SPPA Chronicles (Sarre & Nix)

[Nix]

The sun hung low, its edge just starting to touch the horizon. Dusk was a terrible time to be standing in the middle of the of the western side of Tokyo. Despite the low growl and dark threats called out from the thickly packed apartment buildings that littered the area, each building belonging to a different pack, the man remained still, staring up at one building in particular. It was the building belonging to Pack McDonald.

Pack McDonald, while not the largest or the most vicious, was considered the most loyal of all the lycans in the city. They had honor, and always repaid their debts. Unfortunately for the dark haired man, he had been called in to investigate the death of one of the packs members. That was always a tricky situation, especially the day after a new moon. Pack meetings, and the subsequent drinking involved in those meetings, always meant spotty memories.

"Captain Tristis!"

Eyes the color of amber turned to the only other SPPA member present, the first responding officer. "What's the situation, officer?"

"On the fifth floor, sir, one dead male, age..." The officer fumbled for his notebook. "approximately twenty."

"Any sign of punctures, symbols, or forced entry?"

"No, sir. The door was unlocked, both windows closed and nothing disturbed." The officer looked puzzled. "Sir... Where is Captain Jakins?"

"He retired. Said it was time to play with the grandkids and leave this kind of thing to us younger people. Speaking of, my new partner should be arriving soon. Keep an eye out will you?" Xyne Tristis was not terribly pleased that his partner of four years had suddenly decided to retire, however, he did understand. Jakins as a founding member of the SPPA, had spent longer on the streets than most ever did. Now, all he had to do was see what his new partner was like.

 

[Sarre]

Eleanor sat cross-legged in the car that seemed to be driving just over the speed limit. She made a point to be slightly early to any appointments she had, but someone must have thought it to be a creative idea to pair the new recruit with a new driver.

The sky was darkening, and in west, that meant it would be getting dark. She didn't like it here; never had. The wolves here had sharp eyes and other senses in the night, so there wasn't a single lit window. Electricity still buzzed in appliances, computers, and on colder nights, heating systems, but those were invisible. The atmosphere still felt medieval, even with the tall apartments around them.

"We're here," the driver said, as he pulled up to the small gathering by the apartment. "Again, I'm so sorry. I didn't-"

"Stop it," she said, annoyed at his sniveling. He had been apologising since he had made that wrong turn. "I'm not late yet. It could have been worse."

She didn't give him time to respond. She'd opened the door on her side before the car had come to a full stop and hopped out nimbly. They'd told her the job, at this stage, was primarily investigative, so she'd brought her more discreet batteries. They were slung across her chest, hidden under her new uniform coat. On the outside, she looked very regular, which was preferable to carrying a satchel with a battery that looked like it belonged in a car over her shoulder. The district policemen guarding the tape must have recognised the SPPA vehicle, because they stepped aside wordlessly when she approached them and let her duck under it.

"I'm sorry if I made anyone wait," she said, walking towards the little, serious-looking, crowd. "Won't happen again. Which one of you is Captain Tristis?"

 

[Nix]

Xyne turned at the sound, "That would be me. Just a moment." Turning back to the responding officer, he frowned. "Alright, we'll go up and look over the scene. Gather a couple of the stationed officers and see if you can find anyone that wasn't sleeping off last night's pack meeting, maybe they heard something." He rolled his eyes, when the younger man gave him a sharp salute. One of these days, he would find an officer that didn't salute ever five minutes.

He then, turned his full attention to his new partner. Given that the main office was terribly understaffed,what with most of the higher ranked members overseeing the new office in Madrid, he wasn't surprised that he didn't know a single thing about her save her name. "Good evening, I'm Xyne Tristis. Pleasure." He extended his gloved right hand toward her. "You aren't late, I haven't been here that long myself."

He legitimately tried to be friendly, granted it wasn't something he was good at. He had no hard feelings toward his new partner, none at all, he was just... Lil always referred to him as gruff, while Marcus and Adrian simply called him cautious. Xyne liked to think of it as practical. He didn't expect this young officer to like him right off the bat, no, they would have to earn each other's trust first. "So, what did headquarters tell you so far?"

He absolutely hated it when a new office opened. Since the Tokyo branch was the first one to open, Commander Erstin, always sent some of her more seasoned agents to help smooth the transition and help train the new recruits. Xyne, through luck, or practicality on the Commander's part, usually remained here. Granted that did mean he was assigned strange jobs outside of his normal district.

 

[Sarre]

Eleanor took his hand and shook it warmly. "I try to make it a habit to be early, and I'm definitely glad I'm not late," she told him. "They didn't tell me much at all. Everyone had the appearence of being very rushed. What I got from them was that I should listen to superiors and try not to mess things up. Of this case, all I know is that there is someone lying dead in this building and it's causing political tensions."

She looked down in respect. "You'll have to bear with me, but I shot through the program in less than a year, and most of it was combat training and mental exercises. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that they left out pieces of it. This is my first time in the field."

She refrained from mentioning directly how obvious it was that they were understaffed.

In any case, the partner they had tossed her seemed average enough. They'd said he was one of the best and hadn't elaborated, but she supposed that if he had any eccentricities in his manner they would have at least mentioned it. Things like that tended to stand out.

 

[Nix]

Xyne rolled his eyes again. "Of course, that's what they told you." He would bet his next paycheck that Miranda had been the one to talk to her. She was a nice enough lady, but she was also seriously by the book. "Let me guess, Redhead, nice suit, made you fill out a bunch of forms?" Paperwork, which was a necessary evil, was something that Xyne did only if it was a final report.

"Everyone seemed rushed because most of the older agents are working on the new office in Madrid." He sighed and started explaining. "I know that the head office is understaffed, but to not even give you a rundown.." He shook his head, dark hair falling in his eyes. "This is Clan McDonald territory." A gesture at the building. "According to first response, we have one dead male, around twenty. The officer didn't note anything suspicious, but he also didn't have too many details." He moved toward the front of the building, opening the door, courtesy that Lil drilled into him causing him to hold it for Eleanor.

"Our victim is on the fifth floor. I sent the officer to see if there was anyone that heard something. Normally that's not a problem in this part of town, but it was a new moon last night, so nearly all the packs had meetings." Xyne shook his head again. "Which, of course, means they were all completely drunk. So I doubt there will be much information." A careful scan of the lobby. "It's been fairly quiet lately, Well... on this side of town anyway." This was of course, ignoring all the small disputes between the various packs.

 

[Sarre]

"Yeah, I met her," Eleanor replied. "She was the only person that ever said the words, 'take your time' to me when she handed me those forms."

She followed him dutifully into the building, smiling when he held door. "What does nothing suspicious mean?" she asked, trying to grasp at details as they waited for the elevators. "Does it look like a heart attack or a fight?"

There had been some study of lycans where she was from, but it was impossible for her to judge exactly how biased her knowledge was. In short, she knew them as savage brutes that liked acting more than thinking, and drank a lot, and Captain Tristis had just confirmed half of that to be true.

"And if we're here, does that mean they suspect someone from another one of the races?"

The area was right in the center of the lycan territory, though, which baffled her. The only border disputes here would be from within. The slogans for the SPPA advertised diplomacy between the races, but they were also sort of considered an elite police in the East, where she had stayed during her training. One theory was that the werewolves wanted the best, but that couldn't be it. They didn't particularly enjoy the company of anyone but their own kind.

 

[Nix]

A low chuckle. "That sounds like Miranda, she likes the paperwork just so. I can't stand the stuff myself, so I only do a final report." He paused for a moment, checking the oddly empty hall, before turning back to Eleanor. "Suspicious, means, no sign of another race. No symbols drawn in blood, puncture wounds, or any hint of that dusty smell that seems to hang on all the shifters."

The ding of the elevators was oddly loud and echoing in the empty lobby. "The responding officer guessed that it could be a poisoning, but, Lycans have excellent senses of taste and smell, so I'm going to figure that it is something new." He pushed the button for the fifth floor, looking more relaxed than most would in the middle of Lycan territory.

Xyne frowned a bit. "The other races are always the first suspects. The problem is, we don't know how long the victim has been dead. If he was killed this morning, then the killer was smart, taking advantage of the hangover from the Pack meeting. However, if he died last night or this afternoon, it could have been an opportunistic crime." He straightened as the doors opened. "The victim is in room 519."

As they left the elevator, he paused, eyes darting from one door to another. The floor was completely silent, an absolute rarity in the lycan dristict. "The main office DID give you your weapons pack, right?" His tone was considerably softer, but his eyes kept darting around. "Last time they sent a new recruit to me and Jakins for training, they didn't give him anything except his badge. Kid ended up covered in dead shapeshifter by the end of the day." Finally satisfied that the floor was empty, Anax never did completely trust the first responders to clear an area properly, he continued down, following Eleanor to the room.

The body lay in the middle of the room, completely torn to shreds. Blood surrounded the body in a thick glistening pool. Other than the fact that the place was a complete mess, save for the kitchen, nothing seemed overly strange. The mess was even fairly standard for an unmated Lycan male. Xyne hung back a bit, letting Eleanor go in first. It was a good way for him to get a feel for how she would handle things. Plus, fresh eyes usually found something of interest.

 

[Sarre]

"Yeah, got it," Eleanor replied, patting to the small purse-sized bag hanging over her shoulder. She had ditched the taser because of how ridiculously redundant it was, but she had everything else, plus her own grapples, attached firmly on her wrists under her sleeves. She also had a thin silver dagger, partly because of its supposed magical properties, but mostly because of its conductivity.

"Wow, the photographs they used in training smelled a lot better," Eleanor murmured when the door opened. She kept a polite distance away from the body, in case it hadn't been photographed yet. Most items were still unlabelled.

Tristis seemed to be waiting for her to talk, so she obliged, but she didn't seem to have anything juicy. She felt as if she was reading aloud, instead of analysing. So much for proving herself in the field.

"It seems more straightforward than suspicious," Eleanor said, "Like another werewolf got angry and tore him apart with teeth and claws. I feel like I should have some sort of elaborate conspiracy theory, like you see you TV, but... that's it. Like it was another werewolf. Internal territory dispute, maybe? Fight with a friend? What do we know about him?"

 

[Nix]

Xyne frowned at the mess. He couldn't fault Eleanor's logic, but something still seemed a bit off. The body was not in lycan form. That struck him as strange because if it was a fight, or an attack, he would have at least partially changed. Pulling a pair of disposable gloves out of his own kit, and slipping them over the ones he already wore, Xyne started examining the corpse a bit closer.

"You make several good points, but why is there no fur anywhere? It was was another lycan, then there should be some... You can't do this kind f damage with human hands..." Pulling out a small vial from his kit, Xyne filled it three-fourths of the way full before stopping it firmly. For a moment, he studied it, frowning. "It could be a new type of poison, possibly from the Neutral District. It could be a rogue or like you said, a fight with someone he knew..."

He glanced up at Eleanor, thankful that she's actively thinking and not just assuming she was correct. "As far as I know, We know age, clan and that is about it." He labeled the vial and tucked it away again.

 

[Sarre]

"Not nearly enough information, but I guess that's not unusual," Eleanor sighed. She examined a sofa near him. It was one of those cheap, fuzzy ones. "There isn't any fur on this sofa, either. What happened to his day-to-day shedding? He doesn't seem like the type that would vacuum regularly."

Then she turned back to the body, watching as he extracted a blood sample. "With all due respect, I highly doubt poison can tear flesh like that. It definitely couldn't have torn his clothing. No matter how you look at it, they're claw marks. They're even in grouped in threes and fours."

Following the captain's example, she stepped closer to the body. It was lying face-up on its back, with both arms splayed on either side. She studied the claw marks, unsure of what she was looking for. They made a giant bloody X on his chest, and his abdomen was nearly torn out with deep horizontal slashes. There were also plenty of them on his legs and thighs, running from his knees upward. She squinted. Something was off about the direction of them. In a typical, weaponless, brawl, there should have been more injuries to the backs of the arms, and less to the stomach. And how had he gotten attacked on the front of his thighs? What would have been the point of trying to hit that area at the risk of getting kicked?

"Could we flip him over?" she asked. "Because if there are no injuries in the center of his back, these are self inflicted. It would fit with your poison theory, but it still doesn't explain the total lack of fur."

That was a better theory. Deeper, and less obvious. She waited for them to roll the body, fairly sure she would be correct. Hopefully that would give them all a better impression of her skill.

 

[Nix]

He scanned the room again. "True, but he also doesn't seem like the type to have a clean kitchen either." He stayed still, crouched near the body. "I'm willing to bet someone comes here regularly to cleanup a bit. Most likely a mother or a girlfriend." In all, the entire place reminded him of a teenagers room. Posters, some torn, littered the walls, in no particular pattern. Piles of clothes, were dumped next to the couch, yet the windows were clean.

Xyne grinned. "Oh you are absolutely right, but I do know of one type of medicine that causes hallucination in any non human that tends to make them rip themselves to shreds." He glanced up, the smirk still on the edges of his mouth. "But, I know for a fact that the medicine has been destroyed so it couldn't be that." He had mostly been offering suggestions, but Eleanor was correct, poison doesn't make claw marks.

Obligingly, and pleased that Eleanor was actively following her own thoughts, Xyne willingly adjusted the body so that she could see the back easily. "That still doesn't give us any hints as to who might have done it. I'm willing to rule out Shifters and the Vampires. There would be no blood at all if it was a Vampire, and there is no way to hide the scent of a Shifter."

Xyne hated being confused, and he really hated this case. There were few leads, and he could easily see the Commander sending them all over the city chasing hints and guesses. Which meant a double shift, and most likely double shifts until they figured out and caught whomever it was. Xyne despised double shifts for two reasons. One was the lack of time spent sleeping, and second, was the fact that the Commander would call and demand updates.

 

[Sarre]

"Yeah, that makes sense. Speaking of which, who called this in? I didn't see friends or anything outside, so they either don't care or don't know, or want to appear that way."

She didn't feel familiar enough with him or the job to push the inquiry of poison. With the scene in front of them, she was inclined to believe were samples or recipes of the medicine still existing, or perhaps a chemist had figured out how to recreate it. "Well," she said, "The sink is filled with dirty dishes, and there's a coffee mug on the table behind you. Maybe forensics will find something on one of those.

There was one other thought. She mentioned it with some hesitance, as her partner was superior to her in both rank and experience. "Why couldn't a vampire drop off some poison? They can kill without drinking, can't they? And if he was poisoned outside, then a shifter isn't quite ruled out either. Poisons can be rigged to act slowly. He could've had the time to come home after feeling uncomfortable."

Still, the last and most important question remained: Who? The easiest solution was to assume it was a random killing, but with the existence of a rare poison, more doors had opened. "I don't think we'll have any idea who it was until we can get more details about him, his friends, and his family," she murmured. "No sign of a phone book or contact list anywhere? No neighbors that knew him?"

 

[Nix]

Xyne frowned, and pulled a small notepad out of his pocket. After flipping a couple of pages, he looked up again. "Looks like Allister McDonald called it in. According to statement, he and our victim had the evening patrol of the South border. Apparently, he went to inform the Pack leader." Xyne made a face. Really, that was not going to be a pleasant conversation. There was little worse than an angry pack leader out for revenge.

He had to agree with her, it did look like someone had been here recently. "We should have them look through any liquids as well... For all we know, this could have been a slow calculated move, drawn out over a long period of time." He stood then, and started making a couple of notes in the notepad, His writing small and barely legible.

Xyne gave the question serious consideration. Given her well thought out questions, and the logical way her mind seemed to work, Xyne nearly forgot that Eleanor didn't know as much about the Vampires here as he did. "Yes, vampires can kill without drinking, you are absolutely right. But, there are two factions of Vampires here, the ones led by Adrian Kerinson, and a faction of rogues. Adrian's group is tired up in a trade deal with some Vampires from Hong Kong, and a ... cold war of sorts with the Shifters. The rogues... well, they don't kill without drinking." All of this was said factually. "The Shifters are proud of any attacks they do. They wouldn't hide it."

Her final question was an excellent one. "I'm pretty sure the entire pack is probably at their meeting hall. I don't know too much about Lycan funerals, but since the building seems to be deserted, we should go there first. I'm willing to bet a vacation day that they can tell us who to talk to. We should probably make sure we get there before dark settles completely and they go hunting."

 

[Sarre]

"Sounds good," Eleanor replied, glancing out the window. Someone had turned the lights on in the apartment they were standing in, and it seemed clear that theirs was the only one that was lit. Being on the blind side of a one-way window made her uncomfortable.

She absorbed what he gave him in way of information. They had taught her the basic instincts of the races, but not the minute details like the captain seemed to know. Part of her wanted to batter him with more questions, but this wasn't a classroom where the teacher would look at them after a lesson and ask, "Any questions?" Here, they simply moved.

It disappointed her that after fifteen years, most of the world still seemed to be at war, or at least on the brink of it. All the races seemed as human as her own race; meaning just as capable of being stupid. On the more optimistic side, she supposed that the situation gave someone like her, gifted with special abilities, a secure employment path.

"How many packs are there around this area?" she asked as a final thought. Personally, she wasn't quite ready to give up her theory of internal conflict. An obvious solution, while it could mean a setup, could just as easily mean a stupid criminal.

 

[Nix]

"Then after we log all this in, and call the Commander, we should head that way." It shouldn't take them long to get everything together. "We can send it all back to Headquarters with Geren, that's the first responding officer." It was a well known fact that Xyne spent as little time in headquarters as possible, since he hated being there during the day when he could be sleeping, and hated being there at night, when he should be working. It was a stuffy place, the offices filled with members who either couldn't work on the streets or came up with an excuse not to.

Xyne, started taking notes on what they had found so far, their various ideas and leads, along with a possible plan of action. He knew that plan would be scrapped nearly instantly. They needed to talk to the pack, check with forensics, inform the Commander, he still had his usual patrol route and he needed to call Marcus and make sure he hadn't made any more of that medicine lately. The little vampire could be tenacious when one of his attempts backfired. The only possibleway it could get any worse is if Lil tried to cook for him again. He didn't need food poisoning on top of everything.

"Hmm?" He glanced up from the pad, at Eleanor's question. "Well, almost every building holds a different pack, granted Pack Dullas covers about four... so... I would guess about.. sixty? I'm really not the person to ask, I usually patrol the North District." Xyne shook his head a bit. "Things will settle down after the new office is open."

Closing the notepad and slipping it into his pocket, he looked over at his new partner. "I think that's everything... Lets go check in with the Pack Master before we start our usual rounds. We can make a plan while we do that."

 

[Sarre]

"Alright, let's go then," Eleanor said, not wanting to waste time as the sun was slowly dragging itself downwards. Sixty wolves in one district... It didn't make her very confident in terms of safety, and trusting her skill in a class wasn't quite the same as facing a real foe; much less a well-muscled wolf thing. Plus, with the SPPA painted cars and lack of doggish scent, they probably stood out to anyone that could be on the streets. She hoped they would at least keep a polite distance.

She took the time in the elevator once again to pose the captain questions, though she spoke them like small talk. "I've never knowingly met a werewolf," she said idly. She knew werewolves would sometimes venture into human territories in their human forms, but the ones that did often knew what they were doing, and were better as resisting certain instincts. The shifters had used to do it too, until people had become more accustomed to their smell. "What are they like in their own land?" she inquired.

 

[Nix]

"I see them like a Biker gang. Each pack has their own rules, much like a gang, although there are some things that are the same throughout. They really aren't that different from humans, save the whole hunting in wolf form part. They have jobs, and duties to both their packs and families. Here, they are freer in a way, they can frequent either form with no judgement. There are no calls in someone gets rough in a bar brawl and ends with a wolf fight. If a kid wants to go to school as a wolf, his teachers will not panic here." He really wasn't describing it well, but Jakins knew more about Lycans than he did. Xyne knew enough to get by, and not step on any toes, but it wasn't nearly as easy as dealing with the Vampires.

He sent a silent thanks that the murder had happened here and not in the Shifter District. Everyone knew that Xyne and Avrost, the leader of the Shifters had hated each other on sight. No one could really explain it either. By a mutual, and silent agreement, Xyne stayed far away from the Shifter District and Avrost always sent a intermediary whenever he needed something from the SPPA. On the rare occasions that their paths did cross. Xyne usually ended up with large gashes and Avrost with a couple of bullets.

When the door opened, Xyne paused before stepping out of the elevator. "The meeting hall for this pack isn't far, it would probably take less time to walk than to wait for a car."

 

[Sarre]

"Bikers. I see," Eleanor said. "They sound normal enough, I suppose. It's ironic, though. Where I'm from, any sort of gang is reluctant to get the police. Then again, it's a bit more chaotic there, naturally. I guess these are like the well-organised sort." She grinned, then added as an attempt for humour: "Do they were suits and fedoras to their meetings?"

She was more than happy to stroll through the streets behind Captain Tristis, if only because she'd never done so before near night. In training, her classes had briefly tread upon the safest streets in all the districts, either in the morning or the afternoon, when it was bright and calm. Her amusement had not come from the lectures, but from the small clique of friends that she had chattered and joked with.

Well - they were friends then, but nobody really bothered to go as far as exchange a number or an e-mail. Two things kept everyone alone and apart: competition, and the thought that most of them would work elsewhere or die quickly. While job casualties were at an all-time low in the field, the job was still three times as dangerous as a local police force. The fact that one of their main teachers always spoke about the worst times never helped.

Besides, they were all probably jealous of her. She didn't blame them, nor did she feel an impulse to gloat. They'd all read about the best, and she was nowhere near them. She just happened to be closer than everyone else there.

Slim pickings for the future of the SPPA.

 

[Nix]

He chuckled lightly at the comment. "Not that I've seen, but that might be a large improvement. But, then again, I wouldn't want to run around in a suit either."

Xyne shrugged a bit. "It's really all in how you look at it. Take the Witches, for example." He paused long enough to check the street before continuing, slowing a bit so they could talk without being interrupted. "They are not really different from humans, they just know different things. But, they are treated exactly the same by a regular human as we are." It was a sad fact that many of the people were leery of the SPPA, despite being grateful for the protection. "The Vampires drink blood, but then again some people eat rare steak, it's not that different." Xyne had spent far too long at this job to keep any of the prejudices that some of the newer members or those that couldn't handle the street work held so closely.

"Oh, that reminds me actually. Have you ever had a night patrol? Because I'm usually on the dusk til dawn shift in the North district." They had a couple of minutes before they would reach Pack McDonald's meeting hall, and he figured that as bright as Eleanor seemed, he should probably know something about her.

 

[Sarre]

Eleanor smiled when he chuckled a bit. Good; she'd realised quickly that her new partner wasn't a cheerful idiot, but she was pleased to discover he wasn't a complete stick in the mud either. "So, a bunch of people with different abilities and hobbies. Wars have been started for less, I suppose," she said. "So do you think of all the segregation is essentially racism?"

She liked the idea, hoped it to be true, and could definitely embrace it as a theory, but it was still difficult to become completely calm about all of the others until she'd physically gotten to know some better. She was glad she'd at least been trained not to be afraid of any of them; but she wasn't sure if being trained to fight and subdue them was that much better of an alternative.

"First time in the field, remember? I've pulled my fair share of all-nighters, though; I can handle it." Trying to break some more ice between them, she added, "I wish they'd remembered to tell me, though. I could have brought apples and almonds and coffee."