“Oh god, this looks awful,” Rick said. “What do we do now?” He glanced at James, only to find him watching with a sadistic grin on his face. “Um, James?”

“Isn’t it obvious? We wait for the battle to die down.”

“I agree— wait what?” Rick’s face grew pale as he did a double-take on what his partner said. “You mean, you don’t want to leave?”

“Are you kidding? I want to watch this spectacle of idiots unfold.”

“W—What are you saying?”

“I mean, if those guys wear themselves out, then we can sneak by and capture them easily.” James shrugged casually. “And if they somehow manage to get themselves killed, then it’s not my problem. In fact, that’ll save us a lot of time in the long run—”

“Horrible.” Rick clenched his fists.

He looked up to James as one of his inspirations, admiring his call for duty and no-nonsense perspective for taking cases seriously. Rick even let his partner off the hook for his remarks from time to time. But he took it too far.

“Huh?” James’ smile faded, not sure he heard his partner correctly from under his breath.

“That’s horrible! How can you say such a thing?” He snapped. “And you call yourself a defender of the law? Don’t you know what cops are supposed to do? You’ll be making others like us look bad, even compared to the criminals! How are you okay with letting these guys hurt each other?”

“But it’s none of our business—”

“Did you forget why we’re here in the first place? What if this escalates and affects the outer parts of the city? What if other people get caught in the middle of it all?”

“I...” James took a step back as his eyes widened. In all their time working together, Rick never acted this way around him before. James didn’t hate the guy. He eventually warmed up to him, but almost never took him seriously. Hearing that made James self-reflect on his previous actions and words. “Rick, I’m sorry, I didn’t think of it like that...” Then again, what was I thinking?

“Yeah, I’m sure you didn’t...” Rick looked away and muttered. The feeling of regret washed over almost immediately. Did he go too far? Was it the right call? Should he have kept those thoughts to himself?

The two were silent momentarily, but their faces lit up shortly after.

“Hold on. Did one of those guys mention the ‘blue buddy’?” James asked.

“That’s got to be the blue blob we were tracking down earlier!” Rick exclaimed.

The two peeked out again, searching for the blob, but couldn’t see much amidst the chaos. Rick wondered if the blob hid inside the fort, but James figured that he’d do the smarter plan and escape while the commotion went on. The cops considered their options, when another explosion made their vehicle tumble and careen across the battlefield while accompanied in flames.

Seeing how things were getting out of hand, Rick and James left to request backup at a reasonable distance. Before the duo reached the exit, they heard a voice that sounded out of place, almost like it was a cry for help. From the corner of their eyes, the officers spotted a young blonde-haired woman near the building in distress. James and Rick didn’t hesitate to sprint over to her, without fear of getting caught. Once they reached her, the duo tried to approach and talk to her as calmly as possible, hoping to avoid making the situation more stressful around them.

“Excuse me, miss, are you alright?” Rick asked.

The woman shook her head, trembling in fear. “I’m scared! I don’t know what to do or where to go. I don’t want to die!”

“Calm down. We know a way out of here,” Rick reassured her. “You can just follow our lead, and we’ll get you back safely.”

“Ok, sounds good.” She replied, feeling content. “I never thought I’d see you two in a place like this, but I’m glad you’re here.”

“Same here.” James tipped his hat. “It’s not safe here, especially for someone like you.”

“But what about—?”

“Let those fools deal with each other. They’re not hurting anyone but themselves anyway,” James mentioned.

The three had escaped the complex just as the chaos was dying down. The group found a place safe enough to lie low while James called Jim to come to pick them up from where they were. Once the lady had time to calm down, Rick started up a conversation with her.

“So, what’s your name?”

“Oh, it’s Lucy. Why do you ask?”

“Well, I was wondering, why were you at that scary place?”

“If you must know, I have a part-time job as a reporter, and was trying to investigate the area.” Lucy took out her video camera. “Thanks to this, I found a lot of interesting stuff.” She boasted.

“Huh.” James walked over and examined the camera. “Hey, do you mind if you come with us to the station?”

“Are you going to interrogate me?” Lucy questioned, feeling offended by the question.

“Somewhat. I’d like to know what’s in that camera.”

“James, are you serious?” Rick whispered.

“Yeah, this brief detour just might help our big case after all.”

It wasn’t long before Jim arrived in the police car with the radio on too loud. James massaged his temples. Sometimes that guys’ carefree attitude gave him such a headache, but did his best to not show it to the others. As Lucy and Rick hopped into the vehicle, James noticed his smoke bomb no longer being in his pockets and wondered if he dropped it along the way. He shrugged it off and headed back inside the car.