Mist shrouded the inside of Nana's maid café and mystified the tables, chairs, cupboards and even the doors that led to the cellar and back room. Roxie and April were wide awake. Cooro, Nana, and Kazu were all chasing after the biker gang that kidnapped Canary—it was a race to the finish.
" Those punks!" Roxie shouted with an heretical wicked smile spread across her face. " They got LUCKY! Just wait until they get a piece of ME!" Roxie used her pinky fingers, index fingers and stuck her tongue out as she spread both fingers by the jaws of her mouth and whistled.
From the backroom Roxie's faithful masters' pet Chibi appeared. Chibi was a dragon, small, white scaled, small snot that couldn't breathe fire, two small horns protruding from its head, small wings on its back, and grey eyes that had a hint of flare in them. The small dragon flew over to Roxie and perched on her right shoulder.
" Chibi, transform!" Chibi flew off Roxie's shoulders and went out the entrance/exit. Chibi had to rest on the ground, went to the road and planted its feet firmly on the ground. No sooner did Chibi's feet touch the ground, its body became veiled in luminous, sparkly white light.
" Woah!" April awed behind Roxie as she poked her head through her right shoulder. " Your pet can glow?"
" Of course he can. But it's kind of lame."
" What do you mean?"
The veil of light around Chibi's body soon faded and in his place there was a jeep. A metallic jeep, a verdurous green color, four cylindrical poles sticking from the hinges near the sides, four-seated, sand steam exploiting out of one cylinder at the front of the jeep.
Roxie ran up to the jeep and jumped into the driver's seat. Before leaving, she did her own farewell by closer her right eye and sticking her tongue out." Ciao, losers!"
" Wait, I'm coming with you!" April shouted just as her and her dog Komatsu jumped into the passenger's seat. Roxie gave April an evil eye, both her eyes turning red and serrated her teeth, but even she didn't have time to dwell with April.
" Fine! But you better hold on tight." Roxie felt a thump in her rump as she started the engine, flipped the switches in the control shaft, then adjusted her rear-view mirror, smiled. " I like to go fast."
The jeep took off. In high gear, gas exhausted out of the jeeps exhaustion pipe, and the jeep vroomed away from the maid's café. Roxie, hotheaded as she was, smiled and stuck her hand out as it dangled out of the jeeps window.
" Look out, Canary, here I come."
XXX
Cooro jogged his hardest through the streets of Rudy Gloss City. Using his mind, wearing Gale-Force reading glasses, using a green light pen in his hands, Cooro made a map out of thing air and moved at an incredible speed. After writing, jogging for three minutes straight, Cooro made a map of the entire city with his photographic memory.
" Let's see…I'm here…" Cooro pointed the tip of his pen near the far outskirts of the map illustrated in his projection. " And I need to go….here…" Cooro pointed his pen in the center of the projection. " It'll only take me… Uggh!"
Cooro couldn't stand the throe from his running anymore. Cooro collapsed on the road and heaved out air from his windpipe. The sound of Cooro's voice was hoarse, like an elderly man dying of a stroke; he shuddered at the tingling feeling inside his gulch.
" I'm so out of shape," Cooro thought reminiscing about his past. " I can't stop that lardy. But I can't just let that greedy gut win. That would look so uncool on my resume—I let myself be robbed by bikers."
" Out of the way, slowpoke!" Cooro heard the cackling sound of Roxie laughing, and he heard an engine vrooming past him. Cooro looked up to see Roxie driving Chibi her portable transforming dragon, then he saw April and her dog Komatsu sitting in the back. April waved to Cooro and smiled as Roxie's jeep drove past them.
" What the hell was that? Stupid girls. Didn't even ask if I needed a 'lift'."
XXX
Canary protected herself with a sutra, one Nana used in her taboo magic, it created a veil of blue light that acted as a force field from the bikers prying hands. They all sat in the back, driving somewhere Canary had no idea where, protected from the molesting hands of the gawking bikers.
" Hey, fess up, why can't we touch you, girl?" One of the bikers said in a tyrant voice.
" It's because of my friend Nana," Canary smirked. " Before we came up with our café shop, Nana feared people like you would want to get their hands on us. So Nana lent us one sutra where we could depend ourselves with it. Fortunately, our customers are not the perverts we thought they'd be and we avoided any conflict."
" That still doesn't explain how we can't touch you, girl," the other biker in the back said.
" That's because it's the taboo I've written. I wrote Violence on my sutra. So, if any of you try to act violent, punching, hitting, or grabbing me, my taboo will stop you."
" Ha, what a cliché," the lard leader of the bikers laughed in the front of the wheel. " Fight us all you want, but eventually we'll have that thing off you and have our way with you. Haha." Lurking, creeping from the shadows, and jumping from building to building was the assassin of the biker gang.
The assassin then leaped off the buildings and landed on the hood of the jeep. The assassin was what people would believe to be tall, with high cheekbones, grey eyes and long wavy brown hair. He wore a straw hat on his waist were two large daggers.
" I have reports of two people that are following you as we speak. I yearn to use my blades again. Do I have permission to use them, sir?"
" Do as you please, Arsnik. Just be sure to bring me back each of those stalkers heads. I'll add them too my mantel. Hahahaha."
" Right away, sir."
In a flash, Arsnik disappeared into the shadows. As he was gone, the lard man who was in charge of the wheel took out a small wooden pipe and smoked it with ease. " I'm going to be sleeping good tonight."
XXX
Roxie vroomed through the roads of Rudy Gloss City. In the back, Roxie could make out the jittery sound of laughing coming from April's mouth. As Roxie heard April laugh, she couldn't help but laugh herself.
" Oh yeah, this is the life. I've been coped up in that café shop all day. I deserve time out of the shop." Roxie made a turn on the curve of the street, laughed. On the dashboard, a small gauge with a yellow blinker flashed. The sound of the blinker was titillating, gave Roxie a rush, and made her want to jump out of her seat.
Everything changed in an instant. Lurking in the shadows, stalking both Roxie and April, the blur of green cloth appeared. Roxie feared the blur, saw in it the metallic silver metal of a blade, gasped. " Chibi, transform!"
Roxie knew she didn't have long. With great speed, Roxie jumped out of the rear-view window and grabbed both April and her dog Komatsu and jumped off Chibi as he was shrouded in smoke. Chibi then transformed into her small, petite white dragon form and flew above Roxie and April's heads.
Roxie tried standing up and " Good, now that we're safe we can…" Roxie tried standing up, but her knees broke under the pressure. Roxie had cut her knees, she would call it a spasm, blood dripped out of her knees and spilled on the ground. " A-a-a-a-ah!" Roxie tried a second time to stand, but just collapsed from the pressure. " Ack!"
" Stop trying to stand!" April shouted as she kept Roxie from falling by keeping her hands wrapped around her waist. " You'll only hurt yourself trying to stand. Please try to relax and stay where you are."
" Sorry, but violence is my forte," Roxie smirked still shaking on the ground. " You think I'm going to listen to what a snot-nosed kid like you has to say? Phbbt." Roxie stuck her tongue out and did a raspberry, then moved it back into her mouth and licked her teeth with it.
" Aren't you at least worried about your injury?"
" This is nothing but a scratch. I've endured far worse than this." Roxie then smiled. Feeling pain circulating through her legs, numbed in her femurs biceps and trickling blood out of her leg, and stood up while rubbing her legs. " Besides, what's the point of fighting if you can't stand a little pain."
"How insightful," a male voice said behind. "This is the type of woman I'd like to kill."
From the shadows lurked an assassin from the lard man's clan. The man appeared before Roxie and April from the depths of the shadows. He looked strong and bold, healthy compared to April and Roxie's wringled states; they just escaped from a car wreck.
In the assassins hands were two large knifes made of stone-cutter black rocks that glimmered in the light. With quick hand movements, speed neither Roxie nor April could compare too, the assassin spinned his daggers around with incredible movement.
" Who the heck are you, punk?" Roxie said, her face was grim and covered in scratch marks from the wreckage.
" I am Arsnik. I am an assassin of my great leader. And I'm on the verge of killing you!"
" Oh really," Roxie said smiling snidely. " Why don't you put a little more umf into it."
" Didn't you hear me? I'm going to kill you, cut your heads off, and give them to my leader so he can place it on his mantel."
" Really? Is your leader the same lard man that attacked the maid shop?"
" No, sorry, but he is just an errand boy. Are real leader is nothing like that pseudo. And I'm here to take your heads to my master, my real master; one that doesn't show his face to commoners, and will deliver both your heads as gifts too him."
Both April and Roxie were frozen—their legs pinned down like giant ice cubes were crushing on them—they couldn't move one step. Chibi however was free to move and flew in the sky above April and Roxie.
" Ooh!" Roxie sniggered as she pointed her hand up at Chibi and laughed. " Your dragon can fight him. Dragons can breathe fire; maybe we can use your fire-breathing dragon?"
" Moron," Roxie replied. " My Chibi can't breathe fire."
" Huh? B-but I thought all dragons could breathe flames?"
" Not my Chibi, The only thing Chibi can do is fly and transform into a jeep. That's what I meant when I called him 'lame'. He's not some big shot dragon like those biggies. He's a garden variety dragon who's egg I got from a pet shop in Fiore."
" Now that you say it like that, that does sound kind of lame." April then smiled as Komatsu sauntered over to her while wagging its tail. " But that's okay. My Komatsu's a whole other story. Komatsu, transform."
Komatsu jumped in the air. Komatsu's body then became covered in a veil a luminous, sparky white light. Unlike the light of Chibi, Komatu's light was more exotic and had multiple white specs of light sparkling around his body. Arsnik, Roxie, and even Chibi were all enticed by the mesmerizing light radiating from Komatsu's body—too them it was like a swarm of fireflies were grouped together and were soothing the atmosphere around them.
From the veil came a giant scythe. Unlike most scythe's with one blade, the tip of it had four blades instead of two, made of charcoal black alloy, and a crimson red emblem of a dog underneath the tip. April grabbed the scythe, Komatsu, by the hilt and spinned it around in a spiral.
" Y-y-y-you have a…animal that can transform too?" Roxie asked as she gawked at April.
" Yep. How do you like him?" Roxie spinned her scythe around more times as she beamed a smile at Roxie. " And he can do this." Komatsu's shape, size started too mold, it elongated into a double-edged sword. April with great strength raised the 2 ton sword and held it over her head with one arm. " Pretty neat, right?"
" It makes no difference to me," Arsnik said as he raised both his daggers up. " Soon both of you are going to be KIA."
" Really?" April asked, her mouth salivated with drool and her eyes fixed on Arsnik. " That sounds like something delicious. What type of food is KIA?"
" It's not a food, moron," Roxie retorted, her voice sounded raucous. " KIA is actually a code. It is short for Killed In Action."
" Huh? Oh. So…he's going to kill us."
" You; yes. Me; I'm getting as far away from you as possible."
" Enough talk! I will have your heads!"
Arsnik dashed towards April with his two blades held out. As he closed in on April, she somersaulted away from him. In the air, April attempted to slam her giant scythe, but he cross-guarded before impact. Both April and Arsnik's weapons clashed together, sparks rubbed off, then both April and Arsnik pushed back.
Arsnik smiled as he dropped both his daggers on the ground and they stuck into the ground. " Looks like these won't be any good against you."
" So your giving up?" April asked, her eyes were twinkling like yellow stars and her mouth was agape.
" Of course not. I just need to try a different weapon. Weapon conjuration that is." From a giant hole, leading straight into an abyss, a spirit world where weapons were stored, Arsnik pulled out a hammer. Unlike most garden variety hammers used for bashing in nails, the hammer in his hand had a long hilt, had a quadrilateral shape, spikes protruding from the sides, and made of gold ingot.
" I'd move out of the way if I were you, kid," Roxie said in a casual tone. " That thing looks like it can really squash you."
" It can do more than just that." As Arsnik smiled, the metal on the tip of his hammer burned with flames. The magnitude of the flames debilitated both Roxie and April, it suddenly became hot, and their bodies began to sweat. Because of Roxie wearing black, which was a travesty too sunlight, she was the most hot and dehydrated of both of them; she couldn't move because of heat exhaustion.
" No, I'm not going down…like a coward." Roxie growled her serrated teeth and ripped her maid clothes off. Underneath her cosplay, a blue sports bra and slim blue jeans with chains coming out both ends. From her pockets, two blue revolvers sticked out. Roxie reached for her guns, making sure she rubbed the trigger, then pulled both pistols out. " Time to die, you stupid pu—"
WHACK!
From behind, April banged Roxie in the back of her head with the hilt of her sword/Komatsu. After being hit, Roxie stood back up and pointed her revolvers at April, growled. " Hey, why'd you hit me, you stupid brat?"
" Because this is my fight. It's my fight, so you better butt out."
" Hey, brat, who do you think you are? I brought you here, so I should be the one who gets to fight."
" No way. I get to fight because you're in no condition to fight."
" No condition? Who do you think you're talking too? I am—
Everything April and Roxie argued about became a blur too Arsnik. All he saw was Roxie gnarring her serrated teeth, April flailing with her sword in her hands, as they were both in an angry dispute. A tick of sweat dripped from Arsnik's head as he was disturbed seeing them fight.
" These sure are a bunch of strange girls."
"Well I'm fighting him, so you can just butt out!"
WHACK!
April banged Roxie with the hilt of her sword. A small gash appeared on Roxie's head, she fell down, then April dashed towards Arsnik with her large sword. April did the first blow, thrusted her sword at Arsnik's torso, but Arsnik blocked with the metal flames of his hammer.
" Nice try, girl," Arsnik smirked as he and April clashed " The vibe of that blow sounded intense. You're quite strong, for a girl I mean. But you're still not a match for me!" The flames intensity, stability, and potency erupted in flames. The tip of the hammer than came crashing down as giant flames burned out. " Hammer Eruption!"
The flames charred April's skin. April endured the pain with great fortitude, but the layers of her skin turned black from the flames touching her skin. As she was scabbed, blood dripping from her wounds, Arsnik walloped her with her legs and pushed her aback.
As she was down, Komatsu transformed back into his dog form and tried comforting his master. His wet tongue licked April, then he nuzzled her face with his nose, but April could only gasp softly through her turmoil. April could only weakly smile and pet Komatsu's head.
" There, there, everything's going to be okay, Komatsu. Everything's going to be alright. I promise you…we'll get out of this."
" How cute," Arsnik scoffed rubbing his straw hat. Arsnik then took his straw hat off, and then small knife blades appeared out of his straw hat. " I hate cute! Now die!"
Arsnik threw his straw hat aimed at April. The blade moved fast, the spinning blades rotating at an incredible speed, heading straight for April with the intent on killing her. However, as everything seemed bleak for April, gasping in her last breath, Komatsu courageously jumped up and let the blade strike his sides.
" Rrrowrr!" Komatsu yelped after being striked. Both April and Komatsu both laid besides each other, bleeding, gasping, and could only watch as Arsnik the assassin walked up to them with his hammer by his sides. Once he reached April and Komatsu however, he raised his hammer over and his and prepared to strike the, smiled.
" Kudos on your dog for protecting its master, girl. But I'm still going to have to kill you. It's nothing personal. It's just good busine—"
BANG!
From the cylinders of Roxie's blue guns bullets were fired. Unlike ordinary bullets policemen used, Roxie's bullets emitted an emission of white light that blinded anyone in its path, and stung like a hornet too anyone it hit. The light blinded Arsnik and made him grovel on the ground.
Roxie was immune to the light, wearing a pair of black sunglasses, and she walked up to April and kicked her by her side. " Wake up, punk!" No remorse for the scabs on April, no sympathy for her pain, she raised her gun and fired it at April. Unlike her last bullet, the bullet emitting from Roxie's gun glowed pink. It was actually a healer, her virtual, vitality; everything in her body was restored by Roxie's bullet alone. Roxie's whole body became covered in a veil of pink light, then a large pink heart glowed out of her chest. Everything in Roxie's body, her scabs, her burns, even her blood all vanished from her body and her injuries were sustained.
" Hey, wake up!" Roxie shouted poking her revolvers at April. " You better not be dead, you brat! You owe me big for whacking me!"
April's eyes dilated and squinted—she was just recovering from her injuries. The first thing she saw waking up was the hotheaded face of Roxie glaring down at him. " Ehm, did I sleep too long?"
" You slept long enough! You're lucky I'm a healer otherwise you'd be dead!" Roxie spinned both her revolvers at April, demonstrating her skills, then placed them back into her holster. " Check'em." Took out her revolver from her left and flashed it to April. " This one is for healing." April placed her left holster back into her holster and took the right one out. " And this one can blow anything to kingdom come. Don't ever make me use it on you."
" Well, it's all fair in love&war, but I'm still taking off your heads," Arsnik said snidely as he walked towards April and Roxie. " Is there any one of you who's manly enough to face me, girls. You little girly-girls."
" Yeah, I'm going to blow your—"
" No, this is my fight!" April shouted, using all the strength in her femur to stand up. " I-I-I must fight!" April's body may've healed, but she felt pain in her legs as she trembled and nearly fell down. " Ack!"
" Moron! Just stay down! There's nothing you can do, so just stop making a full of himself!"
" No! I'm a member of Fairy Tail! What would I be to my guild if I just gave up?" April's legs were all wobbly and she still had trouble staying up, but her dog Komatsu aided her by leaning against her side. " I swear, too you, too Komatsu, too all my friends in Fairy Tail, I will not lose."
" Enough of this! Time to taste the grass, girl! Prepare to eat my steel!" Arsnik threw his straw hat towards April. As the straw hat spun at an incredible rate, small spikes protruded from the sides as it came closer towards April. However, as the straw hat came towards April, she caught it with her arms. The spikes pierced through her skin, small blood dripping from her hands, and April smiling while holding it.
" Ooh, nice move there, girl," Roxie smirked, laughed. " What are you going to do with that petty straw hat?"
" What do you think?" April smirked placing the straw hat on her head. " I'm going to use it."
April punched her hands together. As she did, a giant gray circle with a dragon's head glowed out of her hands and a giant roar came out of it. From the circle, a wave of ominous energy came out. From the straw hat, the spikes flew out and landed in her hands.
" No, it can't be…" Arsnik gasped backing away from April. " She's a metal bender? No, not that. Anything other than that!"
Komatsu transformed back into his four-bladed scythe in a puff of pink smoke. April was able to bend the metal—literally bend it so the points flipped down, and she joined each sections of the metal with Komatsu –his size and bulk both increased.
From a scythe, April's weapon became a different weapon, and one neither Arsnik nor Roxie had seen before; it was a weapon created from the figment of April's imagination. A gauntlet was appeasing enough to say, made from the metals of Komatsu's and Arsnik's weapons, with a bulk of three tons, and four marbled grey metals on its fingers.
April, still wearing the straw hat she took from Arsnik; no metal whatsoever inside, smiled. " Now, what was that I heard about us 'girls'?"
" Grrrrr. This isn't over yet, girl! I'll-have-your-head!"
Arsnik tromped on the ground heading for the little 'girl' known as April. With a gleam smile on her face, her hands crossed, April awaited Arsnik attacking with ease. However, right when Arsnik's hammer would crush her, April caught it with her bare hands.
" Sorry, but I rule all metal. And this cheap hammer of yours is no exception." Arsnik's hammer began to bend and curve. It joined with April's metal, bending in, it stretched and elongated into a deformed metal cane. " Man, your metal's rarity is so weak. What, is it made of titanium or something? So weak."
" Ahhhhhh!" Arsnik shouted. All his metal was sucked in by April and he was defenceless. With his only hope, he ran too where his two daggers were planted and pried them out. Crossing them, attempting to guard himself, Arsnik continued backing away with both daggers in his hand. " Stay back, you insolent, noisy, stupid, gir—"
A long branch of metal shot out and walloped Arsnik in his face. His face was fractured, blood oozing from his cheeks, and he was pushed down. The blow from April's attack made Arsnik's vision go blurry. Just before he was about to pass out, Arsnik saw a pair of long legs—or what looked like legs in his blurry vision—they stood before him.
" So, Mr. Assassin…" a female's voice echoed inside Arsnik's head in his brief moments of consciousness. " How does it feel to get your butt kicked by a insolent-noisy-stupid-girl?"
" Acccccccccckkkkk…"
Arsnik's eyes closed and he collapsed on the ground; unconscious. As he was down, the sound of Roxie laughing was heard.
" I wanted to test out my new guns on him," Roxie laughed stroking her holster with a gun, then smacked it. " But I guess watching a brat like you mop the floor with him will suffice. "
" Yeah!" The metal in April's hands disappeared in a cloud of smoke as her dog Komatsu appeared. Komatsu was grabbed by April and he had licked her face while being held. April laughed at the smooth, wet tongue of Komatsu. " You were amazing, boy."
" Rowf ,Rowf!" Komatsu barked happily while he wagged his tail.
" Who's a good transforming dog? Yes you are. Yes you are. Yes you ar—"
" Sorry to intertwine with your 'special' moment, brat, but maybe we should—hey, Cooro, what are you doing?"
Standing before Roxie and April was the frowning face of Cooro and Chibi who was sitting on Cooro's hands. Chibi was happy, nuzzled its face to Cooro too show its affection, and Cooro repaid it grooming its face with his elegant hands.
" Hey, what are you doing with my precious Chibi, Cooro, you brat!"
" Don't mind if I take your jeep, do you, Roxie?"Cooro said in a casual yet stern voice.
" Ha, stupid. You can't do that. Only people with mutual bonds with their pets can control them."
" Correct. But if I recall, Roxie, wasn't I the only who found Chibi's egg? And wasn't it me who hatched it without you or anyone else's help? And do I even too this day pamper Chibi with toys and treats an hour a day while you just snooze next to him to sleep?"
" So? Doesn't mean you can—"
" Chibi, transform!"
Chibi transformed back into its jeep form. The color of his jeep was different, the colour was blandly yellow, and it had four cylinders sticking out and eight headlights. Cooro smiled and jumped into the jeep, waving his hands to the crowd. " Next time think twice before leaving someone behind. Ciao, suckers!"
Smoke came out of the jeeps exhaustion pipe as Cooro drived away. Roxie growled as Cooro departed and raised his revolvers at her jeep, but stopped after seeing her friend was with him. " Dang it! If I ever see Cooro again, I'll skin him arrive like a roast pheasant, boil him over, and eat him alive!"
" That sounds like fun!" April laughed holding Komatsu in his hands. " Hahahahaha!"