The troll officer has been running farther than his diseased lungs should allow him through the thick forest, but the risks are too fucking high. With only his rifle and ammo, the troll's likelihood of surviving this forest trauma are slim. There is absolutely no light because it's night, and even though it's better for his troll eyes, Karkat can only stand so much darkness. Karkat takes a chance to allow a quick catch up for his breath. He wheezes near a bush holding on to his weapon. The exhausted troll hears quick footsteps close to him.

He raises his head to see Vriska squirreling around with her own rifle ready. She raises it to aim for a kill, "Come on out you fuckers!" The spider troll spins around aimed, "I never lose! I will KILL YOU!"

Karkat slows his breath a little, 'That bitch,' he thinks, 'Yelling will only get you killed faster.' The troll smirks to himself, 'Well if she's going to be like that, then I might as well put her out of her misery. She does deserve it after all.' Karkat lifts his rifle and takes aim straight to the side of Vriska's head.

But before the grouchy officer could fire, a shot is rung and Vriska is hit in the back. Blue comes flowing down the spider troll's back. Vriska falls to her knees screaming, she does her best to hold the tears back.

"Joooooooohn!" She screams for her final words. After that, Vriska collapses to the forest floor.

The troll officer stares in horror, "Shit," he whispers, "The bitch got Vriska." Karkat stands up from behind the bush, "Well rather her than me."

Karkat dashes behind a tree panting for his breath. The back of the troll's neck is freezing from the crisp forest air. He brings his rifle close to him making sure the weapon is loaded. He wipes the sweat from his brow and wishes for a glass of water. The officer scans the area to make sure that nobody is behind him. "The area appears secure," he whispers to himself. "How do I get in these fucking situations?" Karkat asks to no one in particular. He makes a mad dash to the next tree hoping to avoid capture. Karkat has done well so far avoiding the enemy, but the others have already been defeated. Now it's only him and the bitch. The situation is like cat and mouse, and Karkat is not the cat.

The officer presses his back against the tree. The troll studies the area once more and realizes that his section is secure. Karkat realizes that he has a moment for rest and something else. He breaks out his cigarette pack and lighter, "Like fuck if I'm not going to take a fucking break," Karkat mutters.

As soon as he flickers his lighter, a shot is run from across the forest. Birds fly away from the noise and the force causes Karkat to hit the back of the tree. Karkat looks at his chest and finds bright red covering his chest, and the red spills over his grey cancer symbol on his shirt. Before Karkat falls to the ground defeated, He has enough time to see Jade in a tree watching him behind her glasses with her rifle aimed at the now doomed officer. The green-eyed human jumps down from the tree smiling over her captured prey.

She positions the rifle to fire straight into Karkat's face, "Any last words fuckass?"

Karkat lifts his head painfully growling, "Fuck . . . you . . . bitch," he pants. Karkat slowly closes his eyes and drifts away.

Jade walks over and lightly kicks him in the side, "Wake up! You're not really dead, idiot."

Karkat sighs and opens one eye, "It's called acting Jade. Get multi-cultured for once." Jade kicks him harder. "Alright! Fuck, I'm getting up. Just stop kicking me like a dead hoof-beast," Karkat grumbles pulling himself up from the dirt. The officer looks down at his black shirt with his symbol on it, "Damn it Jade! You got red paint on my good shirt. I really liked this shirt."

"What did you expect when we go paintballing? Come on Karkat, no one likes a sore loser," Jade jokes. "I beat you all fair and square."

Karkat grumbles, "How the fuck is your aim so great now? When we have target practice, my aim is always better than yours!"

The female officer rotates her rifle in her hands, "I was trained with a rifle more than pistol. So I'm naturally better with the rifle." Jade stops playing with her weapon and grumbles to herself, "I've been trying to get the chief to allow me to use the rifle, but he's making me take classes and get a legit permit."

"Why's he making you do that?" Karkat asks trying to rub the paint out of his shirt.

Jade answers the troll, "Well . . . I wasn't officially taught. My grandfather taught me before . ."

"Before the hunting accident?" Karkat interrupts. He finally got Jade to tell him how her grandfather died; which was a hunting accident years ago.

"Yeah, the accident." She still doesn't like to talk about it too much.

Karkat scratches the back of his head awkwardly, "Let's just go back to the base to clean up," he says walking toward the forest area's exit.

Jade grabs him by the shoulder, "Wait, we need to get Vriska."

The troll officer sighs, "Is she still playing dead?"

Jade looks at him skeptically, "Isn't that a bit hypocritical? You over-acted just as much." Her partner waves her response away.

"I didn't scream my matesprits name when I died like some orgasmic slut," he counters.

"That's because you don't have one," Vriska responds coming up from behind them making Karkat lose his shit. Her shirt is covered with cerulean paint on the back where Jade shot her, and her hair is covered in grass and some twigs from when she had fallen.

"Fuck Vriska! What did I say about coming up behind me?" Karkat screeches.

Vriska smirks pulling the twigs and grass out of her hair, "You should have known that I was going to come here. I'm not dead." Karkat growls.

Jade steps in between them, "You guys please, let's just go back to the meeting room."

Both Vriska and Karkat solemnly agree with the human, and the trio walks to the meeting room silently.

The meeting room is a circular room with seats, drinking dispensers, and food boxes all over, with a place for the cashier to sit all placed near the entrance of the forest. They see inside the owner of the area, a mellow yellow troll, who set the place up for paintballing is in the cashier spot, next to the window staring at the moon is Sollux who is holding hands with billionaire Feferi Peixes, and Kanaya who is closes to the door who greets them. Sollux and Feferi are staring at each other disgustingly lovingly with multi-colored paint splattered all over them.

"That game was simply astounding. Well done all of you." The jade troll turns to Vriska and pulls out a piece of grass from the spider troll's rough hair, "You're performance was especially-"

Vriska pushes her away, "Yeah yeah," Kanaya face is frozen with a fake smile. The spider troll turns Feferi, "You paying for all of this rich gills?"

Ms. Peixes turns away from her boyfriend surprised, "Huh, Oh yes of coral, I've already paid for everyfin completely. Don't worry," the wealthy fish-troll turns back to the lisp-y officer to stare into his multi-colored eyes.

Jade pokes Kanaya's shoulder, "Did you think I did well? I mean I did win this game after all."

The jade troll's shoulders deflate, "You did wonderful Ms. Harley." She turns to sulk over to the exit, "Just wonderful."

The human officer smiles, "Oh okay!" Karkat watches Kanaya interested in this new interesting development. Jade lights up, "I have a question for all of you; a question about trolls." All the trolls stare at Jade with slight interest. "Why are trolls so active at night? Like how come Vriska and Karkat feel the need to overact their deaths?"

Karkat groans, but Sollux perks up, "Because those two are douche bags."

Feferi pulls on his ear a little annoyed and turns to Jade sweetly, "Seashell, it's because trolls are naturally more active at night. We have this tendency to soak up the moonlight, quite similar to how humans soak up the sun." The sea troll grabs her bag of guppy flavored chips, "It's natural for moist trolls to prefer the night sky than the daylight." Sollux snickers and whispers to the sea troll, "That was a really bad pun." She playfully pushes him away giggling.

"But not all trolls," Kanaya argues next to the door leaning on the wall. "I prefer the sun more than the moon."

Vriska looks at her strangely, "That's really weird." Kanaya's attitude deflates, but the blue-blood pays no attention to it. Vriska moves away to the side of the room so she could view the entire group to make a show of what she is saying, "Well I'm afraid that I must say my good-byes, I just have to depart for my dear John." She cockily waves goodbye and dashes outside where her newly bought shitty car awaits her. From inside the meeting hall, everyone can here screeches of her tires speeding out of the parking lot.

All of the officers looked at each other, Karkat groans, "Fuck it, I'm off duty tonight. That bitch can get ticketed some other time." The others stand there a little awkward about what just happened.

"Well," Kanaya sighs, "That was productive."

Karkat pushes her out the door, "Let's get out of here." The rest of the group follows the two out into the night sky. The paintball area is on the borders of the outskirts of Skaia. The diner which Gamzee is inconveniently managing is only a few blocks away, so the crew plans on ending the night there for a midnight snack. Karkat, Kanaya and Jade are walking ahead while Sollux and Feferi stroll together behind passing the individual shops.

"Kanaya, I have a question for you," Karkat starts pulling out a cigarette, "Why did you come here tonight?"

The receptionist blushes, "I don't know what you are talking about Mr. Vantas." Karkat coughs smoke into her face making her grimace.

"Fucking bullshit, Kanaya," the disgusting officer accuses, "You hate sports. You call this one a barbaric sport. No wait, you think all sports are fucking barbaric!"

Kanaya walks straight with her shoulders back looking ahead, "I wanted to expand my boundaries Mr. Vantas."

Officer Harley crosses her arms, "Stop abusing Kanaya, Karkat. Don't ruin a nice night."

The male troll rubs his face, a habit he has grown around Jade, "Jesus fucking Christ, Jade! You can be so blind at times." He grabs Kanaya's shoulder roughly, "Kanaya is feeling flushed for Vriska." Karkat turns to stare straight into the Kanaya's jade colored eyes, "It's a bad idea Kanaya."

Kanaya looks defiantly at Officer Vantas, "And just why would it be a bad idea Mr. Vantas?"

"Because she's already deep red for that human, not to mention she's a psycho." Karkat releases his grip on Kanaya, "I'm trying to help you avoid a doomed ending. When John is ever mentioned, nothing else matters to her."

Kanaya huffs at Karkat, "Well I'm going to try my best. There's no telling when that human could wake up, so I'm going to do what I can." And with that, Kanaya struts off ahead abandoning the group.

Officer Vantas sighs smoking his cigarette, "I don't know why I try." His cigarette extinguishes early causing Karkat to groan. In pity, Jade pulls out her own pack and offers one to Karkat while pulling out her own. The troll lights his and the human's.

"You know what Jade?" Karkat questions absent mindedly, "People are always trying to ask me for romance advice. And thanks to the amazing rom coms I watch, I'm an expert. I've had people try to get me in quadrants to help them out of their own situations, and I've denied them all." Karkat stops to feel the warmth of the cigarette, "I guess that's why I chose Gamzee as my moirial, not a lot of romance issue with that one."

Jade gives a small smile, "You suffer so much Karkat."

The troll ignores her sarcasm, "I fucking know!" He gives a thumb point behind him towards the doe-eyed couple, "We had to come with those numbskulls just so Sollux could get that sea-troll to come with him."

"Well I had fun Karkat," Jade counters smoking her cigarette.

"Sure you would, but I hate being the wingman to every fucking thing. When will these assholes learn to make their own moves without my help."

Jade giggles, "I sure Sollux has made many moves on Ms. Peixes."

"Exactly! So why do I have to come on these dates."

Officer Harley taps her fingers across her chin holding her cigarette with her other hand, "Karkat, we all had to come so Sollux could get the day off claiming to the chief that this is target practice. Now I was surprised that Kanaya agreed to come to convince the chief that we wouldn't be playing around, but I guess it would make sense if she would agree to spend time with Vriska." Jade tosses her extinguished cigarette in a passing trash can, "Now with all that in mind, plus the fact that we both owe Sollux for him doing our paperwork, can you really complain for wasting some time doing for his sake?"

Karkat has nothing to say about that.

A feminine shriek goes through the night sky starts behind the officers. They quickly turn around and see a wide eyed Feferi holding on to Sollux with all of her might. She stares into an alleyway along with Sollux who is comfortably stroking the billionaire's hair.

The duo slowly walk into the alleyway where there isn't much in there except for a dumpster and an alley cat sleeping in some trash. Walking closer to the dumpster, Karkat can notice a grey, limp arm and hand sticking out of the dumpster. Karkat lifts the lid up and finds a dead troll's body with bruises all over and light orange blood oozing out of the head. Jade gasps and puts his hand to her mouth to prevent vomiting. She has yet to see a fresh dead corpse in the field.
Karkat sees something sticking out of the corpse's jacket, and he cautiously reaches inside the dumpster to grab the item.

The item is a playing card with a Jack of Spades on it. Karkat stares at the item bewildered, "Shit."