"So, let me get this straight. You climb to the top of a skyscraper, throw your pet snake down, and jump after it, just for the thrill of it?"
"This is an unpleasant oversimplification of what happened, but it's not entirely inaccurate."
Officer Maloney shouted in frustration. That's what he left the police station for? What a waste of his time. He doesn't seem to be needed elsewhere, though. In fact, quite the opposite. This is the first time he has received a call in two months, because Dave-156 is a model city with a very low crime rate. It's nothing like the frontier colonies of 3BE, where police officers like Officer Maloney supposedly had to sleep with a pistol under their pillow. That's why this guy won't be caught complaining about his job. In fact, any police officer would be happy if their services were barely needed, and not just because it means they get paid to do nothing.
That said, whenever Officer Maloney has to respond to a call in his jurisdiction, he does his job to the best of his ability. A job well done is its own reward or something. That's why he's so annoyed about it. All he has to do is investigate a public disturbance, which sounds like it's about skydiving without a license. However, between conflicting eyewitness reports, inconclusive surveillance footage, and the idiotic comments made by this crazy black-haired bird, the whole thing has turned into a bloody circus. He wanted to get back in his patrol car and go back to the police station instead of dealing with this mess.
"Okay, Miss Muggs." "If this is your final statement, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to bring you in."
"Where are you taking me?"
"To the station, of course."
"For what purpose?"
"I'm going to...arrest you," he said plainly.
"What crime?"
"Well, you basically admitted that you jumped without a permit. That's a fine and a few days in jail."
The girl's unfathomable eyes narrowed.
"Skydiving. Noun," she said in a soft, monotone voice. The sport or activity of jumping out of an airplane, performing acrobatic maneuvers in the air while in free fall, and then landing by parachute.
"...Really? I know what that word means, miss."
"Then you would agree that what I did was not skydiving because I did not jump out of the plane and I did not use a parachute."
"Hmm... um." He scratched his head in confusion. "That makes sense, miss. However, I'm afraid I have to bring you in now because you talked to a policeman."
Despite the rudeness of the man's words, there is indeed such a law, and Maggie has no defense against it because she was actually saying nice things about him.
"I understand. I will definitely do it."
"Good. Please follow me to the back of my car."
"Am I allowed to retain ownership of Azgod Kalal?"
"Huh? Ah, your pet snake? Of course, you can keep it."
Technically he shouldn't have allowed this, but he didn't want to upset the obviously emotionally unstable girl. She kept holding the thing and petting it in such an overprotective way that he felt that if she was allowed to keep it, she might lose her temper and cause a scene. Not to mention her charges were the most minor. All she has to do is they run a background check on her after she's been locked up for a while. She would then be fired and given a stern warning. The station was only a few kilometers away from the accident site, so she could probably be home within an hour.
Officer Maloney escorted Maggie to his patrol car. This is a standard four-seater sedan painted white with blue and yellow plaid stripes on the sides and roof. The girl obediently parked herself in the back while the cop jumped up to the front where the console was. However, he didn't start flipping switches or reaching for the flywheel. Instead, he sends a mental prompt via an implanted chip, and the car does the rest. Its gravity engines hummed and its autopilot charted a course back to the space station. This freed Maloney's hands and attention, and he could once again review his confusing case notes.
Several concerned citizens called to report that someone had fallen from the sky and landed inexplicably on the road. When Officer Maloney arrived on scene two minutes later, he had been directed to the suspect, who was currently sitting in the back seat of his vehicle. It was obvious that this was her first time on the street and she had a sense of curiosity about all the curious and exclusive places. From her unfamiliarity with the area, exotic appearance, foreign accent, and lack of implanted P
Judging from P's situation, it is obvious that she is a tourist. A bureau background check will reveal more information.
The only thing that haunts Maloney is how she survived the fall. The fancy words she used in her responses suggested she was using a gravity bumper. The device is small enough to fit onto belt buckles, bracelets, and other similar accessories. Their function is to transport the wearer safely to the ground in the event of a dangerous fall. They were originally designed as safety nets for people working in dangerous high-altitude environments, but young people often use them in place of parachutes when practicing extreme sports. So it makes perfect sense for this Magus to use one of those.
But she didn't have such a device with her. In fact, she had nothing with her except her pet snake, her clothes, and her shoes. Furthermore, witnesses reported that instead of floating gently onto the road, she hit it like a meteorite. There was even mention of a sonic boom coming from behind her. However, if the girl was actually reaching such ridiculous speeds, there's no way she could have gotten away unscathed, and neither would the sidewalk be unscathed. Worst of all, surveillance camera coverage in the area is a bit spotty, so these unverifiable statements are Mahoney's only clues.
After thinking things over, the officer realized there was an explanation that made sense, but not a pleasant one. That said, the girl in the backseat of his car is a rogue telepath, or maybe a telepath. This is highly unlikely, and it makes no sense for such a person to voluntarily be arrested for something as stupid as a police officer's sweet talk. Once he thought about it, however, Maloney couldn't ignore the possibility. Thankfully, I confirmed it was a simple matter.
He sends mental commands to the car's computer, which scans the passengers for anomalous psychic readings. When the craft attempted to do so, its old, defunct sensor modules were overwhelmed by Magi's massive energy signature, and in a sense, fell down on its own. The readings rose so sharply that the little graph on the police terminal broke off. This is a digital version of the watch face and it got the unexpected result of defaulting to zero. Maloney happily accepted what the glitchy UI told him at face value. After all, no one wants to be told that the strange girl behind them can tear them in half with a thought.
Of course, his worries are far from over. There were several issues that he could not in good conscience ignore. In no particular order, these steps include identifying the suspect, contacting the relevant embassy, determining her method of cheating gravity, and discovering the source of the sonic boom. Maloney had some ideas, but put them on hold. He told himself that everything would be figured out once they got back to the police station.
But that didn't happen. If anything, things got even more confusing. Neither the girl's fingerprints nor her DNA matched any database in the world. The latter also showed tampering and mutations consistent with illicit genetic patterns. She proved so paranoid that the officers on duty were almost completely bewildered. They hadn't even begun to interrogate her, even though she had been detained by them for over thirty minutes. None of the officers on duty had actually conducted an interrogation before, and even if they had tried, they wouldn't have known what to ask this suspect.
The only good thing about this whole situation is that this girl is very cooperative. Maggie was fully aware of the seriousness of her situation, but she believed that things would work themselves out without taking any drastic measures. That's why she's content to sit in the interrogation room and play with her pets while the inexperienced officers figure out what to do with her.
Thanks to the well-meaning but incompetent police, the matter is out of their hands. About an hour after Maggie was arrested, they received an order from the military authorizing her release, along with instructions to delete all information about her or the incident from the database. The officers were more than happy to help. It would have been easy for them to dismiss the incident as a secret military incident, like a failed experiment involving the deployment of cutting-edge orbital forces.
In fact, it's an order from the Supernatural Expulsion Agency, who don't want those idiots in blue messing with this unusually well-behaved Level 3 cosmic entity in their midst.
However, Officer Maloney had been busy for the past hour. Some old-fashioned detectives around the scene of the incident discovered that the suspect he brought in had an associate, possibly an accomplice. Being a diligent peacekeeper, he decided to bring the man in for questioning. Once the military issued a gag order, Officer Maloney had no choice but to release the two suspects despite his protests.
That's how Maggie and Joe end up walking home from the police station together.
"So. Arrested, huh?" the young man said on the way back to his apartment.
"Yes."
"How about it?"
"inconvenient."
"That's...yeah, I hope so."
You don't have to be a mind reader to see that Joe's usual carefree attitude is gone. He was clearly upset, so Maggie decided to investigate.
"Are you okay, Joe? You seem troubled," she said, repeating what he had said before.
"Yeah, I'm in trouble. What are you thinking, Maggie?"
"I apologize. I did not foresee that my actions would interfere with your rest."
Joe had barely slept after a long virtual marathon training session, so it was natural that he would be detained by the police for something he had no part in.
"What? No, that's not the point."
Maggie was so sure of her reasoning that she was really surprised to be told she was wrong.
"Isn't this...?" she asked calmly.
"No! It's about you!" He raised his voice slightly. "The cop told me you threw your pet off the top of a fucking skyscraper! You can't do that!"
"why not?"
The confused look on her face said more than any words could say that she had absolutely no idea why this was a problem.
"Because he's your pet," Joe grew irritated.
“In what ways is this a problem?”
"In what way?" He paused, no longer raising his voice. "This is a living thing, Maggie. You don't treat it like property. By becoming its owner, you also assume the moral responsibility to care for this little guy and keep it safe. He trusts you—literally puts his His life was in your hands - and you betrayed him!"
"I...didn't know there was such an obligation," she tried to defend herself.
"No, of course not. Because no one tells you the obvious," Joe huffed. "I'm telling you the truth, Maggie. I'm not angry with you, just disappointed. After saying all that, you didn't want to look like a heartless monster, and then you ran off and did things like kill innocent dogs Thrown from the building. The worst part is, if you had told me earlier this could all have been avoided. So why didn't you?"
"...I don't want to disturb your rest."
"Then wait until I'm done sleeping. If there's an emergency, wake me up. What's the point of me being your guide if you just run off and do these crazy things without saying a word? You should be smarter, right?"
Joe stepped back and rubbed his tired face, while Maggie reflected on her actions. His words sounded harsh. Her tendency to take her experiments too far was why she ended her relationship with him in the first place. However, she knew this, and as soon as his back was turned, she fell back into her usual ways. She was so eager to conduct unnecessary research into fear that she ended up violating her moral obligations, not only to Azgodkaral, but to herself as well. Realizing this, Maggie felt another feeling that she wasn't quite familiar with, although it was certainly not a pleasant one.
"I'm sorry."
Her voice was soft, almost inaudible, and the look on her face was one of utter remorse. If someone saw her like this, they would probably think she accidentally killed 15 people or something. Her guilt is so obvious that Joe wonders if he's been too harsh on her. He was absolutely right, she definitely deserved a harsher punishment than a time out and a scolding, but he couldn't help himself. After all, he still has a crush on her.
"Haha." He sighed heavily. "Look, as long as you understand and promise not to do it again, it's okay."
This was something Joe didn't need to worry about, since Maggie had already decided not to repeat the experiment long before the stern reprimand. She managed to experience fear, and frankly, once was enough for her.
"And," he continued, "I'm not saying you have to ask for my permission for everything. God, I'd probably go crazy if you did. What I'm saying is, Maybe—just maybe—next time you think of a life-threatening idea, ask my opinion first, okay?”
"…Okay," she said sharply.
"What a good girl."
The man smiled his usual carefree smile and patted the distraught, hateful intelligence officer gently on the head. It's a simple gesture, but one that carries a mysterious comforting power.
"And I really think I'm going to pass out, so...can you carry me back to the cabin?"
Just like that, the moment was ruined. Or an improvement, depending on your point of view. If Maggie's renewed smile is any indication, she's clearly behind the wall.
"I will grant your request."
Of course, since Joe didn't specify how he wanted to be carried, the girl chose the most effective method she could think of, which was to throw him over her shoulders as if he were a sack of old yams. It was a bit embarrassing if Joe had to tell the truth, but her skin was soft, warm and cool, and she smelled so good that he fell asleep almost immediately. Maggie also took the liberty of raising Azgodkaral to her mouth with her free hand and apologized to it in a low voice.
Of course, she knew full well that the ignorant little creature couldn't understand her, but it seemed like the right thing to do.
