Chapter 2: Your Friendly Neighborhood Police Officer

The day came bright and sunny over Bricksburg as the morning rays slanted in between the skyscrapers, and Good Cop was on patrol.

Though, "patrol," may be too strong a word for it.

The truth was that very little crime, if any, happened in the morning. At night, sure, and maybe in the wee hours before the sun was up, but after everyone had woken up and stretched and began to go about their day, the town could usually be counted on to be peaceful. Good Cop used to joke (he remembered with a pang) that perhaps crime simply liked to sleep in.

So why was he out watching the sidewalks after a hectic night?

The simple reason was that Good Cop just liked people.

He liked mornings. He liked seeing people up and about, and he liked to see their smiling faces and send out a smile in return. And if he saw someone who wasn't smiling, well, he liked to send them a smile even more, for an unhappy person on a sunny day could certainly use a smile.

And so it was, this morning, like every morning, that Good Cop was out and about, and anyone who looked up from their mailboxes or cars or whatever and saw him would think to themselves, "Yup, there's Good Cop, doing the rounds."

"Hey, Chief!"

"Hello!" Good Cop returned with a wave.

"Good morning, Chief!"

"Good morning!"

"Morning, Good Cop! Beautiful day, huh?"

"It certainly is!"

"Good Cop! Hey, am I under arrest?"

"Very funny, Cody!"

"Hey, it's Good Cop! Good Cop!"

A small group of children, on their way to the bus stop, ran up and intercepted Good Cop in a flock. They were beaming up at him, bouncing a little with that daily excitement that only children have.

"Good Cop, hi!" they said. For children, a police officer is cool enough, but a friendly police officer is a hero.

"Why, hello, me wee ones!" he said, looking down at them. All their eyes were fixed on him like ducklings. Good Cop didn't think he'd ever seen anything so cute in his life.

Amidst the flurry of general noise, one of the kids in the back, a little boy with freckles, suddenly shouted, "Hey!" When Good Cop looked, he pointed a clawed hand at him and cocked one eye. "Stick 'em up, scum!" he said.

Obediently, Good Cop gasped and raised both his hands in the air. The children erupted into a shriek of giggles.

"Hey, Good Cop!" someone else shouted, a little girl this time. "Say the thing!"

Good Cop put his hands down and shrugged. "Aw, you don't want to hear me say that," he said, "And it's been a long night." But he was still smiling.

"Aw, c'mon!" they all begged, each in their way and their volume. "Please? Pretty please?"

"Oh, all right!" said Good Cop, pretending to give in. He put his hand up to his visor and gave a hearty wave. "Top o' the mornin'!" he said, cheerfully.

The children burst into laughter as though this was the funniest thing they'd ever heard. Good Cop laughed along with them and sent them on their way. "All right, run along now, all of you. You don't want to miss the bus!"

"Bye!" they called, as they ran away, amidst smaller cries of "We won't!" Good Cop continued to wave as he continued on his way, and the only though he had in the morning sunshine was that the world was a pretty good place.

An hour or two later, a few streets away and in the opposite direction, Emmet Brickowski, the hero of Freedom Friday and the Special, although his frequent request that nobody call him that, was having a pretty similar experience.

"Good morning, Emmet!"

"Morning Mrs. Scratchen-Post!" called Emmet with a wave. In his hand was a paper bag, which rattled slightly as he walked.

"Emmet! 'Sup, bra."

"Hey, Surfer Dan! How are the waves today?"

"They're chill, bra. Got ourselves a nice, chill ocean today."

"Awesome!"

Emmet rounded the corner, continuing his howdy dos. He never gave more than a passing thought to the days before, when no one knew his name and he watched TV alone. All the people to whom he'd been a blank, he was overjoyed to greet.

He came to a stop on the corner, waiting for the walk sign to flash. "Hey, Cardio Callie!" he called across the street.

"Just Callie's fine, Emmet," she replied. She had on the same thing she wore everyday, the pink leotard and the sweatband. Standing next to her was Ice Cream Jo, her hair pulled back in a ponytail. Even though it was early, she already had a cone in her hand.

"Hey, Emmet!" she called.

"Hey, Jo!" he called back. Callie gave a wry smile.

"Say, what's in the bag, Emmet?" Jo asked.

"Bagels," Emmet answered briskly. "I got a few too many at breakfast."

"Ooh," she said, "Can I have one?"

Emmet looked in the bag, an eyebrow raised. "Well…" he began, "I was gonna take them to somebody, but I guess there's enough. Sure!" He lifted one out of the bag, crisp and still reasonably warm, and held it high. "Head's up!" he called.

Jo jumped and raised one hand in the air, to show she was ready. Emmet threw, and the bagel made a wide arch in the air before Jo snatched it. "Thanks, Emmet!" she called, laughing.

Just a short while ago, nobody would have thrown bagels across the street, least of all Emmet. Emmet wasn't actually sure if there was anything in the instructions against this, but nobody really did it, and back then, if nobody did it, then nobody did it. But things were different now. With a final "See ya around!" and "Have a great day, Emmet!" Emmet went on his way, and before long he was at the police station.

It was Lloyd who met him at the door. For some reason, he seemed out of breath. The crew had been up half the night putting the station in order, and for the moment it was mostly clean, save for a few shattered light bulbs that still needed to be replaced. Emmet looked up at them, a little confused.

"Emmet. Hi." The two shook hands. "Did you need something?"

"Nah, I just wanted to talk to Good Cop. Is he free?"

"Um, yeah, he should be. He's over, uh, there, I think."

Emmet looked closely at Lloyd, frowning a little. "Hey, did something happen? You look kind of tired."

"Nah, nah, it's nothing," said Lloyd, but his worn-out expression didn't change.

"Are you sure?" Emmet asked.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Go on ahead. On your left." And he gently nudged Emmet inside and went away.

Emmet walked through, looking around and trying to spot anything that seemed unusual, but aside from the fact that it was a little dark, everything seemed fine. Emmet quickly spotted Tammy coming from the opposite direction with her head down. In her arms was a stack of papers.

Emmet had seen Tammy before, and it was true that her strange appearance had thrown him off at first. From what he had heard from others, everybody from her hometown of Heartlake City looked like she did. And there was another weird thing about Heartlake City: everybody who lived there was a girl. Everybody. There were no guys anywhere. Women were known to visit there and come back half-jokingly calling it a paradise. "If only everybody didn't look so weird," they'd say.

But Emmet didn't mind. He knew Tammy's appearance didn't make her weird.

"Hey, Tammy!" Emmet called, smiling.

Tammy jolted at the sound of her name, backpedalled, dropped everything she was carrying, and immediately sprinted down the hall and out of side. Emmet stood there blankly with his arm raised as papers fluttered to the floor around him, like the leftover residue of an explosion.

That. That was what made her weird.

"Uh… Okay… Bye, I guess," he said. He looked around, shuffled the papers together and propped them on a nearby computer table (boy, these computers were looking kind of battered), before proceeding on his way.

He turned a corner and there saw Good Cop, sitting at a desk in a warren of the wall. He looked up and as soon as he saw who it was, he leapt to his feet. "Emmet!" he called, "Hi, there!"

"Morning, Good Cop! Hey, why are you sitting at Tammy's desk?"

"Oh, my office is being cleaned," said Good Cop, shaking his head. "Don't worry about it. What brings you here?"

"Well, I ordered too many bagels this morning, and I thought maybe I'd bring the rest to you, y'know, since you're always so busy."

"Aw, really?" said Good Cop delightedly, "That's so nice!" He was leaning forward over his desk rather eagerly.

"Yeah," said Emmet, "Here you go." And he set the bag on the table.

Good Cop did not so much seize the bag as fling himself upon it. He tore into it as a drowning man scrambles for air and immediately shoved the first bagel in his mouth, one bite, two, three, gone. The second bagel disappeared in the same flurry. It was like watching a wild dog eat. Emmet took a slow step back, slightly alarmed by this carnality.

Good Cop looked up briefly, breathing heavily through his full mouth. "Emmet," he struggled, swallowing, "Do you think you could get me a glass of water?"

"Uh… okay," said Emmet. He went to the kitchen and found a cooler with paper cups. By the time he had filled one up and returned, the bagels were gone. Well, gone from the bag, anyway. The last one seemed to be entirely inside Good Cop's face.

"Here," said Emmet, holding out the water. Good Cop snatched it almost violently out of his hand. "Mmph, thank you, Emmet," he managed. He struggled a swallow and began to take long, deep swigs of the water. He upturned it, literally bottom up, and didn't set it down again until it was empty.

"Ah, that hit the spot," he said.

Emmet was still staring. "Say, uh," he began, "How long has it been since you last ate?"

"Five thirteen," Good Cop immediately answered.

Emmet blinked, frowning.

"No," Good Cop corrected, looking down briefly. "No, I'm sorry, what was the question?"

"You have to eat, okay?" Emmet scolded. "You can't fight crime on an empty stomach."

"I had coffee," Good Cop protested mildly.

"You can't eat nothing but coffee; coffee's not even food, exactly! And it'll keep you up!"

"Yeah, I know," said Good Cop, grinning sheepishly, "I've been awake for three days."

Emmet's eyes widened, and he felt his mouth pop open. Yes, he knew that Good Cop was usually busy. "I love my job!" he'd always said. He'd had no idea it was this bad.

"Dude, you've gotta take care of yourself! You can't keep running on empty like this!"

"Don't worry, I'm fine!" said Good Cop. His tone was cheerful, dismissive. "I can handle it!"

"No, no, you can't go on like this." Emmet grabbed Good Cop's hand and began to pull. "You need to go home and get some sleep."

"Oh, no, no!" Now it was Good Cop's turn to protest. "No, I can't do that! I have to stay here in case the phone rings. And I have some new reports to file out, and I have to watch the new recruits, and if another Duplo attack happens, I-" He was talking rather fast.

"You've got five other people here. Plus Bubbles. I'm not kidding, go home!" He tried to push Good Cop toward the main hallway, but Good Cop planted his heels firmly in the carpet and would have none of it.

"This city is counting on me!" he was saying.

"Good Cop, Bricksburg is not going to explode if you get your nightly eight hours."

"No, Emmet, let go!"

"C'mon, just take a nap or something!"

"No!"

They went on like this for several minutes. Finally, Emmet gave up. It was clear he wasn't going to win this, and if he did get him out the door, the man would probably just turn around and head back as soon as he was out of sight.

"Alright," he finally sighed, dropping his arms, "You win. But could you at least try to take better care of yourself?"

Good Cop looked a little doleful. "Well, Emmet, if that's what you want, I guess I'll try."

"No, no, that's not it!" Emmet shook his head unhappily. "You're not supposed to do it because I want you to. It's because it's what you need." He poked him twice in the chest to emphasize the point.

Good Cop stared. "I don't understand," he said.

Emmet sighed. "Nevermind," he said. "Look, are you sure you'll be able to make it to the thing later?"

Good Cop was heading back to his desk, but at this, he looked up and beamed. "Yeah! I'll definitely be there!"

"Are you sure? Absolutely positive? 'Cause, if you want, you could send somebody else there-?"

Good Cop shook his head. "No, no, that's alright! I'll be there, don't worry!"

"Okay," said Emmet. "Hey, listen, I gotta run." He turned and started to head out of sight. "Remember what I said: Take care of yourself!"

"You got it, buddy!" Good Cop said, saluting. Then he picked up a pen and immediately started writing, bent over Tammy's desk, totally absorbed. It was only quiet for a second or two before Emmet's head popped back over the edge of the wall.

"Hey," he said, more subdued now, "Um, listen, maybe I shouldn't ask this, but, uh, have you seen him around lately?"

Good Cop looked up, his eyes wide. His smile disappeared. The silence seemed to drag on for an uncomfortable long amount of time. Good Cop wished he'd thought to buy a clock or something, the kind that ticked. This silence was… it was killing him.

"No," he said quietly. "No, I… I haven't."

Emmet's expression became indescribably sad. Good Cop couldn't bear to look at it. He looked down at the carpet underneath his feet.

"Hey. Don't sweat it, okay?" said Emmet. "I'm… I'm sure he'll pop up again in… in just a little bit."

The silence dragged on. Emmet cleared his throat.

"So, uh, see you at the thing!" he said. He tried to smile. Good Cop appreciated the effort.

"Yeah," he said. "See ya."

Emmet left. It was quiet again.

Where are you?

Where did you go?

I know you're there. I can't stand being like this.

I wish… I wish… I knew how to help you.

Please, talk to me.

I can't stand this.

Just talk to me…

I feel so bad for you.

It was much later in the afternoon when "the thing" occurred.

It seemed as though there were hundreds waiting in the white, lit street, an untold throng. A general chatter rose and flowed over them, and people with small children fanned them or each other with pamphlets or caps or whatever they had. The air was full of anticipation but easy. Just before them, a respectful distance away, was a red ribbon, stretched between two poles. What lay beyond the ribbon, that was the reason they were here today.

Apart from the crowd, President Business, the very same, stood on small platform and tapped his foot. He checked his watch and turned to Emmet, who was standing next to him. "They're late," he said. His tone was almost accusatory.

"They'll be here," said Emmet, shrugging. "We did kind of surprise her."

"Why can't things just go smoothly?" President Business asked. "Why does there always have to be some kind of hitch?"

"It's only been three minutes," said Emmet appeasingly.

Good Cop was on a platform a little below them, standing at attention. It was his duty, he knew, to not really do much of anything. Just show up, look official. He never had to do this kind of thing before, but now he was used to it. Occasionally, he broke his demeanor to wave or say a few words to someone in the crowd, which was getting restless with waiting.

"Only three minutes? Only?" President Business was saying. "Listen here, Brickowski-"

Mercifully, at just that moment, a long horn sounded, singing out the first few notes of "La Cucaracha." The heads of everyone in the crowd turned up at once, all in different directions, before someone spotted it and pointed, and the rest looked and broke into a cheer. A blue spaceship was descending down out of the sky. It framed itself against the sun, looking quite imposing and impressive, before slowly lowering itself with expert precision to the white tiles below it. People leaned toward the ship, making various noises of awe as it send out a final jet of steam.

"See?" Emmet said, gesturing toward it. "What did I tell you?" President Business made a disapproving noise, but he shrugged, apparently willing to let it go, and the two hopped off the platform toward the ship.

The hatch on the cockpit slid open with a pop, and Benny, the 1980s Spaceman, leaped out and landed in front of the ship, waving both his arms in over his head. "How're you doing, everybody!" he shouted.

Nobody knew quite what to make of this, but before long they laughed good-naturedly at this blue-suited weirdo and applauded. Benny hopped in the air with excitement and ran back to the ship, where Lucy was leading out a smiling Unikitty, who was moving her head about, smiling, but clearly with no clue what was going on. Over her eyes was a huge blue blindfold; the delay had been because of the extended search to find one big enough.

"It sounds like there are a lot of people here," Unikitty was saying, as Batman hopped out of the back.

Emmet ran up to the ship, waving. "Guys! You made it!" he was saying. He ran right up to Lucy, who smiled and took his hand in greeting.

President Business was just behind him, and he slowed down as he approached the ship. "Ah, geez, guys, did you really have to blindfold her?" he asked.

"She was the one who wanted the blindfold," said Batman, drily.

"It's not a surprise without a blindfold!" Unikitty said matter-of-factly, hopping off the ship. Lucy made a brief gesture of panic, but Unikitty landed smoothly on her feet with a little bounce, albeit facing the wrong direction. "So, what am I getting?" she asked. "It's not my birthday!"

"Nope!" said Benny, bounding over. "It's even better!"

"Ooh! What is it, what is it?" Unikitty was positively giddy. The crowd laughed at her excitement and watched her face eagerly, wanting to see the moment of dawning comprehension when she saw.

"Go ahead," Lucy said with a grin. She reached behind Unikitty's ear and pulled off the blindfold in one motion. "Take a look."

Unikitty blinked, shaking her head to clear away the spots, and looked up.

And she gasped.

Before her eyes was a brand new Cloud Cuckoo Land, shining so close to the sun just the way she remembered it. It was full of color, every color she could name if she had the time or the breath, red, orange, pink, purple, lemon yellow, mango, Cornflower, Periwinkle, Screamin Green, Purple Mountains' Majesty, the beauty of rainbows and hard candy. But, although the effect on her eyes was the same as she remembered, the city itself was not. It had a brand new layout, with glittering stores and carnival rides arranged around a gleaming fountain in the center. Everywhere she looked she saw adorableness, friendliness.

She saw home.

Her eyes were huge and wet, sparkling as much as the city itself. "It's… It's beautiful!" she managed. "How…?"

"We all built it," Lucy said, "All of us. It was Emmet's idea. He got a bunch of Master Builders and construction workers together and, well…" She shrugged. She didn't need to say any more. The result was obvious.

"Oh, thank you!" Unikitty was saying. There was no doubt about it; she was definitely crying now. "Thank you all! I… I…" And when her emotion became unbearable she threw herself at Emmet and sobbed.

"Oh!" Emmet was taken aback. "I'm sorry, Unikitty. I know you don't like to be unhappy."

"No, you don't get it!" she wailed. "I am happy!"

The crowd "Awww"ed all together in one voice and then began to cheer again. A few people were whistling. Emmet turned and nodded at President Business, who began quickly looking around.

"Mike," he was saying impatiently. "Mike. I need a mike, here!" Good Cop ran up and handed it to him. President Business took it quickly. "Thanks," he said with a wink. Good Cop grinned and stepped back.

"Heellooo, everyone!" he said loudly, in that stretched-out voice you only use when speaking into a microphone. "Eyes over here, please! Two seconds!"

Everyone looked over. Everyone behind the front row tried to tilt themselves upward to see better.

"Thank you all for coming to the grand unveiling of the New Cloud Cuckoo Land! I'd like to personally thank all the hard workers who made this possible as well as welcome everybody who chose to come here today. Yes, me personally, because even though I tried to destroy the world I am still your president."

There was a general muttering in the crowd after he said this. A lot of people were looking flatly at each other.

"Hey, hey, it's not my fault, okay? It's all of your faults for electing me."

"Yeah," called Lucy, "But the only options on the ballot were your name and another box that said 'Trapdoor' next to it."

"Well, it's your fault that I'm standing here now and not Trapdoor," he said simply with a haughty turn of the head.

"Hail President Trapdoor!" someone in the crowd shouted. The throng burst into laughter. The one guy who shouted got a fist-bump from the person next to him.

President Business was less than amused. "Very funny," he said. He switched his attention to Unikitty, who was still hugging Emmet. "So, weird… unicorn-thingy, you get to cut the ribbon, so if you're ready…"

Unikitty, who hadn't moved at all since she'd collapsed into Emmet, immediately leapt to her feet, her tears completely gone. "Okay!" she said eagerly.

Good Cop walked carefully up and handed President Business a rather large and unwieldy pair of scissors, which he in turn held out to Unikitty. "Alrighty, here you go," he said.

Unikitty bounced up to him, smiling with her mouth open, and stopped, not making a visible move to take the scissors. She stood there for just a moment before sitting down and closing her eyes. The horn on her head began to glow with an aurora of rainbow colors. President Business jumped back a little as with a flurry of sparkles the scissors were lifted out of his hand and into the air. In the middle of the air, as the crowd watched, the two halves of the scissors separated, then flowed over to the ribbon that was stretched over the street. The ribbon floated up then disassembled as the two halves flowed toward it and with a rustling of magical wind the pieces all reassembled and thudded down on the ground. Where the ribbon had been, a red banner now stood, flowing proudly in front of the city.

Unikitty opened her eyes and leapt to her feet. "New Cloud Cuckoo Land is open!" she shouted. "Yay!"

The crowd didn't make her say it twice. With a whoop they all streamed past and flowed into the city, fanning out like a delta. The rush and force of their joy was like a stampede, was actually a stampede, and the group around the ship jumped back from it. In the confusion, Benny somehow ended up going up and over the crowd, and now, in his micro-gravity suit, he floated above them easily, bouncing like a beach ball.

But, of course, Unikitty was ahead of them all, and nobody's excitement could match her ecstasy. Before long there was a group of people following her, because wherever she was, that's where the most fun was to be had. Led by her, the flock ran into the shops, slid down the slides, engaged in sporadic games of tag in the newly made square. At one point, Unikitty approached the new fountain, flowing merrily and impressing all with its size.

"Ooh, what is this?" she was saying, looking down into it. "Is this Kool-Aid?"

"It sure is!" said Gail, who was standing near enough to hear. She pushed up on the rim of her hardhat, in way of construction workers.

"Can you drink it?" she asked.

"Sure!" said Gail. "It's clean."

Splash! Gail flinched and starting laughing as Unikitty floundered to the surface, licking her lips, Kool-Aid being sponged by her fur. It was all the incentive it took for others to jump in as well, and before long the group was engaged in the sweetest and stickiest splash fight the world had ever seen.

Cloud Cuckoo Land, returned. Cloud Cuckoo Land, better than before. Cloud Cuckoo Land no longer secret, no longer shrouded in fear, free now, forever. The air was like a carnival, and your teeth buzzed from the sweetness of it.

Someone had rolled out a snack table, full of cookies and punch, and vendors had already opened little stalls, selling all manner of unhealthy food. It was at the snack table that Good Cop decided to stake out, holding a glass of punch in his hand. He stood with his back to the table, watching the hilarity in the fountain, itching to join them but he feeling he'd better not. As for why exactly he had this feeling, he couldn't say. He had just finished munching a cookie and was reaching for another when he heard his name being called. He looked over and saw Lucy and Emmet, heading right for him. He pushed himself off the table and waved them over.

"Hey!" Lucy saying, "You made it!"

"Yeah, here I am!" Good Cop said. "You really did a wonderful job!"

Lucy grinned. "Yeah," she said, "I guess we did."

Emmet was looking around the square, his eyes obviously drawn the various stalls. "Hey," he said, "I'm gonna go see what they have. I'll be right back!" And he raced off.

It was just Lucy and Good Cop now.

"So," she began, taking a glass, "How's the bike? Does it still run? Any trouble?"

"Oh, no, it's perfect!" Good Cop reassured her. Then his voice became dreamy. "Better than perfect. It rides so smoothly. Like you said."

"Like a kitten?" she asked.

"Like a kitten," he agreed.

They both sighed. That bike really was a Technicolor dream.

"It's really impressive," Good Cop said, "How you're able to make something like that."

"Oh, stop!" said Lucy, clearly enjoying herself.

"No, I mean it! I can't even imagine! I was always really impressed with you."

"Oh, no!"

"Yeah!"

"You're just saying that! You say stuff like that to everybody."

"No I really mean it!" Good Cop insisted. "You've got a lot of skill. We really could've used you on the force."

"Ugh!" she said, making a face, "No way you'd get me into one of those uniforms! It would be too weird. Y'know after-"

But here she stopped, suddenly aware of her error. Good Cop's smile faded a little. They both looked away, feeling the awkwardness of the moment prickling the air. Lucy coughed.

"So, uh," she faltered, trying to recover, "Anyway…"

Thankfully, just at that moment, Emmet's voice pealed from a few feet away. "Guys!" he was saying, "Guys, look, look! They got cotton candy!" In his arms were two bolls on top of their stripped paper cones, one pink and one blue. He ran right up to Lucy, his arms full. "Hey, hey, which color do you want?" he asked, bouncing on his heels a little.

Lucy looked up at Emmet, her face a mix of amusement and exasperation. "You dork," she finally said, ruffling his hair. She took the blue one as he nudged her back, and they both dug in, both clearly as happy as could be, both clearly very in love.

Good Cop used this moment to steal away.

He moved along with his hands behind his back, observing all who ran past him. And there were quite a lot, running to a fro, none of them paying him any mind. To his left, he saw a pair of robots, retired now but still allowed to function, dunk a third into a barrel, apparently trying to help him reach an apple. Good Cop waved, but the robots paid him no mind, so he moved on.

A little farther on, he spotted Benny, talking to a woman whose smile seemed a little too stretched out. Good Cop recognized that smile; it was the look of someone who'd been roped into a conversation and was desperately hoping for someone to rescue them.

"I built that spaceship, you know," Benny was saying. He was talking rather fast. "I'm awesome at building spaceships. Normally, I'd go for the pointier ones, but this time I thought I'd go with something a little more round because it's a special occasion, so why not-?"

"Yeah, uh huh. Okay." The woman was nodding. Good Cop saw her eyes dart to the side briefly.

"Everybody was rushing around, and Batman just wanted to take the Batmobile, but I said it wasn't big enough. Only it turns out that it actually was big enough. But, aw, it's a spaceship! With the stabilizers and the decal on the front. I painted the decal myself. You can't do better than a spaceship. It's better than a limo!"

"Yeah, listen, I think I hear my friend calling me. Bye!" The woman escaped. Benny stood blinking for a moment before he grinned and waved. "Oh, okay. Later!" he said. His feet were starting to lift off the ground, and people were staring.

Good Cop was used to Benny and pitied him a little. He was a perfectly nice guy, but something about his energy put people off. Good Cop didn't fully understand why, but he wasn't sure there was anything to be done about it. He moved his attention from Benny, who was looking around for someone else to talk to, and glanced casually down one of the streets.

And there his eyes froze.

Several buildings down, in a street where very few people were, one of the new structures, some sort of hotel from what Good Cop could tell, was swaying. It was only a tiny shift at first, and Good Cop was able to wonder for a second if maybe he'd imagined it. But… nope! There it was again, the other way this time. It was definitely creaking, rocking side to side. A flowerpot that had been set on the corner of the roof next to the rail began to slide toward the other corner. Yes, it was definitely listing forward and to the right, toward the street.

Good Cop's mind was racing. Nobody was even looking in that direction. Why would the building be coming down? It was brand new! True, the Master Builders were sometimes known to make things that didn't hold together, but this city had been supervised by a team of construction workers. And why just this building, when everything else was holding perfectly?

And then he saw it, under the corner that was quivering under its own weight, yearning to collapse. Under the second floor, in the row of pillars. Right under the corner, where there should have been another pillar, was instead…

Good Cop raced off, back toward the entrance of the city.

Two guys were standing in front of the hotel, both ignorant of the eminent danger. In fact, one of them was facing away, his back to the teetering mass behind him.

"Come on!" he was saying impatiently. "Take the picture!"

The other guy was standing several feet away, fiddling with a camera, his eyes screwed up in concentration. "I'm trying," he muttered. "I think there's something wrong with the wheel."

"Hurry up! I'm getting tired of standing like this!"

"It's stuck or something, I dunno…"

"My arms are tired!"

"Look, just shut up, okay!" the man with the camera finally snapped, looking up.

At that moment, the flowerpot, which had travelled a long way over the roof, finally swung over the rail and clattered to the cloudy pavement. The guy with the camera traced his eyes to where the flowerpot had fallen, squinted, then looked up. Then he gasped.

"Holy crud, run!" he shouted. And the camera cluttered to the ground as he fled toward the square without another word.

The man posing put his leg down and slowly lowered his arms. "What?" he asked. "What's going on?" He was looking around, alarmed. The street was suddenly deserted. "Hey, wha-"

At that precise moment, he felt a sensation as though he'd been caught by the edge of a runaway train. He was suddenly yanked forcefully off his feet by the back of his shirt, so hard he felt his tongue come out a little, before with a hard thump he was deposited on something leathery. Wind whipped past his head as he looked up and saw Good Cop, leaning to the left to straighten his motorcycle as it sped away.

"What?" the guy stammered, unable to say anything else. "What?"

"Don't you worry, buddy, I've got you," Good Cop said, smiling. He pulled to a stop, further down the street, safely out of the way.

The crowd in the square had heard the explosion of the motorcycle's roar, and their attention was now caught as though tied by a string. In the scattering of souls closest to the hazardous street was Benny, whose eyes followed the motorcycle's path with a troubled brow. They followed a little after the motorcycle, jogging at a bewildered pace, before they caught sight of the doomed hotel as it finally clattered along that fatal corner and tumbled to the street, scattering bricks and leaking water studs, spilling itself slowly as though melting in the summer sun.

Peopled screamed as they saw it come down. The guy in Good Cop's lap couldn't stop staring, as Good Cop slowly rumbled his way back toward the quickly assembling crowd.

"Oh my gosh, is that where I just was?" he asked, his eyes wide. "Gee, thanks, guy. You saved my bacon! And my skin! And my potatoes, and all that stuff!"

Good Cop shook his head serenely. "Come on, now, none of that," he said. "All in a day's work."

People were now gathering around the steaming ruins. Lucy, leading Emmet, pushed her way to the front, where Benny was already standing. She stared, horrified at the shapeless pile before her. Unikitty was coming up from the back, shaking Kool-Aid out of her fur.

"Hey, what happened?" she was asking. "Did something break?"

"How could this happen?" Emmet was saying, to no one in particular. "Lucy, I thought you checked this building last night!"

"I did!" said Lucy. "I swear, I toured it just last night and it was fine."

"So, why did it collapse?" Benny asked.

"I know why."

Everyone turned and parted the way for Good Cop, who pulled to a stop before gently lowering the grateful man down and climbing down himself. Everyone's eyes went to the man, who was shaking and laughing nervously in his gratitude, putting two and two together, before they moved back over to Good Cop. He walked over to the pile of rubble and gestured toward it. "If I may?" he asked Lucy.

She nodded. "Sure," she said.

Good Cop took his blaster from his holster and, carefully, holding the barrel down towards the ground, pushed various bricks and studs out of the way, until…

"That, I think, is the culprit," he said.

Everyone squinted to get a clearer look, then gasped. Tucked in under other smaller and more elegant bricks was one huge and unwieldy brick, with large, nasty hollows in the grotesquely swollen pegs. It was much larger and thicker than any of the other bricks around it, and yet it only had four pegs. It was bright, alarmingly red, the same kind of red seen on stop signs, and underneath the rubble around it, they could see one large, watery eye, which roved round and around, looking at them all in turn.

Everyone stared, many making faces of disgust. They all recognized it immediately.

"Duplo." Batman was the first to say it.

"But, how?" asked Lucy.

"I saw it," said Good Cop, "From over there. They replaced one of the pillars on the bottom floor with a few of these. But they didn't make them fit quite right."

"Wow, you have good eyesight," said Benny, genuinely impressed.

Lucy paid Benny no mind. "They must have snuck in here and done this this morning, before we all got here."

A malcontented murmur rose up from the group crowding around, among which were more than a few Master Builders and construction workers, who had been slaving day and night to make this day possible, and had seen part of their efforts dashed away in less than a minute.

"Why do they do things like this?"

"Ugh, I can't believe this."

"I really hate them."

"Why did they have to come here in the first place?"

Emmet's eyes were moving from face to face in the crowd. He was clearly uncomfortable. This was supposed to be a special day, and he didn't want to see any sorrow or anger, even with something like this. Today was a celebration. So, he clapped his hands together and forced up a smile.

"Hey, c'mon, guys," he said, "It's not a big deal! Why, we've got a whole team of builders here. We can rebuild this thing, no problem!"

Some people shrugged, warming up to the idea, but a few people, including Lucy, groaned. "Rebuild it?"

"C'mon man," said Michelangelo, the turtle, who was standing nearby, "We just built this thing. Now we have to build it again?"

"We're Master Builders!" Emmet proclaimed, his smile, unfaltering. "It took us so long before because we were spread out over the entire city! If we all work together on this one building, we can be done in minutes!"

"Do we have to build it the same way?" Unikitty asked, hopping forward.

"Of course not!" said Emmet slyly.

The people cheered and rushed in to begin, Emmet shouting directions. President Business, who had come up as well, had a bit of a funny twitch in his eye when Emmet announced they could build it differently, but he finally hung back and held his peace. Soon the air was filled with a flurry of purposeful voices.

"Okay, guys, we should lay down the foundation first," Emmet was shouting.

"Can we put a slide from the roof?" Unikitty asked.

"Yeah, but I think we'll have to make it less top heavy."

"No, there's already a slide, this one should be different!"

"It should spin around!"

"And have water!"

"A water slide!"

"Yeah!"

They were busy as ants. Before long, the scaffolding had been built, and the slide was already beginning to materialize.

In the commotion, Lucy looked back and saw Good Cop, standing back and gazing up at the activity before him. She bit her lip, and, perhaps thinking of the awkward moment before, raised her voice. "Hey, wait a second!"

Everyone slowed in their work to look at her.

"Before we do anything else, I think we should give a hand to Good Cop, who bravely saved, uh, what's your name, sir?"

"Duncan!"

"Who bravely saved Duncan from the Duplo attack!" Lucy finished.

"Yeah, that's true!" Duncan was shouting, unnecessarily. "He saved me. I would've been a pancake if not for this guy!"

Good Cop felt his face grow warm. "Oh no, don't do that!" he said modestly. "I was only doing my job!"

"Yeah, well your job saved my life man!"

The crowd began to cheer. Unikitty got behind Good Cop and started to nudge him up toward Lucy. "No, no!" he was protesting. But it was empty, and his expression was bright. The fact that saving one guy made everyone so happy made a feeling in his chest light up as well, and after Unikitty herded him up toward Lucy, she took his hand and raised it high in the air above their heads. Full of good cheer and renewed determination, the crowd applauded wildly, their joyous faces shining up at him. A few people began to chant his name. "Good Cop! Good Cop! Good Cop!" And once a few started, the energy carried the words from one mouth to another like sparks going around a circuit, and before long the entire throng was shouting his name.

"Good Cop!"

"Good Cop!"

"Good Cop!"

"Good Cop!"

And Good Cop was looking around at them all, feeling happy but also bewildered, wondering at what point his life had crossed into this, being the object of adoration of dozens, hearing his name vibrating in the air, everyone proud of him and Duncan nearly in tears as he looked up at him saying, "Thank you! Thank goodness for you, man!"

And then it happened all at once. A sudden release of pressure, like a punctured balloon, quickly fizzling to scraps. The smile on his face abruptly melted, and the cheers of the crowd turned into a weird echoing in his ears.

This wasn't right. This was false. Hollow.

Something was missing.

He dropped his arm and quietly moved away. By now the crowd had finished their cheering and had gone back to work, their attention focused contentedly on each other. Only Lucy noticed the way he seemed to loosen, drawing himself away from her as he stepped down from the pile on which they'd been standing. She called his name, but he didn't hear, and from the buzzing multitude he slunk away.

Down the street, he stepped through a glass door, which opened with a tinkle of bells. It was a bakery, at least, he thought so, but the store was not yet occupied, and the lights were dark, the shelves bare. He walked past these to the men's bathroom in the back, pushing the door open with one hand.

Just in front of the door was a large mirror, taller than Good Cop himself, and Good Cop stopped in front of it. He felt weary, his head heavy, and after no many days of emptiness, the sugar was churning angrily inside him, creating a burning feeling in his stomach. He touched one hand in the glass and looked up at his face, that brand new face, almost as new as this gleaming city, and the squiggles and wriggling lines that made it up looked dolefully back at him.

It had taken him a moment, but he knew what was wrong. Never in his life had that happened to him. Never in his life had so many people greeted him like that. Heck, for so many to be that happy just to see him, to be pleased and delighted just to catch a glimpse of him, that was a totally new thing. That was something that had never happened to him.

And now that it had happened to him, it was just him.

"Where are you?" he said, to the glass. He knew he could hear him. He knew he was still there because where else would he go? But it had been silent for so long.

"Why won't you talk to me?" he said. His quiet voice echoed in the empty bathroom. "I don't want to do this by myself anymore. I don't think I have enough in me."

There was still nothing. Only silence. He sighed. "I'm not sure what happened," he went on, "I don't know what I did, but I hope you won't stay mad at me."

There was a whirr and then a click. "What?" came a gruff voice. And in the mirror, the face that was reflected was no longer Good Cop's.

At just that moment, the bathroom door flew open. "Hey, Good Cop! Is everything okay in here?" Emmet called.

The room whirled back into place, and Good Cop found himself once again staring at his reflection in the mirror. He stared at it, gaping.

Emmet took another step into the room. "Look, I know this is kinda weird, but Lucy wanted me to make sure you were doing all right."

Good Cop whirled around, pointing excitedly in the mirror. "Did you see him?" he shouted.

"What?"

"He was there!" Good Cop was beside himself. "Just now! I heard him! He was right-!"

But, abruptly he stopped. He looked at the expression on Emmet's face, then turned his head to face himself in the mirror, then turned back. "I look like a crazy person, don't I?"

Emmet hesitated. "Well…" he began, "To an outside… observer, it might look like that."

Good Cop sighed, loosening himself, then straightened up again. "You know, Emmet," he began, "I think I'm gonna go ahead and head back to Bricksburg."

"What!" exclaimed Emmet, alarmed. "But we started! And we're almost done with the thing!"

"Oh, it's not that," said Good Cop. His tone was subdued, and that distressed Emmet greatly. "I've got a lot of work to do. I've been here too long as it is."

"But… I mean…" Emmet faltered, "We haven't even cut the cake yet!"

Good Cop shrugged, trying to maintain his sunny attitude. It was clearly not working. "I don't need to be here for that. Don't fret about me. You guys stay here and have fun."

"Well…" began Emmet, as Good Cop made his way past him, "Look, I'll bring you a piece of cake later, okay?"

Good Cop smiled. "I'd like that. Thank you, Emmet."

He walked out, and the door closed behind him. Emmet sighed and remained for a moment before heading out himself. The newly refurbished hotel was almost done.

Good Cop parked the motorcycle in the garage, quietly humming a tune, and walked up to the front door, not wanting to have to fumble for his keys to take the side entrance. Green Lantern was the one who met him at the door. As soon as he saw who it was, all the color drained from his face.

"Chief!" he exclaimed. "You're, uh! You're not supposed to be here, yet!"

"Yes, well, I thought I'm come back early," Good Cop said pleasantly. "How have things been going here?"

"Uh…!" Lantern threw himself forward and jumped in front of Good Cop, throwing his arms out to the sides. Good Cop noted this ridiculous gesture, and the cogs in his head began turning.

"Things are perfect! Absolutely perfect! They're so perfect, in fact, that we don't even need you here for the next few hours!" He started to flutter his hands, apparently trying to herd Good Cop out the door. "So, you can just run back to that party or whatever, and, uh, we'll take care of everything."

Good Cop sidestepped around the Green Lantern. "I can't head back to a party after I already said I'd be leaving," he said amiably. "That would be silly!"

Green Lantern threw himself in front of Good Cop again. "What's wrong with silly?" he said frantically. "Silly's great! I think we should all be a little more silly, don't you?"

"Come on, none of that!" said Good Cop, striding past, to the increasing panic of Lantern. "Is my office ready, yet?"

"No! It's not! It's really not! It's a huge mess!"

"What?" exclaimed Good Cop, not stopping, "But it's been a full day and night! What exactly happened in there?"

Green Lantern skin went cold. "Nothing!" he said.

"Really? Then I'm going in."

"No! No!" Lantern scrambled after him, his protestations barely coherent. "Chief! Come back!"

Good Cop hurried on without him, almost as though he were pursuing him. When he came to the staircase that led up to his office, he saw Lloyd and Panda Guy standing on it, not in a comfortable way but in a way a person stands when they're about to take off in a hurry.

"No!" Lloyd was saying, "Panda Guy, you're not listening to me, okay? It has to be gray bricks! Not white or black, you understand? And they have to match the wall exactly, so that he doesn't notice a difference!"

"What difference?" Good Cop asked.

Lloyd jumped back as though he'd had a heart attack, as Panda Guy took a nervous step back. "Cripes!" he shouted, "Don't do that!" He was breathing heavily, his hand on his chest. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I'm going up to my office," said Good Cop. "Please move out of the way."

"You can't!" said Lloyd firmly. "It's not ready yet!"

"I'll be the judge of that," said Good Cop briskly, strolling past them.

"No! No!" Lloyd gripped his hair in his hands, hissing through his teeth. He whirled around to the foot of the stairs, where Green Lantern had just appeared. "Why didn't you stop him?" he demanded.

"I tried!" protested Lantern.

Good Cop was almost at the door. Lloyd and Panda Guy vaulted themselves up and landed in front of it, holding their arms out against it. Their arms, crossed over the door and its window of opaque glass, were like police tape.

"Come on, you two," said Good Cop, "This is ridiculous. Get out of the way."

"No. We can't," said Lloyd.

"What's in my office?"

"Nothing!"

"Then let me in."

"No need. Go back to the thing!"

"Let me in, Lloyd."

"It's not ready!"

"Then let me get my stuff."

"I'll get it for you."

"Look, I just need-"

"Go back downstairs, Chief."

"I just-"

"Go back downstairs."

"I order you to step aside!"

Lloyd and Panda Guy stared in shock. Several steps below, Green Lantern's jaw popped open. Even Good Cop was surprised at himself.

"Okay," said Lloyd, slowly. He looked so sorrowful that Good Cop was instantly sorry. "Okay, Chief."

Good Cop moved past them and pushed open the door.

It took a minute for him to realize what he was supposed to see. His office looked in perfect order. The desk was straightened, the papers stacked neatly, nothing aside or broken. The place looked spotless.

Then he looked past the doorway to the wall on the left, where something had caught his eye. He slowly walked in, his eyes wide.

Against the wall, he saw the Duchess with a soapy bucket next to her and a huge, frothy brush in her hand. She was clenching her teeth and scrubbing up and down with such force it seemed as though her arms would pop out of her sockets. But the black ink remained. Whatever paint the vandals had used, it was very permanent. On the wall, he saw his face, yes, his, his new one, his brand new one, doodled crudely in spray paint, a twisted smile like a jack-o'-lantern's underneath the intentionally empty eyes. Splayed across the entire expanse of the wall, in huge, dripping, ugly letters, was the single word. "FREAK."

Good Cop stared. He had no idea what he felt. A million muddy feelings were swirling in his brain, as though a swarm of bees were dashing madly inside. He turned slowly to look behind him, where Lloyd and the other were, ashamed. "I'm sorry, Chief," said Lloyd. "I'm sorry."

Good Cop heard a sniffling sound. He turned. On the other side of the room, crouched against the opposite corner, was Tammy. She was rubbing at her face, and her eyes were full of tears.

"Who would do this?" she sobbed. "Who would be so mean?"

Good Cop said nothing. It seemed like all the words in the world had vanished, save one. And his mind was left empty except for those ugly, thrumming letters.

F

R

E

A

K

AN:

God, these are the cutest people on the planet, aren't they? Every time I wrote something for someone to do, I thought, "Man, that's cute." I apologize to anyone who got cavities from reading this chapter.

Fun fact about this chapter, originally, I was going to call the Lego Friends town, "Sunnydale." Clueless me. But, when I typed that word into Microsoft Word, I was amazed when it actually registered as a word on spellcheck. Perplexed, I looked the word up on Google, and it turns out that Sunnydale is actually the name of the main setting in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Whoops. So, I just decided to go with the canon name of Heartlake City.

I actually have never seen the Lego Friends cartoon. But, I read it kind of rips off My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, so I don't think it's an experience I'm missing out on.

As always, please review! Thank you!