Behind Our Masks

Chapter 9: Loser Battle Part 2

Penny

I gritted my teeth in frustration as I leapt and swung through the city. Damnit, Now that bumbling oaf thought I was the bad guy... and knowing his Robin Hood tendencies, that was not a beneficial supposition for me. Euntae Lee... that boarish strength of his suited him: so dense, yet so incredibly strong. Like a mother boar.

I wasn't kidding when I told Daniel I was doing recon that morning. When I'd left after Zack's unfortunate humiliation that morning, I'd begun dropping from class to class to see how quickly word would spread and to gauge how much danger the new attention would bring us.
The buzz had already begun in each classroom before I arrived. All of the classes had made their assessments of the information and were letting their imaginations run wild with what they didn't know for sure.

But of all the possible enemies I encountered, Euntae Lee, Vasco, was the biggest threat.

There is nothing more dangerous than a righteous cause, especially if it's fueled by a misguided assumption. History is scarred by fiascos like the crusades, the inquisition, witch hunts, and even two entire world wars because two or more sides made a supposedly righteous choice with lethal consequences.
And Vasco, with his heart of pure gold, had it firmly in his head that "All handsome guys are bad guys." Obviously, the boy had no idea that he honestly wasn't that bad looking himself. I assumed he'd undergone a fair bit of trauma to come to cast such a wide net, but I'd explore that later.

And of course he'd jumped the gun again, with me this time. I would have been fine if I was only seen by those insipid fools, but now that such a major player had lain eyes on me and was at least aware of my existence... Once again: Damnit.

I'd see Daniel at school tomorrow and apologize for not telling him where I was going, but right now, honestly, I was too high strung to return that night.

I needed to go see her.

I'd been distracted for far too long.

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Daniel

It was so crazy to see a four foot stick of a girl take down a well built, six foot man. Her whole body was faster and more fluid than Zach's fists, moving with ten times the ease.
Vasco gathered himself with a grunt and jumped to his feet just as Penny vanished, looking around wildly to find nothing left of his pint sized attacker.

"What...?"

That's when I finally grew the balls to step in and speak up. Better late than never, I guess.
"Um, Vasco... sh- I mean he- um, he wasn't really picking on Jiho..."

When the mountain cocked his head in confusion, I just motioned discreetly backwards to the four bullies shaking in their boots behind us. They wilted immediately when he trained his chillingly blank glare on their sorry hides.

"Shit man, we're sorry!!"
"Don't kill us!"
"We're out, we'll leave!"
"You're pretty cute~"

...That last one was from the girl, by the way.

We all held our breath as the architecture Class president looked dully from us, to them, and back to us, as if he was manually processing the new information. Just when I was beginning to wonder just how slow this guy was, he suddenly took one long step forward, pushing past Jiho and to grab the neck of the closest bully.

"Holy shit!!"

I don't know who said that, but I completely agreed. Seeing Vasco go from completely calm to lifting someone up by the neck with one hand was definitely a "holy shit" moment.

"So you guys are the bad guys," Vasco mumbled flatly.

The bully just whimpered.

Two Minutes Later:

"You two had better start working up," Vasco advised as our tormentors fled into the distance. "The only way to stop them is to get stronger."

'Easy for you to say, pal... does that monotone of yours really never change...?'

"Yeah... Thanks, Vasco," Jiho said, sounding just as skeptical of our hero's suggestion as I was.

Vasco's eyebrows rose just a little at the mention of his name. "You know me? You go to our school?"

"Yup! Fashion department," Jiho nodded quickly.

"That's the newbie's department, isn't it?"

'They're talking about me...'

When Jiho nodded, Vasco's eyes narrowed.
"You tell the new guy... not to screw around."

I was shocked at his sudden change in attitude; what had I ever done to him? I hadn't even seen him around school yet!

'...Then again, Vasco did make a pretty big assumption about Penny back there. I'll have to prove him wrong tomorrow!'