can't fight the _______

Among the crowd, two older gentlemen whispered to one another. Zane noticed their occasional glances towards himself and his friends, but he thought little of it, and that had been his first mistake. He approached the stage—one of them charged him, massive fist raised to knock his jaw.

A second to impact, a blue, translucent figure grabbed the man’s fist, holding him back. Lucian held his staff up, apparition of Sadness holding the brute back while the other one changed gears and targeted the mage. Zane jumped back and swiveled, delivering a punch to the moving thug’s gut before knocking the other one to the floor.

The workers screamed. They ran for the door, tugging with ferocity, but it refused to budge, as the thugs got up and aimed their sights on Zane once more.

“Who brought you here?” Zane said. Neither replied.

One of them swung again, Zane narrowly avoiding being socked in the jaw only for the other to get him in the back. He stumbled to his knees as one of the men planted a foot on his back. “You did, didn’t you? This’ll be the first and last of your little ‘gatherings’. For all of you.”

“Absolutely not!” Lucian crafted another apparition which pushed the goon off of Zane. Zane swept the other attacker’s feet and knocked him over before stealing a chance to recover. “They have the freedom to advocate for themselves, and we have the choice to say what we believe is right!”

“Hey, girl, get—hey!” Shay shouted. “Quit running!”

The thug shoved the apparition away, and the pair cornered Zane in a well-coordinated pincer attach which pushed him against the wall. Just as one of them grabbed Zane’s hair, a thunk had him fall to the ground, a flustered Effie clutching a wrench as Shay got a few more hits in with his hammer. The other attacker backed away, hands up, eyeing the pair.

He turned around, smiling at Lucian.

“Of course you’d come crawling back,” he said. “You look just like him.”

“Hey—” Zane began, fist raised, but someone beat him to the punch. Lucian ran, swinging his staff imbued with Rage directly into the thug’s head.

He collapsed.

Zane couldn’t see Lucian’s expression. But the aura of red faded from his staff, and he turned around, stressed but otherwise normal—or at least, not abnormal. Not anyone else but Lucian.

Probably.

Zane crossed his arms, getting a few kicks in for good measure. A few punches caved the doors in, and they threw the thugs on their ass before closing the door.

As they slammed it shut, Zane turned around, dusting his hands as the few attendees watched them with awe. “Think I hit them hard enough they probably won’t remember what happened,” he said, “and that’s how you deal with scum. Pieces of shit like that’ll just keep threatening whoever they think they can crush. They see you as ants—or automatons, you know, something you can keep pushing until it breaks. And everyone breaks.”

Zane clutched his heart, thinking.

“Every one of us can be stopped, just like,” he snapped his fingers, “that, but that’s why we’re here, ‘cause we’re not gonna let them stop any of us. I’ll beat in Shining Beacon’s hired thugs any day of the week if that’s what it takes for you guys to get a voice. Tell your friends, coworkers, friend’s friends that we’ll be here tomorrow, the day after, as many times as it takes to teach the company owner what some fucking humanity looks like. They think they can stretch you to your limit and face no consequences—so if might makes right by their logic, then if we have more might, then we’re right. Right, everyone?”

And just for good measure, he slid the door open, where the thugs groaned and rubbed their heads. “Tell your boss to send twenty to Zane next time. Give me a real challenge.”

The applause fueled his beating heart—truthfully, bashing in people who deserved it had always been his favorite part of the job.

Effie looked down, wringing her hands together.

Eventually, the workers went home, leaving Zane, Effie, Shay and Lucian to flee before they had a counterattack sent their way.

“That was awesome, wasn’t it?” Zane said as they raced through the streets. “Hey, Effie, need a walk home? Your under our protection now, so don’t worry about it and just say yes.”

“Um—yes?”

“Right answer.”

Effie laughed, but—something else laid in her voice. Zane failed to decipher it. “It’s not far from here. But if anything changes, I’ll let you guys know—how about we meet at the same place tomorrow? I mean, now we’ve got a lot more to talk about.”

“Sounds good with me.” Zane waved. “See you tomorrow.”

Shay threw a fist in the air, whooping. “Yeah! Oh, boy, they better send some better muscle guys next time. My hammer’s itching to cave more bald heads in.”

“Aha, you’re almost sounding like Zane…” Lucian smiled. Shay groaned, tapping Lucian with his hammer.

They arrived at Effie’s quarters and parted ways, heading back to Lucian’s mom’s place. Shay, seemingly bottomless with his appetite, stopped to pick up some fruits on the way, leaving Zane and Lucian outside the shop.

…Since he had the chance…

“Hey, Lucian. Why’d that guy say that?”

Lucian chuckled. “Say what?”

“That hired thug guy said you looked like someone.”

“Oh. You know, people say things…”

Zane grabbed Lucian’s wrist as the other man tried to make a clean getaway into the store. “C’mon, man. You’ve been weird since we’ve gotten here. And you said you wanted to be honest with me, so what’s holding you back?”

“I—” Lucian pulled his hand away, but stayed, “It’s not… we’re here for Effie, aren’t we? Shouldn’t we focus on that?”

“Shouldn’t you stop deflecting?”

“I…”

… “Sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’ll tell you when I’m ready. I promise. Please, don’t feel like you need to interrogate me, or—force me to give you answers. I swear, when I can, as soon as possible, I’ll tell you. I don’t want to be a liar. And I don’t—I…”

Zane waited for Lucian to finish, but he never did.

So Zane nodded, and that was that.

—————————————

From down the streets, a woman in an odd dressed watched two men talk outside a store. One knowing, and the other—

“Yeah, poor Zaney wouldn’t know. Oh well. Guess I gotta ask for more experienced backup on this.”

Unlike Pearce, Addison had no patience for a long fight. She’d beat her enemies into submission, but pinkie promise, she wanted to spare Zane’s face from the showdown she planned for their little group.

Starting with—him.

At least she had no reason to worry about that plain girl hanging around them. She posed no threat, held no strengths. Made her job a lot easier.