Chapter 5: 3. Incompetence to Confidence

"The fuck do you want, asshole?" Gabriel asked in a low tone, pushing his bigger best friend behind him. The scene looked a bit comical, a smaller guy defending someone twice his size. The little group of four others behind Javier began mocking their smaller target’s hostile approach.  

 

"Is it so wrong to thank our little cleaning ladies? Wouldn't you agree that it's good manners? Right, Genesis?" 

 

Genesis didn’t even notice that the two biggest guys from Javier’s group were now standing behind him until one of them shoved his shoulder. They were people big enough to hold him down easily in case he tried to do anything. With that, he and Gabriel were completely surrounded. The complete silence on the entire floor added to Genesis’ humiliation. 

 

“…y-yes.” The young man stuttered out after one of the lackeys discretely kicked his shin when he didn’t respond fast enough. No one interrupted the scene that unfolded before them. Nobody wanted to be a target of harassment. 

 

“Good. See? Our pet knows his place. We're only doing the best for him.” Javier’s smile was sweet and wicked. 

 

He acted like he was the strongest and smartest in the room, but in reality, he wasn’t really that big of a guy. In fact, he was even smaller than Gabe who was of an average height. He wasn’t even that good-looking either, his green eyes resembled the color of boogers, his curl-permed brown hair made him look like an eighteenth century Frenchman, and his pale face and body was riddled with acne. However, the asshole was filthy rich, a bit smart, and charismatic. He was able to make friends and incite people to his causes. He probably got that talent from his mom, who was a prominent member of the city council of Halcyon. 

 

“I'll see you at lunch then, right piggy?” Genesis could feel Javier’s eyes on him. 

 

The young monitor could only nod, still wary of the two other lackeys standing beside him. With a glance to Gabriel, he saw his best friend clenching his fist so tightly that his knuckles became a ghostly white. He was practically shaking with anger.  

 

“What a good little pet. Don't forget to bring me some Cola from the cafeteria before you eat.” The group’s ugly leader commanded with a light voice. Genesis stayed quiet, unsure if he was supposed to answer. 

 

“Well? Answer him, dipshit!” One of the big men standing behind him smacked the back of the young man’s head with a thick hand. 

 

“Y-yes!” Genesis answered hurriedly, scared that the group would escalate it somehow. They always found a way to pin the blame on him. 

 

“Hey, quit that shit. You’re going too far,” A man’s smooth and composed voice came up from behind the thug, who then flailed in a rush to take his hand off. Only one person could cause that much fear and respect from the bullies in the Facility. 

 

“S-sorry sir,” the goons stuttered while backing away from Genesis. 

 

Standing behind them was a man who was even bigger than they were. Kemuel Johnston was another Origin Monitor, just like the rest of them were, but he stood like a military commander. Or a Champion! Genesis thought, a bit of his terror subsiding at the sight of him. Kemuel was a kind and compassionate man who was unfortunately best friends with Javier. Standing well above six feet tall and built like the ultimate muscled brick shithouse, anyone would cower under his gaze if they didn’t know what he was truly like. 

 

“It really shouldn’t be me you’re apologizing to.” He said simply, looking at them pointedly. The goons shuffled back to Javier’s side, choosing to flee with their tails between their legs rather than apologize to the two poor boys they were bullying. 

 

“Simmons is looking for you downstairs. Go.” Kemuel met his best friend’s gaze head on, walking forward in front of Genesis and Gabriel as if putting the bullied behind his large frame to protect them. Javier looked at him with the expression of someone who wanted to protest, but couldn’t. “But–!” the bully began, but Kemuel wasn’t having any of it. 

 

“Go. Before I make you go, Blaise.” There was an admirably dark and dangerous inflection in his voice that caused everyone to snap into action. With one last dramatic and petulant glare, Javier spun around and led his group out of the office floor to go meet Champion Simmons at the lobby. 

 

 “Are you guys alright?” Kemuel whirled around and worriedly looked them up and down, as if trying to detect if they had been beat up yet. 

 

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“Yeah, no thanks to you.” Gabriel spat venomously. 

 

“Yes, we’re fine. Thank you for stepping in, you were really cool!” Genesis piped in, smiling at the bigger man from behind his best friend.

 

“I’m sorry, I’m trying. I keep trying to tell him off but he just doesn’t listen to me anymore.” Their savior sighed, clearly disappointed at what his friend had become. 

 

“Clearly you’re not doing shit if he’s still doing this after a year of us working here.” Gabriel hissed, giving Kemuel the best stink eye he could manage. 

 

“Again, I’m sorry. I’m gonna go get started on work. You guys have a good day.” Kemuel sighed, sending Genesis a bittersweet smile before turning around and walking off to the front row to start on his work. Gabriel respected that about him, how hard-working he was despite not actually having to do much if he wanted to. Javier and his group were able to get away with basically everything in the facility because of his father’s position and friends. 

 

Right when Gabe and Genesis got to their work stations, the briefing stream began, signaling that everyone’s day had officially started. 

— — — 

 

There were twenty Origin Monitors in every Facility at all times, and so when the lunch breaks came, they would be separated into two groups of ten in order to not leave the Origin unsupervised. Gabriel and Genesis were lucky that they were in the same lunch group, but not too lucky as Javier and two of his other lackeys were also in the same group. Champion Simmons also joined them in their bullying because she liked to eat early and her only opportunity to harass Genesis came during lunch. She became a core  part of Javier’s group after hearing that his parents were prominent in Halcyon, waving about her status as a Champion. 

 

Overall, there were still four people that would boss Genesis around during a time where he was supposed to have an hour of rest and eating. By the time the young man would be finished doing whatever they asked him to do, he would have barely fifteen minutes left to eat, even when his friend was helping him on giving the hooligans the shit that they asked for. 

 

On that seemingly conventional and uneventful Thursday, Gabriel decided that things would be different this lunch hour. He would teach the bullies a lesson back. 

 

One of them would usually go outside of the Facility to grab lunch then head back to eat with the others. That left with just three of them there waiting for around twenty minutes for the fourth guy to come back. Today, just like every Thursday, it was Simmons’ turn to grab lunch. Knowing her, she’d be going to her usual burger joint that was around twenty minutes away from the facility. That gave Gabriel a forty minute time-frame to do whatever he could to the three weaklings that she’d leave behind. 

 

Javier and his two little henchmen were waiting in the parking lot behind the office building, resting and standing by Javier’s flashy red motorcycle. His bulky black helmet was on the ground, a couple meters away from the motorcycle and right next to where one lackey sat on the warm asphalt. He assumed that Javier let him take it for a spin around the parking lot, judging by how the guy’s hair was windblown and messy, smiling widely as he listened to his boss talk. Javier’s other minion stood in front of him, talking excitedly about something. Gabriel had never been more sure that he was going to be able to take all three of them down, even if they came at him at the same time. 

 

He had been watching them for a while now, watched how they moved and looked at the way they were built. From his observations, he came to two immensely useful conclusions. One, that they were the weakest of the group. They were always hiding behind the bigger guys whenever they stood in their cringy formations, always standing the closest to Javier. All three of them advertised themselves to be the brains of their little gang, which was ridiculous because all of them were in their mid-to-late twenties and still didn’t know how to spell “necessary” according to the paperwork they handed in. Two, Gabriel was about ninety percent sure that Javier and those two idiots didn’t know how to fight. A few weeks ago, he saw them punching each other’s fists. When the biggest guy tried to punch Javier’s fist, he missed and sent himself to the ground. 

 

Their incompetence gave him the confidence he needed. 

 

He wanted to confront them alone, sending Genesis on a wild goose chase to find “important papers” that would probably take about twenty minutes. He didn’t want his pure-hearted and naive brother from another mother to see the violent encounter and his pent-up rage unleashed. Gabriel took deep breaths and began planning out his victory. 

 

When the eerie sense of calm washed over him, he knew it was time. He was going to absolutely pulverize them, even if it was the last thing he’d do. 

--- --- --- 

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