All eyes were on Olivia. It was a big question on their minds as to just who the enemy was that they needed to go against. There was a large amount of anger filling the room as one of their own had been badly hurt; they wanted to know where exactly to channel all of this anger.
"Wait, you can't go in there!" A voice was heard from outside. Gary remembered that it was the nurse who had brought them there.
Moments later, the door slid open, and forcing themselves into the room were three young adults, ones that Gary had seen a few times before.
"What were you guys doing, where were you?" Bo shouted. "You guys are meant to be the leaders of this gang, so why the heck was Austin fighting on his own!"
The three men who had come through the door were Bo, Felix, and Alfie. These were the three who would follow Austin everywhere when he was in school, and they continued to do so.
They were some of the first members of the Howlers gang and even had worked at the Wolf's pool club for a while. It was safe to say that they were among the very few who actually knew the real identity of the Howlers gang leaders.
"Austin," Alfie said as he walked over, looking at his body. "Who did this to you, man? I thought you were a boulder, a rock that no one could push."
Meanwhile, Felix was holding Bo back, trying to refrain him from hitting anyone, not that anyone in the room couldn't just move and avoid the attack anyway.
"Say something then, where were you guys! I heard even the public were injured as well! How the heck can you call this a gang? How can you call yourselves leaders when you can't even protect anyone?"
Gary didn't get upset by the remarks; he didn't say anything back to him because he felt the same way. Bo continued to shout, and when it finally sounded like he was out of breath, Gary spoke.
"You're right," Gary said. "I failed as a leader, the only thing I wanted to do by creating this gang is to look after the people I care about, and it seems like I failed that. We're the people who were hurt as well, right? Are rumors starting to spread that our gang isn't competent?"
Gary looked at Kai when he heard this question, and he nodded.
"Very well. You know when I came into the position of the leader, I took it quite lightly," Gary explained. "I guess it was because it never felt like something I wanted to create, and I just went along with the flow."
"This whole thing has become a lot bigger than I ever envisioned, to the point that now we are having trouble with even more trouble. Olivia, tell us, who are we going against?"
When Gary was speaking, everyone was silent for a moment as they listened to him. They could tell when his words felt heavy.
"We rounded up those in Burnham food street, and we found their leader had a tattoo of a flaming bird, the one Austin killed just before he ended up in this state," Olivia answered.
The anger from Bo's fist started to leave at that moment; it dropped down to his side, and he felt a lump in his throat. Not one of sadness but one from fear.
"Did you say a Phoenix? Does this mean... one of the kings, was it Sin Ignis, from the Phoenix gang!"
"What's this?" Marie said. "You were all talk earlier, complaining about how Gary should do something and wasn't acting like a leader, but you're not so brave now that you know who we're up against?"
It was true; the fear of the kings was just too much and too overwhelming for a gang like theirs that hadn't had any significant fights. Especially since the one against Notsburg was dealt with by so few people.
But could the same thing happen again, or would more be involved from the gang?
"So it is one of the kings?" Gary said. "Then let me ask you, Kai, how would one of the kings react in this situation if they were attacked."
"If they were attacked like this?" Kai stated. "With one of their main members getting hurt. Well, they would attack straight back; a war would start, just like you said before. Now you know our enemy; have you changed your mind?"
"No," Gary smirked. "If we're up against the kings, then we should act like the kings. Let me know when Midwak is ready; I'm sure he will be excited for some payback."
The group all smiled and were confident, already on the move, while the three friends that stayed in the room looked over Gary. It wasn't just them, though; Vere had also stood up, and Vlad walked not too far behind them.
"Hey," Vere said. "Look after him while we're away. We're not just going to sit here and talk about what could have happened; we're going to do something about it, and so is Gary."
While walking down the hallway, now knowing who their target was, Gary was getting ready to act, but just as he was about to, he received a text on his phone. He would have ignored it if it wasn't from a certain individual.
'Amy, what's she doing texting me now?'
Reading the message, Gary stopped in his footsteps.
'Gary, I don't want to worry you or anything, but I just found out, do you remember Stacy, my friend who had been killed... her whole family, every single one of them was murdered... it's pretty scary.'
Stacy, it was a person who Gary was unable to save, but her parents' death… was it a coincidence at a time like this, or was the whole thing related? He was unsure and didn't have a good feeling about all of this.
****
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