KNOWING THE GAME (Ch. 33)

Raven willing his body to move keeps up easily with Nue's stride, coming to a stop by the parks benches Raven takes his attention away from the dog a few seconds later he turns to find her peeing into a litter box and an old man running at the dog while waving a bat furiously, running up to the man to apologize, the duo make their way away as the man's eyes trail after them.

Upon arriving back at his apartment he takes a quick shower before sending his consciousness into his 'school body', (controlling the movement of my consciousness at will is much more convenient), Raven muses, his advancement into breath control having made it possible to shut down his brain momentarily, a crass method yes but effective non the less, quickly enough to lose consciousness but not enough to cause permanent brain damage, not to a Shifter anyway, turning to examine his body his eyes drop to slits,

(I've lost quite a bit of weight and I'm finally at the compression stage of breath control, i don't have anyone else to compare it too but apparently this body is facilitating my quick growth, is it similar to mirroring?, Come to think of it now that my face has trimmed down quite a bit i wonder how people will react when they finally notice the similarities between both bodies),

The school-day flies by quickly, Raven finds himself stepping into the now empty engineering classroom,

"Konan", the big eared boy turns at to the call of his name

"Huh?, Raven what are you doing here?"

"I've got a request"

"Go on"

"Can you tell me about the big four crews?"

"Why would you want to know about that?"

"Well you see...."

"Never mind.....take a seat" Konan gestures to the seat closest to the white board, pulling out a black marker he draws a rough sketch of the UWA only really outlining the needed territories,

"Four crews four territories, there's a legend stating that the crews where created by a genius of the second generation"

"Second?" Raven interjects,

"A generation typically lasts the duration of a high school tenure say three to three and a half years"

"Our seniors then"

"Yes, but as far as i know there's no evidence, then again my knowledge on this is a bit limited, anyway we've gathered that the crews run some form of business, mostly illegal operations, the kind of money they rake in is astronomical, to the North, in Zagreb lies "CERBERUS" known for their black jackets much like us, a sigil of a pitch black three headed dog and the triple six...not much is known about their business model but I've heard it involves scams",

"I know the legend, the guard dog of the underworld"

"Moving on" he states

"Wait what about their leader"

"I've not managed to get much information on him, but from what i know he goes by the alias 'SIX GOD', the next would be the East, Belgrade, the RUNAWAYS, their operations are complex and possibly only second to the south, in terms of known criminal activity they're certainly the the worst, drugs, trafficking, you name it they do it though i've heard it wasn't always this way, apparently the old head ran things differently"

"And their head?" Raven inquires

"No name, the organisation operates in a cell format, there's little connection between the head crew and the multitude of runaway families, I'm guessing the only exchange would be the movement of personnel and of money, the head of each branch are called 'Uncle's or aunty's' and the head of the whole organisation is called 'Father'", Konan states chuckling lightly at Raven's uneasy change in expression from the naming system,

"Go on"

"Next the West, Jhevo's DEALERS...

"I thought the south was next"

Konan sends Raven a look prompting him to raise his folded arms up in apology,

"The DEALERS are the easiest to discern and the most open, (though that's still quite secretive), they run several legal businesses, bodyguard gigs, night clubs, shops and are well liked for protecting the rural areas of Jhevo, though as of now the head of dealers is locked up in juvie for running an illegal betting site, though the matter is being appealed in court to reduce the three-year sentence with claims of him being an 'unaware' accomplice to fraud, extortion, destruction of property and illegal use of force in essence 'intimidation'"

"Jimmy" Raven states soliciting a nod from Konan…"how do you even know a this?" He inquires

"I have my ways" he replies grinning proudly, "that and we're widely accepted as the fifth major crew and the closest to the four major crews from the smaller gangs and groups", (plus relentless will never survive if we don't at least know our enemies, i might believe in him, but we need to be prepared).

"The heads name?" Raven inquires

"Duke Wade. To the south holds probably the biggest and most dangerous of the big four, hell i don't even think of them as teenagers anymore, they are called MERCHANTS, though you can think of them as a conglomerate that have millions if not billions in credits, huge amounts of investments and businesses, insane level of wealth, an impregnable information and protection system, (countless martial adepts), several alliances and influence with other conglomerate businesses and elite members of society, in fact I'll say it now, they are in essence impossible to take down, and will most likely eight swallow the remaining crews (us included) or grow away from the 'crew' tag, like I've said, there's little information on them and though i've learned that the head of each affiliate branch is called 'president' and under them are their 'vice-president' and their fighting force (of monsters) called 'executives', I'm yet to learn anything of the main branch, though there are rumors that in terms of criminal activities MERCHANTS are a whole level and more worse than the RUNAWAYS and cater to the vile and insane desires of the rich and powerful"

Raven sighs unable to reign his shock in, the reality of the insurmountable and herculean task placed before him slowly dawns on him, (where the hell am i even supposed to start from?!, Hell i don't even think it's possible!),

Looking at the boy trapped in his thoughts Konan proceeds to speak again. "I should add that all four crews have a connection to higher organizations who help maintain and enforce the law backing the non-interference of adults in their affairs, I've come to the conclusion that they also have the police largely in check",

"So that's why everything is run by teenagers",

"Not necessarily, as i'm sure your aware they county's laws state that one needs to be twenty-two to be considered an adult"

"So your saying that...",

"Yes, when the members of these crews turn twenty-two they proceed to work for these organizations, (part of Murim) or pay a certain 'price' and undergo a process to attain freedom"

"Doesn't sound like a crew, it sounds like a fucking cult!" Raven states disgustedly, "there's no way Relentless is run that way right?" Raven inquires eyeing Konan who stares down at him with much taken offense.

"No, Were just a group of friends who got together because we like Yanick and believe in his ideology, a while ago he got an idea or rather a 'mission' as he calls it to protect Xander from the four crews, they're each slowly expanding and encroaching into Central territory, that's what we're here for, if we didn't exist, central would've have long become a vile battlefield for the big four by now",

"So what businesses does Relentless run?" Raven inquires

"Relentless is a relatively new crew, we lack what the other four have, 'history', so no we don't run any businesses for now, though i intend to change that soon, we can't compete the way we are now, (especially since most of the boys aren't even Shifters), nothing illegal though i've thought it all out"

Raven sighs thanking Konan as he steps out of the classroom the feeling of mental exhaustion hits him while he makes his way home.