Cannon, Tay, and Hoodie stand back to back to back. The former two stand shoulder to shoulder, but they give Hoodie a bit of a wide berth so they don’t need to add nausea to the list of problems they need to deal with. May, who is directly opposite Tay, still spins her meteor hammer just as rapidly as before, but the look of devilish confidence has retreated a bit from her face. She’s never seen Morgan or Daisy in her life (well, she has seen Morgan, but it was a long time ago), so she’s not really sure what to expect from these two new potential combatants. While she tries to think of the right question to ask, or the right persuasive statement to make, Cannon steps in for her.

“Hey, Wahden, any pahticulah reason you brought that kid from the bah heah to watch you help us kick some Maraudah ass?”

Morgan, who up until this point wore a spiky grimace, now cocks an eyebrow in confusion. “What?” He looks at Tay. “What did he say?”

“I said, any pahticulah reason you--”

“What are you doing here with her,” Hoodie translates, pointing to Daisy with a sleeve-obscured finger.

Morgan tosses his confused glance over to Hoodie. “Why did every weird out of towner pick tonight to come to my city? Who the hell are you?”

“Good fuckin’ luck gettin’ that one outtah her, I’ve been askin’ that since we met. So come on, Wahden, for real, what’s Montego doin’ heah with you? Remembah that little talk we had? Wheah you said you’d give us ouah freedom if we deal with the Montego kid for ya?”

Morgan’s eyes go wide. Anger surges up into his cheeks. Daisy raises her eyebrows and gives him a hard nudge in the small of his back. “Oh did you now?”

“Yeah, we did,” Cannon says, crossing his arms on the end of his lacrosse stick and resting his head on them. “Told him I had so much fun kickin’ youah ass the the first time, I just couldn’t wait to do it again.”

The massive woman frowns. “Oh did you now?”

“Yeah, did I now.”

Daisy snorts up a snot rocket and spits it on the ground next to Morgan’s feet. “I was ten beers deep last time, and I was going easy.” She draws her hand across her eye patch, reminiscing on the horrible pain of having Cannon excavate her eye socket with a dirty lacrosse stick. “I won’t be going easy again.”

“Easy shmeasy, I beat you fair and squah.” Cannon smirks, enjoying the ever changing tapestry of bulging veins dancing across Daisy’s forehead.

Daisy makes a noise similar to that of a barking dog. “You’re so fucking dead, pipsqueak. Me and my little pet will see to that.” She pats Morgan on the shoulder, then tousles his hair. “Isn’t that right, boy?”

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Morgan grunts. The dance of the sugar plum forehead veins has migrated to the Warden Morgan stage. He’s so visibly beyond pissed that it’s palpable, but he doesn’t move. He just stands there, clenching the ever loving shit out of his keyring.

“Morgan,” Tay says, not willing to look over her shoulder to look him in the eye. She’s paying attention to the conversation happening behind her, but she doesn’t dare look away from May. May, now starting to put some of the pieces together in her mind, is smirking again. “You’re not really going to fight us, are you?”

The Warden chews on the inside of his cheek. “Got no choice.”

“Got no choice?” Cannon shouts. He hoists his lacrosse stick up in front of him, ready for the fight that he can smell is coming. “You always got a fuckin’ choice, kid. Plus, you literally said that--”

“Circumstances have changed,” Morgan grunts.

Cannon shakes around like a bobble head. “Circumstances have changed. Yeah, whatevah. You’ah just a spineless little sad sack, you know that? And you, Montego, you’ah dirty as hell. Not just cause you smell like in the inside of an asscheek, but it’s goddamn dirty bringin’ moah people into the fight. Tell youah little lapdog Moahgan to sit this one out so we can have an even fight, three on three.”

His words, loud as they are in the traditional Cannon style, echo around the stone walls of the chapel. Everyone else looks at each other, slightly confused.

Tay speaks up. “Did you just say you want Morgan to sit out to make it even?”

Cannon nods. “Yeah, three on three. No faiah that we keep on havin’ to fight against highah numbahs.”

Daisy starts to count on her fingers, very visibly shaken by the stupidity clogging up the air. “It’s already three on three.”

“Huh?”

“It’s already three on three?”

“What kinda weiahd ass mind games ah you tryin’ to play, Montego?”

Tay says, “Cannon, what? No, she’s right. It’s three on three right now, including Morgan.”

He whips around to look at her, but she’s still glued to May. “What?”

“Three of them, three of us.”

“Wha, right now?”

“Yeah buddy,” Lex calls out from the far other end of the chapel. “Hey, Lex here, still here, still kidnapped. Yeah, so, there’s May, Daisy, and Morgan on the bad guy’s team, then on your team it’s Tay, Hoodie, and you. Did you maybe forget to count yourself? I know it can be tricky.”

Daisy says, “If anything, you guys have one more person because of that kid.”

“Quiet! Shut up! Would you shut up for a fuckin’ second? Can’t think straight ‘cause you smell like a sahdine threw up on an anchovy.” Cannons gears are just spinning wildly off their axles as he tries to compute the unsolvable problem of does three equal three. There’s two of them, then one more of them, and two of us, then-- wait, no, how many of them? Two, and three, and, no, nevermind, fuck this, fuck math, math is stupid let’s just fucking go already. That’s not me saying it, just for the record, that’s Cannon. See?

“Fuck this, fuck math, math is stupid, let’s just fuckin’ go already.” Without hesitation, he slings a lacrosse ball at Daisy. Morgan lashes his keyring out and manages to not only stop it mid flight, but to wrap the lanyard around it and whip it back towards Cannon. Without anyone to play/practice with over the years, Cannon isn’t great at actually catching things with his lacrosse stick, but he manages anyway. “Seriously, dude, would you just stand the fuck down or come back to ouah side already?”

Morgan fumes, but stays silent. Instead, May is the one to talk, having finally taken in enough information to formulate something to say. “Let me just see if I have this all figured out. You, you’re a Montego?” Daisy nods. “And that man with all the keys, he’s your little pet monkey?” Daisy nods again, this time with a bit of a smile. “And you want to kill the boy in the silly armor?” Another nod, this time accompanied by a snarl. “Lovely. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Daisy nods a final time. She understands, as they all do now, what everyone is in for. The stage is set. Warden Morgan, Daisy Montego, and May the Marauder surround Tay the ex-Marauder, Cannon the pizza boy, and Hoodie the weirdo mystery stranger. Lex, still hog tied on the far side of the room, can only watch. He does so with horror, knowing that the outcome of this fight could determine the course of his life. He does so with fear, knowing that the fate of the entire town could very well be decided in this room. Most importantly, though, he does so with wild anticipation, knowing that, no matter what happens, this is gonna be really fucking fun to watch.