Russian Roulette

Chapter Eighty-Three: Reputations

---Aleksei/Aurora---

Luz smiled up at Aodhan while wiping her eyes carefully, the gun fire and smoke was taking a toll on her, "Hey, Aodhan...I like that name, I like that." she complimented. She wasn't used to being held; it was more awkward for her than it was scary, but she really didn't have a choice here. Aurora held onto Isador silently, she didn't say much now. This was upsetting, with Kyle's death she didn't see it but now death was all around her, it was pretty hard to ignore now.

Luz shook her head at Aodhan's question, "I'm fine but my parents...I don't see them." She was now safe, which she was grateful for, but she wanted her parents to be safe too, they were now her main focus, Luz tried to take glances at the crowd but there was still no sign of them, her shoulders slumped as she simply sat down disheartened.

Aleksei finally parted ways from the sight of destruction that was laid out in front of him, and he walked over to Ghost with Kira still in his hand, "Take her for me." Aleksei ordered and Ghost seemed hesitant, but he took the child anyways, gosh, why is he always getting stuck with the mini humans and gave a nod to Aleksei, with that Aleksei walked over to the megaphone, picked it up and went to the steps of townhall as he addressed anyone in the area.

"I am Aleksei Volkov if you didn't know already, I was formerly known as Mousetrap then I tried to run away from it all by going to Russia but when I did, only more issues followed, then I left Russia, my family suffered because of it. Anytime I refused to take action and instead run and hide, people suffered but now with only 9 men I succeeded in taking out my enemies, all of my enemies, my group took out Jerome, not the police, not the FBI. We did. My group killed Barbara, not the police, not the FBI. We did." Aleksei yelled into the megaphone and that caused some of his guys to cheer in appreciation, they were so used to their crime bosses taking all of the credit for their work so hearing Aleksei say 'We' instead of 'I' made them want to support him more.

"I know my reputation is not a good one, but I am not here to kill civilians or take parents away from their children, I will not destroy this community. I will rebuild it, under my name. The authorities, the government, they abandoned you to those monsters, they abandoned this state, I will not. I will stay here and continue to destroy those that do plan on causing harm and here is a message to the last remaining crime bosses, either submit to me and join me or you and your people will die screaming in flames." Aleksei finished his call to arms speech with a mic drop.

Ghost took a quick glance to Isador before smiling as Aleksei came over, "Here is the child." Ghost quickly handed Kira to Aleksei who cuddled her into him, there was a darkness in his eyes now, "Start helping any survivors, clean up any dead bodies." Aleksei gave some orders once again and Ghost got the men right on it, "yes sir but we are going have to talk about giving you a new name, MouseTrap doesn't seem accurate anymore." Ghost joked a bit and Aleksei chuckled before biting his lip as he took a glance at Isador. Ghost looked over to Isador again as well before silently walking away. Someone won't be happy; he knew that for a fact.

"He is scary." Luz gulped at Aleksei's staring eyes before movement caught her attention, "Daddy?!" Luz bolted away from the hiding spot as she noticed her dad but as she got closer to him, her movement slowed down when she realized that he was hovering over her mother's dead body...

"Mommy..." Luz began to whimper and that caught her father's attention, he quickly went over to her and pulled her into a tight hug, "its okay, its okay, its going to be okay." He moved her to the side so she wouldn't be able to see the body anymore but the image was already burned into her brain "no, no its not!" she shoved him, hard as she ran over to her mother, "She gone, she's gone!" At this point Luz was having a panic attack, understandably so, and her father tried to comfort her but there was no use, instead he would allow her to grieve instead of trying to pull her away.

"Aurora, come here." Aleksei called out and that made Aurora freeze, she looked up at Isador with hesitancy but decided to not cause any issues, she too left the hiding spot as she took steady steps towards Aleksei, taking glances at the crying Luz until she reached him, "yes?" Aurora questioned softly, she watched as Aleksei kneeled to her height, "I know this was a scary sight, I am so sorry you had to see it...but I made you a promise, you will still be going to Russia if that is what you want." Aleksei tried to smile at her, but the smile didn't reach his eyes, she simply nodded, "yeah...yeah, I still want to go." She answered and with that Aleksei called out another name, "Isador..." Aleksei called out his true name, no longer worried about Ghost or the guys, no, he felt superior, he no longer felt like he had to hide anything, he felt as if he was at the top of the world and in a way, he was right, who else could say that they took over an entire state with just 9 men? Only Aleksei.

Ghost looked up at 'Isador' with a newfound curiosity, so did the other guys, almost all eyes were on the men, waiting for anything.