NTWF Mafia: The Little Country Town

[Lizzie]

Candy was bored and tired, sick of the GSIS. She had no idea how to get to Luna's, so just stuck close to Nelly.

"Nelly, where is it?" she asked quietly. She couldn't believe her mentor didn't trust Drake, her only living friend... But, Candy thought, look at all her other friends. Ended up murdered or part of the Mafia.

[Robyn]

"Well, Hello Robyn. It's been a while since I killed you. I didn't know ghosts could bleed."

Robyn seized, startled. The lens slipped up into the air, and she snatched it back before she turned to face her caller. Any hope she had of further survival was snuffed out once she saw who it was. With those claws, those teeth, and whatever ghostly weapons she was sure to have on her person (she had been a blacksmith mafioso, after all), Robyn knew she didn't stand a chance against Luna, much less with Terra helping her.

"What happened to you? You look like you got in a fight."

Robyn's lips were thin as she regarded Luna. Was she just going to toy around with her first like Terra had done? Make some small talk and then go in for the sneak attack? No. Not again. Robyn turned so that her shoulders were squared towards the wolf-girl, and then she saw yet ANOTHER ghost drift out of the pizzeria.

"HEY!" screeched an indignant Ari, who settled herself right in between Luna and Robyn, "Why did you do that to me?! I thought you were my friend. I liked you. And I knew absolutely nothing. I just wanted to leave the town."

Robyn stared at the the both of them, and then craned her neck around to look at the restaurant. Ghosts didn't eat pizza. Why were they both in there?

She didn't have long to contemplate it. There was a flash of light and motion, a terrified choking noise, and Terra was back with a bloodied face and a hostage.

"If you want to kill me now, you'll have to go through dear little Ari," she cooed the last part into her captive's ear.

Robyn was sickened, and though the pain of defeat was so much more agonizing than any stab wound Terra could try and inflict, she knew she couldn't just let Ari die at the hands of this monster. She kept quiet, eyes narrowed, as Terra told Luna to finish the job. A low buzz filled Robyn's mind as Luna answered Terra. She couldn't hear them over her thoughts, which, if they were to be her last thoughts, she decided she'd make them count.

She remembered the town as it was. She'd never appreciated Netwaffle, not really. With all her dreams of making it big, she's always seen the village as little more than a launching pad at best, and a prison at worst. She'd never taken to time to savor the friendly hellos as she passed down the street, or to revel in how clean the buildings always seemed to be. She'd prayed day after day for something exciting to happen, something worthy of capturing on camera, something that would rocket her into the galaxies of fame. It figured that her prayers would have to be answered with all of this mafia business. The whole thing WOULD make a great movie. Robyn thought that would be funny if it weren't so sad.

She thought of Icon. She probably would've gone absolutely crazy by now if it hadn't been for him. It stung more than anything to know that her last message to him was probably something garbled by the ineptitude of that punch-sullied typewriter instead of anything meaningful. Her only comfort rested in the fact that he wasn't dead yet, and at least now she wouldn't be around to see him die. Still, there was so much she didn't get to say to him, and so much she could say now that she was out of that machine. She could thank him for being there for her instead of just leaving her to rot in the typewriter...she could apologize for being such a pain about the investigation, and for being such a burden due to the state she'd been in. She could tell him she--

Everything froze as Luna's weight clapped down upon her shoulders.

"Sorry I have to do this," Luna said. Robyn cracked the lens in half between her fingers, creating two jagged semi-discs of glass. If she was going to die, she was going to die fighting with an awesome piece of MacGuyvered weaponry. She moved to cut upwards--

And then she was knocked backwards by the enormous force of wolf feet using her body as leverage to shoot towards Terra and Ari. Snarls and screams punctured the air as Luna's knife and teeth dug their way under Terra's skin, splattering blood across all three parties involved.

"Oh my God, what are you doing?" Robyn screamed, "You're going to kill her!"

But isn't that what I wanted? she thought distantly, quickly, Or am I just jealous Luna's getting there first? Can Terra even really die? Can I? Will this stop her? Am I safe yet?

Robyn watched in horror, unable to move.

[Deleted]

Ari squealed as Terra grabbed her and began to strangle her.

"If you want to kill me now, you'll have to go through dear little Ari," she sneered.

What was this? According to Luna, the mafia had killed her because she wanted to leave. She wasn't fleeing murder, she was following her heart.

She was about to try to speak to Luna when she heard Terra's yell of horror. Luna was biting and stabbing her. Spectral blood (if you could call it that) splashed across Ari's face. Knowing that Terra's strength was weakening, she prepared to slip from the sash, which was losing its grip on her.

"Luna...if you can hear me," she said, "remember the day I stood up to Joseph, proclaiming my love for Par - Meowington? You applauded me. I was only leaving town for love! I might have even come back, you know."

[Terra]

"I could kill her in a second, trust me, but I'm not going to. She might want revenge, but I want to make things right. It doesn't have to be the same in the afterlife. I was really only in the Mafia for the money. Also the fun of killing people, but these people are already dead. Why do you want to kill them again?"

Terra opened her mouth, about to say something along the lines of, “Um, hello? Because they could kill you first?” Except maybe in a less valley-girl-ish way.

But she didn’t have time, because before she could say anything, Luna had hopped on Robyn’s shoulders, and from there was jumping at Terra, and oh god splitting pain in her back and she was biting her what the oh god -

She elbowed Luna hard to get her off her shoulder and kicked her in the stomach. The action sent a splitting pain through her back wound. She let out a gasp and yanked the sash, which was still restraining Ariana. She leaned against Ariana for support for a moment, breathing heavily. Through her mouth.

"Luna...if you can hear me," she said, "remember the day I stood up to Joseph, proclaiming my love for Pe - Meowington? You applauded me. I was only leaving town for love! I might have even come back, you know."

“Oh, please,” snapped Terra. “Nobody cares about your love life, Ari.”

Then she kicked Ariana away and whipped around to wrestle the knife from Luna’s grip.

“I would’ve protected you,” she said. “But you want to turn against me now? You’ll pay for it.”

[Ian Wolf-Park]

((0_o Er, what's with the full blown cat (er, dog, no pun intended) fight?))

[Robyn]

((Well, it started when Terra decided to see if she could kill ghosts. She decided to test this on Robyn, who was at the time initiating her escape from the typewriter. The two events coincided so that Terra significantly wounded Robyn, enough that Robyn said that Terra would have to fight her if she wanted to kill her, and in that way earn it. So that's where it originated.

When Robyn realized that she'd be at an even greater disadvantage if Terra had Icon's house at her disposal, she headed towards the plaza by the pizzeria so that there would be more open space and less hiding places for her to use. Just so happens that the townspeople had all holed up inside that very same pizzeria, where they'd just killed Luna. Cue Luna floating out and being all, "Oh hey Robyn, I killed you once, what's up?"

And then Ari came out, demanding to know why Luna had killed her. So then Terra takes advantage of this by taking Ari hostage so that Robyn won't flat-out rush her, and tells Luna to finish Robyn off. Luna decides to side against Terra in the name of making things right in the afterlife, and so she attacked Terra. And now they're fighting over the knife.

Hope that clears things up. :3 Such DRAMA.))

[Draco]

((In other words, Ghost side story ))

[Luna]

Luna was biting hard on Terra, when she felt a something hard hit in the side, which made her stop biting and give a yelp. She pulled the knife out of Terra, when she kicked Luna in the stomach. Lime green blood burst out of Luna's mouth and splattered all over Terra's face.

"Luna...if you can hear me," Ari said, "remember the day I stood up to Joseph, proclaiming my love for Pe - Meowington? You applauded me. I was only leaving town for love! I might have even come back, you know."

“Oh, please,” snapped Terra. “Nobody cares about your love life, Ari.” Terra then threw Ari to the side like a rag doll.

Luna hit the ground hard. She cried out in a painful yelp, but still held the knife in her hand. Terra jumped over Luna, and tore the knife from her hands.

“I would’ve protected you,” Terra said. “But you want to turn against me now? You’ll pay for it.”

"Ari...I..." Luna felt like she couldn't move. She laid there for a second, wondering what to do.

She hissed at Terra, Sending more blood on Terra's face.
"PAY FOR MY FOOT." Luna yelled at Terra and kicked her in the face, the claws on her feet clawed Terra's face pretty good, and using that momentum to flipped over on her feet. That nearly made her collapsed. She was on one knee, and both hands, blood dripping from her nose and mouth.

Just don't get stabbed, just don't get stabbed. Luna kept repeating to herself. She stood up, shaking.

[Draco]

Drake listens to what Nelly has to say.

"If you know a way, then we're going to be following you. What's between here and Luna's place? We can make a strategy on which places we can probably get into and sneak through. It would be safer if we can get through buildings, but if we just have a idea to sneak around it will be good. I once wrote a book about a spy having to do such a thing in enemy territory."

He didn't mention that the spy in the story ended up sneaking into a building the enemies made a base in. He wrote it in the story since his editor suggest it would be interesting. He hoped something like that wouldn't happen in real life.

"I figure the GSIS made their base where we were kept. So chances are we won't run into any large groups of them. However, we still need to watch out for any patrolling."

---
Elsewhere Nameless was still following and watching the ghost fight.

[Avery]

The Narrator listens to Drake's run-down and nods her head, trying not to make any snide comments about how dreadfully full of himself he is. She hopes that confidence will at least help them out somehow in not getting caught on the way to Luna's place.

"Unfortunately," says the Narrator, "I don't think this town has any secret underground passageways, so we'll have to stick to the outside. But by wending through alleyways, we should be clear of the GSIS. I recommend we only take a small group of us."

For a moment she thinks to suggest just her and Drake going, but then decides it might be best to bring a minimum of three people, well-- just in case. Not only would a group of three be more useful in fighting off the GSIS, but if the mafia showed up...

The Narrator pushes this thought away.

"You and I will go, Drake," she says. "And we can take... the grocer. You say you were a linebacker?" she asks him.

He nods. "Er, yes, but that was very long ago and--"

It's clear he wants to wheedle out of this, stay safe in the pizzeria with the rest of the town, but the Narrator is running on a short fuse. No time for the town to play a proverbial 'nose goes', or draw straws, or anything vapid like that.

"You will be going," she declares, and with that she rises and heads to the door.

She enforces a strict no-talking clause as the three of them creep through alleyways uptown, headed towards Luna's. Halfway there, they are nearly caught by a GSIS man, who spots them and begins to shout in alarm, but before he can get a word out edgewise, the grocer tackles him down. Linebacker indeed!

At Luna's, the Narrator is relieved to find the front door unlocked. Not much of a surprise, really. The girl was in the mafia; what did she have to fear? She knew she wasn't going to end up murdered.

"So," the Narrator says, staring at the many displays of knives about the place, wondering why no one suspected Luna of being in the mafia before today, "let's take as much as we can without it being cumbersome. I mean, we need enough to fight off the GSIS, but if we're clanging all the way back to the pizzeria, it'll probably be a moot point."

She wanders off to the back of the room, sweeps aside a curtain. There, hung neatly in a row, are six knives. She frowns, peers closer. Nearly throws up when she notices names, and in some cases descriptions, carved into each blade: The Floozy. Robyn (bled a lot, haha!). Madame Ginz.

She observes with a queasy stomach that there is still blood on several of the blades. White as a sheet, she brushes the curtain closed. They won't be needing these knives.

[icon]

Icon watched in fascinated horror at the scene unfolding-- there had to be something he could do! He decided to force himself away from the awful sight and see what the others were doing.

Drake and Nelly had mentioned sneaking out to Luna's shop earlier, arming themselves and grabbing weaponry for the townspeople. He was panicking, though- her shop was all the way uptown, they might not be back until evening. He knew it was dangerous, but the only way he could help in time was to grab his own tools. "Well, if you want to get something done right..." He muttered to himself.

Glancing around the room, he decided to take the chance. He slowly, carefully snuck out the back door, making sure to close it so nobody inside would have the risk of getting spotted. He was in a little back alley now, he could see that crossing over two blocks would bring him close to the road which led to his house. But to get there, he would have to cross the street... which left him an open target for the GSIS. Shoot. He muttered a curse under his breath.

Oh well, no way around it... he took a quick glance both ways, and scampered across the street as quickly as possible without attracting too much attention. Now to get home and get that stun gun, he mused to himself, scrambling over a fence.

---
Not too far away, a GSIS agent pulled out a communication device. "Hey, I just saw a kid running toward the western part of town. Scrawny looking. Looked like one of the folks down at the hall earlier today."

"Hmm, sounds s'spicious. Y'think tailing him'll be useful?"

"Who knows, he could be Mafia. Might as well check. Plus, if he ain't, we might still be able to squeeze somethin' useful outta him."

"Take care, then. Can't be too careful 'round these people, buncha nutcases they are."

The man put the device away and started to follow the kid.

[Robyn]

In proper accordance to the rule of drama, there was ghost blood everywhere. Robyn was quite sure she'd bled through her torn-off sleeve, Ari's face was splattered with Terra's blood, and both Terra and Luna were pretty much drenched in a strange combination of blue and lime green-- what else-- blood. They'd gotten to a point in the fight where they were all pretty much separated (except for Ari and Terra, but she figured it'd wouldn't take long for Ari to wriggle free with Terra so distracted and pained), and Robyn noticed something very strange.

"Guys!" she barked, "Stop! Stop for just a second."

There was a miraculous lull in the action, and Robyn floated a bit closer to the three other ghosts for clarity's sake. She eyed Terra carefully, glass shards at the ready, but she wasn't positive that she'd even need them at this point. Robyn made sure her voice was loud enough to command attention as she continued.

"Look at us. Look at all this blood. Out of the four of us, three have been pretty seriously injured. Possibly even mortally injured."

Her face screwed up a bit in pain as she felt the gash in her back.

"I think that if I were alive, a stab wound right here would have impaled some pretty vital organs. Not to mention, Luna, you just stabbed Terra in the back and probably chomped on some serious arteries just now. Or...heck, I don't know, I'm a documentarian, not a doctor. My point is, I don't think we're killing each other here. Hurting each other, sure, but not killing."

Robyn raised an eyebrow as she scratched the back of her head. "I think we might all be fighting for a lost cause."

[Lizica]

Ms. Rickshaw had been huddled on the floor by the wall, trying to maintain her little bubble of personal space in this awful claustrophobic pizzeria. But ever since Drake had suggested going to Luna's shop, she'd been trying to muster up a scrap of courage to speak up and finally mention that yes, there in fact might be some secret passageways under Netwaffle.

But needless to say, it hadn't happened. Drake, Nelly, and the grocer had gone outside, risking their lives, to sneak to the shop for weapons, and she'd just caught a brief glimpse of another person slipping out the backdoor.

And the townspeople still inside were getting restless. Ms. Rickshaw had been out of her apartment long enough by now to know what happened when the townspeople got restless.

In a fearful rush, she rose and said belatedly, "I think there ARE some ancient secret passages in here somewhere, so if we split up and work together and look for them, we could be extra well-hidden and keep the others from having to walk back exposed to the GSIS and be in a less cramped space and--..."

Everyone in the pizzeria was staring at her. Ms. Rickshaw immediately regretted having said a word. She shrank back down onto the floor and squeaked, "I-I mean, why don't we play a nice, friendly game of checkers to pass the time?"

But the townspeople weren't going to let it go that easily. Some began experimentally tapping the floorboards and checking behind paintings and photographs on the walls. And a few others started interrogating Ms. Rickshaw about how she knew about all this. Before she knew what was happening, she'd been bullied into searching for a way out.

Terrified as she was, Esther Rickshaw was, at least, glad to see the townspeople in the pizzeria working together to search, rather than working together to murder someone. For now, at least, she thought with a sickening feeling.

[Deleted]

As Terra kicked Ari away, she felt herself slip from the sash and land on the ground.

She heard Robyn talking about fighting for a lost cause. She agreed now. She just wanted to get out of this and be alive again. She wanted her fairy tale back. She wanted to fly away to an alternate world where things had turned out perfectly.

She sat up and wailed into her skirt.

[Terra]

”PAY FOR MY FOOT.”

Terra was forced back by Luna’s kick to her face. She fell into Ariana and her glasses slipped off - and she could, in fact, see just as well without them, so she let them fall.

Her nose was stinging even more than before - but she had a knife. She was armed. She had the advantage now.

"Guys!" barked Robyn, "Stop! Stop for just a second."

Terra glanced around. Somehow, everyone else had stopped attacking. She tensed, ready to strike.

"Look at us. Look at all this blood. Out of the four of us, three have been pretty seriously injured. Possibly even mortally injured. I think that if I were alive, a stab wound right here would have impaled some pretty vital organs. Not to mention, Luna, you just stabbed Terra in the back and probably chomped on some serious arteries just now. Or...heck, I don't know, I'm a documentarian, not a doctor. My point is, I don't think we're killing each other here. Hurting each other, sure, but not killing."

In spite of herself, Terra found herself listening instead of attacking, though a voice in the back of her head was screaming to strike while she had the chance.

"I think we might all be fighting for a lost cause."

Robyn had a point.

She sighed. “Maybe you’re right, Robyn. Maybe we should just leave each other alone. What’s the point?”

Then, whip-fast, she charged at Robyn. “Or maybe you’re only saying that because you’re afraid of what might happen if you’re wrong.” She aimed to stab her again - and hopefully make it a killing strike this time.