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Tanya dreamt a peaceful dream that night, despite the scary movies she had watched earlier with Travis. She dreamt of herself laying in a field of green grass and clovers, someone calling out to her and she sat up and looked around for the unknown figure... but she never found him as she woke up. The scenery was perfect and the voice wasn't taunting more like a whisper in her ear... She smiled at the memory and got ready for work.

On her break that afternoon she decided to eat out instead of the indoor cafeteria. She went to a small but good sidewalk diner. Sitting down and waiting to be acknowledged.

As the server came up to attend to Tanya, the peace of the afternoon was shattered by roaring engines and wailing sirens. Both women turned in time to see a small convoy of EUPD and EUPD K-9 Cruisers tearing down the road at absolute breakneck speeds.

It took only a moment for Tanya to pick out the numbers of Travis' cruiser, as the vehicle came close, she saw him, his features set and grim, responding to the radio on a headset as his white-knuckled grip jerked the wheel to avoid her parked vehicle. He never glanced her way, his attention was focused entirely on bottlenecking his bulky cruiser between parked cars and racing police vehicles.

The group of police made a tire-squealing right turn, many of them overcompensating and fishtailing onto the next street, Travis among them, he was still close enough that Tanya could almost read the curses on his lips as he shifted gears and stomped the gas again...

"Must be a bladewielder attack, I've never seen them that aggressive for anything else..." The server intoned as the last cruiser disappeared down the road.

Tanya gasped as she looked up to the server then back to the road. "Stay safe Travis... I swear I'll kill you if you get yourself hurt... and I was the reason that kept you up late."

She smiled brokenly and ordered something small; her gut wrenched as her mind played out a scene in which Travis was in trouble, pinned down with no back up.

She finished lunch and went back to work, her coworkers noticed her grim and distracted composure the rest of the day and they confronted her about it.

She just told them she was tired... she didn't want to let on to her more personal life... she had to be tough as they knew her to be.

She walked home that day despite the offers of rides from her knowing coworkers, one of them, a close friend to her by the name of Katie, walked home alongside, "So what's really up?" She asked in her usual upbeat tones.

"Just saw a good, decent and wonderful man today." Tanya replied.

Katie looked puzzled, "What's so bad about that?"

Tanya stopped, "He was riding in to respond to a 'Wielder attack..." She slouched, "I can't afford to loose this person as a friend... I mean he makes me feel really happy... and boy... is he something to look at... and well... he's just so great."

Katie giggled and gave her a little nudge, "Tanya's got a boyfriend... Tanya's got a boyfriend!"

Tanya laughed and gave her a playful shove, "Do not! He's just a friend... you know I don't know if he even likes me more than a casual friend. It ain't like that I guess, but still it's just so much fun hanging out with him. Despite my liking to keep my distance from others... it's like... I could tell him anything and he'd be cool with it. I just hope he's okay... I hope he calls..."

She got into her home after saying bye to Katie, threw everything to the floor and flopped onto her bed. "What... a day. Man, He sure looked determined and so dangerously hot whizzing by... although... he almost hit my car." She laughed.

"I'll pick it up from work tomorrow. That walk with Katie was a good thing, I haven't laughed with anyone else than Travis in a long while."

She closed her eyes and took a catnap, holding onto her cell phone and curled up on her bed.

Meanwhile...

Travis' cruiser along with another rookie both turned inward on the street, the officer's steering, honed by years of training, slid both cruisers to an even stop in a roadblock position as the K-9 cruisers bottlenecked through.

Both driver's doors immediately popped open and the rookie officers stepped out, Travis holding a USAS-15D Shotgun and his buddy slinging an assault rifle as the stepped around and sat on their respective hoods.

Beyond the roadblock, Kaynine Flynn Taggart and his partner, along with Kaynine Raiz Ridgeback and his, both brought their cruisers side-by-side at top speed.

"What's it looking like, Flynn?" The younger of the two asked.

"What would be typical of a 'wielder raid in a civilian sector, loose bugs, lots of screaming ladies, and a bunch of dead heroes." The Dingo replied into his throat mike. Double checking the report on his HUD.

"Bringing out the heavies, then?" Raiz asked, swerving to dodge a piece of clutter on the slums road.

"I'd say standard automatics, have our partners carry the rough stuff." Flynn answered, suddenly shifting to neutral and slamming the brakes in unison with his fellow Kaynine...

Roughly an hour went by of the two rookie officer's bullshitting as the sounds of gunfire and explosives reached their ears from beyond the cordon. The K-9s were doing their job well, as best Travis could tell from the radio chatter, and it wasn't long before the final round up was called and both officers threw their weapons in the racks and climbed back into their cruisers.

"Officer Savant, you are at your closeout time, you're free to leave for the day." The radio hissed, Travis greeted it with a smile and punched his time code into the cruiser's dash computer, turning the wheel and heading for home.

"She probably heard about the attack on the news, guess I'd better call..." He spoke quietly to himself, picking up his cell and dialing her number...

Tanya awoke to the phone in her hand vibrating. She sighed in relief as she saw the tagged name. "Thank goodness he's alright..." She answered it with a coy hello.

"Saw you today, Travis. You have the most adorable concentration face... and next time, miss my car by a few more inches, would you?" She laughed as he sounded all confused. "I was in the restaurant. I can't say I wasn't worried about you though, are you alright?"

He responded with a casual yes and they talked for a long while before they hung up their phones with plans to hang out after work the next day.

She glanced over at the clock, "Whoa... three hours? We talked for that long? Time slipped away from us again..."

She giggled and got up off her bed to fix herself a ham and cheese sandwich then watched some television before retiring to bed.

The next few weeks passed easily, with Travis and Tanya spending time together often in many places, more nights were spent eating delicious foods that Travis had either cooked himself or ordered from obscure restaurants, and more nights spent watching movies of all types.

Every now and then, Tanya would catch a news report of police action and spot Travis' cruiser in the background, the officer earning his stripes as well as a rookie could and responding to most calls. Yet, despite the amount of Bladwielder calls, Travis had still yet to come into combat with one.

All that would change these weeks afterward...

Travis hung up the cell phone with Tanya as he pulled into his drive and quickly hopped into his house to change.

A few moments later saw him stepping outside in a pair of blue jeans and a grey "EUPD" T-shirt as he jumped back in his cruiser for a casual evening at Tanya's place.

His radio was switched off for the evening, so he never caught the call or the responding acknowledgements of a bladewielder sighting as he left the Ro district and eased into Aegis. As he calmly pulled the cruiser onto Tanya's street, his vision immediately picked up the mottled carapace of a 'wielder.

"Ah hell." He hissed, immediately stomping the gas as he saw what the 'wielder was up to.

His cruiser tore into Tanya's front yard and slammed full force into the creature that was bashing into her door. It crumpled to the lawn and Travis backed away, popping open the door and grabbing his shotgun as he stepped out to confront the injured beast.

It was a drone class, thick armor and dull blades, strong enough to tear him limb from limb if he got caught by it.

All this info and more flashed through Travis' head in a moment as the insectoid alien climbed back to its feet and scrambled to face him. One guttural war cry, and the battle was on.

Travis backed up one running step and leaped onto the hood of his cruiser, spinning quickly, he released the safety and brought the shotgun to bear-

-but the bladewielder was right in his face, one bladed arm lashing out and slamming the shotgun from his hands so hard the reinforced polymers shattered, leaving the scattergun a useless hunk of steel on the ground.

Travis immediately fell back, slamming onto the hood and releasing his foothold, he slid off the polished metal and beneath the drone, rolling to his feet and drawing his only backup: a field knife.

The drone lashed out and caught him with the flat of one bladed arm, sending him sprawling across the lawn, his free hand closed around the barrel of the USAS as the wielder loomed over him and he smashed it into the monstrosity's face, momentarily stunning it as the officer leaped to his feet and backed away.

Another swipe from the bladewielder caught him across the arm, leaving a shallow gash as Travis did his best to juke the blow, but before he could go offensive another flat-bladed smash connected with his gut and brought the officer to the ground.

Almost delirious with pain, Travis rolled onto his back to see the drone looming above him, chittering in triumph as it brought one blade slamming down...

...into the grass as Travis jerked his head aside, the dull edge bit into his collarbone and opened a deep gash, but Travis was already moving for the kill.

His field knife came up, edge glittering softly in the waning sunset, and plunged deep into the soft flesh of the wielder's neck, a second later, Travis squeezed the grip, twisted, and, with a sharp report, the Knife grip fired, separating the blade and shooting it deep into the drone's neck, in another instant it was over, the drone crashed to the ground just to the left of the injured officer, blade snapping under it's own weight.

Travis lurched to his feet and dropped the knife grip, stumbling to the damaged door; he tried the knob once before putting the last of his strength into a solid kick, sending the door crashing inward against its damaged frame.

The officer stumbled up the steps, too weak to call her name or identify himself as he opened the second door...