Cherri Bomb screamed as she struggled in the bag she was being carried in.
"Who the fuck are you?!" Cherri cried. "Did Sir Edgelord put you up to this?! What the hell is going on?! Let me out now!"
The kidnappers had come out of nowhere. All she had done was step out of the building she called home as the kingpin of her turf and she was instantly snatched in a bag and carried off into a car of some sort.
Then after yelling and fighting fruitlessly, unable to get a single hand out to summon a single bomb, the car came to a stop and her captors carried her into an unknown building.
Cherri fought and struggled the whole time. She kicked and punched and even tried to bite through the bag to gain her freedom, but nothing worked. Cherri didn't give up though. She never had and never would.
Cherri took a moment to be quiet and listen since her captors weren't talking anyway. Cherri heard the sounds of large groups of men and women gasping and chattering in surprise.
Weird. The kidnappers were taking her somewhere with lots of people. If they wanted to kill her, they'd take her somewhere more private. Maybe they were in Hell, but murders were still less chaotic with fewer people around. Why were they in such a public space?
As the questions swirled around in Cherri's mind, her captors carried her into an elevator. She heard the sound of buttons being pressed and elevator doors shutting.
Cherri quickly thought of the most likely scenario. She already knew she wasn't dealing with Sir Pentious. His Egg Bois were too small to carry her and would have broken if they tried. She was dealing with someone else with a busy entourage in a large building, someone with influence and money most likely. And unfortunately, there was only one other person she could think of who she had pissed off enough to warrant this kind of treatment.
Valentino.
Cherri immediately went back to struggling more viciously than before.
If she was right, she had to run, not just because of what might happen to her, but because of what could happen to Angel. Valentino could easily use her as leverage to get Angel to submit to whatever fucked up bullshit he wanted him to submit to.
Cherri kicked, punched, and tried to claw her way out of the bag, but as before, her efforts were useless. That didn't stop her though. Cherri fought for as long as she could while the brutes carrying her took no notice and stood still. They stood as still as statues until the elevator door opened and they carried her down the hall and into an unknown room.
Finally, a voice said, "Put her down on the couch over there. And please, be gentle."
No other choice. Cherri prepared himself mentally and physically to attack the douchebag overlord as soon as she was released from her sack.
Valentino snorted and took a drag from his cigarette, inhaling the addictive drug. He then exhaled the smoke to form hands to untie the bag.
"I'm sorry I had to summon you like this, dear, but knowing your abilities, I wouldn't have been able to get you to come to see me otherwise," Valentino said.
Before he could say anything else, Valentino was promptly cut off when a smoke bomb detonated in his face.
"What the hell do you want, shit lord?!" Cherri screamed as she threw the sack off her body. "Why did you kidnap me?! Are you trying to abuse Angel some more you sick son-of-a-bitch?!"
Valentino coughed and coughed as he ran over to the window and threw it open.
Once it was open, Valentino coughed, chuckled, and said, "Fuck, girl! You're faster than you look! Listen, this ain't got nothing to do with Angel. I just wanted to talk to ya. Now, where'd you go?"
A harsh kick collided with Valentino's face.
"That's for Angel!" Cherri snarled. "I ain't talkin' to you, ya piece of shit! I'm outta here! And if you or your fucking flunkies try to bag me again, I'm blowing all of you sky high!"
Cherri tried to jump out the window only for Valentino's arm to grab her foot and pull her back to the floor.
"Enough!" yelled Valentino. "I have had it with your childish antics, Cherri!"
"What the fuck is your problem, old man?" Cherri asked, instantly getting to her feet. "If this isn't about Angel, then why am I here?"
"I brought you here to discuss you burning down my clubs, my billboards, and my posters," Valentino said.
Cherri stood up and said, "I couldn't help it. I keep seeing your face while patrolling my turf and get filled with such blinding rage that I destroy them before I know what had happened. It's my allergic reaction to heartless bastards who abuse my best friends."
Valentino sighed, took another drag of his cigarette, and said, "You do know how immature that is. And what I do with Angel is none of your concern."
Cherri looked at Valentino confusedly and said, "Immature?! Why the fuck do you care?!"
"I care a lot actually and for good fucking reason! Your behavior is beyond the boundaries of out of control and I'm stepping in now!" Valentino retorted.
Cherri was even more confused than before.
"What in the fuck are you going on about?!" Cherri yelled. "I don't work for you, and I ain't one of your slaves! What gives you the right to tell me what to do?!"
Valentino's features softened in confusion of his own and he said, "You really don't know who I am. Do you?"
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Cherri snarled venomously.
Valentino scoffed to himself as the last of the smoke blew out of the room.
It was then that Cherri noticed Valentino was wearing the black and white outfit with a gold chain that he wore on Voxtagram instead of his normal pimp outfit.
Valentino made his way across the room, sat down on his couch, and gestured for Cherri to join him.
"And all this time I time I thought you were blowing up my clubs to get back at me," Valentino said with a smile. "Sit down, Cherri Bomb. We need to talk."
SLAM!
Suddenly, the door to Valentino's office was thrown open and Angel Dust could be seen fighting against the security guards to enter the office.
"Angel?!" Cherri cried.
"Cherri!" Angel cried. "Val, please don't hurt Cherri! It was all my fault! Please don't hurt her!"
Valentino snapped his fingers and said, "Let him in."
"Boss, your property got destroyed because of me," Angel pleaded. "It was all my idea. I swear. If you're pissed, don't hurt Cherri. Hurt me. You can fuck me up however you want. Just don't hurt her. Please..."
Valentino chuckled lowly and said, "Angel Cakes, Angel Cakes, please, please calm down. I don't like to watch you beg when I'm not in the mood for it. Don't worry, baby. I don't intend to hurt your little friend or you for that matter."
"You don't?" Angel asked in surprise and relief.
"Of course not," Valentino said with a wide grin. "I wouldn't hurt my own daughter."
The room fell silent... so deathly silent... the only other sound Cherri could hear was her heartbeat skyrocketing.
"No," Cherri practically whispered before building her volume to a scream. "No, NO, NO! It's not possible! There's no way!"
Valentino breathed out smoke and replied, "There actually is. You know your special birthmark? The one in an almost perfect shape of a cherry bomb? It's on the inside of your left thigh. It was there when you were alive, too. After you destroyed the club, a video camera flicked on just long enough for you to step over it and give me a glimpse of it."
Cherri felt the color drain from her face. Angel looked back at Cherri and saw the terror on her face.
"I don't believe you!" Cherri blurted out. "There's no way! It's no possible!"
"Darlin', did your mama ever tell you what your daddy's name was?" Valentino asked with a smug smile.
"Yeah, it was…" Cherri began before she caught herself. "Not Valentino."
Valentino scoffed proudly and explained, "Valentino wasn't my name back then either, sweetie. Back then, I went by Vincent. Vincent Valentino Pastore. My granddaddy on my daddy's side was an Italian man. Your mother's name is Audrey Johnson. Your name on your birth certificate was Cheryl Barbara Pastore. You were born at 5:58 in the evening a perfect 7 lbs and 7 oz on July 7, 1965. I should know. I was there. And I signed the birth certificate. Although, I'm sure your mama changed your last name to Johnson when she left me. Didn't she?"
Everything Valentino said lined up with what her mother said. Cherri felt her head spinning and began to hyperventilate as she grabbed the arm of the chair she was standing next to.
Angel ran over to grab Cherri and helped her sit down in the chair.
Valentino smiled proudly as he rested his hand with the cigarette on the arm of his chair and began his tale, "Sounds familiar. Doesn't it, baby girl? It all started back in 1964 in Las Vegas. I was in my late thirties at the time. I ran the best escort business and was in the prime of my life. I had a favorite casino that I liked to visit and that's where I met her, your beautiful mother, Audrey Marie Johnson. She was a young ass Aussie girl, just turned 18 if I recall correctly, who had crossed the sea to live with her daddy in the US for the summer or somethin', since her parents were divorced and her Ma lived in Sydney. Her daddy owned the casino, and she worked as a cigarette girl there. It was love at first sight. She was so young and feisty, a high-spirited live wire, very much like you. She took a little convincing, but I had to have her. After some flirting, Audrey soon fell hard and fast. After all who could resist me? We had so much fun together. We were a high-rolling couple in a La La Land all our own. And after a few months during one wild night of drunken revelry we were married. It pissed her daddy off of course, pissed off some other hoes too, but there wasn't a damn thing he could do to make her leave me. Then one thing led to another and by November of that year, she was pregnant. That next summer, you were born. You looked just like your mother but with my eyes and darker skin of course. I'm sure I've had a lot of kids, bastards I've never met. But I loved you immediately. You were the light of my life. I often fell asleep on the couch with you sleeping on my chest when your mother ran out of patience with you, which happened very often. You were a stubborn little thing and I stepped in to take care of you. More than I'd like to admit. My God, you were so cute…"
"SHUT UP!" Cherri screamed at the top of her lungs, causing Valentino and Angel to stare in shock. "You never cared about me! My mama told me all about you! You beat her, abused her, and would have done the same thing to me if we didn't leave! Why are you reaching out to me now?! What's your game here?!"
"To reconnect with you and to stop your destruction," Valentino explained. "You were always a bit of a pyromaniac. I can't count the number of times I had to take matches away from you which brings me to the rest of my sad tale if you'd just sit tight and hear it…"
"Why should I?!" Cherri snapped. "You were cruel to my mother!"
"She was just as violent to me if not more!" Valentino snapped back. "Your mother and I started fighting before you were even born. The fights started small and gradually became constant. By the time you turned five, she wanted to leave me. I wouldn't let her because that would mean losing you, too. I couldn't stand that and refused to let her go. I thought I had the situation under control, but I underestimated what a clever and resourceful lady your mother was. While I had my back turned, she was planning her escape. One morning after a particularly nasty fight the night before, I woke up to find that she and you were gone. In the early hours of the morning, Audrey had disappeared along with you and everything she could fit in her suitcase and your little backpack. By the time I had figured out where she had gone, she and you were already on a flight back Sydney."
"I'm glad she did!" Cherri snarled. "It got us away from you and the hell you pushed on us!"
"I loved you!" Valentino yelled, getting to his feet. "I would have never hurt you! Your mother claimed I would have, but I never raised a finger to hurt you! She turned you against me!"
"I'm glad she did!" Cherri yelled, gesturing to Angel. "Look at what you're doing to my best friend!"
Angel looked away nervously and uncomfortably gripped his arm.
"Why do you want me here anyway?!" Cherri asked angrily. "If you only cared about getting me to stop blowing up your shitty clubs, you could have gone about it in other ways. What do you want with me? You don't want me! You didn't even try to go after me when my mom left you."
Valentino sat back down and sighed, "Do you really want to know why?"
"Know what?!" Cherri replied.
"Your mother, her friends, and her father, your grandfather, worked together to blackmail me so that I had no choice but to go through with the divorce," Valentino explained. "Not all my business was exactly on the level, even by Vegas's standards. Somehow your bitch of a mother and her friends had found enough evidence to ruin my life should I even try to buy a plane ticket for Australia. I had no choice but to stay away from you. I just wish I could say that was the last time a bitch ever outsmarted me."
Cherri fell silent. She had never realized how much her mother had done just to protect her. It made her shed a few tears.
Valentino immediately crossed the room and embraced Cherri in a hug.
"I know I wasn't there for you, baby, but believe me when I say it wasn't my choice," Valentino said, rubbing her back. "The biggest regret of my life is that I never got to see you grow up. But now, that can change, and we can make up for lost time."
"Like Hell!" Cherri yelled, pushing Valentino off her. "I don't want you in my afterlife!"
"But Cheryl…" Valentino said, raising his hand only for Cherri to slap it away.
"No means no!" Cherri yelled, turning around and walking towards the open window.
"Cheryl please…" Valentino said, walking over to the window that Cherri was looking out of.
"I said no!" Cherri yelled, pushing Valentino away from her. "I thought I hated you before, but if you're really my dad, that just makes me hate you even more!"
"Now, now, Cheryl," Valentino said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "There's no need to say such hurtful things."
"Hurtful?! Hurtful?!" Cherri snarled as she swiped his hand away. "You abused my mother and you're talking about me being hurtful?! Hell, how do you even know I'm your daughter?! My mom could have cheated on you with someone who actually loved her!"
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door before it swung open, and Vox and Velvet walked in.
Having not yet noticed Cherri, Vox walked in reading from a sheet of paper and said, "Val, honey, I'm here with the DNA test. The DNA from that hair we found and your blood sample line up. That blond pyromaniac is definitely your…"
Vox and Velvet looked up to see Cherri and Angel standing with Valentino on the other side of the room.
"Oh, hi there," Vox said awkwardly.
Valentino clasped two of his hands together happily, wrapped his bottom left arm around Cherri, gently pushed her away from the window, and said, "Now, we know for sure, Cheryl. Now come on and meet the rest of your family!"
"Val, I thought you weren't going to pick her up until I came back with the DNA results," Vox protested from where he stood.
"I got impatient," Valentino said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Now, get over here, you two, and meet your stepdaughter and niece."
Cherri snarled again as she pushed Valentino off and summoned more bombs.
"Cherri!" Angel tried to warn her as Valentino's smoke swiftly picked up the bombs and tossed them out the open window.
Cherri gritted her teeth and summoned more explosives.
"Cherri, don't!" Angel pleaded.
But it was too late. Valentino blew out a tsunami of smoke that carried all the bombs out the window.
Cherri coughed heavily as the smoke cleared out of the room.
"Oh, my God!" Velvet squealed. "That was impressive! I'm such a proud auntie!"
"Auntie?" Cherri asked incredulously as soon as she finished coughing.
"Self-designated aunt," Velvet said, wrapping her arm around her and taking a selfie before Cherri shoved her away.
"I think it's time for us to have dinner," Valentino said, before turning to Angel. "You can dine with us too, Angel Cakes. After all, you've been looking after my sweet girl for me for almost 40 years."
Angel gulped but managed to reply, "Yes, Mista Valentino, sir."
"Now," Valentino said turning back to Cherri. "What would you like to eat, Cheryl?"
"Only food that you, Vox, and Velvet aren't around to eat!" Cherri retorted. "I'm not eating with you!"
"Cheryl, there's no need to be upset," Valentino replied, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Too late for that!" Cherri snarled, slapping his hand away. "You motherfuckers have neither been, nor will you ever be my family!"
"Cheryl, there's no need to be rude to me, your stepfather, or your aunt," Valentino chided.
"They aren't my stepfather and aunt!" Cherri snapped back. "You're not my dad either!"
"Yes, they are," Valentino said, raising his voice to sound firmer and more authoritative. "Yes, I am too. You are part of this family now too, Cheryl."
"I have no family down here except Angel," Cherri said, turning her head so that she didn't have to look at any of the three V's.
Angel smiled softly and felt warmth in his heart that helped him feel less afraid.
"He was your only family," Valentino replied. "Now, you also have us. So, what do you say? Let's go eat and make up for lost time, my dear daughter."
Before responding, Cherri turned to look at Angel. When she was sure he was looking her in the eyes, Cherri looked at the window, looked back at Angel, and then looked back at Valentino.
Angel immediately understood and began watching and waiting for Cherri's signal.
"I don't care if you are my dad, Valentino," Cherri said quietly yet angrily while backing away until she was standing right in front of the open window. "I'm not sharing a meal with you or even staying in your presence. You lost any chance of that the first time you hurt my mother."
"Come on, Cheryl," Valentino pleaded. "Can't you please just try?"
Cherri stopped by the window and spread her arms. Multiple bombs quickly dropped to the ground.
Angel prepared to bolt and gave Cherri a nod.
Cherri smiled at Angel, looked back at Val, and replied, "NO!"
Cherri then let herself fall backwards out the window. Angel leaped over to the window and jumped out the window after her just as the bombs exploded.
As the wind rushed past them, Angel dove down and grabbed Cherri with his two lower arms. Then with his first and third summoned pair of arms, he placed his hands on the window and used his spider grip to slow down their fall on the way down.
Their fall slowed to a crawl by the time they reached the bottom. Angel then lifted Cherri bridal-style and hopped safely onto the ground.
"Thanks for the help, Spider-Man!" Cherri said, giving him a punch in the shoulder.
"You know it, sugar tits," Angel replied with a chuckle as Cherri leapt out of his arms.
"Let's get out of here!" Cherri exclaimed as they both glanced at the window the smoke was blowing out of.
The pair sprinted down the street and out of sight.
Meanwhile, the three V's were dealing with aftermath of the bombs.
The bombs were mostly smoke bombs with a few explosives thrown in to cause more chaos. The explosions had significantly damaged some furniture and filled the room up with smoke that made the three overlords cough, but otherwise, there was little damage. Physically anyway.
Valentino dashed to the window to see where Cherri and Angel had gone, but the duo were nowhere to be found.
Valentino sighed deeply and leaned against the open window.
Vox walked next to him and said, "It's alright, baby. You tried. Just let the little bitch go. She doesn't deserve you. We don't need her anyways."
"No," Valentino replied.
"What?" Vox asked in disbelief.
"I want her to come back home," Valentino replied.
"Why?" Vox asked incredulously. "She wants nothing to do with you."
"We have all of eternity to remedy that," Valentino said confidently.
"It sounds like more trouble than it's worth," Vox argued. "Why bother?"
"You never had children. Did you, Vox?" Valentino asked.
"No," Vox admitted. "Why?"
"Because parents will do anything for their child," Valentino replied. "Losing my daughter is the only regret I have. I had given up hope of ever seeing her again by the time I died. But now that I know she's here too, I will stop at nothing to get my little Cheryl back."
"Don't worry, V!" Velvet said cheerfully. "We'll help you."
"Thank you," Valentino said, flashing a sincere smile for once.
"What do you want to do now?" Vox asked. "The press is waiting downstairs. Should we still go ahead with the press conference?"
"Yes, yes, we shall," Valentino said. "Let's go."