The ArtTech security's rifles got two settings: lethal and stun. There is a switch on the rifle that determines the amount of power used to ionize the plasma; consequently, the strength of the plasma differs.

When the security guards and droids were firing blank shots into the air, the rifle was on stun. The rage of the plasma under this state was extremely short, and the damage was very low. However, most unionists did not know about these details. All they saw were advanced plasma rifles, and anybody with a bit of common sense knew that plasma rifle was one of the most dangerous SWAT-grade weapons.

Michael couldn't remember whom, but a person had decided to seize a rifle from the security. He took a musician's flute as a weapon and charged towards a guard, attempting to smash him in the head with the flute like a metal pipe. The security guard, with his extensive trainings under ArtTech, easily dodged the pipe and shoved his rifle into the assailant's chest to stun him at point blank. The assailant flew back for several meters with the force of impact.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please freeze what you are doing now and calmly return to your seats, or force will be used!" Johnson was trying to take back control of the situation, but nobody bothered to stop and listen to him.

The unionists pointed at that security guard and yelled, "They are shooting civilians! They are tyrannical capitalist henchmen!"

More unionists charged at that security guard and were welcomed by returning fire form more guards and droids. Despite the overwhelming power of the rifles, the security was still highly outnumbered. The guards were soon overtaken by the flood of unionists, and many of them got tackled to the ground with their rifles seized away. The droids meanwhile were constantly moving among the mobs and stunning them, but soon enough, the mobs had realized that they didn't need to be as kind to the droids as they were to fellow human beings. Many people took flutes, violins, guitars, and other kinds of heavy objects to smash the droids. Although they had a surface made of metal alloys, they still couldn't stand such intense attack. Many of them began to glitch around, and the mobs then plucked out their wires.

The people who managed to grab a rifle were now firing at droids at people alike. They fired in stun mode for a while, but soon realized they could switch to lethal mode. After a minute, the plasma had scarred the room completely that the floor was either burnt black with the electricity from the rifles or dyed red with people's wounds.

It was such a gruesome chaos — a mess of white plasma, silver glints of steel, and red flesh and blood — that one could only differentiate people based on their clothing. Those wearing the unionist armband and those who didn't. Those who flashed their ArtTech badge and those who didn't. Those who wore expensive suits and those who didn't.

Michael was frozen in place. He watched as a fuming technologist produced a hidden dagger and plunged it into the chest of a unionist. Not too far from them, a unionist fired at a helpless student who futilely tried to shield himself with his backpack. A thin blue white beam emitted from the muzzle of the rifle and pierced through both the bag and the student, leaving a big burned hole on the point of impact. That student fell down and died before he could scream. The next second, however, the back of the unionist's head was bashed in by a guitar, and his rifle was taken away by another person.

Three unionists noticed the unconscious body of Jay and the laser knife in his hand, and they assumed that Jay must be some wealthy man who was in possession of a powerful weapon and quite a lot of cash, because one of them immediately decided to kick the knife out of Jay's hand towards his gangs, and then he picked up Jay's arms and dragged him towards his gang. From the look on their faces, they probably wanted to strip Jay off any wealth, that was, his clothes and accessories.

"Stay away from my friend," Alexandra walked over and yelled, and she punched the gang leader in his face. Both Michael and Nicholas were shocked by her courage, especially because that man was at least five inches taller.

Michael rushed over and put his hand over Jay's face, "Jay, stay with me! Listen. You need to get up!"

The gang leader turned around and spitted some blood on the floor beside him. "Bitch, I'll teach you how to talk to a man properly." He dropped Jay's torso onto the floor and advanced towards Alexandra with the laser knife newly picked up, a distorted and ugly smile of greed on his face.

Alexandra turned his face away in disgust. "I only keep my lady etiquette around gentlemen." Before she even finished speaking, she lashed out her foot up right at the man's groin. He stepped back with his face twitching painfully as spasms of agony shot up his body.

"Damn! You never told me Alexandra's such a badass," Michael whispered to Nicholas.

"Oh bitch, you'll regret this." The gang leader seethed silently as he tried to step forward, "You will lose more than your dignity here. You will be begging me to stop."

Michael and Nicholas were about to step up to help Alexandra but the two other gang members stepped up and confronted them. Both of the gangsters were taller and stronger than Michael and Nicholas.

Nicholas gave Michael a look and glanced back at the two members. Michael faintly understood the meaning behind it. If Nicholas was to do what Michael thought he would do, then that would be extremely risky, and the price for failure could be fatal.

"Hey man, I can see that you are a little bit concerned with something. You don't seem to be really focused," Nicholas said to the gang member in front of him. That gangster hesitated for a moment and then hissed at Nicholas. His shoulder was turned, ready to deliver a punch at any time.

"Was it your parents? Your wife? Your friend? Oh yes, it was your wife. How was she? Was she not acting like herself?"

Michael added on to the dramatic effect of this, "Oh, and your friend right beside you. Look at the way he's standing. He's back seems a bit sore doesn't it. Maybe he used it a bit too much last night? Wait your wife was cheating on you? Oh shit. That would be so coincidental."

The two gangsters exchanged a fierce look of distrust at each other, as if they were trying to pry out each other's brains for an explanation. It was only a second, but it was enough. Nicholas through out a quick and accurate punch at his man's throat, and Michael grabbed his own man's neck and kneed him in the solar plexus. The two man fell back a few steps and cried in pain, but soon enough they had regained their composure and fell back into the battle stance; only this time, their eyes were filled with the urge to kill.

"Michael, pistol now!" Nicholas commanded.

Michael slipped off the cufflinks from his left sleeve and followed Amelia's instructions word for word — latch together the two long ends, spin them ninety degrees, and then rotate the disk shape two times. Well, he did that, and he was expecting something magical to happen. Maybe some transformers movie effects or something that would shape shift the cufflink into a gun, but nothing happened. This thing looked nothing like a plasma pistol.

"Idiot, you done over there? I'll hold them back." Nicholas yelled in his old scornful tone. It didn't take a genius to figure that he was extremely anxious.

Nicholas threw a punch at the leading gangster's face, but this time he was ready and easily dodged it. A roundhouse kick was returned and struck Nicholas on the ribs. The second gangster then tried to punch Nicholas in face. Nicholas spun his torso and used his arms to block it, but he consequently lost his balance and was tackled to the floor.

"Michael! Really need some help here!"

Michael was still fumbling around the device. Now it just looked like a ring, but so what, how could he use it. He suddenly noticed a small row of text on the end of the device, at the place that somewhat resembled an emitter. There was a small row of text engraved, "Front towards enemy."

Yeah, front towards enemy, like I didn't know that. Then Michael suddenly had a whimsical idea. He flipped the center of the disc upwards and made it into a ring shape, and he slid it over his index finger. Now this device resembled a ring with a rectangular emitter pointing in the same direction as Michael's finger, and there's a small disc on top that acted as a crosshairs.

"Stop right there!" Michael pointed the smaller-than-life "plasma pistol" at the man that pinned Nicholas down.

That man lifted his head and hesitated there for a second. He looked more bewildered than scared. The other man was also staring at the device in Michael's hand.

Michael look down and realized something. Shit there wasn't a trigger. How could anyone fire this thing?

Michael turned and aimed at the other man. He didn't even respond. He just stared.

Oh god. What if this thing couldn't work. Michael thought about this as his fist tightened up. Then suddenly, Michael's hand was knocked back by the hard recoil as a thin plasma beam fired out of the emitter and struck the man on his arm. Immediately, the hole burned through and blood erupted from the wound, followed by a hoarse cry of pain.

Michael turned around and aimed at the gangster who was attacking Nicholas, but he had scrambled onto his feet and dashed away in fear already.

At this moment, the gang leader pinned Alexandra on the wall. His hand was holding the laser knife as he tried to stab it into Alexandra's shoulder, but her hand grabbed onto his wrist and tried to push his hands away. But the man was too strong. His hand gradually pushed forward as the tip of the laser seared into Alexandra's left upper arm.

The gang leader's lips curled upwards contemptuously as he tried to push the laser blade deeper into Alexandra's arm, but he suddenly lost his balance as an excruciating pain attacked his left knee. He fell down and saw that his knee was completely devastated by a plasma.

Nicholas ran over to check if Alexandra was okay — his usual arrogant slow walk was replaced by a hurried sprint. Alexandra repeatedly said she was fine, but Nicholas still tore down the right sleeve of his shirt and bandaged Alexandra's wound.

Then he punched a few buttons on his Bracelet, "Agent Amelia. Jay is down. Alexandra is also injured."

After ensuring Alexandra's condition, Michael rushed over to the unconscious Jay.

"Jay! Are you with me, wake up!" No response from Jay.

"Nicholas, hold on to Jay's right while I got his left. We gotta get him out of here." Michael's voice was filled with a stern, commanding tone.

Nicholas didn't protest and followed, "Alexandra, can you still walk?"

"Yes. The wound was on my arm."

The four of them were just trying to move to the corner of the auditorium to seek an exit when they realized that a ring of mixed people besieged them. All of them were looking hungrily towards the miniature plasma pistol on Michael's finger and the laser knife in Alexandra's hand.

Jay stirred in Michael and Nicholas' grip and opened his eyes slowly. Michael saw it and called out, "Jay's awake! Thank god Jay's awake!"

Michael set Jay down slowly as Jay tried to stand and walk while using a chair as an aid.

"As you can see here, we've got ourselves in a big mess." Michael said desperately to Jay and motioned around.

More people encircled them. Most of them had some kind of wound on their body, and a lot of them had and burns over their limbs and faces. To make matters worse, they were armed with some simple but brutish weapons — pieces of wooden planks with sharp ends, makeshift knives made of paper cutters, and other gadgets like pepper sprays, blow torches, and tasers. Some of them wore looks of bloodlust while others had countenance of desperation to survive, but no matter what, it could be certain that they would tear down Michael's team to reach their goal.

Michael tried to run away, but before he could reach out one foot, all of the people jumped into combat stances. He suddenly realized that some of them were fighting to claim the weapons they were holding while others believed that Michael's team was a threat to their lives and must be neutralized..

Michael finally knew why people said that you should never play with god's weapons when you were just a mortal