, old man. If there's some asses that need kicking, then I'm coming. And if you try to shake me, I'm just gonna follow you anyway," she said simply. "So how's this gonna play out?"
Ronny grumbled under his breath. A not so small part of him wanted to put a bullet in her leg and then run for it. But then that nagging voice in his head that sounded a lot like Bolin's started whining, and he ultimately decided against it. "Look here kitty cat, Ronny don't want you flubbing up this mission. So you stay close, stay hidden, and stay out of his way. You got it?"
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. So where is this going down?"
Ronny and Basteta landed on the other side of the fence, and then quickly made their way towards the corner of one of the buildings nearby. "Lucky for Ronny, they ain't seemed to notice the punk you took out back there yet. But it's only a matter of time, so we better get to moving," he said as he started moving again.
She followed after him, a smirk on her face. "So what's the plan? We gonna track down the leader and bring em in, or just kick everyone's asses and call it a day?" she asked.
Ronny scoffed. "Ronny ain't doing all that work. If we beat up everyone and they break off the deal, they'll just sell the weapons to someone else. Then we'll be right back to square one. Nag, he got a different strategy," he said before pulling out an explosive. "We gonna blow up the entire shipment."
Basteta whistled. "So we're just here to blow shit up…? I can get down with that plan," she said, smirking. "Any idea where they're keeping them though?"
"It's probably gonna be one of the buildings they got the most patrols around, so we lay low for a little bit and see-"
"Hey! Who the hell are you?!"
"God damn it!"
Ronny pulled out his gun and fired, hitting the thug approaching them right in the leg. He fell over and grabbed his leg, crying out in pain. "I'm guessing stealth mode is out the window then huh?" Basteta asked.
"New plan. Kick every ass you see, and try to beat where the shipment is out of one of them," Ronny said as he ran forward and grabbed the man by his shirt. "Where the hell is the shipment?!" he demanded.
"Fuck you!" the man yelled back.
Ronny shook him roughly. "You better start talking! Ronny will chop your goddamn-!"
"Hey baldy, we got more company coming!" Basteta yelled, pointing towards a group of armed men making their way towards them.
Ronny dropped the man and quickly took over as they began shooting at them. Basteta took cover behind a metal crate a few feet away. "Alright furball, time for you to pull your weight. You can see in the dark right? Like big cats and shit?" he asked.
"Yeah, why?"
Ronny pulled out a grenade and then tossed it out. The men all looked panicked as it went over, shooting a cloud of smoke all around them. "Go nuts," Ronny said nodding towards it. Baseta smiled, her eyes turning into slits before she charged into the smokescreen.
The men could see nothing, so when she leapt in and kicked one of them in the face, they went down easily. One of them heard the commotion and raised his gun, looking around panicked. "Wrong way hon!" Basteta said, laughing as she kicked the gun from his hand. She grabbed him and threw him into another.
Another managed to spot her and rushed at her from behind, and she pulled out her khopeshes, spinning around him and cutting the back of his leg. She swung around and sliced through another's gun, kicking him back. She then grabbed a knife and tossed it at another, hitting him in the butt. "Bullseye bitch!"
As she continued beating down those in the smokescreen, Ronny watched close from outside. He saw one of the men wander out of the smoke, coughing and trying to catch his breath. He quickly ran over and grabbed the man from behind, raising his gun to his head. "Where's the weapons shipment?!"
"Ah! Don't shoot me man!" he said, panicked. "Number three! It's in building number three! Please let me go! I got a wife and kids!"
Ronny rolled his head before letting him go and kicking him forward. "Then thank god and take your sorry ass home to em," he said before rushing off.
He looked up at the number on the building, quickly spotting number three and making his way to it. He shot the lock off before sliding the doors open, then came face to face a rather large looking man in a suit. Ronny grunted. There was always one final big or skilled guy to deal with before it was all said and done.
"You've started quite the commotion out there," the man said stepping forward. "I can see why Reggie and the others have been so cautious lately. But I'm afraid it ends here. I won't allow you to interfere any further." He pulled out a knight and got into a fighting stance. He spun the knife around in his hand, showing off his skills…
Only for Ronny to raise his gun and shoot him right in the leg. He yelled and fell to his side as Ronny walked right by him. "Ain't got time for this shit…" he said as he looked up at the crates before him. He kicked one of them, knocking a panel off and revealing a number of weapons. "Yeah, there we go. Now all I gotta do is set these bad boys and-"
"Yo badly, more company!" He looked over his shoulder and Basteta making his way inside, followed by a group of armed men. "We gotta get the stepping already!"
Ronny cursed. "Alright then, time saver!" He set one of the charges in the back before tossing it on top of the crates, then turned and began running. Basteta looked at him confused, and the man looked ready to shoot, until he pulled out a grenade and pulled the pin. They all slid to a stop, and then turned around and began to flee.
Basteta held her hands up. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"
Ronny casually came to a stop, then tossed the grenade behind him. "Relax girl, Ronny knows what he's doing, it's a dummy," he said as he walked past her. "That being said, we should get going cause I set them charges for about a minute."
Basteta smiled. "Seriously? Oh, I always wanted to do this." She said as she pulled out a pair of sunglasses.
"What are you doing?" Ronny asked.
"Looking cool for when we walk away from the explosion."
"Explosions don't work like-"
The charges went off, the building behind them went up in a ball of fire. The two walked away from it, before suddenly the shockwave caught up and sent them both flying forward into the water…
Ronny pulled himself out of the water with a gasp, doing his best to shake the water off of him. He looked over and saw Basteta crawling up onto the pier, and then laughed when he saw just how puffy her fur was. "Ha! Well look at you! You really are just a big ass cat huh?" he said amused. She grunted before shaking her fur, and getting water over him. "Hey! Watch it!"
"You're already soaked anyway," she said waving him off. "Anyway, thanks for the back up old man. Would have been a pain to deal with that on my own. I mean, obviously I could, but still."
"First of all, you were Ronny's back up. And second of all… not bad. Ronny could have sworn you were gonna ruin the whole operation, but you really helped him out."
She crossed her arms. "Well, big man actually admits it huh? So you gonna be calling me up for ya next job then?" she asked.
"Hell nah. You must of bumped your damn head."
"Your lost old man. Try not to throw you back out next time your all by yourself," she said, shrugging. "But damn. All this work got me starving. Ya wanna go grab something to eat? If anything is open anyway."
Ronny chuckled. "Oh, there's places still open. Ronny knows all the best spots to eat in town," he said as they began walking off. "Best catfish you ever gonna have in your life."