Alex's car pulled up outside Alfred's shop. After thanking Alfred again for the suits and equipping his Vigilante's Mask when Alfred wasn't looking, Riley exited the store and hopped into the passenger seat.
"Eyyy, that suit looks amazing on you!"
Alex held his hand out for a fist bump, which Riley reciprocated.
"Thanks! But really, it's all thanks to you. You paid for it, after all. All 20,000 dollars."
Alex grinned.
"Alfred told you huh? You may balk at the cost, but honestly 20,000 is an average job for Alfred; it might even be on the lower end. He once made a suit for a Middle Eastern prince that cost about 50,000 dollars. The cufflinks were embedded with diamonds, and every button on that suit was fashioned from gold, with a different, unique design on each one; including the sleeve buttons. Such skills are beyond even Alfred, talented as he may be, so he had to get them custom ordered from a master engraver. Alfred showed me a picture once and man, let me tell you, that suit was a thing of beauty."
"Didn't your watch cost the same? That clearly means you can afford a suit like that."
Hearing Riley's reply, Alex chuckled.
"Just because I can afford it, doesn't mean I would wear a suit like that. It's beautiful, yes, but completely impractical for our line of work. Aristocrats don't concern themselves with lowly things like fighting; they leave that to their cronies. How nice your clothes are don't matter when someone's throwing a punch or firing a gun at you."
"True that."
"Alright, enough chit-chat. Time to get you up to speed with what's been going on. You know how the People's Brotherhood has been stockpiling guns, right? Well, this is what it was for. Here's what happened. Since last year, PB has been experimenting with new ways of making money, and one of the ways was brokering. Guns, drugs, any kind of illegal contraband. It wasn't really working out for us, because the other major gangs prefer to deal with the Arbitrares, a council gang that specializes in deals. You remember those guys right? That's where we met."
"Oh yeah! Wait, did you say those guys specialized in deals? Does that mean the other gangs also specialize in different things?"
"Yep. Almost every member of the Council of Seven — also known as I Prescelti Sette, which means The Chosen Seven — all specialize in their own thing. I say almost because we, the People's Brotherhood, don't specialize in a particular "activity". Our speciality is fast recruitment and expansion, and we like to dabble in everything. You could say we're the "Dexterous" of the Council. The Arbitrares, who specialize in deals and arbitration, are the "Charismatic" of the Council. I could go on, but it's not relevant to the mission, so we can discuss this some other day."
"So anyway, about a month ago, an up-and-coming gang called the Estraneo approached us about a deal: they wanted us to sell them enough guns to equip a small army. With the amount of money they were offering, the ex-Boss accepted pretty much immediately. And now, it's finally time for the deal to go through. With the amount of money that we'll make from this deal, I'll be able to convince the dissenting Underbosses that it's possible to make money solely from brokering and then, I'll be able to reform the Brotherhood."
Riley nodded in understanding, before raising a question, "Why do they need so many guns though?"
Alex shrugged.
"Who knows? They're a relatively new gang so I assume they just want to appear strong."
"Fair enough."
They pulled up outside a huge warehouse that was situated on the outskirts of the city. The entrance was heavily guarded by a full squad of mafiosos: an Underboss, two capos, five lieutenants, and ten regular thugs.
"Alright, we're here. Let's get this over with."
"Agreed."
Both men stepped out of the car and started making their way to the entrance. As they got close, the Underboss approached and gave a short bow. As he did so, Riley could see that the rest of the squad had inquisitive looks on their faces, which Alex soon addressed.
"He's with me. Status report?"
"Yes Boss. Everything is ready and good to go at any time. We're just waiting for the Estraneo guys to show up."
"Good work everyone. If this deal goes through, dinner and drinks are on me."
"Thank you Boss."
The Underboss gave another short bow before returning to the sound of cheering from his squad. Alex beckoned for Riley — who up until this point was hoping that none of the gangsters would recognize him as the Vigilante who had spent the last month wrecking their shit — to follow him into the warehouse, which he gladly did. Alex waited until they were out of earshot to speak.
"Those guys were my personal squad when I was still Underboss. After I became Boss, I promoted the man I spoke to just now from Capo to Underboss. Now, I give all the important assignments to him because I trust them to get shit done."
Riley nodded.
"That's some real high praise coming from you, Alex. Wait, what about those guys at the warehouse when we first met?"
"Oh, those incompetent schmucks? I had them assigned to the deal because I knew that you were gonna show up that night and ruin the deal. If my squad was there, you probably would've died that night."
"Huh. Thanks, I guess?"
"Don't worry about it. If you had died there, then I wouldn't be the Boss right now. So it all worked out in the end. Alright, I'm going to inspect the goods. Come along, you might learn something about logistics."
"Sure."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Who do you guys think that guy is?"
The rest of the squad looked at the Capo who had just spoken. A Lieutenant replied, "He was wearing a mask, but he looked very young. There must be a reason why he's concealing his identity; the likeliest reason is that the Boss told him to do so. And if that's the case, then there can be only one explanation."
Another Lieutenant spoke up, "Wait wait wait. No way. You can't be serious."
"Think about it. The Boss rolls up to the biggest deal in the organization's history with a teenager in tow and absolutely no warning. He doesn't explain who the kid is, and makes him conceal his identity. All the evidence points to only one thing. He's the Boss's child."
The squad stared at her. In truth, they had all come to the same conclusion that she had, but none of them had wanted to comment on the matter.
"I don't know about you guys, but I've never seen the Boss give any women the time of day. He's always been about work."
"The kid looked on the older side. Maybe it happened when the Boss was younger? We all do dumb things when we're young, stupid, and most importantly, drunk."
"That's another thing. Have any of you guys ever seen the Boss drunk? I've worked with him for about 10 years and I've never seen him have more than a couple of beers at a time."
"Maybe he made a mistake when he was young, and he swore he would never get drunk again?
"That sounds really dumb."
"Heads up, here they come."
The entire squad turned to where the thug was pointing. Approaching the warehouse were two 6x4 cargo trucks.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Patch 37.0
- Regular biweekly update
Name: Riley Petesgeralt
Age: 16
Job: The Roleplayer
Class: Vigilante
Level: 19
HP: 250
MP: 220
EXP: 535/538
Strength: 43
Dexterity: 46
Vitality: 25
Intelligence: 32
Wisdom: 22
Charisma: 26
Luck: 31
Skills:
Roleplayer's Mind
Virtual Body
Analyze (Level 5)
Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 4)
Physical Endurance (Level 3)
The Cinderella Effect (Level 1)
Dodge Step (Level 2)
Counter Flip (Level 1)
Leg Sweep (Level 2)
Power Punch (Level 2)
Extreme Agility (Level 2)
Sense Danger (Level 2)
Trash Talk (Level 1)
Power Swing (Level 4)
Quick Draw (Level 1)
Minimap (Level 2)
Incognito (Level 4)
Bullet Party (Level 1)
Bullet Time (Level 1)
Bind (Level 1)
Virtuoso (Level 1)
Equipment:
Vigilante's Mask (Level 3/5)
Vigilante's Cloak (Level 1/5)
Vigilante's Pants (Level 2/5)
Vigilante's Gloves (Level 1/5)
Vigilante's Shoes (Level 1/5)
Vigilante's Gun (Level 3/5)
Full set bonus unlocked: Shadow World
Consiegliere's Suit