While it was thrilling to torment this guy and watch him writhe in pain... it didn't last nearly as long as one would expect. The party with that ended quickly.
But that didn't mean they couldn't continue their own party elsewhere. "Yeah you and me both mate. But we can still go and have a little more fun somewhere? Who's to say we need to stop here huh?"
Tink smirked at Tito, wiggling her eyebrows as if to dare Tito into doing more.
Tito wasn't planning on stopping, no. Tito had seen the worse of the world and so when he choose people. He was willing to kill people.
This man wouldn't be walking away.
His own hand sparked, the others heart stopping. It wasn't really all that satisfying, but rarely were these things, the anger was still there. But they had done something and that was better than most.
"Well that's that I guess. I think we can mess with his place a bit show off just how anti-magick he was."
It was really for the better that Tink and Tito came here to ruin him. A guy like this didn't deserve to keep going. Tink snorted, stepping on one of the guy's arms while Tito covered his mouth.
"You know I was never very good with authority," Tink admitted with a smirk. "Give him what he deserves. Put him outta his misery," she added, to which the man started to squirm and try to get out of their grips more. Fool.
Tink held onto him from one side to stop the incessant squirming.
TITO:The RAS was getting closer, the recruits were getting bolder. Some of them at least.
Others were faltering. (Which to Tito could look like the slightest bit of hesitancy.) But he still was responsible for them.
Sadly.
But what he did know was people were poking around and he wouldn't have his team the weak link.
Calling a meeting Tito grabbed a cup of coffee off a little set up because apparently he was too mean and grumpy to hold a meeting without some sort of benefit to his team and so someone prepared snacks.
“As you know the RAS has a presence in Swynlake and we're trying to suss them out before they can find us. We have a list of people for you to watch out for if they are poking around. I'm not gonna read it to you but it's been texted to you.”
List included:
James Hawkins
Belle Acheron
Judy Moon
Mallory McHale
Amelia Gabble
Mary Gibbs
AUDREY: Audrey, of course, knew this was coming. She’d been culling through the data and names of everyone in town. She knew pretty much everyone’s business at this rate, but remembering it all was another thing.
As the text came through she saw names that had come up countless times. “So, what’s the deal? Report back if someone’s getting too close or something? Lay a trap? Wait for them to come to us? Haven’t heard much about what we’re supposed to do with this info.”
Really, Audrey was fine with any option, she’d done her job in finding possible names, the others were more of the boots on the ground operatives.
Banzai:Banzai scrolled through the names, thumb tapping the side of his phone in an absent rhythm as he skimmed the list. His jaw twitched once. James Hawkins. That one stood out. The rest he’d look into later. He’d memorize them, actually — wouldn’t be the first time he studied a hit list between grading essays.
He glanced up at Tito and Audrey, then leaned back in his chair, stretching an arm across the back of the seat next to him like he owned the whole damn room. Which, in some ways, he did. At least in vibe.
“Some of these names? I’ve seen them around campus,” he said finally, voice low and easy, with that familiar undercurrent of confidence that made people either trust him or want to punch him. Sometimes both. “RAS likes to play the long game — plant themselves quiet, act normal. Blend in. Professors. Researchers. Maybe even students. But I’m there most days. I can keep eyes on them. Eavesdrop. Nudge things around.”
He gave a little shrug, the kind of casual movement that said he didn’t mind doing the dirty work — in fact, he preferred it.
“I’m not saying we burn down a building over a hunch,” he added, with a flicker of a smirk, “but we should be ready. Set some bait. See who bites. People get sloppy when they think no one’s watching.”
CAMILO:
Camilo knew names on this list. Of course they did. The Madrigals had lived in Swynlake for nearly ten years now. They’d gotten to know the people there.
Mal was Maddy’s roommate. Ameila was friends with Isabela. Judy was cousins with Dolores’ boyfriend. Belle was the mayor’s wife. And a mum.
Looking at this list made him feel sick. And not for the reasons it might make the other people here feel sick. What was MAFIA planning to do to them? And how complicit was Camilo, sitting here with the information in the palm of his hand and too cowardly to do anything with it?
“I–uh, know some of these people,” Camilo volunteered. He was hoping by saying he was sussing them out that, well, he could protect them instead. “I can look into Mal and Judy, maybe Amelia…at least.”
TINK:
Tink was happy to know she already had a good way in with one of the people on the list. It meant she had an advantage on the others for figuring out if the guy was a RAS agent. It would be satisfying to get ahead of him. Guy was lurking around her bar enough anyway. It would be better if she could catch him before he could catch onto what she was doing. Right?
It seemed like the best option. “I can keep an eye on James to some degree. We’re both fairies for one thing, and he’s been hanging out a bit around the bar.” She really didn’t care much about the rest of the list. As long as she had one she could handle, she was happy.
TITO:“A few of you have direct connections. Tink with James. Camilo with Judy. Banzai with Mary. Audrey you have a little bit of an indirect with working your way through Flynn and coworkers to that uppity friend group with gabble.” Because yes Tito knew this town. He watched and he figured out the friends.
Fairies. To who's dating who. Who was on campus. Who was in little brunch groups and full of themselves.
“We will need some more directly contacts with Mallory and Belle. But there's talks of Someone in Voyd's group getting very close to her. Otherwise if you can integrate with those in your circles we want to know everything. Anything that makes them tick. Anything that makes them weak. This is where the RAS fails. They Integrate so tightly and rely on a broken system to protect their people. Unlike us who will do whatever it takes to protect ours. We can lean on them as soon as we know what makes them tick.”
AUDREY:
Ah. The ‘uppity’ friend group. Still odd that any of them would be capable of doing anything covert, but Gabble did fuck with sticking her nose in places it shouldn’t be. It would take a little bit of work, sure. But, the obvious route would be through Flynn to his tight laced girlfriend, and then by just being around, Gabble would well, ‘gab’.
“Isn’t McHale a pretty easy mark?” Audrey mused, of course, she only picked things up from nights out and the rumor mill, “Although she’s been a little less out and about. But plenty have seen the inside of her apartment. Shouldn’t be exactly hard if anyone wants to try their hand at another round of hook up espionage.” Audrey didn’t say this judgmentally, she was tossing ideas out as they came to her. She thought everyone involved had done a pretty great job at gathering pertinent information so far. Of course, if no one else was able, she could take one for the team and deal with her easily.
She shifted in her seat, thinking outloud again as she pulled her hair over to one side, “Belle’s definitely the bigger challenge from what I’ve heard, then again if my kids got kidnapped a few times and my life threatened a few more, I’d be pretty fuckin’ untrusting too. So if their group has any leads, that’d be the easier route than someone brand new.”
BANZAI:Banzai finally spoke up again. “Joanna’s already in play. Voyd tasked her to infiltrate RAS. She’s aiming to get placed as a ward. If she lands it, we’ve got someone behind the curtain. And if she doesn’t?” He gave a small shrug. “Tells us something….”
Joanna was the perfect mark. Banzai was half convinced she wouldn’t even know half of the information she would be bringing back to the operation which makes it safe.
The rest of the list though…hell it was half the town but Banzai has been curious of Belle and her husband but who wouldn’t. Maybe it was the political side and he knew what his family was hiding.
“Belle’s doesn’t seem loud but her husband’s the damn mayor. Yeah the town isn’t at the major city level but politics are still politics. There’s layers there. Could be RAS. Could be worse. But we’d be stupid not to look.”
CAMILO:
Camilo hated this.
The thing was: Camilo loved gossip. They loved it! They grew up in a tiny town. They lived in a tiny town now. Their family came from a small town. It was in their blood to be a gossip. There was no harm in it, really, on the day to day. Maybe you’d hurt someone’s feelings or spread something untrue, but that was pretty low stakes, all things considered.
And the tea was usually piping.
But this little gossip sesh?
People’s lives were at stake. If any of these people they were discussing–Amy, James, Mal, Belle–were discovered as RAS…Camilo had no idea what MAFIA was gonna do to them.
He didn’t say anything. There was nothing else, really, for him to add to the conversation. They’d offered their services, tried to protect who they could…
TITO
Some voices got quiet with thoughts. Some loud with solutions. Ideas of grandeur but as long as they didn't make a move on Tito he was happy to let them continue.
Those that would fail would fail and Tito wouldn't care. And those that succeed. Yay for them.
To him this was low enough stakes not to bring the fear down on anyone.
They could all just continue as is, the rest chattering about the information they had amassed.
Maybe once long ago Tink might have found some of this more alarming, but in this moment she was absolutely hooked in. And Tito was really hot intimidating the hell out of this asshole who disrespected the dead.
"And don't even know when to stop talking shit. Boy, you need to register just what position you're in," Tink commented as Tito squatted. The guy was sprawled on the ground, and Tink went ahead and stepped on one of his hands, staying there while they guy groaned and cursed at them. "Time for you to repent and shit before you croak you know?"
"Wait- wait you wouldn't? You can't?" It turned out the man was finally starting to realize the trouble that he was in, the trouble he had caused as he started to scream.
Everyone usually did- in the face of death or pain they always realized how fragile their life was, their ego.
"I don't think it's smart to tell me what I can and can not do." Tito said simply clasping his hand over the others mouth to stop the screaming.
"I don't know about you, but I don't do well with people telling me what I can or can not do."
Camilo took the phone from Tito, examining the woman in the photo. There was something that felt...a little familiar about her. Maybe it was in the lines of her face, soft and motherly...
He studied the picture for a few moments. It was harder to work with when it wasn't a video. Camilo didn't know how her mouth formed without that small, professional smile. Though, he figured that would be fine enough for what they needed.
"Right."
Taking a deep breath, Camilo willed themselves to change.
And then, there they were.
One of the big bosses.
There wasn't a good way for them to look at themselves, so they turned to Tito and struck a stupid pose. "How do I look?"
But Tito couldn't look at his Mother's face without thinking that, it didn't matter how well Camilo did, to him it was all horrible- it was all stupid.
"Perfect. Just like I remember her." Subtract a few lines and it would have been the last time he saw her. Afterall none of them visited him in prison.
"Alright, if, save the magicks that don't realize they are being taken advantage of and I'll deal with the rest." His hand sparked ready to send this place to the ground.
Tito was letting her do what she pleased? It was past Christmas, but it felt like a gift anyway. A smirk spread across her face. The idiot did start running, and Tink's wings emerged and she launched herself forward, zipping across the room and tackling Charles to the ground.
She swung her fist and got a good hit in on his jaw too. Good thing she learned a bit about a proper fist and all that from Gem. The guy below her groaned in pain. She added to his misery and kneed him in the groin.
"This is just the beginning of torment for you mate." She kneed him again just to hear him groan again. "You don't talk shit about those that're better than you."
Apparently the training Tink was doing was paying off. That was a decent punch. And while Tito grimaced at the two knees to the groin he could respect it.
"You don't even know what you did to deserve it do you?" Tito questioned walking up to him slowly and slowly squating so he could poke the man's forehead.
"Michael ring a bell? MAFIA? your very loud and wrong opinions."
"Fuck you. You're all terrorists! He deserved to die."
"Nah it's people like you, who speak ill of the dead who can't defend themselves that deserve to die. But don't worry. We're here to speak for him."
Well..it was maybe a little hard. After all, Camilo's powers were...not what they once were. Something was Going On™️but they were trying to pretend that wasn't the case. It would be fine! Didn't sound like anyone was going to be paying that close attention. All they had to do was slip their way into the back and bam!
"Right, uh--you have a picture of any of the employees or whatever?" Generally, someone did some scouting and what not.
"I mean...it's not that big of a place, I feel like...they probably do know, y'know? Not that you don't know what you're talking about! Just, uh, trying to be careful is all..."
Yeah see Tito didn't feel like being careful, he wasn't sure if they had ever found out the pattern once he was arrested, but they had never charged him with anything- therefore he assumed they were all still idiots.
"Sure- you can pretend to be one of the big bosses. Everyone else will scatter then. No one talks to them and leaves them be." It was easy to pull up the information, grabbing a picture of his Mother from an article.
"Can you manage?" Because Tito wasn't sure Camilo could.
Tink's lips curled up into a grin. "Gladly," she agreed to it easily. Tink wanted to be involved. She wanted to be useful, and she was all about getting some good payback. After all, who would dare to belittle the dead? It was altogether revolting.
Even worse when someone was spreading false stories of someone.
She watched Tito short out the house's power, her smile only growing wider. "You are way too cool. I lucked out on my mentor," Tink decided, stepping forward toward the house, eager to go get the idiot that had wronged Tito's friend.
Ladies, gentleman, and folks of all genders: Camilo was very much not easy breezy. Camilo was difficult hurricane-y. Hard stormy. Complicated completely-still-as-a-desert-air.
They would love to say they were easy, breezy, beautiful, Covergirl, but that was simply not the case.
Camilo was trying, though. The thing was: Camilo still believed in MAFIA's mission. It wasn't that they doubted it. Only their own ability to stomach it. Revolution was ugly, they knew that. They'd seen it first hand. Kids they'd grown up with had gone and died for it.
They had wanted to do that too...except the dying part. Or the killing part. Or the torturing or--y'know most of the bad stuff. They just kinda wanted to be...part of it all.
The price of that was just much steeper than they'd ever anticipated.
"Just, uh, y'know, lemme know what I gotta do. I'm ready. Tag me in, coach."
"Pretend to be someone else, get me in the back door and then we'll see what's going on." Tito only planned on being slightly sneaky at the beginning, if someone found them after-
too bad for them.
"I'm sure it won't be that hard. Places like this never care about who actually work here. They probably forgot all their employees."
Oh, Karen wanted the warden to eat graveyard dirt too.
While the fucker hadn't directly hurt Karen, he had directly hurt--and murdered-- hundreds of magicks under his 'care.' He hadn't been the target of the heist but that didn't mean he wasn't still a target.
Now, after months of lowkey surveillance from several MAFIA members, they'd gotten to know the bloke's schedule down to the minute. He was corporate swine. Which meant he moved slowly, predictably. He had security, but he also had weaknesses.
The best time to take him out would be in his own home. Voyd took Shockwave there now using their portals. They were outside the gates. Soon as Voyd took them inside those gates, they'd probably tip off some of the emergency measures. But this didn't have to be a clean assassination-- just one that got results.
Voyd grinned behind their mask. "I'm waiting for your signal, boss." Despite being at the same level now, Shockwave would always be their squad leader.
And when Shockwave gave that signal, another void opened, its sister void just beyond the gate.
Electricity was running all over his body, he was a walking taser, a deadly taser at this point and thankfully Voyd knew enough to not even try and reach out.
He'd try to stop it but this wasn't the time for him to be making exceptions.
"No need to be quiet huh?" Shockwave stated electrifying the gate. Anyone that tried to get out this would be enough to stun them.
"Let's go-" Taking the portal, Shockwave didn't paused as he walked in and walked straight for the door breaking it open.
"Well that's a bold move, badmouthing the dead. This guy deserves to be tormented." Tink didn't think well of anyone who did that shit. It was beyond low. Tink was already on board. She really would have been in without explanation anyway, but it was nice to be informed.
Her leader might not be Karen, but he was a hottie too. So Tink could handle that. "I'm in, obviously. I would have been either way, but I do love a good payback situation," Tink admitted with a grin. "Let's go!"
And this is why Tink was quickly becoming his favourite of the new recruits. She wasn't afraid of the dirty work. Of course it was in the name of justice.
But Tito had a feeling if he said the right thing she would jump anyway.
Noted by exactly that. "You're more than welcomed to get a few good hits in. But I love a good physiological moment of torture. When they need to fear every second." Setting his hand on the wall electricity ran from his hand shortting out everything in the house plunging it into darkness.
Oh Tink lucked out! She got to do a mission with the hot guy. Well, her hot mentor/leader now really. But either way, Tink wasn't complaining. She hoped she could win him over a bit. And if she got the chance to flirt a little too, she wouldn't complain.
Tink shrugged her shoulders. "I might have," she replied with a small smile. "I'm up for anything. I know what I signed up for mate." Some people seemed uncomfortable by the dark that went along with MAFIA, but not Tink. She thought they were doing something concrete to make a difference. And that was huge!
"Just let me know what you need me for. I'll do whatever you want. Still working on my fight skills, but I'll make or do whatever else you need."
"Well then this could we the perfect way to work on it. There's this asshole who's been badmouthing an old friend of mine. An old dead friend of mine just because he stood up for what he believe in." Tito started with a grin.
"I think it's my job to make sure his legacy is protected. So i'm more than willing to make sure you get some practice like the good leader I am while making sure this guy is paid back 1000 times."
It had taken a little time for the dust to settle, As security ramped up at the prison, As people calmed down and went back to their normal lives.
Tito was plotting and planning.
There was still so much damage he wanted to create, so much destruction he was owed.
Afterall his favourite part of the break in was the fact they had left the warden alive. It wasn't on purpose to leave him for Tito but it put a smile on his face.
It hadn't taken Tito a long time before he had done some research on his family once he got out of prison. The benefit of his name being home, he had to just wait for the public to do the research for him.
To bombard them with questions about their shameful son.
It wasn't hard after that to find all the shops they continued to open on the back of Magicks.
So he was going to burn it down.
He didn't need help to do that- but asking Camilo was calculated risk. Sure they were key to the prison break but Tito wanted to see more.
And this would prove to him that Camilo was worthy of MAFIA.
"I only care to see if any Magicks are locked somewhere on premise. After that I'm sure everyone else will get out fine."
When Karen first met Tito, they'd had a feeling they'd never get on. Karen was extroverted, friendly, and easy-going. Tito preferred to hug the walls. He wasn't in MAFIA to make friends or play house (his words). He wanted to break the shit that had broken him.
Karen hadn't always understood that. Over time though-- as the world chipped at Karen, when Simon died-- Karen got it.
Maybe Tito didn't want friends, but he had friends now. Karen loved him, trusted him, and depended on him. He had conviction and that was more than you could say for most motherfuckers in the world.
"Oi, don't kick my squad's arses, I'm mama birding them!" Karen exclaimed. "Kick your own squad's ass."
Tito rolled his eyes, he had some good people. Banzai was trust worthy and decent. Tink was ambitious. Camilo seemed a little weak and Audrey, well the tech wiz's weren't really his style but it was good to have someone to handle the back end.
"You recruited two of them. Anything I should know?"
