"Who did it?" Jamie entered the shop, his eyes fixated on Aiden's arm, his voice eerily calm.
"Jamie!" Amanda turned to him with a look of relief before it turned to worry.
"Jamie…" Aiden weakly called out.
"I'm here little bro." Jamie couldn't bring himself to look at Aiden's face. His eyes teared up.
"Who did this to you guys, Amanda?" He turned to her instead, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"It was Dynamos." She shuddered. "T-They came in here claiming that we were hiding drugs or something, then they wrecked the shop, they broke Aiden's medicine, and…"
She took a moment to breathe. "Aiden was here in the garage, waiting for you to come home when they arrived. One of them grabbed his arm, and he tried to run…"
"You don't need to say it. Do you remember any officers?"
"No, but…" It was at this point she looked at Jamie, tears running down her face. "They took Amy. You have to get my sister back!"
She sobbed. Jamie gulped, nodded, and stood up. He took the puppy out of his jacket and handed it to Amanda, who was surprised for a moment before looking back at Jamie.
"I'll bring her back. And find more medicine."
"Please." With a whisper, she turned back to Aiden, scared to move him to not cause him pain.
Jamie immediately left the shop, searching the streets. He didn't have a location or information, but he was going to get it. Fortunately, Dynamos didn't seem to know that Shell had already left, so the cops were still all over the streets.
Almost immediately, he found a lone cop leaning against the wall of a building, smoking a cigarette. Jamie made Prime approach the cop.
"Hey." The cop turned to face the voice, only for Prime to grab his right arm.
"What is this!?"
"Are you in contact with the other officers?" Jamie looked down at the cop with cold eyes while Prime twisted his arm, forcing him onto his knees.
"Who the hell are you - AAGH!"
The cop's arm was broken with a sickening crunch, the bone sticking out of his flesh, almost exactly like Aiden's arm.
"Answer my question."
"N-No, I left my communicator-"
Without letting the cop finish, Prime punched his face into the wall, reducing it to a red paste.
[You have killed a Level 4 Useless Trash]
Jamie left, roaming the streets again until he found more cops, this time a duo that was walking down an alley.
"Let's grab some food after this."
From behind, a metal fist flew, powered by small thrusters. It hit one of the officers from behind, piercing his chest and crashing into a wall. While the other officer struggled to process that his friend was now dead, Jamie slammed him against the wall, putting a gun to his head.
[You have killed a Level 3 Nobody]
"Do you have a communicator?"
"Y-Yes!" The cop was terrified, shaking under Jamie's grip.
"Turn it on." The cop followed Jamie's instructions without hesitation. "Now, you're going to ask your fellow officers if they have a teenage girl with red hair and green eyes with them. Ask for help and I'll kill you."
The cop gulped, picking up his communicator and turning it on. "H-Hey, do a-any of you guys have a girl with red hair and green eyes with you?"
There was some static before another officer replied. "Yeah, this is Gibbs. Me and a few others got her."
"Location." Jamie whispered into the cop's ear.
"W-Where are you guys right now?" He questioned. The communicator was silent for a moment.
"...Why?"
The cop felt the cold barrel of the pistol push ever so slightly against his head. Jamie didn't have to tell him to make his reasoning good.
"T-The chief wants to go over something."
"The chief? Why, is the deal off now?"
"Not sure, t-thats why he wants to know."
Jamie's eyes narrowed. What sort of deal was going on?
"Alright then, we're in an abandoned warehouse by the northeast border."
"..."
"Did the chief get that? Mick? Hello? Are you there?"
The communicator lay on the ground, continuing to call Mick, who was slumped against the wall, a hole in the back of his head.
******
"Guess Mick turned his communicator off. Hope the chief's satisfied."
In an abandoned warehouse, a cop pocketed his communicator, walking over to his fellow officer, who was holding a rifle.
"Any sign of them?"
"Not yet." The one with the gun shook his head as he peeked out a window. "Taking them a while."
"Hope the deal isn't canceled."
"Mmmmf!"
"Ugh, do we gotta listen to this all night?"
The two cops turned to look towards the middle, where a girl was bound and gagged to a chair, tears streaming down her face. Amy was terrified, and she screamed through her gag as much as she could, though it didn't amount to much.
"Just bear it a little longer. Remember, we won't get paid if she's damaged."
"What does that guy want with her anyway? He could get any girl he wanted with his connections."
"Hey, not our place to ask."
"True."
The two cops separated to do their own thing. Aside from the cop with the rifle and the cop named Gibbs, there were two more armed cops patrolling the catwalk above and left one last cop leaning against the wall, playing with a rock, someone Jamie would find familiar.
Nothing happened for about… 5 minutes.
The cops were still waiting for someone to arrive when something hit the building. The ceiling caved in, rubble threatening to hit the cops.
A tall, humanoid robot fell through the hole in the ceiling, a handful of micro missiles exiting its wrists before hitting the catwalk, detonating and killing the two armed cops patrolling it.
Prime landed on the floor, immediately rushing towards Gibbs, who screamed in terror. Before Prime could punch his head in, a wall of earth appeared in between them, taking the mecha's punch before crumbling.
"So it was that guy again…"
On the rooftop of a nearby building, Jamie sat as he watched the fight through Prime's eyes using Thermal Vision. The infrared made it hard to tell their facial features, but Jamie had a feeling one of them was the same Earth Wizard that locked him out of the slums the day he found Prime.
"I'll just kill him last to confirm it." He decided, ignoring the notifications that appeared for killing the two armed cops on the catwalk.
Back in the warehouse, the last armed cop immediately aimed his rifle at Prime and pulled the trigger. The mecha was bombarded with energy blasts, but thanks to his new durability, they didn't even leave a scratch.
The Earth Wizard raised his hands as a boulder began to form from rocks and dirt in front of him. Before he could throw it at Prime, smoke appeared out of nowhere, filling the warehouse within seconds and obscuring their vision.
"Where is that thing!? Who sent it!?"
The cop with the rifle was on guard, constantly checking behind him. As he turned once more, two bright red dots of lights appeared above his head. He suddenly felt goosebumps all over his skin, and turned around in panic.
"Shit!"
He turned around just in time to see Prime's fists closing in on both sides of his head, crushing it instantly.
[You killed a Level 7 Scared Guard]
Now, only Gibbs and the Earth Wizard were left. To get out of the smoke, the Earth Wizard made the ground he stood on rise into the air, taking him out of the smoke, though he still couldn't see what was inside the smoke.
Unfortunately, Gibbs was a regular human, so he had no clue he was the only one left in the smoke. Out of nowhere, Prime picked him up by the waist and threw him towards the wall. Gibbs bounced off, coughing up blood.
The Earth Wizard's eyes narrowed as he heard Gibbs grunt of pain, but he couldn't exactly pinpoint it.
"Please…" Gibbs got to his feet and pleaded for his life to the mecha.
Up on the other building's rooftop, Jamie ignored his pleas. "Fire Blast."
"AAAAAAGHHH!!"
Gibbs thrashed around on the floor and screamed his lungs out as he was burned alive. Now that only the Earth Wizard was left, Jamie canceled Smokescreen. He wanted to kill him face to face.
[You have killed a Level 5 Gibbs]
Prime turned to the Earth Wizard standing on top of his pillar. Seeing the mecha now turn its attention onto him, the cop grit his teeth and shot his mana into the pillar, making shards of dirt and rock detach from the pillar and shoot towards Prime.
"Don't come any closer!"
In response, Prime raised a single arm and pointed it at him, a compartment on the mecha's wrist sliding open, revealing rows of micro-missiles that were missing a few. Three shot out of the compartment, rapidly flying towards the Earth Wizard, who cursed and leaped off his pillar right before it exploded.
He landed on his foot the wrong way, breaking his ankle and stunning him momentarily from the pain. He raised a hand to try and shoot more shards of earth from the pillar, but Prime was quicker. The moment his hand reached above his head, he saw a wave of water appear out of nowhere, crashing into him and pushing him against the wall, canceling his magic.
"Ugh… what the…"
The Earth Wizard coughed and sputtered as the water washed over him, trying to wipe the water off his face. He wiped his eyes with his sleeves to see Prime standing there, arm aimed at him. He quickly tried to cast another spell when he saw thrusters spring to life by the mecha's elbow. Before he could gather any mana, the steel fist detached, flying into his hand and crushing it against the wall.
"ARGH!"
The Earth Wizard screamed in pain. He couldn't feel his hand anymore. He looked downwards in defeat as he burst into tears, wet and dirty. He was terrified as he heard the heavy, solid footsteps of the mecha approaching him, loud enough to hide the softer footsteps of a smaller being next to them.
"What d-did we ever do to you…"
"You don't know?"
"Huh?" Surprised to hear a human voice, the cop tried to look upwards, only to feel a boot meet his chin. "Ack!"
Jamie pulled out his pistol and shot the man in his good foot, soliciting another scream. The cop quickly tried to calm down, finally able to see his attacker's face. He panted before looking up, freezing at the cold expression, black hair, and rage-filled red eyes of a boy he had supposedly killed a few days ago.
"N-No…"
"Yes." Jamie stepped on the hole in his foot, making him grunt in pain before aiming the pistol at his head. "Now, you're going to answer me truthfully."
The cop shook in response.
"I'm only going to ask this once. Why did you do all this?"