Alkalians (32 page)

Sean answers, “Yes, that’s correct.
And, uh, speaking of him…”

Matt cuts him off when he asks, “And
Dante, does he have his own vanguards that do dirty work for
him?”

Dante nods and replies, “Yes, but not
as many as the other boss students. Just a few lackeys and such, or
whatever woman he’s currently dating. Why do you need to know
that?”

Matt sighs, clasps his fingers
together, and says, “I’d better explain, so listen closely. I don’t
want to repeat myself.” He tells them about what James told him and
Rose and what had happened up to now, leaving out the battle and
substituting it with a heated argument.

Sean is shocked and can’t get over it,
but Dante begins to understand. He says, “So what do you plan on
doing now? I wouldn’t worry about dealing with James anymore, Sean
and I took care of him.”

Matt nods before explaining, “I have a
hunch that he was acting for Cain, who must have masterminded
turning Rose and I against each other. This was probably his
attempt at degrading me, he was hoping I would go and do something
terrible and get myself into big trouble. Fortunately, Rose and I
were able to not go that far. But now, I want to return the favor.
If he thinks he can toy and play with other people’s emotions,
especially me and Rose’s, I would have him see he is greatly
mistaken.”

Sean and Dante understand what he
wants to do, and are suddenly eager to cooperate. Sean asks with a
smirk as he cracks his knuckles, “So, how are we gonna trash
him?”

Matt nods to Sean, but asks Dante, “If
you see any of Cain’s henchmen, do you think you could trim them up
in regards from me?”

“
Of course,” he replies,
his golden eyes twinkling.

“
And Sean, you’ve got a
knack for conversation, right? How about tarnishing Cain’s name to
everyone you can?”

“
Oh sure, I can do that,”
he replies with a grin. “And besides, now I can defend myself from
whoever tries shutting me up!”

“
True.” Matt leans back in
the couch, but keeps his determination on. “Finally, all of us, you
two, your pals, me, and Rose, have to start fighting and winning
more battles in my support. I think the best place to do that would
be the pit arena at the casino, so we could also win much of the
money and take that away from Cain. If he thinks he can outwit and
overwhelm me, I’ll prove him wrong. Our demonstrations are going to
take the student community by storm, and we’re going to break it
upon Cain and his allies.”

Impressed by his plan, Dante says,
“Not bad, Matt. I couldn’t have thought of that better myself. Do
you mind me asking how you came up with it, with you being new to
all this?”

Smirking, Matt replies in a calm tone,
“It’s simple, Dante. My parents didn’t just teach me how to fight
my battles, but also how to pick them. I took what I’ve recently
learned here, and used it to create a strategy for us to teach Cain
a very important lesson. The bigger you are, the harder you
fall!”

***

“
ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING
ME!? THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!!” Cain’s fists slam the table before him in
his dark-lit room, an infuriated look in his eyes as he glares
between the other three in the room, James, the man known as
Buster, and a woman. “It’s impossible that Matt Calamos, the Dark
Warrior, could have
lost
that fight!” He begins pacing back and forth,
muttering things under his breath as he tries to understand how his
plan had gone wrong. He then whirls on the woman, demanding, “Why
didn’t you shoot that broad Rose sooner!?”

Grimacing, the woman waves back her
long hair, explaining, “Well, it wouldn’t have made sense to shoot
her when she was still in morph. And by the time she was weak
enough, it was clear that Matt was already unable to shoot her. A
witness, especially herself, would know that Matt had not shot her,
so it would have been a pointless shot.”

“
No, no, Irene, you stupid
bitch! If somebody had seen what had happened, a simple paying-off
could have convinced them that Matt had shot her!” Not admitting it
would be impossible to pay off Rose if she was the only witness,
since she would have been the one shot, he turns on James, saying,
“Okay, you’re going to dig up some dirt on Sean, and then you’re
going to…”

“
Forget it, Cain,” James
interrupts him. “I am stepping out of this before it gets any
messier. And besides, Sean and Dante now have dirt on me. I
couldn’t continue cooperating even if I wanted to, for my own sake
and the stability of the community.”

The look on his face and the sporadic
movement of his fingers is a clear sign Cain was about to explode
at James, but he manages to calm himself down, slightly, before
turning to Buster instead. “You, Buster. You’re from Riaquen,
right? Talk to Rose, get to know her. Turn her against Matt, even
if you have to order her to do it. Got it?”

Buster shrugs and replies, “Yeah,
sure. I’ll talk to her.”

“
Good, good. There may
still be a chance, then, despite
some
people around here
screwing
us over!” As he
screeches out the emphasized words, he then stomps pass the table
to the other end of the room, stating, “I’m heading to the casino.
I’d better not hear any more bad news tonight, from
any
of you!” He goes to
the door and exits the room, slamming it closed behind
him.

After they watch Cain leave, the three
look back to each other before Buster says, “He’s losing his mind.
I tell you, the guy’s got a mental problem or something, becoming
so obsessed with trying to make one kid’s life hell.”

“
Well, one could say it’s
better than doing nothing around here,” Irene comments. “I’m all
for it, this place has needed some kind of excitement besides boss
students and their turf wars.”

“
You just don’t care about
anything, do you, Irene?” James glowers at her, explaining, “If
Cain is becoming this unreasonable and insane, he’s not only a
threat to himself, but to anyone close to him. I’m his own cousin,
but even I can’t make him out anymore. If he keeps going like this,
it’s going to blow up in his face and take out everything around
him. If you had any sense for your own well being, you’d get out
while you can, as well.”

Looking back at him, Irene smirks
before saying, “Since when have you ever been concerned for my
well-being, James? Besides when you were taking my clothes off? I
can make my own choices around here, and I can take a chance on
where this thing between Cain and Matt goes. After all, the show
must go on, right?”

While James puts a palm to his face,
Buster asks, “And how are you going to explain you going turncoat
to Cynthia, once she recovers from her fever and leaves the
infirmary?”

Shrugging, Irene says, “Oh, I’ll just
say it was temporary, and then I’ll help her to, heh, forget about
it.” A sly smile crosses her lips at the thought of it.

James shakes his head before walking
to the door. “Yes, well, I’m out of here. I don’t know, nor care,
what you two do, but take my advice, if you will, and take no
further part in Cain’s plots. It could cost you dearly.” He opens
the door and leaves the two behind in the room.

Looking back to her, Buster tells
Irene as he rises from his chair, “Yeah, I’ll be going, too. Have a
good evening, Miss Goros.” After a polite nod, he exits the room,
leaving her alone in it.

Fully aware that the men became
uncomfortable in her presence and wanted to get lost fast, Irene
doesn’t care. After all, she likes people becoming uncomfortable
around her. Strolling over to Cain’s chair, she sits down in it,
placing her feet on the table as she leans back, blissful as she
anticipates her next encounter with her ex-boss, twirling her long
hair around her finger as she licks her lips. Another moment goes
by with her thoughts to herself before a strange look comes over
her, she kicks back from the table, and stands up to unzip and pull
down her pants.

***

Later that night, Dante takes the
initiative to begin what had been discussed with Matt. He and four
other men huddle in a spot behind the casino, yards away from the
river flowing nearby. The four men, about the same age as him, each
dressed in leather suits like him that are colored grey, white,
red, and yellow respectively, have positioned themselves to look in
all directions around Dante, standing in the center of the group
and smoking. Some time has passed before the gray-coated man looks
over his shoulder to Dante and asks him, “Are you sure we’re going
to meet them here?”

“
Absolutely, Giovanni. We
won’t have to wait much longer, either. This is the time they
usually show up.”

The red-coated man asks, “And we won’t
have to worry about actual officers among them, right?”

“
Correct, Paul. This is
where they come to get away from the other officers.” Taking out
the cigarette to exhale a puff of smoke, Dante puts it back in his
mouth as the yellow-coated man announces, “They’re
here.”

All of them turn to look, and they see
another group of men approaching them from around the corner of the
casino. They are twice the size of Dante’s group, and all of them
are dressed in fine tuxedo suits and wearing sunglasses. At first,
they don’t notice Dante’s group, some of them displaying drunken
behavior as they come closer, but the lead man soon sees them,
holding out his arms to stop his fellow officers. He takes a step
forward, removes his glasses to reveal he was Tony, and asks with
authority, “Who are you, and what are you doing out
here?”

Their only response is to keep glaring
at Tony for a moment before Dante’s friends step aside to allow
Dante himself to walk forward. While he discards his cigarette and
stomps it out, the officers behind Tony recognize who he is, the
drunk ones mumbling angry words. Dante says to Tony, “I, Dante
Goros, and my compatriots from Saratu, Giovanni, Leonardo, Paul,
and Raphael, have a petition for your boss, Cain
Incarein.”

Snuffing, Tony remarks, “Oh, really?
And what would this petition be?”

Placing his hands in his jacket’s
pockets, Dante declares, “We would like him to endorse to you, his
subordinates who serve as student casino guards, to lessen your
strict policies upon the other students who come to the
casino.”

Holding back laughter, Tony smirks and
replies, “I’m sorry, but Cain doesn’t have the time to hear
petitions that are so trivial. Plus, we do our job just fine. We
don’t need to change what’s been working for years.”

Sighing, Dante says, “I was afraid you
would say that. Very well. Now, I, Dante Goros, and his compatriots
have a message for you, the subordinates of Cain Incarein serving
as casino guards.”

Narrowing his eyes back at him, Tony
gestures to the men behind him to be ready while asking, “And
what’s that?”

His partners stepping forward to flank
him on both sides, Dante declares, “Our message is this. As long as
we are around the casino, you will be removed from your jobs and
sent to the infirmary.”

Stunned by the threat, along with the
officers behind him, Tony responds, “Are you actually threatening
us, your fellow students who do an honest service for the
community? You are either misguided vigilantes, or just plain
idiots. Such behavior cannot be ignored, and people who present
this behavior are hazardous to those around them.” Giving the
signal, he and the rest of the officers morph, adding promptly, “We
will now ask you to leave the casino area immediately, or
else.”

“…
You had your chance to
run away. Now, we won’t let you leave this place conscious.”
Raising his right hand above his head, Dante snaps his fingers, the
signal for his partners and him to morph.

Coming right out of their morphs,
Dante’s associates attack Tony and the other security officers.
Paul becomes a Gunner with red armor, turns his left arm into a
light-machine-gun, and open fires upon the group, his bullets
stinging or piercing many of them and causing the drunk ones to
stumble in their scattering. Giovanni becomes a large, gray Beast,
Machine Cat style, and levels the double-barreled cannon set on his
back and fires a round into two Swordsmen and a Shotgun Gunner,
throwing them in three different directions from the
blast.

The white-coated man changes into a
warrior with white armor and two arm blades of energy, rushing
forward and shoving one of his blades into a Magician before
turning to slash a nearby Spearman with the other. And the
yellow-coated man transforms into a yellow armored warrior, jumps
high into the air, and comes crashing down on a hound-like Dog,
crushing him with a sledgehammer whose head is nearly as big as his
own torso.

Unlike his compatriots, Dante himself
has not taken part in the action, nor moved from his spot. Instead,
he simply watches the chaos, waiting for something. He is yet
watching the battle when, from behind him, a brown clone of a
Zombie appears out of the ground.

Before the clone can claw at him,
Dante draws his katana from his left hand, turns, and splits it in
a diagonal cut. After destroying the clone, he glances around to
find a whole group of clones surrounding him, slowly walking
towards him with their arms reaching out for him. Over the next few
seconds, he simply waves his sword to hack down every clone that
gets close to him in quick order.