Log:Rituals

Guilt Complex 2013/08/08 	 Bee

12

Champions Mush - Thursday, August 08, 2013, 9:31 PM

Bee teleports above street level, looking about for the source of the danger. This moment is when she is most vulnerable and she dreads that one day she will be killed in that initial two seconds.

The scene is one of typical urban decay, a disused lot surrounded by a battered chain link fence that at least attempts the illusion of securing thee site which is dominated by the ruins of some sort of structure most of which has been erased but occasional patches of concrete and debris yet remain. To one side two uniformed police officers aggressively question a group of teenagers.

Bee flies closer to the officers, her wings making a loud humm as they vibrate the air and her hands visible in what she hopes is a non-threatening way.

One of the officers looks up at the sound of the hum and doesn't try shooting the appropriate meta-human but seems far from pleased. "Okay, I don't know how you heard but you stay away from the crime scene until the SOCO's get here, we've already had these geniuses contaminate it." He looks toward the chastened youths.

Bee looks about for the source of her danger sense as she lands, but tries not to appear distracted when she says to the officer, "I just got here. What did they contaminate?"

The officer's brow furrows slightly. "The crime scene." He answers as though that were somehow a mystery or his answer is in anyway informative. We're preserving it for the detectives and the SOCO team.

Bee looks about from where she stands, and says lightly, "I don't see a crime scene. For that matter, I don't see anything disturbed."

The officer nods. "It's in the lot a way. Look, stay here, the detective will only be a few minutes and maybe they'll let you see but it's pretty gruesome stuff."

Bee smiles, all pleasantness with the police. "Mind if I talk to the guys while we wait? I assume you need to put up tape or something and I'll make sure they don't go anywhere."

"I guess." says the officer. "Sure, that would help, they need to stay right where they are we need to get their shoes hair and DNA sampled by the tachs for elimination purposes." He and his colleague get some tape and a camera and move off into the lot.

Bee turns back to the group of teenagers. "Okay guys, before they find a way to blame this on you for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, care to tell me what you found and how you found it?"

There is a flurry of explanations before the largest asserts his dominance and their collective innocence. "We were just looking for somewhere to hang where people wouldn't bother us and we found it, this sh** is messed up, we called it in, just like we were supposed to and now they're yelling at us like we did something wrong." the smallest brings out a mobile phone, checking the police are a long way away and shows Bee a photo of the scene.

Bee takes the phone and looks at not just this scene, but any other pictures they may have taken. She sends a copy to Rasmika's cell.

The limbs of this body have been arranged in an intricate pattern that it is simply not physically possible for limbs to adopt. He lies in the midst of a decorated circle of some sort with annotations and a pentacle paints in blood, mayb his, maybe not, his entrails have been carefully arranged to form a n abstract pattern but remain connected to the rest of the body. From the expression on his face you guess all of this was done while he was still alive.

Bee says very slowly, her expression grave. "This is very, very important guys. I need each of you, one at a time, to tell me *exactly* what you touched. The more likely you are to accurately remember, the less likely you are to be accused of anything."

The three youths all look at Bee as though she might suddenly eat their eyeballs. "Touch? Are ****ing crazy?" He points to the phone. "Did you see the photo??? What you think we want souvenirs and sh**. We touched nothing, we booked right out of there."

Bee nods and lets the matter drop until the police arrive. Getting to know the guys and otherwise trying to put them at ease until the forensic team is ready to take samples to prove their stories.

In time the detectives arrive, followed by the crime scene unit, photographers, ME's office and the administration kicks in. The Detectives talk to the much calmer kids, get samples of their hair, DNS, clothing and imprints of their shoes and clean the images off their cell phones before releasing them.

Bee recognizes Detective Kendrick from the train wreck. "I know this sounds a little gruesome, but do you mind if I help?"

Investigating officer, Detective Kendrick, is in early middle age and seems both competent and pleasant. He agrees to accompany Bee on a limited tour of the crime scene though she is not allowed too close. By this time there is a walkway of wooden planks for the techs to use to traverse to the scene.

Bee steels herself and actually looks at the scene, not just the gruesomeness of it, but trying to see past the blood to the identity of the victim. Past the damage to the patterns created and, more importantly where those patterns are disrupted by a careless foot or shaking hand.

On close inspection Bee sees in greater detail what has happened. The man's tendons and ligaments have been precisely and carefully severed, allowing the limbs to be manipulated to achieve the physically impossible position. Gauging from puddles of wax and footprints she guesses there were maybe ten or so people standing around the scene while the ritual was performed by one maybe two individuals. The victim was likely drugged or paralyzed since he seems to have been conscious but unable to resist. He is also familiar.

Bee tries to make it sound like a suggestion instead of an order. "You guys might want to start by verifying this is Harry Brierly, the missing engine driver at the train derailment. Also, would you let me know which drug they used to paralyze him? Given what I am learning about the perpetrators, I suspect it paralyzes but does not blunt sensation: he felt what they did to him."

The crime scene techs do a comprehensive job recording the scene, taking casts of footprints, photos of everything. The medical examiner looks up to Bee and nods. "You're right, and given how long this all takes it can't have affected the respiratory system or they sustained him somehow regardless. This is freaky." Detective Kendrick receives a call which he moves away to answer while you talk with the ME on his return Kiendrick holds up the phone to reveal a similar scene in a different lot. "So if this is Brierly, is this one of the other crew?" Indeed, Bee recognizes it as Miguel Ronaldo, Brierly's assistant.

Bee nods, identifying the second person and immediately pulling up a map

The victim eventually died by having a hole cut in his chest, and his heart, still attached pulled out and eventually the arteries severed. That didn't leave much blood, perhaps the blood was captured in a bowl. Looking closer, Bee sees that when the bowl was tipped to ease his heart into it a fine crystalline powder fell onto and into his chest, just the merest traces.

Bee says, "Hey guys. See that greenish powder there?" Bee says, pointing to the victim's chest. "Would one of you call me to verify that is ground jade?"

The crime techs squint and eventually locate the powder Bee is so interested in and set it aside for sampling.

Bee checks her map against the location of the vault door slaying to see if the location of the slaying is significant.

There are several possible different pentagrams with points at the two murders of the engineers. Bee guesses the murder at the vault is not part of this sequence because great care and time was taken with these victims and the placing of their limbs and entrails and these murders seem to have occurred very close in time.

Map still in hand, Bee flies off.

Antipodean (Ant) pages: Taking to the air, three of the points are crime scenes, you find signs of similar murders at the other two points Bee paged Antipodean with 'signs, but no bodies? Antipodean (Ant) pages: well signs including bodies Antipodean (Ant) pages: there are signs of other similarities, a group of onlookers around one celebrant Antipodean (Ant) pages: arcane symbology ''Bee paged Antipodean with 'Was it the exact same ritual done five times or five different but similar rituals? Also, if four of them were train operators, who was the fifth person?'' Antipodean (Ant) pages: the positions of the limbs and entrails are different, forensic analysis will demonstrate they were roughly simultaneous, four train crew, one security guard taken from the FEMA facility they stole the van from. Bee paged Antipodean with 'Where is the center of the pentagram? Antipodean (Ant) pages: and yes, the crystalline powder is jade, though there are trace amounts of sapphire Antipodean (Ant) pages: The centre of the pentagram is a deserted warehouse...

Bee appears above the deserted warehouse at the center of the pentagram of corpses. Looking for roof access and alert for guards, she glides down from on-high in silent, slow, lazy circles.

The warehouse below is in obvious disrepair, broken windows, doors swinging crookedly from rusty hinges. Bee sees no sign of either a security system or guards.

Bee skilfully manipulates the angle of her approach so that whatever concealed cameras there may be will have their angles obscured by eaves, overhangs and debris. If the cameras aren't obvious they must necessarily have restricted fields of view that can exploited if one knows how and the superheroine certainly does.

Bee lands a few steps away from the skylight and, again, does a visual sweep before approaching it. Bee sees nothing that raises any alarms, no wiring, no flashing lights, nothing new or unfinished, everything is old, rusted decrepit, grime-smeared. Bee slides forward and looks down through the skylight to the scene below.

The skylight is obscured by what seems like decades of accumulated grime but there is a small gap that allows a view inside, he cavernous interior of the warehouse is dark and still. There is some sort of large crater in the floor and inside the crater the remnants of some sort of structure.

Inside the structure are five distorted figures, still and unmoving, in poses simply impossible for the human body to achieve.