Rock ran and danced between the cheap thugs and punks, smashing them down and feeling wonderfully, gloriously alive. He was flying, racing towards the horizon and nothing could stop him, nothing to hold him back, only the pulsing beat of his blood that drove him ever onward. The last punk hit the wall with a heavy thud and collapsed to the floor. A second later, Rock's fist hit the wall where the punk's head had been.

Rock looked down. The punk looked up, eyes wide. Rock grinned.

There was the sudden smell of ammonia.

Rock wrinkled his nose and stepped back. "Gross, dude."

"Sorry! I'm sorry!" the punk blubbered. He curled up on himself against the wall, all six tattooed feet of him. "...don't hit me again. I'm sorry, man, I'm real sorry, please..."

"Geez." Rock ran his hand through his hair, thrill wearing off. The fight had been fun. Spectacular, even. It was him vs a whole pack of some lousy gang lord's men, and a couple of them had shown a bit of ability. Not the one guy that was still conscious. That guy was just big and had never fought someone that had known what they were doing before. He sighed. "Look, I'm not mad at you, okay? It's..." 'It's just my stupid asshole uncle wanted your boss out of the way and that's why I broke all your pals' was the truth, but hell if Rock was going to say it like that. "...it's nothing personal."

"I get it, I get it man, it's cool, I get it." The punk was still blubbering. It made Rock want to hit him again.

He squished that urge right down. What was he supposed to do here? What would Terry want him to do? God, Rock missed the big lug more than he'd ever willingly admit. If Terry were here, he'd know exactly what to do. He'd grin and say something cool and then the punk would go back to school and make something of himself.

Unfortunately, the only person here was Rock. He gave the punk another look and sighed again. Then he straightened up his shoulders and tried to look square-jawed and heroic. "You need to clean up your life. Turn yourself around! And learn to actually throw a punch, pal, that was embarrassing! No wonder you got beat!" Okay, the last part just slipped out.

The punk stared at him, jaw hanging. "I...sure? I mean, yeah, man, I will. Thanks bro, I won't forget this..."

"Stop getting all weepy about it already! You're worse than a girl!" Rock snapped, then immediately felt bad when the punk cringed again. "Just...okay, look, go down to Little Seoul, find Kim Kapwhan's dojo, and learn taekwando. That'll help." Mr. Kim would sort this guy out. All those annoying justice lectures had to do something.

The punk scrambled to his feet and nearly fell over thanking Rock again. Rock waved him off with a "yeah sure whatever" and watched him leave. He knew he should probably feel proud, not irritated, but there was something itching inside of him. He still wanted a fight. A good fight, one where he'd go blow to blow with someone on his level...

Right on cue, the door opened and Rock's asshole uncle stepped through. He looked around the wreckage of the other punks with that annoyingly smug little smile until it finally landed on Rock. "Good job," he said, smooth as silk.

Rock found his right hand had clenched itself into a fist. He didn't bother overriding it. "Yeah, I'm done. You done too? Let's bail."

Kain didn't move, just standing there with that smile. "Why do you deny yourself so much?"

"What?"

"Look around you!" Kain flung his arm out dramatically, like that didn't make him look like even more of an asshole. "You took care of all of them, without even breaking a sweat. And you enjoyed it, didn't you? You enjoyed using your strength, putting these weaklings into their place. Don't try to deny it, Rock."

Rock took an uncomfortable half-step backward. He /had/ enjoyed it. He always enjoyed fighting. And in that moment, right before the punk lost control...

...what had he been planning to do there?

Kain stepped forward, within reach. His voice had dropped to a purr. "You see? This is where you belong, Rock. Down here in the darkness."

"...shut up," Rock muttered. Whatever he had been thinking, he hadn't done it. That was the important thing, right? He'd been good, he'd offered the guy a second chance, he'd done the right thing...and what about all those other guys?

The itch inside of him was driving him wild. God, he needed to punch someone. He needed to fight. He needed to get this feeling out, whatever it took.

Kain was still there, still smiling. "You can't escape. It's in your blood. You're just like your father."

"I said shut up! I'm no damn Geese!" Rock's fist snapped out, aimed directly at Kain's smug face.

Kain stepped lightly to the side, so Rock's punch barely ruffled his hair, and then in so close Rock could feel his breath. It was so fast, all Rock do was stand there, frozen.

Kain's eyes bore into his, red to red. The smile widened. "But you play him so well."

Rock jerked back, getting his feet under him, ready to deny, ready to fight, ready to do something, anything-

Kain brushed past him without a sideways glance. "Come on, partner, we're done here. Let's go home."

There was nothing to do but follow.

The prompt was "the enemy within", which sounded nice and easy and then this came out a confused mess. In conclusion, nothing is ever easy and we must constantly strive to do well.