Alright! Lock 'n' load! We got chapter six comin' down the pipe! I hope you like it, please R & R! As always I own nothing!

Ch. 6: The Calm Before the Storm

"My, my. What do we have here?" At the sound of the faux nun's voice, Lagoon's resident businessman tensed up on his barstool. "What are you doing in a place like this without some company, Rocky-boy?" Eda trailed a finger along his chest and down his arm and smirked as she watched him squirm away from her.

"Uh…Revy's in the…in the restroom." He informed the nun as she made herself comfortable on the barstool next to him and positioned herself so that he wouldn't be able to speak to her without getting an eyeful of her generous bosom. Rock silently prayed that his partner would come back and rescue him from this torture soon because he knew that Eda wouldn't let up otherwise.

"Oh, well how convenient." Her voice came out as a sultry purr as she slung an arm around the businessman's shoulder and leaned closer to his ear. "Why don't we have a little fun while she's away, huh?"

At her words and close proximity, Rock turned an even darker shade of red than he already was. He chuckled nervously when he felt Eda's left hand work it's way down to his belly. Meanwhile, Bao chuckled at the display from behind his newspaper.

"Come on, Eda, leave the poor boy alone. You know Revy's liable to shoot ya dead if she catches ya playing with him." Rock felt a flood of relief when the bartender came to his rescue, and the tension left his body, even though the phony nun was still wrapped around his shoulders. "Besides, this is a bar; not some damned whore house! Go upstairs to The Sloppy Swing if you want someone to fuck. Otherwise, order a fuckin' drink, you damn bitch!"

"Hows about a bloody mother fuckin' Theresa?" The Lagoon's resident gunslinger called from the side of the bar as she slowly approached. "Get off him y'bitch."

All three heads at the bar turned to regard Revy with different looks in their eyes; Bao with irritation, Rock with gratitude, and Eda with interest. She noticed that Revy's tone was only hovering at a minimal threat level, yet there was something distinctly territorial in her eyes. Yes, there was definitely something going on with her and the office boy. Curiosity prevailed against better judgment and she decided to prod.

"Well, what's this, now? Do I detect a hint of jealousy?"Eda teased, earning an irritable growl as Revy claimed the bar stool on Rock's other side.

"Fuck off, will ya!"

The blonde woman's smile only widened at the sight of a blush crawling across the other gunwoman's cheeks. She never thought she'd see the day that Revy would be blushing over a guy.

"Hey Rock," Eda cooed into his ear once more, causing both Lagoon crew members to tense up this time. "Why don't you come home with a real woman, tonight, hmm?"

Revy scoffed at that, bearing her teeth while her right hand twitched and moved closer to her left cutlass. Bao glared at her and was about to demand that she not turn his bar into a warzone again, when she beat him to the punch.

"Fuck you, whore! If I ain't woman enough for him, no one will be."

At this point, Rock was again blushing furiously as he stared intently into the copper colored depths of his Bacardi in an effort to remove himself from this awkward conversation. He too, had noticed the blush on Revy's cheeks in response to Eda's teasing a moment ago. He only hoped that it meant what he thought it did. Clearing his head of such thoughts for the moment, he downed his full glass of rum and attempted to diffuse the situation between the two women before it could start.

"So, Eda, what are your thoughts about what's going on around town?"

She looked taken aback for just a moment, taking a second to get into the mindset for this conversation.

"There's a real shit storm on the horizon, I'll tell you that. Even the Church is involved this time."

"Huh? What's that mean?" Revy wondered out loud. Normally, the Rip-off church took a neutral position in most of the town's conflicts. Choosing instead to carry on business as usual and deal weapons to paying customers as needed.

"It means that whatever poor soul got on Balalaika and Chang's shit list is bigger than we think." Eda took a swig of the beer that Bao had placed in front of her during his earlier rant and continued, "Old Fry-face herself paid a visit to the church a couple days ago after the after you guys got back into port. I thought the Sister was gonna have a stroke."

Revy perked up as if she was being pulled on strings, "No shit! I can just see the old bitch now!" The gunslinger's familiar barking laugh drowned out Eda's protests at the term "old bitch as Rock put his two cents in.

"Yes, I can't imagine Sister Yolanda would be happy to see Balalaika knocking on her door, especially considering that the mafia heads never found that blind spot they were looking for." Rock muttered under his breath, just loud enough for only the two women at his sides to hear the reference to his first trip to the Church of Violence.

"Hmmph." Eda huffed in mild amusement, taking a long swig of ale, "Now; now, Rocky-boy. That's all water under the bridge. Anyway, she seemed rather interested in our clients and told us if we didn't want a swim in the harbor, then we'd keep our clients local—kept grilling all of us about any recent 'Japonski' we might've seen. " Eda shrugged and took another long drink of booze, pushing that rather uncomfortable encounter to the back her mind.

"Yeah, It's so close I can fuckin' taste the blood, now." Revy commented of their situation, lighting up a cigarette.

"I know what you mean, Revy," Rock mirrored her actions and pulled out his own lighter, taking a long drag of his tobacco. "That meeting the other day was unsettling. It was like sitting at the base of two volcanos getting ready to erupt."

"Heh," Eda huffed, "Tell me about it. Hotel Moscow doesn't even like the Church, any time she finds it necessary to pay a personal visit to us is God damn nerve wracking. Hmm?" Rock watched on in surprised confusion when the nun turned her head just slightly to her left shoulder and brought a hand to grip her Glock.

"Speaking of Japonski, these guys wouldn't happen to be friends of yours, would they, Two-hands?"

"Don't know 'em, Eda." The familiar smile that Rock had seen countless times before surfaced as Revy gripped her left cutlass while poor Bao looked on in fear for the safety of his bar. The business man had no idea what had caused both women to go on high alert, but then, his eye caught the mirror hanging above the liquor shelves and he saw it: six Japanese men standing near the door. Even with their sunglasses on, Rock could tell that they were looking directly at the trio.

"Hey, Eda?" Revy's tone was mischievous as that sadistic smile grew even wider.

"Yeah, Revy?"

"Whaddaya say we give these assholes a little preview of what's waitin' for 'em?"

"Sounds good to me!" Eda replied over Bao's curses of protest as both women unholstered their weapons and spun around to face the men. They stopped abruptly when they were met with a raised hand from the man in the middle.

"We're only here to deliver a message." He patted himself down in an attempt to show that he was unarmed, though just about everyone in the bar was experienced enough to see the outline of a firearm inside his waistband.

Revy snorted at his words, "You dumb fuck. You think we don't know what your boss is up to?" She cocked both hammers and Eda followed suit, chambering a round in her own gun. "Tell ya what…" Revy fired on the first two men to raise their guns then rolled right while Eda knocked a table over for cover and Rock scrambled over to his own hiding spot near his partner in the midst of the gunfight.

"We'll let you live long enough to deliver your message!" Revy finished her statement, putting several bullets in the knocked over table to the side of the entrance that a couple of the men were using for cover. Meanwhile, most of the bars patrons who wished to stay out of the conflict either scrambled for the rear exit behind the bar or took their chances dodging bullets near the front. When a stray bullet broke the bottle beside his head, Bao ducked below the bar and grabbed his shot gun, surfacing just in time to pump the man responsible full of buckshot. That was three down; three to go.

"Revy, you bitch! I hope you know you're payin' for this!"

The gunslinger laughed as she ducked behind her table and put a fresh clip in each Cutlass. "Talk to Fry-face, old man!" With that she was back in action, emptying several rounds into the table. Eda and Revy both scored a few minor shots here and there when the enemy decided to be a little too brave, but otherwise, they were tough little bastards and they showed that they did not intend to go down without one hell of a fight.

"Fuck!" Eda yelled as she took a bullet straight to the left arm and promptly ducked back behind the table.

"Eda!"

"Don't you worry about me, guys." She took a moment to assess the wound. It was a pretty nasty shot to the bicep given that the Japanese were using jacketed hollow point ammunition, but it was nothing that would keep her out of this fight. Not by a long shot. She had a score to settle now.

She made her move when she heard the bastard finish reloading and start shooting again. She knew from the fact that she could no longer feel the impact of bullets against the table that he had targeted Revy. Perfect.

"Yippee kai yay, asshole!" she shouted, springing up and putting a bullet straight between his eyes. In the meantime, Revy had successfully tagged the fifth gunmen, which left only the messenger.

It only took a few more bullets before the man left his cover at the wrong time. After that, the gunfight was over in just two moves. Revy put a bullet in his left hand and stomach; Eda gave him a piercing in his right hand. Each woman blew on their smoking barrels while Rock emerged from his cover next to Revy. Bao simply let out a sigh of relief that it was over and there was only minimal damage to his bar…at least compared to past destruction. Revy and Eda holstered their guns and the trio cautiously stepped over to the man.

They found him struggling for breath and lying in a growing pool of blood behind Bao's ruined table. For the first time in the entire confrontation, Rock noted, the man looked truly frightened. Maybe he feared his fate now that it was before his eyes. None of them could say for certain.

"So, I'm guessing by that blood that you don't have long to live." Revy spoke casually, pulling out her lighter and lighting a brand new cigarette, "So why don't you make these last seconds count and deliver that message." She accentuated her statement by inhaling on her cigarette, making sure to stoop down and exhale it directly into the dying man's face.

The man looked only at Rock and Revy, addressing both of them as he spoke what the four of them knew would be his last words "Me…Meet Shinji" The man stopped to cough up blood and took one raspy breath before continuing, "At the d….docks….tonight." There was more rasping and more coughing. Rock turned his head away as memories of Japan came back fresh in his mind. No matter how evil a person in this seedy underworld may be, Rock truly sympathized with all of them when they met their gruesome ends.

"C-c-come alone…and tell no one…or he will wipe out your entire company…a-a…and anyone else who gets in the way of his vengeance."

With that, a final gunshot rang out in the bar and the sixth man lay lifeless at Revy's feet. Eda stood off to the side with widened eyes, comprehending the meaning of that message. This would not end well for anyone in the city.

"Well, that sounded fuckin' ominous enough."

"No shit."

And that is six! I hope you enjoyed the fun in this chapter, it's going to get serious for a little bit from here. Please R & R!