A Man of Honor.

Chapter 7: Dirty Deeds.

"A little violence never hurt anyone." ~ Benjamin Ruggiero.

"So uh... where are we going exactly?" I asked O-Ushi as the guy riding up front pumped the shotgun with a loud clack-clack chambering a shell.

"The Dragons have a chop shop a couple blocks outside our neighborhood," she explained to me taking a turn, "Junior has given me the go ahead to smash the place up, everyone going is packing aura, but if you see any Atlesians don't touch them, and don't kill anybody kid, Junior doesn't want any bodies."

"No bodies?" I asked her looking at the guy in front with the shotgun resting between his legs.

The man with the shotgun looked back as we stopped at a light and cracked a grin in my direction. "Relax kid, it's just rocksalt," the he told me with a wink, easing my worries, "it packs a punch but it won't kill anybody, just make them hurt like hell."

"Jaune if I wanted you to make corpses then I would have handed everybody some iron instead of clubs." O-Ushi told me.

"Yeah," Melanie cheerfully agreed, "these punks aren't even worth real bullets."

I nodded feeling most of my apprehensions dissolve knowing that I was going to be sending those thugs to the hospital instead of the morgue. "And what if their guns aren't loaded with rock salt?" I asked knowing full well that the 24k Dragons might not share Junior's restraint.

"Like, that's why everyone coming is packing aura," Miltia chimed in, "they're gonna have a hard time taking down us with just some pea shooters."

"Exactly," O-Ushi said, "most of the 24k Dragons don't have aura, I can only think of a handful I knew who did back when they worked for Junior, this should be easy for the ten of us."

"Yeah," Melanie said, cracking her knuckles for emphasis, "but if any of them want to put up a real fight Mil and I got dibs."

I remained quiet for the rest of the drive smoking a cigarette. Tonight I was going to get my hands dirty but not bloody, I could live with that. I'd already beaten up a fair number of the 24k Dragons so doing it again was going to be nothing new for me.

O-Ushi stopped the car and I looked out the window as the doors opened and Mel and Mil shuffled out ready to roll. The shop didn't look like much to me but I saw that indeed there were already some 24k Dragons outside smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.

They had already taken notice of our vehicles stopping and the ten of us getting out with weapons in hand. The guy with the shotgun raised it and fired, deafening me for a second as he struck one of the dragons down with a blast of rock salt.

I watched as the force of the impact seemed to punch him right in the chest. The rock salt shattered the beer bottle he was holding and spilled it all over him and his jacket. He pumped the shotgun and shot down another one trying to scramble inside. It struck him right in the back and fell through the door.

O-Ushi reached into her jacket and pulled both of her long barreled revolvers out. I didn't think those were non lethal weapons but I watched as she flipped the weapons around and gripped them by the barrel. I watched as the twin magnums morphed like so many weapons I had seen at Beacon forming into a pair of hammers. I watched as she moved forward stepping over the one guy that had gotten a back full of rock salt.

One guy tried to jump her at the threshold but I watched as she shattered his arm and knocked some of his teeth out. Mel and Mil were the next in the door and I followed in. The guy with the shotgun loaded a couple more shells in the tube as the rest of the boys moved around back or shattered the windows.

When I finally shuffled into the place a full on melee was already happening inside. I watched as Mel and Mil slashed and kicked everyone who even dared get in their way. I watched as Melanie brought her bladed heel down one guy giving him a slash on his shoulder and sending him to the floor bleeding and in pain. I stared at Mil as she slashed up one punk's face like it was a scratching post.