Tales From New Jump City

1. Where's the scoop?

Emi leaned against a pillar in the subway while, tired after a long day of school. She wore some faded overalls and had on a pair of basketball shoes. She had a light brown complexion a curious look in her eye and wore her curly hair up in two buns.   

A decent afternoon crowd had appeared, many looked at their phones while others had formed a small crowd around some capoeiristas that were kicking and flipping at one another, jumping out to tag in another capoeirista that was playing a drum or berimbau.  Emi yawned before pulling her phone from her jacket pocket to see she had several missed messages from Darrick, the head of the school paper. 

She put the phone back in her pocket without reading it. Emi hadn't turned in an impressive article for some time now. She had been riding on the success of her article discussing various criminal outfits and players, but everything after had been mostly fluff pieces. But she didn't want to think about such things at this moment.  For now, she just wanted to get home and have a snack. 

The tracks began to vibrate as the subway train made its way to the crowded station. The train stopped and Emi piled into the subway cars with the afternoon crowd, finding a pole to hold onto at the end of one of the cars. 

    "STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS PLEASE".

    Emi pulled out her phone to occupy herself for the rest of the trip. The doors started to close when the same reassuring voice sounded up again.

    "STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS PLEA-. STAND-STAND."

    Emi glimpsed at the train door to see what the problem was and saw a metal bat was holding the door open. Two mohawked goons, one with sunglasses, the other without, held open the doors for the leader of the trio, a tall, garish, pompadoured, bat-wielding leader. All three wore a sickeningly bright orange jacket with a viper brandishing its fangs. Once they were inside and the train began to move, the leader of the group stepped forward and began pointing his metal bat in people's faces.

    "Listen here you bags of meat, this train and any valuables that happen to be inside are now property of the Orange Viper Gang. Anybody got a problem with that!?!" With the veins in his neck bulging, he took the bat and slammed it into a nearby railing right above someone's head, leaving a visibly exaggerated dent. The echo from the blow mustered a gasp from the crowd and everyone shrunk in the gang's wake.

"Anyone gives us any trouble and I'll put more than a dent in ya head, now start emptying those pockabooks."  As the gang started shaking people up Emi looked back at the message that Darrick sent her. Be careful! Orange viper gang spotted near your commute! You also still haven-. Emi looked away from her phone.

"Shit," Emi said. "This is just what I needed today". Right after she said that an oafish hand grasped her phone. She looked up and saw the beady red eyes of one of the mohawked goons.

"I'll be takin' that?" The goon sneered at her. Emi's nose wrinkled at the smell of his putrid breath. She pulled her hand away from him along with her phone.

"When's the last time you been to the dentist, mouth breather?" Emi said as she plugged her nose.

"What the hell did you say?" He started grinding his yellow teeth against one another.

"I'm just surprised that you still have any teeth left in that head of yours. It smells like something is still dying in there." The pompadour leader turned to the noise.

"What's going on over there? That bitch giving you trouble?" He walked over to Emi and put the baseball bat in her face. "Why do you feel like antagonizing my boys, miss?" Emi looked down at the bat, the pompadour, back at the leader, and then opened her mouth.