“I’m sorry, you said what now?”

Jay looked on to Chun-Li with a somewhat shocked look on his face. He obviously wasn’t ready to hear that and you aren’t sure you were either.

“We are going to war Jay. They took my son from me and that just can’t be excused or forgiven. I know he wasn’t the best or the most motivated to do much for the family, but he was my son. And above all else, nobody can get away with hurting my family.”

Chun-Li turns to face him and then looks over at you.

“Should he be here right now? We’re about to discuss strategy and I’m not sure I can trust anyone new right now.”

Jay looks over at you then puts a hand on your shoulder, then looks back over at her.

“First and foremost, I apologize for the lack of introductions. This here is my assistant. If I were the head of a family, he’d be my Right hand man. Whatever you can say to me, you can say to him.”

You have the strong urge to smile. You’ve never heard him say anything like that about you before; however, given the situation you know it would be wrong to do so.

“Second of all, I don’t think war is the right action right now. A declaration of war, especially right after they wrecked your Speakeasy, is going to be expensive. On top of that, the Gordon’s aren’t known to take it to that extreme just to take out a rival. We should look int-“

Before he could finish, the door opens once more and three figures walk in through the door. You turn around and see a woman, followed by two men carrying something in a burlap sack. Chun-Li looks over at her and slightly grins.

“I see you’ve made it back here in one piece, Mousey. I assume everything went well.”

The woman you assume she’s talking to smiles and nods to one of the men who step forward and tosses the burlap sack at Chun-Li’s feet. At first you hadn’t noticed, but then you see the sack moving. Jay walks over to it and opens the bag when it rolls away from him and struggles to get free. After a few moments of this Mousey walks over and kicks it. She grabs the bag and yanks it off of what appears to be a severely beaten man.

"Of course I came back in one piece. It was a bitch tracking this little fucker down, but we finally cornered him in an alley. Feisty little shit, but me and the boys got it done, just for you."

She grabs him by his hair and forces him back towards Chun-Li. Chun-Li looks back over towards Jay.

“My apologies, you haven’t met Mousey before have you? That is probably because she is almost never here. She is the Black Rose Crime Syndicate’s exclusive hitman and/or tracker. When we need someone found, I’m not quite sure how she does it, but she always finds them. Always.”

Jay looks Mousey over for a moment then back down to the man on the floor.

“A pleasure to meet you Mousey, so… who is this guy?”

Mousey looks down at the man in front of her

"Oh him? Well...”

You see a manic looking grin form across her faces as she reaches into her jacket and pulls out a curved hunting knife. She yanks back on his hair putting the knife to his throat, which you notice already has a few small fresh cuts on it.

 "Go on little birdie.... why don't you tell these nice people who you are...Tell them how you’re a member of the Bloodhound gang… How you were the one to kill Boozer. Go one... Spill it like you did you us, in that Alley as you begged and pleaded for your life."

The man coughs trying to speak but she moves the knife and kicks him to the ground. She then turns facing Jay

"As for you, Jay... I've heard quite the talk about you... Nice work that you do. You sure know how to catch people's attentions... I, myself, enjoy being unknown..."

You aren’t sure what it is about here, but she really freaks you out. She’s almost as bloodthirsty as Jay and seems to be just as mysterious, if not more. You doubt Jay will want to spend any more time talking to her but he smiles and nods.

“Being unknown definitely has its advantages. But I guess it’s good that my name has reached the West Coast before I even got here.”

While they talk, Li slides a pistol out of the holster of one of the guys standing near her and puts the gun to the man’s head. He looks up, tears running from his eyes.

“Please miss, don’t kill me! I swear I didn’t want to kill your boy! I was just doing as I was ordered.”

Everyone turns to see what’s going on while Li’s face goes red with rage.

“I don’t care if the Almighty himself told you to. You are responsible for the death of my son, but if it’s any consolation your bosses will be joining you in hell.”

As she pulls the trigger, you jump slightly. Part of you wasn’t expecting her to pull the trigger but now the man lays slumped on the ground.

“Somebody get this body out of here, the rest of you get out! Jay, Mousey, Zwei and I need some time to plan this all out.”

Jay looks over at you and nods.

“After that, I think it's best you Just head home, kid. I’ll come get you later when there is more work to do.”

You let out a sigh and follow the crowd out to the entrance of the warehouse. It wasn’t a far walk back to the edge of the city where you were able to hail a cab. Strangely enough it was the same Cab driver you seem to always get. You smile as you know you’ll probably just get a free ride again because he always just takes off. After a few minutes however, you become slightly concerned. He passed two turns that would easily take you back to your apartment and you are nowhere near the florist shop. You realize you may not be able to trust him and as he makes a turn down a side street, you take advantage of the slower speed to open your door and jump out. You land on your arm which feels like it may have broken on impact and you get up and run. You look back and see the cab driver quickly catching up to you and before you can turn to defend yourself he strikes you with something blunt you couldn’t quite see and lose consciousness. You’re mind starts exploring while you are in darkness. You think about your family back in Chicago. Your mother, father, and sister who you left at home to try and make a better life for yourself. Then, you see bloodhound gang members beating them. They cry out for help but you can’t do anything to stop it. Suddenly you are snapped out of it. You open your eyes to see that you are clearly in some type of basement to a business or apartment complex. You try to move but you are bound up pretty tight against a support beam. Suddenly three men walk through the double steel doors at the end of the room and walk straight over to you. The man in front punches you in the face without saying a word.

“You little shit. You stupid little shit. You think clinging to Jay’s leg would keep you safe from us? Especially after your little stunts and your involvement in killing my brother, Mikey. You really think we were just going to roll over and let you get away with that? You're buddy Jay is on our hit-list too, but we figured we'd start with the lapdog.”

You look him in the eyes and smirk a little bit, even as blood drips from your lips. If Mikey is his brother, that means he’s one of the Gordons, the ones who run the Bloodhound gang. You recall puking on his brothers body and you wonder if they realize that it was you who did that or not. Insult to injury at its finest. Just then a fourth man strolls through the door.

“Danny, relax. We’ll have plenty of time to entertain our guest. But for now, I need a word with him.”

Danny looks back at you, spitting on your face before turning and walking off.

“Whatever David, just make it quick.”

One of the men pulls a chair and places it in front of you before David takes a seat and looks at you.

“You know who I am, don’t ya?”

You slowly nod. It's David Gordon, the oldest brother and the one who is definitely in charge of the whole operation. Danny was lean, but this guy was very built. It would take a an army to knock this guy down.

“Then you know very well that I have been after you and your friend Jay, the Insane for quite some time”

Quite some time? It’s only been a few days to a week. You can tell this guy is trying way too hard to set this image as this pristine leader, but you can understand that. He’s a street gangster from the south trying to fit in with these high class city gangsters.

“So, I’m going to ask you a very simple question on the hour, every hour until you talk. You see, I know now that war is imminent with the Black Rose Crime Syndicate. In fact, they are probably prepping to raid some of our strongholds tonight. I want to know where their HQ is. And you are going to tell me. I’ll give you one chance, every hour. If you fail to tell me. Danny will have another hour to help… motivate you.”

He looks back on the wall and watches at the clock strikes Ten pm.

“Where is their Headquarters?”

You look him in the eyes. You are hoping you appear calm and relaxed as you feel scared knowing it may be awhile before they decide you’re useless and just put a bullet in your head. David shakes his head.

“Could have made it easy on yourself, he’s all yours Danny.”

Before you even know it, Danny comes out of nowhere and strikes you in the face. He repeatedly strikes you in the head and torso. You can feel yourself blacking out and you almost smirk as you pass out. You wake up with David standing before you as workers splash water in your face again. You look over at the clock which reads 10:58. You tilt your head back against the support beam. Your whole body hurts, badly. It feels like someone ran a horse race on your face.

“You could make this a hell of a lot easier on yourself. Just answer the question and I’ll we’ll just put a bullet in you and end it.”

You look up at him through the little slits in your eyes you can actually see from.

“Oh? You thought we were going to let you go? No no no man. They killed another one of our men, so now you can be our message to them that we are, indeed, going to war. But before you die, the least you can do is be of some use so Danny won’t have to ruin his suit torturing you to death.”

The clock strikes 11 and he shoves his hands in his pockets.

“Where is their Headquarters!?”

You tilt your head forward and spit blood onto the floor. Danny doesn’t even wait for David to give the word before continuing his savage beatings. You fade in and out during his assault which seemed to focus more on your body and legs this time. You have lost the energy to scream out anymore and just lie there against the beam as he beats you. After what seems like an eternity. Danny pulls away, wiping your blood on a towel before leaving the room. David returns a few minutes before midnight.

“This will be your last chance, Kid. After this, Danny is going to slowly get his revenge for Mikey’s death until he is satisfied. Then we are going to burn you alive in front of that little florist shop Jay frequents. So now, I ask you one last time. Where the FUCK is their HQ?”

You use the last bit of energy you think you have left and spit blood onto his white suit. David nods for a second then back hands you across the face. You hardly feel anything on your face anymore. Danny returns not too long after David leaves. He is carrying a tool box this time and is smiling sadistically.

“You probably shouldn’t have tried mugging that guy a month ago, or you would probably have lived longer!”

A month? Was he being serious? You think these brothers must have been inbred or something because they can’t seem to get a grasp on time. Still, you know he’s about to kill you and there’s not much you can do about it. You close your eyes and prepare for the worst until you hear gunshots. You open your eyes as Danny looks back. The gunshots become me frequent and rapid as time goes on and Danny then grabs a screw driver and hides behind the door.

“If you say a word, I swear I’ll kill you!”

Wasn’t he just getting ready to do that anyway? You shake your head. You would love to tell whoever that is that he’s hiding there but you don’t even think you can speak. As you fade back out you see several men rush in and turn around, aiming their weapons at the door. When you come to a few minutes later, you see the vent flying open and a woman jumping out tackling Danny to the ground. Just as they notice her and turn to shoot a man you immediately recognize as Jay burst through the door and shoots two of the guards in the head before tackling the third, stabbing him several times. The woman, you now realize is mousey, is stopping Danny from stabbing her with his knife before disarming him and stabbing Danny in the eye with his own knife. Danny collapses down screaming while she takes out her own knife and stabs a man trying to take aim at Jay. Jay turns and disarms a man of his pistol before before stabbing him in the neck and tosses the pistol back to mousey, who takes aim at the door and takes out a few guards who tried to rush in and help. A couple of the guards are still alive but badly injured but none of them are able to stand up and continue to fight, which just leaves Danny who is on his knees holding the remains of his eye. Jay comes over to untie you while Mousey walks over to each of the downed guards and either slits their throat or puts a bullet in their head.

“Everything okay Kid? You look like shit.”

Mousey looks over at you then shakes her head at Jay while cleaning the blood off of her knife using one of the guard's jackets.

"Captain Jay Obvious has landed... of COURSE he looks like shit. He was just about beat to death... the fuck you think he's gonna look like? Prom King?"

Jay chuckles a bit.

“Got a smart mouth on you, don’t you?”

He cuts you loose and you collapse on the ground, feeling super weak from the loss of blood.

“We gotta get him to your doctor. He’s lost a lot of blood.”

Mousey looks down then points her knife at the screaming Gordon brother.

"Gotta keep things entertaining somehow, Love. So... What should I do with Fuckwad here while you take the kid to a doctor. Or I can patch him up... I'm good with a needle and thread."

She kicks him over onto his back and has that sinister smile on her face again.

"Can I experiment on him? Is that allowed? Send out some body parts? I mean shit if we are declaring war... you gotta do it in style... Body parts send a HELL of a message ya know..."

Danny looks up at her.

“Experiments? What kind of sick twisted-“

Jay walks over and kicks him in the face, right where his injured eye is causing him to whimper and curl up, holding his face.

"That’s no way to talk to a lady. Your mother outta be ashamed of you lot."

He turns to Mousey and shrugs.

“Do what you want with him, but not here. We gotta get out of here before the cops show up.”

"How nice... you called me a lady... Now stop moving like an old woman and MOVE. GOD, Jay... Chun sleep walks faster than you."

She picks Danny up by his hair and forces him forward towards the door.

"Come on Fuckboy... and be quiet unless you want me to rip out that voice box of yours right this moment. And trust me... I'll make sure you don't die from it either... Now come on!"

Jay smirks as he carries you out.

“After you”

Before you know it you pass out again, this time your dream of your family is much happier. When you wake up, you are in a hospital bed, but you aren’t in a hospital. You are in a room that seems to have been a storage room at one point or another. Several other beds are there with men sleeping, wrapped in bandages and whatnot. You notice a note on the side of your bed, which you read to yourself.

“Hey kid,

After Mousey and I tracked you down and saved your ass you passed out so we brought you to the infirmary of the Black Rose Crime Syndicate. When you heal up, you are going to have to speak to Chun-Li. I’m sure she’s going to be happy to hear, not only that you are alive, but that you didn’t spill a single word about the family. I’ll be in to check on you tomorrow, but for now its best that you stay at the HQ. 

Best Regards, Jay the Insane.

P.S. You should probably stop taking taxis for awhile.

You chuckle a little bit before you close your eyes and slowly drift back off to sleep.