Cyberfueled

A.N. Ulitmate AU Josie and Jojo.  Been reading too much cyberpunk stuff lately xP

She looked up from her desk as her partner dropped the device directly ontop of her work.  Unamused by his grin, she shook her head at him before picking up the chunk of wires, microchips and LEDs.  "Why don't you just take it to the tech guys?" she asked, turning the object in her hands.  "What use have I got with this piece of junk, Raleigh?"

"That, my darling, Josephine, is just a taster of what is to come," the male replied.  "It's one of his."

She stared down at the device once more, pieces of information clicking into place in her mind.  She and her partner were hunting down a notorious pirate who just happened to enter into their jurisdiction and they would both be damned if they let the guy escape in order for someone else to capture him.  No, this was her case and she was going to catch the culprit.  It didn't matter about the personal issues, or her own involvement with the criminal.  She was going to be the one to put him away.

"Do we know where he is yet?" she asked, placing the electonic device down gingerly.  She knew what it could be now and didn't want to take any chances.  The pirate didn't leave anything lying around by accident.

"Not yet, but we have the Teks working on it.  We've got agents in all the places he used to frequent and all the new places that have sprung up.  If he goes anywhere that involves his line of work we'll find him."

It was but a slight hope that he would do just that, but it was better than no hope at all, she assumed.  Hopefully the easiest way to coax him out of hiding was dangle the most tastiest bait where he wouldn't think the cops would be.

"Fine then," she said, pushing back her chair and standing up.  "Might as well go home and wait for that call.  Haven't you been saying you wanted to go on a date with that Medic you've been crushing on for weeks now?"

Raleigh grinned once more, reaching up to ruffle his hand through his hair.  "Are you sure?"

She nodded, patting his arm.  "You've been working so hard on this case that you deserve a little reward.  I can give you a ride to the hospital if you want."

"No, I'm good.  Thanks, Josie, you're the best partner a guy could ask for."

She smiled and watched him leave, wondering just when she had last let the guy have some personal time.  To stave off her own feelings of romantic loss she had inadvertently kept Raleigh from pursuing his own romantic interests.  Something stung inside her whenever they were at the hospital, watching her partner and the Medic practically making goo-goo eyes at one another while the guy patched up the pair of them up after a particularly dangerous gun fight.

It was exactly those feelings that drew her to the old club she had once attended in her teens.  It all felt so different now while still remaining the same.  Lost Boys hung out at the end of the alleyway, exchanging bits of tech between themselves.  Their eyes illuminated with red, blues and vibrant greens of electronics wired in their skulls.  The group watched her intently as she approached the entrance to the club, guarded by two seven foot shapes that were mangled frames of human.

They were twins sisters.  They were lovers.  One of them had once been male.  One of them had once been female.  They were twin brothers.  One had made themself female for the love of the other.  One had made themself male for the love of the other.  No one knew, it was all just rumors to try and fathom the androgynous figures of grey-skin and intricate tattoos of white-blue cables wired into their skin where veins and arteries had once been.  She knew the duo.  They complied with police rules, despite their obvious abuse of surgery.  If something went down in their part of town they were the law.  No one started a fight when they worked the doors.  No one wanted to get into a fight them.

She felt naked without her badge, but she saw the recognition in the twin's almond shaped black eyes.  They looked at one another before the one on the left bent down to her level.  "He's not here," it said.  "Not been here for a good few years.  Not been here since you last came asking."

"I'm just revisiting my old roots," she said sweetly.  "I'm not looking for him."

"Always looking for him, you are," it replied, blinking those tilted eyes.  "You won't stop looking, we know it.  You joined The Law to look for him, but he done you a favour by doing what he did.  You know that though."

She nodded.  "I know."

It stood up straight and nodded once more to it's companion.  They both pushed the doors open to allow her entrance into the club.  The doors were soundproofed, and the moment they opened the pumping and pulsating beats rushed out to meet her as she stepped over the threshold.  The corridor that lead into the main space was covered in years of graffiti, added upon and renewed with each passing ownership of the club.  She had once known an owner of The Fruity Wolf, but now whomever owned the place kept such a low-key that not even her contacts with the police force had flagged up the guy's name.

Into the main room and the lights danced around, bouncing off the bodies dancing, drinking, making-out while the smoke machine pummed out a low cloud, obscuring the floor.  The scents had changed.  The air felt cleaner, it didn't burn her throat and lungs with acrid smoke and stale alcohol.  Someone had obviously renovated the dancefloor and bar area.  She ignored the upper floor, knowing that were she to glance up she would see his shape amongst the bodies moving around near the edges of the balcony over looking the dancefloor.  She headed for the bar.  It was highly unlikely any of the staff from years ago would still be working.

Sitting down on the barstool she waited for the bartender to notice her and finally gave in to her urges to scan the crowds.  She felt old and out of place within the youth that swayed and ground against one another.  Groups sat at the tables, their conversations lost in the music while their gestures were over-exaggerated in order for them to get their intentions across.  With her attention elsewhere, she didn't notice the male slinking up behind her.

"Hey there, pretty lady," slurred the voice near to her.

Spinning around she faced the stranger, turning the inside of her wrist to face him, revealing her defence mechanism to the guy.  Police issue wirings, and the outline of the stingers of her tazer implant poked through the holes cut into her flesh.  She watched as his eyes flickered to the device and he chuckled nervously, holding up his hands in defence.

"Only wanted to buy you a drink," he replied hurriedly.  "Didn't mean to spook ya."  He bowed to her and turned on his heel, quickly fleeing into the crowds.

"Shouldn't flash something like that about in here, lass," said the man next to her.  He was stood leaning on his elbows, one hand lifting the glass to his lips.  "Some people can get quite jumpy."

About to snap back at the guy, her words died in her mouth as she looked at him.  How had she not noticed him standing there before?  Had there been someone between them that obscured him from her?

His hair was still styled in that familiar mohawk.  Drilled into his very skull and curving around his ear were various pieces of cybertech.  The hand holding the glass and the entire arm attached to it was pure cybernetics.  She knew how far the metal ran beneath his ragged paint covered white t-shirt.  Over the right shoulder and down his spine.  He was a cyborg through and through.

And the pirate she was searching for.

"The Riverbank and The Lord said you weren't here," she told him.

The corner of his mouth curled into a grin.  "I wasn't when you came in."

"There are officers posted in here," she added.

"Were.  Not anymore.  The Lost Boys took care of them."

"Since when did you ally yourself with Lost Boys?"

"Since I got my hands on some of the good stuff.  Its pretty easy to get hold of anything Apple these days."  He turned and leaned his weight on the cybernetic arm.  His left eye had been completely replaced with an mechorganic optical device.  He could see the internal wiring of any mechanical device put before him.

"The eye is new."

"Joey, you're such a flirt."

She felt herself bristle at the nickname.  It was the nickname he had given her.  No one else ever used it.  As the sounds passed his lips she could feel so many memories flooding through her.  Her teenage years; the two of them partying until all hours of the morning in this very club.  The friends they made; the enemies they made.

The man he killed.

Forcing all the feelings that bubbled up back down and ignoring the emotions that stirred at the mere sight of the male, she focused her stare on him, remembering her original intentions.  It was her that was going to put him behind bars.  She was going to be the one to stop the pirate.

Even repeating the personal mantra in her head, she still succumbed to his advances like she had done all those years ago.  Her back crashed against the hard mattress in the motel room as he pushed her down onto the bed and crawled over her, leaving barely any time before claiming her lips with his own.

Passionate.  Heated.  All the things she had repressed swelled within her and fought back with avengence as they embraced one another.  By the time they had finished she was exhausted, laying on her back with the sheets tangled around her feet, too hot to allow their bodies to touch.

She shivered as metal fingers walked up her abdomen.  "Why'd you join The Law, Joey?"

"You killed someone, Joseph."

"I've killed lots of people since.  It's part of the job description.  You knew that, back when I first started to get into the trading business.  Everything is corrupt now.  Why do you take your job so seriously?"

"Because if I don't then there are few people out there who will.  Justice can survive."

He propped himself up on his elbow, green eyes looking down at her.  Despite the implant, he had kept the iris matching the natural colour of his organic eye.  "You honestly want justice for me saving you?  He walked in that day intent on shooting you between the eyes, Joey!  I was not going to let him do such a thing to you!"  He growled and rolled over, moving to sit on the edge of the bed.  "A father shouldn't hate his own daughter to the point of wanting her dead."  Sighing, he slid his hands over the shaved portions of his head, propping elbows on his knees.  "A father should love his baby girl until the day he dies."

She sat up, pulling the blanket up around herself while his words pulled at her heart strings.  Tentatively she reached out and touched his shoulder, feeling his flesh beneath her fingers.  "You went to see her, didn't you?" she asked nervously.

"Is she truly happy there, Joey?  Is she really okay with not knowing who her own parents are?"

"She's three, Joseph.  She might when she's older, but right now it's better that she doesn't.  It'd be impossible for her to grow up in a normal loving family when her mother works for The Law and her father is a pirate and a cyborg.  One or both of us is going to end up dead.  I'd prefer it if she didn't have to live through that loss than her always wondering who her parents really are."  She sighed softly and turned around, moving to learn her back against his, feeling the difference where the metal and skin brushed against her own body.  "I can't believe those years ago we ended up in a situation like this and I just let you walk away."

"At least you found a way to tell me about Tallulah," he said, and she felt the rumble of his words within her.  "I wish we could have had that family though.  Do you think things would be different if I hadn't killed him that day?"

She paused to think about his question for a few minutes, letting the silence wash over them both while her ears strained to listen to the approaching sirens.  "Yes," she said finally once the flashing lights danced over the motel room wall.  "If you hadn't killed him, I'd be dead."