1 Chapter One: The World of Magical Gangsters

There was a loud explosion and Mako stood there like a dumbass.

His family's house looked as if a tornado had passed through, but only Mako's bedroom had been destroyed. The walls and ceilings were shattered by a burst of energy, causing everything inside his room to fly off and burn. Some debris is still on fire.

Mako, posing as if he were stretching, lay motionless in his stupid state. Even his clothes had been ripped off by the energy. The neighbors from the house across the street, where his room faced, peered curiously through the curtains to see what had happened. Thankfully, they were unharmed, but they could see Mako naked.

"Mako, what the fuck!?" A voice from downstairs can be heard, it is a voice of a mother ready to whoop her son's ass.

As the sound of footsteps gradually grew louder, Mako smiled, his eyes beaming with joy.

"You better not be doing something stupid up there—" She paused when she reached her son's bedroom doorway. The door had flown off a minute ago, and the devastating scene of Mako's room lay before her.

Mako turned around slowly, his arms still unbent. "I- I'm a gangsta!"

Silence. His mom couldn't believe it. She threw the slippers that she was holding at Mako. She was supposed to use it to slap him silly with it.

His muscle memory made him flinch and dodge, assuming a fetal position. Mako felt safe. He opened his eyes, and suddenly, he found himself floating in the sky. "What the fuck?" he thought to himself.

Then he starts to fall, descending from the sky at a rate of speed he couldn't imagine. As he gets closer to the surface, he can see his house and his mom looking up at him. He is going to crash and probably die. Ten feet away from his mom, he could hear her speak before he slams face-first to the floor.

"Mako, rise up."

...

It is raining. The sewers are almost flooding up. The rats are taking shelter inside the holes of this concrete bridge where Mako and his friends were taking a nap. "Mako, wake the fuck up, shit-water rising." said one of his friends with peculiarly thick-lensed eyeglasses, Yami.

"Shit-water? Y'mean sewer water? Stupidass." The tall and skinny fellow with ragged clothes chuckles with his bucktooth showing.

"Bai, shut the fuck up," Yami said as he tackled his tall friend, causing him to lose his balance. They both rolled over into the rising dirty sewer water.

"Ew, what the fuck!" Bai struggles desperately to escape Yami's grasp who doesn't care that they are now swimming in the water.

A round of joyful laughter echoed from their chubby and youngest friend, Eten, whose laughter was accompanied by an infectious snorting sound.

Mako, still lying on the floor, watch his friends messing around, smirking.

"Mako," a voice said, "come on," as they offered their hand to Mako to help him stand up. He looked at it, grabbed on, grunted as he stood, then let go and dusted himself off.

Eten approached Mako, offering him a small bag of chips. It was already open. Eten smiled.

"Thanks." Mako grabbed a handful of chips. Eten frowned. "So... Do you have it, Sora?"

"Yeah." The person who helped Mako up replied. They appeared feminine and thin, with long black hair that hid a scar on their neck. "But Big Poppa isn't too happy. He said it could kill us!" Their distress matched their high-pitched voice

"Why he cares, tho'?" Bai said now naked and wiping off the grime on his body.

Yami, who was fixing his eyeglasses, chuckled. "We bought it with our money! It's our problem! Although I think chubby here is too young for this..."

Eten looked distressed, pleading with his hands while whimpering.

"Alright, alright. Quit it. We old 'nuff, we 'tuff, alright?" Mako said as he grabs another handful of chips. Eten paused and became expressionless. "Everyone, all of us, will have it. Alright?"

"Yeah!" Yami looks enthusiastic, "We'll get lots of street cred now that we hella strapped! Think 'bout it, if we big, people finna gonna rep' our colors!"

"Colors?" Bai stared at Yami, "Why are you talking like that?"

Embarrassed, Yami shifts his gaze away from his friends, "Well... I just wanna be somebody for once..."

"Somebody stupid?"

"What?!" Yami exclaims and stands near Bai, bodying him.

"That's nice, Yami." Sora interrupts and separates the two from each other, "Bai, you shouldn't be a smartass with other people's dreams."

Eten raises his hands, he signs his ambition. He just wants to be surrounded by food.

"See, even Eten has one. How about you?"

Bai rolls his eyes and contemplates, "I guess I just want to get out of this shithole."

"That's good enough!"

"How about you, Sora?" Mako interjects

Sora pauses, and glances at Mako, "Well, what about you, Mako?"

"Yeah tell us, Mako, tell us how you just want to be with people you love!" Yami teases him with mocking smooches and exaggerated caressing. Bai and Eten respond in laughter.

Mako turned red, Sora noticed and playfully slaps the others, "What did I say about making fun of other people's dreams?"

"Ow! Sorry..." Yami massages his cheeks, "Well what about you, huh?"

Sora smiled but before they could answer Mako interrupts with a roar, "Alright, Alright! Can we just do this? 'nuff of that! We doing this or what?"

Bai smirked. "This isn't my first snort!" He grabbed a broken wooden chair beside them. The sewer water was still rising. "So let's go have at it! Give it to me, Sora!"

Sora smiled and dug their hand inside their tunic to retrieve the thing they had been talking about. Sora held Mako's hands and placed a small pouch there. "Here."

"Yeah let's do it!" Yami cheers and wraps his arms around Eten who also raises his fist with excitement.

"Hold on." Mako kneeled in front of the chair and poured the contents of the pouch onto the wooden surface. They gathered around the chair, astonished. It was a powder-like substance, pulsating with a bright magenta color, with some particles floating around like flies before returning to the pile after completing an orbit.

"I- I didn't know Gangsta Powder glows..." Bai said with his mouth open and eyes focused.

Yami, also focused on the powder, closed Bai's mouth. "I thought this wasn't your first snort..."

Eten drooled and dropped his bag of chips, which the sewer water swiftly carried away from them.

"Alright..." Mako said, "Who first?"

Silence. They watched the powder do its thing. Then they heard a familiar high-pitched voice. "Me."

Not one objected. Sora steps closer to the powder. "You know what," Sora said while looking nervously at Mako, "I think we do it together at the same time..."

"Got cold feet, already?" Bai giggled.

Yami smacks the back of Bai's head, "Funny." He said, "Let's have Eten test it first, just in case."

Eten turned blue while shaking his head. Motioning his hands to say no.

"Alright, alright. Let's do it together." Mako said then everyone smiled, "If we do it wrong let's die together, too, alright?" their smiles disappeared.

"B-But how?" Bai asked while tending the back of his head still hurt from the smack, "Should—should we... snort it?"

"L- Let's inject it..." Yami gestures his hands holding a syringe.

"You got needles?"

"No," Yami replied then Bai smacked his head, returning the favor.

Eten and the rest laugh with him, then he faces Mako. Moves his hands, suggesting to eat the powder instead.

Sora smirks, "That's a good idea, Eten." They then bump their shoulder to Mako who is just crouching down near the powder beside them.

Mako glances at them, then returns his attention to the substance, "Alright." He said "I bet this gonna taste like sugar," he added as he grabs a handful of the powder.

"I haven't tasted sugar in a long time..." Bai slowly grabs some but not enough to fill his palm.

Yami follows after them but uses his fingers to grip a few, "What's sugar...?"

Eten pinches a small amount. Excited and looking proud of himself.

Sora puts their hand on Mako's shoulder and smiled, "Let's do it." Then they also grabbed a handful of the remaining powder.

Mako nodded in approval, smirked, then eyed every one of his friends. "No matter what, a hit of this shit can make us stronger than the average fucker. We stick together, we rise together, alright?" he proclaimed as he slowly moved his hand toward his mouth. "We reppin', get some creds, once we get this shit in our system!"

"Gangsta!" exclaimed Bai, who was also preparing himself to put the substance inside his mouth.

Then, in one quick move, they shoved the powder down their throats. Their eyes dilated. Time moved faster. A rush of all things happening all at once. They could feel their blood flowing in every vein of their body, they could hear the small crashing splash of the rain intensely, the air crawling on their skin, and finally, they could see everything—a flashing sight of their memories. Cold sweat started to manifest. It felt like an eternity, a perpetual traversal through time with the sensations still felt.

They can be heard screaming. The rain intensified. They all suffer a seizure. Shaking whilst their eyes cry blood. Mako tried to take control, but his vision starts to blur, and his limbs uncontrollable. He heard someone crying, he tried to look, he sees someone running away from them, he couldn't identify who.

The suffering continues. Then finally, an explosion of blood and internal organs blasted throughout the area, but as fast as it happened it undid itself at the same time. Silence.

...

The underpass has been flooded. Somewhere, steam-engine vehicles are parked beside a bridge. A group of armed men secures the perimeter. it is still raining but not that intense anymore. The streetlights are busted and the rain fills the ambiance. Right across the road are two men, one wearing a normal pink suit and one with a pink vest and brown pants, standing near an alleyway.

"Whatchu think, Boss?"

The man in a pink vest grunts.

"You think it's one of em?" The henchman approaches his boss.

"I dunno." the one in a vest grabs a cigar and puts it in his mouth.

The henchman takes out his matchbox and lights the cigar "I bet this a set-up!"

"I dunno,"

"Those sons of bitches. I can't believe Big Poppa went down like this! Can you believe it?" he hides the matchbox inside his jacket while shaking his head.

Big Poppa is on the ground lying dead; his torso is riddled with holes as big as their vehicle's rims. Blood spurt all over the sidewalk and his organs scattered on the road. They received a call from a local that a turf war happened here but this is not a usual place to conduct such a thing. They're at a man-made lake where the sewer waters flow out from the city. Even the undercity's stench flow out from here, nobody would've wanted this place except the homeless, the junkies, orphans, and the dead.

"Big Poppa was one of the best! He was an OG! He was supposed to retire from the set that's why he chose this stinkin' place to manage 'cuz it's low profile and slow as fuck!" the henchman said whilst turning around and pointing at the streets' decrepit structures, "I mean look at this place! Nobody wants this shithole, even us, the ops, or the Yard!"

Their opposition is countless in this city. Every city got its own gangs. The gang they belong to is just a franchise of the main organization from a neighboring city but that doesn't mean they're letting go of the murder of one of their own. This is a serious disrespect and an offense prerogative to war. If a rival gang did this then it is their duty to avenge Big Poppa.

The Inter-City Police is one of the active obstacles in their criminal practices. While they didn't typically patrol this part of the undercity, they had informants and rats planted within the gangs. The term "Yard" was used by the criminal underworld to refer to the police force.

"Who you think it was?" the henchman continues.

"I dunno..."

"Who could've done this kind of nasty shit, am I right?" the henchman said as he crouch down to check Big Poppa's pockets, "Look, they didn't even steal his wallet!" he motions to one of the guards, "Was Big Poppa carryin'?"

The guard shrugged.

"What you mean you don't know?" the henchman turns to the man in the pink vest once again, "You think he was carryin'?"

The man sighs exhaustively, "I..."

"We better find out if he was, am I right?" the henchman said as he smirks still crouching.

"DON'T..." the man levels his legs towards the annoying henchman.

"Right, Boss?" he turns around and sees his boss' massive shoe inches from his face.

"KNOW." the boss roared. The raindrops stopped as his foot crushed the henchman's face. The skull imploded, and the brain and eyes splattered like juicy fruit. Blood splattered across the ground, staining the boss's pants. The henchman's body is piled on top of Big Poppa's corpse.

The guard that the henchman called stands unimpressed. He walks closer to him.

"What was his name?"

The guard approaches, and the headlight of their vehicles reveals a mechanical mask that only covers his right eye socket. A small elastic tubing is connected from the mask to his nape where small pipes that let out steam can be found at the upper part of his spine. "Nobody knows. He's a neophyte."

"Could be a snitch." the man scrapes the blood off his shoe on the wet ground.

The guard approach and offers his boss a napkin "Could be."

"Kidd..." the boss takes the napkin from him and wipes the blood off his shoe, "I think we got a problem."

"We better not jump to conclusions just yet, Bose." Kidd said, revealing to be the boss' chief officer. He grabs his steam-powered revolver from his holster, "If we attack the wrong guys, we're gonna start a war."

"Do you think Big Poppa was carrying?" The boss leaned in to get a better look at the weapon. The grip was connected to the trigger guard, forming a circular shape. The barrel was relatively short, supporting a wide muzzle, with a large cylinder in the middle.

"I bet. Deal gone wrong? Ambush? Stick up? Motherfuckers desperate for some powder."

"So? Whatchu think?"

Kidd adjusts the bearings of his prosthetic eye. "Big Poppa will never go down like this. Whoever did this must be someone he trusted."

"Do you know if he got beef with someone?"

"No." Kidd inserts a thin small circular glass panel inside the mask and it slides in front of his eyes should be.

"So what's your plan?" sighs Bose.

Kidd grins, "Imma get them."

"How? I bet this motherfucker's not alone." Bose said, "And I bet they usin' powder, too." he added.

"Crazy motherfucker, serial motherfucker, or a motherfuckin' hitman. They all got Gangsta Powder in their system. I don't care, I will get them." Kidd said as he removes the bullets from his weapon leaving only four, "And I count four motherfuckers." he pointed at the muddy footprints not far from the scene, which were difficult to discern but visible to Kidd's mechanical eyes.

Bose inspects it, turns to Kidd, and gives him a nod. "Kill them."