by K. B. Draper
The two guys pushed their way through, shoving people aside as they went. As they approached Kanyon embodied her best Katherine sex-appeal. “Guess what, boys. It’s your lucky day.” They both hesitated, looking at her cautiously. Kanyon took out the wad of bills she was holding behind her back, threw it in the air and shouted, “Free beer for section 358!”
Kanyon took off up the stairs as a tidal wave of people began pouring over the rows of chairs. Throwing a glance over her shoulder she saw the henchmen struggling to find their way through the chaos.
She hit the top of the landing running, but slowed quickly when she saw security guards running at her. They passed her without a word and headed to the action she’d caused below. She picked up speed and darted out the emergency exit exterior door, but slid to an abrupt halt when she saw Lenny, Daylen, and two new lackeys, seemingly twins to the guys she had just left fighting through the crowd of eager beer drinkers. One was restraining a squirming Daylen. The cut on her lip from today’s earlier encounter had broken open and was bleeding again. The other was kicking a nearly unconscious Lenny, who was balled up on the ground. Kanyon’s blood began to pound in her veins. Her fists clinched and her glare locked on the guy holding Daylen. Daylen had apparently put up a fight because his left eye was already swelling and turning a nice shade of red. Kanyon took two slow, predator-like steps forward. Daylen screamed her name the same time Kanyon heard the door behind her slam into the wall.
Without looking she knew the other two goons had just joined the party. Kanyon moved into a sideways stance so she could keep everyone in view with minimal head movement. “You guys should really talk before going out so you don’t all show up wearing the same outfit. Kind of embarrassing, don’t you think? Grown men all dressing alike?” Not amused, the two latecomers began to advance on her. She yelled out to Daylen, “Where are we on the no kicking, no tripping, no knocking anyone out rule?”
“I think I’d like to recant the rule temporarily,” Daylen yelled back.
“Good.” Kanyon turned to meet Daylen’s eyes. “Episode 86, Battle of Nyicus, opening fight scene,” Kanyon said as she pulled her messenger bag over her head and dropped it on the ground. She watched for the light of recognition in Daylen’s eyes.
Daylen quickly cycled through the numerous fight scenes they had filmed before her eyes widened in surprise. “Seriously?”
Kanyon flashed a quick smile before she took off in a dead sprint.
Just before Kanyon reached her, Daylen bent her knees and let her body go limp. The guy holding her was taken off guard by Kanyon’s actions, added with Daylen’s deadweight, he was unable to maintain his grasp.
Kanyon launched herself at the guy, driving an elbow into the crest of his nose, as he scrambled to regain his grasp on Daylen. Landing, then in one fluid motion, she spun and delivered a side kick to his temple. He fell backward, unconscious.
Daylen somersaulted forward the moment her captor released her only to find herself facing the two other guys who were heading in her direction. She glanced back at Kanyon who had already moved to address the guy who was manhandling Lenny.
“Want to wishbone his ass? Whoever gets the big half wins?” Kanyon asked as she positioned herself for her next attack.
“I’m not cool with that idea!” Lenny inserted as he wiggled to escape.
“Kind of don’t care. Oh, and P.S.” Kanyon took two quick steps forward and bitch slapped Lenny.
The guy, stunned at Kanyon’s actions, froze allowing her to deliver a lightning fast roundhouse to the side of his head. Watching the man drop, Kanyon smirked. “Nightie night, sucker.”
Daylen, momentarily thrown back again to all the fight scenes where the Dark Savior pulled the same kind of stunt, it took her mind a second to understand it was actually Kanyon in the alley taking out the bad guys. The admiration cost her as one of the goons lunged for her. Daylen caught the action too late, only able to deliver a weak strike at the guy’s forearm as he grabbed her arm. She attempted to twist out of his hold, but the two-to-one odds were quickly going in favor of the two, as the other man moved in.
Kanyon ran to join the fight and even the chances, but they were already too close. Daylen was shoved into the other man’s arms, spun around, and pinned to him with his right arm around her neck.
“You’re going to want to stop right there or I’ll make it very difficult for her to breathe,” Daylen’s captor threatened, flexing his bicep to demonstrate. Daylen’s eyes went wide as she began to claw desperately at his arm.
Kanyon froze, hands held up in surrender. “Okay, okay! That’s enough. I’m not moving. Now let her go and we can talk this out.”
The goon scoffed but loosened his hold slightly. Daylen gulped a few deep, gasping breaths.
The second guy began to move in Kanyon’s direction. “Maybe we don’t want to talk. I know I don’t want to talk. Do you want to talk, Sal?” the guy mockingly asked. Kanyon squared her stance in response.
“Ah, you moved,” Sal said and he squeezed. Daylen immediately began tearing at the arm around her throat as she again lost the ability to breathe.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Let go. Jesus. I’m not moving,” Kanyon said with frustration and anger dripping from her voice.
“That was my last warning,” Sal said releasing his hold just enough for Daylen to take in a breath.
The other guy came to stand directly in front of Kanyon. He looked her up and down, smiling in appreciation. Reaching his hand out, he slowly snaked a rough knuckle down the side of her face. “You’re awful pretty for such a feisty, conniving bitch.”
Kanyon fought the urge to strike out at his touch, knowing if she moved and lost this little game he was playing it would result in Daylen getting hurt or maybe worse. “What do you want?” Kanyon asked through gritted teeth, as his finger continued a trail down her neck to her collarbone.
The guy raised his eyebrow. “Well, I can think of several things I want from you.” He gave a satisfied moan as his finger traveled to the open v of her shirt.
“Do you want that right now or can I have a minute to go get my hazmat suit first?”
“She’s funny too.” He smiled, then slapped her across the face.
Kanyon saw the slap coming and took the hit, letting her head jerk to the side. Okay, so that was slightly unpleasant, she thought as she worked her jaw. She had never been hit in the face before. On set all the punches thrown at her cleared her face by an inch. She heard Daylen scream and then felt something hot and powerful rise within her. Her vision blurred then cleared and she slowly turned her head back to meet her attacker’s eyes. Although Kanyon didn’t look away or even blink she could see Daylen thrashing, trying to break away from Sal’s hold. In response, she saw the muscle in Sal’s arm contract, squeezing hard enough to effectively cut off her resistance. Kanyon finally broke eye contact to turn her eyes toward Daylen and watched as Daylen stilled herself, fighting her natural instinct to struggle. Kanyon narrowed her eyes and looked back at the man in front of her. “Tell your butt buddy to let her go,” Kanyon growled through gritted teeth.
“Oh, we got a tough girl, huh? Believe me, he’s not my type.” Kanyon’s tormentor gave her a crooked smile then proceeded to run his finger down to the first button of her shirt. Kanyon stiffened. “Now, don’t move. You wouldn’t want Sal to hurt your little friend over there, would you?” He slid a finger behind the button and yanked, releasing it.
“Kanyon, don’t let him–” Daylen managed to squeak out as she again began to twist and fight.
“Calm down,” Sal instructed as he tightened his hold even more.
Daylen’s face immediately went red with the loss of air.
This time Kanyon stepped reflexively toward Daylen’s duress. “Let her go!” The guy closed his arm even harder around Daylen’s neck causing her feet to leave the ground.
“Alright, alright, fucking stop it!” Kanyon quickly stepped back only to be met with a fist to the side of the h
ead that took her to the ground. She could feel the warmth of blood running down her temple but it barely registered against the internal heat now burning within her, which had hit a boiling point. She shook her head, slowly got to her knees, and then worked herself back up to a standing position. She met the guy’s eyes again. “What do you want?” Kanyon asked in a low growl as she glared at the guy with cold deadly menace.
She could tell he was a little surprised at her resilience but he wasn’t going to back off. “Like I said, I can think of a lot of things I want from you.” He flipped her exposed bra strap.
“Dex, dude, the low life is starting to get up. We need to grab him and get going. The boss is expecting us,” Sal said.
Dex looked past Kanyon’s shoulder at the now stirring Lenny. “Looks like we have to go.”
“So soon? Dang it, and I was just starting to like you,” Kanyon replied.
Dex landed an uppercut to Kanyon’s stomach, doubling her over and knocking the wind out of her. He leaned over her, taking a lock of her hair and twisting it playfully between his fingers. “Pretty, tough, and funny, but just not too smart.”
“Fuck you,” Kanyon coughed out.
He stood and landed a kick to her stomach, knocking her back and onto the ground where she rolled over and curled up on her side holding her stomach.
Sal released Daylen and shoved her down, causing her to skid a short distance on her hands and knees. They both stepped over Kanyon then proceeded to Lenny, where each one took an arm and hauled him roughly up to his feet. They kicked their partners, jarring them from unconsciousness. The two guys stirred, stumbled to their feet, and followed Sal and Dex down the short alleyway to the parking lot.
As soon as Daylen got her feet under her she ran to Kanyon and knelt beside her. “Kanyon, Jesus.” She took in Kanyon’s bloody face and gasps of air. “Are you okay? Anything broken?” She caught Kanyon’s head in her hands, wiping at the blood running down the side of her face.
Kanyon took in a few deep breaths, satisfying her needy lungs. “I’m fine. I’m fine,” she said between intakes.
“You’re not fine. You’re bleeding and you probably have a broken rib or two.” She ran a hand gently over Kanyon’s temple. “That freaking bastard.”
Kanyon sat up slowly with one hand across her stomach and the other laid over Daylen’s.
“I’m fine, just help me up.” Kanyon was stilling her voice and trying to sound reassuring.
“Kanyon, you’re–”
Kanyon cut her off. “They have the walking, talking fashion faux pas,” she took in another lung relieving breath, “and I won’t give them the satisfaction of killing him when I’m going to take so much pleasure in doing it.”
Daylen helped Kanyon to her feet. Kanyon took a couple deep breaths, and surveyed the area, contemplating their next move. She started to step in the direction of the alley exit only to be stopped. She glanced at the hand holding her, then to its owner, and she softened her tone. “I’m fine.” She worked her jaw. “I have to admit getting hit in real-life sucks a lot more than on the set, but I’m okay. Really.” She was okay, but she was definitely going to talk to Dodge about her training after this little adventure. She picked up her bag from the ground and handed it to Daylen. “Go get my car and meet me–” she didn’t know where to have Daylen meet her because she had lost sight of the goon squad, “wherever you hear screaming,” she finished.
“Kanyon, you can’t go after them by yourself.”
“Go get the car. I won’t do anything stupid.”
“Seriously?” Daylen asked, the disbelief evident in her tone.
“I’ll be fine. Go,” she ordered as she took off running down the alley, cutting off any more protests. She grabbed a broken wooden mop handle that was sticking out of the dumpster. When she got to the edge of the building she broke the handle in two, giving her a weapon in each hand. She tested them with a quick swing and a flip of the wrist. Not too different from the short staffs Dodge taught us to use on the set. She scanned the parking lot and caught sight of the men two rows over and about halfway through the lot. She took off running down a parallel row of cars until she was only a few cars behind them. She dropped below their line of sight and made her way up the center between two rows.
The men stopped alongside a nondescript black panel van. Geez, cliché much? Kanyon watched Lenny put up resistance while Sal and Dex tried to force him in the passenger sliding door. Kanyon moved around undetected to the driver’s side, catching one of the guys with two quick strikes of the make-shift weapons before he could open the driver’s door. He dropped to the ground unconscious again. Lenny was yelling and causing enough of a commotion so when she rounded the back of the van, meeting the second guy, he was distracted enough that she was able to take him out with a simple punch to the temple then a second strike to the nerve down the side of his thigh, collapsing him to the pavement.
Kanyon moved silently around the rear of the vehicle to the passenger side. She watched for a moment as Lenny, who had his legs up, fought with his feet securely braced on either side of the van door while Sal and Dex were holding him up by the arms and shoulders, forcibly trying to shove him into the opening.
“Hey, guys,” Kanyon finally said as she held the mop handles with one hand behind her back and gave them a finger wave with the other. “Isn’t there some old saying about fitting a round fat guy in a square hole or…” She leaned against the van pretending to think about the saying.
“Babe. What, you didn’t get enough of me? You had to come back for more?” Dex smirked.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have called her ‘Babe’. She doesn’t like being called that. You’re in deep trouble now,” Lenny said.
“Is that right?” Dex laughed and turned to face Kanyon, completely releasing his hold on Lenny who immediately dropped to the ground. He stepped toward Kanyon but she didn’t budge. “Am I in deep trouble, BABE?”
“Oh, I’m just here to pay you back for all those nice compliments you gave me.”
Lenny attempted to scramble to his feet, swinging and kicking at Dex, but Sal had crawled on top of him. Dex didn’t pay any attention to the commotion behind him, all his focus was on Kanyon as he stepped closer to her.
Kanyon pushed away from the van, standing her ground. “You don’t want to do this, Dex.”
“I know exactly what I want to do to you, BABE,” he said with a sardonic grin, taking another step toward her.
“Okay, but you can’t say Lenny didn’t try to warn you,” Kanyon replied then swung the mop handles around and jabbed the two ends into Dex’s solar plexus. He immediately doubled over. She stepped forward and followed with a knee strike to his face and as his head flew up from the impact she gave him a right hook to the jaw. He landed flat on his back, unconscious. Kanyon stepped over him and looked directly at Sal, who immediately jumped off Lenny and threw both of his hands up in surrender.
Kanyon gave him a half laugh. “Ah, yeah, no. That’s not going to work for you. I kind of remember someone’s arm around my friend’s neck playing a fun little game called ‘Let’s Cut Off Her Air Supply’.” Kanyon took another step forward as she transferred one mop handle to her free hand. She smiled contemptuously as she smacked the two ends of the mop handles together. “I didn’t like that game, Sal.” She stepped and smacked the handles together again. “I wanna play a new game. We’ll call it…” she gave him a wicked smile, “…the ‘Beat Sal Stupid’ game.”
From the ground, Lenny delivered a punch to Sal’s groin and Sal fell to his knees, cupping himself with both hands. “Damn it, Lenny, now you’ve ruined all the fun.”
“Sorry,” Lenny said, breathing hard while he attempted to get to his feet.
Kanyon walked over to Sal and lifted his head up by a fistful of hair. She leaned low to whisper in his ear. “If you ever touch my friend again we’ll be playing Pick-up Sticks with your severed limbs. Do you understand?” Sal nodded. She was tempted to inflict more pain on t
he guy, but his face was nearly purple from Lenny’s shot to his chicken nuggets. She threw him aside by his hair and he hit the ground, immediately rolling into a fetal position and rocking.
Daylen pulled up in Kanyon’s car with a look of concern. Kanyon gave her a quick wave before she helped Lenny the rest of the way up. “Go get in the car, Lenny.” He nodded and hobbled toward Daylen. Kanyon followed, but stopped to kneel next to Dex who was still lying on the ground in pain and half conscious. She took his chin in her hand and forced his face toward her. “Lenny was right, I don’t like being called ‘babe’.” She dropped her voice to a threatening whisper. “You ever touch me again or use my friend as a weapon against me, I will cut your dick off, slice it up like a sushi roll, and serve it to you piece by little piece.” She released his face and it bounced off the pavement.
Dex spit at her. “Bitch.”
Kanyon stood slowly and returned the favor of a swift shoe to the gut. “I really don’t like being called that either.” She waited for him to focus back on her before she dropped the broken pieces of the mop handle next to his feet.
As Daylen watched Kanyon walk toward the car, she was taken back at the raw power radiating from her. Daylen had never seen someone look so menacing and dangerous, not even Kanyon herself when the writers had written “be menacing and dangerous looking” in the script. Kanyon was 100% real-life avenging warrior as she dropped into the passenger seat.
They took off as soon as Kanyon shut the door. Daylen navigated her way out of the parking lot, which was filled with people leaving the fight. Once she hit the street she turned to look at Kanyon who had her head laid back and her eyes closed. “Kanyon,” she asked cautiously, “are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Kanyon replied as the heat in her dissipated, leaving her cold and exhausted.
“You sure?”
Kanyon rolled her head to the side and opened her eyes. “I’m fine. But if you don’t stop looking at me versus the road I’m going to make you pull over and I’ll drive.”