The Matters of Power

Chapter 37- The Guerra Family [1]

Today's lunch seems... tasteless for some reason. Normally, I would savor every flavor of the Combo Sandwich that the cafeteria serves, but I guess my anxiety is preventing me from doing so. "Hey, Earth to Marcus." Fernando shakes me to get my attention, "What's up with your mood today? You aren't normally like this." Yeah, I guess I normally aren't like this, when I thought I had something good ahead of me instead of realizing I've been being played as an experiment. "I guess," I start to sigh, "I guess I'm starting to think that I haven't done much good ever since the start of the school year." "Are ya serious?" He acts rather surprised, "You don't know what's been going on?" I shake my head. "Man, ever since you started school here and started being nice to everyone but the bullies, this school year has been amazing for people like us. Heck, even Zeke is having trouble trying to stay on top of everyone since you've shown everyone that even good-looking guys like yourself can be a good guy. Before, it was a tough life to even make it through lunch but now everyone is starting to get along, all because of you, Marcus. Cheer up." He gives me a small pat on my back and Payton also chimes in, "Yeah, he's right you know. It feels like a proper school without all that 'looks-and-power' bs that has been going on since middle school. Have some confidence man, you certainly have given us some." Hearing that from them, it makes me feel all happy inside. I shed a tear at their kind words, but now I have the confidence to ask Yan about information about the other gangs. "Thanks, guys." I say with a smile, "I'll be back, I gotta talk to Yan about something." 

I get up and head towards Swift Cross's table, trying my best to keep a straight face and remembering not to stutter. I see Yan and sit close to his end of the table. The other members look at me awkwardly as I try to talk to him, "Hey, Y-Yan, do you think I can be able to talk to you after school? It's something urgent." He doubts about accepting my request in his mind, but he reluctantly accepts since he knows how much I've helped them in the past. "All right, I'll bite. Meet me inside the training room, the one opposite of the gym. I hope it isn't some trap you're planning." With that, I thank him and make my way back to my table where I stumble an awkward situation where Carl and Payton are arguing over a homework assignment.

(After school...)

It's obvious that he's hiding some members to back him up in case I try to double-cross them based on my Sixth Sense View of the room. Regardless, I suck it up and open the door to the training room, seeing Yan using a toothpick out of boredom. "Oh, you're here. I thought you were gonna be later. Anyway," he flicks the toothpick to the nearby trash bin, "what's that you wanna talk about? I'll can't guarantee that I can keep it a secret from Quarter, just so you know." Figures, considering that he is the right-hand man to him, after all. "Well," I rub my neck, "since you seem to know a lot of the activity of thugs in San Anton, so I wanted to go to you and ask if you know of the other gangs that are active, you know, the ones Swift Cross hasn't taken on yet." He's clearly surprised by my notion, thinking that he was going through a worse-case scenario with me. He stands there in a thinking pose for a while, until we hear something drop on the ground behind the tarp covering some gym equipment. "You have some of your guys hiding in case I was going to attack ya, isn't there?" Again, he's surprised that I manage to figure out their backup plan and sighs in frustration. "All right, out of your hiding spots!" He calls out to them. "Y'all are dumb enough to be made by a single can dropping, and I need one of you to call Quarter here, A.S.A.P." Sometime later, I find myself sitting with Yan, Quarter, and the rest of the gang who brought a table from storage. "First off," Yan leans in close, "you're right in assuming that I know about the less favorable side of San Anton. It's part of my job. Secondly, why do you want to find information about them if it's none of your concern?" Honestly, I never thought I would get this far, but I have to think of something to say that doesn't compromise my secret of my psychic powers.

"Well, after all we've been through, I see that there's a lot more to your organization than what people assume is just a gang. If there's some possibility that I can help the people of our school and everyone else, then it's safe to assume that I can be of use to you." I don't expect them to fully believe that, in fact, they are doubting in their minds right, but I did say some truth in that. Even though they stand around awkwardly and think on my answer, in the end Yan decides to trust me. "Fine. I guess I can assume that we're in this together. Now that we got this out of the way, Marcus." he gets up and walks towards a mobile whiteboard, then dramatically flips it over to show a map of San Anton and a whole lot of notes and markings. Jeez, how much were they thinking on this?! "Feast your eyes on the grand plan. The main goal that we had been trying to plan for since Quarter created this group. Now that you are with us on this, we got a better chance of doing this thing than we ever got. Everyone, get comfy, we're up for a cram session."

We quickly switch the furniture around so that it somewhat resembles a small classroom, with Quarter and I being off to the side instead of with the rest of the gang members. "First thing first," Yan grabs a marker and points to the taped map, "we all remember the gang establishments in San Anton, right? Here, there are so-called respective zones of control that the gangs have, with this small blue area being roughly us." There are blue, yellow, orange, green, and purple zones, and we seem awfully small compared to the other ones, it's a wonder how they weren't overrun from the other ones. He points to the yellow and green zones that border us, "Ever since the start of the school year, we had managed to beat back and dismantle the West Anton High and Eastside gang so that takes two of them already." He draws a bold 'X' on them, then slaps his hand on the orange area. "Now this, this is the main priority. The purple area is too good at hiding that we can't pursue them unless we focus our efforts on them, so the orange gang will have to do for now. Except..." He starts to fidget a bit. "Except what?" I start to say. "Where's the 'but' in this?" "Well..." he twiddles his fingers around, but Quarter speaks up. "The only thing we know about them so far is the gang's name: The Guerra Family." I'm rather shocked about that information, considering that Yan is the right-hand-man and the intelligence guy in Swift Cross.

"Hold on," I start to say in disbelief, "that's all we know about them." "Yeah, unfortunately." He goes through the notes on the board. "They are more cunning than the Eastside gang as they can outrun us with so many passageways and hiding spots that it's clear they know that part of town far more than we can. Not to mention that even when we manage to confront their so-called 'leader' of their group, it turns out that they weren't even on the higher ladder of the gang, just some cell that barely has any contact with their leader. At this point, it's safe to say that that they have a strict decentralized structure that makes it difficult for anyone outside to find them." Hearing all that, I don't even think we could compare The Guerra Family to the Eastside gang in terms of difficulty. What nonsense did I get myself into that had me destroy these gangs with my psychic powers?! Oh right, it all comes down to Mr. Corvanez, curse him. "You know, there is one thing that can help us." Yan perks up and pulls out a sticky note from the board. "This. Information on how they get their members. Apparently, they'll come up to you if you loiter around one of the public parks and look like you ran away from home or something along those lines."

They all start to look at me excitedly, all thinking about my role as a runaway to enter their ranks. I don't even have to say anything, and they already look at me with pleading eyes as if I understand what I'm supposed to do. "Wait, you want ME to do it? Do I even get to say when?"

"Yeah, obviously. They already know most of our guys' faces and I doubt they would suspect you of all people because of your... appearance. You'd actually fit in well as a disgruntled runaway idol, now that I think about it."

I guess there's no way out of this now. "So, when will we begin?"