A few minutes after entering the Gamestop, completely bypassing the long lines of overweight gamers who waited all of last night for the store to open, Rock Howard and Demyx left triumphant - in their hands were two PlayStation 9s, enclosed in small square boxes. The gamers all yelled out in protest, raising their voices, but one sharp look from the blondes shut all of them up.
“I dare ya’, chumps! First one who raises a fist against us loses it! BWA HA HA HA~” Demyx yelled out, obviously enjoying himself. “I know that there’s an important reason we got these, but we are gonna be able to play some of the games on this, right? I was looking forward to Monarchy Hearts.”
“Monarchy Hearts?” Rock asked, apparently not up on his video game knowledge.
“Monarchy Hearts, yeah. It’s a crossover between characters from General Mills cereal and Data East. You can have Count Chocula and Karnov in your party. Fun RPG.”
“Oh, yeah. RPGs. Not really my thing, man.” Rock said in a strangely nonchalant way. “Needs a little more action.” Rock, Demyx and Yugo, their job done, decided to head out of the mall through a nearby exit, looking to take a breather outside from the mass of flesh walking around the halls.
“Dude, did you see that huge ass crab girl?” Demyx asked.
“Yeah. Maybe we’ll fight it later?” Once outside, Rock noticed that there was a big wishing fountain in front of them, water beautifully streaming from it at all sides. “Hey, let me chill out here for a second.”
“Suit yourself man. Yugo, you see those cute girls over there?”
“Yeah. I’m not really-”
“Come on! I bet we can get their numbers just by showing these off!” Demyx proudly raised their PS9s above his head. “We’re balla baby! Straight BALLA!~”
Rock stood by the fountain, looking at the water ebb and flow. Coins glistened in the light, and being slightly superstitious, he decided to drop a cent into the water. He thought to himself - a montage of memories quickly occupied his mind.
Terry… what would you do now?
“Penny for your thoughts?” Rock felt a hand gently plant itself on his shoulder. He looked and found Park Kun-wan flinging a coin into the fountain. Rock still felt furious over this man, who had the arrogance to stand in his way, but his mentor Bogard’s words resounded in his mind and he decided not to do anything.
“You dropped a nickel in there,” Rock said.
“I want your thoughts in bulk. Listen. I’m sorry I had to manhandle you earlier.”
“…it’s no big.” Rock looked into the water, memorized by their reflection against it. “Why’d you do it though? Why’d you kill that thug bastard after you got into all of our faces?”
“Because it was too late. You already decided your course of action, and there was nothing stopping him from killing all of you afterward. I was furious, of course.”
“What’re you talking about, man? We had Crow’s guys on the ropes by the time you showed up! He was down to just himself! He was completely defenseless!”
“He was toying with you. You don’t think Crow had a contingency plan? Didn’t you hear what Jamal found out? He had an engineered virus. He had one of those ridiculous PlayStations, which Pin found in the very office you fought him in. As soon as he felt like it, he could have had you all very literally in the palm of his hand.” Rock stood silent for a minute, thinking about how hastily he rushed into the fight. Then he addressed Park again.
“So you felt like you had to teach us a lesson, right? Look, I don’t need another man fulfilling the father figure role.”
“I know. You’re Terry’s ward, right?” Rock looked at Park, somewhat surprised. Maybe it was because this was the first time someone recognized him as Terry’s instead of Geese’s. “I know all about it. Back in the day, I knew Geese Howard. I knew about what he did in Southtown, and I knew about the people who finally went and offed him.”
“You do, huh? If you know all of these underworld, then what does that make you? Are you a hood too, Park?”
“Might as well make it all known right now.” Park pulled out a cigarette and lit it, letting the nicotine saturate his lungs. “I’m an assassin. I know a lot of crime bosses. I’ve killed plenty of them too. But every time I did it, it was with approval. I could kill any boss as long as another boss approved it. But you guys made me kill Crow, and in self-defense. Now I can’t go back to New Gotham. I’m a dead man as soon as I set foot in there.”
“Wait, wait, wait. Hold on a minute. Why does it matter that you killed this guy anyway? Wouldn’t all the other bosses just be happy that you wiped out their competition?”
“Street economics doesn’t work like that, Rock. There’s a delicate balance to how it all figures out. New Gotham had just the right amount of power shared between the crime bosses - everyone was satisfied with what they had, and no one wanted to kill each other for a long time. But now one of the major bosses is dead. The other bosses know that they’re going to make a stake for his territory, and they know it’s going to be bloody. They’re going to kill each other now, and you better believe a lot of civilians are going to be in the crossfire.”
“…I see,” Rock said, with a hint of remorse.
“There are some costumed vigilantes in New Gotham - Bat people, I hear, who’ll try to fix things. I don’t want to place that burden on you, but because of us, people are going to die. And I accept that. I willingly chose to become a Revolutionary at Beatrix Pin’s request.”
“You gave a nickel for my thoughts but you’re the one doing a lot of talking, old man.”
“Hey!” Park threw a playful punch at Rock, who caught it with his open palm. “I’m not much older than you.”
“Ease up gramps. You’re gonna wrinkle up if you exert yourself.”
“Rock… I know you want to eradicate everything and anything that Geese stood for. As powerful and as successful as he was, he was a scumbag. Lots of people, from civilians to other gangsters, cheered on the streets when they heard that Terry offed him. I was one of them. You’re damn lucky he came into your life.”
“Don’t need to tell me. I know it. He’s a good son of a bitch.”
“Are we cool?” Park asked, stretching his palm to Rock.
“…we’re cool.” Rock shook his hand, and they embraced each other with their free arm. “By the way. That was a nice throw back there. But I bet you can’t land it again.”
“Are you challenging me to fisticuffs, Rock Howard?” Park asked, raising his eyeglasses to the top of his nose. “I sparred a couple times with Kim Kap-hwan.”
“Oh? Kim? Yeah, I beat his kids’ asses too.”
“Cute. I’ll take you up on that ass kicking one day. I trust you got the game systems?”
“Oh, yeah, that. Yeah, Demyx got them.”
“They’re expensive as all hell. How’d you do it?” Park asked.
“Demyx flirted with the cashier.”
“Oh. I guess that works. Me, I haven’t played a video game since my old Neo Geo finally busted.”
“Wait.” Rock looked at Park with the most lively expression he mustered since this adventure began. “You had a Neo Geo?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“That’s all Terry and I used to play when I was a kid! Please tell me you played Samurai Shodown!”
“You better believe it,” Park chuckled. “I’m a fan of Ukyo.”
“I played Haohmaru all the time. But Terry… he played Cham Cham.”
“What?! Terry Bogard played Cham Cham?! That’s weird.”
