Prologue
On the battlefield, when the bullets start flying towards you, everyone on your side of the trench becomes your brothers and sisters. Doesn't matter who you were or what rank you held - as long as you carried your weapon and pointed it in the right direction.
And so, on this late afternoon, the bullets started flying through the barricaded windows of the Dicey Odds branch on South Central. Baelz Hakos and her small gang - men and women of her 'Rat Pack' that we beat up in the North just days ago - became brothers and sisters to me and Kiara.
With our backs to the wall - and a swarm of Owl Pals and bikers before us, we set aside our differences. Kiara and I didn't have weapons to point at the enemies at the gate, but our cavalry was coming soon. We just had to sit tight and weather this storm.
In order to do that, we were going to have to stand together.
We braced for impact.
…
Ame, Kiara and Bae kept their heads low as pistol shots smashed windows and whizzed overhead. Trinkets scattered throughout Bae's office were knocked over by the hail of lead and the ceiling lamps were smashed. Once the hail of lead thinned, Bae rushed to the window with her Tommy Gun and opened fire at the Owls.
"Get off my property!" Bae roared over her gunfire. Her goons with handguns followed suit and shot out the windows.
Bae and her Rat Pack gunners emptied their guns out onto the streets. Then, the owls answered back with yet another volley.
"Crap!" Bae ducked again. She scrambled to reload her Tommy Gun.
It was at this time, however, that other members of the Rat Pack - the ones armed with baseball bats and fire axes - rushed into the office in fear.
"Boss! They're tearing down the door downstairs." One of the goons wailed.
"Huh? But we already barrica-" Bae started.
However, a powerful explosion suddenly rocked the entire building! Ame, Kiara, Bae and everyone else inside lost their balance and fell to the floor.
Ame's ears rang from the explosions. She struggled to pick herself up from the floor. Once her hearing returned to her, however, she heard an ominous noise.
The ringing of bicycle bells coming from below.
The "Bailiff" and his biker gang were leading the charge.
Bae's ears stood on end. Then, she clicked her tongue. She reached under her dress shirt and pulled out a necklace with a golden key.
"Hey detectives!" Bae ripped off her necklace and threw it to Ame, "Catch!"
Ame caught the key and turned to Bae.
"Check my desk drawer." Bae grinned deviously, "There's something for the both of you in there!"
Ame and Kiara nodded. Then, the two of them crept towards Bae's locked desk. Ame opened it and pulled back the drawer.
Inside, there were fancy, nickel plated M1911 pistols, seven-round magazines and boxes of ammo. The first gun had pearl-white grips engraved with 'Bloom' - the other had ebony-black
grips engraved with 'Gloom'. Ame and Kiara turned to each other and grinned.
"Like them?" Bae asked.
"Love them." Ame and Kiara answered in unison.
Kiara took the pearl-gripped Bloom while Ame took the ebony-gripped Gloom.
"Good." Bae nodded, "Now get downstairs and stop them from trashing up my place any more than they already have!" She patted her Tommy Gun and smirked, "We'll cover you from upstairs - keep the owls pinned down."
Now armed with Bloom and Gloom, Kiara and Ame joined Bae's axe-and-bat armed gangsters. Together, they climbed down the stairs to face the enemies in the labyrinthine corridors.
…
Downstairs, Ame, Kiara and the Rat Pack came face to face with the Owl Pals who flooded the breached barricade. The Owl Pals, armed with their myriad of hardware store weapons, saw Bae's goons and charged at them like madmen and madwomen. In the darkness, their faces seemed distorted - just like the cursed 'modern art' that their leader Mumei Nanashi drew often.
None of them seemed to feel any fear.
Only overzealous, religious dedication to Mumei Nanashi herself and her orders.
The Rat Pack pushed back against the Owl Pals with their bats and fire axes, but they were swarmed and quickly lost ground. Ame and Kiara burst out from the wings and started firing their new guns. Accurate shots rang through the corridor and struck down many Owls, killing some - but immobilizing many more.
Enough to turn the tide.
Ame and Kiara emptied their guns, but kept on fighting the owls vigorously. They pistol-whipped the owls, struck them down with kicks and punches or threw them into the furniture scattered throughout the corridor.
Their valiant actions re-lit the fire of the Rat Pack. They, too, joined in on the action with their bats and axes. That bought Ame and Kiara time to reload - and not a moment too soon.
The bells of the bicycles rang again.
Then, from the shadows, the Bailiff and his well-dressed biker gang - the Vesties - emerged from the shadows.
The Vesties rode their bicycles with incredible skill and dexterity, navigating through the labyrinthine halls without losing their momentum. The Rat Pack tried to defend themselves, but the Vesties crashed their bicycles into them at top speed.
The Rat Pack were beaten down into the ground, pinned down by the Vesties and their bicycles. Before the Vesties could draw their longswords, however, Ame and Kiara gunned them down too.
Unfortunately for them, this was when the Bailiff himself chose to strike. The Bailiff pedaled at top speed towards the two detectives!
…
"FOR THE VESTIES!" The Bailiff cried.
Ame and Kiara tried to shoot at him, but their shots bounced off of his long black coat. He was wearing bulletproof armor!
The two detectives scrambled to leap out of the way, losing their handguns in the process. The Bailiff stomped down on the ground and made his bicycle turn on a dime with just one hand on the handle. With the other, he adjusted his glasses and then drew his longsword.
The Bailiff brushed the two handguns away with his polished leather riding boots. Then, he pointed his sword at the two detectives.
"While you were cracking down on the Owl Pals, I studied the blade!" He declared.
Ame and Kiara rushed to pick themselves up from the floor. The Bailiff's shadow loomed over them.
Then, almost as if on cue, the gunfight outside the building seemed to intensify. The wail of police sirens echoed in the back alley. Red flashing lights from the police cruisers also illuminated the once dark scene.
The City PD cavalry was already here!
However, the sound that grabbed the Bailiff's attention was something else entirely. It was the ring of another bicycle bell, followed by the blow of a whistle.
The Bailiff turned to the source of the noise behind him. There, he found one of the most infamous beings in the eyes of the City's criminal underworld.
Police Sergeant Oozra Subaru riding her trusty steed: the bicycle named JUSTIN.
"Mental! Physical! Justin~!" Subaru chanted. She rang the bells of her bike as if she were revving up a motorcycle, "We have you surrounded. Give it up!"
The Bailiff turned his bike around to face his new challenger. He swung his longsword through the air and wore an eager grin on his lips. Subaru, on the other hand, adjusted her policewoman's cap and drew her long, wooden baton.
The eyes of the two cyclists met. One of the wheels of a broken bike of the Vesties rolled through the hall like tumbleweed in an old Western flick.
Then, Subaru and the Bailiff started pedaling towards each other. They picked up speed incredibly quickly and roared all the way through.
The Bailiff swung his sword, but the policewoman blocked it backhand with her baton. Then, she crashed Justin into the Bailiff's bike! The two cyclists got tangled with each other, but Subaru recovered first. Then, she gathered up all of her strength and pinned the Bailiff down, forcing him off balance.
"Oozora Subaru Sheepkiller!" Subaru cried, calling out her move.
After a few moments of struggle, the Bailiff gasped. He fell unconscious and plopped down to the floor.
As soon as the Bailiff fell, the Owl Pals and the Vesties who were still alive started to surrender.
When the dust settled over the devastated Dicey Odds branch, however, the Owl Pal leader Mumei Nanashi was nowhere to be found.
…
The battle came to a close. Ame and Kiara watched Officer Subaru and the dozens of her loyal, daytime-shift police officers rounding up the Owl Pals and the Vesties who gave themselves up. Among them was the 'Bailiff' himself, identified by Subaru to be a certain Vesper Noir. In the absence of Mumei Nanashi, Vesper was the highest ranking criminal that City PD took into custody that afternoon.
Dr. Ina'nis Ninomae arrived not long after, accompanied by medics from Eugenia Medical Center for the injured - and the City Coroner for the dead. Ina greeted Ame and Kiara with a small smile, but the overtime work ahead of her made her heave a tired sigh.
"At least you're not being dragged out of here in an ambulance this time around, Ame." Ina joked at first, but she lowered her voice and muttered, "If you did, then I would…"
Before Ina could say anything else, the City Coroner called her over.
With that, Ame and Kiara excused themselves and went back into the devastated Dicey Odds office. There, Baelz Hakos and the surviving members of her Rat Pack were being held by the police for questioning.
When Ame and Kiara got up to the second-floor office, however, there was someone else there already questioning Bae and her Rats.
Detective Kronii Ouro.
…
Queenpins
Nice Bike
…
To Be Continued