Burn this City (Short story)

The sound of the alarm goes off, overshadowed by the loud cars zooming past the house. A young girl, around 12 years old, presses the alarm and groggly gets out of bed, putting on her clothes and grabbing all her essentials. Her make up kit, medical supplies, her bag, and of course, a gun. She opened the window and looked outside. The apartment complex is filled with people walking out of their rooms, ready to start the day. The girl leapt out the window and landed on an old mattress that was never claimed and walked out. Passing by another All In incident being covered up, she walked past the train station and through the streets as a gunfight broke out. “GET F**KED, ROJOS!” One of the men yells as they continue firing at the opposite side. Figures, must be another gang war. Soon, multiple Saber Corp cars appear and armed men walk out to neutralize the threat. The girl watches as the opposing gangs try to run away but are met with a bullet to the head. A blue haired man walks out of the car with his hands in his pockets and yells to the crowd,
“Alright, show over! Go back to doing whatever you’re doing!” The crowd turns to leave but not before taking a couple images. The girl looks at the bodies on the ground. The Rojos and the Lan Se Des are going to have a hard time recovering from this, but that was none of her business. She continued to walk down the alleyway and in front of a clear door. As she steps in, the bell jingles, signaling her arrival. The doctor and a man glance at her as she walks in.
“What the hell are you doing here, Lilith?” The man said with no disdain in his voice. “I told you I’m going to be okay!” He says as the doctor slaps his shoulder.
“Carlos, you were nearly killed from that last Gig. Let your daughter worry a little.” She says before smiling to Lilith and giving her a lollipop. “He’s stable physically, but he’s a little cracked in the noggin. Be careful with him, alright sweetie?”
“Yes, Dr Ophelia.” Lilith says as Carlos looks at Ophelia with offence.
“Wait but you said I was completely normal mentally!” He yells as Ophelia walks up the stairs.
“I haven’t told a single lie today.” She says with a wink before heading inside of her room, presumably to feed Slushie.
“Wha- HEY!” Carlos retorts until he remembers that Lilith was there and calms down. “Shouldn’t you be in school?” He says as she takes out her med kit.
“No. It’s Howler Day.” She says as she puts bandages around his shoulder. Oh right… Howler Day.

That f**king narcissist. Carlos gets up and jumps into place.
“Alright then… let's go for a walk.” He says putting on his jacket. Lilith tries to sit him down but she knows she can’t stop him, so instead they walk out together. As they traveled through the streets, multiple members from other gangs eye them before waving happily.
“Hey Carlos the runner! How's that arm treating you?” A Rojo yelled from afar as Carlos waved back
“Oh you know, it’s going to take more than that to kill me!” He says with a smile before turning to a woman from the Lan Se Des. “Yo, hon! How's your mother doing?”
“She’s healing, Carlos! Thanks for telling us about ‘Phelia!” She yelled back.The Rojo suddenly got pissed and pointed a gun to the Lan Se Des and yelled in her face.
“Hey what the hell are you still doing here? Did you come back for more?” He said as the woman took out her gun as well.
“Well I was simply passing by, hoping to admire the Rojo corpses before Saber took them away!” The two glare at each other until…
“ENOUGH!” Carlos yelled as he walked towards them and grabbed them by the shoulders. “Just what Ace City needed… More people killing each other… Save the killing for the gig tonight, okay?” The two opposing gang members looked up at the merc and backed off from each other. They knew it would have been suicide to continue. Carlos smiled and walked back to Lilith who looked at the gang members confused.
“Hey Dad…?” she started as he turned his attention towards his daughter. “Why do all the gangs listen to you? You’re not in any of their gangs…”
“Ah, hon. That's the idea.” He says with a soft chuckle. “I do the jobs that come from the leaders, doesn’t matter which one, and then sooner or later, you make powerful allies. Like Lucy, Sixer, …Sho.” He says, taking out something from his pocket. It was a crushed gun with the words “Mary” on it. He looked at it with a sigh and leaned down to Lilith's height and nudged her shoulder. “Hey, let's meet with Sixer.” Her eyes brightened from the sound of that name she nodded excitedly before Carlos patted her on the head. “Tag!” He yelled out before running off. Lilith let out a laugh before running to catch up to her dad. Meanwhile at Saber Co, the blue haired guy was dragging the bodies to the grinder before he got a call from the boss.

“Coming right this way, sir…” He says before passing by multiple guards and puts his keycard to the elevator. Once the door opens, a man in a silver suit of mechanical armor walks out and stares at the man.
“Phil.” The man says with a nod as Phil watches him leave. The Steel Samurai must be preparing. He still has no idea who that guy is so he just calls him Steel Samurai or SS for short. But multiple pedestrians thought that sounded like a boat so that makes everything confusing. Annoyed, Phil pressed the button to the top floor and waited for the elevator to open. Once it did, a purple haired man was taking a call from an unknown person.
“Raid at night, huh…? Well that's just perfect! Hope they can make it past the defenses.” He said with a smile before turning around and throwing his phone away. Phil barely dodges out of the way as the phone breaks into a million pieces. “...We got more of those, right?”
“Howler, that was our last one!” Phil yelled angrily as Howler smiles
“Well then buy more. We have the budget.” He says as he sits down at his seat. “Anyways we have some business we need to deal with… I should have a sword.”
“A sword?”
“Yeah!” Howler says spinning in his chair as he makes hand movements in the air “Not just any sword, a big sword so durable it can go on for hours… armed with a thick shaft that makes the women shudder….” Phil looked to his side and then back at Howler before asking,
“Hey man, are we still talking about a sword cause I’m getting kinda uncomfortable.”
“Huh? Oh yeah sorry about that” He says, spinning back to face Phil. “Basically I want a sword cause I think it’ll be cool.” Howler gets up and looks out the window behind him, watching the pedestrians below. “Look at them, Phil. Look how weak they are by their lonesome.” He says pointing at a homeless man spreading propaganda like a cult with nobody stopping to listen “They’re weak, crying out to the crowd, wanting the attention, the glory, but alas, they never will.” He says as multiple Rojos surround the man “But together…” The Rojos fire at them, killing and stealing all the stuff that was on him as Howler turns back to Phil. “Tonight is a special night. Lets hope they win.” He says sitting down on his chair. “Also order a sword”
“Yeah, yeah I got that last part” Phil says before walking out of the office. As he went down the elevator he watched multiple guards try to spar with the Steel Samurai, but only to get killed in the process.

The samurai sliced through them with his katanas, glowing a bright red light as he sliced through their flesh like butter. “Go***amn it, SS! I told you to cut it out with the laser katanas!” Phil yells as he walks out of the elevator as the Steel Samurai stares at him.
“I was told to go all out during the raid tonight. This is merely a warm up.” He says before putting his katanas away. “Besides, you can hire more.” Phil slaps his head and turns around angrily. It’s time to order the gift baskets for the families. A sorry for the divorce card and whiskey. Meanwhile down at the court center of Ace City, Lilith and Carlos walk down the sewers and knock on a door.
“What's the password?” A young girl, roughly 15 years old, asks as Carlos coughs and tries to remember.
“Uh… Autos rule, Mercs drool?”
“...The FULL password.” the girl says, holding back a snicker. Carlos sighs as he turns to Lilith, who’s also thoroughly enjoying this.
“Believe me, you wouldn’t be smiling if you had to do this every time you need a fix.” he says before clearing his throat and starting, “Autos Rule, Mercs drool, and that's nothing but the truth, All hail our queen Sixer who’s dazzling in her youth”
“Aww you’re sweet” She says, opening the door to reveal her in a nice leather apron and glasses on the top of her head. She looked at Carlos and sighed in relief until she saw Lilith and went up to hug her. “Heyyyyy!!!!!! Lilith it’s so good to see you again!!”
“Hey I’d keep your hands to myself, she’s a Sewer Rat.” Carlos says as he gets elbowed into the chest by a robotic arm coming out of Sixer’s backpack. “H-hey! Injured man here!”
“Oh now you admit you’re injured.” Lilith said smugly as Carlos sighed. Sixer let go of her and sat down on her chair and cleared the corpses and blood off the operating table.
“You came to the right place, Triggers! So what do you need today? Hacking? Body disposal? Medical needs? Weapon repair? Maybe new weapons all together? I got it all!” She says as 6 robotic arms come out of her backpack, scaring Lilith slightly. Carlos tosses his broken gun to the table as she gasps softly. “Oh my god the poor baby! What did you do?” She says holding the gun like a dying child.
“A run in with the Steel Samurai.” He says as Sixer’s face turns pale. She’s about to demand him to leave but he holds a hand out. “Hey hey hey, let me finish. He didn’t see me and I wasn’t a target. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time.” Sixer sighs and shakes her head.

“Fine, but you’re offering me extra billies” She says putting the gun on the operating table the robotic arms get to work, diving in and fixing up the gun as Lilith and Carlos wait. “So… I heard your raid tonight is the cat’s meow. What is it anyways? Mom seemed scared to talk about it”
“Oh uh… we’re just raiding Saber Co with the gangs. Nothing big.” Sixer stopped working on the pistol and turned to Carlos.
“You, my friend, are playing a dangerous game.” She says with fear in her eyes “SABER CO?! REALLY?! YOU JUST HAD A RUN IN WITH THE STEEL SAMURAI AND NOW YOU’RE GOING TO HIS TURF WHERE HE CAN ACTUALLY TARGET YOU?! AND WITH MOM’S GANG TOO?!” She sighs and looks at Lilith who is just staring at the two. “Come on, Lily! Tell him this is a bad idea!” Lilith turns to Carlos who doesn’t seem like he’d change his mind soon.
“...Ella, I can promise you that my dad won’t bring Lucy into this. Your mom will be safe.” She says clasping her hands. Sixer just looked at them and smiled slightly.
“Agghhhh! I can’t stay mad at you two…” She says finishing up the gun and handing it to Carlos. “Carlos, meet the Hail Mary mk 2! She’s a beauty, ain’t she?” She says before turning to Lilith and grabbing her hands. “Now it’s time for your turn.”
“Wait what? All we needed was a gun.” She says, trying to pull away but Sixer just stared at her with a serious expression.
“Lilith, your hands are bruised.” she says as one of her robotic arms points at it. “Have you been taking your pills every day? We don’t want another violent outbreak like last time.” Carlos perked up and put his gun away and leaned down to Lilith’s level.
“What? You’ve been skipping your dosage? I don’t think hospitals will hire doctors with a past of violence.” He says patting her on the head. “Come on, don’t do it for us, do it for yourself.” Lilith just stays silent as Sixer coughs.
“Billies, please” She says with a hand out. Carlos sighs and takes out the cash from his pocket, placing it in Sixers hand. “Thank you very much!” She says with a smile as Lilith and Carlos turn to leave.
“Tell Lucy the Spider to send her best men!” He yells as Lilith waves goodbye. But Sixer asks one more question.
“Wait, I forgot!” She yells out. “What happened to Sho?” Carlos stops smiling and turns to Sixer, staring at her for a couple seconds before laughing.
“Oh he just went into other business opportunities. Maybe he’ll come back here sometime.” he says before leaving as Lilith looks at them both worried.

“See you, Ella” Lilith says as Sixer gives her one last hug for the road. Once they make it out of the sewers, a car pulls up in front of them and the door opens.
“Mr Trigger? Your ride to the warehouse.” The driver says as the two get in. Inside, they just glance around until Lilith asks a question. “Why did you say ‘bad choice’ when I chose you instead of mom?” Carlos coughs as he turns to Lilith in surprise. He leans on the window and teaches Lilith a valuable lesson.
“Your mom left because she didn’t want you wrapped up in my business. That's why she left. Your choice was to go with mom and have a normal life, or be stuck in Ace City with me.”
“Stuck?” Lilith says confused as Carlos sighs.
“In Ace City, you’re chained there for life. You’re either a Merc, an Auto, a Fixer, or a Corpo. None of those paths lead to anywhere good. I couldn’t leave if I wanted to unless it’s for a job.” He pauses, “The system is broken and the only way to fix it is if someone other than Saber is in charge.”
“...That bastard” Lilith mumbles to herself as Carlos looks at her alarmed. “Making this stupid system and watching the chaos in the fold… If I was there I would f**king ki-” Before her thoughts could go any further, Carlos slapped her on both sides of the face at once, bringing her back to her senses. “Sorry dad… I got carried away”
“It’s fine, it’s just a little alarming since we’re in the middle of traffic” He laughs as Lilith smiles slightly. Later they arrived at their hideout and opened the garage door. Inside were multiple men cheering and drinking, ready to start the raid. A woman with mechanical spider legs coming out of her backpack crawls down from the roof and in front of the Triggers. “Lucy” Carlos says with a bow as the woman hits him on the head lightly with a bat.
“Carlos. Little Lily” She responds back as the spider legs fold into the backpack. “Ella will be hacking from afar in order to get us inside. Will that be okay?”
“Well I don’t know any other hackers so this will do.” He says with a hand to his chin as Lilith goes to the medical area and sets up shop. She puts out the bandages and scalpels as a Rojo walks up to her.
“Hey there little lady!” He says as he falls onto the table. “You’re a cute one aren’t ya…” He says with slurred speech, waving an empty bottle around as Lilith responds calmly.

“I’m 12 years old.”
“Well alrighty then, pardon my intrusion” He says leaning towards the side of the chair as he mumbles, “I had a kid just like you one time… then that filthy, no good… piece of shit Howler took her away… We’ll show him! We’ll show him all!” He says as Lilith looks at him with pity. Later on the raid was about to begin. Carlos stands ready with the Hail Mary in hand as the gangs band together to raid Saber Tower. He holds a hand up and yells,
“EVERYONE READY?!” The crowd cheers as Lilith watches from afar with Sixer, who was busy on her computer hacking away. The doors suddenly swing open as the gang runs inside. Lucy climbs to the area the kids are in order to shield them from the danger.
“Mom, will they be okay…?” Sixer says as she takes over the cameras. Lucy nods and turns to the tower as the sound of gunshots and screams are heard.
“We can only pray.” Meanwhile, Carlos was running through the crowd of guards, shooting them point blank and running through the crowd as one of the Rojos hyped him up.
“YEAH!!! THAT'S WHY WE CALL HIM CARLOS THE RUNNER!!” he said before bashing a guard over the head with a fire extinguisher. Carlos runs through the stairs and into the office of Howler as he stands there holding a wine glass.
“Do you drink?” He asks without turning around.
“Don’t toy with me Howler, it’s over! I can just pull this trigger and boom! Bye bye Saber co!” He says with a smile on his face. Howler turns around and shakes his wine glass around.
“...Okay do it.” What…? This wasn’t the response Carlos expected as he hesitates to pull the trigger. “Yeah I didn’t think so.” Howler says with a smile before laughing and turning around. “Someone with the name Trigger not being able to kill someone? How pathetic!” he says, spinning in his chair before leaning forward and putting his hands together. “I wonder how you’ll tell your daughter that you failed.” Carlos lets out a yell before firing a bullet straight between Howler's eyes. He then fires another bullet… and then another. He reloads his gun and fires another magazine on Howler's lifeless body as his eyes flash like an inferno. Back outside, Sixer, who was watching the whole thing, looks terrified.
“Mom! Carlos went All In!” Lilith and Lucy both ran to her and watched the footage. “H-he should be calming down soon… Howler's dead so his goal has already been comple-” Suddenly the door swings open revealing another Howler walking out and pointing at his dead corpse.

“Boy I’m sure glad I’m not that guy” He says with a giggle before pressing a button, as the Steel Samurai crashes through the roof and on top of Carlos, sending them both spiraling down to the first floor.
“DAD!” Lilith yelled as she ran inside the building, slipping out of Lucy’s grasp.
“Wait, Lily! Come back!” She yelled “Your dad won’t be himself! It’s too late!” Back in the building, The Steel Samurai crushed multiple gang members from that blow alone as Carlos got back up.
“OH SHIT!” A Sewer rat yelled, “IT’S THE STEEL SAMURAI!” Carlos’s eyes flicker in rage as the fire in his pupils burns brighter.
“Steel samurai…? Steel samurai my ass!” He says as the Steel Samurai and him stare each other down. “So this is what happened to you, huh? I had a hunch it was you, you rat bastard… Sho Sugimoto, The Red Blade, now just the Steel Samurai! Another tool for Howler to use! You call this a upgrade, you f**king traitor?!” Sho stared at Carlos through his soulless mask and responded calmly.
“You would understand if you were in my shoes, Carlos.”
“What I understand is you’re a F**KING SELLOUT!” he yelled back as Howler and Phil come down from the elevator.
“So are you two gonna make out or fight? Either way works for me” He says as Carlos tries to shoot him. But then, Sho seemingly teleports in front of them to block the bullets. He then dashes to Carlos and stabs him with one of his katanas, making him cough up blood.
“Is this really the time to be distracted?” Carlos stared at the gaping hole in his chest as he took out a grenade from his pocket as he ripped out the pin with his mouth.
“Yeah… you’re right.” Meanwhile, Lilith runs into the building trying to save her dad, but then suddenly, an explosion shoots her out of the building as blood trails out from all sides of the remains.
“Lilith please! Come back!” Sixer yells through a security camera. But those cries fell on deaf ears. In the middle of the chaos, stood Carlos, laughing to himself as the right side of where his arm should have been bleeds out. What did he see? He saw himself running with Lilith, playing tag, having fun, a world without a night city… But that’s not what happened.
“DAD!” The sound of her voice makes Carlos turn slightly, before he realizes it was Lilith, he fires a shot at her, shooting her in the arm. She cries out in pain as tears fill her eyes before Carlos turns back around, hiding the burn marks from his face.

“Oh hey, Lily. I’m sorry about that…” He says before mumbling to himself “Howler howler… where is he? Where did he go?” Lilith walks up to her with one arm injured and tries to bring him back to his senses.
“Dad… Where is everyone? We can still get through this raid, right?” She says as she picks up a gun.
“...They’re all dead. A mistake on my end.” He responded as multiple guards started running from all sides. Lilith points her gun at the guards as her hands start to shake.
“I-I’ll fight with you, Dad! I promise! I’m still here!” She says still standing by his side… suddenly she hears a gun click behind her.
“...No… it’s too late for me, Lily.” She turns around and sees Carlos putting the Hail Mary to his head. “Keep running, Lilith… and don’t look back.” He pulled the trigger, with a loud bang entering Lilith’s ears as Carlo’s body fell to the ground. The guards surround her as she falls to the ground… her eyes are locked on the body as she whispers to herself.
“It’s his fault… if he hadn’t provoked him…” She whispers as a black line starts to burn into her skin next to her right eye… Sho walks behind her and takes out both of his katanas, putting them right next to her neck as she starts to yell angrily. “I’LL RIP OUT HIS ORGANS AND SHOVE IT UP HIS ASS! YOU’RE DEAD HOWLER!” She yells as the markings on her face are burnt into her skin as afterimages of herself appear around her to Sho’s confusion “DEAD! DEAD!” She continues yelling as she stands up with hatred in her eyes “I’LL F**KING MURDER YOU!” And, as if it was instinct, she grabbed the Hail Mary as Sho tries to slice her, but suddenly, everything slows down for Liith as she runs around the guards and fires bullets into their head from behind, leaving a green afterimage. The guards could barely comprehend what was happening as multiple men died at once.
“What the hell? How did that girl do that?” one of the guards yells as they open fire at her. Once again, Lilith speeds through the bullets, dodging them quickly as everyone tries to get a single hit at her, but getting killed in an instant. Suddenly from the smoke, Sho dashes at her at top speed as she tries to fire at her point blank, but all of the bullet would deflect off him. Yet again, she activates her ability and speeds up to dodge the flurry of slashes sent by him.

“So you possess a power as well…” Sho says trying to track down Lilith as she recovers from that rush… What the hell is this? It’s like time slows down for her but she speeds up for everyone else… Sho suddenly throws one of his katanas, nearly hitting Lilith as she quickly activates that strange ability again, dodging and firing bullets all around Sho, but unfortunately, they just bounce off him. Sho continues trying to track Lilith down as she comes up with a plan… the rubble from above should be able to crush him even with that armor off. All she has to do is shoot it quickly with that cool speed thing she has and it will all be over. She tries to activate it again but… suddenly she grabs her stomach and vomits on the ground… What the hell happened? Why does she feel so weak? Her noise begins to bleed as Sho walks up to her with both katanas in hand. “Eliminating you should bring glory to Saber Co. Farewell, daughter of Carlos” He’s about to slam down but suddenly a robotic arm grabs Lilith and drags her away. Sho turns and sees Sixer, carrying her body, quickly running as fast as she can as the Steel Samurai chases after her. Suddenly, Lucy jumps in with all 8 of her robotic arms holding off Sho as he recognises her. “How lucky of me… Carlos killed most of the gang members there… At least I get to kill a leader tonight.”
“A good man died today, Sho… People like him are rare in Ace City.” Lucy says as one of her robotic arms breaks. “I’m not letting you kill his daughter too” The flames engulf the battlefield as Sixer runs, not looking back.

imgflip.com/i/a9wg7q

“Glad im not that guy” most unserious villain ever

om man refrenc

Franz Ferdinand actually

You cooked writing this holy moly!!!