Chapter Text
Ramsey
The bar blew Ramsey's expectations completely out of the water, it was vastly different from what he thought he would see. He expected a dingy old dive bar, rough looking bikers playing pool, or some kind of dirty concrete and hardwood floor, however they were nothing but. The whole building's estetic blended with, well everything! What he knew of biker bars were that they were all supposed to be dingy and gross, stripper poles lining the room, hostile environments, and the smell of old beer and vomit... But this bar was pleasant, both bikers and regular citizens lined the bars and tables. Patrons of all kinds were laughing and watching the games on T.V. There were truckers, nerds, the regular Joe, businessmen and women, jocks, lesbians and gays kissing in corners... Although there was a rule that it would go no further. Oscar explained Chire, the boss, held strict rules on romance in his bar.
"If you're not bothering anyone, it's allowed, but if you're told to stop: you stop..." Oscar told them. "That includes harassment. If you're harassing a barmaid or bartender, you don't even get a warning, you're kicked the hell out. Chire doesn't approve of people trying to touch his employees; male, female, or even in-between."
Oscar had a lot to say actually, the patrons and bikers inside didn't mind they had police wandering through their bar. If the group had managed to get inside, they knew they were allowed in. Simple as that.
Ramsey was still rather nervous, he had done some deals with these bikers in the past. Everytime a biker passed by the group, or looked his way, Ramsey flinched in fear... But none of them cared about him. Despite all that, Ramsey still stuck close to Percy, who stuck close to Oscar on the Tyran's request. He didn't want to get into anyone's way.
The building was deceptively large. It took them awhile to get from the entrance to the back of the room. There were three bars, a sort of V.I.P in the back, where they were headed, and two more closer to the entrance. They were one long bar along the eastern wall, but there were still sectioned off by small dividers with a gate to allow passage between them. When the group finally reached the end of the room Oscar turned around to address the others.
"Alright, I'm gonna talk to someone. You guys just sit at the bar, buy a drink if you want; just say my name when you do, it's a kind of code or whatever..."
Percy's poise didn't waver as she began to respond, "Very well Oscar, what is your plan though? You have refrained to inform us." Percy said as the detective sat in one of the stools. Ramsey and Meryl quietly did the same as Oscar put his hands up in assurance.
"Percy, I know what I'm doing, just relax okay? It'll be fine..."
Percy only stared blankly at Oscar as a response before she turned around towards the bar. Ramsey tapped the marble to get the attention of the bartender; a short Deepwood girl who had just got done with the only other patron at their bar, an unassuming older gentlemen, probably from the Taiga.
"Hey, bartender... Shirley Temple would'ya? And just a water for the blonde as well." Ramsey then turned to Meryl, "Whaddya' want hoopy?"
Meryl glared at Ramsey with scorn as she nervously ordered a tequila cocktail.
"Um... Alright. But we don't have a Shirley Temp'. Closest thing we got is a Throw-a-Cocktail™, our specialty drink and I don't make those. My manager does our cocktails, so I'd have to find him. He's probably just in the back though. Let me get 'im." The bartender said as she left to the back. A wooden bat was propped by the door she entered, which Ramsey found as odd. It was just a minute before she came back. "He'll be out in a minute. I'll get the blonde her water." The bartender stepped and kneeled down to the small mini fridge by the back bar, opening and grabbing a bottle of water from the bottom shelf. Standing up, she placed the bottle in front of Percy without a word. It was a mineral water, the brand label said Deepwood Grand Bottling. Ramsey heard the Deepwood had the best mineral water, and Deepwood Grand was even funded by Deepwood's King. So they were pretty passionate about their bottling industry.
"Thank you, miss...?" Percy said holding out the missus for an answer.
"Alerai... Camiya Alderai."
"Well thank you, miss Alerai..." Percy repeated appreciatively.
Camiya nodded as she turned back to Ramsey. "So a water, a Paloma-by-the-Rocks, and your cocktail, that' all Mr. Murdoch?" The deepwood girl said as she wrote the order down on a small notepad.
Ramsey froze in place as a bead of sweat slowly ran down his forehead. An awkward smirk laid on his face as he grunted in surprise.
Camiya scoffed as she tapped the marble with her nails. "It's fine Murdoch, I just know you from around town..." She sighed. "Is that all...?"
Ramsey sighed in relief as he responded. "Oh yeah... Unless you have like any nachos or something."
The bartender stared at the rat-man, then pointed at the menu above her. "We have more than nachos, ratty." She said with a grin. "Now, that'll be $7.50..."
Ramsey raised his eyebrow in surprise. "Damn that's cheap... Uhm..." Ramsey said as he patted his back pockets looking for cash. Then he realized... He didn't have cash, he had been arrested, and all his bank accounts had been emptied by the police afterwards. Then he remembered what Oscar had just said a few seconds earlier. "Uhh..." Ramsey stuttered. "I was told to mention, Oscar Floyd...? I really dunno what that means, I just have to humor him sometimes." He said.
The bartender only sighed as she went to the kitchen. As she passed the door she'd entered earlier, a man exited, quickly passing by her and heading the groups way. The first thing Ramsey noticed was the hair. It was a dark pink with flecks of black, although it seemed completely natural and not dyed. A nametag laid on his jacket, in bold black lettering was the word GENERAL MANAGER, below it was the man's name.
Jax Roughhouse...
The man's surname was familiar, then Ramsey remembered that kooky old cellmate of his a while back. Nixon. He was some crazy conspiracy theorist who somehow got himself thrown in jail. He had been released before Ramsey, who was arrested under a false name; only left off with a smack on the wrist. Nixon's facial hair was worse than Ramsey's own, thankfully this Jax just had light stubble, and he wore it unusually well, a blessing considering Dixon's. When Jax arrived at the counter he began washing his hands off with a towel before he spoke. "Alright so you guys ordered cocktails huh..." Jax stopped mid sentence after he noticed Ramsey in front of him. Ramsey didn't know if he actually knew him exactly, but he was surely staring at him.
“Oh…” He said before a long awkward pause. “Um Murdoch right?… You uh, buying for the uh lady…?” Jax gestured toward Percy with an apprehensive but almost playful smile.
Ramsey jumped in his seat and quickly shut that down. “No! Oh no, no. Nope, no, nope… She didn’t even order a cocktail, only me and her coworker, Meryl got ‘em.”
Jax smirked as he spoke, “Oh, so I was mistaken. So sorry about that Mrs. Murdoch…”
Ramsey groaned as he allowed his head to fall onto the hard bar counter, he felt his face heat up in embarrassment. Jax laughed as he playfully slapped one of Ramsey’s shoulders. Ramsey didn’t exactly know how he knew you know what, but in the time he hid his face, he had developed some kind of answer. It had to have stemmed from Nixon. At some point during his small time of imprisonment, Ramsey must’ve saw Percy there or something and had told Nixon that he thought the cop was cute or beautiful or whatever. Although he couldn’t remember if that was true.
Percy must’ve been confused, as Ramsey heard her speak up. “W-who is Mrs. Murdoch? What are you talking about?”
Luckily for Ramsey, the Roughhouse kid didn’t mention the reason, the source of all of Ramsey’s plights. He only changed the subject. “Oh, it was nothing… I was only playing with Murdoch, I heard a bunch of stories from my younger brother, Nixon, about him. But that’s not important, you ordered cocktails…!” He ended with gusto, grabbing a couple of bottles from the shelves under the bar and began to throw them in the air, then catching one as it fell back to him. Throwing it again and repeating the process; he started juggling the liquor bottles skillfully. As he juggled he glanced at Camiya's notepad. “Alright… A Paloma and the special, for Rat/Gerbil Boi and Hoop-haired cop-doctor…” Glancing up he studied the two for a moment before going back to his scene. “Yeah, ‘seems about right…" He said with a smirk and a chuckle. "Now give me a moment, it won’t take very long…”
With the last word, one of the liquor bottles was caught in each palm and then set onto the counter, then another, and another, all one by one. Dropping the others gently, Jax rested them onto the counter, then grabbing a highball and cocktail glass from under the bar, laid them beside each other on the counter. Kneeling down, Jax grabbed the Boston Shakers and then the soda gun from it’s resting place. Placing one of the mixing cups by the glasses, he began filling the other with the soda gun but stopped about halfways. Grabbing two of the liquor bottles by the small slender ends in between his fingers, he poured them into the Boston Shakers, only a moment passed before he lifted up the two liquor bottles, breaking the flow of the liquor. All of that took not even 10 seconds, he was fast. Insanely fast... The only thing he saw after that was his mixing, and him swishing a bottle around above his highball glass, creating a light blue spiral. The bottle held a label that said Coloured Whiskey. When he stopped, Jax pushed a glass of a cold red liquid with a blue spiral garnished by a cherry and finished off with a trickle of yellow sprinkles adhered to the edge of the glass, laid in front of him on tap of a rat coaster.
"There's your Throw-a-Cocktail™, Ramsey..." Jax said with a polite smile.
Jax quickly made Meryl's cocktail with ease. It took him a lot faster to make hers than Ramsey's. When he was done he left with a smile back to his office. Ramsey was still nervous by that time, he looked around to see if anyone else recognized him, no one seemed to but Oscar was still talking to a biker by a door. When he turned back around the girl laid the nachos with cheese in front of him. "Sorry but they're cheap, nothing we can do about it though, the provider we usually get the ingredients from are all out so we bought pre made nachos. Our guy said some weird looking old bald guy bought literally all the ingredients, the bald guy said it was for his experiments..." She chuckled before continuing, "Don't know why the nerd had to buy it all in bulk though... Seems wasteful."
Ramsey only shrugged as he grasped one of his tortilla chips. Percy leaned forward, seemingly curious about the drink.
"Hmm... It is quite fizzy." She said. Ramsey smirked. "Well its carbonated, it's supposed to be fizzy."
Percy was fascinated by the fizzines of Ramsey's drink, she was leaning so far her nose rested on the glass. "It is interesting..." Percy said with childlike wonder, "Tell me Ramsey, how does it work?"
Ramsey's awkward smirk quickly came back from the depths. He chuckled nervously as he began to rub the back of his neck. "Oh uh... Well, you see it has carbonation, it's what makes it fizz when it comes into contact with air, or rather oxygen..." Ramsey began to lose the explanation, if he didn't find a different option, he would have to start spouting bullshit. He didn't want to disappoint Percy.
Luckily for Ramsey, that's just when his savior came to save him. Just as Ramsey was about to give up, Oscar joined in out of nowhere, holding a can of soda. The Tyran was still taller despite Percy and Ramsey gaining more than a few inches from their stools.
"Well Percy... Carbonation is a cause of the carbon dioxide built up inside something. As Ramsey stated, it reacts to oxygen, and starts to 'fizz' when introduced to the element. But it's not the only big reaction. There's two more, sort of at least. Carbonation builds up pressure inside it's container if it hasn't been introduced to oxygen. If the pressure is too high... Like if I shake this soda pop can, and open it..." Oscar said slowly as he thumbed the soda tab. Ramsey quickly cowered in case Oscar was gonna open it, but thankfully he didn't. He only smirked as he went back to explaining. "...It'll explode! Not a very large one mind you, but large enough to spew everywhere and frighten Ramsey from the very idea of an explosion... And without pressure, the carbonation goes flat, which damages or changing the taste and eventually goes away." Oscar ended with a smile. Percy was fascinated, her mouth was agape with a happy childlike smile. Oscar winked at Ramsey before leaving the can on the counter and back to the biker he had been conversing with. Ramsey sighed in relief as he turned back to Percy. Her childlike curiosity was satiated.
Finally, the bartender came back with Ramsey's little umbrella. His face was a bit confused, "You know, I was joking right?" The bartender chuckled. "Yeah," she said "But you seemed the type..."
Ramsey didn't understand what she meant, but he didn't want to ask.
Ramsey felt a hand grab his wrist suddenly, interrupting him. His eye slowly turned to the origin of the hand. A large biker in a leather jacket and a scowl held his wrist hostage. His skin was light tan, he was obviously a desert mix, though Ramsey did not know what the second race. Ramsey felt his skin quickly turn pale as the man glared into his eyes. His voice was gruff and aggressive, very fitting for a rough biker.
"What are you doing here..." He said as he slowly began to crunch down on Ramsey's frail wrist. "V.I.Ps or regulars only kids... Read the sign..." Ramsey stuttered uncontrollably and began to panic without any sign of stopping. The biker tightened his grip as Ramsey tried to wiggle away. "Can't get away... You cowardly little rat."
Ramsey's stool began to get drenched from the amount of sweat he was producing, he prayed to whoever would listen to save him from this biker. Luckily Ramsey had a fearless blondie on his side...
"Excuse me, mister... But that is my partner you are accosting. If you could stop, that would be greatly appreciative..." Percy said with no hesitation or fear, she was standing up for him.
The biker glanced up to look to Percy with a scowl. "And you have any authority over me, miss...?" He said angered by the detective, then glaring at her, he knew what lied on her waist, he did nothing, at least for the moment. "Do you know who I am? I'm the vice president of this biker gang, these grunts do what I say, when I say. That includes suicide missions, detective..."
Percy held no fear as she stood from her stool. Her face devoid of emotion. "We were allowed inside. Now, if you would please, let go of my friend," Percy demanded as her palm slowly traveled to her sword's hilt. "That would be wonderful, thank you..." Percy's passive aggressiveness surprised Ramsey, he did not expect her to be so defensive about him. That she cared. Ramsey was glad his heart was right because his brain was so wrong. The biker smirked as he tightened his grip on Ramsey, any further and he would probably cut all circulation to his hand.
"So you have a death wish, eh? I'd love to oblige but I want a challenge... It would be no fun, y'know..." The two stared each other down, the biker's hand still clasped around Ramsey's wrist and Percy the hilt of her sword. However, Ramsey realized he couldn't see her left hand. She had been hiding it behind her back, but he didn't know what exactly she was hiding. All she did to hint at it was making eye contact with Ramsey for a moment. Suddenly Percy broke the stand off. Pulling her hand out from her back, Percy aimed the soda can Oscar was using as an example earlier at the biker's face. With the other hand, Percy opened the tab, allowing the pressure to shoot out the liquid at high speed. Ramsey ducked as the soda sprayed above him, the biker screamed in burning pain as the liquid met his eyes. Rearing back, the biker unclasped his hand from around Ramsey's wrist, to cover his eyes. As he was walking backwards he tripped on one of the stools, causing him to fall to the ground. Percy seeing her opponent stunned like that would've incapacitated and cuffed him, but instead...
"Ramsey are you okay?" Percy said as she gently grabbed the conman's hand. Ramsey was surprised she checked on him immediately, but even he knew Percy should've finished the biker when she had the chance.
"Percy, the biker!" He warned.
Percy glanced back up to where he fallen to find the biker's fist in her face. It was like something out of a movie. Time seemed to slow around the detective as her thoughts were read aloud to her while she slowly fell to the ground.
How could he have reorientated himself that fast?
Then everything went back to normal for Percy, groaning as she made contact with the floor, the number two popping above her head. Ramsey, despite being as cowardly as he was, knew he had to do something. Jumping out of his seat, Ramsey knocked himself into the biker, catching him off guard. The man fell to the ground with a thunk as his scowl enveloped his face. Ramsey rushed to Percy when he was able, helping her up from the ground.
"Thank you Ramsey..." Percy said with no hesitation.
"Yeh, no problem, don't mention it Perce'." Ramsey replied as he stood in front of Percy, hoping to defend her.
"You idiotic Taigans," the biker spit out blood before he continued. "Always thinking you're better than everyone else." Pulling himself off the ground, readying the duo with his dreadful scowl. "Lemme show you how a real Desert warrior always wins his battles..."
The biker only took a few steps before the space between Percy and Ramsey and him were cut short by a third party.
Oscar...
As always he towered over the biker, but the man didn't let the height of the Tyran intimidate him.
"Hey, hey... Let's all calm down here, this is just a big huge misunderstanding, okay?"
The biker smirked as he crossed his arms. "Oh ho ho!" He snickered, "Didn't know you guys were hiring old Tyran slum trash now... Do you even know what he's done? Could be a murderer? Everyone knows the slums of Tyra don't keep any type of records for their residents. Must need work that bad to hire dirty, orphaned, little trash pandas that my people stepped on during the Desert Incursion... You know boy, my father could've been the one to kill yours. Think about that now before you size up to me, little boy..."
Ramsey expected Oscar to do... well something! But he did nothing, only stared down into the eyes of the biker showing no fear.
"Ah so you're a stoic one, are you?" The man laughed, it was so guttural and beefy, saliva from his agape mouth actually landed on Oscar himself. "Stupid fucking Taigans. Ya knah', we should've wiped Tyra out, but instead we occupied it, making it the capitol during our occupation. Now, boy... Just like my father did to your precious little town and beloved little family of yours. I'm gonna kill that bitch of a cyclops over there." The biker pointed directly behind Oscar and the other two, back to the bar. Ramsey and Percy had completely forgotten about her... Sat on her stool was Meryl, whose face was one of shock directly caused by her panic attack when the fight began. Ramsey knew... But then his thoughts were interrupted.
"You're gonna watch as that bitch is enslaved to me, like how my people should've done to you..."
The Gray Wolf of Tyra was held on a thin thread, his head was tilted down and his face was dark. He only had one thing to say to the biker.
"Don't call her that..."
The biker cupped his hand around his ear as he replied, "Oh what was that? I couldn't hear you, boy~..."
"I said..." Oscar slowly lifted his head slightly, "Don't f u c k i n g call her that..."
"Oooohhh... The little wolf pup shows his fangs! What are you gonna do about it boy? What are you gonna do when I make that bitch do whatever I say...?" The man snickered through his teeth. "I know who your father was, gang boy." Oscar was utterly silent. He didn't even move, not a single muscle. "I know he was a boxer, the Wolf of Tyra, heh. Famous name y'know? Quite a successful man coming from a rich family, 'was able to make his own riches. I respect that y'know. But a man worth my respect wouldn't let some woman take all of my dough, sucked him of all he was worth. So bad his parents disowned him... She left only you. Even your own momma didn't want you. Your daddy did soooo much for you; taught you everything you know, other than all your skills of course, self taught I hear? But i digress... He taught you, if you owed something to someone, to try and do more than they expect, protect your friends and all that sickly wholesome shit. You're nothing, kid. You hold no power here, all you can do is listen and watch me break all of your precious little friends one by one. Y'know, that blondie could be a good maid, 'though we'd have to tame her, got' too much fight in her. But that bitch of a cyclops...? ... She's just that. A fucking worthless bitch. A worthless little girl who watched her mommy and daddy die and let it get to her..." The biker glanced behind Oscar, over towards Meryl, who was still paralyzed from fear. Ramsey could tell she could hear the conversation. "I see~... Mommy told you to run, didn't she...? Daddy did what he could to protect you, then mommy was hurt and begged you to run for your life, but you didn't... Why was that?-
Because you were scared...
-You're just a scared little girl, who saw some Desert terrorists raze the town of Noxy in retaliation for losing the Desert Incursion. You only escaped because our warriors don't kill children. It's in our blood to allow someone to have their revenge, but they never get it... And you won't either... You're just a worthless fucking Noxy bitch ass whore...!"
That's when it broke free. Ramsey watched in horror as Oscar stomped onto the biker's foot and then socked him in the face before the man could even yell out a sound. Catching his opponent's arm before it fell, Oscar grabbed and twisted it beyond recognition with no struggle at all. Then with so much power, that the man was launched into the ground and blasted a few meters away from the group, he kicked the biker square in the chest. Oscar was fueled by so much rage and filled with so much adrenaline that his raw power seemingly tripled.
"I don't know how you knew all of that, but that doesn't really matter... Most of what you said was true, but you called Meryl something she isn't and used evidence to the contrary. Yes, she watched her parents die, yes she watched her friends and family all burn inside her hometown, but she still came out fucking sane. Not many people could say the same. You know nothing, desert loyalist. Your father's empire was destined to fail from the beginning, you fascist bastard. I couldn't give a single shit about every insult, any event you bring up from my past, nothing affects me more, than when you bring my friends into this; when you bring Meryl into this... I will fucking kill you. You goddamn fascist narcissistic bitch."
The man slowly began to chuckle, quickly turning into a laugh as he grabbed his damaged arm and willed it right back into place with only a crack of the bones. His nonchalant attitude about getting absolutely decked by a Floyd; shocked even Oscar. Relatively ignoring the rest of his injuries, the biker slowly raised from the ground as if he was just resurrected from the dead, and acted like he just gotten out of bed. It was then, Ramsey noticed the difference of Oscar's pupils, when they changed color during a rage of his they turned to a darker blue speckled by red but now it was back to the original light blue. His adrenaline had already worn out, probably from the shock of the biker even being able to get up after the decking.
"That punch was rather weak coming from you, pup," the biker said as he cracked his neck to stretch it's muscles, "I expected more from a Floyd, let alone from the son of the guy that beat the Desert's champion five times over..." The man took a step forward, and then another and another, slowly gaining back his ground with no fear. He seemed to almost want to fight the Tyran. Oscar threw another skull-shattering punch that was sure to knock the man straight on his ass, but then he caught it. The smirk on the biker's face was cocky, and it made Oscar even more angry. Determined to beat his opponent, Oscar tried to fight for control, but the biker willed himself to win. Quickly grappling Oscar's arm, the biker easily took the advantage from the Tyran. Oscar was forced to submit, so his arm wouldn't break under the pressure. He was brought to his knees by someone shorter than him.
"Not so tough now are you, boy...?" The man said with a smile. "You should've just left when you could..." The biker began to chuckle again, but was quickly interrupted by a fist coming out of Oscar's grappled forearm which disappeared when they both made contact. The fist, which was Oscar's real arm, smashed the man in the right cheek, immediately sending him to the ground, knocking him into a bar table and some more stools, his arms laid over the now overturned chairs.
It seemed Oscar had used his epithet to disguise his arm as the air itself and made a fake one in an attempt to fool the biker, and it worked... It seemed Oscar was holding back,
The man chuckled as he rested his smiling head onto his arm in shame. "Ah shiet, my cockyness seemed to have gotten the better of me..." He said as he slowly rose from the ground. "No matter, second shot it is... I was hoping for a challenge anyway. Fuck it, time to go all out...!" The man grunted as both he and Oscar readied themselves for a fight.
"ENOUGH...!"
A roaring thunderous voice sprung out from the general area where Oscar was talking to one of the bikers, startling everyone in the building. It was commanding, terrifying, and strong. It was one of a natural leader and a boss.