Chapter CCCI: The Silver Dragon ~Kuza

Kuza and Drago stepped off of the ship and into the spaceport terminal. Drago knew nothing about the events that had transpired on board; he had been lucky enough to get some sleep. Kuza's situation, however, was much different. He had tired eyes, and wanted to get anywhere he could get a little rest. It was still up to him to lead, though, as Drago was still unused to these strange creatures. The Yoshies weren't the only strange ones, though.

Behind Kuza and Drago, a familiar pink-haired, pink-skinned woman was walking. She concealed herself in a cloak so that neither would notice; this wasn't the place for a scene, even if she could probably take both of them out with relative ease. This cloak is sooo tacky, she thought to herself as she stalked the two. Unfortunately, it's necessary...at least until these two are somewhere less crowded. She continued through the numerous Yoshies passing away from and toward the terminal, her eyes fixed on Kuza and Drago.

Kuza looked over to a bench. It looked quite appealing as a place to sleep. He started to move his hand toward Drago to tap him and tell him they were stopping, but his senses suddenly caught Fanah's presence behind them. How did she get here? Kuza asked himself. He didn't want to turn around because that would give away that he knew she was there. He looked for some way to get away from her, and spotted a tightly-bunched crowd of Yoshies ahead. "Drago, come on," he said, and began moving faster, trying to reach the crowd.

"What is the hurry, Sir Kuza?" Drago asked, picking up the pace with his friend.

"We're being tailed by that woman who attacked me on the ship," Kuza replied, walking at a significantly brisk pace.

"Her?" Drago inquired worriedly, glancing behind.

Kuza grabbed Drago and whispered frantically, "Turn your head back around!"

Fanah's eyes widened. They know I'm following them, she realized as Drago's look was pulled away by Kuza. She then picked up the pace as well, beginning to move people out of the way with significant force. Kuza saw her coming on fast, and knew that they either ran for it or were caught. With that in mind, he grabbed Drago and ran toward the crowd of Yoshies. Two of the Yoshies saw Kuza and Drago approaching.

"Boss, we gots two people comin' at us, a human and some kinda angel guy. Grab 'em?" one of them asked.

A smaller, shorter Yoshi in the middle of the group glanced out at the two. "Yeah, grab 'em," he replied.

As Kuza and Drago reached the group, the two larger Yoshies grabbed them and pulled them into the group, concealing them from the people around them. The entire group then turned around a corner and disappeared from Fanah's sight. She ran toward the corner and peeked around it...nothing.

Fanah growled and clenched a fist. "You won't get away from me," she swore. With that, she vanished.

"What the hell is this?!" Kuza shouted as he was thrown into the back of a sleek black car. His hands were tied, as were Drago's. Drago didn't seem to be taking to this very well; he was quite panicked as he was thrown in.

"What do we do, what do we do?!" Drago demanded of Kuza. Were his hands not tied, he would've shaken Kuza by the shoulders in his demand for an answer.

"You get to take a nice trip with us," one of the Yoshies said as he got into the driver's seat of the car.

"Are you gangsters or something?" Kuza asked, trying to figure out why he and Drago had been grabbed.

"Somethin' like that," the driver replied as he started the car. "You shouldn't have charged at us...the boss gets real paranoid about those things."

He smirked, and fell in line behind two other cars. The procession drove out of the parking garage and headed for the mean streets of Yoshitopia.

After a good bit of driving, Kuza and Drago felt the car stop. The sun, which had been near setting when the ship arrived, had gone down, as made obvious by the darkness engulfing most of Kuza and Drago's vision. Kuza's sharp ears listened to all that was going on. The driver of their car got out, and shouted something to another of the drivers. They exchanged a few words, and Kuza heard the trunk of the car open. Something was removed from it, and cocked; the object removed was obviously a gun of some sort. More shouts were exchanged, and then, out of nowhere, an explosion rocked Kuza's ears. The next several seconds were engulfed by havoc: guns were firing, screams were erupting from the throats of those killed, and, oddly enough, blades were slashing. As quickly as it had started the havoc was over.

What the hell just happened? Kuza wondered as the sounds of battle outside died down. A number of possible situations occurred to him. Maybe a rival gang had ambushed the group. Maybe one of the gang members turned on his fellows. Maybe an assassin struck. Whatever had happened, he knew he would find out soon enough, as he felt the car door his head was against open. A hand grabbed him and dragged him out. Drago was then set beside him. The owner of the hand then cut the ropes binding their hands.

"Gyah...thanks." Kuza began to get up, but his efforts were cut short as a fist struck his back. "Ow! What the hell was that for?!" he shouted.

Kuza then rolled over and a hand grabbed his, helping him up.

"We don't like people getting up till we help them up," said the owner of the 'helping hand'.

He was a green Yoshi in a black trenchcoat. Around his neck was a necklace with a silver dragon pendant. As Kuza looked around, he saw about five other Yoshies, all in black trenchcoats. The ones with their backs to him showed the large silver dragons on the backs of their coats; the ones turned to him showed their silver dragon necklaces.

"You know who we are?" the green Yoshi asked.

"Let me guess: the Silver Dragon Gang?" Kuza replied.

The green Yoshi gave Kuza a strong punch in the stomach. Kuza groaned and leaned over, holding the spot where he had been punched.

"We aren't a gang," he stated firmly. "We are the Silver Dragon Society. We're anti-gang, and you should be thankful we took out Gregorio and his boys. They would have hung you with piano wire."

Kuza coughed. "Ok, got it," he choked out.

Drago was now up on his feet as well. Drago looked at Kuza, then at the Yoshies. "What happened?" he inquired of Kuza.

Kuza righted himself, and looked over at Drago. "We were saved by these guys here," he replied, gesturing to the six Yoshies. Drago nodded.

"Ok, come with us," the green Yoshi said in a somewhat demanding tone. The other five Yoshies came over and blindfolded Kuza and Drago.

"What's this for?" Kuza asked.

"Can't let you see the way to our hideout," the green Yoshi replied. "There are a lot of crimelords out there who want us dead, and we can't take any risks."

With that, the six Yoshies, Kuza, and Drago leaped off into the darkness, heading back to the Silver Dragon hideout.