"Where the hell is my order? You're getting a impatient customer here"

Colt had made it to Fuzhou, China with little difficulty. A prediction of his turned out correct: the P.W.A.B put up posters all over the planet with Jeremy as a bounty. He was pretty expensive too. Well, not as expensive as the Gear-Girl, but enough to catch shit loads of attention. Fortunately for him, physical descriptions were vague since eyewitnesses only saw half of his face. Still, the better bounty hunters around here might be able to figure what Colt looked like with the few pieces of info given on the poster. So for now, he had to lay a little lower than usual. Still, this didn't stop Colt from a good Chinese lunch. Currently, he was waiting for his meal at that Jam person's restaurant, deciding the best way to show his token of gratitude was to be a another faceless customer. Of course, it was kind of hard to be a faceless customer when your wonton and fried rice doesn't show up after an hour. Besides, he had to start looking for those pirates before it gets too late...

"Sir, please stay calm, I'm sure it will arrive soon"

"Yeah, you said that *three* times already…" Colt rested his head on his arm and thought irritably before coming to a conclusion, "I wanna talk to your to your boss"

The waiter looked nervously in a direction before reverting his gaze back to Colt, "Uh… you sure you want to do that? She doesn't like to get interrupted…"

Jeremy got up from his seat and glared at the waiter, since he was the closest vent for Jeremy's pissed-off-ness, "Interrupted from what?"

The waiter pointed at a table. Its current occupants consisted of some ring-haired chick talking to some blondie. Wait a second…. Hey…. the blonde is wearing Holy Order colors, he looks familiar…

Colt, on the outside, snorted and walked over to the table, determined to have his rant out at the ring-headed chick. Walking over, he heard bits of conversation.

"...You have a really beautiful name...Ky..."

"Uh...thank you"

Colt's infamous black cloud over his head grew to larger proportions at the conversation. Flirting at this time? Fucking Christ…

Jeremy tapped on the woman's shoulder, "Hey!"

The ring haired girl scowled sharply as she looked back at him. "What is it, can't you see I'm talking?"

Oh, 'talking' she says… this roused a frown to Colt's face, but he remembered he was here to complain, "I've been waiting for my fried rice and wontons for the past hour! When the hell am I gonna get served?! You think I give out my hard earned money for nothing?!"

The head of the restaurant crossed her arms and shut her eyes at her latest verbal opponent, "Pipe down, already. My staff will serve you when they're able to. Look around and you'll see that this isn't exactly the easiest of days. Just wait a little longer. Unless you're allergic to waiting"

Colt tapped one finger into his open palm while continuing his argument… maybe he should go into threatening.

"Obviously you didn't hear me. I want my order now, or-"

"Or what?" She got up from her seat, "I told you to wait. If you don't like that, I'll reimburse you and then you can get the hell out of my restaurant."

Despite Colt's virtue against impulsiveness, the woman's attitude was pissing him off to new extremes.

THAT'S IT! THIS BITCH IS GOING DOWN!. "Are talking to me like *that*, little girl?"


The ring headed shit of a bitch swiveled back to face Colt, "You don't really wanna fight with little ol' me, do ya? They say even the most beautiful flower can carry the deadliest poison...you 'aughta watch yourself, big guy..." Oh, she is asking for me to kick her face in…

Colt cracked his knuckles, preparing himself for the ensuing ass kicking of the flame bitch; "You got some spunk for a chick, little girl..."

The crowd around the restaurant drew near to the scene. Had Jeremy known about the situation, he would have walked away, now he was on the bounty lists. Top twenty as well. But Colt was too angry to notice that factor.

The flame bitch decided to prod at Colt's pissed-off-ness a bit more, "You really do wanna fight with me, huh? Figures. You macho types are all alike. You reek of B.O and you can't dance worth a damn"

Colt had enough. "What the hell did you say to me?!" Jeremy flung out one of his fists towards the waiting opponent's face, but was stopped abruptly when a new hand caught the attack in mid-flight. Both the flame bitch and the attempted attacker turned to face the 'peacemaker', which in this situation, was the blondie. He then tightened the grip on Colt's fist, -for lack of better description- crushing it.

Colt fell to one knee at the pain, while holding the pained appendage using his free arm. Ow, OW! Hand. Damage. OW!. "Agggghh…."

The peacemaker spoke out now, "I do believe that hitting a woman under such circumstances is not good etiquette for a gentlemen. So kindly leave before I'm forced to remove you" He then released the grip on Jeremy's really sore hand.

Clutching his hand gingerly, Colt looked around, now that his anger had dissipated when the knight death-gripped Colt's hand. Now he realized he had an unneeded audience. With that he left the restaurant via the exit so helpfully pointed by the knight's Thunderseal…. Holy crap! Dumbass! You are in the same building as Ky Kiske! Get out get out GET OUT!

Leaving the establishment, Jeremy looked at the building before shouting out at it.

"FINE, I'LL HAVE MY FUCKING LUNCH SOMEWHERE ELSE!" he then turned around and left down the dusty crowded streets towards his hotel. His lunch probably would taste better than the shit offered at that restaurant

************************

Days later, Colt slipped down the dark side streets and alleys of Fuzhou, which reeked of lowlifes that often had useful information to share. If anyone knew about the Jellyfish, they would. Besides, it would be easier to avoid that Kiske fellow if he decided to bring him in or whatever, now that Jeremy knew he was here. Interrogation (and often, threatening and ass-kicking) of the scum there didn't directly reveal where the Jellyfish stayed at (The pirates covered their tracks too well) but they told him of a place where they swore he would be able find clues.

Jeremy now stood in front of a closed sushi-shop, where it was said to house one of Johnny's 'friends' (whatever the hell *that* meant). They guy often collected gold off the captain of the pirates, and the two often looked out for each other, so he probably knew where Johnny was hiding out at. This was going to suck…

*************************

Lo Ping was sitting in front of a table, looking over the bills placed on it while planning his course of action for tomorrow. Ping then heard bells chiming, meaning that the front doors to the shop had been opened. Turning around, he saw an American man dressed in green marching boldly towards him. Lo stood up and intercepted the figure.

"I'm sorry sir, my shop is closed today…"

The American didn't seem to notice the statement, "You're the owner of this shop?"

"Yes…"

He shook Ping's hand, "Nice to meet you, have a seat…"

The Sushi shop owner sat nervously down in his seat, knowing not to trust the likes of this man for a second. There was a silence while the American leaned against a post and said nothing, letting the brim of the hat cast a shadow over his eyes.

Lo spoke up hesitantly, "What do want of me?"

The man's head looked back up to the shop keeper, "I'm looking for a girl, blue hair, red eyes, around 19-20 years of age…" He waved his hand about his head as if he was trying to draw the physical description onto his own face, "I heard that she is currently under the care of a Johnny, and I also heard you are friends of the same man and that… you know where he is currently residing at, here in Fuzhou. It would be most kind of you if you tell me where he is staying at" The American finished with a cheerful face. Lo Ping, on the other hand remained grim. He started to think of earlier in the morning…

*************************

"Hey Lo, how's the business?" a smooth, cheerful voice sounded out from behind the keeper of the sushi shop. Turning around he came to face a familiar face that was decorated with sunglasses and a wide hat.

"Ah Johnny! I wasn't expecting you're so soon! Staying at the same place as usual?"

"Yup"

 The two men meet and shake hands, before the one clad in black gently pulls forward a shy young woman carrying a small basket.

"Lo Ping, I'd like you to meet Dizzy, one of my newest crew members. Dizzy, this is Lo Ping"

She bowed slightly, "Hello…"

Lo chuckled lightly before giving a nod, "Morning, Dizzy"

Johnny cut back in, "I need to talk to you for a sec"

"Sure"

The two made of bit of distance between them and the Dizzy. The captain started.

"Dizzy's in trouble, a few people have been chasing her for a little while, and it's kind of quiet right now, but I've got a feeling that somebody's going to turn up here, asking questions. Promise me that you won't answer any of their questions if someone comes, snooping around"

"You can trust me"

Johnny smiled, if there was one thing Lo Ping can do, it was to keep promises"

"Anyways, I got a bit of a present for you…"

Ping grinned, any present of the Pirate King was usually gold, "I see, I think we better go into the back first to see it" with that, the trio went into the rear of the building.

***************************

"You can trust me"  the words echoed again in Ping's head and he boldly resisted, "No, I refuse to tell, or trust you with any sort of information"

The American sneered, "Oh? You can trust me, we're both friends of  Johnny…"

Lo shot up from his seat "In a Pig's ass! He told me somebody like you was going to come, now get out!"

He made a mocking pout before giving his response, "Well then, if I can't make you talk, I'll just suck out the info for myself" he then pounced at Lo, whom he caught of guard and as an end result, had both men crashing onto the floor, with Colt's hand latched onto Shop keeper's face. With a growl, Colt stood up and suspended Lo off the ground by the clutched head. Colt gave a sly grin while his prey's face was twisted in fear and agony.

"Such a fine mind…almost a pity to waste…" It was then the Jeremy's eyes glowed a dull purple. In the mean time, Lo Ping's eyes rolled into the back of his skull and his body spasm and twitched. A few agonizing minutes later, the twitching body stopped doing such, thus telling Colt that he read as much useful crap in his quarry's mind as he could. He casually and un-ceremoniously dropped the Chinese man to the ground. Looking around the establishment, he found no eyewitnesses to kill, and thus left the building through the back door.

***************************

Jeremy strolled across the rooftops of the city, thinking again over his new info. Mind reading of course, sucked. He was untrained in such a skill so it took too long to steal memories, and also looking for the right information was like a search engine: he had to search using a particular theme within one's head, in this case the theme was any memory with the name Johnny in it. Often the search comes up with un-related crude. He was lucky this time; he found out the Gear-girl's name was Dizzy and that when Jellyfish hang out in Fuzhou, it was often the motel called "Golden Turtle", which was where he was heading now. He was carrying with him the gun, but this time, he carried all four clips with him. A large wind nearly blew his hat off, but luckily, he caught it in time. Jeremy looked up into the graying sky. Odd, newspaper said it was going to be pretty sunny today…

"Whoa!" He leaped off the roof and onto his target motel building. The building looked fine…apart from that Gear-sized hole in the front of the building, of which Colt earlier showed his surprise. What the bloody fuck happened here? Jeremy then heard a conversation below him. He crawled over the side of the low roof to hear the talk better.

"Axl?" one voice said, which Colt identified as Johnny

AXL!? Mr. Sunshine is here?!

"From the looks of things, I'd say you've had a pretty big party! Any unexpected guests?" The British voice cheerfully called out

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. What are you doing here?"

"Well... I have a few things to iron out. Lets just say it's a debt I own to someone in the near future. I've come to tell you the location of the girl you're looking for"

Girl? Looking? What the fuck is going on?

"You know where Dizzy is?" The voice belonged to an eager child.

DIZZY IS NOT HERE!?

"Uh huh. Everyone could use a helping hand every now and again. That girl is at a large tower in the southern grasslands outside of just outside Fuzhou. It should take you about a hour to get there by foot"

Colt needed to hear no more; he shot straight up from his lying position and jumped onto another roof. If Dizzy was lost, and away from help, so much the better, Colt still had first dibs on her. Flying across the roofs he then suddenly realized: Damnit, dumbass! People don't just wander an hour's walk away from civilization! If she's at that tower, somebody has captured her. Now I have to fight for her…. wait…that's a good thing…. He soon saw over the horizon, a large grayish, blackish spire amidst a sea of green. Colt could see from here that the top section of the tower was destroyed; leaving the top floor open to the rain that was now starting to fall. Flames both red and blue were lively dancing at the top floor, leaving no doubt in Jeremy's mind that something really fucked up was going on there.

*************************

"Ah, damn my heart…." Jeremy leaned against the stone constructed wall of the immense black tower, whilst clutching his chest, which was giving off immense discomfort. Jeremy scolded himself about not working out as he planned to do. Recovering himself for the most part, Jeremy faced the immense double doors implanted into the wall. A quick shrug gave way to a hefty push, which in turn caused the large doors open and give way for the Dizzy's stalker. The inside of the tower was shown to contain nothing. It was just one big tube that went all the way up to the top and only floor of the tower. Determined war cries and clashing of metal echoing in the tower from above told Jeremy that two people were fighting, most likely over Dizzy. No surprise there, last time Jeremy saw her she *was* really hot. A hot Gear…. weird. Colt shook his head free of the thought and looked around. He saw that the only way up to the top of the tower was a large staircase that winded its way up the inner wall of the spire.

Queue annoyed groan now. Jeremy did such and action before beginning his steady ascent up the long steps, the sound of battle being his only entertainment on the up. After the eternity up the flight of stairs, Jeremy finally got up into the next chamber. It revealed an empty circular chamber, at the other end adjacent to Jeremy, there lay another staircase, but from the looks of it, the final stairs to conquer before he could get Dizzy and have the curse removed. He turned anxious at the thought of salvation from the 'curse' and dashed towards the final obstacle before a new one arose from the shadows.

"Well, well, well. Aren't you anxious to get some out there" a familiar, sly, voice chimed out, causing Jeremy to stop in his tracks. He remembered that voice.

Colt went into a fury and pointed at the emerging figure, "YOU! FUCK, GUITAR WHORE, STAY OUT OF MY BUSINESS!"

The 'guitar whore' chuckled, "Stay out of it? That would be such a boring, simple life, and I wouldn't be able to kill anybody that way"

Glaring at the woman, Colt gave a simple question, "What do you want with the Gear-girl?"

"Oh please, what sort of question is that? I just want to hear her whimper and die by my hands. Killing people is so much fun, don't you agree?"

Tsch, serial killers, how typical of them. "Well in that case, I can't allow you to get to Dizzy until I'm done with her, I called dibs you know"

She snorted, "Dibs, Pah! What sort of stupid-ass system is that? Since you're going to be the dumb shit hotshot you are and try and save that bitch-Gear, fine, I'll just have to kill you too"

Colt placed his hands on his hips, "I consider that a compliment of the highest kind" the last words were ignored, as the guitar bitch flew towards Colt at an amazing speed. Jeremy dodged out of the way just as she brought the guitar downwards by the neck. Colt jumped back several more feet before bringing out his gun and cocking the weapon.

"Suck on it, bitch!" Jeremy emptied the clip in the direction of the approaching red blur. She defended herself against the ammunition using the guitar as a shield. She then ducked down low and swung her body upwards, at which during the same time a blade of energy flew out of the ground and smashed into a surprised Jeremy, how had been standing underneath the appearing blade. Crashing onto his back Colt found the guitar whore leaning over him smirking at the downed form.

"Heh, you're a tough sack of shit"

She's not guarding! Colt returned a smirk of his own before bracing his body with his hands and flipping backwards, catching his opponent by the jaw while his legs were kicking up and over. Another hop backwards placed the two a breathable distance from each other. The last blow on her showed minor bruising. Jeremy brought up his weapon again, this time she attacked by throwing her self into the air, which caused another energy blade to fly towards Colt, knocking him back several meters across the chamber and the gun the same distance in another direction. He got back up to his feet quickly.

"Ooooh, this is going to be fun. Can't even fight now"

Time to cheat, time to bring out the bigger guns, and time to use the curse.

"I'll show you"

He then flung out his hand at the musician; the action caused three thick purple cables to sprout from his back, each tipped with spear shaped end, and throw themselves at her, whom was much surprised at the new tactic. She managed to fly to one side of the ranged attack in time, of which they smashed into the wall next to her. The cable-spears dissipated into the air. She looked back at the approaching figure.

"So you can see, like your guitar, much exists within me than meets the eye…"

She sneered back, "I'm going to have a grand time looking at what makes you tick when I tear you open"

"Whatever", he quickly snapped his fingers at her. She, of course, sensed the attack miles away, as she gracefully jumped into the air while a gigantic purple blade smashed out of the ground underneath her, much like the attack she employed on Jeremy earlier. She then swooped downwards like a bird of prey, whilst surrounded by a green aura. The musician turned makeshift flying comet smashed into Jeremy, knocking the wind out of him. When they both landed Colt growled and kicked off his opponent before trying a new strategy. More cables grew out of his back before smashing into ground and launching him into the ceiling where he clung there using his purple fingers turned talons.

"Trying to play hard to get, eh?"

Jeremy just clung there while the cables flattened into paper-thin blade forms, which then once more hurled themselves at her. She nimbly avoided such attacks before her opened up into a large expanse one could describe as a jaw. A look of surprise came from Jeremy

"Well, I wish my hat could do that"

"Sucks to be you, then" was the only reply before the hat-mouth fired out a green, gelatin like projectile that flew up to knock Jeremy from his high perch. While avoiding the initial impact, the attack caused a sizable amount of the ceiling to collapse, which Colt was clung fast to. But he still had many tricks to accomplish first. He retracted the whip-blades back into his back, but because the weapons were trapped in the stone floor, it was he who flew towards his weapons and also towards the woman who was patiently waiting for the attack. He held out hands, still formed as long claws, and gave a cry as he approached. Before he was practically on top of her, a mike stand (with one end finishing with a large spiked ball) suddenly appeared in her waiting grasp. She kicked the weapon end upwards, which smashed into Jeremy's chest and propelled him over the guitar bitch.

She gave mocking yawn, "This is getting boring. Are you just going to throw those ropes all day?"

He staggered back up, truly winded by the blow. But she was right: this style wasn't working. This time, a large purple blade snapped out from underneath his sleeve, apparently attached to the side of his wrist. Enough talk, kick her ass! Jeremy dashed towards his opponent again, but instead of lashing out with the bladed arm, he flung out his other hand, in which the fingers had melded together into two smaller blades, that were threatening to clip the musician's head off her body. She easily avoided the attack by hopping backwards, and retaliated by swinging her unique weapon at Colt. Swirling on one foot, he twisted out of the way and during the turn, left a large gash on the woman's side by flailing about one of his blades. She went into a rage and hissed at the Jeremy, who was swinging the large wrist blade downwards at her. Before he could successfully cleave her in two, she threw her open palm upwards, which caused another energy spike to score a hit on Colt's chest, making him stagger back a few feet while he tried to correct his balance that was damaged from the blow. The guitar whore capitalized on the chance and before he could retaliate, a sting on her guitar came loose into her palm. She swung the sting around Colt's backside, and a quick jerk from her hand holding the string made the device rip across his back and left a large, fine cut. Back on the ground again, Jeremy struggled back to his knees before a vice grip of a hand caught him the by throat and held him aloft in the air, amidst the gagging and choking of psychic.

A cruel grin.

 "Your out of your league hotshot, go scream for me…" she increased her grip on Jeremy's throat, causing him to thrash wildly, hoping to get her off his neck. One of his hands reverted into claws and he slashed the forearm holding him, leaving it a bloody mess.

No effect.

Holy…shit… he drew his arm back and stabbed into her shoulder, the hand this time holding purple spike. Both sensed it digging deep into her shoulder.

Now that worked

With a shriek of pain, she released Jeremy from the chokehold. She gingerly held her bloody shoulder before her eyes flashed with uncontrollable anger towards him. White wings sprouted out from behind her while she held the guitar in both hands.

"DIE!" The hat opened up into its large jaw again, firing out a large chain of energy. Jeremy leaped over the attack towards her. Forming out of the air and into his and was a long purple rod. She just finished her attack when the Colt swung his head downwards into her head. The effects were achieved as she began to drunkenly sway for a few second as the world around her twirled. Colt looked behind his opponent and much to his pleasure, she was found to be only a few step in front of the long staircase that lead up to their current chamber of battle. The rod dissipated into the air and he drew his fist back and lashed out at the woman's head, his arm being covered in psychic flames. She flew out several meters into the dark expanse of the tower staircase, and smashed head first into the stairs from which she began her tumble downhill and disappeared out of Colt's view. He still heard the sound of flesh hitting something solid, though.

"SERVES YOU RIGHT YOU FUCKING- owww…." Jeremy clutching his chest in agony cut the insult short. He went onto his knees and bowed his head to the floor to smother the pain. Re-assessment time.

Well, he finally taught the guitar bitch a lesson, he probably won't be seeing her for a little while. That weapon was fucked up to the highest though…

Wait a sec; he still might have to fight some other people up on the roof. Can he even still fight?

Jeremy felt the pain more controllable now, and got back up. Oh yeah, he can still fight plenty. That one hell of a cut though….

Jeremy winced feeling the wound being flexed along with his back. He took a whole shit load more in his life, this was nothing out of the ordinary for him, in such cases of his past combat experiences.

Picking up his gun, which he found was still usable after being in such a battlefield. He released the catch and let the metal tab inside the weapon drop out. Replacing the magazine, he began his walk up the final flight of stairs that led to the destroyed roof.

Dizzy was up there, and there was no way in hell anything was going to stop him from getting her now.