Dockingboys

Chapter Twenty Three

The next day, Jesper stared at the hole he made in the wall of the warehouse. The Acid Bomb, as he'd christened it, had given a small explosion that cracked the glass bottle containing hot green acid, and the acid had flown onto the wall, eating through it to reveal the other side. Jesper smiled. He didn't know when he'd need this, but it might prove useful in the future.

But the bomb itself was still a problem. Whenever the bomb exploded, the acid would go all over the bomb and it's base, eating through it, which would be very wasteful of resources. Well, it's a bomb, Jesper thought. Might as well destroy it. He still had fourteen bottles, and he had two of them attached to a belt on his waist right now. He was just about to clean up the remains of the bomb and glass when a shout from behind stopped him.

"Hey, what d'you think you're doing?" said a tall Lycian boy. Behind him were three other boys. Jesper cursed. Out of everyone in the South Docks, he was by far the calmest dockingboy, and he rarely caused trouble in the city and among the group. But the others were not so humble.

The Lycian boy's name was Ural, and he had a really bad temper. When Oliver left the South Docks, Ural had taken advantage and harassed one of the younger boys until they were all afraid of him, and he'd replaced Oliver as king. The three boys behind him, two Kumlari and a Estavian, were his friends, and they too felt that rank was more important than friendship. And now they were all approaching Jesper, surrounding him.

"Hey, he asked you a question, you little turd," the Estavian yelled at Jesper. "Answer him!"

The two Kumlari cracked their knuckles, and Jesper's heart sank. Ural and his friends had always held a grudge for Jesper, as they all knew he was smarter than they were, and now, with the supervisor somewhere else and an excuse to punish him, they were going to fight with Jesper.

"I said," Ural spoke through gritted teeth, "what do you think you're doing?"

Jesper took a step back. "That's none of your business."

Ural cracked his knuckles as well and stepped forward, his three friends following. "Not my business, is it? Well, I think I will make it my business, you little rat!" With that, he charged forward, fist raised and his eyes flaring with hatred. But he didn't know one thing.

Jesper was way more skilled than they were in hand-to-hand combat.

Sidestepping to the left to avoid Ural's incoming fist, Jesper grabbed Ural's wrist and pulled it towards him, then reaching out with his left elbow and hitting Ural square in the nose. Ural groaned from the impact and then fell onto the floor, semi-conscious. His three friends were slightly smarter, staying a few meters away, until the Estavian yelled some sort of Estavian war cry and charged forward towards Jesper. Jesper sidestepped again and stuck out his leg, tripping the Estavian and sending him sprawling onto the ground. He tried to get back up, but Jesper delivered a good solid kick into his face, and the other boy's eyes crossed slightly and went unconscious. The two Kumlari eyed their two unconscious friends and then one of them whistled loudly.

One by one, four other dockingboys appeared, two of them brandishing baseball bats and the other two holding long metal bars, most likely found in the cargoyard, where they kept a few piles of lumber and steel for spare use. Jesper looked at them, then sighed.

"Shit," he said, readying himself for the fight to come.

~~~

Oliver opened his garage door to reveal the black Titan container. The tow truck he'd stolen from a nearby repair shop to tow it back was lying next to it.

To be honest, he didn't really need to kill anyone now. He'd gotten his revenge on Jaxon, killing him, then murdering his child. Thinking back to the way Rake had screamed on the way down made guilt tear through Oliver's heart. He'd acted cold-bloodedly, only thinking about his own loss, how he'd lost his own father.