Tom Sawyer was already seated when his fellow members of the Good Fight showed up. He was still wearing his yellow-and-orange leather motorcycling jacket, and a pair of huge old-man Glaucoma shades. The purple stippling around the margins of the shades betrayed why. Tom was feeling a little selfconscious about the bruising around his eyes, from when he had caught that ultra-kick pairing from Heidi and Kai.

 

Eugene gasped for breath as he walked inside, still in his TRAINING TEMPLE sweats. Serbo, following right behind, patted Eugene on the back. “You’ve shown remarkable progress, Eugene.”, Serbo praised, a genuine smile on his face. “You might feel like you wish to die, but trust me. You have taken great strides.”

 

The 8-Bit Warrior plopped into one of the chairs beside Tom, and Eugene looked to his little buddy. Tom had seemed... distant since he checked out of the hospital. Still sucking air to try to catch his breath, Eugene managed to murmur. “How you doing, Tom?”

 

Tom nodded weakly, eyes hidden behind those shades. “I’ve been better. But I’m alive.”

 

It should be no surprise that Eugene wasn’t exactly experienced in social situations such as this; which is why all he could muster was nod of his own and a gentle pat on Tom’s shoulder.

 

“Remarkable that you’re alive and kicking, Tom,” said Christian Light as he walked into the board room.  His shirt was soaked through with sweat, and his forehead glistened with sweat as he mindlessly started untaping his wrists.  While he had been through a grueling workout, same as Eugene, and his chest was moving up and down rapidly to harvest oxygen from air, it was a more natural position for Christian than Eugene.  Christian sat down gracefully in the chair across from Tom and Eugene, keeping an eye on Tom to see if he really is fine.

 

With a bottle of water in hand, Sam Turner Junior swaggers on in, uneasily looking around the room. He didn’t really feel at home in this sort of... athletic thingummy. He’d be much more at home at some kinda boxing gym, or just a small farm in the New York agricultural areas. Not this... church to the idea of bodybuilding. Or whatever it was. He sat down a little ways down from Tom, giving the kid and the kid a nod, before glancing to Light. Christian bade Sam a hello. But that is no longer the focus of the action.  

 

A light knock is heard on the board room door, but the owner of said knock does not await permission and simply makes his way through.  As he crosses the threshold all eyes catch him and he halts in his step.

 

“Oh, I bet this is what an intervention feels like,” he jokes awkwardly.  He looks around at the seats left at the table and decides to take a spot one down from Turner Jr., who exchanges a polite yet wary nod of the head to greet the Australian.

 

Tom took a long moment, before he removed his sunglasses. The bruising around his eyes and the sides of his face was still severe. His eyes were swollen. His eyes were discolored, one had a big red splotch from a burst vessel. “We’re all here to combat the Untouchables. I want that to be known above all else. We may be professional wrestlers, but all egos and self-promoting plans need to go out the window in pursuit of that common goal. Are we agreed?”

 

A low murmur of agreement sounds out from those around the table the table that were listening, but it’s none too convincing. Rather than pay attention to Tom all eyes were still fixed on the last man to enter the room, Justin Voss.

 

Seeing the eyes on him, Voss sat forward in his chair “I know I’m the outsider here,” He interjected, “but I just wanna get something out on the table.  I just wanna lay it all down for you.  I can SEE what’s going through your minds.  It’s clear as day.  Why the Hell is this guy here?  Why did he step in for us at Defiance Thirty-Two?  Am I right or am I right?”

 

He watched the faces, all reflecting the concerns he outlined and smirked to himself. Tom’s face was blank, his eyes staring. The kid, thus far, wasn’t buying it. Eugene was a touch confused, unaware of 99.9% of Voss’s past. Light’s eyes were hard. Voss had stepped up and proven himself, and every man deserved a second chance.

 

“See, it’s no secret that I used to be a prize asshole.  In fact, my career was modelled out of being the biggest asshole anybody could’ve been.  I’ve harped on about being a changed man.  I can tell you ALL ‘til Sammy’s cows come home about how I stand up for my beliefs and against those who reflect who I was.”

 

The others watch on, seeing this as no moment to interrupt, letting the VossMan continue telling them the purpose to his allegiance to the Good Fight.

 

“But I’m DONE talking.  I’m done tellin’ everybody.  Now is the time to stand up and put my money where my mouth is.  NOW is the time that I sit in the saddle and ride on into the gunfight.  Everything Jeff Andrews is doing?  All this nonsense?  I’ve been there before, man.  All of that.  Givin’ buddies belts.  Strappin’ himself up.  That was me a few years back.  Put the accolades on ya own shoulders and slime your way out of defending them the RIGHT way.”

 

The frustration seemingly growing within Voss, he rises to his feet and pounds a fist down on the table.

 

“But I’ll be DAMNED if I can stand by and let this asshole get away with it.  I’m here to stand up against that.  What he’s doing to DEFIANCE?  What he’s doing to you?  It ain’t goin’ down.  Not on my watch.  And it’s gonna be a damn cold day in Hell where I sit down and let that man do what I did.  I can’t let it happen AND I won’t.  And that’s why I am here.  That’s why I sit at this table.  Offering my allegiance to the Good Fight.

 

“If you’ll have me.”

 

And he sat.  Back in his chair, arms folded, and awaited his sentencing from the jury.

 

“Justin?” Eugene said finally having regained the ability to speak without wheezing.

 

Voss silently turned his head slightly to the Guru of Gaming and raised his eyebrows.

 

“Defiance is my home.” Eugene said as he rose to his feet, “I never thought I’d say that when I first came here, but it is. This is the first place in my life where I’ve felt like I belong...”

 

“Unless you count Azeroth of course...”

 

“In high school I never fit in. I was always picked on, pushed around, beat up... I’d have been shoved in lockers, but I didn’t fit... Those years made me think I’d never find a place where I’d be accepted, and would have people who stick up for me.”

 

Eugene shot a look over to Tom, and swallowed hard.

 

How gay does that sound?

 

“I know when you fought all three of the Untouchables, you did it because you wanted to stand up for me, and Sam, and Christian, and everyone else in the locker room who couldn’t be out there. You were fighting for DEFIANCE’s very heart and soul, just as much as Christian was in the main event. DEFIANCE isn’t about Jeff Andrews, or about Eric Dane. It’s about every man on the roster who wants to entertain the fans, make that house shake with their screams and cries and shouts, and put on the best wrestling today. Bronson Box won’t admit it, but you were fighting for him. I will admit that I know you were fighting for me, and I know Christian and Sam will.”

 

“And that’s what I want to do. And that’s what I think you want to do too, Justin. That’s why we’re here. And that’s why we’re in Mechanicville. The Untouchables couldn’t break us when we were just four. But now that we’re five, we can combine the lions and form Voltron. Uh. Figuratively. And when we unleash our blazing sword, Andrews and his team won’t stand a chance.” Eugene’s face betrayed what was really going on. Dude was even surprising himself with his eloquence and balls. And once he finished with the “together”, he sat down all of a sudden. He had realized the spotlight was totally on him, and he Fluttershy’d it up.

 

Tom reached over, offering Eugene a dap. Despite their whiteitude, the two boys of the group pounded fists.

 

Light leans forward, clasping his hands on the tabletop. “Tom. You’re our courage. Our source of never-surrender, that will not bend, will not break. Ever. Sam, you’re our backbone. That immovable point we can plant ourselves against and use to brace against the weight of the entire world. Eugene, you’re our resilience. With you, we can come back from any attack, any fall. Justin, you’re our insight. The one who has seen the dark side, and come back tempered from it. And I’m our experience. The five of us form something more than the sum of our parts. But we can only do this if we’re united.”

 

Christian rose to his feet, planting both hands on the desk, and Eugene made a mental note to photoshop Light’s face onto Phoenix Wright’s body later. 

 

“We’re going to get knocked down again. Maybe not next show, but there’s one thing the Untouchables are good at. And it’s shoving their enemies down. But together, we can come back up as many times as we need to. Benjamin Franklin said something as the ink was drying on the Declaration of Independance that’s pretty good to keep in mind. Gentlemen, we must all hang together... Or we shall assuredly hang separately.”

 

Sam sat dumbfounded on why Christian was talking about Ben Franklin when he was the guy that ran out in the rain with a key and a kite and got electrocuted.

 

Sam looked around the room seeing all eyes on him and sat there with his mouth hanging wide open. His rotation stopped on Tom.

 

Tom raised his eyebrows slightly, “Sam, are you okay? We’d like to know what you’re thinking.”

 

“Yea, I rekon I aight. Now I ain’t sure’at I knows what y’alls talkin bout 100% of tha time but I don like’em Untouch’bles. I knows they don all’is nontol’r’ble thangs ta us all an I ain’t like it one bit.” Sam replied as he reached down into his overall packet, pulling out a pouch of Stoker’s apple chewing tobacco and a bottle. He pulls out a handful of tobacco and puts it in his mouth. He stands up and holds his bottle tightly in his hand.

 

“Now Eugene, I’s from Harlan County, KY, it’s called Bloody Harlan fer a reason. Ya see, back in tha day tha people was fightin fer coal. They was people killin people jus cause they was scab workers. That’s why it’s called bloody Harlan; it was tha good people takin back what was’eres.”

 

Sam spit into the bottle, walked over to Eugene and put his hand on his shoulder.

 

“Now I ain’t tryin ta say kills him, I’m jus sayin if ya jus bloody a feller up they remember it, but if ya beat’em till he bleeds from a bunch of places he’s gon ta fear ya fer tha most part.”

 

Sam moved away from Eugene and sits back down at the table. Eugene in turn scootched away from Sam, turned to Tom with a shocked look all over his face and silently mouthed ‘wow’.

 

“And that’s what it’s going to take to end this, my friends,” Light added, standing back up.  “I’ve seen the look in the Untouchables’ faces.  They’re ready to protect this grip they have by any means necessary.  It’s gonna take blood...some of ours, and some of theirs...for this thing to be over.  And from what I’m hearing...”

 

Light pauses for a moment, letting his head swivel around the room.  His eyes fall first on Justin Voss, then on Tom Sawyer.  Then Sam Turner Jr.  And finally, Eugene.

 

“...we’re all in.”