Suddenly, Gary started looking at the doors, trying to see where they were. He looked at how fast the car was moving and whether or not he would survive jumping out of a moving vehicle.
‘Maybe an increased Endurance it good for something after all. If I double it through Charging Heart, it shouldn’t hurt too much… right?’
‘I can’t let them take me to the Underdog gang! Without the package, Damion will make mince meat out of me! This system might make me stronger than an average human, but Kirk is an Altered!’
It was at that moment that Kai noticed that Gary was acting strangely and looked at him, shaking his head.
“What’s got your panties in a twist? If you’re worried about the two, there’s no need. Her mother won’t stick around. She is actually a big part of our plan going forward, for now just think of her as a sponsor.
“Now, if you’re starting to get nervous, how about you catch up on some sleep. I can’t blame you for not getting enough after what happened, but we’ll need you in tip top shape for your match. As long as everything goes well, this will kickstart our gang.” Kai explained, before he leaned in to whisper.
“I borrowed some money to use for betting on you. As long as you win, you won’t have to worry about your mother’s hospital bill for the next few months.”
After hearing Kai speak, it seemed like Gary was panicking for no reason, but it did beg the question of why exactly Kai, who was only one year older, would know Marie and her mother so well that they were helping him out.
——
The sun was starting to set, and speeding on the streets on a motorbike with no helmet was a certain high school student who had used far too much gel in his hair. Even with the wind blowing back his hair was practically staying in shape with slight movement.
‘This place is a little far, and I don’t even know why I’m trying so hard to get there but that guy just rubs me the wrong way for some reason.’ Austin thought as he twisted his hand, making the bike go faster and into the distance.
Of course, Austin was riding illegally, but he didn’t care, it wasn’t as if someone would ask him for a driver’s license at the place he was going to. Eventually, through following the location on his phone, he had reached his destination.
It looked like a giant park in the middle of the woods. There was a large sign with the centre’s name where one needed to turn in, and he could see large fields of open grass. It was clearly a place where people would usually go camping so he was wondering why he would have been sent here.
Fortunately, another car was just pulling up, entering the park at this time of night. With nothing better to do, Austin followed along on his bike, until he saw that the car had driven directly on the grass, and it looked like something had been temporarily set up on the field. It resembled a makeshift boxing ring made… from hay bales of all things…
Several cars were also stationed on the outside area, and there looked to be hundreds of people present. Since there were too many people up ahead, Austin had decided to park his bike a little further away and off the green.
‘All this nice grass and they’re ruining it.’ He thought, but the car that was ahead of him, and also stopped in a similar place. When he saw who actually exited the vehicle, Austin was surprised to actually recognise anybody there.
It was two fellas, one dressed in red while the other was dressed in grey.
‘The colour gang leaders…if they’re here, is this one of those ‘underground’ fights?’ Austin realised. He was busy in thought, when the two figures seemed to be busy arguing with each other.
In the first place it was strange to see two leaders of a colour gang together, but Austin being a little in the loop had heard the rumours of what had happened and they seemed to be true.
In their distraction of arguing though, they didn’t even notice that they were in a head on collision course for Austin himself. The two had walked right into him, yet Autin stayed firm, and had even stopped them from going any further.
“Hey what the hell?!” Riv complained looking at the muscular student in front of him. “What are you doing just standing there? Get out of the frigging way!”
The red colour gang leader wasn’t satisfied with a verbal warning alone though, so he threw out a fist, but Austin was able to move his head out of the way avoiding the punch quite easily. However, he didn’t expect the other colour gang leader to come in with an attack as well, though before it could reach Austin, his hand got stopped by someone behind him.
“What the hell do you two think you’re doing?” Raven questioned sternly. “Don’t tell me you aren’t aware of the rules at these types of places! We’ve come here with a purpose and I have no desire to babysit the two of you!”
Riv was about to complain but looking at Raven’s position he could see that he actually held two fists. One was Buffin’s, whereas the other had been about to connect with the grey colour gang leader’s ribs. It looked like the stranger was just as fast as the colour gang leader.
“I apologise for these two knuckle-heads, let’s all just enjoy today’s fight.” Raven let go of Austin’s hand. The loner decided to let go, though his main reason was that he didn’t think he could take on three people on his own. Not in a place like this, where he knew hardly anyone.
What’s more, the oldest of the three had managed to catch his fist. Austin was someone who took pride in his strength, so it had come as a real surprise to him.
‘Most of the guys here are dropouts and there’s not really a lot of adults around here. He must be someone really important if two colour gang leaders are actually listening to him.’ Austin thought.
At the same time, Raven was impressed by the other’s performance.
‘That kid doesn’t seem to be affiliated with anyone. Not only was he fast, but his punch was quite heavy as well. If only those two idiots hadn’t attacked him. Oh well, it can’t hurt to make him an offer later. Worst case, he refuses.
‘Now, I still need to find someone to use this serum on. Hawk might be a bit of a useless dolt, but he’s still my brother… just where the hell has that bastard disappeared to? I don’t want to use any of our gang members as guinea pigs, so it would be best if I could find someone promising.
‘Should I just make one of these two idiots take it? No, they were there when we had our conversation earlier. …Isn’t there someone strong yet gullible around?’ Raven thought as he looked around, but aside from Austin no one else caught his attention.
‘If only I knew for sure that whatever’s inside those syringes works without any side effects, I would just use it myself… Hmmm, maybe that’s not such a bad idea. But first I will need to test it out. It would certainly cause quite the stir… ’
‘If it can really make anyone into an Altered, then I might actually be able to get revenge on that bastard for what he did to Yoven!’