24 Caught

"What's the progress?"

Titus, Clay, Jax, and the alcoholic sat around in a circle in the back room of Jax's bar. The small, dim-lit room with brown leather seats surrounding a round table became their usual meeting place, as it also provided the old man with his need for drinks.

"Well," Clay started. He reclined back in his seat and stretched his arms up in the arm, yawning. A tattoo of a die and a small crown peeked out from underneath his shirt at his torso. "We did try most of the good ideas we had, nothing worked."

"Shit!" Old Mike chugged down the rest of his beer before slamming the jar down on the table, sending another colorful flow of curses out his wrinkled lips. He was a mess, as always, his worn, tattered suit jacket stained with drops of alcohol.

"It's been days! We caused such a huge mess, the cops are onto us, and still nothing..."

Jax scratched his chin thoughtfully, leaning forward against the table. "Maybe we are doing something wrong?" he suggested. "Clay ordered the mobs, Titus has set fire on buildings...the news broadcasts all of that."

He held up his ringed fingers and counted them off. "Daylight burglary, vandalism, arson, assault...we've done all that there is, right?" He wrinkled his nose. "The cops have also been pinning those murders on us, though we weren't the ones behind those..."

Titus sprung up on his seat, excited. "You think Rune knows that? Is that why he hasn't made a move? I told you that we should've done that in the first place!" he badgered. "That boy won't show himself unless we do something out of line, I bet you ten grand!"

A devious grin spread out on Clay's lips and he flashed his teeth sharply at the mention of money. "So we're betting now?" he snickered. "How about this? Twenty grand if he comes once I demolish the bank down the street."

"No betting," Jax said firmly, shooting the both of them a warning glare. "Anyways, Titus has a point. Unless we push this past the line, I don't think Rune is going to bother with us. There must be a good reason why he's staying away from us."

Old Mike swiped at his nose with his hand and sighed, a bit disappointed. "Eh, do you boys really think Rune, that little bastard, is living well even without us?" he questioned.

The three of the generation younger than Old Mike glanced at each other. Even if this old grandpa didn't say it, it was too obvious with his persistence and questions. He missed Rune, way more than anyone...but refused to admit it since they always warred with each other, and he nearly always lost to that boy.

Clay scrunched up his nose and sniffed. "Well there's a fifty-fifty chance for that," he shrugged. "Rune was indeed the most remarkable, if not terrifying mage I've known in my whole life," he murmured, "I'm sure he knows how to get what he wants."

He yawned again and sat up straight, this time starting to crack his knuckles loudly. "If not, there's the possibility that he's in hiding or he's been caught by authorities...even if he joined that weird association for mages, I wouldn't blame him."

The others frowned at his thoughts. True or not, those ideas sounded really bad one way or another.

"So are we finna do it or what?" Titus asked, crossing his arms impatiently.

"Do what?" Clay shot back. Clearly, he wasn't even paying half of his attention while they were talking the entire time.

Titus scowled at him, threatening to punch him with a bulky fist. "If we are to lure Rune out, we need to murder someone," he said gravely.

Jax shook his head. "We'll save that for the last resort," he said. "Kidnapping sounds like a better option. We just have to be careful with our actions so we don't get the cops on our tail." Then he turned his head to see the old man's reaction, only to see him completely knocked out against the seat, snoring soundly.

And so Jax took it upon himself to carry out the order. He turned back to Clay and Titus, raising them a sharp eyebrow. "Alright, kidnapping it is."

______________

It had already been about two hours since Gray had arrived at their usual nightly hideout in the abandoned lot right at the end of a dead-end of a quiet street somewhere near Anthea's shop.

If one were to stand on the top floor of the lot where there was no roof, only the open skies, and face north, they could see the tops of the academy the high schoolers attended only about five streets away.

Overall, their hideout was located just perfectly.

Emrys had disappeared up into the upper floors exactly two hours ago, and he was still there, no doubt even now working his ass off due to the crackles and thuds Gray was hearing somewhere above him. After all that he told Gray yesterday, pouring his heart out to him in the small room of Gray's apartment, it seemed that he still needed some time to cope.

Gray leaned with his back against the cold cement wall of the ground floor of the lot, sunlight entering from the entrance and the open space between the cement pillars opposite from his wall.

Jade and that girl named Kameron had left to buy snacks and drinks for about ten minutes now, taking their own break after entertaining themselves with Gray's self-defense lessons and practicing for over an hour.

Despite the visible suspicion in Kameron's eyes when she first laid eyes on Gray and not expecting to be taken to such an isolated area in the first place, she was quite interested when Gray started his daily demonstration that he would usually show Milo and Jade when Emrys was gone by himself.

Her skepticism slowly faded away over the short period of time, but he still noticed her cautious actions around him.

Only he didn't know if she was brave or just dumb to follow a group of strangers to such a remote place.

Gray's mind continued to wander for the next couple of minutes before doing a rewind back to everything Emrys told him about yesterday.

Controlling parents, a stress-filled and toxic household, heinous expectations, an older sister named Evangeline who was away in college in another province...

And he tried to picture what all of that was like. Was that even considered a family? Shouldn't family members be supportive and happy with each other?

He frowned as he made a mental note to himself not to bother with the kid's parents. Hell, it felt as if the wanted criminals of the underground did a better job at raising Gray than Emrys' parents raised him despite having everything they needed to do so.

It felt the opposite of the way it should be.

Gray paused mid-thought as the little flaming aura reappeared at the corner of his sensory radar, the same one that kept stalking them since the very morning.

The small dot of energy was red, unlike the basic solid white one of a normal human.

Red.

A fire mage. A weak one, nonetheless.

However, this aura felt strangely familiar.

It was not long before the image of that smug boy with the brown undercut and sloppy school uniform the same that Emrys and Jade wore appeared in his mind.

Ah, it was that boy who tried to mess with Anthea's business and trapped her in the storage room of her own store...Hayden.

What is that little bastard doing here?

Gray didn't even need to open his eyes to see the boy standing dumbly at the entrance of the lot, lurking around not-so-subtly and staring at his still form. Annoyed that he wasn't saying anything, Gray spoke up first, his voice echoing off the walls loud enough for the idiot at the entrance to hear.

"Are you going to say something or do I need to beat it out of you?" he goaded.

Hayden stiffened, shamefully stepping out of his bad hiding spot with his hands shoved into the pockets of his red hoodie. "So it was you all along," he grumbled. "From the store...are you Gray?"

Gray opened his eyes and lifted his head to see the kid fidgeting with his fingers inside his pockets, his eyes darting left and right. The kid flinched slightly when a small boom sounded on the floors above him, where Emrys was training.

"Get to the point, boy" he muttered. "What do you want? Don't think that I'm not aware of you following us."

Hayden's fists clenched into tight balls inside his pockets and he bit his lip, staring at the floor feeling humiliated. But he quickly set aside his bitter emotions and mustered up the guts to shout, "You are a mage, aren't you?! You teach that hateful guy, Emrys...then...can you teach me too?"

Gray stared at him, his piercing dark eyes drilling right into Hayden's the moment he said those words, making him step back in nervousness. "You mean you want me to train you...," he said.

Hayden sucked in a sharp breath and nodded, thinking that everything was about to go in his favor. But he didn't expect Gray to reject him so fast.

Gray snorted and turned away, rolling his eyes. "You clearly know that that kid is under my instruction, yet you still got the nerves to call my student 'hateful' after coming all the way," he retorted scornfully.

Hayden's face fell as he realized what he had said, instantly regretting his impulsiveness. He cursed himself, rapidly reminding himself that he wasn't talking to Emrys, nor was he talking to some unrelated human. The person he was talking to was someone related to Emrys, a mage that could probably beat him with a simple snap of his fingers. "I-"

Gray flashed him a dark look, and Hayden clamped his mouth shut, thinking twice before saying something that would get him back to nowhere but square one.

Another loud thump caused the cement above them to tremble, and Hayden gave the ceiling a quick glance. "...what's up there?" he asked cautiously.

Gray smirked, the sound of ice cracking filling the lot. "That's the kid, boy," he said with amusement. "Why? Are you scared already?"

"Y- You mean that's Emrys?" he exclaimed, rattled by the constant, thundering noises. "But-"

"What...did you not see it yesterday at school? Just because he lost to that white-haired lady doesn't mean he's weak. If I set him up on a fight with you right now, you would lose terribly..."

"I...I know...I know I'm the one that's weak."

Gray watched him as his shoulders sagged significantly; the boy was frustrated and disappointed, up to the point that he himself admitted that he wasn't good enough.

Well...at least he wasn't as stuck up as he thought he was.

So before Hayden could turn around and trudge away in discouragement, he allowed him a chance.

"If you can withstand my attacks for ten seconds, I will willingly instruct you as my second trainee."

Hayden stopped in his tracks, eyes wide with surprise. He turned back, his hands now out of his pockets in two, hopeful fists, his eyes sparkling with hope. He couldn't believe his ears.

"Really?!"

T- ten seconds shouldn't be too hard...right?