A/N Hey guys, just want to say this before the chapter started. Metallore might sound strange when you sound it out in your head, but the way I imagine it is in an Italian accent hear 'Meh-ttalore' there's a short pause after the 'meh' and it rises in pitch at the second syllable. Anyway it bugged me through writing imagining how people would probably hear it in their heads if they didn't see this. But let's begin.
Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia
Chapter 133:
On the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, the top hero in all of Italy walked down a gravel road wearing a disguise over his hero costume. Metallore was a nineteen year old still new to pro hero work, however he had shot to the top of Italy's leaderboard soon after graduation because of his rapid and flawless arrest record. He was known as the 'Super Rookie' of Italy, in other countries by Metal King even though that did not translate directly back into his own language. Federico Jackson was half American though, as his mother had come from the United States to marry his father in Rome where he was born. Metal King in Italian would have been the Re di Metallo, yet translated into English would have turned into the King of Metal. He compromised when creating his hero name to make it Italian yet in a direct translation to English would turn it into Metal King.
The Italian people were fine with the way Metallore chose his name by accepting his American and Italian heritage, as there was no way they could complain when both his Italian and American parents were killed in a villain attack while he was in his final year of high school two years before. Metallore made it his mission to capture the villain gang responsible for his parents' deaths, yet the group was captured weeks after the incident and right before he graduated. After already making that declaration that he would bring them to justice, many had believed that the top hero recruit of the Rome Hero Institute might lose his drive. Instead, despite the frustration of not being able to take them down himself, Metallore had been given a chance for a clean slate going into his pro career. His focus spread across all of Italy, he worked with Italian heroes across the country and did not establish his own hero agency as he did not need a building or sidekicks or support to help him with his hero work.
Metallore had his costume on under the gray cloak he wore, and that was all he needed. The muscular young man was just under six feet tall, he had short spiky blond hair hidden under the cloak's gray hood, and he wore a silver costume that would shine in the sunlight. Even if he took his cloak off that day though there would be no glimmering. The sky was overcast and the clouds were so dark it looked like a downpour could start at any time. Supposedly because of the weather report, their "picnic" was relocated to a more private location. Most in the town know it is going on, but not all were invited. Metallore glanced to his right over at a butcher's shop, and though he saw the butcher inside behind his counter talking to someone else, the shop looked almost completely cleared out. Must be a barbecue there too. Hopefully that keeps things civil, but who knows if the party atmosphere will hold. The Arsassi, Cambri, Picciano, and Garbaldi gangs feel too confident about moving around freely. They hide their illegal enterprises well, and their guys don't snitch when caught, so they wind up having nice and easy times in prison with their connections on the outside. The only time to catch the dons then, is at times when they think they can be out in public because they're untouchable. Just need to see something. One crime, and I can appear. And once their guys attack a pro hero, I'll be able to cripple all the remaining mafias in one move.
Metallore turned down another street and looked to the end of it where there was a large building. It was not a mansion, nor a luxurious estate that some of the smaller mafias owned, but an inconspicuous government building that did not look to be hosting a "picnic." It's stuff like this that bugs me the most. Metallore glared at the town hall up ahead, and he started towards it while staying close to the side of the street so he could slip away into an alley if anyone near that building saw him coming. The gangs think they have immunity because they can blackmail or bribe mayors and city officials. They think that because most people in a small town like this without any heroes stationed in it would be scared, that all the people will just be too afraid to reach out to a hero like me and offer their help. But not all anonymous tips are…
The young hero glanced around for a second then shook his head at the paranoid thought he just had. I've always been against them. After China, it's clear to a lot more people now that we shouldn't be accepting their help. I'm embarrassed that it was here in Italy that the only captured AoD member escaped. I, was willing to listen to Michelangelo's advice though, when it came to accepting those tips. Even though they seemed shady as to how much information they had, I listened to the tips. I should have known from the start that it was always Death. Yet, even if I had known, and maybe I did but just didn't want to admit it to myself… because even if I had accepted it was the truth, I still would have pretended otherwise to be able to use those tips and take down the villains I have defeated thus far. Metallore frowned deeply and then he stopped and stared closely at the town hall up ahead where he could start smelling some very good scents originating from. He stopped and he ducked behind the wall of a building, peeking out just his head to look towards a connecting road that intersected with the town hall right in the center of the town.
A group of eight men were walking down the road. The Italian guys were talking loudly and yelling at each other, but they were mostly smiling and just throwing their hands around as they talked boisterously and without looking around them. Metallore could see none of them were worried in the least that there was a hero watching, but his eyes darted around their waistbands and he frowned as he did not see any firearms on them he could use as an excuse to follow and arrest them. He did not need to follow them though, as the men turned to the same location he was heading for anyway. They walked to the town hall building, but not to the front steps leading up to the main floor of the building. Instead they walked around the side of the steps and to the side of the building where there was a small grassy lawn that only stretched out a few meters from the building to a black fence about waist-high.
One of the guys opened up the gate that was not locked, and the other seven walked in behind him and then down a staircase just outside the building to a basement door they opened up and walked right into. Metallore had started forward while they were doing this, slipping straight into the building he had hidden behind and moving through the pipes across it to the wall on the other side where half his body emerged from a gutter and his silver eyes narrowed on the back of the last man about to head in. The last guy never looked behind him even to close the door, and Metallore got a confused look on his face while popping the rest of the way out of the building. No security? It would look suspicious if gang members were outside guarding the door of the town hall, but they didn't knock or have a problem getting in. It's very loud in there.
The closer Metallore had gotten, the easier it was to smell the building but also to hear it. The smells of smoked meat filled the air, and there was smoke coming out of a chimney and pipes on the ceiling of the town hall building. Metallore looked around the streets of the small town in northern Sicily, wondering if anyone was watching the door from a different angle and warning of the cloaked figure's approach. As he already thought though, he was all alone out there. He turned back to the building where the shouts of Italian men bellowing through the walls and pipes was often louder than the music coming from the hall. Metallore frowned more at the sound of those shouts, as they cast doubt on his suspicion that the loud music was to drown out anyone trying to listen in to the secret meetings really going on down there.
Metallore walked towards the black gate and he pushed it open. He walked forward still in his gray cloak, and he prepared himself as he did not know how people would react upon seeing him once he entered the building. He walked down the cement steps underground to the town hall's basement, and he grabbed the door handle and pushed in. Federico acted as if it was natural for him to be walking in, and to his mild surprise it worked as he was able to just close the door and then head into the huge basement wider than the first floor of the town hall above. The basement looked to spread the entire size of the property the town hall was on, maybe even under the roads surrounding it for a little too. The basement was one huge open area, so there was no kitchen for the cooking to go on. There was one side with better ventilation though so that was where all the smokers and grills had been set up so the heat and smoke would filter out.
When the top hero in the country walked into the basement, his eyes darted around from the shadow of his gray hood. He wondered if there were other people hiding their faces which was why he did not stick out, but he was once again confused as no one in there was wearing masks or a hood like he was. He saw hefty men and muscular brutes sitting around with lanky guys covered in tattoos and wearing necklaces and rings. Some of the guys had gold teeth, others just gaps between their teeth that Metallore could see easily as many of them were shouting still and waving hands out in front of them with money in their grasps. Gambling. Illegal use of government property. And… Metallore's eyes shifted to the stage on one side of the room but off of the wall a bit so that the spectators could gather all around it.
There was a metal cage around the stage keeping the two fighters on it inside the arena. Both men were shirtless and wearing shorts, both of them with boxing gloves on and in the middle of circling each other in the ring while everyone around them roared at the two. Metallore started across the room as he saw what was going on. A cage match. And those wounds, they look like- Metallore's eyes darted across the room as he spotted a couple of men sitting while most in the room were standing. The majority of people in there were men, though there were a fair number of women in there who were mostly just there with their husbands. The majority of people were standing though, holding paper plates with their food on it and red cups with the drinks they got from either the makeshift bar near the food stations or from the kegs lining the opposite wall as the fighting stage. The men who were sitting though were ones who Metallore recognized well. The dons. Of each of the families. Gianni and Milo Arsassi, and between the Arsassi brothers is Ramosi Picciano? They're looking, friendly. Too friendly, all of them. Metallore's eyes shifted around at other big shots around the table, and he saw some large bodyguards around the table too, though even those other guys at the tops of the families were eating and drinking like the bosses they were standing near, even talking to the other families' members.
That's not good. It looks like they've already formed an alliance. In times like these, it's the only way for those men to stay strong. Hold onto their power. And with the mayor sitting right over there with them too, Metallore's eyes darkened more but he shifted them from that table back over to the cage where he heard a chorus of roars ring out as one of the men on the stage just got hit hard. Metallore started over that way, and he saw a couple of guys over on his left give him some strange looks when he walked in front of them. Here we go. There's a lot of metal in this room, and not a lot of exits. I can stop all of… Metallore started looking up at the stage and the two men fighting on it while everyone yelled at them to win.
Metallore had thought both of them looked rough from a distance, but he was closer now and had a better look at the fighters. He saw the tan-skinned man's back had an x-shaped scar up near his right shoulder, and another smaller one that looked like a bullet hole in his lower back near the center but a bit to the left. The six foot six tall man had a scar on his right arm too, and a tattoo sleeve that covered his left from his elbow up onto his shoulder but stopping before his neck so that a t-shirt would cover most of it. The tan man looked Italian, and Metallore recognized him when the guy circled around the outside after the last big hit that landed on his face. The bruise on his right cheek that was swelling and forcing that eye half shut made it difficult, as did the cut on his chin, but Metallore's eyes opened wide as he recognized the young man. Bobo Cambri? The Don's famous son? Metallore's eyes darted back across the room to the long table where the dons were talking and being friendly, but also most of them were looking over and watching the fight too that was on an elevated platform and thus they could watch even while seated with a bunch of standing people between them.
"Win Bobo! I bet a lot of money on you!" Don Cambri shouted towards his son.
Metallore's ears were peeled now as he was much more confused as to what was going on. The don doesn't look worried enough that this fight is a death match. Unless he really doesn't care about his son, which isn't what I've heard. It's uncommon too, and- but the other fighter looks-
"I told you, I'm not betting on him even if he is the dons' champion," one of the men close to Metallore on his right said to his comrade next to him.
"Fuck! I thought the dons would've picked the best fighter, not just one of their sons-"
"Nah man, Bobo's a pro boxer! You really think you could kick his ass?"
"I could do better than this! He's getting his ass whooped…"
Metallore lost focus on the men on his right. He lost focus and everything around him turned into a quiet buzzing sound as he stared at the other fighter who finally moved into a good angle that he was given a full unobstructed view of him. Not just his back that was covered in scars below the long black ponytail that fell below his shoulder-blades while he fought, or a partial glimpse of his front that was covered in so many horrible scars that Metallore had believed he was being forced into this fight and lived as a slave fighter or something. Metallore stared up on the stage and saw a man smiling as he held up his black gloves that had some red on them, unlike Bobo's red ones that were still clean despite his undefeated public boxing career. The man facing Bobo was an Asian guy standing almost a head shorter than his opponent, yet his muscles were as big as his opponent's, and covered in way, way more scars.
On his legs below where his black shorts ended, his knees and shins had long scars going over them splitting the sections of his skin that were undamaged, as few as there were. Above the waistline his stomach had lines cutting through it and overlapping with each other, burn marks over the skin on his sides and discoloration of his whiter skin than Bobo's in some areas so that it was even darker. He had small dot scars looking like bullet wounds, thin line scars that Metallore remembered seeing matching ones on the back of his body so it seemed as if he was impaled, his right forearm was covered in dark scar tissue and both his right and left were covered in sealed gashes. His chest had very long scars on it over the left side, straight down the middle all the way down to his bellybutton, three on his right pec, around the sides cutting under his armpits, and one that went from the upper left side of his chest up right onto his neck and almost all the way across it. It was hard to see where that scar ended though, as there were scars around his neck too so that the skin was dark and reddened in different areas. It looked like someone had dragged a rope across the front of his neck, and slit a blade through it, and there was another scar on the left side of the neck that wrapped more around him while the right side was clearer but still bad. Up higher on his neck there was a small clean gap, on most of it at least. On the left side of his neck though, above the scar that curved around it, there was scar tissue under his chin. The scar tissue continued up his chin and onto his left cheek. The scar cut in towards the middle of his face from just below his left ear to the center point of his cheek then carved back down just to the left side of his chin. His left ear was split in the middle and there looked to be a piece out of it between the top half and the bottom half, though it was a thin piece and the ear was still holding together. And on the right side of his face, below his right eye, a scar carved from his nose directly under his eye where it thickened the most and then thinned out again over by the time it disappeared under his sideburns.
Oddio mio. Metallore stared at that face for three seconds of sheer shock before flinching as the man it belong to stopped circling and rushed forward at his opponent. As he rushed in, his head bobbed to either side, his body crouching fast and coming out of it as he held his arms up in front of his body, his gloved fists blocking his face. Bobo stepped forward and thrust a jab, then he hooked a punch to get around the guard only to be blocked again. A jab flew back at Bobo that he managed to partially block with one arm, though he winced again while his arm pushed back a bit, then he ducked the next punch instead of trying to block it as even the blocks were getting painful as they were piling up.
The Japanese man younger than Bobo by a couple years pushed forward, swinging his left arm up in an uppercut when Bobo started ducking, and slamming that fist between Bobo's guard and into his chin. He slammed Bobo's head up, then he punched a hook around with his left and then one with his right just as hard with a slap as the glove connected with Bobo's unguarded face.
"Get your guard up!"
"Come on Bobo!"
Bobo swung back, but his opponent leaned his body backwards and then jumped back as Bobo rushed ahead ignoring the blood in his right eye. He swung wildly yet still with a huge amount of power in it, but the man he swung the fist at saw it coming and leaned his body to the side, letting Bobo's arm pass in front of him making it seem like his opponent saw it coming a mile away. Bobo's eyes opened wide, or as wide as his right eye could open swollen as it was. Bobo tried pulling his arm back, but Zach Sazaki stomped forward so his foot was between the other man's, then he thrust a strong jab into the right side of Bobo's unguarded chest and threw the man pulling away from him off his feet and back onto the floor. Bobo gasped out and his arms slammed down at his sides as he bounced and then came to a stop after the yells of 'OOOOH' had just filled the basement.
Don Cambri jumped out of his seat, and a couple of others nearby started looking over worriedly at the stage. Another of the dons near Cambri held up a hand though and said something to him that had his peer calming down a bit, and Cambri relaxed more as he saw his son moving on the ground trying to push his gloves down. The worried look vanished and Cambri yelled out, "Get up and kick his ass, Bobo!"
"Ugh, uh," Bobo pushed his left hand down on the ground, and Zach watched as his opponent pushed his right at his side only for that arm to start shaking in pain.
"I'm calling it," Zach said. Shouts and moans of disapproval echoed around the ring, while Metallore's eyes just opened huge and he gawked at the teenager on the stage who started walking forward and lowering his arms to his sides.
"I can, still fight," Bobo said, taking a second to get it out as that last hit really shrank the size of his lungs.
"We've got no ref so I guess we could go until knock-out," Zach replied, speaking Italian to the man he was walking towards. He cocked his head to the right, then the left with a crack of his neck, and then he smirked down at Bobo who froze while looking up at that face. "But I don't think you want the brain damage I'm about to dish out." Zach's left fist rose in the glove and everyone around the stage started getting quieter at the look of it. Then Zach grinned down at Bobo and he started leaning forward.
"Lifebringer!" A voice shouted from out of the cage. Zach's hand was opening up as he was reaching it down for the man on the ground to take, but he stopped and looked away from Bobo and through the metal cage to a man in a gray cloak who just made everyone in the room spin to him with his furious yell. The man grabbed the front of his gray cloak and tore to the side, ripping the fabric off of him and revealing the shiny silver costume he had beneath that showed off his muscles and had 'MK' written across the front in white letters.
"WHOA!" A Sicilian man who lived in Arluce, the town they were in, shouted. He pulled back with his eyes huge and a look of sheer shock on his face. First all the mafia dons, then Lifebringer, now Metallore?!
"Metallore?!"
"Mamma mia!"
"Catso!"
"Nobody move!" Metallore called out as everyone around him tensed up and the dons all shot out of their seats at the table. The mayor jumped up too and he had sweat dripping down his face while staring towards Metallore in shock, then he spun towards the cage and the man standing inside it who looked out at Metallore not looking all that surprised at all.
What an entrance. Everyone was so relaxed too, barely any of them even noticed him come in. Zach looked at the hero who was glaring straight at him, and then he turned back to Bobo and he continued holding his arm out. "Come on big guy," Zach said, and Bobo turned his head back after staring towards Metallore in shock. This time he did not hesitate to lift his left hand and grab onto Lifebringer's. Zach picked up his opponent in the fight while a lot of the people in the basement who had spun to Metallore looked back at them as they moved even after Metallore shouted at everyone not to. "Fight's over," Zach called out, "I won." He rose his right fist and waved it around, and a dozen guys outside of the ring decided 'screw it' and they cheered out again before demanding money from the others around them if they had bet on him.
What the- "Hey!" Metallore shouted at the stage. "Lifebringer," his silver eyes narrowed and he glared towards the teenager a few years younger than him who just started walking his way. Metallore realized as he was about to continue that the boy was actually heading to the door of the cage as he noticed some slits in the steel around the ring that showed where it could open up. His eyes stayed dark though and he kept everyone around him in his peripherals as he had made his entrance and was waiting now for something to happen. "What are you doing here? Why are you in Italy?"
"'Why?'" Zach wondered, while walking towards the outside of the stage holding an arm around Bobo Cambri's back. He had to help him walk after that last hit that was meant to take him out for good and that he knew still hurt the big man a lot as much as Bobo was being strong and holding it back. "Well that's, a long story. Let's talk, Metallore," Zach said. He opened up the cage and they stepped out onto the edge of the arena, then Bobo shrugged his arm and Zach checked to make sure before letting go and letting Bobo drop down on his own.
"Nice fight, you two!"
"Why'd you gotta go and ruin the match, hero?"
Metallore turned and glared towards the guy who just shouted that out, and the others around him all quieted too as that man pulled far back. Lifebringer had done a good job at keeping the mood in the basement from getting completely aggressive and confrontational, but Metallore was doing his best to stop that. What is going on here? Damn it, they know not to try anything. How much do I have them for if the match was voluntary? Voluntary? Look at him, he's been through a fucking meat grinder.
"Metallore, how nice of you to crash the party," Don Garbaldi called over. Metallore turned and he glared back towards the dons' table, seeing Garbaldi sitting down again even though the others at the table were all still up. Garbaldi. The way he looks right now, so smug like he thinks I can't do anything to him. I'll wipe that look right off his face. "I don't remember your name on the guest list though," the Don called out, and he gave a questioning look around as if wondering if someone else had invited him.
"We knew he was Lifebringer, by the way," Milo Arsassi added at the look on Metallore's face. He frowned right back at the hero who glared his way next, and he said, "So that was a nice entry you made with that shout. I'm sure you thought you were being-"
"Ey ey, guys," Zach started over to the table and he held his hands up to the sides after taking his gloves off. "It's a party right? No need to get all upset," he glanced to his side at Metallore as he was walking past, and he made a motion with his head towards the dons' table. Alright. Here we go. Final stage. Zach shrugged his shoulders out like he was tired after that fight, and he rolled around his left arm before holding his hands down and out to the sides with a smile on his face as he approached Don Picciano.
"I knew you could do it," Picciano said, grinning and giving the young man a hug, kissing both of his cheeks while doing so.
"Don't worry, my son," Don Cambri began as Bobo walked up towards the table with them. "I didn't actually bet money on you." Bobo's eyes rose up and opened wide, again his right only as much as it could. "Come now, what kind of fool would I be to bet against Lifebringer?" He held out his arms in a defensive way to his offended son, "Besides, you did lose. Hey, at least papa didn't bet against you, eh?"
"It was a good fight, Bobo," Zach said, stepping to the taller man after Bobo had come over straight to his father after the match. Bobo turned and he lost the frown he had at what his dad said, sighing and then smacking his left hand out into Zach's that they clasped together and then pulled into a hug with just their shoulders though they held it there for a second. "Gotta look out for those low shots. I'm shorter than most of the guys in your weight class, you weren't thinking about that, big guy." Zach patted Bobo on the back a couple times with his right hand, in a sealed black glove that did not have ways for his fingers to slide out, so he was not worried about hurting him at all.
"Zach Sazaki," Metallore started, and Zach sighed and lowered his head before turning back around to the hero at his back. "You are-" Metallore froze at the look Lifebringer gave him. The look in Lifebringer's eyes made him freeze completely still and the two just kept eye contact in silence for a second before Zach spoke again.
"Listen, Metallore," Zach stepped forward and he motioned away from the dons' table now that everyone there was staring intensely at them again. Metallore could see that it was looking like he was about to get the fight he wanted with the way his last sentence started, and that unsettled him a lot more as he was just about to arrest Sazaki. Zach lifted a hand to put on Metallore's back to walk with him, but the hero glared when Zach's arm started lifting so he pulled it back instead and held up a palm like he understood that Metallore did not want him to touch. So Zach just walked a few more steps to the hero's side and kept his back to the table of dons behind him, "Listen," Zach started, his voice low and his head moving in towards the side of Metallore's while they faced away from the family heads into most of the rest of the room. Facing this way they had to see all the other members of the gangs, some regular citizens thrown into the mix, some women looking over nervously and in nervous ways at Metallore which made him frown more even as Sazaki was just starting.
"This isn't what you think it is. The Padres, they're not making an alliance or anything. This is just a big picnic, a get together for all the mobs still in Italy." Zach looked in at Metallore to see if he was following, but the hero next to him was just glaring in at him out the corners of his eyes in a harsh way. "I mean it. It's true. There's nothing illegal going on here. Just a bunch of guys out enjoying some food and drinks, getting together to talk and work some things over. Work out, some kinks that needed to be worked out."
Metallore's face scrunched up in confusion. He glared harder at Sazaki and said in a low voice, "What are you talking about? This whole thing smells rotten to me. Try to convince me that I'm not seeing what I'm seeing as much as you want, but what I just stumbled into-"
"I wanted you to come here," Zach started, his voice getting softer like that was an actual secret that he interrupted Metallore with.
The hero's eyes widened for a second and then narrowed harsher at the shorter boy next to him. "I came here because of my own hunches."
Zach opened his mouth but then nodded and held up a hand, "Alright. Okay but just listen. I'm glad you're here then, I want you to see that things have changed…" Metallore really did not like the feeling in his gut all of a sudden. The way that Lifebringer did not argue with him but was still talking as if he was glad he had arrived, it made him uncertain about even his own reasons for coming there. It was my own intuition. He's just adapting quickly, much too quickly though!
"Hey! What's with all the secrecy?" Don Arsassi (Gianni Arsassi) called out at the two with their backs to the table. "If you're going to have a conversation, have it with us too."
"We all would like to hear why you're here, Metallore," Don Garbaldi added. "You invite him, Mr. Mayor?"
Garbaldi looked to the seat next to him, and Metallore turned back and glared straight at the mayor who hesitated upon both of their looks. Then the mayor started frowning and he replied, "No. I did not. I am surprised to see you here, Metallore. I wish you would have called ahead."
"So that you could hide all of this?" Metallore asked.
Mayor Fabrizzio opened his mouth, but Zach held up his hands and started, "Hey hey. Metallore, just listen okay? Things have changed, yeah?" Zach said it and glanced to his left for support, and Don Picciano nodded along with him, and the other dons agreed with a round of nods that Metallore was just staring at in so much confusion. "You're not dealing with criminals here. Everybody at the table's just a regular guy, running protection for businesses, insurance things, some loan shit, but it's all legit." Metallore frowned deeper at what Lifebringer just said, but his frown started lifting and his eyes growing wide at what continued, "I worked with the Padres here to weed out bad apples in their ranks, the kind of guys who would kidnap and bribe officials. Same with the other mobs, and the ones who couldn't fall in line we took out. We got rid of them and the parts of the families that weren't with the new changes."
"When you say 'god rid of them-'"
"Turned them over," Zach replied, shaking his head at the hero twisting his words. "Like Don Picciano. Come on tell him," Zach said to the man who was the don he was closest with out of the group.
"My dad, the old Don Picciano as I'm sure you know," Ramosi began. Metallore stared at the young man only ten years older than him who was the youngest of the dons at the table, a few years younger than the younger Arsassi brother. "He was too stuck with the old ways. I kept telling him we needed to change with the world changing around, but he didn't and once Lifebringer caught him I had two choices. Change the family for the better, or we could all go join him. Think I picked the right option," Ramosi said, motioning down at his plate and the steak on it next to a a glass of wine that he picked up and swirled the red liquid inside of.
"I'm not admitting that there was anything illegitimate about my operations before," Don Garbaldi started, keeping a somewhat smug look on his face as he looked at Metallore. He glanced at Lifebringer who rose his eyebrows at him expectantly, and Garbaldi tssked before looking back at Metallore and saying, "But if there was, there ain't anymore. So once again I ask you, Italia's Number 1 hero, why are you at our picnic?"
The mob, changed? What kind of nonsense- What the hell does Lifebringer have to do with any of this? Why is his body covered in scars? This can't all be from Shigaraki Tomura's torture. Metallore darted his eyes back to Lifebringer and then around at the table of men who had all sat back down, and Bobo had taken a seat next to his biological father while one of their "family" members ran over with some ice for his face and chest. "I'm glad you finally accepted to fight our champion, Zach," Cambri began to the young man standing next to the table. "But even without that nasty power of yours, you're one grande powerhouse."
I don't know, what to do here. He isn't Death? It seems like he's been here for a while. Then again, I haven't heard about the Army of Death in anything but rumors for two months. Did he make the mob go legit? Why? If there were illegal activities going on… And there still are. Metallore's eyes darkened and Zach turned back to him while in the middle of responding to Don Cambri. "This party is still illegal," Metallore stated. Everyone around the table stared at the hero and a couple looked nervous, but the majority just looked annoyed more than anything. "Illegal cage match fighting, gambling on it," Metallore shook his head and glared towards the mayor who looked to be the easiest to intimidate at the table.
"Alright yeah, it wasn't an official fight," Zach started, holding his hands up defensively and then waving one to the side in a skeptical way and like a native Italian as he continued. "But the gambling was all just in good fun. We're all friends here, just having a good time. And no one was really getting hurt, right?" Zach asked over to Bobo, grinning at the man which had Bobo lowering the ice he was holding on his face and smirking to show there was nothing wrong at all. Smirking made his face shift around too much that it actually did hurt the swollen part, but Bobo held back the pain well which his dad was impressed with at his side and patted his son on the back for the effort.
"It's not like you've got an illegal gambling ring or anything on your hands. It was a single fight and just some bets-"
"Besides," Mayor Fabrizzio started, and Metallore turned back to see the mayor had lost his nervous look. Fabrizzio took in a deep breath and then kept an upset look while continuing straight to the hero, "I'm overseeing it, so technically it is an official fight, government sanctioned." The Dons started grinning around him, and Fabrizzio then continued while on his newfound confidence high, "Not that I'm going to waste time writing up the paperwork, so long as no one makes a petty complaint about it."
Metallore couldn't believe what he just heard. Am I even here? All the mob in one place and I can't do a thing. What could I bring them in on? None of it would stick, and it would just upset all these guys who'd be out on the streets again in a day. But Fabrizzio, Metallore narrowed his eyes again and then called back at the man, "This is government property that you held this event on. As if the mobs have a grip over your town, or the town is doing favors-"
"I reject you insulting theories," Fabrizzio snapped back at the hero. Then he declared firmly, "The Dons paid a high amount to be allowed to use this public space. And that was not a bribe, it was an opportunity that I decided was necessary for the town and which I do not deny publicly." Fabrizzio glared at Metallore and said while looking straight into the clearly flustered young hero's eyes, "The roads in Arluce are all unpaved. We're using gravel in a time where most remaining third world countries have paved streets. The town needs help, and this was a public venture to raise money for public projects that I saw as a better alternative than raising taxes which would make even more of my citizens emigrate, which is half of the problem we're facing in this town! The weather was bad so I decided to allow the event to be moved into this large basement space that we don't even use, instead of the outdoors public space in town that we were going to use anyway which the town still would have been paid for."
Metallore stared in shock at the mayor in front of him who glared harsher back and questioned, "Metallore, what do you have against my town that you have to come here and try to break up what is meant to be a step forward for all of us? The mobs' legitimacy, our town's revival, do you not have better things to do than-"
"Hey hey," Zach stepped back in as this was starting to get too close to just bashing on the pro hero. "Let's not go too far, Mayor Fabrizzio. It's all just a misunderstanding," he looked back and forth between the mayor who had gotten out of his seat in the heat of the moment and actually looked really upset there. Fabrizzio kept glaring at Metallore, but Zach continued to him, "We can understand why a hero would think something suspicious was going on here, yeah? It's not a huge jump for him." Zach tilted his head to the side as if saying 'come on' to the mayor, and after a few seconds Fabrizzio leaned back and he started nodding in acceptance, losing his angry look even while still looking at Metallore.
Fabrizzio sighed and Zach lowered down his hands that he had held up to stop the confrontation. The mayor lifted his head back up though and he shook it while looking at the young pro, "I understand, but I hope you would come to me first next time instead of accusing me of corruption right off the bat." The remark sounded like a slight towards Metallore, and the hero actually felt bad as he received it only to curl his hands into fists in more confusion though he was starting to accept what was going on around him.
How do I play this? In one case, the old mob bosses should still be in trouble for their old crimes, not that I have the proof I need to arrest them on those crimes right now. On the other hand though, is this really just to rejuvenate the town? The mayor could have the paperwork set to allow this function on town-owned property, and it would be better using the mobs' money than the people's to repair roads and… This is too, too what? It's too good. That's what makes it so suspicious. Why doesn't anyone know about this? Metallore shifted his gaze back to Lifebringer on his side. Is it because of him? Because, Lifebringer couldn't be here if it became too public? If heroes got involved or they mentioned it to the media the rebirth they're trying… Lifebringer killed a bunch of people. Fuck. If there's one thing I need to do for sure-
"Come on, Metallore. Let's grab some food and talk for a bit," Zach said, looking at the hero who seemed frustrated and conflicted as there was a lot on his mind. "Hey Gino," Zach called over to his side, and Metallore turned his head before he was able to respond to the teen as he called to someone else. Metallore watched as a very dark-tan-skinned man came jogging over. The guy looked in his early thirties, and he watched Metallore closely while jogging towards Zach.
"Here," Gino said in Italian, tossing a black shirt and hoodie to the younger man. Zach slid into the shirt that was short-sleeved and tight to his body, then he tied the sleeves of his sweatshirt around his waist as it was pretty hot in the basement and he did not need it on yet. "You good?" Gino asked. "Took some big hits."
"Yeah, all good," Zach replied, nodding back at his friend and then looking back to Metallore. "Let's go. I've got some things to talk to you about. I know you'll want to hear them."
Metallore hesitated but he followed after Sazaki, wondering what it was the boy wanted and only hesitating because he thought of how the teen had mentioned wanting him to show up from the beginning. "How'd you do this?" Metallore asked, finally deciding not to hold back and just get out with it as he walked towards the food station at Zach Sazaki's side. "No one's even looking at me too… I don't know."
"Afraid?" Zach asked and Metallore's eyes widened as that was what he was expecting to see. Zach continued with a laugh, "I'm telling you, they're not afraid of getting caught because the guys here really aren't breaking the law," Zach said it without looking to his side at Metallore, just walking up towards the food station himself and picking up a couple paper plates. He had to use his fingernails to pry the plates apart, then he handed one to Metallore before walking up to some tables in front of the smokers and greeting the men behind the table in friendly ways while stacking up hot dogs and assorted fried meats on his plate. "We gathered up all illegal weapons and drugs and destroyed those. Not even the dons were allowed to keep illegal firearms, not that I'm saying they had any in the first place." Metallore's face scrunched up more at that statement which sounded so strange to him and once again unsettling by the way the teen was talking just like Garbaldi had spoken to him before, in hypotheticals.
"Why are you here, Lifebringer?" Metallore asked, his voice low and dark. It made the man across the table about to say something to the hero freeze and pull back.
"I'm not Lifebringer," Zach said, looking next to him with a small frown and just shaking his head at the look of the other man. "Lifebringer was a hero-"
"Then why are you here, Zach Sazaki?" Metallore corrected himself, darker this time and sounding like he wasn't in the mood for these games.
Zach shrugged and looked around the room. He turned back to Metallore with an eyebrow raised like the answer was obvious. "This," he replied, and then he turned back and continued down the food line to keep filling up his plate. "I wanted to make the Italian mobs legit. So, that's what I did." He smiled as he said it, a proud look on his face while he reached out and grabbed a piece of bread to put on his plate and dip in the pasta sauce that smelled really good at the next tinfoil tin down. Metallore was stopped a few feet behind him now though, just staring at the kid while frozen in place and wondering if he heard that right. "Eat. Enjoy this," Zach said, glancing back at Metallore whose plate was still empty. "It's awesome, isn't it?"
"Awesome?" Federico looked around the room at men who he had come in here to fight and arrest. They were talking and eating and laughing, sitting with their wives or in groups maybe with people from opposing gangs who they were not at odds with anymore. Arsassi, Picciano, Garbaldi, these are names that struck fear in people. Not as much as some like the Gazpaccio, or the Arvanetti, but the worst mob families were all taken down already along with the rest of the big villain groups in Italy. That's why I'm able to focus my time on smaller villain groups, the mobs that there was never as much suspicion or information about their illegal activities… There are regular people in here too. No one looks afraid. Everyone's just, having a good time? This is… this is… "Yeah," Metallore finally responded, his voice sounding confused but his head nodding as he agreed with what he just heard.
Metallore shook his head around and started after the younger man, but as he was passing a tray that smelled especially good he froze and turned to it. He glanced back at the burly woman behind it wearing an apron splashed with red and grease, and she grinned back at the hero who she knew her food's scent just pulled in. "Come now sweetie, try some," she reached out for his plate before he could respond, and she lifted her tongs with her other hand and put some sausages onto his plate. "Eat up, Number 1 hero Metallore. Need some protein if you're to protect us, young man."
Could it be, poisoned… No. This isn't, this isn't some huge conspiracy plot. "You think so too, huh?" Zach asked, looking back with a grin at the hero who started walking towards him again. "It wasn't easy. But I promise, these guys have changed everything. You won't even have to worry about them strong-arming people into the insurance or protection businesses, because I made it clear that even just that much is a big no-no. Fucking Orzoni couldn't get in line, and you know what happened-"
"That was you-" Metallore froze and his eyes were huge at the small grin the teen gave back to him. The tip he had received a few days ago and gone in with a few different heroes to catch some villains busting up a shop that had refused to pay them for 'protection' had now clearly come from the black-haired vigilante in front of him. He's doing whatever he wants. Being a vigilante in Italy, is illegal. It's illegal most places. He just does it though. Without caring about the rules… and he made the mob legit. And he killed 6 people back in Japan! 8, or 9 by some counts, but 6 that night… That night that his high school class was attacked, by the people who had tortured him. Those scars, aren't all from the League of Villains, but I'm sure many of them are. The ones on his neck and the left side of his face at least, have to be new. "Life-" Metallore froze and he corrected himself which the kid in front of him smiled at, "Zach Sazaki."
"Zach's fine," Zach replied, and Metallore grimaced as he did not want to be getting familiar here. "And Metallore, you don't have a hard choice to make right now." The hero he was talking to lost the scrunched up look he just got, and instead became confused once more. "Now that you know I'm here, I'm going to disappear. Things are better already now though, and I'm making sure that when I leave, things stay good. Hence you being here," Zach added quieter, whispering it to the hero and then smirking at the look on Metallore's face. The hero with spiky blond hair short over his head, and bright silver eyes that matched his costume, looked from Zach back over to the table of mafia dons.
"How did you do this?" Metallore whispered, before clenching his teeth as that was not what he needed to say right there.
"Easy. When you have a Quirk like mine," Zach continued. He looked around at the other trays to see if there was anything else he wanted, but his plate was pretty full already and he just started moving to the end of the table. He continued to the man next to him in a softer voice, "These guys, they care a lot about family. It's really important to them. So Don Cambri's mom's been bedridden for nearly two decades. Senile and dying, and he loves her so much he does whatever he can to keep her alive all that time. I get here, and we poison her in her sleep, let her die quickly and painlessly." Metallore stared at Zach's head with growing eyes and his bottom lip lowered at the admission to murder the boy just made. "Then I brought her back to life, and she's healthier than she's been in thirty years. You can imagine how upset she was with her son for the rumors about what he'd been doing for a couple decades while she wasn't able to watch him. Can you imagine Cambri getting scolded by a very fit ninety year old woman, apologizing profusely to her and agreeing that he'd help me out as I pitched my plan and the reason I'd come here? The other bosses fell in line afterwards, I just needed my in first- a platform to speak to all of them and a Don they respected to get them to hear me out."
Zach looked back at the hero who was staring at him in disbelief, still appearing unable to imagine Cambri's mother scolding him. He also still looked really upset, and getting angrier. Zach repeated with an annoyed look, "Her life was pain. Her son wouldn't let her die, which was all she wanted to do living like that. Don't be such a dick that you'll hold that against me." Zach frowned and he looked away while continuing to the end of the table. This is bad.
Metallore's eyes started narrowing more as he steadied his look. She's not the only one though. "I, can't let-" Metallore began.
"What you can't do, is arrest me," Zach interrupted. "Trust me, if you try you'll wind up making a huge mess of everything here. I'm about to disappear and leave things better than I found them. You try and arrest me and we're going to have problems. The mafia may have gone straight, but I'm still a dangerous fucking criminal wanted around the world." Zach said all this while smiling and grabbing some plastic silverware to eat his food with at the end of the cooking stations. His irises shifted to the corners of his eyes and he said while giving Metallore a dangerous look that sent chills down his spine, "You can be part of the solution, or you can get knocked out by me in a few seconds for no reason."
"You think you would-"
"A few seconds," Zach repeated. He repeated it and then grinned at Metallore without a dangerous look in his eyes anymore. "But listen, I don't want that. I'm just letting you know that if you are about to decide to attack me then you don't want to tell me you're going to do it. Because I'm not going to just stand there and let you. I've got shit to do."
"You've already succeeded," Metallore started, then he cursed himself internally for saying that at all.
The hero's internal cursing cut off though as the younger man he spoke to countered with, "Sure, in Italy." Italy's top hero looked back into the kid's eyes and watched as his face got serious and full of conviction. "But this isn't the only place where there are problems I can fix. Fighting you wouldn't be the best for Italy, so I don't want to do it. But there are other places I can go help out in and I won't let you stop me from doing that." Just listen and back off, Metallore. I should have worded that better before. Kept talk away from arrests and fighting. Just push on before he can think about it. I'm leaving anyway. "Here, let's go talk to the dons. I can't stay and keep watching them, but they trust me and really don't trust you. They think the only reason you're here is to arrest them, not to help them go straight and stay that way."
Zach started leading Metallore back towards the dons' table, eating the food he had piled up on his plate and letting out a loud hum of deliciousness as he approached. A few of the dons had gotten up, and more family members had gathered around and were talking loudly and enjoying the party that had started back up in full even if some people were keeping a close eye on Metallore. "Don Garbaldi, Ramosi," Zach added, using Don Picciano's first name as he was the don who Zach was most familiar with. The two dons in front of him talking to each other and a couple of other guys looked over, and Garbaldi motioned for the guys around them to back off and give them some space.
"Zach," Garbaldi said, lifting a hand and smiling at the boy approaching him. "The hero's still here too, huh?"
"Listen listen, he's not a bad guy," Zach said, putting a hand up in front of Metallore and speaking on his behalf. "I mean it," Zach added, nodding at Garbaldi in a serious way. "He's not just after you guys. This whole thing looks good to him too, but just as you don't trust him you can't expect him to just put his trust in all of us out of the blue."
"I get it, I get it," Picciano started. "But Zach, I'm not too sure about this." Zach looked at his favorite mob boss who he felt closest with, and Ramosi lifted a hand hesitantly and twisted it back and forth in an unsure way. "The guys aren't gonna be able to trust a hero. There's too much bad blood. Too many family members thrown into prisons. And the guys aren't used to close examination."
"Hey hey, he's not going to be looking over your shoulder all the time," Zach started. "But trust me, trust me. What's even the problem with working with him if things are legit now? You guys work with a hero like Metallore, and any gangs try sprouting up without your permission, going back to the old ways and breaking the new rules we've made together, bam! You've already got a connection-"
"You want us to snitch to a hero?" Garbaldi pulled his head back and said it in a tone suggesting Zach was saying something too far here.
"You aren't villains," Zach replied, raising his eyebrows back at Garbaldi. "And if it's between snitching and retaliating on your own, then I'd definitely suggest calling a hero."
Zach's voice never switched tones, but the final part of that last sentence made Garbaldi hold up his hands defensively and start chuckling. "Fine fine, I get it. We'll work with the good guys, not against them," Garbaldi looked at Metallore while saying it and he frowned but nodded his head at the hero. Picciano nodded as that made sense to him too, looking at Metallore and telling him that he was not going to make the same mistakes as his father.
"The world's changing, and we're ready to change with it. Can't let the families go extinct," Ramosi Picciano said. "And if we do things like we always did, we'd lose all our traditions, not just a couple that we never should've had anyway."
These guys, Metallore looked back and forth between the mob bosses. The one that Zach was clearly closest with, and the most powerful mob boss still in Italy who was promising to go straight and work with heroes not that Metallore could believe him very easily. What he did believe though, was the look Garbaldi got on his face as soon as Zach "suggested" that they not retaliate against other gangs that appear and try going back to doing things in illegal ways. I can't tell if they love Zach Sazaki, or if they're fucking terrified of him. Oh man, he's been smiling this whole time and acting like everything's fine, but are all the mob bosses just here being friendly to each other because… they think he's Death? Is that it? Holy shit, they all think he's Death. They think he's Death and he came here with two options, going straight or facing his wrath. What the fuck? This is seriously, seriously messed up. Whether he is or isn't, he's using this.
Michelangelo never said with certainty that it was Zach Sazaki. I wish I had been there to fight the League of Shadows. I would be able to make that declaration with certainty after seeing this. Metallore noticed all three of them were looking at him awaiting him to say something. Things shouldn't be built like this. People might think badly if I were to start working with mob bosses. I don't want to work with a man like Garbaldi, after all he's done, probably. Throwing all these guys in prison though, our full prisons, when they're willing to change their ways and even help dilapidated towns like Arluce doesn't make sense. "I'm willing," Metallore said, not going to be the one to decline when the supposed 'bad guys' were quick to accept the need to change things. "Why should we stay enemies, if you're willing to make a truce?"
"Exactly," Zach said, then he rose his right hand and looked over his shoulder. "Hey Gino," he called back. Metallore glanced behind him too, and the dons looked past Zach over to a dark tan Italian man who they were glad to see Zach calling to again. Garbaldi smirked when Metallore and Zach were both looking away, but though Gino saw it he stayed focused on Zach who he walked up to asking what was up. "Listen," Zach patted his right hand down on his friend's shoulder and then motioned his head to the side at the hero next to him. "I'm leaving Metallore here to be the new, I don't know, mediator? Well he's going to help the mob keep up with the good changes they've been doing, but I want you to watch him okay? Make sure he doesn't harass the families too much, and go to the cops if it seems like he's illegally spying on them or overstepping his bounds past what the families accept. Sound good to everyone?" Zach looked around at the four around him, then he clapped his hands together before letting anyone say anything in only a moment after asking. "Great. Then I got nothing left to do here."
"You're leaving?" Ramosi asked, a disappointed look on his face.
Garbaldi frowned too while looking back to Metallore, but he smirked thinking about the look the hero had on his face when Zach suggested to Gino to go turn the hero in for harassing them. Now we get to use the law against you for a change. Go ahead and spy on us, hero boy.
"Yeah, hey Vinny!" Zach called out, looking over towards a heavyset man over five hundred pounds who had a plate of food stacked up in one hand while talking loudly and swinging around his other hand. "Where's my money?!"
"Oh!"
Metallore looked to his side at Zach Sazaki with a harsh look wondering if maybe he should just arrest him right there. Zach turned back to him though and said with a grin, "I bet a thousand euros on myself. Knew I wouldn't lose."
"Should have bet more then," Garbaldi said with a laugh.
"Hey, you guys are already doing me a big favor here in Arluce. Don't want to rob you blind while I'm at it," Zach taunted the mob boss who just remarked back that he wasn't one of the ones foolish enough to bet against him.
Zach rose up a hand and caught a wad of bills Vinny wrapped in a rubber band. He did not count them, he just untied his sweatshirt from around his waist and slid it on, then pocketed the bills into the sweatshirt's big front pocket once his arms slid out the sleeves. Zach turned to Metallore when he got the sweatshirt on and before the hero could say anything, as Zach kept doing because he was trying hard not to let Metallore try telling him he was under arrest here. "Listen, there aren't an excess of pro heroes in Italy. You know this. And you need families like these to keep control and to keep the actual villains down. It's always hard for new businesses to rise in a market where pre-existing ones are already established. That's simple economics. And I think it's better these guys who really aren't that bad- they're actually all great people," Zach grinned and the men he was talking about grinned too at what he was saying. "Than the unknown that could come in their place if you, let's say, removed them all and just made a gap in power." Zach's voice got lower there and the grinning men lowered those smiles with sweat forming on their faces. They gained nervous looks as they stared at the teen who never fully explained to them why he had done all of this.
He could have destroyed us all from the start. He didn't, because it wasn't the best way to do things. Not because he couldn't. I'm glad he did it this way though, Ramosi Picciano thought
Is he Death? This whole time, I've never known. Every word out of his mouth… He scares the living shit out of me. Garbaldi brought back up a grin as there was no way he was going to let anyone see him afraid.
Goodbye, Death. I'll do my duty and make sure what you've done sticks. Gino watched as Death turned, then he glanced out the corners of his eyes towards Garbaldi who made eye contact back with a small grin that Gino could see the anxiety hidden in.
Metallore opened his mouth as Zach Sazaki started walking away. He froze though and his tongue hesitated inside his mouth. What's the job of a hero? Just arresting villains, or making this world a better place? That's the decision before me right now. I should, take the head start Lifebring- that Zach Sazaki just gave me. Build on it and make sure that the mafias really are legitimate. Metallore looked back to the men around him. We can make a safer Italy like this.
Zach walked through the basement party and he smiled around and said hey to a few of the guys he knew as he made his way towards the exit. He finished up some food and then tossed the plate in a garbage can near the door, and then he walked out without looking back once despite nearly everyone in the room looking his way by then. Zach just stepped out and he closed the door behind him, and then his smile vanished and he reached up and lifted the black hood bunched up behind his neck.
Death rose his black hood and positioned it right while climbing up the steps outside the town hall. He held a button on the side of his hood inside the fabric between the inside and outside layers of the hood. While he was doing that, dark wisps came out of his body from his arms, his legs, his face and his torso. A shroud of darkness surrounded him, and he bent his knees at the top of the steps before leaping up in the air fifty feet high. He spread a pair of long black wings out of his back and flapped them down hard, rising himself up into the dark clouds above just as it was actually starting to rain. The button Zach pressed on his hood was working even while he did these things, and the inside soft lining of the sweatshirt started to harden and extend as the costume he was already wearing was activated.
Thin lines in his sweatshirt's fabric started pulling apart and a tighter material spread out over his body while also pushing down him in waves. He curled his fingers in over and over as the material opened up over his arms and then stretched over his hands to give him his gloves. Zach took in a deep breath to expand his lung capacity while the costume started to tighten around his chest, and he gulped to force his Adam's apple up and down his neck and keep that from being too constricting too. Two dark transparent sections popped out from opposite sides of his hood just off of his ears, and they moved in front of his face and connected in the center. As soon as the black visor connected, a display appeared up on it with red writing in the bottom right corner showing his elevation as well as coordinates. He rose a hand and tapped a button on his helmet again as he was reaching the top of his arc. After holding the button on his helmet he brought his hands out in front of him in the specially designed gloves that had covered them, then he curled his fingers in a certain way and heard a click. While his helmet started ringing from the button he pressed on his helmet, he pulled his elbows down to his side and the clicking noise from before repeated louder followed by a whir in the back of his costume.
Zach aimed his body down as his arc brought him to start diving through the air. He snapped his arms out after the whirring started and pointed them behind him, his wings flapping again though just sending him flying horizontally instead of higher up out of the cloud layer. His mask's visor was waterproof so none of the vapor in the dark cloud he was flying through was getting stuck on it, giving him a clear shot through the storm. His costume finished wrapping around his entire body, and metal parts on it that had been stuffed into his costume and softened started activating with the command he made with them using the new tech in his costume. Holes popped open on his palms, on the backs of his shoulder-blades, and out the back of his heels and soles of his feet. As blue light pulsed out of the holes and shot Zach across the sky, his wings got thinner and closer to his back with him not using them to fly anymore but just to make himself more aerodynamic.
He flew off to the west and spoke as soon as the ringing line in his helmet picked up, "I'm out."
"Took you long enough," La Brava replied over the line. She paused and then added, "Exodus called in with a success in the Amazon. Asked me to ask you what's next for him."
"Just tell him to come back to The Cloak. I'm returning too."
"Aw, and I was just getting used to things around here with Gentle in charge. He's a natural-born leader you know." La Brava bragged to the boy though she did not sound too serious to him, which Zach appreciated and smiled a little at the sound of.
He did not linger on what she said though, instead replying with, "Let him know I'm on my way back, and send my helmet The Cloak's coordinates."
"You got it," La Brava responded. She started typing away on the computer in front of her in the brand new Cloak's bridge. It was smaller than the last one- the roof not as high above her head, though the interior looked sleeker than before. The bridge was also above the ship as a round section sticking out of the wider main part, and around the entire bridge room were glass windows which they had decided was a design flaw of the previous one even with the cameras they had around that ship to give them every angle.
"So, how was Italy?" La Brava asked as she was typing away to send Zach what he asked for. You've been gone in Italy, almost completely dark over the past couple of days to solidify our influence there. And to make sure our alliances and security of peace in Italy actually sticks. If you've been gone for that long to nothing-
"Things are looking good," Zach replied. "Typhoon is set up securely in their ranks. They think he's just the one guy who managed to get most friendly with me, keeping me from taking them all down or something. His name's 'Gino' for now on, he'll keep in contact every once in a while and let us know if they try anything stupid. The information the Italian mobs get on other villains too and international ones around them might come straight to us. I tried something risky to make it so they go to heroes first, but though Gino will work on it, I doubt snitching is going to catch on very fast."
"You're so amazing!" Darling cut in over the line.
La Brava pushed the brown-haired girl's head away as she was blocking her computer to get her face close to the microphone La Brava was speaking into. "Move," La Brava snapped. "And call him yourself if you're going to get in my way-"
"I will!" Darling shouted back, letting Zach know to expect a call as soon as he hung up with La Brava.
La Brava sighed and she kept typing, and Zach saw some information pop up in a translucent scrolling window on the left side of his visor. His eyes turned red and snapped back and forth to read quickly as the page was scrolling, and they darted over to the right side for a second as a second set of coordinates appeared above his own. The new ones let him know where he had to go with even a small arrow over it that moved with the shifts in his flight pattern to show him when he was on a perfectly straight line with The Cloak's position. After La Brava got everything through that she needed to, her eyes darkened and she asked in a low voice, "So, did you find out anything about Eziano while in Italy?"
Zach frowned deeper inside his helmet. His silence for a second alone was enough for La Brava. Zach replied after his silent response, "The mob bosses wouldn't talk about it as much as I got close to them. No one talks about Eziano." He glared through his visor in an angry way as he said it. The clouds were whitening around him and thinning out, and he was no longer even above Sicily as he shot off through the sky fast like a missile. He continued after another pause, "I don't know whether they didn't know anything, or if they actually had info and are just scared of the notion of speaking about him."
Zach shook his head and then brought his mood back to a serious but less grim one at the thought of the failure of his secondary objective. "Any change in the situation in New York?"
"It's complicated," La Brava replied. She typed away into her computer again and sent some more files to the headset of the boy who she knew would want to see them. "The situation is difficult to handle, with some remaining Fergus loyalists trying to rebuild inside the companies we managed to keep from dismantling. I say we just go all out this time and tear them down to restart from scratch. We clearly missed a couple inside the inner circles. I knew that Mysti deleted some files-"
"Have you seen any sign of her there?" Zach asked. "If she's involved-"
"No sign of her or her stupid cat mask. I was hoping for her first re-emergence since Fergus' death, but we shouldn't wait for her to show her face. They're making too many moves," La Brava warned.
"We'll head after them soon. The Cloak's current position is in Alaska heading southeast, that right?" Zach asked based on the coordinates he was receiving. La Brava made an affirmative noise over the line and Zach nodded his head. "Alright, send me some tip locations across Canada too. I'll stop at some on my way to meeting up, you all start heading farther straight east and then we'll cut more straight south for hitting New York. Send out some recon teams to the Canada locations to get ready for when I arrive."
"We only have three good leads across the country," La Brava began.
"Then you and Gentle split everyone up. A third for each one, unless you see fit for more at one than the others."
"Alright alright, I'll see what we can do. See you soon, Death." La Brava said farewell, and Zach repeated a short goodbye to her before the call cut off.
Exodus said he wouldn't get into fights down in South America, but I'm wondering if he managed to stick with that. He wouldn't lie to me so I can just ask him later, though I hope his answer is… maybe I shouldn't ask. He said the result was a success. The news report La Brava sent had no mention of Army of Death so that's one plus at least, I just wonder if it really was just the heroes' work that arrested them. Exodus knows how we make that show up in the news even with fighting. I don't want him taking so many unnecessary risks, but he's a really active and eager guy. Having him sit around while I do work on my own is a waste of resources too. Just recon while I worked on Italy wasn't great though. I need to feel confident enough to send more people on missions like the one I just did. They aren't the most dangerous, but infiltration have long term dangers. Letting our guards down to really get in, to become one of them while we're there, I still feel like an Italian mobster right now. A bit… Still, bringing peace to Italy was worth having everyone get a few days without combat. I need to focus more than ever though with our fights later today. A couple days' break might not seem like much to them, but if they've lost some of their combat senses I don't want anyone dying in avoidable ways. Too many, are already on their second lives. I need to-
Brrriing! Zach's thoughts got interrupted and he chuckled at the name he saw appear on his visor calling him. Oh yeah, almost forgot.
A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Get our first look at Zach for a while as I describe his appearance outside of his armor during his boxing match with Bobo. Had some fun writing this chapter so I hope y'all liked Zach the Italian mobster, as long as it lasted. He's got a new costume too, and there's a lot to dissect in here that I hope you guys can figure out or will just look at and enjoy as you wait to see what it leads to. 3 Anyway definitely down to hear predictions for what's coming, comments, questions, etc. So leave a review below telling me what you think!
Naruffoku chapter 133 . Jan 17
How is this story not at the top? Viridescent hasn't updated in 10 years! This story is so beautifully crafted, how can this injustice continue!
Don't know what you mean... top of what? Maybe whatever list you're looking at it's not at the top because the filter you have it set as doesn't include rated 'M' stories? This is definitely the longest BNHA story... anyway glad you think the story's been "crafted" so beautifully! XD Thanks for the review!
DarkJokes chapter 132 . 12h ago
Awww it's so cute hearing Sero talking about how he looks up to Zach. I kinda agree with him. He's much stronger than All-might or Midoriya could ever be at least in terms of mental strength. The dudes been through hell yet tries to make the world a better place.
All hail Zach the god of Death!
Thanks for the awesome chapter and boy the amount of content you post in a short time is always good. Godspeed mate
Glad you liked the Sero scene! Sero def believes in that mental strength of Zach, and he's still out there after everything... trying to pacify the mob! XD If you've thought I've posted quickly before, well here's another chapter in another day, and there's another coming at you tomorrow! (For sure, I just finished it ;) ). Thanks for the review!
Rex559 chapter 132 . Jan 17
Que paso con rappa? Esta muerto
Si. Lo siento. Gracias... for reviewing (ran out of my Spanish vocab).
Guest chapter 132 . 21h ago
Man, why have I been getting a Devilman Crybaby 'last stand' vibe from the AoD recently? You're not scheming are you?
... No spoilers! Lol make your predictions if you like, I'm betting the coming chapters are going to surprise you guys!