Chapter 019

A week quickly went by after the fight in the docks.

The police had handled the rest of the case and the whole dock was sealed for further investigation. Due to this, The Russians had taken a bit of a hit and had to reconsider their operations.

As it was Alex who had stopped the trafficking, his name had also become a bit famous in Hell's kitchen.

It wasn't to the point that everyone in Hell's kitchen knew his name but the gangs had already gotten aware that there was someone who was trying to stop them.

In the past week, Alex had gone out every night to fight crime.

Although he hadn't fought the Russian gang again, there were quite a bit of small-time criminals he came across.

He had already stopped an ATM robbery, assault and other crimes that he came across.

All this had helped him stock up a healthy amount of HP. Just stopping the human trafficking had gave him 110 HP, making Alex really pleased.

He was giving up his sleep to be a hero and the HP he got was his only reward. Added with the usefulness of it, he had started cherishing it more and more.

After all, not only could he buy superhero stuff from the Hero shop, there were even daily need items.

"I'm so bored. I should look for some cutting edge video game or something in the Hero shop later."

Alex muttered as he walked towards Chikara dojo.

Today was Sunday and he had nothing to do. At first, he had decided to just relax and play video games all day but soon he had grown tired of them.

With nothing better to do, Alex had decided to just go to the Chikara dojo to train. As it was the weekend, no other student would be there.

So, he can peacefully do some training.

If he has any luck, Colleen would even give him a special lesson and he would be able to grow closer to her. As she was going to be an ally to Iron Fist in the future, it was in his best interest to have a good relationship with her.

"Mark."

However, when he reached in front of the dojo, he found someone familiar standing there.

It was Markus, the guy Alex would often spar with during his lessons.

"Alex, why are you here on the weekend?" He asked, surprised to see Alex.

"I can ask the same of you. You don't even take martial arts seriously. What are you doing here?"

As far as he knows, Markus was the type to take everything lazily. Even during the lessons, he would always joke around in an attempt to be goofy.

"Hey, I do take it seriously." Markus retorted back but that just made Alex more curious.

"Say that to someone who doesn't know you. You never took martial arts seriously. Hell, the reason you are even continuing with it is because you have a crush on Elena and nothing more."

"Ah, well..."

Markus was silent for a while hearing that as Alex kept staring at him. As the seconds passed by, the suspicion that there was something wrong just grew in his heart.

Getting too tired of just staring at him, Alex sighed and decided to push more.

"Markus, what is going on?"

"Nothing is going on. I just didn't have anything to do, so I came here."

"I am pretty sure it's not just that."

Alex didn't know if it was because he had become too sensitive after fighting criminals or it was just his intuition, but he was sure that there was something wrong with Markus.

Unable to give up on his suspicion and curiosity, he took Markus to a nearby coffee shop.

He didn't seem happy to be dragged by Alex but he wasn't able to do anything before his persistent attitude. After getting two cups of coffee, they started talking.

"You can tell me what's going on. I know there is something wrong with you, so you can just talk about it." Alex said, stirring up his coffee.

"There's nothing going on." Markus frowned, "Even if there's something going on, why will I tell you? We are not even friends." 

"Ah, I thought men become friends after tasting each other's fists. In our case, it was only you tasting mine, but at least, there was some bond." 

Alex joked but Markus didn't seem to take it too well. Shaking his head a little, he went back to the main subject, "You can tell me because maybe, I can help you out."

His words got a reaction out of Markus as he fumed, "Help me? No one can help me–"

Markus stopped just in time but he had already said what he wanted to hide from the start.

"So, I was right. There's something you need help with."

"I'm not telling you anything more. Don't try to get into my issues, Alex." Markus frowned. "I don't like it."

"I know we are not really close, Mark. But you can trust me on this, I might be able to help you." Alex pushed a little. "At the very least, I can hear you out. You seem to have a lot in your head and it's always good to let it out."

Markus didn't talk for a while as he pondered over Alex's words. 

Alex also just sipped on his coffee slowly as he waited for Markus's answer. In his head, he was making a list of everything he knew about Markus.

'He lives in an area around Hell's kitchen. His dad was a firefighter who died when he was young and because of that, he doesn't like to talk about his family... Nothing more than that.'

Contemplating all the information in his mind, the only thing that stood out was the place he lived in; Hell's kitchen.

Alex had drunk more than half of his coffee when Markus opened his mouth, albeit hesitantly.

"It's about my older brother. He is charged... for murder."