Adventures in Parodyverse: A Random Shooting, Part 1


    Police Detective Vicky Cameron saw a patrol car zoom past as she was parked on the side of the road in an unmarked unit, waiting for her partner to come out of a coffee shop.  That in itself wasn’t so unusual, since they were on a main thoroughfare.  But then another flew past only seconds behind it.

    Vicky turned up the police radio, and turned down her music.  There was an All Units call outside the Zero Street Mission.  There had been a shooting.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh f---,”  she whispered, and started up the engine as she saw Jack Burns emerge from the shop.  “Reverend Fleetwood’s place.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“What’s going on?”  Jack asked as he climbed in.  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Hang on to the coffee, Jackie.”  Vicky exclaimed loudly.  She put the car in gear, and tore away from the curb, turning the emergency lights and siren on as she tried to catch up to the patrol cars.

    Jack was just about to ask again, but he heard the call repeated on the radio as he clung to the tray and coffee cups.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Holy sh--,”  he exclaimed quietly, and he braced himself against the footwell with his feet as the engine roared dangerously, and Vicky momentarily passed sixty miles per hour on a city street.

    She seemed to delight in switching the siren from wail to rapid chirp as she approached other cars at dangerous speeds, causing them to panic and pull over or brake quickly.  She deftly steered around them.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You’re going to get us killed, Vicky!”  Jack warned.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Nuh-uh.”  Vicky denied.  “The other two patrol cars cleared the way for us, and made the other drivers aware.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Even so!”  Jack protested further.

    Being the first two official detectives on scene, a Sergeant there briefed Vicky and Jack quickly.  A blonde woman was seen leaving the Zero Street mission, and someone fired three rapid sniper rounds at her.  She would have been decapitated if she hadn’t been shoved aside by a dark haired Asian woman.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Her name wouldn’t be Chiaki by any chance, would it?”  Vicky guessed.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“How did you know?”  the officer asked.

    The blonde detective then looked at her partner, eyebrow raised, as she opened the door to the Zero Street Mission.


---


    Lara Night was sitting in Mac Fleetwood’s chair in his office.  He did his best to make her comfortable while the paramedics treated a minor cut on her cheek from metallic shrapnel shed by the steel entry door as she was fired upon.  She could heal quickly, but they insisted on checking in case there was a piece of metal or debris lodged in there.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Hi Lara.”  Vicky greeted her.  “So uh...does anyone want you dead?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“A lot of people probably do.”  Lara replied.  “But it’s been that way while now, and I don’t know any who would use a long range sniper rifle.  They would just use magic or super powers.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“How do you know it was a sniper rifle?”  Jack looked behind him.  Chiaki Bushido leaned against the wall next to the office door.  “Oh, right.”

    The paramedics started packing up and preparing to leave.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Do you know where the shots came from?”  Jack asked Chiaki.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No.”  Chiaki replied.  “I know they came from far away.  I became aware of them after they were already in transit.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“So it’s a pro.”  Jack noted.  “Probably calmly packed up and left while the police were en-route, took his time.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“You going to be okay, Lara?”  Vicky asked.  Then she rolled her eyes at her own question.  “Of course she will, she’s a super-hero.”

    Lara laughed at the question too.  “Yes, I’ll be okay.  Thanks for asking though.  I think I’m ready to go now.  Again.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“The shooter may still be out there.”  Chiaki warned.  “He may not have packed up and left at all.”

    That was the kind of warning Lara took seriously, considering the source.  “I’ll use an energy shield this time, just in case.”

    She stood and headed to the door.  Vicky, Chiaki, and Jack stayed behind her just in case - all of them knew about her energy shield and how it worked.

    Just as Chiaki predicted, as soon as Lara stepped through the doorway, three more shots pierced the air.  Each of them bounced off the shield with an audible zing sound.  One landed in the door of a police car with a thump, and two in the wall of the building across the street, showering the sidewalk with fragments of concrete.

    There were calls on the radio of ‘over there’ and ‘it came from that way’ and the police on scene began rushing around, grabbing binoculars, trying to figure out what was going on.  They radioed to the police snipers on the roof, asking them for a report from a better vantage point.

    A minute later, they would discover that the police snipers were dead.


TO BE CONTINUED


-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2010 by Jason Froikin, and may not be 
--    reprinted without permission.  
-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow
--  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin
--  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin