Chapter 4 - And It Ends Even Worse Than First Thought!
/_\
Raylan leaned his body and dodged his head to the right as a straight jabbed sailed past. Stepping past the swing, he ignored the guy who threw the punch and went on the offensive himself. Raylan bounced forward, jabbed the second guy in the face right between his guard before dodging to the side to avoid a counter punch.
With his opponent overextended from his swing and a miss, Raylan swung backward, swinging his leg around and back-swinging a roundhouse kick to the side of his guy's head.
Having not expected the kick, he took the hit without bracing for it. He was thrown across the ground head first, his face bouncing off the ground as the guy landed front down to the ground. The kick didn't knock him unconscious, but it clearly severely stunned him.
Raylan hopped back to avoid a left hook from another of Jack's friends, countering with two quick jabs to the face. Not enough to knock his opponent around, but enough for him to feel it and react to it.
Raylan moved to capitalize on his counter but was momentarily stunned by a blow to his lower left ribs. Instinctively knowing another was coming, he dodged by hopping to his right and swinging on his front heel to face his attacker.
As Raylan oriented himself he found Jack trying to continue his attack, closing the distance between him and Raylan.
One thing Raylan briefly noted about Jack was his stance, and guard, as he approached. It was like that of a professional boxer, a closed guard protecting his face and elbows tight to safeguard as much of the lower body as he could.
Which wasn't a lot considering his size, but the technique was there.
But the way he moved on his feet wasn't that of a boxer.
Unfortunately, Raylan couldn't contemplate further on that line of thought as he was forced back again as the third, yet untouched, a friend of Jack joined in on the attack.
Two on one.
Jack led the charge, with his friend just behind him to Jack's right, throwing two straight punches in Raylan's direction, forcing him to dodge his head to the left. A third, right jab strike was when Raylan made for his counter.
As the fist came in, Raylan deflected the punch to his left side by using his right arm as a bar, stepping out as he did. Once on Jack's dead side, Raylan spun back around on his front foot, swinging his left elbow around and slamming it into the side of Jack's head.
The force was enough to have staggered the boxer even through his guard.
Raylan bent his back knee slightly and raised his front leg before delivering a fierce straight kick to Jack's side, the force of which was enough to throw Jack into his friend. The unexpected collision ended up tripping them up so they landed on the floor.
No time to relax as one of Jack's other friends came back for more with a punch to the head that Raylan was forced to block, followed by another. This time, when he dodged, he leaned his head out of the way and allow the arm to extend past and over his shoulder.
Simultaneously, Raylan used punched his opponent in the stomach whilst using his other arm to grab hold of the overextended arm. He swung around, twisted his body, and used his opponent's arm as leverage before he judo threw him over his shoulder.
The guy went over and crashed through a table, bits of wood broke off from the legs and edges of the table from the force of the impact. Raylan spun back to face the others as one approached ahead of Jack and the one he'd kicked him into.
This time, Raylan rushed the first guy as he too rushed him. Raylan went on the offensive first, with quick light jabs to his foes face, followed by a dodged to the right to avoid a straight counter which unfortunately grazed Raylan's forehead and perhaps scrape some skin off in the process but did very little else. Next, he aimed lower and punched his foe once in the gut and then his side before finishing with a solid punch to the head.
The blow stunned Raylan's opponent, which allowed the young man to simply push him off balance and throw him out of his way. Two down temporarily, two more to go with Jack being one of them.
"Jack is the only worry," Raylan thought, "He has actual training, unlike his three friends."
Raylan dealt with Jack's friend first by delivering a sidekick to his foe's gut, the force of the kick was enough to throw him back. But not into Jack, who avoided another repeat of what Raylan had done before.
Raylan hopped from one leg to the other and threw another sidekick, but Jack avoided the kick, pushed the leg away from his and rugby tackled Raylan, slamming his shoulder into the young man's gut.
The impact was enough to momentarily knock the wind out of him, but he re-composed himself as he felt himself being lifted off the ground.
Not having a chance to escape the grab, Jack slammed Raylan through a table, letting him go before he hit the ground.
Raylan grunted at the pain, "So that's what it feels like." His mind concluded as he recovered. Jack mounted Raylan, slammed one of his open palms onto the ground to pin Raylan down and raised a fist ready to strike.
Pinned, Raylan moved to block the punch but when Jack swung the force was enough to break through his guard and strike him directly on the cheek.
"Alright," Raylan thought as he hissed, "Dodge, don't block." The young man could feel the warm trickle, which was probably blood, running down his chin from his lips, he either bust a lip or cut his gum. Either way, Jack hit like a truck. And by how he had grappled him he figured out why his stance earlier was different to that of a traditional boxer.
He had boxing and wrestling training.
Raylan stared up at Jack and found he was ready to swing his other fist, it came down at that moment and Raylan evaded the hit to the face by leaning his body off to the side so Jack ended up punching the broken table beneath him with full force.
Jack hissed through clenched teeth, but otherwise fought through the pain. Raylan was quick to capitalize on the moment, he pulled one of his legs up between himself and Jack and kicked him off of himself.
It created a small opening that allowed Raylan to twist over on the ground, using his hands as supports to get up. But the young man knew Jack would try something, so quickly glanced behind him to see Jack coming for him.
Raylan kicked upward with the back of his leg, using his arms as supports, and donkey kicked jack square in the face. Jacks whipped back, forcing him to stumble back to keep balance and not fall over.
Raylan reorientated himself, standing back up to full height with a spin on his planted foot. He was quick to shift back into his low stance as Jack recovered, and focused his attention back onto Raylan.
The two stared each other down, both with wounds on their faces even if Jack was worse for wear. Raylan remained calm and composed whilst Jack was almost growling in anger and frustration, both fighters had their fists up in their respective stances and were ready to continue the fight when a loud, angry voice broke their concentration.
"Enough!" A very masculine voice yelled out, drawing the attention of everyone in the room, including Jack and his cronies. Raylan, though, was the last to turn toward the source of the commotion.
A group consisting of what Raylan guessed were Aeon professors, all dressed rather sharply. From casual suits and jackets from the younger professors, to the classic plaid suits from the older gentlemen. The ladies ranged from business casual, suits, and conservative dresses with small jackets.
But one trait they all shared was how annoyed they seemed to be.
However, not only were the professors there but the hotel security had finally decided to show up. Three people, two men, and one woman, dressed in all black with the same scarlet trim the hotel was known for coloring the rims of certain parts of their uniform.
And wouldn't you guess it, they seemed just as pissed off as his future professors and instructors.
And all of it directed at the two guys in the center of the room, with the other three guys in various states on the ground or just struggling to get back to a standing position.
"About time…" Raylan thought to himself as he watched the large group of teachers enter the room alongside the hotel security. The latter of which was probably alerted by one of the students who had dipped out of the room to fetch help of some kind.
Although he was glad this shit show would be finished with, Raylan wasn't sure he was looking forward to the rant he was no doubt about to receive.
Raylan sighed to himself as the security staff rushed over to grab the three guys on the ground whilst the professors focused their attention on Jack and Raylan, the two guys still standing.
The bigger and more masculine members of the Aeon staff stepped up closest to them, possibly expecting an aggressive reaction or wishing to make sure both Raylan and Jack could be overpowered if things didn't settle down.
"What is the meaning of this?" One of the older, middle-aged professors questioned. Standing tall in the middle of both Raylan and Jack, an ever-present disappointed scowl across his face as his eyes went between the two of them.
Raylan remained silent, wondering if Jack was gonna speak first. Act out, and start another argument.
But to his surprise, he didn't. Raylan glanced over to Jack, examined his face, and found something he hadn't been expecting.
A look of defeat.
Jack looked defeated in more ways than one, and there were other emotions in his expression as well. One by one he went through a wide range of small but noticeable expressions. Realization, hesitation, resignation, regret, and sadness. All within the space of ten seconds worth of silence.
Having got no answer from Jack, the professor turned to Raylan instead.
"Well, are you gonna give me an answer?" He asked. The young man wondered how he should answer this question. Would it help his case to say it was for the sake of someone else?
Should he say that? What if that dragged others into this mess? He didn't want the mother of that kid to get in any kind of trouble. Hell, she could get in trouble for bringing her kid here.
Raylan sighed to himself. There was only one way to handle this situation without dragging anyone else down with him.
And that was to remain silent.
His response, or lack thereof, only caused the scowl on the professors to grow deeper. Not a good sign.
"Honestly, I expected better of a new Aeon student." His professor stated, he pointed a finger at Raylan, "Rest assured we will get to the bottom of this. This won't be the last you've heard of this."
Raylan didn't doubt that either, he noticed out the corner of his eye a few of the other professors were already questioning the other students around the room. Likely going to get the full story from everyone else in the room.
"That's enough of this for tonight, we'll continue this tomorrow." The professor announced, "You aren't going to ruin everyone else's night with your behavior." His gaze swiveled to Jack, who almost flinched under his gaze. "Seeing as you aren't a student, I'm limited with what I can do with you but you're to be escorted from the premise and banned from this establishment permanently." The professors flicked to Raylan for a moment, as if expecting him to speak up.
"Perhaps he's expecting I might have a problem with that," The young man figured this would be taken to the police if he or Jack so desired, even if Jack would likely be the one to face punishment from the law instead of Raylan.
With Raylan maintaining his silence, the professor continued.
"You're both leave and disperse from the area," With that, the security began moving Jack and his friends out by the arm. With three of them being hurt they didn't put up much resistance. And with how Jack seemed defeated, eyes closed in resignation, he too put up no resistance to being escorted from the hotel.
Raylan, however, was escorted out by his professor by the arm with two other professors flanking him on either side. Raylan glanced over his shoulder to see the whole room staring at him as he was dragged out of the room and back into the lobby.
"The Headmaster will be having words with you tomorrow, be certain of that." One of the professors told him as they were brought to the door leading out of the hotel.
During the time inside, the heavens had opened and brought forth a light but consistent rain. Coupled with the darkness made it truly miserable looking outside, even if the rain was little more than a slight annoyance.
The first three to be thrown out were Jack's friends, with the security dragging the three into the rain, bringing them to one side that lead down one of the blocks, whilst his professors brought him in the opposite direction heading down the other way. And Jack was between the two, separated by both but was being pushed to cross the street and head back on his own.
They'd separated everyone, Jack from his friends, and Raylan away from all of them.
"Go home," Another of three professors that escorted out said, gaining Raylan's attention, "Don't make this any worse by continuing on with this foolishness."
Raylan didn't plan on continuing anything, what was done was done. What happened, happened.
Nobody said or did anything.
That was enough for the professors as they moved to return to the welcoming party where the other students no doubt waited with bated breath. The security did return to the inside of the hotel, closing the doors behind them but two of them waited by the doors with one of them peering outside in the direction of Jack and his friends as if expecting something to happen.
Even in the rain, with the numb pain in his jaw, Raylan didn't move. Instead, he turned to Jack and his friends.
His three comrades seemed to help support the one in the middle. Seemed like he'd Raylan had done a number on that one. Jack, though, didn't join them. Hell, he wasn't even looking in their direction. He wasn't looking at Raylan either.
Instead, he just stood there in the rain, looking down slightly. Unmoving.
"...he doesn't look well." Raylan thought to himself, waiting to see what they would do. Not because he wanted them to do anything, just because he was curious as to the sudden change in Jack's demeanor.
"Jack…" One of his friends called out, as the three of them watched their friend, with one of them reaching out his hand to him despite the distance.
However, Jack silenced him with a wave of his hand. Not even looking back.
His friends seemed to, reluctantly, accept whatever silent message was passed between them and began making their way down the street away from both Jack and Raylan.
All that remained on the dark, rainy night on a mostly empty street was Jack and Raylan. Neither made to move, but Jack didn't look toward Raylan either. It was as if he wasn't even there, not something to even consider acknowledging. Which was weird considering Raylan had been the only one to put it up to Jack and face him. He just stood there, looking at the wet ground with clenched fists, but didn't make a move or sound otherwise.
"Maybe he doesn't hold that against me?" Raylan questioned in his own mind. He didn't get to think on it much further as Jack began to move, heading off in his own direction. Away from both his friends and Raylan. Likely heading home. Whatever had been plaguing the guys' mind seemed to be pushed away as he left.
Just as Jack was about to turn and head down into an alleyway, glanced back for a moment, and Raylan could have sworn he saw him look at him.
And he could have sworn he'd seen regret in his eyes when he did.
Once he turned back, he disappeared into the alley. Gone from Raylan's view.
"What an unsatisfying conclusion to tonight." Raylan sighed to himself. Not only had he gotten into a fight in a rather impulsive way, but he'd also really ruined his chances at a good honest impression with both Aeon and other students. "Well, I did say I liked a challenge." He thought, making the most of a rather poor situation.
Raylan was about to turn and leave when a voice called out to him. The young man turned back to the source of the voice which was in the direction of the entrance of the building.
Coming down the stairs was another young man, one Raylan recognized as the guy who had been looking to join in on one of the many conversations back in the room. The big, likely athletic, guy with the biker glasses. Honestly, despite his bigger size, the way he moved toward Raylan suggested he wasn't coming to argue or fight with him.
As the guy approached he spoke, "You certainly know how to fight, don't you mate?" He asked, his accent thick enough to be easily identified. He was Australian, that was certain.
Raylan shrugged one shoulder, "I'm no rookie, that's for sure." He was a champion fighter for his martial arts, and age bracket, but as it turned out Jack was skilled enough himself in boxing and wrestling. Enough to put up a good fight one on one if it had come to that.
The guy hummed, "Didn't come out of it unscathed though. How ya holding up?"
"As fine as I can be, nothing I can't handle." Not a lie, getting punched, kneed, or elbowed in the face eventually made you more resistant to the pain. "But I doubt you came out here just to check on me," Raylan pointed out, "What brought you out here?" He gestured to rain, general coldness, and darkness of the night.
The guy paused for a moment and looked off to the side as if searching for the right words. And once he'd found them, he spoke. "Honestly, I couldn't stand being in that room anymore after what just happened. It's just… that whole thing was fucking terrible in every way." He explained, "The fact that nobody stood up to that Jack guy and dealt with the situation kinda pissed me off, they all stood around as if expecting someone else to do it for them. None of them stood up for themselves."
He sighed, "But then I suppose I'm also pissed off at myself a bit." Raylan could guess why by his reasoning thus far. "I didn't stand up to Jack either, I just watched on as he harassed those around him." That's when the guy looked back at Raylan and stared him in the face, "I was pissed off at you too at one point. When he threw your drink back into your face you did nothing. I thought that was because you were too scared to stand up to him."
Raylan remained silent.
The guy scratched the side of his forehead, "But I was wrong about that, you did stand up to Jack and his friends and I knew why as well. You didn't stand up to Jack for yourself, you stood up to him for the sake of someone else."
"The mother and child." Raylan figured. "Going after me is one thing, but going after an innocent child the way he did is something else altogether." The guy smiled softly at that.
"Damn right," He agreed, "I thought as to why you did what you did and I figured it was because you could put your pride aside when he was harassing you but couldn't put your morals aside when he targeted someone else."
Raylan smirked softly himself, "Yeah, I suppose you aren't wrong about that." It wasn't the entire picture but it was the most important detail of it, he'd give the guy that.
"So yeah, I couldn't stick around anymore after that. Too disappointed in myself for not acting, and annoyed that nobody else did." The guy shook his head in frustration, "The whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth."
Raylan smirked and swiped two of his fingers across the right side of his lips, staining his fingertips in a bit of his blood in the process, "Funny that, it left a metallic taste in mine." Gesturing to the blood on his fingers.
The guy chuckled at the joke, before settling into a small smile. "The names Miles, Miles Anderson." He stretched out his hand for Raylan to shake, if a bit awkwardly in how he did it. Despite being the one to initiate the handshake, he didn't seem as sure of it himself.
"He does seem a bit tense." The young man reached out and shook it, "Raylan Sinclair."
The two separated, "Not heard a name like that before." Miles admitted.
"Just makes it all the better," Raylan replied with an amused shrug. A moment of silence passed between the two before Miles spoke up.
"Want to go grab a drink or bite to eat?" He asked. "The nights still young enough to make something of it, we can have our own welcoming party if we wanted to," Miles smirked, tossing his head back and forth slightly as if the idea was bouncing around inside his head.
Raylan thought about it for a few seconds. Honestly, after how tonight had turned out he was half tempted to just turn in for the day and deal with what came tomorrow.
But to be frank, fuck that.
If he was gonna have to face the music tomorrow, then he might as well enjoy the rest of his night right now.
"Sure, let's get out of the rain and find somewhere to eat." Raylan gestured in the direction he'd originally come from on his way here. "I noticed some restaurants on my over here, we could likely find something over that way."
"Hang on." Miles pulled his phone out of his pocket, shielded the screen from the rain, and began typing on his phone. "I'll see what we can find on Doodle Maps." After a few seconds, and a small series of swipes later Miles spoke again, "How do you feel about pizza place?"
"Not my first choice, but at this point, I'll eat whatever." Raylan said, nodding toward his new friend, "Lead the way." With that, Miles began walking with Raylan by his side, guided by the ever trustworthy Doodle Maps.
"So," Miles began, glancing over at Raylan, "Where are you from? You have an accent to ya, but I can't quite place it."
"Ireland, Dublin to be specific." Raylan kept his eyes forward but asked back, "What about you? I can tell you're Australian but not exactly where."
"I'm from a place called Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory. It's a small remote place, but it's nice." Miles answered, "It's so remote that I never thought Aeon would come anywhere near it."
"You'd be surprised how far Aeon is willing to go to find the right talent." Raylan was speaking from experience there. Everything Aeon did just to get him here was a testament as to how far they would go for those they believed could attend.
The pair had walked down two blocks, and turned right down another during their conversation. Miles glanced at the map and elbowed Raylan to get his attention, "Through here", Miles gestured to an alleyway coming up. "We'll cut through the alley, we'll cut five minutes off the journey."
Raylan hummed but said nothing as the pair reached the alley turned down into it. Cramped, damp, and even less lit than the streets they had just been on with dumpsters forcing the pair into a single file line with Miles leading in front of Raylan. There were puddles everywhere with glass panels leaning against walls, water ran down the walls of the buildings on all sides, one of the doors seemed to have been blocked up with a wooden panel and some chains. It made for a comically eerie place.
As Miles stepped over and past a small puddle, Raylan was two feet behind him before he stepped onto the puddle.
Except, when he did, there was no give or feeling of water hitting his shoe. There wasn't even a splash. Instead, Raylan heard something he wasn't expecting.
Glass Breaking.
Raylan stopped dead in his tracks, even as Miles continued walking, and turned back to the puddle. His face scrunched up in confusion. The puddle looked completely undisturbed as if he'd never stepped in it.
That's when a stray drop of rain hit the puddle, but to his surprise, the puddle didn't react. No ripples, no disturbance, nothing.
"That's not normal." Curiously, Raylan stepped back to stand over the puddle and as he did the puddles blue surface slowly turned to a shade of pale red before going full red in the span of a few seconds.
Looking at the puddle, Raylan was confused as to what was going on, even having shaken his head side to side to see if he was just imagining it. But he wasn't.
Then he noticed.
Raylan's eyes widened as he looked into the puddle. Reflected back at him was the view of a dark, bleak, red city from above as if he was getting a birds-eye view.
The young man's brows furrowed before he realized what it was. Raylans' head immediately looked up and was stunned by what he saw.
In the sky was a floating cityscape, which looked nearly identical to the one he stood in except where the one the young man stood in had so much color and life to it, the one in the sky was a mixture of black, red, and white. It seemed… darker. Dangerous even, as if the colors were a warning to those who'd dare enter it.
But the biggest difference was the city in the sky was upside down.
And that's when it clicked, the city in the sky wasn't merely identical to this one.
It was a reflection of it.
"A mirrored image of one another." Raylan couldn't understand what he was seeing, confusion was most of what he felt in that moment. He was actually looking at another world. Whether a hallucination or not, he was seeing all this with his own two eyes.
"Hey, you coming?" The familiar voice called out, drawing Raylan's attention away from the reflected darker, floating city toward Miles, stood at the end at the T junction point of the alleyway.
Miles's attention was solely on Raylan, as if there was nothing out of the ordinary at all above them, in the red sky.
For a moment, Raylan had to glance back upward to see if the city was still there just to confirm he wasn't hallucinating, and to his surprise, it was still there. Unmoving and silent.
"Can- can Miles not see it?" Raylan questioned, even more confused now than before. Raylan placed a hand to his forehead, checking to see if he felt ill in some way, but he wasn't. He was as healthy as he could be. "What is going on here…"
Raylan turned back to Miles to question whether or not he was seeing what he was but stopped once he saw movement behind Miles.
Over a dozen shadowy hands reached out of the darkness behind Miles, outside his field of view, and were quick to approach him.
"Miles!" Raylan yelled in warning, startling the man in question, "Behind you!"
Miles reacted by immediately turning behind and coming face to face with Raylan saw, dozens of slim, shadowy arms reaching out to grab him. And before he could move to react they all grabbed a hold of him.
"What the fuck!" Miles yelled as he tried the resist the pull of the arms as they slowly pulled him into a pitch-black shadow on the floor. "What are these things?!"
Seeing Miles in trouble, Raylan ran toward him to assist him however he could but just as he began running he was tripped by a shadowy arm that had grabbed him. Raylan grunted as he hit the floor, landing on his front and he leaned over and started kicking at the appendage in an attempt to break free.
He could hear Miles continue to struggle as well, with the occasional fuck being heard.
As Raylan fought back, more arms grabbed hold of both his arms, seven on one side, five on the other, restricting his movement even further. Another arm grabbed the same restricted leg he'd been trying to free.
"Let fucking go you-" Miles's voice echoed in the alleyway, despite it being cut off. Raylan glanced over to where Miles had been and to his shock, he was gone. As were the arms that had grabbed him.
Another set of arms grabbed Raylan with his attention elsewhere which immediately made Raylan struggle even harder. With so many arms attached to him now, he could really feel their pull on him. He felt himself being pulled across the concrete floor, the rough surface scraping and dragging at his clothes as he was inched closer to a pitch-black shadowy hole on the ground.
"Damn these things! Why are there so many of them?!" Raylan yelled inside his head, gritting his teeth as he witnessed his leg slip into the hole. And moments later, the rest of him followed suit. The shadows calmed, and everything returned to a normal state.
Silence descended upon the alleyway.
It was as if nothing had happened.
Nobody would ever know that two men were taken from this world in this very alley.
The only oddity that remained was a glowing blue butterfly that fluttered through the darkness.
C4: End
And that's the end of this chapter. Shit happened, introduction occurred, and things got fucking real fast. So, what do people think of it all? The fight scene? Jack and his cronies? Raylans' new friend?
Short-ish Chapter. Kinda? Feels like it anyway since there are no scene changes/breaks, it's just one long scene.
Honestly, that fight scene could have been better in my opinion. I could have and should have done much better than that. I'll need to work on that, perhaps even go back and edit it later. But in my mind, Raylan fights with a mix of Dragon, Thug, and Breaker styles from Yakuza 0 because I think it's funny.
I'm also considering getting an art piece commissioned for this story as cover art. What do y'all think about that? The MC and his Persona as the cover art, would be pretty cool wouldn't it?
Let us know what you think of everything!
*Doodle Maps - lol
Review Responses:
Villain lover (guest): Let's just say I have plans for Jack's story.
Roggi: You'll have to see what the consequences for the fight are shortly, but I can't say you're wrong either. I do have plans for Jack's story but I doubt many people will be able to guess what I'm gonna do with him and his story as a whole. And yes, people seem to like the sneak peeks I've done of their characters. I'll be aiming to have characters be seen or mentioned even before they're introduced into the story to make them seem more involved in the world.
DOOT76 (guest): I have to say, I do like your observations of the characters. Pretty standard all things considered, but not entirely inaccurate either. You'll have to learn the more complex and intricate details of their characters later on in the story and see if your observations were correct.
CryKen: That wasn't quite your character, unfortunately. I'll try something… different for your character's introduction if I can. Your character is usable, but not something I was expecting to use for a "main character" in the story. I'll figure something out for him though, whether that's a confidant/social link or a Sub-Story staple. We'll see. You did leave enough blanks for me to be flexible with it.
Electriuser: I like your assumption. Now, was it in the way you thought?
LuxuryKiwi: Yeah, I certainly got a diverse cast of characters for this story. Which was kinda the point of having an "International University that accepts people from all over the world". People could certainly get creative if they truly wanted to. Good guess, you weren't far off the mark, no? I'll think about it, for now, people haven't complained when I try my hand at their small descriptions so I'll keep doing what I believe is right for them.
Obie527: What can I say? I like cliffs. Good to see people noticing the details and characters I mentioned, but you'll have to wait and see how I use them and what they're like up close. Jack has… some importance to the plot but I'll say no more than that. I doubt anyone will guess what I mean by that but who knows? A shame their time wasn't now but your character will get their time to shine at some point.
Anyway, I appreciate all the kind words of encouragement and support this story seems to be getting. Thank you all! Especially to those who submitted characters to this little story.
Alright then. That's that.
AlcatrazDGold - See ya soon hopefully!