My Enforcer training kicked in gear, I didn't dare question Frank's order and I ducked my head under the dashboard. My instincts rewarded me with my life, I heard the roar of a gun and bullets proceeding to slam into our window. Adrenaline rushed through me, I still kept my head under the dashboard as the bullets continued to rip into my seat. A couple seconds later the gunfire finally went silent and I sighed in relief that I made it through that death trap.
"Frank are you alright!?" I yelled.
"Yeah I'm fine, 'I'm fine, what about you?"
"I'm fine how do you want to proceed forward?" As I said that I carefully sat up avoiding the shattered glass to look around for the criminal who lit us up. I spotted a man holding what appeared to be a pre-empire SMG running away from us to a store. Frank was opening his mouth to speak before I interrupted him.
"Frank, the guy's running towards some store, are you in the condition to chase him?" I asked while searching for any injuries on him.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine just a bit of bruising we gotta catch that asshole before it's too late, we're in the dark sector, after all, the guy's probably going to be gone within 30 seconds if we don't chase him now." Frank steadied himself and then grabbed his equipment along with an energy barrier before exiting the car. I activated my emergency signal so backup should be arriving soon, but not quick enough to catch the bastard. I managed to get out of the ruined car and followed after Frank who was running into the store.
My senses were on even higher alert since we were in the dark sector, I was too distracted with my thoughts regarding this whole new life dynamic that I didn't realize the sector we had arrived in.
I noticed many people in the area giving us dirty looks despite that we were almost gunned down. I wouldn't be surprised if these people were secretly hoping that we'd bite the dust. It sucked that these people hated us that much, but my priority at the moment is to find the guy who attempted to murder Frank and me.
Bang, bang!
I heard gunshots, I'm not scared though because Frank has an energy barrier. I then heard a body-slamming loudly against a pole. I sprinted through the store having to almost push a lady dressed like a goth. She flashed an angry look at me, but I kept moving towards Frank. I hope that wasn't him that I heard slam into the pole. I bolted through an old rusted door that revealed a back alleyway. I turned to my left and then to my right and saw Frank cuffing the criminal with an energy cuff. "There you are Macy, you missed the show."
"What happened?" I asked.
"Oh nothing special, he tried to shoot me even though I had an energy barrier and crashed right into the pole."
I chuckled internally at his misfortune and asked Frank another question, "want to bring this guy in and go get some lunch afterward?"
Frank grinned, "yeah that would be great come on up we go, buddy." Frank lifted up the criminal to his feet, he had ear piercings, nose piercings, he looked like a punk rockstar turned criminal. I held no remorse for the jerk since he had tried to murder us, he seemed content to remain silent and chose to glare at us.
"Well let's go get this guy processed down at the dome so we can go get some grub, oh and Macy can you watch out for us while waiting for the other Enforcers to arrive?" I agreed with Frank's request and made sure to keep watch while making our way back to the destroyed car. The dark sector had a lot of people who had a bone to pick with Enforcers and who's to say they won't try and mess with us at any moment even if we had energy barriers.
I took a moment to study the pre-empire gun that Frank was carrying in his offhand. Although technology has advanced to energy-based weapons it doesn't change the fact that those types of weapons are harmful to humans. They are sadly pretty easy to get on the black market and it's common for gangs, drug cartels, and various other criminal organizations to have them. The empire doesn't produce them anymore, but they are pretty easy to make nowadays. All the modern patrol cars are bulletproof, unfortunately, the one we were driving was an old car, meaning it didn't have the same stuff.
As we were about to arrive at our broken car my eyes widened like saucers. The criminal Frank was escorting had flames licking up his fingers and he seemed concentrated trying to break through the cuffs. However, all of the sudden the cuffs brightened with a white glow and then his fire was gone.
"Ha! You really think you could break through these magic cuffs?" I turned to face Frank who just spoke, "magic cuffs?"
Frank stared at me for a moment, a puzzled look on his face, "yeah magic cuffs, what about them?"
I was about to ask what they were, but then I realized that would expose me too much so I scrambled to think of something else. "Uh yeah I was just asking cause I thought you said mage cuffs or something, I guess my hearing is a bit bad today."
Frank nodded, but I could tell he wanted to say more. He held the criminal next to the car and kept him there in a position that would be impossible for the guy to escape.
"You damn Enforcers thinking you can just step in here and do whatever the hell you want? You like shoving us down, making us live a horrible life you-"
Frank interrupted the rambling man, "well you're pretty jumpy now that you've realized your mutation won't get you a get out of jail free card." I'm still pretty clueless so I chose to remain silent. I really need to learn more about this world or I might mess up big time and bite the dust.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever man go fuck yourselves."
We ignored the man as he continued to ramble, it was pretty common for people to do this in the dark sector, we learned early on not to respond to these fools.
Two enforcer vehicles arrived 30 seconds later much to my pleasure so I can get out of this creepy sector. One of the cars pulled up to the curb and out stepped a jet black hair Asian woman. She actually looked very familiar to a pal I met named Taro and it felt even odder because she had the same brown eyes as him.
She smiled at me and walked up to Frank and I. Frank saved me by calling out her name first, "hey Tara sorry to ruin your patrol this morning." My heart sank as I had yet another sinking feeling that this was the female version of Taro. I wonder why Frank didn't change genders, but Taro did, is it just random for everyone or is there a reason for it?
Tara waved a hand in front of my face"Hey Macy you look a bit spaced out, are you alright?"
"Oh yeah, I'm fine, I was just thinking of something." She frowned, "alright then Macy remember that we have girls night out on Sunday."
Wow, that's not cliche at all, I'm going to have to pull off a miracle to make it through that night.
"Of course, I haven't forgotten Tara, can't wait to see you there." That seemed good enough for Tara because she stopped frowning and went back to Enforce mode. "I'll take the guy down to get processed, Jack can you give them a ride back to the station?"
Jack snapped a salute, "Yes Ma'am!" I don't know the guy and based on his reaction I judged that he must be a newbie for the force. I knew that within a year that energy would trickle down after being exposed to the ugly side of society. It's sad to see, but that's simply the reality of it. Few can remain to be a positive energy bunny after years of this crap, I'm surprised Frank and I haven't gotten that low yet in negativity.
We were silent on our way back to the station and eventually, we ended up at a pizza restaurant. I was tempted to suggest another restaurant just to tease Frank, but I loved pizza myself so I didn't have the will to say no. I ordered a pepperoni with pineapple. Many would find it blasphemous to add such a thing to pizza. My response is that the demon's temptations were too much for me and I choose to indulge in its pleasures of pineapple on pizza.
My good mood was ruined though when Frank suddenly said with a sober tone, "Macy I think we need to talk."