#Shoot whoever you want after I fire the first shot.#

  "Sure," Mumei said, "I'll try and pick them off systematically, probably from left to right."

  #Whatever you wish I guess.#

  Leaving the car, Ataraxia and her sniper walked up to the police officers.

  "Hey, what are you do-!" Before the officers could ask them to leave, Ataraxia threw the contract chip into the hands of one of the officers and walked past them.

  #Before we go.# Ataraxia wrote as she handed Mumei her Ballista magazines.

  "Just give me two spares. I can't pocket any more than those. Two are already stretching my pockets." Mumei said as she returned the magazines.

  Shrugging her shoulders, Ataraxia continued to walk into the tunnel.

  Elsewhere...

  "Are we done with this board?" The white figure asked.

  "Indeed we are." The bck figure replied as he captured the white figure's st chess piece.

  "What shall we do next?" The white figure asked as he snapped his fingers, causing the board to dissolve.

  "How about a game of shogi*?" The bck figure replied, unimpressed at the feat performed on the table in front of him.

  "Why not." White hummed.

  "On another note, how is the new _____ doing?"

  "They're doing fine. About to _____." White said with a smirk.

  "I see. And how is the old _____ doing?"

  "As fine as they could be."

  "So it'll be _____'s turn?" Bck said with a smirk, mirroring White.

  "Fuck man. I told you we shoulda just legged it." An outw said. Ataraxia and Mumei had crept to deep into the tunnel, slitting the necks of the occasional watchmen with Teresa. The tunnels had flickering lights, with a circle of cars surrounding the hostages and outws. "Now we got caught by the cops man."

  "We'd get no pay if we legged it." Another replied, "We were told that we had to take the daughter of Jonathon dead or alive, no matter what. So I don't know about you, but I'd rather not see what happens if we don't bring her back"

  'So they're being paid then. Seem like a lousy bunch to me.' Suddenly, fshes of a past event resurfaced as Ataraxia mentally wrote off the outw's efforts. The memory of the firefight in Kick Out, still vivid in her mind, caused her to shake involuntarily. 'Not this time. I have backup and they're not actual people, just Faux Humans.'

  Gesturing towards Mumei to set up on the hud of a red SUV, Ataraxia stopped crouching and raised a stolen AK47 from one of the many fallen watchmen.

  *BANG*

  Her shot narrowly missed, cutting through the hair of a masked woman.

  "WHAT THE FUCK!" An outw shouted, lost in the chaos. A cacophony of screams rang out as guns were fired in every direction, narrowly missing some of the hostages that had stood up in the panic.

  "FUCKING CALM DOWN!" Another shouted before getting shot by Mumei.

  *BANG*

  *BANG*

  A fierce shootout broke out in the tunnel. Mumei fired round after round at the outws, nailing most of them in the head or heart. Echoes of the shootout echoed out of the tunnel, reaching the police, yet they made no sign of gearing up to support the duo inside.

  "FUCK!" An outw shouted in despair at the chaos, "I KNEW I SHOULDN'T HAVE FOLLOW HARRISON!"

  The rebels repeatedly alternated between firing back and dropping to the ground, despairing. The encirclement of cars, initially set up to protect the outws in case something happened became their greatest nightmare. The duo circled the outws in the shadows of the vehicles, sometimes behind the cars closest to them, sometimes in the shadows 2 or 3 cars away.

  Firing another two bullets at the enemy, Mumei ducked to avoid the rain of bullets coming towards her.

  "I'm moving." Mumei whispered into her radio as she dashed behind another car.

  [-.-. --- ...- . .-. .. -. --.] (Covering)

  *BANG**BANG*

  Ataraxia fired rapidly, distracting the opposition from the disappearance of the sniper.

  *BANG*

  "Fucking hell." Mumei breathed out as she continued to shoot.

  *BANG**BANG*

  *CRACK*

  The outws fired back, seemingly fed up with being suppressed by a little girl with a stolen AK47, that had now run dry, and a pistol. Ataraxia fired back, narrowly avoiding bullets as they whistled over her head. Taking the bullets as a cue to move, she communicated her decision before dashing to a new piece of cover, trusting that whatever covering fire a bolt action sniper rifle could provide would be enough to temporarily suppress the opposing side.

  *BANG**BANG*

  Smming the bolt down as hard as she could to cover Ataraxia's movement between cars, Mumei forced the Ballista to cough up round after round. While many missed, some had nailed their target. The fortunate were killed instantly. The less fortunate were left to feel the pain of having an arm blown away with the unnatural strength of an in-game Ballista, bleeding out on the ground in a mess of their tears and blood.

  "W-W-WE SURRENDER!" An outw shouted in distress.

  "DROP THE FUCKING WEAPONS!" Due to the stress of the short shootout, Mumei dropped her polite tone, repcing it with a more fierce tone peppered with the occasional curse.

  *CLACK*

  *CLACK...*

  The sound of guns dropping one after another echoed in the tunnel as the outws walked towards the duo, who had rejoined each other, with their arms up.

  Walking over to the hostages, Ataraxia saw that, besides the scrapes that some had from dropping to their knees in fear at the start of the battle, they were fine.

  'Phew, that means this wasn't a repeat of st time.' Ataraxia relievedly thought.

  "Which of you lot is the daughter of Jonathon Steen?" Mumei asked in a slightly more polite tone, having only barely recovered from the stress.

  One of the captives raised their shaking hand.

  "Good. You, follow me. The rest of you lot, we'll cut your restraints. Walk out to the police and they'll take care of you." Mumei ordered.

  Weaving through the crowd of sitting-down captives, Ataraxia cut their restraints and cloth gags.

  "Wa-Wait!" A hostage shouted after Ataraxia, who had moved on to the next hostage, "The police! They're cooperating with the outws! I heard them talk about things like bribery and having moles! We've been here for a day, and the outws were talking about how they were going to share profits or something with the police. They only stopped after they noticed someone approaching."

  Murmurs of agreement resounded from the ungagged captives at the man's words.

  'What? What the fuck happened to the oath to serve and protect?' Ataraxia thought as her thoughts led to one word. A word that she despised. A word that caused her to wear a bloodthirsty smile and emanate heavy killing intent. A word that caused the metaphorical chains she kept wrapped around her body to fall to the ground loosely as she felt like she had never stretched in years. 'Betrayal. They're fucking betraying the people! How could they... Fidees' Creed No. 2: Do not betray.'