Wild Horses

Operation Passione Ball Trope

"YOU'VE GOT MAIL."
The metallic voice rang out of Bucciarati's laptop as he opened it first thing in the morning. He groaned and held his face in his hands. He was still getting ready for the day - he had poured a cup of coffee but was still letting it cool. His hair was still wet from the shower. He had only pulled his pants on so far and was still walking around shirtless. His lace tattoo was fully on display.

"Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew! That's my capo!" Narancia whistled playfully as he stumbled towards the bathroom, narrowly avoiding colliding with the doorframe as he eyeballed Bucciarati. The wide open layout of the makeshift hideout/warehouse made it impossible to not be seen.

"Good morning, Narancia," Bucciarati mumbled back. He let out a long breath as he skimmed the contents of the email from Pericolo. He was still getting used to having so much direct contact with Passione's caporegime; it seemed to be happening more and more frequently since Lira came into the picture. Of course Pericolo was just keeping an eye on their "secret weapon," Bucciarati figured. Lira's stand, Lovecat, was powerful. Too powerful. Over-powered. The kind of over-powered ability that only the main character in one of Narancia's mangas would have. Bucciarati chuckled to himself as he imagined Lira as the main character in an action manga. Well, she had certainly become the main character in his life. He returned his focus back to the email:

I'm happy to hear that Lira's family won't be a problem for Passione.
However, now that your crew has got that detour out of the way, it's time to return our focus back to Amarezza.
Steve Stromboli is laying low, but we've devised a way to lure him out. He believes he's meeting a major drug kingpin named Zane Ziti at a masquerade party hosted by Ziti himself. But, he's actually been emailing with me. It's a new internet thing called catfishing. Anyway, you and your crew will need to be there to apprehend Stromboli. Other members of Passione will be attending as well. Don't forget to dress the part. Amazing plan, right? Definitely nothing could go wrong.
Polpo is expecting you today. He will provide more details.
-P

"Catfishing?" Bucciarati rolled his eyes.

"What's that?" Lira said as she came up behind him, leaning her head on his bare, muscular shoulder as she tried to peek at the email.

"Some weird old person thing," Bucciarati replied as he shut the laptop. "You can't read that. I'll brief everyone later over lunch." He kissed her forehead before walking over to the kitchen, where he magically pulled a hot breakfast quiche out of the oven.

"What... when did you.. how long have you been up?" Lira stammered in disbelief.

"Longer than you, my tesoro," he smirked.

~*~

"Everyone's a dog on the internet," Mista said once Bucciarati had finished briefing the crew. "That's what they say, anyways. Ya know, like, you think you're talking to some cute girl but it's always really a dog on the other end just typing with its paws!"

"2000 years of civilization and this is what we do with it," Fugo rolled his eyes.

"Mista's kind of right," Abbacchio said, much to the surprise of everyone. "Everyone lies about who they are on the internet. AOL chatrooms are like the Wild West. The police were even talking about forming a cybercrime division before I fucked off. Twenty years from now, just imagine what it will be like then. Everything will be done on the web. Online scamming will be huge.

"What! We should do that!" Narancia chimed in. "It must be easy money!"

"The focus isn't how they're getting Stromboli to show up! Can we focus on the task at hand?" Bucciarati cut into the derailed conversation. "Polpo and Pericolo want everyone prepared to take Stromboli down this weekend at any cost. And it's a masquerade ball, for obvious reasons, so Polpo gave me these masks. We are to wear them so others in Passione can distinguish our squad."