Chapter 2: The Arch-Demon drops in (2)

It was the devil.

Those were the only words that the slim thug could think of after seeing that thing.

Looking over the monster's shoulder, he virtually felt all of the blood rush out of his face when he sees his two mates beaten into a bloody pulp. They were supposed to be the muscle of the group. What could he possibly do, all he was only sent nab the girl and that was it, no freaky devil monsters that might want to eat his face off.

"You afraid?" It was obviously apparent that he was being mocked based on the low chuckle of the creature.

"Like hell I am!" His fear of getting creamed like the other two was overshadowed by his pride. Despite that pride stemming from being a vagabond and kidnapper, its still pride nonetheless, "You looking for trouble or what?" He crouched down and prepared his blade.

"I'm here aren't I?" The creature made their slow advance with each step shaking the ground beneath them. The slim thug almost loses his footing from the shock but steadies himself as soon as the thing was in face stabbing range. He had a chance, the other two didn't have this souped up piece of high tech to help them.

Taking the gamble, the slim thug made a mad dash at the monster with his knife readied to impaling its neck. However, he may have been fast, but the creature was way faster than he could ever imagine, and durable too because it not only blocked the blade with its bare elbow while sustaining no damage from the knife's energy blade.

The thug was speechless and gulped as the creature grabbed his wrist with its free hand, "It wasn't really a nice try but I'll give you a C+ for effort." As it began to put pressure, the slim thug could feel the bones in wrist crack as he fell to his knees, howling in pain.

The creature inquisitively looked at the thug in surprise, it barely placed that much strength in its grip just now. After releasing the slim thug, he had already passed from the sheer pain that coursed through his body and crumpled to the ground unconscious like the other two rather anti-climactically.

Dusting itself off, the creature was surprised with how well things played out. It laughed a bit upon seeing the angered Fisk the cat raise its leg to do its business on his face. Cats are truly grudgeful creatures.

"H-Hello?" Perking up, the horned creature looked back to the van to be reminded of the bound Rose. Quickly rushing up to the van with Fisk following it in tow, the horned creature stuck out his clawed index and middle fingers and used them as faux scissor to cut the ropes.

Now free, Rose scoops up Fisk into a warm loving hug relishing the fact that her cat didn't meet its end as roadkill. Turning back to thank the nice creature, Rose found that he was already up on his feet and leaving the van.

"I was asked to help from some guy named Michael, he said that you knew him? Do you?"

"Mister Michael?" The creature took that as a yes.

"He already made sure to call the police. Make sure to tell them about your legal guardians, okay?"

"O-Okay, I'll tell them to call Miss Leslie to pick me up, my brother is probably busy with work." She noticed the creature strangely sigh with relief but pushed her query on it aside once it started to walk off.

"Oh, wait, um…Mr. Devil? Thank you." Those two words were all that she needed to say, but it held more weight than she thought at the moment. Mr. Devil's posture had grown tense, but as the sound of sirens filled the vast space around them, it turned around and gave Rose the biggest smile it could make despite its terrifying mien.

A huge gust of wind picked up around them and as Rose shielded herself from powerful gale, she looked up to find that Mr. Devil had vanished. And just on time when the police cars finally started being shown on the horizon. Clutching onto Fisk, Rose exhaled in relief and took a seat. She had to remind herself to also thank Mr. Michael for calling Mr. Devil for help along with the police, but for some strange reason, she felt that the obligation wasn't really necessary.

Lingering on the thought, she was soon assisted by the police, who properly secured her while handcuffing the beaten thugs. They were astonished by the amount of damage that they received and had asked Rose if she knew if there was someone around there, who could have done such a thing.

And wearing what could only be an attempt at mimicking that 'smile', she answered them.

"Mister Devil of course!"

Wheezing for air, Michael leaned against the brick walls of his and Jefferey's hideout. After his quick little escapade, he needed to go back for his backpack in some alley before running here. Thankfully, all of the backstreets were unoccupied so he could use his full speed.

"I need to work out…" He panted, he still hasn't really been too accustomed to his powers, well, reacquainted with his powers because of his mom. Recounting how the day sort of went off the rails with a sudden kidnapping, he was inclined to doubt that it could've been salvaged.

But that smile, Rose's smile was just enough to make him say that it was worth it. It's still a bummer about his bike though, he couldn't track down that Timothy guy at all, but the act of helping Rose was a good enough distraction from the taken bike. Not to mention the cool souvenir that he took from one of the flunkies, he just couldn't wait to show it off to Jeff tomorrow.

Opening the warehouse door, he breathes in and nostalgically looks over the sweet pad of retro arcade games, couches, stereos and their beloved snack bar. Most of their gear was salvaged and restored from the nearby Junkyard, and after years of blood, sweat and tears, they were able to make the best base ever. No place for parents to bother them, it was just him and Jeff couching it up.

And speaking of Jeff, he heard someone rustling around the back of the snack bar. Did he really skip class in the middle of the day, Michael wondered, but didn't waste a moment to herald his best friend's ballsy tactic of ditching school.

"Hey, dude! I can't believe you made it. To be honest, I never knew you had it in ya to skip school, but look at you now. You sure that you're not worried about your mom finding out?" He received no answer, but he was cool with it, worrying about the past isn't going to help anyone. All they had to do was focus on the present and get wild!

"Yeah, I get ya, but you know I'm not afraid of my mom finding out. What's she even going to do to her sixteen year old son? Beat me? Pfft, no way, I'm way stronger than her and let's not forget that she's so easy to predict. As soon as I mentioned a snake, she zips out of the house."

"Wow, aren't you clever."

"I know, but sometimes I wonder about her, I mean she is a scientist so shouldn't she see this sort of stuff coming, and that wasn't Jeff's voice." Turning around, he found his own mother standing behind the counter, drinking one of their energy drinks.

"Oh, hi, mom…"

"Hi, sweetie, how's my clever baby boy doing."

"So how long have you been here?" Shoulders slumping down, he knew that the jig was already up.

"Since this morning."

"I see, but how exactly did you get in here?" The only ones with keys to this place were him and Jefferey. Getting his answer, Samantha pulled out a key from her lab coat's pocket.

"Tara and I knew about your little secret the day after you two first found this place. So we took the keys from your backpacks and made copies. What? You honestly thought that we would have left you this big of a place to hang out in without at least keeping tabs?"

True, but it still hurt his pride that their secret hideout was so easily found out by their mothers.

"But how did you know about my-?" He paused before bitterly saying it through grit teeth, "Jeff's mom told you, didn't she?" He forgot to account for that factor of his plan, he should've known better since the two mothers were just as much best friends like Jefferey and him.

"And right on time too, I was just this close to getting on the freeway and what do you know? I was already on my way back to your sweet pad." Taking a few last sips of the energy drink, she crushed the can with her bare hands before roughly tossing it into their nearby pyramid stack of soda cans.

She was pissed, and there was only one way to soothe her temper and that meant-!

"Get your ass in the car…"

"Yes, mommy…" Doing his best to safely comply with her orders.

After locking the place up, she brings the car around from the back of the warehouse and forcibly urged him to sit in the passenger seat. Taking off from there, she began driving them off, but Michael didn't pay attention, he was busy with preparing himself for the earful that was going to get.

The painful silence in the car was further added by the tense way that his mother drove. Whenever they reached a stop light or sign, she would always abruptly stop at the last second due to her unconscious speeding. This lasted for over a couple of hours.

Taking a deep breath, she said, "So talk, why did you decide to skip school this time?"

"I was bored."

"Michael…"

"I'm not going to make excuses mom, it's so frustrating! I mean, you try sitting in the same rooms for a year learning crud that you already know."

"Michael, look, I know that school can be tough, but we all had to go through with it and so do you. Especially you." Samantha shook her head and could see her son roll her eyes.

"Why couldn't I just do homeschooling like I used to?" Everything was so much easier back then, he didn't have to worry about homework due dates, annoying classmates and subpar cafeteria food. It was just him, his mom and her friends.

"We've talked about this because you needed to socialize with kids your own age, and I didn't want you to continue staying cooped up at home or the labs all day doing calculus and biology." Samantha did take some pride in her son's ability to absorb knowledge but that alone wouldn't have prepared him for real life.

"I do too socialize. I have you, Professor Finn, Aunt Kate, and Jefferey, and I still turned out fine."

"Yeah, except I'm your mother. Professor Finn and Kate are my co-workers and besides Jefferey, who else is your friend that isn't in any way shape or form connected to you through me?" She implored him to continue and was met with silence, "Look, Jefferey's a good kid, and it still boggles me why he chose a rascal like you to be his best friend, and I'm glad that he did. But that doesn't change the fact that you need to broaden your personal network of friends and openly accept the changes that they make in your life."

"Couldn't I still do that without being in High School?"

"Yes, but you're still going to school."

"So, I don't even have the freedom to decide what I want to do?" He slouched over and leant against the car window.

There it is, that was her kid's biggest issue, unless it was something that he favored, he wouldn't even try to compromise in the slightest. It was a spoilt mindset, but she's partially to blame for giving him too much leeway in his childhood.

"So, what you're saying is that you want the freedom from school, correct?"

"Yeah." He excitedly picked himself up and nodded.

"Even if it was for a day like today?"

"Uh-huh!"

"Then fine, you win. You don't have to go back to school today." Samantha could see the boy bounce around in his seat in joy as she spun the steering wheel and placed on the car brake.

"Thanks, mom! You're the best! I love you so…where are we?" He gulped as he looked out the window to see nothing but the hot desert. How far did she drive them, and how did he not notice the apparent change in scenery?

"Palm Springs Desert. The weather here is hot isn't it? Forecast says it's over a 100 degrees Fahrenheit today, but I'm sure that you'll be fine, kiddo." With a pat to the shoulder, she urged him to step outside much to his confusion, "You said that you wanted to spend your freedom away from school, so I decided that for part one of your punishment for tricking me, you'll spend the rest of your freedom from school walking home. Now get out."

"Fine…"

With a push out, he was now standing beneath the harsh rays of the sun in maddening heat of the desert. She didn't even let him take his backpack or even a bottle of water and yet it didn't really faze him in the slightest.

Spotting this, Sam smirked, "Just to warn you. You can't use your powers to run home especially in the middle of the day around this busy highway." Suddenly his face grew pale, it pays to be a mother, you could basically read your kids without even trying.

"But walking back home is going to take hours, and it gets freaking cold out here during the night!" He hated the cold, the heat of the desert was his friend in comparison as he barely even broke a sweat under the sweltering temperatures.

"You have a point…" Samantha frowned, giving Michael a glimpse at hope. Tugging the sleeves of his jacket, she said, "Good thing you have this then."

"Mom, come on, you can't be serious!"

"Well, I suppose I would have let you use your bike if you had brought with you." Samantha smiled, "What happened to it?"

Looking away, he coughed in his hand, "I sort of lost it…"

A long pause ensued before she shrugged it off and laughed, "Well sucks to be you, sweetie! See you at home, and if I find your ass there before me, I'll just drive you back here again wearing nothing but your underwear!" Michael shivered at the thought of walking back home in the dark, half-clothed.

"No wait, I'm sorry!"

"Later~!" Burning rubber, his mother did not waste any time merging onto the highway as she recklessly drove up the ramp and turned back for Rialto.

Now standing alone in the desert without his cellphone, money, water, or any means of transportation, Michael begrudgingly began walking down the busy highway. He sure as hell wasn't going to waste his first car hitchhike over a stupid punishment, he'll just wait it out until nightfall. She did say not to use his powers in the middle of the day and he was in no real rush to really get going once it was dark enough, he would be home in a matter of minutes.

*RATTLE!*

"Oh, a snake…" Michael began his long walk.

*RATTLE!* *RATTLE!*

"Wow, there must be a ton of these guys here." Now he was race walking.

*RATTLE!* *RATTLE!* *RATTLE!*

"Nice day for a jog, isn't it?"

*RATTLE!* *RATTLE!* *RATTLE!* *RATTLE!*

"Its good to push myself with a good sprint from time to time, eh?"

*RATTLE!* *RATTLE!* *RATTLE!* *RATTLE!* *RATTLE!* *RATTLE!* *RATTLE!* *RATTLE!*

"…Oh hell no!" His cries filled the desert as he desperately ran like his life depended on it. Did he forget to mention that he shared a bit of his mother's fear of snakes?

South Los Angeles, the location of the Los Angeles county's most dangerous neighborhoods. Crimes were commonplace in the area, you'd have your gang spats, homicides, and drug dealings. You can even call it a form of prison in some ways. Most people who live there were either born there or have no actual way of getting out thanks to their low income.

In the past, the county has made countless efforts to clean up the rambunctious neighborhoods, but their efforts of restoring the streets and cleaning things up were in vain. They couldn't fix the poverty that most families there lived through and because of that either theft crimes or petty crimes such as assault and battery or even homicides to occur.

At night, however, these crimes would only escalate the dangers of being in one of these neighborhoods. And those who so carelessly lark through it will find themselves having a bad time.

Settling down the engines to his motorcycle, a tall young man hid his bike within the confines of one of the street's secluded alleys. Pulling out his phone as he began his departure, he flipped it open to recheck a message. If he wanted his target, he'll have to go up a few more blocks to reach his destination.

His pace was brisk as he pulled out a black mask and covered his face before putting on the hood of his leather jacket. Reaching the corner of the street, he peeks from the side of the building to see a band of thugs laughing and entering one of Los Angeles' many alleyways. And to confirm his thoughts, he follows them to see the gang enter the location of his target, Ricki's Bar.

He was too far away to hear but it seemed that they needed to speak a password in order to get in. Thankfully, he knew of a universal password that worked every time.

As soon as the gang of thugs entered the bar, he made his way up to door and roughly banged on it.

"For fucks sake, you asshats don't have to bang that loud. I'm literally sitting right here!" Shouted a deep, nettled voice.

The mask was doing a great job of hiding the young man's smile as he then proceeded to bang on the door again which earned a growl from the doorkeeper behind it.

"Fine, fine, tell me what the password is, and you can get in…" The chump sighed, he must have gone through a ton of these brash meetings and grew to be desensitized to them, the young man surmised.

"Fuck you." The half-muffled words through his black mask reached the doorkeeper's ears.

"Excuse me for a second… For a minute there I could have sworn that you just told me to fuck myself?" Some laughter arose from within the bar.

"I said fuck you, but yeah, while you're at it, go do every lady in the world a favor and go fuck yourself…" In the city, talking shit was more than a sure way to get into a fight. The young man boldly looked up as the door opened to reveal the poor sucker that he was trash talking. The brute was about six feet tall and was ripped as hell. No wonder he was chosen to be the doorkeeper, just the sight of his tattoos alone would make ordinary civvies run for the hills.

Before the brute could say anything, the young man swiftly pulled out the crowbar that he concealed within the back of his jeans and jacket, but before the damn thing could hit, the brute was able to snag it in his tight grip.

"You're about to wish my momma taught me right…" The brute angrily grunted in discomfort, it looked like really hurt to catch the wide swing.

"Not really…" The young man cocked back his bandaged arm.

"You about to clock my shit, nice try but you're not the first upstart bitch to try that!" The brute laughed, but as soon as the young man's fist made contact with his face, he saw nothing but white. His nasal bone caved in and the side of his face that was punched resulted in one of his cheek bones to almost shatter like glass.

In one fell swoop the brute fell and standing over his prone form was the young man, who kept his fist clenched upon entering the sleezy establishment. Drugs and filthy money on the tables, booze in the stocks behind the counter, and let's not forget to mention the gangsters pointing their guns at him.

But amidst the threat, the hooded young man simply shrugged, "I'm looking for Ronnie, you assholes know where he is?"

"Get that muthafucka!" As soon as the bullets went flying, the young man threw down one of the nearby tables and used it as cover. It was a wooden table, so eventually some bullets whizzed right through it, so he needed to move. Before coming in, he spotted the gang of five thugs along with two of the bartenders that worked the place, so seven targets.

Picking the table up from one of its legs, he rushed in and used what was left of the beaten surface as a shield. The thugs just kept on shooting, but once he was close enough, they began to withdraw as he swung the edge of the table into the first thug that he could reach. Blood flew out from his mouth as the table's considerable sharp edge left a wicked cut on his face.

Seeing someone from the corner of his eye raise their gun, he quickly turns on his heel to evade the incoming bullet while effectively smashing the thug with the table that had now crumbled into pieces.

"Drop dead asshole!" With no shield left to protect him, he was left to mercy of the five remaining armed enemies. Looking towards one of the advancing thugs, he raised his free hand in time with the thug shooting his gun. The round of bullets bounced off of him, shocking everyone in the room especially the thug, who fired them, and received a jab to the gut from the man's crowbar before receiving the same harsh treatment to the face like the brute that horribly banged up his face and left him a bloody mess on the floor.

"That's three." Alright, now all he had to do was choose between the two bartenders or the two thugs. It wasn't an easy choice since the two pairs were still equipped with guns, but judging from the two bartenders shakily holding up their guns, he made a guess that their hostility was purely out of self-defense and the fearful possibility of getting robbed; the black mask that he wore sort of gave that impression.

Just to test that theory, he banged his crowbar on the counter and one of the bartenders flinched and accidentally shot the other in the arm.

"Son of a thousand fucking whores! Uuuagh! Dave, you asshole!"

"S-Sorry, Ted!"

Welp, that was a quick fix to his problem.

"Drop dead already!" The two remaining thugs wildly shot their guns at the hooded man, but like their little buddy before them, it had no effect once he started using his free hand to deflect the lethal projectiles. Eventually they emptied their clips, but they weren't done fighting yet as one thug raised his fists while the other skillfully pulled out a pocket knife.

For the masked man, he saw that the fight in these guys were admirable for a bunch of drug dealing criminals, but he wasn't one to judge considering his own line of work. So pocketing his crowbar, he decided to indulge in a straight up brawl.

So he raised both of his bandaged fists up while spreading his legs shoulder-width apart unlike the thug, who was just holding a stance to be intimidating before recklessly rushing in and throwing any punches that he could get a good hit in. Raising his guard, the masked man used his forearms to block the blows before ducking and weaving to break free from the hits and land a good hit to the thug's jaw.

It wasn't with the fist that he used before, so the hit wasn't a Knock Out, but it was strong enough to disorient him long enough to prepared another punch to the face. Sadly, he couldn't do the finishing job as the other thug wielding a pocket knife joined the fray, swinging and thrusting his sharp weapon at the hooded intruder.

There were some instances to where he was able to make contact with his arm, but like the bullets, the pocket knife's blade had no effect. The man continued to use said arm as a form of shield before clocking the thug in the face with his other arm's elbow which did result in a gnarly nose blood.

The two punks were recovering from the harsh damage dealt to them, so now was the time to put them down. The masked man pulled out his crowbar and mercilessly slammed it into the face of the nose bleeding thug leaving another punk horribly scarred and bruised before turning to the now recovered thug that threw one last punch his way.

Looking at him, the man found the remaining punk to be disheveled to throw even a single punch, so he simply moves out of the way to watch the thug trip over his own feet.

Looking over the bodies, the young man sighed and shook his head. They weren't his target, and he had to admit that he probably pushed things too far by patronizing the doorkeeper first. But to be fair, they wouldn't have spared him a second thought if he was in their position what will all of the death threats and guns.

Approaching the counter, he began to pull up a stool.

"Die, you son of a-!" Ted, the bartender tried to hop out from under the counter and shoot the man, but was left with severe head trauma from a crowbar bashing his face in.

"P-Please don't hurt me, I only work here a-and-!" Dave the bartender gulped.

"As long as you're not holding a gun then we're fine." The young man's eyes gesturally looked to the weapon in his hands.

"R-Right, right!" The bartender dropped his gun to the floor and panicked once accidentally shot off a bullet into the ceiling. Letting the moment pass, he sighed, "S-So what do you want, sir?"

"First…" The hooded man drummed his fingers on the counter, "I want a glass of water." This earned him an incredulous look from the bartender, who had expected him to go for cold hard liquor like their usual customers.

"What? I do have to drive myself home tonight, plus, I ain't dealing with no cops giving me a DUI." The LAPD were anal about any crime so doing less out in the open was a standard way not to be detected.

Now with another glass of water in hand, the hooded man slightly lifted his black mask to take a deep gulp of the refreshing liquid. He had been working all day so a quick intake of H20 surely revitalized him.

"Bastard…" Moaned the still disoriented thug on the floor that grabbed onto the hooded man's ankle.

"Excuse me." Raising the empty glass of water over the thug's head, the young man finally knocked him out as the heavy cup shattered against his skull.

"Now…" He pulled out a picture from his pocket and showed it to Dave, "I've heard that a guy named Ronnie Lawrence stops by here all of the time." The bartender's expression froze with panic which was understandable since snitching was a one way ticket of branding yourself as a potential dead man on the streets.

Reassuringly raising his hands, the young man said, "Look, I won't tell anyone about you. Wouldn't gain anything from it anyways, so what can you tell me about him?" The bartender looked conflicted before heaving a heavy sigh.

"I'm still fairly new to working here so I haven't personally seen of him, but I heard from Ted that Ronnie the Cracker used to be a main patron for this place."

"The Cracker?" A stupid name, yet a familiar name that the young man just couldn't fully remember.

Dave shrugged his shoulders just as confused as the hooded man, "I don't really know the specific details about the guy, but I do hear that he's been working under some up and coming gang called the Mavericks."

The Mavericks, eh? He's heard of them before, and might have gotten some good gigs breaking a few of their lesser known members' legs. Well, lesser known to him, as long as he got paid, he couldn't care less about the people that he takes down.

"So do you know what he's doing now?"

"Not really, Ted said that the guy was always complaining about how he could've made some sort of big score ages ago and those were his usual visits. At first it sounded to me that he was probably flexing, but about a month before I got hired to work here, he told me that the last that he saw of Ronnie around here was when he finally celebrated about finally being able to pull of that long time coming score."

"I see…" At least he was able to gather some inklings of intel about the guy. And if his change in attitude over a once impossible gig had happened recently then it more than likely lines up with what his client told him. Now it was up to him to figure out what this "big score" was and he'll finally get his payroll.

"Thanks." Leaving a five dollar tip for the bartender, the hooded young man took his leave.

"A tip?" Dave awkwardly looked at the bill in confusion.

"Consider it as thanks for the info." The hooded man waved goodbye before stopping to look over the battered brute, he knelt down and stuffed his hands into his pocket and taking his wallet. Taking out a wad of money, he stuffs it into his pocket and nonchalantly pats the nonresponsive brute's shoulder, "Thanks." It may have been just a bunch of fives and ones in the wad, but he was running low on money and needed to gain something if he couldn't find his target.

Just as he was about to put one foot out the door, Dave immediately asked, "If you don't mind me asking…who are you?"

Taking a moment to think, the hooded-masked man shook his head and distastefully said, "Just call me Scrounger…" It wasn't a dumb name like the Cracker, but it was still a weak ass name, nonetheless.

And with that he closes the door to the messy bar while crushing the door knob in the process.

From one lead to another. At this rate, he felt his progress slow down to a snail's pace which wasn't an option considering his new client, who could finally turn things around for him. And in order to keep this new opportunity, he needed to do absolutely anything to get the job down.

Until the bell dings, he wasn't going to lose before the first round of three came full circle.

Thanks for reading everyone and I hoped that you enjoyed the chapter! I'm still figuring things out, but I think I'm doing well so far. What do you guys think?

Welp, I hope that you all have a great day!

I'm out so peace out and have a lovely day!