Disclaimer – "Brave Police J-Decker" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Sunrise, Nagoya TV, and any other related owners/distributors/producers. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.
"Live a Little"
by DragonDancer5150
CHAPTER THREE
Deckard leaned back against a tree, careful not to put too much of his weight on it and crack or uproot it. He was sitting, putting the push of his body low against the trunk, so he wasn't overly worried. The sun had just finished setting over the Sea of Japan. With the clouds in the sky, it had been a beautiful sight, one he rarely had the pleasure of simply enjoying. That alone would have made it special, but tonight it was only one aspect.
"So pretty," he heard Drill Boy murmur to his left, the words coming out in a breathy sigh.
"Yeah," Dumpson agreed from somewhere behind Deckard's left shoulder. "We should do this more often."
"Since it seems we may actually be allowed to," Duke added, his soft voice sounding in from Deckard's right.
Deckard looked around at the rest of his team, all perched on a narrow mountain ridge high above Kanazawa. The whole team, all eight robots, was present. Deckard couldn't remember a time when all of them had been out and about together that they'd not been busy with some case or other. Actually, no, he realized – it wasn't that he couldn't remember.
It was that it had never happened.
The Brave Police got days off, just like the rest of the police force, but they had never all been scheduled off at the same time. The board's reasoning had been that it was a bad idea for all of them to be off-duty at any given moment in case an incident came up and they were needed. As Yuuta had tried to argue for them, though, it wasn't as if they'd just not respond if called. Apparently, it had seemed as if that was exactly the board's worry, that they'd all go rogue if given half a chance. Best to keep an eye – or as Toudou had put it in irritation, a leash – on as many of them at a time as they thought they could get away with.
Deckard shook his head. Perhaps in time, their situation would change more radically. Super A.I.s were still brand new and, for many, feared and distrusted. It helped nothing that the eight of them plus four police robots in England assigned to Scotland Yard were the only actual legal Super A.I.s in existence to date and that any others that showed up were almost by their very nature rogues and criminals. Powerful and dangerous ones, at that.
Deckard ran a hand over his face, dispelling the thoughts before the frustration could really get a foothold on him. He didn't want to have think about any of that, least of all tonight. He turned to the rest of the team. "So . . . what do we want to do now?"
The others exchanged looks, visibly unsure how they wanted to answer that. The group had already done more today than any of them had let themselves really consider before.
It had been a week and a half since the incident over the monitor. By the time the Build Team had been released back to regular service, it had taken Deckard, Duke, Shadowmaru, and Gunmax - along with Yuuta, Toudou, and many of the Build Team's engineering staff - over an hour in the maintenance bay with hoses, brushes, and strong cleaners to soak and scrub the caked grime from their teammates. Once they were finally clean again, their maintenance teams had insisted on running thorough diagnostics, the engineers checking their systems for adverse effects from exposure to the crap they'd been hauling around for the past week-plus.
Then yesterday, before going home for the evening, Saejima had broken the news to the team – they had the entire next day off, all of them. The only things requested of them were that they stay together, they remain on the main island, they keep their comms ready in case anything came up, and that they be back by midnight, ostensibly so that they had plenty of time to fuel and recharge before getting back to work the following day. The group had been ecstatic, though that was dampened somewhat when they realized most of their friends wouldn't be able to join them. Kimizuka Ayako was in Seoul chasing what she believed was going to be a big scoop. Colonel Onoue Seia was busy with her Self-Defense Force squadron overseeing a project all the way down in Kumamoto all week. Even Yuuta and his buddies would be away on an overnight field trip up in Aomori, and too much of their science grade depended on it for them to miss it. The Brave Police were, for the first time ever, entirely on their own for the day. Deckard knew that, as much as anything, it was a test of how much they could be trusted without anyone around to "handle" them.
The group had gone to visit with Yuuta's sisters and neighbors first thing, catching them before work and school. Mudra fixed an Indian meal for himself, Azuki and Kurumi, Coach, Kashiwazaki, and Mrs. Itohata which they ate at a patio table they had carried into the restaurant's parking lot, where the Brave Police had gathered to spend breakfast with them. They toasted one another with water, tea, and gasoline. After that, the team made it over to the elementary school in time for morning recess and spent time surrounded by children. Then, the group basically wandered all over central Honshuu, wherever the winds of fancy blew them. They visited shrines and historical landmarks, drove through cities and lush countryside slowly enough to enjoy them, and looked up and checked in on people they'd met in the past through cases they'd worked in the areas. As the sun began to sink, they'd found this vantage point on the northwestern face of the mountains to settle and just appreciate the approaching dusk.
The clouds had followed the sun over into the horizon, leaving the sky clear and laden with stars. A three-quarter waxing moon, hanging low and large, gilded the forest around them in blue-tinged silver.
"Catch a movie?" Power Joe suggested, finally breaking the silence. "There's a couple good ones playing right now."
Gunmax laughed. "Oh, sure. We can just crawl into a theater through the emergency exit."
Power Joe leaned over to punch his arm. "Idiot! I meant a drive-in."
"I know of a really nice one over in Toyama," Shadowmaru offered, waving a vague hand out and to their right, north up the coast.
"Oh!" Drill Boy's exclamation startled everyone as he jumped to his feet. "No, I got it! I saw a place on the way up here that'd be perfect even!" Before Deckard or the others could question him, he'd dropped into his vehicle mode and sped off down the road. Deckard sighed, gestured after him as he climbed to his feet, and folded into vehicle mode as well. The others changed around him, Gunmax climbing back on his bike, and the group gave chase.
Drill Boy's tracks led the group off the road eight kilometers back the way they'd come, ending in a rocky but mostly level clearing. The group shifted back to robot forms and stepped out into the empty field, looking around.
"SHOOT!" came a sudden shout of triumph from behind them. Drill Boy's customary soccer-based battle cry was the only warning the group got.
Deckard spun on his heel just in time to take a giant-robot-sized soccer ball square to the chest. Unprepared for the "attack" as he was, he gasped as it knocked him off his feet. Duke and McCrane caught his shoulders, sparing him from an embarrassing fall.
The soccer ball rolled back over to Drill Boy, who expertly toe-kicked it up into the air and started bouncing it off a knee. "Haha, c'mon, Deckard! Gotta be sharper than that!"
"Drill Boy, what's the big idea?" Dumpson demanded.
"Soccer!" Drill Boy crowed, catching the ball in one hand and spreading his arms to indicate the empty field around them.
Deckard looked again, realizing that it was clear of trees or even grass for them to worry about damaging, and large enough for all of them to run around in with room to spare. Drill Boy beamed back as Deckard turned to him once more. Deckard thought his teammate must have read his thoughts on his face.
"See? It's perfect! Whaddya say, guys? Build Team against . . . the rest of you." Drill Boy waved a playfully dismissive hand at Deckard, Shadowmaru, Duke, and Gunmax.
Duke shifted, looking uncomfortable. "I don't know how to play soccer."
Power Joe laughed. "No? Isn't that the national sport back in England or something?"
"Baseball is the national sport here in Japan, isn't it?" the British-built robot countered. His tone was mild, but his optics held a glint of annoyance. "Do you know how to play baseball?"
Power Joe thought about that and conceded with a nod. "Yeah, okay, point."
"We'll all learn together," Deckard told the group, then asked of Drill Boy, "You'll teach us, right?"
Drill Boy gaped at him. For all his excitement, it seemed that he hadn't expected them to actually agree. After an instant, he broke into a huge grin and saluted. "Roger!"
The game was, in Deckard's estimation, a chaotic train wreck – any real soccer players would have laughed the lot of them off the field, with the exception of Drill Boy. But it was an immensely fun train wreck, full of laughter and playful taunts as each side did its best. It was a chance to "fight" and throw their all into something that had nothing serious at stake. When the Build Team scored their fifth goal to the other side's two, the group called it good and collapsed in a heap in the middle of the field. Such an energetic game after an entire day out and about had left everyone low on power.
"We should head back while we can still make it on our own," Shadowmaru suggested, though he made no immediate move to do so.
"Dun wanna." Dumpson purposely slurred his words for emphasis as he lifted his head to tuck his hands under it. "It's nice out here."
"You can see the whole Milky Way out here," Power Joe marveled.
McCrane nodded. "It's beautiful."
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star," Gunmax started to sing in English but cut off with a snicker, snapping a hand up to catch the stone Dumpson tossed at him to shut him up.
Drill Boy shifted over onto his side and reached to poke at Duke. "Hey . . . does it look like this in England?"
Duke nodded. "You have to get out into the countryside like we are now, away from London, but yes. The exact starfield is shifted due to the difference of latitude, but it's close enough."
"Nice!" Drill Boy flopped onto his back again. "Maybe one day we'll get to go to London, and you can show us all around, yeah?"
"I'd like that," Duke murmured.
The group fell into a comfortable silence, content in one another's company. Deckard knew he should probably get his team moving, but...
Soon. Not yet. They had time yet.