KHV: Memini/Oblivionem

Because all the cool kids did it I too am writing a little story about khv, so sue me(don't actually sue me, I have no money and you'd only be forcing a poor girl onto the streets with no choice but to sell herself to pay her way through college.) Started writing before a few changes to the site so you should know that it takes place about twenty minutes in the fictional past rather than in the here and fictional now. Further than that, I don't actually feel like characterizing anyone very accurately because that doesn't make for good drama, the rest of that should be self explanatory. If you really have any problems with it PM me and I'll swap out your name. We good? We good. Also, boring title is boring.

Spoiler: Chapter 1-1

“There have been whispers, rumors, bits of idle chatter. Stories of people being spirited away, stories of things lost, stories of things found, stories that make your hair stand on end, stories of things that go bump in the night, stories of all manner of strange happenings. For instance, down the way there was that kid, out one night coming back from his date and boom. Gone. Curious things, mysterious and strange things about when the sun goes down. Inexplicable things. But we know better, don't we? After all we're the only ones with any sense around here?” Read the police chief aloud. “How long has this been here?”

He's a tall, dark man, in his early twenties, but desperately trying to both look and act older due to his position as 'The Chief' and, with it, his constant worry that he's been letting someone down. He wears, ever the traditionalist's delight, a beige trench coat and a somewhat large fedora to match. The Chief leads the police force of KHV City; a large and ever growing metropolis being updated, modified and re-modified each passing day.

The front page threads formed the tenuous and ephemeral skyline while the old threads fell into the background and eventually were replaced with only an archive to prove they ever existed, stickies on the other hand stood tall and powerful, commanding in their permanence and incontrovertible importance.

In a small alley between two dying threads scheduled for demolition to make room for more front pagers he stands over the body of a former co-worker of his on the City Moderation Council. There's caution tape secluding the two of them in the middle of a dirt alleyway of the main drag and easily overlooked in spite of the numerous signs of illicit activity strewn about and he's face to face with a paragraph of graffiti just a few feet from where the body fell. None of it seems real to him. Even when he heard the Captain behind him speak it took him a moment to acknowledge it.

“Two weeks is what I heard from an officer on the beat.” The Captain actually in charge of the investigation replied. She was around the same age as the Chief and far more confident in her position. Mostly because she never thought that she'd be called upon to actually handle anything beyond her current ability without clear warning and preparation time.

“You think it's related?” The Chief asked.

“Not really.” She muttered in between typing orders into her pocket terminal and setting several detective drones to scan the area. “Do you know who wrote it?”

“I can think of a few people off the top of my head... I'll look into it later.” The Chief replied, distracted by the body and accompanying graffiti. It had to have some sort of meaning. No one just writes something like that in such gaudy letters and expects no one to take notice of it. Right?

“Gotcha, chief.”

“But who could have killed him, I wonder?” The Chief mused, observing the severed arm of the corpse a few inches from the body. It was probably one of the last things to go. “These wounds are from an energy weapon of some sort. Probably a cheap one from the looks of it.”

“The battle ranged all over the area, if we expand the search area--” The Captain was slightly surprised by the next thing the Chief told her.

“Well, you go do that. Call me if anything comes up, Captain.” The Chief finally dragged his eyes off the crime scene and reminded himself that we wasn't a Captain anymore, it wasn't his job to investigate but to administer at this juncture in his career. It would only make his bosses reconsider his promotion if he kept trying to do his old job.

“You going? Not that you actually needed to be here, I just thought you'd taken an interest.” The Captain chirped somewhat mockingly, realizing what the Chief was thinking.

“I've got a few things to look after that are more important, also, check the files for the powers used. It should have been more than one person involved in the assault.” He curtly responded in an attempt to save face and remind the Captain that he was supposed to be her superior, not just a friend anymore.

“Gotcha chief.” She smiled and waved him off as she returned to the investigation and her own crew.

“Alright, back on schedule.” The Chief thought as he took the wheel of his beat up Crown Vic and began his journey. “This kind of thing happening now. I'm in for so much more paperwork and so much more stress.” Then his cell phone rang. He hesitated for a moment, checking who it was to be sure he wasn't mistaken.

“Took you long enough.” A female voice cut in instantly over the line.

“Sorry, bosslady. I'm in a bit of a pinch at the moment. Fayt's died. I know, it wasn't like we were best friends, but I can't really help but feel sick over it and thinking that it'll be me next or you or that it's some kind of harbinger of things to come.” He was hardly looking at the road as he spoke, not that he needed to. No one ever came up this way during the middle of the day, not even on duty officers most of the time.

“There have been murders in the city. Even some pretty high profile people as I recall.” The voice reminded him severely.

“Not like this. Never a senior staff member. Never someone so competent and never so deliberately.” The Chief protested even though he knew it wouldn't do any good.

“So you're looking into it?” Was the obvious counter to his emotional statement. He had to work on keeping himself in check better. Even though the Head Administrator had told him his passion and drive were his strong points but they always seemed to get him into sticky situations.

“The Captain is looking into this murder. I'm looking into something that might be related at the moment.”

“I suppose that means you're going to be late for our appointment?”

“Yes. That's going to be fine, right?”

“Given the circumstances? More than.”

“Alright then. I'll be in touch.”

“Ciao then.”

“Bye.” The Chief groaned at the sound of his phone shutting. “Argh... This is shaping up to be a really bad day.” A look at the sky prompted him to flip on the windshield wipers and the radio. “Why does it always have to be pop music.” He spat in consternation as he flipped the radio straight back off. “This drive is going to take forever.”

His drive continued accompanied only by the dull roar of traffic, the light pitter patter of raindrops and the occasional blare of a car horn. Onwards in this fashion he drove through the repetitious monotony of city driving. He soon cleared the run down facades and dilapidated storefronts of the Departure Lobby and began the next leg of his journey to the Traditional Art section. Slowly but inexorably he passed like a shadow between the sections as he wended his way to his final destination. As he approached the clean and well kept, yet graffiti covered gates he read the old wrought iron sign, its shape betraying letters further than the layers of others painted over them.

“Traditional Art.” He read aloud. “I hope you can help me here, kid.”

I have a bunch more done but I have a tendency to update too much at once, so I'll do the opposite for once and keep it to this for now.

Spoiler: Chapter 1-2

Sunlight poured in through the windows to many warehouse-like studios, each like the one before it, filled to the seams with easels and canvas and pencils and paper and any other art supply still extant. This section was one of the quietest, slowest and as a result well to do in the City. Everyone kept to themselves except from when they came out every few days or so to display their art and listen to critiques. The Chief pushed these thoughts from his mind and took note of the strange effect of the natural light as he pushed aside the heavy sliding doors and shambled in ungracefully, albeit with a certain sense of purpose to his stride. At first he was almost taken aback by the winding paths and corridors made by the disorganized piles of supplies strewn about the floor stacked up to the point where he could barely see over some piles at all.

“Taffy?” The man asked, somewhat warily, hand ready to dart for his gun at any time as he walked. “Taffy?” He ventured slightly louder, hand now practically on his sidearm. “Taffy?” He practically shouted.

“What is it?” The Chief spun about halfway ready to blast the first thing he saw only to find a slightly paint smeared face staring at him from about a yard away, precariously held up at an angle by a body clothed in a painter's smock an old t-shirt and a pair of cargo shorts full of worn, stained brushes. It was the very girl he'd been looking for. Taffy was most probably younger than him, but the Chief was bad with guessing ages so he couldn't be sure.

She was several inches shorter than him and never dressed particularly well because she spent all her time like all the other artists, working. She was a bit of a mystery to him as she never spoke to outsiders particularly much because she spent all her time like all the other artists, working; and because she never was seen particularly much because she spent all her time like all the other artists, working. But the Chief was certain that he knew she was a good member, trustworthy, model citizen. “Well Chief, what is it?” She seemed to be getting slightly impatient with his unannounced intrusion now and had started tapping her foot lightly. The Chief only just now noticed she'd been lugging around a set of paints and a fresh canvas and wanted to get back to her workspace as soon as possible.

“Mind if I walk with you?”

“Not at all.” She mumbled dully. Though the Chief expected her to ask what he was doing there ar all, it turned out he'd have to take charge of the conversation after several awkward moments of silent trekking through the vast maze.

“So I'm looking into a case and I need a little expertise in the area of a piece of art I've found.” He said, trying to stay personable yet authoritative.

“Let me take a quick look at it once we get this stuff to my work bench.” The girl replied somewhat solemnly, almost like she was counting the wasted minutes and how much work they equated to. As they arrived at the workspace the Chief noticed why everything was such a mess. Taffy had spent all her effort on completing the numerous finished works which lay neatly bundled together or shelved a few yards from her easel and workbench. “Alright so, picture?”

“Yes.” The Chief mumbled as he fumbled with his phone, looking for the picture he'd got of the graffiti. When he finally found it, he handed the phone over and looked on expectantly. Taffy didn't seem to enjoy the hovering but continued on regardless.

“I can tell you that it wasn't anyone in graphic art, because that's not tag code, it's hand drawn. I can also tell you that while the person knows their way around a can of spray paint, they're no artist.” She rattled off without so much as a few seconds of looking at it. “It's also no one I know from this section. I'd look for the culprit in the Creativity Corner if anywhere.”

“Why's that?”

“Only writers would bother writing something so lengthy without any real art behind the presentation. The words are the point here and it shows in how sloppy this is.” Flecks of disdain coloring her voice as she handed him back his phone. “That's all I've got at the moment.”

“Thanks, if anything else comes to you, just give me a ring.” The Chief growled with a polite tip of his hat. “I'll be off then.”

“Goodbye.” She murmured vaguely before quickly adding. “Stay safe, Chief.”

Might add a supplement section in my next update to explain my view of good old khv city and how certain things translate from .webp to .doc

Spoiler: Chapter 1-3

Before he knew it, the Chief was in his car and off to the Creativity Corner. He used to frequent that little cluster of coffee shops and... well... more coffee shops. They didn't open anything else in that part of town it seemed, except for the occasional bar or public house. It really did fit quite well with the tastes of the crowd that seemed to hang around their these days. It was cheap, aromatic and artsy. Just what they all seemed to be looking for. However, if the Chief was going to catch the crook he'd have to look for someone of the type that didn't quite fit in there.

The streets that he once owned in his days as a Captain seemed strange and foreign to him now. He did still run charity events with the help of the current Captains and a few others. Things wouldn't-- couldn't ever be the same though. He sat in his car and sighed along with the idling engine until he heard the sounds of footsteps. Loud footsteps. He cut the engine immediately and looked around but the sound had evaporated and no one was to be found.

Then he heard it again, growing further away. Without bothering to lock the car he dashed out onto the streets and started running after those footsteps. They stopped again. Still he kept running. Past premium and normal members alike as they read the most recent chapters of whatever the hell was updating this week, past coffee shops that all looked the same to him, past the archives for long dead threads.

Still nothing. He'd lost the trail. If there had even been one to start with. Maybe he was hallucinating from the stress. That's right, he'd been oddly calm since Fayt died. This was the backlash, the true response as the feeling sank in. Then, again, the footsteps. This time behind him. He spun to look. Nothing. So he ran. He ran in the reverse of his own footsteps but suddenly took a hard right in between to buildings and ran into the deep alleyway network between each of the threads when he thought he saw something.

It was nothing. The steps were gone, his sight had betrayed him. He had gotten nothing.

“Hey, Chief.” He heard a comforting voice from down the street and turned to confirm what he was already sure of. Plums. The cheerful brown haired boy who the Chief could still hardly believe was not only on the City Staff Council but doing it so well. Plums made no pretense about his maturity and dressed like any other young man would on the streets save for his Staff armband demarcating him as the district's Social Moderator.

His job, unlike a Police Captain's, dealt less with clearing the section of nuisances and more to do with keeping it active and providing entertainment and things to do for members to keep the section united and lively. It was a less straightforward and arguably more difficult task that was usually left up to whichever member of the City Moderation Council wanted to take the job. As such Plums was one of but two dedicated Social Moderators at the moment.

“I'm doing fine Plums.” The Chief laughed. “How've things been going?”

“As well as could be expected given it's that time of year.” He chuckled cheerily as always, nothing could get him down.

“Yeah, everyone has a tendency to be out of town in the fall. Never really did get why.”

“Well, I'm still happy and the section's still happy, so you should be happy too.” Plums said with his index finger extended at the Chief's nose.

“I would be, if not for some circumstances that arose this morning.” Sighed the elder.

“Business or pleasure?” Teased the younger, not knowing the landmine that his foot was already on.

“Business, Plums.” He replied rather exasperatedly.

“Just had to be sure. So what is it?”

“We'll talk about this at tonight's emergency meeting, but you should probably know now. Fayt was killed last night. We don't know how many people were involved and I'm following a lead that a member here might be involved.”

“That's--”

“It's horrible, I know. But we'll catch the perp and make sure it never happens again. Trust me.” The Chief remarked with feigned confidence. It was all he could do to make himself feel like he wasn't screwing everything up. “Well, back to it I go.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Just stay safe, kid.” He shot back as he rose from the curb and headed back towards his car to rethink his plan, leaving Plums behind. For a moment it felt as if Plums was going to follow him anyways, but soon the feeling passed and the Chief could here the boy's footsteps echoing away. This was how things were supposed to be.

Deciding to forgo the supplementary reading because a) boring, b) not complicated enough of a topic to require it and c) I forgot all about it.

Spoiler: Chapter 1-4

It had been so long since the Chief had walked down these streets that even the front page had seemed like a maze and this far into the section he soon found himself turned around and lost. The Chief sighed. Nothing was going his way at all that day. He reluctantly broke his 1920's detective facade and pulled out his Moderation Council issued hand terminal to check for a way out.

Much to his surprise he'd actually made his way to the fifth page of Original Work where most, if not all, threads were scheduled for demolition or refurbishment. He looked upon several of the old, neglected structures reminiscently and laughed. Some of these had started back when he was just a Captain in this section. One by Destined, one by Dalk... There were some really old threads there. They were his prime, his day in the sun, everything afterward had just gotten confusing and difficult, how he wished to go back to those simpler days. How he wished none of this had ever happened.

“But it did happen” He reminded himself. “And because it did happen I've gotta keep going, I've gotta make things right. Now's not the time to think about how things used to be, but how much better they can be.” So he turned his eyes away from the glowing holoscreen projected into the air before him and shut down the tiny device. “Let's go.” He told himself as he set off on the course back to the first page.

However, his new found resolution didn't stop him from taking a short jaunt down memory lane. As he made his way back he looked at all the threads and even stopped to read a few, hoping that maybe something would come to him on the case. Nothing did however. In fact, it wasn't until he was almost out of the third page that he noticed anything out of the ordinary at all, and what he did notice was hardly what he had been looking for.

The Chief suddenly heard a huge clatter of trash bins and profuse swearing from behind him. When he turned to look, he only saw what appeared to be a hobo in rags rubbing its backside and kicking a trashcan indignantly, causing another ear splitting clatter. The Chief was busy, but he had time to deal with a single spambot or whatever this was. So he adjusted his course swiftly and deliberately, making a beeline across the alley towards the wretched little thing.

As he neared, he noticed that it was a female voice that he was hearing, albeit a rather grating one; which was curious given the circumstances, but not unheard of so he continued. As he came within meters of her, she finally seemed to take note of him and that's when, with a maniacal grin the tone of the encounter shifted completely.

“Hello there, Chevy Chase.” She blared brazenly, pulling herself up to full height, the mischievous yet calculating glimmer in her green eyes now confirming that this wasn't just a bot or homeless member.

“Hello, Jiku.” Chevalier groaned, grimacing at the sight of her. It had been months since he'd last seen her in the city and though she'd never been seen as such a vagabond, dressing up strangely was one of her rather odd habits. Jiku Neon was one of the oldest normal members on the site and, to the Chief, bar none the most annoying.

“So what brings you about these here parts, son?” She chirped, taking on her best attempt at 'southern gentleman', as she began unceremoniously stripping herself of the dirty looking hobo attire, layer by layer.

“Just taking a walk.” He responded without taking notice of her behavior. Not only had she been pulling these kinds of stunts for years, she'd also been only pulling them specifically around him because he used to react so 'charmingly' as she once put it. But now, Chevalier could only hope she'd stop if she got no reward for her actions. Only when she was finally rid of her old hat, gloves, coat, sweater, t-shirt, sweatpants, socks and shoes did she pick up a crumpled paper bag and draw forth a school uniform which she proceeded put on as if the whole world was her own dressing room.

During this, the biggest thing Chevalier noticed was that Jiku had cut her hair, probably herself by the looks of it. What was once a long braid, trailing after a well groomed, almost stylish cut was just a huge bird's nest now; a brown swirling cloud of curls that expanded about to her shoulders in some places and obscured the edges of her almost pallid face.

“It doesn't look like just a walk to me.” She said as she pulled the sailor top over her head and checked the sleeve length in comparison to the skirt. She looked displeased that the hem of the skirt was lower than the cuffs of her sleeves so she pouted momentarily before casting Chevalier another glance as if indicating she was waiting for a response.

“Well, everything must look weird through that mess.” He said pointing at her head. Jiku simply chuckled at him and pushed a pair of thick rimmed, red glasses onto her face with one hand while making a peace sign with the other.

Clicking her tongue she replied, “I'm gonna ignore your jab at my new hairstyle to show you how magnanimous I am, I'll even share with you some of my godly knowledge.” She winked emphatically on the last syllable and Chevalier could have sworn he saw a small cartooned star flutter off of it. “Sounds good?”

“I'm busy.” The young man replied and turned only to have her dash ahead of him and place her face several inches from his own. She never wore makeup in spite of all of her costumes and this allowed even the casual observer to see the dark circles under her eyes when she was so close.

“Of course you are.” Snapped the girl as her back quickly came into view. “You're way too important and busy to talk to old friends, now. I never pegged you for such a shallow, stupid, stingy, stinker.” She remarked in a low yet clear staccato turning herself back around to face him accusingly incrementally with each word before smoothly adding. “Well, I did, but even for such a person this is cruel.”

“What is it?” Chevalier grimaced harder as he caved, knowing only one of her pointless fits of insanity could ensue.

“Yayifications.” She riposted sarcastically. “Who needed said I anything say to?”

“You did.” He answered disbelievingly.

“No, I most certainly did not.” Chevalier sighed before she'd even finished speaking. He sighed a lot more often these days and meeting Jiku wasn't any help at all.

“Do you know who wrote this?” He asked, suddenly showing her the image on his phone. He didn't know what made him think it was a good idea, but he'd confided in her in the past and sometimes, by pure chance alone he suspected, she managed to help him out of whatever it was that was bothering him and he dared to preserve hope that this might be one of those rare, fortuitous times.

“Yeah.”

“Who?” Maybe she wasn't as useless as she made herself out to be.

“Me.”

“What?” He stopped stone still, the tension in his mind dissolving as he tried to wrap it around what he'd just heard.

“I was planning on starting a story that way.” She scoffed, unapologetic and almost proud.

“Sheesh. I come all this way and it was just you?” Chevalier laughed with relief.

“Just me? I'm not the one who stole someone's intro.” Jiku replied with more than a hint of accusation.

“Didn't you just say you graffitied it on the...”

“I said I wrote it. I have the file right here.” She said, handing him a piece of paper from god knows where on that getup. “That's the only copy I have and there shouldn't be any others, least of all one plastered up for all to see.”

“What?”

“I've never even used spray paint, much less graffitied up the intros section, Chev.”

“But... why couldn't you have said so earlier? I thought I'd made some real progress on the case.”

“You're acting real weird over this. It's not like a matter of life and death, man.” She nattered on unconcernedly.

“It is. At this point I'm thinking it might very well be your life, Jiku.” Chevalier admitted, outright. Whomever it was that had placed that graffiti in the place where Fayt's body was found didn't steal this file by accident and clearly were targeting people connected to the Council possibly the former officers as well. He knew she technically wasn't allowed to know, but she was one of his oldest friends in the city and he couldn't allow harm to come to her. And letting her know should be more than enough to save her.

“Huh?” Her mask suddenly evaporating and confused fear bleeding through. “What do you mean... my life? I didn't do anything wrong, I--”

“I can't tell you anything more than that. Can you get out of town for a while? Even staying invisible won't be enough if things are as bad as I think they're getting.” He instructed as calmly as he could before awkwardly trying to continue his work on the case. “Can I keep this doc?”

“Yeah...” The girl was no longer a lion, roaring and posturing boisterously; she'd wilted into a tiny kitten, meek and almost shivering with worry.

“You need any help? If you need me to stay for a bit...” Chevalier asked with concern. The girl slowly looked up to him and grinned like her usual self again.

“It'll be okay because it's me. After all, I'm me, the greatest thing that's ever happened to this planet, darling.” Answered Jiku with a flourish of her hands and another cartoonish wink.

“I can't believe you sometimes.”

“Then you're probably doing it wrong.”

“Would you...”

“Would I like to become supreme ruler of the city? No, I'm already godly enough as it is.”

“Nevermind. Keep yourself out of trouble, understand?”

“Si claro, senorita.” She said, planting a kiss on his cheek, inciting a slight tussle in which Jiku was pushed away rather forcibly. “Now don't act like you're embarrassed by something like a kiss from a girl.” She remarked suggestively.

“You...” He began with a frustrated flush, but before the words could finish forming on his tongue, she was gone. “You're always like this.”

As I near the end of my already completed work updates will be fewer and farther between, albeit longer probably because this is still just introduction and exposition.

Spoiler: Chapter 1-5

Just then, Chevalier heard his phone ringing. Upon inspection of the small display he recognized it was the Captain.

“What is it, Sabs?” He replied informally, still somewhat in the mindset of his last conversation. But what he heard next changed all that.

“Big problem with the investigation. I'll be discussing it at the emergency meeting tonight, but you and the rest of the police force have to know now. I picked up on more than thirty power signatures in the data around the battle zone, but every single user with the associated ability has a rock solid alibi.” Sabby was usually fairly aloof with her tone when talking about her job but this time her tone was deadly serious, shaking with intensity and maybe fear as well.

“That's impossible.” Chevalier grunted uncomfortably. Technically speaking, it was possible, but only through manipulating the city's base code and tweaking the power system entirely. If someone had gotten that deep into the core, there were any number of other things they could have done in their time there.

“I said that, too. But my power and Wolfie's and Misty's and Forsaken's all showed up. You know where we were and pretty much every other instance checks out the same way. Like I said, rock solid. We've got a duper on our hands.”

“That power doesn't exist in the framework of the city, it can't happen.” It could.

“I suspect a hacker made it part of the framework. Though, it could be worse...” She was right.

“Is there something you're not telling me?” He knew as well as she.

“No. It's just... Don't worry about it, we'll solve the case. I'll see you tonight, got it?” Sabby asked, finally cutting the conversation.

“Stay safe. Bye.”

“Stay safe yourself, Chief.” Then the call cut out and Chevalier was left alone again.

“Over thirty power signatures were present, but the fatal wounds were made with a cheap energy weapon... He went after a Super Moderator first and somehow hid the fight... Jiku's story was written there, too... Nothing adds up, it's like some child is playing with me.” Chevalier groaned in frustration and started back towards his car. “If I hadn't lost that guy earlier.”

His phone rang again, he didn't want to answer it, he wanted time to think and absorb everything but it was the boss so he had no choice. “It's me, Misty.”

The Chief cleared his throat in an attempt to clear his mind with it before he replied. “I've got some more information, but not enough--” Then an idea struck him. “Wait, mobilize the police in every section and have them look for graffiti put up three or four weeks ago. I have a hunch that this isn't just a murderer, it's a serial killer and a hacker teamed up for some reason I'm fairly sure.” He was grinning now, and the gears in his head that had been rusted together for so long were spinning like mad now.

“Any reason for this hunch or is it another one of your wild fits of 'intuition'?” She inquired in the same even tone that she'd kept since she became the city's Administrative Martial Leader.

“I have no idea, but if it works then I know a way to catch the killer. If not then I still think I know a way to catch the hacker.” He would have been shouting excitedly by now if he hadn't been so aware of who it was he was having a conversation with.

“I'll tell everyone to get on it. In the meantime, when did the hacker get added to the equation?” Misty asked sharply. The Chief could already imagine her stern expression as she sat, quickly and silently typing into her holo-terminal as she spoke trying to get herself up to date on everything going on in the city at once in order to make the best play when her turn came.

“The murderer was a power duplicator of some sort. While he might have been able to do it himself, it's unlikely that he would have hacked all of that in ahead of time because whoever was in the core for the hacking had to have left finger prints and this guy doesn't want to be caught, not yet. Best way to not get caught is have every step carried out separately.” He explained practically as it was coming to him, falling into place and connecting itself with the rest of the picture forming in his mind's eye.

“I see. I'm upgrading this to a code 3 alert then and I'll get our own hackers on checking on the core.”

“Good call. I've got to check one more thing out.”

“Just remember to update me as things come up. We need to nip this in the bud or it could mean declaring martial law.”

“Understood, bosslady.”

“Get it done.” She ordered. Then she hung up. Chevalier knew where to look next now. The runner from before couldn't have gotten too far by foot in such a large city. He was probably hiding because his target had to be either Plums or Jiku, a staff or former staff member; based on his first killing and based on the outcome of the police search he'd soon know. But for now, to find where he was hiding.

Chevalier took out his pocket terminal and set up a base code level scan, anything hacked would show up and even if it didn't trigger on the terminal he would see it for himself. The screen was black for a moment before exploding into a series of numbers and diagrams that extended all around Chevalier, allowing him to see the underlying code on any given surface of the city and even see through to threads blocks away if he chose.

Just as predicted, those footsteps hadn't evaporated on their own before, there were traces of hacking all over his previous run path and he almost immediately recognized it as a high level cloaking algorithm set up over top of the existing invisibility protocol and it was jury-rigged so that it worked on a single guest user. With that kind of unregistered existence, the city would lock him out eventually on its own and erase all data regarding it.

So he was only scouting at the moment and he was incapable of using his full user powers. But where exactly was he? He was still completely invisible to all direct scans and the hack itself was the only trail he was leaving.
From what the Chief could see, the protocol was set up to refresh the cloak once every minute and left a huge sloppy hack footprint over a large area every time it did thus making it impossible to trace the exact location of the guest at any given time.

Either way it was something that would disappear soon along with the guest access so Chevalier had to work fast. He took off running after the trail as best he could and hoped he'd find something at the end of it.

Not out of the woods on exposition yet. As a note. I think I'll be splitting this up into 5 of chapter thingies with 6 or so of these short sub chaptery things in each. That way it'd be like a play with acts and scenes and all that wonderful nonsense. Doesn't that sound nifty?

Spoiler: Chapter 1-6

That night, at the emergency staff meeting the air was tense. Everyone had found out the general outline in the notification or through hearsay and it didn't help the mood that Sabby was late. Misty and Roxasvsriku sat in front of a large screen, displaying a brief summary of everything that they knew up to date, and everyone else on the staff was circled around them in no particular order with no particular collective behavior.

The hackers had found signs of an attempt at an external hack to the core, but it looked like it had ended in failure rather than in their culprit's mysterious powers, however they had to explore further because the fingerprints they found didn't lead to any existing pocket terminal in the city.

Forsaken was reading the police report with an almost uninterested look in his eye, they seemed to have added a bunch of graffiti locations and images to the report that afternoon. As a Police Captain himself it was his problem too, but he just couldn't believe it.

He was half expecting Sabby to step out from behind Misty's overlarge chair and say, “Surprise! Time for a new update, we really had all of you fooled didn't we?”

He yawned and stretched his arms out. He looked rather mature compared to much of the staff in spite of the closeness in age and while he dressed like a London street tough, he still managed to occasionally pull of suave and germane beneath the stubble and newsy cap.

“Fuck.” He heard someone mutter. A glance revealed Clawtooth as the owner. He wasn't exactly new to this whole business of being a Captain, but he still reacted to everything by the book and the book didn't have much to say on this.

Forsaken half wanted to lean over and tell him to relax but his thoughts were interrupted when Sabby finally came bursting in through the meeting hall doors. Blood was slowly streaming down the side of her head and her breath was heavy as though she'd been sprinting. Forsaken smiled. With this, the game was on.

“I think I may have found our killer.” She spoke, voice even despite her wound that a medical drone was already taking care of at the behest of Mixt.

“The wound?” Rvr quickly replied.

“Him.” She replied. “Or her, I can't really be sure given the mask. But it was our guy regardless.”

“Why so sure?”

“He tried to kill me just now.” Chevalier froze when he heard this. It went against all his notions about the killer and their calling card, for all he knew they were just trying to throw him off before setting up the semblance of a pattern at the crime scene.

“What happened, exactly?” Misty cut in before anyone truly had a chance to respond, her aqua eyes narrowed and her fingers laced in front of her deadly serious face. Even though she was clearly the youngest member of the council, she dressed by far the most formally and had no trouble commanding attention and always moved forwards with an imperious and almost stately air when doing so.

“I was looking up graffiti in the area since it somehow seemed linked based on the Chief's findings. I was about to pack it in and head here when a police drone found something interesting. It found something written on a wall from nearly a year ago in the Lit Section. It was a few lines from an MSN convo I was having with Fayt and Star, except over it was a cross shaped slash through it made by, what the energy marker would suggest is, the same energy weapon from the murder.

"I went back to the crime scene to see if there was anything else there linking the two locales, someone else happened to be thinking of taking a stroll through the section at the same time. Masked, mysterious, billowing robes, the whole cultist look to a tee. I saw them first, so I tried to follow them away from the scene, but it was no good. They saw me as we were entering the Kingdom Hearts section and promptly tried to end me. Same MO as before, all sorts of powers coming at me at once.

"I tried to fight back, but it felt like I was outnumbered even against that single person. If not for the mass police drones with me I'd be dead right now, too. They managed to give me enough breathing room to hop sections and run my way here. That's my story.”

“Thank goodness your safe.” Stardust burst out shoving the medical drone away to hug the now patched up Captain Sabby. Normally someone would have sniggered or chuckled or made an immature joke, but now everyone was silent, processing what they'd just heard and tensely waiting for what would happen next.

“We now know one more thing. The next killing wasn't going to happen tonight, they slipped up and came back to the crime scene.” Sabby quickly added calmly as Stardust slowly moved away, composing herself.

“Why? It doesn't make sense to go to a place crawling with drones and probably looked after by a Captain.” Rvr replied. He spoke softly as always with a somewhat soothing canter. He was the city's long time acting mayor and had more than once proved himself worthy of the position, so when everyone heard his voice tilt towards quizzical they quieted their own thoughts and listened.

“All the Captains were supposed to be back here, leaving only normal officers and drones there, no threat to a guy who could take Fayt unnoticed. Right?” Sabby answered.

“How would they know about the emergency meeting?” Mike almost shouted, despite his work with acting he could never hide his nerves from the other staff members.

“Two ways. Intercepted messages or internal knowledge of how the staff deals with things.” Sabby returned evenly. She was oddly calm, Chevalier thought as he looked on. Though, as his eyes drifted over her form he noticed her fists were balled up beneath the table trembling violently.

She hadn't numbed herself to the feeling of death, but rather she was in control in spite of that frightful feeling and putting on a strong face for everyone else. Sabby definitely was a better cop than he ever was and he was relieved when that she was allowed to step down and relax as the conversation moved away from her finally.

“So it's either ex-staff or that same hacker?” Clawtooth asked in response.

“Or both. We can't be sure that it's just one or two people now. For all we know, it could be a whole syndicate.” Rvr finished.

“I'm increasing the threat level to a code 4.” Misty stated with a wave of her hand over a newly conjured holo-terminal.

“Are you sure that's wise?” Forsaken finally broke in, interrupting her halfway through inputting her code, his thoughts now aligning clearly laying out his course before him. “There are indicators for a code 4 alert that even Prems and Normals can see. We could be causing panic in the streets and playing right into their hands.”

“What do you suggest we do then?” Misty answered with her hand still hovering over the input keys, unconvinced.

“I say we continue the investigation as before with the addition of a special task force, the hackers, to handle the hacking and a simple buddy rule, for all members of the council, to handle the killings. They won't strike at a target unless they're alone it seems and even if they do attack two of us they'll be less likely to be able to kill either. We also haven't fully compiled the case information on Fayt, we could be missing something, so we should regain our balance before we try to take our own swing at them, am I right?”

“It makes sense, enough.” She conceded.

“Shall we put it to a vote then.” Rvr declared more than asked.

“All in favor?” There was a clear majority.

“All opposed?” None.

“This meeting didn't go at all as planned, but we've got done what needed doing. Any new information on the case or any questions regarding the information we already have shall be taken now and added to the report which we'll be updating in real time and expecting everyone to keep up with from now on.”

“What are we going to do when we catch them?” DPWolf inquired far too softly for her brash, pugnacious personality.

“Trial. Verdict. Execution. Press release.” Mixt replied in his usual sober tenor. “Am I right?”

“Yes.” Misty replied grimly.

“What are we going to do if they strike again?” Jayn inquired next.

“Kill them on site.” Forsaken answered this time. “It's only a polite gesture to allow them formal trial and execution. If you ever feel like your own life is in danger during a capture or any other time, then threaten their life right back. Keeping yourself alive is the most important, remember that.”

Rvr cleared his throat, pushed up his glasses and said, “While it is preferable to capture them alive for information gathering purposes, Forsaken is right. They're only targeting us right now so the normal members have little to worry about from a slight extension of this conflict if it saves our lives.”

“Agreed.”

Then everyone fell silent. No one really wanted to talk about the topics brought forward and no one really had much more to answer for. So it was time for the Chief to retake the stage.

“I did find out one more thing that hasn't been updated.” Chevalier said stoically as he could, breaking the silence. All eyes were on him now, so he swallowed hard and pressed forward. “After I discovered the existence of the hacker I followed them. While I didn't run into them their trail did lead me to something of note. They came in as a guest as I relayed through my terminal but they also live here, I was gaining ground but lost their trail entirely when they logged themselves in to cut the time that the system would take to boot the guest account. So anyone who logged in around four this afternoon in the Spamzone is now a suspect.”

“This is something we can use.” Evilman_89 grinned victoriously as he pulled out his modified hacking terminal from one of his many pockets and started typing furiously. Like all the coders, his uniform consisted almost entirely of a hacking vest , closely resembling a flak jacket that was designed to hold all the tools of their trade.

Some speculated that each vest was actually bigger on the inside given how much gear they tended to have on hand. Several seconds later he asked, “You said they were probably somewhere in the Spamzone/Playground by the time that you realized they were gone?”

“Yeah.” Chevalier answered.

“It's not the best location, but we've got ourselves a list. Thirty two members that could be related to the hacker/killer combo. That looks a lot better than nothing so I'm going to send everyone the list of names. Stay sharp.”

All gazes quickly dipped to look at their terminals and see the list because this list would change how they did their jobs how they dealt with people and possibly their entire fates. Hard to believe, something so simple as a short two hundred and eighty eight character list could make so many people so worried, so anxious. Still they all looked on, knowing the implications, and preparing themselves for the journey ahead in their own way.

And with this you've completed Chapter 1, good show.

Spoiler: Chapter 2-1

The next morning the Chief awoke at the sound of a MSN tone blaring from his phone. It rang on for several moments as he struggled from his slumber and fumbled for it in the darkness. When he finally did get a hold of his phone he saw that it was Ienzo, the resident forensic surgeon and sole custodian of the KHV City Morgue, conveniently placed in the heart of the Kingdom Hearts sub section.

“Bad news, Chev.” She informed him in a somewhat flat, coffee fueled drone; she'd been examining the body since it was taken in the morning before and never was much one for sleep in the traditional sense, so it was no surprise to the young man. The next thing out of her mouth floored him, however. “Fayt's body... is kinda gone.”

“What?” He tried to straighten himself out but only ended up sending him half off his bed, banging his knee against the faux wood finished floors of his tiny apartment.

“It's gone... the body of Fayt-Harkwind has left the building.” She rephrased. Though she was quite a bit more sociable and even made brief flirtations with normality off work hours, while she was at the morgue Ienzo was almost like a different person, a more socially awkward, morbid person.

“How?” He tried again quickly in an attempt to marshal his wits and catch up to the world around him.

“I'm assuming it was the killer... or the hacker... or one of the people from the list... All I know is, I woke up from my five o'clock nap and it was... gone. Doors were still locked, everything looked fine and normal, just the body... it was gone.” She said simply.

“Wasn't there anyone with you?”

“Funny you should ask that... No.” Ienzo answered bluntly.

“We discussed this, someone should be with you at all times.” He chided, somewhat worried now.

“Are you with anyone?” She replied.

“No.”

“Well, I guess you're in trouble, too.” She was probably annoyed or at least somewhat indignant, but the Chief couldn't really be sure when her tone remained so flat and consistent no matter what she said.

“I'm at my house.” He explained.

“I'm at mine.” She explained taking up, with some effort, the tone one would instruct a preschooler to color within the lines.

“Well, I'll sleep over at the morgue from now on, we don't want anything else happening.” Chevalier sighed. finally getting up and beginning to pace as he continued to converse with the girl. Ienzo was one of the younger staff members, under twenty, and he thought it was odd that she'd volunteered to take care of the morgue when she joined. Still, the better he got to know her, the more he was glad she took the job rather than someone else. He cast a glance around his room, nothing but papers on the graffiti sightings could be seen on his desk and much of his floor. If he was right, which he hoped he'd narrowed down the possible targets to six the previous night, not a great number but better than nothing.

“You don't mind sleeping on operating tables?”

“I'll find a way not to.” He laughed hollowly at the thought; death and all things tied to it were unnerving to him despite its constant presence in his life.

“If... you want.” The girl replied dismissively.

“But the body.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I assumed the security and sixty police drones would handle it, but... you know what they say about assuming.”

“Well, I'm just glad you're safe. And, we know that they want to body for something, any information is good information.”

“Except for when it's that you're HIV positive.”

“Uh... yeah, I suppose that's true.”

“ Heh... just joking.”

“Yeah... Well, you told everyone else right?”

“I sent off a message to everyone's terminals. I just wanted to talk to someone about it now... no one else picked up right away.”

“Well, here we are, talking.”

“I'm actually done now... you should probably come take a look at the scene though since it's a crime and all.”

“I'll be over soon.”

“Have a nice... trip.”

Chevalier placed down his phone and sighed. Whoever was doing this knew that if they kept changing the game they'd likely win it. Committing the crime is always the easier part, too, unfortunately. But that's why he was the Chief, because he couldn't stand taking it easy, so he quickly showered and pulled on his self selected detective uniform then took to his car for the drive to the morgue, he'd have to get breakfast later. The clouds were grey above the city again and the radio was, as always, terrible.

“Who's even running the radio around here?” He asked himself angrily as he flipped the radio off after about twenty seconds as he had in over ninety percent of the times he had driven that beat up old Crown Vic.

Another call drew his attention to his phone. “Hello?” He asked without checking caller ID.

“It's me, Ienzo... again.” She replied. “I just thought I ought to tell... I found a note just now... It was hidden in one of the freezers and well... the news just got worse.”

“What?” The Chief jerked upright in his seat, causing the seatbelt to yank him back rather uncomfortably inspiring an unintentional extra acceleration through a red light and with it, a fit of swearing that Ienzo seemed to take perfectly in stride.

“I haven't told you the bad news yet... So don't be mad... yet... All the bodies were taken... not just Fayt's.”

“What?” The Chief asked again, less affected by the shock this time, but far from calmed down.

“All the bodies... taken from here.”

“All of them?”

“Every single one.... It's a lot of bodies...”

“I know. I'm pulling up on the morgue now, we can finish this inside.”

“Okay...”

This was originally half an update until I realised it was longer than some updates on its own. Also, this is the intro of my favorite character. Whoo hoo.

Spoiler: Chapter 2-2

As Chevalier entered through the heavy, frosted glass doors he could hear his shoes clattering against the clean, hard, chemical scented tile. The morgue was a lot like the city hospital, barring that it was always dead silent, half the lights were always out and Ienzo was the only one who wasn't clearly afraid of entering alone.

“Hello...”She greeted him from behind, holding her palm straight out a slightly dirty looking mug filled part of the way up with coffee resting atop it. “I thought... you'd want some.”

Chevalier turned with a start but managed not to knock the mug out of her hand. Ienzo was short, shorter than most girls the Cheif had dealt with, but she still managed to look intimidating with her clear, unblinking eyes and precise, almost mechanical motions. “Thanks, he said, taking it from her and eying it somewhat suspiciously. It smelled fine and Ienzo could only mean well so he took a sip. It was very bitter, like pure espresso. No sugar, nothing. She must have noticed his face when she quickly pulled out a handful sugar packets from the pocket of her lab coat and held them up to him.

“...Here.” She said, standing on tip toes in a fruitless attempt to match heights. “It's all I keep here...”

“Thanks, I only need a couple, though.” He responded nervously.

“Oh.” Ienzo said, stowing all but two into her pocket again, which she then proceeded to drop into his mug unopened.

Chevalier stood stalk still, staring at the mug. Ienzo looked at it as intently as her expressionless face would allow, waiting for a response. “Uh.”

“I think... you're supposed to tear those open first...” She finally instructed him with a shallow yet triumphant grin and an equally muted fist pump. Chevalier stared, blinked, then stared longer trying to fathom what was going on in that girl's head. “Next time, then.” Said Ienzo simply, taking the mug back from him and turning about.

“Where are you going?”Chevalier asked confusedly.

“The crime scene... I thought you... wanted to look?” She slowly responded, turning her tone more questioning after every break.

“Yeah, that's right.” He said, nodding her on and following her lead. She nodded in return and continued walking. So they walked. First a turn, then a flight of stairs, past some security drones, then another few turns then another flight of stairs, then a final turn past a huge mass of security drones into an elevator. All the while Ienzo remained silent. The Chief wanted to try and strike up a conversation with her, but was more than a little bit intimidated by her strange mannerisms.

While they waited for the elevator Ienzo stared at him for a time before pulling a small notebook from her lab coat and inspecting something she'd written. She always wore that white lab coat while she was on duty and kept it on instead of a normal jacket when she was off. She also kept her straight, dark, inexplicably blue, hair short and held out of her face with hair clips adorned with tiny plastic sunflowers on her right side and cartoonish skulls on her left; probably to keep it out of the way when preparing for autopsies and her other duties as forensic surgeon and morgue overseer.

“How was your day?” She suddenly asked, looking at him with her head tilted ever so slightly to one side.

“It just started?” He answered sheepishly.

“Oh, right... I forgot.” She said, turning her head back forward just in time to watch the light go on and the elevator doors open. The morgue elevators were a working combination of a freight elevator and a normal visitor elevator. It was large and sparse but fully enclosed and only went down a single level to the lab equipment, freezers and primary surgical tables in the basement.

So they stepped in and turned to face the door as Chevalier answered, politely, “It's fine, you've been working a lot of overtime recently. It must be hard to remember everyone else's schedule.”

“Yeah... it sorta is.” Ienzo admitted slowly. Chevalier took her attempt at chit chat as an indicator that it was alright for him to speak his mind as well.

“So did you find anything to do with Fayt before his body was taken?” He posited, somewhat warily given his circumstances.

“Yes... I did... I found out that he wasn't killed by the energy weapon... like everyone thought... He was killed by Jayn's ability... and he was dismembered after he was killed... almost like... the enemy was mad at him... or something...” She said as the elevator came to a stop and released them into her laboratory. The girl quickly led him on towards the empty surgical room where Fayt's body had been until this morning.

“What do you mean?”

“I don't know... sorry.”

“It's fine. What matters is what happened, I'll figure out how, 'kay?” He responded encouragingly.

“There was also blood from other person on the body... I couldn't identify it because something about it made it decay... like it wasn't quite human.”

“Not human. Like a bot?” Chevalier suggested offhandedly.

She stopped in front of the wooden double doors out of the lab and turned to him to explain firmly. “Bots don't bleed Chevalier... they just... poof.”

“But what if someone programmed a better bot, one that could actually--” Chevalier began to speculate.

“They poof...” She insisted adamantly.

“But--”

“The reason why bots poof... and we don't is that we aren't made to follow an algorithm... we grow and adapt and live and die... a bot can look like a man, walk like a man... but it's never a man, Chevalier... you cannot give a bot a soul... because it was never alive... no matter how much you program it... life is too complex to run in a bot's parameters... I know how life works, Chevalier... So they poof.” She continued grimly.

“So this is probably another hack to lead us off their trail?” Chevalier finally conceded, knowing he'd be in for a full technical lecture the next time he brought up bots. So they moved into the next room before starting up conversation again. In the center of the long, narrow autopsy hall were six tables spaced well away from each other. One was covered in faint smears of blood, while the rest remained pristine. On the far wall was a heavy metal door that appeared to be locked. Closer to the laboratory was a simple desk with a squashy looking rolling chair next to it and several neat stacks of paper ready for filing on it.

“Yes... I believe it is...”

“Then what does it tell us?”

“I was hoping... you'd know.” She shrugged.

“I need to sit down.” The Chief finally stated woozily. This threw everything he worked out over night on its head. Ienzo, silently brought him the chair and helped him sit in it without tipping himself over. She then crouched down in front of him and stared. Ienzo was wearing a normal graphic tee and a knee length black skirt under her lab coat and looked especially childish Chevalier held his head in his hands and closed his eyes. Then suddenly he spoke. “What wounds did Fayt have when we found him?”

Before speaking, Ienzo stood and began walking around the Chief such that he couldn't get a good look at her face as she spoke. “Third degree burns to the upper back and shoulders, massive cauterized lacerations all over his body, internal hemorrhaging, destruction of the central nervous system, muscular deterioration, a shattered ribcage, a snapped tibia, a break in the jaw, a compressive fracture to either humerus, the right arm was severed, the left arm was incompletely severed, the right and left legs were also incompletely severed, the torso was cut in two and the neck was impaled with an object large enough to compromise structural integrity...”, she rattled off without taking a pause for the first time that day. At first the Chief was sure that she was just used to death and all that came with it, but he quickly realized that she just wanted to get it over with when she turned from the tables and started fiddling with the papers on her desk saying only, “He was pretty messed up.”

“Seven pieces is what they were going for.” Chevalier responded after some thought.

“Why?”

“I don't know. But you said that the internal wounds were what did him in and the rest happened afterward?”

“That is correct...”

“They're sending a message. They're telling us something. They don't want us to follow them directly so they destroy evidence, but they leave markers to lead us somewhere.”

“Where?”

“I don't know. I need more time, more information.”

“I'll make more coffee... Tell me if anything... comes to mind.” She was yawning, but her eyes didn't leave him for a second, he was worrying her.

“Thanks.” The Chief smiled and nodded at her approvingly. But once she had gone past him and he was sure he'd heard her shut the door behind herself, he groaned. “Seven deadly sins. Seven kings of Rome. Seven ages of man. Seven the lucky number. Seven the normal number. Seven, seven, seven, seven... Why seven?”

“It looked like a rushed job... I don't think the killer was done... when they had to leave.” Ienzo said, poking her head out from behind him, causing Chevalier to start violently almost tipping over the chair. “Here's the coffee... the sugar is out of the packets this time,” she said, holding up a a handful of empty packets next to the beaker full of coffee.

“Why don't you think the killer was done?” Chevalier asked as he accepted the strange container and waited patiently as Ienzo circled back around him and sat down several feet behind him on the edge of her desk.

“The wounds were sloppily made... and there are reasons... why the killer would have to leave early... maybe.” Ienzo answered him slowly as if she didn't quite know how to word her response so that it made sense outside of her own head.

“But then what could they have been trying to do?” Chevalier countered instantly. For a moment Ienzo seemed dumbstruck, like she'd hit a wall in her mind when suddenly, she murmured something.

“Seth...”

“What?” Chevalier was totally perplexed by her path of logic now.

“The Egyptian god Seth... cut his brother Osiris into fourteen pieces... along the same kind of lines as Fayt... and then hid them...” She explained. When Chevalier didn't respond she quickly added, “I think... that we've been giving the killer... too much credit.”

“Maybe. But what could have interrupted them? They were in the intros section. No one goes there at that time of night.” He replied, almost dismissively.

“Maybe... it had to do with co-conspirators... or the weather...”

“The weather?” He turned to her to see what she was doing at this. She was still seated, her feet dangling inches above the ground and he hands were occupied clipping her hair back into place on the skull's side. When she saw him turn she quickly drew her hands away from her hair and tried to look like she'd been looking over her report while forming a reply.

“It looked like it... cloud cover was about to break... and then high altitude craft would've seen them... maybe?”

“That's unlikely, but your point remains, maybe this wasn't as well planned as we thought. Maybe they are a little disorganized themselves.” The Chief hadn't thought of it like that before. He'd been completely invested in a mastermind planning this down to the wire when in reality the hacker can plan all he wants, if the killer is a loose cannon, things won't be done properly and things like this will happen. He wasn't sure if it was a godsend or a catastrophe yet, but he knew it was something to go on.

“Still... the message...” Ienzo reminded him.

“Oh yeah, that would make the next target look like Wolfie, then.” Chevallier posited with certainty.

“Indeed... she was going out with Fayt... maybe we should warn her... she has a tendency to get... impulsive.” She said politely. It wasn't any mystery why the site as a whole called Wolfie the 'Berserker Killer' behind her back from time to time, but Ienzo never seemed to like talking about anyone who wasn't present in a negative capacity, provided they were alive.

“I'll send out a wave through the terminals. This might be wrong but we're better of preparing ourselves.” The Chief said, perking up slightly now that he had a new lead to work with and some coffee in his system. Ienzo on the other hand seemed to wilt slightly at his words.

“I don't feel prepared, Chevalier...”

Second part of my favorite character's introduction. Have you guys figured out who the killer is yet? If you think you have, then you're probably wrong.
Short explanation of powers: Only staff officials and premiums have powers, everyone has a potential power but it won't manifest in a normal user and it's also not related to rep, post count or anything else.

Spoiler: Chapter 2-3.1

DPWolf had been stewing in tense silence over the situation regarding Fayt since she got the news. She saw his body only once before it was taken and she had yet to make peace with his passing. Ienzo was such a careless girl, her skill and composure were incontrovertible when it came to working under normal conditions, but she didn't belong on staff. She lacked empathy and couldn't understand anyone she hadn't already known for years. To top it off, she was creepy.

“Wolfie, you're scowling again. You'll scare the younger members.” Plums informed her nervously. Plums had been elected by his colleagues as DPWolf's partner for today's round of searches because he was usually so friendly and amicable, so they informed him. He felt it was more a matter of who is least likely to set her off wrecking things and silently appreciated that they had such faith in him and just as silently demanded that they place it in someone else.

“I can scowl if I want. Everyone should be afraid.” The young woman snapped back. Her eyes glowing red momentarily.

“They're not supposed to know that.” He replied placidly. “You've got to keep your temper in check sometimes.”

“No one is going to make me.” She snarled. Plums could only sigh in return and plod along after her, trying his best to keep her from doing anything totally irrational because he knew that calming her down would be impossible, as she'd take any attempt at it as an insult or a sleight. The fact that she'd already be fighting if she was paired with anyone else gave him some comfort but hardly made up for the stress of looking after both her and the enemy's actions.

Wolfie and Plums were walking the back alleys of the Introduction section for the fifth time that day rather than moving on because every time they finished checking another section she found a reason to come back and make another round. When Plums did protest at all Wolfie only glared at him and began walking back into the heart of the Introduction section. While she probably was the best fighter on staff, other than RvR and Misty, but she had a tendency to get... emotional and for the moment that was more of a liability than any amount of combat ability was a help.

Plums was pulled from his thoughts abruptly when he received a wave on his terminal. His eyes scanned over it quickly, before her cast a worried glance at Wolfie who had clearly ignored her own terminal.

“Hey, Wolfie... you should probably check your terminal, the Chief found something.” Plums suggested mildly. The young woman glared at her counterpart momentarily before glancing at her own terminal.

“Let them--"

“Get down!” Plums cried suddenly. Wolfie for once took his word for it and ducked out of the way just in time to avoid having her head lopped off by a particularly cheap looking beam sword. Plums himself only had just enough time to slip away from the next slash at the expense of his balance sending him sprawling a couple of yards from his assailant.

“Damn.” The masked figure groaned as he shuffled backwards to avoid Wolfie's retaliatory strike. “You two were supposed to be done already...” Plums instantly recognized the cloaked figure as the assailant that Sabby had described to them the night before. They were coming full force, no pulled punched, no holds barred and this was still only the beginning.

“Plums, get out of my way.” Wolfie growled, her intensity rendering her barely intelligible. “And you, masked fucker, you were the one that killed Fayt?”

“Wolfie, don't be rash.”

“Yes, I am!” He yelled over the young man's warning. Even with the mask and hood on Plums could practically see the confident smirk on that man's face as he shuffled back into combat range between Wolfie and himself, evidently entirely unperturbed by Plums' presence.

“Saves me the trouble of looking for you.” Wolfie's eyes were now glowing red, overflowing with power just waiting to be unleashed. Suddenly, Plums joined the fray with a firmly placed kick to the back of the masked man's head.

“We don't have time for this.” The boy practically shouted at his superior as he followed up his attack with swift hook to where he assumed the man's kidneys would be under that big flowing mess of a cloak. Just as he was about to make contact, a powerful gust of wind kicked up and blew him back from his opponent. It wasn't a normal wind, Plums knew. It was oddly random and chaotic. He only needed a single glance at Wolfie to guess that it was pretty severe.

“That's--”

“Xaldin's old power before he left, Chaos Field I think people called it. Pretty cool, am I right?”

“DIE!” DPWolf bellowed unleashing her own power, conjuring a set of blasters and firing madly at her target. Unsurprisingly, her blaster bolts were caught up in another cacophonous wind.

“Nothing gets through the veil of chaos my little friend. Not even a hero's fist.” He added, as if he needed to goad his opponent even more. Plums had to act quickly and he knew it. His first sneak attack had basically no effect that he could see on his target so he had to assume that he couldn't expect results from that method of attack. If only he could get into a place with more sunlight.

DPWolf was hurling more bolts at her enemy fruitlessly as her younger comrade thought silently in the background. This person had a reason for not attacking, he could have beaten them both by now if he was trying. So, Plums did the only thing he could think to under the circumstances, he used DPWolf's distraction to retreat into the main street and observe the big picture, he wasn't alone in doing so however.

“Hullo. Having fun watching the fight?” A muffled voice remarked from beneath a mask matching that of DPWolf's adversary.

“No.” Plums responded calmly. “Are you?”

“Not really.” The second masked figure responded dully. “I've been wondering how to make my entrance, like, how to top those two in awesomeness without being all cheesy, but... I can't think of anything.”

“It must be hard being you.”

“No where near as hard as it is being you. Dealing with Wolfie as a partner in a time of crisis while she's totally emotionally compromised? No, thank you.”

“Wouldn't have to if not for, what was his name again?”

“Janus. You can call him Janus. I'm a little less free with my own name, however. So don't bother asking me, Ploohems.”

“It seems only fair if you know my name, though.”

“I like things tilted in my favor, so sue me.” The figure chuckled. “Well, it looks like we'd better join in, those two will take forever to finish up without us. So you take Janus and I take Wolfie. Sounds good?”

“I'd prefer it if we didn't have to make this into a fight at all but there's no reasoning with those two, is there?”

“None at all. So let's hustle up.” With that, the figure dashed ahead of him, leapt over Janus' head and grasped DPWolfie abruptly and launched the both of them to the top of the nearest thread. “Going up.”

“Son of a bitch.” Janus cried indignantly. “Stole my prey. Now what do I do?” Before the rhetorical question could be answered, Janus fell to his knees at a second kick the back of his head.

“Please die or something.” Plums requested coolly as he dealt another blow to the fallen enemy. This time he felt that it was the mask blunting his kick, it wrapped around the whole head and was made of something stiff. “Because this is really starting to irritate me.”

“You expect me to take you seriously?” The man snorted incredulously. He even lowered his beam sword and relaxed his stance. Plums took it in stride and advanced back into the alley until he was just outside of normal melee range.

“No. In a fight no one does, because I'm not a law enforcement officer or anything like that, I plan parades and events so everyone assumes I'll be a total pushover. Maybe they're right. I guess you'll see.”

“Sounds awfully threatening, boyo.” Janus said, rubbing the chin of his mask in a parody of thoughtfulness.

“Hardly my intent, but come on. Let's fight it out, you like fighting don't you?” Plums urged on his opponent without letting his own tone change.

“I prefer trouncings and you've kicked me in the back of the head twice, so I can't really trounce you too effectively anymore...” The masked man sighed audibly and hung his head momentarily. Plums thought about attacking, but couldn't be sure it wasn't a ploy so he kept the conversation going a little longer, hoping for an opening.

“Oh come on, if you make a sweep no one will count a few cheap shots, will they?” Plums grinned genially, finally breaking his chill exterior and warming up a bit.

“I guess no--” Faster than the blink of an eye Plums closed the gap between them and launched his fist into the masked figure's abdomen. That was exactly the chance he'd been waiting for, even with the mask it was clear that Janus had been not only relaxing at the time but taking his eyes off the opponent in front of him and that's all Plums needed to know.

“Yep, that is if you make a sweep.” Plums nodded to himself as he felt his fist dig into Janus' gut and went in for another strike, this time to the upper chest, hoping to keep Janus from recovering enough to pull out another power. He got in his second punch but the third was stopped dead and Plums got thrown back once again by the chaos field he'd seen earlier.

“Ow...” Janus bellowed belatedly. “What the **** is your power, kid?”

“Why would I tell someone who can copy abilities?” Plums rejoined with a wag of his finger.

“'Cause that's not how I copy, 'em?” Suggested the other man.

“Words from a murderer, how convincing.”

“I'm no friendly neighborhood murderer, I'm the usher of a new era.” Janus replied awkwardly, as if he couldn't quite grasp what anything he was saying meant.

“I'll try to stay out of the aisles during the feature.” Plums spat back as he dashed in for another attack. This time Janus was not only able to defend but counterattack as well, leaving Plums with a small cut on his forearm.

“Not what I meant. Jeez, I'm this close to just pulling out the big guns and killing you now.” Sighed the masked man, still not quite comprehending the joke at his expense.

“Why haven't you done it already?”

“Because, I want your power but I can quite get it, I keep missing it or something.” Said the man, slight frustration hanging on his voice. Plums was quite surprised by the honesty he'd shown this far and began wondering how much of it could actually be trusted, how much was just a distraction.

“Well, then it's all the best for me to just sit here and keep this little secret from you, isn't it?” Plums laughed.

“Psh. Like you'd beat me in a war of attrition. Anyways, once Izzy's done with Wolfie up there, you're gonna be fighting two one one.” Janus replied dismissively.

“Why are you so sure Wolfie's going to lose?” Plums asked, almost confusedly. He couldn't imaging anyone betting against her in a straight up one on one unless they could copy her like Janus.

“Look at it like this: I killed Fayt alone and Izzy can kill me without even thinking about it; so Wolfie's good, but I'm pretty sure that she's pretty much my level at best.”

Plums could hardly argue with that, but he was now regretting the decision to let DPWolf fight her own separate battle in her condition. “I see...”

This is long enough to be a full entry but it's only half of one, I figured I hustle this out while I still had time to write since I'll be not updating for a long while after this one. Either way it's mostly unedited because I'm too lazy to do it. Comment and criticize if you don't want to deal with subpar work.

Secondary note: Wolfie's power is Armorer's Gift, it allows her to conjure any weapon or weapons she's seen before, she more or less loses control of the weapons once they're conjured so she can't create a defensive line but she can summon firearms in the process of firing giving her one free shot upon summoning. Plums' power is photohypertrophism, he's able to absorb energy from sunlight and use the energy to boost his physical stats far beyond normal human levels. Additionally, Chaos Field is what it says on the tin, it increases chaos/disorder in a given area (not in the scientific sense) so things just go wacky.

Spoiler: Chapter 2-3.2

“'Sup Wolfmeister?”Izzy inquired smoothly as the two landed atop the thread's roof. At the top of a thread lay the newest posts, protecting them was a simple flat roof with no way entrance or exit other than the Coder's maintenance panels. It was a uniform, flat surface with only a nominal wall around the outer edges. The masked figure instantly put its captive down on her feet and allowed her free roam.

“Get out of my way.” DPWolf growled menacingly the second she was free, pushing Izzy away from her only to have the masked figure remain in her path.

“Rude.” Scoffed the masked figure nonchalantly, observing the surface of the roof with care as if it had lost something and was looking to retrieve it. “You need to take a chill pill or something, dudette. You're taking this whole thing way too seriously.”
“I told you to move!”She burst out furiously, summoning an almost impossibly huge antimateriel machine blaster in her hands and opened fire.

“Make me.” The figure taunted with a smooth aerial dodge. Wolfie followed up with more of the same but this time met with a good deal more resistance. Izzy was probably grinning at the look on Wolfie's face when she was faced with not her previous enemy but a row of Imperial storm troopers, armed and ready. It was only when they ate the blaster bolts helplessly that she realized they were just empty suits. But by then her opponent had already disappeared.

“Where are you?” She said, her eyes darting back and forth, scanning for some sign of movement.

“No one ever looks up,do they?” She heard the muffled voice ask. Seconds later DPWolf was facing another wall of armor, this time in the style of medieval Europe. The girl only barely managed to roll aside as the hollow army fell, crushing her weapon as it did.
“You...” DPWolf groaned searching her brain for a weapon that would crush her opponent instantly.

“They call your power Armorer's Gift, don't they?” Izzy chuckled in that eerie distorted voice that the mask seemed to create. With a suddenly pensive and reflective tone. “It is a pity though... that someone like you is considered strong, someone who relies on the innate effectiveness of their power rather than trying to use it with any sort of efficiency. But then again, you never were one for finesse, were you?”

“I always subscribed to the maxim, 'more grunt, less grace.' After all, a little perseverance and elbow grease is more than enough to get any job done.” DPWolf retorted as she summoned an exemplary weapon, a pod of anti-air missile launchers.

“Disagreeable, underevolved, disgusting, petty, little knuckle dragger.” Whispered the figure under its breath. Suddenly, behind it a wall of blasters appeared, firing like mad right from the start. Wolfie managed to take cover behind her own oversized armaments but had no way of firing it from that position and it was only a matter of time before they exploded under the relentless fire. It seemed impossible that her opponent could be using the same power as her and still be able to keep up such an attack. She wracked her brains for a way to win, away to match the masked figure.

She was about ready to give up and start firing wildly with even more firepower than before and it was then she realized what was happening, when she'd summon a weapon it'd be able to fire once but then she'd have to wield it to get more utility out of it. The masked assailant was dismissing each blaster the second it had fired and summoned a new one in its place. It was an idea that had never once occurred to DPWolf in all her years of Moderating the forums and here it was being used against her.

“We'll see how you deal with this then.” Wolfie muttered as she summoned herself a Mandolorian style blast suit and a blaster rifle. She poked her head out just slightly to get a view of her enemy, aimed and fired through the tempest of blasts. This action, however, small didn't escape the concealed eyes of her opponent, who simply tilted its head out of the way and continued on with the assault. What did seem to make it through though, was a simple thermal detonator Wolfie rolled over just after she fired. She watched it roll along, unbearably slowly, creeping its way inextricably towards its goal and just as it reached her opponents' feet it went off. Wolfie smirked beneath her blast visor. “Looks like you're not as cool as you though you were, prick.”

“What was that?” She heard a mocking voice from behind her.

“But you--” Wolfie spun around firing at air.

“Check again, sis. Hologram generator.” Izzy commented from atop the missile pod, head tilted and and shoulders shrugging.

“But that's not--”DPWolf began in disbelief.

“In Star Wars? Yeah.Just because you like them doesn't mean I have to.” Izzy conjured two light sabers, one in each hand. “But it doesn't mean I don't love me some classics.

“Let's end this, Jedi loving scum.” Wolfie snarled, summoning a matching weapon.

“Too easy.” Four beams of light erupted from the ground darting directly towards Wolfie. She leapt back and watched them cross leaving molten trails skittering off across the roof. “Not done yet, girlfriend.” With a simple wave of a hand, from the sky falls a WWII light tank, easily caving the damaged roof and dragging both combatants in the wake of the destruction.

DPWolf groaned, though she'd managed to evade most of the debris and the tank had been dismissed almost instantly, she still fell ten feet straight onto her back, getting the wind knocked out of her. As the dust began to settle she took a look around, Izzy was nowhere to be seen, so she tried to get to her feet and ready for another round as fast as she could. When she tried to move however, she felt a searing pain in both of her ankles, instantly followed by a matching set in the palms of her hands. Four longswords now pinned her, helplessly, to the cracked tile floor as her masked opponent sauntered over casually,taking time to examine the remains of corrupted posts and chuckle.

“You piece of shit!” Wolfie bellowed, struggling against both her restraints and the pain they imposed.

“Sticks and stones,lass.” Izzy shrugged, allowing a small shower of each to pelt Wolfie on cue. “Yeah, those count as weapons. After all they break bones. But your words. Your words. They don't seem to ever get anything done at all, my pretty young miss. Wouldn't you agree?”

“You talk to much.” Wolfie grinned triumphantly for the first time in the match. Before the words had even escaped her lips a deep rumble shook the very foundations of the thread itself just an instant before a column of light erupted from the beneath the floor and soared into the sky blasting the clouds into a distant ring around it. The top floor of the thread was totally eradicated in the blast and while none of the earlier explosions had caused the slightest pause in the combat below, but this had caused Plums and Janus to both stop and stare upward.

“Who do you think is winning now?” Plums jabbed. His confidence in Wolfie slightly renewed along with a sense of worry that she'd done something incredibly stupid.

“Smart money might have just gotten a little brain damaged.” He chuckled. "But I'm still betting on Izzy."

“Wanna go see?”

“Tempting but I've got a job to do and so do you if I recall correctly.”

“Don't worry, we can kill each other anytime.”

“Like I said, tempting. However, I should be cleaning up soon.”

“As you like. I guess we'll have to wait a while to see. Since I'm not a gambling man, I think I'll leave this one.”

“No...” Wolfie knew she'd failed. She knew the second it registered with her that she hadn't died. She felt a low buzz humming throughout her body and noticed a translucent blue sphere surrounding the masked figure, herself and a small portion of the remaining floor. The entire top floor and roof had been deleted in the blast and the cannon's presence had left a large hole reaching several floors down but after all that, DPWolf hadn't once touched her enemy. In spite of the danger she was still in Wolfie couldn't help but think about the nightmare it'd be to recover all that lost data from the thread though.

“You nearly killed the both of us. Hell, even I thought I was dead for a second.” Izzy remained silent for a moment. Then broke out into hysteric laughter made all the eerier by the muffled, distorted sound the mask added.“Who am I kidding? It was a slick move, but far from surprising.”A press of a button disengaged the sphere and a wave of a hand conjured a long two pronged spear in hand. “Now, where were we? Ah,right, I was about to kill you, yes? Any last words?”

“Just this one: Duck.”Wolfie hadn't even finished her sentence before Izzy was complying.

“Shit. We took too long.” She heard the masked figure spit angrily. It was clearly looking at the new challenger with a mix of surprise and irritation,possibly even rage. Wolfie was still pinned down by the swords, but barely even remembered the pain through her tremendous sense of relief at the sight of Forsaken. Right now he was probably the only one on staff other than the Admins that had a chance against Izzy.

“Oi oi oi. Nice dodge.Even though I was all sneaky and everything.” He shrugged rubbing his neck coyly. Then he turned to his fallen ally and stooped down to talk to her. “Wolfie, you okay? Claw's down there with Plums now,too. We're here to bail you guys out.”
“Just kick its ass.”She snarled as Forsaken helped her remove the swords.

“I felt the power go out. Maybe you should be more careful about when you black out people's powers.” The masked figure responded slowly, dropping the spear into the floor and standing up straight, brushing nonexistent dirt and dust from its robe.

“Noted. But now that your powers are blacked out, what do you plan on doing?” He asked,fiddling casually with his hat and jacket.

“Good question. Good question. One, to which I will respond with another question, if you don't mind. Won't you just back off for now?”

“No can do. You've been beating up on the Wolfmeister and your buddy down there's been bugging Plums, too. So I can't really just let this kinda thing slide. I hope you understand my obligations and such.”

“Oh, I do, I had simply hoped that you'd be a little nicer about it. Whenever you're ready then, Foreskin?” The masked figure scoffed with a mock curtsey before spreading its feet apart and getting up on the balls of its feet in anticipation of the melee that would ensue. Forsaken smirked slightly and started bouncing up and down in an old style boxing stance.

After several seconds of standoff he nodded and advanced, whispering to himself, “Three, two, one. Let's jam.”

Rather than charging in,Forsaken started his advance slowly and methodically. He would take two steps forward and two back, three forward and one back, two to one side ad three to the other and sometimes he'd even just bounce in place for a bit. However, slowly but surely he closed the gap and pressured his opponent into backing up and shifting around him in the same slow and methodical manner. It seemed like it had been hours before the first punch was even thrown, but when Forsaken finally decided it was the time the slowly mounting tension shattered in a tangled blur of motion and a rush of air.

Forsaken opened in atypical boxer's fashion by throwing a series of jabs and crosses to get a feel for the opponent. The masked figure didn't even raise a guard, but instead, deftly stepped and shifted to evade every strike. It was hard to believe that neither one of them was using a power.Without warning, the suddenly broke apart. Forsaken slightly out of breath and Izzy just as silent as before they started.

“Yo, Fork. You've gotten really good at boxing. In a couple months you might actually be able to deck me for a real good one.” The figure said, readjusting the mask and robes fastidiously.

“You're not half bad yourself. I'm surprised that big old cloak and robe isn't holding you back at all.” Forsaken responded cheerfully. His opponent was as unfathomable as when they'd started to him and he'd shown off his general style already. It was already looking unfavorable up here, he could only hope.

“Either way, we're both warmed up a bit now. So the game's over.” Before Forsaken could even reply, his opponent had covered the distance between them. He quickly put up his guard and blocked the strike with both arms. But his victory was short lived he realized when he felt himself rocket backwards into one of the remnants of the thread's walls. His arms felt as if they'd been broken on impact and Izzy was advancing slowly but surely.

“Looks like I'm no match for you.” He chuckled wincing as he tried to accompany it with a hand motion.

“Things would've gone differently if you'd known how strong my punches were.” His opponent simply replied. “You're probably the best hand to hand fighter on staff at the moment.”

“Was that a compliment?I don't usually hear those from people about to kill me.”

“I don't do this job because it's fun, you know.” The voice was definitely softer now. Even through the distortion of the mask it had a much less steely edge than before.

“You get paid a lot,then?”

“In a way...” Izzy responded slowly, trailing off in thought.

“Do I get a last request of something, you seemed like you were giving Wolfie a deal like that?” Forsaken asked, changing the topic, knowing that if he was going to survive he'd need to buy time for help to arrive. The wave Plums sent out should have reached everyone long ago and even the farthest staff member should be closing in by now. It was just a matter of before or after he was dead staff number two at this point.

“Sure Fork, as long as it's not some stupid shit.” The voice suddenly picked up again.This masked figure was certainly a mystery. It was then that Forsaken knew what he was going to say next.

“Take off the mask.”

“It'd only make you unhappy.” He was warned. But he pressed on anyway.

“Take it off.”

“Don't say I didn't warn you.”

Formatting got so ****ed this time around. Whatever. It's an update. I'm not happy with it because I'm never happy with anything. One more 2-3.x chapter and then back to your regularly scheduled update structure. It takes so many words to say so little, I suck.

Spoiler: Chapter 2-3.3

When Janus finally began his assault in earnest Plums could understand why Sabby had so much trouble with him. He was absolutely insane. His moves were unpredictable and his pace was unmatchable. First it was a torrent of icicles, then there were spouts of fire and he continued changing powers every second, suppressing any chance for counterattack.

Even with his power still a mystery to Janus it seemed that he could follow well enough without it. Plums managed to evade the worst of the assault, but soon one of the myriad blasts clipped him in the leg and crippled his motion. Janus instantly stopped firing off ranged attacks and rocketed forwards, beam katana raised.

“Well, I guess this is it.” Plums sighed. He knew that this was a dangerous job and he'd thought that he might go down one of these days. He just never expected it to end like this, in an alley with no idea what was really happening behind it all. So he stared into death's maw and smiled, albeit prematurely, he realized when Janus crashed into another figure in midair and went clattering to the ground in an unceremonious heap. Plums recognized his savior immediately from his neatly pressed staff uniform to his immaculately kept sword.

“Cavalry's here, Plum face.” Clawtooth assured him playfully. “I had to ditch practice to come help you though, real inconvenient timing, no?”

“Claw?” Plums could barely get over his relief. “You got the message?”

“Indeed, good sir.”Claw nodded. He was the only staff member that actually bothered to wear the uniform they were all given without any modification. Even RvR and Misty added their own personal touches. But Claw was by the book. He kept his hair clean and out of the way. Kept the dark blue and black overcoat on over the white and grey undercoat and matching ballistic armor armor breeches and heavy combat boots. Kept clean shaven and fastidiously tidy. He took pride in both his appearance and he performance record. In fact, he was just a rather serious fellow all around.

“And they keep showing up. Izzy needs to stop fooling around and finish up there, because we clearly need to dip set now.” The masked figured groaned while rubbing his neck. The stark contrast between his slouching figure and Claw's erect posture was striking to Plums as they stood off. But now wasn't the time to be interested in stances he remembered. Now was the time to take back the fight. So he slowly retreated to find a place with more sun.

“Before you go, who's the one in the mask?” asked Claw with a hint of amusement.

“Calls himself Janus.He's the guy who offed Fayt, so care should be taken.” Plums called back as he cleared the area.

“Like it matters.”Janus spat as he launched himself into the air, flinging fire and lightning as he rose. Plums used his remaining energy to make a mad dash to avoid the spray while Clawtooth advanced through the maelstrom sword readied. “Ooh, another ballsy one.”

“Balls got nothing to do with it.” Claw retorted as he began his counterattack. With a single swing of his sword the air split in a terrible shriek and the shock waves arced and rippled through the air like massive talons hunting for Claw's prey. Janus countered by simply mirroring the move with his own copy. Claw took it in stride, however, and kept up his assault as fast as his opponent could keep up and kept him locked into a furious stalemate. As these events unfolded Plums was climbing a fire escape to the top floors of the nearest thread across the street. He needed a vantage point.

“Let's see what's going on upstairs...” Plums knew that Claw was probably outmatched and even though he was paired with Forsaken who was probably on the roof above as he moved there was no way all of them were making it out without a little more than just straight up fighting. So he moved himself along, painfully.

As he reached the halfway mark he took stock of the situation across the street again. Below Claw as darting about, attacking and defending deftly and cannily but he was making little if any headway. Above the top of the thread was shredded to bits but it was impossible to really tell anything yet. By his calculations further backup was still at least ten minutes out. So he bit his lip and trudged on against the pain of his injured leg.

By the time he reached the top, Forsaken was in dire straits and Claw was being tossed around like a rag doll.

“Good thing it's sunny.” Plums frowned and focused himself on collecting solar energy. The sky began to darken slightly as he began curving the light in towards him and absorbing it into his body. “I still only have enough time to fully charge one shot though. Fork might be able to talk himself out of this one but Wolfie's there too... Claw, don't ever say I did nothing for you.” He mumbled as he took aim for the alley.

As he watched the fight he noticed upon closer inspection that Claw was still smiling. Just as Plums had planned to fire his first shot the alleyway was filled with what could only have been some crazy move Claw had been saving in reserve. Without waiting for the outcome, Plums changed his target and fired on his new target.

Izzy sighed at the finality of his decision. Then Izzy began to move a hand towards its face slowly. But before that hand could reach the mask a beam of light cut through the air and crashed into its back and blew the masked figure straight for Forsaken. The injured Moderator wasted no time in completing the combination with his own punch. He felt like his arm was being fed into a wood chipper but he powered through and brought Izzy to a complete stop against the power of Plums' solar beam.

“Nice one, Plums.” He hissed through grit teeth as he watched the cloaked form drop ungracefully to the ground. Izzy, the one who nearly killed two of the most powerful members of the Staff in several minutes, but now that crumpled form seemed like the first glimmer of victory.

“That's not a good sound...” Janus muttered to himself when he heard the solar beam fire. He'd been too slow to get a view of the move as he tried to recover from Clawtooth's Dragon Tooth, but he knew someone had changed the balance up there. “I'm leaving without you, Iz.”Without warning he accelerated towards his opponent and the two of them crossed blades for an instant. Each took stock of his own adversary and passed forwards, allowing blood to flow between them.

“You're good.” Claw complimented as his left arm dropped to the ground behind him. Janus didn't hear him though. He was long gone. Claw took the opportunity to heave a sigh of relief and collapsed to his knees and began calmly tearing his sleeve and fashioning a tourniquet to prevent himself from bleeding out.

“What was that?” Izzy groaned.

“It was backup.”

“You know I can still kill you guys, right?”

“Yeah, but I hit you. I feel like it was in itself worth it.”

“Well, time for another round.” Izzy hopped back up from the ground, slightly wobbly from the shock. The mask was cracked now and the figure was discarding the charred outer cloak entirely, leaving just the inner robes. The first punch easily plowed through the remnant of wall and send a shower of debris into the streets below as Forsaken dodged to the side. It didn't stop there however, Izzy kept up the assault on Forsaken regardless of the setback. The two of them were now swiftly darting back and forth in a complex dance of attack and defense.

Plums took a look back down at the alley to see how Claw was doing as he charged another shot. Claw was in bad shape, but at least he was alive. Back on the roof things weren't looking so certain. Forsaken couldn't attack again, he didn't even look like he could raise his arms at all, but he kept engaging the opponent anyways. DPWolf couldn't stand with those injuries and help was still another minute or two out at least. They needed to stall a while longer. So Plums checked his terminal to see if anyone had replied. Then he smiled.

“You getting tired or something?” Forsaken mocked as he dodged another punch.

“Yeah, jut a bit sleepy.” Izzy responded painfully. “So sleepy in fact, that I'll have to be leaving for my afternoon nap.”

“Aw, we were having such fun.”

“Sorry, we'll do it again. Ciao.” Izzy chirped with a mock peace sign and salute. Then the figure leapt from the room up to the next roof. Forsaken didn't look like he was about to give chase, but Plums couldn't let the opportunity to capture an enemy pass him by. So he took aim and fired his second blast. Another hit and before his target managed to move beyond the range of Forsaken's cancellation field. But it didn't completely stop Izzy's ascent. An the masked figure managed to catch a hold of a window sill with one hand. The burnt undercoat robes fell away with only minimal effort.

Plums wasn't entirely surprised by what he saw, but the skintight jumpsuit beneath the cultist robes revealed that the one who'd been giving them so much trouble was slender girl. As she pulled herself up slowly to the top of the roof Plums checked the sky. It was becoming overcast quickly and he wouldn't be able to make another shot.

But when he saw a pale blue light streak across the sky, he knew he wouldn't have to. “Izzy. I suddenly pity you.”

“I fucked up.” Izzy groaned. “I need to get out of here fast.” She made another jump to the next thread over but before she could reach the apex of the her jump she was cast back downward.

“Yeah. You really did.”Izzy was pinned to the roof of the thread by something heavy, incredibly so. She tried to move to no avail, something was pressing her whole body down so hard that she was being slowly crushed into the roofing tile.

“Misty... that you?” She managed to hiss in between shallow, pained breaths.

“I can't hear you.”The young Administrator stated calmly and coldly from the top of the newly constructed thread Misty had dropped onto her opponent. She didn't look angry or at all worked up over the situation. She wore the staff uniform with some sleeve alterations and a slightly different color palette. “Maybe you should speak up.” With a snap of her fingers the thread increased in height and began even crushing the weaker parts of the structure of the thread below. “Give me a good shout, if you can.” She paused. No response.

“Nothing to say? Good. Then it's my turn to talk.” From then, until she finished speaking each word she spoke was delivered to a new post to the thread, causing it to periodically increase by a page and bear down even harder on the hapless assassin.

“Let me begin with this. You are scum. Slime. Pestilence.” A floor.

“You killed a good man and threw this city into chaos.” A floor.

“You prance about and fight like you think it's fun.” Another floor.

“You act like you can string us along and make play as some great puppeteer.” And another.

“You're still so petty. And tiny.” And another

“As much as it would satisfy me to crush you right now, I won't.” Yet another.

“I need to know of your colleagues and your intentions.” Still one more.

“When you've given me everything, when you can't stand the pain anymore, when you no longer even beg for death. That's when I will kill you. Do you understand?” This last floor was all the thread below could bear and the weight was now so great that the thread began to collapse in on itself.

As Misty vacated the disaster area in favor of a safer rooftop, a resounding boom drowned out the heavy rumbling of the buildings and made Misty smile. Izzy was now garbed in a Super Sentai styled suit, and had just then managed to kick her way free of the two threads. In the next instant she was rocketing towards the ginger Administrator.

“I understand.” The heroically garbed killer replied belatedly.

“Then let's do this.”Misty quickly cloaked herself in blue light and blasted off in a flash, leaving her adversary behind her. Izzy took no time inresponding by summoning a copy of DPWolf's final attack on her and trying to shoot down the tiny blue speck darting across the sky.Misty easily evaded every attack and quickly took her chance to counter attack.

She dove down straight at her enemy and posted a thread as she did before to block for her as she altered her course to get a better vantage point. Izzy simply crashed through this thread only to be struck sideways by an even larger one placed directly behind it growing laterally as Misty altered its parameters at breakneck speed.

Izzy was pressed into the foundation by the wind pressure as it grew, but she managed to roll herself off without much trouble, but the second she was clear of one obstacle she crashed into another. Misty didn't seem to care how much clean up there'd be afterward because she just kept throwing more threads out at an alarming rate. Even while using multiple powers Izzy couldn't even begin to keep up with the constant onslaught and kept on being pushed back further. Eventually she managed to slip past the wall of threads flying at her and begin her escape anew.

“Repliku's power.”Misty commented as she crushed a data shell copy of her enemy beneath a thread. Next she simply typed something into her terminal and glowed blue again.

“I'm toast if she catches me.” Izzy wheezed as she moved from thread to thread, wincing at each landing and leap. Her Sentai suit was shredded and hardly remained clinging to her bruised and bleeding figure. An Administrator was truly a different class of being.

“Want me to use butter or jam, then?” Misty replied coolly as she appeared in front of the fleeing figure.

“If it's all the same to you, I'll take some olive oil and garlic with some crushed bay leaves.” Izzy managed to quip in midair before she was ensnared in a glowing blue sphere and crashed into it's wall shattering her mask and knocking her out cold.

Misty finally sighed with relief and added the sphere to her inventory without removing the broken fragments and identifying the girl. She'd do it later. She only then realized how much clean up work she'd made for herself and then groaned. It was then that she received a call.

“What is it?” She snapped.

“Good show, boss.”Forsaken was speaking in his normal, nonchalant voice. Misty took the opportunity to start flying back towards the alley where this fight had started. “We're going to call another meeting tonight. It'll have to be in the hospital though with the condition Claw and Wolfie are in.”

“I'll take us all there, RvR's gathered the rest of the staff already.” She said before hanging up and landing in front of them in a flash of blue light.

“Cool, I love fast travel.”

Finally done. Formatting was a ***** and a half again. I'm gonna change my text editor style or something 'cause this sucks. Note that Admins can edit the city on the fly and have greater permissions than normal staff. They also have neat gadgets.

Spoiler: END

RvR had been waiting patiently for all of the staff to arrive after Misty had literally flown out the door upon reading Plum's message. The elder of the administrators preferred to only do what should be done in order to optimize time and resource usage while still completing the task at hand. He would have gone personally if his counterpart hadn't been so hasty but he knew how she and all the other staff would respond once he'd finished it himself. So he found no need to take action at that time. But now that she was coming back, he was wishing had he'd gone in her stead. Because not knowing was unbearable. It was classic behavior of his partner in crime to leave the important things for later and so she'd done again. She was bringing back the enemy agent without even a cursory check into identity or intent.
He sighed. She was very helpful to have around though. She was aggressive and got things done. He cast an eye around the empty conference room. He'd have to relocate to the hospital soon based on what he'd heard of DPWolf, Forsaken and Clawtooth's injuries. Three staff out of commission for one captive. It was a fair enough trade he supposed. But then again, he didn't know enough to be sure if they'd just traded their rook for a pawn. He stood. No one had missed Misty's message it seemed. Good. There wasn't time to have people bumbling about like they were used to being able to. This site wasn't ready for war. Not something of this nature. With a few swift strides he was at the door. After adjusting his glasses and gloves he stepped outside into the thin air. The emergency measure of putting the staff section in the sky seemed almost excessive to him. But still it gave him a good place to see everywhere, even if it didn't really allow him to know what was happening all about. So he cloaked himself in the administrator blue aura and blinked off into the distance.

Chevalier had been following their theory on through the various sections, bothering many members with vague and foreboding questions. Ienzo sat quietly by and waited for something to break with only the occasional technical input or correction. Things had been going slowly and she was certain that as much as the Chief tried to make it seem like he knew what he was doing, he was at just as much of a loss as she was. So when the news came through that DPWolf, Plums, Clawtooth and Forsaken were in the hospital and one of the agents involved in the murder had been caught, they dropped everything and went.
Due perhaps to their conveniently close proximity or perhaps their zeal in responding, they were the first to arrive for the impromptu post battle meeting. Misty paced around the room, nearly bumping into the hospital moderator Jayn and the damage analyst Evilman with every pass. Jayn, had long since stopped trying to stop her and simply tried to treat her patients in between her interruptions. Evilman had taken the opposite tact and left the room entirely as soon as more people entered.
“Um... hey.” Ienzo waved vague at everyone, unsure as to whom she should first address.
“Where is everyone?” The Chief asked, somewhat disappointed. He was used to being late, so arriving early and waiting on everyone else was quite foreign to him.
“On their way.” Forsaken assured him, both arms in slings, but his face still unmistakably amused by this who thing.
“Where's... Claw?” Ienzo asked, suddenly realizing he was not present.
“He's still under from the arm reattachment surgery.” Jayn responded pleasantly.
“He should be awake by the time the last of us arrive.” Plums chimed in from his position near the window. He was the least injured and as a result hadn't been asked to get into a thin backless gown and sit on a bed looking helpless. Wolfie, however, had been and looked none to pleased over the whole matter.
“Why can't we just interrogate her now!?” She burst out.
“Because, Mando, I'm not going over all this twice.” Misty snapped back, pausing her pacing for but a moment before resuming it as if intent on wearing a very specifically shaped hole in the floor.
Minutes passed in relative quiet. Plums and Forsaken recounted their somewhat embarrassing stand against the masked figures with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The Chief wasn't sure what to make of it yet though. There was a whole section of the fight that Wolfie refused to share and then there was this mysterious Izzy. Who could she be? Was she a member? Something else? If that Janus one could clone people's powers and so could she, then could everyone on their side? There were too many questions to answer and no one to answer them. Just as Chevalier started rubbing his temples in frustration and annoyance RvR stepped into the long white room, quickly followed by a freshly awakened Clawtooth ,and soon after, the rest of the staff. Misty only then stopped pacing and faced everyone, scanning them as if to confirm that they were in fact in front of her at last.
“I--” She began before she was hushed by a hand on her shoulder. It was RvR, he took the opportunity to lean in and whisper something that Chevalier couldn't quite catch. Ienzo however heard it in full.
“I'd like not to start with the prisoner.” He had simply said. Misty nodded in agreement just as simply and went on.
“For the past few days we've been trying to ascertain the identity and motivations of the ones who hacked the site and killed Fayt. Since the incident we've been traveling in pairs and keeping a redoubled watch. Today the enemy struck again. We managed to win this time, but not without them putting three of our staff completely out of commission for the immediate future. But this attack tells us a few things at least. There are at least two people who can copy powers in their group and they are incredibly dangerous. Starting now, our policy will be to not engage the enemy if contact is made. Make your first priority escaping and calling either myself or RvR. Is that clear?”
There was a general assent.
“Good. Chevalier, Ienzo. Did you manage to find anything new?”
“I've managed to shorten the list of members that could be involved and we've found a few possible indicators about their next targets. Whoever these people are, they want to screw around with us for a while. If they wanted to get this over with, things would be much different. I think we should put time into figuring out the clues they left for us and trying to intercept their plans accordingly. It might be a series of traps but it also might be our one edge against them.”
“I... helped with what he said.” Ienzo replied when the collective gaze drifted onto her.
“What about what happened last ni--”
“Wolfie. Stop.” RvR warned. “That was unfortunate, but it wasn't anyone's fault. She couldn't have stopped the power imitators anyways. Let's be honest.” DPWolf proceeded to grumble something and Ienzo decided to add an amendment to her statement.
“Now that we know... about the power imitators... I... might know.... why they took the bodies.” She slowly but deliberately stated.
“And your theory?”
“Analysis... They could be... reverse engineering them on a source code level... in theory...”
“Does this mean they could have an infinite number of people that--”
“No... there... has to be a... preexisting architecture... for it... something about their base make up... so only special people.”
“Special how?”
“I... don't know. I'd... have to research it... more.”
“You may not have to.” Misty deemed it time to bring up the prisoner and though RvR seemed to make a face at it she continued unhindered. “We've got a prisoner from their side as most of you have heard. And we're going to conduct interrogations as soon as possible. I need all of you to continue the search and to keep vigilant but I do want some of you to accompany me for the duration. Time is of the essence so we've got to work fast.”
“I won't be joining you.” RvR suddenly replied as he eyes flitted across her terminal's screen, a frown growing on his face. “I have some business to take care of with the coders, why don't you join them in my stead Plums?”
“Sure thing.” Plums replied quickly, somewhat surprised but still composed enough to hide it.
“Well, I'll be off then.” The administrator saluted briefly and walked out.
“Well, everyone with the police that is able should join me to the prison.” Misty continued. “Everyone else, stay sharp and read the updates. We'll figure something out and beat this thing.” She said, as confidently as she could. She had never been great with speeches and without RvR to fall back on she felt somewhat more nervous about them. So she saluted and took Sabby, Chevalier, Plums, Ienzo and Stardust along with her to the tune of some slightly dissatisfied goodbyes. The remaining staff simply went about their business as normally as possible. Misty sighed. As much as they tried to seem like it, they just weren't prepared for this kind of thing.

“What have you found?” RvR asked as he approached the group of coders huddled around a single access port.
“We've been ****ed.” One said.
“Hard.” The rest finished.
“Hacking?” The Administrator asked with a raised eyebrow, not allowing his tone to shift.
“More like the whole site's being rewritten from the ground up, but yeah, hacking.”
“How far is it?” This was already looking like a complete failure.
“It's disassembling the arcade, no one really goes there anymore so I doubt normal members will see it. But whatever it's doing it's doing it fast. We've got a week until the arcade and video and sound archives are totally reformed and it starts on the actual forums.”
“Any idea what it's supposed to be doing?”
“As far as I can tell, it's editing things back a few versions right now. I'm not sure if that's a preliminary step or if there's a point in moving things backwards for them.”
“I see, anything we can do about it?”
“We've been trying but it's not been very effective. It's almost like whoever set this whole thing up knew what we'd try and preempted it.”
“I'll begin work then.” RvR replied calmly, his glasses glossing over with a blue glow and his form cloaking itself in administrator blue as he slowly phased into the access port and began work.
“Good luck.” The coders collectively whispered as the resumed what work they could on the outside.

The city prison wasn't a very impressive building. It didn't have guard towers or barbed wire fences or a big heavy gate or any of the other hallmarks of a penitentiary. In fact normal users probably wouldn't even notice it in the center of the not oft visited Rules section. But as each of the staff members closed on the squat, windowless, grey concrete building at the center of the circle formed by the various rules threads and the connecting pathways its importance couldn't be clearer. The whole section had a very stately feel usually, but now it just seemed empty and dead to Chevalier. Everything was beginning to remind him of death. So he sighed as they closed on the dull metallic doors.
The insides were just as dreary as the out, if not moreso. The walls, floors and ceilings were all institutional beige, linoleum and off white respectively. Despite being empty, the place was quite clean and in well working order. That was because though this place was disused, it was entirely automated to keep it preserved in case it ever did see use again. Retrospectively, a wise choice. The place wasn't very much used because the ban system already in place was more than enough to keep ordinary troublemakers out. However, one incident during the reign of the past administrator, Sara, had compelled the staff to have this small containment center erected and kept in working order in case such a thing ever happened again. And here they were with an even bigger mess, and once more making use of this facility.
The actual holding facility was kept nearly a mile and a half down so as to preclude the possibility of someone simply digging their way out. So The small, silent crew entered the solitary freight elevator at the end of the hall and began their descent. The elevator moved quickly but smoothly creating the illusion of no movement at all. The only indicator that they were moving at all was the rapid change in air pressure that they all felt in their ears. Still, they remained somber and tacit.
“Bottom floor.” The elevator droned in its harsh beep of a voice. Obediently, all of them moved forward into the dimly lit hall that quickly terminated in a single, unmarked, heavy metal door.
Misty rapped at the surface with her knuckles and typed a long password into the holographic prompt that quickly materialized. Soon after it had been entered, grinding sounds could be heard intermittently joined by clicking and scraping. In spite of all the groaning and to do, the door remained still for a good thirty seconds. It was only after the door slid open that the rest of the party understood why.
To say that the next hundred feet was filled with a hallway would be a misnomer. It was a door jamb and what they had seen was only a tiny segment of the incredibly thick, multi-layered structure that constituted the true mass of the door. So they passed through the long threshold into a short hall with four doors lining either side and a lift at the far side.
“This is the holding facility.” Misty informed them. “Nothing can get in or out of here without absolutely trashing the code of the site around it. Additionally, this floor and all floors below it were affectionately named the Quiet Lounge by one of our past Admins because of the way this block removes powers, even ours. The interrogation cells are a floor down, so let's get to it.”
The small troupe followed her without much more than a simple nod amongst them. The interrogation cell was a simple unadorned cube of a room measuring just twelve feet in any direction and a chair fitted with a futuristic looking set of heavy manacles in the middle. Misty walked up to the chair and removed a glowing blue sphere from her inventory after examining the chair added it to the sphere. Inside the sphere she could see her stasis bound prisoner had been properly affixed to the chair and then returned both to the outside world.
Misty stepped away almost immediately as the blue light flashed and rematerialized its contents. When the last of the mask finally fell, no longer held in front of her face by the time lock of stasis nobody spoke. The battered unconscious form bound to the chair was familiar to all of them. Chevalier was the first of the group to speak. He stepped up to Izzy and looked at her face carefully, studying it, trying to convince himself he'd made a mistake. When he was certain that he couldn't, he sighed, the feel of breath on her face rousing the prisoner from sleep.
“Good morning.” She smiled-- No. She did not smile. The corners of her mouth curled upwards but she was most definitely not smiling. “You lot all look awful sullen. Something wrong?”
“There are a lot of things wrong.” He said. “There are a lot of things... Jiku.”

I've decided to drop this project. I've been sitting on this chapter for a long while, but now I'm going to just be out with it and say that I have personal reservations about finishing this related to certain events that have transpired since the writing of this chapter. I tried to edit this up enough to make it at least pass as a stopping point in lieu of an actual ending. I thank the two of you who gave a **** and hope that this doesn't bother you.

Comments, criticisms, questions, complaints and whatever else you have are all appreciated. I thank the reader for his time.

 

I like the transformation you've taken with this, where the Forum is kind of a cityscape with districts, instead of some website.

Interested to the destination of this piece.

 

I feel like I'm reading 'CSI: KH Vids' with all this going on.

I would say you need one character or more to accompany the chief to create some sort of dialogue in between the scene descriptions and the emotional descriptions. Just to create more drama and conflict type thing.

Also nice to see some characters from members and also a slight reveal on how much you disliked Fayt before his untimely demise. Tha is, of course, if you're using The Chief as a persona of yourself.

 

Real me likes Fayt and thinks he's a cool guy. Just picked him because he was a supermod, even though the Chief himself does dislike him.

 

Still, looking forward to the development of the story, no matter your relationship to them.

 

Pffffffffft, the Chief is Taco Boy?
That explains a number of things.

Ah, my lil Trog you are one interesting person. To create yourself as a character in your own story, and add a unique persona all its own to her. Ah, you're a great breath of fresh air.

 

The funniest part is, it's all pretty spot on with our interactions. Of course, her character is a bit on the exaggerated side. But that's pretty much how it is...lol.

Well, you know I love this. So I hope there's more soon.

 

I've just thought, is the Spam Zone like a red Light district? If so, I would love you forever.

Ha, Misty Bossy, and Sabby usually sassy? You know your Staff well enough.

 

Sabby's the killer, of course.

I do wish to see where this goes now, for sure.

 

CSI like. Whoa.

Still reading and interested.

 

Superpowers for prems and Staff?!
If only that were true...

Story is starting to pick up as less of an investigation and more of a war between the current regime and the rebellion. Interesting.

 

Oh gosh. Staff members are getting their butts kicked.

The editing got messed up and in turn it messed up with the flow a bit. Very nice part. But we obviously need more ; ~;

 

That's misty for you. Always leaving the important stuff for later. I think Izzy might escape somehow >:L

And real life misty is wimp >:3

 

I am bothered >;L

But well, I guess that's that. It's not like anyone can force you to continue it. But this last part just...it just tore at me. You sure know how to end things.

I'm gonna miss this story. It was awesome.