Shovels In Spades

"Nice place," Daz commented as he landed the Ridomochi Final Model and got out while holding Rose.

"It's very colourful," Mu commented as he sealed his Cloud of Tartarus in its bottle.

They had all just arrived at Los Angeles' city hall which was now covered almost head-to-toe in graffiti.

Rose squirmed about in her brother's arms and only opened her mouth when he had placed her in her wheelchair. "Timothy gave the building to the gangs as a peace offering so they'd stop raiding his military. The tactic worked, but it was a shaky alliance at best. They never respected him, and he never trusted them."

"Good. That gives us more ground to work with if they weren't loyal," Daz said as he twisted his car key in the air, returning his Ridomochi to its private subspace inside of the magical object.

Jim looked nervous as he followed the two siblings and the odd Asian man into the building. Seeing the massive peridot, as well as Daz's shovel floating behind them gave him some courage, but pretty much everyone that they passed were staring at them menacingly and they all had a firearm or a dangerous-looking blade in their hands or at their waist.

"Feel free to steal their luck," Daz suddenly said as the four of them made their way towards the central chamber of the building where they'd been asked to meet with the gang leaders.

Jim turned to look at the young reaper in confusion. "I-Is that okay?"

Daz shrugged. "They aren't looking at me with respect even though I just cut a building in half and killed their old official leader before my massive flying city showed up, so yeah, I hardly care if you deprive them of their luck or not. Besides, everyone here has a pretty lengthy criminal record."

Jim's eyes lit up. Nothing pleased him more than absorbing the luck of others. In fact, it was almost like a drug to him at this point, so he didn't question Daz any further and got to work.

Before long, the four of them were in the city hall's council chamber. Daz was more interested in the people sitting around and what weapons they had, but Rose's eyes were drawn to the flags and tags plastered all over the walls.

"Artistic," she said. Whether that was a compliment or not was difficult to tell due to her tone.

Mu's eyes were practically glued to the gun made of fire that was being loosely held by the dark-skinned man in charge of New Bloods. His eyes, however, soon found something else to stare at.

The young and gorgeous Asian woman wearing a revealing Chinese dress had a strange glowing necklace hanging from her neck. She winked at Mu when she noticed his gaze, but he didn't regard her coy action.

Why would he look at her face when there was such a beautiful bauble to gawk at just below it instead?

The light-skinned man seated in the room's central chair got up and smiled. "King Daz, it's nice to finally meet you."

"I wish I could say the same, but then I'd be lying just like you are," Daz coldly stated.

A laugh came from the leader of New Bloods while a few of the other gang members either smiled in amusement or frowned.

"Well, you'll have to forgive me considering your reputation. Would you like me to be entirely honest with you instead?" the leader of Armenian Power, Anastas, asked.

Daz nodded as he controlled the ancient peridot to float just behind his thighs. He then sat on it casually. "Yes. I assume you have terms for me to accept before you'll all fall under my rule?"

"Hey, hey, hey, ain't no one said nutin' about bein' ruled by you, King Whitey," the leader of Reformed Crips said as he got up and swaggered over towards Daz. "If you is gunna says different, then we about to have a problem, Brother. I ain't outta the box, and I don't plan to get out anytime soon."

Daz slowly locked eyes with the man and asked, "Is that your final say on the matter?"

Anastas got a bad feeling about what was about to happen next, so he quickly moved to prevent any bloodshed. "Alfredo, back off."

"I don't do what you say, Big Man. This kid is frontin' on our turf! He thinks that just 'cuz he went and snuffed out that fool of a governor that he can take control of what's ours!" the leader of Reformed Crips yelled as he drew his poison-soaked dagger menacingly.

"Picture that," the leader of New Bloods snorted as he cocked his head back mockingly.

"You say sum'in, Buster?" Alfredo remarked pointedly.

"Ha, if anyone in this room is a buster, it's you, Niggah. Sitcho ass down. I'm finna cap it before he does. You makin' us all look like clowns," the red bandana man claimed. Every other gang leader then said similar things to Alfredo, forcing him to withdraw.

"Interesting inner-politics you have going on here," Daz said to Anastas, clearly in a mocking tone.

He smiled kindly. "We're just one big disjointed family."

"I see. Anyway, your terms? Lay them out so I can reject them and tell you what is actually going to happen," Daz said very domineeringly, earning disapproval from each of the present gang leaders.

Anastas was still smiling as he replied, "Let us continue our under-the-board activities. You don't need to support us, but don't interfere either. Do that, and we'll fight for you. We won't extend our reach outside of California either, and, of course, we'll leave Waterford alone."

"Rejected," Daz immediately said. "Give me an offer that makes sense or I'll just kill everyone in this room then kill every single gang member in the city. I have a zero-tolerance on criminal activity in my territories."

"That certainly complicates things..." Anastas, as well as everyone else in the room, felt the pressure from Daz's words, but they also felt like there was room to wiggle. After all, he hadn't killed them all already, so that was a good sign, now wasn't it?

"W-Was that really okay?" Jim asked as Daz's group headed towards their next destination - the main base of operations for what was left of Governor Marglow's forces.

The reaper being questioned shrugged. "They signed the system contracts. They'll get used to living cleanly. They themselves know better than anyone else how harmful their old way of living was for everyone, themselves included."

"Huh... I just didn't expect them to sign. I was thinking I'd have to duck for cover and try to avoid any bullets that came my way. That Alfredo guy, in particular, seemed like he'd rather die than serve you," Jim said.

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Rose cackled a bit as she typed away on her laptop. "That insecure brat? He was lucky to land the position he's in right now. All of that posturing towards Daz? Just a peacock trying to show off its feathers. All presentation, no real weight."

"I-I see..." Jim was a man who came from a lifestyle where a lack of common sense was normal, but every second that he was spending with this odd set of siblings was making him wonder if perhaps even a lack of common sense was putting it a bit too kindly for the two of them.

Mu just whistled in disinterest. He was a bit sad that he wasn't able to acquire the flaming gun or the dazzling necklace. He was personally hoping that everything would descend into a shootout, but fortune wasn't on his side today.

"I'm glad that we could come to an arrangement!" a suit-wearing woman said as she happily shook Daz's hand. "With that, all of the governo- ah, all of the former governer's citizens should now be directly under your rule, King Daz."

Suffice to say, the meeting with the bureaucrats had gone far more swimmingly and smoothly than the one with the gangsters had. There were no racial tensions, for one.

"Great. I'll be leaving L.A. in your hands until I can designate a more suitable local ruler for the place, but if you prove to be a great candidate, I won't replace you down the line, Miss Jones," Daz said to the former U.S congresswoman.