Emerald was looking much better by the time Eyeball arrived; she'd changed clothes, was no longer dripping wet, wearing a simple, short, black dress.. with her equipment strapped onto a belt over her shoulder. The first Enforcer to arrive on the scene had already known about what was going on; and simply made sure to cut off the fire suppression and help the store owner arrange clean-up; she'd paid her protection money. If something happened, the Family took care of it.
As Eyeball took in the scene... the ashen, brutalized corpse on the ground looked like a larger, older version of Ripper, and if he hadn't known what he was walking into...
Well. He'd have assumed he was looking at his friend's corpse.
The scene was fairly contained; the fight had occurred only in this room, the fire had only spread to a single rack of clothing, and if not for the chemicals in the fire suppression liquid, in all likelihood the clothing could have been washed, salvaged, and sold.
The policy of the Enforcers in such cases was fairly clear; first, they reimburse whoever's property was damaged or stolen. Then, they took it out of whoever had caused the damage; ideally the same day. If the perpetrator were a member of some organization, then that group's leaders would instead be the targets; and if they lacked the funding, they'd end up in the Arena.
Eyeball wasn't too certain how they would handle this. When it came to other criminal organizations, most of them generally followed the same sorts of rules; each side would establish its own territories, they'd fight each other for them, but generally try to avoid government crackdowns that would be bad for all parties involved. Despite Emerald having been born among them, they simply didn't know enough about this Dragon Empress to decide what to do; other than, clearly, killing anyone involved in setting up this failed abduction.
Emerald looked up at him... and gave a long sigh. "Well. This is a bit embarrassing."
Eyeball stepped closer, and pulled her in for a hug; carefully weaving his arms beneath the wings to grip her firmly in a long-practiced fashion. "Most people would have different words for an abduction attempt. Why do you say that? Are you okay?"
She gently hugged him back... then much more firmly after a few seconds, her wings wrapping around them both. "Ahh... Gonna have nightmares about it for a while probably. But... better than okay. I've wanted to kill him for over a decade now. Drake once apologized to me for not killing him."
A soft coughing sound.. as Ripper stepped out from around one of the clothing racks, rather than doing his usual simply 'Appearing in mid-sentence' trick; the trickster thoroughly enjoyed startling people. "Honestly, while I wish I had... I don't think I had it in me to kill the old man. I dunno. Even as much of a rat bastard as he was, he was still my dad."
Emerald sighed, rolling her eyes... and then slapped Ripper with her tail with enough force to send the unfortunate mutant slamming into the wall with a grunt. He dropped to the floor afterwards, groaning. "Oh, fuck, sis! Ow! I think you bruised my ribs! What was that for!?"
"You've been stalking me for years! You should've been telling me when you were around, not just making sure I was okay and wandering off! I'd gotten so used to it I didn't even question another invisible stalker!"
He grimaced, arm wrapped around his chest as he carefully rose to his feet. "Mmph! Damn, that might actually be broken."
"..... Sorry. Didn't mean to hit that hard. But we need to have a conversation about how often you've been keeping an eye on me. We need to figure out how long they've been watching. And... your habits make it harder."
***
Between Valentine, Nicky, Swiftblade, and Eyeball, the most senior members of La Famiglia were at the table; with Emerald and Ripper, as well as Clone, joining them, they formed a powerful and dangerous crew that should, in theory, be able to overcome any obstacle in its path. Emerald laid out a sheet of paper; an ordinary paper map, vastly different from the holographic presentations Nicky was so fond of.
"Doragon is the ancestral home of my family, owned by my great-grandmother, ceded to the family in perpetuity by the Emperor over one hundred years ago, when she was a young woman herself. While the island and its residents are nominally part of Japan, members of my family are forbidden from initiating any interaction with the Emperor's family, and we are only allowed into Japan proper to acquire supplies, make business arrangements, and depart. Until the second world war and the dismantling of the Imperial navy, a vessel was offshore at all times to give us passage back and forth... and prevent anyone from leaving Doragon unescorted towards Japan proper. Leaving for China was acceptable, and they didn't stop landings either."
She drew a diagram; showing the rough outline of a fortress, with a surrounding village. "There are over two hundred adult children of the dragon; mutants who are part of the Empress's genetic scheme to breed dragons. The primary traits she sought were flight, fire creation, and tough, scaly skin; while she would also accept other, useful abilities, those with one or two of these, she would actively try to recruit. As such, over forty of my family can fly, thirty have various degrees of fire manipulation, and the rest have a variety of other powers as well as scaly skin. Many of them are a threat. Four of them are a major threat."
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She laid out a picture of a woman wearing an enormous, ornate dress; primarily made of reds and greens, with a massive, winged green helmet. "The Empress herself is well over one hundred years old, and ages very slowly; she is physically as fit as she was eighty years ago, when she participated in the invasion of China in a calculated attempt to have a member of the Imperial family contact her, rather than the other way around. She is constantly suffering from various cancers that must be removed surgically, and, eventually one of these will bring her down; until then, I expect her to remain. She is a master of a variety of weapons and combat techniques, has bullet-resistant skin, excellent reflexes, and heals, albeit slowly, from most injuries."
"She also holds the Blade of Hiroshima, and the Blade of Nagasaki. Supposedly, each blade is imbued with the spirits of those slain during one of the atomic bomb detonations, and is forged from metal she found still molten from the blasts. Whether or not this is true, the blades are seemingly invulnerable, and melt through even the toughest living thing like butter; whether its a tree or someone of incredible durability. She has other magic she has shown over the years, and... had intended to share these lessons with me, after I was old enough, like she did with my father and grandmother."
Emerald sighed... and slid the picture aside, revealing a tall, lean man with greyish skin, wearing a black silk kimono. "Dairesh was in his thirties when I left, and is married into the family. His skin is actually very fine grey scales.. not too tough.. and he has a tiny, almost vestigial tail. The Empress considered this sufficient reason to invite him in... thanks to his powerful telekinetic abilities. He can kill with a gesture from three hundred meters. If he can get that close, he can lift you off the ground and restrain you... or simply scramble your internal organs like a blender. His eldest child has at least some telekinesis, as well as fast healing and scales; but she's still a teenager. She was only six when I left."
She slid the second picture onto the pile atop the Empress, and unfolded a third. This one showing a figure with vivid green scales, glowing red eyes, and a powerful tail. "My mother. The Infernal Dragon. One of the Empress's favorites until I was born. Stronger than I was, faster, tougher, she can kick over a car and actually strike down a low-grade speedster with her tail. And... like myself has a reservoir inside her that lets her store flammable materials. While I prefer a sort of thermite gel, her favorite is napalm. Considering she also has great-grandmothers healing, and seems to be slowly growing more capable with time... as much as I hate her, I hope my abilities turn out similarly. She's over sixty years old by now, but the 'kicking over a car' bit was in her fifties... which is more than she could do in her forties. By now, she's likely even worse."
She removed the third picture; and left the bottom one on the stack. "And, finally, we have the one I definitely want dead, and in theory the most dangerous. Salamander." She revealed an image of.. a massive, green-scaled figure, with spikes along his back, a large, powerful tail. "Uncle Sal oozes acid from his scales, breathes underwater, is ridiculously strong and tough... moreso than the Green Knight fellow. He can spit the acid, spray it around by lashing out with his tail, and aside from Dairesh, no-one in the family takes him lightly."
"So. We definitely need to kill those four. There are plenty of other lesser threats; the Empress's Samurai; but those are the big ones, who need to die to break this whole thing up. There will be, probably, hundreds of children. The ones who don't turn out how the Empress likes live in the outlying village, and are allowed to leave if they want. Those who do, live in the fortress, and are required to stay. This whole situation might be dramatically different by now; I haven't seen the place in a long, long time."
Nicky nodded slowly. "This... sounds like a big nut to crack. And I'm assuming just bombing the whole place is out of the question."
"Hundreds of kids in the fortress. More outside. There might even be more... She hadn't gotten into it by the time I left, but I know my mother had brought up surrogate mothers, harvesting eggs, medications to help speed the program along. We don't want to wipe everyone out, just kill the leadership and setup something new that won't be trying to capture me or keep trying to breed some sort of master race."
Eyeball slid the pictures aside, lifting the image of Dairesh. "The telekinetic could be a problem. I've got tools to deal with the rest, but the only reliable way to kill a telekinetic is to take him by surprise. This is your family, Emerald. What are you thinking?"
She looked around the table for a moment. "I'm thinking we form a full-fledged strike team. Me, you, and Ripper, of course. Clone, if he's willing to send a few along." The Russian nodded; this particular brother was wearing a nice suit, to blend into the environment, but was bald, scarred, and clearly this particular body had seen a tough existence.
"Is Butcher available? Would his mom let him go?"
"Sweetheart, I told you he was in the arena right now. If I asked him, he might say yes, granted, but this will take some time. At the very least, he'd miss a fight and have to come back next season. Which... I'll also need to do, if I bother with the Viper thing again."
"Ask him. I know he's a grade-A tank now, and we might need him on Sal. I've got a couple of friends I'll be calling in.. a couple of ladies I used to run with back in Vegas... and if you know anybody trustworthy, now would be a good time."
Eyeball shrugged. "I'll call Butcher, but he's got a girlfriend now and might not want to leave her in the lurch. I can call a few people. We probably don't want to send a squad of Enforcers on this, since technically this is Japan and the Enforcers are La Famiglia's military, but Eyetech deals directly with some of the biggest merc companies on earth. I can definitely get a few squads in, maybe even some metas."
Nicky looked around the table. "Alright. I can call the mercs for you, if you'd like, Eyeball. I suspect they'll be jumping at the chance to work with Titanslayer. Only question is, what to do about this Black Knight fellow."
Eyeball thought for a moment, grinning behind his helmet. "You know what... I think I've got the perfect idea for how to handle him. I'll need to go over it with one of the people I'll be recruiting for this, I'll let you know how it works out."