Alright, two things to start this.

One, I lied about us not being provided with reinforcements.

Two, it didn’t help.

On top of the Jacksons, we had Sloth’s team, our kill team, and another dozen watching the streets, prepared to ambush Arkady whenever he showed up. We made this plan assuming he was going to come by road. That didn’t happen.

I was inside the apartment with Sky and the Jacksons. No one was expecting the fight to reach us, so we were supposed to stay there and wait the whole thing out. Due to the boredom of such a job, I spent most of it staring out a window. Which is the reason I was the only one to see a figure jumping off the roof of the building next to us and grab the fire escape ladder on our building.

I just managed to shout a warning before the window shattered and Arkady burst into the room. Before anyone else could react, he rushed Gabriel and jabbed a knife through is throat. Andrew started to draw a gun, but Arkady punched faster. It was like watching a man being hit by a truck: that fist slammed into Andrew’s head, and it looked like the lights in his eyes flicked off. Gabriel went down into a heap, and didn’t get back up.

Ar: “Ya know, I’d been kinda hoping that Slendy would show up as soon as I smashed that window and we could avoid all these unpleasantries. But it would seem he is failing in his duties as a guardian. Oh well. Guess I have to kill the girl now.”

I grabbed Sky and tried to run out of there, but Arkady moved much faster. He threw me aside, and then slammed Sky against the wall, his hands squeezing her throat. I made the dumb decision of trying to charge him, which ended with me getting knocked to the floor by a backhand.

He’d have killed Sky right there, if one of Sloth’s proxies hadn’t run into the room with a gun. I don’t know if any of the shots hit, because as soon as Arkady let go of Sky I grabbed her and ran out. Even if he had been shot, it wasn’t enough to slow Arkady down, and he was soon chasing after us. We passed by Lepidus and Sloth in the hall, but as soon as they saw Arkady, they started running as well.

We didn’t even slow down when we got outside. Arkady came out after us, shooting the gun he’d taken from the proxy. The entire clip was emptied without hitting any of us, so he threw the gun, which hit me in the back of the head.

Ar: “Oh, of course, THAT’S what finally hits someone!”

Sloth had a car not far away, and we were racing to reach it. His other two proxies moved to intercept Arkady, but I didn’t see how that tuned out. It didn’t sound nice is all I know.

Working at a desk all day really doesn’t help with physical fitness, so I felt like I was dying before I was halfway to the car. And I could hear Arkady’s footsteps gaining on us….

Another car screeched out from an alley and flew by us. I looked back and saw it nearly hit Arkady, but he just managed to jump aside. Ahriman got out of the car, and started firing a pistol at Arkady, forcing him into cover.

Ah: “Get into the car!”

Lepidus, Sky, and I followed that order, while Sloth kept running for his car. Arkady broke cover when Ahriman ran out of bullets, but we already had the car running before he could reach us. Instead he started chasing after Sloth, who wasn’t fast enough to get to his car before Arkady reached him.

I looked out the back window and saw Arkady deck Sloth in the face, knocking him to the ground. Before he could keep attacking, Sloth held his keys out to Arkady. Arkady grabbed them, kicked Sloth in the face, then got into his car and started driving after us.

We had a lead, but it wasn’t very big. And I don’t care what Hollywood says, you can’t have a high speed chase for very long inside a city. There’s too many others cars in the way. Which meant that Arkady was closing that gap we had very, very quickly.

Ahriman was screaming orders into his phone for backup, although I wasn’t sure how much help more people would be in a car chase. Sky had huddled up into a ball, and was whispering, “Help me,” over and over. Then,

S: “He’s here.”

Fog poured in around our car from every direction, until we couldn’t see the anything more than a few feet around us. The sounds of the city vanished, leaving us in a bubble of silence. And then, out of the fog, the Boss appeared in front of us, dozens of tentacles growing out of his back.

We were too close to move out of the way, so I closed my eyes, expecting us to hit him. When I didn’t feel an impact, I slowly opened my eyes again. The fog was gone, we were in a different part of the city, and Arkady wasn’t behind us anymore. We took a few minutes for Ahriman to get his bearings, then he started to drive again.

With everything finally calming down, I asked Ahriman where we were going.

Ah: “Truth’s corporate HQ. The mayor’s called for ‘Decisive action against organized crime groups in our city.’ In other words, us. SWAT teams have been hitting all the safehouses that Arkady hasn’t already gotten. Therefore, Truth has called a general retreat to all surviving proxies. We’re to fortify at his tower, where we can negotiate from a position of strength.”

D: “Wasn’t my apartment supposed to be a position of strength?”

Ah: “…. Be quiet. We just need to make a few calls to Washington, move some money around, and everyone will be reminded of what happens to those who start getting aspirations above their station.” *His hands tightened on the wheel until his knuckles turned white.* “And once this is over, we will make them all pay for their insolence.”