FSE

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To the raptor who only turned his head, the four koopas who entered were at first like any other group of koopas. He almost suspected they would be the same four punks who tried to mug him on his first day of arrival, but then he noticed two things wrong. Firstly, they were not separated by colourful headbands and shells. Secondly, he noticed each one of them had a signature black scar upon their cheeks, presumably some sort of burn mark, rather deep burn marks at that. "Evening everyone," said the apparent leader in a cool but cocky voice. "Are we all having...fun?" Nobody said a word, merely looking at first before turning away to each other with extreme discomfort. James could already feel the atmosphere change in an instant, his suspicions of their intentions already coming to surface in his mind. He turned towards Yonny, murmuring: "What the hell do they wa-" "SHH!" The bartender silenced him as the group walked in, closely looking over each and every one of the bar patrons with false intentions. "Having fun with all your friends are we? Just another bright sunny day at Roy's, shootin' the breeze, meetin' with strangers...leavin' with friends." The other three chuckled, as a few patrons edged towards the door before a firm koopa hand was placed upon a shy guy. "Leavin' so soon?" "...u-um...I...I-" "Get out." He firmly pushed the shy guy towards the door, with a few other customers leaving in turn while they had the chance. The koopas encouraged them to leave all the more, their sardonic tones and mean eyes souring the mood of the room. "There's nothin' wrong with a good drink or two...if it's JUST with friends, right? Not like any of you are here for anythin' ELSE...right?" "Heh, yeah, nothin' else right?" "Right. Course we wouldn't wanna make this place...dirty."

The four koopas strided up to the bar, glaring at Yonny who stared straight back. "Koopa Klaw Sake, four shots." "You're getting nothing, punks." "Why not? You run out already?" "The only thing I'm running out of is patience with you four, coming in here once a day every week to harass my patrons! What happened to tomorrow?!" "Oh...was it tomorrow? Oops. Guess I better update my calendar." "Cuz you were born yesterday," murmured FG snarkily. "...I'm sorry, did I just hear an opinion?" The koopa leader leaned uncomfortably close towards FG, who stared out of the corner of his eye. Koopin was beside him, incredibly nervous at what would happen next. "Not an opinion if it's true now is it?" "HAH, did you learn that from college before you dropped out to be a barber? What are those, giant scissors freak?" "High school actually. Least I passed primary school, unlike you." "Now why you think that?" "You only got four in your gang. That because you can't count more than that, fuck-face?" "...you askin' for a fight, no-shell?" "Hey-ey-ey!" said Yonny. "No fighting here! You gonna deal with any problems, you do it the ol' fashioned way." He pointed towards the pool tables. James already felt his mind spark with ideas as he nodded and got up from his seat. "Sounds a good idea actually." "James, don't-" "Relax Koopin I got this." "Yeah he got this," said the black-scarred koopa, "that ain't a bad idea at all, you just let yer boyfriend handle this alright?" "He...he's not my boyfriend." Koopin murmured this quietly to himself so only Yonny could hear, the raptor and the Black Scars heading over towards the two pool tables at the corner of the bar. The coloured balls were all neatly set up in the bottom alcove of one table, which James smoothly grabbed and began to place upon the table. One of the koopas strided up to grab a pool cue, with James doing the same. "We'll let you head up against our best guy," said the leader. "But let's make this interesting. You win, we leave. You lose...you get out." "Yeah?" said FG. "...I think we can do better than that." "Huh?" "Cuz, you know, that's kinda boring and...not fun enough. Hold up." He walked over to Yonny once again, murmuring quietly to him: "You got any spare pool balls?" "...yeah, why?" "Put 'em in a small sack." Yonny nodded before James asked firmly with volume: "Gimme a small bag will ya?"

The bartender happily supplied one with at least four balls inside, James carefully scooping out his coins from his satchel before pouring some inside the sack, turning towards the gang. "Forty coins. Winner takes all." "Wh-what?!" squawked Koopin. "James, don't be stupid!" "Now THAT'S what I like to see!" said the gangleader. "A daring guy like you who knows what's up." "Yeaaaah that's right," replied James, "just to make sure you don't hold back or anything. I hate to see chickenshit like you not gimme their all." "Oh...I think we're not gonna hold back at all right boys?" They all chuckled and muttered to each other, the koopa who held the pool cue now speaking with confidence. James took the full sack towards the pool table in one hand. "Yer an idiot, you shouldn't have betted yer money." "Why's that?" "Cuz I'm the best pool player in the town, haven't lost a game in five years." "Well that don't mean shit to me." "Whysat?" "We're not playing pool." Without warning, the raptor swung the weighted sack straight across the koopa's face, crippling his beak with a powerful KRAKK that echoed across the bar. Before anyone could react, James kicked the broken-faced koopa towards his friends before barrelling straight into them, leaving behind the sack of balls and wielding the pool cue with both hands. Another koopa received a mighty strike across the face with the long stick, straight into the wall where he collided with an empty table. "WH-WHAT THE HECK, YER DEAD NO-SHELL!" James waited for the leader to charge at him, before readily swinging with the pool cue. The leader however was a little quicker than his cohorts, ducking under the swing to grab with both hands, piling onto James before beating him rapidly across the face. A few strong beatings across his snout came before the raptor was able to jab the punk straight in the eye with a straight punch, enough of a distraction to kick him away and get back up. As the leader tried to refocus his eyes, one of the other Black Scars charged towards FG, who simply began to duck and weave with boxing-style tactics. Swiftly jabbing the koopa's beak, he sent a mighty uppercut into the chin, sending the punk straight out of the window with a violent crash. The bar patrons at this point were all panicking, quickly backing off and staying inside the bar as the fight began to spill out onto the street.

James had leapt through the window recklessly so to make sure he had taken down his second foe, who was bruised and cut all over but not completely down and out. With one eye closed from the wounds, the scarred turtle tried to swing with fierce uncoordinated haymakers, roaring with pained fury as FG dodged easily. With no sense of control in his attacks, he was easy prey for the now-experienced raptor. With a surprise spin out of the way, James quickly kicked out the back of the koopa's legs before violently kicking him across the face as if his head were a football. Seeing their second cohort being knocked out, the scarred gangleader and his remaining ally rushed out to try and double-up on James. The leader had also taken a pool cue just in case. The bartender watched from the door, was did some of the patrons, with Koopin heading outside fully to fearfully fret for James' safety. "You think you can mess with us?!" roared the gang leader. "Uhh I just DID fuck-head, you blind AND stupid?" "RAAARGH!" With thuggish swings of his pool cue, he sliced the air with the bare tip, roaring into the late afternoon of one of several fountain squares of Toad Town. James made sure not to get backed up against the fountain, strafing around the gangleader. He was so focused on this idea that he failed to see the other scarred koopa come at him from the side, readily shouldercharging him hard into the ground. But the raptor learnt before from being knocked down, quickly rolling with a straight punch to the face and kicking him off before bringing out his hammer sticks. The koopa barely had any time to react before he was brutally struck across the face both ways, back and forth until his cheeks were stinging red and cut open. Taking out the last minion with a double-swipe of his sticks, James smacked fiercely into the koopa's beak, knocking him down into a dizzying spiral.

However, the gangleader had taken the chance to sneak up behind FG and throttle him with the pool cue, pulling it down over his neck and pulling back hard like a crossbar. The raptor struggled to try and throw him off, or at least strike the body behind him as he felt the wooden cue push on his larynx. Eventually he was struggling to breathe, grunting as he fell to his knees and panting horribly. It felt like a long time of not being allowed to breathe until his attacker said: "Now say yer sorry, and I might let you walk away. You jus' gimme yer money, an' don't ever come back here or else I'll-OOF!" The pool cue fell from his throat as someone knocked the koopa sideways hard. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Standing up behind James, was Koopin with tense fists and shaky arms trying to adopt some sort of martial arts stance. The Black Scar koopa chuckled as he saw the young green-shelled koopa put up his fists, body turned straight ahead with a fist knuckle-side up, the other knuckle-side down. "Hehehe, you protectin' yer boyfriend now?" "Shut up, jerk! You better leave now while ya still can, or else!" "Or else what? You'll slap me?" "J-just try me!" The scarred koopa readily charged, swinging his fists to which Koopin tried to block with the best of his ability. While he was able to block some of the punches with his wrists and elbows, he didn't put enough power or confidence behind them in order to be effective guards, pushing forwards as he tried to punch out inbetween. He closed his eyes half the time, fooled around by half-serious punches, before his shoulder was punched hard by a haymaker to leave him completely open. The gangleader readily beat his fists hard into Koopin's face, a vicious one-two-three combo of two hookpunches and an uppercut that threw him onto the ground, crying out as he fell with a bruised face. The punk chuckled darkly as he cracked his knuckles. "I told you before...let yer boyfriend handle thi-GHUK!"

James cut him off with his claws tight around the leader's neck, roaring with teeth fully out as he threw him against the fountain base. Smacking him against marble stone with a solid crack, he gave the hooligan little time to get up when his hand grabbed his head and slammed it straight into the fountain again. The koopa cried out with a disoriented moan, falling to the ground before James kicked him hard across the face. "Big. Fucking. Mistake." Another brutal kick across the face, with each new kick being punctuated by his raised voice. "You wanna FUCK, around with ME, that's FINE! But if you EVER, hurt my FRIEND, I will KILL YOU!" The koopa was screaming at this point, trying to put up his hands in a plea of surrender. "ALRIGHT ALRIGHT I'LL LEAVE!" "TOO LATE PAL! TOO_FUCKING LATE!" James would not stop, constantly kicking his head in over and over again against the fountain, bruising the koopa's face until it was turning into a solid purple, reddened swollen eyes starting to form near. The other gang members were weak from their own blows, and struggled to carry themselves off away from the bar. Koopin and the other bar members watched with horror at James' unceasing brutality. "James?" "S-STOP IT, I'LL LEAVE, JUST STOP ALREADY!" His claws raked across the cheeks, sending streaks of red to be filled with tears of pain. "J-james!" A furious swing-kick started to make the beak crack, shards falling off like a broken vase. The punk was screaming for James to stop, his face swelling to make him cry harder. "_JAMES, STOP IT!" It was only when Koopin screamed that he would stop, turning around slowly to see his somewhat-bruised friend panting with both fear and outrage. He felt the anger partly leave him, his feet turning away. At that moment, he realised that every single person in the bar was watching him, some of whom were horrified. Others were just shocked, with a few even glad to see such a scene. With nothing else left, and seeing that the Black Scars had learnt their lesson, James turned back towards the gang leader and snarled: "Let that be a lesson. You come round this bar again, I won't have anyone around to stop me from killing you." "That's ENOUGH, James!"

Koopin was panting from raising his voice so soon after an outburst, wanting James to just stop and leave the thug be. With resignation and his anger gone, the raptor slowly left the scene, as the bartender went to call for an ambulance. The remaining gang members had disappeared into the town, leaving their leader behind. James walked back to Koopin's side, trying to smile down at him. All he got in return was a frosty glare. "...hey, listen I-" "I'm going home." "...oh...well, lemme just get my money back and-" "Fine." Seeing his koopa friend turn so coldly away, the raptor for once felt rather stunned at such feelings towards him. What the hell's wrong with him, he asked his thoughts, bitchy because he couldn't win a fight? Maybe 'cause he got all beat-up? I better make sure he gets home safe. He quickly headed back to the bar and picked up his coins from the sack, giving some to the bartender to cover some of the damage before leaving. He quickly caught up with Koopin, somewhere near the river between Toad Town and Koopa Village. "Koopin! KOOPIN!" He would not respond, stomping his way back home with a look of outrage upon his face, no matter how much James talked. "Koopin, come on, what's the problem?!" "I'm not saying anything until I get home!" "Oh what, come on, nobody's gonna hear!" "I don't care, I just want to go home!" "Fine, but I'm coming with you and you're gonna tell me what's up!" Soon they reached Koopamuir, as Koopin entered his home, with James following after. The moment they were alone, he began to lecture FG. "What is WRONG with you!?!?" "Wh-what?!" "Causing a scene like that outside the bar, beating the heck outta that guy!" "Oh come on, you saw the way they were acting, he beat the shit out of you!" "Yeah they were forceful, but that last guy was all ready to get outta there without you stomping his eye out the back of his head!" "Bu-wha-you-what the fuck, you didn't want me to stand up for you!?" "It's not that, standing up for people is fine, but you just went way too far!" "Look, I care about you okay!?!" "Well if that's how you show it, I might not wanna hear any of this!" "FINE! you want me to just leave you to get shanked in an alleyway somewhere, that's your call!" "There's such a thing as going TOO far James, don't you realise that!?" "WELL WHAT IS TOO FAR THEN!?!?" "BEATING SOMEONE UNTIL THEY HAD TO GO TO HOSPITAL! He was BEGGING you to stop James, didn't you hear him?! Didn't you SEE HIM!?"

James roared with a furious sound at Koopin, making him fall back in fear. His anger was coursing through his body as he felt the urge to destroy something badly, as he bellowed: "YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THE WORLD, HUH!?!?!" The raptor's eyes seemed to tense up, darkening slightly. "Sitting here, enjoying your koopa tea, wistful on your little cute dreams for some dark handsome stranger to arrive at your door!? You think the world out there is all sweet and happy flowers that shit rainbows?! WELL IT FUCKING ISN'T!" "What right do YOU have to say that James?! YOU'RE NOT EVEN FROM AROUND HERE! This land is different from where you came from!" "I lived a longer and harder life than you Koopin, so you better fucking listen to me or you'll get hurt! That guy was ready to beat you into the ground, beat you into hospital, and if I hadn't done it first, he would have done the same! So you better listen or else you'll end up like him!" "Yeah, and you'll be the one hurting me! Nobody ever tell you that you got an anger problem?!" "Oh ho ho hoooo you haven't even SEEN my anger yet!" "Well keep at it, because if you don't sort yourself out, and you don't do this little thing called 'holding back', you're gonna lose EVERYONE. Not just me, but everyone of your friends! Did this happen with your girlfriend?!" "...what did you say?" "You told me before bad stuff went down, and I've been seeing this anger inside you rise up over the days I've known you. Everytime I try to talk to you about where you're from or about your past, you try and sidetrack me! You curse way too much for someone who's meant to be calm and experienced according to you, and I dunno what happened with your girlfriend, but I think I got a pretty good guess now!" "Koopin, don't you fucking dare." "You said she broke up with you, maybe now I know why! Maybe, you can't even HANDLE a relationship long as you keep acting like a kid having a temper tantrum, everytime he can't just-GHUK!" He didn't get to say anything more when the raptor lunged at his throat and hoisted him up against the wall, his snout tight-lipped with eyes piercing. He gripped the koopa's throat, firmly, but not choking him as he growled: "Dont. Ever. Mention her." "NNGH...J-j-james...a-agh-" "I. Never. Want you saying that shit. You don't know ANYTHING about how that went down, you think you can phone in some therapy shit about my 'problems' and make everything okay? If I wasn't willing to go that extra mile, I'd be DEAD by now, and so would a few other people I knew. Now...say you're sorry." "J-j-j-james please-" "SHUT UP AND SAY YOU'RE SORRY YOU FUCKING FAGGOT!" He pulled his arms back before slamming Koopin's head into the wall, making him cry out of fear as he roared into his face. "YOU KNOW NOTHING! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED SO DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE TRY AND TELL ME, WHAT MY PROBLEM IS!" "JAMES, STOP IT! YOU'RE HURTING ME! S-STOOOOP IIIIIT!"

With that tearful scream from the koopa, he felt something akin to a spell break from his mind. He looked carefully at his own hands gripping the younger turtle's throat, his eyes in tears of pure fear, shaking and sniffling. His own hands started to shake as he realised he was hurting him. "I...I-i-i-i..." He slowly put Koopin down, gently releasing his grip as the koopa started shaking with fear, hunched up and sitting back against the wall. James felt something coming back to him, some sort of memory. A lesson perhaps, a warning even, a hand coming up to his face in realisation. "K-koopin, I-...I-i'm sorry, please-" "G-get out." "B-but I'm sor-" "GET! OUT!" He felt such shame sweep over his body, shuddering at the idea he was so angry to Koopin, so willing even for a moment to harm him. His hands were shaking still, his face muscles contracting into this tear-stricken expression. "Oh god Koopin I'm sorry, please, I-i-i-i didn't mean-" "NO! Y-you know what you are, you're just a PUNK, you're no better than those guys you beat up! A violent stupid punk who doesn't know how to handle any kind of problem, other than beating it to a pulp!" "B-but I-" "NO JAMES! If you want to blow your whole life away just because you can't even handle your own anger, then go, just GO AWAY!" At the sound of Koopin's tearful frightened voice, James ran out of house with his own tears of rage into the late afternoon, the sky darkening towards an orange hue. Koopin huddled up his knees and started to cry, small rivulets of tears oozing down his beak. His heart burned with a deep anguish, hating the fact it was feeling this way, torn between two emotions of both anger and desperation.

Finding somewhere alone, a tree on a hill outside of Koopamuir, James began to put his head against it before bashing it a few times upon bark. The cool breeze whistled through the leaves tersely, calmly, cutting off his thoughts before he roared to himself. "What did I do that for?!? What the FUCK, James!?! STUPID! STUPID fucking asshole! I just want to protect him, there's a whole world out there that could hurt him, why can't he see that!?!? I...I don't want to lose you Koopin, why can't you understand what I want?! ...why can't you..." He started to weep, stricken deep by the fear he had put into the young close friend of his. More than friend even, but somehow he was too scared to admit something deeper for him, not even knowing why. "Oh god...why...why am I...h-h-h-hhhh...he calls me a violent punk and there I am with my claws on his fucking neck! I...why...why did.........Daisy. ...you said about my anger too. But...no, they don't understand, that's why I'm alive, I need to be strong, people can't fuck with me my whole life, they need to learn!"

At this point, he started to think of what Koopin had said about Daisy, angry that he would speak of her, feeling he didn't deserve to say such a thing. He had no idea of the pain he had suffered, even if he imagined he was over it. He never told Koopin, therefore he COULDN'T understand. Then he started remembering Silent Hill. The painful lesson he had been given about his anger. "No, no no no no no! D-d-don-don't start with that shit now, NO! This is something I HAVE to do, I can't just let people walk all over me for every bitchy little comment they make at me, or anyone in my life! One comment you let slip by and the next thing you know, you're bent over in an alleyway getting your head kicked in! Not even Daisy understood that...neither can Koopin. WHY CAN'T HE FUCKING SEE THAT!?!?" He slammed his fist into the tree. "He doesn't know anything about me, he just sits there with his gay little TV and gay little magazines thinking about some big muscly arms to cuddle into like the little faggot he is, not worrying about any of the shit I've seen in my life! I don't care if this place has even the fucking hills smiling at me, bad shit can happen anywhere, and if I can't protect him, who will!?!"

The raptor turned around and leaned against the tree, sighing deeply as he let himself vent it out. "I just want to...dammit, maybe...ungh...I don't know anymore...if they both told me the same thing and that fucking 'town' or whatever said it too, are they even right? Daisy was just...and Koopin is...AND THAT TOWN WAS FUCKING MY HEAD IN ANYWAY, I-i-i-i-i-i can't even think about it anymore!" He could only start sniffling to himself, huddling his knees as he leaned down against the tree. rocking softly upon his feet, murring to hold his tears of frustration back. "I can't help it...it...it's just who I am...well, fuck him, Koopin's gonna have to accept it. I'm just gonna march back in, calm yourself down a li'l so you can talk about it all straight and cool, kiss and make up, things'll be fine...m-maybe. ...I don't even know anymore." He relaxed for a while, trying to clear his head while gazing upwards at the stars. They twinkled down upon him softly, beaming their light gently across the land as if they were listening to him. He spent an entire hour sitting underneath the tree, trying to sort out the mess inside his head, trying to iron out his emotions. He knew he needed to be strong, he knew he had to be. But he also realised that his anger was something everyone criticised him on. No, not criticised. He realised that with so many people telling him the exact same thing, from across different worlds entirely, that they were right. Not everyone can be wrong surely. Daisy might be naive, Koopin is definitely. Glenn wasn't. He knew what my problem was...didn't he? I can't...I don't want to lose him just because I got angry. I don't want that...I just need to calm down, talk things over with Koopin. If I can show I can control myself, maybe we can make up. ...yeah...that sounds a good idea. Control myself a li'l. After the sound and fury inside of his head died off enough for him to think rationally so, he made his way back towards Koopamuir, heading down the street towards Koopin's house. The lights were off, yet it was strangely early for him to go to bed. Then he noticed the door had been left open. He looked inside without thinking. Koopin was gone, his home left in ruins. It was in that very moment, that James finally realised what he had been afraid of all this time.