The City - PewdieCry

5: Storm

"Cry?" Matt's voice filled my ears. I turned to him, my eyes being ripped from the back of Pewdie's head and turning to my Second. His jaw was clenched, his fists balled up. He was still rather angry, that was easy to see. I gave a nod, but placed my hand on his shoulder as he turned to follow the rest of the group home.

"Matt, are you alright?" I asked, and he gave a small sigh before reluctantly turning to me.

"Its just that I've never been that angry. I wasn't sure what it was about me, but I felt like we had something to defend, even at the cost of our lives. So, thank you for showing up when you did." Matt explained this, but looked drained of energy and still bothered.

"Its alright." I told him, peering at him from behind my mask. "In all honesty, we do have something to defend with our lives. For if not one another, then what are we going to stand up for?" Matt looked at the ground, nodding as he thought over what I said. Then his gaze turned towards the sky, and I remembered that he, too, had lost his family. Gang turmoil was often violent, and some were ready to risk everything that they had. Maybe that's what was driving Matt to defend the scouts with him, was because his parents had done the same for him. I pitied him, but he turned and walked away before I could say more, his hands in his pockets.

I stood there, on the border between my territory and Michael's, and wondered how long our rivalry had been going. Since I was born, I had been taught to hate him, push their kindness away and completely ignore them. Everyone in the gang had been taught this, and I could only assume that Michael had grown up on the face that we were bad as well. It was a deep rift that we might never be able to mend, but it was at the point that my family was on the line, one of my most trusted advisors and friend. Was this rivalry really worth the lives it was taking?

On the walk home by myself, rain began to fall from overhead. The clouds were dark gray, and occasionally I saw lightning jumping between them. I wasn't sure what to make of today, and my thoughts were about as organized as the storm above me. I needed to sort my thoughts out before I moved on, and the headache that slowly grew on me was not helping.

When I finally reached the HQ building, I shook my hair out and found everyone dwindling in the lobby, talking about what just happened before the storm hit and how we were almost caught gathering gunpowder that was lying around.

"Hey." I said to the scouts who had gone out on the mission, and the room quieted as I spoke despite the fact that my voice had been lowered. "Just try to be a bit more careful next time, alright? No one was hurt, no harm no foul." They nodded, and one grabbed the bags of gunpowder to take it downstairs to Wilson when I pulled them from her arms gently. "Go take a rest, I can handle things from here." The smaller girl nodded, looking at me with wide, innocent green eyes before taking off towards the elevator. I took them all, the small palm-sized bags and opened the door leading to the basement. I sauntered over to the bar, setting the down and sitting down abruptly on a stool. Wilson looked at the gunpowder, then did a double take up to me.

"Good Lord, Cry!" he exclaimed, leaning forward and lifting up my arm. "You're soaked the whole way through, you might want to get upstairs and change before you get sick or something! We can't afford something like that right now!"

"I need to talk to you about something first." I told him softly, and his face gained a serious tone to it. He grabbed a stool and sat across from me, staring at me and motioning me to speak. I glanced around, making sure there were no listening ears around us. "First of all, just how long has this rivalry between our gang and Michael's been occurring?" Wilson frowned, and thought about it for a few moments before sighing.

"Almost as far back as I can remember," he said, looking up at the ceiling in thought. "Something about his father and your father having an argument. I believe you guys were allied once, but Michael's dad fell for the beautiful woman that was your mother, and it seemed to anger your father as well. They argued, the gangs clashed, and your mother lost her life defending you after Michael's father promised to take away her happiness."