Friday 11:45 PM - Crystal Mansion - 20 minutes after the Varanidae v. Canidae incident.
As if hit by a jolt of energy, Gar's scaly eyes sprung open. The scarred varanid awoke and found himself lying on his back. His vision was blurry, he tried to wipe away any dryness in his eyes only to find his arms wouldn't obey him.
I can't be that fuckin' tired, he slothfully thought as he made attempts to get up. His arms wouldn't move, as if they were held in place. Something was trapping him here.
He opened his mouth to cry out, hoping to attract the attention of his followers, but his voice just wouldn't carry. Not only that tasted the horrible mixture of his own poison and sour taste of blood...his mouth was bleeding, or had been at least. He spit up on the side and resumed his attempt to cry for help. A raspy wheeze and set of hoarse coughs was all his throbbing throat could purchase.
That fruitless gesture revealed how much his throat really hurt. Either he was suffering from the world's worst strep throat or someone had crushed his larynx. More accurately it felt as if someone had bit down on it real hard, like he'd been in a fight with a clan brother.
" H-H-Hel " He attempted to power out. " HELppp... HelpPp MeE! " Another ragged set of rough and hoarse coughs rewarded his efforts. No one seemed to hear him anyway. "HELP ME!" He growled, frustrated, finally able to get what he wanted across. Still no response. Gar the Komodo just exhaled, giving up with a sigh. The only way he'd get out is if he helped himself.
He focused on getting up. His chest felt even worse, almost every inch felt like he had been stabbed multiple times with a hot poker, plus something heavy was pressing him to the floor.
Like what exactly was pressing into him? He wondered.
He painfully raised his head and saw the giant, mostly brass, chandelier weighing him down like a dropped ship's anchor. Weakly grunting, the injured dragon willed his body up and pushed it aside despite his sore muscles' protests. The brass hunk of junk clanged on the floor, yet he still felt a sore and a sharp pain in his upper torso. He looked down and saw his battered body armor perforated with bullet holes, he had been shot multiple times it seemed. Thankfully their species physiology was hardy enough that it would take more than that to kill him. Still didn't make it hurt any less though. He also noticed he had been stabbed. A very crude looking dagger with leather wrapped around the hilt was lodged into his left pectoral. Blood trailed from the wound, but he knew better than to remove it now.
The peculiar thing about it was he recognized the weapon. It belonged to his lieutenant, Deshi or the Cyclops as others around the Back-Alley Market called her. Why her dagger was in his chest puzzled him. Deshi was loyal. She wouldn't cross him. Not a particularly ambitious follower, which is why he kept her the closest.
He scanned around for assailants, and to his horror saw his lieutenant lying a few meters away. Gar's anger spiked as he tried to stand only to crumble to the floor. There, as he looked around, he saw his other followers. His crew of soldiers entrusted to him by the elites of the Dokugumi were all strewn across the room, dead. His loyal soldiers, reduced to bloody corpses. Deshi, Kainik, Phosfo, Jun, and Koffi. All gone. Only one that he couldn't account for, Bantu, the black skinned aspirant. Then everything came back to him. He remembered exactly where things had gone wrong. From the ape trying to back out of their deal, to his fight with the rent-a-cop. Then the dark furred fox. She had defeated his lieutenant. Then the dog...he'd done this to him. He'd bested him somehow. Fucking Canines! Mangy curs the lot of 'em! His inner voice growled. They had ruined everything!
Images of how he would throttle the both of them when he got his claws on them were but the tamest of retribution he had in mind. That gray furred dog and fox would suffer for their treachery.
What had started off as a relatively smooth operation just derailed by that stupid olf codger of an ape and his incompetence and that bothersome dog's insufferable meddling. He got so hot he punched his fist straight through a nearby table, breaking it in two.
Gar fruitlessly searched the wrecked foyer for the interlopers, of course they were long gone by now. They had left him here to wallow in defeat. A mistake.
The dog was the first on his shit list, he was going to drag that shitheel's carcass across the asphalt with his motorbike. Then the fox would be next. Her wicked looking face took but a moment to place, one from Back Alley. She was one of those shifty Inarigumi foxes that ran the red light district and the gambling parlors.
He remembered her specifically from a turf war about a year ago, where she blinded his lieutenant. In fact, Deshi seemed to have been enacting her revenge, when the dog interfered. Just another reason he'd make that mutt suffer. He'd find him and that bitch and mount their tails to the back of his ride like a trophy.
Still, why the fox's presence confused him. The Inarigumi were comprised of greedy animals, all about financial gain and vice, but why would they even lift a finger to interfere with his business here? Aside from the crystal artifact carved by their ancestors, this was all supposed to have been a violent manifesto against mammalian supremacy and their insufferable mistreatment. Prove to their boss, Savon, that they could rise up and overthrow those that discriminate against them. Granted that wasn't exactly beneficial for their interests, but it also wasn't something that would normally warrant an intervention from the avaricious canids.
Hell the official reason his group had been hired to demolish this shitty building was for some petty fraud scheme the ape had cooked up, so how did they even hear about it or why would they even be interested? None of this made sense, he thought looking down and pulling his hand free the broken table. As he wiped glass and splinters from his wrist, he noticed something peculiar about the display table he had wrecked. It was empty. Completely cleaned out. Aside from the busts and displays, it was devoid of any jewelry or shiny baubles. As if they had all...disappeared. He was sure when they first entered, the store still had it's inventory. Then everything clicked. That's why the Inarigumi had been here, that was their angle. It all came together. Bad timing. They were robbing this place.
*Crick*
He heard something that interrupted his chain of thought. His head raised as he turned his eye towards the wrecked entrance. He heard a cracking noise, like glass shattering and crunching under foot. Then a loud grunt and thud followed suit as wreckage blocking the caved in entrance began to budge. Someone was coming in. Was it the police? Rescue services? How long had he been out? Panic gripped the reptile. Now he was all alone. Plans ruined with nothing to show for it. No followers. He didn't even have his leverage, the priceless bauble he would have appeased Savon with. Nothing except corpses, his own corpses.
The Komodo crouched low, dropping below the clutter of broken tables and display counters on all fours, trying to remain unseen before whomever entered could spot him. Then he saw him, a tall dark figure coming through in the haze. A horse with a stern and serious face. A tall dark brown horse.
It couldn't be. He thought.
Yahya the ebony Arabian horse kept his profile low and proceeded into the wreckage slow. Slow and steady, that was the best he could muster with the condition his leg was in. The bracers had absorbed most of the punishment, but still hitting the asphalt like that had taken more of a toll than he originally thought. Bad enough, his leg was still recovering from an incident where he kicked a crater in the wall at his headquarters, and now after that flashy stunt earlier, it seemed like he was just a magnet for unnecessary pain. Just another reminder of his aging middle aged body wasn't as spry as it used to and that he couldn't do this alone anymore.
Like it or not, his tenure as the Sublime Beastar was deteriorating fast, one more screw up like that and his body could fail. He could be looking at a compound fracture or worse if he put more unnecessary strains, then he'd really be handicapped or worse, dead. He hated getting older. He hated that he was alone in his crusade. He hated that Gosha's grandson was his only real prospect for a replacement. While it was true the young wolf inherited a lot from his former partner; his strength, his size, even his cool demeanor, the facts were the wolf was just such a dense maverick. No way could he be entrusted with a role of such significance. The horse's nostrils flared just thinking about how careless Legoshi had been at the masquerade party. He was such an airhead just like that woman Gosha took. Gosha, he also remembered being the same way, spacing out during tense moments, but the kid took it to a whole new level.
Yahya rubbed his forehead, trying not to give himself a migraine. Deep down, he knew he was being too harsh on the boy, at 18 the young wolf was just in desperate need of experience. He did literally recruit him off the street. He'd come around. Yahya even started to wonder if he had made any progress, since he'd given him that masquerade mask the criminal hybrid, Melon, had been wearing. It'd been weeks since he had been discharged from the hospital.
*Crick*
The horse swiveled his head towards the sound of the noise looking around the foggy room. A thick layer of smoke still inhabited the ramshackle jewelry store, one could sense the heat from small fires still burning in various spots. He covered his muzzle in his large scarf, tying it around his face like a mask to keep the suffocating smoke from choking him. This place reeked with the ozone of gunpowder and carbon monoxide. He went back and kicked over what was left of the store's wooden doors to air out the building as well as give himself some natural light.
*Crack*
He heard the noise once more, and turned around. Nothing to see but the thick layer of smoke and wrecked foyer. He proceeded cautiously, but much to his annoyance his sneakers did the exact opposite of their namesake, the crunch of the loose shards of glass scattered everywhere underfoot was something he couldn't avoid. Anyone sane would have left this to the fire department or the police, but he was the Beastar, the only one who really did anything for this city. He wanted to get to the bottom of this. Those two suspect carnivores seemed all too eager to flee the scene and he wanted to know why.
From the state of things, he spotted blast marks and residue which suggested a bomb blast, which would explain the smell the gunpowder used as the reactant. The damage from what he saw so far only affected this building, meaning a small yield explosive device had been used. In fact most of the structural damage that he could see appeared at the front end of the store. He wasn't an expert on such things, but even a novice could see this wasn't that impressive a blast, he wagered something probably homemade like a pipe bomb or fragmentation grenade.
*Crick* He heard that sound again. It was annoying, but he'd just have to endure this place falling apart, he thought.
A few steps further in and he found the first casualty. A deceased herbivore. Tawny brown furred elk, muscular build, a buck to be exact, age probably late 20s. He clothed in a blue uniform stained in his own blood, likely an employee. He was lying facing up, arms stretched wide with his throat savagely torn out from what had to have been a mauling.
Yahya's brow raised at this discovery. He didn't die from the blast. Not that I can tell. Interesting, the horse observed.
He crouched his large frame down and inspected the body. He observed bruises and rips in the clothes suggesting someone held him down. The bite mark radius and breed of the victim suggested a large carnivore. They held him down and ripped into him then tore his throat out.
He thought about those canines he saw fleeing the scene. He was pretty sure one was a fox, a carnivore notorious for a weak bite force amongst canines. It was doubtful they had a hand in this, a big animal like this would be too much of a struggle for a predator of that size. It didn't add up.
Something on the floor next to the body caught his eye. He slid on a pair of disposable polyethylene gloves, bent down and picked up what he identified as a name tag, most likely the deceased cervid's.
"David." At least this poor fellow had a name now , the equine thought as he placed the tag back where he found it.
Something clattered in the large room, garnering Yahya's attention. It sounded like the same cricking noise, from before but he wasn't sure. The horse rose from his position and quickly jerked his head around, alert but ultimately he couldn't see much in front of him with the billowing smoke. All the same he remained on guard. He was making a big deal out of it, but anyone could see this place was falling apart and probably just falling debris, he thought.
His large brown eyes drooped down annoyed as he tugged his mask up a bit tighter as he took a few steps in, the crunch of glass under his rubber soles was almost maddening. He pulled up his cell and made sure to call in.
"Special Code 38. This is the Beastar, requesting assistance."
The voice of an aging police chief answered on the other end of the line. The dog sounded stressed out about the fact he was here on his own once again. After suffering through the annoying set of formalities, Yahya hit him with all the pertinent information he had gathered.
"I'm investigating the incident I reported in the Tokoro district. Shopping center near the outskirts of Algema. The Crystal Mansion Jewelry store on 51491 Inyusu Street. I'm reporting fatalities. There also appears to have been a big explosion, suspected domestic terrorism. I needed emergency services down here a decade ago." The horse demanded.
"Well I'm here now!" The horse barked at the blustering police chief when he heard the reservations in his voice.
"Chief, make it happen. Or I'll ensure certain funding is cut." He said before hanging up in the dog's face. Yahya had no time to argue. "Well if I wasn't here, you and your people wouldn't found out about this until after happy hour." The horse grumbled to himself.
Not far from the elk's body, Yahya made another alarming discovery, this one slumped over a collapsed waiting table standing on three legs. Another victim.
Looked to be a gazelle, male, sand colored fur with curved black horns. The same species as... No way, he thought. Couldn't be.
The Beastar knew he was just grasping at straws, but curiosity got the better of him. The lanky body type fit his profile. His face was obscured, so the stallion reached in his pocket and pulled out an unused handkerchief. Grabbing hold of the victim's horns, he slowly lifted the gazelle's face. Almost instantly he saw how foolish that thinking had been on his part. It wasn't him, it wasn't the hybrid, not even close. The horns weren't as curved as he thought and the victim didn't possess the telltale carnivorous feline features, this guy was 100% Gazelle. Even the facial patterns didn't match.
Nope, he thought, He wasn't getting that lucky tonight.
"Ugh," the horse groaned frustrated, Lucky? He thought, shaking his head as he stared into the agonized wincing face of the dead herbivore. The light had gone out of this poor soul's eyes while his face was stuck in a flash of horror.
"You shouldn't be thinking like this, Yahya. This poor man doesn't deserve that." The horse gloomily sighed as he looked down away from the gazelle's face. It was at that point, he noticed another grim detail, the cadaver was missing a limb, his right hand down to the forearm was snapped off at the bone. "Shit!" Startled, the horse let go of the beast's antlers and let him drop back to the table where it slid off and crumpled to the floor.
"Dammit!" Yahya cursed out loud, ashamed that he'd let his mask of confidence slip for even a second. Thankfully no one was here to see it, he thought. He blew a loose strand of his mane out of his face, as he just took a deep breath. He tasted the remains of his dinner as he almost retched while studying the bloody stump. The scent of death was sickening even to him, the corpse had to have been a few hours old. The flesh hanging from the arm was ragged, someone had torn his arm off rather than bite. Ripped it off at the joint. Strong beast perhaps, he theorized, while placing the corpse back where he found it. Again that cast doubt on it being the fox, though maybe the male dog driver? He seemed large enough. The bloody back wound of the animal drew his attention next.
The gazelle's back appeared to be buffeted with ragged entry wounds in a circular pattern, gunshot wounds he surmised. Firearms were rare in the city due to the laws put in place. Typically outside of the police, only herbivores owned them, but carnivores from time to time had been known to use firearms. Specifically ones of the smaller species or just the criminal underworld in general. A great equalizer, they called it. Yahya himself usually kept a few tranq guns on himself, just in case. Still, this grievous wound combined with the dismemberment, suggested a predator did this.
From the looks of things, the victim had been running. His being a gazelle meant he probably was considered too much of a risk to chase down, so rather than waste energy they just shot him dead mid stride. Yahya began to envision the scene playing out. Soon as they entered, gazelle tried to make a break for it, then pow! Runs and ends up dead on the table. Then who ever did this snapped his forearm off for whatever reason. Probably predation, Yahya wasn't particularly eager to find the remains of said arm. The horse stroked his long narrow snout deep in thought as he crouched his large frame down by the victim in the direction his back was facing to guess where the shot came from.
His new point of view suggested the ruined doorway, likely making the victim here the first. The horse also noticed more clues on the floor, spent cartridges, shotgun shells as well as other bullet casings. A gunfight must have broken out. He panned his 350 vision around the area, and started to make out bullet holes lodged in the walls. Things were starting to come together. Then he spotted another body almost hidden amongst the debris like one of those puzzle books where you had to find the zebra in the crowd. The plot thickens, he thought.
The victim was a carnivore this time, a medium breed of the Felidae order. His body was curled up on the floor nearly covered in rubble, almost as if tucked in for bed with the bricks as a blanket . He recognized the species as an Iberian Lynx, or more accurately a wild cat. His first guess was that he had been caught in the blast of the explosion, but on closer inspection, Yahya saw a similar set of gunshot wounds in the cat's chest.
Didn't die from the blast either it seemed, someone shot him too. So there was indeed a gunfight or an exchange of fire before the blast, he thought. That lined up with the casings he found and the bullet holes. The wound appeared to be the same sort of weapon the gazelle met his fate with, shotgun. So maybe an armed robbery gone wrong? But why would they blow up the place though? He wondered. He'd heard of robberies using the threat of explosives to coerce the staff to comply, but he never heard of them actually using them, then along with firearms or just killing the hostages as well. It was just messy that way. Something was off here, very off. The motive wasn't making much sense.
*Crick* *Crack*
Yahya ears pricked as they recognized the same sound as before. His senses went on high alert as he reached into his back holster and pulled free the tranq gun, a single shot air pistol.
Ever since Melon escaped, he kept a more readily available tranquilizer on hand. One he could whip out and use when necessary, unlike the cumbersome rifle he had the last time. He'd even practiced loading it in short order as well so there wouldn't be any excuses if he ran into another individual like the crazed hybrid.
He swiveled his weapon around, searching the thick fog for anything hostile. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice, herbivore or hybrid, anything he came across hostile was going to get two shots regardless. Not that he could see much of anything the further he went in. He began waving vigorously trying to clear out the haze still occupying the room. The air conditioning seemed to be busted, so a persistent smog covered everything. What he saw next as the dust clouds receded surprised him. The corpse of a male Komodo dragon with his throat torn out lay in front of him. He was wearing what looked to a gas mask or respirator, crudely made with leather straps.
"Just what the hell…" Yahya found himself saying out loud, as he tea-cupped the pistol. He approached the body, but slowly. The guy was clearly dead, but the foreboding feeling running up Yahya's spine made him exercise extreme caution. He bent down only half a meter away, and slipped on a fresh pair of gloves remembering his encounter with Gosha in his apartment.
Instantly the gentle dragon was who Yahya thought about when viewing the young lizard. This fellow was noticeably a lot smaller though. Even back when they were younger, Gosha would have made this guy seem puny by comparison. He shared the same color as him, but his scales were less glossy than his. Wearing what Yahya could describe as a beat up bomber jacket, the horse noticed partially obscure kanji stenciled on the sleeve. He lifted the corpse's stiff arm to read it more accurately. [Poison] He recognized what it meant almost instantly. One of those Poison Gang thugs, he thought. He had had run-ins with them before, usually around the Back Alley when they were harassing people on the outskirts.
The Dokugumi they called themselves. Street toughs that usually stuck to that run-down areas near the Back-Alley Market and the slums. He found it strange that they'd be out this far. Perhaps this was an attempt to expand their territory? He thought.
He got a closer look at the wounds, his throat had been torn out at the jugular, bitten out more accurately. The bite radius was a lot smaller than the ones on the elk, suggesting a smaller animal did this. He panned his head down towards his chest and noticed a knife buried into his heart. Obvious signs of a struggle. He didn't see any bullet wounds, so he reasoned the individual didn't perish via the firefight. In conclusion, the horse figured someone had wrestled him to the ground, tore out his throat and stabbed him for good measure. But a dragon? No easy task.
The smoke started to thin even more as the wind from outside began to blow. Yahya looked up and was finally able to get a better view of the absolute calamity that had unfolded in the lobby. Tables overturned and broken in half, the ornate chandelier crashed into the floor, glass shards everywhere, vents blown all to hell with small fires still raging, and of course there were bullet holes all over the place. And on top of all that, he was greeted with the corpses of more Komodo dragons much like 'Mr. Poison', resting unceremoniously wherever they fell.
"You gotta be kidding…" He said, mouth agape. "Next I'm gonna find the Tomb of the Rex in here." He dryly commented, frustrated. "What the hell did I just stumble upon," he wondered out loud. "Predations, gunfights, bombs, now dead Komodo dragon gangs…"
They were all dressed similar in similar fashion. Thuggish clothing or something he reckoned a biker gang would wear, leather jackets and studded clothing. Almost all seemed to be wearing the same fashion of breathing apparatus. Given how Gosha was so defensive of his poison, he reckoned they wore them because it kept them from drooling all over the place.
The first two bodies closest to him he could see had been shot multiple times. Their corpses were propped up where they likely bled out or fell. Meanwhile another more heavy set lizard laid slumped face down in a pool of his own blood hanging off of the register counter. The worst one, was a brown toned female dragon, or at least he imagined she was female judging from her slender physique.
She looked the worst. Most of her upper torso was blackened and charred with a large hole burned through her esophagus and the horse noted her to be also missing an eye. Her agonized face frozen with an expression of pure horror as if she had met an excruciating end. There was also bruising on her body, which much like the first varanid's corpse, suggested a violent struggle.
Yahya had hit the jackpot, he thought. He'd just stumble upon one of those mystery cases that they made prime time television shows trying to solve. He was looking at a store robbery, predation, domestic terrorism, murder, and now maybe a gang hit. Just wonderful. And now he just had to make sense of it all, like why this place was blown to hell and back.
Yahya just shook his head and looked back to the first corpse. Something black around his tail caught his eye. Maybe some form of decoration or something, he wondered. He grabbed the tail carefully, and brought it closer to his face. On first inspection it looked like a watch with a digital face, but the red LED display only read [0.00]. It was only until Yahya saw the tiny colored wires looping around the clock that he gained a better idea of what he was holding. A horrifying discovery. It was a time bomb! Almost immediately he dropped the limp tail out of shock, but then quickly grabbed it before it could hit the floor lest he accidentally set it off. He breathed a sigh of relief. The numbers weren't counting down, which meant it hadn't been armed yet.
The Dokugumi were a strange gang, though there were reports of some of the more elite members using such devices, but Yahya had never put much stock into those reports, only thinking of them as nonsense and rumors.
*Crick* The sound again. *Crick* It was becoming more frequent. *Crick* The horse took an investigative whiff and was shocked to find a familiar scent. Gosha? He recalled this scent when he first approached the building. A chill rolled down his spine as his mind jumped to memories of his former friend, but he knew better. No...not him. Can't be. He quickly tilted ever so slightly and his 350 vision revealed a large dark green shadowy figure moving in his 7 o'clock zone.
Just then razor sharp claws clasped together right where the horse's head had been only seconds ago . Yahya reacted just in time. The attacker looked confused momentarily as the horse swiftly ducked and maneuvered out of harm's way. The Beastar quickly answered back with a devastating back kick with one of his strong legs. The dragon grunted and coughed, before the horse struck again with a flurry of precision kicks, striking his gut and face. Unable to take anymore the Komodo dropped to his knee, winded and doubled over, desperately sucking air as he rubbed his bruised ribs.
"A Komodo dragon, eh?" Yahya commented with a cocky smile on his face as he inspected the would be assailant, with his distinctive vertical facial claw marks. "Too bad you're nothing compared to my former partner. "Though he was roughly the same size as Gosha, he had a slightly slender build to his former associate. A fraction of his age from the look of things.
"The hell are you talking about?!" Gar growled, as he swung wildly, attempting to slash the horse with his sickle like claws. "Partner?! The hell could someone like you mean by partner?!"
The Beastar danced out of his reach, he was in his element. He answered the swipes with some rapid high kicks to the side of the reptile's face, then knocked his head back with a spinning heel kick. Gar stumbled back, large yellow eyes furious hurled a desperate punch at the equine, only for Yahya to skip out of range. The wounded dragon was at a disadvantage, having lost his step considerably from the fatigue of his wounds. It also didn't help that the horse was a much better fighter than the rent-a-cop.
The horse effortlessly dodged out of the way of another swipe by the dragon and humorously sent him stumbling to the floor with a swift heel to the back. Within seconds of the miss he tried to lock back on to the horse, only to just barely see the puff of air eject from the barrel of the tranq gun. Yahya then struck him with another kick, lifting the dragon off his feet, causing him to crash back to earth on top of a display table breaking it in two.
On his back nursing a bruised snout, Gar groaned when he saw the fletching of the sedative sticking out of his exposed arm. He could feel the effects already taking hold of his limb, but he knew the Beastar would need two shots in total to pacify a carnivore of his size, maybe even more. Before he could even sit back up he was stomped to the floor. Above him stood the dark stallion, loading another dart into the breach of the pistol.
"Yes, my former partner is a Komodo Dragon much like yourself." The horse revealed as he planted the sole of his shoe firmly onto the wounded reptile's gut, holding him in place. "And even at 54 he moves much faster than you do."
"Well maybe if I wasn't so hurt, you'd be singing a different tune right about now horse." Gar groggily croaked, staring into the barrel. Of all the rotten luck, now he had to contend with the Sublime Beastar. The Black Devil himself as the denizens of the Back-Alley called him. Gar was running out of options, one more shot from that tranq and he'd be finished. The effects of the sedative on his hardy physique normally wouldn't be as strong, but considering his already battered body, he wasn't in any condition to fight off any more shots. He'd have to think of something to tip the scale in his favor.
On the opposite end of the gun, Yahya cruelly pressed his foot further into the wounded lizard's stomach as he leaned forward to look his weary suspect in the eye. "Tell me what I want to know or the next one goes right between your eyes Scarface." Yahya said, aiming right for the dragon's skull. "What happened here? Why are these people dead?"
The thug shot the horse a determined scowl, one Yahya knew all too well from his former partner. The look didn't suit this criminal's ugly mug at all with his hideous scarring. In fact the horse almost found himself repulsed by it, as if this criminal perverted Gosha's face. It was distracting, infuriating, and unbearable. This scum was an insult to the very image of him.
Suddenly the lizard's features softened, and the scarred reptile responded. "Well, Black Devil. I'll tell you." A grin formed as the reptile began to preach what had to be a practiced manifesto. "This...is the result of your city's neglect for our kind. The culmination of your prejudice. Retribution for the decades of discrimination our kind has had to endure, the reckoning your kind has been long overdue. The-"
"Give it a rest." Yahya sternly said, his eyes rolling as he kicked the dragon square in the ribs causing him to violently cough up blood onto his chest. "I asked, what happened here? Don't you bore me with such nonsense or hypocrisy."
"Hypocrite?" The varanid asked, in surprise before issuing a sinister chuckle. "Are you not a murderer yourself...Black Devil of the Market?" Gar spouted, cocking his scarred face at the horse. "How many lives have you claimed? How many souls have you consumed for your own sense of justice? How many of them, huh? How many actually deserved your justice? How many were innocent ? All sacrificed for your unnatural strength? Hmm?" His yellow eyes narrowed on his face, forcing a pained smile through his anguish. Yahya seemed visibly disturbed, much to the dragon's relish.
"That's right." He said, all of the lizard's sharp dagger-like teeth were perfectly visible as continued to grin in the horse's face. "We know all the dark stories surrounding you Black Devil!" Gar said, easing himself up. "We know what you do up in that castle in the sky. Parading around as some sort of crusader for justice, while people like us are all but forgotten and made suffer because we're considered dangerous. This was all just my way of righting the wrong, making a change. We aren't so differen-urgk" The reptile found himself stomped back to the floor, the horse standing on top of him grinding his foot into his neck.
Yahya's face was twisted into a fierce scowl that made him resemble his infamous namesake, the slender herbivore began glaring death down on the poison lizard as he grind the bottom of his heel into the dragon's throat, cutting off his air supply.
"WE'RE NOT THE SAME!" The horse bellowed, furiously rebuking the reptile's claims. "We-are-not-the-same. We will never, EVER be the same. Don't you DARE compare my methods to this wanton and senseless murder! No amount of discrimination justifies this barbaric savagery committed here! You have killed innocent people. People who had nothing to do with you or your grievances. For what? Your so-called revolution? The sins of others? For justice? What do scum like you know of justice?!" The horse ranted in a tone of low but intense hatred. "I am the Beastar. 'I' protect the citizens of this city from monsters like 'you'. So tell me...how exactly are we the same?" He growled, driving his foot deeper onto the gullet of the dragon.
All he could hear from the lizard were desperate gasps for air. The dragon's emerald scaly face was beginning to turn a bluish tint from the lack of oxygen. Yahya was growing impatient as he waited for his answer.
"Don't be rude. Answer me. Go ahead. Tell me! How are we the same?!" The varanid squirmed helplessly as the horse brought his full weight down, putting him on the verge of passing out. Yahya frowned when he still didn't get his answer. "Oh right, cockroaches like you can't talk when you crush them underfoot." He said lifting up his shoe only a little. "Now. Tell me."
Gar took in a deep gasp. He looked up at the Beastar's sullen expression staring him down. His confident expression has fled, replaced by terror. It was clear, he had succeeded in exhausting the horse's patience.
"I'm waiting, Scarface." The horse demanded cocking back his right foot one more time, preparing to deliver a fatal stomp to his throat if he had to.
"I'll tell you…." The reptile said, all panicked and ready to confess. "Don't worry, I'll tell you…" Suddenly his eyes darted down away from the horse towards his legs. Just as that moment the equine felt the dragon's serpentine like tail wrap and constricted it's way around his left ankle.
"... that you just got played!" Gar shouted much to the horse's surprise, as he mentally made his prehensile tail yank the Beastar's leg out from under him. Next thing Yahya knew, he was hitting the hard floor.
Careless! The horse's mind screamed at himself, as his skull bounced off the hard surface. His mane cushioned some of the impact, but his mind was swimming as he immediately thought to get back up. His eyes opened to see the recovered dragon attempting to pile on top of him, maw open with sharp teeth prepared to bite. The horse only had seconds to react. He brought his legs up and kicked the dragon off, then flipped himself back up with an almost smooth kip up, almost smooth as it was blemished by the sharp pain in his ankle, causing him to stumble.
"Urrgh!" Yahya winced in anguish as he tried to shrug off the ache. However that second was all the dragon needed as he surprised the horse, and slid muscled arms under the herbivore's, putting him into a Full Nelson hold.
"I won't suffer another disgrace here tonight," The dragon declared. "But I will make good on the Back Alley's promise to Black Devil." The reptile growled, opening his sharp and venomous mouth to bite. However the taller Beastar's experience taught him to force his leg behind the dragon, allowing him to stretch the hold. Twisting, the horse reached down and scooped the lizard's legs out from under him.
Briefly lifting his heavy attacker off the ground, both Yahya and Gar fell to the floor, Gar taking the brunt of the impact. In a fury, the horse turned over and began slugging the dragon in the face over and over, beating him into submission. Very soon the lizard was battered, bruised, and unresponsive, which gave Yahya the opportunity to quickly scramble across the floor and retrieve his air pistol. However as soon as he turned around, he saw the dazed but determined poison lizard attempt to pounce on him again. His attacker missed this time, the sedative likely taking its toll.
His opponent's pathetically clawed at the horse, attempting to trip him. The horse casually took a step back out of his range and kept the pistol drawn. "Like I said...you're nothing compared to him." He said referring to his ex-partner. "Now tell me." The horse declared, finger on the trigger getting ready to hit him with another dart. "Or I'll just have to get my answers down at the police station."
Gar forced himself up, groaning as he clutched his sore stomach and face. He only lasted a second on his feet before collapsing back down to the floor. He began violently coughing up blood on the floor, his poison mixed it caused the floor to noticeably sizzle.
"FREEZE! POLICE!" A voice called out. Yahya tilted his head only slightly, keeping his eyes on the criminal. Just behind the dragon in the opening, stood a Mountain Gorilla clad in a city police uniform, service pistol drawn. Gar, himself, turned around to see he was surrounded. A Harrier hound cop soon appeared right behind his partner, drawing on the dragon as well.
"About damn time you guys showed up." Yahya commented, flustered as he kept his weapon leveled on the criminal. He used one hand to lower his mask and reveal that he was the Sublime Beastar. The officers were at relative ease, and looked back to the beaten dragon. "This beast is a suspect for murder and possible terrorism. Arrest him." Yahya ordered.
The gorilla officer nodded and pulled out a set of cuffs while the dog officer covered him. "Show me your hands!" He ordered with a stern voice, slowly approaching the criminal. The exhausted varanid gave the officers a quick glance then turned his gaze back to the Beastar. A look of desperation afflicted the scarred reptile as sweat rolled down his polished scales. He knew his situation was dire. He had guns on both sides, Yahya with the air pistol on one end and the officer with the 9mm on the other. He had barely any options. He decided to comply.
"Alright...I surrender." He said, raising his hands and dropping to the floor slowly. "You win this round, Black Devil. But this isn't over." He took a look at the handcuff
"Watch your mouth, punk." The ape said applying the cuffs.
The horse actually smiled at the criminal. "You're too right, it's not over. I expect to hear you talk down at the station." He cheekily commented, holstering the pistol in his back pocket.
"Stand up." The ape gruffly ordered. "Nice and slow."
"I-I need help." The lizard rasped, his breathing ragged. He stood up only to stumble back to the floor. "As you can see I'm very wounded plus the sedatives...I can barely feel my legs." His gravelly voice protested.
"You're lucky enough we don't just take you out back. Now get up!" The ape said, yanking the dragon up to his feet.
"Where is the force I asked for?" The Beastar asked standing behind the harrier.
The dog turned around swiftly and reported dutifully. "The chief just sent us, sir."
"Just you?" The horse asked incredulously. "Just a patrol car?! Unacceptable." The horse growled, insulted.
"We're kinda stretched thin at the moment, we had reports of an incident in the slums, plus we just received word of a convenience store robbery. Plus, we're still trying to track down that red car you ordered us to."
"Any luck on that by the way?" The horse said, narrowing his eyes at them.
"We lost sight of them in Algema." The ape answered as he pushed the shambling dragon past them.
"Well it was a good thing you were able to hold him off until we got here sir. He ought to make a great witness." The harrier said with a nervous laugh.
Yahya's long face showed no amusement at the news. Yet again, it seemed he would have to get involved in solving this situation himself. Being the Beastar was such tiresome work, especially when the ones he could rely upon were himself and his inner circle.
"Get back up!" The ape shouted, when the dragon seemed to slip and fall while being escorted out. "Get back up or this will be considered resisting arrest."
"I need help damn it!" The dragon croaked, weak and obviously tired. "My legs are like jelly."
Just one sedative had that much of an effect on him? Yahya questioned to himself.
"I got him Kono-san." The canine officer said walking up behind him and grabbing his arms, Yahya drew his pistol just in case. The dog pulled up to his knees and grabbed the dragon under the arms and lifted while the ape followed suit from the front. "Come on lift with your legs!" The gorilla ordered.
"Watch his tail!" The horse frantically ordered, remembering the sly reptile's earlier attempt. But it was too late, the devious lizard played his card, swinging his tail up, striking the canine officer hard in the groin before spinning and whacking the ape in the side of his ribs, knocking him down. Yahya tried to fire, but he couldn't get a clear shot. The ape officer rushed to his feet, only to catch the dragon's knee in his face which floored him.
Finally having a clear shot, Yahya finally fired the loaded sedative, aiming straight for the resisting reptile's exposed neck. The dragon however just swung his tail up in front of him, shielding himself and catching the dart on the very end. The criminal flashed Yahya a cocky smile, knowing the drug would take a while to travel. He gained some distance before reaching the end of his tail behind him, where he detached it, snapping the tail off at the bone. The varanid chuckled as he ran towards the back for freedom, knowing full well that Yahya would have to load another round to fire again. The horse scrambled after the fleeing lizard, fiddling with his ammo belt as the recovered officers followed right behind, hot on his heels.
Gar made it to the back door entrance, when he turned and taunted the trio. "You wanted me to surrender? Isn't that right?!" He croaked, squeezing his squirming tail.
Yahya's large ears began picking a faint beeping noise as the grinning dragon looked towards his pursuers.
"How about I just surrender my tail!" He shouted, dropping the tail behind him and making a break for it through the alleyway. Yahya, remembering the bomb on the first dragon corpse, had to make a choice. Chase him or save these men's lives. He chose their lives.
"Get down!" The horse shouted, tackling both the officers to safety in the nearby manager's office. Seconds later the explosive detonated mere feet away, rocking the building and taking a large portion of it down, burying the Yahya and the officers under a heap of concrete and rubble.
Saturday 1:26 AM - Crystal Mansion (what's left of it)
Yahya felt smothered as he groggily awoke to the loud droning of work equipment and machinery. Smothered...that wasn't inaccurate, as he felt a large weight crushing him. It was dark, completely black, and he couldn't move. Last thing he remembered was the Dokugumi throwing what had to be an improvised grenade and grabbing the officers. The building must have collapsed. He was trapped. Before panic could sit in, the horse's ears picked up voices. There was urgency in them. They might be looking for me, he thought. He tried to shout and get their attention.
"Over here!" He shouted, desperately picking up a nearby loose brick to beat against the collapsed wall. Maybe they'd hear that. "Over here!" He called out again. He could hear the voices get more excited and began to get louder, closer. Very soon the largest piece of brick started to heave, then in no time at all it was lifted away. Then the horse was met with a very blinding bright light, before the face of a friendly Kodiak bear firefighter eclipsed above him. The ursine was courteous enough to tuck his fangs in once he saw he was looking upon a herbivore, then he effortlessly tossed the chunk of brick away and leaned down into the hole to see if there was anyway to free the Beastar.
"Over here! He got another live one. I found him!" The bear shouted. "Keep calm sir, we'll have you out in a jiffy." He reassured the horse. "Bring the saw!" Other animals began to crowd followed by the near deafening sound of the buzzsaw cutting through concrete and rebar.
A half hour later - Parking Lot
Yahya sat in the back of the ambulance, sipping hot coffee while the EMTs were still patching up his wounds, luckily nothing was broken outside of his pride. At best he had a few bruises and his leg was going to smart for a good month, but he was relatively fine. Sure he could have gone to the hospital, but he was adamant about the crime scene being flipped upside….what was left of it that is. The building was already in bad shape when he arrived, the bomb didn't do favors. Most of the bodies were recovered from the wreckage, relatively intact, but the building falling apart would make recreating the crime scene difficult, they'd be working off his findings mostly.
The officers he shielded made it, thanks to his quick thinking, the gorilla getting away the most unscathed. He was the first to wake up and was able to call in for help with his radio. The harrier hound officer had taken a rebar pipe through the shoulder and suffered some bruised ribs, but again it's likely he'd make it. All in all, Yahya felt he had made the right choice. Had he went after the crook, both of those men would be dead. Then he'd truly be a hypocrite. Still, that monster on the loose did not sit well with him. He wanted him found.
As he sat there fuming, the Chief of the Metropolitan Police approached him, Darth he believed his name was.
"Thank God we came when we did." He said, smiling with a face of relief as Yahya began offering the horse his gloved hand, and yanked him to his feet. "Thought we lost the Beastar for a second."
"It wouldn't have happened if you had sent more people like I asked, Chief." The horse said being frank as he sipped his coffee. "A criminal that dangerous, I needed at least 4 beasts to properly restrain him."
The hound took a huge gulp, but offered an apology. "Well, yes. I am most sorry. However we are stretched too thin this week. We just had a major incident at a local drugstore and we recently received word of another crime scene involving a group of squatters that were found murdered, those cases simply came in first and took priority."
"Priority, Chief?" The horse asked, scowling and snorting air from his snout. "My call isn't a priority?"
"Well…you see... Yahya-sama." The hound nervously blustered. "We had an attempted predation involving two Komodo dragon criminals and CSI found their kind of venom on the scene at a massacre not far from the crime scene. A group of homeless squatters were found murdered and ripped apart in an alleyway."
"Komodos?" Yahya asked, cocking his head. His interest was piqued.
"Yes, Yahya-sama." The dog said kowtowing.
The horse stroked his chin while he thought out loud. "Maybe it's best you did investigate that then. These might be related. Did you capture the suspects at the store?"
The dog blinked before adjusting his collar. "Um, no. Not exactly."
The Arabian horse groaned and slapped his scalp in annoyance. "Of course, there appears to be a special on "Get out of Jail" cards for Komodo Dragons tonight."
"No, Yahya-sama...you don't understand. The criminals... are dead ."
"Dead?" The horse's large brown eyes darted toward the hound, a look of utter annoyance on his face. "Great, just great. I wanted someone to interrogate, Chief. They might have known something about our unidentified suspect."
"It couldn't be helped!" The dog barked at him. "I'm sorry."
"Would be my luck if they were gunned down resisting arrest." The horse darkly joked.
"Ahem. Well, that's not what happened." The dog clarified. "The persons of interest were deceased when we arrived at the call."
The horse slowly turned towards the dog intrigued. "Explain." He said calmly sipping his coffee.
"The witnesses at the store, a store clerk and a vagrant were able to deal with them . The report states they had help from an unidentified vigilante of the Canidae species."
"Well let's have it." The horse said, impatiently holding out his hand. "Do you have the report for me to read or am I going to have to wait?"
"Sergeant Shion!" The chief called out. "Front and center." A carnivore officer broke from the pack of officers picking apart the crime scene and posted herself next to the chief. The officer was a tall and fit female Snow Leopard. A typical beat cop from Yahya could see, early 30s most likely. She seemed to have a chipper but arrogant look about her, something typical with cats.
"Sir." She said, as she saluted the chief. Her fur spiked in surprise as she turned to face the Sublime Beastar. Her face blushed as she looked upon the horse. A bit of celebrity worship, that just annoyed Yahya. A very loud slurp of his coffee and a clearly unamused grimace got the message across however. The spotted cat quickly snapped to attention and rendered a salute to him as well.
"This is Sergeant Shion, she responded to the incident at the drugstore and interviewed the witnesses. Sergeant tell the Beastar what you found at the incident a few hours ago, the Drugstore." Darth ordered.
"Right," she said, promptly obliging and taking out her notepad. "Location: YashiAid Convience on Gilgo Street. Crime: Attempted predation. Two fatalities, and some extensive property damage. Justifiable Homicide. Species, Varanus Komodoensis. Height 6 ft 9 in between the deceased, weight nearly 317 pounds each. Suspected affiliation: Dokugumi."
"Who were the perps?" The Beastar requested. "I'd like to know who these people are exactly. They don't seem like the typical Back-Alley Market crooks."
The leopardess made a quick run through her notes. "Our findings suggest two individuals, a Yazhn and Bantu. Residents of Plague City in the Dark Zone. We found a motorbike parked out front of the store and ran the plates. It's licensed to Yazhn. Given the state of the burnt body we found we had doubts, but we're pretty sure it's him.
"How are you sure?" The horse said, folding his arms.
"The second body is what tipped, our criminal records show he has an older brother. Bantu. The second body all but confirmed it was him." The big cat said, letting a hint of cocky sass infect her voice. "See because Yazhn's record's show that his sibling, Male, age 21, has a rare case of melanism, y'know black skin or scales. The cadaver we found...or what's left of it had scales blacker than the ace of spades. No mistake, it's the older brother."
"So these two brothers were attempting to predate some poor animals in the drugstore?"
"That's right sir." She said nodding. "Bastards got what they deserved."
"Where are the bodies currently?"
"On the meatwa-" The cat stopped herself, mentioning meat in front of herbivores was incredibly rude and just slipped out. "Um, they're on their way to the morgue for further analysis."
"Well, I know where I'm heading to next," the horse said, hopping off the end of the cabin. As soon his feet hit the ground his sore ankle ached like nobody's business, and his very visible discomfort caught the eyes of the Chief and the Sergeant.
The shorter dog tried to talk him out of moving any further. "Yahya-sama, I believe you need to rest. Leave the investigation to the police."
"Like you how you lost the car I called in. No thanks. I'm going to get to the bottom of this personally. I'm heading to the morgue." He looked and addressed the snow leopard. "Sergeant, can you give me files on the witnesses at the drugstore?"
"Well we only have the name and record of one. The store clerk. The other was a vagrant from the dark zone, who only gave what we can assume is an alias." The leopard said, scratching behind her thick neck, unsure how to really explain the circumstances. "We have no solid information on the third participant."
"Yahya just sighed. "Okay, just tell me all that you know. Spare no detail."
"The one we have on file is Matilda, species Lincoln sheep, Female age 22, No criminal record. The second identified as "Kyuu or Ku", species assumed Holland rabbit, Female age assumed early twenties. No record. And the unidentified individual assumed to be a canine. Age and gender, all unknown. The sheep just mentioned they were a canine."
Yahya just stared at the snow cat, mouth slightly ajar as he took in the surprising information. "Okay, I think I might need to go to the hospital after all, my hearing must have ruptured or something from the explosion. Sounded like you said two small animals defended themselves against two Komodo dragons?"
"I-I did sir." Shion said, trying hard to make the implausible situation she described less so. "That's who we found at the crime scene. They were really fortunate considering the circumstances. The rabbit was carrying concealed weapons for self-defense, and the sheep's account states the other individual was also carrying bladed weapons."
"How?" He asked incredulously.
"From their account, they got really lucky and used certain tactics to shift the odds." The leopard said in a matter-of-fact way. "The sheep said the rabbit and the vigilante did most of the work. They ambushed one of them and chopped him up pretty bad and they somehow burned the other one to death. I didn't believe it myself when I saw it, but the bodies don't lie. The rabbit's from the dark zone, so it's not too much of a surprise that she has some means of defense. But we're really banking on the unidentified vigilante that stepped in. Another Carnivore who sought to do right, just like that Gray wolf a few months ago with the Blood Bone dealers."
The horse, rolled his eyes at the mention of Gosha's grandson. He still was intrigued by this turn of events. "You keep mentioning the Dark Zone. You mean the Back Alley Market?" The narrow faced horse muttered, scratching under his chin.
"Oh, yes sir." The cat said caught off guard. "I didn't want to insul-"
The horse raised his hand and sighed. "It is alright, Sergeant. I don't care about proper etiquette at this time, I just want all the pertinent information."
Of course the Back-Alley, he thought, that dark blot the bureaucrats on the council ignore to placate the carnivores of the city, all to keep the herbivore population oblivious to their true urges. Gangs like these savages flourished in that lawless cesspit unless he occasionally intervenes from time to time.
The cat bit her lip, as she nodded to the Beastar. "Yes, we don't really have any information. We don't have much in terms of records of most of the people that live in the dark zone, only those with criminal records. It also didn't help the store's surveillance has been in disrepair for quite some time from what the owner told me."
Yahya seemed to take a moment to process all of this before wearily looking the cat in the eyes. "Sergeant, I want you to investigate this more thoroughly and bring me any leads you find. Anything. Talk to this sheep again, get all the information you can from her. And try to track down this rabbit."
"Yes sir." The leopardess said, snapping to attention as she saluted the horse and tipped her cap.
"Chief, try to identify the bodies here, I want to know their names, their affiliation, family connections, even their favorite udon shop." The horse said, beginning to pace back and forth, as if piecing together some big riddle.
Darth just watched him silently.
"This is probably going to need a larger investigation, but there seems to be a pattern. Tonight's been pretty busy. First we have this massacre, then another you say not far from here, and then the drugstore incident. All involving the Dokugumi or people affiliated with them. I want answers, Chief, and I want them in my annual report tomorrow."
"Yes Yahya-sama." The dog said, saluting the horse.
"Also thank the EMTs for me. This coffee was splendid for such short notice." The horse said, handing him the empty mug.