The bar was quiet for a Tuesday night.
Johan sat alone at the counter, a Manhattan in hand, watching the ice shift lazily against the glass. The low ambient lighting caught the deep, distorted tracks of the burn scars on his cheek. He pulled his phone from his coat pocket and dialed a number from memory.
It rang twice before the connection clicked open.
"Hello?"
"Boy," Johan said, his tone entirely conversational. "I have a test for you."
A heavy pause hung on the line, and then the voice on the other end practically surged through the receiver, thick with sudden adrenaline. "Really?! Finally! I swear I won't disappoint you!"
"I hope not," Johan said, taking a slow sip of his drink. "Because if you want to become my disciple, you need to pass the test of courage."
"Courage?"
"Yes." Johan set the glass down on the polished wood. "I don't expect you to win. All I want is for you to break into that old man's house—the one I told you about—and fight the ones protecting him. Go all out. Then come back. You don't have to kill any of them; they outnumber you anyway. What I want from you is simple."
He stared at the amber liquid. "I want you to not be filled with fear."
"I'll do it! I'll pass the courage test—wait, what did you name it exactly?"
Johan's gaze remained fixed on the counter for a moment, his mind drifting through past iterations. "…I don't know. I think I gave it two names."
"Which one is it?"
"…Ah, forget it. You understood what I meant. Go cause some chaos."
"Yes, sir!"
The line went dead. Johan picked up his glass again, the ice clinking softly in the silence of the bar.
***
"Alright," Mayex said, his voice drawing the attention of the room. "I guess we need to start preparing to go find Johan."
The group opened their mouths to respond, but the sentence was cut short.
The living room window exploded inward.
A heavy stone shattered the glass, sending sharp fragments raining across the hardwood floor. A second later, a boy vaulted through the broken frame, dropping into a crouch inside the room. He looked roughly their age, his features pale and entirely ordinary—short black hair, dark brown eyes. He casually brushed a stray shard of glass off his sleeve and looked around at the assembled group.
Benny stared at him, her chest rising and falling in surprise. "Hey! Why did you break that window?! That was not kind of you at all!"
The boy looked genuinely confused by the question, tilting his head slightly. "…Because I came here for chaos?"
"Oh," Benny said, her brow furrowing. "On your own?"
Before she could finish the thought, Adam's hand flashed to his belt. His dagger was out in a fraction of a second. Closing the distance in a single, explosive stride, he drove the blade straight toward the boy's throat.
The intruder ducked beneath the arc with reflexive speed, his hand sweeping across the windowsill. He snatched a jagged shard of glass from the broken frame and whipped his arm forward.
"FUCK—"
The glass sliced cleanly across Adam's forearm. He stumbled back, his grip loosening on his weapon as blood began to seep through his sleeve.
Mayex and Boran moved simultaneously—Mayex flanking from the right, Boran pressing hard from the left, both closing in at full speed to pin him down.
The intruder didn't try to engage them. Instead, his fingers locked around a much larger, heavier piece of glass from the frame and hurled it across the room.
Not at the two attackers.
At Benny.
The shard drove deep into her forearm.
"AHHHHHH! It hurts!"
She collapsed backward, clutching her arm as blood stained her fingers. Tears immediately spilled down her face. Despite her training, she was still only fourteen, and the sudden, sharp reality of the wound broke through her defense.
Everything in the room stopped.
Mayex froze mid-stride. Boran's momentum died instantly. The boy used that fraction of a second perfectly—he was already across the room, a new, razor-sharp sliver of glass pressed firmly against the skin of Benny's neck.
"If you don't want her dead," the boy said quietly, his breathing steady, "you're going to listen to me. All of you."
The silence in the room became absolute.
Mayex was the first to speak, his eyes locked on the glass against Benny's throat. "Why. What do you want."
"A fair fight," the boy replied. "One of you steps forward. Just one. I fight clean. But if anyone else moves—" He applied a fraction of pressure, the glass indenting her skin. "—she dies. Do we have a deal?"
Mayex's gaze flicked to Boran. Boran looked to Adam, who was staunching the blood on his arm. Adam looked at Elara.
"Yes," Adam said through his teeth.
"Yes," Mayex said.
"Yes," Boran repeated.
"…Ye," Elara whispered, her hand resting near her pocket.
"Good," the boy said, his smile returning. "Then who's it going to be?"
Mayex stepped forward, his boots crunching on the shattered glass. "Me." His voice dropped into a flat, icy register. "No one hurts my little sister and walks out of here. I will punch you until your skull is crushed."
The intruder used his free hand to quickly bind Benny's wrists with a piece of discarded cord from his pocket, tossed his shard of glass aside, and stepped out into the center of the room. His smile widened.
"I'll show you just how different we are—" he paused, his eyes gleaming with malicious satisfaction. "—Mayex."
Mayex's eyes narrowed. The threat remained, but a cold realization hit him—how did this stranger know his name?
He didn't wait to ask. Mayex threw a heavy, straight punch targeted directly at the boy's jaw.
The intruder didn't dodge. Instead, he threw his own punch simultaneously, crossing his arm directly into Mayex's line of attack. He intercepted the blow, utilizing Mayex's forward momentum against him and multiplying the force of the collision.
The counter-force sent Mayex stumbling back several steps, his vision blurring gray for a split second as the shockwaves traveled up his arm.
*What—*
Steadying his stance, Mayex surged forward again, pivoting on his heel to launch a powerful roundhouse kick toward the boy's ribs.
The intruder simply smiled and absorbed the impact, taking the blow directly against his side. Before Mayex could retract his leg, the boy's arms clamped around it like a vise.
With a brutal twist of his torso, he slammed Mayex down hard onto the hardwood floor. Before Mayex could recover, the boy leaped into the air, driving both elbows down into Mayex's chest with the full weight of his descent.
The air exploded from Mayex's lungs, leaving him gasping on the floor.
"MAYEX!"
Elara's knife was out instantly, her weight shifting forward. Boran lunged sideways, catching her arm and holding her back with an iron grip.
The boy stood up, his breathing slightly elevated but his smile fully intact. "Well. That was easy." He looked around the circle of faces. "Who's next?"
Elara glared at Boran, but his jaw was locked tight, his fists trembling at his sides as he forced himself to abide by the terms of the standoff. He was holding himself back by a thread.
"I guess no one?" The boy tilted his head, turning back toward Mayex's prone form. "Then I suppose I wi—"
Mayex lunged upward from the floor.
Before the boy could react, Mayex's arm shot around his throat from behind, locking his forearm under the chin in a suffocating chokehold. Mayex clamped his hands together, pulling back with everything he had left.
"I will fucking kill you," Mayex hissed into his ear.
The intruder's eyes widened. He immediately drove his elbow backward into Mayex's stomach. Once. Twice. Three times, the blows landing with dull, sickening thuds.
Mayex didn't release his grip. He squeezed tighter, his teeth bared.
The boy's frantic movements began to slow. The color left his face, turning a deep, suffocating purple as his arms grew heavy and useless at his sides.
Realizing he couldn't break the hold, the intruder threw his entire weight backward.
They went down together—straight down, full weight, with Mayex taking the absolute brunt of the impact against the hard floor. The boy used the solid ground to blast the remaining air out of Mayex's lungs. The sheer force broke Mayex's grip, and his vision went entirely white as his arms fell away.
The boy rolled over and pushed himself up onto his feet.
The smile was entirely gone from his face.
He looked down at Mayex, who was coughing violently on the floor, then turned his gaze back to the rest of the group, his chest heaving as he wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.
"I will not underestimate you again," he murmured.
Slowly, the corners of his mouth pulled back into a grimace that turned back into a grin.
"So."
"Who's next?"