Each member of the VSW club were currently running around all over the school. Any student they met they would ask if they had either seen Scarlett around school, or at least knew of her whereabouts. With each student, they asked though, they were getting more and more worried about her. As no one seemed to have a clue where she was.
Novis went back to the VSW room were Dan and Alex where. As soon as Novis opened the door they looked at him with hope in their eyes but when they saw Novis shake his head the atmosphere was quickly gloomy again.
"Should we call the police?" Alex asked.
"It looks like we might have to," Novis said.
Just then though Ashley came storming into the room.
"Guys! I found something. A girl said this morning when she was walking to school, she saw Scarlett get stopped buy a couple grown men and some teenagers."
"I think we really should call the police," Alex said.
Novis thought the whole thing was a bit strange though, why would a bunch of grown men and teenagers take her. Scarlett didn't come from a rich family so it couldn't have been for money and Novis and Scarlett didn't live in a rough area where these sorts of things happened.
Meaning someone had gone out of their way to meet Scarlett this morning.
Dan also found the whole thing strange. The others didn't know this, but Dan knew about the police in the local area well. Most of them were working for the local gangs. If one of the bigger gangs were involved in this then the police would do nothing about it.
"Before we call the police let me try something first," Dan said.
Dan then went outside of the VSW club room where nobody would be able to hear him. Finally, when he was far away enough from the others Dan made a call.
****
At the Noir gangs base on the south side of town in an abandoned warehouse. A man's phone started to ring.
The man picked up and looked at his phone,
"Oh, this is rare, he never calls me," Kyle said as he answered the phone. "I'm listening."
"I need your help, more specifically I need Noir's help."
"Well, now that you're a member of Noir again, of course, we will be happy to help. What do you need?"
Dan then told Kyle the description of the men that Ashley had given and also gave a description of Scarlett. After hearing the details from Dan, Kyle put his men straight to work. They immediately hit the streets and started to ask the local and other gang members if they could find out any information.
Dan was tapping his foot away waiting for a call back. He knew the Noir gang was big and well known in the town. It was impossible for something like this to escape their ears but for some reason, Dan just had this sick feeling in his stomach.
Then suddenly his phone rang. Dan answered immediately.
"It's not good news, I would give up on the girl," Kyle said.
Dan couldn't believe what he was hearing. Noir was one of the biggest gang's in the town and his brother, the leader was telling him to give up.
"What are you talking about, what happened!" Dan shouted.
"It's the Ruman family, we can't get involved with them again."
Dan felt like his heart had sunk deep into his chest. Dan had a deep history with the Ruman family and even now they were hurting his friends.
"Please can't you help!" Dan begged. "Do it as a favour, aren't we brothers!"
"Your favour was used up the first time you left the gang, I'm sorry Dan!"
"Then please just tell me one thing, where are they?"
"If you go Dan, you might not come back alive I can't do that again."
"Please just tell me."
Kyle sighed and gave Dan the address hoping that he would eventually calm down and chose not to go. Perhaps this might have been true if it was any other student but it was Scarlett. Dan had grown fond of Scarlett and she was someone who didn't deserve to be put into the middle of everything.
Meanwhile, Novis and the others were patiently waiting in the club room for Dan to come back. Alex couldn't stop pacing up and down the room while he was waiting.
"Can you please stop that!" Ashley said, "It's annoying."
"I can't just stay still it feels like we're doing nothing."
Novis too felt frustrated but he couldn't just go running all around the town himself. He would never be able to find her.
"Hey Novis, isn't that Dan outside?" George said.
Novis then went up to the classroom window where George was pointing.
"It is him!" Novis said surprised.
Dan was currently running outside the front of the school like he was in a rush to go somewhere.
"It looks like he found something, come on!" Novis said as he ran out of the room. Ashley grabbed her trusty bamboo sword which was in a long black case and followed Novis and as she did, she noticed that Alex hadn't followed them.
She quickly turned back.
"Are you not coming?"
"You guys get Scarlett, I'll stay here in case she comes back. Besides I need to inform Hershel if you guys don't make it back on time."
"Got it!" Ashley said as she took off running after Novis.
Novis was a fast runner and Ashley wasn't bad herself. Although they were quite a distance away from Dan, they were able to see him in the distance.
Dan wasn't running his hardest because he knew there was a high chance that he would have to fight his way in to save Scarlett. He needed to save as much of his energy as possible.
As they continued to follow Dan, they noticed that they had entered the south side of town. It was the crummy part of town with many abandoned buildings and homeless people. It was a place that their parents had told them to avoid.
Novis didn't stop for a second though, thinking about how his best friend could be in a place like this. Eventually. Dan stopped just outside an abandoned apartment.
"He stopped," Ashley said.
Dan stood outside looking at the apartment building.
"I promise I'll save you Scarlett."