Who is this mysterious stranger that stalks Azure? Is she part of the angry pro-legit mob?
Is she the LEADER of the mob? or is she in the Justice Arrow. Episode 28-
Will not be seen tonight Instead we present cops on duty!
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NORTHERN MARKETS
EPISODE 27A: C.O.P.S.

Joe’s Tavern
1337 Naora Ave East
8:15 PM
Police Chief Mack and Spud were driving the old 1985 Cadilac police car east along Naora Ave after taking a kid to his parents for shoplifting up at Target Superstore. They were now on their way to a bar on Naora Avenue where a 999* call went out a few minutes ago.
The rain stopped a while ago, but it was still dark out as it was night, and the roads reflected the streetlight.
Mack pulled up in front of this low rate bar on Naora Ave and Rogue St- a block east of major Nexon St.
“And here is where we get the occasional Friday night drunken idiot” Mack said, shutting off the car.
He and Spud got out, closed the doors and walked in.
Joe’s Tavern wasn’t much, just a streetside bar where people usually come in on their way home from work or to a party or something. Place was plain- red walls with posters, pictures, neon light signs that were logos such as Sap Beer, CancerStix cigarettes, things like that.
The place smelled of booze, almost too much for 8pm. Guys sat at the bar, others sat at tables, some played pool, or omok. Some guys were going off over a little MahJong tournament they set up.
The two plainclothes cops walked over to the bar. “Hey!” Mack called to the fat guy cleaning mugs.
“Yeah?” the guy asked in his raunchy voice.
“You run this joint?” Mack asked.
“Yeah, what’s it to you?”
“Chief Mack, and…cop Spud. Police”
“Look, mang!” the bartenter growled, sweat on his bald head making it shine under the bug light behind him. “I already kicked those Permanoobs outta here! Damn cockaroaches smashed mah window over there, cost me half a mil to get it fixed!”
“We’re not lookin for Permanoobs! We got a 9-ner call from this place about some crazy guy, what you do with him?”
“Oh” the bartender said. “Yea, the boys overthere pwned the crap outta him already. Shoulda seen it. They messed him up bad!”
“Well, if he’s hurt bad enough, you’re getting the hospital bill!” Mack shot back. The fat man stopped smiling. “He’s in the back. This way”

The guy had tanned skin, but it was all purple from the bruises he accimulated. He was on the floor tied up with rope and passed out. Didn’t look like he’d be talking anytime soon. Mack beamed his flashlight on him, inspecting the injuries, then checked his pulse. “Dammit!” he groaned. “Kerning County General’s gonna make me pay 200K for this guy” Mack groaned. “200K?” Spud asked, puzzled.
“Yeah. It’s a drop off fee thye make you pay. You don’t got the money, the hospital security locks you up for a week, and that’s just if your lucky. If not, they’ll do experminents on you or send you to Naora. and the bastard gets thrown somewhere if you dont have the money”
“Not good health care” Spud commented.
“Nope. That’s what we get for ORbis cuttin’ the health plan” MAck said. “Hey, that aint no bruise!”
MAck beamed his flashlight at it- it was the kind of festering black spots hack victims had. Nothing serious, just concentrations of hack magic left over. “Guy’s a hack victim. Forget the hospital, they’re just gonna kill him, and for that they ask for 600K”
“o.0 thats ridiculous” Spud said.
“Damn, right. Help me get this sucker into the car. I know where to take him”

Mack drove the car west along Wolf Spirit Freeway out of town. The guy in the back.
“You’ve seen hack victims, Spud?”
“Cant say I have sir. I spent most of my GM career behind a desk”
“Hah!” Mack said. “I’ve seen more hack victims than I care to count! Hell, even the GMs here havent seen as much as I have, and theyre supposed to keep us civillians from running into that stuff!”
“Is he a hacker?”
“If he was everyone in the bar would wind up dead before we got there. Naw, a hacker got to him.”
“Where are we going?”
“AraNoobs Hill, its where the old town used to be. The Permanoobs own it now; bought the entire property from the city for about 3.2 bil. Its under the name of a guy named Almony. He’s the leader of the Permanoob gang living up there, and one of the things they do is take in hack victims. Those guys save at least 2000 people a year from the GMs. Thank Migrator most of them go back north, or the whole city would be ovverrun with hack positive Permanoobs!”
The freeway was dark, except for the signs that lit up under headlights. 20 minutes later, MAck pulled onto a road going off the freeway up into the hills.
Spud noticed light bouncing off the night clouds to the west. “Is that Naples?”
“No, that’s the construction site for the refinery and the pipeline comin’ in from China. Business guys in Shangai are getting rich off oil fields up there and they wanna sell it to everybody in KErning. Orbis hardly approves of this project, but its not like they can do anything about it.”

Soon they arrived at AraNoobs Hill. The entire mountainside was covered with buildings that were build back in the late 1700s, when the Dutch first settled here. “This place used to be a mine. Back in the 1800’s and up til 1935 the company here competed fiercely with the miners in El Nath. Then El Nath got frozen over again and the company here went bankrupt and left the site before the Sino Army showed up back in 1941”
“So, is this-“
“Yeap, these buildings were abandoned and the PErmanoobs took them over back in the 1950’s. They’ved lived here ever since. They live in everything you see here. City Council’s been trying to push more and more noob people into here- they want to keep the area south of Fraser Crescent noob free- subsidized housing and all* cheap rent. good deal for people who have weak jobs. but the city dont want it becoming a PErmanoobie hole like out here. LEt’s go”

The cops both had to carry the passed out man from the car up a series of ramps and stairwells until they got to the first building. The structures were acutally built of rock and ore. Good mixtures of materials made them strong against weather and time.
The door opened and a 7-foot tall Permanoob guy in overalls answered. “Yes?” he said.
“Delivery” Mack said as he and Spud lowered the man to the wooden porch.
The big man looked the guy over, then grabbed him by the arm and flung him over his back, then slammed the door and locked it.
“Jeez” Spud said.

They were driving back into town on the freeway. “We’re passing the Fraser Town suburbs. Classy looking houses. Bad rush hour during the week though” Mack said. They turned off the freeway and drove through Fraser Town so Spud could get a good look at the houses. “folks out here have the 9-5 kind of office job. Then mom and dad come home get their kids from school and its another happy day. Cops here try real hard to keep the Permanoobs away- Suburbaners really hate them.”
They turned left on River Rd and drove back.
Mack picked up the radio mic. “We took the guy to the PNs* Hey Sparkym how you doing on Red Light?”
The radio crackled. ‘Sparky’ spoke back. “They got some work for us here. Two more parlors opened up and the one I’m at has got underage kids again”
“Son of Zakum’s mom!” Mack cussed. “Which one you at?”
“Young love club!”

1534 Red Light St
(near Sindit Way)
9:15 PM
“They called this Red Light Street for a reason, Spud. Ever since the city was first built back in 1835, they always had cex parlors on this stretch. Even during the war when the Sino Imperal Army took this town over, they still had the parlors running, and even after the war, they still continue to operate, and then things changed in 1975, when the business were all sold to the PNs. licenses and everything”
“Whats wrong with this one?” Spud asked as they got out of the car. He noticed the streetlamps all issued bright red light.
“They have girls under level of consent. Age doesnt really apply because level shows one’s maturity. An 18 year old level 14 is less mature and more prone to mental hurt by this activity than a 17 year old level 25.”

They walked into the parlor. The main room was a dance hall where mad techno music was playing. Sergent officer Sparky, this old cop with a high pitched voice came up to them. “Damn PN’s keep tossin me and mah cops outta here! Good thing you showed up!” he was saying.
“Set your messenger on ‘track’ and point out the young ones! I got more cops on the way. this PN owner won’t *** with us!” Mack ordered. When the messenger device was on ‘track,’ you point it at some one and it gives you their Maple name, and level number.
All the time, guys and women kept coming in and were talking to the girls (Mack hoped not kids). Every few minutes he would see somebody walking down the hall into a private room with a younger person. Girls, ghey guys, it didnt matter.
Some girl tugged on Spud’s arm and pulled him to one of the tables. He let her pull him and they sat and talked. The camera man filming this episode couldn’t pick up on their convo* because the music was too loud.
The girl kept talking about things and touching Spud on his arm and stuff. But he did his duty and set his messenger to track and pointed it at her.

Mack was outside. Already he had 10 underage girls and guys lined up outside. He had other cops who were there calling their parents asking to have these kids picked up and taken home.
Spud firmly pushed the girl outside.
“Good work. What level is she?” Mack asked.
“14, sir. she lookes to be 15 years”
“Name?”
“Flowergirl154”
Mack punched the name into his messenger. “Yeah. Bernie! Get me the legal gaurdian of flowergirl154. Allright. Thank,s Bernie. That alien gray seems in a good mood tonight, Eh, Sparky?” MAck said.
“Yeah. We had a poker tournament today and he won. We bet and the guy pwned 900K off the rest of us.”
“I told you not to bet!” MAck shot back. then dialed the phone number. “Yeah. You the guardians of Flowergirl154? Well get over here nad pick her up! She’s been working at Young Love Club, 1534 Red Light Street!” and he hung up.
Some other girls and guys being dragged out by the cops had a fit.
“I can do what I want! You don’t own me!”
“It’s fun!”
“See how fun it is when you get pregnant and you don’t kno who the daddy is!” Sparky yelled back at this angry black haired girl. “Or suppose you got lag? Huh? Its a cexually transmitted illness, lag! And its the worse strains you get too! It’ll knock you out 22 hours a day!”
“What’s he talking about?” Spud asked MAck.
“You never heard of lag? Its just one of those things you catch once every six months. Its like the cold or flu. Takes about three weeks to go through you, makes you tired and slow. Hard to move and walk. But ppl who go into this trade can catch harder strains of lag- You’re down for about a month and you can only be awake for about two hours then have to sleep for another 10. And in some cases, people who really get reckless catch the permanent strain. Not good!”
“Harsh! Hey? where’s the PN guy?”
“He left! Didn’t think we’d be stopping by, tonight! And we got our hint from some religious nutcase who thought he was brave enough to check this place out!”

Soon enough, Flowergirl154’s parents showed up in their classy minivan and they weren’t too happy.
“In the car, young lady, now!”
“You told us you were at Janey’s house studying!”
“Hey, hey, take it outta here, folks! We got more parents coming in!” Mack said. The minivan drove off.
In an hour, all the underage kids were removed and sent home. Bernie, the Alien Gray guy living and working at the police station down on Naora and Psy St was a whiz at math. I figured that the Permanoob guy who owned this brothel would lose up to 7 million mesos ($7000 SGD) of business, but that didn’t matter- the cops cared about the safety, security and well-being of the kids more.