The group had been sneaking through the dilapidated town, buildings were falling apart, it’s a wonder any of them had still been standing. Peeking out from an alley, Flora looks around as she points to a building surrounded by walls, Venom Company’s base.

“There… that’s where we have to go.” Flora said, she gestured to a set of vehicles in front. “Leif is here, he never goes anywhere without his stupid buggies.”

“So, are we gonna blow up his buggy?” Ryuu asked. “It’d be easy!”

“What? No!” Flora said. “Is he always like this?”

“I’ve only known him for about a week… probably, though.” Clef said.

“Still, we probably shouldn’t give them any way of escaping.” Kidd said, taking out a knife. “We’ll slash the tires on those mini cars.”

“Buggies… just say buggies.” Clef said.

“I know, but everyone was saying it, so it felt weird to say it.” Kidd said.

“Are we really doing this?” Flora asked.

“I agree, let’s just go get this over with.” Clef said.

“Yeah, let’s go!” Ryuu ran around the corner, followed by the rest of the group.

As the group makes it across the streets, they hide in alleys until they had eventually made it to the buggies. They hid behind the buggies, out of view of the main gate into the compound. Ryuu transforms his right arm into a Dragon’s arm and slices at the buggy’s tires, damaging them.

“Woah…” Flora looked at Ryuu’s arm. “How did you do that?”

“Pretty cool, huh?” Ryuu said as he began to explain. “It’s Red Drago…”

“We don’t have time for this, we can do some proper explanations later.” Kidd said as he slashed another tire. “How do we get inside this oversized rock?”

“Well… there are normally gate guards on the other side.” Flora looked over at the gat. “But, they probably won’t let us in if they see you. They’ll probably try to kill us.”

“Then I have a plan!” Ryuu said. “You just need to go up and ask to be let in.”

“What? But how will that work, you guys are with me.” Flora said.

“That’s why we’ll be lying in wait, we’ll ambush them when they open up.” Ryuu said. “They’ll never see it coming.”

“That’s not… entirely insane, Ryuu.” Kidd said. “Gotta give you props for that.”

“Yeah, we’ll hide behind the buggies and wait until they open the gate up for Flora.” Clef said.

“But the entrance area is probably filled with mercenaries.” Flora said.

“That’s not an issue for us.” Ryuu said.

“Right!” Flora said as she turned towards the gate. “Oh god… I’m scared, I don’t know if I can do this.”

“You don’t need to be scared, we’re here to back you up!” Ryuu said.

“Okay… just please hurry when the gate opens up.” Flora said.

“We’re right behind you, Flora.” Clef said.

Flora gets out from behind the buggy and walks up to the gate, looking up at it. She waves towards the gate until it begins to open. The gate slowly opens up as a pair of mercenaries walk out to greet Flora, confused.

“Park? What the hell are you doing here?” One of the two asked. “You finished your work for today already.”

“Yeah, we thought you would’ve just gone home already.” The other guard said.

“Oh… I forgot something inside, I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to get it back so I just came in to get it.” Flora said.

“Well… what did you forget?” The guard asked.

“AN AMBUSH!!!” Ryuu jumped from behind the buggy and kicked one of the guards in the face.

“YAH!” Clef jumped out and knocked the other guard away with her microphone.

“LET’S HURRY! We need to get to the main guy… what was his name, Leif?” Kidd said as the group ran in. The group was confronted by a large group of mercenaries.

“Shoot!” Ryuu shouted as the mercenaries began to notice the group. 

“They’re gonna kill us…” Flora said, worried.

“It’ll be a frozen day in hell when that happens… BIG BANG!!!” Ryuu began to rapidly punch a large group of mercenaries. “DRASTORM!!!”

“Let’s do this!” Kidd ran to and jumped off of Ryuu as a kick point, connecting his guns together, firing out a giant bullet. “DOUBLE BUSTER!!!”

Clef looked around as a group of mercenaries surrounded her and Flora. She looked back at Flora as she lifted her microphone above her head.

“Get on my back!” Clef shouted as Flora ran over and piggybacked onto Clef as she slammed the head of her microphone to the ground, causing the mercs to fly into the air. “Skill Song… SHOCKWAVE!!!”

“Hell yeah!” A large group of soldiers dog piled onto Ryuu. 

“Ryuu!” Clef shouted as she landed.

“Shoot…” Kidd said.

“They got him!” Flora shouted as Ryuu burst from the pile, leaving flames around.

“Hah! If it’s too hot, stay out of the kitchen!” Ryuu said.

“Really?” Clef asked. “I thought we said no one liners.”

“Come on, one liners are fun, aren’t they?” Ryuu asked.

“Sure, let’s say that…” Clef said that as she put away her microphone. “That looks like all of them.”

“The grunts are always the easy ones…” Kidd looked over at Flora. “Sorry if any of them were your buddies.”

“It’s fine… I didn’t really make a lot of friends here.” Flora said.

“Mercenaries… always huge assholes.” Kidd said.

“Either way, that was easy as pie!” Ryuu said. “Or cake… you know, like a piece of cake?”

“Seriously!” Clef shouted.

“What do we do now?” Flora asked.

“This is usually when the big guy comes out and fights us himself.” Ryuu said as he looked around.

“No, Leif is too much of a coward to come out himself… he usually sends out…” Flora said as a large figure landed. “Ivy…”

“Who?” Ryuu turned to the figure, a large Chlorophite named Ivy, equipped with a cudgel.

“I’m guessing she’s Leif’s best fighter?” Kidd asked.

“The only two people who work directly under Leif…” Flora said.

“Well, what do we have here?” Ivy asked. “Someone’s fighting back, and it’s Spewa Park.”

“That’s not a very creative name…” Ryuu said.

“Shut up!” Ivy screamed at Ryuu.

“Sure! We gotta kick your ass anyway, so we oughta get this out of the way!” Ryuu jumped at Ivy, who swatted him away with one swipe of her club. Ryuu was slammed into a wall.

“Let’s get this over with!” Kidd jumped back up into the air and aimed towards Ivy. “BULLET HELL!!!”

“AGH!” Ivy was hit by the flurry of bullets, but wasn’t too hurt by them.

Clef ran over to Ivy, who tried to swing her weapon at the Avenix, only for it to be blocked by Clef’s own weapon. Clef, who got thrown back, had began screaming into her microphone, which caused Ivy to cover her ears, dropping the cudgel.

“RYUU NOW!” Clef shouted as Ryuu shot out of the wall, ramming into Ivy, knocking her down. Ryuu kicked the club away.

“PUNY LITTLE!” Ivy screamed out, flinging Ryuu away and getting back up. “I can’t let you win!”

Ivy began to slam the others around until she set her sights on Flora, who was standing by herself on one end of the plaza. Flora, looking around for a solution, took out a Soul Seeder from her bag and threw it up.

“What’s that gonna do?” Ivy laughed at Flora.

“Emotion Cue…” Flora said as she hit it with her staff like a pool ball. “Calm Seeder!”

“Huh?” Ivy said as the Soul Seeder hit her in the chest, disappearing into a small puff. “What was that supposed to do?”

“Just wait…” Flora said as Ivy’s eyes began to droop. The Soul Seeder slowly put her to sleep as the rest of the group got up and ran over.

“FLORA! That was nova!” Ryuu excitedly shouted. “How did you do that?”

“Oh, it was just the Soul Seeders…” Flora said.

“Where did you get them?” Clef asked.

“Well, I don’t actually know, but they seem to appear back in my bag if I use them.” Flora said.

“Either way, that was mighty fine.” Kidd said. “All that’s left is the head honcho.”

“Say, you said that he had two people that answer to him… where’s the other?” Ryuu asked.

“Viney? He isn’t much of a fighter, but he’s usually just an informant.” Flora said. “If we run into him, he’ll be easy.”

The group had continued making their way through the compound until they made their way to a single door, guarded by Viney, who jumped at the sight of them.

“AH!” Viney tried to run off as Ryuu grabbed the back of his shirt.

“Hello!” Ryuu said. “You’re Viney, right?”

“What’s it to you!” Viney said as he pointed a gun at Ryuu.

“This…” Ryuu grabbed the barrel of the gun and crushed it.

“Put me down! I’ll scream for Leif!” Viney said.

“He won’t come! He’s too afraid to fight his own battles!” Flora said.

“Speaking of, what’s he up to now?” Kidd asked.

“Personal time!” Viney said, dropping the gun. “I’m not sure what he’s doing though…”

“Thanks…” Ryuu dropped Viney to the ground, who ran off.

“Which one is Leif’s office?” Ryuu asked.

“This one right here!” Flora said.

“Good… let’s finish this fool!” Ryuu said as he destroyed the door.

Looking into the room, Leif had jumped out of his chair. What was he doing in this office right now? He was playing some shooting game on his computer. He hid under his desk as Ryuu destroyed the computer.

“Come out here!” Ryuu shouted.

“No!” Leif shouted.

“Everybody in town is suffering and you’re in here playing some stupid computer game?” Kidd asked as he pulled Leif out.

“Woah! Let’s talk about this!” Leif said. “If anyone is the victim, it’s me! My dad taught me to be like this! He did all the same stuff!”

“Bullshit!” Clef said. “Just because your dad made a shitty choice, doesn’t mean you make the same one!”

“Hey! I was never taught good decision making…” Leif said, afraid.

“How about we start now… you’re gonna drop everyone’s debt and leave this place.” Kidd said.

“But what about me? I need that money!” Leif shouted, looking at the angry group, he retracted. “Okay… I think we can reach a deal… no more debt!”

“Look at you! Not so tough now, are we?” Ryuu asked. “Toss him out to the town, let them tear him apart like a bunch of wolves.”

“No! Anything but that! They’ll turn me into soil!” Leif shouted.

“Seems apt…” Ryuu said. “What do you think, Flora?”

“Well… no…” Flora said.

“Huh?” Kidd said.

“If we let them kill him, then we’d be just as bad.” Flora said.

“I don’t see how we’d be as bad…” Clef said.

“We’d be the bigger people, just let him and his coward friends run.” Flora said.

“Yeah… she’s right…” Ryuu said, looking at Leif.

“You can’t be serious, Ryuu…” Kidd said.

“He put tons of people into debt!” Clef said.

“If we ever see you again, you better say your prayers!” Ryuu said.

“Right… Viney! Ivy!” Leif said as he ran off.

The group looked down at the people. They announced something out to them.

“You’re all free! The Venom Company has been dealth with!” Ryuu shouted. “You can continue living your lives as you see fit! You can fix your home here!”

“Nobody has ever had the courage to fight back against him…” Flora said as she looked down at the people emerging from the buildings. “Thank you… there’s gotta be some way I can repay you…”

Ryuu, Kidd and Clef looked at each other and then back to Flora.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a ship, would you?” Ryuu asked. “We kinda… crashed ours, if you remember.”

“A ship?” Flora looked around, getting an idea. “I think I might have one…”

Flora was guiding Ryuu and his crew through the forest around the town. They had to cut their way through large bushes and wild plant life until they came across a clearing with a large ship in the middle. It had a big cartoony walrus head on the front end of it.

“My dad… he had a ship the whole time… I never knew…” Flora said. “Not that it would’ve mattered.”

“This is amazing! It’s so much better than our dinky little ship.” Ryuu shouted.

“What’s she called?” Kidd asked.

“I don’t know… I guess you guys need to name it.” Flora said.

“I think it’s only right that you name it Flora…” Clef said.

“I’ve never been good with names…” Flora said.

“Well… what are you gonna do now?” Ryuu asked.

“I guess I’ll just stay behind and help rebuild the town.” Flora said.

“If that’s what you wanna do, we’re not gonna stop you.” Kidd said.

“Unless… you wanna come with us!” Ryuu said.

“Ryuu, she said she’s gonna stay behind.” Clef said.

“Would you… would you all be fine with that?” Flora asked as the trio looked at her.

“What about your people?” Kidd asked.

“We’re Chlorophite! We persevere! They can handle themselves… besides, I want to realize my father’s dream.” Flora said. “He always wanted us to explore the universe, like a comet…”

“That’s a great dream! Comets, huh…” Ryuu said. “I think I know what we should call the ship!”

“Oh yeah? What are we gonna call it, hot shot?” Clef asked.

“The King’s Comet!” Ryuu shouted.

“Suppose I should’ve seen that coming. It’s a good name for a ship of her caliber.” Kidd said.

“I like it!” Clef said.

“So… you’d be fine if I joined your crew?” Flora asked.

“Hell! We’re more than fine with it, we welcome it!” Ryuu shouted. “Now come on… let’s go pick out rooms!” Ryuu said as the group began to run towards the ship.

“Yes sir!” Flora said excitedly.

Next Chapter - Inbalance