Is That a Wand?
The two patrolled throughout the city all the way into the night and there hasn't been that much activity. They were also silent for a long while, since Zack was still angry at what those Internal Affairs wankers were telling him to do, and to go so far as to offend his wife. He would never do that kind of dirty work ever, and he'd rather have Nick simply tell him the truth without using force.
Nick was starting to get worried about his friend because he can smell pure anger and hatred from him, and he can see it in his eyes. He knew that it wasn't directed at him, but something really bad must've happened.
"You know my sister, Alicia. When we were kids, she did things that she had no business doing and would lie about it all. Me and our parents knew. Then one day, my dad confronted her and forced her to come clean and tell the truth. At that moment, he told her that if she continued down that path of bad things and lying, she'd never live the kind of life she'd want and that no one would ever trust her if she continued like that. From that moment onwards, she never lied once and has stayed clear from all that dirty shit. She understood that the exact truth clears the air between people." Zack told Nick a story. Nick sensed that he's not telling this for no reason.
"Something bad happened at the station, didn't it?" He asked him. Zack nodded.
"What was it?" He then asked.
"Some agents from Internal Affairs thought they'd use me to make you quit." Zack told him, after a couple of seconds to build up the nerve to tell him. Nick was shocked to hear this, especially because of his wanting to be a cop.
"Why would they do that?" Nick asked, begging to understand what he did wrong to warrant this.
Zack was about to answer him when the radio was going off with Dispatch coming through.
"...trouble, 341 Abrams. Code two, incident 2815." Dispatch said. The two looked at each other, sensing that there's something going on. Zack grabbed the radio receiver.
"Three-Adam-9, show us en route." He spoke. Then Nick turned the police siren and lights on and made a u turn to where the address is.
"Three-A-9, roger." Dispatch confirmed.
They arrived to see that the address was in a ghetto like, dirty and grimy part of the city, clearly where gangs live. Zack kept his eyes open and then he spotted someone on a set of stairs looking at them.
"You see that?" He asked Nick, who looked where he was looking.
"A spotter." He answered and Zack nodded as the spotter got up the flight of stairs. They parked in front of a building that has the entrance fenced up and there were parked cars and graffiti written on the walls.
They both exited the vehicle and walked up to the entrance with their hands resting on their guns since they felt like something was going to happen.
And that something did happen as someone was firing at them from the building. Whoever was shooting at them missed, which gave them a chance to take cover behind the truck to their right.
"Stay down!" Zack yelled as they ducked underneath the windows of the truck while the shooter kept firing. And there were the distant sounds of dogs barking.
"Oh. Yeah, that's- That's not good." Nick stuttered.
"Yeah." Zack muttered.
"We could die." Nick continued. It was very clear that he wasn't experienced in these types of situations.
"Let me guess, first time being shot at?" Zack asked him.
"Yeah, I have to say, I dislike it very much." Nick confirmed, now that he had some idea of what it was like for Zack from a week ago.
"Wait till you get a bullet in ya." Zack said right when a bullet ricocheted off of the truck.
"Okay, on the count of three, we are going to shoot all of our bullets right where the shooter is and see if we can take him down." Zack instructed Nick.
"Alright, that makes sense." Nick agreed with him.
"One, two, three." Zack counted down and they both got out of cover and fired off all their bullets at a slit in a window where the shooter was. And they all seemed to hit the metal sheets that act as cover for the shooter. Nick groaned as they both got back into cover and reloaded. And then the shooter fired back.
"You okay?" Zack asked his partner.
"Hmm? Yeah." He replied.
"No bullet holes?" Zack then asked.
"Nah. Just the holes that I was born with. How are your holes?" Nick blurted out, making Zack feel like pulling his hair at what he was asked.
"You might be the first person to make a shootout awkward." Zack told him with a frown.
"Sorry." Nick instantly apologised. The shooter then proceeded to fire at a more rapid pace at the truck shooting through the glass windows.
"Wait for the reload! 'Cause he'll have to reload at some point." Zack explained and Nick nodded. The shooter stopped; now was their chance.
"NOW!" Zack bellowed out and like before, they shot all their bullets where the shooter was and Zack saw that they managed to get some bullets in. Once empty, they got back into cover and put a new mag in.
Zack then peaked out and saw a bloodied arm poking out of the slit and the gun fell out and slid down the roof.
"We got him. Go." He said and the two got out from cover, aiming their guns as they walked to the door.
"Get the door." Zack told Nick and he opened the first door and they both activated the flashlights attached to their guns as Zack opened the next door.
"Shouldn't we wait for the calvary?" Nick asked, hesitant to go in.
"We are the calvary." Zack told him right when they walked through a hallway, covered in porcelain tiles like what you'd find in a bathroom. Then it opened up to a foyer with a set of stairs leading up to the floor above. On the wall was a symbol graffitied there.
"Zack, can't we wait for backup?" Nick asked him as they walked up the stairs.
"No, there may be someone here that could get away." Zack reasoned and Nick couldn't argue against that.
Once they reached the floor above, they saw words spray painted on the wall, looking like something from a cult. Zack opened a door and he looked through to see a tight hallway going left and right.
"I smell blood. Lots of it." Nick informed him when they got into the hallway and walked through seeing various pieces of equipment and then Zack looked through a random hole in the wall which let him see a room with hospital equipment and blood splattered on the wall and bed.
"What is it?" Nick asked.
"Something bad." Was the answer he got. After that, they continued through the dark hallways and as Zack turned a corner, he saw feet. There's at least one other person here.
"Body." Zack updated Nick.
"What?" Nick questioned.
Once they reached it and got a good look, they were shocked to see it all charred, burned and glowing.
"What the fuck?" Zack cursed quietly in shock, what the hell happened here.
"Cover the hall." He then ordered Nick. Zack then looked around and saw guns, grenades, mines, C4, all the things a terrorist group or anarchist group needs to cause chaos.
"Don't touch anything, alright?" Zack warned Nick once he was finished looking.
"Yeah." Nick stammered.
They got down a hallway, and with the flashlight, they saw blood and looked in the room ahead to see a dead body by the same window they shot through.
"This must be the shooter." Zack explained to Nick.
"Yeah. He's down." Nick said. And then they both heard clattering from somewhere else and aimed their guns in the direction they heard it.
"Someone's in here. I can smell them." Nick informed Zack once they continued searching. This was an advantage for being an Orcish police officer, their sense of smell can determine whether someone's in the vicinity.
They then came across another body. Like the first one they came across, this was all charred and burned but it glowed more bright, meaning this body was affected more.
"Something bad happened here." Zack said as they reached it and turned the corner.
"Clear." He said before they continued.
They entered into a jointed room and there they saw something that made them stop dead, looking both disturbed and stunned. There on the wall was an Elf that was stuck to the wall with her upper body being normal, but her bottom half was all gnarly and grotesque. The only way this could happen is from a Bright, now things have escalated.
"Something really bad has happened here." Nick said as Zack frantically grabbed the radio on his belt.
"Three-Adam-9, 341 Abrams. Possible Bright at our location. Request additional units and a supervisor. I repeat: Possible magic user on sight." He said at a rapid pace before he placed the radio back on his belt.
The clatter they heard from before was heard again and they walked to where it was, only to see a female running away. She was wearing overalls over a white long sleeve shirt and she had neck length light hair.
"Freeze!" Zack shouted as they pursued her. She slid under a table and then through one of the holes in the walls. She has somehow managed to keep ahead of them and they followed her downstairs to outside.
"Stop running!" Zack shouted right as he got outside and he was about to grab her, until she did a move that made her step on a car and use the momentum to leap away from him.
"Nick!" He shouted, hoping he can stop her due to his Orc strength.
Nick managed to tackle her and push her to the ground.
"Hold her down!" Zack exclaimed as the two reached for her and held her down. Upon closer look, they saw that she's an Elf.
She struggles against the two and then all of a sudden, something that she's holding is glowing brightly.
"What the hell is that?!" Zack questioned and then the object fired some kind of projectile that hit a car, setting it ablaze. This shocks them to let her go and point their guns at her. They didn't know however that two gangsters saw the whole thing and ran to get some others.
"Put that down or you'll be shot!" Zack ordered the Elf and she complied, whimpering in fear with her breath trembling.
Zack examined the object and saw that it was a long, pointed piece that curved where someone would hold it. He has just realised what it is and his eyes widened.
"Oh my God. That's a Magic Wand." He breathed out.
"Who the hell are you?" He then asked the Elf.
"Please protect me." She said to them, in Elvish.
"She just spoke Elvish, Zack." Nick explained. He was at a disadvantage; he may have learned Vukht, but not this.
"I don't speak or understand Elvish. Do you?" He asked Nick.
"Two years in high school." He answered.
"Someone's coming." She then said.
"She said somebody's coming." He translated to Zack.
"Please protect me and the Wand." She then said.
Once the situation died down, backup arrived, but unfortunately it was Pollard, Ching, Hicks and Brown. Nick decided to stay outside with the Elf, covering her in a blanket, while the rest went inside with the Wand.
"As far as I can tell, a Bright came in, used this Wand, and fucked everyone up. This neighbourhood needs to be evacuated, the scene needs to be secured and hold the perimeter till the feds get here." Zack explained with a frown the moment he saw them all stare at the Wand with a wanting.
"Are you even fucking listening to me?! This is way above us!" He asked them loudly.
"That's magic right there. That's whatever you want. You want a million dollars? You want ten million? You wanna be taller or shorter? Make your dick bigger? You wanna go back in time, marry the girl who didn't blow you on prom night? That's how you do it, right there." Pollard said in a trance like state. Zack knew that Wands really don't work like that.
"Yeah, well, you have to be a Bright to use one, and they don't work like that. You could end up killing us all for touching it." Zack reminded him with a glare.
Pollard didn't listen and so he put on a glove to try and grab it himself.
"HEY! What the fuck are you doing?! Don't touch it!" Zack ordered him, but they fell on deaf ears and Pollard grabbed it with his gloved hand.
"Fucking ice cold." He said before he put the Wand in a bag that Nick gave Zack to carry the Wand in
"If you think you're having that Wand all to yourself, think again." He scolded him as Hicks stepped up to him.
"No one's coming, Harloff." He told him and then Brown did the same.
"What they fuck do you think you're doing?" He asked him darkly.
"Sarge…." Zack said, hoping that Ching is sane, but she clearly ain't.
"We need this, Harloff. You're not getting in our way." She told him.
"What about Jakoby?" Hicks asked. Zack had a good idea of what they could do, given how corrupt these cops are.
"This ain't happening." He told everyone.
"Hey, calm down." Pollard said as Brown and Hicks invaded Zack's personal space making him shove them back.
"You fuck off, right now." He warned them both and they stepped back.
"Listen. This is happening. This is fucking happening." Pollard said to him, right in front of his face.
"There's no version of you walking out of here with life as you know it intact." Ching explained to him.
"Fuck this. We are taking the Wand, and the Orc dies. And you have a big decision right now. Either you can die, leaving your wife all alone and Jakoby dies, or just Jakoby dies. And it's time to make a choice." Pollard laid out the situation to him. Either way, Zack couldn't agree since either could cost the life of his friend.
"You or him, Harloff. You or him." Ching teased as they all readied their guns.
"Is tomorrow's LA Times gonna say one cop died here, or two?" She then reasoned.
"Either way, everybody wins. Department gets rid of Jakoby, he dies a hero, public's happy." Pollard added, making it seem all good.
"The perfect storm, bro." Hicks muttered. Zack stood there silently. Taking it all in. He cannot lose his life and leave Zoe alone, and he cannot have Nick die for being an honest, clean cop. He was now sick and tired of these corrupt piles of shit.
He walked out of the room and stood by himself, thinking of a plan. After roughly 30 seconds, he formed one, one that can prevent all of this mess from happening. But before he could start, he had to make sure his wife was safe. He grabbed his phone and called her as he walked to the stairs.
After the third ring, she answered.
"You okay?" She asked him, he now grew anxious with a small fear that he may never hear her lovely voice again if things go wrong.
"Listen, I need you to go to the clan right now and stay there for the night. And tell them to protect the area." He told her.
"Why? What's going on?" She asked him, he could hear the fear and concern in her voice. It broke his heart hearing this.
"Please. I need you to be safe. No matter what happens, I love you so much." He told her before he hung up and put the phone in his pocket. Now, he had to keep Nick alive, and after that, protect the Wand from the police, the gangs and anyone else who'd want the Wand.