Badass Ch. 07

"Look, I'm sure you all have questions and such, but they will all have to wait, understood? We have to make sure that Boris is not only breathing, but that he continues to do so."

The Hand and Erykah then quickly snapped out of it and nodded as Zdenek turned around and started walking towards the hole.

"Somebody needs to call an ambulance... actually; I think all this will require an entire fleet of them..."

Zdenek was just speaking as though he wasn't the cause for most of this, as well as the destruction of the room and possibly fatal attack on Boris. Everybody had to put thoughts of everything else aside as they had to focus on Boris. Zdenek suddenly hopped down the hole and landed slightly to the side of where Boris crash landed, and the group did the same. Zdenek then made his way to Boris' side, as Steph, who was in the best physical condition of the rest, whipped out her phone and began making the call. Zdenek crouched down by Boris' head and pressed two fingers against his neck, checking his pulse. Once he confirmed that Boris indeed had a pulse, he let out a sigh of relief and a slight smile.

"He's alive..." he said more to himself than to anybody else.

He looked back at everybody, looking rather relieved.

"I was worried that he wasn't going to be able to withstand the attack, but covering himself in flames was a very smart move... now..." he looked Boris and gently shook him. "Boris? Boris, can you hear me?"

Surprisingly, it didn't take much effort to rouse Boris from his state of unconsciousness, which seemed off due to the amount of blood that was all over the place He opened his eyes and looked over to Zdenek and nodded.

"Good, you're awake. I'm impressed with your ability to think on the fly Boris. Covering yourself in flames was a very smart move. Now, I suspect we won't have much time before the ambulances arrive, so we must keep this brief."

Boris nodded to show that he not only understood, but that he agreed. Zdenek nodded back.

"Now, with regards to the offer that Aegis made you... it's still on the table... You are still wanted, and quite honestly, you are needed. The word Aegis has many different meanings, but in our case, Aegis means protection. While admittedly, the only reason why we wanted you to join before was so that we wouldn't have large amounts of discontent and insubordination amongst the Tundra AE users, fighting with you has brought about a much more important reason as to why you are not only wanted, but needed. You Boris are needed to protect the protectors. You are needed to become the Shield of Aegis; never wavering, never hesitant, never breached. While Aegis attacks, you will be bringing up the rear, protecting us against those who would try to flank us. If we are attacked, you will be at the front, facing those who would try to defeat us. And if we are defeated, even against great odds, you are to stand and defend our corpses until you either succeed, or fall. Will you accept this offer Boris?"

Everybody was just silent as they listened to Zdenek. They really had no idea that he not only had such a way with words, but was also so incredibly motivational. They all felt something stirring within themselves, and couldn't help but feel motivated. Boris looked at Zdenek for a little while, before actually speaking.

"I refuse... to follow... anybody but... the one who beat... me..." he took a deep breath, as he gathered more strength and spoke again. "You are now... the Alpha of Tundra... not me... so, if you... merge us with... Aegis, then... you must be... a part... of Aegis..."

Suddenly, everybody stared straight at Zdenek, and he could feel their eyes burning multiple holes into the back of his head.

"That's what we said!!" Amy barked. "We told you that you had to have a position in Aegis! Why the fuck won't you commit to—"

"Alright, alright; I'll have some sort of position okay? We can iron out the details of that position soon enough, but as things stand, I am a part of Aegis, therefore so is Tundra, and so is Boris... any objections?"

Zdenek looked over at the group and they all shook their heads.

"None..."

What about you Boris; do you have any objections?"

Boris shook his head slightly.

"N-None..."

"Well then allow me to welcome you into Aegis, Captain Commander of Aegis and Alpha of the Yellow Division; Boris." With that, Zdenek reached for and lightly squeezed on of Boris' hands, shaking it slightly.

The sounds of sirens could be heard from the distance and Zdenek stood up and sighed. He suddenly spoke.

"Alpha and Hand of Aegis..."

They all suddenly looked at him, with Steph having joined the group a while ago.

"Zdenek..." Erykah replied.

"Mission complete..." Zdenek said as he turned his head and looked at them with a slight smile. "Well done..."

All of their eyes widened as pride welled up inside them, and the Hand suddenly let out a unanimous roar and looked at him.

"Yes sir!!"

Erykah let out a sigh as she began to collapse. Before she could though, she felt two arms wrap themselves around her and hold her gently. She just succumbed to not only the embrace, but the fatigue as well as she lost consciousness. Zdenek, who had somehow moved with lightning speed and caught Erykah, looked at the Hand and spoke.

"Don't worry, she's just fatigued. Listen up, here's the plan; I am going to take Erykah home, and the four of you are going to stay here and make sure that everybody gets adequate medical treatment. Twins; you two are responsible for making sure that the grunts are taken care of. Amy, you're in charge of making sure that everything goes smoothly, so we need to get rid of all the cars that a blocking the entrance and that have filled the parking lot. Stephanie, you are in charge of taking care of Boris. You make sure that he's in good hands. You will be able to reach me on Erykah's phone, so if any problems crop up, feel free to give me a shout, alright?"

"Yes sir!" they all said in unison again.

"Okay good. Now, Steve, Don, clear the entrance for me so that I can get Erykah out of here."

The twins both nodded and grunted in unison before disappearing from sight rather quickly. Zdenek changed the way he was holding Erykah, so he ended up carrying her in both arms. It didn't take long for the sounds of smashing cars to echo throughout the parking lot, along with two similar sounding sets of maniacal laughter. Everybody inside just stopped doing what they were doing for a second, before Steph sighed and shook her head. Amy just chuckled to herself and Zdenek just shrugged his shoulders a little. A few more minutes passed, before the twins walked into the wrecked night club and looked at Zdenek with massive grins on their faces, both slightly out of breath.

"Alright Zdenek, job done!" beamed Steve.

Zdenek nodded in acknowledgement and started making his way towards the entrance. Once he was outside, he suddenly noticed that most of the cars were still intact, it was just those that would be obstructing the path of the ambulances and such that were "moved" closer to the sides, creating enough space not only for the ambulances, but also for Zdenek to be able to comfortably drive the car out of the club. Don followed behind Zdenek as he walked towards their cars, and they got closer, Don suddenly rushed ahead and stood in front of Zdenek. He then reached into Erykah's pocket and pulled out her car keys. Seeing as how she wasn't particularly beaten up, and wasn't tossed into any walls or anything like last time, her keys were in perfect working order. Don then opened the front passenger door, and Zdenek carefully placed Erykah into the seat, before buckling her up and closing the door. Don handed him the keys with a slight nod, and quickly rushed to the driver's side, opening the door for Zdenek. He then looked at Zdenek with a look that Zdenek couldn't quite fathom.

"...yes Don? Do you have something to say?"

Don spent a few moments in silence before shrugging and just asking.

"Zdenek... can you actually drive? I mean, it would be a real shame if like, we were to have gone through such a battle and shit, and then you were to spin out on the highway, crash and die in some lame ass car accident."

Zdenek looked at Don for a second before letting out a slight chuckle and shaking his head.

"Don't worry Don, I can actually drive. I got my license a while ago, and have been driving for years. It was also part of my training, so rest assured, Erykah and I will be just fine."

Don smiled and tapped Zdenek on the shoulder.

"Good on you then man, my bad for making a big deal out of it. Later!"

Don then walked off as Zdenek settled himself into car, buckled himself up and closed the door. He started the car, backed out from the parking bay, and carefully navigated the SUV through the lot and then through the open gates. As he drove down the road, the car was passed by a large fleet of ambulances that were making quite the noise.

'That's a lot of ambulances; I wonder if there will be enough room for them to park in the club? Either way, they can park outside on the road as well.'

The drive back to Erykah's house was slow, with Zdenek nursing the car. He was driving it for the first time, so he wasn't looking to tempt fate by driving briskly. The sun had started to set, and there was a kaleidoscope of oranges and yellows in the sky. Zdenek looked over at Erykah, and just watched as her chest heaved slightly with each intake of breath. Her mouth was open ever so slightly, and every so often her, her nose would twitch a little. She had hair covering her brow and eyes, yet even so, it was plain as day to see that she was absolutely beautiful. She had such amazing features, yet because she was constantly scowling, one would be hard pressed to notice. However right now as she sat unconscious, her face was relaxed and it was easy to see just how pretty she was. As she was bathed by the light of the setting sun, Zdenek found himself completely enamored by Erykah, to the point where he had stopped paying attention to the road in front of him. He actually had to consciously make the effort to stop looking at her, and focus on the road, lest Don's premonition of doom actually come true. About ten minutes later, he noticed Erykah squirming as she was close to regaining consciousness. Her eyelids fluttered and then her eyes slowly opened as she made the customary moans and groans as she awakened from her slumber. She groggily looked around as she recognized the interior of her car, yet was slightly confused as she wasn't used to being in the passenger seat. She then looked over to the driver's side, and was confused even further by the site of Zdenek driving her car, and looking back at her.

"Hello there Rica." Zdenek said in a rather soft voice.

She sat up properly and upright in the seat, and as she was regaining her bearings, the scowl on her face slowly came back. She looked around a little, before squinting her eyes.

"Zdenek? Why are you driving my car? Where are we? What's going on?"

Zdenek reached over and gently touched Erykah's shoulder with one hand as he concentrated on the road and spoke.

"Listen, it's okay Rica. I left the Hand back at Aftershock to take care of everything. I'm driving your car, because I am taking you back to your house, where we shall be waiting for updates on the happenings at the club. But right now, all you need to do is focus on nothing but relaxing and regaining your strength. All that controlled fighting really took it out of you."

Erykah responded almost immediately to Zdenek's touch and his voice, the confusion in her head subsided, and was replaced with calm. She looked at him as he spoke, and nodded at him. When he was finished talking, he pulled his hand off from her shoulder and replaced it on the wheel, much to Erykah's annoyance. She continued to look at him however, before speaking.

"Hey, Zdenek?"

"What is it?"

"Food; I'm fucking starved. Can we pull in somewhere and get something to eat?"

Zdenek looked over at Erykah and noticed that she was looking rather depleted, and nodded at her.

"Yeah, getting something to eat would be a good idea. We can just go to a drive thru or something, that way, we don't need to leave the car."

"Yeah, thanks." Erykah said appreciatively with a small nod.

Zdenek decided to go to a place closer to Erykah's house so that they wouldn't spend an extended period of time with the smell of food in the car without eating. He also thought it would be better to not talk, so Erykah would be able to rest.

"Zdenek," Erykah said, clearly having had a different idea to him "can I ask you something?"

Zdenek glanced over at Erykah before speaking.

"Yes, I do know how to drive, and yes, I do have my license okay?" he said with faux annoyance.

"Uh, that's not actually what I wanted to ask right now, but I was wondering about that. What I actually wanted to know was—"

Erykah was interrupted by her phone going off. She had actually left it in the car when they got to Aftershock, so after fishing around for a bit, she got it.

"Hmmm, it's Amy." Erykah said to herself more than anybody.

Zdenek reached his hand out towards Erykah and offered to take the phone.

"I told Amy and the guys to contact me on your phone if anything happened, so I assume she's just calling to check in or something."

Erykah just nodded and handed Zdenek the phone. He nodded and took it, before bringing it to his ear and answering.

"Yes, Amy?"

"AH! Zdenek! Can you hear me?" bellowed Steve's voice. He was talking over quite a lot of commotion, as instructions to and from the emergency personnel were being given.

"Yeah Steve, I can hear you. It sounds awfully busy over there, how's it going?"

"Well, it's going pretty damn good to be honest. At first, there was some resistance from these Tundra idiots who Erykah fucked up, but somehow, Boris, who was receiving medical attention and shit just sat up, and started telling them to shut up and listen to us."

"Is that so?" Zdenek mumbled to himself with a slight smirk and chuckle, "That guy is really made from tough stuff."

"Yeah, tru dat. Also—"

"Hey! Who's that you're talking to? Is that Zdenek? Lemme talk to him!" Amy barked over Steve's voice.

Zdenek then heard what sounded like an immature struggle between two kids, accompanied by frequent cussing, complaints, demands, and threats. Suddenly, there was a sort of loud banging noise, followed by a few moments of silence.

"Uhh... Steve? You there?"

A few more seconds passed before he heard a rather chipper sounding voice on the other end.

"Hey Zdenek, it's me!" Steph chimed "As you may have already heard, Boris has actually been helping out with everything here. It pretty much takes everything for him just to stand and talk at the same time, but considering how he was practically on the verge of death a little while ago, it's rather impressive. How is everything going with you two?"

"Well Stephanie, Erykah has regained consciousness, and were going to be getting some food and eating like a pair of crazy people when we get back to the house."

"Mmmm, fooooood... Zdenek, could you get me something too? In fact, give me a sec—"

Zdenek then heard Steph calling to the rest of the hand, asking if they wanted him and Erykah to get them any food as well. It took a few minutes before Steph spoke again.

"Sorry for the wait Zdenek, we would pretty much all like some food if you guys wouldn't mind ordering for us."

Before Zdenek could answer, he heard a familiar voice barking again in the background.

"What the fuck Steph?! You didn't even ask me! In fact, why am I the only one who has no say, especially when you're all talking on my fucking phone? Gimme thaaat!!"

Zdenek then heard Amy snatching the phone from Steph accompanied by a loudish bang which resulted in Zdenek having to pull the phone away from his ear. He looked at Erykah who just shook her head, as she was able to hear the entire phone call from the passenger seat. Amy then started talking.

"Hello? Hello? Zdenek, are you still there??" Amy enquired in hope.

"Yes Amy that's right, I'm still here."

"Great! I wanna tell you about how things are going over here under MY leadership! You'll be so proud, I—"

The phone call suddenly cut off, and Zdenek attributed that to Amy's battery being flat. He could almost hear the roar of frustration she let out. He then handed Erykah her phone back and focused on the road again, with the sun almost having completely set.

"Sorry about that, seeing as I don't have a phone, yours is the only one that the guys could reach me on."

"Nah, don't worry about it." Erykah shake with a slight shake of her head, before she looked over at him, her head pressed against the head rest and just generally looking tired.

"So what are we getting? I mean, we've been eating pizza and chicken and such quite often haven't we?"

"How about some curry or something? We can get some flat bread, different types of curries, some of everything."

Erykah suddenly perked up a little at the mention of curry, and nodded her head rather enthusiastically at the notion.

"Yeah, that sounds amazing actually. I know this great place that's not too far from here."

"Okay cool, curry it is then. You'll just alert me when it's time to make a turn or something. Anyway, it's good to hear that everything is going well over at Aftershock. You know, you've got some pretty reliable friends back there."

"Yeah, I mean despite how they act, they actually do know how to get the job done. You wouldn't expect it, especially considering how they constantly like to play and shit."

"Yeah, well they balance out pretty well with you, considering how you're pretty serious and business like most of the time."

Erykah, who was still looking at Zdenek, looked like she had something she wanted to ask again. She suddenly noticed something.

"Zdenek, y-your coat, the sleeves are..."

Zdenek looked at his wrists for a second, and recalled how Boris' flames had burnt most of his sleeves to shit. From the elbow down, his sleeves were nonexistent. He sighed and shook his head slightly.

"I guess I'll have to get the sleeves replaced. Fucking Boris. Anyway, I don't know of a single place that sells curry with a Drive Thru, so we're going to have to park and actually go inside. You look a little worse for wear, so once we get there, you can stay and rest in the car."

Erykah just listened to Zdenek and felt like protesting, but knew better than anybody that it would not be worth it, as she would likely be stumbling all over the place if she were to get out of the car with Zdenek. She then reached over and tugged on his arm gently.

"Zdenek, take the left at the next set of traffic lights."

Zdenek just nodded and took the left. The trip to the restaurant was pretty much made in silence, with Erykah only speaking to alert Zdenek of another turn he had to make. The trip didn't take all that long and they pulled up to the lot and parked. Zdenek then looked over at Erykah.

"I'll pretty much be getting one of everything, so you had best be prepared to eat. Even without everybody else's portion, we'll still have a large amount of food to get through."

As Zdenek was about to get out, he felt Erykah tug on his arm again and looked at her.

"What is it? Is there something you don't want me to order?"

"Nah." Erykah said with a weak shake of her head. "You hair looks like shit."

Erykah then reached up and turned Zdenek's head to face away from her. Much to her surprise, Zdenek neither protested nor flinched, and he just sat there and let her do as she pleased. She then started pulling on his hair weakly, making sure that she got it all in her hands, before splitting it and holding some hair in each hand. She then started to loosely and slowly braid his hair. A short while later, she was done, and due to the length of his hair, the braid ran own his back. Erykah admired her handy work for a second, before nodding in approval.