"I don't like the Coates kids."
Howard glanced up, lips pulling back from his teeth in a strained smile. "Me neither, but we've gotta put up with them. There's something wrong about that Drake kid. Soren, too. They're way more powerful than our surfer friend."
"I don't want to put up with them," Orc muttered. He flopped down on the couch next to Howard, who was flipping through the scenes in Iron Man. "They're just dumb rich kids. Don't need 'em."
"Yeah, we don't need them or want them, but they're here anyway," Howard said. He went back to the main menu. He'd just watch the entire movie over again. "We just have to bide our time, Orc, man. We'll get back in business soon enough."
"I thought you were supposed to be smart. Think them out of here," Orc said. He shoved Howard's shoulder. It was probably meant to be playful, or as playful as Orc could ever get, but Howard was still knocked into the arm of the couch. "Are we really going to watch this again?"
"I thought you liked Stark," Howard said. His voice was maybe a little rougher than it usually was than when he was dealing with Orc, but sometimes he just got so annoyed. The kid was such a colossal dumbass sometimes. Well, all of the time, but more of a dumbass than usual occasionally. Like now, he couldn't see that they needed to play on Soren's side if they wanted to stay on top. They could switch back over at any time. Back over on their own side, or maybe even on Sam's side, if they really needed to.
"The Hulk's better."
"I've got Iron Man and Captain America. That's it."
He saw the look on Orc's face and jumped to his feet.
"I'll see if I can find it somewhere."
He headed out, grabbing a baseball bat as he went. He'd head down to the mall, or something – a lot of stuff had been ransacked and looted, but he figured that he could find one Marvel movie from 2008. And if he couldn't there, he'd probably look through a few houses, too. Give me all of your Marvel DVDs, or Orc'll be on your ass.
He edged his way into the mall, a little wary despite the protection that Orc gave him no matter how far apart the two of them were. He didn't know about Caine and Drake. He didn't exactly know how Orc would match up to them, and his best guess was that Orc would not win. So he should be careful, just in case. A baseball bat was only as effective as its owner was strong.
And Howard Bassem's strength was not concentrated in his body.
The video rental store – Howard remembered seeing The Incredible Hulk in there before, he could pop in and grab the copy and be back home in about ten minutes. It looked fairly empty, too.
He slid in and the bell above the door tinkled. He glanced up at it, irritated, and then glanced back down to face the barrel of a gun. He took a step back and his eyes shifted to see who held the gun.
Drake Merwin.
Who else?
"Just looking for some Marvel," Howard said, raising his hands. He dropped the baseball bat, and Drake smirked. He took the gun off of Howard, swinging it around so that he could easily shoot him if Howard gave him a reason to.
"Can't have kids taking my Saw movies," Drake said. His smirk broadened. "And you, lucky guy, get to help me find them."
Howard would have burst out laughing if he wouldn't have thought that Drake would kill him if he did. "Alright," he said. He weaved his way through tipped over shelves and nearly slipped on a pile of old DVDs before stopping in front of the horror/slasher/thriller section.
"I already looked here," Drake said. His voice made Howard jump.
"Yeah, it's alphabetized," Howard said absentmindedly. He crouched down, skimming the 's' section. There was The Shining, Saw should be somewhere around there… aha, one through five, sans number three. "They're missing the third one, but here you go."
Drake nodded, grabbed the movies from him, and left the area without so much as a good-bye nod. Howard rolled his eyes and headed for the superhero movies. Orc would probably be pissed when he got back, but he definitely was not going back without The Incredible Hulk.
When I have nothing else to write I tend to write Howard-centric oneshots, which is why that's basically all I've written for Gone.