Just a short brainwashing/re-education story I wrote in my hotel room while visiting my family down in Florida.

A young thief gets to test out a new form of punishment after being caught by the police~

As always, I'd very much like some critiques and will also have the story below.
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A Rookie Mistake

The vase tumbled to the ground almost painfully slowly that cold winter night. Whilst tussling through the home of a wealthy doctor, a certain leopard had bumped into a table. An old, practically ancient vase wobbled, before tipping over towards the floor. It shattered on the ground in a burst of shards, a clay deluge raining on the tiled floor. The noise carried, echoing through the home, sealing the fate of the perpetrator.

Ashley stood in her spot, frozen in terror. She had never screwed up so badly before. In and out, without a trace. That was how she operated. Yet her damn tail had knocked over one of the noisiest things to tip over. It was a terrible blow to her ego. Her whole life she had perfected her crafty ways, yet here she was making a rookie mistake. Then, her focus shifted, to a much more blaring issue.

Why couldn't she run? Something was keeping her rooted to her spot. At first she thought it was shock and fear, but now she was recognizing it was far more. Her body felt numb, like every muscle had simply fallen asleep at once. Testingly, she attempted to wiggle a digit on her hand paw, finding even that simple action absolutely impossible.

Of course, a stasis field. Either privately owned or set up by the police themselves. Ashley had gotten cocky. She had hit this ritzy neighborhood a few times in the past few weeks. Of course some old paranoid geezer would double down on defenses. After three years of successful crime, Ashley had been had. These fields were directly linked to the police department, officers were on their way.


The police had only gotten more annoying in the past few years. Their insistence on a straight laced society was nice and all, but Ashley wasn't the kind of animal this society helped. She was trash. Born and raised in poverty, she had received no handouts in life. The society was protecting the masses, but animals like her needed to steal to survive. Wasn't elegant, but it was a life. But it seemed she was about to follow the path many like her took, a path leading straight to a cell.

Within ten minutes, they had her cuffed and in the back of a squad car. She rubbed her neck, grimacing at the temporary tracking device they injected in her. Even if she could somehow escape the car, she would be followed too easily. It was checkmate. Ashley sighed, trying to work out any info that might net her a plea deal. Prison was far from ideal, it was downright terrifying. Modern prisons were no joke, maximum security as guaranteed as a prisoner number. As the cruiser sprung into motion, Ashley prepared herself for whatever came next, or at least tried to.

"You're kidding" Ashley said coldly, blinking at the detectives. They had been grilling her for hours now it seemed. Every crime fit snugly into a web of crime, one with a hefty sentence to boot. Yet, the detective on the right offered her a deal. One that would absolve all accountability for these crimes. Despite her disbelief, the detectives seemed serious. Handing her a thick contract and pen, it was obvious how to proceed. Without a single look at the document, Ashley signed.

They whisked the contract away quickly, shaking Ashley's paw firmly. "Thank you Officer Dawes, we appreciate your eagerness.”

"Officer Dawes?" Ashley asked. They obviously meant her, that was her last name after all. Was this some weird interrogation method?

"But of course, Officer Dawes is the only title fitting the test subject for the P.E.T" they replied. They wheeled in a strange looking device, the very sight of it putting Ashley on edge. They noticed get discomfort, chuckling as she struggled against her bonds. "Next time do read the paperwork, you never know what you'll miss" they chastised coldly.
Ashley spat at the wolf, the one closest to her.

"Wh-what are you about to do to me?" She stammered.

"This is the Police Enlistment Tool. Designed to eliminate the criminal aspects of your mind and make you a loyal member of the department. Don't worry, only memories relating to crime will go." Ashley squirmed more as the wolf explained. She didn't want to be a cop, she was perfectly content as a criminal. Sure, life was tough, but being a stuffy officer was no improvement to her. What they stood for went against her entire upbringing. They slid a metallic helmet over her, ignoring all protests. The helmet hugged her face tightly, just under the point of pain, but far above light pressure. It obscured the eyes but not the mouth. After a long string of profanities from the enraged feline, the detectives powered on the P.E.T.

Bright images flashed across Ashley's face. They were fast and disorienting, just when she felt close to making one out, it'd flick to the next. Along with this came distinctly different audio frequencies being cycled through at a hectic pace. Her mind could not keep up with the stimuli, it was too much. The most that escaped her mouth was a whimper as she slumped over in her seat. Her mind grappled with the overflow, quickly being overwhelmed. This bombarding of stimulus lasted roughly ten minutes, Ashley was mentally exhausted. A thin line of drool poured out the side of her muzzle, she was ready.

The helmet's images began to morph and bend, wrapping themselves around Ashley's very memories. All memories relating to her path of crime were obsolete. From her taking another cub’s ball to her most recent crime, all her crimes were expunged, they no longer existed in her mind. The P.E.T would simply identify the memory and dissolve it, adding to the mental haze. A part of her mind fought the process, but with her being so mentally pushed mere minutes ago, not much could be done.

As the crimes were removed, the machine sent an invoice. A list of all reported crimes committed by Ashley. They no longer existed in her mind, so they should no longer be documented. The last thing the needed were files like that being dredged up. Within moments, all criminal cases, evidence, and verdicts against Ashley Dawes were gone in the wind.

As it turned out, Ashley’s entire life was a minefield memory wise. Her past was too troubled, her life had been sour to the core. The detectives felt bad for the helpless crook, she really was lead down a wrong path. It only took a few moments to gain access to the complete memory rewrite. With one password, the P.E.T undid her life. There was no ghetto, no life of crime, no Ashley Dawes the thief. Then came the hard part. What was her life story? Who is this Ashley Dawes?

After some debate, a consensus was reached. Inputting the desired information, the detectives watched the P.E.T work. Sprouting like Rose buds, a new life emerged. An orphan, growing up in the state run orphanage. Not entirely well off, but safe and contented. In school she did roughly above average, just scraping the bottom of the gifted program. An average childhood. Something that she had never gotten. Invoices pinged out, documents being created to support this new identity. Each bulb of a memory slowly grew, the haze from before now strengthening these new thoughts. Such as the lab results predicted, the new memories held. Ashley Dawes was a normal leopard.

Now, it all came to making Ms. Dawes into Officer Dawes. The detectives sprinkled admiring thoughts of police work throughout her life, small seeds to grow the urge. Then came the catalyst. Looking back at crime records for a December day in the year 2035, the year she was sixteen, they saw an armed robbery had taken place at a coffee shop. In her memories, she was there, in awe of the brave officers that saved her. The rest was as simple as giving her the knowledge of a rookie cop. She was good, but without experience.

They soon finished up after that, gently unhooking the now unconscious Dawes from the P.E.T. She was driven to a small studio apartment, her’s now. Her legal documents were scattered in the same way a young cop would have them. As for most other personal belongings, they chocked it up to her just moving in, at least that part was true before the new memories. Setting the sleeping feline on her futon, they set her alarm. Bright and early, like a good cop’s.

The blaring noise of the alarm jolted Ashley awake. Staring at her alarm groggily, she sat up. Her head hurt a little, but other than that everything was normal. She showered quickly, using the steaming hot water to energize herself. After that, she carefully began to put on her uniform. She'd only been on the force for two weeks now, it still felt so unreal to her. But here she was, living the life she always dreamt of. The leopard gave herself a once over in the mirror, admiring her navy blue outfit as she left.

She noted that on her next day off she'd just have to go by a garage sale for more stuff to liven up her place. As she walked down the streets, Officer Dawes (as she fancied that title whenever she thought about her job) couldn't wait to get to work. Everything felt good in the department. Things were still far from perfect, but she was helping get things closer to that final goal. Coming up on the precinct building, Dawes saw a very familiar wolf holding two cups of coffee.

Officer Dawes greeted Detective Langley with a firm paw shake. She had been shadowing the detective, learning the ropes of the precinct last week. Despite that training being over, she still enjoyed having morning coffee with the wolf. Today he seemed in especially good spirits, noting how well the uniform suited Dawes. They sipped on their coffees lazily as they walked.

“I heard there was a break in last night in Fairvale” Dawes said, prodding for details.

“Pretty boring I'm afraid, seems like the field alarms went off without notifying anybody, the only damages were to a pot.” Replied Langley shrugging. Officer Ashley Dawes giggled at the absurd story. Whatever triggered that alarm must of been the cause of a pretty horrendous rookie mistake!