Following the interrogation of the one surviving gangster, the inhabitants of Apartment 207 receive a good night's rest. Awakening to the fresh scent of pancakes, four plates with stacks of fluffy brown stacked with syrup and butter, as well as four glasses of orange juice and one large pitcher of ice water.
"... Quade, you spoil us..." Giichi lightly comments, smiling at him with lingering exhaustion. She was never a morning person in the slightest as she sits in front of her pancakes. "... what's the occasion?"
Quade looks to Giichi for a moment, idly- looking to Rosemary for a bit. Noting that Giichi was unconscious, he stares at the gaseous entity tying up and brushing her hair. "... we're- getting up and at 'em for an outing. Gonna head to this one bar, and-"
"Giichi, we will be storming a bar to potentially topple a mafia and destroy crime," Peritzal interjects immediately.
"..." Giichi nods lightly as she processes those words. "Oki dokes... sounds good..."
Peritzal looks over to Quade. "No point in lying to her. Best she knows our intentions."
Quade blinks at this for a while, as he puts the rest of breakfast atop the coffee table. "... huh. Guess there's no need to hold back and all. You sure you're up for this? I reckon it's gonna be a mess..."
"I mean, it's a buncha criminals, and they hurt an old man... let's do it...!" Giichi responds with tired enthusiasm, jabbing her fork into the pancakes and starting to eat her stack as if it were a large puff of cotton candy. Syrup and butter trailing onto the page as she takes massive bites.
"..." Quade nods as he begins to eat as well. "Yep. Besides us five- well, six, including Rosemary... we're taking this place on in the morning, sunlight and all, meaning Nyx is out. Also, we're keepin' Verness far, far away from this, given she's a literal child."
"Why the morning? Isn't a bar closed at that time?" Caspian asks, taking a sip of his ice water.
"That's the point. The bar will be closed," Papaya responds, taking a sip of the orange juice first. "No point in being illegal during business hours and all. If we're to believe Lyle Silvers's memories, then Lyle Silvers and the others'll gather up and plan gangster things until this afternoon."
"Huh... makes sense," Caspian responds.
"Yeah, of course it does," Rosemary comments, continuing to brush and straighten out Giichi's hair while in the pigtails. "Glad that even you can realize this."
"..." Caspian takes a moment to adjust his visor, glaring at Rosemary before taking another gulp of water. "Alright... what about Odette? We calling him to help out with this?"
Giichi lightly shakes her head. "Nah, I don't wanna bother him... he's got enough on his plate already..."
Papaya nods in agreement. "Yeah. Plus, I'm gonna be real, he's not exactly the best at this kinda stuff. Just gonna be us five- six."
Caspian nods, takes another sip of the water, and... sighs. "So... what's the whole plan?"
"Eh, I don't really feel like talking about it right now, let's just eat our pancakes and something'll come to mind," Papaya comments.
"Alright..." Caspian noises.
The five of them just continue having breakfast, Rosemary finishing up Giichi's hair. The pancakes were like fluffy discs of pure joy, the orange juice complimenting the meal well.
It was nice. Quite a pleasant get together and all.
...
"... alright, let's go eff up a bar of GANGSTERS!"
Niagara Straws. A bar located to the north side of Starveil. Sandwiched between two large office buildings, this bar was contently at the bottom floor of the building with about three office floors above it. The bar was quiet at this hour.
A man contently stands outside the entrance, sweeping the sidewalk with his buff and muscular arms. Serving as the bouncer of the place, he was in the midst of cleaning up for the day.
"Heeeeya."
The bouncer blinks as he looks to the approaching man. Seeing the gangster that stormed 207, tipping his hat lightly. "Ah, you're here."
"Yep. Am I late?" the gangster asks.
"Well, it is closing, but you're just in time..." the bouncer begins to speak, before- looking over the gangster's shoulder to see two girls behind him. Purple haired ones, dressed in matching suits. "... and- these two are?"
The gangster points his thumb at the two girls, Peritzal and Papaya, grinning. "Guests. Needed 'em to tail me after the whole... fiasco, yesterday. Y'know?"
In truth, this was Quade, shapeshifting to look exactly like the gangster. His cap put away and kept safe in one of the others' possessions for now.
"Ah, right..." The bouncer nods, and steps to the side. "You three head on in."
The gangster tips his hat lightly, and walks with the twins into the bar.
It seemed to be a quiet gathering.
"... now, he should be somewhere here..." Peritzal mumbles, currently looking around the bar for one specific man: the supposed superior to Lyle.
"Mm... any reason we ain't using the truth detector...?" the disguised Quade asks, arms crossed.
"Well, the Truth Detector requires power, it's not exactly portable," Papaya explains. "Lot of our cool stuff's locked in our apartment walls. Not like we can just take it anywhere we want."
"Yes. Plus, using it raises ethical concerns," Peritzal further explains. "We simply have to-"
"Oi! Lyle!" a gangster exclaims, calling for the man with a pack of cigarettes in his hand. "C'mere a sec, need ya to light one up for me!"
Quade looks over and walks. A moment of tension on his face as he nods. "On it. Light 'em up," he tells Papaya.
"You got it, sir," Papaya says as she draws her gun and points it upward. Perpendicular to the end of the cigarette, pulling the trigger and firing off a shot to light the cigarette.
"HOLY SMOKES-!" the gangster exclaims as a massive fire is now at the end of the cigarette. "DAMN, Lyle! You got a wild one on ya!"
Quade nods lightly. "Yep." Before he and Papaya walk along, eyes now on the two after that show. The two of them walking over to a table to take a seat.
Seconds later, every gangster in that room draws a gun on the two. Pistols whipped out, taking aim the moment they sat down.
Papaya- blinks at this, uh- taking her gun out and taking aim at Quade.
"..." Quade looks around, his eyes blinking. "Uh... fellas?"
"Ain't no one with us foolish enough to light it," a different gangster comments. "You're supposed to be above that pitiful recruit in rank, and knock 'im over."
"Plus, you ain't even say hello to Bobby properly..." the cigarette holding gangster comments, glaring at them. "Everyone at Niagara Straws knows to say 'Good morning, Bobby' to the bouncer. You two's impostors."
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Quade... blinks a few times, and sighs. "... alright, plan's not working. Peri."
Peritzal, standing aside, nods as she presses the side of her head. "Plan's a no-go, commence with the storm procedure."
Ten seconds later, the doors are kicked open as the bouncer is immediately launched through the air. Slamming his body against the bar's back wall, groaning in audible pain.
Giichi and Caspian promptly walk in, stylishly dressed in suits as well. The former cracking her knuckles as the latter wanders with hands tucked into his coat pockets.
"Okay, let's do this!" Giichi exclaims, proudly throwing her hands up and grinning widely at the gangsters. The group has brought to her attention that she was the target of the gangsters, and she was owning that role with a proud grin.
"..." The gangsters pause for a few moments before a majority of them take aim at Giichi. Each one of them beginning to violently unload bullet after bullet onto her.
Caspian retaliates by stomping his foot down, making use of his elemental magic as a wall of ice shoots out of the ground. The bullets cracking against this solid wall.
Giichi stands behind Caspian, contently smiling at him. "Yeah! Woo! You got this!" Giving him emotional support by cheering him on.
With most of the focus on Caspian and Giichi, the other half of the group take out their share. Papaya looking around with a proud grin, eyes locked on the few gangsters that still had their guns on her and Quade.
"... we got us a standoff!" Papaya energetically calls out. "Aight, how we doing this, one by one, or-"
Immediately, Quade is the first to notice that the gangsters are beginning to pull their triggers on the two, and acts quickly.
Quade quickly kicks the table up, launching it onto its side in the direction of most of the gangsters. Quickly, he then sweeps a chair up with a sweep kick, grabbing it tightly in his hand as he makes cover.
The gangsters begin firing bullets one second later afterwards, making up a small portion of the total gunfire as they have delayed reactions to this. The table fallen on its side to block some shots, with Quade holding the chair out to cover the other bullets.
Papaya stylishly ducks to the ground, ejecting the cartridge of real bullets as her hand tightly grips the trigger. The adrenaline coursing in her body aiding in her swift movements as her gun fills with pure, condensed static electricity. Her eyes beaming a bright light with joy as she takes one! Two! Three electrical blasts, hitting into the gangster's chests and nonlethally paralyzing them.
Peritzal watches as Papaya takes out three gangsters, taking a moment to hold her hand up into the air. Taking a deep breath as a small drone flies out of her sleeve, pulsing outward... spontaneously snatching the pitiful guns out of the gangster's hands with a magnetic pull.
"........." The gangsters watch as they were disarmed, three of them paralyzed by the shots, just... questioning their life choices right now, what led them to being outnumbered by five random superheroes.
This is further accompanied by Giichi winding up a punch, breaking the ice apart as buts of ice fly outward, a coat of them spreading out.
Peritzal quickly throws all of the pistols forward, spreading them out into a wall to cover herself, while Papaya and Quade take cover and hide behind the shot up table.
With a veil of frost over their unarmed bodies, sending them into cold shivers with chattering teeth, the gangsters- fall to the ground one by one in surrender, huddling together to try and warm themselves up.
"Alright, allow me to begin first by informing you all of why we're here," Peritzal begins to speak, having the audience of a cold and freezing bar as she bluntly tells them: "We have killed two of your men and are the ones responsible for incarcerating hundreds of you... by accident. It appears that you are all coming after one of us, so now you will gain the full ire of ALL of us."
"Yep!" Papaya exclaims, grinning and joining in on Peritzal's speech. "Now, send this message up to your boss however you see fit: 'we declare war on you, boss of the Starveil Mafia! We will destroy your criminal organization and send it crumbling to the ground, bit by bit!'"
The girl then contently slams the cartridge back into her gun, before aggressively shooting up at the roof.
"... o... okay-" the cigarette holding underling comments. "We'll- leave the message..."
"Cool. Alright, let's go!" Giichi says to the others, before starting to leave. All of them walking out after Giichi, leaving the bar in absolute disarray.
The five of them are now beginning their lively stroll. Making an entire day out of taunting gangsters and fighting the ones that attack as a backup plan. Sheer, raw pettiness fueling them as they walk around in matching suits, intending to exploit the fact that the gangsters were now on a lively hunt for Giichi in their stylish struts around town.
"... ugh, this is going to be a pain..." Caspian groans as the five of them walk away from the bar.
"Yeah. But we got this, guys!" Giichi contently smiles, grinning as she grips her hands into fists. Brimming with raw excitement. "We're gonna look back on this day fondly as the day we beat up and fought crime like super cool vigilantes!"
"Haha! Yeah!" Papaya exclaims, remaining a little hopped up on adrenaline as she smirks widely. Looking down at her suit and smiling, she raises a hand. Her hand immediately high-fived by Giichi. "We gonna roam 'round the city for a bit, see if any more of them show up?"
"Indeed." Peritzal looks to Quade, nodding slightly. "Are you sure you are wise to trust me with your hat in my coat...?"
Quade, continuing to be disguised as the gangster, nods. "Can't have my hat out in public... too many people'll recognize me. I know you of all people to be the safest to hold the hat."
"I see. I feel honored," Peritzal admits, tablet out. "I will make sure your hat remains unharmed."
Giichi then- suddenly and silently waves at the ground for a brief moment, suddenly, attracting the attention of Quade and the others.
Prompting them to immediately go:
"Good morning, Nyx," says Peritzal.
"Oh! Hey, Nyx!" Papaya exclaims.
"Huh- oh! Nyx," Caspian realizes.
"Heeeeeeey," Rosemary echoes.
Once again, Giichi is responsible for Nyx being immediately spotted.
The one person who doesn't greet Nyx is Quade, currently disguised as a different person. His eyes- blink for a minute, looking to the others with a tilted head. "Uh... who are we talking to?"
... Nyx knows, however. They literally had a conversation about his hat.
Because of this, Nyx... remains awkwardly silent for a moment, continuing to be in the ground shadows before leaping into their shadows as they walk. Now following after them, their collective darkness blocking her off from the sunlight. "This appears to be a gathering of sorts. What is the occasion this time?"
"Oh, we're fighting gangsters," Giichi answers. "We would've called for you to join us, but it's morning, so we didn't think you'd-"
"I will join you," Nyx immediately interrupts, deciding that she didn't even need an explanation. "My blade is at your disposal. Do I need to wear a suit as well?"
"Preferably," Giichi answers, smiling. "Peri, we got an extra suit for Nyx?"
"No, unfortunately. But there is a bar of gangsters back there, that..." Peritzal begins to speak, before she goes completely quiet. Looking into the shadows, she- watches as Nyx's upper body peeks out of the ground, realizing that Nyx was already in a suit. A frost covered one.
Nyx was already dressed for the job.
"..." Peritzal... calmly sighs. "On second thought... I do have an extra one. We are all suited for the job."
"Sounds good!" Giichi exclaims. "This is going to be the best day ever, guys! I'm- I'm so excited!"
----------------------------------------
Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location...
The boss of the Blackbird Syndicate sits at his desk, finely dressed in his suit.
"... so let me get this straight. For no reason at all, after two hundred of us were jailed, two guys found them and died, they assaulted a bar with superpowers knowing where one of our gatherings are, and now you're telling me we are now at war with these people? These five people?"
"..." The gangster nods slowly, shaking in fear as he is the only one in the room. Fear in his eyes as he answers his boss with complete hesitance.
The boss takes a moment to take a deep breath, and... reaches for his cup. "I see." Taking a sip of the cup, drinking its contents.
"... s... so. Uhm..."
The boss shakes his head, putting his glass down. "There is a saving grace, they don't even know the name of our organization. 'Starveil Mafia'? We're dealing with absolute idiots who fell for our little ruse, giving the syndicate a different name depending on rank," the boss grumbles. "Must be an underling who told them..."
"Ah. Yeah... yeah." The gangster smiles, spared the boss's fury. "They will likely not know about any of the other spots... all they did was take on Niagara Straws, so-"
"WAIT, THEY ATTACKED NIAGARA STRAWS?!" the boss immediately shouts, screaming at the top of his lungs. "BOBBY! IS BOBBY OKAY?! DID THEY DO ANYTHING TO BOBBY?!"
"B-Bobby?! You mean the bouncer?! Uhm- uh-" the gangster hesitates. "... h... he hurt his back when the girl-"
"GOD-!" Raising his hands into the air, then slamming his fists down. The glass in his hand breaking to bits, spilling all of its contents onto the table. "(BLEEP)ING DAMN IT! THESE FIVE ARE DEAD. LET EVERY REMAINING PERSON KNOW TO KILL THEM ON SIGHT! THEY'RE NOT GETTING AWAY WITH HURTING BOBBY!"
The- the gangster nods, shaking as he didn't avoid the fury after all. Quickly scared out of his mind, just- nodding and complying with that order. "Y-Yes, boss! I- I'll let them know immediately!" Running out of the office for his life.
Once again, the boss of the Blackbird Mafia begins to caw violently at the table. Realizing his milk has spilled, and that there was now glass in his hand. Whoever this brown haired girl is, it's stressing him the hell out. Now they got Bobby, the freaking BOUNCER who works there!
Absolute murder in his eyes as he wildly caws like a wild bird... prompting his actual bird, the crow, to fly and pour him a new glass of milk. The cup rested gently on the wet coaster, with the bird letting out some eager caws.
The boss grabs this new glass, takes a long sip of his milk, then... takes a deep sigh. At least this time he didn't need any sort of medication...
"..." Sigh. "Scare... Scare, get me my phone... I need to call the hospital... and I need to talk to my little nephew right now."
The crow, Scare, caws as it flies off to retrieve the phone. Letting the boss of the mafia call his relative, dialing a number, calling whoever was on the other end.
The man holds the phone to his ear, takes a deep... deep breath, and smiles.
"... pardon me. I wish to speak with someone who is visiting a patient at this hour. Is- is there a Joseph there? ... yes, yes. Joseph Hawthorne..."
A pause as the boss listens, then- a smile. "Ah. Yes! Please, put him on." Taking another sip of his milk, starting to talk with whoever was on the other end...