Jon was now conveying the aura of…
Well still a normal guy doing a come hither stance, but nevertheless, he had demonstrated that with the right framing and support, almost anything was possible.
The DRSABCDs hesitated, clearly psyched out by the Michael Bae display. Itvashim, low on confidence, even slid the Blu-Rays and the rest of the Amazoné and Téamu packages over on the ground whilst he put his hands up in surrender. He was, literally, too old for this sh** after all.
Jon reached down and carefully handled the Blu-rays with a microfiber cloth, gingerly opening a secure locker, padding it with bubble wrap, and then placing the Blu-Rays carefully inside like a shrine, locking it, before then turning back to Itvashim and giving him a nod.
He then went back into his come hither stance and beckoned again with two fingers. The pose should have been epic and intimidating, but the camera crew were getting tired at this point and were getting some refreshments courtesy of the convenience store supplies, and so just settled for the standard wide shot.
The Dark Rizzards of course allowed him to do all of this unopposed since it was an unwritten code of honour amongst hooligans - in this free for all, almost anything was allowed, but they knew the Blu-Rays were irreplaceable and needed to be safely secured regardless of life and death.
However, how could it be so easy?!
Itvasme watched all of these events unfold in disbelief, but then with her 169.67 IQ she realised something, especially after seeing that Jon's pose had lost a bit of its dramatic wow factor.
"You fools, all this must be costing a fortune. He's just a normal guy. Once the filming budget runs out, he's dead. Continue!"
Itvasme snapped, trying to talk some sense and bring back some morale back to the whipped Dark Rizzards who were still… reeling from Jon's choreography.
Her words sparked new vigor into the DRSABCDs who immediately stood up and erected themselves at attention to face the challenge, although once again, Hugo's Aphrodisiac of Unlimited Potency subscription hadn't yet been processed by the system rendering his own 'main protagonist' a limp bystander in the current unfolding events.
"Did you gotta do that, Author?!" Hugo yelled out.
Indeed. It was once again, following on from the Sonya incident, a 'low' blow, prodding him when he was... quite literally, 'down'... but of course Author knew that this would make the readers feel more sympathy for the rogue-yet-potentially-redeemable(?) Dark Rizzard and add greater girth to his glow-up - should it ever actually occur (as always, this would depend on esteemed reader comments and powerstones - thank you so much for your contribution!!!)
Three Dark Rizzards immediately came forward adopting a perfect, square, fighting stance and surrounded Jon in a semi-circle, preparing to take him down… with numbers.
Numbers… wait… this… this was Mathematics!!!
Jon's eyes immediately hazed. There were true masters of the fabled Mantra of Mathematics out there, but he wasn't one of them.
He glanced around, but his calculator was back at the counter he had just jumped over.
"H-How?!"
Itvasme let out a soft, sinister laugh, full of sultry schadenfreude. They had done their research - what normal guy would ever remember his mathematics lessons in the real world?
Itvasme pressed home the advantage.
"… I knew it." She sneered.
One of the Dark Rizzards gave him a shove and Jon staggered back.
"What is 1+1?" They probed with a quick opener.
"…2!!!" Jon countered breathing hard pushing back.
"5+5?" The second Dark Rizzard… added his attack into the equation.
There was a pause.
But this was still doable. Jon quickly riffled "12345678910" through his fingers before coming to the correct solution.
"…Aaggh… 10!!!" He grit his teeth pushing back against the mental attack.
Itvasme knew it was time for the finishing blow.
She gave a curt nod to the final member of the trio. "Do it."
The third Dark Rizzard stepped up.
"…What's… 6+9?!"
Jon was counting on his hands.
"8… 9… 10… … …"
…But he had run out of fingers.
"I-I've reached my limit." Jon grit his teeth.
"Better luck next time…"
Leaving Jon dazed shaking and staring at his fingers, the Dark Rizzards successfully grabbed Jon's piece of the blueprint out of his back pocket and then pushed him into a pile of snake lollies and plastic packaging.
"…Do we kill him?"
"…No… There's no time to waste. Leave him."
Upon Itvasme's orders, the Dark Rizzards immediately moved out to track down the next piece of the EVP Technology Blueprint.
Itvasme let out one last… calculated jab as she departed her Dark Rizzard cloak billowing in the breeze...
"After all… He's already down for the count…"
___