Badass

Hello to those of you reading this. This is the 3rd instalment in the Badass series. I've focused quite a bit on Zdenek so far, but I'm still in the process of introducing other characters. However, with Zdenek being the main character, the more they're around him, the more exposure they'll have, but that might take a bit of time, so please bear with it.

This Chapter however starts with Erykah, and we see the battle and rescue from her point of view. Zdenek makes his appearance later on in the chapter.

That being said, I appreciate you taking the time to read my shit.

Enjoy.

Dionysosk.

Part 1

Erykah woke up from a fitful night of sleep. She hadn't been able to sleep properly, due to a combination of fatigue, cuts and bruises, and the lingering effects of the special drug that was used to spike her drink. Her vision was blurred at first, and slowly but surely, her vision came good. She was slightly out of it, but calmed herself, so she could recall the events of last night.

She remembered being in Aegis' regular spot, Temperance, a nightclub fairly close to the campus. The 3 main AE groups each had their own regular places to eat, and to hang out, and Temperance could be considered Aegis' HQ. So she was sitting in her regular booth, while the brothers Steve and Don were near the bar, chatting up 2 girls. Amy had been dancing alone, having fended off more than her fair share of unwanted male suitors, so she had dragged Steph to the dance floor, and forced her to dance with her. It was well known that when Amy was dancing with Stephanie, it meant that no one had a chance of even saying hello, before being shot down. Steph was her "Horny Jock Repellent". So, Erykah was sitting alone in the booth, sipping on her drink; just plain Coke. She wasn't in the mood for alcohol; as she was still thinking of ways to further increase Aegis' territory, along with go further up in the AE group standings. It was nice to be in the top 3, but she wanted Aegis to be at the summit. Her eyes were closed, as she was still deep in thought, so deep in fact, that she didn't even notice that a group of 5 men had approached her booth. When she finally did notice however, she didn't even move. She not noticing someone meant that they were not strong enough to even be acknowledged as living, breathing beings who warranted her attention. Without opening her eyes, or even facing them, she asked.

"Yes? What do you want?"

"Now is that any way to treat some someone? I just came over to pay my respects Alpha and to greet you, as I am in your house." replied the man who seemed to be the leader of the group. His voice, no matter how well he was disguising it, was dripping with disdain and it was clear he was one of those who abhorred the fact that a woman was in a position that demanded he respect her.

"Well thank you for your manners, and excuse me for my lack of them." She said, finally opening her eyes, and looking at him.

Her apology made him snort in arrogance, and a slight smirk came upon his face. "No harm done. I am the Alpha of team Gr—"

"The only reason why I was so rude is because I didn't know that you and your people were here until you had spoken to me. That is strange, as usually I can sense strong, or even competent AE users, the moment they enter this club. It must be because I was in deep thought. Again, I apologise." With that, she turned her attention away from him, and back down at the table.

That little statement made the Alpha of that group very angry, and it was very obvious that he was holding his AE power back. Rather than cause a scene, he smashed both hands on the table, the force causing her drink to spill a bit and leant in close enough to her ear, so that only she could hear him.

"You had better watch yourself Gorilla Bitch. Your arrogance will be your undoing." he brought a hand up, and tucked a stray lock of her hair behind her ear. "Don't think that as Alpha you are untouchable..."

Erykah just closed her eyes, not moving to stop him, or even flinching.

"Look here you little low class, unknown, minor AE group Alpha degenerate, you'd better move you shitty little hand before you lose it. You both underestimate my lack of respect for you, and overestimate your standing, and minor strength. If you were even slightly competent, then I would've sensed you before you entered this place. Now if you would please excuse me, I was pretty busy before you disturbed me."

With that the Alpha stood straight, growling a bit, but regaining his composure, he left. He looked back at the booth to see Erykah polishing off her coke and he smiled.

"That's it Gorilla Bitch, go on and enjoy that drink. It's the last you'll have as an Alpha." he laughed as he and his crew disappeared into the crowd.

Erykah was starting to feel hot. Her head was pounding, and she was sweating. Her vision was blurred, and she wasn't steady on her feet. She also felt nauseous. She decided that she just needed some fresh air, so she went to go find the members of The Hand to let them know. However, she felt it was best that she get out of club ASAP, so she decided to send a mass text, telling them that she went out for some fresh air. Once outside the club, she sent the message, albeit with some difficulty, as she still felt out of it. Once the message was sent, she started walking down the street. There was a cool breeze blowing, so it did her a world of good, in helping her cool down. As she kept walking, her steps became more steadied and secure, her nausea disappeared, and her vision went back to normal. She noticed she was kind of far from the club, and thought that since she was feeling better, she should head back to the club. Before she could though, her instincts told her something was wrong. Before she could react however, she felt herself flying towards a wall, but she recovered in mid air; twisting so she was facing the wall, then as her hands and feet made contact with it, she pushed off, doing a moonsault like move, and landing on her feet. She only turned her head in the direction she came from, hearing footsteps, but not seeing anyone.

"Well well, it appears that you truly are a powerful AE user." said a familiar sounding voice.

"Who are you, and why are you attacking me? Don't you know who I am?"

"Oh, I know EXACTLY who are. You are the Alpha of Aegis, the 3rd best power AE group in the city. Your well documented endurance and brute strength, along with your excellent control of your elemental power, have been the cause of Aegis' transformation from a Jock led useless group, to one of the best in the city. I know who are, and I know what you can do."

"If that's the case, then why attack me. Unless you are one of the Alphas of the Top 2, you should know you stand little, to no chance of defeating me."

"Oh, but I disagree. I think that I will beat you. I will dominate you. I will break you so badly, that you will no longer be able to lead Aegis, and then from the fear of being attacked by other groups vying for dominance, Aegis will be forced to elect new leadership, and that is where I come in, and save the day, and show how it was a mistake to let you lead. Once I take over as Alpha of Aegis, your place in the group will be to make me dinner, and keep my bed warm..." laughing sadistically after saying the last part of his little speech.

"And what makes you think you can even give me 1 scratch, let alone break me?" Erykah said sarcasm apparent in her voice. The guy started moving again and slowly emerged from the shadows.

"Because you both underestimate my strength, and overestimate your abilities" his face finally emerging from the shadows; massive and evil grin plastered across his face. Erykahs eyes widened.

"Gorilla Bitch!" with that he launched himself at Erykah with full force. She finally turned her body, and leapt towards him, looking to end this fight with one powerful blow. She cocked back her right fist, and with a slight growl, brought it forward with as much power as she could muster, without having tapped into her AE power. As her fist was on course for his face, all of a sudden, she felt all her energy seep out of her body. She was barely half way through her punching motion, when her arm dropped, and her left arm did the same, leaving her completely open. The guy just smiled as he feigned a blow but stopped his fist just in front of her nose. They both froze in this position, and then he unclenched his fist, and using his index finger, scratched her nose bridge with his nail.

"There. 1 scratch." The grin once again dominated his features, before he balled up his fist and punched her square on the cheek, sending her flying again, but this time, she couldn't recover in time, and was smashed into the wall.

"Wha... What the fuck just happened?"

"What just happened is that you were bested by your superior, that's what." He said to her while approaching her slowly.

"Shit!" she said, and then started tapping into her AE power. Her arms became huge, and longer. Thick black hair covered them, and her fingers became longer and fat as well. She had Gorilla arms, and was sure that she didn't need to tap any further into her power. She got up and started moving towards him, not yet feeling cornered, yet still wondering how he had bested her in that little exchange. She then started running, and threw a punch. This time however, her fist stayed true on its' course, but seemed to be moving much slower than it usually did, and this gave her opponent ample time to move out of the way, which he did. For what seemed like forever, she kept on swinging, throwing punches that should have been connecting, but weren't. Why was she so slow? Why was there no sharpness or ferocity in her swings? It was almost as though she was just swinging for the sake of it, and not because she was actually fighting for her life. This pissed her off, and she decided that she needed to calmly assess what going on. She was going to use as much power as she needed to win, because for some reason, speed was out of the window. She also noticed that she was pretty tired already, so waiting for him to tire out wasn't an option. She had to win this in one move, and if she didn't, she was fucked. After she came up with a course of action, she stopped her assault, and jumped back creating some space.

"What's the matter? Giving up already? Realising that it would be easier and less painful to just submit to me? I'm a forgiving man; I'd be happy t--"

"SHUT UP!!" Erykah screamed, lifting both arms up, clenching her fists

"QUAKE; Richter level FOUR!" and with that, she brought both fists down, and they smashed the ground, causing a violent earthquake to erupt, destroying the pavement below the feet, and causing her opponent to lose his footing. This was the chance she wanted to create. Seeing as Quake was her technique, she knew how to move and not be impeded by it. With speed, she made her way towards him, before getting him with a combination: two blows to the gut, causing him to double over. She then dropped to one knee, crashing a palm on each of his temples, disorientating him, and then she drove her fist into his chin with an uppercut, sending him flying into the air. Then, as he was flying upwards, she tapped into her AE power, and more hair started to spread over her body and face. She pushed off the ground, flying upwards, and was soon directly across from him. She then gently put both hands on his chest, still tapping into more power, she then started focusing, and jets of water suddenly started swirling around both her arms. She knew that she had to finish him off with this move, so she aimed to put as much power as she could into it. More and more jets water started to emerge around her arms, and they were also growing in size, and velocity. She looked her opponent in the eyes, ready to activate her technique.

"Hydro Erup—AAAAAAAARRRGGHHHH"

He smiled, as this is what he had been waiting for. The drug that he had slipped into her drink was for this purpose, sealing not only her physical strength, but also her use of her elemental powers, which were known to be extremely powerful, and devastating. He watched as she jerked backwards, and the water around her arms spray everywhere. He then gripped her arms, swung her around, and threw her towards the ground. She hit the ground with such force, that it created a crater. She didn't understand what was happening. She couldn't tap into more than 40% of her AE power, and she couldn't even use her elemental power either. She realised that she had no time to be lost in thought, and good thing as well, because as she jumped out of the crater, his foot pierced the spot her body just vacated, leaving a hole inside the larger hole.

From that point however, it became a game of cat and mouse. She would try and evade his attacks long enough to create an opening, but she was exhausted, though she still couldn't understand why. She'd try creating more opportunities using Quake, but he saw through those attempts. Slowly but surely, he was landing more blows at regular intervals. He had already activated some of his AE power, and his arms were muscled and hairy. She would try in vain to tap into her AE power, but again, she would be blocked. She didn't even try using her elemental powers, as she learnt from the first failure that they were out of the equation. She found herself hiding in a building that had been vacated during the early stages of the fight. It was a small one, but she thought it offered enough cover, and that it would buy her enough time to come up with a strategy. However, she was wrong. He had already anticipated her hiding in there, and silently followed her in.

"So this is where you decided to hide huh?" He said emerging from the shadows. She stood up, very gingerly, and struggled to stay on her feet. She put her guard up, and was prepared for another round, although she already knew it was futile.

"Like I said earlier, I am a forgiving man. Just submit to me, and agree to hand over control of Aegis, agreeing to be my personal slave." He said licking his lips.

"Oh, and by the way, my name is—"He was interrupted as she spat on him, right in the face. It was a mixture of spit and blood. He didn't even move to wipe it off; he just closed his eyes, rage apparent.

"I don't need to hear your name, you wad of rotting smegma. You're not important enough for me to hear your name. You're nothing but—OOOFFF!!" she cried as she was punched in the gut, the given an uppercut. As she flew upwards, he grabbed her by the ankle, and smashed her front first into the ground, not relinquishing his grasp on her ankle. He proceeded to smash her into every surface in that building, and every wall crumbled and broke because of the sheer force with which she was smashed into them. When finally let go of her ankle, he grabbed her by the back of the head, dug her face into the ground, and ran, with her face digging into the floor tiles, leaving a trail engraved in the floor. After doing this for a good few meters, he threw her into a section of wall that wasn't wrecked. As she lay there, he mounted her, and began to pound mercilessly on her face with both fists.

Left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right.

The sickening sound of her face being smashed repeatedly echoed in the empty building. The more he punched her, the faster he punched, and with more velocity. Blood from her face was all over his fists, and some was spraying onto his face. He eventually got up, and gripped the top of her head, lifting her up and looking at her limp figure, dangling from his hand.

"How could you be the Alpha of Aegis?" he asked with pure disgust in his voice, and then proceeded to throw her through the wall outside, and she landed across the street, in an alley. Erykah shifted on her elbows, moving until she was sitting, with her back against the wall. She was barely conscious, with blood all over her rapidly swelling face. She had to know though. As the guy approached her, she asked him breathlessly.

"H-how?"

"You were careless, you stupid Gorilla bitch. Assuming; that every drink that was given to you was only handled by the members of your 'Hand', stupid whore. That carelessness has led you to the situation you are now facing. Your drink was spiked, greatly reducing not only your current strength, but also how much of your AE power you are able to draw out, and also restricting your use of you element, making you an incredibly easy target." Her head dropped. This was all her own doing. Had she been a lot more cautious, and less arrogant, this could have been avoided.

"I don't care who your father is, or how strong you are. It is NOT a womans' place to be an Alpha, and I am going to prove this; by completely destroying you bitch."

Erykah, amongst all this, heard the fluttering of a flailing coat. Coat? Her opponent wasn't wearing a coat. She looked up, only to see this coat flash in front of her, and then in front of the guy she was fighting.

"Now prepare to be---GRORRF"

It appeared as the coat had kicked her opponent in the face, sending him flying backwards. The coat turned and looked towards her, and then she realised that it wasn't a coat, but a man in a coat. This shouldn't have surprised her, but it did. This guy was tall, but she couldn't see much in the dark. She saw that he had long silver hair, which covered and hid his face, only showing his mouth. He looked back at his opponent, and then back at her. Still slightly disappointed that she wasn't being rescued by a magic coat, she heard the man speak.

"At your current strength level, there are two ways for you to defeat the power AE user you have been fighting."

'My level?!' She thought. 'I've been drugged asswhipe!'

"Who the fuck are you?!" She heard that guy screaming as he approached the silver haired man. The silver guy, however, completely ignored him, and kept on speaking

"The first; although you failed at it dismally, it to hit him, without getting hit"

At that point; she watched him easily dodge the first blow, and slide skilfully away, striking a fighting pose. She then watched exchange between the two. Silver guy was easily evading all of his blows, which were raining at quite a speed. He wasn't even blocking, just dodging, so his guard wasn't needed. Eventually, silver guy got a blow in. He feigned a second causing her attacker to shield himself, only the blow never came. He looked into condescending eyes, and this threw him into a rage. However, this did nothing silver guy, who continued his exhibition of skill.

'It's like watching a boxing match between an in fighter who lacks skill, but has bags of endurance, and an out fighter, who although doesn't have as much power, just has too much talent for his opponent.' She thought to herself.

Eventually, her attacker got so pissed off; he tapped into his AE power. He let out a wail, as his arms grew even more muscled and a lot more fur. Plates of some kind of hard substance grew on his fingers that almost covered then in a sort of armour. When he balled his fists, it was clear that they looked like hooves. He grew two horns, which came out of his forehead, and curved like a Buffalos. His Mouth from the nose down also morphed into that of a Buffalo, and he let out a Buffalo like cry, that caused a shockwave to spread out, hurling broken bricks and bits of shrapnel around everywhere. This guy, was a lower C class power AE user, but was still strong

Erykah was stunned. How could she have not noticed someone this strong approach her in the club? Her mouth gaped open, and Silver guy looked at her again.

"What I just demonstrated was the first way to beat him. The second way is—"

Silver guy bent his knees, and bent his arms up, so his fists were at chin height, and started letting out a low scream. All of a sudden, the ground beneath his feet cracked and dipped, as the force of that caused a gust of wind to blow in all directions. Silver guy let out a final hiss, and a purple fireball came out, but disappeared as quickly as it formed. Thanks to the fireball, Erykah was able to see him properly. Long and pointy ears poked through the veil of his hair. His canines were long. His hands had black claws for nails. He also had a long tail, with a large bushy tip, and it was blue. His tail was blue. The wind died down, and he straightened to his full height, looking at Erykah