Alex ran down numerous corridors, navigating them with an unnatural familiarity. The more he moved, the more he knew about the layout of the place.
'T-this is insane. How did he give me information about this place?' He ran past an intersection, catching a glimpse of some gang members.
Doors blurred past him as he kept up the pace untill he came across the last door in the corridor, "This. Is. It." His breath was heavy.
Alex activated his beast art and kicked the door off its hinges.
Layla was tied to the ground with her hand bound behind her back and to her legs, making movement near impossible.
Her legs themselves were partly twisted in an unnatural way, broken.
"Layla." Alex's voice stirred a reaction from her and she forcibly opened her eyes to look at him, "Alex." Her gasp came out as dry and raspy.
"How did you get out?" Her eyes welled with tears. Alex started to untie her, "Someone saved me."
The moment her legs were free, she hissed, her broken legs now more evident, "I overheard them…" She gasped as Alex tried to help her to her feet,
"They wanted to kidnap us for ransom. They need new resources for a new power move. Someone, or an organization, killed one of their members, crushing their heads beneath their feet."
Those words made Alex let go of Layla and she fell with an ear-piercing scream, "Sorry." He pulled her up again and hooked her arm around his neck to help her move,
"You can walk?" Her watery eyes looked at his perfect legs, "The same person that helped me also healed me."
The two walked into the corridor, heading for the exit.
'He also knows his way around this place? Is there something I'm missing or is it that same person he keeps referring to?'
As much as Alex wanted to run to any of the storages where they kept their weapons, he knew better.
Not only would it waste precious time, those rooms were bound to be packed with the gang members.
'Good thing we haven't met any.' And as though hearing his thoughts, a single gang member ran across from them but stopped at the sight of them.
The tall man looked at the two teenagers, one looking weak and the other clearly injured, and smiled sinisterly.
He ran towards them and Alex dropped Layla, 'He is going to abandon me, isn't he?'
Contrary to the expectations of everyone there, himself included, Alex ran to the gang member.
'I might as well do something now.' He activated his beast art and his body sped up considerably, covering meters in an instant.
Before the gang member could reorient himself and adjust, Alex was upon him, throwing a fist that connected with his jaw.
A sickening crunch echoed and the man fell motionless to the floor, dead or alive, Alex didn't know or care to.
Layla's eyes were wide open, her pain almost not bothering her at the moment, 'Did I just see him use a Beast Art?!!! He shouldn't have one.'
Alex turned around and stared at Layla and the latter started blushing at the sight of his deep blue eyes that had a hint of crimson in them.
'It was better this way. There's no point in preserving my secret if it kills me and I can always say it was panic, hysteria and adrenaline that gave the feeling of a beast art.'
"Let's go." Alex picked Layla and the two started walking, this time, a lot faster.
They stopped at a rather large door.
Alex opened it and a cold breeze hit his face. He was outside a dark warehouse type of structure and the street he was in was only barely illuminated by distant street lamps.
Hope shook off part of the tension afflicting him but with the new calm rose a frightening realization.
'I hardly saw any gang members.' The knowledge that Leo had given him seemed to have included at least a hundred gang members but they had only confronted one.
"So this is where you are." A rough voice called out from the darkness — the shade directly behind the closet street lamp.
An unfamiliar man stepped into the light, "Come on now, don't be scared." He chuckled lightly.
Alex took on a stance, "Can't you remember me?" The man gestured to himself but suddenly stopped.
"Oh, okay, I see why." His skin started to bubble and shift until Leo was standing where the man once stood.
Despite the twisted splendor that Alex had just witnessed, he wasn't inclined to believe what the hell strange shapeshifter had to say.
"James, come on man. I dropped you off at the police station and released you from your holdings. I'm trustworthy." Leo tried taking a step forward and Alex took a step back.
Leo threw his head back and groaned, "Okay, how about this." He raised a hand and Layla screamed.
Her legs mended themselves in an instant while a corpse in the warehouse suddenly found its legs brutally broken.
'Okay, it's him.' Alex has experienced his powers first hand and he was sure that he could have killed him in an instant if that was what he wanted.
Leo nodded, "Now that you're sure that I'm me, let's move on to the next order of business, killing off the entirety of The Black Fenrir Gang."