A Man of Honor.

Chapter 41: Caught.

"A fish with his mouth closed never gets caught." ~ Carlo Gambino.

Chaos. That is how I would best describe the next few moments in that dark warehouse. I couldn't see, couldn't breathe, and the rest of the packed warehouse was panicking all around me.

Being in the center of a crowd that is freaking out is not pleasant. I got trampled this way and that as they all rushed around just as clueless as I was. My ears rang from the flashbangs detonating, the high pitched ring that could drive a man crazy. But more than that everything burned from the teargas.

I kept my eyes shut tight but they still burned and leaked tears. My mouth and nose felt like they were on fire and a crippling tightness gripped my chest making it hard to breathe. I stumbled around blindly keeping a hold of Astuzia and Vendetta knowing they were all but useless in my current state.

I heard the sounds of gunfire from outside. A battle was raging and I was useless right now. I tried thinking about what I could do but with all that noise and panic and agony it was almost impossible to think about anything. I was only able to react, following the crowd as best as I could in my state. Which was mostly feeling people shove past me in one direction. I stumbled as best I could until I heard the gunfire from inside the warehouse.

Bullets struck my aura and I went down along with a host of other people. Most of them weren't as lucky as me, they didn't have aura. I felt hot blood spray me. One grabbed me before going down forcing me to the ground along with the other dead and dying bodies.

People screamed all around me and I tried to get my bearings. I shuffled away from the dead bodies trying to move before I was gunned down. I felt a rifle butt smash against the back of my head forcing me to the bloody ground. My aura accepted the blow but head spinning I rolled onto my back forcing my eyes open looking up with blurry eyes to a man in a gas mask pointing his rifle right at me.

I leveled Vendetta and fired off a blast of buckshot straight to his chest dropping him as I got up.

More of the strange black clad gunmen were around me and closed in instead of shooting me. I shot another one while another closed the distance and struck me with a baton. It sparked, zapping me. I groaned feeling my muscles contract from the shock. I flinched away and knocked the weapon away with Astuzia before slashing the guy across the face, both cutting him and knocking off the gas mask exposing him to the thick noxious smoke.

Another came in with another electric baton and I similarly parried the blow before riposting with a slash to the wrist making him drop the weapon. It seemed that whoever these guys were they didn't have aura, or at least not all of them.

A loud boom echoed through the warehouse and blinding pain struck my kneecap sending my leg out from under me. Even with my aura being hit by a rubber round right in my knee was painful as hell. Just staying upright took a lot of willpower.

On one knee I raised Vendetta and sighting the shooter racking his shotgun. I exchanged his rubber round for lead killing him as the rubber slug slammed into my shoulder knocking me down onto the ground.

The rest of the attackers descended on me and I was helpless. They stabbed me with their electric batons or they simply beat me with the stocks of their weapons. I tried to fight back, I slashed with my blade and squeezed off a few more shots with Vendetta but it was fruitless. They overpowered me, wrenching the blade and the gun from my hands.

They grabbed my wrists and forced them behind my back, cuffing my hands with strong plastic zip-ties. Another guy started rifling through my pockets and jacket. He pulled out my scroll and tossed it onto the ground and pulled my .357 from it's shoulder holster.