Just when Gary had thought the system might have turned over a new leaf, the system returned to being as unresponsive as ever. Aside from leveling up, the high schooler came to terms that he would have to hope that he might to either luckily unlock a way to increase that number, or the system might decide to drop him some tips.
Nevertheless, Gary needed to be careful about the promises he made. According to his system, should the other party end up breaking that, then his Bond Mark would automatically turn into a Broken Mark, making those people into hunting targets. While that might not be bad in his daily lives, it would lead to disastrous consequences during a full moon. It was something he wanted to avoid at all costs.
Fortunately, when seeing his mother on the phone, he had come up with what he deemed to be a perfect plan. He had made his mother promise him that she would never leave him. Gary was completely convinced that she would never do such a thing. If their mother had wanted to, she could have left the two teenagers ages ago, making this an unbreakable Bond Mark.
“Thanks, Mum.” Gary smiled, elated that he would be able to protect mother whenever she would be in danger now. Like Tom, the mark that appeared was green, although the smell coming from them was different. It looked like he would have to try his best to use his nose rather than his eyes more.
‘Now I just need to think of a promise that I’ll be able to keep with Amy. It would be best if it could be something as foolproof as Mum’s. Right now, nothing comes to mind, at least nothing that she is guaranteed to keep.’
A little while later, his mother received a call, and it was time for her to go to work. Gary knew her shifts were long ones, so when leaving the house late today there was no need for him to worry about sneaking out.
The high schooler waited a little while until the sun set, yet he noticed something odd about Gil’s marking. For some odd reason it was becoming clearer, leading him to believe that he was coming in his direction.
‘What is he doing? The guys at school said that he dropped out to join a gang, but the grey colour gang’s territory isn’t anywhere near here. Could he have some sort of personal business in this area?’
When it was finally dark out, Gary decided to head out. He wore his trusted hood covering up his head, and he had made sure to wear something black. At first glance, he appeared like just another member of the black colour gang.
Curious about Gil’s Mark that had become slightly paler, but seemed to be still around the area, Gary followed it. However, even before he could see the drop-out, he could clearly make out the sound of conflict from a mile away.
Sneaking through some trees and past the roads he found the source of it. Underneath a bridge, there were members of the red colour gang and members of the grey colour gang fighting against members from the black colour gang.
Initially, Gary believed this to be a three-way fight, but after watching for a while it became clear that the the other two had banded together to attack the black colour gang.
‘What is going on? Did the Grey Elephants take over the gang behind the red colour gang? No, could it be that the two of them entered an alliance? Sh*t, if that’s really the case, this could endanger everyone in Slough!’
It was then that Gary realised that he could hear the sound of even more fighting going on. This wasn’t just a small scuffle between two gangs, right now he could tell that there was a war going on. The other two colour gangs had clearly invaded the black colour gangs areas.
‘Crap, why did it have to happen today of all the days?! If they’re pushing the black colour gang this much, then it will force the Underdogs to act!’ Gary was starting to panic, looking around to check if he could still escape if things went south.
However, before he left another thought crossed his mind.
‘Wait, there’s chaos, too much for the police to handle. In the past situations like these, they would leave it so the gangs take each other out, only coming at the end to arrest the losing side. If that’s the case, can’t I take advantage of all of this? As long as I avoid the members of the real gangs and just go after the colour gangs, this might be my one chance to earn big time!’
Just as he had expected, things were about to change. A distance away, walking confidently through the streets was Kirk. Instead of his iconic red suit that he wore whenever he appeared on TV, right now he had a black suit on with a yellow-spotted tie, representing the Underdog’s Cheetah Squad.
Following him were five menacing-looking men. They had received reports from the black colour gang members who had called for backup, and they had arrived just outside what looked like a pub.
“Didn’t your superiors warn you to only go so far? We don’t usually involve ourselves with the affairs of colour gangs, but you guys have pushed it too far this time. You do know that this pub belongs to the Underdogs, right?” Kirk asked with a smile.
There were several injured black colour gang members rolling on the ground in front of him, while members of the grey and red gang seemed to have suffered minimal casualties. There were still more than a dozen of them on each side, with the total around thirty. Immediately, the one closest to Kirk ran forward with his baseball bat, and swung it with all his strength over his head.
Not wasting any time, Kirk took a stance and threw out his fist. The second the bat and his fist collided, the piece of wood snapped in half.
“What the…” the grey colour gang member looked at his bat in disbelief. “Is he a robot or something?”
“You idiot, that’s Kirk Summerfield! He’s an Altered who recently won that Rookie Tournament!” One of the red colour gang members shouted. Kirk was quite a well known figure in the public, yet not many knew that he was also a member of the Underdogs.
The gangs were quick to run away. Alas, they didn’t get far. Kirk had transformed the bottom part of his legs to run past them all. He would have been even faster if he hadn’t taken off his expensive shoes beforehand, to block off the juveniles’ path of escape.
“Since you guys are already here, I’ll have you answer a few questions. You didn’t think I would let you go this easily after what you did, right? First, who are you working for, second why do your bosses believe that they could just barge into our area and take over and lastly… have you seen a kid about this height, around sixteen years old with green hair?”