Chapter 39:

That's The Secret... I'm Always Angry

Jesus, why did parents let kids this young fight to the death? I get it's game like but, come on. He looked desperate though. But I really wanted to take a nap…

He pouted a little bit and, yep, that was enough for me.

“Show me whose bothering you.”

The kid cheered and jumped, shaking the ground when he landed. “He likes to hang out in the rubble of that big rock.”

So much happened at that spot. But I wasn’t complaining, it meant we didn’t have far to walk. In fact, I could see it from where I stood at the cave mouth. I looked around the boy’s hulking body. There was a man perched on the biggest piece of rock, barking orders at some other people.

“That the guy, there?”

Man-Child nodded.

I walked over to him, the kid tagging along a ways behind me. The guy heard our approach and turned around, noticing the kid first.

“Oh, back for more you whiny little—“ He noticed me. Not really sure how he missed the bright pink fishbowl heading for him. Just showed how much he had it out for my kid.

“Hi!” I said, pumping up some sickly sweetness. “I heard you’re a bit of a bully. That true?”

The man sneered. “Fuck, you’re a tattle tale, too, you little shit?” Not directed at me, obviously. My oversized golden shadow slumped down, as if struck by the words.

Tattle tale though? What was this guy, five? His appearance didn’t scream five years old. He had a thin face, with absolutely no facial hair except on his chin, into the shape of a sort of arrow, pointing to his mouth. It seemed unintentional but looked ridiculous. He wore a thin cybernetic styled armor with oversized collars that encased his head looking like a fucking venis fly trap. Hey, that was a good line…

I motioned for the Man-Child to come closer to me. He took a knee and had to bend even further.

I whispered in his ear, “Have you tried insulting him?” The kid shook his head. “Okay, well, call him a venus fly trap head looking motherfucker at some point.”

“I can’t say that!” The kid hissed. “That’s a bad word.”

Oh yeah, Kids weren’t supposed to do that, huh? Jesus, again, where the fuck was his parents? I abandoned this strategy and turned back to the weirdo.

“How old are you, dude?”

“Classified.” He upturned his nose. Fuck was this guy ever punchable and he’d barealy said a paragraph of dialogue to me yet.

“Okay, whatever. My point is you seem too old to be picking on a damn kid. And what even is going on here, with you barking orders?”

There were three people around the dude, two guys and one chick. I remembered that Angelia said that we had access to people's names as long as they were a part of our group. I hadn't cared to know anyone's name before now so for the first time, I focused in on them, their usernames and info showing up right away.

[ Billy The Kid:

Combat Level: 4

Age: 10 ]

[ GoGoKu

Combat Level: 3

Age: 9 ]

[NotYourGirlfriend:

Combat Level: 7

Age: ?? ]

Just as I feared. They were a bunch of kids.

“W-we’re a Party.” The dude said. I realized I could see his name and focused in on him.

[ The Arrow

Combat Level: 12

Age: 28 ]

His facial hair WAS intentional. I didn’t know what to do with that information.

“What are you doing with three kids?”

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“Who are you calling a kid?” The girl said with a way too deep voice, it sounded like a middle aged lady who had been smoking half her life.

I didn’t know what to do with that information, either. I just ignored her, waiting for the Arrow guy to answer.

“We all had the auto join Party option turned on when all this started. We were complete strangers.”

“And now what are they? Your lackies? What is he having you guys do?” I walked around the big piece of rock to get a better look at what they were crouched down around.

They tried to block my view but not quick enough. It was a pile of Versecoins.

“What the hell is that? How did you get all that money?”

The boys clammed up completely but NotYourGirlfriend was more than happy to spill the beans. “We stole it all. Arrow taught us how to pick pocket.”

I rounded on the guy atop the rock, so quick and angry he backed up too fast and toppled off the rock.

“I did no such thing! Uh… they taught ME how to pick pocket. The scoundrels!”

“That’s not true!” Man-Child exclaimed. “I saw him teaching them, that’s when he started bullying me!”

Arrow leapt to his feet and pointed at the big kid. "You fucking piece of—"

I stepped in between them. "Enough. I think Man-Chi—uh, my muscled friend here has a point. You shouldn't be hanging out with these kids. You're too old."

"Not a kid," the deep-voiced girl said.

I sighed. "Okay, well, as of now, Mr. Arrow and Mr. Girlfriend, you're a Party. And you other two, team up with Man—" Fuck, what was the kid's name? I examined him... Reginald? The hell, that didn't fit at all. Whatever... "... Reginald. Sound good?"

"No!" Arrow burst out with because of course he had problems with it. "I need them! They're my lack—I mean, partners. Very irreplaceable partners."

The deep voiced girls' eyes sparkled at that but the other two just looked like they wanted to cry.

"Sorry, it isn't up to you," I said. "Come on, you guys."

They leapt into motion, gratitude clear on their faces, but Arrow held up his hand to bar them from coming over to my side. "Stay right where you fucking are."

I rolled my eyes, but no one could see it. "Dude, you're being ridiculous. Tell you what, I'll make this my own special project. I'll find you two new people to replace the kids. Some more age appropriate playmates."

He shook his head, defiant until the end. "That's a no from me."

I stepped up to him, glaring, wishing he could see my face. "I wasn't asking."

And then, completely not reading the room and to my complete astonishment, Reginald screamed, "You venus fly trap mother effer!!!"

I wanted to die. I told him to say that, I know, but I imagined him finding a less tense moment to throw it down. This was all wrong.

Arrow still glared at me, his eyes rapidly blinking as he took in what he just heard and, there it is, the immense anger bubbled up. He swatted me aside and rounded on Reginald.

"What did you say you muscled freak!?"

Compared to the venus fly trap line, his insult was toothless, almost a complement. But the kid's bravado was rapidly diminishing and he started to slink back.

I put out my energy, unnoticed by everyone, and wrapped it around the kid, holding him in place. His face went white as Arrow stomped forward, winding up a noob destroying punch.

WHAM!

His first pounded into the kid's stomach... and nothing happened. I'd put as much of my energy into the point of impact as I could. Maybe too much. Arrow's hand hadn't even made contact with Reginald's stomach, my energy acting as a thick force field.

"The fuck?" Arrow said.

I decided to add to his confusion and condensed the power, held it, and then exploded everything I had left out of it. The wave of energy slammed into Arrow's face and then his whole body and sent him careening off his feet. He slammed against the biggest piece of rock left and collapsed onto the ground.

While he was down, I motioned to Reginald and whispered, "Pick him up, threaten him." He just stared at me, stunned by what happened. "Reginald! Come on, man, this is your chance."

I gave him a little mental push and thankfully he kept moving on his own, running forward and scooping up the guy. Forgoing all speech and decency, he went full caveman with it and just roared in the guys face, spittle going everywhere, just unloading all his frustrations and disgust at the ridiculous little man.

When he was all out of energy he slammed Arrow back on the ground, and kicked him in the head, sprawling him out against the rock. Arrow started shaking, holding up both his hands.

"S-stop! I'm s-sorry! You win!" He blundered, his words turning to sobs at the end.

Reginald had been given a sliver of power and he looked ready to keep unloading it on his for. But I came up between them and calmed his attack.

"That's enough," I said to the kid, then, addressing Arrow, "So you'll leave them alone now?"

He nodded profusely.

"Good. Get out of here."

He kept sobbing and slowly got up on his feet and slunk off like the loser he was. As he passed the girl with the deep voice, he looked to her, as if expecting her to come with him.

But her eyes were sparking, her gaze locked onto Reginald. She noticed Arrow looking at her and she shooed him off. "I don't have time for losers."

Utterly defeated and emasculated, Arrow sobbed even more and scurried off to hide in a hole.

Reginald huffed and glared after him but once he'd vanished from sight, he shook himself and returned to his normal self.

"Thank you, Fishbowl! I couldn't have done it without you!" He grinned real big and slammed me on the back.

"I just gave you a push.' Almost literally. It was kind of scary just now little I did to get him going. "But everything's all good now?"

He nodded enthusiastically.

I turned to the rear of the group. "Okay, you guys stick with Reginald. I'm sure he will be a much better leader than that freak. Stay away from that guy, yeah?"

They all nodded like mad but they looked shaken and I doubted all of it was because of Arrow. Reginald really had gone like full Hulk.

Reginald gestured to his new group and they gathered around him as they walked off into the sunset. The last I saw of Reginald was the deep voiced girl linking arms with him, seeming to whisper sweet nothings to him.

I was left standing there, praying to god that didn't turn into another situation. Hopefully I'd seen the last of that weird little group.