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

Title: Broken Glass (Drabble Series)
Author: DaenaBenjen42
Fandom: RoboCop: The Series
Characters: Maybe not everybody...
Disclaimer: *points at Orion Entertainment* Very, very disclaimed.
Notes: As I did not see anything precluding fic for the big metal guy, I'm posting. Here you'll notice a small difference from the films, because I'm using the TV series continuity. That difference is the presence of Lisa Madigan rather than Anne Lewis, and Ellen Murphy became Nancy.


Unto every ending... (Nancy Murphy, Lisa Madigan, and a nurse...)


Truth


The first thing she noticed upon entering the hospital emergency waiting room was a woman in police patrol armor attire. It made her pause and really look, noticing at once that something was not only wrong, but also personal. Very personal, for the officer to be here in armor, helmet in her hands, with an expression no one should ever have on their face.

Sitting down next to the officer she didn't know, Nancy Murphy felt an instant connection to the woman. There was a devastating truth in those eyes, and all at once she didn't have to ask how bad it was.


Trust


Lisa Madigan didn't trust herself to speak coherently, so she didn't try to say anything at all. Not even when the unfamiliar woman sat down in the chair next to hers. To have seen her partner of not even one day... like that... her hands tightened their grip on the helmet. It was too much.

"Madigan?" the woman questioned, just as a nurse came out and called his name, causing the woman to flinch. Lisa blinked. Was this...? No, it couldn't be. Could it?

But as the woman turned to face the nurse, her suspicion was confirmed. This woman was his wife.


Honor


As the doctor called time of death, the nurse can't help but look at their patient's open eyes. Open, but now unseeing... more than distant. Dead. It is something he has seen far, far too often of late. He doesn't like it. Reaching over as other nurses around him begin to clean up the room, he closes the man's eyes and honors him with a solemn moment of silence.

Then he sets about helping clean up, and doesn't miss another nurse nodding their approval at his respectful actions. The nurse shuddered to think of what could have caused the officer's injuries.


Loyalty


Before the nurse could beckon them to join him, Madigan put a hand up. "Can we have a minute?" Her voice sounded strained to her own ears. Odd. "Somewhere private?"

The nurse paused, then nodded. "Of course. The chapel is around the corner." When Murphy's wife turned to look at her, the nurse answered Madigan's unvoiced question with a quick headshake. No. She took a deep breath and led the woman to the chapel. No one else would tell his wife this. She owed him that much. Especially now.


Love


Silence reigned for long minutes as both women sat in the hospital chapel and Nancy Murphy waited for Madigan to find her voice again. "You don't have to..."

"I was his partner," Madigan told her suddenly. "And yes. Yes I do."

Nancy paused, blinking back tears. It said something about her husband that a brand new partner would feel obligated to pull her aside and explain... and break news, good or bad. In this case, it was bad. She knew that without asking. In a few moments in a hospital chapel, a friendship between two women began to form.

 

Interesting choice. Are you going to take us through what Alex is feeling even though he can't obviously he can

More soon

 

Let's see... the opportunity to write from the POV of a cyborg with amnesia and PTSD? (My focus wasn't on him, really, but if it happens, it happens.) Thank you, JediFalcon.

 

Oh, I was hoping to see Commander Cash!

 

Salacious_Drabb: Thank you!


Ghosts playing chess in cyberspace... (Alex Murphy and Diana Powers)


Smart


Diana watched him from the other side of the chess board, wondering just why he'd joined her in here. It wasn't as if he didn't have something to do, after all. He did, for somewhere a crime was always happening. "Alex..."

"Don't rush me," he muttered as he stared at the board intently. "Russell said I was good at this game, and I've never played against a computer that wasn't in my head before."

"And you're not playing the computer now, either."

He glanced at her, smirking, and suddenly Diana didn't have to wonder what his wife had seen in him.


99


"So," he said after a minute of echoing silence that seemed to disappear into the edges of cyberspace and back again. "Out of the hundred or so things we don't get to do anymore, what do you miss the most?"

"Dessert," she said immediately, and moved a pawn forward. "Hadn't let myself eat it for a year, and anything I generate in here just doesn't taste the same." She concentrated and an Icee appeared in her hand. "See?"

Alex nodded. "I do."

"What do you miss? Other than your family, I mean."

He paused for a long moment, a strange expression on his face. "Steak."


Chief


Alex shook himself and moved a pawn forward, then leaned back and looked at her. At her silent question, he frowned. "What?"

"You miss steak?" It was a careful question, for she'd learned that he often had flashbacks. This felt like one of those.

"Yes. Odd thing to miss, isn't it?"

"No, not really. I just thought you were going to say being able to sneak around without people hearing you coming."

Alex paused. "Hadn't thought of that."

She nodded, let the Icee vanish back into the ether, and moved her knight forward. "Little things."

"Like steak dinners and dessert."


Agents


An hour later, they were still playing, and he'd checked her six times. She'd reciprocated by checking him twice. "Shouldn't you be getting back to patrol?"

"Lippencott'll just demand I come in to have a sleep cycle."

She'd let herself forget for a moment that he had a technician for a babysitter. "And that's a bad thing?"

"Don't want to sleep. Dreams."

Diana blinked at the visible shudder. That explained some things. "Oh. Of?"

He didn't say, but she could hear distant echoes of thunder and laughing long after he took his leave.


Shoe


Upon sitting down at his desk in the morning, the Chairman found a message waiting for him on his desk monitor. It was short, but no less important than every other message he got during the day...

"Mr. Chairman, it has come to our attention that there are things in life worth experiencing. These are, in no particular order: shoe shopping, steak dinner, a well-played game of chess, dessert, and being able to sneak around without being noticed. Life is wonderful, sir, and don't forget to enjoy the small things. - Murphy and Diana"

He sat there for long minutes before hitting save and taking a moment of silence out of respect for two lives forever changed.

 

Loved this set and Dianna can understand what Alex's wife in him. Great editions

More soon

 

JediFalcon: She sure can... mostly because she's in the same boat. Thank you. (And here be more!)



Questions, hints, and grief... (Prompts provided by Jade_eyes, UDC 4)

Gaze


As she's gotten older, Gadget has often wondered many things about her friend who seems to have two names, "Robocop" and "Murphy", and a soft spot for her best friend Jimmy Murphy, though no one ever actually says anything about it. It's not until she's at Jimmy's house and sees the pictures of a very familiar face gazing up at her from photographs... that something clicks.

Picking up the framed photo, she stares at it. At the man with dark hair in a police uniform holding a baby with Jimmy's mom, with eyes she knows though she has never met him before.


Wink


Jimmy watches as she picks up the photograph of his father, his mother, and himself as a baby and studies it intently, and wonders why she's so interested in it. It's just his family in that photo. One he's looked at often enough to have it memorized. What he wouldn't give, sometimes, to have his family be that again. Whole. Happy. Together. "Gadget?"

She jumps a little, startled, and turns to him. "This is of you, right?"

He nodded. "Why?"

"I don't have any like this."

Oh. So that was what drew her to it...


Distance


As she puts the photo back where she found it, Gadget feels like wincing for not saying what was on her mind. She knows those eyes, that face under the helmet is the same. The same and yet... distant. Changed.

Glancing at the photo one more time, she knows she made the right choice in keeping silent. It's not hers to tell, though it would probably help them to know. "Where is he?" The words are out before she even knows she's said them.

Did it sound as stupid to him as it felt to ask?


Cold as Ice


The question draws him up short and he stares at her. "What?" Usually, no one ever asked that question.

She motions to the photo. "Him."

It is a question he is unprepared to answer as his mother beckons them gently into the kitchen. How can he answer in just the right way? What had made her ask? The questions tumble through his mind like a landslide as he sits down at the kitchen table. Unable to speak, he simply looks back at her from across a table.


Eternal Flame


Gadget looked from Jimmy to his mother and back again, taking in the shocked silence that had settled around them. She looked away. "I shouldn't have asked."

"No," Jimmy's mother said slowly. "I'm glad you did, Gadget."

Gadget blinked and looked at the woman who was smiling warmly at her, though her eyes were shimmering with unshed tears. "I don't understand."

"It was six years ago today that Alex died. On duty." She reached over and held her son's hand, then took hold of Gadget's, held it firmly. "And it's good to remember the bad with the good."

 

Very well done, taking a look at the life of Alex's family.

 

Well done, loved the set and look into Alex's family. I can't wait for more

 

mrjop2: Thank you.

JediFalcon: Thank you.



A/N: Lines in italics are actual lines from the series. And because it was asked of me? I give you Alex. Prompts provided by the Balto Statue Plaque that exists in Central Park in New York City.


Always a crime happening, somewhere? (Alex Murphy/Robocop)


Endurance


?Do you know how many sleep cycles you?ve missed??

That question from Charlie, in that tone of voice, makes him want to wince inside, and suddenly he?s overtaken by a memory flash of a lecture involving staying out at all hours of the night, given by his father. It is gone as soon as it appears, but the defensive feeling remains.

He?d missed at least five sleep cycles working on cases and doing patrols. Things had gotten done, people caught. ?I have a job to do.?

Charlie glares at him, annoyed. ?Yeah, well, you?d make my job a lot easier by sticking to the maintenance schedule.?


Fidelity


Sometimes it happens when he least expects it: a memory flash that feels so real he can taste it. Reach for it, grab on, and never let go. And then it?s gone again. People he sees, things they say? reminders of another life. His life? the life he lost in a hail of gun fire and cruelty.

He never mentions the flashes to anyone, because it is a comfort. Private. As time has gone on, and he?s seen the people from the flashes again and again, he remembers more.

?Alex, can you help me??
*
?You?re the greatest, Dad!?
*
?You?re never around when we need you, Alex!?
*
?I really have to tell you something. I love you very much.?
*
?Let?s work on our multiplication tables.?


Intelligence


It is hours after being decontaminated from the RicinX class one biotoxin that he surprises Sergeant Parks with the suggestion of testing for DNA from sweat left on a sweatshirt. The Sergeant?s expression is surprised, but his eyes tell Robo something else... almost as if he?s passed a test of some kind. But that doesn?t make any sense. He had a test to pass?

The Sergeant nods and seals the sweatshirt in an evidence bag. ?Good idea.?

Three hours later, after breaking himself out of a trash compactor after he should not have been able to, Robo understands. He remembers Madigan kneeling over him in the steel mill, terrified, and urging him to fight. No matter how long it?s been, there are still some things to prove.

 

Loved the updates with Alex thanks

 

Tags: JediFalcon

A/N: I'm still not sure how I got from "drabbles" to "episode tag" but I did, so here it be, an episode tag for episode four, "Officer Down." What happened there? Well... among other things, Robo got rammed by truck driven by Confederate Army-themed crazies (yes... in Detroit).

~*~*~*~

Lisa Madigan yawned as she drank her morning coffee and walked back to the converted lab area to check on her partner. Entering the room, she paused. Robo's helmet was off, his eyes were closed, head slumped, posture... more relaxed than she'd ever seen it be when he was awake. But he couldn't be asleep at this hour, could he? Not even after an all-night patrol. It was unthinkable.

Glancing around, she found Charlie sitting at a monitor, intently studying lines of code. "What did I miss?"

"Hmmm?" Charlie glanced at her, smiled in acknowledgement, then returned to studying the lines of code. "Enforced sleep cycle, by order of the Chairman." He glanced at her again, finally noticed the frown. "Robo had a run in with a street gang last night. Got thrown thirty feet saving a family... someone fixed the damage in the field. Mostly. What they missed, I took care of an hour ago."

Which explained why Charlie was so distracted, she mused as she turned and took a long look at her partner's sleeping face. "And the sleep cycle?"

"After the night he had?"

"Ah." Eyes scanning the room, her gaze lit on a familiar chest plate... that had a nasty dent in it. Going over, she picked the heavy chest plate up, fully realizing just how much force it would have taken to dent the polymer metal reinforced with kevlar. She studied the dent for a long moment before setting the chest plate down again, only to pause when she noticed the helmet. Which was cracked. Very cracked.

"Detective?" Charlie asked when he noticed her staring at the damaged pieces.

She turned back to look at the sleeping cyborg again. "How is he? A hit like that..."

Charlie pushed away from the computer terminal and looked at his sleeping charge, seeming to choose his words carefully. "You missed the Chairman escorting him all the way in here, if that tells you anything. He stayed until I put Robo under and set about repairs. And he checked out. No memory loss from the shutdown in the field."

Madigan nodded wordless as she sank into a chair, only remembering the coffee cup still in her hand when Charlie gently took it from her.

She was still sitting like that, stunned into silence and staring at Robo as slept, when Sergeant Parks entered and startled her. "Madigan, I..." Parks studied her, looked at the sleeping cyborg, looked at Charlie, and decided to pull up a chair. "He'll be fine."

Blinking, Lisa shook herself. "I know. It's just... so many close calls. And every time feels like the first."

Parks nodded and looked at Charlie, only just noticing the concerned expression on his face and the coffee cup in his hand. "You going to drink that?"

Charlie nodded to Madigan. "It's hers." He glanced at Robo, then decided to pull up a chair as well, and handed to cup back to her. "I didn't... what was he like? I see personality quirks sometimes, but it isn't the same as seeing a person and really getting to know them."

Though startled by the unusually personal question, Lisa smiled. "He loved his family, Charlie. Loved being a cop. And... oh! I know you've seen him do it. That spinning trick he does when he holsters his sidearm? He taught himself to do that because his son was interested in a show called T.J. Lazer. Only... he wasn't yet very good at it when... you know."

Charlie stared at her. "Really?"

"Really." She shifted her gaze to Parks. "And remember how he hated writing reports?"

"Vividly," Parks told her. "Still have to remind him on occasion to download 'em, too."

Lisa chuckled. "Was that last week or the week before?"

"That's every week... including yesterday, right before evening patrol." Parks nodded to the dented chest plate and the cracked helmet. "And he had the Chairman with him for a ride-along when that happened."

Lisa frowned. "In the middle of a zone-wide blackout?"

"Yes." Parks glanced at Charlie. "Did the Chairman seem a little more... compassionate this morning?"

Charlie glanced at the sleeping Robo, pursed his lips in frustration. "Concerned. And yes. He did. He was probably also somewhat relieved because a shut down like that could have caused permanent amnesia."

Now it was Lisa's turn to blink in confusion. "What?"

"The system wasn't designed to be shut down in an uncontrolled environment. I've been trying to make that problem... less, but there's only so much I can do. It is what it is." Charlie glanced away from them to look at the discarded chest plate and helmet. "And who would have been expecting him to get rammed brutally by a truck while defending people?" The three of them were startled by the tell-tale movement of servos, and Charlie looked to find his charge moving in his sleep. "Odd..."

"Odd how?" Lisa asked.

Charlie turned to look at the computer terminal he'd been studying when Lisa had walked in, and blinked at the rapidity of the lines of code appearing there. "He's dreaming."

"And that's odd?"

"No, but I thought he was under far enough that he wouldn't." Charlie turned back to find them both staring at him in confusion. "What?"

"He doesn't usually dream?" Parks asked, now curious at Charlie's reaction.

Charlie sighed. "Remember how the system wasn't designed to be shut down without precautions?"

"Yes..."

"It also wasn't designed with a person in mind. He was supposed to be blank, completely, aside from the police experience. And he was... for a while. And then... well, then he had a violent flashback during a sleep cycle." Charlie nodded to Robo. "You know the rest."

Parks nodded slowly. "Was that about the time that he went after those..."

"Yes."

"Oh."

Lisa glanced down at the cooling coffee in her hands, shrugged, and downed the rest of it. Then she stood up, threw the empty cup into a nearby trashcan, and moved to look at Robo closer. She could see his eyes moving beneath those eyelids, and wondered what was going on in that mind of his. Here he was, her partner, for all intents and purposes... Well, he was and he wasn't. In some ways, the man he'd been was gone forever. The bullet to the head had seen to that. But he was here. She saw him, underneath the computer programming, now and then. Slowly, she turned to look at Charlie. "Call me when he wakes up again."

Charlie nodded and watched her go, then looked at Parks. "I didn't mean to stir up bad memories."

Parks nodded. "I think you helped, Charlie."

And with that, Charlie was left alone to study the lines of code.

 

A/N: And this one... also an episode tag, this time for Corporate Raiders, where Russell Murphy finally figured it out. I got to wondering what happened when he went home to his wife that night...

Blue

"Are his eyes still blue?"

Russell frowned and turned to look at her. "What?"

Dorothy's eyebrows went up. "You have that expression on your face, Russell. Angry, but proud all at the same time... and since Jimmy is safe and sound, and I heard no yelling of any kind, it's not about him. So... are his eyes still blue?"

Russell stared at her. "You... know?"

"I suspected. Detective Madigan doesn't cover up her slips of the tongue very well... and he played chess with you. And I've seen how Nancy acts when she's around him, or has been."

Russell continued to stare at her for a minute before allowing himself to take a deep breath. "Yes, Dorothy. His eyes are still blue... but he doesn't want anyone to know."

Dorothy nodded and led her husband to the couch. "Understandable."

"All the clues were there, hmmm?"

She nodded to the still-open dictionary and the picture beside it. "Yes."

 

loved the updates and can't wait for more

I hope he didn't loose his memories completely.

 

JediFalcon : He didn't. Not at all. Thank you.



UDC 7 – Week One

1. Baby

The baby was very wiggly as the photographer tried to pose them for the picture, and he couldn’t help but chuckle as he watched Nancy struggle to hold him. She turned, glared for a moment, and then handed Jimmy to him with a smirk. “Here.”

Alex soon found out that stuggling to hold a squirming, protesting infant and smile at the same time was nearly impossible.

Years later, after a horrific day and night, Nancy Murphy held the photograph and wept, wishing to return to that day when everything was simpler. Had it been only yesterday that she’d seen him off to work?

2. Child

He’d been home for half an hour when he walked into the living room to see Jimmy watching TV, and caught the tail-end of a promo for a show airing that night. His son turned to him with a grin. “Can you do that, Dad?”

Alex paused, wondering if he’d actually seen someone spin a laser pistol and then holster it. Slowly, he sat down next to his son. “Maybe. When they show it again, we’ll see.”

He spent months teaching himself to do it with his service pistol… after all, role models were very important to a boy.

3. Teenager

Jimmy was still sitting, dumb-struck, in the police car when his mother showed up. Had he really seen what he thought he saw? Had Robocop just holstered his weapon like TJ Laser?!?

As he got out of Officer Madigan’s patrol cruiser, and began talking to his mother for the first time in more than a week, Jimmy Murphy had no time to ponder what it might mean. But he didn’t forget.

Robocop would never know that he was now a role model to his son, even if his son would never know for sure that his father wasn’t completely dead.

4. Adult

As his father vented emotion over the situation, Robo took solace in the fact that someone was angry over the situation, but not at him. Someone else was angry, and he wanted to give an answer for who was responsible for him ending up like this. Wanted to, but didn’t because the answer “they’re all mostly dead” wasn’t an answer he could or would give.

As he looked into his father’s eyes, he said the only thing he could. “I’m still a cop.”

Russell Murphy nodded, eyes bright with unshed emotion. “Yes. Yes, you are.”

5. Elderly

She was waiting at the kitchen table when he returned from putting an old case finally to rest, and held out a hand patiently. Wordlessly, he put the gun he’d taken out of the house into her waiting hand, and shook his head. “Didn’t have to.”

“Good.” Dorothy looked at it for a long moment, studied his face for a moment more, and then handed it back to him. “Put it away.”

“You’re not going to ask.”

“About...?

“How it went.”

“No.”

He paused, nodded once, and moved to put the gun away.

 

Week 2 – UDC 7

Healthy

“You be careful out there.”

Her tone was the first thing he noticed as he opened the front door that morning, and it made him pause. Had she ever sounded that worried before, or was it just the day, and the morning news of more mayhem than usual on her mind? Slowly, he turned and looked at her, and then nodded. “Of course.”

“You’re not just saying that, are you, Alex?”

“No. I’m not just saying that. I’m always careful.”

The ‘as careful as a cop could be on the streets of Detroit in the middle of a crime wave’ part of it went unsaid.


Injured

The call came around 6PM that evening and she was so stunned, she nearly burned her hand on the frying pan. Staring down at what she’d been making for dinner, Nancy let the words of the person on the other end roll over her. Then they stopped talking, waiting for her to say something in reply. A full minute went by before she acknowledged them again, voice still not trustworthy as she turned the burners off. Then she hung up the phone and went to bundle up her son to take him to his grandparents.

Dinner was left forgotten on the stove.


Sick

It was the first time Jimmy had gotten sick since… well, since before that day when their lives had turned upside down and inside out. Nancy tried to smile as she watched him eat soup with glazed eyes, but couldn’t. She kept remembering another night, spent at home with a sick child, and yelling at her husband when he finally got off shift that he was never around when they needed him.

Now he really wasn’t around, and all she wanted to do was fall into his arms and take it back.


Stressed

When push came to shove, Chip Chaykin did the only thing he could think of: grab the pushy woman police officer and threaten to sedate her with the sedative unless every last police officer stood by while he went on his merry way and ran far, far away from this mess he’d helped create.

He was so busy worrying about Robocop and the other officers that he forgot about the one in his arms and was completely unprepared for her twisting in his grip and turning the tables on him.


Frustrated


It was madness, everything that had happened to her in the last three days, Diana reflected as she both looked the Chairman in the eye and slowly put the power grid back in order. The Chairman hadn’t said a word yet to her as he looked around the room, apparently taking everything in. Then he focused on her, sitting in the flux, staring back at him tiredly. “Hi.”

“Miss Powers?” he asked, finally, recognizing her.

Sighing needlessly, Diana proceeded to explain what she knew of how she’d ended up interfaced with a computer. Which wasn’t much, as she’d gone from being falsely praised for finding something in paperwork one moment, to being murdered for her brain the next.

 

A/N: This section is in response to the Fifty Sentences Challenge. As for how it became drabbles instead of sentences... Nat okayed the prompts use for drabbles. Enjoy.


Wall

It hit him so suddenly, he almost felt like he'd run into a wall as he stared through the window, Gadget nearly forgotten beside him. Reality of years gone by and things lost slammed down around him as he watched his wife explain to Fanny Lamour that their son was missing, and all he wanted to do in that moment was join her in there, demanding and yelling and screaming for answers and solutions. Anything but listen as she explained that they'd had a fight over normal things.

What finally made him turn away from the window was the angry boy who seemed to be staring at him from the TV screen, as if he was to blame for everything being so messed up. If Robo hadn't made up his mind before, what he saw there in those eyes had done exactly that.

"What's there to smile about?" would echo in his mind all the way back to Metro South, along with the sounds of remembered gunfire and cruel laughter.

Bridge

Like everyone else standing around in the room for target practice and watching the metal man shoot the target to pieces, she'd been wondering about him. About who it might be under that helmet, if there was, in fact, a person under there. And then she saw something that shocked and startled her to her core: the way he holstered his weapon. She'd seen that before. Seen someone practicing that very thing, perfecting it with the ammunition removed during down time.

Only... it couldn't be. Could it? He'd died of traumatic injuries! There was a death certificate on record! She'd been at his funeral! It just couldn't be. They wouldn't have. Couldn't have.

And just like that, Officer Lisa Madigan's world was turned on its ear and she was determined to find out if she was right...

Architect

It was pride that kept him at the top. Pride in himself and in what he did to help those around him. Pride in his projects. There had been mishaps. There had been unintentional death. That was business, plain and simple.

As Richard Jones watched Bob Morten walk away, his frown turned into a grimace. There was going to be another death, now. Morten had just signed his own death warrant, though he didn't know it yet. But he would, within twenty-four hours time. It would be cruel. But then... business was often cruel.

Different

When his grandfather rejoined him after speaking to Robocop, the expression on his face was different. Puzzling. As if he was trying to work something through and couldn't figure out what to say. "Grandpa?"

His grandfather blinked down at him for a long moment, and then suddenly he was hugging him. Jimmy was confused, but let the hug continue until his grandfather pulled back to look at him again. "I know your father would be proud of you, of how you handled yourself in there tonight, Jimmy."

Now it was Jimmy's turn to blink in confusion. "How?"

"Because I am."

Alike

The sound of the doors opening caused Charlie to turn away from the computer screen, and he frowned to find retired Captain Russell Murphy standing there with what looked suspiciously like a chess board. "Can I help you?"

The Captain glanced at him, then his gaze shifted to the cyborg who currently had his helmet off, eyes closed for a sleep cycle, sitting in the maintenance chair. "I'll need a table."

"A table?"

"To set up the game." The Captain nodded to Robo. "He been asleep long?"

Charlie suddenly understood and went to go find a table. He was treated to the sight of an unexpectedly lively chess match.

Catch

It was an emergency she nearly missed, and as she held onto his fading functions for dear life, urging him not to leave her, Diana wanted to kick herself. Repeatedly. How could she have missed the Chairman's system being activated like that?!? It was inexcusable!

"Come on, Alex! I'll haunt you forever! That's a promise!"

And it was. And, suddenly, it wasn't just her handing onto him from the inside for dear life, but also Charlie by remote contact, fixing what the termination program had broken. She'd never been so happy to have someone else take the burden off her shoulders in her entire life.

Tale

Lisa found the teenager sitting at a computer terminal, staring at information she shouldn't have even been looking at, and had to pause for a moment to wonder why there were tear tracks on Gadget's face. It was odd to see her crying, for she was normally very upbeat. "Gadget?"

"I saw pictures today," Gadget said slowly, not looking away from the screen. "Of him. At Jimmy's house."

Lisa blinked in realization. "Oh."

"I wanted to tell when I realized. Wanted to, but..." And then Gadget crumpled into Lisa's waiting arms. "It's not fair!"

She couldn't have agreed with her more.

Telling

It was hours after he'd left her again, and Diana was alone with her thoughts as she multi-tasked the entire city without thinking about it. She'd liked him, Charlie Lippencott. He could dance, he had manners, and he had let her go with what little explanation she'd been able to give him. Why couldn't she have met him when she had still actually had a body?

Afterwards, Charlie would hear I Only Have Eyes For You faintly and smile in remembrance, never realizing she was telling him without actually telling him. No one ever said she couldn't hint.

Hidden

The Chairman waited until the officers had left before moving with prescision to his desk and beginning the process of changing the Zone Five immobilization switch. He could only imagine how frustrated Robocop was at not being able to enter a zone where crime was going on.

As he changed the directive, the Chairman smiled. "Okay, Murphy. Time to take the gloves off."

Later, when he read the reports on the incident, he was startled to find out that one James Murphy had also been there in the middle of it all.

Claim

The woman standing before him had made a claim that he could not confirm or deny. It made no sense. None at all. She'd looked over his shoulder, took a deep breath, and looked him directly in the visor, eyes full of determination. "Murphy, it's you!"

Not sure how to respond to something that made no sense, he detoured around her.

Blank

Voices babbling around her, Lisa knew something was wrong the moment she saw the uncharacteristic blankness in his eyes that had not been there the day before when they'd been joking about his new vehicle that Charlie had shown them the specs on. She could see the confusion without him needing to say something. "Hey, are you okay?"

"I don't... remember."

Stunned, she nearly missed the Chairman blowing up about signing his company over to a madman.

Empty

It had taken losing her body to realize how small her life had been. How empty. How insignificant.

Before, all she'd wanted to do was be successful, climb the career ladder, to do her job well, and to find errors in the paperwork that no one else could. That's what she'd been doing, when she had walked in at the wrong or right moment, after all... her job.

Now... well, now, she was beyond climbing the ladder. And, when she thought about it, her head was full providing for the daily needs of a million or more people. And she'd have loved a real aspirin, because it gave her a headache. Brainache. Whichever it was, Diana still wanted an aspirin.

Full

The bin was full of money, all right: burned money! Money they'd just risked their lives and their freedom to steal.

As he screamed and hollered at the man whose job it had been to rig the charges, Clarence Boddicker had but one thought: this guy was going to die. Today, if possible. Didn't matter how.

Not ten minutes later, they were heaving him, wounded, out of the back door of the van at a police car as a delaying tactic.

Far

The river hadn't been very far from the house on Primrose lane, he realized as he got out of the car and shut the door. He remembered fishing here with his father and his son on a blustery afternoon, several months before the nightmare of the steel mill.

Jimmy had caught a small catfish, his father hadn't caught anything, and he... had caught several fish, one a big bass that had caused his son to smile up at him and say: "When I grow up, I wanna be just like you, Dad!"

Robo stood at the water's edge for a long while and reveled in the memories of that afternoon.

Beyond

It hadn't escaped Russell Murphy's notice that everyone, including The Chairman of OCP, were concerned as Robocop boarded the helicopter to go deal with a mad man who was threatening the lives of everyone in a ten-to-twenty mile radius.

As the helicopter took off with Robocop aboard, he turned to find the Chairman, Seargent Parks, and Detective Madigan staring into the dark sky after it for a few moments longer before each seemed to shake themselves and return to the task at hand. Madigan caught his eye and smiled slightly. "He's never careful enough for his own good."

"Ah." Somehow, he got the feeling it was more than that...

Heal

Back at the station after the madness of the night, Lisa finally had time to sit and wonder how he'd gone from not remembering a thing to battling a street gang and fixing whatever was broken at Public Works that had caused the city-wide blackouts. She'd tried asking Charlie about it, but he seemed more confused than she felt, and he'd muttered something about having been napping one minute, and being woken by the Chairman inexplicably exclaiming "murder!" repeatedly and Robo's metal backside as he'd stormed out.

Well... however it had happened, she was glad it had. Very, very glad.

Steady

The sound of Lisa's steady, mechanical breathing was the first thing to greet her as Diana materialized at his side in a holographic whirl. Diana sighed and looked closely at the sleeping woman who had nearly died because she'd been infected with a virus and let everything go to heck for an entire afternoon. Some days, it just didn't pay to get out of her flux shower at Public Works.

"Diana?" the question was neutral, but she could hear the curiosity underneath.

She glanced at him, tried to smile, and failed miserably. "Hi."

"They are working on programming the nanites now."

"I know," Diana let the silence hang there between them while she contemplated what it would take to get Charlie to make it so Alex could use contractions. It was maddening, sometimes! "So, really... you hated Disco?"

"Yes."

Later, when Lisa woke up from her nanite surgery, she'd wonder why a hospital would be playing "Celebration!" over it's PA system, and also why Robo seemed disgruntled...

Aid

The officers responding to the scene at the warehouse got there after Robocop, stunned to find him out cold and twitching on the ground. What could have done this? Wasting no time, they radioed for aid specifically for their one and only cyborg police officer.

When Lippencott arrived with a handful of technicians, the expression on his face was livid, and he set right to work assessing the damage. They couldn't tell if it was clinical concern, or the real thing, but maybe it didn't matter either way.

Kinship

"Your husband was an officer of Metro South. We are all family."

It was true, he reflected as he watched her glance back at him while the other officers took her statement. The explanation he had given her for the criminal's inexplicable behavior was true.

Nancy Murphy would never know that what was left of her husband underneath the armor and the programming had come as close as he ever would to telling her the truth, while also reminding her that she had a family out there who all wore blue, protected the innocent, and did their best to uphold the law. Family.

Falter

Frank Uno wasn't sure what to think as he raised his head after struggling up the stairs and looked at the woman who was and wasn't there, who glowed with unnatural light. Was she real? Was any of this nightmare real? Had his sqaudmates really died one by one from being eaten up by disease from the inside out? And was that really his childhood friend underneath the armor whom he'd nearly killed not two days ago with a cannon that spat supercharged plasma?

He tried to take another step forward, but the pain caused him to double over and fall to the floor. His questions would go unanswered, even as Murphy offered to call paramedics for him and was refused. The white-hot pain was real, and that was answer enough.

Heart

Walking through what had been his house, he remembers things. Snippets of the life he had lived in it. His son watching television, his wife up late tiredly paying bills... a shared moment of intimacy in their bedroom. Putting a picture up on the wall with her. Taking a heavy box from her and putting into a closet on a high shelf.

Finally, in the kitchen amid debris on a long-unused stove, he finds a picture. Staring at the smiling faces, on of them his own, it is hard to believe.

The silence, save for the automated real estate agent, makes it harder still.

Soul

Standing behind the van and staring into the vacant eyes of his former partner, Robo is determinded to find the man beneath the conditioning. To find him like he himself had been found under the amnesia on a dark night at a gas station. This was Malloy, so... "What is Malloy's rule number one?!?"

At first, there was only a blank stare, so he asked again, and then a third time. And then Timothy Malloy blinked and slowly, with great effort, told him: "There is... not-thing... better... than... being... a cop. Cop. Cop!"

Satisfied, Robo loosened his grip slightly. "Thank you. Partner."

Malloy's eyes went wide as he realized who was standing in front of him.

Truth

Growing up at Childrens Services, the truth was something she wasn't familiar with. No one was honest, not even the social workers, and certainly not Fanny Lamour. The woman lied to her all the time!

But... sitting in the car with Robocop and hearing him ask a question, Gadget couldn't help but wonder if maybe it was a bad thing that everyone around her lied all the time.

Hope

Lisa had been watching the activity of the squad room over the top of Gadget's head when the girl suddenly pushed away and looked at her. "Better?"

Gadget nodded slowly. "It's still not fair."

"Nope."

"What was he like when he was Jimmy's dad?"

Lisa suddenly had the really strange urge to chuckle. "Oh, he still is, Gadget. He still is."

"That's not what I meant!"

Lisa tried to smile. "I know. You mean... before. Before the suit."

"Yes!"

Distracted for a moment by the object of their conversation escorting a perpetrator to the front desk and then stomping back out again, Lisa smirked. There was so much she could say, but all of it was blackmail material! "Sarge is going to have to remind him to download his reports again..."

Gadget frowned. "What does downloading reports have to do with anything?"

Faith

He understood everything the Chairman had told him about the system shutdown in the field. Understood that if they did it here, without a controlled situation, what kind of risk he was taking even thinking about letting Joe patch the damaged cable. But... but there was a sick little boy offering encouragement in between wracking coughs while he cheered his father on. A little boy who had the same faith that his father could fix everything, who reminded him of Jimmy and was inspiring memory flashes. A little boy who might not make it through the night if they didn't do something drastic.

For that little boy, it was worth the risk. He stared back at the Chairman, and let the words fall where they may. "To be human, is to risk."

Depth

It is weeks after that night spent in his friend's office apartment in the shut-down and abandoned factory that something finally clicks into place. Watching television with his healing son, Joe frowns at the mention of a slain police officer in connection with the teenager being interviewed by Ortega in relation to the CAP Crew. Nudging Josh, he asks: "What did they say the boy's last name was?"

Josh yawns, thinks for a moment. "Murphy?"

Thinking back to that night, to the eyes he'd looked into when he had removed the helmet with a drill... it makes sense. Everything said between the OCP Chairman and the cyborg suddenly makes sense. "Oh."

Lovely

There was a knock at the door, but when she went to answer it, no one was there. Frowning, she was about to close the door again when she saw the white roses, two of them, laying on the doormat. Before picking them up, she glanced around, wondering who could have left them. Seeing no one, suspicious or otherwise, she picked them up and took them inside.

At the kitchen table, as she prepared to put them in a vase, the note attached gave her pause. It was a prayer, a moving one involving the lost and departed, and by the end of it, she couldn't hold back the tears. It was unsigned.

Later, Jimmy would find the note propped up against a vase containing the two white roses on their kitchen table and ask her, and she would refuse to explain.

Distract

It was a simple thing, pulling the woman to him and distracting her with a kiss at the right moment during the test of the new interceptor. For a few seconds, he nearly managed to make himself forget she was criminal out to do bad things, to pretend it wasn't life or death that he kissed her. That it was just them, and only them... and then the moment was over and she smiled at him. He returned the smile, knowing it wasn't going to last between them.

Half a minute later, the interceptor exploded, and he sighed. Playing the part of the harried business executive was something he knew well. Too well.

Bearing

As they had time to stand around after Robo saved their lives, Charlie finally had time to actually look at the cyborg with a practiced eye and couldn't help but frown as he realized he wasn't moving very well. And the sealed scar in the chest plate... "Sit down. Right now."

Sargeant Parks frowned at him. "Charlie?"

Charlie ignored the Sargeant as he led Robo to a sturdy chair and made him sit down. "Now what in the name of OCP happened to you?"

"Temporary repairs," Robo answered succinctly, and then automatically gave him a status report of all systems without actually telling him the why of needing the repairs in the first place, or how he'd known how to do it. Charlie had to resist the urge to go and give the idiot who fired the weapon a piece of his mind when Madigan explained it.

Troublesome

It was only later, after everything had settled down, that it hit her. Walking through the sanctuary of the church two days after the incident, Lisa Madigan had a realization. He'd asked her to meet him here, of all the places they could have met... and had been telling her where he'd been that night without actually saying it.

Sitting down in the very first row at the front of the church and staring up at the cross above the altar, she felt like chuckling. It made sense, in a weird way, that he'd have come here if something of a religious nature bothered him. What didn't make any sense was his not coming right out and telling them he'd gone to church to think, if it would have saved him from being shut down. It violated the public trust to admit things were bothering him enough to need guidance of a spiritual nature?

Weave

She turned to find a man standing there and couldn't help but stare at him. Oh, she knew him, all right. Knew who he was and probably what he was doing here in the middle of NeuroBrain in cyberspace with her, but she had never actually spoken to him herself. In fact, she hadn't really spoken to anyone but Alex and the Chairman since she'd technically (but not really) died and become part of a computer, it was so odd seeing him that they just stared at each other for a minute too long. Finally, she found her voice. "Charlie Lippencott?!?"

He blinked. "You know me?"

Oh right. He didn't know her. What to say in this situation? "Er... no. I've seen you around." Had seen him sleeping rather adorably at a computer station at Metro South once, too, even if she hadn't had time to dwell on it, were she really honest.

Fray

Watching her, Robo couldn't help but think of a frayed rope. Why Madigan reminded him of a frayed rope when she was sitting in a chair and fidgeting with a pill case, he wasn't sure, but it was a thing. He wanted to help her, but nothing helpful came to mind, so he stayed silent.

And then his wife turned up to take Madigan home, and awkwardness abounded. He didn't miss the amusement in Madigan's voice after he exited the small office, either.

Friend

Listening to the Sargeant give an order for Robo to return to the station, and Alex's reply of non-compliance "at this time," Diana instantly knew it was going to be a big, big problem if she didn't do something. It wouldn't solve this mess, and it would probably cause Parks to put out an APB on the Robo-Cruiser, it would give them time desperately needed to figure things out further. She held up a holographic hand, forestalling him from digging an even deeper hold with Parks. "Allow me."

At Metro South, a dispatch officer, Parks, Charlie, and Gadget were flabbergasted when Robo's signal disappeared form the map. Parks, predictably, put out an All Points Bulletin for their wayward cyborg.

Brother

He'd gone back to the tech room where Robo's chair was, trying to figure out what was going on with his charge to make act so... odd. It just wasn't in Robocop's nature to disobey the law. Not in his nature, not in the programming, and something in how Diana had reacted to the revelation of the theft of the power enhancer made him wonder if maybe they weren't looking at this thing the right way.

A beep caught his attention, and Charlie glanced at a monitor nearby to find Diana looking back at him against a really colorful background. He blinked, and moved to enter the VR environment to talk to her. What she told him about Murphy's widow having been abducted as leverage made everything suddenly make total sense.

Comrade

As Parks watched Robocop walk away and get into his car, and he listened to Charlie hurriedly explain about Nancy Murphy, everything about the cyborg's behavior suddenly started making sense. Of course he would act this way if he was protecting his family and didn't know where the information was being leaked.

Not for the first time in two days, Sargent Stanley Parks wished Madigan wasn't still off at that convention. She'd have told him to wait and watch... and then tracked Robo down to grill him herself. Weather she'd have actually gotten an answer, he didn't know. He also didn't know how he was going to explain this to his adopted daughter when he got back to the station.

Spouse

He'd been surprised when Robo had suddenly grabbed his arm just as he had gone to remove the helmet... and then he heard Gadget say something. "Ow, hey! Let go! No kids allowed!" Then the grip released and Charlie swung around quickly to find a smiling Gadget standing there with an unfamiliar boy. A boy who was very quickly identified as... oh. Oh. No wonder Robo had grabbed his arm.

In short order, Madigan entered the room with a blonde woman, very obviously the boy's mother, who practically dragged him out by his ear while he protested about slogans for protest signs. Charlie watched them go, not really surprised at the unease the woman hadn't been able to keep off her face at the sight of Robo, and then sighed. He'd known something was off, at least now there was an explanation.

Child

Looking down at his son as he fought to find words that wouldn't make him panic while he was panicking himself, Robo didn't have to be reminded that the teenager had already been through far too much. "She will be late."

"But she went to the store hours ago!"

Putting a now-metal hand on Jimmy's shoulder, Robo tried again. "She will be home. I am going to take you to a friend's house."

Jimmy looked up at him for a long moment before nodding, trust in his eyes. "Okay." And then he went to go pack a bag for himself while Robo waited at the door and glanced at the pictures on the walls, his attention drawn to one in particular. The one they'd taken as a family when Jimmy was six months old... and wiggly. Very, very wiggly.

Ever

Lisa chuckled at Gadget's question. "You asked what he was like before."

"But... downloading reports?"

"Sarge has to remind him frequently to do it." Lisa waited while Gadget thought about it, then blinked in realization. "Alex didn't like writing reports, Gadget."

Gadget nodded slowly. "I think I get it."

Lisa smiled. "Good."

Never

"Use the king."

Russell Murphy stared into the night sky for a moment, wondering just who had taught Robocop to play chess to the point where he was using chess references as code for strategy. And not just any chess reference, either, but one he had taught his son long ago. In a way, it was comforting... it felt like Alex was here in spirit.

Turning, he frowned at Parks and Madigan. "He wants to use the Chairman as a distraction to get Felix away from the window."

And someday, maybe someone would be able to explain why a robot played chess like his son...

Scorn

Pudface Morgan stood triumphantly over the fallen metal giant, a foot firmly on the chest plate. He'd gotten his revenge at last, the mighty Robocop was down and there was nothing he could do but lay there! At last! Victory! It was sweet, and he could taste it! It was his! All his! And it had only taken kidnapping some kid and the use of a wrecking ball to accomplish! He needed to have days like this more often!

And then he sneezed, at once reminded of why he hated the metal menace currently lying on the ground.

Betrayal

He'd gone from celebrating with two rather unintelligent but beautiful models one minute, to someone pointing a gun at him and telling the models to leave, to being shot, to listening to a recording of Dick Jones explaining, poorly and surperiorly, why he had to die tonight, the next. It made no sense and happened so fast that all Bob Morton had time to really process was that there was a criminal in his living room with a weapon, a grenade, a smirk, and a DVD with bad tidings.

And then Bob knew no more.

Potency

He knew how close he'd come to losing his life tonight as he thanked Robocop for catching him. And for what? A sense of belonging with criminals who were distributing drugs while pretending to keep order and work with the cops? What would his father have thought of this mess?

That thought stopped Jimmy short and he forced himself to take a deep breath. It wasn't long enough ago, and there were still days when he'd find himself wishing the impossible. Looking up at Robocop, he frowned. "Can you take me home?"

Robocop nodded. "Just as soon as you give your statement."

Why did the familiarity of police procedure suddenly feel comforting?

Limit

She'd passed the limit of what she could handle when she had arrived home via police escort to find an empty house, and Nancy Murphy finally allowed herself to lean against a wall after she'd closed the door and slide to the floor, and just sit there for twenty minutes. Why had the mad man used her to get Robocop to steal something for him? It made no sense!

Eyes alighting on the table where she kept family photos, Nancy wondered what her husband would have thought of it. As it was, she was pretty sure he wouldn't have let Robocop rescue her alone.

Anchor

The man wasn't going to listen to a direct order to get out of the vehicle. He could see that as clearly as he knew Charlie was going to give him a lecture about letting people plow into him with vehicles again. Setting the rambolts deadfast into the street surface, Robo locked his legs and braced for imapact.

Then he broke Dennis Finch's car with extreme prejudice. For Madigan, who had sobbed upon waking up that first time to the realization that she was paralyzed. And also for Diana, who had been infected with a nanite-driven virus and had subjected everyone in the city to bad cartoons, traffic jams, power outtages, and disco music all afternoon until he'd gotten the cure to her over her own protests.

Harbor

Standing at the water's edge, Robo could see the still form of his former partner beneath the surface on his thermograph scan and couldn't help but berate himself for not having been faster. If he'd just been quicker to aim and fire, Tim would still be alive and those two idiots wouldn't have been able to shoot that rocket launcher. Just when he had gotten beneath the programming and forcibly dragged Malloy to the surface with his own rules of being a cop...

Robo avoided computer terminals for several days afterward. Diana would have forced him to talk about it, and he really didn't want to.

Adrift

Sitting on the stack of cinder blocks in the steel mill, Robo felt lost. Adrift in a sea of knowledge and images of a life he'd lived but had no connection to. He'd meant what he said, about feeling his family but not really remembering them. To him, they were images. Feelings. But anything more than that... was a blank. Was it six months ago that his life had been forever changed? Just six months? A year?

However long it was, it didn't matter. No... what mattered now was the present and the danger.

Greetings

The sudden sound of a car door shutting caused Emil spin, only to come face to face with a man in a steel blue suit of armor. He frowned, raised his weapon, and then the officer said something that sent him into shock. For a moment, it was months earlier and he and Dougy were chatting, and a police officer said those same words... right before they killed him. But it couldn't be. Could it? That was impossible. Right? Right?!?

Shaken, Emil babbled madly. "Hey! I know you! We killed you! We killed you!"

He did not remember hitting the pavement when his bike was shot out from under him.

Goodbye

They danced around cyberspace as one, neither wishing to put an end to the perfect simplicity of being in one another's arms but both knowing it had to come to an end eventually. It was the first time in eight months for Diana to be touching another person, and Charlie... didn't get time off to go dancing often enough.

In the end, Diana kissed him on the cheek, thanked him for the dance, and watched him disappear back to the tech room at Metro South.

Fleeting

Nancy entered the hospital room to find Robocop standing guard at Lisa's bedside, and frowned. He had time to watch over the ill and injured? Shaking off the questions she wanted to ask, Nancy approached the bed. "How is she?"

There was a pause as he turned to look at her. "Sedated."

"You can go. I'll stay with her for a while."

He turned back to the bed. "I was waiting for her to wake again. She was... panicked the first time."

Nancy nodded. It was understandable. "Like I said, I'll stay for a while. Go do what you need to do."

Eternal

Standing in the sanctuary of what had been in family church, he could almost touch the ghosts of his memory as well as see them. So much had happened since he'd last stood in this place as a member of the congregation. So much, that he didn't know where to start or which questions to ask, or who to ask them of. Was it him who had changed or the world around him?

"Oh, Alex. What are you doing here?"

As he turned to look at Diana, Robo was having trouble explaining that to himself. It was hard when that question had so many answers, not all of them pleasant.

 

A/N: The AU part of this involves someone not having been asleep during something crucial…


UDC 7 - Week 3 – Charlie Lippencott and Diana Powers (AU)


Attraction


He’d run out of ideas on what to do, now that Robo wasn’t in need of further repairs. The only problem? Now the cyborg seemed to have inexplicable amnesia. So, for lack of anything else to try while the Chairman sat basically at his elbow, Charlie found himself thumbing through an operations manual.

Suddenly, all the computer screens in the room went staticky and both men jumped as a shower of sparks heralded the appearance of a woman in the center of the room. She nodded to Robo. “Got business with the big guy.”

Charlie stared at her, dumbfounded, as she proceeded to explain her predicament and then fix what he hadn’t been able to.


Love


There were too many coincidences, Charlie reflected as he saw her again on his first data probe into NeuroBrain. From Robo having information that he couldn’t have gotten by himself from Pentagon computers, to the mystery of how Gadget had seen him in hologram form… “Hello again.”

Diana blinked for a long moment, then smiled. “That’s right. In all the excitement, I’d forgotten. You know… sort of. Hello, Charlie.”

“So... no leaks in here, then?”

Her gaze went distant for a moment as she touched one of the virtual blue streams. “No. You might want to try employee access.”

Under normal cirumstances, he’d have asked her out for coffee.


Commitment


As they shared their first and probably only dance, Diana smiled at him. “We can’t do this, you know. We’re professionals.”

“Can’t dance?”

“This. Between us. It can’t happen. I’m not…”

Charlie silenced her protests with a virtual kiss, and then whirled her around the dance floor. There would be time enough to discuss what they could and could not do. For now, though, it was just a dance, and it was just them. Alive or not, solid or not… it didn’t matter to him.


Marriage


The most unusual marriage ceremony in the history of Michigan was performed by the Chairman of OCP in cyberspace, two years to the day since both parties had seen each other for the first time in the middle of a crisis. Diana had picked the day due to needing to remember it for something good, and Charlie… didn’t care what day it happened on, so long as it happened.

Their lone witness had spiked into cyberspace wearing, rather uncustomarily, formal police dress blues. Neither the Chairman, nor the Bride and Groom, commented on this.


Anniversary


They were alone again in the expanse that was cyberspace, and Diana couldn’t stop smiling at him. For some reason, she was incredibly glad he hadn’t let her get away with the “we’re so different, I’m legally and physically dead, and it’ll never work” speech.

“You never did say what the bad thing was about this anniversary,” Charlie said after a while.

“Aside from nearly being killed twice in the same day?”

He stared at her. “Oh.”

“Dance with me?”

They did.

 

Mira_Jade : Thank you, Mira. And that's the fun of this particular fandom... I get to introduce people to it who weren't aware there even was a TV series for Robocop. Soul was my favorite moment from the episode Tin Man, and Steady... someone needed to follow up on Robocop's hate for disco! Hee.


Week 4 - UDC 7


Snow


The wind was biting cold and the snow was falling in near white-out conditions, but none of them cared for there was opportunity out here in the darkened Zone Five of Old Detroit, where the copper lines went on forever. As the leader, the Colonel who had been out of the Amazon War for long enough to get his bearings and realize no one cared what he did serving his country, stood up and addressed his unit, they all cheered in agreement.

The streets were ripe for the taking and pillaging.


Sand


It felt like she was buried in sand, Diana realized as she hung, suspended in the middle of a cybernetic web. She wanted to scream, cry out, anything but simply hang there and be squished out of existence by a specialized computer virus that had been planted by… who had planted it? Had that really been Chip Chaykin wearing a dress? Everything was getting hazy, and it was hard to think. Hard to do anything by hang there, suspended in forever.

And then, suddenly, she could move again, and someone familiar was calling her name.


Water


The evening news tended to be a source of amusing ridicule, but as Russell Murphy picked up his water glass from the end table, he heard something that caused him to stare at the screen of the television. A deadly biotoxin? How had that happened?

“Russell?” Dorothy asked him, having noticed the shock.

He blinked, handed the water glass to her, and moved to stand. “I have to call Metro South.”

“At this hour?”

“Yes.”
Dorothy was left wondering why a report about Robocop having been exposed to a biotoxin would shake him so badly. Then again… she was concerned, too. And Detective Madigan didn’t cover her slips of the tongue nearly as well as she thought she did.


Heat


It was the first time she’d been to a beach of any kind since… before. Before her life had changed so irrevocably and she’d gained a family of law enforcement officers when all she wanted was one. Hers. It felt wrong to be standing on this beach, enjoying the crisp sea air, so far away from her son and missing out on things.

And then her companion reached out and touched her hand, reminding her of his presence. Nancy smiled at him, at once taken aback that she’d forgotten he was there, and stunned that she’d allowed herself to actually take a vacation that was turning into so much more.


Clouds


“That one looks like a monkey,” Diana said as she craned her neck and looked upward, wanting to distract Charlie from the fact that she wasn’t solid in his world. “With a banana.”

Charlie glanced upward, frowned at the cloud patterns. “I see a spoon up there, too. Stop trying to distract me.”

“What if I want to?”

“Diana...”

“What?”

“I’ll spot your monkey and raise you a roller skating hippo.”

She frowned. There wasn’t a… “Charlie!”

“What? Give it five minutes, it’ll probably happen.”

She chuckled. “All right. I’ll stop trying to distract you from… this.” Her hand passed right through him.

 

Clouds was my favorite awesome updates

 

Mira_Jade : Thank you, Mira.

JediFalcon : Thank you.


Week Five – UDC 7 – Heartbreakers (episode 18, series canon)


Seek

He wasn’t sure what he was looking for as he worked his way into electronic files he did not have clearance for, but he knew it when he found it. Knew it, but wasn’t sure what to make of the fact that they’d used a dead cop to run autonomic systems for a robot… did that make it something else? And wasn’t that against some kind of human rights convention?

Wilson Eberhart was still processing it in his mind when Brock turned up in his office to talk about their scheme that he hadn’t yet thought about the consequences of such knowledge, or why it would have been so heavily protected.


Sneak

Robo knew it wouldn’t go undetected for long, but he couldn’t risk telling anyone about this. Especially when he had no idea how on earth the criminal holding his wife had found out his identity in the first place to be able to blackmail him with it. He opened the evidence locker roughly, not even caring about the noticeable damage, and walked out with the enhancer in hand.

He was so lost in thought that he didn’t see Gadget or Charlie, staring dumbfoundedly after him. He had a woman who didn’t even know why she’d been kidnapped to save.


Steal

Parks stared into the empty case, not quite believing his eyes. “What the…” After the confrontation at the factory, it made no sense for Robo to not have brought it with him. He looked at Robo with wide eyes.

“The scope never left the factory,” the cyborg answered, and Parks could almost hear the underlying smirk in his tone.

Parks stared at him momentarily, and then nodded to the other officers in the room, guiding Nancy toward them. “All right. Someone take Mrs. Murphy’s statement and then take her home.”


Share

When she finally laid eyes on the man after being locked in that room for hours with no explanation, he seemed to be bursting at the seems with excitement every time he looked at her. Almost as if he wanted to share some secret that was burning a hole in his pocket. And the hints directed toward that robotic policeman, as if there was some kind of connection between them. None of it made any sense.

Was there some kind of connection between them? She didn’t know, but the metal man always threw her for a loop with responses that reminded her so much of Alex it hurt at times.


Sell


After Robocop and Sargent Parks left his office, the Chairman sat down at his desk and turned to stare out the window. Two officers were dead and a weapon never meant for the streets was out there somewhere in the hands of criminals. He didn’t like it when things like this happened. He really, really did not.

The Chairman glanced at his desktop monitor, wondering what Diana thought of this mess for a moment before shaking his head. No… he didn’t need to ask her to know she was probably working on finding the leak herself.

 

great update sneak has to be a little scary though. Using his wife against him is not cool...