Later that night, at a local pub

"And that is why you shouldn't go to the docks alone at night." Lydia finished as she took another sip from her beer. It was clear Lydia wasn't a heavy drinker, she only had her second beer and she was already showing signs of drunkenness. She was swaying in her chair and wasn't aware that her red loosely hanging top might soon reveal one of her breasts to some random bar patron. "I'll sure keep that in mind and avoid going on romantic moonlight strolls by the piers." Lydia just smiled as I said it, and retorted with "Don't worry, I'll be there to protect you".

After we finished in Wayne tower, Lydia and I agreed on meeting in the evening, to get familiar with one another. As I came back home I didn't find either of the girls. Both Helena and Stephanie were gone somewhere, so it left me with quite an open and free evening.

I found Lydia very easy to talk to, it seemed we will get along quite well, and important part of a partnership. At first Lydia seemed like a harmless good uptown girl that can't protect herself, and needs a knight in shinning armour to do it for her. But for the first bar we went to was in the docks district, some unlucky idiot thought those same thoughts as well, and in less than a second after grabbing her behind, he was lying on the floor with a bloody nose.

It was surprising for me to discover this optimistic girl grew up in a building not far from this very bar. The docks district is supposed to be a harsh area, a place where most people lose their hopes and just try to get by, but the hazel eyed girl seemed like a fountain of hope and bright futures. She explained that it wasn't because she was naïve, she just seen enough things that she didn't want to see, so one day she decided to look at the bright side of life. Lydia was just a bit younger than me, but it seemed she managed to experience as much as me. She too was in the army, joined as a paramedic, and for some reason she doesn't know why she joined the police after she left the service. As she talked about it, it was clear the happy girl face is not just a face she puts on, but a character she needs to play in order to remain sane. That explained a lot about her.

"So.. wanna see the old Cobbelpot park?" The girl asked, and without waiting for an answer continued "Come on, I'll tell you all the office gossip you need to know on the way there" Lydia jumped from her chair and gestured me to follow. The weather was nice outside, neither cold nor too hot, almost a full moon but sadly no stars visible due to light pollution. The streets were partially lit by street lights and partially by neon lights coming from bars or still open delis. There weren't a lot of people outside, some couples here and there and some small groups of people gathered around smoking, drinking and laughing.

The walk was relaxed, apparently the unit had a lot of things happening in it, according to Lydia love triangles were abundant in the office. I was warned to stay clear of the Sergeant until she gets over her break up with her girlfriend. Lydia also once caught the Captain and the commissioner's secretary fooling around, she made me swear I wouldn't tell anyone else. As we approached the park, we saw some teenagers riding skateboards near the entrance. We passed them by and entered the park.

A huge bust stood in a middle of a clearing, the park fell to some disrepair, but didn't seem that bad. "Meet Cornelius Cobbelpot, the Penguin's great-grandfather" Lydia said pointing to the bust. "I used to come to this park a lot when I was younger, a bit of a shame no one gives a fuck about how it looks now" she grumbled. It was clear she was still a bit intoxicated, as she led me further into the park.

At first we didn't hear anything, just saw some men arguing in one of the corners. It seemed like a regular brawl until one of them took out a gun and shot one of the others in the head, twice. We were hidden behind a hedge, so they didn't notice us. "Shit.. We have to stop it" Lydia cursed. "I'm unarmed, but I think we can sneak by the stream to get closer. Only one of them is armed" I said as I showed Lydia the approach I saw. The brawl stopped, now it was just three man standing, with one of them pointing a revolver at the two other men on their knees. From what it looked, only that one was armed among them, and he already shot twice, so he can have only up to four more bullets. "I'm unarmed too.." Lydia said, surprising me. "What.. I knew I'll be drinking tonight, so I locked my gun in my safe at home. I don't drink when I carry." she defended herself.

"It doesn't matter, let's call it in for now, and let's see if we can stop this" I said, scanning the surroundings for options.

The stream went up almost to the clearing, it was deep enough that while crouching a man could sneak in it to almost few meters from the man holding the gun. From there it all depended on the speed of closing the distance to the shooter before he or the others could react. Once the shooter was dealt with, the other two had to be neutralized as well. But, because the shooter stood between the other two, it has to be a choice on who to move next upon, and I had to choose because Lydia wasn't in a condition to fight. Also I was hoping I was right and none of the other two is armed with a gun. The man to the left of the shooter was skinnier and shorter, it looked like he had a knife or a phone in his pocket. The man to the right of the shooter was taller and bulky, it was clear it would take more than a few hits to subdue him. The shooter himself was an average sized man, a strong hit with a pebble from the stream should take him out.

I could go from the other side, there was a hedge fence leading almost to the right man, and he was close enough that I could push the fatty unto the shooter, hoping to take them both out in a single hit, buying me enough time to disarm them. But it was a big if, if I could push him hard enough.

Also, I could try and go the peaceful way, talk them out of this. High chance I will get myself shot, but it would allow me to get close enough to maybe try something. I was fairly confident about my agility and quick reflexes I might just pull this out.

And lastly, I had the option to sit and wait for the police to arrive, hoping no one else gets shot in that time. The safest option, but still not a good one.

Author's ramblings:

If you're reading this, I like you.

So from this point the story will diverge into different storylines, each with its own villain, own goal and own arch. I gave the general sense of the storyline's heading in the chapter titles, just for the sake of clarity. It won't be different points of view on the same events as previously, but rather unconnected events based on how the plot is progressing. The only things shared by storylines are what already had happened or discussed upon, for example, there is a character with entirely different history and backgorund in two different paths. Though there will be some retrospective.

As of now (28.2.20), I do come on and off this site to read & write, but there's a lot of work to do. I need to revamp and correct a lot of things in this story where autocorrect had failed me without me noticing. I'm also currently rewriteing a different story I made [Stranded](https://chyoa.com/story/Stranded.21224) off site, and updating and releasing my version on events in Lake_Nine's story [Futanari Wife](https://chyoa.com/story/Futanari-Wife.22256) which have now spiraled to their own story I slowly write. That's just a small update on my part so you won't get mad if you like this story but it's not updated frequently enough.

Because I'm an attention seeking whore, I'd love for you to either leave a comment or even a simple like on what you liked throughout the story, so I'd have some feedback on what to focus on. I'm not the best writer and would love to get better using feedback.

As I usually promise, if you read this far, you earned a cookie from me, good day/night/morning/evening/general-time-of-day