Boys Be Boys

By Son Rhandi

Prologue

"I ever tell you the one about the dude with a bear for a roommate?"

"No, can't say you have."

The minotaurus slammed the passenger's side door of the black sedan. "It goes like this. This dude sees an ad in the paper for a room for rent. He checks the place out and finds it's part of a two-bedroom house. The place and it's neighborhood are to his liking. Only thing is, landlord told 'im, that if someone wanted the other room, they could move in at any time. The dude figured he could deal, so he signs a year's lease. Oh, uh, pop the trunk, Berter."

The trunk opened without a hitch. "But about a month later," Ginyu continued, rummaging through the trunk, pulling out two wooden baseball bats. "The leftover room got rented out. What the landlord didn't tell him, though, was that his new roommate was a hulking grizzly bear."

Ginyu passed the bats to Burter, who took one in each hand. "How'd he miss something like that?"

"Thing of it is, no one except the dude saw that it was a bear. Not even the bear realized what he was." He gathered up a small club, a long pipe, and a heavy chain, the latter two he tucked inside his belt.

"So what'd the guy do?" Asked the saurian as they made their way down the hill where the others were waiting. Ginyu just grinned. "He went on to pursue a career in pharmaceuticals."

Berter shoved a big blue hand into Ginyu's shoulder. "That ain't the real ending." He laughed.

The minotaurus rebounded with a chuckle. He turned his attention the the sight in front of him. "Hey, guys." He raised his free hand in greeting.

The others smiled. "We were wonderin' what was keepin' ya," said Recoom, grinning. "What story was it this time?"

"The one about the dude with a grizzly bear roommate," Berter replied, tossing Recoom a bat and leaning against the remaining as a cane. The large humanoid caught his and chortled. "You still ain't told us the real ending for that one, Ginyu."

"You really wanna know, eh?" He handed to Guldo the club and the chain to Jeice. "All right..." Ginyu walked to the gagged and bound figure just a few feet away from him. The man, a blue-skinned, green-haired, golden-eyed fellow stared in horror at the minotaurus and his posse, knowing what was going to happen next.

"This dude..." he paused to tap the lead pipe menacingly in his free hand. "Went on to stand as the most powerful mob boss this city ever saw."