14th Exploit: Joao and the Party Packers 4

Joao's desperation maneuver wasn't able to put a stop to the seemingly infallible Antonio. Tony, however, is still at a disadvantage. Meanwhile Sarah is determined to apprehend the psychotic Dante.

14th Exploit: Joao and the Party Packers Pt. 4

Several minutes prior

Sarah rests the majority of her weight on Dante's leg while maintaining a solid grasp on her wrists. Dante tries to wrest herself from Sarah but she isn't strong enough. To make things more helpless for the throat slitting psychopath Sarah is using her fighting spirit to strengthen her pin.

"Don't bother!" Sarah says with fire in her tone. "You're not going to get away for all the things you've done, and I'll make damn well sure to put you in the slammer personally!"

"Personally?!" Dante scoffs as she continues to struggle. She manages to bring her knife holding hand up a couple of inches off the ground. "That's really rich coming from a little girl who gets upset over a uniform! You're not even a cop!" Dante licks her lips. "I really look forward to how you'll react when I start picking your arteries out of your neck-"

Sarah slams down Dante's knife holding hand back to the ground, forcing it to release the knife. "The only thing you're going to be picking is the moss growing out of the side of your cage!!" Dante once again struggles vainly. "Now, you and your friends are going in-"

"Ahh! NO!" Sarahs head jolts back in reaction to hearing Jace's yell. Jace is being held from behind by one of the Party Packers, an arm around his neck. Dante swiftly smashes her left hand into Sarah's trapezius and grabs hard as she shifts her body to the right. Dante holds Sarah down with her left hand and has a knife drawn with her right. Her broken middle finger throbs in pain as she tightly grips the hilt and floats the blade above Sarah.

"Fatal mistake honey." Dante lets the knife hover over Sarahs neck. A sick, almost ecstatic look of joy crosses Dantes face. Jace kicks and yells, trying to break free of the packer.

"You get off of Sarah right now!" Jace tries to stomp on the packers foot but he anticipates the action. He brings the point of his foot to the back of Jaces knee joint and forces him on one leg. "Ow!"

"Hmmm." Dante slowly takes the knife away from Sarah's neck. "I have an idea!" Dante arrogantly glares at Sarah. "I want you to stand up. If you try to screw around with me your friend will leave the park in a body bag after losing an eye." Sarahs malice for Dante grows as the Packer stands up off of her. "Now get up." 

Sarah slowly stands. The packer holding Jace hostage pulls out a box cutter from his back pocket and holds it to Jace's eye. Jace begins to breathe in a panic. "Alright-" Dante speaks in a friendly tone. "-now walk over to the little guy." Sarah reluctantly begins to walk over toward Jace. Sarah's eyes briefly flash as an idea crosses her mind, but she closes them. Its something that could work, but she'd have to be patient for a little bit. Dante follows behind a foot away from Sarah, her knife trained on sarah's kidney. Sarah is three feet from Jace before Dante has her stop.

"Okay that's close enough." Dante grins. "Now we can play a little game. This party is missing a juke box but we're going to play some 'golden hits' regardless." Sarah's eyebrow twitches. She seems to have an clue as to what Dante is thinking. "The game goes like this; you hit him, and he hits you. If you don't hit him or if he doesn't hit you then the 'needle' scratches the record. In his case, he loses an eye. In yours, you lose a kidney." Dante gives a sick grin that seems to make even her partner shiver in fear. "The first one to lose their sound and is knocked cold is the 'golden hit' and lives, and they get to wake up to a broken record; their dead friend!"

"You're as sick as they get, and if you think for a second-" Sarah winces as Dante prods her kidney lightly with her knife.

"SSsshhhhhush it honey. The game is no fun if no one plays." Dante looks up at Jace and winks. "Right kiddo?"

Jace looks to be holding in a wimper. He bites his lower lip and glares at Dante. He thinks of what Antonio would say in this situation and forces a smirk. "You aren't going to get away from this you evil b***h!" Both Sarah and Dante are surprised at Jace's response. Jace looks over at Sarah and nods. "Its okay. I trust you to deal with things once the 'game' starts."

"Jace?" Sarah is still trying to comprehend Jace's reaction toward Dante. It would seem Tony was rubbing off a bit on him. "I-"

"Hey-" Dante interrupts. "The game doesn't involve talking, and it's already started. Now, make your friend there sing a different tune." Dante's tone turns jovial. "Just don't knock the needle off the record in the first hit!" Sarah hesitates. "No? Alright, slit his eye open Bobby." The packer holding Jace, Bobby, uncomfortably lifts the box cutter to Jace's eye. It takes all of Jace's willpower to not cry out in fear.

"Wait damn it!" Sarah cracks her knuckles and Dante signals for Bobby to lower the knife. "You want a golden hit then fine!" Jace braces himself as Sarah stands determined. The idea that crossed her mind earlier comes into play as she thrusts her left arm back and smashes the point of her left elbow into Dante's nose while throwing her right forward and destroying Bobby's jaw. Bobby falls back and into unconsciousness while Dante stumbles away from Sarah and clutches her bleeding broken nose. "Too bad for you this record skips!!!" 

Jace shudders and collapses onto his knees, sighing in relief. Dante's eyes go mad with rage. "YOU FILTHY C~^%!" 

Dante chucks the knife in her hand at Jace's head. Sarah throws her hand in front of his face but doesn't have enough time to shield herself with ki as the knife goes in. Sarah yells in pain but faces Dante and stands between her and Jace. Dante already has two other knives out and is rushing at Sarah, shouting expletives toward her. Sarah stops her dead in her tracks with a knee to the gut, but Dante's adrenaline and anger drives her to continue her attack. 

Dante brings both knives toward where she thinks Sarah's neck is but Sarah is already under Dante's right arm, and her own right arm has Dante's upper body clutched. Sarah's arm glimmers with aura as she trips Dante's legs from out under her and brings her crashing hard to the ground. Dante is quick to faint from the concussive slam. Sarah stands and lets out a huff before turning toward Jace with a worried look.

"Are you okay?!"

Jace lifts himself off his knees and wipes his eyes as he holds back some tears. "Y-you shouldn't be asking me that while you have that thing sticking out of your hand!" Sarah looks at her bleeding left hand and the knife that's impaled through it. "I should've tried to move out of the way! I'm sorry!"

"Jace..." Sarah walks over to Jace and rests her head on Jaces. "No you don't need to apologize." Sarah hugs Jace with her right arm to comfort him and smiles. As the two begin to stand a loud roar of flames is heard from the distance and a light wave of heat is felt passing both of them. Sarah notes that its in the direction where Joao is and where Antonio and Jason were intending to head toward. Sarah and Jace both begin to head that way.

---

Joao stands shocked as Antonio wobbles a little, his eyes fixed on Joao. From Joao's perspective Antonio looks as though a demon had risen from hell. Joao's arm writhe's at the thought of using his last resort again, but his fear gives way to anger and he lifts his arm up at the staggering Tony.

"You're ruining everything you b*****d!!" 

Joao didn't think twice before launching a second white hot streak of burning death. Antonio sidesteps the beam of heat this time and it continues on toward one of the dilapidated apartments across from the park, immediately erupting in a ball of flames and sending debris crashing down. Joao grits his teeth and tries to blast his weapon a third time, now with a broken arm, but the barrel has melted shut. Antonio is quickly upon him and slams his fist into the right cheek of Joao's face. Joao is sent rolling back but manages to just barely compose himself on a knee. He immediately glares a hole through a staggering Antonio and once again grits his teeth.

"I think its over for you know pal." Antonio smirks as he taps his chip. "I'm almost used to this thing now and that arm of yours looks pretty useless now from where I stand. That said, I ought to thank you for the fun day. "Joao's eyes widen in rage. "Its the least I can do before I shut your party lights out."

"FUN?! This was the big one! Our final hurrah! Hell we even got lucky and found a really juicy gem-crest that'll guarantee our leave from poverty and you think its FUN to ruin the lives of me and my closest companions?!"

Antonio's eyebrow twitches before he begins running at Joao. "Maybe you should have thought of getting honest work eh!?!"

~~~

Two Months Ago

The inside of the apartment room is lined with cracks and seems to be on the cusp of falling apart. There's seven people standing about the room, occupying themselves in different ways whether it be conversing, drawing or bouncing a rubber ball against the back-most wall. Among them sits the party packers third, Will, who is speaking some unimportant nonsense to the two others. The doorknob on the main door turns and the door creaks open. Everyone stops what they're doing and turns toward it. The rubber ball helplessly bounces off the chest of the packer who was playing with it. Will takes a step toward it and looks hopeful.

"Any luck wit' the interview, bawse?"

Will speaks before his 'bawse' can enter the room. Joao enters, and looks a hell of a lot more sharply dressed then he does at the park; wearing a cheap thrift shop set of business clothing and a tacky tie. The suit and pants are grey, while the tie is black, and his usually raggy hair is worn in a ponytail. He also wears a deflated look on his face, forcing a smile. Its clear the interview didn't go well.

"Nope!" A collective sigh fills the room. "That's the tenth one too!" Joao laughs nervously. "Guess its back to plan B. Where's the new guy?" Almost as if on que the sound of a flush is heard from across the room on the right side. The door opens and Jeff steps out yawning. Half of the packers hold their noses and fan in jest as Jeff closes the door behind him. "Speak of the steamin' devil himself! Jeff, whats up kiddo?"

"Huh? Just getting some last nights dinner out-"

"I said whats up not out, ugh." There's a collective laugh throughout the room. "Anyways, you up for a store run? I forgot to pick up somethin' on my way back." 

Jeff shrugs and smiles. "Sure, I ain't doin' nothing better. What am I gettin'?"

"We're goin' Plan B. Everyone cough up a little bit of Buci-" Joao yanks out his really worn down wallet and pulls three bills from it. "-An' give it to Jeff. We're grabbin' up as many Super Sphere tickets as possible. Anyone who can't throw in will be covered by Will or myself. Jeff-" Joao speaks directly to Jeff as he hands him his three. "-don't go an' get smart with this now, I'm puttin' a lot of trust in you kiddo."

"Thanks sir."

...

Two Days Later

The same apartment room is now jammed with no less then forty people in it. This is the whole collective of the party packers, and they're all staring at the television set. Its a black and white. Joao and Dante are standing together and Will isn't too far beside Joao's other side. Everyone else is looking past them at the TV. "-Seventeen!" A third of the five spheres drops from the large spinning ball like apparatus into a glass cylinder. The first two are five and twenty two. "-Three! And the Super Sphere is..." The host pulls the lever on the big ball once more and the sphere drops down into the cylinder and rolls just up to the blue tinted part of the cylinder. "-43!"

Joao turns his head and yells at one of the younger looking packers sorting through the tickets on the table behind everyone. "Ey Johnny! Do we have any winners?!" Johnny lifts his head up. He looks disheartened.

"No, nothin' to write home about! Of all these tickets we're only gonna get four bucks back, but I'll give it a double check. There's definitely no big winners though!"

Joao lets out a 'd****t' and sits down on the ground as the packers begin to make a bunch of noise with grumbles, sighs and dammits of their own. Dante sits next to Joao and places her hand on his shoulder. She begins to say something but stops as she sees something on the television, and her intended comforting tone immediately turns to that of concern.

"...Joao, baby, you might want to look up at the TV."

Joao lifts his defeated head up and his face goes pale. The packers go from making disgruntled noises to gasping in shock. He stares back at an image of himself plastered on the television set, with the words "Wanted: Suspected theft, assault and arson" under his neckline.

"...Suspected of a stream of robberies and arson, and suspected gang leader of the 'party packers'. Any information that leads to his apprehension is worth 500 buci. His bounty as it stands is 17'000 buc-" Joao shuts off the television set.

"Insult to injury." Joao chuckles to himself. "Guess that really is it."

"Joao." Will scratches his head and frowns. "I guess we're goin' that way."

"Yeah..." Joao lets out a deep sigh. He stands up with his girlfriend and turns his head to his packers. "Plan C guys! We're hittin' the park down the block in a couple months, after the supposed big speech! I'll explain the details at Orange Jane's bar tomorrow, for now we need to separate and stay hidden. Jane'll hide Dante and I, I'll explain things to her too." Joao nervously smirks. "Hopefully we can gather everyone and make this shindig go smoothly, yeah?

~~~

Joao's thoughts strayed to the past couple days, mostly when Jane was covering for him and Dante from the cops, Dante who herself was wanted for suspected murder and stealing a police uniform, and also thoughts of how he ended up in this situation. His plans on making the park raid his grand finale and how that would end up true but not for the reasons he'd have wanted also plagued his mind. He took extra steps to make sure things would go well, from swiping the SUN Gun to gaining the schedule to the speech and even hiding in the park two nights just to avoid being caught sneaking in. 

His inability to take in account the possibility of an outside obstacle like Antonio or possibly a bounty hunter in attendance is where he realized, as Tony makes his way step to step, he went wrong. Joao smiles while his thoughts lead to one single conclusion. He speaks his thought out loud to Antonio.

"Guess the party bombed." Joao rips off the black can from his broken arm and simultaneously with said broken arm grabs two oil-balls from his pouch, willing himself through the pain. He chucks the black can and the two balls at Tony. "At the very least if I'm going I'm takin-" The oil balls combust on the side of the can, right in front of Antonio's face. Joao barely manages to move his good arm in front of his face. Jace and Sarah makes it just in time to witness the final act of Joao. Jason thinks of rushing in and taking Antonio out of the range of what was about to occur but realizes even someone as fast as him couldn't move quick enough at this point to grab Tony. Bo is all ready to write off Antonio Dragone as dead, and Tony himself thinks with more aggravation then fear two words; 'Oh Crap'.

The black can ruptures and immediately explodes in a wide radius, instantly catching Tony in its radius and sending Joao hurdling backward into wall blocking the park from the sidewalk. The arm he defended himself with is incinerated and gone, and chunks of can stick out of his chest. His front body is covered in second and third degree burns. Several others who were a little too close also are sent off their feets, but not nearly at the force of Joao. Several people instantly suffer first degree burns. Sarah screams out.

"ANTONIO!!!" Jace screams out.

"NOOOOOOO!!!" Jason has little words but is clearly just as worried as the other two.

"F**k. Tony..."

As the smoke clears from the blast everyone around stands at shock, especially Bo Lucas. Sarah begins to tear up and Jace openly weeps. Jason lets out a long sigh. Standing upright is Antonio Dragone, and in one piece. Right before the can erupted he had instinctively shielded himself with his fighting spirit, taking the full brunt of the SUN Chips wrath but avoiding lethal damage from the explosion. Tony wasn't completely exempt from harm; having several shrapnel sticking from his flesh, and of course the Chip nearly put him out of it, but his damage now is certainly preferable to death or disfiguration. 

Antonio dropped to a knee as the can pieces jiggled loosely in his flesh. The somehow barely conscious Joao sat in horror. His final effort in vain, and when their eyes met Joao was confident this monster could continue on if he needed to. That, coupled with the irreparable damage hes suffered, sends Joao into a coma. Bo shakes his head, thinking to himself that Clark's personal vendetta with this guy might end up very badly for the TC now if things turn physical. Antonio raises back to his feet and looks down. Embarrassment washes over his face, and its intensified as he looks around. The explosion was able to do one thing to him; Destroy his cloth completely.

"Hey, anyone got a spare change of clothing?!"

Author's Note

And that wraps up the Party Packers arc. My apologies for the long drawn out updates, again. Next chapter ought to come a lot sooner but then again that's dependent on a lot of things, so we'll see. I might do some concept art for the characters and maybe even a couple of scenes here in a little while.

Super Sphere - Norot's equivalent to the Power Ball/Mega Millions lottery