Chapter 7

The Real Bandits

"Oh wow, Justyn. Who are all these people?" Can you stop bringing all these random women in here?" an annoyed female voice came from behind Kitty.

"Quite the pimp are ya, shorty?" Kitty said to Justyn. He grumbled something in Italian and fixed his fedora back on straight.

He pushed past us and walked to the woman. I turned to her. She was Asian. She had on a black, skin-tight dress that was probably cut a little too high showing off her legs and a little too revealing up top…

If ya know what I mean…

She had long dark hair, and tall… well, taller than Justyn, anyway.

"Aw come'on! These are old friends." Justyn said walking up to the woman. She gave off a confused look to the crowd.

"ALL of them?" she asked, looking back to him. Justyn grumbled again and I busted out laughing.

"Oh great, now you're bringing in strange men too?!" she shouted. I hit the floor, laughing uncontrollably.

"FUCK! Really?!" Justyn grumbled. "James, Kitty! Get over here…"

Me and Kitty shrugged at each other and made our way over to him. The woman had her arms crossed and tapping her foot, in her high heels, against the ground.

"This is Victoria, the Godmother of LCN." Justyn said to us, holding his head down.

"Damn dude. Ya sound sorta reluctant to say that." I chuckled. He gave me a mean look. Victoria on the other hand, seemed rather intrigued. She was giving me a weird look. I did have my cloak removed, showing off my tattoos and muscles…

I know that look she's giving me… It can only mean trouble…

"Sorry miss. I'm James Marx, former 'Head of Security' for SFM. It's an honor to meet you" I said to her, stretching out my hand.

"Wow, it's nice to finally meet the feared Reaper of SFM and The Wanted Outlaws. The honor is mine, sir." she replied in a seductive tone, gripping my hand and shaking it.

Oh God… Please don't let this be another "Emma"…

"I'm Kitty Johnson, former Godmother of SFM." Kitty said, holding out her hand as well.

Victoria gave her a very weak handshake, "Yes, I'm sure."

Kitty gave her that, "really bitch", look. She looked over to me. I just shrugged.

"Okay!" said clapping his hands once. "How about we talk about those bandits, huh?"

"Yes Justyn. Did you get rid of them like you said?" Victoria asked him.

"Yeah… about that…" Justyn replied.

"You didn't get rid of them!?" Victoria exclaimed.

"Not exactly…" Justyn tried to explain.

"I went after the location they were at. It wasn't them. It's a different group attacking you guys." I stepped in.

Figure I should help him out…

"The wrong ones?" Victoria asked me.

"Yes ma'am. The bandits attacking LCN are male. The ones I found were all female." I replied.

"Oh… well, did you deal with them?"

"They are on our side now."

Victoria gave me a confused look. "They are on our side?"

"Yes. You're speaking to the leader of them now." Kitty stepped in. "Justyn, as you may know, was Don's consigliore. I was the Godmother after a woman named Miuki. James, Justyn and everyone else in the higher ranks here are old friends."

"And we have brought back the old SFM back. They are all coming back in… well, except Kitty. She has her family of bandits to take care of." I replied. Kitty nodded back to me and chuckled.

Victoria gave Justyn an angry look. "And you didn't tell me this? Or involve me in any way? Just doing shit behind my back as usual…" she exclaimed.

"Aw come on V. These are my old pals. We'll be fifteen times stronger now. We got bandits on our side and the best fighter in SFM with us." Justyn tried to reason.

"Hmph… we'll see." Victoria said softly. "Nice meeting you Reaper. Hope to see you again." she said in that seductive tone. She put her hand on her hip and strutted away.

I leaned over and whispered to Kitty, "Makes you wonder who REALLY runs LCN, huh?" She chuckled and nodded.

000

The next day, everyone was hanging around the hideout. Justyn and Don were filing through some papers. Hulio was in a trance watching the security monitors and munching on some food. Mikey and Amy were in the infirmary caring for some injured soldiers. Kitty and I were in the training area, setting up new equipment from her hideout in the mall. EJ and Ashley were training some soldiers from Justyn's fam and some from Kitty's as well.

"These will be some nice new additions, huh?" Kitty asked me.

"Yeah, really. This is a lot better than what was in here before. Justyn may keep himself hidden for a while, but he picks some shitty-ass places." I replied. Kitty laughed at me.

As I was setting up a few punching bags, Kitty taps my shoulder.

"Remember what happened last time we sparred?" she asked me with a goofy smile on her face. I grumbled at her question and she burst into laughter.

"That's the ONLY move you can land on me, woman." I replied, finishing the setup.

"And it still works to this day!" she retorted, laughing more.

"She got you there, bro." EJ said, walking over to us.

I gave Kitty a death glare.

"Oooo, Reaper so scarrrry." Kitty taunted, backing away.

"You wanna go, girly?" I asked, readying myself for a fight. A small crowd had begun to form around us.

"Want to get thrown again?" she replied, readying herself as well.

We ran at each other, but were suddenly stopped by an explosion. We lost our balance and fell.

"What the fuck was that?" Kitty asked, rubbing her back.

"I don't know. Let's go check on the rest." I shouted.

We go up and ran up to the main area. Some pillars were down and equipment shattered. It looked as though no real damage or injuries.

"Looks like we got our culprits right here." Hulio shouted, pointing to a monitor.

I ran over to see what it was. A group of men were running away from a crater that a monitor overlooked. It was right outside the entrance. Justyn ran over and saw the same thing I was seeing.

"Those are the fucks attacking us. James, get them!" Justyn shouted. I nodded and ran to the secret entrance, hoping to get a surprise attack on them. EJ followed close behind me. We made it out and saw the group still standing around. There were four guys, all armed with melee weapons: axes; swords; knives; the usual shit. I holstered my pistol and unsheathed one of my swords. EJ did the same.

"Hey fuckers!" I shouted. They all turned and looked towards me. One guy stood out from the rest. He didn't have a scarf or goggles covering his face, like the others; only a pair of sunglasses. He had on tight leather pants. No shirt, but leather belts and straps crossed his chest

"You must be the leader or this sad little group?" I asked.

The man stepped forward. He spoke in an interesting tone of voice. I figured he must not care much for women…

"Yes, that would be me. I am TC, leader of Leather Angels!" he shouted.

"You guys look like the farthest things from angels if you ask me." EJ retorted. I chuckled at the remark.

"You and all of LCN with perish!" TC shouted back at us.

"Believe us, we're perishing by looking at you." I responded.

TC tore his glasses off his face in a rage. "You're Reaper!"

"Wow… I surprised someone recognized me with the eye patch…"

"You killed Emma!"

"Oh, you know her too? Did she fuck you or something? Give ya every STD in the book plus those not discovered?" I smarted off.

"Boys! Finish them!" TC shouted to the three remaining men. He stormed away to a car and took off out of here.

"He sounds sensitive…" EJ said quietly to me. I tried to hold my laughter back.

"Let's take care of these little punks first. Jokes later, alright?" I said. EJ nodded and we ran to the three guys. I drew my other sword and took on two at once. EJ got the last one.

The two were no match. After blocking several of their horribly timed strikes, I knocked their weapons out of their hands. Distracted from their weapons gone, I made one smooth motion and cut their heads clean off.

EJ played with the other guy for a while. He knocked his weapon out of his hands as well. EJ spun around and stabbed the guy in the gut. He retracted the sword, spun back around and sliced his throat. The man fell over in a bleeding, lifeless heap.

We cleaned our swords and sheathed them. Making our way back, EJ patted me on the shoulder.

"Just like old time, huh?" he asked.

"Yep, sure is." I replied.

000

"So those responsible for the attacks are the Leather Angels?" Justyn asked us. EJ and I nodded.

"You know them?" I asked.

"A guy named TC runs the gang. He's obsessed over Emma's death." Justyn replied.

"We noticed." EJ remarked. I chuckled.

"All we know is he was one of her close friends and he blames you and Kitty for killing her. That may explain why he was trying to frame Kitty for the attacks." Justyn said, rubbing his chin. "We've had several run-ins with him before. Joined LCN few years back and tried to steal all the members. We kicked his ass out quick."

"Does Victoria know about him?" I asked.

"Not that I know of… I don't think she does. We'll fill her in at the next meeting." Justyn replied.

000

"So… they know?" a female voice asked.

"Yes. They know it's us." TC said back.

"Hmmm… attack them harder. Be more relentless. Justyn and his family must be stopped." The female demanded.

"But Lady Moon... Reaper has surfaced. I just want him and Kitty. You can worry about Justyn. They killed my Emma!" TC shouted.

"I could care less about who you personally want. We made a deal to frame Kitty to get him to kill her. While he was out, we kill him. Simple as that." the woman said. "You're letting your emotions get the better of you."

"Fuck you Moon! You have your connections and your power, you kill Justyn. My priorities are Kitty and Reaper. I will make them pay!" TC yelled in anger. "You want Justyn, you get him. I'm through with your pointlessness!"

TC turned and stormed out of the dark room with some of his guards behind him. The mysterious woman sat in her seat, legs crossed. She began to laugh softly, but the further TC got from her, the louder she laughed. When he left the room and slammed the door shut, she was cackling like a witch.

[Hey guys. Sorry for the long wait and short chapter. Writer's block has been a bitch and finals were hell. And to anyone reading this, please do not feel offended. TC is inspired by someone I know who is homosexual. I am not bashing homosexuality in any way. With that being said… Looks like LCN finally found out who was behind those attacks. Victoria seems like a bit of a demanding Godmother, huh? And who is this mysterious Lady Moon? All in good time friends. Find out what happens in the next chapter, "Friends Never Forget"]