Manuel the bull woke up in his bed, looking to his left to see a girl that worked at Lara's brothel next to him. He sighed to himself and slowly got up, reaching to check his phone for the time. After giving a surprised look at how early the time was, he woke up the girl next to him who stretched a bit.

"Hey, baby," she smiled at him. "Hmm... you really gave me a good time last night."

"I'm glad you had as much fun as me," Manuel said. "But I've got a busy day today."

"You work for Jem," the girl replied. "You're always busy."

Manuel sighed. "I wish I could stay in bed, honestly."

"Oh, I bet that you say that to each girl you bring over," she said. "Lucky you, the parts of Lara's brothel that were damaged got fixed up so that we could have jobs."

"I know that," Manuel smiled. "I oversaw the refurbishing myself. I even helped repair the windows."

"Such a strong man..." The prostitute smiled, leaning to kiss him when his phone vibrated. She quickly checked the time and sighed. "Shit... I need to go."

"Remember, you need to-"

"Take the back door, I know," she said, slipping her clothes back on and sneaking downstairs. She spotted Manuel's daughters in the living room, so she went the other way, being careful to open the door and slink away from the house.

Manuel looked out the window to see last night's conquest leaving through the side gate of his house, and he turned to pick up his vibrating phone, answering it. "Hey, Jem."

"Took you a while to answer," Jem said. "Basking in the afterglow of another one of Lara's girls?"

"They do make for much better conversationalists than you," Manuel said. "What can I help you with?"

"I'm going to be sending our old friends another message, and I want you to orchestrate it."

"Orchestrate?" Manuel asked. "Look, I'm just the guy with the guns. I'm not a strategist like you. Besides, if I get seen nowadays with the freelancers reinstated, they'll lock me up... away from my girls."

"And if you want the money to send your girls to a good college, you'll follow the orders that I give you," Jem said. "I apologise if I sound a bit on edge. My personal retainers accidentally got someone hurt. I shot one of them in the leg, but they're okay."

"Suddenly I'm more worried about my kids making it to college," Manuel said. "But if you need me to babysit... I'll do it. Just tell me the time and what we've got to do."

"As soon as you can leave," said Jem. "Get here as quickly as you can. I may have a surprise for you."

The bull couldn't hide a sigh. "I thought that you were fine with me not working."

"And I thought that you'd be fine teaching your girls at home," said Jem. "The best schools in Mobius are not in Westopolis by a long shot. And I know for a fact that you can only teach one of them so much."

Manuel's jaw clenched. "I'm not sure that I know what you mean."

"Oh, I think that you're fully sure," said Jem. "One of your girls is hard of hearing, right? Almost completely deaf? You and your other daughter are learning sign language online to try and communicate with her?" He paused. "Feel free to stop me."

"How did-"

"It's amazing what you can hide in plain sight when you swing by for a visit to check if your old friends are okay," Jem said.

Manuel's brow furrowed, but he looked around his bedroom, going to a bookshelf and looking behind it, finding a small bug. He crushed it in his hand and sighed. "Fuck," he muttered softly.

"You'll be here, then?" Jem asked.

Manuel looked at a photo he had of Lara on his bedside table. "Yeah... I'll be there. I'll be where you need me to be."

"Good," the red salamander said. "See you soon."

Jem hung up, so Manuel decided to take a shower before getting dressed, his last article of clothing before he left a pair of boots that waited downstairs for him. He checked under his pillow for his handgun, slipping it in the back of his jeans and tucking his shirt over it before going downstairs, stopping to see his girls sitting at the kitchen table and eating cereal.

The two looked similar to Manuel, having lighter grey fur in contrast to his black fur, and also having much smaller horns on their heads. The older daughter was Carmen, who was signing to her younger sister Sofia, about a year of birth between the two sisters. Sofia smiled at the joke that her older sister had signed before turning her head to see her father.

"Hey, dad!" Sofia said cheerfully.

Manuel leaned and kissed her head. "How are my girls?"

"We're good," said Sofia, looking to Carmen who signed as well. "She wanted to know how you're feeling this morning."

"Oh, I'm fine," Manuel said to Carmen. "Shit, uh..." He used his hands to sign it, speaking the words as well. "I'm... fine. Thank you."

Sofia turned back to her older sister, reaching behind her ear to turn up her hearing aid. "There you go." She turned back to her father. "Just got done with some signing. She's come a long way."

Carmen nodded and signed again, Manuel trying to interpret it. His daughters had worked harder on signing than he had, but he did pick up some things as well. "You... wait, are you sure you want to know?"

"Want to know what?" asked Sofia, thinking it over. "Oh... oh, I see. Huh. Do we even have time for it?"

Manuel huffed out a breath, checking his phone. "I think we have some time, yeah. I should get to work soon, though."

"Oh, you're back at work?" his younger daughter asked.

"I am, yeah," Manuel said. "I got called in."

"I thought you were on extended furlough," said Sofia.

Manuel looked his daughter in the eye. "Can we talk in private?"

Sofia turned to sign that to Carmen, who sighed with a nod and turned her hearing aid off. Sofia then turned to face her father. "I thought that you were done with all of that Nack shit."

"You'll watch your language under my roof," said Manuel. "And it's not Nack. It's Jem."

"It doesn't matter!" Sofia said. "It was hard enough telling Carmen about what you do in the first place! You said you weren't going to get caught back up in it after Nack and Lara died!"

"Jem's not really giving me a choice," said Manuel.

"And what if you don't go?" Sofia asked. "We stay home and you teach your deaf daughter more sign language? Because heavens forbid that you try and communicate your feelings with us after all of that trauma that you went through. You can't just bury all of your problems in another whore."

Manuel huffed at her, turning to see Carmen looking a bit worried. He motioned for his older daughter to turn her hearing aid up, and she signed at him. "Oh, uh... yeah, I have to go," he signed back. "I don't know when I'll be back, but I promise that I'll come back safely."

"You'd better," said Sofia.

Manuel quickly turned to kiss Sofia on the cheek before walking over to Carmen, doing the same to her. "Remember, signing lessons and tell me what you learned when I return."

"Will you be bringing home a new girl to help learn too?" Sofia asked, making Carmen giggle a bit.

The father shook his head, leaving the house and getting into his car. With a huff, he started up his car and made his drive over to the prison that once belonged to Nack but was now Jem's. He found a spot to park and went inside, going to the elevator and taking it up to the main office. As he was on his way up, he found the elevator stopping a few floors before his destination, and the doors opened to reveal Jem and Martin on the other side.

"So glad that you could make it," said Jem.

"Again, you didn't give me a choice," said Manuel.

"Oh, those letters from Star Light will come in soon. They have good colleges over there, I hear."

Manuel shook his head. "Is that the surprise? You've got a letter for my girls, and they can leave this shit-hole of a city?"

"I've got too much of a criminal record," said Jem. "And so do you. But your daughters are innocent, right? There are very few people in Westopolis with good hearts, and those two are exceptions." He smiled and stepped back. "I have two new residents to show you."

Manuel stepped out of the elevator, turning to see the jail cells and pausing when he saw Rosemary and Amadeus in one of the cells. "Wait... that's... is that the parents of that two-tailed fox kid?"

"Indeed," Jem smiled. "While said kid and his friends were suspended, the debacle made it so that Prower's implants couldn't be delivered to anyone. I'm sure that you're aware of all of that."

"You couldn't avoid that if you wanted to," said Manuel. "What's this got to do with me?"

"It's got to do with our big plans," said Jem. "A plan that Nack's two friends came up with themselves."

The red salamander took another step back as Manuel stepped forwards, seeing two large Russian men covered in tattoos. "Sacha and Grigori... usually you two are dressed more conservatively."

"We didn't see the point of showing who we were until the time was right," said Grigori. "Besides, you know what we're trying to get done."

"I know that I don't know enough about whatever the hell this Zero Hour thing is," Manuel said.

"Good," Sacha said. "Because those two," he pointed at the cell, "are going to play a big part in it."

"We're using the lovely couple as a ransom to get all of the implants that they've been sitting on while they were inactive," said Jem.

"Okay... I'll admit, Nack never did anything that ambitious, but he had a backup plan when he got captured to make sure we were looked after after he got locked up," Manuel said. "But if there's one thing that we don't need, it's money."

"You know that we're not doing it for money," Jem smiled. "But if we are going to pull this off correctly, you're going to have to start pulling your weight."

"You need protection?" asked Manuel. "Just ask those two tanks with you to call some of their own connections from their mafia days."

"We cut all ties with them, if you recall," said Sacha. "We have plenty of protection. We just need the weapons to help, weapons that you know how to get."

"Which is why I called you over here," Jem said. "You are going to go to Green Hill to send a message and get your hands on some guns."

"What if I get recognised?"

Martin piped up. "Hello? Fake ID creator right here?"

Gerren spoke up afterwards. "Didn't you just get guns recently as well?"

"I did," said Jem. "But the people I sent to get them took a week longer than they should have. But Manuel? He knows where the good stuff is and he knows how to get it."

"What was wrong with the guns that you got?" Manuel asked.

"They're low grade," said Jem. "Usable, but not with enough power to make the statement that we need. It's just some bog standard stuff. Rifles, handguns, grenades, some spare ammo. They're hanging around in your base of operations."

"And yet they'll be pretty useful as you haven't been all that busy," said Gerren. "You go and get some good shit. And get a lot of it."

"I'm not going alone," said Manuel. "I'll need a team."

"They're waiting downstairs for you," said Jem. "Good luck out there."

"Let's get going, big fella," Martin said, heading into the elevator.

Manuel gave a sigh before leaving with Martin, going to the cafeteria to meet up with the four people that would help him. They all got into the bull's car, keeping some weapons in the trunk as they drove off, heading for the highway.

With the freelancers...

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles had gotten up and were sitting around the kitchen table as they ate breakfast. Sonic was the first to finish his, and he checked his phone as he got a call from Whitney, bringing the phone up to his ear. "Hello? Yeah? Huh... okay... no, yeah, we can wait. All right. Thanks for letting me know." He hung up. "That was Whitney. He said that we might not get a weapons drop by the time we get there."

"I mean, it's not like it's needed," Tails said. "We're only going to check around the prison to see what we can find. It's hardly an active crime scene by now, depending on when he got out."

"When do you think he got out?" Knuckles asked.

"No clue, but that's a question that we can ask around when we get there," Sonic said. "I don't know. I don't like the lack of backup. Considering all of the shit that kicked off after the penitentiary riot, there could be a lot of bad people loose over there."

"Home sweet home," Tails sighed to himself. "It always feels weird going back there, especially knowing what we know now."

"How close are you with the Restarter?" Knuckles asked. "And, by extension, the restarting of the implants."

"I haven't worked on it since last night. I will get back to it when we come back from Scrap Metal." He took a bite of some of his toast and nodded. "I did come close, though." He paused to chew and swallow his food. "I think that there's nothing I can do about the design of the Restarter. My parents put a lot of care into how it was made. But I think that it's the method. There's got to be a way to drastically change things as the implant gets restructured."

"And we don't want it restarting," Sonic said. "We want them to stop working completely before we deliver them."

"What about Fokus?" Knuckles asked.

"It's too risky," said Sonic. "That shit can kill a person with implants from the inside. And that's just with street-made ones. Jem wants professionally made and globally shipped implants. He's going to know something's up."

"Actually," Tails said, "Knuckles has a point. You have to remember, when I was locked up working for Beau, I messed with the formula of the Fokus so that its effect was different."

"Oh, shit, that's right," Sonic said. "You got injected with a placebo, basically. It didn't do anything and you faked it until you got rescued."

"So I was right?" Knuckles asked. "Sweet!"

"We'll pick some up when we get back," said Sonic. "I'm sure that Green Hill's finest have some in their storage and evidence lockers."

Tails looked at his phone for the time. "I mean... we have a while before we really need to leave. And like you said, we may not even get backup by the time that we get there."

"Hmm... all right, yeah," Sonic said. "It won't take long to get from the department to the highway anyway."

The group all gave noises of agreement, and Knuckles looked up to see Shadow walking through the door, looking a bit sluggish. "Ooh... hair of the dog?"

"Mobian dog or normal dog?" Sonic asked, also seeing Shadow. "Dude, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Shadow said. "I just didn't get a lot of sleep..." He cleared his throat. "Coffee in the machine?"

"Go nuts," Tails said, watching as Shadow went over to the coffee maker. "Oh, there was a quick change of plans too. We're heading to the police department to try and get some Fokus."

"Might be worth talking to Rotor while we're there," Sonic added. "The man's had to deal a lot with that nasty thing."

Shadow took a big swig of the coffee, taking it black before coughing a bit before clearing his throat. "All right, when?"

"When we've had breakfast," Knuckles said. "Did you at least eat at Anti-Light before you came over here?"

"Yeah," Shadow said shortly, going back to drinking his coffee.

Sonic walked over to the sink to put his bowl and spoon into it, and as he turned on the tap to start cleaning them, he leaned to whisper to Shadow. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm okay," Shadow said, not looking at the blue hedgehog. He finished his coffee and quickly poured himself another.

"One of those days, eh?" Sonic said, turning the tap off. "If you want to go out for drinks, feel free to ask the rest of us."

Shadow chuckled mirthlessly. "It's that obvious, huh."

Sonic sighed. "Look, I know you've been through a lot of shit... and we all miss her. But whatever you're doing to try and get over the pain isn't the right thing to do."

"How do you know what the right thing is?" Shadow asked. "You lost a friend. I... I lost someone I loved and cared for. I never really got to tell her how much that she meant to me. So yeah, I'm probably not doing the right thing to get over it, but I couldn't just do what you guys did."

"We don't hold it against you, you know," said Tails. "But if you ever do want to talk about it with us, we're here."

The black and red hedgehog looked him over, unable to hide his smile. "How do you do it? You're arguably going through the worst shit out of all of us right now, but you never fail to cheer someone up with an offer like that."

Tails smiled at that. "I was raised by good people."

"People that we're going to save," said Knuckles. "Let's finish up our food and go say hi to our favourite dead body inspector."

They would finish their breakfast before getting ready to leave, locking the door behind them as they got onto their hover-boards. They rode out onto the road and made a dash to the Green Hill Police Department building, parking their boards up and heading into the building proper, seeing Nicole at the front desk.

"Hey, guys," Nicole said. "What brings you here?"

"We're here to see Rotor really quick," said Sonic.

"That's fortunate," Mina said. "He wanted to see you too. He's got some information about the sniper that attacked us at the reinstatement presser."

"That's very handy indeed," Tails said. "Thanks."

Rotor was inspecting the body of the sniper, looking to see the freelancers walking in. "Ah, good. You're here."

"You said that you wanted to see us?" Knuckles asked.

"I did. Why?"

"We wanted to see you too," Tails said.

"Hopefully it's about the same thing," Rotor replied. "I was looking over the body of the sniper that used the poison and I found something interesting." He turned to type into the computer, bringing up an image of the sniper's now-dead body and bringing up a holographic version of the body to match. "The poison that he took wasn't your average cyanide pill. It had some traces of heroin... and some little blue flecks." He zoomed in on the hologram's mouth. "Does that look like something you recognise?"

Tails looked closely, seeing little blue streaks on the sniper's mouth. "That looks like Fokus all right... but that would mean that he would have had an implant, wouldn't it?"

"He did, but it never activated," said Rotor. "He must have just gotten it that day. It was in his chest, so I think it was likely just to repair something."

Tails rose an eyebrow. "Could you bring up the implant for me?"

"It'll be a bit damaged due to the circumstances of his death, but I'll do what I can," Rotor nodded, typing more into the computer and showcasing the implant in the sniper, enhancing the image. "Is that good?"

"Yeah, thank you," Tails said, looking closely at it. "Well... I'll be."

Sonic looked too. "Wait, that... that's an authentic implant."

"Fuck..." Knuckles said. "Well, hey, that might not be too terrible, right? Like Rotor suggested, it was probably used just to fix something up."

"I did look into his medical records, which helped as he is a Green Hill resident," Rotor said. "It was to fix a lung issue. He was a heavy smoker so he got an implant to counteract it. I even checked further back to when he got it, which was well over two and a half years ago."

"We would have barely been starting as freelancers by then," Sonic said.

"My theory is that the small dose of Fokus in his system making him do what he did mixed with the poison pill that he had and that's what did him in," said Rotor.

"No, I think the first half of that is wrong," Shadow said. "Didn't they catch the guy who made the Fokus in Westopolis?" He looked to see Sonic's glare at him, clearing his throat. "I mean, that's what I heard."

"Hmm... fair point," said Rotor. "But if that is what happened, then this fellow was likely not under the influence of anything other than the promise of money and power. That could be why such little of the drug had such a big effect as well. The cyanide must have accelerated it. I did think that the heroin was out of place as well, but I looked into that. It was very sloppily made, likely added to the pill to make the death a bit more peaceful."

"I was on the roof with him when he died," Shadow said. "He literally puked out blood when he died. There was nothing peaceful about it."

"Heroin acts as a depressant, though," said Tails. "Maybe he looked in pain but he probably didn't feel it."

"How does that even work?" asked Knuckles. "Last I checked, you can't eat heroin or Fokus. They're usually things that you inject."

"I'm willing to bet that he didn't even know what was in it," Rotor said. "When I was working on him, he didn't seem to struggle much when he died. Sure, the cyanide killed his body and the Fokus damaged the implant, but the heroin might have made the transition easier... if still messy."

"Well, the guy that they usually have to make the drugs isn't making them, so that might explain it," Knuckles said. "Either way, it's a very nasty cocktail even without the cyanide. The poison must have just made it move faster... while also calming him down when he died. That's some systematic shit no matter how you look at it."

"Speaking of, I might need to borrow some Fokus," Tails said. "Could you put in a call to Lupe for me?"

"Absolutely," Rotor said, reaching for his phone and contacting Lupe directly. "Hey, Commander Lupe? Yes, the freelancers are here. They'd like to borrow some Fokus... all right, thanks." He got a piece of paper and a pen, writing down the code and handing it to Tails. "She said that you can take as much as you need."

"I love having friends like you guys," Tails said. "Is the line still open?"

Rotor nodded, handing the phone over to Tails' ear. "Hello?" Lupe asked.

"Hey, thanks, Commander Lupe," Tails said.

"You are most welcome," Lupe smiled on her end. "And good luck."

"Thanks... again," said Tails, nodding to Rotor. "And thanks for your help as well."

Rotor nodded. "Any time."

Tails and the other freelancers gave the forensics expert another word of thanks before leaving for the evidence room, typing in the code and getting some Fokus in a bag. They checked it out with the front desk and took their leave as Nicole altered the code to the evidence room. The freelancers left the building, hopped onto their boards, and they made their way up to Scrap Metal City.

On the motorway leading to Green Hill...

Manuel looked at the back of the truck, looking over the bags that he'd brought to carry the weapons they were going to steal before looking at the four people who were going with him to Scrap Metal, seeing them wearing masks of the freelancers. He himself was disguised as well, looking at the fake ID that Martin had made for him as he waited in line at the toll booth that led to Green Hill. He checked the rear view mirror again and cleared his throat.

"So, do you guys have names?" he asked them.

"I'm Marla," said the girl with a Tails mask on her head.

"I'm Jude," said the one wearing the Sonic mask.

"Taylor," said the one wearing the Knuckles mask.

"And to finish it off, my name is Bruno," said the one with the Shadow mask.

"Nice to meet you all," Manuel said. "So, why the masks? You're all humans, so it's not like people are going to confuse you for the freelancers."

"It was Jem's idea," said Bruno. "He thought it would add a sense of irony to the freelancers' heroism, which only really made sense during the reinstatement ceremony."

"How long have you been working for him?" Manuel asked.

"A couple of months now," said Jude. "Which surprises me. Jem's very strict about his inner circle and he doesn't trust a lot of people."

"Yeah, I heard that the last people to drop him some guns at Westopolis got shot dead," said Marla. "Just... right there, in the middle of the fucking street."

Manuel shook his head. "Nack wasn't a saint himself, but he was a lot more professional than that. You should count your blessings that you're still working with Jem."

"We heard that you were pretty right with Nack back when he was around," said Taylor. "What happened after he died?"

"It's... a long and complicated road," said Manuel. "I needed some personal time off."

"For a year and a half?" Marla asked.

"Something like that, yeah," Manuel said as the car in front of him was moving forwards. As he pulled up and got ready to pay, he saw another truck moving up, recognising it as an armoured vehicle that was leaving and going over to Green Hill. He pointed and turned to the toll booth operator. "Say, what's that about?"

"Oh, well, in an effort to recover from the riots and with Prower implants getting redelivered, other cities have been giving helping hands with relief efforts. Guns, medicine, implants, you name it."

"That's good to hear," Manuel replied. "Thanks." He pulled forwards towards the next road and he looked back at the others. "Looks like our meal ticket got here just in time."

"Which way are we going first?" Bruno asked.

Manuel pulled out his phone and called Jem's number. "Hey, boss? We've got a bit of a dilemma."

"What's the issue?" Jem asked.

"The freelancers are going one way but the weapons are going another," Manuel said. "Something to do with the relief effort while the freelancers were forced off the field."

"What's going where?" Jem asked.

"The weapons are going into Green Hill, but I haven't the foggiest where the freelancers are going," Manuel asked. "Should I follow them?"

"Hmm... no," Jem said. "Get the weapons first then find somewhere to hunker down until they get back. Remember, you want to send them the message in Green Hill."

"Okay, we'll find a place to lay low," Manuel said. "See you."

He hung up and peeled to the right to follow the weapons truck, just about keeping it in sight as it went down its road. Its first stop was at Green Hill Hospital, and he was a bit confused until he saw the boxes had some medical supplies. After the drop was done, the people delivering got into the truck and continued their route.

"Huh," Marla said. "I thought that it was just weapons in there."

"Hey, those armoured trucks are a good way to shift a lot of shit around," Manuel said. "Which means we can expect them to make a lot of stops."

"This'll be tricky, trying to get them in one place," said Jude as they kept following the supply truck. "Do you know the city well enough to know where they'll go next?"

"Not a clue," Manuel admitted. "But we need to be careful. We could be suspected of tailing them... even though that's exactly what we're doing. I guess I'll just have to be extra careful. And you guys stay low back there, got it?"

The four in the back of the truck all gave noises of agreement as Manuel followed after the truck, being careful not to interrupt any more of the supply drops. They were somehow unnoticed, and they eventually got to Green Hill Police Department, watching as some technology supply drops were being made. Soon the supply truck was finished and started moving forwards again.

"How long is the fucking route?" Jude asked.

"Can't be much longer," said Manuel. "And if you've been paying attention, you'd see that they haven't dropped any weapons off yet. There's a military base in every city."

"This had better be good," said Bruno.

"Trust me," said the bull.

So the driving continued, with the truck in front continuing its route. Manuel drove carefully behind it, still avoiding being seen by the suppliers as he peeked ahead, seeing a big crossing at the road. A red light appeared, making the truck in front of them stop before Manuel did as well, other cars around them also pausing as he turned back to address the others.

"All right, now I need you to trust me," Manuel said. "As soon as that light goes green, I'm going to ram that truck off of the road, and we're going to steal any weapons we can find and bring them back here."

"Who's doing what, then?" Jude asked.

"Marla can hang back and gather the weapons, owing to her leg injury," Manuel said, looking as the truck's indicator flashed left. "Jude, you stay back and help too. Taylor, you provide covering fire, and Bruno, you're with me. Get to the front, kill anyone you see in the truck, and help me bring the weapons back here."

"Sounds good," said Bruno.

"All right, brace yourselves," Manuel said, watching as the light turned amber. "And..." The light turned green. "Now."

The truck in front pulled ahead, ready to turn left, and Manuel stepped on the gas, ramming into the side of the truck hard. It took some effort and a lot of pushing, and eventually the supply truck stopped its sliding and attempted to push forwards on its route. Manuel again pushed forwards with his own truck and slid to the side, pulling out a pistol and shooting the rear right tyre out, making the supply truck start to wobble uncertainly.

Manuel pulled to get to the right of the truck, ramming it hard again and making it start to spin. The supply truck let out a grinding churn as its blown out tyre burned off, leaving the metal wheel underneath to grind against the concrete road, leaving a line of sparks as the truck kept spinning out of control. The spinning made it crash into a couple of passing cars, knocking them out of the way, and eventually the truck itself would be tossed onto its right side, sliding to a slow stop as its front end slid along the civilian path, causing any pedestrians to run away in panic.

"Fuck..." Manuel muttered. "All right, let's get moving quickly. Remember, Marla and Jude are staying behind, Taylor's on covering fire duty, and Bruno's with me."

"Then let's get going," Bruno said. "Masks on, everyone."

The others did just that, with Manuel even putting on a mask that Martin had provided him with before he left Westopolis. He and Bruno made their move towards the truck, seeing the left door open up, one of the suppliers putting his arms out and waving as Manuel and Bruno looked on. The man inside the truck slowly climbed out, putting his arms up.

"Wait!" he yelled. "Please, you can't do this! People need these supplies! Y-You can't do this!"

"We can and we will," Manuel said. "And we're short on time, I'm afraid." He aimed his pistol up and fired, landing a couple of bullets into the man's chest, making him slump against the door as blood poured from his wounds. Manuel looked over at Bruno. "Go check them for any keys. We need to get the back of the truck open."

Taylor, waiting at the back side of Manuel's truck and keeping his rifle at the ready, looked to see some civilians helping people who were either hit or narrowly avoided being hit by the supply truck. "Huh... I could easily just put these people out of their misery. No witnesses."

"Jem didn't give us any rules on if we could kill civilians this time, right?" asked Jude.

"Not this time, no," said Taylor.

"I wouldn't risk it," Marla said. "Remember, he told us not to hit anyone when we attacked the freelancers the first time, and I got shot in the fucking leg for it. And that was an accident. Imagine how upset he'd be if you killed someone on purpose."

"Yeah, she has a point," Jude said. "We're here to steal weapons. If anyone's dead from the truck going out of control, it'd probably be better for us if that's the only reason why they were hurt."

"But Manuel's the one who started that shit," Taylor said, watching as Manuel and Bruno went to gather weapons from the back of the truck.

"Exactly, and he shot that supplier too," Jude said. "He gets the blame and we're in the clear. We all know that Jem is on the outs with Manuel anyway."

"Funny how we have all this ammo against him," said Jude. "Shit, he's coming back."

Manuel and Bruno brought the weapons around the truck, handing them to Jude and Marla. "This is the good shit," said Manuel. "Whatever military they were going to give these two is missing out now."

"How much is left?" said Taylor.

"Just a couple more trips," said Manuel. "There's not a lot in there, but there's enough. Remember, put them in the bags."

As he and Bruno went to leave, Bruno was stopped by Taylor's hand on his arm. "What's this about?" Bruno asked.

Taylor leaned in. "If Jem asks who got hurt, we tell him that it was Manuel's fault. You in?"

Bruno looked over to see Manuel gathering more weapons and then nodded. "Fuck it. I'm in."

"Bruno!" Manuel called. "I need a hand over here!"

"On my way!" Bruno replied, rushing over to help the bull.

Manuel and Bruno gathered a couple more rounds of weapons and brought them to the back of their truck, Marla and Jude working diligently to put them in bags so that they could get moving quicker, with Taylor helping as well. He looked around as he heard a faint sound, turning to the others.

"It's the police," he said. "Are we done?"

Marla zipped up the last bag. "We are now."

"All right, everyone get in the back now!" Manuel called out. "We've got to move!"

Manuel quickly got into the driver's seat, waiting until everyone else was sat safely before kicking the engine into gear and starting the truck off down the road, swerving around the one that he'd crashed and looking for a good escape route, eventually finding a back alley to drive through and hide for a moment as a pair of police cars passed it by. He and the others stayed low, waiting as the cars continued on, and he peeked his head up to the others.

"Is everyone good?" he asked.

"Yeah, we're all right," said Bruno. "All the weapons are still here."

"Good," Manuel said, looking left then right, making sure that the coast was clear. "Okay... I've got a plan for where we can hide. Let's move."

And I'm back with another one of these. It's been a while, and it's always fun to write for my more villainous characters. I hope that you liked this one, and soon there will be more of this to come. I will see you all for whenever that's done. Until then, take care, and stay tuned.