The Altered Investigation Force, more commonly referred to as White Rose, was one of the most well known police forces. Gary had seen them mentioned multiple times on the news and for more reasons than one, but the main reason why they stood out was due to their force being made up entirely of Altereds.

‘I might outrun a normal human, but I doubt it will work on an Altered. If I try anything that might seem beyond what a human could do, they’ll think I'm an Altered person and will investigate how I became one.’ Gary thought.

Sadie Nimper and Frank Hue had both been watching the apartment building for a while now. They were currently supposed to be working on a different case. Earlier this week, in what they assumed to be a gang trade gone wrong, three bodies had been uncovered that appear to have been killed by an Altered.

The reason why they were staking out Billy’s apartment was due to the condition of their respective corpses. They seemed to be killed in a similar way, making them believe that it might also be due to an Altered. They had yet to determine whether it was the same killer as in their case, or another unreported Altered who had gone rogue.

“I'm just a curious teenager. It’s not everyday that Slough is on the news. I sorta came here to see what all the fuss was about. It just seemed like a cool idea to be where all the action was. Now that I say it out loud, I don’t actually know what I was expecting.” Gary tried to explain, praying that they would take him for just a dumb teenager.

“So what if you’re a teenager. The suspect shouldn’t be that much older than you. Come on, now that you know who we are, just spill the beans and tell us what you know!” Sandie aggressively demanded.

“Hey, hey, you’re strongly implying something there. Just because both of them are teenagers doesn’t mean they know each other, right?'' Frank tried to calm his partner down. It was obvious to Gary that the two of them were playing a little game of Good Cop - Bad Cop, not that he would dare to call them out on it.

“However, if you don’t mind us asking, what's with the hood? If you really wanted to check things out, why would you try to sneak away after seeing the reporters?” Frank asked with a friendly smile, as if to hide the fact that he was calling the high schooler out on his contradiction.

Since Frank was the Good Cop, Gary quickly grasped that he would be his answer to get out of his mess. His ‘just a dumb teenager’ act seemed to have failed, but he was sure there was one way to convince them. He looked around left and right, before he slowly then pulled down his hood revealing his bright green hair.

“I… I had my hair done recently. However, the result turned out far brighter than I wanted. Once I saw the reporters I got scared that I could get interviewed. It’s already bad enough that my friends were teasing me in school about it, but if my current appearance gets shown on TV… yeah, I would never live it down.”

“I swear, I was only her because I was curious. Me and that Billy guy, we don’t even go to the same school. First time I ever heard about him was on TV.” Gary claimed, making a ‘Scout’s honor’ sign, even though he had never been part of them.

It looked like Frank was trying to hold in his laughter after seeing Gary’s hair, with his explanation it certainly sounded like a ‘tragic tale.’

“Oh really, what school do you go to and what's your name?” Sandie asked, seemingly not fully convinced yet.

“Westbridge, Gary Dem, Ma’am.” Gary answered immediately. “You can check at the school.”

There was an odd stare that just wouldn’t go away and Sandie was still holding onto Gary’s hand. A few seconds passed, before she finally let go.

“Get out of here! A stupid kid like you shouldn’t hang around crime scenes. I swear if we ever catch you near another one again, I’ll personally bring you in for questioning!” Sandie threatened, and Gary quickly ran off, thanking his lucky stars that he had just escaped a close call.

“Why did you let him go?” Frank asked. “

“Well you heard him, him and Billy don’t go to the same school, but for someone who’s not involved in the case he sure did know enough about it. Do kids really pay attention to what's on the news these days?”

“Perhaps I'm just being too cautious, it was a death that happened in the neighbourhood so maybe he did know about it, but just in case take a note of the kid’s name and school. If we find something linking Billy to them, we should pay him another visit at some point.”

——

‘Damn it, what do I do now? That woman made it abundantly clear that if they ever see me anywhere near the spots Billy might have been, it will just make matters worse.’

In the end, since Gary was unable to locate Billy anyway, he decided to head home after doing his regular Daily Quests. Before he knew it the next day had arrived.

[Your bloodlust grows]

[8 days until the next full moon]

‘For the love of God! Oi, you stupid system, don’t you have an option to turn this off?! I don’t need a freaking reminder every day. I do have my own calendar, you know?!’ Gary cursed internally.

With the time until the next full moon approaching, Gary’s temper was rising. He understood that getting frustrated at the situation didn’t help, but cursing did help him calm down.

The only good news was at least today there was nothing in front of his door.

——

As always, the weekend was over far too soon. Tom was looking at himself in the mirror. His swollen eye had healed up but the bottom of his eyelid was still a little fat causing him to squint a little. His parents had been very concerned about the wounds, so he had made up a lie that he had helped Gary who had been accepted on the Rugby team with some training.

‘If those two bastards would have only listened… There was no goddamn need to beat me into submission when I was already doing my best to make Gary quit the Rugby team on my own! What should I do? Once they see him play again, will they come after me again?’ Tom wondered, still feeling the pain from last time. ‘Maybe I can ask Gary to accompany me home? Or perhaps I could hide at his for a bit?’

There was a specific reason why Tom hadn’t told Gary about the incident. He was worried that his best friend might snap and do something stupid to them if he found out. Now that he knew that the other was a werewolf who could transform, getting him angry wasn’t exactly the best idea, especially so close to the full moon.

——

Arriving at school, Tom eventually saw Gary in the hallway. Coincidentally, he came at the perfect time to see that someone else had blocked Gary’s path, standing in the middle of the hallway. Surprisingly, it was neither Gil nor Barry, instead it was someone that they had come to know recently.

“Hey Gary I don’t know what was up with you coming to the Karate club the other day. That was really not cool what you did back there.” Steven said. “You only won because I was off guard! If it had been a real fight, don't think it would go the same way!”

Gary didn’t even look at Steven as he was talking down on him. He had too much other stuff to worry about and his mind was fully occupied with trying to figure out how to get rid of his problems, which already stressed him to the max.

Steven, noticing that Gary was bluntly ignoring him, naturally took this the wrong way.

“Hey, man! Do you really think you're some hot shit? I know you man, you did all of that to hit on Xin, but if she isn't going out with me, then there’s no way in hell she’ll be going out with you!”

“Can you please just let me through?!” Gary almost shouted, and barged past him pushing him off to the side. Gary had been so loud that the other students who were conversing in the halls got silenced and turned around to look at the commotion.

Hearing what was going on they started whispering and all these whispers were heard by Steven.

‘They're talking about me! They must have heard about how I lost to him in a fight! Now he’s even pushing me in the hallway!’ Believing that the other students were talking about him, Steven felt like he had to set the record straight, to prove himself and make up for his loss.

However, as a karateka, he couldn’t just go around and start swinging fists. He needed Gary to start the fight, so he could claim it was self-defense, but not even mentioning Xin had annoyed him.

“You have a sister, right?” Steven asked, and at that moment Gary stopped inches before entering his classroom. It was obvious that this had gotten his attention. “I heard that she is quite the looker. Tell you what, you can have Xin and in turn I’ll have your sister.”

Gary turned around and started to walk up to Steven, stopping just in front of him.

“Hey Steven.”

“Wha-“ Before Steven could finish his sentence, he felt Gary’s hand grab the side of his head, only to slam it with great force into the side of the wall. Letting go of his head Steven’s body slid down on the floor.

“Shut the f*ck up.” Gary said.

******

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