A couple of days had gone past since the meeting between Vere, one of the daughters of Nox, the leader of the Scavengers, Vlad, a high school student whose father worked at one of the factories owned by the Scavengers and had unfortunately met a cruel death, and lastly Austin.
A mysterious member to the other two, but they knew a couple of things about him, one was that he was incredibly strong, and the second was the fact that he was an Altered. Although Vere hadn’t seen his Altered form, Austin did reveal the fact and it gave a slight boost in confidence in their plan
After the next couple of days, with Vere being on the inside of the group, they were able to coordinate their movements, and it was finally the day, the day of the Phantom Brawl. The sun was setting outside, Austin sat on the edge of his bed looking out of the window.
“It’s 6 PM.” Vlad said, looking at the time on the corner of the TV screen. “We should start moving, the first fight is at 10 PM.”
Austin looked at his phone once more, he was checking if there were any messages from Kai and Gary. He hadn’t heard much from them after he had asked permission to deal with the situation.
There was a text from Gary saying if they needed him in an emergency to call him, if not he would be done with whatever he needed by the end of today.
‘The end of today, that’s kinda vague?’ Austin thought. ‘I mean, it's 6 PM now, does that mean he’s done, or does he mean midnight. I don’t think anything would go wrong, and it would be a bit embarrassing after claiming I would deal with it myself, but it should be fine right? This is just a tier-4 gang after all.’
Thinking this in his head, he followed Vlad out of the room, and they were now outside on the streets. The two of them weren't in their normal get ups. For one, Austin didn’t have his pompadour hairstyle, it was flattened out to the sides and his hair was a lot longer than anyone would have thought, reaching his shoulders.
Vlad had dyed his hair a different colour, it was now a bright blonde, and the two of them were wearing halloween masks. Austin as skeleton, with Vlad as a type of zombie. It wasn’t so strange for the younger ones who would go around causing trouble to wear masks, so they fit in quite well.
Of course, Vere, being able to move outside freely, had gotten the equipment for them.
“Don’t you think it's a little strange.” Vlad said, biting his nails, it was clear he was nervous and his footsteps were getting weaker as they moved closer to the location they were heading to. “I mean, you took out one of the squad leader’s, one of them who was an Altered and they're still continuing on with this Phantom Brawl?”
The two had been in their hotel room and hadn’t gone further than the reception area for the last couple of days, so they didn’t really know what the situation was on the outside. They could only rely on Vere for information, but the fact that a squad leader had been defeated didn’t get a big reaction out of them.
“Well according to her, this Phantom Brawl is a big deal for a few reasons. Some of the other tier-4 gangs get invited as well as the local gangs. This is a chance for them to show their strength, and also they want to show some of the Altereds they have obtained tonight.
“The tier-4 city, it looks like the gang is trying to grow, and it's doing so by building up its influence and stating that they are stronger than all the others around them. They either join them or face the consequences.
“At the same time, due to the bets that get made from the other members, it's a big income earner for the gang.”
Vlad had seen it, it wasn't just the wealthy that gambled, if anything the poor gambled even more. Putting all they had for a chance to improve their situation. Forcing them to continue the cycle of working for the Scavengers.
Even at the small time events, there would be some Scavengers that would hand out loans and Vlad felt like it would be no different here.
Eventually the two stopped, as Austin pointed at the bright convenience store sign up ahead.
“Vere’s information is right, it looks like he’s here.”
Vere would be at the event as a spectator and she would do what needed to be done when the time was right, but the main issue with the Phantom Brawl was that it was an invitation only event.
Those invited could bring others with them, but the person with the invite would have to at least verify those they brought in, so it was impossible for Vlad and Austin to just walk up.
That’s when a certain individual had walked out of the convenience store, and started to walk away. Lifting his hands above his head he started to stretch.
“Alright… I guess it's time for me…”
The individual could feel a presence behind him, and when he turned around, he could see two men dressed in masks.
“Ah! What the f*ck are you doing, do you know who you're trying to mess with!” immediately the man went to reach for something by his side but before he could, Austin grabbed his wrist.
“No, not that this time.” Austin said, with his other hand free he lifted the mask, revealing part of his face, and so had Vlad.
“F*ck!” Killer said. “You two, what do you want… Why do you guys have to keep ruining my life?”
With Austin no longer being Killer’s replacement in the tournament, it meant that he would still have to take part, so this was their in. Vere was good at tracking delinquent students, it's what she had been doing for a while before she would give them a beating as the Shadow Fighter.
So she knew their patterns well, including Killer. There were a few back up plans in case this didn’t work out, but things seemed to be working out perfectly.
“We need you, you're taking us to the Phantom Brawl.” Austin said.
****
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