Lt. Daniel Garrett

"M153, This is Knox"

M153: "C153, go ahead Knox"

Knox (Dispatch): "There's a seventeen-ten on 447 E Lincoln street, victim's name is Kaiden, assume the suspect is armed and dangerous, Also possible Quad Zero, over."

M153: "C153 We are en route, over"

M155: "Knox this is M155, En route to 447E Illinois street, responding to 1710. Over"

Knox: "Roger that M155, over."

"I forgot sir, what's a 1710?"

I roll my eyes, Thinking of why I was with yet another rookie... "It's uh, Child endangerment." Oh yeah... I asked him to tag along.

"Ah jeez, and a Quad Zero on top of that… I swear the world would be better without purps." Mayner said, His prejudice, slipping in the face of pressure.

One other thing was bothering me though...

M153: "Knox, This is M153, please respond."

Knox: "go ahead M153."

M153: "Where's the location of the Child?"

Knox: "Attempting to find out the true location now... The Complainant is unresponsive, over."

I sucked my teeth as I bobbed and weaved my way through traffic. The city lights pass by my face, with determination painted upon it.

"447 E Lincoln is an apartment building, something like The Durr." Mayner started, "Sir... That's like, a 6 story building..."

"Alright... and? We go drive around, see if we hear or see anything, and react accordingly." I respond with a heavy sigh. As harsh as it sounds, if we don't see anything, often we'll go on. However, with this situation, I pray we can help the kid.

"Ah... alright." He'd say with a bit of shakiness to his voice. Looking over, I could see his leg jittering.

"Nervous?" I asked.

"Yeah... A little, this is my first real response, apart from giving tickets, and helping out drunk people off of the street."

"You'll be fine, kid, just stick with me and keep your eyes open. Focus, the apartment is right here." Pulling up outside the building we'd meet with M155.

"Lieutenant! Up there! On the fifth floor."

Looking up, I saw a guy running down the steps coming from the sixth. Despite running, he held his chest like he was in pain. "Alright, let's go, let's go! 155, go from the south side, we'll go up from the north." Running around to the back of the building I drew my weapon and gestured for Officer Mayner to do the same. We Entered the building and cleared the bottom floor before we took the staircase on the opposite side from M155.

We didn’t have time to clear every hallway on our way up. A quick look was enough to know we needed to go higher.

"Dispatching MFD EMS unit to 447 E Lincoln Street to provide assistance." Dispatch called out

"Ems1520 en route to 447 E Lincoln Street..."

“M155 Suspect is located on the fourth floor, Suspect in sight.”

Mayner and I took a look at each other as we reached the landing in-between the third and fourth floor as we listened to the call out. We rushed up the rest of the stairs.

"MPD Freeze! Wait What the f...." We could hear officer Joyner from the other side, upon reaching the fourth floor. The hallway was illuminated with a blinding light. It flashed quickly like a bolt of lightning before the entire hallways went dark. Whatever it was, it was loud. loud like a gunshot.

I raised my gun in response,

"Bang”

"Bang"

“Bang"

Three shots ring out my heart jumps, as I look beside me. Mayner stood there shaking. Even with how dark it was I could still see his eyes were wide open staring straight ahead. It was clear his mind was racing, His hands clenched tightly on the grip of his gun. A bit of smoke rose from the end of the barrel.

"Mayner..." He didn't respond. "Mayner!" I'd shout again. He turned to face me slowly, I knew what he was thinking.

"Mayner! I need you to snap out of it alright!" Reaching out I patted his shoulder to get his attention. "Yeah yeah, alright.."

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"Come on!" I said with a firm voice. I then started moving to the other side of the hallway. The generator finally kicked on restoring lights in the hallway. I realized then the other officers groaning on the ground, the uniforms had been burned through to their kevlar where they were giving off smoke. "Knox this Is M153, we need a bus, Code three, Officers down, I repeat two officers down over!"

"Ems 1520 is on the scene." Looking out the stairwell window, I could see an ambulance pulling up.

"Mayner, what's his condition?" He was crouched down over the suspect checking his pulse. "He's alive."

I dropped down to the kid's side, lifting my right hand to his neck to search for his pulse. As I did, I got shocked, it wasn't a light static shock. It hurt so much I pulled my hand back in pain. The kid groaned and rolled over a bit. I stared at him confused and in fear… Despite my initial shock I knew what needed to be done. Every officer has among their kit a pair of nullifying handcuff for people just like him. After cuffing the poor kid who looked, no older than my own daughter I called it in.

"Knox this is 153, Quad Zero Confirmed, Reporting the sighting of an Unregistered Unveiled, The subject has been apprehended."

***

"Sounds like you've had a quite the night lieu..." Detective Samuel Kerns said as he turned and opened the door for me.

"Tell me about it." I chuckled, unintentionally cutting him off As I followed after him.

"I'm about to go check on the kid now." He informed me as we both left the hospital room of Officer Hayes and Jones. They were okay thankfully, they had just been knocked out from the impact of that... lighting, or whatever the heck it was.

"Ah, let me come with you." I say, flourishing my words with a sigh.

"I was about to ask if you wanted to come along with me." Letting out a relaxed Chuckle.

"Have you ever heard of an unveiled shooting lightning bolts before?" Sam asked while we walked down the busy hallway crowded with other cops and doctors alike.

"Nah... and even if I had I wouldn't have believed it till I saw it with my own eyes." Thankfully we all were wearing body cams as well, We got the whole thing on video. In fact, we've got it on video from three separate body cams. Or at least it would've been three, if it wasn't for the lightning that shorted Officer Haye's cam when it hit him. Hopefully, we'll get a more clear idea of what happened as we pull the footage.

Everything that happened after Mayner shot the stepfather was a blur. Thank God the guy has decent aim or else we could've had a couple of casualties tonight. Not just of the suspect but of our officers, and the kid too. Unfortunately, we don't know where those shots went though... For all, we know some poor lady could be bleeding out in her kitchen right now.

"This is his room here sir." I nod approvingly as Sam knocks. It would serve as more of a warning than a ask of permission as he opened the door without waiting for a response. Stepping inside we saw the kid watching cartoons on the pitifully small TV mounted to the wall. He was sitting up with his arm in a cast, and he had it in a sling providing it with extra support. The poor kid was pretty beaten up. His face was scratched up from where he'd been kicked down the stairs. His neck however was probably the most disturbing about him... It was this dark purple from where Gaben tried to choke the boy out.

He already looked better than he did back at the apartment building. The doctors and hospital must've done a good job of patching him up. They even had a bandage covering the wound on his face. As the two of us walked into the room he turned to face us taking his attention away from the tv.

"You like Wild Bros too?" I asked with a bit of excitement in my voice as I pointed up to the tv. "I have a little girl about your age, her name is Sara, She loves watching this show!" I tried presenting myself in a friendly way so that he'd be comfortable opening up to us. but uh…

"I hate this stupid show..." It didn't really work. I chuckled not having expected such a response. "Oh really? Why's that" Sam asked as he lowered himself into a chair in the corner of the room."

"The way they talk... it's like how adults talk to babies." He complained amidst adjusting himself slightly in the bed. The Nullifier cuffs now attached to the bed rattled subtly with his movements.

"What are you watching such a stupid show for then?" The kid let out a soft chuckle and shrugged his shoulders, with the way he winced afterward, I could tell that it hurt him to do so.

"This is my friend, Detective Samuel Yates, and I'm Lieutenant Daniel Garret, do you remember me?" He'd give a slight nod.

"Your name is Kaiden isn't it?"

"Yes sir..." Wow... never realized how much two words could make me feel so old. Sir... I guess I ought to appreciate his respectfulness.

"Sam and I are going to ask you some questions about tonight alright?"

"Yes sir."

"Let's start at the beginning, Why did you call nine one one?" Sam would ask first

"Gaben kept hurting me, and I was scared." The boy responded. He sounded rather tired with how soft he was speaking, which could definitely be understood. He has had a rather long and eventful night.

"Why did he hurt you?" I'd ask, trying to get him to open up to us.

"He was drinking and singing in the living room, and he wanted me to sing with him. But I didn't want to, so he got mad at me." Kaiden would say, as he spoke his eyes, looked downwards, denying us eye contact.

"What happened after that?" I asked. Kaiden sighed, I think he got the idea that I wanted to know everything, it was kinda funny, but I couldn't laugh. This wasn't the time for laughter.

"He started yelling at me to open my door..." He began. "But I didn't, I was too scared. He broke the door though and grabbed... It's hard to remember everything, but he started choking me and wouldn't let me breathe. I tried to get him off of me and scratched his face."

I had remembered seeing his eye scratched out and wondered how that had happened. Seems like the poor bastard messed with the wrong kid. Nothing poor about him though... After all, he tried to kill a kid.

"When I did that... It only made him more angry. He broke my arm and then grabbed my neck again... That's when I saw the weird light!" He looked up with excitement but also confusion as he mentioned the light.

"The weird light?" I thought to myself and then glanced over to Sam who seemed to be as confused as I was. "You said a weird light?"

"Yes sir... When he was choking me, I couldn't breathe and I felt like I was going to pass out... And when My eyes were closed, I could see a light."

"Err... uh, what did this light look like son?" Sam asks now, leaning closer as if it would help him hear better.

"It wasn't like a regular light, it was blue and made of, like, lightning or something... I think it saved me, because when I opened my eyes the same light was in the room, And Gaben was screaming. That's when I ran outside and called you guys."

Sam and I looked back and forth at each other confused, I couldn't help but wonder If that's the same thing that happened when we came up the stairs.

"Is that the same thing that happened when you were on the stairs?" I asked

"I…” Kaiden went quiet for a moment as he fidgeted with the blue cast on his right arm. His fingers ran over it causing a subtle scratching noise and more rattling from the power nullifying cuffs. I couldn't help but grow a bit anxious over how long the kid was taking to answer. "I don't know." He finally said.

"You don't know?” I blurted out, raising my voice.

" Lieutenant Garrett!” Sam shouted back at me. My head snapped over to see his green eyes staring back at me. It took me looking back over to Kaiden to realize I'd been harsh. He was breathing heavily and had jumped back in the bed despite not really having anywhere to go.

" I… I'm sorry Kaiden." I stroked my beard, letting my fingers ruffle through the mix of black and grey hairs. “I realize I must have scared you. I'm sorry about that. It's just that, I'm scared too. I want to know what happened so that I can keep you, and everyone else safe. Can you help me with that?” I asked. I reached out my hand consolingly as I moved to the edge of his hospital bed.

He didn't say anything, but he did nod as I approached, and relaxed, seemingly accepting my apology.

“What happened in the hallway?” Sam now asked again from behind me.

“Im not sure…” I could hear Sam sigh in frustration, but seeing Kaiden's face I could tell he had more to say. I reached out my hand telling Sam to hold on a little longer. “Gaben, He started to hold my neck again. And I, I think I fell asleep, but when I was sleeping I felt that light from before surround me. It was like I became the light… When I woke up, I was In the ambulance and that's when I met you.” He said looking up at me.

I sighed and nodded my head. From the way it sounded Gaben actually killed the kid, or at least got pretty close. I definitely needed to do some research on this later.

"Anything I can do for you bud?" Sam asked as he stepped closer to the bed too.

"Can you take this off, it's itchy…" Kaiden raised his arm with the cast.

Sam and I both gave soft chuckles. "You need to keep it on so that your arm can feel better," I say as I stand.

"My arm feels better already… It doesn't even hurt anymore, how long do I have to keep it on?" He sounded upset and confused at the same time.

I couldn't believe his arm had already stopped hurting, probably just the drugs the doctors gave him. "I bet the doctor will let you know next time you see them." I tried to assure him. "I'll tell you what, I'll take those handcuff off if you promise me you'll be good." I posed to him to which he happily agreed to with a nod.

It was against my better judgment to take the nullifier off, but something just felt intrinsically wrong about having a child cuffed to a hospital bed, no matter how monstrously powerful he may be. I glanced over at Sam almost so as to ask for his approval to which he closed his eyes and crossed his arms. I could tell he didn't want me to pass the accountability off to him, which I truthfully couldn't blame him. Regardless I felt like it was important to follow my heart. I walked over to the kids bed and removed the nullifier.

" Thank you." He said softly before laying all the way down and adjusting himself to be more comfortable. it caused his curly brown hair to spread out across the pillow. Getting ready to leave I turned and headed to the door. Sam held it open for me as I stepped around the bed and the food tray which was at the foot of it. Before we left I turned back to say goodbye to the kid. When I did, I saw him peeling off the bandage from his face. I looked at his face with awe. Even though it had been scraped on the stone

landing, it was already healed and looked normal. Not even a scar was left where he'd fallen on it. Seeing him left me to wonder only one thing.

"What the heck is this kid?"