17th Bullet: New World Order

Deacon, Zelpha, Janda, Akio and Uvo ran like hell. The bullets had gone off and the whole city area was screaming and in panic. Janda especially wasn't ready to leave Leoria but duty called. A really annoying duty. When they had arrived, Deacon shoved past and ushered all the bystanders to back away from the crime scene. The cops and emergency responders already hustled on to the scene in hoping of preventing another life of being taken.

"Holy crap," Deacon muttered. Bodies were being dragged off and blood being cleaned thoroughly but the cries and backing away of citizens simply made the sight eternal like a never ending song of horror. Some of the citizens glared in pain but unable to speak, many cried and others didn't want to be involved at all. The roads were closed and the morning sun shone over them in its relentless heat.

A man on a horse walked approached the Killrights. It was Sandusky Dorr, tipping his hat and surveying the crime scene.

"Morning, lawdogs," Dorr said. "It seems the gangs have been starting to get more... theatrical with their kills."

Everyone seemed to ignore him but Dorr didn't care. People had died. Lots of innocents.

Akio groaned. "The cops here are practically useless. All they do is write down the reports and make no attempt in combating them." She clenched her fist tightly. "Weaklings..."

"Well," Zelpha said, "what can they do? Imperium, Chain Dogs and Black Angels are way bigger than themselves. They'd only become casualties if they tried anything grand."

"That isn't the point," Akio jabbed. "This submission like these criminals own this place is ridiculous. They're enforcers of the law, they should be doing everything in their power to prevent stuff like this from happening. It's our duty, is it not?"

Zelpha wiped some hair out of her face. "Akio, you're really being closeminded, aren't you?"

Akio could only glare. "How can any of you be so fine with this?!" she shouted in rage that made the group's head turn to her. Dorr could only watch as the little woman start flaring up.

Janda didn't bothering replying, only walking away and analysing the crime scene in curious steps and searching eyes as if a cat had wandered into the scene, wanting to him to find it.

"Akio," Uvo said with a calm voice, "we're trying our best in calming things down. What we're dealing with, with Vadars missing, Andreius captured and a gang war just at the toes of our feet, we can't make any major moves without some sort of advantage. It's in our best interest to keep on—"

"Just shut up!" Akio yelled. She turned and walked away, heat in each one of her feet. "If I have to do this job my damn self, I'll do it."

Zelpha looked as she watched Akio leave. She sighed before following after the woman she barely met an hour ago.

Deacon lit another cigarette and walked up to Uvo. "Seems like your division is in shambles."

"Yours is getting there, Holliday," Uvo replied. He shook his head. "Getting them all together is like trying to catch a fish with oily hands."

Deacon could only grunt in agreement before going to talk to some of the citizens. Uvo looked around in hope of seeing something useful but it only brought back painful memories.

Rain drizzled all around him, bodies laid unconscious or dead, he couldn't tell. The Desperado was on the ground, scythe in the chest. Blood coated his whole body and boots stepped right behind him. 

He grit his teeth and began his investigation.

Janda walked over to the suited men laying on the grown, bullets riddling their bodies. They dressed exactly the same and the only way to tell the difference was that one of them was wearing a watch. They both had tommy guns and Janda picked one up to see it brilliantly made. On the mahogany butt was an insignia.

Q.

The young Killright placed the gun down and jogged over to the crashed vehicle. Some of the Chain Dog underlings were being dragged off. A shy emergency worker was trembling, picking up the bodies. He looked awfully weak, almost no muscle on his body. How he got the job was surprising.

"Hey," Janda said. The worker leapt up, a little squeal exiting his masked mouth. The worker turned around and fidgeted.

"Hello, may I help, Killright?" he asked.

"Yeah." Janda looked at the guns, pistols and machine guns scattered. "Do you know anything about deaths like these?"

"Well... This isn't the first time. We've had deaths like these in the past but this is the most violent one amongst the public in a long while."

Janda crouched over and saw the guns. They all had the Q insignia.

"Tell me," Janda whispered. "When did these deaths by these gun brands start?"

"Well," the worker said, "I think about a couple of months before you Killrights arrived here."

Janda had already formed two theories.

Theory 1: The Chain Dogs had stolen guns from dead gangsters.

Theory 2: They were both being supplied by the same dealer.

"Hanze-fi..." Janda said. That's right. Hanze-fi was leading all of these gangs. But for what did he want? And where was he doing this?

Well, Hanze-fi clearly wants this all-out gang war to happen as soon as possible and the best way was to string attacks like these to happen. He's trying to pressure them to attack each other.

Janda stood up and rubbed his shoulder. Clearly, Hanze-fi was nearby. When the war is over and the false winner is declared, Hanze-fi would immediately take them down and the Mavericks would control the whole of San Francisco. 

Find Hanze-fi.

If Janda could accomplish that, he could take down everything one shot.

A smile, an almost sinister smile, spread across his lips. He quickly covered his mouth. 

It was that thing again. He had never thought this deeply in such a while. He hated smiling, especially when he couldn't control it.

A pair of hands clutched around his arm and Leoria stood by his side, smiling sweetly.

"Leoria..." he whispered. That weak feeling had returned. "What're you doing here?"

"I heard the shouts and screams and you just ran away with your colleagues... It's rude to leave a woman in the dark like that."

Janda was almost about to apologize but he kept quiet and pulled away. Leoria let out a small gasp but kept her composure. He looked away before walking to investigate.

"Janda!" Leoria called out but Janda looked back, a dead look in his eyes.

"You're apart of the Black Angels," Janda said. "I have no business talking to you."

"Please... will help me?" Leoria begged, tears starting well. "I can't stay under my father anymore. I can't stand him. His lust for destruction..." she was beginning to cry. "Please, make it stop. I beg of you, Elliot..."

He didn't know what to say or do in a long moment. He wasn't even a league distance of getting close to any of these gangs. However, what he needed to do was get some firepower back.

"I'll help you if only you can do this one thing for me," Janda requested. 

Leoria looked up and rushed in close, holding his hand. "Please, tell me."

"I want you to retrieve one of our colleagues." He kept close to despite his earlier actions. "His name is Andreius Isadore, captured by the Chain Dogs. If you can get him back to us, I promise I'll take down your father."

Leoria looked worried but then she shook her head. "I will. I'll bring him to you."

                                                                                ♱♱♱

When Vadars and Navier had risen from their long sleep, the news of the shooting had spread to downtown quickly. They kept low and steady, Navier looking at each detail, curve and shine of the parts he was given.

"So you're a shaman, huh?" Vadars asked. He was drinking a glass of milk, dressed in sweats and a black T-shirt that read in white letters: BAD ENERGY. "You Natives are strange people... so what kinda spell was that?"

"Hózhanai," Navier said. "It means Heal. I'm not a proper one, just in-training but now I just know a few tricks to keep me alive. It was taught to me by my clan elders for hunting but they're dead. All of them."

Vadars kept quiet. He listened intently. "Mind if I ask how?"

"Because you Killrights didn't do a damn thing about those Desperados. I ran away, hopeless and afraid, all because some lawdogs can't do their jobs right." Navier clutched a part so tightly it began to crack. "All because..." he didn't seem to finish his sentence. "I don't even know why the hell I'm housing a Killright."

"I'm a paying customer that also has to look out for your back. Those Black Angels jerks aren't gonna take us beating their men too kindly." He finished the glass and walked over. "On top of that, you owe me a fixed bike so I ain't going nowhere."

"Later," Navier replied curtly. "I'm not exactly in the best of headspaces to fix a bike."

Vadars made an annoyed face. "The hell you mean you're not in the best of headspaces?"

"Do you want your bike fixed or not?"

Vadars grumbled before a loud knock on the garage and walked over to answer it. He opened it before Wade Alfonso, his hair blonde hair and multiple ringed fingers tightly gripping his fists. Two guards stood next him.

"You, street urchin..." Wade grumbled. Navier walked over and glared.

"Alf," Navier said. "What brings you, out of all the people, to my store? Want some of your motors fixed?"

"Like I'd waste money in this dump," Wade said. "I'm here for this bastard." The guards grabbed Vadars. The Killright lashed out with a punch and a kick but Wade snuck in a sucker punch, Vadars slumping back into the hands of his captors. "He's under arrest."

"What?" Navier said. "You're not a cop. Just because you have a lot of cash doesn't mean you can arrest someone because you feel like it."

"My father owns the mines around here, Kincaid," Wade spat. "He's responsible for the economical growth of this city. As far as you know, I'll do whatever the hell I please. Besides, why do you even care about a Killright's well being?" Wade lashed out with a punch on Vadars' face and a knee to the stomach. "He's coming with me and for as long as I feel like."

The men dragged Vadars away, his mouth bleeding. "I'll kill you, rich boy..."

Wade laughed a snidey and arrogant laugh. "I'd love to see you try. Too bad you won't even be able to lay a finger on me."

Navier simply watched Vadars get dragged off. His customer was getting hauled off right before his eyes. He didn't know whether to care or to just step back inside, sell the bike and continue on with his life.

He didn't know what to do and it was starting to annoy him.

                                                                                  ♱♱♱

Balt and Weason lined up along the thousands of other men. In front of them paced Black Hand Monroe, his feet stomping in the desolated warehouse. The Chain Dogs were heavy, armoured and focused on their leader. Balt could barely keep straight whilst Weason was shivering in dread. They had never seen a man like this before, mad and infuriated. After he had sent a group to look for the Killright, his men were ambushed by Imperium out of the blue, the calculating pricks getting the best of them.

"Hounds!" Monroe shouted and the men shouted back in reply. "Today, we lost seven dogs! They were loyal, hungry and wanting to prove to me they were accomplished. Unfortnately, they were lost to Imperium." Men shouted and flailed about, protest banging on Balt's eardrums that made him quake but Monroe held up a hand to silence them. "Their deaths shall not be in vain. We attack them. What they've done and what they've continued to do does not provide anything but more pain for us. We claw them apart and gnash their throats out. We will dominate!"

The men broke out in to an instinctive shout that had been drilled to them since they became dogs.

Balt hadn't known this feeling before but it was something he could instantly tell what it was.

They were going to war.

                                                                                      ♱♱♱

Atticus Sarmiento coughed and drank a cup of warm tea. In the dark purple room were dimmed down lights and a king-sized bed that engulfed his sick figure. He thought his condition had gotten better but all of a sudden his health was shot to hell. He was back in bed and worse than before. He had sent Caine and Kane to stop the Chain Dogs from hurting anymore innocents but that only lead to more deaths and unnecessary bloodshed. He was too weak to command an army but he didn't have a choice.

He sat up and wiped the sweat from his thick brows. His dark skin was sickly pale and all the muscle he had had was nothing but a picture in a frame. He could barely feel his body anymore and it was getting harder to breathe.

"Father!" Sister Audrey said. "Please, don't sit up. You'll only hurt yourself." Audrey was a beautiful young girl, short sandy brown hair and glistening ebony skin. 

"I'm fine, mija," he said. "Do not worry yourself over your old man." He coughed a bit before composing himself. "I don't have much time. I must command my men to prepare for battle."

"Father." Tears started well in her eyes. "Can't we just run away? We can get you a doctor in a proper city or town and leave everything here behind. We have nothing to gain except more death and pain."

"Mija, when I began Imperium, it was to protect your mother and her friends. When these men joined me, they followed me for better days. I cannot abandoned them."

Audrey was quiet yet her face said it all. Tears dripped down her cheeks and splashed onto her dress. She was quietly sniffling and Sarmiento had gotten up, put on his coat and going to the door. The war was held off long enough. Outside was going to be a warzone, far greater than anything he had ever dealt with. With Q's tips as a massive advantage, he could hopefully neutralize everything before it was too late. Monroe and Ceres were probably already moving so time wasn't even his enemy.

It was right by his neck, ready to take everything from him in seconds.