Crashing the Party 2.3

Midnight

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?"

Brian certainly didn't, but he did know that the man with a gun would be the biggest threat at the moment. He glanced at the poor shopkeeper, who stuttered "P-please! Just take my lien and leave!" Brian crept towards the front of the store, trying to look like he was just a frightened customer hoping to escape before the situation got nasty. He watched the threads out of his peripheral vision. Brown-gray thread, blending in with the tile as well as anything would, creeping along the floor like slithering snakes.

"Shh, shh, shh, shh, calm down; we're not here for your money...Grab the Dust."

He looked over the goons. The one on the far left was clean-shaved. The next had a mustache and a goatee with a couple lines of facial hair connecting them. The first on Torchwick's left had a long mustache (and the gun), while the one farthest from Brian had a small beard across his chin. All probably had machetes in addition to the gun that Mustache had and Torchwick's explosive-gun-cane, and while Lily and Sabah should be taking care of them, he couldn't rule out the possibility that some would have backup weapons they missed...or that they would be able to use the remnants of their machetes to inflict serious wounds.

Babyface glared at Brian as he went to the colorful tubes along the side of the store, filled with what was probably Dust. Dust was explosive, and containers of it filled most of the shelves in the store, so surely Torchwick and Mustache would think twice before firing weapons in a giant magical powder-keg...but Brian could think of more than a few people he knew who wouldn't care or consider enough. Goatee ordered the shopkeeper to give him all his Dust crystals, while Mustache-and-Beard started taking Dust from the tubes by Sabah and Lily.

The threads were moving much quicker now that the goons were putting their plan into action, moving about the store; the threads were more like striking snakes than slithering ones, grabbing at the weapons. She pressed the ends of the threads into Lily's hands; she held them for a second, then pulled.

Nothing happened, except that Torchwick and his men were all focused on the two girls. Brian took the opportunity to quickly slip a few steps forward. Torchwick sounded amused as he said, "I'm not sure what you were trying to do there, or how, but you have—"

They were committed. Brian leaped around the counter, shoved Goatee into the counter, and tackled Torchwick—he never practiced tackling, but tackling someone a bit shorter and less muscular than oneself was a pretty simple task. Sabah managed to get threads behind the Dust tubes and around Mustache's gun, and pulled it away from Lily and herself; Lily struck Mustache's wrist enough to loosen his grip, and the gun clattered into the wall. At the edge of his vision, Brian saw Rachel and Beard fighting.

But his focus was, and had to be, on Torchwick. Brian kicked the cane into the corner, by Sabah. She and Lily were interfering with Mustache's attempts to draw his machete, knocking it out of his hand; Lily held her left boot off the ground for a second before stomping on the blade, snapping it in half and leaving a shallow hole in the floor. She quickly shifted her weight to her other foot, and Torchwick took advantage of her temporary lack of balance by striking her in the left leg and then the right, knocking her off her feet. Torchwick then sprang up, turning towards Sabah.

Brian heard Goatee getting up, but Brian didn't think he sounded like a threat. He then heard shattering glass—Taylor's bullet beetles, breaking through the glass to let more bugs in. Someone must have gotten a weapon, or otherwise escalated the situation to the point where they needed to pull out the stops. Brian started generating his darkness; even if no one had powers he could take, he might be able to blind Torchwick, and maybe some of his goons.

Brian grabbed Torchwick's shoulder, dragging him from Sabah, but was startled to hear Aisha. "Their swords don't work on them!" Brian turned towards...something, and Torchwick took the chance to punch him in the back; Brian barely noticed, focused more on Goatee and his machete. He also noticed bugs—mostly flies and such—starting to swirl around Goatee's face, blocking his vision. Every little bit helps.

Brian punched the goon, then dodged a sword swing. Goatee's aim was far off, more than Alec could have managed. He was off-balance and open; Brian took advantage of this, striking him several more times in the head and shoulder. The goon seemed not to notice. Goatee stood back up and started to swing at Brian, but he tripped, his leg coming out from under him. Goatee still managed to get a good swing at Brian; Brian blocked it with his arms, and the blade cut into them. His sleeves quickly turned warm, wet, and red with his blood.

Goatee stayed on the ground, struggling weakly; something Brian did must have finally stuck. Turning around, Brian saw that the fight had drifted towards the back of the store—Sabah was unconscious or faking it in the corner, Torchwick (who had his cane) heading towards Lily, who was leaning heavily on the counter and held an empty glass jug by the neck. Alec was slipping behind a shelf at the far end of the store, followed by Mustache. He almost couldn't see Rachel and Beard struggling over Beard's machete, they were partly obscured by a shelf.

After surveying the fight, Brian stepped forward, grabbing a jug like the one Lily had, and threw it at Torchwick. He turned. "Back so soon, Shadow?" He didn't seem phased by the glass shattering off the back of his head. Why do I keep getting in fistfights with Brutes? Brian sent a thick tendril of darkness out towards Torchwick, who stepped backwards from it, knocking Lily off her feet with an almost incidental sweep of his cane.

The door slammed open; everyone in the room jumped a bit. Taylor was there, drawing her dagger. Brian and the other Undersiders took the chance the interruption provided to catch their breath and prepare; Alec slipped further from Mustache, Lily got up, and Rachel just continued to struggle with Beard. The goons looked at Taylor, surprised and uncertain about the new element added to the battle.

"Sir?" Babyface asked. He was halfway between the front and the back of the store, and unarmed. "What should we do?"

"Eh..." Torchwick glanced at the Undersiders, before gesturing at Taylor. "I can take her and Shadow. Go help with her," he added, pointing at Rachel, "and then we should have this under control. You," he concluded with a gesture at Mustache and one at Lily, "make sure she doesn't cause problems."

With that, Torchwick twirled his cane and attacked. Brian backed off, blocking the cane blows with his good arm, trying to get into a position where he and Taylor would be on opposite sides of Torchwick. He backed to the end of the shelf, then Taylor attacked, striking with a number of insects followed by a stab, while Brian slipped around to put the corner of the shelf between himself and Torchwick and get a good hundred degrees or so between himself and Taylor. Parian got up and started stabbing at Torchwick with needles and entangling him with threads.

Torchwick jabbed at Taylor's chest before grabbing her wrist, tossing the cane up in the air, and grabbing the dagger. He caught the cane with his left hand before spinning, cutting at threads with the knife and knocking Taylor over with the cane, before ending the movement by throwing the former at Brian and shooting the latter at Parian. He turned towards Taylor, tossing his cane back to his right hand, before noticing that the knife was sticking out of Brian's abdomen.

"You don't have Aura and you decided you'd attack me? Kid, you really aren't—"

"Fire in the hole!" Alec shouted. A jar stuffed with red Dust flew towards the front window of the store and exploded, knocking Brian and the others off their feet. Brian's consciousness started to fade; he heard an unfamiliar voice say something, but didn't catch what, his ears were ringing. The ringing was fading, but so was everything else. Brian's last thoughts before losing consciousness were hoping that the dagger wasn't dislodged by the explosion—he might bleed to death before anyone could help. If help was coming...