Mercy

"Matty over there still has his original heart, the human kind." Valefar spoke. "That's the only real downside of his Hellfire Arm really, other than him reeking of stank and maybe looking like a rat himself."

"Don't think I can't see you bastard!" The Rat King spoke to Valefar.

For the Rat King! Said the Fry, the Rat that was on the King's shoulder. All of the rats' eyes were painted in a bright flash of red. The Rat King lifted his arm and a large bang was heard piercing the sky.

It didn't make sense for Rollins, but the image of a rat's face that was in his view was getting bigger and bigger, then it hit him; hit him in the upper chest. He went flying.

His eyes did not change even after the rat fired from the King's hand was now embedded into his chest. Rollins slowly felt the rat gnawing into his flesh deep inside his upper body, his own blood drenching the rat.

"Jim!" Ford shouted as he noticed several individuals, they were all in blue. "Detective! Calvary's here." As he said this, the Rat King looked at the various officers taking out their own standard pistols and rifles.

"Boys! Catch." Ford pulled his All-American to give two more Replicas to two other MPD officers. Bullets were flying, each and every single one of them puncturing the King's rats, if not blasting them together within a single field.

"Go MPD!" Chance heard Valefar from a house not far away from him. The Representative was sitting on the house's roof, with a bucket of popcorn in his hands, eating away and enjoying the action unfolding. "Let's go champ!"

"Not funny." Chance grumbled as he fired more bullets towards the rats with his replica of Ford's All-American. Even as he was out of bullets, he was surprised as a magazine filled his coat. Ford said the replica wasn't a true Hellfire Arm, but it was more powerful than his own standard gun.

Ford pulled out a grenade from his strap, also in the colors of the American flag. His eyes locked onto the King as he threw it. "Eat this."

The Rat King moved swiftly away from the grenade as it blew a hole in Barbie Keane's front yard. In addition to some of her plants, the grenade blast sent a few rats flying, some were blown to smithereens. With his left hand swiftly pointing at Ford, various rats ran toward him, the Rat King following his army suit.

"Hey!" the Rat King stopped as he heard a voice calling out to him. He saw Chance Gordon holding the replica of Ford's All-American. The replica's barrel was pointing at Fry's head; Fry himself being choked by Chance's other hand.

"Tsk." Chance sparked. "You dodged that bullet but your buddy here didn't hold onto you."

"Fry." The Rat King spoke sadly. "You wouldn't dare, detective."

Chance dropped Fry onto the ground, and his foot pressed the rat, crushing its bones and flesh onto the concrete street. "Whoops." He wasn't unfazed by the blood on his shoe.

The Rat King clenched his Hellfire Arm and his fist. As he looked down onto the ground, he saw the other dead rats, and he yanked his face upwards to the sky, screaming hysterically. The other rats joined suite on this monstrous scream. Chance closed his ears with his hands, as with the other officers with their guns and Ford himself.

A dozen of the rats went under the feet of the Rat King. The dozen of rats soon multiplied, forming a living hill for the Rat King to stand on.

"Onward." the Rat King said as he ordered his hill to move him at a steady pace. Chance's eyes caught the sight of the Rat King being transported by his army, the King himself standing on the edge of the hill, now a wave of movement.

The replica of the All-American was gripped in Chance's hands. He fired bullet by bullet toward the Rat King, whose ragged sleeves revealed his hairy arms defecting the bullets.

The sound of a projectile launched pierced Chance's ears, as he slowly turned to see a red medium size rocket. His eyes widened as he threw himself to the right, the rocket soon colliding with the Rat King's army.

A large splash was heard, in addition to the shrieks of the dying rats. They were flying like ducks before slamming the ground, somewhere even flying as far as a football field.

But the Rat King was flying in the air, his arms turned into rats claws, and he pounched at Chance. The pounch pushed the detective onto the ground, and he saw the Rat King's hat fall off. The Rat King's face was far from human.

At most, there were signs of gray fur, his teeth were yellow and sharp. His eyes shared the same color as his teeth. Chance soon felt the Rat King's growl and scream.

A force pushed the Rat King far away and back to his remaining army of rats. Chance turned to see a familiar face with a five o'clock shadow. An African American man, Chance smirked as the man also had a Haverton badge.

"Still like to put yourself in danger, Chance Gordon?"

"Freddie Bass." Chance spoke. He noticed a gun in Freddie's hands. The gun was cherry red, it even had a picture of a cherry on its black handle. Freddie's suit was gray, but his fedora was cherry red.

"Yeah." Valefar suddenly appeared. "Freddie here has a Hellfire Arm."

"How long-"

"Gordon." Freddie spoke to Chance as the Rat King was standing up.

The Rat King and his remaining army of rats looked at the sight of cops around them. Even though the majority of them didn't have Hellfire Arms, the Rat King knew that their quantity of bullets would be higher than quality. It be enough to put him down on his knees.

"You six." The Rat King said to 6 rats. "On my go," Next, he turned to Chance and the other members of law enforcement. "While you're all here, you're just allowing the other Hellfire Arms up for grabs."

"And we're gonna get your Hellfire Arm." Ford spoke loudly. "You're gonna be dead either way, by us or the Representative. Eye for an eye for Jim!" he spoke of Rollins who was met by an officer.

"Eye for an eye? Even before me there were hundreds if not thousands of people who were screwed by the so-called system! You think money and connections are gonna close down what the MPD does? Do you!?"

"I hate to break it to you Matty." Valefar suddenly appeared next to the Rat King. "But from the way I see it, the law's in on it together, trying to get back my bosses Hellfire Arms."

"You son of a bitch, make me stronger. Give me something to make my heart tougher!"

"My hands are tied, you dirty rat." Valefar laughed cynically. "You are what you get when it comes to Hellfire Arms, you should have known the cons of using this Hellfire Arm here." But his expression soon turned to rage and he grabbed the Rat King's neck. "Now, who you working for, who sent you to kill Barbie Keane?"

"You want me to talk? Not today." The Rat King turned to the six rats, whose tails intertwined together, before they spun into the air, heading towards the row of officers and their cars.

The Rat King pushed Valefar away, and jumped into the air himself. Valefar himself gritted his teeth at the sight of the Rat King turning into a rat himself, before running into the sewer located on a curb.

"Get out there!" Valefar shouted as the six rats spun towards the cars. They exploded on impact as the police wagons burst into flames and into smithereens. The Representative stood up as the dust started to clear out, and he ran towards Chance and the others at Jim Rollins.

"He's not gonna make it." Valefar spoke as Rollins skin started to turn a ghoulish gray, and his own flesh ripping away.

"You're kidding." Chance spoke.

"It is what it is, Chance. Some Hellfire Arms, they're not treatable. Rat King is one of them." Valefar crossed his arms. "Anybody willing to mercy kill him?"

"The hell-" Freddie Bass spoke.

"Either he dies now or he runs around biting somebody and then infecting them with the Rat King virus. You all want that?" Valefar spoke. "No? Then you got no other choice."

"Kill me." Rollins spoke. "Let me go. I don't want to go insane because of some fucking rat."

Valefar yanked Rollins' pistol from his gun strap. "Chance, you do it." Silence. "Come on, this isn't new for you, I mean, you mercy killed before in the war, am I right?"

"It's not an achievement, Valefar" Chance spoke in anger.

"Did you not hear what I said about him if he doesn't die? Or you just wanna take your own chances?" Valefar snickered. "Huh, word play."

"I hate to say it but he's got a point, Chance." Freddie interrupted.

"I ain't doing it." Ford spoke. "I don't mind killing that Rat King but not a fellow officer, even if it's mercy kill."

Chance sighed in despair as he took Rollins' gun from Valefar, and pointed it at the gun's owner. Rollins flinched slightly at the click of the gun.

"Sorry."

Rollins gave a sad smile. "Get them." he looked at everyone present. "Get all of those Hellfire Arms."

A gunshot was heard, and Rollins was no more.