I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 705

"Wow, a human tank!"
"Damn it, this crazy bastard, the bullets can’t even do any damage because of his muscles!"
"He's reinforced his joints with steel plates, aim for the head! The head!"

WOOOOOOO-!

It was an incomprehensible sight, almost as if they had stepped into a fantasy world or made a cameo in a superhero movie.
At least the operators on the ground, watching the bear-human hybrid screaming in front of them, either through the screen or with their own eyes, couldn’t help but think so.
And adding to that, the overwhelming roar. It was as if the very air around them was being compressed under the weight of the beast’s presence. But Dagger Team didn’t freeze in fear or become paralyzed by the sight.
They were the best kill team, meant to eliminate anything in their path.

——RAT-A-TAT-TAT!

The fire controls, previously set to semi-automatic, switched to fully automatic as they targeted the exposed body parts.
The physical force of a 6.8mm Fury round was not something to take lightly. A few hits could pierce through telephone pole-sized trees or tear apart metal. Even a blow to the shin could cause significant damage.
However, the only mistake Dagger Team made was underestimating the agility of the creature before them—the one temporarily called "Titan." It was far more nimble and swift than expected.

"I’m going to kill you!!!"

It was a voice resembling a human, but not quite human, more like a beast’s roar mixed with human language.
As soon as one of the bullets pierced its shin, another beastly cry followed. But it wasn’t the bone that was pierced, and Titan swiftly withdrew its foot, tossing yet another vehicle aside.
But tossing a car once might work, but twice? It would no longer be effective. The shock could still be felt, but the operators were prepared and evaded the next throw.

Titan’s throwing cars was just one of its many abilities.

——CRACK!

The ground trembled with the first sound, followed by the crushing of the car with a sickening crunch.
Using the car as a stepping stone, Titan charged forward in an almost animal-like posture, moving with the force of a runaway dump truck. A bear-human weighing tons accelerated at a speed of dozens of kilometers per hour.
At the end of its path stood Logan, holding a ballistic shield. Titan instinctively sensed she too was a bear, and read her hostility, charging toward her.
But Logan wasn’t going to stand still. She concentrated all the energy from her shield into her right arm. When activated, this energy could withstand tank shell impacts, providing a formidable defense.

She had long since passed the point of "engagement"—it didn’t matter anymore.
Logan charged toward the incoming threat with her glowing white fist, assessing the distance as the beast approached.
As she ran, continuous gunfire rang out. However, no matter how many rounds were fired, Titan didn’t stop—it only kept advancing. And Logan was standing at the front line to stop it.

After a while,
The collision between Logan’s glowing fist and Titan’s heavy iron helmet sent a shockwave through the area.

——BOOOOM!

The sound was deafening.
The space around Logan’s fist shimmered briefly. The nano-machines absorbing the impact overloaded, sparking like a firework, but they helped reduce the strain on Logan’s right hand.
A strange sensation traveled up her hand. The sound of crumpled iron and Titan’s head taking a tremendous blow echoed. Although the bulletproof plating could stop bullets, the shock from the impact to Titan’s head could not be absorbed.

And as time returned to normal speed, Titan was sent flying to the left.

But the growling continued. The massive traps that were Titan’s shoulders absorbed most of the shock, reducing the force of the hit.

But that was the end of it.

"Damn it, spray the polyurethane foam! Cover that bastard’s head!"
"Logan, you crazy bitch, you’re really out of your mind!"

With the successful disruption of Titan’s charge, the odds were no longer in his favor.
With a whoosh, a black foam grenade struck Titan’s body, expanding exponentially and forming a barrier to restrict his movement.
However, a wedge was still needed. At that moment, Eugene, Olivia, and Lorentina broke through the metal barricades in the parking lot, eagerly becoming the "priest" who would drive a silver stake into the heart of a vampire to seal Titan’s fate.

The mutant’s incredible strength allowed it to tear through the rebar, and with a groan, Titan cried out in pain.
But that was the end of it.

"Ugh, ugh…!"
"Shit, that scared me. Where the hell did these bastards come from?"
"Quite… shocking. We should review Logan’s body cam later."

"Goddamn, what the hell is going on."

Logan sighed as she massaged her numb right arm. Being knowledgeable about the human body, she could sense that the injury to her arm was a serious one.
But at the cost of that injury, she had left a dent in the iron plate as if she had smashed a car head-on.
It was something she could boast about later.

As the excitement died down and the situation concluded, Dagger Team’s focus shifted to the newly appeared mutant.
The voice that seemed to have completely lost its sanity, and the monstrous body resembling an alpha-level mutant bio-weapon.
Of course, Dagger Team had no way of knowing the full details, but they couldn’t ignore the fact that Titan had appeared, nor did they have any other options at that moment.

"Please tell me there aren’t more of these freaks."
"We don’t know yet. Let’s confirm and eliminate."

Had there been more mutants like Titan, they would’ve been detected during the earlier engagements.
And strictly speaking, there were more. Lapland, a converted mutant, had been present in Central Park—though Dagger Team didn’t know if the mutants were being bred as weapons or simply mutants.
No matter the situation, Dagger Team never stopped, but encountering another bulldozer like Titan was completely unexpected.
It was time for a brief regroup.

Naturally, Titan was quick, but that didn’t mean he was quicker than bullets.
Modern firearms could crush mutants like him, and steroid-boosted, enhanced male mutants were no exception.

No one said anything, but all eyes were on Logan. It didn’t take long before she pulled a grenade from her pouch.
Looking at Titan, struggling to escape the polyurethane foam, Logan pulled the pin, quickly slipping a grenade between the iron plating on Titan’s head.

Everyone deployed their shields.
And then—

——BOOOOM!

The body of the glowing Titan came to a halt as the foam around his head exploded.
The twisted, broken iron plates, and pieces of flesh scattered uncontrollably, and the moving bio-tank collapsed into stillness.

With a heavy breath, someone exhaled deeply. Dagger Team began to scan the surroundings, checking ammo counts and preparing for what was next.
A few words were exchanged.

"...This is Dagger 1-1. We’ve killed a heavy target. We’ll temporarily retreat to Harlem General Hospital. If more of these things keep showing up, it’s going to be a problem."
—Dagger 1-1, retreat request confirmed. Permission granted. Should we send this intel to the cleaners?

"It doesn’t matter, send the alert."

Communication cut off, and Owens sighed.
He opened his mouth.

"Let’s take a break."

No one objected.

8:21 AM, Central Park.

The operation had slowed, and a retreat was being discussed. Lapland no longer needed to be supported by drones, but she was facing an unpleasant time, dealing with the questions she had been called in for.
She wasn’t involved with the gang anymore, and her connections to the Liker group were long severed, but she was still a mutant. That was why she was being questioned relentlessly by the support officer.
Naturally, she didn’t know much. The gang members and the Liker gang were anti-social criminals, and aside from some overlapping members, they didn’t have much in common.
In short, she had no idea Titan existed.

After a few pointless hours, she finished her meal and stepped outside.
It was an unnecessarily beautiful day.

And—

"...Ugh."
"..."

She ran into Captain Parkinson again, albeit not in the best of circumstances.
An awkward silence passed. They had an uncomfortable relationship. Furthermore, Lapland had once allowed the escapees to attack Captain Parkinson.

As the tensions within the Liker group came to light, both of them had a rough understanding of how they were intertwined through their past actions.
Strictly speaking, Lapland hadn’t been the one to suggest attacking the US troops in Brooklyn, but she hadn’t stopped it either. She had merely suggested what benefits it could bring.
But that wasn’t important.

Ultimately, Lapland could be seen as partially responsible for the death of Captain Parkinson and the 107th Military Police Company. If she hadn’t called the cleaners, he would have been dead.

She averted her eyes, mumbling.

"...About Brooklyn... I’m sorry. I don’t know how to say this."

Whether or not she needed to apologize was debatable, but she knew she had to make amends.
Lapland knew she was in a special position. Normally, she would be working hard labor with her subordinates in a cell.
But Captain Parkinson, along with Captain Colton from another unit, had saved over 200 civilians and preserved 140 combat troops. He was one of the heroes who managed a successful retreat.
Someone like him wasn’t likely to take kindly to her.

Parkinson stared at her with a complex expression and spoke.

"Did you intend to use the escapees as bait from the start?"

"...It wasn’t possible. But I always thought I’d have to get out when the opportunity arose. I tried talking to the soldiers a few times, failed, gave up several times..."

"Why?"

"You know how quickly Liker spread, right? Want to know how fast and how many soldiers in Northern Brooklyn died? Just from what I saw, there were at least fifteen soldiers executed after being caught pretending to be Liker."

Whether that was true or not didn’t matter.
Lapland continued speaking, and Parkinson confirmed if it matched what he already knew. Soon after, Lapland brought up the attack on Maymoniz Hospital in Brooklyn.

The details weren’t significant. It wasn’t her force but escapees under someone named Coyote who attacked Maymoniz and failed. That was when the full-scale combat broke out.
Lapland—Zodiac—had accidentally made contact with the cleaners during this process, which eventually led to her opportunity to speak with Central Park.

Captain Parkinson spoke after listening to this.

"I know what an alpha-level mutant’s physical abilities are like. Someone like you could have wiped out the other competitors and lived the life you wanted."

"Are you joking? With my body destroyed, what can I do? Well, maybe. But that’s not what I wanted."

"Not what you wanted..."

"Other guys? They’re all into drugs, rap, gambling, shooting each other up. Do you see what happens when people like that exist? Just look around Central Park now."

She continued, never stopping.

"I just don’t like playing in a ruined world with those kinds of assholes. I just want to return to the good days. Who wants to live with a gun pointed at their head every day?"

"..."

"And those assholes... if the government and military are still alive, they’d try to kill them. Who would want to be blown apart by a bomb in their sleep? Who could like that?"

Lapland sighed, then started to speak again but lowered her head.
Captain Parkinson, watching her, couldn’t help but see Eugene in her.

Anyone who wasn’t twisted from the start wanted a peaceful world. That was all. Parkinson didn’t need to understand her path, but he saw the results.
She had reached this point through her choices. That was undoubtedly true. And if she hadn’t... she might have ended up like Titan.

There was no need to understand, but that didn’t mean he could dismiss the consequences of others’ choices.

He spoke softly.

"I see."

"...Yeah. I suppose."

"Others may not think well of you. Some may look at you with disdain. To be honest, I can’t look at you favorably either."

"...I figured."

"But I believe that’s not why you shouldn’t be in Central Park."

At that moment, her head turned slowly.

Lapland met Parkinson’s gaze, thinking over what his words meant.
Before she could respond, Parkinson continued.

"You may not know, but that little snake said something before escaping Brooklyn. He said there’s no time to think, that it’s a luxury. And that’s what I plan to do. If my men had died, maybe it would’ve been different, but at least no one died because of you there."

"..."

"I don’t know about the others, but I hope my men can come to see you in a better light in the future."

"...I’ll try."

"You don’t need to feel burdened by the past. Let’s get along from here on out."

He extended his hand, and Lapland hesitated before shaking it carefully.
It wasn’t a time for tears, but the woman’s body had a lot of them.
She muttered quietly to herself, cursing her overly emotional body. Parkinson smiled faintly. Though he didn’t say it aloud, he felt she was a lot like Eugene.

One by one, the issues in Central Park were being stitched up.