Stage In The Sky

The following are character Bios created and reflecting the second novel in the Three Kings of Ybor

The Pierce Syndicate – Character Biographies
Created by Rock Kitaro
Date Started – December 24, 2012

Yoko Kanno – Velveteen

Eliza Christie aka The Jaguar of August the 18th – age 23,

The stunning blonde green-eyed leader of the August the 18^th vigilante group struggles to keep from turning into a heartless sociopath. But the path is difficult. The Syndicate grows powerful with each passing day and public support is gradually turning from the 18^th back to the Syndicate for their efforts to reconstruct the city and establish good well-paying jobs. She’s seen a lot of bloodshed over the years and with the death of Gavin and several of her most trusted allies, she begins to hold back and suppress her need to permanently deal out punitive measures.

Smart and philosophical. With Eliza’s Furyx ability and the fact that she’s attending one of the world’s most affluent universities, she’s been able to soak up knowledge without excessive hours of studying. Her relationship with her foster father, Inspector Gazi has also persisted. Taking Eliza under his wing as a mentor, Gazi’s influence has adding to Eliza’s persona as an up and coming investigator. Her experience as a swordfighter remains polished to the point that she no longer frets from the size or number of her enemy. But despite her growth and maturity as a young woman, two things remain cemented in her psyche. She has a deep love for the color green. And she wants Braden Pierce dead.

– Eliza’s traits….Dormant pissy attitude. As an adult, she tries to act professional in the face of others, but deep down she’s selfish and unpredictable. She studied capoeira under Boa’s tutulage and ninjitsu from Boa’s husband, a Japanese fugitive named Hideo Shikagane. Her heart is cold and vulnerable at the same time. She likes Yoko Kanno type music, reflective and instrumental. As a civilian she’s always wearing a long hooded green overcoat that was passed down from her mother. Aside from that, she almost always wears a jeweled bracelet even in combat and has a short katana sword down by her lower back, often concealed but easy to get to.

 

Braden Pierce – age 23.

The Syndicate’s most efficient weapon, of the so-called Three Kings of Ybor, in the last two years, Braden has become more powerful than either of them. Along with his growing skill and experience, his appearance and eyewitnesses are extremely rare. Most people have heard of his name but are beginning to doubt that he even exists. The stories circulating around Ybor about his exploits seem like the stuff of myths and legend. But he is real. He does exist. You can imagine the terror one feels when they actually do meet him.

Despite being the nephew to one of the most powerful men in the world, Braden doesn’t seem to enjoy a lot of things first class living provides. He can count on one hand the amount of people he loves, which makes those individuals a liability to the social structure of the entire syndicate. In secret, he’s been in a relationship with Alma Montiero, the heiress to the Garrett and Moss fortune.

Isaac’s dependency on Braden becomes a source of envy to David Pierce. Braden’s name becomes a signet for the entire underworld to rally behind, comparable to that of Achilles in ancient Greece. His heroics and feats seem boundless and it becomes apparent that he has the potential to take the reigns of the Pierce machine, billions of dollars at hand, any woman he wants and thousands of criminals willing to bend to his will…yet all Braden cares about is the well-being of his uncle Isaac, his brother Sean, his cousin Cassandra and Alma Montiero.

It doesn’t make sense. The only kick he seems to get out of live is the thrill of combat and competition. Braden himself is aware of his strange behavior and internally searches for the answers to justify his rage. He doesn’t remember his parents. Not their faces or their names. All of this makes him furious. Only adding to the ruthlessness he unleashes on his enemies.

-Braden’s traits…Sharp defiant eyes of a tiger. Always contemplative but comes out of his shell in the heat of battle or when he feels his loved ones are threatened in any way. He’s loyal, responsible, and level headed. Shows a lack of compassion toward his victims but doesn’t like to hurt anyone too young. He’s very reserved in his thoughts, only confiding in Lazar or Cassandra. But even with them, he keeps the certain fears to himself. Even though he seems to blindly follow orders in the sake of the syndicate, Braden is very smart and can usually come to an accurate conclusion of things despite the lack of evidence provided for him. Always has his sword beside him no matter what.

Dante – age 26

After his scrape with death by Eliza’s hands, his basic instincts kicked in to pull himself from a fire. Days later, he was found in a gutter by a teenage girl (Abby) and her mother (Mary Keitel) who were on their way out of the city, leaving it all behind for good. The woman was a doctor formerly employed by the Pierce. At the behest of Abby, who has down-syndrome, Mary takes the injured man in and flees the city.

He suffers in horrible agony from of third-degree burns before Mary deduces that he’s a Furyx user. She uses a special instrument to cut into his skin and remove layers of dead tissue. She then has to add a layer of prosthetic skin under his dense Furyx skin to protect his organs. The procedure takes weeks to complete and the man endures all of this without any sort of anesthetics. The pain is too much causing him to slip into a coma.

Months after his coma, the man wakes up and says noting. The pain is still fresh in his mind and it has him petrified. He becomes hooked on pain medication to deal with the mental and physical pain. But the young Abby has an effect on him. A pure soul with a warm heart. Not knowing any better, Abby confuses the injured man with her dead older brother and begins calling him Dante. Seeing the joy he brings Abby, even Mary begins to look after him like a son. The experience humbles the injured man and he simply accepts the name.

Aside from his number of personal disorders, Disassociative identity disorder is another one. Dante is a personality he takes on based on what he assumes Abby and Mary would love. Dante Keitel was a boxer, who used to wear a hooded purple dragon designed training jacket all the time. Thus, the new Dante begins practicing boxing and wearing the jacket.

After two years of peace and loving fun. Something in the back of Dante’s mind begins to eat at him. Something feels off. He feels lost. Mary begins to fall ill due to lead poisoning from a titanium femur in her leg. She has to walk on crutches to move around and tend to her patients. Dante takes over in handling her teenage daughter, but he knows Mary’s condition is worsening.

With finances backing up and a local mob boss harassing her over rent, Mary tells Dante about Abby’s real father being a rich influential man in Tampa. But it was an illegitimate affair. Mary says that she was raped at a banquet event hosted by Ezekiel Piece of the Pierce Corporation. She never saw her attacker’s face but heard the name McKellen. That’s all Dante has to go on when he embarks on his return to Tampa.

Angela Pettigrew (aka Petty)– Age 16.

Braden’s protégé and assistant. Snow-white skin, long fluid black hair, petite figure with small dark eyes. Like Braden, Petty is a sword-fighting prodigy under the tutelage of Takizawa. Born and raised in the slums of east Ybor, Petty’s mother and father were druggies with the father acting as a low level pusher for a Black mob boss. Both parents treated her like crap, creating a sense of distain that was amplified to hatred the day they accidentally left her younger sister in an apartment with no heat. Petty was six years old and at school. She came home to find her younger sister dead of hypothermia.

Two years later, Petty’s disturbing behavior of violence and lack of empathy saw her expulsion from school. With no one to pick her up and in a fit of rage, Petty charged into the warehouse owned by her father’s boss. Moments later, that warehouse was hit by the syndicate in a raid for unpaid debts. Petty hid a closet as the boss and her father were viciously cut down by none other than a sixteen-year-old Braden Pierce.

When another syndicate enforcer saw Petty and felt a need to eliminate the witness, Braden stepped in to protect her, saying that he wouldn’t see children cut down. Braden then gave Petty a smaller spare katana sword and the long white snow coat on his back. Braden had no idea that this girl would one day grow up to be one of his most dependable assets and the syndicate’s future ace-in-the-hole.

After witnessing everything that went down, Petty never came back home. She never saw her mother again now did she ever want to. Petty traveled to the Pierce corporate offices, confronted the barrage of security personnel and demanded an audience with Braden Pierce. Instead, she got something better. The godfather, Isaac himself granted her his attention. Petty made her intentions known and presented the sword and coat as proof of what she witnessed.

Surprised and astonished that Braden had an ounce of compassion for someone who always appeared so vicious and disinterested, Isaac willingly took Petty in and sent her to Japan to study under Guile Takizawa.

Through six years of being one of Takizawa’s trainees, Petty turned out to be one of his favorites. Just like Braden, she never questioned anything. She just did as she was told and fearlessly committed herself to the training regardless of the pain or threat of injury. Petty returned with Guile back to the states, still carrying Braden’s short katana, her own long katana, and the long white snow coat that once belonged to Braden.

Initially filled with animosity upon setting her sights on Tampa for the first time in six years, the potential of running into Braden again was a thrill she couldn’t pass up.  Again, impressed by her appearance and growth, Isaac suggests Petty to be Braden’s assistant. David takes the idea and runs with his own intentions of having Petty act as his spy against Braden. Petty deceives both of them, committing her loyalty to Braden and Braden alone. Braden’s enemies are Petty’s enemies. Braden’s ambitions become Petty’s ambitions.

Aida Jennazzo-  age 20

The third youngest child of the Jennazzo family. With two older twin brothers and a younger sister who so happens to be the narrator of the stories. Aida is definitely a class of her own. She doesn’t have a confined personality of habits or motives. She can’t be described by any traditional story-book means. She has her own core set of ideals and philosophies, on what’s right and wrong. She’s much like her childhood friend Eliza in the sense that she often sways on a whim when it comes to certain emotions.

Aida is a natural beauty with long brown hair and large brown deer-like eyes. Growing up with Eliza provided the most entertaining moments of her childhood. When Eliza’s father was out on police duty, the detective would drop her off at the Jennazzo house. While Eliza has an infatuation for green, Aida loves the color purple…and penguins.

As kids, Aida and Eliza were clear opposites. Aida initially preferred to play board games, read books or play with dolls. Eliza was more into following Aida’s older brothers and getting into trouble. That being said, Eliza’s personality had a lasting effect on Aida. Growing up surrounded by men and police officers, Eliza was used to talking to anyone and anybody in anyway she pleased. Thus, a slight sarcasm and natural high-pitched whine developed. The tone manifested primarily when Aida stressed over making a point. The difference between the two is that while Eliza’s tone is more aggressive and threatening, Aida’s is more passive and timid as if every time she makes a complaint, she wants to follow the complaint with an apology for making the complaint.

The two separated at the age of 13 after Eliza dragged Aida into a fight against six older teenage girls. Aida was too afraid to do anything. She balled up on the ground to take the punishment, but Eliza kept fighting. Eliza ended up putting one of the girls in the hospital with the help of a large branch, and that was all Aida’s parents would tolerate from the friendship.

The fight was the most traumatizing thing Aida had ever been through. It made her angry and emotionally hostile. Ever since then, she’s never backed down from an opponent, no matter their gender, their size or their power. Aida has developed a deep sense of animosity towards the strong overpowering the weak. She understands that not everyone is blessed with the ability to defend themselves against their oppressors. That’s why it’s the government’s job to protect its citizens and prosecute the offenders.

Since entering university, Aida has once again become Eliza’s best friend and most trusted confidant. As the saying goes, history has a way of repeating itself. Once again, Aida becomes entangled in Eliza’s battle, but this time she won’t sit idle.

Kurt “The Bunny” Kassovitz

Born in an impoverished Austria to a single father whose wife died in child birth, Kurt had to learn how to work and pay bills before he was seven. His father did his best to be a good parent. But in the cold climates where an honest day’s work was scarce, his father often had to leave town for days on end, leaving Kurt to fend from himself.

Kurt didn’t attend a traditional public school. Instead, he received an education in prestigious brothel that served high-end aristocratic clients. There was something about his casual lack of authority and ability to hold a mature conversation at such a young age that the Madam took favor on him.

The Madam along with dozens of her clients ended up teaching Kurt how to read, write and their own philosophies on the way the world works. Under their tutelage, Kurt garnered a love for gambling, booze and the pleasures of women. Being taught such skills at an early age added with a natural gift to get under people’s skin with sharp insults and backhanded remarks, the Bunny incurred envy and jealousy from the other boys, prompting fights and being jumped in back alleys. And so…Kurt took up boxing lessons from one of the Madam’s clients.

Boxing was a good outlet for a playboy with a loose tongue. He excelled at it, reveled in it, entering circuits and winning tournaments. He earned the nickname “the Bunny” for his exceptional bobbing and weaving skills that seemed as if he was always bouncing around even though his feet were perfectly cemented to ground to deliver those vicious haymakers that came the hips.

When he was sixteen, the Bunny traveled with his father to Tampa Bay to take in work at the port as longshoremen. The big city was more temptation than the Bunny could handle. He easily fell into the wrong crowd, experimented with drugs and had a falling out with his father before leaving the nest. For the next four years, the Bunny would move his way living from girlfriend to girlfriend and dressing the part of a high-roller from his success in the casinos. But his reputation began to build and owners eventually got tired of his Austrian narcissism.

The Bunny killed his first man at the age of twenty-one. A bouncer was in the process of throwing him out and one of his girlfriends stood up for him. The bouncer hit the girl and the Bunny lost it. In a back alley, the Bunny beat the bouncer until his face was unrecognizable. Realizing the trouble he was in if the bouncer regained consciousness, the Bunny pulled out a knife and killed the man.

Initially depressed and ashamed of his actions, the Bunny grew to accept himself as a heartless miscreant. It was easier that way to simply blame his actions on the concept that he just wasn’t a good person. With a fearless charismatic persona, the Bunny continued to clear the blackjack and poker tables at the casinos. But it was all routine, all too easy. The appeal of living the fast live simply became too boring.

It wasn’t until he caught the attention of an up and coming information broker that he felt his life worth living. Intrigued by JeCastor Priella’s network and talent to see the bigger picture, the Bunny threw in his lot with the broker, carrying the promise of more heists that would affect the criminal underworld on a grand scale.

MORE SOON TO COME