The Finals Part 2: Echoes of the past

The Warrior of Wrath

It was widely assumed and accepted that Casey was the angriest mf to ever join up with any gang.

Long before he even dreamt of  becoming a gangster he was already infamously known for his terrible temper and white-hot anger.

It was said that when he was angered his blood boiled as hot as the sun, and the air around him became thick with the feeling of bloodlust and unquenchable rage. Some claimed he was the reincarnation of the god of war, Area or maybe some spawn of satan. A few even went as far as saying he had taken on an entire police squadron by himself.  All manner of rumors spread around and followed him wherever he went.

And all were false.

Most of them anyway.

The only story that was actually true (by Casey's own admission) was the one about him ripping a Rottweiler apart with his bare hands and forcing the owner of said dog to eat it.

This wasn't without reason though. After all, it was that kid Fletcher who let his dog partially cripple Tanniss.

That was the first time Casey had felt a pure, genuine and wholehearted anger at something. His parents begged him to let Fletcher go.

But when it came to family there was no such thing as forgiveness.

Three years in prison for animal cruelty and 12 months forced anger management classes led to him developing anger issues that he never really had in the first place.

And simply because it's human nature, people never seemed to mind their business or just had to be some sort of asshole and he usually had no qualms about putting them in their place. Incident after incident occurred and he ended up being assigned under someone who would 'help' him with his anger management.

Triple A.

Unlike other people; Triple was calm and quiet, most of the time not even bothering to speak to Casey throughout majority of the time they spent with each other. And the white haired boy was fine with it. Triple didn't push into his boundaries and he did the same for him.

It was during one of their scheduled outings that they met Noah and Crystal in a small diner. Noah did something that set him off and soon they began fighting, which drew the attention of Boris and LR who happened to be in the diner as well.

Fast forward about a year and a half and here they were, on the grand stage of the Brawlhalla finals.

Not so grand seeing as he and his teammates were getting their teeth kicked in by a fourteen year old and her deputy.

Casey wiped the side of his face where Joan's staff had made contact. It was a lot sturdier than he made it out to be, and contrary to what he thought the weapon and it's user were surprisingly tough.

They were too far in to back down now. The fate of Taitanzu...the fate of his sister's future was resting on his and his fellow gangsters shoulders. He couldn't bear the thought of going back home to Tanniss without his share of the prize money.

The thought of being unable to fulfill what he had promised and disappointing his sister was kinda annoying. It reminded him of how helpless he was when her leg got  crippled.

Scratch that. It was very annoying.

Hell he was getting mad.

"Godamnit...."  Casey caught Joan's staff in-between his teeth just as it was about to make contact with his face, retaliating in the wildest way possible and biting through the weapon like it was made of bread. 

"I didn't come here so that we could go home empty handed!"

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The Last Resort of Tallahassee

He had no idea where that nickname even came from. He just happened to always be around to save Killer and Boris from trouble whenever they were in over their heads.  Whether it was with corrupt police, estate developers that wanted to tear down their favorite hangout or with whatever gang wanted to take over Tallahassee at the moment, Lance Redford was always there to save the day when all else had failed.

One day Boris jokingly referred to him as their last resort and Killer loved the name so much that he called him that everywhere they went. Eventually the name stuck like glue.

He didn't mind it at all. He was actually proud of the name. It meant that when all hope was lost, he was the shining light that came with victory. When there was nowhere else to turn to he was like their strong tower. He was Tallahassee's final stand and he swore to himself that he would uphold that title.

But he failed.

He broke his vow.

Boris was dead because he was incapable of protecting him.

He had disappointed Boris when he needed his help the most and now his oldest friend was gone with the wind, all because he had to go on a date with Christine.

There was only one thing he could do to make it up to his deceased commander.

He had to find it.

He had to find it for Boris.

LR finally reached the bottom of Boris' drawer in the Taitanzu HQ and caught sight of what he had been searching for.

It was a ka-bar combat knife with a jet black blade and white handle. It's pouch had the same warrior kanji as the one on Boris' eye-patch.

"Perfect"

LR holstered the blade to his belt before proceeding to hang Boris' commander jacket--a heavy coat with a fur collar that had the same colors as Taitanzu's uniforms-- on his shoulders.

"Get ready Reaper...." LR looked at Boris' dead body that he had positioned on his chair in the hideout. In a way it looked like he was still there, waiting to give out orders as usual.

LR tightened his grip on the knife and laughed an empty, hollow laugh.

"... I'm going to cut you up and feed you to the pigs!"

************************************

The Submission God

If anyone had told Triple A that he would one day end up in a gang, he probably would have shook your hand and sarcastically praised you for making such an absurd assumption.

As far as he could remember (which is pretty far just so you know) he had always been bored out of his mind.

His day to day life was so boring that sometimes he couldn't bear the thought of being alive, knowing that each day was going to be as uneventful as the last.

That was until his mom contracted some random disease.

Fortunately it was curable. The problem was paying for the hospital bills. She had to borrow some money from her siblings just to start the treatment, and as things progressed the higher the bills climbed.

Triple and his mom knew that the moment she got better her good for nothing siblings were going to be on her case 24/7 for the cash.

So Triple in his adolescent wisdom decided to go and make money on his own.

Stealing from small time stores wasn't a problem for him. It was for a good cause. He was so good at it that he soon got bored. He decided to take it up a notch and began tailing gangsters that just made money off their drug or arms trades and taking their money for himself.

He never really had much of a reason to fight prior to this but he figured if he was gonna keep doing it then he might as well become a better fighter. That's where YouTube came in.

It didn't take him long to favor and master a technical style of fighting, and it took him an even shorter amount of time to begin using it on anyone unlucky enough to get in his way.

This method of making money soon began to get boring though, and just when Triple was thinking of getting a gun and robbing banks, he found an ad for some anger management office looking for a supervisor.

Naturally he took it. It was free cash and it was legal.

He got partnered with a kid named Casey and the two of them gelled well together. Casey's explosiveness and Triple's silence made for an interesting dynamic and they soon found themselves hanging out a lot outside of the office.

One trip to a diner and a chance meeting with Boris and Lance led to him joining a gang.

At first he was only there for the money. Taitanzu was just a means to an end for him. In fact his original plan was to one day find where the gang kept most of it's finances, paralyze them all and make away with the money.

But somewhere along the line, the antics of his fellow gang heads and the overall craziness of their activities started to grow on him. He not only found them interesting...he also found himself warming up to them...in a friendly way.

Of course each and every one of them had their own reasons and motivations behind joining Taitanzu and wanting to win Brawlhalla. But even with that, they were all willing to help each other accomplish their dreams.

Even right now, he was getting rocked in the cheek by Amber just for the sake of helping Casey with his sister's leg...or reuniting Killer with his sister and they were doing the same for him.

He never had any real friends growing up, and his family was only just him and his mom. Taitanzu...was like the family he was never allowed to have.

"I'll keep fighting..." Triple stood up and cracked his knuckles, smiling as Amber prepared herself to attack him and his friends again.

"I'll keep fighting for all our dreams!"

************************************

The Taitanzu Wildcard

Noah had always felt like an underdog ever since he was little.

His small stature and playful disposition didn't do much to help his reputation either.

No matter what he did, be it dying parts of his hair black, starting all manner of fights or breaking nearly every rule in school; people never gave him the respect he deserved.

His parents had finally had it with him when he instigated a riot at what was a peaceful LGBT rally and they sent him away to go and live with his cousin Crystal to learn how to become a better person.

That somehow made him feel worse. Now he had to be kept under someone that definitely had no respect for him and now he was stuck in a new city with all his street cred dropped back to zero.

It was a real gold experience.

Then word spread around that gang fighting was now a legalized sport. Noah couldn't be happier. He finally had a platform to boost his popularity and make a name for himself.

As usual, luck was not on the side of Noahstotle Valentine.

Deixis repeatedly rejected his offer to join them. No matter how many times he went back to their leader or how many of their initiations he had to force his way into (he always had the best records by the way) he was always turned down.

Down in the dumps and in a sour mood, he and Crystal took themselves out to a nearby diner where as usual, trouble followed.

The blonde had accidentally spilled some of his soup on a white haired guy passing by and the boy exploded, swearing to heaven and hell that he was going to rip Noah apart.

He was looking down on him.

This boy was just like the rest of them.

Underestimating him for his smaller size.

Before Noah even knew what he was doing he picked up Crystal's fork and jammed it into Casey's face, ripping through the flesh of his mouth and leaving an everlasting scar. Their fight caught the attention of two other guys and Taitanzu was born.

Finally. Noah belonged. He was finally accepted (though Casey protested heavily at the time) Taitanzu skyrocketed he and his fellow gang members names into infamy; Noah at last got the recognition he felt he so righteously deserved! Everything was going up for him. It was the beginning of good times for the rest of his life.

Until the day that Amber attacked him and Eliza.

He had never felt so little. Never felt so small and belittled in all his life. Even when outnumbered or facing off against Casey he never felt so afraid.

But that girl. She made him feel like a cat caught in a pitbulls paws. Like a fish that had taken the bait hook, line and sinker. It was a feeling that disgusted him.

Here he was, facing Amber again, that feeling of disgust rising in his body.

Even in a 5 on 2 she was still managing to keep them all at bay while barely breaking a sweat. It was like she was toying with them, gently expending as little energy as possible while she wasted all their stamina. It was Joan that was doing most of the offense while Amber defended her...in a way it was just like what Casey and Triple did in their own fight.

"Wait a second..."

How didn't it click in his mind before? All of the Fort Lauderdale Warriors...from Joan to the weakest soldier....they were all distractions!

They were helping Amber reserve her energy.

"Guys! We have to take Joan out! Only after we take her down...that's when the real fight begins!"

************************************

The Demon of the Fields

Killer threw someone that was hanging on his back to the ground in front of him. Throughout this fight he had been handling all the small fry so it was easier to take on Amber.

Now that he had heard Noah's command it began to make sense. No wonder the FLW had so many soldiers... Killer doubted that they were this many before... Amber must've somehow recruited more people just for this strategy!

Killer tensed his muscles, tucked his head down and began sprinting through the waves of gangsters between him and The FLW's gang heads, bulldozing any and everything that moved.

As soon as he reached them he received a knee to the stomach, barely managing to move his hands to block the impact.

"We finally meet..." Amber grinned, crossing her arms triumphantly. Noah was right. She still looked perfectly fine without so much as a bead of sweat running down her face.

"While Joan deals with those ones, you're going to tell me everything I want to know..." She advanced on Killer, who's arms were unable to move due to the shock and force of the blow received.

"Nah fam. You's gonna have to run through the two of us before you can do that..." Casey and Noah pulled up by Killer's side, both of them breathing heavily and with minor bruises.

" A three on one? Don't mind if I do!"

She ran forward and threw a punch at Casey, who dodged just in time for Noah to kick her in the face.

Before she could recover from the attack Casey elbowed her in the back while Killer kicked her in the back of her knee, bending it forward and throwing her off her balance.

Just as she was about to fall Noah gave her an uppercut, sending her back into an upright position and back into the hands of Casey and Killer who delivered a double punch to her face, the impact enough to send her to the ground.

Only, she wasn't falling. She didn't budge at all.

"Are you guys done? I see you like chaining combo attacks together" Amber smirked as she caught Casey's hand and flipped him over her head and unto the ground before delivering a back elbow to Killer's face.

"Alrighty then! Let's get this thing really going!" She ran up to Noah and gave his shoulder a chop, nearly breaking his shoulder blades in half and making him gasp in pain.

Casey got up and tackled her from behind, trying to make her fall but she tensed her entire body at the moment of impact, reflecting his momentum to make him receive the same amount damage he was outputting.

"Fuck! It was like tackling a concrete wall!" Casey muttered as he staggered, dazed by the impact.

"Trash! Every single one of you!" Amber snarled just as Killer blitzed her from the side, getting a solid kick in on her ribs that had enough force to at least crack some of the bones.

Amber powered through the kick and caught his leg, using her free hand to grab his neck and choke slam him into the ground with such force that his body bounced.

Killer tried to get up but Amber put her boot firmly on his chest.

"Now...you answer me..or I show you why they call me Bodyparts"

Killer tried to lift her leg off him but it was impossible. He had lost too much energy.

"What do you know about the man who killed my parents? What happened to my brother in prison?!"

"...I know... everything about your parents killers....and your brother... isn't in prison..." Killer coughed up some blood and it splashed against her boot. She didn't seem to mind though.

"Killers? So there were two of them! And what happened to my brother!? Answer me!" She applied more pressure to his chest, the sound of creaking ribs could be heard.

"Your mother was killed by dad....and as for your brother....he killed our father... he's no longer in prison because..."

Amber took her foot off Killer's chest, the shock and realization finally making it into her head.

"Your brother is me! I killed dad!"

Amber was silent. Her face looked absolutely devoid of emotion, except for her eyes.

Her blue eyes burned with a new fire.

"My brother...is that you....Clòvis?!"