They began their work in earnest. Marco introduced Robot 28 to his unit and trained the bot on procedure, routine, and weapons handling. Marco emphasized the first two heavily during their training. Weapons handling went by quickly due to R28's built in mechanical prowess. Maria built an in-leg holster afterwards. Marco made sure that the robot had nothing but rubber bullets for his weapon. Maria meanwhile went to school and therapy under guard. At school, she still made time for her friend Rebby. She tried to keep the surreality of her situation from getting to her.

  "You got the notes from differential equations?" asked Maria.

  "Here ya go dude," said Rebby as she handed Maria her notes. The cafeteria was its normal level of busy as Maria focused on snapping photos of her friend's notes.

  "Yo, Rebby!" shouted someone not too far away. A girl with blonde hair sat next to Rebby with lunch and coursework in hand. Maria noted that the girl's coursework was focused on journalism.

  "Hey Sarah," said Rebby, head in the palm of her hand and a smile in her voice.

  Sarah was Rebby's other best friend. They have known each other since middle school. Maria got acquainted with her second hand but did not know much about her otherwise.

  "So, who's your celebrity friend?" asked Sarah playfully.

  "Oh come off it," said Rebby, lightly pushing Sarah's shoulder. The three of them talked about their day today at university, their teachers, the classwork and the projects they were working on.

  "Hey, if it's not too much to ask, is it okay if I can interview you for my class assignment?" asked Sarah. The abruptness of the question took Maria aback.

  Oh god dammit, thought Maria.

  "Sure," said Maria. What's the worst that could happen?

  Sarah pulled out a pen and notepad plus an audio recorder, and the absurdity Maria had been avoiding the whole time came front and center.

  Sarah clasped her hands together and asked, "Why make your robot a police officer?"

  Maria breathed in deep, took a moment to collect her words and began, "I wanted to help my dad. He always comes home tired from policing Neo-City One."

  Sarah scrawled some notes in her notebook and continued, "Why's that? You could have done literally anything else with it."

  "Maybe, but it's my dad," said Maria.

  "Alright. How are you going to do that?" asked Sarah.

  Maria explained again how she programmed the robot to only listen to her or her dad and to react with proportional force, not for the last time. Sarah made her notes and continued.

  "Okay, but that doesn't answer my question. How are you going to go about doing what you do? What are your ideas of justice and how does the robot tie into it?" asked Sarah.

  "My dad has always said that you can't have justice without compassion, mercy, and understanding."

  "How so?" asked Sarah

  "He describes it like this: offering compassion to the victims, showing mercy as often as possible, and understanding of the law. He works close with Rebby's dad, who is a lawyer," said Maria.

  "That's right," said Rebecca

  Sarah nodded and scratched more notes in her notebook.

  "Can you go into further detail?" asked Sarah.

  "My dad is working closely with the robot on procedure: from handling people with mental illness, providing care and resources, and performing community service. We don’t want anyone getting hurt if we can help it and we'd like people to trust us. What I'd like to do is add predictive elements on top of the police work," said Maria.

  “Don’t you see any problems with that? How are you going to make that work? What sort of data are you using? How will you keep the robot from profiling people?" asked Sarah.

  That’s a lot of questions, thought Maria and she said as much. She started scratching the back of her head, a habit she picked up whenever she was nervous. “I don't have a crystal ball and can only solve each problem as they come along and work towards a long lasting solution. As for how I'll make this work, I'm using statistics from a wide variety of sources and having them compared against each other. That should keep the robot from profiling people, alongside working with my dad," explained Maria, hoping her anxiety didn’t come across Sarah in her answer.

  "What happens when this program expands beyond just you and your dad? How will you handle that?"

  "We don't know yet. We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

  Sarah scratched more notes into her paper.

  "What time is it?" asked Maria. Rebecca pulled out her phone and told her.

  "Oh crap I gotta get to class!"said Maria, raising her hands to the sides of her head. She snatched her bag, pencil case, planner and notebooks and rushed off to her next class, telling her friends adios.

  Sarah's phone pinged as Maria left them. It was from Rebby, aka Princess. Sarah, aka Ghost, glanced at Princess and swiped open her phone.

  Do you believe me now, Ghost? said the message.

  Sarah rolled her eyes and texted back, She's a good kid, Princess. There's still her dad to worry about though.

  Rebecca nodded, and they went their separate ways for that day.

  Maria went home after school and told papa about what happened at school. Marco told her he was proud of her.

  The next morning, Marco went through his morning exercises as he normally does. Five minutes of pushups, twenty weight lifting exercises as dictated by his chart, fifteen minutes of abdominal exercises, followed by a run. He did this everyday of every week. He told Robot 28 to hold down the fort when he went running. He did his stretches and ran.

  He ran fast for a bodybuilder, if anyone in the neighborhood ever caught sight of him, rain, snow, or sunshine. If they ever did, it was like watching a jaguar giving chase. The streets were normally empty this early in the morning, leaving Marco to his solitude, just the way he wanted it. As his pace quickened, his thoughts became serene like an open grassy glade on a clear day, his nose filled with cool dawn air, any pressing thoughts he had disappearing to the back of his mind. As he ran past a tree he heard a twig snapping.

  Was someone following him? He stopped and turned around. A cat had stopped midstride as it was leaving the tree. He looked around and saw the top of someone's head peeking over the top of someone's roof. He knelt down and beckoned the cat towards him and saw his follower sink lower down the side of the roof. He turned and ran again. As he ran, he peeked behind him and saw that he was indeed being followed. They wore a mask, their slim figure dressed in attire that blended with the neighborhood.

  What did they want from him? They obviously weren't headed for his home, and even if they did, they'd have the robot to deal with. As he analyzed his pursuer he noticed that they had a hard time keeping pace with him on top the rooftops.

  He rounded the corner and sprinted down the road. When the mysterious pursuer arrived, they found no trace of Marco to their shock and bewilderment. Marco, having sufficiently lost his follower, continued his run a few minutes more and ran back home. He checked his phone and saw that he broke a personal distance record. He then turned his attention to making breakfast and his mail.

  Marco received his first paystub since he got the robot. His pay issues had been resolved. Marco ran the numbers through his head and his pay covered food and expenses in full and the final number left him money enough to pay for the wall that R28 broke when he activated. He smiled, he was out of the hole. He and Maria had their breakfast, said their goodbyes, and he and R28 got to work.

  They patrolled the beat of Neo-City One. Marco could feel the eyes of random passersby as they walked on by, the sight of a policebot still strange and new to the citizens. They ran into a couple of homeless people and directed them towards shelters that would have them. The city had made an ordinance directed towards reducing the number of homeless but had not allocated funds to do so. Publically funded shelters were and still are at max capacity. He did not want to think about the privately held ones. Marco and the Robot peacefully resolved altercations, played soccer with some teenagers, and other things.

  Later on in the day, the two of them stopped a robbery at a drugstore. Robot drew their pistol on the quick and shot the gun out of the perp’s hand. As Marco cuffed the man, some medication rolled out of the perp's pockets. The trial revealed that it was a prescription made out to their mother. They could not afford it. Marco winced at that. The next day on the beat, Marco and R28 had to stop another officer from roughing up some kid for the crime of just standing on a corner at the wrong time. The police officer had to take remedial lessons on probable cause again. That same day, they had to stop another officer from planting drugs on a suspect. That officer was put on probation, pending a drug test. To Marco’s anger, the officer quit the same day and never got the drug test.

  The third day was their most stressful yet. An armed bank truck carrying servers with personal bank information was attacked by the Torchbearers and most of the money inside had been stolen through data transfer. Marco and Robot 28 arrived when the Torchers were leaving and gave chase. The two of them managed to catch a couple before the rest disappeared. In another part of town, the Highwaymen had bombed a black neighborhood, a fire springing to terrible life in their wake. Robot 28 provided what help it could to the firefighters. There were no casualties, thankfully.

  Later on, Marco made a trip to hit up his friend Detective Arno Chen who was investigating the murder of the mob boss who tried to kidnap Maria.

  "What have you got for me, Detective Chen?" asked Marco as he walked up to the remains of the blown up warehouse.

  "We haven't found much of anything," said Detective Chen, thumbing a lighter at the tip of his cigarette. Arno told Marco about the recent questioning of some of the mob boss' associates in the intervening days since the explosion. They did not want to cooperate.

  "Any reason?"asked Marco.

  "None," answered Arno.

  "I got a guy who owes me," said Marco. "Guy violated his parole by joining a gang and is out a lawyer anyways."

  "I ain't talking without my lawyer," said Ronny.

  Marco gave Ronny his new lawyer's contact info. Ronny was taken aback by this, but soon started cooperating. They went over the information from their first interrogation all those days ago plus the information regarding the blown up warehouse and Ronny's dead boss.

  "Any idea why your friends aren't talking?" asked Marco.

  "Beats me," answered Ronny, scratching the back of his head and eyeing the robot nervously.

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  "The robot does not have a lie detector built in," said Marco. "But we are recording our conversation. Anyways, you think this has anything to do with that doctor that came to your gang's hideouts?"

  "The guy was particular, I'll give ya that. Guy just wanted tech, stuff for explosives, while providing us with support."

  "What can you tell me about working for that man?"

  "The stuff we got him he personally filed the serial numbers off or made untraceable some other way. Guy kept to himself most of the time. He would only talk to the boss," said Ronny.

  And now he's dead, thought Marco.

  "I think it was him that suggested we kidnap your kid. Sorry about that," said Ronny.

  Marco scowled, clenching his fist, an audible cracking of the knuckles breaking the otherwise silent apartment of Ronny. "What is his name?"

  "He said his name was Dr. Allister Sean," answered Ronny.

  At least now I have a name, thought Marco. "Blowing someone up seems a tad extreme for a botched kidnapping. There must have been something more to this."

  "Maybe. Nothing personal," said Ronny. Marco asked Ronny for a description of the doctor. Ronny described him and soon Marco was looking for a thin, caucasian man with messy brown hair and foggy goggles. Marco told Ron "thanks for the info" as he walked out the door. The rest of the day went by uneventfully on their beat, and Marco and R28 went home afterwards. During dinner, Marco told Maria about the day they had but nothing about the investigation.

  As Marco sat on the foot of his bed, thinking about all of this, his muscles ached and his spirit soddened. Having a robot on patrol made some things easier but not everything. He was no less exhausted from his job. He went to sleep because he had to.

  Ronny, for his part, went on about his day after his run-in with Sergeant Cervantes. He hit his favorite bar, swung and missed with some women there, got a black-eye after drinking too much and getting into a fight, and called his parole officer an asshole.

  He went home after spending enough time at the bar. He flicked the too damn bright lights on and was greeted by some loud scuttering.

  Damn rats, he thought. He grabbed a broom to kill the rat but found some sort of tiny spider-like robot instead.

  "What the-"

  Ronny was no more as his apartment building was blown sky high. He apparently did not get the memo not to snitch on the good doctor.

  The resulting fire took out a lot of the building before the firefighters arrived.

  Hank Rodgetts did not look happy to be in Overseer Juno's office, despite coming in of his own volition.

  "Why does that man deserve that robot?" spat Rodgetts.

  “Hello Mr. Rodgetts, what brings you into my office?” asked Juno politely. God damn I hate the military’s open door policy, she cursed.

  “Why do you trust that man with that robot after all the things he did?" he asked again, anger seething. "That man has a history of insubordination and acting on his own. The people he's helped are nothing but criminals!"

  "From what he's told me, Marco believes differently, Mr. Rodgetts."

  “That kid that blew up the weapons factory was one the kids Marco let get away when he punched me out.”

  Ms. Juno pressed her fingers, eyebrow raised. "Go on," she said.

  "I recognized him from the news," continued Hank. "The people he's lenient on go on to commit even more crimes."

  Emily had not reviewed Sergeant Cervantes' arrest record when considering his fitness to have the robot.

  "I noticed this trend after I had been moved following our fight," continued Hank. He went on to list as many examples of Cervantes' leniency leading to further crimes being committed. Grocery store robberies, muggings, bank heists, manslaughter, the list went on and on. Hank went into great detail in all of them, possessed with a hatred almost palpable. Overseer Juno retained his skepticism through Hank’s tirade.

  "Knowing all this, do you still trust that man?" asked Rodgetts, red in the face.

  "Perhaps, but I assure you that he is being closely monitored. The work he is doing is critical to our project here. I plan on seeing this experiment through to the end," said Juno.

  "What happens when your experiment goes awry?" asked Hank Rodgetts with an edge in his voice.

  "Are you done, Mr. Rodgetts? I have other matters to attend to," said Juno in a dismissive voice. It took all of her energy not to roll her eyes at this small man, and even more energy not to use her psychic powers on him, despite what points he's made. Hank's nose flared, he huffed, dismissed himself and all but stormed out of the building.

  Emily Juno keyed for Cervantes' arrest records for review once Rodgetts was long gone. Mr. Rodgett cherry picked his examples to argue his deceit. Emily Juno spent the rest of her day in deep seeded annoyance.

  Hank crossed a garbage can as he left Overseer Juno’s office, picked his pockets and dropped a small, metal sphere, along with some garbage he carried around with him in the bin. This sphere had been designed by the doctor for some espionage work. It would do its job come nightfall.

  That night, Hank received a text with details on Sergeant Cervantes' next few patrol beats and the schedule of Maria’s guard. He smiled at the thought of his revenge. Doom will come for Marco’s family soon.

  The next few days came like any other. Marco did his morning exercises. Someone stalked him on his run and again he evaded them. He and Robot 28 went on foot patrol. They planned to provide the policebot with a motorbike eventually. On their patrols, they made a few arrests, stopped police misconduct, and interacted with citizens. Marco kept in contact with Detective Arno as his investigation went along. Arno discovered that the materials used in the bombings of Ronny and his boss came from outside Neo-City One, out in the wastelands.

  "Anything else you found on our man?" asked Marco.

  "Nothing so far outside of his university," said Arno. "He apparently went to the same school your kid's going to. He wasn't part of any extracurriculars nor was he close to anyone during his time there."

  "What about the names of his professors?" asked Marco.

  "All gone, except for one," said Arno. "A Mr. Ryan Castings."

  That’s one of Maria’s teachers, Marco thought."Thanks for the tip," replied Marco. He checked the time. Maria should be heading home soon. He and Robot 28 made their way to Lincoln University.

  Bus rides stopped feeling normal for Maria after she activated Robot 28. The presence of her guard was something she relegated to the back of her mind as she focused on her schoolwork. She found it hard to concentrate, her mind going back to her interview with Sarah and Rebecca the other day. It has only been a few days and still she kept mulling over her answers. Was she doing things right? Did she give the right answers? Could she future proof Robot 28 well enough?

  Papá said he was proud of her but the doubt still lingered. She needed something to get her mind back on track but settled for people watching the rest of the way home. The people gave her furtive looks or otherwise ignored her. She checked her weatherapp and saw that a massive dust storm was headed for the city. The bus made its stops and people got on, off, or waited for the next bus. This next stop, some men boarded with guns out in the open. Maria stirred, her unease a lump in her throat and she feared the worst.

  One of them pulled a gun out and pointed it at the driver. They shouted for her. They shot her guard as he stepped to defend her. Maria saw blood spurt out and pool about him as she ducked from view. The armed men at the front still shouted for her. Heart pounding in her ears, her eyes darted this way and that for an escape. She spotted the emergency exit and forced it open, toppling out the side of the bus and onto the crowded sidewalk. She landed on her feet and bolted like a rabbit chased by wolves.

  She did not look back as she ran, hoping to disappear into the crowd. She heard her pursuers getting off of the bus and pulled out her phone. She called papa and told him what had happened. Over the shouts of her pursuers she heard the loud thunder of motorcycles. She hoped that those motorcycles did not belong to Doom.

  She ducked into an alleyway to hide behind a trash can but soon saw one of her chasers coming for her from the side she entered. The man fell with a dead thud, a needle in his neck, thrown from above. As the man fell, Maria saw that they bore the skull of Doom’s Highwaymen. Maria's savior landed before her soon after. They were clad in black with their face hidden, like a ninja, and extended their hand towards her.

  "Come with me and you'll be safe," said the ninja. The ninja sounded like a woman. Maria turned and ran the other way. She ran into the other Highwayman before she could exit the alley. Their arms shot out quick as a cobra in an attempt to grab the screaming Maria. The ninja struck the Highwayman down just as quickly as they did the other one.

  Maria took the opportunity to run in a different direction. She heard the ninja call out for her and still she did not turn to look. The thundering of the motorcycles quickened her pace. She ducked inside a department store, running towards the back, her ninja friend behind her.

  She found a good hiding spot where she could see and not be seen. She held her breath as the ninja ran past her, but still she waited, the minutes stretching tortuously long. The thundering of motorcycles had come closer since she last heard them. She made her retreat when she felt her safety was assured, creeping out of her hiding spot and making her way to the entrance of the store. Her relief was short lived as something, someone yanked her off the ground. It was the ninja.

  "Let me go!" she shouted, fighting her way out of the woman's grip. The ninja kept running at a breakneck pace despite carrying Maria.

  "If I let you go, you'll be captured by the Highwaymen," said the ninja, her voice calm and collected in spite of their shared peril. Maria wanted to argue and fight about her kidnapping still, but she saw the Highwaymen pulling out their guns having just arrived.

  "Look out!"shouted Maria as the ninja girl leaped for a grated fire escape in an alleyway. She threw Maria onto the landing, and Maria in turn ran up the steps as fast as she could. The ninja followed after her, the Highwaymen further behind them both. They made their way to the top of the building, Maria panting and trying to catch her breath.

  "We're gonna have to jump to the other building," said the ninja.

  "Are you nuts, I can't make that jump!" said Maria.

  "You'll just have to trust me on this!" said the ninja as she grabbed the protesting Maria and leapt towards the other building. The ninja tucked and rolled with Maria and they ran towards the maintenance door. A pair of shadows raced past them, cutting Maria and the ninja off from the door. The shadows belonged to two highwaymen with jump packs strapped to their backs. The ninja stepped in between Maria and the henchmen, their club at the ready. The highwaymen pulled out their knives. They charged at each other, striking with deadly intent. The ninja kept the two henchmen at bay, knocking the knives out of their hands with her club. Still the battle went on, the highwaymen pressing the ninja and Maria back towards a ledge. They moved in on the ninja whenever they spotted an opening but the ninja beat them back with a fierce blow of her cudgel.

  One of the highwaymen broke off to the side and grabbed Maria, the other tackling the ninja. The highwayman with Maria flew to the ground and soon threw his quarry into the back of a waiting truck, a black bag over her head.

  When did they get jump packs? thought Sarah as she struggled against the Highwayman as they flew through the air. She pulled out her knife and stabbed it into the mechanism of the jump pack. She launched into the open air as the highwayman spun out of control and smashed into the side of a building. Sarah landed on her feet, running to where Maria was taken and watched with dismay as the Highwayman violently threw Maria into the car. They peeled off as soon as she was stowed.

  Sarah leapt to the other building, launching a grappling cable and swinging towards their car. More Highwaymen on jump packs charged towards her and she in turn kicked them out of the air. She swung towards another building and chased the car throughout town. She saw the shadow of Robot 28 swinging above her.

  "I'm on my way, keep running!" he told her. That was minutes ago even though it felt like painstaking hours had passed by. His sirens blared nonstop as he ran every light on his way to getting his daughter. He followed his daughter's tracker on his GPS, swerving in and out of traffic and taking as many shortcuts as possible. Robot 28 followed overhead swinging from building to building on its powered jump jets.

  "We have company, Sergeant Cervantes. There is someone dressed in black swinging from the rooftops and Highwaymen on jump packs," said Robot 28.

  "Stay on target, take them down if they get in your way!" barked Marco. His brow broke into a cold sweat as he scanned for the car with his daughter inside. There! He found it! He radioed R28 to focus on the car he was chasing. He pushed his foot down on the pedal and rammed the rear of the other car, aiming for a controlled spin out.

  A highwayman on a motorcycle shot his driver side window out and Marco had to duck out of the way from the glass, almost spinning out of control. He saw the highwayman ready their pistol again before Robot 28 swooped down, grabbed them off their bike and threw them into another highwayman on a jump pack.

  Marco sped up in another attempt to spin the other car out. Again he was met with resistance from the highwaymen, but this time the person dressed in black saved Marco from them. He turned his focus again to the other car.

  Someone in a skull mask climbed out onto the roof of the other car, wielding some sort of giant rocket hammer with a circular handle in the middle of the shaft. It was Doom. Doom pointed at Marco and swung his hammer like a golf club and sent an energy volley at Marco's car. Marco swerved out just in time to see the energy volley decimate the part of the road he was on. Smoke rising from the craters behind him, Marco pulled out his pistol and opened fire on Doom. The bullets deflected away as Doom spun his hammer in front of him, the circular handle in the middle acting as the rotor. Robot 28 landed on the trailer of a semi-truck and opened fire on Doom's unprotected flank.

  Doom flinched as the bullets struck his unprotected side but soon regained himself once he saw the bullets did no harm to him. The distraction was all the Robot needed as it launched itself at Doom from the trailer of the semi.

  Doom prepared to swing his hammer when a knife from the ninja R28 reported earlier lodged itself into his shoulder, forcing him to keel over. The robot was almost upon him but Doom recovered quickly and swatted Robot 28 with a mighty blow from his hammer.

  The dust storm! If they lose them now, they'd never be able to catch them! Marco radioed the wall watch to shut down the section of the wall Doom was speeding towards. He was met with silence.

  Marco's knuckles turned white as he accelerated down the road. They will not get away from him.

  A bomb went off as the Highwaymen sped into the dust storm beyond the wall.

  "No!" Marco shouted. "Maria!"

  Marco's heart sank as the rubble crashed in front of him on the road, cutting him off the highwaymen. The dust storm beyond the rubble swelled and surged and Marco knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he could not rescue his daughter now.