Mess With Them, You Mess With Us (Chenford, Wopez ,Marper)

Part 2 - The Grudge

~Flashback, 8 years prior~

Harper was a UC in the narcotics division, Lopez was a regular P2 patrol officer, having only just completed her rookie period. Bradford was a P2 as well, but had been for a little over 2 years.

Harper's UC persona was called Stacey, she was a heavy makeup-wearing criminal who ran with Dario Lamente's crew, running drugs, women and guns. At the time, this gang was the fastest growing criminal operation in Southern California, and desperately needed to be stopped. The crime levels on the streets were multiplying substantially, as well as the daily number of OD's. They were cutting corners and cutting their drugs with cheaper, toxic chemicals like rat poison, landing dozens of people in the ER or dead every single day. Stacey entered the operation as a previous sex worker turned brothel owner, and she quickly climbed her way up the ladder of Dario's operation. She spoke and acted with purpose, sure to terrify the hell out of anyone who dared give her a crossed word. Despite her small stature, she was one hell of a dangerous woman. Harper played the part effortlessly, and every higher-up in the crew respected her. She had been gathering intel and evidence for the past three months, and caught wind of a new development. Dario had huge plans, and was about to expand his operation three-fold. It was time to bring the whole thing down, but it wasn't going to be easy.

In response, the LAPD, along with the DEA, launched a huge task-force to help Harper take them down. She was still in the field, but managed to sneak out into a nearby trailer, where a few people were waiting for a briefing. Inside the trailer, were DEA Special Agent Foster, head of the task force, a few members from SWAT, Lieutenant Jett from Metro, Sergeant Grey from Mid-Wilshire, Officers Bradford, Lopez and both of their former TOs: Officers Knowles and Pietro. This was the first time Bradford and Lopez met Harper. She went into detail about what she knew of the operations, any potential weak links, and the locations they were planning on using for distribution of the drugs. She also informed them about the locations of the brothels under their control, disguised as Karaoke bars, which were also being used to launder drug money. There were five locations, so they mobilised every available member of SWAT, as well as Metro, to assist, ensuring they had enough manpower to take them over and cripple their operations. Bradford, Lopez and their former TOs were assigned to the last known locations of the higher-ups. The three biggest names, were Lamente, a man called Sergio Forcota and another called Clyde Mongola. Bradford and Knowles, along with some other officers were out to get Forcota, and Lopez and Pietro were assigned to Mongola. Harper would stay hidden for as long as she could, but was prepared to blow her cover to assist in Lamente's arrest if necessary.

Forcota was in a luxury penthouse apartment in the Brookside area, off Wilshire Boulevard. They obtained a wire-tap warrant for his phone, as well as a no-knock warrant for his apartment. A team inside the trailer were monitoring his phone, and confirmed he was inside the apartment. They had approximately 10 minutes before he was due to leave and meet Mongola, so they immediately burst into the apartment, ready to apprehend him. They had to make this quick, and so did Lopez's team, because if either of them took longer than 10 minutes, one of the suspects would catch wind of the situation. "POLICE! IT'S OVER SERGIO, GIVE IT UP, HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD." Knowles shouted. There were two men in the main room of the apartment, who, quick as a flash, turned around and started firing handguns at them. Sergio was nowhere to be seen at this current moment. Tim dove sideways, positioning himself behind an expensive-looking bookshelf to shield himself from the bullets. One of the supporting officers was hit, so another radioed in that an officer was down, but the hard work wasn't over yet. Knowles was busy shooting back, defending himself against Sergio's security, so Bradford took the opportunity to sneak into another room and look for Sergio, while the suspects were occupied and weren't focusing on him. He crept silently around the corner and noticed a door ever so slightly ajar. He took a deep breath and silently advanced towards the door; he knew it was a bad idea to do this on his own, but he really wanted to land a high profile arrest, and also knew they were on a time crunch, so felt as if he had no choice. He waited for a moment, peering through the gap in the door. Sergio was in there, armed with a handgun, pacing around the room. It wasn't as if he could escape out the window, as they were on the 64th floor, which clearly made him nervous. Tim thought back to his academy training, and everything he had learned during his first few years on the force, searching for something which might help him in this situation. If he made the wrong move or breached too quickly, Sergio would just shoot him in the head, and he would be dead. That's when he remembered, most criminals go straight for the head, so if he could get in there quick and duck immediately, he would have a shot. So, that's exactly what he did. He shoved the door open with his side, rushed forwards and ducked at the same time. As anticipated, Sergio immediately pulled out his gun and fired it at Tim's head. In the meantime, he was able to get close enough to him to throw himself on top of him, knocking the gun out of his hand. What ensued next was a brutal physical fight; Sergio slammed Tim head-first against the glass window pane repeatedly, hands firmly clutching his neck and squeezing the air out of his lungs, but he didn't give in. Instead, he waited for an opportunity to target his nether regions, as, being a man himself, he knew that would be his best shot at temporarily disarming him and avoiding suffocation. He leaned against Sergio's arms which were holding him against the window, propelled both his legs forward, and landed a hard kick with both feet to Sergio's private area. He grunted out in pain, doubled over and momentarily released his grip on Tim's neck. He quickly spun Sergio around and jumped on top of him, sending him crashing to the floor. He then kneeled on Sergio's back with his entire body weight, meaning he couldn't get up, forced his hands around his back and put the handcuffs on him as quickly as he possibly could. Next, he breathlessly announced into his radio "Forcota in custody, code 4". Adrenaline was coursing through his veins; this was a high unlike anything else he had experienced. He strode out into the main room of the apartment, with Forcota in cuffs, and his head held high. The other officers had an expression of awe on their faces; despite being the least experienced officer on scene, they let Bradford be the one to escort the suspect to the shop waiting outside; he had earned it.