Chapter 20: Picking Up Where They Left Off

Hey, you! Get burning! Feel the heat! Yeah!

Now that you're sufficiently pumped up, are you ready for a chapter, or what? Yeah, I bet you are! Are you god damn ready for an adventure, or what? Yeah, totally! I'm ready for this adventure too! You want to know why? Because I have no clue how the hell I'm going to get from where I am now to what I want as an ending. But hey, that doesn't mean I won't provide you with the usual standard of action/comedy! Let's just say that it'll come together in the end! Now, let's get going!

xxx

Sun and Neptune stood on the steps of the VCPD that Monday afternoon. They couldn't help but get the feeling of déjà vu, starting at the front entrance. Sure, it was a little different, considering that they were excused from their later classes for this assignment, and that the pair was wearing the cop threads they picked out yesterday. And the time of the day was different, obviously. But, other than those points, it was more or less the same as the first time.

"We're gonna go to the chief, right?" Neptune asked Sun out of the blue. It was probably a good idea to go over their expected plan of action.

"Right. I mean, Beacon shoulda called ahead, right?" Sun replied.

At that, the pair returned their attention back to the front of the police station. Even though they head to go in there for their hunter assignment, the both of them couldn't help but feel an odd atmosphere surrounding the building. They just couldn't put their finger on it, but something about the building itself just seemed kinda… off.

Well, they couldn't delay the inevitable anymore. They needed to go inside and get back to being detectives. The fate of Vale City could possibly rest on their shoulders! Without further ado, Sun walked up the steps first, with Neptune following closely behind. Once Sun reached the double doors, he held one open for Neptune to walk through. Following after him, Sun couldn't help but note that despite the odd aura of the building, he was really excited to be there. Maybe things would be better once he talked to the chief.

Walking up to the receptionist's desk, Sun readied himself to welcomed back with open arms. Cops looked out for their own, right?

xxx

About fifteen minutes later, Sun was starting to get the idea that cops did NOT in fact look out for their own.

Judging from the mixture of 40% strangled laughs, 50% bewildered looks, and 30% glares, Sun now realized that maybe their departure from the department wasn't exactly all that unwelcome. And yes, that adds up 120%. That just goes to show how weird and awkward all of this was for the pair of Neptune and Sun.

"Dude… What the fuck's up with these ass clowns?" Sun whispered to Neptune as they walked through the offices of the police department.

"I'm sure crashing their shit had something to do with it," Neptune tensely whispered back. On reflex, he reached into his pocket and began to play with the d20. It just seemed like he was doing it more and more the more time he spent as a junior detective. Man, he could really use a break after all this was through. All the stress was bound to give him some grey hairs.

"Good point…" Sun grumbled, reaching into his vest pocket. Pulling out a lighter and a cigarette, Sun lit up the tip and began to smoke.

That action alone nearly made Neptune's eyes bug out of their sockets. "What the hell are you doing?!" Neptune hissed.

Sun took a drag before answering. Unfortunately, as he wasn't all that used to smoking, his answer was delivered through a series of nasty coughs. "*Hack*Cops fu- *wheeze* fuckin' smoke *cough*, right? *rasp*"

Neptune immediately snatched the cigarette limply hanging from Sun's lips and tossed it into a nearby trashcan. "Seriously, man! Think before you act! It isn't good for you!" he lectured.

"Sorry, MOM. I had no idea you cared so much about my lungs," Sun sneered in response.

"I can't have you do dumb shit that leads to a huge disaster! Think about it, smoking is gonna hurt how strong you are!" continued Neptune.

"Fuckin' please, it's not like I'm lightin' my lungs on fire or anything!" Sun exclaimed back.

Neptune was beginning to get frustrated with Sun. But, he knew that arguing with his partner was an argument that he either couldn't win, or drag out to absolute insanity. So, rubbing his temples, the blue(?) haired hunter asked, "Look, can we just drop it? We've more important stuff to do."

Sun shoved his hands in his pants pockets. "Fine…" he muttered, looking at the floor as he walked.

"Anyway," Neptune said, "we need to approach the chief in the right way. I mean, he probably isn't happy with us wrecking his van. So, I think that we should just try to be as nice as possible, and try not to mess things up TOO badly. Right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Sun said, looking back at Neptune.

By now, the hunter duo was closing in on Chief Irons' office door. It was now or never, do or die. They needed to knock this one out of the park, make it into the end zone, go fuck the prom queen, and just flat out succeed. Any other metaphor would fit that description as well.

The lettering on the door seemed to stand out to Sun and Neptune as they got closer and closer. Behind that door was their next, and probably last, chance to be the badass buddy-cop duo that the city would absolutely love. For being badasses, of course.

By now, the partners were standing in front of the door. Behind the frosted glass of the office door, they could see the outline of Chief Irons sitting at his desk. Bracing themselves for fate, Sun reached out, and opened the door.

"Yo, chief! We're here to help!" Sun called out as he and Neptune walked in.

Chief Irons looked up briefly from the file that he was looking at, and grunted out, "Oh, it's you two. You better have somethin' good for me. Your pals at Beacon personally vouched for ya, after all."

That was… a bit of a colder reception than what Sun and Neptune hoped. But, they had to roll with it. Settling into the chairs in front of the chief's desk, the pair patiently waited for the chief to say something to them.

The file folder slapped shut under Chief Irons' hand. He slid it over to the edge of the desk, towards Sun and Neptune. "Beacon said you had dirt on Torchwick. I wanna know what you know," he said, pointing out the picture of Roman Torchwick stapled to the folder's cover.

Sun leaned forwards in his chair and scooted towards the desk a little more. "Ya want the long, or the short version?"

"Short," Chief Irons replied. "I've got enough shit to do today."

"Okay…" Sun mused. After briefly remembering and abridging the important details, Sun began to explain what happened. "I talked to an underground info dealer. I think it was… Junior? I think that's his name… Anyway, I gambled for a buncha info relating to the Kira guy. I mean, you've probably seen the White Fang and bomb stuff you found in his van, right?"

"Right," Irons grunted.

"Yeah. So, I wanted to know if anyone was in the market for bombs. Turns out, our sticky-fingered friend bought at least enough stuff for five bombs. So, me n' Neptune put two n' two together and figured that Torchwick was involved with the White Fang bomb stuff. Why else would a thief buy bomb stuff, unless he was workin' for the White Fang? I mean, you already heard about him usin' White Fang guys to steal that dust at the docks a while ago. I mean, it fits together! So, Torchwick's involved with their bomb plan!" summarized Sun.

Chief Irons leaned back into his desk chair as he absorbed the data that Sun had given him. He had to admit, even if the kid was a fuck-up, his intuition made sense. Plus, his theory made logical sense, considering the past events that he had mentioned. So, all of this pointed to Torchwick working on bombs for the White Fang. That meant that not only did the police force have a case, they had a lead, too.

"Okay… I get what you're sayin'…" Chief Irons began. "Tell ya what, I can use you two."

That line made Neptune and Sun perk up a little.

"I want you to try and find more dirt on Torchwick. Maybe a White Fang guy too. Any one of them would work. We need to get more info, that's for sure." The chief explained.

"Where should we start, sir?" Neptune asked, wanting to get in on this conversation.

"Sounds like ya can get a lot from this Junior guy. Ya should see if you can get anything more from him," Chief Irons suggested.

"And the White Fang?" Sun added.

"Keep an eye out. I know for a fact some stick out like a sore thumb. It can't be all that hard to find one n' follow 'em," Chief Irons continued further.

"Got it, sir," Neptune affirmed.

"Crystal!" Sun added with a shit-eating grin. Wow, it was really happening now!

"Great. Now we can—" Chief Irons tried to say. But, for some reason, an alarm began to ring loudly through the entire building. Wait, it was a fire alarm!

As the inhabitants of the office looked around in confusion, a uniformed officer suddenly burst through the door. He was nearly out of breath, and his eyes were full of panic.

"Sir! There's a fire in the hallway!" the officer announced, his voice almost cracking from stress.

"A fire?!" Sun, Neptune, and Chief Irons exclaimed at once.

"C'mon, we need to put it out!" the officer shouted, before running back down the hall.

It took no time for Chief Irons to get out of his chair and jog out of his office. All that was left in the office was a very confused Sun and Neptune. What the heck was going on? A fire?!

Neptune's inner monologue thought, "A fire in the hall? What caused that? Maybe it was some of those people smoking around here. Did someone forget to put out their cigarette- Ohhh… Oh shit…"

A look of horrified realization crossed Neptune's face. Now he knew what was going on. He may have, sort of, kind of forgot to put out Sun's smoke before tossing the butt into the trash. Ah, that made sense. Horrible, horrible sense. It was almost as if Neptune was cursed to start trashcan fires in public service buildings. What an oddly specific and terrible fate indeed.

"Uhh, Sun? We should probably get outta here," Neptune suggested.

"Right," Sun quickly agreed. He sure as hell wasn't interested in being roasted alive. He was a cop, not a god damn fireman. If he wanted to be that, then he would have tried to put in for that hunter assignment instead.

An awkward, brief beat grew between the two. Then, with the coordination that only two simultaneously fleeing people could have, Sun and Neptune sprang out of their seats and ran out of the office. They needed to get out, and get out FAST. They sprinted out of the office area, through the front lobby and holding area, and out of the building in record time. Their time would put someone like Ruby to shame. Fire was a weird motivator like that.

It was an odd thing that the pair wanted to leave for slightly different reasons, though.

Oh well, such was the universe. It really did have a weird sense of humor.

xxx

You know, looking back, I really do have odd running gags for the characters I write about. Blake being hit in the head, Ren suffering through everyone ignoring him on stuff he knows about, a rather unfortunate sex act involving dust for Yang and Blake, and now Neptune accidentally starting fires in trashcans. At this rate, the characters are just going to become neurotic messes. Well, if they aren't those already. Anyways, feel free to tell me what you think about Neptune's unintentional arson in the reviews section!

This is The Draigg, and I'm telling you to FEEL THE HEAT, BABY!