Soothing sunlight crept through the cracks of blinds half strewn open in a small office room.
The room itself reeked of old paper and coffee, it held a small desk and a plant in the far corner, reasonably barren but not overly so. Two things stood out against the emptiness, A wall of achievements and a shelf full of relics. The far left wall of the office held a myriad of printed cut-outs featuring various arrests and drug busts made over a rather long stretch of time.
The shelf was full of old tech and antiquated goods, working mobile phones, electronic watches, you name it. All relics passed down through generations collating dust in the corner of the clean office space.
Sat on the leatherback rocking chair behind the small dark oak desk was Falcon Marcello. He was what most people would call a weathered spirit, the miracles of modern technology keeping him seemingly spry even at 173 cycles of age but he couldn't deny that his glory days had long since passed. He donned a comically large white beard the moustache coming down in braids off the sides of his face, his hair short and white but well taken care of. He was wearing his full black and gold captains regalia after a meeting with one of his superiors who had come down to pass some new rules in light of the current reform, 'It's about time somebody fixed this city up' Falcon thought. It was no doubt one of the most well funded reforms that had been pushed for.
And money like that greased a lot of wheels.
Deep in thought Falcon tapped away at his holodeck. It wasn't as fancy as the kind of technology all his younger officers were using but Falcon had a soft spot for the hologram themed computers that were all the rage when he was a child. It was a good thing he could still access the wave on the old device.
After filing some admin and dealing with a few complaints Falcon looked wistfully at his wall of achievements. Well not his per se, but they all still counted. All the pictures had him right there in the front page wither saluting along with some other younger men, or with his hand placed on their back. It was always a team effort. Always.
Falcon found that the smile that had found its way onto his face fell the longer he looked at the pictures. 'No matter.' He thought, 'I'm too old to be dreaming of glory.' With a slight groan he lifted himself from his chair before making his way into the door and out into the building proper.
What greeted him was the regular hustle and bustle of the MPF, all of the police force in Checkmate was a side product of the company that was Mercy, acting as the government for the dangerous city. The police captain always thought that it was criminal to have a privatised police force which should work for the people rather than a bottom line.
But apparently Mercy only answered to the Blinding Emperor who was essentially the peoples champion anyway, not to mention that no other regulatory body had been particularly clean to manage the messy state of affairs in the crime rich city.
Falcon made his way slowly across the bullpen avoiding the major lanes of traffic and offering some sparse greetings every so often. He eventually made his way over to the kitchen area to make himself lunch. Not that the vending machines were bad, but a man couldn't live off those flavourless sustenance machines and street vendors messed with his stomach.
"Lieutenant Sparrow." He nodded over to the only other man in the kitchen at that moment, opening the cabinets in search of ingredients.
"Good to see you captain" the other man responded, Sparrow was a rather well-built man larger than most of the other men he worked with, paired with messy blond hair and grey eyes he wore an award winning smile that practically called out that he was the offices biggest social butterfly. Sparrow sipped his coffee for a few moments before turning to his captain, "I heard we got a new hire, what's that about?."
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"No clue," Falcon grunted whilst holding two large loaves of bread in each hand and lettuce in his mouth. "Haven't had the time to screen her."
"you don't know?" the lieutenant questioned, setting down the glass he was drinking onto the specked blue countertop next to him.
"No" Falcon shook his head before looking upwards in thought, "I think it's one of the higher ups kid, apparently we need more hands on deck because of all the new changes." He then paused chuckling weakly, "I think he just wanted to get his daughter on the force."
"Damn nepotism" Sparrow muttered grimacing whilst picking back up his cup "And with all the work I had to do to get on the force."
"Don't take it too personally." Falcon replied this time laughing with a bit more heart, patting the younger man with enough force to almost spill his coffee. "I bet you would do the same for your sister if you could."
"Yeah yeah." the lieutenant mumbled whilst drinking "Your practically a relic of the past how do you not have any children?". Sparrow then started poking the older man's arms "How can I be sure you won't turn to dust on me" he questioned smiling smugly.
"Just like how you can be sure I outdrank you last week!" the captain bellowed with equal glee.
"That's not fair, you had a head start I already drank!" The younger man sputtered.
"You had a quarter cup of beer." Falcon deadpanned.
"Still counts" Sparrow retorted.
Before they could continue bickering a young woman had stepped into the kitchen, She wore the same black and silver lieutenant uniform, her dark brown hair tied back into a ponytail, she had piercing blue eyes along with a rather impressive knife scar which snaked it's way from her neck across her cheek.
"Lieutenant Wendi" Falcon nodded to the new arrival, who simply eyed both of the men down. Both of whom started to get rather nervous.
"Of course it's the office birds." she replied pinching the spot between the bridge of her nose and forehead in exasperation. "Both of you need to quieten down some of us are really overworked."
"Sorry Tish" Sparrow responded sheepishly scratching the back of his head.
"Apologies lieutenant I should have been more respectful." Falcon also responded but without any of the embarrassment shown by his younger colleague.
"Don't worry about it sir" Tish responded nodding towards Falcon before marching up to Sparrow and grabbing his arm in a death grip, "If you'll excuse us we have some work to do."
Sparrow immediately turned pale before turning to his captain with a pleading look in his eyes, he was met with an amused smile as he was dragged away by the female officer. Immediately outside Falcon could hear muffled yelling about something to do with hiding in the kitchen for over an hour to avoid work, Ah the youth.
Sandwich in hand Falcon returned to his office just as he heard a melody enter his ears. The smooth sound of jazz complete with drums and saxophone alerting him to a call he was getting over his radio. Truly a wonder of technology, a ringtone through radio waves that only he could hear in order to give him notifications never ceased to amaze.
As he rounded on the door to his office he quickly sat down and slotted in the earpiece. It wasn't every day he got a call from his personal line rather than his work one and was happy for it was well.
One rather bleak conversation later that happiness had evaporated only leaving a stewing pit of righteous anger, even though he never expressed it outwardly. There were two things that mattered most to Falcon and they were: protecting those that couldn't themselves and making a true difference in the broken city.
The hurricane was a bar that was a sanctuary for his squad, a thought which he reflected on for a moment, in the past amidst the depressing and dreary life that this city enforced upon it's inhabitants the police captain was in charge of a much smaller team.
He had just moved from his post on the planet Tearway to Checkmate and the change had stung him viciously. The constant barrage of overwork and underpayment mixed with a relentless movement of organised crime brewed a concoction of madness for any policeman trying to make do enact their duty. Amidst the periods of strife and constant warfare he found a place where he knew would help his people.
After making friends with the owner he finally began to see change. As it turns out sometimes all people need to push through is a safe space to relax and be with others, and Falcon would be damned if he let criminals take from him again.