“I know I don’t know who you are, or what you do. You might just be some kid who has a rich parent, but whatever it takes, if you want me to be your lackey, bring you food in the morning I don’t care, I just need the money.”
Even when Gary had propped himself on Kai’s table, he still seemed uninterested, and it wasn’t until Gary spoke that he turned his head, and a smile was shown on his face.
‘This kid, his eyes, his determination to do whatever it takes huh, well let’s see how long you last.” Kai thought.
After that day, Gary had learnt how Kai made his money, and Kai had become Gary’s “In” person to join the gang.
***
“Relax, I haven’t told them anything,” Kai informed Gary since the younger boy had grown silent. “Still, you’re not wrong to be cautious. They seem to be very keen to find you. I don’t know what exactly you took from them, whether it was important or rare or something like that, but it's already too late to simply return it. Right now, it’s just the principle of the matter. You stole from them, so they need to punish you for what you have done. It’s been quite a while since someone last dared to cross the Underdogs so they likely have something gruesome in store. You know, to send a message to others.”
Of course, Gary already knew everything Kai had said. Still, hearing it from someone else was just making matters worse.
“Fortunately for you, I don’t plan to tell the Underdogs about you.” Kai told him with a giant grin on his face.
‘Huh, he won’t? Why would he be looking out for me? We’re not friends or anything like that, barely acquaintances. There has to be something….something he wants from me.’ Gary became wary about Kai’s generosity.
“Ooh, you seem to catch on rather quickly. Indeed, I don’t plan to simply help you out,” Kai admitted. “I want to ask you for a favour which will benefit both of us. You see, for a while now, I’ve planned to leave the Underdogs. However, if that would be so easy you wouldn’t be in your current situation, now think about how much worse it’s for me who knows so much more about their gang.”
“Still, it’s not like it’s completely impossible. What do you think we would need to do to protect ourselves from a gang like the Underdogs?” Kai asked with a mischievous grin.
Gary wasn’t completely sure if Kai actually wanted him to answer the question or not, but in case he did, Gary had no clue what the right answer would be, otherwise he wouldn’t be in his current predicament. All of this seemed to be some sort of spiel from Kai to get Gary’s help. The strange thing was that as far as he knew Gary didn’t have anything to offer Kai.
No longer waiting for Gary to come up with an answer, Kai enlightened his underclassman. “It’s actually quite simple, we would have to be part of a bigger gang. Of course, just joining another one is out of the question. The Underdogs could simply pay off whoever we go to to hand us out. As such, our only choice is to create our own gang that is bigger and more powerful than the Underdogs. That’s where you come in. You will be my little dog in all this. You will help me grow our gang!”
Gritting his teeth, Gary was annoyed at the fact that Kai was calling him a dog, but he had to put his emotions aside. What Kai was suggesting was crazy, for more reasons than one. The problem was, this crazy person could report him at any time. He held all the cards while Gary had none.
Gary was smart enough to understand that threatening to reveal Kai’s wish to leave the gang wouldn’t help him in any way. Going against Kai would risk getting his family involved, not to mention he could simply deny Gary’s accusation.
If it came down to it, who would the gang believe? The boy they assumed had stolen from them or the boy who had worked with them for a long time who also happened to have told them where to find Gary?
“How would that even be possible? The other gangs won’t follow someone in secondary school. They already have a base of strong people and those in university are already part of different colour gangs. It’s impossible to form a gang!” Gary argued, trying to put some reasoning behind his plan.
Lifting his hands up, Kai did a little spin.
“Where are we right now? Did you forget? Aren’t there plenty of people to use right in this school? Why do the gangs use us as transporters? It’s because people underestimate us high-school students! There are plenty of us that are strong and love to fight, and I have my ways to persuade them.”
“The gangs think of us as nothing but kids, but soon enough we will be adults. It starts off small but eventually, we can create something greater than all of them. Now tell me Gary, are you with me or not?” Kai asked, walking over, holding out his hand as he looked into Gary’s eyes.
‘This person is crazy….but…what choice do I have?’ Gary thought as he shook Kai’s hand.
“Fine, but you have to promise not a single word to anyone in the Underdogs or the other gangs about me, or my family!”
“Of course, you have my word.”
At that moment, a notification screen had appeared.
[A spoken deal has been made, would you like to mark “Kyle Hamper”?]
There was no other information displayed about what a mark was or what it did. Gary tried to ask the system, but by the time he did, Kai had let go, and the system message had disappeared. Whatever it was, it was too late to implement now.
Kai waved Gary off, as he walked back to look down on the school field. Leaving the roof, Gary rushed off to prepare for his own club activities. Turning around, he briefly saw Kai grin at him.
“So Mai, are you really sure, he was the one who defeated the members of that colour gang that was chasing after you today?” Kai asked.
From behind the roof’s storage room, a girl with black hair stepped forward. “No doubt about it. I don’t know how he did it, but all of those guys were rolling over by the time I returned with the police.”
Hearing the response, Kai grin got even wider. “It sounds like this is going to be an exciting year.”
After the conversation with Kai, Gary was stomping his foot on the ground, twisting it about in the grass. The whole conversation with K had put him in a sour mood.“Hey are you okay, bro?” Tom whispered to his buddy. “I don’t know where you went, but I think it’s best you calm down before you get called up.”
[Quest completed][10 exp received]“Amazing performance! Did you all see that?!” Mr Root seemed to be ecstatic at Gary’s performance. “Last week he was laying on his arse, and now he put Blake on his back side instead.”
Once school was over, Tom had directly headed home, only today it had been without his best friend by his side. Honestly, after how weird his buddy had behaved the whole day, Tom was convinced that something was going on with Gary.‘The broken desk, suddenly being able to send Blake flying and the pierced rugby ball... could Gary really be a…’ He gulped before a
Suddenly, he heard the sound of students laughing derisively and a few seconds later, a bike skidded out in front of him, blocking his path.“I told you, no one looks at me that way and gets away with it!” The one in front told him, while the ones behind him were looking forward to a good show.
“It’s pretty impressive for just high school students, right? And this isn’t the only one. This is one of the many underground fighting clubs spread through the whole country. Although this is just a small one,” Kai revealed to Gary who was still a bit taken aback at the idea that people his age would gather in secret to watch others duke it out live.‘If this is considered ‘small’, just how large is big for you?’
Before Gary had any chance to refuse participating in the next fight, the crowd opened up a way for him and with a not so gentle push, Kai forced him to enter the arena. The highschool students were now looking at him from all over. It felt as if they were seeing right through him trying to analyse what type of person he was.‘Was it a mistake to go to Kai?’ Gary was left wondering. As a fan of Altered fights he had naturally dreamed about being on stage himself. Who
This wasn’t the first underground fight that Innu had appeared at. He had been to quite a few before and each time he showed off his skills there would be those that approached him. It was the first time he had been to one of this size, so he thought today would be the day he finally decided to join a gang.To him, it was a stepping stone. These small gangs wou
Gary had visibly suffered a large blow, yet he somehow managed to stand up as if it had been nothing more than a light tap. The crowd was flabbergasted, but not as much as Billy himself, who knew best how much power should have been behind his hit.‘Billy’s weight should be two times that of Green Fang,’ Innu calmly analysed from the side. ‘Unlike the rookie he should also know how to fight properly, so it’s impossible for him to have gone easy on his opponent. I’m a