CH39: REFORMATION
"Come on…"
"Get up."
"Isn't it working?"
"Oh look, his eyes are opening."
Dezhong slowly opened his eyes as he regained consciousness. As he did so, he tried to recognize where he was by moving around and seeing where exactly he had been taken. Strangely, there was a strong stiffness in his hands like something was keeping them from moving.
"Abdul." He shouted, having remembered what had happened earlier. "Where are you? What's this place and why did you bring me here?"
"He's conscious and aware. Let him loose." A well-known voice ordered, followed by Abdul cutting the ropes off of Dezhong's hands. As soon as he did, Dezhong sprang up and nearly punched Abdul in the process, before being restrained by Jamal who happened to be in the facility.
"Calm down, blonde," Jamal scoffed while using his powerful prosthetic arms to restrain Dezhong's body. "You're safe. There's nothing to worry about." He quickly let go of Dezhong and followed with a kick to his back.
"Did you seriously try to attack me?" Abdul asked in disbelief.
"You jumped me, knocked me out, and brought me to an unknown location, man. What the hell!!" Dezhong barked. The two glared angrily at each other and nearly fought but luckily, Kong stepped into the room they were in.
The environment of the room was thick, warm, and comfortable with no sources of natural light. The floors were made of natural cobblestone, the walls of concrete, and the ceiling seemed to be made of quartz. In the middle were two evenly spaced-out wooden support beams that held four lamps each that provided light. Of course, Kong's large table was present, but it was the only other man-made thing present.
Upon seeing this, Dezhong calmed down a little bit and prepared to ask questions.
"Before you start, Dezhong," Kong interrupted as he took a seat behind his table, 'I just want to send my condolences about your father. I and the rest of my comrades are hoping for a speedy recovery for him. In case you didn't know, your father played a…."
"Yeah, I know." Dezhong interrupted. "I'm partially aware of the impact my father and you played on Desper. Now that he's out of commission, the new guy poses a threat to us Gorillas, right?"
"Good, you already know where we stand." Kong continued as Abdul placed a circular disk on the table. With a snap of his finger, the disk displayed a holographic image as Kena, Krista, Kenny, Krakenhouse, and five more people he had never seen before stepped into the room.
The other five were each dressed in a dystopian manner with goggles and metallic masks that covered their faces completely. Also, they each had the same height, physique, and stature, but their clothes were colored differently; red, yellow, green, blue, white; respectively.
"Now, our good friend Chief Prince, this young man's father," He pointed towards Dezhong, "has been hospitalized, and we don't know when he'll regain consciousness. What this means for us is that we can no longer conduct business legally as our pact with him required us to do."
"With him no longer leading the police, we have no choice but to revert to our old ways. I know this will be hard for some of you, especially the newbies, but this is how things are going to be from now on. First, we will no longer be supplying the city and the rest of Desper with crystals for hand-me-downs and favors. Proofread:
"Everything's going to be for sale, non-negotiable. Two, the police being under new management means we'll have to go back to offering our 'protection' from other gangs. In case you three didn't know," he referred to Dezhong, Jamal, and Krista, "the Gorillas are not the only gang in Desper. We may have been the biggest, but thanks to this new chief, our numbers have been halved. Once our enemies find out, they're going to try everything to take us down.
This means we'll have more gang fights breaking out, and for the sake of our own skins, we'll have to deal with them very fast. Third and lastly, the Dragons are bound to spring up on us once they learn that Prince is down. I know Jin will stupidly pull random attacks like he did in the old days, so I'm going to need each of your squadrons to grasp fighting skills as soon and fast as possible."
Kong took a deep breath, held it in for a while, and finally let it out while ending with, "Chief Prince leaving means our enemies will attack us at full force, and I wouldn't be surprised if they attack us as teams. Also, the new chief has a personal bias against me, so he will keep a watchful eye on us. If they bring the fight to us, we give them double of what they asked. Understood?"
"Yes, Sir!!"
Once Kong's instructions were given, he dismissed the remaining Gorillas and only remained with Dezhong, Krista, Kena, Jamal, and Abdul. While Abdul and Kena stood behind Kong's table, Dezhong, Kena, and Jamal stood besides each other while awaiting for further instructions.
"Sir. What else do you need us to do?" Jamal asked, pretending to show more interest than Dezhong and Krista. "Shall we move around offering protection to small businesses? Do we go around showing our strength to the lower gangs?"
"Be quiet." Kong silenced Jamal with a disgusted tone in his voice. "You three are going out for your first job tonight with the help of my daughter, Kena."
"Our first job!" Dezhong exclaimed with excitement. "What's it going to be, sir?"
"A robbery." Jamal, Krista, and Dezhong froze for a while as the words 'robbery' passed through their ears. Unlike the others, Dezhong wasn't so worried about it but given that this was a gang, he feared that they were going to steal something of extreme value. If by any chance they were to get caught, it would mean immediate death.
"Relax. It's not a real robbery." Kong continued, having sensed the fear he caused. "It's more like sneaking into a restricted area and leaving a message for me. Here's what you're to do and how you're going to do it....."