A New Generation is Born

by A-LionGleek

It's the first official week of glee club sessions for the 13 newest members of the New Directions, and they are more than ready to get the show on the road. But with drama popping up at every turn, the beginning of their time in glee club will be far from easy. Can the 13 brand new gleeks handle it all and show that they have what it takes to be a worthy new generation of gleeks?

11. A Battle Between Two Alphas

Hey ya'll! MAN it's been too long! Well on the bright side, at least now the newest chapter has FINALLY arrived! And boy am I hoping that you all enjoy it and find it worth the HELL long wait! In this long awaited chapter, tensions between Zach and Calvin reach dangerous new heights; and before long, a truly epic battle unfolds between them. If THAT doesn't sound exciting, then by God I don't know what will (no offense guys and gals ^_^). And that being said . . .

A/N: Oh wait, first, I'd best remind you that I do not own Glee. Get that? Got that? Good. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! Onward! With! The! Fic!

Chapter 11:

A Battle Between Two Alphas

Half an hour later, Raj, Bailey, and Cody were walking peacefully through the halls of McKinley High. And for once, they all had no problem hanging out in the same area strictly by themselves as a trio. For considering what had just gone down during the after-school glee club session combined with the food fight from quite a while before that session, they had decided to place themselves on a truce for the rest of the day. And they were all too happy to enjoy and savor this rare newfound moment of peace.

"I will admit," Cody thought to himself. "It sure does feel nice to just hang out together peacefully with Raj and Bailey without all this drama between us." He mentally sighed, and physically shook his head side to side. "God what happened to the good old days between us?"

"To think that we're here in full genuine companionship with each other right this moment after how often we've spent in the last few months swimming in all this drama and tension," Bailey thought to herself. "Is it too much to ask for us to be like this all the time once more without having to go through some sort of big hassle?"

"Feels just like the old days," Raj thought to himself. He hung his head. "God, I miss those old days." He turned his head to look towards his left. "Boy I hope we'll be able to resolve all this drama between us before I graduate; not to mention in a way that allows all three of us, plus Kimberly to get a happy ending out of it all." The Indian American boy sighed heavily in his mind. "God I hope she and Sid are doing alright these days."

At the sound of a crash and a pained shriek coming from somewhere down the hall ahead of them, Cody, Bailey, and Raj promptly snapped out of their reverie in jolted shock. While they were most certainly not at all 100% fully familiar with their other 10 peers in the glee club, they were still somewhat reasonably sure that the voice responsible for the shriek had sounded somewhat like Dunlap.

This suspicion was then confirmed when they heard a girl's voice, likely Naomi, worriedly yell, "Dunlap! Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," they heard Dunlap growl, grumbling to himself afterward as if in pain. "Good grief," the trio then heard the albino boy snarl. "What the Devil is going on with my legs?"

The trio promptly hurried on over to where Dunlap and Naomi's voices were coming from, skidding to a stop in time to find Naomi on her knees with her right hand grasping her cane and her left hand on the floor next to Dunlap, who was lying on his belly and had his hands and arms positioned as if he were about to try to push himself back up. Naomi heard the trio stop nearby her and Dunlap, and she reared up in shock with a unnerved look of wariness on her face. "Whose there?" she asked.

"It's alright," said Cody. "It's me, Cody, from the glee club. Bailey and Raj are with me to."

Dunlap managed to turn his head to look behind him, and he let a small pained smile come on his face. "Hey guys," he managed to groan half happily and half in pain.

Bailey got down on her hands and knees on the opposite side of Naomi's position. "What happened?" she asked. "Are you alright?"

Dunlap grimaced, his eyes closed and teeth gritted. "Not quite." With what seemed like considerable effort, the albino boy with prosthetic legs managed to turn himself over and then sit down on the floor with his hands on the floor behind his back and his legs stretched to full length across the floor in front of him. "My legs, I'm having trouble bending and moving them as I walk."

"We were walking through the halls," Naomi began. "We'd finished taking care of some stuff in the library and we were on our way to the parking lot to wait for our rides to pick us up. But while we were walking, Dunlap seemed to act as if his legs were stiffened somehow, and he almost tripped and stumbled a few times. But then, about a few seconds ago, he ended up reaching the point that he fell. And I don't know what's going on!"

Dunlap placed his left hand on Naomi's right shoulder, trying his best to reassure his increasingly nervous and borderline hysterical blind friend. "It's ok Naomi. Just take a deep breath. Everything will be fine."

"Have your legs stiffened up like this before?" Cody asked.

"No," said Dunlap. He then grimaced as if trying his best to remember something. "At least, I don't think so." He looked down at his legs. "In any event, I certainly don't remember my legs ever getting all stiff to the point that I could barely even walk a few steps without falling flat on my face."

"Did you notice anything out of the ordinary at any point before now?" Raj asked.

"How's that supposed to help us?!" Naomi screamed, still feeling too nervous about Dunlap's plight and how it had apparently struck out of nowhere to think as clearly as she would have otherwise been able to in such a moment.

"Depending on the answer to that question," Bailey explained patiently to the almost quivering ginger haired girl, "it may help us figure out what's wrong."

Dunlap thought to himself. "Well, my legs were functioning just fine the last few days, and for almost the entirety of today." He looked back at his legs. "Granted, I think they sounded a little squeaky and rusty earlier while Naomi and I were heading to the library, and so I oiled them with my oil can while we were there." He thought to himself once more. "I think they may have started getting all wonky and such not too long after Naomi and I left the library." He looked straight back at the trio. "Does any of that help?"

Bailey and Raj thought to themselves as if not entirely sure. Cody, however, clearly had an idea on his mind. "Can I take a look at your oil can?"

Dunlap and Naomi both raised their eyebrow in confusion. "May I ask why?" Dunlap asked.

"Not entirely sure how to word this," Cody admitted. He thought to himself. "Call it a hunch I guess."

Naomi looked over at Dunlap, who thought to himself. "Well," said the albino boy. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt."

With some help from Naomi and Raj, Dunlap managed to remove his backpack from his back, unzip the main compartment, and withdraw his oil can. At least, it looked like his oil can anyway. Dunlap handed the oil can to Bailey, who passed it over to Cody. "Here you go," said Bailey as Cody proceeded to grasp onto the can and start examining it from top to bottom.

Cody narrowed his eyes as he focused carefully on the object in his hands. "Hmm, I wonder," he said out loud to no one in particular. He looked back at Dunlap. "Can it be opened?"

"Yes," Dunlap answered, though with a clearly confused tone. "What does that have to do with . . .?"

"Just a second," Cody interrupted as he managed to figure out how to open the oil can, proceeding to unscrew the lid and then lift it clear off of the can entirely. He placed the lid on the floor and looked into the can, adjusting his glasses to further enhance his focus as he examined the interior. He narrowed his eyes in what looked like a mixture of disgust and confusion.

"Um," he then said, clearly not quite sure what to think. "Dunlap?" He handed the open oil can over to Dunlap, his face still clearly showing how confused he was. "Is this what the oil you use typically looks like?"

Dunlap accepted the oil can from Cody's grasp and looked into it. His own crimson eyes promptly narrowed in confusion as well. The supposed 'oil' inside the can looked awfully transparent and somewhat gelatinous compared to what the oil he usually used, or any oil period, looked like. "No," he responded. "Honestly," he then said. "I'm not really sure what this is or how it got in here." The albino boy looked up from his oil can, still clearly confused. "Because I know, for a fact, that my oil can was still more than half full when I entered the choir room for the after-school glee club session, and the oil sure as heck didn't look like this."

At that moment, Raj's eyes widened as if he'd just thought of something. "Bailey," he said. "Do you have a spare pencil or something I could borrow?"

Bailey and Cody, plus the two sophomores stared at Raj with their eyebrows raised in confusion. "Um, yeah," said Bailey uncertainly. "Why?"

"I think I might have a little theory as to what's going on," Raj explained. "And I'd like to test it."

Bailey looked over at Cody, who shrugged. "Might as well."

Bailey thought to herself, and then nodded. She hurriedly got out one of her oldest pencils and handed it over to Raj. "Here you go."

Raj leaned over towards the oil can, which Dunlap was now holding out as close to Raj as he could. The Indian American dipped the worn pencil into the strange mixture within the oil can, submerging the entire front half of the writing utensil under it. He withdrew the pencil, all five of the gleeks noticing that he seemed to do so with somewhat (though not very high) more difficulty then it should have been to withdraw a pencil from any liquid, let alone from oil.

Raj lifted the pencil to directly in front of his face, and his eyes narrowed as he gazed intently at the strange mixture coating the top half of writing utensil. He straightened back up to full height, walked over to where a poster for the drama club was located, and placed the mixture coated portion of the pencil directly against the exact center of the bottom side of the poster, the uncoated portion touching the uncovered wall beneath the poster. As he maintained hold on the bottom half of the pencil, Raj leaned forward and blew hard on the top half with his breath. After about a minute or so, Raj let go of the pencil and stepped back. The pencil remained positioned where it was, clearly stuck to the poster.

It took an entire solid minute of observing the apparent anomaly before Cody, Bailey, and the two sophomores finally realized just what was going on, and their eyes widened as they promptly realized the very likely explanation behind it. Raj saw the looks on the faces of his four peers, and he nodded his head. "That stuff in your oil can? It's not oil." He shook his head side to side and then looked straight at Dunlap. "It's glue." He walked back over to Dunlap, got into a crouching position that would allow him to examine the joints in Dunlap's left 'knee', and looked carefully at the joints in question. "And judging from the effect it appears to have had on your legs," the Indian American began, "odds are its super glue."

"But how?" Dunlap asked in clear shock and confusion.

"That," Raj began as he proceeded to straighten back to full height. "Is something that I now have a feeling we would all very much like to know."

The sound of another pained shriek, but this time sounding considerably more pained than Dunlap's, brought the attention of the 5 gleeks elsewhere. Dunlap and Naomi appeared especially concerned in their reactions due to how they were able to instantly recognize the voice as Darren's. And sure enough, none other than Darren and Amber came out of a nearby side hallway; and the very worried looking Amber had her hands on Darren's shoulders and appeared to be trying to her best to see if he was alright while Darren himself had his hands over his eyes and seemed to be wincing, hissing, and flat out screaming in agony.

"Darren!" Amber yelled. "Darren, answer me! Are you ok?"

"Do I sound like I'm ok?!" Darren snapped, clearly feeling too pained to be polite. He gritted his teeth in another wince, snarling and hissing savagely from whatever it was that was bothering him. "God, what is going on with my eyes?"

In a flash, Cody and Raj turned their heads to face Bailey. "Can you stay here with Dunlap and Naomi?" Cody asked.

Bailey nodded her head, and gestured towards Amber and Darren. "Don't worry. I can handle this. Get going."

"Right," said Cody. "Come on," he then said to Raj. The Indian American did not need to be told twice, and he and Cody promptly rushed over to the worried Amber and clearly in pain Darren.

"What's going on?" Raj asked as he and Cody came to a stop.

"What happened?" Cody asked.

Amber looked at the two Asian Americans, her despair and worry still clearly showing on her face. "I don't know," she managed to say. "But whatever is going on, it's clearly hurting Darren really bad!"

"TELL ME SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW!" Darren roared.

"Darren," said Raj. "I know you're in pain, but try your best to keep it together so we can help you. Ok?"

Darren growled, wincing in pain, but nodded. "I'll try."

"That's good," said Raj. "Alright; about when would you say it started?"

Darren hissed and snarled, clearly fighting the pain and trying his best to coherently think so he could answer the question.

"Well," the ginger haired boy began. "My eyes were just fine almost the entire day before now, and definitely before I changed my contacts."

"When did that happen?" Raj asked.

"About 10, maybe 15 minutes ago?" Darren stated, clearly not entirely certain himself of the exact time.

"What was the last thing you remember doing before then?" Cody asked.

Cody thought to himself some more, wincing again through the pain. "Well," the pained redhead began, "I remember that whatever had gotten between my left contact and eye over the course of the food fight had started to get particularly uncomfortable, and so I went into the restroom to take them out while Amber waited outside." He thought some more. "I guess I must have decided to just take care of fully cleaning up the original contacts after I got home, so I put on a backup pair." He thought to himself yet again. "It didn't seem too bad at first, though there may have been a slight bit of discomfort that I dismissed; but over time, the feeling on my eyes started to get worse; and right now, suffice it to say, I feel like my eyes are on fire!" Immediately after he said the last word, Darren howled in agony yet again.

At that moment, Cody then said, "Can you lower your hands and open your eyes?"

"How's that supposed to help?!" Amber yelled.

"We might get an idea of what's going on if we get a good look at his eyes," Raj explained patiently.

Darren winced and hissed in pain, but eventually nodded his head. "Ok," he grunted. "I'll try." With what seemed like extreme difficulty, Darren managed to tensely lower his hands from his eyes and then gradually force his eyes open.

At the sight of Darren with his eyes now opened and uncovered, Raj and Cody involuntarily reared back with their eyes widened in shock. Darren winced, and just barely managed to avoid snapping his eyes shut, fighting through the pain and reflex tears. "How bad is it?" he asked.

"Not good," said Raj. And indeed, Darren's eyes did not look good, especially if the rapidly forming reflex tears and red lining surrounding the skin area that encircled his eyes were any indication. "Whatever's going on with your eyes right now, it needs to be treated, and quick!"

"No kidding," Cody agreed, clearly just as concerned. Then his eyes narrowed, and he sniffed the air. "And for that matter, does anyone else smell lemons right now?"

Raj, Amber, and Darren sniffed the air themselves (though Darren did so with considerably more difficulty due to the pain in his eyes).

"You're right," said Raj. "I am smelling something lemony around here."

"Me to," said Amber.

"Me three," said Darren. He winced once more. "I think."

Cody and Raj looked each other in the eyes. "I think I know what's wrong," said Raj.

"Me to," Cody agreed.

"What?" Darren asked hurriedly. "What is it?"

"No time to explain," said Cody. He looked over at Amber. "Amber, where's the nearest boy's bathroom?"

Amber, clearly dismissing any potential confusion over the question in favor of the potential of Darren's current problem with his eyes being resolved and allowing him to no longer be feeling such great pain in his eyes, pointed straight at the hallway she and Darren had left not too long ago. "Right down that hall!"

"Perfect." Cody looked at Raj. "You hear that?"

"Yep," said the Indian American.

"What's that have to do with anything?" Darren snapped, clearly once again in a state of pain induced anger and impatience.

The two Asians looked at the ginger haired boy. "Darren," said Raj. "I think we know what's happening to you, and if we're right, we should be able to stop the pain and prevent further damage." The Indian American pointed in the direction of the hallway where Amber had indicated to be the location of the nearest restroom. "But right now, we need to get you to the bathroom, and a sink, or really any continuous source of water, and have your current contacts removed and eyes washed out as fast as possible. I know that sounds weird, but you've got to trust us right now."

Darren winced again from yet another flash of pain. "If you say so," he managed to snarl.

"Good," said Cody. "But first." He looked at Bailey. "Bailey, see if you can find the janitor and bring him over here. If there's anyone around who'd be guaranteed to know a good and fast way to get that glue out of Dunlap's legs, it's him."

"Will do Cody," said Bailey.

"What about me?" Amber asked.

Cody turned his head to face the blonde girl, and then pointed his finger at Dunlap and Naomi. "Stay with your friends over there and keep them calm and safe while Bailey gets the janitor. As for me," he looked at Raj. "Raj and I had best get Darren to the bathroom and get his eyes taken care of."

Having thus gotten everything planned and assigned roles as needed to everyone involved, the seven gleeks promptly got to work on their respective tasks. Bailey rushed off to search for the janitor, Amber positioned herself at an appropriate area near where Naomi and Dunlap were positioned, and Cody and Raj hurriedly rushed Darren off to the nearest bathroom to hopefully put an end to the agonizing pain he was feeling in his eyes. Little did any of them know, however, that the current drama befalling them was hardly the worst thing to befall any of the gleeks that afternoon.

. . . . .

At around the exact same time that the 'trio' had been happily walking through the halls before becoming aware of Dunlap's plight, the two leads and their respective deputies, plus Hobbes, were also walking together through a hallway. As of that moment, they had all managed to get their respective school supplies they needed for the night out of their lockers and into their backpacks to bring home, and they now had plenty of time to wait before Mrs. Taymor arrived to take them all home. And they were also feeling very happy indeed to have already formed such strong camaraderie together.

"I'm not sure if I've said this already," said Calvin. "But thanks nonetheless for letting us ride home with you," the autistic boy continued.

"No problem buddy," said Daniel. "And you're welcome."

"What he said," said Diana. She chuckled. "After all, what are friends for?"

"You are aware you and Daniel only just became my friends today right?" said Calvin.

"So?" said Diana.

"Nothing," said Calvin. "Just keeping things honest."

Susan chuckled. "Well nevertheless," she then said before looking happily at Calvin. "I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to have a nice long talk with Diana and Daniel on the way home."

A wide grin promptly spread out onto Calvin's face. "Oh yeah," he said. "I'm definitely looking forward to that."

Daniel and Diana, naturally, looked quite confused. "What's so exciting about a little talk?" Diana asked.

Susan chuckled, and turned her head away from Calvin to look at her best gal pal. "Like I've told you Diana," she explained. "With Calvin, and the right topic, a simple conversation can be quite the adventure, not to mention a real learning experience."

"Ain't that the truth?" said Calvin. He then chuckled, with Hobbes letting out two barks in a clear 'hear, hear' fashion.

"Well in that case," said Daniel. "Just what exactly can I expect for us to potentially be talking about?"

Calvin chuckled. "Oh a great many things could be the topic of discussion," the autistic boy stated enigmatically. "Favorite animals, favorite books, favorite movies, favorite cartoons, favorite comics, favorite superheroes, favorite Pokemon, favorite anime, and Lord knows whatever else I like that you share an interest in."

Diana whistled. "Well you certainly have quite a lot of information in that head of yours."

"Indeed I do," said Calvin.

Susan chuckled. "No kidding." She looked over at Diana and Daniel. "Trust me, with the right topic, you can get quite the lengthy discussion about just about anything he finds interesting; ranging from teaching you everything there is to know about all manner of animals to ranting about the worst comic book superhero movies from Batman and Robin to the 2015 Fantastic Four movie."

"Oh do not get me started on that atrocity," said Calvin.

"Which one?" Daniel asked. "Batman and Robin? Or Fant4stic?"

"Fant4stic," Calvin responded instantaneously. "Batman and Robin may have been a train wreck and all around horrible movie, but that movie was at least entertaining. Fant4stic? The most joyless, stupidest, bleakest, anticlimactic, and incompetently done movie in the history of mankind. Seriously, Fant4stic makes Batman and Robin, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Catwoman, Superman: Quest for Peace, and even freaking Howard the Duck look flipping Oscar worthy. Hell, the 2005 Fantastic 4 and Rise of the Silver Surfer, flawed as they are, are a trillion-billion-million times better than the 2015 shit storm that is Fant4stic."

Susan shook her head with a mirthful smile on her face, and looked back at Daniel and Diana while gesturing towards Calvin in a 'ta-da' fashion. "See what I mean?" she asked good naturedly.

"No kidding," said Diana, now feeling somewhat unnerved at just how overly seriously Calvin appeared to be taking his newly accepted topic of discussion. The way she now saw it, she couldn't help but wonder if he was being a little overly passionate by even her standards. "I must ask you though Calvin," she began. "Are you always this hyper and what not about stuff? I mean, what's wrong with a little inhibition?"

"Inhibition?" Calvin asked in what sounded like an almost scandalized tone. "At a moment in which I'm excited? Blasphemy!"

Susan chuckled, and rolled her eyes playfully while Hobbes shook his head side to side with a mildly annoyed look on his furry face. Diana, meanwhile, looked somewhat bewildered while Daniel now had a more dumbfounded and confused look on his own face.

At the sound of a small 'clack' coming from under one of Calvin's feet, the four gleeks and the dog halted, and then looked down. As it turned out, Calvin had just now stepped on what looked like a large stick that just happened to be lying around on the center of the floor.

The gleeks stared at the stick, clearly confused. Daniel picked it up. "What the heck is this doing here?" he asked.

Diana, Susan, and Calvin promptly indicated in their own ways that they had no more knowledge behind the matter than Daniel.

"You tell me," said Diana.

"I hope you're not asking me," said Susan. "Because I certainly don't have any idea."

"Hell if I know," Calvin agreed.

Hobbes, meanwhile, unbeknownst to his master and the other three students, was now crouching playfully as if about to pounce, wagging his tail, and happily panting. As incredulously smart as he was, Hobbes was still a dog. And much like other dogs, he knew perfectly well how to play fetch. And now, with his natural dog instincts overriding his usual intelligence that would have allowed him to be just as confused about its presence as his master, Hobbes thought that Daniel was about to try to play fetch with him. Granted, a part of him knew that he'd never played fetch before with any person that wasn't his master, his master's parents, or Susan. But on the other hand, Daniel was a friend of his master's, and that, Hobbes reasoned, made the boy an acceptable enough person for him to play fetch with as far as he was concerned.

Daniel looked down the hall, and then back at the stick. He shrugged. "Probably doesn't really matter anyway," he thought to himself. He looked back down the hall, this time a smile coming on his face as he saw a conveniently open door to a nearby classroom. "Well never mind this," he said as he drew his right arm back to throw the stick. "I'm sure the janitor can take care of it." He threw the stick, and it went flying straight through the open doorway. Soon after entry into the empty classroom, the stick landed on the floor and skidded to a stop at about the exact center of the room. Meanwhile, at the exact same moment that Daniel had thrown the stick, Hobbes just as swiftly darted off in the direction it had been thrown, barking happily.

Diana and Daniel gaped in surprise at the sight of Hobbes running off to where Daniel had thrown the stick. Susan and Calvin, meanwhile, just shook their heads side to side with bemused looks on their faces.

"And now we're about to get it back," said Calvin.

"Yeah," Daniel said sheepishly. "Definitely think this through."

Susan let out a small chuckle. "As smart as Hobbes is for a dog, he's still a dog."

"I can see that," said Diana, letting out a small giggle of her own that the inherently cute sight of Hobbes rushing off to retrieve the stick in what he clearly assumed to be a game of fetch.

Hobbes turned his run into a sideways skid just in time to lunge into the empty class room before coming to a stop with a still joyful look on his face as he came to a stop at the stick's position and prepared to pick it up in his jaws.

However, at exactly that moment, the entire whimsical and positive atmosphere of the moment was emphatically dispelled when the door to the classroom in question was abruptly slammed shut. The four gleeks promptly jolted and froze, eyes widened and mouths agape in stunned shock at the sight of the student who'd just now closed the door to the classroom that Hobbes had just now entered; incidentally revealing himself to have been hiding behind it beforehand. Daniel, as it turned out, soon found himself silently becoming even more shocked as he recognized the boy. The boy in question, a well-built, but also relatively smaller boy with light brown hair, was Gregory McGuire, captain of the McKinley High rugby team. Calvin also recognized the boy, having fought him and some of the other rugby players amongst the current student body of McKinley High before, and his eyes narrowed into a glare while also gritting his teeth into a silent feral snarl.

Hobbes heard the door slam behind him literally right as he was about to close his teeth around the stick, and he tensed up, head raised, ears sticking straight up, tail between his hindlegs, and eyes widened in alarm. He whipped his head to look behind him just in time to see the door closed with Gregory looking right through the small window affixed to the center at the top. At the sight of the boy, Hobbes growled, angry from both being shut inside the room and from recognizing him from past encounters. With a snarl, the angry German Shepherd charged straight towards the door, leaving the stick where it lay.

Unfortunately, right as Hobbes jumped the last two feet between him and the door, the four gleeks all found their eyes widening and hearts in their throats at the sound of a distinctive clicking noise that now indicated for an especially unnerving new development in the current situation. Hobbes himself only confirmed their suspicions mere seconds later when he slammed against the door, only to find himself standing on his hindlegs, slamming his clawed front paws against the door, and barking in a mixture of rage and horror as he too realized that Gregory had now locked the door.

The four gleeks promptly rushed over to the locked classroom. "Hey!" Calvin yelled. Gregory turned his head, briefly stunned from the abruptness of hearing Calvin shouting, only for a glare to then come on his face as he recognized Calvin. Calvin came to a stop, as did Susan, Daniel, and Diana. The autistic boy pointed at the door. "Are you crazy?! Open that door!"

Gregory narrowed his eyes further. "Or what loser?"

"Don't play dumb," Calvin snarled. "Open that door!"

"What he said," said Daniel, a disapproving look of his own on his face.

Gregory looked over at Daniel, now looking even less pleased. "Why should I listen to you? You're not the boss of me Taymor."

"He may not be your boss," said Diana. She placed her hands on her hips, her green eyes blazing venomously. "But as quarterback, he is of equal rank to you by jock standards. And considering where you rank on the popularity rankings around here compared to him, he might as well be your boss."

"Yeah," Susan agreed, folding her arms across her chest. "And that's being optimistic considering how he could just as easily blow the whistle on you to coach Bieste."

Gregory scoffed, and rolled his eyes. Then he directed a smirk at Diana. "Oh please, like you're one to talk about popularity. By the logic you just used right now, I really don't have any reason to listen you now do I?"

Susan put her left foot forward, fists now clenched at her sides. "Leave my friends alone you scum!"

Gregory chuckled, and looked back at Daniel. "Can you seriously believe what's going on here? Honestly Taymor, it's gonna be a miracle for people to take you seriously anymore at this rate, and that's not even considering how difficult it is already!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Daniel snarled.

"Isn't it obvious?" Gregory asked, a smug smirk on his face. He pointed at Diana. "I mean please, its already hard enough for people to accept the fact that you like to associate with that filthy little peasant with delusions of being the next Rachel Berry." Diana hissed, her eyes narrowed and fists clenched tighter to the point that her knuckles began to turn white. "But with all these other dweebs in that Fag Fest you joined? Come on! How is it you can't comprehend how unnatural it is for someone of your class to hang around with all these insignificant 'no names' when you could be spending your time far less wastefully with the rest of your kind around here! Honestly, is it really that difficult for you to comprehend something that simple?"

The rugby captain pointed at Susan. "And look at her! How the heck she's managed to rank as high on the popularity list around here as she has without even being a cheerleader or of a similarly high caste group around here is beyond me; I'll admit that. But that doesn't change the fact that she's pretty darn high in popularity around here; plus admittedly hot enough for such a position to, but that's not the point!"

At the sound of that last sentence, Susan, Calvin, and even Hobbes narrowed their eyes and glared at the rugby captain. Hobbes even went so far as to snarl and tense himself up to the point that his front paws involuntarily slid down the window slightly, causing his claws to leave a small series of scratch marks on the glass.

"Seriously," Gregory continued. "As popular as she and you are, you two could be freaking royalty around here if you weren't always associating with all those lowlife peasants around here." He pointed at Calvin. "Not to mention with that freak of nature over here and that mangy mutt of his I just locked out of the picture." He looked straight at Calvin, smug smirk still on his face. "Because that's where all animals should be Short Bus. In cages!" He pointed at the window where the still angry Hobbes was peaking and snarling. "Want to join your precious little flea bag? I'll gladly let you."

"Enough with this!" Calvin growled, slightly bending his legs and clenching his fists. "I don't know what's gotten into you today punk, but stop acting like an idiot and release Hobbes this instant!"

"I'm afraid that can't be done just yet."

The four gleeks turned their heads in the direction of the new voice to be introduced into the situation, only for Daniel and Diana's eyes to widen and Calvin and Susan to narrow their eyes and practically growl upon sight of none other than Zach walking confidently over down the hall in their direction, his backpack strangely not fully zipped closed on his back. While they gazed in his direction, they soon also became aware of a small crowd that had already begun to gather and show signs of forming over the course of what had just now been going on with Gregory and the locked classroom that Hobbes was now trapped in; a crowd that was now very much showing signs of growing larger now that Zach had announced his presence and started making his way towards the rugby captain and his four fellow gleeks.

As his four fellow glee club members continued to gape at him in shock and rage, Zach continued to calmly make his way towards them and Gregory, an expression that was equal parts confident smile and equal parts determined glare firmly plastered on his face. Upon coming to a stop, Zach took a deep breath, exhaled, and then directed his smiling face at Gregory. "I see you've gotten the beast out of the way." He nodded his head. "Thank you."

Gregory chuckled, and bowed his head in respect. "You're welcome buddy. It was my pleasure."

Upon hearing this, Diana and Daniel's shocked expressions morphed into angry glares of the exact same caliber as the ones that were already on Susan and Calvin's faces, and Hobbes, who was now finally able to actually see Zach from his current position, let out a considerably louder angry snarl before then exploding into a cacophony of enraged barks. Daniel snarled, and pointed his finger at the locked door with the barking dog trapped behind it. "You set this up yourself?"

Zach chuckled, and looked straight at Daniel. "You bet I did. Proud of it to."

"Proud?!" Diana practically shrieked, scandalized by the choice of words that Zach had just used to describe how he felt about the current situation, as well as by the undeniable confirmation of the admittedly quite treacherous looking actions he'd just basically admitted having done combined with all the other unpleasant tasks she'd become aware of him doing just that morning. "Proud?! How can you say that!" She gestured angrily at the locked door. "What's Hobbes ever done to you?!"

"Nothing so far." Zach pointed at Gregory. "But there are plenty friends of mine that have ended up on the painful side of him."

"You got that right," the rugby captain grumbled.

Daniel growled, and Diana clenched her fists once again, now practically fighting to keep herself from exploding in anger. Calvin and Susan were hardly any better in how they themselves were likewise struggling to keep it together despite their own rising anger.

"And even without that to consider," Zach continued before he then pointed towards Calvin and Susan. "Right now, I've got some important business to take care of with your deputies, and it's imperative that there not be even the slightest possibility of that overgrown puppy interfering while the business in question is still in the process of being handled."

"Zach," Daniel hissed, his gray eyes now starting to seemingly develop a small glow in his rage. "I know you're probably still angry right now about our talk in the hallway this afternoon directly before lunch." He then pointed at the locked door and still angrily barking Hobbes. "But this? This is not helping your case."

"This really could be a heck of a lot easier right now you know," said Zach. He shook his head. "If you'd just be more accepting of all the effort I'm doing to keep you safe from the dangers of associating with the wrong sort, not to mention be supportive of me like a real friend would, there wouldn't be nearly as much drama between us all right now."

"A real friend, Zach," Diana hissed before she then pointed at Calvin and Susan. "Would accept our choices of friends, or even the fact that we have other friends besides you and each other!" She directed her finger at Zach. "A real friend wouldn't be so selfishly trying to keep us to himself or forcing his own idea of proper friends upon us the way you seem to be so hellbent on doing!"

Zach mentally winced at the words, but kept his game face on. "I've invested too much on this plan to back down now," he thought to himself. "Well I'm sorry it feels that way to you," he then said aloud.

"If you were sorry, you'd stop this idiocy right this instant, let Hobbes go, and leave our friends here, one of which is my best gal pal, who I might add you were willing to try to rape yesterday, alone!"

"You got that right," Susan hissed in agreement.

"No kidding," Calvin grumbled.

Meanwhile, the crowd of students that had been gathering around at the area behind Zach had managed to grow considerably large; to the point of including all of Zach's fan girls, which naturally included the 13 who'd been hired to gang up on Susan the previous day. There were also various other students from all manner of castes, classes, and other groups. As they all watched the unfolding drama with varying degrees of intrigue, excitement, nervousness, bloodlust, and even smug satisfaction, the Chinese American girl who served as the ring leader of Zach's fan club chuckled. "This oughta be fun," she whispered to her two compatriots who'd been responsible for attempting to drag Susan over to Zach the previous day. The redhead and blonde in question chuckled in agreement, smug smirks on their own faces just like their leader.

Zach gritted his teeth, mentally biting his tongue to avoid losing his cool altogether right then and there. "Look, the point is, I've got business to take care of right now with both that friend of yours, and the pretender whose been granted my rightful position as deputy male lead." The eyes of the other four gleeks present promptly narrowed in rage upon hearing those last few words, but Zach either didn't notice or just didn't care.

Zach then pointed his finger at Susan while directing his gaze directly at Calvin. "I tried to get my initial business with Susan done and over with yesterday the easy way. But you and her both had your minds set on making it difficult."

"And for good reason asshole," Susan snapped. Hobbes barked thrice as if to say 'hear, hear'.

Zach took another deep breath, exhaled, and then set his gaze back to Calvin once more. "You and I," he continued, this time pointing straight at the autistic instead of the autistic's brunette neurotypical best friend. "We're going to settle this the old-fashioned way." He took a step back, lifted his arms and hands, and balled his hands into fists. "A way that you and quite a large number of my fellow jocks around here are already quite familiar with," he continued. Then he leaned his head slightly forward, eyes narrowed in concentration. "By fighting."

For a moment, Daniel, Susan, and Diana merely gaped at Zach. Then they mentally gulped, and looked in unison at Calvin. The autistic had his eyebrow raised. "A fight you say?"

"Yeah, that's right," Zach responded. "A fight, one on one, just the two of us, here and now." Zach turned his head to face the sizable crowd of students that had gathered a respectable enough distance behind him. "No assistance of any kind allowed for either combatant under any circumstances." All the students within the crowd promptly nodded their heads up and down to indicate they understood.

Zach looked back at Calvin. "We settle this once and for all; winner gets the rights to Susan, loser forfeits all claim on her and forever stays out of the winner's business and Susan's life." Even as he said this, part of him felt bad for saying such things. Of course, he had no intention of actually enforcing and going through with the latter term in the event that he won. But right now, he had an image to build and maintain, and if the entire situation was to be convincing enough to make him seem like a bad boy worthy of Charlotte's affections, then the last thing he needed at the current moment was for Daniel, Diana, or anyone else to know about those hidden details.

Susan's eyes widened in horror upon hearing this, but then they narrowed into a glare. "Like Hell that's gonna happen," she thought to herself.

Calvin, Diana, and Daniel, likewise looked angry upon hearing the terms for the loser. Daniel however, surprisingly enough, now appeared even angrier than Calvin. "Zach, you are going too far!" he roared.

Zach scoffed, and then directed a smug grin at his 'best friend'. "Please," said the African American boy. "There ain't no such thing."

"Like Hell there isn't such thing!" Diana shrieked. "Are you insane?! How can you say such things!? You can't just forcibly keep close friends apart like that!"

"Oh we'll see about that pal," said Zach.

"I'm serious!" Diana yelled. "Do you have any idea what you're saying? I'd expect something like this from Charlotte, not you!"

Zach chuckled. "Well maybe you and your friends could learn a thing or two from how Charlotte does things." He pointed at Susan. "I mean come on, surely she and I aren't the only ones who can agree that a girl like her deserves better friends then the creature of the black lagoon."

"Like Hell I do!" Susan snapped. She pointed at Calvin. "He may not fit your ideal image for a proper human being, but he is a far better friend to me or anyone else he considers a friend than a million of you!" She folded her arms across her chest, blue eyes icy with hate. "And I've said this plenty of times before to other jerks like you in prior school years; but I'd rather have just a single true friend in him then an entire school full of fake friends like you."

"Well said," said Daniel.

"You got that right," Diana agreed. She looked back at Zach. "And that's another thing Zach! Calvin and I? We actually know Susan! We've known her and been friends with her far longer than you! And Calvin's been her friend even longer than I have!" She pointed her finger accusingly at Zach, her green eyes blazing venomously with rage. "And if you think that you are even remotely capable in any way of forcing a friendship of that caliber to be just up and ended permanently on your mere say so, then you've got another thing coming for you!"

"Yeah," Daniel snarled. "I don't know what's gotten into you, or what all those braindead whores around here who worship you say. You're not the boss around here for anyone! You're not a boss, you're not a king, and you sure as Hell aren't God!"

Zach felt half angry and half guilty inside, but he managed to continue hiding it with a smug smile still on his face. "Well we'll just have to see about that once I'm done with this battle now, won't we?"

"Well that's assuming you even fight this battle!" Susan yelled, arms still folded across her chest and blue eyes still icy with anger. "Let alone win!"

Zach chuckled, and stared sleazily back at Susan. "Well you're awfully confident in your little pet's chances against me, aren't you?"

"And for good reason punk."

At the sound of this husky growling comment, all the other students present directed their attention to Calvin, who was now stepping forward to a position that would allow him to be three footsteps ahead of his three friends and face to face with Zach with exactly five feet between him and the black boy. Calvin came to a stop at his desired position, took a deep breath, exhaled, and then directed a hateful, yet determined, glare at Zach. "I accept your challenge."

At that point, the crowd of students had expanded to the point that it now included virtually every McKinley High jock and cheerleader as well as the lower caste students that had already been present. In fact, the only jocks who weren't present were Becket Nelson and Donovan Gunderson; not to mention every single one of Zach's fellow basketball team mates. The only cheerios who weren't present, meanwhile, were Silena Townsend, Ashley Manning, the low ranking senior year cheerio Kimberly Chung, and Charlotte Thornton herself. Amongst the jocks present, naturally, were none other than Miles Surette and John Lipoff, who were now managing to get a full view of the events unfolding with an equal mixture of excitement, anticipation, and nerves.

"I can't believe it," Miles thought to himself half giddily and half frightened. "My rival for Susan's affections and the famed Zach Skinner are actually going to fight today! And I'm lucky enough to be present to watch." He then clasped his hands together, his fingers intertwining and a smug grin on his face. "And hilariously enough," he thought to himself. "This is a fight involving Calvin that, for once, I'm actually hoping Calvin will win!"

John, meanwhile, quite frankly couldn't care less who won the battle or what sort of outcome unfolded as a result of whoever turned out to be the victor. "At least I'm not the one getting my ass kicked this time," he thought to himself half smugly and half in relief as he thought of the beating that was almost certainly about to befall either of the two combatants, perhaps even to both of them considering his personal experience with fighting both Zach and Calvin in the past. Of course, unlike with Calvin, John and Miles, and most of the other jocks for that matter, had only fought Zach once each. But that wasn't really the point right now.

Calvin pointed his finger at Zach. "I'll fight you Zach, if only to get you to shut up, stop harassing Susan, and leave me, Susan, Hobbes. . ."

He gestured towards Diana and Daniel. "And all my other friends alone!" Zach barely even had a chance to register how swiftly and eagerly Calvin had just now labeled Diana and Daniel as his friends before the blonde boy pointed his finger at him once more and said, "And before you ask, the other seven glee club members you've got on the bad side of who are conveniently not present right now are my friends to!" He folded his arms across his chest, a small smug grin of his own now coming onto his face. "And now that I think about it, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turns out you've deliberately managed to set things up so that those particular seven students would be delayed and unlikely to show up to watch this even if they wanted to. Would I?"

Zach snarled. "Well maybe you would, maybe you wouldn't. That doesn't matter!" He slipped his backpack off his shoulders, threw it down on the floor nearby, and leaned backward slightly, fists still at the ready. "Let's get it on."

Calvin only grinned, and then proceeded to engage in a slow martial arts-style bow. He straightened back up and then positioned himself in a standard karate attack stance. "Ready when you are."

For the next minute or two, while all the other students present, plus Hobbes, watched, Zach and Calvin moved around in a circle, neither one all that keen on making the first move just yet without letting the other have a chance to do so. Throughout the entire time, Zach remained tensed up and clenched fisted while Calvin remained calm, relaxed, and with his hands positioned as if ready to do a karate chop.

Zach eventually started to lose patience, and he said, "Well, what are you waiting for? Attack! Start fighting already! I don't want to waste the whole day waiting for you to attack! Not when I could have already gotten it over with and left with Susan by now!"

Calvin chuckled. "You're awfully confident in your chances against me, aren't you?"

Zach couldn't help but mentally chuckle at how Calvin had just now given him a paraphrased echoing of his own thoughts from not too long ago. "Well like you said yesterday, you know my whole reputation." He nodded his head. "And thus, just like how you are well aware of my history in bed, you are also perfectly well aware that this ain't my first rodeo."

"Indeed," said Calvin. "But as you yourself also noted not too long ago, and all your so called 'friends' would agree, this ain't my first rodeo either."

"True enough," Zach admitted. He grinned. "But newsflash, just so you're warned, I never lose."

"Spoiler alert," Calvin responded, grin still on his face, not at all phased by Zach's boast. "Neither do I."

Zach chuckled. "Well I suppose one of us is going to have to say goodbye to that perfect record then."

"Indeed," said Calvin. "And spoiler alert; it's gonna be you."

Zach guffawed. "Oh really?" he said. He chuckled, unclenched his fists, and turned around a complete 180 with his arms spread out and upwards to face the audience behind him. "Can you believe him? He actually thinks he has even the slightest chance of. . ."

Right as Zach was saying that second sentence, he turned back around to face Calvin just in time for the blonde boy's fist to pound him in the face and send him briefly stumbling backwards. When Zach managed to regain his footing and avoid falling over, he shook his head to regain his bearings and looked back at Calvin in time to see the autistic boy smirking and back in his earlier relaxed karate attack stance position. "Combat rule number 1," said the autistic boy. "Never turn your back on your opponent."

Zach shook his head side to side. "I'll admit, I made a mistake there." He got back into a fighting position. "I won't make that one again."

"Noted."

Zach leaned backward in preparation, then lunged forward with a punch. Calvin hopped backwards sufficiently enough to avoid getting hit. Zach attempted another punch, only for Calvin to dodge again. Zach attempted a third punch. Calvin dodged yet again. "Wow, your opponents must have really underestimated you if you were able to defeat them as easily as you did," said Calvin.

Zach snarled. In a complete rage, he swung his fists at Calvin left and right. Calvin proceeded to almost lazily dodge every single one of Zach's now purely rage fueled punches. "Dude, now you're just humiliating yourself," said Calvin.

Zach growled, now too angry to bother trying to hide it. "If I must humiliate myself like this for it, so be it." He snarled, and pointed his right finger at Calvin while keeping his left hand clenched into a fist. "Mark my words pal; I will win this fight. I will thoroughly defeat you through and through in front of everybody in this hallway. I will have the rights to Susan." Calvin only laughed at this, still clearly not fully taking Zach seriously. At that point, Zach, already angry enough as it was, completely lost his head. "AND I WILL BED HER, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, WHETHER SHE WANTS IT OR NOT!"

Calvin's right fist thundered into Zach's face hard, harder than it had the previous moment in which he'd punched Zach, and Zach was sent stumbling backwards. By the time Zach managed to regain his balance and look back at Calvin, it took only one single look at Calvin's face and the position the autistic boy had now assumed to know that things were now about to get serious. At that moment, instead of the relaxed karate-style attack stance he'd been in before, Calvin was positioned tensely with his left fist dangling by his side and his right fist raised to near face level while his face was seemingly frozen in a furious silent snarl with his black eyes seemingly glowing with rage. Clearly, Zach's last comment from before the punch had been enough to truly set Calvin off. For now, it was clear from the way Calvin was positioned and behaving that the autistic boy was now taking this fight very seriously and was no longer in the mood for messing around. And everyone else in the hall watching the proceedings knew it to.

For a few seconds, as Zach watched with a wide-eyed look of shock on his face from the pain and unexpected change in the fight's atmosphere, Calvin remained fixed in his newly assumed position, snarling and growling angrily. For Susan's honor, and effectively Susan herself, had been threatened. And Calvin no longer cared about how much damage he'd potentially cause to the boy who was supposedly the best friend of his own new friend, Daniel. For he was going to defend Susan's honor. And he was going to make sure that Zach never got anywhere close to getting so much as even the tiniest of fractions of what he'd now clearly indicated that he wanted from her.

He stopped snarling, glared at Zach, and then lifted his left foot and took a pounding step back, incidentally positioning himself as if imitating a t-rex. He then took another pounding step backwards, this time with his right foot. He leaned forward and down, and then straightened back up, emitting a might t-rex-like roar from his mouth in the process. In that instant, Susan smiled, for she could tell that Calvin definitely meant business if he was going so far as to roar like that in the midst of a combat situation. "This fight's definitely in the bag for him now," she thought to herself. Hobbes, meanwhile, let his own canine equivalent of a smile come on his furry face as he continued to watch from the locked classroom he was still trapped in, clearly just as confident in his master's chances at winning as Susan was.

Zach continued to stare in shock at Calvin for a few seconds longer. Then his earlier smug confidence returned, and he proceeded to briefly spread his arms and show himself off for the audience gathered behind him before he then charged towards Calvin, his right fist drawn back and ready to be sent Calvin's way.

Much to Zach's shock, his fist zoomed effortlessly through thin air. Calvin had taken a step back with his left foot, simultaneously repositioning himself sideways in a style reminiscent of an opening door; a classic ninja dodging tactic he'd learned from his ninjitsu classes from his middle school years. And as a result of Calvin's well timed dodge, Zach found himself stumbling forward off balance from having not encountered any resistance with his attempted punch, and his arm ended up moving into position directly in front of Calvin's face. The autistic grabbed onto Zach's right elbow with both hands and rushed off in the direction of Daniel, Susan, and Diana, dragging Zach along with him.

When Calvin was about five feet away from his three friends, he leaned forward slightly while also letting go of Zach's arm at the same time, sending his opponent spinning off balance straight towards Susan. The dark-haired girl, out of a mixture of keeping Zach in the designated 'fighting ring' and sheer disgust at the boy, punched him in the face right as he was within range and sent him stumbling backwards towards Calvin. Calvin, taking advantage of Zach's unbalanced state and having his back turned towards him, grabbed onto an open locker door behind him, lifted himself off the floor, and dealt Zach a kangaroo-like kick to the back with both feet. Zach fell flat on his face.

Zach barely even had time to register his impact with the floor, or even the full pain of the blow to his back, before he suddenly felt someone grab him by his ankles and yank him up into the air. Calvin swung Zach to his left and slammed the black boy on the floor, Zach's back receiving the impact. Calvin swung Zach back to his right and slammed him facedown. The autistic boy then proceeded to slam Zach down left, then right, left, then right, and then left again. When he lifted Zach back in the air after his seventh slam, Calvin proceeded to spin himself around in circles three times while still holding Zach in the air. When he finally let go, Zach flew to the side, slammed into a small group of lockers, and painfully landed on his right side.

Zach had just enough time to roll over onto his back and let out a slight grunt of pain before he heard growling coming from Calvin's direction. He directed a horrified look in that direction just in time to see Calvin barrel straight towards him and lift his right foot.

Eyes widened, Zach hurriedly moved his head and neck to his left, and Calvin's foot slammed down on the empty floor space. Calvin lifted his foot again, and once again missed Zach's face when the black boy moved his head in the opposite direction. Calvin lifted his foot a third time. This time Zach moved his head several seconds before Calvin initiated his stomping attack, assuming that Calvin would continue his stomping in a left and right alternating pattern like with his prior attack.

Unfortunately for Zach, Calvin had expected for Zach to make such an assumption, as he instead stomped his foot back in the very same direction as the one Zach had just dodged prior; and thus, Zach moved his head and face directly within the ideal range for the stomp.

Zach shrieked in pain when Calvin's foot lifted back up and away from his face, gritting his teeth and clenching his eyes shut from the impact. Then he heard Calvin snarl, and he opened his eyes in time to see the autistic boy crouch, and then jump in the air as if about to do a diving fist slam. Zach reacted quickly, and lifted his feet in time to catch Calvin by the chest with both feet and swing him forwards and away from him.

Calvin's hands landed on the floor a couple feet away from Zach's position, and he masterfully turned the impact into a role. Upon successfully getting himself into a partially crouched position on both feet as a result of the role, he spent just a few seconds quickly looking left and right to make absolutely certain he hadn't harmed anyone he didn't want to hurt before swiftly turning around to face Zach once more while simultaneously straightening back up to full height.

Unfortunately, in the amount of time it had taken for Calvin to do his role, make his collateral damage check, and straighten back up and turn to face Zach once more, the black boy had been fast enough to get back on his feet, rush over to his backpack, and draw out an object that looked like some sort of spray bottle. Calvin had just enough time to notice the bottle in Zach's hands aiming straight towards his face and narrow his eyes in confusion before Zach pressed the trigger on the bottle and sent the contents within flying straight at Calvin's face.

The liquid in question landed directly upon Calvin's eyes, and all of one second passed before Calvin learned the hard way that it was hot sauce; emphasis on hot. The autistic boy shrieked in pain, snapping his eyes closed and reflexively snapping his hands up to them. He turned around for a brief moment and furiously rubbed and wiped at his eyes to get the burning condiment out of his eyes.

Unfortunately, while his back was turned, Calvin suddenly felt something wrap around his neck from behind and yank him backwards. He reflexively reached up and grabbed what had now wrapped around his neck and was now pressing against his throat, but was too late to loosen the hold before it suddenly became uncomfortably tight and the autistic boy found himself gasping, wheezing, and choking from the tight suffocating pressure against his neck. But even as he found himself in this state, Calvin was still able to make note of the fact that Zach's right arm was the object in question around his neck that was currently being used to strangle him, and that the black boy also had his left hand positioned directly on Calvin's left shoulder to hold himself in place for the chokehold.

As this entire tableau continued to unfold, Diana, Daniel, and Susan found themselves gaping in horror as Zach continued to seemingly strangle Calvin, even as the autistic boy began to become increasingly frantic and similarly in a bad state from the garroting effect he was being subjected to. However, what left them even more horrified was how Gregory and a clear majority of the students amongst the crowd gathered on the opposite side of the 'fighting ring' were smirking smugly at the whole thing despite the fact that Zach was seemingly attempting to kill his opponent. The Chinese American ring leader of Zach's fan girl cult even went so far as to chuckle. "That's right Zach Attack," she thought to herself. "Show him who's king around here."

Granted, a small number of the students in the audience also looked unnerved and horrified at what was going on just like Susan, Daniel, and Diana were. But of course, the three gleeks in question were too horrified and concerned themselves to notice or care about that detail. Hobbes was also clearly aware of and terrified of what was happening to his master, and he in fact felt even more strongly affected by the news since all instincts and training were howling agonizingly loudly in his mind that he needed to help his master; a task that the current locked door to the classroom he was trapped in was very aggravatingly and painfully preventing him from doing. In fact, after about a few seconds of pounding his front paws against the door and barking and snarling like crazy, he went so far as to attempt to bust his way out by ramming himself against the door five times. And when not even that ploy worked, he banged on the door with his front paws a few more times before then lifting his head up to face the ceiling of the classroom he was trapped in and unleashing an ear-splitting HOWL of rage, despair, and anguish.

The instant Susan heard Hobbes howling in that particular fashion, she snapped out of her dazed state of horrified shock and yelled, "Stop! Stop this! You're choking him!"

"I know," Zach grunted coldly, not letting up in the slightest even as Calvin continued to hiss and wheeze. Quite frankly, as far as Zach or anyone else could tell, it was a miracle the poor autistic was even still conscious right now, let alone alive.

"That's all you have to say?!" Diana shouted. "You're killing him!"

"So I am," said Zach.

Daniel's gray eyes narrowed, blazing with rage, and he clenched his fists. "Zach," he snarled. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but you need to stop this! And I mean NOW!"

Zach directed a glare at his best friend. "Forget it," he hissed. "You threw your lot in with this thing."

Calvin, in pain and at risk of choking to death as he was, still couldn't help but narrow his eyes and snarl upon hearing the word Zach had just now chosen to refer to him by. Zach, of course, didn't care about that detail.

"You tell him man!" yelled one of the hockey players amongst the audience.

"YEAH!" all the other audience members on Zach's side.

At the sound of this, Diana and Daniel glared hatefully at the audience, fists clenched and eyes blazing. Susan, however, had eyes and ears only for Calvin and what was happening to him. Practically shaking now from a mixture of terror and despair, and her blue eyes clearly on the verge of tears, she managed to say. "Zach," she managed to say. "Please," she begged. "Let him go. You're killing him; let him go!"

Zach directed his attention at Susan, a smug grin now replacing the angry glare he'd been directing at Daniel. "Say yes to my bedding offer, and maybe I will."

In a flash, Susan's eyes narrowed and iced over with rage, and she reared back in disgust. "Never!" she yelled.

Zach made a 'tsk, tsk', and shook his head side to side. Then he tightened his arm even more around Calvin's neck. "Say goodbye to your friend then."

As Calvin's hissing and wheezing proceeded to intensify, Susan's angry look promptly morphed back into a near tear stricken face full of horror and despair. She then closed her eyes, still nearly in tears, and now in a very painful mental turmoil as she fought desperately to decide whether to stay upon her high horse and risk letting Calvin die, or humble herself and stoop as low as Zach was suggesting so she could save Calvin's life.

"Zach," Daniel snarled. "Stop this now!"

Zach chuckled, and looked back at Daniel. "Oh please," he practically purred. "Why should I do that? Lord knows she and the rest of the world will be so much better without him. I mean hey, a girl like her? She deserves a real man like me; not an animal like him." Of course, Zach didn't truly mean any of these hurtful things he was saying. In fact, he was not at all genuinely planning on killing Calvin at all. The closest he planned to come to that was to choke him only into unconsciousness and letting go of him in time to allow him to stay alive. But of course, right now, he had an image to build for Charlotte, and Daniel, Diana, and Susan didn't need to know about all the subtle details just yet.

However, while Zach was speaking, he (and in fact everyone else present in the area for that matter) failed to notice two huge details. For one, Calvin had stopped coughing and wheezing. Secondly, the agonized look of pain and lack of air had transformed into a silent feral snarl complete with gritted teeth and wide open black eyes that were now practically glowing with rage. And to further sink things in, the autistic boy was looking directly at the still crying and mentally turmoiled Susan. The sight of Susan in that state, and knowing full well both who and what was responsible, was all Calvin needed to see.

In a flash, Calvin let go of the arm around his neck and extended his hands sufficiently enough to clasp them together behind Zach's neck and push Zach against the back of his head. No sooner had he done this, and Zach widened his eyes in surprise at the unexpected move from Calvin, when the autistic boy rushed forward with his eyes closed, a savage t-rex-like roar erupting from his mouth.

Mere seconds later, right as all the onlookers had managed to start gaping in shock, and Susan managed to open her eyes and gape in shock and teary eyed relief at the sight of Calvin clearly not about to go down or give up just yet, Calvin leaned over and managed to successfully initiate a front flip. Zach, much to his shock, found himself being lifted up in the air as Calvin successfully started his front flip, and then found himself falling back down towards the ground with his back clearly about to suffer the impact as Calvin naturally started to tip over as per the second half of the front flip. Zach had literally just come to realize this information when Calvin's front flip ended, resulting in Zach being painfully pounded against the floor and sandwiched between the floor and Calvin's back. The jarringly painful impact and suffocating situation Zach found himself in was also enough to jar him into undoing the chokehold he'd had Calvin in and withdrawing his arm and hand from Calvin's neck and shoulder.

Zach was still reeling from the pain, and thus was unable to react or do anything to stop Calvin from straightening himself back onto his feet right on top of Zach. No sooner had Calvin gotten back on his feet when he jumped up, both of his feet pounding onto Zach's neck upon landing. And even worse, Calvin used the landing of his feet against Zach's neck as a means to propel himself into initiating a string of back flips in the direction of Susan, Daniel, and Diana. After his fourth back flip, Calvin skidded to a halt with his left hand seemingly scratching against the floor while his right arm was extended diagonally upwards towards some lockers. At that point, as the three gleeks behind him stared in wonder and joy, Hobbes barked triumphantly at his master, and Gregory looked on in horror at the turn around that had just occurred, Calvin glared back in Zach's direction, snarled, and let out another t-rex-like roar.

Zach painfully got up onto his hands and knees, his left hand on his throat, gasping and wheezing in pain with his eyes closed and facing the floor. He managed, with great effort, to shake his head clear of the pained feeling and lift his head to face back in the direction of Calvin, only to find himself literally face to face with the still clearly enraged autistic just in time for the blonde boy to unleash yet another t-rex-like roar right in Zach's face.

Zach shrieked, and reflexively leaped backwards and tried to crab-walk backwards away from the angry t-rex positioned autistic; only for Calvin to grab Zach by the shoulders, yank him forward, and shake him side to side before then tossing him away to the right. Zach slammed against the lockers and collapsed onto the floor, groaning in pain.

Calvin wasted no time, rushing straight towards Zach, flawlessly imitating a velociraptor in movement style and then leaping towards the black boy in an equally velociraptor-like style. The autistic landed right behind Zach as the black boy had gotten onto his hands and knees, at which point he lifted his right foot, placed it against Zach's back, and proceeded to painfully drag it slowly down across his opponent's back, the running spikes underneath the 'toe' section of the shoe digging through Zach's clothes and into Zach's skin and leaving painful scratch marks. Zach shrieked at the unexpected cutting sensation he felt on his back, his eyes widened in shock and pain, only for Calvin to then grab onto the back of his head and slam him face-first against the locker door immediately to the black boy's left. Zach didn't even time to fully register his face's impact with the locker door before Calvin then yanked him backwards and sent him stumbling towards the lockers on the other side of the hall.

Zach crashed into the locker directly behind him. Of the two, the one on the top row was wide open. Zach barely even had time to notice that detail before Calvin had that detail sunk very painfully deep into the black boy's mind by slamming it shut right on Zach's head, face, and neck. Zach only felt a brief flash of pain before Calvin just as swiftly yanked the locker door back open and threw him off to the side once more. Zach crashed into that side's lockers and collapsed to the floor yet again. And just like before, Zach managed to get on his hands and knees. This time, however, he was able to turn his head in time to see Calvin barreling towards him once more while unleashing a fourth furious t-rex-like roar and having a downright murderous look on his face.

Zach barely even had time to register the fact that Calvin was charging and roaring at him yet again before Calvin lunged the last of the remaining distance between them, grabbed onto Zach's shoulders, and clenched his teeth around Zach's neck. Zach had just enough time for his eyes to widen and his teeth to grit in a pained hiss from the feeling of Calvin biting his neck before the impact with Calvin's slamming into Zach combined with the autistic boy's weight caused the two combatants to topple onto the floor and roll across the floor over each other in the direction of Diana, Susan, and Daniel.

The two boys came to a stop in time for Calvin to let go and incidentally roll to a stop back to full upright position while Zach was left lying around his back. And in the time it took for Zach to hurriedly shake off his newest feelings of pain and get back on his feet, Calvin had already managed to stick his hands into Zach's partially opened backpack that was still lying around, and yank out none other than the very same hot sauce spray bottle that Zach had used to incapacitate him before. And Zach had literally just managed to get himself to directly face Calvin's direction when the autistic successfully unscrewed the lid from the bottle and thrusted the bottle towards Zach, sending the entirety of the remaining hot sauce within flying at the black boy's face.

The entire bottle's worth of hot sauce splashed unforgivingly into Zach's face, but especially in his eyes. Zach howled in agony, slammed his hands against his eyes, and came worrisomely close to gouging his eyes out with his own fingernails as he found himself stepping backwards and thrashing his head side to side in pain.

Even as Zach continued to howl and thrash in agony from the hot sauce, with all of his supporters looking on in horror and Calvin's supporters smirking smugly at Zach's expense, Calvin snarled, threw the now empty spray bottle in the air, yanked a steel baseball bat out of a nearby open locker, and smashed the bottle against the lockers with the bat right as it was falling back towards the floor. The steel bat smashed the empty bottle against the lockers with sufficient enough force to shatter the bottle into pieces. Calvin didn't even register the fact that he'd shattered the hot sauce spray bottle before he started spinning the baseball bat around in his hands in stereotypical martial arts master-style. Upon finishing his display, Calvin drew the bat backwards, and then swung it at Zach so hard that it took all of 10 seconds for the otherwise recovered Zach to even register the impact after the baseball bat dealt a thundering blow against his throat.

Zach stumbled backwards, hacking and wheezing from the thunderous blow to his throat from the steel baseball bat, landing unflatteringly on his backside. Calvin narrowed his eyes at his downed enemy, snarled, and then threw the baseball bat upwards and back. The steel sports tool slammed into the nearest ceiling lamp and clattered jarringly against the floor behind Calvin. Calvin, paying no attention to those details behind him, snarled again, snapped his head to face his right while emitting a loud t-rex-like roar at the lockers on that side of the hall. Then he snapped his head to face his left while emitting a second t-rex-like roar at the lockers on that side. He then turned his head to face Zach, glare still on his face, pawed his left foot back and forth like a bull, and then started charging towards Zach once more. And in the time he spent charging, Calvin still had enough time to snap his head to face the lockers to his left, and then to face the lockers on his right, roaring like a t-rex both times. And once he was finished roaring, Calvin took only three seconds to reach Zach's position, at which point he slammed his head into Zach's chest and pushed him backwards straight towards two conveniently open locker doors.

Zach was slammed, back-first, against the two locker doors. Only then did Calvin come to a stop and step back. And even so, Calvin only spent all of two seconds shaking his head like a dog and grumbling before he then emitted another t-rex-like roar at Zach, grabbed the black boy by the shoulders, and yanked him forward and past himself. Zach didn't even get the chance to finish his stumbling and come to a stop before Calvin grabbed his shoulders from behind and yanked him backwards, sending the black boy stumbling past Calvin once more. This time, Zach managed to stumble to a stop and straighten back up, only to then see Calvin crouch with bent knees before the autistic then proceeded to literally pounce on Zach. Thus the two boys toppled to the floor and rolled over each other across the floor once again, but this time in the direction of the audience gathered opposite Diana, Daniel, and Susan.

Upon sight of this, Daniel and Diana instinctively began to step forward, momentarily forgetting their current anger at Zach. But then they snapped to a stop when Susan extended her arms out sideways directly in front of them to block their path. "You stay right here," Susan practically hissed as she to watched the current stage of the tableau that was unfolding. "Calvin's got this, and that so called 'friend' of yours deserves what he's getting."

At the exact same moment that Susan was saying this, Zach and Calvin had managed to stop rolling around and reposition themselves so that Zach was standing up straight and moving around in circles while Calvin had himself securely latched onto Zach's back in a piggyback position. As Zach continued to frantically move around in circles in an ineffectual attempt at shaking Calvin lose, the autistic boy reared his head up to face the ceiling, roared like a t-rex once more, and then detached his hands and arms from around Zach's neck while simultaneously leaning his upper body backward so that his hands could touch the floor. The instant Calvin's palms were touching the floor, the autistic boy tightened his legs and feet around Zach's chest even further and proceeded to do a backflip, causing the black boy to be lifted into the air and then emphatically slammed down, face-first, against the floor when Calvin finished his flip.

Zach managed to do a slight push-up, groaning in pain. He lifted his head to face Calvin's direction once more, only for his eyes to widen at the sight of Calvin mere centimeters in front of him as the autistic barreled straight towards him in a style reminiscent of a charging triceratops. Zach didn't even get the chance to scream before Calvin's head slammed into his face and jolted him into flipping over with another pounding impact against the floor, but this time on his back instead of his face. Zach got himself into a partially seated position, his eyes still closed, only to suddenly be yanked forward by his right ankle, and he fell back with a scream and his eyes snapping wide open as Calvin proceeded to drag him back in the opposite direction.

At the halfway point in the 'ring', Calvin stopped running, lifted Zach up, and swung him around in circles again before sending him flying off to the side once more. Zach crashed into the lockers yet again. He had only just landed from this latest impact against the lockers when Calvin reached his position, grabbed him by the shoulders, and yanked him up and sent him stumbling towards the lockers on the opposite side of the hall. As Zach's current string of bad luck would have it, he ended up crashing headfirst into the lockers. This time, however, he had the small mercy in that the locker his head crashed into was already open. But mere seconds later, even this small mercy was quickly soured when he suddenly felt yet another sting across his neck, but this time feeling far more intense on the back of his neck and head rather than the front, as a result of Calvin rapidly slamming the locker door shut on his head and just as rapidly reopening it. Zach was still feeling the sting of the impact from the slamming locker door when Calvin grabbed him by the shoulders, yanked him backwards, and sent him crashing back-first into the lockers behind him.

Zach hurriedly shook his head side to side and regained his bearings, only to then directly face Calvin's direction in time to see the autistic boy barreling towards him in a style reminiscent of a pachycephalosaurus. Calvin's head slammed into Zach's face and caused the back of Zach's head to pound against the locker behind him. Calvin hopped back slightly as a result of the impact, emitted a reptilian mixture between a squeal and a hoot that must have been his personal idea of what a pachycephalosaurus sounded like in real life, and then proceeded to seemingly moon walk backwards on one leg while flapping his arms up and down like a bird and unleashing pteranodon-like shrieks. The autistic boy came to a stop with his back just inches away from the lockers on that side of the hall, set his left foot back on the floor, and beckoned for Zach to come over with a smug 'come and get me' grin on his face.

Zach fell for the obvious trick, and angrily started rushing towards Calvin; albeit, with a clear limp in his step. It took all of Calvin's willpower not to burst out laughing at how pathetic Zach was now looking in his continued efforts to attack; and once Zach was two feet away from reaching Calvin and punching him, the autistic dove down sideways while simultaneously using his legs to sweep Zach's own legs out from under him. Zach slammed face-first against the lockers that had been behind Calvin and collapsed onto the floor while Calvin calmly spun around back to full height and in ideal position to face the downed basketball captain.

Giving his opponent no time to recover, Calvin grabbed Zach by the shoulders, yanked him up onto his feet, and then started running in circles while still gripping Zach, and simultaneously heading gradually in the direction of Diana, Susan, and Daniel. As the three other gleeks in question watched intently with their own heads and eyes involuntarily swirling and spinning, Calvin came to a stop in time to send Zach spinning in circles away. And within seconds, the spinning and wildly off kilter Zach ended up crashing right into a glass display alcove that contained a portion of the Cheerio championship victory trophies, landing painfully on his back amidst the shattered glass and miraculously undamaged scattered trophies.

Zach winced, feeling twinges of pain in his back from the various shards of glass. Then he felt Calvin grab onto his shoulders again, and he was yanked back on his feet and tossed aside. This time, Zach managed to stumble sideways about two or three feet before successfully coming to a stop, and without even falling. But Calvin was still not finished, and he grabbed one of the larger trophies that had been expelled from the trophy display, swung it upwards, and slammed Zach in the face with it, sending the black boy stumbling backwards all over again.

Zach was still in the midst of stumbling when Calvin snarled, tossed the trophy in the air behind him, and sent it flying backward with a back left kick. The trophy landed on the floor several feet behind him and in front of his three friends with a sufficient enough impact to shatter it into pieces. Calvin, not at all aware of or caring about the trophy's fate, surged forward and started relentlessly punching Zach in the chest and ribs. His left and right fists unforgivingly rammed into Zach's ribs in a brutal left and right alternating pattern, and soon proceeded to gradually move faster and faster until it eventually reached the point that Zach felt as if the Flash himself were the one punching him instead of a mere mortal. And as if to make the whole experience worse, Calvin was not only punching Zach at the speed and strength he was currently using, but he was also continuously moving forward to maintain pace with Zach as the black boy was forced to continue stepping back under the force of the impact, thus depriving Zach of any chance of relief. And as Calvin continued his merciless onslaught, he kept his teeth gritted into a silent snarl that slowly transformed into a not so silent snarl, and then into a growl. And then, after what felt like an eternity to Zach, Calvin stopped his rapid-fire punching, jumped, and initiated a back flip. And as a direct result of his position from when he started, he dealt a powerful kick to Zach's face that sent the black boy flying. And naturally, at literally the exact moment that his foot struck Zach's face and the black boy was only seconds away from beginning his rapid flight backwards from the impact, Calvin opened his mouth and allowed his growl to instantly transform into a full-on roar.

For a few seconds, Zach rocketed backward through the air, reeling from the impact of Calvin's foot against his face. Then the apparent eternity ended, and Zach landed painfully on his back on the floor with a thud. It seemed to Zach that all of two seconds passed after his landing before Calvin was suddenly at his position again, and the autistic grabbed him by the shoulders, yanked him back on his feet, and then slammed him back-first against the lockers high enough for his feet to dangle above the floor. Zach didn't even get the chance to fully register this detail before Calvin roared, drew his right fist back while keeping his left hand firmly gripped on Zach's right shoulder, and started brutally punching Zach in the face. As Calvin proceeded to punch Zach in the face again and again while emitting a series of exertive grunts with each fist strike, even Susan, Diana, and Daniel couldn't help but wince at the sight of the brutal beating Zach was being treated to. In fact, the punches were so strong that the impact was enough to cause his hands to bounce back and forth against the lockers he was being pinned against. After the 28th punch, Calvin drew his fist back once more, let out a throaty scream, and then punched Zach in the face for the 29th and final time; and this time far harder than he had the previous 28 times. All of five seconds later, Calvin hurled Zach to the side once more. The black boy crashed upon the floor and bounced twice before skidding to a stop on his right side while positioned so that he was still facing in the direction of Calvin and his three obvious supporters within the hallway.

Calvin growled, leaned his head forward slightly, and then proceeded to take on a full t-rex like position and start to slowly stomp his way towards Zach, growling and rumbling like the very dinosaur he was imitating in the process. As the autistic proceeded to slowly stomp his way towards his apparently downed opponent, Susan, Hobbes, and all the jocks present who'd had experience with fighting Calvin before couldn't help but gape at the sight with facial expressions that made it quite clear that they were feeling rather unnerved. And for good reason to.

"Miles," said John as he and the rest of the onlookers watched the scene currently unfolding. "Has he ever been this slow in giving a battle a decisive end before?"

"No," Miles responded nervously, yet at the same time with a mixture of pride and relief as he watched Calvin continue to advance uncharacteristically slowly towards Zach. "He's never taken his time like this before."

Calvin continued to stomp his way towards Zach, gradually increasing his speed in the process. As the audience gathered behind the downed Zach continued to watch the seemingly victorious autistic advancing towards him, all of Zach's many supporters found themselves becoming increasingly nervous and panicked at the fact that Zach still hadn't yet managed to get back on his feet, as well as how his opponent was even now advancing towards him so slowly despite having apparently already won.

"Come on," the Chinese American ringleader of Zach's fangirls thought to herself nervously. "What are you doing Zach? Get up!"

After a few seconds, all of Zach's other supporters in the audience started voicing out loud for Zach to get up, cheering encouragement and likewise trying their damned hardest to get Zach inspired enough to get back on his feet despite the current odds against him. Zach heard all the cheering and support from his fans, and he felt his heart warm up as a result. However, sadly for him, despite all the support he was hearing from his fans and how much his mind was desperately willing himself to try to get up and not disappoint them, his body just could not gather the strength needed to get up. The pain he was now feeling was far too strong. And as a result, Zach could only continue lying where he was, helplessly watching as Calvin continued to advance dangerously closer and closer to him while simultaneously listening to the desperate cheering and encouragement from his fans that he wanted so desperately not to disappoint, yet at the same time had no choice but to let down in the current situation.

Calvin came to a stop with his feet practically centimeters away from Zach's abdomen, and the autistic boy glared at his fallen foe, a silent snarl on his face as he rumbled ominously like the dinosaur he was still in the midst of imitating. As all of Zach's supporters looked on in horror and Calvin's supporters smirked smugly, Calvin turned his head to look to his right and unleashed a blaring t-rex-like roar. He turned his head to look to his left and unleashed a 2nd such roar. He turned his head to look behind him and emitted a 3rd t-rex-like roar. He turned his head to face Zach once more and emitted a 4th t-rex-like roar. Then he tensed up, lifted his head up to face the ceiling, and allowed a 5th, and this time louder and more drawn out t-rex-like roar. Zach could only wince as the clearly victorious Calvin continued to prolong whatever it was that he had planned, for Zach was now only receiving further direct confirmation from the procrastination that he was well and truly beaten; and Calvin knew it to.

Calvin finally ended his roar, lowered his head back to its normal position, and glared down at Zach, his black eyes burning with hate, and his teeth gritted ominously. Zach mentally gulped, closed his eyes, and weakly extended his right hand up and towards Calvin. "Calvin, please," he managed to gasp. "Don't."

In an action that left Susan, Hobbes, Miles, and all of Calvin's other previous opponents even more shocked then before, Calvin drew back his right leg and kicked Zach thunderously in the abdomen, sending the black boy rolling towards the audience behind him. The audience in question all instinctively moved backward in shock and fright from the sight, clearly just as stunned by what had just happened. No sooner had Zach come to a stop when Calvin crouched, took three running steps forward, and then leaped through the air before coming to a crashing crouching land directly in front of the still downed Zach once more. Zach involuntarily winced at the sight and sound of Calvin coming to this newest crashing landing before him, only for his eyes to then widen in horror at both the fact that Calvin was once again within more than sufficient range to directly touch him and the hateful snarl that was still on the autistic boy's face. "Oh Hell," Zach thought to himself. "I am so screwed right now."

Zach couldn't have been more correct in his thoughts. Calvin knew full well that he'd won, and he knew full well what he had, as far as he knew, managed to avert in the process. And he had every intention to make sure that Zach would be made painfully and fully aware of how thoroughly he'd been beaten. And if that meant physically breaking him in both body and spirit at that moment, then all the better the way Calvin now saw it. For right now, he hated Zach so much, especially compared to all the other jocks and bullies he'd fought in previous battles, that he was more than willing to make an exception to his usual behavior shown towards the foes he defeated.

"Get up," Calvin said coldly before he then dealt Zach a thundering kick to the ribs with his left foot. Zach winced from the painful impact, but otherwise did nothing. Calvin took a step back with his right foot. "I said get up." His right foot slammed into Zach's ribs in a second thundering kick.

"This . . . this isn't him," one of the subordinate rugby players said nervously. "He's never done anything like this to us before."

"Clearly," said Miles. "Calvin must really not like Zach if he's going so far as to kick him like this while he's already down and defeated."

Miles and the others who'd had prior experience in fighting Calvin had no idea how right he was, for Calvin was still mentally seething with a level of hatred that his current outward appearance and outlook still managed to bely. "You said that Susan deserves a real man like you," Calvin hissed. "Not an animal like me."

Zach's eyes widened with horror and despair as he found himself remembering painfully clearly how he had indeed said those very words while he'd been in the midst of attempting to strangle Calvin and make it look as if he were legitimately trying to kill Calvin in an effort to bolster his bad boy image in the making. Needless to say, at that moment, mere words couldn't possibly describe how much he was regretting having said those words, not to mention taken part in the actions he'd been doing while saying them.

"Well if that's true," Calvin continued spitefully. "Why don't you prove it?" He dealt Zach another thundering kick to the ribs with his left foot. "And get up?" He dealt Zach yet another kick to the ribs with his right foot. Zach could only wince, groaning in pain. Calvin snarled, a mixture of hate and smug pride in his eyes. "Didn't think you would," he practically purred. "Because underneath all that bravado and unstoppable king of the school spiel, you're nothing but a coward!" He kicked Zach again. "And all you'll ever be is a coward!" He kicked Zach yet again.

Zach didn't even have a chance to recover from the 6th kick to his ribs before Calvin lifted his right foot, allowing the entire crowd gathered behind Zach to get a clear view of the sharp tiny spikes on the underside of the 'toe' section, and then stomped it down hard on Zach's side. Zach shrieked from the combined pain of the impact and the spikes lightly jabbing into him.

Calvin only glared at Zach. "They say that you're a king of warriors and lovers around here." Zach cringed, still reeling from the pain and fearing what Calvin yet seemed to have in mind to continue the current torture. "But we all know the truth now," Calvin snarled. He lifted his right foot back up. "You're no king."

Stomp.

"You're no king!"

Stomp.

"You're just a lowly peasant!"

Stomp.

"On a false throne!"

Stomp.

After this 5th stomp in a row, Calvin removed his foot from Zach's exposed right side entirely. "And you're certainly ain't no warrior either," the autistic continued. "A true warrior fights fair. You don't." He kicked Zach in the ribs once more with his left foot, a thunderous thud piercing the air upon impact.

Calvin took a step back with his right foot. "A true warrior knows how to pick his battles. You don't."

Thud!

"A true warrior accepts his losses and admits defeat. You don't!"

Thud!

"And you're most certainly not a lover either," Calvin roared, now clearly both on a roll and getting even angrier then he'd already been. "A real lover lets love come to and choose him instead of trying to forcibly choose it himself. You don't!"

Thud!

"A real lover respects the wishes of his chosen object of affections and puts her happiness before his own; you don't!"

Thud!

"A real lover loves his chosen object of affections for what's on the inside as well as what's on the outside; YOU DON'T!"

THUD!

Zach shrieked in pain as an ominous cracking noise split the air alongside the thud from Calvin's right foot thundering into his ribs. The audience gaped and gasped in shock at this new development. Even Calvin's own supporters were reasonably shocked at what Calvin had just now managed to achieve in his rage.

"I'd rather deal with Miles Surette over you any day!" Calvin snarled. He pointed his finger at Zach, eyes still narrowed in a furious glare. "He may be a devil, but he at least has the decency to treat Susan with respect!"

Susan and Hobbes couldn't help but close their eyes and nod their heads up and down in agreement. Even Miles couldn't help but silently whistle, and nod his own head up and down in agreement as well.

"And not only that," Calvin growled. "But he at least hasn't actively tried to kill me either!"

THUD!

Zach screamed in pain once more from Calvin's second kick to be dealt upon him at a considerably higher strength and level of force than the others.

Miles winced. "He certainly has a point there," he thought to himself.

Calvin took a brief break from his string of merciless kicks, snarling and growling as he struggled to somewhat keep it together. "They say you have a bright future beyond comprehension ahead of you," Calvin growled. "Well you have no future!"

Thud.

"You. Have. No. Future!"

Thud.

"You're destined to forever be a luckless bastard!"

Thud.

"Looking for money, fights, and love in all the wrong places!"

Thud.

"Violating, dehumanizing, and similarly ravaging. . ."

Thud.

"Poor, innocent, friendly girls who don't have good friends like me around to defend them!"

Thud.

"And if, by some impossible miracle, you manage to fall in love for real," Calvin hissed.

Thud.

"THEN GOD HELP WHATEVER LUCKLESS WENCH YOU CHOOSE!"

THUD!

Zach shrieked in agony once more at this third blow of extremely high force.

Calvin snarled, either not noticing, or just not caring the agony his downed opponent was in. He then lifted his right foot, his shoe spikes ominously gleaming in the light, and then slammed his foot down so that both his foot, and the spikes on the bottom of his shoe, ominously pounded on the floor literally a single centimeter away from Zach's neck.

Zach gaped at the foot that had just so narrowly missed his neck, only to have his attention drawn back to Calvin once more when he heard the still angry autistic snarling.

"Consider that a warning," said Calvin. "For if there ever is a next time, then next time," he continued. "I! WON'T! MISS!"

Right as he shouted that last word, Calvin thrusted his head down so that his face was just inches away from Zach's face. Calvin snarled and growled, his black eyes now seemingly like black holes that were boring hatefully straight into Zach's very soul. Zach gulped, and found himself mentally fighting to keep himself from crying. Never had he felt more helpless and utterly broken then he did now at Calvin's mercy.

Calvin snarled, stuck his tongue out in disgust, and then started to straighten back up, only to then notice one person that he vaguely remembered seeing amongst the group that worked with the still struggling McKinley High school paper, the Muckraker, standing at the front of the audience with a giddy smile on his face and his phone at the ready to take a picture. Upon sight of this, Calvin's disgusted glare morphed into a smug smirk as he thought of an idea to further humiliate and scare Zach and allow the word of the defeat to spread even faster. Without warning, he thrusted his head back towards Zach's face, snapping his teeth on thin air dangerously close to the black boy's face and neck, and growling and snarling like a t-rex the entire time. As he did this, some of the other Muckraker worker students present in the audience started drawing out their own phones and cameras and following their comrade's lead in positioning for taking advantage of an ideal photo opportunity. Then, literally just as all of the Muckraker workers present had gotten in the right position and their cameras ready, Calvin lifted his right foot, stomped down on Zach, and lifted his head dramatically while emitting a triumphant t-rex-like roar in an almost exact mirror of the famous t-rex sendoff scene at the end of the first Jurassic Park movie. All the Muckraker workers couldn't have been more obliged, nor more on time and in perfect synch, to take a perfect photographic shot of the dramatic scene. The instant Calvin had deemed himself finished with his brief moment of showing off, he turned his back to Zach and the gathered audience, sent the downed black boy rolling away once more with a final thundering kick to the ribs, and then stomped off in the direction of Susan and his friends, roaring triumphantly like a t-rex yet again.

As this happened, Susan couldn't have looked happier as she clasped her hands together and gazed admiringly at Calvin with tears of joy on the verge of streaming down her face. Daniel and Diana, likewise, looked happy at the current development. And as luck would have it, they weren't the only gleeks currently present and watching. For at the exact same moment that Calvin had been busy with his kicking and stomping, the four sophomore gleeks, plus the trio of Cody, Bailey, and Raj had finally managed to arrive in that particular hallway and join up with their fellow gleeks. And naturally, they were just as impressed, proud, and happy to see the results of what had gone down while they were busy dealing with their own unexpected drama. For while they could easily get the full story later, the basic gist was already somewhat clear enough in their minds. Zach and Calvin had engaged in a fight, it had been an absolutely brutal fight, and Calvin had won.

Calvin came to a stop directly in front of Susan, lowered his head slightly while still positioned in a t-rex-like body posture, rumbling in satisfaction with what sounded almost like a rumbling reptilian purring. Susan smiled, blue eyes still on the verge of happy tears as she tentatively reached her hands towards Calvin. "You won."

Calvin nodded his head. "Yes, I did," he admitted. He smiled warmly at Susan. "I won Susan. I beat that bastard." He pointed his finger behind him at the still downed Zach. "I defeated him. I completely, utterly, thoroughly beat him. And as the winner, I get all the benefits he promised to go to the winner in his deal from before we fought." His smile widened, his black eyes now agleam with such joy that not even the tiniest speck remained of the hatred that had been burning within them not too long ago towards Zach. "He'll never bother you again. You're safe now Susan. From him, and from all others who dare try to follow in his foul footsteps. Of this, I swear."

As overly passionate and borderline cheesy as these lines from Calvin sounded, the other 9 gleeks present alongside him and Susan couldn't help but smile warmly at the scene. Susan, naturally, sniffled, joyous tears now freely streaming out of her eyes and down her face. Then she raised herself on the tips of her toes and gave Calvin a tight hug, which Calvin promptly returned, his eyes closed, and his earlier contented saurian purring making a heartwarming return.

"I guess this means we can all leave now?"

The gleeks all looked bemusedly at Darren. Then they all grinned. Then Calvin opened his mouth as if about to speak . . . only to then pause, seem to think to himself, and then narrow his eyes as his happy face morphed back into a withering glare.

"First things first," Calvin growled.

He turned around to face the still numbly standing Gregory and the locked door to the classroom that Hobbes was still currently trapped in, and barreled over to the rugby captain. He skidded to a stop directly in front of McGuire, and the rugby captain had literally just noticed Calvin's presence in that area when Calvin snarled, "Fight's over. I won." He pointed at the locked door directly behind the other boy. "Open the door now."

For a brief moment, Gregory's usual smug arrogance from before returned, and he scowled condescendingly at the angry autistic boy. "Make me you retard."

"I said," Calvin snarled. "OPEN THE DOOR NOW!"

At the exact moment Calvin shouted that last word, he thrusted his head forward at Gregor's face without warning, causing the rugby captain to jolt his head back in shock, incidentally banging it lightly against the door window that Hobbes was still peeking through. And for what seemed like an eternity, Gregory found himself frozen and panting in sudden horror at the sight of Calvin's furious face complete with gaping mouth showing off his teeth, his black eyes darkened with rage to the point of looking like black holes boring into his soul, and an unnervingly bestial sounding string of snarls and growls emanating from the autistic boy's mouth.

In that instant, Gregory both realized just how dangerous an opponent Calvin could be when angry enough, and remembered how Calvin had both kicked the asses of himself and countless other jocks before, as well as utterly demolished Zach Skinner himself in combat, and he gulped, all his arrogance gone and replaced by fear. "Yes sir," he stated meekly.

The rugby captain hurriedly turned around and started fiddling around with the locked doorknob to the classroom that Hobbes was trapped in. Hobbes saw and heard this going on, and took five steps back. As Hobbes and everyone in the hallway found themselves unexpectedly being kept waiting as Gregor found himself having considerable difficulty with his current task in his panic, Calvin folded his arms across his chest, looked at his watch, and proceeded to tap his foot against the floor in time with each passing second.

After a total of exactly 60 seconds, and thus 60 taps of his foot, Calvin narrowed his eyes and leaned his head forwards towards the panicking Gregor, clearly having already managed to lose his patience in his lingering anger. "What's taking so long?"

It took all of Gregor's willpower not to scream or suffer a panic attack. "Just stay calm," he managed to state, both to himself and to Calvin. "I've almost got it unlocked!"

"You'd better," Calvin snarled. "Because if that door is still not unlocked in 10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2 . . .!"

A small clicking noise split the air lightly and Gregory whipped around to directly face Calvin once more with his hands raised in a placatory gesture. "It's unlocked! It's unlocked! It's unlocked!" the rugby captain screamed, clearly desperate to avoid suffering some sort of painful beating from Calvin for taking too long to unlock the door and allow for Hobbes to be capable of being released from the classroom.

"Good," said Calvin. He took a step to his left, pulled down the door knob, and opened the door a couple inches.

"Hobbes," said the autistic boy. "Jump."

Hobbes complied with his master's command almost instantaneously, and he pounced on the just open enough door sufficiently enough to emphatically send it rocketing the rest of the way open. And in the process, Gregory was sent flying backward as a result of the abruptly opening door slamming into him.

The rugby captain landed flat on his back a yard or two away, and Hobbes landed smoothly on his feet outside the classroom he'd finally been released from. The German Shepherd turned its head to snarl at the downed rugby captain, clearly hoping to subject him to its mercy, only for Calvin to then say, "Stay." Hobbes snarled, and obediently stayed where he was in a tense battle-ready position as Calvin rushed over to the downed Gregory.

Upon reaching Gregory's current position, Calvin lifted his right foot and stomped down hard on the other boy's face. "That's for Hobbes!" Calvin snarled. He then dealt Gregory a swift kick to the privates. "That's for my friends!" He lifted his left foot with his toes facing downward, and then slammed his left foot, toes-first, on the exact joint where Gregory's right foot met with his leg.

Gregory howled in agony at the devastating injury.

"AND THAT'S," Calvin roared, "FOR CALLING ME A RETARD!"

He withdrew his foot from Gregory's newly inflicted injury and stormed back over to where Hobbes and his friends were positioned. Gregory instinctively curled up sufficiently enough to start instinctively massaging his injured foot. And judging from the pain he was now feeling, Gregory had a bad feeling that he wouldn't be surprised if at all if there turned out to be damage to the tendons. But then Gregory suddenly forgot all about that possibility and found his heart jumping into his throat when he heard Calvin's voice say, "Hobbes; break his other ankle."

Gregory had just enough time to snap his head in Calvin's direction and gape in horror in time to see a now snarling and barking Hobbes charge towards him before the dog then knocked him over, sunk his teeth into Gregory's left ankle, and then rapidly jerked his head upwards in a diagonal slant, snapping the ankle out of place with a sickening crack. Gregory howled once more at the pain of his newly broken left ankle, and Hobbes unleashed an angry noise that sounded like a mixture between a bark and a roar straight in the rugby captain's face.

As Calvin grinned smugly at the scene, Zach remained lying on the floor in too much pain to visibly react, and everyone else in the hallway gaping in shock, Hobbes turned his head away from Gregory and towards the nearby lockers to his right in time to bark four times. The dog turned his head to face the lockers on the opposite side of the hallway and let loose another four barks. Hobbes turned his head to look behind him and barked yet another four times. Then Hobbes looked straight ahead towards the audience still gathered behind Zach and barked another four times. Then Hobbes snarled, reared his head up to face the ceiling, and unleashed a chillingly triumphant sounding wolf-like howl. Once Hobbes was finished with his howl, he snapped his head back down to its standard position, snarled one last time, and then turned away and loped right back to his master's side.

As the audience gathered behind Zach gaped in shock at the screaming and pained Gregory and the shocking act of cruelty responsible, Calvin snarled pointed his finger at them, and yelled, "Hey you!" The audience members directed their attention to him. "That's right! I'm talking to you!"

The autistic snarled again, and clenched his fists. "Let this be a lesson to the whole lot of you!" He pointed at Zach. "See what happened to this sleazy douche?! Well guess what you fat load of shits; this is what you can expect to happen to you without fail if you treat me, Susan, Hobbes, or anyone else in the glee club with any level of disrespect! Especially the level he was treating Susan with!" He leaned forward, black eyes still blazing angrily, and the audience cringing at the sight of his nightmarishly scary angry face. "Treat us with respect!" Calvin roared. "And be nice to us!" He leaned his head forward even further, his eyes narrowing ominously. "Or die!"

He pointed at Zach. "And for that matter, don't even think about trying to form some screwed up cult to worship me like some false God or clamor for me to bestow my pelvic blessing or whatnot upon you turds! This sleaze here? You can keep him! I don't give a damn about how my defeating him grants me the rights to his fucked-up title or not! I've got more important things to do that are a trillion-billion-million times more important than having to associate in even the slightest way with a bunch of negative IQ level airheads who don't have the intelligence needed to breath without the nanotech life support they obviously have in their lungs keeping them alive! Just leave me, Susan, Hobbes, and all my other friends alone, and we'll be sweet! Got that!? Good! Now fuck off!" The audience continued to gape in shock and fear at Calvin upon hearing him say these words, and the autistic snorted, rolled his eyes dismissively at them, and turned around to walk away.

But then Susan walked forward, now looking plenty angry herself. Calvin and the other gleeks were briefly confused at this, and they all looked in her direction. Then she came to a stop right where Calvin had been standing, still looking noticeably pissed off, and pointed her finger at the audience before yelling, "You hear what my friend said?! Good! You deserve it!"

The audience gaped at Susan in shock. Daniel, Diana, and the 7 gleeks who hadn't initially been present in the hallway also looked stunned. Even Calvin and Hobbes looked noticeably surprised at Susan's current behavior.

Susan snarled, narrowed her now icy blue eyes at the audience gathered behind Zach and in front of her and her friends, and jabbed her still pointing finger in their direction before shouting, "What the Hell people!? Seriously, what the Hell is wrong with you!?"

The audience members winced. At that point, Jeremy Ben-Israel, who was, of course, amongst them, nervously stated, "What do you mean?"

Susan gaped incredulously at the gathered crowd. "What do I mean?" she hissed in disbelief. "What do I mean?!" She pointed her finger at Zach. "Isn't it obvious?! Well for one thing, how about the fact that you were all cheering for this monster!? Cheering! And while he was trying to flipping murder my best friend no less!? Not to mention the fact that he was planning to rape me afterwards if he'd been successful!" She then pointed her finger accusingly at the Chinese American ring leader of Zach's fan girls. "And let's not forget how you and your gang of whores were more than willing to help him do exactly that yesterday!"

The Chinese American, to her credit, noticeably winced upon hearing these words, now clearly regretting the actions in question, plus her questionably supportive behavior towards Zach not too long ago. "Ms. Caraway," she stated, clearly trying her best to placate Susan and calm her down. "Please, I didn't mean . . . none of us intended. . ."

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Susan howled. "I don't want to hear another word or pathetic excuse out of you lot! And I don't care how mean I'm gonna sound right now! I am too angry right now at how low you all stooped to fucking cheer that monster you've been worshipping even while he was both planning to rape me and attempting to fucking kill someone! And my own best friend no less! I couldn't be more disgusted with you all! And especially towards those of you who aren't jocks that Calvin never once actively associated with before and had never done anything wrong towards whatsoever to deserve being fucking murdered where he stood in this damn school!"

At the sound of this last sentence, all the students amongst the crowd who weren't jocks or cheerleaders noticeably winced, some of them even on the verge of tears as they clearly realized the full extent of what they were supporting Zach's efforts at and felt ashamed. Even the other gleeks couldn't help but cringe at how brutally Susan was laying into the audience. At least, that is, except for Calvin and Hobbes, who were simply smirking and grinning at Susan in pride and relief at how she was standing up for them.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!" Susan snapped. "Hell! You ought to be disgusted with yourselves you fucked up brainless creatures!" She raised her finger as if to emphasize her point. "Yeah that's right! You heard me! Creatures! I said it! And I fucking mean it!" She pointed her finger back at the crowd. "You all lost the right to be referred to as human beings after how willing you proved yourselves to support your precious false God in his heinous crimes! Heck, forget losing the rights to be referred to as human beings! You're lower than animals! Lower than germs! Lower than garbage! Lower than flipping DUNG!" She stomped her foot, clenched her fists, and then shrilly roared, "Go ahead and fuck yourselves! Heck, go ahead and fucking kill yourselves! See what I fucking care!"

At the sound of all this, literally every single one of the more ashamed and faint hearted members of the crowd were in tears. Susan noticed this, and then shouted, "Is that crying I see?! Good! Go ahead! At least now you're admitting to yourselves how worthless it is for you to even be alive! Let alone how worthless you are as human beings!"

"You tell them Susan!" Calvin yelled, clearly being carried away in the moment as well as still proud for Susan's standing up for him. Hobbes snarled, and then barked thrice in apparent agreement.

Susan snarled, still facing the students, though secretly also pleased that Calvin was supporting her support for him. She turned her head to her right, eyes narrowing further upon sight of Zach's backpack, and then snatched it up. In a flash she dumped out all the contents within, grabbed two large basketballs from a nearby open locker, and stuffed them into the bag. She zipped the bag fully shut, lifted it in the air and swung it around a few times. Then, much to the shock of everyone and the horror of the gathered crowd of students, she suddenly yelled, "In fact, take this you sorry little shits!" before then sending the basketball filled backpack flying right at them. The crowd hurriedly stepped back in time to avoid getting effectively t-boned with the weaponized backpack, which crash landed on the floor between them and the still downed Zach.

Meanwhile, at the exact same moment that this happened, Dunlap and Darren noticed a pair of items amongst the dumped out former contents of the backpack, and their red and yellow eyes narrowed in rage. They rushed over to the contents in question, Naomi and Amber following close behind. Dunlap and Darren picked up the items that had caught their attention; a familiar looking oil can and a bottle of lemon juice, respectively. Dunlap narrowed his eyes, drew out the identical looking oil can that was filled with super glue, and proceeded to open and look into both of them. He snarled upon seeing the different contents of the oil cans, now clearly putting two and two together and receiving undeniable confirmation as to how his legs had ended up getting superglued in the joints instead of oiled. Darren, meanwhile, needed only to see the bottle of lemon juice to know who'd been responsible for the painful prank against him and his eyes.

The albino boy and his yellow contact lens wearing friend snapped their heads towards the still downed Zach, a murderous look in their nightmarishly colored eyes. Naomi and Amber also noticeably looked pissed.

"YOU BASTARD!" they all yelled in unison before they all rushed over to Zach. The black boy had only enough time for his eyes to widen in horror at the sight of the four sophomores rushing him before they then all started to brutally beat on him. Dunlap kicked him again and again with his metallic prosthetic feet, Naomi banged him on the head and side with her cane, Darren pounded him on the same areas as Naomi with his guitar, and Amber whammed him in the groin and ribs with the same steel baseball bat that Calvin had used in the earlier confrontation. The crowd gathered behind Zach winced and gaped at the scene, but were too shocked, fearful, and ashamed from their earlier blind support of Zach during his more despicable behaviors from the fight to do anything to stop the four sophomores wailing on him.

When the four sophomore gleeks had finally deemed themselves to have done enough, they hissed at the groaning and agonized Zach, eyes narrowed, and Darren even going so far as to spit in his face spitefully, and then turned away and stormed off back to rejoin their 7 comrades. Once the 11 gleeks had effectively become united in position once more, Daniel and Diana looked at each other, and then directed cold glares towards the crowd still gathered behind Zach.

Daniel snarled silently, curling up his lip in clear disgust. Diana merely maintained a venomous glare in her green eyes. They both pointed at Susan. "What she said," they said in unison. Then they turned their heads to look behind them at their 9 now truly and officially fire forged new friends amongst their fellow glee club members. "Let's go," said Daniel.

The other gleeks all nodded and mumbled in agreement. Calvin snarled, reared his head upwards and proceeded to let out a series of Jurassic Park style velociraptor-like coughing barks. Hobbes snarled in assent immediately after his master had finished. And as one, the 11 gleeks and the dog turned around and stormed away together down the hall and as far away from Zach and the still speechless and ashamed crowd of students behind them all.

Minutes later, long after the 11 gleeks had departed, Miles whistled. "Well," he said. "I daresay I'm quite glad someone finally put that overrated blowhard in his place." He chuckled, and shook his head side to side. "Calvin and I may be rivals; but I sure as Hell am glad that he won this fight."

Upon hearing all this, just about every single one of the other students in the hallway found themselves nodding their heads silently in agreement with Miles, still feeling too ashamed themselves to have either openly supported Zach's efforts or just stood by and done nothing out of fear to disagree.

"What the Devil?"

As one, all the students amongst the crowd turned their heads to look behind them. Zach and Gregory, as much as they were still in a very real state of horrible pain and agony, managed to get into a good enough position to look up and in the direction of the voice that had just been heard.

Standing directly behind all the students amongst the crowd were a very stunned looking Charlotte, Becket, Silena, Donovan, and Ashley. Then Charlotte noticed Zach and the state he appeared to be in, and her already shocked eyes widened even further. She looked over at the nearest fellow cheerleader present she could find, shocked and confused look still on her face. "What the Hell did I miss here?"

Oh you missed it by THAT much Charlotte. That being said, I VERY MUCH hope you all read and enjoyed this new chapter! Not to mention that it's more than worth the wait I put you all through. I also hope very much that the next chapter won't take so long to write (but let's not hold our breath on that, just to be safe). That being said, again, hope you enjoyed and that you leave plenty of feedback. Remember, I require a minimum of two reviews for this new chapter in order to allow myself to post the next one to come. Once again, hope you all enjoyed! ^_^

Coming up Next: News about Zach and Calvin's climactic battle, and Zach's resulting epic defeat, spreads through amongst the McKinley High student body like wildfire. Unfortunately for Zach, however, the news also spreads to the ears of more than a few individuals who are far less than excited to hear about it. Sound exciting? I certainly hope so! ^_^