A Conflict of Duty and Heart

Planting the Seeds of Doubt

Constance had awoken abruptly to her work phone going off loudly. When she'd checked it the screen simply read:

There's a situation unfolding in town square. Disregard any previous orders and report to the scene immediately.

That was ten minutes ago, now Constance found herself suited up and weaving between traffic on her work motorcycle. This was the type of work she'd been hired and trained to do. Constance could feel her heart racing as she sped towards town square. The message hadn't specified what exactly was happening there but for Constance to be pulled away from her current assignment it must be an emergency. As her motorcycle screeched to a stop at the scene her suspicions were confirmed.

By the look of things it appeared that someone had broken into the city archives. By the time she'd arrived it looked as though the local police had everything relatively under control. Constance glanced around, confused as to why she was even needed here. She spotted a frazzled looking officer jogging towards her and dismounted her bike to meet him hoping for an explanation.

"You're Apex right?"

"I am," Constance confirmed, acknowledging her code name. Her voice garbled by the audio manipulator equipped in her helmet, "What exactly happened here?"

"A group of anarchist rebels broke into the archives and attempted to steal some highly classified documents that had been stored there. We've managed to apprehend most of them but one of them escaped during all the commotion and managed to take the stolen documents with him."

"So you need me to track him down, bring him in, and return the stolen goods?"

"Exactly."

"Sounds simple enough," Constance stated, "any Enchantments that I should worry about."

"Just a remarkably fast healing factor. Honestly we could probably handle this guy ourselves but the documents are too important to put at further risk. We need them recovered before they fall into the wrong hands. We were informed that you were the cat to call concerning this kind of thing."

"You were informed correctly, I'll have your guy before nightfall."

"There is a chance that more rebels will be waiting to meet up with him, will you be able to handle that?"

"Oh trust me, it won't be an issue. What does this guy look like."

"He's this real skinny guy with patchy light grey fur and yellow colored eyes. He was wearing this ratty looking sweater vest and a cracked pair of glasses. I think I heard one of his buddies call him 'Lucky'."

"Did you see what direction he was heading before he escaped?"

The officer nodded as he pointed towards a nearby alleyway.

"Perfect, this won't take long. I don't think he's managed to get too far yet." Constance remarked. "I'll contact you when I've got him."

With that Constance made her way to the aforementioned alleyway before manually activating the thermal camera installed in her helmet. Instantly, her camera managed to pick up the still warm paw prints Lucky had left in his wake. She smirked, this was going to be easy. It wasn't difficult to track the unfortunately named fugitive down. He had evidently tried to cover his tracks by backtracking multiple times and using lesser known trails throughout the city. Constance had to give him some credit, if it wasn't for the fact that she could track his heat signature she would have been having a difficult time tailing him.

The paw prints she was following gradually became brighter and brighter until Constance was certain she was almost upon him. She cautiously poked her head around the corner and sure enough, there he was. Lucky was leaning against a wall trying to catch his breath, the stolen documents clutched close to his chest. Constance could tell by the way he was trembling that he was exhausted and likely wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight. Even so, she decided that it would be better to avoid conflict as much as possible to prevent the documents from being compromised any further.

Constance had to admit, this guy didn't look like the rebellious type. If she hadn't known better she would have assumed he was an accountant who had recently fallen into some hard times. His yellow eyes were tired, but kind and his thin frame was the furthest thing from imposing. He didn't look like the type to get involved in something like this at all. If his appearance hadn't matched the officer's description perfectly she would have assumed she'd gotten the wrong guy. Regardless of how harmless this guy looked he was definitely in possession of the stolen documents and Constance had to bring him in.

Quietly, Constance dropped down on all fours as she crept towards her target. The dark material her suit was compromised of made her practically melt into the shadows. Every step drew her closer and closer towards the unassuming grey tom. Her heart was pounding with adrenaline as she bunched up her muscles, preparing to tackle Lucky to the ground. Her tail twitched excitedly and accidentally hit a stray can, causing it to clatter noisily  across the concrete. Lucky whipped around, startled by the sudden noise. His eyes grew wide with alarm as he spotted Constance crouching in the shadows.

He tried to make a break for it but by then it was too late. Constance leapt towards him with surprising speed, knocking him to the ground. Lucky tried desperately to wriggle his way out of her grasp but to no avail. Constance was in far better shape physically and easily managed to wrestle the documents away from him and restrain him with hand cuffs.

Constance reached up and pressed a button on the side of her helmet to activate it's built in communicator. "This is Apex reporting in, I've apprehended the fugitive and the documents have been secured, over." She announced.

"Copy that. Sit tight Apex, the authorities are on their way, over." A voice crackled through her earpiece.

Lucky continued to struggle feebly for a minute before ultimately accepting his fate with a defeated sigh.

There was a moment of silence before he asked, "Why are you doing this?"

"What?"

"Why are you helping Sehkmet, do you have any idea what she's been up to?"

"I'm doing this to keep dangerous criminals like you from endangering innocent lives. Queen Sehkmet's personal affairs are none of my concern." Constance stated coldly.

"They should be! And Sehkmet doesn't need my help endangering her citizens, she's doing that herself."

"I don't know what rebel lies you're trying to sell me but it won't work. My loyalty lies with our Queen and no amount of your treacherous blubbering will change that." Constance growled angrily. "Why should I believe a criminal like you?"

"If you really cared about the safety of our kingdom you wouldn't be siding with her. She's not who she says she is, she's going to drive our people to ruin." Lucky said frantically as a couple of police cars pulled into view, sirens blaring.

Constance ignored him and turned her attention to the two officers approaching to properly apprehend the rather talkative rebel. As the officers began to lead Lucky to the back of the cruiser Constance turned her attention to the officer she'd conversed with earlier. Constance turned over the documents to him. She was preparing to explain what had just gone down when a commotion broke out behind her. Apparently, Lucky had found the energy to put up one last fight before being unceremoniously dumped in the back of the car.

"Sehkmet is a monster, you have to believe me! She's manipulating all of you we have to stop her before she-" Lucky's outburst was cut short as the car door slammed shut behind him.

Constance shook her head in disbelief as she turned back to the officer. But as she began to fill him in on what had transpired Lucky's words lingered in the back of her mind, filling her with unease. Constance tried to brush it off but the feeling lingered for the rest of the exchange and throughout the track back to the crime scene. As Constance climbed onto her motorcycle she couldn't help but laugh at herself for letting that delusional cat's words get to her so much. There was no way he could possibly be right about all that.

......Right?