Chapter 9

Moving Up

It didn't take me long to figure out what was up with Alex, he'd planned for that trip to kill me. It didn't surprise me and honestly, I didn't care. When I joined this group, I hadn't expected them to become like a family or anything. This was exactly what I had expected to happen.

I just ignored the whole Alex-wants-me-dead situation and continued to train with Roman. He was like an impenetrable shield always standing in front of me, if he was around Alex couldn't directly hurt me. Alex knew that even though he was above Roman it would still be a bad idea to cross him. Roman was strong.

I hadn't been sent on another mission yet so the first few weeks after my first one were spent non-stop training with Roman or on the days he was gone I would spar with Justin. I wasn't sure what I had with him but it seemed like some sort of a friendship.

I was getting stronger and the people around me were becoming aware of that. Less and less of the other gang members looked at me as a helpless child who was lucky enough to be taken under Romans wing. I was becoming one of them.

Some of the gang members still, let's just say, uhh weren't to fond of me. It was a Wednesday afternoon, the only reason I ever knew what day it is was because Roman was always gone Wednesday, some long-term mission.

I was sitting in the training room waiting for Justin, we had some form of an unspoken agreement, every Wednesday at about 3:30 we would meet in the training room and spar. It was currently 3:20 so I had about 10 minutes to spare.

I scanned the room for something to watch and spotted Maranda and guy sparing in one end of the room. I didn't know the guy she was sparring with; I'd probably seen him before, just never played much attention to him. Probably because he was just another gang member right out of the mold, tall, muscular and covered in tattoos, kind of boring if you ask me.

Anyways I watched them spar for a while, Maranda won the first time and he won the next two. Maranda glared at him after the third then glanced to a person who girl who was watched, she pointed to the guy and said something I didn't quite here. The guy and Maranda pulled out their scrolls, swapped them and wrote something onto the others. Just a moment after they switched back, I felt my own scroll ding.

I pulled the device out and glanced at the screen, at the very top was a little notification reading, "Ranks have changed, Jasper Smith now ranks 83rd, Maranda Lewis now ranks 86th. All below 86th have been moved down."

The guy, Jasper, must have challenged Maranda, I remembered Roman mentioning that you could do that.

Just a moment or so later. Justin walked in. I stood up to meet him, and just as always we walked over to the nearest mat, and I punched him. That sounds rather weird when you put it like that… We sparred for a while, Justin throwing most of the punches me simply dodging them. I used to hear people say that fighting was just like dancing and now I get it. Two people, moving in unison with each other, and it was just as enjoyable, if not more.

By now I'd noticed a small group of people had accumulated around us, this wasn't all that uncommon anymore, the two of us tended to attract attention. It used to distract me but it didn't phase me anymore. I simply ignored them. We stopped after about five or so rounds, I'd won four of them Justin patted me on the shoulder, "Nice work Pinky! Your defiantly getting better," he smirked at me, "Pretty soon I might have to stop going easy on you!"

While in most situations someone saying something like that would have been a joke or something, but I knew he was telling the truth. Justin was extremely high ranking, I hadn't checked so I didn't know how high, but I was betting top twenty-five, I however was still the two hundred twelfth. I had no chance if he went all out.

We decided to take a short break at this point I was getting rather tired. I decided to grab a drink, Justin just pulled a chocolate bar out of his pocket and began eating it. Twenty or so minutes later we returned to the sparing matts.

It was during our second round that I heard someone laughing, causing me to falter, Justin landed a punch to my stomach. I stumbled, glancing to where the voice had come from. I recognized the guy who had been fighting with earlier today.

At this point Justin had stopped fighting and was also looking at the guy, he noticed us looking at him and let out another laugh. "Pathetic," he said shaking his head, "Just pathetic, sometimes I wonder why Alex even lets little kids like you join. It's like watching a couple of puppies brawling. As I said, pathetic."

I glared at him in return, beside me, Justin was also silent. The guy who I now realized was Japser, glared right back at me. After a few moments of our silent stare contest an idea struck me. I reached for the pad or paper I had decided to always keep in my pocket as well as my pen.

Quickly I scrawled three words, I challenge you, and smiled as I handed him the now folded piece of paper. I didn't know how he was going but no matter what, this was going to be fun. He read the paper, looked up to me, then read it again.

Jasper bust into laughter, "You've got to be kidding me, you are challenging me! You've got to be kidding me! This is the best thing I've heard all day!"

I stared back at him completely straight faced, totally serious until he talked again.

"Ok," he said, still laughing, "I'll fight you; I think a little brat like you needs to be put into your place."

About two minutes later we were facing each other on opposite sides of one of the mats I the practice room. Justin sat watching, he began to count down, "Five," I took my stance.

"Four," I took in Jaspers stance.

"Three," I decided my first move.

"Two," I glanced at Justin.

"One," I smiled.

Jasper made the first move, he lunged right at, intending to give me a nice punch to the face but I easily dodged the attack, hitting the ground and sliding behind him. I smoothly landed a kick to his side, keeping my stance behind him.

Jasper made a few more blows, three of which I was able to dodge, he was able to land one blow on my right leg, the same one that I had previously injured, oh joy.

At this point of the fight there was a large group gathered watching us, much larger than the one that had been watching Justin and I fight previously. This made me want to win even more, oh the look on his cocky face when he lost would be priceless.

I let the fight go on for a few more minutes, but soon enough I was getting bored, time to pull my trump card. I let myself linger in front of him for supposedly just a moment too long. The moment however that Jasper "hit me" the shadow of me shattered and behind him I delivered a hard blow to his head, knocking him down. I then turned to the crowed watching and gave a small bow.

The audience stood there, flabbergasted as Jasper struggled to stand again. The moment that he stood up, I held out his hand for his scroll and he reluctantly handed me it, I passed mine to him and we entered the required information for a rank change.

A second later, everyone's scrolls dinged. Most opened them and looked at the screen displaying the a notification saying, "Ranks have changed, Neo now ranks 87rd, Jasper Smith now ranks 86th. All below 86th have been moved down."

I smiled at everybody's expressions and made my way back to my room, today had been a good day.

Authors Note:

So yeah... I'm back! Sorry hehe. Life's been crazy with school and all, but I promise I have not and will not give up on this story! Sorry for the short chapter!

I would love to see reviews from ya'll! :D

Your horrible at updating author friend,

Anna-Mae1242