The Way of The Bar Men

*Hah* *HaH* *HaH*

"Do it," Dragon said as he gritted his teeth. He could feel the cold steel from the blade across his neck that was mixed with the warm spill of blood that was taken from him by Vito.

"If you are going to do it, Then do it!" Dragon yelled as he closed his eyes and braced himself for the worst.

Vito pulled his dagger back and let go of Dragon as he moved away from him. Leaving him no more injured than he already was.

"What!? Why?" Dragon asked confused.

"What type of monster do you think I am? Just because I beat you doesn't mean I am going to kill you. You seem to have already suffered enough anyways, so why not enjoy what life you have left?" Vito asked. After saying those words, Vito began to wipe away the blood from his daggers in front of Dragon so as to put them away again.

Dragon watched in confusion about his situation. He couldn't make sense as to why his enemy was sparring him, but as he looked around and saw the damage that had been done, he realized that these strange people hadn't killed a single person they had fought, even though they were wrecking the place as much as they could.

Sure there were many who were injured, but not to the point that they would never recover from them again.

"What's your end goal!?" Dragon asked this almost desperately as he was taking in breaths of air because of the immense pain that he was feeling. He also noticed that Vito had injured him in a way that kept him from moving as much.

"Why did you come here!? Who are you!? A rival family!? A gang!? Some people that work with the police!?" Dragon threw out as many accusations as he could at the masked man in front of him.

"Policemen don't get their hands this dirty, and what type of gang cosplays as they get ready to fight a small mob like this one?" Vito asked. "And do you really think that one of the 5 families would have the time to even bother dealing with a joke of a mafia-like you?"

"Then who are you people?" Dragon asked again much louder this time as he was clearly impatient to get his answer.

Vito paused as he thought up a good enough response in his mind. "I can't speak up for the rest of them because we are all very unique in our upbringings and what our role in this would be. But if I were to speak for myself then... I am the one who is going to run down the five families and make them all respect me!"

"Whether they want to or not, is not my concern. In the end, they will all bend a knee to someone who is much higher than them."

Dragon was left in shock as he heard these words. Just who was this person with the utmost confidence to say that he would rule over the 5 families and make them respect him? So much so that he didn't even bat an eye as he revealed this goal to his own enemy.

As Dragon lay on the ground he couldn't help but chuckle—just five of them. Just Five of them were all it took to take down an army of one hundred. If they happened to be more like him hanging around somewhere and they were all a group that had connections to one another...

Then surely, this man would achieve such a feat as ruling over the underground rulers of California.

'Well, it looks like Terra hasn't finished his fight yet. In fact, it looks like they haven't even started!?' Vito thought in surprise. He then saw them entering a fighting stance, 'Oh, it looks like this is when they are starting to fight! Well, too bad, a deal is a deal. Guess you will have to move out of the way Terra.'

As Vito took his first step toward Terra he was interrupted by a yell from behind him.

"Stop right there!"

As Vito turned around, he was surprised to see that he was surrounded by a group of people. There looked to be around ten in total. "What the-? Where did you all come from!?" he asked befuddled.

"We were all in the bathrooms during your rampage on our friends and by the time we got out, this was the result. But you see, we are here to keep you the heck away from our boss by beating you here and now!"

"What the-!? All of you!!?" Vito asked.

"Yes!" the one who was speaking at first responded as he went on.

"A few of us have already surrounded your female friend over there and once we are done with you two, we are going to attack those guys by the bar counter. Our boss is more than enough for your friend over there so we don't need to help him. We just don't want him to have to deal with more than he already has!"

Vito looked towards Edith and was surprised at how he didn't notice that she too was surrounded by what seemed to be fifteen people. That was five more than him. He wanted to go and help her out instantly but then he saw that it didn't look like she was fighting.

In fact, she looked to be in annoyance, disgust, and repulsion all at once as she was making a face while crossing her hands as the entire crowd around her was gawking at a shirtless man standing atop a chair as he was dancing with a pipe in his hands.

'What is going on over there?' he wondered. They weren't even fighting. He didn't even know what they were doing but now he figured that he didn't wish to know.

"These people are right," Dragon said as he got up.

"Woah! Boss Dragon! You don't need to get up, you are injured! We can handle him on our own!" One of the boys in the group said as they were worriedly waiting to catch him in case he fell.

"Please, this much is nothing. I can still keep fighting," Dragon said with a smile.

"No no no no," Vito said as he waved his hand in front of him. "You are critically injured and can barely stand up. Please go back down sir."

"Ha! Tis but a scratch!" Dragon said as he stood up proud and tall.

Some more blood fell out of Dragon's body and then he fell down from the blood loss and into the boy's hand who was waiting patiently by his side.

"Nice save!" one of the boys said to him.

"Okay look, this is fun and all but I really have to go now-" Vito tried to say before he was interrupted once more.

"You are not going anywhere!" Dragon yelled as he was still in the boy's arms. "I heard what you had to say. You and that other guy made a deal to switch out if you would beat me in time. Well, you haven't beaten me! So for as long as I can still fight then our battle isn't over!"

"So you are staying right here and right now as you and I finish what we've started," Dragon said showing as much determination in his eyes as he could possibly muster. He knew that he wouldn't beat Vito, but now he only wanted to buy some time until Mikey or Mutt would have finished their battle and come and help him.

Vito stood still. He respected the resolve that he was witnessing and he was already surrounded by the gang to begin with, so it wasn't like he had any openings he could go through anyway. And even if he could make one which was definitely possible, they would simply just follow him around the bar and that would be problematic for him to have to deal with.

'Well Terra,' he thought in his mind. 'It looks like you get to have the fight that you wanted after all.'

Vito prepped himself by stretching his arms out. He wasn't going to use his daggers this time. If he was going to be stuck here for a while then he was going to do it while learning to face off as many opponents as possible, without a single crutch.

****

"So, what drink are you going to get?" Cyrus asked as he played around with the glass of apple juice he was holding.

"Quiet. I'm thinking," Dawn responded.

Cyrus, Dawn, and Minty were all sitting down together in the same row. With Cyrus on the left and Dawn on the right. Minty was left comfortably sleeping in between the two boys.

She was already asleep by the time they got to the counter, so she didn't even know that they were right next to her.

When Cyrus first got to the bar counter he was pretty cautious and thought that the bartender would spike their drinks seeing as how they invaded his bar and pretty much wrecked the place, but as he carefully watched and observed, he noticed that the bartender didn't seem mad.

In fact, he seemed pretty happy and was even enjoying himself in a conversation with Minty before she fell asleep. And now he was serving them like regular customers as if there wasn't an entire fight going around in the bar.

So seeing as how the bartender was surprisingly so relaxed with what was going on, he deduced that this wasn't the first time that he saw a riot happening in front of him, and despite it happening in his bar, Cyrus was glad that the bartender was still willing to serve them and treat them nicely.

So now he was simply trying to make some conversation as he waited for the others to finish their little squabbles.

"I would suggest the grape juice," Cyrus said to Dawn in a tone that couldn't be described as either cheeky or genuine.

Dawn turned his head slightly toward Cyrus as he gave him a side look that said, "Are you being serious right now?" And Cyrus merely just smiled with a hand underneath his chin.

He was still wearing his mask, but you could see the smile.

"Do you have orange juice?" Dawn asked the bartender as he turned away from Cyrus.

"Sorry, but this is a bar, not a restaurant. I do not have what it is that you ask for," the bartender replied.

Dawn furrowed his eyebrows under his mask, "Okay, then what do you have?"

"I could mention all the drinks that I have, but I am afraid that the list is far too long and you would not be entertained to have to listen to that now would you?" the bartender replied.

"Okay, then what do you have that you normally give to these kids all up in your building?" Dawn asked in a more frustrated tone. He felt like he was being toyed with.

"I usually give them milk and orange juice, it depends on the person and their preference," he replied.

"But I thought you said that you don't have orange juice!?" Dawn retorted as he almost threw a fit.

"It just finished before you got here. This beautiful young lady drank it all as she was looking for a drink that would be akin to her taste buds," he said as he waved his hand in front of the sleeping Minty.

"Then what would you recommend!" Dawn asked as he had finally given up on having this debate with someone over his drink. He was so annoyed that he even stood up from his seat in a fit.

"I would recommend the grape juice," the bartender answered with a smile.

Dawn gave the bartender a very long stare to see if he was joking or not and then after seeing that he was serious, he turned toward Cyrus, very slowly as he asked in his own mind. 'What type of wizardry did you use on this man?'

Cyrus responded by still smiling under his mask.

Dawn being left with no other choice took the grape juice and drank a bit of it by lifting his mask slightly above his face.

"So, is it good?" Cyrus asked as observed his reaction.

Dawn didn't look at him at all. He avoided eye contact as he made a small *mmhm* sound before he took another sip of it again.

As Dawn wasn't looking, Cyrus handed the bartender a small tip across the counter, as a token of appreciation for a deal that only the two of them would know about until the day that they would die.

"Hey~! Bartenderrrr!" Minty said as she woke up in a daze. "Passss me another drinnkkk~"

"No," the bartender said as he gently placed a finger on her head and pushed it back down on the counter for her to fall asleep again.

"You've had enough drinks for one day Mint and I would hate for you to have a bad hangover because of this."

Cyrus who was enjoying his apple juice stopped as he repeated the word, "Mint?"