Epic Battles of History (Nao & Rod)

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Finally! Finally, finally, finally! It was warm enough for him to go outside without literally freezing through. His joints had been complaining loudly and painfully all winter and finally the weather had squeaked up just above 40˚F and it felt positively balmy. Raylaigh couldn't be inside any longer, he'd had enough of swooping around the training rooms and running inside. He nagged Nao into getting ice cream with him this beautiful Saturday afternoon. Granted, he hadn't had to try too hard, Nao had been easy to convince, even with homework to do. Ray was flapping his arms as they walked down the street practically skipping along with his dear friend by his side. If one were paying close attention they might notice that he wasn't actually touching the ground. He was glad that Nao was feeling back to normal after all of the jet lagging he'd had to endure. He was in the midst of telling Nao about the fellow flyer he'd met, Cici, who was basically amazing. He was looking forward to setting to the skies with her.

The ice cream shop wasn't too far away and despite everything they had opened for the weekend. It was great, normally places closed down all winter, but this place was at least open on the weekends when they might be able to lure passers by in for a warm place to sit and a delicious treat to match their cheery moods. The sun was shining and glittering off of the melting snow. It seemed like hundreds of people had come out of hibernation this weekend, it was hard to imagine so many people actually lived in Pilot Ridge as winters were harsh and most people became indoor people when it snowed, going out only to get somewhere else inside. Everyone was in high spirits today and slips on ice were met with giggles instead of swears and friends were out enjoying the rarely seen winter sun, soaking up all of the rays that they could while they could. Ray couldn't wait until summer came around, he couldn't wait to go to the beach and fly and run.

"Hmmm...." He pondered the ice cream choices. "I'll do the chocolate chunk and hmm... how about some of the strawberry?" The woman behind the counter smiled and put together the cone making Ray's mouth water. He stepped aside so that Nao could order and grinned with his treat in hand. "So, anyways I definitely can't wait for it to be warm and then I don't have to fly inside anymore!" He continued his thought to Nao taking a lick of his cone. "Why don't we walk outside? We can head for the park," he suggested Nao once he had his own ice cream in hand. He couldn't stop smiling, the sun was out and the world was awake and it was wonderful. He stepped back out into the street and smiled up at the sun. It was so brilliant it didn't even feel cold. Ray turned and grinned at Nao as they started to walk. "I love this place, it reminds me of when we first met, when you were about 'yay' high." He said putting his hand against Nao's chin, teasing the boy and his growth spurt.

[Deleted]

The past several months had been no more exciting than usual. Classes, club practices, hanging out with Ray in his spare time….winter break had been nice spent at home in San Jose, much to his surprise. It was decided that it would be more cost efficient to have Naozumi come home for the holidays rather than try to get him all the way to Okinawa for the summer and risk him missing school because of it. The other thing particularly noteworthy was the celebration of Naozumi’s 16th birthday earlier this month. Nao remembered that he had only just turned 15 when he first met Ray. That meant that they’d been official best friends for about a year now. That alone was reason for celebration, so of course he agreed forthwith when invited out for ice cream with the older boy. It really was fortunate that the weather had started dying down enough for them to take this trip out to the shops. Naozumi didn’t much like the cold. Bundling up made it difficult to move freely.

It was fine, though. Since Nao was with Ray, he didn’t mind it at all, actually. And besides. Ice cream. That was the most important thing right now.

Naozumi smiled at Ray as he drooled over the selections the attendant was preparing for him behind the counter. Then it was his turn, so Nao stepped up to consider his own combination of treats. He had a lot to choose from. “….peanut butter and fudge, and….” What else? “…the vanilla caramel swirl.” That all sounded delicious. He was glad that the ice cream shop here had a good selection. Nao turned to look at Ray while the lady prepared his cone. “That’s great! Just don’t…” Nao stopped and held his tongue. Just don’t hurt yourself, he was going to say. But he wasn’t going to nag on Ray about that today. Nao didn’t want to spoil it. “Let me know when you do so I can watch,” he instructed instead. That way he could at least be there to help and have some peace of mind that way.

Once he got his cone and the items were paid for, Naozumi nodded to his friend. “Okay. That sounds great!” It was nice to be able to stroll of campus like this, and the park…that was just perfect. If Nao seemed like he was especially happy today…well, it was because he was. Probably because Ray was so happy and giddy and energetic. The excitable boy seemed to rub off on Nao whenever they were together. Also, just being with him… “I was thinking the same thing, actually,” he agreed. He’d gotten used to the height by now…for the most part. Naozumi had gained at least another inch since summer, which didn’t help with matters of his coordination, but it was still better than he was back then. Nao tipped his head to the side and walked past Ray. “At this rate, I just might be taller than you by summertime.” He still wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but…well, it couldn’t be helped. Nao looked back over his shoulder and smiled. “What do you think of that? You won’t be jealous, will you?”

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh had not been hearing enough from Nao, he missed the Asian, the hard working and crazy meticulous Nao. Nao was so busy, granted they were both busy, technically, but Ray definitely didn’t put as much emphasis on school work as maybe he should. Going home for break had been a little hard on Ray, he’d gotten news that didn’t particularly make him happy but he couldn’t quite explain why he was so upset. Van wasn’t upset, Kyle was a rageball on a normal basis so nothing new there and Andrea was excited. But Ray didn’t like it. It had been exciting because his father had come down for Christmas for what felt like the first time in forever and then after Christmas the bomb dropped. His dad and his long time girlfriend Elizabeth were getting married. Now, Raylaigh loved Elizabeth, he really did, she was awesome, friendly, warm and Ray definitely told her things he didn’t want to tell his own mom. But married? That was a whole new level and Ray wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

He hadn’t brought it up with Nao yet because he was hoping that out of sight and out of mind would mean peace. His dad wanted him to be a groomsman though, and well, how could Raylaigh say no? Oh well, he was thinking about talking to Nao about it once they’d gotten their ice cream, that might be news to Nao though, Ray wasn’t sure if he’d ever even mentioned that his parents were divorced. He stood close to Nao as they got their ice cream and he smiled and made a yum noise at Nao’s choice. Ray grinned and cocked his head at Nao. He was about to ask when Nao finally continued. “Oh of course! And we’re going to have to have another race, cause I don’t think we’ve quite got an answer to that one yet.” He joked with a bright smile. The first time Nao had spilled in a horrifying way and then the second time he’d tackled Ray into the pond. Ray’s cheeks grew warm and his heart fluttered at the memory.

“Okay!” Ray agreed brightly, feeling like he was pulling energy straight from the sun. “Great minds, Nao,” Ray commented with a smile. Matching pace with Nao was easier now that they were similar in height, though sometimes Ray wondered if Speedy Nao ever used his power since he walked so fast. Really, Ray didn’t believe that he had a leisure button. “Nah,” Ray laughed waving a hand dismissively, “No, no I won’t be jealous, I’ll just have to grow some more,” Ray said jokingly raising his chin in emphasis. He wouldn’t be bothered really, it would be a change for sure, Ray towered over most everyone he knew and for Nao to overtake him would be quite the accomplishment. “I mean what did they feed you in Japan?” He laughed, licking gaily at his ice cream cone. The flyer knew it wasn’t a good decision to move a lot when he had the precious gold of ice cream in his hands but he was too excited to keep himself from bouncing with way and that.

“Do you have plans for Spring Break, Nao?” Raylaigh asked as they rounded the corner. Ray would be staying at Hammel for tutoring, blech! He needed to get extra credit in Physics or else he wasn’t going to pass, turns out that project he’d put off until the night before hadn’t even gotten him high enough for a passing grade. Man he hated physics. But if he stayed over spring break and worked with his teacher he had been told he could potentially see a C- in his future for that class, which would be outstanding considering his highest score in that class was barely in the D range. His teacher was taking pity on him, Ray was trying, he was trying really hard and if this class wasn’t required he’d be taking something easy. He looked at Nao and licked away at his cone happily. What he didn’t notice was that there was someone walking in the other direction.

Ray sidestepped a mound of snow and his feet tangled in his wings. His hands flailed as he tried to catch himself. He collided with Nao, and failing to catch himself, he shoved Nao forward and somehow ended up on the ground anyways, his knee smarting with the pain of hitting the pavement and his hand stung with little scrapes and his wrist smarted. It took him a minute to take in what happened next.

[Deleted]

Perhaps Naozumi did work too hard, like Ray was always telling him. Though in Nao’s opinion, Ray didn’t quite work hard enough. That’s how he ended up with Cs and Ds on his report cards, but....Nao would help him whenever he asked for it to the best of his ability, but if Ray was okay with those standards, then Nao didn’t really have the right to say anything about it. It didn’t mean anything to be forced to do well, pressured into it from all angles, that would just make him dislike it more and become even more resistant to putting in the effort. No, Ray had to want to improve first for a change to happen. Nao would encourage him, but he wasn’t going to chastise him for it. Besides, their friendship wasn’t based on something as superficial as academic standing. Naozumi liked Ray. Quite a bit, in fact. So much that….he wasn’t even sure where the line ended, to be honest.

Then there were those dreams. Ever since that first one at the beginning of the school year, Nao had been having them more and more frequently. How many so far, you ask? It couldn’t be that many, right? Try seventeen. Naozumi had no idea why he was even keeping count, but there it was. One might think that they made Nao even more self-conscious around the flier. Maybe it did, but Nao did his best to keep himself composed. The other option was avoiding Ray altogether, but the times when they could hang out together were already few and far between, so…Naozumi decided it would be even more troubling to see him less than it would to just deal with it. And Nao found….that he didn’t exactly find any of it unpleasant. After all, how could he think of anything having to do with Ray as unpleasant?

Nao blushed slightly as Ray stood beside him, close enough to bump shoulders. Nao focused on the ice cream instead of how close Ray’s face was to his now. “Yes,” he said smiling when Ray challenged him to yet another race. Naozumi wondered how many they would have before they finally settled the score of who was faster? Maybe they never would? Naozumi chuckled to himself at the thought. No doubt it they tried again, something else would happen to prevent there from being a clear winner. And thus, they would have to keep having races, forever. Naozumi didn’t mind that.

He laughed at Ray’s comment. “Great minds? Where? I don’t see any.” Nao was just teasing, of course. He continued forward with Ray by his side. That whole side of him was tingling with the awareness that his friend was there, walking beside. Nao took another bite of his ice cream. “Mm. Are you sure you can manage that?” he asked with a smile. Nao turned his eyes forward, almost laughing out loud at Ray’s question. “Food,” he countered succinctly. “Obviously.” Maybe Nao was being a little cheeky, but he wanted again to see how Ray reacted to Nao being a little playfully mean. Why did Nao enjoy watching him bounce and flail so much? It was so adolescent sometimes, but Naozumi couldn’t help but lov---like him for that.

Nao took a breath and another few licks at his cone as he considered the question. “Nothing for the moment,” he replied seriously. Naozumi wasn’t going home, his parent’s couldn’t afford him another trip across the country so soon after the last one. “I think I’ll just be staying on campus. Or working.” This was another reason why Naozumi wanted to come out with Ray today. Now that he was 16, Naozumi could finally advance again officially in his martial art. And that meant he could work towards becoming an adjunct instructor at the local dojo. He’d already spoken with the sensei of the Muller’s Self-Defense school. He wouldn’t have to work too hard to achieve it and might even reach that goal by summer’s end. It was exciting for Nao, and he wanted to share that with Ray.

Naozumi noticed the other person and was walking accordingly to the side to avoid him as they passed. But when Ray stumbled over himself, he also stumbled into Naozumi, pushing him smartly into the passing pedestrian, a bulky man who was several inches taller than the still growing boy. Even Nao didn’t have reflexes fast enough to avoid the collision. Naozumi landed against the burly man’s chest, smooshing his ice cream right there between them. Nao took a step backward in time to see the remains of his ice cream slide and fall down to the sidewalk, and he promptly lowered his head apologetically. “I’m so sorry!” he exclaimed quickly. “I promise I didn’t do that on purpose.” Hopefully, despite his looks, this person was a reasonable one.

[Rodrigo Santos]

She was a bitch. A complete, utterly crazy, mad, loca, insane, moody, hormonal, out of her mind bitch. She didn't want anything to do with him? FINE. He didn't want anything to do with her either! Fuck her! Ha! She wishes. He was sure Sydney was going to die alone and miserable with a thousand cats and he would laugh at her. Yes, that was exactly how it would turn out. He would have girls up and down, BEGGING to be with him and she was going to be all alone and he'll laugh and point at her and- GAH! What a bitch! Total prude! It wasn't like she didn't want to too, right? He knew she had to want him too. He'd seen what his kisses did to her, so why the hell did she want to go slow anyway? What was with girls and slow? And why did she get so mad about it too? Was he some kind of pervert now because he wasn't like her? Stupid, prudish, idiotic-

Rod grumbled, rubbing his fingers as best he could, trying to sooth the aching tips. Of course his nails were out and about. He was mad! And he didn't even care who saw. He would glare at anyone who dared stare for too long and growl at them until they looked away.

He'd gone for a walk after their fight. Okay, a walk hadn't been his first idea, but he'd smoked every single cigarette he had already and that hadn't helped, and training hadn't helped, and he couldn't very well go box some with his nails as they were and- What a total bitch! "Gah!" He exclaimed suddenly, making people around him jump. Taking a walk wasn't helping either. If anything, the stares were making him angrier. He settled to go back to Hammel, whispering curses all the way as he walked briskly, trying to pass some guy who was walking in front of him. That's when hell broke out.

Just as he was walking pass- whomever it was suddenly pushed him and Rod could only turn, taking a step back. Thankfully the man (it was a man right?) was small enough not to push him to the ground. Regretfully, the man had been eating ice cream. Rod stared in shock at the guy as the short man apologised. Then, slowly, he looked down at the mess that was the front of his shirt. Reasonable? No. Rod wasn't reasonable. He was furious. The mistake, mixed with Rod's already angry mood made him explode. So he growled and shook, displacing his anger from Sydney to this guy. He was small. Good, Rod could take him. He grabbed the shorter man's shirt by the neck and growled at him, ignoring his apologies.

"You're dead, shrimp."

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

It wasn’t necessarily that Ray was okay with it, he just didn’t see any improvement no matter how hard he worked. It was impossible, he just didn’t get it. He just couldn’t do it. He’d gotten help from Nao every now and again and it helped, but there were classes that he was taking that Nao hadn’t taken yet and there was only so much Nao could do. He was getting enough pressure from his parents and the teachers were on his case with ‘Ray I know you’re trying but you need to work harder’ like that would fix everything. Ray wanted Nao to be there for him to relax with, he didn’t want Nao to think he was an idiot as well. Honestly, if he started getting pressure from his best friend that might be the final straw. Ray was struggling and sometime he felt like he was slipping far behind.

The flyer smiled and gave a wink to Nao and bobbed his head confirming their competition. “Bring it on,” he said. They should really start keeping score someday for all of their races and maybe make it best out of something. “H-hey!” Ray exclaimed, already laughing as he stuck his tongue out at Nao. Raylaigh giggled and held his tongue between his teeth as he mock glared at Nao. It wasn’t a very menacing look, Raylaigh didn’t have a menacing setting. He licked at his ice cream and let his eyes wander toward the sky. He wondered if they could invent a floating ice cream shop for flyers, but then no one else could join and that would be sad.

Ray tossed Nao a mischievous glance, “See I’m already growing,” he said looking down at Nao, but if one looked down they would see his feet lifted off the ground. He laughed with Nao dropping back to the ground when instability threatened his ice cream’s delicious life. Ray opened his mouth but ended up closing it, struck uncharacteristically speechless by Nao’s response. He moved a hand, clearly asking for some sort of elaboration, he ended up just looking like a fish opening and closing his mouth. He laughed a little and elbowed Nao. Recovering enough to make a comeback he finally said, “Alright, so some super secret Nao formula I see.” Ray wondered if Nao was going to go home at all soon, he knew family was a big part of Nao’s life, at least from Ray’s perspective. Ray loved visiting home, eating his mom’s cooking and listening to his brothers and sister bicker. Getting involved in arguments that he didn’t belong in.

“Aw Nao!” Ray complained dramatically, “That’s so booooring!” He sang. “At least we can hang out a little bit,” he added. He was laughing when he tripped over his own feet, and he didn’t even have time to remember not to smile. In fact the ground seemed to come up to him with frightening quickness. Sudden pain of the collision hit him and drove common sense away from him as he muttered ‘ow’s under his breath. He looked up in time to see Nao’s ice cream splat to the ground, he was going to forever be owing Nao ice cream. He looked up further and winced at the residue left behind on Nao and the stranger. “Oops,” he muttered apologetically at the same time Nao apologized.

“Ah!” Ray exclaimed when the man grabbed Nao. The flyer leapt to his feet, his hurts forgotten. “You’re dead, shrimp.” Ah! Nao was going to die! Ray closed his hands on the stranger’s wrists. “Hey man, I’m sorry, it’s not his fault,” Ray said frantically, tugging at the man’s hands trying to dislodge them and having about as much success as a mouse trying to shove over a tree. “I’m really sorry, there’s no need for violence?” He said taking one glance at the stranger’s face and cowering at the fury he saw there. The look in his eyes terrified Ray. “There’s really no harm done, right? It’s just ice cream, it’ll wash out, no big deal,” Ray said smiling foolishly at the scary man.

[Deleted]

Naozumi hoped that Ray would continue to ask him for help. Even if there wasn’t much that Nao could do for the classes he hadn’t taken yet, he could still be there for moral support. To help him study, read off question and flash cards….anything at all would be better than nothing. But…unless he asked….Nao didn’t want to offer outright, because then it would seem like he was nagging, when really it was just his concern….

Naozumi was concerned over many things regarding Raylaigh. Not just with his academics, but with his health as well. Nao didn’t like hearing stories about how he hurt this or that when he was doing this or that recklessly. He disliked that the most, especially since Ray didn’t seem to have much of a sense of self-preservation. Yes, stuff was going to happen no matter how careful one was….but without that care, the risk of something much more terrible happening was much greater. That was why…why Nao liked to keep an eye on the flyer as much as possible. Was that terrible of him? To worry so much? Naozumi should be able to just let it be, shouldn’t he?

It was hard to tell, but if it meant he got to spend more time with Ray as well, he’d gladly do it a million times over.

Nao looked up at Ray, raising an eyebrow slightly. Then he looked down. “That’s cheating..!” he whined softly, as if he were completely offended for the attempted trickery. He quickly turned that into a giggle, watching Ray stumble around with his ice-cream in hand. “Not super secret at all,” he continued. “It was just…food.” Seriously, it was a blunt answer, but it was the absolute truth. Naozumi didn’t do anything special to shoot up as fast as he did. He held in a laugh when Ray rang out his disappointment(in what, he wondered? Just Nao having no plans for spring break?). But yes, Naozumi hoped that the two of them would be able to hang out as much as possible.

The collision had come unexpectedly, and even if the person wasn’t reasonable, Nao wished that he’d been fast enough to avoid it. Maybe if he’d been paying attention more he would have. Nobody liked having somebody else run into them, especially not to have their ice-cream smeared all over what he presumed to be a nice-ish shirt. Hence why he apologized for it so rapidly, though that was also his Japanese nature at work there. He was startled(though not terribly concerned) when the stranger nabbed him by the collar. Being patient and reasonable was the best course of action here, even if the other person didn’t seem to be capable of that. His calm, however, seemed to ease away slightly when Ray moved in to try and ‘save’ Naozumi from the stranger’s grip. “Ray!” he exclaimed quietly. “Don’t.” Nao wasn’t afraid for himself at this point, but more for Ray if got too closely wrapped up in this exchange. The look on Ray’s face had him most concerned. “Ray, I’m okay,” he tried to tell his friend. “I can handle this.” Nao turned back up to the stranger with his usual blank stare. “I can wash it for you, if you’d like,” he offered. Hopefully that would satisfy the man?

[Rodrigo Santos]

Rod was about to let go, really. The shorter dude had apologised and all. And yes, he was angry, but it wasn't like he was unreasonable... Until the other guy suddenly seemed to grab him. Woah- Not cool, man. So NOT cool. Rod turned his glare to him, grabbing the guy's wrist with his free hand, squeezing it as hard as he could. "Stay out of this, man. If you don't want to get hurt too."

The shorter guy was offering to wash his shirt and Rod growled. "You think I'm stupid, bato?" Rod shook his head, still glaring at him, "Shirt's ruined. And you're disrespecting me by trying to trick me. Not cool, man."

If he was any honest, he wasn't even mad about the shirt. It wasn't even about the ice cream or the fact that now his chest was all sticky because of it. It was all about timing. He'd been fuming before this all thing happened. Downright angry at stupid Sydney for rejecting him, then getting all crazy on him and then downright yelling. He did nothing bad! It was all her! Screaming and being all hormonal and unreasonable and-

"GARGH!" He yelled out suddenly, angry again at the memory, and let go of the wrist he'd been squeezing, pulled back his fist, and directed it right at the man he'd been holding.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

The flyer giggled and elbowed Nao jovially. “You must have had some super secret growth serum,” Ray teased. He couldn’t wait to spend time with Nao over Spring Break, but chances were the hard working Nao would be busy a lot. Maybe they could do some studying together, or at least Nao could work and Raylaigh could work on his assignments. There had to at least be a little bit of fun in this week. Ray was not looking forward to being stuck inside all the time when the weather was finally breaking and he could go outside without freezing solid. Ray knew he had to start working hard though, it was time to crack down or he’d never bring his GPA up and never get into college. All of his father’s money for tuition did nothing unless Ray was actually accepted somewhere.

He couldn’t believe he was getting to the point when he had to start thinking about colleges, it seemed too far away to be useful and yet way too close. The thought of having to leave and go somewhere new was terrifying. It hadn’t been too bad when he left to come to Hammel but he’d be in a completely new place. Unless he went to school somewhere in DC. But that was a conversation that he was avoiding at the moment. Oh well, he was taking the day off with Nao, he wasn’t going to think about the future he was going to think about the here and now and all of the wonderful things going on in this ice cream. Really, this was incredibly delicious. At least that was before he dropped it.

Ray ignored Nao’s protests but the scary guy grabbed his wrist and Ray let out a yelp and tried to tug himself away. He gritted his teeth and whimpered pathetically as he felt the bones in his wrist caving under the pressure. “Ow! Lemme go!” The tugging wasn’t helping, in fact it was making it infinitely worse. He didn’t even hear Nao saying he could handle it, Ray was suddenly stuck and working on making peace with the fact that he might die here. God, this guy was strong, even distracted he was holding onto Nao and Ray without so much as breaking a sweat. Ray was sorry, he really didn’t want to get hurt, he wanted to run. If only this guy would let him go. Cowards lived longer and well, Ray knew why now, he attempted to be brave with Nao but that was not working out in his favor.

As soon as he was released Ray sprang back out of the way his hands jumping in front of his face. His sense of self-preservation very strong. His wrist hurt a lot and every movement was making it worse. He closed his eyes and braced himself. Why was there so much violence in the word? He wondered momentarily if it would hurt as much as when Jack did it. He didn’t feel a blow land and so he peaked from behind his fingers.

[Deleted]

“Ray!” Naozumi exclaimed, his naturally narrow eyes growing wide at seeing his best friend suddenly grabbed by this hulking thing of a man. “Let him go! Please!” Naozumi begged from the man. If he didn’t let go…if Ray was held too tightly….Ray was already so fragile, it would be nothing for a man of this size to snap his arm with a mere twist of the wrist. Naozumi didn’t want to see Ray get hurt over something so small, and which Naozumi already apologized for! That is, Nao didn’t want Ray to get hurt over something that Nao did, which was mussing this man with his ice cream after running into him.

But this man….what he was saying didn’t make any sense! Why would Nao want to trick him? Nao didn’t even know how to lie, he’d never considered it for use in a trick, much less…. Naozumi was getting irritated. “Yes, I think you’re very stupid,” he said bluntly, his stoic face returning as he addressed the giant man still holding him by the collar. Considering his actions and his grammar, did he actually expect to be considered intelligent?

The bright side was that the man did finally release his best friend. The bad news was he was now barreling forward towards Nao with a punch to the face. Secured by the collar with a fist coming at his face, yes Nao could have gotten out of that with minimal effort. But his attention was elsewhere at that moment - for just a single, brief moment - relieved to see Ray released and able to get away. Or maybe, Nao was feeling particularly irritated and wanted an excuse to do more than just defend? Either way, the fist came, Naozumi taking it on the side of the face. Nao turned his head with the punch, taking away some of the momentum, and closed his eyes to bear the blow. It hurt.

This was nothing.

While it had been nearly a year and a half since Naozumi last real fight - when he first manifested and floored a set of adolescent bullies - he’d still experienced far more pain than what a simple punch could do. Ray could attest to that for at least one occasion. Naozumi opened his eyes, though their narrow glare was piercingly cold. “Are you done?” he asked. Naozumi didn’t give the other man a chance to reply, already his hand was up, grasping around the other man’s and his fingers digging in against the nerve between the man’s thumb and forefinger(note: this causes a lot of pain), and he was twisting in, thrusting up hard against the man’s elbow with his free hand, and pushing him to the ground(Ikkyo technique). With Nao’s super speed, this would have taken less than a second to execute. Nao would step away, his eyes still fixed on the brute. “Leave,” he said firmly. He tasted blood on his lips and wiped away the stream of it that was trickling down his chin. A split lip, he imagined.

[Rodrigo Santos]

Rod almost felt pride as he felt his fist connect to the shrimp's face. His hand hurt, particularly because his nail were already digging into his own skin as he made the fist, but it'd been worth it. Some of the steam had released and he was feeling better already. Fuck the shirt, this wasn't about that. This was about rage. Wait- was he done? "A-" Before he could say anything, Rod was on the floor, his arm bend behind him. How- what? He winced, closing his eyes tightly. A meta! Of course. Of ALL the people he could run into, he'd picked a fight with a meta who apparently could make things happen or something. Not only that, but the guy seemed to know some sort of... kung fu and shit. Something like that. And here he'd been told not to judge a book by its cover! Leave it to the ONLY asian guy he'd picked a fight with to know karate or whatever.

The shrimp walked back and Rod was already grinning, he was actually going to say something about how cool that'd been, but then the shrimp had to be a dick and glare down at him, as if he was nothing. Rod'd seen that face many times before, that glare of disgust. In many policemen, whenever they talked about him as if he wasn't there. Poor Rod, the son of a dealer, all alone with his brother. How pathetic they all were, but they all deserved it, right? That's what happened to latin families. That's what they always said. It filled him with new rage and he lashed at the guy, his hands now extended to give his own power a chance to shine. If he got to slash him at least once, Rod would feel he'd accomplished something.

So he jumped at him, waving his hands his way, hoping to touch skin. "We're not even started yet." He said, cracking his neck as the little move had left him sore.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

“Ow, ow, ow,” Ray yielded as best he could to the force in his arm but there wasn’t anything he could do if this guy didn’t want to let him go. He wasn’t strong and even if he were, his bones were brittle glass and already he felt them caving. Ray’s eyes went wide and he shook his head at Nao, was Nao trying to get himself killed? It wasn’t like this was the first time Ray had ever been beat up, he had two older brothers, granted after his power they were very gentle in their roughhousing. Jack certainly hadn’t been gentle. The way Ray saw it, so long as he wasn’t dead he would heal from this, it wouldn’t be the first, nor the last bone he had broken.

He yelped in relief as the pressure was gone and he made himself ready to flee. Peaking from between his fingers he saw not the collision but the result of the guy hitting Nao. He moved his hands to cover his mouth and he winced in sympathy. “Nao! Are you okay?” He asked from a safe distance, but Nao seemed unfazed. There was a look in Nao’s eyes he’d never seen before, it was cold and calculating. Ray groaned in frustration when Nao insisted on taunting the much bigger man. Nao had super speed, Ray didn’t understand why he didn’t run, really the only reason he hadn’t taken off was because Nao was standing his ground. Ray was a coward, but he wasn’t going to leave his friend to get beat up on.

The flyer’s mouth dropped open as one minute it looked like Nao was going to die and the next Nao had the bigger man pinned to the ground. Raylaigh’s eyes were like saucers. Blinking several times in sequence Ray tried to figure out if he was really seeing Nao do this, calm, silly, oblivious Nao, beating some big scary man in a fight. The image wasn’t going away, but Nao let the guy up and Ray had a feeling now he was definitely going to be a goner. One move like that, sure he’d give that to Nao, maybe this was some fluke or something. The carefree expression was gone from Nao’s face, though and as he spoke Ray got a chill down his spine. He’d never seen Nao so… cold. “Watch out!” He yelled, probably unnecessarily. He was torn, he wanted to find someone to stop this, but his feet were frozen where he stood.

[Deleted]

Nao didn’t really expect the burly man to leave. Nao had given that choice to many kids in the past and one thing he learned is that they never ran from a fight. Not even when they knew they were outmatched would they turn tail and run. It was some macho man honor thing, he supposed. Naozumi would rather avoid a fight if at all possible, which was why he gave them that choice. After they threw the first punch. Nao never hit first. The principles of his martial art was that it was defensive only, and therefore, should only be used to defend oneself or others. The techniques themselves were not suited for an offensive attack; they were counters and redirects. They used his opponent’s momentum, their own power, against them.

This person, this large, hulking man, had a lot of power behind his fist. He had a lot of strength behind his movements. Watching him, Nao could tell this probably wasn’t the first fight he’d started, and likely wouldn’t be the last either. Naozumi had no intention of letting him get in another hit though.

Naozumi saw the hit coming…what he didn’t expect was the length of the man’s reach to suddenly stretch. It wasn’t by much but it was enough to make his dodge, while more than fast enough, just a hair shorter than expected. A sharp pain blossomed across his cheek as the nail slid over it, leaving a red streak in it’s wake. He felt blood start to stream down his cheek. It hurt, but Nao would still say he’d been through worse. Naozumi hopped back another step or two, then put his hands up in a defensive stance. His eyes remained cold and piercing. “That can’t be the best you got,” he said. Nao paced himself around the burly man, hoping to draw his focus to Nao and Nao alone. His hope was that Ray would get himself out of there. He didn’t want Ray to get mixed up in this by accident. From what he remembered, bullies had a bad habit of going after the weak, and would switch to a weaker one in a group at the drop of a hat if their first target proved to be too much to handle.

[Rodrigo Santos]

No, Rod wasn't going to leave. He smirked as he saw the guy's face bleeding. That's right! He did that! So- HA! He was seeing red, still angry at the guy for- for- Okay! He didn't even remember why! But this was an excellent way to work out his anger and resentment against the girl he couldn't very well hit or even yell at too harshly. Why was it that girls got away with treating him like crap anyway? It was so unfair! Syd was unfair.

He growled at the taunting this shrimp had started, feeling his nails stretch out to their full size. Sure, it'd had been smarter to just go for the other guy, to keep him injured when he couldn't injure the smaller one. But Rod wasn't that sharp, nor that unfair. He focused his anger and resentment on the short one. Besides, it'd bring far more bragging rights to defeat this big whale... so to speak.

So Rod screamed out as he launched himself at the guy, meaning to tackling him directly, forgetting, far too easily, about the guy's amazing speed.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray was hiding behind his fingers as he watched the battle spread before his eyes. Normally Raylaigh would have clearly pegged the winner as the big guy, but Nao didn’t seem afraid, no it didn’t look like Nao was feeling anything. Ray was bouncing on his feet and looking desperately down the street, how had they encountered this guy on the only empty street in Pilot Ridge? Ray gasped and yet again Nao seemed okay, there was blood, but Nao didn’t seem worried about it. How could he be so calm? When the big man was in a rage and Ray was beside himself with panic. Surely that first move had been a fluke, Nao was going to die. Oh god!

Nao need not worry about the flyer, he’d done the whole brave thing and it didn’t really work out for him. Nao could count on Ray taking to the air if the big man so much as looked at him. Fleeing was what Ray was best at and he would definitely call on that if need be. He was jumpy already and one move he could be well overhead. Ray took a few steps back and shook his head at Nao. “Nao! What are you doing? Let’s get out of here!” Why wasn’t Nao running? He was, after all, the fastest person Raylaigh knew, why did he stand when he could be running and saving his skin? So what if Ray might be considered a coward, he was a coward that was alive. The whole dying for honor and all that never really sat well with Ray.

Ray couldn’t watch. He covered his eyes and took a step back into snow. Looking down Ray made a slit second, and admittedly astronomically stupid decision. With his injured hand still cradled against his chest, he scooped a ball of snow with his good hand and lobbed it, not actually staying on the ground long enough to see if he hit his target. Ray just hoped it would distract the man and Nao would do the smart thing and run for it. Ray hovered overhead and decided while he was up here to look around for some help. Ah! A cop was just wandering out of a coffee shop not a few blocks down. But… Ray hesitated, what if something happened and Nao needed aerial support?