“Get your ass in damn it!” Austin screams just as he pulls my entire being into the van where Rex slams the door shut.

“Fucking hell Austin, the cops? Really?” Rex yells out over the churning, terrifying sound of their hovering vehicles, the big guns had come out to shut us down.

“Hey!” Austin scolds, “I don’t have any control over the goddamn police department alright? If anything you should be glaring out at your damn cousin!”

“You mean the one that pays you to get stuff like this right? Yeah? That one? You must be fucking kidding me!”

The two go on shouting and screaming at each other, the outside doesn’t make it any better. They’ve lit us up with flood lights, I can see every nook and cranny of the van, as well as the terrified faces of the girls we’ve just picked up.,

The product.

I save my disgust and appall for a later time and get off the floor of the van, “Guys!” I snap my fingers in both their faces, gaining both their ire, “We’re surrounded by cops, this is the wrongest time for this. What do we do?”

I’ve never been in this type of situation before, in all my time serving as Steve’s little errand boy not once had a cop stopped me and given me a stinking look, they respected and even feared him.

But now I’m here, I’m not sure what’s caused the cops to suddenly and so accurately look our way and frankly I don’t much care. What matters now is getting out of here with these girls.

So how the hell do we do that?

My eyes are pinned on Austin as I ask what we do. The buff muscular man is the most experienced in these kinds of situations and should have the sound advice on what we’ve got to do.

His lips part open as he readies to speak, “We...we fight or surrender. You choose.”

I blink, my mouth hangs open and my heart skips a beat.

“Come on out you goddamn scum of the earth!”

The voice pronouncing us as dirt belongs to the person I’m assuming is in charge of this entire operation, this ambush.

“We’ve got you now! Nowhere to fucking run, you better believe it!”

His voice booms even over the hum of their crafts in the air, I let out a sigh as my shoulders fall, “He sounds proud.”

Austin nods, a knowing look on his face, “He would be, he and his squad are the entire police department, at least, the part of the department that refuses to give in no matter what.”

“Come out with your hand on your head, I don’t need this to be bloody, but it can!”

“He’s the main problem though, his lackeys aren’t much of a big deal. He’s always prepared for us and pretty much every other gang in the city, he’s the one putting on the pressure on the Mayor.”

I groan at Austin, rubbing my temples as my heart begins to beat fast again, “I’ll ask why he hasn’t been assassinated later but for now, what do we do? We need to get these girls out to Rey. I need him to get me to the lieutenant.”

Austin sits back, rudely leaning on one of the scared girls as he picks up his shotgun out the front and begins to fill it with shots, “You know how I said it’s either surrender or fight?”

I nod.

“Well, now that I know it’s him, the only option is fight. Had it been anyone else we would be captured and taken to the station, locked up tight and then Rey would do his thing. But now that it’s that guy,” He cocks the gun, ready for a fight, “Rey would need to find a new cousin and a new right hand man cuz we’ll be shipped out.”

“Shipped out?” What does that even mean? Is there some other kind of-

“ALRIGHT!”

The sudden yell startles me out of my thoughts but Austin is unfazed, he looks to Rex who has the picture of panic and fear scrawled all over his face.

“On the count of three we’re going to make you swished cheese if you boys don’t come out now!”

“One!”

“Austin, are you sure!” I yell out, my heart pacing at the countdown.

“Two!”

The hulk of a man says nothing, just stands up and readies his weapon, he pulls the door open just as the man outside counts, “Threeee ahhh! Finally!”

With the door slid open I get a view of the outside and find that we are indeed surrounded. At every angle there’s a gun trained at us, I don’t see the other side but judging from the fact that atop one of their still hovering vehicles there’s police pointing a sniper rifle with the complete scope at Austin, I’m pretty positive it’s full of men and guns as well.

Peeking out of the sides of the van, trying to hide still, I manage to get a view of the man that gave the count down. Dressed in all black with the obvious bulletproof vest poking out from under his jacket, he stands clearly with an authoritative presence as well as a megaphone in his hand.

He’s the only one of the officers not clad in the generic black and blue uniform and also the only one of them to have a vest underneath his clothes. By the looks of the thing, I’d say it could take a few shots from, especially if he has a port shield generator attached to it.

I’m not nearly close enough to get a look at his face, but by the sound of his voice I can imagine enough for myself. Smug and righteously entitled.

“There he is!” He starts, “The Big Brother of the Rivera family, or what’s left of it anyway.” He stifles a snigger and starts pacing.

Having not paid attention to Rex all this time, I’m not sure what’s going through his head when he cocks his gun and jumps out right behind Austin.

The man gasps, slapping his hands to his face, “Man you almost gave me a heart attack, you’re the spitting image of Rey, the dead water log I can’t get my hands on...yet.”

He breathes a hearty sigh and glances back at the van, “Don’t have any other family members in there do you? Back in with your illegal activities I mean.” He hums, coming to an abrupt stop in his pacing to put a hand under his chin as he dramatically thinks out loud, “I’m not sure what to file this one as back in the station, help me out here will you, Austin?”

Not waiting for a reply he continues speaking all by himself, “Great, now what would you call this? Human trafficking? Smuggling of illegal immigrants into Xoxia? The Mayor won’t be too pleased about that one no, no, no!”

He tuts and stuffs his hands behind his back, I see he’s a very muscular man, toned at the very least, “And there’s got to be drugs involved too, if it’s that slippery log you call boss I just know he can’t live without drugs, now can he?”

Here he finally pauses long enough for the silence of the creeping night to descend on us, Austin - I can see it from the side of his face - stares out blankly at the man for a moment and when he’s satisfied with the backdrop of silence, he speaks.

“Are you done yammering? Cuz if you are I was going to say,” He raises his shotgun and trains it on him, “I’m not surrendering for shit.”

The response to this show of deviance is immediate, the circle becomes even tighter as the men troop in closer and past the man himself, all guns fixed on Austin.

“Are we doing this Austin?” I hear Rex ask, his voice broken and full of panic. Austin doesn’t respond, the only sign that he’d heard him at all is the slight shift of his head.

My way. He looks my way.

Fuck! I’ve got to do something!

I’ve got to, but at the same time....there are like twenty of them out there.

Austin shrugs and focuses his sights, grips his weapon and readies himself to go out fighting.

The police captain sees this and sighs, “Kill them.”

“Alright!” I yell out just in time to make the men hesitate and the captain holds his order with a raised hand.

He chuckles, “I knew there had to be one more unfortunate gump in there!”

Being the gump in question I hop out of the van, trying the best I can to get a grip on my throbbing heart.

“You’re short,” The captain says a bit awkwardly as he looks down at me from the ten feet distance that separates us, “Welcome to the family business I guess?” He scoffs.

“I’m not family.”

“Oh, you’re not?” He sighs, relieved, “That’s why I didn’t anticipate you, I didn’t plan for you, kid. Now, do you want to surrender? Or die with your....non-family?”

I look up at Austin, he doesn’t look back, eyes steely and fixed on every move the man makes behind his wall of men, it’s as if the one thing he wants to accomplish tonight, now that we’re in this situation, is to get a killing shot on the man.

I let out a heavy, laboured sigh.

“Well, what will it be kid?”

Pause.

***

SYRIAN CORD POV

“Well, what will it be kid?” I ask, knowing that there isn't any version of this where this child isn’t taken into custody with us.

Looking at him I can tell at a single glance that he would be a key witness in bringing down that damned Rey, and with Rey down, I can finally be given a large enough budget to get after Invincibill himself.

I let myself smile as I imagine it, I’d no doubt be given plenty of leeway as well, maybe even a meta fresh off the track with a collar around the neck. Yes, the way I see it, tonight is only the beginning of the best time in my career.

Pulling myself from my thoughts I notice the young teen has yet to give me his answer, but rather has begun to move toward the nearest person to him, not Austin or the one that looks like Rey, but Charles from my unit.

I narrow my eyes at the child and open my mouth to call out to him just as he stands in front of Charles. But I notice something else, something that tells me not to say a word.

Why the hell is Charles still aiming his weapon at Austin when the kid is right in front of him?

The kid pulls out a weapon, a heavy calibre by the looks of it. I stifle an instinctive yell to my men but I slowly realize I’m observing something very, very wrong.

Is no one but the two of us moving? I don’t have a chance to find out if this is the case but if the deeply unsettling feeling I have in my gut is even slightly right, I know it’s too late for Charles.

Watching the kid, his hands tremble as they amateurishly grip the heavy gun in them. The silence is unnatural but because of it, I manage to hear him whisper out a word of...apology?

Bang!

The sudden shot of the weapon startles me almost to yelling but the kid doesn’t stop there, he seems to choose between either one of Charles’ arms, ending up going after the right and then-

Bang!

Fuck! I scream in my head and hide behind fat Sandra, slowly realizing, This kid is a meta.

Panic and fear race through me like the bullet did through Charles’ elbow and knees.

What the fuck do I do now? I wasn’t expecting to deal with a damned meta!

Especially one of this calibre. Even after being shot in the knee and elbow, two very vital places to the body, Charles has yet to fall over in writhing pain, he’s still got his weapon pointed at Austin even with blood dripping everywhere.

Whatever this kids' powers are, he seems to have complete control over every and anyone who finds themselves around him....could it be mind control?

I shake my head but busy my hands, swiftly disarming one of my men for my own sake. If I can’t get them out of this….mind control trance then the only thing left to do is take the kid on myself.

Bang! Bang!

I flinch and tightly grip my weapon as just like that, another one of my team is rendered a disability.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

All my optimism from earlier is thrown out the window as I cowardly hide behind fat Sandra.

All I wanted was to take down a damn fucking criminal gang, I didn’t ask for a tussle with a goddamn meta!

The only meta’s in Invincibill’s gang are the ones that surround him as his personal and most trusted team, unlike other gangs the metas he picks up for his inner circle all have at least rank D or C powers like him.

That’s why I fucking chose to go after him in the first place! Before I would reasonably encounter a meta I would certainly have one given to me for all my achievements until then!

Bang! Bang!

Again.

Bang! Bang!

And again.

Bang! Bang!

And again!

I stand behind Sandra for what feels like an hour, hearing numbly in the distance the thunderous sound of my teammate's kneecaps being blown off by this...this fanatical kneecapper!

But I came to a realization thanks to all of this, thanks to all the fear in me, my mouth full of my own blood from my unconscious biting, I woke up to pain and the sound of blood dripping still, the blood of my subordinates.

I realized that this kid is all I need, that he has created the exact situation I need to propel myself to the top of the ranks in the department.

I don’t need Invincibill, just him, just the kid. A mind controller? Caught by me? Half of the team injured or dead? I would make the headlines, I would make the paper, I would be given a damn medal for throwing the Kneecapper’s sorry ass behind bars.

I let out a relieved controlled sigh at last and cock my weapon. I take a deep breath and look out the sides to take a peek at where the Kneecapper is now, he’s three unfortunate people away from Sandra.

Bang! Bang!

Better make that two then.

As The Kneecapper silently loads more ammunition into his weapon I ready myself for a final time, Time to be a hero.

Jumping out from behind fat Sandra I pull my gun on him, his eyes widen immediately and he scrambles to do the same but it’s too late and he’s far too disorganized, “Drop the weapon you damn criminal fiend!”

Covered in blood and even some broken bits of bone, the Kneecapper startled as is asks, “How can you move?”

“Drop the weapon or I swear to god!” I scream out at him.

He reels, blood dripples down from his nose and the next thing I know-

“Agrhhh!!”

“Ahhh!!”

“What the fuck! Helpp! Someone help!”

Startled by the sudden influx of screams of agony, my finger squeezes the trigger and-

Bang!