Eight families meeting under one roof. At any other time, there wouldn't have been enough time to get a word out before blood was spilled. Now, they were all sitting around a single table to discuss their common enemy.

The atmosphere was tense. There was bad blood between some of the bosses here, but they'd all agreed come in disarmed and accompanied only by their right-hand men and two guards. They were also meeting in neutral territory, close to the center of the city, where none of them had an edge in influence.

To Iscon's right was Nioxan "Nio" Iona, the one who'd invited Diomed to this alliance between the families. Further down were the Crepolos, who seemed to have recovered from their dispute with the Axiotis, who weren't present. At the other side of the table, set apart just slightly from everybody else, were representatives from the Eastern gangs. Iscon hadn't recognized them, but he'd quickly found out their names. Zhang Xiaoping of the Blood Orchids and Chen Yu of New Moon.

Them being here added even more strangeness to this meeting. Families talking with each other, peacefully or otherwise, was normal. Talking with the Eastern gangs, on the other hand? It happened, but not often. They did things differently, way differently from what any family was used to, which had caused some violent misunderstandings a few decades back. Nowadays, the unspoken rule was that they and the families stayed out of each other's way.

A few minutes after everyone had entered, Nio led the discussion. His eyes went to each boss around the round table as he greeted them. "Everyone, thank you for coming. I'm very glad to see so many familiar faces here. Just as I thought, you're all men with good heads on your shoulders. You all know that if we want to get through the common obstacle in our way, we need to work together."

Standard flattery, but even Iscon had to admit that Nio's deep, rich voice and genuine-looking smile added a lot of effect.

Nio continued. "Before we get to that though, I have to mention something. I know that there's resentment and anger between some of us, but here, we have to put all that behind. Water under the bridge. If any of us disagrees with each other, we need to discuss and deal with our problems as a group. If you agree to that, please nod, if not, then you may leave."

After a few seconds, everyone nodded. They all watched each other to see if someone would reject the rules.

Instead, one of them spoke up on another subject. Horace Sagona, head of his family, frowned. "Hold on a second, Nioxan. I agreed to come here and talk things out with everyone else, but who decided that you were going to boss us around?"

"Oh, don't misunderstand me, I'm not trying to be in charge here. I just wanted to get the ball rolling and thought that those were good enough ground rules to start off with."

"Good," Horace nodded. "Cause I like some of you guys, but you better not think you can give me orders." He pointed a thumb at himself.

Most of the table nodded in agreement, although the Eastern gangs didn't show any real reaction. It might be a good idea to approach them to see if they could help the Thraces get a stronger foothold in this group.

Iscon glanced at Nio, wondering if he was considering the same thing. The Ionas and the Thraces were good friends, but the opportunity to influence so many of the families at once was hard to pass up. Iscon wasn't sure how far Nio would go in taking advantage of it.

"If so many of you feel this way, then who is going to lead us?" One of the Eastern representatives asked. Yu, no Chen, they had their family names first.

"Didn't you just hear him? None of us," Petro answered.

"That is foolish. With a group this big, we need strong leadership to accomplish anything." Chen said in a calm, steady tone.

Petro gave him a dirty look "Why? You want to tell us what to do?"

"No, I'm just saying what is necessary."

"Well if that's how it's going to be, then the moment one of you tries to get over me, I'm out!"

"Yeah, me too. Especially if you want me to suck up to these Caras fuckheads."

"Hey, fuck you Myron! If you were in charge, we'd all be stuck behind bars by the end of the week!"

Voices burst out, so quickly that it became impossible to pick out more than a word or two in the chaos. It wouldn't be long before their red faces and angry shouting turned into thrown fists.

Just as someone stood up, about to start a fight, Diomed slammed a palm on the table and yelled. "That's enough!" His large bulk and booming voice grabbed everyone's attention. "I can't believe this shit. If you want to fight each other, then do it when we're not being fucked around by some Interference assholes! If you're angry, then be angry at them! I don't want to listen to a bunch of you whining when we should be going after the idiots who think they can mess with us!"

They were all still. Then, the few who'd gotten up from their chairs sat back down. Nio broke the silence by clearing his throat. "Thank you, Diomed. Everyone, I'm sure that we can agree on a decision-making process that will make us all happy. First, I think we should all share what we know on the Interference. Then, we can decide on our next step. Does that bother anyone?"

A few seconds of silence. Then, Horace was the first to offer information. "Alright then, I'll speak up. I've looked into it, and if the government knows anything about the Interference, it's hidden deep. Who they are, where they came from, why they're messing with us, as far as I can tell, it's all a mystery."

Everyone else said the same. They all had informants in the government, and all they'd found were more specifics on the cops that the Interference had exposed. Nothing that told them anything they didn't know before, nothing they could use to get back at them.

And the families had definitely tried getting back at them. Iscon had already known about most of their attempts to hit back, but it was still important for everyone to be on the same page. It was the same general story with different details, using fall guys to try and pick out an Interference man, but never succeeding. Diomed also told them about their experience with the cameras, which surprised a lot of them. Trying to guess at what huntsman ability it had been was pointless, but they had to at least try to defend against it.

"It's not just getting at our men," Myron brought up. "It's like the cops, these guys are digging up any shred of evidence on the jobs that a family worked. The Frangos and the Mulas are dealing with accusations, and with cops and judges getting harder to buy off, it's not looking good for the bosses or their secondaries."

That was news to Iscon. Those two families had lasted as long in this city as anyone at this table. They'd probably survive, but no way they'd manage their cartels if their upper men were put behind bars all at once. If they could face that level of trouble, so could any of them.

"We can't rely on cops anymore, that's for sure," Petros said.

"They're not the only ones," Zhang added. "Almost anyone useful in the government has gotten more expensive after a Council aide named Christopher Petridis was caught. A few of my own inside the government have become uneasy and difficult."

There were some nods and murmurs of agreement. Seemed like they'd experienced it themselves.

"I guess we should make it official. Do we all agree that we'll stop trying to pay them to look the other way for our activities?" Nio suggested. "At least until we learn more about the Interference?"

He got a chorus of yeses.

"Good," Nio nodded. "With that, I'd like to bring up the reason we all decided to come here. The Interference has been making our business suffer. There's a pretty simple strategy which would help lessen that, but before that, does anyone else have their own ideas to keep our operations running as much as possible with the Interference in our way?"

"What are you talking about?" Someone snarled. "We're here to get rid of the Interference, not pussyfoot around them."

"That's what I'd like, but how would you get rid of them?" Nio asked. "How would any of us? We've all tried, and we can't even get one of them. Time is ticking, we have to adjust or go the way of the Frangos and Mulas."

Nobody had an answer for him, and they stewed in uncomfortable silence. It wasn't hard to see what Nio was going to suggest, but it seemed like no one wanted to say it. Not even Nio. Normally, he probably wouldn't mind, but he was already playing too active of a leading role. Which, as this meeting had gone on, Iscon had become certain that was what Nio was aiming for.

"Makes us seem like cowards, but I get it. We should move some of our operations outside the city," Diomed said.

"You can't be serious," Petro said. "Leave? Let those bastards win? Hell no!"

"They only win if they put us behind bars," Chen said. "They refuse to kill us, and as long as we stay out here with them, it's our victory."

"We can beat them without running away!"

"We don't have a choice," Diomed said. "We can either stay and have the Interference keep ruining us or do what we can by moving some of our sales and cartels out. If you don't want to, then do whatever you want, but good luck going to a court that you can't afford to buy off anymore."

"Actually, I'd prefer it if we all agreed on this," Nio said. "For now, we can decide to cut down our business in the city for only three weeks and try to move outwards. We can decide then whether to continue or stop that method. Does everyone find that agreeable?"

"I don't!" Myron answered.

Petro added. "Yeah, neither do I!"

For everyone else, the three weeks and condition to decide again seemed to be enough.

"You do realize that you may make yourselves the main targets of the Interference?" Nio asked.

"I haven't been hiding, and I'm still here. So have the rest of you, but it looks like you've forgotten that," Petro glared at them.

"Well, if you two find out anything useful on the Interference, I hope you tell us," Nio said.

"Yeah, we will, but don't get upset when we're the ones to finish them off!" Myron boasted.

"If you are, then you deserve it. Now, I don't want to push my luck, since that's a good deal more progress than I was expecting. So I suppose that's all for today," Nio said. "We all know how to contact each other, and we can share important information before our next meeting. Good luck."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Actually, before you all leave, I'd like to mention something," Iscon said. "The smaller gangs in your areas, keep an eye on them, especially the ones fighting each other. The Interference has been dealing with them too, so we might be able to get some good information out of them."

"Has everyone heard that?" Nio asked, and he received mumbled agreements.

\\\\\

It was late at night in the streets. In the lower levels of Mistral, gunshots rang out. The alleyways were filled with gangsters hiding behind corners or the rocks in the area, and they fired at each other. The muzzle flashes briefly lit them up.

Clark and Ruby were already shutting it down. Ruby was higher up, firing down with her sniper, but she was ready to jump down and get up close with her pistols if she needed to. She only made warning shots, keeping gangsters pinned while Clark used half-inch pellets from his gauntlets. He flicked them at their guns and arms, careful to only bruise them at worst.

They cried out in pain and surprise, but that didn't stop them from fighting. They reached for their fallen guns, which forced Clark to run down at super-speed and snatch them away.

It didn't take long to disarm both sides, at least of their firearms. However, despite their confusion, they continued to fight. Those who had knives took them out, the others went after each other with rocks, bricks, or their fists if they couldn't find anything. Yelling and screaming at each other.

Which was why Clark had to race down and knock them out. Maybe he could have shoved each of them against a wall instead, shown a little force to get them to finally give up, but they'd had their chances. They'd proven that they would keep fighting here, where innocent people could get caught in the crossfire.

"They're all taken care of?" Ruby asked, the voice from the scroll turned down low.

"Yeah, I don't think anyone else is going to get violent here anytime soon," Clark said. "Want to turn in for the night?"

"It's okay, I'll stay out for a little longer."

"Alright, I'll bring them to the police." Calling them would be ineffective, since most were reluctant to come down this far, even with how public focus had turned to them. This wasn't close to Phil and Andrea's station either, so he couldn't rely on them. Not to mention that it was late at night and there were over a dozen gangsters here, too many for those two to handle, even unconscious.

So Clark brought each one to a station around the city. Those who'd handled guns had them emptied of ammo, along with notes saying they were guilty of unregistered firearm possession while the others only got aggravated assault and disturbing the peace.

It probably wouldn't lead to jail time for the majority of them. There really wasn't much evidence, since Clark's focus during these fights was to stop them rather than take the time to get pictures or video, but at least it would end it for tonight. He also wrote down the area where they'd been fighting, so at the very least, the residents here could testify if they wanted to.

Clark set the last one down near a police station in the north. Then, he returned to a location in the city almost exactly between Ruby, Pyrrha, and Jaune. Ready to go to any of them if they needed his help, while also monitoring the gangsters he'd placed around the city.

Recently, Clark and the others had started focusing on damping down the violence that had resulted from him destroying so many stashes. The more serious crime organizations were the only ones who had any left, and they'd spread out and hidden their merchandise so well that Clark couldn't find them. At least, not without invading the privacy of innocent people. The smaller gangs, however, had taken their losses much more severely. Lots of them had broken up, and some were still in the process.

However, they weren't going down quietly. They tended to lash out before they dispersed, attacking other gangs in a desperate attempt to restock on cash or weapons. Or revenge, since they blamed each other for the destruction of their own stashes.

Having Ruby and the others to help watch some regions was nice. It gave him time to slow down and consider his next step.

A number of crime families had come together to fight the Interference. Clark had listened in on their meeting, and they made a dysfunctional, disorganized group. That both helped and hindered Clark's plans. They were slow to come to a decision, and it didn't look like they would make coordinated movements soon. However, since they were so independent of each other, it would be almost impossible to get rid of them. If Clark put one of the bosses in prison, the rest would keep going, and that boss' son or nephew or whoever would probably rise up to lead his family and continue to commit the same crimes.

Which was why Phil and Andrea were so pivotal. He hadn't realized the effect they could have while working for him, since they were only the start, but after Clark left, they could continue to reform the police force. They'd be the ones to keep the city safe, not him.

He considered the crime families again. Despite their bickering, they'd made one serious decision in their meeting. Most of them were moving operations out of the city, which was actually effective against Clark. He couldn't monitor multiple towns simultaneously as well as he could one city, and it would take time to familiarize himself with their criminal elements.

It would reduce crime in the city, which was good, and he doubted they'd be able to make arrangements in other towns as good as what they had here. It was only temporary right now, but he'd need to find a way to see if he could make it more permanent. The families and syndicates would almost definitely still try to smuggle goods into the city, and he'd have to discourage that.

Andrea seemed to know a good deal about the methods these people used, he'd have to consult her.

\\\\\

"Hey Clark, I think I found something," Jaune said.

Clark walked over and took a look at the computer screen. The two of them were in Haven's library, going through news articles focusing on the Council. Ideally, on Councilor Dolus.

"Scandal in the Council, Bronzelight Inc. Pays Off Administration," Clark read aloud. "This is from The Morning Post."

Jaune looked at the screen then back to him. "Oh yeah, it is. Is that a bad thing?"

"I usually ignore them because they tend to embellish their stories and make the Council look good," Clark said. His eyes zipped through the article. "Although this one was written a few years ago, when they apparently had some integrity. Good find. Can you find out more about the writer, Dorian Ray?"

"Um, sure, just give me a few seconds." A few seconds later, Jaune found Ray's address. He lived outside of the city, but not far.

Clark went to back to his tablet, and they both looked for any other articles by the man. He'd had a long career, but nothing else on the Council besides a few lead-up articles to the Bronzelight scandal. Afterwards, it looked like he'd retired, although he'd only been in his sixties.

"I'm going to go ask him about it," Clark said. "You alright?"

Jaune covered the yawn coming out of his mouth and answered immediately. "Oh yeah, I'm fine."

Clark paused, studying Jaune for a bit. "You look a bit tired. Are the late nights taking a toll on you?"

"No no, I'm a-okay," Jaune answered, although now that Clark was focusing his vision, he found slight signs of weariness. A light droop in his upper eyelids and some slowness in his movements. "You don't need to worry. I mean, you're out there with us, and you're totally fine."

"My biology is a bit different though," Clark replied. "I'm okay, but it might be affecting you."

"Trust me, if I feel tired, I'll get some rest. Right now, I can keep going and find more stuff for you."

Clark hesitated for a moment before leaving. "If you say so." He'd have to pay more attention to how the late nights were affecting Ruby and Pyrrha too and read up on how inconstant sleep schedules affected health.

Once he walked out and made sure nobody was watching, he ran to Dorian Ray's house. A good deal faster than he'd been able to only a year ago thanks to his recent speed training, although still much slower than the phantom's flight.

He slowed down to a walking pace a good deal before reaching Ray's door. He knocked, and it took a few seconds before a man started taking slow steps up to the front.

A bald man with a light gray beard met him. He looked pretty much the same as his pictures online, just a little older. "Yeah, what do you want?"

"Hello sir, I'm here to ask you about this article you wrote several years ago," Clark held up his scroll with Ray's article on an online archive. The man squinted at the screen and then frowned.

"Why?"

"I'm looking into Councilor Dolus, and you mentioned here that members of his administration were involved in this scandal."

"Yeah, I did, but that's all over and done with. What's a kid like you doing digging up old stories?"

"I'm twenty years old," Clark immediately realized how childish he sounded. He shook his head. "Anyway, my age doesn't matter. I'm looking for evidence on Dolus, I think you know what kind of man he is."

"Yeah, you'll find plenty of the same in the city. Only difference is that he's done better than most."

"I realize that. It's part of the reason why I'm focusing on him."

"Okay, so you get your evidence, then what do you plan to do after?"

"Well . . . when I find enough and reveal it, he'll be brought to court."

He snorted. "Really? You think you can put him on trial? And if you somehow get him in a court, what's after that, you think you can get him in jail?"

Clark remained silent.

Ray scoffed. "Of course you do. Listen, kid, don't waste your time or mine."

"It's not a waste of time," Clark said. A little frustration crept into his voice. "People like Dolus are put in power, and instead of serving the people, they bloat themselves up on money and influence. All I'm here to ask for are some details on an article you wrote, which I think could help change things in Mistral."

"This is the real world. You think you're going to change anything? Stop dreaming." Ray moved to close the door.

Clark's hand shot out and gripped the knob.

"Hey, what are you doing? Let go!" Ray gave the door a good shove, but he couldn't even budge it.

"I-I'm sorry," Clark released the knob, shocked by his own impulse decision. Surprisingly, Ray didn't immediately slam the door in his face. He looked more stunned than angry. "Just, please. If you think it's a waste of time, I understand, but I want to at least try. There must be a reason why you retired so soon after writing this article, did the Council force you to? If so, don't you want any justice? Don't you want to make sure they can't do it to anyone else?"

"That's a nice offer, but you guessed wrong. Still . . ." Ray looked back into his house, and seemed to consider something. A few moments later, he sighed. "Wait here."

Clark listened closely as the man went inside. It sounded like he was writing something, then he ripped off a piece of paper.

Ray returned with a note. "Here, a list of names. They're the ones I talked to for that article, a couple have even been in Dolus' administration or still might be, I'm not sure. You can ask them, but don't you dare tell them who told you."

"Oh, um, of course. Thank you." Clark accepted it and gave Ray a confused look. "But why . . .

"Hey, just be glad you got anything out of me, and that's probably only because I'm getting stupid in my old age."

The man was only in his sixties, but he had a point, Clark wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"A couple things though," Ray continued. "Cut the polite crap, if you want information, you need to get aggressive. At least with some people. Put your foot in the door, don't take no for an answer."

Clark blinked at the surprise lecture. "Okay, I'll remember that."

"Also, it was a good idea to try to appeal to any resentment I had for Dolus, or maybe any sympathy I might have for the poor bastards he's screwed over, but do your research on who you're talking to before you try it."

"O-okay."

"Good, now go away." Ray shut the door.

That . . . had been an experience. Clark turned around and left, he could have gone back to Haven in a flash, but he wanted to think things over first.

First, he read over the note. There were four names there: two employees of Bronzelight Inc. and two who'd worked for Dolus. He committed them to memory, and then stuffed the note in his pocket.

He looked down at his right hand.

What the heck had gone through his head when he'd grabbed onto the man's door? He shouldn't, couldn't do that. He clenched and unclenched his fingers a few times. Thankfully, he'd caught himself before he broke anything. Still, what was wrong with him? He'd been upset it, sure, but that wasn't any excuse.

He placed his hand back in his pocket and kept walking. Clark had already found a good number of people like Ray, people who had information on scandals or crimes. However, like Mrs. Ophel, most wouldn't talk. It was understandable that some were afraid, their friends or loved ones had vanished when investigating the Council. Even so, no matter how many concessions for their safety Clark made, even bits like Ray's note were rare.

Hopefully, this would lead to something, although it was more likely that it wouldn't. Even if these people were willing to talk, he was asking for specifics on events that had taken place years ago. Their memories might not be clear, and any evidence would be harder to uncover.

Clark ran back to Haven and entered the library.

"Oh, you're back already," Jaune said when he saw him. "Did Mr. Ray help you out?"

"He did actually, gave me a few names that I'll check up on tomorrow," Clark sat down at a nearby chair with his tablet. "Thanks for finding that article. I probably wouldn't have found it on my own."

Jaune grinned. "You're welcome, glad I could help."

Clark nodded, and turned his attention to his tablet. Besides finding and talking to people, he had to stitch together the evidence he already had from a variety of sources into something coherent. It was relaxing, after what felt like pulling teeth collecting it in the first place.

If he'd wanted to, he could have typed it in private at super-speed, but it just didn't feel the same. Just letting the words come to mind and allowing his fingers to go over the keypad at a leisurely pace, reading a sentence or passage over and over again to see if it needed any changes, a comfortable level of background noise, there really wasn't any other way to do it.

Sometime later, Jaune left, and Clark absentmindedly thanked him for giving him a hand. Sifting through tons of information wasn't fun, especially when most of the time anything they found ended up a dead end.

Clark wouldn't have said no if Jaune had asked to help write up the information too, but he preferred to do this on his own. It was satisfying in a way he wasn't sure how to describe. Going head on against the government wouldn't solve the issues of its corruption, but maybe a digital document would do more than super-strength or heat vision ever could.

It had to be the right document, though. The facts were out there, but they could be presented in an infinite number of ways. He didn't consider himself a great writer, but sometimes, for those rare portions he felt especially proud of, it felt like he wasn't even the one thinking of them. It was like the words were already there, like they couldn't be arranged any other way, and he was only finding them.