The Thai boxing gym had just witnessed the defeat of their new prospect and by a stranger at that. Once Dan had climbed out of the ring the old man was shaking with excitement.

He had never seen a boy so skilful at such a young age, not for a long time, the last person he had seen that was like that was Tony himself.

"Where did you find this boy, he's great!" The old man said as he ran up to Tony.

"I knew he was good Old man but I never suspected him to be this special," Tony replied.

"Whatever you do, you have to get him to join the club."

After patting the sweat off of Dan and giving him a few moments to cool down. Tony eventually came and sat next to Dan just on the edge of the ring.

"You did a good job hanging in there, I didn't know you had a spirit like that."

Dan started to put his hand on his stomach, the strikes he had received were starting to hurt more as the adrenaline began to wear off.

"Thanks," Dan replied.

"Hey I've been speaking to the manager and he wants you to join the team. He thinks you'll be great and really make it far."

Dan then looked around the boxing club and noticed everyone working hard and training, the atmosphere was good but there was something missing and that was his teammates. Playing with his friends was more enjoyable to him than achieving something great on his own.

"I'm sorry but I can't tony."

"What!" Tony said surprised by Dan's answer. "Is it because of the gang you're in, trust me you should leave it when you can, this could be a career for you."

Dan shook his head and gave Tony a smile.

"It's not that Tony, I never told you the reason why I want to get stronger did I? It's not because of the gang. Here let me show you something." Dan said as he stood up.

The two of them said their goodbyes to the manager and thanked Tod and the others for the practice match. Before Tony left, he had told the manager that Dan would think about it, hoping that in the future Dan might reconsider this as an option.

Once they had left the club, Dan then took the lead and started to take Toby down the high street.

"There should be one around here, they're all over the place these days," Dan said as he looked around and finally spotted what he was looking for.

They both entered into a building that was filled with VR headsets and a couple of VR capsules in the back. It was a gaming cafe.

"What are we doing in here?" Tony asked.

"You showed me your world, now let me show you mine."

The two of them hopped into a VR headset together, although Dan would have loved to rent out the pods to show Tony the full experience, Dan was only a student and didn't have much money and the same could be said for Tony.

Tony was bit older than Dan and VR gaming had really hit its stride a little after he had become an adult. Although VR gaming was popular even between adults, by then Tony was already fully involved in the underworld business.

It was only now that Tony had reached a high enough rank that he had the free time to do what he wanted unless called upon.

The two of them entered the Virtual sword warrior's world and selected their characters. Not much thought had gone into which warrior they needed to pick, it didn't matter too much as all Dan wanted to do was show him what the game was like, rather than fight against him.

After giving Tony a tour around the map and the basics of skills and fighting, Tony understood how kids could get obsessed with games these days. The two of them then laid down on the ground and looked up at the artificial blue sky the game had created.

"Wow, even the fake clouds move," Tony said.

"You see, I met some friends who played this game and this Saturday we're going into the semi-finals. The people who we're going against are tough. There's this amazing player on their team and I think we're going to need all the help we can get."

Dan then turned to Tony.

"Tony, if you can I want you to come to watch me play the game this Saturday, I'll be using everything you taught me in the match."

Tony smiled.

"Of course I'll be there, as long as I'm still alive by then of course," Tony said laughing.

***

The next day had arrived and in the club room, everyone was once again waiting for Dan to arrive.

"It looks like he's not coming again?" Novis said.

"I think we should do something, maybe follow him or something, I'm worried," Scarlett said.

"Well you're right, we only have two more days of practice after this."

The group then went to look at Alex the leader for an answer.

"Honestly I think you're right. Dan has never let us down before and when Scarlett was in trouble, he was the first one to act making sure she was safe."

"Hey, you don't think it's Mac and his family, again do you?" Ashley said.

"Wait, I feel like I'm missing something?" Frank said.

Frank new about the situation with the club, how no one was joining because of Mac, but he had no clue about what had happened to Scarlett at the time, it was the match just before they had gone against Hershel.

"What!" Frank shouted, "So Scarlett got kidnapped and that's why you guys were all late and even Dan, he was all bruised up."

Frank suddenly started to feel frightened by the others, they were all crazy, they had been put in such a crazy situation yet still decided to play the game at the time. He started to think if the same thing had happened to him, would he have been able to have done the same?

With no leads for today and school already over and done with. The group had no choice but to continue the practice as usual for the time being. They played a few games and the results were good. Fighting as a group with Alex and Frank meant they were able to give commands easier. The group was getting the hang of it and was finding it easier to deal with their opponents.

Now all they needed, was the whole team who would be playing on Saturday to be there too.

****

The group had gone home for the day and had a good night's rest, then the next day had arrived and it was now Thursday. When each of them came to school they decided to check on Dan's class.

They waited until registration time and still, there was no sign of Dan.

"Maybe something really did happen to him?" Scarlett said.

"Well, I guess there's only one person we can ask," Novis replied.

During the lunch break, Ashley and Novis decided to go to try to confront Mac together. If Mac's family really did have something to do with it then the situation might get messy. So they decided to leave the others out of it while sending there two strongest.

Ashley was carrying her trusty kendo sword on her back as they walked down the third-year hallways with Novis.

"There he is," Novis said as he pointed to the large senior sat at the back.

The two entered the class and started to head towards Mac.

Ashley and Novis weren't nervous though. They had both gone through so much since the last time Novis had dealt with Mac. And although Mac was muscular and large in size, it was nothing compared to Ashley's father Daiki.

"Hey, Mac do you mind if we ask you a few things," Novis said.

Mac was casually sitting back in his seat, he looked up at the two of them with his hands in his pockets and looked away trying to ignore the two of them.

"Look, we really don't want to cause any trouble. We're just looking for our friend, do you remember Dan?"

Mac had decided to continue to ignore the two of them.

"Hey, you big hippo, will you stop ignoring us!" Ashley shouted.

Suddenly the eyes in the room all turned to Ashley and Novis. Some of the other students had stood up from their seats and started to surround the two of them.

Finally, Mac took his hand out of his pocket and lifted it out. The people who had surrounded Novis and Ashley backed off and sat in their seats.

"Let me tell you something, that Dan boy of yours isn't as innocent as you think. If you want to know where he is, when school finished head down to the south Harbour. That's where you'll see him."