Queen Uni

SC3- Tommy

    He had lived alone for a long time, so he was surprised when the camera-faced freak had invited him to stay with him. Tommy had quickly utilized what he knew to upgrade the other kid's place, and had offered to protect him, and get food and a place to stay. The kid, who called himself Cory, had apparently been having troubles with a sort of 'gang' who hung around the city and lived off of other people's profits. Today, Cory was taking a shift at the blacksmith's, and the two of them had decided to test their home's new defense.

    Tommy watched from a roof nearby, looking by the smithery. His role was supposed to just be a distraction, which he was fine with- he was awful at fighting. He saw the gang patrolling the streets, trying to look nonchalant as they walked around the city so as not to draw attention from the people who had homes, who preferred to be oblivious to the poor states of those around them. New Pro wasn't a good place for adults without homes, but for the hoards of kids who had lost their parents in the fighting against the other countries, or who had been abandoned when they were still young for reasons they would never know, it was a haven. Plenty of back alleys to hide out in, plenty of odd jobs for young, able bodies, plenty of food sources for those who didn't make enough money out of what they could do.

    And the 'gang'. Tommy could only think of it in quotes, as it wasn't too tough, and its only advantage was numbers. They were extremely selective- there were mostly only Humans. Granted, most Anims stayed in Comics. But they only chose Anims that seemed 'ferocious', and only Betweeners with intimidating features. They didn't care how useful someone was, as long as they could make someone back away in fear. The only thing they used to identify members was a red thread tied around their neck in a loose necklace, and if you lost that or tried to get rid of it- and, in the minds of the gang, all association with them- you would get a beating by the gang before getting an even tighter thread tied.

    Of course, him and Cory never stood a chance at joining that gang. Cory's face was extremely practical, but they didn't care about practicality unless it had sharp silver teeth. And as for him, he had never known about the gang, having grown up in the forest around the city. And even if he had, his face was the opposite of intimidating.

    He watched as Cory came out of the shop with a small cleaning cloth, presumably for his lens, and a small sack of money. Probably a couple of stell, some alum in there, not bad for a day's work. Of course, one of the gang members caught sight of Cory and pulled out a small, gleaming whistle. The sound that came out of it was piercing, but no one other than Tommy seemed to be able to hear it. Cory briefly looked up at Tommy and gave him a thumbs up, and started jogging. The member, a tiger Anim, narrowed his eyes and started following behind Cory, never getting too far behind him. He was gradually joined by other members, and they started jogging faster and faster until they were running.

    Tommy dug around in his pockets as he watched Cory run faster until he found some small, colorful smoke bombs from who knows where. He waited until Cory got close to their alley, and threw the bombs in front of the gang's faces. They were immediately coughing from the bright green smoke floating around them, and Tommy laughed a bit as Cory skirted the corner and hid behind one of the boxes they had set up and peered out with his slingshot pulled back into the ready position.

    The gang soon recovered, and seemed even angrier. Tommy snickered a bit as he looked down on them- some of them still had little particles of multicolored smoke, so the whole gang was like a little nature reserve. He watched as they continued forwards, walking slowly in a clump, looking around for Cory. They stepped next to Cory's alley, and one of them suddenly keeled over from a stone hitting him in the forehead. The group stopped ad turned to where the stone came from, and slowly advanced on their hideout. Soon, one of them stepped forwards with a bow in his hands.