by thedoctor and Grimm
Dirk Bell came into the main room where the party was being held. He had ditched his usual wardrobe of the coat and fedora for a regular, button-up shirt. He circumvented the party and headed for the door. Next to it, Blackwulf was talking to three strangers. "Dirk, comrade," the giant yelled while waving the gunslinger over, "I am introducing you to old friends."
Since they were standing in front of the door, Dirk had no choice to go over. "This is John," Blackwulf said while tapping the man with the backpack and five o'clock shadow.
John smiled before quickly turning his attention to his backpack. "Be quiet... I'm sure you can take him, but now's not the time."
"And this," Wulf continued, "is Monkey Boy." The giant displayed a large smile as he put his hand on the shoulder of the guy wearing the flip flops on his unusually large feet.
The man returned the grin as he replied, "Sure thing... Lassie." Wulf's smile disappeared as he eyed his old comrade.
Turning to the man in the wrestler's mask, the Russian introduced the last man. "And this is the Luchador."
"Hi," the smaller man said as he lifted the mask up over his mouth and quickly replaced it. He gave a quick wave and a smile before running off yelling, "LUCHA LIBRE, AWAY!"
"Why did he lift up his mask to say hi when there was already a mouth hole in it?" Dirk asked.
"Is question we are not having answer to."
"Man," the one Wulf dubbed as Monkey Boy said, "I hate telling you guys this, but this place stinks of fish. I mean, it's everywhere. It even covers up Lassie's scent. I think I'll get some air freshener from the car. I can't stand this much longer." He exited out the door.
"Nice party," John said. His attention went quickly back to his backpack. "I don't know if they have beer here. Give me a second to find out... Don't threaten me like that, especially if you want another title shot. You guys wouldn't happen to have anything to drink, would you?"
"Over there, John," Wulf said, pointing to the keg.
When Dirk and Blackwulf were standing alone, Dirk said, "What was that? The Mentally Handicapped League?"
Wulf's face got serious. "Is my old team, so to speak. We do lot together before I am becoming your weight trainer. There are some problems, yes, but Monkey Boy is having Ph.D. in head shrinking. He is making problems not as bad as they were." Wulf took a drink of a mug of a strange blue liquid. "Is good. Speaking of weight training, you are not as puny under that coat as I believed. But I am going to be making you stronger." He smiled and upturned the mug.
"I think I'll be going now." Dirk opened the door and began to head out.
"You not liking party?" Dirk just walked out into the night. He felt he needed a little time to think. Now was as good a time as any, especially since he wouldn't have as much time for it later.
An hour later, at the party, John was standing at the keg pouring himself a mug.
Ameristar walked up next to him to get a drink. "Hey," she said, "nice shaggy beard you got there." John looked confused for a second until he looked down at his chin. Then he nodded. "How long have you been growing it?"
"Oh, all night," John replied. "Which reminds me..." He reached into his backpack and pulled out an electric razor. "Where's your bathroom?"
"Um... Down the hall."
"Thanks."
A few minutes later:
"LUCHA LIBRE, AWAY!" the masked man said while bounding around the party.
"MICHAEL, GET BACK HERE!" the one Wulf referred to as Monkey Boy yelled while chasing the masked one. "I'M NOT GOING THROUGH THIS AGAIN!"
From out of the hall leading to the bathroom, John ran out with a half-shaven beard and ferociously slapping at the flames on his jacket's sleeve in an attempt to extinguish it. "Why does this always happen to me?"
Kit Piper was walking around the party far away from the excitement. He happened to pass Blackwulf, who was talking with some metas he knew from the bar. Now, Kit wasn't one to listen in on other people's conversations, but when Wulf spoke, there was no choice but to hear it.
"Yes, was very interesting time. Team knew how to handle a problem. We took down many big enemies. Team was, how you say, unstoppable." Kit, being very intrigued by this story, slipped further into the party with the music, drowning out Blackwulf's voice.
"Why aren't you still with them then?" one of the metas asked Wulf.
"Rest of team eaten by ogres in Germany. Very sad and messy occurrence."
Elsewhere on the island, Dirk sat on the beach, looking over the ocean and stars. He always preferred looking at the stars from this angle. Even he could appreciate the beauty of the night sky, especially after seeing how horrible it could look during the hurricane a few months back.
"You can come out now," he said aloud to the world.
A woman came out from behind a small dune. As she sat down next to him, she said in her lovely Scottish accent, "You know, I could sneak up on you if I really wanted to."
"I bet you could." A very unusual thing occurred next. Dirk smiled. It wasn't his normal smart-ass grin that he gave his enemies and everyone else. It was a genuine smile.
"What are you doing dressed like that?" Aine asked when seeing his attire.
"Things are pretty dead around here," he responded. "Didn't see the point in carrying it all around. Besides, Puerta Mibela is wasted, and Del Mar doesn't even register on the radar. I doubt anything is going to go down here. Even if something does happen, I'm pretty sure I can take care of anything that comes my way."
"Are you sure about that?" she said with a playful tone in her voice.
Dirk's smile widened and mixed a little with that trademark grin. "Damn sure."
She returned the expression. "I guess we'll have to see, won't we?"
Back at the party, Ameristar and Crasher sat on the couch that was salvaged from the apartment complex and talked. Edulcore "Eurostar" Cicciotto was seated between them, fuming.
Ameristar said, "There goes Wulf. Don't let him see me."
"What, don't you want to dance some more?" asked Crasher.
"Oh, don't get me started."
"What, you didn't like it?"
"Being nearly crushed and thrown all over the place?" said Ameristar. "Are you joking? How was yours?"
"The one in the mask? He kept staring at me and following me around."
"Staring at you? You mean your breasts?"
"Just at me!" said Crasher. "And he had to lift up his mask to talk to me."
"What? Doesn't it have a mouth hole?"
"Yes! He just kept following me and trying to hug me. I had to sneak away from him. What about the one with the beard?"
"He kept disappearing into the bathroom to shave. It kept growing back."
"Yuck!" said Crasher, a disgusted look on her face.
"I know," said Ameristar. "Then he kept talking to his backpack all night."
"Weird."
"Yeah, what about the cute one with the big feet?"
"Well, you know what they say about guys with big feet..." began Crasher.
"Yeah, big shoes!" laughed Ameristar.
Suddenly, Euro could take no more. "Girls, do you mind?! I have a lot of very serious concerns here!"
"Sorry, hon, but it's New Year's Eve," said Ameristar. "We wanna have a little fun."
Suddenly they heard a scream as John ran by, waving his arms, his army jacket on fire again.
Blackwulf said, "Hey, Monkey Boy, Comrade John is having set himself on fire again."
The Luchadore said, "I'll put him out. I'll throw this bowl of punch on him."
As Blackwulf and Monkey Boy tried to talk him out of it, the Luchadore grabbed up the punch bowl and tossed the contents on top of John, who promptly began to scream even louder as the flames grew higher and began to burn even hotter. He ran outside, heading for the beach.
The Luchadore gasped, "What happened?"
Monkey Boy replied, "We tried to tell you. That wasn't punch. It was alcohol."