Zack was enjoying a solo but very contented drink at the bar of his favorite dive when someone shouted that there was a fight at the door.
Stan looked up from topping off a tray of beer with a rather frantic expression and shouted, “Indoors or out?” Nobody thought to answer him. With the crowd mobbing the entrance it was impossible to tell. Zack leaned back on his stool trying to see through the curious throng. “Great, just had to be the night the bouncer gets the flu.” The bartender moaned as he flipped back the section of bar that doubled as a door, and tried to force his way through the crowd.
Feeling sorry for the man, Zack gulped the last of his beer. “Wait up Stan, I’ll help. What happened to the other guy? Bill?”
“No clue, called him when
“Surprised you didn’t try to borrow one from down the street.”
“What from Club45? Those bastards are just so-” He ducked beneath an outstretched arm and then got pushed sideways by a careless elbow. Zack caught the man before he could stagger into a pack of twenty-somethings with high fashion jackets, and took the lead. Politeness was over rated when a person was in a hurry. He simply plowed forward at slow speed forcing the people in his way to make room for him between them. Eventually even that tactic failed, the final crush at the door unmovable, a cattle car’s worth of idiots gawking at what was happening on the street out side.
“Move it, Fuckwits! _Shinra_ coming through here! Move!” Even with the music and chatter, the sound of a parade ground worthy bark, got people’s attention. He sighed at the frozen stares he got and tried to be more explicit. “Back away from the door! I’m coming through!”
Some combination of the authority in his voice, his intimidating size, and the fact that he was still in uniform, if relatively unbuttoned, got the reaction he needed. The mass of spectators wedged out of his way as best they could, and he made a push for the door. Behind him he could feel Stan tucked into his wake like an ambulance chaser, fighting not to be dislodged by the crowd closing in behind them.
“Stan! Help!” A woman Zack vaguely recognized as a regular shouted for the bartender the minute they staggered out on to the street. Out of the stifling press of people, it was easy to see what was going on. Just beyond the huddled group of frightened women, was a couple in the middle of a very ugly lover’s spat. A grizzled man had his girlfriend by the front of her dress, almost lifting her off her feet as he slapped her hard enough to rock her head back on her shoulders. Behind him a rather flash car idled in the middle of the street.
“Oh hell, Eddie, what are you doing? Don’t make me call the cops.” Stan moved to intercept the man before he could administer another blow to the girl, but flinched back at the look the guy threw his direction. “What ever she did, man, I think she’s got the message.”
“I’m going to kill this bitch. Call the cops if you want, but I’m going to kill her! I am sick and tired of her fucking around on me!”
Zack saw the switchblade as it was pulled from a pocket and decided to step in before Stan ended up needing stitches. The man was a sweet heart, but a lousy brawler. “Sorry friend I can’t let you do that.”
“Oh. You think you can stop me, muscle man?” Eddie didn’t look impressed with him on sight. Either that or he was too drunk, or high, to care. His girl made the mistake of recovering from her faint enough to moan, earning a harsh shake for her efforts.
“Please Eddie- I’m sorry?” Weakly she tried to enunciate with her bloodied lips. “You said we were over- I mean, I thought we were over- I’m sorry!”
“Dumb cunt.” He shoved her down onto the asphalt. Zack added the injury to his tally of reasons why he was pissed right now. “I’m going to kill you just as soon as I gut hero-boy here.” Looking up, he shifted his knife from hand to hand. “Think you’re hot shit, don’tcha wearing that fucking uniform. Come on pretty boy, I know you’re type, you’re all looks.”
“We’ll just have to see, won’t we?” Zack grinned his favorite ‘just try and fuck with me’ smile. “Let’s dance, tiger. I could use the exercise.”
“Shut up!” The knife jab, like the man, was pretty pathetic on close inspection. Zack sidestepped his opponent’s blade, and calmly caught Eddie’s wrist as he over extended. It took only a gentle squeeze to have the man gasping, fingers going numb under the pressure and dropping the weapon. Zack squeezed a little harder, feeling the bones grating in a gratifying way between his fingers.
“Oh fuck!” Looking down he smiled mildly at the man sweating and wincing in his grip. At first Eddie tried to use his spare hand to claw his captured one free and when that failed, swung at him in desperation. Zack smiled wider as the fist came in contact with his shoulder with all of about fifty pounds of force.
“Sorry tiger, you’re going to have to hit me a lot harder if you’re trying to get my attention.”
“I’ll kill you!” The threat sounded a lot less convincing when whimpered. Taking pity on the man, Zack settled for dropping the mangled wrist in favor of lifting him bodily off the pavement by his sharkskin jacket and shaking him a little.
“It’s not nice to hit girls, you know. Especially when the girls aren’t hitting back.”
“Whore deserved it.” Eddie spat, “Not even a proper whore now is she…” His laugh died as he was rattled again.
“No wonder she left you, if you talk about her like that.” Zack chided mildly, “It is guys like you who give the rest of us a bad rap with the ladies.”
“She’s no lady. She’s just a stupid cock-sucking wh-“
Zack cut him off with another hard shake. “Don’t push your luck mate. I may just decide to cram you in a dumpster after all.” Lowering him back onto the pavement, he made a show of dusting him off and turning him around to walk him to his car. What little patience he had left was forgotten when the bastard had the audacity to kick the girl as she was slowly trying to crawl away from them towards her friends. She whimpered, curling on the road to protect her head.
“You little shit.” Zack caught him by the back of his neck, easily overcoming his struggles to push him towards his car. “Go home, Eddie. No one wants you here.” Turning back to the bar as the car peeled away, he waved over his shoulder. “Don’t come back now.”
“I’ll kill you!” The man hollered out his window. He heard the squeal of tires changing directions even as several screams from the crowd tried to alert him.
At only two car lengths away, the riced-up late model didn’t have time to accelerate much past 30 miles per hour. Zack jumped, trusting the rubber soles of his boots to stick the landing as he slammed down, froglike, on the hood of the speedster. He left an impressive dent.
The driver naturally slammed on the breaks, swearing up a blue streak as Zack calmly punched out his windshield. Safety glass shattered marvelously, bending with the sticky glue that held the panes together. Zack only pressed into the center of the broken section until his fingers broke through. He gripped what was left firmly, ripping the rest of the glass out with a quick pull, and discarding it on the street. Eddie cowered back behind the wheel when he looked in on him.
“I’ve changed my mind. I _am_ going to stuff you in a dumpster. Think you’re cute car is going to have to join you.”
“What kind of freak are you?!”
“You must be living under a rock, tiger. Never heard of a SOLDIER before?” Zack tilted
his head a little. “How much this car weigh, you think? Two-thousand?
Probably not even that. Front-wheel drive though, that’s handy.”
“Whu-What are you going to do?!”
Zack casually raised his fist and drove it down into the hood of the car, caving it in to a deep depression and crunching the timing belts below. The engine coughed and stalled. “Come on, tiger, let’s go for a walk.”
Hopping off the hood, Zack took the liberty of punching in the driver’s side door, latch, breaking the mechanism as he walked around the front. Glancing under the bumper as Eddie struggled to rev the crippled engine again, he nodded in satisfaction. “The frame looks sturdy enough.” With a grunt, he lifted the front wheels off the ground and rolled the vehicle backwards like an oversized wheelbarrow, past the cheering bar-crowd and down the road. He grinned at Stan as he passed. “I’ll be back in a bit. See that the ladies are settled, and pull a tall one from the tap for me?”
“On the house.” The bartender murmured as he watched him pass.
“Oh my god let me out! Where are we going! I’m going to report you!” Eddie had recovered from his shock enough that he stopped swearing, and fell to threatening instead.
Zack sighed. “I’d drop you off the edge of the plate, but it’s further than I feel like pushing you right now. So you’ll just have to be content to spend a while cooling off in an alley somewhere.”
“You bastard. When I get out of
here…”
“You’ll tell no one.” He gazed coolly at the man peering up at him though the steering wheel. “You did just try to kill a girl, knife me, and then run me over, if you recall, in front of witnesses I might add. Witnesses who happen to be friends of mine.”
“Well if you think this is going to stop that bitch Penny from getting what she deserves-”
“Lay a hand on that girl again, and not only will I hear about it, I’ll bring friends.” He hefted the car a little as he walked, jostling its occupant back into his seat. “And next time, we really will throw you off the plate.”
A convenient alley presented itself just as Eddie regained the courage to swear at him some more. Zack steered the car in, and then considering his options, flipped it upside-down just for spite. Still buckled in, Eddie whimpered as the roof crumpled slightly blocking any exit through the now absent windshield. Looking over his handiwork, Zack decided the man would still be able to crawl out a back window if he put some effort into it, and wandered back to the bar to collect on his drink.
He came back to a hero’s welcome, random strangers congratulating him as he pushed in and claimed his stool again. Stan looked a little frazzled as he pushed the extra tall glass his direction and then went back to serving up celebratory drinks by the dozen with his assistants. Zack sucked the top inch off the beer and wallowed a moment in the good karma he had generated. When the bartender hit a lull he waved him over, curious about the damsels he had rescued. “Where are our distressed darlings?”
“I tucked them in the back room, Penny took a real crack to the head, they’re cleaning her up a bit before deciding if she needs to go to a hospital.”
“Poor thing. Think they’d mind if I go poke my nose in?”
“You’re probably the only man they’ll let in.” Stan grinned. “Take you’re pick of ‘em they’d probably stand in line to show you how grateful they are.”
“You’re a depraved man.” Zack waggled his finger at his friend. “Don’t think for a moment that I wouldn’t, though. After I offer my assistance to poor Penny.”
Knocking on the back door got an immediate “Piss Off.” From a feisty sounding female. He grinned an knocked again, stepping back as the door jerked open, dodging any potential slaps. A woman with wavy black hair peered at him, first in annoyance, and then in delight. Wracking his brain he found he could apply a name to the pretty face.
“You’re Christy, right? I’ve seen you around here before. How’s Penny?”
“Come on in, Zack. Stan told me who you were. The others are all dying to meet you.” She stood aside so he could scoot past. He looked down to admire her low cut dress as he came in. A little gratitude sex was never something to turn down, and he found the options available perfectly lovely. Shaking his head he remembered his priorities and grinned at her knowing smirk. Propped up between two other well-dressed ladies, the third looked sadly battered. One was trying to pull her hair gently back in some semblance of an order while the other applied ice to her face.
“Ouch.” He murmured in sympathy as the ice pack was removed a moment and revealed a cut lip and scratched cheek. “Bastard did a number on you.”
“Huh?” Penny looked up at him, eyes raccoon like with smeared mascara and bruising, and promptly turned her face into her friend’s shoulder in embarrassment. “Oh god don’t look, I’m ugly.”
Zack caught her chin as gently as he could, holding her steady so the ice could be reapplied. “If I had thought I’d be getting involved with an assault and battery tonight I’d have brought my first aid kit. You ought to get that lip seen to.”
“Yeah.” She sniffed a little as she submitted to his inspection. “Thanks. For everything. I thought he was going to kill me.”
He shrugged. “He probably was planning to. I think I’ve convinced him to leave you alone for a while, but I would play it low profile a while if I were you. Stay out of his sight.”
“Believe me,” One of her friends replied, “We plan to.”
“How’re you girls going to take her to the hospital? Want me to call an ambulance?” He offered chivalrously, wishing he had driven tonight. Not having a car at times like this was a serious pain. If he had thought ahead, he would have kept the jerk’s car intact and just pulled the man out the window and chucked him in a dumpster like he had originally planned.
Christie shook her head. “No, I think we’ll be ok, Doreen is bring her car around, we’ll drive her to the walk-ins entrance of the place on South Circle Drive.”
“Good plan.”
Zack had no sooner said it, than the other woman returned. Sticking her head around the door, the perky red head shouted. “I’m back! Who’s the- Oh! It’s him!” He offered her his boyscout-special smile.
“How do you do?”
“I do very well, thanks to you, gorgeous.” She let herself
in, looking him over thoroughly before turning to give her friend a more
worried study. “Think you can walk, sweetie?”
“I wouldn’t dream of allowing her to.” Zack chided, cutting Penny off mid mumble. “If you ladies would allow me?” They were tickled pink to stand back and allow him to gently scoop their friend up in his arms. “Comfy?” He asked the top of the woman’s head. She was too mortified to look up at him. He reminded himself she was definitely too bruised to appreciate him turning on the charm. Nodding to the other women that they should lead the way, he followed them out to the street amid a second, and considerably drunker round of cheering. It took all of a moment to tuck his burden safely into the back seat of the compact car. Zack waved goodbye on the sidewalk as Penny, Doreen and two of their friends were whisked away into the night. “Hope they can patch her up ok.”
“Me too.” Christie took the liberty of tucking her hand under his elbow, happily leaning against his arm. Another woman, whose name he had never learned, mimicked her on his other arm. Zack looked at each in turn, wondering precisely what they were up to, other than the obvious.
“Might a man buy you two a drink? Settle your nerves?”
“Think it ought to go the other way, don’t you?” Christy laughed, “We owe you, after all.”
“A gentleman never charges a damsel in distress for her rescue.” Zack replied staunchly. “Besides, Stan’s already poured me a double pint.”
“Super SOLDIERs have super livers.” She squeezed his arm in friendly fashion as her friend giggled.
Zack nodded as he steered his two new friends back towards the drinks. He’d doubtless get it in the ear, if any of his involvement with Eddie and Eddie’s car ever made it back to Shinra HQ, but at the moment, he was well satisfied with the outcome of the evening.