Chapter 9: Declaration of War

Alex arrived home that day, no cars in the driveway and the house had no lights on. His parents had left for a vacation, and he volunteered to stay behind and watch the house.

He had spent some time convincing them to do this, as this would get them out of the way and leave him free to clean up the mess while they're gone.

He had no idea what those two were planning, but he had caught traces of them here and there in increasing frequency. The fight was happening soon, and he had to be ready for anything, so of course he moved weakness numero uno out of town.

Late that afternoon, after he had gotten some rest in preparation for more training that night, Alex got a call from Duke's girlfriend, Jenna.

"Yo, what's up?"

Alex responded non-nonchalantly, but the second she started speaking his face hardened.

"Somebody's stalking me. And, and...they killed Jack." Jenna broke down hysterically as she cried while covering her mouth. In front of her lay the dead body of her dog, a husky. It was horrifically mutilated, to clearly give an impression on the poor girl.

"What the fuck?! Hang on, I'll be over with Duke right away!"

"That's not all though. They left a note, with an address and time, with instructions to tell you to go there. And, there's a picture of me with the note. I think they're gonna kill me next." Color had drained from Alex's face, and he might have broken the phone in his hands on accident if he had his powers right now.

There was no mistake who sent that message, if they were asking for him. "They won't. How soon is that time?"

"Just an hour from now, why?" Looking outside, Alex knew the sun would have set by then, and it would be dark out. 'Well, at least they play by the same rules I do.'

"That means they're gonna be busy with me soon. And trust me, they won't be doing much after that. So don't you worry alright, I'll take care of this. Have you called Duke yet?"

"No, I didn't want him to get involved in this. I'm scared he'd get hurt." Putting her boyfriend's safety above her own, even though him protecting her was the very reason they started dating. She really was a great girl.

"You don't have to worry about anything. I'll send Duke over to you, and settle this myself. Oh, and don't forget to text me that address."

Despite being constantly reassured by Alex who was putting up a brave front, Jenna was still terrified, let alone grieving. "Why don't we just call the police, send them to that site and let them handle it?"

Knowing the boy's capabilities in the dark, even if bullets could hurt them they'd just pick off the cops one by one. It would be sending sheep to a slaughter. Of course, he couldn't exactly say that. "Just, trust me when I say that wouldn't end well. If you feel like putting Duke in the hot seat, ask him what I mean later."

That should stop her from asking, since she wouldn't want to bother him. With that, he gave her a few more reassuring words, before ending the call. Soon she texted him the address. Alex, was absolutely furious.

Right now he wanted nothing more than to punch something very, very hard. She was the perfect loophole to aim for, close enough to him to be a good enough chip, and far enough that she was hard to protect.

After all, she still had to go to school, be at home with her parents. They couldn't micromanage her schedule to keep her safe, not constantly anyways, so there was no good way to prevent this.

As for why they didn't just kidnap her outright, it's because that was a little too close to risking unwanted involvement from other parties. Just a threat like this was enough to garner the attention they wanted. Though Alex couldn't make a bet on them not going through with the implied threat.

'They could have just threatened me. Or Duke. But her? A relatively uninvolved, innocent girl dating my best friend? And killing her fucking dog? Consider the line crossed.'

Sighing, he made the next important call. "Duke, it's me. This is gonna be a lot to take in, but those assholes are stalking Jenna and using her as a chip. If I don't go to their scheduled place for a fight, they're probably gonna jump her. So you need to go be with her, keep her calm and make her feel safe, while I end this tonight."

He had mere seconds to process this, and Duke was already in a rage. In order to not give a detail overload, Alex skipped over the dog murdering bit. Duke loved that dog. "They did WHAT?! Like hell I'm being on the sidelines for this, I'm going to kick their ass with you!"

"If I thought you could, I'd absolutely let you. But you don't have powers, so honestly you're more useful as emotional support for her than physical support for me. Besides, she's just a normal girl. She's fucking terrified man. Go to her, now."

With all he needed to say out of the way, Alex ended the call and moved towards the address. This was ending tonight.

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By the time he arrived, it was already dark and only slightly before the scheduled time. What lay before him, was an abandoned storage warehouse. That meant a lot of shelves, a lot of blind spots, and a lot of ways for the twins to fuck him over.

No more fancy outfit this time, he just wore a red T shirt and blue jeans. It was almost like painting a target on himself, which is exactly what he wanted. This was gonna be a true blue showdown.

Alex checked his connection one last time, the trickle of energy going through his blood. He was able to increase the amount slightly, due to his heart being strengthened over the training these past few weeks.

He was definitely way stronger than he was the first time he fought them, but would it be enough to deal with them when they would be serious from the start? He had no idea. But he had no choice.

This had to end tonight. They, had to end tonight, if need be. And with his heart steeled, Alex entered the warehouse. It was pitch black in there, the only light being moonlight that shone in from behind him.

Guess there was another reason they chose this one, all the windows were boarded so no light could get in. Or maybe they took the time to do that themselves. Whatever the case, he just strolled right on in.

They would be waiting for him to walk between the aisles and move further into the center of the building before they could get a jump on him. Thinking from their perspective, he thought about the best shelf to ambush him from on top of, and walked up to the side of it.

He casually grabbed it, and then yanked sideways full force, tipping it over to it's left into another shelf. If one would be on that shelf, then another would be on the one that it got knocked into. A domino effect rippled as several of the shelves fell over and dozens of boxes fell and broke.

But what he was interested in were the two silhouettes that jumped down from the top of the shelves hastily. One of them landed perfectly and began to circle around to the right. While the other landed a little awkwardly, and took a second before following.

'They can't sync themselves properly thanks to me. That's mighty convenient.'

Of course, it was only once they gave up all pretenses of stealth that he could feel their power. Unlike his own, which was just a stream coursing through himself, lacking shape and identity, theirs was sharp and focused. Fierce too.

If he looked hard enough, he could see the aura of vicious dogs surrounding the two of them, something he couldn't see before. It was as this moment something clicked in his head. Of course it wasn't individual stars powering them, it was actually constellations.

This was one of his theories of course, so he had done some research into the 88 constellations. And if it was two, in sync dogs then it was clearly Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs.

'Good, if I know their source maybe I can plan around it. They'll have strong claws, strong tracking abilities and high maneuverability. Also impeccable synchronization, if I let them.'

The first brother, clearly Damien due to the lack of disability, reached him and jumped at him, swiping his hand with his fingers outstretched, the nails sharpened. Due to their hatred for him, their movements were obvious but deadly.

A single wasted movement to dodge would leave him open to a deadly barrage, so Alex decided to block it with his left forearm, and counterpunch with his right.

He grit his teeth as the claw tore right through the outer layer of his skin and drew blood, but luckily it couldn't cut deeper than that. But, that was the hardest his defense was getting, so that was not a good sign.

It was accompanied by some great news though, as Alex drove his opposite foot down and slammed his fist home into Damien's feral face. His defenses were broken through instantly, and Damien was sent flying back, caught by his brother who slid along the ground from the momentum, and grunted from the pain.

Daniel's head shot up when his brother screamed in pain. Instantly he realized what was wrong, as a tooth was knocked right out of his mouth and onto the floor. One of the sharpened canines.

Both brothers were forced to focus on something else though, as steady footsteps echoed throughout the building. As his face was covered in shadow from the light from outside now at his back, Alex strode towards them, his own blood dripping from his left, and his enemy's from his right.

"You picked this fight not once, but twice. One way or another, you won't be picking it a third time."