Good Cop Bad Cop: Chapter One

First topic message reminder :

One week. Asher has to be mean, Kay has to be nice. Whoever gives up first has to write a story for the winner. Should be... interesting.

James lead the way down the hall toward the holodeck. As they went, they happened to bump into Ellie, who was eating sushi as she walked. "Oh hey guys, what's up?" She asked.

"Dancing lessons" Shane said and smiled at her "Want to come?"

Starr, Dawn and Rigel followed. They wanted to learn more dances too.

Ellie nodded, mumbling her reply a bit through her dinner. "I'm an amazing dancer, I can teach you traditional human dances. Should be fun!" She followed along with the group, expertly wielding her chopsticks to eat sushi as she walked.

"We are going to see if there is a program on the holodeck for teaching dancing" Shane informed and walked beside her. He was getting excited about this after watching the others. "You should have been with us though, we got to see Pandoran dancing and Matt dancing, sortof."

"I missed out on dancing? Oh well, I'm here now. Better late than never," Ellie said. She tried to transfer her chopsticks to her bad hand without dropping the sushi tray so she could slap Shane's shoulder, and promptly dropped the chopsticks on the floor. "Damn it."

Shane chuckled and picked up the sticks then focused on them for a moment before glancing around for a trash can.

"I need those still!" Ellie told Shane hastily, "They're clean, Matt does a good job with the floor."

Shane paused and looked to her then at the sticks again before shaking his head "At least let me rinse them off then" He said with a shrug as he changed his course to a bathroom to do as he said then bring them back to her

"Thanks, Cutie!" Ellie concentrated for a moment and grew a bean plant out of her sleeve on her bad arm, so she could hold the chopsticks, and gave Shane and one-armed hug. "The floors are totally clean though, seriously."

James looked amused. Terrans were so goofy.

Shane hugged her back and smiled a little before continuing to the holodeck room

They went into the holodeck. "Dance teacher," James told it.

It didn't seem to recognize the voice command. James went to the control panel to find something manually.

Shane looked around the room as he waited to see what James would find.

"Ballet?" James said, looking at the display in amusement, "Jazz? Centuarian Folk? Minotaurian War Dancing? So many choices!"

Matt had followed along, sipping on a can of warm soda. "Minotaur war dances? I wanna see that!"

"Sounds terrifying. I saw Tala have a dance off in a bar with some drunk idiots one time, she was pretty insane." James laughed, "Remember that, Rigel? Good times." He selected that preset from the list.

The holodeck became an empty room with a couple of minotaurs standing around. One of them came over, a gigantic seven foot tall bull built like a truck. "Hello! So you want to learn traditional Minotaurian War Dancing?" He said, not in a very loud tone such as Tala would have used, but in a more normal speaking voice.

Matt grinned up at the minotaur. "Man... i've missed looking UP at people." He laughed.

"Well then you've come to the right place," the minotaur said.

James laughed. "I feel tiny right now."

"Just imagine how I feel then," Ellie said through a mouthful of sushi.

Matt laughed. "You Ellie, are adorably pocket sized." He grinned at the minotaur. "Can we see your war dance? Please?"

Rigel chuckled and watched the two minotaurs curiously. This would be interesting at least.

Starr and the others were also watching with interest

The minotaur nodded, and a smaller, but still huge, male came to join him. "War dances are a traditional way to battle for supremacy in many northern tribes, since they still require incredible physical prowess without requiring bloodshed," he explained. "It's now the preferred way to obtain leadership, or to prove the power of love in a marriage, or to resolve anything else that might need to be proved in combat."

The two minotaurs squared off, snorting and pawing the ground. With a toss of their horns, the battle began. The bigger minotaur lead, pounding his hooves on the floor in a complex rhythm, and the smaller one imitated him, about a half second behind, but copying his movements almost perfectly. There was no music, but the hooves made plenty of sound all on their own.

Matt watched all this, glancing to the others every so often to see how they were reacting. This was in his opinion, awesome. Minotaurs were surprising dudes, he'd half expected them to just wrestle one another.

Shane grinned and watched the start of this dance.

Ellie cheered. Oh yeah, she loved a good dance-off. Who didn't?

"Man, sometimes I just want to be a minotaur," James said.

The males danced, with increasing speed and energy, until the larger male stopped, panting. The smaller male bellowed in triumph.

"He is the victor in this round," the larger male said, still in the same pleasant tone of voice he had used before the match. "He has bested me in battle." He added with an ear wiggle, "Of course in a battle for leadership, many dances would be performed over several days, to ensure that the victory was not a mistake."

The smaller male snorted happily in agreement.

"Winner is best dancer? I dunno, I think that's a form of government I can get behind." Matt joked.

At this point, someone very large stepped into the holodeck. "We are most terrifying," Tala proclaimed, sounding pleased, "We can prove our worthiness without slaughter, and still destroy many lives if true battle is someday needed."

Starr and the others looked to Tala and smiled as she came in to join them

Matt grinned at Tala. "remind me never to get on your bad side."