[scikaiju]

Special Police DekaOps
14


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OP-Alter Bridge-Metalingus
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“How did I get roped into this?”, Dan asked pulling the tie out of his jacket and looked at it. Michelle took it from his hand and tucked it back in. D.E. looked like he was going to say something until Dan shot him a look. While he would never admit it out loud he really enjoyed being able to do that. Boomer, unusually, didn’t say much as they walked down the street. Rev looked as uncomfortable as he felt, how they found a suit for the guy was beyond him.

Ace, who was leading them down the street, answered him anyway, “Because we been through a lot the last couple of missions. As second in command I thought we should get away from the base and relax and relieve some stress. The Major agreed with me.”

“But as a unit?”, Dan said still in disbelief. He glanced over to Michelle and narrowed his eyes a bit. “I think some blackmail was involved somehow.”

“Don’t look at me,” she said. “I haven’t told anybody any of those stories you told me about him.”

“Well,” Ace started, “I kinda told him I go easy on the equipment request for the next week.”

The rest of them gave out a collective, “Ah.”

“I don’t fill out that many request forms,” she said a little defensively.

“Yes you do,” Michelle told her.

“I was wondering why he looked so happy earlier,” Dan commented. “I thought his cousin finally moved out or something.”

“I’m pretty sure he would have been doing a jig if he did” Michelle corrected him. Dan had to agree.

“So where are we heading Ace?”, D.E. asked

“This new club I heard about,” she informed them. “It’s called ‘Way Out There’.”

Dan spoke up, “I don’t want to sound like a downer Ace, but I don’t do the club thing.”

“And I’m afraid I won’t exactly fit in,” Rev put in.

“Come on Cap loosen up,” Ace told him. Then she added, “And you’ll fit in just fine Rev. A friend of mine been there a couple of times. She said it just human and aliens are mixing together having a good time.”

“I’m surprise you didn’t bring Lisa along Boomer,” D.E. said. “From the sound of things this sounds like it’d be right down your alley.”

“Yeah Boomer,” Ace agreed, “nobody said she couldn’t come. Besides, I don’t think Cap and Michelle wants to be the only couple in the group that drags everybody else down.”

“Just wait until you get a boyfriend,” Michelle told her.

“She wanted to come,” Boomer said. “But the hospital needed and extra set of hands tonight and nobody else was available.”

“Too bad,” Michelle said, “I really wanted to meet her.”

“Ah guys,” D.E. said as he looked down the street. “It looks like the club was hoppin’ a little too much tonight.” They looked down the street and saw a pack of flashing lights. They hurried up to see what the commotion was. The police were holding everybody back. They made their way through the crowd to get to the front. The club Ace was taking them too had it’s window smashed in and spray paint covered the outside, “Holy crap the place’s been vandalized.”

“What’s a Skag?”, Boomer asked reading some of the graffiti.

“It’s a damn slur,” somebody behind them said. “A bunch of idiots were calling my friends that a week ago.”

“Sorry Rev,” Boomer said looking a little embarrassed.

“No apologies are necessary,” he said. “Although I am loathed to admit that I have been called this myself.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”, Ace asked.

“I saw no need in bringing it any more attention to it.”

They looked around at the graffiti until D.E. pointed out something else. It was a circle with a one inside of it. “That looks like it might be important. Do you think you can find out that stands for Michelle?”

Before she could answer Dan said, “Earth First.” They looked at him in surprise.

“The Captain and I have encountered this particular symbol before,” Rev informed them. “They were telling people about their anti-alien philosophies, it appears they have taken a more aggressive stance.

Dan said nothing as he made his way back through the crowd. The others followed and when they were out of earshot Ace asked, “So what do we do?”

“We do nothing,” Dan said without turning around. They stopped where they were as he kept walking.

“What do you mean we do nothing?”, Ace demanded. “This involved aliens.”

Dan turned around to face them and pointed at the building. “Human did that Ace. As much as that disgusts me, we can’t get involved. The only humans we can touch are those that align themselves with the Alienizers.” They just stared at him. “You want to go over my head and bring this up with the Major go right ahead. I hope I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure he’ll agree with me.”

“You now Cap,” D.E. said, “I’m the only one here who actually an officer in the Springfield police department. And I can go over and see what up.”

“Knock yourself out,” Dan told him as turned around. He slowed down a bit to walk next to Michelle. “See if he finds out anything and try to do some unofficial checking. We can’t get involved officially but nobody said we can’t send an anonymous tip.”

She smiled at him, “And here I was starting to have some doubts about you.”

***
Like he said the Major did agree with him, but he did look the other way when Michelle did a little background check on Earth First. She couldn’t find much on them unfortunately, especially for the last couple of months. Whoever was behind them got really good at covering their tracks.”

A couple of days had past when she called Dan into the rec room. On one of those nighttime interview shows somebody named Chad Rockwell. A tagline on the bottom of the screen identified him as the spokesman for Earth First. “Why do I want to see this?”, he asked.

“They said they’re going to talk about SPD,” D.E. informed him. “Anybody want to take any bets he going to talk about that line of crap as that hag over in England?”

“The one Rescue showed up?”, Boomer asked. “I wouldn’t doubt it.”

“Mr. Rockwell,” the interviewer started, “I’m sure you’re aware that we heard this before, or something like it, over in England.”

“Yes I know,” Rockwell said in a smooth voice. Dan’s eyes narrowed a bit as he listened to him. “But I think Mrs. Flinch went too far.”

“How so? You’re both anti-alien…”

“Yes,” he interrupted, ”but she called for the removal of SPD on Earth. Now, my organization sees the need for SPD but we don’t think these alien should be involved.”

“But SPD is an alien organization.”

“True, but we also feel that the protection of Earth should be left up to us human and nobody else. Look at DekaRanger in Singapore, to my knowledge there is not an alien involved anywhere in that entire organization and they do just fine. Now over here in the United States our own DekaRail is run by a bear of all things. God forbid he should hibernate in the winter…”

The interviewer coughed a bit to cut him off. “Yes…well I’d like your opinion of the recent rise of hate crimes against Aliens currently living in the states. A word often heard and seen during these events, and I apologizes to anyone I might offend, Skag.”

Rockwell shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Yes, I personally despise that word myself. As for the recent activities of some of our members, remember, I am just the spokesman for Earth First. While I speak about our views and philosophies, some of our members prefer a more… visual way to get our views across.”

“These more visible views include vandalism, harassment and there have been some unconfirmed reports of lynching…”

“We are just trying to protect what’s ours,” Rockwell countered. “It was hard enough to find a decent job before these alien showed up. Some of these things will work for anything.”

“Official reports have said the alien have been paid the same wage as everybody else Mr. Rockwell.”

“And reports can be falsified Mr. Jones,” he countered again. “Would you really admit you’re actually paying the elephant that looks like an elephant peanuts? And how many of them want to be paid in blood…”

“Turn that son of a bitch off,” Dan said after he heard enough. Boomer grabbed the remote and switched to another channel. “Why do they let guys like that on the air? It only makes things worse.”

“Your country does have freedom of speech Captain,” Rev reminded him.

“Yeah and jackasses like that wave it around like there’s no tomorrow.” Dan sat on the arm of the couch next to Michelle and asked, “Do you think you can find anything on this Rockwell guy?”

“Already tried,” she told him. “Whoever this guy is his record is squeaky clean.” Then she looked at him a little funny, “Why do you want to know about this guy?”

“I know I’ve seen that guy before,” he told her. “An idiot like that should stick out like a sore thumb but I can’t place him.”

“Perhaps he was somebody you knew before you joined SPD,” Rev said. Dan looked at him confused. “The first time we encountered these people I asked you if you agreed with them. You answered that a few months prior you would have.”

The others just looked at him. “Cap…?”, D.E. asked stunned.

He thought about his answer, might as well be honest, “I don’t think I was as a bad as those idiots, but I’ll admit that I wasn’t the most alien happy guy in the world. I saw them as another problem being added to the ones we already had and would be jumping for joy when they finally left.” He got up and headed for the door. “Then I was assigned off planet for six months and had everything I was thinking thrown back at me ten fold. I was smart enough to figure out how stupid I was being and tried to thinks with my eyes a little more open than they were. Before all this I used to think I was a pretty open minded guy. I kind of hope I became a more open minded person because of it.”

“I believe you are Captain,” Rev said.

“Thanks Rev,” he said gratefully. “But there are times I wished I believed it too.”

***
The Major called the team into the command room the next day. “We’re having an Alienizer problem in our own backyard. One of them has been hitting the local businesses, harassing the owners and customers.”

“Do we have any idea who it is?”, Dan asked.

“We don’t know,” Michelle told them. “The witnesses gave a very good description of the Alienizer in charge but it doesn’t match any known species in the SPD database.”

“You sure this is guys an Alienizer then,” Boomer asked.

“Those witnesses also saw a group of Anaroids with him.”

“So we have an unknown species committing crimes,” the Major told them. “I would have let DekaRail handle this but like I said it is this is our backyard.”

“We might want to get a holding cell ready,” Dan said. “With crimes this small I don’t think we’ll be ordered to eliminate an unknown alien.”

“You never know in our line of work Cap,” the Major told him. “But we’ll have one ready just in case.

***
Dressed in civvies and the bare minimum equipment they hit the streets. The businesses that were hit were small grocery stores and delis so they concentrated their search there. After they arrived Dan said, “Alright let’s split up. Ace, take D.E. and Boomer and check in that direction. Rev you’re with me. Remember we have no idea who we’re dealing with here so be careful. I don’t want any mistakes on this one.”

“Rodger,” Ace replied as they headed off.

Dan and Rev walked off in the other direction. He shined his light down any alley Rev heard something in. After a few minutes of silence Dan asked, “Are we still cool Rev?”

“I’m not sure what you mean Captain.”

“After I told you guys how I was like before I was put in this unit.”

“Ah,” he said. “Yes Captain we are still ‘cool’.” He pointed down another alley and they found nothing. “I do believe people can change Captain. I doubt you would still be in command of this unit if you didn’t.”

“Thanks again Rev,” Dan told him. “I guess I needed to hear somebody else say it. Although the next time somebody calls you that word, tell us about it will you. I’ll get the others and we’ll talk some sense into them.”

“I highly doubt violence is the solution to this particular problem Captain.”

“And ignoring it not helping it either,” he countered. His License went off before they could continue. “This is Stevens, go.”

Ace’s voice answered, “Cap we found them.”

“Keep an eye on them for now,” he ordered. “Rev and I are on our way.” He pulled their signal up on the map as they ran for their location. They were holding position inside an alley when Dan and Rev reached them. He peered around the corner and saw a group of Anaroids surround something that looked like a grey insect, except there were extra pinchers coming out of it’s back. “Ok guys on my mark,” he whispered.

“Captain,” Rev said suddenly. Before anybody knew it he was walking out into view with his SP-Shooter in hand. He aimed a fired a shot between one of the Anaroids legs.

The Anaroid jumped and went, “Shit!”

Dan and the others walked around the corner in total confusion. Boomer asked the question they were all thinking, “Since when to Anaroids cuss?”

“They can’t,” Dan answered.

“Nor do they have heartbeats,” Rev added.

“They’re human,” D.E. blurted. They looked at Dan.

“They’re working for an Alienizer,” he told them, “go get them.” They ran in, the “Anaroids” were no match for them. The alien started to run off and Dan reached out to stop him, grabbing one of it’s pincher on it’s back. He thought it was going to stop, at least yelp in pain. It kept running and the pincher tore off with ease. Dan looked horrified at the pincher in his hand until he noticed something. The inside was different than the outside. He looked a little closer and muttered, “Foam rubber?”

Dan looked at the fleeing alien and gave chase. Its waddling run was no match for his sprint as he tackled it to the ground. He started ripping things off of the alien trying to find the thing he was looking for. Ace and D.E. tried to stop him. “Cap what are you doing?”, Ace demanded.

“Proving a hunch,” was all he told them. He kept ripping way until he found a seam and pulled it open. Dan reached inside with both hands and hauled out the guy inside.

“Get this maniac off of me!!!”, he shouted while still trying to get away.

“What the hell?”, Ace went as her and D.E. looked at each other.

“They’re trying to stir up anti-alien sentiments around here,” Dan explained. “What better way than have an ‘alien’ rob a few human businesses?”

“So what do we do with these guys then?”, D.E wondered out loud.

Dan thought it over for a moment, “We call the police and tell them we made a citizen arrest.” He put the cuffs on his runner and dragged him to the others. The “Anaroids” were maskless now as Boomer and Rev were cuffing them.

“Keep this Skag away from me!”, one yelled as Rev approached him.

Dan quickly got in his face, “I hear you call him that again and you’ll be tasting boot leather after they remove my foot from your ass. Do you understand me?”

He didn’t answer, but he did spit on him. Dan pushed him toward Rev to cuff. Then an Igadroid dropped from the sky and looked at them. “Friend of yours?”, Boomer asked.

“That was a five story drop,” D.E. informed him.

“A guy can hope can’t he?”

“Change standby,” Dan ordered. They pulled their OpsLicense and said, “Emergency! DekaOps!” A quick digital flash later they were in their Dekasuits. Dan wasted no time in telling them, “Take that bot down!”

The Igadroid moved faster than they did. It knocked Boomer into the wall, ducked Dan’s attack and kicked Rev toward the human. D.E. got his D-Rod out to block the cross blade coming at his head. Ace got in a few shots with her D-Shooter that made it recoil form impact. “Get away from me humans!”, it shouted as it swung it cross blade around. Dan and Boomer aimed their D-Shots at the bot while it aimed the cross blade at the humans. “Drop your weapons now humans,’ it ordered.

Boomer looked over to Dan, he was looking at the emitter that popped out of the cross blade. Slowly he lowered the D-Shot and Boomer did the same. “Idiots,” it said and fired anyway.

“No!” Rev shouted as he jumped in front of them and took the full brunt of the blast. He fell to the ground clutching his chest.

“Rev!”, Ace shouted.

“That Skag just saved us,” one of them said totally bewildered.

D.E. energized his D-Rod and sliced through the emitter before it could fire again. Boomer fired his D-Shot, making sure he didn’t hit the captives. While it was staggering Dan and Ace pulled their D-Knife and went in. She stabbed it in the back of the neck while he impaled his blade into it’s chest. The Igadroid stood there and sputtered while they withdrew their knives. “Boomer strikeout,” Dan said quickly. Boomer complied and deleted the bot on the spot.

“Rev!”, Dan and Ace ran over to him.

“Is the Skag…” one of the captives started before Dan shot him a look. “Is he going to be alright?”

“I will be fine,” Rev answered with a hint of pain in his voice. Dan and Ace helped him to his feet, “My Dekasuit protected me from the worse of it.”

Dan nodded and looked at the “Anaroids”, “You’re lucky he’s more forgiving than I am because I don’t think I would have bothered.” They wouldn’t look at him, but a couple of them still shot Rev a nasty look. “Contact the base and have them call the police to pick these bastards up.”

Above them Chad Rockwell watched the entire thing. He had that Igadroid especially built to fit his needs. His lips curled into a hateful snarl as he said, “Stevens.” His flesh rippled slightly revealing a set of scales before he turned away and became invisible.

***
A few days after all that went down Dan convinced the Major to let them have another night on the town. His saying he take care of Ace’s request for the next two weeks sealed the deal. At that moment he, Michelle, Ace, Rev and D.E were sitting at a table waiting for Boomer and Lisa to show up. After awhile D.E. ended up asking, “So why did you arrange this night on the town Cap?”

“The more I thought about it the more I realized Ace was right and we needed to relax a bit outside of the base.”

“Thank you,” she said.

He might as well be honest with as well, “And I thought I might try mending some bridges after you guy found out about the way I thought before I joined SPD.”

“Come on Dan,” Michelle said, “There’s no need to do anything like that.”

“Yeah Cap,” D.E. agreed, “none of us care about what you were like before. We’re just happy you’re the guy you are now. Besides you couldn’t have been that bad if you realized what kind of jackass you were being.”

“I believe I told you something similar the other day Captain,” Rev said.

“I know you did Rev, but it just seems like yesterday that that I was believing those things.”

“Hey you did change though,” Michelle told him. “Not a whole lot of people can say they were strong enough to do that.” The others agreed with her.

Ace looked over her shoulder and said, “There’s Boomer and Lisa. I’ll see if we can add a couple of more orders to our bill.”

As she got up Cap got his first look at the woman in Boomer’s life. “That’s Boomer fiancé?”

Michelle went, “Yeah that’s her.”

“What deal with which devil did me make?”

She lightly slapped him on the arm, “Behave yourself.”

“Hey guys,” Boomer said as they walked up. “This is Lisa. Lisa this is…”

“Let me guess,” she told him as they sat down. “D.E. I know. So you must be Cap,” Dan nodded, “Michelle,” they shook hands, “And you most definitely have to be Rev.”

“A pleasure,” he replied.

“Cap doesn’t look like the pit bull you described him to be hon,” she said to Boomer who eyes went wide with fright.

“Oh really?”, Dan said leaning foreword a bit. Boomer tried to sink into his seat.

“I… I… I never said that Cap,” he said quickly. “Hand to God.”

“I’m just joking honey,” she said. Dan didn’t look convinced, but this was their night out. He wasn’t going to let this affect things back at base, much. “Bobby was telling me about your last case.” She turned to Rev, “I hope that didn’t paint too much of a negative picture of humanity for you Rev.”

“I traveled the universe enough to know that such closed minded individuals are not just on Earth. You learn to, as I believe Robert would say, roll with the punches. That is the correct term?”

“Picture perfect buddy,” D.E. told him.

Dan just happened to look over to see some guy grab a handful of Ace’s butt as she walked back to the table. “Oh hell, D.E., Boomer let’s go.” They quickly got up and headed over.

“Do they think they need to save Ace from that guy?”, Lisa asked. When they looked back over Ace had the guy in a hammerlock and up against that table saying he just tried to feel up a cop.

“No,” Michelle said, “they’re going to save that guy from Ace.”

“I must say though,” Rev spoke up, “Earth does have the most diverse set of… personalities I have ever come across.”

“Very diplomatic Rev,” Michelle told him.

“I do try”, Rev told her.



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