Grey and the others exited the arcade, heading down the stairs.
They had been out since 2 p.m., so it was about 5 p.m. now.
"So, where should we go?" Grey asked. "I don't know places around here."
"Don't you live around here?" Penelope asked in response.
"Yeah, but I mostly train, so I don't leave the house much."
"Wow, Grey. Never before have I been so proud and so disappointed in you." Var said.
"Uhh, okay?" Grey replied. "Anyway, where are we going?"
"There's a good pizza place nearby." Hannah said.
"Oh, how'd you know?" Elijah asked.
"I also live in Arkus." She told him.
"Cool," Elijah said. "Lead the way then."
Hannah nodded her head and then walked to the front of the group.
"It's this way." She pointed to the left and then started to guide them there.
It was a really short walk, however, even though it was 5 p.m., the streets were crowded, so it was hard to walk around together.
The pizza place soon came into view, but before they could step inside, a shout came from behind them.
"HELP! He stole my purse!" A woman cried.
Grey didn't react to her; she wasn't his concern, and she wasn't his friend, whereas his friends did react.
"We need to help." Elijah said, trying to spot the person who stole the purse.
Some of the group members nodded, and some agreed verbally, but they were all together in their decision.
Grey knew lots of things, especially about the obligations of those with power, for example, noblesse oblige, but he didn't see the need to help her. The odds of getting the purse back in a crowd like that were small.
"Can anyone see him?" Var inquired.
Since his friends were going to help, Grey also chose to help, so he looked for a man who seemed suspicious.
"I see him," Penelope said. "He's on the other side of the road, running. Black hair, white shirt, and brown pants. By the way, it doesn't suit him."
'I see.' Grey thought setting off running. 'Fallen Star, can you see him?'
- No, but I want to try something, so give me a second. -
"Remember guys, no Magic! The crowd's too dense. It's dangerous." Elijah warned. Like the rest, he ran toward where Penelope spotted the man.
Grey was at the head of the pack, racing through the crowd. He had no clue where the man was, so Fallen Star needed to hurry.
'What are you doing?'
- Well, Since I have access to The Island database, and through that, the Government, I thought that I might be able to access the security cameras. But, I can't find it... Oh, wait, I got it! -
'Okay then, where is he?'
- Follow the path and then take the first right. -
'Understood.' Grey thought as he followed the command.
He held no thoughts of telling the others, as catching the criminal was something he resolved himself to do, and doing anything else would slow him down.
Grey ran faster, swerving between people, and asked if Fallen Star could see the man.
- He took the left. -
Grey followed closely behind and spotted the man.
'He's going round the corner!' Grey was slightly scared that he would lose the man, as he was more than 20 meters behind.
- Don't worry, it's a dead end. - Fallen Star informed him.
'Good.' Grey thought, turning the corner just then.
What came into view was the man skidding to a halt, and turning around, only to be shocked seeing someone blocking the way.
"Kid, get out of the way. I don't want to hurt you." The man said.
"I'm not scared of you, buddy. Besides, who steals a purse in today's economy?" Grey taunted.
"I had no choice."
"Oh... that's a shame." Grey didn't care too much about the man's circumstances. In Grey's mind, only 3 things mattered.
Family.
Friends.
Getting stronger.
Nothing else mattered to him. He was only helping because his friends did.
"I'm still taking the purse back." He declared to the man.
"Hah, I'd like to see you try, kid." The man said, whipping out a knife.
"I was going to ask nicely, but since you want to use force..." Grey ran toward the man. "I'm going to knock you out!"
It was just then that his friends found him.
"Grey, need any help?" Elijah asked.
Grey ignored him, focusing solely on the man. He continued his dash toward the man, and in response, the man ran to him. He knew he was screwed —a 1v8 was infeasible— but he had no options.
He pulled his arm back to attack and then flung it forward.
In a shocking act, Grey's palm flung forward faster than the man could react to, hitting his outstretched hand with such force that the knife flew out of it, digging into the wall. From that motion, Grey spun around and unleashed a spinning hook kick, wrapping the top side of his foot around the back of the man's neck and knocking him to the floor.
BANG! CRACK-
The man hit the floor with such force that the floor cracked with a bang, and Grey's friends watched in shock. He was out cold.
Grey went back to a standing position, looked at his friends, flashed them a smile, and then searched the man for the purse.
'Where is it?' He thought. 'Ah! Got it.'
Grey grabbed the purse and tossed it to Elijah.
"Get that back to the lady." He walked toward them and then turned to Var. "Call the police too."
"Sure."
"Sure."
Both Elijah and Var said.
---
Grey stood in the alleyway where he had engaged the man, speaking to a police officer.
"And that's what happened officer."
"I see. Thank you for your report. You're free to go."
"Thank you, officer."
Grey walked toward his friends, the ones who had already given a response.
"So, we're done now, right? Anyone hungry?"
"Grey, that was incredible! You can do martial arts!?" Elijah ignored what Grey asked and then asked an important question.
"Uh, yeah... Why?"
The 6 who had finished their reports all turned to face him.
'''Because they're even harder to learn than weapon arts!''' They all said.
"Really? I learned from my Gramps. It only took me a couple of years to get the basics of every move down. Now I just practice for efficiency."
"...Who's your Grandpa?" Var asked, a little scared of the answer. The last time they met one of Grey's relatives, they met one of the world's most skilled people.
"My Grandpa is Khan Wulf." Grey said nonchalantly.
"When you say Khan Wulf, do you by chance mean The Khan Wulf; one of the 12 strongest humans?" Hannah asked as she gulped.
"Yeah. Why?"
'''WHAT!''' They all screamed.
"So not only is your father The Lucas Heart, master of weapons, your grandfather is The Khan Wulf, one of the strongest 12 humans in the world?" Var tried to confirm.
"Yeah."
"He gets more special each second." Elijah muttered under his breath.
"Anyway, I have a question I want to ask. How the hell did you guys find where we were?" Grey questioned.
"Oh, Aurora found you." Penelope informed him.
'Aurora again.' Grey thought.
'By the way, thanks Fallen Star.'
- No problem. -
"Well, I'm still hungry. Do you guys want food? You can come over to my house." Grey suggested.
The group, 8 of them now that the other 2 had come, all nodded their heads.
"Sure, give me a minute. Let me tell my mom."
Grey opened up his messaging app on his hologram and told Samantha that his friends would come over and that there were 8 of them in total.
She was a little shocked but told him it was okay.
"We got permission. Come on."
Grey directed them to his house, and it took a while to get there, but they all arrived with no problems.
---
"So this is your house," Var commented. "Not what I expected."
"It's cozy," Grey said. "I have to warn you though, the Lucas Heart you'll see is a lot different from what you might expect."
He opened the door to let them in, welcoming them to his house. "Don't forget to take your shoes off."
They all complied and took their shoes off. Once they finished, Samantha came to greet them.
"Welcome. I'm Grey's mother; Samantha Heart. I made stew." She said.
"Smells good." Natalie replied.
"Thank you." Samantha said.
"Come on, I'll take you to the living room," Grey interrupted. "Thank you, mom."
They all followed behind Grey, and in the living room, they saw a sleeping silver-haired man, the news on the TV.
Grey walked up to the man and, using his foot, nudged the man awake.
"ZZZZZ... Oh, Grey," Lucas started. "What's up."
"Move to a single seater or something. We've got guests."
"Urgh, I'm too tired for that. Just sit around me."
"Course, lazy ass," Grey responded and turned around. "Just sit somewhere around him. Dinner should be done soon."
Grey grabbed the remote from his father and changed the channel.
"Hey, I was watching that." Lucas said but made no moves to take the remote, which made the others chuckle.
They watched the TV for a while, and then Samantha came in to tell them about dinner. They all sat around the dining room and enjoyed the stew.
"Today was good." Grey said.
'''I'll say.''' His friends responded.
"Oh. what happened." Samantha asked.
Penelope recounted all that happened to Lucas and Samantha, especially the encounter with the purse-snatcher.
"Hmhm, I'm proud of you Grey." Lucas said, rubbing his upper lip with his finger.
"So am I." Samantha said.
After the food was all done and devoured, Grey waved goodbye to his friends.
"Get back to school safe!" He said.
'''Thanks.''' They replied.