The few words that Gary had spoken were once again said in his deep sounding voice. He hadn’t cancelled the Controlled Transformation. Since only a small part of his body was changed, it barely consumed any Energy.
However, unlike before where Gary’s words sounded quite intimidating, although they continued to sound intimidating in the situation they were in right now, it only caused the tensions to rise within the room.
“You no name piece of sh*t!” A bald headed man cursed as he jumped from his sofa, and two more bald headed men jumped from the chair next to them. The three looked similar, and it was hard to know whether they were triplets or just looked the same. Regardless, each of them were the heads of the Blood Triangles.
“You come in here, invited when we didn't have to, and you tell us to not get involved?” The triplet in the centre spoke. “Do you think everyone in here is a weak piece of crap or something? That you can just spew your mouth, and we can listen to you because you took over one of the Pincers! Those damned masks should have been the first sign that you guys were up to no good.”
No one was sticking up for the Howlers, and it was safe to say that most of them were on the side of the Blood Triangles. Feeling the same way towards the new gang.
“Now let's settle down and give our guests a chance to speak. It's always best to try to settle things with words first.” Ben stated, looking his way. For some reason, the three seemed to listen and got back in their seats. But it was clear that the Mayor was on their side as well. After all his choice of words, basically said that if they can’t solve it with words then they would take action instead.
Gary thought for a second worrying if it was the right thing to do, perhaps backing down was correct but then what about his sister, and what about the future of slough. The plans and the future of the Howlers had been set, sooner or later they would be doing this anyway.
“As I said.” Gary was adamant. “We will be doing what we want.”
Kai also added to his leader’s decision: “After having listened to your plans, it seems like yours might just mess with ours a little. So take this as our warning- to not get in our way.”
Some gritted their teeth, others clenched their fists, but most of their eyes looked towards Ben, as if he was the deciding one in all of this.
“Fine, I did my best to stop you from getting hurt.” Ben sighed as he shrugged his shoulders and walked to the other side of the room.
It was the signal for everything to start off, as the Blood Triangle trio stood up and the one in front almost dashed across the room, jumping on the table in the centre and leaping towards them. The first one to act as if he was expecting it was Kai.
He quickly got up from his seat and kicked the bald headed man in the centre of the stomach, using his own momentum against him, he fell back and crashed into one of the others.
“That fox masked freak is fast.” The Triplet said, holding onto his stomach.
Everyone had gotten up from their seats now.
“You attacked us, so all is fair game now.”
The one who was closest to the Howlers were the Lock gang.
Immediately, Tony had jumped up from his seat, and it looked like he was ready to tackle Gary to the ground. Gary was ready and unafraid, of course, but there was no need for him to do anything. Stepping in between the two of them was Olivia.
She spun on her back foot, lifting her leg in the air, the heel of her foot landed and met Tony's square nose. A crunching sound resounded. Blood started to pour out of it instantly. Gary knew it was broken, as he had managed to break his nose during their rugby training against Blake not too long ago.
While Tony was busy checking his nose, Olivia took out her whip and swung it, wrapping it around Tony's leg and pulling on it, quickly caused him to fall on his back and hit the ground. Tony was a large man, and even with the whip's extra properties it was something that should have been hard for Olivia to do, yet the Lady Boss made it look easy.
‘She’s more useful than I thought.’ Kai praised her in his mind.
Seeing this, and seeing the whip in her hand, the others were a little hesitant to charge in for a second, yet they were aware that the number’s advantage was on their side. However, Gary wanted to stop this quickly, as he didn't want to go to war with all these small gangs.
These gangs, for the longest time, had never gone against the Underdogs or the Grey Elephants, even with their alliance. In fact, they were still waiting to go after the other one only after they had their war. Which meant as long as they knew there was someone stronger than them, they wouldn't dare to touch them.
A small smirk appeared on Gary’s face, peaking just under his mask.
“Stop now, or I’ll get rid of you all.” Gary growled as he lifted his hand. The teenager had made it transform completely, fur on the outside, and his nails elongated to claws. He had only used the Controlled Transformation on his hand, but it was enough to cause everyone to freeze in place.
Looking at this, the puzzle pieces were starting to come together for the gang leaders.
The Howlers had a frigging Altered as their leader.
That was how they were able to get the Pincers. Why they were confident. It was no wonder, Olivia had quickly submitted to them despite the rumours claiming that theirs had been a small force. Seeing this, they could only think that the gang must have had someone big backing them. Since the Howlers had seemingly out of nowhere and now seeing this, they likely had some large corporation or another gang completely backing them.
“We gave you a warning, yet you chose to ignore it…” Kai scoffed, probing them for a reaction. “This will be your second warning, and I guarantee you, you won’t get a third. As you can see with the Pincers, we’re not interested in eliminating you and Olivia has been able to see the light and join us. As long as you don’t get in our way, we won’t get in yours either…”
None of the gang members moved, and even the mayor seemed to be worried now. All the gang leaders were in one place, none of their guards or members were with them. They all knew the power of an Altered and if Gary wished to do so, he could kill all of them. Doing so would outright solve a lot of the Howlers’ issues upfront…
It was something none of them had expected.
“We don’t want any trouble, we agree to your terms.” One of the men said standing up and was already leaving. Soon after, other gangs who had yet to make their move had also left. Leaving only the Blood Triangle gang, Lock gang and the Rising Dragon gang.
The others helped pick up their injured brethren, but eventually they left as well, leaving only the Rising dragons, Tony looked back at Olivia for a second before continuing to head out.
“Well it looks like we have finally reached an understanding. Mr Mayor, I want you to remember our name. I’m sure you will hear it a lot more often in the future.” Kai smiled and started to walk ahead as they were getting ready to leave the place as well. However, before going, Gray stopped and looked at Ben Clove.
“Does your family know your involvement in all of this?” Gary asked. “How do you think they would react if they were to learn of this alliance? If you as the Mayr who promised to protect the people were just turning a blind eye to their doings?”
“They know nothing!” Ben replied, for the first time his face changed into something other than that politician’s smile. “Leave them out of this, and if you don’t and you touch them, I assure you that you will regret it as well.”
When Ben spoke, it was a bit of confidence while also shying away. He was frightened, so it sounded like it was the truth, but perhaps his other words were true as well. Especially if they had someone like Jayden Tiger in their family, but the Mayor wouldn't have to have done all this if he could utilise him like so.
Having heard his answer, Gary had decided to leave, but there was a thought in his head… Was a war really starting soon…and just how would it start.
——
At the same time, two adults were leading a group of kids, while Kevin walked in front, and they had eventually arrived outside what looked like a large warehouse. It looked uncomfortable as Kevin looked at the area they were in. It wasn't in the nicest of places, but then again, it was the same for the Black Rock Orphanage before.
“I assure you the inside has been renovated to meet your needs.” The man smiled. “Once you head in there, your lives will change forever.”