Welcome back to City of Angels and Demons. Last time, Cynder made her way into the enemy siege against SWAT, sneaking her way around the attackers using her Shadow element, and with some help from Hondo and Deacon, the siege is stopped. And in a strange reveal, the attackers appear to be LAPD, as evidenced by an LAPD badge in one of their pockets. But before the trio can ponder this further, they rush out back to make sure Christina Summer is okay in Spyro's protection after hearing tires squealing against asphalt and the screams of a woman. So, what is happening outside? Read on to discover...

(The scene opens up right as the tires squealing we heard earlier starts up. Cynder, Hondo, and Deacon run out on scene just in time to see a khaki van with a logo on the side pulling away in a rush, Spyro unconscious on the street, and Christina Summer nowhere in sight. With the van still in firing range, Cynder unloads a few shots from her rifle into the thing before it gets away)

Cynder: (Throwing her rifle to the ground) Damn it!

(Meanwhile, Deacon is checking out Spyro's vitals, making sure he's not dead)

Deacon: Good news at least, he's not dead.

Cynder: Bad news, we lost Christina.

Hondo: (Seeing something in Spyro's face) He's coming to.

(Sure enough, Hondo's right, as Spyro starts to stir, then groggily awakens, holding a spot on his head)

Spyro: (Groggily) Wha... What happened?

Deacon: We were about to ask you the same question.

Spyro: (Looks around, then realizes something) Shit, where is she?!

Hondo: Looks like whoever was after Christina got her back.

Spyro: Damn it. (Tries to get up) We've got to get after her!

Cynder: Hold it, grape of destiny. You've probably got a concussion.

Hondo: Let's get him inside.

(Fast forward a few minutes, and Spyro's head is bandaged up as Street checks his pupils with Chris, Tan, and Luca checking out the scene)

Street: You're pretty lucky kid, anyone else would've had a pretty severe concussion from these wounds.

Spyro: (Sarcastically) For once my thick skull came in handy.

Hondo: What happened out there?

Spyro: I was rushing our guest...

Cynder: Christina.

Spyro: That's her name? Good to know. So, I was rushing Christina out the back when that van pulled up. Next thing I know out jump three masked creeps in bullet-resistant vests. Two of them grab Christina and before I can react, the third guy sneaks up behind me and strikes me across the neck. And while I was recovering from that he clobbers me across the face with a nightstick

Luca: Wait, how'd you get almost immobilized from one blow to the neck?

Spyro: Old war wound. Bit of broken vertebra pressing on my spine. One wrong shift could paralyze me. Thankfully this guy didn't seem to know about it, and got damn lucky with his hit.

Luca: Damn.

Spyro: Getting to the present, what do we know about the enemy?

(As soon as Spyro acts his question, Hicks walks into the room)

Hicks: If Cynder's to be believed, at least the three who shot up SWAT were LAPD.

Spyro: If I had to guess, the ones who came after me were too. They were way too organized to be a ragtag bunch.

Tan: LAPD? That can't be right. Why would they start shooting their own?

Cynder: Christina. The minute the shooting started, she screamed that the people who were after her had found her. Chances are, that's what's going on.

Chris: Still doesn't really explain why they're after her.

Deacon: Maybe whatever Hicks was starting to tell us about her will give us more intel.

Spyro: So what do we know?

Hondo: All we were able to learn before the siege started is that she has no history of mental illness, familial or otherwise.

Luca: Could still be spontaneous.

Hicks: There's more. It turns out, this is the first time Christina Summer has been seen in over a year.

Cynder: Wait, she's a missing person?

Hicks: Yeah. An investigation was opened, but ultimately a tape came forward saying she'd run away with some guy she met online.

Spyro: I don't trust that for one second. How much do you want to bet the guys who just clobbered me were on that investigation team?

Hicks: That's what we're trying to find out. I've got the lead investigator and Internal Affairs on their way to figure this out.

Hondo: Hopefully we'll be able to get some answers from them.

Cynder: I'll just say this. Something is rotten here...

(And as the group looks around trying to each other, trying to process what's going on, our scene ends for today)

And that looks like a good place to wrap up for now. So, Christina Summers was a missing person for over a year before she literally ran into Cynder. And now, she's missing again. Hopefully the other investigators can get things resolved, and that Internal Affairs can confirm whether those gunmen were LAPD. Or is Cynder right? Is this whole deal more rotten than it appears? Tune in next time to start finding out! Same time... same channel!