Clyde is 16

Joplin Missouri was a bustling place; filled to the brim with individuals from all walks of life and expectedly had a tough underground as well. The depression and oppression, still in full bloom, though this place had managed to remain well. With trade being the mainstay of the town and a river port situated in it, it proved a nexus of sorts, a melting pot of the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful.

It was to this town Clyde gravitated. It had been two years since they broke out from the orphanage, the water merchant had been quite astonished to discover that the supposed barrels were not empty. A few quiet words soon brought them a compromise, he had a number of trading trips to a neighbouring towns upcoming and needed helpers to help him with the loading and unloading of goods to and from the rails and into town.

Needing to leave town quickly, it was the break they needed, travelling turned out to be fun for the boys and the merchant rewarded them handsomely for their labours and even taught Clyde several fighting techniques after realizing who Clyde truly was.

The son of his old friend, Enzo. The merchant pointing out that if it had not been for the hat, he wouldn’t have known who Clyde truly was. The hat proved to be both a charm and a curse. In his mind, the hat gave him the strength he needed. His father still looked after him, even if he weren’t physically there. The least Clyde could do, is get to the bottom of why his father was killed and what truly was going on, his questions, he believed, would be answered. The next step in his plans, involving Joplin. Learning of the boys intentions, the merchant told him he’d need to know much more than the little techniques he had taught him those first few days and so, they all trained.

He had them copy his movements above the moving train. Days turned to nights, an hour didn't pass where twenty minutes were dedicated to this. An assortment of combinations and mastering balance. To make training harder, he even had them spar without shoes, their feet being burned by the extremely hot metal they stood over during the morning and afternoon hours. One after the other, all of the boys that’d managed to survive the first days of training gave up, except for Clyde, who continued to practice alone with the merchant. Despite the soles of his feet aching, he ignored the pain, forcing his focus and gaining new levels of concentration.

This went on for weeks before actual combat training commenced, first inside of the cargo train, then on top of the trains roofing as it moved. That final evening before the arrival to Jopin, Clyde took on the merchant, who revealed his name to be James beekerton. The other boys remained inside while the two went up to the roof of the train. Sunset glistened against the shiny frame as the sunset and the stars shined.

On the stop Clyde and his few members were supposed to stay at, the merchant tried to get some of them to stay with him on his travels. Aside from his assistant he had put in charge of water supply, he had no one else and needed them while he focused on expanding the merchandise parts of his business.

Clyde exclaimed that he had to go and promised to meet the merchant again. The rest of the gang numbering four opted to stay on with the merchant, Clyde was sad to see them go but did not beguile them of their decision. He revealed guiltfully that he had killed the two helpers the merchant had, due to being spaced out. To his surprise, the merchant told him not to sweat what happened. Nothing else could be done and it was their fault for not being aware in the first place. James admitted he’d often tried teaching them awareness and concentration but that was their downfall inevitably. Besides, now Clyde would have to atone and he wasn’t the same boy he had been when he first met him. This response left Clyde wide eyed but he didn’t comment any further on the matter.

He wished them well, stepping onto the train station and then set about exploring alone. Right off the bat, his first impressions were that the vast town resembled the old west in many ways. From the wagons to the buildings themselves. There didn’t seem to be too much movement around the place that morning.

Initially he found that in the new surroundings, the gang hierarchy was more laidback and less enforced, the lifting lay and pickpocket sections were basically free for all and Clyde set about putting together a new gang, though not so easy.

It seemed like there were others already grouped. Not that it mattered, since he couldn’t simply choose just anyone for his. He needed specific skill sets, others intelligent enough to spot targets, decide on what approach to use, either the appeal to mercy, the misdirection or ‘the create a scene and go to work’ among others.

Aside from pure skill, the individuals he sought had to have a high level of awareness and share the views, he himself had. That meant, he’d have to strike conversations and see if he found others with similar ambitions. A tedious chore to many, but great fun for him.

That entire afternoon moving into the evening, he scouted the streets looking for potentials amongst the crowds, he found several of course but they never stayed still, once they felt his attention, they were off. He was the odd duck amongst the many who were already adjusted.

Hearing his stomach grumble, Clyde decided to take a break and get something to eat nearby. He thought over someone he had spotted while he slowly slurped son-of-a gun soup, a waitress introduced herself as jessibell; asking “ What will a fine young gentleman like you to drink? “ To this, he lightheartedly laughed, feeling her touch the front of his soft long hair. “ Something warm, thanks ma’am “ He told her to which, she told him that she’d get it for him and would like for him to stay behind for a moment so she could give him a haircut. “ I have a small son of my own, I’d hate to see him your age with such good hair unkempt “ and that’s when he figured out what he’d do, as she turned away and went off to get his order.

Clyde heard what sounded like hooves hitting ground. Naturally he glanced over and spotted a caravan of horses galloping through the lit street. He only wondered what it'd be like to own a horse again. “ If I ever get a chance to own one, I'm naming it after pa “

A soft bell sound started. The woman returned rather fast. She tapped the bell again, letting out a ringing sound that grazed the inside of his ear. Clyde brought his attention to her. She pointed down to a soup dish placed before him. A mouth watering aroma filled his nostrils, leading him to nearly stumble back.

“Aw! That smells great!” He rejoiced, moving his head in once. The woman flicked his Mafioso hat back before it had the chance to slip into the soup Clyde moved in to smell. He chuckled, thanking her for the save and slapped his hands together. “ Thanks for the grub!”

“Mighty, my! That's quite the mouth, you eat like a little horse!” Clyde heard the lady say, only leading him to chuckle while taking gulps. Though, it was a strange comment, he had her know with a mouthful. She went on to scold him in the form of a cheek pinch. “You ought to finish first! Chatter after! Here, seconds“ Another piping hot bowl was given to him. Clyde hadn't had a warm meal like that in months and couldn't get enough.

After Clyde finished, as promised, she had him go inside to cut his hair while her cousins continued to serve passersby. “Do you plan to stay for long? Where are you headed to sugarplum?” Naturally Clyde prefer to avoid such questions but told her he may be around for a few weeks. As for the second question “I’m searching for someone is all, it’s personal so I can’t tell you too much”

“Family? Oh you don’t want to tell me, how mean!” Clyde flinched at the slight playful tug she gave on his hair as they conversed more, specifically her recommending that he stay with them for the night seeing as there were pickpockets as of late and frequent patrolling. “I wouldn’t want you to get corralled by Mr.Burgess, he’s a nasty one” Once she finished, he thanked her for such hospitality and took her up on the offer of staying the night; feeling strangely refreshed now that his hair wasn’t covering his vision.

He hit upon a new approach of trying to stay unnoticed and once he successfully did this thanks to the fresh haircut, he decided to trail the potential back to their hideout. It was a very dangerous manoeuvre presenting lots of dangers to himself, the possibility of being mobbed and garrotted, very high. He nevertheless, gambled and did so, determined to find and convince new potentials.

After another ten minutes, he found someone. He kept close eyes on the fellow from within the crowd and when he saw him make a corner into an ally-way Clyde followed.

To Clyde’s surprise though, when he turned into the alleyway, the potential had turned around and thus, Clyde found himself staring at the ragged but sharp edges of a hatchet.

“Move and don’t make a sound, newbie”.

The command came and Clyde was happy to oblige, the potential led him down the alleyway, turned to the right and suddenly stopped before a supposedly ordinary wall of bricks, tapping in a specific pattern after making sure the coast was clear, the bricks shuddered, eased backwards and then slid sideways.

To Clyde’s surprise, the wall was actually a door; Clyde wasn’t entirely sure how they had managed to devise such a clever mechanism but it sure was very crafty and thus, impressive, which he let the fellow know how cool it was, only to be told to shut up and go in. The hatchet poked Clyde’s back, prompting Clyde to go in as he told the potential to chill out.

There were four other members in the warehouse and Clyde was roughly pushed into their midst.

“He followed me” was all that was said and the others all stared at him in silence, Clyde recognised the silhouettes of two of them as part of those he had been attempting to contact earlier that day.

“ You’ve been snooping around, are you looking for a crew to join? You also got yourself a new haircut “ Asked one of the fellows.

“What do you want with us?”, the short one asked and Clyde took a deep breath, opened his mouth and began to speak of his intentions.

“ To put it bluntly, I’m looking for people just like me. People that were once preyed on. People that want to change this system of valuing artificial over physical. Those demons make it impossible for everyone else to play along by their games, so it’s time to go back to forcing value in our favor. That’ll help kids. That don’t want to struggle and maintain the messed up cycle we’re all trapped in currently. ”

“ The hell is he talking about “ mumbled one of the boys. “ You’re an idiot Tom, listen “ a taller boy that sat beside the mumbling one, hit him over the head.

“ Where do I start? “ Clyde, tapped his chin in thought until he figured out where and raised his finger up as soon as he figured it out. “ With the way things are going, we’ll all be fully enslaved in over five years. “

“ Instead of destroying one another, we have to come together and evolve the brains of others. I want to help others gain a higher level of self-awareness, instead of buying into the greedy impulses that they’ve been corrupted into believing. They’re all like infants, aware of only what’s in front of them . . “

“ We’re going to supply kids with not only goods, but well needed knowledge too. Our focus are kids that have nowhere else to go. Kids that want to escape the corruption and make a more positive world. I want this world to be safe and positive for all the kids that will come to exist here.

“

“ If we build up our numbers, recruit other kids and do work for passing merchants, we'll gain money for weapons as we kick start the plan. We'll take territories. Towns like these will be ours. I'll draw all the attention to myself, so I'll be the Enigma. We'll get small business owners to agree and take down the corrupt corporations, specifically the twisted owners in the corporations that greedily have placed this system downhill for all of us to suffer and for them to gain control and set a prison system where they gather kids and condition them negatively, wasting their time and dumbing the children down so they make desperate workers out of them. Those corrupt beings, enslave the kids that grow to be adults that allow the same to happen to their children. Because we've had to struggle in their system, the majority have been forced to abandon their morals in order to survive. All have turned to bad behavior, killing other brethren, without knowing that they were played by the corrupt families that serve mankind to demons. After committing crimes, those poor people are put in cells where they aren't helped to improve their conditions. Most of the sheep will selfishly think only about their survival and won’t want to join up until they’re directly impacted badly. All of those .. Poor people have been left to rot, in this hell while the corrupt families continue to corrupt children and teens while safely in a far off land … Those children and teens end up committing the same bad crimes others have done in the past and end up in prison again. All of that so that they can maintain their status. It continues with the sheep not realizing this. Until the majority don’t come together to stop this, many victims will continued to be claimed. That's full blown oppression for humanity, done by corrupt beings that are conscious of what they're doing. Me knowing that … I can’t allow it to continue happening, I can’t allow such corrupt beings to walk the same planet “

“So I will lead any stray sheep”

" How do you know all of that? " asked one of the boys.

“We’re all just trying to survive dude,” Murmured another of the boys.

" A merchant I traveled with, informed me. He had a lot of books. He knew my father and I can't tell you about all of that right now and other information. What I can say is that … I was surviving just like all of you .. I killed people who weren’t corrupted out of free will …. I didn’t notice the bigger picture .. I carried on without that on my mind .. until discovering part of the truth. I need to uncover more and solve all of this. I also .. want to eventually understand their end goal. There has to be more to it all. " Clyde folded his hands together briefly.

“ For now, I’m just seeking guys who are looking to improve their lives. Guys who are willing to change the negativity in our world. “

“ This guy … we’re thinking about surviving and he’s over here thinking about . . . “

“ How old are you anyway? “

“I’m 16, not that, that matters though“ Clyde answered as another boy sat down near him.

“ I like everything you’ve said but we’re barely getting by ourselves, we wouldn’t be able to feed other mouths “

“ As I said before, I have a plan for that. Has to do with the trains “ Clyde confidently responded.

He spoke for thirty minutes straight, unveiling his plans further. At the end of which, he had a gang, consisting of the others present.

“You sure do talk a lot, what a motor mouth!”, the short one remarked chuckling, it was a while later when they were getting to know each other and Clyde merely smiled in response.

Vic, who was the eldest; outright challenged Clyde to a wrestling match. It didn’t sit right with him, that Clyde would want them to follow him without knowing he also had the capable physical strengths to take them up. Clyde seemed smaller than him anyway and that meant he was weaker, Vic pointed out.

Without much arguing, the others stepped aside and all it took was twenty seconds for Clyde to have Vic’s face pressed up against the wooden floor with his arms pinned behind his back. “Size means noting if you don’t know how to use it and I do” Clyde pressed Vic’s face into the slightly broken wood, then let him go and reached down to help Vic up. Vic took his hand and after he stood up, Clyde got his belt, slid it back on and took his seat again. “ You’ve gotta teach me that slipping maneuver sometime” Vic said lowly, garnering a small chuckle from Clyde.

“ So you’re Sam the quiet hustling mouse, you’re Leroy the slick cat, Tom the small one, John .. Sam’s baby brother and Vic …. “ Clyde pointed to each of them and his finger landed on Vic, last.

Clyde blinked with an uneasy laugh, unable to figure out a nickname for Vic just yet and brought his hands down onto the barrel he sat on.

“and you’re Mr.Bigshot right“ Sam smirked faintly at Clyde, who laughed at what he said, reaching up to tilt his hat.

They all nodded and Vic reluctantly, explained that the hidden door actually opened into the cellar of a factory, it was owned but rarely used and it was perfect for Clyde’s interesting plan and the newly formed gang’s needs.

His new accomplices showed him the hidden trapdoor that led to the cellar serving as their hideout, the present owners of the factory knew nothing of it and the escape routes they had set out for emergencies, he in turn taught them all he knew of the lifting lay and pointed out flaws in the current approaches they were using.

At the end of that day, they unanimously appointed him as the new leader and asked what the gang would be called.

“ Broken wings …. “ Clyde replied with a sorrowful scuff, expressed in his saddened smile. The four sat down near him and asked why he chose that name. Clyde closed his eyes and thought of the one time he had found a black nightingale bird with broken wings a certain winter when he was nine. He told the four young lads that he nursed it back to health along with his sister and mother. After it healed, it flew off into the cloudy skies that quiet snowy morning. He was unsure of whether it survived but it battled to heal and took flight, continuing it’s life stronger than before even when a neighbor of his told him he ought to end it’s misery. Throughout all those years, Clyde admitted that he still thought about it, much like he did with all the other memories he’d gained.

Tom spoke up and asked Clyde what that had to do with the gang and Clyde replied “ We’ll be taking others in … heal them … just like that one bird .. long ago “

“ We’ll grow into a flock that overtakes this entire world and reforms it all, for the better. “

“The Broken Wings gang … “ They mumbled in awe.

Tom gave a little smirk out of the corner of his mouth.

“That’s actually a pretty cool name.”

“Yeah, catchy!”

“ But you’re staying away from my milk like the rest of them or you’re getting a shoe to the face “ All of the other boys laughed at Tom’s added comment.

Clyde gave Tom a nod, with hope shining in his eyes.

With that, “The Broken Wings gang “ formed.