Story [RoboCop: The Series] Broken Glass (Drabbles)

JediFalcon: Thank you.

Mira_Jade: Spoiler Answer... again, there was only one season, so no, they didn't tackle his mother finding out. Just his Dad... and, thinking about the mess of his real identity, one has to wonder how much of a factor directive two was in his saying nothing, and how much of it was the man not wanting to hurt his family with the horrors inherent with the truth. "Serve the public trust" covers a lot, I think. (And... you live near Ann Arbor? Awesome. There was looking at map involved when I decided to include other cities in Michigan. When I saw where it was in relation to Detroit, it was totally getting a mention! Am Lurlene McDaniel fan, love the One Last Wish books... two or three of which were set in Ann Arbor.)


Week 16 – UDC 7 – Corporate Raiders

Assume

As she stepped out of the car and looked across the darkened parking lot, Lisa knew something was up, for the retired Captain Murphy never showed up at Metro South without a substantial reason for doing so. She sighed and turned to look at her partner, also getting out of a car. “Hey, what’s your Dad doing here?”

The answer was straight, slightly defensive, and to the point: “Memories, perhaps. He was once a cop.”

As it turned out five minutes later, he was actually there to start an investigation. Or restart one. Lisa wasn’t sure which it was, and maybe that didn’t matter.


Misunderstand

“We need more evidence,” Robo said pointedly after listening to his father ramble about Tessa Stark possibly having a connection to the odd raid on the phone company.

“You know, if my son were here,” Russell began to say, and then paused in thought before looking at the cyborg with raised eyebrows. “He would say exactly the same thing. I don’t suppose robots can accept apologies?”

Robo paused, considered the man in front of him. “Actually… I am an adaptive cyborg.”

“Which means?”

“It means… apology accepted.”

Russell watched as the cyborg turned and walked away for a long moment before shaking his head. “Cyborg?”


Confuse

Coming home to an empty house, the word is still rattling around in Russell Murphy’s mind as he calls for his wife and grandson, and getting no answer picks up a picture of himself with his son. Looking at the smiling faces, Russell frowns and goes to the bookshelf, opens up the dictionary to the C’s and starts browsing. After a minute or so, he finds the word he’s looking for and can’t help but stare at the definition.

“Cy-borg [noun]: A human who has certain physiological processes aided or controlled by mechanical or electronic devices.
Origin: cyb(ernetic) + org(anism).”


Deny

Confused as to what it could mean that Robocop is a cyborg and not a robot, Russell Murphy sets the dictionary down, open to the page, and looks again at the picture for a moment. Could…? Then he shakes his head and turns to go look for something to eat. “No. I must be losing it.”

But in the back of his mind, underneath the logic, that definition swirls around, linking to events of just before the cyborg had appeared from the depths of the OCP machine. And if Robocop was in fact a human underneath… who did they use?!?


Admit


He’d picked up the broken helmet after watching the cyborg basically run away from the scene after picking himself up off the ground and followed him out to where the police cars were parked. “Hey Robo! Robocop…” When the cyborg did not stop walking, Russell decided to try another tactic. “Alex.”

The response was immediate and if it was possible for those metal shoulders to sag, they would have. Coming around to see his face, Russell was struck nearly speechless by the subdued expression as his son stared at the ground in defeat.

 

Mira_Jade: It is awesome, isn’t it? Glad you like, Mira. Thank you.



Week 17 – UDC 7 – Tin Man AU


Weapon


She’d been watching him as she always did, and even Diana was surprised by the live-fire example of the coat made of a bullet resistant weave and the gun that was apparently new, cutting edge tech. Watching Charlie act like a giddy kid brought a smile to her face, and she waited until Lisa left the room on a mission to find answers on how a prisoner could have escaped with that kind of fire power.

“Was that really necessary?”

Charlie turned and looked at her, surprised by the intrusion but also pleased to see her. “You weren’t impressed?”


Helmet

Diana wandered over to where Lisa had set the helmet down and looked at it, remembering what he’d said about it being on par with Alex’s system. “Didn’t say I wasn’t. And before you ask, no, I wasn’t able to get into the system at Buchanan Max.”

Charlie frowned at her. “What?”

“Alex asked me, earlier today.” She glanced up at him to see the frown. “Makes a little more sense, now that I know why he was asking. I can only imagine the flashbacks he had when he saw the guy. Is this thing really that advanced?”


Shield

He knew an attempt to change the subject when he saw one, but… “Yes, it is. One would even say experimental. And don’t try to change the subject.”

Diana sighed. “I’m just glad you didn’t demonstrate when Alex was in here, too.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. You startled a seasoned police officer with that stunt.” She waited while he thought about it, and was rewarded when he moved to sit in a nearby chair heavily. “Sorry.”

Charlie shook his head. “Don’t be sorry. Thank you.”

“For?”

“Reminding me why I try to be very careful in how I act and talk to him. Always.”


Cloak

Now it was Diana’s turn to blink in surprise. “You mean…”

“I mean that sometimes it feels like I have to cloak my presence and state of mind, no matter what is going on.” Charlie motioned to the gun, sitting where Lisa had set it down on the cart. “And sometimes… I forget to be cautious.”

Diana smiled. “You’re human.”

“And to err is human?”

“Yes.” The silence hung between them until Diana shook her head and stifled a chuckle. “I told him that once, too. But then… he was eavesdropping on his wife at the time.”


Transmitter


Charlie knew there was more to that story than she was probably going to tell him, so he simply shook his head in amusement as he moved to take the silver coat off the rolling stand he’d put it on to demonstrate. Looking at the collar, he noticed a tag transmitter, and frowned. “Diana?”

“Yes?”

“Do you know when Malloy got tagged?”

“Probably right before the warehouse blew up the other night. Why?”

And now something else about the behavior of his charge over the past two days made sense… “Curiosity.”

 

Mira_Jade: Thank you, Mira.



Week 18 – the normality of illness…

Sing

It was a soft, quiet hum he woke to, when he finally climbed his way back to consciousness. Everything hurt, and his memories were jumbled, and his half-opened eyes could only make out shapes.

The soft hum cut off… “Shh, Charlie. Don’t try to move.”

“Diana?” It came out as a dry croak.

“Or speak. Everything is fine now. Will be fine. Go back to sleep.”

And then she was singing again, in that soft beautiful voice of hers, and Charlie couldn’t help but be lulled back to sleep.

Talk

When he woke up again, he wasn’t surprised to see her, or hear her singing again. But… “What happened?” His voice was still rough from disuse, but he didn’t feel nearly as bad.

She smiled at him. “The flu.”

“You’re not… see-through.”

Diana rolled her eyes at him tolerantly. “You’re in VR with me. The chairman convinced the doctor to do this for me, because I couldn’t have stayed by your side in your hospital room day and night. It’s been three days.”

“Oh.”

“And Alex… well, it was me by your side in VR, or him here when he’s supposed to be having a sleep cycle. I won.”

Yell

He could see that she wanted to yell at him about not taking care of himself, but wisely chose instead to ask about what had led to his ending up unconscious for three days.

“You don’t remember?”

“No.”

As she explained Gadget finding him asleep and feverish at a console in the tech room at Metro South, Charlie started to remember bits and pieces about it. None of it made any sense, of course… especially not Robo and Diana standing over him with worried expressions. When had that been, exactly? And why had his helmet been off?

Whisper

When Charlie woke again, it was to the Chairman and Diana, standing next to his hospital bed, having a whispered conversation he couldn’t quite make out. He watched them, confused as to why she’d be translucent in VR until he realized that the door to his room was closed and this wasn’t VR. “I thought you couldn’t…”

Diana jumped at the sound of his quiet voice, turned to him, smiling. “Ah. You’re awake enough for things that make no sense again. I’m glad.”

The Chairman nodded to him. “Glad to see you on the mend, son.”

Ignore

His first night back at home was spent ignoring any and all calls, by order of his usually translucent wife, who wanted him all to herself. “But I’m fine, you know.”

Her expression as she ‘sat’ on his bed was one he never wanted to see on anyone else’s. “This is for me, tonight. We could have lost you. We nearly did lose you… to the Flu.”

Charlie stared at her, at once realizing that she had a point. He didn’t often think of how it must be for her, to watch the world go by and not be able to do anything about illness and disease.

 

Mira_Jade: Thank you.


A/N: Title prompt taken from Torino’s Olympics moto.


Passion Lives Here - Heartbreakers Episode Tag (canon)


He’d left her in cyberspace hours ago, but Diana was still dancing to herself and humming as she oversaw the running of Delta City and Old Detroit. As much as she hadn’t wanted to lie to him about why it just couldn’t be between them, Alex had been right to let Charlie down easily. It wouldn’t have been fair to Charlie to tell him the truth, that she’d been unlucky (or was that incredibly lucky?) victim number thirteen of the DogTown Rippers, also known by and large as Doctor Cray Z. Mallardo and Chip Chaykin.

Presently, she ran across the access pathway that the corrupt business pipsqueak had used to get to Alex’s OmniCon Classified profile and her eyes widened in disbelief at how much hacking he’d done under the radar. How had she not noticed that?!

Shaking her head, Diana put the information under even more encryptions and security locks. They didn’t need a repeat performance of this mess. At all.

~*~*~*~

At home, Nancy was greeted by a silent, darkened house, and a note on the kitchen table from her son.

Mom,
Robocop came and got me, and I’ll be at Grandma and Grandpa’s house when you get home.
-Jimmy

Nancy stared at the note, wondering what else had gone down while she’d been a guest of that criminal who hadn’t seemed entirely sane. Why… or how had Robocop known to get Jimmy out of the house? Why would he have thought of it?

Sitting down in a chair at the kitchen table, Nancy let the questions hang in the air and let the horrors of the previous day wash over her. In the silence of the kitchen, a woman stares at nothing for half an hour.

It has been a very long and trying day.

~*~*~*~

It is two days before he sees his mother, standing on his grandparents front porch with an odd expression on her face. He’d opened the door with his grandmother’s permission to find her there, and Jimmy wondered at the wistfulness in her eyes. “Mom?” And how had she gotten that bruise on her cheek?

“We are all family,” she murmured as she pulled him into a crushing embrace. “Family!” They stood there in the doorway for long minutes before her grip loosened and she pulled back to look at him, and saw the confusion. “What?”

“What happened? You went out for groceries and then there was Robocop promising you’d be home soon but I also couldn’t stay home alone!”

She blinked down at him, then raised her head to look over his shoulder. “That’s a long story, and I’m not sure I understand the why of it either. Can I come in, Dorothy?”

“Of course,” his grandmother told her. “Hard day?”

“Yes.”

As the door shut behind them, she let him go, but her arm stayed around his shoulders. It was odd and comforting all at once.

~*~*~*~

The atmosphere at Metro South was hectic as always, Lisa reflected as she set her purse in a drawer at her desk and then stood up again and looked around. For some reason, Sargent Parks was standing at his office door, watching her with a passively blank expression. It was very unnerving, but then he always had that kind of an expression whenever she had a day off and something went strange in her absence. Sighing, she walked over to him. “So, I assume since the station is still here, nothing happened to destroy it, right Sarge?”

He blinked at her forthrightness, then shook his head. “No, nothing like that. Robo acted odd for understandable reasons, but on the whole… everything is fine. How was the conference?”

Lisa smiled. “Boring. There a report to read on the incident?”

“Isn’t there usually?”

They were saved from further awkwardness by Gadget suddenly latching onto her and hugging her waist. “Lisa! You’re back!”

Lisa laughed and patted Gadget’s head. “Yep! Shouldn’t you be off to school by now?”

Gadget smiled up at her, nodded enthusiastically. “Wanted to see you first! Going now!”

Lisa watched as Gadget picked up her backpack and ran out the door, dodging police officers and other people as she went. She nodded to the Sarge and returned to her desk. There was a report she needed to read, post haste.

~*~*~*~

Nancy opened her front door with caution and found Lisa standing there, biting her lip with impatience. “Hi. Aren’t you on duty today?”

“I read the report of what happened when I was at the conference and had to see you for myself.” Lisa paused, suddenly realizing how awkward that sounded. “How are you?”

“Better now,” Nancy answered as she let Lisa in. “And thank you for checking up on me. Coffee?”

“I can’t stay long, so no.”

Nancy found herself on the receiving end of an impromptu hug and accepted it and the unspoken comfort that was offered.

“Call if you need to talk about it, all right?”

Nancy nodded, and then Lisa was out the door again.

 

finally caught up and it's all great Daena more

 

Very interesting take on Robocop.

 

JediFalcon: Thank you, glad you got caught up.

mrjop2: Thank you.



A/N: I don't remember what the Magic Store Owner from Illusions name was, nor could the RoboWiki give me an answer, so we're calling him Todd. (The character is canon even if the name isn't!)


Week Nineteen - UDC 7 - Detective Lisa Madigan and Todd the Magic Store Owner


Conquer


When she woke in a cold sweat with a startled cry poised to ring out but only a gasp of air escaping, the sound of a comforting voice and the touch of a hand on hers soothed. The feelings were quelled and the voice expertly eased her into relatively calm wakefulness, providing an anchor to the here and now.

As her breathing slowed, Lisa found him fully clothed and sitting in a chair next to their bed, watching her with concerned intent. "You didn't have to spend the night in the chair."

He smiled. "Yes I did. I saw the news bulletins, and you tend to kick and punch me during night mares."


Dictate


Looking at the sincerity in his eyes, she knew that was not a joke by any stretch of the imagination. "It wasn't that bad of a day."

"So you weren't nearly blown up three times?"

Lisa paused, sighed. "No. I was nearly blown up twice, and my partner ended up with a bomb in his leg. That was after he actually was blown up by a mad man."

Todd nodded slowly. "And the bomb in the leg?"

"Got deactivated."

"Ah."

"That doesn't mean we should let my nightmares dictate when you get to sleep in your own bed."

He stared at her for a long moment before asking a question that made her stare right back. "Who is Murphy?"


Rebel


The question wasn't one she was prepared to answer, especially not to him, and Lisa had to look away. "It was a long time ago and doesn't matter any more, Todd."

"You talk in your sleep. That name comes up often... usually in conjunction with 'fight', whatever that means."

Lisa blinked, startled at the observation, and let her eyes wander in search of something she could point to, to explain it without going into too much detail. Of course it would come up after a day like yesterday. Murphy had nearly gotten blown up from the inside out, after getting blown into a security barrier!


Aftermath


It took her a minute or two, but she found it and got out of bed to take the picture off the wall to show him. It was a picture Nancy had given her after the funeral that later turned out not to have a body in the casket, with Nancy, and Alex, and an infant Jimmy. Slowly, she turned back to look at Todd, then handed him the picture. "This is Murphy. Or was, rather. You've met Nancy and Jimmy, remember?"

Todd took the framed picture and studied the man in it for a moment before his eyes widened in faint recognition. "Oh. This doesn't explain..."

"I was there. He was my partner."

"And did he fight?"


Rebirth


Lisa sat down on the bed close to his chair, a pensive expression on her face as she thought about it from the perspective of someone who didn't know the whole story. Did he fight? Of course he had. But there was only so much that will and medicine could do... "Yes. I think he did."

"But...?"

Lisa saw the opening for what it was and shook her head. "They're not all happy endings. No matter how much prayer and will and modern medicine there is."

Except... in this case. The man who had been her partner was still her partner. After a fashion.

 

Excellent drabble.

 

mrjop2: Thank you.



Week 20 – UDC 7

Father

She’d lived at Children’s Services for as long as she could remember, and didn’t know how to react when the Sargent brought up the idea of adoption after she protested going back. It was strange, having someone look at her with fondness, kindness. But she wasn’t going to say no.

On a dark night that had been filled with violence, madness, breaking the law, and power outtages, a family is formed between a gruff police sargent and a little girl duly determined to be a good citizen.


Son

It is five years since that horrible night where everything changed in a hail of gun fire, but Russell Murphy still remembers the phone call from his daughter-in-law as he watches what is left of his son puzzle his way through a chess move. Still remembers standing at graveside with his wife, silent daughter-in-law, and grandson. Five years and what feels like a dozen lifetimes ago.

He wants to tell him about all the things he’s missed since, but instead, Russell glances at Charlie and then makes a move that puts the cyborg in check again.


Husband

Standing off to the side with Madigan as she tries to persuade him to say something, anything to the mother and son now having a reunion that had been precipitated by his son running away from home, the first thing on his mind is not saying something to either of them. Rather, he’s kicking himself for avoiding the problem entirely and nearly getting his son killed by association. He doesn’t know the details of how the boy came to be sitting in Madigan’s car, but he can guess.

And so, when he responds to her gentle nudging on the matter, he is correct. He can not be what they need him to be, but he can protect them.


Brother

She watches the two boys play with building blocks in the living room and can’t help but smile at the simple joy of it. They were so absorbed in the game that nothing else mattered, save the next part of the building puzzle.

Hands and arms encircled her from behind, and she let his warmth comfort her from behind. “Doesn’t seem like we were ever that young, does it?”

He chuckled. “No, Gadget. No, it doesn’t. Sure you want one more?”

As he caressed her expanded belly, she smiled again. “Of course.”


Teacher


It feels odd, using the fishing tackle. Odd in a familiar and comforting way, but odd nonetheless. Glancing out across the lake, Jimmy frowns in remembrance of an afternoon spent outside, fishing with his father and his grandfather, suddenly understands why it feels so odd.

Turning, he catches sight of Gadget laying out a picnic blanket while the boys chased each other in circles and his mother watching them with a smile from where she was seated in a picnic chair. It was time to teach his boys to fish, like his father and grandfather had taught him.

 

Mira_Jade: Thank you!!!! Week Nineteen... anyone who had seen what she saw would have nightmares about it, no question, no matter how much time has gone by. Thank you, Mira.

 

Stand Your Ground

The ceremony was short and simple, save for the MediaBreak camera watching them as Sargent Parks handed her a new shiny Detective's badge, nodded, and then went to the next person. Later, Lisa would have time to dwell on it. To embrace that it was real. To realize that she was now a Detective because she'd stood her ground and caught the Dog Town Rippers with her partner's help. For now, though, she felt like dancing and giggling and hopping up and down all at once.


Edit: Prompt taken from the NSWFF Prompt Thread... even if I am going to be doing those out of order.

 

Mira_Jade: Thank you, Mira.



Because of you...


The second anniversary of his death was passing with little fanfare as she sat with her book on her couch in her house, determined to think of nothing but the fictional world within. They'd had a simple, quiet dinner, and then she'd tucked her son into bed and kissed him goodnight. That was two hours ago, now.

There had been nothing but reminders of him everywhere and in everything she saw all day long, and right now it was just too much. Too many painful reminders of a life that had been hers, of the joy and the happiness, good times and bad. She just wanted to read her book tonight, and she was clinging to that idea with both hands.

A terrified scream sounded, shaking her from the world of the book, and she stared at the ceiling for a moment before heaving herself from the couch and putting the book aside with a sigh. Of course her son, their son, would have a nightmare tonight.

Flicking the light on in his room after climbing the stairs, she found him sitting up in the bed, stunned and blinking at the walls with wide eyes. "Jimmy?"

"Was it today?"

The question gave her pause and threatened to overwhelm her as she sat down next to him on the bed and drew him into an embrace. For a moment, just one, she didn't want to answer him. Didn't want to take that last agonizing step from one reality that she'd been trying to cling to, that her husband was simply not home and was on shift, to what had been reality since a phone call had shattered their world into a million pieces. She nuzzled the top of his head with her chin, and the admission came out as a barely heard, emotional whisper: "Yes."

She didn't make it back to her book that night.

 

Mira_Jade: It was one of those hinted at things... and it stands to reason that Jimmy would have had nightmares if he was running away from home during The Future of Law Enforcement over an argument (probably one of many) had with his mother. Thank you, Mira.


A/N: This prompt brought to you by KLove radio. And I know I didn't get that line right about the plagureism suit paperwork thing. That said... enjoy.


Stay in the fight to the final round...


With an arcing of uncontrolled electricity, she was suddenly alone and unable to see anything. Unable to even scream and let anyone know she was still here, still in the system, even if everything was black. She was here. Here...

Unbidden, memories came back to her as she sat in the dark...

"Then I'll crash the city board and take me with it."

She remembered Mallardo's coddling of her with the thought of babies dying if she did such a thing on purpose. He'd manipulated her into doing nothing, because indeed he'd been right. Insane, sociopathic... but right, nonetheless. That he'd been planning to kill her... again... didn't mean that he didn't know what he was talking about.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Chaykin! It's just that I was so excited to tell you that I found something for the Hemple Plagurism suit. They actually copied our idea and..."

The man had never looked so excited to see her... especially after he'd tried to fire her in front of the Chairman earlier in the week. How had doing her job, reviewing paperwork errors, landed her in the middle of a murder plot?

"This perfect world you speak of. Sounds like something a dictator like Hitler would think up. I don't think I'd want to live there."

...and now it was a cruel, cruel joke that she was living it. Suddenly, she could see outside the darkness again, and realized the system was coming back up. The world of the room in the Public Works building shimmered into view, complete with Mallardo whining and running away.

Whirling out of the Flux, she smiled at Robocop. "Why couldn't I meet you when I was still a girl?"

"Happy to be of assistance, Ma'am. I must go arrest Doctor Mallardo."

She watched as he walked past her, then folded her arms and smirked, for Mallardo had just done something stupid... use the elevator. "He won't get far."

This new existence hadn't been her choice, but that didn't mean she wasn't in it for the long haul. Messing with the elevator and punishing Dr. Mallardo for what he'd done was just the icing on the cake.

 

Mira_Jade: Diana was one element of several that the screen writers kept from what was supposed to be the draft of Robocop 2 that didn't make the cut... and the TV Series was all that much better for it! Thank you, Mira.



Risk Taking


The Chairman sat back and watched as Charlie went through various system checks on Robocop before not giving the cyborg a choice in the matter of a sleep cycle. That done, Charlie turned and looked at him, concern evident on his face. "He'll be fine. Could have been worse... he's been through worse, really."

The Chairman nodded, knowing full well the truth of those words, as he studied Murphy's sleeping face. There was much he wanted to say on the matter, and many questions he still had on the nature of this project he's authorized without really thinking of the actual consequences to the people involved. What was it Bob Morton had said about placing candidates in strategic posistions? At the time, that had just been a concept... a means to an end. Something Morton would have... did deal with, that he'd signed off on after a presentation of the benefits and a disaster in the board room.

He had never met this man before today. Not really. To know who it was that had ended up killed by criminals and then used as the basis of a cyborg... it made a whole lot of difference, really.

"To be human is to risk." The words echoed in the silence as he continued to sit there, watching as Charlie traded out the dented chest plate with a new one.

He had never met Murphy the man, only what was left of him, here and now... and this morning, he finally had met the man. The Chairman smiled wryly as he stood up gingerly, at once reminded of the long night spent cooped up in an old factory with a sick child, worried parents, and a man that didn't particularly like him.

"Call me when he wakes up again."

Charlie nodded and turned to do something with a computer, likely running more diagnostics... his expression when he'd changed out the chest plate had been one of a man who didn't like what he saw.

The Chairman glanced at Robocop again, and then left the room. There was a visit he needed to make to Public Works... he needed to thank Diana for shanghaing him into a ride-along, as she'd been right about needing to see the world from street level again.

 

Mira_Jade: Yep, sure was. Thank you, Mira..


A/N: From the prompts thread, I give you Falling... and they never did say how bad that electricity-induced amnesia actually was. Poor, poor Alex...



Falling


It'd been hours since waking up to remember nothing. Not his own name, who the people staring at him were, or even why he couldn't seen to stop taking in a stilted, computerized monotone. Nothing made any sense, and all the little guy with glasses in the work coat managed to do with all the testing was confuse him even more.

What had happened and why did the man who kept pacing and mumbling about his company being signed over to a madman keep staring at him in a scary mix of horror and dumb-foundedness? If he could have found a way to ask the questions... would they have given him answers? He'd been honest once about not remembering anything and the people in the room, save for the woman in the police uniform with the curly brown hair and kind eyes, had over-reacted.

Nothing was making any sense, so far...

It made even less sense when a translucent woman appeared out of thin air and started babbling at him about how someone was out to kill her. How exactly did you kill a ghost?

 

A/N: For this one... Gadget's line about field variance isn't exactly verbatim. There will be an edit upon rewatching.



The Teacher Becomes The Student


"Did you remember to correct for the variance in the electric field?"

Blinking, Charlie sat back for a moment and looked at her, a child holding a textbook and looking back at him with raised eyebrows, and wonders where an eight-year-old learned about field variance in an electric grid. "Of course I did." She continued to look at him knowingly and Charlie nodded, and did it anyway, though he thought he already had. He looked expectantly at his charge, who opened his mouth and did indeed begin talking normally with Madigan.

Charlie breathed a sigh of relief and winked in acknowledgement at Gadget. Her answering smile practically lit up the room.