Chapter Nine - Rough Housing

In their living room, Daimian still sat on the couch as Faith lounged in her recliner, napping with a pair of headphones on her ears.

Thoomp

Daimian's eyes looked up from the words on his comic’s pages. He looked back down at the floor, hearing little crashes a few floors below him. Getting up and putting his comic on the coffee table with a stack of others, he sped to his room while his mother peeked her eyes up before shrugging and burying her head back into her pillow. The door of his room laid open as Daimian pulled out the black trunk back from under his bed and grabbed his suit. "I have no idea what that noise was, but it couldn't have been anything good."

Sneaking out of the door with his suit somewhat showing under a long coat he was wearing, he turned to rush down the stairs before throwing the coat down and putting on his mask under the shadow of a stairway corner. After he put everything he needed on, he turned around to walk to the floor he thought he heard the noises from. Just then, a small shriek was made from where he was going before another person shushed their deafening cries.

"Just be quite, please. This will all be over soon," a muffled voice spoke.

Daimian turned the corner and noticed the door of Chell's apartment had a jagged hole in the center of it. "Oh boy," he told himself as he poked his head through the center of the hole, looking at all of the pointed edges it featured. Hearing a whimper, he looked up to see a massive figure holding one of the former students by the collar of their shirt. "Oh hell nah, not this again."

Killy's goggles gleamed off of the blinding party lights around the room, accentuating his body in a colored mass of hues both light and dark. Dropping the kid, showcasing to Daimian the blood dripping down his nose and ears, he walked over towards the door slowly. "You shouldn't be here," he snarled in a low voice.

"Back so soon," Daimian asked as he started inching through the door hole, looking at Killy from across the room while their distance grew shorter. He looked down at his feet, noticing a glass bottle of vodka rolling around the floor, picking it up and lightly tossing it around in his hand. He forcefully gripped the thin neck of the it and swung his arm at Killy's head. "You know, I was really starting to miss ya, buddy!"

Just before the bottle could touch him, Killy was able to grab Daimian's arm with his metal fist, clenching it tightly. "Oh," Daimian let out as he felt his hand drop the bottle, hearing it crash into the carpeted floor. Killy grabbed the rest of Daimian's body and picked him up before-

THUD!

Daimian felt himself fly through the pointed hole in the doorway before hitting the hallway with his back, creating a little dent in the wall. He could feel himself fading a bit as Killy started to walk closer to him. The man in the metal gloves noticed one of the people filming him with their phone before smashing it, along with their hand, with his just two of his fingers.

"Hey kid," a voice looking down yelled as Daimian. "Come on, let's go." Nino Man loomed over Daimian as he tried to pull himself up from the ground, bapping his head in an attempt to wake him further. "You gotta get up, man. We got a bad guy to catch." He stood up and pointed back at Killy, who'd seemingly halted in the man's presence.

"How's it looking in there," Daimian asked as he used the stair's guard rails to get up, Nino Man not seeming to care too much about helping him stand up.

"Not too sure about that," Nino Man walked over to the door, staring Killy deep into his goggles. "He doesn't seem to have hurt anybody just yet, so that's good." Almost as soon as he finished speaking, he nodded his head down to see a young man's arm being gripped by Killy's massive gloves. He tightened his grip on the arm, causing the man to painfully shriek.

"You had to say something, huh?" Daimian frantically rushed past Nino Man, who was still standing in front of the broken door frame.

"Shut up, you little shit," Nino Man muttered under his breath so only he could hear it. Before the two could continue into the room, they stopped in their tracks. "Ah god dammit, big guy-"

They watched as Killy lifted the young man by the back of his shirt with a pale arm and a slightly broken nose. "Well then, isn't this something?"

"What's this guy's deal," Daimian asked as he peaked over at Nino Man, who calmly stood up to Killy. "Why's he back after the high school graduation? What's he want here at a stupid party?"

"I don't know. Maybe he's planning on what to do next in his big criminal career," Nino Man said, stepping closer to Killy and his crying hostage. He noticed Killy shift his head a bit before he throwing his hostage at the two. Nino Man dodged the throw before Daimian tried to catch him, stumbling over as he does. Ignoring Daimian dropping to the floor with another person on top of him, Nino Man rushes up to Killy, fist ready for impact. Before Killy could even react, the fist thrust into his goggled face, knocking out one of the lenses. "Take that, you dick!"

Killy touched his goggles with one of his hands, feeling the blood over his eye from the top of his eyelid. Gritting his masked teeth, he stumbled backward onto a nearby chair almost completely toppling over. He wiped his eye with whatever forearm wasn't covered by his massive gloves and strained his jaw, with Nino Man looking back at him with no visible empathy as he rushed towards him.

Daimian struggled to get the now unconscious young man off of him, summoning all of his strength to get him off of his back. Pushing up, he was finally able to free himself and assess the situation. Looking around, he noticed that the room was almost eerily empty now, most of the people stocking up in the bathroom based on the lights and the closed door. The flashing lights made it hard to focus on the rest of the room, but Daimian didn't have to worry as Nino Man was thrown into the ceiling, breaking one of them and sending glass everywhere.

In the more static light, Daimian could make out a few figures behind a table laying on it's side peeking their heads around to see if they could make an escape. It was when he got closer that he could see the faces of the people clearly, making them out before looking shocked at one of them. A scared newly graduated woman with long, messy hair and a black dress lacking shoulders.

"Alex..."

Behind the tipped table, three people sat and watched the chaos in the rest of the room ensue. It wasn't long before Daimian jumped behind the table himself from the wall across from them. Getting to his feet in a squat, he looked at the three though his goggles. "Hey, guys," he said in a slightly altered voice, flapping his hands at himself, "you all gotta follow me, okay?"

"Who the hell are you," one of the people in the group asked, pointing his finger at Daimian as he held an empty beer bottle with the rest.

"Bitch," Alex shoved the guy with her shoulder as she looked at him. "Be grateful."

"Thanks, ma'am," Daimian put his hand to his chest, "but if you must know, my name is Obscurity. Now come on, we gotta go."

"Now wait just a damn minute," the other person started behind Alex, "how do we know you're not just working with that other big guy and are about to kill us all?"

"Oh, uh," Daimian paused for a second, looking down at his feet before looking out from the table and back at the person who asked the question. "Well, I'm trying to help that other guy, ya know, stop the big guy. We're kind of a team sorta."

"So what, are you, his sidekick?"

"Well, partner I suppose, but I guess sidekick works too."

"How long you been with him?"

"Guys," Alex clapped her hands between the two to shut them up. "We gotta get the hell out of here, and we should probably do it before those two completely wreck this floor of the building." She looked determined at Daimian with her head tilted. "So, what's your plan for this, Obscurity?"

"Well," Daimian scratched the back of his head through his mask, "the front door is behind me, so I can try to help you get through this hellstorm." As he spoke, Killy tore the refrigerator out of the wall and threw it at Nino Man, who dodged the massive object and let it completely cover the entrance to the apartment. The four behind the table stared in astonishment before Daimian turned back to them with his fingers pointed into the air. "So... front door's off limits." As he looked at the wall across from them, he got an idea. "Alright, follow my lead, guys."

Daimian started to crawl on the floor with the other's reluctantly following him the same way. As they did, Nino Man and Killy continued to fight, breaking almost everything in the room. All of the tables, chairs, even the kitchen counters were broken one way or another. After crawling a few feet and evading a large mass of chaos, Daimian put his back against the wall and opened the door beside him. "Okay, I think this is the bathroom, everybody. I want you guys to stay in there until this is all over."

"Wait," one of the people in the line said while getting closer to the door,"what if someone's using it right now?"

Daimian sighed as he slapped his palm to his face. "Why would someone be using it right now? Even so, I don't care if someone's taking a piss, bro, go in and stay there until I say it's safe to come out."

The guy nodded and went in, followed by the next person and eventually Alex, who stopped before she went through the door. "Thanks man," she raised her eyebrows as she looked at the two still wrecking the place, "Good luck out there."

Daimian chuckled through his masked face before pointing into the bathroom next to him. "Good luck in there. Keep 'em safe." He shut the door after Alex nodded and moved in with the others. He shortly got up and stroked his chin, looking around at his surroundings. "Alright then, where was I?" After he did a pillow hit the side of his head, knocking him off of his feet. "Oh yeah, that's right."

Killy managed to push Nino Man into a wall, holding him by the throat. "Now then, how should we do this? The quick way? Or the painful way?"

"Hey, don't forget about me." Daimian punched Killy in the back of the head, causing him to let go of Nino Man, who dropped to the floor. Daimian set his body in a boxing stance as he saw the large man turn to face him, his bleeding eyelid a clear sign of his rage. Killy picked up the one solid chair in the whole room and swings it at Daimian, smashing it to pieces. Daimian flew through the rest of the room and into a table, where he breaks one of the legs and causes the things on it to fall to the ground, including a small speaker.

*bzz* "Speaker Connected." *bzz*

"~aaaake meeeeeeee oooooooonnn~"

"Oh hey, I love this song," Daimian said as he looked at the speaker.

Meanwhile, Killy grabbed Nino Man by the shoulders and threw him through the wall leading to the outside of the building. With a loud grunt, Nino Man flew out of the building over the rest of downtown, pieces of brick and glass following him. Reaching out, he managed to grab onto the newly created hole. "Oh god," he said to himself as he tried to pull himself up.

Killy set his foot on the rim of the hole as he peered over the city before looking at the man struggling below him. "Huh. So this is the mighty Nino Ma-" Before he could finish his sentence, he could feel Daimian kick him in the back. Catching himself on the rest of the wall, he faced back at his attacker and grabbed Nino Man's arm. "Okay, that's it, I'm sick of this-"

He pulled a seemingly unphased Nino Man up from the hole and tossed his body at Daimian, causing the two to tangle up in a pile. They quickly scrambled off of each other and stood up to face Killy, who was staring at them both as he had one foot out of the gaping hole in the wall. "I'm done with you two bitches for now," he said, violently pointing at them, "but when I see you again, you will pay for what you've done to me." When he finished talking to them, he turned towards the hole and readied himself.

"Oh no you don't," Daimian exclaimed as tried to run up to Killy.

"What are you doing?" Nino Man put a hand out at Daimian, trying to follow behind. Before the two could reach Killy, his body was already outside. Trying to grab onto the outer wall, he gripped the bricks in the black sky. Before he could fall far, Daimian ripped a little piece of his tight tank top before descending the next four stories.

"Dammit!" Daimian pulled his body up from the hole as he watched Killy move down the building at incredible speed.

Nino Man looked down through the hole as Daimian did, looking at him after Killy reached the bottom.

"God, what the hell," Daimian asked himself as he held the piece of his tank top to his head. "This close and for what? A tiny piece of cloth?"

"Yeah," Nino Man turned to look at him for a moment before he noticed the front door. "I guess this one was a bit messy, huh?"

Daimian looked at the refrigerator still covering the entrance to the apartment. "I'd say so, yeah." He walked over and started to push the heavy, white slab as much as he could before it fell over onto the wooden floor below. "I'm gonna go check on the other people in the building and make sure they're alright. Feel free to do the same, Nino."

"I'll see what I can do, kid," Nino Man said, still examining the hole in the wall.

"Oh, also," Daimian started to turn to look behind him, but Nino Man was nowhere to be found. His face darted from side to side, but he couldn't find the white-suited figure anywhere in the colorfully lit room. He rushed over to the hole to see Nino Man sliding down it nearly the same way Killy was, confusing him slightly. Standing up, he saw a napkin and a pen on the ground where he had crashed into the table earlier and picked them up, writing a little note on it, swiftly sliding it under the crevice of the bathroom door and running into the hallway.

He picked up his jacket that he kept in the corner of the stairway, putting it on and walking his way up to his family's room. "After a bit of silence, we get him as a party crasher." Daimian wiped his bloodied lip through his mask as he crawled up the stairs. "I swear, if that guy comes back, I'm kicking his ass into next week and then some!"

Daimian burst through the door with a slight thud, almost tumbling over as he did. "Daimian? Alex? Is that you?" As Faith called out to him, he noticed that he still had his mask on, swiftly yanking it off along with his goggles and letting his messy hair sit back on his right side. He could hear his mother coming out of the bathroom and getting closer, causing him to hold the jacket he was wearing tighter around his body, shoving his face coverings in the big pockets. Faith turned a corner and rushed up to her son with concern. "Oh, my baby."

"It's just me, Mom. It's just me," Daimian said, embracing his mother as she squeezed his torso tightly. "Alex should be up here soon."

"I saw someone jump out the building a minute ago," Faith exclaimed, loosening her grip as she looked up at Daimian. "Do you know what happened?"

"I'm not sure what happened, but I just went and checked on Alex and she seems to be doing okay. Maybe a little shaken up, but okay."

Not a moment sooner, Alex shakily opened the door with her hands on her face. The other two shouted her name as they turned to face her. Alex lifted up a friendly hand and waved at them as she shut the door behind her. "Hey guys. I'm alright."

Faith couldn't help but lunge herself at Alex, who caught her with shocked yet weary eyes. "Oh baby, what happened down there," she asked her daughter, clinging tighter to the young woman with the lightly tattered dress.

"Mom, if we could take this to the couch, I would gladly share it with you two," Alex said as she shifted her head. Faith let go and led the others to the living room, motioning for them to sit as she sat down in her recliner. Alex looked at the two from the right side of the couch, Faith to her right and Daimian to her left. "What happened? Well, I don't know, if I'm speaking quite honestly," she looked down through the coffee table as if looking back at Chell's apartment. "We were just partying and around eleven, suddenly this... guy burst into the place and breaks everything in sight." She clasped her hands into one another and sighed. "And this Obscurity guy or whoever comes up and tries to save me and a couple others and tries fighting the guy with this dude in white with horns or something. Then they just left after a few minutes of throwing each other around. It was really... weird. You guys probably think I'm crazy-"

"No, we don't think you're crazy. Not with all of this stuff happening lately." Faith put her hand on Alex's shoulder concernedly. "We're glad you're back and safe with us."

"Thanks," Alex nodded her head and looked up at her mother. Next to her, Daimian watched his sister with solemn eyes as she got up and dusted herself off. "Now, I think this calls for a nice, long nap," she said with a weak smile while looking down at the two still sitting. Before long, she stepped to her bedroom and closed the door quietly.

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