A Dog Father Cannot Beget a Dragon Son

World 54: Part 4

Fei Chuan cursed in his heart. This is exactly why you shouldn't live ostentatiously!

"Earth Lass, reporting." he snapped out. "Get out of my way." He stamped down ruthlessly on the OOC restrictions. In a situation as tense as this one, there's no telling how someone would react! Even the most timid rabbit had teeth!

The officer seemed to recognize him, and stammered a bit before letting him in.

Some of the heroes who'd already arrived looked at him condescendingly. Fei Chuan had half a mind to sneer back. Who were the ones loitering about when there was a situation inside the school? In the end, weren't these cowards waiting for Lannister to come and resolve the situation.

There was a shriek, and everyone's attention snapped towards the terrorist group's broadcast. The woman on screen was emitting a thin purple mist from her mouth as she laughed. In one hand, she held onto the ponytail of a blonde, blue-eyed girl who was failing to contain her sobs.

"Tsk. Not this one," the woman said in a heavy accent, and she flung the crying girl into one of her men. "Idiota! How hard is it to find one little girl?"

"They all have blonde hair and blue eyes!" someone complained off-screen. "Give us a break, donna, we're lookin'!"

"Donna, can't any old girl do?"

"Do you want the donna to kill you?"

"Oh! Got her!"

"N-no! Let me go!"

Another blonde girl was dragged on screen, but this time she was someone that everyone recognized: Juniper Konnikova.

Some of the heroes inhaled sharply. Fei Chuan continued to observe the background.

The woman leaned down and breathed in the girl's face, causing her to cough. "Ah, sweetie, that's the one from the pictures." the donna straightened and looked into the camera. "If the fools are doing their jobs correctly, this should be broadcasted to every station yes? Trident, are you looking here?"

The donna paused, and her smile grew wilder as if hearing an imaginary response.

"The Famiglia personally sent me here with a friendly warning, in light of our long acquaintanceship! Up until now, your investigations have not learnt you anything we did not want you to know. How do you say, abbiamo le mani in pasta? So it was fine; we let you struggle."

The donna flicked her eyes down to her nails and admired them. Then she suddenly made a flicking motion and purple fog began to emit from her hands.

"But unfortunately, you, you cagnolino in chiesa, are getting on our nerves, digging all over the place. I've come to cordially ask you to back off before something...unfortunate happens to this girl," Juniper's eyes were squeezed tightly shut as her hair was pulled up, "the way we warned would happen to her parents."

The nearby heroes all sucked in a breath at the implicit threat. Fei Chuan narrowed his eyes at movement happening just at the peripheral of the screen.

"Donna! Look who we found!"

His blood went cold when Julian was also pushed onto the screen, snarling curses at the Famiglia men.

"The boy!" the donna beamed. "How wonderful!" Juniper whimpered when the donna's action of turning tugged on her hair and wrenched her sideways and half off the makeshift stage. "I'm very surprised to see you're still around!"

Julian looked like he was about to throw hands, were it not for the large, calloused hands holding him down. "What the hell are you talking about!"

"I heard you live with the sidekick now. Poveretta, what a downgrade! In fact, Trident had ample means to care for you too, but," and she leaned in to whisper into his ears. Julian resisted her closeness, but then something she was saying to him seemed to register and he fell silent.

When she finished, he took a moment and immediately exploded. "NO! THAT'S NOT TRUE! SHUT UP!"

"The Famiglia has only the best information," laughed the woman. "And I even gave it to you for free. Do not be ungrateful, little sacrifice."

"You're lying!" Julian shouted.

"Not at all!" the donna replied. "I all but hand delivered you! You should call me godmother!"

"Shut up SHUT UP SHUT UP."

"You can ask him yourself, you know."

"SHUT UP!"

"Oh for Heaven's sake, shut him up—ACK!"

The donna suddenly toppled backwards and slammed into the ground.

The men around her sprung into action only for the ones without physical abilities to have the ground suddenly rise up and swallow them whole. The ones who could stretched themselves out or vaporized, but the former were slammed down unceremoniously by heavy blocks of cement and the latter were absorbed by a dust storm that emerged from nowhere.

The watching heroes startled. Had Trident arrived? But last they heard, he was still out of the city; even if he flew continuously, it still should have taken another thirty minutes.

Then a rising clump of mud gradually melted away to resolve into the green and brown uniform and long braided hair of Earth Lass. The sidekick flicked her hand, and the broadcast suddenly went dark.