Everyone looked back at Craig as the sound of the punch ringed through their ears. "Everyone, get that Octavio bastard as well!" yelled Coco, "He's the octo with green eyes!" A large group of seven inklings surrounded Coco, who all ran towards Octavio. They shoved Ammoses out the way, causing him to fall to the floor and break his glasses. As they proceeded to attack Octavio, Coco entered a fist fight with Craig. "BITCH!" yelled Coco, "I'm gonna make you regret ever messin' with Coco fucking Jamboo!"
Coco and 3 of his other friends were still bruised from their last encounter with Craig and Octavio. Coco in particular seemed to be bruised pretty badly in the face, though that didn't deter him from trying to fight Craig and Octavio once again. A few of the inklings ganging up on Octavio moved to Craig as well, making it so the two were both getting attacked by groups of four. Machine girl leaned against a wall, observing the chaos with a blank face. One couldn't tell whether she was closely inspecting the situation or if her head was completely empty. Ammoses still lay on the floor, his glasses shattered.
Louis and Casiopea decided that they didn't want to stand by and let the two get beaten to a pulp. Louis picked up a metal bar and began to hit several of the attackers across their heads. Casiopea dropped to the ground and began to crawl around, biting several of the attackers on the ankles. Amidst the chaos one of the hooligans got pushed away, hitting Machine Girl with his elbow. This is what finally got her to do something. She stole the metal bar that Louis wielded, and began to beat them as well. However, she didn't go for simple bashes across the head. She instead targeted sensitive areas, such as their eyes.
Some of the inkling gangsters yelled, "Fuckkk this, I'm out!" before running off into the distance. More continued to run away, until the only one left was Coco. The tides had turned, and now he was the one who was outnumbered. Craig saw how much of a bruised mess Coco had turned into, and decided to stop throwing punches. Although Craig thought it was now time to stop fighting, Machine Girl and Octavio both disagreed. Machine Girl beat him over the head with the metal bar as Octavio repeatedly punched and kicked him.
Although Ammoses, Louis, and Casiopea cheered them both on at first, they eventually reached a point where it had become too much. The blood of Coco had now stained their clothing, and the two showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. "Hey!" yelled Craig, "Stop! Look, his blood is on your fuckin' hands! At this point, if you go any further, he'll die!" Octavio decided to listen to Craig, and so he ceased his kicking and punching. Machine Girl decided to stop as well, although, it took her 5 more seconds.
Coco immediately ran away, crying, and with a limp. He and his friends weren't the only ones who had been hurt, however. Octavio and Craig were pretty seriously injured, as they both got jumped by four people. Louis had gotten punched a few times, Casiopea hurt her teeth while biting ankles, and Ammoses had his glasses broken. The only person who remained uninjured was Machine Girl, who was only given an elbow to the neck. She told Ammoses, "You're practically blind without those. Let's go home, I have a backup pair stored in a cabinet somewhere."
...
"Does it feel better now, sweetie?" Craig held an ice pack over his noticeably black eye, "Yes, it does, Mom." Craig's Mom sighed, "You really have to be careful out in those streets, Craig! I'd die if something happened to you. How's your friend? Is he still sleeping?" Craig nodded, "Yeah, he's still nappin'." "Well, when he gets up, tell him I brought all these books from the local library. I figured you both might get bored sitting around here doing nothing, so I brought them over." She set down a stack of books on the nearby coffee table, and walked towards the door. "Awe, you shouldn't have!" exclaimed Craig. His Mom smiled at him as she opened the door and walked out the house.
Craig and Octavio were both now in Craig's home, resting in the living room. Octavio eventually woke up from his hour-long nap, saying, "Ah, I feel way better now. Your Mom's really cool. If I went home with a black eye, oh boy, I don't even know what my Dad would do. I'm in my twenties, yet he still treats me as if I'm fifteen." "Felt that. Oh, also- my Mom brought some books over from the library. Said you could read 'em if you got bored." "How nice." Octavio picked up the stack and began to look through the books selected. None of them caught his attention, most seemed boring. That is, until he found one titled, "Our Rising Ocean".
The topic had interested him a bit, so he decided to take a gander at the book. The book talked about what caused the rising oceans, and how the incredibly rapid rise of the seas has begun to affect the way people live. Craig saw how invested Octavio was, and asked, "What's that book about?" "Global warming and sea levels and stuff. Apparently, the land we're on used to be way larger thousands of years ago. Why was this hardly ever talked about in school? Populations are getting larger while land gets smaller. This seems real serious." Craig replied, "Yeah, it's a real messy situation." Octavio asked him, "What library did she obtain this from? Please give me the name. This is a truly fascinating topic." Craig got a pen and paper and said, "Here, I'll write down the address."
To Be Continued