Turf Wars, Episode I: The Photon Menace

<sup>Cool, late night breezes ruffled clothes as fingers danced and twisted, crossed and curled. Each little flick commanding a rainbow of radiance, forming swift words and shapes as only the stroke of an artist’s brush could muster. The backstreets were quiet at this time of night, devoid of the hustle and bustle of daylight hours, and the night was when the lights came out.

“Boss,” came the shout from below: “You done yet?” A tall, lean young man of African-American descent stood with ghostly blue-white face paint in the style of a fanged skull, head turned towards the inky sky above and the Western wall of an apartment block on the edge of Empyrean’s city centre, near one of the city-state’s small parks.

Others stood waiting, leaning against the walls, all painted with various colours and designs of their individual choosing. But the most distinct of the lot was a five-foot-something figure in pumps, ripped skinny jeans and top. Technicolour stripes, splodges and swirls decorated a black jacket, forming an oriental dragon of glowing red, gold and green. A plume of hair glowed deep violet, defining a black baseball cap and bandanna. It was not what she looked like, but where she stood, that really painted the picture.

I’d best not use more red given how much blue I used, so let’s sign off in green… One more flick of fluorescent fingertips and a spray of colour marked the wall with one final word: ‘Neon’. The graffiti artist’s latest masterwork complete, she about faced and looked down towards her brothers-in-troublemaking, unaffected by the Earth’s usual pull and instead standing straight and proud, perpendicular to the sheer wall upon which her feet were firmly planted.

“What do you think?” she asked, confident of her creation glowing brightly in the night. A beacon, but to whom?</sup>

The day had been long, a man coated in a strange glowing set of protective pads. Torch, as the man was known as had just finished creating an entire sculpture for a client. It was a beautiful piece of work, a soldier standing in triumph looking up as he stood over the smoking remains of a burned out tank… the fact it was all star wars themed and the victorious soldier was a rebel standing over an AT-ST was just a perk of the job… it was a good thing the employer was a huge star wars fan. In the bag that was being carried in the mans right hand was a wrapped up piece of chocolate cake and some torches and spare batteries to power said torch.

His long walk to a private spot to remove his disguise was interrupted when he heard a familiar voice… one that the man just had to stop and investigate. The sight that met the man as he rounded the street corner was a common one… his local rival stood at an odd angle next to a glowing street tag. In his honest opinion it was good, one of her better tags… but James loved to mess with Neon, just as she loved to mess with him and his boys.

Quickly the man dug into his pocket and pulled out his trusty laser pen and pointed it right at the signature. “Time to pay her back for that comment this morning.” He snickered as he pressed the button and the red beam streaked through the air and the man skilfully wrote “Sucks” For some reason the light left a glowing word… leaving the broken physics.

“I’ve done better!” Shouted the graffiti defiler as he held up the bag and waved it “Here is the cake I promised!” the man followed up to let the gravity defying gang leader know that he would follow through on his earlier tease.

A flicker of red caught the young woman’s eye, first drawing her attention down to her feet and then towards the corner of the street. Neon scowled, said glower concealed mostly beneath her bandanna and probably indiscernible at this distance. And yet, somehow, she knew full well that the culprit was aware of her grimace. Her fists tightened, fluorescent pink dripping down from between her fingers down to the true ground upon which her comrades waited.

^{The cake? That bastard…}

“Well, well,” grunted one of Neon’s crew as they spaced themselves out. A couple carried baseball bats, but they were unarmed for the most part. If Seo-yeon Park was good at one thing, it was teaching her crew how to hold their own when the going got rough. A caucasian kid with a mohawk--Neon’s handiwork making it’s spikes glow like fire--cracked his knuckles and stepped forwards: “If it isn’t the ‘in-Sects’.”

^{“The babies are buzzing around their night-light again.”}

“Flies around shit, more like,” Neon herself did call out as she jumped off the wall upon which she had been walking, letting the world’s pull upon her resume as she tumbled, landing soft as a feather in front of her posse. Wiping her fingers across her face, she smeared fluorescent pink flames around her eyes as her left hand reached into her pocket, fingers wrapping around the grip of a pocket knife. “And I’m guessing by the grin on your face you’ve been eating a lot of it.”

Now the attention was focused solely on him Torch could feel the thrill of the impending scuffle. A Quick movement of his torch hand and the illumination it provided solidified and formed a small table where he placed a bag and walked a few feet to the side. “Well I saw this golden turd you call art and I just had to come and give you shit for it.” He joked, watching each of her underlings getting ready for a fight. The grin behind his mask shifted even wider. “Hey Nee-Yoo Tell yer kiddies to go and play with my lads, they are only on Steel Street” He gestured pointing his laser pen behind them to a side street that would lead there at the fastest pace.

His eyes darted to every single one of the gangers and then to their leader “I expected this to be a private date,” James teased under his mask as his torch stopped producing normal light and a bat like shape of pure light formed. To mimic the weapons her underlings were wielding. “I mean I expected to have an easy tussle just against you.” The light padded Viking teased, trying to antagonise one of her minions into rushing forwards. A standard procedure for when the two gangs meet by chance.

As he moved away from the table holding the cake one of the newer looking members which Torch had not seen before caught the mans eyes and he stopped pointing the laser pen in his direction. In a few quick moments and a couple of quick clicks several pinprick sized metre long red spears shot into the baggy clothes and pinned the kid to the wall before anyone could move. “Or should we just skip to the part where I show you all up again?”

“Damn,” the Seoul-born lass hissed in her native tongue, watching somewhat helplessly as Torch wielded the power of his own mark against one of her boys, pinning him to the wall via his clothing. She knew for a fact that those strange laser spears he spawned from his pen were quite flimsy, but there was no way his target had the mobility to snap them.

Seo-yeon sighed.

“You want a one-on-one then that’s fine with me,” she replied, waving her hand to her company as a signal for them to back down. At the same time, she stepped forwards, pulling the knife from her pocket though keeping its blade folded for now. Despite her rough and tumble outlook, she was reluctant to inflict any serious harm on anyone who didn’t deserve it… though Torch was annoying enough that she had considered it.

“But my crew aren’t going anywhere unless I say so!” Adopting a fighting stance, drawing on what basic instruction she knew of Taekwondo and Hapkido, Neon readied herself for the clash. They had fought before; never a decisive victory as of yet, but she knew most of his tricks as well as he knew hers. A quick scan of her surroundings indicated that he had something of an advantage, but she could soon change that. There was nothing that a lick of paint couldn’t fix.

^{“Bring it!”}

The Photon Menace chuckled as the leader of this band of ruffians ordered her underlings to step back as she struck her tell tale guard. The usual sign that Neon and Torch were about to redecorate this poor and drab alleyway, to be fair Torch’s artistic improvements will fade after 3 days. “Right then!” He shouted as he charged forwards, with both light bat in hand and laser pen aimed at the troublesome gang rival.

As he ran forwards the laser pen was shot at his opponent aiming to get her eyes, a non-lethal distraction to cover his approach. “Gotta pay ya back for that burn Nee-Yon, coming from the left.” The Viking taunted as he started is swing coming in from the right and aiming to bash her leg with a hefty hit and some dirty tactics to ensure the target took damage.

<sup>The eyes, really? I’m not falling for that! Briefly blinded by Torch’s flash of his penlight, Neon knew full well that she had the terrain advantage, vision or none. Flicking her fingers, splaying them as her arm extended, countless droplets of light streamed from her fingertips to paint the wall to her right. Her whole body bent, feet lifting from the floor as the world shifted on its axis, a single jump gaining enough of a height advantage to evade her rival’s assault as she pivoted and landed on the wall beside him.

“Should’ve picked a better angle!” Converting momentum, Seo-yeon threw a punch--an uppercut with her hand glowing pink aimed directly at the man’s face, intending not just to strike, but to leave a permanent mark upon his precious masquerade. Not enough to trigger the turn, but a starting point that would soon enough flip their skirmish on its side.</sup>

With a pair of widened yes the man shifted his weight backwards as the punch came in. It caught his mask and rattled it against his face but left no lasting damage as he rolled backwards and pulled his smart phone from his pocket. He needed a short intense burst of light and this was going to do the trick. ‘Gotta limit her movement.’ The man thought as he let his eyes shift around and an idea formed, standing up straight and he pressed the button on his screen that triggered the flash on the camera phone.

“Gotta put a lid on all of this free movement!” to masked man announced as he pressed the take photo button again. The usual blinding light was odd instead of going everywhere it shot forth as a Pyramidical beam that created walls and a sloping ceiling that trapped the pair in this make shift small room leaving james slightly hunched over to fit in the smaller end of the sideways pyramid. “Should hold long enough.” He muttered. The light wasn’t as good as an actual camera, where it embedded into the walls the walls were almost see-through and the small cubby of an area behind the man was similarly translucent.

With a look in his eyes James advanced, slipping the phone back into his pocket as he brought the light bat back up, there was no easy escape now. “Hey Nee- yo, how about a zero G environment?” The man asked looking around the small space, considering how wrong this could go.

<sup>I hate that ability so much, Seo-yeon noted, well aware of Torch’s gift and what it could do. Arguably he had a permanent advantage against her, but not one he used well. Now trapped within a translucent glowing tomb, the graffiti girl was somewhat limited. Her usual evasiveness was unreliable in such confines, but that was not to say that her rival wasn’t onto something with his latest question.

“You know that’s not how it works,” she barked, knowing full well that he knew she couldn’t just stop gravity altogether. Many times she had tried and failed, but in doing so she had learned one new trick that had made fights with other gangs all the more entertaining, and Torch had just given her the perfect medium. The downside to solid light was that she could paint it.

You want red? Let’s go red… With a flick of her wrist, Neon turned the paint dripping from her hands to a brilliant shade of crimson. Placing thumbs together and spreading her fingers out in a fan, she focused as a scintillating spray of striking scarlet shot from her fingertips. It wasn’t Torch she was aiming at, but what was now the upper wall of this prismatic prison. Now I just need to splash his legs with enough green!</sup>

Torch saw his latest creation and wasn’t happy with how it turned out, to make it viable he had to sacrifice overall strength of the walls to increase length… but the aim was only to make the florescent freak stop moving and this severely narrowed her movement range… It was a start and now the light covered man has multiple options. “Red?” He asked watching as Neon started to spray the ceiling with her crimson paint that stuck to the hard light like any other surface.

“Nah, but this reminds me of something.” He pressed his hand to the ceiling and started shifting the light moving the walls and changing the shape of their confines. From a pyramid it went to a more even cuboid shape, the brightness of the light being spread thin enough that a few good solid punches could smash right through. “Did you ever wonder what it would feel like to be in the trash compactor scene from a New Hope?” The tall mand teased as the walls started to close in and a hole opened up behind Torch allowing the Viking to quickly step out and seal it up again. The walls started to close in on Neon soon after.

“Well this is what it would feel like”

<sup>Damn it! He stepped out? What’s he on about… The Star Wars reference lost on the youth, Neon ceased painting the ceiling as Torch shifted the very design of the structure she had been locked within. All of a sudden, she was entombed in a luminous, translucent box, and its walls were starting to close in upon her. Her pulse skyrocketed.

Shit… He’s really trying to crush me?! The girl’s eyes widened at the thought. Here he was, making his usual jabs and science fiction references without a care in the world, aiming to squash her like some sort of bug. But his possible psychopathy was the least of her worries. Though not a person afraid of confinement, the prospect of being flattened had her suddenly feeling very mortal despite being Branded.

Fear turned to panic.

“Bastard. Bastard. Bastard!” Wide-eyed, Seo-yeon threw punches at the side wall, desperately trying to do something to prevent her demise.</sup>

James maintained the contact needed to change the form of the make shift movie reference, the face behind his mask not a grin but hiding a tired sigh. He was aiming to scare the rival gang leader, stop her using the one thing that gave her an advantage in the fight. Hell, this might even teach her a lesson about learning when to flee instead of trying to fight to the end, if she had tried to get out when James did the entire situation would have ended up far different. His eyes darted over towards the rest of Neon’s gang, waiting to see if any would charge to save their leader.

As the sounds of a fist beating on thick glass could be heard, supplemented by the panicked shouts of a teenager in the middle of what she thought was a real life and death situation Torch felt the sting of what he had just done… this might have been a bit too far. The punches were starting the crack the panes of light but Neon was running out of time, the other wall was already pressing into her back, inhibiting her movements even more. “Okay I fucked up.” He muttered, twisting his hand and making it appear that the glass like pane that Neon was beating on shattered under her power.

‘It’s better she thinks she won that and not that I let her go in pity’ He thought before letting his hand drop and darting back a few paces to get away from what was undoubtedly going to be a really pissed off young woman. “Daaaamn gurl, you gotta have some strong punches to break those walls!” He called over, hiding his own guilt in a mocking tone. “I think we should call it a night, what d’ya say?”

'I'd best leave her alone for a few days, maybe let her play with Leonard a bit.'

“What do I say? What do I say?!” Neon said, righting herself after being released from her strange and illuminated coffin. Green and hazel glared with intensity. She flicked the knife, popping the blade. Fear had been transmuted into sheer rage. “I’m gonna fucking shank you you son of a bitch!”

^{“Oh, shit…”
“Boss is pissed.”
“Stop stating the obvious and stop her!”}

“When I’m done with you you’re gonna- Mmmph!” To prevent a flashy fight from turning into a bloody assault, the Fluorescent Dragon’s own stepped in. The last thing they wanted was the cops getting involved because a simple street gang scuffle had turned into a GBH case and, while they were certain Torch could hold her off, they would rather act first than risk it. Bernie and Glass--fiery orange mohawk and lime green skinhead respective--had managed to grab Neon’s arms and muffle her violent screeches as they shifted from English to Korean.

^{“Boss, he’s not worth it!”
“Cool it, Boss.”}

“Uh,” Kat mumbled. “She’ll probably have cooled down in about a week. See you around, I guess?”

James was passing by the underlings as Seo-yeon let her terror turn into absolute rage, the click of the knife blade sliding out and the Scream that followed caused James to stop in his tracks and look over his shoulder. The Vikings hand was gripping the torch ready to create some sort of construct to defend himself from the mad dragon. The underlings moved at an impressive speed after their initial gawking had been stopped by Kat, two of the lads ran over and caught the girl keeping her from attempting more than just a simple scuffle.

‘Yeah, way too far this time.’ The man thought as he let his hand stop gripping the torch and sighed under his mask. “Yeah. I’ll avoid the coffee shop and your area for a week. I have some digging to do anyways. Got a lead on a thing.” Torch said remembering the conversation he had with his previous employer. It would mean he had to get into some rough areas of the city and a little more firepower would be needed.

“If she gets bored without me, don’t go and playing in the firestorm territory.” He said to Kat, turning away and starting to walk down the alleyway again. “But if you do ever run into the Fireking tell him James wants to chat.” He added before getting too far away, just so Neon couldn’t hear it. After that he picked up the pace and ran around the corner, leaving the luminescent gang to hold their boss back and the light table that still had the cake on it.

<sup>“Firestorm? Fireking? What’re you on about?” Kat attempted to ask, but by that point Torch had already walked far enough away that Seo-yeon’s shouting and screeching drowned her words. Bernie and Glass were struggling to keep a hold of her, but at least they’d managed to prise the knife out of her hand. With a sigh, Kat walked over to their rival’s tabular radiance and took up the cake, carrying it back to her Boss.

“Here,” she said. “Eat this.”

Bernie and Glass released the Boss, who had ceased her struggling and screaming. As Kat offered the morsel, she snatched it, unwrapped it and moved her scarf, and took a bite. Silent, she chewed upon the sweet angrily, all the while glaring daggers down the street to where Torch had last been sighted. Now, Seo-yeon was not the vengeful sort by any stretch of the imagination. But when she was bitter? Well, she wasn’t going to let this moment go too easily…</sup>