The room was dimly lit, the air was silent, not a sound could be heard, it was like the atmosphere itself wasn't trying to disturb the two titans talking on the phone.
"So what did you think of my little welcoming present?" The man on the phone sounded like a combination of a deep relaxed voice of a spy movie villain, and a confident chess player who already knows he has Checkmate.
"Usually most people just buy flowers as a housewarming gift, not half of the house itself…"
"Its nice to see your perpetual cynicism is alive as ever, but you should know I didn't call for back and forth banter." Tao thought of simply hanging up, but he knew if he did it would only make things worse.
"Fine. If were done with the pleasantries let's cut the crap and get to the point, I'm not going work with you anymore, got it? I'm retired. End of story." The room was now dead silence for a whole minute, neither one held up on the other making the atmosphere rather eerie.
Until a distinct laugh shattered the silence.
"KUHAHAHAHA! Do you really think you can fool me Tao, hell do you think you can even fool yourself?" Tao said nothing. "Men like you don't get to go home and retire, what do you think's gonna happen? Try and start a family, i'm sure it will be lovely watching the people you love grow old and decrypted while you look the same; face it Tao, the only time you're truly alive is when you kill. The high you get from drawing blood, you never truly cared about the money, it's all about the fun."
Tao was silent, as much as he wanted to he couldn't disagree, he so close to falling off the waggon again.
"Tell me… The reason for all this. The reason you retired. How much of it has to do with that brat?"
Tao nearly dropped the phone, he may of just meet the kid but he knew doesn't deserve whatever his "Old Friend" has planned.
"How do yo-"
"How do I know you went out of your way to save some snot nosed brat or that you just spent the last week cozying up to the residents in Beach City Would you believe a lucky guess?" He spoke consideringly with clear malicious intent.
Tao clenched the phone with his hand, he had to restrain himself from destroying everything around him.
"I don't care about you or the gang, if you lay a single hair on that boy I will personally kill you!" Tao felt his ki rising, his body began to emit a aura of gleaming heat.
"KUHAHA! Do I sense a hint of fatherly instinct? You should know well by now that- *KLINK* Tao slammed his end down finishing the conversation.
"Sandy bastard…."
Meanwhile in a underground office a large burly man laid down on his personalized throne, the room was rather dark with the only present light was the reflection of a outlandishly large aquarium.
A bald man with dark skin and a broad chest was the only one else present.
"I take it he didn't accept our invite?" His boss didn't respond, he merely opened up a drawer full of expensive looking cigars, cueing his employee to walk over to his side.
"Cap." Like an animal trained to follow an order, the dark skinned man brought his curled up finger to the tip of the cigar, oddly enough with a downward thrust of his finger the man made a perfect cut, removing the cap completely.
"No Daz, he'll end up here one way." A small but bright flame lit up the dim room and the end of his cigar.
"How can you be so sure? I worked with him too and Tao doesn't seem like someone who comes crawling back.." A cloud of smoke hit the top of the roof, and almost symbolically a large reptilian hybrid came swimming in the aquarium behind the relaxed crime boss.
A sly smile spread across the man's face. "Oh he's not going comeback crawling to us, were going to find him and remind about all the fun our little gang used to have."
The man came into the light, fully revealing himself. He was tall, at least eight feet with enough muscle to match all while covered in a luxurious fur coat, his right hand was glistening with several expensive ring while his left hand was replaced with improbable oversized golden hook; however his most notable feature was his movie monster scar mark across his face.
This man is the King of the Desert, the Scourge of the Sand, the former Schibikikiu of the sea.
SIR CROCODILE: CURRENT BOUNTY Six hundred eighty million