"This better be good Hammerhead" the tall woman snapped, stuffing her phone into her pocket and glaring furiously at the brutish man "I'm risking losing business and you're risking losing your life if this turns out to be a waste of my time"

"Don't worry Mary, it'll be a good opportunity for you" Hammerhead said "The Big Man's got a proposition for you"

The woman in question was Mary DeMarco, one of New York's largest criminal identities and also the only female boss in the city. She'd been working closely with the Italian mob, the Falcone family, to try and push the Big Man out of East Harlem in an effort to reclaim the heroin trade in that area while giving the Italians run of the block in terms of 'protection' money.

She knew the Italians didn't like to sully their hands with drugs, saying that it ruined the image of class they had, and pushed it all onto her, earning the nicknames she often went by.

"So, Mary, what d'you want the Big Man to call you while you're here?" Hammerhead asked "We don't like to use real names, so I figure we'd use one of your aliases? D'you wanna go by Queen Key, Toxin or Narcotica?"

"They sound ridiculous Hammerhead, I've never been proud of those names and refuse to associate myself with them" she said with a wave of her hand, her green fingernails matching her dark green eyes "Though... there is a new one I've been given that I do quite enjoy"

"And that would be?" Hammerhead asked with a raised eyebrow.

"The Scorpion" Mary answered in a proud manner.

"Nice, respectful yet dangerous... where'd it come from?" he asked.

"It was given to me by the bastard child of the Vercettis, Jackie, told me that I was the kind of creature that would inject my poison, my drugs, into the good folks of this city and watch them die from it, and even if they survived it they'd never be able to live the same way they used to... he called me a scorpion and I liked the way it sounded"

"Fair enough" Hammerhead shrugged, gesturing for her to enter the large building.

She nodded, flicking her long black hair over her shoulder, she walked towards the front door, Hammerhead right behind her as he began to brief the mob boss on what the Big Man wanted to talk to her about. Next Chapter: Changing Ways Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 28 Minutes