Chapter 16: A Hard Past, Wall-Scaling Antics, and a Rivalry

"Why bother covering it up? We know it's there," Gelato said.

"But you have admit it makes me stand out, so I would prefer if it was hidden," Spauracchio said, folding his arms.

"But I've heard that you can get rid of the eyes if you willed them to," Tony said.

"I would," said Spauracchio. "But because I'm not of Fuori blood, I don't have as much control of it as you do with yours."

At that, Tony looked away. The others noticed, and Gelato broke out laughing. Rosa and Spauracchio stared at him with confused looks.

"You don't have the eyes, do you, Tony?" Gelato said, and went on to laugh some more.

Then Tony glared and punched Gelato in the face, sending him flying. But before he could land another, Rosa blocked him. Freno and his daughter came out to see what the trouble was, creating an embarrassing situation for all of them. But it got worse when Cannoli came through the back-gate after coming back from the beach, and clenched his fist.

"You guys are idiots! Fighting isn't going to help get rid of Malacca, so just go home already!" he screamed, and then ran back into the house, followed by his mother and grandfather.

When they were gone, Gelato got back up on his feet and they all stood in silence.

"Well, that kid does have a point, fighting won't help us accomplish our goal," Spauracchio said, breaking the silence.

"Capo, how can you just lightly brush away what that kid said? It was insulting!" Gelato said, storming towards the house. "I'm going to teach him a thing or two."

"Don't hurt him, Gelato!" Rosa said, holding him back. "He's only a kid!"

"Yeah, at least Fogliaragazzo had more dignity in comparison!" Gelato responded, shrugging Rosa's hands off.

"Who?"

"Never mind."

So he went into the house, and found the door to the kid's room closed, with the mother knocking profusely on it. But when Gelato came up to the door, the mother let him pass and he opened it. He was met by a pillow thrown at him, which he blocked easily. Then the kid threw a few more things at Gelato, while yelling at him with profuse words. Gelato didn't say anything and kept blocking the objects till his forearms grew numb, and Cannoli collapsed on the floor in exhaustion.

"Why don't you just leave?" Cannoli asked, putting his head between his knees. "There's nothing you can do for us here."

"Sure we can, cuz we have the guts to kick Malacca's a** while the rest of you are just obedient sheep!" Gelato yelled, staring down at Cannoli.

"Well it's better than getting killed, unlike Kaiser and my father!"

"So you think their deaths were in vain? Is that how you want to remember them?"

"They died being idiots! And without regard for what would happen to those who would miss them!"

"But they died for your sakes, and a brighter future that they saw! And wouldn't they have wanted you to take up their cause, instead of moping about it?"

"You don't know what it's like, not having a father, get picked on because of it, and feeling worthless to those around you."

"Hey, you think you're life sucks? Wait till you hear my story!" Gelato said, and he knelt down in front of Cannoli, forcing him to make eye-contact. "When I was your age, I had to live on the streets, stealing food and moving from place to place, because I don't have parents. I had to make a house out of scrap-metal and old cloth, while using trashcans for support. I had to endure the scorching summers and cold winters all on my own, and often got sick. But I was also alone a great deal, so I started pulling pranks on people in order to get their attention.

So one day, I tried to steal money as a practical joke. But the man caught me, and would've dragged me to the nearest police-station when someone stepped out and claimed me as their little brother. I knew it was an out-right lie, but it was enough to send the man away. The person who saved me that day was Delfino, and he was an associate (not quite a member, but does minor jobs for the Mafia) of the Foglia family. He saw potential in me, and taught me the various secrets about the Mafia, showing me how to fight, read, and even write. He was hard on me to the point where I played tricks on him, but he did take me out to fancy restaurants so I could get pasta as an award for my hard work."

"But clearly, this 'Delfino' person didn't die, unlike Kaiser, so what's your point?" Cannoli said, looking away.

"My point is that Delfino could've died if it wasn't for my faith in the future," Gelato explained, looking Cannoli in the eyes again. "A few months ago, I took the initiation test to get into the Foglia family, and failed it pretty badly. This put me in a rut, because it meant that I couldn't accomplish my dream. Then, through a series of events, I was tricked into stealing a valuable book, leading Delfino to get badly hurt as he was trying to help me see the wrong I did. Then, just as he was about to get finished off by the criminal, Delfino said that he sympathized with me, and had faith in me. This caused me to help him despite the danger I was putting myself in, and beat the criminal with my own hands, and was rewarded with becoming a member of the family. It is for that faith that I am here right now, still striving for my dream."

But before Cannoli could reply, his mother came in, and had a strong talk with him about his cursing and his manners. Cannoli defended himself, saying that Gelato and the others were just magnets for trouble, making Gelato irritated after all the stuff he said to Cannoli, and left the room without another word. When he came into the backyard, he saw Rosa and Tony, but no Spauracchio. He noticed that Rosa and Tony where preoccupied by something that was on the house, and turned around to look up as well. What he saw was Spauracchio calmly walking up the wall of the house with no ropes or any support for that matter.

Gelato couldn't believe his eyes. "Is he…climbing up the wall?"

"Yes, Gelato, how cleverly perceptive of you," Tony said sarcastically.

"Why, you…" Gelato was about to raise his fist, when Rosa cut him off again.

"Do I need to put a leash on you, Gelato?" Rosa said, putting her arms at her sides.

"Only if you pet me and love me forever," Gelato said raising his eyebrows.

But Rosa didn't buy in, and walked back to Tony. "You're hopeless," she said.

When Spauracchio reached the chimney, he stopped and sat on it. Then he looked down at the three, and said, "I suppose you're wondering what I'm doing up here, and how I did it."

"Well, yeah, it's not every day you see a guy scaling the walls of a house like a human spider," Gelato said, thinking back to those comic books he stole back home.

"In order to prepare you for our next encounter with Disprezzare and Fiera, I've decided to give you guys a nature energy-building exercise to do while I'm still recovering, and that is being able to walk up a wall."

"But how is that going to help us in battle?"

"It won't help you in battle necessarily, but it is a valuable skill to learn, say, when you're cornered in an alley and have nowhere else to run."

"What are you doing up there? Get down from my roof!" Freno shouted, noticing Spauracchio. "If you're well enough to scale a building, then why not make yourselves useful and escort me to where I'm building my bridge!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Freno, seeing that I'm still not at my full strength," Spauracchio said, and walked down. But then he lost footing and fell flat on his face on the ground.

So because they couldn't use Freno's house, they ended up taking their exercise to a more challenging approach, and that was the sea cliff that was right in front of the backyard. Because Spauracchio still needed to rest, he set up a lounge chair and gave them instruction on how to concentrate their nature energy into their feet, allowing them to walk up vertically on any surface. However, the task turned out to be trickier than they thought, because they found out through a series of falls that the nature energy in their feet ran out quickly, meaning they had to literally run up the cliff in order to not fall. For some reason, Rosa managed to reach the top on her first try, and watched with playfulness as the two boys struggled to catch up to her. However, by the end of the day, neither of them was able to scale the cliff, and they were both really irritated at each other, so they decided to head back to the house.

The next day bore similar results, and the day after as well. By the third day, Freno was getting anxious to start building his bridge, and told Spauracchio to speed up the exercise, since he was well recovered by this point. He reluctantly agreed, and told Rosa to give Tony and Gelato advice on how to improve their wall-scaling. During all this, Cannoli stopped by from time to time to watch, but always left with a disappointed frown. Watching him made Gelato mad and he did worse on his wall-scaling than Tony, who almost made it to the top but fell at the last minute, and was caught by Spauracchio. Tired and covered in bruises, they both collapsed on the sand and rested.

As the moon rose, the tide came closer to the shore, but Tony and Gelato were still out, trying to scale the sea cliff. Spauracchio and Rosa had already left, while Cannoli and his family were back at the house, so it was just the two of them. Ignoring each other, they concentrated individually to reach the top, but their efforts were met by the slip of the foot and a long way down. Getting frustrated, Gelato kicked the wall.

"Why is this so hard? What am I doing wrong?!" Gelato yelled, getting into position to charge his nature energy, when Tony stopped him.

"Wait, Gelato, remember what Rosa said," Tony paused, and breathed deeply. "If you breathe deeply in before you charge your nature energy, you will gain more energy to put into your feet."

"I know, that's what I'm doing!" Gelato said, a made a short, steady breath.

"You didn't breath in hard enough," Tony said, getting into position.

"Well, excuse me, Mr. Smarty-Pants, and why are you helping me? I thought you hated me."

"I do hate you, but I don't want you to fail either."

"Why?"

"You're my rival, that's why."

Gelato scuffed. "Someone told me that rivals weren't supposed to help each other and beat each other with their own power instead."

"Who told you that? A little kid?"

That made Gelato blush in anger, and breathe deeply in as he concentrated on the earth underneath him, feeling the energy flowing into the soles of his feet. When he felt that he couldn't take anymore, he dashed up the cliff-face, as the sea breeze pushed against his back. But to him, the breeze went through him, as he felt he was a part of the cliff, and was surprised when it suddenly stopped. He thought he was going to fall backwards again, but was instead backing off the edge of the top of the cliff. Then he felt someone pushing him upwards, and looked down. To his surprise, it was Tony, who walked slowly up and allowed Gelato to steadily regain his footing. Unfortunately, that took up most of the nature energy Tony had left, and would've fallen to his death if Gelato hadn't grabbed his hand in time.

Dangling off the edge, Tony looked up in surprise. "Gelato, you…saved me."

"Damn right I did, now walk! I don't know how long I can hold onto you!" Gelato said and grabbed Tony's other hand.

With that, Tony sighed, and renewed the energy in his feet, and walked the rest of the way up with Gelato pulling him upwards. When they were both safely away from the edge, they both sat down and looked at the bright moon as it hung over the midnight blue sea and the bright lights of the city to their left. They were about to fall asleep when Spauracchio came up from behind them and patted their shoulders.

"Congratulations, boys, you successfully learned how to scale walls and control your nature energy better! Now let's go to bed!" he said cheerfully.

Gelato and Tony looked at each other, gave each other a light fist-pump before following Spauracchio back into the house.

End of Chapter 16