"Retreat!" Mumei shouted to the outws behind her, "The cops are pushing towards us!"

  "Hell no!" An outw shouted, "They killed our brothers and sisters!"

  Mumei muttered, "This is gonna be a pain."

  "Loyalty is all we have and it's the one thing we will fucking uphold!" Another added.

  'They're like the fucking yakuza.' Ataraxia thought as she came up with a new pn.

  #How many of you have knives right now?#

  The boss replied as the men behind him answered in unison, "All of us."

  #Great. Have your men hide behind cars or something. When the police come in, stab them.#

  'This is essentially a suicide mission. I'd be surprised if they didn't object to it.' Ataraxia thought.

  "That's a fucking suicidal pn." The boss muttered. "Guess we have no other choice."

  'That's right. You have no choice but to accept my pn.' Ataraxia thought. To her, anyone who wasn't close to her or didn't swear loyalty to her was mere pawns if need be. 'Maybe bishops at most. But nowhere near as important as the rest of my pieces.'

  "You read her words! Fucking move it!" The boss barked to his underlings. "Even if this is a suicidal mission, your sacrifices will be remembered by the Phoenixes and I hope to see as many of you alive and as well as can be after this as possible!"

  "So why aren't your men angry at us for killing their comrades," Mumei questioned as she observed the men moving into position. Murmurs of their st words and wishes arose from the moving gang members.

  "Make sure you tell my wife the truth about our 'trips to the bar' yeah? That we used that time to do gang activities?" One whispered to his friend next to him.

  "And if you make it out alive, do the same for me yeah?" The friend whispered back as they took position behind some cars. "Hey boss. it... was a pleasure breaking the w with you."

  "It was a pleasure breaking it with you lot as well." The boss replied, holding back tears.

  "Because you're not someone we had an agreement with. The cops outside, however, are a different story. We'd bribed them earlier, then they spin 180 and nail a few of us through death's door." The boss expined as he clenched his fists.

  Finding the boss's expnation acceptable, Mumei urgently hollered her orders, "Civilians! Move back! The enemies are about to arrive!"

  In the Smoke - An Officer's PoV

  "We're about to come up on the bend." An officer to my side reported to the officers who stayed behind.

  "10-4" I could hear over the comms. "Bravo's on your six."

  Unlike the others in my group, I hadn't accepted bribes from the Phoenixes. I'm only here because I was ordered to. Maybe that's why I'm not given a rifle? But the thought remained. The thought that we, the police, were betraying them was a thought I couldn't get out of my mind. Unlike the other gangs, the Phoenixes prided themselves on their loyalty to each other and would pay back grudges tenfold.

  I finally mustered the courage to mutter, "So... we just gonna take the bribes and backstab them?"

  "Hey, who cares that we're backstabbing them? We're cops, their criminals. We're in the right as cops. We're always in the right." Jack, an officer next to me said.

  "Yeah, but... We have our honour as well. Do you not feel anything wrong with th-"

  "To hell with honour and chivalry and all that bullshit. What era are we in, the fucking medieval ages? So what if we do some backstabbing?"

  What... Do we not honour promises?

  "After all, they're just some gangsters."

  Do we... Not have any ethics?

  "Nobody will care about what happens today."

  So we're... the evil?

  I came out of the police academy to join this bribery-accepting, backstabbing police department?

  I put up with the bribery so I could report this to the Head of Security for Emberlyn, but backstabbing after we've accepted bribes is going too far now. The voices and chatter around me had already turned into incoherent muttering. They were no longer my fellow officers. That's it. A draw of the pistol, a pistol whip to the face, and a threat to make them turn away. That's the pn of action. The way of justice.

  I slowly inched my finger to the Glock 17, holstered on my hip.

  A quick draw. My fingers switly undid the button keeping my pistol from freedom as I swung my pistol's grip at the nearest officer, hoping to disorientate him for long enough to hold him hostage. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I have no choice but to do this to prevent them from killing those in the tunnel.

  *BANG*

  A shot echoed into the tunnel in front of us, barely visible through the smoke.

  From who?

  I don't know.

  From where?

  Behind.

  Feeling something leaking from within me, I looked down.

  Blood.

  In the middle of my chest, blood poured out, with no sign of stopping.

  Turning my declining body behind me, my eyes id on my Chief.

  His hand gripped the murder weapon: a silver barrel S&W Model 460XVR, a gift from me on his anniversary. A glint on the weapon danced in the sunlight, as if to mock me.

  The Chief. The one person who I thought was on the same wavelength as me. Someone who I thought would be as opposed to this as me. He was the one to put me down? He, who had reassured me that the other officers would get their punishment in due time?

  Why?

  Betrayal. I was going to betray them, so they betrayed me first.

  Oh, betrayal. A dish I despised to y my hands on, yet loved to witness in questioning chambers. A dish that was so sweet, yet oh so tasteless. My senses have begun to dull as I monologue my st moments, yet my taste for revenge has yet to die out. The savoury and fulfilling dish for my st meal, how lovely.

  I won't go down with Him still being alive. Relying on the adrenaline coursing through my veins, I squeezed the trigger multiple times.

  *BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

  In response to my shooting, the Chief recocked his revolver and returned fire as best he could.

  *BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

  *CLICK CLICK CLICK*

  Bullet holes riddled the body of the Chief as he swayed left and right. Surging forward, his body finally ran out of fumes to burn and fell with a crash.

  *CLACK*

  My Glock fell to the ground as the adrenaline started to run out. My hands instinctually made their way to one of my many wounds, putting pressure on it to try and stop the bleeding and pain, a fruitless endeavour, but a welcome one nonetheless.

  To think there would be a day I would thank my body for something.

  *TAP*

  *TAP*

  *TAP*

  My former comrades. Simply treading past my dead body. In the corner of my eye, our clean-up crew handled the Chief's body with utmost care.

  "So the rat's finally dead huh?" Jack said as he looked at my bullet-ridden body. "Serves him right. Trying to mess with our jobs. Shame the Chief had to be sacrificed to get rid of him though."

  So I'm not worthy of your respect? Well, keep it to yourselves then. I don't need respect from you hypocritical vilins.

  "Hahaha." My deranged ughter fell on deaf ears as my former brothers-in-arms walked past me as if I didn't exist. "So this is how it ends. Well, I wish you the best, my. Dear. Cornered. Friends..."

  The light faded from my vision as I wished the people in the tunnel good luck.

  Just a quick nap. And I'll. Be. Right there. Brother. Father. Mother. My. Darling.

  Inside the tunnel...

  *BANG*

  *BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

  *BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

  'Infighting?' Ataraxia thought as she fidgeted restlessly behind a car.

  "Be prepared," Mumei whispered to the Boss beside her. "Remember, we're on limited rounds. So pick up any rifles and ammo near you if need be. We have no leeway for morals right now."

  'No more lousy bunches this time. We're up against a trained force. While they're not SWAT, they've still had training nonetheless. So focus.' Ataraxia thought as she ran her finger down the body of her sniper rifle, depending on the touch of cold metal to calm her nerves.

  *TAP*

  *TAP*

  *TAP*

  *ACK*

  "FUCK!" They're behind the cars!" An officer shouted as a body with blood dripping out of its neck fell to the ground next to him. Swerving, he put a few rounds into the outws behind him.

  'Guess the Too Stupid To Be Considered strategy worked this time.' Ataraxia thought as she wondered just how her pn had worked.

  "We've been exposed! Phase B!" Mumei shouted as she rested her rifle against the hood of the car she was hiding behind and opened fire. Outws charged the police from multiple directions, turning the battle into a close-quarters battle. Trying to avoid friendly fire, Mumei fired at areas with little to no friendly presence.

  Metallic cngs echoed in the tunnel as the sound of knives chipping away at batons overthrew everyone's senses. The civilians behind Ataraxia huddled closer together in an act to reassure both themselves and each other that they would be okay.

  *CRASH*

  Bodies of both Phoenixes and Officers would occasionally fall as the police started to outnumber their opponents.

  "FUCK" Officers cursed as they tried their best to survive the onsught with the batons they were provided as police officers.

  *BANG*

  Ataraxia rapid-fired her sniper rifle at the officers as she counted the rounds she had left.

  '5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Reload. Last mag.' Ataraxia thought as she propped the Ballista on the car, wanting to save her st magazine in case something unexpected required her sniper rifle. Flexing her wrist, Teresa appeared in her hand as she dashed into the fray.