Inside a gym that usually only had two people at most, there were now four.
Steven, the owner of the place, stood behind the counter. Max, his one and only customer, was present as always. Then there was the man who had shown up once before, someone Steven would never forget. And lastly, of all things, there was another student.
But this one wasn't a customer. That much had already been made very clear by Max.
Seeing them all together in his little gym, Steven found himself asking one big question:
What did I do in my life to end up here?
He didn't understand the situation at all, why Max had gathered them, what they were planning, and once Max finally began explaining everything, Steven seriously started to think he was trapped in some kind of fever dream.
"Wait... wait... wait!" Steven said, holding out one hand while rubbing his forehead with the other. "Let me try to wrap my head around this. From the beginning."
He pointed toward the student.
"So first, this guy here, Green."
"Joe," Joe corrected instantly.
"Right, Joe. He goes to the same school as you," Steven continued, eyeing Max, "and he was part of the group that used to bully you, right?"
Both Joe and Max nodded at the same time.
That alone was strange, Steven didn't even know how the two of them had gotten close in the first place.
"So somehow," Steven continued slowly, "he's now helping you with whatever situation you're caught up in. Because there's some kind of head bully at your school who's targeting you... and that would be this Dipter person?"
"Correct," Max replied. "Glad to know your ears are working."
"And now you've gathered everyone here, the ex-bully, your bodyguard or whatever he is, and me, to help you take out the head bully?" Steven asked, eyebrows raised.
"Correct again," Max said. "Though I'm not sure why you're repeating everything I already explained if you understood it from the start."
Steven rubbed his temples. He felt like he needed to lie down. When he left high school, became a pro boxer, and eventually opened a quiet little gym, this was not where he thought life would take him.
And what was going on with schools these days anyway?
A head bully? Secret plots? Full-on factions?
Had things really gotten that bad... or had he just been so far removed from it all that he never realized what was happening right under his nose?
"You can't be serious, though... can you?" Steven asked, staring at Max like he had completely lost it. "You really want me to help you beat up a bunch of high school kids? Do you think I have no pride?"
He remembered the last time Max had hinted at something like this, back when he was first asked a strange question that stuck with him. Steven had wondered if Max might eventually ask him to fight his bully... but thinking about it and actually being in the situation were two very different things.
"You can't think of them as just high school kids," Max said firmly. "If you do, this situation is going to get very dangerous, for all of you."
Steven raised an eyebrow, but Max didn't pause.
"Dipter isn't a normal student. And the delinquents following him? They're not either. He can rally fifty of them, just like that. All of them loyal. All of them ready to do whatever he says. And they're willing to use weapons, bats, knives, anything."
Even Steven had to swallow hard after hearing that.
If anything, what surprised him most wasn't Dipter's army... it was the fact that Max still planned to go up against them, even after laying out how dangerous they really were.
"I see…" Steven muttered. "So you really do need our help if that's the case. I mean, I get it, you want to get back at them. And I guess you can't do it alone... but I really need to think about this. I can't just go around doing stuff like this!"
His eyes shifted toward the only other adult in the room, the one standing calmly in his glasses, arms crossed, looking like this was just another day for him.
Of course he's fine, Steven thought. Someone like him, someone who probably uses weapons himself. If there's a fight in the ring, I bet he doesn't even blink. Of course he'd be willing to take down high schoolers... he probably enjoys it.
Max had realized something important when he'd faced Snide and his crew.
Dipter wasn't just one person. He was an entire group.
Even if Max went one-on-one, knocking them down one by one, they'd still keep coming. Dipter wasn't a leader that, once defeated, caused everyone to fall in line. This wasn't some cliché movie.
No one was suddenly going to respect Max just because he beat the boss.
People didn't like change. And at any given moment, they could, and probably would, turn on him, gang up, and give him another brutal beatdown.
So, the only way to stop that from happening, the only way to make sure no one tried anything after their beatdown, was for Max to form a group of his own. A team that would show everyone that messing with him meant dealing with all of them.
Because once people knew they'd just get hit again and again, they'd stop trying.
The problem was, in the short time Max had lived in this new body, these were the only people he truly knew. The only ones who might actually help him.
"I'm sorry, but I can't do this."
Steven blinked. "Wait... Did I just say that out loud? Did my thoughts slip out?"
But when he looked up, it wasn't him. It was the other student who had spoken.
"Max," Joe said, his voice calm but firm. "I helped you back in the classroom, but it wasn't because we're friends. In that situation... I got hurt. And now, things have gotten worse for me just because I stood up for you."
He shook his head.
"If I keep being associated with you, it's only going to get worse. And now you want to go up against Dipter and the whole school? That's insane."
Without waiting for a response, Joe turned and headed for the door.
Steven watched him leave, and something in his gut twisted. But after a long pause, he let out a sigh and walked toward his desk.
"I think… I might be in the same shoes as him," Steven said. "I just can't do it, Max."
As the two began walking away, clearly ready to leave, Max stood still, eyes focused. But he had a few final words, words that made both of them pause mid-step.
"I'll give you two thousand for every person you knock out," Max said calmly.
They both turned slightly, not sure they'd heard him right.
"With fifty people... that's a hundred thousand up for grabs."