Sowei City...
A week had already passed since the last meeting of the council, and Leo, along with Geowar had taken it upon themselves to open the council room and prepare everything for later.
"So what exactly does the council chairman do?" Geowar asked.
"You move the discussion forward and make sure nothing goes awry. It's very simple really." Leo explained as he was looking for the correct key.
"Unrelated, but when are you going to train your abilities?"
"I don't know what abilities I have, let alone how to use them."
"I can take you to the master if you want." Geowar proposed.
"Forget it, I'll figure it out later." Leo said and, the door creaked open.
Geowar lit all the candles in the room revealing the chiseled mahogany roundtable, and cushioned chairs. A mysterious man was also in the room, and he was looking for something under the table. He had broken in through the window.
Leo and Geowar exchanged glances.
"Who's this?" Leo asked.
"Oh shit!" The mysterious man exclaimed, then tried to get up and run but he hit his head and fell unconscious.
"Hey, Jessie!" Leo called out from the meeting room. "Can you get Banner in here? Thanks."
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Soon enough, Emmanuel Banner, fully armed as per usual arrived in the room.
"What do you want?" He sternly asked.
"We were going in, and we found that guy." Leo said, as he pointed towards the intruder. He was an adult male, around 50 years old, with a decent build and balding gray hair.
"And why did you call me?"
"We were hoping you could identify him perchance?" Geowar said.
"How the hell am I supposed to know who that is? You know you can't just ask me to solve all your- wait. I know who that is!" Banner announced.
"Well?"
"That's Jacob Monroe, the old leader of the Black Island Mafia. They operate on, well, Black Island."
"Hey wait a minute, isn't that one of the islands Francis gave us?" Geowar asked.
"Yup. He played you guys."
"Damn!" Leo exclaimed. "What does he want then?"
"How should I know? I've never talked to the guy! I'm going back to my day off. Don't call me." Banner said, and he walked away, slamming the door on his way out of the room.
"Should we wake him up?" Leo asked Geowar.
"Uh, sure." Geowar said, and created a hardlight construct of a hand, and slapped the unconscious mob boss.
It did nothing.
"Now what?" Geowar asked.
Leo turned on the intercom and said:
"Hey Jess, it's me again. Can you tell Nick to bring a bucket of water on his way here?"
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A couple minutes passed, and the rest of the council arrived. The reactions to seeing an unconscious man on the roundtable varied.
"DUDE!? I JUST cleaned this!" Nick exclaimed as he walked in last with a bucket of water.
"Give me that." Leo snatched the bucket from his hand and dumped it all over the table.
"DUDE!!" Nick exclaimed.
"Gah!" Monroe said as he awoke. Immediately after that, Lucius grabbed him by his jacket's collar.
"You have 5 seconds to start talking before I throw you off the cliff." He said.
"Jesus Christ!" Monroe exclaimed. "Look I know this looks kinda bad, but I couldn't think of any other way to talk to the council."
"Leo, who is this?" O'Lop asked.
"It doesn't matter who I am. I have a proposal for the council." Monroe said.
"Well, as today's council chairman, I propose we listen to what he has to say." Geowar said. "Everyone, take your seats."
"Thank you, guy." Monroe said. "So I'm here to talk to ya about a very big problem; the underworld of Soweiland. Mainly, the Black Island Mafia."
"The what?" O'Lop asked.
"The Black Island Mafia! Their leader, he's crazy! He's making an army, and he wants to be president!"
"And why should we listen to you, Monroe? We know your identity now!" Leo asked.
"Because I'm the only person you can find who'd be willing to help you get rid of him." Monroe explained. "He threw me out of my own organisation. It's personal!"
"And how do we know you won't betray us? You can just help us get rid of him and then take his place." Geowar pointed out.
"Well I won't, alright? I don't want that life no more. Anyway, a little birdie told me that the position of Minister of Civilian Direction or sum is free. I'm interested."
"It's Civil Protection, not Direction. And to can't have it." Leo said. "We need someone with experience, and someone without a criminal record."
"How do people even learn about these open positions?" Lucius asked. O'Lop shrugged in response.
"I am experienced! I'm the only person in 'ere that knows anything about the underworld. And I have some ties with peace officers."
Leo glared at him. "I said no, and that's final. What don't you understand?"
"Leo, wait!" Geowar said, and then whispered something in his ears.
"Great idea, man!" He exclaimed, and reached for the intercom again. "Jessie, go wake up Renee. I want her here this instant."
"Who's Renee?" Monroe asked.
"Leo, what are you planning?" Lucius asked.
"Don't you trust me, Lucius?"
"Not when it comes to my daughter! You could put her in serious danger!"
"Please, as if she doesn't put herself in danger all the time."
A minute or so later, Renee walked into the room. She had bags under her eyes, her blonde hair was all messy and she had put her shirt on the wrong way.
"What?" She asked.
"Do you like money?" Leo asked.
"Yes."
"Well I've found a job for you at the ministry!"
"Leo, my dad owns the ministry, you'd be paying me with my own money."
"This is our new minister of Civilian Protection, Jacob Monroe. Your job is to be his lead advisor!" Leo announced.
"Dude, seriously? I still haven't figured out my alleged powers and you're making me do this?" Renee asked.
"You alleged what now?" Monroe asked, but everyone ignored him.
"Yeah, well I haven't either, but life goes on!" Leo said. "Besides, this will be fun! Y'know, protecting citizens and whatever. Policing!"
"Are you stupid?" Nick yelled, looking up from the notebook he was drawing in. "The police killed her mom, why would she wanna work with them?"
Leo winced at this. "Uh, that was Fred's police, and he combusted. Trust me, it'll be fine. Now, would you mind leading Mr. Monroe and Renee to their department while we continue with our meeting? Dr. Parr told me she invented something new that could help us."
"Fine." Nick said, bored out his mind. "Follow me."
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Nick led the pair into a room with a single desk in it. Everything inside was damaged, and there were various cracks on the brick walls. Debris was lying around the corners of the room, and there was a weird fabric on the floor for some reason.
"What in the world happened here?" Monroe asked.
"Don't ask too many questions." Renee said. She recognised the room. She turned to face Nick. "Leo thinks he's real funny, huh?"
"Calm down. This was the only room left." Nick said, he saluted at the new minister and slumped out of the room.
"I think it's time you tell me what you know, sir." Renee said. "Who's the leader of the Black Island Mafia? What's his plan? Who does he work with?"
"To be frank, I don't know much." Monroe said. "All I know is that he's dangerous, and that he won't be happy with the change in leadership."
"Who is he, Monroe?" Renee slammed her fist on the desk.
"I don't know. He hides his identity, and gives out orders only to his highest ranking lieutenants. The one calling most of the shots is Jimmy Falcone." Monroe explained.
"So what does that mafia do exactly?"
"85% of all crime in the Austrian Empire and Soweiland is controlled by the boss. All the money from their jobs is sent to him, and Falcone is responsible for distributing all the money equally."
"And how does he escape being invesyby the police? All this money isn't taxed!" Renee asked.
"Simple. Originally we had deals with King Frederick, but after realising his downfall was coming close, the boss must have created a cover for all the money." Monroe said "I don't know what it is, but he's running some kinda business!"
"Okay, so what's our plan?"
"Well, if we improve the police force and they can't do crimes, as well as publicly speaking out against them, the leader should reveal himself."
"And how will we do that? The police force consists of like, 5 guys."
"Why, we'll hire mercenaries of course!"
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Cairo, Egypt, 2 days later...
Craig had risen the ranks of the international mercenary group AXON in a very abrupt manner. So much so that he was already sent on private missions directly assigned by the director himself, Rowan Callaghan.
His latest secret operation had him compete in a professional underground fighting tournament in order to assassinate the organiser of the entire thing, which he didn't even end up doing as the organiser was beaten to pulp by the other fighters and sent directly to jail.
Now he had to deliver a letter to the director that he got at the port on his way back from the tournament from a shady guy who seemed to hate his life.
He walked into the director's office, and looked around. It was relatively empty, with only a desk and two chairs for visitors, and the only decoration being portraits of the director, a bald bearded black man with a lanky physique, all over the walls.
"Ah, Craig! You're back! Did you do it?" He said once he noticed Craig.
"Yeah." Said Craig, and he handed him the letter.
"Thank you, Craig." He said as he opened the letter. "Interesting..."
Craig tried to ask what the letter said, but before he could...
"Craig, go get 500 men and meet me at the port in 2 hours. We're going to visit an old friend of mine."