xChapter 67 - Lending A Hand

Vanessa, Blanko, Tom, & Tim all look on in shock at the sight that they're seeing. Several Club Azure members are all being taken down one by one, and by some scrawny teen by the name of Mesto-Presto.

The person who served them chips and salsa, the person who most didn't assume anything of, and the person who doesn't even have any training in martial arts is currently taking out club members one after another. With his fists? No, he isn't that strong for that. With his speed? No, he isn't fast enough. He's using everything around him – other club members, shards of glass, fallen weapons, even puddles of water – to use as an attack against his opponent. Whether it stuns them briefly or just simply knocks them out.

The fight is messy, it's a street fight through and through, yet despite that those who watch on can't help but feel as if Mesto is doing this with the elegance and swiftness of a dance. Each swing he takes, each hit he lets hit him, even his stance, all of it is calculated.

As the last club member falls to the ground knocked out, Mesto stops to catch his breath.

"I haven't fought in a long time," Mesto sighs, "Guess I'm still rusty."

Mesto then turns his attention towards the allies who all sit there stunned.

"You guys alright?" Mesto asks.

"Uh yeah but if you call that being rusty," Tim remarks as he looks back towards the unconscious bodies of gang members, "I'd hate to see what you usually do in a fight."

To that, Mesto smiles as he begins to enter the nightclub, "Thank you for doing all this. If I got here when you all did, I wouldn't think I'd been that much of a help."

As Mesto walks down the steps, Blanko scoffs at his comments and mimics his voice, " Oh 'I'm still rusty' and 'I wouldn't have been that much help' yeah right. Is he trying to make himself look cool?"

"I don't know but I do know one thing," Tom remarks as he catches his breath, "Next time I eat there, I'm gonna give him a big tip."

Hearing that, both Tim & Blanko chuckle while Vanessa & Tom roll their eyes at the two's immaturity.

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Elsewhere in Club Azure's Employee-Only area. Cameron Dots is sitting down on a couch as he looks down towards the ground. He just wanted to have a friend, he just wanted to feel needed, and this is where it led him. To this hell on earth, one he can't escape from, one that he can't escape from even though he desperately wants to.

But that's just reality, no matter what you try to do, eventually, you'll just keep falling down, with any attempt to climb out from despair being met with another hand pushing you down.

And there's nothing he can do to change that.

Nothing at all.

"So that's where you've been."

Cameron looks up to see Elizabeth standing in the room. She looks exhausted and tired, yet still much better than the state Cameron is in.

"Elizabeth? What are you doing here?" Cameron asks before his head fills with questions and doubts, "Did you just come to laugh at me? For trying to do something without you guys? I know none of you don't even care about me, so just leave!"

As Cameron sits there catching his breath, Elizabeth just stands there silent.

Infuriated, Cameron continues, "Look I know you guys just keep me around because I'm so pathetic! You barely talk to me and you just treat me like an extra! Like I don't matter to you guys!"

Not knowing what to say, Cameron just sits there until Elizabeth speaks up.

"Is that what you thought of us?" Elizabeth simply asks.

Cameron is silent as he tries to think, "I don't… I don't kno-"

"To be honest, I'm not the best at saying things to help people," Elizabeth remarks, "But yeah, we haven't tried being your friend. I'm… I'm sorry."

Hearing that Cameron's eyes widen as reality begins to set in, "Elizabeth- wait- I didn't mean-"

"No, it's stupid of me to just expect everyone to always be the first one to reach out," Elizabeth says, "Everyone's been worried about you, and I know it's hard to take that first step."

Elizabeth extends her hand towards Cameron as she says, "So say whatever you want and I'll make it happen."

Cameron looks at her hand, not knowing what to say. For him, someone who was just accepting his reality, to see someone deny it and reach out to him.

Well, what else could it be besides a miracle?

Cameron takes Elizabeth's hand as he says, "I just want to get out of here."

Hearing that, Elizabeth begins to walk out of the room and into the hallway.

"Well then, let's get going," Elizabeth says.

Though just as they're about to leave the employee's only area, one of the doors to the break rooms bursts open and Alex comes flying out into the hallway. Elizabeth runs over to see if Alex is okay. All the while Alex looks into the room as the man he was fighting steps out.

________________

Moments earlier when Alex is forced into one of the many rooms, he gets in a boxer's stance as he looks at the hulking figure staring down at him.

"So who the hell are you?" Alex asks as he looks at Martin McBride.

"Me? I'm Martin McBride," McBride answers, "my job here is the head of security. Any threat to the business…"

McBride uses his huge fist to slam the glass table in front of him in half as he finishes saying, "I break."

"Is that so?" Alex asks as he rushes toward McBride, "You may be a big brute, but I'm sure you can't handle this!"

McBride is unable to even react as Alex shoots his right fist directly toward McBride's liver, trying to perform a liver shot.

However, as soon as he makes contact with McBride, he feels the bones in his hand begin to crack and snap. Alex winces in pain as he takes a few steps back.

"I'm the head of security," McBride states as he unbuttons his shirt revealing he has a metal vest underneath, "I can't protect if I get hurt so easily!"

Alex looks at his right hand which is throbbing with pain as he decides to deliver a left hook into McBride's face. It perfectly lands and Alex begins to continue to hit him there over and over again with his left hand.

"You dumbass!" Alex laughs, "Thanks for telling me where not to hit you!"

McBride tries to fight back but Alex is just too fast for him to hit, all of the training he did has paid off for him!

Well, that would be the case if it weren't for one thing. Since Alex's dominant hand was damaged, Alex can only rely on his left hand which is much more sloppy and ineffective due to all the previous factors. And it makes his attacks way too predictable. McBride uses his hand to grab Alex by the neck and toss him out of the room and into the hallway.

It's then that Alex is greeted by Elizabeth running over to him and the two looking as Martin McBride exits out into the hallway.

"I've had enough of this," Martin McBride says as he takes off his metal vest, "How about you try it on."

McBride tosses it towards Elizabeth & Alex at full force, though before it can hit either of them, Cameron gets in the way of the vest, taking the full force of the hit.

"CAMERON!" Alex & Elizabeth shout as they turn to see if he's okay.

"I-I'm alr-alright" Cameron gags before he points behind the two, "r-run!"

Confused, Elizabeth & Alex turn around just in time to see Martin McBride grab the two by their heads, lift them up, and slam the two's heads into each other. He does this a few more times before dropping them to the ground.

"Finally I took that off," McBride remarks as he stretches, "It was really slowing me down."

His attention turns to Alex and Elizabeth, who are both crawling towards him, blood dripping from both of their heads. Despite being delirious, both are still determined to fight. And to make Cameron's wish come true.

"You bastard," Alex grumbles as he bites down on McBride's shoe, "You haven't defeated me!"

"I'll kick your ass!" Elizabeth groans as she tries to get up only to stumble down.

Hearing this McBride chuckles, "What a tenacious bunch of high schoolers."

McBride lifts up his fist ready to slam it down on them, "I'm sick of these white tiles, so I hope you don't mind if I paint them red!"

Just as he's about to slam his fist into Alex, Cameron gets in the way and takes the hit. Cameron stumbles backward, unconscious, yet still alive.

"And here I thought high schoolers couldn't get any dumber," McBride groans.

Though what McBride had no idea of, what Alex & Elizabeth couldn't have realized, and what Cameron couldn't have predicted is that one tiny moment of selflessness. That moment of protecting those who wanted to protect him, it was the thing that ended up saving them all in the end.

Because that gave someone enough time to enter the employee's only area, and that one person would tip the scales of this fight in their favor.

And that person was, Mesto-Presto.

Seeing the carnage McBride committed, Mesto's eyes fill with rage as he walks forward.

"How did you get in here?" McBride questions.

"Those are my patrons. They come into the restaurant every day," Mesto hisses as he picks up the metal vest, "What day were you born?"

McBride is confused as he looks at the scrawny kid, "September 31st, 1994."

"Is that so?" Mesto questions as he slams the metal vest into McBride's head, "I'm going to make you wish that day never existed!"

McBride stumbles back as Mesto continues to swing the metal vest directly into McBride's head again and again. Eventually, McBride swats the vest out of Mesto's hand and he goes to punch him. That's when Mesto ducks and tackles McBride.

However, McBride doesn't go down.

"You really thought you could bring someone like me down?!" McBride shouts, "What a foolish-"

McBride's prideful shouts are quickly replaced by his painful screams as Mesto is biting down on McBride's flesh. The pain causes McBride to get weak enough for Mesto to take him to the ground.

You want to know the main two rules of street fighting? The first one is to never get into one because they're too risky. And the other one is to never be taken to the ground in one. These were rules Martin McBride thought he was above of, after all no person who's ever tried to fight him could match his pure physical abilities. They were all below him. 

Though as Mesto lies atop of him, McBride begins to realize he should've listened to those rules. Mesto grabs some of the broken glass from the table and shoves it into the gaping wound McBride has due to his biting. As McBride cries out in pain, Mesto shoves the metal vest into his mouth.

"Silence," Mesto remarks as he stands up, "I don't want to hear you talking anymore."

Mesto lifts his leg and then kicks McBride in his chin. Combined with the metal vest shoved into his mouth causes McBride to experience a pain he's never felt before. However as Mesto continues to kick him again and again, McBride finally understands what this pain is.

It is utter fear.

A fear so ingrained into him now that he'd wish he had never been born just so he didn't have to face this devil.

As McBride finally loses consciousness, Mesto looks over to Alex & Elizabeth. Both of them are still delirious from the attacks they just received.

"Hold on, let me go find some ice for your heads," Mesto remarks as he tries to find something to help heal the two.

Cameron also wakes up and after seeing the state McBride is in, the three high schoolers are glad that Mesto is on their side. Because the alternative is one they dread to even think of.

_____________________

Ronnie locks the door to the CEO's room.

"Well that's a relief," Ronnie remarks as he rolls up his sleeves, "I've been meaning to blow off some steam against scum like you!"

Hearing that, Jerry Pitt remarks, "Scum like me? Please, if you want to look at scum, take a look at the MSA."

"The Moon Shadow Affiliate? I already know that they're not the best," Ronnie groans, "And aren't you a part of them?"

Jerry shakes his head as he explains, "I didn't mean those replacements. I mean the real MSA. The one back in the 90s. Your family never told you?"

Ronnie is confused but Jerry continues, "You want to hear about them? The glory days?" 

"The glory days?" Ronnie questions as he chuckles, "Why would I want to know about some other MSA when I'm here to teach you a lesson."

Jerry groans as he steps up, "If that's how you want to play…"

Jerry lifts his fist before bringing it down on his wooden desk, splitting it into two, "I'll just have to educate the old fashioned way."

See You Next Chapter!~