After the crooks had told me where I could find the ABW I rushed over there with Dob and Lob, eager to start my infiltration of the group. The criminals I'd interrogated told me that I could find the ABW base in the back of the alley closest to Dave's shop.

Poor Dave he's practically living next to a ticking time bomb.

I got there pretty soon and entered the alley when I could tell that no one was looking. The alley looked similar to the one where the two idiots had attempted to jump me and I could almost sense the sinister vibes emanating from it. I looked toward Dob and Lob.

"Stay alert and be ready for anything", I instructed with a serious expression.

Who knows what goes on in this unmonitored alley. It could be literally anything.

I signaled for Dob and Lob to move in behind me as I lead the slow cautious charge. We reached the end of the alley and nothing immediately popped out at me which was a good sign. I saw a normal wooden door on the wall but figured that was too easy and I didn't want to disturb whoever decided to have a place back here other than the ABW of course.

There's probably a hidden door or something.

I started looking around the alley digging through a few piles of trash to make sure nothing was hidden under them. To my disappointment, there was nothing under the piles of trash except for a dirty dirt floor. Then I decided to bite the bullet and knocked on the suspiciously normal-looking wooden door.

"Who is it?", a gruff voice called from the other side of the door.

"It's your mother", I replied in a monotone voice.

I heard a multitude of locks being undone from the other side of the door.

Jeez, this guy is a bit paranoid but I guess it makes sense considering he lives here.

After about 15 seconds of the person scrambling around with the locks, the door opened to reveal a very tall, buff, and scary-looking man.

"You better tell me what you want or I'll make sure you can never come back here again."

I could tell the man was serious so I decided to hold off on my jokes for now and just answer seriously.

"I'm looking for the ABW."

The man seemed to size me up before grabbing me and throwing me inside and closing the door.

Is he not going to get Dob and Lob?

"Hey, buddy can you get my two friends also?"

The man grunted in annoyance before undoing the 2 locks he'd already closed and opened the door again. Dob and Lob rushed inside when it opened and had their daggers at the ready.

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"Calm down guys it's okay. Mr. Smiley here is just a little no-nonsense."

The guy who I'd now dubbed Mr. Smiley just grunted again and redid the many locks on the door before gesturing for us to follow him. I looked around as we followed Mr. Smiley and noticed that the place seemed very out of shape. There were seemingly random red splotches that dotted the already dirty walls and floor.

I tried to make conversation with Mr. Smiley as we walked but he wasn't having any of it and just grunted in response. The grunts quickly turned into silence as he stopped responding at all after I kept asking him questions. Noticing that I wasn't getting anywhere I stopped talking after a while and let Mr. Smiley just keep leading us to wherever we were going.

I kinda like this guy shame he's on the wrong side.

After walking for a while we came to a set of doors. Mr. Smiley motioned for us to enter so I leaned forward and opened the doors. The room looked way nicer than the rest of the place with a polished wooden floor and a big wooden desk in the center. I saw a man in a nice-looking suit sitting at the desk staring at one of the walls, lost in thought.

I didn't want to upset my soon-to-be boss so I just stood silently while Dob and Lob followed my lead. After a bit, the man looked away from the wall and towards us.

"So I heard you guys were looking for the ABW. Well, you found us. What do you want?", he said, looking slightly annoyed.

This guy is a jerk but I shouldn't get on the wrong side of this guy since I'll be working under him for a while.

"Well, sir. We want to join the ABW."

The man raised an eyebrow and a curious look appeared on his face.

"Oh? Well, why should I let you join?"

"Well these two are really good at fighting and I'm very good at assisting from the shadows so to speak."

"Hmm. Well, we could always use more fighters but what do you mean exactly by 'assisting'?"

I took out my knife and ran its program which sent it flying into the wall before coming back to me.

"Like that."

The man looked surprised for a moment before shaking it off.

"Hm. Not bad. You're in as we don't have someone like you. As for the fighters even though we need more we don't need any weak ones so they're gonna have to be tested."

Dob and Lob nodded at the man to confirm their willingness.

"All right then. I like the straightforward ones", the man said while smiling.

"Could we have your name sir?", I questioned the man.

"Sure. Call me Scorpion. That's what everyone around here calls me. And you got in so you can lay off with the sir."

"Ok. Thanks, Scorpion."

"Yeah, whatever."

"Hey George!", he shouted.

I saw Mr. Smiley, who I guess was called George, enter the door. George grunted at Scorpion.

"What do I need from you? Ah, you're too polite. Tell Keith and Tom to go to the Fight Room. I need to test some new potential recruits."

George grunted again and nodded before leaving the room and walking off somewhere. Scorpion looked back at us.

"You two follow me", he said, pointing at Dob and Lob.

"Scorpion do you mind if I come watch? We're sort of a team."

"Fine, just follow me."

Scorpion left the room and started walking towards the Fight Room. I let Dob and Lob lead since they were the participants in this test and I closed the door behind me as I exited the room. After walking for a bit we arrived at a barebones room that was like a slum compared to Scorpion's office. I looked around at the patches of bloodstained ground and noticed an abandoned appendage in one of the corners.

I guess they don't clean up after fights that well, or at all.

Not long after entering the room, George led two strong-looking men into the room who I assumed were Keith and Tom who Scorpion had instructed George to bring. They seemed to look down on Dob and Lob since they were taller than the two disguised goblins.

Size isn't everything you overmuscled freaks.

Scorpion and I stood off to the side as the two groups approached each other.

These two guys are gonna get destroyed by Dob and Lob.