One hundred thousand dollars.

Where were they to start?

Getting back into the building was much easier than expected seeing that cops stayed away from the alleyway. Prissy inner city cops weren't as gritty as their very own downtown cops. There was a backdoor to the basement level of the building, the level that Paul had exclusively given them a key to. Without the slightest detection they had slipped to the ground level floors and ran through the stairwell. As expected, the firefighters had made work of limiting the flames to the stairway and even the stairs weren't that bad. All in all it was a perfectly effective but harmless escape that day. From there it was easy to quickly get to their room on the top floor, each taking a second on the way up to remember the previous event that lead to the scorched wood that were the stairs. Soon enough they were in their condo, moving to get their savings.

As they stood there with the money, the question of what to do first circulated in the air. The men sat on the end of their shared bed and thought long. Dean gazed at his hands for a bit before nodding to himself mostly. "Let's buy some equipment: microphones, cameras, the works."

"What for?" Seth wasn't against the idea but he and Roman didn't know what Dean's plan consisted of completely.

Ambrose rubbed his stubble lightly. "To send a message. Those cops want us gone, boys, but we need to let them know we're not going anywhere. We need to let them know this is our turf now."

Roman stood and propped himself against the far wall. "Okay so that's why we're sending the message but where do we do it? Wouldn't it be easier to make our statement through the boxing league?"

Dean pointed a finger smartly to his friend. "Exactly. We make the statement through the boxing league- boost our character, get people on our side- but we also send a copy directly to the police. The company will think its just a promo for the Shield and the police will see it for what it really is. " Ambrose turned the pointed finger down to the floor. "And I say we shoot it in the basement of this building. It's been deserted, very few people go down there, and it looks like any old basement so it's untraceable. We don't really have a chance of getting caught."

"If they did catch us- which they won't- what do you think they'd slap us with? Assault?" Seth asked slightly amused at the idea.

"Assault?" Ambrose guffawed, "Didn't you see that police tape coming up those stairs? We're first class arsons now! Sure they'll call it some kind of second class offense but when you factor in how many people were still in the building and how many could've gotten hurt, it's a lot worse. If they take us in, we get five for that, and all the assault charges will be them piling on years. And since we didn't kill anybody, we have a lot of people to testify against us."

"Which gives us all the more reason to be careful how we tiptoe around this." Roman made the comment to no one in particular but still out loud to confirm what the other two were well aware of.

"So before we do anything else" Dean stood to put his hands on his hips, "we have to be more sure than we've ever been. Is this the path we all want to take? There's really no going back after this. There's no friends, no trusting anyone, and I'm positive no sleep."

Roman and Seth sighed thoughtfully at the big decision. "I'm in." Reigns licked his plump as always lips. It wasn't as hard a choice when he factored in who he was working with. he trusted his boys whole heartedly. Eyes were on the youngest now. Seth had his arms crossed as he pondered, his eyes seemingly fixed on the floor. Sticking his hands in his pockets, Roman came off the wall and over to his team mate. "Look, Seth, if you don't want to do it-"

"I just wonder if this will come back to haunt us but..." Rollins sighed lightly. "Any vice you choose will come back and haunt you, right? With smoking, you die early; with drinking, you mess up your body; with women, you get a broken heart...what will this get us?"

Dean shuffled closer and nudged Rollins in the shoulder affectionately. "Are you that willing to find out?"

Dean's question floated thickly around Seth's head. "Hmph," he snickered, "you always find a way to keep it interesting, don't you?" It took a minute for him to completely indulge the interrogative but soon enough he smirked up at his buddies. "I guess I am."

The smirk was returned immediately and Ambrose began walking towards the door. "Good to hear. Now let's go. We have to buy some equipment before night. I want to finish this and send it off by the morning. The sooner the better."

:::

"What do we have here?" Gloved hands curiously glided over the thin disc that had arrived only recently in the mail. Addressed directly to him, Officer Orton took minimal time examining the letter in favor of examining the contents on the inside. His partner, Sheamus had been just as watchful over the newly arrived mail.

"Whose it from?"

Randy gritted his teeth lightly before clenching his jaw. Bitterly, he held up a folded piece of paper. "Shield."

Sheamus whistled in mock impression. "Well what're you waiting for? Pop the ole disc in and let's see what the fellas had to say."

Without another word, Randy slid the CD in his laptop and waited for it to play.

The scene opened up from the camcorder view, the lens being focused on the floor. Black boots came into view next and the camera was picked up and placed on three familiar young faces.

"Reigns."

"Rollins."

"Ambrose." The three young men introduced. "And these," the camera panned out to get all three in the picture, "these are the faces of justice."

"Oh geez," Randy wiped his face in distress.

"This is interesting." Sheamus moved his swivel chair closer to view the screen. "I wonder where they're shooting this from."

"Looks like any old basement. They made sure not to leave an identifier in the background," Randy growled.

Ambrose ranted on calmly. "So it's been brought to our attention that we're being called rebels." A slight pause. "Thugs. Punks. Renegades." He shook his head exaggeratedly as he began again. "Well we aren't any of those things. We don't vandalize places, we don't steal expensive things. What we do is we hunt injustice."

"We don't just hunt injustice," Roman pulled the camera in his direction, "we rectify it."

"Yeah you see," Seth pulled the camera over to himself next, "that's why we are the Shield. All the wrong doing, all the unfair circumstances in this city, all the higher ups abusing their power... No more. It's our job to step in where the law enforcement fails to acknowledge. Where talk show hosts like Miz don't want to accept their consequences. Where stars like Ryback think they can bully their way into power. We're here to erase every disaster."

"That's right," Ambrose pulled the camera back to himself. "That's right. And I don't expect any of the city's officers to want to believe this- I'd much rather we fight to get what we want than for you to lay down anyway- but the Shield's not going anywhere."

Roman swung the camera to his face next, his banter humorless as he laughed. "Now, I'm sure you boys are fuming over this so we have a little proposition for you."

Dean panned out the camera to include all three men in the frame, each looking into the lens with intensity. "You rally up your best three guys and we'll have it out in a street fight. There's this little underground place I know downtown where I can't think of anyone who wouldn't mind seeing a couple of pigs getting beat. In a month from today, we'll be there. So we are giving you a whole month to prepare yourselves, train, make a game plan, whatever because we'll be as ready as ever and if you win, we go with you. If we win, the city gets more of what it needs. This city gets more of the Shield that it needs."

"We're out here in the open waiting for you boys, all you have to do is be man enough to go up against the hounds of justice." Seth chuckled out darkly, condescendingly. "But are you willing to take the chance?"

"I guarantee, anyone you put in front of us will be knocked down!" Ambrose yelled. "And in the end, everyone will believe!"

"Everyone," Seth started loudly but quieted down as he zoomed in on his face. "...everyone will believe in the shield."

Roman snatched the camera to his alert eyes. "Believe in the shield!" He shouted loudly, not even getting to finish before Randy shut the laptop down hard in aggravation.

He had heard enough of the foolishness and above all else it infuriated him. So fired up the tips of his ears were red, Orton snatched out the CD and broke it in his hands. Sheamus just watched patiently, more amused than anything. "Those mates have delusions of grandeur, don't they?" The red head smiled lightly and leaned back in his chair. "Sure like to spew junk about justice too."

Randy slit his eyes at the Irishman, the anger on his face not directed towards Sheamus but seemingly so since he couldn't hide it well. "Those punks have messed with the wrong guys this time." Orton paced his workspace frantically, only stopped by his partners outburst of laughter. "How is this funny?!"

Sheamus smiled toothily to the man and stood to his feet, placing a strong hand on Orton's shoulder. "It's not funny but seeing those lads get you all riled up lets me know there's a good brawl coming." He patted Randy's shoulder hard and smiled brighter, "And Orton, you know I love a good fight."

Randy looked at the man for a few fleeting moments until his own sinister smirk took over. Well, he'd finally get his hands on those brats and it was going to be a downtown fight. With the rookie officers there, they could easily get away without any flack from the brass. The Shield made it too easy. Too perfect. Orton playfully punched Sheamus in the arm. "Fine. And lets just say all of this is 'off the records'." The men shared in the agreement and slowly went back to their regular work. Immediately after work they'd be off to find the third man for their date with the Shield.