Club activities had ended for the day, and for the first time in a while, Tom and Gary had the chance to walk back together. The last couple of days, Gary had just rushed home, claiming he had something important to do. Tom had known that he had to be hiding something, but only recently did he find out that it was due to his part time job as a delivery person.
Then the other day, Blake had gone home with him for some reason. Now it was just them two, and since they didn’t exactly live in the same area, the time they would walk together would be short.
Tom was hoping to crack a few jokes about what had just happened, how his best friend had seemingly lost to the girl he had fallen for, but the whole way, since they had left the club room, Gary hadn’t said a word.
The silence was killing Tom, and he just couldn’t leave his best friend like this. Since they were about to enter one of the rougher areas, where Gary lived, they would part ways soon. If he wanted to say something, he would have to do it now.
“Hey man, don’t let it get to you. Apparently, she was the strongest person in the whole club. I don’t think losing against her is anything to be ashamed of. Who knows, if you learn to get better and stronger and control your Werewolf powers, maybe you can even beat her next time and get that date!” Tom claimed enthusiastically, but in his mind, all he could see were images of his friend transforming in the middle of the fight, and he soon shook his head to get rid of that thought.
“It’s not just that I lost…” Gary eventually mumbled out but soon went quiet because he knew it was impossible to explain to Tom. Losing to Xin, someone who weighed far less than him, and someone his age, meant that if the Underdogs or anyone else were to ever find out where he or his family lived, they could easily beat him.
Not just the Underdogs, but other gangs had members that were extremely good at fighting. Different martial arts was just their basis. At the end of the day, the Underdogs also had Kirk. An Altered who had won the Altered rookie championship. If he was ever sent to deal with Gary’s family, could he even last a few seconds with the way he was at the moment?
Normally, Tom should have left a while ago to head in the other direction, but he couldn’t leave him like this with the way his friend was. As he looked down the street, he could see a red coloured gang in the area, walking around.
The second they met eyes, Tom looked away.
“The red gang are in this area as well now?” Tom whispered to Gary. “I guess the Underdogs aren’t in complete control of this area then? This should be a good thing for you for the area.”
“You really think I’ll be happy about the fact that more gangs are roaming around the place where I live?” Gary scoffed. “It’s good because it means the Underdogs have their own problems to deal with, and they won’t ruin this place further, but the black coloured gang and the red coloured gang have been fighting in this area more frequently. Thankfully, the main gangs haven’t gotten involved yet, but… let’s just say even walking to school is getting tough.”
Thinking about this, Gary remembered the girl he had seen. He still wondered why the black coloured gang had attempted to abduct her so openly. Even stranger was that she seemed to be somehow related to Kai, yet he had never mentioned her to him.
“Oh, that’s right, I almost forgot to tell you.” Tom facepalmed as he suddenly remembered something in regards to gangs. “You know, the other day, I decided to go out to the shop, it was pretty late, and these guys followed me.”
Suddenly, Gary was deeply concerned about his friend. The story wasn’t starting well, but when looking at Tom, he could see he had no injuries on his body and was relieved. This didn’t go unnoticed, and Tom was happy to see that Gary still cared for him.
“I’m alright. What I was going to say was this guy came out of nowhere, all dressed in black and beat them all up. Honestly, it was pretty badass. Hey, maybe if you had a teacher like that guy, something like what happened earlier wouldn’t have happened.” Tom wanted to tease his friend, but he quickly covered his mouth, realising that he had just poked a hornet’s nest.
“Huh, not a bad idea…” Gary mumbled. “So who do you think he was, a gangster boss out for a walk or something?”
“No, he didn’t really look like one.” Tom looked around at the gang members in the area they were currently in. The man that he met just didn’t seem to fit in with the others. “Come to think of it, he might have been an Altered. That might explain his large frame, and usually, they have superhuman bodies even without transforming. Alternatively… he could have been an Altered hunter.”
“Altered hunter, huh? I guess even the Altered have things they need to worry about.” Gary commented.
Eventually, Tom couldn’t venture into the other side of town too far. He needed to go home and mentioned this to Gary. Realising how far Tom had accompanied him, Gary decided to walk him back until he was in a safer area since he might not be as lucky to meet such a mysterious stranger a second time.
It was getting pretty late, around 6pm, which was when the sun was starting to set, and more troubled people would roam the streets. Tom was concerned about this, but Gary reminded him that he wasn’t a regular person anymore and reassured him by saying he would be going straight home.
However, pulling up his hood, Gary got his phone out and sent a text to his mother and sister.
[I’m at Tom’s and will be coming home late tonight.]
Gary had no intention of going home yet, and he was ready to cause a bit of chaos.
*****
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