"Come on Octavius," I said to my now 15 year old son. "After those two hits you landed against those techies, we are going to take you through the right of passage of being a man." The Mafia was going to celebrate their recent victory over the Dark Side of the Moon, a local gang financed and supplied by the Van Saars.
After the news of our massacre spread, most of the houses in Hive City wanted to supply us. We did realize the value of allying ourselves to one.
We chose Orlock because they seemed the most like us; we were just average underhivers with a knack for gangbanging, and they were a versatile house.
We had spent the past year learning of our enemies and taking territory. The Orlocks hooked us up with their local Guilder contract to begin. Our old homesteads, of course were quite useful as headquarters. We fought with some Nassaq Ratskins over some old ruins out in the wastes. That was our first taste of combat. Their gang was known as the Outlaws, and they controlled acres of Wasteland outside of Qatesh. Our second combat saw us taking over a watering hole and eliminating a local Goliath gang.
We settled into a routine when it came to Qatesh. There were only three true gangs; the Drakons, loyal to Cawdor and Redemptionist to the core; the Dark Side of the Moon, the Van Saar group; and us, the Sun Zebra Mafia.
And so, after fighting Dark Side of the Moon, we were going to celebrate in The Express, Qatesh's bar. Weapons weren't allowed in, nor anybody under 16. The Qateshi Militiaman stopped our entourage at the door.
"No guns. And he certainly doesn't look 16," he said. I fixed him with a glance. This was Darren. He was normally patrolling down the street, but after Earl had been jailed for being blatantly corrupt, the militia commander had seen it fit to appoint Darren.
I looked him in the eyes. It slowly dawned on it who I was, and who my entourage were. I pushed my trench coat flap over to show off my bloody chainsword. I hadn't bothered to clean it. "I don't think that matters. Right?" I said with particular emphasis Darren gulped. Just for extra measure I brought him close and whispered, "Your wife picked up some lovely drapes, and your son seems to be doing well in the underhive slaughterball league. He made a nice catch last night." I smiled as he backed off.
"Y...y...yeah, go on in," stammered Darren. We walked in and sat at the only long table they had.
"A bottle of wild snake and nine glasses," I called out to the Sonya, the waitress. She was madly in love with Titus. But Titus, like any bonehead 23 year-old couldn't see it. She brought over the bottle and poured it out to us, giggling when Titus accidentally brushed her leg. I lifted my glass. "To Octavius," I declared.
"To Octavius," repeated the group and we all drank. Octavius looked sick for a bit. I looked at him amused.
"You are a man now, Octavius. The way of this family is that you truly begin being a man after drinking wild snake," I declared. "Today is your day and we are going to make sure you have the luxuries of joining our ranks. Septimus, the injector please." Septimus handed me the gun looking item. I detached the empty vial and poured some Kalma powder in. I mixed a bit of wild snake with it.
"What's that?" Octavius asked.
"Your first dose of Kalma," I replied. Kalma was a euphoric drug that made you feel awesome. I screwed the vial on and it drained into the syringe. "It's all yours." I passed it to Lucius Brutus, who handed it to Octavius. I pulled out a cigar and lit it.
Octavius stuck the syringe in with a wince, and pressed down on the plunger. Collatinus pulled the syringe out; as Octavius began to relax, he couldn't pull the syringe out. I inhaled. It felt good to relax after a hard fought battle.
Little did I know, the battle was only beginning.