[L-Lieutenant. The bandits, heading rear exit.]

“I’m on my way King, sit tight!”

Lieutenant Wong dropped his radio to the side passenger seat of his car and stomped on the gas pedal, tipping the velocity meter at full! Red and blue lights were flashing on the front of his car, a mad siren wailing. Several other police cruisers, patrol vans, and SWAT wagons zipped along side him. After a swerve on the street, he made a beeline for the back entrance of the convention centre.

CRASH!

“AAAAGH!”

Security bollards shot up from the ground at the last minute, crushing the entire front of Lt. Wong’s car. The engine collapsed in on itself on impact, vomiting smoke into the air. The lieutenant woke up with a cough, his head in the air bag. Just as he crawled out of his crumpled heap, he saw someone running in front of him.

Beanie Brain hopped out of a van that was parked nearby. He clapped his gaming laptop shut and flipped the bird at Lt. Wong, hollering, “SCRUB!”

“...You little punk...” Lt. Wong belched blood from his mouth and wiped it off his lips. He hobbled after the teen, who ran to the wall towards the end of the back parking lot.

In this moment, the door to the loading platform kicked open.

Big Smoke and One-Eye ran out first, weapons drawn. Scorpion followed, carrying a wounded Piercing who had a bleeding shoulder and leg. Together they hobbled down a short flight of steps, covering Piercing’s mouth to keep him from crying out.

“FREEZE! POLICE!” Lt. Wong hollered, guns up. The others behind him also took positions and raised their guns. The bandits did the same.

However, before round two of shooting commenced.

“Oh wait, wait. Hold on.” Silver Tooth stepped out of the door, one hand up and empty. A smile and he tugged onto something behind him. “You might wanna rethink that good sir.”

Silver Tooth walked out with Gold Neck, dragging a series of hostages from the convention centre. Lt. Wong counted about eight, tied together with zip ties around their wrist and interlinking their thumbs. Even from his distance he could see their skin bleeding from all the tugging.

A bomb vest was strapped to one of the hostages. They all screamed, crying, begging, offering money for mercy. Silver Tooth patted one of them on the shoulder. “I call your guns and raise by C4.”

“I am Lt. Wong, Metro Police. Come over here.”

“So what? You take away my peashooter and arrest me?”

“No. To kick your ass.”

“Ooooh-hoooo” Silver Tooth laughed and yanked the hostages over as his shield. His other hand held up a lighter...correction, a trigger. A remote detonator. The bomb vests blinking. He wiggled it above their heads. “I like you, good sir. I like you a lot.”

One-Eye climbed over a dumpster and jumped over a wall nearby. Big Smoke and Scorpion passed Piercings to their brother at the top. After getting Beanie Brain over, the Jones father and son vaulted themselves. Gold Neck was next, on top of the wall’s ledge.

“Hey lieutenant.” Silver Tooth laughed as he backed up to the wall. “You got a dog?”

Lt. Wong pointed with mulling lips. “Don’t you do it—”

“Fetch boy!” With a tweet, the mercenary kicked the group of hostages over, making them stumble. Lt. Wong dove over with some officers to catch them, preventing them from crushing the bomb under the weight.

SWAT moved in to catch the suspects...but by the time Gold Neck and Silver Tooth reached the top of the wall, the latter only had to wiggle the detonator in his hand to stop them.

“Ride free citizen!” And the two mercenaries ducked out of sight.

“Someone get me a knife!” Lt. Wong ignored their escape and focused on the hostages. The bomb tied to one of their chest. He gave it a close look, trailing his fingers across the coloured wires. After one SWAT officer passed him a Swiss Army knife, Lt. Wong flicked the scissors out and cut a wire.

The bomb blinked off. Dead.

Lt. Wong bowed his head with a sigh of relief. He then started to cut the hostage’s bonds, having his men recover them one by one...

“...Shouldn’t be that easy.” Lt. Wong double checked.

He eyed the hostages, between their backs and hands...no extra grenades tied to strings. He checked their pockets: tickets, napkins, loose change. Even their hair, one by one before releasing them; Hair pins and hair gel. Lt. Wong pinched his brow, looking around. Then he dropped prone to check under the cars.

There were 10 cars. All of them have at least two packs of C4. The timer reading 0:09... 0:08... 0:07.

“EVERYONE GET OUT! GET OUT NOOOW!”

0:02...0:01...0:00.

BTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Columns of flames rose from the ground and flipped the cars high into the air. Shockwave, glass, and thick smoke bashed into the entire police force on site, shattering their cruiser windows and tossing them to the ground. Debris and melted cars crashed back down, crushing police vans with another explosion. Fire covered several people as they screamed, rolling around in panic as their fellow officers used their jackets to slap the flames out.

...

Inside a second getaway vehicle, Silver Tooth smiled. Even with the convention centre in the distance, he could still hear the melody of the explosions. He couldn’t help drumming his fingers across the back seats. When he did a Ba-ting with his tongue, he nudged an elbow against Beanie Brain next to him.

“And that, my friend, was Plan C, D, E, F, G, and a bit of H.”

Beanie Brain stared, and put his headphones back on, Metallica at full blast.