"Eh, Im no one in particular, but you can call me Aaron" He said, rubbing his eyes tiredly

Aaron cautiously looked down the alley was, before back to the man. "So, considering your situation, want to go to my place and rest? In your condition anyone can pretty much beat you up or worst kill you." He said sighing

He could remembered the cold skin that he touched as he wiped the man's wounds, curious of why the man was so cold. He wondered if the man was another core usual, but who wasn't these day? He just wondered what kind of cores this guy had, and over a quick analyze he guessed he at least had the Elemental Core. But, he shall ask that another time, as what mattered now was the well-being of this guy, as Aaron definitely knew that the man was probably one of the members of the Mafia. So, why wouldn't he get target by another mafia member of the opposite family, considering his weak state? More series of question popped into his head, but he pushed them aside as he got up from leaning the wall and looked at the man to see if he wanted to come or not.

Nikola had no reason to linger by the crime scene and slipped away from the crowd and down an alley. His eyes let off a soft pulse of light and he found himself back in his office at the police station. He set out doing his job and began going through his files on specific mafia members.

Aaron. Noel flinched when the man had offered him his place. It didn't sound bad, but he was quite worried that this 'Aaron' might turn out to be a Campione. He crossed his arms, feeling the warmth and his energy return to his body again. Well, at least he was getting better, thanks to the aspirin. He struggled to stand up, but when he did, he leaned in and narrowed his eyes; studying Aaron.

"Okay," he finally agreed. Honestly, Noel didn't sense any blood lust from the guy. It was already noon and time was ticking for him. The police would definitely be looking for him, not to mention the Campiones. "Lead the way."

Eventually Nikola headed over to the police chief's office and knocked on the door.

The police chief sighed, looking over a few documents on his desk. Already, another murder. Seriously, these mafia families were a real pain in the butt. He sighed, a hand over his face when he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," he said.

After the confrontation with the Campione girl, Vinny and Antonio took a cab to the other side of town, deep within Addario territory. They stopped at what looked like an old, abandoned building and got out –they didn’t pay because the driver was another Addario member who owed Vinny a favor– walking up to the rusty front doors. The building was reported as too dangerous to enter (or so the police thought), which was why it made the perfect hideout for the Blood Collectors. The cops would never suspect the infamous crew had made it their home, and they would never bother to check for fear of a collapse inside.

Vinny pushed the door open, wincing at the loud groan the rusted thing made. He always hated that noise. The two men slipped inside, closing the door behind them, and flipped on the light. Despite the dilapidated exterior, the inside was surprisingly well-furnished. Stolen décor bedecked the room. There were velvet loveseats, leather couches, cherry wood tables, and antique lamps. Just walking into the room was like taking a trip back in time to the early 1900’s –except for a few modern amenities. Taking up a large portion of the eastern wall was a large flat screen television, and sitting on the coffee table was a wireless home phone.

Antonio made himself right at home on the loveseat, swinging his legs up and resting his head on one of the armrests. He stretched and let out an exaggerated yawn. Vinny rolled his eyes and sat on the couch across from him, placing his elbows on his knees and dropping his chin into one hand. He stared at the phone. He was expecting a call from the Caporegime in charge of his district. Supposedly, the boss had a job for him and his crew. He just hoped it wasn’t another murder like the one earlier that day. It was much too soon to try anything as flamboyant as that again.

The phone rang.

“Yo,” Vinny answered, leaning back into the couch and kicking his feet up on the coffee table. “Vinny’s Arson and Assassination Service; we have a great deal on bank robbery this afternoon. How can I help you?”

“Ha ha,” came the sarcastic reply. “Very funny, Vincenzo. Now, could you take this business just a tiny bit more seriously for once? You’re gonna get yourself iced if you don’t cut the crap. Anyway, yeah, I got a job for ya. It’s real simple. Remember that little shopping square on Third Street? You know: the one with the movie theater and those restaurants. Well right now that place is up in the air, speaking in terms of who owns it. All you gotta do is give those Campione punks a little something to say we’re claiming it for Addario. Maybe throw in some ‘fireworks,’ if you catch my drift. Get your buddies together, and get to it, Vincenzo.”

The Capo hung up. Vinny snorted. The Caporegime think they’re so high and mighty. Still, he didn’t really feel like fighting with the superiors today. He turned to Antonio, who had fallen asleep on the chair. Typical. He pulled off a shoe and pegged his sleeping companion right in the nose. Antonio let out a howl of pain and rolled off the loveseat.

“C’mon, ya slug,” Vinny drawled. “We got a job to do. Call the others and tell ‘em to meet us on Third. Oh, and gimme my shoe back.”

---

An hour later, Vinny and Antonio stood on the corner of Third Street along with two other members of the Blood Collectors: Dante and Caprice. Dante had an Element Core, which would help with the aforementioned ‘fireworks,’ and Caprice… Well, she was more vicious than any of the male crew members.

“Alright, so here’s the plan,” Vinny said, leaning against the wall of a building with his arms crossed over his chest. “Antonio, you’ll distract the cops –don’t look at me like that, you’ll be fine– and I’ll cover you by putting a confusion hex on them. Dante, see that little restaurant over there? It’s just inside Campione territory. You and I are gonna make it go boom. Caprice, you get the honor of smiting any Campione goons who are stupid enough to try and stop us. Got it?” The others nodded. “Good. Let’s move.”

The plan worked well to start. Vinny cast a simple Confusionem Infligere spell on the police in the area. There were only five or six of them, so the toll wasn’t too great. The black vines only reached to about halfway up Vinny’s forearm. Antonio caused a scene by using his Trick Core to levitate two trash bins. He flung them around, making them look as if they were chasing the cops who, because of Vinny’s confusion hex, scattered in a panic.

Vinny and Dante instigated phase two of their plan. They made their way to the restaurant on Campione turf. Vinny summoned Monstrum Acerbum, instructing the beast to tear up the inside so Dante could set fire to it more easily. Hopefully that would cause a bigger blast. Vinny glanced back at Caprice to make sure she was still in position in case any Campione members showed up. He grinned. Things were going even better than expected so far.

Lavinia knocked on an olden oak door, currently at the footsteps of Drake's house. He was quite rich, compared to Lavinia, so she always found herself wandering to his home. Plus, Drake's family wasn't in the police's book of 'mafia' families, since he was the only member of the family with mafia affiliations. The door opened, and Drake appeared, grinning when he saw the fellow Campione. "Haha, got yo ass kicked by 'em?" he said, cackling. Lavinia clenched her jaw, pushing Drake slightly as she took a few steps in. "Don't rub it in," she muttered as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Drake shrugged, closing the door before the two of them headed of the living room.

"I told you to call me," Drake exasperatedly said. "Even though you're a newbie Capo, you still need to have back-up," he scolded, taking a seat. Lavinia took a seat as well, her lips pursed with annoyance. "Well, yeah okay maybe I should have," she admitted, avoiding Drake's stern glare. Her hands clasped together, she started fiddling her thumbs.

"Christ - I swear the boss will have my head if you keep -"

"Oh, shut up Drake-y pie. Our dear Lavi can take care of herself," a voice said. Lavinia glanced to her left, spotting another familiar face. "Shelia," she said, a small smile appearing on her face. "Really, what we should be thinking is how to get rid of those Addarios she met, right?" the Trick core user soothingly said, running a hand over Lavinia's hair. Drake rolled his eyes, obviously not pleased at the older girl's appearance.

"Shelia, I told you a million times NOT to go through the walls. Knock on the damn door, for once!" he hissed.

"Oh, sorry," Sheila said, shrugging her shoulders. "This place is just so cool and I just had to protect my little Lavi from you little devil bastard," she haughtily said.

"You bitch," Drake started, getting up as he crossed his arms, a wind current flowing from him. Lavinia sighed, her hair going all over her face because of the Elemental Core user. She brushed a few strands from her eyes, not pleased that the two were fighting over a petty topic. Soon enough, her cell rang, silencing both Drake and Sheila. Lavinia smiled, taking the call.

"Hello?"

"Lavinia? Get your soldiers to Third street. Those Addarios are making a scene on our turf," the caller said, who was another but influential capo. "Kill a few of them. The body that got iced? He was one of mine."

"Yes sir," she said and the Capo on the phone hung up. Lavinia exhaled, her eyes flaming with determination. She wasn't going to mess this up.

---

By the time the three got there, there were no police officers to be seen. "Police can't do their damn job for once," Drake quietly hissed. Sheila just shrugged, her body poised and ready for a fight. From a close distance, all of them could heard sounds of crashing and ripping. Lavinia stopped a good distance away, with small ripples of air quickly dropping into the ground from her hand. A tiny little wind salamander appeared, immediately heading off to scout the area but Lavi gave it orders to stay out of sight. Within minutes, the salamander came back and jumped on Lavinia, hissing as it dissolved back into her skin.

"One is guarding, and that summoner and an another person is trashing that restaurant. If that summoner guy is here, his companion from before will be here too. We don't know most of their cores so stay sharp," she murmured to her friends. "The summoner is mine," she also added, glaring at Drake who made a point to not meet Lavinia's eyes. "Yeah sure," he muttered. "Cain should be coming here in a few minutes -" he whispered. "We can't wait any longer," Sheila cut off, stepping forward. "It's best to strike now." Lavinia nodded and took a few steps towards the girl who was guarding.

Sheila grinned and laid a hand on Lavi's shoulder; "She's mine," Sheila said before running towards the Addario. Drake groaned in annoyance, running after her as well. He slashed his arm in the air and a medium-sized shot of wind headed towards the Addario girl. Sheila snapped at Drake, yelling at him to not get in her way as she had a nearby manhole cover float near her. Drake yelled back at her, calling her a snobby prick. Lavinia rolled her eyes, so much for the surprise attack.

As she walked more calmly after her companions, a long trail of fire dripped down her arms, taking form of the same fire salamander as before. Her body filled with new-found confidence and anger - she wasn't going to go down without a fight again.

Aaron smiled as he began walking down the alley, still looking behind his back encase if the guy decided to back-stab him but he think it wouldn't be a high possibility. As they got out of the alleyway, several men shouted at the two men.

"Hey! There he is!" A man yelled out before a gun was pulled out and began shooting at the Noel and Aaron. While, another guy came out of a car, next to his ally and began shooting as well. From there distance it wouldn't be more that 25-30 feet apart from them.

Aaron glanced around as he ducked behind a car, as bullets flew passed him or either hit the car. He sighed to himself as he wondered if they were after him or were they after the other guy? He assumed it would be mostly the New Guy as he was recently involved in some recent crap. He sighed thinking what kind of trouble would come this this, but shrugged it off

"Ugh, this isn't one of your friend is it? If he is, what kind of core does he have?" He asked Noel, before he blindingly shot a arcane bolt behind him to the opponent. A weak explosion could be hear behind them as car alarms started to go off, but the barrage of bullets seemed to never stop and the car didn't seem to hold up for much longer.

Noel flinched once he heard several men yell after them. Next thing he knew, they were being shot at. Noel stumbled as he followed Arron, ducking behind the car as he panted heavily. The warmth was already flowing back to his body, but he still felt weak. He cackled at what Aaron said, slapping him fondly on the back. "Not my friends," he said as he watched Arron shoot an arcane bolt. An explosion could be heard but that didn't stop the bullets. He stared down at his hands, pissed as hell. He just wanted to sleep, but those damn Campiones...

He placed that same hand on the ground, and in an instant, ice swiftly travelled to the shooters. No doubt was the frozen water curling over their bodies, disabling them. "Hey, we got a few minutes now, let's run for it," he muttered, out of breathe as he bolted away from the car. "Wait, where's your house again?"

Aaron sighed as he clasped Noel's hand before the two of them glowed a faint green, as they began to blur. Aaron had used his Trick Core, but he sighed as the best he could do was become transparent so, that would have to do, as it was better than nothing. So, the two continued to run down down the street as ghosts, before they turned into another alleyway and stared at the Fire Escape. The building which had the Fire Escape was surprisingly huge, about 8 stories at least, and had other buildings surrounding it covering most of the bottom part of the fire escape. The fire escape itself though wasn't too shabby as from each floor was decorated differently, but it didn't look too crappy.

Aaron with his fingers, aimed at the Fire escape and with a few tries and perfectly aimed arcane bolts, the Fire Escape Ladder came down. The ladder seemed to almost hit the floor but remained about an inch or two off the floor as it stopped it from making noise when it was needed to be used. He sighed as he released his grasp from Noel before he said

"You can go up first, I'll make sure they didn't follow us" He said tiredly as he went to the corner of the alley which they entered from and watched carefully as he waited for Noel to climb up the Fire Escape Ladder.

Nikola entered the office and glanced at what the chief was working on. He took a seat and placed a folder on the desk.

"Look, chief, I think we need to adjust our approach to the families and go after them on an individual basis." He straitened his posture a bit and continued.

"Maybe you won't agree right away, but I don't think we can go after an entire mob all at once. I think I may even have a lead on our latest murder case." Nikola move the file closer to the chief. It centered around the Addario member Noel Makarova.

"That file is a profile on the member I think may be responsible.I didn't get to personally examine the body, but the details seem to match up. If anything it's a lead to go on." He said and awaited a response.

Vinny tensed as he heard the angry shouts of Campione goons. This wasn’t good. They got to the restaurant much faster than he expected. He glanced down at his arm, where the vines were slowly creeping to his elbow. He still had about half of his power reserves left; just enough to last through a short fight if he had to. He looked back at his summoned beast. It had stopped destroying the interior of the restaurant and was staring back at him.

Illa puella est ibi.

A smirk played on the corner of Vinny’s lip. The girl just wouldn’t give up. Her persistence amused him. He called the dark creature to his side, wincing slightly at the chill it generated, and waited for the girl to approach him first.

Off to one side, he watched Caprice deal with the other two Campiones. She had used her Trick Core, fading to invisible while firing shafts of ice at them from random locations. It was a strong move, but Vinny knew she couldn’t keep it up for very long. They had to end it quickly. He gave Dante a nod, signaling for the fire user to finish the job. Dante summoned up a wall of flames and sent them into the side of the restaurant, igniting it. The glass in the windows burst as the fire spread inside.

Haec est ibi, Monstrum Acerbum whispered menacingly. The girl was approaching them. The beast stomped its feet in agitation, salivating at the mouth. Necone possum hoc tempore?

Forsit, Vinny replied, then he addressed the girl. “You’re a persistent one, ain’t ya? Or maybe you just can’t get enough of me.” He ran his fingers through his tousled hair, pretending to fix up his appearance. Then his expression turned cold. “Whatever your reason, I told ya before: I wouldn’t hold back if I saw ya again.” He stroked Monstrum Acerbum’s shoulder, and the beast let lifted its lips in a snarl, revealing a set of snaggletooth fangs.

“E, neca,” Vinny said aloud. The creature responded without hesitation. It lunged towards the girl at a rapid speed. Vinny stood back to let his summoned beast do the dirty work.

---

Noel Makarova

"Great," Noel muttered, grabbing the ladder before wincing in pain. He ignored the pain, climbing up the fire escape ladder as he spit out curses at every rung. Aaron and he had ran for their lives while invisible. A trick core and spirit? Interesting. At least Aaron wasn't ought to kill or arrest him.

---

Police Chief

One of his detectives, Nikola had entered the room. He talked about a few things that hit home. He grabbed the file, opening it to read the compiled profile of an Addario soldier, Noel Makorova. His known M.O? Ice spikes. The man closed his eyes before re-opening them as he look at Nikola seriously.

"Go for it," he began. Before he could say anything else, the door burst open. "Chief! There's been sightings of the murder suspect down 15'th street." The police chief nodded and had a grime smile. "Go get 'im."

----

Sheila and Drake argued the whole time while in combat. While their opponent was invisible and throwing icicles of doom at them, the two were at each others faces, yelling insults. However, both were not totally clueless to the dangerous situation they were in. Sheila used her telekinesis to bring up random objects to protect the two while Drake continued to randomly fire wind blades. The fire then began; the glass shattered and the flames began to lick the inside of the building.

She was right.

Lavinia came eye to eye with the summoner from before. She smiled, rather glad that this Vincenzo wasn't going to let her off easy. It was exactly what she had been waiting for. However, Lavinia caught sight of the horrid creature beside the Addario. "It can't be," she voiced, her eyes wide with surprise and bitter nostalgia. The Addario then said a command in Latin and the all too familiar creature lunged for her. The fire salamander lunged as well, wrapping itself around the creature as it prevented it from coming near Lavi. She reached out to touch black stud earrings; her eyes enraptured by the now flame-engulfed beast.

It felt as if she had met him just yesterday. She was only sixteen when her mother passed away, leaving her alone in a crime-ridden neighborhood. Penniless and a rather useless Spirit Core user, she had wandered the streets, doing everything and anything to survive. Breaking and entering, robberies, and even selling her body at one point. Lavi's life was meaningless back then, till she accidentally came across a creature just like Vincenzo had in his grasp. The one house she had decided to rob was owned by a Campione soldier - but she didn't know that at the time. Cornered by that beast, Lavinia had expected to be ruthlessly killed by the Summon core user. Yet, the man had just called back the beast and took her under his wing.

Really, it was as if she had awakened in a fairy-tale. She was given a new life as a Campione. A new life as a Spirit-Summon core user. He cared for her, patiently guiding her on how to summon mythical creatures like the salamanders. But never, never did he ever talk about summoning the dark creature from the depths. And Lavi never asked about it. The time came when her mentor had suddenly left crime life at age nineteen, leaving her a pair earrings and his wisdom. He was gone. Yet, how could this Addario have the same exact creature?

"Who taught you how to summon Monstrum Acerbum?" she fiercely asked, almost eager to know her mentor's whereabouts and well-being.

“Meo redi,” Vinny flashed the Campione girl a vicious simper as he summoned the creature back to his side. He stroked the beast’s side and it lowered its head in resentful submission to his authority. He tilted his chin up in that cocky manner of his and shifted his weight to lean on one foot, stuffing his hands into his pockets in an almost mockingly casual fashion.

“You want to know who taught me to control this big guy, huh?” Vinny echoed with a scoff. “Well, I’ll tell ya: nobody. I learned how to command him all on my own. I guess I’m just a natural at manipulating monsters of the dark.” He laughed coldly, his knowing smirk spreading slowly across his face. “But I assume you’re really asking the big guy’s last master.” He held out a hand, palm flat and facing up.

“Apere.”

A thin black book materialized in his hand. Ancient symbols decorated the cover. Vinny nonchalantly thumbed through the old yellow pages, purposefully drawing out the silence between him and the girl before he gave her the answer she wanted. After a long moment, he closed the book again with a soft thump.

“This,” Vinny said slowly. “This is the old spell-book I got from him –ah, does it look familiar? You may be interested to know how I acquired such a treasure from him.” He reached up and traced a finger across his throat. “I don’t think I need to go into details. But enough small talk. I believe we have unfinished business.”

“E iterum.”

Cum voluptate.

The beast melted into a shadow to attack once more. Vinny glanced at Dante to check his progress and hoped they could end the fight quickly. The black vines on his arm were spreading halfway across his bicep. He had wasted too much time on his little psychological games earlier. He didn’t have much left for the battle. Nevertheless, he kept his face carefully neutral to hide his anxiety from the girl so she couldn’t read him properly. He resolved to end with victory favoring the Addario crew. He would not accept defeat.

---

The fire salamander unwrapped it's slithery body from the beast, returning back to Lavinia's side. The blonde just watched Vincenzo. His cocky attitude pissed off Lavi to no end, but this man had information she valued over her life. She grimaced. A natural at manipulating monsters of the dark? There was no such thing - unless he was one of those unique summoners. A thin black book then popped out over his outstretched hand as the silence between them overwhelming and tense. She kept her eyes on the book. It was definitely his. There was no doubt. Vincenzo closed the book shut then made the inference that he had killed Lavi's mentor.

She stood there, cold despite the raging fire nearby. She chocked back a dry sob as she placed a hand on her chest. He was dead, all this time. And what he had tried to protect from people was in the hands of her worst enemy. Sharp tears sprung to her eyes and she glared at the Addario as he ordered his beast to attack again. Never had she felt such rage and such sorrow at a time. "He was like a father to me," she whispered, her head throbbing with pain. "You bastard." She didn't notice yet, but the earrings she was given pulsed with waves of magic.

Suddenly, she barked out in laughter. "I really, really want to kill you right now...God, I want to burn everything right now," she maniacally screamed. "Burn." At that moment, the fire salamander shrilled, the raw power from its summoner flowing into its being. The mythical beast grew larger, it's amber eyes fixated at Vincenzo. It would follow Lavi's every wishes; and her wish now was to make everything go away. It leaped towards Vincenzo, intent on fulfilling it's duty.

Much to Drake's and Sheila's horror, they glanced at Lavinia just to see her creature go out of control, no longer leashed by Lavi's rationality. Cain, the Elemental user had just come in, his eyes widened. It was a surprise for all of the Campiones. Lavi's summoning powers were extraordinarily weak since she was originally a Spirit user, but this, this was something else. It seemed that her aspect had finally revealed itself.

At the chief's order Nikola's eyes let off a glow of light and he disappeared. He chose the roof of a tall building as his target location and began searching for the culprit from his vantage point.

After checking the corner of the alleyway he came back to the latter and began climbing up, after getting up he pulled the ladder up. He sighed as he climbed the stairs upseveral floors before he popped up a window before he quickly pushed Noel inside watching him land on a couch before. He rolled in as well before quickly closing g the window

.

While observing the landscape below Nikola caught ear of someone hastily shutting a window and looked over to investigate. He didn't immediately see anyone that resembled his quarry, but it was one of his only leads so he decided to investigate. Nikola's eyes glowed as he turned invisible and teleported next to the window before peering inside.

Although Aaron was pretty sure the two of them go inside his apartment safely, he wasn't sure if anyone had saw him as they entered by, he relaxed himself. He walked around his apartment familiar with it, as it was a decently sized one which had a Master Bedroom, a Guest Bedroom, a Small Living room, which connected into a small kitchen and a Single Bathroom. It was quite comfortable in his apartment as he had been living here for a while now. He came into his kitchen or what was of it, and opened the fridge before he sat down with some water in his hands.