Welcome to the IDPD (Chapter 7)

Not once in his twenty years of service had Frank Devos ever been in this position. He now sat inside the mangled blue Retro Skyline and could only shout in anger as his modified Interceptor FTX6800 flew away before his eyes, hijacked by the very criminals he had been called to subdue.

Mari and Cillian continued on their journey toward Vyrath Tower, now in a new hovercar that could easily outrun the fastest GP pursuit vessels. A massive entourage began to build behind them, with more and more police cars pulled in from across the planet to chase the road rage offenders.

"Is this GTH or what? Is the military going to come after one more star?" Cillian complained while looking into the rear mirror. He was referring to a popular but rather old open-world crime videogame almost every sentient being in the galactic federation had heard about. Except for Mari, who grew up in an environment where she had neither the money for videogames nor the time to ever listen to more fortunate people talking about them.

"This is par for the course whenever I drive on Goria." With a shrug, the dog-eared girl weaved her way through a busy sky lane, dodging the hovercars coming from left and right by a hair's breadth each time. "I wonder why."

"Yeah, I wonder why." Cillian stared at his driver and repeated her words with a deadpan expression. He had already given up trying to understand Mari's common sense - or lack thereof.

"There it is." With a nod ahead, Mari directed her companion's attention toward the massive skyscraper towering over everything in its surroundings. "As overcompensating as ever."

"Once we're inside, how are we getting to the two hundred..." The yellow-skinned man started to ask, but he had already forgotten the number Mari mentioned earlier.

"Two hundred twelfth."

"Yeah, that. I hope you're not suggesting we fight our way up."

"Nah, we won't need to climb anything. I'll park us right there." Mari pointed at a floor about halfway up the skyscraper. It was a strange location for an executive's office, but Cillian knew that some people preferred convenience over pomp.

"Ah, will the hangar allow us in? We're in a police car, after all." He asked with an ironic smile.

"Hangar?" Tilting her head with a blank look on her face, Mari repeated the word.

"I knew it!" Cillian screamed as they sped straight toward the reflective windows of the Vyrath Tower. Moments later, the Interceptor broke through the window and knocked over the desks and chairs of the office room beyond it.

The momentum of the hovercar took them through the separating walls of the building until they came to a skidding halt on the floor. They left behind a wake of destruction as if a tornado blew through the office. Luckily, not a single soul was working in it, judging by the remains of smashed worker robots strewn across the ground.

"Wrong floor?" Cillian breathed a sigh of relief when he found that Mari's recklessness didn't result in any casualties.

"Nah, this is just the front." Stepping out of the car, Mari cocked the short-barreled shotgun she found hanging from under the dashboard. The gun that the original owner of the hovercar used to threaten her with had been broken into its components, so she had to use this. She wasn't complaining.

"Got one for me?" Her yellow companion looked at her weapon with a hint of envy, then leaned back inside the car to try the glove compartment. It turned out empty safe for some paperwork and sunglasses, so he gave up and sighed.

"And here I thought you would reprimand me by saying something like 'we weren't approved to use guns of this caliber on our mission' and tell me to go without it." Mari aped Cillian's pedantic tone perfectly, causing the latter to stare at her in bewilderment.

"I may be a stickler for the rules, but I'm not suicidal. We're in the den of the beast. I like my chances with a gun better than without." He replied while shaking his head. Picking up the sunglasses, Cillian tried them on out of idle curiosity. "How do I look?"

"Pretty cool. If only your power were turning yourself into a silver liquid, you could use that to intimidate people." With a toothy grin, Mari praised him using a reference not a single person on Goria or any other world in this galaxy would understand.

"Why would I want to turn myself into a liquid?" Lowering his new sunglasses, Cillian asked with a skeptically raised eyebrow.

Suddenly, from every door and hallway around them, men in suits carrying plasma rifles approached. Every one of them had a scar on their face, some across an eye, others on their chins or bald-shaven heads. They were the aptly yet uncreatively named Scars.

"Mari Nova!" One of them recognized the dog-eared girl, although finding her in a GP uniform did appear to confound him. "P-please come this way."

Despite having the numerical advantage and plasma rifles in their hands, the Scars treated Mari with unexpected respect. Lowering their weapons as if afraid to offend her, they made way as their squad leader gestured for her and Cillian to follow him.

"Where's Galinka?" Mari asked in a casual tone as if inquiring about a friend.

"The young lady has been awaiting you." The Scars member informed Mari in a respectful tone. As if that was enough to answer all of her questions, she skipped asking about Memory and Deisha and remained silent.

They were led down a long corridor covered in an exquisite red carpet, black walls with golden patterned lines, and individually lighted paintings inside glass containers. Finally, they reached a heavy double-winged door with Scars standing on both sides, staring into thin air without acknowledging the presence of these sudden guests who made a dynamic entry into their building.

Inside awaited a dimly-lit luxurious room with an interior design that was an extension of the corridor outside. It looked nothing like the office room they crashed into earlier and could only belong to somebody with money and power. Cillian took off his sunglasses and looked around in wonder.

The door across from them opened, revealing a woman in a black suit with scars starting at both corners of her mouth and running up her cheeks. Her expression was all but what her involuntary smile would suggest, as she glared at Mari in displeasure.

"Couldn't you have used the door?" Galinka complained but then saw the floppy dog ears covering Mari's human ones. Her red eyes widened in surprise, then her lips connected with her scars to create a genuine smile. "You look good, Mari Nova."

With elegant steps, Galinka walked into the room. Mari's eyes didn't move away from hers, but out of her peripheral vision, she could tell that something invisible was depressing the carpet behind her.

"I'm sorry for your loss. How are you doing?" With an unexpectedly sympathetic look at Mari, Galinka expressed her condolences. Cillian didn't understand what she meant, but it was clear that these two knew each other very well.

"Thank you. I'm alright." Surprisingly, Mari paid her respects toward Galinka with a nod of her head. Then she glanced around the room. "Where are they?"

"One is right here." Pointing a gloved finger at the couch before them, Galinka replied without any worry in her tone. "The other is being brought here as we speak."

Furrowing her brow, Mari walked around the couch and found Memory lying on it with her neck bent at a strange angle. The pale girl looked up at her comrade with her usual tired, almost bored-looking expression.

"What did they do to you?" Kneeling beside Memory, Mari looked her over to check for external wounds.

"Just broke my neck. You know, the usual." If she could, she would have shrugged. Mari turned her head and glared at Galinka with a furious purple glare, gone now the measure of respect she showed the Vyrath executive a moment ago. The Scars in the room stirred and prepared to engage, but Cillian could tell that they were visibly reluctant to provoke Mari into taking the final step.

"I'm alright. Just need a little blood." In a deadpan tone, Memory requested of Mari. The latter turned around and looked down at her incapacitated comrade. Then she lowered herself and disappeared from Cillian's view. He quickly stepped forward and found Mari holding the side of her hand to the pale girl's lips.

Galinka watched in mild curiosity as Memory bit into the offered hand and drank a few gulps of blood before letting go again. The two holes in Mari's hand stopped bleeding only a moment later, and she looked at it with an eyebrow raised.

"I'm revived!" Memory suddenly jumped up from the couch with an uncharacteristically energetic exclamation, her neck back to how it should be.

For a moment, the room remained silent as all eyes were on the skinny girl. As if all the attention weighed on her heavily, she collapsed into Mari's arms and buried her face in the latter's chest.

"I stood up too fast." She muttered in a muffled tone, sounding dazed.

"What are you doing..." Sighing, Mari laid Memory back down on the couch and turned to Galinka. "And Deisha?"

"I'm here!" The bubbly pink-skinned girl in question suddenly hopped into the room through the same door the Vyrath executive entered. She looked as chipper as always and waved at somebody outside the door before turning her short attention span back into the room. "Oh, you came for us, Mari?"

"What about me?" Cillian complained but only earned a confused head tilt from Deisha. In the hours they had been separated for, she had already forgotten about him. His shoulders slouched. "Are you serious?"

"Did they hurt you?" Mari asked Deisha, but stared straight at Galinka instead. The Scars around them audibly swallowed.

"Nah, they gave me a good time!" Throwing both her arms into the air, the pink girl responded in a carefree tone, utterly ignorant of the tension in the air. Mari raised an eyebrow in skepticism, but seeing as Deisha didn't look hurt or spoke under duress, it might very well be the truth.

"Why did you take them?" Glaring at Galinka, Mari asked in a tone that implied she better told the truth. But as a Vyrath executive and leader of the Scars, she was not so easily intimidated. Out of everybody on her side, she was the only one who didn't appear wary around Mari.

"I just wanted to see what your new companions are made of." Galinka tilted her head back with an elegant shrug and looked down at Mari despite being half a head shorter than her. She then walked forward, her eyes fixated on the dog-eared girl. "And I wanted to see you."

Galinka stopped two steps from Mari and looked up into the taller girl's purple eyes. There was a strange sense of warmth in her gaze as if she were looking at a former lover separated due to circumstances rather than out of choice. Then she reached around Mari's back and grabbed her buttocks.

"Where's the tail?" Galinka asked with a genuinely surprised look into the dog girl's eyes. The latter endured the sexual harassment for a moment, then put her palm on the executive's face and pushed her away.

"It's under my pants. They didn't come with a hole." She answered in unexpected sincerity. "Can we go now?"

"Aww, already?" Brushing Mari's hand on her face aside, Galinka asked with a pout. It was as if all of her dignity and mysterious charm had been wiped away by Mari's presence, and she returned to being a girl her apparent age. But suddenly, her expression turned professional and calculating once more. "I wanted to offer you a position, now that you seem to be free again."

"That's what I hate about you." With a disdainful sniff, Mari turned away from Galinka and looked at Deisha. "We're leaving."

"It seems I was rejected." The Vyrath executive put on a heartbroken expression before covering her face with her white-gloved hands.

"Piggyback." Memory extended her arms at Mari while lying on the couch, acting like a spoiled kid. The latter furrowed her brow but then sighed before picking the pale girl up. She was unnaturally light as if her body was hollow on the inside. Judging by the fact that she drank blood to recover, she was a vampire, who lacked most organs other beings had.

Putting her arms around Mari's neck, Memory placed her chin on her shoulder. Deisha pouted at being left out, then glanced at Cillian as if to gauge his suitability for giving her a piggyback ride. When she shook her head in disappointment, he felt strangely hurt.

"Good luck, Mari Nova. Until next time." Galinka wished Mari on the way out. The latter turned around to find the woman in the black suit with her arms crossed and smiling mysteriously once more. The likelihood of them coming to Goria for one of the IDPD's missions was exceedingly low, given the scope of its multidimensional dealings.

"Yes. Until next time." Replying in kind, Mari left the room toward the corridor, followed by Cillian and Deisha.

"I can't wait." Giggling like a young schoolgirl in love, Galinka muttered to herself.

"All public transportation is currently suspended due to a terrorist attack. Services will resume once authorities have the situation under control. We thank you for your understanding."

Vega sat in his cabin and listened to the third repetition of this announcement played throughout the pole-to-pole express train. The muted news program playing on the screen above the seat opposite from his had its volume restored. The news anchor just began to speak about the target of the terrorist attack in question. It was the Vyrath Tower, seat and symbol of the Vyrath Syndicate, the de facto ruler of Goria.

When he looked out the window, he could see the skyscraper that had earned itself that title and the smoke rising from the broken window near its middle. Many police hovercars were circling the site from a respectful distance.

"Such a dangerous planet." Maureen shook her head while sitting back down on her seat, facing away from the carnage. She took it in stride despite knowing just whose building it was that had been attacked.

Whoever dared to raise a hand against the Vyrath Syndicate on Goria would disappear before the planet made another revolution. Taking a sip from the can of juice Maureen so graciously treated him to, Vega looked up at the screen once more.

"We have just received an official statement from the Galactic Federation Police Force regarding the identity of the perpetrators of this heinous attack." She declared, and the display cut to two side-by-side surveillance camera crops showing Mari and Cillian.

Vega spat out his drink but miraculously avoided spraying it all over the elderly lady across from him. Staring at the photos of his two fellow recruits with round eyes, the Lovian coughed violently at the revelation. But then he started laughing because Mari Nova getting into trouble was entirely expected. She most likely pulled Cillian into it, too.

"Are you alright, my lad?" Maureen pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to Vega while regarding his laughter with a dubiously raised eyebrow. "What made you laugh so?"

"Ah, thank you. I just remembered a funny joke." Vega suppressed the urge to chuckle and tore his eyes away from the screen above Maureen. She could see the same footage above him, so he didn't want to give anything away. Even if she was a nice person, he wasn't above suspecting her being a potential criminal and murderer. They were on Goria, after all.

"Would you care to tell it?" With a pleasant smile, Maureen innocently asked, which very nearly stumped Vega. Then he recalled a joke his father told once.

"A human, a Lovian, and a Vacharan walk into a bar..." He started.