DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the RoboCop characters, and I make no money from this fan fiction.
ROBOCOP: Cop Killer
by
Rhonnel Ferry
"We don't want to hurt anyone!" Melvin nervously announces from under his ski mask, as he waves his Mossberg 500 pump shotgun at the frightened crowd. "Just do as we say, and nobody gets hurt!"
"Cash and valuables," his partner, Wilbert, adds just as nervously, as he covers the other side of the bus with his Benelli M4 Super 90.
Veteran police officer, Jake Tanner, in plain clothes, tentatively remains in his seat, as he assesses the situation. He knows he is outgunned, having only his off-duty 5-shot revolver. The two armed robbers are young and twitchy. And with shotguns in an enclosed area, a firefight would almost guarantee civilian casualties! And then he also has to think of the family he's going home to, Molly, his wife, and his boy, Cody. Is it really worth the risk, just to take down a couple of punks?
"Look, man," the bus driver attempts to reason with the gunmen. "Just calm down. We all just wanna go home-"
Melvin abruptly smacks the driver in the face with the butt of his shotgun, bloodying the man's nose!
"What did I say about staying in your seats and keeping quiet?!" Melvin frantically screams.
"You never said that!" the driver protests, covering his injured snout with both hands. "You said do as we say and nobody gets hurt!"
"Actually, he's right," Wilbert whispers. "You never said that."
"I didn't?" Melvin asks, then announces, "Well, then I'm saying it now! Stay in your seats and keep quiet!"
Jake has seen enough. He's a policeman, dammit! And his pride gets the better of him.
"Alright that's enough, boys. I'm a police officer," he states as unthreateningly as he can, showing them his badge in one hand, his weapon in the other.
"Oh, shit!" Wilbert shrieks, and they both point their guns at the cop.
"Relax, son," Jake calmly tells him. "No one's seen your faces. No one's getting arrested. No one has to get hurt. Just walk away and-"
A gunshot booms within the large motor vehicle, followed by the passengers' united screams.
Jake just stands there, shocked and confused. He turns to find a tearful, young woman, fearfully pointing a smoking pistol at him.
"Why...?" he manages to say, before he collapses onto the metal flooring.
#
"A policeman died today," Pat Novak announces during his show, The Novak Element. "But you probably haven't heard anything about that. No, when a policeman dies, it isn't news. When a no good, dirty, low-life crook gets shot to death, oh you can bet it's on all the news! We got everybody crying human rights violations! We got interviews with his grieving widow!
Nobody interviewed Officer Jake Tanner's widow. No, we've gotten to the point, where we don't even question or care when evil people do evil things! How did we get here?! What has happened to us, that we sympathize more with those that would hurt us, than with those that would protect us?!"
#
Officer Alex Murphy, the cyborg entity known as RoboCop, uses his enhanced vision to scan the scene of the crime. Earlier, he had located the shell casing, and had it sent to ballistics so that it can be studied and traced.
He knew the late Officer Jake Tanner. They weren't particularly close. But then again, Murphy never got the chance to be close to anyone in Metro South, except for his partner, Anne Lewis. Shortly after his transfer to the precinct, he was brutally murdered by Boddicker's gang, and then subsequently revived by the megacorporation OCP.
He wonders, if his interest in this case, was because of the similarities he shared with the victim. A fellow cop, husband, and father.
Their only difference is Murphy survived his ordeal, and avenged himself. Jake tanner will be unable to do so.
#
"I was so frightened," Olivia Brown, a middle aged elementary school teacher and mother of two, admits to the policewoman at the Metro South precinct. "What's strange is that it wasn't either of those two...hooligans that shot that poor man!"
"Who shot him?" Officer Anne Lewis inquires, as she types the information into her computer.
"It was the young woman sitting right next to me! We just met, and were talking about life in the city. She looked so pretty and innocent. You wouldn't think she'd be capable of such a horrible thing!"
"Hmm...maybe she's their back up. A passenger that's in on it. Just in case something unexpected happens. Would you be able to describe her? To a police sketch artist, I mean."
"Oh, absolutely."
"That would be a great help, ma'am. Let me just contact-"
"Uhm...is he here, by any chance?" Olivia interrupts, craning her neck to look around.
Anne's brow furrows. "The...sketch artist?"
"No. The robot. He's your partner, right?"
"Oh! Officer Alex Murphy."
"No! No! The police robot! The one you always see in the news. The big, metal guy-"
"That's...that's his name. Officer Alex Murphy."
Olivia gasps, "You gave it a name?!"
Anne glares at her, but manages to maintain her composure. Barely. "No. No, I didn't give him that name. That's the name he was born with-"
"Are you two a thing?" Olivia whispers.
"What?!"
"Just between us girls. How do you do it? Does he have like a robo penis in there?"
"EXCUSE ME?!"
"Is it like a vibrator?"
#
The moment Alex enters the police station, Anne angrily marches towards him, and stiffly hands him a print out.
"What's this?" he asks.
"What does it look like?! That's a facial composite of our shooter! No priors! No nothing!"
"Why are you shouting?"
"I'm not shouting!"
"Why are you angry?"
"I'M NOT ANGRY! Now, come on! We've got a cop killer to find!" And she marches outside.
"But,...I just got here."
#
Their Ford Taurus squad car comes to a halt in front of Garcia's Tavern, a shoddy bar in the inner city.
"I wanna talk to this guy alone," Anne suggests to Alex. "Stay in the car, OK?"
"But I have a built in polygraph."
Anne smiles. "I've been a cop so long, I've developed a bit of a lie detector, myself."
Alex doesn't argue the point. Anne leans over, then playfully pecks him on the lips.
"What was that for?" he asks her.
"That's your reward," she answers, then exits the vehicle.
#
Earl Garcia momentarily looks up at Anne as she enters, before going back to cleaning a large beer mug.
"Esposito was already in here earlier," he surly tells her, without taking his eyes off the glass.
"Your arrangement with Officer Esposito is between you and him," Anne replies, then slides the drawing of the suspect across the counter.
The bartender looks at it for only one second, before sliding it right back.
"I'm not a snitch either."
"I wasn't asking you to snitch. I want you to help spread the word. You know those little misdemeanors most cops tend to overlook? Streetwalking, gambling,...liquor law violations."
Earl finally looks up and scowls at the policewoman.
Unperturbed, Anne continues, "Well, we're not going to be overlooking them anymore. Not until this cop killer is found."
"You know, I heard stories about cops torturing inmates," Earl says. "Pretty girl like that, what do you think they're going to do to her?"
"Nothing she doesn't have coming. If you change your mind, my number's on the back."
She leaves the copy of the composite on the counter.
"What if I told you that she's not a bad kid?" Earl calls after her. "That she just had a rough life, and got mixed in with a bad crowd?"
"Good kids don't just shoot people in the back."
#
"You shot a cop!" Wilbert hisses at Claudia, as they sit around a small, wooden, round table at the 9 Ball Pool Hall, the Nevermind Gang's favorite hangout. "That's like a death sentence!"
"Relax, man," Melvin attempts to calm him. "She basically saved us."
"Saved us?! That cop was gonna let us walk-"
"Yea, and you believed him?!" Claudia snaps at him. "Look, I think the best thing we should do now, is get out of the city as fast as we can-"
"How?! Every cop in the city is gonna be looking for us! And every crook isn't gonna want anything to do with us!"
"Not everyone!" Derek, a tall, bronze-skinned, well-muscled dread, and a high ranking member of the gang interjects.
"Sh-shit, boss," Wilbert stutters. "We're sorry. It was all Claudia. She did it. She panicked and-"
"What are you apologizing for, Wilbert? For shooting a pig?! As far as I'm concerned, this gives the Nevermind Gang major cred!"
Melvin and Claudia smile at each other, but Wilbert remains apprehensive.
Derek continues, "The police have their brotherhood? Well, so do we! And if they want war, then they will learn that we are more than capable of obliging them."
#
"Ever hear of Blue Lives Matter?" Anne asks with a hint of melancholy, as she stares out at the near empty streets through the venetian blinds.
It is late, and the precinct is nearly empty.
"Of course," Alex answers. "It was a pro-police movement 14 years ago. It was started after the killings of two NYPD officers in Brooklyn, New York. It was made up of active and retired law enforcement officers-"
"Yea, yea. You've heard of it. No need for the history lesson. Did you know how heavily criticized it was? A couple of our own die, a group of cops say it matters, and they get criticized for it. And now, we got a cop killer with a pretty face. Can you imagine what they're gonna do with that one? I just know we're gonna be the bad guys again once the media's done with this."
"Officer Lewis?" Carla, the front desk officer calls. "There's someone asking for you. He says he has information about the cop killer."
Anne's eyes widen. "I'll be right down!"
She follows Carla to the lobby, where she finds a young man, possibly a Pacific islander, in a plain white shirt, faded jeans, and sneakers. A tattoo on his forearm identifies him as a member of the notorious street gang, the Nevermind Gang.
"You the lady cop been handing drawings around of that girl?" he asks.
"Yes. I am Officer Anne Lewis. And you are?"
"My name's Wilbert. I wanna cut a deal."
#
"No one was suppose to get hurt, I swear," Wilbert sobs in his chair at the interrogation room.
"Tell that to the bus driver with the broken nose," Anne remarks.
"That was Melvin!"
"So everyone's to blame but you, huh?"
"Exactly! That's what I been tellin' you!"
"How about the shooter? What's her name?"
"Claudia. Claudia Gatdula. She's at the 9 Ball Pool Hall. But I don't know for how long. She was talkin' about skipping town earlier-"
"Stay with him," Alex tells Anne.
"I'll give Sergeant Reed a call," Anne replies. "We'll need that judge friend of his. Don't want her to get off on a technicality."
"Hey, we got a deal, right?!" Wilbert reminds them.
"Yes, yes. You got your deal," Anne assures him.
#
Derek himself, followed by two of his armed men, exit the pool hall when they notice the squad car pull up.
"Oh, shit," one of Derek's men reacts when RoboCop steps out of the vehicle. "They mean business."
"So do we," Derek reassures him. "I prepared for the worst."
"I'm not here for you," Alex informs the gang leader. "Not today. I have a warrant for the arrest of Claudia Gatdula."
"Oh, so you think just because you have some piece of paper, you could just go ahead and do whatever you want, huh?!"
Alex pauses for a second. "Well,...actually, yes. That's...basically what a warrant is for."
"Oh. Well, um...s-screw you, pig!"
"Yea, you tell 'em, boss," one of Derek's thugs chimes in.
Alex ignores them. "Claudia Gatdula!" he announces. "This is your last chance to surrender yourself!"
"Hey!" Derek growls, pulling out his Beretta Model 92FS. "We're not done talking! You talk to me, pig!"
"He disrespecting you, Boss," one of Derek's thugs chimes in.
Alex doesn't respond, and instead scans the area. There must be a reason why the gang leader is so confident.
Up on the roof! A man, getting in position, with an anti-materiel rifle! A weapon like that could penetrate even RoboCop's titanium armored shell! Derek is simply trying to buy the sniper some time.
A mechanical holster opens out of RoboCop's right thigh. He quickly draws his Auto-9 handgun, aims, and then fires! The bullet shatters the rifle scope, and continues through the sniper's eye and into his brain!
Derek shoots the officer in the mouth, but RoboCop blocks the bullet in time! The slug ricochets off his metal palm, and instead hits Derek in the mouth, shattering his front teeth, and exiting through the gang leader's nape!
"Oh shit oh shit!" one of Derek's thugs screams.
He and his fellow gangster open fire with their shotguns, but the attacks prove ineffective against the cyborg's tough armor!
RoboCop returns fire with three round bursts to the chests of both men! All four gang members die near simultaneously.
Alex uses his thermal vision. There are twenty hostiles inside the establishment. Most are armed with revolvers, shotguns, and Uzis, though one has a light machine gun. That could prove challenging.
Then his built in directional microphone picks up the sound of someone attempting to start a car in the parking lot behind the pool room.
"Come on, dammit!" he hears a man's voice say.
"Hurry up already!" a woman's voice follows.
It could be Claudia attempting an escape. Now, Alex could choose to go right through the building. The resulting firefight would be risky, but it would exciting, violent, and bloody! Which is actually Alex Murphy's preferred style.
But tonight is not about Alex Murphy. Alex Murphy had already been avenged a long time ago. Tonight is about the late Officer Jake Tanner.
Alex decides to go around.
#
"Come on, dammit!" Melvin grunts, as he again tries the key to his cheap, used hatchback.
"Hurry up already!" Claudia screams in the passenger seat. "Christ, I told you to get rid of this lousy piece of garbage-!"
"Hey! This is my baby! Do not talk about her like that!"
And suddenly the engine starts.
"Haha! Yeah!" Melvin cries out. "See?! I told you-!"
They are both startled by a loud bang from somewhere behind them, that causes the whole car to shake!
Melvin looks out the window, and sees that they didn't just lose a rear tire. They had lost the entire left wheel!
RoboCop aims his Auto-9, and fires again! This time, the right rear wheel is completely obliterated!
"Claudia, run!" Melvin yells.
He opens the car door, steps out, and attempts to pull out a pistol, but it gets caught in his waistband.
"Oh, come on!" he screams in frustration.
"You're lucky you can't pull the gun out," Alex tells him. "It saved your life."
RoboCop bitch-slaps him! Melvin pirouettes three times like a ballerina, before falling unconscious on the parking lot floor.
Claudia is running away on the street as fast as she can.
"Halt, or I will fire!" Alex warns her.
She doesn't halt. Alex shoots her through the calf! Claudia squeals, stumbles, then falls down. The cyborg officer approaches her. She pulls out a Glock 19.
"Don't!" Alex warns her again, pointing his own gun at her. "Toss the weapon away!"
She fearfully obeys.
"W-what's going to happen to me?!" she sobs.
"Ask a judge," Alex answers. "I'm just a cop."
#
"Claudia Gatdula," Pat Novak says pensively during his show, The Novak Element, as he looks at a copy of the facial composite Officer Lewis had been handing around. "That's the name of your cop killer. Not a hitman, or a hardened criminal,...but a poor, little, immigrant girl with the visage of an angel."
He then faces the camera and continues, "See, it's easy to paint big megacorporations like OCP as the bad guys. Though most of you probably do that out of jealousy of the rich. But the hard truth is, EVIL TAKES ALL FORMS! It can be rich, it can be poor! It can be man, it can be woman! It can be black, it can be white! It can be straight,...and evil can be gay."
He looks at the drawing one more time, then turns it around for the audience to see, before he closes the show.
END