“Well top of the morning to all you Tier 0 scum.” He announced in a sickly sweet voice. “So, who wants a beating?”
“Uh oh,”
“You young man,” The officer did not so much as walk as appear before them. “You look like a strapping young lad, and so familiar.” He sniffed. “Do I smell 243 counts of improper public conduct. That’s a beating.” Before R4 or Hon could react, the officer had his baton out and had smacked Hon upside the head, sending him stumbling back. Immediately the officer was behind him and whacked him again, sending him stumbling into the gangsters and sending their orb device falling to the ground.
“Avast men, we are discovered!” One of the men jumped up, drawing an actual cutlass. “Prepare to repel boarders!”
“Don’t, he’s,” R4 didn’t have enough time to warn the gang before the grinning man was on them.
“Oh, did I spoil your little game. Soooooo sorry.” The officer said, disarming one of the men with his baton before knocking him over the head. The man’s mask let out an angry metal on metal sound from the blow. “Ding ding, justice is served. For resisting arrest, one beating”
“Ahoy skervy dog,” one of the gangsters raised a gun, only for the officer to pop a taser from his armor and light him up.
“Fried dirtbag, served with 90,000 volts.” Another gangster tried to tackle him, only for the officer to duck back and with a single motion slice his throat, “And a fountain drink. So, who’s hungry for more?” One of the gangsters tried to run, only for the officer to kick the game sphere, “He shoots,” The sphere did not so much soar as rocketed into the man’s head, sending him down in a heap, “He scores! Touchdown!”
“What’s with this psycho?” One of the gamers exclaimed, finally snapping out of the game. “Everyone run!” The remaining gas masked men turned to run, but before R4’s eyes the officer caught them, quipping some line of nonsense with each one.
“Your criminal ways are due for an update.” He exclaimed, striking the last man with his baton. “Prepare,” Strike, “For,” Strike, “system,” Another strike, “Shutdown!” With a final strike the man’s skull gave way and collapsed inwards.
R4 quietly pulled Hon out of the way. Her medical expertise, or what passed for it, cautioned against moving him too much in case he had a concussion. She quickly attempted to connect to his bio monitor, but was rebuked with a loud BEEP!
“Ho ho ho, another cretin lurking?” R4 didn’t even hear him materialize behind her. “And where are you creeping to little mouse? Taking this cheddar back to your burrow to be devoured.” His mask flashed. “Not too many cybernetic components on this one, hardly a meal.”
“Please, jus’ let me get my frien’ home. He’s really hurt.” R4 hadn’t gotten a good look, but from the fact Hon had yet to wake up she didn’t have high hopes.” R4 felt her eyes shift and her posture change, programmed memories influencing her form. She suddenly wished she had put more points into persuasion.
“Hmmm, Hmmm, HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…” The smiling officer intoned. “You look familiar.” He lowered his baton under her chin. “Now where have I seen that face before? Let’s see,” He moved his baton beneath her chin, then poked her cheek, “Open your mouth, show me your teeth.” R4 did, and with a careless hand he grabbed her by the jaw and lifted her up. “Hmmm, white and pearly, almost look like new.” He threw her to the ground so hard her new teeth clicked. “No, that’s not it.” He scratched his head before freezing. “Ooh, shoot, I just realized, I forgot my body cam.” R4 smiled, a surge of vindication running through her. Her blood froze as she heard a beep, “The fans would be ticked if I didn’t get this in HD. Ok, hands on the wall, time for a pat down Miss.”
“What?” R4 didn’t even see the blow coming before it knocked out every tooth not behind her canines. She let out a scream as the pain hit and dropped to the ground.
“You know, I always wanted to be a dentist. Doctor Smiley, it has a nice ring to it.” He grabbed R4 by the neck and lifted her off the ground. “But my teachers said I lacked empathy. Crazy, me lack empathy?” He pushed R4 against the wall, and she felt her airway constrict. Darkness surrounded her vision, even as the pain in her mouth seemed to recede. “Look at that, your dress is covered with blood. I can’t do a pat down now.” With a swift movement he dropped R4, holstered his baton, and ripped her dress in half. “Strip search it is.”
R4 dropped to the ground, her head woozy from blood loss and the sudden rush of Ravager toxin that stole the pain away as if it had been a dream.
“And here we have the Homo inferiorum, the lowest form of human.” Officer Smiley said, taking out a small device that R4 thought might be some sort of camera. With a gesture the object took flight as he grabbed her by the wrists and pinned her to the wall with one hand. The object buzzed around her, crystaline lenses spinning, before zooming off to another of Officer Smiley’s victims, before back to her. Finally, the device returned to Officer Smiley. “And this is the lowest of the Homo Inferiorum, the Remote. This little scamp didn’t realize she should just stay home rather than try to hack it in the big city.” The device flew up close to her face, so close she thought it was going to bump into her, before descending her frame with agonizing slowness. All the while Officer Smiley took a strange delight in jerking her arms this way and that, pulling her from the wall so the camera could spiral behind her, before slamming her back into it. He seemed to take an odd delight in grinding her against the rough wall behind her, all the while she stared into the unmoving mask that was his gleaming face “Since your teenie tiny remote brain is so feeble I’ll tell you what I’m doing, this is a sensory evidence camera. We officers can actually enter the image, so we can see, smell, touch,” He got right up next to her ear, so close she could smell the odd minty smell of his breath, “even taste the crime scene. Let me tell you, the boys and I will be spending HOURS examining this act of… gang violence.” He glared at her before letting his eyes drop to her underclothes. “Pity, I was hoping you would be wearing black. Tan is no fun, and not a bow or even a bit of lace. You have no sense of showmanship.” He dropped her, letting R4 fall into a heap while letting his camera land in his hand. “And to all my fans, remember full body images can be found on my Benefictor page. Until next time Lovable Law Endorsers.” He placed the device in his pocket before announcing, “Alright folks, I’d say justice is served. You’re free to go.” And with that he skipped, actually skipped, away.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
For a good ten minutes R4 just lay there in a heap. She knew she should be in pain, yet with all the ravager toxin flowing through her body she couldn’t feel a thing, nor muster enough strength to rise. She barely had the strength to push back as a pair of hands tried to pick her up, and even then she only managed to slip the hands’ grip before falling back to the ground. The figure tried to strike her with a needle, and that prompted a reaction. R4 lashed out with her claws, yet in her wounded state she could barely manifest them.
“Hold still, I’m trying to help you.” R4 recognized Jun’s voice, yet not before her claws found his hand, sending the needle to the ground. “F***, what is that? You have some kind of poison in those claws? Forget this.” R4’s vision cleared a bit, her right eye giving her vision even as her left one was still blurry. Jun jabbed Hon with a needle, and R4 watched as his bruising visibly receded a bit.
“Ugh, ow. That, that was bad.”
“Who was it?” Jun asked.
“Officer Smiley.”
“You mean from the Mind ‘Scapes? So not only did you get your A** kicked, but you got it live streamed. Jun helped Hon up. “R4’s messed up.”
“Hey, R4, you awake?” R4’s head kind of tilted up, her eyes tearing up, bloody saliva leaking from bruised lips. She mumbled something uninteligable. “You have another speed heal?”
“Had one, she knocked it out of my hand and I’m not sticking her with a dirty needle.”
R4 reached out for her dress. “Um, look, R4,” R4 wrapped it around herself, but it just sagged back open. “Hey, you don’t have to,” Opening her tool arm R4 fetched a needle and from her head fetched a few hairs to bind her dress in place. “Hey,”
“Who was that?” R4 trilled, her phone speaking in a robotic voice. Even with her regeneration cysts her mouth still hurt, and she could speak resonant without moving it as much.
“Officer Smiley, he’s a psycho with a badge.” Jun said. “Come on, let’s get you home.”
“Home… That’s a bit far.” R4 replied discordantly, as resonance bled into her words. Her pulse spiked, every muscle tensed. “Can’t go there, not yet.” She examined the ruin that was her dress. “Iron, do you think if I had some iron I could ‘ave done somethin’?”
“Against Smiley, probably a good thing you didn’t.” R4 didn’t look up to face Jun as she started to walk. “Hey, where are you going?”
R4 stood over one of the gangsters, his gas mask shattered and his skull beneath dented. “In the book of judges there was a Levite whose companion was murdered by a gang originating from one of the 13 tribes. He cut her body into 12 pieces and sent them across the country to proclaim their crime. The result was a civil war that killed thousands and left the offending tribe in ruins. If we were to send these victims across the city what do you suppose would happen?” Her phone did not quite convey the emotion that her resonant speech did.
“Nothing, not a dang thing.” Jun replied. “The NGPD is a gang, the biggest and best supported, but they’re still a gang. The Silver masks are among the worst, they’re trouble makers sent to the lower tiers so that the trouble they make can be buried rather than make trouble at the top where they actually face punishment. They’ve got connections with the CEO’s and government, each and every one bleeds purple and chrome.”
“That man FILMED this!” R4 gestured, her voice adopting an edge that even the robotic voice of her phone caught. “Jun and I weren’t hurting anyone, and they were playing a videogame. He came in here and started killing, and beating.” R4 gripped her dress, “When he mentioned his camera I thought it was going to be over, that he was going to get in trouble,”
“And he just changed from standard to HD.” Jun finished. “Welcome to Nu’Grav justice. Use the promo code “Blueblood” For 10% off your next bail or police sanctioned beat down.” He approached, reaching up to put a hand on R4’s shoulder, then thought better of it. “This is the city we live in. We watch over one another, because they most certainly won’t.”
“Power’s all that matters down here.” Hon replied, stretching before wincing. “Well, my day’s shot. I’m going home, maybe doing some stretches. You?”
R4 considered it, before spitting out one last tooth that had grown back crooked. “Sure, I need ta’ hit something.”
None of them noticed when the tooth pierced a brick wall.