FAKE Ficlet: Lethal Force
Title: Lethal Force
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee, JJ, Max Fork.
Rating: PG
Setting: Vol. 5, Act 15.
Summary: JJ’s old friend Max transferring to the 27th Precinct should have been a cause for celebration, but it turns out to be anything but.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 30: Lethal at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
No good cop ever enjoys having to take someone’s life, and if they have to use their guns at all, most of the time they’ll shoot to wound if at all possible, but there are still times when using lethal force is unavoidable. As a police sniper, Ryo has faced that situation more often than the majority of uniformed officers and detectives.
In hostage situations, particularly if the hostage is being used as a human shield, you hit whatever part of the perp you can get a clear shot at, which means that a headshot is sometimes the only option available. If it’s a choice between the life of the hostage and that of the scumbag holding a gun to an innocent person’s head, there isn’t even a choice to be made. If the hostage-taker survives to be prosecuted, fine. If not… Well, that just saves the taxpayers’ money.
Not that killing even a murdering scumbag is something Ryo, or any other cop worth his salt, relishes, but it isn’t something he should have to lose any sleep over either. You do what you have to do and then you move on, hoping you won’t have to take another life anytime soon.
This is different though; it always is when it’s up close and personal, and what makes it even worse is that the perp is also a fellow cop, albeit one who’s gone bad. No cop expects to be involved in a shootout while inside their own stationhouse; how much safer can you be than when you’re surrounded by fellow cops? Except that’s not the case this time.
Max Fork is JJ’s friend, or at least, he used to be. According to JJ, he was a man who hated having to so much as draw his gun, never mind use it, and yet he’s already shot and killed the evidence room clerk, injured Drake, handcuffed JJ to the steel bars of the evidence cage, pistol-whipped him, and now has his gun aimed at him. So much for friendship and loyalty; Max has left all that far behind, and for what? For the chance to get rich by funnelling confiscated drugs back out onto the street?
Ryo neither knows nor cares what might have happened to Max to make him go on the take; it’s not important. What matters is that Max is armed and dangerous, responsible for at least one cold-blooded murder, and can’t be allowed to get away with it.
There’s only one way out of the evidence room, via a set of stairs that are currently blocked by Ryo, with Dee right at his shoulder. As Max turns his gun on them, they don’t hesitate; they shoot at practically the same instant, not giving Max a chance to pull the trigger, and which of them fires the killing shot is immaterial. JJ’s former friend falls to the ground, bleeding out.
No good cop ever enjoys having to take a life, but sometimes they’re not given any choice.
The End
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee, JJ, Max Fork.
Rating: PG
Setting: Vol. 5, Act 15.
Summary: JJ’s old friend Max transferring to the 27th Precinct should have been a cause for celebration, but it turns out to be anything but.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 30: Lethal at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
No good cop ever enjoys having to take someone’s life, and if they have to use their guns at all, most of the time they’ll shoot to wound if at all possible, but there are still times when using lethal force is unavoidable. As a police sniper, Ryo has faced that situation more often than the majority of uniformed officers and detectives.
In hostage situations, particularly if the hostage is being used as a human shield, you hit whatever part of the perp you can get a clear shot at, which means that a headshot is sometimes the only option available. If it’s a choice between the life of the hostage and that of the scumbag holding a gun to an innocent person’s head, there isn’t even a choice to be made. If the hostage-taker survives to be prosecuted, fine. If not… Well, that just saves the taxpayers’ money.
Not that killing even a murdering scumbag is something Ryo, or any other cop worth his salt, relishes, but it isn’t something he should have to lose any sleep over either. You do what you have to do and then you move on, hoping you won’t have to take another life anytime soon.
This is different though; it always is when it’s up close and personal, and what makes it even worse is that the perp is also a fellow cop, albeit one who’s gone bad. No cop expects to be involved in a shootout while inside their own stationhouse; how much safer can you be than when you’re surrounded by fellow cops? Except that’s not the case this time.
Max Fork is JJ’s friend, or at least, he used to be. According to JJ, he was a man who hated having to so much as draw his gun, never mind use it, and yet he’s already shot and killed the evidence room clerk, injured Drake, handcuffed JJ to the steel bars of the evidence cage, pistol-whipped him, and now has his gun aimed at him. So much for friendship and loyalty; Max has left all that far behind, and for what? For the chance to get rich by funnelling confiscated drugs back out onto the street?
Ryo neither knows nor cares what might have happened to Max to make him go on the take; it’s not important. What matters is that Max is armed and dangerous, responsible for at least one cold-blooded murder, and can’t be allowed to get away with it.
There’s only one way out of the evidence room, via a set of stairs that are currently blocked by Ryo, with Dee right at his shoulder. As Max turns his gun on them, they don’t hesitate; they shoot at practically the same instant, not giving Max a chance to pull the trigger, and which of them fires the killing shot is immaterial. JJ’s former friend falls to the ground, bleeding out.
No good cop ever enjoys having to take a life, but sometimes they’re not given any choice.
The End