“Tried to hit us with a car? I’ll give you points for being creative. Are you guys former Nest dwellers?” Emilio said, making casual banter in the middle of the fight.

  His opponent growled, going for a kick to disrupt Emilio’s stance. Such an attack was strong, did help when it made contact. But was far too risky against a skilled opponent.

  Emilio quickly side stepped the attack. His cleaver returning to his folded up state, he swung the blade at the man’s leg, slashing through the limb, down to the bone. “No response? Come on, humor me here.” He said, before delivering the finishing blow, slicing through the man’s torso. He didn’t have time to rest though, quickly one of the Right Arrows dashed in, wielding a hammer.

  The steel instrument smashed into the side of Emilio’s chest, causing him to hiss in pain. Guess that’s what he gets for not taking things seriously. Emilio fell over, the right side of his rest searing with pain. The larger man stood over him, weapon raised. Looks like this was it for him, wasn’t it? Things ending as quickly and easily as this? Damn… Well, that’s how it is in this job.

  That’s what he would’ve said, if he Oliver didn’t quickly step in. Yet again proving her monstrous strength, she tackled the man, full tilt, knocking him aside and knocking the hammer out of his hand, causing it to fall on Emilio, painfully but zero lasting damage.

  Staggered away, the large man swung a fist at Oliver. Sure, she was strong, but she still had to block the man’s attacks. Her feet skidded on the ground as a strong punch hit her arms, only for her to quickly return with an attack of her own, that the man also blocked. The two of them were now fighting completely hand to hand; it almost looked comical, due to the significant height difference between them, like a child fighting an adult while still keeping up with them. Didn’t distract from the brutal violence of the fight though.

  “Emilio, you okay?” Heidi shouted, currently preoccupied with a fight of her own, a second one already lied dead at her feet. The one she was currently fighting was putting up more of a fight, forcing her to stay light on her feet.

  “I’m fine, don’t worry.” Emilio got, put rubbing his side, waiting for the pain to subside. Heidi looked like she had her fight covered, Oliver was doing fine for now, and with two of the enemies dead, that left one more for Emilio to fight. Emilio swung at the man, who wielded an ax, their weapons clashing. “Come on, how many of you are in the back? This can’t be all of you?” For the Operator of the Office, he certainly did complain a lot.

  “Can it.” The axe-man said, shoving Emilio away. “What is with you Fixers and not shutting up?” He yelled, as he swung at Emilio, who blocked the attack.

  “Just want to know more is all. You’d rather we shut up?” Emilio asked. His tone didn’t even sound sarcastic or like he was making playful banter. He returned with an attack of his own, that was swiftly blocked. “Heh… I guess I’m the fool for thinking you’d answer my questions, heh…”

  Heidi kept up with her opponent, preferring to dodge his attacks. Unlike Emilio, who fought with an almost bored expression on his face, Heidi fought with a large grin. “Emilio, stop trying to chat with them.” She shouted to her boss, as her opponent went for a stab that she quickly deflected. Her opponent preferred to make attacks for her right side. Did he think that she couldn’t see from that side? Did he not know that the eyepatch was just a fancy prosthetic? She didn’t care if her prosthetics were on the cheaper side of things. As long as she could move them, as long as she could hold a sword and see her opponent, the quality of them didn’t really matter to her. Gripping her sword, she bashed the man in the forehead with the pommel of the sword, stunning him. “We’re done here~” She said, slashing through the man. Her gleaming white sword being the few bright things in the garage, now dyed red with blood. As her opponent fell, she took a new cigarette from her pocket, and lit up. Just a quick ciggie break.

  Emilio meanwhile was still struggling with his opponent. “I could-” He blocked an attack, “I could use a little help here, Heidi!” As he dodged an attack, he put his cleaver into its folded up form. With one swing, he managed to sever the man’s hand, the one holding the weapon, causing the ax and his hand to clang and splatter to the ground. “Nevermind, I got it.” He said, looking over to his partner. Looking around, searching for Oliver, he spotted her. She was still fighting her opponent, the two of them still fighting bare knuckled. “Go help Oliver, I have some questions for this guy.” The most annoying part of the job: Interrogation.

  Heidi, cleaning the blood off her weapon, cigarette hanging from her mouth, silently nodded. “Mm…” Then, ran off to help Oliver out.

  “So…” Emilio knelt down to the literally disarmed man. “Are you gonna tell us how many more guys you have here. While you’re at it, can you tell us why exactly you kidnapped a workshop owner? I’d like to know.”

  Holding the stump where his hand use to be, the Right Arrow grimaced. “Kiss my ass…” Yeah that was about the answer he expected.

  Why even bother asking questions if this is how it goes? Emilio sighed. He hated interrogating people anyways. “Have it your way.” He said, unfolding his cleaver. With one swing, he decapitated the man. What wonderful last words.

  That was a waste of a few seconds.

  If Heidi’s fighting style could be described as elegant and Emilio’s fighting style could be described as practical, Oliver’s fighting style could easily be described as brutal. Feral even. Throwing her full weight and strength into each punch and kick, blocking most attacks and only dodging when she deemed it absolutely necessary. Whenever she was thrown to the ground, she would scramble on all fours before getting back on her feet. Her sleeves were rolled up, her knuckles speckled with blood. Some of her own, some of her opponent, both her and her opponent were equally stained with each other’s blood. Even her bear mask didn’t avoid getting a bit on it, its goofy googly eyes staring in different directions. Yet, somehow the man she had been fighting, someone standing almost two heads over her, looked more tired.

  Heidi ran over, sword at the ready, but Oliver held her hand out, telling her to stop.

  “I got this.” Oliver said. She said, removing her mask, tossing it over to Heidi. “Hold mask.” Her face was oddly determined.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Huh?” Heidi said, catching the mask. She’d step in and help, fights like this weren’t the place to show off and be all cool. But she wanted to see where this went.

  “You got a pretty face.” The Right Arrow said, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Where’d they get you? Those enhancements of yours aren’t normal.”

  Oliver didn’t say anything. Instead she waited. “Come.” She said, prompting the man to take a swing at her.

  “Fine.” The man grunted, “Once we’re done here, we’re opening you up. Whatever implants you have in you can probably sell for-” He quickly lunged forward in a surprise attack, swinging his fist at Oliver’s face. The worst (and last) mistake he could’ve made.

  Oliver grabbed his wrist and opened her mouth wide, biting down on his wrist. Emilio and Heidi could’ve gone their whole lives without hearing the sound of sharpened human teeth biting through skin and muscle, but here they were. Actually, didn’t sound that much different than biting into a nice, juicy chicken drumstick.

  …Great, now they’re not going to be able to unhear that comparison the next time they went out for dinner.

  Regardless of what it sounded like, the man screamed in pain, as Oliver tore a sizable chunk from his fist. The skin, tendons, and muscle handing from her lips. Was this some form of psychological warfare? Because it was certainly working. The large man’s eyes were wide with terror, as Oliver swung another fist at him, directed at his face. Too frightened and bewildered to dodge or block, the attack made a clean hit, splattering the man’s head and toppling him over. He fall over limply and went still.

  “Damn…” Heidi stared, Emilio right behind her. Letting this girl join was simultaneously the best and worst idea they ever had.

  “Please don’t swallow it- And she already did.” Emilio grumbled, regarding the piece of flesh in Oliver’s mouth.

  Heidi handed Oliver’s mask back to its owner, fighting the temptation to put it on herself. “Here you go… But damn, where did you learn to fight? That was insane.” Looks like it was their turn to question someone on their inexplicable fighting skills. “Just a Backstreet Butcher, huh? You’re not secretly from some super strong Syndicate right?”

  “I’m not.” Oliver said, putting her mask back on. “But you are, aren’t you?” She said, tapping the wolfsbane tassel on Heidi’s sword. “Miss Index?” She didn’t elaborate further, and walked over to Emilio, deciding to follow his directions.

  Heidi smirked, “You’re observant aren’t you? Correction: Miss Former Index.” Oliver had a bit of an attitude when she actually talked, Heidi liked that.

  Emilio, interrupting the conversation, motioned for her to follow. “Come on, the rest of them should be this way, Miss Former Index.”

  “Shut up, Mr Former Nest Dweller.” She said in jest, no hostility behind her words, even giving him a light punch on his arm.

  “Come on, that was a low blow.” Emilio sighed.

  “Was it?” Heidi said, finding Emilio’s pessimistic side to be amusing. “You hated the Nest, didn’t you?”

  “Well, yes, but you know the reason I left.” Emilio said.

  “No actually,” Heidi said, “You just said you left the Nest to start over… Right?”

  “That’s the short of it,” He said, “I’ll tell you the story another time.” He motioned down the garage. “Come on, that workshop guy could be getting tortured right about now.”

  “We really should’ve learned his name, it’s getting tiring calling him ‘workshop guy’” Heidi said. “But that’s more the client’s fault for not telling us.”

  All three of them had something to hide, or rather, something to runaway from. Just like the logo on the back of their jackets. But, it was with that underlying theme, these three with wildly different pasts and connections, were able to connect.

  “So why do you think they kidnapped a workshop owner?” Heidi asked. “I mean, I can think of at least 2 reasons.”

  “No idea. Definitely a sign that these guys have bigger and better plans; they probably want to force him to work for them, maybe want to tell him for ransom money. What do you think, Oliver?” He said, looking to their newest member.

  “Mm…” She grunted

  “Yeah, agreed,” Heidi responded.

  “I hope the people parked here have insurance.” Emilio remarked on the few cars parked here. Very few people in the Backstreets actually owned cars. Those who did didn’t own them for long. Already a few of them were stained with blood and damage from wayward attacks.

  “Are you kidding? They probably don’t. What do you think, Oliver?” Emilio asked again, already knowing the response he would get.

  “Mm…” Oliver said.

  “Yeah, agreed.” Emilio nodded.

  “Hold!” Heidi said, stopping. Then, she shouted. “Dodge!”

  All 3 members jumped to the side. A gun shot was heard and a bullet flew past the group. “Guns?” Emilio said, eyes wide.

  “Is that why they kidnapped the guy…?” Heidi said.

  Walking out from the shadows of the garage, a strange looking weapon on his shoulder, was the man himself. He was a brown haired man, wearing a leather outfit, decorated with arrows. He approached the trio with a sneer on his face. “Dammit, I’m gonna kick that idiot’s teeth in. That should’ve hit!” He lowered the weapon on his shoulder; it looked like a cross between a short spear and a gun. Like a reverse bayonet, by being a gun attached to a blade, rather than a blade attached to a gun. Loading a bullet into the chamber, fumbling with it a little bit, he sighed. “Anyways, what the hell do you guys want?”

  “We’re here to get the guy in the back.” Emilio said, stepping forward as the leader. “I take it that’s not a weapon of your design?” He said, pointing at the gun spear. In the City, guns were incredibly rare. If you were to use a gun, you were either super wealthy, or a workshop with the ability to jump through the hoops to make them. Emilio? He hated them. The recoil hurt his arm, were stupidly costly, and it wasn’t fun to use them.

  “Got that right.” He nodded, “Name’s Lester.” He patted the gun spear. “The guy back there is a total coward, but this weapon is pretty snazzy. He had it on him when we jumped him. But I think it’s better in my hands… What do you think?”

  “We think we’re gonna cut you down and give it back.” Heidi said. “So why don’t you shut up and fight, huh?”

  “What she said.” Emilio said, “I would like to ask you why you kidnapped him. But it’s not my job to figure out the fine details. I’m sure you’re fine with that.”

  Lester slowly nodded, “You Fixers are all the same. Just do your bloody job and get paid. But who am I to criticize? Fixers? Syndicates? When it comes down to brass tax, we’re just a bunch of guys hungry for blood…”

  Emilio was silent for a little bit, rubbing the back of his neck. Then, finally, he looked to the other two, “Heidi, Oliver? I want you guys to keep going forward and rescue the client. I want to fight this guy mano a mano.”

  “What? You sure?” Heidi asked. “You’re not suddenly caring about honor all of a sudden?”

  “No…” He shook his head. “I simply want to test how far I have to go…”

  Heidi, confused and slightly concerned, looked over to Oliver, who shrugged. Looking back to Emilio, she sheathed her sword, “Y-your the boss.” She motioned for Oliver to follow her, and the two of them ran further into the garage. Lester inexplicably had the respect to let the two of them run past. Was it respect or did he just not want to fight three people at once.

  Emilio only nodded and stepped up to the metaphorical plate. He hardly ever smiled, but this time, he had a wide grin on his face. “So? You ready, Lester was it?” The only light in the dark tunnel was the orange glow of Emilio’s cleaver, and the dim lights of the garage. “Come on, don’t die on me too quickly.”

  Lester, feeling a strange sense of kinship with the Fixer, pointed his gun spear at him. “See you on the other side.”