Meanwhile, somewhere in the square...
Scarlet, Kean, Tyga, and Chuck were tossed backstage. Well, the back of the burning stage was just a row of empty houses and buildings. Thankfully, the chaos hadn’t crossed over yet, mostly because of the fire spreading across the stage.
"Ouch..." Kean hissed as he checked his arm, where a portion of his skin had been burned.
Even though Baby managed to get them out of the burning cage, the heat had been enough to scald them. Now that they were finally safe, the prickling pain began to register.
Scarlet, on the other hand, busily dusted off the hem of her pants, which had briefly caught fire. She also had visible burns on her arm, while Tyga had one on his leg. But because his leg was still numb, Tyga seemed fine—for now.
As for Chuck, even though he wasn’t paralyzed like them, he sat there with wide, blank eyes.
"What did I just witness?" Chuck blurted out, still unable to process everything he had seen and the sheer number of twists that had occurred.
First, the spectacle arranged by the governor, which included them. Then Lola’s appearance. Then, the way she fought and ignited chaos. And then Atlas’s arrival.
But instead of restoring order, Atlas had thrown the entire city into absolute madness.
Chuck believed it was this chaos that caused a fire meant for another target to hit their cage instead.
He wasn’t wrong.
That was exactly what happened—he just didn’t know that the bullet had originally been meant for Lola, only for Haji—whom Baby had freed first—to divert it, causing the shot to strike their cage instead.
Now, everyone was fighting.
"She... no, he..." Chuck mumbled, unsure which part unsettled him more—Lola’s insanity, or the fact that Atlas had entered the battlefield himself.
That man would never do that.
This was the first time.
Well, not technically the first. There was one incident where Atlas lost control, but that was justified. It involved the twins. And even then, it wasn’t anything like this.
Before Chuck could decide what to focus on, a bucketful of water was suddenly dumped over his head.
"Huh?" Chuck snapped out of his daze as icy water soaked him.
Turning his head, he saw Baby tossing the empty bucket aside and picking up another. This time, Baby faced the trio on the ground and, without a word, splashed water over them as well.
The three shut their eyes and held their breath, bracing themselves. There was nothing else they could do. Baby emptied four buckets in total, making sure they were drenched and cooled down.
"Hah... that’s... that’s enough," Scarlet hissed, feeling even more pathetic now. She dragged a hand down her face before snapping her eyes up at Baby. Despite the hesitation and wounded pride tightening her throat, she still forced out a, "Thanks."
The others wiped water from their faces, already feeling some relief from the cooling shock.
Baby studied the four of them before letting out a faint sigh of relief.
"I think you already know what’s going to happen to this place," he said as he approached, pulling items from the pockets of his cargo pants. "This territory will soon be under the Order, and right now, that is the order we’re executing."
He tossed each of them sealed syringes, followed by small vials.
"We’ll talk about what happened to your group later," Baby continued, tossing the last vial to Chuck, who caught it midair. "For now, try to redeem yourselves. Do what you can to lessen your punishments once this is over."
Tyga and Kean lowered their heads, their expressions hard. They understood. Throughout the entire mission, they had been useless. They hadn’t helped—if anything, they’d made things worse.
The humiliation burned more than their injuries.
The two couldn’t help but glare at Chuck, silently blaming him for everything. If not for Chuck, they wouldn’t have been delayed. They wouldn’t have been ambushed. They wouldn’t have almost been burned alive.
Scarlet, however, didn’t lower her head. She kept her gaze on Baby, who held it long enough to make it clear he wasn’t mocking them. He was simply stating facts.
"Don’t worry," Baby said. "You’re not the only ones who screwed up. A lot of things went wrong tonight. But one thing remains true—this wouldn’t have escalated this much if not for you."
"Lucky for you, the madam is with you on this mission," he added. His eyes flicked briefly to Chuck, as if the words were meant especially for him. "You compromised your comms. You almost compromised the entire operation. If not for her, we wouldn’t have had any advantage at all."
"You got yourselves caught. You were about to be publicly executed," he continued. "And she’s the one who came to save your asses. Don’t forget that, Chuck. The people you dismissed as weak and useless are the ones who made this mission possible."
Izu. Pika. Florida. Ransom. Lola.
People who, under normal circumstances, wouldn’t stand out much. Yet in this mission, each of them fulfilled at least one role—both for the original objective and this added rescue operation for the so-called elite.
"Anyway," Baby said, snapping his gaze away from Chuck to the others, "those will help you regain mobility. Your inhibitors were taken too. Good thing the madam knows someone named Long, who gave her antidotes—just in case."
From what Baby heard, Long had known about the drugs, weapons, and ammunition circulating through the territory. That knowledge gave him an idea of what might be used. The antidotes were meant for emergencies.
This just happened to be one.
"Once you can stand," Baby added as he turned away, "either pick up your weapons and do something about this chaos—or wait it out."
He paused mid-step.
"Either way, find something else to wear. Your clothes are still flammable."
His blunt words left the four of them staring at his broad back. Before he could walk off completely, Scarlet spoke up.
"What about the Bellemonte men we came here for?"
Baby paused and glanced over his shoulder. "The madam already rescued four of them. Only one is missing, and they’re already searching."
With that, he continued walking, leaving the four of them frozen in shock.
"She... she already rescued them all...?" Chuck muttered, eyes still fixed in Baby’s direction.
"Only one is missing?" Tyga whispered, while Scarlet remained speechless. "Isn’t there supposed to be three Bellemonte captives because the first two were assumed dead?"
Then Kean broke the silence, making them all look at each other.
"So... what are we supposed to do now," he asked quietly, "when they already did all the heavy lifting?"