The Reservoir. Part Eight.

The sound of dark ambient music was blaring on the portable sound system that Gargoyle brought with him. With the soothing beats of the most random of objects, the rather unique way the sounds blended, it gave him something of a feel for the job he was doing. He looked over at Youngling, his brother. He noticed how he was just playing some game on his device and not caring about the rotten world one bit. At times, he envied him.

Their past exploits were well known, but what was not know was why they are like this. What caused them to be the way they are. As a whole, they try to not think of the day in which they claim to have their innocence taken away. But when you are in a fight with your father, and you were at the point of either life or death, you have to do anything to keep yourself safe. Even if that means picking up a weapon at such a young age and killing someone. Part of their first execution was due to a leader trying to kill their father due to his rank in the government. Another part was due to it being the time and place.

Once this leader was killed, they had to leave Scandinavia (in this point in time, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark had formed one complete nation) due to them being wanted and the price for their heads was steep. They killed the rest of their family as a way of revenge for the death of the leader. Knowing this, the people took the boys to Spain and had them placed on a boat straight to America.

When they had arrived, they spent a good majority of their time on the streets, finding whatever they can to survive on. Once Gargoyle was eighteen, he and Youngling (their real names they never use and, over time, have forgotten) went to Okinawa to find a sword maker that was said to be the best of the craft. Knowing he was the last one, and telling him the tale of their lives, he agreed to make two swords for the brothers. One with a blade as black as midnight, another being white like snow, they went back to Scandinavia to take out the last few remaining members of the Government.

In America, The Reservoir Crime Family had just got Mansell’s group woven into their empire. Looking through the news, Mansell saw the news of the massacre in Scandinavia and altered Don Coppola of this recent discovery. They wanted these two brothers to work for them, but knew that to just go right on up and ask such young people to join them would be, not only an insult, dangerous. Think about it: you just saw the news and saw that two brothers had just went and killed a legion of people in a government, then you just go walking up to them, asking them to join you. You would have a better chance of getting your head choped off than gaining their trust.

As time went on, Mansell saw the two brothers again when they appeared to him in the form of a rock band. They had a rather detailed knowledge of music that they knew that Mansell’s business was failing. It is not an unknown fact that Mansell has a history with violence, but it is a secret about his new job in the crime families. Living on the streets, you tend to over hear thoughts and ideas from other people and as such, they learned of the Reservoir Crime Family. Desperate for music that would make him the profitable emperor or the music scene that he wanted to be, he agreed with the brothers that he would sign them under the condition that their records are destroyed and they take fighting lessons and anger counseling from a therapist in the group.

Don Coppola liked the idea of the Councilor and had them counseled under him with him being their therapist. After about a few months of work, they gained control of themselves and the other members of the crime families had no knowledge of them. They were aware of the incidents in Scandinavia, but they were unaware of what Don Coppola was planning. That was until Ryan’s relapse.

From the moment he was in the families, he was forced to undergo a state of being sober. After some time with The Reservoir, he learned of some drug rings and took part. Picking up the ideas and the ways of computer hacking, the Andres quickly found Ryan out. He was not in trouble. In fact, Coppola thanked Ryan for he ended up being the introduction to the Andres. When members of the families learned of this, they were scared and terrified, but realized the potential they had.

When picking families, they picked none. Instead, they would work with all the families (Reservoir, Bernamonti, Lexor, Bearer, and Union (Don Coppola)). This way, should a war break out, they would not be aimed and had the option to either fight for themselves or pick the side they agreed with most. Thankfully, such an occurrence has never happened with them around.

Youngling looked up from his game and stared at this older brother’s long blond hair. He was thinking about Gargoyle’s opinion on all that has happened, but knew better than to bug his brother when he was hacking. While Youngling was a pretty good hacker, Gargoyle was the best. Bored of staring at graphics, he got up and looked around the house. They had already been to Soren’s, Ryan’s Victor’s, Casper’s, and Lady Caponae’s. Now they were at Palma’s. On the walls were posts of this pop singer he loved, some albums that did not suit the taste of the Andres, and a few romance novels that looked beyond warn out.

On the wall were some photos that showed him as a rather attractive young man. Then the early photos of him and Kingly. Looking at the history, he could tell that Palma was a young man that was troubled with his past, but had to paint a false smile to hide the sadness. Palma was a kid that was popular when he was in school due to his creativity with art, dance, and music. However, this popularity lead to him being thrown into a paper town of false friends, paper friends if you will. When he met Kingly, he saw someone that was real, could produce true emotions, and someone he bonded with.

Kingly’s past is somewhat similar to Palma’s. the main difference is that, unknown to people except Palma, Kingly has been through a few degrees of hell. More so than most. When he found Palma, he grew instantly attached to him and as such, they became close. Both being actors, they did travel the area performing and struggling to survive. Then Lady Caponae came into their lives and the rest is history.

Looking at the photos, he suddenly needed some water. Grabbing himself a cup, his cell phone ranged. Picking it up and seeing it was from Victor, he placed it against his ear.

“Hello.” He said, his voice a bit playful.

“Young… Where is Gar?” Victor’s voice sounded weak and out of breath.

“Researching the computers. Why?’ When Victor told him, Youngling became confused.

“Impossible. If that house did explode, we would of heard it.”

“Check just to make sure. It is all over the news.” Looking out of the window, he did see smoke rise from a house that looked like it is in the same spot as Lady Caponae.

“JESUS CHRIST ALMIGHTY!!!!!!!!” Youngling screamed. He ran over to where Gargoyle was at and tapped his shoulder. Looking up, Gargoyle saw the smoke.

“GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY!!!!!!!!” They both looked at the destruction that was happening, shocked that they did not hear it over their music (long story short: their music is usually played beyond loud for their own enjoyment). Youngling put his phone back to his ear.

“Believe me now?” Victor asked.

“Yeah.”

“Listen, you two: get out of the area now. We are calling the heads of all the families and meeting up at Coppola’s. We are bringing as many people as we can. Just, get the fuck over to his office. NOW!” With that, the phone went dead. Packing up their equipment, they started to get ready until there was a knocking on the front door.

The Reservoir. Part Seven.

 The diner had a certain feel that gave Palma a soothing relaxation. He had something of an interest in the fifties subcultures, the way their entertainment was in terms of music and fashion. He look over at Kingly who seemed a bit hesitant. Kingly was known to have something of a dislike for Casper that ran deep within their history. Originally, Palma and Kingly were the bodyguards of Soren. But when Casper and Victor came along, they had to back down and continue their work for Lady Caponae.

They have, over time, understood that this choice was business and nothing personal. Being in a family like The Reservoir, you tend to learn that you must know the difference. With Victor, he extended his hand of friendship to both Palma and Kingly on the idea that, should they ever want extra help, to just ask. Casper was something of a complete jerk towards Palma and Kingly. Casper was a man who was, in simple terms, a Neo Nazi. Growing up, he learned about Adolf Hitler’s ideas of the perfect race and had the idea of wanting to continue on those theories and motivations. To the other members of The Reservoir, they could not understand how anyone could even see any logic in such ideas.

One thing people tend to overlook about The Holocaust was that not only the Jewish faith was bashed. Anyone who was not heterosexual, German, or Aryn was a possible target. Due to Palma and Kingly being a couple, that automatically put them on Casper’s bad side. There was once an incident that involved Casper and Kingly to break out into a complete fight that resulted in a broken nose and a nasty cute on Kingly’s face.

Soren talked to Casper and explained to him that he needs to keep this business and not personal. Mixing the two elements, as shown time and time again, only lead to people’s downfalls and the end of any and all arrangements of any hope for a wonderful future in an industry. Understanding this and taking some time off to sort out his own personal demons, there was a truce that was made: all members are to be treated with pure equality. Kingly agreed with Casper almost agreeing. With Soren’s history of disciplining his friends, he kept his mouth shut.

As you can imagine, the tension, even though years have passed, was thicker than frozen ice cream. But, wanting to cut the silence, Victor cleared his throat.

“From the time you left Lady Caponae’s office till now, you have had about two hours to get whatever it is that will be needed for this job put underway. Same goes with trying to hack into people’s computers to see if there is any way, shape, or form of anyone going behind our backs. What have you gotten so far?” Palma cleared his throat and leaned towards the two men that sat opposite him. With his long, anorexic formed body (he just has a high metabolism and can’t put on weight) a few people wandered why he has not yet snapped into two.

“Everyone, from two brief hours of research, seems to be clean. We can’t find anything that alerted us of foul play. We saw that nobody was off of their computer last night, except for us four. We know that that is not really creditable due to someone just leaving their computer on, but we searched that. As we are talking, the Andres are keeping watch over the monitors and checking to see if anything comes up.” Palma leaned back and took a sip of his drink: a vanilla milkshake.

“Hmm. The next thing we are wondering is, due to you mentioning them, the power of the Andres. We understand that they are new here, but you have worked with them before hand on some other jobs, and we want to know how good they are.” Laughing a bit, Kingly looked up at Victor when he was done speaking.

“If there are any other hackers that are better then those two brothers, we want to know.” Taking Palma’s beverage, he gulped down a bit of it. “To put it mildly, if it was not for those two, then three years ago we would have lost a rather large some of money when Ryan tried to go back into his drug rings.” Casper shot him a very dark glance.

“I thought we agreed to never talk about that, at all?” Casper said, his voice dark and gravel. “Or did you, not having a dick in your mouth, seemed to forget that?”

“Bitch, at least I get some action.” Kingly responded. Victor just shook his head no while Palma started fidgeting in his pocket.

“And what is action? Getting shot up with this other faggot’s jizz while getting fucked up the ass?” With that, a noise filled the air.

“You hear that.” Palma said, his voice stern.

“Yeah.” Casper said, his voice aggravated as hell.

“That is the sound of my hand cannon being pointed directly at your stomach. If you don’t stop insulting Kingly here, I will unload all the bullets this little puppy has into your gut. After that, what you have as balls will be gone. You understand?” Casper said nothing. Then, another gun clicked. This one was from Kingly.

“YOU UNDERSTAND.” Kingly said, his voice cutting the air. Casper nodded. Putting their guns away, everyone breathed.

“As I was saying,” Kingly said. “The Andres are the best there is. They can find anything and if they do find something - anything - on what is going on, we will know. As for fighters, well, you all know of their history.”

“Yeah: the day of blood rain.” Victor said, they all remembering the massacre that happened that involved the two brothers. As it was agreed upon, they are skilled hackers, but until Mansell and Caponae took them under their wings, they were not disciplined.

“So,” Palma said. “We will wait until they say something. Once we know, Coppola will automatically be contacted. After words, it is our belief that the Juggalos, Bearer, and the rest of the Bernamonti families will go after them. Our guess is that, within a few days, this will be cleared up.”

They were all silent as they started thinking about the case at hand. They all agreed that something was off about all of this, but they were excited. It has been a while from the last time they were in a battle like this, and they loved the feeling, the raw emotion one gets from such a fight. Like with war, these battles were a drug and this was one drug none of them wanted to go to rehab for.

A television was on above them. While they were ordering their food, they heard something interesting being said. Due to the volume being off, they read the subtitles.

“… like with last night, another explosion has happened. Over at the residence of 38 Lawrence Road, a house was attacked and destroyed. Once the fire was cleared, the bodies were taken out and brought to a morgue for better examination. The house belonged to a Eliza Caponae. It is unknown at this time if she was one of the people that were in the explosion. Authorities are beginning to question surrounding neighbors to see if anyone can give us an idea of Ms. Caponae or anything that could have lead to this.”

The reporter kept on talking as the four men just starred, mouths open wide. Turning to each other, they threw down enough money to pay their bill and they all ran outside, each of them calling members of The Reservoir to see what was happening. Reaching Coppola, he only gave one order: get down to the main house. Now.

While this was going on, another figure in black far off was watching the four men through a pair of binoculars.

The Reservoir. Part Six.

 The sound of heavy, loud and obnoxious hip-hop music was blaring from the building that was directly ahead of him as Ryan’s 1970 Doge Challenger drove towards the sound of the bass. He did not like rap, hip-hop, or any type of music associated. In fact he despised it. But, he developed a tolerance for the music due to all the times he has had to see Mansell Lexor of The Juggalos.

To put it mildly, The Juggalos were an army formed by Mansell when he needed a group of tough, powerful men that were not afraid to fight dirty and use any means needed. Originally a fight club, they came to the attention of Ryan Reservoir when he saw their power and wanted their assistance on a job that involved getting revenge against a man that hated women. Needless to say, they did the job better than expected. Introducing them to Don J. Coppola, he agreed to allow them a branch on the Reservoir Crime Family as their main hit men.

In all honesty, Ryan despised using them due to how annoying and, at times, idiotic they can be. But when you have a job to do, you have to do it well. On the way, Soren called to inform him on all that has happened with Lady Caponae. Ryan told him about Caponae and her girls busting into his house unexpected and seeing him nude. Soren just laughed like a maniac at the thought and when he heard the insult, he knew that this was some of the funniest shit to happen in years and wrote down the insult to use in a story about crime he had been writing in his spare time. Telling him to fuck off, he ended the call. Thinking back on it, he did allow himself to grin at the idea of what had happened.

Once he reached the base, he called Mansell on his cell phone to let him in.

“Who the fuck is this?” A deep, gravel voice asked.

“The leader of a mafia, you son of a bitch. Open up.” The gate opened and Ryan drove right on in.

Mansell’s office was filled with numerous albums on the walls and newspaper clippings from the times his rap groups performed. Mansell was a man that enjoyed, lived, breathed, found peace in rap. While most of the mafia leaders despised the genre, Mansell was respected for his power and attempt to focus on something when he was not beating the shit out of a rat.

Mansell had his back turned to Ryan as he was listening to a new song by one of his groups. Ryan could faintly hear the bass in the background and he took a swig of water. Then, once the bass stopped, Mansell wrote down some words on a legal pad and turned to Ryan.

“I have been in this godforsaken business for about twenty years.” He said, looking at the notes. “I use to rap and perform like the people I pay to do so. But, no passion. No idea. This is the foundation of art: music about fucking people. I am thinking of quitting this business. This artless art is going to be the death of me.”

“I have been telling you that from the time we first met till now.” Ryan said, smelling the smoke of freshly burnt weed in the air. Before Mansell was to do anything, regardless if it was business or music, he would inhale a joint of weed to help open his mind and make him ready for what may come.

“You have been saying I should get out of this business of rapping. What the fuck am I doing? You are not my fucking therapist. What the hell do you want?” Mansell took a swig of some dark colored liquid that resided on his desk.

“First off, have you received any phone calls from Coppola, Caponae, Kane, or any of the other heads?” Ryan looked him straight in the eyes.

“I got a call from Sykes. He told me what happened. Then I saw the news. What about it?”

“On orders of the heads, they are asking a favor out of you: send Coppola some of your best men and have them be ready to have a lecture about what is going to happen.” Mansell looked at him strangely.

“What do you mean?”

“Coppola is getting together some people to help take down the person that killed Twix and Tyler last night. As far as we know, there might be more deaths and attacks as the days grow old. We need to get some people together so, should this happen, we will be ready. We don’t want another war to start.”

“Maybe a war won’t be such a bad thing.” Mansell said, leaning back. “Having one ends up getting rid of the dirty blood.”

“Then you lick up the blood and shit it out. Yeah, we know. We remember from the last war and the chaos you and The Juggalos caused. While it was impressive in terms of visual destruction, it was unneeded in terms of how much damage was caused. We understand your love for violence. Don’t get me wrong. But, right now, we don’t need that. What we need is mature, thoughtful people that can obey orders when given.” Hearing that, Mansell unleashed a loud, disturbing laugh.

“My entire army is filled with immature brats. These people will cause as much blood shed as needed for whatever cause. So, if it is tamed fighters you need, I can’t give them to you.” Ryan looked up, about to protest. Then, Mansell extended his hand.

“However, I will be able to help you out in one way. You see, while I am growing tired of rap, I have decided to take under my wing heavy metal music. There are these two Scandinavian brothers that are part of this new act I am signing up. While their music is decent, they make up for their flaws with the brutal power and force of their fighting. They have been in and out of prisons for a good chunk of their lives and to this day, they have grown so use to the system that they can break out of any prison in just a matter of days. Actually, you should know all about them due to them also working with Caponae and her film, performance industry.” Ryan released a deep, low whistle.

“And what will be the name of these two men?” It was obvious that no one told him about The Andres.

“The Scandinavians are known as The Andres. These two brothers, they go by the code names Gargoyle and Youngling, are masters of traditional Viking ways and motives. You get them into a fight with anyone and the result will be tamed, yet completely chaotic. They are brutal, but know how to control themselves.” Mansell to a swig of his drink, which at close inspection was Scotch.

“You know it is a tad bit early in the day to be drinking Scotch, right?”

“You know that I don’t have any more fucks to give out, right?” Mansell took his joint and stumped it into his desk next to a massive collection of burnt holes that have been formed their from countless other cigarettes, cigars, joints, etc.

“Look, Ryan. This is what I can offer you. You need trained guys that can do a job good, right? Well, this is the best I got. Tell Coppola that you will be meeting them for coffee soon. I will contact you with the details. We will try and help you in any way that we can. But for us to help you, you must accept what we have to offer. I am sorry, but this is the best that we can do.” With that, Mansell sat back and looked at Ryan.

“Don Lextor,” Ryan said, “Due to the extreme situation we find ourselves in, we will take the help that is offered. Thank you for your time.” With that, Ryan stood up and walked out of the office. But before he did so, Mansell called to him.

“Hey Ryan, don’t be afraid to stop by for a smoke sometime!” Ryan laughed a bit.

“I stopped that shit a while back.” Mansell said something in response, something like: Don’t say that shit! What ever it was, Ryan did not care.

Once back in his car, he called Soren and explained everything. Catching him up to date, he went and started driving home to get ready to meet the Andres.

The entire time this was going on, a figure clad in black, similar to the one that killed Twix and Tyler, was watching Ryan with the eyes of a hawk.

The Reservoir. Part Five.

Back up in her office, Lady Caponae made a quick phone call to an associate as Victor and Soren talked in one of the corners.

“As of now, what do you think will happen?” Victor has only been involved in this for about a year, working at this high level. As such, he does get curious when the only woman to frighten his boss plus close friend gives them a job.

“My guess would be to talk to Ryan, get him to know what is going on, and probably get together a meeting with the other heads.” After speaking, Soren looked at some of the photos that was in the room. As he was, he was thinking of each of the people and their place in Lady Caponae’s life. Some of them, being her family, caused her to constantly try harder than she needed to be great.

The phone being slammed down, Victor and Soren looked at her.

“That fucker can’t do shit!” She exclaimed, sitting back down. “I gave him a simple order: Get me any and all documents on the financial prospects of the next production we are putting on, but no! He has to be too damn hard-headed. What happened to the days of people that would just shut the fucking hell up and take orders?” She looked around and saw Soren and Victor standing their.

“Oh, I completely forgot about you two. Sit down.” They did as they were told. Turning towards her girls and giving them a slight nod, they both turned and walked out of the office. “Now, what I have planned for you two is simple: contact the other hackers and allow them to know about what is going on. By the time I am done talking, Mansell should have informed them just in case. However, if by the time we don‘t hear back from Palma and Kingly, tell Mansell and he will get the Andres involved.”

“You know Eliza, I can do that; the hacking part.” Victor said. In all honesty, he did not really care for the hackers. Mainly due to them being pompous and over exaggerated noobs who thought they were the best. But, the best hacker (and one that Victor agreed with) resided in Sweden.

“I am aware Mister Von Schinder.” She said, making sure he heard the ‘Mister ’ part as a reminder that in her presence you refer to her as Lady Caponae. “But for this job, I am going to need two full time hackers and those two, while they exaggerate a lot, I am going to need.”

“What about Palma and Kingly?” Kane asked. Caponae sighed.

“I know they are good. Hell, they are some of my best.” She said, leaning back. “But the main problem is due to this assignment being one of great difficulty. I already hired two other hackers to do a simple check. Nothing. I am not buying that. So, I am sending Palma and Kingly to try. More than likely, as my gut is telling me, they are not going to be able to find anything. So, just in case, I want the Andres ready.”

“Okay, but that does not answer why you got them.” Victor said.

“Just on the off chance that they do find something.” Caponae responded. “Besides, gives them something to do today besides being in bed doing absolutely nothing.” By the way she ended that phrase, it was known that it was a complete end of discussion.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Said Kane. “But who is the girl that was killed?” Lady Caponae sat back and sighed. Going into her desk, she pulled out a pack of cigarettes, a cigarette holder, and lighted up.

“Like you Kane, at times I wish I never quit smoking. The nicotine can do wonders on this body right about now. But, while not officially quit, I do need the occasional smoke.” Sitting up straight, she looked them both dead in the eyes. “What I am about to tell you stays in here and does not leave. Understand?” They both nodded yes.

“How much do you two know of Don Coppola’s plan to form a new branch in this mafia?”

“All I know is that he needs a new branch in order to start training people to take over our roles should anything happen to us. Personally, -”   Kane said.

“I am not interested in your personal opinions.” Lady Caponae responded. “Well, one of the girls was one of my bodyguards, Raniqua Tyler. She had potential and great power as a leader. As a burlesque actress, she made money. Fast. Last night while I was at home, flipping through a text of literature, I got a disturbing package that was delivered to me. When I opened it, I found this.” Lady Caponae took out a glass case that housed a human hand. On the hand was the tattoo of a butterfly’s skeleton (if butterflies had skeletons). That was Tyler’s sign.

“When I was told about what happened to Twix and the explosion, it all became clear due to her room being next to his. I doubt they knew each other, but that does not matter. To me, Tyler was like a sister. I was not expecting this at all and the very fact that this has happened has released a complete pool of darkness and a hunger for revenge. A hunger I have not felt sense Iris Island.” They were all silent for a few moments as Victor and Soren contemplated over the events.

“Lady Caponae, my condolences -” Victor began to say.

“Save it.” Lady Caponae shot back. “I have had enough of that all day from everyone. After doing my job, I want you both to issue a complete investigation of finding out who could have caused this.”

“Actually, Lady Caponae,”   Kane said. “That last part we are having you do. As I was speaking to Don J. Coppola, the Bernamonti family runs the investigation in terms of finding out what could have happened. The Reservoir is to get together the Bearer and the Juggalos and form the final attacks. You only find the sad son of a bitch that done this. Besides, when we last check, the Andres were not an official part of any group besides Bernamonti. So, in that way, you are still being in charge of this operation.”

Lady Caponae leaned forward in her seat.

“Are you questioning my judgment?”

“It is America: I am allowed to question anything I want.

“My choice stands.”

“Coppola has the final say and if you don’t agree with this at all, call him up and ask him.”

“I don’t need to. You know what I am capable of doing. You will obey my orders.”

“If you do anything like take the hammer, katana, or gun you have and try to attack me, Victor here will show you why his unofficial title is ‘assassin’ and the only person really qualified to have that name.” Lady Caponae looked at Victor and saw the butt of the infamous weapon he had in his possession. The power of his gun is legendary. The effects have been historic. Him being Kane’s personal bodyguard, such a weapon is needed. Lady Caponae, not wanting to test anything, sat back in her chair and unleashed a vicious, cruel laugh.

“That is the reason why I love you,  Kane: you are the only person that knows how to dance an argument with me and make it fun. Due to your creditability, I am going to take your word on this. But, I want results by tomorrow. The faster we get this done with, the better for everyone. Now, you two: get the fuck out of my office.” With that,  Kane and   Von Shinder stood up, bowed, and walked away.

The Reservoir. Part Four.

“Don Coppola contacted us.” Kingly said, pouring a cup of coffee from the pitcher that was on Caponae’s desk. “He woke us up, telling us that you had a job for us. So, what is it that is wrong?”

“Has the good Don explained to you what this is, at all?” Lady Caponae gulped down her glass of coffee.

“He has not.” Palma said, looking up at the people in the room. “What he did do was -”

“I don’t give a damn about what he did.” Lady Caponae said, her voice a bit aggravated. “Right now, we are in need of you two to scout the area in hopes of finding out who this assassin is, what family he is apart of.” Over the course of the next few minutes or so,  Kane explained everything that you, the reader, already knew. Palma and Kingly listened in complete attention to every detail, trying to figure this out. Once  he was finished with his monologue, Palma looked up.

“What if it was the Pendragon family?” Everyone looked at him.

“The Pendragons?” Kane asked.

“Yeah,” Palma responded. “I mean, think about it. Like, they have not done anything sense the last war when we defeated them. Granted we played a little dirty and we forced them to cough over a rather large sum of money for repair charges due to the damage they caused, but what if they are the ones that caused all of this? To get revenge against us?” Everyone thought for a moment, but it was Victor who spoke.

“The only other thing that supports your theory is Tolvesky’s relationship to Fulaytarious Czar, but that is pushing it. It does not add up due to him sending the rat to us originally, but why would he go and attack the Bernamonti family when they have not done anything to them?”

“Related to your family?” Kingly suggested.

“The only relation we have is business. It is not in our ways of characteristics to mix business and personal lives together.”

“Yet somebody has, Victor. This has personal written all over it. I mean, if this was business, a simple shot to the head would have been all that was asked. But no. This took time and passion to do. This was personal and while none of the families on our side likes to get involved in personal business, this is a time we must. Someone is trying to contact us, and they did and done it. Wonderfully.”

Lady Caponae sighed as she looked at the photos of Twix that was all over her desk. She knew that Palma had a point and a wonderful one at that. But what is making it hard for her to believe is that someone will go this far as to torture someone who was part of that family when they could have just went and took one of theirs. She knew why one would never do such a thing (it would lead to that family being an outcaste), but with the right ways and motives, it would have worked. But they took a safer way. Everyone knew that this was an age old tactic used by countless governments as a way of proving that they are not to be fucked with, but to go this far is unheard of.

“I like the proposition you have given me, Palma.” She said, standing up. “What I am going to have you and Kingly do is: start a test to go into every computer owned by everyone in all of the families associated with us. See if anything comes up. You have about three hours to find something. Once your time is up, meet up with Casper and Victor at Malcolm’s and report what you have uncovered. Us any means needed. If you can’t get anything by that time, contact Mansell. He will know what to do. You are both excused.”

Grabbing their coffee and a copy of the photos, Palma and Kingly left the room. Once in the hallway, they breathed a sigh of relief. It is legend how deadly and disastrous Lady Eliza Caponae can be when put under pressure. The best example would be when she first got into power. Originally, she was suppose to be the under boss to Iris Island. If you were to go into the family tree of the Caponae, you can see that she was meant to be the leader. As to why she could not originally get the position is unknown, but it did not matter. All that mattered was that she was robbed of what some call her birth right. Iris stole that right and Eliza swore revenge.

Wanting her position, she went to Iris’s office one night and made damn sure no one saw her walk in. The next day, Iris’s assistant walked in to find her boss, a man of great power, having his head smashed in as if someone took a great hammer and bashed his skull quite a few times.

No one has seen the hammer used, but how people knew it was her was due to her going to the morgue where the body was at and decapitated the body, grabbing what parts of the head she was able to still get. At a meeting with the families, everyone was talking about the tragic death of Iris. Getting aggravated that such a person was getting such recognition, she stood on the table and walked over to Don J. Coppola. Knocking over all the paper, books, and dishes that were on the table, she acted like a banshee as she opened her full body jacket, reached into one of the pockets, and revealed the destroyed head of Iris Island.

Dropping the remains in front of Coppola, he just looked in shocked as all the other heads screamed in terror. Not wanting to hear a choir, she pulled out a gun from another and shot straight into the ceiling. Everyone, including Soren, Ryan, Palma, and all the rest silenced at once.

“All of you sons of bitches sit the fuck down!” She screamed, her voice turning dark and the sound of thunder roaming the room. “Yes, I killed this fucker for him taking my place in the Caponae crime family. His very presence mocked the work that my family has done and he overtaking the thrown on his own sexist ideas is a disgrace to this very counsel.” At this point in time, she lowered her voice to a regular pitch. “Taking the hammer I have in my room, I went into his office and bashed his head in. With his death, I officially regain the position as the head. The price you pay for questioning what was my birth right in saying that I don’t deserve it, I collect your fucking head. Just like this fucked here. So, if any of you mother fuckers got a single fucking problem with me, now is the fucking time to say it!” Silence just filled the room. “I didn’t think so.”

Putting away her gun, she walked back over to her seat and sat down. She took out of her purse a soft drink and took something of a gulp out of it. She turned her head up and looked at Don Coppola. “As we were saying?”

After that day, no one questioned her position as she made her family the second most powerful group next to The Reservoir.

Turning to their car, Palma and Kingly got in and started breathing.

“Okay, she officially freaks the fuck out of me.”

“You think?” Kingly said, incredulously.

“I mean, to be honest, I was starting to believe that she was going to give us the names of some people and…” Palma began to say as Kingly shot him a dark look.

“You know too damn well that she will never have us do that again. Hell, the very idea that she knows of that attack is enough to get me beyond pissed off. It does not bloody help that she is aware and could ask us to go and recreate that attack.”

“Then what’s stopping her?” Palma asked, noticing that his voice raised a little.

“Coppola told her that she is never to ask us to do that attack again. Not after the last time.” Once that was said, Palma had images of the corpse, the remains of the insides everywhere; the floor a dark red, the decapitated heads. When it is known that these two were furious killers, make no mistake.

Understanding, Palma took his hand and placed it on top of Kingly’s, gently squeezing it. “Are you calm or do you want a few moments?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Kingly responded. “Just, let’s get this job done and over with.” Looking at him and understand that he did upset him, Palma leaned over and kissed Kingly on the cheek. After giving a brief smirk, the car was awoken and they were on their way.

The Reservoir. Part Three.

The phone was ringing next to Kingsly’s, aggravating him as he rolled over to pick it up. He tried to not wake up Palma due to his annoyance of waking up early. Plus, they were unable to get to bed until rather late last night, and after taking care of some jobs, wanting to spend some time together, and in the end: they were still exhausted. Checking who the call was from, he groaned in pain. He was not in the mood to deal with this crap.

“Yeah?” He asked, his voice groggy yet a bit high.

“Kingly. I know this time is inconvenient, but I have a job for you.” Replied Don Coppola.

“What is it?”

“We need you and Palma to track down someone. Both of you get your skinny asses out of bed and meet up with Lady Caponae. She will explain everything. This is your wake up call and you should know never to keep a Lady that is more terrifying than Lady MacBeth waiting.” Coppola hung up.

Laying on his back, Palma put his arm around Kingly’s chest. Looking at Kingly, Palma nodded and knew he had to get ready.


In terms of assassins, Palma and Kingly are the most extreme in terms of their work and the way they are. One of the most talked about couples in all the families, they are known to never do anything without the approval of Lady Caponae and when they work together on an assassination, the results are enough to drive most grown men insane. But, they try to never reveal that side unless it is needed. They are unaware of what happened the previous night.

The car they were driving in was rather small and red. The sound system was blaring some new dance song that just hit the charts around the world, and normally they would be dancing in their seats to the beats, but they were just sipping coffee silently, trying to wake up. The job they had the previous night was something small, normal: getting a rather tasty paycheck from a producer that was in debt to Caponae. The end result was a few smashed fingers, but clean and orderly to say the least. Once that was done, they both went home and passed out. They were going to call in sick that day, but once Lady Caponae was mentioned, they knew they had no choice in the matter.

The Bernamonti Studios was in the back of their town and was busy as usually. Armies of people were rushing back and forth, carrying sets, makeup crates, clothing, scripts, and coffee to and from different sides. They recognized some of the directors that worked their and started having fond memories of when they, back when they were friends, acted on stage and just happen to run into Lady Caponae. She saw them and saw the potential they had of being actors in her troupe. But unknown to them, due to their talent of stage combat, Caponae decides to have them trained as fighters for her group. After seeing the massive amount of damage they did to a petty street gang, they were dubbed as the male bodyguards for Lady Caponae.

Only during times of great turmoil would Caponae summon them to help her. This was one such instance. The office Lady Caponae resided in was in the back of the studio. The tallest building in the area and the one that constantly gave her a complete view of all production buildings. Lady Caponae loved films and acting, so for her and her crime family, being disguised as an acting corporation is the perfect cover up.

Riding the elevator up to her office, they were a little bit surprised to see Soren Kane and Victor von Schinder present with Lady Caponae. Sitting next to the desk was Tonks and Claudia. Going up to the woman and kissing their hands, Palma showed the gentleman side to himself. Kingly walked up, kissed the hand of Lady Caponae, then showed his respect by bowing down to her. Nodding to Kane and Victor, he grabbed Palma and they both sat down in the seats opposite of Lady Caponae.

The Reservoir. Part Two.

The sun, a blinding yellow, with the air cold enough to chill a skeleton to the marrow, was what Kane had as he walked down one of the many streets in his town. It was small enough town where you could know everybody if you tried, but not big enough that no one knows who you are. While the other members of The Reservoir were busy with their day jobs, he was on a track to find out the truth behind the death of Twix. But to do so, a favor must be called in.

The house that he, being Coppola, lived in was rather pleasant on the eyes. It was about two stories, lovely trimmed glass with some roses here and there. The front door, made out of gorgeous mahogany wood,  had a nice, smooth texture that Kane loved when he took his knuckles and knocked on the door. Once opened, a middle aged appeared in the doorway. She looked at Kane, nodded, and then allowed him in.

The inside of the house had a rather delightful fragrance of coffee and apples. Looking at the art on the walls, he stared at them each with great attention to the detail. It was not until the old woman called him in that he saw, with a feeling of hope for answers, Don J. Coppola. The ‘J’ no one knows what it stood for, nor did it not matter.

Grabbing each other in an embrace, they both sat down at opposite sides of a desk that already had coffee with a hint of hazelnut laid out in front of them. Sipping their coffee, they were speaking of older times and catching up with each other. While the talking was pleasant, Kane wanted to get down to business.

“Soren,” said Coppola. “We have known each other longer then I would care to remember. Me remembering my age shows how long I have had to deal with this bullshit. I know the look on your face and I know something is troubling you. So, what is wrong?” Kane lowered his cup of coffee, looked Coppola dead in the eye, and then breathed.

“That is something that still, to this day, frightens me about you: you know me too damn well.” Kane laughed softly, shaking his head. “But you are right in the sense that there is something troubling me. As you might recall, we had the rat in our group that Reservoir and I ordered a hit out on. Last night we sent in two of our best assassins to take care of him. Well, he was already dead.” With this, he threw down a stack of photos of Twix’s body. Coppola kept on listening as he saw the horror of Twix’s body. “A few hours later, his motel room was completely destroyed. I am sure you have heard of the motel that exploded. Well, we are starting to think that this could, very much, be a warning sign from someone. Someone trying to stop us.

“Coppola, you have told me that if I ever needed something from you to just ask. Well, I need you to send some of your best men to patrol the area and see if we can find something. Anything would be much needed. I am afraid that, should this be the sign of someone, that we will see more and the last thing I need is one of my men being killed.”

“My only question is simple: what have any of you done recently to cause this?” Leaning back, Coppola inhaled a complete cigar in one complete breath. That was one of the few characteristics of Coppola that people remembered: his powerful lungs.

“To the best of my knowledge, nothing. The last meeting we had was in here with Lady Caponae and her mafia and that was over the territory of the northern part of this state. But that was a rather pleasant meeting. Nothing out of the ordinary at all.”

“Did you speak to her, at all, sense then?”

“We did have a lunch together, but it was a personal visit. Not business.” Kane sat back in his seat. “You know, it does get tempting to get one of those cigars of yours and smoke. But then I remember that I have to quit. Quite a bitch.” A soft laugh.

“Then I don’t know who else this could be.” Coppola said, inhaling half of a cigar. “But I will send two of my men, Kingly and Palma, to look around. Those two know how to get into the clubs and get the information we desire. Keep contact with me about this and I will see what I can do.”


Waking up, Ryan’s head was hurting like a complete lunatic. The time said it was around noon and he knew that around this time, Soren would have been at Coppola’s. He left his bedroom, completely naked, and started to walk around his house.

He was completely grateful for Soren getting him the house and the friendship that has lasted for so many years. When they first became friends, Ryan was in a rather terrible state of mind. The point of complete destruction, ending his life, turning towards some rather hardcore drugs, Ryan was given the nickname Dr. Feelgood due to his knowledge and distribution of drugs. Him and Kitty (leader of the Reservoir base in Idaho) ran the town with an iron fist. But when Soren entered his life and took over, everything changed.

When they were originally interested in the selling and distribution of narcotics, Ryan went into a mental destruction phase in which he did not know what to do. Part of him was going to forsake The Reservoir and focus again on the life of crime. But, Soren was able to talk him out of it. It is unknown as to what had happened between the two of them for Ryan to stop this, but what resulted was a rather nasty cut on Ryan’s head and some blood that has stained Soren’s cane.

Grabbing a coke and a cigarette, he opened the door into his office to turn on his computer. What he saw in their was Lady Caponae and her two right hand women: Claudia and Tonks. Lady Caponae was a rather odd character in the way that she was one of only two female bosses in the country. Her army, Bernamonti, was created around the same time The Reservoir was. Eliza Caponae and Soren Kane knew each other through Caponae’s mother and due to that connection, the two of them became friends. But in terms of their groups, they were beyond different. While The Reservoir focused on helping others, gambling, and unions, Caponae focused on acting troupes and the film industry. Her production company, The Bernamonti, focused on getting power and money via actors and gain the upper hand in the media. Only during times of great turmoil would she and her two right hand women appear to Ryan.

Forgetting he was naked, he leaned against the door frame and looked at the rather tall woman clad in black fur with the two girls in the back, wearing black suits.

“Lady Caponae. Well, I should be terrified that such gorgeous woman have decided to sneak into my house to see me.” Ryan said.

“Don’t try to flatter me, Reservoir.” Eliza said. The two right hand woman looked threw him, taking no notice at the improper way he was presenting himself. “On that bed is some clothes my girls have gotten from your cabinets and closets. Put them on like you have some dignity.” Her voice was a tad bit rough with something of an Italian accent.

While Ryan was getting clothed, Tonks walked over and took away Ryan’s drink, handing it to Lady Caponae.

“You‘re welcome.” Ryan said as she started drinking.

“Now,” she leaned back, her legs crossed. “the purpose for my visit here today is quite simple: someone murdered one of my girls. Same style as Twix.” Ryan looked up.

“My fair lady,” he said. “How do you know about such an awful case as what happened last night?” With that, Lady Caponae through down a stack of photos.

“I got these last night at my front door. No finger prints, no nothing. They were images of one of our girls that was bound, raped, and tortured. Then the other photos showed Twix. Poor soul. They happened one after another. I contacted Don Coppola before I came here and he told me a bit of what he and Kane talked of. From us looking into the photos and the times these happened, your men walked onto the body the same time this son of a bitch was killing our girl.”

“What was her name?”

“That is none of your concern.” She crushed the tin can in her hand and dropped it on the ground. “What I am here to say is: we want this fucker found fast. I have already taken the liberty of unleashing Kingly and Palma.”

“Kingly and Palma?!” Ryan said, shocked.

“Yes. Don Coppola asked me what would be the best for all of this and I granted him permission to use those two. He has already sent them out.” Caponae said, something of a smirk. “The Fairies have been sent free and they will find this fucker.”

“Is Coppola sure of what this entitles, sending The Fairies out?”

“He used them before. He knows their ways.”

“This is going to be a fucking blood bath.”

“But they love blood.” Lady Caponae stood up, walked towards Ryan, and laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry so much. Things will work out. All you have to do is look pretty and make sure that nothing happens anymore. Yes, there will be bloodshed, that is inevitable. But, in the end, we will find this horrible killer and he will be brought down. Our girl was not a rat and did, absolutely, nothing wrong. Keep the photos and show Kane. He might be interested in them.”

Before she left, she turned to Ryan. “Oh, and stop sleeping naked. I have access to this house and I don’t need to see proof that you are the definition of false advertisement.” With that, Lady Caponae and her two girls left. Ryan just stood in wonder over what the hell had just happened.

The Reservoir. Part One.

THE RESERVOIR CRIME FAMILY
WRITTEN BY ZACH BREHANY


At night, being in the car with a friend listening to music might seem like a rather enjoyable way to spend the time. This was not so much for Victor, as he looked at the blade in his hand. Like most men, the spirit of the beast that resides in his soul was hungry for blood. But there is always that tension in you right before it is time; usually a globe of ice in your heart as you become heartless for the task at hand. You start to get nervous and your hands shake violently as the demons start to possess you. Victor was a natural born killer, and Ryan Reservoir and Soren Kane had given their orders: revenge must be served.

The time on the car’s clock showed that he still had thirty minutes. He looked over at his partner, Casper Sykes. Before Victor entered The Reservoir, Casper was Soren Kane’s main assassin. Whenever someone betrayed the family, when someone decided to attack either Soren Kane and/or Ryan Reservoir, Casper and the Bearer of Desolation would go out and take care of the job. The Bearer (the much preferred name) was an army made up of about four men lead by Casper Sykes and when you want a job that was done in the most disgusting of ways, you called them. To say they were demons of hell, bastards of eternal damnation, would be an understatement.

Victor came into the picture when he and Soren  first met each other during their freshman year of high school. It took a while, but they soon became thick as thieves. It got to the point that, when someone tried to put a hit out on Kane (and this was before the creation of The Reservoir Crime Family), Victor took control and became something of a personal guardian for Kane. Where one went, the other followed. Simple as that. Now that The Crime Family was created, the fusion of all of Soren’s armies throughout the world, he and everyone else swore loyalty to the man that went and saved their lives.

The silence was growing thicker as the music started to set the tone for what was to come that night. The sky, a cloudless night sky, reminded Victor of the first time he killed someone. It was on a night similar to this, and this was just a test run. There was an organization known as The Czar Crime Family that created a few hits out on Kane. Once this group was disbanded, Soren sent Victor to take care of one of the foot soldiers. When Reservoir went to examine the site of the body, even he was impressed. It was messy, the red blood stained everywhere, the work of a total psychopath. But, to his credit, Victor had a certain charm to his killings.

The car’s cold air was getting to Casper. He looked up with the soulless eyes he had and wanted to inch on out of the car and just take care of this victim. But, he had his strict honor of conduct that resorted him to being patient. Besides, deep down inside his heart, he liked it: This gave him a chance to build up the hype and make the overall execution even more effective in his own mind. He has killed for years, but he always hated the anticipation with love. He hated it because he had to wait if he wanted to see the results. Loved it for the effect it gave on him. To him, it was better than sex (an activity he knew only far too well).

Once it was time, everything was silenced as they left the car. Opening the trunk, they looked at each other as they slipped some items into their boots, coat pockets, and belts as they walked towards the building. While they were walking alone in the street, they were calm on the outside but thinking all the time. This person’s crime was ratting out to the cops about one of the leaders of The Family. This rat, known as Twix, revealed some of the experimental activity that the leaders have engulfed in. They were going to go down the road of narcotics, but after a few gory fights in the streets, a couple of cars being exploded, they decided to put an end to it. But, Twix was paid a hefty sum from the authorities to reveal the information.

The stair cases were deserted as the lights overhead started to flicker as if at any given moment they might just shut off and engulf them in complete darkness. Once they reached their floor level, they saw the door that Twix was caged in. The smell of weed and vodka filled the air. To Victor, it sickened him. To Casper, it delighted him. With the butt of the gun, they bashed on the door a few times, calling him. They waited. Once they had waited long enough, they broke in and started looking for him. What they found was Twix’s body already shot, burnt, and tortured. The end result was a body with no limbs, no eye, and mostly filled bottles of vodka shoved into his eye sockets. His eyes were already taken out.

Along with being beyond disgusted, Victor had to leave the room to vomit into the nearest trash canister. Taking his camera out, Casper took some photos of the body. In his mind, this was a work of art. Not to be able to top The Crucifixion, but still impressive to look at none the less. Casper, he decided, needed to find this other assassin and have an in-depth talk about the creativity in ending one’s life.

Taking out his cell phone, Victor called Kane.

“Yes?” Kane said, his deep, raspy voice cutting through the hearing side. His was a voice that was difficult to understand unless you have had special training or been around him to such an extent that you soon learned to recognize his speech patterns.

“Kane,” Victor said, his British accent shaken. “We just found Twix. Did you or Reservoir send someone here to help him bite the dust?”

“How bad is the body?”

“Casper is in love.”

“That beautiful, eh?”

“Yeah.” There was a silence between the two of them. He could tell by the heavy sigh that Kane was not, at all, expecting this to happen.

“Casper and you need to report back here with the footage he is taking. Get to The Mall and we shall talk about what to do. Vic, are you okay?” Kane was known for having a soft spot for Victor, Casper, and  Reservoir. Being openly bisexual, Kane loved those three men to an enormous amount. They were all aware, but with Victor being bi himself, there was always a kind of tension between the two of them. It was rumored, not all the information present, that there was someone else that Kane had a fixation for. As to who he is, a few guessed, but mostly feared.

“Yeah, I will be fine. I just need a drink once I get there.”

“Coffee good enough?”

“You and coffee: a match made in Hell.” Victor laughed. Hanging up, he turned to Casper. Casper was taking some more photos of the area.

“I got all that I need.” Casper straightened his back and walked on out. Victor followed, closing the door and locking in their the terror.

As they were leaving, a person cloaked from heard to toe in black walked into the locked room quietly.


The Mall was an area of land that was owned by the Kane family. This land housed about ten different families with a rather large house (not quite a mansion) in the dead center. This housed belonged to the leader of The Reservoir, but that man was neither Soren nor Ryan. The real leader was a man that was feared by all who were a part of this crime family.

The Reservoir Crime Family was started when two friends, Soren and Ryan, met up with each other at school and decided to turn their group of friends into something different and unique. What originally started as a group of people that just wanted to be known for being powerful, they built up their great force into a feared gang that dealt with gambling, unions, and politics. But they were young and reckless, copying what they saw in films. That was until the now leader of the family came in and took over.

 Soren Kane was born into a crime family that extended back into both Germany and Africa. Once the British took over South Africa, a crime organization built around slavery was formed. As the years passed, the Kane family started growing out of Slave distribution and turned into a rebel army. In Germany, the McCathy family was built around gambling and doing favors for people. The two families never had anything to do with one another until the new don of the Kane family met the scion of the McCathy family. With both families at each other‘s throats, they went to America as means of creating a new branch. But the marks of both families had marked the new land of freedom and they could not escape their pasts. Once Soren took over, he ended most of the hatred fast: he ordered out the deaths of the people that tried to destroyed his family.

Don’t get him wrong: he is not a cold blooded mass murderer. He met up with each of the heads and had a talk with them. At the time, Maynard was his bodyguard and he accompanied. What was meant to be a pleasant talk resulted in the decapitation of the head of the Czar family. The head was posted in the middle of the town’s main four way as means of warning people to stay clear of The Kane dynasty.

Of course, people wanted to take them down. Then Soren met Ryan Reservoir. His family, also from Germany, was part of a dirty underground mafia that was known for their brutal tactics. Combining the families, they form The Reservoir Crime Family. Equipping their friends to join, they soon took over and started having stations in Japan, the Caribbean, Colorado, Idaho, Connecticut, and in North Carolina with a  minor group in Germany. Once the great war broke out, it was The Reservoir that took over. Their private army, The Juggalos, handled the rest.

Once Ansonia, the town where Bearer came from, came under Reservoir’s radar, Soren met Casper and they hit it off at once. They formed their armies due to the massive amounts of power they held. With enough power to take on a military army, enough contacts to clear their names, The Reservoir Crime Family had everything going for it. With the spreading across America, they were dubbed in the media as the modern day Roman Empire.

However, they were still idiotic and weak. As time wore on, they feel under the radar of another group: The Coppola Family. Being ran by Soren’s Godfather, it was not the most pleasing experience for this Godfather to hear that his godson was continuing the reign of violence that he has. However, it was not easy combining The Coppola Family with The Reservoir Family. That was until a certain trio of friends of Coppola’s went to Soren and was able to convince him. Soren was known for his ‘no’ response to when his family tried to help him. Even more if it was someone that he knew deep down was more powerful than him. But, thinking it over and realizing it was for the best, he decided to go with his Godfather’s family under the condition that The Coppola family be changed to The Reservoir Crime Family. This was due to The Reservoir’s size and that The Coppola Family will be an add on.

For quite a long while, this massive family was in charge. The amount of influence they wielded was envied by most political leaders.

But then, Twix came. A year after the creation of the fusion of both families, Legion was formed out of some former members of The Reservoir. They started to turn their back on the family due to how much things have changed, they did not care for the way things were being ran, and some of which just hated how the main group of the Reservoir was favored out of all the other sub branches. While most of the members have been killed via Bearer or The Juggalos, the head, ran by Fulaytarious Czar (brother of Don Czar who was killed by Maynard) ordered an assassination out on The Reservoir. During this entire fight, Maynard was the only one casualty. Once the Czar empire fell, Fulaytarious sent a spy into The Reservoir to see what one can do to bring them down. Only fault: next to being skilled with a  knife, Victor was one hell of a computer hacker.

Finding Twix guilty, The Reservoir ordered a hit out on him. And then found him dead.

Casper and Victor, once at the main house, went right on in as if they owned the place. Going through the hidden door behind a painting of Soren‘s father, they walked down the stairs until they reached the main office of Kane. The office was a large room filled with nothing but bookshelves, coffee makers, film posters, and something of a beast in terms of computers (a thirty by forty five inch monitor with a hard drive large enough to fit comfortable on a desk when turned on it’s side with no room to spare).

Once Kane saw the two of them arrive, he turned to Reservoir and nudge him in the side.   Reservoir was about six foot one inch in height and weighed around one hundred and thirty pounds. For what he lacked in body ratio, he made up for with his silver tongue and dark form of manipulation.   Reservoir looked at Victor and motioned his hand towards Casper, demanding silently the camera. Once hooked up to the computers, they saw the grotesque images of Twix. At first, Ryan and Soren  jumped, and then Ryan observed the image. Zooming in, he started to take a much more closer look over in great detail all of that which was the result. Some of the blood in face was automatically washed away.

“When I asked you about this,” Soren aimed the statement at Victor. “I was hoping that this would be something along the lines of you over exaggerating the details. But this… is fucking insane.” Reservoir enlarged the image.

“From the way he is set up, you can tell he was alive while this was being done with no pain killers. You can tell via how the muscle around where the arms and legs would have been at are a tad bit tense still. Plus, this was done in a rather short time. Mainly due to how some of the cuts are gagged. Very recent due to how fresh the blood is. The fact that no foot prints from the psychopath that handle this were found by you two and by the photos here proves that this is a man to be both feared and admired.” Reservoir said, his voice had a hint of a German accent, but was coated with a plain flavor. “Casper, you are the one that adores this type of shit. What do you make of this?”

“For the most part,” Casper said, his voice was something of a redneck tone with a dash of Russian mixed in. For some, the voice was unpleasant to listen to. But took some time to get use to it. “I am one horny mother fucker in terms of my love for this. I love how they shoved the bottles in his eyes, the way he was cut up, everything. If anything, I want to meet this bastard, talk to him, and then kill him so I can be the only one with this sort of talent.” Reservoir gave Kane a look of incredulous. From the moment they were first introduced, Reservoir had something of a disdain for Casper. Mainly dealing with his obsession with mass murder and how… inhumane he can get if allowed to be set free.

“Thank you for that lovely image.” Kane said. “What worries me the most about this - Oh, you two have a seat and a cup of coffee - is the idea that someone is sending us a message. Plus, no one outside of the group, being the family heads plus select men, knew about this operation. So we have a rat among us. If we did, and seeing how fast this was handled, the killer was still in the same area while you two were doing your investigation. Why he did not get to you guys yet is a puzzle that I am left wondering.”

“Any idea, at all, who could have sent this person? I mean, none of the other organizations would dare send anyone to get us. Even more due to the little demonstration with Fulaytarious a while back, no one has sent anything or anyone to get us.” Victor said, engulfing in his cup of boiling black coffee.

“Just because none of these organizations have not attacked us does not mean that a new one has not risen. We do have all of those bases around the world, and it is easy to see that they get their orders from here. So, what is to stop them from sending someone to us?” Reservoir said.

“The fact that if anyone tried anything, Bearer and The Juggalos would be here in a heart beat to stop all of this.” Kane responded.

“You are forgetting the fact that they killed Twix.” Casper said. “This is just a warning call. Someone in our group is giving out information to someone and we need to figure out who. If this is just a sample of the hell that one is planning on exploding out onto us, I dread the outcome of all of this.”

There was a silence as the four members started to contemplate over what has happened and what will happen. To the best of their knowledge, nothing like this has happened before. Yes, there have been some attacks, but they were quickly thrown under the rug in a matter of time. But now… no ideas could possibly explain what it was that they really thought. Kane threw back another glass of coffee as he started thinking. As of now, the situation is rotten because they had no idea as to who to trust.

“This is how I see it. Tomorrow I will see Coppola. I will talk to him and see if he can get some of his best men on this. Him knowing the level of this operation, he will want all of this to end as soon as possible. In the mean time, should anyone ask if you did the job, just say yes. If it is the feds, say no. I want this taken care of fast and before we have anything else happen.” Soren said. With a gesture of his hand, he frisked away Casper and Victor.

Looking back at them, Victor could see Kane standing up, walking behind   Reservoir, and draping his arms around  Reservoir.

Ryan Reservoir is as heterosexual as you can get. But, due to his friendship with Kane, he does allow Kane to do things like hug him in this format at times. It is said that Reservoir is something of a closet bisexual, but when you boil it down, who the hell really cares?

Once the door was closed,  Kane released Reservoir and turned back towards the monitors. For the rest of that night, they observed the images and shared their thoughts and ideas. For the most part, they kept coming back to the start: no answers.


Victor and Casper bid each other a pleasant night and went their own ways. Casper’s house, in the inside, was modeled after a recording studio. Before being leader of Bearer, he was trying to make it in entertainment as a musician. Once he was big enough to get away from the record company that had him, they trapped him. He called The Reservoir to help settle everything out. The end result was three dead bodies, ten severed limbs, and a knife pressed against the manager’s throat.

He turned on his laptop and was rewarded with an email from Leah. To put it simply, Leah was everything he wanted in a girl. From her body to her attitude. He skimmed her email with a smile painted on his face as he saw one of the few shines of light in his life.

Victor turned away from Casper and spent the night walking through the dark streets of The Mall. He was thinking about his family. His family history was one of sorrow and abuse. He never really fit in with the way his parents wanted his life to run. If he did, then he would be a totally different person at this point in time. The cold air of the night was a perfect companion to him as he wondered along. He thought of how his family was doing, if they missed him. He wondered if they were still upset that he ran away and forsaken his name. Part of him has been wanting to return to his family, but at the same time, he knew that he never could and he was partly happy with his life.

Once he was in his home, he grabbed a cold soda from the fridge and went into his bedroom. Curled in his bed was his girlfriend Elie. They met before he ran away, and while he wanted her to stay with her family and not get involved in this business, she did so anyway. At times it made him upset because of the potential danger that resided in this. But, what can you say? With some people, the idea of love meant sharing the horror and dangers of being involved in organized crime.

He looked at her, gave her a soft, light kiss on her cheek, and then went into the living room. They were rather old fashion in the way that they had no electric lights, but instead used candles in order to illuminate their home. It gave the home a rather nice, soft, cozy feel. He went onto the reading lamp, flicked a match  and lit the candle, then pulled out a history text on the development of modern guns and how they have changed over time. While being an expert killer, he always had a fascination with guns.

Drink in hand, book in lap, he spent about two hours reading away, learning about the impact certain guns and ammo had when used together.

Back in the room Twix was in, a nitrate bomb was ticking away until it finally exploded. About fifteen people died and fifty were in the hospital.