The man lay groaning in a ditch for an uncomfortably long time, it was about six hours until a bunch of squirrely teenagers came by in motorbikes and bundled him on. Nervously looking around to make sure they weren't jumped.

As Nero expected, the bedbugs were in the house. It was one of the plazas next to his, held by a rag tag group of ambitious men like himself. From what his runners told him, they had taken control of five or six plazas, and were milking them for all they could. They'd expanded the last 2 times by approaching plazas too unimportant for anyone to notice, and just setting themselves up as king. They offered protection from racketeering, promising order.

It was amazing how they created their own market.

Faced with their first real challenger, they were scrambling. They had a lot more people, a lot more weapons, or rather actual weapons, machetes, knives and clubs. The had never, however, been openly challenged. Now they had to backup their promises. They ended up gathering close, about 500 metres away in the adjacent plaza from Nero's.

As far as he was concerned, it was another country. Unfamiliar faces would patrol the streets, Different traders would man their shops. He'd never be able to set a foot in the area without a thousand voices screaming in alarm.

That is, if his opponents were not full of indignation, practically all of them gathered in one place screaming their anger at each other and making promises about what they were going to do to Nero's group.

The runner who'd discovered this, a woman who's small stature and malnutrition had made Nero initially mistake her for a child, was Sherry's. Nero took note of her, sharp as she was.

So Nero and his people managed to walk rightinto their enemies' town and surround the small ramshackle pub they were all gathered in. A sharp whistle was all the signal they needed to bar the doors and windows with bars of wood and scrap metal and trap all the gangsters inside. The first plan was to bombard the place with molotov cocktails. but the smell of burning flesh and hair still made Nero shudder.

"Muite," He called, it was the name of the man who led the gangsters. The inside was still rowdy, and Nero realized Muite's people had not noticed the invaders, drunk and angry as they were. He set off a sharp whistle, and his men banged at the doors and windows alerting the locals. The pub quieted down.

"Muite, You sent a man to us, we sent him back, and we have come to you" A man's eye, bloodshot, peaked out of a narrow window into the evening gloom.

"Nero, You've come, Good" His voice wavered, then sharpened, "Kneel where you are, and all I'll do is break your legs, like you did my man, and we can walk away in peace."

He was threatening war, but he had to, He hadn't expected invasion, he wasn't ready, and his people were vulnerable. Nero imagined all Muite's men were just like him, dissatisfied, and he had promised them a little kingdom where they could take anything they wanted. In truth, Nero had considered join in a gang more than once, There were no prospects in the outside world. Muite could lean on their numbers, and their size to intimidate the invaders. It's exactly what he tried to do.

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"All you people with this madman," He shouted, "take away the machete, break his legs, then come in and share our drinks. Before we come out and do it ourselves"

There were crickets, awkward shuffling, from inside and outside the pub.

"Or wait," he continued, "And see what a real boss will do to you, and your families."

The threat was basic, but effective, at the forefront of all of Nero's men were the skirmishes going on by the giants around them, a man had been the killed last week, and his tongue cut out, because he was impolite to a member of the Red Tide, a gang which patrolled the part of the shanty closest to the city, The richest part.

Some of the men wavered, Nero took note of them, but understood them. But most of his men staunchly faced the trapped defenders.

"Send Muite out, and his people, all we want to do is settle this with them, and the rest of you, we can understand each other" that was Nero's counter. There was always the risk of them sticking together, remaining inside, waiting for reinforcements they had surely, already called, so Nero stoked the fire by ordering one of the molotovs be thrown inside, to add tension. The pub broke into commotion, screaming and pleading filled the air. Around the invaders, rare even for the rapidly darkening dusk, it was deserted.

The people always knew when something was happening, after all, in such trying times, it took an extraordinary amount of sensitivity to protect your family and business.

It didn't take long for the defenders to relent. Nero's star runner insisted that they be stripped naked before they were brought out. Immediately the door creaked open, some people tried forcing their way out. But Nero was prepared. he jabbed his makeshift spear into the darkness behind the door, warning them he'd only spare the naked ones.

The leaders and Muite filed out, Nero forced the door back closed to stop the rest of them from coming out.. Three men, and a woman, sobbing heavily,

The prisoners, listless, were asked if there was anybody they thought should have been there but had escaped. Perhaps the men who gave them up. It was like new life was breathed into them. Three more names were said, and although these took more time, they were pushed out into the night, naked, and knelt in front to Nero.

The gang members and supporters left in the lightly damaged cafe saw their leaders bundled into small rickshaws and dragged away into the streets.

The new plan was hurrying their prisoners to the security of Nero's compound. Nero needed them safe as hostages so he could avoid whatever revenge they planned to do once Nero had left. As the majority of Nero's people moved the precious cargo he waited, giving them time to move. Those men held the key to controlling the plazas around Nero's home, giving him a small buffer against the more violent, established gangs in the area.

Like most, Muite relied on his family to keep control over his people, and the first reinforcements to arrive were motorbikes carrying men led by a man who identified himself as Muite's cousin. They already knew Nero had taken their man, and while they postured about taking one of Nero's men, or even Nero himself, as retribution, or exchange, Nero made it clear he still had most of their men trapped in a building.

Once he got the signal that the hostages were secure, Nero quickly used one of his cocktails to set the cafe on fire, and relied on it to distract the rescuers until he and the skeleton crew could get back home. Perhaps it was the sheer audacity of his act, but he could not find even a hint of pursuit as he made his way home.