“Better than ever.” The lie slipped out of him before his consciousness slipped in. Antoine hadn’t realized who he was talking to nor where he was. But as he saw Megumi’s face he realized what had happened. It’d be embarrassing if he had an ego about it. “I can’t feel my legs — right, you just said that.”

Everything was hazy. Antoine was only grounded by the pain in his back. It was different than before, though. A good pain. The kind of pain that will fade away. Eventually.

But for not it would throb and burn and ache and laying still never felt so… awful. If he didn’t feel better after this he’d march straight to Bernard. Huh, then again… without legs… how would he march?

“So, while we’re here…” He might as well kill time. And as far as he remembered, which wasn’t much at the moment, they were having a conversation. “What were we talkin’ about?”

---

With Jaida’s resistance to electricity, Antoine immediately broke off. If she were to act as a decoy and the tiger was the heavy hitter, then he’d have to continue striking from a range. Antoine offered opportunities to the others. His ability to manipulate the battlefield at a range would better serve the group than bludgeoning the dragon with his cue stick.

Dion jumped off the platform. As the tiger clawed onto the dragon, Antoine shot a billiard ball to his platform. The two would then collide into each other, then that dragon, and harmlessly ricochet back into Antoine’s hands.

If I run out of these, I’m useless. That wasn’t entirely true. But with Antoine’s newly defined role, he understood his value to the group. He took aim.

Unlike Dion, he didn’t panic when the beast wrought havoc on the city. There were two truths available to him. She either resisted the blast or didn’t. If she did, he shouldn’t be concerned with the damage to the city. What was done was done. If she died, he wouldn’t waste the opportunity.

A blow like that would kill any one of them.

Antoine doesn’t need to breathe, not in this form. But the motions guide him. It’s the ritual of it all. The battle is one of moments. Moments turned into opportunity. And that opportunity leveraged into fatal blows against this monster. Antoine may have rationalized the situation, but he still had a heart. He’d respond to this bastard in kind.

Three billiard balls found themselves like a triangle around the dragon’s neck. When they reached their mark, they stopped. They never made contact with the dragon’s scales. Instead, when they locked into position they created a collar around the creature. The friction between the balls had increased so dramatically that the air itself — despite looking unchanged — was as difficult to move through as the concrete or steel of a building.

“Focus!” He barked. “We’ll mourn when it’s dead.”

---

- Breaks off from Jaida immediately.
- Ricochets the floating pool ball from the dragon and back into his hands.
- Buries emotions about Jaida's well-being. Sort of.
- Shoots three more billiard balls to create a collar of friction around the dragon's neck. It's roughly equivalent to concrete/steel.
- Tells Dion to focus.

---

Megumi was right.

Antoine rooted himself in Japan. He found himself a job, newfound allies, and, most importantly, enemies. The unfortunate, haunting truth that weighed on his soul was that he, alone, would not be enough. Heroes were worse here, somehow. They were a hybrid between mascots and cops. They saved the day, then spouted an ad. The Japanese government was actively brainwashing its people. It had to stop.

Ghouligan stands at the center of a warehouse. An empty, abandoned warehouse. Standard fair. It rested on the outskirts of Japan from some rundown business that was closing shop. Bernard, owner of Bernie’s Burgers and Antoine’s employer, set up this location on his behalf.

It’s a one-time deal. If Antoine or anyone were to show up the next day, it’d be littered with police and heroes alike. But tonight belonged to them. The unsung martyrs of the underbelly.

Rumors spread through word of mouth. A network. An amalgamation of everyone who wanted to do right by the people, irrespective of the law. A secret network that whispered a universal truth for all misfits alike:

You are not alone.

---

Welcome to The Undertow! This thread is open to:

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This thread will qualify as a non-threatening mission for November. Plan accordingly. To reach our goal, there will be predetermined phases. You can only post once in each phase and each phase will have a 1 week IRL timer marked by my next post in the order.

Phase 1 ends on October 23rd.

---

Three gunshots.

There was a bank not too far away from where he had been taking his lunch. The sound came from that direction, too. Antoine looked at his phone. He still had 15 minutes before he had to clock in. I’ll make it work.

Gonna hit the atm. He texts Bernard. Read xx:xx. Good enough.

There’s not enough time to grab his cue stick at Bernie’s Burgers, but he doesn’t leave without his mask. For times like these, specifically. Antoine scurries off to a remote location out of sight from wandering eyes — they’re all too distracted by those gunshots anyway — and puts on the mask. Pulls his chain. The black umbra swallows him whole. And in turn, he swallows an elixir that allows him to speak Japanese. He’s been working on it. Slowly. But when it came to matters of life and death, he’d lean on the shortcut. For now.

He walks through the front door of the bank. People scream. For all they know, he’s with these men. And it’s not until the first words escape the jagged teeth of his mask that they understand what’s happening.

“Leave now, give up crime, and you’ll live to see tomorrow.” He grabs one of the metal stanchions they use to divvy up the lines and twirls it a few times. “Or I’ll bash your skulls in.”

---

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