Orso Fiction 004

Orso Fiction 004 First Encounter with the Apostles (Part 1)
“Is this all of you?” the voice boomed.

“Yeah, this is us.” Zach called. “Can we begin now?”

“Took you long enough!” another, much younger, female voice called.

“Hey, how about shut the fuck up?” Trevor growled. “Do you know how many of us there are? Of course it took ages.”

“Alright, let’s get started…” a separate, masculine, voice came from high above them.

“Careful none of you are on the big landing pad”, the first voice called cheerfully, and from the clouds descended a blimp, the words “Bear Hunters” written on the side in big black letters. As it landed, the door on the side opened, and seven figures walked out. The Orso Family stood around them, waiting for their next move.

“So that’s them, huh? The Bear Hunters?” Amy asked Stacie. “They don’t look like much.”

“No one looks like much next to us, remember.” Charlie said with a grin.

“Still, these guys had the guts to challenge Zach to a fair fight. It’s only intelligent that we avoid underestimating them.” Katie said curtly.

“Guys, shut up” Maggie hissed. “We’re supposed to be the model for the others!”

“Zachary Stimely! So glad you came to meet us!” the tall man who led the group out called to Zach. He slowly approached him and stuck his white-gloved hand out. Zach took it and smiled, despite the situation. “I am Ezekiel. Call me Zeke.”

“And as you know, I am Zach, First Boss of the Orso Family. Why did you call us out here?”

“Zach, you aren’t acting much like I heard you do. I heard you were nothing but smiles…”

“You challenged me to a fight, and then forced me to drag all the Family here. It’s past the little ones’ bedtimes.”

“He’s talking about me…” Rachel sighed to Bradley. Bradley smiled and nodded, and looked over his men. Matt had snuck a Nintendo DS into the meeting, and had begun to play some game. Megan was standing up near the Guardians, looking especially bored. Hayley and Adrien were standing beside him, quietly discussing the appearance of the enemies in front of them. Laura was next to them, reading a small paperback.

“Well, I am sorry about that.” Zeke said. “But I had to get all of you out here, because this contest wouldn’t be much fair without it.”

“Just what is this contest?” Zach said, growing less patient.

“How else do we civilized mafia types solve our differences? Choice, naturally.”

“Choice?” Matt asked.

“Were you asleep when Zach told us about it?” Rachel sighed. “Choice is as close to organized warfare as it gets. We’ll agree on a stage, a number of soldiers on each side, and rules of engagement.”

“Oh, right. It’s just Call of Duty in real life. I remember this now.” Matt said with a smile, and returned to his game. Rachel sighed. She had no idea how she kept her squad mates in line in peacetime. Wartime would be next to impossible.

“Alright, if its Choice, let’s start already.” Zach said.

“Oh, but there’s two house rules we play with, us ‘Apostles of the Sky”, Zeke explained. “Since we only have seven members, we are bound to a die roll of 1 for every element, and we are bound to that one, like it or not, if that element is rolled. Now, to compensate, your number may not exceed seven.”

“Agreed.”, Zach said, glad that this rule was not absurd.

“The second rule is that your members will be selected absolutely randomly.”

“So what you’re saying is…you’ll be taking our choices out of Choice?”

“You could say that,” Zeke said, with a smile.

“Give me a moment.” Zach requested. “I’ll take it up with the others.”

“Aww….This is going to take forever!” the small girl that Trevor had shouted out earlier groaned. Trevor cheerfully flipped her off.

“I don’t like it.”, Charlie said.

“But that’s because you know Zach would pick you if he drew a single Thunder.” Maggie said. “Personally, I don’t care.”

“It’s possible that nothing but our weakest members are chosen.”, Katie noted.

“But even our weakest members are strong enough.” Stacie said.

“No they’re not.” Trevor pointed out. “I like them. Some of them. But its fact, they’re not us.”

“I don’t like it.”, Zach said. “I don’t see much choice, but I don’t like not being able to pick an optimal team.”

“We’ll call it practice for the little ones!” Amy said, cheerfully, patting Zach’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay. We all know you’re worried about all the little ones, but you do have to let them grow up at some point.”

“You’re right, Ace.” Zach sighed. “Alright, Zeke. We’ll go along with it. We’ll pick our members totally randomly.”

“Wonderful! You seemed like a reasonable man. Now, let me introduce to you the other Apostles! They’re all quite excited to be here. They’re big fans. On my right, is my Cloud Guardian, Malachi, my disloyal and absolutely untrustworthy right hand man. On my left is my Storm Guardian, Miriam, whom one can’t help but be angry around.”

The tall brown haired man bowed in mock politeness, and the short blond one, whom had been annoying Trevor since before they landed, spat.

“Next to Malachi is my Rain Guardian, Sarah, and next to her is my Mist Guardian, Hannah. On Miriam’s side is Micaiah, my Sun Guardian-”

“And I’m Isaac.” the third and last male on their side announced, interrupting his boss. Zeke looked angry for a moment, and then resumed his smile.

“Yes, that is Isaac, my Thunder Guardian. And I am Ezekiel, the Sky Boss of the Apostles.”

“These are-”, Zach began.

“We don’t care.” Miriam groaned. “There’s too damn many of you! A tiger doesn’t need to know a rabbit’s name to eat it.”

“Fine then.” Zach said, trying to remain cordial. “Did you bring a roulette for these house rules?”

“I did!” Zeke said excitedly, as if he had forgotten. “Hannah, would you mind grabbing it? I left it right by the door.”

Hannah silently went and found it, throwing it to Zeke a bit harder than she had to.

“Thank you, love.” he said, voice dripping with sickly sweetness. “Now, let’s get this party started, am I right?”

He held the small machine out to Zach, putting his palm on one of the two hand pads available. Zach took the other handle, and pressed down on the other pad. The words “Orso” flashed above his, and “Apostles” above Zeke’s. The numbers next to each began to spin quickly. All of a sudden, the numbers stopped, displaying:

Orso Apostles

Storm 2 1

Sky 0 0

Sun 0 1

Thunder 0 0

Rain 0 1

Mist 1 1

Cloud 2 1

“Fuck!” Isaac shouted. “Everyone but us!”

“Issac, be calm”, Zeke said. “I’m upset too. See, I’m sadfacing!”

“Fuck off, Zeke.” Isaac growled. “You never frown.”

“Oh, you know me too well, Isaac.” Zeke sighed. “Well, time to randomly select the Orso victims!”

He pressed a button on the roulette and the casing folded out to reveal a screen. He pressed a few more pads, and handed it to Zach.

“Are these acceptable?”

The screen displayed:

Alex Carroll-Mist

Eddie Higgins-Cloud

Robbie Carroll-Storm

Jake Federkeil-Cloud

Mike Fornaro-Storm

Zach smiled a bit.

“Yeah, those will do us fine.”, he said to Zeke. He turned to the Orso. “Alright, guys! Listen up! If you hear your name, come on up, it’s your time to show off! Alex Carroll!”

The tall blond boy was there before Zach could finish his name, grinning ear to ear.

“It’s fighty time, fighty time!” he sang.

“Eddie Higgins!”

Eddie walked up.

“Sweet. About time I get to do anything.” he said, elbowing Zach in the rib gently.

“Robbie Carroll!”

Laughing, the red-afroed man approached Zach, Eddie, and his brother.

“This is going to be so unfair, I can tell already.” was all he was able to get out.

“Jake Federkeil!”

A bit less enthusiastically than the others, the light brown haired boy walked up beside the others.

“I’ll do my best, I suppose.” he said, a little less than absolutely confident.

“Mike Fornaro!” Zach said, smiling quite a lot.

There was silence.

“Mike Fornaro!” Zach called again.

He heard a voice from the back.

“The lazy piece of shit’s asleep on his feet. Should I wake him up?” he heard Adam Podskalny say.

“Yeah, do that, please.” Zach shouted. The family began to collectively chuckle as Mike stumbled, sleepily, to the front.

“I’m here, I’m here!” he sputtered. “Waking me up…”

“Quite a crew you’ve got, Zachy.” Zeke giggled. “So professional. I suppose you know my crew already, but, just in case you forgot…Miriam, the Storm. Micaiah, the Sun. Sarah, the Rain. Hannah, the Mist. Malachi, the Cloud. That’s my five.”

“So next is choosing an arena?”

“That’s right.” Zeke grinned. He pulled a deck of cards from his pocket and fed them into the roulette at the side. The machine shuffled them, and spat one back out. It read: Neighborhood.

“Ooh, what a nice pick!” Zeke said. “Nice and fair…and it makes all that hard work I did securing it worthwhile. Might I suggest we all climb aboard? Hannah makes an excellent pilot, I assure you. No need to worry for your safety!

“Why do we all need to come along? Can’t we let those of us not picked go home?” Zach asked

“Of course not!” Zeke said. “This IS a competition between families. It would be rude for any of you to leave. Isaac and I will be there for the whole thing. So climb aboard!”

“Fine…Everyone, get on.” Zach said.

“Oh, goodie! Now, we’ll let your rank and fileies just sit coach. I want your fighters and you up front. Oops, sorry, that makes it seven and six. That’s unfair…How about you bring one more person up front with you.”

“Trevor”, Zach said, not looking back. Trevor stepped up beside him.

“Cute. Alright, all aboard!” Zeke called. The Orso, except for the fighters, Zach, and Trevor, boarded the large section at the back. The Apostles and the rest of the Orso boarded the smaller area at the front. Inside was a fairly plain cabin, though plenty large. Zeke threw himself into his chair, and his Guardians sat in the chairs colored according to their element’s color. Each chair had a set of controls in front of them, but only Hannah began to press anything. Quickly, the blimp took off and within minutes, they were flying quite high. Pressed against the side were seven small chairs, which the Orso representatives sat in.

“I don’t like them.” Trevor whispered to Zach.

“That’s no surprise at all. You like very few people. Plus, these seven are picking a fight with us.” Zach replied.

“That’s not it. Something seems off about all of them. I know you feel it too. These seven aren’t normal.”

“Yeah…Yeah, I do. I don’t like them either.”

“Now, that is a surprise. I usually have to save you from your own naivety, because you like everyone. This is a big step.”

“No, it’s just…something is incredibly off about them. Even I feel a little weird around them.”

“Is everything alright, Zach?” Zeke asked, faking great concern. “You’re not uncomfortable, are you?”

“Not at all. Lovely cabin you’ve got here.” Zach replied.

“Why thank you. It was specially made for us. We’re not a very rich family, but we convinced those nice people to work on it for us.”

“Alright, Zeke. Let’s cut the crap. Zach told me what your exact words were. What the hell are you guys planning?” Trevor said, unable to contain his anger. Zach sighed, but was secretly relieved that he himself didn’t have to ask.

“Oh? Zach, you should hold your first mate’s tongue.” Zeke purred. Suddenly, he vanished, and appeared in front of Trevor, his face inches from the Orso Cloud Guardian’s. “Or I’ll do it for you. He is rather cute from up close…”

Trevor moved to push him away, but Zeke had warped back to his chair, giggling.

“Oh, don’t be so shy, Trevy. You’ll be willing to give in eventually.”

“Zach, Trevor…Just what did Zeke say?” Alex asked.

“He told us…” Zach began. “’We, the Apostles of the Sky, challenge the Orso Family, to a battle. It is time that we reign over you as is our right. Your actions thus far are unacceptable. We will be content with no less than your absolute obliteration. If you do not accept, we will kill off your family members one by one. You have been warned. You have no choice but to accept the challenge. We promise a fair battle, but the terms will be ours to decide.”

“So you never had any choices to begin with.” Eddie said slowly.

“But what has Zach done that’s so unacceptable?” Robbie asked.

“Oh, it’s not so much that he’s done something horribly wrong, friends. It’s that I can’t let him walk around like he is, not anymore. We have a deep score to settle with your boss.”

“Zach and I don’t know who you even are.” Trevor said. “How could we have done something to you?”

“Hey, asshole.” the one Zeke called Malachi called. “Do you want to die? It doesn’t matter what our problem with you is. The fact is, we want to end you. And we’re going to end you. You won’t survive.”

“Oh, Mal, you can’t spoil all that…But he’s right.” Zeke said, slowly smiling even brighter. “Maybe I should note…No, never mind. I almost let one of tonight’s surprises away from me.”

“We’re here, Zeke.” Hannah said. She looked up at the Orso members and smirked a bit.

The blimp had landed in a large residential area, houses lining the streets.

“We’re fighting here?” Eddie asked. “But it’s so crowded! How will we keep from hurting any innocents?”

Zeke giggled.

“There’s no one innocent here. Didn’t I tell you that I made sure this was a nice, clean, empty area for us?”

“You…you didn’t…” Jake said slowly, horrified.

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s not like anyone worthwhile lived here. All of their maximum flame outputs were less than one million Fiamma Volts. That’s my bare minimum for survival in my new world.”

“New world?” Robbie asked. “So that’s the story. We’re not dealing with the usual punks here, then…”

“Alright, let’s all step out!” Zeke announced., undisturbed by the atmosphere. “Time to start!”

The door opened automatically, and the Apostles filed out just as they had arrived. The Orso followed them.

“You’re not letting everyone else out?”

Zeke sighed.

“The short answer is no. The long answer…ooh, I don’t want it spoiled…”

“What are you hiding?” Zach growled. Zeke leapt back.

“Ooh, you’re scaring me! Zach, you should be less angry. It really isn’t like you.”

“Tell us.” Trevor demanded. Miriam let loose an awful laugh that left all the Orso that heard it feeling hollow and cold.

“You’re not a very good boss, Zach! Everyone in the back of the blimp is going to die! If you lose, we’re going to pump it full of-”

“MIRIAM!” Zeke shouted. The girl jumped back, going silent. He turned to the Orso and took a deep breath, then smiled again. “Well, no point hiding it any longer. We never arranged prizes for winning, so here’s what I’ll propose…If you win, we’ll let you go. If you lose…we gas everyone inside that blimp. Every. Single. Member. Of the Orso Family.”

“You…” Zach began, igniting his Sky Ring. Mike grabbed his shoulder, stopping him.

“Don’t do it, Zach.” he said calmly. “He said it would be a fair fight. We’ve been given the terms, and you fighting isn’t part of them. If you attack him, you’ll have broken the rules. Let’s play his game, and see where it gets us.”

“You’re right, you’re right…”, Zach said, extinguishing his ring. “Thanks. I’m counting on you now.”

“You just sit back and watch. I won’t let you down.” Mike said with a smile.

“One last rule, loves.” Zeke said with a smile. “And the most important one, too. How will we decide the winner?”

“I figured you wouldn’t give me any choices here.” Zach said. “What did you have in mind?”

“Oh, just about plain vanilla here, Zach. Target Rule.” Zeke suggested with a smile.

“I’ll accept. Targets?”

“What is the Target Rule?” Jake asked in a whisper.

“It means that one of each member acts like the king in chess. If they fall, the team loses.” Alex explained to him. Zeke held up the roulette again, and pressed another button. The two names displayed were “Eddie Higgins” and “Malachi”. Zeke pulled two palm-sized targets from his jacket and without ceremony, threw them at Eddie and his Cloud Guardian. They latched on, and ignited, both into purple Cloud flames.

“These targets will drain your Dying Will Flames, or your lifeforce, slowly. These flames will extinguish when the person wearing them is brought down to less than two percent of their energy levels. That will keep us from…needing…to kill the Target.” Zeke said with a sinister smile. “Now, Zach, Trevor, you come with Isaac and I. We’ll be using the central observation tower. Any interference from that building is strictly forbidden, of course. So no running wild, you two. I don’t want to stop watching my men kill your little boys to restrain you, and neither does Isaac.”

Suddenly, the blimp lifted into the air.

“Don’t be alarmed, now”, Zeke said, as they walked to the tallest building in the area. “The blimp won’t move from that spot. There are monitors and speakers there, so the rest of your trash pile can see and hear every step toward their demise. Of course, I tried to get it out of the way, but interfering with it? Also strictly forbidden. You know what happens if you break my rules.”

“Both teams have a small headquarters. I hope you don’t mind, but we took the liberty of stealing the one you brought to the meeting place, like we told you to.”, Zeke continued, as they entered the tower, which they discovered to be a massive glass elevator. “Both teams will be able to use that base however they see fit. So, the rules. Five against five. Losing team is the one who’s Target falls first. No one leaves the neighborhood. The boundaries are quite clear, don‘t worry about that. I painstakingly painted them in the former occupants’ blood…”

“And what we’re fighting for is our survival. Nothing more, nothing less.” Zach continued.

“That’s the whole story”, Zeke grinned broadly, sticking out his hand. Zach took it, unflinching.

“Let Choice begin.” both Bosses called.

--

Next -->