Resolution
Arthur stood silently in the center of his wrecked living room, his chest heaving slightly as adrenaline coursed through his veins.
After quickly and efficiently disabling the three heavily armed home invaders, his cold, calculating gaze swept over their groaning forms on the floor.
He strode over to Slant with deliberate, measured steps, raising his heavy leather boot.
With ruthless, unforgiving precision, Arthur stomped down hard, snapping an arm and a leg apiece for each of the three men.
The sickening crunch of dense bone and their muffled screams of absolute agony echoed loudly in the confined space.
Pretending to urgently rummage through a battered wooden cabinet in the corner, he subtly accessed his invisible dimensional private space.
Arthur drew a thick coil of heavy nylon rope from the void and moved quickly to truss the three men up, binding their wrists and ankles tightly behind their backs.
To drown out their miserable, echoing howls of pain, he violently tore long strips of fabric directly from their own shirts and shoved the makeshift gags deep into their mouths.
Job done, he wiped a bead of sweat from his brow and stepped cautiously outside into the dim hallway.
The flickering overhead fluorescent lights cast long, distorted shadows across the peeling wallpaper.
Curious, terrified neighbors, violently drawn from their beds by the massive racket, peeked out from behind chained doors.
But the absolute instant they saw Arthur standing there amidst the splintered wood, his face a mask of cold fury, they vanished like ghosts, slamming their doors shut in unison.
Arthur wasn't surprised by the cowardly reaction in the slightest.
This old, decaying apartment building housed mostly poor, struggling immigrants, and violent gang harassment was a routine, everyday occurrence here.
In fact, quite a few of the rough tenants in this very building were active gangsters themselves, well-versed in the absolute necessity of minding their own business to survive.
Arthur bent down and heavily propped the shattered, wooden door shut as best as he could against any prying eyes, then walked back into the messy living room.
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his cheap, clunky cell phone.
Surveying the chaotic wreckage of his overturned furniture and smashed belongings, he swallowed down his simmering, burning anger and dialed Old Parker's direct number.
"Yeah?" Old Parker picked up the line almost instantly, his gruff voice laced with sleep.
Arthur drew a slow, stabilizing breath to steady his racing heart, his tone chillingly cold. "Parker, it's me."
"Three of Dom's guys just aggressively broke into my place."
"I've completely subdued them—I haven't called the cops yet."
On the other end of the secure line, Old Parker fell into an absolute, suffocating silence.
Arthur could clearly hear the older mechanic's heavy breathing as the terrifying reality of the situation rapidly set in.
After a long, agonizing while, Parker's voice rang out again, sounding deeply strained. "I know exactly what you mean. You did well, Arthur."
"Don't call the police. I'm leaving right now; I am coming over to your place immediately."
"Rest assured, Dom isn't an entirely unreasonable person," Parker added desperately, trying to de-escalate the tension.
"Besides, with Mia heavily involved there, he will definitely give you a proper explanation for this."
Old Parker didn't chat much more over the secure phone line; he simply hung up the receiver with a heavy click.
Arthur pocketed his phone, his expression completely blank, and patiently waited in the shadows of the ruined room.
In less than half an hour, the heavy rumble of a V8 engine echoed from the street below, and Old Parker soon arrived at Arthur's residence.
The older man pushed past the splintered, ruined door and stepped into the cramped apartment, his eyes widening in absolute shock.
He looked at the completely broken door frame and the chaotic, violent mess scattered across the entire living room floor.
Then, his gaze locked onto the three grown men, brutally knocked down, securely tied up, and groaning in pools of their own blood and sweat.
Old Parker's mouth twitched uncontrollably.
He had clearly never expected that a quiet, unassuming young repairman working under his wing would actually possess such terrifying, lethal combat skills.
Arthur simply nodded in silent greeting to Old Parker, his demeanor completely calm and unbothered.
He walked over to the dented, broken refrigerator, casually took out a cold bottle of beer, and tossed it accurately through the air to the older man.
Old Parker caught the frosted glass bottle on pure reflex but absolutely didn't attempt to open it.
Instead, he first walked closer, his heavy boots crunching on broken glass, and critically examined the three tied-up men on the floor.
Soon, from watching the three men who were constantly twitching and struggling against their tight nylon bonds...
Old Parker clearly discovered the massive, dark bruises covering their bodies and the horrifying, unnatural angles of their broken arms and legs.
His weathered expression immediately turned even uglier, a pale shade of dread washing over his face.
"You completely broke their limbs?" Old Parker asked, his voice a hoarse, disbelieving whisper.
Old Parker knew perfectly well that Dominic Toretto cherished his loyal subordinates very much and always proudly regarded them as his true brothers on the asphalt.
After the hulking Vince was violently injured and hospitalized by Arthur a few days ago, the fact that Dom could actually refrain from immediate, explosive retaliation was likely entirely thanks to Mia's desperate intervention.
But even if these three specific thugs weren't directly sent by Dom's explicit orders tonight the bloody, undeniable fact that they were severely injured and crippled by Arthur was an indisputable reality lying right here on the linoleum.
Given Dom's notorious, explosive temper, Old Parker deeply feared that even Mia wouldn't be able to talk her protective brother out of a violent, all-out war this time.
Arthur stepped forward and casually kicked the heavy metal baseball bat and a sharp folding dagger that were lying discarded on the floor toward Parker.
"These guys violently smashed open my door in the middle of the night and barged in, heavily armed," Arthur stated coldly, his dark eyes locking onto Parker.
"They aggressively wanted to cripple my arms and completely ruin my hands."
Arthur took a slow sip of his beer, his face a mask of stone. "If it weren't entirely for Mia's sake, I would have just pulled my gun and shot them dead right where they stood."
"Pass a very clear message to Dom for me," Arthur demanded, his tone dropping to a dangerous, lethal register.
"My parents have tragically passed away, and I have absolutely no other family or relatives holding me back in this city."
"So, if someone really wants to cross the line and hurt me, I absolutely won't hesitate to kill them."
"I've already given Mia face twice regarding her brother's crew; there absolutely won't be a third time."
To punctuate his deadly promise, Arthur smoothly pulled his heavy Colt M1911 pistol from his waistband.
He skillfully flicked off the mechanical safety with his thumb, the sharp metallic click echoing loudly in the quiet room, and smoothly ejected the heavy magazine to check his brass rounds.
Seeing the young man handle the lethal firearm with such terrifying, practiced ease, Old Parker's face grew uglier and uglier, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
He had genuinely never expected to get violently mixed up in something this dark and bloody.
He understood Arthur's lethal threat perfectly, and he knew the young man meant every single terrifying word.
This young guy was just peacefully working at the garage for no reason when he was inexplicably targeted by the jealous Vince, and even violently knocked unconscious in a cowardly sneak attack.
Mia had innocently asked Old Parker about Arthur's home address to check on him.
Being an experienced, calculating old fox of the streets, Parker had easily guessed that after the beautiful Mia took the brave initiative to see this handsome young man ,some highly intimate things might have eventually happened between them behind closed doors, as they were both in late adolescence with wildly raging hormones.
As a direct, disastrous result of their romance, news of this intimate development somehow quickly reached Vince's obsessive ears.
The crude, violently ill-tempered Vince then aggressively pressured Old Parker for Arthur's home address so he could corner him in the dark.
Unfortunately for Vince, he was instead taught a brutal, bone-breaking lesson by this entirely unassuming mechanic.
Afterward, Arthur had even possessed the calm presence of mind to call an ambulance for his attacker; he really was doing it strictly to preserve Mia's feelings.
And yet, just two short days later, another three heavily armed men violently barged into Arthur's private residence, actively wanting to permanently cripple his limbs.
If it were Old Parker standing in Arthur's shoes, he felt he absolutely wouldn't be able to help himself from dealing a heavy, lethal blow either.
"I understand perfectly, Arthur. Leave this massive mess to me!" Old Parker said, his voice trembling slightly.
Old Parker still possessed a basic moral conscience; he knew deep down that Arthur ending up in this terrible, violent situation was partially his own damn fault.
Before all this chaos, he hadn't really cared much about Arthur's personal safety.
So, when the hulking Vince had aggressively demanded old Parker for the young man's exact home address earlier this week, old Parker had selfishly given it to Vince without a single moment of hesitation to save his own skin.
Thus, with things violently escalating to this bloody point, he undeniably bore a significant part of the heavy responsibility.
After thinking it over rapidly, old Parker looked at Arthur and said, "I'll go directly to talk to Dom tonight and clear things up."
"As for my neighborhood Repair shop, I highly doubt you can ever safely go back to work there."
"I'll discreetly give you thirty thousand dollars later tonight as full compensation for a year's salary," Parker offered, trying to make amends and buy the peace.
Arthur was admittedly quite short on usable cash right now, so naturally, he absolutely wouldn't refuse the generous offer.
He nodded slowly and agreed, "Fine. I definitely can't safely live here in this ruined apartment anymore either."
"I also need to buy a few more heavy weapons for my personal self-defense, and quality firearms cost a lot of money."
"Thanks, Parker," Arthur said, his tone softening just a fraction.
"My secure contact information won't change. If you ever need anything highly specialized from me, just get in touch."
Old Parker sighed in deep relief. "Alright, you pack up and head out first. I'll personally handle the bloody aftermath here!"
He completely understood the hidden meaning behind Arthur's parting words and knew that the kid's [Repair] and advanced modification skills were indeed exceptionally excellent.
Even if Dom really despised the boy now and aggressively wanted to cause trouble for him in the future, if there was ever any highly suitable, lucrative freelance work in the shadows, Old Parker would still secretly contact Arthur and bring him along for the massive cut.
He watched as Arthur smoothly grabbed a few simple changes of clothes from the bedroom and then walked directly out of the ruined apartment, disappearing into the dark night without a single moment of hesitation!
Only after the light footsteps completely faded away down the concrete stairwell did Old Parker shake his head heavily.
He walked over and roughly removed the blood-soaked cloth strips stuffed tightly in the mouths of Slant and the other two groaning men.
Then, he looked down at the three of them, who were entirely too exhausted from the blinding pain to even curse properly.
"You absolute idiots," Old Parker spat, his voice filled with contempt. "You didn't even bother to ask around or investigate before blindly provoking an enemy with a completely unknown background."
"Don't ever underestimate that young man again. He is truly capable of executing exactly what he just promised."
"A lethal person with absolutely no family attachments or regrets holding them back is the most terrifying force on these streets."
"You three should be praying and thanking God he actually let you live tonight for Mia's sake."
"Otherwise, looking at his eyes, he really would have executed you with pure killing intent just now."
After delivering that harsh, sobering reality check, Old Parker pulled out his own cell phone and first dialed 911 to urgently call a medical ambulance for the bleeding men.
Then, bracing himself for the explosive fallout, he dialed Dom's secure number.
He mentally prepared himself to try and desperately resolve the looming gang conflict as soon as humanly possible.