Leaders

"It's only been two days, but its good to see you again Rebecca. And you are Julia, right?", Gale said to the two girls that were waiting at the same place they had met two days prior.

"No, I'm Victoria, Julia is my sister.", the girl answered that stood a short distance behind the catgirl.

"Well, these two look very much alike, even more so than some twins actually.", Rebecca commented.

Gale didn't know how to react. It was neither an insult nor a compliment, but it somehow still annoyed him. Actually, if someone were to ask him if he wanted to look more like Eric, he would definitely answer with a resounding 'no'. Still, it really annoyed him when she pointed out the fact that he and Eric didn't look alike at all.

"Please, lead the way."

"Yes, please follow."

There wasn't much use to think about such things too deeply, he would only get unnecessarily riled up.

***

"Yo, Daniel!", Eric lifted his hand in a sloppy greeting.

"You have finally come.", the dark-eyed boy complained.

"Why 'finally'? I' absolutely on time, you are the one who is too early."

"Tsk. That's just basic courtesy.", Daniel continued.

While the two boys exchanged their greetings, the three goons standing behind Daniel gave Eric angry looks.

"Hey, be respectful to the leader!", the one with blonde hair finally complained loudly.

"Oh, right! Before I forget, you can only bring one of them.", Eric said, pointing with his chin towards the three guys behind Daniel. "And not him.", Eric continued, pointing at the blonde that had spoken up earlier.

"Hey, you asshole! You have nothing to say here!"

"Heeh, being a sore loser or what?", Eric made fun of the guy. He couldn't let that guy take that kind of attitude, if anyone like that came to the meeting, they wouldn't be able to discuss things seriously and it would devolve into a bunch of idiots insulting each other really fast. It could even turn into a fight in the worst case.

"You wanna f...", the blonde guy started and another one of the three seemed eager to fight as well.

"Shut your mouth, Dorik. This is too important to get ruined by your antics. Jerry will come with me."

The last of the three boys made a step forward at these words. He was rather small and looked pretty weak, but looks could always deceive, who knew what kind of mantras Jerry could use or if he was a mutant.

"Why are you taking that weak guy with you? He won't even be able to become a distraction!", the loud boy continued to complain.

But most of the time they are really weak when they look like it, Eric thought.

"Yeah, unlike you, he won't distract anyone. And we aren't going to fight anyway! Now shut your mouth Dorik!", Daniel got angry at his goon.

Shocked, Dorik took a step back and looked down. He had never seen their leader that angry before.

It was no wonder. With the never stopping attacks and demands of the wolves as well as the several losses thanks to the raid they had suffered, their situation was dire and they couldn't afford to make demands.

"Anyways, you two stay in the vicinity and don't do anything stupid! Come, Jerry."

Jerry and Daniel followed Eric around a corner and disappeared from the view of the two stunned boys.

***

"You are already here, very good. But shouldn't there be three groups?", Jayden asked after looking at the two groups standing a little apart from each other.

"My name is Cedrik, one of the Rats leaders.", a tall but lanky boy said and continued while pointing at another boy in the other group: "That over there is Fraz, the new leader of the other group after the guards got Saren. Vick's group probably got caught in the raid. We haven't seen even one of them since then."

Jayden never had much contact with the Rats, so he didn't know Saren personally, but he made sure to pay extra attention to the boy called Fraz. The boy didn't look like much if you didn't look carefully, but if you did, you could see that he had some kind of claws on the tips of his fingers.

It wouldn't be very dangerous if he used them against a normal person, at maximum they would get a few scratches and a little blood would flow. But against those who were living on the streets without any possibility of treating these scratches, those were very dangerous weapons.

"They really got Vicky? Tsk.", Jayden clicked his tong.

Vicky or Vick's as most called her was actually called Victoria. But no one called her like that since she herself said that she didn't like that name and said that it was pretentious.

Jayden had already known her before she had become a leader in the Rats territory and was the only other girl in a leader position besides Rebecca. In the past, she had almost become one of the guardians but decided against it by herself. Not long after that, she had become the leader of one of the groups in the Rats territory.

Different than in all other territories, the Rats weren't made up of one coherent group but of several smaller ones that worked together.

"Well, now is no time to think about that, as I know her she will probably pop up somewhere in the future. She was always pretty tenacious.", Jayden thought and said: "Ok, let's go. I will lead you two the way."

"Only us two?", the boy with the claws asked with a slightly hostile expression.

"Only two people per territory. If you were here with three groups it would have been a special case, but like this, I can only bring you two.", Jayden explained.

"But why?", Fraz continued asking suspicious.

"To keep the balance. And in the worst case, we need to be able to suppress any fights.", Jayden answered.

"I don't like this. What if you want to do something to us?", the boy continued his inquiry.

"And provoke a fight with all other territories? Pfft, we aren't stupid.", Jayden sneered at the boy.

"Now let's go."

***

Gardos walked around the last corner and turned into the small side alley where he was supposed to meet with the bears' envoy.

In the front stood a large guy, at least sixteen years old, with an intimidating face and a straw blonde girl right behind him.

Gardos smiled at them and said: "Long time no see, Mason. Kiki.", he gave the girl a nod as well.

The boy came forward, his hand stretched out for a shake. Gardos took it and pulled him in for a short hug. This guy, Mason, or 'the bear' as some called him, looked pretty intimidating. But if you got to know him better he was a very kind and intelligent person with a dislike for violence.

That and his age was the reason why he was the representative for the bears. Although he wasn't the leader, no one would complain and more likely be happy about it. The reason was that the actual leader of the bears was the old man who owned the orphanage.

Then, Gardos turned to the side and greeted the girl sitting on the ground: "As I thought, it didn't take long to meet you again, Alice."

"Hey, it's good that you came back safe.", the red-haired girl answered.