Chapter 11: Axeman

The fist flew toward Brian, aimed for just over his shoulder. Batting it away with measured force, he restated his instruction with added discontent.

"No, like you're trying to hit me, not almost hit me."

"I just want to be sure you don't get hurt even more," Alejandra said through audible breaths brought about by the earlier half-hour of striking at the air with the most basic of the would-be hero's techniques. 'Checking your form' he called it, hastily rephrasing that statement after realizing what that had sounded like. Alejandra knew he had meant it literally, but that had not stopped her from making a few jabs with her words. A glancing blow to his ego was one thing, but she had no desire to risk adding to the physical blows he had already suffered today.

"I said not to worry about it," Brian replied with some frustration. "It's practice for me too and it'll help us both if you're hitting for a KO."

Alejandra nodded and reentered the basic stance Brian had been taught at Kabazinski's Kickboxing Dojo nearly eight years ago and reiterated to her mere minutes ago. She was a quick learner despite Brian's dubious skills as a teacher, but as he had told her the purpose of the training was not gain knowledge of what to do, rather it was to make it second nature through the simple act of repetition. Intentionally missing during the exercise rendered it pointless, but even if there was a one percent chance that she would injure him, she did not want to take it.

"He's been hit enough today, but I'd probably hurt him more if I didn't try to."

As she reluctantly entered the stance, Brian adopted the form of the foe he had faced only hours before. She considered asking why this first time he had done so, but she sussed out the answer half a second later.

"He must think he needs to learn how to fight like that since he almost lost to it. Kind of egotistical, but not really a bad idea. Just as long as he doesn't go and look for a fight with that guy again once he figures it out. I still need a way to get that chip off his shoulder though, so I'll have to keep digging once this is over."

"Ready?", Brian questioned.

"Ready.", she confirmed.

"Alright, right jab.", he instructed and she swiftly obeyed, aiming for his nose with restrained force.

He deflected the false attack away with his forearm and broke stance. He said nothing this time, using an exaggerated gesture of disappointed to get his message across. Reassuming the form, he sternly repeated himself.

"Right jab." This time, she obeyed the spirit of that command. Brian blocked the attack far later than he was willing to admit.

"She learns quick. Stronger than she looks too...Makes that year and a half feel even worse."

Not letting his less than pure pondering on how that strength would develop give him pause, he continued his instruction.

Right jab after left jab after right jab with the occasional sidekick to break the monotony, the training quickly became tedious and exhausting to Alejandra. It was a good ten minutes later, though it felt like thirty to her, that there was any true break in the supposed action. As they had chosen a public park on a Sunday afternoon, they had been the subject to many a quizzical look from the many passersby. Most thought nothing of it and those that did had not spoken up about it, however, a sudden outburst against it broke the concentration of the pair of would-be heroes.

The dog was a pit bull, with the distinctly elongated snout of their cousin breed of Bull Terrier, and it was charging at them with all hell's fury after it announced its presence. She was named Dominio, as the booming orders coming from her owner had told all those nearby, named for the odd patches of black fur that dotted her primary coat of white. As one would expect from a dog, Domino was closing the considerable five-yard distance with infinite haste from the moment the duo entered eyesight. No one but Brian could determine why in the seconds it took for Domino to reach them.

Alejandra was unable to process what was happening at first, as the sight of a dog running was not something that would immediately trigger fight or flight instincts. Once she had realized the weight of the situation less than a second later, her first natural reaction was to run for cover. She was barely a twitch into her escape before Brian gave her a new set of instructions.

"Fall down and pretend you're hurt!"

She thought to question him as to why, but the moment's hesitation forced him to repeat himself.

"Just do it! Trust me on this!", he pleaded, making his worry no secret.

The inflection of his voice and the lack of motion he displayed were her assurance that this was no grasp at straws, but words spoken from experience. Feeling that was enough to go in the brief moments of immediate danger, she agreed and collapsed to the ground in false pain. Brian followed her to the ground in a more dignified way, taking a knee and angling his side toward the charging canine.

Domino screeched to a halt upon reaching her targets, nearly colliding with them as her rending claws dug into the ground to brake, showering the duo in dirt and grass. She barked, loud, as she began to sniff Alejandra aggressively. Recognizing the meaning behind the slight whine in her voice, Brian quickly charted a plan to calm the beast. Domino was moving erratically, confused and unsure, with her ears folded backward and constantly darted her amber eyes between Alejandra, Brian, and her still enraged owner.

Alejandra's heart was on the verge of bursting from her chest, something she could not be blamed for given how foreign of an experience this had become for her and how little control she had over it. There was anger interlaced with that fear, anger at fate for putting her in this position again and anger at herself for still lacking the strength and skill to defy it. She counted herself lucky to have Brian at her side, but dependable as he was, leaning on him for aid was the opposite of what they both wanted.

"Don't worry and don't move.", Brian said, his own nerves clearly rising. "She thought you were attacking me and didn't know any better."

He slowly offered the dog the back of his closed fist, and in a quick side glance, she gave it quick smell and a lick before continuing her anxious vigil. Her right front paw was raised and lazily hanging in the breeze to show how unsure Dominio was with a situation her canine mind wasn't fully capable of understanding. Panicked as she was, but having no aggression toward Brian, she allowed him to pet her side. With this dubious trust, the courier seized the opportunity to slip a thumb under her collar and kept a firm grip.

The owner, a portly man on the bad side of his thirties, finally caught up with them and Domino's concentration was broken for a brief moment as he heaved in exhaustion. In this break, Alejandra dared to make the slightest movement for her own comfort while the dogs head was turned. Domino lunged the exact second she moved and might have sunk her teeth into the baker's daughter were it not for Brian's hold on the beast. Not even pausing to feel the pain the pull of the collar inflicted on her throat, Domino let out a commanding bark only to cough immediately afterward.

For her aggression, Brian pushed his thumb down on the back of her neck to remind her of her place. It is a common show of dominance among canines for the alpha of a pack to nip the necks of those below them to assert their authority. Dominio yelped at that as if she were in pain, but Brian knew his strength and the behavior of dogs well enough to recognize the falseness in the animal's protest.

"She must not be used to getting shown who's boss...Guess that's even more reason to do it now." Gathering up the trailing leash, Brian tossed it to her owner.

"Here." He said through gritted teeth, "Almost broke my thumb off with that one."

The portly gentleman quickly honored the requested and wrapped the length of the lead around the considerable girth of his arm as he kept his grip steady.

"I'm really sorry about this." The owner managed to apologize through his wheezes.

"Don't be," Brian replied. "She thought I was in danger and tried to help. We could use more like her in the world today."

"Well, there isn't much use for her here!" Alejandra spoke up, clearly miffed by Brian choice in words. "We were just practicing!"

"You can't really blame her for not noticing, you were fierce back there." He remarked, catching his mistake and attempting to cover it.

"Can I get up now?" She said, her tone indicating his failure.

"Let me get you up, she'll understand it better that way."

As the owner struggled to move the densely muscled animal away from the young pair, Brain extended a hand to Alejandra. The moment their hands met, another bark rang out and was answered by a hefty pull of the leash and a nervous whine accompanied every one of their movements as they rose to their feet.

"Let's just head back." Alejandra resigned as she brushed a few loose blades of grass off her pants.

"Hang on a sec, we need to set things straight." Brian implored.

"What?" The portly man and the baker's daughter said in unison.

Well, just look at her," He gestured to the high strung pit bull, "She still thinks there's a problem, even though we've been telling her there isn't. We should clear this up now so it doesn't happen again."

He reached into his left pocket and withdrew a broken half of a dog biscuit. "Does she know 'sit'?"

"Yeah, of course." The owner said, still somewhat confused.

The dog remained in an aggressive stance, ready to pounce at a hair trigger, the repeated attempts to rebuker her actions proving ineffective.

"Domino." He said, revealing the treat in his hand. Breaking her focus for a fraction of a second, he clenches his fist and held it to his chest.

"Do you just carry those around with you all the time?" Alejandra asked.

"Yeah, why?"

The dog whined louder at her question, only to be silenced before she could fully bark.

"Hey!" Brian snapped as he stepped in to cut off her line of sight to Alejandra. After a few moments of anxious whines and a number of subtle movements from the courier, she eventually obeyed the command to sit.

Rewarding her for obeying his orders, Brian held the biscuit out in an open palm. Domino took it, slowly, and held in the corner of her razored maw, chewing in an almost cautious manner. The courier knelt down and took the opportunity to calm the dog with some now earned petting as well as allowing him to physically bar her if the next steps did not go as planned. With the first audible crunch, Brian waved Alejandra over and held out a whole biscuit. She understood his intentions near instantly but held her reservations.

"You sure you know what you're doing?"

"Hey, I didn't grow up in a place called Dogtown for nothing.", he remarked in a sly way.

Alejandra took a step forward and Domino snapped to attention, crumbs spilling from her lips. Brian made sure that the handoff was in plain view of this still befuddled animal.

"Easy," He told the dog calmly before turning to Alejandra "Be assertive, but not aggressive. And don't look her right in the eyes, dogs hate that."

She followed his advice and copied his earlier movements, Domino needing reassurance after each motion.

"You're alright with this, right?" She asked the owner once she realized that he had yet to be asked for his permission in any of this.

"This is the calmest anyone's ever been able to make her when she gets agitated like this. I kind of just want to see where this goes.", he replied.

With that loose endorsement of their actions, she gave the instruction.

"Domino,"

There was a whine.

"Sit."

Domino did not sit and barked at the suggestion that she should.

Brian enforced discipline once again, pressing her neck with his index finger considerably softer than before. She did not voice any protest this time and remained silent, though not without looking back at him with puppy eyes. After several moments of assurance and physically pushing her back end down to make sure she understood, Domino eventually did as she was told.

"She's still pretty upset, so get on her level. Put your side to her when you're doing it too, that should make her chill a little." Brian suggested.

Alejandra followed the advice, having no reason to doubt him given their success so far, and dropped to one knee.

By comparison to her behavior in the previous few minutes, Domino did calm down. As Alejandra extended a closed palm with the edges of the biscuit's bone shape poking through, a few quiet whines came with it. With much egging on from Brian and the basic temptation of the treat, the pit bull leaned in to get her scent on friendlier terms. Remaining completely still and making no eye contact, the baker's daughter opened her hand and held it steady long enough for the strain to set in as Domino constantly looked back and forth and occasionally woofing quietly with her jaws closed. Finally, just before Alejandra's arm snapped at the elbow, the dog slowly reached over and took the biscuit from her hand, retreating at the same snail's pace.

Again, Domino began her arduous process of unsure chewing as she gave Alejandra the side eye. Once her focus had shifted entirely, Brian gave a tilt of the head to push her towards petting the distracted canine. Reaching slowly forward for a simple pat on the head, she was stopped when the animal glared at her with the whites of her eyes. Soggy treat still in her vice jaws, Domino's jowls twitched back to bare her teeth and sound a quiet growl. The baker's daughter reeled her arm back just as slowly as she and Brian gave each other the same tense and awkward face to one another to indicate that they had gone far enough.

"Well, better than nothing.", Brian resigned to Alejandra. She could tell he was disappointed, not in her of course, but in Domino and to an extent, himself.

"It's a start though, right? You're the expert here." She replied, wanting to both distract him from this particular self-criticism, seeing it as unearned and to learn more of this talent with dogs he had not spoken of before.

"Yeah, most pound dogs are like this, can take years to get it out of them if they've been there for too long."

"How'd you know I got her from the pound?", the portly owner said. Brian jumped slightly at that, forgetting he was there.

"Fear-aggressive pit, never seen one that wasn't from the pound. She's about two or three years old, going by her size, so she was probably dumped off when she wasn't a puppy anymore. Probably never had to deal with other dogs before so constant barking for eighteen hours a day would have scared the absolute crap out of her." He reached over to pet Domino's side as he continued, she allowed it. "Sooner or later, instinct takes over and she starts barking back then eventually starts barking at anything that startles her. Guessing she did well with the staff though, probably why she's fine with you and me since they were the only ones not making noises at her. She was probably attacked by another dog at some point too, which is why she jumped at Alé here, she just wanted to keep a human, the only people she actually likes, from being hurt."

Alejandra had no words, stunned by this extensive knowledge he had never shown a hint of possessing before. The still unnamed owner, however, was slightly less impressed.

"Well, you're half right, but that's a real head on your shoulders for figuring that much out."

Brian tried to hide a prideful smirk, succeeding against the one who had caused it, but not Alejandra.

"Well, she seems like a good dog regardless," She said, not truly believing that, "She's not an old dog yet, so you should be able to teach her some new tricks, Mr...:"

"Olmo, and we've been trying," he said as he began to unwrap Domino's lead.

"So, what half was I wrong about?" Brian asked, any trace of his earlier mood suddenly vanishing.

"Oh...Well, that's pretty personal…" Olmo said as his own demeanor changed. "Let's just say she still remembers my ex."

Brian's face was focused and determined after hearing that, something that set dread in Alejandra. She recognized what that meant and knew what had brought him to the thoughts that had caused it. She had shared those same dark assumptions for a moment after hearing Olmo's odd explanation, though she was able to deduce his actual meaning in the few silent seconds before she had turned to see Brian's reaction.

"Oh...So a girl throwing punches at a guy is why she got so upset…" She said with reservation, such a comment not being one she would have made under any other circumstance. It made her uncomfortable to say those words and Olmo even more so for hearing them, yet Brian seemed the most unsettled by them. One more set of words she would have to force herself to say.

Once the tension in the air reached the point where it was far more awkward to say nothing, it was broken.

"Well, we should get going," Brian said hurriedly "We were about done when all this happened anyway."

Olmo coughed falsely, "Right, and we need to get back to our walk. I'll let you get back to your date."

The air became tense again, but neither of them felt the need to correct the portly gentleman. With hurried farewells and a few quite whines from Domino, Olmo pulled her back on the path while the two teenagers gathered their things.

Making their way back to the bakery in temporary silence, Alejandra pressed Brian on this newly discovered interest of his.

"I didn't know you knew so much about dogs."

"I don't, really" He explained "Just enough of the basics."

"Well, where did you learn the basics then?"

"The streets. There's a reason they call where I grew up Dogtown, everyone had one and most people didn't bother to chain them up. You learn pretty quick what to watch out for."

"Wow, really? Between that and everything else you tell me about where you grew up, it sounds even worse than it is here."

"Oh, the dogs weren't all that bad once I understood them. Only time I got bit is when I was like five and too dumb to know better. It was just a Chow though, so it wasn't a big deal. Most of them just kept to themselves and didn't wander too far from home, and the ones that were in pack let you off once you got to know 'em."

"Having packs of wild dogs roaming around at all is not even close to what I'd describe as 'Not that bad'."

"They weren't all that wild, not most of them anyway, and they were fine with people as long as we treated each other right. They usually just messed with dogs from other streets and even then, things almost never got bloody."

"Oh...Did your dog ever get hurt like that?"

"What? We didn't have a dog, what made you think that?"

"You said everyone had one where you lived."

"Everyone but us, Mom said since everyone else had a dog that we didn't need one."

Alejandra could hear the angst barely obscured by those words and found herself unable to blame him for it.

"Not many happy memories of home then, huh?"

"It wasn't all bad." Brian shrugged "Least we didn't live across the bay. Even at their worst, people still acted like people. Can't say that for most San Franer's."

"Oh, really? I know California, in general, is supposed to be this big meme with the other states but is all that really true for them?"

"Eh, kind of. San Francisco's where all the money is and where all the people used to being in money live. Doesn't help how high and mighty they act when they all either live off their parent's money or the government's."

"That doesn't really sound like the most unbiased opinion."

"It isn't, but they've always been weirdos over there, even before the split."

Having finally reached that particular chapter of American history in her schooling, she quickly realized what event was referring to.

"Oh, so the Armstrong act didn't turn out too well for you guys?"

"Didn't turn out to well for any of us, really, not that we'd admit it. I barely know the first thing about politics and even I know how bad of an idea it was to give us all the power to be that crap to each other."

"It's not like you guys actually split up, you're still the United States when it comes down to it, the Crisis proved that."

"During it sure, but Arizona sure didn't waste time putting the wall between us back up. Can't even really blame them on that one, though, they get more cartel drugs from us then they do from Mexico."

"Did they really need a wall for that, though? Couldn't they have just talked it out?"

"Probably, but that would mean we'd have to admit we might be wrong to another state, and that's never going to happen. We almost had another civil war the last time a state tried to change another's mind, it's why Armstrong got elected in the first place."

"Part of the reason why you came to Mexico before another state, I imagine."

"You know it. I probably could have gotten into Nevada if I wanted to, but I used my gut on this one, definitely paid off. Cleaner air, cleaner streets, plenty of work, and way realer people."

Sensing its cue, fate had collided with him. It felt like crashing into a wall of solid metal because that is what it was. An omnic, one of standard design but heavy modification with an unmistakable purple light motif, had run into Brian and was not staggered by even a centimeter by the human obstruction. Despite how little it had affected him, the omnic responded with uneven and oddly precise anger.

"Hey, watch it, kike! What, to jewwy to get glasses?"

It was convenient for many to forget that the racial intolerance between humans and omnics ran both ways, and how specific it was to certain groups doubly so. It was of no help that omnics could easily install themselves with rudimentary scanning technology, something meant to be banned by international law, just enough to give them a rough outline of any humans genetic makeup. Brian never cared much for his heritage, his only knowledge of it coming from a Grandmother he had only met twice, but that hadn't stopped him from retaliating the last time he had been demeaned for it. One of the most rewarding parts of his bouts for him had been putting people in their place for doing so.

He wasn't sure what to do with the anger roiling within him, a human trying to fistfight an omnic was little more than a suicide attempt and even if he had a chance at succeeding he had no assurance that society would give him a pass for it. Human-on-omnic violence was still a very real thing and Mexico was rife with it given the losses they had taken during the Crisis. Brian had doubts that even if he could make things escalate to the point where it would be self-defense that it would be seen as such if California was any indication of the rest of the world.

Alejandra didn't even need to look to see Brian's silent fury, she would have felt the same way were she the target of such prejudice. She knew that he was already running through his plans of attack, surely knowing all would fail but not truly caring. Pride was a deadly thing, as her local padre had been so adamant to remind her each sunday.

"I can see well enough to know a balless shitheel when one's in front of me.", Brian suddenly and clumsily quipped.

"It can't be my fault, that's how I win." He stood tall and defiant, the seven-foot man of iron would dwarf him at regardless of any posture, but the language was clear. Alejandra grasped his forearm before he could advance further, shaking her head with pleading eyes once theirs met. He had spoken of his feelings on being the victim of prejudice in the past after much pressure from Alejandra, she didn't entirely believe his claim that he was 'Used to it by now'.

"There's no way this isn't a trap, it was way too specific of an insult and he's a Los Muertos. There's no reason for an omnic to come to a park alone unless he was on business and Brian's done enough to get on their nerves by now." She had concluded but hadn't been given the time to explain a single word of before the omnic's next precision cut.

"What, this your bitch?" he had jeered with an electronic-tuned laugh.

"The only bitch here is you." Brian snapped back. He kept his tone calm, but the force he had used to shake Alejandra from him betrayed the illusion as he fumbled an insult back. "And she has twice the balls you'll ever have."

Somehow, it was that roundabout compliment that offended Alejandra the most.

"I was talking about you, pussyboy." Like most omnics, this offender had no face as a human would recognize it, but his voice carried his smug amusement well enough. "And two times zero is still zero, you brainlet chode. What, can't do math when you not counting shekels?"

Brian lamented the fact that he had left his wrench back at Panadería Las Nieblas more than any other mistake he had made in his life thus far. He had always taken a secret pleasure whenever he could deliver his attempts at justice against those who spat the same bigotry he had seen so hypocritically ignored by his peers. His mother had told him as a young boy to not speak of the heritage he knew little of other than the name, so learning why once he disobeyed and learned some of the other, harsher, names for it.. Brian had lived fifteen years under such hollow values, he refused to have it return to him unpunished for even a moment.

Even considering the computer mind the metal man possessed, his reply felt far too rehearsed to Alejandra's ears. Who this omnic was eluded her for but a moment before the engraving of an Aztec weapon upon his clearly customized arm entered her sight. She knew of Tepoztli by reputation as one of the few of the sentient machines employed by Los Muertos due to the remaining bad blood of the Omnic Crisis and the sheer amount of violence he had achieved thanks to that fact. It was not his original name, strange as those often were as most members of his race simply choose their own moment after their creation. He shared it with the bronze-edged weapon of the Ancient Aztecs that simply translated to 'Metal Axe', and that alone spoke volumes of his purpose here.

The baker's daughter firmly grasped the would-be hero by the shoulder before he had the chance to lunge forward and sully that title.

"It's a trap." She whispered through her teeth, holding back an insult toward his obstinance.

"I don't care!" Was his reply as he tried to free himself again, but her strength surprised him yet once more.

"I'm not letting you throw everything away just to prove a point!" She declared aloud. "He might deserve it, but think about what you'd be losing for one second!" She turned sharply to face the man of iron as she continued her justified tirade, "It's Santana, isn't it? If he wants him gone, the doctor's said he'd be well enough to make the trip back in a week. And besides, he wouldn't be making trouble if you weren't sending it to him all the time!"

Brian was taken aback by the vigor she had put into her speech, even if he had said the same things to himself before, each word felt like a revelation coming from her lips. Perhaps she had more sway over his feelings then he realized. Perhaps he just didn't trust the argument when it came from his own head. Brian was not entirely sure why it had smothered the flames of his righteous anger. It did little to put him at ease, however, the accusations she had thrown at the metal man had come too naturally and too pinpoint. Santana's odd lack of a threat to her safety while reaching for the courier's other loved ones well out of his reach echoed in his mind as he looked to her now.

Alejandra was also not freed from her worries once she looked deep in his eyes and saw what he hid behind them. Pride and rage were not all that clouded his judgment. Fear added to the storm of emotion. It made no sense to her at first, but as she pulled the pieces together from the glimpses of Brian's past he had told her of, she realized just what this fear was. It was the fear of failure, of not living up to the impossible standard he had set for himself. Somewhere within his warped mind, he had decided that leaving this hate go unanswered would be a betrayal of everything he believed.

Alejandra found herself cursing Tracer's name again, despite her finer reasoning telling her the fault laid in Brian's hands.

The omnic had no way of showing his delight at their silent exchange on his face, working around this by injecting it into an exaggerated mocking tone. "Shifty-eyed yid was probably trying to cop a feel or flinch my wallet, probably both since he's a Hollywood heeb."

Even considering his status in Los Muertos and the dubious concept of political immunity, this round of verbal abuse seemed too extreme to be natural to Alejandra. She knew Brian wasn't foolish enough to not see that as well, but seeing his fists still curled at his side told her that he stood by his stance of not caring. She only just stopped him from making another challenging stride forward.

"We're done playing your sick game" Alejandra proclaimed as she turned back to Brian, "We have better things to do than listen to anything he has to say, let's head back home." She looped an arm through the one at his side, still coiled to strike. He still wasn't comfortable with such a gesture, but he agreed with the sentiment and turned his back to the steely anti-semite.

"She's right. I hate that she's right, but she is," he admitted to himself, "That self-loving skinjob probably want dirt on me to get me in his fight hole. Smart way to stick a fork in me, I'll give him that." He slipped his arm away from Alejandra's as they walked toward the park exit, silently showing his appreciation with an awkward half smile.

Tepoztli, however, was far from finished. He used one final gambit to raise the would-be hero's ire to its boiling point.

"Oh, running away? Guess that's to be expected, trying to dodge me like your kind dodged the o-"

The entire park heard the distinctive clang of rock on metal. The proverbial fork had been stuck into Brian and he cast the first stone in kind. Despite the ferocity of his row with the man of iron, only now did they gain onlookers they did not behold the young man in a sympathetic light. Multi-colored liquid crystal bled from the omnic's shattered eye lens, though given the shape and size of them, it would have been more impressive if the courier hadn't managed to hit one. Tepoztli had never benefited so greatly from the fact that he could not smile.

Brian didn't need to look to see Alejandra's silent fury. He felt the same way about himself, even if he didn't let it show. He could claim it was a fit of righteous anger that drove a rock into his hand, many would even agree with him, but that didn't change the fact that it was a blind rage. He didn't even realize he had entered his familiar combat stance on reflex as neurons fired to find him a way out this situation. All he could find, however, was an unbroken string of the most colorful words of the English and Spanish languages.

The omnic tumbled the jagged stone onto the flattened bridge of his iron foot, not needing to use what humans might misunderstand as his wounded sight. It wasn't particularly large at 3.1 by 2.8 inches and 22.4 ounces, but that made it a perfect projectile by human standards. He had noticed the quick glance the courier had taken at the ground where it laid as the baker's daughter tried to usher him away. This boy clearly had a good eye and a better arm, precisely the sort of qualities that Santana was after. Mirroring the unseen finesse Brian had used to acquire his now slightly-chipped instrument of vengeance, Tepoztli tossed the stone mere inches from his foot and kicked it with the side of his heel directly into his hand.

"Well, David" The omnic mocked one final time "Meet Goliath."

Brian never thought that any other pain could compare to the burning lead that had burrowed its way through his skull, but the sensation of a rock shattering three ribs into his lungs at one hundred miles an hour disabused him of that notion. Unable to posture any longer, he tried to scream in pain, but only managed to retch up blood onto his hoodie. He hadn't even had the chance to realize that that blow had forced him to the ground. There was another scream, one that had the chance to sound in proper, it sounded like Alejandra, but Brian couldn't be sure as agony robbed him of his focus.

Rolling onto his open palms, he coughed deep red onto the stone in his failed attempts to stand back up. Alejandra was already at his side, trying to help him up while shouting for help in ways Brian half-heard. The fear returned and he answered it the same way as before, replacing it with anger. Reaching for the rock, he hadn't the chance to curl a single digit before all the bones in his hand were crushed. He wasn't even given the time to feel the pain before the omnic's knee rocketed into his nose. It was an odd mercy, in the end, as it robbed him of consciousness and his suffering. The price of failure paid in part.