xChapter 49 - Battle At The Bodega
Hatred. It's something that many people use to fuel themselves. Whether it's hatred for minor inconveniences or people, it's something everyone is all too familiar with.
And for Draco Maleby, he is no exception. As a popular freshman at Seastar High, he's made a name for himself for hating the north side with every cell in his body. So much so that many fellow freshmen follow him around and follow his commands.
Yet there's something he and many people who are blinded by hatred are blind to. And that is walking into a losing battle.
As he and several of Seastar High's kids rush towards Blanko & Alex, they were about to realize just how dumb they were to challenge these two.
Alex sees three people swing their fists at him, and he manages to duck and then deliver uppercuts to all the people who swung at him, most of them fall; however, for the few still standing, Alex delivers gut punches to all of them. Blanko rushes toward 3 of the Seastar High kids and performs a roundhouse kick into the head of one of them, sending that person into the person next to him, knocking them both out. Blanko then delivers several jabs into the other person there until he falls.
"Three-for-three huh?" Blanko says as he rushes towards Draco, "This guy's mine!"
"Not if I get to him first!" Alex yells as he too rushes toward Draco.
Draco screams as he flails his arms, "DON'T HURT ME!!!"
Unfortunately for Draco, Alex & Blanko both deliver simultaneous attacks on the fellow freshmen; Blanko hits him with a spinning back kick while Alex delivers an overhand straight. These two attacks cause Draco to let out a very weird gasp as he falls to the ground unconscious.
Seeing just how quickly the two mopped the floor with them, the still conscious seastar high kids grab their unconscious brethren and make a retreat.
"For people who like to stir up trouble they sure are a bunch of cowards," Alex remarks as he waves his hand.
"Yeah thanks for the help," Blanko says as he sighs, "But now I'm going to have to clean all this up."
Alex looks around to see several pieces of shattered glass from broken jars, some blood, and some dirt.
"Yeah this sure sucks," Alex says.
"Yeah, it would be nice if a friend could help me clean this up," Blanko says while glancing at Alex.
"Yeah that would be cool," Alex says before he helps the stunned Hamster & Bennet carry their groceries and leave, "Anyways I'll see you around man!"
Blanko groans as Alex, Hamster, & Bennet leave, making Blanko the only one to clean up the whole mess. And to make matters worse, the two also took the dry white wine with them.
"He's gonna hear about this next time we work out," Blanko murmurs as he continues to clean.
REQUEST COMPLETE!
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At Starlight High, Ronnie and Marcus are running down the halls and into the gym, looking for X.
"He couldn't have gone far!" Ronnie says as the two slowly look around the gym.
The two pass by the bleachers only to hear the noise of someone eating popcorn on them. The two look to see X Locke sitting in the top row.
"Uh, play ball?" X suggests.
Unfortunately for him, both Ronnie & Marcus block off the exits before he can make his escape.
"X if you don't do your homework then you'll probably fail the grade," Marcus says.
"Wait really? Shit, I guess I have to do it," X says as he walks toward Marcus.
"That's it? You folded just like that!" Ronnie asks, completely blindsided by X's total 180.
"Well yeah, I got big plans for my future so I better not screw it up, even if homework is the worst," X replies.
"Well, at least you're cooperating," Marcus sighs.
As the three begin to walk back to Amnestor's classroom, Ronnie takes a look at the time and begins to walk toward the entrance to the school.
"Sorry guys, I gotta go, the next request I got is about to begin," Ronnie replies as he goes to leave.
"Okay, but what's the request?" Marcus asks as he goes to take a look at the piece of paper.
The final request on there is 'have Ronnie Everst visit The Crescent Cafe at 5:30 PM'. Despite not knowing why, Marcus begins to feel a pit form in his stomach.
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The Crescent Cafe is a small cafe in Starlight City's north district. With overly priced drinks and snacks, glass windows, and Victorian-era architecture, one would easily mistake it for a place where the rich and powerful reside, though most of the clientele is all just tired adults needing a boost in caffeine. As Ronnie enters he looks around and sees a man sitting at a table in the cafe. Ronnie makes his way over to him.
"So you were the person that wanted to talk to me," Ronnie says as he sits down before jokingly adding, "I didn't take myself to be that popular. Guess I was wrong."
However, despite his confidence, a bit of worry hides behind Ronnie's demeanor since the person who invited him to the cafe is none other than the CEO of Club Azure, Jerry Pitt. The very same man he saw discussed his plans to take over the entire city for himself.
"I've been wanting to meet you for a long time boy," Jerry says, "My name's Jerry Pitt but you can just call me Jerry."
"Okay Jerry, why did you want to see a high schooler?" Ronnie asks.
"Oh it's simple really," Jerry says as he extends his hand out to him, "I want you to come to work for me."
Ronnie looks at his hand shocked. Working for Club Azure? What exactly does he provide to this man?
"I'm sorry but I don't really know you," Ronnie answers.
"You don't?" Jerry says with a sad look in his eyes before coldly saying, "Of course, you won't. You see, I run a business by the name of Club Azure. It's a simple nightclub but we've been planning on expanding into several different businesses more targeted towards your demographic. And I figured you would make a great addition to my crew."
"I see, but why me specifically?" Ronnie asks.
"Well," Jerry begins to say, "You remind me a lot of the founder of Club Azure."
"Who's that?"
"Your father, Reagan Everst," Jerry answers.
"What?!" Ronnie replies.
"It's true," Jerry says as he begins to reminisce on the old days, "Your father and I were friends back when you were just born and we both needed money. So he suggested opening up a nightclub. I took on more of a managerial role while he was a bartender. Back then it was just us working, trying to get some money, and things finally started to look up. That was until that horrible accident that took him from this world."
Hearing those words, Ronnie doesn't know what to say. He wonders if what Jerry is saying is true, that he worked with him in the past, but the more he thinks about it the more Ronnie realizes…
He barely knows a thing about his dad. He doesn't know what he was like, all the stuff he did with his life, none of it.
"I'm sorry Mister Pitt but, I'm already busy with schoolwork," Ronnie begins to say, "so I don't think I can work for you."
"Oh that's fine," Jerry says, "I was just offering since I wanted to help out the son of Reagan Everst. But it doesn't look like you need my help, but still, it was nice seeing you."
"L-likewise," Ronnie begins to say as he gets up and starts to leave, "it was nice meeting you too."
"Take care," Jerry says as he waves.
Ronnie waves back before leaving the cafe with more questions than he ever had before. As Jerry watches Ronnie go two other individuals walk over to Jerry and sit at the cafe. One of them is the arrow of Club Azure, Li-Wei Zhang. While the other is a tall muscular man with green eyes, olive skin, and black hair in a flat top hairstyle with long bushy sideburns. The man is wearing a white button-up shirt with suspenders and black shoes.
"So, I guess he didn't join," Li-Wei says.
"Shame heard you liked the kid," the muscular man replies.
"I was seeing where his loyalty was. With us or the MSA," Jerry Pitt replies.
"And?" The muscular man replies.
"I still don't know Martin," Jerry replies.
"I see," The muscular man and Club Azure's head of security, Martin McBride responds.
As the three sit there, Li-Wei takes out a white document and hands it to Jerry.
"I have another business idea, what do you think?" Li-Wei asks as he starts to smoke a cigarette.
Jerry takes a look at the document before smiling, "It's perfect."
As the three sit there, Martin McBride glances at the logo of the cafe they're in. The logo has 'The Crescent Cafe' in big words but in smaller text underneath it the words 'Subsidiary of Club Azure' are there.
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As Ronnie walks down the street he enters Burrito Bistro to see the rest of his club members at a table discussing what they did today. Ronnie begins to walk to them but stops. What is he going to tell them? Not only is his uncle the CEO of a company involved in gangs but his father founded one? And that the leader of that gang wanted him to join? He looks at them all sitting there, enjoying themselves, and figures he shouldn't sour the mood and walks out of the restaurant.
As Ronnie walks down the street as the sun starts to set he figures that he'll tell the group about all that stuff later, once he gets answers to the questions he needs to figure out. And there's only one person Ronnie knows who could give him the answers he so desperately needs. As Ronnie heads home, he opens the front door to see his mom, Sally Everst setting the table for dinner.
"Oh about time you got home," Sally says, "Come sit down and eat while the food is hot."
Ronnie begins to walk over and sit down, as he does so he feels the words he wants to say at the tip of his tongue, but they aren't coming out. However, determined to finally get answers, Ronnie manages to speak.
"Mom, can we talk about Dad?" Ronnie asks.
"Sure, what do you want to know?" Sally replies nonchalantly.
However, Sally's demeanor changes as she notices tears begin to well up in Ronnie's eyes as he answers, "I want to know who he was. Who he really was."
See You Next Chapter!~