4 Chapter 4: First Blood

What Alex whipped out of his pocket, was none other than the flashlight he brought earlier. A very high powered and bright one at that, which he bought specifically for this exact purpose.

He turned it on and shoved it right in their eyes. They both shouted in pain and recoiled a bit while covering their eyes.

It should be noted, they had been in this building long in advance, and their eyes had fully adjusted to the dark, so a sudden blinding light right in their eyeballs hurt like hell. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Alex quickly hatched a plan.

Trying to whittle down both twins at once would lead to a long, drawn out fight that wouldn't be in his favor given the numerical disadvantage. So instead he picked the one on the right and decided to focus him.

Since his hands were currently covering his eyes, Alex tightened every muscle necessary and slammed his fist right into the twin's undefended gut, a dull blow that echoed through the building.

As he doubled over, Alex grabbed the back of his now wide open head, and dragged it down while he jumped upwards, slamming his knee head on into their face.

"Hey, the hell do you think you're doing to Damien?!" By this point, the other brother had recovered enough to act even if he still couldn't see, so he lashed out in a full force punch blindly in their direction.

Taking advantage on his persisting grip on the targeted twin's head, apparently named Damien, Alex yanked him into the way of the punch.

Having underestimated how strong that punch was, he was surprised to have the twin launched out of his grip into himself and both were sent a dozen feet across the room, sliding along the tile ground.

'Fuck me, these guys aren't normal at all. Well if my sore back has any solace, it's the fact that poor Damien musta felt that a lot more than me'.

Deciding one headache was enough, instead of turning his attention to the remaining twin, Alex clambered on top of Damien and proceeded to pummel his face while he was recovering.

Blow after blow rained down, and little by little the tile beneath his head cracked and gave under the force. Rather than the added damage building, it seemed as if each blow was getting stronger than the last.

The first couple hurt Alex's fists more than his actual enemy, but the last couple were opening up small cuts with each punch.

By the time the brother off in the distance was able to not only open his eyes, but actually see clearly beyond the remaining dots in his blurry vision, he could see Alex standing up and turning towards him, blood dripping from his cut up knuckles. How much was his own and how much was Damien's, neither of them knew.

Rage built in the remaining brother Daniel's heart.

"You son of a bitch! What'd you do to my brother?!"

Alex exhaled a sigh of minor exhaustion and leaned forward a bit.

"Relax, it's a lot less than you two did to my guys. Well, not really my guys I'm just here for the fight but still. The least I could do is spill some blood for a fair exchange."

Sweeping the bang out of his right eye, Daniel stared incredulously.

"Wait, you aren't here for revenge for that other guy?"

Alex's eyes flashed at the wording. Anyone invested in the rivalry would use MacCready's name to taunt.

He slowly walked towards Daniel, who responded at the same pace, albeit clearly restraining himself from rushing in in a rage.

"By the way, who even set this whole shindig up anyways. Had to be Grant right?"

Sounding sure of himself, Alex implored. Daniel thought for a quick second and nodded his head.

"Well, yeah of course it was him."

Got him.

"You dumbass, there is no Grant at South River. Who the fuck are you two actually? Hired hands? No even if you were hired you'd know your employer. So what would an outside group want in a rivalry feud between schools?"

Alex sneered as he said this, the fool walking right into his verbal trap.

Flinching back in shock, Daniel cursed under his breath for slipping up like that. Perhaps if his brother hadn't been beaten to a bloody pulp, he'd have the right mindset to play these kind of games.

But now, he was done playing any games. He'd fucked up the job, and had given up doing things any kind of way besides brute force.

Gritting his teeth, he squared himself as an ominous feeling began to arise from him. Alex watched closely, as Daniel's canines grew out a little, and his fingernails sharpened into claws.

His muscles bulked out a little under his red jacket, and Alex prepared himself for the worst as Daniel leapt at him, closing the distance way too fast.

Not wanting to be on the back foot against someone clearly faster than him, Alex shot his hand out to his left, where a metal display stand was for smaller snacks.

There's a reason he had approached, and it was to position himself next to this. Grabbing it with both hands, he swung upwards in a homerun style swing, smacking into Daniel and sending him flying back.

The thud sound as accompanied by a metal creak, which made Alex turn to see that it was actually dented in the impact, and he didn't quite hard enough to do that. Which meant, his enemy was just that tough.

Using it now would just be unwieldy, so he threw it away and bailed. The enemy was now pissed enough to follow him anywhere, so he need him out of the store pronto.

Running up an isle, Alex only made it halfway across the store before the two shelves next to him slammed down towards him.

Diving out of the way, he just barely looked back in time to see Daniel land in front of him, and punt him in the ribs, sliding him across the store to the front where his back smacked into the wall.

This one hit almost knocked the air out of him, and the consistent pain whenever he breathed indicated something might have just broken. Sadly, Daniel hadn't been standing still while he went on his little trip, so Alex looked up just in time to see a boot stomping into his head.

The wall behind him immediately had spider web cracks stretch along it's length, as the window above him shattered from the force, raining glass shards down on top of the two.

Satisfied with the slick feeling of blood on his shoes, Daniel withdrew his foot and turned away. Clearly this guy just wasn't up to snuff anyways.

Of course he immediately ate his words, as a shard of glass was stabbed into the back of his ankle. Pitching forward onto his knees, he looked back just in time to see a pissed Alex rise to his feet.

All the hairs on his back rose, as he looked into those eyes. They were normally a light blue, but now they were golden, with vertical slits, his hand dripping with blood where he had grabbed the glass shard, as well as his head with blood dripping over one eye.

An immense pressure rose from behind him, and Daniel knew he was used to awaken something terrifying. He could hardly see the blur of a fist that smacked right between his eyes, sending him downwards with his head cracking the floor rather than away.

Apparently feeling creative, rather than grounding and pounding like the other brother, Alex grabbed him by the stabbed leg and swung him up through the air and onto the other side, the window sill which still had some broken glass. He repeated this a few times. Sill, floor, sill, floor.

By the time he was done, the window sill had a hole in it that reached the floor, and the floor behind him had basically a floor angle bathed in blood. Daniel was covered in minor cuts and bruises, the glass seemingly not sharp enough to give him a fatal blow.

Lifting him up by his collar, Alex glared him in his barely openable eyes.

"One last time. Who the hell are you, why the hell are you, and what the hell are you?"

Daniel just chuckled and spat a little blood on Alex's face, understandably resulting in being grabbed by his face and slammed into the ground one last time, while Alex walked away, phoning the ambulance only as he was a fair distance away.

He had no idea what had come out of him in those last few moments, nor did he know where it went. But it clearly had something to do with those twins, and the last one's transformation. And if he was a betting man, there was more than one lead he could follow to learn more. But first, sleep. Lots and lots of sleep. And so he headed home.