It definitely wasn't the first time during my career as a hero, that someone had tried to frame me for something I hadn't done. Unfortunately, this was the first time that they had done so well of a job that I would almost believe it myself, if I hadn't been somewhere else at the time. It also was the first time the entire police force was investigating.
When I arrived at the assumed point that I had been spotted with the Johnsons family, the area was swarming with cops and the new robot troops that I had seen only hours earlier on stage.
I watched them from my perch on a nearby building, restlessly searching for someplace to land without drawing their attention. Maybe, behind one of the warehouses that lined the waterfront where the police were searching, though there was a good chance that there would be surveillance cameras located there now.
I huffed in frustration, as I tuned my scanner to local ID's, hoping to locate at least one officer that might be willing to hear me out.
Names and ID numbers flashed across my vision as I focused on every figure standing below me. I was not surprised when the majority turned out to be bots, with a count of only five humans. Then I came across an anomaly, a code that should have been wiped clean after the officer it belonged to died during the bank robbery.
I felt anger course through me at the idea of someone else stealing the officer ID, especially when family members had barely begun to mourn. Sneaking into an investigation was one thing, but impersonating a dead officer? That was far from tolerable.
For a split second as I zoomed in on the person, trying to get facial scan to be able to get a name for the civilian in officer clothes, I could almost swear that the officer, not officer, impersonator I reminded myself, looked like the man that had died. I could see it in the dark hair, and tanned complexion.
The comparison ended there, though. As I waited to get a hit on identity, I failed to notice the bots that had begun to turn in my direction, until they had activated their speakers that blasted a robotic monotone voice.
"Come down with your hands up!" One of the drones called in my direction.
"Dang it!" I swore under my breath, as the person I was scanning turned their face away and looked over at the droids, causing the process to fail.
I jumped back, out of the searchlights that had just been activated and ran across the rooftops, risking a glance behind me to find the tops of drone heads, peaking over the ledge I had been sitting at.
So they can fly, I thought to myself as I hurried away. I noted that for later, as it would probably save me from quite a few arrests. Jumping down the side of the building I was on and landing, a fire escape I climbed down to the alley below, and backed into a cubby in the shadows, where I used to store old equipment until a local kid found it.
I watched as drones flew past overhead and cars drove by the opening of the alley way, lights flashing blue and red as I waited for the area to clear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took a lot longer than I thought before the drones finally gave up searching and left. They were supposed to be efficient and have state of the art software, yet they barely glanced at the bookmark in the middle of the alleyway. I guess I was lucky, considering that if they had looked at it they could have easily found my hiding spot, but I could only feel concerned that they appeared to have purposely not found me.
Just to make sure I wasn’t spotted again I pulled off the cover from a manhole and walked home through the sewers. Since this part of the town was mostly abandoned the sewers were empty and I was able to keep my suit clean. I wasn’t worried about it getting dirty through, as it was covered in dents and scraps from multiple fist and gun fights.
When I resurfaced I walked to the forest where the entrance/exit to my ‘superhero lair’ was. Despite that it was hidden behind a thin layer of moss, no one had stumbled across it in the three years that it had been there. Just like any other high end security system the door required a twenty four digit long password which I put in without having to look at the keypad.
The door opened and I walked into the same room that had held all my previous equipment, until it was integrated into the suit I was now wearing. The door closed behind me and I stood still as two robotic arms striped me of my armoured suit, leaving me in a thin yet rather comfortable bodysuit. The arms then transported my suit onto a mannequin that was located right next to my workbench and ‘forge’ as I liked to call it.
I grabbed a soda from the fridge and went over to the Failure Board, where I proceeded to change the number from a hundred twenty eight to a hundred thirty six. Definitely not the biggest change to the board, but one of the more influential ones that i’d had.
Then I went and sat down on the sofa that had had more than a bit of damage and turned on the TV, which was only ever able to play the news. Not that I ever watched anything else anyways, so I didn’t mind the TV’s limited selection of channels.
Instead of watching intently for anything important I let my focus fade so that I was still absorbing the information even though I wasn’t consciously aware of it.
“You should probably head home before anyone starts to get suspicious.”
I jumped out of my seat, as the voice was not one that I recognized. Then, seeing the computer I calmed down remembering that a software glitch somehow changed its voice to a british male instead of the normal dead paned voice that it used to have.
“Yeah,” I said, rubbing my eyes, “thanks for the reminder.”
“I can arrange for a car to pick you up if you would like.”
“No, that’s ok, I’ll walk.” I told it, even though I knew it most likely wouldn’t let me.
“I’d advise against that, it’s not safe for someone of your status to be walking alone in these kinds of neighborhoods.”
I sighed, knowing full well that it wouldn’t let me leave on my own, despite my training that it had helped me with. I made a mental note to fix some of its ‘personality’ later and told it to go ahead and arrange for a car to pick me up at the entrance to the park not far from here.
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