With the fee sorted at the hospital, there wasn't much Austin could do, and just hanging around wouldn't change anything. He did have a few words with the doctor from before who agreed that no matter who came through that door, that they would pretend that they had never received such a patient.
‘Money can really change people, huh, I wonder what exactly Kai said to that guy.’ Austin thought, as he looked at the card he had received from the shadow fighter.
‘I can’t head to Vlad’s place, not without him, and if I stay around here, I’m sure those gang members will come looking for him. I’m not afraid of going toe to toe with them, but that’s going to get me nowhere.’
Right now, strangely the only lead and person he could somewhat trust in this new city that could help him in this situation was the shadow fighter. Putting the location in on his phone, he was on his way.
The night sky was still out and it was a little past midnight, a part of Austin felt like he should maybe message Gary to at least inform him of what was going on, but he decided against it. In his mind, it was still a level of problem that he could deal with himself.
Of all places, the location had led him to a set of basketball courts. There were six of them side by side in a grid-like formation divided by gates. The area was completely void of people, most likely due to the time of night it was.
Even kids who were misbehaving wouldn't stay out this late, and not at a run down place like this. Most of the hoops were bent out of shape or ripped off completely. Entering one of the basketball courts, Austin stood in the middle.
‘Now what, I don’t even know when the shadow fighter will get here. We didn’t exactly organise a time to meet or anything. They just said that they would deal with the Vlad situation somehow.’
In the end, Austin decided that he would try to get some shut eye, even on the hard concrete surface. He went up against the fence and laid down looking at the night sky. It was hard to see anything, not even any stars in the city due to the thick smog that covered it due to all of the factories.
‘Things will be completely different tomorrow. Although I wore the mask to cover my face, everyone will recognise me just by my body shape. If I can, I want to sort all of this out by tomorrow.’ Austin thought, as he closed his eyes.
“I can’t believe it, you must be the only person who could do something like this.” A voice was heard.
Slowly, Austin started to open his eyes, and a heavily clothed figure that covered their face apart from their eyes was right in front of him, it was the shadow fighter. Rather than being alert, Austin just slowly lifted his upper body off the ground.
“Seriously, you must be the most wanted person by the Scavengers and yet you can sleep out in the open after everything that happened just like that?” The shadow fighter continued.
After taking a few moments to wake up, Austin stood up and looked at the shadow fighter. They didn’t seem to have any wounds or such on thier body, but more so Austin was looking to see if Vlad was with them.
“You said you would deal with it, where is Vlad?” Austin asked in an irritated voice. He was already feeling a little grumpy since he had just woken up.
“It’s impossible to get to him.” The shadow fighter answered and before Austin could complain, they added a few more words. “But he’s safe. They're keeping him alive, but the gangs that were there, means he will most likely be in the hands of the Scavengers at the moment.”
“You keep talking about these Scavengers, who are they, why are they such a big deal, and lastly what does this mean for Vlad?” Austin asked.
Giving out a big sigh, the shadow fighter went to explain in detail. What the schools were used for, how the Scavengers were the gang in charge of the factories as well as the ones who would be running the Phantom Brawl.
Austin knew a few things as he was piecing things together, but now he had the complete and clear picture of what was going on, fully.
“From what you are saying, then I have even more reason to go and stop these guys. If he’s in the hands of these Scavengers won’t he be ripped apart. If they own the city, they could force him to do anything.”
“And how exactly do you expect to find the Scavengers, are you just going to go and beat up whoever you can find?” The shadow fighter replied back. They were hoping that their words would have dissuaded Austin but it looked to have done the opposite.
“Well, there’s the Phantom Brawl right?” Austin replied. “If they're in charge of that, then they will definitely be there.”
The shadow fighter was quite surprised that the big brute had worked that one out but was also surprised he would do something so stupid.
“Yeah, an event where all the gangs gather and the strongest are invited to watch. You would just be walking into your own death.” The shadow fighter stated. “You remember that Vixen guy, he’s an Altered…”
The shadow fighter paused for a second and looked at Austin’s hand. They were sure that they saw him get bit. Yet he was unaffected by the poison, and the wound had even disappeared. Could it have been just that they were seeing things.
“My point is, you’ll need a better plan to rescue Vlad. There’s not just Vixen but recently the Scavengers have gotten their hands on fifteen Altered solutions.”
Austin was quite alert after hearing this. Fifteen Altered solutions, no matter what grade they were at, would cost quite a bomb. Only a tier-2 city or a city like Slough now would be able to have the wealth to buy that many solutions. Certainly not a tier-4 city like the one they were in.
“10 of the Altered solutions have already been handed out to those loyal and strong in the gang. While the other five, are meant to be prizes in the Phantom Brawl.” The shadow fighter continued to explain.
Hearing all of this Austin was quite curious about something.
“I thought you were a high school student who just beat up delinquents in the area. How do you know so much about the Scavengers including what this grand prize is? Even the other’s didn’t seem to know about this.”
The shadow fighter immediately turned away, facing away from Austin.
“That’s what you ask after hearing all of this, does that even matter? After everything I’ve told you, do you still plan to go in and save Vlad? Do you think this is something you can still do on your own?”
“Yes.” Asutin answered quickly and confidently. 15 Altereds might be a bit much, but he was sure he could come up with a plan on the go and there was something else as well.
“If I can’t do it on my own. I can call for help, I know someone who could deal with them all.” Austin replied.
The shadow fighter couldn't help but laugh.
“You know someone who could deal with 15 Altered on their own, they would have to be the AFC champion or something to do that.” I really don’t know where you get your confidence from, big mask, when you couldn't even beat me in a fight.”
The shadow fighter was a good fighter, and they had managed to get the slip from Austin. Moving into the centre of the basketball court, Austin then took a fighting stance.
“I believe our fight was cut short last time.” Austin said. “If you really think you're strong enough to beat me, then why don’t you give it a go. We have a ring of sorts we can use as well.”
The shadow fighter looked to be thinking about an answer for a while, and started to enter the basketball court and stood on the opposite side of Austin, around two metres away.
“I’ve beaten big guys like you multiple times you know, so why don’t we make this interesting. If I win, then you give up on saving Vlad and don't get involved with the Scavengers, I promise I will do everything in my power to make sure he gets away from them.”
“Alright.” Austin agreed. “Then if I win, you have to help me take down the Scavengers, and tell me who you are.”
*****
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