Black Market Merchant

Chapter 135: Sober Up
Rodney absolutely hated coming to the Mad Dogs secret factory. Not because of the triplets or anyone else that worked there, per-say, but because that he was always coming here to do work. Whether it be to hunt down escaping ’employees’ or to do transportation guard duties, he was never here to have fun. Besides with there being so many drugs around, Zeus and Cooper were unable to go inside the building or factory without a mask on their muzzles. The drugs and serums would ruin the dogs far faster than it would a human.

”Alright boys, you know the drill. Stay out here until I get back. Hopefully, I won’t be long.” Rodney said to the two big dogs.

The three of them were outside of the main gate to the golf course mansion and the guards had already recognized Rodney by sight and they were already quickly opening the gate for him. The two dogs obediently sat down on the dusty road to wait and eyed Rodney carefully as he left them.

Rodney went into the beer covered and foul party smelling building with a slight bit of disgust clearly displayed on his face. As he made his way inwards, the sheer amounts of cans, trash and sticky residue on the floor made the place nearly unbearable. Even though he enjoyed parties and drinking as much as the next guy, this was going too far.

”Would it kill these guys to get someone to clean this place?” Rodney mutter kicking a can out of his way with a dusty cowboy boot.

The sounds of laughter and banging music was not quite so loud today. There must be a select crowd here at this time, considering it was nearing the end of the week. Rodney grudgingly started to make his way in that direction. Where the noise was, undoubtably so were the triplets and hopefully Saul too.

Entering the room, he was recognized by a few regulars that called out to him to join them, but Rodney reluctantly refused. Scanning the crowd through vape, blunt, and cigarette smoke, he soon spotted one of the triplets. As he got closer, Rodney could see that it was Sean drinking some dark drink from a crystal glass. Sean appeared to be absentmindedly watching the crowd, or more likely, drugged up and watching the hallucinations dance around him.

”Sean. Sean!” Rodney called out to the big Irish ginger. Luckily, the music level was lower than normal and a shout from this far away in the room could still be heard.

Sean gave a light jolt hearing his name and glanced around until he saw Rodney coming his way. ”What does the bosses dog want now? Has another escapee got out again?”

”No, that’s not it this time.” Rodney replied as he came to a stop in front of the larger man. ”I came to get Saul and you three brothers. Your fight with Queen is nearly about to go down. Saul needs to be there to get things going and be clear headed for when the fight starts. Where is he?”

Sean shook his head and looked around with a glazed expression. ”Well, uh, I think you’re talking about that dude that called himself our manager, right?”

”Ya, you three better not have broken the guy.” Rodney said crossing his arms.

”Naw, it’s just I ain’t seen him for a while.” Sean replied taking a sip from the glass. ”Try looking in the next room. Conor was messing around with him last I saw.”

”Alright, thanks. Oh, and try to sober up. You guys might actually need to be somewhat prepared for this fight.” Rodney replied walking past the big ginger.

”Eh, whatever.” Sean muttered while taking another sip.

Rodney entered the next room and the smell of stale beer filling the air grew worse. However, Connor and Patrick were here sitting on some ugly red couches along with some rather alluring looking ladies, apparently trying to score. Yet Saul still wasn’t with them.

”Hey guys. Sorry to bother you, but the boss sent me here.” Rodney said coming halfway across the room towards them. He knew that keeping a safe distance from these guys was always the right choice.

”Ah, screw off Rodney!” Patrick replied crossly. He was pulling a woman close for a kiss when Rodney interrupted. ”Can’t you see that we are busy?”

”What now?” Connor snarled. He bulled his way upward and knocked one of the ladies off his lap and couch to the floor, but he didn’t care. It was clear they were just like objects to him. Connor took a menacing step closer to look down at Rodney. ”The boss sent you. Why?”

”I came to get Saul and get you three ready for the fight with Queen.” Rodney replied seeming unmoved by the big man’s aggression. ”Where is he at?”

Conor shook his head as he gave an angry smile. ”Ha, is that all? That sorry excuse for a man is in that closet.”

Rodney looked at the door Conor was pointing at. Conor shook his head again, scoffed, and lumbered back to sit on the couch. The closet door didn’t even have a knob on it. Just an empty hole remained. Curious, Rodney pulled open the door and felt some resistance as it drug heavily across the nasty stained and sticky carpet. Inside he found a very messed up Saul.

Saul was curled up into the fetal position, shirt and shoeless. He had a black eye and was not moving. At first Rodney thought he might be dead but tossed out that idea when he saw Saul take a labored breath.

”What did you guys do to him?” Rodney called out.

”Nothing much.” Connor replied. ”Gave him some meth and then made him run the gauntlet a few times. All that damage was from the partygoers, not from us, this time. Honestly, that guy was not all that tough. He passed out after only three attempts.”

”If you say so.” Rodney sighed. ”Come on Saul, get up!” Rodney nudged Saul’s ribcage with the point of his cowboy boot, but Saul didn’t budge.

”Come on you piece of crap, move! Boss Martinez needs you ready to work.” Rodney gripped while prodding Saul again, this time more forcefully.

This time Saul seemed to hear him. Saul unrolled from the fetal position and peered up at Rodney through squinted bloodshot eyes. It was like he was looking up at the sun instead of Rodney’s face and cowboy hat. Saul murmured something unintelligible and then closed his eyes again, passed out.

”Geez, this guy is toasted.” Rodney said. ”You know that not everyone can handle as much of those drugs as you three, right?”

”Ehh, they all are just pushovers.” Patrick replied tugging one of the women closer to him. ”Just get him out of here. He’s cramping up my style.”

Rodney sighed. He did not want to carry Saul or touch him. Saul looked like a sweaty, grimy mess and absolutely dead weight. Alas, he had to move the man.

Rodney picked up the half awake, limp Saul by under his arms. Then bending low, Rodney hoisted Saul up onto his shoulders and back. Adjusting Saul so that he balanced evenly, Rodney head for the exit. Before he left though, Rodney stopped next to Sean once again.

”Remember, Sean, you and your brothers need to be at the Arena for the fight tomorrow! Be ready to fight too, Queen is actually going to be a difficult opponent.” Rodney shouted over the now increasing music.

”Fine, fine.” Sean replied swaying slightly to the music.

”Just to be sure, here. Put this in your pocket.” Rodney quickly reached into his pocket and handed Sean a sheet of paper. On it was a reminder for the fight. Rodney had done this before with the difficult triplets in the past and it worked then.

Sean took it and shoved it, unfolded, into his pocket. ”We will be there…” Sean murmured.

Once back outside, Zeus and Cooper happily waged their tails seeing their master returning. They got up from the dusty pathway to follow on either side of Rodney. Saul was still uselessly draped on top of Rodney and the dogs curiously sniffed the hands and bare feet which were swaying about lifelessly.

Rodney grumbled to them as they walked. ”Come on boys. Let’s get this guy back to base. I can’t stand how much of a pushover and how easy to fold this so called, ‘Best Manager’, is. Pew! This guy smells like he pooed himself too!”

…

Lisa, on the following morning, was prepping her weapons and skintight body suit for the upcoming fight. Everyone had already gone out of the Powerhouses sleeping areas to scrape together the last of the food for breakfast. So, she was currently alone as she looked over her things carefully. The dull black blade of her foldable sword was starting to appear a bit duller than usual. Perhaps it was high time that she started looking for some polish. Then she looked at her body suit and noticed that it too was getting dirty and a bit shabby.

Though the body suit was made of densely packed Kevlar fibers, ceramic, and other sci-fi like shock absorbent materials; there was still plenty of strong cloth holding it together. From the body odor smell coming from it, Lisa knew that it needed to be washed badly! She was surprised that no one had yet mentioned anything about the smell either. Whether or not they were being nice, they should have at least said something.

”I’ll have to wash it thoroughly after the fight.” Lisa said speaking to herself. ”I have been wearing you for far too long! One of the first things I’m going to get one the power is working better is a washer and dryer.”

”Lisa?” Sadie’s voice called up from the bottom of the stairs.

”Ya?” Lisa called back putting her head through the suit to wear it again. She then started to put the rest of the various items back on or away for later.

Sadie came up the rest of the stairs and joined Lisa in the room. ”Well, everything is eaten, and we are without even crumbs now. Are we going to sell the animal furs before we go to the fight? Can’t have you fighting on an empty stomach, now can we?”

”Yes, we are going to do that. We should have plenty of time to do so. Besides, afterwards we are going to need to come up with more permanent solutions to the food issue.” Lisa replied adjusting the tight body suit over her torso snuggly. Though she wasn’t proud of their size, her breasts were not so big that they felt constrained being under the tight suit all the time.

”Alright. Oh, what if we looked for a refrigerator?” Sadie said clapping her hands together. ”It seems odd that you have electricity, but really haven’t been using it for ourselves yet.”

”Your right, I really haven’t used it that much.” Lisa said with a light laugh. ”We probably should start to do that anyways.”

”Good, now I can actually drink cold water. Not that lukewarm stuff we have been drinking. It just doesn’t taste right at all.” Sadie said while making a sour face.

”Let me just grab something from my coffin and I follow you out.” Lisa replied getting her last boot tied. Lisa quickly got up and unlocked the coffin to reach inside. ”Oh no, Sadie! We have a new problem.”

”What is it?” Sadie asked curiously.

Lisa stood up to display a white object in her hand. Then giving a dark and serious expression, Lisa explained the new dire situation. ”We are down to our last roll of toilet paper! Let’s win this fight already, so we can have the money to buy more immediately! I cannot survive without toilet paper!”