The Wolf’s Pool Club was one of the places that had changed the most in Slough. It hadn’t been affected by the fight against the Phoenix gang. There was no reason for it to be.
People weren’t in it at the time of the attack, and apart from a broken sign or so from rioting from the nearby gangs, there wasn’t much else to fix. Regardless, Kai had decided to use quite a bit of extra funds to rehash the place.
After all, the Wolf’s Pool Club was the secret hideout where the main members of the Howlers gang met up.
One of the first things that was noticeable about the place was it was now three times the size. The building to the left and right of the pool club, other establishments were bought in Gary’s name.
They then knocked down the walls to create a larger room. Kai wanted to still keep up the image of the place being a pool club, so upstairs they had just created a larger bar, relaxing area, and more pool rooms.
Downstairs in the basement, that also had been extended to a larger establishment, a special VIP area for Howler members only. Here there was a special office that Kai stayed in most of the time with his lawyer and such.
Then there were more areas for the group to continue to party, drink, and sort out real business. Kai had even created a wall that displayed all of their special masks that the core members would wear.
A spare one for them. Even though their faces had mostly been revealed to the Howler members, it was still good to keep their basic identity a secret.
It had been a long time, but currently downstairs in the Wolf’s Pool Club all of the Core members were present and they were enjoying a drink and chatting along with each other.
Marie and Olivia had managed to recover, and her mother was doing the usual making drinks for everyone. This time, Park and Kevin were also present. Kevin wasn’t drinking alcohol even though he had complained about that.
Tom, Vere, and Vlad were also present at the club that day. Tom had been working closely with Vlad to try and clear the infection or keep it under control which he had been somewhat successful with.
Lastly, there were two more that were there, Xin, Crawley, and Ice. When Gary had returned to the Wolf pool’s club along with Kai to talk about improvements the place, they noticed that Ice was sitting outside.
He planned to keep his promise, with sticking with Gary to see the improvements and his way of living his life. So far while being here, Ice had already seen how different the Howlers were with how much they had helped the people.
As for where Blackjack was, Ice had no clue himself.
Gary then grabbed his drink and lifted it in the air, stopping the conversation between the others as they turned to look at him.
“I know I’ve said this before, but we can’t forget the people that lost their lives in fighting for Slough, in fighting for us. I also want to thank everyone here, and those that aren’t here today that fought. I’m sure, Blake and Innu would have been here if they could, they wanted to especially say goodbye to Tyler, let’s drink to that!” Gary said as he took a big swig along with everyone else.
It wasn’t the first time that Gary had mentioned Tyler along with others' names, but it was to be expected with everything that had gone on. It weighed on Gary’s mind a lot, and he was truly thankful.
The room went on as they continued to talk, Austin and Ice were chatting away together.
“So you’re also a Mythical type altered and you have Ice powers?” Austin said. “You have super strength, great healing, and Ice powers, I’m getting a bit jealous over your powers.”
“It wasn’t always the case.” Ice replied. “Sometimes special traits of altered are unlocked at a later time. Especially for Mythical type Altered, you can see it as an awakening. I doubt something as legendary as a Minotaur just has super strength. There is most likely something else you have yet to unlock.”
Austin continued to talk to Ice, wondering if there was a hint in getting stronger. He had trained hard in the year, but he realized that even though they had strong Altered, fighting experience on their side, it wasn’t enough.
Gary was going around the room talking to everyone and had stopped at a moment when meeting Marie and Olivia.
“I’m sorry Gary, we let that Raven guy escape,” Marie said.
“Hey, how many times have I told you to not worry about it. He had a grudge against me, if anything I’m sorry about getting the two of you involved in all of this,” Gary replied.
“We achieved new powers but didn’t have much time to learn how to use them. We were at a disadvantage, if we were to go up against that Hydra again, I won’t lose,” Olivia added. “Speaking of, when you have more funds, I would like a new beast whip, to get a good one you’re going to have to go to the Dark Guilds Auction.”
“It will be the first thing on my list,” Gary said as he continued to walk off and went toward a special red-seated leather section in the corner.
Here Xin was sitting down and on her own. To which Gary sat next to her, both of them looking at the rest of the Howlers in the room.
“What you’ve built up here is really nice, Gary, you should be proud of yourself,” Xin said.
“We have you to thank for that, I heard what you did, giving your dad the kick and all,” Gary smiled back. “You know things are settling down here, I contacted Elijah from the White Rose, and there doesn’t seem to be an issue, he said he would explain more details but not to worry.
“So if you wanted we could start looking into things to do with your brother, like you asked me that day.”
Xin didn’t want to ask for Gary’s help, she didn’t want to take
him away from all of this, but she had no choice.
“I need your help, I still have no idea what’s going on with him, and I can’t even get in contact with him. To be honest, I don’t know where to start with all of this.”
Gary started to think back to what Jayden had said to him the last time they met. When he was strong enough to come and seek him out. Gary was plenty strong now, so maybe he could help him with his troubles.
“Maybe, if I ask my dad, he might know something, a way to meet him.”
As soon as Xin had finished her sentence, Gary could hear footsteps coming from the staircase. Everyone who had been invited was here, so he wondered just what was going on.
Then, the man in question finally came into view, and Gary immediately knew who it was.
“Dad...”