Marquis's face twisted in disgust and shock.
"What the heck are you doing!" he demanded.
Dex was pressing Ann against the storeroom wall, his left hand clamped over her mouth to silence her. Tears streamed down Ann's face as Dex's right hand groped her chest, his knee digging between her thighs.
Dex quickly turned to see Marquis, and he could see the disgust on his face, rage flashing in his eyes.
"Who the fuck said you could come in here?" Dex growled, backing away from Ann, releasing her.
"Ann, you can leave," Marquis said, his voice firm but gentle.
Dex glared at Marquis.
"Ann, don't you move a fuckin inch. Understand?"
Ann, bolted for the door, pausing beside Marquis to whisper, "thank you", before fleeing.
Dex's chest heaved with fury. Marquis could tell a beating was inevitable. Before he could say anything, a slap exploded across the right side of his head, and a stinging pain surged through the entire side. The force slammed him into a wall, his ear ringing as he crumpled forward.
Marquis staggered up, clutching his skull and turned around. Ethan stood there, closing the storeroom door.
"Did you just fuckin push me?" Ethan asked with rage.
Before Marquis could react, a hand grabbed him, turning him around, and Dex's fist crushed into his stomach. He let out a guttural groan, falling to his knees. Ethan and Dex quickly closed in.
"Let's fuck him up!"
Marquis stood up, looking for a way out. If he didn't do something soon, these guys were definitely going to leave him half-dead in the storeroom. Ethan and Dex started beating him up, throwing punches nonstop. Marquis stood up, covering his head with his arms, trying to save himself. Fear and anger gripped him, and he screamed,
"Ahhhhhh!"
Shoving Ethan away with a kick to the gut, causing him to fall to the ground. He spun, swinging his right hand and landed a wild punch on Dex's face. His fist connected and sank into Dexter's cheek, pushing him back a few steps.
Dex and Ethan were both caught by surprise by this. Dex gripped his cheek. Ethan groaned on the floor and Marquis panted, both his fists clutched on the sides of his waist. He was surprised, he had just fought back for the first time ever.
Dex and Ethan recovered quickly and charged toward Marquis. They had to remove the embarrassment they had just faced. Marquis didn't really know how to fight, but he started swinging his fists with both his eyes closed. Maybe two or three punches landed before Dex and Ethan completely wasted him. After a few minutes, they left him completely passed out and quickly disappeared from the scene.
A few minutes later, Marquis slowly opened his eyes and forced himself off the floor. He sat down, his back against the wall. He wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his lips and a small laugh bubbled up.
"Ha! I actually landed a punch," he said proudly and started laughing.
"This is getting interesting. Let's see who'll get the last laugh"
He got up and started walking toward the door. He slapped his clothes a bit, removing the dust on him, before turning the doorknob to leave. He walked out smiling through his bruises. All he could think about was what he called his first fight.
The few students in the hallways were confused.
"Why is he smiling? From his injuries, the Untouchables obviously beat him up again."
"Maybe he lost a few screws in his head from the beating he received," another student snickered, laughing. Marquis ignored them and continued walking, a proud smile on his face.
He walked into the classroom, and everyone stared at him, confused because of how happy he was. He had both his hands in his pockets and started walking between the desks, his eyes locked with Dex's. He noticed the bruise on Dex's cheek and couldn't help but think to himself:
"He doesn't look Untouchable to me."
Dex still had a lot of rage from the punch he received from Marquis, and he could tell Marquis had gained the freakish strength he, Chloe, Nia, and Kareem had gotten.
Marquis was heading toward Dex but turned when he was right in front of Dex and headed toward Ann, leaving the Untouchables stunned. The Untouchables waited for Dex to say something, but he didn't say a word, he just stared.
Marquis pulled a free chair and placed it beside Ann, sitting next to her.
"Ann, are you OK?" he asked with a soft tone.
She was frozen, lost in thought, not knowing what to do about what had happened to her in the storeroom. His question snapped her out of her daze.
"Oh my God, Marquis! Are you OK? They hurt you! We should—" Marquis interrupted her before she finished.
"Don't worry about me. I'm fine," he assured her with a smile on his face, and continued,
"How about you? Are you OK? Did they hurt you?"
She was a bit shocked and pleased to see how worried he was. She looked down with a bit of tears in her eyes, obviously shaken up by the encounter with Dex and Ethan.
Marquis could tell how hurt and emotionally affected she was by that encounter. He turned his head, rage in his eyes as he stared at the Untouchables, his eyes mostly lingering on Dex.
"I'm fine, Marquis. Let's not talk about it."
Not wanting to press the issue, Marquis sighed and declared,
"I think I'm going to start sitting here from now on."
She was taken by surprise.
"What! You mean next to me?"
Marquis smiled at her. "Yah. So treat me well, desky (deskmate)."
She laughed a bit and went into thought,
"When did he become so brave? Is he doing this for me?"
"Yo, Dex! We just gonna ignore that?" Kareem asked.
"We'll deal with him later. For now, let's just chill," Dex declared.
"Okay," Kareem replied, a bit confused by Dex's reply.
"Oh, yah, dude. What's up with the bruise on your cheek? What happened—" but he got interrupted.
"Do you ever shut up, Kareem? Shut your damn mouth for once!" Dex barked, losing his cool.
"My bad, dude. I'm sorry. Damn, wonder what crawled up your ass," Kareem widened his eyes, his voice a bit low.
"Chill, Dex. He's just asking," Chloe jumped in, defending Kareem.
"Whatever, man. Let's just chill."
After school, everyone headed home—Dex with Ethan, Kareem alone, and Chloe with Nia.
Dex dropped off Ethan at home and left to go home. On his way home, Marquis was all he had on his mind. He couldn't let a mishap like what had happened happen again. He had to make sure Marquis could never think about fighting back ever again.
A speeding car drifted on the road, losing control and heading toward a small boy coming from school.
"Yo! Get out the way!" Dex yelled.
The young boy didn't hear him.
"What am I doing?" Dex asked himself, running toward the young boy. He was too slow. When he got there, the car was already too close. He couldn't get himself and the young boy out of the way in time.
"Oh, fuck," he said, closing his eyes while holding the little boy.
"My baby!" a lady yelled, tears welling up in her eyes.
A green force field erupted above them, surrounding Dex and the young boy. The truck slammed into the shield with a loud "Bang" and crumpled against it.
The force field was planted into the ground. It got pushed back a few centimeters while he was holding the boy but managed to stop the truck. The force field quickly vanished, leaving Dex crouched down, holding the kid.
The mother ran toward them.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you, thank you so much!" she said excitedly, holding her son in her arms. All the people around started clapping, calling him brave. He waved, smiling awkwardly, enjoying the moment.
When people started taking out their phones to film him, he took off running. After a few moments of running, he stopped and started walking.
"That was crazy. I almost died out there, and for what? Why'd I even bother?," he thought.
He continued walking, talking to himself,
"This power is crazy. To think I didn't even wish for it," he paused, lost in thought, and continued,
"What was I even going to wish for? Why did I get this power?" he asked himself, confused.
He finally reached his house and opened the gate. Then he remembered something. This was the second time he had used this power.
"It also saved me from Bran," he muttered in realization. He reached the door and took a deep sigh. He placed his left ear against the door and listened. After not hearing anything, he twisted the doorknob and opened the door. The house was surprisingly quiet, too quiet. He walked forward, wondering if Bran was in the house.
He looked in the living room and saw no one. The TV was off. He sighed and turned to walk to his room and slammed his face into Bran's chest. His eyes widened, and he instantly turned to try and run away.
"Where do you think you're going, brat?" Bran barked, pulling Dex back. He grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into a wall.
"Let me go, Bran! Let me go!" Dex yelled, fear and anger in his voice, tears about to pour out.
Dex continued, "Mom! Let me go!"
"They're not coming home today, twerp. They had to visit a friend. So it's just you and me tonight," Bran smirked.
"If you wanna make things easy for yourself, you better tell me what you did to me that day. There's no way a brat like you can beat me. So start talking, Dex, what the fuck did you do?"
Dex squirmed around, trying to free himself.
"I didn't do anything! Let me go!"
Bran snarled and hurled Dex across the room.
He started walking toward Dex.
"You know what? It don't matter if you tell me or not. But I have to make you pay for thinking that you can fight back. This is my house, madafaka!"
Bran took his shirt off, flexing his muscles, about to beat the living hell out of Dex.
Dex sat down and started crawling backward until his back was against a wall. He stood up.
"Bran, I'm sorry."
But Bran kept on walking toward Dex with a smirk on his face. He pulled his arm back and threw a strong right punch at Dex. Dex closed his eyes, and memories came flooding into his mind, him and his brother Bran used to be good friends, inseparable. Memories of him and Bran playing tag, playing on swings, and stealing from their parents together hit him hard. Everything changed when he spied on his brother getting ruthlessly beaten up by their father. From that day onward, he became Bran's target and personal punching bag.
His force field activated. Bran slammed into it. His fist bounced off, and he got pushed back a few feet.
Bran's eyes opened in shock, looking at the green, almost see-through force field in front of Dex. Dex opened his eyes and looked at his force field.
"This is why I got this," he muttered.
"What the hell is that?" Bran asked, anger on his face.
"How the fuck did you do that?!" Bran yelled.
Dex ignored him, lost in thought.
"All I ever wanted was to be friends with you again," Dex muttered, tears in his eyes.
"Why do you do this to me? Why, Bran? I'm your fucken brother, man!"
"Shut up!!!"
"Do you think I'm weak? I'm gonna fuckin' kill you, Dex! I hate that stupid look on your face!" Bran yelled, then lunged at Dex.
Dex's force field surrounded him. Bran threw another punch, but it bounced off the force field. He got angrier and kept on throwing punches nonstop.
"Get out here, Dex! What the fuck is this thing?! You're only making things worse for yourself, Dex!"
Dex laughed, tears pouring from his eyes.
"I thought about you when I got this power. No matter what I did, I couldn't stop seeing you in my head, all the horrible things you did to me. I needed protection from you."
He turned his head and looked at Bran.
"What kind of a brother are you? I fucken hate you!"
In a fast motion, his force field expanded and grew larger around him, slamming into Bran and sending him flying. Bran's back slammed into a wall, and a mouthful of blood gushed out from his mouth as he crashed onto the floor.
"I don't need a brother like you. So stay the fuck away from me, Bran!" he declared, his voice hinting at a possible warning. Then he stormed out.
Bran was stunned and shocked by his brother's words.
"Dex!!! Get back here! Dex!!!"