Chapter 2
FRIENDS LIKE THESE
"What would Athin do?"
Waylon kept asking himself that whilst riding on his way to Pub-T outside of town. Regarding the untidy situation between him and Jade as of now, he wondered what his team leader Athin Stark would do if she were in his shoes.
Would she talk it out with Jade?
This went on for minutes, it surely made him nervous. Until there was this growl of another engine coming from behind him. When he turned to look back, he saw Cerulean catching up with him on her own bike as well.
"Where do you think you're headed, Vice?" She asked in a playful tone.
"Oh, nowhere. Just over at Pub-T." Waylon replied, rolling with it. He even allowed her to come ride by his side.
"So, Waylon, huh? And I suppose you already know my name?" Cerulean said.
"I sure do, Cerulean Carol. How long have you been with the tribe?"
"Only been a few months, actually. And I'm always hoping I don't disappoint anybody."
"Ah, don't worry about it. As long as you don't do anything stupid, you're good." He said.
She chuckled, "Got you there. So where were you while Jade was booted, and the other dingos had to truce with the Breviks?"
"I was on this big mission with my team. Team ACWA (Aqua). You know, the things that happened like, a while ago?" Waylon said, with images of his beloved teammates--more satisfying to consider as friends, phased through his head.
"Alright. How do you spell it?" Cerulean asked.
"A-C-W-A. You already figured out who the W is, right?" Waylon said.
"I guess I do, he is quite a cool guy, composed, outgoing, and seems to know what's right for people." Cerulean said, which Waylon didn't expect at all. He didn't know how she knew of that last factor about him, but he supposed she'd been observing him closely ever since he prevented Jade from blowing that atlesian's brains across the car's interior.
"Wait, are you serious?" He asked, dumbfounded.
"Um, who else do you think am I talking about?" She smirked.
"Nobody else but me, I guess." He chuckled, a little bit nervous. "So you're saying you like me?"
"Go figure." She teased, giggling.
"Me too, Cerulean. Me too." He said.
A few moments of silence passed, as they rode through lots of areas with no sign of other people as of yet. This region of Mistral was considered to be almost a wasteland, like those in Vacuo, except the burning sun wasn't torching their nerves every second they were there. Things were looking like they were in that other kingdom, except if it had trees, grass, flowers, and with those meddling coyotes running around from time to time.
"Wanna race with me?" Cerulean requested in the middle of the ride, smirking at Waylon again.
"Race? Oh, you are so on!" He said, then the girl's engine roared louder. She sped forward along the path without even counting down with him first.
"What the?! Hey, that ain't fair!" Waylon said and laughed as he raced after her. Looking to snatch that first place before she does.
But before they could go on with the race and have some fun, Cerulean spotted ahead a bunch of bandits from a distance. The pair took a halt to a vantage point nearby.
"Crap! We got to stay low." She said to Waylon, luckily they weren't spotted by those bandits. Hiding behind a large boulder, and under a shady tree. Waylon and Cerulean spectated some Brevik Bandits planning something.
"What do you think they're planning?" Waylon asked, as they peeked from the sides of the rock.
"No idea, but this doesn't look good." Cerulean said.
"If only I knew someone who could hear conversations from a mile away. Worrying about what they said wouldn't be a problem." He said.
"How about we tail them?"
"You kidding? It's just the two of us, when there's four of 'em." Waylon said.
"And I got my semblance, remember?" She said.
"Right. Freezing people. That still don't make it easy for me, though."
"Speaking of semblances, you haven't told me about yours yet."
"I call it: Burning Desire. I'm gonna start looking like I'm on fire, but I what I'm actually doin' is givin' off vibes that strengthen peoples' wills. Those around me, obviously." Waylon explained. This is one power he discovered when he unlocked his aura at 15.
"That's an interesting one. Sounds romantic, but seems virtuous." Cerulean said, with a big smile on her face.
"Tell me about it. I guess I'm that kind of guy who sports a very rough exterior, but people say that, inside, he bares this big fiery heart." Waylon said.
"You could help lots of people with it. Especially the lazy." She snorted.
"Darn right. I'm just not sure if I can manage that."
"By the way, are you and Jade cool now? Was she always like that?" Cerulean asked.
"No and no. It's gonna take a while. Also, she wasn't always like that. She was always this composed, patient, and kind leader. Sounds unusual for a biker, but still good. Ever since we picked her up from jail, it's like she's this different person."
Before the conversation could go any longer, the bandits drove off on their truck. Even though the pair didn't know where they were headed, they tailed them anyway that they wouldn't notice.
"These bastards ain't gonna know what'll hit 'em!" Waylon said.
"Let's just be careful at the same time!"Cerulean said, as they rode closer to the rear of the truck.
"Hey, scumbags!" Waylon called out to a pair of bandits sitting on the back of the truck. These ones didn't notice Waylon and Cerulean until now because they were trying to nap.
"Calm down now, we're not here to blow your heads off!" Cerulean said to them.
"Dragons! Where'd they come from?! " One of them said.
"Up your ass, greaseball. Tell your driver to pull over and tell us what you're plannin' to do!" Waylon said to them.
"Whatever you say, mutt." The bandit said before alerting the driver of the Dragons' presence, then luckily they cooperated. Pulling up to the side of the path.
"Boy, I didn't expect that. It's not everyday you see these kinds of people trying not to escape." Waylon said, pulling up near them.
The driver bandit stepped out of the truck. They had fair skin, brown hair, a slightly chubby physique, and a face that resembled a bulldog's.
"Bruni! What's up, chubby fellow?" Waylon greeted the old 'friend'.
"Screw you, Waylon Blake! We were just headed back to our camp." Bruni said.
"That it? Nothin' to be suspicious about? No uh, people to shoot in the head?" Waylon asked, with a smirk.
"I'm telling you, dumbo. No! Now get lost!" Bruni said.
"Sorry, dude. But I can't help it. How about you let us accompany you to wherever you're going?" Waylon said to him.
"Not with a broken truce between our tribes! No thanks to your psychotic leader, tell her if she dare show her face again to me and my boys. I'll gladly carve her face off her head and wrap it around a pumpkin!" Bruni said.
"Oh, is that a threat? I'm so scared of you, dude." Waylon said, sarcastically. "Seriously, man. Can we just get goin'?"
"Forget what you want! I'm gonna kill you right here!" Bruni quickly pointed a pistol at Waylon.
And before he could kill him, he activated his aura. Cue the bright color of gold shimmering across his body head-to-toe. He blocked the bullet with his hand, then felt a tingling sensation across his palm. He pulled the gun off Bruni's hand and swiftly delivered a punch to his face.
"You forgot aura exists, buddy!" He said. "We won't have to worry too much. These fellas are dropouts."
Bruni lunged at Waylon, who later evaded and blew the other chubby bad boy a yard away with a bullet from one of his shotguns which he pulled out before he did.
He and Jade built his shotguns together, giving them a yellow and black color scheme. They were as long as rifles, and worked similarly to Henry Repeaters from the earlier ages, with large capacities and a fast fire rate but were low in accuracy and power.
"Nobody's killin' me! Got it?!" Waylon shouted at two more bandits, who were already making a move on him. As they let out battle cries when they charged at him, Cerulean took the opportunity to pause their body movement using her semblance, cue a blue glow coating their bodies.
Waylon spun hit shotguns before continuously spraying bullets at the frozen rival bandits, to incapacitate them. He took shots and reloaded, repeating the process until finally their aura crumbled, thus pinning down the hostiles.
"Whatcha gonna do now? Tell us a stupid one-liner?" One of them said weakly while on the ground.
"Nope. What made you think that?" Waylon said before kicking him in the face. "Got somethin' you got to tell me now? Huh?"
Bruni reappeared in the frame, firstly shooting at Waylon, who was knocked back. Before Waylon's aura could fully decrease, Cerulean pulled out her scaly bo staff, spinning it around then charged at Bruni. After dodging and blocking bullets from Bruni, she dug both ends of her staff into two sides his ribcage individually. Knocking the gun off his hand with her staff, she paused him, then spun her staff to do the same thing to him that Waylon did to the other bandits.
Right up when Bruni's aura broke, Waylon neared them.
"You good?" He asked Cerulean.
"Yeah." Cerulean replied, in the middle panting.
"Nice spinnin'." He asked another.
"Thank ya." She said, now smiling as she kept Bruni's head down under her boot.
"So, where did you say you were goin', chap?" Waylon knelt down to ask Bruni.
"Go die in a hole, you scumbag." He hissed.
"Look, we don't got much time here. So how about you make it quick? Otherwise, we gotta do this the hard way." Waylon said.
"Damn you! Ever since that stupid Cowgirl wiped out our leaders. We'd been helpless!" Bruni said.
Waylon kept silent, speculating that this 'cowgirl' is plausibly his good friend Sammy, who had always been described as that sort of thing.
"Cowgirl?" He said.
"She thinks she's so tough, damn it! As if she's some Goddess from an early time. She took out ours first, then went on to do the same to other gangs." Bruni said, now slowly standing up. He was in the mood to tell them about this hatred he has for this person, rather than fighting back now.
"She ever mentioned her name?" Waylon asked.
"Of course not. She was too busy blowing our boys' guts across every block!" Bruni said.
"That don't sound right. Bullcrap, ain't it?" Waylon said.
"Shut up! Believe me. She had no remorse for any one of us. Nothing but a ruthless gunslinger!" Bruni said.
"If she was so ruthless, then how are you and those other boys still alive now?" Waylon said.
"We got lucky." He answered.
"That or she chose to spare you." Waylon said.
"Screw you. She would never choose to spare anyone, especially after shooting through tons of others just to get through us." Bruni continued. "She killed my brothers!"
"What did she look like?" Waylon asked.
"Red hat. Brown hair. Fair skin. Yellow eyes. Pigtail. All I could pick up. She masked the rest of her face." Bruni answered some more.
Crap, she's in danger.
Waylon's thoughts went to Sammy, whom he started to worry about. He did have a feeling something like this would come up, but it came sooner than he anticipated. He started questioning why she would kill those people, and suspected she actually adviced him to be better than her.
"Why the long face, huh? You look like you just solved a puzzle." Bruni said to Waylon.
"She didn't kill no innocents, did she?" Waylon asked his last question for Bruni.
"Not that I know of. Just do me a favor, that when you see her face. Tell her that as long as I am alive she will never be safe!" Bruni yelled at Waylon, who then angrily punched and knocked him down. Completely unconscious this time.
"What was that about? Do you know someone, Waylon?" Cerulean asked him.
Waylon turned to her, "I do. But she would never kill anyone, I swear it!" He said.
Leaving the bandits laying unconscious on the grass, the bikers left the scene to head back to the base.
"So who's this friend of yours, Waylon?" Cerulean asked during their trip.
"Samara Santos. But her friends, and me, call her Sammy. She fits the exact description that Bruni gave." Waylon said, "I met with her the other day and she was doing good. She was never exactly the kind to want revenge, and y'know, kill people."
"Well, sometimes people can surprise you." Cerulean said.
"Guess so. Me and Sammy were born and raised in the same city and we didn't even know. Until I met her back when we were first-years at Haven Academy." Waylon said, recalling more memories he made at Haven.
"Are you two close?" Cerulean asked.
"Sort of. We look out for eachother. As of now, she's keeping busy as a barmaid at the 74." Waylon said.
"That's a cute choice of keeping a low profile." She chuckled.
"Let's check out the Clubhouse and see what's in store for us. Sometimes there comes new members in the gang and we don't even know." He said.
"What about Sammy? Aren't you gonna interrogate her or something?" Cerulean asked.
"I will, but---I'm gonna do it the right way. She's my friend after all." He said.