Post #2721519 in Lumaire Nights Remixed, a roleplay on RPG

5487 Anderson Street, #32

kzzt-hsss-pop

“-ight now! I’m telling you, Frederick Montioum is moving to the top of the Yorkshire Cannons. When he’s throwing perfect passes to perfect catches, you end up with a perfect season!”

“I think you’re blinded by your patriotic lust towards your favorite team there Mike. If you take a step back, you realize that the only reason Frederick is where he is is because the team’s running game is so strong. Kendel Isaac, Leon Farsteady, Bruno Oris and Henry Uller. Frederick is lucky to have them, if it weren’t for their soft hands and quick feet, the season would be playing out quite differently.”

“Don’t get me wrong, they’re a great part of the team and make up the core, but Montioum is going up there with the greats, mark my words.”

“Well consider your words Marked Mark. For those of you just tuning in, this is Marky Mark and Ricky Two-Fingers talking your way through the morning at 205.7 The Shark. Up next is Last Night Goodbye by Locked Elbows.”

Music filtered through the apartment as a slumbering figure finally summoned the strength to pull himself from the fairly average mattress he had been sleeping on. Slowly, his hand combed through his messy hair as a yawn escaped his mouth and he blinked slightly to clear his vision as he stood up. Emmett pressed a button on the wall, watching as the bed quickly made itself and folded into the wall. A window, placed behind where the bed had been, held a small radio at roughly chest level. The music, a soft melody depicting a night better left to memory floated through his ears and out towards the rest of his apartment.

The rest of his room was essentially bare. With the bed having disappeared into the wall, all that was left was a dresser, a closet and a full body mirror. Walking out into the hallway revealed a small if somewhat open living space. As he walked from the hallway into what could be described as a kitchen area, the counters slid out from the wall, along with all the appliances one would need to make something to eat. Emmett stopped by the coffee maker, checking to make sure the timer had gone off and that it indeed was making the very liquid that would allow him to function at 6 in the morning. Walking back, he entered a different door to a bathroom that didn’t have all the amenities folded into the wall. A simple room with all the basic requirements. While all he had was a standing shower, he wasn’t much of a bath man so it didn’t bother him.

Ten minutes later, Emmett came out, continuing to dry his hair and naked as the day he was born. The radio continued to play, although the song had switched to some sort of pop music that he hadn’t heard before. It wasn’t unpleasant, as his bobbing head would seem to suggest as he made his way into the bedroom and opened his closet. Inside, his clothes for the day were already put together, and pulling a singular hanger allowed him to acquire his entire outfit. Within another few minutes, Emmett had already donned his clothes, pulling a tie close up to his neck. He had an odd style according to some of his coworkers. He was professional, and his personality suggested a no-nonsense attitude when it came to working matters, yet his dress shirts and tie were always colorful. Even now, his red dress shirt was tucked into very nice jeans. A white belt and tie adorned his person, mixed with his red socks. Pulling on his clothes to make sure they were snug, he wandered over to the opposite wall of his bed, placing a palm on the surface. There was a small, brief flash before a panel opened to reveal his under-arm holster, pistol and badge. He quickly equipped them, making sure his pistol was loaded and the safety was on. He took a moment to look at himself in the mirror as he started to head out of the room. He wouldn’t say he was a vain man, but he did like to look nice, especially when a lot of his job required having face time with many people, a number of them influential.

“Radio off.” Emmett stated, cutting the music short as he made his way into the kitchen, grabbing the coffee cup as he passed. He snapped his fingers twice, and the kitchen once again disappeared into the wall. He passed that into the living room, the only other area in his apartment. Like his bathroom, this room didn’t have all fold in furniture and appliances. A single couch faced an apparently empty wall, while a roof-hung light of some ornamentation hung above it. It illuminated the room, even though a glass door leading to a balcony that gave a decent view of the suburbs provided most of the light. “TV on.” Emmett stated, and a part of the wall flipped to reveal a sizable 42” Television. Immediately it flashed to life in what appeared to be the middle of a news broadcast. It showed a man on the screen who appeared to be somewhere near a red zone, most likely hating his career choice at the moment. He was adorned in body armor and a helmet as soldiers wandered around him carrying weapons and armaments that suggested he was in the middle of some sort of combat zone.

“-o sign of stopping. It appears like they’ve hunkered in and are ready to attack anyone who would take a step inside their territory. Despite *Tukana’s military pressure, they’ve managed to inflict several casualties with what appears to be high caliber rail weapons. As of now, Tukana’s spokespeople are not recommending travel along the *Francis Strait.” The image on the TV changed to show a rigid man in a full suit sitting at a table. His eyes were cybernetic, creating a somewhat eerie image to look at even as he spoke softly.

“I see, are you going to be alright out there Michael?” Richard asked.

“I believe so, the insurgents have yet to push out of their respective zone, so as long as I stay away from No Man’s Land, I should be fine and able to give constant updates.”

“Alright, well stay safe out there. We’re wishing you well and the best of luck, keep us updated.” Richard stated, flipping through a couple papers on the desk.

“Will do. Thank you.” Michael stated before his image disappeared, replaced by Richard clasping his hands.

“Well that was the insurgency issue plaguing the main trade route of the Francis Strait. We will keep you updated as the situation progresses, but in the meantime, what do corporate security and your home office have in common? What our specialists say can turn your house into a fortress. Stay tuned.” The screen shifted to start showing different stock prices as other news stories scrolled along the bottom. Emmett took another long draw from his coffee as he wandered towards the glass door. He slowly opened it, taking a step onto his small balcony and looking down at the number of tall and somewhat beautiful buildings that made up Lumaire City’s middle class. Many of them were apartment buildings, but some of the small corporations had their headquarters out here as well. The sun was just starting to rise, and the early morning rays were glistening off of the metal buildings, cars and maglevs. He enjoyed this view, even if some people preferred the wide open wilderness to this. He was pulled from his reverie from the sound of ringing coming from his apartment.

He wandered back inside, the TV automatically muting itself in conjunction with the phone call. “Call from:” A robotic voice stated, only to be replaced by another female voice.

“St. Cloud.” Simple, to the point, to be expected of the nearly anti-social communications specialist.

“Answer.” Emmett stated as he made his way to his bedroom. There was a beep to indicate that the call was now live. “Morning Tia.” Emmett said quite flatly as he grabbed a small ear piece off of the same shelf that his radio was on.

“Morning Detective, thought I would catch you before you popped into the office.” Her tone was even, light but not necessarily jovial.

“Got a case for me already?” Emmett asked, placing the earpiece into his lobe and tapping the button to transfer the call to his personal cell.

“Cyborgs were murdered down by the Omega41 club. It’s on your way to the office, so I thought I would save you the travel time.”

“Appreciated.” Emmett said, grabbing his black and red blazer and heading out of his apartment, locking the door and making his way to the elevator. “Anything you can tell me?”

“Double homicide. Both cyborgs. A woman, Jane Doe, assumed to be a Rimbo. The other has been identified as Damien Legrand.”

“The brother to Mathieu Legrand?” Emmett asked as he pressed the button in the elevator for the parkade.

“One in the same. They were both pretty diced up, the Rimbo seemingly beyond all recognition. Officers have cordoned off the area and are awaiting the arrival of a MCU detective.”

“What’s the feel?” Emmett asked, watching as the number at the top of the door slowly counted down.

“Talk around the precinct is that it’s connected to the previous cyborg homicides currently plaguing the city. The M.O. seems to match, although the inclusion of a high profile target seems to indicate an escalation.”

“Or maybe Damien just happened to wander into the killing ground.”

“Also a possibility.”

“Alright.” The elevator dinged and Emmett walked out into a concrete basement, striding towards a large metal door. As he got closer, a panel lit up. He placed his hand on it, and the door opened to reveal cars on a giant gyroscopically able rotating levy system. The entire machine shuddered as cars started sliding past. “I’ve been looking into a couple of the other cases on the side, but make sure anything relevant gets to my computer. Has the coroner been notified?”

“He’s already at the scene. He should have a more detailed report for you once you get there.” Emmett nodded to himself as his car came into view and was slowly released from the grip of the oversized merry go round.

“Sounds good, I’m grabbing my car and heading there now. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Take care out there Detective.”

Omega 41, Alleyways

Traffic had always been a pain, but when it came to crime scenes and potentially having evidence waste away on the street, Emmett was more than happy to blare his siren and blast past everyone else as they stared on in concern, curiosity and possibly envy. As he pulled up to the street where the police had already cordoned off, he turned off his lights, parked and exited his car. Emmett paused briefly to pat himself down, ensuring his gear was where it needed to be before walking over to the holographic police tape.

A couple of police androids stood guard, their blue and silver color mixing well with the letters ‘LCPD’ stenciled all over their torso. They held automatic rifles in their grips and their elongated heads didn’t allow for anyone to mistake them for human. As Emmett approached, he swung open his jacket slightly to allow the badge to be seen. Upon recognizing the emblem, a soft beep was emitted from one of the bots. “Authority Recognized. Welcome to the crime scene Detective Tigron.”

“Gents.” Emmett stated as he passed through the tape display and wandered further into the alley. It was a grimy looking place, although the street definitely had some cleanup done on it recently. Trash littered the ground, a couple of needles could be seen poking out of the dirt, and more than a little dried blood was caked onto a couple of dumpsters. Back alleys, maintaining a stereotype since the beginning of their creation. Emmett walked for a slight ways before turning a corner into what appeared to be a alley intersection that lead off into the other streets. Nearly dead center, a poor choice of words, were the corpses of Damien Legrand and his armed escort. A couple of officers stood nearby, heavily armed and in full combat gear. Such was the protocol when dealing with crime scenes in the more seedier parts of the city. Kneeling over the possible Rimbo was an aging man with more than a few grey highlights accenting his hair. Wrinkles covered his face like rolling hills in a meadow but his eyes defied all aging as their focus seemed reminiscent of a man half his age. He was covered in a semi-plastic wrap as he poked and prodded at the body in what seemed like a random manner. He spoke in a hushed tone, and a light blinked on the side of his head. His phone, using it as his personal recorder as well.

Upon coming closer, the two officers paused slightly before recognizing him and giving respective nods. “Detective.” One of the officers stated, drawing the attention of the Coroner.

“*Blues.” Emmett replied as he walked closer to the Coroner who fixed him with a stare.

“You got here faster than I anticipated Detective.” The man stated, his voice low but smooth, almost calming actually. Emmett shrugged.

“Benefits of having a siren I suppose.” He stated, to which he was answered with a shrug.

“Wish I had one some days, did you see the I-77? Made the mistake of trying to use that to get here, apparently they have construction going on, cutting off the one lane.”

“I’ll make a note to avoid it then.” Emmett stated, looking at the mangled corpses. He had done enough homicides, suicides, mass murders and general what the fuckery that this didn’t exactly phase him. Still, it did disturb him to some degree that someone could do this to another living being.

“Too bad these two can’t take a note to avoid whatever hit them last night.” The Coroner stated, pointing down at the mess of blood, bone and metal.

“Well you know what they say Barry.” Emmett stated, kneeling down to get a better look at things. “Hindsight is 20/20. What can you tell me?”

“Well, the M.O. is the same from my initial assessment. Precision cuts followed by mutilation.” Barry knelt down next to Emmett. “If I had to take a guess, I would say it’s the same person or persons from the previous murders.”

“I was afraid of that.” Emmett said, reaching into his jacket and pulling out an overlarge pair of blue frames that looked like safety goggles without lenses. Barry continued.

“There is a slight variation this time around though. First, the woman is mutilated far worse than any of the previous victims. Second, Damien here was dragged back to this position.” Barry pointed to a blood trail that lead nearly out of the alley.

“He tried to run.” Emmett stated, which received a nod from Barry.

“That would be my assumption...also one last variation.” Barry’s voice got a little lower. “Damien didn’t die quickly. The previous murders were quick and clean, all mutilation was done after the fact. For whatever reason, a lot of these brutal cuts and tears here…” Barry pointed to Damien’s arm, naturally cybernetic in nature as he was one of those ‘full augs’. “Here…” Barry pointed to his chest cavity. “And here.” Barry finally pointed to his stomach “Were done first instead of last.

“What does that mean?” Emmett asked, not expecting a full answer but at least wanting a hunch so as to base a hypothesis after.

“To be honest, I don’t know. There are signs of precision cuts that came after Damien’s mutilation, but if that was the case, why not keep the same M.O.? I’ll need to take them back to the body shop in order to know for certain.” Emmett stroked his chin slightly, still holding the blue frames in his other hand.

“Huh...anything else you can tell me?”

“Rough estimate as to time of death...about 5 or 6 hours ago.”

“System logs were destroyed again?” Emmett asked, receiving yet another nod from the Coroner.

“Same precision cuts, managed to destroy the memory unit without dismantling the actual cybernetic implant itself.” Emmett nodded, placing his hands on his knees and rising to a standing position.

“Alright, well you continue doing your thing, and I’ll start doing mine.”

“Will do.” Barry answered, staying in his kneeling position to inspect the bodies some more as Emmett placed the frames on his face. Tapping a button, a blue overlay appeared before him. Data points started compiling information and Emmett turned into a circle to allow the glasses to get a complete picture of the crime scene. Once they were calibrated, a small green ‘Ready’ appeared in the top left of his vision. “Detective: Emmett Tigron. Badge Number 14G672J7. Authenticate.” There was a brief pause as the frames did their magic and contacted the MCU servers for verification. Soon enough, there was a small green ‘Verified’ where the ready word had been. Emmett continued. “Scan Cases: Cyborg Double Homicide.” He had forgotten to get the case number from Tia, but this function should work just as well. There was a moment as it searched through all of Emmett’s potential cases, and eventually found the one that he was looking for. Immediately a mass of information passed over a corner of the glasses before a green ‘Ready’ flashed once again in the same spot as before.

“Two victims, cyborgs.” The glasses worked almost autonomously, through voice command and movement. Honestly, if you asked Emmett, they were an invaluable part of his investigative arsenal. Essentially, he could just talk his way through the case and the glasses would take the evidence given and reconstruct the scene. Emmett walked back down the alley to where the couple were assumed to come out of. Omega41. A dirty, grungy place but ultimately not the worst of the worst. The music was low this time of day, early morning wasn’t peak business hours for a night club.

“Victims exited the club.” Emmett stated, and immediately blue dots coalesced together to form the exact shape of the victims, walking their way through the door. “Victim ID number 1: Damien Legrand. Victim ID number 2: Rimbo.” Emmett stated, pointing to the respective holograms. Immediately a red title appeared over each. “Assume Damien was drunk, leaning on Rimbo for support.” The image blurred for a moment before it recast itself to show Damien obviously intoxicated and using the Rimbo for support. “Walking.” Emmett stated, keeping his vision focused on the display in front of him that only he could see.

The glasses made the walking realistic, slowing the pace down to compensate for the intoxication and support. It stopped when it reached the bodies, a pulsing red light appeared in his vision. ‘Need More Information’. Emmett looked around, knowing this was the place where they were killed. There were so many avenues of approach, being an alleyway crossroads and all. In fact, a question leaped to Emmett’s forefront. Why was Damien in this back alley anyways? It’s not like going out the front door would ruin his image, he was 21. It was kind of expected for him to go out and enjoy life a little today. An ironic statement to be certain.

“Attacker came from the East...with blade.” The image shifted to show a placeholder bad guy rushing them with a single blade. The Rimbo pushed Damien to the ground, withdrew her weapon and filled the entire alleyway with bullets. The attacker didn’t stand a chance. The glasses took all of the Rimbo’s cybernetics and weapons into account, and while it couldn’t handle psychological information, it could give a fairly accurate ‘guess’ as to what would have happened. “West.” Emmett stated, and once again it ended in the same result. The only time it changed is when Emmett had the enemy come from behind, but that didn’t make sense considering that’s the way Damien had run to get away from the attacker before being brought down again.

So if the attacker came on foot from any direction, the Rimbo would have most likely killed him or her. Especially considering that the attacker didn’t seem to use any ranged weapons with the notable exception of a blade through Damien’s leg. Although that seemed more out of desperation than anything else. Emmett looked up, it was a good 4 stories up for the buildings in front of him, and considering that an attack from behind would have had Damien running in another direction, it was the only possibility. To land from that distance without seriously hurting one’s self would either require specialized tech or cybernetic legs. “Above” Emmett said, looking as the glasses calculated the best avenue of approach for the aggressor before showcasing the attack. Sure enough, an attack from above limited the Rimbo’s vision. She was impaled with a sword and diced before she could move, and the simulation paused.

“Impaled from above. Doctor, does that seem to coincide with the injuries?”

“Hard to tell.” Barry stated. “Although she is packing a pretty decent chest piece, a blade coming in from above would slide between the armor and skin, quick and clean.” Emmett nodded.

“Would it have killed her instantly?”

“Possible? Chances are though, with her heavy augmentation, something would have kicked in to keep her standing for a couple minutes. I would say about a 30% chance she would have died instantly.”

“Alright, we’ll go with the assumption that she didn’t die instantly. Where are the precision cuts?” Barry pointed to the injuries, tracing his finger along them to allow the glasses to calculate the wounds. Once that was done, the glasses processed for a moment before giving the ready signal again. “Simulate injuries.”

The simulation went through the process of detailing the precision cuts. Once the blade had gone into the torso, the attacker pulled his blade out, sliced at her gun arm to prevent her from drawing her weapon, spun around and slashed her legs to prevent her from running, and finally stabbed her clean through the throat. Death would have happened within a matter of seconds. It also confirmed the use of a sword, as a simple knife wouldn’t have the reach to perform all of this in the necessary time. Two blades could have done it, but the number of cuts would most likely be double as well. “The blade swipes would have hit Damien if he remained using the Rimbo for support. Rimbo pushes Damien away at time of attack.” The image shifted to show the Rimbo push Damien to the ground. Emmett looked over and knelt down. Sure enough, there was some scrape marks on the ground from where Damien’s metal chassis would have connected.

“Damien runs North.” Emmett stated, and Damien’s Hologram scrambled to his feet and started running. Emmett raised an eyebrow when he took off at an incredible pace, his cybernetics must have helped, but that would mean in order for the aggressor to throw his blade, he would have to be incredibly strong and accurate. “Stop Damien at end of blood trail.” Emmett said, watching as the simulation paused, looking back at the swordsman. “Aggressor throws blade, catches Damien in the leg.” There was a brief moment of calculation as the simulation ran a few times to see how the Aggressor would have to move the Rimbo in order to throw his blade. Eventually it settled on an underarm throw as the attacker threw the Rimbo over his shoulder. Apparently that was the most plausible way he would have been able to throw the blade.

“From that angle, he would have gotten blood on him.” Emmett said out loud, thinking to himself as he wandered closer to Damien, who was showcasing the sword through his leg. “Attacker kills Rimbo, collects Damien and drags him back.” The simulation continued, showing the attacker coming and dragging Damien back to the crime scene. At that point, there was no longer any reason to continue the simulation without the Coroner’s full report.

“We’re dealing with a cyborg for sure, most likely a master swordsman.” Emmett stated, to which Barry only nodded.

“Makes sense, these cuts are something else. Every single one managed to hit something vital.” Barry said, standing up and pressing a button on his phone. “What’s the status on the Body Bus? Alright, well I’m done here so start loading them up the moment you get here.” He tapped the button once again and ended the call.

“I’m also going to need a vial of her blood for comparison purposes. I think the attacker managed to get some on themselves during the assault.”

“You got it.” Barry said, grabbing a vial from his kit as he did so.

“In the meantime, I’m going to check the club, see if their cameras picked something up in there. Officers, once the bodies have been moved, canvas the scene and grab anything you think might be noteworthy.” The officers nodded as Barry went to work cleaning up his gear and prepping the bodies to be moved. Emmett already had some theories as to what was going on, but he would need to see the other case files from the previous murders to be sure. For the moment, he had the unenviable task of questioning a nightclub owner about his patrons and security footage.

“Ah, well if it isn’t a member of our illustrious police force. What can I do for you today, Copper?” A rather well dressed man with a voice that sounded like it belonged to some drugged up hobo addressed Emmett almost the moment his foot soiled the lawless club floor. His black hair was nicely styled, his beard groomed, and his entirely pink suit was drawing more attention from Emmett than he dared admit. It was an odd choice of color, but he supposed it was doing exactly what the manager wanted it to do, which was distract people. One of the man’s eyes twinkled and shifted, revealing its nature as a cybernetic, but it was high grade. Chances are he left his contact that made it appear organic at home, or it was a deliberate choice to let people know he was scanning them. Whichever, it didn’t matter.

“You have an eye for people it seems.” Emmett stated, walking across the well lit area now that most of the patrons had either passed out in alleys or gone home with unsavory strangers. The dance floor was massive, but from the front door there was a path that lead to the front desk. It was there that the Manager was standing, behind him a coat rack with a few articles still hanging from people who either forgot or didn’t care about them. The Manager, of which Emmett was certain that was this man’s title simply by the way he looked, smiled and shook his head slightly.

“Well I’m not going to turn away a compliment, but I actually saw you enter the alley just a short bit ago. You do have the air of a judgmental law bringer though.”

“Good, the cologne I’m using is having an effect.” Emmett stated dryly, which earned a laugh from the Manager.

“A sense of humor is always good, but I know what you’re here for isn’t in such good tastes.” The Manager walked around the desk. “But where are my manners. My apologies, I’m Isaac Red-Eye Lucican.” The Manager stuck out his hand, to which Emmett stared at it. He didn’t want to be rude, but with so many cybernetics being an unknown, he wasn’t about to touch this man without a care in the world.

“Detective Emmett Tigron.” He made a very clear indication that he had no intention of touching Isaac. Isaac stared at his hand for a moment, smirked and shrugged. “You are aware that two patrons of your club last night were found murdered behind your building?”

“Kinda hard to miss, what with all the bots and blues around.” Isaac stated, crossing his arms as he did so.

“Do you know who they are?” Emmett asked, wanting to probe the man’s knowledge.

“Sure. The man is Damien Legrand, a fairly big name coming to my quaint little club of leisure. Honestly was kinda surprised he came all the way down here, although I did hear more than a little bitching about his family as his alcohol tolerance was damn near negligible. You would think, for being a full aug, that they would have given him a detox filter or something.”

Most likely turned it off in order to feel the effects. Emmett thought to himself as he pulled out a web pad with a direct link to his computer back at HQ.

“The girl was actually one of mine. Melanie Monroe, although many people called her Missy.” Emmett wrote that down, he would have to investigate that name as soon as possible.

“One of yours? What was her job?” Isaac threw up his hands in mock surrender.

“Before you go thinking she was a JoyGirl, she wasn’t. To be honest, she was much to stubborn and headstrong to ever make it in that line of work. No, she was one of my insurance options for some of the more well paying patrons, such as Damien. Essentially a temporary bodyguard, to ensure people get home safe.”

“How noble.” Emmett said dryly, earning a sharp look from Isaac.

“It’s more than what other clubs do.” He said, to which Emmett looked up.

“Uh huh.” Emmett had his doubts. Clubs like to use ‘Temporary Bouncers’ to sometimes figure out where people lived and case joints. He couldn’t prove that was what Isaac was doing, and to be honest he had bigger problems at the moment. “Do you have a residence for Ms. Monroe?” Isaac wandered back to the desk, pulling out a pen and paper and writing an address down on it.

“Far as I know, that was her last known address, but I wouldn’t expect much. She wasn’t one to settle down for long, she had only been here for about 2 months.” Emmett grabbed the paper and wrote down her work length. It meant that Damien hadn’t come here with anyone, most likely trying to keep a low profile. When he started getting hammered, maybe a little panic set in and he hired Missy on the spot to essentially get him back home safe.

“Hmmm...Well I’m going to need your surveillance tapes.” Isaac paused, once again crossing his arms.

“For what reason? The murder happened in the back alley.”

“Checking all the boxes, covering all the bases, taking all the shots. Pick one.” Emmett stated, which didn’t earn a cooperative glance from the Manager.

“I don’t think so. I have some rather...high profile people who like their privacy when they come in here.” Emmett shrugged, shutting off the pad and placing it back into his pocket.

“That’s fine. I’ll go get a warrant, and you know what, when I do I think I’ll bring by a number of my cop buddies. Get a warrant for them too, see how many drugs they can find and how easy it would be to put this place out of business.”

“There’s no drugs here.” Isaac stated, his teeth grinding a bit.

“Nah, but if word got out you were under surveillance for drug activity, well suddenly people would be less inclined to show their faces around here. Do you really want to kill your bottom line like that Isaac?” Isaac paused for a moment, contemplating his actions and wondering which path would screw him less. Eventually he relented, preferring to out a few customers as oppose to lose about 50% of them. Emmett made a mental note to check with Vice about this place.

Isaac lead Emmett into a back room where several dozen screens showed multiple angles around the club. Isaac pressed a few buttons and a small disk slid out of a computer tower. He reluctantly handed it to the Detective. “This will include last night and the night prior.” Emmett took the disc, placing it in a plastic evidence bag and slipping it into his pocket.

“Much appreciated Isaac.”

“Yeah, whatever, either way you’re costing me money.”

“Yeah, it’s such a shame two lives were ended right behind your place of work. Couldn’t they have done it somewhere else? The nerve.” Emmett stated, before looking right through Isaac. “Now if you don’t mind, I need to ask a few more questions…”

Late evening, MCU Headquarters.

Emmett sat at his desk on the main floor, several empty coffee cups were placed off to the left of him as his fingers were laced under his chin. His brow was furrowed even as the bags under his eyes detailed just how much sleep was trying to control his body. His screen showed the footage of the club for the fourth time today as his eyes tried to comb over every last detail that was presented to him. He hadn’t managed to find anything from it, even though there was a number of people doing...things that surprised him. Not necessarily illegal, but still worthy blackmail if he was into that sort of thing. From the footage, all he could figure out was that Damien was having a grand time, spouting his name and family heritage quite a bit, and finally hooking up with Melanie Monroe. Nothing that would point towards someone hunting them, or anyone really who warranted a second glance. For the most part, it was just a place filled with sex, drugs and bad decisions. The Manager hadn’t been that useful either, aside from an ID on the Rimbo. He must have been used to dealing with cops, for all of his answers were just ambiguous enough to not point fingers, but also not relay any decent information. Emmett had given up questioning him after a few minutes.

Melanie’s small apartment had been a bust as well. There was nothing there to indicate that she had anything to do with what happened, or that she was even a person. Emmett liked to believe he lived modestly, but this girl took it to another level. Emmett doubted she had been back there in over a week before she was killed, so nothing useful came out of that save for the exception that she took a pill called Imenicilin, or Imin for short. It was meant to help with augment rejection, a common medical problem that plagued a number of people.

The crime scene wasn’t much help either. Aside from the simulation, and a couple of assumptions that could be made from it, no evidence had been left behind. The blood all belonged to the victims, no cameras, no witnesses, and no items were dropped from the attacker. Essentially he ghosted through the attack, even with what appeared to be the unknown of Damien running away from him. Even the Coroner couldn’t explain the method behind the attacker’s madness.

The precision attacks followed by mutilation, or vice versa in Damien’s case, couldn’t be explained aside from some sort of psychological thrill. Barry had told Emmett that it appeared like the killer was searching for something and maybe using the mutilation to hide that fact, but when he went searching, none of the parts were missing. Every organ, aside from being sliced to oblivion, was accounted for. There was zero sense to attribute to this brutalization of the body, but Emmett didn’t buy that. There was always a reason, even if that reason was a pathological need to open people up and inspect their insides.

Emmett finished reviewing the Club tapes once more and sighed to himself, writing his last bit into his report. He made a special mention to give him all cyborg homicide cases until this one was solved, but aside from that he basically repeated what he had managed to accumulate throughout the day. It wasn’t much, but at the very least they were a step closer. The attacker had to be a cyborg themselves, there was no other way for them to be able to do the things that they were able to do to Damien and Melanie. Finally, he labelled it ‘Halted’ on the file, indicating that without further evidence, he couldn’t proceed.

Whoever was committing these murders was good. Very few mistakes, if any, and next to no trail. It may come down to trying to bait the killer or putting himself in the position of the victim in order to actually even get close to the killer, but that would have to wait. For now, he needed more information, and he wasn’t going to get that from the useless surveillance footage and empty apartments. With his report sent off, Emmett shut off his computer and grabbed his jacket.

It had been another long day, and he needed a drink.

*Tukana: A neighboring city state to Lumaire, known for its militaristic approach on nearly all matters. Has a sizable standing army and garrison.
**Francis Strait: A green zone surrounded on both sides by red zones that connects Northern Europe to Southern Europe. A major trade route.
***Blues: A common nickname given to the enlisted officers

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located in Lumaire Nights, a part of Lumaire Nights Remixed, one of the many universes on RPG.

Setting

Characters Present

Footnotes