The Wolfpack

Chapter 10: Casualties

     I walked over to the cigarette and stepped on it, putting it out. The four of use waited for a while as we hung out by the car. I looked at them and gave a sigh. "Anyone else feel like this Grand Master thing isn't over yet?" Jace nodded and looked at us.

     "There's a lot of things that feel unfinished. Ember still betrayed us, and nothing is gonna shake that feeling." Blake patted Jace's shoulder as he stood up. Jace sighed and chuckled. "It's times like these that I wish I could get drunk." He leaned against the car as we all sat on the empty road. "I remember... This one time, a time before I got my powers, I was hanging out with my friends Jordan, Darce, and my girlfriend, Dawn. Jordan managed to sneak a bottle of scotch from his dad's stash and he brought it over to us." Jace looked up into the sky as he sighed. "I drink half the damn bottle, while the others  barely took a few drinks. It was their first times actually drinking alcohol."

     He looked at the road as he inhaled deeply. "Funny how the dumbest of memories can make you feel like you would do anything to relive them, when you live the life we live." Fang nodded in agreement as he sat up.

     "That reminds me of something I did, before I got these... parasites." Fang sighed and looked at the road. "My friends Damien, Trent, and I were messing around in our little hideout that no one else knew about. Damien brought out a six pack of beer that he stole from his house. His parents already thought he was worthless, so they didn't care if he drank or not. Hell, they probably thought he was already a drug addict. He hated his family for not caring about him. Trent and I were the closest things to a real family he had, since we were all like brothers to each other. His whole life, he just wanted to get out of our small town. But in the end, his parasite drove him insane and corrupted him. He couldn't control it, so that parasite killed him right in front of me, and now he won't ever leave that town."

     Fang sighed and shook his head. "Sorry. I forgot where I was going with that story..." He laid down on the road and sighed deeply, looking up to the sky.

     I looked at him and nodded. "I watched my brother and sister die right in front of me." Jace looked over to me and watched as I looked down at my own hands. "My parents were deadbeats that could barely pay rent. We didn't have a penny to our names and were practically homeless, but that didn't bring down my siblings. Their names were Sophia and Mark, and they were my whole world. They took care of me, taught me how to survive with them, treated me right. They didn't hit me when I messed up something in the living room, or came home with an F." I sniffed and shook my head.

     "They taught me how to be street smart, but how to steal the food we needed from the stores." I looked back down at the road and swallowed down resurfacing emotions. "One day, we're just running across the rooftops of New York, and suddenly... I see my sister get shot through the chest. She fell to the floor, and my brother Mark ran over to her. Some crazed killer on the roof with us shot her, and he snapped my brother's neck right in front of me..." I closed my eyes and sighed. "I don't dream anymore. All I see are their faces, and how it felt like it was my fault for their deaths." I shook my head and sat up. "If I was just faster, if I didn't need to take a break on that roof, if I wasn't... weak. They'd still be alive, but because I was too weak to keep running, they were killed. Only reason I escaped was because I... I took the knife my brother had on him at all times, and stabbed his leg."

     "Is that why you're always hard on us with training?" Blake looked at me as I looked at the road. I replied with a nod.

     "At any given moment, our lives could be taken from us. And I don't want a repeat of what happened to Sophia and Mark." I pulled my jacket off a bit, along with my shirt, and showed them the scars on my shoulders and collarbone. "I tried killing myself, blaming myself for their death. But that's when I was notified of this cult based off some video game, the Assassins. They trained me to fight, to kill, to exact vengeance on the killer of my siblings. And that's what I did. I killed him, and made sure he couldn't hurt anyone else."

     Blake nodded and looked up, seeing the sun beginning to set past the mountains in the distance. "It's getting dark. Where should we go now?" We all looked toward Silver Streak City and Jace shrugged.

     "Who wants to hit the town and take down some criminals in the process?" We all agreed and got into the car. As we drove back into the city, we moved into the abandoned warehouse to save us some money and we thought the threat of the Grand Master was over.

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     As the room emptied and the guards all wandered around the fortress, the Grand Master was in the medical area. He had several of his medics looking over his body as his battle wounds started to bleed again. The Grand Master growled under his breath, "They declared war on me, and humiliated me in front of my men. Well, if it's a war they want, it's a war they'll get. I'll have this 'Wolfpack' by their throats, and have their heads decorate the entrance." One of the medics walked over as the others stopped the bleeding and covered the wounds with gauze and bandages.

     The medic that walked over had a single syringe from the Grand Master's stash. The single medic injected the syringe into the Grand Master's IV, and the liquid inside went into the Grand Master's blood. As the Grand Master inhaled and cracked his neck, he removed the bandages and gauze from his body. The wounds were already gone as the bandages were removed. The Grand Master proceeded to walk out to his scouts and he stood in front of them. "This 'Wolfpack' team. The Assassin, The Bird Kid, the Parasite Master, and the Reaper. Blake Stal-Krylo, Kyle Maxxis, Fang Rollins, and Jace Xavier. Find them and bring them back here, so I can kill them myself!"