𝚒‎ ‎ ‎ 𝚊𝚖 ‎ ‎ ‎‎ 𝚖𝚊𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚎

𝚏𝚊𝚕𝚕‎ ‎ 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚘‎ ‎ 𝚢𝚘𝚞

Roman sprinted down the street of the neighborhood, panting out heavily as he raced towards his parked car. Axis did his best to keep up with Roman as he lagged behind, carrying the unconscious anthro that was in his arms as he ran after his partner. Roman eventually reaches the driver door of the car and slides to a halt, placing his thumb up against the print reader of the door for a few moments. The reader then emits a green light and disengages the locks. He swings open the door and shoots a glance down the road to Axis. 

"Double time it, Axis!" He called out as he then jumped into the driver seat and activates the engine. Finally, Axis reaches the back passenger door of the car and reaches for the door handle, lying the unconscious female in the backseat before reaching for the seat belts of the car and securely straps her into place.

"Hurry up!" Roman says as he places his hand on the gear shifter of the car, bringing it out of park and into drive. Axis removes the strap of the carbine from off of his body, placing it into the floorboards of the backseats before he then removes his body from out of the car and closes the back passenger door. He then reaches for the front passenger door and jumps inside the vehicle. As he shuts the door next to him, Roman presses his foot on the accelerator and begins to take off down the street. 

"Axis, switch into protocol mode." Roman said as he then reached for his seatbelt and straps himself in as well. 

"Rodger." Axis then said, reaching up to his chest and flips a switch, his eyes and fuel cell activation light returning from yellow to cyan. 

"Goddammit... the Six Kings aren't going to be happy that we didn't finish the job." Roman then said, placing his elbow on the windowsill of his door and his fingers on his forehead. 

"As I have mentioned, I will be able to produce forgery images with the footage I recorded." Axis then said, his voice returning from deep to soft as he turns his attention around in his seat and to the woman in the backseats. 

"Yeah, and what if they find out that the pictures are fake, huh?" Roman then sternly asked, glancing over to his partner. "I'm sure we can find ourselves on the Six Kings shit list as well." 

"The Six Kings would not be so bold as to put hits out on us." Axis then said, turning his glance over to Roman. "There is a reason why we are at the top of what we do."

Roman lets out a soft groan as he began to rub his temple with his fingers. "You say that, but the Six Kings will also ask guys like us to ice idiots who step on their toes." 

"I do not believe the Six Kings will take such drastic measures." Axis then said, observing out the windshield of the car as Roman navigated through the gated community. Silence fell between the two for a moment as Roman turned a corner of the streets and begins to drive towards the checkpoint entrance of the community. 

"What the hell happened back there, Axis?" Roman then suddenly asked, breaking the silence between them. 

Axis took a second to respond. Truthfully, he still could not logically explain the deviation from his prime directive. Under any other circumstance, Axis would have been able to pull the trigger on the mark. But when he first saw the female, it was as if something within himself had overridden his core processing unit and issued a new prime directive all by itself. He saw her and was overtaken by her. But he had also felt he could not let Roman know any of this and had come up with an excuse. 

"As I mentioned before, the Six Kings were not rewarding a substantial pay out for this contract." Axis answered, still gazing out of the windshield as Roman drove the car through the checkpoint and onto an avenue of the city. 

"Yeah, I got that part." Roman then said. "What I don't get is why you changed the plan... or how." 

"It was a spur of the moment calculation." Axis said, turning his gaze out the passenger window.