Unforseen Events

Bartley and Samantha made their way back to the station as soon as they heard from Sergeant Avery. They entered the car and Bartley hit the gas, catching Samantha by surprise as she had placed her seat belt just in time. Samantha gripped tightly on her seat as she felt the car sped through the streets, passing a few stop lights and nearly causing a collision on the way. She looked at Bartley who was focused on the road with a serious expression. His hands gripped on the wheel, showing no signs of slowing the car down.

"Uh, s-sir! Don't you think we should slow down a bit?!" Samantha said as she passes her concern to Bartley, not replying back to her question.

She continued to hold on tightly until she noticed that the car slowed down a bit. Bartley's eyes were locked onto something, and she didn't know what he was looking at until she looked at herself; noticing a large fume on the horizon. It looked like it was coming from the ECPD Headquarters.

Thoughts overwhelmed Samantha and Bartley's mind. Was there an accident at the station? Was this an attack orchestrated by terrorists? All these questions inundated their minds as they came closer to the station, and the road slowly becoming difficult to get through. They made a stop one block as the roads to the station were closed. Samantha and Bartley ran their way to get there.

Smoke slowly obstructed their view as they arrived at the station. It was chaotic and looked like a warzone. The Fire Department of Eden City were on damage control, medical teams mobilized left and right, and the ECPD officers assisted the wounded. Bartley stood at the center and looked around him as the situation continued, looking for Sergeant Avery who had called him to her. Samantha spotted Sergeant Avery at the back of an ambulance, calling out to Bartley and pointing towards her.

Bartley ran up to Sergeant Avery who had a head injury and a fractured arm. She was treated by the paramedics as Bartley approached her.

"Sergeant, what the hell happened?" Bartley asked as he looked at her severe injuries.

"An explosion sir. The entire unit was killed, I'm sorry." Sergeant Avery replied as she spitted out worrying news to Bartley and the case.

Bartley didn't anticipate this incident to wipe out his entire department and put a break on the investigation. He was frustrated, but he didn't want to think about the fallout right now. He wanted to know everything what had happened here. He looked directly at Avery's eyes and crumpled a fist under his pocket.

"There's no need to apologize. Just tell me everything what happened."

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Sergeant Avery sat idle as she finished up her arrest reports in time for a quick brew of coffee in the staff lounge. She stacked her files neatly and stood up as she walked towards the door. As she was about to leave, the door opened itself revealing Superintendent Baylor.

"Where do you think you're going, Sergeant?"

"Uh, coffee sir. I'm just about to get coffee."

"Get back to your desk, I want everyone to listen in what I have to say."

Sergeant Avery went back to her desk as told and the others gathered in the room to hear out Superintendent Baylor. Sergeant Avery noticed that the Superintendent had a duffel bag with him as he walked in the room, but didn't bother questioning it. She realized that she forgot to give out Bartley her arrest reports and so went to his office to drop it off there. She stood up and snatched the files from her desk as she walked to Bartley's office.

As she opened the door and entered, a large flash and force pushed her against the walls with glass shattered right behind her. An explosion just happened and she managed to survive. Sergeant Avery felt immense pain on her left arm and head, and tried to get up as dust and smoke fumed the room.

She coughed and groaned in pain, and couldn't get up as she felt weak. She wasn't sure if everyone was okay, Bartley's office seemed to have protected her from the blast. Superintendent Baylor and the rest of the SCU-7 were out there. They may have not survived from the explosion. She then heard a couple of shouts or cries from someone. Was it Baylor or someone from the unit that survived? She didn't know for sure until someone picked her up and carried her out of the rubles.

Sergeant Avery was now outside and being cared for by a couple of paramedics. She was confused initially but knew she had to call Bartley back to the station.

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"And that's all I could remember, sir." Sergeant Avery said as she finished up telling Bartley the events from her perspective.

"Why did Baylor call the entire unit in that room?" Bartley asked curiously as he leaned closer to her.

"I-I don't know. He probably had to say something to everyone. Probably news from the Commissioner or some shit." She said in an angry tone.

Bartley knew that Sergeant Avery felt guilt and would blame herself for what happened. He gently patted her as a reminder that he was there for her and everyone else. "Sort out your injuries first, Sergeant. I'll take it from here." He said as he walked towards Samantha who had been talking to one of the ECPD officers.

"Hey. I just talked to one of the forensic guys. And they found something." Samantha said as Bartley walked up to her.

"What'd they find?"

Samantha gives Bartley a small evidence bag that contained a fragment of an Underworld bomb device, designed to detonate and release a ball of flame in a small radius. It was one of the only fragment found by forensics at the scene. There were a few scratched letters on the side of the fragment, but Bartley could not discern what the letters were.

"A bomb fragment, sir. They found it at the crime scene, and looked like it had been detonated on a timer."

Bartley passed back the evidence to Samantha. He looked at Avery and back at Samantha and paused for a moment to gather thoughts. He sighed and looked Samantha directly. "Did forensics determine where the bomb was prior to explosion?"

"No, sir. But they're speculating that it was close to Sergeant Avery's desk, but not one hundred percent." Samantha said as Bartley looked over at Sergeant Avery as she gets hauled at the back of the ambulance.

Things started to connect, but there are other pieces of the puzzle that didn't quite seem to fit into this. Sergeant Avery mentioned a duffel bag that Baylor had carried, but it could've been anything. Tension grew in his mind, he was conflicted whether or not someone like Sergeant Avery would carry out such an attack. He needed to be sure that the person he catches was the right one. He didn't want to repeat a mistake that cost him someone dearly.

Bartley stood still and said nothing in front of Samantha as his mind faded to somewhere else. Samantha called out to Bartley twice and his mind was back to reality. He looked at Samantha who was calling out to him and shook his head.

"You alright sir?" Samantha said as she expressively grew concern for him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just I never expected to lose so many people today." Bartley said as his voice quavered for a moment. "I made a promise that I would never get lives killed ... But, here we are. Lives were lost." He continued but paused briefly to tear up a bit.

Samantha slowly closed in on Bartley and embraced him tightly. Sharing this feeling with him as she knew the feeling of loosing or taking a life away. Bartley wanted to push her away as his haphephobia instincts kicked in, but his mind resisted and didn't let that happened.

"We loose people everyday sir. Their lives aren't lost in vein." Samantha said to soothe Bartley's emotional pain.

"... I guess you're right." Bartley said as he looked down to her.

Bartley felt something in his body as he stared down at Samantha. This was a feeling that he had with Pamela when she got close to him. It was changing him a bit, and he wanted to be closer to her for some reason. But Samantha lets go of him as she felt a buzz in her pocket. It was a phone call from someone she knew, and answered it as she broke off staring with Bartley.

Bartley came back to his senses and noticed a group of men in black suits approached Bartley. He knew the man who lead the others towards him very well. It was someone he rivaled against in the ECPD, someone that other Demon Division officers shared common dislike. It was the Angel Division's Security Services. They handle the integrity and security of realm's existence in the city, and professional responsibility within the department.

The man in the front smiled at Bartley as he stopped midway and took off his glasses to face eye to eye with him.

"My, my Captain. You've done a deed to this place quite well." The man in the front said.

"You too, Amitiel. What is Angel Division's Security Services doing here?"

"We're Investigating 'your' department for corruption."

Bartley scoffed at Amitiel. He couldn't believe what he was hearing from him. The Angel Division investigating his department was another fuel to the fire that he didn't want to handle right now.He approached Amitiel slowly with his hands inside his pockets.

"Who is the person you're investigating?"

"Chief Superintendent Baylor."