Chapter 2 Nerfed the Tank (Brian)

Nerfed - to reduce abilities and/or effectiveness in battle

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              Brian Hunter changed into his street clothes, telling himself he should feel happy. Their latest drug raid confiscated several million dollars worth of narcotics. The problem was that Chase Hancock wasn't there like he was supposed to be, he thought running his hand through his shoulder length blonde hair. Chase Hancock one of the country's biggest narcotic trafficker and the biggest crime lord in the area. Every time Brian thought he finally gotten something on him evidence always disappeared and witnesses suddenly had "accidents". He scowled as he walked out of the locker room and into the main lobby of the precinct.

            Brian really thought he had him this time and to say he was disappointed would have been the understatement of the year. Grabbing himself a cup of coffee he walked over to his desk still grumbling to himself before taking a drink of the stale coffee. Great, spend all night trying to make the streets safer and no one can make a fresh pot of coffee, he complained silently with a heavy sigh.

            "Hunter get up and get over here," Steve Larson, his boss and friend demanded walking out of his office with an excited smile on his face.

            "Yes Sir, what's going down," Brian asked shooting up from his chair and following the older man only to see none other than Chase Hancock being marched into the lobby.

            "We've got him on murder charges," Steve explained as Brian couldn't stop a smile from forming. "I would have let you have the pleasure of bringing him in custody but you were still out on the drug bust," he added.

            Chase stopped in front of them with a smug smile. "I hear you got yourself a new pet mouse," he sneered. New pet mouse, he thought confused but kept his smile refusing to allow his confusion to show. "You should be careful though, mice are fragile things and so prone to falling into traps! I'll be out of here in a few days," he demanded.

            "Thanks for the concern but there is no need of it and we'll see if you can get yourself out of this one," Brian replied nodding to the officers holding him to take him way. Brian waited till Chase was out of ear shot. "What was the whole mouse thing about," he asked.

            "In my office," Steve told him with a wave of his hand. Once they were in Steve's office with the door closed he handed Brian a photograph of a real knock out blonde. "Hannah Hall, Chase's latest girl," Steve started then tossed another photograph on his desk. This time of the blonde shot, bloodied, and dead caught his eye. "She must have pissed him off because tonight he decided to take her out, he shot the damn girl four times," Steve went on. "We haven't found the firearm yet but it looks to be your standard 9 mm semiautomatic which isn't going to help us much because unfortunately for us and herself, Hannah went through a lot of men, all of them with criminal background," Steve explained.

            "Which means Chase will try to push this off on one of her ex-boyfriends since a 9mm is one of the most common guns you can find on the streets," Brian stated frowning. It would be near impossible to get a conviction on Chase with only that as evidence.

            "Exactly but we lucked out on this one," Steve replied and then handed Brian another photograph, this time of a red head. "Maggie Kent, our only hope at getting Chase behind bars where he belongs. She saw him make the kill shot on his girl then he tried to shoot her but she somehow managed to get away," Steve told him and Brian smiled. This was it, this is what they needed to get that bastard off the streets but then he frowned remembering Chase's comment.

            "That is if she stays alive long enough to testify," Brian replied tossing the photograph with the others. The drug trafficker would do anything in his power to make sure she was dead by then.

            "Chase is already making moves to see that she doesn't make it to the trial. One of our under covers has already alerted us about talk of a possible hit on someone known only as the mouse," Steven explained. "If you add that someone has been tipping off Chase's organization of our moves," his boss started.

            "She is as good as dead unless we can make her disappear till then," Brian finished frowning feeling frustrated.

            "I'm glad to see you're on the same page. Officially Maggie is going into the Witness Protection Program, but it'll be too easy to figure out her location. So I will be placing an undercover in her place, see if we can't flush out the mole," he explained and Brian nodded.

            "What are you going to do with the real one," Brian nodded and Steve gave him a sly smile that made him glare at the man with suspicion.

            "That question I will let you answer. Officially you'll be in San Francisco helping them on a case, but you'll be protecting our witness, keeping her safe, and hidden till the court date," Steve revealed.

            "What? You want me to babysit her? You can't really be serious?" Brian complained.

            "Of course I am Hunter. I know it's not exactly the ideal job but you're the only one I trust to do it," Steve explained and Brian sighed leaning back in his chair with a sour look.

            "Where am I supposed to take her," Brian asked with a sigh.

            "Honestly I don't want to know, she's safer with only you knowing that," his boss replied back and Brian sighed again. He did not like this...at all!

            "Fine but you owe me...big time," he shot back. He had an idea of where he could take her but again...he didn't like it at all.

            "No problem, whatever you want you name it," Steve told him getting up from his chair. "When can you be ready to leave?" He asked

            "Within the hour," Brian replied.

            "Good get what you need at Mercy's Hospital, hopefully by now the detectives there have been able get her statement," Steve said.

            "Is she bad off," He asked with concern and then felt confused as his friend started to laugh.

            "Yeah but not in the way your thinking, physically Maggie wasn't harmed. However she had problems speaking when people tried to talk to her. She stuttered and jumbled her words so badly that no one could understand a word she said," Steve told him laughing and Brian groaned inwardly. He hoped like hell it didn't take long for the court date to be set.

            An hour later Brian was being led through the hospital, he already figured out where he was going to take the witness. He handed Steve the report that he had given Brian earlier so that he may learn a little about who Maggie Kent was, that is if you could call half a page a report. Her parents died when she was thirteen leaving her with more money than she could ever need. She was sent to a foster home but at the age of eighteen moved out of college and has no apparent relationship with the people that fostered her.

            After two years in college Maggie dropped out because of her poor attendance where she completely falls off the record, no jobs, no legal issues, no known relationships, nor friends besides the deceased Hannah Hall. Brian couldn't help but wonder what this girl did with her time.

            A nurse was leaving just as they got to the room with a disgusted look on her face. "What a weirdo loser," he heard her mumble as she passed them. They entered the small hospital room

            The red head was sitting on the bed cross legged and the officer sitting in the plush chair practically jumped out of the chair. "Are you here to relieve me," he asked with an almost hopeful voice. Steve nodded and the young officer clearly didn't have to be told twice giving Brian a bad feeling about this whole situation.

            "How are you doing Mss. Kent," Steve asked kindly walking up to her. She fidgeted on the bed clearly nervous by his approach so Brian stayed back. She started to reply and just as Steve had mentioned earlier nothing but a jumbled mess fell out of her mouth. He eyed her with curiosity as she held up her index finger looking down at her lap.

            "Ne-ne-ne-newton's La-la-laws of mo-motion state that," she started saying slowly and quietly that Brian almost didn't hear her. "Objects at rest will stay at rest and objects in motion will stay in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an unbalanced force, Force is equal to mass times acceleration, and for every action there is always an opposite and equal reaction," she went on then looked back up at Steve.

            "I...am...fine," she said slowly obviously concentrating on how she said every word. Great, just great Brian though sourly. "I w-want t-t-to go home," she told him frowning.

            "I understand Miss and I would like nothing more to send you home," he told her in a calm voice. "However your friend's boyfriend is a very dangerous man and well I'll be blunt with you Mss. Kent, he wants to make sure you tell no one about what happened last night in your friend's home. So until he goes in jail and stays there I am afraid you can't go home," he explained. She glared at him clearly angry. She snapped out another mess of jumbled and stuttered words which only seemed to make her angrier.

            Taking a deep breath the red head looked back down at her lap."T-t-t-the U-u-unce-r-r-rtanity Pr-princip-pal s-states that the measurement of any object affects that object--that is, that it is impossible to get a perfect measurement. This applies to all objects, but is only significant at the atomic or subatomic level," she mumbled again then looked back up at Steve. "W-w-w-where am I s-s-supposed t-to g-go?" She demanded. Steve smiled at her then waved from Brian to come forward.

            Brian walked up to stand beside his boss giving her a quick nod with his head. Her green eyes turned to him with an expression one might give a disgusting insect. "We've already taken care of that Miss Kent," Steve explained. "I would like you to meet Brian Hunter, he's our top narcotics detective. He'll take you somewhere safe and makes sure no harm comes to you," he explained.

            "Nice to meet you, Miss Kent," Brian told her and held out his hand. Her lips were pressed into a fine line as her gaze went from his face to his extended hand then back to his face, to only repeat this process several times before she scooted away from both of them. "Right," Brian stated lowering his hand. "You have nothing to worry about," he added trying to sound nice though she was starting to piss him off.

            "Y-y-you s-s-still d-didn't a-answer m-my qu-question," she demanded. "Wh-wh-where am I s-sup-pposed t-to go?" she repeated.

            "It's in your best interest for that particular information remained classified at the moment," Brian told her. She pressed her lips together even more narrowing her eyes at them both.

            "W-w-w-what a-about m-m-my s-s-s-stuff? M-m-my-c-cl-clothes, m-my c-computer..." she asked again.

            "Someone can go to your home and get everything you need," Steve explained.

            "No," she demanded in a strong clear voice with a horrified look. "I d-d-don't w-want s-s-someone in m-my h-h-house! I w-w-will g-get m-my s-s-stuff," she added crossing her arms and Brian suppressed a sigh.

            "It's not safe for you to go to your home," Brian told her and she shook her head.

            "I w-w-will g-get m-my s-s-stuff or I w-w-won't help-p y-you," she demanded. Brian took a deep breath to keep from shouting at this woman if she was crazy or not. Did she even realize the danger she was in? He looked to Steve who was obviously trying to keep from laughing as he shrugged.

            "Fine," Brian snapped. "I will take you to your house so you can get your things," he told her harshly and she gave him a nod with her head. Stupid woman, Steve so owes me for this one, Brian thought.

            When the undercover was ready to leave out the main entrance Brian was going to take the red out a more discreet exit. "I will do whatever I can to get the court date set as soon as possible," Steve told him before they were leaving.

            "Thanks, well let's do this," Brian said as he tried to place his arm around Maggie Kent to keep a protective stance close to her but she jumped away from him as if he had the plague shaking her head.

            "D-d-don't t-touch m-me," she demanded and a sigh escaped him before he could stop it.

            "Fine, whatever" he relented praying to God to give him strength because he could protect her from Chase but he wasn't so sure how to protect himself. She was going to end up driving him crazy before the week was out.