Rea Armstrong sipped from her cup of tea. It had that bitter taste which she always had found funny. She then put the cup on the tiny plate and stared at her secretary, who was sitting right in front of her with a newspaper in hand.

“Why don’t you use your phone?” Rea asked him. “Think about the environment!”

“Said the super villain,” Giuseppe said, using that hard R and shorter T. “I prefer it like this. I like the touch of paper.”

“But, like… Where did you even get that? Didn’t they stop making those, like, a hundred years ago?”

“No. Despite online news being the more popular medium, there’s still a couple of people like me that prefer using newspapers, for whom there are specific markets and vendors,” he answered, still looking at the paper.

“Oh wow, the privilege. And who’s the lord slash lady making you these?”

“I make them myself.”

“No,” Rea said, putting a hand over her mouth. “I wouldn’t have guessed you were one of those snobs! What happened to my humble Giuseppe?! The one that would wear ragged pants because he couldn’t afford anything else?!”

“You know they come like that,” Giuseppe said, flickering the newspaper and passing a page over. “I saw you wearing a pair once.”

“Impossible! I’m not the kind of gal that would spend money on broken and torn pants.”

”You’re not a gal, so you’re technically right.”

After that, the conversation died as Giuseppe kept reading his newspaper. Rea tapped her fingers on the table just as she turned her head and looked at the place. They were sitting in one of the many white tables that the cafe had outside on the sidewalk, and they weren’t the only ones there. Multitude of people sat near the street with their own cups and appetizers, enjoying the bright but chilly day.

(We’re in Florida, who am I kidding?)

Rea wore a black and light tank top with a brown skirt, comfortable enough to move around freely, whilst her secretary had a full black suit with a white tie, just like any other day.

(How does he not boil in that?)

The tapping not only continued, but increased in tempo. Rea then watched how the ants in the bush next to them climbed the rectangular pot, carrying a piece of a napkin along with other crumbs of food.

(Why did they grab that? Weren’t there better things to choose?)

That last question, just like the others, didn’t start a thread of thoughts in her head, it instead failed at keeping boredom away from her. The tapping intensified even more, and Rea sighed. Giuseppe passed another page, to which Rea replied, sighing yet again. He kept reading, causing her to sigh even louder as she grabbed the table and gave it quite the shake with both hands.

“It surprises me how incompetent you are at your job,” Giuseppe calmly said, slightly lowering the newspaper and revealing a fraction of his eyes. “Weren’t you supposed to keep a low profile?”

Rea looked around and saw a couple relatively close looking at them.

“What are you looking at?” She asked in a deep and threatening tone, aggressively moving her head in an upwards nod. “Do I look funny to you, uh? Want me to teach you some manners?”

The couple’s eyes faced the opposite direction in a flash. They then got up and left the table shortly after.

“That’s what I thought,” Rea said to herself.

“Talk about discretion,” Giuseppe replied as he once again began reading the newspaper.

“Hey, I was just trying to get your attention,” she said, pointing at him. “It’s incredibly boring out here. Entertain me.”

Giuseppe snorted, “What do you think I am? And what do you think you are doing right now?”

“You’re my secretary and I’m waiting for an asshole that doesn’t respect the rules. Now entertain me!” Rea said, slightly hitting the table as to not attract more onlookers.

“First of all, I’m not your secretary. You aren’t even my superior. Second, no.”

“Come on! Could you at least talk to me?”

He ignored her and kept reading the newspaper, which was quickly torn to pieces by her hands, spilling cheap and sad confetti onto the establishment's floor after finishing. Her partner stared at her with an emotionless gaze.

Giuseppe had a round face that contrasted with his sharp nose and eyebrows, which were next to his dark blue eyes, hidden a bit by his black bangs. He was fairly average in comparison to other people she had met in the industry, though his curled up mustache did give him that old timey evil look. The only missing parts were a monocle and a cane.

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“You know I have more in the car, right?” He asked Rea.

“Please! Do something! I’m dying out of boredom!”

Giuseppe sighed before saying, “Fine. You can now see how you appear to other people.”

Rea raised her eyebrows before pulling out her phone and opening the camera. Her white skin was replaced by a caramel tone, her black hair kept its color by it was now braided instead of straight, also having stretched out a couple inches, and her features got more aquiline. Everything else was the same as it had been… Well, it still was the same, it just appeared different to everyone else.

She let the phone drop on the table.

“Very pretty, but if I wanted to look at something beautiful I would have grabbed a mirror already.”

Giussepe put a hand on his face, sighing in the process, “I’ve been working with you for like a decade and it still surprises me how annoying you can be.” He let the hand drop to the table. “Fine. This morning one of our agents in the DP told me that the five mutilated corpses near Sting Street belonged to our group.”

“Important?” Rea asked.

“Nah. Five black pawns.”

“Then how does it concern us…?”

“First of all, they’re still our men. Second, the only witness said it was a-”

“Shh,” Rea said as she spotted someone among the crowd.

“Is it him?” Giuseppe asked. “Have you had your antidote?”

Rea only nodded, and Giuseppe didn’t ask further questions. She then leaned over the table, extending her hand underneath it as she did so. Something with a cylinder-like shape fell into her hands shortly after.

Her target got inside the cafe just as she got up from her seat.

Eruption, a symbologist from Ashes capable of creating items which in turn could create geysers of flames, was ordering a latte grande or whatever bullshit teenagers drank these days. He wasn’t older than nineteen, but his appearance made him look thirty. His head was cleanly shaven, making it resemble the mascot of a company whose name she couldn’t remember at the moment, however, the bushy beard instead deviated the look to one of an ex-convict. Since she was looking at his bald white head from behind, Rea also got a look at the clothes he was wearing.

A jacket from his university with a wolf inside the white circle which he wore on his back, a pair of blue jeans with many pockets, and some military boots. He was trying to pull a look, and to his credit, it was a very convincing one.

Rea opened the door, making a bell ring faintly among the many voices inside the local with white and black floor tiles and wooden walls. She walked straight to the counter, where Eruption was.

Her target.

People often thought criminals were unhinged humans, ruling themselves with the survival of the fittest. And though that may have been the case in different places, criminals also followed a set of rules, such as those imposed on the gangs around Expansion Valley. And it’s not like they were phrased like a lawyer’s contract, they were simple to understand, which was why the infraction of said rules was often punished harsher than what a contract might do.

Eruption here had sold several of his goods to clients affiliated with Chess, which isn't necessarily wrong. As long as he gave the corresponding amount of money to Chess, he could trade in their territory and with their clients. Of course, he hadn’t done that, and it seems that despite being new, their partners didn’t tell him anything, because it wasn’t a one time thing.

Hence, her presence here to punish him. Chess would also have to punish Ashes for not keeping one of their members in check, but that would come after this. Rea tapped his shoulder just as she pulled the pin on the smoke canister. He turned his head before rotating his whole body.

“Yes?” He asked in a very less threatening voice than what she had imagined.

“You dropped this,” Rea said, piercing through his chest with the hand that held the smoke bomb. Blood spattered behind him, staining the glass on the counter and some staff members. As expected, screams began filling the building, bodies rushing out of it. Rea moved her fingers at the other side of the man’s chest before pulling her arm back, and even as she did so, she stopped to secure the job. She grabbed the man’s spine with a strong grip, cracking vertebrae as she did, pulling it towards her as if she was starting a chainsaw afterwards, cracking some more with a little pop.

(Pop goes the neck, crunch goes the spine,) she calmly thought.

The smoke had already raised to the ceiling once she dropped the body onto a pool of its own blood, the spine making a wet thud. Rea turned around and began directing to the exit, making sure to begin jogging before she was out of the cloud. Apparently, not everyone had left the cafe before she did, because she bumped into someone who was blindly and hurriedly making their way out. She continued jogging after passing the doorframe, all the way through a crosswalk and a bit of street until she reached a black van.

Giuseppe was leaning against the back door with another newspaper.

“How do I look?” Rea asked.

“Like Santa Claus but with a leather jacket,” he answered without even looking.

“Cool! I always wanted to have one of those.”

“A dick?” Giuseppe asked.

“A beard!” She corrected him. “I’m telling you, I’m a gal!”

Giuseppe only flickered the paper in front of his face.

“Well, where were we?” Rea then inquired.

“About the corpses.”

“Oh, yeah, right. Who did it?”

“We don’t know. The witness said it was a potens, but the description doesn’t fit anyone we know.”

“Another new guy?! Come one!”

“She said it was a man whose head and arms were covered in tendrils or threads.”

A wave of excitement jolted across Rea.

“Did you just say threads?”

“Yes.”

She immediately began laughing.

“What?” Giuseppe asked curiously, also willingly putting down his newspaper for the first time today.

“Nothing. It’s just that perseverance is incredibly attractive.”