Cleaning The Streets

After spending a week helping out around Silver Moon Inn, the week-long period that the red-headed officer suggested that she avoid Hargeon Town had elapsed. Victoria was ready to finish what she had started in Hargeon Town. That determination was not without a little self-interest. Hargeon had numerous job opportunities for the enterprising mage, but she could not take full advantage of them until the Anlecottis and their corrupt cop muscle had been cleaned out of the town. She would be going in alone, but that did not deter the brunette from her course.

The red-headed officer, a man named Officer Crusoe, had sent her a letter a couple of days ago warning that the mob muscle and crooked police would be patrolling the streets and informed her that Officer Amstel could not help because he had gone to the Rune Knights in Capital Crocus with the evidence he had gathered against the police chief. However, not all the news was bad. Crusoe revealed that there were still honest cops on the force and that they would help her. She was to ask them the question "What cleans the streets?" and the response was to be "A broom." If she heard the right answer, they were on her side.

Crusoe also informed Victoria that no one would hold it against her if the Anlecotti thugs were killed, but she was to spare as many of the crooked cops as possible. She was allowed to kill them only if her life was in immediate danger. Ideally she was to only knock them out so that they would live to face justice. Victoria was fine with that.

Wearing a black t-shirt with khaki cargo shorts and white tennis shoes, Victoria walked into Hargeon Town under the cover of darkness. It was not exactly the best sneaking attire, but she had enough firepower where she could easily defend herself if sneaking failed. Still, it paid to employ a modicum of subtlety.

[Word Count: 328]
[Total Word Count: 328/2,500]

Victoria Sheridan rolls one Monster Die.

The member 'Victoria Sheridan' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

Victoria spotted two police officers attacking someone up ahead, so she paused and flattened herself against a nearby alley entrance. The hapless man was bald and wore a bloodstained white t-shirt with blue jeans and brown boots. He was covering his head as the officers kicked him in the chest and back. He looked like the owner of The Feasting Bear, the restaurant where Officer Amstel was ambushed and captured by the Anlecottis. She would not stand for this.

Aiming her mini-crossbow, she fired a Disorienting Mini-Crossbow round and hit one of the officers in the shoulder with a dark green dart. The affected officer stopped beating on the owner and rubbed his shoulder. He looked around listlessly as his friend began investigating where the shot came from. Victoria waited until she could hear footsteps sounding nearby, then attacked with a Brass Knuckle punch to the stomach. As he doubled over in pain she kneed him in the face, knocking him out.

His partner saw her coming and fumbled for his baton, but she closed in and slugged him in the face with her fist, knocking him to the ground. A quick kick to the face knocked him out. Turning to the restaurant owner, Victoria helped him up.

"Thanks kid. They were doing a number on me 'cause they thought I knew where you were. They're real mad about Officer Amstel getting away. They know the end's coming and they're trying to tie up loose ends." The owner informed her while wiping blood from his lips and nose. Victoria heard the words "tie up loose ends" and deduced that the crooked cops were trying to kill off any potential informants. They were also likely to destroy any physical records of their shady dealings if they knew she was on the way. She had to hurry, but she needed to see to the man's safety before continuing.

"Don't worry about me, kid. I'm going to join my family in Oak Town until this whole mess blows over. I can get there myself. Just get going!" He urged her. Victoria quickly used the handcuffs of the unconscious officers to cuff their hands behind their backs. They would not be coming after her any time soon.

"Good luck, Mister." Victoria wished him.

"Thanks kid. When this mess is over, your next meal's on me!" He gratefully said before walking away. She brought out her sniper rifle and covered him until he disappeared, then put the weapon away and resumed her journey to the police station. Victoria had to hurry to keep the crooked cops from destroying any evidence of their dirty deals.

[Word Count: 439]
[Total Word Count: 767/2,500]

Victoria Sheridan rolls one Monster Die.

The member 'Victoria Sheridan' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

Victoria spotted an officer wearing full riot gear and carrying a riot shield standing under a street lamp. The helmeted officer was speaking into a radio and looking purposefully around the streets. The police must have cottoned onto her when the first two officers missed their radio check-ins. Victoria was not going to give him a chance to close in and use that baton of his. She was going to take him down from afar with her sniper rifle.

She called up the weapon, went into a crouch on one knee, and aimed carefully for the chest. Victoria took a shallow breath and held it, centering the crosshairs on the armor. She had just squeezed the trigger on a Kinetic Shot when the officer was alerted and raised his shield. Victoria cursed as the round ripped the shield from his hands and left him unscathed. He drew his baton and spoke into his radio.

"CONTACT! I'VE GOT CONTACT!" He barked into the radio before charging at her with uncanny speed despite the bulky armor he was wearing. He closed the distance just as Victoria dispelled the rifle and switched to her shotgun, which he knocked out of her hand with a forceful strike to her right wrist. The weapon skidded away as the officer got in three unanswered baton blows to her right arm. She was going to have to use something else to get through his thick armor... or maybe she could break through the front plate of the officer's helmet. Victoria used a Brass Knuckles spell to punch through the visor part, shattering it and allowing her to see the startled expression on his face.

He responded with a gloved punch to her face that sent her staggering back. He followed with a baton strike to the right shoulder that made the brunette temporarily lose feeling in that arm. She had to end the fight before the riot cop ended up winning. Using her right arm, she trapped the baton under her arm and punched him in the face with her left hand twice, knocking him out. She let the unconscious officer slump to the ground and retrieved her shotgun with her tingling right hand.

"Hello? Officer McCayne? Are you still there?" A voice on the other end asked. Victoria left the radio where it was and began walking briskly towards the police station, almost breaking into a jog. More police would be in the area soon and she did not want to be around when they got here.

[Word Count: 421]
[Total Word Count: 1,188/2,500]

Victoria Sheridan rolls one Monster Die.

The member 'Victoria Sheridan' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

While on her way to the police station, Victoria encountered a pair of Anlecotti goons in black suits leaning on a street corner and holding baseball bats. They noticed her and started tapping their bats against their open palms in an intimidating fashion. Unfortunately for them, she was not intimidated. She had dealt with worse in the slums of Capital Crocus. They walked slowly towards her.

Victoria aimed and fired with her shotgun, using a Solid Slug and hitting one in the stomach. He dropped his bat and doubled over white clutching his stomach. The other ran at her to close the distance, then swung downward when he got within striking distance. Victoria raised her weapon above her head and blocked the bat's downward trajectory with ease. The goon kicked her in the stomach and smirked when she landed butt-first on the pavement.

"You're not so tough without your fancy gun!" He observed. She was going to prove him wrong very soon. She aimed her fingers between his legs and fired a Hand Cannon spell that hit him in the groin. His shriek went up several octaves as he dropped to both knees while holding himself. She took advantage of the painful distraction to kick him in the face, knocking him out. She did the same with his partner, swiftly defeating the Anlecotti goons without much difficulty.

The black-suited goons acted tough, but they were classic bullies. They were only good at intimidating people who could not fight back. When they went up against someone who could fight back, they got their asses handed to them. The Anlecotti thugs were only a speed bump on Victoria's road to the police station and she treated them as such; she rolled right over them while barely slowing down. Victoria retrieved her shotgun and walked away from the unconscious hoodlums to continue her mission.

Once outside the station itself, Victoria paused and took a deep breath. Unlike mob enforcers, police officers had formal training in how to fight and subdue armed opponents. She would have to be careful in the station because she would be fighting on their turf. There would be few places to run and almost nowhere to hide. She took another deep breath, then walked into the police station to put an end to the corruption once and for all.

[Word Count: 390]
[Total Word Count: 1,578/2,500]

-Inside the police station-

Victoria walked through the automated sliding glass doors and into the police station. The cool air slapped her in the face as she slowly walked into the open lobby. On the floor was emblazoned the emblem of Hargeon's police department. It was stained with something that looked like dried coffee or dirt that was tracked in. It was both amusing and appropriate... she was here to clean up the police department's dirt.

Victoria heard a side door open, then heard two voices talking back and forth. She ducked behind a desk in the lobby and remained quiet.

"They say that kid's on the way here. She's gotten past the patrol officers and the riot officer. Those mob goons didn't stop her either." One of them said.

"What is she? The Eradicator?" The other asked.

"Some hotshot mage, but it doesn't matter. We'll deal with her just like we did all those other do-gooders. A long and slow beating in the interrogation room where we break some bones, then we drop her in Hargeon Harbor with a chain wrapped around her ankles. The anchor will put her on the bottom and that'll be the end of that!" He replied smugly. Victoria cringed. They already had a plan to dispose of her should she be captured. She could not afford to pull her punches here. The brunette would have to go all-in to succeed here.

They came across her kneeling and chuckled. Victoria stood up and pointed at them.

"What cleans the streets?" She asked in case they were only pretending to be dirty cops.

"Not you, kid!" One with a thick brown mustache retorted. She had her answer. Victoria hit him in the stomach with a Solid Slug, then threw her shotgun to his younger partner. He instinctively caught it with both hands, giving her time to shoot him in the stomach with a Hand Cannon spell. He went down like a sack of potatoes.

"What the Hell are you?" He asked, his cockiness replaced by fear as he raised a hand in surrender. She wordlessly walked up to him and kicked him in the face, knocking him out cold. She handcuffed their hands behind their backs and moved on. The rest were certain to hear the noise of the altercation and come running.

Victoria made her way through the eerily quiet lobby and listened out for trouble. She expected to be swarmed by crooked cops after defeating the first two, but no one came. She rounded a corner and followed a sign that helpfully pointed the way to the chief's office. The office was down the hall and was behind the large wooden double doors. She walked towards them and was halfway there when she was stopped by a pair of blond police officers who walked out of a side room that was the break room.

"What cleans the streets?" She asked the code question.

"A broom." The young female officer answered. She wore her hair in a ponytail. She wore red-rimmed glasses and looked to be barely older than Victoria.

"A broom." Her young male partner answered.

Both of them had answered correctly. Victoria accepted the response. She hoped that she was not being played by crooked cops.

"We're on your side, kid. Officer Crusoe told us that you would be coming here. We're sick of the corruption, but we're new to the force, so we don't have any pull." The blonde female told her.

"We were also too scared to say anything. Last week Officer Barfoot spoke out against the dirty cops and he disappeared two days later. We found his naked corpse floating face-down in the harbor. He had been beaten before being strangled. His jaw and both arms were broken." The young man told Victoria.

"Is there anyone else here on my side?" Victoria asked them.

"Yeah. Officer Hardee. He's a straight arrow one of the last honest cops here. He's manning the desk just outside the chief's office." The young woman informed her.

"Don't forget Officer Kurtz. He's standing guard in front of the door." The young man added.

"Thanks. I'll go see him right away." She thanked the pair before leaving and heading for the chief's office. She carefully opened the double doors and was met with a medium-sized office featuring a stern-looking officer sitting in a desk in the corner and one in full riot gear standing in front of the chief's door. They did not seem alarmed by her presence. Rather, they almost seemed to be expecting her.

[Word Count: 760]
[Total Word Count: 2,338/2,500]

"I'm Officer Hardee. You must be that kid everyone's so concerned about." The officer in the corner remarked. He did not seem the least bit worried. Neither did his partner.

"You could say that." Victoria replied calmly.

"You sure lit a fire under their asses, kid. The dirty cops are all over the city trying to find you. They know that their time's almost up and they're scared." The riot officer chimed in.

"I already asked Officer McCaffee in Dispatch to take a long coffee break. She's been here for thirty years and she's tired of the chief's mucking up everything to help his new Anlecotti buddies. She won't send out the call for the officers to return to the station. Not for a good hour at least. And by that time Chief Crooked Pants will be occupying a prison cell instead of an office." Officer Hardee stated with satisfaction.

"Aren't you worried he'll hear us?" Victoria asked them.

"Nah. Chief Numbnuts just finished soundproofing his office a day ago. He did it to keep us from hearing his crooked deals. He succeeded, but now he can't hear us talking with you." Officer Kurtz commented.

"Anyway, you'd better be ready, kid. Inside is the chief and four of his closest crooked cop pals. They're brown-nosers, but they're also tough." Officer Hardee informed her. Officer Kurtz extended his riot shield out to her.

"Go on, take it. You need all the help you can get." He said. Victoria took it into her left hand. It was light yet deceptively sturdy.

"Good luck kid. We're counting on you." Officer Hardee said. Officer Kurtz obligingly stepped out of the way. Victoria took a deep breath and reached for the brass doorknob. There was no turning back now.

[Word Count: 294]
[Total Word Count: 2,632/2,500]

Victoria was about to open the door when she had an idea. There were four confirmed enemies on the other side, five if the chief was counted. Why not throw in a Flashbang first? Victoria prepared the cylindrical explosive in her free hand, then used her shield hand to open the door slightly before rolling it in.

"HOLY SHI-!" Someone shouted before the brunette slammed the door shut. The sound of swearing was cut off by the door being slammed. Five seconds later she forced open the door and went to work on the blinded officers. She immediately slammed her shield into one's face, knocking him out.

Another officer drew his service weapon and began firing wildly in her general direction. She knocked it out of his hand with a shield bash, then thrust the shield into his face with all her might. He was knocked down and slumped into a corner, his head going limp as he lost consciousness. The third was flailing wildly with his baton, hoping to hit her. He was recovering his vision, so Victoria slammed into him with the shield, propelling him backwards and making his head slam into the wall.

The last officer had recovered her vision and was rushing at her with a baton. The female officer's baton made contact with Victoria's shield and repeatedly brought the weapon down in a frenzy. The first strike had made a small crack, but each subsequent blow was making the shield crack more and more until it finally shattered on the eleventh hit. Victoria punched her in the face with the handle, then dropped the handle and used a Hand Cannon shot to the stomach to knock her down before delivering a kick to the face for the knockout.

"Damn." The chief said in consternation and amazement. He raised his hands in surrender. On his desk were three empty bottles of Backwoods Thunder whiskey and a name holder. The name read "CHIEF B. VERNON"

"Are you the Anlecotti cleaner? If you are, just kill me. I won't fight you. I'm tired of fighting." Chief Vernon said wearily. He was a portly man wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with a gray vest and blue dress pants. Worn brown dress shoes were on his feet. The man's face was sweaty and showed clear signs of defeat and fatigue.

"I'm here about the Anlecottis." Victoria said.

"Oh? You're not their cleaner?" He asked.

"No. I want to know where their headquarters is." She answered. He laughed.

"Is that... is that all? Heh. They're in Lavanitir City." He answered matter-of-factly as if disappointed in her motive.

"That was easy." Victoria remarked before making a mental note of the name. She expected him to pull a hidden service weapon and shoot at her. He sensed her wariness.

"I told you, kid. I'm tired of fighting. Fighting's cost me my family, my home, and my friends." He wearily remarked. He did pull something from his desk, but it was only a bottle of Backwoods Thunder whiskey and a shotglass emblazoned with the HPD emblem. He opened it and took a long chug.

"When I first started fifteen years ago, I was a new cop looking to clean up the city. I was right out of the academy and full of enthusiasm. I climbed the ranks and eventually made chief... I was really gonna clean the streets then. But a month ago the Anlecottis came in and bought most of the department out from under me. When I refused to be bought, they bombed my house and killed my family." He explained while reaching for the whiskey. He took another shot from a shotglass he brought out. Then he continued.

"After they killed my family, I didn't have much to live for, so I fell in line. I decided to play ball. I took their dirty Jewels. I wish I could take it all back, but it's too late. Most of my friends are dead." He bitterly lamented.

"Karlisle. Barfoot. Harlon. Bahrbraydee. They're all dead." He repeated. They must have been some of the honest cops that the crooked ones had purged from the department. Victoria recognized the name Barfoot, so that had to be the case. He opened another desk drawer and pulled out a manila envelope that he handed to her.

"Here's all the evidence. Every last thing to do with the Anlecottis, the name of every cop on the take. I hid it from the other officers. They thought they had destroyed all the proof, but I saved copies. It's my little insurance policy... if I go down, they go with me." He explained. Victoria took the envelope. She hoped that it was not fake.

"It's all real. I'm tired of it all. I don't have a family. I don't have friends. I don't even have a future." He muttered before throwing the shotglass against a wall. He downed the rest of the whiskey and slammed the bottle onto his wooden desk.

"I know you think that I'm just singing a sad song to get your sympathy. I don't care what you think. I'm gonna be dead before the week's out. So hear my last request!" He demanded with unexpected vigor.

"I'm listening." Victoria answered warily.

"Make those Anlecottis pay. And tell 'em Chief Vernon's saving seats just for them. I'm saving 'em seats in Hell!" He shouted before slumping back into his seat. He looked defeated and ready to die. He then lifted a finger towards the door.

"What are ya waiting for? You have what you need! Get outta here!" He instructed. Victoria took one last look at him, then obliged. She shut the door behind her. Officers Hardee and Kurtz were waiting for her, as was Officer Crusoe.

"The Anlecottis are holed up in Lavanitir City." Victoria reported.

"And the chief?" Crusoe asked.

"He's still alive. He's drunk off his ass, though." She answered.

"Is that the evidence?" Officer Hardee asked her.

"He says it is. He might have given me fake documents, though. You guys will have to see." She replied before handing it to him.

"You've done more than enough, kid. Get outta here. We'll handle the rest." Officer Kurtz assured her. Victoria wordlessly complied and left the chief's office. She had just walked into the lobby when a sizable force of Rune Knights entered the building without sparing her a glance. They must have been the cleanup crew. She would leave them to it.

Victoria exited the building and began the long trip back to Rose Garden. She would have to deal with the Anlecottis on their home turf, but that could come later. She had broken their control over Hargeon Town, and that was good enough for tonight.

[Word Count: 1,125]
[Total Word Count: 3,757/2,500]