THE three marched straight into Wagner's office. With his feet up on the desk Wagner took note of the cat, mutant, and basketball player.
"Hello boys," he greeted them, "what can I do for ya?"
"It's time to pay up." Wolverine said, extending his hand.
"So you're leaving?"
"'Fraid so."
"Oh, well, I'm sorry," the fight promoter said as he stood up and walked to the door, "I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
"Oh?" Garfield said, "and why is that?"
"You see boys, I only make so much money. So I promise fighters good pay, only to trap them in my clutches, so that as they maim each other, I make a steady profit. It's a win-win."
"Only for you!" Shaq yelled, "Come on guys. Let's go report him to the authorities."
"Oh, I can't let you do that either. Anyone who snitches gets stitches. Or as I prefer it, they die."
Wagner pressed a button on his desk, and two spriteswaps of Ryu came down.
"Ryu?!" Shaq said in surprise.
"Not Ryu," Wagner corrected, "just clones of him I found in an alley. They work for me now, and they love busting shins. Which is exactly what they're gonna do to you, right boys?"
The Ryus nodded. Shaq pushed Garfield away, as he didn't want the comic icon to get hurt trying to defend himself.
Wolverine jumped in the air only to get kicked back by Ryu-A as Ryu-B struck Shaq with a hadouken. The fight was a mess as Shaq threw Ryu-A while Logan sliced Ryu-B. The mutant and basketball player began to overpower the martial artists, and one of the main points was Shaq making it rain various candy bars on Ryu-B (which Garfield snuck away). Ryu-B was knocked unconscious rather quickly as Ryu-A found himself cornered. He was disposed of rather quickly. The two fighters turned towards the promoter.
"That all you got?" Wolverine grunted.
"Now boys," Wagner said, "we can settle this the easy way or the hard way-"
"It's too late for that."
As the mutant approached the conman Wagner jumped over the desk, grabbed Wolverine, and slammed him through it. Shaq attempted to defend himself, but Wagner knocked the tall athlete down. He, however, did not expect Garfield to claw his face open. In fact, one might say that the fat cat went too far.
As the promoter laid there on the ground bleeding he looked at the three who had revolted.
"Look at what you've done," he said in dire pain, "dozens of fighters… with no income… thanks to you…"
"You wouldn't have given them the money anyway." Shaq pointed out.
"You… just made… a mistake…"
"Shut it." Wolverine said, stabbing the conman right in the throat. The three went silent for a moment.
"Wasn't that a little too far?" Garfield asked.
"… Maybe. Now, grab the money and start giving it to people."
After everyone had gotten their backpay, the three found themselves with about $1750. Putting it in his pocket, Shaq mentioned that they should probably go out and find some way to fix the mess that was this galaxy.
"The whole galaxy?!" Garfield said, "That's going to be impossible!"
"You want to see Jon again, don't you?"
Garfield nodded, and with that our heroes went off onto the next point in their adventure.
Now, these three don't know it, and you won't know how until I tell you, but they are going to change everything as we know it through not just their actions, but mostly through what they find.
