But That Would Be Boring, Right?

The next morning comes and Evelyn is the first one up. She looks around and doesn’t see Adrian until she hops off the playground, seeing his puffy white hair sticking out of a slide. She kicks the bottom of the slide and this causes Adrian to slide off, hitting the back of his head off the ground. He slowly opens his eyes and looks up at Evelyn’s smiling face.

“Morning!” She said,

He sits up and looks at the rising sun, he sleepily rubs his eyes,“Why is it so early…?”

“Cause I got things to do, dude. Where are we going?”

“Come on, I’ll show you.”

He gets to his feet and leads them outside of the building, climbing to the top of the cart and looking out on the rest of the rolling city. Evelyn follows and steadies herself, her skates threatening to go in different directions.

“Was looking yesterday. I saw a good target to hit.” Adrian points in a seemingly random direction,

“Uh… Where?”

“There.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t help.”

Adrian yanks her face in a direction and points. After squinting for a moment she can make out a small weathervane, erected on a cart at least one hundred yards away.

“See it? That thing there.” He said,

“That?”

“Yeah.”

“That thing right there?”

“Yes. Quit asking already and throw something.” Adrian steps a few feet away from her. He gets in a batter's stance,

Evelyn can’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of it all. She glances around the carts roof and sees plastic bottles as well as other trash littering the space.

“You’re a weird guy, Adrian. Ya know that?” She says, grabbing a bottle,

“I didn’t ask for your opinion, Everly.”

“EVELYN! If you keep doing that I’m not helping you!”

“It’s too long to remember…”

“It’s three syllables!”

“Sylla-what?”

“You’re an actual neanderthal…”

“Whatever, if you’re gonna have a stick up your ass about it… I’ll just shorten it.”

“To what?”

“I don't know… Ev? Just two letters, easy enough to remember.”

“Meh, it’s better than a totally different name.”

“Then can you quit whining and pitch already?”

“Sir, yes sir!”

She pelts the bottle towards Adrian and he hits it. It soars through the air and to her surprise, Evelyn watches as the bottle gets closer than she thought it would.

“Woah, you actually almost got it!” She exclaims,

“’Course I did. Keep ‘em coming.” He replies with a cocky smirk,

After a few hours the two get into a rhythm, Evelyn throws, Adrian hits, then they watch with bated breath before sighing when the bottle almost hits.

“Aw, almost…” Evelyn said,

“I’ll get it on this one.”

Evelyn throws, Adrian hits. He clicks his tongue as it misses.

“I’ll get it on this one.”

“You’ve been saying that for an hour now.”

“Because this one’s the one, you’ll see…”

A group of Ravaged men slowly creep to watch from below them, one of them being the Ravaged who won king of the hill last night.

“That him? The white haired runt?” One them asks,

“Yeah, that’s him.” The Ravaged from last night replies,

“You got beat up by him? He’s barely four feet tall.” Another one teases,

“Shut the hell up! He’s stronger than-”

Before he can finish his sentence, the men watch Adrian hit a bottle, they watch it sail before hearing a faint “ding” noise ring out.

“Holy shit! You really did it!” Evelyn’s eyes light up and she turns to Adrian with a grin,

“Pft, told you.” Adrian smiles back,

“We need Scoots.” A Ravaged said,

“Yeah, uh, yup, that’s a good plan.” Another said, before they move out of sight.

The two move hop off the roof of the cart and start to walk through the inside, Evelyn matching Adrian’s pace.

“So? Same time tomorrow?” She asks,

“Hah? You already upheld your part of the deal.” He answers,

“I had fun. Plus we weren’t friends last night.”

“We ain’t friends.”

“Aw what?! Why?! You’re the only one here who’s close to my age! We gotta be battle buddies at least!”

Adrian leans back as she gets in his face. He looks to the side, “I guess…”

“Well? There you go! We’re friends now.”

Adrian turns and starts to walk in the opposite direction, “I’ll be at the park tomorrow…”

Evelyn waves at him as he goes. She skates down the street when two of the Ravaged from before step in her path. She tries to stop, but she barrels into them.

“Ow! What the hell’s your deal?!”

“Heya, Evelyn.” Scoots walks in between the two men and crouches down in front of her,

“Hi, Scoots, you know calling out my name would’ve gotten my attention just as easy, ya know.”

“Aw well I’d like to believe that, Evelyn, really I do. But I don't know if I know ya anymore… I mean… I know that you know our customs. Our rules… And the consequences of breaking ‘em… Ain’t that right?”

“What’re you getting at?”

“Evelyn… Ya can’t bullshit a bullshiter. The white haired kid you were with. Usually, I would be a nice guy and cut a newcomer some slack. But since you were there and you know our rules… I can’t let this slide. So here’s the skinny, you help us teach the white haired kid what happens when you disrespect our customs. Or you’ll be on our shit list. Make the right choice, Evelyn, you’re a smart gal.”

Evelyn is quiet for a moment, before standing to her feet. She brushes herself off and grins at him, “Sorry! But no deal! He’s my friend now, so.”

“Evelyn, Evelyn, Evelyn…” Scoots shakes his head, snapping his fingers, as more Ravaged starts filling out the allies, circling Evelyn, “Looks like I was right… I don’t know ya at all.”

…

Adrian walks down the street, yawning and dragging his feet across the pavement, “Man… I’m so tired…” He says to himself, but the feeling of someone crashing into him jolts him out of his sleepy state. He glares behind him as two Ravaged run. “Aye! Watch it!”

One of the Ravaged stops in his tracks after seeing him, “Wait! Hold up!” He calls out to his friend,

“What? Oh shit! It’s the white haired kid!” They move towards Adrian, surrounding him, “Well ain’t we lucky? Now we don’t even have to bother with the girl…”

Adrian watches them surround him with a smirk, “‘Girl’, huh? I’d ask what that’s about… But that would be boring, right?”

…

Back with Evelyn, she lands a kick into a man’s gut, quickly rolling away from a punch from another. A man behind her wraps his arms around her. She flips up, grabbing his head between her skates, slamming him into the ground. She jumps off him and lands a double front kick to someone’s face, jumping off him and away from the group. She skates off while sticking out her tongue at them. She leads them for a while and smiles when she sees Adrian running towards her.

“Oh, hey! You saved me a trip! Scoots is after us by the way.” She said,

“I noticed.” Adrian says while casually deflecting a thrown brick.

He rushes in with a wild smirk, slamming his bat across someone’s face and blasting him into the men behind him. He dives into the pile, swinging his bat randomly and still connecting with the homeless rushing him. Evelyn also rushes in, going for a kick that collides with Adrian’s bat.

“Hey! Don’t hit me, dude!” She yells,

“You were in my way!” He barks back,

He clashes with a man holding a pipe, the man dropping it as he can’t handle the impact from the bat. Evelyn then front kicks the man in the face and Adrian swats away a man going in to attack her side. Evelyn smiles at him before skating ahead and she does a slide that knocks out the legs from under a man. His head now set up perfectly, Adrian slams his bat into him as he falls.

“Sunuvabitch!!” Scoots exclaims, watching his gang’s numbers slowly dwindle,

“What’s the plan, Scoots…?” One of his men ask,

“Let’s high tail it outta here, boys!” Scoots orders, before running as fast as he can down an alley,

“Oh no you don’t! Get back here, Scoots!!” Evelyn calls out as she dashes after him,

Her skates quickly catching up to the old man and she drop kicks him in the back.

“Gah! My-my back!” Scoots yelps,

Evelyn skids to a stop and stands over him, “Sorry, but that’s what you get for being a dick.”

“You started it!” He yells,

“And I ended it…” She replies, “But that doesn’t mean we gotta burn this bridge, right?”

“R-right?”

“See, I’ve been waiting for a moment like this, having something over you. You own one of the biggest gangs in Gemshore… Which means you can help me out with something I need…”

“What are ya yammering about?”

“To put it in simple terms for you… I want an airship!”