Checking back on how things are going in The Blue Lions…

“Morning, Garry!” I greeted happily.

“Morning, General Lune!” Garry greeted back, “What do we have on the agenda for today?”

“Ed and I should be on cleaning duty, afterwards there’s the scheduled gang meeting. Be sure to notify the others if they forget.”

“Sure thing! Oh, get this, Aaron’s still in the training hall trying to imitate that sparky party trick of yours! You think he’s gonna be able to pull it off?” He asked.

“I sure hope so.” I said, “But even if he doesn’t, it won’t make him any less cooler than he already is.”

These praises came from the heart. Of course, even though I’ve somewhat grasped how to at least create a small spark without a hitch, recreating the fiery ball is still a ways away. I’ve since used it on and off when someone would need to light something, like a pipe or a piece of paper. But it’s basically a glorified flint & steel.

Ever since they heard of it, Ed and Carter tried their hand in recreating it, but it didn’t really go to plan. Ed’s a pacifist by nature, so explaining “Just get mad.” to him is easier said than done. Carter could get mad, but nothing would pop out of his palm at all. Not even a Poof…

Aaron on the other hand, he never did give up on it. I guess it’s something to admire, but knowing him he probably just feels bad that he doesn’t have a cool skill he can show off to his gang members. He took the demotion from General of the Gang like a champ, but I have no idea if he harbors any ill will towards us. Well, I know he doesn’t harbor anything towards me, but he seems to look at Ed and Carter a bit weirdly during our days here.

Apparently, this gang was a lot more “Traditional” than what the guys over at BilBros had going on, in the sense that they were literally just a bunch of guys who would lounge around The Depot (their base’s name). They had no walls up, no libraries, no sleeping quarters, not even a loo! To be honest, the only part that they did right was the underground hallway that lead to the General’s office.

But this just proves how crazy these guys actually were. They were on the same level as BilBros without even having a base. Which lead the three of us to thinking…

“FIRST OFFICIAL BLUE LIONS MEETING IS A GO!” We had Aaron scream out to get everyone’s attention.

“First order of business!” I said, “Were gonna need at least 5 new buildings built around the depot!”

Everyone burst out laughing in unison, but Aaron quickly shut them all up.

“Hey! Listen to him! He’s brewing up something big. So big, in fact, that you couldn’t even comprehend it, ya’ dopes!”

After thanking Aaron for his help, I continued our grand plan:

“Right! Like I was saying, we need a proper base! As you know: Carter, Ed and I were all previously members of BilBros, so we know what their base is like. And frankly, you guys are lacking in that department.”

They all started grumbling, thinking I was making fun of them, but Ed took over quickly and explained my true intentions.

“WE WANT A COMMUNITY!” he shouted, “AND A BUNCHA’ GUYS LOITERING AROUND AN ABANDONED DEPOT ISN’T GONNA CUT IT!”

His voice cracked a bit near the end, but no one really pointed it out since this was the first time any of us heard him shout so loud. It actually kind of freaked us out, but we were impressed nonetheless.

After that initial shock, basically everyone listened to us talk about building some walls up, adding libraries, sleeping quarters, and most importantly, a loo! They seemed interested in the prospect of not having to sleep in inns and on the streets, instead having a place to clock out to without any issues. Some were interested in the gym Carter proposed, others were interested in the food court, but strangely no one batted an eye when Ed and I mentioned the library. This made sense, as Aaron was basically the only one who had any books around in his office.

After that day, we immediately headed off to create Blue Lions, V2!

Our first order of business (after creating an extensive blueprint of the base’s reconstruction) was creating the sleeping quarters. This was surprisingly easier than we expected, but then again we did have a whole gang on deck. The beds were made of the finest oak wood from the carpenter, but to say it wasn’t costly would be an outright lie. I had all this work force, so I decided to use it to our advantage. I opened up a restaurant of my own under the name of Blue’s, as Ed and I had some experience when we worked with Anna at Arthur’s back in Trivis Numerica.

With Ed leading one branch, me leading the other, and Carter being put in charge of building duty, we quickly saved up quite the sum, which we would then put into the hands of Carter’s group. With things progressing smoothly, after a mere week of building we finally had a fully furnished sleeping quarters.

Our next step was to reinforce our defenses, i.e. the walls. We had to look for quite a while to find a good mason that was willing to supply us with the bricks. Something that helped out was the fact that one of the grunts was a mason’s son, which allowed us to safely and securely get that done. I remember the father’s face when he saw a bunch of gang members and me walk up to him and (legally) request the bricks. After name-dropping his son, he was even more frightened, thinking his son went into debt or something. After assuring him that everything was fine and showing him our blueprints, he realized we really did just want to better ourselves, and laughed frivolously. The reason for his sudden fit of laughter was because our blueprints apparently didn’t make any structural sense, and would collapse in an instant.

He then offered to redo the blueprints free of charge, to which we gladly obliged. I didn’t really think too much about those blueprints, though, so after I saw the masterpiece that man whipped up in just over a day, I was ecstatic!

With the walls slowly starting to get built up, we only then realized just how much of a daunting task it was to pull this off. Even with however many hands we had work on the wall, it still felt like we didn’t make any progress. Even we, the Generals, had to join in to make it in time before the shower room’s shipment arrived.

As I was just about to collapse from all the work one day, The Vice General called out to me, claiming I have a visitor who requested to see me.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“No idea, but she knows your name, so I guess it should be fine.” He answered back.

Heading around the walls’ enclosures, I couldn’t believe my eyes as I saw who was standing in front of me.

“Cecily!?!” I raised my voice.

“SHHHHH!!” She shushed me, “Don’t scream out my name so suddenly! What if someone from BilBros saw me hanging around their enemy’s base?”

I quickly apologized, then went to apologize for another thing.

“I’m sorry about saying those things about the three of us back at BilBros! I thought it was part of Carter’s plan so I just followed his example! We really didn’t plot anything against BilBros behind the scenes!”

I basically poured my heart out trying to get her to forgive me.

“Nah,” she said, “don’t worry about it. That was the plan, after all…”

“Then why do you sound disappointed?” I asked.

“I kinda wanted you to stay at BilBros with me…” she said quietly.

That one made me blush, not gonna lie. Cecily noticed what she said, so she hastily corrected herself.

“I-I didn’t mean you in particular! I was just saying I was getting lonely all by myself over there!” she frantically cleared up the misunderstanding, blushing the whole way through.

… Cute.

After talking with her for a bit more, talking about our time in both gangs, then switching to the books we’ve read since then, we decided to part ways for now. I went to call Ed and Carter out, but she said it’d be too conspicuous if I did.

She seems a lot happier after we talked a bit… I remarked as I was making my way back to the construction site.

“Oooh, Lune, what’s got you all smiley?” Aaron commented with a smug expression.

Apparently she wasn’t the only one whose spirits we’re lifted.

“Was that the girl you imagined back during our training, perhaps?” He inquired.

“Nu-uh!” I shot back, “I-It wasn’t her!”

Ed and Carter saw me fumbling over myself, so they decided to tease me some more for old times’ sakes.

“So it was Cecily… I knew it, you sly dog…” They remarked.

“Cecily! Yeah, that’s it!” Aaron raised his voice, “Now I remember, while you were lost in thought trying to imagine a scenario where you two kissed, you muttered something like that!”

The wingmen suddenly looked at me, before making a mocking grin.

Damn you, Vice General…

***

It has since been about a month since our initial gang meeting, and the walls were about halfway there. The gym, library and loo were all finished, with only the smaller buildings and the pathways being left to do. This gang was officially reawakened as a community, and with any reawakening, it needs a name that befits it…

“Gang meeting!” I called out to them.

In stark contrast to the first meeting, all the gang members listened intently to my ramblings, no matter how mundane (but I try my best not to make the meeting pointless). I haven’t heard a complaint in so long, that was until…

“Henceforth, this community will no longer be referred to as The Blue Lions! Instead, it shall be Adventure, Revenge, Authority, abbreviated as ARA!”

The entire room went dead silent, before they finally realized I wasn’t joking and promptly went crazy.

“We can’t have that!” One man shouted. “If there’s no Blue Lions, this shit ain’t a gang!” another remarked. “I’m seriously gonna leave if you do that, General!” Yet another one criticized.

This continued on for a couple more minutes, but to think that even Aaron wasn’t completely on board was a surprise.

“ALRIGHT, LISTEN!” I shouted out, “Y’ALL AFRAID OF A LITTLE CHANGE?! COULD YOU BE ANY MORE OF A BITCH?! CHANGE IS THE DRIVING FORCE OF THIS WORLD, IF YOU DON’T SEEK SOMETHING NEW, WHETHER IT BE GOOD OR BAD, THEN WHAT’S THE POINT OF LIVING, GODDAMIT!”

These were my honest feelings, but maybe I went a bit too hard on them. Even Ed and Carter were kind of scared of my voice suddenly echoing out through the room.

“Fine!” I said, “Let’s do it like this: we’ll try this name out for a month, and if it doesn’t stick, we’ll return to Blue Lions Gang, okay?”

They didn’t seem to object to the proposition, and Aaron was just happy that I managed to calm them down and keep them from breaking the entire hall down.

“You’ve really made this gang your own now, Lune.” He complimented me.

“Nah, it wasn’t just me.” I said as I looked over at Carter and Ed.

We’ve finally made it to ground zero, on equal footing with the BilBros. The only thing left is to get out there and Adventure. To seek Revenge for the friends we’ve lost. And to emerge on top with our Authority…!