The Matters of Power

Chapter 22- West Anton High, Winter War [5]

It's suspicious how Joeson's Junk Site has quite the amount of people present, but the badges that they wear confirms the thief's statement. Also, it's surprising how much it reeks even how far away we are by hiding behind a series of dumpsters. The rest of us are thinking about any good-ish ideas about how we could go about this. Almost unanimously does everyone agree that a docile peaceful method is out of the picture. "West Anton High brats might be brutes, but this is taking their intelligence to a whole new level..." I hear Carl murmur to himself. "They don't seem that on edge but can easily overwhelm us if they get the chance to call on their friends inside. But.." Yan pauses. "How lucky can we be?" Somehow I feel like I can help with that 'luck' that he's emphasizing. Observing the junk site, there are a few things that pique my interest: the unstable pile of garbage swaying menacingly, the roof rain gutter ready to split in half and break off, and some small pile of rocks sitting closely to a barrel. I think on it, then it suddenly hits me! I can use my Levitation ability to use those environments to our advantage! It's been such a long time since I had used such an ability but the distance and mental strength necessary to interact with the objects shouldn't be that much of a strain. Oh well, here I go.

I start with the pile of rocks, slowly picking up one at a time and causing a ruckus by banging them on the barrel. They are startled and one of them starts to head over there, so I take the opportunity to wriggle the bottom pile of garbage and lean it to collapse on the guy closest to it. With the noise, the guy above the rain gutter is terrified but doesn't see the breaking piece swing downward and whack him straight at the back of his head, knocking him out cold. Absolutely scared out of his mind with good reason, the last guy there runs out of the junk site and bails out to God-knows-where. I look back towards the other guys and they express a shock I didn't expect anyone to have. "Uh..." I hear Yan remark, "I'm just gonna assume that we were all lucky in this case. Let's go everyone, I don't think that those inside will stay cozy with all that racket." The sun starts to dim as it sets as we make our way towards the doors that lead into the building, hearing some commotion on the other side of the doors. Carl presses his ear against one of the doors. "How many people does this guy have under his thumb? And he's from West Anton High?" "We don't worry about numbers, Carl." Quarter grips the door handle, "We're here to act some form of justice for Little Fern. Besides, you've said that you took down plenty of kids in Kenpo tournaments and such." He tries to say something but keeps his mouth shut otherwise, saying little in his own thoughts. Quarter then pushes the door forward and we enter to a messy excuse of a hideout if I've ever seen one. Rather, it's just a bunch of leisure furniture placed around in their own place with a fair amount of rusted machines in a corner. Oh, and there are a good amount of people just staring at us because of our unannounced arrival. "H-hey! Who the hell are y'all?" One of them jumps up from their chair and points a finger at us. "Us?" One of the gang members replies, "We're hear to collect charitable donations. From your thieving hands."

Awkward silence. Then the thugs come rushing at us and we're forced to defend ourselves, a few of them wielding baseball bats or lead pipes. Despite looking somewhat athletic or showing off some muscle, their moves are very sloppy and not very consistent that makes them easy for me to dodge or incapacitate them. Only a few focus their attention on me, but after I take care of them I see that Carl starting to get overwhelmed and needs help. I rush over and kick the guy's back of the knee who was about to swing his baseball bat towards him and Carl finishes him off by kneeing him in the face. "Thanks, Marcus." He pants. I nod and my sixth sense manages to alert me to counter a thug's lead pipe swing and push him back for some breathing room. By now, we are holding their ground to the point that the rest of the remaining thugs start to hesitate about attacking us. Suddenly, I can sense someone coming from the back of the building, where they kick open the door without a care. He's clearly from West Anton High because he displays his badge on the center of his shirt and has a smug look about him. "Hey, hey, hey now! I know that we're close to leaving school for the holidays, but at least be a little civil in the hideout while we're working." He doesn't even look up from the ground as he hold onto an aluminum baseball bat on his shoulders. "If I don't have to remind everyone, we have to keep up with the payment by the end of this mo-" He finally looks straight at us and gives a surprised look at the sight of us and the large amount of thugs wriggling on the floor.

The boss snaps out of his stunned state and starts to talk. "Who are y'all? Who gave you the idea to come here and break up this business?" He sounds irritated, but Carl steps in to talk back. "Who are you to call this scam a 'business'?! Do you realize how much harm you're doing to these people and the schools we go to?" He scoffs in amusement, "What are you talking about? This is America, the Land of Opportunity! I'm just accomplishing something that most people wouldn't do and take advantage of the market as I can! What's wrong with that?!" Either this guy is delusional or really taking this idea of entrepreneurship to a dangerous and stupid level. Yet somehow I sense that there is more to this store than what he's letting on. Quarter drops a thug that he's been grabbing onto, "So, you delude yourself to a lofty purpose to justify your actions? Even you yourself must understand the legal consequences for resorting to such acts." Taken aback from this, the boss gets defensive. "Wh- what do you know about legal consequences? I bet you can't list FIVE of them to pin them against me!" "Theft," Quarter instantly replies, counting with his fingers, "assault, false advertising, blackmail, not registering your company under the state records, and so on and so forth..." It surprises me how much Quarter knows that could help in this situation, but it's a good thing as the boss starts to lose face and his footing in the argument.

Finally, he slumps over in what I think to be in utter defeat. Except he starts chuckling, and more and more so. "So I guess this is what it has to be, huh? I guess even the San Anton High people will try to do anything to be better than West Anton High... I can't just leave peacefully, you know." "And we can leave it that way," Quarter quickly says, "if you give us the $50 that you and your 'associates' stole from our friend yesterday." He thinks on it but it's pretty clear he would rather be humiliated than accept defeat like this. "Not a chance." He places his baseball bat on his hands, "After all, it gives me a chance to knock you and San Anton High a notch for us. You wusses better not back down now, get 'em!" All at once, whether by adrenaline or by fear, the remaining thugs run at us with their boss at the center. One of Quarter's members rushes in first to fight the boss, but before he can land a close blow he dodges quickly and uses his aluminum baseball bat to hit their knees and smack the center of the chest with an unsettling *whack*. This guy is no joke, he has some dirty tricks and strength to boss around people! All I can do is dodge and disable the attacking thugs as Quarter, Yan, and Carl try to hold out against a baseball-wielding maniac. He tries to shove them with his baseball bat but they block effectively and only suffer light wounds in their arms, but yet he goes on. Again and again he tries to get close for a bone-crushing blow but they hold their own with only the boss of this operation being the only one left standing. Suddenly, he pulls out a flashlight from his back pocket and temporarily blinds Quarter, almost hitting him until Yan jumps in front of him and takes the hit to his shoulder, slumping onto the ground in pain.

"Yan!" I shout and try to run towards him, but I sense the boss about to hit me and manage to dodge at the very last second to feel a scrape on my cheek. "Hey! Pretty boy!" I hear him say. "I ain't letting you off the hook, just because you don't think your looks shouldn't be touched! I'm not letting any of you destroy everything that I built here, not by you!" All of a sudden, his attitude turns violent and only focuses on me as he swings wildly and dangerously. He isn't even worrying about his defense, leaving me to see obvious weaknesses.

This guy is the reason that Fernando had his money taken and unable to get his friend a gift that he wanted to give, he is part of the problem that causes our schools to hate each other to passionately, and most of all is the person that made everyone else suffer for being a bully.

I let out a straight kick toward his chest, plunging him backwards by the sheer force and land hard on the ground, his aluminum baseball bat let go from his hands.