Chapter 12: Special Mission

Characters (in order of first appearance):

Tazuna / Freno

Gōzu / Gorgo

Meizu / Vento

It had been a few weeks since Gelato had started taking on missions along with his teammates Tony and Rosa, with Capo Spauracchio giving them the necessary orders and guidance to carry them out. However, much to Gelato's dismay, the missions that were assigned to him weren't what he had in mind when he decided to join the Foglia family. For instance, on this particular afternoon, some wealthy patron had lost her precious pet cat and was willing to pay the Mafia a great deal of money for its safe return.

He was currently in an alley with Tony, where they thought they saw the cat run into, but so far, the cat was nowhere to be seen. Rosa and Spauracchio were off searching for it near the park, after an anonymous witness had notified seeing it there. Frustrated, Gelato tried to call it out, and sure enough, a brown cat emerged behind one of the dumpsters in the alley on Gelato's right, staring at Gelato with its bright yellow eyes.

"That's the one!" Gelato cried triumphantly.

The noise scared the cat, and made it run in the opposite direction. Gelato ran towards it, while Tony stayed behind and called Rosa and Spauracchio on the hand-held radio (Walkie-Talkie). It came to the end of the alley, and made a sharp turn down the sidewalk, and Gelato followed. For a few blocks, Gelato pursued the cat continuously, until Tony joined him, but neither of them could catch up to it.

Eventually, Rosa and Spauracchio showed up, and together they cornered it into an alley with a dead end. Naturally, it put up a hissy fight, but Spauracchio managed to grab it by the skin on its back after it gave Gelato several scratches. When they returned it to the lady, who was plump and had way too much makeup on, she flew out of her chair and hugged the cat profusely. It tried to break free, but her grip was stronger, and she paid Spauracchio with a total sum of twenty thousand dollars.

"I actually feel sorrier for the cat than for the woman," Rosa said as they were leaving the house. "No wonder it ran away."

"Yeah, but what pisses me off more is why WE had to do it!" Gelato said, folding his arms.

"Because you're only Soldiers," Spauracchio said.

"But aren't Soldiers supposed to eliminate other Mafia guys and protect the territory?"

"That's only if there was a Mafia war going on, but we typically like to avoid those," said Spauracchio, placing the envelope with the money inside his coat pocket. "Now let's head back to the Godfather's house to give him his share."

At the Godfather's house, they waited outside his office door, and were met by the Underboss (the No. 2 guy). He was a skinny fellow with slick black hair and genuine gold-rimmed glasses, who took the envelope and examined the contents. Then he sighed and cleaned his glasses with a white handkerchief.

"Well done," he said.

"Yeah, because the mission was ridiculously easy!" Gelato growled. "And I want to talk to the Godfather about that!"

Everyone stared at him with surprised looks, including the Underboss, who frowned. "I'm sorry, but only the Consigliere (Chief Adviser), the clients, and I are allowed to see the Godfather privately. However, I will be willing to give him a message for you."

Gelato sighed. "Fine, tell him that I'm sick of all these menial errands and to give me a real mission that has danger as well as excitement!"

"Very well," the Underboss said, adjusting his glasses.

So he went inside, and closed the door behind him. As the minutes passed, the four of them decided to sit down in the row of velvet chairs next to the window. Gelato was grinning, conjuring up various images of him shooting at mobsters through a hail of bullets, but Tony and Rosa groaned in boredom while Spauracchio calmly read Make-Out Paradise. It was thirty minutes before the Underboss' head popped out of the door with a large envelope in his hand.

"This is the only high-ranked mission we're willing to give you, so take it or leave it," he said urgently.

Without hesitation, Gelato grabbed the envelope and opened it up. It contained a monochrome picture of an old man with frizzy hair and glasses. There was a hand-written letter that was a plea to the Foglia family and a typed letter from the Godfather, which was stamped with the seal of approval. Spauracchio read the typed letter first, since it was addressed to him, and then he gave it to the others.

"So, we basically just have to escort this guy into the Riva (Land of Waves) district," Gelato said. Then he chuckled, "Sounds easy enough."

"But isn't that under the control of the Caligine (Kiri) family?" Rosa asked, glancing at Spauracchio nervously. "Wouldn't we be violating Mafia territory laws?"

"The Caligine family has lost a significant amount of influence since the last Mafia war, and relinquished control of the Riva district in order to concentrate on rebuilding its home district Acqua (Land of Water)," Spauracchio said.

"Then no Mafia groups are controlling that district as we speak? Sounds hard to believe," Tony said. "What about crime syndicates?"

"I've never heard of any, unless they're powerful enough to keep a lot people's traps shut," Spauracchio said, closing his book. "But I guess we have no choice but to go there and see what the situation's like."

"But, I don't wanna drag some old fart clear across the city to an island out in the middle of the ocean!" Gelato said, handing the envelope back to Spauracchio.

"Too bad, Gelato, because once you grabbed that envelope, you automatically accepted the mission."

"And besides, Riva's located in the bay area, not the ocean," Tony smirked.

"Shut up, Tony! I knew that!"

"Tch! Sure you did."

Later, the four of them arrived at an old apartment that was on the edge of the Foglia family's territory, in a black car that had been provided for them by the Godfather. Out on the steps sat the old man from the picture, looking disheveled as he held a bootlegged bottle of bourbon. With Spauracchio at the wheel, the other three got out to greet the old man. He took a swig from the bottle, ignoring them.

"Are you Mr. Freno?" asked Rosa.

"Yeah, that's me," he said, and belched. "What do you kids want?"

"Actually, we're Soldiers of the Foglia family. We received your letter and we're here to escort you to Riva," Tony said, nodding over to the car.

Freno chuckled, and pointed obscurely at them, "Do you think I'm going to entrust my life to a little s**t like you?"

"Is he referring to me?" Gelato said, looking back and forth between Rosa and Tony.

"Well, you are the shortest among us," Tony shrugged.

It took both of them to restrain Gelato from tearing Freno apart as he staggered up to the open car and puked all over the backseat. Spauracchio looked back and sighed. He got out of the car, seated Freno on the curb of the sidewalk and walked into the apartment to ask the landlady for a couple of rags. It took two hours to clean the backseat, but it still smelled like vomit when they all got in and drove off.

While Freno was snoring loudly, Gelato looked out the car-window, watching as the scenery he knew since he was child fade and be replaced by large skyscrapers made of bricks and steel, buses and trams crisscrossing city streets, and dozens of pedestrians wearing clean business suits rushing around to get to work. This was the heart of the city, and Gelato relished every moment of it. Then, as they were going down a quiet street towards the main highway, two men wearing black suits and ski masks stepped out in front of them wielding large spiked chains.

"EVERYONE, GET OUT OF THE CAR!" Spauracchio said, slowing down the car slightly to let Gelato and Rosa grab Freno and jump out without hurting themselves.

But Tony stayed in the passenger's seat, as the car drove straight towards the two men. They smirked at whipped their chains at the tires, which popped instantly, causing the car to flip forward, and explode in a giant fireball. Everyone was awestruck, especially Rosa, who fell to her knees and cried, "TONYYYYYY!"

The two men heard her, and walked over towards them in slow, steady steps.

"Looks like we got ourselves some meat to chop up, eh, Gorgo?" one of them said.

"I would agree, Vento," The other said. "And we even have the prime steak right here."

Freno stiffened. While Rosa stared at the flames in a trance-like state, Gelato took out his pistol and aimed at the two guys. They stopped walking.

"I don't care who you are, but no one gets away with cold-blooded murder while I'm here!" Gelato said, feeling the anger stirring in his chest.

End of Chapter 12