The universal Mafia

Part 2

News were bad for Don: the men he had sent to capture the children had been utterly destroyed by said children and the other members of the god Vegetto's family... Actually, he should have guessed that'd happen, shouldn't he?

But what was even worse than that was the fact that they had been questioned and had given away way too many informations regarding the Mafia, their leaders and the Don himself. The techniques they had been using for so many centuries in order to prevent these henchmen from talking too much had been useless... But Don should have known that they were nothing compared with Vegetto's ability to persuade. Sooner or later, he'd come to pay him back and he'd have nowhere to run to, that was obvious. So, he stayed in his house in the country. Of course, it wasn't the most hidden one, but it was the most comfortable and the one he knew best.

The day he knew Vegetto was looking for him, Don asked for his best and most efficient henchmen to come over and his house was filled with killers armed to the teeth. Some of these warriors were able to annihilate entire continents with a mere hand-wave. He cast a frightened look at his wife and his daughter.

The being resulting of the merging of the two last bloodthirsty Saiyans wouldn't hesitate a split second to kill them slowly. And to make him face it...

But on the other hand, that house was now the most secure place he owned. So he kept his family at his side.

He was so stressed the first evening that he didn't fall asleep before the wee hours. He had placed about two dozen fighters, those he trusted the most, into his room. No suspicious noise or move was detected.

The sun woke Don up the next day. Shining through the over secured bullet-proof windows, the rays fell on his face and he opened his eyes. He was surprised that it was the sun that woke him up instead of an alarm clock or anyone. He also found it strange that where he was starring at, there were none to be seen. He turned over and where his wife should have been resting... there was...

No, there wasn't the head of a horse. There was nothing! His wife wasn't in his bedroom. Actually, he was all alone in the room.

He rushed out of the bed, completely worried, or rather, quite panicked. Yet, he still took the time to put his slippers on. Habits die hard. He then left his room, closing the sliding door very slowly to make as little noise as possible.

There was nobody in the corridor. The many henchmen and robots he had asked to stand watch just weren't here. He could see guns or weapons with blade laying around here and there, but nothing else. There were no hint of fight or struggle. Suddenly, he thought crossed his mind and panic really stroke Don and he started running in the corridor and to his daughter's room. The lock recognised his DNA and the door opened. He came in but again, there was nobody! Neither his daughter, nor the seasoned female warriors he had commanded to stay with her. All was perfectly quiet, as if it was an abandoned room.

He went near the door and pushed a button. The security module appeared and Don asked to the small computer:

“Give me the log of the entries and exits.”

“Twenty eight second ago, entry of Don. Seven hours and twenty three minutes ago, exit of Don. Seven hours and thirty two minutes ago, entry of Shodo Etna. Seven hours...”

Don turned off the computer and left the room. Since the previous day, none had come in or out after him. The one who emptied this room hadn't come through the door.

Sweating, he looked to the right and the left before leaving the room and then, came back into the corridor. There were not a noise. He ran towards the stairs that lead to the huge living room. That room had never been so empty. There were no guards and no guests. Even the huge machine gun he had someone set up was gone. There were just some left over bolts, as if a very efficient furniture remover had taken it away. His escalator – that he had set at the lowest speed level – brought him to the first floor. As he was going down, he was looking around, but didn't see the mere living being, not even a bug.

Once he had arrived, he went to have a peek at a room that should have been filled with guards, but he saw playing cards laying around, left as if they had all gone to get a cup of coffee at the same time. But the coffee pot was on the table, in a corner of the room. It was still hot and there were warm cups around... The complete disappearance of his men and his family members... it happened about one hour ago!

Sweating still, and his skin getting colder and colder, Don put a hand over his stomach. He felt as if he was going to throw up, but his stomach was empty. He looked at the many corridors and rooms that were divided by transparent material that could be seen from the entrance. Right now, all he could see was the lack of people and life.

Forgetting all about being prudent, Don rushed to the front doors that easily opened. He ran out.

From the top of his hills, he could see the private forest, the terrace and the parking lots that made his garden. It spread as far as the eye could see. The trees were there, and so were the cars and the spaceships. Everything was how he had left them. The only difference was that there was no one to watch over them.

That and the fact that the atmosphere was heavier than usual. Darker actually. But it wasn't due to the lack of people. No, it was worse than that. And that's when Don understood what really bothered him: the silence. The wind wasn't blowing, the birds weren't chirping, the pegasuses were silent in their stables, there were no bird of prey in the sky. Don shook all over and ran to a car that he opened and took out a pair of binocular. He used them to look at the forest: the leaves were static, as if paralysed. There wasn't the least bird, nothing moved there. He wiped his forehead and looked somewhere else. He increased the range of his binocular and looked out of his property, towards the faraway village.

Its streets were empty!

No passer-by, no cars. No movement from the windows.

Don thought he was dead. He was trapped in time, he was the only one left. There was none else but him!

Vegetto had left him everything: health, wealth, everything he owned... but he had taken his right to mix with any living being. Don was going to be all alone, for all eternity?

Falling on his knees, he felt as if he was going to cry. He starred at the trees of his forest and thought that they had never been as motionless and quiet.

And just when he was about to think he had lost his mind, he heard a noise.

It was a faint noise he hadn't emitted. It was as if a piece of china-ware was hitting another piece of china-ware, on the other side of the house.

Don ran. He ran and turned the corner of his home to the terrace where he usually took his breakfast and from which he could both see the scenery and be sheltered from the wind.

There was someone at the table. Vegetto!! He was hidden behind a newspaper but Don recognised him right away. He was alone, drinking from a cup of tea he held like he was an aristocrat, without paying attention to Don. It was as if he was eating his breakfast at home, reading a newspaper. Yesterday news silently scrolled down on the electronic paper.

Don couldn't say a word. He wasn't allowed to as Vegetto hadn't given the mere hint that he had acknowledged his presence. But the god knew he was standing here. He even had followed Don with his magical eye since the latter had woken up. Don understood that the first sound he had heard had been emitted on purpose. Then Vegetto folded his newspaper and Don discovered that his stare was already focused on him, as if he had been looking at him through the paper. His eyes were focused, a deadly glare, on Don's.

Don felt tears running on his cheeks as he tried with difficulty to hold the gaze of the most terrible being he'd ever meet. Why had he thought he could challenge that powerful demon?

What had become of his wife?

What had become of his daughter?

The moment these thoughts crossed his mind, a sadistic grin spread on Vegetto's lips, showing white and terrible teeth. He punctuated his smile with a sarcastic “Hin!” as if he had read Don's thoughts. Don fell backwards, for he was utterly terrified.

Vegetto's smile slowly faded away, just as Don finished peeing in his pyjamas pants. Only then he really talked.

“What would you give to have me bringing people back and getting things back to the way they were before?”

The godfather was shaking for he was afraid, but also because he was excited and glad to know that there was a way to have his family back! But about the price to pay... Vegetto didn't want money, he was certain of that.

“I've... just my life left to give...” he answered.

“You life? But, my poor Don, your life is not worth anything.”

He trembled even more.

“I can kill you whenever I want, wherever I want. I haven't done all this for your life, Don.”

So, he really had emptied an entire village and made all his henchmen disappear... Some of them could easily go faster than sound speed but they had proven unable to act fast enough to defend themselves against Vegetto! He also had taken each animal of his forest and of his stables... and stopped the wind as well. All this just with his powers!

“I... I understood, Vegetto...-sama... Our organisation will never again attack your family... I swear, on every generations to come! We'll forget everything we know about you. Never again will we...”

“That's a start.” admitted Vegetto. “You got the first part right. Now, what about the second part?”

Don gave a start. The second part?

“My... daughter?”

Vegetto laughed out loud.

“But my dear Don, your daughter isn't worth anything either. I already have her. And I can have her any time I want, anywhere I want.”

Don swallowed hard at the thought that, wherever his daughter was, she always was within the Saiyan's grasp and that he couldn't do anything about it.

“The second part is the complete dismantling of your organisation. I want a complete suspension of every dirty works your Mafia could be doing on any planet. But I want it to happen slowly, quietly, with no violence or rebellious gangs. I want all miscreants to be reintegrated in a normal life. I want the racketeerings, threats, drugs traffickings and weapon dealings to end. You have your whole life to achieve it, but you better start now, Don! Be prepared for the biggest achievement of your life: it'll be the end of that Mafia and the beginning of a more pleasant world. And if the result aren't continuous, then you, your family and any other bosses of that Mafia are going to live your entire life all alone.”

Don was shaking, but he had understood. He managed to straighten his back, even though he still was on his knees. “Alright!” he clearly answered.

And then, Don felt a very swift breeze on his face. That was the usual breeze he felt when the North wind was blowing. The wind was back!

Actually, Vegetto had merely released his telekinetic power that had prevented the gigantic air masses to go up in the sky, toward less warm and less pressurized places. Then he stopped sending a dark aura all over the place. It had been so thin that Don hadn't seen it, even if he had perceived it in the form of an uneasiness that he couldn't really explain. Every animals, from the worm to the eagle, including the doe and the little bird, felt relieved and left their dens or their nests. The fledglings started chirping and the condors went in the sky right away and started circling.

Don was hearing the usual sounds the animal emitted and produced.

Vegetto got up as he was emptying his cup. Then he threw it in the air and disappeared.

Don couldn't see that Vegetto was touching each man from the tip of his fingers, but he did see his guards, his dozens of warriors reappearing in a very short time. Eventually, Vegetto reappeared and his cup of tea fell into his hand and he put it back on its saucer.

The henchmen didn't attack. They merely fell on their knees to worship their god. The entire house was now full of life.

And Don understood that he had made his promise in front of his entire army.

Even he had the stupid idea to not keep his promise, then everyone was now aware that he was at Vegetto's orders, and so were they. He got up rushed in his house through the French window. He climbed the stairs as fast as he could and ran through the corridor. On his way, he saw some of his warrior kneeling with their head in direction of the terrace, even if they couldn't see it. Even the powerful and impressive Krull of Askull had submitted to Vegetto. And yet, none of them showed signs of having been injured. He almost fell when he turned the corner. The secured door slide when it recognised his DNA and he rushed in. The female warriors were on the ground and his daughter, who was sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees on the four-posted bed, was alright.

Don ran to her and hold her tight in his arms while she was sighing of exasperation, for she was upset by her father's troublesome display of affection.

When Don came back in the garden, Vegetto had disappeared and he wasn't meant to see him again. He learnt that each of his men had been teleported so fast that they couldn't have done a single move, nor they could have noticed that it had happened with the others as well. Vegetto had moved more than two hundreds men and animals in the same second at different places. In these places, he had hold them in his power just with his aura: he had crushed them and eventually they had admitted their defeat. Those who had resisted the most were the most exhausted, but none of them had been harmed during the confrontation because none of them had managed to get up.

The neighbouring city had found itself visiting another small town that was located hundreds miles away. Aside from a burned cake, a final boss of Legend of Zelda XXIV that hadn't been defeated for there hadn't been any player to do it, there hadn't been the least problem. Even the old centenarian, Hypochondriac Alfred, who suffered from heart trouble, hadn't noticed anything.

The god Vegetto had managed to have the entire interstellar Mafia at his order in only half a day and that event added to his legend.