In the streets outside of the shop, a large convoy of trucks idled, waiting for Lazaro. The truck beds were filled with men and women, mostly Cartel.

Jimmy took a deep breath and tried to calm his shaking hands. Talking about a large-scale attack was one thing. Participating in it and seeing the faces of the people involved was another. Some of the faces looked determined. Others appeared just as nervous and miserable as he felt.

He looked over at Kara and studied her demeanor. She didn’t shake or appear to be nervous, but she didn’t have the grim determination he saw in the eyes of the Cartel members.

“How are you feeling?” he asked as they hopped into the back of one of the trucks.

“I don’t know. I don’t feel anything, I guess. It’s too surreal right now,” She said and twirled a finger on her hair tie. “My movement skills should help me avoid most of the danger.”

“Why is that so important to you?” Jimmy asked, indicating at her hair tie with a flick of his eyes.

She sighed and closed her eyes, “Well, I might die today so I may as well tell you.” Opening her eyes, she looked directly into Jimmy’s, “It was my daughter's. Or, supposed to be.”

It wasn’t what Jimmy had expected. He never knew what to say in these moments so he stayed silent, listening. The truck lurched, Lazaro’s voice yelled in Spanish but everything was muted as he listened to Kara.

“I had her when I was young. Too young. My parents and doctors convinced me to give her up for adoption after the birth. I was young and stupid, Jimmy. I didn’t even want her at the time,” she went on. Her eyes grew glossy.

Jimmy put his hand over hers, letting her know he was there but wouldn’t interrupt.

“I bought the hair tie one day after school. All day, I had been thinking about how fun it would be to do her hair and watch movies together while we talked about everything in our lives,” a tear dripped down her cheek.

“But, that faded. Everyone made me afraid. They told me about all of the ways my life would be ruined if I kept her. That she would be better off with another family — with parents that were more equipped to care for her.”

Jimmy wiped the tear from her cheek with his thumb.

“So I signed all of the legal documents they thrust in front of me weeks before giving birth. But the day that she came — I got to hold her. And I loved her more than I could have ever imagined,” more tears ran down her cheek.

Jimmy pulled her into a hug.

“They took her away and I didn’t fight it. I just sat there and held onto this hair tie. I don’t even know her name,” she said and fell silent, letting Jimmy hold her.

He never said a word. He just held her until the truck slowed to a stop. The baseball stadium loomed close by.

“We’re at our checkpoint. It’s on foot from here,” Lazaro called out.

Kara gently pushed Jimmy back and looked him in the eyes again. “Thank you. I haven’t told anyone that. Stay safe.” She hopped out of the truck and broke off from the main group before Jimmy could say anything.

The rest of the group spread out for three blocks. There were hundreds of them. Nobody had caused trouble for them on the way there, making Jimmy feel uneasy.

Jimmy watched Kara dart behind a building. If he hadn’t kept his eyes on her, he would never have seen it. She moved in an unnatural way that reminded him of how a ghost will flutter like a strobe light in a horror movie. No wonder nobody chases her for long, he thought.

The small army of Cartel members jogged forward. The smart ones took cover close to the buildings. Jimmy hung back with the healers of the group and could already see figures on top of the smaller structures at the base of the stadium.

“I have eyes on them. Check the roofs, lads,” Jimmy said through a walkie-talkie that Lazaro and a couple of the other officers had.

On top of one of the buildings, a man could be seen swinging a golf club. To Jimmy, he was just barely visible, but the destruction that hit the Cartel members on the street below was much closer.

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Men and women fell, screaming as metal balls exploded around them. Guns started firing. A slow, sporadic crack of gunfire grew to a steady stream of deafening noise. The healers cursed and rushed forward, immediately tending to the ones closest and easiest to heal.

Despite all of the destruction at the ground level, Jimmy could see that the Cartel was managing to hit some of the bastards on top of the roofs.

A sliver of hope welled inside of Jimmy as he watched Lazaro’s spider crawl up a building and latch onto one of the golfers. Lazaro’s crows swooped down and attacked another. The golfer swatted at the crows, trying to run from them and cover his face. The poor bastard shuffled himself to the ledge of the roof and plummeted down to a small mob of Lazaro’s men.

“Holy shit, we’re gonna do this,” Jimmy whispered. The one that was raining metal balls of death disappeared from his sight, backing to the other end of the roof he was on.

Small cheers from the Cartel went up as they had a break from the tearing metal. Unfortunately, it was short-lived.

A wall of black went up from the open roof of the stadium, casting a shadow over them.

“What the fuck is that?” Jimmy said and squinted. He realized it was maybe millions of tiny little arrows. He couldn’t be sure but knew that they must all find cover.

Rolling under one of the trucks, Jimmy yelled into the walkie-talkie, “Get under something quick!”

While he was under the truck, all he could hear were screams from Lazaro’s men. Even Jimmy wasn’t out of the blast radius as the sound of wood plinking into the metal roof of the truck drowned out the screams. All around him, little wooden golf tees covered the surface of the street.

Jimmy’s heart thumped, only thinking of one person — Kara. For an agonizing couple of seconds, he waited for the last of the golf tees to land before rolling out from under the truck.

“Where are you?” he gasped. His eyes darted around, hoping to see her.

Instead, he spotted a wooden bridge forming itself in the air with a lone figure walking along it. Anytime the figure flicked his hand, a large wooden spike would zip through the air and impale a Cartel member.

He could hear Lazaro order a retreat through the walkie-talkie. The healers could be spotted dragging bodies riddled with the wooden tees toward the trucks.

Jimmy looked up and the man on the wooden bridge was close enough to see now. He was smiling at all of the carnage below him. Even laughing when he killed someone. His gaze briefly touched Jimmy, but he didn’t see Jimmy as a threat and flicked his wrist, killing more of the Cartel.

Kara was nowhere to be found so he ran in the direction she first had, hoping she’d come back the same way. A figure wearing a bright yellow polo shirt and checkered shorts with an absurd myriad of colors blocked his path. Of course, he was holding a 9-iron.

Jimmy fumbled with the Glock at his hip and pulled it out, aiming it.

“What kind of dumbass sides with the Cartel instead of Gus?” the man asked.

“At least they don’t kidnap people,” Jimmy said, trying to think of a way around him without having to fight.

The man laughed, “Yep, you’re a dumbass. Of course they do. Gus will be a great leader. All of this is unnecessary. Well, we were probably going to weed out any gangs anyway, but you don’t need to get involved. You’re clearly not one of them.”

It made sense to Jimmy. There was never an innocent side to something like this. But, the Eagle Empire held his best friend’s parents captive and now could have potentially hurt the only other person he started to care about.

“Shouldn’t have fucked with us I guess,” Jimmy said and fired at the golfer.

Not only did Jimmy miss spectacularly, firing well over the man’s head, he drew the attention of some of the bastards on the roof behind the one he’d been trying to hit.

“Oh, fuck,” Jimmy mumbled.

The golfer looked over at him and nodded, “Yeah — ‘oh fuck’ is right.”

Before the golfer could hit him with whatever bullshit destructive magic he had, a figure blurred from behind him. A sickening smack sounded out and the golfer fell face-first into the ground. The back of his head had a Kara-sized hand hole in it.

Her eyes were wide, “Run!”

She was faster than him, so he nodded and turned to start running. She would catch up.

Then, it felt like something bit his leg. He looked down and there was a small shard of metal sticking out of his calf, thankfully not very deep. He reached down and plucked it out.

Behind him, he saw Kara on the ground, unmoving.

“No, no, no,” Jimmy cried out and raced toward her.

The asshole with the metal balls was standing on the building and waved happily at Jimmy before placing another metal ball down and lining up a shot like it was just another day at the driving range.

“Fuck you,” Jimmy growled and ran to Kara. He knelt and felt a surge of adrenaline, hoisted her up in a fireman’s carry, and tried to get out of the golfer’s range. His legs burned, as he ran. His adrenaline surged further as he saw the truck that he’d taken hadn’t moved out. That probably meant everyone on it had died.

Another explosion of metal tore through the air behind him, but he wasn’t hit. If he was, he couldn’t feel it. All he felt was the desperation to get Kara to safety. Nearly blacking out, he managed to lay her in the back of the truck.

Some of the Cartel still fought, but most of the trucks were squealing away or already long gone. Jimmy ran to the driver’s side and ripped open the door. The keys were still in the ignition and he tore off, leaving everyone else behind.

Jimmy chanced a look in the back of the truck and slapped the wheel in frustration as he saw Kara’s blood pooling in the bed. “Come on, go faster you piece of shit,” he said as he pressed down on the pedal.