Chapter 2
"Hey! We need help over he-"
"Get on the ground! Place your hands over your head!" the officer shouted.
"What?" I asked, before realizing what was happening. He thought I was the one behind this all. He thought I had killed the omnic. "No, Officer, you've got it all wrong-" I tried to say before he cut me off again.
"I won't ask again! Get on the ground!" he said, aiming his pistol at my head. I panicked. I had never been in trouble with the law before. So I complied. I placed my hands behind my head, and knelt to the ground. The officer rushed towards me, and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. I exhaled, and pressed the button on my hard-light baton. It flared to life. I rolled over, taking the officer with me before hitting the gun out of his hands, and smacking him over the head. Like the crook, he was out. I fished the key off of the man, unlocked my cuffs, and made my way back up the fire escape into my apartment. I shut the window behind me, and turned off the lights.
I had left the omnic down there, dead. I had assaulted an officer. I had knocked out a societal menace. Okay, the last one wasn't too bad. The cop hadn't gotten a good view of my face... At least... I don't think he did. I stashed the cane-turned-weapon in one of my clothes drawers and leaped into bed. The moment my head hit the pillow, I began dreaming.
I awoke in the morning with an aching abdomen from where the criminal had punched me the night before. I decided to call into work and told them that I wouldn't be coming in that day. After being chewed-out by my supervisor, I sat up in my bed, and walked to my dresser across the room. I opened my t-shirt drawer. There, on top of my many shirts, sat the hard-light cane.
I must have stared at that thing for hours.
I had helped that omnic. Or... I had tried to. I was too late. But I had helped him in a way. What he mentioned though. About me being on Overwatch's list. What'd he mean by that? Did they have a list? Was it a call list or a watch-list?
Ideas swirled in my head. I could make a difference with this technology at my side. My mind didn't immediately go to being a vigilante, but I was already one right? Nothing I could do to change that now. I had taken the law into my own hands, and incapacitated an officer while I was at it. Speaking of which, the fact that they hadn't knocked on my door yet was a good sign. But had he seen my face? I would need a mask. Something to cover my face so I wouldn't be easily identifiable. As I pulled an old blue scarf from a box of winter clothes, my mind began to race.
What was I doing? I was actually considering this? Why? What could I offer the world? But... The omnics. Ever since the Crisis they had been treated unfairly, attacked, and berated. Just like last night in the ally. And law enforcement carried prejudice the same way that menace had last night. Some... Most didn't fight for the rights of the omnics. If they saw one being beaten in an ally, they would turn the other cheek. I wasn't sure if the omnics were truly self-conscious. But last night had changed me. Convinced me there was something more. As I looked into that robots eyes as he faded away last night I saw raw emotion. Somehow. Fear, anger, sadness. But also peace. That was all it took.
I wrapped the scarf around my face, covering my mouth and nose, and threw a black hoodie on over the top of what I was wearing; simple jeans and a thermal shirt. I retrieved the baton I had used the night before and placed it into my pocket. This was happening. I didn't even know how to fight. I told myself I'd learn.
And with that, I opened my window, and climbed my fire escape to the roof of my building.
"You've seen the footage haven't you?"
"Yes I have, it's impressive. No combat experience in his life?"
"Says here he took karate for two months when he was twelve."
"Real combat experience."
"What? Karate not real enough for you?"
"..."
"A-hem. No."
The man rewound the holovid again. One armed man subduing a criminal and a police officer with little effort.
"How?"
"Not sure. We do know that the hard-light weapon he possesses is like nothing we've ever seen. The hard-light is its own. We think the way he can knock out people that easily would have to be some sort of force magnification device built into the weapon. Exponentially heightens the power of the blow when it connects with its victim."
"Sure about that?"
"It's a theory."
"What else do you have?"
"He's a nurse."
"A nurse?"
"Yeah, at a hospital in... Los Angeles."
"Why would a nurse take up a hobby like this? Designing hard-light weapons?"
"Not sure. Anyway, that's all I have for you. Once we get more on him we'll talk more. This is the first one to catch your eye in a long time."
"There's something different about this one. I can't explain it. Plus, if he's a nurse he could get us closer to our other potential agent."
"The one in Zurich?"
"That's the one."
"Let's focus on this one first."
"Understood."
"Dismissed."