Meeting Comrades

"So after the job, I was thinking of staying around the town for a little fun, you know, find a little lady to hang around. Unfortunately, the only little lady I met was cold and skull-hearted. I had to split before I got ripped limb by limb."

The two hosts and the two Medici muscles were in a limo on the way to Little Innsmouth where both their targets were. Francis, who now changed out of his suit into a tight shirt with long sleeves and black-and-white striped pattern with a rose attached to the left chest area, was wrapping up his story. "To think, both our targets are in the same area."

"Good thing, it would take too long for me to get there myself." Walker had his feet up on the table in the limo.

"Yeah, it's also a great relief on me." Stalker spoke "I don't have to carry this heavy piece of-AH, WHAT THE HELL?!" Walker poured his drink all over Stalker's eye.

"You know, considering all the abuse you give him, I still wonder how he's not blind yet."

Walker poured more wine into his glass "Don't know, and to be honest, don't care."

A groan was the heard to the back left side of the limo where Filia sat "Samson, I think you've had enough." Samson hasn't stopped drinking and the drunken feeling has started to reach Filia.

"No-*hic*-way! There's way too many good stuff here, and I ain't plannin' on stopin'!"

Stalker, who recovered from the drink, sighed "Need help?" Filia nodded in response. Stalker grabbed the bottle from Samson, much to his protest, and stretched him really high and smashed the bottle against him, leading to Samson being knocked out.

"Thanks. My hair's wet but at least he'll stop."

Stalker waved his tentacles "No problem. I actually wanted to do something like that to him."

"Still got a grudge?" Walker stated before drinking from his glass again.

"Just because we're working with them doesn't mean I have to start liking him."

"Grudge?" Cerebella asked.

"It's a long story."

"Speaking of stories, I was wondering, how do you two know each other?" Cerebella asked referring to Walker and Francis.

Francis started to go French again "Well you see Madame-" He then received death glares from Walker, Stalker, and Cerebella, as well as Vice-Versa. "Fine, fine. Killjoys." He muttered the last part "Anyway, it's a tale of a gentleman who saved an idiot's life."

Walker scoffed "I thought we went over this, Stretch, I'm the one who saved your prissy little ass."

Francis chuckled "Did you get hit hard in the head or somethin', I'm the one who saved your idiotic behind."

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm right, Ms Sissy Pants."

"Nah, it's the other way around, Numb Skull."

"They would've gunned you and your suit down if it weren't for me, or is the cologne getting to your head?"

"Nice try, but you and Stalker would be dead if it weren't for ME. Stop thinking with your fists and you'll remember."

"Guys!" Cerebella shouted "All I get is that one would be dead if it weren't for the other. What I don't get is what would've killed you."

"Three words," Francis said as he lifted three of his fingers "New Meridian Bank."

Cerebella still looked confused, as well as Filia. The latter asked "Umm, what does the bank have to do with it?"

Walker scoffed "Isn't it obvious? That's where we met."

"Yeah, but I still don't get how." Cerebella crossed her arms.

"You need all the details don't you, honey?" Francis' response was a blade coming out of her heels which was inches away from his neck "That was a joke."

Walker continued "Me and the gang were still unknown at the time, and we wanted our own wanted posters-Shut up Stalker." Stalker lowered his raised tentacle "We thought it was gonna be a walk in the park, except we were walking into the dangerous part of the park."

Francis spoke up "Me and some of the Medici men went there to ensure that we owned the bank and we thought the exact same thing." He tipped his hat forward, casting a shadow on his face "But apparently, they called in some heavy stuff to defend themselves."

Walker picked up from where Francis left off "But it seemed they didn't think we were gonna cooperate." He gave off an evil smile "They never stood a chance either way."

Filia asked, "What happened to them?"

Now it was Francis that was giving the smile "Well, the customers weren't there for their safety and we injured the majority of their security. As for the guy," He gave a scoff "I broke him, from head to toe."

Filia looked a bit disturbed and Cerebella stared at Francis in slight shock before smiling "Well, I guess you aren't as much of a sissy as I thought."

Francis took off his hat and twirled it "So what do you think of me now? I heard ladies love bad boys."

Cerebella took out her heel blades again "Don't push your luck, Lover Boy."

Walker whispered to Francis, "Guess the game's been set on expert difficulty, hasn't it, Franny?"

"Just you wait, I'm gonna get her."

And throughout all of that, their destination was getting that much closer.

On a different road, there's a cart that would usually be pulled by conjured horses, but is instead pulled by a cartoonish car where the driver was a humanoid bullet and to the side, a lady in a red dress. Inside were the rest of Peacock and Mage's cronies. However, one member on each side aren't on best terms.

"Boss can conjure up animals!"

"Oh yeah, well boss can conjure up anything!"

"But I bet she can't do magic."

"She doesn't need, her Argus is more powerful!"

"No way, the Magus is!"

"Argus!"

"Magus!"

"ARGUS!"

"MAGUS!"

"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?!"

The two bickering beings, Avery and Bob, were silenced by one of the leaders, Peacock.

"You arguing is making us very irritated, you had better stop, RIGHT NOW!" The other leader, Mage, scolded.

"S-sorry boss." Both said at the same time.

Mage sighed "Something tells me this will go on for a long time."

"Don't worry, we can always gag them if things get out of hand." Peacock suggested.

Mage looked at her funny "That isn't a good joke, Patricia."

"Who said it was a joke?" Both Avery and Bob jumped back and Mage sweatdropped.

"Honestly, you're hard to figure out, even before this."

"Yep, definitely one of my good traits."

'It's a trait all right.' Mage thought.

"Anyway," Peacock jumped back to her seat "what's snobby fella like you doin' shows in a lot of odd places?"

Mage ignored her comment and replied "You figured out, huh?"

"It wasn't hard, I'm lookin' for her too." She got out a cigar and smoked it.

"I didn't know you smoked."

"It's what happens when you watch too much cartoons." Mage chuckled at this. After a while, what Peacock said next surprised him "Where were you?"

"Huh?" Mage looked at Peacock who had her face shadowed.

"They told me you were the one that saved me, and that you left after putting me under their care." She threw the cig out the open window "But why did you leave?"

Mage looked at his glove "A deal." Now Peacock was looking at him "The doctor and I made a deal. They said they would do everything they can to keep you alive, if I did something for them."

"Find the Skullgirl."

Mage nodded "I was going to return once I did this. But," He looked away, with his hat covering his eyes "I couldn't."

Peacock looked at him confused "That means you found her. Why couldn't ya'?"

A long pause followed before Mage said "Because the Skullgirl is-"

He never got to finish his sentence, because the cart rocked and stopped "What the deuce?!" Peacock yelled.

Everyone in the cart ran out. Peacock ran to the car upfront "Andy, why'd the hell you stop the-" She stopped as she saw what blocked their path.

"Patricia, what's going on?" Mage ran up front and stopped in his track "My God."

In front of them were hundreds of Black Egret soldiers. Standing in front were some of the top members of the Egrets, including the leader Parasoul and the Shadow Squad leader Arselite. The former stepped forward. "State your name."

"Certainly, my name is BITE ME!" Peacock harshly replied.

Mage quickly pulled her back and whispered to her "Don't you have any idea who that is?!"

"Yeah, and honestly, I don't give a damn!" She whispered back.

"Patricia, we don't need the government to hunt us down, it will greatly hinder our work."

"I hope you two don't mind, but we're running a tight schedule." Arselite tapped his wrist as if there was a watch there.

"Let me do all the talking." Mage whispered before turning around "Greetings, Your Majesty. It is an honor, somewhat. My name is Mage the Magnificent. Me and my assistant here-"

"Assistant?! Why I aughta-"

"Quiet!" He whispered harshly at her "We were both on our way to the next show to prepare. We thought that this road would probably be quicker."

"Save it, we traced the energy from the broken town to you." Arselite interrupted. He showed a device that seemed like a tracker to further prove himself. "What I don't get is how a couple of kids like you manage to destroy so much property?"

Mage looked annoyed "Kid? I'll have you know I'm 13, an age past being a child."

"Whatever, I still don't get how you manage to break a whole town. And don't smooth talk outta this, the tracker proves it."

Mage tried to think of other options, but he didn't. He took out his wand and made a blade come out of it to pierce the tracker. "I didn't want to do this, but you left me with no other choice."

He immediately backed up as a bullet nearly hit him. A bullet coming from Parasoul's Lugermorph "Perhaps you should come with us."

Peacock smirked "Real smooth talking, James Bond."

"Well, I guess we're doing things your way."

"Yup," Peacock twirled two revolvers with blades coming out of them "my favorite way." She looked back at her underlings "You guys better not get in between this, ya hear?!"

"The same goes for all of you." Mage ordered his underlings.

They obliged and stood back to let their superiors take care of this. Parasoul looked at the Egrets "Let me handle this." She readied her umbrella and pistol.

"I don't even need to tell you guys." Arselite said as he fixed his robotic arm and took out his knives.

"You ready, fancy pants?"

"As I'll ever be."

"Commander Arselite."

"Ready, Milady."

As the sun rose, the battle was about to begin.

"Meow." A certain undead feline jumped back before a shadow dog could bit here "Two against one, that's un-fur."

The dog returned to its ninja owner "Must you make terrible puns everytime?" The ninja, Kage, annoyingly replied.

"What, got a pur-roblem with that? Am I ruffling your fur?"

Kage had enough of the puns she made throughout the fight. He grabbed the dog, Inu's, tail and he turned into a windmill shuriken "I will stitch your mouth shut, you insolent feline."

"Not the playful type, aren't you?"

"I take my preys seriously, no matter how weak they are." He threw the shuriken at her.

"Then you're gonna have a problem taking this kitty's nine lives." She jumped to dodge the shuriken and landed on a light post.

"Don't get cocky, wench" Ms Fortune raised her eyes as she sees the windmill shuriken returning to cut her head off. The head rolled on the deck as it neared Kage and the transformed Inu. He picked up the head to stare at it "It's a shame this had to end so quickly. You might've been a worthy foe."What came next was that the head opened its eyes and bit him on the nose. "GAH, what the-" He then got a kick from the dismembered body, who then retrieved the head.

"Sorry, did I say nine lives? I meant limitless lives." She put her head back on.

Kage started in disbelief "What?! Who are you?! What are you?!"

"In the words of someone as stiff-furred as you," she detached her tail and held it as if it was a sword "your demise."

Kage stood up and held his hand as if he were about to grab something just above his head "Something like you shouldn't wander this world. Therefore," he closed his hand as a gigantic shadow hand appeared below Ms Fortune "I'll be taking you back to my master." The hand dragged down to wherever it came from, dragging the undead feline with it "Inu," The shadow dog looked up at its master "I have a bad feeling about this."

Around the same time the battle between the undead feline and the shadow hound took place, another battle was happening in Maplecrest.

"Eat this!" One of the fighters, Spike, fired lightning at his opponent, Painwheel. She dodged it and rushed in to stab him with the spikes she sprouted out of her knuckles. Another spiked knuckle blocked it "You're gonna have to do better than that, little monster." He spun and kicked her stomach.

Painwheel slid all the way until she hit a house. She stood up as her bladed behind started to spin on the ground like a wheel and rushed towards Spike. It barely missed him before turning around for a second attempt. It hit him this time as he tried to block it.

Spike flew until he landed in a tree. He sliced in half and charged his hand with electricity "Big mistake, beastie." He charged towards her with his electric hand.

Painwheel tried to counter with her own hands covered in spikes "Leave...me...ALONE!" They both got hit and hit the street with a thud.

Spike tried to stand up 'Damn it, I didn't think she was this strong. I'm gonna need to stop playing around.' He stood up the same time she did, and as soon as he did, his eyes flashed and he turned completely invisible "Can't kill what you can't see, can ya, Pinhead?"

Painwheel tried to look for him or any signs of him. Before she knew it, she got hooked in the face, and again, and again. She looked around again before she felt something hit her stomach.

Spike uncloaked and held Painwheel by her hair "Why don't you give up? It'll save you the pain."

She had enough. Painwheel decided to activate her Hatred Install "Go..."

Energy started to flow through her body and Spike felt it "What the-"

"to..." The energy was reaching its point.

"What the hell are you?!"

She brought up her face as her eyes flashed "HELL!" Energy was released and Spike got pushed back.

He hit a mailbox and crashed into a house "Dammit, I guess ugly isn't the only thing she is." He looked again to see her walking towards the house "Now what?" He looked to see a taser behind him "This'll do."

Painwheel was drawing closer to the house while her bladed wheel was dragged across the ground. She kicked the remains of the mailbox to the front door "You will pay for underestimating me." She threw her blades at Spike, who just got up in time to notice the blades coming his way and barely dodged it. He grabbed onto the wire that connected her and her blades "Haven't you learned anything?"

"I have, but..." He dropped the taser he was holding "with all the energy I picked up, it won't matter." His other hand grabbed onto the wire as both of his arm was charging with intense amount of electricity "DISCHARGE!" With that, he released all of the electricity he built inside him into the wire which traveled all they way back to Painwheel.

The only thing Painwheel felt washigh amounts of pain. Before she passed out she heard from Spike "Dad's gonna be happy I brought you back, sister."

Outside in the rain of a warehouse, the mad doctor, Krauser, has been waiting for his accomplice for an hour. Soon enough, though, he heard a soft thud hit the ground to his left "You're late."

Out of the shadows appeared a woman with blue hair in a nurse attire and an hourglass figure. She was Valentine, the deadliest nurse in the Kingdom "Sorry, there were some fine young men that had to undergo...surgery." As she said this she slides her hand underneath his mask.

"Our task wasn't to murder bystanders." He removed her hand from his chin "It was to locate the Skullgirl, who apparently went missing while you were supposed to watch her."

"Sorry, but I like a little excitement in my life."

"I have no need for such humane pleasures."

Valentine scoffed "You're about as dull as a paperwork. Lighten up."

"Are we gonna stand here and talk all day, or are we going to search for Marie?"

"Fine let's go, we might as well meet Double and Shadow first."

Without the mask, one can imagine him smiling "A wise decision, Valentine."

In the Cathedral of New Meridian, where the outside is divine, but the inside reeks of sinister, two figures can be seen as they discuss with invisible entities. One of the figures, that appeared in the form of a monk, stepped forward "My Ladies, we have indicated numerous possible candidates for the Skull Heart."

"I see." One of the invisible voices said in a dull feminine tone "Will you bring them here?"

"That is not necessary, Great Trinities." The other figure, in the form of a nun, spoke "It seems as if all of their destinies lie in this very place."

"Is that so?" Another of the invisible voice spoke in a seductive feminine voice "Well then, this should be interesting."

The final voice, one of a strict mother, ordered the two "Ensure that everything goes as plan. Do not disappoint."

"Yes, Great Ones." Both replied as they bowed. With that presence vanish. And now, the following days will be rather intriguing.

Note: And there we go, what will happen from here? Now that the character intros are out of the way, the story will really pick up from here. I'm just as excited as you are readers.