Waiter! There's a Fly in My Soup!

Sam leaned against the front wall of the Fireopal; it had been a long time since he'd been here at his usual haunt. It felt good to be back. His trademarked wolfish grin on his face, and fresh scars all across his arms and torso, somewhat exposed from his partially unbuttoned shirt, Sam was once again enjoying life. What better way to celebrate surviving hell and high water than a good old fashioned Fireopal brawl? Sam smirked, scanning the crowd for anyone who might put up a good fight. This time, however, Sam knew to be smart and not hold back his powers if he did find someone; last time he did that, he ended up getting beat around by some kid who got lucky with explosive punches. From now on, he wasn't taking chances. That way, if he lost, it wouldn't be because some kid got lucky; it would be because his opponent earned it. Sam was more than willing to pay the bill of whoever could beat the Crimson Scar.

It'd been forever since George had come back here, but sometimes it was good to get information from places like this as heavies from all the popular gangs came here. Of course after the confusion surrounding the passing of Father, Lazy Eye, and the Red Diamonds main organization well and behind them, it meant that there would be a lot more fresh information in a place like this, lots of good rumors plus it'd been a while since George had to get his hands dirty. He was pent up.

And what did you know, none other than the Crimson Scar walked in and began scanning the crowd like a wolf on the prowl. It made George smirk in pleasure, who else would there be for him to test his mettle out on than a veteran soldier that was fully recovered from all the blood in his gang's civil war?

The Hive would make first contact, as he moved through the crowded floor, and approached Sam with a, "Long time no see."

Sam turned and blinked at the man. It took a minute for him to register who he was. "Oh, hey! You're that info broker I met at the ring a while back, aren't you?" He snapped his fingers to himself, trying to remember his name. "Jeff? No... George? Yeah, George, right? Hey, how've you been?" It was odd seeing this man here; in all truth, Sam never expected to see this man again. Whether Father took him on board as an information broker or never gave him a call, Sam's path would never likely cross his again. Then again, it was also incredibly unlikely Father would die, so Sam's life seemed to be fighting against the odds these days. "Here for peking duck?"

"Right on the money, Sam." George nodded as the man remembered his name without any prodding, "But No friend, I'm here for something a little more stimulating." He was of course referring to the information, but the way he said it, it could be taken that he was here for a fight. Perhaps George was too reliant on his powers."You hear any juicy rumors lately?" He asked trying to get the man to spill his beans on whatever he had going on. Sam was becoming a big player from what other people were saying.

The Hive had been having some serious luck recently. Maybe it was time to press that luck.

Sam shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant about things, mostly because he was there to forget recent days, not chat about them. "Nothing that hasn't already been going around. Things were looking up for the Red Diamonds. We repelled Mammon's counter attack, then someone burned all of our drugs. Infighting happened, Lazy Eye killed Father." He cracked his neck. "Charon saw an opportunity, whacked Lazy Eye. Bunch of what was left went to him since he's got the same sorta thing Father had. The rest are scattered and hiding under rocks."

"So you follow Charon now?" George asked in a kind of playful tone. "Why do you think he's going to fare much better than Father did?" it was an acidic question but George knew that emotional responses were the most honest, and tugging at heartstrings was not a too low a blow for a crook like George, who started getting comfortable leaning on the closest table to Sam letting the man know he was here to stay, and chat, even if he wasn't completely welcome. He was here to gather intelligence and the best source for it, a heavy like Crimson Scar was right in front of him, there wouldn't be anything that would make him leave this position.

On a side note The Hive would ask. "You looking for someone?"

Sam narrowed his eyes somewhat at George. "Father died due to a run of bad luck and a bad apple in the bunch. Same can happen to any gang; no one's above it, not even the EDM. Difference is they have the numbers to bury their dead, unlike what the Diamonds have. And yes, I am looking for someone. Someone who can put up a fight. I'm not here for chit-chat and gossip." He cracked his neck again. "Last few weeks have been absolute hell for me, and I survived it. So I'm here looking for some stress relief and celebration. That's why half the people show up here at the Fireopal; for a good fight." Sam pushed off the wall and took half of an aggressive step towards George. "An info broker like you surely knows that. So that means you know you're way in a scuffle, right? I wanna see what you got, right now, back alley so we don't disrupt payin' customers. You game?"

George crossed his arms coolly as Sam stepped up to him and issued the Challenge. "Loser buys drinks." George responded with his smooth smirk looking at the back door. Without another word The Hive would advance toward the exit and leave out the back, he would drop his coat, guns and all on a nearby trashcan leaving his white wife-beater exposed, he was an image of perfect health still, thing and athletic, he hadn't needed to run much since getting his power but he still felt he had that edge.

Turning The Hive would face his opponent, and bring his arms up and balled his fists keeping them in front of him just below his chin, spreading his feet shoulder width apart and of setting them with his strong side foot forward, in a goofy stance, a fighter like Crimson Scar would pick up on a little detail like this easily. He was a student of the school of hard knocks in a fight, whatever it takes to win was the rules there. He wasn't going to pull a weapon as that wasn't the kind of fight either of them wanted.

"Loser pays whole tab, not just drinks, kid. I'm getting my damn curry no matter how this turns out." Sam corrected as he followed behind.
As George removed his coat and such, Sam took his own shirt off, revealing his well toned, scarred torso. He bounced lightly on his feet, focusing on staying light on his toes and getting his blood pumping. He took up his typical boxing stance, strong and ready for anything. "You and I both know we're supers here, Georgey boy. Full powers to a non-lethal extent." Sam normally would add "No outside weapons" to the rules list, but the man was courteous enough to already deposit his guns. Sam smirked and beckoned with his fingers to George, a typical "bring it" gesture. He was more than willing to let this man make the first move; Sam knew the second the gap was closed, he'd have the advantage, and the fight wouldn't last more than ten seconds.

The fight would last a lot longer than Sam expected as George moved up at a walk, and then lunged forward, but the lunge was far too early, and George let loose with a jab that wasn't going to connect at this range, but at the bottom of the Jab his hand opened and about forty little blood sucking bastards called fleas jumped out, going strait for Sam's eyes. If George was going to have a chance he needed to be aggressive enough quickly enough.

So he wasn't done there, the lunge was turned into a jump as his strong side food, now under him propelled him forward into a strong left cross aimed right for Sam's jaw. George was by no means a weakling and the cross was executed with glorious form, though The Hive had never been a student of boxing, he knew that boxers had the best punches, so emulating them the best he could in the fights of his youth paid during his struggles as an adult.

Sam stumbled back as he saw the fleas pour out of the man's skin, more out of surprise than anything. He dipped into his powers to pull him a significant distance back, managing to keep the fleas from getting on his face, but instead landing on his lower torso, and causing the punch to completely miss due to distance. Sam repositioned his feet, moving from a retreating to an advancing posture, rushing at the man at the speed of car, arms outstretched wide to catch and tackle George straight into the brick wall.

Damn. This guy was good, even at the close distance he'd unleashed the fleas the man's instincts and reactions were so good that he'd backed up and charged in a way that evaded George's blow, the little leapers wouldn't land in a location where they would be able to do much good. But George didn't give the recall order just yet.

And the next thing George knew was that he was pinned up against the way by a man, having the wind knocked from his lungs left George gasping, but he was a quick thinker, and his arms which had been knocked to his wayside came up under Sam's and wrapped him in a bear hug, grasping his own arms, George's chin would slam down into the soft fleshy part of the base of Sam's neck, the one just inside the collar bone.

This wasn't the end of his counter attack as most of George's skin opened up and all manner of ants and fleas crawled from him directly onto Sam, from everywhere they'd touched, a man that had removed his shirt made a lot of easy territory for very angry ants and the few fleas to sink their mandibles in. It would normally take Army ants hours to clean a body down to the bones, but with the bites it wouldn't feel like it would take that long, as ant crawled over ant to get at the flesh they were starting to rend, at the least Sam would have a lot of red welts when they got done.

Sam took the blow to his lower neck, letting out a grunt, but not letting go; he was in peak human condition, so he could take a hit like that. He wasn't able to hold on much longer, however, as dozens of insects began crawling on his skin, biting into him. Sam stumbled back and let out a few shouts of pain, but couldn't help but offer a slight smile... He could feel his veins opening, blood no longer trapped inside his veins. He took a deep breath, and forced a small portion of blood to protrude from each wound, instantly hardening into a small spike, killing the vast majority of insects crawling on him. He winced; though he stopped them from doing much damage, they still hurt like hell. Either way, Sam was more than capable of taking a few hits. He took two powerful steps forward and swung with a powerful right cross, aiming straight for the man's head. If the punch connected, the force would cause it to connect with the brick wall behind him once again, which would obviously result in quite a bit of pain, especially considering the millimeter long spikes now coming out of his knuckles.

George let go when the man stumbled off of him, giving him time to take a few deep breaths as the trained fighter righted himself and in an instant countered George's most offensive move of the night, though it looked like the man was in pain, pain was a good way to make someone quit a fight.

However Sam was able to right himself a lot faster than George had figured he would and quickly stepped in with a powerful cross, aimed right for The Hive's beautiful... ha ha... face.

George went weak at the knees and ducked under the attack, but them lunged forward going for Sam's legs as he followed through, attempting to knock the man over with a hard tackle and take the fight to the ground, where Sam's superior striking ability would be useless, and the bugs that George employed would be more useful.

Sam's fist collided with the wall sending dust and brick shrapnel into the air. The second George ducked down, Sam smirked; this guy clearly wasn't normally a brawler. Sam wasn't about to judge him for it, having a handgun was the safer and smarter option in their line of work, but putting your face near a man's knees in the middle of fight? Easy way to get on your back. Sam hiked up his knee, slamming it directly into George's chest, stopping most of his forward momentum, turning the forward motion into backwards damage in his chest. However, George caught hold of Sam's leg as he did this move, and so the two fell to the ground. Sam fell on his back and immediately made a grab for George's hair; the way he saw it, he'd either get a hold of it, gaining a hold of his weaker opponent and guaranteeing a barrage of punches to his face with his other hand, or George would have to pull away, allowing Sam the ability to get to his feet.

His plan had worked perfectly! Outside of having the wind knocked out of him... again. George was on top of Sam on the ground, but the man was quick to take a hand full of The Hive's raven hair, George had been in this position before, a few times, the first time he'd had his face re-arranged, it wasn't until the third time that George learned a little trick as he pushed his way forward onto Sam's body, the man's first blow meant for George's glancing off his neck  and back as The hive raked himself on the man's spikes.

George drove the elbow of his same side arm up into Sam's free arm's armpit as he pulled back for his next strike. Even if his opponent was stronger than him, the sheer difference in leverage mean that he wouldn't be able to get a clean shot at George's dome. George would throw his first punch of the fight, a painful hook into the armpit of the arm that held tightly onto George's hair.

Sam's arm instinctively pulled inwards, closing the hole of opportunity and protecting his inner armpit from taking more blows. On top of this, Sam was able to twist George's head to face him using his mercurial strength. He wrenched George's head upwards, away from its protected cradled position, and delivered multiple powerful blows to the Hive's face, easily breaking his nose and blackening both eyes. With Sam's super-strength grip on the Hive's hair, and by extension head, the only way this barrage would stop would be if the Hive called uncle.

The first punch was like being hit by a truck, and George lost consciousness for a moment only barely turning his head away, from the first blow, that would leave his ears ringing as it caught him on the side of the face, thankfully Sam didn't have control of George's neck or without a place to recoil to he would have snapped The Hive's neck

This would be the moment that a cloud of every nasty that George possessed hovered above the Crimson Scar blocking out the daylight in one angryass cloud, with enough biting stinging insects to kill ten men, an instinctive reaction from the Human Hive that'd lost conscious thought for a moment when the first strike had landed.

"Un-Uncle." George called, barely regaining his facilities, feeling his cheek swell, his jaw didn't feel broken, it felt like it'd up and left his face, the pre-pain tingle still existed. The angry cloud quickly landed on George, making their way into his skin through open pores, drawing in the little buggers.

Sam hesitated his series of punches for a moment when the swarm of insects suddenly filled the sky, but thankfully George surrendered before they began to descend. Sam let go of the man's hair and pushed him off. Sam slowly got to his feet, unclotted his blood so it was no longer in spikes, and retracted it into his blood stream where it would resume its normal flowing. He took a bit of a breath and offered a hand to help the Hive up. "You put up a pretty good fight, mate." He said with a bit of a smile. "Made a few rookie mistakes, but hey, you don't come across as a brawler. Wasn't exactly an even fight, so I outta apologize for that. Either way, loser pays both tabs."

George dusted off, and wiped his face on the ground as Sam pushed him to his knees, he was bleeding from the corner of his mouth. With that all well and done George took Sam's help to get to hobble up to his feet. "Heh, I knew you had some pretty good abilities, but didn't realize that you could control it that finely." He still felt a little fuzzy and a lot lighter with all of the bugs out of his body.

"Yeah, I'm an information broker, not muscle, that's why I approached father in the first place." George would jog Sam's memory just a little, as he went over and picked up his Jacket and re-equipped it. He liked this jacked and it would be a shame if it became dirty.

"And I knew the stakes coming in." George replied moving into the Fire Opal through the back door and up to the bar and ordering two beers to start of with for him and Sam.

Sam put his shirt back on and followed after the Hive, asking to have a curry be added to the order. The last time he had good Fireopal curry was... How long now? It had been before the incident with the Agni kid, and that was almost three months ago now. Time certainly flies. He thought to himself. When the beer and curry was brought out, Sam grabbed his bottle and plate and headed over to one of the booths by the back; he didn't like sitting at the bar, especially when some of Lazy Eye's fanatic friends might get trigger happy to avenge their dead boss. He sat back in the booth, a satisfied smirk on his face, and began eating his curry. Flavorful, meaty, and oh so spicy... Oh, how I have missed you... He thought. Sam's attention was focused on the sweetness of victory, and the spiciness of the curry. Any conversation would be started by the Hive.

As the beer came out, George dumped a few twenties at the bar and noted, "Keep them coming." Before turning back and following Sam to the booth of his choice as he dug into the curry he'd been provided. George just wanted to suck down suds to dull the pain he felt in his face, and neck and chest.

He'd go through and feel each of his injuries, though thankfully he'd broken nothing, he would be black and blue for a little bit, and could feel the tingle of adrenaline start to fade to the dull pain of a busted face. He'd kill a bottle and signal to the waitress making her way around the room before looking at Sam enjoying his victory and curry, it was obviously in that order.

"That's the Crimson Scar for you." The Hive complemented, receiving his beer and beginning to sip on this one. "I know why Charon keeps you in the loop with his plans." However he would choose to back off that line of conversation instead going for something a little more personal. "So is Fire Opal curry your favorite in the city?"

Sam swallowed his curry and nodded, his trademark grin lighting up his face. "Oh, hell yeah. This place is the only place in ALL of Ruby City that I've been to that actually has some curry with some legitimate kick! Some people say it's that chain place in Ruby Central, I say they don't know what they're talking about." He waves his hand dismissively and shakes his head. "You can't just pour an extra packet of curry powder and bell peppers just for some more kick and say that's good curry. Is it spicy? Sure, but it's lost the balanced flavor. And don't even get me STARTED on the Golden Dragon and their bland paste they put in front of you." He pointed at the plate in front of him. "This though, it's both spicy and flavorful."

George nodded at the man's explanation, he was apparently a big fan of well made curry, George never really cared either way for the stuff, but knew what it was like to love a certain food. Being an urchin he'd never really developed an attachment to a specific food instead focusing on acquiring food, and not caring what it tasted like, just that it was food.

Taking a swig from his beer and checking his stomach where he'd raked himself over Sam's spikes, George would continue. "Is Curry your only favorite food? What about Charon? What's his favorite food?" George was creeping the conversation along to Sam's new boss, knowing your bosses favorite food was pertinent information, and even something small like that would be useful to George and maybe even the Legion of Terror.

Sam nodded. "Curry is easily my favorite food, yeah. I like some egg dip soup, too, but nothing beats spicy food. As for Charon..." He shrugged. "No clue. Apart from the meetings with Father, I've never eaten with the man, and during those meetings, I was always much more focused on his bodyguards, making sure no one made a move for Father." He stared ahead for a moment, thinking about those meetings. Father was a good man; Sam missed him. He was glad to be working with Charon, though. Charon had the same respectability Father had, more or less.