*Joe Mama is walking back to the Bastardo Family locker room. He's got a cocky grin on his face as he watches people try not to make eye-contact with him. As he turns a corner, he comes face-to-face with PenWing, who is walking the other way. The two don't collide, but they stop a couple feet from each other. Each man has his title belt over his shoulder.**
JM: Well, well. Speak of the Devil, and the Devil appears. How's it goin', "old pal"? I hope my comments didn't fall on deaf ears.
PW: Your comments only insult Sneaky Bunny and everything she has accomplished since she teamed with Meeko.
JM: Right...the key phrase being "since she teamed with Meeko", isn't it? It kills you that people see her as more than Meeko's partner, doesn't it? I'd expect a little more from you, PenWing.
PW: A little more from me? Joe, you shouldn't expect anything from me that you don't already see. I wear my true face out in the open. You, on the other hand...you're something else entirely. You say you were working with Louie Bastardo all along, yet you openly challenged his charter family member. You made everyone, including me, think that you were against the Bastardo Family, when in fact, you were for it. Or, were you? See, Joe, I have all figured out now. Ever since you were thrown out of the rWo, you have been afraid of losing, of failing. So what do you do? You play both sides. When side A looks like it's going to fall apart, as our coalition did when I got hurt, you jump to side B, the Bastardo Family. But, Joe, what happens when side B starts to break up? Do you join the Company? How about the RDJL? Or, maybe, you link up with the Bond Brigade? In the end, I don't care what you do. The only thing I care about is that you don't drag Sneaky down with you.
JM: Y'know, when your career is over, you should NOT think about going into psychiatry. You don't know the first thing about me, how I think, or what I'm about. You, on the other hand, are an open book: you're a hypocrite. Where were you when I was atoning for the mistakes I made while I was with the RwO? Where were you when battle lines were drawn against them? You spent so much time not standing for anything that you don't have the right to criticize me about the decisions I've made! The only reason you decided to go after the Bastardos in the first place is because you thought you had your little "coalition" to hold your hand - a coalition that died, not because you left, but because your partner didn't want to follow that plans of someone not named "Captain Sammitch"! Now your feelings are hurt because of my alliance with Louie? Toughen up, PenWing! You'll learn, just like I did, that sometimes your worst enemies are the people you call "friend". That's why I do "business" with the Family. We have clear goals and we don't let things like our "feelings" get in the way. And, as for Sneaky Bunny, I think we'll let her make her own decision. If she refuses my offer, I won't think any less of her. I just hope you'll be a better "friend" to her than you have been to me WHEN she accepts it!
PW: The only thing you've said that makes any sense is that this decision is one Sneaky will have to make on her own. I just hope she doesn't make the wrong choice. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a match to prepare for.
*PenWing leaves Joe Mama standing in the hallway as he continues on his way to his locker room. Joe gives a glance in his direction, shrugs his shoulders, and continues on his way as well.*
<sub>Will Eisner's last work -
The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of ZionRDCW Profile"Well, as it happens, I
wrote the damned SOP," Illescue half snarled, "and as of now, you can bar those jackals from
any part of this facility until Hell's a hockey rink! Is that perfectly clear?!" - Dr. Franz Illescue -
Honor Harrington: At All Costs"I don't know what I'm do, or how I do, I just do." -
Alexander Ovechkin</sub>
