Peter was walking around with a lot more confidence than he used to. The night vision he got was a lot more useful than the way it was described, there was absolutely no difference between his vision at night and his vision at day.
After a while he managed to find a suitable target and prepared himself for the confrontation.
[Entity class 1]
[Ability: Strength enhancement.]
He could have chosen a stronger opponent, but he didn't do so for two reasons. The first was that he wanted to get home quickly after the day's happenings, the second was that he wanted to test himself. He got a lot stronger lately and he wanted to try out whether he could absorb someone's blessing without them being unconscious.
[Successfully absorbed class 1 strength blessing.]
[Result: STR +0.05, MGC +0.01, EXP +10]
The experiment was a success but Peter couldn't really enjoy it because he was hit in the head by the back of the gangster's hand.
[Health: 95%]
The attack hurt a lot because despite his increased strength he was still a lot more fragile than the average person and he was being hit by someone who had a strength blessing just moments ago.
He did manage to win without further injuries and called the police to pick the man up. A few minutes later three officers arrived instead of the usual one.
He already met two of them in the days prior. The one he hasn't met had a much fancier uniform and was the one coming towards him.
"Good evening. My name is Alexander Jern the local police chief. I'm here to talk about your recent activities."
Peter had no idea what was wrong with his so called activities. Attacking wanted criminals was allowed and as far as he knew he hadn't killed or caused permanent damage to any one of them. He decided to voice his annoyance since he was innocent.
"Why do we need to talk about my activities? I haven't broken any laws."
"You didn't, but what you are doing is causing us a lot of trouble and if you continue, we might not be able to protect you."
As if on cue four gangsters walked around the corner and up to the officers. The two parties seemed to recognize each other and both were irritated by the other's presence.
[Entity class 9]
[Abilities: Corrosive touch, Venomous touch, Antidote]
Their leader alone was enough to effortlessly beat Peter and it was even worse with a group behind him. The gangster's words further increased his worries.
"So, can we take this as you protecting him?"
"Where did you get that idea? We are only here to pick up a criminal."
Alexander was obviously lying in an effort to defuse the situation, but it was very clearly not working, mostly because everyone had a general idea of how the police operated.
"Then you wouldn't have come yourself. It's clear you are trying to deter the kid from working, but we clearly said that we can't accept that. We already lost too many people."
Anthony arrived on the scene around the same time as the gangsters and was ready to jump in at any moment. Because there were people around who he didn't want to beat up he sacrificed his shirt to quickly make a mask for himself.
The officers' and the gangsters' bickering continued for a while. Peter decided to take the opportunity and disappear while the two parties were preoccupied with each other.
Unfortunately, as soon as he was covered by shadows the leader of the gangsters rushed towards him with his fist raised, ready for a punch. Peter raised his hands to try to block at least a single hit.
A loud bang could be heard.
The boy was surprised that he wasn't feeling any pain, so he looked over his hands and saw a half-naked man with a white cloth wrapped around his head, holding the gangster in the air with one hand.
The mysterious newcomer threw the unconscious man on the ground and seemingly disappeared before arriving next to another gang member and knocking them out with a single punch.
Every criminal was out cold after a few short seconds, but Peter did manage to check his savior.
[Entity class 24]
[Ability: General Enhancement]
[Star attribute: <Restricted access>]
Unless there was another person around with that exact description, it was obvious who saved Peter and why.
The officers, including Alexander, were dumbfounded. They didn't have any idea how to handle the situation. They ended up treating the passed out gangsters' injuries as a show of good faith. Peter helped out as well but for a different reason.
[Successfully absorbed class 5 healing blessing.]
[Successfully absorbed class 4 wind blessing.]
[Successfully absorbed class 6 all around blessing.]
[Absorption failed]
[Results: STR +0.15, AGI +0.2, END +0.1, STA +0.25, MGC +0.14, EXP +150]
In the end Peter left without being paid, but after what happened he didn't really care. He was just grateful for the help he got and the opportunity he was given.
Before retiring for the night, Peter was asked to pay a visit at the station the next day. Alexander didn't get an answer at the time but he hoped the boy was sensible enough to pay attention.
Peter would go there, just to be polite, but he didn't plan on paying attention to whatever they were going to tell him. He would visit mostly because it was on the way on the daily walk anyway.
He arrived at home a few minutes before midnight and was surprised to find everyone still awake. When he stepped through the door, he found James and Helen drinking while Sarah and Manda were furiously searching for something on James' computer.
Not wanting to ruin their fun with his bad mood, he headed towards his own room. On the way he passed by Anthony's office where he found the man quietly working on some documents. He stopped in front of the door for a while before speaking.
"Thanks, dad."
That was all he said before going on his way. Anthony just smiled and went back to his papers. Turns out his disguise wasn't as good as he thought, but he somehow couldn't really feel bad about it.
The next day Peter made his way to the police station alongside Sarah. The building was unnecessarily large for its purposes, other than that it was a fairly ordinary building. The siblings went inside and identified themselves, after which they were rushed to the top floor of the building.
They were guided to a room where Alexander was already waiting for them. The room was spacious with almost no furniture other than the police chief's table and a few chairs and the walls were full of decorations, mostly awards to the owner. The man himself looked like he hadn't got a minute of sleep last night.
"I was worried you would not come. I am glad you listened to my request."
He was speaking a lot more politely than at night, probably because he was scared of the half-naked man. Peter didn't really care about the chief's worries so he just tried to move the conversation along.
"Just tell me why you wanted to talk. I presume it has something to do with what happened yesterday."
"Yes, originally I wanted to ask you to leave the fireflies alone. They dealt with every bounty hunter around here with pretty gruesome methods and I wanted to prevent you from meeting the same fate. Now I understand why you were not concerned about retaliation, but I would still like to ask you to leave them alone.
Even if the ones around here cannot do anything to you, they have stronger allies and angering them is dangerous no matter who is protecting you."
Peter understood the man's intentions but he had no idea why those strong allies would put any importance on him and he had no idea how stubborn some people could be.
"Thank you for your concern, but I don't think I can do what you ask."
And with that he started walking out. Sarah, who was looking at the various wall decorations so far, ran after him.
Outside the building they saw a large group of people coming towards the station. All of them were wearing a red uniform and were led by an intimidating large man, Gregory Brann himself. When he saw the kids he stopped his group and a slightly crazed smile started to appear on his face.
"Just who I was looking for! I don't care who's protecting you, I'm going to kill you right here and now!"
He motioned his men to attack but before they could get very far, a gunshot was heard and the man leading the charge fell over, dead. The others stopped where they were and looked towards where the shot came from.
Helen and Manda were standing by the side with a group of green uniformed men behind them. The shot came from Helen, with the gun falling apart in her hands.
"Looks like we're just in time. I was afraid you would start things without us!"
The fireflies didn't move for a while. Some of them were scared, most of them were simply confused. The most dangerous weapon around fell apart in front of their eyes so they didn't really feel threatened they were just shocked and were waiting for their leader's orders.
Unlike what people would expect from him, Gregory was eerily calm. He slowly looked towards the uninvited party, the people he had been in conflict with for years now, took a deep breath and addressed the lady boss directly, with almost no emotion in his voice.
"Do you have any idea what this means?"
Instead of being intimidated like a normal person, Helen was standing proudly, with no hesitation in front of the man who the entire town feared, and gave her answer with a mad grin on her face.
"Of course I know. This means war!"