Since Blake had already been informed that the Altered Hunter was on his way, he had decided to wait at his father’s dojo. It was the first time Innu had been in such a place, and he couldn’t help but stare at the front garden and the whole place in awe.
“I know you said Altered Hunters have different jobs, but I guess your dad must be a pretty high ranked Altered Hunter to afford all of this.” Innu commented.
“Haha, not quite.” Blake replied. “My father only recently got promoted to a four star Altered Hunter. The organisation is quite wealthy. Since they have a number of Anti Altered equipment that they can sell.
“Don’t ask me how they get their hands on this stuff. Anyway, you have to remember that Slough is only a tier-3 town.”
What Blake said was true, but with all the recent developments, shopping malls and more were being put in place as the people started to have more expendable money and a higher wage, it was slowly starting to look quite impressive.
When the two got inside the dojo, Innu sat down and so did Blake. The two of them talked for a while but they didn’t have much to say to each other, so after that, they started to play on their phones as they waited, waited, and waited.
In the end Innu had to fill the silence as his phone’s battery was starting to die.
“Okay tell me, you were talking about ranks before, and I know that you have the stars on your shoulder but how many Altered does one have to kill to get a star and what’s the highest rank?”
“That’s a good question, essentially a five star Altered Hunter is the highest in the association, after that, there are no more stars to be gained, but there are higher positions. The Altered Hunter association is located all around the world.
“Each country has a head, and captains underneath to support him. There is no limit on captains, but there is only one head. As for the stars themselves, one has to kill five Altereds in total, to gain their first star.
“However, if an Altered kill is assisted by teammates depending on the situation and how much one contributed it would count as well. We Altered Hunters are quite prideful, so if we believe we didn’t play a big part in taking one down, we wouldn’t claim credit for it.”
Five Altered sounded like an incredible number and since Blake had a star already it meant he had faced a number of Altereds already.
‘No wonder he’s so strong.’ Innu thought.
“And what about the other stars then, how many Altered would one have to kill for that?” Innu asked.
Although they spoke about it like it was no big deal. Unless one was an Altered themselves, no one in their lifetime would believe they could take on one.
“For a second star, one would have to take out 15 Altered altogether, after that for the third star the number is 50, then for the fourth star a 100 and for a fifth star over 250. Of course, there are those that are perhaps way above this number, but there is no way for us to tell as they don’t track their kills after that.”
Innu started rapidly coughing in the air, he had nearly choked on nothing he was so surprised. After his coughing fit was over he went over the numbers again.
“Wait, I didn’t even know that was possible? You’re saying that your dad has killed over a 100 Altered, and there are those that have killed even more, but I thought altered were rare, how can that even happen?” Innu asked.
“You have to remember a couple of things. First, although the stars indicate how many Altered you have killed, that does not dictate one’s strength, more so it shows how dedicated one is to the goal of eliminating all Altered.
“However, the more stars, the more high level equipment one is allowed access to, so the two things do go somewhat hand in hand. The second point is that Altereds are becoming more common.
“More companies are coming out with easier ways for one to become an Altered, and more DNA is coming out on the market. Still, let’s say that 1 percent of the population are Altered. 1 percent of 60 million is still 600,000 people.”
Innu never looked at it that way before, and judging by the fact that becoming an Altered was usually associated with the rich. In the higher tier cities, there were bound to be more Altered than here.
With his curiosity answered, the two decided to wait again, but after waiting a while Innu couldn’t help but open his mouth again.
“Where is this guy… has something happened?” Innu asked.
“He is later than the time stated… I hope nothing has happened.” Blake replied.
———
The towns and cities of the current world were never a quiet place. Crime was rampant even with larger gangs in control. In most cases, the larger gangs didn’t even care about the smaller groups in their cities, as long as they didn’t interfere with their own business.
While at the same time, the police were corrupt and understaffed and were unable to do anything. The only ones that were worth mentioning were White Rose, but due to the Crazed Altereds as well as the Altered Hunters, they were busy as well.
In Slough, this was no exception, as students left the university feeling like there was no future. With fewer activities to do, and gangs seen as an easy way to make money, there were plenty of troubles that still occurred.
However, unlike the other cities and gangs, Slough was trying to clamp down on gang related activities. The Howlers would often do patrols in hotspot areas for delinquent activity.
If they saw potential in someone they would even invite them to join their gang, giving them a sense of responsibility. Due to the current rules in place, when things were too difficult for the regular Howler members, they would inform their leader, and if they needed more help they would inform their core member.
Riding on his motorbike, with the hair blowing away his wing, Austin had received one of these calls, and was heading to the area to deal with the situation.
‘I thought these types of calls would start to die down once we took care of the Scatterbugs, but I guess there will always be those foolish enough to push some buttons here and there.
‘Still, we really need to start training these guys, so we get called less.’
Eventually, Austin had arrived at the location, a large open park that was filled with several different pathways that led to large platforms. The students would often use it as a drinking or dancing area.
Parking, Austin let out a sigh as he walked down one of the pathways, and he noticed something strange.
‘If there was a fight going on, I would hear people shouting at the top of their lungs, or cursing at each other.’ Austin thought.
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As he went deeper into the park, he had reached one of the open squares and he couldn’t hear the sound of shouting, but instead he heard groans, lots and lots of groans. Looking at the ground, Austin could now see it.
There were several members of what looked like an orange colour gang on the floor holding onto their arms, their legs or their stomach. They were moaning in pain.
‘I got called all this way for a colour gang really, but if they’re the ones on the floor then…’
Austin question was soon answered, as he saw Howler members on the floor in the same situation moaning. Looking now at the full picture, it really was a strange sight to see, because on the floor were several members from the Howlers, as well as those from the Orange colour gang and there was only one person standing.
“Did you do all this?” Austin asked.
The man was standing facing the other way, there were a few stains of blood on his top. As he turned around his long plaited hair on the back of his head swung slightly.
“This?” The man replied. “This is not what it looks like. My phone is dead and I was asking for locations. The two groups were fighting and started to attack me out of nowhere, I had to defend myself.”
Seeing how the man was uninjured, he had to be skillful, and a good fighter. It caused the old instincts of Austin to kick in.
“Some of those people you hurt and on the ground belong to my group, and you seem like a strong one.” Asutin said, punching his fist into his hand.
“Hey… trust me kid… if you are thinking about doing what I think you’re going to do, it’s not a good idea.” The man replied.
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