Over the course of history many groups have grown and been shaped by the battles they fought. Bands of merry men fighting wars in worlds long since forgotten. Heroes embarking on journeys with seemingly no end, to face a threat that could never tangibly exist. The Jonverse was a place, a pocket in existence built on battle, on wars, and still, at even at the very prospect of a war, a battle, Jon couldn’t help but jump in the air. “It’s been a while since we’ve had to do something like this.” Jon said, laying down flat on the ground after jumping around like a hyper-active child, out of breath, but more importantly, anticipating something, anything, everything that could happen. “All of that jumping around and my nigga still can’t come up with a plan.” Terry said, walking around the room, unable to sit still. Even if he didn’t want to admit it, he was also anticipating the battles to come. They were the only ones who knew what was going on, and the others weren’t too keen on being left in the dark. “So what are we here for, Jon?” Sabina asked, sitting on a table in the middle of the room. “Why are you asking me specifically, white girl?” Jon asked, closing his eyes, “They got a nigga named Terry in this bitch that’d be happy to answer your questions.” “Aye nigga don’t throw this on me. This was all kinda your idea.” “Go to hell.” Jon sat up slowly, “Saying this was all my idea is a total fucking stretch and you know it.” Jon got up and walked through the room, looking in the air as he scratched the side of his face. He was thinking of something, an idea, a plan. Or perhaps, he was simply thinking of a way to tell everyone what was going on. “Goddammit.” Jon exhaled, “I wanted to fuck around a little bit, but to be frank, we really don’t have time for that shit.” “Then just tell us what’s going on.” Jayden said, looking at some exclusive shirt that he bought for $500 as an investment. “Put down the damn shirt first.” Jon replied. “Hell no, man. If the plastic on this shit rips, I’m fucked.” “You’re the nigga who dropped $500 on a shirt bro.” Jon felt one of his eyes begin to twitch, “Terry back me up on this.” “JJ said that he was gonna buy me the new Destroy Lonely merch, I’m good.” “Die…” Jon sat on the couch, where Gilbert sat, still unconscious from his fight with Emily, “Also, Em, why the fuck did you have to slam him so hard.” “Who gives a fuck, at least he’s quiet.” Emily replied, sitting on the table with Sabina. “No, you don’t get it.” Jon lamented, “That just means that I’m gonna have to say this twice.” “Will you? I mean, Gilbert’s like our number one ‘yes man’, he’ll probably just come with us regardless.” Terry said. “You’re not wrong, but alas, that brings me to the entire reason that we’re here.” “Finally.” Sabina said. “Shut up, little nigga.” “Shut up, big…” “Big what? You wanna say it so bad.” “If I wanted to, I would.” “Maybe you can, after I finish telling y'all this shit.” “What shit?” Jayden asked, prompting Jon to lean back and groan. “I’ve pissed off God or some shit!” Jon yelled, “There we go.” “That fucker’s real?” Emily asked. “I guess so.” Jon replied, “The guy had like some angels or some shit come to my front door step and bring me a letter saying that he’s sent down like five small parts of his soul or some shit, and he’s challenging me to one big fight.” “When you say you, you mean, just you, right?” Sabina asked, leaning further onto the table. “Does it matter?” Jon asked. “Nah, those niggas wanna fight like all of us, I think.” Terry said, “They said the strongest and below, so I really think that means everyone.” “It does, five soul pieces means five people who have god powers.” “Which means five asses to kick.” Jayden added. “Which means five problems that Jon’s caused.” Sabina added. “Go to hell. It’s not like I did it on purpose.” Jon said, “The nigga’s just mad that I’m stronger than him.” “Are you stronger than him?” Jayden asked. “I can be.” Jon said, his tone dropping slightly, “Anyways! I think he sent these faggots down so that they could kill me before I ended up getting to the main event myself.” “So why do we have to get fucking involved?” Emily asked, “This is your shit, right? I know he said from the weakest to the strongest or whatever, but there’s only so much that five people can do, right?” “I’m bringing you guys with me for two reasons.” Jon said, “One, I want the support in battle, and two, I generally like fighting single targets by myself.” “So you’re using us to take down all the little niggas?” Terry asked. “Yes. Any more questions?” The room fell silent with the weight of the situation falling on all four of the conscious people standing inside of the room. A threat stronger than anything else that they’d ever faced off against before was staring them right in the face. God himself was challenging the entire Jonverse, and yet, none of them seemed willing to back down. In a universe of fighters, the only people who would back down from a challenge of that nature are the weakest fighters in that universe. The silence was broken, however, by the sound of explosions in the middle of Terryville. “An explosion in the middle of the city.” Jon said, “This isn’t cliche at all. If you losers wanna go with me, then you’ll walk out of this door when I do. If you don’t then you can stay behind and walk out.” “I mean, we’re here already right?” Jayden asked, walking ahead of Jon, and towards the door leading outside. Jon grabbed Jayden by his collar, pulling him back. “Not for long if you keep trying to act like hot shit.” Jon chuckled. The two then had a slight race to the front door with Jayden and Jon both touching the door at the same time. “Fucking faggots.” Terry said, opening the door and pushing past the both of them. “Terry, I will fuck you in the ass if you say some shit like that again.” Jon replied, running past Terry and into the deeper reaches of the city. “I hate faggots bro.” Emily replied, following the three. “So real.” Sabina agreed. “Shut up, both of you!” Jon yelled. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Terryville. The explosions weren’t caused by a singular man, nor was it caused by a great battle. That'd hardly be the word for whatever was happening. Instead, it was caused by an army, a collective of people. They were here for a reason, however. They weren’t ruffians who lived to cause chaos. At least, not in this instance. This was a chase, a pursuit against one solitary person. A person described as a flower, a thorned one, however. She was a new face in Terryville, lacking acquaintances with those who’d been around for extensively longer than her, and yet, with her, Rose dragged behind a disgusting and desperate dog who’s ego was too big to allow him to fall to his knees. “Rose…” Lycan said, standing atop one of the tallest buildings in Terryville, “When are we gonna stop all of the playing around?” “When you learn to take a hint, of course.” Rose smiled, continuing her mad dash through the city. “So…never?” Lycan chuckled, taking a seat on the edge of the building as he watched the show that was being presented to him. Lycan himself was nothing. A robbery here, a fight there. He’d managed to get quite the number of men under him. People who enabled his ego, supported his delusions. And now, he was seeking to add a girl to that roster, a rose, and a sharp one at that. Rose dived and dashed through alleyways, outrunning her pursuers at every turn. They weren’t the brightest. She would have fought them, but she had some energy to burn, time to kill. “We have you backed into a corner, Rose.” Lycan exclaimed, jumping down to the city streets, “There’s no reason to fight anymore than you have to. Give in to me, you clearly like me enough to drag this out, right?” Rose lifted one of her eyebrows in confusion. The chase was entertaining, but his delusions were strange, annoying. Was he really that full of himself? Lycan began to run through the city’s alleyways and streets as well. Following the exact path that Roses did, at a frightening speed. It was like he was a dog, an animal following a scent. He was going to do what his men couldn’t. He would catch up, he wouldn’t be ducked, dodged, avoided. She was playing hard to get, he could have anyone he wanted, but he wanted her. She was ungrateful, spiteful. She didn’t know what she had, what he could do. He was way better than that girlfriend of hers. This is what Lycan thought. This is what he believed, and as quickly as he thought, he’d caught up to Rose. “Rose!” Lycan yelled, going for one final lunge. He was going to do it. He was going to catch her. No matter the cost. At least, he would’ve if she didn’t dodge him, curve him once again. “Alright, I’m done with you.” Rose said, flipping over Lycan, “They have some people who want to talk to you.” “What?” Lycan asked, looking up at Rose as she was in midair. His attention wasn’t to the front of him, even his peripheral vision was locked on Rose. He had no awareness. He knew nothing of the environment around him, and this would ultimately be his undoing, because as soon as Rose dodged, someone arrived. “Eyes on the road, Romeo!” Jon exclaimed, dashing in front of Lycan, punching him in his exposed chest, sending him crashing through a wall and onto the street, “Unless you’re trying to have a head on collision.” “Impressive.” Rose said, “Who even are you?” “Call me Jon, and I didn’t come here to impress ya. I just want a go at that dog guy.” Jon walked past Rose and onto the street where Lycan returned to his feet, and was now on the other side of the road. “Whaddya say you and I take this outside?” Jon asked, chuckling. “We’re already outside.” Lycan replied, holding his chest in his hand. “Oh deadass?” Jon smiled. As Jon and Lycan had their standoff, a far more active battle was happening in the skies above them. The others were all fighting against Lycan’s men, of which there were many. “Why does this guy have so many dick riders?” Jayden asked, swinging around the various high-rise buildings and attacking the men with kicks. “Who fucking cares, they’re all over the place.” Sabina replied, dodging a large string of attacks from each of the fighters surrounding her. Terry and Emily moved through a large congestion of the fighters, punching and kicking them away, with Emily focusing more on distracting them while Terry hit the killing blows. “These niggas are weak as hell.” Terry said. “I know bro,” Jayden replied, landing on the ground and flipping around the fighters. “Why does Jon get to fight the strongest nigga?” Terry asked. “He got there first, obviously.” Sabina replied, knocking a few of the soldiers away from her with strikes. “This ain’t a restaurant!” Jayden exclaimed, “Why’s it gotta be first come first serve?” “If you guys want to fight that dog fucker, then just go do it!” Emily exclaimed, punching out one of the fighters. The group continued fighting the large squad of men. Possibly 100 in number. Jayden swung one of the men into Terry’s fist, as Terry continued running through the battlefield, dashing around and fighting freely. Most of the enemies were focused on him, leaving most of them as sitting ducks for attacks from the others. “At least I can say I beat more people than he did.” Terry said. “Where are they now?” Sabina asked. “What?” Jayden asked. “I asked where they were. Are you deaf.” “I’m sorry I can’t hear you over the wind in my ears!” “We don’t have time for this shit, niggas!” Jon yelled, as Lycan soared into the air. Everyone diverted a slight amount of their attention to Lycan. Jon punched him into the air, and he was following him. “Watch this!” Jon yelled, “I’m boutta dog-walk this nigga!” (I’m having a fuck-ton of fun writing this, and I’m listening to this one Persona song while I write it. So consider the theme song or whatever of this fight “The Whims of Fate” by Lyn, shit slaps) Jon kicked Lycan down into the middle of the area where everyone was fighting, blowing away the fighters that didn’t get out of the way in time. Lycan recovered almost instantly, and dodged Jon’s falling knee, leaving him to destroy the ground below him like a torpedo. Lycan hit Jon with a few counter strikes, but Jon used the momentum from his third punch to recover and bounce backwards. “You’re not bad.” Jon laughed. “Of course I’m not.” Lycan replied, running towards Jon, “I literally fight for fun.” Jon dodged Lycan’s landing strike, and pulled him backwards using his shirt. Lycan was in front of Jon again, and they started trading strikes back and forth. Each punch was strong enough to send the other fighter sliding to the side, but it wasn’t enough to stop either of them. They kept closing in, and kept trading strikes. Punching one another back and forth. “I think we’re getting close!” Jayden yelled, using his webs to round up a group of the fighters and crashing them into a nearby wall. “Yeah, they’re almost all gone.” Terry replied. There weren’t many men left, only around 20. That was manageable, they would be nothing to get rid of. Jon and Lycan continued their trade. Punching each other with no end, with neither of them backing down. Jon, however, stepped back slightly, weakening the effect of one of Lycan’s punches. “You almost done?” Lycan asked, sounding slightly out of breath. “Something like that.” Jon replied, “I’m just about ready to wrap this up.” As Jon finished speaking, he fully pulled back from the exchange, dashing into one of the areas between the buildings, dodging past a dumpster. “Everyone!” Jon exclaimed, prompting a nod from everyone present. As Jon and Lycan chased one another throughout the business center of Terryville, the rest of the group rounded up the remaining fighters. Terry used his insane power to bunch them all up, while Sabina used her liquid control abilities to hold them all in place using their blood. Emily prevented them from focusing on escaping by moving all throughout the crowd, and Jayden tied them all together using his webs before swinging them into the air using his strength. Jon and Lycan jumped from wall to wall on one of the tallest buildings in Terryville. As their fight reached its climax, they both met one another in the air. “You niggas always gotta ruin everything!” Lycan exclaimed, trading shots with Jon in the air, “Why couldn’t you just leave me alone? She doesn’t want you!” “I’m already spoken for.” Jon replied, “And even if I wasn’t, I just really like fighting guys like you.” “What is that supposed to mean?” Jon ignored his question, and sent one final punch at Lycan, who followed suit. Jon’s punch landed first, allowing him to send Lycan flying into the air, towards the large group of people. “That’s what you wanted to do?!” Jayden exclaimed. Jon laughed as he descended. The people didn’t go high enough, and Lycan was falling too early. Jayden and Jon fucked up their final combo. Though, out of nowhere, Gilbert popped up, kicking the large crowd of people back into the air, and Rose emerged, punching Lycan back towards the crowd. As Lycan crashed into the crowd of people, Jayden’s webs broke, and Lycan was drowning in a crowd of people in the air. Doomed to fall to the ground and be crushed. “Next time…” Jon started. “Learn to take a hint!” Rose finished. Jon crashed into the ground, while Rose landed safely on top of a building. Jon laid on the ground, his arms extended, and short of breath, but that didn’t stop him from giving Rose a thumbs up from the ground, and laughing. In the first battle of many during the War Against God, Jon was victorious.