History Lesson/Metro's Finest:

"What, are you serious? The meter just ran out!"

Tera Rai's' smile is like that of wax. "It's been twenty minutes, sir." She says, writing her ticket.

The man grumbles and swears and yanks the page out of the woman's hand. He scowls at her and slams his car door, speeding away to continue his business. Tera watches him go, book still in hand and relaxes, a more genuine smile gracing her face.

'And that's fifty for the day,' She thinks, flipping through the missing pages, 'And it's only noon!' Time escapes her for a brief moment as she celebrates her small achievement, adjusting her uniform as she returns to her scooter.

Ding!

Tera blinks. She looks at her scooter. Another blink.

'Fifty-one, I guess...' she thinks sadly.

Her senses catch up to her then, feeling a strong surge of power and energy. It's as though the moon had eclipsed the sun; mysterious and impossible to miss. Her head turns on a swivel and her eyes land on the source. It's the same tall man as before, walking down the street without a care in the world, listening idly to whatever Li-Fen is talking about. He stands out, she thinks, his power and her senses coalescing to make him seem distinctly out of place.

'Would it kill him to dial the power back?'

Tera frowns. That would do. Power like his needs to be kept under control, lest he attract challengers like moths to a flame.

Adjusting her hat and feeling a stroke of determination, Tera revs her scooter and gives chase. Traffic is heavy and clogged, a familiar sight in the city, but she's nothing if not a masterful driver. Bobbing and weaving and going as quickly as the law allows, Tera closes the distance in record time.

Beep! Beep!

"Hello, sir!"

Li-Fen turns around and looks, Gouten continues walking.

"Uhhh..."

Beep! Beep!

"Uh, mister? You; tall, dark and with pretty eyes."

Li-Fen awkwardly watches Gouten take it in stride, not once turning his head in acknowledgement. "Uh, Gou -"

"Oh, for the love of...!" Tera quickly parks her scooter and fills the meter. Gouten is still walking, and his long legs are taking him further away by the moment. A movement too brisk to be called a walk, yet too slow to be a jog is what it takes for her to catch him and when she does, she parks herself in his path.

Gouten finally stops walking. Due to their proximity, Tera can see the sheer size of the man. The crown of her head barely goes beyond his shoulders and she has to crane her neck back to look him in his face. His impassive golden eyes peer into her honey brown ones. It gives her a pause.

"Yes, nani?" He sounds tired.

She shakes herself out of her temporary reverie and tries her best to look stern and professional. It's a bit difficult when he looks like he could throw her across the street with his bare hands. "Mister Gouten, was it? Your ki is causing a problem."

"My ki? My house keys?"

Tera's image breaks for a split second. "Wha - no. Your ki. Y'know, your power. It's causing a public disturbance." She gestures behind him and he turns, and sure enough, everyone on the sidewalk had given them a wide berth. "And disturbing the peace is against the law."

"Oh?" Gouten challenges, "Show me the law."

Tera's face shifts into a grin. "I was hoping you'd say that! Here," she takes out a small handbook from her skirt pocket and starts turning the pages. She raises it to his face. "Here it is, written in black ink."

Gouten's face goes flat. "I'm not reading all of that." He says. He tries to step around her, but Tera slides in front of him again. He sighs. Taking a single, long stride forward, Gouten gets closer to the woman, close enough that his large frame takes up her entire field of vision and then, reaches out his arms under hers and raises her off the ground. Tera is too stunned to fight or argue and before her mind catches up to her, Gouten had moved her to the side ever-so gently.

'What the hell is that strength...?!' Tera thinks.

"Anyway, we have to be going. See you around." He says, watching with amusement as she stumbles around like a baby gazelle. "Let's go, kid."

"Wa - wait right there!" Tera calls out. As she expected, Gouten didn't stop walking. She pouts and grumbles, but feels more determined than ever. "Alright, if you want to play it like that!"

She doesn't see Gouten smirk. He finally stops walking.

"Play like what?"

Tera storms after him, scribbling on her notepad with the brightest pastel pen he'd ever seen. "I'm writing you up a citation for your ki. As well as disturbing the peace!"

Gouten snorts, "Oh yeah? Hey, kid, come here."

"Oh, no." Li-Fen says, making an 'x' with her arms. "I don't want to be a part of this."

"It's your first lesson," Gouten says sagely. The teen slowly gets closer, and when she does, Gouten puts his arm around her shoulder. "The first lesson is that you can never get in trouble..."

Tera and Li-Fen both raise suspicious eyebrows at this.

"...if you never get caught."

The last thing Tera sees was a giant being awoken from its slumber with a charming, yet feral smile on its face. The concrete shatters when Gouten leaps upward several stories and lands in a crouch on a building overhead, Li-Fen screaming the entire time. "You're insane!"

"Not insane. Practical." He says, walking over the edge and peering down at the street below. Tera is standing there gobsmacked, staring at the spot he had just been in. People on the streets murmur amongst themselves, some pointing up at him while others continue their day. "See you around, nani." He drawls with a wave.

"That's destruction of public property and trespassing!" Tera shouts at him, desperately scribbling on her ticket book. She runs back to her scooter. "Get back here!"

Li-Fen hadn't stopped screaming ever since Gouten grabbed her and leaped up like some kind of super-powered lunatic. He supposed he couldn't have really blamed her, in all honesty. Having grown up in, essentially, the freedom and wilderness of Hawaii, using every axis for movement wasn't only a useful skill, but a necessary one. Moving from building to building was child's play, something he could've easily done when he was her age, so she needn't worry about him slipping. But, again, he supposed he could understand her fright.

"You scared of heights?" Gouten muses, coming to a stop near a building's ledge. The museum is little more than a few hops away, but he pauses to admire the view.

Li-Fen clings to him like a second skin, wrapping her arms as tightly around him as she possibly could. She sputters out something that's neither an admission or denial, and Gouten snorts.

"Easy, kid. The fun part is over."

She gawks at him as though he'd grown a second head. "That was fun? I thought I was gonna die!"

Gouten rolls his eyes, "So dramatic. You're still smiling." He points out. "Second lesson; jump first, figure out how you're gonna land on the way down."

"That's awful advice."

"Is it?"

"Yes!"

Gouten snorts, "If you say so. Hold on tight."

"Gouten, no. Don't YOU DARE -!"

Gouten does anyway. He grabs her and holds her tight to his chest, not even hesitating when he throws himself off of the full eight stories without a care in the world. Li-Fen screams and shuts her eyes, grabbing onto him tight enough that Gouten almost winces. The wind is loud enough in his ears that he can barely make out the string of Mandarin swear words, and before long, they hit the ground with a loud boom. Gouten cushions Li-Fen as best as she could and holds her until she can gather herself.

People are staring at him, wide-eyed and slack jawed, but he doesn't pay them any mind. They're muttering something about him, he knows, something about falling out of the sky like a comet and pulling everyone's eyes to him as he does.

Li-Fen pulls away from him and clutches her chest, gasping for breath and some kind of composure. She looks up at him, noting his expression. It's a mixture of cool contentment and the ghost of a smile, as well as something else she can't place.

"Do you - do you always pick the most insane option possible?"

Gouten shrugs, "Life's pretty boring without a little danger." Taking in his surroundings, he realizes how out of his element that he is, if he can ever indeed forget. There are people, so many people. And most of them are staring at him. He stands out among the crowd of people, to his discomfort. The museum itself is massive with an older architecture; a faded brown coat of paint covers every inch, and large, tall pillars line the front like guardians protecting a treasure. There's a staircase that leads up to doors and more people are dotted about, in their own worlds.

He wanders around a bit, aimlessly searching for an entrance of some kind. Li-Fen is of little help to him, as her expression is sheepish and she's innocently just as confused as he is. When they finally reach the top, they see that the tall doors are already opened and people are seamlessly passing in and out.

He had read online that he needed tickets for entry, and he pointedly didn't have any. Oh well, that was a minor issue.

"Wait here, kid." Gouten says before disappearing into the sea of people. Li-Fen watches him go, focusing on his ki when she can no longer see him. She sighs and takes out her phone but almost immediately, a large, scarred hand covers the screen. "You're sixteen, right?" Gouten asks with a raised brow.

Li-Fen is equally suspicious, "Yeah...?"

He looks down at his hand, at the tickets that seem to magically appear out of thin air. Then back to the girl. "If anyone asks... you're thirteen." He says after a time.

"Wha -? Where did you -?"

"Found 'em." Gouten cuts off, "Anyway, let's go in. We're just in time."

Li-Fen blinks. Someone shouts.

"And you said you just had them?"

"Yeah, officer! They were right here!"

Li-Fen looks over to see none other than her jie-jie's top student, Tera. She looks tired, and her uniform is still disheveled and her hair is a mess but she has a determined look in her eye. As if she can feel her stare, Tera's head whips to the side and directly at her. Li-Fen awkwardly waves with a sheepish smile, but Tera doesn't have one to match. Her eyes aren't focused on her. Li-Fen follows an invisible line and sees Gouten standing there with a smirk on his face and his head tilted at an angle. A bit cocky. Cool. Challenging.

He doesn't say anything, but Tera responds nonetheless. She starts to walk towards them a bit faster than Li-Fen thought necessary, but Gouten drags her inside before she can get too close.

Metro City museum is nothing like what Gouten thought it would be. It's an old house of treasures filled with antiques and relics of a time long past. There's less people in here than outside, which Gouten is thankful for. It's spacious and hollow and filled with replicas of things Gouten doesn't recognize. There are sculptures depicting events of another day, and, weirdly, a large, golden statue of a pipe in the center of it all.

There's a woman there, directing the crowd. She has long, wavy strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes, full lips and a beauty mark located under the right side of her mouth. She has a curvy figure and is dressed in a casual two-piece navy blue suit. She moves with the grace of a professional in some of the longest, thinnest heels Gouten has ever seen.

The woman gestures grandly as if taking center stage, "Friends!" She calls out, "Ladies, gentlemen and esteemed guests! Today, you've paid for your tickets and stuck around to be given a guided tour. Or so you think. However, what you've really paid for is..." the woman squints, and looks left to right before wiggling her finger, gesturing for the crowd to come further. Her tone dips into something else, from light, pleasant and airy, to ominous and secretive. "A trip through time itself! That's right, today you learn what it was like on the streets of Metro City not too long ago. Some of you may have even lived through it yourself," she says, not so subtly gesturing to an older couple in the group who nod in solemn agreement. But during a time where heads had to be kept down and even if we could defend ourselves, we were left second guessing if that was a smart move... Well, suffice to say, it was a hard time to appreciate the emergent legacies, art, and cultural shifts for what they were while they were happening. Whether you're visiting to get a slice of Metro 'hospitality', or you're a local who wants to know if your tax money is going to the right place, I'd like to think you'll come out of this tour Pleased. As. Punch."

The crowd gives a round of applause that Li-Fen can't help but join in with. Jie-jie had never given her the full backstory of Metro City, only information she felt she needed. Who the major gangs were, what areas to avoid, and the friendly relationship she had with the mayor. Li-Fen had, of course, looked further into the city in her own time online, but seeing things in person had a distinctly different effect.

Crunch.

She turns to her companion. He seems equally invested in the proceedings, but with two bags of popcorn in his hand. He hands her one and then reaches his hand in her bag.

"Finder's tax," he says, throwing a handful in his mouth. Li-Fen pouts at him.

"Now follow me, to the persevered brick walls our current mayor, Travers, broke through circa February 2016, which were once part of downtown MCPD's prison, and we'll be able to discuss some of the street art left behind by numerous anonymous artists and see an attitude and code as if it were preserved for us in amber." The woman leads them to a literal brick wall with a large section missing. Bricks and mortar too random to be placed by hand decorate the ground around it within the perimeter of a velvet rope. Gouten takes a closer look in between bites of his popcorn and surely enough, the wall is coated in a nearly invisible, glossy sheen. The artwork is done masterfully, far better than anything he had done in his own youth. Itsays things like 'Fight while you can', 'Don't hold back, hold forward', 'Mad Gear sucks' and something else small enough that he can't make out anything besides the vague shape of a police logo. And then it dawns on him in the same moment someone pats his shoulder.

"Hello, nani." Gouten says casually, turning to look at the shorter woman with a light expression.

Tera looks up at him and pouts. "Did you think you'd get away from me that easily?"

"Kinda, yeah."

"Well, you aren't gonna," she says flatly.

He hums, "After this, then. After the tour. Are you from Metro City?"

Tera gives him a side-eye, like she doesn't believe him. His ki had cooled down a bit, but still is as wild and oppressing as it was moments ago. The look on his face seems to be genuine, and she can't find anything in his tone other than sincere curiosity. "...I am," she says after a while. "Born in Nayshall, moved here when I was really young."

Gouten hums again but says nothing. The lady running the show speaks again.

"'Turn The Beat Back' was a pervasive phrase that some of you might recognize as much from now-retro hip-hop, rap, punk, screamo, and the like as you would from having seen it halfway covered in the alleys and subways of our city. Literally, it represented a shift in musical signature from artists; their mix styles, etc." It's then that Gouten notices that music had been playing the whole time. It's a jazzy melody, highlighted by hi-hats and 808s and lyrics sung in a thick accent. Tera hums along with the tune. "In jazz for example, from before and during Mad Gear's peak, it can be heard segueing in an aggressive breakdown or a freestyle segment. But metaphorically, it was language that allowed people to covertly share a common and deeply seated resentment of corrupt officials, especially 'street beat' officers and Mad Gear 'awareness patrols'. The callsign gathered a higher degree of…"

"Notoriety," Tera mutters to herself, "The locals used to use certain songs and melodies to attract other people to safe havens. Places that weren't Mad Gear territory."

Gouten snorts. "You a nerd, nani?"

Tera blushes, unaware that she'd been heard. "I just like to read is all. I'm not a nerd."

"Sure you aren't."

The group is led further down the museum's corridors until they stop before a map that nearly reaches from the floor to the ceiling, as wide as his apartment itself. "Now, like a number of coastal gangs, Mad Gear once held more 'territory' than just Metro City. But because this was the epicenter, most historical accounts and the progression of their influence is focused here, locally. If you look at this map, the puce/hatched section is an estimate of their borders before Haggar and others' contest began in earnest, and this shrunken/solid orange section is a heat map of confirmed Mad Gear crimes from the early 2000s to 2016 when Mayor Travers took office."

"It's a bit wrong," Tera mutters again, lower this time but still loud enough for Gouten to hear. "There are some areas where I grew up that were a bit hotter than that."

The woman clears her throat and her eyes snap to Tera. Tera flinches and goes as stiff as a board.

"Is there anything you'd like to add, miss?"

Tera awkwardly fumbles her way through a few apologies before sliding behind Gouten in a pathetic attempt to hide. Thankfully, his large frame provided all of the cover she could ever want.

"Obviously it's not completely accurate, but this was made using public information, and it still paints a very clear picture. Delivery routes for goods and services were limited. Mad Gear controlled and resided heavily in our docks, and our former chief of police Robert O'Hara famously extorted suppliers for special protections, justifying the additional funds as 'cost to risk analysis'. That clear things up for you, sweetie?"

Tera gives a small nod of embarrassment. "Crystal clear, ma'am."

"Good," The woman says without missing a beat, "There was a certain sense to it, especially from the outside, but locals either already knew or - very soon - learned better. In short, the threat to Miss Jessica, Haggar's daughter who was kidnapped by Thrasher Damnd as assisted by Officer O'Hara, was… business as usual. There's a kind of confidence present in people who think they're untouchable the way Damnd did." The woman frowns as a portion of the map shifts into a vaguely humanoid image. The figure is large, frighteningly so, and muscled beyond belief. It's a silhouette with nothing visible but golden blonde dreadlocks and a wide, shiteating grin. "Haggar himself, when recounting the experience for his biography, claimed it was like coming face to face with 'something as true as gravity'. But, 'The rage in me screamed that I could jump and climb harder than gravity could pull.'"

"The rage within, huh?" Gouten mutters. Tera prods him in the side, confident that she had caught him, but Gouten's not looking at her. He's instead not looking at anything; his head is tilted down in thought and his eyes are unfocused.

"...than gravity could pull," Tera finishes quietly. "Always liked that quote."

"Now, there's a great deal of other things to observe here; our cultural exhibit is second to none and pays homage to a number of civil rights pioneers that came from our city, some of which are still in office or city council today pushing forward the public transportation programs currently doubling the number of busses and bus stops available." The guide leads the group away from the map and onto a series of photos of people with weapons before each one. They range from ninja stars, to a katana, to brass knuckles and finally, an old combat knife. "Our time under the reign of Mad Gear and its collaborators is informed by what came before, and while our lives are defined by that period, it is not the entirety of our history. Our streets are safer than ever, but it is critical to remind ourselves that Haggar is not the only one we have to thank for this. Thus, I'll ask you all to pay close attention to the final piece in our tour today. It's a bit of a walk, so ask any questions you have."

The group walks forward, but Tera holds Gouten in place. He raises a brow at her. Li-Fen stops and looks back.

"It's alright, kid," Gouten says easily. "Go ahead, I can make a break for it if I have to."

Tera clears her throat, "I heard that, y'know?"

"I didn't whisper."

Li-Fen hesitantly moves forward, leaving the two as alone as they could be in an active museum. Gouten lazily chews his popcorn while Tera eyes him up and down.

"What's your game?"

"My game?"

"You stole those tickets, didn't you?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Because," Tera says, pulling out her phone. It looks a bit old and cracked in a few places with the case decorated in a few anime-styled stickers. She fumbles a few times with the password while Gouten patiently waits for her to be done. She spins the phone towards him, holding it near his face. "See? Tickets for this place can only be bought online. You buy them and print 'em at home and then bring it the day of."

"That seems inefficient."

"It is. It's a stupid system, but that's not the point! You couldn't have bought them online since I tracked your ki straight here. And someone like yourself..." Tera awkwardly fumbles on her speech there before clearing her throat. "...stands out. I would recognize you."

"Is that right?"

"Yeah! So you have to be new here! And the fact that you didn't know about the law - or you didn't care. That's already so many tickets and citations. And another thing -" Tera's stomach rumbles and cuts off whatever she had planned to say. Her confidence shatters and she deflates on the dot, dropping her head to the floor. She lets out a long, long-suffering sigh.

"Here."

A large bag of popcorn is held before her from Gouten's hand. She recoils and looks at him suspiciously.

"This one isn't stolen."

"Really?"

Gouten smirks, "Would you be able to tell the difference?"

Tera frowns at him, but her stomach rumbles again. "I'll only have some."

"Take the whole thing. You need a bit more energy if you're gonna chase me later."

"So you do think this is a game."

Gouten shrugs and begins to walk back to the group, "No more than you do."

The two catch up to the guide just as she begins the final part. She's standing in front of a gargantuan golden pipe that's bent at the ends and tilted at an angle. It reflects the light of each camera flash that strikes it and stands alone as the single most impressive thing in the entire place. Gouten has never seen an object like this in person, only through the passed on memories of his mother when she told him of her youth.

"A lead pipe of this kind is old infrastructure, but while commonly attributed as Haggar's weapon of choice in the streets, it was used by gangsters and his co-fighters alike. In fact, witness accounts list one being in the hands of our current mayor - Mayor Travers' hands - much more often than Haggar's. Given our old mayor's background in professional wrestling and talent for dramatic, definitive grappling techniques, most of my peers agree that perhaps the reason for the collective phenomenon has less to do with the facts and more to do with the image.

"Anyone could pick up a pipe like this. It's something left in the alleys to trip over, or some… remnant of an apartment repair abandoned when chaos broke out. It doesn't matter how the tool got there, it mattered whose hands it was in. This sculpture, named 'Respect the Pipe', created by artists Lady Hawthorne and Ms. Misham, is nothing more than one such tool plated in gold that will flake off in the far future. The statue of then-Mayor Haggar in our central park is absent of a pipe, instead rendering a triumphant pose he took as often in the ring as he did in the middle of the streets on those long nights of struggle, crying: 'Yeah! Yeah!'"

"Why did you become a cop, nani?" Gouten sounds thoughtful and quiet. Tera doesn't look at him. The curator continues her speech, getting progressively more intense, more personal.

"He describes it was as much the rush of adrenaline as it was the satisfaction of having cleared yet another 'block of goons set up to do everything in its power to keep a strangle on things from the parking lots to the sandlots.' This," She stops and gestures to the pipe. Her intensity reached a fever pitch and Gouten could've sworn her eyes were glowing a brilliant purple. "Is the everyman of that time, and all times after. It's you, and it is me. We have been told we were designed for one thing and one thing only but found that cannot be true! Haggar himself has never shied away from the fact that when he set out that night, it was to rescue his kidnapped daughter, but that does not remove the good from what he achieved and the examples that he set.

"His justice was personal, but despite the meaning of the word, personal justice is never an isolated issue. History is not the story of some legendary cabal of individuals who did things for 'pure' reasons- selfish or unselfish, charitable or ruthless. It is the story of billions of people before you with hearts that beat just the same, asking something deeper than any flawed narrative we historians can dig through for details and only hope to get a true, direct answer to: What is your personal justice? What are you holding inside, waiting for something that will help you see it to life? … And how many people do you share that with?... Because I'm willing to bet that number is higher than you think."

"...my dad used to be in Mad Gear." Tera whispers. "But I don't fault him for that. It didn't matter what he did, but how he did it. He never wanted me and my mom to know where the money was coming from, but we knew. We knew. We wanted him to stop, but... you can lead a horse to water, right? And then one day, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time," she laughs, but there's no humor to be found. "Or the right place at the right time, who knows? Haggar was there and that was the end of it. Did you know that Haggar visited the family of everyone he put away? Each and every one of them. He told me and mom it would be alright, and that he's sorry, but he didn't need to be sorry. Dad wasn't a good man. Mayor Haggar told me something that day, he asked me what I wanted to do.

"I was pretty young, and didn't know much, but I know I wanted to... help people. To be like him. The day he showed up and spoke to me and mom was the day she started to be happy again. I think helping people like that is just the coolest thing. Know what he said? He said, 'Why wait, young lady? Start now. Start where you are. Start with doubt. Start with hands shaking, but start. And don't stop. Start where you are with what you have, but... start.' And the rest is history."

"Haggar seems like one hell of a man."

Tera snorts and takes off her hat to fan the glassiness away from her eyes, "He is." Suddenly, a heavy hand lands atop her head.

"You started off pretty well," Gouten says easily. "I'm rooting for you."

Tera coughs awkwardly into her fist, and looks back at the guide as she continues to speak. "Thanks."

"Today, the gangs of Metro City run around with boxes and recycled CRTs on their heads - even some members of Mad Gear's remnants do the same. That's because Metro City today is not the same as it was decades ago. It is stronger, objectively, in body and soul. Culturally, we celebrate the strength of our bravest heroes who fought then by sparring now. Dojos often host public lessons in our parks! We fight for fun or for glory, self improvement or respect, and sometimes even, as 'World Warrior' Ryu has said, 'To find the answer in the heart of battle.' If Metro's gangs did not hide their faces, they would not get away with even half of the things they do now.

"Now, if you're riled up after a good speech like I know I get, past here in the back we have a replica of 3rd Avenue rendered as accurately as possible to its appearance two decades ago where you can take part in a brawling event together with everyone else interested! The barrels are even sourced and rescued from our previous underground subway system! Told you I was taking you back through time." The woman leans forward and winks, "And of course, if that's not your speed - or you finish brawling - visit our gift shop over… there! We sell silver-chained pipe necklaces, so you can make the metaphor literal!" While being led to the aforementioned gift shop, Gouten's eyes drift off to the side and towards a banner hung up just about the entrance, bold and proud for everyone to see on their way out.

There's no shortage of tough customers out there on the streets, living a good life in Metro.

This museum was built to honor something everyone had to work with just because it was there before we were.

A truly strange place indeed. Strange, but nice.

When the tour ends, Gouten, Li-Fen and Tera find themselves outside. Tera and Li-Fen are chatting idly amongst themselves while Gouten occasionally chips in with a question or grunt whenever he's spoken to. He learns a lot about them both; about how Li-Fen was almost a victim of Shadaloo, and the thrilling tale of how she had been rescued by Chun-li. In turn, Tera tells her story about how she came to discover the woman in the first place and the training she had gone through.

Gouten offhandedly mentions his own training, or lack there-of. "Back home, I used to watch my grandfather and mother spar and some things stuck," he says.

"Has no one ever told you what ki is?"

"Moving here was the most I've ever heard the term in my life."

Tera sighs and shakes her head, "Honestly..."

"Uh, Gouten?" Li-Fen squeaks, "The thing I told you about, it's happening."

Gouten nods, "Those people in Chinatown?"

"Yep. They could use someone takin' them down a peg or two."

The man hums, "Alright. We've got to go, nani. See you around."

"...uh, alright?"

"I'm rooting for you."

A faint blush tints Tera's cheeks, "So you've said." When the two walk away, Tera sighs to herself, content with the day.

Until her watch beeps and her eyes go wide.

"What the...? It's past noon! Oh, crap! I totally lost track of time! When did - how did -" She scrambles for her ticket book and tries to take a talley. Surely, having as many as she does would be a good thing, right? She skims through quickly until she gets to a page that stands out with handwriting that's not her own.

I'm rooting for you. :)

"Oh, my God! When did he -"

Ding!

Tera blinks. She looks at her scooter. Another blink.

"You can't be serious!"

"What am I up against, kid?"

"Nothin' major. Just some guys causing trouble around Chinatown recently. They wear yellow boxes on their heads and call themselves the Canary Crate. They've been attacking people at random."

Gouten makes a thoughtful sound and after a moment, a small, wolf-like grin appears on his face. Aside from Luke, he hasn't had a moment to really stretch his legs since coming to the city and was beginning to get restless. Tiko was a good sparring partner, but Coach seemed adamant to keep them on different schedules. And Bosch was...

Gouten shakes his head. He'll deal with that another time. For now, he had an objective. A target.

Today was shaping up to be an interesting one.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed, feel free to leave a review if you did.