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Counter-Attacks

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Over the course of the last four days, everyone mostly remained to themselves. There wasn't much speaking on behalf of the big argument that James and Irene had, and she hasn't said a word to him yet. Two days ago, James tried to bridge things between the two and Irene ended up insulting him again.

He just gave up, and decided to let things water down themselves. If she doesn't trust him telling the truth, what can he do then?

Pretty much every single one of the guys had distanced themselves from Irene, especially Jay. If it hadn't been made apparent enough, he hasn't spoken with her a lot ever since four months ago. Now, Zamasu was sure the producer was pissed at how inconsiderate she could end up being, but Jay also knew that she was just angry and needed time to think. Adrian hasn't spoken with her either, which was surprising since the two are like peas in a pod, but he was fine for the most part. Rebecca had mean mugged every single one of the guys (except for Shona when he arrived today), and Lexi and Ashley were both mainly impartial. Everyone was pretty much okay with what had went down, it was the past and it had happened, so they weren't paying attention to that.

What everyone was paying attention to, and by everyone I mean the strongest of the bunch, was the fact that four days had passed ever since that night. And you know what happens today right?

That's right, they're sparring today.

"Okay boys and woman," Adrian cracked his knuckles, "How's everybody feeling today?"

The fighting platform was a few miles away from everything else. There was a small building in which people can go in and prepare themselves, and this building had an elevator that would take spectators to a higher room to see better. Lexi was sitting down, she was tying her lightweight shoes. "I'm good actually."

"Never been better." Jay was jumping, feeling the weight of his body against the balls of his heels.

"I'm excited." Shona was the funniest out of the four, he looked like an eager child to be sparring with his fellow friends, especially Zamasu. He wanted to see what the God could do.

The Kaioshin in question didn't need to prepare himself, he just watched as everyone got ready to lose. "I'm great."

Adrian snickered at everyone. "Not for long…"

"You're gonna banter, and then end up getting your ass kicked." Jay narrowed his eyes. "You know you're not stronger than me and Shona."

"So?" Adrian shrugged. "Leave that for the battlefield, my friend."

Lexi giggled. "I'm ready." She stood up and crossed her arms. "You guys ready?"

"Yup." Jay nodded, and followed the model out of the room. As they walked out and onto the platform, Shona looked at Zamasu, and Zamasu looked at Shona…

They both narrowed eyes at each other, a silent pact went between the both of them.

"Alright!" Lexi snapped her fingers once she and the guys reached the center of the platform. "Here are the rules: No killing…"

"Damn it." Adrian sarcastically shook his head, which earned a dunce from Lexi on his temple.

"No horrid injuries, you can't leave the platform, you can fly and teleport, and no telekinesis." Lexi emphasized the last word while looking dead at Zamasu. "Got that?"

The Kaioshin shrugged. "I don't need telekinesis to beat any of you."

"Okay." Lexi nodded with a look on her bare face. Dammit, he has to fight her and she looks so pretty natural faced… No. "I'll blow this whistle, and that's when we'll start."

The guys nodded simultaneously. "Right." Lexi raised the whistle to her mouth, Zamasu watched how calm everyone looked for the most part. There was no ki flaring or nothing, he was even surprised to see how composed they were when they were seconds away from sparring. "Three… Two…"

The very second she blew the whistle, everyone had completely disappeared from standing near Zamasu. The Kaioshin could see them teleporting into multiple places, utterly shocked that this ability was not only granted to the gods. They were really going all out. He zoomed forward with no hesitation.

Jay caught Adrian's wrist before he can punch him and sent him flying back several dozen feet. Adrian quickly backflipped in midair to launch himself back at Jay. "Remember when you show me how to fly?"

Jay raised a palm to Adrian's elbow. "You can't fly very well."

A punch was sent to Jay's face. "But I can punch very well."

"Why, you son of a-" Jay proceeded to take the incoming hand of Adrian's and swiftly flipped him to the floor. Adrian rolled away from Jay's strong foot, it slammed into the platform creating a small crater from the rapid force he'd built up. Adrian flipped himself up, and Jay launched at him again sending a barrage of punches and kicks alike to his friend who was struggling to keep up with his fast pace.

Adrian saw through the adamant attacks, albeit barely, and moved quickly to strike a hit on Jay's chest. The Mandalan martial artist backflipped from the balls of his index fingers to keep himself from falling. "Nice one."

Being a humble asshole, Adrian shrugged with a breathy smile. "Eh, don't mention it."

Shona zipped past the space between the two, making Jay and Adrian's hair whip in his general direction. The superactor made a clean U-turn at the balls of his heels dodging a purposely weak ki blast from Zamasu. He swerved and looked up to see the Kaioshin calmly standing there with his hand raised at him.

Shona smiled. "That wasn't really strong." He stood up, he already felt the ki signature of that blast. It wasn't even enough to knock someone like him down. "Please do not whittle down your attacks, Zamasu."

"It would be unfair if I didn't." Zamasu smirked, lowering his hand and without warning, he zoomed up to where Shona was standing and raised an open palm to hit his chest at a speed most humans wouldn't catch.

Most humans, because Shona himself had blocked it with his palm as well.

"Impressive." Zamasu smiled. "You have attuned senses."

"Of course I do." Shona tilted his head, and went to jab Zamasu but the Kaioshin had blocked him. "I wasn't born in the mountains for nothing."

Zamasu smiled, the two had went off to an air fight, flying about fifty feet in the air and throwing punches and kicks at one another while circling around one another's bodies. To any bystander, it would look like the two were spinning in the air rapidly. Shona blocked a heavy punch from Zamasu with his forearm, feeling the wind of that punch pass his body as it was enough to make the grass below them rustle violently. Shona smirked and returned an elbow jab just as powerful as that punch, making Zamasu raise a hand and feeling his own hair move from its force. The Kaioshin saw a slight orange glint in that jab alone.

Okay no, he actually is strong… Zamasu's thoughts went by quickly, he kicked Shona far away from him and flew after him. The superactor went back about fifty feet before he flipped backwards and jetted himself at the Kaioshin. Their hits connected almost simultaneously with little leeway for either one of them to get hit, up until both their punches missed by hairslength and made them both zoom in separate directions. Zamasu turned, Shona turned, and the Kaioshin's fist made contact with Shona's flaring foot.

The ground below them grew windy and turbulent, the trio on the platform's surface looked up momentarily to see the great martial artist and the great Kaioshin go at it, powerful hits were causing the atmosphere around them to unsettle. Lexi went wide eyed. "They both are almost even matched."

It was a spectacle to watch, especially for Jay. He's known Shona for a while, he knew what this man was capable of. It was riveting to see his friend prove himself like this, especially because he is regarded as one of the best martial arts to of their time. He was leagues ahead of nearly every other human on Desna.

"It's almost impossible to tell who's ahead of who." Adrian took this moment to marvel at the two, and turned to Jay and his girlfriend to snap his fingers. "We gotta fight too, kiddos!"

Lexi looked at him. "You're right." She raised her hand and then swing it back down to create a small blast, about as small as a firecracker would be, to make her boyfriend and Adrian bounce back. The two males looked over, realizing she too had jumped back to get at Adrian now. He quickly caught her foot before it hit him, and she side spun to kick him with her other foot. Adrian stumbled back, but looked at both Jay and Lexi.

"What, you both are gonna tag team me now?"

Lexi blinked, and looked to her boyfriend. "Nope." She tried to backhand Jay but he held her hand with two fingers, gripped it and flipped her over.

"You really think you can get me with that simple ass tactic?" Jay shook her head. "Step it up, baby."

Lexi sneered, ejecting a blast at him with Adrian jumping right over her person to dropkick her boyfriend. His attempt went short handed, but he still managed to lock Jay into a neckhold, turning him over and onto the ground. Jay hit the ground and kicked up at Adrian while swinging himself back up.

Adrian felt something roughly hit his back, making him stumble forwards several feet. It was Lexi's ki blast. "Really now?"

"Yup." She smiled. The three of them looked between one another, a three person free-for-all in a fight doesn't sound very fair…

They felt a huge whoosh of air several feet above them. Shona quickly grounded himself after flying above the three humans, a tiny trail dug into the platform's surface from Shona's feet. The martial artist smiled. "Is this part of the extent of your power, Zamasu?"

"Only partly." Zamasu descended slowly, looking at the lower humans in front of him.

Jay looked over to Shona. "You're just gonna go after him, and not even throw hands with me?" He crouched, and zoomed at Shona. "I'm offended!"

"I second that!" Adrian did the same as well. Now the two music producers were going at it with Shona, and the martial artist was handling them exceptionally well. The wind picked up from everyone's quick bursts of energy, especially his and Shona's, but right now there was someone else who had stepped up to him.

"Oh, Zamasuuuu…"

No, no, he was not going to get distracted by the beautiful coo of the model's voice. Lexi had stepped up to him and got into a quick stance with a smile on her face. "C'mon, don't be shy to hit me, sonny."

"I'm much older than you." He narrowed his eyes. "Do not call me 'sonny'."

She giggled, it sounded funny hearing him say that with his proper voice. Her smile was cute, and again, she wasn't wearing any makeup so she was bare faced, and that was when she was at her cutest.

God damn it.

He didn't need to go full power on her, because if he did then she would be dead. And he didn't want her to die because she's pretty.

Did he really just reason with himself like that?

Lexi started hitting him quickly, he was surprised that she was as fast as she was. Not that it was difficult, but unexpected. He only needed to hold up two fingers to block and dodge her tiny punches. Lexi narrowed her eyes, she reeled a fist back and thrusted it forward, particularly surprising Zamasu because he saw a flare of aura from her fingertips.

"You humans never fail to surprise me." Zamasu chuckled.

"It's our pleasure." Lexi replied just as smartly, the Kaioshin could only glance to his side before reacting quickly. He literally picked Lexi up and moved her from her position because Adrian was flying backwards. The music producer flipped back and zoomed forward to his own fight.

Meanwhile, Zamasu just realized that Lexi's chest was very close to his face. "Uhh, thanks." She smiled down at him. "You can put me down now-"

He already did, sure enough. "You would've gotten hurt. Don't mention it." Zamasu crossed his arms, seeming all boss-like.

Lexi nodded, but took a deeper breath with the adrenaline having left her body. "You're really strong."

Zamasu gave her an offended look. "Indeed."

"I can't even hit you or anything." She pouted. "That's not fair."

"Well, you aren't inclined to martial arts like Jay or Shona or I am. It is understandable." He said. Lexi nodded. "So don't go picking fights with me."

"We're sparring, what am I supposed to do?" She playfully punched his arm. "Let's continue."

Zamasu shrugged, her two fingers came at him and he held them between his index and middle finger. She attempted to kick him as well, but he held her leg and flipped her over. She sideways somersaulted to the floor, but quickly got herself up when she noticed that Zamasu, from where he originally was, disappeared.

"Try this!" Adrian flew upwards and raised both hands to the sky, yellow energy accumulating above his palms. He threw it straight down at both the Champion martial artists, the blast itself created a cracked crater that was about eight feet deep and twenty feet wide. Jay and Shona had jumped out of the way, Adrian swarmed in on Shona before his feet could even hit the ground, rendering the two in an airborne fist flurry fest. Adrian felt a kick to his side, sending him just inches away from the edge of the platform.

Adrian nearly scraped his palm against the floor to keep himself from falling off. He lifted his body only halfway when he saw a beige bottom of a shoe aiming at his head. Adrian swerved quicker than he could think, making whoever was aiming at him pass his body completely and head towards the grassy ground. It was Lexi, and she had miscalculated her strike and ended up fly kicking right out of the ring.

"Really now?"

"Your mistake, bro." Adrian shrugged. "Sorry."

She blew a raspberry at him. "Watch. You'll be next."

"Sure." Adrian said, even though he turned right around to see the insane free-for-all of ki blasts, zaps, and powerful kick and punches being thrown between two strong men and a God.

He blinked; yup, he was fucked at best. But that didn't stop him from joining in.

Jay had rounded up Zamasu quickly once a orange flaring Shona lotus kicked Zamasu to the ground, a surprising feat on Zamasu's part, but to be fair, Shona had to power up in order to do that. The second Jay's foot was about to slam down against the Kaioshin's chest, he was kicked by Adrian.

Pulling himself up quickly several meters away from his original fight, Jay watched as Adrian stepped forward with both hands beckoning him. The curly haired producer raised his eyebrows with a smug arch. "Fight me, hoe."

Jay's smirk grew and he cracked his knuckles. "Sure thing." He teleported to Adrian, adding ki energy to his punches because Adrian asked for it. His friend could only block for a while before he decided to strike back, snatching Jay right off his own feet with a sweeping kick.

Jay fell, but widened his eyes; he can feel the ground shaking from the force of Zamasu and Shona's ongoing battle, the two looked like they were wisping orange and purple hues of energy bodies. The wind was picking up even further, and it influenced Jay to start flaring yellow energy from his body as well. The younger champion too got up, his body becoming warmer and lighter, and he hopped on one foot with a smile on his face. Adrian watched the small yellow glow of Jay's aura, he himself had recalled how to do this since Jay taught him out of curiosity. His body started radiating yellow as well, but not as much as Jay's since he couldn't emit that much energy.

Jay had always told him in an almost proverbial sense; if you wanna scare your opponent, go ahead and turn into a flashlight. If you actually wanna fight, maintain your battery juice.

Adrian stopped flaring, he started utilizing more power in his suddenly punch, Jay's shoes scraped against the ground as he whizzed backwards. The Mandalan chuckled. "Smart one."

"I'm don't have much to show off, first of all." Adrian smiled. "So I'm conserving."

"You'll need to conserve," Jay crouched, ready to fly off to Adrian, "when you're fighting me!"

The two had hit it off in a barrage of quick and sharp attacks, the ground below them moving and even some of the tiles falling off from the missed force of their hits. This was only from Jay and Adrian, but Zamasu and Shona were literally rippling the cold weather around them doing the same they were doing. The grass was moving around so fast that some piece have fallen off, and now Lexi, being a bystander, had to hold her ponytail to keep it from whipping all over the place.

She knew they were having fun but geez.

Shona had given Zamasu the Pung Kao Palm, one of the deadliest attacks when done correctly, against Zamasu's chest. Being he was a God, it was not enough to kill him but he was sent flying into the platform ground in less than a second. Zamasu got up quickly, having not been affected by the attack, and he raised his hand up to give a heavy chop to Shona's shoulder. This was without his God Split, so essentially Shona was also sent to the platform at a speed that created a giant crater. Debris flew everywhere, Lexi had to cover herself from letting any of it fly into critical places.

"You guys!" She looked up once the dust settled, but a loud explosion went off from a rogue ki blast that hit the platform's surface, breaking almost a quarter of the platform apart. Another wave of debris went rampant, she shielded her eyes and stood up. "Hey!"

Jay threw a wave of ki balls at Adrian, who had swerved and dodged every single one with almost the same finesse as James had in basketball. When they made contact with the ground, they would detonate and break off even more pieces of its surface.

They were really going to break this platform into bits if they don't stop. "Zamasu! Guys, call it quits!"

Shona heard Lexi call out, he looked towards her and raised a hand at the Kaioshin to signal him to look too. The platform used to be a large scale square that spanned a hundred feet… now it looked nowhere near a square. There were many large and small chunks of the surface that flew all over the place, at most being even a few hundred meters away from the former platform itself, and the ground was barely walkable at this point. The grassland that surrounded this platform had patches that looked like they just been ripped off, and the wind around them settled once Adrian and Jay also stopped to look around.

Adrian blinked. "Well… shit."

"Imagine how insane this would look to someone who was just strolling." Jay shook his head but laughed at the thought. "We fucked it up."

Zamasu didn't even seem to flinch, neither did Shona, and for a reason that the superactor remembered to point out. "Zamasu can just do that magic thingy and revamp the entire scene in less than a minute."

Zamasu narrowed his eyes. "It's not a magic thingy."

"I don't know what it's called."

To be frank, Zamasu didn't have a name for it either. So he resorted to saying the most righteous thing a God does when they don't know the answer to something. "Don't worry about the name."

He raised a hand, and started moving the pieces all together. They revolved like a small planet in front of the guys and Lexi (who was gaping comically at the sight), before Zamasu started mending the pieces back into the platform with his creation abilities.

The entire platform was completed once again in a minute and some change. Once finished, the Kaioshin smiled and placed his hands on his hips proudly. "It is done."

Lexi blinked like eight times. "How in the heck…"

"...I hate you sometimes." Adrian shook his head at Zamasu.

"It is a birthright, Adrian." Green lips produced the smuggest smirk in Desna's history. "Unfortunately given to a few privileged beings."

"But your race doesn't have good food though." Adrian crossed his arms and leaned forward, knowing he would one up Zamasu with that fact.

And he did. Zamasu narrowed his eyes. "Shut up."

"So we're done here." Jay took a deep breath, wiping the sweat off his exposed collarbone and forehead. "That was fucking fun."

"I agree." Shona clenched and unclenched his fists. "I haven't had a chance to do what I did today in awhile."

"That's what happens when you're strong; no one else can stand up to you." Adrian shrugged, earning another glare from Zamasu. "Okay, maybe some people could stand up to you… geez."

Zamasu chuckled. "I'm quite impressed by all four of you." He nodded. "You all are a lot stronger than I had imagined."

"Can't you sense how strong we are?" Lexi asked, having brought herself back onto the platform with the guys.

"You guys aren't marginally distinguishable in my radar, since your power does not compare to mine." Zamasu gave them a weirdly kind smile to supplant his 'You're Not On My Level' response.

"Nice way of saying we're all too weak for him." Jay crossed his arms. "Shona can object to that."

Zamasu raised both his hands admittedly. "Okay yes, Shona is toe-to-toe with me. Sort of. Kind of." He backtracked even more. "Maybe."

"Too afraid to admit that I'm really close to your level?" Shona smiled, but patted Zamasu's shoulder. "I don't mind it."

There was a tiny glint in Shona's eyes that Zamasu could see very well. Everything in those Mandalan brown eyes said I'm gonna surpass you one day. An older version, the version of him five months ago, would have lambasted Shona and all of Desna's humanoid beings with one fell swoop of his hand. That version of him would have sought to beat and kill the shit out of Shona for being as audacious as he is to imply that he could surpass him without even saying so.

But now… Zamasu just smiled. He looked forward to seeing Shona's full extent of power.

"I'm sure you don't." He patted Shona's shoulder, they were literally buddies right now, second to James and he.

"You guys wanna go back?" Jay asked. "We gotta walk though… unless if Zamasu wants to taxi us."

"I have no problem with that." Zamasu said.

"You can take multiple people at once?" Lexi asked.

"It is something the angel of this Universe can do with ease, but yes I can. There is only four of you." Zamasu shrugged.

That sparked a question of interest in Jay. "There's an angel in our universe too?"

"Yes. She is the attendant of the God of Destruction here."

"That actually makes sense now!" Adrian said. "So there is a God of Destruction! Told you."

Jay rolled his eyes. "Shush it."

Adrian returned the sass back, and answered Zamasu's confused facial expression. "Me and him were hypothesizing before, since if there is a God of Creation, then there should be one of Destruction. Y'know, for balance and stuff."

The fact that twenty six year old Adrian got the gist of this better than the thousands of years old Zamasu we knew was almost disappointing, but this Zamasu was quite entertained by the fact that these guys sat down and gave his godhood a bit of thought.

"Ahhh, I see." He nodded. "All of you, hold on to each other and then whoever is left will hold my hands."

They got into formation, but not without realizing what this particularly looked like. Shona frowned almost instantly. "A friendship circle?"

"No, just…" Zamasu saw that Adrian and Jay were both taken, so that left Shona's left man and Lexi's right to Zamasu. "Just grab my hand, dammit." Shona was his right hand, and Lexi was his left. Lexi's hands were soft, he almost accidentally caressed them under his thumb.

Accidentally. Almost. Don't get your hopes up.

The five had teleported out of the platform premise and back into the suite's living room. The humans didn't take their phones with them, because why the heck would they do that? Even Lexi left her phone here.

And the second they were in, the woman had went to quickly get her device.

"What are you so uppity for?" Jay raised a brow at his girlfriend.

"I gotta check my messages!" Lexi grabbed her phone off the coffee table, and spun to plop down on the couch with a smile on her face.

"Who are your texting of such importance?" Zamasu raised a brow as well, his question did not mean to sound incriminating, and luckily, Jay knew that.

"A friend." Lexi could only glance up at him. "We were in the middle of a convo before I left."

James had strolled into the room, hearing the sound of his friends' voices. "Lexi, your phone hasn't went off ever since after you left."

"They must have thought I was ignoring them, dangit. Let me live." Lexi said, subconsciously keeping the gender of this friend clandestine. She didn't mean to keep her growing friendship with Ambrose a secret, she would swear on that.

"James." Zamasu was happy to see the basketball player all sprung and positive. Over the course of the past month, their acquaintancy gradually grew into amicability. Now, due to the past four days, these two became peachy fucking friends.

Literally, they had long conversations in the morning, when the two would go alone to catering places. Zamasu asked James if he felt any sort of hatred for Irene for straight up slapping and insulting him. James had said that he was angry as hell one that first night, but he didn't harbor any ill will to her at all. That response earned much respect from Zamasu even though he now despised Irene ever more.

He and James dapped up, which was something that Zamasu learned from him like yesterday. Adrian, Jay and Shona watched with shocked faces, the first two of the latter had their jaws dropped.

"Since when did Zamasu have such zest?" Adrian walked over to the two.

"Since yesterday." James said. "You guys should freshen up, you're all sweaty and shit- well, except for Zamasu."

It was true; Zamasu hadn't broken that much of a sweat throughout the spar. Adrian, Jay and Lexi had decided to take part in James' advice, while Shona thanked Zamasu for approaching him in battle.

"Why would you need to thank me for that?"

"Why not?" Shona shrugged, and the two shook hands before Shona had departed. Zamasu turned to James, seeing that he was now in the kitchen grabbing himself one of those protein shakes he bought earlier.

He entered the kitchen, placing a hand on the counter table. "How are things progressing?"

James stopped shaking the bottle for a moment. "What things?"

"The things." Zamasu didn't need to extrapolate for James to get it.

"Ohhh." James snorted. "Progressing? Listen, I did everything I could. There is no going back with her all of the sudden. I'm still surprised."

Zamasu chuckled. He would have to admit, even if Irene is an idiot, he really did not expect her to react like this, or even going as far as to insult his grandaunt's whitebed. It surprised him too, to be frank. "So what have you been doing then? You know they do live with us, technically."

"Rebecca and Irene have been going out more often." James looked down at his drink, frowning. "Of course it's probably because Rebecca is on her side."

"It's definitely because of that, James." Zamasu didn't understand why James said probably to that fact. "Those two… I could see why they are best friends."

"That's not nice, Zamasu." James waved a finger in front of him with a smirk. Zamasu wiped it away. "I still feel kind of guilty though."

"Why?" Zamasu shrugged. "You did nothing wrong intentionally."

"Well yeah, but still-"

"But still nothing." Zamasu shook his head. "It was not your fault. Whoever that woman is, she had no self control."

James slowly nodded. "You're right…" He sighed. "I just hope things at least clear out and she'll actually listen."

"It's Irene: she's an idiot."

"You're being petty again."

"I'm being factual, evidently." Zamasu crossed his arms.

"I thought it wasn't right for you to take sides." James narrowed his eyes.

"I'll only take sides for righteous things." Zamasu smirked. "Don't put my words back in my mouth."

"Fine, fine." James took a nice sip of his drink. He walked away from the fridge, passed Zamasu, and then turned around to walk backwards while facing him. "On other news though, since I don't wanna delve deep into that, I called my coach to see how things were going with an upcoming party."

Zamasu raised a brow. "Mhmm?"

"He said that it would be pushed back a couple to a few weeks."

Zamasu frowned, he felt compelled to know the reason behind this for some reason. "Why?"

James backtracked a little. "Okay, okay, here's the full story right; he was heading out of our main gym building late at night, and these three guys came up to him wearing nothing but black. They bribed him, into giving money for something they found on behalf of our team."

Zamasu narrowed his eyes. "Is this from those haphazard criminals again?"

"More than likely." James shook his head. "I don't understand why he would postpone it though."

"Is there something your coach is hiding?"

There was; his coach did not tell James that the reason he was holding this party back was because there had been a swarm of attempted breaches into the gym building, and also through many of team players' bank accounts and profiles. This happened over the week while James was gone, and those men who came up to him told his coach that they needed James, or else they'll wreak havoc on everyone else that he knew.

James knew that he was being sought for but not so much as to that. "I don't think so." James said. "He could only give me a brief answer, since he had to be somewhere. I might call him later to ask of it more."

Zamasu shook his head he was getting a weird feeling in his gut. "This might have something to do with you."

"What, with the whole 'someone's after me' schtick?" James arched his brows. "If they want me, then they could try and get me, but if they're gonna harm anyone I know, then I'll post up."

Zamasu's eyes went wide; listen, he was all for bravery and confidence but the Kaioshin was certain that James was nowhere near even Lexi's level in combat. "Really?"

"Yes."

"You can't do that all by yourself, you know." Zamasu looked down. "If something does happen, it would be wiser to call upon your strong friends."

James looked elsewhere. "Like Jay, Zach- definitely Mace, he's got the whole police force under his belt- and Shona."

"And me." Zamasu frowned. "Why do you all keep forgetting that my prowess exists?"

"Hasn't Adrian voiced this before? We don't want you to get that much involved with everything because like… You're a god." James shrugged. "We can't go to you for everything."

Something about that statement sounded riveting to Zamasu's ears. The exact opposite would have been said if Zamasu weren't a tangible entity. "But I will not let this stand on my behalf!"

"Okay, okay fine dammit. You can join in on the war. Geez."

"Don't geez me." Zamasu crossed his arms as the two walked out of the kitchen and down the hallway to their rooms. "I take injustices seriously."

"Right, right, the last thing I want is for you to carry us because you're so strong." James smiled. "That wouldn't be fun."

Zamasu narrowed his eyes, sarcasm oozed out of his voice. "That's considerate of you."

"Bro, shush."

"I'm a God, I do not shush." James stopped, turned on his hell to stand in front of Zamasu. The Kaioshin shrugged. "What? You can't say anything to rebuke that."

"You know…" James said, and then he caved in. "You're right, screw it."

"See?"

James shook his head. "I'm gonna go to that bar again. There is someone I gotta see."

Zamasu furrowed a brow. "Who?"

"A friend that works there." The man smiled. "Pretty nice woman, I gotta say."

"The one that you were talking to?" Zamasu knew exactly who this female is. They both stopped right in front of James' door.

"Yup." James nodded. "Listen, I don't have any other ideas other than being friends if that's what you're looking at me like that for."

"I wasn't thinking anything of that nature." Zamasu shrugged. "You can go and do that, I have someone I want to see as well."

James furrowed a brow, and since Zamasu likes being petty, he responded: "And who is that?"

"A friend." Zamasu smirked when James narrowed his eyes. "But he isn't in Intima."

"Back at Tycho?"

"Mmhmm." Zamasu nodded.

"Isn't it like in the morning there right now?"

Zamasu nodded again. "But he stays up quite late anyway."

"Oh." James said. "Go have fun with that. I'ma go and get all freshened up." The man turned around to open his door, he took a step into his bedroom.

"James."

James turned around at the sudden call from the Kaioshin. Zamasu continued. "If need be, leave Irene and find someone else. Maybe even that woman if she is of your fancy."

James looked downwards. A tiny rumor had become a full fledged segregator for the both of them. The future was very grim for him and this relationship, he was almost considering calling it quits because… why stay with someone that already sees you as a cheater?

All James could say, before closing the door, was: "I'll see to it."

Zamasu looked at the door, then to the ground, and then down the right corridor to some of the other doors. That was where Rebecca's room was, situated right next to Irene's. He shook his head, and then teleported himself out of the motel, and into an area in Tycho.

~~~.~~~

"So you're in Intima with your friends?"

"Yes." The Kaioshin nodded.

"What about a lady friend?" Mace smirked. "It's very rare for anyone to go to Intima without a significant other, y'know."

"He's a god, Mace." Chandler came around the lounge room of Mace's large house. "You really think he's gonna associate with humans like that?"

"Exactly, Chandler. Thank you." Zamasu commended the AI.

"Okay okay, sure." Mace raised both hands.

"But why would it be rare?" Zamasu frowned.

"Intima is one of the most romantic cities out there." Mace. "They're well known for their bars and love hotels, man."

That made a part of Zamasu's stomach flip because he was one of those with Lexi. Give him a break, please. "Right."

"All that aside, you came here to tell us something very important." Chandler placed Mace's requested bottle of sparkling water down on his table. The AI went to sit, negotiator style, on the couch with his hands folded together on his chin. "Tell us."

Zamasu casted his glance at Mace. "It's about James."

"Did something happen to him?" Mace frowned. "Last I heard, he was with you and Jay and all them."

"He's fine. He told me about something that his coach said to him earlier today." Zamasu looked at the both of them, they both had responsive expressions. "He told him of some sort of party that needed to be cancelled because of a bargain."

"Now there we go." Mace snapped his fingers. He explained when Zamasu frowned at him. "One of the local departments in upper West City reported Coach Fray, James' team coach of course, to have called them of this bargain." Mace sat up. "He specifically said to us that they were asking for him to bring James to them, or else they would threaten to 'harass the team' as a whole."

Zamasu looked down at the floor. "So my suspicions were correct."

"How so?" Chandler asked.

"James only told me that his coach gave him a brief story, that didn't involve this whole situation being about him." Zamasu's eyes went to the right of the floor. "I already surmised that it was the group that's been after him for quite a while now."

"Of course, his coach would not express that piece of knowledge to him, even though James does not according to Adrian." Chandler said. "We have tracked down the people who have been attacking their gym building, they were too easy to find. They have been arrested already."

"That's good to hear at least." Zamasu nodded. "As long as they can't come close to threatening the lives of innocent people."

"I thought you hated humans-"

"Mace." Zamasu raised a hand objectively. Chandler chuckled. "This is injustice, we are speaking on behalf of- do not laugh Chandler."

"I wasn't laughing." Chandler furrowed a mechanical brow at him. "I was just pushing out a loosened strain of my metaphorical vocal chords."

Because Zamasu read something on behalf of AIs not being able to laugh or cry, that made him roll his eyes. "Shush."

"To make a short story even shorter," Mace brought the attention back of the two back, "We got the calls, we've been arresting those guys like nothing. That's it, so far on that part, everything is under control. There is tightened security around that area, some of the local policeman have taken to being undercover around the premise."

"There wasn't much to do, actually. It wasn't as big as an open bomb or anything." Chandler shrugged. "Do not worry your godly head. We got this."

"I'm sure you do." Zamasu smiled. It was nice, seeing these weaker-than-him individuals not depend on someone stronger than them. They weren't afraid of taking on the trials and tribulations of their own race, and he's noticing that more and more often; how they are attempting to manage themselves.

It was touching, really.

"Did anything else occur to you, Mace?" Chandler narrowed his cool blue eyes at the director. "Anything of conscious-wakening matters?"

"Look- okay, it was my bad." Mace reassured. "You don't even sleep!"

"What is this about, now?" Zamasu blinked.

"Well," Mace inhaled, "I'm sure you know of this situation better than me; I did get an angry Jay, messaging me at like, I dunno, three in the morning this one night. He calls right? And he's already off the mouth while I'm still trying to figure what day it is, telling me about this altercation James got into with his girlfriend."

Zamasu snorted so loud, it made the other two male individuals slightly jump. He excused himself. "I'm sorry. It was just… it was a mess."

"Judging from how pissed Jay was while eating a breakfast sandwich, I believe so." Mace shook his head, taking another sip of his water. "From what I remember, out of the like, maybe seven times I've met Irene, I would have never expected her to act that way."

"None of them did." Zamasu raised a hand to his chest. "I did, however."

"Yeah, but that's you being petty."

"No God is ever pe-"

"Zamasu." Chandler sat straight. "Hit him with that god talk one more time, I swear."

"And what are you going to do about it?" Zamasu narrowed his grey eyes at the blue eyed AI.

Chandler opened his mouth, closed it, then shrugged his shoulders while nodding. "I'll be very upset."

"I can't reinstate the truth?"

"We heard enough truth." Chandler leaned forward, and Zamasu tilted his head with a tiny smirk. Visual cues were easy for the AI to read, so that expression Zamasu gave him read I am not afraid of doing it again… hoe. Be advised that Zamasu would never use that last word in his long life.

There was a beeping like sound that was almost inadmissible to the ear, but because of the acoustics in the lounge room, both Zamasu and Mace picked it up. Chandler raised the hand to the two males allowing them to proceed with what they were saying while he answered it, knowing exactly who this person is. "You need me to carry, don't you?"

On the other hand, Ambrose had one hand on the yoke, or steering wheel, of his personal private jet. The other hand was situated right by where his phone was standing before it moved to the propulsing ignition. "Are you aware of the time over here?"

"I know, it's pretty late." Chandler shrugged, looking at the Kaioshin in particular.

"Pretty late?" Ambrose frowned at his phone screen as if Chandler was right there. "I'm pretty sure it's like 4:50 in the morning."

Chandler glanced at the clock across from where the god and the man were speaking. He wasn't wrong. "...yeah, it is." When he heard Ambrose's quiet chuckle, he shook his head. "I'm sure you're still flying right?"

"The country is right in view of me." Ambrose smiled, looking down at Efilia's large terrain. He was looking down at the winter, snowy and breezy wonderlands in the North. "I'll only be gone for maybe a week or so."

Chandler shrugged. "That's fine by me."

"Who are you talking to?" Mace asked.

"Who else?" Chandler smirked. "The golden boy himself."

He could hear Ambrose's protest to that name, but he chose to ignore it with a smug expression on his shiny features.

"Ambrose, hmm?" Zamasu refused to let that random, incomprehensible smile grow on his face. "Tell him I said hi."

Mace seconded that, and Chandler nodded. "By the way, Mace here says hi, and since green God here knows everybody and their uncle's left-handed cousin, he says hi too." Chandler tapped his own forearm to put in on speaker.

The two heard a very jovial 'Hiiiii' from the engineer himself. Again, Zamasu suppressed the need to smile.

The two returned the greeting, and Chandler went back to looking down at his forearm. "Alright, I think you could let me off now. I'll be more than happy to carry for you."

"Thank you." The engineer said, putting his jet on setdown mode. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight to you too." Chandler nodded and ended the call on his forearm. "Welp, I got much to do next morning. If anything happens however, Mace, be sure to call me or the other Hyperions."

Mace smiled. "No problem, could always count on y'all."

"Hyperions?" Zamasu furrowed a brow. "Watchers of the ground? Who are they?"

"Chandler refers to his longtime AI companions and himself as hyperions, since they do, in essence, watch over and work with many outlets around the world." Mace explained. "Be surprised; this guy actually has friends."

"Masahide." Chandler went stern on the director, using his real name.

"What?" Mace smirked as he stood up. "It's funny."

"We aren't friends… well, two out of six of us aren't." Chandler looked down.

Mace kissed his teeth. "Oh, leave Bee and Rogue alone, they're just dickheads by default."

"Exactly." Chandler paused to look at the Kaioshin who had a look of straight confusion. "Zamasu's just like 'what the heck are you guys talking about'?"

"I'm rather taking this as a signal of us being done with our chat." Zamasu smiled. "You two look about ready to sleep."

"I do?"

"Chandler, shut up. You know what I meant."

The yellow AI tilted his head with a charming shitty grin. "I do." He repeated himself in a different context. "I'm sure Mace here is as tired as the both of us. I'll take my leave to let you sleep."

Mace nodded. "Great call, because I am kinda starting to get tired." Mace stretched. "Thank you guys for uhh… for coming."

Zamasu blinked. "I just showed up but… you're very welcome." It was true though, he literally came in here and the three started talking about several cases and things that have went down in the past week. "Goodnight Mace. Goodnight, Chandler."

"G'night to the both of youse." Chandler raised a salute with his hand to his left brow at the guys before opening Mace's door to take the stairs downwards. That left Zamasu and Mace alone for a moment. There was a tiny notification sound that went off in his kitchen, and the director looked at Zamasu a bit longer.

"Jay just texted asking of where you are." Mace smiled, both his hands empty and his pockets free of any devices.

Zamasu tilted his head and place his hands on his hips to ask a rhetorical question. "Is your phone even with you?"

"Theoretically, he texted me." Mace smiled brightly. "I'm certain he probably is wondering where you are at now."

"More than likely." Zamasu said. "I'll be on my way. Go and have a good sleep."

"I reckon if I could, with all my work I gotta manage." Mace pointed to the 'Dreaded Cabinet of Anger and Fret' as he would dub it. The man chuckled a bit and then waved Zamasu off. "Goodnight, my fren'."

Zamasu nodded, and teleported back into the sweet confines of his suite room. He went to sit down by the windowsill, noticing the house being primarily quiet.

It was only like 11:54 right now, and everyone was already asleep. These humans get tired easily.

He took to reading some articles and writtens on his phone. He mayhaps missed the feeling of a book in his hands and the need to flip the pages over, but a phone was always lighter an easily accessible. Instead of texting and worrying about social status, he used this time to learn more about an ancient 'species' or race of humanoids that he had stumbled upon in one article. The Kaioshin had found much information that he had to digest later if he hops back onto this, but these specific people were known to be ancient world leaders who governed civilizations with their energy manipulation powers, and are born with attuned intuition and psychic abilities. These people were referred to as Mystics.

After about three hours of reading he closed the article, deciding to take to more recreational activities like… sleeping; somewhere in the middle of his reading, he realized that his bed was hella fucking soft, and there's no way he wasn't going to take advantage of that. Zamasu placed the phone on the other side of the room and took of his gi before laying down. Within two minutes, he had easily willed himself to sleep.

…|...|...|...|...|...

It was in the afternoon, he knew that from feeling the warmth of the sun's rays against his upper chest. He frowned though, it wasn't silent and quiet as it normally was, but he heard a lot of chatter coming from the living room. There were really fast footsteps heading down the hall and towards his room door, which was yanked open by Adrian.

"ZAMASU- oh shit, you're asleep."

He cocked his neck back into his pillow at the booming sound of Adrian's voice. He sat up to give Adrian a cross look. "Why are you yelling?"

"My bad." Adrian chuckled. "I got really excited because a certain someone just arrived."

Zamasu lazily swung his legs over the bed. Adrian was surprised to see him… gi-less, but he can see that Zamasu didn't want to get up and meet someone right now. Though he asked: "And who would that be?"

He seriously was not expecting Adrian's response to be so giddy. "Ambrose."

Without even thinking about it, Zamasu shot up to stand at a speed quicker than what Adrian's eyes could catch. "What?!" He realized his actions, not knowing where they came from, and then sat down slowly. "He's actually here?"

"Mmhmm." Adrian smiled. "Why are you so happy?"

"I'm not happy over seeing another mortal." Zamasu frowned, offended. He refused to acknowledge any incoming reason for Adrian's question. "Allow me to put my gi back on, I will be down in a minute."

Adrian narrowed his eyes as Zamasu stood up normally this time to get his gi. "Right. He's outside, just to let you know." Adrian closed the door, leaving the faux uninterested God standing there with his gi halfway on. He sighed and shook his head; these famous humans, so riled up over a handsome thirty year old wealthy man with an overtaxed IQ that he, Zamasu, was always randomly visiting and talking to… and staring at… No he was not particularly sprung in knowing that this man was here, he couldn't care less about Ambrose's existence…

Do not ask why the second he had finished preparing himself, he teleported right outside of the suite just to see that man.

Ambrose was standing right by Lexi, leaning on the front passenger seat window of his personal car. The others were in front of the two, and Lexi was introducing him to every single one of them.

"...And that's Rebecca over there, by the way." Lexi jubilantly pointed at the doctor who was substantially distanced from the two.

"Good afternoon to you, Ambrose." Adrian extended a hand out for the engineer to shake. He had a firm, businessman-like grip, but his hands were soft and warm.

"Good afternoon to all of you." Ambrose addressed everyone as a whole. "I am familiar with every one of your names, there is no need for introductions here."

Notably, Ashley got really bright when he said that. "Did you pick out a place to stay, or are you just visiting for today."

"I thought of staying for the entire week, so…" Ambrose shrugged. To be specific, the man had a reserved suite floor just for him at any time he decides to come by.

"That's cool!" She walked up to him, looking up into those gold eyes with much interest. "What about your corporation?"

"I have someone carrying that for me." Ambrose smiled down at her. "Don't worry about that."

Rebecca in particular stayed away from him, she was behind everyone else along with James, but the two weren't close to one another. The basketball player didn't have much to stake against him, so he wasn't afraid to give a kind greeting, but Rebecca had only waved at him.

Irene was more than happy to approach him, he was good looking. "So ya wanna come along for lunch with us?" Her hands were folded together in front of her, giving her a chaste look. "We're probably gonna head out to a buffet quite soon."

James peeped her actions. He peeped the way she brushed past him as if he didn't exist, she's done this for nearly a week now. But what he peeped more, was Ambrose's response.

The golden-eyed male raised his brows and shrugged nonchalantly. "Eh sure, why not?"

It was at that moment Zamasu decided to make himself known. He had a feeling that as he approached Ambrose knew he was coming but didn't feel the need to look at him. He can tell that much by the perpetual growing smile on his face, and when Zamasu was close enough, he looked at the god with a kind smile. Zamasu almost slowed his pace… was Ambrose getting younger?

Why are his eyes much more magnificent to stare into?

"Zamasu." The engineer smiled brightly, before turning to everyone else. "Don't worry, I particularly know him."

"Oh, we know." Jay nodded. "He talks about you a lot."

"No I don't." Why Zamasu answered him would remain anonymous. He turned to face Ambrose again. "It is nice to see you again."

It was. It was more than nice.

It was refreshing.

"Nice to see you too." Ambrose had this coy look about him when he particularly looked at the Kaioshin, his eyes were narrow and his brows would arch. "I'm sure you're heading out with the rest of us, hnn?"

"Of course I am." Zamasu pliantly smiled, turning to everyone else. "You all are ready, right?"

Everyone had on outside wear, clad in jackets and boots. Lexi's jacket looked absolutely stunning; it went down to her knees and hugged every curve on her body. He didn't need a jacket, this weather was nothing for him, and apparently it wasn't for Ambrose either because the engineer was wearing a thick, velvet navy blue under armour-like sweater. And it was like 30 degrees out.

"We're good." James said. "We can go; I'm hungry."

Adrian agreed. "Me too."

"You ate like three hours ago." Jay narrowed his eyes at the other producer.

Adrian crossed his arms. "Stop being my wife, three hours is a long ass time."

Ambrose chuckled, for some reason his quiet chuckle brought the attention of everyone back to him. "We'll be on our way then." Like magic, since Ambrose did order a limo here as well, the second he raised his left hand, a damn limo pulled up. He looked back and pointed with his thumb. "Get in."

The others were particularly mystified at the smoothness of that, but they got in the limo before Ambrose and Zamasu did. The Kaioshin walked beside him without even realizing it, but when he did he played it off as nothing. "Only for a week?"

"Mmhmm." Ambrose nodded. "Why? You want me to stay longer?"

"I couldn't care less."

"Are you sure about that?"

"I am positive." Zamasu gave him the scariest of glares, but Ambrose just smiled at him like an asshole.

The engineer looked down at the ground. "Sure."

Zamasu hated that reply.

The limo ride was quite entertaining, mostly because everyone was asking Ambrose about his life and his doings, which Lexi got in the way of and asked everyone to let him 'enjoy being here instead of being interviewed'. Zamasu watched how close the two were, she was almost always reciprocating more than he was and that was just Lexi being extroverted. For some reason, he didn't find it weird when they got into the actual buffet, and she sat right next to Ambrose with Jay to her left.

Maybe it was because Jay was mostly unreactive to that.

The server came around to ask for how many people were here. When he saw Ambrose, he damn near froze in his loafers. "...So there's nine of you?" They all nodded. Rebecca in particular sat up, she was closest to the server and was about to say something before Ambrose had called out to him.

"It's all on me."

The other eight individuals looked at the multi trillionaire, who looked at everyone else and shrugged. "What? Why not treat you guys to something at least?"

"But we don't want you to spend too much..." Adrian accidentally said, which made everyone slowly turn to him. Ambrose giggled.

"It's fine, Adrian." Ambrose waved his hand, and gave the server his card so that he could swipe it. He took it back with the server giving him a kind 'enjoy your meal' before leaving. "Go, help yourselves out."

They had given Ambrose warm 'thank you's out of gratitude, and went to fetch themselves food. They gave back, and chatted and talked with one another. There was a lot of positive energy floating about for them, and even some of the people who were in the buffet had came up to Ambrose to either greet him, or take a picture with him. Women in particular would ask for the pictures, Lexi had noticed this with a pinch of salt.

Only a pinch.

Rebecca had taken to eating since she was hungry, but the second he did what she always did for these people, her blood started to heat up. She was always buying and making sure everyone in the group got to enjoy themselves under her belt, yet that is barely acknowledged, but when Ambrose does it, now it's something that's deemed important? Why would he even do that in the first place, he doesn't even know them! And yet here everyone is, sitting in a circle with Ambrose in the middle talking to him and sharing stories and shit, he's just trying to soap them up and win them over by showing off how fucking rich he is. A trillion dollars can't make up for a showoff.

It completely bothered Rebecca whenever Lexi talked about him, whenever she hear his name, even looking at him now made her angry. And seeing her friend also move away from her and gravitate to this exotic, avaricious, deceiving man pulled her gut down to her roots. Oh, that handsome face was nothing but a pretense, he's just playing everyone here. He took her two friends from her, he's basically here to show off his riches and disguises it as acts of kindness. He's not kind, and she doesn't like him at all...

She absolutely hated him even more.

l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l•l‾l

Yup. Turns out a powered up Shona can reach up to Zamasu's not trying level. No, Zamasu did not need to power up at all while fighting anyone, they all aren't that strong. Don't come for me.

Is it jealousy? Or is it skepticism? Whatever it is, Rebecca is not happy that Ambrose is here.

So, these hitman groups are trying to scare everyone into handing James over. It gets even worse, hopefully they won't touch his grandaunt.

Keep in mind that Chandler is technically within the highest echelons of the government, even if he isn't directly working with them. He and the other AIs are like the gatekeepers to this world, so he knows much.