“Cheers! To a job well done the first night!” Q stated as he held up a tall, wide glass of cold beer.

The rest of the security staff rose the glasses of their respective drinks as well, shouting “Cheers!” before they placed their mugs to their lips, taking a long swig of the amber liquid. It was Philip’s idea of gathering the bodyguards and going out to the nearest bar to celebrate the four newest member’s first night of the job.

“So, do you guys think you can handle many more nights like this?” Vinny asked as he guzzled down more of his beer. “It’ll only get crazier with each venue, let me tell you that!”

Darren smiled and nodded, knowing what the man said to be right, but in their case, it’ll continue to get far more crazier than that, and a much more harder job at hand. “We’re ready for whatever comes our way. I believe in my crew.”

“We believe in OUR crew!” Q corrected as he walked up and linked an arm around Darren and Gabriella’s shoulders. “Drinks all around! We’re putting it on AJ’s tab!!”

As the burly men began to cheer, Logan laughed, “Man… is this what they do after every show? Or before for that matter? I don’t remember this being apart of the job description, but I love it!”

Josh slapped a hearty pat down upon Logan’s shoulder, “Just, whatever you do, don’t let yourself get like how you were last night… I will leave you with a hangover this time around.” he joked with a wink.

Logan seemed to perk up on his statement, “I have an idea!”

The color from Josh’s face seemed to drain as he found himself staring at Logan’s mischievous features. “Ooooh no Lo, no ideas coming from you… the last time you had an idea, I ha-”

“DRINKING GAME!!!” Logan exclaimed as he shot up from where he sat, punching his fists into the air. That awarded him a horrid, stunned look from the younger man.

Though, Logan’s words of an apparent challenge seemed to intrigue the bigger men. “What game would that be?”

He quickly brought his hands down, he hadn’t thought that far. “Simple game really…” he replied coolly with a shrug, “who can drink the most beer. The first one to pass out, loses.”

The group remained quiet for a while, as if contemplating the challenge over. “You veterans select your drinker, and us newbies will select our drinker, to help prove ourselves!” Logan added.

That seemed to intrigue the men even further, the fact that this would not only be a simple challenge, but a challenge that would be held between the veterans and the new guys. This could be fun. “Alright! We bite!” Buddy agreed for the group as he stood up. “Our drinker that we shall send forth is a no brainer… we choose Big Mac!!”

“Alright, alright…” Logan said with a nod before he was pulled down roughly by a fuming Josh.

“What in the hell are you doing?!” Josh seethed in a whisper. “Can we not try to make a scene with us?”

“How are we gonna make a scene?” Logan countered.

“Oh, I don’t know… by getting drunk off your ass and possibly lose control of your powers! What if we find ourselves in some trouble, what good would you be?!”

“You’re right… but this is such an easy and entertaining way to earn a quick buck and gain their respect… hope you’re ready to drink up baby boy.” Logan teased with a wink before he straightened himself up and faced their fellow colleagues, “We choose Josh!”

Josh’s eyes literally bulged out of his head upon hearing Logan volunTELL him. His selection caused an uproar from the hearty men, “Josh barely has any meat on him! Why don’t you give us a fair challenger, like you Logan, or Darren!” Buddy said jokingly.

Hearing that proved to be fighting words for Josh. Slamming his hands down on the table, he quickly shot up from his seat and pointed accusingly at Buddy, “I’d drink both you AND Big Mac under the table, any time, anywhere, any place!”

“WHOOOOOOOA!!!!” the other men jeered as they looked at each other, laughing. “So maybe we do have ourselves a worthy opponent!” Buddy laughed, winking to let them know that it was all in light fun, “Would you like to select another partner to go into battle with you?”

“No… just me, against you two.” Josh replied sternly, his arms folded across his chest.

Logan grasped Josh’s shoulders and began to shake him a bit in excitement as he jumped around behind him, “You heard the man! You two against him! Lets do this!”

They all pushed their chairs back while they began to set their tables up for the challengers to seat at. “Should we be worried about this?” Gabriella questioned Darren, seeking his leadership.

To her surprise though, he simply shrugged, “I don’t know whether I want to stop this or let it be entertainment.” he replied honestly, “As long as Logan’s not the contender, I think we’ll be okay.”

Buddy and Mac sat down in their appointed seats while Josh sat down across from them, never breaking his intent gaze on them. “Can we get a round of beers here?!” Logan rounded up a hostess and approached the table. “Okay fellas, here’s the rules… no puking, no sandbagging, no passing off your beer for your partner to finish…” he eyed his friends, “Josh, in your case you have no one to hand it off to. The first one to puke or pass out loses.”

Logan took a step back to allow the two female hostess to place three large mugs down on the table. While Buddy and Mac busied themselves in looking over the attracting women, Josh refused to break his stare on them… they had no clue what they were in for. “Taking bets!” Logan exclaimed as he began collecting money from whoever wanted to throw in.

Undoubtedly, the men placed their bets on Buddy and Mac, while only Logan, Darren and Gabriella placed their bets on Josh. A light bulb had gone off in Darren’s head, seeing this to be an opportunity to get their group closer to what they needed to do. “If you guys win, not only will you all get the money, but we’ll quit.”

Q’s eyes widened, “Whoa, whoa, whoa… it’s really not that serious…”

Josh and Logan shot a incredulous look over at Darren, “Yeah, it’s really not that serious bro!”

Darren held his hands up, urging them to calm down, “I know how it is to just have some newbies waltz in to the family… so if you win, we’re gone.”

“What are you doing?!” Gabriella whispered as she tried to pull him back.

Darren simply chuckled; he knew there was no way they’d lose, which is why he was adding to the bet. “Now… if WE win… you guys will let us be the boys’ individual bodyguards. What do you guys say?”

The older security guards huddled together to discuss their decision. “You’re on!” Vinny shouted in excitement.

As they all settled around the three challengers awaiting for the game to begin, Logan held his hand up above the three, “On the count of three, you will down your beer. You may take a breather if you need to, it’s not about how fast you can drink… it’s about who can drink the most and be the last one standing. Are you ready?!” when he received nods from the three, he began to countdown, “Three… two… one, DRINK!!”

Immediately, Buddy and Mac shot out for their mugs, grabbing it and began chugging it down. Josh slowly grabbed his glass and began drinking his beer as well; though it seemed as if he were drinking it slow, he seemed to be gulping down the liquid in large quantities. As if in unison, they all slammed their glasses down, awaiting for the next round.

“Wow, I’m impressed… looks like the boy knows how to put his beer away after all!” Buddy lightly teased, which earned him a sly smirk from Josh.

“Keep them coming!” Mac shouted with a belch.

That had became the routine between them; they’d down their beer, tease each other a little bit and demand the next glass. So far, they were five beers in. “This is breakfast, lunch and dinner for me!” Buddy pointed out.

Josh simply chuckled, he was feeling NO affects whatsoever of the alcohol, but he tried to keep a straight face. “Okay, we’ll see.”

Seven beers in and you could definitely tell the beer was beginning to affect the bigger men. Mac’s eyes were glazed over while Buddy seemed to be swaying from side to side a bit in his chair. The smirk never left Josh’s face as he stared at the condition his two contenders were in.

After a long moment of silence, Mac was the first one to back out. “I-I-I-I-I’m done…” he stuttered as he tried to get up from his chair. Philip and Vince immediately shot their arms out to catch and steady his wobbly form. “Yer on your own there Buddy…” he broke out laughing at his own pun, “WIN IT FOR THE BOYS!!!”

Buddy reached out blindly, trying to grab for his friend and make him sit back down, “N-n-no dude, we gatta finish this…”

“Guess it’s just you and me now Buddy.” Josh remarked coyly as he lined up his seven empty glasses.

Buddy stared long and hard at his seemingly fine opponent before shouting, “ANOTHER ROUND!!!”

“Holy shit!” the rest of the staff commented as they began to talk amongst themselves of how they couldn’t believe that they would be going on their eighth round of beer. They were certain Buddy wouldn’t last through it, and were completely amazed with how Josh didn’t seem to be drunk at all.

As the hostess placed the two glasses of beer down before the men, Josh chuckled when he saw that Buddy’s heavy eyes were starting to cross. “You can back out now bro…” Josh teased as he grabbed his mug sipped at the froth at the brim.

Not one to be defeated, Buddy angrily snatched the mug and forced himself to chug down his last mug of beer. “BUD-DY, BUD-DY, BUD-DY, BUD-DY!!” his friends cheered him on, but their cheers slowly died down as they watched him sway dangerously back and forth. With the mug still placed at his mouth, their eyes widened as they watched a river of beer run from the glass down his chin and chest. His eyes rolled up into the back of his head while the glass fell from his hands.

The group remained silent as they stared at Buddy’s passed out form, and then up at Josh in disbelief. “I told him to back out…” Josh muttered as he reached over and grabbed the filled glass that was meant for Mac. Finishing it off in a gulp, he slammed the glass down on the table and asked, “Anyone else want to play?”

“Holy shit bro!” Vinny cried out as he walked over towards Buddy’s slumped form, looking him over. “How in the hell…”

Josh smirked and shrugged, “Double or nothing anyone?”

Vinny quickly shook his head, “Fuck that! We’re good dude!” he replied, causing the others to laugh.

Josh rose from his seat and walked over towards Buddy, placing a hand on his shoulder, “Good game dude.” he said as his eyes began to glow green a little bit, but no one had noticed. He was actually healing Buddy so that he wouldn’t be left to suffer with a hangover the next day.

Next, he walked over to where Mac, who was seated in between Damien and Dominic, leaning on the twins for support. He bent down in front of him as he was slowly slipping in and out of consciousness. “You good bro?” Josh asked as his eyes turned green again, reaching out to grasp his shoulders and make him focus on him.

Eyes half lidded, Mac slowly rose his head to acknowledge him, “Huh?”

Josh simply laughed and stood up from his crouched position. “You’ll be okay.” he assured as he began to pat his back.

Dominick chuckled as he rose from where he sat, “Hey Josh, could you do me a favor and stay on this side of him real quick? I’m gonna step out for a smoke.”

“Oh sure, no problem.” Josh nodded as he took Dominick’s now vacant seat and immediately busied himself into a conversation with Damien.

Dominick made his way out of the bar, walking out the back exit to smoke his cigarette. He stepped out into the dimly lit alleyway, looking around to find nothing but bums wandering around, going through trash cans that lined the walls. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out his pack of cigarettes and shook a stick out, placing it to his mouth. Before he could flick his lighter, commotion off in the distance caused him to freeze in the middle of his actions.

Glancing off to where the homeless were wandering around, he saw a creature with large bat-like wings grabbing one of the innocent homeless men who was desperately trying to run away from it. The rest of the bums quickly scattered away, scared of the creature that was pursuing them.

“No, please!! Don’t hurt me!!” the older sounding man begged as the creature shoved him hard to the alley ground.

“Not to worry,” the creature hissed as he bent down towards the fallen man, “This will be quick and painless.”

“Hey!” Dominick shouted as he had long dropped and forgotten about his cigarette and lighter. “Leave him alone!” he warned as he began jogging towards them. Fear had definitely gripped him, for he did not know exactly who or what he would be dealing with, but his natural instinct of being a bodyguard kicked in; the least he could do was help the poor man.

The creature looked up at the owner of the voice of authority. “Oooh, another snack for me to enjoy!” the creature seethed as he quickly shot up into the air and came back down harshly, landing on Dominic and pinning him to the ground.

Dominic immediately crumbled under the sudden weight of the beast and grunted out when he felt his head hit the ground hard. Reeling from the pain, he tried to focus his now blurred vision on the creature that remained on top of him, seeing that it had facial features much similar to a snake and horns that protruded from it’s forehead.

“You look to be a man of brute strength, but yet fall weak and coward to my undeniable power.” the creature said as it’s snake-like tongue slithered out from it’s mouth. “You’d make a great soldier to be apart of our army!”

Dominick gasped, his eyes widening as he tried to shy away from the hot, stagnant breath of the winged beast.