Devil of Steel

It was morning, and just before the alarm clock could ring a hand quickly slapped the snooze button, and in record time too. Usually, for Michael Miller, he would be a bit too late to remember that he forgot to turn off his alarm clock.

Michael Miller was just you're everyday average African-American teenager, he had a well-toned body with short and curly black hair along with a pair of lively brown eyes that you wouldn't find on a teen at the crack of dawn. He wore a black long-sleeved hoodie with blue jeans and red sneakers.

The mouthwatering aroma of bacon and eggs filled the kitchen along with the sizzling smell of oil on the pan that's cooling on the stove. His mom would always come back home from S.T.A.R. Labs exhausted, so he begrudgingly took it upon himself to take care of the morning agendas around the house.

And for once, he's glad to be running things today.

Returning upstairs, he sneaks up to her room and slowly opens the door. "Hey, mom…" He was only met with the thunderous noise of heavy snoring, he took caution entering the room, she was always one of those messy workers who would leave their surroundings littered with books, documents and the occasional empty test tube here and there.

Looking over the bunched-up sheets on the bed, he leaned over and shook her awake, "Mom, it's time to wake up." She incoherently mumbled some words ranging from chemicals on the periodic table. It amazes even him that she would still stay focused with work in her sleep makes him proud to have such a focused mother. Too bad she wasn't a morning person, and with one last push, he was able to drive her out from beneath the bedsheets.

"Morning…" And there she laid wide awake and rubbing the morning glory out of her eyes, Samantha Miller, his mom. She was quite the attractive lady considering that she about to be in her mid-thirties soon as she has the same dark skin and brown eyes that she passed down to Michael save for her long straight black hair.

"I already have breakfast ready for you and I made sure to hang up your clothes in the bathroom. Warning, please don't put them on before getting in the shower like last time." Little mistakes like this was apparent when his mother wasn't at full brain capacity, and that's just what he wanted.

"Yeah, yeah…" Samantha muttered as she sat up and blindly searched for her glasses on her nightstand before Michael just goes up and gives it to her, "Thanks." He just cheekily smiles at her as she carries her glasses and towels into the bathroom with Michael leading her by hand. She wore her usual blue dress shirt and jeans with her lab coat neatly folded over her arm.

Impatiently hovering over his wristwatch, he kept looking out the window and back upstairs. Releasing a sigh of relief, he saw his mother stumble downstairs in a daze as she's still trying to fight sleep. Once again, he leads her to table and presents to her breakfast, "Eggs and bacon, enjoy."

"Damn, dude, that smells good." Samantha breathed in the aroma after folding her lab coat on her chair and having a seat. She didn't waste a moment as she dug into the meal. A girl's got to eat, as they say and his mother wasn't the exception.

Looking at his watch again, Michael quickly glanced at the window to see just the empty urban streets of Rialto just outside of their house, but not too far away, he could hear the sounds of an engine and constant chattering approach.

"Is something wrong?" He whips his head back to spot his mother inquisitively raising an eyebrow at him.

"No, no, its nothing. It's just a beautiful day, isn't it, Mom?"

"Mmmhmm…"

Oh no, not the "mmmhmmm" that's a sign that she's catching on. Quick, he needed a distraction and fast!

"Oh my god, a cockroach!"

"Michael, we've lived in a cheap apartment before. Cockroaches shouldn't be a surprise to you or me." Samantha casually took a sip of water.

"Y-Yeah, you're right."

Curses, he should have known that wouldn't have worked on her, she's a woman of steel after all. Living in that filthy apartment in Metropolis before moving to California has hardened her. His skin still crawls after recollecting a past memory of her squashing those little bastards with her bare hands. She was truly a formidable opponent, sadly for her, he knew her weakness.

"Hey, mom, last night I think I saw something enter the house." He moved around looking under the surrounding furniture.

"No, you can't have a pet Raccoon." Samantha groaned.

"First off, they're called Trash Pandas and second, I don't think it was one."

"And what makes you so sure?"

"Because I didn't hear footsteps just some slithering." Michael smirked as the sound of a gasp escaped her lips. Hook, line and sinker! Turning back, he placed on a worried façade, "Is something the matter?" Based on how he found her curled up in a ball on her seat, he'd have to say that was super effective.

"D-Did you say slither?"

The sound of honking was close by, he needed to work fast.

"Yeah, I think you might have let in a garden snake last night, but it should be easy to find if we both work together."

"A garden s-s-snake?" Samantha's teeth chattered.

"Yeah…and it wasn't your run of the mill garden snake, it seemed much longer than your average snake and big too. Heck, I wouldn't even call it a garden snake, it could be something else." Michael backed up to the covert and reached out for a jar that he prepared for the occasion.

"Don't be ridiculous, a snake that big couldn't possibly be down here in the…" The sound of rattling filled the kitchen, and the pale look on Sam's face brought a big grin onto Michael's face that he so desperately tried to hide. "Suburbs…"

"Well, what do you know, a Rattlesnake…" Michael nervously chuckled as he continued to shake the jar filled with rice.

"…" The frozen look on Samantha's face was priceless as she sat in place for a few seconds before instantly gathering her things and putting on her lab coat. "THANKS FOR THE FOOD, SWEETIE, I LOVE YOU! AND MAKE SURE TO HAVE A FUN DAY AT SCHOOL AND TELL JEFFREY THAT I SAID HI! OKAY, BYE!"

It all happened so fast, her fear was able to get to her and quickly drive her out of the house and into car as she drove out of the drive way like a mad rat out of hell, and Michael couldn't be anymore proud of that achievement.

He immediately closes the door and watches as his school bus drives in near his block to wait for approximately three minutes, letting out a honk or two as an indication to hurry. Finally, the vehicle drives off no longer taking the chance to wait for a single student and heads off to school.

Letting out a victory scream, Michael hops onto the couch and moves his arms about in a weird from of victory dance. He had finally managed to skip a day of school, and now he can finally have more time and freedom for himself rather than be cramped up all day in school.

Beeping in his pocket, Michael pulls out his cellphone and answers, "Jeff, dude, mission accomplished! How are things on your end?"

["She was onto me…"]

Michael busted out laughing at his friend's misfortune. Compared to his mother, Jeffery's mom wasn't so easy to pull the rug over her eyes, she's way too strict and probably wouldn't be deterred in the morning. After all, being a Doctor pretty much gives her some leeway to better handle exhaustion and drowsiness unlike his mother.

["Don't laugh!"]

"I'm sorry, but how did you get caught?" Michael covered his mouth to prevent any laughter, but the spasms would come out in the form of quick little gasps.

["W-Well, you see… I-I-I-! Ugh, I was weak…"]

"So, you gave in, eh?"

[Yeah…]

"Its fine, it happens to the best of us, except me because I actually duped my insanely smart mom. Now I can spend the rest of the day doing whatever I want without worrying about dumb old school. You still have my homework?" A contingency plan since he did foresee something like this occurring.

[Yes…]

"Good, make sure to turn it in for me, I already called in sick, so it would be nice to show that I'm a diligent worker in such trying times." He pretended to sniffle and sneeze.

[Right, so what are you going to do all day?]

"Have a break at HQ. Play some games and eat some snacks." Gathering his things, he strapped on his backpack and helmet as he wheeled his bike from out of the garage.

[You sure that you don't want to just cut your losses now and come in late?]

"Pfft! Heck no, I don't want to stay cramped in class while a perfectly good waste away. Besides if I go now then little miss "Join the Decathlon" would just pester me again as always and get on my case!" Michael explained out of frustration, usually school was such a bore to him and having some classmate pester him to join a boring club that answered high leveled questions only rotten his experiences in high school.

[I don't know man, I think that we should consider it. I mean, Jade is asking us, and it would put us on her good side.]

"I don't care about that, if she's not on my good side then there's no way that will happen, dude." Michael groaned as he closed the garage door, "If she starts getting nosy about me just tell her I was sick, and you would be more than happy to bring me my homework from class."

[I'll do my best, and hey…Mike…]

"Yeah, what?"

[Try not to bust my sound systems if you get the urge to test out your…]

A smile etched itself upon Michael's face as he tried his best not to recall the memory of how he fried a few of Jefferey's stereos due to one of his "accidents".

"I only promise to try."

[That still doesn't reassure me, man. I just finished putting together a new surround sound system with parts that I found at the Junkyard, I don't want to spend another 6 moths replacing it.]

"Bye, Jeff." Michael chuckled.

[Mich-!]

That was enough of that. After pocketing his turned off phone, Michael began his lovely ride through the streets of his neighborhood towards town. Rialto was a quiet town of sorts, it was in the county of San Bernardino, and generally a nice place to live. The people there are leagues above kinder than citizens in Los Angeles and the two locations are only about two hours away from each other.

Waving hello and good morning to his neighbors, Michael happily took in a deep breath of the morning air. After they moved from Metropolis 13 years ago, he'd been a real part of the community and knew tons of faces, at least around his neighborhood. His mom wouldn't have let him go out any further until he was 12 and proved to himself to be a respectable kid out in public on his own. Well, almost respectable but respectable nonetheless.

Passing by the front lawn of a gardening old Latin woman wearing a sun hat, he noticed the sudden look of fear on the woman's face as soon as he rode past her. It was one of his neighbors, Mrs. Rivera.

Like he was approaching a frightened cat, Michael shakily waved and wished her a good morning. The only response that he received was a quick shake of her head as she rushed into her home fumbling with a plethora of gardening tools while screaming, "Niño del diablo!"

Sucking in his lips, Michael went on his way. That was an example why he couldn't leave the neighborhood, and still to this day, he can't even hold a conversation with the sweet old lady, who was the first neighbor to welcome him and his mother into the neighborhood.

Cycling through the neighborhood into town was painfully slow for him despite it taking only fifteen minutes to get there. His mom discouraged him from travelling by foot and warned him to never overdo it with his biking either, so the casual pedaling was a bit grating on his nerves, but at least its better than being holed up in school.

The town retained some of its old-fashioned historical buildings that have been continually used since its past. Nothing too phenomenal or prehistoric but just old houses and museums along with some old retro shops that sold old movies ranging from CDs to VHS tapes. Even Michael had to admit that was old since he owned a VHS cassette as well.

Cycling past the vintage television store, and yes, they even sold those with the televisions facing the windows for potential shoppers, he sees Los Angeles' city hall extremely lavished with some recent renovations and standing in front of it was a large podium with a holographic message floating atop of it displaying the words "Vault Co.". Looking at the huge crowd amazed, Michael focused in on the man standing in the midst of it all and his name was...well, he wasn't really caught up in all of the specifics of politics of business.

An old couple passing by him manage to sneak a peek at the news and began talking about it.

"Another helpful donation to the city by Vault Corporation. The City Hall hasn't looked that beautiful in years, right, dear?" The old woman asked her husband.

"Feh, just a bunch of poppycock to me…"

Listening in, Michael quietly laughed to himself, who says poppycock anymore?

"All I'm seeing is just another generation of men and women waste their lives by relying too much on newfangled junk that company's giving to them." The old man spat.

"Pish-posh! You have to admit that it done some good for Los Angeles, I mean, the streets are way cleaner than before ever since Vault Co. created those adorable Social Service Bots that now support dangerous jobs."

"Too bad, those dangerous jobs were well paid and earned. With more robots around helping them do jobs that they trained to do, then they lose pay and less workers will be hired." The old dude's point had Michael agreeing with him.

"Then what about the grants and funds sent to the LA Police Department thanks to Vault Co.? They've gotten so many new equipment to help them chase crime." The old woman's optimism slowly warmed up on Michael as he slowly leaned towards her side of the argument.

"True, but have they been able to control those hoodlums since then? To be honest, I think the crime rate up there has only risen and that's saying something." The old man countered.

"How come you have to be such a Debbie Downer all of the time? The young man just wants to help the city after the death of his father, wouldn't you say that's honorable?" The old woman asked, thoughtfully.

Reeling back a little, the old man gave in and said, "I-I guess the kid is looking out for their best interests, but I still worry that they're becoming a bit too dependent on him and his company to fixing problems. I'm just glad that out here, we can still be able to take care of ourselves without someone holding our hands all of the time." The old man was able to settle their argument by lovingly placing an arm over his wife's shoulder and walk off leaving Michael to glance one more time at TV screens now showing the Mayor of Los Angeles and the CEO of Vault Co.

Looking closely, he noticed that the CEO was almost around his age, huh, what a strange world. Almost anything could happen in it. Welp, there were things to do and games to play, he needed to pedal his way to the old warehouses near the abandoned railroads. No one ever goes down there anymore making it the perfect place for Michael and Jefferey to hang out without interruption from their moms.

There's also the fact that he needed to hurry and avoid the police, otherwise, he'd be caught for ditching school.

"No, stop it!" A shrill cry reached his ears as he was just about to cross the corner of the dry cleaners. Looking around, he spotted a trio of kids at the park, out of the three kids was little girl crying as two boys her age took aim at a hissing cat up on a tree with airsoft BB guns.

Taking a deep breath, Michael hopped off his bike and walked over to the park. He made sure to lock his bike to the fence just in case, the area wasn't teeming with crime, but there were still petty crimes like bike thefts going on. Seeing the situation play out from up close, the girl was in tears as she tried to stop the other boys from toying around with her cat.

"Stop it, you're scaring Fisk!" The girl cried.

"Who cares, it's just some stupid cat!" The boy wearing a cap laughed.

"Hey, watch me get a bullseye by hitting its eye." The other boy laughed as nearly struck the cat's eye but shot its forehead causing the animal in question to reel back in pain. "Crap, almost!"

"I said stop it!" The girl shoved the boy much to his annoyance as he pushed the girl back, harder. The poor child lost her balance and was sure to fall had Michael not catch her on time.

"Hey, kids, what's going on here?" Michael asked, a bit peeved with the two boys tormenting the cat. He was told by his mom that kids do act a bit cruel at this age, but this was ridiculous.

"Nothing, so butt out, asswipe." The boy wearing the cap spat.

"Asswipe? Wow, you have one dirty mouth, kid. Do you kiss your mom with that mouth?" Michael retorted.

"Nope, but he does with your mom!" The two boys high fived each other.

Damn that was a good comeback… But he had to stay focused, turning back to the girl in his arms, he noticed her long wavy black hair and red ribbon tying it into a pony tail. Her adorable face was stained in tears and mucus from witnessing the harsh treatment that her cat endured.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Fisk! Fisk, he's my cat! They're hurting him! Please stop them, mister!" The girl desperately bounced around and pleaded for help and before Michael could reply, one of the boys noticed and took aim at her.

"You're still trying to bother us? Go take a hike already!" The boy shot his BB gun at the girl, but before the airsoft bullet could reach her, Michael had already made his move to stand in front of her as a shield without even flinching once the bullet made contact with his chest and bounced off.

"What the-!?" The boy gasped.

"Its one thing to aim your little toy weapon at a cat, but another thing to aim it at a girl. Neither is right in the first place but going to extremes is definitely pushing it." That was almost too close, the girl would have been hit at point blank range in the face.

"Looks like we have a badass here." The boy with the cape taunted. Seriously, how old are these two, they basically sound like a couple of gangsters that you find in LA.

"That girl's been pissing us off so move or we'll make you move." The two boys aimed their guns at Michael, who remained steadfast and crossed his arms.

"Make me." Michael shrugged.

"You asked for it!" The two boys chuckled as air soft bullets went flying as they rapidly pulled their triggers.

"Mister, no!" The girl cried but was surprised once she saw Michael stand nonchalantly through the BB guns' heavy pelting of bullets. It didn't even faze him in the slightest, to him, they merely felt like small hard to notice raindrops. Soon enough the two boys laughing noticed this and began to panic once they ran out of bullets.

One of them futilely tried to pull the trigger a few times but to no avail.

"Ya done yet?" Michael asked with his arms still crossed.

The boys looked to one another before one of them picked up a nearby stone and prepared to throw it. This was just getting pathetic, he knew that kid wouldn't understand this since he's too caught up in his frustration but throwing a rock isn't going to do anything if pressurized BB gun bullets couldn't hurt him. Plus, the distance was too far, the boy was still too young to have the actual strength to do so.

"Die!"

From that cry alone, that was when Michael realized that the boy wasn't aiming for him, but the cat up on the tree, he was more than close enough to throw it up at good enough angle as he twisted his posture mid-way into pretending to throw it at him.

Before the stone could leave the boy's hand, he realized that it was gone and looked confused before spotting it in Michael's clenched hand. This led to their expressions being contorted in panic with how the older boy was able to get the stone from the gap between them.

As for Michael, he was far past mildly annoyed with the two brats. So, after spilling the pebbles of the smashed rock in hand, he started to approach them with one step. The boys took this as their sign to turn tail and run, but a pair of hands grabbing the two of them by shoulder begged to differ. Michael's grip was considerably strong to keep them in place, they couldn't even struggle as they were forced to face the teen, who now wore a forced smile on his face.

"Listen here boys, I don't know if your parents have taught you anything about not being little monsters, so I'll lay it down extra thick for the two of you, so you won't forget." Forcibly grabbing their heads to direct their fearful eyes to his face, Michael wore a grin on his face. Then with a pop of the bone, that grin began to get distorted as the sounds of his bone cracking only furthered along with the growing terror etched onto the two boys' faces.

"Big Monsters eat little monsters…" And his smile wasn't the only thing that freaked them out, his low voice that was deeply distorted also freaked them out too. The two boys teared up and froze from the horrific sight. He took a slight whiff of the air, one of them wet himself. Letting go of them, Michael kept on wearing his one of kind smile before winking, "Bye."

And from there the two boys ran off crying for mommy after being taught a valuable lesson from a kind stranger, who doesn't pull his punches.

"That ought to teach them a lesson or scar them for life, either works well for me…" Michael sighed, but quickly covered his mouth once the girl tackled him into a hug. He didn't want to freak her out, so he made quick work of putting the lower half of his face back to normal.

"Mister, thank you! Thank you so much!"

"Don't mention it, now about your cat." After fixing his mouth back to normal, he moves the girl aside and scales the tree to successfully acquire the animal and give it back to her safely, "There you go, Fisk, no need to send me sleeping with the fishes."

"Huh, what do you mean, mister? Fisk isn't going to hurt you…" The girl blinked.

"Oh, nothing…" Bad time for a Marvel comic reference, he only curses his luck that Jefferey wasn't here with him to get it.

"I wouldn't know what I'd do if I had lost Fisk." The girl sniffled.

"You really like that cat don't you, uh…what's your name?" Michael nervously chuckled.

"I'm not allowed to give my name to strangers since my brother said so, but since you're Fisk's hero, I guess I can grace you with it."

Sheesh, are all kids these days speak so sassy, Michael wondered to himself.

"My name is Rose." The girl then presented her yawning cat, "And this is Fisk."

"Why hello there, Rose and Fisk." Michael squatted down to be at the girl's level of height, "My name is Michael, its nice to meet you."

"And you too, Mr. Michael."

"So, you mind telling me why you didn't have any supervisor to watch you here at the park?" He found it odd that a girl her age was wandering the park on her own, granted it would seem strange to him since he's always been under his mother's watch.

"That's because I was getting tired inside the apartment complex, so I decided to take a much-deserved break." Rose giggled.

"And how did that go?" Michael gestured to the tree and the left behind BB guns in the grass.

"…T-That was…" Rose hesitated.

"Rose, its dangerous for someone as young as you to be out here alone. You could have put you and Fisk in a lot of danger and those two brats could have been the lesser evils compared to what other disasters the world has to offer." He may have been exaggerating a bit, but its technically true, "Now shouldn't you be in school?"

"I'm homeschooled by Big Brother." She replied.

"I see…"

"Mr. Michael, shouldn't you be in school?"

Thinking it over, Michael shook his head, "Nope, I'm too cool for school."

"Lame, that didn't sound cool at all…" Rose was unamused, "You probably ditched, right?"

"…I'm starting to see how all kids are cruel…" Michael sniffled as he stood, "C'mon, I'm taking you home…" He offered her his hand.

"But…" The girl hesitated. It didn't sit right with him that she was out in public all by herself, so he decided to spend some of his free time taking her home. Though it wouldn't be that easy to persuade her into coming with him.

"You're not going to get in trouble, alright? I'll take you home before your parents or brother realizes that you were gone, okay? Plus, I may need someone, whose as brave as you to help me since I'm such a goof with directions. I may have been Fisk's hero, but technically so were you since you valiantly fought to protect him." And if that wasn't heroics then he wouldn't know what is. Thankfully his words were able to reach her as she happily nodded with a big smile on her cute face. If he could, he would pinch those cheeks into oblivion.

"Okay! You know what, Mr. Michael? You sort of remind me of my big brother." Taking her hand, Michael led Rose to the fence that he chained his bike.

"Really, is that a compliment?"

"Of sorts." Rose shrugged and continued to hum to herself.

Seriously, just what is up with kids these days, the world was really going through strange times, but maybe this could be a good thing at least. Plus, it felt nice for him to help someone out. Just another perk of being free from scho-. His bike was gone.

His lock was broken into and his bike was gone. Someone took his bike, HIS bike! The bike that he slaved over the countless months to put together was gone just like that.

"My baby…" Michael cried as he nursed his broken lock. That was until he noticed something off about it, the metal had been perfectly cut. For bike stealers, it was natural for them bring pliers or a chainsaw, but the looped metal had nothing chipped on it, the cut was too perfect.

"Mister Michael, are you ok-hmrph!" Suddenly the muffled cries of Rose reached his ears along with the hissing of her cat, Fisk.

"Huh, Rose?" Michael whipped his head around to spot a black van across the other end of the street as two tough looking men dressed up in biker gang leather stuffed Rose and Fisk into the trunk before giving him the warm, welcoming middle finger as the van suddenly takes off.

"Oh, you sons of bitches! I should beat all of your asses!" Running after the van, Michael looks in question as the van quickly stops, and from the heavy shouting inside of it, he could tell that there was a dispute going on before the van doors open to reveal his bike being thrown out of it. So, they were the thieves!

Just as he was about to grab his bike in order to pick up some speed, some random stranger on the street picks it up and says, "Oh, boy, a free bike! It must be lucky day!"

"Hey, jerkwad, that's my bi-!" Michael was about to get up in the mofo's face but remembered the Black Van leaving in the distance. Not even weighing the decision, he angrily pointed at the stranger and growled, "I'll be back for you later…uh…"

"Timothy, my name is Timothy." The stranger introduced himself.

"Timothy, really?"

"Yes."

"Alright then, I'll be back for your ass later, Timothy…" Michael gagged, he just couldn't make it sound threatening after hearing such a lame name. Who would even come up with the name Timothy to use at all? Since he couldn't use his bike, he only had one option left.

Tied up and afraid, Rose trembled in the presence of her kidnappers. They were tall, covered in tattoos and really scary looking. The two sitting up front were more tough looking when compared to the slim one in the back watching her.

"Are we sure that we nabbed the right girl?"

"Matched the photo that the boss gave us. I'm just surprised how easy it was for us to find her out in the open like that. This job was a cinch."

The two thugs laughed.

"It would have been better if we had kept that bike." Whined the slim thug from the back.

"We only came for the girl and nothing else. We'd have to worry about the cops trying to locate it if we just stole it." The driving thug said.

"Oh, please. I would have pawned it after taking it apart." The slim thug pulled out a knife handle before pressing its button to admire the emitted heat blue blade, "With this baby, I won't have to resort to picking locks ever again."

"Careful with that, we don't want you accidentally hurting the kid back there."

"Oh relax, I'm a capable gu-ouch!" Fisk the cat begged to differ as it took its chance to dig its claws into the thug's knee. Angrily picking the cat up by the scruff of its neck, the slim thug angrily growled at it as the animal kept swiping its claws for his face. "Stupid furball!"

"Fisk!" Rose cried, her fear getting overshadowed by her worry for Fisk. He was the first present that her older brother gave to her, she had to do something. It's her responsibility to protect him otherwise she'd be spitting in her brother's face.

"What, you can't handle a little puddy-tat?" The driving thug laughed.

"Not funny! Do we even need this pest around because I'm chucking it out?" The slim thug rubbed his bleeding leg.

"We only came for the girl, so go for it." Rose's heart sank upon hearing that.

"Nice…" The slim thug opened the doors of the moving van.

"Please, wait! Don't hurt Fisk!" Rose pleaded.

"Don't worry little miss, he won't feel a thing after this." The slim thug joked and with one might swing of his arm, he flung the cat out onto the hot streets of Rialto.

"FISK!" Rose shrieked.

"And that's that." The slim thug dusted himself off and closed the door.

"How could you!" Tears streamed down the sides of Rose's cheeks as she angrily shouted the lot of them. And just before the slim thug could mock her for crying over a stupid cat, something heavily crashed onto the van's roof that it made a huge indent in the metal surface, which forced the driving thug to put on the brakes. Thankfully, they were making their way to the highway with the route surrounded by abandoned lots.

"Now what the hell was that?" The thug in the passenger seat left the car and checked the roof to spot the same cat that his associate threw out of the van hissing at him, "No fucking way…"

"What is it?" The slim thug asked.

"You guys are not going to believe this, it's the cat from earli-aaah!" The cat's ire drove it to pounce on the thug's face and claw his eyes out.

"No way is that-!?" The slim thug gasped.

"Fisk, you're okay!" Rose happily cheered.

"Toss that fuzzball aside and just get back in." The thug in the driver's seat shook his head but looked up at the huge indent on the roof, wondering how something as small as that cat could do that.

"I-It's easy for you to say-aaugh! It's trying to rip out my tong-aaaah!" The attacked thug cried out in pain as he moved around the van trying to pull the cat off his face. The slim thug only laughed at the more muscular thug's misfortune even he didn't have that much trouble dealing with the furry rodent.

Soon enough the screams settled down then came silence. Hold up silence? That was when the thug in driver's seat got curious as he exited his car to check things out. He made sure to tell the slimmer thug to keep an eye on the girl. Circling around the van, he clicked his tongue upon finding a trail of oil coming out from underneath the van, he looked back a bit farther to see if the trail began back around town. He should have known that renting such a cheap van would come with its defects.

Pushing the thought aside, he continued to circle around the van to the other side and there he spotted the other thug strewn across the asphalted ground of the street. But the strange thing was, his upper body was dragged underneath the bottom of the car. Hesitant, he knelt next to his companion and began pulling him.

"Hey, man, you okay?" Soon enough his words were caught up in his throat as he reeled back from the sight. The unconscious thug's face was covered in scratches and bumpy bruises as his smashed-up nose bleed out. "What happened to you?" That was when suddenly something heavy landed upon the edge of the van's roof as a horned shadow appeared above the surprised thug.

Hands shaking, the thug slowly reached for the gun holstered in his leather jacket. His skin crawled as he felt the burning pair of eyes glare down at him, swallowing his fears, he pulled out his gun and wildly shot up above. But the bullets made no contact with his intended target, they were gone.

"You'd best come out if you know what's good for you! I swear to god, I will put one between your eyes if you even think about getting the jump on me!"

A pebble was thrown by his foot that made him jump for moment followed by the hissing of said cat that hid beneath the van.

"Why you little-!" First the cat had to go, it was already a nuisance from the start. Aiming his gun, he clicked back the hammer and began to pull the trigger. But before his finger could even twitch, a big blur zoomed from around the other side of the van to smash him into the vehicle's metallic side. Pinned with his arms forced behind his back the thug dropped his gun. His assailant was incredibly strong, it felt like his arm would snap like a toothpick if he gave them further reason to. Stopping his futile resistance, the thug heaved out a pathetic cry, "O-Okay, I give! I give!"

Spun around, the assailant forced the thug to see them face to face as the big man tried to catch his breath, which was hard once the assailant's claws shredded through the fabric of his jacket to grab onto his collar.

Getting a good look of his attacker, the thug's face contorted into terror as his eyes gazed into the white abyss.

"D-D-D-!" Within that moment, a fist slammed the thug's head back into the van with incredible force that it created a big indent of the back of his head into the van's interior.

Frightened, Rose looked to the slim thug, who was more than annoyed with the situation. He had no idea what was going on out there and was getting sick of babysitting the brat.

"What's taking you assholes so…long?" The slim thug gulped as he saw ten red jagged claws rip into the metal doors of the van before ripping them out. The sudden bright light from outside leaked into the van, momentarily blinding the slim thug as he was violently thrown out of the vehicle as he got bitter taste of the road headfirst before panicking to reach for his knife.

"Y-Yo, you'd best back off, man! I know how to use this!"

After activating the blue energy blade on the handle, he turned his sight back to his assailant with the same wide eyes as Rose, who could only see the back of her probable savior.

Taking one heavy step forward in their red sneakers, the assailant released a mouthful of steam from out their jagged mouth. The harsh rays of the sun shined down on their thick red skin and horns as the muscles in their arms and legs tense as they prepared to engage their target.

"W-What are you!?" The slim thug whimpered in fear at the sight of the creature.

"…" Tilting its head, the creature's jagged mouth widened into a distorted grin with a sickening bone cracking noise as it darkly said in its distorted voice, "Your mother …"