Blood was dripping from Gil’s face, yet he garnered no sympathy from those present. After repeated slaps from Kirk, the teenager’s face was guaranteed to end up scarred. The Altered had stayed in his partial transformation state, yet the two females could see that he was clearly upset.
This was the first time either one of them had ever seen this man, so why weren’t quite sure why. Eventually, Kirk let go of Gil who had refused to say anything. The teenager had passed out, be it from pain, exhaustion, shock or something else.
“Sir, they killed one of the employees before we got here and heavily injured two others. One will likely succumb to her injuries, whereas the other might survive if we get her to a hospital. We have beaten all the grey and red colour members in the area. What would you like us to do with them?” One of the members asked.
Given the amount of respect the gang member had for the helpful stranger, it became obvious that he was the leader of this group. Before Kirk gave his subordinates an answer, he looked at Gil on the ground, then grabbed a phone from his pocket. The display had multiple messages, which he browsed through.
“The other groups also seem to have gotten things under control. Looks like this little war is finally coming to an end.” The Altered let out a big sigh, before he started to give out orders. “If you haven’t already, notify the clean up group to take care of the deceased. We’ll round up some of the guys, to try and get some information out of them back at the base. Hopefully the professionals will get them to sing.”
“Yes sir.” The men replied in unison, and started to drag the colour gang members away from the sight of the women. A few moments laters, cries resounded throughout the supermarket, as the gang members had woken some of less injured gang members up in a brutal manner, to question them who their superiors were.
As for Kirk, he decided to take Gil along. Although the large teenager seemed too young to have any important role in the colour gang, the Altered was unwilling to just let him go.
Seeing that her saviour was just about to leave, Amalee wanted to thank him. To her, Kirk was a knight in shining armour who she would never be able to forget. Not only was he strong and brave but good looking as well, but before she could say any words, Maya was the one to speak up.
“Wait! Thank you! Thank you so much for saving us!” Maya called out, covering her exposed body with one hand while the other grabbed her head. The middle aged woman felt like it was about to explode. Over the evening, she had been hit by Gil’s elbow, banged against one of the shelves and later the teenager had attempted to stomp on it a few times.
“There’s no need to thank us.” Kirk spoke with his back still facing away from the two. “This time we were on your side, but it could have just as easily been us who might have attacked you. Unlike your colleagues, you were lucky that we actually made it in time to save you.”
With that the Altered carried on walking, but there was still one more thing Maya needed to ask.
“Hang on, you were looking for a green haired teenager, right? There’s a lot of people who come to shop here everyday! Please, let us return the favour. If you could leave your name and number we can notify you, if someone matching your description ever comes here. By the way, why exactly are you looking for him?”
Of course, Maya wasn’t planning to tell Kirk anything about Gary at all. She wasn’t even sure whether her savior was looking for her son in the first place, but if he was, then she needed to know what exactly they wanted from him. She had just seen just how dangerous a man he could be.
At the same time, Kirk didn’t fail to notice that her offer had been worded in a very weird way.
‘If you just wanted to repay my kindness, then why does it seem that you’re overly concerned about why we’re looking for that kiddo? Could it be that she actually knows him?’
It was then that Kirk took a closer look at the middle aged woman who he had saved.
‘…hmmm, age wise she might be old enough to be his mother if she had him a little young. Should I question her?’ Kirk thought about it for a moment, before he came to a decision.
“Should you find someone who fits that description, just tell them ‘teens shouldn’t be in this business, it’s not a life they should want to live’.” With that, he walked out the front door.
“We…w-we’re a-alive. W-we s-somehow s-survived.” Amalee was so happy that tears of joy came out her eyes. The next second, the two women heard footsteps. For a moment, they thought that the Underdogs’ gang members might have forgotten something, yet it came from behind them.
Whoever it was, had entered through the supermarket’s side entrance instead of the front entrance. It didn’t take long for them to see a hooded person in black clothes.
“A…Another one.” Amalee was frightened, and her body was shaking again. Now that Kirk and his men had left, who would protect them? However, to her surprise the hooded boy ran right past her, and went straight towards Maya instead.
“Mum! Mum are you alright?” Gary immediately asked as he approached his mother.
Looking through the hood, Maya could see that it was her own son, making her smile. Gary took a second to look at her condition. The middle aged woman’s head was badly swollen, her clothes had ripped, her lip was busted, and her arms and side were badly bruised.
“Who did this? Which asshole is responsible for this?!” Gary almost shouted.
However, instead of answering, his mother just opened her arms and gave her son a hug.
“I’m so glad to see you. How did you even know I was here?” She asked.
After realising that this was someone Maya knew, Amalee could finally relax.
It was then that she could hear the sound of sobbing, which came from her colleague’s son. The high schooler had been through a lot. This one evening could have easily destroyed the entire Dem family. Gary’s entire reason for wanting to get stronger was to protect his mother and his sister.
All of the emotions that had swelled up inside him as he had hurried to rescue her, were coming out at this moment. Although he was there, he hadn’t managed to get there in time to prevent her from getting harmed. Nevertheless, he was just happy that she was still alive.
“Please, Gary… don’t cry.” His mother eventually pulled away and wiped some tears off his cheek. “Let’s just go home.” The middle aged woman said as she touched her still hurting head. “This was the single most stressful eveni-”
Her voice drifted and so did her body, as it swayed. Gary grabbed her before she hit the ground.
“Mum! Mum! Are you okay? What’s wrong? Please, say something!” Gary shook her lightly, afraid to hurt her even more, yet there was no response.