Work Text:
Nighttime was the ideal time to get work done. After all, that’s when Nightbeat’s line of work was most active. Criminals and thieves and mysteries scouring throughout the darkness, finding refuge within the shadows from resolve and justice.
"We think you would be best suited to handle this ongoing case. I know you just wrapped up a big one, and we are grateful, but your skills are extremely valuable in the field. To the people.”
He was handed a datapad; rather empty for the information he was given next.
“The case has been open for months, but to no avail. Low-tier thief who keeps slipping from anyone who seems to get on their tail, but it seems they feel bold enough to start leaving their signature after taking possession of items of... Higher value, to put it lightly.”
Nightbeat skimmed the datapad to find a page with basic information, documented events, and past assignments: Two vague photographs were tacked on the bottom–one of a fast-moving shadow rounding a corner, the other of what he assumed was the signature of the mentioned thief.
Nightbeat looked up, a smile creeping up onto his face. “You can count on me to get the job done. Nothing more fascinating than a long-running case.”
He spent the next three days delving into possible connections, potential targets, past crimes, anything really. What he had gathered was that this mech was fast, sly, cocky, and had red plating. Difficult to see, but the photograph in the file had enough light to reveal red plating, if only vaguely.
After collecting some leads, the visored mech decided tonight would be the ideal night to catch the suspect in action. His usual area seemed to be in Nyon, but tonight it seemed he would take his work to a neighborhood located nearby, one considered to be of a higher class. Target: an apartment belonging to a somewhat well-esteemed mech of decent status, enough to have valuable information and objects. Nightbeat suspected the thief was looking to swipe an object of value, considering the mech the apartment belonged to would be at a social gathering out of town.
Getting into the apartment building wouldn’t be a problem; he could use his badge and make up some sort of cover story of needing to contact someone for interrogation. Clearly, he didn’t need to worry himself, considering the reception was rather empty except for a small mech scrolling the monitors at the desk. Nightbeat casually strolled past the desk, approaching the elevators.
“Goodnight”
“Night,” the mech monotonously answered without even glancing up from the screen.
In all truth, Nightbeat wasn’t supposed to be here. He didn’t have the permission to enter and search anywhere yet; he wasn’t even supposed to be on the case until next week officially. Vacation and all that. He had to admit, it would’ve driven him crazy to simply ignore this new task. It was too exciting.
So that leads him to his current situation, standing outside a rather fancy door, examining for any tampering. Clearly, the door had not been touched, meaning his target had used an alternative method of entry. A window, perhaps. Must be a good climber, although he didn’t remember seeing any way of climbing upwards. He listens in. Evidently, this mech was careful enough to avoid using the main entrance and making any noise. Interesting.
Thump
Light. Someone who wasn’t trying their damndest to listen in would not have caught it, but he did. A footstep heavier than the others. Perhaps catching themselves from falling over or tripping up.
He quietly but quickly made work of the door before pushing it open and storming in. Holding up the gun, he points it exactly at where his target is standing.
“Hands where I can see them. Game’s over, buddy.” A mech with a magenta paint job with orange accents whipped his head around. His hands stopped short of whatever he was moving to grab, barely grazing it.
The mech’s optics were wide and bright before he seemed to compose himself.
“How’d you know I was going to be standing right here at this moment?”
Okay.
Strange way to react to getting caught red-handed after evading capture for months. The mech stared right at the gun. Nightbeat didn’t actually use it, just a scare tactic. He only had one bullet in it, enough to fire and frighten his targets. He wasn’t a great shot, nor was he keen on adopting violent methods to get his work done.
He couldn’t help the smirk creeping up on his face as he confidently hummed, “I didn’t.”
“Right…Well, if you don’t mind, I have some very important business to finish up! I’ll see myself out, don’t worry about your little self!” The mech had begun to turn around as if he had just run into an old friend. As if there wasn’t a gun pointed directly at him. As if he hadn’t just been caught for the first time since the authorities had started taking his case seriously.
Nightbeat took a step forward, tightening his grip and trying to get a view of the object. “I’m not sure who you think I am or what you think is going on, but I’ll say it again. The game's over. Now we can go quickly and quietly, or we can make a scene. Considering you’ve been scouring about, you don’t seem the type who wants to make a grand scene. Do you? Especially not over getting caught,” He remarked.
A beat of silence.
The thief loudly sighed, a hint of mock exhaustion, before turning around and crossing his arms. His face looked ready to challenge.
“You won’t shoot.”
“What?”
“I said, you won’t shoot. You wanna start readin’ me like some book? I’ll play along,” the mech restated, “your stance is sure enough to fool anyone but yourself. You hold the gun with a grip that’s ready to let go in an instant.” He took a step towards Nightbeat.
“I’m not sure what kind of bots you’ve been dealing with that you feel the need to play silly games, but I ain’t one of ‘em!” The mech leaned in close to Nightbeat, flicking his visor while sporting a smirk screaming of victory. “Anyways, I do have work to finish up, and I would like to rewind before bed! So. Bye!”
“What!? No, you are not-”
Before he could stumble out his sentence, Nightbeat felt as though his legs had been pulled out from under him. “Not what? This was a fun encounter officer, but I’ve got places to be, errands to run, you know how it is! Toodaloo!!” He practically sang as he moved quickly through the room.
Before Nightbeat could react, he heard the opening and closing of a window. Most likely the one the thief had initially used to get into the apartment.
He laid there for a moment.
What just HAPPENED!?
He moved to get up, groaning. He had to admit he didn’t usually have to deal with sudden action being sprung on him. He typically prepared for that sort of thing.
In under a minute, the suspect had gotten way too close to him, flicked him, tripped him, and mocked him. And then proceeded to casually get away. At least the guy had moved fast enough to save himself and not-
Well.
The item was gone. Go figure. Guy was fast enough to evade capture for months, much less get any documentation. In place of the object, whatever it had been, was a small card. All black.
Nightbeat sighed. At least there hadn’t been a commotion, and the apartment would be intact. No one needed to know this had happened. He did not want to go through the paperwork of having gone in somewhere to search and possibly damage without explicit permissions, only to finally hunt down the guy and let him get away–with the object.
He picked up the card and, as he was leaving the apartment, locking it up, he flipped it. Standing in the hall, he made sense of what he had just been handed.
On a white background, a signature.
Hot Rod ;p