Down With the Struggle

The way Mercy greeted him made Clyde smile brightly. So typical of her. She made the boy blush and bow his head. "I'm sorry." He muttered so quietly as the confession just spilled out of nowhere, looking up towards Emily through his bangs.

Bonnie felt awkward and frozen. Here was the girl she had basically humiliated and was now crying for whatever reason in front of her. Bonnie didn't know what to say but when Duffy gave a firm little shove that sent the blonde stumbling towards Emily, she was forced to gain some courage.

"I-I'm Sorry... Emily..." Bonnie blurted out, averting her eyes before turning back to Emily. "Emily. I'm sorry fer what I did last time. Im sorry fer usin' ya.... " Bonnie said all of a sudden.

"I really ain't sure what's makin you cry exactly but whatever you saw in the ring that's botherin' you, I'm truly, truly sorry." Bonnie said through her own tears before opening her arms to the girl. "Just tell me what's wrong. Bonnie said with her reddned blue eyes, trying to hold it together while Clyde was rubbing his eyes with his finger and thumb.

Emily kept her head down as she walked into Bonnie and accepted her hug. Her breath broke into small, quiet sobs, and tears again rolled down her freckled cheeks.

"I'm scared," came her voice in a desperate whisper.

She moved her sweaty hands to the pockets of her wool coat and squeezed them tight. She lifted her head from Bonnie's shoulder, still without looking her in the eye, and then drew Morrigan's taser from the pocket of her coat, pressed it against Bonnie's ribs, and pulled the trigger.

Bonnie welcomed Emily in her arms and squeezed her tightly. She was beaten up and tired, but the strength in her arms had not yet left her. She sobbed alongside Emily within the embrace, hearing the girl's desperate whisper that made Bonnie sniffle.

"Why? It's gonna be okay now, kiddo." Bonnie was scared too, and it was tough for her to admit that, but the entire ordeal with Jocelyn and Allison just now had been terrifying. But there was no need for Emily to be scared. She was going to be good to her now and...

The next thing Bonnie felt against her barely covered skin was cold copper. She didn't even get to ask or see what it was as she looked Emily in the eyes before volts of electricity suddenly coarsed through her body. The horrid clicking behind heard as Bonnie was shocked.

"NNHHHH-" Her brief crying scream was cut short as she was struck, her body twitching and spaszing violently as she just limply collapsed to the floor in a tazed, twitching heap as her side burned, her eyes glazed as she stared up at the ceiling.

Clyde, even while holding Mercy, had his attention on Emily. In his druken state, he'd see his sister suddenly be fried before his eyes, watching her crumble to the floor in a busted heap as her body had been shot down by Emily's tazer. The boy's jaw hung open, watching his sister's electrocution in horror. "SONOVABITCH!" He cried out before lunging as best he could at Emily to take her down, though in his drunken state, he'd probably be slower than Duffy, he was still lunging for Emily to take down the girl who had randomly assaulted his sister.

Duffy's eyes widened as soon as Bonnie started to drop. She looked at Emily and saw red. She was tired of ALL of this bullshit and being unable to get out there and help her girlfriend was already making her inner rage burn.

She lunged at Emily with her fist cocked back and heaved it at Emily's face.

Mercy froze at the scene and stood agape. Why was it always like THIS!? Everyone was something else, someone else, looking to just be the biggest asshole they could be.

Duffy's fist smacked against Emily's nose and snapped her head back, just before a drunken Clyde Gastin collided bodily with the teenager and sent her heavily down to the floor. She cried out in pain on the landing and covered her face with her hands, as a small trickle of blood began to run down from one nostril.

"I'M SORRY!" She wailed pitifully. She was unabashedly sobbing and tried to curl into a ball, but Clyde had her pinned down. "I'm sorry!"

Suddenly, a hand seized Clyde's blonde hair and lifted him partway up, off of Emily. Another hand, like a sledgehammer, smashed him in the face.

"OI!" Bellowed the new coarse English voice. "You had all fucking better have a good explanation, or I'll bloody well put you lot in the ground!"

Dinah Clarkson had followed the sound of her niece's voice and joined the fray. She was Emily's lesser beloved aunt, brutish, sometimes terrifying, huge and raven-haired, and she loomed over Clyde and Duffy. Her imposing stature and sheer physicality left no doubts as to the damage she could do to the much smaller group.

"Oh. Fuck."

If there was ever a time in her life where Mercy had felt such a paralyzing fear, it was the last time she had seen the woman that had just burst through the door and punched out her ex boyfriend. Her legs squeezed together and her body trembled. This was bad. So very, very bad and right now Mercy didn't have a wine bottle and the element of surprise to deal with the situation. Why, oh why didn't she drag Mr. Sledge around with her?

Mercy swallowed hard. She knew that this was exactly how she was going to die, but if it was meant to be, at least she would go down with some kind of dignity at least, until she undoubtedly soiled herself.

"Miss Clarkson!" Mercy bleated, trying to get the attention to her. "Your niece just tasered Miss Gastin when Miss Gastin was trying to console her! Mister Gastin and Miss Macbain were only trying to protect Miss Gastin!"

Mercy sucked in a deep breath and tried to control her trembling, croaking voice, puffing out her chest and trying to project it as forcefully as her fear laden lips would allow. "How about we talk about this like adults instead of neanderthals?!"

"'Ow ' bout I tear 'er fuckin' ugly face off!?" Duffy growled from her position below Dinah and above Emily though she did not make a move for the moment aside from tensing up.

Bonnie remained on the floor, twitching about, trying to get up and revive herself. "Auuh..." She groaned, lifting her head before she fall slack and remained in her sorry stunned state.

Clyde immediately went for the tazer. He didn't think about it, he just wanted to take it from her after it had been used on Bonnie, he bumped into Duffy's shoulder as the Scot decked the girl's snapping her head back as Clyde plowed into her, falling flat on her, pinning her with his unimpressive weight as he reached out with both arms to wrestle for the tazer.

But from out of the blue, he'd feel a sharp pain burn in his scalp as the blonde was lifted off of Emily. "-Hahh!!" He howled from the grip before a hand came slamming down between his mouth, nose and cheek. Spit flying from his mouth as he was sent him sprawling off of Emily, flopping just under Bonnie with the taste of blood in his mouth, hitting the floor with a thud.

"Uhhhn..." His shook his dizzied head side to side from the floor, his vision taking a bit to clear up before he saw an imposingly tall and built, dark haired woman, visibly older than a typical AFW wrestler, standing over Emily and the entire group... Who according to Mercy.... Was Emily's big aunt. The one Allison had talked about. Today was just getting more and more insane.

Either way, he was with Duffy. "P-..Pft... They're all just here ta'...H-urt Bonnie..." Clyde spat as he tried to sit up, explanations would be nice but if Emily and her aunt were just going to barge in attack, he was going to back up Duffy.

Dinah took a single step toward Mercy and pointed a finger. She spoke in a low voice, loaded with volitile rage. "Wha'ever my niece 'as done, it was only because of what you did to her!" She snapped, and then suddenly raised the back of her hand to Duffy. "And you fucking shut your whore mouth, chav, before I slap it clean off your face!"

Whatever effect Dinah's appearance had on the group, it was doubled for Emily. She wanted to curl into a ball and close her eyes until everyone just left her alone, but she forced herself to sit up, brushing a tangle of red hair off of her face and dabbing at the blood leaking from her nose. She was white as a ghost and visibly shaking, and she couldn't bring herself to look at her aunt.

"Oh yeah?" Dinah zeroed in on Clyde, and squatted down to be on his level. "Who the fuck is Bonnie? If she's touched a hair on Emily's head, I'll hurt her. And if you don't want to find out what I mean, I suggest you all very rapidly fuck off!"

From her pocket, Dinah slipped over her fingers a set of shiny brass knuckles. They were a dangerous weapon on anyone, the hard striking surface, the added weight, the mass inside the fist to keep the fingers from compressing, but for Dinah, an RAF boxing champion, a British amateur boxing champion, an uncanny physical specimen, they were a death sentence.

"Eeeek!"

Mercy squealed and flung herself backwards until she hit the back of a wall. She nervously padded it, hoping to find a door or an escape hatch or anything that wouldn't keep her locked up with this maniac.

"D-D-Duffy, don't provoke her!" Mercy stuttered. "You too, Clyde!"

Mercy's aqua eyes focused on Dinah and she reached into her own pocket and closed her fist around her phone. "Listen, Miss Clarkson... I don't know what you think you know, but coming in here and brandishing a weapon isn't going to get you any kind of answers. The only thing it's going to get you is thrown in jail, understand!?"

Mercy pulled out her phone and held it up like a shield. "D-do you really want to settle this matter in a Japanese court? P-p-put the knuckles away and we'll talk about this like civilized people!"

Mercy was panting and it felt like her heart was beating out of her chest and might burst through it at any point in time. "I... If you want your niece, then take her! None of us are interested in hurting her or anything like that, o-ok? I don't know if you have been watching but we just got trashed pretty badly by your sister-in-law!"

Mercy waved her phone at Dinah. "I know you can take us all, but can you take us before I make the call? Is that REALLY worth it for you!?" She said. "If-if you just came here to beat the shit out of us, you're no different than Allison! P-Put the knuckles away and tell us why you're really here!" Mercy demanded, trying her hardest to project some kind of seriousness in her eyes in spite of her quivering body.

Bonnie was starting to stir and her ribs were burning. She didn't know what was really going on, but looking up and hearing that accent, she knew it wasn't someone she had met before. She groaned and wanted to get it, her blurry vision showed Duffy ready to fight and her brother... Down on the ground with that woman looming over them with brass knuckles.

"Not.... In... The position for that..." Clyde muttered while looking up at Dinah with caution. She punched like a pro, getting ducked by her with brass knuckles sent a chill down his spine, he didn't want Duffy to test her either.

Clyde didn't have much to say. Mercy was the better talker. So he crawled back, trying to drag himself over to Bonnie while he kept his eyes locked on Dinah cautiously.