Some time ago…
In a deceptively normal-looking room, a large man with an olympian body was admiring himself in a mirror.
"Woah! Look at THESE biceps." He flexed his muscles and admired his shirtless body. "Muah!" He gave his muscles a quick kiss. "Such a perfect body…" He was engrossed in his own image.
Ring Ring!
"Mm? Must be important if they've called me directly, I know I've scared them all to their cores already!" He walked back to his bed to pick up his phone.
A voice came from the other side of the phone.
"Boss- Boss! One of our members sent out an emergency signal at the warehouse. What do we do if this deal--" A man sounded through the phone, his voice anxious, scared, and panicked.
"Stop there!" The boss cut off his subordinate. "Calm down, explain clearly. One of you guys sent out an emergency signal? What's that have to do with me, can't you guys back up your own members? Or could it be you guys are useless and plan to rely on me for everything, Kevin?"
"N-No!" Kevin quickly replied. He was a tough gangster, but there was no way he could keep his composure in front of his boss. He was arrogant, unreasonable, and liked to cut off the incompetent to set an example. This normally wouldn't be possible, but the crux was that no one could challenge him.
The new boss, Berith had taken over the gang like a storm. Kevin was one of the few who witnessed who is still alive to tell the tale. It was like a nightmare, a shower of bullets rained upon Berith, yet he simply ignored them as he walked up to the previous boss and squished his head into bits.
"I am the boss now. Any questions!?" Berith gave a fierce glare around the room and killed those who still resisted. Everyone had no choice but to submit.
Kevin stopped daydreaming of the past. He was driving a car, and at the same time had to give his tyrannical boss an explanation. "One of our men staying at our warehouse sent out an SOS! We are rushing over there, but we can't communicate with any of our men over there! You know the warehouse is where we keep the ones we kidnapped... if something goes wrong with the deal..." Kevin stopped there, he didn't want to anger Berith further, he knew he must be furious by now!
"What!? Useless bastards! I'm rushing over, you guys better fix the situation!" He quickly rushed out, grabbing a tiger mask. "Hurry up, I'm sure you guys have gotten the SOS, prepare the car, we're going straight to our warehouse! You know exactly what will happen to us if we can't follow through on the deal we made!"
"Yes, boss!" His subordinates replied.
...
"Let's go, let's go!" A familiar greek-myth bodied man was in the passenger seat of a car, ordering the driver to go faster!
"B-Boss… any faster and I might crash!" The gangster in the driver's seat fearfully replied, he didn't want to offend his boss, but he truly couldn't go faster safely.
"BLAM!" The boss slammed his palm on the front of the car, causing a heavy palm-sized indent to appear on the dashboard. "If I tell you to go faster, you go faster! Don't forget who gave you this position in the first place... " He glared at his own driver.
'Damn it…' The driver cursed to himself as he sped up. Between a car, he can try to control, and his tyrannical gang boss, he would obviously choose to speed up. He had no doubt that his boss had both the strength and resolution to directly kill him if he disobeyed his orders. He would sigh, but he had to concentrate on driving before he died.
"Everyone", Berith began to say, "You KNOW this isn't just about the goods, our men, or our pride. We made a deal to deliver goods. If we can't uphold our end of the deal, not only would our gang be no more, but you guys would be lucky if you survived."
…"I thought I made this point clear, long ago. Yet, you guys still managed to fuck things up! You guys claimed that an SOS signal was received, yet our men said nothing, and we couldn't communicate with them?"
"Did you perhaps betray me?" Berith said calmly.
"No, NO!" His suspicion was immediately denied by panicked voices.
Berith continued, "Because if you did, that would be hilarious. I can imagine it now, an ambush waiting for me. It's funny because not only does that mean you guys think you can defeat me, but you guys think you can get off scot-free if the deal doesn't go through."
Everyone else in the car was speechless.
"Boss, it's really not what you think! We were just as baffled, too! Perhaps they were in the middle of a gunfight, and didn't have time to elaborate?" The driver quickly replied.
Berith shook his head. "I can't decide which is worse. A bunch of powerless commoners thinking they could betray me and come out on top, or a bunch of useless scum who can't defend a single warehouse that has exactly zero enemies, where only our own men were supposed to know the location of. No one can convince me we didn't have a traitor."
*ScreeCH!
In just a few moments, they had arrived at the warehouse. A few cars which had arrived before them were already haphazardly parked around.
Berith took a look around, there were two of his men around an opened side entrance, and he could hear a commotion heading inside.
They were being quite loud, could they really be fighting inside? "Let's see who dares cross me!" Berith headed inside and took a look.
Some men crying over dead bodies, a small group arguing near the empty slave container… and no enemies.
"Who did this!" Berith immediately roared. The slaves were clearly gone. How could he fulfill his deal like this? THEY would definitely blame him if he could not accomplish his mission. He came here to gain a position of power where he could lawlessly do whatever he felt like. He was confident in getting rich legally, but then he would be bound by all sorts of useless laws made by those weaker than him. How could he possibly accept that?
This being the case, if he immediately offended the group he was trying to form connections and underground dealings with, it would be alot harder for him to enjoy his newfound power. He would likely have to go and take over a different gang somewhere else, but he already made preparations here.
…
Seeing that no one answered him, he roared once more, "Listen to me you useless sacks of shit, WHO DID THIS!?" He rushed forwards and grabbed the first man he could and turned him around, "Answer!"
The man he had turned around had big, red inflamed wet eyes, "W-We-We don't know!"
"What the fuck?" Berith was having second thoughts about taking over this gang. He had seen others do it before, forcefully taking over a gang, scaring the living shit out of them until no one dares resist, then reaping all the benefits.
Why is it that when he did it, not only were his men incompetant, now they are uselessly crying in the corner? Shouldn't they be getting angry, ready to wage war against the perpetrator?
"Tell me everything you know!"
The crying man slowly regained his composure, mostly out of fear of Berith. "When we nearing the place, our group recognised one of the slaves, they were out running on the sidewalk! The group behind us stopped to grab them, so we kept going. Thus, we were the first to arrive."
He took a moment to breathe, and continued, "The place looked just as normal, except all our men inside were dead, and the slaves gone. We found a problem, though. All the men appear to have been headshot, except for two. One of them had a bunch of gun wounds in his back, and it seems the last one actually put up a fight. In addition, this place strangely smells like bleach?"
Just as Berith was processing this information, a man ran in from outside, "Guys, guys! We finished interrogating the slave we captured!" He then noticed Berith was there.
"Boss, allow me to give my report!"
"Finally,useful information," Berith, boomed, "Continue!"
"From what we gathered, there was a gunfight between two people. This matches what we found at the scene. It was mentioned that absolutely no gunshots went off before, or after the fight. When the slave saw outside, the rest were already dead."
Berith frowned. He didn't think these were lies, there was no way so many people could be headshot in their sleep, everyone would wake up at the first gunshot. Yet, what exactly happened then? He began to think, perhaps someone had it out for him. Was it Asterious? That old goat always had a senseless hatred for him, spouting nonsense about righteousness.
"We gathered information about the perpetrator, too."
"Oh?" Berith began to pay close attention.
"He was a figure in a black cloak and a mask,keeping their identity disguised. He opened the slave container, and took a girl and a boy. He said something about how the Silver Nights would regret ever messing with his gang, and that this is revenge for what we did. Supposedly, he took those two because they would sell for the most, and he only had space for two in his car. The rest escaped with a bolt cutter he left behind. That's all we've extracted."
"I understand." Berith said calmly. "Everyone, listen up!" The gangsters gathered round. "We need to take revenge for this incident! For the fallen, to protect our reputation, and most of all, not suffer the consequences of failing to follow through with this deal. We can get ten more people, but who's to say we won't suffer another loss like today!?"
"We must first gather information, the faster the better. Let's split and ask all the nearby citizens about this. Ask them if they heard or saw anything happening near this warehouse. We'll attract some suspicion, but that's fine. Just don't rob people in broad daylight and the police won't care. They never do.
Berith said this, but his mind was on something else. All the people who were supposed to stay in the warehouse are dead, and most of them "mysteriously" died. The way it hit him, one of his subordinates must have been a traitor, and so didn't attract suspicion when he went into the warehouse. He must have drugged everyone here, likely through their drinks, and finished them off. He had already shown off his strength, now it was time to let everyone know he was capable of more than just fighting.
"Go!"
Many gangsters spread out, and began to knock on people's houses for information. This of course annoyed literally everyone, since it was five am and they've just woken up the whole port, but no one really dared to express their dissatisfaction. For the moment, the Silver Nights had the whole port controlled through fear.