Chapter 17, The Enhanced Reality part1

Chapter 17: The enhanced reality. Part I.

Dr. Moore had decided to take a break from work by closing the OCP research laboratory for the rest of the afternoon. He is driving towards the State Prison in his luxurious van. There are boxes of cookies and some loose flowers on the passenger’s seat.

Although Moore never married as a young man and has no immediate relatives, the female guards that greet him at the entrance of the prison and are excited to receive the gifts, are convinced Moore is Faxx’s father and they allow him to see his ‘daughter’ out of visit hours. This is the only way Moore can be directly in touch with Faxx without Schysler, Johnson and Highland knowing about it.

Faxx: What took you so long to come back “Dad”? We are going to lose our client if we keep delaying the virtual meeting with them

Moore: They will have to wait. I don’t have access to dissect the robot yet. They aren’t bringing him to the research laboratory anymore; Johnson sent a message on the Omninet cancelling the meeting…

Faxx: Are you kidding me? The thing won’t be taken to the research lab to be reprogrammed in the end? Oscar had told me he was?

Moore: That boy toy of yours is so incompetent in delivering information…

Faxx: He can be slow at times, but we still need him, can’t you just tell the people from Mecca to wait for us? Or do we switch to the other client?

Moore: They weren’t interested, Juliette. Kanemitsu people are obsessed with artificial intelligence only. We only have Mecca Bionics as our main client.

Mecca Bionics was the outsourced company hired by OCP to build the new cybernetic parts RoboCop needed after the tragic incident in which he was dismantled by the Nuke lord, Cain. Tyler had done research in advance and after some heated up arguments with OCP executives and Reed and Lewis coming forward to the CEO demanding RoboCop to be rebuilt, the budget was finally approved and Robo was given a second chance to live, this time in a slightly improved cybernetic body.

After completing the complex task of re-creating a mechanical body for a hybrid cyborg, the executives of Mecca Bionics contacted OCP directly to let them know they were impressed by RoboCop’s fascinating design and they were interested in buying Bob Morton’s original files, to be able to offer partial and total bionic reconstruction to their clients. Mecca Bionic’s people were interested to learn to merge human brains with artificial bodies making sure their clients would survive the transition.

The CEO refused to sell the secret of RoboCop and turned down their millionaire offer. When Faxx was intending to ruin RoboCop’s programming, she found out by accident about the juicy business deal that OCP had turned down and she contacted the executives directly, to offer them not only the secret of RoboCop, but the files of the making of RoboCop2 as well. Faxx made an alliance with Dr. Moore, who at the time, was in charge of the RoboCop2 project and together, they planned to cash several millions of dollars by selling OCP’s most valuable secrets.

Their plans were frustrated after the RoboCop2 meltdown. Faxx faced criminal charges and was sent to prison. Moore resigned and moved to Japan to work for the Kanemitsu Company, aiming to learn as much as possible about artificial intelligence, being his main interest to eventually associate OCP with Kanemitsu.

Only Robert Callahan, the president of the OCP board, was interested in Moore’s idea. The old man refused to make any business deals with the Japanese company and Moore’s plans to become a millionaire were frustrated again.

This time around, Moore and Faxx are committed to finish the business deal they had agreed to make together in the past. Moore has lied to the old man about the creation of his CPD unit. Everything he has told him about the synthetic wetware brain has been a lie. Moore just wants to have the opportunity to cut RoboCop open, to get the information he needs to sell to Mecca Bionics.

Faxx: We can still take advantage of this. The robot is making things easier nonetheless. As long as you have finished developing that little thing you’ve promised…?

Moore: What do you mean, easier? The old man wouldn’t let us touch him

Faxx: Yeah, but see things in perspective, weren’t we aiming to corrupt his programming enough for him to finally lose a few screws so he started killing cops? Johnson wouldn’t have any other choice but to put him offline and take him to the research lab. Then he would be at your mercy…

Moore: Sure, that was the plan…? Do you have a point?

Faxx: It seems I’m the one that gets the complete news, considering I am trapped like a rat here…the reason why RoboCop was originally meant to be reprogrammed, was mainly because he has started to attack officers by himself, apparently he almost kills a cop at the police station but, as usual, everyone covered up for him, if his mind is finally becoming unhinged…the brain inhibitor will work even better

Moore: How do you know all that? What was the reason? Overridden programming?

Faxx: Apparently, my boy toy is not as useless in gathering information, huh. You’re gonna laugh at this one, but rumor has it, it was because of a woman. Go figure.

Moore: Are you for real? How ridiculous is that?

Faxx: Not as much as you think, as a psychiatrist I can tell you the human brain presents a lot of complex possibilities and a large portion of that thing’s brain is still organic; and that has made him delusional.

He resisted being reprogrammed by Schenk and me…arguing he was still a man with a name…

Moore: Yeah in the meantime you and Schenk played with the robot’s head I was busy developing your toy. That was a great opportunity to have dissected him, if we had known about the Mecca deal before…

Faxx: Oh but we will do it now, you see, this is the beauty of this, apparently the robot not only is delusional, his thoughts have escalated over time. Imagine he is a badly made Frankenstein that has woken up, just to discover that men that surround him are complete and more appealing than him.

Moore: Alright, and…? Do you really think he is really conscious of that?

Faxx: I believe so, as has started to compete against those men, fooling himself, desiring to have something a human male can get and he’s unable to: A woman…and what does he have left to win over them? Brute force to crush them down, aiming to win the prize and he doesn’t have to go far to get one of these does he? There are women cops around him?

…Wishing and getting are two different things though. I’d be very surprised to know there is a sane woman out there willing to make his dream come true, fucking him up, will be easier this time as it seems he is finally going out of his mind…

Moore: Well, that’s endearing, him thinking he’s still a man and all that, but how would I possibly be able to install the inhibitor if I have no access to him?

Faxx: Who’s in charge of the Defense Development program? Send the inhibitor along with the weapon’s installation programs…

Moore: Encoded…encrypted, so it starts running in the background, undetected by his OCS. Juliette you’re brilliant, they don’t deserve you. I never wanted to go through the domestic problems of having a family. But if I had…I would have liked to have a daughter who was a mean bitch like yourself…

Faxx is momentarily distracted looking at the misery that surrounds her. Moore and she are sitting at a very old tarnished wooden table, in a large yellow room that looks like an abandoned cafeteria where many prisoners are also sitting down talking to the relatives that came to visit. Juliette thinks all the people that surround her are so inferior, so small. She can’t stand living like this anymore.

Faxx: I will take that as a compliment, “Dad” now, let’s talk about you getting me out of here…I am way too tired and grossed out in sharing the bathroom with all these cavewomen here…

Outside the state prison, there is a parked cruiser from Metro West doing day surveillance. Adams has been recollecting information about Schysler’s illegal association with Faxx, although he is surprised to see Dr. Moore leaving the facility.

Adams doesn’t know exactly who Dr. Moore is, however he recognizes him as an OCP employee. He approaches the guards to ask who the man that has just left the building is.

“He is Dr. Faxx’s father, his daughter could learn a thing or two from him, he’s a very lovely, polite man”

Adams doesn’t ask anything else and thinks he should do his own research by using the facial recognition application on the Metro Network to find out the real identity of Dr. Faxx’s fake father.

A few days later, Dr. Marie Lazarus from the Defense Development program, starts getting alarming e-mails from Security Concepts, the news of RoboCop refusing to be upgraded had reached Johnson’s office and he’s displeased to see Lazarus has been incapable of installing any new pieces of weaponry on Robo. She’s at her private office at the OCP building, when she hears knocking on the door.

Lazarus is a smart woman and she guesses someone from Security Concepts is outside her office to put pressure on her to upgrade RoboCop. Marie is a newbie in the corporation and she doesn’t want to lose her job purely because she’s fascinated with the RoboCop project, both professionally and personally.

Fleck: Dr. Lazarus, we can make this long and painful, or short and painless, your choice

Lazarus: Did they send you to fire me, Mr. Fleck?

Fleck: Apparently the director of operations is still interested in your “outstanding job”, although I don’t really know what he sees in you, as you have been incapable to do any improvements on the robot, you are delaying projects and getting on Security Concept’s nerves…

Lazarus: He’s not a robot. He’s a cyborg and my assistants and I have tried to make the improvements. Dr. Tyler and Dr. Akita have reported mechanical incompatibility with the proposed devices more than once. It is hardly my fault. I am hands tied here, Mr. Fleck…

Fleck: And do you really believe that? It’s either a case of you being incompetent to upgrade RoboCop or a case of Dr. Tyler babysitting him. Look, it took me years to get where I am now and I am not going to lose my job just because they didn’t teach you at college how to take a drill and make holes on a robot to plug guns into it. So you better start thinking how to resolve this…the director of operations is behind my back…

Lazarus: So, Mr. Johnson puts pressure on you, so you put pressure on me…and I put pressure on Dr. Tyler to get the upgrades done? Out of rudeness of course…

Fleck: Exactly. That’s the OCP way. So do something, and do it fast. You have a week starting from now to prepare a full presentation with tangible results...

After the unpleasant visit of Fleck, Lazarus tries to calm down and reflect on the best way to resolve the problem. Her job is now at stake. Two days later she decides to make an unofficial visit to Metro West, hoping to talk to Robo in a more personal way.

Lazarus suspects it is Dr. Tyler the one that has been covering up for Robo’s decisions. Lazarus thinks that if she’s able to connect with RoboCop on a more personal level, he’d agree on the improvements. Robo is unmasked, resting on his chair, when Lazarus approaches him, trying to strike up a conversation.

Lazarus: Murphy, I hope you don’t mind this unofficial visit, but I have a couple of questions for you, if you have time and you are ok with it?

RoboCop: Yes, I am.

Lazarus: The main question I have for you is; why do you keep rejecting me? Did I do something wrong?

RoboCop: I am not rejecting you, Dr. Lazarus.

Lazarus: Well it feels that way! Over the last few months I have tried to improve your efficiency by proposing new pieces of weaponry you might be interested in, and between you and me, I don’t think that everything I’ve shown you guys is incompatible with your design, OCS or your mechanical limbs?

Robo looks down distressed avoiding eye contact with Lazarus. He knew this day was going to happen. They were eventually going to put pressure on her to get him upgrades he doesn’t agree with. His prosthetic body has gone through so much damage and humiliating repairs over time, his privacy has also been violated as his dreams and recorded memories had been monitored in the past. RoboCop is too tired to be treated as an experiment.

There is almost nothing left of a real man in him, and there will be even less if he agrees to go through the unpleasant process of getting weapons attached to his robotic limbs. Robo thinks of Lewis and he is suddenly afraid to look even less appealing for her. Although Lewis has kept her promise to adapt to his circumstances, Robo questions for how long and how far would she willing to take having a physical relationship with someone like him.

RoboCop: I am interested in the new equipment you propose. But not attached to my limbs, I request you to not disclose that information to Security Concepts.

Lazarus: So that’s where the problem lies! I am glad you’re finally being sincere with me. And do not worry. Defense Development doesn’t communicate to Security Concepts, what we think, they wouldn’t understand…

…I have in this briefcase the installation programs and OCS upgrades the OCP research lab sent for me to install in advance, before presenting you with the finished weapons. But, I won’t install anything on you, you feel uncomfortable with.

RoboCop: I, appreciate it, Dr. Lazarus.

Lazarus takes the time to show Robo on her personal computer some of the weapon designs she’s interested in developing and the possibility of him getting those unattached to him. The doctor is satisfied, her job is saved now. Tyler comes into the laboratory and she’s surprised to see Lazarus there unofficially.

The paths of both women cross and before Lazarus walks away from the laboratory, she doesn’t miss a chance to show off how successful her visit was;

“Did you know, that if you approach him as a man…he will respond as one? You should try it sometime Rose, you’d get better results with him”

Tyler smirks sarcastically by thinking “Just one friendly conversation and she already thinks she knows him”

Tyler is now curious to know what Lazarus was up to, although both Robo and she are distracted by the connective TV that is always on at the laboratory. It is Casey Wong from the Media Break show the one that is communicating important news that concern RoboCop, OCP and Tyler.

Casey Wong: A frustrated attempt of escape from women’s state prison resulted in several prisoners dead and some others, severely wounded. Among the deceased prisoners, was Dr. Juliette Faxx, former executive of the OCP Corporation. The CEO, Mr. Dan Highland, hasn’t made any declarations yet.

Robo and Tyler remain in shocking silence for a while; finally, Tyler dares to say out loud:

“Well, she had it coming…”

The night falls, RoboCop has been performing arrests in New Stoneleigh for some hours. Kaplan and Mason have also been successful in breaking small riots among criminal gangs. The three officers have been working successfully as a team and more police arsenal has been retrieved.

They have come to the conclusion that there are two main gangs that are controlling the criminal activity in the zone, the Nuke for Christ gang that is elaborating their own version of Nuke, and the Splatterpunks that are fighting the territory and want the drugs for themselves. The cops are lucky, as the rehab team doesn’t seem to be around the area anymore. They are concentrated in Clover Hills at the moment.

Another police cruiser from Metro West arrives to the crime scene. There are several suspects under arrest, and they need an extra vehicle to take them back to the station. However, Mason rolls his eyes as the police officer that just arrived gets off the car and approaches them.

Mason: Great! He’s brought his girlfriend along! She’s just here to mess things up…

Kaplan: Leave it man, we need as much help as possible, I don’t know about you, but I’m fucking exhausted, just want to go home…

RoboCop is glad to see his partner backing them up. This is the first time he will work alongside her on the overnight shift. Robo had finally honored his promise by requesting Lewis’ assistance to Reed in advance.

Lewis: Hey, so what’s the deal here? What do you want me to do, are you ok, Murphy…?

Kaplan: Well, I am worn out and very hungry, other than that I’m fine…Thank you for your concern Lewis…and good evening to you too!

RoboCop: Lewis, I requested your assistance, as some of the evidence gathered today…

Mason: What are you doing here? This case concerns Murphy, Kaplan and me. You are here unofficially I’d have to ask you to leave…

Lewis: The fuck are you talking about Mason? I have the same right to be here! I don’t get orders from you! And I am here, for him, he requested backup…

Mason: Sure, we all know you’re here to pet your hubby and you don’t really care about us or the case.

Lewis: Well I certainly don’t care about you!

RoboCop and Kaplan are mortified listening to the nonsense argument their impulsive partners are having, a war of egos, in which they’re both trying to prove one is a better cop than the other. Robo and Kaplan wonder, why can’t the four of them work fine as a team.

Lewis: Tell him, Murphy, I am here officially, Reed granted me to join the case, after the great job we did at Clover hills, what were you doing in the meantime Mason, recording shit songs on the newsflash radio…?

Mason: What was I doing? We have been recovering our police arsenal! Getting nearly killed every night! That’s what we have been doing in the meantime you have been playing wonder woman!!

RoboCop: Lewis is here officially. I requested her assistance to Sergeant Reed.

Kaplan: Partner, let’s get Lewis’ cruiser and take the suspects back, they will continue for the rest of the shift

The four cops split. Kaplan and Mason take both cruisers to be able to take all the suspects back to the station. RoboCop walks towards his own patrol car and Lewis follows him whilst complaining out loud about Mason.

Robo is focused in moving forward with the investigation, he opens the car’s trunk and takes out an object to show his partner. It is a small smart automatic programmed bomb; it is intact and was confiscated from one of the suspects. “I have something for you” that’s what he tells her, as he puts the deactivated bomb in Lewis’ hand.

Lewis: How thoughtful of you, a smart bomb…you shouldn’t have

RoboCop: Look at the engraving.

Lewis: “OCP, Oppressive Capitalist Pigs” Well, tell me something I don’t know, the red mark is there too…

RoboCop: The factory that is still producing explosives must be here, not in Clover Hills.

Lewis: That means Bertha and her group of ter…civilians, rebels…must be here. Makes sense, she’s hiding here and not over there, if her husband was murdered, her group is probably protecting her. Is there a way for us to find out where it was manufactured? Did you interrogate the suspect?

RoboCop: They were way too drugged to give a direct answer, although this smart bomb has a memory. It is equipped with an internal tracking feature that has been recording its entire trajectory since its making.

Lewis: Makes sense; that’s the way they can be tracked down or programmed by distance. Can’t you do the tracking?

RoboCop: I am not…advanced enough to do the tracking myself. Your device is.

Lewis: Oh so, you called, me, but in reality you needed Alana and not me, huh?

RoboCop playfully replies to her “No, I needed you both.” Robo was right as Alana successfully de-crypts the entire trajectory from the smart bomb and directs them where the active factory is.

Unlike the abandoned facility in Clover Hills, this new factory has an automatic door. Robo uses his interface needle to connect with the security application, the door’s screen chimes and he successfully deactivates it. Both police officers come into the building.

Lewis is holding her flashlight with one hand and her truncheon in the other one. Robo is guarding her from behind.

“I am sorry to cut your hopes, Murphy, but I don’t think we will find anyone here at this hour”

Lewis tells Robo as she starts to look where the light switches are.

Robo is also looking at the machines and lowers his guard. Suddenly, they hear a female voice, shouting out loud “Bang, you’re dead!!” Lewis feels the canon of a gun poking her waist from behind. Robo immediately reacts and uses his thermographic vision to find where Lewis and the suspect are standing.

He aims at the woman that is threatening Lewis and asks her to put the gun down. “Let my partner go, you are under arrest” The woman doesn’t seem to comply with his orders and replies:

“No!! You are under arrest! What gives you the right to break into this place? One false move, RoboCop, and your partner is dead!!”

Robo flexes back his arm, troubled. Lewis takes her chance to drop her truncheon on the floor, the noise, distracts the suspect and she’s able to hit her with her elbow from behind, Robo reacts and fires at the woman’s gun, making her drop it on the floor. Lewis turns on the light and gazes at RoboCop still with an extended arm and his smoking gun. The suspect has surrendered and has lifted her arms up.

“Okay, that’s fine, you two kill me, but make sure, there’s nothing left of me when you finish…”

RoboCop: We are here looking for Bertha, the leader of your group, identify yourself…

Lewis: Look, lady I am not going to kill you, but I am very, very tempted to beat the crap out of you! Did you know his shooting is perfect?? You’d be into pieces now if he had wanted to…

The woman that seems to work as the night guard of the facility, turns her back on both officers by replying. “There is no Bertha anymore, she’s dead. There is no leader, and no resistance group, you came here late, I am sorry”

RoboCop: There is a group that keeps manufacturing explosives, this factory is still active.

Lewis: People keep mentioning Bertha, we know she’s hiding somewhere in this district…

Night guard: Hardly anyone comes to the factory now, the resistance group you talk about, has been spread in Clover Hills and here. People keep mentioning Bertha, because they want to have hope…

…They still want to believe someone will save them. But the truth is, she was buried along with her husband…the police slaughtered the two and I bet you are looking for the remaining members of the group, to do the same thing to them…

Lewis: We are not them, we are not with them. We are not the grey police, that’s a group of mercenaries hired by OCP to evict people from their homes

Night guard: How can I be sure you are telling the truth, since you broke into this place illegally? Yeah, that’s right, I might be just the night guard, but I know my rights, and you don’t happen to have a search warrant, do you, officers…?

RoboCop: This factory is operating against the law. That is a transgression of the penal code, section 17, illegal manufacture of harmful devices. I can also detect your modified Sig Sauer 34 pistol is unregistered by the Firearm Security Association of Detroit.

Night guard: Alright, alright, let’s all of us calm down…and what the hell are you…? A walking computer or something like that? Just tell me what you want…

Lewis: Watch your words lady. Don’t disrespect a police officer…

RoboCop is doing an internal search using the facial recognition application from the Metro West to identify the night guard; however, the woman seems to be out of the system. Many other results appear on the screen only he is able to see on his computerized vision, although there is not an exact match.

RoboCop: We want to send out a message. Tell the remaining members of the group the only way for the police department to press charges against the rehabilitation team is if any of them is willing to declare.

Lewis: And! We offer police protection to them. As long as they stop attacking us, the real police officers, no more threats of blowing up our stations is that understood…?

Night guard: I will see what I can do…you still broke into this place illegally, how did you even find it?

RoboCop: That is classified information.

Lewis: How about we take this woman back to the station and make her declare, huh, partner?

Night guard: If you do, that, there won’t be anyone to deliver your message…with one condition, you cannot reveal the location of this place; do we have a deal here? Now, you should go. Curfew will be over in an hour from now, and some of the guys will come to do some work soon. Nobody likes the police here.

RoboCop and Lewis look at each other and although they’d be willing to take the night guard with them, under arrest, they know the crucial importance to send the message through. There’s too much at stake, the high commands of OCP are implicated in the case and they should be careful.

Both cops go back to their cruiser and as Robo takes the wheel, Lewis leaves a recorded report for Reed to hear in the morning, although they keep their promise to not reveal the location of the factory.

Lewis: I am sorry Murphy, I know you wanted to find Bertha and the group, I guess we came late…do you think that weird woman will really deliver the message?

RoboCop: Let’s hope she does..

Lewis: I fear the day comes when we are ordered to break the riots between those people and the rehabs and we start killing civilians because they are already out of order and we never had the chance to reason with them, the real criminals here, are in Johnson’s group…

RoboCop: His urban pacification program is mostly illegal. The kid said “The only mother we have left…”

Lewis: Murphy, kids are fantasists…they like to imagine things, it’s probably difficult for them to face the reality and see they’ve lost their biological parents…and their foster ones too

It is almost dawn and the farther they get from New Stoneleigh the more the case seems to fade away, the conversations between Robo and Lewis have improved, although those revolve mostly around work. That would be the new way for them to avoid talking about the romantic relationship they have been slowly developing and are fearful to confront. The cop car stops as they observe there is absolute silence around; the streets are deserted, curfew is still on.

Lewis: Have you heard the news? The Media Break?

RoboCop: Faxx is dead.

Lewis: Apparently, she was attempting to escape from prison along with some other prisoners, the timer failed and they were killed trying to blow up a door, talking about explosives eh… they said her face was completely disfigured

RoboCop: She was the last one standing.

Lewis: Well, finally, the bitch is dead; all of them are…all the ones that messed you up

Lewis is confident now to reach out for the hand he always rests on the gear-stick, she isn’t afraid of rejection anymore. Robo immediately reacts and holds hers and they remain holding hands, without interrupting the conversation.

RoboCop: How bad was it? I remember…just fragments

Lewis: Pretty badly. You were tragically funny though, with some of the things you said…

RoboCop: What things?

Lewis: Well, let’s see, you started calling me by my first name, you sorta complimented my hair and finally you said something like…the moon being beautiful or wonderful. I know now I should have been more patient with you. Looking at things in retrospect, I guess, perhaps, I was annoyed by knowing you wouldn’t say any of those things to me, if you were in full control of your actions…

RoboCop: Do you ever get tired of that?

Lewis: Tired of…?

RoboCop: Putting up with me…

Lewis: Do you ever get tired of breaking shit to get me out of a dangerous zone? We’re partners…

RoboCop: You are right.

Lewis: And hey, the moon is wonderful tonight, don’t you think?

RoboCop: It is almost dawn…Anne

Robo is getting all the hints now. He’s got the message and has just called Lewis by her first name. It feels strange for her, as she is very used to the ‘police partner treatment’ she has gotten for years by him. Lewis wonders if Robo will decide to call her by her first name from now on, or if he will switch back to just “Lewis” when they’re both back on duty.

Lewis: Well, it’s the thought that counts eh? I should go now… this is my stop, right?

The goodnight kiss is a new thing that has been randomly happening between them, the times they’ve been parked and there hasn’t been anyone around. Lewis has been hesitating to let him know, they can have privacy again, there are many places where they can drive to, although she still fears to put pressure on him. Lewis feels she’s tipping toe around Robo and one false step would cause him to ‘wake up’ from the dream and regret the whole thing.

Robo just smiles, without taking action; however, he still doesn’t lose her hand. That must be a good sign, Lewis thinks and it is the instance in which his mechanical sounds are heard by her, when she knows he is slowly approaching her.

RoboCop dares to pull the collar of her shirt towards him; his playful invitation makes her chuckle and he’s also the one that decides to make the goodnight kiss longer, encouraged by the fact there is no one around, aiming to develop more sensations and finally, moved by the excitement of having Lewis with him for the complete night.

Many times when Robo had done this nightly patrol alone, he envisioned Lewis getting in the car with him, a granted wish that makes him realize that certain things he hoped for are possible and reachable now.

Anne gets caught up in the moment, however, after a while, she feels suffocated by having his heavy body so close, almost leaning on hers, she’s slowly losing her mind and has to push him away. Robo would be horrified to physically harm her and as soon as he notices her struggle to make him move back, he immediately retracts, feeling confused and a bit hurt.

Lewis: Hey…sweetheart, I think that’s enough for today…

RoboCop: Have I done something wrong?

Lewis avoids looking at him directly and focuses on the buildings that are visible from afar whilst embarrassed, thinking about the best way to give him a fair explanation.

“No, not at all, it is…the exact opposite” That’s the reply he gets and although it takes him a short while to understand her words, Robo finally comprehends and it is evident for him, the great abyss that exists between his body and hers.

RoboCop: You…can do everything you did that night, I don’t mind.

Lewis: No…that wouldn’t be fair for you; I want you to enjoy the moment too…

RoboCop: I enjoy things, my own way.

Lewis: Really? That’s good to know and, what do you say if I make you participate….?

RoboCop: How?

Lewis: You wanna see me, touch me again? I can make you have one of these too…you seemed to have fun?

Lewis moves towards him again, almost facing him, takes his right hand and places it on her chest affectionately, waiting for a reply. Nevertheless, RoboCop seems to have shut down temporarily as he has gone silent and unresponsive.

Although Robo has been reliving the events of the night at Wildcard Edge, there is concern in the back of his mind, despite the fact Lewis dared to confess her feelings for him, Robo is still unsure on why Lewis has developed physical attraction towards him, Robo presumes the more intimate moments they share together, the quicker she’d be bored. He’s also afraid Lewis suddenly ‘wakes up’ from the fantasy and sees him with the eyes of the reality, abandoning him as a result afterwards.

Anne guesses he’s just uncomfortable and not ready to repeat the experience yet and redirects his hand to her face as she puts her left one on his too. Anne has switched to romance mode, she wouldn’t mind to wait for him. The concerned expression on Robo’s face softens. They look at each other and realize they don’t need to say or do anything else, to enjoy the few more minutes they’ll have together in the cruiser before saying goodbye.

The first rays of sunlight start to slowly replace the artificial lights on the streets. It is a new day and a new awakening for RoboCop and Lewis.

Although some of the circumstances that surround them won’t change, they’ve become a man and a woman that have started living a new shared reality in which everything looks different, under a new light.

It is an enhanced reality in which they can build a new world of their own where certain limitations don’t exist anymore, where suffering, pain and despair have been replaced for happiness, pleasure and love.