Chapter 11 – Trample – Part 1

(Youtube music: Hataraku Maou-sama! OST - Table at Maou's Home)

Snore after snore, Mac happily snoozed away on the couch (a snot bubble was rising and falling in his nostril as he breathed) as Zane glared at him with a look of incredulous irritation.

Zane, broom in hand, is trying to clean up after a party.

Luna leads her parents out. The rest of the team was cleaning up and enjoying the leftovers of all the party food. Mostly IHOP take-out and muffin cups.

"Thanks for coming out," Luna said to her parents. "I'm sure Zane just had the best birthday ever. Isn't that right, Zane?"

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Zane yelled at Mac, snapping him out of his peaceful slumber.

"WHAT!?" Mac yelled back. "I'M SLEEPING HERE!"

"I noticed! We're supposed to be cleaning up here and you're sawing logs!"

"Hey, I worked overtime last night and I feel tired!"

"You park cars for a living!"

"You solve crimes and make art!"

"You sleep with your mouth open!"

"You dance naked to 'I'm Gonna Be'!"

"I did that once!"

"GUYS!" Luna stepped in and pulled them apart. "What is wrong with the both you!?"

"I'm honestly getting real sick of your laziness!" Zane explained. "You barely get involved in fights! You show up wearing an entire Best Buy's worth of tech! And you barely use any offensive magic! Your gargoyles and Colossus do all the work for you!"

"Uh…should we leave?" Marilyn asked, nervously.

"What the hell is this about?" Mary asked. "You two never fight like this."

Zane blows hot steam out of his nostrils and leaves. Mac humphs and walks away himself.

Luna and others finally say their byes to her parents and sit down to discuss what just happened.

"Okay, what happened between the two of them?" Hannah asked.

"Sit down, children, as the good bard, Jack, spins ye a tale of two friends turned mortal enemies!" Jack announced.

"Can't you explain this in a normal way?" Becky droned.

"No one on this team does anything in a normal way," Mary replied.

Everyone muttered in agreement.

"THIS GODDAMN CAKE IS FUCKING DELICIOUS! WHY IS IT SO FUCKING DELICIOUS!?" Zane's voice resounded from his room.

Becky held out her hand and announced, "Exhibit A through Zane."

Everyone clapped.

Theme Song: (Youtube music: Fairy Tail - Opening Theme 4)

Yo Ho kaji wo kire torikaji ippaide

Yo Ho uousaou ikina jinsei

Hi ga ochiru koroni wa shukkou no utage

abishiku nanka nai ikiterya mata dokkade aeru

Mukai kaze buchinuki tabidate

Namida namida kareru made otoko nara tsuyogatte

Tomo yo tomo yo itsuno hi ka waratte

Katai katai kizuna wo sa tashikame aeru youni

Ima kagayaki dasu mirai no chizu wo saa tsukami tore

YO HO - let loose the rudder, hard to port

YO HO - helter skelter, the best kind of life

When the sun goes down, we'll have a farewell bash

Don't be sad,

If we make it,

We'll meet again somewhere,

We'll set off straight through the headwind

Tears... tears... until none are left - a man's gotta be tough

Friends... friends... someday we'll be laughing

As if we have to make sure these bonds are firm

Now we take hold of future's map, which begins to shine

Iago's Defenders surround the area

Team

Logo

Allies

Baddies

Argus Silver

PSMP Spaceship

Lilianna and Tezzeret

Battle scenes. Mac vs. Iago. Zane and Mary vs. Calibos.

Luna explodes in anger

Heroes fight back.

Calibos releases power as Zane and Mary fight back.

Logo

"So, about a week ago," Jack explained. "Zane and I got home with Luna after rescuing her from Montague's greasy, creepy hands."

"How greasy?" Mary asked Luna.

"I had to use bottles upon bottles of acne and exfoliating creams on my boobs to make sure they didn't break out," Luna replied.

"EWWWW!" Mary exclaimed.

"Anyways," Jack continued. "Once we got back, Mac had just gotten back from work and we told him what was up. He immediately replied, 'Man, Montague's lucky to get to second base!'"

"Oh, God," Becky facepalmed. "Now it makes sense. How badly did Zane throttle him?"

"He threw me out of the window!" Mac exclaimed, having walked back into the living room. "I didn't have any food or water or even my deck, so I couldn't even use magic! No one even came to help! Eventually, I fell asleep out there and had to hang on to the tree like a fucking sloth."

"The word sloth is right," Zane replied, also having shown up with an irritated expression on his face.

"Yeah? You're just a grumpy, rude old man in a hot body!" Mac yelled.

"Um…okay…," Luna replied. "Are we just gonna ignore that?"

"You're just a flaccid, unmotivated sloth!" Zane shot back.

Both of them start arguing like crazy.

"Is he planning on picking a fight with everyone?" Jack asked as the argument continued. "First me, now Mac."

"Zane's a dad-friend," Luna explained. "Bad jokes, loves food, and complains like crazy, but also very overprotective and doesn't hesitate to whack people over the head when they need a good whacking. And Mac is like an eternal teenager."

"What does that make me?" Hannah asked, excitedly.

"The baby," Jack replied.

"Oh…," Hannah dropped. "That makes too much sense…"

"Jack is the lazy yet motivated father, Luna is the mom that takes care of all, Zane's the crazy uncle that takes care of people alongside his sister, Hannah is the baby, Becky is cool aunt, and Mac's the teenager," Mary observed. "What does that make me?"

Everyone looked at each other like they totally knew.

"Anyways," Luna got and pushed both Zane and Mac back. "Stop it!"

"He started it!" Mac whined.

Hannah walked over to Mac. "Hey, why don't we go to your room and just relax, huh?"

"Fine," Mac sighed. "I don't wanna be here anyway!"

Mac left and Hannah hurried behind him, giving the team an apologetic look as she did.

Zane scoffed and left.

"Where are you going?" Luna demanded.

"Outta here," Zane shot back.

Zane left the treehouse.

Luna sighed. "Crazy uncle that needs to take care of himself."

(Youtube music: Hataraku Maou-sama! OST - The Hero Stays at the Devil's Castle)

Mac lay on his bed as Hannah looked over his stuff. Computer parts and random dissected machines were strewn across two desks. A computer was downloading a game and playing alternative music at a low volume.

A whiteboard had potential plans and ideas for weird experiments.

Hannah looked closer at one. "'Angel Card Jumpstart Mechanism?' You're gonna try to activate the angel cards with jumper cables?"

"Kinda," Mac replied.

"What are you gonna do about the current issue?" Hannah asked, nervously.

"Probably sleep," Mac answered, nonchalantly.

"That's not a way to solve this!" Hannah yelled at him. "Everyone expects you to just lay down and do nothing! You gotta prove em wrong!"

"I know, but how? Have you met Zane? He's super hard-headed. There were people in school that called him Zane Hard-Header. We didn't have the most imaginative bullies at our school."

"What was your nickname?"

"Either Panty-Pisser or Chink-Lover."

"What the heck!?"

"Anyways, what's the point?"

"The point is that Zane cares about you despite all the yelling and tossing you out the window, and if you appeal to his rational mind, I'm sure he'll listen. What's the worst that could happen?"

Mac got a fleeting image of Zane reducing him to ashes with a single sneeze. "I could die."

"I think you're exaggerating."

"I don't think he'll care."

"I don't think so!"

Hannah grabbed his foot and yanked him off the bed the long way and pulled him to the floor.

"You're surprisingly strong for someone that's five-foot-two and 105 pounds," Mac muffled through a mouth full of floor.

"Let's go!" Hannah grabbed him and dragged him off.

A minute or two later, they find them themselves in front of the dreaded KEEP OUT sign in front of Zane's door.

"What goes on in there?" Hannah asked, nervously.

"It's just a dopey sign to keep weirdos out in case we have guests," Mac replied. "The door is always unlocked but Zane's rep is generally a better deterrent than any lock."

Hannah knocked on the door. No answer.

"Maybe he's relaxing?" Hannah offered. "Perhaps he's meditating upon his actions and deciding how to talk to his friend?"

"You live in your own little world, don't ya?" Mac sighed. "Does Zane seem like the kinda guy that meditates? Yo, Zane! Open the fuck up!"

No answer.

"That's it," Mac opens the unlocked door and they see that no one is inside. "He's not even here! Okay, we tried!"

"Wait! What if he's out there, walking around feeling sad because of the fight?"

"Well, then, being here won't help us regardless!"

"Wow, his room is a mess."

"Yeah, and he tells me I'm lazy and unmotivated. What's going over there?"

Mac and Hannah walked over to the desk where Zane had made notes on the angel cards. Luna's Urichast and Jack's Raphility were placed there. Zane had been analyzing them with a magnifying glass and a microscope.

The notes said things like:

-Need to get over own issues to activate

-Material composition, scent, inking, and coloration identical to other holographic cards

-Buy toilet paper

-Buy more notepads

-Buy paper in general

"Man, waiting to get over your issues seems so time-consuming. My jumpstart idea is way better," Mac whined.

"What exactly is your jumpstart idea? I saw the diagram but it just looked like you planned on connected your angel card with another one, which, no offense, seems sorta stupid."

"Thanks for the confidence boost. But I know what I'm doing. These cards provide their own power with the simple touch of a Planeswalker. All I have to do is connect them with jumper cables and ta-da!"

"You know how Zane mentioned sloth? This is maybe what he's talking about."

"What? You think I'm just some lazy idiot, too!?"

"No, no! That's not what I said! Take it easy! I just mean that maybe you to wait it out till you activate it by learning a fundamental lesson. Zane learned the meaning of patience as well as acting to take initiative and using anger as a righteous power. He's still grumpy but he's better. Luna proved that despite her lust-inducing looks and healthy sex drive, she's loyal and faithful to her fiancé, while standing up to sexual predators and proclaiming faithfulness and chastity. Jack understood the meaning of getting over his pride and having enough humility to admit when he's wrong and ask for help."

"So, what are you saying I gotta do?"

"The opposite of sloth is diligence. So maybe learn how to do it by working at it?"

"Or just do the work to do it myself! Using my mind to solve issues is diligence! Thanks, Hannah!"

Mac grabbed Urichast and Raphility and ran out.

"That's not what I meant!" Hannah yelled after him.

(Youtube music: Benny Hill's Theme)

Hannah ran back to Mac's room as he placed the positive and ground ends of the cables on Urichast.

"Luna's angel is better because she uses defensive magic. Plus, she's blue, which is nice," Mac giggled like a little child.

"This is a bad idea!" Hannah warned. "We don't know anything about these angel cards and we really oughta study this before we do anything like…like…"

Mac chuckled as he placed the positive and negative ends of the other side on his own blank card. Suddenly, a deep blue light burst from the card.

"Like that…," Hannah finished, putting her hand up to block the strong light.

Mac struggled to see through the light as the images and letters appeared on the card.

Gabrence, the Indomitable Juggernaut.

"That sounds bad…," Mac squeaked and…everything went black.

Concurrently, a knocking on the door pulled Luna and Mary away from the tasking of cleaning up the room.

"Is Zane back?" Mary asked.

"He has a key," Luna replied. "Why would he need to knock?"

"Maybe he's planning an amazing entrance," Mary gasped. "With lights and drums and singing and squids!"

"Uhhh…why squids?" Luna asked.

"Sorry, I finally watched 'Sing'!" Mary confessed.

Luna smiled and rolled her eyes. She opened the door to find Hannibal standing there with a big bottle of champagne.

(Youtube music: Gilderoy Lockhart)

"Oh, no…," Luna mumbled, but quickly recomposed herself. "Hello, Hannibal. What brings you by?"

"I heard it was the hothead's jerk-weasel's birthday so I figured I might as well as show up!" Hannibal announced as he walked in. "When's the party?"

"An hour ago," Luna mumbled.

"Well, restart the party 'cause I got the most happening booze!" Hannibal replied.

"That's a $4.47 bottle of Andre Brut from Total Wine and More!" Mary observed.

"I don't have an income anymore, Hot Legs!" Hannibal yelled.

Hannibal and Mary glared at each other.

"Okay! Hey, relax, guys!" Luna pulled them away from each other. "Take it easy, Mary. Pardon the pervert. He can't help who he is. Hannibal, thank you for coming and bringing the bottle of slow-killing poison, but no one here drinks. In fact, Zane can't even get drunk since he's a werewolf."

"So…can I drink it?" Hannibal asked, hopefully.

"Not here," Luna ordered. "But at your own home, proceed to knock yourself out."

"And she means that literally," Mary added.

"Anyways, the real reason I came is to hand you guys this," Hannibal pulled out a small silver rectangle out of his pocket. It was decorated with swirling designs and a green emerald.

"That looks familiar," Luna observed, taking the rectangle from Hannibal. "Is this the Librum Virtute?"

"I compressed it into a pocket edition," Hannibal chuckled. "Now even ya wimps can carry it around!"

"Said the jackass with smoker's lungs and a bad back," Mary shot back.

Hannibal is about to give a snappy retort when…BOOM!

"Did you plan fireworks!?" Hannibal yelled.

"I don't think so!" Luna yelled back.

Jack and Becky ran in from the kitchen.

"What the hell was that?" Jack yelled, then pointed at Hannibal. "What the hell is he doing here?"

"Nice to meet ya too, G.I. Jack," Hannibal groaned.

"I think that came from Mac's room!" Becky pulled them back on track. "He and Hannah could be in trouble!"

The five of them ran down to Mac's room only to find a cloud of dust and debris strewn everywhere. Through the dust, the saw a small body lying there.

"Hannah!" Luna yelled and ran to her. She crouched down to the tiny girl and began casting a healing spell with her glowing hands.

(See card: Healing Hands)

The others looked at the remains of Mac's room. Or what was his room.

Half the room was missing along with the branches of the oak tree it was resting on.

"Something smashed through here!" Jack exclaimed. "What the hell happened, Hannah?"

Hannah was up now, looking exhausted and beat up.

"Mac made a mistake…," she squeaked. "He used your angel cards to jumpstart his own…"

"WHAT!?" Luna yelled. "What made him think that was even a good idea?"

"Pure, unadulterated sloth," Becky replied.

"Well, this is interesting," Hannibal chuckled. "Dumbass thought he'd be able to bypass learning a fundamental lesson by taking a shortcut. He's probably transformed into his angel and has no ability to control himself."

"He can't control his own angel?" Jack asked. "How do you figure that?"

"Read the book," Hannibal offered.

Luna pulled out the Librum Virtute.

"Is that the big silver book?" Hannah asked.

"Pocket edition," Luna winked and checked it. "Okay, they're apparently called the Sealed Virtues Angels. 'Seven angels created by the combination of Alara's excess power and the essence of human virtue…can only be unsealed by the realization of the presence of sin…if one can't control the anger, untethered righteous fury rages upon all…' Sort of a retribution for being stupid enough to take the easy way out."

"How slothful is Mac?" Hannibal smiled.

Everyone sighed.

"Hey, look!" Mary brought their attention over to her. She picked something off the floor. "Your angels!"

Mary handed Luna and Jack their angels. Both of them felt relieved, but at the same time…

"He…used…our…angels…," Luna started.

"For…his…goddamn…shortcut," Jack finished.

"He's dead meat!" the couple yelled and ran out of the house.

"Ah, to be young and in love and royally pissed off," Hannibal sighed.

"We should go, too," Becky offered.

The other three girls ran out as well.

"Ah, don't worry about me," Hannibal laughed. "I'll just sit here, drink my champagne, and whack off to porn! Hehehe!"

Hannibal popped open the bottle and sent the cork flying about. The cork ricocheted off the wood walls and hit him in the nuts, forcing him to the ground.

"Somebody help…man down…help…," he squeaked.

Zane trudged through a city plaza right outside the massive Bazaarden Mall. The snow fell gently around him. The autumn weather in this city was so unpredictable. Sunny one day, rainy the next, snowy a few days later. Winter was fast approaching this year and it already felt like it should be December.

He looked to the side of the street opposite to the mall. Construction was on hold due to the weather and the half-built buildings looked haunted as opposed to the bustling utopia they faced.

Zane pulled his jacket closer as the thoughts in his head seemed colder than the air around him.

"They don't like what you did…," a voice rang through his head.

SHUT UP!

"Nobody in that house is gonna take your side!"

SHUT UP!

"Why don't you just leave? You never belonged in that family and you don't belong in this house!"

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Zane yelled, scaring the shoppers around him. He glared at them, breathing hard. They quickly scampered away.

He regained his composure and kept walking, only to be stopped by an odd feeling.

He looked to his left and upwards to see a CCTV camera staring right at him. He looked to his right and saw another one. Looking around, he realized that a series of cameras that were supposed to be overlooking about two miles of walkway and one-point-five acres of parking space were all looking at him.

He looked up and grinned menacingly.

In a dark room where the only light source were twenty computer screens, two well-dressed people, a tall woman and pudgy man were watching a red dot move around in a suspicious manner. Windows on the screen showed a short, scruffy-hair man in a long black coat walking around hurriedly.

A man of moderate height and little hair, bobbing along in a suede suit and glasses, hurried over to them.

"What did you say he did?" the man asked, mildly out of breath.

"He stopped and looked around. Pretty sure he noticed the camera's looking at him. Personally, I thought that was a stupid idea," the lady replied. "Are you okay, Doctor?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," the balding doctor waved her off. "Elevator's broken. What else?"

"Well, he's nothing like Roosevelt, who of course was tailed for three years before he realized he was being watched," the man answered. "Hunter realized after just minutes that we were watching."

"I mean, did he do anything else?" the doctor asked in a more precise manner. "Did the satellite pick anything up in his movements?"

(Youtube music: Sherlock - Pursuit)

"Nothing yet and…oh wait, what is he doing?" the woman observed.

Down at the plaza, Zane had begun walking around and in loops and long sprints, jumping around occasionally.

"Is he saying something?" the man wondered. "I'll turn on the tracer."

In the dark room, the satellite imaging traced his path around. A big loop, then a loop below it. A curving motion, a big curve, then a curve down and way up. Then he backtracked down and shot up. Then sprinted down, then back up for another loop. Then he curved out and stopped.

Everyone in the room, twenty or so people, was watching this display now with bated breath.

Then he started back up, jumping off the initial pattern lines and curves to a new pattern a curve up, backtrack down and around, a small loop within curves and out. Then a big loop above and one below, repeated the two loops to the side, and stopped.

The patterned was clear in elegant cursive and expert typographical excellence:

fuck off

Zane walked off, looking rather proud of himself.

"Okay, so he knows we're watching," the man stated.

"What gave it away?" the woman asked. "The bitch-faced murderous stare he gave us or the profanity currently littering all the screens in this room?"

The man just gave her an annoyed look.

"Regardless," the doctor smiled nervously. "He's good. The whole family is like this. I'd assume we'd get a similar result from his sister, but with significantly less profanity."

"What do we do now?" the woman asked.

Zane walked on, much more at ease, until another feeling of apprehension took over. He could hear it well before it arrived. And smell it. Big, explosive, metal, and giving off the sound and scent of burning fuel.

It arrived like a jet flying too close to the ground, blasting over the area and sending shoppers into a panic. It flew around a bit and then descended to all fours. It looked familiar. It also had a familiar scent. Like stale Cheetos and IHOP takeout. The same IHOP take-out that he and all his friends had gotten for his party.

Slowly, it rose to its max height, standing thirty feet tall. Silver, gold, and royal blue plates and panels shifted as it went from some sort of high-speed flight mode to a terrestrial mode. Its arms swung about, each decorated with a massive arm panel that carried two sharp blades two feet long and razor-sharp. Black, metal-covered hands rotated out of each arm. Massive legs touched the ground and pushed the sidewalk down under its weight, massive gold claws grabbing hold of the earth. Its massive silver wings tucked in as a dome on the top opened and revealed a gold and silver bear-like head with sharp silver fangs and red, menacing eyes.

Eyes that were staring at Zane as the big hulking creature breathed in and out with angry animal-like growls, staring at him with intent.

Zane noticed that there was a lit-up panel on its chest with a symbol on it. A cross with a strange curve on its right. The symbol of…

"Saturn? Wait, are you…"

"Zane!" a voice yelled behind him.

The smell of flowers and pastels told him it was Hannah as she ran up behind him and hugged his arm tight.

"Please,…he's not himself…," Hannah gasped through a red face and eyes filled with tears. The rest of the team ran caught up to them, decked out in their usual equipments and enchantments.

"Is that Mac?" Zane guessed. "How?"

"He used mine and Luna's angel cards to jumpstart his own shit and it took over him," Jack hurriedly explained. "Also, Hannibal's in the house doing unspeakable things."

(Youtube music: Gilderoy Lockhart)

Hannibal was lying on the couch with an ice pack on his crotch, drinking champagne out of a fancy glass as he skimmed through porn on the computer, which was hooked up to the television to aid the experience.

"Huh… 'Whorey Potter and the Sorcerer's Balls'…sounds interesting…at least I'm comfortable now…"

The porn began and immediately, Hannibal regretted it.

"AAAAAAAH! It's just men! Oh, God, why!?"

Back at the mall, the massive hulking mad angel known as Gabrence started down his friends, specifically Zane.

"Please, you have to help him," Hannah squeaked and hiccupped through her tears. "I tried to stop him and…he didn't listen…and I'm sorry…please…"

Zane gave her an affectionate pat on the head and walked forward.

"So, we've come to this," Zane spoke up.

Gabrence let out a massive bear roar at Zane, who grew out his fangs and roared right back, shaking the windows and making the last of the shoppers run off in fear.

(Youtube music: Driving with the Top Down)

Zane pulled Azrience out and put on his armor. Luna and Jack followed suit with Urichast and Raphility. The others, minus angels, fell back but took a fighting stance nonetheless.

"Mac, you got one chance," Zane ordered. "Fall back now."

Gabrence roared again.

"Then this is your fault," Zane announced and shot into the battle, the rest of the team behind him.

Zane punched Gabrence in the face, releasing micro missiles as he did, blasting his face upon impact.

Panels opened up all over Gabrence and released series of missiles.

"Oh, crap! Guys, intercept!"

The team got on it. But not before taking a few painful hits from the smaller missiles.

Once they got their act together, Becky blasted missiles with jets of water to destroy them in midair. Mary shot lightning out of her hands and relayed her Thopters into a coordinated barrage. Hannah copied the two of them while shooting vines that surgically impaled the missiles, blowing them up. Jack shot missiles with his feather arrows.

(See card: Hydrosurge)

(See card: Galvanic Blast)

(See card: Thopter Squadron)

(See card: Coordinated Barrage)

(See card: Reverberate)

(See card: Crushing Vines)

(See card: Hail of Arrows)

Luna faces two large missiles. Her four wings responded to her need. The top two wings grew shards of ice and covered her. The missiles exploded against the magical ice, destroying it, but leaving the wings and Luna underneath unharmed. The wings unfurled.

The bottom two wings became mirror-like, geometric and glossy, like dragonfly wings. Missiles shot out of the wings, replicating Gabrence's magic, and shot at their master.

(See card: Twincast)

Zane got out of the way of the missiles, but Gabrence destroyed them with more missiles. The debris and explosions barely seemed to phase it.

"Good plan, but I think he's like me with my armor," Zane replied. "An infinite hammerspace. He'll never run out of missiles."

"And he seems to be a lot more physically defensive than any of us," Mary observed.

Zane jetted towards him and the two of them began brawling, crashing around and slamming each other into things. Zane, being about a sixth of the size of Gabrence, took considerably more hits.

(Youtube music: Fairy Tail - Ayashii Madoushi)

"That's Mac, all right," Becky droned. "A big lumbering meathead."

Gabrence punched Zane into a wall.

"Maybe the fact that we're so mean to him is why he's like this," Jack offered.

Zane grabbed Gabrence's arm and ripped it off, revealing no human arm inside.

"Speak for yourself, I'm always nice to him," Luna snapped back. "It's not my fault Zane and Becky are grumpy, callous jerks all the time."

Zane began slapping Gabrence with his own arm. "Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!"

"He just wanted to be accepted and we turned him into a monster!" Hannah cried.

"I'm gonna get you outta that suit, Mac!" Zane yelled and punched Gabrence, who simply reeled back, roared, and charged.

"He really cares!" Hannah cheered.

"And beat your ass for taking a stupid-ass shortcut while the rest of us had to work for it!" Zane added and launched Gabrence's own arm at him.

"He doesn't care…," Hannah groaned.

"Shouldn't we help?" Mary reminded everyone.

"Nah, he's got it," Jack replied.

"The more of us that get involved, the more of a mess this will make," Becky explained. "We're here as more of an as-needed basis, so to speak. Luna and Jack would go in before us angel-less folk."

Zane tried to put Gabrence into a choke hold, but to no avail. Gabrence activated his jets.

"And this is between Zane and Mac and their issues," Jack added. "This is a result of their argument. And one thing I learned growing up with a fucking litter of siblings, most of them boys, is that if you're in an argument, sometimes you just gotta brawl it out."

Gabrence flew up and into the mall, breaking a sizeable chunk of the front edifice and triggering the alarms.

"Although, not if you wreck the place!" Jack yelled in panic.

(Youtube music: Fairy Tail - Invoke Magic)

The team flew/ran in after them.

Luna immediately cast a spell and the alarm shut off.

(See card: Annul)

Mary caught up to them and tried to pry Zane off, but ended up forced to hang on for dear life.

(See card: Accelerate)

"What are you doing!?" Zane yelled.

"Trying to help!" Mary yelled back.

"And how's that going!?"

"Not well!"

The three of them jetted over and around everything in the mall. The food court was ravaged.

"Not my Sbarro's!" Luna screamed.

They obliterated most of the tech stores, making Jack stutter and stare blankly at the wreckage.

"It was so clean and pretty before," Jack whined.

They blew the door off the Disney store.

"NOOOO!" Luna and Hannah screamed.

They rammed through the Duncan Enterprises ATMs and money went everywhere.

"I'm okay with this," Becky DUNCAN droned, trying to keep herself calm.

They hit the merry-go-round and began spinning at high speed.

"Hey, look at that!" Jack exclaimed. "Mary-go-round and around and around!"

Luna punched him in the arm for this comment.

Suddenly, the ride exploded, sending all three of them flying off, into the window, and back out of the mall, causing the already wrecked front edifice to collapse entirely.

The rest of team followed them out.

Gabrence stood, still hulking but disoriented. Zane was on the ground, worn out and breathing hard. Mary tried to stand up, but dizzily fell over. Luna caught her.

"Thanks, but how are we gonna solve this?" Mary asked.

"Better yet, how are we gonna deal with all this wreckage?" Hannah countered.

"Same way we always do," Zane groaned and stood up.

"Haul ass and hope no one saw us there," Jack nodded.

Luna sighed, as she didn't want to admit it, but that was probably the best option.

"We'll do that right after handling this," Zane growled as he pulsed with energy four times and began glowing red aura as he gathered an enormous amount of mana. "I didn't want to pull out the literal big guns, but clearly taking it easy on you isn't gonna cut it. Mac! I'm giving you till the count of five to stop! Ready?"

(See card: Seething Song)

"All that was holding back?" Hannah squeaked in fear. "What are you about to do to him!?"

"Watch!" Zane answered. His arm panels shifted to show a sort of incremental instrumental on each forearm.

Gabrence roared at Zane and charged.

(Youtube music: Fairy Tail Original Theme)

"One!"

Zane blasted Gabrence with arcing volleys of lightning, stopping the brute in his tracks. The instruments on Zane's arm each gained one small red blip on them.

(See card: Lightning Helix)

"Two!"

Zane's helmet shifted open, allowing Zane to release a massive blast of fire from his mouth, sending Gabrence flying back. Two blips. Gabrence popped open his barrels and prepared to launch an attack.

(See card: Fireball)

"Three!"

Zane's helmet shut back as he gathered energy. The sky flashed red for a brief second. Zane brought the energy together into a ball of fire in his hands and launched it at Gabrence, blasting him back even further. Three blips.

(See card: Red Sun's Zenith)

Gabrence responded to this by activating a powerful weapon. A horrid screech erupted from his mouth and assaulted everyone's eardrums.

(See card: Warping Wail)

"THAT'S AWFUL!" Jack yelled.

"MY EARS ARE BLEEDING!" Becky yelled back.

"WHAT!?" Mary screamed.

"It's a counterspell!" Luna yelled. "Stop right there!"

Everyone's tinnitus wore off almost momentarily as Luna touched her neck to cast her own counterspell using the glow of small stone on the necklace that came with her angel form.

(See card: Dawn Charm)

"Thanks, Luna!" Zane yelled.

"Careful! I only have four shots in one battle with this Dawn Charm!" Luna warned.

"Zane, look out!" Mary yelled.

As Zane looked back, he realized that Gabrence had switched into an assault position as his head had split apart to allow a massive barrel to pop out and begin charging.

"And four!"

Zane pulled his shield from the back as the Gabrence fired. The shield blocked the blast and shot it back at Gabrence who seemed unmoved and unaffected by his own energy. Four blips.

(See card: Boros Fury-Shield)

"Last chance!"

Gabrence roared.

"And five!"

Zane's eyes and chest emblem all flashed a powerful light that stunned Gabrence and left him confused and dazed. Five blips.

(See card: Blinding Flare)

"Luna! Jack! Arrest him!" Zane yelled.

Luna and Jack flew in, both shooting yellow rope-like magic strands from their weapons, Luna casting them about like a spell and Jack literally shooting them out, and trapping Gabrence in the strands.

(See card: Arrest)

Zane yelled as massive barrels popped out of his forearm armor and quickly gained loads of red energy compacted into spheres of fiery, all of which was shot at Gabrence.

(See card: Five-Alarm Fire)

Gabrence finally fell to his knees and then hit the ground. His back and major joints exploded.

"It took all that to bring him down," Becky realized. "He must have a ridiculously sturdy defense. If he learns to control it and stay motivated, Mac could be a force to be reckoned with."

Zane ran to the smoldering armor and pulled pieces apart until he managed to get to the center. A cockpit with computer screens and controllers for the weapons were arranged in front of a cushy seat made for a tall man and the tall man in question was passed out, snoring and oblivious, in the seat.

"Are you serious?" Luna growled.

"Are you telling me…?" Jack added.

"THAT THIS WHOLE FUCKING TIME, HE WAS ASLEEP!" Zane yelled.

Getting back home was relatively easy after they yanked Mac out and woke him up.

Apologizing profusely, he begged for forgiveness.

"I'm not gonna not forgive you, ya dumbass!" Zane yelled at him. "Just don't do something so stupid again! You have any idea how scared I was!"

Zane and Mac talked out their issues on the way home as the rest of the team followed behind them.

"Considering that they've been best friends for fifteen years, I doubt much of anything would split them apart," Luna commented.

"Probably why you're okay with Mac living with you guys," Mary added. "He probably feels like a distant family member that you really enjoy seeing every day."

"Yeah, kinda," Luna agreed.

Finally arriving at home, they are not at all surprised to see a drunk Hannibal passed out on their couch, covered in an old blanket. The television was off and the computer was still connected to it.

"Fantastic," Luna sighed. "What a lovely sight. At least he used one of the old, ratty blankets. Get up, Hannibal, time to go home!"

Luna took off the blanket to reveal something disgusting.

"OH! EW! NO!" Luna exclaimed.

"What? What happened?" Jack ran over.

"What else?" Becky guessed. "He jerked himself to sleep and didn't zip up as a result."

Everyone went into a fit of gagging and laughter at this.

Hannibal woke up.

"Oh, hey, you're back!" Hannibal mumbled, drunkenly. "Fantastic! Hey, this is a great blanket!"

"Keep it," Luna nodded. "If you don't, I'll probably have Zane burn it."

"Can I burn Hannibal, too?"

Hannibal blew a raspberry towards Zane, who countered with his middle finger. Luna led Hannibal out. After they cleaned the couch, they finished cleaning up the rest of the room.

Mac had to take a spare room as the repairs to his room would take a while.

As everyone headed off to bed, Zane and Mac were left inspecting the living room. As Zane nodded and started leaving, Mac called out, "Hey."

"What's up?"

"We're good, right?"

"Yeah, we're good. Just gonna get some sleep since we gotta repair your room tomorrow."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I'll get control over my angel soon."

"I know you will, bro."

Zane went over to Mac and gave him a big bro hug. Luna came in and saw them and smiled. She quickly grabbed what she needed and left, happy and content.

Zane and Mac let go and nodded. Zane left.

"Just gonna watch some stuff and then pass out," Mac grabbed the remote.

"Sounds good." Zane left.

Mac turned on the television to immediately see a graphic scene from Whorey Potter and the Sorcerer's Balls.

The scream of horror Mac let out was way worse than Gabrence's Warping Wail.