Aaron Gamemaster's
Fight for Justice a.k.a We Were Brothers
A/N: For some reason, these two chapters, although only being 4,000 words, took me a while to write. I hope you enjoy them as I am posting the first two chapters up at the same time, back to back. Enjoy.
The streets were quite at the dark hour. Liberty City was sleeping, as the years worst crime was about to be committed. Long after the sunset, the city went into a cold state. After-hours, a gang rivalry would end up in a massacre.
Detective Max Payne sat at his desk, early on October 29th, sipping coffee. The pleasant sound of the city, the honking, the humming of cars are which Max had grown accustomed to.
Looking at his computer, Max wiped his eyes. In front of him, past a window of glass, Max's partner, Pierce Jefferson, sat at his desk. Pierce leaned over, looking at Max, and asked in a suggestive tone, "You tired buddy?"
Max widened his eyes, trying to get comfortable. "No, my eyes hurt." He replied, in a deep voice.
Pierce gave a short laugh. Pierce was about five foot eleven inches tall, white, and had his hair gelled up, coming to a wave above his face. He wore black jeans, a white button up shirt, a black tie, and just like Max, a leather jacket, open.
To Max's right, was a window outside, which revealed the sloping streets of Shoreside Vale, cars and pedestrians dotted the roads. The airport was just barely in his sight. The Shoreside Lift Bridge stood tall, with the dark blue sky in the background, which outlined the skyscrapers of Staunton Island.
Looking into the city, Max knew how much chaos was going on. Upon every street corner con artists, murderers, drug dealers, and gang bangers. How did he end up in this city anyway?
Max took another sip of his steaming coffee, Pierce still looking at him. They had eye contact. A few moments passed, "What?" Max said, with a wide expression. Pierce started to laugh, and went back to work. Max held his laugh in, a typical day, typical Pierce.
Max and Pierce were good friends, they had a lot in common. Pierce survived a plane crash, at the expense of his family, he now worked for LCPD, getting over it along with Max, they both got over their losses, and started enjoying life again.
The police station was quiet, as usual in the mornings, despite a few voices in the background, you could hear a pen drop. It was a little after five in the morning, and it usually doesn't start to get loud until around seven or eight.
Max and Pierce had just finished a case, and did not really have anything to do, except wait. Wait fro what seemed like hours and hours and hours, fro something to happen. Max would very much like to go home and watch TV in his apartment, but he had to be at work.
He spent most of his time looking out the window, at passersby from above. Every once in a while, around this area, Max saw a blue Banshee speed through, and that same Banshee picking up hookers, and driving off, too fast for him to catch the license plate, but o well, it's not like prostitution is against the law anymore, after that idiot Mayor Theodore got elected.
As Max examined Liberty City from his view, a plane took off from Francis International, it flew off into the distance. Minute by minute, the dark blue became a few shades lighter, no clouds in the sky at all. It would be a sunny day.
Max started daydreaming, about Vice City, and how beautiful it was when he visited there with Pierce on a well deserved vacation. Max had been 'officer of the month' seven times in a row.
Max's daydream was broke up when Pierce leaned over ad said, "So, that was fun in Vice City, huh Payne?" It was ironic to Max, that he would ask about Vice, just as he was thinking about it.
"Yeah, we gotta do it again sometime," Max suggested, leaning back in his chair, with his hands grasping a cup of coffee, his arms folded inward towards his stomach.
"Yeah, I though about that, but I want to go fishing next time, that VC water is really clear, helps us spot em' faster, ya know?"
Max shook his head in disapproval, "No, no, fishing sucks."
"Sucks? How can you say that?"
"It's not exciting, it's boring."
"What? It is not!" he protested.
"Listen, you can go by yourself the, because I am I not a fishing kind of person."
"Oh yeah, well then just what kind of person are ya?"
"The kind that doesn't like fishing." Max raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, but you don't know what you're missing out on Max."
"Oh yes I do. Sitting in a boat, looking at pretty grey blobs under the water, all day."
"You probably just don't like to fish because you suck at it."
"Drop it."
"No, you must suck at fishing. What other explanation could there be?"
Max glared into Pierces eyes. "I said," he hesitated "Drop it."
Pierce scoffed, shaking his head, returning to his computer, "Okay man, whatever."
After that short conversation, Max stood up and stretched, he had been sitting all night. He slowly made his way around various cubicles, in which he knew many officers. He walked to a brown door with a blue icon on it, the bathroom.
The Station's bathroom were the cleanest in Liberty City. This sudden thought made Max think about the worst bathrooms in the city, at the park. They were disgusting, not bearable to even walk in.
Anyway, Max walked up next to another detective, occupying a urinal. After he got done, he walked over to wash his hands. The detectives spoke, "Boring day, huh Max?"
"Huh?" Max looked up at him, "Ah, yeah Leon."
Leon fixed his hair after he washed his hands, keeping it perfect, as usual. Leon yawned and exited the bathroom, Max following.
Instead of returning to his desk, Max walked downstairs, to buy a packaged doughnut from the vending machine.
As he entered the hallway, a few police officers passed by, talking about drug dealers, Max ignored them and bought his doughnut.
As he returned upstairs, he heard the sergeant, Phil, Pierces brother, speaking.
"Where the hell is Max?" he asked Pierce. Pierce shrugged.
"Here." Max bravely said as he entered.
"Why the hell aren't you at your desk?"
"I went to the bathroom."
"Oh, okay. Anyways, I uh, have a case for you." Max raised his eyebrow. Phil continued, using hand gestures. "Now, I've gotta tell ya'll, this is the worst crime yet. Now I'm thinking, ya'll might not b' able to solve it."
"Just tell us. Please." Max complained.
Phil sighed, "Another gang war."
"Ohhh, not again." Max complained.
"Anyway, it's up near that mansion, on the street across it. There was, fourteen dead gang members? I think."
"What gangs?" Pierce questioned.
"The, Jack Crime Families, and the, us, Southside hoods." Phil nodded his head.
"When did it happen?" Max continued asking.
"'bout, a little over two hours ago."
"Okay," Max walked over to his desk, grabbing his Beretta, "C'mon, Pierce."
They walked downstairs.
As they exited the building, into the patrol car filled parking lot, cars drove by, the road lighting up before them, as many cars had their lights on. The air was soothing and cool. It would be easy to eavesdrop, because many pedestrians were showing up, along the streets, rambling on about their problems.
A tall dark man rode by on his bicycle. The street lights were still on, Max and Pierce walked to their patrol car.
The rancid smell of a cigarette offended Max, as Pierce lit one up. Max opened the door, and got into the drivers seat.
He pointed at Pierce and said, "No smoking in the car."
After taking a few drags, Pierce threw down the cigarette and got into the car. As they drove through various street lights, the streets became more dense with traffic. The sky became lighter and lighter by the second, eventually the streets lights turned off.
The constant chatter over the radio was all that was heard. There was a spectacular view of Liberty City as Max drove across the Cochrane Dam, heading towards eastern Cedar Grove. The sun eventually peeked over the horizon, birds flew above, gently in the cold morning air.
As minutes passed, he came up to the crime scene. Multiple cop cars were parked all along the road, the crime scene blocked off from civilian access.
Max parked the car, he and Pierce got out. Their breathe was noticeable in the air.
Pierce immediately lit up a cigarette. "Detective Max Payne, here to investigate." Max held up his badge, to tall slim officer, with a mustache, a hat on, dressed in blue, wearing a cozy jacket.
"Go ahead sir." He responded. Max walked up to the house, Pierce following. There were bodies spread out, in small dark red puddles of blood, most of them were black, only two or three were white. Bullet casings were littered all over the place, along with a few clips.
Judging by the clothes, one gang was the South Side Hoods, the other, Max had no clue at this point in time. Max wanted to find out the answer. He walked up to another officer and asked, "What were the two gangs involved?"
The officer hesitated. "We have reason to 'spect that's, the Jack Crime Families, and the South side hoods, sir."
"Thank you." Max turned, and headed up to the house. He opened the door, and immediately spotted the first body, a Forensic scientist checking it. A middle aged woman, short, with long black hair. She had three bullet wounds, where a small amount of blood leaked out.
"You think you know the time of death?" Max asked.
The scientist replied, sarcastically, "Oh, do you know how hard my job is, huh? Do ya buddy?"
To Max, he sounded like a homo, a high pitched voice, Max laughed to himself. "I said, do you know the time of death?"
"No."
"Thank you."
In the next hour or so, Pierce and Max studied each body in the house, it seemed to have happened quick, as each person (including a 8 month old baby) had been shot a few times, and the house was cluttered, lamps knocked over, papers on the floor, but nothing was searched. This concerned Max, it couldn't have been a robbery, thing were knocked over, as if someone were in a hurry. Other than that, nothing was touched. What also lead Max to suspect this was a trail of shells, which lead to the broken window, as if the murderer(s) were being attacked, which lead Max to the conclusion of it being around the time of the gang war.
"Could the gang war have anything to do with this?" Max asked himself out loud.
"The only thing I could think of is this," Pierce explained, "Two gangs stare off, about to go at it, while, a, or a few, men get ready to enter the house. But, with a gang war going on, the family, especially with three kid, won't want to go outside, to escape, see?"
"But, wouldn't the family call the cops?" Max protested.
"But what if it happened too fast?"
"Then why a gang war, as a distraction?"
"Oh…" Pierce looked outside. "Unless, their phone lines were cut!" They went outside, to take a look, and sure enough, they were cut.
"Okay, so we have the two gangs, fighting as a distraction… Wait… The JCF wouldn't risk having their men killed just so they could murder a family."
"Ah! But that is where you are wrong, the gang war, is sort of a distraction, but what if the gang war needed to happen, and the JCF, or SSH, whoever had to reason, to kill this family, saw it as an opportunity. Ya know, killin' two bird with a, I mean, one… stone."
"Yes… Okay… But why were they murdered?" Max let out before he took a sip of coffee.
"That, is why were are here, my friend. Have you noticed, that it was a Yakuza family that was murdered?" Pierce got excited, like he caught on to something.
"What? Oh. Yeah, sure, sure, sure."
"Okay, so the Yakuza obviously know about, or they will, so we wait, until there is a gang war, between the Yakuza, and the JCF, so we can get more clues, see who's in the war, ya know? Local figure heads and such."
"So, this is what we have going on. Either the JCF, or the SSH, have a need to kill the Yakuza family, (probably the JCF, since they have a rivalry). So, during the gang war, they enter and kill the family, after cutting the phone lines, cutting off their escape (luckily for the murderers the family didn't have a cell phone), while keeping them inside because of the shooting outside, they had a chance to kill them. This way, they would be killing two birds with one stone, getting a gang war done, and killing the enemy family on the same day." Max finished.
"Yep." Pierce felt satisfied.
"But, why would a Yakuza family be up here, in SSH territory?"
Pierce shrugged. "We're done here for now Max."
A scientist walked up, holding a beanie. "Lookey, lookey what I found!"
Max walked over to him. "There has to be a hair in it!" Pierce cried, "We have our murderer(s)!"
A few minutes passed, as the scientist checked the hat. "No, no hairs."
"What? How the hell can that be?" Pierce cried, angered.
"Think about it." Max suggested.
Pierce threw his arms up, "There has to be a hair, it was on his head!"
"Not if they were bald." Max pointed out.
Pierce sighed. "Okay, let's go." They walked out of the room.