Dark on the Outside - Chapter 7 by Ari --------------------------------------------------------------------- DARK ON THE OUTSIDE (insert Disclaimers here) =====CHAPTER 7: MEETING INTERESTING PEOPLE===== CROWN ARCADE "Sure I like it here, but I think it's about time I got a job," Owen said as Darien's car drove down the street. He adjusted the vol- ume knob on the car radio so he could his responce as Green Day's "Re- dundance" played. "I don't wanna look like a bum or a sponge." "You're a real hard worker, huh?" Darien said. They exchanged agreeing glances. "Don't worry about it. Now my friend Andrew might have an opening at the arcade; we'll have to see." "The arcade..." Owen said to himself. "I wonder if it's like the usual hangout back home." "What do you mean?" "Lots of times during, like, the weekend or whenever, most peo- ple went to the mall, and those with, you know, money to burn, went to...the arcade." "Everyone?" "Well, most people." He put on his sunglasses - lightweight, with two circular lenses covering his eyes - in mid-ramble. "Lots of jackasses also hang out there...thinkin' they're all bad, 'Hey, we own dis place!' kinda personas..." "They start fights and whatever?" "Yeah, but I don't get involved. To me, just beating them in a game of Tekken 3 is like a polite way of telling them to sit down and shut up." They both laughed at this. "But you've got a pretty long supply line back home, right?" Owen looked over at him. "You're parents could send you supplies." "I told them I'd only ask if it was an emergency." Darien pulled his car up to the arcade and turned off the en- gine as the last few lyrics faded out: Now I cannot speak, I've lost my voice, Speechless and redundan- The rest of the song was cut off as the engine was turned off. Owen and Darien stepped out of the car, and into the arcade. Owen quickly adjusted his collar as Darien opened the door. When they en- tered, a blond kid wearing an apron with two pockets on it was standing by a crane game. He greeted them as he came in. "Hey, Andrew!" Darien said, high-fiving him. "Hey, wzup, Darien," Andrew said. He then turned his attention to the kid next to him. "Would you mind...introducing me, Darien?" "Oh, yeah." He turned to Owen. "Owen, I'd like to introduce you to my friend, Andrew." To Andrew: "Andrew, this is Owen." "Hello Andrew," Owen said, shaking his hand. "So you're Owen, huh?" Andrew asked. Owen nodded in agreement. "You're a pretty big guy." "Yeah," Owen started. "I'm here on foreign exchange. I live-" "You're only in high school? How old ARE you?" "17." Andrew appeared shocked, which caused Owen and Darien to start laughing. "Anyway, down to business." He removed his sunglass- es. "Darien said that you could hook me up with a job here, what about it?" He watched as Andrew thought it over. "Well, it would be nice to have someone like you around to dis- courage troublemakers...I'll have to see about it." While they were conversing, they were slowly walking down one of the aisles of video game machines. Meanwhile, three kids had entered the arcade. Andrew, Owen and Darien just glanced at who came in. Owen continued speaking. He was telling Andrew about the many different types of video gamers. "...first, you have your 'mad about stats' gamers, people who are so picky about sports games that if the one stat - like the exact weight of Mike Ditka's head - is wrong, it sucks. Second...." Mean- while, the three other kids started chatting amongst themselves. "Hey, check that guy out!" the leader chuckled. "Bet he's all buff and no stuff," the second added snidely. "That ponytail makes him look like a putz," chimded the third. This apparently got their attention. They looked over at the three punks, and walked over slowly, stopping right in front of them. "What?" the second asked. "Something wrong, Yankee-san?" the first asked. "Look," Owen said, grabbing his throat and pulling him off his feet. He pressed him against the window. "You got something to say, say it to my face!" The punk's legs were kicking around, trying to get free. If Darien and Andrew hadn't talked him into letting him go, he would have seriously hurt him. "C'mon, Owen," Darien coaxed. "It's not worth it." "Just leave 'em alone," Andrew added. After a few moments of just holding him and staring, he let the punk down, and walked away. "Yeah, that's right," he said. "You don't WANT any of dis, you piece of yankee trash!" Owen, Darien and Andrew were walking away when the offset remarks were made, and Owen froze in midstep. He turned a- round slowly, and walked back to the punks. "You see," he said. "I wouldn't have got mad if you called me a piece of trash." Owen lifted him up by the shirt collar. "But you called me a piece of YANKEE trash...uh, uh, uhh." Before the kid could say anything, Owen heaved him down the aisle, and into a South Park pinball machine. As he hit, all the lights turned off, the word TILT appeared on the screen, followed by the immortal words of Cartman: "Ack! Son of a BITCH!" Then, the other two got into the act. One of the others jumped on Owen's back, applying a sleeper hold on him. The other tried to take his legs out from under him. Just as the other two came to their leader's aid, Andrew and Darien in- tervened as well. Darien kicked the one on Owen's leg off of him, field goal style. Andrew tried to pull the third off his back, but had difficulty until Darien came to his aid. They pulled on is legs until he was in a double-wishbone position, and Owen finished him off by sim- ply falling to his behind. The three gathered the remains of the hood- lums. "I'm gonna have to ask you boys to leave," Andrew said, as he opened the doors to the arcade. Moments later, they threw them out on the street. "Ahhhh..." Owen said. "Nothing like a good brawl to get the blood flowin'." "Yeah, I know," Darien said, amidts laughs. "And a nice vari- ation of the jawbreaker there, by the way." "Thanks." To Andrew: "So do I get the job?" "Why not?" "Fantastic!" Owen said. He paused for a moment. "Did you hear what that guy called me?" "What?" Darien asked. He looked at Owen strangely as he held his chin in his hand. "He called me...yankee-san." "Hey," Andrew interjected. "It fits." CHERRY HILL TEMPLE 7:30 P.M. "I'm goin' out, Grandpa. I'm gonna meet the girls at the ca- fe," Raye said as she walked out the door to the temple. She heard him say what she thought was something of his approval, and headed out. Raye intended to meet the Serena, Reenie, and the others. She had barely got out of sight of the temple when she was al- most trampled by several people. "What's going on?" she asked. "Some guy in an organe cape is attacking downtown!" a man said. "And it looks like Stevie Ray's with him!" {The Negaverse!} Raye thought. {AND the nWo. Oh boy.} She ran off to where the mob was coming from. DOWNTOWN MOMENTS LATER Frightened citizens ran in terror from Darkheart and a slap- jack swinging Stevie Ray. "Yeah! Thaz right!" Stevie said. "Ya wanna mess wit me again, sucka?!" As he taunted people, Darkheart turned a disappointed eye. "You know, if I wanted to terrorize innocent people," Darkheart said, "I would've come alone. You know what we were sent here to do." "Yeah, I KNOW we gotta take out 'doze Sailor Chumps, but they ain't here yet! C'mon, man, let's blow dis joint. We're waistin' our time." Raye peaked her head around the corner to where Stevie Ray and Darkheart were standing. She noticed the two arguing back and forth, and turned to her friends. "What do you think, guys?" "Who else is there?" Lita asked. Another peek: "Just those two. And it looks like they're ar- guing over something..." "We need to attack now," Amy said. "Why now?" Serena asked. "Because, their guard is down now, they won't see it coming." "Sounds like a plan," Serena said. They were thrown off by a loud wave of ebonics drifting from around the corner, but just for a moment. Moments later, regained their composure. And then, they pre- pared for battle. "MOON CRYSTAL POWER!" "MARS POWER!" "MERCURY POWER!" "VENUS POWER!" "JUPITER POWER!" Boredom finally setting in, Stevie Ray opened up a portal to the Negaverse and started to walk into it. Destroy the Sailor Scouts, they told him. Use any means necessary, they told him. Wonder if they meant any means necessary to get them to show up too, he thought. As he came within one step from returning home, he was stopped by a hand with black painted fingernails. "Where do you think you're going?" Darkheart asked, angrily. They were sent down to get a job done and he didn't feel like paying the consequences for coming up short. "Do you see anyone here?" Stevie retorted. "Huh?! Do you see our enemies anywhere?" "Maybe you're just not looking hard enough!" Both Stevie Ray and Darkheart turned around to see the Sailor Scouts standing there. "Well it's about damn time!" Ray shouted. "Yeah, about time for your end!" Sailor Moon shouted. "I am Sailor Moon, cham-" "Spare us da long rambling, chump!" Stevie Ray interjected. "I know who you are, loser!" "I take it you want first crack at them, then?" Darkheart asked. "Yeah, and now I'm gonna bring da pain!" He held his hands out in front of him. "Harlem...HEAT!" At that, a big wave of black and white fire shot out of his hands and engulfed the Sailor Scouts. It must have had a huge effect judging by how much they screamed. "I can do that too," Mars said. "Mars fire...IGNITE!" The ball of fire spiraled from her fingertips, and into Stevie Ray. Al- though he ducked out of the way, he didn't know that it hit him just e- nough to set his hair on fire. Meanwhile, Mars tried to charge at him, but he landed a Harlem Side Kick right to her chin, sending her down hard. "Why must you steal moves from your brother?" Darkheart asked, refering to Stevie's brother, Booker T. This struck a chord with him, and he got right in Darkheart's face. Which is when their attention was drawn to a red rose that was sticking in the ground. "Whaddya want, sucka?!" Stevie asked as he saw Tuxedo Mask standing on a tree branch. "You going for a new look there?" Tuxedo Mask said as he hopped off the branch. Stevie raised a curious eyebrow at this, having no clue what he meant. But then, Mask took of his top hat, and waved his hand over his head. Naturally, Stevie Ray followed suit. He felt a huge pain in his hand, and then, realized that his hair was in fact on fire. A mortified Darkheart watched as Stevie Ray ran around scream- ing and slapping his hands on his head, trying to put his hair out. He watched as he ran around in a circle - around him - as the Scouts failed to contain their laughter. Feeling just a little too embarassed by his actions, Darkheart grabbed Stevie Ray and hurled him into a nearby stream. As he hit the water, smoke, steam and a loud 'ssssssss' filled the air. "Fair enough," Darkheart said, drawing his swords. "And now, it's my turn." He rushed forward and leaped up, intending to split someone in half - or thirds, seeing he swings two swords - only, he left himself wide open. "Jupiter thunder...CRASH!" Of course, since Darkheart's swords are made out of metal, Sailor Jupiter realized they would serve as great electricity conductors. As her lightning struck the swords, he trembled violently in mid-air and collapsed to the ground, twitching. "You'reyou'reyou'reyou'reyou're gonna-na-na-na-na paypaypaypay f-f-f-for th-th-th-th-thaaaaat," Darkheart stammered as he struggled to get up. His armor and swords were smoldering wildly, and when he re- gained his composure, discarded them. Now he was armed only with his fists, and only his purple sleeveless shirt on his chest. Now, he was getting serious. He slammed his fist as hard as he could into the ground, and it levelled the Scouts and turned several square yards of ground into mulch. They were at his mercy. "Mercury bubble...BLAST!" A thick fog engulfed the scene, and left Darkheart rather upset. "What the hell is this?" he asked, taking off his sunglasses and looking around frantically. Tuxedo Mask was the first to take ad- vantage of this, and their brawling quickly dispersed the fog. Eventu- ally, they battled their way back to where the two parties originally met. Darkheart was fatigued, but so was Tuxedo Mask. Darkheart's hair - brown, and once perfectly slicked back - now looked like a tan- gled mess. Equally, Mask's top hat did little to cover his big puff of sweaty black hair. Darkheart threw just about all of his remaining strength into one uppercut, and it found its mark right on the point of Mask's chin. "Sure you are strong, Tuxedo Mask," Darkheart said as he looked at him down on the ground. "But you - as well as your friends - are no match for me." He moved towards him, but felt something brush against his boot. It was the red rose. He bent down and plucked it out of the ground. "Hmmmm...a red rose," he said, looking it over. "A symbol of true love. Very beautiful." To Tuxedo Mask: "Sure, love and hate are powerful enough on their own, but it is passion, which makes them stronger." As he said this, the red rose turned blue. He put the rose in his shirt. "Challange me again when you become stronger." But then he looked past them to a pink-haired little girl. "What do you want?" "Wh-what're you doing?" the girl asked. Everyone else turned around and looked at her. "Reeine..." Sailor Moon murmured. "This doesn't concern you, kid," Darkheart said. "Get outta here, now." Darkheart watched as Reenie reluctantly ran away, but this aggrivated the Scouts. "Hey, you leave her alone!" Sailor Venus said. "Venus crescent beam...SMASH!" The beam flew at him when his head was turned, but he turned around to meet it, and took it right in the right spectacle. The impact cracked the lens. "What was that for?!" he asked. He had no choice but to retal- iate. He made a baseball-style throwing motion at Venus. "MEGABLAST!" A large ball of energy flew at Venus, but she was able to avoid it at the last second. Unfourtunately, it sailed by the group and didn't stop until it hit an unintended target. Reenie. =====TO BE CONTINUED===== Alright, that's it. I've ran out of original things to say. This - the final thoughts section - of the chapter is taking a break. As far as I'm concerned, what I wanted to say has been said already. If I can think of something else, I will revive this section of the story, if you will. Until then, keep it real. Green Day "Redundance" nimrod.