"Vroom!"
The engine of a Lin Baroga hummed like... well the engine of a Lin Baroga, streaking through District Forty Two's Streets with evident grace.
"Hey!"
"Honk!"
"Do you want a car crash?"
Other drivers, who were overtaken forcefully, shouted, some pressing their car horns in an attempt to convey their anger.
Hunter, who was driving the vehicle with one hand, couldn't care less about the other drivers, his voice grim as he spat. "I've sent you my conversation with Valen's dad, Doris, listen to it and tell me if you find anything interesting- FUCK YOU MATE!" He suddenly yelled at one of the drivers who gave him a middle finger.
"All this could have easily been avoided if you had agreed to get a siren installed," Doris sighed from the other end.
"A siren? In this car?" Hunter asked.
"If you like the car so much, don't use it; instead, get one you have no problem installing a siren on," Doris suggested.
"It's called an aesthetic, Doris. Look it up. Besides," Hunter shook his head. " I don't pay you to nag me."
"Why would a grown-ass man worry about such things?" Doris spoke, the irritation in her voice evident to any listener. "And remember if you decide to fire me, I have your passwords for everything, brilliant detective-"
"Wait what?" Hunter muttered intent on arguing, but Doris had already cut the call.
At that instant, Detective Hunter slowed down as he approached the building, his car cutting through a sizable crowd of people.
The bystanders were forced to part when they noticed that the car driving through had no intention of stopping.
"Officer Nolan, what is going on? Is there a new development?"
"Now that SWAT has stormed the building will the issue be resolved?"
"Have there been any casualties?"
A group of reporters hurled questions at the police officers hindering their movement, and it was here that Hunter got out.
As he moved through the perimeter, the police officers gave way, compelled by his reputation.
"Hunter," a familiar bald-headed police officer called out his name, while approaching him.
"Officer Nolan, it's been a minute," Hunter shook the man's hand, smiling slightly as he asked. "What's the situation-"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
The sound of multiple gunshots rang out, faint but audible from this distance.
"Seems the action is just starting," Nolan spoke as he looked up, his eyes narrowed. "We have one five-man squad up there led by Sergeant Henry, and a whole SWAT team as well."
"Who's IC?" Hunter inquired, his tone matching Nolan's.
At the mention of IC, Nolan straightened his form a little. "You're looking at him."
'Of course they did,' Hunter thought before saying with a smile. "I see, well any other development, anything I should know?"
"Not really-" Nolan wanted to respond but was interrupted by growing cries from the crowd, even the police officers holding the perimeter seemed shocked:
"Is that a woman?"
"The fuck is that?"
"Look up!"
"Is that a tail!"
"Quick, take out your camera!"
Following everyone's gaze, both Hunter and Nolan caught sight of a hooded woman on the fifth floor, shards of glass shooting everywhere, sparking like glitter.
She began to free fall but-
"Swooh!"
Something appearing to be an appendage (her tail) streaked, grabbing onto a protruding rail, and carried her form back to the wall.
She was now three floors down from the window she had jumped from, on the third floor, and in that instant, her tail moved again, piercing a closed window and ripping the rails from their hinges.
Pieces of concrete and dust could be seen as she performed this act, and in one smooth motion, she threw herself into the window. It was madness.
"My God!" Detective Hunter involuntarily muttered, not knowing how to process what he had seen.
He wasn't the only one. The entire street fell into a stunned silence as well, (but only for a moment) as people looked to their partners to confirm that they hadn't witnessed a fabrication.
Religious people made the sign of the cross or offered prayers in strangers wordings, while everyone else brought out their phones and focused their recording devices.
And then there was chaos, with reporters pushing back at the perimeter with even more ferocity.
'I have to get to the bottom of this,' Hunter thought as he rushed towards the building, retrieving the firearm from his inner suit.
"Hunter!" Nolan, noticing his actions, tried to stop him. But he had already moved too far. 'What is this guy up to, does he think he's in some kind of action movie?'
------
Meanwhile, within the office that Carla has broken into, one could see a brightly lit space, and hiding in a corner of this room was a short, dark-haired man wearing a business suit.
He had heard the gunshots and resolved to hide, and when he saw this woman wearing a hoodie break into his office from the barred window, his fear only increased.
He looked at her backside and saw a long sinewy tail with a pointed tip swaying from side to side, and terror struck him.
"Who are-" he tried to speak but when she turned her face, he realized that he knew this woman, "Carla?" He muttered.
"You will go towards the stair area and attack any police personnel you see, protect me at all costs!" Carla simply commanded, and at that instant, a circular glow flashed under the man's shirt as he ran out of the room and towards the doorway, his eyes hazy.
Without a word, Carla walked out of the room and out into the hall, where a long winding space of locked doors could be seen.
She had, at some point, personally left a mark on every single one of them; she could sense them hiding, frightened by the sound of gunshots, and at that thought a smile spread across her lips.
She strutted towards the first door, her tail flashing, piercing through the thing and ripping it from its hinges.
She found a terrified brown-skinned woman inside, 'Dr Ali,' she thought as she said. "Go, run towards any open window and threaten to jump, inching closer to your death every minute, cry and shudder in extreme fear as you are about to lose your life."
At those words, the woman moved frantically searching for an unbarred window.
"Bang!" A sound could be heard as Carla moved to rip out another door, "Go to the stairwell and attack any police officer you see while yelling that you have a bomb!"
Just like that, door after door, command after command, Carla was creating chaos.
And as she moved, she could not help but feel a shiver run down her spine, it felt like something was watching her, waiting patiently from some far distance.