Disclaimer: A squib getting as far as the Sorting before being outed is canon through Word of God, since Rowling said so on Pottermore.
Mafia.
Skull dedicated a couple of minutes to cursing Checkerface's woefully inadequate explanations (Hermione would be apalled. And probably swear revenge) before dragging a hand down his face and sighing deeply.
Right, so fact one: he was in way over his head. More than usual, even.
Fact two: if this was the "public" face of this society -the first impression newly minted Flame Users like him got- then he was actually starting to worry about what it would be like when the trap sprung and the conspiracy, or war, or whatever it was revealed itself.
Fact three: it was too late to back down.
He had spent a week scouting the place where the meeting was to take place, but he had only seen a pregnant woman going about her business in the small cottage. Certainly nothing that would prepare him for the reality of this society.
That thrice-damned Checkerface had waved away all his questions and not offered any information, so he had already known that he was flying blind and that whatever it was he was not being told was probably bad, but he had not honestly expected this.
Apparentely he still retained some measure of optimism, who knew?
He had been so confident, too. Thanks to his mask of incompetent civilian, being the last to arrive would only help to reinforce the image he wanted to send and allow him to get a glimpse of the other "Strongest" as they got there.
It had not been enough. Not by a long shot.
He had arrived, made an arse of himself and, just as he was feeling confident that he would be deemed too loud, obnoxious and useless to be part of the group, the smiling pregnant woman had dropped the bombshell on him. Because he was a civilian and if he was going to help out on the "jobs" they needed to do in order to get their title he needed a briefing.
His expression of horror at those words had not been in any way faked.
He had given honest consideration to the idea of just running and coming back with a squad of Aurors -because he definetely did not want Checkerface or the other six trying to track him down- when they got offered room and board for the duration of said jobs. Politely.
Gently smiling pregnant women should not look that foreboding. Much less while offering baked goods.
The other five seemed to think the same, because their agreement had been way too fast, no matter how cool and collected they seemed.
Reborn tilted his fedora down to hide his frown. He had deliberately antagonized the civilian kid who seemed to be doing his utmost to get out of this situation, but his very obvious "let's ditch the newbie" attitude had been dismissed out of hand. That was suspicious and slightly worrying. There didn't seem to be a simple way to get out of the almost-definetely-an-ambush.
He had known from the beginning that the whole "Strongest Seven" title seemed fishy and that going along with it would most probably lead him straight into a trap, but the situation was even more complicated than initially assumed.
The Donna of the Giglio Nero family was the only one who seemed to know anything about Checkerface or even what they were suppossed to be doing. Not to mention the politely phrased demand for them all to live together for the duration of the "jobs". That made her the most suspicious, but being in the thick of the mafia as she was, not to mention pregnant, made this whole farce a truly convulted and dangerous way to ambush them considering she had more than enough resources to eliminate them one by one at her leisure and far more easily.
The (possibly) civilian Cloud was not as dumb as he portrayed himself to be, but his efforts were moot because of his truly terrible acting. He was so obvious about trying to get out of the situation by pretending to be incompetent that Reborn gave serious thought to the possibility of him being the plant and just pretending to be a bad actor. The moment when his façade cracked at the word "mafia" made him doubt that, though -his face had had "hitman who found out mid-mission that the target was FAR more dangerous than anticipated" all over it.
The infamous information broker and really powerful Mist he discarded as a suspect almost on principle. Someone like her -no matter how much she tried to hide it, that build was very obviously feminine- had more than enough resources without resorting to something like this, just like the Giglio Nero Donna. However, the fact that she didn't hint at information on their jobs made him very, very wary. The infamous miser wouldn't have hesitated about fleecing them for a heads-up on whatever the trap was, and since she hadn't that meant one of two things. Either she was in on whatever this was or the best information broker in the world didn't know anything about it. Neither of those options was good.
The Triads' most powerful enforcer was another tough sell. On the one hand, ambushing several important movers and shakers of the Italian Underworld would be a very bold move indeed, that would almost assuredly mean another mafia war. The Vindice would get involved almost with absolute certainity, and that was if the scheme worked at all. On the other hand, if it worked they would get a huge boost in reputation and territory. In the end, though, he didn't think it was the Storm. He was outwardly calm, but he kept his back to the wall at all times and scrutinized them just like all of them (save the Giglio Nero Donna) scrutinized each other. From Reborn's experience with backstabbers, if he had a group at his back ready to help him decimate them, his attention would be focused on his comrades' signals and he'd be trying to look innocent by demanding explanations, not fly under the radar.
The Rain whose attire and body language screamed "obviously military" was the only one who had brought obvious back-up. The blond who had come with her and promptly hid on the forest surrounding the house -which was making him really twitchy, because if isolation with unknown elements wasn't enough, they now had a sniper right outside- seemed to be content just with observing at the moment, but he didn't doubt he'd come to her aid at a moment's notice. That actually was what convinced him that they were not behind whatever the hell this was suppossed to be, because no matter how good blondie was, one man did not an ambush make. At least not a very good one.
The Lightning who seemed to enjoy flaunting the "mad scientist" stereotype was another one that didn't make sense. He, just like the Cloud kid, did not fit the "Strongest" image and didn't seem to have a lot of fighting experience. Yet, he was there, just as seemingly wary as the rest of them and occassionally chose to creep them out with his talk about "experimentation". He didn't know if he was trying a more subtle variant on the Cloud's I-am-clearly-here-by-mistake strategy or if he just enjoyed putting people off, though going by the darkly amused expression on his face he'd give it good odds of being both.
So he was no closer to figuring this out, surrounded by secretive and dangerous people and completely isolated from the world save for the military woman's pet sniper. Joy.
Lal Mirch was Annoyed. Having to leave COMSUBIN when her lover and her manifested their Flames had been bad enough, but apparentely their military training made them highly powerful Elements. Which translated into highly coveted or, in plain terms, ambush bait. They were slowly but surely making a name for themselves, but unsavory Famiglias "offering" them contracts was still a common ocurrence.
The situation they found themselves in at that moment had to be the most obviously suspicious in a very long time, though. Not only had Lal received almost no information, her "colleagues" were obviously suspicious and scrutinizing of everybody.
She would wonder what kind of moron brought so many dangerous and distrustful people together and expected any kind of teamwork, but then she remembered that it was the same moron who wore a checkered mask and named himself "Checkerface".
Not one of them was using their real name, save maybe for the Giglio Nero Donna, and in her case it was more than probably simply because she was in on whatever was going on. At least Lal herself had chosen a plausible name, like the Chinese martial artist.
Fon was a very obvious name for anyone of his ethnicity and even mildly westernized, but at least it could be his name. Skull and Viper had at least had the decency of choosing aliases that went well with their images. It would at least be believable if they claimed that those were the names they were most often referred to as. Reborn and Verde, though, hadn't even tried.
She didn't know if it was an indication of their cockiness, a jab at the very obvious trap they all were in or if they just didn't care, but something in her itched at the unprofessionalism. And she fully acknowledged the hypocrisy on that sentiment when her lover chose "Colonello" of all things as his handle, but they were together. She was allowed to think it was endearing on him.
Lal gnawed on her bottom lip. Of course, yet another reason why this situation sucked so much was that she couldn't let those feelings show. Pretending that Lal was unaware of Colonello's position in the forest and that he was there to woo her had been the only excuse they had been able to come up with on such short notice, but it didn't mean that she had to like it.
Especially because the ruse included her acting like she was rejecting his advances, which she was not happy about. His cheeky "But you are so hot when you get all fierce, kora!" had gotten him a kick to the head, but it wasn't enough to make him change his mind on their strategy.
Viper twitched in her room. She was aware of everyone's position in the house -all of them in their repective rooms and just as agitated as she was, though the Cloud was bordering on panic judging by his agitated pacing. It was not enough. Not by a long shot.
She thrived on information. It was her weapon, her shield and her way of life. There was no way she would be okay with flying blind in any kind of situation, especially one where so many things raised red flags.
Checkerface especially unnerved her, because she knew nothing about him. She had never heard of him, and that didn't make sense.
When he tracked her down (red flag number one) and told her that he knew who she was (red flag number two) she was ready to defend herself, with the only thing that stopped her being the knowledge that he was stronger than her.
And then he had the gall to call her the strongest Mist in the world. She had raised an eyebrow at him, though he wouldn't have been able to see it. He told her that while sitting right in front of her, with his clearly stronger Mist Flames swirling around them. It had been honestly humiliating.
Viper did not deal well with humiliation.
(Memories of the Sorting Hat shouting "SQUIB!" rose unbidden and were banished just as quickly)
Her temper, hidden as she usually kept it, had gotten her in trouble then, making her arrogantly stroll into his little ambush. She had expected to be coerced into joining a Famiglia, or some idiot whose finances she ruined out for revenge. She had not expected to see some very powerful and twitchy individuals in a similar situation as her, everyone playing the "Guess who's the traitor" game.
She had not expected time to cool off and realize what a terrible idea coming here without information was.
And as much as she prided herself on her information network, she was not infallible.
Reborn and Luce were famous enough that she knew their exploits for the past half a year by heart. Fon was very active on Asia and someone she had lots of files on.
It was still not enough to completely rule any of them out as Checkerface's agent. If he even had one. She, more than anyone, knew how a truly powerful Mist could take advantage of knowing where a target was. They could be spied on at that very moment and not even she would notice.
And that was without mentioning the other three that were making her more paranoid each passing second.
Verde was famous as a scientist, so she didn't have as much information on him since she rarely dealt on information about scientific advacement. But he had bugs, both in the literal and "listening devices" sense, and even a few that were a mix of the two and she didn't know what they were doing or what information they were providing him with.
Lal was barely a footnote on her files because she appeared very recently. The only reason why she even knew of her was that she was strong and, consequently, both her and her lover had potential to be influential. A lover that she brought with her and was out there in the forest where Viper could not control his movements.
And then there was Skull. Young, very recently civilian. Complete unknown. Not only that, but so very obviously hiding something it wasn't even funny. Especially because the damn brat was the worst actor she had ever met, but that didn't mean jack shit if his horrible acting only told her what he wasn't. The most-probably-teen -she'd eat her cowl if he was a day over twenty- didn't know a damn thing about how true bikers acted, but that didn't help her figure out what he actually was.
Fon breathed deeply and tried to find the "Eye" of his Storm. Making the whole house vanish in a bonfire of red Flames was not a viable option, no matter how tempted he was.
This whole situation was horribly stressing, as well as infuriatingly unnecessary. He was the Triad's only neutral enforcer. He already knew he was the most powerful Storm around. He had zero interst on the title of "Strongest of the World".
But of course, the bosses wanted him to acquire that title. Even if he wasn't strictly their subordinate, the fact that he worked primarly with them meant that any boost to his reputation reflected on them.
Not that he believed for a second that that was their only reason, of course. In fact, he was pretty sure that the main motivator was that if someone tried to ambush Fon and he crushed them by himself they would look strong and confident on his abilities.
That, and if someone tried to ambush Fon and succeeded they didn't want to get caught on the crossfire.
So now he was trapped like a mouse and surrounded by people he didn't know or trusted. Worse, they had an advantage over him in that most of them were established Italian mafiosi. Hence, they would be more willing to cooperate between them to get out of whatever the trap was, leaving him and the almost-civilians to fend for themselves.
If they didn't suspect him of being the one behind all of this in the first place, as the only "outlier".
He was in a better position than Skull -poor bastard had apparentely had his introduction to the concept of Flames via Checkerface and he hadn't even had the decency of informing him of the tiny detail called mafia- but that was not really saying much.
Fon was pretty sure even Verde had backup somewhere around, if only due to their geographic location. A scientist as valued as him had to have someone who owed him something on the zone, considering how close to his usual haunts they were.
He suppossed he could make an effort to get credit and goodwill out of them by being a good teammate on whatever their "jobs" were, but that was just as likely to help as to backfire. He doubted even the until-very-recently-civilian Skull would lower his guard just because he was nice. Coming in a disguise and with a cover story (no matter how horribly defended, it wasn't really the kid's fault if he was a bad actor) was a clear indication that he was not a moron.
He didn't have a better plan, though. And that irked him, because he had been expecting an ambush that would be over with a quick fight, not some kind of demented social experiment with highly dangerous and suspicious people living together for an indeterminate amount of time.
Highly dangerous and suspicious people that were suppossed to work together.
Fon exhaled another deep breath and started meditating. He abhorred lowering his guard so much in this kind of situation, but he had booby-trapped his door and window and he really needed to calm down.
Verde was in a really strange place, emotionally speaking. He was currently trapped between elated and in a state of suspicious paranoia.
He couldn't really help it because so many strong Flames to study!
But also so many dangerous people a hairsbreadth from violence out of sheer suspicion.
Not to mention whatever the trap itself was.
He had deliberately downplayed his abilities as a fighter for years, partly to make other people underestimate him and partly because using the morons trying to coerce him to work for them as "test runs" for his creations was just logical and efficient.
When Checkerface approached him, he had thought this would be a similar situation. Go there, push people's buttons by amping up the "mad scientist" vibes to get a feel for their character -well, honestly, and to have a little fun- and destroy their "trap" with his creations. If they proved insufficient he could fall back to fighting and worst case scenario... he was a Lightning. Good luck penetrating his defense or outlasting him.
But his "companions" complicated things. Most of them were established and powerful, probably here from a mix of suspicion -ignoring someone trying to lay a trap for you and leaving him the opportunity to try again but subtly was just stupid- and slight overconfidence.
Which meant that the trap would be made with the containment of truly dangerous people in mind, and he couldn't count on his enemies underestimating the resources they would need to restrain him.
He also didn't know which of them -if any- was in on whatever the ambush was suppossed to be. Sure, the Giglio Nero Donna seemed to have more information than them, but she was a Sky. It would make sense that the details were sent to her. And if she was as suspicious as the rest of them she would withold all the information she could to see who slipped up and said something they weren't suppossed to know.
The rest of them -himself included- were playing a similar game of misinformation and scrutiny of each other.
Which would normally be a completely fascinating social experiment if he wasn't in the thick of it.
But the most irksome thing was that he couldn't obtain data. Not only had he no leads as to Checkerface's identity -blasphemy!- but the rest of them were annoyingly competent. The only thing his bugs had been able to tell him was that they were either sitting or pacing in their rooms, all of them slightly agitated and trying to calm down.
Even the arguably-civilian Cloud that could not act to save his life knew better than to try to contact the outside in a place that was not secure. Which was heartening when considering potential allies against whatever Checkerface was planning but really annoying when trying to get their mettle.
Especially because Checkerface was either a true chess master that knew their real abilities no matter how much they tried to hide them -the only thing they all had in common was ridiculously powerful Flames- or a complete lunatic that had no idea how incredibly incompatible and on edge most of them were.
This whole situation was a powderkeg about to explode, and Verde was torn between gleefully anticipating the destruction and diving for cover.
AN: I never thought I'd ever write a whole chapter that was nothing but people sitting on their rooms and thinking, and yet...
Also, this is about all the ColonelloxLal there is going to be.