Well, here we are- a redo of the second chapter of my Billy Hatcher fiction. This sees a few of the errors I made in the last chapter having been fixed. This will probably be very short, but at least it's better than nothing. Also, there is a bit of profanity in this chapter, so if you don't like that (which, to be honest, I completely understand), then please, by all means, skip the curse words. To be honest, I myself was a bit reluctant writing them.

And now, for the disclaimer that applies to both the first chapter and this new one: I don't own Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, Billy, Rolly, Bantam, Chick, Dark Corvo, Dark Raven, or Morning Land. They are all trademarks of the geniuses at Sonic Team and Sega. I do, however, own the school the younger characters go to, and the characters Samantha Hatcher, Arnold Bays, and David Cracker.

Now, here we go!

The Crow's Colony, Unspecified Time.

Dark Corvo looked at the small black sphere in his hand and sighed as he rested an elbow on the table.

He had tried everything to release his master from within the sphere. He first tried cracking it, then using some spells, then some more spells, then trying to turn the sphere into a crow, but ever since that blasted Billy came around and defeated Corvo- with stupid eggs, of all things- Dark Corvo had lost most of his power.

How humiliating to be defeated by little yolks encased in calcium shells rolled around by a stupid little boy in a rooster costume! Corvo could only imagine how his master felt. Defeated by elliptical would-be baby chickens rolled around by a mammal was bad enough, but to be defeated by white spheres created from one's own weapon? And defeated when empowered by the energy of the Giant Egg? Who could know such could truly happen? A mere sample of such humiliation could be experienced via Corvo being defeated by a little chick!

Dark Corvo, finally submitting for the day, started to put the sphere on the table when it began to glow not black, but white in its aura.

"What in the name of-" Corvo left the sentence hanging in the air as he noticed, in the sphere, a small boy, about six, with black hair and brown eyes, looking at a sheet of paper.

"Corvo," thundered a familiar voice- the voice of Dark Raven, Corvo's lord and master.

"I-i-is that you, Raven?" asked Corvo.

"Yes," Raven sighed in an annoyed tone, "it's me."

Corvo couldn't believe it. His master- the one he had thought trapped- had rerisen.

"Milord!" exclaimed Corvo as he got down on one knee and lowered his head to the white glowing mass in front of him.

"As you were, Corvo," the sound of Dark Raven's voice sounded.

"Have you broken free of this prison?" asked the crow-wizard as he got up on his feet.

"No, I am still trapped inside this sphere."

"But-" Raven started, confused.

"I am using what little power I have left to communicate to you. But I do know a solution of how to free me," said Dark Raven.

"A solution? Please tell me, Milord!" Dark Corvo almost demanded from his Lord.

Dark Raven chuckled in his low, deep voice, amused at how eager his underling yearned to free him from his prison. It was almost funny, how loyal Corvo was.

"The answer lies," Raven's voice sounded again, "in this boy I am showing you now. I want you to watch him. You will see how he can free me.

"But, Milord, how can such a scrawny mammal be of any use to us?" inquired Corvo.

There was no answer.

"Milord?" Corvo repeated.

Again, there was no answer to his call.

Shrugging, Dark Corvo took a seat, crossed his legs, and set his eyes on the white halo and the boy within. It wasn't like him to assume humans to be of any use to the crows, but if his master said it was so, then it was so.

Unspecified Forest School, 12:30 pm

"Let's see here…" David Cracker murmured to himself, "332 times 485. That's a zero, carry the one, that's a six in that column, carry the one again…"

"Hey there, nerdy!" A familiar voice sounded, interrupting David's calculations, "What's going on?"

"Oh, man," whined the six-year-old David as he turned around to see his designated bully, Arnold Bays, approaching him, fists tightly clenched.

"Why do you have to bother me now?" David asked the towering thirteen-year-old now in front of him.

"I'm out of lunch, and I want seconds. You're too busy being a damn nerd to eat, so give me your lunch!"

"But I am going to eat it! And watch your mouth," responded David.

At that moment, Arnold picked up David off the front steps of the schoolhouse- holding him by his shirt collar- and shoved him into a neighboring tree.

"You know what?" Arnold growled under his breath and behind his teeth, "I don't give a damn whether you're going to eat it or not, and I don't give a rats ass if you hate how I talk. Now give me your lunch, and I'll hit you only five times instead of six."

Nodding in agreement, the horrified little boy took out what would have been his lunch, and slowly extended his arm outward. Arnold snatched the bag greedily out of David's hand and let the young boy fall to the ground.

"All right, now let's see what we've got here," chuckled Arnold as he opened the lunch bag to look inside at its contents.

"What the hell? You brought damn celery sticks!" Arnold exclaimed as he pulled out the only contents of the bag- five long sticks of the aforementioned vegetable.

Arnold threw the would-be meal onto the ground, shoving it into the dirt with his shoe. He then turned his attention to the six-year-old boy gasping for breath on the ground. At the sight of Arnold staring down at him, David immediately started crawling away on his wrists and knees, terrified of the unsatisfied beast approaching his personage.

"Well, looks like someone's going to get beaten seven times today!" Arnold Bays yelled angrily as he walked closer and closer to the victim-to-be.

Arnold caught up with the boy and, after quite a struggle, finally slapped him across the face, drawing tears from the little boy, but also submission.

"Why do you do this? I never did anything to you," David wept.

"Cause I can, you little crybaby!" Arnold snapped back.

Arnold made no resistance to laughing at David's tears.

"Aw, you going to cry? Huh?" Arnold mused mockingly.

"Wah, wah," Arnold mocked, "Wah, wah, wa-"

Ka-POW!!!

"Ooww… my… GOD!!" exclaimed Arnold as he held the back of his head in pain- and in so doing, unleashed David.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size!" exclaimed a voice all-too-familiar to just about everyone in school… even Arnold.

Arnold looked to the ground to look at the stone that had just hit him in the head, then jerked his head around to see the one who threw it.

Sure enough, standing tall and proud, with blue eyes and blonde hair, was Billy Sunnyside Hatcher, already with another small stone in hand.

Arnold was, to put it in a way appropriate for some of the younger readers out there, pretty darn angry. And when Arnold was angry, he was almost invincible in a fistfight- or a stone toss.

Arnold picked up his own rock. It was a piece of granite about the size of a brick, and Billy could see it from where he was standing. Billy braced himself, ready to jump out of the way.

"Hey you!" A voice called out behind Arnold. Arnold turned around to see Bantam Scrambled, standing in front of David, who was trembling behind him. "You want to mess with Billy or David, then you mess with me, man!" Bantam threatened.

"So, you want to mess with me? Both of you?" Arnold asked, putting on a false show of toughness.

"Make that three of us," called a female voice to the right of Arnold's viewpoint. Arnold recognized this voice anywhere. Arnold gulped as Rolly Roll, the first student to ever physically hurt him in response to his bullying, came beside Bantam and took a fighting pose- to be precise, a ready-stance.

"Ow!" Arnold exclaimed again as he felt another rock, this time much larger than the last, hit him in the back of his head, causing him to fall over. Arnold got up onto his feet slowly, his ears filled with the grinding of the dirt below him. Arnold held his hand to the back of his head to see a tiny smear of blood on the pad of his middle finger.

Arnold looked back to see his attacker, only to see a new little boy, who upon inspection from a distance matched the rumored kid classmates called Chick Poacher, flipping a rock his hand, with a confident smirk on his face, standing alongside Billy.

"You want to mess with David, then you have to go through me!" said Bantam courageously.

"And me," Rolly agreed whole-heartedly.

"And me," announced Billy, now holding not a stone, but a stick, though he was still a distance away.

"And me," Chick chimed in.

"Oh, yeah? Come on, I'll take all four of you!" bluffed the thirteen-year-old.

"You want to take that chance?" Bantam asked, cracking his knuckles.

As much as he hated to admit it, Arnold was in a tight spot. He wasn't used to uprisings and multiple people at a time standing up to him. What's worse than previous people standing up to him in this case was that now, each of the four had assets that formed the perfect anti-bully squad.

Bantam alone was pretty much like a team of musclemen. From working with his father in the lumber business, Bantam had enough strength to haul small trees. Arnold had met Bantam before, but never took his chances with the brutish force of muscle. He had beaten up several bullies before, turning them all into scattered messes, which is why he was called "Scrambled".

Billy was good with anything that served the purpose of a lance and, judging from his recent throw of the rock, a bit of a marksman. Billy was known around the small forest village for his immense courage, which had encouraged him to take on bullies before.

Chick had also taken on bullies three times his own height. Unlike Billy, though, Chick did it strictly out of fearless pride and self-confidence… and usually won. His ability to fire an arrow was well known around the village, and apparently, his manual targeting wasn't bad either. His ability to kill a deer in one shot earned him the false nickname "Poacher".

Rolly was perhaps the one of the four that Arnold feared the most. Recently, Arnold had attempted to take some lunch from Rolly when he was hungry. When she refused, he decided to do to her what he was just now trying to do to David. Now he may never be able to make children.

Without uttering a word, Arnold walked away, muttering something indistinct under his breath.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Bantam called out after the retreating bully, holding up a fist.

Rolly and Bantam turned around, and Billy and Chick ran up to accompany them.

As they analyzed David, they noticed that, even though Arnold hadn't "hit" David in the normal sense, he was still a little bruised. What was visible of David's chest was a deep red, and David's face had little dirt smudges all over it. The trails where his tears had been streaming down his face were quite visible as streaks through the soil spots on his cheeks.

David had apparently fainted at the prospect of being about to be beaten up by someone far taller than him, and hadn't woken up since.

"Poor guy," Rolly pitied, "He's out like a candle."

"Yeah, why do we stand up for such a wuss any-"

SMACK!

"Hey, what was that for?" exclaimed Chick as he rubbed the spot on his face where Rolly's hand had connected.

"Just keep your opinion to yourself, Chick," said Rolly in the form of an aggravated, out-of-her-teeth tone.

"Come on," said Billy as he picked up one of David's shoulders and Bantam picked up David by the other, "let's get David back to his house."

The Crow's Colony, Unspecified Time

Dark Corvo looked on in awe. Then, he reclined in his seat and grinned to himself. Now he understood what his master was trying to say. Now he understood why this boy was useful.

"Slave!" called Corvo to his young chick servant, a prisoner of war.

"Yes, my master?" asked the young chick as it entered the room of Dark Corvo and lowered its head in respect.

Corvo smiled. "Prepare the black suit for transfer to the human world. There may yet be a way to save the master."

"Yes, master" responded the chick, as he headed off to retrieve the black suit. Suddenly, the actual command got to the chick's head, and his face turned pale.

"B-b-b-but master, why resort to such an extremity to-"

"Did I ask your opinion, slave?" Corvo asked in a deceptively calm voice and without looking back up at his slave, not at all content with said slave's questioning of him.

"N-no, sir," the chick submissively uttered.

"Then go and carry out my command," said Corvo, still abnormally calm.

Knowing better than to oppose the will of a child of Nocturn, the chick turned around and, without a word, set out to carry out his master's wish.

Corvo watched his slave leave the room. When the chick had left to retrieve the suit and was fully out of view, Corvo returned his gaze to the small orb that was his master. Now Corvo had to make sure that absolutely nothing went wrong, or any chances of freeing his master would be done for. This was his last chance.

Well, How did you like it? I did this while I was on what I like to call "writer's surge."

Anyway, constructive criticism would be most highly appreciated in your reviews. Flames will be welcomed, and mindless praise tolerated. Off-topic comments will either be taken into consideration or ignored.

Until next time, audience!