“You asked for it!” Thug two yelled and wasted no time in lunging at Zane.

See, Zane knew Bailey was trouble. It was why he had been avoiding him and why Zane told himself not to go near the kid. Zane hated trouble. It seemed avoiding the kid was almost impossible though, and that made Zane quite sad because if he had to put up with something like this again he felt his mediocre life was at risk.

Zane easily caught the thugs’ fist like it was nothing. The guy had enough time to blink before Zane brought back his left fist and sent it upward into his gut. The force caused the attacker to let out a pained cough before Zane let go only so he could kick him in the chest, sending him rolling down the alley like he weighed a measly 5 pounds instead of about 190. If not for the dumpster that he hit, the guy would have likely skidded a few more feet before stopping.

It was clear to Bailey that Zane was a mutant, what level, he wasn’t sure but, there was no way he’d send a guy flying like that without some kind of enhancement. However, it seemed Zane wasn’t the only mutant around because there was a sudden ringing sound that caused Bailey to drop to his knees. It was so high pitched that it made his ears ring with such intensity that he couldn’t even stand. The world actually seemed to be vibrating.

The sound was originating from thug one, who seemed to be simply whistling yet it was letting out that painfully loud sound. He didn’t even care that his friend couldn’t handle it either. He had his hands over his ears as well, stepping back while trying to shout for his friend to stop. His pleading was ignored and so he was on the ground just like Bailey within seconds.

Zane, on the other hand, didn’t react as the others did. He flinched, his eyes shutting half way while he glared at the asshole who dared to give him a headache.

Thug one’s face showed confusion, he wasn’t sure why Zane wasn’t dropping like the others. If anything, he went from looking bored to pissed, which was true. Zane was pretty pissed because he was there, in a fight, rather than at home drinking beer and watching bad horror movies. There was so much more he rather be doing than getting into some stupid fight.

Though it was painful and the sound really did mess with Zane, he stepped forward and again and again and again. Each step he took caused thug one to take one step back. His whistling grew louder and it caused Zane’s legs to shake while Bailey was silently screaming a few feet away.

There was a brief moment where Zane held up his hand, his fingers twitched as he once again found himself contemplating. However, he dropped his hand and simply ran forward without warning regardless of the slight pain from doing so.

The asshole wasn’t expecting it so he didn’t have time to react to Zane’s fist that slammed against his nose with a resounding crack. Blood poured from the thug’s nose and his whistling finally stopped only to be replaced with his agonized shout that came after a second hit but to his stomach rather than his face. He tried to fight back, bringing back his own fist to throw a punch that Zane brushed off. He grabbed the assholes arm and swung him over his shoulder, sending him into the concrete with a loud bang.

One kick to his face was what ended the whole battle. Thug one was knocked out cold with blood pouring from his nose.

Since the whistling had stopped, it allowed both Bailey and the remaining attacker to finally see clearly again. Bailey’s world was slowly coming back to him so he pushed himself to his knees. Though things were blurry and he still felt woozy, he made out the remaining jerk, who gave Zane one frightened look before running off with his tail between his legs.

For a brief moment, Zane considered going after the guy to teach him a lesson. By brief it was literally a nanosecond before he thought, no way in hell. That was far too much excitement and Zane didn’t do excitement.

It was over and Zane had no desire to stick around. He had helped so his conscious was clean. Yep, he was the good guy, helped that bad luck charm so his job was done. There was nothing more he could, or rather, wanted to do. It was already more than what he should have done so, rather than check on Bailey, he grabbed his beer and began walking back to his car.

The idea of watching movies, munching on Doritos and drinking beer was almost enough to make Zane smile. Almost. However, that glorious vision of his was completely ruined by the sound of Bailey finally vomiting.

Zane couldn’t help but think, but that was supposed to be the end of it.

It was sickening to hear Bailey’s gags and it made Zane shiver while he stuck his tongue out in disgust. Slowly, he spun his head around to see the kid hunched over, spewing up whatever food or drink he had earlier. It was clear he was out of it, his eyes were barely open, glasses all fogged up and dirty, while his entire body was shaking. Zane wasn’t sure if that was from the cold, the rain, the fact he got his ass beat or that insanely annoying whistling from earlier.

Honestly, it was likely all of the above.

“Ignore him,” Zane said to himself with a very stern nod. He narrowed his eyes on Bailey’s hunched over figure, growled and turned around while taking a step onto the main street but…

Bailey threw up again.

Zane slapped his hand over his face, dragged it slowly down and groaned, “I hate trouble.”