CHAPTER 281: RED RAGE.

Gangs tend to have their own culture, which is usually influenced by the identity of the core members, their goals and aspirations, but most importantly, their beliefs.

Red Rage was, as the name suggests, a gathering of very angry people. The reasons varied, but each of the member acted as if their blood was on fire, ready to erupt at any moment. The violence they commit rarely has any goal or logic behind it, which has earned them the reputation of a bunch of savages with no restraints.

Of course, if that were all there if to them, they would have been wiped out long ago. The gang has existed for almost a decade now, and they wouldn’t have lasted that long if all they did was go around beating people.

Their violence was focused most of the time. They held a tight grip on underground fighting clubs, organizing most of them, and they owned most of the gyms in the district. The fighting they engaged in was always directed among the members, and rarely do they fight anyone from the outside, unless it’s a rival gang, or sometimes the police.

All of that was in the past, however. Their demise came when Red Bull, leader of the superhero team Crimson Watch, caught a whiff of their insanity. He took it upon himself to crush most of their core member, and when the rest of his team joined in, Red Rage was brought to its knees.

With the core members gone, nothing was left to hold the gang together. After it was disbanded, Riot escaped to Hollowgrid with a few loyal underlings and attempted to rebuild, only to face immediate failure.

As it turned out, there weren’t that many people willing to join an angry cult. Unable to recruit new members, they dropped the initiation ritual, which involves holding their ground in a fist fight against one of the core members, and since most weren’t around anymore, the only one left to hold it was Riot himself.

"Is he even human?" Finn asked.

After seeing how the gang leader looked, Dante was so shocked that he had to share the photo with the boy. Riot was a giant. A 220 meter tall, 170kg walking mass of muscles. Supposedly, he was white, but in most of the photos he appears in, his skin is glowing red.

Looking at him, one would think he was a strength type EI, but apparently the only enhancements he had were bionic in nature, with the one of them being a bionic heart that replaced the original after it ruptured from high blood pressure.

"I know they’re crazy and all, but..." Dante said. "Did he really expect people to fight him with their bare hands?"

"Guess his heart wasn’t the only thing damaged by high blood pressure," Finn commented.

Things didn’t go well even after they dropped the initiation ritual. Any new members they managed to draw in were picked up by the police one by one, and the local thugs didn’t play nice with anyone who went to work for an outsider. One would say it was already too late, seeing how the giant had failed to pick up the pieces after his gang was crushed, but it was only a few months since he lost everything, and it hasn’t been that long since he started his attempt at rebuilding everything.

"Hold on..." Tilting his head a little, Finn gave Dante a look full of suspicion. "Are you telling me we have been searching for this guy and you didn’t even know what he looks like?"

"We aren’t looking for him alone." Dante replied. "We need to find clues about whoever is backing them, and why they are doing it."

In truth, Dante did forget to do any research on the gang and its leader. One couldn’t blame him, really. He left the hospital bed yesterday only to spend most of the time since sleeping. With barely an hour passing since he woke up, it was perfectly normal for his mind to lag a little.

Sighing, Finn turned his attention back to the feed on his OAM.

"Doesn’t seem like we will find any clues here. The place is practically deserted."

"Just keep going," Dante said. "Even if we don’t find anything now, something is bound to show up at some point."

After scattering five Scorpio-bots around the gym, the rest of the swarm moves on to the next location. Dante thought that they were done with the second floor, but it turned out that there was an area they hadn’t covered yet.

There were the showers, which they elected to avoid for obvious reasons, then there was the storage room where extra equipment was kept. Only one room was left, and from the looks of it, it was an office of some kind, though it seemed a little too cramped, with the desk taking most of the space and the rest being filled with file cabinets, which seemed unnecessary this far in the digital age.

The first thing Dante noticed was the terminal on the desk, then he saw the safe stashed in the corner behind it. Two things to crack open, but since the latter appeared to be a little more difficult, Dante decided to leave it for a later time.

"Can you check the terminal?"

"Yeah, this model is easy to work with." Said Finn. "Turning it on wouldn’t be a problem."

"Hid the other bots first."

Only one Scorpio-bot took on the task while the rest continued on their way to the first floor. After a moment of thought, Dante had a change of mind.

"On second thought, let me handle the terminal. You keep an eye on the rest."

"Got it..."

Following Finn’s reply, the Scorpio-bot, who had entered the office, stopped moving, showing that Jake had released his control over it. Dante waited for a moment, then another. When the bot didn’t move, he let out a mental sigh and thought aloud.

’I thought you wanted to operate one of those things?’

[Hm? I believe you said doing so is not my role.] Volcan replied.

’Don’t tell me you’re developing an attitude now.’ Dante sighed. ’C’mon, I need you to deal with this for me. We can work on making you a body another time.’