Hey everybody! FINALLY! Another chapter! And just in time (somewhat) for Thanksgiving! Hope this proves well worth the wait, and that you read, enjoy, and leave plenty of reviews! In this long awaited chapter, the boys have finally arrived at the dreaded crack house, and with some unexpected help, they manage to burst in just in time to save the day! Sound exciting? I certainly hope so!

A/N: But first, again, I do not own Glee. But that certainly doesn't mean I'm not thankful for what I do have and own! Onward with the fic people!

Chapter 22:

Laying Down the Law

Daniel's gray eyes narrowed as he gazed towards the hated crack house from his hiding place from behind a parked car on the opposite side of the road. The other boys hiding alongside him, plus Hobbes, likewise directed narrow-eyed glares towards the crack house. They had arrived in the area 10 minutes ago, and had found undeniable proof that this place was indeed where the girls currently were not too long after arrival. However, said proof was also the reason why they were currently hiding and hadn't already gone charging into the building to save the girls. The proof? None other than Charlotte Thornton standing right outside the door.

At the moment, Charlotte was just standing where she was, her fists clenched, her face seemingly frozen in a glare, and the rest of her body likewise tensed up as she seemingly glanced aimlessly around the area, clearly pissed off for some reason. Why she was in this mood right now was currently beyond them. But regardless, the simple fact was that she was currently positioned directly outside the door to the Bacchus 24-7 Baseball House, and that this rendered the boys unable to come out of their hiding place and walk more than 3 steps towards the building without her seeing them. And considering how, as far as they knew, she'd be more than likely to try to interfere in some fashion if she became aware of their presence, such a possibility was the last thing any of them could afford to risk. But at the same time, she seemed in no hurry to leave the area and get out of their way, and that left plenty of potential for a dire fate to befall the rest of the girls if they didn't intervene soon.

This left the boys with a serious dilemma. If they didn't get into the crack house and help the girls soon, Lord knew what sort of horrendous fate could befall them. But if they got out of hiding now, there was no way they'd make it to the building without being seen by Charlotte and running the risk of her actively interfering in some fashion. Therefore, as much as they were now worried about the rest of the girls, one other important question was now on their minds; just how would they get into the building without getting caught by Charlotte?

Calvin quietly snarled. "This is insane."

Hobbes let off a low snarl of his own. Quite frankly, it was now taking all the poor dog's willpower to keep himself at just a low enough volume to avoid violating the 'silent' command Calvin had given him and giving himself, his master, and the rest of the boys away.

"I hear you bro," said Darren. He nodded his head. "This is indeed insane."

"How do we get her out of the way?" Dunlap asked.

"We certainly won't be going anywhere just sitting here," said Cody.

"You think we don't know that?" Calvin asked.

"I'm just being real here."

"Well how about you use your 'being real' to actually help us think of a plan, genius."

"Guys," Daniel cut in. "Not now."

Calvin and Cody briefly glared at Daniel, but then took deep breaths and exhaled, calming themselves down. As one, all six of the boys, plus Hobbes, peeked back over their hiding place towards the door where Charlotte was standing. Miraculously enough, she still appeared oblivious to their presence despite the brief rise in volume from Cody and Calvin. "How the Hell are we gonna get in there without her catching us?" Daniel asked half to himself and half to his compatriots.

"Maybe we could go around to the back," Darren suggested. "There could be an alternate entrance there we could use."

"We'd still be back at square one if there isn't." Daniel shook his head. "And even if there is, there could be an even worse form of security guarding it. And even if that's not the case," he pointed at Charlotte, "we'd still almost certainly get seen by Charlotte if we tried to take the short way to the back of the building. And from what I can gather about this environment, trying to take the long way around could take at least half an hour. And I highly doubt the girls can afford to wait that long."

"We could call the police and let them handle it," said Raj.

"Not a bad idea," Daniel admitted. "But first, we'd have to backtrack a fair distance away to make sure Charlotte wouldn't be able to overhear. Second, assuming the cops would even believe us, it would still take time for them to get here. The preparations they'd need to make, combined with how far the nearest police station is from this part of town could leave us with God knows how much waiting time for them to arrive. And again, time is the last thing we can afford to spend waiting right now."

"He's right," said Calvin. "And I just remembered another thing." He looked at the rest of the boys. "If we're to get the police involved, we can't do it ourselves directly. We have to contact Mr. Schue first, and then have him get the police involved."

"Oh yeah, that's right," said Dunlap. He looked at the rest of the boys. "If Mr. Schuester isn't directly involved somehow in putting a stop to this, who knows what our parents would think? Or what effect that would have on his job?"

"Oh yeah, you're right," said Darren. "Yeah, very good point. We have to get Mr. Schue in on this. Lord knows he's already on shaky enough standing right now as is."

"Indeed," said Daniel. He turned his head to look at the crack house once more, eyes narrowing back into a glare upon sight of Charlotte still standing where she was. "But that still leaves us with the question of how to get Charlotte out of the way so that at least some of us can give the girls an immediate rescue while waiting for Mr. Schue and the cops to arrive."

The other boys grumbled bitterly in agreement as they positioned themselves the same way that Daniel had just done. Even Hobbes noticeably had his eyes narrowed in apparent irritation as he too peeked back in Charlotte's direction.

"At this rate," said Calvin. "One of us is going to have get out from the hiding place and lead her away."

"Well who would she even listen to? Let alone be all that interested in following?"

Calvin had just started thinking to himself to come up with an answer to this question when Cody seemed to grimace, and then direct a sheepish glance towards Daniel. "Well. . ." the Korean American began.

Daniel promptly directed his narrow-eyed glare towards Cody. "Don't you dare," he said. "I am not serving as Charlotte's distraction. Lord knows how she could twist that to her advantage the next time she tries to flirt around with me or have a go at Diana."

"Yeah but," Cody began. "You're the only one here amongst us that she'd be even willing to talk to, let alone have any reason to pursue if you were to try to lead her away by having her chase you."

"I don't care," Daniel snarled, his gray eyes blazing with disgust and rage. "I am not reducing myself that low. I will not willingly give Charlotte ammunition for her inane quest like that. I'd rather die than even make it look to Diana as if I even remotely considered the idea of giving Charlotte that kind of a chance."

"Yeah well, hate to break it to you," Cody glowered, now clearly sounding rather irritated himself. "But if something isn't done soon, then Diana could very well die, or worse, and so could the rest of the girls apart from the one girl in this club who'd actually deserve such a fate."

"You think I don't know that?!" Daniel snarled.

"Um guys," said Calvin.

Maybe it was the nervous tone, or maybe it was sheer luck. But for whatever reason, the other boys promptly turned their attention to Calvin. The nervous look on his face, a look that Hobbes just happened to share at that moment, only further convinced them that whatever was now on Calvin's mind was of high importance.

The autistic boy gulped, turned his head to his right, and pointed towards the area from which they'd entered the street they were on. "I think we're about to have another problem on our hands."

The other boys turned their own gazes to where Calvin was pointing. Upon sight of the apparent 'other problem' that had now come into the picture, their eyes all widened before they too had the same nervous expression as Calvin and Hobbes come upon their faces.

"Oh shit," said Daniel.

"We're doomed," said Cody.

"He's gonna give us away," said Darren.

. . . . .

Charlotte Thornton was very pissed off at that moment. "And here I was thinking that today couldn't possibly get any worse after that fiasco that ensued from Silena and Ashley's insane kidnapping scheme," she thought bitterly to herself. She glared at the still locked and unmoving door to the crack house, her fists clenched, eyes narrowed, and the rest of her body likewise tensed up. "But of course, as per my usual rotten luck in these matters, something managed to happen that turned out even worse!" She kicked the door angrily. "GOD!" she thought to herself. "How could I have been so stupid?!"

But indeed, it seemed she had been so stupid. And now, God knew what was going on inside the damned building. She lifted her head towards the sky, growling irritably. What was she going to do?

"I could always call the police," she started to think to herself. She clenched her eyes shut, gritting her teeth and clenching her fists even tighter in the process. "No," she growled under her breath. "No, I can't do that. Not for this."

As stupid as this reasoning may have sounded, compared to other girls, Charlotte actually had a particularly good reason to be reluctant to get the cops involved and risk her being interpreted to be in any way involved directly with something of this caliber. Regardless, this reason was enough for her to be reluctant to call the cops on this situation without finding herself with absolutely no other choice first.

With that option out of the question, she then found herself mentally cursing once more when she started bitterly wishing that she'd had the luck to get at least a tiny bit of trust from Daniel and the rest of the boys in the glee club apart from Zack. She knew that they would have definitely been more than willing to help the rest of the girls and save them from danger. But of course, not only was Daniel the only one amongst the glee club boys apart from Zack whom she had the phone number for, but she also knew full well how he'd never willingly answer a phone call from her, let alone believe her. Her various efforts from the previous day, plus so many days and months before today, were ample proof of that.

Then she considered calling Mr. Schuester. But then she promptly dismissed that option as well. "He'd almost certainly get the cops involved, and I can't have that. I can't." She glared at the still locked front door to the crack house, and then punched it with her right fist. "God!" she yelled. "What am I going to do?!"

A few minutes later, Charlotte was still furiously focused on trying to come up with an adequate idea on what to do that she was completely caught off guard when she heard an unexpectedly familiar voice to her right say, "Hey there Charlotte."

Charlotte tensed up, eyes widened in shock, and she turned her head. Sure enough, none other than Zack Skinner himself was in the area and had come to a stop just a couple feet or so to her right. Her eyes narrowed, and she pointed her finger at him. "What are you doing here?" she asked. "And for that matter, how did you know I'd be here?"

Zack took a deep breath, hung his head, and then exhaled. "Look Charlotte," he said. "I understand that you don't trust me. And that no one else does for that matter."

Charlotte scoffed, rolling her eyes dismissively. "And for good reason."

"For that matter," Zack continued. "I know that this is the 3rd time today that I'm attempting to talk with you about anything, and you're probably getting especially annoyed by my continued efforts at this point . . ."

"OH WOW! WHAT GAVE IT AWAY!?"

Zack reared back in shock upon seeing Charlotte so suddenly angry and leaning towards him with an almost literally fiery look of fury on her face.

Charlotte snarled, her eyes narrowing as tightly as her fists were clenching. "You're right," she spat. "This is the 3rd time you've tried to get yourself involved in my business today. And now, here I am once again having to tell you to buzz off and leave me alone!"

Charlotte growled, lifted her hands and tilted her head upwards in exasperation, her fingers taking on a 'clawed' position from her annoyance. "God in Heaven, what is the matter with you?!" Zack was still mentally struggling to think up an adequate response when Charlotte lowered her head to directly face him once more, lowered her hands back into clenched fists, and pointed accusingly at him before shouting, "Why is it that you seem to be so completely incapable of taking no for an answer?! What is it about you that gives you such inability to leave people alone even after they've made it blindingly obvious they want nothing to do with you?! How is it you always have to have even the simplest messages spelled out to you before you finally accept anything that goes against what you want?! Why is that it that not even the destruction of your entire reputation, complete loss and alienation of every friend or other person willing to trust and support you, and the threat of both expulsion and jail are enough to get you to understand that you need to get your head out of your ass, stop being an idiot, and grow the fuck up!?"

Zack was rendered completely speechless. After what seemed like an eternity of silence from the boy, Charlotte snorted, and rolled her eyes in a mixture of bitterness and arrogance. "Had a feeling you wouldn't have an answer," she hissed spitefully. She turned her body so that she had her back completely facing Zack, folding her arms across her chest and haughtily tilting her head in the process. "Go back to whatever filthy hell hole you came crawling from," she growled. "Do me and this entire town a favor by staying home and out of our lives the rest of today where you can't cause any more trouble and further destroy what little nonexistent good will still exists around here for you. And by God, if I see you even a single time more anywhere near me today, I swear, I will call the cops on you and I will make sure that my family presses charges. And I'll gladly be more than happy to endorse any additional charges that anyone else deems worthy of pressing against you for that matter."

Zack opened his mouth and lifted his finger, clearly really wanting to say something, but Charlotte lifted her left hand dismissively without even turning it, or her head, to directly face him. "Who knows?" she said. "Maybe at some point in the God knows how distant future, some impossible miracle will occur and you'll be able to return to everyone's good graces again. But right now? Literally the very day after you finally had your entire rancid true nature exposed to the entire school; not to mention probably the entire town at this rate? Forget it! It's too early to even hope to make things right, and continuing to deny that and force everything to be made right again will only guarantee that you will never succeed in gaining even the tiniest sliver of redemption for your crimes. So stop being naïve, accept the fact that the world's just simply not fair, admit that this entire mess is all your fault, and go home to get your head on straight. God knows how overdue you are for such sensibility." She started to walk away.

"You're right!" Zack shouted. "I am overdue for that level of sensibility! And all that other stuff you said before that? That's all true!"

Charlotte paused.

"Yeah, that's right! You heard me! You're right!"

Zack lifted his finger as if to emphasize a point. "I admit to all those flaws! I take full responsibility for them. I accept the truth in what you claim about their existence!" He spread his hands and arms out sideways. "Long story short? Yes, I've proven without a doubt how horrifically flawed I am over the last few days. Yes, I'm not the person that everyone around here, including myself, thought I was. And you know what? Maybe I don't deserve redemption for all that! Maybe I really had all this stuff that's happened to me now and could very well happen to me in the future coming and should just let it come! Maybe I truly am now better than all the jerks and criminals at school or anywhere in Lima period that at least have the guts to not even try to pretend that they're anything else!"

As Charlotte continued to remain standing where she was, paralyzed with shock, Zack took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "But you know what? At least now I'm admitting as such. At least now I'm honestly feeling bad about being so flawed. At least now, early as it may to unrealistically expect it to work, I'm trying to make up for it all."

He nodded his head. "I could just as easily be up to my eyeballs in denial, trying to shift blame left and right nonstop on anyone but me, and all around hardly even trying to make things any better in any way that's truly meaningful. Hell, just the previous day, that's exactly how I was behaving.

"And you know what? I may be doing so unrealistically early, but the fact is that I'm at least trying to make things right. I mean hey, better to try doing so unreasonably early than to put off any such effort for God knows how long and let things only get worse in the process; not to mention better than not putting up any such effort at all."

Zack took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "Look, I know that all that stuff you said not too long ago is true. I know that I've crossed some serious lines that will be very difficult, it at all possible, to come back from. I know that it's too early to reasonably expect any meaningful impact to come from trying this early on to make things right again, especially considering this is the 3rd time I've tried to have a talk with you today despite how you've made it brutally clear that you don't want anything to do with me any more than anyone else around here does."

He looked directly at Charlotte once more. "But all I ask right now is to at least consider giving me one tiny little chance to talk and get a few things about this off my chest. 30 minutes of your time. That's all I ask. Or better yet, forget 30 minutes; 20 minutes. That's all I ask. Yes, I know I'm pushing my luck here, but all I ask is you give me 20 minutes of your time to talk, or at least consider doing so. And honest to God, if you really are dead-set against it, then I understand, and I'll gladly go away and leave you alone for the rest of today, and maybe even for all of tomorrow, this coming weekend, and the entirety of next week if I can manage. You have my word. And yes, I know you probably think my word's hardly worth squat after what's happened over the last few days regarding me, but that's better than nothing."

For what seemed like an eternity, Charlotte remained standing where she was, her back still turned. Then, right as Zack was seconds away from departing the area, Charlotte sighed, and turned around to directly face him. She stared straight at Zack, a half irritated and half exhausted look in her bright blue eyes. She took a deep breath, and then exhaled heavily. She lifted her eyes back to face Zack once more, and then lifted her finger. "You have 15 minutes," said Charlotte, her voice indicating no room for argument. "That's all I'm allowing. If that's not enough time, too bad. You'll just have to wait to finish another time."

Zack mentally gulped. "I understand." He seemed to think to himself. "Starting now?"

"No."

Charlotte folded her arms across her chest. "Granted, on any other day, yes those minutes would be starting now. But since today's my birthday, I'm gonna be a little more generous." She pointed behind her towards the entrance to what looked like a small alleyway in between the crack house and the building directly to the crack house's left. "We're gonna take this into that alleyway. And as soon as both time and position are sufficient for those 15 minutes to begin, I'll tell you so. No earlier, no later. No more, no less. Capiche?"

Zack mentally gulped again. Charlotte clearly meant business. "Capiche."

"Good." She turned around. "Now come on, before I change my mind."

. . . . .

The boys had no idea how long they'd spent tensed up and watching apprehensively from their hiding place. Quite frankly, neither did they care. But every single one of them couldn't help but raise their eyebrows in confusion when they saw Zack and Charlotte take part in a conversation seemingly without Zack so much as saying a word about the fact that they were hiding nearby, followed by Charlotte turning and walking away from the crack house door and towards a nearby alleyway with Zack following close behind.

"What the?" said Cody.

But then all 6 of the boys found their jaws metaphorically dropping when they saw Zack turn his head directly in the direction of their hiding place, point one finger towards Charlotte and another towards the now unguarded crack house door behind him, and mouthed what sounded something like "I'll distract her, now's your chance! Move! Move! Move!" All this, while he was following Charlotte.

The instant Zack and Charlotte had entered the alleyway nearby, the other boys briefly gaped in stunned silence at the area.

"What the Hell?" Darren asked.

"Are you kidding me?" said Dunlap.

"Whose bloody side is he on?" Calvin hissed.

For a brief moment, Daniel and the rest of the boys, plus Hobbes, all remained confused. Then Daniel realized just how much the current turn of events, unexpected as it was, now seemed to have the potential of benefitting them.

"Never mind whose side he's on," said Daniel. He pointed at the now very conveniently unguarded door to the crack house, slowly starting to rise from hiding. "The most important thing right now is that, whatever the reasons behind it, he's gotten Charlotte out of the way, and now we can get in and save the girls unhindered."

The other boys all looked in the same direction as their leader, all of them slowly realizing that Daniel was correct.

"How do we know this couldn't yet be a trap?" said Cody. "Or that things won't be similarly plenty difficult even without Zack or Charlotte actively trying to hinder us?"

"Well that's a risk we're just going to have to take," said Daniel. "At this point, it doesn't matter how difficult it turns out to be. We've been waiting long enough for an opportunity like this as is, and there's no way I'm turning this one down now that it's finally come. And if the rest of you are smart, neither will any of you."

"Daniel's right," said Calvin. He clenched his right fist, lifting it up soon afterward. "Trap or no trap, the girls need us. And Lord knows how long we've been waiting to get the opportunity to finally come charging in to save them without interference from Charlotte. We may not get another chance if we squander this one. And I don't know about the rest of you guys." He pointed at himself, a determined toothy grin coming on his face and his dark eyes seeming to shine with anticipation. "But this Eggsy ain't gonna fail to save his Roxy."

Daniel raised his eyebrow in confusion upon hearing Calvin refer to himself as the young spy protagonist from the Kingsman movies and Susan as Eggsy's close friend and fellow spy Roxy. "You do realize that those two aren't a couple, right?"

Calvin narrowed his eyes at Daniel in a glare. "Your point being?"

"This is an important conversation right now?"

At the sound of this question, Daniel and Calvin directed momentarily shocked looks towards the rest of the boys, all of whom were now directing either confused or irritated looks their way. Even Hobbes seemed more than a little perplexed as he directed his own eyes towards his master. They looked each other in the eyes. "Right," said Daniel. "Not important."

"Yeah," Calvin agreed. "This can wait till later."

"Good," said Raj. He looked at the alleyway that Zack and Charlotte had disappeared into, and then back at the rest of the boys. "So, what's the plan?"

Daniel took a quick look back at the crack house, then back at the rest of the boys. He pointed at Raj. "Raj," said Daniel. "I want you to double back as far from this immediate area as you can. Once you've just about reached the area from which we entered this neighborhood, I want you to call Mr. Schue, tell him about what's going on here, and have him call the cops and bring them over here." He directed his gaze at the rest of the boys. "The rest of you? You're all with me."

"Why do I have to be the one to get Mr. Schuester and the cops?"

"You're a senior." Daniel lifted his finger as if to emphasize a point. "And you're also the oldest amongst both the New Directions boys, and the current New Directions roster as a whole."

"So?" Raj asked. "Mr. Schue doesn't have any reason not to trust any of us."

"I know," said Daniel. "But the cops aren't guaranteed to have that same level of trust. And if Mr. Schue tells them about this situation, they'll likely find it more believable if the news comes to Mr. Schue from you then if it comes to Mr. Schue from any of the rest of us."

Raj thought to himself. What Daniel said certainly did make sense, to an extent. "You really sure all this is necessary?"

"Better safe than sorry."

"If you say so." Raj looked in the direction Daniel had asked him to head off to. "Why do I have to get so far away from this area before calling?"

Daniel pointed his finger behind him towards the alleyway where Charlotte and Zack were located. "Can't risk Charlotte hearing you sound the alarm. If she knows that Mr. Schuester and the cops might soon be on the way, she could end up trying to make things even more difficult for us in the event Zack fails to stop her."

Raj looked in the direction of the alleyway in question. "Fair enough," he admitted. He nodded his head. "Alright, I'll get on it." He directed his gaze, one by one, at each of the other boys, plus Hobbes. "Good luck guys."

"You to," said Cody.

"Thanks," said Raj. The Indian boy took one last quick look towards the alleyway where Charlotte and Zack were located, and then turned around and rushed off back towards where the boys had entered the neighborhood they were currently in.

Once Raj was out of their sight and earshot, the rest of the boys all looked each other in the eyes, and so did Hobbes. "Alright guys," said Daniel. "You heard the plan." He clapped his hands together, fingers intertwining. "Let's go."

The five boys still in hiding promptly burst up to their feet and dashed across the street with Hobbes following close behind. They all reached the door to the crack house, with Daniel being the first to make it. When he attempted to open the door, however, he learned the hard way that there was one last immediate obstacle for them on the outside of the building. "And it's locked," Daniel groaned. He turned away from the lock, rolling his eyes to Heaven before directing a deadpan gaze at the other boys gathered alongside him. "Because of course it had to be locked."

"Not for long," Calvin snarled. "Step aside."

Daniel, remembering how Calvin had taken care of the locked janitor's closet door earlier that very day, promptly took a step backwards to the right of the door. The other three boys, while initially hesitant, eventually stepped aside as well. Hobbes, of course, had gotten out of the way mere seconds after hearing his master say the words 'step aside'. And as Hobbes and the boys watched, Calvin took a step back, crouching in the process, then lunged forward and slammed his right foot against the locked door with a powerful stomp kick. Miraculously enough, just as had been the case with the janitor's closet door, the force of Calvin's kick was enough to forcibly open the locked door. No sooner had the crack house door slammed against the inner wall directly to its left and Calvin straightened back into upright position from his stomp kick when Daniel promptly shouted, "Alright! Now's our chance!"

At the sound of this, Cody and the two sophomores, plus Calvin and Hobbes swiftly rushed through the now unblocked entrance to the crack house right at the same time Daniel shouted, "Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move!" No sooner had Calvin and Hobbes entered the crack house when Daniel himself rushed in close behind the autistic boy and therapy dog while simultaneously roaring out one final "MOVE!" And at the exact same moment that Daniel unleashed that last shout, Calvin unleashed a similarly loud velociraptor-like shriek.

Meanwhile, in the alleyway not too far away, Charlotte's eyes widened at the sound of all this, her mind completely spacing out on what Zack had been in the midst of saying as the first coherent thought to come to her mind upon realizing just what was now going on was a stunned and slightly bitter, "Shit."

. . . . .

Five minutes prior, the five girls stuck inside the crack house had turned out to have actually managed to hold their own quite well for a surprisingly long amount of time following the beginning of their battle to defend themselves against the vicious group of unscrupulous adult men in the building. For some reason, the men had all clearly been expecting a ludicrously easy victory. This had been proven quite clearly in just how little the men had appeared to have taken the girls as a serious threat. For starters, half the men had just charged wildly towards the girls screaming incoherently like fools with zero clear strategy in mind. The other half, on the other hand, had very painfully obviously held back in their attacks.

Considering how much time had now passed since the beginning of the battle, it was quite obvious how big of a mistake the men had committed into taking such approaches. At that moment, at least 7 of the men were unconscious, or similarly out of commission. The men who weren't out of commission were also finding themselves getting a decent beating from the girls as a result of their slapdash and careless initial approach in handling them. And out of all the girls, Susan and Diana had by far appeared to have caused the most damage and dealt the most hits. Of course, Naomi had also managed to deal a respectable amount of hits and damage as well with her cane.

Unfortunately, around three minutes later, things were now starting to slowly look as if things could potentially start swinging in favor of the raptor men. As of now, all the men that weren't out of commission, which even now still outnumbered the portion that were out of commission, appeared to have learned from their careless prior efforts at taking out the girls, and were now all hanging out of reach, appeared to be rethinking their strategy, and appeared to be waiting for an ideal moment to enact a new and improved plan of attack. The girls, for that matter, were only getting themselves further close to being at a major disadvantage with the current state they were gradually getting into. Naomi's cane swings were starting to get wilder and more unfocused. Amber seemed practically seconds away from breaking down into a panic. And the three juniors amongst the girls, while neither on the verge of panic, nor getting sloppy in their attacks, were clearly starting to feel and look tired. And judging from the smug grins that were starting to form on the faces of several of the men, the attackers clearly knew it to, and were now just biding their time for the girls to make so much as the slightest mistake, or perhaps collapse or falter from exhaustion.

At that point, Diana and Susan narrowed their eyes, gritted their teeth, and mentally steeled themselves. In stark contrast, Bailey was now starting to clearly pant despite her fists remaining clenched, Naomi continued blindly swinging her cane at thin air around her while also panting, and Amber now looked even more on the verge of breaking down panicking or crying. The two female leads of the New Directions directed a glare at the remaining adult men, who were now all starting to chuckle as well as grin, keeping their eyes narrowed and fighting with all their willpower to keep themselves from panting or similarly showing any sign of exhaustion or fear. Despite this façade, however, Diana still found herself mentally praying. "God," she thought to herself. "If you're real, can hear me, and see what's going on right now, you'd better not let this end badly for us. You hear me? You'd better let us get out of this alive and in one piece. I swear to you; somehow or other, you'd better allow us to be saved or similarly get out of this. . ."

As if God Himself indeed had been listening at that very moment, Diana's mental praying was soundly interrupted by the sound of a thunderous slamming noise coming from right where the door was located. The girls and adult men had barely even enough time for their eyes to widen and faces to similarly indicate their surprise at the noise when the air was suddenly split further by the sound of a loud, "Alright! Now's our chance!"

As one, all the crack house occupants that weren't unconscious or similarly out of commission turned their heads towards the now indeed very wide-open door right as the same voice that had shouted not too long ago proceeded to yell, "Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move!" The sight of the familiar bespectacled Korean American boy, prosthetic legged albino boy, and apparently yellow eyed redhead boy charging into the crack house was plenty reason enough for the girls to almost instantly feel a rapidly increasing sense of relief. But this same relief only increased tenfold when an equally familiar blonde boy and German shepherd came rushing in right behind the first three boys, and were in turn followed immediately afterward by a similarly familiar dark haired and gray eyed boy who promptly shouted one last blaring loud, "MOVE!" while the blonde boy simultaneously emitted a now both hugely ironic and heavily welcome velociraptor-like shriek of challenge.

All this was enough to cause the girls to close their eyes and sigh in relief. "Thank you," Diana thought to herself and towards God.

The adult men were still trying to fully get their minds in gear and acknowledge the unexpected entrance of the apparent reinforcements that had just arrived on the girls' behalf when said reinforcements proceeded to ram into several of them and have them knocked and shoved out of the way before skidding to a stop in close proximity to each of their respective close female friends, with Hobbes in particular masterfully skidding to a stop himself directly to the side of Susan opposite the one his master positioned himself at, snarling viciously in anticipation of what he suspected would be a ferocious battle for him in the near future.

All the raptor men, including the ones who'd just gotten shoved aside by the boys, all managed to get their minds back in gear and look straight at the 10 teenagers and single dog in time for Daniel to growl, narrow his gray eyes, and clench his fists. "You want a piece of our friends?" He pointed a finger at himself, while keeping his other hand clenched into a fist. "You're gonna have to go through us; all of us!"

"Yeah!" Dunlap howled, his red eyes wide and burning with rage, and his fists clenched and raised upwards.

"Yah!" Darren shouted, his yellow eye similarly hardened into a nightmarish look as he drew his guitar out from its sheath on his back and spun it around like a quarterstaff.

"ROAR!" Calvin roared like a lion.

"AROO!" Hobbes howled simultaneously like a wolf.

"Best not get these broken," Cody said calmly as he took off his glasses, folded them, and slipped them into his pants pocket before taking on what looked like a martial arts pose.

The ringleader of the raptor tattooed men, the same man who'd initially spoken with Scott before the attack had begun, narrowed his eyes. He pointed his finger at the united group of teenagers in front of him, too angry to think clearly now. "Attack!" he yelled. The men started to surge towards the younger occupants of the building. It took only seconds for the 10 teens and single dog to fight back against the attacking adult men. And for a solid 10 to 15 minutes, things drastically swung back in the teens' favor. The fact that the girls had all been seemingly revitalized by the arrival of the boys certainly helped to.

Bailey simply let any attackers dumb enough to come after her have it with simple punches and kicks while Cody used his dancing skills to artful effect to both dodge and attack; at one point seemingly pirouetting a full 13 times at once to avoid getting hit by 7 men trying to punch him at once before then giving the man on the far left of the group a swift jumping spin kick to the head that resulted in all 7 of the luckless thugs toppling over each other like dominoes onto their sides.

"Nice work," said Bailey immediately after she punched one man in the face and knocked him back away from her.

"Thanks," Cody said before then whirling to his left and punching another man away.

"Where's Raj?" asked Bailey.

"Outside calling Mr. Schue," said Cody. He stomped on the foot of another man rushing towards him, kicked him in the balls when the man paused from getting his foot stomped, and then punched the thug in the face and sent him stumbling backwards. "And if we're lucky, Mr. Schue will also be able to bring the cops over here when he shows up to help."

"Well that's good to hear," said Bailey. She then elbowed another attacker in the gut, then picked up a chair and swung it against the side of his head, knocking him out.

Darren and Amber were similarly fighting off attackers, with a now noticeably more confident Amber once again putting full force behind her blows while Darren did the same with his own kicks and punches while also adding in the odd smack or similar blow from his guitar. Simultaneously, Dunlap was also bringing serious pain to the men trying to attack him and Naomi with almost nothing but kicks with his immensely hard and cold metallic legs and feet while also providing some much-appreciated verbal assistance to Naomi as she continued swinging her cane at her own assailants, at one point even grabbing onto the cane alongside her and guiding her swings.

Calvin and Hobbes proved particularly vicious over the course of their battle being fought alongside Susan. Both the autistic boy and his faithful therapy dog were fighting literally tooth and nail as well as with fists and feet as they savagely took on whatever foes were stupid enough to come at them and simultaneously unleashing a seemingly endless storm of roars, howls, snarls, growls, and barks. Susan, for that matter, was plenty vicious herself. Not only was she punching and kicking with all the strength she could muster, but also kneeing, elbowing, occasionally biting, twice grabbing one of the long-haired attackers by the hair and tugging at it painfully hard, and at one point even picking up a stake knife and stabbing it right through one of the men's hands and pinning it to the bar after he placed his hands on there following his getting himself to a stop from a fall against said bar.

Daniel and Diana, however, were the one group of fighters who had absolutely zero sense of elegance, savagery, or over elaborateness in fighting amongst either fighter. "Dear God, I'm so glad you and the boys showed up," said Diana as she punched out yet another attacker.

"I hear you Diana," said Daniel as he punched away one man to his right, kicked the privates of another man to his left, and then grabbed two men directly in front of him by the heads and then slamming their heads together. "In all honesty," he continued, "we would have been in here a whole lot sooner if Charlotte hadn't been outside guarding the door. Heck, surprisingly enough, Zack actually came by on his own and distracted her for us, even silently indicating for us to get in here while he kept her busy. Can you believe that?"

Diana's eyes briefly widened at both what Zack had apparently done and the impression that Daniel and the rest of the boys appeared to be under regarding Charlotte's level of involvement. "Well actually," she began.

Then they heard more men coming at them and screaming. "We'll finish this talk later," said Diana.

"Agreed," said Daniel. Their fight promptly resumed.

However, as much as the odds seemed to be in their favor, the teens and dog were not going to last against the 'raptor men' forever and would very likely be overwhelmed if either they didn't decisively defeat the adult thugs or within the next 5-10 minutes, or Raj, Mr. Schuester, and the cops didn't arrive within a similar amount of time. And Calvin at least was fully aware of this matter to.

"These thugs aren't going to keep up this losing streak against us forever," he thought to himself as he kicked and punched away another couple of thugs attempting to attack him. "Sooner or later," he continued thinking to himself while simultaneously fighting, "they'll get over their shock and disorientation from our arrival. And once they've gotten acclimatized to these new battle conditions, we'll almost certainly be goners." He managed to take down the last of his current attackers, and took advantage of the reprieve he'd now gotten himself to look around the area. "There's gotta be some way to decisively take them down real swift within the next few minutes. But how. . .?"

He caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye, and he turned his head in time to see what looked like a desk, a computer, an array of plugs and other equipment, and a notebook gathered around on what was supposed to be the 'stage' for karaoke. But what really caught his attention was the sight of the words 'Personal Tech/Computer/Communications Array Instruction Guide' written in pen on the cover, plus a sticker underneath these words with 'Property of Scott Grayback' written on it.

"Awfully convenient," Calvin thought to himself. "But I'm certainly not gonna turn down a potential stroke of good luck in a situation like this." He rushed over to the desk, the rest of the building's occupants either unconscious or too busy fighting their respective battles to notice what he was currently up to. Calvin snatched up the notebook upon reaching the desk, sat down on the conveniently positioned chair in front of the desk, and opened up the notebook. His eyebrow raised once more when he saw the very first words at the top of the very first page. "Seriously?" he thought to himself. "The password for this computer is one of the very first words written in here?" He raised his eyebrow. "Whoever got hired to work with this stuff must be a serious rookie." His eyes then narrowed when he looked at the server and discovered that the computer appeared to merely be in sleep mode rather than fully turned off. "And pretty darned careless too."

But Calvin was smart enough to know not to second guess good luck when he had it, and so he 'woke up' the computer and typed in the password: 'DEINOCHILLORAPTOR'. The fact that the password was a combination of 'deinonychus,' 'achillobator,' and 'velociraptor' was not lost on him. "These guys must really be fans of 'raptor' dinosaurs," he thought to himself. "Not to mention be huge Jurassic Park trivia nerds." He looked carefully, yet quickly, through the notebook and computer, trying to figure out how this matter could potentially be of use. Then he seemed to realize something important. He looked back at the chaos unfolding in front of him, now finally noticing how, apart from one man who seemed to be the ringleader, virtually all of the adult men still conscious and fighting seemed to show signs of very likely being extremely drunk or high. Furthermore, all of them had what appeared to be com-link devices attached to their ears. He then looked at what he had available on the computer as well as the information noted down in the notebook, and a smile came on his face. "I know just what to do," he thought to himself. In a flash, he started opening up the necessary programs, typing up what needed to be typed, and similarly working with the tech and instructions he had to set up what he'd now planned.

For another ten minutes, the battling continued to unfold amongst the teens, dog, and 'raptor men'. And at the exact same time, Calvin continued working as quickly, yet carefully, as possible to fully set up his newly thought up plan for putting the chaos to an end before the 'raptor men' could successfully get the chance to have luck swing back in their favor. Nearing the end of these 10 minutes, slight signs started to show of the raptor men getting gradually closer to the moment in which luck would swing back in their favor. And miraculously enough, absolutely none of the active fighters noticed what Calvin was up to.

"Com-links active," Calvin whispered to himself as he proceeded to make note of the preparations on his mental checklist that he'd successfully made. "Connection to main Raptor communication network disabled." He pointed and looked carefully at a nearby microphone. "Connection to microphone established." He took note of several devices high up on the walls that looked a lot like intercom speakers or similar such devices. "Secondary connection to local building intercom speakers established." Upon making note of this, he checked the com-links settings program window he'd opened up, a smile slowly starting to form on his face as he realized just how few preparations he now had left to check off his mental list before his plan could be successfully carried out. "Com-link volume limit set to max." He then switched back to a different program and proceeded to make the necessary adjustment he needed. "Microphone volume set to max." His grin widened, his black eyes agleam with triumph. He had only one thing left to do. But first. . .

"Cover your ears!"

At the sound of this shout from Calvin, all the combatants turned their heads. But while all the raptor men very noticeably looked stunned and confused, Hobbes and Calvin's fellow gleeks took only a few seconds for their shocked expressions to turn to first wide-eyed surprise, and then comprehension, and they all swiftly covered their ears, with Hobbes even going so far as to completely lay down on the ground with his front paws pressing firmly against the top of his head and laid down ears. In that instant, with his friends having now prepared themselves thanks to Calvin's warning, and the raptor men still very clearly stunned and mentally blank from confusion, Calvin turned the microphone on, thrusted his head into position, and roared into it with all his might in what had to have been one of the most intense t-rex impressions he'd ever managed.

Even with their ears covered, Hobbes and Calvin's fellow gleeks couldn't help but wince, grit their teeth, and clench their eyes shut from what they did manage to hear. For the raptor men, however, the devastatingly loud t-rex-like roar had a considerably stronger effect due to the combination of the noise being blasted literally right into their ears from their suddenly active com-links, the volume limits for all the devices involved being set to maximum, and how all but one of the men had now turned out to be especially susceptible to auditory sensory overload from being immensely drunk or high. The one conscious man who was neither drunk nor high, the ringleader, was nonetheless very strongly affected himself thanks to the sheer volume. And it wasn't until he found himself the only one amongst his men who was neither unconscious, nor curled up on the floor either unconscious, blubbering incoherently, or screaming in agony that he finally noticed the one boy standing at the computer with a wild look on his face roaring into the microphone. Gritting his teeth and snarling from determination and discomfort, he started slowly trying to stumble over towards the boy.

Calvin noticed the one man now trying to fight through the discomfort of the roar, and proceeded to double his efforts. And for what seemed like an eternity, Calvin and the raptor men ringleader found themselves in a stalwart battle of willpower as the ringleader tried his damned hardest to power his way through the discomfort of the loud noise in his ears and reach the desk so he could take out the boy responsible for the roar and Calvin continued to pour more and more vocal effort into his roar in an equally unyielding effort to overwhelm the single attacker left standing.

As this strange 'duel' unfolded, and the majority of the other crack house occupants could do little more than either watch or remain in a horrifically incapacitated state, Daniel managed to fight his way through his own sense of discomfort and slowly make his way towards Calvin's location, all while keeping his eyes and mind on one important detail; out of all the adult men in the building, the group's apparent ringleader appeared to have been the only one to have brought a gun and have it on him.

Eventually, after a heart stopping moment where it seemed that the ringleader was just a few footsteps away from getting ahold of Calvin and taking him out, Calvin's roar finally seemed to do the trick, and with a piercing scream of agony, the man slapped his hands over his ears, closed his eyes, and crumpled to his knees. And as luck would have it, it was at that exact moment that Daniel reached his own intended position. And after mentally steeling himself up as best as he could, Daniel removed his hands from his ears, snatched the man's pistol out of its holster, and smack it against the back of his head.

In that instant, the man stopped screaming and widened his eyes with shock from the blow, and Calvin simultaneously stopped roaring. Then right as the man seemed about to look in Daniel's direction, Calvin throttled him with a swift jabbing punch straight to the jaw. The man managed to gulp, direct his full wide-eyed and stunned gaze at Calvin, and gurgle in pain and disorientation before his eyes rolled into his head, and he collapsed on the ground flat on his back, completely out cold.

For a few seconds, Calvin and Daniel observed the now unconscious ringleader of the group of raptor men, panting and gasping from both triumph and relief. The rest of the gleeks, plus Hobbes, also watched, similarly exhausted and relieved. Then Calvin smiled, took one last glimpse at all the unconscious or similarly incapacitated thugs, then smiled back at his friends. Then he took a deep breath, exhaled, and lowered his head back into position at the microphone. Calvin's friends swiftly covered their ears once more just in time for Calvin to let out a final triumphant t-rex-like roar into the microphone.

And just like that, another chapter finally done and posted! REALLY hope you enjoyed this chapter, found it well worth the wait, and leave a respectable amount of feedback. Remember, I require a minimum of 2 reviews for this chapter in order to post the next chapter upon its completion. Again, I REALLY hope you enjoyed this chapter! And before I leave, I now take full responsibility for any unrealistic or inaccurate elements to be found within this chapter, and also apologize for them. Again, hope you enjoyed and leave a respectable amount of feedback. Happy Thanksgiving!

Coming up Next: With the 'raptor men' group present at the crack house now out of commission, Raj arrives with Mr. Schue and the cops in tow just in time for justice to be served. And in the process, the gleeks (and the readers) manage to learn a pretty big detail about Charlotte and her family (as well as just why she was so reluctant to call the cops to the area herself). And a little while after that, one Coach Sue Sylvester has a much needed discussion with Charlotte after almost getting into legal trouble herself thanks to some unintended circumstantial evidence on Charlotte's part. And once that's out of the way, Mr. Schuester, the gleeks, and their families have some much needed time together as well. Sound complicated? Probably. Sound worth waiting for? Sure hope so.