It was a bright and sunny day on Buster Beach. Officer Byte and his trusty K-9 assistant, Barq, were patrolling the beach. People were enjoying the nice, cooling water while Byte and Barq did their best to avoid it. Along with playing in the ocean, people on the beach were having fun playing volleyball and basketball. Byte noticed a girl in a large robotic suit slam-dunking a large, green blob creature through the hoop.
Byte turned on his loudspeaker. "Please do not throw large boogers into the basketball hoops!" he announced. The clockwork cop's attention soon turned to a casual beachgoer. He was easy to notice, due to his dark red shirt and bright blue swim trunks. The man was finishing an ice cream cone from the nearby snack bar. As he took the last bite, he wiped his hands off and dropped the napkin on the ground. Byte could not believe this. He was programmed to have a very low tolerance of littering, especially given the easy access to trash cans the resort offered. "Excuse me, sir!" Byte said, "But please put your trash into a proper waste receptacle." The litterbug ignored Byte's request. "Sir!" Byte yelled, "Dispose of your trash properly!" The litterbug continued to walk off, not caring about his misdeed. Byte was getting perturbed by this man's apathy for keeping Buster Beach beautiful. Byte and Barq followed the man, trying to get his attention so he'd go back and clean up his trash.
They followed the man all the way to the parking lot. Never once did he notice the robotic officer and his dog. He got into a black sports car and drove off. "The nerve of that man…" Byte said, "Well, he shall not get away with this. To the Byte Mobile!" He ran to a nearby station for the Buster Beach Patrol and got onto an ATV. "Hop on, Barq." The clockwork canine barked and jumped onto Byte's head. "Let us roll!" Byte said. He drove off after the litterbug.
Once Byte and Barq got onto the main road, they followed the path the red car took. "He could not have made it very far…" Byte commented, "Keep your eyes peeled…" Barq proceeded to activate his infrared detection once they got to where the car was parked. Once he found the car's heat signature, he had a trail. "Good boy, Barq!" Byte complimented. The two followed the heat signature until they caught up to the car. Byte activated his loudspeaker again. "Attention! You in the red sports car! Pull your vehicle over!" Like when he was walking on the beach, the man didn't listen to them. Byte and Barq followed after him. "Where could he be going that he is ignoring basic rules of the beach?"
As Byte was driving, his commissioner contacted him over his internal radio. "Officer Byte, we're having trouble detecting you on the map. Give us your current whereabouts. Over."
"Barq and I are on pursuit of a perpetrator, heading to an unknown location. Over."
"What?! Officer Byte, you return to your position on the beach this instant!"
"Negative, sir. Justice must be upheld. Over."
"Officer Byte, you…" But before he could say anything else, Byte drove out of the radio's range.
"I hope he understands," Byte thought, "Litterbugs must be punished for their crimes."
The chase eventually led the robotic duo to a seedy waterfront warehouse. Byte vaguely recognized it. It had been abandoned for years, with the paint peeled like it had sunburn, and the rust making the worn paint even more obvious.
"I pray we never get that rusty, boy…" Byte said to his robotic dog.
The sports car stopped near the entrance to the warehouse. The man got out and knocked on the warehouse's door. Another man let the litterbug in.
Byte parked the ATV behind the red sports car and went over to the warehouse. Barq got off Byte's head. "I have my doubts that this perpetrator would allow us into this building," he said, "There must be another entrance." Byte looked around the side of the building. There was an open window. "The inhabitants must be trying to use the ocean breeze as an alternative to air conditioning. It shall also serve as an alternative to the front door." He stretched his spring arms up and grabbed the ledge of the window. The robot then hoisted himself up to see inside the window.
"What took you so long?" one person asked. This new person was wearing a dark jacket, despite it being the middle of summer. He was also smoking a cigarette.
The litterbug was walking towards him. "What?" he asked.
The first man smacked the litterbug across the head. "I said 'what took you so long,' you dumbass!" He put his hand down in anger. "I tried to warn you using those earbuds would damage your hearing. And one day, it's going to get you in trouble."
"Sorry, man. Jeez…I was just stopping off to get a snack before I got here."
"What?!" He smacked him again. "You'd better not have used any of my money to pay for it!"
The litterbug put his hands up. "No, man! I swear, I didn't!"
"Where'd you get money to buy yourself a snack, then?"
"Look, I don't have to tell you anything. All I'll say is I got the money right here." He took a wad of cash out of his swim trunks. "All of it's right here!"
"Gimme that." The jacket-wearing man took the wad out of the litterbug's hands. He looked through the bills. "Alright. This adds up." He looked back at the litterbug. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and pointed it at his acquaintance. "You better watch it." He dropped the cigarette butt on the ground and smashed it under his foot. "You got it?"
"Yeah, man. Just chill."
"Now go wash up. We don't want our patients thinking we're filthy." The two walked off.
Byte commented, "So it seems that he also has a friend who believes littering is okay. Even if he owns this establishment, that could be a fire hazard, especially if there are any highly-flammable chemicals around…"
Byte's radio started up again. "Officer Byte, return to your position on the beach right now!"
"Negative, sir," the cop responded, "I have discovered this crime goes deeper than I initially thought. Over."
"Officer Byte, I swear to God, if you don't come back here, I am going to personally…" The signal started to give out at that moment.
"Sorry, sir, but it appears the signal is breaking up. Over"
"…like a pretzel on a bungee cord!" his commissioner threatened.
"I will speak to you again once my investigation has finished. Over"
"Byte, don't you dare…" Byte's signal was lost again. "Oog…robots…" the commissioner moaned. "Well, if I can't get him to return, maybe my companions can." He dialed up 999. "Hello, Commander? One of our robots has gone rogue. We need you to bring him back here."
Meanwhile, at the warehouse, Byte had gotten his body onto the window ledge. He stretched his arms down and picked up Barq. The two started walking along the beams holding the lighting in place. "What is going on here?" Byte wondered. The jacket-wearing man started walking through. Byte and Barq became as still and silent as they could.
He walked into another room. Byte looked over and saw the wall didn't go to the roof, so the two started slowly walking along the beams over to the wall. Once they got there, they saw the man approaching another man in a lab coat. "How is everything progressing?"
"Things aren't improving," the man in the lab coat said, "I'm starting to wonder if we should stop the procedures and admit we can't do it…"
The jacket man smacked the lab coat man. "Don't tell me you're starting to get cold feet. These people want to have ARMS and we are going to give it to them."
"But the experiments aren't giving them ARMS. I don't know what these chemicals are doing to them, but it's not what anyone wants!"
"Well, find a way to get them ARMS. I ain't paying you to fail."
The lab coat man sighed, "Fine. I just hope these people can lead normal lives afterwards."
The jacket man walked out of the room. "And turn on some lights. Just because we're trying to avoid detection doesn't mean we have to be blind!" He flicked on the light switch. Byte and Barq hid behind a nearby beam to avoid being seen. When Byte looked down, he saw a dozen tables with people in hospital gowns lying on them, covered in moldy blankets.
"What could be going on here?" Byte wondered. Once the two men left the room, Byte lowered Barq and then himself to get a closer look. He approached one person on the bed. "Excuse me, sir," Byte asked, "what is going on here?"
The man looked over at Byte. His face was full of wrinkles, his hair was depleted, and his mouth was open in a way that suggested even breathing was painful. "Help…" he barely moaned, "Help…us…" Byte lifted up the blanket to reveal the man had arms that were several feet long, wrapped up like a garden hose. Unlike the ARMS used by the people Byte was modeled after, this man's arms had no structure to them, as if the bones were all gone.
Byte looked around at the other patients. They also had lost their hair, and they had unnaturally long, floppy arms. "Do not worry," he said to the man, "I will stop those litterbugs." Byte walked off.
"W…what?" the man asked.
Byte and Barq went into the room the lab coat man had entered. It was a storage room, full of boxes and barrels. Byte identified some of the containers. They were full of illegal chemicals and dangerous drugs. Byte and Barq walked further into the storage room. "This place is giving me the creeps." Barq spotted something on the ground and rushed over to it. "What did you find, boy?" He looked down and saw the final straw. "A hypodermic needle? Do these people not know how dangerous these things are to leave lying on the ground?" Byte picked it up. "This is the final straw! These monsters must be stopped!" He stored the needle in a safe spot until he could properly dispose of it.
"Hey!" yelled someone behind them, "Who are you?" Byte turned around to see that the lab coat man was standing there. "You're…you're not supposed to be here!"
"And you are not supposed to leave hypodermic needles on the ground." Byte and Barq turned on their police lights.
"Oh, crap…" The lab coat man ran away. Barq chased after him. Byte followed the two.
When Byte stepped outside the chemical storage, he looked around for Barq. He then felt something hit the back of his head. He turned to look. The lab coat man was holding a lead pipe, which he had hit against the back of Byte's head. When he realized that Byte wouldn't go down as easily as a human, all the color left his face. Byte quickly wrestled the pipe from his hands and tossed it aside.
"You are only one of three perpetrators I need to arrest," Byte said. He grabbed the man by his upper arms, and launched him to the side. "Stay there until I find the other two."
The lab coat man was in pain from the fall. "Oh, the boss is gonna kill me…"
The man with the black jacket entered. "Yeah, but first I'm gonna kill him." He had a gun pointed right at Byte. Byte had not been given any clear instructions on how to deal with guns, so he made no sudden moves. One of the patients with long arms coughed painfully. "Shut up!" The jacket man pointed his gun at the patient. The patient winced in fear.
"We shouldn't have done this," the lab coat man said, "We're breaking the laws of nature."
"You are breaking the laws of nature!" The jacket man focused on Byte again. "And as for you…I don't know how you found out about this, but I'm gonna make sure whoever you're working for never gets the evidence. Once I shoot out your robot brains, I'm gonna take out your memory card and break it. Then no one will ever know what you saw."
Byte was horrified. Everything important to him was on that memory card. His programming, his video files of patrolling, and most importantly, the day he and Barq first met. There was no way he could afford to lose that. "Alright. You have me." He slowly got down on his knees and put his hands behind his head. "But before you do anything, I just want you to do one thing." Byte looked behind the jacket man. He looked over his shoulder to see what the clockwork cop was looking at, but saw nothing. Byte played a whistle sound effect. A small fist punched the back of the jacket man's head. That fist belonged to none other than the trusty K-9, Barq. "Play dead," Byte said to the jacket man. Barq's punch was so intense, the man collapsed to the ground in agony. He dropped his gun upon colliding with the floor. Byte got up and picked up the gun. "Typical litterbug. You guys even do your dirty work in front of authorities. You make me sick."
At that moment, a police squad broke into the room. The original litterbug walked into the room. "Hey, boss, the cops are here," he said.
"Alright, Byte!" yelled the police commander, "We don't want to hurt anybody! We're here for you." The commander walked into the room and saw what Byte had uncovered. There were a dozen people having undergone illegal medical operations, lying across tables that were unlikely sterile. "Dear God…These people need medical attention ASAP!" One officer called for ambulances for all the patients in the warehouse. "I am amazed, Byte," the commander said, "We thought you were just a rogue robot, but it turns out you uncovered a very serious illegal operation here."
"I did, indeed," Byte responded, "I found this…" He took out the hypodermic needle and showed it to the commander. "…lying in that room." He pointed to the chemical storage.
"We'll need that for evidence," the commander said. A forensics officer took the needle and placed it into a bag for safe-keeping. Another officer sealed off the storage area to prevent anyone from walking in and contaminating it. The commander looked at the man with the lab coat and the man with the swim trunks. "Are they part of this, too?"
"Yes, commander. These men are accomplices. I have video evidence."
"Okay, boys. Book 'em!" The swim trunks man and the lab coat man were cuffed by several officers.
"Oh, why didn't I become a tree surgeon like Mother wanted?" the lab coat man asked himself.
When the ambulances arrived, Byte and Barq helped to bring the patients out to the ambulances. The last patient loaded up was the one who Byte met earlier. "Thank…you…" he wheezed.
"All in a day's work, sir," Byte responded. The ambulances drove off to the hospital.
"You have done your community a great service today, Officer Byte," the commander said.
"Thank you, Commander." Byte said, "I must return to Buster Beach, though. There are still more crimes that I must prevent." He got onto his ATV and Barq got on his head. The two drove back to the beach.
As they patrolled the beach, Byte received a nice, clear radio transmission from his commissioner. "Hey, Byte," he said, "The commander told me exactly what happened, and I guess I owe you an apology. I thought you were taking something minor too seriously, but from what I've heard, you uncovered a major crime that was hurting people and managed to save the lives of a dozen civilians. Over."
"No apologies necessary, Commissioner," Byte responded, "I was just doing my duty. Over."
"Later today, I'll need to see your memory card so we can send video evidence from today over to the proper authorities for the trial. And don't worry; we'll keep your favorite memory safe. Over."
"Thank you, Commissioner. Resuming patrol duties. Over." The transmission ended. Byte resumed walking down the beach with Barq at his side. Barq spotted something suspicious and barked. The two saw a person walking along the beach, finishing an ice cream cone. When he finished wiping off his hands and mouth, he tossed his napkin on the ground by a trash can. "Excuse me, sir!" Byte said, "But please put your trash into a proper waste receptacle."
The man looked back at the napkin. He went down to pick it up. "Sorry, officer," he replied, "Thanks for telling me!" He put the napkin into the trash can and walked away. He waved good-bye at Byte and Barq. Byte waved good-bye back.
When the man left, Byte patted his sidekick on the head. "What would I ever do without you?" he asked the robot dog. Barq made panting noises in happiness.