Author's Note: Hello Skullgirls fandom, I am SpookersKookers. I just wanted to inform you all that I have actively distorted some information regarding the Skullgirls timeline, so this fanfiction won't be 100% accurate to the games. For example: some places will be described with different designs and characters may act a bit out of character for the sake of the plot. Thank you for your time and happy reading!
Chapter 1: The Call of the Boss
9:00 P.M.-New Meridian (Medici Tower)
"Sir Giovanni?"
I snapped out of my trance and looked at the door. It was a goon. Just like any other henchman, he wore a black suit and his hair was greased back. An overly formal uniform if you'd ask me.
But this was the mafia; they have their own dress code I guess.
"Yes?" I replied.
"The boss wants to see you. He's in his main office."
"Alright, I'll be there in a sec."
He nodded and left me to my lonesome. How many days has it been, almost a week since the incident? I've lost track of time by cooping myself in the room given to me when I first came here.
It was decent. The bed was king sized, its softness reminded me of my mother's touch and the carpet was the same as the one that my dad had. Same family, same taste.
I stood up from the royal texture of my bed and forced my rigid legs, weak from disuse, to obey my commands as I made my way to the closet to get myself dressed.
Lo and behold, like anyone else in this goddess-forsaken place, it was filled with suits. Now I'm a boy who can empathize with other people and whatnot but this was ridiculous. There was literally no practicality in wearing a suit 24/7, especially for people who have shootouts often, the fuckin' sleeves get in the way!
"Looks like I'll have to use my own then." I muttered.
From the depths of my bed, I fished out a yellow bag, which held all my salvaged clothes from…then.
I always had a knack for using any article of clothing so long as it fits or I can get comfortable in it. Pulling out a plain white t-shirt and jeans, I swiftly but sloppily wore the colorless top, causing my head to poke out of one of the armholes instead.
Getting it right the second time I then slipped on my pants albeit with great difficulty as I opted to lazily sit on the bed while doing this.
I exited my room and made my way towards the main office; before realizing I had put on my shirt inside out before correcting it. This earned some sideway glances from the henchmen that prowled the hallways but they dared not let a snicker escape their mouths.
I appreciated the respect that they gave; however I felt that it was unneeded, as I haven't done any achievements worthy of such. This was all a product of my relations with the mafia and I just grew more and more pressured from all the high expectations that they seemed to be expecting from me in the future.
As of the moment, I was at the 23rd floor of the Medici Tower; it is a skyscraper complex that pierced the sky and it served as the mafia's base of operations under the guise of the Medici's wealthy corporation. The exterior of the building was fairly simple in contrast to the over the top designs that filled the interior.
'Why does this place need so many floors? Would it kill them to go for something simple?' I thought to myself.
'Bah, who am I to judge. I'm just a boy who grew up in a simple neighborhood. Ofcourse people with the amount of money and influence that the Medici have will go for something grander.'
At the end of the corridor was the elevator entrance. Upon walking up to it, I pressed the up button and patiently waited for the lift by inspecting the various ornaments of the hall.
There by the gold tinted elevator doors was a beautiful bouquet of red flowers that rested in an equally alluring vase, which sat on an expensive looking coffee table. The ceilings were fitted with gold colored, maybe real gold, chandeliers that cast ominous orange lights, which only served to heighten my anxiety concerning on what the boss of the mafia wanted with me.
DING
"Jesus!" The sudden sound of the elevator jerked me from my scrutiny of the place.
"Fuck's sake, Gio," I berated myself as I stepped onto the lift "You're making yourself look like a total ass, getting spooked by the fuckin' elevator. Are you really cut out for this whole crime thing?"
I pressed the close button as I got on and hovered my finger over to the buttons, once again, also colored in gold and the numbers on the icons shaped with marble.
A complete blank surfaced my mind.
'What floor is the main office?'
My hands slammed into the sides of my face in frustration. In all my time here, I never got myself familiar with the layout of the place since I've been so pre-occupied with lamenting on the incident that landed me here in the first place.
Before I could open the elevator and ask some cronies on the floor some directions, the lift had begun to descend.
"Wha—Shit! No, no, no, no— goddess fucking dammit!"
My most recent fumble caused me to angrily slam my fists at the elevator doors, causing a loud echoing sound to resound from all around. However, the recoil from the impact forced me to clench my hands and howl in pain, boy did I just realize that my entire body was frail.
"Guagh! Mother—Fuck!"
Believe it or not I'm not usually like this: irritable, foul-mouthed, absent-minded, and socially awkward. Well the last part was partially true but now it just seemed to have become a bigger problem.
It's only because of my stress and apprehension that accumulated that bottled up inside my already fragile state of mind. Venting out my discontent was one of the few methods that could calm me down as of now.
I flailed my hands in a feeble attempt to somehow shake off the pain. It did little to no good as my extremities still stung like hell. After gaining my composure, I resigned myself to my fate and leaned against the nearby wall.
"Great, just great. More time to waste because of me being careless." I said out loud to myself, seeing as I was alone in the elevator.
Speaking of such. I took a good look at my surroundings and found that the elevator was spacious. The floor was so wide and the walls so tall that you could fit large groups of people in it, maybe even more than that.
At the fore of the doors were thick glass windows that overlooked the City I was in: New Meridian.
As I was being lowered to the elevator's destination, from behind the glass, I marveled at the glowing neon lights that touted their advertisements to the world and numerous headlights from various vehicles from below moved in a systematic route that was almost hypnotic.
Headlights from other buildings shone into the calm night sky as if signifying a grand party. The gathered light from the moon, stars, and man-made structures all reflected into the nearby harbor causing an alluring cocktail of colors to surface from the waves.
What beauty! How could I have not noticed this breath-taking sight earlier? I momentarily forgot all my worries as I let my mind take in the scenery; this was one of the first times I was able to witness a landscape such as this because I have lived most of my life in a quiet suburban neighborhood.
I silently wished that I could stay like this forever.
DING
The sound of the elevator jolted me back to reality.
'Again?' I scolded myself once more 'you got scared by the fuckin' elevator bell again? Pathetic.'
I looked at the screen above the elevator and saw the letter 'G' in bright red.
The doors opened revealing three individuals, and I recognized two of them: Carlos and Tony. They were good friends of my father that sometimes visited our house for supper or if my dad needed help with repairing anything.
I've only recently discovered that they worked for the mafia, despite that information, I still couldn't treat them any different from before, they too did the same.
Carlos' eyes widened "Oh! Gio! What brings you out of your room? I thought you didn't want to come out after…that."
His words ended in a whisper, aware of my lingering pain.
"He's calling for me." I replied as they entered the elevator. The third person between Carlos and Tony was a battered and bleeding stranger restrained by the both of them.
By the looks of Tony's bloody hand and Carlos' rough handling of the person, I'd say that he was an enemy of the mafia getting dragged into goddess knows where.
Tony whistled, "Don't worry about it. I'm sure it's a heart to heart talk."
"Just make sure to not feel anxious about it," Carlos pressed a button and the lift started ascending "The boss can smell fear."
The injured man let out a few moans and gurgles as blood leaked from his mouth. He sustained a black eye while lacerations and angry red spots adorned his almost limp body.
"Hey uh, what floor is the main office?" I said without taking my eyes off the man that they were nonchalantly holding up under the shoulder.
"That's easy. His main office is at the top so just press this." Tony said as his finger pressed one of the topmost buttons on the grid.
"If you want, we can get you a map of the whole building. To get you familiar with the complex and all." Carlos added.
I smiled. "I would like that. Thanks." Good to see that some remnants of my old life were still intact.
DING
The elevator rung as it arrived at Carlos and Tony's destination. This time, I wasn't startled. Take that.
Carlos then slung one of the beaten up person's arm around his neck, with Tony doing the same, as they dragged him out of the elevator and into the floor.
"We'll be seeing you, Gio—"
Carlos started saying before the battered person cut him off by wildly flailing in their grasp.
"Help! Help! HELP ME!" he howled.
"Hey!" Carlos bellowed "You better be fucking quiet before I make you stay quiet."
My heart then shook with fear. I've never seen; more or less hear Carlos speak to someone in such a way. When I was a kid, he was one of the people who taught me that gentleness was a virtue, and that letting your temper get the best of you was folly.
"Help me!"
The resisting man then broke from his captors' grasp and then desperately grabbed onto my waist. Tears and blood streamed down his bent face as he violently shook from his emotions and wounds.
"Please! I have a family!" He begged to me.
"HEY!"
In one swift motion, Tony launched a haymaker into the man's face, knocking the poor person down and forcing him to unhand me from his bloody frame.
"Who do you think you are touching him like that!?" Tony shouted while kicking the grounded man.
This display of brutality shocked me even more as it was coming from Tony, a volunteer from my local church, of all people. The once humble and soft spoken man of religion I had known was now pulverizing a defenseless man right in front of me.
"P-please st-stop." The defeated person could only croak from his crumpled form as a flurry of stomps and punches continued to batter at him while his own blood splattered on his ruined white button up shirt.
"That's quite enough, Tony," Carlos firmly warned him "the kid is watching."
Tony gave one last kick to the bloodied man, resulting in the latter to moan in pain before growing silent.
I could only stare in utmost terror and disgust in the level of inhumanity that he had displayed.
I always knew that the Medici's were like this, a ruthless criminal organization that ruled the underworld. My dad told stories about them whenever I asked. He'd describe in perfect details the lengths to which the mafia went to gain more power and influence.
It has and maybe always will be, a war of blood and scum that revolted me from the depths of my heart. So why was I here now? This place of sin and decadence was not where I belonged.
"Sorry you had to see that." Tony said as he adjusted his glasses whilst he and Carlos dragged the presumably unconscious body of the person out of the elevator.
"If it makes you feel any better. This person is a reporter—," Carlos grunted in exertion as he made one final heave to get the man in question onto the floor "he's been stalking our operations since a month ago. It'd be great if he disappears, know what I'm saying?"
"That's not something that would lighten his mood." Tony deadpanned.
"Yeah you're right. Sorry, Gio."
Tony rolled his eyes and nodded towards me "Stay out of trouble."
Then the doors closed.
Half of my mind was screaming at the injustice done, but half of my other mind anticipated this to happen. What did I expect from the Medici Mafia? That they were secretly misunderstood bad guys and promoted a vegan diet?
Actually now that I think about it, vegans were just as, if not, worse than a literal mafia.
56…57…58
In my growing fear, I watched the numbers rise.
59…60…61
My hands have become cold and clammy.
62…63…64
I looked towards the button that Tony had pressed; it was the 73rd floor.
65…66…67
'It's going to be all right. Why should I be feeling anxious right now? It's not like I did anything wrong.' I assured myself.
68…69…70
In spite of my reasoning, my body just couldn't shake off the miasma of dread that it was enveloped in. Was it a sort of warning by a deity that sensed my impending doom?
71
'The boss can smell fear.'
Oh shit, now I'm really in deep shit now. Why'd he have to call for me in the first place? Were they going to kill me? Was it because I had no use for the mafia? Was it because I'm too much of a liability? Was it because—?
72
I steeled my nerves; again with this shit. I should really stop overthinking.
73
DING
The elevator made one final ring and revealed me to my destination.
It was a long hallway decorated with all sorts of luxurious items, at the end of it were large golden colored double doors that shined in a magnificent light. A myriad of paintings of what I assumed to be other members of the Medici family were placed on either side of the marble walls.
Had not the elevator doors started closing, I would have kept on marveling at the Medici's choice of design.
Deciding it was high time to just get it over with, I stepped on the floor and was immediately met with the soothing texture of the red carpet under my feet. A fragrant aroma then immediately attacked my unprepared nostrils that made me unconsciously relax.
"This is kind of nice." I said to no one in particular.
Wasting no more time, I power walked my way towards the large doors; upon getting near, I gave a few strong knocks and waited for a response.
The pressure had only grown ever so heavy as I could somehow feel each portrait's gaze burning into the back of my head.
The door was slowly opened by some unknown force, revealing a room much more luxurious than any other in this skyscraper.
The first things that popped out to me were how golden everything is. Literally. Everything was ornate in what were probably 24K gold, even the busts and portraits.
Then the two other people in the room came to my attention, the first being this weird, robotic looking woman. She wouldn't look too intimidating if it weren't for that gun attached on her arm, or was it her arm itself?
They called her Black Dahlia, and I've heard from some goons that she was not someone to fuck with, although I wasn't so sure if they meant figuratively or literally. She's the boss' personal guard and one of his most dangerous enforcers.
But then I realized who were a couple feet behind her.
He was standing by the window, cigar in one hand and a glass of red liquid in the other. He seemed to be wistfully looking out of the window at the moment.
He took a swig of his drink before he turned around in a slow but somehow sharp manner. He looked like a dying man, but I wouldn't dare say that in his face. He gestured to the seat in front of me with the hand holding the cigar.
I followed what he commanded and took a seat on the wooden chair on the front-left side of his desk. When he sat down, he set his drink near me and bent his hand under the table, not breaking eye contact even for a second.
It was here that I realized that the drink smelled too… metallic to be wine, but I didn't want to know what it really is. I wouldn't put it past him to drink it though.
He pulled out a pistol and a mug shot portrait of a man then set the items on the desk. What'd he want me to do? Give info on some guy I don't even know? Go spying on this dude? Guess what, all my guesses were wrong.
He put the cigar in his mouth, and pushed these objects towards me. He let out a sigh to release the smoke before speaking to me in a chilling voice that's as rough as a road and as hoarse as something I can't even put to words.
"I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse."
END OF CHAPTER 1
