chapter 31

I woke up feeling a slight headache, But I didn't mind it as I imagined it would be much worse if not for my cyberware enhanced body and all the training I've been doing.

I took a couple of minutes to freshen up and get ready. I then went downstairs and didn't find any one of my crew there like I usually do.

'they must be suffering the consequences of our merrymaking last night,' I thought with a chuckle and made myself comfortable as I took a seat at our usual table to wait for them.

After several minutes of waiting and doing nothing as I relaxed in my seat, Wilson came down the stairs while cradling his head, seemingly going through his first hangover.

"Welcome to the wonderful world of humans, my friend," I said to him with a grin as he took a seat in front of me. "What you're feeling right now is that hangover I've been telling you about,"

Wilson grunted as he started rubbing his head and then said, "ugh, my head. I'm never drinking again." I just laughed at that and answered, "we both know that's not true." Wilson heard what I said and shot me a dirty look, But then he started to laugh too.

"So, what do you think of our crew so far, big guy?" I asked while looking at him as he adjusted himself in his chair.

"honestly, they're great. Laffite is strong, and he's fun to be around," he answered with a smile. "That Elly girl is not bad either. She just needs to toughen up a little. That bob guy seems decent too, but I'll let you be the judge of that," he concluded with a shrug of his shoulders.

It was when he finished his sentence that Laffite, and Elly showed up. Both of them looking much worse than Wilson, who was rapidly recovering from his hangover.

The two of them sat down after a simple greeting and began rubbing their heads. "Since everyone is here, let's hurry up and order some breakfast," I remarked as I gestured for one of the Inn's servers to come and take our orders.

Everyone seemed to be much better after a hearty breakfast. So it was finally time for some serious discussions.

"I put an order on enough wood to build our ship yesterday," I remarked and watched as everyone at the table turned their attention to me.

"it will take a week to be ready, and the merchant who sold it to me said he's going to take care of transporting it for us," I concluded, and everyone nodded in understanding.

"we'll take care of Elly's revenge during this week if possible. If not, then Laffite and Wilson would go with the wood and find a decent shipbuilder to make us a good ship while Elly and I stay to take care of the Nitti family," I said all I wanted to say and waited to see if anyone had any questions or objections.

"Sounds good to me," Wilson said with a shrug. "If that happens, I'll finally get the chance to spar with Laffite once or twice," he concluded while eyeing Laffite like a predator looking at his prey.

"I don't mind either," said Lafitte. "I wanted to supervise the shipbuilding process since I'll be steering it, after all. I've been feeling rusty as of late too, so a good fight is just what I need," he finished his sentence while smiling pleasantly at Wilson, who was beaming at his reasoning by the time he stopped talking.

"No objections from me. But I want to be the one to put down Frank Nitti," she said while gnashing her teeth in a strange mixture of both hate, excitement, and expectations.

"it's settled then. Now we need to find Bob to test him and decide if he's going to join us or not, and then we can start dismantling the Nitti family," I said as I got up, and the rest followed me to the exit.

We then went to the seedy bar that Bob worked at and found him ready to go, but he wasn't wearing his fancy black suit this time. He was wearing black leather boots, blue jeans, a long sleeveless black vest with nothing underneath it showing his muscular frame, metallic gauntlets that covered his hands and forearms, and a small, black boiler hat. (Author's note: www zerochan net / 2486734)

"Alright, old man, let's take this outside of the town," I said while cracking my knuckles.

"Hoho, you don't need to be in such a hurry, young man. You'll get your thrashing eventually," he said while twirling his mustache.

I didn't reply to him and just left the bar, then made my way to the Capital's gates, forcing him to follow me with an amused smile on his face.

We reached an open area with a single hill overlooking it after a half-hour of walking and stood facing each other while the rest of the crew stood at a safe distance to watch us fight.

"I'll give you the first move, old man. I don't want people to think I'm bullying the elderly," I said with a shit-eating grin and deliberate disdain in an attempt to provoke him.

"if that's the case, then it would be very impolite of me to turn down your offer," he said and suddenly vanished and appeared right above me with his fist reared backward, But I didn't even flinch or react because Wilson appeared in front of me at the same time and took his punch with the palm of his hand.

"you know, you can't just go after the captain. If it's just a test, then I'm more than enough to be your sparring partner," Wilson said and I felt myself smile involuntarily.

I had already known that Wilson would do this as he told me about it himself; I didn't stop him because he didn't have a good fight in some time, and I've been hogging all the action lately.

To my surprised, Bob didn't seem to be upset or offended that I won't be fighting him myself, as he smiled and jumped backward.

"a pirate captain's worth is measured by his crew's strength, before his own strength, so this works just as fine," he said as he jumped backward again to dodge Wilson came flying at him, causing Wilson to land on the ground and create a small crater at his landing spot.

"you talk too much. Hurry up and start fighting," Wilson said with a hungry smile as he charged at Bob again, while bob smiled back at him and charged as well.