Heads up I experimented with interchangeable POV's this chapter, which I don't think i will be do doing ever again.
Mili, Kai, and Rui as the name of the older boy turned out to be, were members of the Hellions, a gang made entirely out of street rats and former street rats. I also learned that Kai and Rui were indeed brothers.
After a liberal amount of thanks for saving their asses the trio brought me to their base, a warehouse by the waterfront.
What is it with all these groups and gangs using warehouses as their bases or hideouts, is this a normal thing?
Does no one own these warehouses, or what?
The base looked like a nondescript warehouse from afar but as we got closer I started noticing the differences. The Hellions had overhauled the whole warehouse, adding emergency exits and lookouts while still leaving it to look like a warehouse from afar.
There were even two 'guards' patrolling the broken chain-link fence around the warehouse, who let us in after recognizing the trio of teens. And I say guards loosely, the 'guards' were two kids that couldn't be older than 13 walking around with iron pipes and walkie talkies. They looked almost exactly the same and even their mannerisms were the same making it rather obvious that they were twins.
"A new member?" One of the guards asked as we passed by, not recognizing me. The other guard was in the meantime quietly talking in his walkie talkie, no doubt telling those inside about the unknown addition the teens have brought with them, AKA me.
"No, just a guest, I will tell you guys later," Kai replied.
Glancing at him out the corner of my eye, I wondered what he was going to tell them. Mili and Rui had explained everything that had happened after he was knocked out, or at least tried to, it just sounded too unbelievable without having witnessed it himself. He had spent the whole way here annoying and begging me to show him my powers, so I did, by muting him for the rest of the way.
It wasn't till we were almost upon the warehouse that I released him and allowed him to talk again.
When we arrived at the front door of the warehouse it was already open and a girl the same age as Mili and Kai was waiting for us. The moment Mili saw the girl, she ran up to her and hugged her like her life depended on it. Her whole body was trembling like a leaf and soft sobbing sounds could be heard emanating from her.
I was wondering when this was going to happen, unlike me these are normal teens and this is a normal response after seeing 3 people get killed in front of you.
Kai and Rui I could understand, Kai was unconscious the whole time and didn't see anything but the aftermath and even that only briefly, Rui was the oldest and the leader of the trio he wasn't about to show such emotions in front of us. Heck I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't the first murder he had witnessed or committed for that matter.
Mili on the other hand was a 15 year old girl, who had gone from being scared of her friends dying and being raped to seeing me kill 3 people in a quite disturbing way, if I say so myself. I was honestly surprised it took this long before she broke down.
The new girl hugs Mili back and lets her cry herself out for a minute. When Mili's sobs turn into soft sniffing, she tilts Mili's head up and plants a chaste kiss on her lips.
Ah...that explains it.
I could have sworn that Mili and Kai were a thing.
Giving them some privacy I look around, like Fang group's warehouse this one was also partitioned in different parts, but unlike their hideout this warehouse was a lot bigger with both a lower and upper floor. Instead of being divided between girls and boys the whole lower floor had been partitioned in individual rooms.
It seems like the upper floor even had real rooms and offices. It still wasn't the best of conditions to live in but it was a step up from all the other lodgings of street rats I have seen so far.
The 'hallway' between the rooms and upper floor were the only places that still had any light on at this time. With it being almost 1 AM most of the partitions were drawn closed and hardly anybody could be seen.
The new girl must have said something to cheer Mili up because a weak giggle leaves Mili's mouth before she can stop herself, and she turns away with a pout.
Noticing me watching them, Mili's cheeks get a pink glow from embarrassment, "Sorry about that, this is my girlfriend Yumi," Mili said quickly trying to conceal her blush, "And this is- uhm…."
Mili stops talking and looks at me mortified, just now noticing that she didn't know my name. She and Rui spend the whole way to their base either being afraid of me or being too engrossed in their own problems to ask my name or even start a conversation for that matter and I muted Kai before he could get to asking my name.
"Alexander," I answer, waving at Yumi after watching Mili squirm for a while.
She waved back shyly, there wasn't much to say about Yumi, she was a typical Chinese girl with long black hair, black eyes, and a small frame to top it off.
"Nina wants to see you guys," Yumi said looking at Rui before turning to Mili,"I will be waiting in our room."
'"I will be there as soon as I'm done." Mili said softly, still feeling vulnerable she gave Yumi one last kiss before following after Rui and Kai who had already started walking upstairs. I followed them up to the second floor and what was obviously the office of their leader.
Rui turned to us, he hesitated when looking at me but continued anyway, "You three wait out here for a moment," not waiting for an answer he went inside and closed the office door after himself.
5 awkward minutes passed in silence before the door opened again and Rui gestured for us to come in.
Inside Rui was standing in front of a girl, she was in her late teens with short blond curls framing a pretty face which framed a pair of beautiful sky blue eyes. She was wearing a leather suit that stretched around her tight ass and was open at the chest to show off her lovely C-cup breasts.
Judging from her hair and eye color, that looked natural, she was only half Chinese like me but her other half appeared to be Russian rather than American.
And yet I felt absolutely nothing for the gorgeous woman in front of me. Intellectually I knew that she was hot, hell she would have fallen right in my wheelhouse in my previous life, but because I haven't gone through puberty yet there just weren't any feelings or emotions involved when seeing her.
Seeing a hot girl without wanting to do anything felt weird.
"I'm Nina, the leader of the Hellions," she introduced herself, startling me out of my thoughts.
"This is Alexander," Mili introduces me proudly before I could do so myself, trying to act like she hadn't just learned my name a few minutes ago. Nina looks at her weirdly but shakes her head after a moment. That reaction alone tells me that she is used to Mili's weird manners.
"If Rui is to be believed, I have you to thank for saving their asses," Nina's voice was both skeptical and defensive at the same time. Rui must have told her about me having powers, not that I had been expecting otherwise, "I'm thankful but killing Faizul's men wasn't a smart move."
I stayed quiet, she was clearly building up to something.
Taking my silence for what it was she resumed what was obviously a recruitment speech,"Faizul's Six Dragons gang runs this whole district, now that you killed his men he isn't going to rest until he kills you, even with your powers you are just one person you can't take the tens of armed men he will be sending after you alone."
She paused, watching Alexander closely trying to read what he was thinking of his face before carrying on, "Because you got in this mess by protecting three of our own, I'm offering you a place in the Hellions," Normally Nina would never try to recruit someone that had offended one of the four big gangs of Macau even if that person had saved three of her own, at most she would have given them some money and sent them on their way. It may sound heartless but she just couldn't risk the lives of the members of the Hellions, the lives of her family, for a stranger.
Unfortunately this wasn't one of those times, according to Rui the men of Faizul were waiting on their route to especially ambush them. It was clear to both of them that Faizul was cleaning house and was taking care of all the gangs he didn't want in his district.
With Faizul already wanting them dead, recruiting another person on his hit list wouldn't hurt their chances and if Alexander can do even half of what Rui told her then it may even help their chances of survival.
Nina still didn't think that one person, a kid at that, could take on a whole gang but maybe if she made it so that killing them would cost Faizul more men and resources than it was worth he would back off for now and give her some time to plan.
So that is the way she wants to play it huh, making it seem like she was the one helping me instead of the other way around. She probably wasn't trying to fuck me over and was in her own strange way even trying to help me but it was obvious that her gang came first in her mind, "Funny I was just thinking the same thing."
"Great-"
"But with you and your gang working under me."
Nina stays quiet, lost for words before my words penetrate her skull and she understands what I just said. Her face changes between humor and anger, unable to choose which is more appropriate.
"Don't be ridiculous no matter how strong you are, you are just a little kid and I'm not about to take orders from a kid," after seeing that I wasn't joking, anger wins out and her eyes blaze into mine.
"If that is your only problem then you don't have to worry, didn't you notice that I don't act like a kid." I said, releasing the normal aura around me that I had running on low power in the background.
Nina eyes glaze over for a second before returning to normal. She really didn't notice until he said something about it but now it was obvious that a child shouldn't act like how Rui had described Alexander and what she had seen herself in their short conversation so far. It was like she had been talking with someone her own age in the body of an 8 year old child.
Looking at Rui in her peripheral vision, she saw that he was also confused and looking at Alexander weirdly.
"How?" Nina asked both why he didn't act his age and why she and Rui hadn't noticed until he had said something just now.
"My powers make me more mature for my age," I answered.
Nina rolled her eyes after seeing that I wasn't going to answer the second meaning of her question, "That still doesn't explain why we should work under a kid no matter how 'mature' he thinks he is."
"Well that one is easy, I can protect you from the Six Dragons gang who are trying to take you out,"
Nina tries to hide her surprised look, she hadn't expected Alexender to figure out that the Six Dragons gang was trying to take them out, but going by what she had seen of him so far she should have. Underestimating him is a mistake she won't be making again.
"Ä little gang made out of kids and teenagers like yours won't last a week with the Six Dragons gang on your ass, especially now that Faizul thinks you killed his men."
"You are the one that killed them!" She screamed even though she knew it was futile.
The faces of Rui, Kai, and Mili had become paler with every word I uttered.
"And who is going to tell Faizul that, all those who witnessed what happened are either dead or his enemies who have tons of reasons to lie to him," The realization that I was telling the truth hits Nina like a cannonball, "how are you even going to defend yourselves if they storm in here guns blazing, do you even have guns?"
The silence that followed was telling enough for me.
"As far as I can tell you have two choices either refuse me and get killed off or work under me and I will have us out of this dump,"
"Hey!" Nina screams.
Ignoring her I continue, "as I was saying I will have us out of here before the week is out, as a bonus you will all be alive."
I could see that I was getting to her but she was still hesitating, a little more pressure could have made her fold but it could also have made her draw back from me and become unwilling to even consider my 'offer', either way I wasn't willing to put more pressure on her then I was already doing.
"You have two days to think about my offer, I doubt Faizul is going to wait more than that before coming after you," I said before changing the subject,"Meanwhile you can pay me back with information instead, I need a place where I can sell expensive things like rare metals and precious gems."
Nina was bewildered by the radical change in subjects but answered anyway "Yes I know a place, it's called Pandora's Box all the gangs do business there," Nina said plopping down in her chair behind her desk exhausted from everything she learned today "but do you even have a bank account?" Normally she would not even ask something as stupid as a street kid no older than 8 having a bank account but she isn't going to assume anything anymore when it's connected to Alexander.
Shit I knew I forgot something, I don't even know if I exist in the Chinese database let alone have an account to deposit money in.
"Do you have an account?"
"Yes I have one to pay for our expenses," Nina answered reluctantly, already knowing where I was going with this line of questioning.
"We will use that instead then," it didn't really matter, it was going to be mine sooner or later anyway. There is no way that I'm letting this gang slip out of my fingers -their name even fits the whole soul dealing demon theme I have going on- even if I needed to subtly manipulate Nina's mind, I would rather not but I will if I have to.
Nina opened her mouth ready to tell the little brat to go fuck himself or something along those lines when she thought better of it. There was no need to burn bridges right now, she needed some time to make sense of everything she learned today and assess the best route she needed to take to keep her family alive and well.
Not ready to commit to anything yet, Nina didn't answer, "I will take you to Pandora's Box tomorrow, Kai and Mili will show you to a room you can use until then."
Taking the dismissal for what it was I followed Kai and Mili out the room. The moment we left the room I could tell from Kai's posture that he was getting ready to confront me about everything that had happened inside but luckily Mili saw it too and stopped him before he could start with a hand on his shoulder.
We walked the rest of the way to my new room in silence, my 'room' was like all the others, a partitioned off part of the warehouse with a futon to sleep on in it and that was it, no doubt the others were filled with their own belongings to make it more homely.
Before getting ready to sleep, I checked on the status of all my souls.
I had 3 whole souls full with soul-energy and 3 quarters of another one left after a long day dealing with everything, one of them having recharged on the way to the Hellion base. A few hours from now most of my souls will have recharged themselves except for the two that recharge in the afternoon.
Changing the one I have connected to my Mana Shield with the one that just recharged, I set up an alarm to wake me up if someone with hostility comes within a hundred feet of me, and dump the last two to strengthen the golden psychic and magic shield around me making it shimmer gold for a moment before becoming invisible again.
After I had made my skin permanently tough I had changed the shield to work on only Psychic energies and Magic, well I say Psychic energies and Magic but it's more that it works on every energy that I could imagine and know exists in DC.
From now on I'm going to strengthen it every night until not even Doctor Fate and the Martian Manhunter can affect me when using Magic or Psychic attacks.
