Wow, hard to believe this is my thirteenth chapter! I wish to thank war sage and punisher7771 for their continued support!
Chapter 13: Assassination Plot
Characters (in order of first appearance):
Zabuza Momochi / Disprezzare Corrente
Gatō / Malacca
The two men chuckled.
"I guess one of the cutlets wants to pick a fight with us," Gorgo said, unwinding the spiked chains from his skinny but well-built arms.
Meanwhile Vento, who was the bigger of the two, concentrated on taking out a pair of spiked brass knuckles and placed them on his large hands. Together, they resumed their advancement on Gelato, who still held his gun pointed at them. But as they got closer, his hand started to shake, and it got worse with every step they made. Freno was backing away further till he hit a brick wall of an abandoned building, and Rosa was still out of touch with reality.
"What's the matter, kid? Have you ever seen assassins before?" Vento said, rubbing the spikes together to sharpen them.
"We're the Demon Brothers, and we always get our target," Gorgo concurred, as he began to swing the chain over his head.
Then just as Gorgo was about to launch the chain at Gelato, Tony emerged out of the burning car, flew into the air, and landed on the tops of their heads with his feet. Taken by surprise, the Demon Brothers were knocked to the ground in front of Gelato, which caught the attention of Rosa. She immediately snapped out of her grief-stricken daze as she watched him leap off their heads to stand in front of them.
"Tony! I thought you were dead!" she squealed.
"No time to explain! Get your weapons out before they recover!" he said, drawing his gun out of its holster.
Rosa then took her gun out of the holster strapped to her leg, and Gelato, though surprised at first, didn't lower his gun as the two stood up, rubbing their heads. Afterwards, they gave them angry glares and proceeded to rush at them. Tony and Gelato met the challenge, while Rosa stepped back to protect Freno, who was still cowering at the wall.
After Gorgo threw his chain, Tony dodged it and fired a few shots. Unfortunately, Tony's shots were blocked by the steel bracelets on Gorgo's forearms, and sent the bullets in different directions. Then, Gorgo proceeded to punch Tony in the face, but Tony moved slightly to the right and landed his punch first. Gorgo staggered back after being hit in the face, and Tony was about to shoot again, when he felt a sudden pain in his back.
He turned around, and saw Vento holding the other half of the spiked chain tightly, as it pressed hardly on Tony's skin. Wondering where Gelato was, he noticed Gorgo recover from the blow with a bleeding nose, and pull the chain harder against his back, which actually punctured the skin. Tony cried out in pain, and fell forward.
"That's what you get for knocking us over our heads, meat!" Vento said, and whipped the chain upward, which immediately detached from the skin.
Tony groaned, and couldn't move. It was then that he noticed Gelato lying on his knees, with a deep scar on his right hand. Staggering, he crawled over to Gelato as the Demon Brothers headed over to Rosa, who raised her gun in front of her face and stood over Freno.
"What do we have here? A lamb waiting to be slaughtered?" Vento said, sharpening his brass knuckles once again.
"I'm not as weak as you think I am! I am a Soldier of the Foglia family, after all!" Rosa shouted with a nervous vibe.
"So the Foglia family decided to get involved in this," Gorgo laughed, stretching the spiked chain between his hands like a rope. "Then I guess we'd better act quickly, because I wouldn't want to miss bringing your chopped up corpses to that so-called Godfather of yours as a present from the Demon Brothers!"
Then, a shot was fired. It came from behind Gorgo, who fell dead at Rosa's feet with a bullet lodged in the back of his skull. To everyone's surprise, the shooter was Spauracchio, who looked perfectly fine for a guy who supposedly got burnt alive. Enraged, Vento turned towards Spauracchio and was about to charge, but Spauracchio took out his knives and threw them at Vento's wrists, which were impaled on the brick wall. But Spauracchio wasn't finished. He walked up to Vento, grabbing him by the collar of his suit and pointed a gun on the side of his head.
"Start talking! Who hired you to kill the old man and why?!" Spauracchio growled.
Vento, who had acted so tough before, was now whimpering and sobbing like a little baby.
"H-h-he said that we'd get a g-g-great reward if we k-killed Freno, p-plus he owes us our help for-for-for—
"For what?" Spauracchio said, clicking the revolver.
"For um, rebelling the-the f-family."
"What family? The Caligine?" Spauracchio then lifted Vento's tie out of his suit, and examined it. It was light blue with four black curves perpendicular to each other stitched into the middle. "You guys are rogues, aren't you?"
"Yeah, me and Gorgo, and-and—
"Who was the other one? Did he hire you to do this?"
"Yeah, yeah, his name is, is uh—
"Speak!" Spauracchio yelled, tightening the tie to where Vento started to choke.
"D-Disprezzare…Corre—
A shot was fired, and Vento fell over dead into Spauracchio's arms. But it wasn't Spauracchio who shot him. He looked down the street, and saw a figure looming on a water-tower a few blocks away, holding what looked like a sniper rifle. Then the figure bounded away before Spauracchio could get a good look at him.
"Well, at least we have a name," Spauracchio said, lying Vento down on the sidewalk, and looking at the old man, who was shaking all over. "Disprezzare...do you know him, old man?"
Freno shook his head. "I never heard of a Disprezzare in my life."
"But someone clearly wants you dead, and I think you know why," Spauracchio then got up and stood over Freno, and removed his eye patch.
Gelato couldn't see what was happening, while Rosa was occupied hugging Tony, who tried to get her to let go, since the pain in his back was still fresh. Plus Gelato was occupied with the numb, but tingling sensation he was feeling all over, and his right hand was swelling. After one final shove, Tony got Rosa to release him as he examined the wound further.
"What the hell's wrong with my body? I can't move!" Gelato croaked.
"It looks like you got scratched by one of those spiked knuckles, but judging by your condition, there was poison in those spikes."
"Do you know what it is?"
"Not off the top of my head."
"Lemme see," Rosa said, holding up Gelato's hand, feeling his forehead, and checking his pulse with her pointer and middle finger. Then she frowned and said, "This isn't good. It's a paralysis poison that entered through the wound the spike made, and it's spreading throughout his body. He has a high temperature and his pulse has slowed down significantly. If we don't get him to a doctor soon, it may stop his heart."
"Wow, Rosa, that's the first smart thing you've said since we became partners," Gelato said, and started coughing.
"Spauracchio! We need to do something!" Rosa cried.
"I know, I heard," Spauracchio said, walking away from Freno, who looked like he was in a trance of some kind.
"What did you do to him, Capo?" Tony said, looking at Freno.
"I put him under suggestive hypnosis, and he told me everything I needed to know," Spauracchio said, and picked up Gelato.
As they ran down the street, with Freno carrying Tony on his back and Rosa next to him, Spauracchio explained, "Apparently, an independent gangster named Malacca took over the district, leaving it in poverty and ceased all communication with the mainland in order to continue his illegal import and export of firearms. Then Freno, who is an architect, proposed to build a bridge to the mainland which has never been done before due to the dangerous amount of work it would require. But a lot of people supported it, and Malacca, knowing that this would greatly expose his activity, has made it his prime directive to see Freno dead."
"But why didn't Freno tell us this before? This isn't a job for one four-man Squad to handle!" Tony shouted, and then groaned from the scars on his back.
"You're right, Tony, and that's why after we find a doctor who can treat you and Gelato, we're going back to the Godfather's house to tell him the situation."
"No…I don't wanna go back," Gelato groaned.
Spauracchio chuckled, "What happened to the boy who didn't want to drag an old fart across the city to an island out in the middle of the ocean?"
"We've come so far…it would feel stupid to turn back now."
"But you're poisoned, and you might die any second."
"I don't care! If we see this mission through, we might get a bigger reward!"
"Sorry to disappoint you, kid," Freno piped, breathing heavily from Tony's weight. "But all I can afford is what I arranged with the Godfather, which was two-hundred dollars in advance, and five-hundred more upon safely bringing me home."
"Well if that's the case," Spauracchio said, stopping at a cross-walk. "Then we can't take you back to the Godfather, because once he knows what's really going on, he'll ask you to pay a larger sum than you already have if you still want to return home."
"But then I'll go bankrupt!" Freno cried, lowering Tony and crouching low as he gasped for breath. "I need all the money I have to make this bridge a reality! Not only will it benefit the district's poor economy, but it will also slowly diminish Malacca's power! I will do anything, but please, help me reach home safely, and allow me to build this bridge!"
The traffic-light turned red, but Spauracchio didn't cross. He looked at the old man, and then at Gelato, Tony, and Rosa, who helped Freno up from his crouched position. Then he said, "All right, we'll take you home after we find a doctor, but you're paying the bill, since your lies nearly cost me the lives of my Soldiers!"
"Fair enough," Freno sighed.
"By the way, Capo," Rosa said, helping Tony up. "How did you escape the car before it blew up?"
"I didn't," Spauracchio said, taking a right turn. "I conjured an illusion to make you all think that the car turned over and exploded, but really, it just swerved and hit the curb of the sidewalk on its side. The reason I did this was to see who our attackers were, and to see what you were capable of without me."
"I see," Rosa sighed, lowering her head. "And Tony knew this, but he didn't tell us in order not to blow your cover to the Demon Brothers."
Soon, they found an independent doctor who worked at his home, and was willing to treat Gelato and Tony for a lot of money. Reluctantly, Freno paid the man, who was a sickly skinny man with bulging eyes and sticky fingers. But he did his job well, and gave Gelato the antidote before the poison reached his heart. As for Tony, the doctor treated his wounds by pouring hydrogen-peroxide all over his back, causing Tony to hiss in pain, and wrapped his chest with bandages. They stayed in his upstairs bedroom for a couple of nights to recover, and then they set out to Riva on foot, knowing that Disprezzare might try to kill them again if they took public transportation.
End of Chapter 13