Character - Vitale Ferrari (The Ferrari Mafia)

The Ferrari Family, known to the underworld as the Ferrari Mafia are essentially the slicked back, shady looking Italian folk that come to mind when you hear the word "mafia". Vitale's father, Antonio(the head of the Ferrari Family) controls all of the west side of the harbor which leads from the Gold Coast into downtown Rockport. The story of how he acquired the harbor is a tale written in blood...and tomato sauce.

Ferrari's Pizza had once been all Vitale, and every other member of his family ever knew. It was a prosperous 5 restaurant chain scattered throughout the suburbs and metropolis of Rockport. He himself had merely been a delivery driver, though he tended to spend half his nights in the kitchens preparing the dough for the next day with his three brothers.

Vitale, in his early twenties, was the youngest of the four. Fabrizio and Nico, the twins, were in their late twenties, and Anton, 30, was the oldest. Being the first born son, Antonio had not hesitated to bless him as his heir. Of course this had originally only entailed his modest pizza empire, but due to Rockport's sudden, massive collapse into a gang state meant the assumption of Antonio's position as the head of the Mafia. Antonio had been steadily buying up every harbor deed and lot throughout the 20 years in which he had built up Ferrari's Pizza. He had not intended to act so quickly but had been spurned on by fate itself.

On that warm, summer night 2 years ago Vitale had been lounging in one of the plush booths, in the smoking section of the restaurant of course. He had been idly smoking a cigarette while rubbing a bruise he didn't remember getting. There had been a loud thump on the door of the restaurant and then an ear-splitting cry that had set a thousand icy needles into his neck, and which he later found out was his mother. By the time he had run over to where the rest of his family was huddled and weeping loudly it was over. He had managed to catch a glimpse of his brother, Anton, sprawled on his back before being shoved back bodily by the twins. Vitale remembered the terrible murderous intent he had seen in their eyes as they brushed past him and out the door. He hadn't been able to sleep that night and so had been up when his brothers had returned in the hours just before sunrise. He had been standing in a shadow behind a mock corinthian pillar on the staircase when he caught the furtive nod and terrified look that they had exchanged with his father. Not long after Antonio had sold all but one of his restaurants (the main and largest one which was coincidently located not far from the harbor). Ferrari's Pizza remained as a front whilst the Ferrari Family pursued more shady dealings throughout the harbor and port complex. No one ever asked Antonio what was in the "special packages" he always had set aside from the normal shipments.

Vitale, subconsciously embittered by his brother's death, lives with a dry thirst for justice that drives him to go to whatever length it takes to find the man who ordered the hit on his brother. The twins had later told him that they had only found the hitman that night so long ago and not the one who wanted him dead originally. Though they might have been naive as to why Anton would have been murdered, Vitale suspected someone might have taken notice to his father's growing presence throughout the harbor and wanted to send a message.

While Vitale had at first been reticent to go down to the harbor with his father he had not been able to hide his smile at the fascinated and dark world the thrived in the shadows of the warehouses and between the iron hulks that were responsible for the majority of the city's imports. It was in these dark crevices of the world that Vitale spent the two years between his brother's death and the now current kidnapping.

There he fell into a group of shady, bright-eyed fellows who were somewhat popular throughout the harbor and renowned for their burgling expertise. Vitale had been put through the rigors of learning the trade: lock-picking, sleight of hand, hot-wiring cars, dismantling security systems, etc. and the list goes on. Of course he's still somewhat new at everything and may tend to slip up every now and then.

Vitale, a leanly muscled young fellow of average height, has dark hair and even darker eyes. He's loud and only slightly arrogant and has far too much faith in himself. He can't resist a good heist if he can manage it and denies daily that he's falling too far into the underworld. He wears a plain, black leather bracelet on his left wrist from which he can extract a steel piano wire. He keeps some lock-picking tools in a hollow in the heel of his left boot.

He drives a faded black Trans Am that looks like it came straight out of Smoky and the Bandit.

Vitale, knowledgeable of the kidnapping through the grapevine at the docks plans on investigating the matter, hoping to learn more about who is pulling the strings, possibly the man who had his brother killed.