Nothing like a bar brawl

The sound of music, flowing through the air hit his eardrums as soon as Miguel walked into the bar. He was dressed as well as one would be for a night of drinking, in a pair of camo pants, a simple graphic tee under a letterman’s jacket and what looked to be a Deadpool cap. His lips were stretched into a grin as he ordered himself a beer, getting pulled into a rather heated looking game of pool. There were a few guys betting money on the game, but they didn’t know they would be dealing with a metahuman. Miguel had put on his strength inhibiting bracelet, dialing things back so he avoided shattering the stick even accidentally and running everything. Money was going down and people getting impassioned, though knowing how to use a pool stick was a weapon like a theoretical master made using it to propel things around rather easy as he made every trick shot.

By the end he had around two thousand dollars, counting the money with a satisfied smirk. That was when someone walked up to him, a biker looking guy with a bandana wrapped around his bald head. “Can I help you?” He asked, looking up to the male a few inches taller than him without any concern within the world. A biker loser playing tough, not something he hadn’t dealt with before in his life.

“You cheated.” He snapped, breath smelling of cheap liquor. He was drunk, that much Miguel could tell and yet he didn’t care. “I want my money back. All six hundred dollars of it.” He took notice of the white knuckles, clenched as if ready to  strike.

”Listen bud, you lost your shit fair and square. So why don’t you go off before I get mad, and we both don’t want that.” Like that the fist flew, Miguel letting a fist snap up. Despite it limiting his physical strength, his natural strength was good enough to catch such a punch, and yet that did not happen. His hand careened back into his face, slamming into his nose with a sting and causing him to fly back into a table. Wood splintered under the force, harmless against his still durable flesh. ”Fucking ouch.” He growled, snapping to his feet, a few bills fluttering around his head and snatched up with quick motions as he stuffed them into his left rear pocket. Luckily the pants were tight enough to hold the thick wad of bills held together by a rubber band.

“Now, give me my money.” He said again, huffing like a bull ready to charge.

”You made a huge mistake hombre.” He unsnapped the clasp of the bracelet, slipping the leather thing into his right front pocket and glaring at the male. With a burst of motion he surged forward, those that were still in sight of the brawl gasping as he closed the distance within seconds, slamming an elbow into the mans face. Bones crunched, as blood spurted from them and knocking them back. He swore he saw  a few shattered teeth, though that was unimportant. He grappled onto his arm and brought the guy over, slamming him head first into the pool table, causing it to snap in two and the little pool balls to spill onto the floor.  

”Anyone else have a problem?” he shouted, looking around with piercing eyes as he spat on the downed metahuman.

The night had begun like any other, as Penny let out a loud sigh as she approached her bar. She was by all accounts late to work, but laughed to herself, remembering that she owned the damn place. A low rumble filled the alleyway behind the bar as Penny’s bike rolled into place. With a few flicks of her wrist she revved the engine a couple of times. It was like a small ritual she had formed with some of her regulars. The loud roar of the engine signified the boss had arrived and that things were about to get even rowdier in the pub than they already were.

As the motorcycle rolled through the alley towards the back door of the bar, its solitary headlight lit up the cramped confines of the alleyway. At the other end of the alley was some lowlife biker, their gang’s insignia was washed out by the harsh light being emitted from the headlamp of Penny’s bike. From the looks of things, he was having a hard time trying to keep someone pinned to the wall. The blonde let out a low growl inside her helmet as she cut the engine. A black leather boot splashed down into a puddle as Penny stepped of her bike, steam raised up from the pool of water. Stopping a mugging behind her own bar was not the start to the night the young blonde was looking forward to, but she sure as hell wasn’t about to let it go down either.

The sound of her boots colliding with the rough pavement filled the alleyway with an ominous series of thuds before finally coming to a stop as Penny reached the biker to find he was trying to force himself on one of the girls Penny hired at the bar. The girl struggled against the wall the biker had pressed her up against, the fear was clearly visible in her eyes, but nothing had quite frightened her by what she witnessed next. A wave of heat engulfed the alleyway, and bombarded the bikers back. He might not have turned around if it wasn’t for the scream of pure terror the girl let out. The biker spun around to find himself face to face with a flaming skeleton. Smoke poured out from the seam of the visor to Penny’s helmet that she had yet to remove solely out of anger.
“Are you alright?” she asked. The abyssal sockets of her skull focused on the young girl. Penny then tilted her head back, signaling for the girl to get out of there. The biker tried to make a swift exit but was met with a leather clad glove to the throat. Penny’s grip tightened around the man’s neck as she slowly lifted him off the floor. “You picked the wrong girl to harass amigo.”
“P…Please don’t kill me” the biker pleaded quite pathetically as tears formed in the corners of his eyes. Typical behavior from someone who acted tough till they were face to face with hell itself.
“It’s too late to beg for forgiveness. Hijo de puta.” Penny barked before throwing the man against the brick wall. As he collapsed to the floor Penny crept in closer before flicked the visor of her helmet out. A small wave of heat lashed out and caressed the bikers nose. Penny let out a small growl that was then followed by a torrent of flames erupting from her helmet, consuming the bikers head.

The flaming skeleton lady admired the leather wrapped inferno she had just created for several seconds before finally rising to her feet and ‘cooled off’. It was finally time to get to work. Penny walked back to her bike where she removed her helmet and hung it from one of the handles before making her way to the back entrance of the bar. As she reached for the brass handle she could he the sound of bodies crashing through wood and the crowd in the bar cheering someone on. A small smile crept onto her face as she flung the door open.

The smile turned into a grimace as she found herself staring at one over confidant patron standing over a pool table that he had no doubt split in half with the body of someone else. “Chingada suerte. Can’t you fucking animals take the fights outside?” She said, staring the overly confidant victor down.

”Not my fault the cabron came at me out of nowhere.” Miguel noted, giving the downed male a good kick as he let a pained cough out. ”Dumb shit thinks he can gamble his money and swing his super powers around as if that’ll get him anything.” With a motion he lifted the down man, walking over to the front door and tossing him onto the sidewalk with a casual motion. With that bit of trash thrown out, he looked Penny over with an arced brow, not exactly having a problem with what he saw. ”Some people just don’t have any brains I guess.” Miguel shrugged, burying his hands into his pockets

”So, you work here or something? Sorry Chica, didn’t mean to break things but guys like that really piss me off.” He settled his hands onto his hips, glancing around as a few people exchanged bills. Seems like someone made a bet on who would win the fight, and he had a few fans, or maybe people taking the piss. ”Well whatever. Drinks  are on me everyone!” He called out and everyone cheered as he sauntered over to a seat and settled down on one, kicking his legs up and settling them onto a table.

Penny gave the man a blank stare as he moved about, first removing the unconscious biker from the bar and then offering everyone a round. *The cojones on this guy* She thought as she moved away from him for a moment, completely ignoring his question of if she worked at the bar. The bartender shot Penny a smirk as she made her way behind the bar and tucked her helmet into a small nook towards the bottom. “You missed a hell of a show.” The bartender said with a small chuckle as he occupied himself with mixing a drink for one of the customers at the end of the bar.

“I bet I did Henry. Give me the details” she said, turning away for just a moment to pour herself a shot. “Same shit as always. Some poor suckers got swindled out of their money. I’m thinkin there’s more to our friend back there than he’s letting on.”
Penny shot Henry a sly smirk before pounding the shot she had poured herself. “You don’t say.” There was a hint of sarcasm to her voice, as though she hadn’t already pieced together that there was something ‘different’ about the witty pool shark. “Why don’t you and one of the girls get to serving those drinks. I’m going to have a little chat.”
“Behave yourself Penny!” The bartender shouted as she made her way over to the table that the new comer had claimed for himself.

Once Penny had reached the table she used the bottle of whiskey in her hands to brush the man’s feet off the table before firmly planting the bottle in the center of the table. “Didn’t your mother teach you any manors? It’s rude to put your feet on other people’s furniture.” Penny proceeded to remove her heavy leather jacket, revealing a black tank-top underneath. She then draped the jacket over the back of the chair opposite the man before sitting down. An arm reached out over the table and grabbed the bottle of whiskey, Penny went on to fill both glasses about half way before sliding one of them across the table to the man. She placed the bottle back in the center of the table and took a swig from her glass. “You asked me if I worked here a little bit ago. The answer is no.” She said before taking another sip of the whiskey. Penny then leaned back and kicked her feel up on the table and looked around the bar. “Bienvenido a mi casa!”

The odd blonde female had walked in, seemingly walking to the bartender who had likely told her of the little scene. A fascinating, and even good looking chick, with the appearance of someone that likely could kick some major ass. Well, at the very least this was not the worst bar that Miguel could have picked out. ”Mother taught me a few things, but she was no saint herself.” Miguel noted with a smirk, letting his feet swing down from the table as a small glass of whiskey was slid towards him. His eyes considered it for a drew seconds, lips drawn in the same amused smirk.

”Mi casa es su casa.” Miguel said with a chuckle, downing the drink with one throw back as he set the glass back down onto the table. ”Some people are just sore losers. Beat them in a game fair and square, they get all huffy. Probably shouldn’t have broken the pool table, but that was….an accident.” Miguel shrugged, pouring himself another drink as he looked down the female with a single arced brow. ”Something tells me his buddies won’t be too pleased about the potential broken bones though.” if they were fellow metas, well that would make things even more annoying.

”So I’ll likely end up having to beat up a few more pendejo’s with a chip on their shoulders.”

Penny let out a small laugh, this guy was certainly confident in his abilities she thought, as she poured herself another glass of the whiskey. “No one’s going to come back here looking for revenge. They know better than to start shit in my bar. Everyone here knows that, it’s like the golden rule.” she pounded her drink before bringing her feel of the table and allowing her momentum to bring her forward. She leaned over the table as she reached for the bottle of whiskey. Her blue eyes looked the man over for several seconds, taking in every little detail. Penny couldn’t help messing with people and her gaze turned to a stern almost angry one, as if she was upset that this guy had started a brawl in her bar.

Penny eventually caved and broke out into a laugh. “Don’t worry. You're new here, so I’ll let this little incident slide just this once, lo tengo?.” Penny eased up on the guy and leaned back in her chair once more. “I’ve never seen you in here before. You just move here?” she asked, trying to spark up a conversation with this mysterious new stranger that had appeared in her establishment.

While the two got acquainted, a group of rough looking individuals entered the bar, there was about six of them, all dressed in biker attire from head to toe and they did not seem like they were there to socialize. The group of men were no doubt friends of the unconscious fool that had been thrown from the bar. Instead of heading over to the table where Penny and the man were, the group headed over to the opposite side of the bar and all took a seat.

Penny’s eyes shifted from the man over to the group. She didn’t recognize any of them, which was saying something, since she knew everyone that came into her bar. Tonight seemed to be a night firsts from the charismatic blonde bar keep. “hijo le de chingada” she mumbled under her breath as the group of men began to ask around the bar. She turned her attention back to the man. “Trouble always follow you around like this?”

”Guess you’ll need to catch the last guy up.” Miguel noted with a smirk, pouring himself another drink, just enjoying the steady stream of drinking they were doing. He hadn’t expected anyone to come after him, but then again people had this odd tendency of trying to come after him when he beat up their friends. Not that many gangs proved much of a threat to him. He wasn’t having any trouble with the owner either, which was an odd circumstance when he thought about it.

”I’ve been around a while, just haven’t been around here I guess.” Miguel stated,  considering how long he had lived in LA. ”Guess there are plenty of  bars in LA.” He shrugged as a few more people walked into the bar, looking rather suspect as far as bikers walking into a bar were. Not that he exactly looked normal for the patronage, but not like he cared about that. Trouble following him around, well that was an apt thing to question. Being the violent vigilante he was tended to bring rather violent people around him.

”Yeah, not the first time I’ve had people looking for me. Wonder what the idiotas want with me? Probably want to introduce me to their friendly crowbars and pocket knives.” He mused, leaning back in his chair, keeping it well balanced on the back two legs. ”Want them thrown out or do you have this covered?”

Penny kept her gaze fixated on the group of shady bikers as the man across from her answered her previous questions. The bikers seemed content on sitting in their own little corner for the time being, and that was enough for the blonde bar owner. She took a sip from her glass before turning back to the man with a large grin on her face. Normal she’d handle this sort of thing here and now before it even had a chance to get off the ground, but thought it’d be an interesting payback if she just let the bikers try to start a fight with her new acquaintance.

“Nah, there’s no need for any of that. If they want to pick a fight with you, I just might let them. After all you owe me for the pool table you split in half, and I figure watching you one v five would be good entertainment.” She finished with a small chuckle and rise of her glass as a cheer, before pounding what was left in the glass.  Without warning Penny threw her hand up in the air and started waving it around while whistling to the bikers across the bar. “Oye! Pendejos, the guy you’re looking for is right over here!”

Penny then pointed to the man sitting at the table with her, her grin grew in size, extending ear to ear now. At the other end of the bar, the group of individuals stood up to get a better view of the man Penny was pointing at. “No hard feelings, but I really liked that pool table. If you’re planning on laying these guys out, do me a favor and do it in the street or the alleyway. Wouldn’t want you to have to pay for more than just the pool table now would we.” she said giving him a wink and the group of bikers approached their table.