Derek Hale pulled up at the quiet gas station in his Camaro, the car was nearly empty of fuel. These days he tried to avoid running errands anywhere and anytime that was too popular with the nosey residents of Beacon Hills. Seemed like he had timed it perfectly for once, no-one around to mutter underneath their breaths about his sister's murder or the damn fire. Sometimes the assholes didn't even bother to keep it quiet. They all just wanted a reaction. Worse than ghouls

He had just started to fill the car tank at the pump, when a red SUV pulled into the pump right beside him. Derek began to stiffen and quickly checked the display to see how much longer he would be. He turned slightly so he was facing away from the damn vehicle when he saw a Silver SUV pull up and park perpendicularly to his car, Bastards had boxed him in. Had to be fucking hunters, Derek turned his head slightly and watched with a frown as Argent got out of the red SUV. He didn't need to hear the other doors opening from the Silver SUV to know they had surrounded him.

The only saving grace was that they couldn't gun him down at the gas station as there were cameras everywhere and he knew the panic button behind the counter went straight to the Police station.

Didn't mean to say they couldn't try to take him in one of the damn vehicles to get rid of him elsewhere. He could feel his wolf really near the surface, he wanted to tear their god damn arrogant murdering faces off, but he couldn't give into it.

He had to be smart this time, wait for them to play their games but it wouldn't hurt to be prepared. Something they wouldn't see coming from a werewolf. He stopped the flow of gas into the car but kept the pump in the Camaro's tank. He leant into the car from the window and whilst grabbing a cleaning cloth, also pulled out a lighter, one of Laura's emergency stashes in event of wolfbane poisoning. He hid the lighter in the palm of his hand whilst using the cloth ostensibly to clean the side mirror. That the mirror moved enough to allow Derek to see exactly what was happening with the red SUV whilst he kept most of his focus on the silver vehicle was a happy coincidence. He tightened his other hand on the gas pump still in position in the car's tank. The first sign those bastards were going too far, and he would use that pump like a god damn fire hose. He ducked his head slightly so they wouldn't see the way his eyes flashed blue as his wolf reacted to the thought of taking them down.
Thanks to his Uncle Peter's condition, he knew werewolves could survive serious burns if they could get away from the source. Humans now, that was a different matter, and seeing Argent and his men going up in flames would be God damn worth dealing with his own burns. At least then the Argents would know what his family had felt.

"Nice ride" Argent drawled as he trailed his fingertips across the hood of Derek's car. "Black cars, though..." he continued as he rubbed a non-existent smudge off the hood with his thumb, clearly trying to intimidate the silent Werewolf. But it was Argent who took an involuntary step backwards and paused for a few seconds as he saw the dark smirk on Derek's face. He seemed to remember his courage when Derek's face went blank and though he eyed the young wolf more warily he carried on speaking as if there had been no interruption and Derek hadn't scared the shit out of him in front of his own men.

"Very hard to keep clean. I would definitely suggest a little more maintenance. If you have something this nice, you want to take care of it, right?" as Argent moves toward the car's windscreen and began to clean it. Derek's determined silence seemed to spur the man on.
His tone of voice mockingly light-hearted but unmistakably full of threat.
Derek didn't allow his breathing to alter, he refused to tense or move into a stance that would allow the fuckers to call him threatening but he didn't take his eyes off Argent, and he was also perfectly aware of the position of every other hunter surrounding him. Rage slid through his veins like a slow but inevitable melting glacier, but he wouldn't give these bastards the satisfaction of knowing that.

That hated voice grated on his nerve endings as he listened "Personally... I'm very protective of the things I love. But that's something I learned from my family... And you don't have much of that these days... Do you?"

Argent finished with the windscreen and looked at Derek with a pointed, barely concealed smug expression.
For a second Derek's hand, the one holding the lighter and the cloth, clenched into a white knuckled fist under the long sleeve of his black leather jacket. A fact which didn't escape Argent's notice.

The Hunter studied Derek's reaction with glittering expectant eyes, but Derek refused to give him the satisfaction. He wasn't going to be the one to escalate this encounter to a fight, but he would be the one to finish it if the Hunters started one. His tightened grip on the lighter reminded him of his plan to deal with them all if things went shit shaped. His fingernails remained in human form.

Argent nodded at him with satisfaction, he was pleased that the conversation didn't escalate, that the mutt knew his place. He gestured at the windscreen "There we go. You can actually look through your windshield now. See how that makes everything so much clearer?"
The last words were delivered with a threatening sneer as Argent finally lost the fake genial smile. He obviously thought his unsubtle message had been delivered loud and clear.

Derek watched him stroll away, watched him head towards the red SUV without a fucking care in the world, watched the way his men swaggered towards their vehicles with overt malicious satisfaction. His mind cautioned it was only a few more moments before they were gone, and he could himself leave safely. Be safe at least until their next encounter. But the rage roiling in his gut wouldn't let him keep silent any longer.
Fuck it, the asshole had to mention his family, didn't he? Derek couldn't stop the words that dripped off his tongue with venomous sarcasm. "You forgot to check the oil."

Derek breathed in slowly and carefully, his wolf howling in his mind, as Argent stopped walking. He stood there the arrogant bastard, then shrugged his shoulders, stretched his neck and rocked on the balls of his feet as in preparation for a bout. Argent smiled, pleased that he had finally drawn a reaction from the wolf, he swung round and openly smirked at him whilst nodding to one of his companions. It seemed he had to reinforce the message with Hale.

"Check the man's oil."

The chosen Hunter walked over to the Camaro. Derek kept his attention split between him and Argent. Derek silently cursing himself for not keeping quiet for just a while longer. What the hell were the assholes going to do now?
Instead of walking around the front of the car to pop the hood, the Hunter stopped at the driver's side door and took out the semi-automatic weapon he had concealed in the side of his jacket. He smashed the butt of the gun into the driver's side window before he looked over at Argent.
"Looks good to me." He intoned impassively.

Agent raised his eyebrows and smiled mockingly at Derek once again as he offered "Drive safely."

"Oh Man Karma is having a field day with you Argents today. You are just too stupid to quit" The words were uttered in cold disdain at complete odds with the bright sing song voice. Derek and all the Hunters swung round in shock.

Derek could have kicked himself for delaying Argent and his cronies. He didn't want any innocent bystanders to get caught up in this mess. Then the guy's words repeated in his head. Christ this guy knew Argent. Was it more trouble for him?

Unease threaded its way through the group of Hunters when they realised that not one of them had noticed the guy's sudden appearance.
A stranger stood there glaring at them. Argent took in the long loose curly dark hair and shorter stature of the older man and relaxed slightly. There was something familiar about him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. If he wasn't a Beacon Hills nosey interfering civilian then he must be from the damn Council, probably one of those pathetic druids always bleating on about that "keeping the balance" bullshit.

Argent was opting for the later because the guy was staring at them like they were disappointing children. Those focused blue eyes were way too intense for a normal human. He felt his annoyance notch up a level. Interfering self-important busybody. But he would remind that useless magic user of the power of the Hunters Code if the guy didn't back off after a polite warning. Well as polite as he could manage.

To Argent's amusement one of his men pre-empted him. The hunter had obviously decided to issue his own disgruntled warning, "Who the fuck do you think you are?" Hewlett growled; he had been the one who had smashed the mutt's car window.

Hewlett was never particularly patient on his best days, he didn't wait long for a response to his words, and he began to raise his weapon again. He was stopped in his tracks by a furious diminutive woman suddenly standing right in front of him. She gripped on to his hand so tightly that Argent saw his man wince in pain.
"No, no, no, dick head, you don't ever raise a gun to my Alpha". She snarled the words into Hewlett's disconcerted face.

The word Alpha and the strength of the woman made Argent realise that his initial assumptions were crap. More damned mutts to deal with and put in their place.

His men came to the same realisation seconds behind him, as the rest of them also reached for their weapons.

"I've already called the Cops" chimed in a third very deep voice "but carry on raising those weapons, I fucking dare you, it will make a great finale to the live stream video".
Another man appeared beside the curly haired guy. He towered over him, whilst the cell pointed at Argent's men looked tiny in the guy's huge fist. Stranger number 2 smirked viciously as he continued "Say cheese boys, stars of your very own social media film."

The curly haired man ignored the startled Hunters as he turned to focus on the guy standing next to the damaged Camaro. The change in his voice as he addressed Derek was startling, as warm and comforting as a hot chocolate drink on a snowy day.

"You must be Derek Hale, it's a pleasure to meet you Dude, even under these less than pleasant circumstances."

Derek Hale stared at the shorter man with open bemusement on his handsome stubbled face for a few seconds before his face fell into what seemed to be his usual resting bitch face.

"Don't call me Dude" he grunted automatically, while his eyes darted between Argent and the stranger in wary worried confusion. The shorter guy laughed outright, "Stiles was right, it is fun to tease you" he winked at him as he murmured the words under his breath just loud enough for the werewolf to hear and laughed again when those expressive eyebrows rose.

His blessed protector had competition in the eyebrow of doom arena. Blair couldn't wait to tell him!

Blair swung round towards Christopher Argent who had walked forward to face him after a hand signal to his hunters that lowered their weapons. Blair could almost see the guy assessing and discarding his options after the one dark glare at Joel and his phone. His expression smoothed out into the façade of a concerned citizen.

Blair narrowed his eyes; they might have lowered the guns, but they were still a perfectly visible threat. He had also seen and felt the way young Hale was hanging onto that pump still in the Camaro as if it was a weapon in its own right. He directed some emotional calm towards the kid. He didn't want anyone to get caught up in a gas station inferno and the way the kid was staring at Argent and his bozos pressed all his "Danger Will Robinson" buttons that Jim insisted he didn't have. He only released Hale from his focus when he saw the kid's shoulders begin to loosen.

Argent was still a concern even though the guy didn't know yet who he was dealing with. Blair drew a deep irritated breath. He hated bullies. Suddenly Derek Hale's widening eyes were focusing more on Blair than on the thugs who had accosted him as if he knew who was the more dangerous. Interesting, Blair wondered if Hale would be amenable to a little research project to see how a werewolf's senses compared to a Sentinels. It would make a fascinating paper, even if he couldn't publish it.

"Now look we don't want any trouble. Nothing here to concern you… people, unless you don't follow the code." Argent's voice was calm and factual, despite the scorn layered over the word people, though Blair could feel the frustration and threat emanating from the guy and saw the way his hand hovered near to his holstered weapon.

Blair had to hand it to him, Argent was smooth in a no-nonsense kind of way. Even kind of hot for a muscled murderous xenophobic sociopath. Shame Karma was coming for him like a runaway freight train. Not.

Blair smiled widely, deliberately showing all his teeth, but the smile didn't reach his hard eyes. He allowed his guide aura to flare a little with his disgust at the situation and watched with delighted spite when it hit all the hunters. His lips curved just a little more when he saw Argent himself give an involuntary shudder. Good. He layered that distaste into his voice as he almost sang the words mockingly at the man. "Well, that's a shame Christopher because you have got trouble." He smirked as he watched the man stiffen in outrage and continued with wicked delight.

"My name is Blair Sandburg and you just tried to threaten the Alpha Prime Guide of North America. That live video stream is going straight to the S&G Security Council and will be shared with the Local LEOs. And by the way, my Sentinel can't wait to meet you since dear Vicky and Papa Argent are already having a nice chat with him."

That seemed to be the last straw for Argent and his Hunters. Blair saw them all start to reach for their weapons and finally he had enough of their shit. He'd already mapped the relevant brain pathways for each Hunter whilst he and Argent were talking. Multi-tasking had always been his thing. Blair struck and every hunter dropped to the ground unconscious.
Blair walked over to where Christopher Argent lay unmoving. He bent slightly towards him, absolute fury in his face. "Fuck your code Argent and fuck you."