LEGACY OF THE BLAZERS - CHAPTER TWO (Patreon)

CHAPTER TWO – RAINY DAY WOMEN

Rumors said Jess formed the Blazers when she was sixteen, after the death of her brother at the hands of a bastard gang leader named Skullcrusher—he called himself this because, if you pissed him off, you got your skull crushed. He wasn’t clever, but he was frightening. The pot fields were his, and if he even caught you sniffing his weed?

Well, see his name.

The truth’s been muddied by time, because you know elders always ham their stories up, but Lux had always been told that Jess and her brother were part of Skullcrusher’s gang, and their job was simple: develop new strains, keep the customers happy, and don’t start shit.

They started shit.

Accidentally.

See, Jess’ brother was genius when it came to growing pot, and she…wasn’t. Her entire life, he’d been the brains, and she the brawn, and joining the gang had been a desperate move because they owed some damn scary people a damn scary amount of money. They were only kept around because of his skills, and these skills led him to develop the perfect strain—the Eternal Strain.

Roll it into a blunt, take a toke, and not only would that blunt be bound to you forever, but it’d become a weapon. The smoke would succumb to your whim, and you’d become damn near unstoppable.

If you survive the hit.

Because of the intensity, most don’t.

But Jess had, and when Skullcrusher found out? Well, saying he was pissed off doesn’t do the rampage he went on justice—he wrecked his own buildings and murdered his own men, all in search of them, all because he knew they would spell his downfall if he didn’t squash them quickly.

Upon finding her brother, he did what he did best and mashed his skull into mush.

Upon finding Jess, he fell to the ground before even raising his fist.

And afterward, she mimicked his rampage, eliminating the rest of the gang and anyone who felt sympathy or had ever supported Skullcrusher—this was partly to ensure peace, and partly for revenge. Only two blunts were ever made out of the Eternal Strain. Hers, and the one originally destined for her brother.

The one belonging to Lux.

So how?

How could a woman who’d easily crushed one of the most dominate gangs in all of Panty’s Landing by herself show up dead, nothing more than a trophy of an undeclared war? They knew of the Panty Mafia, everyone did, and they’d heard of their atrocities. The power those panties possessed…well, it was  frightening.

But Jess’ power was also frightening…

As she stormed through the alleyways, Lux kept her head down, gritted her teeth, and tried not to cry—much as she wanted to call bullshit, there was no point in playing stupid. Somehow they’d defeated Jess, and now she was in charge. She had to confront them and figure out what was gonna happen next, even if all she wanted to do was sick the wolves on them and tear them limb from fucking limb.

“You bastards,” she hissed.

Tegan would’ve told her to calm down, but she was back home, sitting there, being the Eagle, and as the Wolf, Lux was going to attack and wasn’t going to relent until what needed to be done, was done. Sometimes fury was the only way to solve a problem, Jess had taught her that.

Jess…

She rounded one last corner, almost slipping on some discarded garbage, and finally came face to face with Blowhole and his cronies—for a moment, she just stood there, glaring at them, and when she walked forward, she made sure to puff her chest out and do it with conviction.

Twenty feet away from them, she stopped. The rat had a twitch like a fiend itching for a fix, cocking his head to the side every few seconds, and the sloth didn’t move at all—he just kept his cold eyes fixated on her. Blowhole was twirling the locks of his dolphin babes’ hair, and doing everything in his power to not take her seriously. “I’m Lux,” she said. “Lux Jones.”

“Great,” Blowhole said. “And why do I care?”

“Why does he care?” the dolphin babes repeated.

She focused only on Blowhole. Not the rat, not the sloth, not the two heads perched on the back on his throne. Just that bulbous bastard of a whale. “You called me,” she said. “You k…killed Jess, so I’m the new leader. State your business then get the fuck out.”

“You’ve got a nasty mouth on you,” he said. “Lux Jones—a boring name for a boring girl, I suspect. Living out here in the sticks, trying to pretend you’re not part of the scum that is Panty’s Landing. But you are, you know. The Blazers are a gang like any other, and that means you will bow before the Panty Mafia and give us, oh, I don’t know, let’s say ninety-five percent of your profits.”

“Dat’s generous, boss!” the rat said. “Real generous. You’s a real good fella!”

Blowhole shot the rat a glare which singed the fur off his backside. “Shut your trap, you rat.”

“Rat. Rat!” the dolphin babes echoed, sticking their tongues out at the rat.

Ninety-five percent wasn’t happening—in fact, no percent was happening. Lux had made up her mind the moment she saw Jess’ head, and she knew all those prying eyes who smudged their faces against the windows of the buildings around them would agree with her decision. “Why do you call yourself Blowhole?” she asked, smirking. “You open for business?”

The dolphin babes reacted poorly, gritting their teeth and turning cartoonishly monstrous. Blowhole, meanwhile, got a kick out of it! He slapped his palm against the side of his chair as he guffawed. “Ha!” he said. “Now that’s a good one. You know, that, uh, what was her name—Jem? Jen? Je…”

“Jess.”

“Ah, right. Mess. She acted the same way, you know? When I crashed her little meeting and beat her to a bloody pulp, she never flinched or showed fear. In fact, she cracked jokes until her very last breath.”

“Which sounded sum’in like dis: ack, urg, uck, grrrr—ya know, ‘cuz she was chokin’ on her own blood!” the rat said, snickering away.

This time Blowhole simply bonked the rat on the head, causing him to tumble over unconscious as the dolphin babes pointed and laughed at him. “No need to be crude about it, Cheese. We’ve got a guest in our home, after all.”

The implications of such a small word choice was massive. Him stating that this was their home meant he sensed negotiations were over, and battle was about to begin. Lux flipped a blunt out of her pocket, the same blunt she’d accidentally taken a hit off of two years ago when visiting Jess, the same blunt which had bestowed upon her a grand power but just as easily could have killed her, and sparked it up.

“Eternal Strain, Twin Wolves!”

Two puffs of smoke quickly turned into two wolves whose shoulders stopped at her head, and who possessed teeth which could crunch even the mightiest steel. They’d been bound to her since the day they almost stole her life away, and the mere sight of them was enough to make most piss their pants.

Far as she could tell, they shared her thoughts and feelings, which meant they were both eager to battle Blowhole and his henchmen. She pointed her finger at him, not letting it shake no matter how worried she was—if he’d beaten Jess, he’d probably beat her, but she couldn’t think like that!

Life’s a bitch and then you die, but us Blazers only ever go out in a blaze of glory!

That was the motto Jess lived by, the motto she died by, and Lux would honor her by doing the same. She’d carved out this peaceful place of living for them and she’d die defending it before she’d bow to her knees and give it up.

“Twin Wolves, attack!”

Quickly they became blurs, zig-zagging back and forth as they raced toward Blowhole. She kept her hand moving, left hand controlling one and right hand controlling the other, and did her best to make him think she was targeting his henchmen—at the last second she made them both b-line toward him, and when they jumped, a glimmer of hope arose within her. Maybe, just maybe…

“Eternal Strain, Twin Snakes!”

A poof of smoke so dense that Lux had to cover her eyes because it was mixing with the dirt and grit of the ground swallowed the entire area, and when it cleared, she saw a sight she couldn’t have imagined even in her worst nightmares—her Twin Wolves had been entrapped by snakes.

Jess’ Twin Snakes, her Eternal Strain.

One bite from them, and their toxin would still your blood and you’d be dead before your body hit the floor. She’d only seen them twice, once during one of their battles with the Greasers. The other time was when she was first saved and brought back here…

She swung her hands left and right to no avail—her wolves thrashed, but the snakes’ grip was tight. If she kept this up they’d be squeezed into nothingness. Blowhole made no snarky comment, nor did he move a muscle. A blunt hung out the corner of his mouth and he casually toked away at it.

“You took it…?”

“A spoil of war, you know?” he said. “But don’t worry—I’m going to make it even better than she did, because I’ve got an ace in the hole. You know, we are the Panty Mafia, after all.”

Suddenly, his crotch began to glow—he wore a pair of navy blue striped panties and when they began to shine like the sun in the sky the snakes grew one, two, three times larger, mashing her Twin Wolves into the ground with a poof. The rat, who’d just woken back up, found this hilarious, nibbling his bloody tail to keep himself from making another comment. The sloth kept his dead-eyed stare strong.

“All gangs are property of the Panty Mafia,” Blowhole hissed. “You damned humans don’t understand that yet. You’re nothing compared to us. You’re nothing except worms. You’re nothing without your Eternal Strain.”

“And you’re nothing without your panties,” Lux spit back.

Blowhole chuckled, and then he raised his hand and pointed it off to the side, where there were a group of old apartments belonging to the Blazers. Before she realized what he was preparing to do, a ball of energy formed around his palm, and seconds later, that ball of energy collided with the buildings, creating a massive firestorm. Hundreds of lives were lost instantly, and Lux couldn’t contain herself.

Taking another toke, she created more Twin Wolves—though these were much smaller in size, their shoulders stopping at her shoulders—and charged forward, hoping to use the explosion as a distraction. Tears spilled down her cheeks, but she wasn’t going to let her friends die in vain. She wasn’t!

“You bastaaaaaard!”

But she was cut off as the rat appeared in front of her, and the last words she heard before his tail pierced her stomach were Blowhole’s: “Kill her.”

Blood flew out her back, the blunt fell out her mouth, and she hit the ground hard enough to crack her skull open. She reached out desperately for the blunt, not wanting to give up, never wanting to give up, but the rat’s tail snatched it up before she ever got close. “Sucks to SUCK!” he yelled.

She watched the rat trot by over to Blowhole, crouch down on a knee and offer him the blunt. Her vision was growing muddy, and she was losing feeling all over her body. She’d been hit with a perfect gut shot, and she was dying. She was really dying. She’d…lost. She’d…

Jess…

…I’m sorry.

“Kill them all,” Blowhole said. “Set an example for anyone who dare oppose the Panty Mafia.”

END OF CHAPTER TWO