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[u][h1]Chapter Two[/h1][/u]
[color=0054a6][h2]On the Waterfront[/h2][/color]

[i]Vinnie "the Vet" Gugliano was the king of Watervale, undisputed. The Gugliano crime family already existed before Vinnie took the reigns, having been started under Sicilian immigrant Luciano "Wiseman" Gugliano and expanded further under Gianluigi "Five Fingers" Gugliano. Vinnie, the grandson of Luciano and a veteran himself, took the reigns at the humble age of 23, having returned from combat in Afghanistan alongside others including the legendary Hugo Powers. "The Veteran" Gugliano wanted more than what was in front of him, and so he began bringing his military discipline and ruthless attitude into the family business of crime. It worked. Before Vinnie, the Guglianos were the third strongest family behind the warring Petruchio family and Colombo family. Vinnie organized an ambush on the Colombo family and then single-handedly took out all the Petruchios. In the span of one week, the Guglianos went from a relatively small group of criminals to the strongest criminal enterprise in all of Watervale.

Vinnie continued to expand his family's influence, though. With the help of his consigliere and trusted advisor Emilio "The Gent" Ranucci, Vinnie controlled a massive extortion racket that ran throughout all of Watervale. Any business that wanted to stay open had to pay up to the Guglianos, or they would strangely find their entire residence torched. Vinnie then moved to other lucrative enterprises, beginning a massive illegal market for weapons and drugs that runs across the entire city. If you're taking a part in any sort of illegal activity, odds are, Vinnie is getting a fraction of the proceeds.

Of course, H.E.R.O. has tried to stop Vinnie, but Vinnie is smart enough to know how to deal with heroes, and has quite a large amount of blood on his ledger. He knows that for his business to keep afloat, he has to spend a pretty penny on protection. This strategy has thus far worked very effectively, with Vinnie employing some of the top mercenaries and bodyguards in the business and even other villains to help keep the Guglianos at the top spot. Worse comes to worse, Vinnie deals with things himself.

Nobody ever wants Vinnie to deal with things himself, though. For their own sake.[/i]

[hr][hr][sub]12:01 PM[/sub]
[sub]Floor 4 Auditorium[/sub]
[sub]HERO One[/sub]
[sub]Savior's Island, Castleburg[/sub]

[color=lightslategray]"I'm sure all of you are wondering why I've called you here today."[/color]

Hugo was standing in the front of the large auditorium that was kept on Floor 4 for large-scale meetings. There were many things [i]off[/i] about this meeting. Firstly, the meeting itself. Very rarely were all of HERO's heroes called into one meeting room for a large-scale meeting. Normally there was a greater sense of autonomy there. Today, though, the entire room was jam-packed full of heroes. Nearly every hero the organization employed, with a couple missing individuals (Division X most prominently), were present in the one room, which, even though it was a large room, was still full shoulder-to-shoulder. This was one sign that something strange was up.

Secondly, stationed around the room were a couple of mysterious individuals all wearing suits and sunglasses. They looked like the Secret Service and stood, unmoving, at the corners of the room. HERO did not employ the Men in Black to guard their HQ, yet these individuals clearly had enough clearance to ascend past the first floor. This was another sign that something strange was up.

The third and last sign that something was wrong was Hugo's attire. Hugo typically was dressed in some sort of military garb, and when not in uniform, he would normally wear something casual, such as a polo shirt and jeans or a sweater or something that was not overly formal but not overly casual. Today, though, he was wearing a sleek black dinner suit, with a black jacket, slacks, and tie, almost matching the attire of the mysterious Men in Black scattered across the room. Hugo did not normally wear suits, so this was something strange indeed.

Hugo coughed loudly into a microphone headset he had on, his voice resonating across the auditorium's speaker system. [color=lightslategray]"Hello to all of you. Hopefully your Monday has so far been tolerable,"[/color] he said, looking around. [color=lightslategray]"I've called all of you here today to discuss something that occurred a week ago that I need to bring to your attention."[/color]

Hugo tapped a very small remote that he was holding in his hand, and suddenly the large screen behind him turned alight, depicting a destroyed building that was tattered in vines. [color=lightslategray]"One week ago Castleburg saw a large invasion of Ambleweeds across the city. We were able to assess that they were being generated by the plant-based villainess Greenhouse."[/color] He tapped his remote again to show an old lady, the type you'd expect to see at a Bingo game and not destroying the city, onscreen. [color=lightslategray]"HERO responded to this by dispatching as many heroes as possible to fight the Ambleweeds. While the Ambleweed invasion was successfully dispersed, there was a great deal of damage done to the city, and Greenhouse was able to evade capture."[/color]

Hugo tapped his little remote a few times, flicking through several slides that depicted streets that were crushed, buildings that were damaged and/or burnt to cinders and/or totally collapsed. [color=lightslategray]"We were able to assess that HERO's employees did approximately 7.6 billion dollars in infrastructural damages. Furthermore, while all civilian casualties were averted, we did have to pay significant amounts to develop cures to several toxins that were ingested by 6 of our heroes throughout the course of the skirmish."[/color]

Hugo seemed to have a pained expression on his face as he flicked to the next slide. [color=lightslategray]"In response to this and several other incidents in our recent past involving abuse of powers, ICOSA has decided to take action to help improve HERO's crime-fighting with what has been termed a 'Restorative Initiative.' ICOSA has dispatched heroes from across the globe to help guide HERO as supervisors. The first two will be arriving today. "[/color]

Hugo grunted like he was annoyed with this whole situation (which he was). [color=lightslategray]"Hopefully this teaches you lot to cooperate a little better. In any case, I'm leaving for Paris today to attend an ICOSA council. I trust that you all won't give Christina a hard time while I'm gone,"[/color] he said, glaring at the crowd, before giving his suit a tug to straighten it out, huffing as he did so. [color=lightslategray]"Alright, that's all I have for now. You are all dismissed."[/color] Then, after a moment's hesitation, he added, [color=lightslategray]"Except for Brianna Hart. I need to speak with you up here. Pronto."[/color] At this, there were a chorus of [i]"oohs"[/i] as if the entire HERO roster had returned to elementary school, but they were quickly silenced by Hugo's glare. [color=lightslategray]"I said you were dismissed! Now OUT!"[/color]

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