Chapter Nine

Twisted Sisght

Finding his sons was something that had been on Dio Brando's mind for a while now. So, he was now sitting in front of the residence he had found for their family. He looked at the suburban house that looked so much like all the others around them. It had no personality at all. He sighed and wondered how his oldest would take to seeing him again now that he was eighteen. He stepped out of the car, leaving his driver and bodyguard Vanilla Ice in the car. He doubted he'd need him here. He went to the door of the house and knocked.

"What is it?" came a familiar voice as he waited for the door to open.

She looked much the same as when he had last seen her, other than aging a great deal over the last eighteen years. She had a wine glass in her hand and stared at him blankly for a moment.

"What do you want?" she said finally.

"I came to see my son," he said with a hard glance at her. "He's eighteen now, so I've come to speak to him."

She stared at him for a few more moments before she shrugged. "I don't know where he is. He left months ago after starting school at Vento Aureo. Took all his things and left. He's off with someone from there."

"You don't know where our son is?" he asked with a sigh. "How can you possibly not know where he's gone?"

"I don't know, he's your son so imagine what you will about him. He looks like you, too. You'll be proud when you meet him," she said and closed the door on him.

Dio frowned and returned to the car. "Take us to Vento Aureo."

Ice nodded from the front and obediently took off toward the college. He had a contact in the college that would be able to help him, he knew. He soon arrived at the school and found his way to the library where Mariah worked. She would be able to answer any question he had about the workings of the school, and quite a few about those that went there.

"Mr. Brando," she said with a smile as she looked up at him. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"I'm looking for my son, and I understand that he goes to school here. I was hoping you could help me locate him. He's staying with someone else that goes to school here. Here's a recent photograph," he said and handed over a picture that had been taken of him close to his eighteenth birthday.

Mariah looked at the picture and nodded. "I've seen him a lot; he comes in all the time."

"Do you know who he's living with?" Dio wasn't sure if she would know such a detail, but he could try to get as much information as he could.

She looked thoughtful. "I've seen him around Pannacotta Fugo and his bunch. I don't know for sure, but he might be living there. I know he has a big place and a lot of people live there."

"Fugo?" Dio said with a nod. "Alright, I'll look into that."

Dio left and went back to the car where Ice was waiting for him. He got back in and pulled out his phone. He looked up the name and found an address for him nearby. It would make sense for someone to live close to their school he supposed. He had Ice drive him out to the location so he could investigate her claim. The worst that could happen was that no one would be home or they would not be related to his son at all. He watched as he took him to a property in Chesterfield. He got out with Ice getting out with him. He doubted he'd be at risk in a place like this but who knew for sure.

He approached the door to the house. He looked around to see it was well wooded and had several smaller buildings aside from the large main house. As he got closer, he noted a pen with some young ducks running around in it. He thought that was interesting. He came to the door and knocked gently. A few seconds later, the door opened and he was looking at a thin man with chin length black hair standing there.

"Can I help you?" he said with a frown.

"Yes, I was informed that Giorno Giovanna might be here," he said and saw the other man's face twist in something else. That was unusual.

"Well, you're a little late. He's missing right now," the black-haired man said.

Dio frowned. "Missing?"

"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously.

"My name is Dio Brando. I'm Giorno's biological father," he said and gestured behind him at the tall, long haired man that stood there. "And this is my bodyguard and driver, Vanilla Ice."

"I'm Bruno Buccellati," he said and looked back into the house. "We were just discussing what to do about Giorno. He disappeared yesterday from the school."

"Maybe I could be of assistance," he said with a nod at him.

"Please, come in," Bruno said and gestured for them to enter the house.

Risotto and Formaggio were sitting on the sofa and looked up as Dio and Ice entered the room. At the table, Mista, Narancia, and Fugo all sat with tea before them. Dio looked around at the mishmash of the place around him with an arched brow but said nothing. It looked like the place was in the middle of being remodeled or something.

Bruno pointed to Dio. "This is Giorno's real father, who is looking for him."

Mista looked at him intently for a minute. "I recognize you from the picture that Giorno has of you."

Dio nodded. "What has occurred to my son?"

"Risotto here knows the most about who we think has him," Bruno said, motioning to the man seated on the side of the sofa with dark eyes and a heavy aura about him. "We were discussing our options."

"What do you think has happened to him?" Dio asked, a serious look on his face. There was, of course, the chance that these people were wrong. He didn't think they were lying to him though.

Risotto cleared his throat. "I used to work for a man named Diavolo. He's got a small drug trade in the area, mostly designer drugs that they manufacture. He's twisted and paranoid, and he uses people's families when someone owes money. I remember seeing the name Giovanna in the ledger."

"It had to have been one of his parents," Mista said from his place at the table still. "Giorno didn't do any drugs. Probably his stepfather. He was abusing him when he moved in with us."

Dio arched a brow again and continued to look impassive as he glanced back at Risotto.

"If he was kidnapped by Diavolo, you need to get him out of there quickly. He won't last long." Risotto flinched as he seemed to remember his own encounter.

Dio was silent for a moment. "Where can I find this Diavolo?"

Risotto glanced at Formaggio. "I can tell you where some of his places were, but I don't know where he would keep Giorno."

Risotto gave Dio as much information that he had on Diavolo's location. Dio thanked them and gave his contact information to Bruno so that he could easily contact him again. He then headed out and went to go find some of his contacts to try and help find his son. After he stopped and had a little chat with Giorno's stepfather, of course.

At Passione Villa, Fugo knew he was going to have a break down, he could feel it building and now with Giorno's situation, it was just all going to explode. He headed outside without saying anything more to the others. Bruno and Narancia already knew what was wrong and let him go.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Not far away, a man named Benjamin Boom Boom lived with his two sons, L.A. and Andre. What his sons didn't know was heir father had found an easy way to make money by cooking meth when he went to work. They didn't know what he was doing, only that his job now was bringing in more money than his previous one had. Benjamin had decided not to tell his sons what was going on so the didn't end up in a life of crime like he was involved with. He still took care of L.A. because he had some menta disability from their mother taking drugs while she was pregnant. That was the main reason that he kept the boys away from her.

Unfortunately, this caught the attention of Diavolo and his men. The idea that someone else was going to deal in drugs in their area was ludicrous and they would put a stop to it.

Benjamin, Andre, and L.A. were all headed home that night, when L.A. noticed a strange car tailing them.

"I think that car is following us," he said with a worried glance behind them.

"Shut up," Andre muttered. "It's just someone going the same way we are."

L.A. wasn't sure, but he listened to his brother. Before long the car began riding their bumper and signaling that it wanted to pass them. Benjamin shifted over to the side of the road to let them pass. L.A. was watching them pass when sudden shots started flying from the rear passenger window and Benjamin hit the brakes, careening off the road into a tree. L.A. had thrown himself down to the floorboards and hadn't been hit. He got up when the car stopped and saw his father with blood running down the side of his face and Andre covered in blood and not moving

Fleeing the car in terror, L.A. ended up stumbling onto the nearby property where Passione Villa was located. As storm clouds began to gather in the sky, the frightened man saw Fugo kicking things and yelling at the sky, ranting and raving at no one.

Nearby, Ermes was watching, thinking at first Fugo was practicing some sort of performance art or something by the way he was acting. His movements were broad and exaggerated and he was yelling at the sky while gesticulating wildly. She watched for a few minutes. She quickly realized, though, that he wasn't acting, and he was actually releasing everything in a rage induced rampage of a type. L.A. on the other hand was too busy frantically crying and laughing to even notice Fugo as thunder began to resound in the sky.

L.A. didn't know a lot of things, but he knew he had lost his brother and his father. He was hysterical and sobbing. He saw a house and ran toward it trying to get into it. He figured that somewhere to hide could be found inside the place, and in his state, he needed to hide from those that were shooting at them. He got the door open as he felt someone grab him by the shoulders. He turned to see a large man with a zebra printed hat and a sheriff's deputy badge on his leopard print shirt.

"L.A., your brother's alive, calm down!" he said.

Fugo by now had raged himself out and was sitting exhausted on the ground by the duck pen. He looked over to see the large man trying to calm down the frantic one but was too exhausted by his own rage that he just shook his head and sat there.

The sheriff's deputy went by Mountain Tim and knew the family pretty well. He had just left the ambulance that was taking Andre to the hospital and had seen L.A. run off from the scene, so he went after him. He'd tracked him easily to the next property over. Now, there were people coming out of the house to see what all the ruckus was about.

"What's going on?" Bruno asked as he came out the door.

"I'm very sorry, but this man stumbled onto your property," Tim said as he squeezed L.A.'s shoulder as he sat on the ground still sobbing and laughing now and then. "I tracked him here and need to take him to the hospital to be with his brother who was just shot."

Tim then got L.A. to his feet and led him back toward their property as it began to thunder. He managed to get the young man in a car and sent him to the hospital to be with his brother. He then proceeded to begin looking around for evidence around the house to see if they could figure out why this had happened and what was going on.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Toyohiro Kanedachi lived in an old water tower that he converted into a home. It was a strange place to live, most people would say, but it was a good home that he made for himself. He'd been able to buy the place super cheap and had a great view of all the areas around him. He enjoyed spending his time in the top of the tower just looking out on the green countryside around Chesterfield. He had recently been getting visits from a nearby resident that saw him wandering around the ground around the tower one day.

Mikitaka was an unusual sort, he thought, but he was a good enough guy. He was definitely someone that brought up strange topics. Today, he saw that Mikitaka was bringing someone with him to the tower. He rappelled down the tower to get to the ground just as they came up.

"Mikitaka!" he hailed as he came nearer.

"Toyohiro, this is my friend Bruno Buccellati that lives on the same property that I live. He had a couple questions for you," Mikitaka said as he indicated the dark-haired man beside him.

"Of course," he said as he walked over to them. His macaw, Superfly, landed on his shoulder and made a noise at the newcomers. "Calm down," he said, rubbing the bird's head as he walked toward them.

Mikitaka smiled and bowed slightly to him as Bruno reached out his hand to shake. Toyohiro shook hands with him and nodded. "What can I help you with?" he asked.

"I was wondering if you had any ideas for where someone could be taken that was kidnapped by the drug lord Diavolo in the area," Bruno asked, knowing full well it was a long shot.

Toyohiro thought for a second. "I mean, I can be on the lookout for something that might be a hideout I guess. What happened?"

"A friend of ours that lives on the property was grabbed by Diavolo and we have no idea to even begin looking for him. Mikitaka said that you watched a lot of the areas around here and might be able to give us a direction to look into for answers," Bruno said.

"What kind of things should I look for?" he asked, frowning.

"I'm not sure, but it is somewhere that Diavolo and his men come and go from. We have no idea where it might be, but we suspect it to be close by since he runs drugs in the area," Bruno explained, looking around. "I think you would have an excellent view of the areas nearby, though."

Toyohiro nodded. "I can see quite a bit from the top of the tower."

"Could you be on the lookout for anything unusual so that we have some place to start?" Bruno requested.

"Of course," Toyohiro said. "I could look for something like that. Mikitaka comes to seem me most days, so if I see something, it would be easy for him to get it back to you."

"Very well, we appreciate it. We'd like to find Giorno quickly because we don't know what's happened to him." Bruno started to leave when Toyohiro put his hand out.

"Wait, there is something…" he started.

"Yeah?" Bruno asked, curious.

"Well, there's an office building I noticed that has people coming and going in the evening and late at night. I thought it was weird, but maybe something like that would be your place?" he asked as he pulled out his binoculars. "I can keep checking on that place if you want. I can give you approximately where it is based on the cross roads near it."

Toyohiro went back up and used his high-powered binoculars to locate the place again. He found the closest intersection to it pretty easily. He then went back down and told Bruno what he'd seen and where it was.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Giorno had decided that this was some sort of hell. He sat in the chair, handcuffed to the arm of it, as he saw things that weren't real. He knew they weren't real, but they felt real. These were nightmares made real before his eyes. Then when he came down of whatever this guy gave him, he felt sick and weak. It was a surreal effect because he was at the same time about to come out of skin and seeing things that couldn't be real.

The worst were the hands. He kept having hand grab him and hold him down. He would panic and scratch at the hands, trying to pry them off his arms and legs. He ended up leaving long scratches on both his arms on the back and some on his stomach where his nails dug into him. He just had to get the hands off of him.

Volpe watched his reactions, recording various things. The drug was a variant of MDMA, or ecstasy. It was a slightly altered version of the already available drug. He seemed to be hallucinating under the influence of it. He was on the second day of tests and so far, the boy had been useful. He hadn't died, so that was a plus on the development of this particular drug. The addictive properties were higher than most drugs and should have caused a dependence relatively quickly.

"Get 'em of me," Giorno said again, digging at the back of his right arm. It was already bleeding again where he'd torn scabs from yesterday's tests.

"It's okay, Giorno. It's okay. No one is going to hurt you here," Volpe said with a calm voice as he jotted down the time frame for the start of the hallucinations.

"But they won't let go!" he exclaimed and Volpe smiled, coming around and kneeing in front of him. His pupils were dilated wide and his breath was coming in quick pants. The right arm was handcuffed to the chair, and all around the wrist, it was raw and red where he'd been pulling at the handcuff. Blood dripped down his arm in a steady trickle.

"Hush, what do you see?" Volpe asked, pulling his left hand away from his right arm. His hand flexed and blood dripped from the tips of his fingers.

"The hands are holding me down…" he breathed out.

Volpe smiled. The hands, so he was perceiving the hands in his mind as holding him down. Giorno gasped suddenly and stared at the wall.

"Sh-shut up!" he said, waving his left hand at the wall.

In his view he saw twisted, grotesque faces covering the wall. They were laughing at him and saying horrible things.

"You think Mista actually likes you?"

"How pathetic are you, getting caught so easily."

"Where do you think they are now? Do they even care you're gone?"

"You're nothing to them…"

"You're nothing but a worthless brat…"

Volpe smiled, running a gentle hand over Giorno's face. "There, now. Don't get too worked up, I can't guarantee how well your heart will take to this much stress."

Giorno's head snapped around and he stared at Volpe, eyes wide and blank. "They won't shut up…" he whispered to him seriously.

"Yes, I know, but they aren't real, remember?" Volpe was testing how real the illusion was in his mind.

"They're real, they're there, laughing at me!" he exclaimed and then started to dig at his arm again. "And they won't let go!"

Volpe stood up and recorded his observations again as the door opened and he saw Diavolo had come to see how things were going. He came over and stared at Giorno who was staring at the wall again.

"How is the trial coming along?" Diavolo asked.

"Good, the kid's smallish and skinny, so the drug affects him quickly. He is responding to the drug well, and so far no life threatening problems have occurred. After I finish testing this week, it should be good to go into production."

"Good, good," Diavolo said with a smile. "Do you think he'll live through it?"

"I'm not sure. I'm testing how much is a safe dose without overdosing, so we'll see how long he can tolerate it. His heart might not be able to take the highest dosages I have planned by the end of the week. But we'll see, he's been resilient so far."

"Good. Let me know the results and when we can push forward with manufacture, then. I leave it to you," Diavolo stated and headed back out of his lab.

Volpe turned back to his test subject and smiled. He didn't often get to have test subjects, so it was nice to get some. Sometimes he got volunteers who wanted to try out the new drugs for free, but they were few and far between.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Dio stood outside the house to Giorno's mother and stepfather once again. He knocked and waited for the answer. Giorno's mother answered it and glared at him.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"I need to talk to you and your husband about my son," he said and arched a brow. Behind him, Ice stood stoically and said nothing, only stared.

There were rumors about Vanilla Ice and who he was. Dio had heard it all since he'd had the man as his bodyguard. He'd heard that he was in prison once for killing a bunch of people. He'd also heard that he was a member of Russian Special Forces. But his favorite rumor had to be the idea that he was some kind of genetic experiment. None of those things were true, but even Dio himself didn't know everything about his lover/personal bodyguard.

"Please, come in, then," she said tightly, stepping back and letting him come into the house.

She led them to the living room where her husband was sitting watching TV. He looked up when Dio and Ice came into the room. He stood up, staring at Ice more than Dio.

"I came to find out who you were getting your drugs from," Dio said without hesitation.

Giorno's stepfather glared at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, Giorno has been kidnapped by someone, and I want to know why this has happened, and where to look for him," he said and narrowed his eyes at the other man.

"Why do you care? Who the hell are you?" he asked, staring between Dio and Ice.

"My name is Dio Brando, and Giorno is my son. Now, tell me who supplied your drugs so I know for sure who I'm looking for to get him back." Dio crossed his arms and stared at him.

"I-I got them from Diavolo," he said, staring at Ice's quiet countenance.

"I also have the matter of your abuse of my son," Dio said dangerously.

"That little shit was always trying to read me! He deserved every beating he got!"

Dio arched a brow and sighed. He turned to Giorno's mother. "And you let this go on? You let this man abuse our son?"

She said nothing, only looked away from him. Dio nodded and looked to Ice. "Let's go, we've got what we came for."

They both headed for the door and Giorno's mother grabbed him by the arm. "What are you going to do?" she asked.

"I'm going to get my son back. I'll deal with the boy from now on. He sounds like he has some good qualities that I can appreciate," Dio told her and then left out the doorway to do exactly what he said. He had a direction to look now and that was worth everything.