I. The Strange Tattoo

At the end of the week, Blue entered Ivory's hospital room to check up on her. Once he made sure that her arm was okay, he had her clean up and get dressed to take her to the actual hospital since Oak couldn't make it to the base. She quickly showered, got dressed, grabbed her coat, and went with Blue to the hospital. Ivory noticed that his car was a dark blue.

He really liked the color blue.

She hopped in the front passenger seat, and he silently drove her to the hospital. As he was driving, she noticed that his arm had seven tattoos. Most of them were beautiful pieces, while some were symbols and letters. One, however, stood out to her and read: 12192: CRO-23443.

Ivory observed the black inked tattoo and the letters, numbers, and symbols synchronized together to create it. She figured that it must mean something, that it must be some secret code to something.

"What does that tattoo mean?" she asked, pointing to the unusual ink on his arm.

He looked at the tattoo and glared at her, "Inquisitive much?" she shrugged. "You're too nosy. Don't worry about it."

Ivory could tell that he wasn't telling her for a reason and that it was a personal topic, so she let it go; for now. Blue pulled up to a building in a segregated part of the city. The building didn't resemble most hospitals; it had green glass as the main structure, or at least it looked like glass, with long windows. It was very futuristic looking and seemed rather large.

Ivory got out and figured that it's some secret hospital for gang members. Blue threw on his coat, and they entered through the sliding doors. Ivory's mouth dropped: there were the check-in and check-out desk, white leather couches, a wishing well fountain and stairs that lead to the second floor. There was also a white door that leads to many doors behind it, possibly offices or hospital rooms. The floors were shiny and resemble glass. Ivory was afraid to move because she thought that the ground would shatter. She began to walk and realized that it was a regular floor.

Blue grabbed her wrist, checked her in, and they sat down, waiting patiently. After a couple of minutes, Oak called for them to follow her. The three went through the white door by the check-in desk. As they walked down the bright hallway, a tall and tan man came the opposite way—sporting a tattoo on his face, arms, and wore a ring on his right ring finger.

Blue and the man did a handshake, "How's it been, One tooth?"

"Pretty well," the man said, his bald head shining through the hallway. The only hair visible on his face was a beard stubble.

Ivory could see why he's called One tooth, he was missing a front tooth.

The taller man noticed Ivory and took an interest in her presence, "And who is this little thing?"

"This is Ivory."

Ivory stared at his face tattoo.

Blue turned to her, grabbing her attention, "Ivory, this is One tooth. He's a member of the Crips." Ivory stared at the taller guy and began to feel nervous. "We'll catch up sometime, One tooth. Oak has to remove Ivory's arm stitches."

"See you around," The Crips member disappeared.

Ivory felt that he wasn't that intimidating—very different than she expected, but not bad overall.

After meeting a Crips member, Blue and Ivory followed Oak into an empty room where Oak said Ivory's wound was healing exceptionally well and quick. Oak then told Blue that it was time to remove the stitches.

Oak reached for the necessary tools and removed the stitches and disinfected the now small opening on the girl's arm. The two Blue Dragon's members made their way back to base, where Ivory noticed another clue. At the door entrance, the words marked as Blue's tattoo are on the surface and freaked Ivory out. She then wondered if Blue was part of some secret occult, or ran more than one gang.

Blue and Ivory entered the base, and he led her to another door that can only be opened with a handprint. Blue place his hand on the hand sensor next to the door, and it let him through. Ivory followed the intimidating man like a duckling down a dim, long, and quiet hallway. He reached a door at the end of the hall and opened it, revealing a man that she didn't know the name of, but recognized physically.

The room was about average in size with hi-tech computers and gadgets. The floor was slick and clean with a fresh smell.

"Ivory, this is Rover—he's one of the hackers," Blue introduced, and Rover stared at the girl.

Ivory took notice of his appearance. Rover had bleach blonde hair styled into a faux cut, brown eyes, and an ear hoop in his right ear. He is wearing an all-black suit, but she didn't question it. He knew how to dress to impress, and he didn't look that much older than her.

"Rover, just teach her what you know. I'll be back in a few hours," Blue left and closed the large and heaving looking door behind him and left Ivory alone in a confined space with a man that she barely knew and in a room that she never knew existed.

"Don't just stand there, girly—" Rover pulled out a seat for the girl, "come over and sit down. I don't bite."

She sat down next to him, and they began talking. Ivory took a liking to him. Rover was sweet and doesn't seem super serious or mean, unlike the other members.

"So," Rover began — changing the topic, "The main trick to hacking is making sure that you don't have a tracer on you, meaning that when you hack someone else's files or hack any type of business outlet, you can track them and their sales, but they can't track you. That is why you use fake router numbers—"

" — because they don't leave traces of anything," Ivory finished.

"Correct," Rover nodded, "you also need to make sure that you have a nickname for yourself, so if anyone does track you down, they can't find your personal information. You can only hack through certain website routers because their private and anonymous—I mainly go through the dark web and find links that way."

"The dark web? I remember hearing kids at my old foster home talk about the dark web."

"It isn't a place that you want to visit," He said, sporting a severe look. "I go on there because I remain secret with a non-tracked IP address. You can find tons of people's information through there."

"Really? Is that how some people get their identities stolen?"

Rover nodded and continued. "Their information is on the dark web."

"That's insane."

"We also have a connection to third parties—you know scammers and companies that buy someone's personal information to sell them stuff or lie to them to get money—but you have to pay for it. That's why you can use simple codes to knock through their database."

After that, Rover showed her simple codes to use and the routers to get to people's files and accounts. Then, he showed her how to make a username and to put their base number as the password so no one can track them down.

She noticed that for the password, he entered the letters, symbols, and words that replicate Blue's tattoo, and she then realized that it wasn't just their gang sign, but perhaps something even more. However, she didn't mention it—she didn't want Rover to say it to Blue because she was scared to get into trouble. If they don't tell her, she'll find out on her own; that's the advantage of being around computers, and if she's alone while working, she had no one to question her motives.

***

A few hours later, Blue returned and had Ivory show him what she learned, and he was impressed—to say the least. Blue told her that she would continue tomorrow and had her follow him to the living room.

Ivory felt satisfied because she had a new job. She was excited to try something different. The gang also trusted her enough to have a higher position; however, there were so many secrets that seemed to have been unsurfaced — and she'd find out. Sneaking around would be hard because Ivory didn't know where to start. There were so many hidden messages that no one seemed to know, but Blue, and maybe the people he trusted the most.

Something was strange about the Blue Dragons, and Ivory began to wonder if they were a typical gang or if the Blue Dragons were much more than what they were showing.