The Tiger Clan. 

The strongest mafia group in North America or what used to be North America, now, this is a world that’s kill or be killed and no one could care less about continent names, anyways, the Tiger Clan makes sure that it’s never the latter, for them and although they’re the strongest physically, they aren’t as mentally gifted. I mean, come on, their name is ‘Tiger Clan’ I don’t think they could’ve gone with anything more basic, not that I can say much, my group is called ‘Void’, I mean, I guess our name is better than theirs. They’re literally named after an extinct species, mind you, that's what most groups do, name their group after an animal, usually an extinct one, in my opinion, that gives your group a bad omen, you’re literally naming it after something that has been proven to die. I guess it’s worked for them so far so I can’t say much.

“Ugh! Damn it, not right now!” I try to shoot my gun at them again then hit the barrel against my palm, damn it, out of bullets, I shove the empty firearm into my holster, pissed that this had to happen now, of all times, I grab a dagger from my pocket, knowing my skills aren’t nearly as good with any type of knife, but hoping the clan doesn’t know that quite yet, or better yet, will never find out, hoping the mere intimidation factor of seeing someone whose been kicking their asses so far yielding a knife would scare them off so that I don’t have to actually use the weapon.

You see, I’ve spent years perfecting my skills with a gun, and specifically avoiding knives of any kind, and hats off to people who can throw and use knives without a second thought, but I would much rather shoot a Sniper or a Pistol.

Oh well, in this battle, it looks like I’m not getting what I want. I scramble from my hiding space, trying to do so many things at once, looking out for the enemy while staying as invisible as possible. I move my hair back out of my face, at least I have my team to back me up, though I don’t have the faintest idea where they could be, so I decide to treat this like an independant mission, it’s safer to do so when I don’t know where everyone else is anyways. 

“Robin!” I turn quickly, holding the dagger up to threaten whoever called my name, fearing that it might be Ace, who is a notorious member of the Tiger Clan. Thankfully it’s just Jenna. I don’t think I’d want to face Ace or anyone else, with just a dagger, I feel like I could face him with my pistol, maybe, at the very least, the playing grounds would be at least a bit more even.

“Jenna! Where were you??”

“I was up there.” She points to a nearby, broken down water tower where I see the purple and black armbands that symbolizes our team, hidden behind snapped wooden posts with bullet holes in them. 

“Everyone wants to abandon the mission, they sent me out to get you, I think it’s because I’m still new.” She smiles awkwardly and I return the gesture.

“Okay, well, that’s stupid but I guess I’ll go with it, okay, let’s get out of here.”

“Okay, and how do we do that?” 

“Really Jenna? Follow me….” I look around, checking my surroundings before moving forwards, sprinting to the next building to hide behind, I hear Jenna’s boots hitting the ground violently, trying to keep up with me.

“Okay, Jenna, you’re going to get us killed by Ace or one of his goons, do you know how to run quietly?”

“Um, no…. I don’t think so.”

“Of course… um, okay, for one, shorten your strides, it makes it louder when you take longer strides,” I proceed to coach her on how to run quietly while trying to make sure we don’t get killed. “Okay, do you get it now?”

“Kind of, yea.” 

“Okay, then let's go.” We run towards the next blocker, which is a crate. I assume that we’re near what used to be train tracks and the crate fell when trains were still running, whenever that was, it’s been a while now but, to her credit, Jenna picks up on things quickly and she’s way more quiet this time. After two more blockers, consisting of a building, whose top has been blown to bits and a broken down post, we get to the group.

“Why are we abandoning the mission? We’re doing well.” I turn to Jason, demanding answers.

“Robin, it’s the Tiger Clan, we don’t stand a chance and I’d really rather not risk it, AND we have a newbie.” Everyone glances at Jenna and she looks down sheepishly. I adjust my ponytail and everyone looks at me.

“I really think you should cut your hair…”

“Well, fortunately for me, I couldn’t care less about what you think and you kind of have to deal with it.”

“Calm down Robin, all he said was he thinks that you should cut your hair.”

“Well Jarold can deal with my hair how I want it.” We glare at each other but he walks away. I know I have the common sense not to start shit with Jason right there and Jarold seems to have the same idea. We turn to head back to the main base, which is literally underneath a rickety building. I have never thought it was completely safe but it’s better than being one of the groups that has to congregate on the streets and just hope they don’t get killed in the middle of the night by the Tiger Clan or another group, as we’re heading back, we get stopped.

Shit.

Jason throws me a gun, seeing that mine is sitting in the holster, untouched. I load it up, prepared to shoot at any second.

It’s Ace. Leader of the Tiger Clan.

“You make a habit of running from fights?” Ace asks, sharply.

“Or is it because it’s us?” Derek sneers as the rest of the clan slowly surrounds us. Jenna looks worried as she realizes what’s going on, Jason and Jarold look completely calm but I can tell they’re concerned, as much as I hate Jarold, one thing that I have to give him is that he has a good poker face. 

At least, good enough to fool most people, I can tell that everyone is stressed out of their minds, although Jenna is making it really obvious, I think I’m doing a decent job of hiding the mild panic that’s slowly rising but I can’t be sure. From the way that they’re circling us, they seem to know they have the upper ground and they’re purposefully drawing this out, or they’re also worried and just doing an equally good job at hiding it. I know that either way, I’m not going out without a fight and I don’t care how it ends.

“I guess that each group has to live up to their names, Tiger Clan has to rule over everyone and show no mercy like real tigers would have, and Void, I guess, just disappears whenever they please, although, this time, the tigers will take out the void and the void can’t quite disappear. Or at least not the way they wanted.”

“Are you all talk, Ace, or are you actually going to do something, assert your supposed dominance?” Jason remarks, making Ace look like someone had just slapped him, he looked absolutely shell shocked that someone would talk down to him, as the most powerful leader out there. He recovers and makes a motion, at the signal, one of his idiots, or tries to, they have a bullet through their chest before they can actually do much.

Ace snaps his head back in our direction and sees me, reloading my gun, staring back at him.

“Should’ve been a bit more discreet…..” I smirk as he looks like he wants to kill me, I mean, he probably will later but for now, I feel like I have a leg up, well, witt sense, physical sense, I’m pretty sure he could kill me right here, right now, if he wanted to, yet he’s deciding not to?

“Are we going to keep coming up with snarky remarks or are we gonna get this done? Because I don’t know about you but I have things to do after this, oh wait, it doesn't matter for you anyways.” I point my gun up.

“I’m ready to finish this.” 

Now, we have a specific procedure we’d run over with Jenna for if we ever caught ourselves in a situation like this, I can’t remember when we last were caught like this, but then I do remember. And my breathing hitches.

Rosa.

I swiftly regain focus, staring down Ace as my team got into formation. It was my job to distract, basically, what would happen if this was executed correctly, that is, I would distract him and his goons while the rest of my team would run in different directions, making it look as if they had abandoned me, now, most groups, excluding our own, gave a little monologue before killing others, and Tiger Clan was no exception, but, that gave us enough time to get ourselves ready. It was definitely a risky strategy, but it was a risky strategy that worked time and time again.

“Looks like the void disappeared, except for one, of course. No one is surprised that Robin is the one that stayed,” He turns to one of the imbeciles in his clan. “One of these days, she’s going to get herself killed. Might as well be today.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” I ask, stalling as I prepare for this to happen.

“It means that Jarold is absolutely useless, I have no idea why Jason has him on the team, Jackie or whatever her name is, is a newbie, therefore, she doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing, Dilan, don’t even get me started on him, he’s so timid and shy, and Jason, for as much as he presents himself as strong and indestructible, he’s weak and pathetic, the only person Jason seemed to have made the right call with is you, and, of course Rosa, but that’s history now, isn’t it?” He smirked, closely watching me for a reaction, I kept myself together even though it felt as if I had been stabbed in the throat with a dull blade.

“Yea, well, you’re heading down that path too.”

“According to who? You? Sorry Robin but a one on four wouldn’t go too well for you, even with the rest of your group, you don’t stand a chance, but all of us taking you, and you alone, please, you’ll be dead in 3 seconds flat.” They start moving, looking like they’re on standby, waiting for their boss's command to attack and end this thing.
“Where the hell is everyone? I can’t stall for much longer.” Ace moves his head and Derek and Alec rush towards me, daggers and guns out. Ready to kill.

Shit.

I move swiftly, I have to, it’s life or death and I’d rather not get killed, at least not right now. I shoot my gun, hitting Alec in the foot. He stops, covering his foot with a panicked look, evidently, they thought it’d be easier than that to kill us off so they didn’t bring any medical supplies, so this dude had to figure out a way to stop the bleeding. And fast. Oh well, not my problem. I reload and fire again, hitting Derek in the arm, causing him to drop his gun and cover the new wound.

“You know, boys, it’s not a good idea to cover wounds with your hand, they might get infected….”

“Oh shut the hell up Robin, pretty soon, you’ll have a bullet through your head, then, you’ll have to worry about a lot more than an infection.” Derek barks, wincing as he moves his hand.

“I’ll believe it when I see it, although you seem to not be doing too well, at least, not right now.” I hit them with a sickly sweet smile and reload my gun.

“Who’s next, Derek and Alec are bleeding and the guy I shot earlier seems to be pretty much dead, so who wants to take their chance?” Ace himself steps forward.

Interesting.

Suddenly, I hear the sound of footsteps surrounding me, I glance behind me and the other two are there, with Ace standing up front.

“So is this how you’re going to take me out? Surround me all at once? What? You can’t do it yourself, you need the other goons to help?”
“You know, you talk a lot of smack for someone who's going to die soon, at least you’ll get to join Rosa, you two can finally get married in hell.”

“Just because I loved Rosa and we were dating, doesn’t mean you can use her whenever you run out of things to say. Although, we all know you’re not very mentally gifted.”
“Mental gifts don’t matter in this world, and if they did. I’d still have you beat.”
“And you’re sure about that one?”

“Absolutely.”

“Come on Ace, you named your group Tiger Clan, you named it after something that has been proven to die to the point they don’t exist,” I gesture to the rest of his team, who are currently writhing in pain, barely able to go seconds without swearing. “although, that theme seems to have held up….” I shoot Alec in the side of the head, killing him, ending his misery, though, probably not as promptly as he would've wanted.

“Just be thankful I didn’t shoot the front of your head.” He doesn’t acknowledge what I said, probably because he’s too busy bleeding out.

“Full of snarky remarks, I see.”

“Well, you would know more than anyone, wouldn’t you?” Derek, Thomas, and Owen all look at Ace, curiously.

“What does she mean?”
“Come on guys, she’s just spewing words to, um, to waste time…..” He awkwardly laughs and trails off, evidently, nervous.

“Yea, that excuse will hold water, just wait until they all find out, they’ll never look at you the same way again.” I roll my eyes as he shoots me a glare, the rest of them, or the ones that are still alive, that is, look between him and I with confusion and slight irritation in their eyes.

“Wait until we find out what, Ace, what is she talking about?” Derek demands answers and the rest of his team quickly follow suit. Perfect. I use the distraction to get higher up, scaling the side of a rickety metal building, as I had done so many times with my own base.

“ENOUGH! EVERYONE! THE NEXT PERSON THAT ASKS ABOUT ANYTHING IS GETTING SHOT!” He shouts furiously and fires his gun towards the sky, probably to show that he’s serious about the threat. Everyone backs off and looks back to where I was standing before.

“Now where did she go?? If she got away, you’re all getting stabbed.”
“Well, I guess no ones getting stabbed today then…” I shout down as I shoot a bullet at the ground beside them. “Someone might get shot though.” I put down my gun to carry a conversation with them for a little while longer, still stalling.

“You’re very cocky, aren't you?” Ace smirks, expecting me to fold.

I don’t.

“Considering the fact that I’ve killed two people and made one practically useless for you, therefore wiping out half of your team all on my own, yea, I am.”

“Keep in mind, you’re still all on your own, I would advise you to be careful with what you say.”
“So far, my plethora of snarky remarks haven’t gotten me injured, although three people have now tried to kill me on your command. Two of which are dead, may I remind you. If I were you I’d be careful about what I’d do next. Though, if we switched positions, you probably wouldn’t be able to go too long on your own, considering the fact that you haven’t made a single attack on me yet.” This infuriates him, which works for me, all I need is time, because, for some goddamn reason, my team hasn’t come here yet. But every second counts, so they need to hurry up.

“Well, if you're full of remarks, I’m sure you won’t mind if we start talking about Rosa, would you?” I sit down, getting prepared for one of the most difficult conversations I’ve had in a while.

“What is there to talk about?”

“Your undying love for her, the fact that you still can’t talk about her without sitting down?” He smirks, gaining the upper hand, it’s okay, all I need to do is remain calm.

“Yea, I loved her, not like you would know what love feels like, you never have, probably never will. And I can talk about her whenever I want, however I want, you guys are just taking a while to actually do anything productive.” This made him mad again.

“Why don’t you come down here and fight then, if this is such an inconvenience, we can get it over with quickly.”
“You know, that’s one of the most logical things you have said for years…..”

“Oh shut up, enough with your remarks.”

“The thing is, I don’t feel like it though. One sec.” I dismount the building in a way that I’ll still be able to react if they shoot at me, which, surprisingly, they don’t. I think they’re still slightly concerned about Ace, not that any of them will fess up and ask any questions after his threat.

“So, you finally ready to hash this out? It’s the fight everyones been waiting for but nobodys asked for.” He asks. Of course, It’s a rhetorical question, he’s going to fight me whether I’m ready or not. 

“Second part sums up most of the fights you’ve had.” Derek, Thomas, and Owen all surround me, deciding that that was the best tactic they have, which, is kind of pathetic, though, my team's plan consists of running away and then ambushing the other team, so there’s not much I can say.

“If you would fight with your gun instead of your words, this would go a lot faster…” Owen comments, picking up Ace’s habit

“Hmm, you know, you’re right….” I quickly load my gun and shoot in his direction, he barely has time to react but manages to get out of the way.

“That's all you got?” I turn back around, facing the direction of the voice.
“Derek, do I need to shoot your other arm? Just shut up. Two members of your little clan are dead, thanks to me, and you were pretty damn close, speaking of which, how is dealing with that going?” I ask sarcastically, causing him to shut up and grab his gun from its holster.

“Can we just get this over with?” Ace asks, irritably.

“You’ve never been patient, have you? Wait, nevermind, I already know the answer.”

“Seriously dude, what is she talking about?” Owen asks with an exasperated tone. That was a mistake. Ace looks pissed.

I hurriedly hit the floor as I see him pull the trigger, the noise ringing in my ears as the bullet barely misses my head. Luckily, Ace wasn’t aiming for me.

I look behind me to see Owen on the ground, slowly bleeding through a newfound hole in the middle of his forehead. I load my gun up again.

“Let that be an example to the rest of you, when I say stop, you should stop, I’m the boss and don’t you forget it, now, let’s take care of this vermin.” He gestures towards me and they close in. 

I try to get off of the ground, but they point their guns at me, threatening me, like hell they’ll let me get up, they’re not going to let me do anything that’ll give me a little bit of power, so I’m stuck on the ground. Moments away from death.

“So we’re finally here, aren’t we? And to think you were so confident that you could wipe all of us out.” I rolled my eyes at Derek’s remarks, not paying them any attention.

“You still a sarcastic jackass, huh? Even when you’re looking death in the face?” Ace sneers, seeing me helpless must make him feel like the most powerful man on Earth.

Oh well, I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of having me answer his stupid question.

He kneels down to my level, grabbing my chin, forcing it up so I’ll make eye contact with him.

“Speak when you’re spoken to you little-”

“Get the hell off me you bastard.” I shove his hand away from me, interrupting his little powertrip. 

“You should be careful with what you say, you know, I’m the one with the power here and I’ve killed for less.” He holds his gun to the side of my head, I look at it, terrified but trying to keep the fear off of my face. Evidently, it doesn’t work as Ace’s smile only grows wider.

But I notice something that he obviously doesn’t. The soft sound of receding footsteps, presumably from Derek and Thomas. I keep staring at Ace, not giving away that I realize what’s happening behind him.

“Is this seriously how much a life is worth to you, is this how much things mean to you?” Tears stream down my face as I go on, stalling even more, the fear slowly overwhelming me, I’ve stalled so much today and my team is still nowhere to be found, I’m starting to wonder if they just abandoned me, but I can’t let that sudden uncertainty show, not now, not this far in. “this is how much things mean to you? How can you sleep at night knowing what you’ve done, how much death and destruction you have caused, sure, we have all killed, killing is unavoidable in this world but the amount you have killed, how do you kill so freely, how can you do it?” 

“Because I love it.” He moves his gun to shoot a bullet into the sky, with that split second, I grab my pistol and shoot.

He drops. 

Blood splatters.

He’s dead. 

I hear violent steps approaching. I take a deep breath.

“This was your last hoorah, Ace, although I'm going to miss my brother.” Derek and Thomas stop in their tracks, and stare at each other then at me. I shoot them each a glare and then I shoot them in the chests. 

Killing them.

The Tiger Clan is dead at last.