After breathing for a while to calm myself, I let go of the bulky man who was now bleeding from his forehead, while Sylvia let go of Tommy and the kid, dropping them on the ground.
"Can you explain what just happened? Why didn't you warn us ahead of time that you noticed something was amiss?" Sylvia asked at super speed, knowing that I had my Flashtime activated.
"If I said anything about it, and they noticed a wariness in our behaviour, this wouldn't have happened. I needed bait, and there wasn't anyone in that hotel when it exploded. Where is the problem? We saved everyone," I tried to reason.
"That's not the problem here, Allen. She is trying to earn your trust, and you keep pushing her away; that's not how relationships work; you should have told her to be careful at least," Ryuk commented.
'You too?' I said, failing to find a fault in my methods. This is why I like to work alone. "Ok, look, I am sorry, but I couldn't warn you about this, the situation... I guess it's my fault."
"That's not the problem, Ray; lives were at stake here; what if this happened when you and I weren't present? Tom would have died, I don't care why you didn't tell me but both the kid and Tom could have died because of this. I don't want to argue with you, I really don't. But you need to know about how others might feel if you stake their lives just for such things," Sylvia explained. "You don't have to care about this guy who was used as a pawn, but the kid isn't even ten; he was just mistaught. Can't you guarantee his life? I don't want to ask you to save everyone... I will never ask you to save everyone; just save someone, or at least give them a chance to save themselves."
"..." I couldn't say a word, I just felt... So conflicted. I couldn't understand my actions.
Why did I not tell them about this? I thought I was playing a perfect hero... Why is this a problem?
"I need some time to think... I am sorry, I wasn't thinking straight. I should have warned you all," I said, holding my forehead with my right hand.
"It's fine, we all make some mistakes sometimes," Sylvia answered.
Not me, never me. I don't make mistakes, it wasn't my intention to warn them in the first place, I made that calculation but didn't intend to follow it.
"You are in denial, kid," Ryuk commented again.
'Really? You are going to use the oldest trick in the book? There isn't even a response to that,' I responded. After deactivating my Flashtime I heard several cars rushing towards our directions.
"Damn, the police here are no joke, they have a crazy reaction time," Ryuk stated.
Can't deny that all these policemen are the reason this town isn't infested with vampire pirates yet.
After the ten vehicles stopped in front of us, surrounding us, a bunch of Mahoons in swat uniforms moved out and ran towards the building while some stayed behind to keep a watch on us.
"Hands up and show us your IDs," one of the Mahoon swat members shouted while pointing an energy blaster at us.
"Wait a minute, how are we supposed to show you our IDs if we put our hands up in the air first?" Tommy asked while getting up from the ground and dusting off his clothes, earning a ton of stares from different angles.
"I agree with him on this," I stated, putting my hands up in the air without taking out my ID.
"We are the FBI," Sylvia stated, taking out her ID instead of putting her hands up in the air.
"Oh, come on! You ruined all the fun," Tommy sighed, pouting a bit.
"You all are the FBI?" A Mahoon officer asked, getting closer to us. "I see then those two must be your prisoners, seeing the way one is tied up and the other one on the ground with his forehead bleeding. We will take it from here."
"No need, we still need the kid for some interrogation. However, you can take this guy if you want," I said, pointing at the bulky man who was still lying unconscious.
"We don't take orders from the FBI, hand those two over," the officer said, allowing his men to point their guns at us.
Something was weird about them, although Mahoons tend to act that way, they would never threaten someone like us with a higher authority unless they hate us that much. Were we so unlucky that we only met a bunch of "Mahoon Toms"?
"Which division are you from exactly?" I asked, putting my hands down.
"..." The Mahoons went silent for a moment but that was good enough for me to know that these weren't Mahoons in the first place. It's an illusion... We are all trapped in an illusion or, these Mahoons are actually a part of the pirate crew.
"Fire."