(Originally written Friday, October 24, 2003)
Chapter IV:

The night dragged on with little fanfare. Cream was now watching the building as Nougat fiddled with some of his fancier equipment. Though the hour was getting extremely late, neither man was willing to grow drowsy whatsoever. Cream broke the deafening silence and asked,
"So have you ever tangled with The Pi before?" Nougat flipped the cap back over the small scope and looked up.
"Yeah, I've danced with Pi a couple times before. They're some tough cookies, I gotta tell ya." Cream turned around.
"Cookies?" he said, ever so slightly puzzled.
"Alright, I'll use words you can understand... the bastards can hurt ya."
"Oh..." An awkward silence followed. "So what, they get you before or something?" Cream asked, trying to re-initiate the small conversation. Nougat locked a magazine in, never losing focus on his work.
"No, not me..." Cream lifted his binoculars back to the building.
"Do I dare ask?"

Nougat got up from the small fold-up chair he had brought as part of their gear and put another piece of gum into his mouth.
"Did you know Henry or was he before your time?"
"Before," Cream said. "I take it this is gonna get messy, huh?" He had a small grin on his face as he said it, though it melted away the moment he saw Nougat's eyes. "Stupid question, forget it." Nougat shook his head.
"It was a few years back, and Henry and I had chased a small group of Pi members down near the wharf. They were all that was left of a large group we busted in on for assorted illegal whatevers." Cream was already regretting his earlier remark but continued listening. "Anyways, we had them trapped at the end of a pier, so we just covered the end of it. Well, being that they had nowhere to run, they opened up on us. We took down most of them, but this one guy... this one god damned guy... I don't know how he did it, but he put a large bullet through Henry's arm and all but took it off, it was... yeah, it wasn't cool."

Cream was turned around again as Nougat finished off his story. "Anyways, after Henry went down I fired on the guy. I saw his head snap back and he fell off the pier, so I'm sure I got him... in any case we never found that guy, though the rest of the Pis were dead or arrested."
"And what about Henry?" Cream asked. Nougat smiled.
"The lucky sob retired and now makes a pretty living off our tax dollars." Cream couldn't help but burst out laughing - Nougat did likewise.
"Aw... aw man, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be... but geez... and what, did he keep his arm or what?"
"Yeah! I saw the damn thing effectively explode and yet they still managed to save it! I mean, I don't know how the hell they did it, but now they've got 'im playin' golf with the damn thing every week!" Cream absolutely lost it. With a slight squeal he was completely gone, and with it all sense of tact. Nougat calmed himself a little and asked, "Hey Whelp, do you know you laugh like a girl?"
"Hey old man, do you know you fart when you laugh?" The mirth erupted again. Eventually both of them tried hard to stifle themselves, being that most of the city was asleep by then. Cream was first to get back to the task at hand.

"Oh, hello..." Cream said, eyeing three men walking alongside 'Mel's building. They were all in long coats - nothing especially odd, but considering the time of night, it was enough. "Noug', do the Pi have any sort of noticeable clothing or anything?" Nougat cracked out his own binoculars and looked.
"No, people from Pi don't really do anything like that... they do carry guns, though!" Cream saw what Nougat saw; the men were clearly concealing weapons under their coats. "Okay, so 'Mel is in trouble. Guess I owe 'er a drink..." Cream punched him lightly in the shoulder and shook his own head - Nougat simply grinned again.
"Game on, then?" Cream said, racking the slide of his pistol. Nougat picked up his previous toy and continued grinning.
"Ball's in our court...”