Just like Carol had told the violent stranger, it wasn't long before the Iron Snakes enforcers arrived at the decimated checkpoint, collecting the bodies proved somewhat problematic as the stranger hadn't exactly left the corpses whole. However, eventually the enforcers started piecing the course of events together which pointed them to Carol's bar
'...It just had to be this nasty piece of work'
Looking at the large burly bald man that stepped into her bar Carol felt a pit form in her stomach, on the side of his a metallic snake tattoo wormed its way out from behind his right ear. He wore a black shirt that barely contained his burly synthetic frame and mechanic arms and straight grey pants
The enforcer wore a wide smile on his face that didn't extend to his eyes as he sat down at the bar and greeted Carol
"Still not dead huh, you old hag"
"Fuck you, Kim"
"Yeah yeah, get in line"
Kim waved off her insult before his smile disappeared and he asked
"So, who was that guy from earlier?"
Carol answered flatly as she gestured to an empty glass and bloody rag that laid further down the bar
"I don't know, he drank from that glass and wiped his face with that rag before he left"
Kim gestured to one of his subordinates that then walked over and sat a heavy bag down on the bar counter where he retrieved a somewhat portable scanner
"So, did he tell you anything?"
"No, he asked for a drink of something strong"
"And?"
"And I told him I don't take credit"
Kim stared down Carol, his eyes were sharp and cold as he asked again
"Did he tell you anything?"
"No"
Kim narrowed his eyes before his voice boomed as he suddenly shouted
"DID HE TELL YOU ANYTHING!?"
Carol did her best to keep her cool as she shook her head and repeated
"No, he didn't tell me anything"
Kim continued staring down Carol until the man with the scanner called out
"Sergeant"
Kim's head snapped over as he yelled
"What!?"
"The scanner isn't picking up anything – no prints, no dna, nothing but the hand imprint on the glass"
Kim rose to his feet and snatched the scanner from his subordinate, he scrolled through the results of the scan for a few moments before he redid it himself to similar effect before he put it down, turned around and kicked a table sending it flying as he yelled
"FUCK!"
Carol flinched as Kim continued trashing her bar over the next minute or two before he sat down at the bar again and shouted
"Get me something strong!"
Would it have been any other day, Carol would have obeyed his demands, however after finally witnessing the man that had tormented her daughter to death getting brutally killed along with his friends and having her bar completely trashed by this petulant man child she realized something
'...I am tired'
Being her age she remembered a time when things were better and over her life they had only gotten worse and worse, her husband had died when a section of the station decompressed due to poor maintenance, her daughter's sweetheart, a young man with good prospects had been gunned down for his console and now this bastard had trashed her bar again because things hadn't gone his way
"...I don't take credit"
Kim's face froze over as he looked at Carol and asked in a low tone
"What did you say?"
Carol smiled sweetly as she looked down at the little man before and repeated
"I said I don't take credit, you petulant, sorry excuse for a man"
Instead of exploding immediately Kim showed an amused smile before he stood up from the bar and walked over to a table he had kicked over earlier and stood it upright before he spoke
"Get that bitch, I am going to cut off her legs"
Carol hardened her resolve and just as she was about to bite her tongue something moving to fast for her eyes to track struck Kim in the side of his knee making him squeal as he collapsed onto his knee, the blade quickly retracted along the with mechanical tail it was attached to as the culprit walked in
"Whose legs are you going to cut off, kim?"
The other gangsters quickly kneeled down where they stood before they all spoke out as a woman flanked by two dozen gangsters
"Boss!"
The women the gangsters addressed as boss looked like she was in her mid 20's, she wore a large militaristic jacket over a white tank top and grey cargo pants, the long transhuman bionic tail swished back and forth behind her, over all Mark though she looked more like a guest at an underground rave than a gangster, but she was without a doubt the boss of the Iron Snakes
"Agh… Boss"
Kim eventually offered his greeting while he tired to staunch the stab wound on his leg which earned him a cut on his cheek as the boss's tail flicked by at insane speed as she asked again
"I asked whose legs you are going to cut, Kim?"
Kim quickly responded
"That old bitch is withholding information!"
The boss's tail quickly extended out and wrapped around Kim's throat as she dragged him along with her and walked over towards the bar where she took off her jacket, handing it to a subordinate before she sat down and greeted Carol
"Good day Madam, my name is Serlina"
"...Carol"
Serlina showed a coy smile before she flung Kim out of the bar, tossing him like a ragdoll out on the street before she continued speaking
"So, Madam Carol, we had a little incident earlier today. This guy steps off a private ship that immediately books it without releasing its landing gear, totalling the pad… Then this mystery man wrecks my checkpoint completely with his bare hands and steps into your bar"
"... He asked for something strong and gave him that glass of water"
Carol gestured over towards where the stranger had been sitting, Serlina's tail extended out and stabbed into the counter before quickly retracting back while she continued looking at Carol, her silent order was quickly followed as a few gangsters that were lugging a large flight crate with larger portable scanner
"Did he say anything? Anything at all?"
Carol already having prepared herself to lose her life had already thrown caution to the wind so she showed a smile and repeated the words of the stranger
"Anger scars over to despair before it becomes complacency and cold acceptance. Is killing with a borrowed knife enough for you? Is what he said, I don't know how he knew, but he did"
Serlina remained silent as Carol's eyes began tearing up as she simply stated
"I have nothing else left at this point. You leeches have taken everything from me, so if you are going to cut off my legs and kill me, you might as well get on with it!"
Serlina opened her mouth to respond, however before she could speak she stopped herself and looked towards the outside, once the gangster boss reacted to Caroal's ears picked it up too, it sounded like a high-pitched whistle that slowly grew louder before it instantly cut out and gave way for a blood curling scream
-
"Hmm… The boss lady should be talking with the bar owner by now"
Mark stood in an alley as he waited for the trap to spring, it hadn't been too difficult to to access the station's information network and mask his own presence leaving only the record of him entering and leaving the bar behind as he fed clues directly to the crime syndicate that operated in this area
"I wonder why they're named Iron Snakes of all things?"
Musing idly Mark's sword extended out from right palm completely before he grasped the hilt and pushed off the wall, as he walked towards the bar he began spinning the sword by the hilt, the high-pitched whistle slowly grew louder
As he walked towards the bar, the two dozen gangsters outside the bar quickly took note of him and raised his pistol towards Mark that let go off his sword on instinct, the blade flew across the street and buried itself in the gangsters stomach
'Why did I?'
However before he managed to question it, Mark raised his hand up, which dragged the sword up along the gangster's stomach, making him scream before it split him in half, Mark kicked off the ground as he dragged the sword back through the air, catching it Mark quickly cut through the gangsters, blood, guts, limbs and heads flew through the air as Mark let loose and in just a few moments it was over
"Well, that was quick"
Mark stabbed his sword through the chest of a particularly large gangster with mechanical arms before he dragged his mutilated carcass along into the bar where he greeted the crowd
"Hi there, were you looking for me, Serlina?"
Stabbing his blade into the floor, Mark let go of it before the splatter and viscera that covered him instantly slid off and fell to the floor. Seeing as nobody greeted him Mark picked up a chair and sat down as he showed a smile and spoke
"Talk about the devil and he shall appear? Something like that… Anyhow, I am here, so let me hear what the fuck you want"