by Robin Rhodes
In the precinct, though, the only noticeable change was the clothes people were wearing. Long robes and heavy metal armor rather than police uniforms or smart, plain clothes. Staffs and short swords as opposed to a trusty gun holstered at their hips.
He strode into the precinct and immediately garnered the attention of his colleagues. He was in charge around here, aside from their hands-off superintendent who had been MIA since the Braxian Expansion had hit, and when he said in a calm voice that they needed to have a team meeting, suspects were put back in cells and interrogations were paused. They came together in the briefing room, and immediately people were firing questions at him.
"What happened in the dungeon? Did you get any loot?" That came from a young man who had only just started on the force a couple of weeks before the Braxian Expansion had hit.
Some of the more experienced officers could see the strain on Aiden's face, though, and asked instead, "What should we do now?" They knew that things had not gone well.
Aiden's words died in his throat for a second. How was he supposed to explain what he'd allowed to happen in that dungeon? He would be omitting most of it, obviously, but the fact he had lost? The fact he had not only been unsuccessful, but that he had lost a friend and his girlfriend? It was an embarrassing failure.
It was what it was, though, and this was why he loved the police.
They all had the same purpose. They all wanted to bring justice.
"The dungeon has to go," he said, crossing his arms and wishing he wasn't wearing his stupid wizard's robes. He wanted to be in his suit and tie, to be able to show the body he'd worked hard for as an intimidating factor, to show his strength. "It is criminal. It's not just creating a challenge for adventurers, it's maliciously intending to cause pain and suffering to those who enter its walls. It has to go."
Any buzz of excitement disappeared from these words. The young officer who had blurted his question, Jake Leyland, shrank away in the back of the room like he wanted to disappear.
It was John McKinnock who spoke up. He was Aiden's closest friend on the force, though calling him a friend was pushing it. They were just the closest in age and rank. When Aiden had taken the promotion they'd both been competing for it had put a dampener on the relationship. "What happened down there?" John asked.
"The dungeon captured Elizabeth. My girlfriend," he added as an afterthought. "He killed my friend. This isn't just a test of skill, this is more than that. It can't be allowed to continue."
Murmurs went through the room, but he could read their faces easily enough. They were on his side. They would fight for him. Even if murder was going to be commonplace in this new world order, it wasn't yet normalized. It still produced the knee-jerk reaction that it was the highest sin, that it should never be left unpunished.
Aiden might not be close to his precinct, but he commanded their respect. If he had suffered a personal loss, they felt it too. They would do what they could to make things right.
"We're going to create a taskforce," Aiden said. "We're going to train specifically for this task. I've been down there, and I know some of the tricks he has. We're going to study the guidebook, and we're going to find out how to beat this son of a bitch. The world might have changed, but we haven't. We're still the police, and we still bring order. Nothing is going to stop that."
A shout came from the officers, echoing off the walls of the small office they'd gathered in.
Aiden ignored memories of Elizabeth, he ignored the taunting thoughts of what would be happening to her right now which threatened to let their way in, and he focused on the people in front of him.
Twelve strong his precinct was, and they were going to take that bastard who had his girlfriend for everything he'd got.
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