Suddenly, a large figure came crashing down upon them. Wazp reflexively flitted backwards. There was a thunderous THUMP; Kobre and Vezpar were squashed beneath the new arrival. It had grabbed their heads and slammed them to the ground on the way down, creating craters in the pavement with deep cracks surrounding them. Snareel growled, stepping back rapidly while Raknae dashed in front to protect him. Tim snuck a peek; the savior turned its head to gaze at him, its face now visible.

Finally! Thought Tim. It was Terranis, his partner.

He was a large chrome mountain-type Dragon-Blood and almost stood as tall as F’nrir. He sported a fearsome-looking prosthetic lower jaw made of dark granite. As he bared his teeth, it could be seen that his lower teeth were made of the same precious stone. His back was covered with brown bear fur, and yellow all-terrain vehicle parts across his body like armor. The handles formed a horned helmet. The shield guards protected either side of his head. Two large wheels covered by the collision guard protected his chest. The other wheels covered the sides of his hips, connected by the front bumper. Yellow side fenders guarded his shoulders and knees while black grip plates shielded his clawed feet.

Terranis’ radiant gold eyes were half-closed, giving Tim a ‘that was so lame’ look before blocking Hyssss’ assault and a few of Raknae’s long, fuzzy arms. Wazp fired a few needles at the Dragon-Blood.

“From the right, Terry!” shouted Tim. Terranis barely dodged them as he charged at Hyssss, lifted him off the ground and sent him flying into Wazp. Tim took this opportunity and slowly crawled to his gun.

“Get-z off-z, oozpad-z!” Wazp spat, shoving his partner off as he made a quick recovery and flew towards Tim. “Oh-z no-z you-z don’t-z!”

Got it! Tim yanked his gun out of its holster and slowly spun around in time to partially freeze Wazp a hand’s width away from him. Wazp crashed into the wall as Tim ducked away, leaving a huge dent in the building. He hoped there weren’t any surveillance cameras in there. Those were harder to deal with.

Tim shot two rounds consecutively to freeze Hyssss, who was still trying to recover from Terranis’s attack. As Wazp sluggishly scrambled to get up, Tim froze him too.

ROOOAAR!

Tim struggled to turn around. Terranis was having trouble keeping up with Raknae’s arms and suffered multiple hits. Tim aimed his last two shots at Raknae, but the Blood was too fast for him, climbing onto the wall to dodge the rounds while picking up Snareel.

“Sorry, Boss, we have to retreat for now,” Raknae apologized as he jumped further down the alleyway and scurried out of sight. Terranis wanted to pursue them, but a large metallic web blocked his path.

Tim cursed at the fact that he had missed as he snatched his cuffs from the ground. He debated who to use them on; there were only two. Terranis carried Kobre and Vezpar over and dropped them in front of Tim, their eyes still spinning. Tim decided it would be better to cuff them since they had not been frozen.

“Hm,” Terranis glanced at Tim before looking away with a subtle smirk.

“I — get it!” Tim’s face was slightly flushed from embarrassment. “I look — awful!” Why did he have to look so uncool in front of him? Tim’s coat was in shambles, and he was covered in dirt and grime, not to mention his swollen lips.

After struggling a bit to re-fasten his holster and reload his LRP65, he slowly began searching around for his Creed Crest, finding it against the wall. He picked it up, and dusted it off before putting it back on.

“What took — you — so long? Sarah said — you were — already — on — your way!” said Tim. He didn't bother trying to hide the accusatory tone under his haggard voice.

“The usual,” Terranis replied nonchalantly, his words firm and consistent. “I took a few pictures of the scene before jumping in. You look rather dashing in them.” He ended his words with sarcasm and a smirk.

“Ugh. Please — ask them — to — crop me out.” Tim pretended to cover his face in embarrassment.

“Huh. You know they won’t.” Terranis grunted.

“Thanks — Bro — thanks …” said Tim as he slowly limped over to his forgotten phone. It wasn’t only his leg that ached now. His entire body had gnawing pain. He wondered if he had any broken ribs from all the kicks he had received. When he finally reached his phone, he cursed. The protective case, cobalt blue with swirling patterns, was broken. It was new.

“You just — watched them — clobber me,” Tim stated as he returned to the scene. He knew all too well that Terry was still laughing on the inside.

“A few hits won’t kill you, said Terranis sternly. “Evidence comes first.” He had been inspecting the web that Raknae left behind.

“I — despise — that,” said Tim, raising a brow.

“Think of it as a compliment. I believed in you.”

“If you — came — any later, I would’ve — been turned — into a — Tim-pancake!”

“Hmmmm … sounds disgusting,” said Terranis. He side-glanced at Jenkins. The young man was still out cold from the scare.

Although he knew the ruags would still be unconscious for a while, Tim still kept watch on them as he examined his own injuries. Fractite had a nasty effect on Blood. It drained their energy, leaving them lethargic.

“They’re here,” said Terranis as several police cars pulled up by the alleyway. There were no sirens. Air fresheners shaped like Creed Crests dangled from the rear-view mirror inside each car. A tall, middle-aged man, named Officer Jeremy Jones, stepped out of the first car. He was African American with a medium-low fade. He had known Tim since he was a troublemaking tyke, but had also worked with him on past patrols. 

“Set up the field, boys, you know the drill,” he ordered as two other policemen, one blonde, Officer Nick Moreau, and one with fiery-red hair, Officer Kelvin Burns, scrambled out of their cars.

“Yes, Sir!” they responded.

One car whistled before saying. “Large haul tonight.”

“Hey — Officer — Jones,” greeted Tim as he hobbled slowly up to the officer. “Hey — Kich,” he said to Officer Jones’ car.

“Nice to see you’re in tip top shape,” the Blood occupying the shape of the vehicle remarked.

The other officers rushed to place shoebox-sized boxes around the alleyway. Together, the boxes were used to create a short-range avoidance field by broadcasting psychic waves around the designated area. It acted as a giant, soundproof, invisibility cloak, preventing anyone from hearing or seeing what was occurring inside the field. As soon as the field was put up, the wave would cause onlookers to believe that there was never anything there to begin with. When anyone outside of the field came close to it, they would completely lose interest in the area and leave. The effects were so subtle that they would hardly realize what had happened, dismissing it as simply an odd moment. Blood and Creed members wearing their Creed Crests were immune to its deterring effects; however, only insiders would be able to locate the invisible scene.

“Four ruags, son,” said Officer Jones, sounding impressed as Tim approached.

“Actually — there — were six,” corrected Tim. He strained to explain the situation to Officer Jones, who looked surprised that Tim and Terranis were still alive, especially Tim, most of all.

“Field’s up, Sir!” reported Officer Burns to Officer Jones.

“Alright, Officer Kelvin, you can take care of the ruags,” he responded. He turned to the blonde-haired officer. “Officer Moreau, you’ll be responsible for the kid over there. Clean up team, let’s get rolling.” Officer Jones motioned with his hand. The three cars responded by secreting large silver gelatinous-looking masses from their sides that slithered into the back alley.

“ARG! Spider web!” could be heard from within.

Officer Moreau was moving Jenkins to the alleyway entrance and marked down the boy’s identification number. He took Jenkins’ cellphone and wallet, counting the money before placing the items into a bag. The man jotted down some notes in his notepad.

Officer Jones stood by Tim as he oversaw the young officers and Gardios at work. “It’s rare to see ruags above ground,” he commented as Officer Burns lugged in four Detainment Cubes.

The boxes were perfect cubes of twenty-three inches in every dimension. It used a special frequency to force ruags into their liquefied forms. However, they only worked on Blood who’ve already been frozen by Fractite. A typical Blood moved too quickly to be captured in this manner.

“Seems like — they were — after me,” Tim assumed. His lungs still felt like they were on fire. With what I’ve been through during the last few days, you’d think I’d get hazard pay for this. Well, hopefully it will be enough to pay for Sarah’s gift. Tim thought to himself briefly.

“Sounded like it when you filled me in,” said the officer. “But why did they come up here? And as such a large group?” Jeremy asked with a puzzled look on his face.

Officer Burns attached a removable hose to the center of one box in front of Wazp, over a closed, circular shutter valve. He then pressed a green button to the right of the shutter.

Glub.

The Blood liquefied immediately. His bruises were still visible, but they were scattered about on his gelatinous body. Wazp’s tiny mandibles could be seen vibrating as he snored quietly. He almost looked cute.

SHOOP!

A suction could be heard as Officer Burns pressed a different green button on the left. The hose pulled Wazp’s liquefied form into it with a vacuum. He could be seen travelling through the tube before the shutter closed shut and locked. Officer Burns detached the hose from the shutter and thoroughly inspected the box before moving on to contain the rest of the ruags. Sliding in front of the boxes, Kich's form began to shift, slowly climbing into the air, morphing into an anthropomorphic German Shepard. Clothing materialized around the Blood, as a blue poncho-style uniform took shape. Phoenia’s Crest adorned the front with polished wooden pauldrons on the shoulders, his identification number was engraved on the right pauldron and the Creed’s motto, “Ah laga nory. Ah sacry kapuah,” or in English: “A legacy honored. A secret kept,” on the left. Kich carried the box back to the police car with ease. The box made transporting the ruags more manageable.