Hello everyone good news I'm back on leave and I'm here with a new chapter for you. I've actually been free on leave for a week but it took me this long to go threw all my family and friends so now I finally had some time to write. This chapter is in my opinion not my best work, and to me it feels rushed, well thats because I did rush it, and I apologize for that. But I had little time and I don't know when I'll have time again. So please excuse it.
As for the story itself, spoiler time! Sorry I know you guys hate them but to me I just love'm. In this chapter you will get monumental insight into Duncan's past, but not every thing just the cliff notes. I know that people don't usually like Harold and for some reason or another felt sorry for him being turned from an annoying yet helpful allie to being Chris McClain's AKA the Dean's bitch. But don't worry he'll be fine... I think.
As for the rest you are just going to have to wait and read to fine out. I own nothing, enjoy.
DESPERATION
CHAPTER 21- CLIFF NOTES
There is a young man with dark raven hair and ice blue eyes, both of his hands and feet are cuffed and chained to the floor. He is sitting inside of a barred cage in what looks like an empty hall. The young man couldn't be older than 18. The young man is in an orange jump suite and is slouching in his seat looking down on the floor. Out side of the cell there are two police guards standing at each end of the cell. Both have silver badges on their chests and each have their hands on their pistol that is in their holsters on their belts in case they are needed.
The young man hears that the barred door entrance to the hall opening up. The young man raises his head and sees another group of police walk in, lead by and older looking officer with a gold badge on his chest along with two young officers who have silver badges on their chests.
The new batch of policemen walk up to the cell door. The golden badged one orders. "Open it."
The guards do as they are told and open the locks on each side of the cell door. Once they do that they open the door. Once that is done the golden badged officer says regrettably to the young man. "Well... son. Its time to go."
The golden badged officer gestures to the young man's chains. The guards unlock the young man's chain that connects him to the floor of the cell. The guards then each grab the kid by his underarms, lift him up, and walk him inch by chained feet inch. When they get to the exit of the hall the guards stop. The young man is confused and looks around, wondering why they stopped only for the golden badged officer to walk up from behind him to in front of him. When he does he says to the kid. "We are going to escort you out of this building and into an armored transfer truck along with the other convicts, where you will go to county. You'll be there for a few weeks until your transported to your permanent penitentiary."
The kid says nothing in response, just staring blankly at nothing... like his spirit got smashed to pieces by a damn sludge hammer. For the older police officer, the one with the golden badge, its almost heart breaking for him to see this kid like this. The golden badged officer asks. "Do you understand?"
The young man simply nods and just continues to stare at nothing. The golden badged officer sighs and says. "If it means anything kid. I don't agree with the verdict. A lot of us don't. You don't deserve this."
The kid does not respond and just keeps staring into space. The golden badged officer sighs again and says. "Your family is here if you want to see them one last time."
For the first time since the golden badged officer walked in the young man notices him. But he does not say anything but stare at the officer for a few moments. Eventually the young man just shakes his head. The golden badged officer is not surprised but asks anyway. "Are you sure?"
The young man just nods and says. "Just get me out of here."
The golden badged officer sighs and says. "Fine."
The officer gestures for the guards to keep moving. Which they do but again, at a ridiculously slow pase thanks to the young man's legs being shackled together. When the young man eventually makes it outside of the building he is placed into a chain gang with the other convicts. All with the same orange jump suit and chains inching their way into the armored transport vehicle.
Outside of the building there are a few people there watching this glorified side show. The young man was placed at the very end of the chain gang. Simaler to how the young man was earlier the convicts are just silently inching their way into the armored transport. The young man's outlook has not changed from before as he is just looking own sadly at his chains with his eye's filled with guilt, shame, and frustration.
After a few minutes and only a few feet of silently glaring at his chains the young man hears a gasp to his side where some of the other convicts' families where standing. The young man turns and sees at the side of the crowd two identical twins who look to be around the age of 22 and are staring at the kid with regret. At the front of the smaller group the young man sees a girl that looked no older than 15 who was looking at the young man with horror and had her hand over her mouth. No doubt she was the one who gasped. At the back of the smaller group of young adults and teen there was a man who looked like an identical yet older version of the kid in the chain gang. The man, like the young adult twins and the teenage girl, had the same natural dark raven hair and ice blue eye's as the convicted young man in the chain gang, only the older man's hair was slightly greying.
The man was staring down the young man in the chain gang with no clear expression, but that quickly changed to a look of disappointment and then to anger. Soon the man could no longer look at the young man in the chain gang so he turns away and walks back into the crowd out of the young man's line of sight. The twins and the girl turn and see him walking away with looks of confusion and anger on their faces.
Anger flairs in the young man in the chain gang who turns back and straight ahead to the convict in front of him only to see the convict step up and walk into armored transport. Before the young man makes the climb he looks back at the small group only to see that the twins and the teenaged girl are still standing there looking at him in sadness but the man is still gone.
The young man turns back and eagerly if not enthusiastically climbs into the armored transport. The young man sits down at the only available spot and once he does two armed guards step up to the entrance while a third unarmed guard comes into the armored transport and chains all of the convicts to the floor similar to the young man earlier that day.
Seeing the anger on the young man the two armed guards aim at him, afraid that he'll try something. The young man does not feel fear, similarly the guilt and disappointment he felt earlier is also gone as he is far to angry to feel anything. The young man just glares at the armed police officers until the guard in the armored transport had chained all of the convicts including the kid and hopped out. After which the unarmed guard looks inside of the transport to see if he missed anybody but when he comes to the kid the unarmed guard steps back in fear from the look of rage on the young man's face.
The unarmed guard just stares back at the angry young man, the armed guards are still aiming their pistols at the young man while the young man himself glares at them. This goes on for few moments until the unarmed guard grabs hold of the door to the transport and... slams the door shut.
Duncan opens his eye's waking up in the bed. Duncan is completely naked along with Courtney who is on top of him and is also naked. The only thing covering the two is an old green and plaid blanket on the bed. Duncan looks at Courtney and sees that she is laying on him (Just like how she does in the show) and is sound a sleep. Duncan uses his one free hand to rub his right eye. After he does that he turns to see the alarm clock and sees that it is at 5:00 AM almost to the dot.
Duncan sighs and shuts his eyes again to try and go back to sleep. But it does not come he just thinks of the dream he just had and how that is the last time he saw them. He then wonders how they are now. The twins have probably already graduated from the academy and gotten their badges and are probably making the family proud. He then thinks how BS is doing and how she should be in her senior year in high school by now. She's probably driving dad nuts. He then thinks about how his dad is... yeah.
Duncan opens his eye's and knows that he's not going back to sleep. Duncan slowly lifts the green and black blanket and gently lifts Courtney off of him. Duncan gets out of the bed and puts the blanket over Courtney who just slept soundly threw it. Duncan now out of bed puts on pair of black stretch pants, his dark green under armor shirt, and his fingerless gloves. Duncan walks out of the dorm and into his car.
When Duncan gets into his car he takes out his phone and tries to send a text but when he does it does not send it. Noticing this Duncan looks and sees that he has no signal. Duncan can't help but openly ask . "What the hell?"
Duncan gets out of the car and goes to the back of his car to check to see if a new bug is there. He does not see any and his phone works fine now. Duncan can't help but say. "Huh."
Duncan shrugs and sits back in his drivers seat of his car and takes his phone out and sees that it has no signal again. Duncan sighs and puts his phone back into his pocket and thinks about how Harold not only put a new but on his car again but now its in his car. He also thinks about how he really needs to have a word with that guy. Duncan starts looking around in the interior of his car for a few seconds but finds nothing. Duncan tries the sun guard on the drivers side and sees that a hole has been cut into it. Duncan reaches in and pulls out a red blinking chip. Duncan says annoyed. "Son of a bitch."
Duncan then things that Harold had to have done this recently, he just doesn't know why. He my be an annoying jackass but he's smart enough not to do this just for kicks. He's got to have a good reason... or I just give the kid too much credit. Regardless Duncan puts the chip back where he found it.
Duncan gets back out of the car to send the text but then he thinks. "Meh, I might as well get a protein shake."
Duncan walks back into his dorm, then into his dorms kitchen. Duncan takes a protein shake out of his fridge and takes a swig. After he does he takes out his phone to send the text again only to see that it has no signal like before. "What? Oh no way he didn't?"
Duncan looks up at his ceiling fan. Duncan sighs and hops up onto the counter to get a better look. When he does he sees a blinking red chip taped onto the back of one of the fins. "He did."
Duncan takes a deep breath and then a deep exhale. He jumps down from the counter. Duncan grabs a stool from the kitchen and walks to one of the empty rooms in his dorm compartment. When he does he sees that he has no signal. Duncan sets the stool down and stands on it and sees that there is a bug on one of the fins of the ceiling fan. Duncan gets down and takes the stool back into the kitchen and leaves it there before making his way to the other rooms and in each one there is no signal. Eventually Duncan makes it to his own room of which Courtney is still soundly sleeping. Duncan quietly checks his phone and there is no signal. Duncan whispers annoyed. "You've got to be kidding me."
when he says that Courtney stirs in the bed and turns over. Duncan sighs and takes out a blank piece of paper and a pen from his desk and writs a note on it and sets it on the desk. After he does Duncan heads back to his car and drives off.
XXX
Duncan parks his car into one of the parking lot spaces of the warehouse. Duncan gets out of the car and when he does he sees a lot of other beat up cars there. Duncan takes out his green hoodie and walks into the warehouse with out having to get past the bouncer or other security guys. There are no guards there this early because 1. usually no one is awake now and 2. no one is expecting a fight until tonight. When Duncan walks he sees the other fighters in the opens space outside of the ring, sparing, hitting punching bags, and other forms of exercise. Duncan knows well everyone there. He's been here long enough to know them and fight them... repeatedly.
But he does see a few stand out. Like Atom and engine block teaching some of the new guys some stuff that will help them in the ring. Its how its works in the ludis. They teach each other since the Dean is too much of a cheap ass to hire anyone to teach them. But whatever it works out, and they get to know and raleigh on each other. Duncan hadn't been part of something like that since he was back in military school. And he's gotta say he kinda missed it. Though not that much.
Duncan the hears someone getting knocked down. Duncan sees that it is Big O and that he is trying to pick himself back up but seems to be struggling. Duncan walks over and when he does he hears DJ say."You okay man? I didn't hit you that hard."
Owen shakes his head and says. "No its not you. I just haven't had my insolent in a while."
DJ says concerned. "Well you should go get it. Where is it?"
Owen says. "I tried calling but D is-"
"Right here... and I have it."
After he said that Duncan takes out a syringe and hands it to Owen who takes it.
Owen then asks. "Dude, I've been trying to call you. Why didn't you answer your phone?"
"I've been having problems with my phone, even this morning it wouldn't send texts." Duncan answers while getting a hard stare from DJ.
DJ asks. "So you buy his insolent now?"
Duncan says while giving a hard stare back. "I have been for a while, what of it?"
DJ remembering the meeting they had yesterday asks disgusted. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Duncan rolls his eyes. "I'm desperate, we all are. So get off my ass. Now on to business. What about the other fights? Have you asked any of them yet?"
Owen stands up with the syringe in his hand and says. "Dude its been one day. We were gonna talk to them this morning."
"Um okay, good. But out of the guys here who do you think we can trust?"
Owen explains. "Well Atom for sure we can't. He's a nice and loyal enough guy but he won't risk anything that might ruin things for him here. We offered him a beer last week and he turned us down saying he couldn't risk getting a DUI."
"Anyone else we can't trust?"
DJ says. "Lighting obviously."
Duncan chuckles. "Yeah obviously."
"Aside from those two who knows with the vets, but I think that noisy boy, and trucker will be in our corner. But the new guys are too green. They don't know how things work here or how bad the Dean is. They'd pick keeping a job here over of getting a new boss."
"Stick with the devil you know." Duncan states.
Owen nods and DJ says. "Yep."
"What about the security guys?"
DJ explains. "Its on the fence with them. They still get treated like crap by the Dean and hate him almost as much as we do. But we get paid more than they do on top of the fact that we can kick their ass's and they know. It could go either way with them."
Duncan sighs. "I was afraid of that. But I need a few of them on my side. They'll know things we won't."
Owen shakes his head and asks. "What do you want from us man? They are told from day one not to 'mingle' mingle with us."
Hearing this Duncan sighs again and is silent for a few moments. In those moments he see's Eva beating the utter crap out of one of the punching bags. Duncan while staring at her says. "Hey isn't Eva's brother a security guy?"
Owen shakes his head frantically and says. "Say no-n-n-no."
"You want to bring her in?"
"And her brother."
Once he says this he hears them both grown. "Hey we need her and her brother. Eva is the most aggressive fighter and her brother's been her long enough to know some stuff."
After hearing this DJ walks up to Duncan and says. "Yeah but uh D Eva is a rageaholic wacko, and we know nothing about her brother."
Duncan nods. "Still we need her."
DJ sighs and Owen says. "I ain't going near her."
"You won't, I will. Someone like her, she'd be insulted if it was anyone else but me."
"You sure D? She don't like you very much."
"She doesn't like anyone. While I do this you go give yourself the shot Owen. DJ you ask around."
Owen puts the syring in his pocket and nods before walking off. DJ just stands there and chooses to not look at Duncan. Duncan sighs and orders. "Just do it."
DJ says nothing but goes and walks off to where engine block and noisy boy are. Duncan himself walks over to where the rageaholic Eva is and hopefully if he gets there in time will save that poor punching bag from getting ripped open.
When Duncan gets over there he sees Eva enthusiastically, if not horrifyingly punching into the bag with an angry expression on her face. Duncan just silently stands there for a few moments waiting for Eva to to notice him and stop. But she either does notice him and just ignores him or is just too focused on the bag to even notice he's there. After a few moments Duncan says while she's still punching. "I know a few doctors and they tell me to watch my blood pressure or I'll have heart problems in the future."
Eva punches the bag harder than before and then stops punching it completely. After that she picks up her little towel and while wiping off her sweat says. "Well that's you not me. What the hell do you want, dick hood?"
"What the hell is your problem?"
Eva gets right in Duncan's face. "My problem is that I'm trying to have a good workout but this prick keeps bothering me!"
Duncan just stares back at her refusing to be intimidated. After a few moments of neither backing down Duncan sighs, take a step back and say while he takes out the extra protein shake he had in his pocket and tosses it to her. "Here's a protein shake, sorry for bothering you."
Eva grabs it and looks at it for a moment but then open it and takes a swig of it. After she does she asks "What do you want D? Your ruining my gym time."
Duncan is silent for a moment trying to fill the moment with suspense but is just pissing off Eva. Duncan bluntly states. "Some of the security guards are trying to fix the fights so they can get more money from their bets."
Eva looks at him confused and asks. "How could you know that? My brothers a guard and even I don't know that."
"Well maybe he's lying to you?"
"Oh he's not lying to me!"
"How do you know?"
"Because if he did I'd kick his ass."
Duncan just nods and says. "Okay. Anyway can you get your brother to give you the names of the jackass's who are trying to rig the fights and can you give those names to me?"
"Why would I do that for you?"
"Because I want to kick their ass's too. I'm not gonna let you have all the fun."
"Screw off. I'll get those names and if I feel like I I'll give them to you. Now piss off so I can beat the crap out of this punching bag."
"Okay." Duncan states before walking off with a smile on his face.
XXX
At the girls dorm Gwen and Bridgette have just gotten out of their PJ's and have gotten into their day clothes and are in their kitchen. Bridgette is eating a bowl of cereal and looks over at Gwen and sees that she is even mopier than usual. Bridgette asks. "You okay?"
"I'm doing better. How are you doing?"
Bridgette shrugs. "I can't complain."
"Okay, where's Geoff?"
Bridgette looks around and then sighs. "He's probably still sleeping."
"You wanna wake him up?"
"Yeah, I should but no matter what I do nothing works. I don't know how Duncan got him up yesterday."
"Too bad Courtney isn't here she'd have him up in no time."
"Yeah and speaking of, how do you think her night with Duncan went?"
The second Bridgette asked that the front door is opened and Courtney herself walks in looking kinda like she did last night only a little different. Courtney had Frizzled hair, she was holding her sweater vest in her hand instead of wearing it, the top two buttons on her shirt were unbuttoned showing a little bit of cleavage. After she walks in she shuts the door and she stretches. "Hiiiiihhaaa. How are you guys doing?"
Gwen and Bridgette look at each other for a moment before looking back to Courtney with smiles on their faces. Gwen states. "Looks like you had a good night."
Courtney walks over to the coffee maker and says while smiling not even trying to deny it. "Oh yeah I had a good night."
Just then both Courtney and Gwen hear a snap shot sound and look to see that Bridgette has her phone out, with a smile on her face and had it pointing at Courtney. Courtney a little annoyed asks. "Bridgette?"
"What? You'll thank me for this." Bridgette says before she takes a few more picks.
Courtney pleads. "No! I look like crap."
Gwen says while looking into Bridgette's phone. "Hey the worse the morning, the better night you had."
Courtney scoffs and goes back to her coffee. Having got enough pictures on her phone Bridgette puts it back into her pocket and says to her friend. "Hey if you didn't want to get teased than you shouldn't have come back this morning."
After poring herself a cup of coffee says. "I had to. I left all of my stuff for school and the office here, And I need to change. The two buttons on my shirt popped off last night when I was trying to take it off... I-I said too much didn't I?"
Bridgette and Gwen still smiling say respectively. "Oh no you didn't."
"Keep talking."
Courtney shakes her head in annoyance at her two best friends. "Oh I think I'm done, for now."
"Yeah okay, for now."
Bridgette chuckles at Gwen's comment. Courtney having enough of this conversation, says. "Whatever I'm gonna go take a shower before I get ready."
Once Courtney said that Bridgette runs up to Courtney and asks. "Courtney before you do that would you mind waking up Geoff?"
"What?" Courtney asks both annoyed and confused.
Seeing this Bridgette awkwardly explains. "Since we told Geoff not to seep over at Duncan's last night... we let him sleep here and now no matter what I do he won't wake up. But since your... you know, you. I thought that you know..."
Courtney groans. "Fine, but hold this."
Courtney hands Bridgette her coffee. Courtney walks into the kitchen and grabs a cup off the counter, takes it to the sink and fills it with water. Courtney goes back to Bridgette and asks. "Where is he? I didn't see him on the couch."
Before Bridgette can say anything Gwen interjects. "He slept in her room. I hardly got ay sleep last night."
Bridgette practically glares at Gwen as her cheeks flair up. Gwen can only smile smugly in return. Seeing how her two friends are Courtney sighs. "Relax Bridge. I'm not judging."
Both Gwen and Bridgette stare at Courtney in surprise. Bridgette asks. "Really? Thats a first."
Courtney slightly embarrassed says. "Yeah well, its kinda hard to judge without sounding like a hypocrite and to be honest after last night I don't know why I would ever care."
Bridgette can't help but laugh at this and say. "Wow, We should have gotten you laid sooner."
Gwen laughs at Bridgette's comment agreeing which just annoys Courtney further. "Yeah whatever."
Courtney walks off to Bridgette's room. When she does she sees Geoff shirtless in Bridgette's bed with only Bridgette's baby blue blankets covering him from the waist down. Courtney sighs relieved that she didn't have to walk in on a completely naked Geoff... again. Courtney even more annoyed having had to think about that says to the unconscious boyfriend of her best friend. "Geoff if you get up no I won't dump this water on you."
Geoff just continues to snore in the bed. "Okay, I waned you."
Courtney then proceeds to dump her cup of cold water on the former frat boy. Geoff wakes up immediately sitting up in the bed. "W-what the hell?!"
"Shut up! Its morning and its almost time to go to class. Get up, get dressed, get your crap, and get in the car." Courtney orders leaning forward with her hands on her hips unknowingly giving Geoff an excellent view of her rarely seen cleavage.
Though Geoff is oblivious as he just rubs his eye's confused. "What?"
Courtney's annoyance turns into frustration. "I will dump more water on you."
Geoff replies frantically. "Okay, okay, okay."
Geoff tries to get up and out of the bed. Seeing this Courtney yells while putting her left hand over her eye's. "Not right now you idiot! Wait until I leave the room."
Geoff slumps back into the bed. "Okay, sorry bra."
Geoff finally awake enough to think and actually mind his surroundings. He looks at Courtney and sees the state she is in especially her chest. "Looks like you and Duncan had fun last night."
Courtney puts down her hand and sees that Geoff is looking not at her eye's. Courtney covers her chest with her hands threatens. "You know I can throw you out of here anytime I want."
Geoff immediately looks away. "Sorry, sorry. Geez your even worse than Duncan."
Courtney turns around and says while walking out. "Damn right, and don't you forget it!"
Courtney walks back into the kitchen. "Hey Bridge your boyfriend's a total perve so when I take a shower make sure that he doesn't peek."
Bridgette in bewilderment says. "Ah okay."
"Good." Courtney replies as she makes her way to the bathroom. But before she can so much as make five steps Gwen's phone starts ringing. Gwen takes it out of her pocket and looks at the collar ID. Gwen worried says. "Its Trent's lawyer."
XXX
In the abandoned classroom that is now used for storage Duncan is leaning against the far wall. He takes out his phone and sees that he has no signal. Duncan looks around and sees that one of the chips is poorly hidden behind one of the books on the desk which he is standing next to. The chip itself is in between a large cardboard box and a few obsolete text books.
Soon the door opens up with DJ and Owen walk in. Seeing them Duncan slowly puts his phone away. Seeing this DJ asks suspicious. "Texting somebody?"
"Can't, no signal. Just checking the time."
hearing this both Owen and DJ take out their phones to check and see that Duncan is telling the truth. Owen says while waving his phone around. "Thats weird. It was working here yesterday."
Duncan just shrugs. "Whatever, what do you got for me?"
Both Owen and DJ put their phones away. DJ folds his arms and explains. "Not many have agreed yet, they're still thinking about it."
Owen interjects. "A lot of them are scared of the Dean. They don't think that you could win. Hell we don't."
"Your gonna need something big and something loud to change their minds, and our minds too D." DJ said giving Duncan a dirty look.
Duncan sighs. "You guys really don't think I can pull this off?"
Owen shakes his head and DJ says. "D we've both been here a lot longer than you and unlike you we actually talk to the other fighters when we don't just need something. This has been tried before and it gets worse every time... for everybody. You've gotta prove that your different, or you'll be alone in this... completely alone. And soon too."
"How soon?"
"I don't know, just soon. Now we have to get back to class." DJ says as he exits the door leaving both Owen just sitting there on a cardboard box and Duncan leaning on the far wall.
Duncan sighs. "So no one is willing to join up?"
Owen turns to Duncan and says. "Its only been a couple of hours and this is a pretty big decision, but yeah. No one automatically said yes. And D you might have my help but if you didn't give that insulin I wouldn't be helping you with this.
Duncan says nothing and just stands there giving a hard stare at Owen who responds. "D we don't know you. Not really. We don't know who you are, where you came from. We only know that you can fight and are good at stealing stuff, and... your frigging scary. The Dean, him we know. We know what he can do and how he'll do it. You want to get anyone's support aside from giving them life saving medicine, and threatening them? You gotta do something that will make the Dean really upset and walk away from it."
Duncan continues to just stare hard at nothing in particular, thinking hard at what has just been said to him. After a few moments Duncan asks. "Did you think up all that yourself?"
Owen answers. "Um, ever since I've joined the club I've been watching a lot of crime shows and movies."
XXX
Courtney is reading a book on the far right side of a bench while Bridgette is sitting on the far left on her phone just going threw random sites on the internet. Courtney looks monumentally better than before she did, as her hair is not a tattered mess and she is in a different yet identical outfit as the one she wore yesterday only a different color. Bridgette looks about the same as she did earlier. Eventually Gwen walks out of the courthouse that the duo are sitting in front of.
When she does Courtney asks. "Gwen, how'd it go?"
Gwen slumps down depressed, in the middle of her two friends and says. "Trent's public defender tried to make a deal."
"What did you do?" Courtney asked.
"My lawyer wanted to keep the charges but said if I did take the deal I'd have to go to court, and I didn't want to do that. So I took the deal. Trent will now spend six months at county with a year of community service on top of a one mile restraining order from me for the next 10 years."
Courtney nods pleasantly surprised. "All and all thats a pretty good deal Gwen."
Gwen sighs and slumps even further into the bench. She covers her eyes to help hold back the tears and starts whimpering. "Yeah I guess.
This only lasts a second as she whips her head back up, took a deep breath and exhale. Gwen then just stares forward with red puffy eye's. Seeing this Bridgette asks. "Are you okay Gwen?"
"I-I don't know."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"W-what the hell happened to Trent?"
Courtney is silent as she has no possible helpful response to that. After a few moments Gwen turns to Courtney. "Thanks for the lawyer you recommended me Courtney."
"Oh no problem. Her firm hires out at the university. I see her a lot at the main office building. She's good."
"Thanks for coming you two. It meant a lot."
"Happy to." Bridgette says with Courtney nodding.
"Hey don't you have work and class today?"
"I have work in two hours." Courtney explained.
"I took a sick day. We had to be here for you." Bridgette also explained.
"Thanks." Gwen said melancholic as she went back to just staring at nothing. After a few moments of this horrible silence. Bridgette asks off handedly. "So Courtney is Duncan a spooner?"
What she said gets both Gwen out of her deep state of depression and into confusion with Courtney. Courtney asks. "What? Why are you asking that now?"
"We need something to lighten the damn mood, so I ask again. Is Duncan a spooner?"
Courtney rolls her eye's. "Well if you must know, yes. Duncan is a bit of a spooner."
What she said makes both Bridgette laugh and Gwen giggle a bit. Courtney now suspiciously said quietly. "...Until he falls a sleep."
Gwen asks. "What happens after he falls asleep?"
"Ah he sorta just kept tossing and turning all night. I think he was having a nightmare. I'm kinda surprised I got any sleep last night... you know aside from what we did."
Bridgette asks curious. "How bad was it?"
"I don't know. But it didn't seem to be anything violent. All I got out of it was a mumbled 'go screw yourself dad'."
Bridgette even more curious simply says. "Huh."
"Duncan did say that his dad was a dick."
Courtney confused asks. "He said that? When?"
Gwen shrugs. "The day he made Trent break up with me. When me and him had that out'ing thing I guess. We sat down at the park and he started talking to me to try and cheer me up. It worked but eventually we started talking about his family. I don't know how but we did. Duncan said that after his mom died his dad became distant and hard."
Bridgette shocked and a little saddened asks. "His mom's dead?"
Gwen sadly nods. "Thats what he said. He also said that he's got two brothers and a sister."
Hearing this Bridgette turns to Courtney but sees that Courtney is just as lost as she is at this new information. This is not unnoticed by Gwen who also sees that Courtney is as confused as anyone trying to figure out an M. Night Shyamalan plot. It is then silent between the trio before Gwen asks to Courtney. "You don't know much about him do you.
Courtney slowly shakes her head and says sadly at their shared realization. "I don't think any of us do."
XXX
In a crowd of people on a side walks in a street that is filled with fast food restorants ranging from Burger king to KFC to even Lou Ming's Duncan is walking threw them with his hood up. He is on his phone which has a google map of the street his is on. On that map is a blinking red dot straight ahead of him. Duncan looks up from his phone and sees his target. A skinny Red headed person with glasses and a hamburger T shirt walking out a subway with a six inch meatball sub in his hand and further down the street. Duncan fallows him further and further until Harold is far enough away from enough people and turns a corner. When he does Harold takes a bite out of his sub but the second he starts chewing Someone grabs him by his shirt collar and yanks him into an alley.
Harold outraged demands while struggling. "Let me go or I'm calling the cops!"
Duncan greatly annoyed demands himself. "Shut up!"
Harold recognizing the voice of the guy who's pulling him asks. "Duncan? What the hell are you doing?"
Duncan stops pulling Harold and pushes him down on the ground behind a dumpster where it is hard for witnesses to see and hear. Harold lands on his knees and when he does he smushes his meatball sub in the grim on the ground. Harold looking at his wasted meal wines. "Duncan! Your ruined my sub."
Duncan angry now, grabs Harold by his shirt and yanks him up off the ground and asks horrifyingly calm. "Forget the sub. What the hell are your doing Harold?"
"Ah, um-"
"Don't even try lying to me. I will know. Because I lie, professionally."
Harold hearing this breaks out of his fearful stupor and glares at Duncan. "Yeah I know. I know who you are D. The Dean told me who you are."
Duncan glares right back at Harold hearing this with neither backing down. After a few moments of this Duncan notices that Harold is just barely holding in the contents of his bladder. Duncan knows he can't stay like this and trying to intimidate Harold won't help, so Duncan sighs and lets Harold go. Harold lands on his ass and after he does he tries for a few seconds to breath normally before his lungs force him to start taking deep breaths. Harold pulls out his inhaler and uses it. Duncan feeling no pity, just regret asks. "What did he tell you?"
Harold after about a minute of taking deep breaths and calming down answers. "A lot."
"You know he just told you a pile of crap right?"
Harold gets back on his feet and scoffs. "I'm not stupid Duncan! I know that."
"So why are you working for him? Is it because you think I'm the bad guy?"
Harold very emotionally, almost on a nervous break down shouts. "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU ARE! I don't want anything to do with this. But thanks to you that sociopath found out about me and has me freak'n working for him. He threatened me with a tazer Duncan. Even after I told him about my heart condition. He would have KILLED ME."
Harold starts breaking down after saying this and sits back down on the disgusting garbage covered ground holding his head. "I don't know what to do."
Duncan is silent for a moment before asking. "Why didn't you just go to the police. You obviously don't owe me or the Dean anything."
"I can't because The Dean knows about my hacking and-an-an-"
"Your illegal surveillance stuff."
Harold shamefully nods. "Yeah."
It is silent between them for a while with neither saying anything. Duncan stares at the helpless computer geek, while Harold just stares blankly forward looking at nothing at all. Eventually Duncan asks. "Why did the Dean have you bug my car and my dorm?"
Harold looks at Duncan and answers. "The Dean wants you gone Duncan. And I mean gone! But to do that he needs to know if there is anything he can use on you. So he had me bug them."
Duncan says nothing in response just continues to horrifyingly stare at Harold. Harold trying to ignore him continues. "The Dean also had me hack into your phone yesterday so we heard everything you said today and yesterday with those guys."
Duncan stops staring at Harold and slowly looks to the side without blinking, realizing what the Dean wants. "He wants to clean house."
"Yeah, but who knows what he's gonna do. Who know what he's up to? Oh god he's gonna kill me. Ah nnnahhhh!" Harold screams as he starts sobbing.
Seeing this Duncan sighs, shakes his head and kneels down to Harold's level. "Hey, HEY! Relax its gonna be fine."
"FINE?! The Dean is a figg'n psychopath. How is that fine?"
"Because I'm offering you a way out."
Harold stops sobbing and asks. "What? How?"
"Because when I win and there is no more Dean. I'll let you go."
Harold looks at Duncan for a moment in bewilderment and yells angrily. "Win? Duncan the Dean has money, people, gah-gah- Freaking guns!How the hell can you win?!"
Duncan gives no response and just stares at Harold silently.
XXX
Duncan is in his leather jacket with his green hoodie under it. He's walking down the side walk looking down at his phone which like before has a map on it showing the street he is on and the other near by streets. Also like before the map shows a large red blinking dot is coming right for him from down the road the sidewalk he is on is right next to. Duncan turns to look at the window of the building he is next to and sees in the reflection a white windowless van is coming up the street In the traffic. Duncan keeps walking down the street nonchalantly in the same direction, and pace as before while still looking at his phone. When the dot is right next to him Duncan puts his phone away, turns around and sees that the van stopping. When it does the van's door's immediately open up and three guys with ski masks and gloves jump out. Two of them grab Duncan's arms to keep him there. Duncan tries to resist but its no use. The third one takes out a black bag and puts it over Duncan's head. The bad man orders. "Come on!"
The two who have Duncan do as ordered and pull Duncan into the van. Once inside of the van Duncan resists even more as the bag man shuts the door. The driver takes off while people around the fiasco are confused at what is going on and some of them are on their phones calling the police and recording it.
Speeding down the road, in the van Duncan is adamantly trying to break free, tugging and shoving, trying to resist as hard as he can. Incidentally while trying to break free Duncan jabs his elbow into the nose of one of the guys who are restraining him. The same guy while still holding down Duncan threatens. "Knock it off asshole!"
Hearing this the driver and the leader of this group orders. "Take care of this."
Heeding the order the bag man goes back to Duncan in back and punches him as hard as he can in the face. When he does Duncan stops struggling and goes limp. Seeing this the bag man clarifies. "He's out."
"Thats good. Cuff him." The driver orders.
The bag guy pulls out a zip cuff from his hoodie pocket and gives a gesture to the other masked men who are holding Duncan. The masked men take Duncan's hands and put them together behind his back for the bag man to zip cuff Duncan. Which he does and after word confirms. "Done."
"Good. We'll be there soon and trust me you don't want him not cuffed." The driver says.
The bag man simply nods as he climbs up to the front seat and sits in the passengers seat. While the bag man does and the other masked men just sit in their seats Duncan is lying down on his side, slowly and silently shimmies and struggles in his cuffs.
XXX
The driver takes a hard right before he exclaims. "We're here."
Duncan feels the van stopping. When he does he also feels the two masked men who are sitting next to him grab his arms again and hoist him up. The van doors then open. Duncan hears the driver say. "Get him out of the van."
The two pull him out of the van and out to what Duncan feels like 20 feet. The Driver not far behind them orders. "Thats far enough, get him oh his knees."
The masked men stop dragging Duncan and drop him on his knees. After that Duncan hears nothing and in those silent moments he continues to shimmy his hands in his zip cuffs. Then abruptly the bag on Duncan's head is ripped off. When it is Duncan sees that he is in an abandoned parking lot and the surrounding buildings all have condemned signs on them. Duncan also sees the four masked men wearing ski masks but now two of them have base ball bats. Duncan still on his knees sees that the larger one is walking up to him. He stands in front of Duncan for a few silent moments before asking. "Nothing to say?"
Duncan says nothing and just glares at the large masked man in front of him for a few seconds. "Nothing needs to be said Hatchet."
The leading man is put off by this but then sighs and takes off the ski mask to show that it is indeed the old army man Hatchet. The Dean's enforcer who's face is still badly bruised from when Duncan punched him earlier. Once he does Hatchet says. "The Dean wants us to beat you within and inch of your life. So when you fight tonight you'll lose, so we can finally throw you out. But me, I just want some pay back from when you sucker punched me-"
"Just shut up Hatchet." Duncan begs still on his knees. Seeing how Duncan simply refuses to be intimidated by him. Hatchet is enraged and kicks Duncan square in the chest with his boot. Knocking Duncan on his back and the wind out of him.
Hatchet walks over to Duncan and when he does he gets down on his knees. "I'm gonna enjoy this."
Hatchet then starts viciously punching Duncan in the face. After a few of the salvo's Duncan finally manages to slip his hands free of the cuff and when he does he punches Hatchet right in the face as hard as he can, knocking him on his back. Duncan angrily jumps off of the ground and onto hatchet and starts punching him with even more brutality than Hatchet was punching him not 20 seconds earlier. Hatchet was not ready for Duncan's assaults and can barely try and block Duncan's fists.
Seeing this the masked men that were with hatchet start rushing toward the two. When they get close enough Duncan flips over himself and hatchet over, and hurls hatchet onto two of the masked men, knocking all three of them down. The one masked man who is untouched stops running toward Duncan and stops to look at the rest of his group who are trying to pick themselves up.
Seeing the last masked man's hesitation Duncan charges at him and starts beating him, menacingly so. Seeing Duncan beating one of his men Hatchet shoves the other two in Duncan's direction. The two masked men look at hatchet who gives them a dirty look. The masked men look at each other before charging at Duncan and help their gangmate. But by the time they got there Duncan had savagely beaten their friend and was ready for them.
The two masked men fight Duncan... well fighting wouldn't be the right word as they are both losing badly, and I mean badly. In the fight Duncan chooses not to use the bat of the masked man he defeated before, as he does not need it. In the fight he is having now with the other two masked men Duncan is not holding back as he would in the ring at the club. Duncan is using everything he knows and has learned in all of his violent life on these hapless henchmen.
Seeing at how Duncan is savagely beating his men Hatchet stands up and staggers over to his van to try and escape. Duncan who is all but done with the two masked men see that hatchet is rushing to his van, rushes toward him to try and stop him. Hatchet who has made it to the van opens up the drivers side door and reaches into the glove compartment and grabs something, but the second he does he is pulled by the back of his hoodie by Duncan and yanked away from the van and on to the dirty asphalt.
Duncan rushes over to Hatchet to exact his revenge and continue the beating but only manages to take one step as Hatchet turns over on his back and points a nine millimeter at Duncan, stopping him in his tracks. Duncan raises his hands to indicate that he will not try anything. Still pointing the gun at Duncan Hatchet stands up and orders. "On your knees."
Duncan does not move and just continues to glare at Hatchet with incredible anger just burning off of him. Equally enraged as Duncan Hatchet thrusts out his gun a but and demands loudly. "I SAID ON YOUR KNEES!"
Duncan's only response is that he lost his angry expression and chuckled. Hatchet angered even further threatened. "I am the one with the gun. YOU DO AS I SAY FUNNY BOY!"
Duncan stops laughing and asks horrifyingly calm. "You think that just because you have a gun pointed at me that you can tell me what to do? That you can intimidate me?"
Hatchet grips the gun with his other hand to steady it and says promises. "I'm not playing man."
Immediately after Hatchet says that Duncan makes his move and ducks under the gun's range as he charges Hatchet. When he does Hatchet shoots the gun but misses Duncan who goes underneath Hatchet's arms and grabs his wrists. Using his weight Duncan hurls Hatchet onto the ground on his back. When hatchet lands the wind is knocked out of him and he notices that his gun is gone and sees that Duncan is holding it and s pointing it right back in Hatchet's face. Frightened for his life Hatchet pleads. "Please don't shoot."
Duncan, glaring hard at Hatchet asks angrily. "You thought you could scare me?!"
XXX
There is a young man in an orange jump suite in a lunch line in a cafeteria filled with other men identical jump suites. The man behind Duncan pulls out a shiv and thrusts it into Duncan's abdomen. The young man falls to the ground, holding his side that is bleeding out.
XXX
Duncan throws the nine millimeter far to the side and charges at hatchet. Duncan punches Hatchet in the face as hard as he, repeatedly. Hatchet tries to block him but Duncan is even more determined and angered than before. Duncan grabs Hatchet by his collar of his hoodie and hurls him against the van and starts beating Hatchet in the torso with several salvos.
Duncan Demands while still assaulting Hatchet. "You thought you could intimidate me!"
XXX
There is a teenaged boy with black hair and blue eye's in a military school PT uniform in a large room that has padded flooring with other teenaged boys in military PT gear. The boy is pointing a fake wooden gun at a much older man who is also in military PT gear. The older man charges underneath the gun's level the boy is holding it at, goes underneath the boys arms, grabs his wrists, stands up in a way so that the boy's underarms are on the older man's shoulders lifting the boy as he stands, and then using that leverage the older man slams the boy on the ground on his back. Knocking the wind out of the boy while the older man himself is holding the fake wooden gun and pointing it at the boy.
XXX
Duncan has just punched Hatchet on the right side of his face, knocking him over on to the ground. Duncan starts kicking Hatchet over and over again with all the strength his legs can give.
XXX
There is a young preteen boy with raven black hair and ice blue eyes who is on the ground in, what looks like a living room of any average home. In the room is a little girl and two older identical looking boys who are quite scared. All of the children there have the same raven black hair and ice blue eye's. The boy on the floor is holding the bloody right side of his face and is looking up to see a man with the same raven black hair and ice blue eyes as the children. The man is standing over the boy, wobbling back and forth from where he is standing holding a broken beer bottle by its neck.
XXX
Duncan is still kicking hatchet but after one last kick to Hatchet's stomach Duncan yells at the top of his lungs. "WELL YOU FRIGG'N CAN'T!"
Duncan stops, takes a few deep breaths and looks around and sees that the masked men are still knocked out and that Hatchet has long since been knocked unconscious. Duncan while still breathing deeply, succumbs to his exhausted limbs, and drops to his knees. When he does he looks down for a moment before looking up to the late afternoon sky and can't stop the flash backs, forced glimpses, and stubborn memories of his life from coming to him.
XXX
Close to dusk at the warehouse parking lot there are several cars still there. If you asked anyone they would say that things hadn't changed... except for one thing. All of the people there are gathered outside of the entrance. All of the people there are either fight club members or are part of the security. Suddenly a navy blue dodge charger drives into the parking lot. Though none of the people there are surprised to see it as it is familiar to them. The charger parks and after it does the Dean himself steps out of it with Harold int tow.
Once Harold out he walks over to the Dean and asks. "What am I doin-"
Harold sees the crowd. "What is this?"
The Dean answers smugly. "I just got a text from my boy. I want you to see this, I want everyone to see this."
For the next few moments Harold looks around just waiting for something to happen... and it does. A white windowless van pulls into the parking lot and in front of the large crowd. When it does the driver exits the van, but who that driver is surprises everyone.
Surprised as hell the Dean asks loudly as he walks over. "Duncan?"
Duncan who has bruising visible on his face greets. "Hi Dean! What are you doing here?"
The Dean is confused answers. "Ah, just here to do a check on my business."
Duncan nods. "Uh okay, well that's good. Very administrative..."
Duncan gets out of the drivers seat and over to the side doors of the van. When he does he opens them. When he does an unmasked man falls out and onto the ground. The man himself had bruising all over his face, his eyes and lip were swollen, his nose was broken and bloodied, all that was on top of the countless other injuries the man probably had that was hidden underneath his clothes. There were three other men in the van behind Duncan. Duncan moves to the side to allow everyone to see them.
They are all, Dean included, surprised to see more similarly beaten men sitting and seat belted in the van middle seats. Duncan unclips the seat belt and shoves out the defeated goons one by one onto the ground just outside of the van on top of the one already there, making a pile of near ER worthy henchmen. The coup de grace was the last one to be pushed out of the van. Chef Hatchet, the Dean's top enforcer, Right hand man, was callously tossed out of the van and on top of the pile. Hatchet looked worse than the rest of the men combined and if it wasn't for the wheezing you would think that he was dead by looking at him.
Duncan looks to see that everyone is in total shock, even the normally reserved and manipulative Dean cannot help but show it. Duncan smiles and announces. "Hatchet and a couple of the security guys came to give me a ride from where I was to here. They told me you sent them?"
The Dean seeing how his men were, glared at Duncan and simply answered. "Yes, I did."
"How thoughtful."
Duncan takes a few steps so that he is in the center of the side door threshold. When he does he nudges with his foot chef off the pile. Hatchet rolls off the pile to the Dean's feet. "Oh, looks like Hatchet hurt himself getting out of the van. Sorry to see that happen. YOU MIGHT WANNA GET THAT LOOKED AT!"
Duncan turns from the disabled Hatchet and to the Dean. "Hey I gotta run some errands. Don't worry I'll be back for my fight tonight."
Duncan does not wait for an answer as he makes his way into the drivers seat and drives the van around the parking lot and back again only now the drivers side is facing the Dean and the crowd. When he does Dean stops the van and says. "Hatchet said I could use the van. Hope you don't mind."
Duncan waits there for an answer this time from the Dean who just stands there glaring at Duncan with intense anger. After a few moments of heated silence with everyone in the crowd waiting for an answer. The Dean finally breaks it. "OF course. Go right ahead."
Duncan tips his hood. "Thank you."
Duncan drives off with the largest smile on his face and looks back at the Dean threw his rear view mirror. When he does he sees the crowd either looking at him or at the Dean in utter shock.
"Hope that was big and loud enough."
Well hope you liked that people. I'm sorry if it seemed rushed to you. I warned you that it was like that up top. But what can you do? Anyway when I wrote this chapter I envisioned it as something mixed between Son's of Anarchy, which I partially based this whole story, Duncan specifically on. Total drama, for the universe and the characters of course. And CW's Arrow, the action and the flash backs.
I wanted this to be a mostly Duncan focused chapter. I know that I said and is plainly obvious that Duncan's past is a major theme in this story but come on! Its chapter 21 and we still don't know all that much. Yeah I've given you glimpses but even I have to admit that its time for the whole story. Now while this chapter was still glimpses it was a crap tone to sate not only you but me as well. Don't worry Duncan's full past will come to light very soon.
Now as for the Trio side of the story... I needed a framing device to not only tie up some things on the part where Duncan is not involved in this chapter but to also break up Duncan's part of the chapter to help you, the reader, process whats going on and to add suspense.
Also about Trent's sentence I don't actually know much about the legal system of The U.S. Let alone Canada so as to how his actual sentence would have been, I have no idea. If it is too much or too little I apologize. I just went with what felt right.
Oh good news Courtney no longer has that stick up her butt, thank god right. Who'd a thought that all she needed to do was get laid. Well... Duncan did in the show. Guess he was right and finally got his wish. But since its Courtney who knows how long that will last?
As for the sides of the story for Gwen, Bridgette, Geoff, and Duncan's would be rebellion that will all come up very soon and let me tell you... it will surprise you.
Quote time!
-My friend invented Cliff Notes. When I asked him how he got such a great idea, he said. "Well first I... I just... well, to make a long story short..."