Joey Rosetti had a flair for opportunity, so it wasn’t surprising that his gold exchange was doing better than most other businesses in the area. Certain types of businesses did better in periods of financial crisis, when people were forced to sell their gold and jewelry to pay their bills and since opening his shop in the neighborhood Joey had been raking in the profit. This year had been particularly tough for most families in the area which worked out rather well for him.

The appearance of the tower nearby had temporarily slowed business as most people in the area were distracted by it. For the moment, all anybody was interested in or talked about, was the tower, but eventually the hype would die down and business would be back to normal.

Although things had been looking up for him, Joey was nothing if not ambitious. What he had achieved here was just a stepping stone to his true ambitions.

He was thinking of how he could get some leverage to move up in the world, when he was rudely awakened from his thoughts by the sound of the shop door buzzer, and found two persons had entered his shop.

One of the persons laid a stack of gold coins on the counter. They were unlike any coins that he had ever seen before, but that in itself was not so special. It sufficed to create a new mold to make a new coin, but his gut told him that there was more to these coins, and as it turned out, his gut was correct.

He already knew a number of people who would be interested in them. Gold coins and a magical beast-core from the tower. Hell, even the story would be worth money to the press, which was avid for anything related to the tower which would be hot news for a while still.

Joey realized he had most likely found his trump card for moving up in the world. The person had said that he had a lot more coins and cores, but Joey suspected there would be other valuables as well, and he intended to profit from this exceptional opportunity. He just needed to play his cards right.

When getting the money from his safe to buy the gold and the core, Joey made a call.

“Mike, listen, I have two people in my shop, can you and Nico tail them? I need to know who they are and where they live. Try to keep it on the low down and don’t be seen. Get back to me as soon as you know something.”

“Sure boss, we’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”

“Thanks, and keep this just between us.” Joey added as an afterthought. “No one else needs to know for now.”

Returning to the customers in his shop with a bag with just about everything he had in his safe, he made the trade, but he also made sure that they knew that they could return later if they had anything else to sell. If he couldn’t figure out who they were, there was still a good chance that they would come back later.

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“I wonder what Joey is up to now.” Mike 'Buttons' Zanifari said as he sat in the driver’s seat of his 1997 Lincoln Town Car.

“I don’t know, but Joey’s always had a nose for these things.” Nico said, testing the edge of his knife's blade with his thumb.

They slouched down in their seats as Cara and Matt left the phone shop and hailed a taxi. Once the taxi left the curb, they followed them from a distance to the Mount Sinai hospital.

“Nico, follow them but keep out of sight. I want to know what they are doing in there.” Mike said in hushed tone.

Nico slipped out of the car and entered the hospital just after they entered.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

After waiting about 30 minutes across the street from the hospital's main entrance, Mike noticed a couple leave the hospital who looked a lot like the people they were following. There was something strange about them though. Mike couldn’t manage to describe either of them. For some reason, whenever he tried to focus on their features, they just seemed to be blurry in his mind, but this also allowed him to recognize them when they were leaving the hospital.

A couple of seconds later, Nico came out as well, crossed the street and climbed into the car. “Don’t lose them Mike. You will not believe what I just saw. Hell, I don’t even believe what I just saw. This is really big.”

“What happened in there.” Mike asked. He had never seen Nico like this before. Nico could be a lot of things, vicious, bloodthirsty, morose and unnervingly quiet at times, but he had never seen him like he was now.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Nico replied.

“Try me.”

“He healed four cancer patients. Their hair grew back and everything. The other one filmed the whole thing”

“He did what?” Mike said nearly hitting the car in front of him.

“I told you that you wouldn’t believe me. I barely believe it and I saw the whole thing. One second they were in really bad shape and completely bald, he gave them something to drink, and the next second their hair was growing and their color was coming back and they were sitting up in their beds.”

“I am pretty sure that he knew one of them though.” Nico added as an afterthought. “At least it looked that way.”

“It looks like Joey was on to something after all.” Mike said, making sure to keep their car in his sites.

They followed the taxi to a quiet corner of Brooklyn where it stopped in front of a house. The first thing that Mike noticed was that their appearance had changed completely. Their features were now clearly visible and even their clothing was different. He quickly pulled out his camera and took some photos. After they taxi pulled away, they walked to the front door and rang the doorbell. When they saw the greeting they received at the door, it was obvious that this was their family. With that, they had the information they came for and decided to report back to Joey.

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“Do you plan on telling us what is going on Joey?” Mike asked, leaning against the doorway to Joey’s office in his three-piece suit. He didn’t particularly enjoy watching Joey eating, but as he was often eating, he came to accept it as one of the inconveniences of his job.

“So, Mikey,” he said between mouthfuls “What happened? Did you manage to figure out who they are?”

“We followed them to the Mont Sinai Hospital, where they healed four terminally ill cancer patients and filmed the whole thing.”

“They did what?” Joey said spitting out a spoonful of the spaghetti bolognaise he was eating.

“One of them gave the patients something to drink and they were all immediately cured, the other one filmed the whole thing and gave the video to one of the patients before leaving. I saw the whole thing.” Nico replied.

“What exactly do you know about these two? Why did you have us follow them? What exactly are you planning on doing with them?” Mike asked.

“They came in here with some gold coins like I aint never seen before and something they called a “beast-core”, somethin’ magical from some beast. It looked like somethin’ from another planet. Then the guy does some magic right before my eyes, and it wasn’t no magic trick, it was the real thing. He said that he was from the tower and that the coins and the beast-core came from the tower. And he has a lot more than a few coins. From what you just told me, he has stuff much more valuable than gold. Do you have any idea what one of those healing drinks would be worth? Hell, we could probably all retire with just one of them things.”

“I hope you at least got something on them.” Joey replied wiping up the sauce at the bottom of his spaghetti bowl with a piece of bread and shoving it in his mouth.

“We followed them to their home in Brooklyn. Here’s the address.” Joey wiped his hands on the towel he had hanging from the top button of his shirt before taking the paper with an address scribbled on it from Mike.

“Oh, by the way. I think that they were disguised when they came here, because they looked very different when they arrived home. I got some pictures of what they really look like.”

Joey gave big smile. “You guys did good. This is a real game changer... No, this isn't a game changer, this is a life changer. This address is our ace card, this stays with us. They obviously are trying to remain anonymous, but if they won’t make a deal with us, at least now we have some leverage.”