Cadhla was tired, but she also felt it was her duty to inform the inhabitants of our world what had happened in the last few days. Some had witnessed it up close, but others do not even know what happened.

She got up and walked out to take the microphone in the large square in front of her headquarters and address the people.

I stand here today to let you know that a few days ago, a street fight took place in various parts of our world. I will not go into the reasons for this, which are internal family matters. Unfortunately, one of our gunmen had put a bullet in his gun that had no powder in it. A manufacturing error was said. This resulted in Ranger surviving the fight and going on the attack. Of course, that is what he had to do to try to survive. He sought help from his friends and went on the attack against us. Although we were in the majority, he kept outmaneuvering us and we started taking down his bodyguards in order to be in a position to take him down.

After a day of fighting, an attempt was made to shoot me. Unfortunately for Antonio-Lanza, a rogue sniper, he had also been delivered a bullet with no gunpowder in it. Fortunately for me, of course, otherwise I would not be standing here telling my story.

Cadhla paused for a moment, thinking that this was already the second time shots had been fired with an empty bullet. That raised questions and she might have to look into it later. She had still kept the bullet that had hit her.

Antonio-Lanza was a very good marksman and had trained his gun well. In the beginning, he kept using brand X bullets and had a lot of bad luck. I think he then switched to another brand and that brought him more success. He also had many friends who helped him find targets and his pro shots. We too had to use pro-shots, and unfortunately some patrons had also got bullets from brand X. Only this one they had again had too much powder in it and with this they shot their bosses instead of protecting them. This gave much grief to all of us and also added to the chaos. Antonio-Lanza managed to shoot some prominent crew leaders before one of his protectors also put the wrong bullet in his gun and he too was killed by his pro-shooter.

What was terrible bad luck for Antonio-Lanza was a relief for a number of shooters on our side. They no longer had to get pro shots and did not have to worry about being able to get hit by those pesky wrong bullets.

Which didn't mean we still had to deal with Danger, who in turn was still busy trying to do as much damage as possible to the various families by shooting their members. It was a long and good fight he showed, but at the end he was still shot down.

This ended the two attackers on our regime. A fair fight was given on both sides, with a lot of respect for the tactics shown as well.

To complete the chaos, LoopCL and his crew had taken his chance to take the district of The Loop in Chicago. Right now, several shooters are working to drive him out of this so that we have The Loop under control again. Of course, everyone is welcome to participate in this.

We understand that the world still looks chaotic at the moment, but we have a meeting later today to see how we can turn this chaos back into an organised world. We understand that the world is still chaotic at the moment, but we have a meeting later today to see how we can turn this chaos back into an organized world.

We are doing our best to fill all the districts and cities again so that everyone can find their place again.

Cadhla took a sip of her coffee and looked at her right hand for a moment to see if there was more to tell. He shook his head no and Cadhla also thought she had told all there was to tell.

I thank you all for taking the time to listen to my explanation. I invite you to come to Chicago and help drive out LoopCL and its members. I will see you all there.

Cadhla stepped down and walked to her right hand. I have a task for you. Find out who is supplier X who is cheating on the bullets.

I think I will wait on Lanza and Ranger to discuss why they did what they did. Seems weird for anyone else to try to read their minds, even for a weak attempt at a speech. I don't credit this source as the most trustworthy or most reliable.

WaffleStompingChamp, eager to get the leadership's take on the events that unfolded the last days (perhaps most important of which was the tragic demise of TheDonBot, a half-journalist and a posthumous member of The Free Press Society for Journalism and Tips) was intently listening scribbling away on his notepad.

He couldn't help but look perplexed wonderong who this enigmatic Danger fellow was. He heard the name not once but twice. Danger? Disorder?

Interesting enough you can come out here with a speech about the fearless heroes that they are because of the damage done around here with your cowardly help but you cannot give a speech when your own are wiped out. And you want people to take you seriously. 

We don't want puppets for a CL. 

Geoff listens intently and gets more confused by the minute...

You said Ranger "went on the attack against us" and "we were in the majority".

Who is "we"? Who is "us"? I witnessed most of what happened and I saw Ranger do most of his damage against other cities, not Philadelphia. So why are you referring to his victims as "we" and "us"?

I know this sounds crazy, but it almost sounds as if Ndrangheta is not your real family, and instead your real family is the clown car of spineless cuckholds who enjoy routinely executing their ACTUAL loyal family members for no reason. It sounds eerily familiar to a mobmail you sent out a couple of weeks ago in response to the hitlisting of two Las Vegas leaders. In that mobmail you referred to "buying our leaders off the hitlist". OUR leaders? Could you explain how two Las Vegas leaders are "our leaders" to a group of Philadelphia mobsters? And how does this affect your handling of "internal" affairs? What is "internal" when your family is not those in the HQ, but those owning other HQs?

Here's my suggestion. Why don't you retire and save yourself further embarrassment? This is not how the mafia works. I don't know what it is, but it's not the mafia. Family leaders across the entire country do not operate as one family, while their actual members are the perceived enemy. That flies right in the face of the four pillars of Cosa Nostra, particularly "Famiglia" and "Onore". Families operate as independent units with their loyalty only to each other and the traditions which have kept this thing alive for so long.

Your legacy is that you have destroyed our traditions. You have destroyed the concept of family. You have made having a lack of ethics and integrity to be normalized and acceptable. You have destroyed the foundation of Cosa Nostra.  The whole framework - what used to be our guiding principles - is destroyed. You and your cronies think it makes you special that you are able to maintain your grip, but there is nothing noble about sacrificing your integrity to do it. You will not be remembered as legendary, but instead as a very sad and pathetic chapter in our collective history.

Well spoken Geoff. I'd shake your hand but I just left another corner and need to wash off the shit.

At the request of Don StripheCorelli, Darwin was sent to a meeting that had been called by Godmother Cadhla. It had been one hell of an eventful week and the leaders of America's underworld wanted to share a few words about what had been going on. A lot of good people were lost, many of which were close friends or family of DarwinRoss. His stomach felt like it was doing back flips every time he thought about it.

"Remind me to send some flowers to the families of the lost when we get back home," he said to the head of his security team, "and make sure to ask if they need any help with anything. A lot of these guys don't tell their wives about the money they have put away."

Cadhla came out of her HQ and walked up to the microphone to speak. DarwinRoss turned over to another of his entourage and whistled to get his attention.

"Get out that pen and notepad I told you to bring and take notes will ya? I'll drop it off to the boss when we get back home."

"I will not go into the reasons for this, which are internal family matters."

You can just say what everyone already knows, Cadhla. It was a purge -- a result of you and your friends' cowardice. Don't mistake us to be as braindead as you and your friends are.

"Although we were in the majority, he kept outmaneuvering us and we started taking down his bodyguards in order to be in a position to take him down."

'Outmaneuvering' is a stretch. He is an extremely talented mafioso, yes, but your group's incompetence was also a sight to behold. Ranger was up for about four days -- if you were actually shooting down his bodyguards in an efficient manner as you'd like us to think based on your speech, he would've died much sooner. You were all sitting around, uncoordinated, letting the people who don't matter to your little regime die while your small circle hid in the shadows.

Perhaps instead of giving long-winded speeches full of lies that the public can see through, you should reflect on this, Cadhla : why did neither of the children of your fallen Godfathers rejoin Philadelphia? SoulHooligan's kin went to New York. JohnnyTheMan's son left to join Spike.

From an outsider's point of view, you are all alone and unloved in your high ivory tower. The once-great city of Philadelphia has 16 members as of writing. SIXTEEN! For a whole city! Pathetic.

When you're done playing lapdog and self-appointed spokesperson for this regime, remember every single person you let down. 

When the time comes, and a bullet comes for you -- as it does for everyone in this world -- your funeral hall will echo in silence. Only shallow condolences from people who don't really care for you will be doled out, and some will secretly celebrate the death of a spineless pseudo leader who thinks of herself as a bad bitch, but the only bad things about her are her choice of friends and her rhetorical ability.

As he finished listening to the Chairman of Philadelphia he looked around the crowd and quickly spotted a few friends and clearly a few enemies. He squinted from the bright sun as he adjusted his hat a bit as he took a drink of the fine liquor in his glass. Walking around he shook the hands of the some of the countries finest mobsters as he found a spot close to the Godfather walking up to shake her hand as she finished her speech 

My friend, I have traveled here for this speech and to spend some time in the great city like old times. I know everyone appreciates being updated on the news of our nation for the good and the bad. I have read stories of the past and how power is sometimes taken and the attempts that always failed until they did not...and no one out there can discount the effort of either side during this and a lot of good mobsters were lost, but we rebuild and have already seen a quick recovery and we remain strong across the nation with both new and old mobsters contributing to the rebuild. 

He learned over and handed a little Ducky plastic toy to his old teammate and friend Cadhla before finishing his drink and jumping into a limo and speeding off 

Ennis takes a drink of lukewarm coffee, and emerges from reading Newspapers for a change. "How I miss newspapers", he thought to himself, "March 24th - March 26th really was the best era of my life". 

"Enough on that.. pull yourself together, you have some news to share."

Ennis straightens up, clears his throat, and begins..

I am here to proudly announce that, despite 'outsider's points of view', and hypothetical silent funerals, several off the offspring of those lost in the recent combat have now returned to Philly. I'm surprised that people are surprised that they don't return immediately.. there is dust to settle, affairs to take care of, plans set in place. And if I'm lucky enough to outlive Cadhla, I'll be there to raise a glass at her funeral. 

 

Soul-Hooligan had listened to Cadhla’s speech and the responses that followed along with the rest of the crowd, whilst sat down at a table with a coffee not too far away from where Ennis sat. He wasn’t sat with his feared crew leader as he had earlier poked fun at his new hat, so opted to sit with his dear friend and fellow hand, Walt, instead. He listened to the retort from the man rambling on about his father and his father’s friend Johnny, whom had both fallen in the recent war. He couldn’t help but look on in amazement as the ranting man slunk away seemingly unnoticed down a side alley off from the main square following his speech, to a waiting FBN agent. He exchanged envelops with the agent and Soul concluded he was disappearing in to the witness protection programme, leaving the life of crime forever. A strange course to take after such a bold speech, he laughed to himself.

He thought more about what the man had said, and took some time to reflect on the past few months. His father was a high-ranking boss in the Philly mob, he knew that much. Crime was never his thing, he was too young, but he knew all about the life, of course. His fathers death coincided with him coming of age. He lived in New York, and once he heard the news his father had been murdered in his sleep, it was the Godfather of New York, Craven who had sent for him and housed him shortly after. He was due to inherit some of his fathers business, that much was inevitable, but he felt it wasn’t safe to return to Philly until after things had quietened down and the Rogue shooter taken care of.

From stories his father told, or rather, he had overheard - Cadhla was always very good to him. He had worked under Furio (GRHS) and joined her when she setup her own crew in the wake of his death. She gave his father a chance to earn, to prove himself, and after time she rewarded him with his own crew. Coming back to Philly to work with Ennis, he had high expectations of her, and after meeting her in person and starting conversations about business across the city, he was not disappointed - his father was absolutely right. His father, like JohnnyTheMan and Ennis, had never had the honour of running their own crew before, contrary to complaints he often heard in the streets about inheritance and rightful claims to leadership following bloodlines. The godmother of Philly was rewarding to those who were loyal and respectful to her, this was pure and simple fact. Soul glanced over the crowd - the Godmother was listening to another speech and not looking his way - he raised his cup to her anyway, and muttered ‘Salut’.