Shootout

"This is officer Yuri Watanabe, we are currently engaged in a shootout with the Manfredi family. They've got us cornered, and if backup doesn't arrive soon, you might as well send someone to clean up our bodies."

She sounds calm despite all the gunshots I can hear in the background, making it sound like she is in a warzone. Well, she is probably experienced in these types of situations.

I leave the mask on and swing back up to the air figuring why not go for one more group of enemies before turning in for the day. I'm sure Watanabe's group would be fine even without my intervention, but it wouldn't hurt to get some goodwill with the police force.

It takes me no time to reach the shootout, and I could already tell from afar that the situation was quite bad by the number of gunshots I heard. I land on a lamp post that is slightly in the shadows to observe the situation.

The group of 10 or so cops have their back against a wall, their cars serving as makeshift barriers against the Manfredi family's men who outnumber them at least 2:1.

The cops poke out their guns above the cars and shoot blindly in the general direction of the enemies hoping to hit somebody, they have no chance to even peek at where they are shooting cause the moment, someone's body sticks out even a little from cover they get targetted by several assault rifles.

That's right, these guys from the Manfredi family are carrying assault rifles. Where do they even get such heavy weaponry? The police force against them is only using pistols.

Throughout the several fights I had been a part of today, I had come face to face with some pistols and even managed to dodge bullets in close range when necessary once I had leveled up a few more times, but an assault rifle will probably rip me to shreds.

What can I realistically do here to help? My first idea is to web their cars to a nearby wall to take away their cover, but somehow I doubt my webs are strong enough to carry an entire car for now.

They have certainly gotten much stronger, strong enough that no ordinary human would be able to break out of them but carrying the weight of an entire car is a bit too much to ask.

I can't just jump in there and start swinging my fists around either, I don't have that big of a death wish.

After observing the firefight for a little longer, I notice that most of the Maggia's men have a habit of resting their guns against the cars whenever they reload. Their reloading also takes a long time as they stumble about with the gun and magazines, probably from lack of experience with using the weapons.

I might be able to use that time to web their guns to the cars, unarming them in the process. The only problem is that there is only one of me while there are twenty or so of them, so even if I am able to unarm a few of them, the rest can refocus their fire on me.

Well, as the kids say, YOLO! Or wait, it's only 2009 right now. Maybe the kids aren't even using that word yet, I could be a pioneer if I started using it first.

I shoot out webs at everyone currently busy reloading their guns, instantaneously disarming seven men. A few unlucky ones have their hands stuck to the cars along with their guns, and one extremely unfortunate guy panics and starts firing the stuck gun, accidentally killing an ally standing next to him.

With eight of the twenty people already out of the fight, the unarmed mafiosos start making noise about getting ambushes, so everyone turns their attention from the police to look for me.

In the next few seconds, while they still don't know where I am, I shoot webs at eight more guns, pulling them out of the hands of their owners and sticking them to a wall that is out of their reach. You would be surprised about how fast I can move my hands with 45 points of dexterity.

I don't get the chance to take away any more guns as the last four armed men find me and open fire.

I sling out of the way to avoid the hail of bullets coming straight at me, but this only works for a few moments before their aim catches up with me, and I am no longer able to dodge the combined fire of four guns.

This whole situation I am in right now makes me realize how dumb I am, why did I start the fight sitting on that damn lamp post instead of taking cover somewhere?

God damn it, Peter, you have 34 intelligence, and you are using none of it.

Seeing as I won't be able to escape them, I instead turn and charge forward into the line of fire, aiming to kick one of the gunners to knock him out. Hopefully, from there, I will be able to take out the rest as they are close by.

I prepare for pain as the bullets hit me, hoping that just maybe my strength stat has reinforced the defense of my suit enough to let me survive against the bullets.

The gunners turn out to be terrible aimers as most bullets still miss despite me charging straight at them. Only two find their way to me dealing a combined amount of 110 damage, which is pretty significant.

I am still a ways away from the enemy, so they have plenty of time to drain the last of my health. Thankfully for me, my mana seems to have a mind of its own as it bursts out, creating a transparent blue silhouette around me.

[New skill created - Magic Shield]

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[Magic Shield - Active] (Level 1 - 1%)

[Cost - Max 250 mana] [Cooldown - 1 minute]

Constructs a shield out of mana to protect you. The shield can take damage equal to 3x the inserted amount of mana before breaking.

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The mafioso are so surprised at seeing their bullets hit my shield and drop to the ground, not even affecting me, that they momentarily stop shooting. They try to start again quickly, but the hesitation gives me enough time to reach the last one I was aiming at to kick his face in and web out the guns from two others' hands.

I turn to the last person who is still armed, he takes aim, but before he can pull the trigger, he is hit in the back of the head and knocked unconscious by Yuri, who snuck up behind him.

Looking around, the rest of the police force have now come out of their hiding place and started arresting the Manfredi family's men that arent already stuck to something with webs.

[Gained 163 experience from the battle]

[Leveled up!]

With the battle ended, I gained all the experience from the defeated enemies, which was enough to level me up once and get me close to yet another levelup.

"For the record, I could have taken him myself," I tell Yuri, who is cuffing the guy she just knocked out.

"You must be the Spiderman all the others are talking about today. Don't relax just yet, this fight isn't over."

"Not over?" I look around, and sure enough, after cuffing all the mafioso, the cops are going back to their cover with their guns pulled, and even more, reinforcements are arriving.

Seeing me looking around confused, Yuri explains, "Whenever the Manfredi family's men fail on their task, the family leader sends Blackwing to clean up. We have never been able to capture the guy and almost always take at least a few casualties when fighting him."

I have never heard of a character named Blackwing before. He must have been someone from one of the numerous comics I had never read before.

"Who is this Blackwing?" I ask for more information on the person, but instead of Yuri answering me, I hear a voice from the top of a building behind me.

"I am."

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Note: So I was planning to add an affection system in a later update to the system but I just got done playing Persona 5 again and thought "Damn wouldn't it be cool to add a confidant / social link system instead?"

The more I continued thinking about this the more I wished I had planned the entire book around that idea since it would take some serious revision of my future ideas and plans for the story to fit it in well but I will still try to think about it since it would be a lot cooler and more unique in my opinion.

Obviously, I wouldn't add the velvet room or personas but the social links can still give op buffs depending on their ranks and such.

I'm gonna think more about this and if I cant fit it in I'm definitely saving it for a future fanfic.

Let me know what you think about this and feel free to give any ideas around this like what kinda bonuses could they all give like exp boosts, max health, stat multipliers, etc. you would like to see.