Molly Bronson's Story

“Hello everyone, this is Toni Roberts with a special news report. We all know of the recent coming out of the things that go bump in the night. Without warning, we’ve learned that vampires, werewolves, witches, and more are all real, and among us. They’re in our police, our firemen, our hospitals, and now I can conclusive evidence that they are in our schools.

Behind me stands the St. Thomas Aquinas School for Gifted Youth, a private academy allegedly for academically talented children from kindergarten up. However, it appears as if this school is in fact a private academy not for academically talented children, but for magically or psychically gifted and nonhuman children. These children can board here, or be a day schooler, and their website boasts of nearly 1000 enrollees.

I have managed to find a pamphlet describing the school to prospective students. The students here are here because of the potential danger they represent normal children, with difficulty controlling magic, or even their own strength. Children remain here until they are capable of blending in with the general populace or they graduate, where they-”

Molly turned off the TV in the break alcove, refusing to watch another second of the utter shit on TV. The gentle giant glared at the now blank screen and then shook her head, despairing quietly. “They went after the kids. What kind of bastard does that?” She whispered, and tossed her brown paper lunch bag in the trash can. They had a small kitchenette alcove to eat in, and store your lunch, but the TV was a newer addition, and it was a miracle it was still in one piece.

The world was falling apart, or at least that’s how it felt. The decision had been made to come out to mundane humans, to let them know that monsters and magic were real, and Molly would love to strangle whoever decided this was a good idea. Cross-species incidents were up through the roof, and everything was hell in a handbasket. There was even talk of them integrating with the regular police department, though as far as she knew, that hadn’t happened yet.

“Have I mentioned how much I hate fox news lately? They’ve been re-airing that stupid segment for a good week now.” They were going after magically inclined people with pitchforks flaring. How the hell were the kids supposed to feel safe then this nutcase did this? The school was now compromised, and she had no doubt that little to nothing would be done about it.

Maybe she could talk the director into putting up a watch there, someone to keep an eye out until things died down a little. It’d probably reassure the younger kids at least. Molly tugged at the base of her high ponytail and considered her options.

None of it mattered. Today, she was getting to meet new team members. Or a new team member. Molly hadn’t paid that much attention to the briefing.

One of those members walked through the door tapping through in a set of black pull-on work sneakers. Her clothing was as well tailored as herself all proportions just so. An olive-skinned mediterranean face hadn't any blemishes to it any more than the smooth black button-over pants and sheer silk shirt. Her short strawberry blond hair rose in a light tuft that she thought went well with the tasteful floral pattern of her new shirt. She'd made an effort to look good on her first day in the notorious texas branch no matter what the higher ups thought they were doing to her. Forensics needed doing whoever she was assigned to.

While she didn't need her bronze rimmed glasses, they were just glass, they had a light-sensitive coating to hide her eyes from others while out among strangers among other filters. Removed by long fingers the glasses hooked behind the tablet through her shirt just above her bust. Definitely in the interest of safe keeping. Behind them had been brown eyes that were actually a metallic bronze that well matched her frames hinting at inhuman ancestry. Darting from handles to cooking area she took in and categorized the scene. The tablet released from her tight grip around the chest of natural tight-trimmed nails got a note to test the kitchen for cleanliness later as well as the TV knobs.

Chrysanta spied Molly at a table complaining then making open-ended questions. Rhetorical questions to everyone were a particular hated thing for an Irshi-blood since she had to answer them. The forensic technician when she approached tried not to look her new superior in the eyes even while talking. Since learning from the mistake that got her here in the first place.

Despite her visual disconnect she did her best to be respectful as the words poured out, "No, I've never met you before now and I'm supposed to find the trails of bread crumbs for you operatives to catch him so the kids feel safe."

Her gaze could empty the place in imagination where lies were born and it flickered if for a moment to try and lock eyes with Molly by an involuntary habit she couldn't suppress. Chrysanta blushed then darted her gaze safely away, "I... ahh... Hello. I'm Chrysanta Townsend your new field forensic technician, Miss Bronson."

Next through was Davien. A detective had escorted him all the way to the door, so Dave knew there was no real chance of getting out of this one. He walked into the room, doing his best to conceal how shaken up he was by the last 24 hours and play it cool. He gave quick glances to both of his fellow occupants of the room through his aviator sunglasses, and gave a less than genuine smile. Turning his attention back to the room, Dave located a chair and table. Making his way over to it as smoothly and calmly as he could, he sat.

Damn Dave's head hurt. The noise of the police station, the smoggy stifling air, and the constant barrage of light and electronics in the fair city of Dallas was getting to be enough to drive him crazy. No matter how he felt though, he needed to try and be polite. This is the first time ever he had been caught by anyone for anything, and there was no telling what they were going to do. In fact... He didn't even know if the other people in the room were prisoners like him, or why he was even here. He should by all rights still be in that jail in Crandall, or in Daves line of thinking, most likely dead. But for some reason, right before they made him take off his watch for processing an agent from the MCU rushes in and takes him down here. Maybe they wanted to dissect him. Who knows.

He decided to keep his mouth shut and his sunglasses on for now, picking up a pamphlet of some type and pretending to read it through the dark lenses. He was also taking a look around the room at the windows and doors, visually testing them for weaknesses. He tried his best to keep an eye on the other two in the room as well, remaining as inconspicuous as he possibly could. Best just to wait and see if anyone talks to him. He wasn't in the most sociable mood right now, but knew that conversation would have to happen at some point. He would give it his best shot when it did.

"Everyone hates Fox News, Bronson. " Xiaolian said as she stepped into the room surveying the trio seated within. "But why are you even standing there? We've got way too much to do while the Warden handles the press." She did not envy having that job, especially since both the assistant and primary directors had their own ideas of how this latest problem should be handled. One had suggested a plausible deniability, the other had suggested just going with the flow, and the warden assigned to their jurisdiction wasn't a fan of either of the men's ideas. It wouldn't surprise Xiaolian if they had pulled rank on the two directors, who seemed less than knowledgeable at times about what their positions actually entailed.

The petite woman, peered curiously at her partner and the two new arrivals taking note of each one. "The rookies are your problem." She said.

“Then why is the break room always on fox?” She sighed and stretched. “Alright, but the next rookie is your problem. You always give me the rookies.” Xiaolian had the right, given she outranked Molly. It didn’t make it less annoying. Turning, she smiled brightly to the new kids. “Odd. I count two rookies.” She thought the count was supposed to be three. One rookie analyst and two rookie cops.” She shrugged and looked them over. “Rookies! Welcome to the mystical crimes unit. We handle the things that go bump in the night which aren’t human, or are humans with gifts. I’m Sergeant Molly Bronson, this is Lieutenant Xiaolian Boyuan. Primarily we get homocides tossed our way, though we also deal with robbery, kidnapping, so on and so forth as the force needs us. Unlike other police units, we don’t get to specialize in anything but dealing with magic.”

And that was a handful and a half. “The new junior field tech has introduced herself, but I don’t believe you have Mr….” She trailed off looking to Dave. Introductions first. The new case would probably wait long enough to catch the rookie’s names after all. With luck, it may just be a complaint of a magical disturbance of some sort. Those tended to just be kids playing around.

Dave jumped in his seat as Molly said "Rookies!", showing that despite his laid back posture he was still very much on edge. The table squeeked loudly as he bumped it, but Dave did his best to be non-chalant and act like he meant to do that. He leaned on his hand, elbow on the table , tapping his cheek as he listened to the spiel. Wait.. Did she say... magic? Before Dave could focus back on that particular point, it seemed all eyes were on him.

"Mister...." He heard Molly say.

A pause just long enough to be awkward began to sit heavy on the room. Dave kept his glasses on and looked around at the others, and turned to look at a vacant patch of wall, a stoic, unreadable expression hidden behind the frames.

"Dave. This will be fine. I am Meestar. Dave. Who are you? Besides the blues?"
He looked back at the woman who addressed him, leaning back in his chair, playing the cool guy. But lord, where was his accent from? It was an abomination on the ears it seemed... Eastern European mixed with a southern drawl, especially drawn out on words like "faane." But even that wasn't doing it justice. It was an inhuman accent if that term even existed. Somehow the words come through communicable and clear though, and it seemed there was effort to conform to the local Texas drawl. He fiddled with the pamphlet in his hands, not realizing the end of the paper wobbling was amplifying the effect of his shaking hands, betraying his laid back attitude he was trying to purvey.

While the question wasn't directed towards her since she was occupied with the report on TV it easily gave way to Chrysanta's thoughts, "Fox does have marginal value. They spend all their time locating the smallest action that fits their narrative to blow out of proportion. They happen to suddenly include something that happens to fit forensically it might lead to new evidence. It sounds like in this office at least I'll have plenty of new things to look at then."

Chrysanta made a smile but looked at the top of his forehead when she talked to him with a smile, "Hello, Dave! Besides field forensics I'm half-Irshi. My name is Chrysanta. I'm mostly apathetic to meet you right now."

Sometimes the truth poured out on its own and sometimes it just replaced the white lies that tried to answer abstract social questions. Either way she didn't have it in her after all that traveling to muster the personal effort required for her to manage white lies. Well used to the situation she didn't react to the nature of the statement but to cock head at dave shifting her bobbed hair slightly.

She looked between the lieutenant Xiaolian and sergeant Bronson though the same aversion to eye contact to avoid imposing, "How is the lab here? I only have small bits of equipment I own from my last lab and my survey suit. I'll need the standard field kit if we're going somewhere soon already."

Xiaolian looked at Dave strangely for a moment before turning her attention briefly back to Molly. "If I have to suffer as a training officer.. then so do you." She said to the other. There would be no pawning off of anyone on anyone else it seemed, much to Xiaolian's disappointment. "Look, ignore the press that's above our pay grade in the meantime start heading for the briefing." Xiaolian added with a sigh. This was worse than herding cats, and this latest case somehow made the Lieutenant anxious. The Council was likely locked into some sort of debate after this latest snafu anyway, at least it wasn't their fault this time; because Xiaolian didn't want to see a repeat of what happened after Johnson used the wrong cuffs on the Warden's nephew. That case in of itself had been stranger than any of the others.

Looking at Chrysanta for a moment, Xiaolian pondered the woman's question. "Honestly? I can't say. We've been outsourcing a lot of our stuff to the county. It's been hard to get techs in, they don't seem to stay with us very long." She answered.

"Once more, Dave. I am Sergeant Bronson. This is Lieutenant Boyuan. We're your training officers. Welcome to the team." she said simply. "And Boyuan is right. Hopefully the third member will join us in the briefing room." She said simply and smiled. "Up and at 'em. We'll show you the way, pay attention." That was largely addressed to Dave, who she had a feeling was a press ganged into MCU officer. Those were...disturbingly common actually. The Warden's nephew came to mind.

As for the lab? Molly really didn't want to break the new field tech's heart but she had a feeling she would be doing just that. "We have a lab. I'll show you the way after the briefing and give a brief tour of the office. There should be a field kit down there for you, Townsend." Should be.

It may have to be a bit cobbled together from a few other kits, but there should be one there. "It's been a bit since we've had a steady technician of any sort. The lab may be...a bit of a mess." It wasn't exactly organized. Molly had no clue what was down there. For all she knew, it was a state of the art lab. She doubted it, this was Dallas, but that was a possibility. It'd be a special bit of torture from the council, giving them a state of the art forensics lab, and then never hiring on a tech that stuck with them.

The blaring alarm finally woke Jay. He cracked open an eye and stared at the time. Oh, hell. He'd overslept. Jay rubbed his face. Sure, he'd been on a red-eye flight before collapsing in a cheap motel, but Jay had more discipline than this. If only—

No, he wasn't thinking about that. Jay sighed and stumbled into the disgusting shower. In record time, he got ready. He adjusted his tie and looked in the mirror; he had some stubble, but Jay was late enough as it is. He grabbed his laptop bag and paused at the door, giving his room a once-over. The idol of Ganesh on the table looked back accusingly. Unlit incense lay by the statue's feet.

Jay didn't have a lighter, but he didn't need one. With ease, he summoned just enough heat to light the stick before sprinting out the room and into his rental car. The traffic wasn't as bad as he was expecting, but he was still fifteen minutes late. Jay hurried down the halls of the MCU headquarters. He got lost, wasting another five minutes, but finally found the break "room." He opened the door. Gods, it was tiny compared to the one in NY. And why was the TV on Fox News?

He glanced at his new team. That was a first for someone used to having just a partner. Immediately, Jay's eyes were drawn to the towering blonde and the shorter Asian woman. He'd caught the tail end of their introduction to the twitchy man in the corner. So they were to be his new bosses. The third woman—Townsend—was apparently the tech. Jay wasn't sure who the other man was, though. He held himself like a criminal, not a detective.

"Lieutenant Boyuan. Sergeant Bronson," Jay greeted. He tried to push down the bitterness he felt. Before his demotion, Jay had been a sergeant himself, and he'd been expecting a promotion to 'Lieu' any day. Well, that was irrelevant now.

"Townsend?" he asked instead, facing the third woman. Jay raised an eyebrow, uncertain if he'd gotten the name right. His gaze flicked to the other man. "I'm afraid I didn't catch your name." He tucked his hands in his pockets. "I'm.. Detective Jayasekhar Shastri. You can just call me Jay or Shastri, whichever you prefer."

He stopped. Should he apologize? Ah, well, they probably hated him anyway. No point in making it worse. "Sorry for being late," he lied flatly. "Traffic." Maybe he should've put more effort into that. Jay doubted that he was convincing, but he didn't really care. "Excuse me, Lieutenant," he gave a deferential nod, changing the subject, "is there a case or briefing we need to attend to?"

Dave gave a quick once over of Crysanta and decided out of everyone here, he liked her the most so far.

"Uh, Apathetic to meet y'all too!" He exclaimed, standing up and extending a hand.

Obviously he didn't have any clue what Apathy meant. He didn't get the chance to shake however, and his hand was once again at his side. His attention was drawn back to the Sergeants Voice. She explained yet again to Dave's tired ears what was going on, and who they were. It seemed to poke through the haze surrounding his mind this time. He scratched his chin and leaned against the table he was sitting at, listening to the rest of the conversation.

As he heard the word lab first uttered he subconsciously grabbed for his watch, just to make sure it was still there and he was still disguised. They may want him to be part of their team but they didn't need to know that detail about him. His hand drifted away after a few seconds. Now that he was more certain he wasn't in danger he was visibly more relaxed.

Dave still didn't know where or what the briefing room was, but was in a much more cooperative mood. Just going from his general gut feeling he had a sense that these were people that meant to do right, and didn't mean him harm. It also helped that he was stuck here, no car, nowhere to be, and no money. Not much choice but to help out. He might as well help until he got restless. Not to mention, someone here might have an idea of where his car might be. He would ask about that when the time was right though, it didn't seem like that time was now.

Chrysanta started to reach for Dave's hand for a polite handshake before the sergeant began her explanation and she turned to attention. An Irshi's touch of muse certainly would make everything just a little clearer for a moment more than those without their walls up had by being near her. Her powers were passive things that grew sturdy by the sheer amount of students heavily focused around her during long college years. Ever in the larger study groups they inevitably got a reputation for quiet focus while she was a member so the rooms were always bursting at the seams. As the first year passed it became less exhausting for her to study around them all even as the population went up. Still, she'd been focused on intellectual pursuits rather than inner study so her conscious control was undeveloped but direct contact would certainly trigger her regardless.

Chrysanta sighed, "I'll make a full inventory of what you've got once I put together something for the field kit."

She thought aloud while playing with her hair while the other hand was neatly held behind her back , "I have my things in my car and my father might be able to wheedle some stuff out of other offices secondhand. I can make a lab work, ma'am. I figured it wasn't going to be easy when I got the transfer notice from northeast regional from old Morris. I'll miss him."

The third newcomer arrived in a hurry which broke her train of thought but she stared at his chest instead of his eyes managing to catch her gaze. Even if the operatives were likely to be hardened to her it didn't do for her pair of bronze orbs to look in them in the eyes and instinctively try to empty the falsehoods out of them. Some saw it as rather hostile. The name seemed familiar though.

She did the same as to everyone else in talking to his forehead, "Ah, Shastri was it? I think I remember processing some of your evidence. New York somewhere? I really don't remember when though. But yes, it's Townsend. You can call me Chrysanta if you like."

"There you are Detective." Xiaolian said to Shastri noting the man's harried appearance. For now she would ignored the remark about th traffic as he tardily slipped in. It looked like by now they were all present and accounted for, and if Molly hadn't derailed everything with her grump about the news they would have been to the briefing by now. "Alright.. you'll get your clearances and everything set up later today. But for now we need to be in that meeting before anything else." She informed the trio before shooting Molly a look that said, 'Keep your head on straight today, I don't want to be making any excuses for you.'

The two had been assigned as partners when the Warden had grown tired of Molly wandering off on her own, and getting in more trouble than all of them combined. After a time they'd started an office pool, betting rather unfairly against Molly and the Warden's own nephew to see who could go the longest without some sort of incident; usually the former lost and in a spectacular fashion. The looser of the pool had to buy the entire office coffee for the rest of the month or lunch one day. "I'll have someone get you down to the lab this afternoon Townsend, it'll either be Bronson or Zarok, depending on the time." The petite woman explained as she motioned for all of them to leave the breakroom, and herding cats or rookies was not on her list for today.

Having hurriedly escorted the trio of new comers down the hall and then into the conference room, Xiaolian slid into her seat at the long table in the center. The room was small, and stuffy with the entirety of the Dallas staff crammed inside for this morning's briefing. Some more senior officers got a spot at the table, while the more junior and part time officers stood up against the walls. Overhead the florescent lights buzzed and flickered in their fixture as they waited. A few people traded good natured jokes, or chatted, while some looked half dead from a hard night and the paperwork that followed.

The individuals that comprised what should have been Council's flagship office, were little more than an exhausted, rag tag bunch from all walks in the supernatural world. The only difference between them and most in their own worlds was they had slightly different experiences and vastly different on the job training.

Dave didn't exactly like being hurried in general, but followed as everyone else exited into the hallway. Upon entering the room Dave noticed the smell of coffee emanating from cups here and there in the crowd. The smell of ink and paper. A general musk that is produced by a lack of central air, and a lot of bodies. Thank the stars for that good old Texas heat. He turned his eyes up to the fluorescent lights buzzing away. His least favorite feature of these buildings so far. It was going to be fun trying to pay attention while listening to that buzzing slowly boring into his brain. While he was pondering on this though, he had lost track of his group.

Don't Panic, he thought. He grabbed at his watch and made his way over to the wall, doing what he would say was a pretty good job of mirroring the expressions on some of the desk jockeys faces. Sliding over to the wall, he leaned against it in between a few people. No one seemed to pay him a second glance to his knowledge. As Dave acclimated a little bit more to his surroundings he looked up at the buzzing monstrosity again. His face scrunched in as the focus of his attention went back on the light. Who would invent such a stupid noise making flickering migraine factory in the first place? And why are all these people so used to it? Do they enjoy these things?

Once again, Dave thought, questions for a little later. He didn't say a word as he waited for the meeting to commence, making a mental catalogue of some of the faces he could see in the crowd through his Sunglasses. He also was beginning to wonder exactly what they thought he could do; why they would want him on a team like this in the first place.

“Well, now that you know how long it takes to get here and how bad traffic is, I’m sure you won’t be late again.” Molly assured the detective. He seemed nice enough. “Come on, to the briefing room.” She said and followed Xiaolian over.

Dave’s odd response garnered a very confused look to him, but she continued on, listening to Chrysanta’s decision. “Thanks Townsend. That’ll be helpful.” Though she was right of course.

She winced at Xiaolian’s look and gave the other an innocent beatific smile, as if all was well. Okay, so she had a bit of a habit of getting in trouble but it had been at least a week since she had a flashback or any mental troubles. And really, she had been doing much better since she had repaired her mental shields and she kept them up, along with the additional protection of several amulets she wore. Either way, she had been doing significantly better than when she was at her worst.

The woman took her seat at the table, having been there long enough to have one. It looked like new kid Dave was struggling to focus. She made a note to find out what the trouble was later. Perhaps some sort of amulet would help him almost as much as hers kept her grounded and her mind from blaring out to every telepath in the room.

Molly rubbed her head and made herself sit upright. It wasn’t a good time for any of her usual headaches, and she had to stay in the current time and place and plane. Silently, Molly worked on grounding herself, noting the room, the occupants, and making sure to note her marker people, such as Xiaolian and a few other senior officers, so she knew she was in the right place. She didn’t need trouble. She had money on herself making it a whole two weeks without any troubles at all, after all.

Chrysanta nodded at Molly's statement then followed until stumbling a bit walking into the meeting room. Her focus wavered until she shook her head to recenter her thoughts. Her body felt a little leaden in the room. The immediate impression of a lot of strong people was here and someone exhausted nearby was drinking her faculties like a bottomless public pot of espresso. One that couldn't turn itself off to think. It was going to be a very long first few weeks.

Chrysanta looked around the room but couldn't shake the feeling that there was someone looking at her that she couldn't see. Well, maybe that she couldn't feel? It was really hard to describe given how obscure a feeling it was. Eyes furtive to look at dark places she took up a spot up along the walls to put her back to something. Worried eyes deeply unnerved by the feeling that there were headless monsters walking around she couldn't put a mind's eye on. She definitely didn't need to get possessed again.

The tech distracted herself by meddling with her tablet to open a shell over wireless into the remote station plugged into her van in the parking garage. One other sinking feeling besides invisible headless people was that there wasn't much of an inventory database to speak of if they didn't know what they had. That worry at least she could fix at least until the meeting began and she had to task out to take notes. Although a server box would have to be located in her lab for safety's sake before putting data in but at least she could get the database framework down.

The press conference had been a disaster to put it nicely, and it was suspected that what would come out in the evening news wouldn't paint them in a very good light. After all they had been the ones keeping all of this secret from the world at large; keeping everything safely away where it couldn't harm anyone. But unless the media and it's reporters had first hand experience with what most officers dealt with on the daily basis, they would likely be joining the ranks of the rest of the beleaguered law enforcement communities and populations. Being in the media's eye wasn't always good, especially now. Taking a moment to outside the conference room, the Warden prepared herself from the slew of questions she'd no likely encounter from her own officers. Straightening her jacket and smoothing her blouse, she stepped into the already near to overflowing conference room and walked across to the table to set a small laptop down on it's battered wood surface.

Standing from his seat the Dallas office's director looked at the crowd of officers and civilian contractors alike.
"Good morning everyone, if I could have your attention please!" The director shouted above the random noise of the morning's briefing. He was a tall thin man in a dark grey suit, with equally grey hair buzzed short at the sides and barely longer at the top of his head. "Look I know we've all got stuff to do so the sooner you guys can let us get through this the better." The man continued to shout as his voice was quickly lost in the noise generated from hard surfaces, florescent lights, and dozens of people talking all at once. "Everyone, please!" He yelled again, before sighing in frustration. It was like being in charge of a group of children, except these children were given badges and guns. While Catherine generally enjoyed watching the director and assistant director squirm and flounder, this wasn't exactly the right time to enjoy it. Placing two fingers into her mouth, she blew and whistled sharply, catching the attention of most if not all of the people in the room. "Thank you.. Warden." The director muttered before taking his seat again. There was something about the tall woman standing next to him that deeply unnerved the Director, but it was either tolerate her or be jobless. A warden assigned to an office wasn't unusual, it was the fact that this one was female, and seemed to have fairly strong Council ties was what was so unusual.

"I will try to keep this quick." She said as she reached for the small computer on the table. The warden was dressed rather formally, in a dark navy suit with gold colored buttons, and a cream button down blouse. She wore very little jewelry outside a pair of gold earrings, a watch, and single silver ring on her right hand. Her pale blonde, almost white hair had been carefully curled, with half of it pinned up out of her face. A badge hung on a lanyard around her neck, and a gun rested at her hip; much like the other officers'.

"Earlier today one of the children from the school that Fox News spoke to went missing. Her disappearance was reported as soon as her parents discovered her missing. The child in question is Olivia Campbell." The woman added before reaching up and adjusting a pair tortoiseshell glasses that held a pair of slightly tinted lenses. "Olivia Campbell, age 5. She was last seen by Mariah, pack member and schoolmate age 6." She said as the previously blank wall behind her flickered to life with color and a photo of the missing child.



"She attends St. Thomas Aquinas in their half day program. Her brother also attends half days but he is in a different class." The warden continued to explain. "In case I need to repeat what should already be assumed for us, the child isn't human. Her parents are both members of the Cedar Ridge pack."

Watching the director try and get order in the room was always entertaining. The reason for the briefing was not. Molly looked at the photo of the child and closed her eyes. A child, a little 5 year old was missing. She ran a hand over her face and used the moment to regain her composure.

It was predictable. The minute she saw the story she knew something would happen. That a young were wolf had gone missing was not good. The Cedar Ridge pack was going to be up in arms, the children would be terrified. What the hell were they supposed to do to contain this?

"How are we going to divide this up?" She asked quietly. Who would investigate, who would provide protection at the school? They needed to act fast. She was only 5 and must be terrified. The fact that the entire department had been called for this meant there would be a division of labor.

Gods above, let the little girl still be alive. Let her be alive and well and just scared, please. She was just a child. This wasn't an adult in the wrong place at the wrong time. This was a little girl, and a no doubt valued member of the Cedar Ridge pack.

Chrysanta immediately stopped working when the Warden spoke up as she eyed the wall with the picture with the victim. She paled staring at the warden before catching herself and averting her gaze. Kids usually meant the very disturbed wreaking havoc on the innocent. Being a muse meant a certain innate impartiality that applied to both agents as it did to the insane. In that everything she read about her mother she could either suppress everyone and have her own faculties atrophy or the even scales must apply to everyone. Hiding from the problem didn't solve anything but accidentally meeting the disturbed pushing them into something far worse might have been what killed her mother. It figures the first case in this particular office would be one of those. The possibility of meeting such people was always in her mind with this line of work and having her first case be about that kind of bastard made her worry for her and the child both. She had to get the kid back or get her abductor in a cage so the both of them could feel safe. She bought an old store to live in with a metal door and barred windows just so she could not worry about neighbors alone at night. The operatives in the crowded room gave her some semblance of safety for the moment.

A breath later with the loosened button of her collar the leaden weight of the room wasn't so bad.

She wouldn't bring attention to herself so soon but if the lab was in any state of shambles she needed to know certain things ahead of time, "Is there any special evidence processing I'll need to prepare for?"

That was the term they usually used in her former office for the class of 'what's this weird stuff?' coming out of police units or operatives. She figured they'd know what she meant with how wide the evidence packets went out with the label.

Jay flanked his team as he followed them to the briefing room. He stood in the back of the room and scanned the others lounging and talking. Wincing, Jay realized that he knew a few of them from his pre-disgrace days. Well, wouldn't that be an awkward conversation? "Long time no see. The weather's been too hot, huh? I'm good, you? And how did you screw up?"

Before he could wonder about awkward introductions, in came the director and a pale warden. Jay looked at them both with interest. He'd heard that the director was a competent, nondescript man, but it was the warden who interested him further. She also looked familiar... wait. Was that Warden Dumitrescu? His old partner had mentioned her before. Hadn't she been in an insane asylum or something?

He pushed aside any questions in favor of focusing on the case. Jay grimaced when the photo of the child appeared on the screen. Great. Kids. Those cases were always the hardest, especially when they were younger. He didn't know much about the supernatural scene in Texas, unfortunately, so Jay wasn't sure who would do such a thing to a child. That was the first thing to figure out, then. Motivation. Then, the suspect pool could be narrowed. (A small corner of his mind hoped vampires weren't involved... and an even smaller, vicious portion wished that they were.)

Jay glanced at Townsend, who'd spoken up to ask about the lab. He took advantage of her question to ask two of his own. "What are the current leads? And how is the case being divided?"