Running Riot

He tried his best just not to think about it. His heart was rabbiting in time with the pounding of his boots on the pavement, his arms pumping as he propelled himself forward like a madman. He felt a moment of terrible exposure as he crossed the street, as if a gunshot was going to ring out and end him right there. But there was nothing. He dug out his brass knucks and laced the fingers of his right hand through them as he crouched on approach to Miss Cutie's front door. Time seemed to slow as he pulled the door open.

He took in a tableau. The moment stood still. Assault Rifle Guy poised with his rifle up, cocked at the restaurant's main counter where a cashier and a couple of line cooks stood frozen with hands up as if cast in wax. His boys with pistols out, menacing the rest of the joint. Barry's boys at one end with three pistols poised in their direction, halfway into plates full of meat skewers and clearly caught off guard, frozen halfway in the act of reaching for various concealed weapons. A small cluster of Asian skins at the other, clearly trying to calculate if they could rush the one guy who had them covered with a pair of Glocks. Advantage: Team Gangbanger.

And frozen in the midst of it all were a pair of the Miss Cuties who were the bar's main attraction. Shapely, buxom, firm-bodied Asian hotties with long coiffed hairdos in black and dyed blonde respectively, tiny pink polka-dot bikinis and pink heels, their gorgeous features frozen in terror. One was holding a tray of soju in a shaking hand, looking like she was going to faint dead away.

It was a bad situation. The gangsters could clearly pop anyone who got out of line before there would be a split-second's chance to mount a counter-offensive. And if they got other ideas -- like snatching one of those waitresses for a bit of fun, say -- it would be hard to stop them.

But that couldn't happen. It wouldn't happen. Got to stop them.

Lex's brain, working madly, picked Assault Rifle Guy as the lynchpin and nearest target. He felt almost as if he was outside his body, looking down, as he made the decision to go right in at the motherfucker from behind... and he lunged.

CRRRACK! He aimed for the back of his skull and felt the sick shock of impact jolt through his arm as his knuckle-dusters connected and time sped back up, seemed almost to go into fast-forward.

Assault Rifle Guy went down, collapsing like a marionette with its strings cut, out cold as he hit the linoleum. Pistol barrels swung in Lex's direction, but uncertainly, torn between tasks. Motion exploded from both ends of the joint: a couple of Barry's boys and a couple of the Asian skins producing pistols. Barry himself flashing into motion, the bright arc of a ratchet knife whipping out to cut a deep crimson groove across the face of the 'banger closest to him, the guy's blood spraying as he screamed and fell back and fumbled his gun in the process. The waitresses shrieking in tandem now, the tray of soju crashing to the ground as the pair of them fled for the kitchens, their cute assets bouncing.

A couple of moves later and the tableau was transformed. The girls were gone and the gang-bangers were on the defensive now, torn between training their pistols on the restaurant full of aggro skins all around them and the fresh threat behind them. Shaking with the adrenaline coursing through his body, Lex held still, very still, holding his arms up and giving them space, letting them decide to regather their fallen comrades and drag them back out, flourishing their pieces, barking "Yeah motherfuckers it's your lucky motherfuckin' day" as they faded out through the front entrance.

There was one last long, long moment as the last of them stood in the doorway, his pistol cocked sidewise at Lex as he clearly contemplated revenge. Time slowed again. Lex felt as if his heart were going to stop and for a clear, awful second he thought: This is it. But then the others were shouting at him from outside -- "Come on, dog, let's break up out of here!" -- and just like that he was gone. Like a bad dream.

For a moment more the scene within stayed frozen as the R'n'R boys and the Asian skins sized Lex up, made sure the gangbangers were really gone... maybe just as everyone tried to process the surrealism of what had just happened. Then finally the tension resolved in a rush of relief as pistols were put away and Lex tried not to shake visibly as he was surrounded by guys thumping him on the back and praising his courage, declaring him to be "the real deal." He exchanged a nod of respect with Barry as they shook hands, and he drew a laugh even from the petrified restaurant staff as he asked if there was any chance of a chicken skewer.

All the while his heart was pounding and his hands were shaking and he was wondering to himself: What in the hell just happened? What the fuck have I gotten myself into?

You have to hand it to them, he was thinking of Miss Cutie's staff a half hour later as he sat at a table with the R'n'R crew and a plate of chicken skewers in front of him. They don't rattle easy.

There had been a few minutes of shocked regathering after the sudden intrusion of the anonymous gangsters, cleaning up of blood and broken glass, but before you knew it Miss Cutie's Bar & Grill was up and running again, everything almost back to normal. The skins posted a guy outside now to make sure there were no more unpleasant surprises, and one of the Asian guys had called up a relative he knew in the local Tongan Bloods set. Sure enough another caddy low-rider had pulled up outside a short time later, speakers bumping hip-hop music, but this time it stayed put, nobody getting out. As if on guard duty. Still jittery, Lex had found that he'd never been gladder to hear ghetto voices rapping about bitches, hoes and money in his life.

The bikini-clad waitresses were back on duty, too, smiles plastered back on those beautiful faces as if they hadn't a care in the world. Only a tell-tale tremor in one or the others' hand told the tale -- that, and the way they kept looking at Lex, the dyed-blonde one in particular, with a special shine in their eyes that made his heart race in a different way. Don't let yourself play into that "my hero" shit, he told himself. It's just shock talking. The old, primal emergence of Eros to counter Thanatos, as he'd read in a psych course he'd taken once while studying for his private investigator's license.

Still, he found himself smiling back at them even as he carried on the negotiations with Barry.

"That's one hell of a story, man," Barry said, scratching his jaw after Lex had laid out his mission, as honestly as he'd done it for Vinnie the night before. "So, you really were part of that old Chicago scene, huh? Fuckin' incredible."

"I came along after a lot of the really famous shit went down," said Lex modestly. "Didn't make it on Gerardo or go blow-for-blow with the Nazi boys in their heyday. But I was there. For the end."

"And now you're here, for a new beginning." Barry shook his head in bemusement. "You're a pretty lucky motherfucker, you know that? I almost envy you."

"Except for the part about being an old geezer, you mean."

"Well, yeah, except for that." Barry's face looked a lot younger when he smiled, especially when it was a genuine smile. "Look, the way I see it I owe you one, man. We all do. I can do something to help you, just name it."

"I need to take Jonni home," Lex said simply. "Which means I need a way to get some time alone with her. Explain the situation. I can't just show up at her place... I have a feeling that girlfriend of hers might not appreciate it."

"Phaedra." Barry's expression clouded as he said the name. "Yeah, you're probably right. So what, then?"

"So, you put in me in the ring this afternoon, as a ringer." Lex spread his hands. "Tell everyone it was my price for wading in against a mope with an assault rifle just now. Let me collect on that bet Jonni made with you."

Surprise -- and something else -- echoed on faces around the table as he said that. He'd won a million points' worth of respect in the altercation just now, Lex knew... and suspected he'd just spent a few thousands of them. "Are you seriously telling me you want to fuck Jonni Wilder," Barry said disbelievingly.

Lex snorted. "Of course I don't think I'm gonna fuck her, man. She's a bit young for me, you know? And she's my best friend's daughter, it would be too fucking weird for words." As he was saying it, he could even convince himself that it was true, no matter what fantasies had ambushed him in the nights after Connie had made her shockingly lascivious suggestion about methods he could use to persuade her daughter back. "But it'll get me some time alone with her. To tell her that her mom loves her, misses her, is fucking terrified for her. That's what I really need to do... and you can give me that chance."

The atmosphere around the table relaxed as expressions shifted from nonplussed to understanding. "Might be the best thing for her, man," put in one of Barry's boys quietly -- a big guy, one of those who'd flashed a pistol earlier. "Never know what shit that slut Phaedra might get her into, she stays out here too long."

Barry put up a hand and his droog fell quiet. He studied Lex a moment more. The favour he was being asked was a big one, clearly, but after a moment he said: "You know what? Okay, man. You got a deal."

Lex crooked an eyebrow. It seemed to good to be true. "Just like that?"

"Why not?" There was a pause in conversation as one of the waitresses came back to the table with beers. It was the "blonde," her almond shaped eyes flashing as she very carefully and in slow, lingering fashion brushed a supple double-D against Lex's shoulder when she set his beer down. A round of knowing smiles around the table now, but as she left again Barry went on as if there hadn't been an interruption. "I got my own reasons. You saw the faces in the bar last night, you were there. I'm not afraid of anybody, but I don't go looking for enemies where I don't need them, either. And collecting on that bet would make me more than a few enemies in the scene. Whereas just backing out on it would've looked lame as hell. It was... a bit of a conundrum." He grimaced as he added: "There was something about the whole deal I didn't like from the start, anyhow. Phaedra was trying to set Jonni up for... ah, something. She even said that she'd help make it happen for some extra dough. I'm right into Jonni and I'd jump at the chance to be her lover, I'm not gonna lie... but I don't think I want it... uhhh, like that."

Lex nodded, appreciating something in Barry he hadn't expected to find. He might be a vicious little shit... but he's an honourable vicious little shit. And he actually gives a shit about Jonni. "I can respect that. But I'm confused, I thought Phaedra was her lover?"

Laughter all around at that, of the cold and humourless variety. Barry shook his head. "Phaedra doesn't have lovers. She has prey. Sucks one dry and moves on to the next. Men, women, it doesn't make any difference, she's always been that way. And she'll turn on anyone who steals the spotlight from her in a heartbeat... like Jonni has." And that hard look came back into his eyes as he said: "Now that I think about it, maybe I can find a way to turn this little game of hers around on her, for once. It'd be more than worth it."

Lex didn't know what that meant, and found he didn't want to know. He had what he wanted. So he just shrugged and said: "Right. Guess I better get ready, then. Much obliged, gents." He was reaching for his wallet as he said it, getting ready to settle up.

"Don't be in too much of a rush, mate," said the droog beside him with the nudge of an elbow and a knowing wink. "You still got Eva to tend to."

He looked blankly at the guy, but understood as he nodded his head over at the blonde-dyed waitress, who was standing at the server's station right now. Watching Lex. Her eyes caught his, flashed as she gave him a randy, come-hither smile and licked her lips and waggled her sexy thong-clad bubble-butt. As he looked away with his ears burning, he found the R'n'R guys were all grinning at him.

"Why do you think we come here?" said the big droog who'd spoken up earlier. "It's not for the fucking kimchi, man, I can tell you that."

Barry nodded in quiet confirmation. "All you need to do is give her a hundred buck tip on top of what you owe. She'll do the rest." Lex hesitated, looking over his shoulder at the Asian skins -- but they just toasted him with their beers and smiled before getting back about whatever their conversation was. He looked back at Barry again, whose grin had broadened. "You're fam after today, man. Believe it. Don't go disappointing the lovely lady, now, she's been shook up. Just think of it as therapy."

Lex looked back over at Eva and saw her still watching him, her smile having been replaced by a much more intent expression, her bodacious breasts rising and falling with her breath as a tell-tale flush rose in her fair Asian flesh. Her nipples were big as sand dollars and visibly fully aroused and stiff as hell under her flimsy bikini top.

He shook his head ruefully; the tender trap was well and truly sprung. "Alright, then," he nodded, drawing a round of randy cheers from the table as he got up to pay his respects. His cock was already stiffening.

Eva took him by the hand and led him back to the bathrooms, where she promptly got on her knees and pulled out his throbbing prick. She went to town on it, spitting and gobbling hungrily as he wrapped his fingers in her toxic-yellow tresses; and as he felt his lust begin to rise and started pumping his hips and fucking her pretty face and throat, she took it like a champ, looking up at him through watering eyes as her fingers delved behind the gusset of her little thong and started to pump her wet pussy.

"Just think of it as therapy," Barry'd said, and Lex had to admit he was right. The endorphins suffusing his body as his balls slapped wetly against the Asian cutie's chin were doing plenty to unwind him from the tension of that earlier, harrowing fight. From the way Eva was writhing and moaning from the torrid throat-fuck, it seemed it was doing the same for her. "You like that, baby?" he whispered to the whore as he forced his prick deeper and deeper down her throat. "You like that cock?"

"Nnnggmm-GLLCKKHH-GLLLCKKH-gllckkk-gllckkk-GLLCCKHH," she moaned around the plunging prick, her spittle bursting around him and dripping down her big tits as she pulled them free of her top. He reached down and started to squeeze and fondle them as she pulled off his dick to take a breath and stroke his spit-soaked shaft as she delivered a classic porn-star-style: "It's so big..."

At that very moment he had a vivid vision flash across his mind's eye: a vision of Jonni on her knees with his cock in her hands and spit dripping down her chin, gazing up at him with those blue eyes and telling him how she loved his big dick. The vision was so vivid, almost like a hallucination, that it momentarily threw him... and he found himself disoriented when he was back in the toilet stall with Eva wrapping her big fake titties into a warm, supple tunnel around his prick.

If she noticed his split-second fugue state she gave no sign of it. She was still dirty-talking him as she begged him to fuck her tits, but he could only oblige her for a couple of minutes before he suddenly felt the need to turn her face away, as if he was afraid she might morph back into Jonni without warning. And so hauling her up and bending her over, he grabbed a fistful of hair and made her howl as he took her from behind like a bitch in heat, pounding her dripping cooze frantically with his raging cock and walloping her big beautiful ass with an open hand.

She cried out from the spanking and humped just as frantically back against him, writhing in slutty delight as her soft ass bounced and jiggled and her sloppy cunt spasmed around his ramrod dick, the sexy bitch cumming over and over again as his balls tickled her clit and his meat filled her full of hot, throbbing satisfaction. "Oh yeah fuck me Daddy fuck me Daddy fuck your dirty little whore..." she chanted, urging him on a pound her harder, and harder, and harder.

But as he felt the sap rising in his balls, that vivid vision claimed his mind again: and suddenly again, for a split second, Jonni was bent over in front of him, his dark fingers biting into her soft white flesh and her tight pink teenaged pussy exploding all over his bloated organ as she moaned and writhed and begged. The illusion was so vivid that it took him right over the edge: snarling in shock, he felt his cock explode in ecstasy as it hammered home and his spunk started to pump out and paint her insides, bullet after searing bullet of it, as the feel of the hot slime inundating her fuckhole clearly sent her over the edge into another caterwauling orgasm... and for a split second her was Jonni, flushed and passionate and alabaster-perfect as she screamed "Oh FUCK Daddy I can feel your SPUNK it's making me CU-HUMMMM..."

Again the vision vanished as quickly as it came, and it was Eva writhing to completion on his manhood as he fired off the last of his load inside her. As the last of their simultaneous climax shuddered through them, leaving them spent and sweaty as they leaned against each other in the aftermath, he pulled out and let a stream of his sperm slop out of her cunt and drip down her inner thigh. Eva wiggled her arse against him and sighed in satisfaction.

"You're so good to me, Daddy," she said, then wriggled against him again as she said: "You know... I can throw in another round for free if you want to. I'd love to have you in my ass..."

It was a tempting offer... but Lex was still freaked out by the weird hallucinations he'd just experienced. "Rain check, baby," he said, kissing her on the neck. "I've got to go." She purred and protested, told him he was the monster fuck of her young life and so on, but he stuck to his guns, pulling his pants and clothes back on and leaving her with a smile.

He gave a departing wave to Barry and the others in the bar on his way out, acknowledging a couple of ribald cheers with a good-natured grin. But on the inside his guts were churning, thinking about the weird flashes of Jonni he'd seen while fucking Eva. That shit isn't normal, Lex. Not a good sign at all. How deep, he wondered, had Jonni gotten into his head? And what was he really going to do in his quest to "save" her?

Jonni was dressed in a sober -- but still form-fitting -- outfit of black jeans, boots and braces and a black Perry polo as she climbed off her scooter just outside the Maywood Beach Boxing Club, toting her Lonsdale duffel. Looking to the east, she could make out a column of smoke rising over the city. It was from close by the East Division headquarters of the Maywood Beach Police Department. Something bad had to have happened at that march. Very bad.

I don't even want to know, thought the beautiful young 'byrd, shaking her head. But -- though she'd seen signs of the gangs already moving into loot-and-destroy mode on the way here -- some part of her stubbornly refused to believe that things were going to get as bad as the stories she was always hearing about back in the day. Despite the heavy pall in the air, there were still people moving around, shops still open, normal life still playing out. Just... less of it. Okay, a lot less. And wary, everyone constantly watching while trying not to look like that's what they were doing. Scurrying along without quite running, staying close to the buildings, trying to look inconspicuous.