A strange discovery

"No pings on Second, take a right at Thurston Avenue and head up Third Street. Any eyes on anything?"

Angel Two had her nose deep in the maps in her interface provided by her helmet, trying to keep track of the search area and looking for anywhere the tracker signal might appear, even the tiniest blips. She was dealing with a lot of data, and you were dealing with the eyes of your usual partner darting around trying to visually scan as much as she could when you weren't telling her to look back at the road while you pushed the limits of the Angel 800's electric engine and agility.

"Negative, nothing noteworthy. Rider Five, copy on trying Third Street?" Rider Two focused back on the road when the turn approached.

You applied a little bit of brakes, trailing into the turn, counterbalancing to lean Angel Two hard into the turn to keep your speed up, as the sirens blared from the Angel's paneling, red and blue lights flashing all around to get traffic out of your way. "Copy Rider Two, keep your eyes down Thurston for the turn." Fortunately, your body-partner was very good at taking directions even though her inexperience with actually being on top of a two-wheeled vehicle had her wanting to look more at the road dead-ahead than the road you wanted to turn to. After a few close calls with low-speed maneuvers, she caught on quick.

Angel Two chuckled a little as you pushed her machinery pretty hard to keep up the pace of search you needed to cover the area by nightfall. "Aren't you two cute, so talkative. Is this what it's like to have a Rider in you, you learn how to finally get a partner to communicate? Maybe I'll have to try it sometime. Maybe at least I'll get my old Rider Two to be a little more aggressive with leaning in, he's not so confident in the curves."

"Are you talking motorcycles," Rider Two asked with a laugh of her own, "or do you have a different meaning there?"

"A little column A, a little column B... but maybe he and I don't just work together as well as I thought we could. I'm not lying when I said I could get used to what we're doing now. I'm impressed."

You revved the throttle, and sped ahead, turning on Third Street to start the next part of the sweep. "Don't take all the credit, Rider Two, remember that it might be your butt in the seat, but I'm in your head..! Maybe three minds are better than two in this case."

"Did Five say something?" Angel Two asked.

"Oh, no, nothing at all," Rider Two said with a grin.

While the banter had been good for easing some nerves, reality suddenly crept back in as a beep from Angel Two's map lit up. "I got something!" Angel Two said excitedly, opening up a channel to SCPD HQ. "Angel Two to all units, I've got a signal from a Unit Seven tracker in the 700 block on Third Street, We're going in for a closer look."

You pulled up next to a brick building following Angel Two's lead, quickly hopping off and letting her disengage into bipedal mode, her cowling unfurling but holding close to her back. She turned to you, holding a pistol out for you to take. You didn't see it immediately, mostly because your body-partner was busy looking at the building, analyzing like she typically did from her Angel training. "I think this is just offices, nothing special in here. Really far off from Unit Seven's patrol yesterday..."

Hurried but cautious, you stepped up to the door, taking the lead since the cramped office layout didn't allow for much maneuverability for an Angel even if she pulled in her wings as close as she could. You stepped through the building, firearm low but at the ready just in case you encountered someone who might be the cause of Unit Seven's problems. While most of the offices were staffed, one in particular--where the signal seemed strongest--looked empty, with lights off. After a brief pause to let Angel Two catch up, you nodded at her and opened the door, quickly assessing the office space.

A small cylinder sat on the ground at the center of the otherwise empty room, blinking in time with the beeping in Angel Two's map. No sign of either member of Unit Seven beyond it.

Angel Two sighed as she stepped into the center of the room. "Angel Two to HQ, we found a tracker that matches Angel design, but no sign of Unit Seven." She reached down to pick up the tracker...

"Wait! Five, stop her!" Rider Two said, and you reacted with lightning speed to grab Angel Two's arm. She looked at you, puzzled, but she backed off. "Kneel down for a closer look, but don't touch it. Something about it looks odd to me."

As you knelt down, Rider Two's attention to detail paid off greatly. The tracker had strange holes bored into it--similar to what Sarge described earlier with the batteries, it looked like termites had touched it. "Rider Two to HQ, be advised, there is damage on the unit that resembles what occurred to the other affected units. Unit Seven may be disabled somewhere. Request for hazmat to collect the tracker in case it might infect Angel Two or myself."

"Copy that Rider Two, sit tight," dispatch replied, "ETA is thirty minutes to get to your location with the containment team."

While Angel Two stayed with the tracker as now there was a chain of custody to preserve, you and Rider Two quickly searched the remainder of the building for any sign of Unit Seven, but there wasn't so much as a strand of hair that seemed out of place. From the basement to the roof, you were done with your search in mere minutes with nothing else to show for it, returning to Angel Two.

"Nothing, huh?" Angel Two said, removing her helmet and some of the armor to cool down, stretching her arms up. "Well, this seems really out of place to me. Like someone planted it here for us to find. If you hadn't stopped me, I'd probably be out of commission too, so... thanks."

You removed your own helmet, leaning against a wall. Rider Two glanced at Angel Two, her eyes lingering on your temporary partner. Something about the way Angel Two looked seemed to stir something up inside you again, just like you'd felt last night... was that your doing again, or was Rider Two feeling something of her own when she looked at another Angel?

Angel Two flashed a smile at you. "Kinda dull guarding a little beacon. Does my Rider have any ideas for how to pass the time?"

You felt Rider Two blink in surprise at what your newly-assigned Angel might be considering during the downtime! Although, that might just be both you and Rider Two getting a little flustered by reading a little too far into an innocent question. But, there might be some opportunity for something fun, depending on what you and Rider Two might cook up.