This is a story I want to write for my Mafia Tales sequence, based off of Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. This is a truncated version of what I would want to write, but I hope you enjoy it, nonetheless.
The old shed was broken. Planks hung off it, waiting for a strong breeze to tear them away. The roof looked as though it would collapse if you merely sneezed hard enough. Yet, the shed still stood and on, on this cold October evening, was experiencing quite a surprising amount of activity as people furtively approached and entered through its squeaky door in groups of two or three. The people were dressed in all manner of fashions- the only thing they had in common were that their clothes had all seen better days and most carried a small case or cage.
Rachel watched the commotion around the shed through a pair of binoculars, brushing her shoulder-length black hair out of the way when it fell into her blue eyes. She heard a whine coming from her left and reached down to pat her little nephini on the head. "Soon, Vengeance," she whispered to the pink and white creature, "soon." The nephini purred and rubbed her head against Rachel's palm before curling into a ball and drifting off to sleep. Rachel removed the binoculars after doing one last scan to make sure no one had spotted her behind the hilly outcropping, and slid down to cuddle Vengeance. She removed a paper from her pack- the report that the Boss had given her.
"Rachel," the Boss had said from her shadows when she had been summoned to the Alcove, "I have a mission for you. It's dangerous, but it must be done. There's a sylestie fighting ring that's sprung up right outside our Northern borders. I sent a team of four in to check that they were following our regulations, but, after their last report 2 months ago, we haven't heard anything from them. Here's the report" An assistant moved from beside the door to hand Rachel a sheet of paper. Rachel skimmed it, picking out that the losing Sylesties were tortured and their owners placed in chains, never to be seen again. Her blood started to boil and an angry flush reddened her pale skin. "I want that ringtorn down around the ******s' ears and our people extracted, if they're still alive," the Boss said, her own voice betraying her barely controlled rage. A slow, evil grin crept across Rachel's lips. "It would be my pleasure," she replied.
Rachel reread the report to refresh her mind. The ring was run by Gio. He was an Italian businessman before the Hack that merged our world with the world of a computer game known as Sylestia. After the Hack, he had apparently adjusted to the new world better than most other adults and gotten an armband for keeping his own Sylestie stable. He had somehow found a vicious dark-blue lupora with black horns and sparkling wings and had used him to build up a gang of despicable individuals and start his gambling ring. Originally, it had just been a ring to watch Sylesties tear each other to pieces for the amusement of the crowd, but recently Gio had started to take the losing Sylesties owners as prisoners. The last report said that the team suspected he was sending these prisoners to the Bandits, but they weren't certain and needed to check it out. And that was the last that was heard of Sakina's team.
Rachel put the report away and picked up her binoculars. Yep, it looked like everyone had entered the shed who was going to. "Time to watch your world burn, Gio," Rachel said, grinning as she nudged her nephini awake.
******
Inside the shed, there's a tunnel carved of stone. The tunnel curves and splits and doubles back on itself, trying its hardest to lose any unallowed guests. Some passages open onto dead-ends or pits, where someone could be lost and die of starvation. The unwary who end up there are the lucky ones. Other passages open onto half-starved Sylesties, with matted fur and mad eyes. If you manage to make your way through the tunnel, you come out in a lovely garden behind a tall, grand spire. However, the grandness of the spire is a lie; no one lives there except the walking dead, who crave the warmth of the living and their master. If you walk behind the rosebush, though, you'll find the hatch to another tunnel, that leads to a bunker. Here is where Gio runs his fighting ring and rules over his fiefdom of cutthroats. Here is where Rachel ends up with a small, covered pet carrier.
A large, muscled man with messy brown hair and a scar on his chin looks down his nose at the slim brunette, his lips set in a grimace. "Hot tomato, hot potato, sugars, and spice," Rachel says from within the shadows of her hoodie, "Jump up, run around, go sit on some ice." The man nods her into another room, where she sees a champion roster on a chalkboard wall. She looks for the names of Sakina's team, but can't see them. The black demon-wolf, Nigra, has the most marks by his name, as well as a gold star, declaring him the reigning champion. Seriously? A gold star? Rachel thought, incredulously, shaking her head at the childishness of Gio. I should burn everything just for that. Her head came around as she heard noises coming from the next room. She walked over, pulling back the dirty piece of cloth blocking the doorway. As soon as she did, the noises intensified.
Rachel looked into a room filled with people who were screaming and jumping around, waving bits of paper money and flashing gold coins in the air. The people surrounded a shallow pit which help a purple vulnyx with demon wings and king cheetah markings along with male orange sylvorpa with tang markings strewn with seashells. The vulnyx was keeping his weight off of his left hind paw and one of his wings was trailing in the dirt of the pit. The sylvorpa had one eye closed and was dripping code from a a deep scratch along his back. The two sylesties were circling each other as their respective owners stood watching, gazes distant as they used their armbands to communicate telepathically with their pets. Suddenly, the sylvorpa reared onto his hind legs, front paws coming together as he summoned an ice ball and hurled it at the vulnyx. But the vulnyx was quicker and shifted around so that he took the brunt of the attack on his injured wing. The sylvorpa bellowed and charged at the vulnyx. This seemed to be exactly what the vulnyx was waiting for. With a surprisingly agile leap, the vulnyx soared over the head of the sylvorpa, landing on its back as the sylvorpa crashed into the wall. Once on the sylvorpa's back, the vulnyx turned around quick as a whip and sank his fangs into the sylvorpa's throat, holding on as code oozed between his teeth, disappearing as it hit the ground. The sylvorpa's owner came out of his trance, but his eyes remained dead as he watched his sylestie slowly die.
"Enough!" a voice called from an iron throne set at the other end of the room. "Ka-ching wins!" The woman controlling the vulnyx smiled as she eased her control and the vulnyx removed his teeth from the sylvorpa's throat. "And the losers... to the cells!" The man in the chair declared as he pulled a lever, causing the sylvorpa's owner to fall through a trap door. A man jumped down into the pit to remove the barely live sylvorpa, as the vulnyx leaped out and rubbed its head against its human, who removed a potion from her armband to heal him.
"Now," said Gio from his iron throne, "what you've all been waiting for, NIGRA!!!!!" Gio touched a finger to his own armband, summoning a large gray and black, horned lupora with ethereal wings. "Who will challenge THE CHAMPION?" Gio demanded. The collected people milled about, no one willing to step forward and risk their pets against the beast. Finally, a rash young man leaped to the edge of the pit and said "I will!" touching his armband and calling forth a red and orange ny'vene. The ny'vene roared and breathed fire toward the ceiling, its runes glistening blackly against its skin. "And when I win, I will rule from your throne!" the young man laughed.
His laughter was cut short, however, when the lupora leaped for his ny'vene's throat before she could finish showing off her flame. Once his teeth had sunk in, he swung his body around to land on the back of her neck. The ny'vene shrieked, shaking her head from side to side as she tried to dislodge her unwanted rider. But the writhing of the ny'vene seemed to incite the wolf-like creature to only tighten the grip of his jaws on her throat. The ny'vene fell to the ground, rolling as she tried to get Nigra off, but the lupora held. He continued to hold until the ny'vene stopped moving and didn't let go until she had begun to dissipate in a cloud of code.
The young man stood by the side, a look of shock and horror on his face as he watched his dragon disappear. Gio smiled. "Guess that means Nigra is still the champion," he said as he pulled the lever and the young man fell through the trapdoor beneath his feet. "Any other takers?" Gio asked, leaning back in his throne.
******
Rachel growled. There had been no reason to destroy that ny'vene! It was an utter waste, meant only to show the gathered crowd how powerful and untouchable Gio was, to make them afraid of ever turning against their leader. Well, time to wipe that smirk off his face.
Rachel stepped forward, to the edge of the pit. Gio smiled, taking in her diminutive size and the little carrier in her hand. Nigra paced along his side of the pit, saliva beginning to drip from his jaws as the fur on his shoulders raised itself. Rachel looked at Nigra from the shadows of her hood, then opened the door to her case, allowing her pink and white nephini to crawl into the pit. The little nephini blinked her bright, purple eyes and yawned. Gio laughed, his lupora joining in. Then Nigra attacked, batting at the little nephini with a paw half her size. Vengeance was knocked into a |
DD