Richard’s eyes widened as he darted in the opposite direction at full speed. He swerved and bumped into someone, causing the both of them to fall back.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!” The person retorted. He got up, rubbing his head, which had a lightning scar embodied on him.

Richard got up and brushed himself off. “Can’t talk right now, I’m in a hurry!”

“Hold on, I’m not through with you just yet!” The man with the scar thundered. “Hey, wait.” He squinted his eyes and inspected the blob. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Um, no. Why do you ask?”

“Hey, Lightning, what’s going on here?” Another man walked over next to the lightning guy.

This one had a red cyborg-like eye attached. Judging from their appearances, they didn’t look like individuals Richard should mess with or get on their awful side.

“Wait, I recognize this fellow.” The man with the cyborg's eye said, “I saw him at the bar. One of the lackeys also mentioned he was there as well.”

“Now that you mention it...” Lightning scratched his chin. “Cyborg, you don’t suppose that this guy...?”

“Yeah.”

Richard gulped as he eyed the back wall. What was the holdup and when can he leave? “What’s that got to do with me? Do you mind? Because I have somewhere—”

“Hold up.” Cyborg interrupted. “Hey, you, we heard from our leader that there’s this ‘Casanova’ who’s messing around with women, including his wife... that wouldn’t be you, would it?”

“Wait, what?” Richard shook his head. “No way.”

The two stayed silent and exchanged glances at each other.

“I think he’s lying.” Lightning whispered.

“It’s not like he’ll admit it.” Cyborg shrugged. “Why don’t we just give this man a bit of payback and karmic justice.”

“Yeah, I’m sure our leader would like that.”

The two thugs smirked and turned their attention towards Richard. They sauntered toward him and pulled out a pocket knife and a gun. Richard backed himself off against the wall and as sweat trickled down his back.

“H—Hey wait, can’t we talk about this?” Richard asked.

“What are you doing?” Fawn hissed. “You can take them on! Fight back!”

“I can’t!” He mouthed to her.

Lightning charged forward to use his knife toward him as Richard tried to dodge out of the way. Richard spent his time avoiding combat and trying to escape, when Cyborg dashed to where he was and whacked the back of his head with the gun, causing him to tumble to the ground. Richard crawled and looked up at the thugs, who leaned over him.

“Why don’t you give it up?” Lightning grabbed the guy and shoved him against the wall.

“Man, aren’t you pathetic?” Cyborg said with a sneer.

Richard coughed up some blood and wheezed, trying to speak. Fawn watched over and grit her teeth. She flew over and took over the blob’s body to regain composure and knock the thug’s hands off him.

“Enough. Leave us alone right now.”

Lightning and Cyborg took a step back as their eyes widened. “Did another voice come out of...?”

“Wait, you don’t think it could be...?”

“Halt!” An intruding voice interrupted. “All of you stop!”

“Who said that?” Fawn questioned.

“I did!”

The group looked over as a shadow with piercing red eyes stood on top of a building. The shadow leaped in the air and landed in their wake; the moonlight revealing the figure to be a mechanical robotic suit of armor. None of them knew how to react, as they stayed in dead silence.

“As a defender of the city, I must have justice prevail!” The robot continued, pointing at the three of them. “Come with me peacefully or else.”

“Are you buying this?” Lightning whispered.

“Not at all.” Cyborg shook his head.

“Let’s leave these three and get out of here.”

“Yeah, doubt we’d have a chance against this machine.”

The two snuck by while the machine got distracted and left.

“Hey, get back here! You’re going to get it now!” The robot thundered. They turned to Richard and Fawn. “You stay right here and don’t you move or else! I’ll be right back for you!” They stormed off in no time at all.

Fawn left Richard’s body and speculated on the whole scenario.

“Weird. Who was that? And why did the one jerk say, ‘those three’? I mean, technically there were—”

“Yeah, that’ll show them,” Richard stated as his body wobbled over and he lost balance again. His eyes drifted off as he fell onto the floor, his mind wandered off into a slumber.

“Richard?” Fawn turned and gasped, noticing he lost consciousness. “Richard!”