Chapter 04.3: 311 Antoine Boulevard

"Yeah, I spoke with Everett today. He goes by Titus now." Regret immediately lamented, telling Clara his name. Her response did not help her concerns as she could imagine her friend's face over the phone, "Oh really? Thanks. So where is he?"

Regret was doing a patrol in a crime hotspot but was more focused on chiding her roommate, "None of your damn business! That is strictly confidential police knowledge!"

"So... M.N.P.D?"

"Don't be a smart ass your whole life." She stopped at Gadd's Glad Heights at 430 Wendig Court. It was a human-run apartment deep in the nonhuman sector famous for its overpriced rent and no-questions-asked residency policy. While Regret hated the place, it was where her assistant/field partner, Buttercup, stayed, "I might drop by and give him a visit."

Regret honks the horn hard on her car before berating, "I will kick the green off that oversized ass of yours if you so much as come within a mile of M.N.P.D!"

Clara's laugh was rare enough that it perked her up a bit despite the lurking irritation at Butters dragging their feet. If it was anyone else's laughter, then she would have been pissed. Her laugh abruptly stopped, with her usual sober and monotone cadence coming back in full force, "So, did you talk about our child?"

There were a multitude of reasons why she did not say anything back. The primary one was that she was uncomfortable with this conversation's route. Butter let themselves in as Clara began talking, "Please do not harbour any ill will on Everett. Sure, he was an insensitive, callous arse by the end of our relationship. However, you will never meet a man more excited about being a father. I watched him change overnight, and we would spend hours talking about the future. I-I took that all from him."

Her voice cracking hurt more than a donkey kick to the ribs, "Clara...."

"Shut up!" Regret was taken aback by the heat behind Clarassa's anger: "If you even understood how I feel, then you would not treat your daughter the way you do! Do you even understand how much of her life you missed out on!?"

"I don't have a daughter and am hanging up now. Come near M.N.P.D, and you will be arrested. Bye."

"Listen, Reggie, I am--" Regret hung up the phone and sat back in her seat. Butters said and did nothing besides shifting uncomfortably in their seat. The silence nor her blank stares at them did anything to unease them.

Butters belong to the rather complex and infamous family of nonhumans colloquially known as Plants. It was an uncreative but fitting name for them. They all shared skin that was velvety to the touch and a shade of green. Butters skin was a shade that reminded Regret of the worst kind of pie, key lime. The beautiful buttercup flower that sat on their head like stylish hair reminded her of one of the reasons for the notoriety of Plants. They were gender flippers. It seems that Butter was in their male form. Nonetheless, it was almost impossible for her to tell with their female M.N.P.D uniform and androgynous features, "Hiya, Bosslady, you good?"

His quiet voice and pitch-black eyes did not help with the gender confusion. Thankfully, Plants undergo a personality change when they gender flip.

"What?" Butter asked the obvious and dumbest question anyone could, "I didn't know you had a kid, Boss." Regret pulled out of Gadd's Apartments and back on the street to continue her patrol.

"I don't."

"Well, I know... but why?" There was a soft look on Bubbles gentle face and entirely black, multi-sectioned eyes. One of the few people in her life that she knew outside of the Blackwood Manor for what was two years now, Regret groaned, scratching at the space between her braids with her claws, "I gave birth to a child. It is just that--"

Just before she could thankfully get into the discussion, the car's radio sparked to life with the familiar male voice. It was D-43, his Demonkin inflexion clear over the radio, "Calling all active officers requesting back up at 331 Antoine Boulevard! Code Bravo Alpha Tango." Thankfully her excitement was shared by her field partner, who was starting to wake up. Butters and Regret bumping their arms together, they said simultaneously precisely what she was thinking, "Yeah! Time to go kill stealing!"

...

"Did you call for backup?" Robinson looked at the Snag & Grab where they were stationed. When they arrived at the scene, the parking lot was filled with hostages, rubberneckers alike, "Yes. Are you ready yet?"

"One second." She could just make out her reflection from the glass of the driver's side door. Robinson was a proud human of African-Muruyain descent. Robin wore her curly hair in a fluffy proud afro with a grey streak. Refusing to wear an M.N.P.D cap left her port freely exposed. As uncomfortable as it made her coworkers, she found the culture of the Tainted fascinating, and it made her business leagues safer. Her only body modifications were her left eye and one other place purely for personal pleasure. These mods were done before doctors had the porting process down to a science, so her attention span was shot to hell. Thankfully modern medicine made the inconvenient battle easier. Robinson was in her thirties, and it was just starting to show with the few lines under her soulful, brown eyes.

Her hands ran along the barrel of her Lawmaker S.P. The base of the gun was deliberately made to look like a roided elephant gun. S.P.'s barrel was three in one, sewn together with heavy metal. This steampunk metal stitching made the gun durable and heavy enough to use as a melee weapon. Often she found herself needing to give a bitch a slap with this instead of exploding criminals out of existence with a single shot. It could fire all three barrels simultaneously, but that was for material harder than flesh, giving the cumbersome weapon utility. The max ammo that was safe for it to have was three, but she always loaded six before any Infiltration mission like this. After the sixth bullet, her brain began to drift.

Did she feed her cat today? Robby had a tabby, an outdoor cat, that she forgot to take outside. Robin had a litter box, so that was not the issue. Lately, her kitty could open doors in her house, leading to headaches. Would childproofing the house help?

"Speed!" She gasps as her last name always brings her back to reality. Smiling, she looked at her partner, D-47-, "Sorry, I am ready. Ensure you have your shield and make a beeline to the ventilation vents. Wait for me to deal with the crowd and send you a feed before you move a muscle! Understood?"

D-47- gave the nod. Robinson's partner refused to go by his real name like most '-' officers she knew. He was a Demonkin with a bad rep and a sweet tooth. Other than his love for Tainted, Bees, and jail candy, 47 was a model officer. Instead of having legs, D had the lower body of a Rainbow Boa, about 1.5 times longer than standard legs. Orange circles outlined with black and brown splotches decorated the length of his tail. His skin was covered in a dull reddish colour that made up the base colour of his end. D-47's face could only be described as boyishly handsome. His well-groomed hair and full cheeks only added to the appearance. A stark contrast was how his preferred weapon of choice was Battle Gauntlets. Every time he spoke, his two fangs were always out in an almost cute yet lethal manner, "Gotcha! Stay focused, Rob; I'll wait for your command."

Robinson and D got along well because of their general irritation with people. She could get away with a lot more because of her seniority; otherwise, no one would take a 5'0 sized woman seriously. Thankfully she was carrying a gun, badge, and a chip just as big on her shoulder, "Yeah yeah. Oi!"

Out of everyone there, only two people were not in the usual civilian garb; they immediately made their presence known to Rob! A young, bubbly red gel reporter greeted her. The jell that made up her hair was a vintage layered shag with 'wings' curling on end. A trilby with an elongated brim on her head matched the casual business suit that would have been stuffy were they her clothes instead of strangely her flesh. She was one step ahead of Robin, "Mrs Speed! It is a pleasure to meet you again!"

"Who are you?" Rob could hardly remember what she had for breakfast this morning, let alone every nonhuman she came across as a cop. The reporter mockingly put a hand to her chest, "I'm hurt, and so are the people here at M.E.O.W T.V."

Robinson was put in a headspace where she was thinking about her cat. The reporter blathered on, "No one will forget how I entered the scene with the story, First Human Woman To..."

Lately, Robinson's cat, Timmy Toa, was coming home fatter. Sure, he was eating the wet food she had brought, but he never finished. Worst case scenario, he was going around eating garbage or from somewhere else. This meant it was time for a vet visit, but she needed some arm protection to drag the arsehole back to her car.

"Speed! So what is your answer?"

"Meow?"

"What?" Robinson and the nonhuman said at the same time. She was brought back to reality with the light from the reporter's cameraman burning her artificial eye. It was then that Robby remembered what she was doing with full force. Rob only warned them by resting the metal ribbed Lawmaker on the reporter's shoulder, "Listen, get the hell out of my way. Every second we talk is a potential life gone. Be useful or leave."

This red-skinned, gel youth was undeterred by the officer's threats, and instead, she made a rolling gesture to the cameraman, "Alright! How can I be useful, Speed?"

Robin blinked thrice, "How many hostages are there?"

"Seven."

"Thanks. Now piss off, please?" She looked disappointed but left wordlessly. After waving her shield and gun around, most of the crowd dispersed. They appeared to have no one guarding the outside. Besides the occasional yelling, there was hardly any noise from the ramshackle building. Reaching in her pocket, Rob pulled out the thing she sacrificed her eye for; her Battle Gear, Steel Mantis. It was curled up in the shape of a ball for now, which made it easier to slip it into the hole she made in the gas station back window with a tap of the knuckle. Once Speed was sure her Steel Mantis was inside, she slipped a Receiver inside her porthole. Covering her right eye, Rob had vision and control over her darling.

Her Battle Gear was precisely what it sounded like. It was a mantis-shaped robot buddy that was great for surveillance and could even make a great distraction in various ways with its claws. Her partner, receiving a live feed of her vision on his walkie-talkie, took mental note of the undamaged goods.

Its steel claws were strong enough to make mincemeat out of sandstone and the wood door that separated it from the hostages. S&G was modest, albeit unimpressive, like the outside. The captors took the liberty of trashing the place for makeshift barricades and cover. Her steel mantis did come with one downside already starting to affect her. Every minute or so, it would overheat her eye to the point where she had to close her left eye to make it better.

While her eye was cooling off, she moved to the wall that she assumed her targets were behind. Whispering lowly into her radio, "D-47, create a distraction in 30 and make an entrance in 45. Can you get in position?"

Once she got her affirmative two taps to the speaker, Robby turned her Mantis-o-vision back on. There were a total of fourteen people in the Snag and Grab. For every hostage, there was a criminal, but her expectations were flipped in one aspect. Humans held a group of Stingers and Crackers, the most docile nonhumans, hostaged with an array of decommissioned, rustic Blunpis Shots. The inelegant wide-barrelled pistols were more than enough to herd the nonhumans.

Robinson was on a tight time limit, given the heat against her skull. The pain kept her focus while she got greedy and rubbed the Steel Mantis's claws in such a way as to create a sharp whine from the other end of the store. Her Battle Gear was tucked in a candy aisle away from the vent her partner planned on making his entrance and from the door, where Robby would make hers. Her time ran out just as she saw the lead commandress order two lackeys to check it out. A warm tingle still crept from the front of her skull when she heard her partner over the radio, "Time up, going in."

Screams rattled off the glass of the S&G before she could reach for her radio. Rob knew it was now or never for her entrance; her partner decided to dive straight into the hot skillet! Capitalizing on the chaos, she forced both her eyes to stay open when she took control of the Steel Mantis. This allowed Robinson to control herself and the Steel Mantis, with the cost of her vision being split in half and a headache that made a chronic migraine feel like a brain freeze. Speed spent half of her Lawmaker payload making a hole half her size clean through the concrete. That left her targets scrambling for cover instead of focusing fire on her slithering friend. Concomitantly, she controlled her Steel Mantis long enough to move it from its spot onto a perch. While she was getting behind a counter for cover, Robin went overboard with her allowed time with her Steel Mantis to wing one of the goons who went to check on the noise with a single stab to the foot. She closed her false eye just as she scurried her mantis-shaped Robo buddy away.

Once her left eye closed, Robby knew she fucked up when she couldn't reopen it. She knew the adrenaline was blocking out the massive pain she should be feeling. Robinson felt at peace with her breather at the sound of D-47 fist laying down some ol' fashioned justice. Just as she thought they were handling this situation well, she heard a voice that made her heart skip a beat, "Wow, Rob, you look like shit! Orange, you glad I am here now, huh?"

Mrs Speed once again found her thoughts ripped from reality and brought back to her cat with what she assumed was the word orange.

Timmy Toa was a beautiful shade of ginger, especially with his summer coat starting to creep back up. He often reminded her of a tiger. A big cat whose coat was beginning to vary in shades, adding yet another reason to go to the vet!

Robinson did not even notice Regret's confused glances. At the same time, the Demonkin resting on her back behind the steel counter they were using as cover. Speed was late on the draw as the nonhuman stretched her knees to her chest, "Orange?"

"What!?" Reggie raised an eyebrow at Speed before shaking her head, "You really aren't all there, are you?"

This sentence was punctuated with a red-skinned devil kicking their cover across the room. The counter sailed across the room before shattering D's unpunched targets' makeshift defence and bodies. The debris and phallic-shaped, green tendrils did the rest of them in. Robinson was not surprised when she saw the tentacles coming from the Weed, Butters, nor was she shocked to see D-47 wrapped in their grip. While Regret and Rob made their rounds, handcuffing the humans, nothing was said. Buttercup ensured Officer Roronoa didn't injure the hostages too severely with her dumb stunt. Once she locked down the last one, Robin cut right to brass tax, "Alright, how many do you want?"

"I need five." Robinson immediately laughed so hard that her eye almost unsealed, "And here I thought I was out of my mind! You get three and like it, Roronoa. All you did was kick a counter and nearly killed innocents!"

Regret grimaced as her gaze never left Speed's eyes, "Four, and I'll throw in my partner healing that eye of yours; plus, we will allow your gross friend to slither out of here."

She gave the idea a fleeting thought, deciding to keep her racist comments to herself, "Five, and you have to let my partner have his way with you." Initially, she looked disgusted, especially given Roronoa's phobia. Reggie's face slowly cleared, "Make it six, but he cannot use any poison on me."

"All of them, but he can use his poison. Also, I can record it and join in if needed. My final offer or I'll walk out alone with all seven." Robinson tried her best to put some confidence in her voice, but there was no way that Rob was walking out alone if she did reject her offer. Regret made a downward gesture with her palm, making Rob tense up before speaking, "Fine. Butters, you get these guys packed like sardines in the patrol car and return after you explain everything to Elise. You two, come on, let's get this over with."

D-47 was let go and, surprisingly, was excited. So much so that Robin was starting to have second thoughts while they made their way to the patrol van Rob and D arrived in.