The United Forums of Neptune Circle

Chapter 8: Almost Reagenesque

BearFrog raised one of his fists to his head another to his gut: a solid defensive stance. His examined his opponent, who stood dancing about like Bruce Lee, clearly favoring quick and speedy offense. Kyo was the kind of person to go for a quick victory by attacking pressure points, at least, according to BearFrog's observations of his fighting stance.

"His weakness is in his defense… He obviously will prefer a quick stab and exit strategy, so the key to beating him is to stay close…" thought BearFrog.

"What are you waiting for?" asked Kyo impatiently.

"Hm? Oh, don't you know? A gentleman always lets a lady go first," BearFrog said with a grin.

"You bastard! Die!!" yelled Kyo, charging forward at full speed.

BearFrog managed to side-step out of the way of Kyo's incredibly fast right punch and countered it by bringing his elbow down. Unfortunately, Kyo was too swift for that and spun around to give BearFrog an uppercut.

" He's fast…"

Pow! Pow!

Kyo landed two right punches into BearFrog's gut. After the two punches BearFrog managed to block one of Kyo's fist by grabbing onto it with his own. Unable to move from BearFrog's grasp, Kyo tapped BearFrog's wounded arm, giving him just enough leverage to jump backwards and get out of the frying pan.

"Damn, he's good…Guess I'll have to take the fight to him,"

BearFrog charged forward, both of his arms bent and at his sides. Kyo was expecting a punch with that kind of stance, but BearFrog ended up throwing a tripping kick, which caught Kyo totally off-guard. As Kyo stopped himself from falling, BearFrog got up and managed to get a few rights and lefts in Kyo's gut and head. After a few hits from BearFrog Kyo had had enough and gave BearFrog a few punches of his own.

Bam! Bam! One two; first the head, then the gut. This caused BearFrog to skid back a bit, but he quickly regained composure as Kyo ran in to attack quickly. Swick! A high karate chop from Kyo was blocked by BearFrog's forearm. Bam! Kyo brought down his arm to attack BearFrog's leg, but BearFrog's arm blocked it well.

"Kyaa!" yelled BearFrog as he kicked Kyo in the gut, causing Kyo to skid backwards this time.

BearFrog leaped forward, looking like he was kneeling in mid-air, and managed to extend his arched leg fully and kick Kyo in the jaw, causing the warrior to fall to the ground.

"Ladies, ladies, ladies!!" yelled a voice from up the steps.

BearFrog turned towards the steps in a cold sweat.

"Oh no…"

"Jay and Silent Bob are in the hizzle!!" yelled Jay, with Bob and Turtle-Man behind.

Turtle-Man looked positively ridiculous, wearing gigantic sunglasses and even bigger bling-bling around his neck. Wearing a do-rag on his head and the light blue sweats would normally be a hilarious sight to BearFrog, but now was the last place he wanted Turtle and the others to be. In this scenario they would only get in the way and cause more trouble.

"Rap Master Turtle is in da house!!" yelled Turtle.

"Turtle, Jay, Bob!! Get out of here, now!!"

"Nah, we're here to kick some ass!!" yelled Jay.

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Twitch.

Graffiticanclock, who had since recovered from BearFrog's attack and was watching the fight, grew nervous. Twitch. Twitch. BearFrog had brought friends, and one was bad enough. Twitch. Twitch. He didn't want to go to jail. No, jail was baaaaad…very baaaaaad…

Graffiti shook his spray can nervously. His eyes became very shifty, moving from BearFrog and the crowd to his spray can. Should he? Should he take this risk? If not then all they had worked for would be for naught. And so he did it.

Graffiti took his can and began to spray like crazy. The red spray paint began to engulf the room, so much so that all could be seen was red dust.

"Ahh!! What the fuck is going on?"

"Damn! I can't see!!"

"BearFrog, do not hide from me!!"

"I'm not hiding!!"

"Damnit Graffiti, you dumb shit!!"

"Oof!"

"We got one! Excellent job, Bob!! Look out!!"

Swish! Pow!!

"Take that Clock Crew mother fucks!"

Bang!

"What the fuck?! Who's shooting up in here? Put yo' damn guns away, you'll shoot one of our boyz!!"

Most of the Clock Crew heeded the warning of that particular gangsta, but many of the more insane ones kept shooting around madly. Then, finally, a bullet managed to his someone. Everyone heard the whelp of pain and stopped, waiting to see who had been shot.

The smoke cleared. All were silent as the looked at the body laying on the ground. X's eyes widened at the site that laid before him. It was unbelievable. It was impossible. It couldn't have happened it…couldn't…

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BearFrog lay there, in a pool of his own blood, eyes shut and the color disappearing from his face. The noble hero of X, The All-Star of Criminal Investigation, The Rival of Fargoth, The Friend of Turtle-Man was now dead. Dead.

"Impossible…No…" cried X, trying to hold back tears. His hero would not have wanted him to cry.

"You worthless little shit…" said Kyo as he walked over to Graffiticanclock, his hand still on the smoking pistol.

Smack!

Kyo smacked Graffiticanclock in the face, causing the little man to drop his gun and fall to the floor face first. Catching the gun in mid-air, Kyo quickly aimed it down at Graffiti and shot him in the back five times. Now Graffiti, the killer of BearFrog, was dead too.

"That'll teach you for killing my opponents," said Kyo irritably.

Then Kyo began his march back towards BearFrog and stood over him with a grin on his face. More blood came out of BearFrog by the minute, but it was starting to slow down quickly.

"You worthless piece of shit. You couldn't even survive a measly bullet. You were not worthy of fighting me," Kyo rudely said to the corpse, a wide grin on his face. Then, to finish things off, Kyo spit on the face of the corpse and turned around to walk towards the Clock Crew.

"You bastard…" X said slowly.

"Hm? What was that now?" asked Kyo, turning his head to look at X.

"If it wasn't for that gun he would've destroyed you…" X said with his head bowed. Suddenly, he jerked it up, saying; "YOU HEAR ME?! HE WOULD HAVE DESTROYED YOU!!"

Kyo simply winked, saying "Well, that's not gonna happen now,"

"You bastard! You dishonored one of the most noble men to ever live in this great nation!"

Kyo turned around, interested. The sound of rage was in his voice. That meant that this normally buttoned down average martial artist was on a quest for vengeance, and this rage might be worthy of a good fight.

"Noble, don't make me laugh! That fool couldn't even catch Moriarty! He will not be remembered by history!"

"History may not remember him…but I will…and you will…WHEN YOU BURN IN HELL!!" yelled X as he ran forward with a right punch.

X was normally much slower than Kyo, but the rage within him caused him to move so fast that even Kyo couldn't see the punch coming. Bam! Right in the center of Kyo's face. Kyo was shocked and amazed at his enemy's speed. Bam! Bam! Bam! X unleashed a melee assault on Kyo.

X would not let up on his onslaught. Occasionally Kyo would manage to block one of X's attacks, but it would do no good as X's other punch would manage to damage enough to make up for it. Kyo was slowly being pummeled by X.

"Heh…He's winning…"

Kyo jumped back and looked at X, breathing heavily with a look of pure hatred on his face. Kyo too was breathing heavily, but he also had bruises and cuts all over him while X looked like a secret service agent who was late for work and was just a bit angry.

"Not bad, X Clock. It seems that you have defeated me in combat. Rage is a powerful weapon. But…" Kyo said, taking out a gun, "This is more powerful!! Kyhahaha!!"

X suddenly had a look of fear on his face. He stepped back with his eyes as white as a ghost.

"Hey, aren't true warriors supposed to use their fists?!" yelled Jay.

"Indeed they are, but the true warrior is the one that wins. Winning is all that matters in this world, and I am going to win! Now…die!!"

Bang!

Kyo's smile remained on his face for a few moments before he dropped his gun and fell on his knees. And then, he fell to the ground.

Kyo had been shot. The bullet had come from a dead man. BearFrog was there, lying on the ground, his arm extended and his head up, holding a smoking gun.

"B-BearFrog!!" yelled Turtle as he rushed to help BearFrog.

"No, it's alright Turtle. It's just a flesh wound…" said BearFrog as he slowly got up.

"But how??"

"It'll take more than a shot in the dark to get rid of this detective," said BearFrog with a wink.

Turtle's eyes were wisty, full of tears. But these were tears of joy. BearFrog, his only true friend, was alive. He still had a friend. X, Jay and Bob all stared at BearFrog in awe, as did the rest of the crowd.

Suddenly, Kyo's limp body twitched. Almost everyone in the room jumped, except for BearFrog who was leaning over Turtle man's shoulder.

"He's still alive!" yelled X.

"I know," BearFrog said solemnly. "Although he took the life of one of your own I cannot kill someone when I have the opportunity not to."

"Graffiti…" cried one member of the Clock Crew.

"We deserved it…" Scotty said suddenly. "We deserved all of this."

The crowd looked shocked as they turned to face their leader.

"We let ourselves become whores to these terrorists just so we could get a little extra money. Being in the Clock Crew used to mean something, but now…it doesn't mean anything. We became regular thugs, guys just shooting up people for no reason other than money. And now cuz of that…cuz of that…we lost little Graffiti…"

Scotty clutched his hands to his face and began to sob fiercely.

"You can still restore honor to the Clock Crew," X said quietly.

"Huh?" asked Scotty, looking up at him.

"The Clock Crew can die with honor if they give themselves up. This way they can end their long history with a noble ending, as opposed to a struggle with a wounded police officer and his comrades."

Scotty looks up at X, the former member of the Clock Crew, and finally understands that he STILL is a member of the Clock Crew. He finally understood.

"Now, tell us, where is Gado Lion?" asked X.

"In the back room," said Scotty, pointing his thumb at a door behind him.

Fargoth quickly ran through the crowd (stomping on Kyo on the way) and entered the room to begin untying Gado. After a few seconds of Fargoth being in the room, the sounds of many clicking heels was heard as many police officer rushed into the room, all of them with their guns held out, ready to shoot.

"Did I mention I took the liberty of calling the police?" asked Turtle.

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The Clock Crew didn't put up a fight, they simply walked out with their hands up. After being untied, Gado walked out of the room with Fargoth to see the huddled masses of the Clock Crew being hauled outside. A bodybag was put over Graffiti. After thanking his rescuers, Gado went outside for the police medic to have a look at him.

BearFrog simply stood there, hanging off of Turtle's shoulder, staring at the body of Graffiti. In the end, someone always seemed to die.

"Hey Froggy!" yelled Fargoth.

"Hm?" asked BearFrog, turning his head.

"We're gonna take you to the hospital to get those wounds treated," said Fargoth.

" Get my wounds treated? Bah! I can treat them myse…Wait. I need to go to the hospital anyway, and considering how hard it would be to get that done under the view of the law…"

"Alright, I'm coming!" yelled BearFrog, hopping on one foot and getting off of Turtle.

"Turtle, you go home and take care of Jade!"

"What about us?" asked Jay, referring to him and Silent Bob.

"You can spend the night at my house for now! Just don't try anything funny!" replied BearFrog, now on two legs but limping away.

"Here, let me help you," offered X.

BearFrog accepted, now leaning on X's shoulder as he walked towards the ambulance.

"You handled yourself very well back there, Agent X."

"Huh?" asked X as they moved along, shocked to hear this man compliment him.

"You carried yourself in a manner that was, well, almost Reagenesque."

"T-Thank you, sir!" replied X nervously.

It was surprising to see a man as serious looking as X to have an expression of a timid five year old.

BearFrog was loaded onto the stretcher and entered the ambulance with X with him, while Gado and Fargoth took questions from the mass known as the press.