Badass Ch. 04

"Yeah, well last night, I went to check the battle field, and found that everything had been fixed up like new. However, the wall I blasted that guy into was still fucked up, and he was missing and—"

"What did you mean when you said you heard me?" she interrupted. She hadn't heard a word he said."You know, 1st when you saved me, and the 2nd time in my office. What did you mean?" Zdenek looked at her, and realised she was now confused, and it appeared she didn't like being confused, as it brought a new scowl onto her face, a scowl that differed from the one she had when she 1st approached him.

"I meant exactly that." Her scowled intensified, which meant she was more confused.

"I still don't understand!"

"Listen; when I came to help you that night, I hadn't planned to. I was standing on the roof of my apartment building, looking around the neighbourhood to see if anyone was in trouble. When I was satisfied that no one was, I was about to head back inside when I heard the beginning of your fight. I watched that area for a while, and checked to see if it was in my area. When I saw that it wasn't, I started heading back to my apartment, but then something stopped me. I thought I heard something, so I focused, and cut out the sounds of battle and everything else, until I could hear a voice, asking for help. It was so faint that I couldn't be sure if I heard it correctly, but I did, as it asked for help again. I decided not to let that voice cry out a 3rd time, and rushed in the direction the voice came from, which just happened to be the battle zone." She looked at him, still confused (scowling).

"The 2nd time, I had just purchased groceries, and was paying at the till. I heard that same voice calling out again, this time, it called me specifically. I already knew that it was you, so I once again headed in the direction of the voice. I had already noticed all of the group members looking for someone or something, but I had no idea what, and assumed it was the Buffalo guy, until I heard you calling for me specifically. That's why I went to you.'

"But what does that mean?"

"I don't know myself. This has never happened to me before, so don't ask me." He said with a slight shrug.

"And how did you get past my guards when you came into my house? According to Steve and Don, you didn't even put your bags down."

"I didn't have to. People of a certain strength level are able to tell just from looking when they are faced by someone who is superior to them in every way. I didn't threaten them, or even try to intimidate them. I just told them they'd have to use brute force, if they wanted to stop me from seeing you. They all realised that they couldn't, so they didn't even try. They also noticed that there was no malice in my speech, they saw there was no reason to attack me."

"Yeah, but even Steve and Don; those guys are STRONG! Strong, but also pretty dense. Ho—"

"Superior strength transcends stupidity." He said, polishing off the last of the fries. "Look, I've got to get back to my apartment. Let me just go say bye to Amy before settling the bill."

They both stood up, and headed towards the booth. The heads of the people in the cafe dropped again, but this time, Zdenek could feel rage emanating from the guys. They all assumed that Erykah was going to his table to kick his ass, yet she ended up joining him, and eating his food. Who the hell was this guy? In 3 short days, he had gotten the attention of Jen, the pretty waitress, Amy, the hot lioness AE user, and Erykah, the gorgeous yet intimidating Alpha of Aegis. What the fuck?!

The 4 people sitting at the booth had been watching Zdeneks' table with burning interest. They came close to exploding with shock when they noticed her eating off of Zdeneks' plate during the conversation, and almost had heart attacks when she drank the milkshake. She still hadn't noticed that she had done any of that, and they were wondering why Zdenek had allowed it, let alone not said anything to her about it. They then approached the booth, she heard Steph clear her throat, slightly motioning with her head that she wanted to be introduced.

"Hey Steve, Steph, Don, this is Zdenek. Seeing as you guys haven't been introduced yet."

"Hey Zdenek!" They all said in perfect unison

"Hey guys, nice to meet you in person Stephanie. I saw you two last night at the house. You guys good?"

"Yeah, we're fine!" They replied in unison again.

"Shit, do you guys practice that, and wait to use it in moments like these?" they all laughed, except Erykah."Anyway, Amy, I came over to say goodbye, just like you asked. I'm leaving just after settling my bill."

"Oh, ok Zdenek. Thanks for that. By the way, don't worry about the bill, we'll settle it."

"What? Why?"

"Yeah, why?" asked Erykah.

"Well Zdenek, because our Alpha ate about the same amount of your meal as you did, thus it is also our responsibility to pay for it." This froze Erykah on the spot. When she looked back to her entire sit-down with Zdenek, she noticed that she had in fact eaten most of his fries, polished off ¼ of his giant burger, and drank the rest of his milkshake during their conversation. Her scowl once again changed slightly, and Zdenek had to move quickly.

"Well, Erykah looked kind of hungry, so I offered her some of my meal, that's all." He said with a shrug, and a look directed to Amy, that told her to drop it, which she did.

Erykahs' scowl of embarrassment died down, and her face went back into its usual scowl. This made Zdenek let out a slight grunt of relief.

"Well Amy, if you're gonna insist that you pay for the meal, I won't say no!" He said with a slight smile on his face."Well guys, I'm off. See you around." Before he could turn though, he heard someone speak.

"Wait. Can I drive you back to your place or something?" Erykah offered.

"That won't be necessary thanks. I live like 10 minutes away, in one of the apartment buildings near the campus; you know the ones that are all painted different colours?"

"Oh yeah, I know which ones you're talking about." Amy said. "Which colour did you get?"

"I got pink. But I don't mind. I live on the top floor, and I'm the only tenant on the entire floor, so it's all good. Anyway, thanks for the offer, but I'm good. Also, thanks for the meal. It was nice meeting you Stephanie." And with that, he made his way to the door. He stopped when he saw a few waitresses standing at waitress HQ.

"Hey, could you guys call Jennifer for me?"

"Sure thing" one of them said, and headed towards the bathroom.

She re emerged with Jennifer in tow, and they walked up to him. As they reached him, he was about to talk, before Jennifer stopped him, and shooed the other waitresses away, who trying to listen in on their conversation. After she was through, she turned to Zdenek and smiled.

"You know, for someone who should be busy with all the male customers, you sure do disappear a lot."

"Shut up Zdenek. You leaving? You want the bill?"

"Yeah, but just send it over to the booth over there." He said as he pointed over to where he just left.

"You mean the Aegis booth?"

"Yeah. They're covering my breakfast. Well, it ended up turning into lunch. That's called brunch right? Anyway, I'm off. Tell them I said to leave your customary large tip. Bye Jennifer."

"Bye Zdenek!" She said with a wave, and that bright smile. The moment he left though, it left her face. She heard that he had not only had a conversation with Amy, he had actually shared his meal with Erykah. What was going on? With that though, she went to go prepare the cheque.

Zdeneks' walk home was relatively quiet, as was the rest of his afternoon. Due to Erykah eating a portion of his meal, he wasn't satisfied, and when he got home, he made himself a tonne of pancakes, as they were simple to make, and didn't take a lot of time, and he destroyed most of them. After eating, he gathered up his dirty laundry, and went to the communal laundry room in his building. He set it to wash and went back to his apartment. He then checked the time.

"20:12 huh? Guess I'll go on patrol for a bit."

He went to the roof.

"Corruption Vision"

He looked around his neighbourhood, looking to see if anyone was causing problems. When he saw none, he deactivated Corruption Vision, hooded himself up, and ran towards the ledge, jumping off, and landing on the roof of the building across. He then got into his running stance, and proceeded to run around, on the building tops, looking down below. He covered a 3 square km radius, looking here and there, all while running at speed. Then he noticed that he was on the border of Aegis' territory, and the feeling he got started changing. The atmosphere from across the border was leaking into Aegis' territory, and it was for the 1st time that he had noticed Aegis' atmosphere. He looked around, and there was a blue hue in the air, almost like a blue fog. This fog however, was clashing with a green one. You wouldn't normally notice the hue, but there was a concentration of each individual hue, as they were pressing into each other.

He looked down, and saw 2 guys crossing into Aegis space, clearly looking for trouble. They assumed that there would be no people guarding the borders. He followed them from the roof tops, until he saw them approach a group of people. They started to instigate trouble, and then one of them swung, and punched one of the guys in the group across the face.

Zdenek swooped down on them in a flash. As he landed, he crouched down, placing both hands flat on the ground, bending his left leg, tucking his foot under his ass. He straightened his left leg, and swept it around, on the floor, catching the one who had thrown the punch, causing him to fall backwards. Continuing his motion, he straightened his right leg, and then lifted it up, bending his knee, while his left, still straight, was brought up, so it was almost vertical. He then brought it down, crashing his heel into the abdomen of the guy who was still in midair. As the guy hit the ground, the pavement caved in, and the area surrounding his abdomen turned into a crater, leaving his mid section lying lower than the rest of his body. The guy was out cold.

He then turned to his companion, who was still standing there in shock. He then closed eyes,

"Corruption Vision" he said softly. Then opened his eyes, and looked straight into the eyes of that other guy. The guy didn't know that Corruption Vision wasn't an offensive technique, so when he saw amber pupils glowing brightly, and a purple hue surrounding those pupils, he nearly shat himself.

"Listen to me; take your friend, and NEVER come back into this territory again, do you understand me? The next time I so much as smell you two, I won't be as soft as I was today, and I WILL kill you. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

"Y-Y-YEEEESSSSS!!!"

"NOW GET OUTTA HERE!!!"

And with that, the guy dug his friend out of the crater, and ran for his life. Zdenek deactivated Corruption Vision, and turned to the group.

"You guys ok? How's the guy who got punched?"

"We're all ok thanks to you. At least we know those two won't be coming back."

"That's good." He said with a grunt.

"Yeah I agree. Thanks aga—" but Zdenek head already leapt up before the person speaking could finish.

"I wonder who he was."

On his way back to his apartment, Zdenek was thinking to himself.

'What the fuck was that? Those guys just walked into the territory without a care in the world, as though they would not be reprimanded in the slightest. I gotta tell Erykah about this, but I'll tell her about it tomorrow. For now, I gotta get some sleep.'

He finally got back to his apartment, and barely spent time doing anything other than disrobing. Once in his boxers, he fell onto his bed, which was sure made a solid "THUNK" like sound, before falling asleep in seconds.

When he woke up the following morning, he felt rather tired and lethargic. This however, didn't stop him from getting out of bed, and heading towards the bathroom. He washed his face, and brushed his teeth. He then heard a knock on his front door. The toothbrush was still in his mouth, and he was just in boxers, but even so, he made his way over to the door. As he was approaching, he could hear someone speaking through the door.

"...this had better be the right place! This is our 5th attempt now!"

"Shut up! I think I can hear someone coming!"

Then it all went quiet. Zdenek wasn't awake enough to think about what was going on, and he started to unlock the door. When he opened the door, the scene in front of him nearly made him choke. At the front, there was Erykah, with a look of shame and annoyance on her face, and she didn't make eye contact with him. Behind her, slightly to the left was Stephanie. She was standing there, with a serious look on her face. Her right hand was up, and she was holding the fame of the glasses with her thumb and index finger. Her right shoulder was in a more advanced position than her left, making her torso twist to the right. In her left hand, was her trusty laptop. Her left leg was more advanced than her right leg, and her knees were bent slightly. Then Behind Erykah, slightly to her right, was Amy. With her left hand by her mouth, blowing a kiss. Her right hand was on her right hip, which she was pushing out. Her right leg was bent slightly, and her left leg was straight. Her head was tilted slightly to the left. Behind her, slightly to her right was Don. Likewise behind Stephanie, slightly to her left was Steve. They were both doing a Hulk Hogan like pose, facing each other, and mimicking each other. They looked like mirror images of each other. Then, the four of them looked at him.

"YO ZDENEK!! WE'VE COME TO PLAAAAYYY!!!" they all said in perfect unison, all turning their heads in perfect unison once again, to look at him, with cheesy grins on their faces.

Zdenek just looked at them; first individually, then as a group. After what seemed like an eternity, he lifted up the hand that wasn't holding the toothbrush in his mouth, and pointed at Erykah.

"Unless she strikes a pose, and says the line with you guys, none of you are coming in." And with that, he slammed the door and waited. He heard what sounded like Amys' voice on the other side

"You see Erykah?! I told this would happen! I told you to pose, but nooo, you had to be the only one to refuse!"

Zdenek heard a bit more arguing, and after about 5 minutes, it died down and went quiet again. Then, they knocked again. This time when he opened the door, he nearly choked harder. He saw the 4 doing the same poses as before, but what shocked him was Erykah. She stood there with her right arm, at a 45 degree angle, jutting straight, but her hand was perfectly horizontal to the ground. Her left arm on the other hand, had been bent upwards, with her hand straight across her forehead forming a rather rigid and impressive salute. Her left leg mimicked her right arm, being perfectly straight, and at a 45 degree angle. Her right leg mimicked her left arm, being rigid, and bent at the knee, with her right foot flat on the ground. He couldn't see her eyes, because she was purposely shielding them from him.

"YO ZDENEK!! WE'VE COME TO PLAAAAYYY!!!" they all said in perfect unison, all turning their heads in perfect unison once again, to look at him, with cheesy grins on their faces. Erykah on the other hand, just looked down. She was getting ready to murder him when they got inside.

Zdenek looked at all of them, and smiled.

"Come in guys. Oh, and Erykah, that was payback for making me walk back here from your apartment." He said with a slight glint in his eyes. She looked up at him but had to concede defeat. She had asked him not to accept the offer made by Amy, and he didn't.

'Wait a minute, how did he know I asked him not to? I didn't say it out loud.'

"Anyway, what are you guys doing here so early in the morning?" He asked showing them in, and leading them over to the lounge, where they each took a seat.

"Well, I came here to ask you something with regards to the previous fight—"

"And we came here to play!" Amy interrupted, causing Erykah to growl. That shut her up.

"Hmmm, well that's kind of convenient, as I wanted to tell you something as well."

"Really? What is it?"

"Well, last night while I was on patrol, I went to what I assume was the border of your territory. When there, I saw two guys come from across the border, and begin to assault a group of people standing there, with one guy getting punched in the face. Of course, I drove them off, and warned them never to come back into the territory, but the issue wasn't the fact that they came in. It was the fact that they came in with no fear. Tell me, how do you usually monitor the borders?"

"Well, we haven't really gotten to that point yet. We just broke into the top 3, so we had a chance to set everything up." Amy answered

"Hmmm, ok. How many members are there in Aegis?"

"Not counting us, about 100."

"Ok. What you guys will do is this; gather 10 of your strongest AE users. Assign them as captains, and give each captain teams of 10. Then we will select another 10, who are preferably the strongest after the 10 captains, and they will be the vice captains. Then, those teams of 10 will split into teams of 5. Then have them patrol the borders. At any given moment, have 5 captains, and 5 vice captains out on the field. There will be day and night shifts, with the teams switching places with fresh teams at a specific time; say after 8 hours. This rotation will keep the squads fresh and alert. By doing this, we can ensure that the borders are monitored, and the people who live inside your territory are safe. How's that sound Erykah?"

"That sounds pretty good actually, it's a good plan."

"So it has your go ahead then? You're the Alpha of the group."

"Yeah, it sounds fine."

"Good. Ok, Steve, Don, you two head out and collect all of the members of the Aegis. Have them assemble in the lobby of Erykahs' house, as it has the most space."

"Sure thing." They said together.

"Amy; you go out, and chart out how large the territory is. It doesn't have to be exact, but just so we can get a good idea of how large it is."

"You got it!" Amy replied.

"Stephanie; I want you to go with Amy. When you two are done, I want you to work out how large an area each of the 10 groups will each have to monitor."

"Ok." Stephanie said with a nod of her small head.

"Ok guys, I need you guys to have task done by 15:00, as the 10 strongest still have to found, and the teams allocated. Meet at Erykahs house before or by 15:00. Erykah and I will meet you there, and then we can get started with the division and assigning. Understand? Any questions?"

There were no questions. They all shook their heads.

"Good. Now you all have tasks, and you all know the time limit. Now get to it."

"Yes sir!" They all said in unison, and they sprang up off their seats, and disappeared out of the apartment.

"I'm pretty damn sure they practice that when you're not around, just for moments like this." He said, and he looked at Erykah, who had the confusion scowl on her face.

"Um, thanks for coming up with the plan, but you don't really have to come later."

"Don't be silly. This is my plan, so I have to help with the implementation of the plan. Anyway, have you had breakfast yet?"

"Breakfast? N-no. Why?"

"You have a problem with eating pancakes?"

"No; no problem with pancakes, why?"

"Then I'll be right back. Just let me get dressed." And with that, Zdenek left to get dressed.

When he was dressed, he went and started to mix the pancake batter.

"So, in the cafe, you asked me how old I was, and I told you. How old are you?"

"I'm 21."

"Do you work out, or is your physique that way because of your AE?"