"Your job is just to arrange the meeting."
It took nearly all of Leo's willpower to keep a straight face while he threw this cringy line out.
Still, what he said couldn't be any closer to the truth.
It wasn't up to Mark, Rob, or even Leo to judge those two. It was the judge's call to decide their punishment from the very second they dropped down and no longer posed any threat to the members and guests of the Pesterny household.
But this wasn't about justice, rights, punishments, or anything fancy of the like.
Those two simply served themselves on a silver platter to Leo. And while they hoped to make use of the chaos the world was in and the powers they obtained for no merit of their own to exact some sort of vengeance for whatever they had against Tina...
It was exactly the chaotic situation the world found itself in right now that allowed Leo to skip all the formalities, ignore the law, and use them as mere test subjects for both of his brothers to acquaint themselves with the idea of taking someone's life.
Still...
Even with both Mark and Rob now standing face to face with the two kneeling bandits... Nothing really happened.
They brought themselves up to this spot and were ready to take action... But the idea of just walking those few steps left and just beating someone's life out of them was a bit too much.
"I hope you won't interfere," Leo turned as he spoke to Tina, judging her presence to be the reason behind Mark's and Rob's persisting hesitation.
Looking over, Tina took a moment to stare at Leo's face before, without a word, reaching out into a sizeable pocket attached to the bottom of her shirt and pulling out a small radio from within.
"Younger Officer Tina, badge number four-four-six-four, off-duty, reporting an incident," she called out as soon as she pressed the biggest out of the three buttons on the device.
"Dispatch, go on," a reply soon followed from the device.
"Reporting and armed break and entry. Recognized subject, Werber Masta plus two. They resisted arrest and escalated, leading to three deaths, over."
Desperation flashed in the eyes of one of the bandits while a sense of hope appeared in the eyes of the other one. And while the first bandit lowered his head, realizing that his chances of leaving the place alive only continued to grow slimmer...
"IT'S NOT TRUE!" the other bandit screamed out, clearly hoping to have his voice recorded on Tina's radio... And failing to realize that the very moment she finished her report, her finger released the trigger of the radio, putting her on the default mute. "WE ARE STILL..."
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Before the man could utter any further desperate cry, Mark took a step forth before swinging his right foot and planting it right into the man's face, effectively shutting him up.
"Understood. We don't have the manpower to assist. Can you hold on for now?"
Tina looked over to Leo's face, only reaching for the radio's trigger once her step-brother gave her a nod.
'He's just waiting to intervene...' Leo nearly uttered an exasperated sigh. 'Well, I can't blame him... but is it really not clear by now that it's all futile?'
Mana was just a different form of energy. And with that in mind, it all depended on one's experience in wielding it and creativity in finding ways how to wield it to decide what it could achieve.
In this particular scenario, where it was somehow important to have the deaths of those three registered through Tina, Leo used just a whisk of it to construct an excessively simple structure by the mouths of both of the bandits, anchoring the entire thing directly at their lips.
"Rodger, Tina out..."
"..."
"..."
This time, both of the bandits attempted to shout out, ready to grasp this chance to mess the situation up a bit. Yet, the very moment they opened their mouth, the structure of Leo's spell collapsed, turning the mana that made the structure up into a small gust of wind.
There was no need for Leo to separate the space around the bandits' mouths or to mute all the sounds in the area.
Just pushing in some fresh air into their mouths the moment they attempted to speak up was enough to do the trick. And by the time they recovered from the instant choke of having air forced down their windpipes, Tina had long since released the trigger of her radio again.
"We are in the clear," Tina spoke as she looked first at Rob and Mark before giving the two bandits a fleeting glance and turning around. Yet, as she caught the sight of Leo's face and his raised eyebrow, she only shrugged her shoulders.
"What?"
"No, it's nothing. I'm just... surprised how easy it was for you to go along with it," Leo admitted.
'Don't tell me, is she one of those crooked cops?' he thought, a sudden gust of worry twisting his guts as he imagined his step-sister taking in bribes, hushing the victims of police brutality, hiding the evidence that wasn't good for her...
Yet, as he lost himself in the thought of imagining Tina doing all the kinds of stuff he long knew her to be more than just capable of, the young woman only shook her shoulders.
"Rather than having the misunderstanding go unsolved for several arcs as it would happen in some sort of stupid romance story, let me give it to you straight," she stated, gathering her courage and turning to face Leo directly for the very first time since he returned.
"I joined the force for the sole reason of gaining access to the resources and means necessary for me to find you," she revealed with a straight look in her eyes right into Leo's face. "All of my efforts failed, though, so I have no lingering attachments, even if I'm not interested in dropping out yet. And didn't you just say that this world, this society is all going to shit now?"
Tina shrugged her shoulders.
"Lastly, they came here to attack me, so why would I spare them any mercy?"
Leo stared at his step-sister for a moment, before putting a small smile on his lips and turning back towards his brothers.
Still...
The sight of the two of them standing up and above the two kneeling bandits...
It didn't sit well in his soul.
"You know what, guys? Let's make it more interesting... more realistic," he stated, intentionally misspeaking for a second. "Rob, Mark, you are not to use any of your circuit-born abilities. As for the two of you..."
Leo turned his eyes over to the two miserable bandits.
"I'm not going to let you kill my brothers, but as long as you keep your own abilities on hold and manage to beat them up..." Leo leaned his head over to the side and gave the bandits a huge, yet perfectly empty smile.
"If you two manage to beat my brothers up, I will consider letting the two of you go."