Parker and Claude went up the stairs leading to the third floor. Their walk up the stairs was awkward and silence filled the stairwell, until the man with the panda mask broke the silence.

“Hey, uh, Parker, is it? You okay man? You seem a bit tired.”

“I guess I am. You must be Claude, right? Listen, I’ve got more important stuff to do than being a hostage for Luca’s ex-employers. This is madness, all of it.”

“Hey, that’s why were here fo-“

“Look panda dude, I appreciate the effort. But that doesn’t change the fact that we all have to fix Luca’s mess and kill every last fucker in here. I can just leave right now, you know? You can do that too.” Parker stopped in his tracks, staring at Claude from a couple of steps infront of him.

“Parker…we can’t do that and you know it. Our friends are here, too. I doubt they have had the same idea like you just did. We can’t allow ourselves to leave them hanging. We came to rescue you people, right?”

“Don’t give me that Three Musketeers shit. Half of those people are self-absorbed killers. Hell, even we are. I don’t care if it’s the russian mafia or some wannabe hitmen organization, they all can suck a limp dick hanging off a dead horse. Do you think I wanted to be involved in this? Neither me, nor Mitis nor Cathy wanted to end up as hostages. And now every fine person from our patriotic help group has come to this place to kill even more people.” Parker hesitantly continued to go up the stairs. Silence creeped on them once more.

The duo reached the door leading to the main room of the third floor, standing a couple of feet infront of it. Parker and Claude stopped to continue their conversation. Claude once more broke the tension.

“Well, that’s what we do. Deal with it, man. If you try and leave, I will shoot you myself.”

“Another youngster who still thinks this shit is heroic, huh?” Parker said in an agry tone.

“There is a big difference between being a hero and killing people because your roomate got fired from work.”

“Listen man-“ Claude said just before the door infront of them swung open and an agent opened fire with his pistol upon the two. The two masked men took cover against the walls. The agent’s extended arm holding the pistol was the only thing they could see. Just before the guy tried to make his retreat back inside, Parker kicked the door, making the man drop his pistol. The firearm went down the stairs and the guy stumbled back, swearing in something that sounded like French.

“Must’ve pulled the short straw.” Parker said with a slight smile under his mask.

Claude gripped his pistol he carried with him and peeked through the door, firing off two rounds into the room. One of the shots hit the agent’s head, the other hit the ground. The panda wearing man had just enough time to get a glimpse of the floor – it looked like a hybrid between a hotel floor and a very fancy office, with smaller rooms with windows showing the desks and computers inside. An ugly purple carpet leading to something that looked like a main office with beige walls and a few paintings on them, along with vases, potted plants and other artsy shit put there to make the place look more lively. There were two corridors spliting up from the main office door. He looked around for about five seconds before noticing the makeshift barricade down the hall, infront of the main office: a few downed tables with five agents holding AKs, aiming at Claude.

They opened fire and the masked men quickly took a few steps back to avoid getting shot.

“See, I told you this shit is madness! How the fuck are we supposed to go through that?” -Parker yelled in frustration. Claude looked around and saw a fire extinguisher on the wall of the stairwell. Parker noticed it too and the two men looked at eachother.

The agents inside knew their targets were still living. One of them starts talking:

“I don’t think they have any options but to run. Let the other agents take care of them.”

“We can’t be sure how many reinforcements Four-Five-Seven brought with him. For all we know the others might be dead.”

“If Three-Oh-Five comes up with the propane, we can-“

Just as the man tried finishing his sentence, the almost broken from it’s hinges wooden door covered in holes broke down, as if someone kicked it. There was a panda mask and a doberman mask on each side of the door frame peeking at the agents last stand. The Drive Co men immediately opened fire, but no fire came towards them. Suddenly, they noticed that one of the men hiding in cover managed to throw something at them, the guy in the panda mask. The fire extinguisher landed just infront of the table in the very middle of the corridor, making the agents stop their fire and look at it with puzzled faces.

Parker grabbed Claude and pulled him back in cover. He was shot in the shoulder and a bullet managed to grace the same arm.

“Shit, you okay kid?” Parker asked.

“Don’t worry, it went through… I just need to stop the bleeding. Let’s finish what we unleashed on those assholes first. I’m counting on your shooting skills.” Claude said while clutching his shoulder with his unscathed arm.

“Fuck, alright kid. You’re a tough son of a gun, I’ll give you that.”

Parker appeared at the door with his Drive Co custom shotgun and wasted no time. He fired a shot onto the extinguisher before the agents had time to react. The room filled with the contents of the extinguisher, covering everything in white smoke. The masked duo entered the room and opened fire upon the agents. Everything around them was already shot up and they couldn’t quite make out if they cleared all the agents, but given that no fire came their way after they stopped shooting. Parker had been grazed on the leg but both men seemed to be doing just fine. After everything began to clear up, Claude started speaking.

“Alright, it seems we’re done here. Let’s go into that room and finish the rest of the fuckers in hiding.”

A man appeared at the end of the left hallway from the main office door behind the barricade. He appears to have climbed up from the fire escape and holds a propane canister with him. He stops dead in his tracks, looking at the operatives.

“I might be against all of this, but this will SURELY be fun.” Parker said with a wicked tone.

“Wait, Parker, you can’t be s-“

The doberman fired once at the propane canister.

Debris and glass started flying everywhere as the propane exploded.

The explosion was heard on all floors.

A while passed, and Claude woke up.

The walls were covered with what’s left of the man’s guts.

A large hole was left in the side of the building.

Parker was lying down infront of the office door, having fallen after the blastwave.