Chapter 3: "Bounty Hunters"

Kid and Michelle are separated.

“Yeah right,” a cocky smile flashed across Kid's face. “You couldn't get me if I gave myself to you, big boy.”

The guard replied with an agitated grunt, before swiftly dropping an elbow on Kid's cheek. The impact felt like it broke some of his teeth. He shook it off and shoved his knee into the whiskey-breathed attacker's groin. Yelping in pain, he rolled off and Kid quickly bounced to his feet. He kicked the writhing man a few times for good measure, and because it just felt good, before charging out of the door Michelle had escaped through, narrowly slipping past some onlooking rent-a-cops that had just joined the party.

Once outside, he looked all around, trying to figure out which way she would have probably deemed the best to go. The guards were tripping over each other to get outside. While they were stumbling like comical morons, Kid went down the road to his right, and ran as fast as he could without bothering to so much as glance back.

***

Exhausted, he checked to make sure he was alone before slowing to a stop. His jaw felt as if it had been completely shattered into nothing. After some hasty examination, he could tell everything was on the up and up, minus a lost baby tooth that should have been gone years ago anyway. He'd be spitting and tasting blood for a while, but other than that, he knew it wouldn't slow him down at all.

Out of nowhere, he heard a high-pitch shrieking sound in the distance. As hard as he tried, he couldn't pinpoint the exact location. From what he could make out, it sounded like some sort of vehicle peeling out. Since he couldn't really do much about it, he just took a deep breath and continued trekking down the one way street.

Eventually, he found himself coming up on a cul-de-sac all made up of shoddy houses, with each and every driveway equipped with tricked out low-riders. There were a few lights on in every house except one. That one in particular happened to have loud obnoxious music bumping inside of it, with what appeared to be strobe lights flickering inside of its small, beat down corridors.

Since it was pretty obvious Michelle was nowhere in sight, he decided to turn back, annoyed he had chosen a dead end path. At that very second, however, something grabbed his attention. A gas station behind a fence and through a field behind the party house lit up like some sort of beacon, blatantly beckoning him.

He knew if he crossed through the field, it would save him some precious time, and for some reason, he had as strong feeling that was where he would find Michelle. He started across the pavement that led to the party house in front of him, remaining aware of his, yet again, out of water environment.

The door to the house flew open, and a few drunken people walked out, giggling like children who were on their merry way to recess. A young guy holding a bird-faced girl's hand, who couldn't be any older than Michelle, he thought, noticed him and cocked his head up. “What are you doin' around here? You weren't invited.” his voice reeked of ignorance and anger.

Another guy, who was standing behind him with his arm around a trashy girl, decided to chime in. “Yeah, you lost or somethin'?”

It didn't take much to see that he was ready to start trouble with Kid without thinking twice about it. Punk A's feathery girl sat down on a torn up chair that was beside them on the rickety porch they were perched upon. “I was just going to pass through that field behind your house. If it's a problem, I'll just go around, man,” Kid said, his fists slowly balling.

“If it's a problem?” Punk A mockingly repeated.

“Yeah, if it's a problem. I don't want to bother anyone, I just have to be somewhere.”

“Man, get the hell outta here, you little wuss,” Punk B said through a big stupid smile.

Punk A began laughing hysterically, to which Kid replied by rolling his eyes and turning away, deciding it best to just move on. “Yo, wait up!” Punk A's laughter quickly ceased, as if it were controlled by a switch that someone suddenly clicked off.

Kid slowly turned around, anger welling up inside. “Yeah?”

“Your hoodie. You're that Angel that wasted Kiway, ain'tcha?”

“What if I am?!” Kid bellowed, his eyes appearing blood red to anyone who could see them.

It was getting ridiculous. He didn't deserve to be on the run for his life, no one did. Rage was beginning to pour in at intervals we wasn't accustomed to. “You got a bounty on your head, boyo,” Punk B informed him, all while melodramatically walking down the stairs of the old creaky porch.

“So?” Kid marched forward, his anger showing itself in full force now.

“So, The Keggers are here to collect,” his eyes widened with half glee, half some sort of weak intimidation tactic.

Kid had heard about the poser gang before. The Angel's leader had told him they were a bunch of frat boy college drop outs that decided to try to make some sort of name for themselves. They were one of the gangs on the lower side of the network. The Angels had planned on wiping them out in the near future, from what Kid was told anyway. From what Kid could tell, Punk A seemed to have been the leader, or as close to one as he would ever get. “Well then come make some money,” Kid's smile looked crazy as he watched the leader head back into the house for backup.

The remaining Kegger chuckled before quickly swinging a right hook, aiming for Kid's ear. Kid ducked and got into a fighting stance. The Kegger smiled, then threw a left jab, which Kid merely leaned back to dodge. Kid faked a right jab-- the Kegger easily fell for it-- then followed up with a left hook that caught the side of the Kegger's head. The poser went down almost instantly.

Kid started towards the fence, while the bird-woman and the trashy girlfriend of the K.O.'d Kegger squawked insults at him. When he was but a few feet away from the rusty chain link, the leader emerged from the house with a small, but stout, guy glaring behind him, followed by a tall, lanky, greasy-haired opponent, and a chubby teen with a mo-hawk. Numbers meant nothing to Kid.

The leader looked to his fallen soldier, then to Kid. “You're gonna pay for that. Get 'em,” he said, trying his hardest to sound calm and tough, but failing miserably in Kid's eyes.

He darted to the porch's banister to watch the showdown.

Kid thought about just hopping the fence and legging it to the gas station, but he was tired of running. He groaned and put his fists up, preparing to brawl once again. The three, clearly weak Keggers were now charging at Kid, with no intentions of letting him walk away. Even though the idiots were in no way stronger than him, he couldn't help but hope they wouldn't land a blow on his still sore jaw.

The lanky Kegger, now at Kid's immediate left, swung an incompletely balled fist, perfectly allowing Kid to step back and evade. Instead of taking the chance to snap the inexperienced fighter's arm, he decided he'd kick him to the ground to give himself more time to take on his other attackers.

As soon as the two saw this action, they stupidly stopped in their tracks, practically begging Kid to kick the stout Kegger's knee in. A satisfying crunch erupted from his freshly cracked kneecap, causing him to crumple to the ground in pure agony. Mo-hawk managed to actually catch Kid in the stomach with a decently strong punch, following it up with an elbow to his right ear. The impact of the attack brought Kid to his knees. The lucky striker stood over Kid, bragging that he was able to best an Angel.

A sly smile flickered across Kid's sweaty face when he realized the Kegger's head was directly above his own.

With enough force to bring down a body builder, Kid jumped up, letting the top of his cranium smash the Kegger's nose into nothing, with the added bonus of knocking him smooth out. By this time, the weak, greasy gang member he'd kicked to the ground had finally found the courage to sit up, only to have Kid's boot slam into his face, allowing him to join his comrades in unconsciousness.

And with that, he shot the observing and helpless “leader” a sinister glare, causing him and his wreck of a girlfriend to disappear into the party house to stay until morning.

He rubbed his ear before hopping the fence to start his long walk through the field.

Author's Note

Chapter 3. Hope you enjoy, any feedback of any kind is greatly appreciated, as it helps me improve, and lets me know my story has possibly entertained, or even wasted your time. (hopefully that's not the case though)