Donald Giuseppe sat his favorite seat in his favorite country club drinking some wine. It was nice to relax after what happened at the Velvet Hat. It was back up and running as if nothing had happened. His new enemy had warned him worse was to come, but for now it was a harmless prank. Why, it would take no time at all to get the money back from the night lost and from repairing the club in no time.

His thoughts were interrupted by when the usually quiet, soothing music played over the club's speakers was suddenly replaced by an electric guitar and a voice and chorus started to sing.

Rock and roll is running through my veins!

"HEY, HEY!"

Electric soul like wires to my brain

HEY, HEY!

The song got louder as it went along. What's more, it sounded like speakers sounded louder than usual. Everyone covered their ears and grimaced. Several people left the club, with some of them running. Everything shook and some glass even broke. When the song finally ended, it was followed by another rock song. The country club was more or less evacuated by the time it was finally ended. It was revealed that someone had put a device with a playlist on the club's sound system, turned the speakers on full blast, and had locked the door to the control room. The playlist featured songs by such performers as Mick Swagger and Smooch, but the first song—which was played several times throughout among the rest—was by someone unknown.

Later, Donald received a call.

"Sorry about that," the mechanically altered voice told him. "Wrong kind of club. Though I'm sure everyone had a ROCKIN' good time. HAHAHA!"

Donald rolled his eyes. "If this the worst you can do, I actually feel safer now. If anything I think you bothered more members than you did me."

"Oh, this isn't the worst. It was just 'hey, why not'. As well as it being the easiest prank. The rest are gonna take a lot more work for me and be more harmful to you.

"How so?

"Oh, you'll find out." With that the caller hung up

It was another fine night at the Giuseppe's fancy restaurant…until someone spotted a rat in the dining room. Then another in the kitchen. Then another in the bathroom. Suddenly they were everywhere. Almost all the customers ran screaming from the restaurant while a few braver ones tried to help the staff catch or kill them, though they all got away.

Donald knew who calling when his phone showed "Uknown"."And just what are trying to accomplish with this," he told the caller.

"I thought it would good if your restaurant served ratatouille!" the altered voice said with a laugh.

"Don't think this will hurt us," he told his would-be tormenter. "We will have a grand reopening when we are able. We may very well add ratatouille to the menu."

"Oh, this was just for one too," the voice replied. "Though you losing money from this is a nice bonus."

"You realize you just put several cooks and servers out of work, right?"

"Oh, I'm hoping they find work elsewhere. Besides, I imagine this isn't the first time innocents got caught in the crossfire because of you."

Even distorted, Donald could recognize the change in the caller's tone as he became more serious. "Sadly true," he replied. "Sometimes one must make hard choices and sacrifices to achieve one's goals. How far are you willing to go?

"Oh, trust me when I say you'll find out soon enough…"

Donald led his guests to the storage unit. Harold Jones and his men followed him.

"I'm sure you'll be pleased," Don told them. "It's very good product."

"Usually is," Jones said with a satisfied smile.

One of Donald's men opened the unit to reveal several mid-sized, but full bags. Jones took one and cut a slit to reveal white powder. "Nice," he remarked. He put some on the tip of his finger and licked it. His smile faded and was replaced by a look of confusion.

"Is something wrong?" Donald asked in concern.

Jones put more of the powder on his finger and licked it again. His eyes widened in shock. "Sugar…"

"WHAT?!" all the other men asked. They opened more of the bags and sure enough, all the bags were sugar instead of cocaine.

"What is this?!" One of Jones' men asked. "Some kind of sick joke?!"

"I'm afraid so…" Don replied as he rubbed his temples. "The good news is that you get to keep your money. The bad news is that we have both lost out on this deal. I give you my most sincere apologies. I'm afraid I have been targeted by a prankster who has a vendetta against me. Until now he has been a great annoyance. Now that he's targeting my operations, it's personal.

There was a pause Jones looked Don over and their men slowly reached for their weapons. Jones nodded and his men relaxed, as did Donald's.

"Things have always worked out when I've dealt with you, so I'll let it slide. I heard rumors some punk had been messing with you more legit businesses. Hell, I've had fools mess with me too, though not like this."

"How did he even know though?" one of the men asked.

"You must be new," Donald told the asker. "Meddlesome fools playing detective will snoop into our business from time to time. They actively seek out a lead here, a clue there. They can be even worse than law enforcement."

"Though why do all this instead of calling the cops in you?" Jones asked.

"I'm afraid this enemy a warped sense of humor," Donald replied with a sigh. "He's almost as interested in elaborate pranks as he is in thwarting my businesses. I have to wonder if he has help because this feels like too much for one person to do by themselves…"

"Well," Jones told him, "let me know when you take care of him. Because if he's gonna do this to your less legal ventures, I'm afraid I can't do business with you on the risk something like this might happen again.

Donald nodded. "Fair enough. I don't suppose I can count on your help dealing with this pest, can I?"

Jones thought it over. "Nah. As much I hate people screwing with my business, it's your turf. That mean it's your responsibility. I might help later if it becomes a bigger problem, but for now it's your mess to clean up."

Donald nodded in understanding. He quietly sighed in relief as Jones and his men left. While it was nice to avoid a fight, he was greatly annoyed to lose out. The drugs had cost him a lot, and now he'd never get his investment back. Even selling all this sugar wouldn't even recoup a quarter of his losses.

"It was sometime later when his phone rang and the mechanically altered voice spoke.

"So," it asked, "did you like your SWEET surprise? Hahahah!"

"You may think you're being clever," Donald told her aggravator, "but you've just started playing a very dangerous game. You are lucky you didn't make an enemy out of Harold Jones. If you meddle in my other deals, you may make an enemy even worse than me."

"Eh, can't bake a cake without breaking some eggs. If more bad guys come after me, fine. Just as long as I make harder for you."

"You are either very brave, or very foolish."

"Maybe some of both. And don't forget crazy!"

"Though if you don't mind my asking…where ARE my drugs?

"Well, I'm sure not selling them if that's what you're getting at. I could live HIGH off the money, but I put them where they can't hurt anyone. Except maybe some poor fish, frogs and turtles."

Donald's eyes widen. "You threw them into a river or lake?!"

"DING-DING-DING! Your drugs sleep with the fishes!"

Donald tightened his fist. This wasn't just someone out to prank him for fun. This was a self-righteous fool out to spite him. He hated people like that. His desire to catch this person had just increased greatly...

"Ron Giuseppe opened the door to the warehouse to Hernando Cortez and his men in. He opened one of the crates to get out a battle rifle. Cortez gave an impressed whistle.

"Nice," he remarked. "Now that's a gun."

"And we got a lot more like it," Ron told him with a big smile, "along with automatic, semi-automatic, shotguns, carbines, handguns, machine guns, submachine guns, and sniper rifles. Even a few rocket launchers. But first, a demonstration."

His guests and men stepped back as he pulled the trigger…but nothing happened. Not even a click.

"Must be a defective model," he said sheepishly as he got out another gun. Same thing. When the third gun didn't work his confusion started to turn to panic. Then it hit him about the time Cortez was inspecting one of the guns.

"The firing pin is missing…" said the arms dealer with a frown.

"No," Ron said as the color drained from his face as he got another gun for it to do nothing. Some of the most powerful artillery rendered useless! He thought about the other kinds of guns. He opened a crate of machine guns and pulled the trigger one. Nothing. He, his men, and their guests checked. Every gun was missing its firing pin. Guns that had costs the Giuseppes a lot of money so they could sell them for more were now useless unless they sold them for parts or scrap.

"What is this?!" one of Corez' men asked furiously. "Are you trying to scam us?!"

"They're just as shocked as we are" Cortez told his man with a surprisingly understanding tone. "Even more so."

"How the hell—" Ron started to ask. That's when it hit him. "That bastard…THAT PRANKING BASTARD! I'LL KILL HIM FOR THIS!"

Later, He, his father, and Cortez gathered around for when the phone rang. Ron snatched the phone from his father's hand and yelled into it.

"You are dead, Funny Boy! You hear me?! We are going to find you, and then we're going to kill you! And I am going to make it nice and slow!"

"You'll have to find me first," came the distorted retort.

Ron exploded into a string of obscenities until Donald made him calm down.

"You really have gone too far this time," the older man said. "It was a lot trouble to get those guns, and now you've ruined them."

"There was something different in the next reply. Even disguised, there was something hard in the voices tone. "Good. Now they can't kill people."

Cortez held out his hand to take the phone. "I am Hernando Cortez," he said to it. "I know you have issues with the Giuseppes, and now you have made an enemy of me."

"Ah 'cmon!" the voice said. "I just saved you a lot of money."

"While costing me good product. As an arms dealer, seeing such great weapons being ruined bothers me, no matter how much money is saved."

"Sorry, but I got a real BANG out of it? HAHAHAHA! Get it? Though seriously, you're lucky I left anything. I wanted to destroy them. But this felt funnier. I just wish I could've been there to see the looks on your faces!"

"Donald took the phone back. "Though tell me…how in the world DID you do it. To sabotage all those guns…and I had some my best guards watching too."

"Yeah, they were a lot of trouble. Almost caught me a couple of times. The hard part was putting stuff back in place when I heard footsteps, then getting it back out when they were gone. I was worried some guns would still work before it was time!"

"How long did it take? Were you there a long time? That had to take hours and hours."

"It did. It even took several nights. But OH SHOOT, it was totally worth it. HAHAHAHA!"

"Whatever plans you have for us next," Donald said, "will be a lot more difficult."

"Oh, I expected that. But I have ways of working my way around people who have their guard up."

"Oh? Such an interesting person you are. It's shame you earned my ire so. You would've made a good member for my organization."

"That's a laugh," the voice said sternly. "Until next time, Donny boy!" With that the caller hung up.

"Truly a strange opponent," Cortez remarked. "Though I have to wonder why he's doing this. I know you've done many things to make many enemies over the years, but for him to go to such great lengths to undermine and sabotage you. He may see his actions against you as committing pranks, but it's clear he wants to hurt you as badly as possibly."

"Agreed," Don said as he rubbed his temples. "It's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt or killed."

"Hopefully it's him," Ron said. "I don't care how pissed off he is, or what he's pissed off about, but this has gone far enough. We need to add more guards to operations and locations, put up a good reward for any information, and start leaning on local snitches for information."

Donald smiled and nodded at his son taking charge. He'd be a great mob boss after some work on his temper.

"And I shall spare some men to help you," Cortez added. "First the drug deal with Jones, now this. If this pest of yours is going to start effecting the rest of us, then I'll be the first to offer support."

"Thank you," Donald told him. He'd also put in some calls to various colleagues and associates. If his new enemy was to continue to interfere with his business, he was going to have to put much, much more effort and thought into it if he was going to succeed.

Luan pondered her next move. Her next pranks were going to be even bigger…but even riskier. She looked over the crowded board on the wall she had of everything she knew about the Giuseppe family and their organization. No detail had been too small, and no idea discarded. She thought what prank she should pull next.

"What do you think, Mr. Coconuts?" she asked her dummy.

"I think you should lay low for a while," he replied as she pulled his string. "They're gonna be keeping an eye out for you now. You've done really good sat being sneaky, but what's next is gonna take more work and be more dangerous. Besides, you've earned a break after those last too. I was worried you'd get whacked while messing with the guns. I still can't believe you got ALL of them!"

"It took a lot of work," Luan replied, "but it was worth it to keep some kid to go through what I did…" Her eyes started to well and she removed her hand from Mr. Coconuts to wipe her eyes. Even without working his mouth she could hear his voice in her head.

"There, there, doll. You're doing great. Like I said, take a break while you figure out which prank you want to do next. Besides, you need to spend some time with the family friends. You can't tell one group your spending the night with another forever. Shoot, it's only a matter of time before they figure out you're not hanging with any of them."

"I know," Luan said as she calmed down. "Though the next pranks involve me traveling anyway. I need to see if what some of them are doing can line up with them and travel with them. Especially since one of them has is dated and the other can happen anytime."

"I just hope you know what you're doing," Mr. Coconuts said with a mix of concern and doubt.

"I'm winging it," she admitted, "though I have an endgame."

"Let's just hope you survive until then…"