Although Gary knew Xin was trying to chase her brother down, it seemed like she never wanted to directly get involved and chase him. She had tried to contact Jayden multiple times, wanting him to reply to her. She wanted to find out why he was avoiding her so much.
There was always the option to attend one of his fights as a way to see him, but it would still be nearly impossible to talk to him. Which was why Gary was quite surprised that Xin wanted tickets to watch the fight. It was the first time she had asked for such a thing.
‘I was going to try to get tickets myself to the event in case anything happened. I guess Xin wants to come along as well. I can count this as a date too.’
[I’ll see what I can do. You can count on me!] Gary replied with a little thumbs up.
“Hey Kai, if I wanted to get tickets to the event, do you think you could handle it?” Gary asked.
“Not me directly. It might be better for you to get in contact with Harry, or if not, send a message to AJ. He seems to get a few complimentary tickets to those types of things.” When Kai replied, his eyes were darting around the place. It was something unnoticed because Gary was too focused on his phone.
What Kai had noticed was the lack of people suddenly in the path that they had come to. Up ahead, the path would become more wooded with trees on either side.
They had finally entered, and Kai was even more on alert.
“Hey,” Kai whispered into Austin’s ear. “There are three guys behind that tree. Deal with them quickly, and come back. Don’t bother Gary with this small stuff.”
Austin agreed and quickly went into the forest. He could see that Kai was right; three men with small pocket knives in their hands were ready. When they spotted the large Austin, one thrust his knife toward him. Austin dodged the stab and then picked the man up by his face with a single hand, hurling him towards another.
When the man's body hit his own ally, they were both lifted off their feet and slammed right into the tree.
The third one had come up behind Austin and went to stab the knife in his back, only to have the knife completely bend.
“I’m sorry?” the man said.
With his large hand, Austin slapped him across the face, spinning his body before he landed on the ground.
“Who are these guys, and why are they ambushing us here of all places?” Austin said, as he decided to hurry back on the path where Kai and Gary were continuing to walk.
The thing was, there were more than just those three. Kai noticed another person running toward Gary, holding onto a baseball bat. Gary still had his head stuck in his phone, typing away. This allowed Kai to quickly rush forward, jumping in the air and kicking the man in the chest with both of his feet, sending him flying back into the forest.
“What the... who the heck texted Gary to get his mind so unfocused?” Kai thought. Gary should have a keen sense of smell, a second sense for when he felt threatened, but it wasn’t as if these people were really threats to them in the first place.
When Austin returned and the two of them were back next to Gary, Kai had another order.
“I don’t think that’s the end of the attacks. The only type of people that would attack us so openly is another gang. The next lot, find out who they are.”
As expected, it didn’t take long. As they continued to walk through the path, they could see a man up ahead. This one appeared a bit different compared to the last.
A pair of goggles were protecting his eyes, and he stood there looking at them all. That was when his throat started to enlarge, and his skin became somewhat transparent. A green liquid could be seen growing out from it.
The man then opened his mouth, but Austin charged forward, going in front of everyone. Kai was worried about Austin.
Transforming just his hand, Austin’s forearm grew until it was nearly four times the size. The strange liquid hit his skin, burning through his clothing. It went deeper, searing his skin, but Austin felt almost no pain. As he continued to move forward, his skin was already in the middle of healing.
The attacker was getting ready to open his mouth again when Austin was already by his side and had pulled him down from behind, slamming him into the floor.
“Open your mouth again, and your own goo will slip right onto you. Who are you guys? Who sent you?” Austin asked.
The man then went to spit a stream of green liquid right at Austin’s face. It reached his cheek, burning part of it, but Austin’s own face started to change. Horns were growing out of his side as his face started to heal.
Dripping off from his own skin, a bit of acidic spit had fallen back onto the attacker.
“You’re going to die from your own spit if you don’t speak up, or I should crush your throat right here,” Austin said.
“No, wait! I’m from the Cluster Gang! I had an order from our boss to get rid of you three, that’s all. I didn’t know you were an Altered as well!” the man shouted.
Having the information he needed, Austin squeezed the neck tight until the man could no longer breathe, and eventually, his life came to an end.
‘I can’t go easy on gang members,’ Austin thought as he turned around. ‘I nearly died once, and we already lost people. I can’t have sympathy for those that try to kill us.’
Austin walked back, joining Kai and Gary, and gave a little nod stating the job was done.
“Yes!” Gary suddenly cheered with his phone in his hand. “I got it! I got the tickets!”
As he turned to look at the two others, he noticed their clothing torn and blood on them.
“What happened to you two?”