This is my first foray into the persocom world with original characters. I hope you don't snooze too much from it.
Anders took a very, very long draw from his cigarette. Sure it was bad for the lungs, but he honestly did not care one bit. His reasoning was that he only had one life so he might as well do whatever he damn pleased. The irony behind this line of thinking was that he worked as law enforcement and right now he was on the job, patrolling the usual streets.
As his slim, flexible body rounded the next bend, he stopped for a moment to look up at the sky. It looked as if someone spilled a pail of white stars, contrasting the black night. No matter how many times he stared up at the night sky, he never tired from it. He took another drag and blew the swirling grey smoke, temporarily mixing with the brilliant, flashing white dots and the dark, black atmosphere.
The laid-back watchguard held back a yawn as he continued his walk down the sidewalk. He could've taken his patrol car, but he didn't for two reasons. One, he didn't want to pay for gas considering his low wage and he felt that walking was much easier than focusing on the road. He also wouldn't be able to see the stars at night. Okay, so that was three reasons but what are people going to do about it? Sue him? Oh wait, he was flat out broke so he hoped that no one would or his sorry ass would be scrounging around for table scraps for the next week.
So it was another quiet night and he liked it. If the world revolved around him he would want to have an easy life for the rest of his days. He didn't care about great riches or ambitious and successful careers. It could be said that his ideas on the future was incredibly unexciting and monotonous but that was what he truly wanted; nothing more. The only reason why he worked as a cop was because it looked like the easiest job to do now that persocoms ran the economy.
In this current generation, persocoms were the workers and the humans had cushy, profitable occupations. Even in his police station, mostly persocoms were the officers and law enforcers. In fact he was probably the only human social worker in the entire police force. Humans no longer needed to apprehend criminals because persocoms are just smarter, stronger, obedient, and can notice things that could not be spotted by the most analytical human. It was pretty much a given that persocoms are just better at everything since they do not possess "human error".
"Only one more round across this block and I will be done for today," he thought to himself. After this, he only needed to file in a report and than he could take a nice long nap in his bed. As he daydreamed about his comfortable bed and warm sheets, a sudden, loud crash boomed into his ears and he nearly jumped in surprise. His eyes immediately darted and narrowed to a wooden fence guarding the backyard of a residential home.
"Great," he grunted darkly and with great annoyance. Of all the nights for there to be a disturbance worth checking out, it had to be during his turn at patrol. His thin fingers drew his standard-issued handgun and with some difficulty, climbed over the very tall and much splintered fence. He finally got over with a few wooden splinters on his knee and managed to crawl to the side of the house and leaned against the wall. After pulling out several barbs, curses at the end of his tongue, he slid over to the screen door and peered through, spotting someone attempting to open a small safe placed on a shelf.
Anders immediately realized why this house was the perfect target for tonight. The residing family was the richest and snobbiest in the entire neighborhood and it invited the entire block to a wild party at some exotic location. It was not at all too uncommon now that everyone in this city was all freaking rich except for him. Well, somebody had to be poor now that the money distribution steadily grew more uneven.
Even though it was dark, his keen eyes detected that the robber was very quick and precise. His movements were completely silent and he questioned dully if the culprit was so stealthy, how an inattentive slacker like him hear such a loud noise coming from the house he was robbing. The answer came too soon as he accidentally stepped on a fragment of a now broken vase with a small, but noticeable crunch.
"Aw, shiiiiiiiit." He looked up momentarily to see a cat up on the ceiling licking its chops, mildly entertained by the sight below him. It turned out that the housecat was not too sharp at noticing the strange figure skulking around the room and when it finally realized there was an intruder in its midst, it ran as quick as lightning, knocking over a pedestal with a vase on it. He inwardly cursed at the cat and also at whoever had the bright idea to place a vase outside the house.
With held breath, he waited against the wall hoping that the culprit would not notice. After silently cursing at the cat again for opening its fat mouth and voicing a "mrroowr" he watched him turning back to the safe and continued his attempt on opening it. Perhaps the thief thought the cat was making all the noise because it sure as hell was the cause of most of it.
The safe creaked as the combination was finally cracked and he began to shovel valuables in a bag.
"Now is probably a good time to strike," Anders thought unenthusiastically. His train of thought was split between the urge to sleep and how to get past the screen door. Figuring that the family members can pay for the damages, he kicked it with a glass-shattering crash and nonchalantly stepped through with his gun pointed at the thief.
"Freeze or I'll shoot," he said just as unenthusiastically as his previous thought and mused on how corny he must sound. Anders saw that the person in front of him was wearing all black garments with even a cape, hood, and matching mask.
"Oh boy, I get to apprehend a ninja," he pondered, dripping with sarcasm.
With incredible agility, the robber back flipped, landing and scaling onto the wall and fired four daggers from one hand with breathtaking speed.
"Crap."
Despite his seemingly nonphysical capabilities and behavior unbecoming of a law enforcer, there was one thing he had to be proud of. He could fire a gun.
Four barks echoed from his pistol and the floor scattered with shattered blades and hilts. He pointed it at the offender's head and stated again in a negligent tone.
"Don't make me do more than I have to okay? Just give yourself up and then we can get this over with. I'm really tired right now."
The mysterious burglar fled for the open door for a quick getaway. Anders didn't like shooting at people because he knew pain hurts a lot so instead he fired at the large deer head situated right above the door which fell on top of the retreating escapee.
"Man, you're a real pain you know that?" he commented outloud as he lazily walked over to the struggling thief trapped underneath the offending object's antlers. He stooped over and pulled off the hood revealing the culprit's face.
"Awwww, shiiiiiiiiit."
It was a persocom. A female persocom.
Anders questioned fate on why it had to be his shift.
He didn't have a problem with women in general. Frankly, he had the same desires and attractions as the next hormonal, red-blooded male. The problem was female criminals. It may seem very strange, but to him, he felt extremely uncomfortable whenever he had to apprehend women. Call it chauvinism or chivalry; he didn't care what other people would think but the fact remained was that right in front of his feet was a female persocom lying with her back on the ground unable to move with a large deer head pressed firmly into her breasts.
And goddamn it she was hot.
Her long silver hair was now entangled messily with her slender and endowed form and she glared at him coldy with bright, blood-colored eyes. Now that he had a clear view of her, he mused vaguely on what kind of sickos would make a female persocom wear a skintight leotard for tasks such as robbery and if the designers were in the right state of mind to match silver hair and red eyes like certain anime characters.
She glared at him with a very chilling stare as if asking quite plainly, "Are you going to just stand there gawking or will you help get this off of me?" He could take a hint.
With a raised eyebrow, Anders clapped a pair of handcuffs on his and her wrists and pried the deer head off of her body. She still appeared disgruntled with her head bowed as he pulled her up to her feet.
"Man, looks like I'll have to drag you all the way back to the station. If I knew I'm gonna catch someone tonight, I would've taken the patrol car," he sighed. The persocom stayed as silent as the night itself.
Figuring that the residents are so fabulously rich they could certain restore their vase and wide screen door, Anders casually came out of the house with the now detained captive. "This is going to be one hell of a long walk," he mulled over. "Ah well, it's not like there's anything better to do anyway."
After a long while, they ended up at a local convenience store. Thinking of grabbing something to eat, he brought the handcuffed persocom with him inside. The cashier gave a skeptical look at the strange duo. It was probably very bizarre to see a watchman and a persocom in a black cloak handcuffed to each other, but Anders walked on as if nothing unusual was happening.
"I'll have this," he said bluntly, dropping a ramen bowl on the counter. And for the first time tonight, he saw a new expression from his captive. Okay, so it was a stare of pure disbelief, but at least it was something different from the usual stony look.
The pair of them sat at a bench outside and the lazy guard chomped away at his quick snack. His current 'companion' still had that look of disbelief on her face, but another emotion surfaced that was unknown to him. Finally, for the first time she spoke.
"Are you truly a police officer?"
That's it? That's the very first thing that came out of her mouth? Couldn't she tell from the uniform, badge, gun, etc.?
"Not exactly but I do work at a police station," he replied, unsure of where this question was leading to.
"You don't act like one," she stated with absolute seriousness, her words straight and sharp as an arrow.
"I don't recall a handbook describing the etiquettes and mannerisms of the police force," he said with again, biting sarcasm.
"It was easy to notice your presence from behind the door. Your movements were sloppy and unfocused. You were reckless and I could have easily killed you right on the spot," she replied coolly. Her voice was gracefully feminine and very pleasant to listen to had it been under different circumstances.
Anders didn't care about a lot of things, but to be criticized on his somewhat unorthodox yet (in his opinion) effective techniques by a handcuffed criminal was a bit too much.
"As I recalled, I was the one who caught you," he snapped back.
"If you were dead, it would leave traces of evidence. I do not want my master to be accused of murder."
"Right, that's exactly why you threw sharp objects at my face."
"Those were aimed so that you will not be able to give pursuit. Did you not see the intended trajectory?"
"I wouldn't know since they were flying at me."
"I do not understand how you were even considered to be employed in law enforcement."
"And I don't understand why I shouldn't tape your mouth shut."
They had finally reached their destination and Anders opened the door to the station, waiting for the (for the moment) quiet (no he did not use adhesive tape) persocom to enter. As they went inside, a persocom officer tied her up and with some resistance, he was able to pry open her white and baby blue ear and sticking a cord in, linking to her databanks. Anders sighed, thankful for the calm silence as he waited for his report.
"No data was present besides standard motor functions. There is no information of a present owner," the police persocom named Chad stated after twenty minutes of thorough scanning.
Anders sighed again. He didn't expect to find anything the minute he entered into the station. As persocoms became much more efficient in upholding the law, people started to learn that persocoms were also perfect at committing crimes. They left absolutely no trace of hair, blood, fingerprints, or any other genetic material humans had. And even if by some puny chance a persocom was found, like right now, the owner could have a self-destruct program installed that automatically erases all information regarding him at the moment of capture.
"I guess I'll go tell Rolan then," he drawled.
"No need. I'm right here," said a slightly overweight man leaning against the wall. Chad stood up smartly and saluted, but he waved him off.
"At ease already," he looked a bit exasperated, "I don't need to be saluted every single time I enter into a room. You can go back to your post."
"Sir, yes sir!" Chad replied and immediately marched back to his cubicle. Rolan shook his head and sat on a seat next to Anders.
"You would think that we're in a drill camp instead of a run-down police station."
"Yeah well, the way you make us work might be one of the reasons," Rolan gave a mocking glare and then said, "I'm the chief of police. I can do anything I want." He then turned his chair, facing the silent persocom chained to a steel chair. So, another one eh?"
"Yeah, kids these days are getting smarter. Sooner or later persocoms will be running the world and we'll just be their labor."
"Too true. Hey, you talk as if you're as old as I am. Aren't you just in your middle twenty's? And why don't you go get yourself a persocom to take your place so I can get all those reports you haven't filed in yet?"
"I'm too poor. The paycheck you give me is not enough."
"Only because you're too damn lazy to do anything besides taking up space and using up all our ammunition for nothing."
Anders and Rolan had bantered like this since the beginning of Ander's employment. He was not exactly sure why he really got the job in the first place, but he suspected that part of the reason was that Rolan wanted a human to talk to now and then.
"So what's going to happen to her?" Anders asked, but he could guess what the answer would most likely be.
"Well, since she is now unregistered and technically illegal, she'll probably be sent somewhere to be scrapped for parts or worse."
After a caught persocom was stripped of all information bearing to the crime, it would usually be "disposed" for security and to be sure that it could never be used again by the instigator. Anders did not really approve of this method, but it's not like he could do anything about it. That's just how the way things work.
"She'll be taken tomorrow and you're going to stay here and watch." Anders looked as if he just sat on a thorny cactus.
"What?" Why do I have to stay here for the rest of the night?" He asked, looking positively mutinous.
"So that you can finish up all those reports you didn't do for the last three weeks," Rolan replied with a smirk. "Don't fall asleep now." And with a wave, he left.
"Damn it," he cursed. The persocom just looked at him with an unreadable expression.
"What? Aren't you going to say something about me being unfit to work for the police?" He asked sarcastically.
Instead, she looked down on the floor and said nothing, surprising him but his face remained emotionless. He turned to his desk littered with papers and scattered folders. \
"This is going to be a long night."
The hour hand struck two. Anders yawned and let out a long stretch. He was finally finished and now his mind was focused on nothing else but his bed. His hands filled up all the completed reports in their appropriate folders and straightened it on his desk.
"Finally I can go to sleep," he stifled back another yawn and gave another look at the persocom now completely still and silent. Her head bowed slightly and long, flowing silver hair covered her eyes.
"Well, it's been nice meeting you even though we'll probably never see each other again so I guess this will also be our final farewell," he said a bit overdramatically, but the persocom didn't respond. It didn't really matter to him, but it seemed a bit strange that she was not talking to him.
"Hey, did you hear me?" He asked again, moving nearer and upon closer inspection what completely bewildered him was that he found her hands shaking.
"Hey, why are you trembling? You're not still mad at me are you?"
She did not say anything at first, but then he could barely make out a small response.
"I am going to die am I?"
It was a very strange question, a very strange question indeed. Anders stared at her, his eyes as wide as dinner plates, matching her blood-red ones. This was coming from the same person that just belittled him about his working capabilities?
"Uh, I don't think you can die because you're not actually living," he deadpanned.
"I don't want it," she said.
"Want what?"
"I…I don't want my existence to be…all for nothing," she spoke so soft that he had to strain his ear to catch all the words.
He could have almost sworn that he sensed fear in her voice. To see her self-assurance slowly breaking apart and watching her breaking down was a pitiful sight. Anders knew that persocoms had no rights in this world. Despite how stronger or smarter they are compared with humans, they were still seen as what they originally came from, just computers.
"Nice going Anders. If I didn't know better, I'd think you're showing a shred of pity for the enemy," he mentally groaned. With another exasperated sigh, he went back to his chair and sat down on it. This slightly surprised her and she looked at him with confusion.
"How am I supposed to leave when I see you all upset and depressed like that?" he said in a flat-out tone. "Damn my chivalrous nature….or is it really chauvinist? Ah who cares?" "It looks like I'm going to be staying here all night after all."
"Why?" She asked, still completely bewildered.
"You already heard me. I thought persocoms were smart," he spoke with drooling sarcasm.
"Even the most primitive persocom will have intelligence that is vastly superior to the smartest human and most easily yours," she responded icily.
"You sure don't sound like it."
"Why is that even necessary?"
"Well if you are smarter, than you should at least sound like you do. That sounds like something a two-year old would say."
"I do not sound like a two-year old!"
"Ummm, ya-huh."
"That is not even a valid and legitimate reason!"
"Oh sure, like yours are totally blowing the jury away!"
And so they argued back and forth and there showed no sign of stopping until the sun poked its head out from behind the rolling hills. And little does she realize it or him for that matter, but she did not feel the least bit upset during the short time together.