A very loud and noisy alarm goes off in Zelgadis Greywers' apartment suite for the 3rd time. Only this time instead of pressing the snooze button, Zel actually gets up.
"I really do not want to go to work today... but it's not like I can just call in sick if I do that then they will send over that nursebot to check on me again..." Zelgadis cringed at the thought of that machine. Every time a police officer is sick and cannot report in for duty the government sends in a 'nursebot' to check on them and to verify that they are really sick.
Police were a demanding commodity in this day and age and the city can't afford to have their officers stay home unless they had a good reason. The demand was partly the only reason why Zelgadis was a police officer in the first place, he definitely not old enough to be one.
"Oh well time to hit the pressure showers," Zelgadis said as he casually strolled to his bathroom.
Taking some time to look at himself he examined his face in the mirror. His soft light violet hair despite his rough sleeping habits had fallen back into it's set position falling across one side of his face. He sighed, stripped down and got into the shower. Turning the pressure up high he let the sonic waves massaged out the tensions of waking up.
Feeling refreshed Zel got into his uniform and prepared his breakfast. Deciding on toasted bagel with cream cheese and half a grapefruit he munched in down in a fast yet neat manner.
His frame of mind was good and he felt very relaxed, but he didn't want to do much work, so he hoped for a slow day at the LPD as he hopped on his jet bike. With his helmet in place Zel starts up the engine and zooms by at a fast speed to work.
He reaches the police station with time to spare and was surprised to see that practically everyone was there. The one person he hoped that wouldn't be there was nowhere in sight. 'Maybe Gourry's home sick... heh heh that would be nice...'
Gourry was Zelgadis' jellyfish brained partner whom he didn't like that much. It wasn't that Gourry was a bad guy or anything it's just that he gets on Zelgadis' nerves quite too often.
There was a slight skip to his step as he waltzed over to his desk only to be greeted by an all too familiar voice.
"Hello Zelgados!"
Zelgadis cringed and dared to turn his head slightly to have Gourry's dumb smiling expression staring at his back. 'Can't he ever get my name right?! For crying out loud we have been partners for over two years now!'
"Gourry, I'm not even going to bother..."
"What's wrong?"
"Nevermind... have we had any new assignments yet?"
"Assignments?"
"Just forget it I'll go ask Zangulus."
Zangulus was over by the water machine and was currently annoying his partner Martina.
"...what do you mean by that?!"
"Well I just think you could stand to get some vocal adjustments. That way you wouldn't need to be stuck in a job were you have to annoy people with your shrilly voice!"
"Why you! You are seriously going to regret insulting the great Martina!"
"Why are you going to sick your dad on me?"
"AHHHHH!!! Why am I cursed with you?!"
"Because I'm the only one who can stand your annoying voice for long periods of time."
"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP!?!?!"
In any other place this might have seemed strange but not in the station. Zangulus liked to annoy and tease people but not as much as he loved to bug Martina. Those two fought so often that it almost looked like they were a married couple. Some people at the station thought that they were a couple while others was certain that they aren't. No one is quite sure, but everyone makes sure to stay clear of the war zone. Martina wasn't very strong but she could make your ears explode with her yelling. In fact that was the only reason she was in the police force. Martina was excellent at interrogating criminals and still no one knows why. If you ask Zangulus, his theory is that her voice and annoying personality was enough to make any criminal confess to any crime.
"Um, excuse me... I'm sorry to interrupt but has there been any new assignments yet?"
"Ah yeah, you, me, Martina, and Gourry were supposed to go see Rotamis when you got here. Since you're here lets go see him."
Rotamis was the high commanding chief of the police station with age and respect was a very good commanding chief too. In his younger days Rotamis had been a damn good cop who could deal with any situation, and now with his age catching up with him was in a desk job assuming command of the station. The one good thing about Rotamis was that he always kept his cool in even the tensest situations.
"Ah good you are all here, please come into my office."
"So Chief what do you have for us today?"
"Well we have been given an assignment to go arrest someone."
"Who and what is his crime?"
"Name, Elbor Vernas age 32, 5'7" 140 lbs stocky build, brown hair and orange eyes," Rotamis said reading his report, "His crime is another story. Apparently he has done some sort of extreme crime but it's confidential information. So we don't know why we have to arrest him, but we still have to and fast. People high up really want this guy bad you guys are going to have to be as efficient as possible."
"Argh! Do we really have to do this in the morning?! I just got here!"
"You didn't want to come today did you Greywers?"
"He probably didn't want to face the ever so annoying Martina! I know I didn't!"
"FOR THE LAST TIME SHUT UP ZANGULUS! Sir could I please request for a partner change?"
"Um... well the truth is that no one else is willing to work with you..."
"Have you asked Gourry? I know we could switch partners! I can be Zangulus' partner while Martina can have Gourry!"
"Greywers we have gone over this before..."
"Damnit..."
"Anyway quit you're complaining all of you and go get Vernas! Here is what we have been able to dig up. From what our sources say there is supposed to be a meeting with Vernas and his suppliers. I want all of you to go there and apprehend him. But be careful though, Vernas has lots of hired help to guard him so watch out! Okay you guys got that?"
"Yes sir!" All four said in unison.
"Are you sure that was wise sir? We don't even know if that lead was a solid one." Zolf said entering the office after Zelgadis, Gourry, Martina, and Zangulus left.
"Well it has to be checked out and I might as well send out my most 'energetic' group of officers."
"Do you think they will get the job done?"
"I don't know, but if they don't someone else will."
"Sure whatever you say Chief." Zolf said while leaving Rotamis' office.
Rotamis just looked at his second in commanding officer with a quizzical look. Then shrugged it off. 'I wonder what you would say Zolf if I told you who that 'someone else' is? You probably wouldn't be very happy now would you?' Rotamis just chuckled to himself quietly.
Outside the station the foursome got out their jet bikes and followed Rotamis' instructions. They ended up at what appears to be an abandoned warehouse.
"Are you sure that this is the right place?"
"Well according to Rotamis, this is it."
Upon entering the structure they realized that it was empty.
"We must have got here early."
"That or we missed the meeting altogether."
"I don't think it's happened yet. Let's go hide and wait."
"Over here, over by these boxes, we can hide here."
The other guys followed Martina's directions and waited.
A long time goes by and nothing happens. When they were just about to leave they heard a noise. Zelgadis motioned at them to be quiet and listen.
"Are you sure that no one knows about this trade?"
"Yeah sure boss, it's about as secret as secret can be. Besides if anyone did find out and decide to meddle with us then me and my boys can take care of it."
"What about if 'she' decides to interfere?"
"Then I'll deal with her myself. No little kid is going to make a monkey out of me!"
Vernas and about six hard faced men come into view caring a bunch of boxes with them. Zangulus, Martina, Zelgadis and Gourry were straining very hard to hear what the new voices were saying, that is till Martina sneezed.
"ACHOO! Oh shit."
"Secret as secret can be huh?!"
"Don't worry I'll deal with them boss!"
"Way to go Martina! When it's not your voice it's your sneezing that gets us into trouble! We are so dead."
"Shut up Zangulus and start shooting!"
And now we have the classic shoot out. Since it was long range Gourry and Zangulus were forced to use their normal guns instead of their sonic blades, not like it was very effective anyway. The bad guys were using power-enhanced bio guns (Black market items, it's illegal to add amplifiers), more powerful then Gourry and Zangulus' little pee shooters, so that left the fight up to Zelgadis and Martina to deal with. Like Zangulus and Gourry, Martina proved to not be very helpful (she was a poor spell caster in the Slayers NEXT series and she's a poor bio gun shooter here too.) so Zelgadis was stuck doing most of the work. One versus six weren't that good of odds, especially when the six had amplified bio guns, so the fight wasn't in Zel's favor.
"Damnit! Can't you guys help just a little?!" Zelgadis yelled in between gun blasts.
"We would if we could Zel!"
"Argh! It couldn't have just been an easy day at work could it? No I have to deal with six trigger happy criminals with the help of the most hapless bunch of LPD officers!" At this point you could see that Zelgadis wasn't in the greatest frames of mind.
"Hey Zel calm down!"
"Calm down?! How can I calm down?! Here we are getting our asses wiped and we will probably most certainly die and you are asking me to calm down?!" Now he was even screaming at his own friends.
"Give up and we might make your death quick and painless."
"I wouldn't say that if I was you."
Vernas turns a pale white and looks frantically around the room.
"Now how did you find out about this?!"
"Well if the LPD can find about this little meeting then why can't I?" A female voice said mockingly from somewhere in the room.
Whoever it was, she was making Vernas very nervous.
"Why do you keep interfering with my plans?!"
"I don't know, I'm just doing my job. What are you doing that so illegal?"
"Just shut up!"
"Ooh temper, temper! You know you should try to control that. It's not nice to blow up at people like that."
Vernas just kept swinging his body around pointing his gun blindly around the room.
The mystery woman just laughed at the display, her voice echoing in the abandoned building. Then she stopped and regained the serious and commanding tone in her voice.
"Leave the LPD officers alone and no one gets hurt."
"No way. I don't care if you are damned 'superwoman'! I'm not going to let you or anyone else ruin my plains! So I'm going to kill them and you as well!"
"Bad choice in words Vernas..."
All of a sudden the owner of the voice comes crashing down from the ceiling. It was a blur of red and blond hair as the woman whom Vernas had previously referred to came at him with her own bio guns. She shot all six of the hired goons before they had time to react and ran after Vernas with stealthy speed. Vernas shot at her widely missing her completely.
Frustrated and very angry Vernas gave up and shot at the wall behind him to make a big enough hole for him to escape.
"Hey don't you dare run you spineless coward!"
Ignoring her, Vernas ran out the hole with the mysterious red and blond haired woman following him hot in pursuit.
"What the hell just happened?"
"Well we aren't dead that's for sure."
"Who was that girl?"
"I don't know but she just chased out the man we were trying to get."
"I don't think we could follow them, they could be very far from here by now."
"Just great. I wonder what Rotamis is going to say about this..."
The four just looked around at he pile of beat up men unsure on what to do.