Chapter 17: A Brave Heart and an Awakening
When Gelato woke up the following morning, he heard loud noises coming from below the floorboards of the dusty attic. He crawled out of bed, still wearing yesterday's clothes, which were his black suit and green tie, and made slow steady movements to a hole that allowed him to peak downstairs. He was surprised to see two men in gray suits. One was bald and muscular, while the other one was wide and pig-like. They were both wielding large rifles and stomping around as if they were looking for someone. Then from the corner of the hole, Maremoto appeared out of the kitchen wielding a butcher knife in her hands.
"Who are you? What do you want?!" she asked in a panic-stricken voice.
"I think you already know who we are, Miss," the pig-like one said, chuckling.
"You're Malacca's thugs, and you're here to kill my father," Maremoto said, answering her own question.
"Actually," the bald guy spoke, pointing the rifle at Maremoto. "We've come for you."
Gelato's eyes widened as Maremoto dropped the knife in shock.
"Now we don't want any harm to come to you, so if you can calmly come with us, that'll make our jobs easier and allow the negotiations to go faster," said the pig-like one as he began to take a step closer to Maremoto.
"What negotiations?" Maremoto asked, backing into the kitchen.
"Should we tell her, Vince?" the pig-like one said to the bald guy.
"It wouldn't hurt, Porky," Vince said, and advanced further towards Maremoto. "You see, Malacca has gotten very anxious since the assassination attempts on your father's life have failed, and the presence of those Foglia weasels only makes things worse. So, he decided to take a new approach: we kidnap you, and threaten to kill you if your father builds his goddamn bridge!"
Maremoto grabbed the nearest kitchen knife and held it at her throat. "I'd rather die than be used as a hostage against my father!"
The two men stopped advancing, and loaded their guns.
"You're making this very difficult for us, sweetheart," Vince said, and waved his gun towards Cannoli, who had just come out of his room in his pajamas. "But if you won't cooperate with us willingly, then I'll kill the kid!"
"No! Leave my son out of this!" Maremoto cried.
"Mommy, what are you doing? Are you going to kill yourself like dad and Kaiser?!" Cannoli was confused, and very frightened.
"So you're not gonna budge either way," Vince sighed, and put his hand on the trigger. "Then I guess we bid you goodnight forever, kid!"
But before the gun was shot, the kid screamed and ran into Vince's knee, causing him to misfire. Cannoli pulled and tugged even as the gun was being waved above his head, until Vince collapsed onto the floor from imbalance. Then before Vince could recover, Cannoli ran up to him and kicked him in the crotch. Vince cried out in pain, and couldn't move. Unfortunately, before Cannoli could kick him again, Porky picked him up and would've shot Cannoli right then if Gelato didn't open the hatch ladder and shoot Porky in the head as he came crashing down from the attic. Porky dropped Cannoli, and fell over dead. Then while Cannoli recovered and ran to his mom, Gelato got back on his feet, and shot Vince in the heart.
"Where's Freno?" Gelato said, feeling pain in his knee from hitting the ladder when he jumped down.
"He went to the construction site of the bridge, and your comrades went with him," Maremoto said, picking Cannoli up and holding him in her arms.
"Why didn't you wake me up sooner?"
"Capo Spauracchio wanted you to get extra sleep after you did that thing last night, so he took Tony and Rosa."
"Leaving me to guard the house," Gelato said, and went to the front door. But before he went, he gave Cannoli a thumbs-up. "By the way, you did a pretty good job, Cannoli! I had a feeling that you were brave underneath that sulking exterior of yours!"
Then for the first time since Gelato came here, Cannoli actually smiled, and gave Gelato a thumbs-up back.
"Got get them, Gelato!" he shouted as Gelato ran out the door.
But a few blocks away, Gelato felt stupid that he didn't ask Maremoto where the construction site was, and quickly got lost despite the small size of the town. Then in the distance, he saw large pieces of metal sticking out of the water on the western side of the island, and figured that was where the construction site was. He ran through the open streets, past gawking civilians, and came to a long flight of steps that led down to the pier. When he got there, he saw two battles going on opposite ends below him, with Rosa and Freno hiding behind an empty beach house. Quietly, he ran down the rocky face using his new wall-scaling spell, and came up behind Rosa and Freno, scaring them to death.
"Shh!" Gelato said, silencing them before they finished their screams.
"How did you get here without being noticed?" Rosa asked.
"I scaled down the rocks," Gelato said, grinning confidently.
"Oh," Rosa said, unimpressed. "Well I wish you had gotten here sooner, cuz we're in big trouble."
"Lemme guess, Disprezzare and Fiera showed up," Gelato said, looking both ways down the pier. On the right side, Disprezzare and Spauracchio were fighting using their guns as swords, while on the left side, Tony was charging at Fiera with a knife, though Fiera kept dodging his jabs.
Then, after Tony managed to cut Fiera's cheek, Fiera backed away and made a series of hand-signs. From where Gelato stood, he couldn't hear what Fiera said, but suddenly, a giant structure made of mirrors appeared out of nowhere, with Tony trapped inside and Fiera was nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, Disprezzare had decided to cover the pier with his mist spell again, so Gelato couldn't see what was going on, but he heard Spauracchio's cries of pain. Then when Gelato looked back at the mirror structure, he could see Tony was getting beaten and scratched by dozens of ghost-like blurs that came and went.
"Oh, no, Tony's in trouble!" Rosa cried, and was about to run towards him, when Gelato pulled her back.
"You need to stay here with Freno," Gelato said, and pulled out his gun. "I'll deal with Fiera."
Rosa and Freno were speechless, as Gelato dashed down the pier and shot a dozen times around the glass structure. But much to their surprise, the gunshots had little effect on the mirrors, so he summoned a dozen Homunculi and jumped up to break the glass with his foot. It worked, but then he fell into the glass structure, and the one he broke fixed itself, trapping him like Tony. A few other Homunculi fell in as well, but they were quickly eliminated by that blur that seemed to come from every mirror. Each one held a still image of Fiera, which was only visible from the inside, grinning down at Gelato and Tony, who was kneeling on the floor, with innocent smiles.
"Well, hello, Gelato! I was wondering when you were going to show up!" They said in a symphony of voices.
"Yeah, no thanks to those thugs you sent to kidnap Maremoto!" Gelato shouted, spinning around to every mirror.
Fiera seemed surprised. "What are you talking about? We never sent any thugs! Malacca must've sent them."
"Some crazy employer you have," Gelato said, and shot at every single mirror around him.
Initially, the glass shattered, but it quickly regenerated as the blur came out of nowhere and made Gelato miserable by scratching him several times with a knife. He tried to stop it, but it came where he least expected it to come from, and fell down next to Tony, who looked badly injured. Then during a brief period between attacks, Gelato helped Tony up and they both looked around, holding their knives out.
"So what was that thing?" Gelato asked, circling.
"It's Fiera, but in an astral form that moves fast enough to deal physical damage," Tony said, breathing heavily. "You made a big mistake coming in here, Gelato, now we're both screwed! This House of Mirrors (Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals) can't be broken and where Fiera will strike can't be predicted!"
The blur came again, and it missed Tony, but managed to cut Gelato's side. This continued for a few more times, with Gelato barely managing to stand up as he turned to face Tony, who had somehow managed to dodge the blur when he couldn't before. After spitting blood, Tony looked at Gelato.
"Tony, what happened to your eyes?" Gelato said with a confused look. "They're…bright red and have swirls in them."
"You don't mean…" Tony stopped himself, and looked around. He saw the world as it was, but there were different colors floating about, emitting off of him, Gelato, and the mirrors.
Then when the blur came, it wasn't a blur anymore. He saw Fiera perfectly as if he were right in front of him, flying towards him with a knife and was raising it very slowly. Reacting on impulse, he dodged to the side and saw Fiera disappear into another mirror, which emitted a light blue color. But when he looked around again, he saw one of the mirrors turn green.
"There! Shoot that mirror!" Tony pointed.
Though he was still confused, Gelato shot the mirror. But this time, it didn't regenerate. He looked back at Tony, whose eyes were still the same, with two black swirls coming out of his pupil on one eye, and one on the other.
"How did you know where I should hit him?" Gelato asked.
"I can see his aura," Tony replied.
"What?"
"I have the Specchio Occhi eyes now, Gelato, and they allow me to see auras emitting from objects and people as well as see an opponent's attack before they strike," Tony said, walking up to the broken mirror. "And it looks like the mirrors can be broken after all, but only if we hit the ones where Fiera actually appears from, like that one."
Tony threw his knife at the mirror above him to his right, and it shattered as well. The faces on the mirrors grew agitated and the blur's movements became more and more predictable, and therefore easier to avoid. It was also during this time that Gelato and Tony were breaking more mirrors, therefore giving the blur fewer places to appear from. But then, while Gelato had his back turned, the blur came and threw a dozen knives at him, but Tony pushed Gelato out of the way in time, and took the full force. For the first time, Gelato cried out his name as he saw Tony fall backwards with a death-like gaze on his face.
Gelato couldn't believe it, and cringed as he felt the tears welling up. He never thought he would cry for someone he hated, but the tears came regardless. Then, he had a strange feeling that accompanied his sadness, as he felt a cold presence envelop him, and the scale-marks on his cheeks stretched. When he gritted his teeth, they had become sharper than he remembered, and as he cried out in anger, a hissing noise escaped his mouth.
"I'll kill you, Fieraaaaa!" he shouted to the top of the mirrored structure, which cracked around the edges from the tremendous power Gelato was emitting.
End of Chapter 17