Back at the factory, Gary had just faced one of the squad leaders of the Scavengers. He turned out to be an Infected Altered but with the use of some controlled transformation along with his new strength after eating the beast crystals in the facility, he was able to make quick work of his opponent.
In the end, during his battle his mask had been ripped off, and in the process everyone had seen his face. With the bright green hair, and handsome looks he had gained since transforming, he was as easy to spot as a bar of gold amongst a pile of silver.
HIs identity had been found out, and the workers were simply mumbling away, wondering why such a person would come to save them. In the meantime, Elijah and Gary were busy cleaning up.
Tying up the injured that were still alive, while covering up the dead body. It wasn’t a pretty sight. In the middle of it all though, Elijah had made a proposal, asking if Gary would join the White Rose.
“Ha!” Gary let out with a smile. “If you're asking me to join the White Rose, then that means you must be someone that has the power to actually let me in the White Rose, right? So what are you, an undercover agent or something.”
Gary was ready to carry on with his work, until he saw Elijah nodding.
“I was sent here to look into the Infected Altered. Solutions seem to be passed around in tier-4 and 5 cities, so we are trying to locate the source. I can’t tell you more than that.” Elijah stated.
Gary’s eyes popped open, he had only said such words on a limb, as a joke, but never thought Elijah would just say things like this. It was making sense now, otherwise, why would another Altered be here.
“Wait!” Gary realised, pressing his finger on his forehead. “Does this mean, you're serious about the offer, about me joining White Rose?”
Once again Elijah nodded, and started to walk forward pushing the two of them a bit further away from the workers. Now that the fighting had come to an end, a few of them started to leave their rooms, getting a closer look at everything that had happened.
“I’m dead serious. You're a talented Altered fighter, and from my time being with you, I know that you have a good sense of justice. Look I don’t know why you're being backed by that Howlers Gang, or what they have on you, but if you join the White Rose, we can help and we can protect you from your gang as well.”
‘Protect me from myself!’ Gary thought in his head.
Thinking about the offer seriously for a moment, he knew that Elijah was a good person. Now that he knew he was actually in the White Rose, his offer seemed to be a good deal to Gary.
A way to protect him from all this mess, but Gary would never join the White Rose. For one, they were a group of Altered. The White Rose had already tested him once before, and he had failed, proving that he wasn’t an Altered like the others.
He had already been through a series of problems when he had joined the AFA having to fake his blood sample, so joining a force like the White Rose, would just cause him even more problems and if he was discovered, the consequences would most likely be even higher than that.
At the end of the day, joining the White Rose, it would mean being apart from the Howlers. The group he had created with Kai, a group of people that helped him and he helped them back, he wouldn’t abandon them. Thinking about this, he had another thought as well.
“I’m sorry.” Gary answered. “But I can’t join the White Rose. Not just to save my own behind, and besides I owe the Howlers a lot.
“There are things that they can do, and ways they can help, that the White Rose can’t.” Gary looked at the workers, who were frail and thin. Some were even kicking some of the gang members that were tied up.
A couple of them had been abused during their time working here, so it was time for them to get a little revenge. Thankfully, there were more sensible ones in the group that would stop the other workers before things got out of hand.
“Although you can protect me, are you able to protect all of them from the Scavengers?” Gary asked. “Can you give them a good life, and get rid of the bad in this place?”
The look of inner struggle appeared on Elijah’s face, the White Rose wasn’t able to help them. Although they were a special Altered force supported by multiple nations, and worked hand in hand with the local police forces, they still had to go by the country's laws and rules.
They didn’t have the power to just do as they wished. They needed to find evidence before they took action and even then, when they knew and had evidence that certain cities had high Altered action and deaths related incidences due to Altered, they were unable to act or were told not to act.
The White Rose was an organisation that answered to the top people of the countries that ran the place, and they were heavily influenced by the higher powers, the tier-1 city leaders.
If the White Rose acted against the gangs, the other cities, they would suffer from the wrath of all of them banding together and the White Rose would be wiped out. In a way, they had to act as if they were one of the great powers, like the tier-1 city, but not a group that was bigger than them.
“I understand.” Elijah said. “But who knows how the gang really thinks about you. Your boss, he might not really care about you. If he does, well, if you speak to him, he will understand this is better for you. I’m just asking you to think about it.”
Gary smirked as he turned his head, he couldn’t help but smile at the comment.
‘Ah yes, let me just go speak to my boss myself and ask him. The boss says to do what you want.’ Gary thought to himself.
Pulling out his phone, Gary went to make a call to a certain someone. Only one person that could help get him out of the current situation. Kai answered and Gary gave a quick rundown of the situation.
“I see.” Kai said. “I understand, based on the situation, it sounds like it couldn’t be helped. Tell the workers to stay in the factory. I will send a group and vehicles to the city, we will pick them up and transport them here.
“Explain to them that we will help relocate their families as well, but at the moment, we need to protect them first. As long as you don’t let anyone leave the factory and the workers stay put, then it will be a while before the Scavengers find out about this.
“Just wait for us to come and get you, boss.” Kai smiled and hung up the phone on the other end.
Leaning back in his chair, Kai was rubbing the top of his two eyebrows.
“I expected for this to happen, it looks like we might have a big fight on our hands. Still, it's something we need to do. I need to try and find out who is behind this tier-4 city, because we could really be going to war with them.”
*****
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