A Busy Day!

Beep! "This person has no active warrants and no past criminal history, complete authority is transferred to current Enforcer on traffic stop: Mark Gaton," the AI Criminal System finished.

I sighed, it had been two years since I became an Enforcer, and three years since my aunts revealed 'that' information. I still was in wonder about the whole thing and I questioned whether I imagined the whole thing, but it no doubt was the truth. I also loved the Enforcers, however, after two years my excitement started to trim down a little, being exposed to dark parts of society almost every day. My sense of justice still remained strong though and I would never trade my job for anything else. Stopping my internal monologue, I got out of my Enforcer vehicle and I made my way to the driver side window of the person I stopped. I couldn't see behind the mask of the man, and I internally scoffed every time I saw people wearing this type of stuff. It made them appear suspicious and it was annoying to deal with. I admit though his figure seemed similar to mine, which was kinda odd, I shoved those thoughts away as coincidence.

"Well sir, you're looking good on your record, though I'm gonna have to issue a-"

"Nah I'm good I got a ride to catch so I gotta go sorry."

I looked at him in amazement for his stupidity and I hurriedly called out, "uh, sir we are still on a traffic stop you are now allowed to leave or that will be considered-"

I didn't finish as he slammed his foot down and accelerated away. "Shit!" I cursed and quickly reported it on my sim-earpiece. "We have a code 04 target wearing an uncommon tear themed mask. He's driving a blue Andromeda R-8 I'm currently following the target in sector 12."

The system replied with an affirmative and that assistance was on their way. I activated the tracker system which locked onto my target and in my brain appeared an outline of the city that displayed just me and the target. This would pretty much allow me to follow the target forever no matter what he did, I also didn't need to report in on my location due to the AI watch system taking care of everything. God bless technology!

My mood turned for the worst as I chased my target. "Dammit," I cursed. The fugitive I was chasing swerved around a corner and turned down the dark sector of Terminia. I wasn't a coward, but the dark sector of Terminia was the slum area of the city. It contained the criminal section of the city and people who were unfortunate enough to get stuck in this area of the city. Since this city was the capital of the United Human Empire the officials tried to clean up and boost the economic situation in the dark sector. However, a city that had close to 100 million people in population makes it pretty difficult to accomplish. Eventually, the emperor decided to just cancel the whole thing to put the credits elsewhere.

I felt bad for the people there because there are a lot of good people who were trying to get out of that crappy sector, however, the emperor cut their dreams short. I focused my attention back on the car I was chasing, it would be horrible if I let the guy get away.

"What the hell is this guy doing?" I did my best to stay on his tail as he went and turned down every corner possible. I grew more nervous the further I followed him, currently, the closet patrol unit to me was 30 miles away. Even if they took the Enforcer express route it would take them at least 10 minutes to arrive. Despite protests from my brain to be rational, my sense of justice prevailed and I continued to follow the fugitive. He surprised me by hopping out of the car once he reached what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. I had all my gear on, but I decided to grab some of the equipment from the back of my vehicle. I wasn't sure if he had a gun or not so I decided to equip my energy shield. It was pretty bulky since the parts needed to be big enough to power the shield, so it would decrease my speed, but I���d trade my speed for my life any day.

When I finished setting up my gear I decided that when I get home a cold beer would be in need to relax, or maybe I'll ask Frank to see if he wants to do anything this weekend. I waved those thoughts away and focused on the matter at hand.

I ran up to the entrance where I saw him go in, and then I slowed to a walk. I was already being an idiot by chasing him alone the least I could do was be careful when entering an abandoned warehouse. This also served as another reminder for me to wait for the backup to arrive, I knew though that if I did the man would be gone. I opened the door and entered, I was instantly hit with a cold rusty smell. Per protocol, I took my energy pistol to bear and kept my sights trained ahead of me.

As I continued further into the main storage area I heard an electronic voice call out to me, "You must have a strong sense of justice to follow me in here all by yourself Enforcer." I glanced at the middle of the room where the man stood there with the mask still covering his face. I assume he had a voice modulator that was common for pretty much every criminal. The empire did it's best to scan and limit the selling of them, but the black market seemed to be something that even the most advanced civilizations couldn't get rid of.

"Another criminal with a voice modulator, honestly for all your guys talk about being tough and all it seems like you're all a bunch of pussies hiding behind them." I was hoping to provoke him to do something stupid or continue to engage in conversation with me until backup could arrive, but sadly this guy didn't fall for it. "As much as I enjoy seeing you again it's about time that I go."

Again? I was confused about what he meant by that. Was he an acquaintance from high school? Possibly Enforcer training, or maybe something else that I can't remember. Either way, it didn't matter and I was bringing him in for felony evading. I was just going to warm him for obscuring his sim-code, but he chose to drive off for whatever reason. "Sir, I don't know what you're talking about, but frankly you ain't going anywhere. Hands up." I pointed my energy pistol at him so he would comply, though it seemed like he didn't care and he just stood there like a statue. "You see I can't really do that because there's a portal here that will take me home in just a couple of seconds."

I started to have a feeling that I was dealing with a mentally ill person, which sucked because that would make my job a lot harder. "Listen, sir, I'm sorry to inform you that portal's aren't exactly in our realm of understanding yet or if they are they're probably top secret. So sir, put your hands up now or I will be forced to fire." The Enforcers used to tasers, but advancements in technology applied to criminal uses of it as well. Many simply bought drugs that could null the effect of tasers so the emperor decided to just get rid of them.

"Nope, sorry the portal is about to arrive in about 3 seconds," he said as he seemed to be looking at a timer.

"Well, I guess it looks like you're getting shot then," I replied as I began to pull back on the trigger. I stopped though when I felt a weird sensation travel through my body. As my eyes began to focus back on the man I almost couldn't believe what I saw. I closed my eyes and pinched myself and I opened them again. To my awe, I saw a circular shape hovering above the ground behind the man. It had a blue outline around it and a swirl of colors in the middle. I was too shocked to even shoot at the man seeing this unnatural phenomenon. It looked out of this world and I wondered if science could explain what was going on. The man surprisingly was the one who brought me back to reality, "as you see my transportation has arrived and it's time that I go, see you on the other side." For some reason, I felt like he winked behind the mask as he jumped in.

"Stop!" I shouted and pulled on the trigger. Unfortunately, the man disappeared entering the portal so I couldn't determine if my energy beam followed him or if it just got eradicated by the portal.

Now I had a strong sense of justice, but I wasn't stupid enough to travel into a random 'portal' that I had no idea where it would take me so I decided to just call it there. However, as I turned to walk away I felt a pull tug on me towards the portal. I shrugged thinking that I just needed to assert more strength to break away. Though to my awe and fear I couldn't break away the pull coming from the portal. I crouched lower to use the center of gravity and used all of my strength to break away from the pull. I was able to move away a little bit, but it still wasn't enough to break free.

I felt panic start to rise within me, I shoved it down knowing that it would cloud my rational thoughts. I scanned around the room looking for anything that could prevent me from being dragged into the portal. Thankfully, I spotted a steel post rising above the ground. I don't know what its purpose was meant for, but it would serve as my support. I brought my arm up and activated the grapple hook, which shot out and latched onto the post.

With renewed vigor, I repeated the same process I did earlier and slowly moved towards the post. I couldn't help but smile in relief that I was able to make it to the post, I moved to stand behind the post and I moved the grapple to a more stable position to keep me from being tugged away. I took a second to breathe and gather my thoughts on what to do next. I had activated my emergency signal earlier before I stepped into the building so assistance should arrive in a few minutes. Realizing there was really nothing I could do I just stood there and watched as some furniture and other random objects got sucked into the portal. It was amazing and terrifying at the same time, but I was able to stay calm until I felt the metal post groan and started to sway.

My face widened in terror that the portal had the power to pull a piece of metal in the ground. I looked around and discovered that the metal post wasn't the only thing slowly being tugged. I saw pieces of metal and machinery being tugged across the floor and towards the hungry portal.

What happened next occurred so fast I didn't realize what was happening as the post that was keeping me secured got torn out from the ground and flew towards the portal. "AHHHH!" I let out an unmanly scream desperately trying to grasp anything in reach that could keep me from being dragged towards the portal. I knew that I probably wouldn't die since the man went through the portal and I assumed that he wouldn't just commit suicide. Though I had no idea what was on the other side for all I knew he had hundreds of goons waiting on the other side to beat my ass.

I started to curse more seeing that I couldn't grasp onto anything. It seemed that no miracle was going to save me my impending doom. I went over everything on me to see if I could lodge myself to the ground, but there was nothing. We had a gravity bomb that would force objects or humans to the floor, though we weren't equipped with that while out on patrol so I didn't have one on me.

It was like a horror movie, being dragged across the floor into an ominous portal and there was absolutely nothing I could do. When the portal had sucked me to about a couple feet away from it I could hear what sounded like a giant scanner that went up and down in volume. With a last-ditch attempt, I gripped onto two metal beams that were lodged in good enough to not be pulled out by the portal. However, it wasn't to be because as I gripped on for a good 10 seconds I felt like my arms were being torn off holding onto the beams. I dreadfully realized that it was happening and I could feel my arms being stretched by the force from the portal.

I decided that I might as well at least have both of my arms attached while being transported to wherever this portal brought me. I took a deep breath to gather my thoughts to get prepared for whatever awaited me on the other side, and I slowly let go of the beams. I was instantaneously yanked by the portal and it dragged me inside. I thought I was going to remain conscious, but to my shock, I felt my eyes drooping seeing the colors swirl around me. My last thoughts were if this was what my aunts meant and if they knew this would happen one day.