The Wishcah river was almost entirely a straight shot from the North Dam to where it released its flow into the ocean only a handful of miles away. Its muddy banks made it difficult to traverse unless you were a dedicated fisherman. In the rainy season, the water rose to make its way up against the backyards of houses in the Northern residential area, however there hadn’t been a documented flood since the rainy season seventeen years ago.

  That day, Strongzinburg City was a hustle and bustle of people living their average daily lives. The residential area in North Strongzinburg was composed of average class residents. Mothers fed their children breakfast while their husbands were away at the office. Cars lined up at traffic lights. Grocery stores stocked their shelves.

  One particular mother sat outside on a deck after putting her baby down for a morning nap. She had made herself a plate of toast and eggs and enjoyed the fresh air and view of the river. As she enjoyed her breakfast, she noticed the water starting to turn a muddy brown. A sight that she had never witnessed before. The current picked up and the water was beginning to rise. “A boulder must have fallen. Or maybe the dam needed to release a bit of water upstream,” she said out loud, trying to soothe herself.

  She could rationalize all day, but that wouldn‘t change the fact that Kuro and Shiro had just held a dam worker at gunpoint and forced him to enter the codes to open the gates of the dam and executed him just as soon as it was done. Water poured out of the gates like a mouth spewing over. The trenches that Jimmy had excavated were already serving their purpose and guided thick muddy sludge onto the roads. The flood was beginning its journey through the city.

  Emergency calls came in by the dozens. The police station was used to widespread emergencies every now and then, but this was on a whole other scale. People were reporting their houses and businesses flooding in the close residential areas. They were trapped in cars, unable to go forwards or backwards. People began climbing onto roofs and second stories. Businesses locked their doors and plugged holes with towels to little avail. Terror grabbed the city by the throat.

  Emi’s phone rang as she sat at her desk in the detective unit. It was the police chief. “Yes, police chief, what is it?”

  “There’s a flood in the North. I need you guys to get up there now!” he said.

  ”What? A flood?” What are you talking about?” she asked.

  ”It must be the Black Diamond.”

  Aiko, who was sitting across the room, overheard bits of the phone call and saw Emi’s face turning pale.

  She slammed the phone down and felt her heart skip a beat as she realized the catastrophic size of emergency that the twins were about to cause. How could I have overlooked this? How could nobody on the team think of this? It’s so big, there’s just no way we would have thought it possible. No time to blame myself. I need to act now!

  Emi stood up from her chair and addressed the room of detectives. “I need everyone to head to the North Dam, now! The Black Diamond is attempting to flood the city. Go go go!”

  A flurry of movement overtook the detective office as they all grabbed their things at once and made for the door.

  After getting in her car, turning the lights and sirens on, and speeding down the road, Aiko called MC. “MC!”

  “What is it?” asked MC, startled by the urgent tone in her voice.

  “Kuro and Shiro are flooding the city. We’re all heading to the North Dam right now.”

  “You can't be serious?”

  “I'm on my way there now with the rest of our units.”

  “Ok, Aiko, I’m on my way. Good thing, I’m already at the clubhouse. Sora, GM, wake the hell up!” he yelled.

  MC explained the situation to GM and Sora as they rubbed the sleep out of their eyes.

  “Guess that explains the fourteen missed calls from Gil,” said GM.

  ”I’m heading out,” said MC, grabbing his keys and pack.

  “Just don’t do anything stupid without us. We’ll be right behind you” said GM as MC rushed out the door. “Sora, you’d better come with this time,” said GM. “We might need you to hack into the security system at the dam. There’s probably a password or something and I can guarantee whoever knows it, isn’t alive anymore.”

  “I think I’ll pass.”

  “Sora this isn’t the time to say that. Stop being lazy and come with us. This is urgent.”

  “What do I even care about if there is a flood or something?”

  “If we don't do something there’s a chance that our house will even be flooded. There’s a lot of water in that lake and we don't know how widespread the damage will be.”

  “Then I’ll just move,” said Sora with a shrug.

  “Dammit, Sora.” GM thought for a moment and came up with an idea. “Big Ramen could even be flooded. How would you like to never eat there again!”

  Sora was out the door with her computer and cords in hand a fraction of a second later.

  “Come on, GM! Start that fucking car!” she frantically yelled.

  Houses were flooding by the minute as the dam poured its murky contents through the open gates. Roads quickly became streams. Emergency services had begun to block off certain streets in the North and were trying their best to predict the ways that the water would flow if it continued.

  GM was forced to take the long route around town while Aiko and the detectives were like a parade of a dozen cars that were rounding the winding road up to the dam. Aiko was the fourth car back with Emi right behind her followed by the rest of the detectives.

  The road leading up to the dam was strategically raised several feet above ground level specifically for purposes like this. If there happened to be a leak or emergency, cars would still need to be able to escape or get out the dam to solve the problem. The roads leading through the city however, were topped with several inches and in places, several feet of water. Luckily, most of the cars the detectives drove were raised mid-sized vehicles that had no trouble getting through.

  The parking lot was almost in sight when the first car in their line rounded a corner. Bullets tore through the windshield, killing the driver instantly, and causing his car to drive off the road and crash into a tree.

  Aiko slammed on the brakes and her car screeched to a halt along with the rest of the detectives. She ducked down as bullets pelted her car and crashed through her windshield. She turned her car sideways while staying as low as she could and got out using the car as a shield.

  She peaked over and saw the first two cars almost completely shredded by bullets, but the one in front of her had two survivors who were hunkered down behind their car just like she was.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Aiko heard Emi over her walkie talkie. “Enemies ahead. Hold position and take cover.”

  Aiko took a second to pause and analyze the situation. It’s only natural that they were expecting us, but I didn’t think they would have put up a blockade like this. Those weren’t the shots of random untrained Black Diamond members either. The bullet patterns were aimed too precisely. They must have brought in some serious heavy hitters for this. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all captains up ahead.

  The detectives started to return fire, but the Black Diamond was hiding behind trees and behind thick cement jersey barriers. They were prepared for a fight. The Black Diamond also outnumbered the detectives. For every gun that the detectives had, the Black Diamond had three or four.

  With a fleeting moment of bravery, Aiko readied both of her pistols and peered out from the trunk side of her car. She lined up a shot and started firing away. A body dropped. And then another. A bullet smacked the car close to her and she ducked back away to safety, dumping empty clips onto the ground and reloading. She thought about grabbing a larger weapon from the inside of the car, but didn’t want to risk the extra movement.

  Emi’s voice came over the walkie talkies again. “Multiple friendlies and enemies down. Hold steady and use caution.” Her voice was stern and calm. She knew how to handle these situations. She wasn’t the captain of the detectives for no reason.

  Only moments after Emi’s orders, the sound of one gun became clear over the others. It was shooting fast and heavy. Aiko dared not look, but knew it was the sound of a heavy mounted machine gun. She saw a couple of bullets pierce through the car and keep going. She wasn’t safe where she was anymore. If only she had ten seconds to run back and seek cover behind a car farther back. A scream came from the car in front of her where the other two detectives had been in front. It surely meant a severe wound. Another man down and out of the fight. Things were not looking good for the detectives.

  “Steady now. Don’t lose focus. Backup from The Organization will be here soon. Hold out until then.”

  It was as if she was commanding the impossible. Another few minutes and that heavy machine gun will have ripped through every bit of cover in the area. Aiko started to sweat with panic. She put her back on the door of the car and looked up as if hoping some sort of miracle would drop out of the sky. To her surprise, a screaming projectile flew about ten feet over her head trailing a cloud of smoke. It went by so fast that she couldn’t even tell what it was.

  BOOM! An fiery explosion erupted from where the Black Diamond were stationed, creating an orange glow and spewing dark black smoke into the air. The heavy machine gun firing had stopped. In fact, most of the shooting had stopped all together. This is my chance. I’ve got to move to deeper cover while there’s a pause.

  Aiko got up and ran as fast as she could to get behind the cars behind her. She dove and slid across a hood and took refuge. An adrenaline rush filled her and she put her hands all over her body searching for bullet holes before exhaling a sigh of relief.

  She looked over and saw that she was now next to Emi. The still body of another detective laid next to her on the ground. “Emi!” Aiko said. “What are we going to do? We’re pinned down real bad and above all else, we need to get to the dam and shut off the water.”

  “We’re in a tight spot, but backup just arrived and it’s not who you’d think it is.”

  “Huh?”

  Aiko looked over to see The Vampire swiftly climbing over cars with a four-foot rocket launcher slung over his shoulder. His long hair and coat flew out behind him as he made swift movements. “What in the?” Aiko exclaimed as he ducked and rolled onto the ground next to her. “You? What are you doing here?”

  “Nice to see you too,” he said, already packing a rocket into the tube of the launcher. He stood up without hesitation and pulled the trigger. A fiery blast shot out the back of the launcher and the projectile fired. He ducked back down as a thunderous explosion shook the ground.

  “What? You think I can let these Black Diamond fucks flood my city? That’s my job. If anyone’s going to cause chaos like that it should be me. Besides, if everyone gets flooded out of their homes and businesses, who am I going to have left to terrorize?”

  Aiko turned to Emi with a questioning look. Emi just shrugged her shoulders as confused as ever.

  “MC and his team should be here any minute,” said Emi.

  “Bout time,” said The Vampire. “He’s late to the action and I know these guys will have more tricks up their sleeves. I’m sure that heavy machine gun wasn’t the only challenge they lugged out here.” The Vampire reached up and grabbed the side mirror off of the car and held it up at an angle to look over without getting hit. “Yep, this is bad.”

  “What is it?” asked Aiko.

  The mirror in The Vampire’s hand shattered from a bullet impact. “Snipers. And at least one damn good one.”

  “Nobody peak. They have snipers,” Emi commed over their radios. “Focus on protecting our sides. They could move around and try to flank us.”

  “I’m surprised they haven’t already sent a squad to pinch us from behind,” said Aiko.

  “I was thinking about that as well,” said Emi.

  “I didn’t see anyone closing in from behind,” said The Vampire. “Then again, I was right behind you guys.”

  The sound of guns firing from behind caused a lump in Aiko’s throat. “Is that them? Are they launching their flank attack?”

  “I can't tell what’s happening much farther back from us. Team, I need a status update. What’s going on at our flank?” Emi commed.

  “It’s MC, Captain. Our backup has arrived.” a detective commed back.

  “MC! He’s here!” exclaimed Aiko.

  “Team, apply your eyegear,” Emi commed as she donned a pair of polarized glasses she produced from a pack on her waist. All the other detectives did the same.

  MC stood next to GM near the backup of cars. The bodies of slain Black Diamond members at his feet as his gun barrels smoked. They’d arrived just in time to take out the Black Diamond squad that had circled around their back.

  GM wiped blood from his sword and sheathed it. “Let’s get up to the front near Aiko. You stay put in the car, Sora,” said GM.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice,” she replied, slumping down with a concerned look.

  “If and when we need you, we’ll call you up. We’ll make sure the coast if clear.”

  MC and GM ran off into the mess of smoke and gunfire ahead. MC squinted and tried to make out what was going on, but wasn’t able to see everything ahead. “We have a bit of cover from the smoke,” said MC. “Let’s use that to our advantage and get up to the front.”

  Their legs carried them over and around cars and trembling detectives. The occasional stray bullet came close to hitting them, but the gunfire had slowed down substantially. They came to the set of cars just behind Emi, Aiko, and The Vampire.

  “MC you made it!” said Aiko.

  “Of course,” said MC.

  “We’re stuck hunkered down here,” said Emi. “Think you can make some sort of play to break us out of here?”

  “Oh yeah,” said MC, pulling two flash bangs off of his sash. “Follow my lead.” He hucked the flash bangs over the car and as close to the enemies as he could. That’s likely to have at least blinded a few of them. He jumped over the car with a shotgun in hand and started pumping bodies. The spray was wide at his distance, but they were damaging blasts to anyone that was on the receiving end of the shells. GM followed with a shotgun as well and The Vampire with an automatic rifle.

  “Come on, Aiko, they’re clearing them out,” said Emi, hopping over the car, pistol drawn. The five of them kept firing until eventually there weren't any shots fired back at them. They walked past the sets of barricades and finished off any remaining Black Diamond members that were still there and proceeded into the parking lot of the dam.

  “Ok team, move up and surround the parking lot,” Emi commed. “Stay on your toes. Use back to back formation. There’s likely still some Black Diamonds hiding around.” She then ordered a few of the detectives to go back and retrieve Sora who hesitantly agreed to come out.

  When she got there to the parking lot and met up with the main team, she got out her computer and pulled up a basic schematic layout of the inside hallways of the dam.

  “This is the main control room,” Sora said, pointing to a small rectangular room to the side of what seemed to be a much larger room.

  “Let’s get in there and shut off the drain command,” said MC.

  “Hold on,” said Emi. Kuro and Shiro are likely to be inside there. We need to play this slow and safe.

  “You’re right,” said GM. We just need to try and be quick about this to avoid as much damage to the city as possible, but if we end up dead, then there’s no hope.