Prologue
Barely five years have passed since the War against Pekoland came to an end. We won that war - at least I like to think that we did. All of the fears and wartime hysteria of those insane rabbits coming to our shores were dispelled by the peace treaty signed by our leaders.
Armies were demobilized. Territories were given and taken. Concessions were made. Soldiers were ordered to go home - and that was supposed to be the end of it.
The thing is, the soldiers that didn't come home in coffins draped in Hololive flags returned as different people - changed by the War in one way or another. Even though they were in one piece, they returned to our country broken. Wartime wounds healed, but the scars remained.
HALU reopened those wounds. The war that all of us feared came to our shores - different, but no less vicious. It came to us in pillars of blue smoke billowing from the erupted sewers, driving thousands upon thousands crazy.
Shrimp? Deadbeat? Civilian? Police? HALU didn't discriminate.
A large group of them appeared here at Strawberry Cove, emerging from the forest and the thickets like the unnaturally fearless and reckless soldiers of the Pekolander Army. They were shepherded by dirty cops with gas masks and led by Chief Enma and her conspirators - Bloop and Death-sensei.
They sicced those hallucinating people upon us like the Pekolander officers did on Sunfish Hill.
Kiara, Gura, Calli, Bae, Kronii and I stood together on the beach with the handful of gangsters and detectives that survived the Casino Train crash. With our backs turned to the restless North District Sea, we made ready for war.
…
From the line of gas-masked police officers, Chief Enma held her head high and marched through dramatically. She watched the tiny army gathered on the beach of Strawberry Cove and scoffed. One of the officers passed her a megaphone and she took it from him to speak.
"I had a feeling that throwing the entire train out wasn't gonna be enough." Enma jeered, taunting her foes, "You bastards are tough as nails - and the whole lot of ya have the luck of the devil herself! That's why I had to wield the devil's cruelty too. There will be no escaping this time."
With that announcement, Enma tossed away the megaphone and took out a peculiar whistle - a Wartime trench whistle. She blew on it with all her might - its sound echoed throughout the cove.
All of the hallucinating war veterans were driven into a maddened frenzy. The whistle brought them back five years in the past, forcing them to relive their wartime memories. Deep in the depths of their minds, beneath the five-year old scars of war, they remembered what the whistle meant.
The whistler and everyone around her was on 'their' side.
Everyone else was a Pekolander that must be destroyed.
Violent screams and war cries rang throughout Strawberry Cove. The ground seemed to shake beneath the hallucinating army's feet. Enma, Bloop, Death-sensei and the dirty cops, meanwhile, watched the spectacle with wide grins on their faces - acting like they had front row tickets to an ancient colosseum deathmatch.
Anyone on Ame's side who still had a gun in working condition opened fire, but a single Tommy Gun and a handful of pistols could hardly slow down the near-mindless horde. Dozens of the hallucinators fell, but hundred more took their place without the slightest hint of fear or remorse.
It wouldn't take long for the battle to be joined and devolve quickly into bitter hand-to-hand combat. Calli and Gura knew this - but they also knew that this was what they did best.
So, instead of waiting for the hallucinators to come to them, the two Queenpins led a counter-charge against them. They wanted the initiative, and they damn well were gonna take it!
Calli swung her katana with incredible skill and poise, cutting down hallucinators with gracefully deadly strikes. Her slashes and lunges were interspaced by powerful kicks and fancy footwork that made it seem like she was dancing on the battlefield.
Gura, on the other hand, dove into battle and fired her guns at close range fearlessly. She ducked beneath her taller foes and spun around like a whirling dervish. Even her shark's tail struck down foes with powerful flicks, shutting down anyone who tried to come at her from behind.
The two Queenpins, even after years of estrangement, fought side by side like well-oiled machines that never lost a beat. They cut through the hallucinating army together and had each other's backs. For a split-second, after a chaotic melee, Calli and Gura had their backs pressed against each other.
Calli found herself with a fire axe in her free hand.
Gura, meanwhile, holstered her pistols and picked up a baseball bat from a crippled foe's hands.
The Queenpins looked over their shoulders. Their eyes met and they shared knowing smiles.
For a moment, they remembered the past - back when they were hungry and scrappy fledgeling Third Party gang bosses living under the shadow of the Owl Pals.
The Bone Bros.
No words had to be said. Calli and Gura bumped fists. Then, they charged back into the fray and smashed some more skulls. Ame and Kiara saw this and threw themselves into the fight too, following the Queenpins closely into the battle.
All around them, axes, baseball bats and hammers swung along with punches and kicks. The defenders gave their all and somehow managed to hold the line, fending off the tide of hallucinators. After all, the defenders still had their wits about them - and the Queenpins and their new henchwomen put on an inspiring show of graceful violence that spurred them on.
The tide of battle started turning in the defenders' favor.
…
Chief Enma saw the human wave of hallucinators halted by the handful of defenders and frowned. Her bespectacled eyes turned towards the Queenpins and their new henchwomen fighting valiantly at the center of it all.
"Detective Watson's gonna be trouble for me till the very end." Enma scoffed, "This can;t stand."
Bloop and Death-sensei turned to the police chief.
"Are you finally gonna send in the cops?" Bloop asked, "Now would be the best time to…"
"No. My officers are here as observers today." Enma interrupted coldly, "When the Feds ultimately come here to this hidden cove to investigate what happened here today, I want them to see a gang war through and though - not a police rub-out. My officers won't dirty their hands and tip off the feds."
"But the Casino Train…" Death-sensei tried to argue, "Your cops shot the train like it was the Seventh of September."
"Using weapons the Deadbeats purchased from the Owl Pals. Weapons that you provided to me, Death-sensei." Chief Enma countered briskly, "Bargain with me anymore and the Deadbeats are gonna be nothing more than a footnote in this City's history when I'm done with it." She adjusted her glasses and glared at the turncoat Lieutenants, "You understand what you boys have to do, right? Your 'kingdoms' are on the line here."
Bloop and Death-sensei turned to Calli and Gura. Bloop brought out his heavy harpoon and swung it skillfully like a spear. Death-sensei, on the other hand, cocked his light machine gun.
"Off with their heads." They said at the same time.
"Good." Enma nodded, "Now go. Don't waste any more of my time."
With that, the turncoat Lieutenants forced their way through the hallucinating crowd, looking to kill their former masters.
…
The Queenpins were locked in the heat of battle when the traitor Lieutenants suddenly joined the fray. The momentous rhythm that the so-called Bone Bros had built up came to a halt. Even in the midst of battle, Calli's ears heard a peculiar rattle of an automatic weapon.
Then, a warning from Kiara reached Calli.
"Calli, look out!" Kiara warned.
Calli turned around and saw Death-sensei pointing his Browning Automatic Rifle at Calli.
"Good night, boss!" Death-sensei taunted.
He pulled the trigger and sprayed Calli with bullets. Calli dodged the first few shots with fleet footsteps and blocked a few more with swings of her katana. Still, a few shots found their mark and wounded the Queenpin of the South.
"You fucking dick!" Calli hissed.
The moment Death-sensei ran out of ammo, Calli wound back and threw her fire axe at him like a tomahawk. The axe flew true and cut into Death-sensei's shoulder.
Kiara flanked Death-sensei too and shot at him with her own gun. Her shots bounced off of Death-sensei's body armor, but it bought Kiara time to draw close. Then, she shored up her strength and threw a high-kick straight into Death-sensei's jaw.
"KIKIRIKICK!" Kiara squawked.
Death-sensei fell backwards. His light machine gun slipped from his grasp, but he still tried to get back up. Calli and Kiara, however, rushed him before he could and thrashed him violently.
Not far from them, the towering shark-man Bloop barged through the hallucinating crowd. He wielded his heavy harpoon and charged at Gawr Gura with the force of a freight train.
"Sharkie, watch out!" Ame warned.
Gura saw the approaching shark-man and gritted her teeth. She and Ame peppered Bloop with gunfire, but their pistol shots cut shallowly through his scaly hide. The shark Lieutenant weathered the storm of lead and roared menacingly. He thrust his harpoon at Gura, trying to skewer her straight through the heart.
The short shark-girl kept her head low and dodged his strikes. Ame, on the other hand, reloaded her pistol and dealt even more wounds - shallow as they were - onto Bloop, whittling him down bit by bit.
Bloop snored and halted his attack. Then, he suddenly turned towards Ame and threw a roundhouse kick at her head.
Ame blocked the kick with both of her arms. Even after all of the wounds Bloop sustained, his kick still hit Ame like a car. She slid sideways into the sand and rolled over in pain.
Bloop marched over to Ame. This time, he aimed his harpoon at her.
Ame saw this in the corner of her eye. Then, she grabbed a handful of sand and tossed it at Bloop's face.
"Fuck!" Bloop cursed, struggling to wipe the sand from his eyes.
While the shark-man struggled, Gura ran towards him and - with herculean effort- lifted Bloop up from the ground.
"Get rotated, stinky!" Gura cried.
She threw Bloop into an outcrop of rock, stunning him for a short while - just enough time for her to help Ame back up on her feet. By the time she did, though, Bloop stirred again.
The Queenpins and their new henchwomen were able to hold back the turncoat Lieutenants, but it halted the tiny bit of momentum that the defenders had. The battle ground down into a messy slog. Slowly but surely, the overwhelming numbers of hallucinating gangsters pushed the defenders inch by inch back to the sea.
Ame and Kiara had their backs to the water. The sound of the surf rolling into the shore of Strawberry Cove grew louder and louder like death knells. All around them, the Queenpins and their allies fought valiantly but grew exhausted.
They knew that it wouldn't be long before their strength wavered - before they had no more ground left to give.
However, it was at this time that they heard something else start to echo in Strawberry Cove.
Sirens of police cruisers, paddy wagons and other emergency vehicles mixed in with the din of a myriad other vehicles. Horns of a myriad of civilian cars, army surplus trucks and delivery vans honked along with the sirens, drawing the attention of everyone who wasn't hooked up on HALU.
Ame and Kiara turned to the rambunctious cacophony and saw a police cruiser leading the charge through the narrow forest path. The peculiarity rhythmic honking of the cruiser's horn reached Ame's ears and told her exactly who was driving.
"Ina, you madlass…" Ame whispered. A small smile broke out on her lips. She took a deep breath and shouted out as loud as she could, "Hold the line, everyone! The cavalry's here!"
…
Queenpins
Double Time Swing
…
To Be Continued