The cab endured severe traffic, for reasons unknown to both the cab driver and Xavier. For a half hour, the former waited impatiently for things to move along, knowing every single passing minute could have been used to locate Eric and Matt. He was still several hundreds of meters away from the end of the bridge making up 43rd street, and could see the traffic piling up on the one left of him, on 39th street. Both bridges led to Northern Boulevard, which could have been where Eric and Matt were. Xavier hoped they were the ones causing the commotion, and that he was on the right track.

After having to wait a whole minute to drive five meters, Xavier knew he had enough. "Alright, I'm going to walk. I can't stand this traffic. Thanks for the drive."

He got out and shut the door behind him, allowing the driver to relax knowing the stress levels in his car would drop. Xavier began to walk along the side of the road, passing the cars stationed on the bridge, honking at those in front of them. He tried to ignore the glares and stares he received by jealous drivers, who would have loved to walk as well. The end of the bridge was another hundred yards away, but the intersection of 39th and Northern Boulevard was still a fair length to travel.

Xavier pondered over what was going on. He knew the duo had come to New York for an international flight, but why they had picked John F. Kennedy International remained a mystery to him. Newark was another two hours of drive, and would have allowed them to stay low profile, as well as trick the public and the government. Another thing Xavier wondered was whether Matt was even with Eric. He had high hopes he was, but Matt would have made much more intelligent decisions. Also, the plane hijacking in Fargo would not have allowed a wolf to escape; he would have easily been caught red-handed on the plane, while Eric flew away.

When he made the end of the bridge, he could see a long line of pedestrians, trying to find out what was going on. He crossed the road, cutting through traffic-jammed cars, to continue his walk. A little worried, he jogged to pick up the pace, pushing people aside as they clogged the sidewalk more and more. When he finally reached the intersection, past all of bystanders, he saw the horrifying scene.

Firefighters, policemen, paramedics, and two large lumps of metal; one was terribly crushed in the front, the other through the left side. Both were separated by a distance of at least 20 meters, indicating it was as horrible as it seemed. Material from the cars was everywhere. Tow trucks had just begun to remove the carcasses, and police tried their best to detour traffic.

Xavier was astonished. He could not have even imagined the ordeal ending that way; a huge collision with another vehicle during a police chase. He figured Eric was dead, and if not, he had been caught by the police in his injuries. He turned to a man beside him. "Is everyone alright?"

"Well, I think the first car over here had one driver, and he was taken away by the ambulances. The second car had Eric, that guy from the news in it, along with another female passenger. He seemed fine since he flew away with the other passenger in his arms, and then police chased him again."

"He's alive? Thank goodness...", he thought, relieved he had not caused his death after all. He turned back toward the man, thinking of Matt. "Any sign of that Matt guy?"

"Nope, not that I've seen."

Xavier figured his hypothesis was correct. Matt was gone. "So, where did Eric go?"

"I'm not sure, actually. I think he went off near 38th or 37th, somewhere around there."

Xavier sighed. He thanked the man for his cooperation and watched the tow trucks remove the rubble off of the roads. He thought of hitching a taxi once more to go where Eric was, however the nearby street was being used as a detour, and with the heavy traffic, he probably would not have even made it by the next day. He hoped Eric was faring well.

...

For the first time since Alan Parker qualified his team as a "successful" one, nothing went on in the surveillance room. Everyone excluding a few analysts twiddled their thumbs, staring at the ceiling, and simply slacked off. Parker was trying his best to phone Tom Benson, with absolutely no success each and every time. One of the employees, tired of doing nothing, decided to speak.

"I really hope we're getting paid for doing nothing."

Alan looked up from his phone, and gave the worker an unimpressed stare. The analyst continued to lock him with his eyes. "Well, what? We're sitting here doing absolutely nothing. I'm just asking, because if I'm not getting paid for this time, I think I have the right to leave. You already ordered us to call off the police forces from interfering with Echo, and now that you closed your half of the case, we don't have much else to do other than watch the situation unfold."

“Of course you're getting paid, idiot. And you'll all be getting a nice bonus if we get all of this worked out... except, for you of course, Mr. Moneybags."

As the embarrassed worker sunk into his seat in shame, another rose. "I've got a new report on Echo", she said, waiting for everyone's attention. "Two of them came out of the alleys empty handed and claimed the whole squad was massacred."

Gasps, grunts, and surprised curses filled the room in a matter of seconds. She continued. "They say their squad leader told them to get out to safety, while he remained there. They presume he wanted to fight him."

Alan let out an internal sigh of relief, but showed faux frustration on the outside. "God damn it... It's our best squad, and he kills them off in thirty minutes. This whole case is useless."

"Hang on now", she warned. "He's not dead yet."

...

"Well, well", Markus murmured. "I finally get to meet the dragon face to face. It's an honor."

The dragon was not very impressed. "Are we fighting, or do I have to shut your mouth for you?"

"Whoa, whoa there. Where's the rush? You killed my whole team, and everyone else is scared to face you. I think you can spare some time to talk." No answer came, so Markus continued. "I see you let your berserk mode take over, huh Eric? Wise move, I must say. I suppose if you have no idea how to fight, you might as well let someone else do it for you, right?" He laughed.

Eric did not appreciate the comment very much, but he had no control over his actions. The dragon still did not seem to care. "I don't need you to criticize me on how I fight. Now, I'd like to get this over with, but you're still talking, and I'm growing impatient. I could simply kill you right now if I wanted to, so hurry up."

"Of course. I wouldn't want to ruin your busy schedule. What is it today? Kill the innocent, fry the poor, and save the rich for last?"

The dragon had enough. "You forgot about the part where I kill you." He threw a punch destined for the head, but in an unexpected move, Markus dodged it to the left, and jumped into the air, spinning counter-clockwise, and landing a large kick to the jaw. This made the dragon fall back a little, hitting against the wall, but he recovered after a few seconds.

"Didn't expect that did you? Or maybe it's just because you're used to killing people in the shadows."

The dragon got back into fighting position, ready for anything else the man had in store. There was a bit of silence, since neither wanted to make the first move. After a few moments, seeing things were going nowhere, Markus decided to do so. He advanced towards the dragon, and threw a punch, which the dragon caught and twisted, before throwing him against the wall in front of him. As he went for an agonizing slam to the ribs, Markus sidestepped away, and slammed an elbow in his sides. After completing it, he launched an upper cut, which hit him once again in the jaw, making the dragon back up once again, snarling at the pain.

Markus, however, was not done. He charged the dragon with his fists clenched, and attempted another rotating kick, which landed straight into his target's stomach, sending him into the ground. Markus slowly approached the injured dragon, kicking him hard in the thigh.

"Jesus Christ, I thought you were a little tougher than that", Markus stated as he wiped the blood from his cheek, caused by the earlier throw in the wall.

The dragon quickly opened his eyes, and wrapped his nearby tail around Markus' leg. He then tripped him by colliding it against the other, sending him to the floor as well. The dragon got up, picked up the squad leader by the collar, and exhaled smoke from his snout, fogging his helmet visor. He then threw him against one of the dumpsters, his back first. The squad leader fell hard onto the ground, and quickly removed his helmet due to his impaired vision, only to encounter the foot of the dragon rest atop of his face. He yelled in pain as his opponent applied pressure, crushing his figure When Markus realized his nose had begun to break, he rapidly reached for his pocket knife, and slashed the dragon in the lower leg, cutting through his scales and into the skin. The dragon grunted, and backed off, fists in position once more.

Markus rose again, rubbing his nose, feeling if it was broken. “Hmm, you're not that bad, dragon. I didn't expect you to be so weak, however."

The dragon let out another grunt, glimpsing at his new wound, which continued to shed blood. "First of all, my name is Eric. Second of all, no weapons."

Markus took a beat before pointing at the dragon's tail, which swayed gently. "And what do you call that, dragon?"

The dragon paused and shut his eyes. Eric noticed he strangely respected rules when it came to fighting, which came as a surprise to him. The dragon sighed, knowing he was right. "Very well."

The fight restarted with an opening move by Markus. He jumped to create momentum, and went for a punch. The dragon noticed this quite easily, and prepared to catch it for a counter-attack; however, Markus faked his move, initiating a low kick to the chest instead, pushing the dragon back once again. Blade held in hand, the man in the suit attempted a few stabs, which the dragon dodged frantically. He managed to catch the arm of the knifeman on one attempt, throwing back a punch in the face in succession, and sent him stumbling backwards. The dragon then followed with a full rotation, allowing his tail to whip freely, slamming Markus in the stomach, and sending him to the ground.

As the dragon approached fast, Markus used his arms to lift himself off the ground, and avoided a large punch. He returned the attempt with a knee to the stomach, forcing the dragon to bend forward in pain, and continued his attack with an elbow to the dragon's exposed neck, landing point blank into the gunshot wound from the police chase. This severely hurt him, and it showed when he fell to the ground, growling in pain. Unlike the last takedowns, this one seemed to have lasted much longer. Markus saw his chance. He approached quickly, avoiding the tail which caused him to fall the last time, and placed his military grade steel-toe boot onto the gunshot wound, increasing the pain. The beast began to yell, unable to contain the pain spreading inside him. Each passing second resembled a hit to the head with a baseball bat, but in this case, he remained conscious.

"How does that feel?", Marcus gloated, increasing the shift of weight to his foot and watching the dragon yell in agony. "This is for all the innocent people you took life from!"

It was too much pain, even for the dragon. He needed to escape; otherwise he would have possibly lost consciousness over the pain. Finally, he got a hold of the man by the leg, and pierced his claws deep into the skin, through the tendon and muscle, until he felt the bone. Markus took this by surprise and cried in immense pain, until the dragon finally released his grasp. The former came up to his knees, watching Markus fall to the ground, grabbing his leg, and trying to ease the increasing pain. The dragon was also trying to recover from the attack he had succumbed to, noticing blood begin to fall from his wound again.

Rage began to boil inside the dragon. He had enough. While the man continued to squirm in pain, the dragon grabbed him, and brought him to his face. "Now I'm pissed. This fight's over."

He swung the pain-filled body back a bit to gain momentum, and subsequently launched it directly into the wall. Markus hit his knee into the concrete, shattering it into pieces, further augmenting the already excruciating sting travelling through his body. But the dragon was not through. He walked over to Markus and kicked him hard into the ribs, twice, breaking additional bones which endangered the squad leader's internal organs. At this point, Marcus had lost his voice over the yelling, which had toned down. Blood began to flow everywhere, as he realized he did not have much longer to live.

Markus lied motionless, the pain restricting him from speaking. Markus - and Eric - were both stunned to see the dragon march away from the site, further into the alleys. Eric had no idea what he was planning to do. The red beast walked through a few corridors, looking for something of interest. He did not seem to know where he was going, which made Eric question his actions even further. When the dragon finally found what he was looking for, however, Eric let out an internal gasp, and tried to keep the dragon from reaching its target - Diane.

"No! What the hell are you going to do to her?! Leave her alone, she's hurt!"

No answer. The dragon picked up the body and read its pulse; a very small one, but she was still alive. He accepted this and dragged her back to the fight zone, knowing Markus would not have moved in his state. Upon reaching the destination, the dragon piled Diane onto the cliffhanging body which had already been lying there. Satisfied, he blocked out Eric's ranting and bent down, checking Marcus' pockets. When he found what he wanted, he smiled and pulled it out - a handgun. Eric had just about enough.

"What the fuck are you trying to pull?! You're going to kill them? Diane can be saved! She's not dead!"

"It doesn't matter", the dragon spoke aloud. "She made the mistake of coming along with us and dragging us down. She revealed our location to the police and to the passengers in the plane to New York. She's a pest, and soon enough, a deadpest."

"No! I can't let you kill her!" Eric tried his best to try and take control, but the dragon's rage fueled by his recent fight kept his own mind impenetrable, and out of reach. The dragon cocked the handgun. There was nothing Eric could do anymore. He took aim at the crossing point of both bodies on the ground, and placed his finger on the trigger.

"Time's up."

Suddenly, another sound of a cocking gun was heard, followed by the cold sensation of a gun barrel against the wound on his neck. The dragon froze. Markus' eyes drooped in his direction; it was Frank. This was obvious since his whole suit was fried, as well as some of his own skin underneath it. He had the dragon trapped; if the dragon shot his gun and killed the two, Frank would shoot his and kill the dragon. If the dragon turned around, Frank would shoot him then as well. Nothing could be done, and if there was something, it was not worth risking his life.

"For you, that is."

The dragon closed his eyes slowly, lowered his hand wielding the gun, and dropped it. When he revealed his eyes, the yellow glow caused by berserk mode was gone, placing Eric back in control. The former slowly lifted his claws up into the air and placed them behind his neck, allowing Frank to grab his handcuffs and wrap them around the perpetrator's wrists. Hands behind his back, Eric allowed his captor to lead him out of the alleys and toward a police car.

He had been defeated.