The pipes are calling.

“Oh Danny boy! The pipes! THE PIPES THEY BE CALLING!” Bolts a thug in the crowded market district. He pushes his way past anybody unlucky enough to get in his path, and if anyone takes objection to his “approach” to removing people from his path, he’s got a 12 gauge shotgun to quiet anybody who says a word. The thug suddenly notices somebody in the crowd, he’s not sure if it’s his guy but he looks a bit different from the other rabble. He’s facing away from him and wearing a hoodie so he can’t tell, the guy just needs to turn around and like a blessing from god, and he does. The man turns around and his eyes shine purple, basically screaming out “SHOOT ME!” to the thug.

“DANNY! I’M COMING FOR YA DANNY!” The thug yells. Danny makes a run for it pushes some of the crowd out of his way and jumps on top of an air conditioning unit and then onto a roof of a market stand shanty. He puts his acrobatic skills to the test and runs all across the top of them as the thug pursues from below and fires a few rounds from his shotgun as he gives chase. One of the pellets grazes Danny’s arm and he silently curses, if Danny didn’t leave his Glock at his hideout, he would have shot this bastard down the moment he saw him.
“Danny! I’m going to get ya! Then I’m going to shove this shotty up your motherfucking ass!” The thug yells.
Danny lets out a parade of curse words in his mind, he knew he shouldn’t have been wandering that thugs turf so carelessly. That guy is a gang member of the gang that left him for dead years ago and when the gang “abandons” you as it were, you better not show themselves around them again, less you become unpleasant to their eyes and they remove whatever is unpleasant to them in a hail of gunfire. He had to get cocky and mess with some of the thugs, make them think all that Substance D might be driving them a little batty, well as he was doing that one of them saw him and now he’s playing a fucking a ninja on top of a bunch of rooftop shanties, life sucks.

“DANNY! COME DOWN HERE AND FACE ME YOU CHICKENSHIT! We’ll do it man to man! No gun! I swear!” The thug taunts.
“BLOW ME! You fucking mook!” Danny yells back.
In the process of talking back to the thug Danny didn’t notice the wood plank in his path and he nails it. It tosses him off the market stands and into the ground below. In another line of luck, the crowd is small, meaning Danny can’t blend into the crowd, he’s fucked. The guard strolls up calmly and smugly, like he just won a giant suitcase of fresh D and then he starts to chuckle.
“You’re a fast one, but I always get my man.” The thug says and points his shotgun at him.
“What happened fighting man to man?” Daniel asks.
“I lied.” The thug says.
“I’ll see you in hell.” Daniel says.
“I’ll kill you then too.” The thug says.
Suddenly the thug is hit in the side of the face and it sends him tumbling down, also dropping his shotgun. Daniel thanks god for whatever just happened and goes for the shotgun, but then notices he’s suddenly stopped for no reason at all and is a few feet off the ground. He looks to his left and sees Matthew has picked up him by his hoodie; Matthew scowls at Danny and tosses him aside. Matthew picks up the shotgun and walks over to the thug, who has collected himself and gotten off the ground, He looks at his new enemy and his demeanor changes, he knows who just clocked him and it’s nobody he wants to deal with. Matthew shoves the barrel of the shotgun in his mouth and smirks.
“NO! NO! NO!” The thug yells in what only comes out as gibberish.
Matthew pulls the trigger and the mans head explodes and sprays a clash of crimson and chunky grey matter onto the wall whoever borne witness to this has gasped and run from the brutality in fear. He tosses the gun aside and walks over to Daniel, who has picked himself off the ground. Daniel smiles meekly at him and Matthew just punches him in the jaw and then proceeds to beat him like a red headed step child.
“YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKER! What did I tell you about fucking around over there!? I’M GOING TO BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF YOU UNTIL YOU BLEED OUT OF EVERY PORE! THEN I’M GOING TO BEAT YOU AGAIN!” Matthew says.
The beating continues all the way to the hideout.

Prelude to a Show Down

Daniel is kicked through a door and lands on a table, it not breaking and landing on top of it hard just makes it hurt much worse. Matthew walks out of the blistering sun shining through the doorway, closes it and sits in a chair and picks up a half empty beer bottle and chugs it.
“Well, we’re at the hideout are you done kicking my ass?” Daniel asks and then coughs up some blood.
“Don’t test me. You may be a stupid motherfucker but I’m going to teach to act right, I swear to god.” Matthew threatens.
“Just like you did with your sons? Being a former drug user and all.” Daniel quips back.
Matthew then drops the beer bottle and stares at him intently. He picks the beer bottle up and smashes it into the wall and walks over to Daniel and edges the sharp end of the bottle to his throat.
“Boy, if you want me to k ill you, your heading down the right path.” Matthew says.
Daniel merely says nothing, he knew he shouldn’t have said it not because the idea of his throat getting slashed is shitting bricks worthy, but it wasn’t right and it wasn’t fair. Daniel just stares back into him with determination, he isn’t going to back down it seems this is the only way to get respect from him, even if it is incredibly dangerous. Matthew sighs, drops the beer bottle and walks over to a window and scratches his head.
“Just don’t say anything like that again kid, it isn’t right and you know it. I feel terrible about what I did; you don’t know what it’s like to feel responsible for the death of three people, responsible for the death of your fucking FAMILY. Just don’t say shit like that again or I may not be able to stop myself, because even though you’re a pain in the ass kid….your alright.” Matthew says.
“Listen, I’m sorry man….I didn’t mean to say it.” Daniel says.
“Forget about it, I have.” Matthew says and goes over to an ice box and pulls out a beer. Suddenly a gunshot is heard and the bottom half of Matthew’s beer bottle is shattered. He merely looks in confusion when none of the liquid is reaching his lips and then looks down.
“We have company.” Matthew says.
Daniel gets off the table and edges near a window and sees eight gang members outside. Some armed with pistols, other shotguns. One of them has an Uzi and looks to be the leader of the little hit squad.
“I see eight, both are pretty well armed.” Daniel says.
“Well, we’re not staying here then, gotta run for a bit and catch’em by surprise.” Matthew says.
“What? That’s a bunch of shit. I saw you blow that one dudes hit off with his own gun, why are we running?” Daniel asks.
“Eight of those guys are well armed, they know I’m here and I can’t sneak up on them. I also only have a pistol and while I’m a pretty good shot they’d probably charge this place before I could kill them all. Plus I have to make sure you don’t get shot while deal with them; this is NOT an ideal situation. We’ll run to the cemetery and catch them by surprise.” Matthew explains.
“The cemetery? Shit man, that place is scary. All sorts of whacko are there.” Daniel says.
“Exactly, get your gun and let’s book.” Matthew instructs.
Daniel nods, gets his gun from behind the couch cushion and jumps out the window with Matthew. They run for a bit and then hear the sound of the gang members charging inside the hideout and their yells of frustration when they realize they aren’t there. One of them sees them and issues orders to run after them, the chase is on.