Heart of steel

The Rodrigez family are running their family owned book store, a lover of book’s Demetri started the store nearly a month after they came from Portugal, now their business was flourishing for the last few years, it would have been nice if they could have gotten an apartment above the store but it was only one story high, however they did live across the street at the other end of the block, his son Selano is putting some books on the shelf while his sister Ellana helps the last two customer’s, one was getting the newest James Patterson while the other was picking up two Batman graphic novels, Demetri was skeptical at first when his son suggested selling graphic novels, saying there not real books, but they did bring in a good amount of business. They closed up at eight and went home, watching the news as Demetri cooked dinner, the set alerts people that there is still a killer on the loose and to watch out and not stay out late if not necessary, the family was glad they lived way up in the north end of Willoway Bay, almost in the next city, Castlebrook, which seemed to be away from the target area. Selano goes to the basement after the meal and turns a light on revealing a workshop, he had many swords and shields, spears, a mace and bits of armor (chest plates mostly) he began work on his latest project, a Claymore, he was quite the mid-evil knights and dragons and swordplay fanatic and this hobby brought in some extra money, half of this stuff would be sold…the Claymore however would stay.

The next day some men came in, Shawn Hallowitz, who nicknamed himself “The Torch”, Justin Time and “Mean” Dean Jacobs, it’s mid-morning so there are a few other people there (most likely night shift workers and house wives) the three start to harass a woman and knock over a display, Demetri demands that they leave and takes out a bat, though they don’t really understand him the message becomes clear when he jabs Shawn (not that hard really) Dean grabs the bat, taking it off the much older man but before he can use it, is slugged by Selano, he follows up with the basic combo on Justin who tries to shove him (though it had been a month since his last go, those boxing lessons really paid off) Demetri takes the bat again, the three run off leaving a few cheering customers behind, Selano asks himself why they would try to extort protection money from a book store or where these just a bunch of punks looking to cause trouble? At their little alleyway hangout Shawn plays with his lighter, extremely angry that the book store people had the nerve to fight back, make him look like a fool, he had been out of the game for far too long, being one of the prisoners released by Kosh Lyson’s ruling, let out of jail after fourteen months for a simple B & E and aggravated assault, the police had no idea what else he had been up too or else he would still be there. This was not a good restart to being the leader of his gang once again and Lazarus, who had been in charge while he was gone was very unimpressed and annoyed, he wanted to break the gang apart, but there wasn’t enough men to do that. They continue to talk, Lazarus wants to keep the gang name they had for over a year, the one he gave them, Raging Zombies while Shawn wanted to use his gang name, Cherrybomb, saying it was something small but could cause quite a bit of damage used properly, Jynx Bardo, another gang member, was all like “Why don’t you split the difference and call us The Raging Bombers.” The suggestion was turned down immediately, Dean saying “Sure where criminals, but we don’t want to be associated with terrorists.” they remain undecided for now. Franchesca DeLane is called out to take descriptions of the book store attack suspects, Selano’s not happy that a rookie was put on that task, but figured the police wouldn’t put too much interest in it, being nearly out of their jurisdiction and all and nothing really happened.

Demetri and Selano talk about the attack, and beefing up security, that Demetri should not be at the store alone, “Don’t be a hero.” his children tells him, he’s fine, he insists, young people today have no respect and all that, Lazarus and Hector (the fifth gang member) are at the gas station making threats and seceding where Shawn failed the day before, Lazarus asks Hector “Wouldn’t you like a man who can get the job done in charge?” Hector remained silent but was obviously thinking about it. They get in the car, Jynx drives them off, and the three of them talk, about the way things are and how they could be, Jynx gets distracted by the conversation and crashes, thankfully for them it’s not that bad, the front right side is smashed up slightly, Lazarus is about to say “way to go” when he notices they have crashed into an armor truck, it was stopped picking up from the liquor store, the door wide open, the driver comes to check on the car that crashed into him and Lazarus puts a shotgun in his face, “May as well take advantage of this wonderful situation boy’s.” Jynx and Hector jump out and aim their guns on the other approaching truck guard, they help themselves to the goods and take off, and at the next corner they head into an underground garage and exchange cars. Later in the ally, Shawn congratulates them on an excellent haul, Lazarus makes a comment about “Maybe now we can afford to put a roof over our heads, preferably with four walls holding it up.” Shawn tells him to watch it, he pulls out a map and takes out his lighter for light, and he shows them all the targets, the liquor store, a bowling alley, two drug stores, a convenience store, a bar and the grocery store, he also wants the book store to be made an example of, Justin asks if he should ruff someone up, Shawn enjoyed his enthusiasm but he had other plans, Lazarus and the others couldn’t understand why the book store mattered so much, they hear a voice from around the corner and are startled, Ty Die rounds the corner, he tells them his name and that he wants to join, explaining details of experience with the Snake gang and his escape for the police.

At the Rodrigez home, Selano and his friend Nelson talk about the resent attack while watching an old episode of Deadliest Warrior, Nelson jokingly suggests going “midevil” on the gang since he had the skill to make the armor and everything. At the alley clubhouse area, Shawn talks to his men, now welcoming their newest member, as long as he passes, about the area of the city they are in, they were already darn near out of jurisdiction for local police, it was a long trip from the station and he wanted to make loads of trouble, make the area look crime ridden, dirty and whatever else to make the police think that it was just not worth the trip to go up there, even Lazarus had to admit this was a pretty good idea, if they could pull it off, Later in the day Selano has the TV on while he is making a chest plate and see’s that Zane Riles was caught in regards to many of the murder’s in the city, at least there was some good news.