Janice does manage to track down who the resident 'Mulder' is. It's an older officer named James Jackson, he's in his late 50's, his kinky hair has gone nearly white, and his jowls hang, not from fat, but from an obviously long life of playing Jazz Trumpet when not on duty. His dark skin is heavily wrinkled and weathered.
He's willing to talk about his cases, he's got over 20 years of cold cases that have some sort of weirdness. The more recent cases he's willing to talk about are...
#12A34R-38 : A young ganger, Gefferay 'G-Ray' Brown, presumably on drugs, lost it in a bar fight and killed one of his fellow gang members, one Naishon 'Flounder' Thorn. G-Ray vanished in the week after, and the police finally gave up hunting for him, although there's an outstanding warrant for his arrest. The prevailing wisdom is his gang done him in for killing someone else in the gang. James doesn't like that answer though, as G-Ray's brother is the head of the gang, and the gang's been looking for him. Also, the weirdness is that G-Ray managed to crush Flounder's skull with one punch, he drove the boys teeth through the back of his skull. G-Ray was last seen in the company of a well dressed white man in a formal suit.
#84B47N-98 : There have been a half-dozen unexplained deaths in New Orleans over the last two years, one every three months. The bodies are later found partially or completely devoured by wild animals. Biologists indicate the animals involved are unusual, the bite marks match a panther or cougar's bite marks, but, are nearly twice the normal size. That's not the weird part though, the weird part is that there are human bite marks on the bodies as well, although the human bites have enlarged canines. It is believed that it's a serial killer using fake bite apparatuses, possibly someone who's had vampiric canine replacements.
#57R34T-12 : A student at Loyola, Ericka Boudreaux has gone missing in the last 2 weeks. She was reported missing by her fiance, Roger Miller. Roger was in New York State dealing with a family emergency when she stopped returning his calls. When he returned, he found the front door of their apartment had been broken into, and the interior trashed, someone had used a sword and axe to chop furniture, smash electronics, and shred furniture. The weirdness would be that someone cut the door open, rather than breaking it down. The dead bolt was found still in the door, sliced in half, to allow entry.
Drider looks up from her sewing at the knock. Hearing Mud's voice she returns her attention to the silk cloth in her hands. "Not since changing," She replies, "The door's unlocked."
Mud enters the room and replies. "Me too. I miss dreaming. Now, it's only day dreaming. How about you?" He casually asks while finding some wall to lean against.
Before she responds, he asks another question, "what's up with the silk? Do you have to produce it all the time?"
"The only dreams I have now are nightmares," She replies, thoughts of her injured father flashing through her mind. She takes a moment to examine her room, bolts of silk lay in a neat pile in one corner, while partially completed outfits hung in another. Then, she glanced at the sharp spider limbs, the bottom right currently providing her thread. "Have to? No. It's just the only good thing to come from my transformation, and working eases my mind. It's far more refreshing than sleeping is now, at least...."
Mud nods at Drider's comments. "Yeah, that sucks," he summarizes using that eloquent teenage vocabulary. "I started like that. The trigger for my change was drowning. It's an awful way to die. Gulping water. Lungs burning. All alone in the dark. Don't recommend it. It's all I thought about for years when I faked to sleep."
He pauses to listen to the hum of the insects outside. "That was five years ago. Now I only have that nightmare around water. I sink like a stone, so I don't really like the thought of being underwater again. I guess I've just found other things to think about."
He pauses again looking at Drider now, "how about you? When did you change? Has it been enough time?"
Janice does her best, first and foremost, to reassure Officer Jackson that she's taking his concerns seriously, and believes that it's worth looking into something weird.
In the case of G-Ray, she's curious whether there's any artists' sketches of the white man who accompanied him, and if not, whether the eyewitnesses are still willing to talk.
In the case of the animal murders, she's curious whether there's been any biological forensics collected at the scene of the crime–animal hair, teeth, claws, dried saliva on clothing or skin under fingernails that have yet to be processed, and offers to personally run analyses on these if there are.
And in the case of Erica Boudreaux, she's interested in access to the scene of the crime—if possible, she'd like to swab the slash marks for traces of human DNA or skin cells.
No witnesses got a good look a the man's face. There were two witnesses, per the file, both saw him from half a block away. The man was white, with blonde or light brown hair (the witnesses disagree on color). The man was wearing 'one of those Abe Lincoln hats but shorter' and a black suit. One witness thinks he had a cane, the other an umbrella. They got into a black sedan, into the back, so someone else was driving.
There's a ton of physical evidence, but the forensics team has come back with 'inconclusive' on all of it. It's in storage if Janice wants to pull it and run tests.
The apartment has been fixed. The fiance's father is a state senator, and there's been a big push to find her. Nothing was found in the swabs except some odd steel traces. No blood was found.
"I'm not sure there will ever be enough time," Drider admits. "It's been about eight months since I turned into this." She pauses in her sewing, staring at the chitinous armor covering her hands. "From what I can tell, there was no trigger. I was hospitalized with severe pain for a few days, but the doctors sent me home when we thought the pain was managed. I woke up the next morning to... this tearing its way out of me..."
She falls silent, a desperate grip on the silken garment in her hands, and her body shaking. "I was in a panic," she muttered. "I couldn't control them," she added, her voice growing quiet and uneven. "I didn't mean to..." She whimpered, barely a whisper as she curled up and hid her face with the silk garment.
She'll pull everything she can on the animal murders, though, and see if there's anything worth swabbing that the other techs have missed.
Mud quietly replies after a couple minutes of uncomfortable silence."Well, time has helped me. I'm in a different place now than I was several years ago. I hope it helps you, too."
"Yeah, I panicked, too. Anyway, if you need practice controlling them now, you can always spar with me. Can't hurt this." Mud gives a lop-sided grin while he finger reveals a dark, inorganic and viscous substance below the skin on his bare arm.
Drider wipes her eyes with the silk and raises her head to give Mud a weary smile. "They're in check, for the most part," She says, "Thanks for the offer. If we're going to do what we're meant to here, it'll help to keep ourselves in practice."
She glances at the wall behind her, at one of her sketches. "You're relatively amorphous, right?" She asks, "Would getting measurements be worthless if I were going to make you something?"
"Yeah." Mud replies to the amorphous question. Then, he shrugs at the measurements question and says, "Dunno. I always seem to come back to the same shape of me. I always buy the same size of clothes if that helps." He motions to his outfit, which has that thrift store brand to it.
Janice spends an afternoon going over everything that was already done, then another day or two running the DNA again.
The DNA comes back as felis domesticus, about a 95% confidence. The DNA from the human bite comes back as 96% match for human, 4% unmatched. That would, in Janice's experience, be an 'inconclusive' result on both scans, that's usually the result of contamination in the samples.
Beyond that, nothing else worth swabbing, it seems people went over it in detail.
As she gains information, Janice compiles her report for the rest of the group on potential meta-crime in the New Orleans area:
1. The first case concerns a gang member named Gefferay "G-Ray" Brown who killed a member of his gang by punching straight through the man's skull—at least as the ballistics suggest. G-Ray supposedly vanished in the company of a white man in a black suit and top hat (and either a cane or umbrella, with a car driven by a personal driver).
2. The second case is the latest in a string of serial killings, spaced approximately three months apart. Bodies were found devoured by wild animals, with two kinds of bite marks: the first caused by that of a giant beast, whose DNA and jaw size suggests a 15-foot domestic cat; the first caused by a human with highly mutated DNA and enlarged canines. The regular timing may suggest something tied to lycanthrope or vampire lore, though there is little physical evidence in any of the cases besides the bodies themselves, and Janice isn't entirely sure whether they occurred geographically close enough to each other for planting a "decoy" to catch the killer during the nice cycle to be effective.
3. The third case and most recent, is the abduction of a Loyola student by someone who sliced clean through the door and furniture. Contact swabs revealed only traces of unusually-forged steel, with no apparent hardened human tissue (though Janice has seen very few super-cells under a microscope). There are also no signs that the abductee was injured, and the abduction is a high-profile case. Janice suspects a metahuman capable of extruding metal rather than one who can simply harden into it.
Mud comfortably leaned against the dining room wall while Snapdragon reviewed the weird cases. He was too young for X-files and watched many shows in that genre after he changed and knew them to be reality shows. She must be some type of cop using words like case and DNA. Cops work for the Government, so I must be careful around her. She could be a mole. There's always a mole that you think you can trust.
"Well, if the third case is high profile, I don't know how we can add to the search unless one of you has precognition or super senses. At best, it sounds like we need to prepare to help the cops if they encounter a meta who can turn into metal. With a fan boat ride to town, I don't know how effective we can expect to be, right?" Mud shrugs.
"The second case should be our priority, since they are killing people. Do we have any idea when the next window of opportunity would be or a type of victim?" He doesn't know enough to ask about a profile of the killer or victims.
"The first case seems doable. We could go speak to the family members. The guy in a top hat doesn't sound very Government, so maybe there's another player in town. Plus, a top hat is kind of distinctive, even for New Orlens. Maybe we could look for the top hat. What do you guys think?"
Victim profile for animal attacks : All victims were female, between the ages of 18 and 25.
"You want to speak to a family of drug dealers and professional thugs?" Janice asks incredulously. "We could, but disguises might be appropriate—certainly nothing police-related. Top Hat isn't something we'd have an easy time finding, but I thought the outfit might fit the profile of an existing troublesome meta, maybe someone one of you have met."
Mud looks at a Snapdragon and replies, "I must have missed when you told us that G-Ray had "a family of drug dealers and professional thugs." He pauses enough for her to realize that she never said.
"Besides, family is family, and I'm not really threatened by "drug dealers and professional thugs," only by the Government and Metas, so I'd wear a disguise. And, a white guy in a top hat with a personal driver might be enough of description in New Orlens." He finishes his comments with a hopeful grin.
"No idea, when the next 3-month murder would be? As in, when was the last one?" Mud asks again.
"Mud, you're new in town. You could probably blend in alright. Pixie could hide up your sleeve, but I don't know about Drider. If the others think infiltrating a gang is a good idea, I could try and search for police profiles, see if there's anyone I can impersonate and see if there's a bar they hang out by."
"I don't know about infiltrating a gang. I was just thinking about talking to his family. Maybe he won a lottery or a scholarship. We're just looking to give it to him. We'd have to know more about him to make a plausible hook, right?"
"I guess? I mean, honestly, if all we have to do is spy on people, I don't really need help."
"I guess? I mean, honestly, if all we have to do is spy on people, I don't really need help."
"That's right," Mud nods and encourages.
"The two targets we have for Madame Butterfly are the family of G-Ray and the victim's house of the metal meta, right? Which one do you want to investigate first?" Mud asks with smile for his Madame Butterfly moniker, even though he's never read or seen the opera.
Drider decides to contribute as the others start discussing their thoughts for disguises. "I've been working on a few things to help with that," she says, standing up and wrapping her spider limbs about her waist before slipping on the trench coat-like silk garment she was working on. "I'll need some sunglasses to hide my eyes, but with enough preparation time, I should be able to at least pass for human."
"If we're going to choose one over the other, I'm more worried about the abduction than the gangster," Drider puts in her vote, "It sounds like that G-Ray guy wasn't obviously in danger. He was probably hired as super muscle."
"I should point out," Janice adds, "That the abduction might be the case we have the fewest unique talents to help solve. None of us have super-tracking abilities, and for all we know it could've been a joker with a well-forged sword."
"The cases are weird. Some of them will have Metas and some won't. We won't know until we investigate. Let's just pick one and and check it out. Pixie could go in with us waiting nearby. We probably need a stake-out car. Snapdragon, do you have pictures and addresses, so everyone can get a look before we go?" Mud starts to get excited about helping another meta.
"And for the record, I think G-Ray didn't know his own strength when he killed that guy. And if he hasn't gone home, then I think this top hat will be using him as an enforcer. Perhaps against his will.". Mud remembered growing into his own strength.
Drider falls silent at Mud's deduction, realizing she should have considered the chance G-Ray may have been unable to mitigate the consequences. "I still think the abductions should be our most immediate concern. If we have any ideas on how we can predict the next attack on the second case, then that one next..."
Janice speaks up again, once she's heard all the other members' opinions. "I'd guess these are all metas," she corrects Mud. "A normal human being doesn't have the strength to punch through a skull, or cut down a door with a sword—not without making a ton of hacking noise, at least. And the cat-creature is certainly something super ordinary."
"That said," she continues, "Unless any of you have super-tracking, we're no more equipped to find a missing person than the police. And there's hundreds of them, and three of us. So the abduction is a case we should stop worrying about, unless you'd rather be a neighborhood watch than a justice league."
"G-Ray may not have tried to kill anyone," she points out, "But he's still a criminal. Which means he's more likely to be desperate, and lash out or go on the run. He's certainly not going to the cops. Maybe he's being used as an enforcer, maybe not, but there's a good chance he could hurt someone unless his new benefactor is one of our 'other cells.'"
"That said," she concludes, "There's nothing we can do about the 'animal attacks' except for a few nights every few months. Certainly nothing useful during the day, regardless. So we'll look for when the next attack might occur, and maybe do some scouting of possible locations. I'd make an ideal 'bait,' because I can look like an ordinary young woman, and because I don't think I can be permanently injured by animal bites."
"Until those nights of likelihood come around, we scout for G-Ray. We can split up—if Pixie follows one of the gang members and puts him to sleep in an alley, I can take his clothing and ID, and work my way into the gang for a few minutes before they get too suspicious. Enough time, at least, to drop a few hints and see if we get info. Mud and Drider don't have day jobs—and they both know how to move quietly and hide on rooftops—so they can work the streets, follow tips about top hats and generally sweep the bad neighborhoods. Gather info, but not engage until we're all together—I don't think we're ready to take any risks by splitting up until we know exactly what sort of hits we can survive without worry."
"That's one plan," she adds after a bit of hesitation. "Seems the smartest I can think of, but we should all add our input."
"No one should go alone. We're together for a reason." Mud quickly replies.
"I agree with Drider that the abduction is the most pressing case. It couldn't hurt for someone really small and invisible to look around the victim's house." Mud smiles looking at Pixie.
"Okay, then who'd be coming with me? Drider?"
"I'll go." Mud volunteers. "I don't have to get too close."
"Wait... going to break into an active crime scene? If you're dead-set on doing that, you'll need me with you as a forensic tech."
"If you can stay out of sight, I guess. I know I won't get caught, but you're a bit more... noticeable."
"I've also got a badge, and I can request access to the scene—if they won't give it, I'll pull the name of the tech on the case, and google his work photo. Point is, breaking in means evidence tampering, which would just sidetrack the official investigation, and I don't want that on our hands."
"Things never seemed this complicated in the TV shows," Drider mutters, mostly to herself.
Mud asks Snapdragon, "are you sure you want to associate yourself with this case? I mean if you can find the weird cases then so can the Government. If they see you investigating them outside your regular duties, you'll become a target. Maybe you can list the things for Pixie to check and just advise. It's not paranoia if they really are out to disect you."
"Regardless, if you feel the need to do this, I'm going with you. I don't want to see two amateurs ruin an important criminal investigation by messing around with a crime scene they don't understand the methodology of."
"Two? I'm not going inside. I don't even want to get close to it." Mud replies holding his hands up.
Then, he shrugs, "Well, unless Pixie finds a problem and needs help, of course."
Janice puts her hand on her forehead, shaking her head.
The kidnap group arrives at the address down town of the apartment from the police report. It's about 2 blocks from the Tulane campus. Hole in the wall stores dot the street at ground level. The apartments all have an external entrance, with wrought iron railing, on the second level. Almost like a hotel, but not. The third floor is apartments as well. The break-in apartment is on the third floor. Police tape still covers the door.
The section of town G-Ray's gang controls is off the beaten path, old apartment buildings, 5 stories tall, with ratty little shops at street level. The bar G-Ray went postal in has a sign on it that says it will re-open in 4 days.
Mud joined the high stealth group to the kidnapped victim's house. He had zero interest of entering an active crime scene, so he stops at the entrance of a closed hole in the wall store across the street where he can watch the victim's house and listen for screams. He pulls his over-sized, black Saints hoodie down and leans comfortably against the alcove watching and listening for anything out of the ordinary.
Mud led the G-Ray Group imagining that he understood what this guy could be going through. His second-hand over-sized black Saints hoodie, jeans, and boots blended into the urban environment.
Snapdragon does what she can to look up an ID photo of a more local cop and, under that disguise, travels stealthily with the others to the crime scene.
Pixie rode most of the way there in Snapdragon's pocket. It was a bumpy ride, but far easier than keeping up her invisibility the whole time... that whole thing was a lot more taxing than you'd think.
The door is padlocked, and a laminated note is tacked to the door, indicating the apartment is an active crime scene. The name and contact number for the detective in charge is on the note.
With Snapdragon's insistence on going to the crime scene to help keep it preserved during the search, and Pixie going with her, Drider thought it ultimately better to accompany Mud to keep a buddy system. Before setting out, she has Mud give her a crash course on streetwise, so she can be of more help, and bundles up with her tailored disguise to keep from being outed casually.
Pixie, after arriving, slips out to look for a way in.
Strider is not happy with her disguise, and nobody else is either. She looks like she's wearing a cloak over a space suit, or has squirrels tied to her torso under the cloak, when her limbs move.
Pixie manages to find an air duct going into the building, and after grunting through absolutely filthy dirty air ducts, finds her way to the apartment in question.
Pushing the air grill out so it falls to the ground, she peeks around and sees a unlit room. It looks messy, but she can't tell without a light. She thinks she's in the living room.
Once she's inside, Pixie looks for the entrance, and, if she can find it, attempts to unlock it from the inside.