Nebulous Emperor

Nave reached the end of the day and walked out of his office. Just as Rahesh was about to leave with his fellow gang members.

Rahesh watched him approach.

"Meet me at the bar... after you change."

Later that day, Nave showed up at Mcclarens wearing an outfit similar to the one he had on last night.

He entered and saw Rahesh hanging around the bar with a few other guys.

"He's finally here; let's get to the office."

They all walked down the hallways into the back office. Rahesh took a seat behind the desk, joining his hands with his usual deadpan expression on his face. Everyone else stood around the room in distinct positions.

Nave stood in the middle of the room, looking around at the other people. He recognized one of them.

'That's one of the guys who caught me in this office.'

Nave understood that this could get complicated.

Everyone stood around patiently waiting for Rahesh to start speaking.

"I need you guys to do something for me," he started. "There's a little shop that doesn't seem fond of our generous offer of protection. I need you to help me change the owner's mind."

The men looked around at each other and then at Rahesh and nodded their heads.

No one said anything else. No one asked for anymore information about making this store and its owner suffer. But there was a nervousness in the air emanated by everybody besides Rahesh and Kendrick.

Nave looked around. 'Almost everyone here is a newbie like me.'

Rahesh finished.

"Kendrick, you're the most senior, and you know what's going on; you take point."

A dark-skinned man with cornrows nodded his head, one of the men who caught Nave in the same office he was standing in.

Rahesh waved his hand, and all the men left the bar and walked to the location of the shop, on the nice part of town.

It had a glass front that displayed canopies, tents, and large umbrellas.

The group of men walked into the store and saw an elderly man counting his cash and seemingly preparing to close the store.

"How are you doing?" The old man said in a cheery but tired voice while not looking up from his money.

No one responded as they all neared the counter with Kendrick at the lead.

The man gazed up and saw a group of men wearing all black. He dropped his money and backed away fearfully, as fast as he could.

Kendrick picked up the scattered cash and started counting out loud.

After a few seconds, he said, "Not bad, but nowhere near enough for us to stick our necks for ya. What are you gonna do about it?"

"I already told you no." The old man mustered as much confidence as he possibly could.

"Yeah, I know. But what if something bad happens? Stress is bad for you, especially at your age."

He put the cash in his pocket and looked around the room.

"Let me show you."

Kendrick walked around perusing through the store's many options for items that provide shade.

He stopped once he found something that caught his eye. It was a beautiful blue and green gazebo that looked like someone put their heart and soul into it's creation.

The man started sweating.

"Not a bad price tag," Kendrick said.

A knife was pulled out of his pocket and he ran the flat edge of it along the gazebo.

Just as Kendrick pulled his arm back to prepare to launch his blade into it, a boy walked into the room.

He was at most 13 years old.

Nave spotted the boy.

'This situation just got so much worse.'

Kendrick looked at the man closest to him.

"Grab him."

The boy quickly turned away to try to run back where he came from. Before he could make it, he was grabbed and dragged in front of everyone.

The tension in the atmosphere instantly constricted like a python.

Kendrick started, "Mr. Smith, you are in luck. This situation just got so much simpler. Now we've tried to convince you multiple times, and you don't seem to listen to our words, but I wonder if you'll listen to his screams."

Tears streaked down the man's face as he realized he didn't have a choice but to lay down and take whatever these men wanted, lest his grandson get hurt because of him.

"Now I'm too old to lay my hands on kids."

Kendrick looked over at Nave and smiled.

"Nave, come here."

'This guy likes to be dramatic.' Nave thought.

He stopped leaning against one of the tables connected to a large umbrella and walked over.

He grabbed the boy from the other gang member and stood behind him.

"So do we have a deal, Mr. Smith?"

"Yes... just don't hurt him, please!" Mr. Smith said between sobs.

"See, it wasn't that hard; everyone can go home and get a good night of sleep."

The atmosphere immediately became untense.

Nave had a feeling that he wasn't going to actually hurt anybody once he saw the boy, just use him to intimidate. But he wasn't sure until now. He let out a sigh of relief when it came true.

All of the gang members seemed to.

"But I can't."

Everyone's necks snapped toward Kendrick.

"I have to make sure the job gets done. It's hard to trust when you've been in a gang for so long, so I have to make sure you don't change your mind."

He turned his head and looked at the boy with a sadistic darkness in his eyes.

"Make him scream, Nave."

Everybody paused and looked at Nave with bated breaths.

Nave felt their gazes land upon them and quickly reached a conclusion in his head.

His hands tensed on the boy's shoulder, and he tossed him against the wooden counter.

"Ahhh!" The boy screamed.

"STOP!" Mr. Smith screamed.

Nave neared the boy with a calm and serious expression on his face, grabbed him by his shirt, and pulled his fist back. Everyone watched seriously, waiting for it to play out, and Kendrick looked with an excited smile.

Nave's fist flew towards the boy's face.

Just before it made contact, it stopped.

"No."

Kendrick's smile faded.

"What do you mean 'no'?"

Nave threw the boy to the side, walked straight towards Kendrick, and stood right in front of his face, staring into his eyes.

"No."

Kendrick's fist rose rapidly, aiming for Nave's chin. Nave leaned back just in time to avoid something that would have destroyed his jaw.

He stumbled backwards and caught his balance before remembering how to defend against punches. His arms rose as he scrambled together a messy guard.

'This is gonna hurt.'

Kendrick put his fist up and got closer to Nave.

All the other people in the room watched with with curious eyes.

'Okay, quick, what will I do?' Nave questioned.

This wouldn't be the same as the previous fight.

Daniel was a guy who stood outside a bar with a bunch of guys whose pants hung below their butts.

Kendrick was an assistant to one of the movers of one of the most prominent gangs in the entire town.

This guy had been apart of the gang for a long time, and that means, 'I'm gonna lose unless I do something.'

The first punch was sent out, and Nave knew when it arrived; his unborn kids probably knew it arrived.

Nave felt like he was going to topple over and hit the ground, but he somehow managed to stay on his feet and create a bunch of space to buy himself more time.

'Okay, I don't want to resort to magic yet; there's a lot of people here. Let's try what worked last time.'

Even if he was a different breed, he could still be surprised.

Nave stood strong and bravely walked towards Kendrick.

No words were shared between anyone. Only looks.

Mr. Smith and his grandson were tucked behind the counter, watching.

They got closer to each other, almost as close as they did when the first punch was thrown.

Nave couldn't afford to take damage until Kendrick's hand dropped. That probably wouldn't happen with his experience, and he couldn't stand too many of this guy's punches either. He was still hurt from last night.

So he had to do this quickly.

He saw a loose and wide hook, just like last night, coming to his left side and got uncomfortably close to him and sent an equally uncomfortable punch towards his nose.

The difference was, his hand wasn't down, and there was no look of shock on his face.

Nave's fist hit Kendrick's hand pathetically, barely making it move, and Kendrick's fist that was sent flying toward him previously had changed course straight toward Nave's ribs.

The hit felt like a boulder pressing against his bones.

Nave had never felt pain like that before; he purposefully backed away after the hit, with his arm pressed against his side.

'I am never doing that again.'

He saw Kendrick coming closer.

'Magic time!'

He looked for the doorway that the boy had appeared out of; unfortunately, that doorway was positioned behind the imminent threat.

'Damn it!'

Nave wanted to retreat into the doorway and lure Kendrick into it to use his magic discretely.

Nave didn't really have a reason to not openly display his magic, besides the fact that his mother didn't do it. He didn't know the exact reason, but whatever it was, he didn't plan on changing his mind soon.

Nave used his eyes to look around the room; it wasn't wide enough to cleanly get around Kendrick, especially with all the people around.

Those same people hadn't found it necessary to intervene in the fight; they actually looked excited.

Nave noted this and continued on with looking around. He got an idea and quickly turned around. He sprinted back toward the table he had leaned against previously. It was a round table with a huge black umbrella sticking out of the middle of it. The umbrella was open for display.

Nave gripped the edge of the table and pulled upwards and towards himself, toppling the table and leaving the open umbrella to face Kendrick. He dropped behind it.

Kendrick's hands dropped slightly as he looked at the umbrella. No longer able to see Nave behind it, he wondered what Nave's plan was.

Everyone else did the same.