Utterly Mad

OKay, so this is continuing the story for 'A Wedding Shooting', and switching tenses for ease of writing, and the name of the overall story is going to be 'The Syndicate'.
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Burns stood at the trial with his accomplices to give their plea. The six of them all spoke in unison "Guilty", and the judge sentenced them to the maximum the law allowed, life in prison.
--the next day--
The six of them were in general population now, and they knew they needed to stick together. What they did, it had been unsanctioned, so they were now fair game even to members of their own syndicate. They figured they wouldn't make it past a month, but they were determined to try.
They had discussed it at length during the transfer process to general population. Of course they never expected the first attack to come from the cops. The six of them were walking in a hallway when a guard brought his baton into Burns stomach and toppled him to the ground while his buddy pulled his gun and held Burns allies at bay.
The beating went on for what must have been nearly ten minutes, but Burns had learned to deal with immense pain years ago. The guard stood, spitting on Burns as a final insult before motioning for his buddy to follow him as he walked off. Two of Burns friends picked him up and helped him walk as he could barely move his right leg.
"This reminds me of how we met Rico..."
--8 years ago--
Burns was 23, a new man in the syndicate if you listened to some of the higher ups, but he had been a member for six years. He had been walking down the road like he always had. He spotted a couple of bullies beating on a kid down an alley, and stopped. Normally he would have walked away, ignored it, but instead he walked towards them.
The bullies didn't notice him until he punched one hard enough to dislocate and partially break his jaw. The other two went at him, one of them swinging with a base ball bat. Burns grabbed the bat and twisted it out of the bullies hand and tossed it, then followed that with a kick to the head that sent the bully sailing into a wall unconcious.
The other bully tried a rather sloppy martial arts kick, which Burns caught. He held the bully's leg and then brought his elbow down onto the kneecap, shattering it.
As the last of the bullies lay on the ground writhing in pain Burns picked the kid up and onto his feet. "You okay?"
The kid stared at him for a moment before answering "Yeah, just a few bruises. Thanks, they would have done a lot worse if you hadn't helped."
"No problem kid." Burns said, pulling out a cigarette and kicking the bully who was still concious and had just cussed him out.
"Do you think you could teach me a few of those moves?" The kid asked, looking unsure of himself.
"Kid, you'd just get hurt." Burns said, lighting the cigarette and walking back out of the alley.
"Look, I'll do anything, I'll even pay for lessons." The kid said, following him.
With a sigh Burns looked over his shoulder "Tell you what, be at 0577 Brown street at five pm. Don't be late, and be there every day. If you show up late no lessons."
And with that Burns walked off, with the kid shouting that he'd be there.
--the next day--
Sure enough the kid arrived on time. Burns stood up from sitting on his porch and grabbed a bucket of paint and a brush. "What's your name?"
The kid said "It's Rico. What's with the paint?"
"Today you learn dedication. You will paint as long as it takes to paint the wall of the building around my porch. When you need a ladder come knock on the door and tell the guy who answers that you need it. He'll help hold it. For now I have to go take care of something across town."
"Okay, but why am I painting to learn this?"
"Because the house needs a new coat and you won't learn anything until that's done." Burns said as he started walking.
--an hour later--
Burns returned to see a majority of the house painted and Rico still working. Burns walked to the door and called out "Hey kid, come in for a drink."
Rico climbed off the ladder and followed Burns inside.
--present time--
"Hey, I wasn't the one getting the shit beat out of him this time." Rico said smiling.
"Yeah, now let's get lunch shall we." Burns said as they made their way down the hall.