SPPA Chronicles (Sarre & Nix)

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Xyne spent probably a hour and a half in the market, checking with shopkeepers, patrons, even other agents, and still all he ended up with were a couple of vague descriptions, a lot of complaints about their victim and this weird little cat pin, that Asmara had conned him into buying. Ah, well, he'd give it to Lil, it should make her day.

It wasn't until Xyne left the Market, that he noticed the exceptionally long and detailed message from Eleanor, three voicemails from the commander, and an email from the local detectives stating that the evidence had been delivered. His personal phone had almost ten messages, all from Lil, one email from Marcus, stating he was going to send a sample to the office, and one short to the point text from the commander. The fact that she even sent something to his personal phone did not bode well for his future.

By the time he finally made it back to the office, a place he rarely visited, he had fielded three more calls from Lil, and ignored two more from the Commander. Honestly, he just wanted to trade some information with Eleanor, find out, in person what the commander wanted, and have some of the tea he had stashed in his desk. Naturally, he made a beeline for his desk first, nodding politely to Eleanor as he started digging around. "Marcus is sending over a sample of that medicine for us to compare it to the blood of our victim. Several people in the market remember him causing trouble and running around drunk... and there was some really tall thin blond guy following him around." He finally fished out the small packet of tea and looked up. "What are you working on now?"
 
"Oh good, you're here," Eleanor said, breathing a little better at the fact that she had some sort of mentor present. Someone that knew about the case.

She leafed through the pile of forms, finding the report she'd written detailing her conversation with Yela, from the tracking, to when she had dismissed her.

"What do you think of her?" she said, handing it to Tristis. "Right time, solid motive; but didn't seem to have a clue about it when I was talking to her. I've filled out some paperwork that would allow us to bring her in for question, just because it seems like a standard thing to do in this case, but there's one other thing..."

She pulled out a page of notes she'd made on Yela's previous imprisonment; a condensed version of twelve pages of detailed reports. She handed this to Captain Tristis as well. "She's been wrongfully imprisoned by another SPPA branch before, and was still pretty angry about it when I spoke to her. The reports make it pretty clear that the mistake was ours. Diplomacy versus crime investigation. What do we do?"

As a lighthearted afterthought, she added, "Also, I tried the office coffee. Totally understand why you think coffee is evil."
 
Xyne looked at the papers, sighed and started reading, almost immediately taking out a pencil and writing small notes in the margins. "Just so you know.." He continued the notes while he talked. "there are three things I can't stand. Coffee, paperwork and Lil's cooking. Your report is good, honestly." He handed it back, and moved across the small room collecting a cup of hot water.

Xyne had crossed out everything involving the phone trace, his note explaining exactly why, and included a short, concise and believable lie as to what she did instead. The only other notes on the paper were suggestion to move a sentence or reword something. All minor changes. "Of course, you will have to include all your notes... Or.." He grinned, looking pleased. "You can just skip the report and turn it in after the case is solved, like I do."

Adding some tea leaves to his water, he read over the information on Yela. "I think it would probably be best, if you called her again. Explained that you only had some questions... Maybe ask her if she has seen this blond guy before. I don't want to bring her in unless we have something concrete, like... fingerprints or a hair.." If Yela did commit the murder, then that wrongful imprisonment would hurt the case badly enough without adding any more tension.

Xyne smirked, fishing out the leaves and sipping his tea. "That's why I keep these in my desk. It's also good for impending headaches. By the way... Did the Commander call you at all? Maybe Kerstin? Her secretary? Because I should go see what she wants..."
 
Eleanor took the notes back, skimmed them, and smirked. What a mischievous Captain. It was a welcome break from following homework instructions. Her inner nerd was barely tolerating the unconventional tactics she was employing all day, but she didn't think it would allow her to skip what she perceived as homework deadlines. She just told Tristis that she was perfectly fine with handing in reports on time. Writing was not difficult, and despite the fact that she was just sitting and moving a pen, she could look productive doing it.

"Anyway, I just question Yela off the books, you mean? Buy her a few beers and hope she'll talk? I guess that'll work. I could even tell her I'm trying to keep her out of this place. She might be really smart with alcohol completely cleared from her system though," she chuckled. "I'll send Yela a message promising that I'll do my best to keep her out of here, I guess. Maybe give her some more details about what exactly is going on. Hopefully she'll cooperate; maybe even lend me her brainpower. Nothing from the commander, though. Is that a problem? Should I be concerned?"
 
He shrugged, perfectly fine as long as he wasn't the one doing said paperwork. "That sounds good. If it comes down that we get more evidence, then we should treat her like a suspect, for now though, lets settle for 'possible witness' and make nice. I've learned that some people talk easier if they aren't in an interrogation room." Granted, there are some that won't talk at all but that was neither here or there.

"Honestly, I have no clue. I can't hear my phone in the Market, it's just too loud, and all the messages she left said that she wanted to see us as soon as possible. But, I wanted to exchange information first, oh..." He fished out his personal phone, and fiddled with it for a minute, before collecting some papers from his printer. "Marcus emailed me everything he had on the drug, you should have a copy as well, but please, keep it to yourself. He's one of my... informants." He had a very valid reason for that, which was neatly labeled in the SPPA handbook as confidential informant. "Well, we should go and see what she wants. It's probably nothing good..."
 
"Like Allister," Eleanor chuckled, taking down a quick to-do list. "I can't imagine how much he'd freak out at the sight of a bare interrogation room." She thanked him for the additional information, folding the analysis and tucking it into her own notebook instead of the police folder. "Blood said they'd have a full analysis within a few hours. I guess they'll be here at the office till past midnight, so I really don't want to rush them. We'll have that by tomorrow."

She did a bit of organising, which was just tucking things into appropriate folders and drawings, and made sure none of the piles would be prone to spilling, then stood. "Alright, then," she said, standing up and patting down her uniform. She took a short glance at a pocket mirror on the way. She didn't look amazing, but neither did anyone, so she thought she'd be alright.
 
Thankful, since he really didn't want everyone in the entire office seeing the formula, mostly because of the trust Marcus extended in actually giving it to him, Xyne offered a small smile. "I won't lie, They work almost harder than anyone else in the agency does. Tomorrow will be soon enough. It's better to do a thorough job than a quick job." Patience, was important, details were important, speed not so much.

The Commander's office was tucked away in the back of the building, guarded by her overly fierce secretary Cassandra. Oddly enough, Cass and Xyne got along very well. She was a tiny blond that had a bad habit of setting people on fire when she got too angry. That was the one and only reason she was stuck behind a desk all day.

When Eleanor and Xyne reached the office, Cass smiled at Xyne, raised an eyebrow at Eleanor, and made motion with her hand. "Go go, all cleared from the boss lady. Xyne, I want a free Wrath next time I'm at the bar."

"Sure, Cass. Just tell Lil. Hey, do you know whats going on?"

The blond bit her lip, nodded and waved them in again. "You won't like it, is all I can say..."

Xyne opened the door, a frown settling on his face, and held it politely for Eleanor. Commander Ersin was sitting in her chair, dark hair pulled back, thin glasses settled on her nose. "Ah, Officer Baker welcome. Xyne, I was starting to think you were avoiding my calls."

"I was at the market. What's going on?"

"I need you on assignment. Confidential. Officer Baker, your current case is now all yours."
 
"I'm sorry, what?" Eleanor said, before anyone could continue speaking. "Did you just give me a solo case?"

The commander looked at her as if she had suddenly turned green, and then begun to dance. "Yes," the commander said.

"With all due respect, Commander, I completed training only yesterday," Eleanor said.

"Yes," she said, lifting an eyebrow, "You're the prodigy," she said.

They looked at each other. Eleanor was still baffled, and Commander Ersin was glowering.

Eleanor averted her gaze after no more than two seconds, turning them to the ground. "Ok," she said meekly.

"Well that's settled," the commander said across the table said. "I'm sure someone will take an interest and help you. Well, probably. Now, like I was saying, confidential, so shoo."

"Right," Eleanor said, scuttling out of the room.

When the door closed behind her, she stopped at looked back at the apathetic wooden boards. "Shit!" she said to herself quietly.

Cass, who had exchanged no words when she had entered, looked at her and gave her a gentle smirk.
 
Xyne smothered a groan. Confidential missions were never good. Never. The worse part was he couldn't think of anything that could even remotely be going on right now. He wracked his brain trying to figure out what it could be while Ersin gave the case to Eleanor. At least it was going to stay with one of them.

Once Eleanor was gone, Xyne shook his head. "Cass said I'm not going to like this."

"Well, she a smart girl." The commander leaned forward a bit motioning to a stack of papers. "There it is. Your assignment, is in the Shifter District. You cannot get caught, and it would be preferable if they don't know you are even there."

Immediately he scowled. "Respectfully, are you out of your mind? It's in the best interest of everyone that Avrost and I are never in the same part of the city at the same time. You know that."

"I do... but it's can't be helped. I don't have anyone else to send."
 
Eleanor slumped into the chair at her desk. She knew the protocols. Every class was the next generation of paperwork slaves. They'd been drilled into them a million times, and she'd aced them a million times, but without the red checkmark every step of the way, how would she know if she strayed?

Besides, a few months into the program she'd figured out the types of cases each of her teachers liked to use. Real cases hardly had those tiny hints.

Whatever. It was getting late. She fished her phone out of her pocket, saw the time, then lurched to her feet. Enough for today. She'd resume the case tomorrow.

As soon as she was out of the building, she called London.

"Hey mom! How are you?" she said, as she strolled through the half-empty parking lot. "Dad on his lunch break yet? Great! Link him up to three-way! You two won't believe my first day..."
 
When Xyne left, he was not pleased. The scowl, clenched fists and lack of a goodbye to Cass made that plainly obvious. From that point, no one knew anything. Not where the job was, what it entailed, nothing.



It wasn't until five days later that he returned, filthy, bloody and with s small black bag. Those that were just finishing up their shifts, immediately spread the word about the strange scene. Starting Xyne throwing Commander Ersin's door wide open, literally throwing the bag at her, and slamming the door behind him as he left. Despite Xyne's tendency to skirt a few of the more boring rules, he generally always, at the very least, kept any displeasure behind closed doors where it belonged.

Rumors flew far and wide, he had been in another city, country, up in the mountains, doing everything from locating a priceless object to taking the hand of a powerful person. There was little the SPPA office agents liked better than gossip.
 
Sergeant Mills was at his desk, wordlessly flipping through Eleanor's report. She didn't stare at him; somehow, he always picked that up, but rather, stared at his fingers as he leafed through the pages.

"Good progress," he finally muttered, closing the last page. "Not bad for a scrawny foreign rookie. I will give you two," he said. Then he looked at her. "You been in any real fights yet?"

"No, sir," she replied.

He made a tsking sound. "I'll give you three, then. They'll report to you in the evening. You get them till they're off at midnight. Should be enough time to catch and deal with one werewolf."


As much as a dick the guy was, he was a sergeant for a reason. The men he supplied her were without gifts, but they moved like well-trained attack dogs. The moment Yela turned the doorknob to her hotel room, they were on her, two with tasers and one with a specialised bat. It couldn't even be called a fight. Eleanor hadn't even needed to lift a finger. She had knocked, and then Yela had been knocked out.

There were no rights she had to read out. Few modern agencies clung to that old tradition. Justice itself was erratic, and varied depending on city. When Yela came to, she tried to fight despite the multitudes of chains that had been wrung around her. The tightness of them refused her to transform completely, but still, she thrashed with claw and tooth until she couldn't anymore. When she began to yell, Eleanor sent Sergeant Mills' officers back to the front of the truck.

"I thought I was cleared," Yela growled. "You told me you'd keep me out of the SPPA. You told me you people fucked up last time and you wouldn't do it again. I told you everything I knew. I don't like Luke, but I didn't kill him; don't know who would."

"Yeah, and then we rooted around your hotel yesterday while you were out with your friends," Eleanor said. "Hiding the bottle behind the hotel safe instead of inside it was pretty clever, I have to admit."

"You little bitch, I thought the SPPA had some respect code!"

"Yeah, I wasn't sure if the papers would be approved. But they were."

"I didn't do it!"

"I kind of feel like a gullible idiot already," Eleanor said. "I should have done this as soon as I saw your tickets. Instead I went and chased a dead end for the last five days."

It had taken some effort to find Xyne's skinny lad, but she'd stumbled by him, quite by accident, when she found him mopping the floor of a restaurant. And who was he? Just some amateur photographer that liked action; and he had the camera reel to prove it. They were shitty photographs shot from a distance with a bad zoom lens, and Luke had been a lucrative target for him to follow.

"Yeah, maybe your so-called dead-ends caught on," Yela growled.

"Uhuh, sure," Eleanor said. "Anyway, I'm going to hand you over to higher powers. We still need you tell us where you got a sample of such a rare chemical. They're specialised in figuring things out. Tell me now and you could save yourself a lot of trouble."

"Fuck you, I've got nothing to tell."


Eleanor sighed. Well, she'd gone five days without any enemies. It wasn't as if she wanted to be some crazy avant-garde pacifist officer. She just knew from school that it was easier to have friends than it was to have enemies.

On the more positive side, she'd gained a pat on the shoulder and a thank you from Shawn MacDonald, so she supposed that tipped the scales in her favour. And of course there was still Allister; ever the little songbird. She could still remember his expression when she had pitched the theory that it was Yela after all; when he had tried so hard to mask his smile.

"It's ok to wish harm to people," Eleanor had said to him. "It's perfectly normal. Hope for karma all you want; just don't hold the knife."
 
Xyne was tired, very tired, sore, and filthy. All he wanted from life at this exact moment was food, a shower and a bed, and not exactly in that order. Bandages, maybe, as his shoulder was definitely dislocated, and those teenagers in that alley had very short tempers. That was partly why, he actually used one of the cars to drop him off at his home.

The Second Circle Bar, sat almost exactly in the middle of the Vampire District. It was the only bar in the area and it catered to anyone. There was blood for the Vampires, different blood types of course, beer for the Lycans, and nine different mixed drinks for the humans, all named after one of the circles of hell from Dante's Divine Comedy. Lilias, who ran the bar, had insisted that it be exactly the way she wanted it, that meant it was a no biting zone, and she was tough enough to enforce it.

What few knew was that Xyne actually owned the building, having bought it a few years after he joined the SPPA, and while it was Lil's Bar downstairs, upstairs was his home. So while Lil had free reign with how the downstairs looked, deep purple curtains, overlapped with red gauze, dark wood for the bar, stools and chairs, all very flashy, and elegant. Xyne's apartment, was simple, the only thing that looked overly nice there was the kitchen.
 
When she came in the next day, Eleanor was greeted with large piles of paperwork. It wasn't case paperwork; she'd finished all that right after she sent Yela off with the other officers.

Instead, a handful of superiors had dumped on her a bunch of mundane reports and letters that had been sent to the office. There were two kinds of people: the people that congratulated her success at the coffee machine; and the jealous little shits that piled more desk-work her way.

She was only at them for half an hour, though, when Cass came bearing a quick message. "We need you to go fetch Captain Tristis," she said, handing her an address. "Check here. He'll probably be grumpy, but you're his partner, so figure it out."

"Oh," Eleanor said, still in the obedient-puppy stage of the social ladder. "I'll get right on that." Besides, she was happy to leave deskwork behind. When she saw that the address lead to a bar, her spirit was lifted further.


The place looked lovely. It was designed with a distinctive vampiric touch: dark and foreboding, but still elegant, and just a little pretentious. The sign outside had said all races were welcome, but in the lazy late-afternoon hours, only a few people were there, and all of them either vampires. Or just nocturnal enough to be as pale as one. No sign of Captain Tristis though.

There were a few suspicious looks her way, but they were only glances. Eleanor was glad that that the SPPA uniform only consisted of a shirt. It was easy to don a coat and stroll around posing as an average citizen.

The bartender there seemed friendly enough, so Eleanor strolled up to her. "Hello," she said. She glanced at the drink list, wished she'd gone out enough to recognise more of them, and instead, just asked for a cup of coffee. "With half a shot of whiskey," she added slyly.
 
Having your shoulder popped back into place by someone that didn't exactly remember that you were a human was always an interesting experience, never mind the worried hovering. Xyne had wanted to sleep for at least another hour before his shift, but that was Lil for you.

Fortunately the bar was relatively quiet at this time, which meant there were no drunks littering the floor in front of the stairs, as he came down. With his arm in a sling, some butterfly bandages over the gash above his eye and many a hidden bruise, he really wasn't feeling up to any acrobatic body jumping today. In contrast, Lil almost floated behind him, long dark hair pulled elegantly away from her face, secured with a thin gold chain. Despite the relatively simple clothes, she was still a stunning woman. "Now, Imey-er, are you certain you are alright?" Her voice was heavy with an accent.

"I'm fine, Lil. I wasn't shot, and I got to sleep most of the day. Stop hovering." Still, he paused, looking at Eleanor oddly. "What are you doing here?" His first thought was that something had happened.

"Oh! Who do we have here?" Like a butterfly, Lil darted across the room and leaned against the bar. "Aren't you pretty. Welcome to my bar, darling."
 
She was going to ask the bartender if she had seen Tristis, but instead, he showed up in the corner of the room. There was a slight limp in his walk, and a cast on an arm. Wow; rumour mill had some pretty potent feed.

Before she could speak to him, though, the woman that was accompanying him was suddenly in her face. She presented herself energetically as the owner of the bar. "Oh, nice to meet you," she said. "I'm Eleanor. Love your decorations." She glanced at Captain Tristis. "So I take it you know him? They sent me to make sure he was alright." It sounded more elegant than "They sent me to fetch him and drag him to work."
 
Lil laughed, a light musical sound. "Oh, Eleanor dear, there is no need to worry about Imey-er, I assure you, I'm taking good care of him." She smiled, her fangs plain in the light of the bar.

"Just don't cook for me, Lil, I'd die a painful death." Xyne sighed, resigned to Lil having made a friend, and to several hours of listening to how sweet Eleanor was. "This is the new partner I got before I went on that assignment. Give me a minute, and I'll be ready to go." Moving over toward Amanda, he quietly requested some tea, and one handed, fished about for a small bottle of pills.

"Of course I know him, darling, I raised him." Lil tossed the comment out casually, like such strange things happened every day. "But, I am being rude." She held out her hand. "Lilias, a pleasure to meet you darling, please call me Lil."
 
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Eleanor giggled and took her hand. "Imey-er, huh?" she said. "He's mentioned you, though I think all he said was that he couldn't stand your cooking. Pleasure to meet you too!" She was still nursing the drink, and she wondered if she should mention that the coffee at the bar wasn't great either. But as friendly as Lil seemed, she'd just met her; and besides, her coffee standards were ridiculously high.

"Take your time, Captain," Eleanor said. "Everyone else said you'd be in a bad mood, so I'm sure nobody will notice if we hang out here for a little bit." Well; that was a little bit of a gutsy suggestion; but if this happy woman was practically Captain Tristis' mother, Eleanor was sure he wouldn't object.
 
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"Try it, I dare you." Xyne offered over his tea. "It's either raw or so burnt that charcoal tastes better. Besides, I am perfectly capable of cooking for myself." Swallowing the basic pain medicine, and very thankful that nothing had been serious enough to warrant a hospital visit, he settled carefully on a stool.

Immediately, Lil had one arm looped through his good one, and her head on his good shoulder. "It means Overseer, in the language of our homeland. I've called him that since he was a child." She seemed genuinely pleased to sit with Eleanor and Xyne for as long as possible. "Oh, darling, don't forget to go and see Adrian. He's been asking about you."

Rolling his eyes, Xyne answered Eleanor first. "Sounds fine to me, I have at least an hour before my shift even starts... by the way, how did the case go?" Glancing at Lil, who didn't look like she was moving anytime soon, he continued. "I'll stop by after the market."
 
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"Oh come on, her cooking can't be that bad," Eleanor said, mostly out of politeness. Though, she was now quite curious.

"And, the case? Solved," Eleanor replied. "Mostly, anyway," she added, trying to steer the conversation away from bragging. "We just need to get Yela to tell us who gave her the bottle, and someone else is working on that. The entire thing was pretty interesting. Reports are all filled out if you want to read them, but you hate paperwork. Paperwork, coffee, and," she turned to Lil, "your cooking." She gave the woman a humourous, challenging, smirk, then took another sip of the bad coffee.
 
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