I'd dropped the ball this morning not putting something else in to repair. I definitely had broken shit around my place and every minute that repair rune wasn't working was wasted. As soon as I walked in, I pulled a bricked smart phone out of my box of junk to get it started.

After a second of internal focus I was pretty sure I had enough to start another rune. Despite just resolving to not waste even the smallest scrap of time, I headed into the kitchen instead of starting on a rune right away. I still hadn't decided on which rune to choose, plus I was starving.

A pot of water went on the stove to boil, and when it was going I dumped in a box of mac n cheese and a package of beef ramen together. It was mostly just empty carbs, but protein was expensive. As lunch cooked I fished out my phone and tried to figure out what the hell had been going on outside.

There wasn't anything on Trigger, but I was only stumped for a second. If Selvin knew what was up, his cousin Carissa would too. It'd been forever since we'd talked back in freshman year, but I still had her number in my phone. I decided to text her.

Ouch, it'd been a while and we hadn't been super serious or anything, but she didn't even keep my number.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

I hissed reflexively. Okay, there was a chance she might be a little pissed at me. I started typing a response, then erased it and started over.

I stared at the message and swore softly to myself. Before I could work up the nerve to beg, another text came in.

I pulled the pot off the stove and carried it into my bedroom as I stuck my phone into the homework station. As the hologram popped up I toggled the voice command option.

"Local news, cross reference oakwood and gang activity"

A couple dozen hits popped up and I tried to clarify.

"Rank by date, newest to oldest"

The station just beeped at me and I swallowed the food in my mouth before repeating the command. It worked that time and I picked the one that seemed most relevant.

"Play 3rd video."

The Asian guy with the pompadoor from channel 7 popped up inset over aerial footage of the Oakwood Housing Project a couple miles up the road from mine. You could make out the flashing lights of at least a dozen emergency vehicles. Mostly cop cars but at least one firetruck. The commentator was talking about a civil disturbance that got out of hand, but reading between the lines and checking out the tags on some of the buildings in the footage I knew it was something else.

Oakwood was run by the Latin Kings, they didn't have it locked down the same way Reyes and the Guatemalans had our place, but they were definitely in the majority. Most of the tags visible though were Savage Boys. Some kind of territory dispute maybe? I had been afraid it was somehow related to the trials and the changes they brought, but now maybe I thought it was just the same old BS.