Mariana in a Bottle, a short RP story to kick off a storyarc!

[Munkar]

Woof everyone!

 

I came up with an RP idea but it kind of needs me to soft reboot/reset my character detective Voss aka. Oryx Girl aka. Nikki Voss. To set up where the plot kind of starts (in today's Paragon Citywise), here is the story! I mean, the first part of it. I'm writing more soon as the plot thickens!

 

- - -

 

Perez Park, 27^th April, 0900 hours:

 

PPD was at the scene. Police interceptors, CSI vans and a lot of uniformed officers had insulated an area in the woods behind park walls, to the Atlas Park entrance. Yellow Crime Scene – Do Not Cross -tapes were surrounding a crime scene with a handful of bodies, partly covered, partly still exposed to the crime scene investigators. Sounds of camera shutters and short, bright flashes filled the misty morning air.

 

A tall, thin man with black mustache in a tan trench coat, detective Ryan Pierce, stood up next to one of the victims and looked behind him, over his shoulder. Behind the yellow tape, was detective Nikki Voss. A short, slender woman in a beige blazer, short black pencil skirt and high heel boots. She looked younger than her age, and always carried a tribal knife on her belt. On her neck, was a multi-layered primitive necklace made of clay- and stone beads of many colors. Those didn't fit the style of her office-look dress and skirt.

 

“She is okay, let her through” , told Ryan to the officers asking Nikki’s credentials. After been let to the scene, Nikki walked to Ryan and greeted him.

 

“Ryan.”

 

“Glad you could make it Nikki, I wanted you to see this” , said Ryan.

 

“Lekker, what we got here?”

 

“Some kid found them this morning, when crossing the park to the school. They say the kid hasn’t spoken since.”

 

“Etse! Cause of their death?”

 

“Beats me. Looks like these poor bastards have been badly scorched by some kind of plasma powers.”

 

After their exchange, Nikki casted a look at the victims on the ground. The sight was gruesome, but she could tell the distinctive clothing of all the victims.

 

“All victims Circle of Thorns? Any of them ID yet?”

 

“Yeah, all the deceased seem to have Circle of Thorns attire. We got no ID’s of them yet, but the lab got some dentals and fingerprints.”

 

“Ah, n’xa. This revenge hit them? Summoning gone bad?”

 

“Honestly, Nikki. You are here because I am afraid this is one of your teen heroes gone vigilante. Picture this with me: a young, inexperienced hero, surrounded by too many Circle of Thorn mages willing to steal his soul. The boy panics, shoots everyone, doesn’t even think of arresting anyone. Then he flees, leaving the bodies he burnt just smoldering on the ground.”

 

“Who you suspecting?”

 

“I dunno, I wanted you to tell me. Who of your heroes has this kind of powers?”

 

“I no own any of them. And so, not these powers anyone.”

 

“English, Nikki. English please.”

 

“Shut up Ryan, I do the best.”

 

“You better do that, Nikki. You know what they say about you? After you came back you can hardly speak intelligible English, let alone write anything. Your competence to manage your job is going to be re-evaluated. This 'social worker' job, cat-herding young hero loose cannons is the one job you have, don’t-”

 

Nikki looked to the ground, took a few steps and kneeled to the ground. Putting her palms around something she found on the ground.

 

“Footprint. Here” , said Nikki, and tilted her head, looking at the print.

 

“Have it photographed... Nikki! What are you doing?!”

 

Ryan exclaimed. He saw Nikki putting her face to the footprint on the ground, and licking it. Then she lifted her head, tasting the taste in her mouth.

 

“Size nine and a half, combat boots, worn. A man, 185lbs, distance between steps, six feet one inch.”

 

“Why you had to lick the footprint! Gross!”

 

“He came from inside. Mattress. Inside floor, started…”

 

Nikki crawled on the ground on all-fours. Keeping her head near the ground, and that behavior attracted attention of the crime scene investigators and other cops at the scene.

 

“...here.”

 

Ryan hurried next to Nikki and asked:

 

“He teleported here from inside of a building?”

 

“Yes. No door here. Just-”

 

Nikki put her head near the ground again, took a few crawling steps, and found something:

 

“Shards. Ceramics. No, this clay-”

 

Ryan stopped Nikki just in a nick of time before she touched the evidence -shards of dark brown clay- again.

 

“Stop. Nikki, don’t. Don’t touch them. Hey, lab guys! Here!”

 

Ryan grabbed Nikki and forcibly lifted her standing in front of him.

 

“Look, this was a bad idea. You have forgotten all that was taught in the academy? You better get out of my crime scene before you contaminate all the evidence I have left.”

 

“I help solve case, bahtah.”

 

“You helped enough, it’s been nice seeing you Nikki, bye!”

 

Nikki scoffed. She was obviously insulted, but turned away from Ryan and walked away from him and the crime scene. Ryan, who watched Nikki bending down under yellow crime scene -tape, shaked his head.

 

“Nikki. You used to be a good cop.”

 

Nikki didn’t look back. She walked in a fierce manner to a direction she thought would take her towards Atlas Park entrance. Taking her badge off her neck, rolling the chain around it and pocketing it into her jacket pocket, she then stopped and realized she had walked not towards the Atlas Park entrance, but deeper into the park.

 

“Aeshe” , she cursed, and stopped walking. Instinctively, she looked up where the sun was, and the way trees had grown around her, and found out her rough position. While standing still, she heard someone crying. A muffled sound of a woman weeping, somewhere near her. Nikki started to walk toward that noise.

 

She came to a clearing with an abandoned amphitheater. There, on the stage, she could see a woman in white pants, wearing a gold top, gold bracelets and a thin white veil, hugging herself on the floor of the stage and weeping. Nikki walked there, ascended the stairs to the stage and walked next to that woman.

 

“Hey, I’m Nikki Voss, Atlas Park PPD. I help you?”

 

The woman just closed her eyes and cried more silently, gasping air to her lungs. Nikki picked up police scanner from her belt and made a call:

 

“This is detective Voss, 1704, 10-39, 2311, detective Pierce.”

 

The woman on the floor opened her eyes, turned her head and looked up to Nikki.

 

“Lekker, all be fine soon” , comforted Nikki the crying woman.

 

“2311 Pierce 1704, what do you got, Nikki?”

 

It was detective Pierce on the radio.

 

“Eye witness, possibly. 10-62? I send location” , said Nikki and continued to explain roughly how to get to her location. While she was explaining to Ryan how to get to her from the crime scene, the woman on the stage got up, wandered around aimlessly, looking very, very lost and sad, avoiding to step on shards of clay on the stage.

 

Shards. Of. Clay.

Just like the ones in the crime scene.

 

Nikki lowered her radio, and put her right hand on the handle of her tribal knife on her belt.

 

“Lady, I need you stop and sit on floor. Keep hands visible.”

 

The woman in white pants, gold bikini and a white veil covering her face sensed change in Nikki’s voice, stopped walking and looked up into Nikki’s eyes.

 

“Lady, I’m cop. You near crimescene, you need to come with me.”

 

Something fierce flashed in the tear-watered eyes of the woman in white. She stood up in her full posture, and suddenly floated in the air, a few feet above the stage, turned around and started to gain speed to fly away.

 

“Hey! It was command not request! Stop!”

 

The woman in white gained speed and altitude quickly, but Nikki wasn’t slow, either. She sprinted after the woman and leaped up, grabbing the ankle of the flying woman and pulling her back to the ground. The woman struggled, still trying to fly away from Nikki. But Nikki wasn’t weak either. She just didn’t want to hurt the woman. Keeping a tight grip on the ankle of the flying woman, she exclaimed:

 

“Hey, I’m cop, I arrest you! Come down now, last warning!”

 

The woman didn’t. Then Nikki used her strength and pulled the woman down, grabbed around her upper body and wrestled the woman onto the floor. The woman tried to resist, but she was no match to Nikki's strength, who handcuffed the woman. While cuffing the hands of the woman behind her back, she read her her rights. Then she got up, and helped the handcuffed woman up next to her.

 

The woman realized she had been handcuffed, and looked into Nikki’s eyes with a very strange look, combined with bewilderment and...conclusion?

 

“Aeshe! I didn’t want arrest you. Now I must paperwork. I wish you could just disappear” , Nikki grunted.

 

The handcuffed woman looked silently into Nikki’s eyes.

Then the woman just vanished.

 

The pair of empty handcuffs fell on the stage, making a hollow, metallic sound.

 

At that same moment, detective Pierce and some uniformed cops came to vicinity from inside the woods of the park. Nikki looked at them, and then the empty handcuffs on the stage.

 

“Hi Ryan. I can explain” , she said, collecting the handcuffs up from the floor.

 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by Munkar
Silly word processor autocorrected words wrongly!

[Munkar]

“It was a genie? And you wished it away?”

 

“Yes.”

 

They were at Atlas Park PPD station. After getting back from Perez Park, Nikki had taken off her muddy boots and was makings fists out of her bare toes, sitting opposite of her co-worker’s -detective Dave Styles- desk. Trying to convince him to allow her to help on the case. Dave rubbed behind his neck:

 

“And you rule a small country?”

 

“A nomad tribe. Not anymore, I came back here. Dave, you snark?”

 

Dave raised his hands up: “Alright, alright. You want to help Ryan solving the case. And thus proving you are able to do actual detective work in here. I got this part.”

 

Then he looked Nikki being gross again. Cleaning her toes by her fingers without shame, not even looking at Dave. Dipping the fingers in her mouth, then wiping in between her toes. That scene would have been distasteful to watch. IF Nikki wasn’t so damn pretty.

 

Dave sighed: “You know what? I’ll let you meddle with our case. But you don’t do anything without my knowledge and IF Ryan finds out, you gotta stop. You got this?”

 

Nikki double-clicked with her tongue quickly. And nodded. Dave took that as a yes. Then he grabbed a mouse, clicked some files open on the desktop display on his desk and told something to Nikki:

 

“The shards of clay found on the crime scene, looks like they are a broken clay vase, or a bottle. Handmade. Crime scene investigators put up a 3D model how the vase should have looked, if all the pieces were found. Now, about half of the pieces are missing.”

 

Dave turned the display to Nikki, who looked at the modeled vase on the screen. She asked:

 

“Other half was at the theater stage, with the genie?”

 

Dave disagreed: “No.”

 

Dave turned the display back at himself, moved mouse and clicked, and then turned the display back to Nikki.

 

“This is the vase composed of the shards from the stage you found the genie from. The vase is exactly the same design, but the pieces are not interchangeable. There are two vases of the same design. Most likely, the same origin.”

 

“Half the pieces not there?”

 

Dave nodded: “About half of the pieces were missing from the theater vase, too. And those pieces could not be used to assemble the vase from the crime scene. Or vice versa.”

 

“Two bottles, two genies” , Nikki assumed.

 

“Your genie flew away. Or tried to? Then she disappeared. The other genie shot with an energy weapon, burnt and nearly disintegrated a group of the Circle of Thorns. And didn’t try to fly away. Doesn’t sound very genie-like to me. By the way, the crime scene investigators are putting up a timeline from the found footprints, bodies et cetera. Making a rough computer generated video how this murderous genie moved and acted during his crime.”

 

“A man with size 9 and a half combat boots.”

 

“Yes Nikki. The lab came to the same conclusion. Six feet tall, 185lbs male. He shot the Circle of Thorns either with some sorts of energy powers, or with an energy weapon of unknown model. The CGI presentation is still been made.”

 

“Dave, print me vase pictures. Any ID deceased Circle of Thorns?”

 

“Yes, Ryan is interviewing their family and associates at the moment. I suggest you don’t contact them, you are not officially on this case. But the pictures, those I can give you.”

 

“Dave, how the energy weapon?”

 

“That… okay Nikki, there was a lot of traces of it, burnt trees and soil.”

 

Dave picked up a small plastic bag filled with some charred, black pieces of wood.

 

“There. No-one is going to want that piece, it is not listed and we got enough samples already. Now go pick the pictures off the printer and buzz off before Ryan gets back in here.”

 

“Buzz!” , Nikki said and went to get the printed pictures.

 

A few moments later…

 

Nikki was in the Atlas Park City Hall, walking to meet Azuria. Carrying pictures of vases found in the crime scene and the theater, and a sample of wood hit by mysterious murder weapon. Nikki had questions to ask, and Azuria was her number one source of information in arcane matters.

 

Walking into the room of Azuria Nikki saw detective Pierce was already there.

 

“Oh. Hi! Later!”

 

Nikki turned on her heels and walked back outside. Now she couldn’t go to Azuria anymore. If Ryan told Azuria he was working on the case as the main detective, and then Nikki would ask question of the same case, Azuria would probably snitch that to Ryan.

 

Luckily! Nikki had other contacts to turn to! People she might have heard of!

 

Ok everyone, who would Nikki go to ask questions about genies, strange energy weapons and Circle of Thorns activity in Perez Park? She is going to interview many sources, not just one. If you have a mage, wizard etc. Nikki would go with her questions, let me know!

[Munkar]

Here we go again! It was tough to go through chat logs and I was nervous to post because this isn't all my writings! Kyrie Terror played by Latex!

 

Paragon Dance Party, 30th April, 2330 hours

 

Nightclub was full of people. A dance floor full of partying and dancing people. Glowsticks, discolights and bass-heavy music.

 

Kyrie Terror carried a parcel underarm oblivious to anyone following her. Kyrie by all respects was 'goth' a tights top with a crop covering it, cig in mouth and piercings all about her face. She just seemed like a normal party-goer really, the sort that might turn upto a rave like this. She paused in her stride to light up a cigarette taking a couple of drags before heading up the stairs in a pair of buckled platforms.

 

A pair of keen eyes noticed and recognized Kyrie Terror. Nikki didn't know the name, but she was given a description by one of her informants. This woman with these facial features, in goth attire, and certain type of piercings, should know a lot about Egyptian mythology. But, she wasn't necessarily someone, who would volutarily help the good guys in capes.

 

Nikki followed the goth-girl.

 

Kyrie Terror unhanded the package slipping it into a drawer beneath a table. She paused in her movements looking up 'frozen' for a long moment, cigarette just burning smoke for what must of been five seconds solid of eye-contact, maybe caught red handed? She just beamed a smile then exhaled smoke from her septum pierced nostrils.

 

Been found out by Kyrie, Nikki double-clacked with her tongue and shrugged, and then walked to her. Kyrie Terror nodded once and took a stash of cash, giving it a look over. Must of been around ten grand. She spoke with a Romanian tinge, "Look. Missy? Best you never saw anything, for your sake."

 

Nikki moved her jacket aside from her belt, revealing PPD badge, attached next to a primitive tribal knife: "I'm detective Nikki Voss, PPD. Please, no run away, me talk want to."

 

Kyrie Terror 's face instantly soured, "Awh. Fuck." she groaned outwardly, "That fuckin' Mook, did he sell me out? Yesterday? I knew not to trust his dumbass." the eastern European tinge was still there. Casually she looked along the bottles, shaking one or two only to settle on a half-drank bottle of Vodka.

 

Nikki made a brrrr-sound with her larynx: "No. I not interested in deal here, I want to catch a murderer. You know of genies, Egypt?"

 

Kyrie Terror chortled a laugh, "Damn. This about-.. great, yeah I know about Egypt, ain't no genies there just age-old curses. Close enough? I mean maybe you'll find a lamp to rub in some old tomb."

 

Nikki emoted with two fingers: "Two broken clay bottles, I saw a genie, white harem pants, veil, gold bikini. Was very upset. Another bottle, a man came out? Shot many Circle of Thorns with energy blasts. You know about these bottles?"

 

Nikki took out two CGI generated pictures from her jacket. Showing two vases that were assembled of the shattered shards and AI generated missing pieces, making together two ancient looking vases, hand-made looking vases.

 

Kyrie Terror peered at the pictures closely. "Seem like urns to me." she remarked, brushing aside a strand of her hair. She pocketted the cash into a buckled boot. "The sort of thing ancient Egyptian mages got buried with. Lot of 'em are mummys though most pivitol of which is a Mage called Nectanebo. MAGI will know that name, lotta relics there still unearthed. That urn, vase, whatever... Ain't Egyptian though. It's from around that area, Yemen maybe."

 

Nikki pondered, rolling the pictures, and pocketing them back into her jacket: "Yemen... Nectanebo. Okay, then why the crying genie did not kill me, but the man genie killed all those Circle of Thorns?"

 

Kyrie Terror finished off her cigarette flicking the butt to one side, "Obeying a wish. Genie's only obey wishes, right?" she shrugged, "Besides the Circle, they're just some Cult full of desperate souls, originated in Britain."

 

Nikki finched:"...I wished the woman genie to disappear. And it did. But the man genie just killed everyone. I can still find them? How I do it?"

 

Kyrie Terror rubbed her chin, "You letting me off the hook. For one, right?" she glanced toward the table, "I really need this cash. If you are and it obeyed your wishes... wish it back? Then again the wish stuff is limited. Right? Either that or find the lamp is originated from."

 

Nikki huffed and asked: "Bawhah... are these bottles from Yemen their lamps?"

 

Kyrie Terror nodded with some degree of certainty. "If I had to guess. Yeah, hrm, look- you shouldn't fuck with occultism or magic unless you know you're willing to take the risk. Take it from me."

 

Nikki crossed her arms, and thought: "What happens, when genie has no lamp?"

 

Kyrie Terror swigged on the bottle of Vodka, she must of drank half of the dregs left in it. "Well it ain't imprisoned no more, it might not have to obey your wishes. Magic is chaos, ain't no logic in it, it'll defy your expectations." as she turned to the table, it's clear her face had some sort of black veins enroaching up the sides near her stretched and pierced ears. "Magic ain't something you fuck around with and I ain't helping a Cop out TOO much."

 

Nikki squinted: "How you know this things? I got tip to ask someone look like you about these things. Who are you?"

 

Kyrie Terror slowly began to grin, "I ain't got problems with the PPD. You're just doing your job, Heroes though. Don't you tire of them running the show? Overshadowing you constantly? Walking nuclear weapons without any sort of system to stop them should they decide one day to massacre a city in the blink of an eye?"

 

Nikki shaked her head: "I no interest in famous. I just want to people be safe and law abiding. Why you not help a cop? What is that you do right now? What inside box?"

 

Kyrie Terror glanced toward the table, a 'present' literally in Christmas wrapping paper duct taped to the underside, "Lotta people in Paragon like a bit of... escapism."

 

"Is it Dyne? Rage?"

 

Kyrie Terror shrugs softly, "Fucked if I know. I'm being paid to get it here and I've collected my payment, now if I fail to get back or that package doesn't end up where it's supposed to be in about..." she took out her phone and glanced at it, "Six hours - then my shithold of an apartment will end up with door off the hinges and I'll have to 'deal' with people in a less than savoury manner."

 

"Who people? Family? Names?" asked Nikki.

 

Kyrie Terror took out another cigarette, she sparked up and just looked at her for a long moment almost as if sizing her up. Speckles of sand started to gather at her feet. "I ain't no snitch, I quite like my payment in dirty cash."

 

"You are not telling who the people are. You mind me take a look inside that parcel?"

 

Kyrie Terror grumbles and rolls her eyes. But it seems she wanted to avoid too much trouble with the Cops. She reached for the package and removed it from under the table, slapping it down on the desk. "I told you missy, it'd be best you didn't see this."

 

"Just open. Let me see."

 

Kyrie Terror unwraps the 'present', beyond the wrapping paper was a duct-taped brick. She pierced it with a belt buckle tip. White powder, probably 'just' cocaine. "A party-brick." she didn't seem at all surprised, "Guess you want it, cause you gotta have - something to show, you're making my life real fuckin' difficult officer."

 

"That cannot end up in hands of people, drugs cause harm, addiction."

 

Kyrie Terror shrugged, "Land of the Free, right? Holy shit it's so much simpler in the Rogue Isles." she groaned again, the irony that she had a silver crucifix necklace. "Okay officer you got me. But hey, I helped you out. Right?"

 

"You did. I appreciate help. But I cannot let crime pass through."

 

Kyrie Terror offered her hands. Though that was a little... too eager to offer herself for arrest. She seemed poised like a snake if Oryx approached to touch at all.

 

"Face the wall, know procedure? I place you under arrest on suspicion on possession of an illegal substance."

 

"I am not cuffing your hands in front, and not without frisking."

 

Kyrie Terror she hesitated for a long time, "What's the sentance? How long." she still had a cigarette in her mouth but slowly but surely complied resting against the wall, palms flat to it.

 

"I do not know, depends how much drugs and previous records of crime."

 

Nikki frisked Kyrie Terror for hidden weapons.

 

Kyrie Terror decided full well right then that she was not going to prison. Some sort of silky sand poured from every pore on her body, pooling on the floor in a very quick mountain of sand, the act was clearly magical- a real danger, the sort one would call in Metahuman backup for. The frisk was abruptly interrupted as ancient bandages that belonged on a Mummy began to envelop around Nikki's hands, from those bandages a deathly chill, a cold crawling up both arms like death was sneaking up, similar to anathesia. The frisk meant the bandages grip was tight, "Say night-night."

 

 

Nikki was wrapped in bandages, incapasitated, but still awake and trying to break free with her superhuman strenght, though, her strength at this point, is not at 100 percent.

 

"Uuurrrggghh..."

 

Kyrie Terror squirmed as if she was not in full control of whatever overcame her, the bandages danced around her entire body only to wrap and wrap. They wrapped so tightly that ancient bugs and insects began to squeeze out as if she was made of them! She walked over to pick up the package, "I warned you!" at that the bandage unravelled from Nikki's hand, she had an encounter with a Villainess it seems, and that Villain was leaving over the railing despite the drop.

 

Nikki wass left struggling on the floor, wrapped inside of magical bandages.

 

"I... uggh... will get you..."

 

Kyrie Terror took her leave, quickly. Though in all she left the Officer completely unharmed. It seems she wasn't pointlessly malicious.

[Munkar]

“License and registration please.”

 

Nikki woke up, but couldn’t see anything. Neither could she move, restrained by bandages all over her body. Only thing she could do, was to wiggle and mumble.

 

“Mmmmm!”

 

*Flashlight click*

 

“What is that? You got a mummy on your backseat there?”

 

“We found it! Officer, seriously, It was just lying around.”

 

“It’s, female, and it’s… alive?”

 

Few moments later, Nikki could feel her been carried somewhere, and put on some surface. She could recognize familiar voices, when bandages were peeled off her face.

 

“Oh, it IS our Nikki. You got mummified?”

 

It was Dave, snickering. Other officers at medbay were mockingly trying to keep straight face, too.

 

“I fine thanks for asking.” Told Nikki, as the bandages were no longer restraining her speech.

 

“The genies did this? You found them?”

 

“No. I followed a lead. Got surprised.”

 

“You got jumped on and bandaged into a mummy by a bunch of drunk teens?”

 

“No, them are innocent. They found me, only.”

 

“Who did this?”

 

“Someone, who knew about curses, and Egypt. She had drugs, I tried to bust her, she turned into a mummy.”

 

“And turned YOU into a mummy, too?”

 

“I guess, so.”

 

Later, when all the bandages were removed, Nikki talked detective Dave Styles to show her more clues about the assumed male genie. They walked into hi-tech crime lab of Atlas Park PPD. The technicians in there had been working on a model, put together of found footprints, location of the bodies and condition of the bodies, and traces of the weapon the assumed genie used against the Circle of Thorns.

 

“Play it, Sam.”

 

Sam dimmed lights of the lab and turned on a hologram presentation on a flat table-like surface in center of the room. Holograms of Perez Park trees and surroundings appeared, and the presentation zoomed to a circle like formation of Circle of Thorns.

 

“Our genie appeared, there.”

 

A shape of man abruptly appeared few feet away from the formation the Circle of Thorns were set in.

 

“Looks not planned.”

 

“I thought so, too.”

 

The said formation of the Circle of Thorns looked like it scattered. The hologram simulation showed the Circle of Thorns shooting crossbows and magic attacks at the genie.

 

“Something went wrong. Then they started blasting.”

 

“Look, stop, rewind and play that part.”

 

Something in the movements of the male genie caught Nikki’s attention. The hologram stopped, rewound and played again.

 

“He needs to sidestep away from the attacks of the Circle of Thorns.”

 

“True. He needs to dodge. He is not invulnerable. And he is not flying away.”

 

“Maybe he can’t?”

 

The hologram showed a ranged fight between the male genie and the Circle of Thorns. It was obvious the weapon male genie was using, was devastating, annihilating it’s victims at the first hit. But the male genie seemed not to have escaped unscathed.

 

“There. Looks like he got hit.”

 

“By an arrow. We got his blood sample?”

 

“We got samples. They are been analyzed. One of them must be the male genie.”

 

The simulation showed a gruesome play of the male genie moving down all the Circle of Thorns, but seemingly getting hit by an arrow himself. The male genie then was walking away from the deceased, when he turned back, and walked back to one of them. The one, who had shot him with a crossbow.

 

The male genie spent time next to that victim, and then walked away.

Simulation ended.

 

“What was that at the end? Why he was next to that body he shot?”

 

Dave took a clipboard and read some papers on it. Then he said:

 

“That crossbow shooter was missing her front teeth.”

 

“He took human body part trophies. He is a vengeful psychopath.”

 

“A clear case. Definitely not a vigilante. A psychotic villain. And we got Kings Row full of them.”

 

“One particular” said Nikki and crossed her arms:

 

"Toothbreaker Jones".

[Munkar]

It took a week for Nikki to track down Toothbreaker Jones. A known Skull drugdealer in Kings Row, whose Modus Operandi fitted the homicide in Perez Park. He had been arrested before by heroes, but somehow he had been able to escape captivity before his trial. Being fugitive, and Perez Park being known territory of the Skulls, made Toothbreaker Jones a suspect worth of questioning.

 

Alas, Nikki wasn't assigned this case. And as a cop, she couldn't go after Toothbreaker Jones and arrest him again. And certainly could not get a search warrant for a bust.

 

As.

A.

Cop.

 

Another drug factory in Kings Row was in business. Dyne been made by underpaid, blackmailed and or threatened workers, supervised by armed members of Skulls. Large vats of green, steaming proto-Dyne witnessed a group of Family underbosses in dapper suits following Toothbreaker Jones.

 

“I don't think I want to pay that price.”

 

It was one of the Family underbosses. He didn't seem happy to negotiate with the Skull.

 

“I don't give a damn if you don't have enough to pay” Toothbreaker Jones replied: “I sell the Dyne at increased price 'til you get your own production going. I'm not stupid, you need my product now, and I set the price.”

 

“Listen pal, maybe you haven't heard. I'm the guy who is heading to lead all the market here. Your tiny business volume can't compete in the long run. You will need me and my help.” The Family underboss was getting angry.

 

“You'll pay my price, one way or another” Toothbreaker Jones was confident. Smug. And arrogant.

 

The negotiating parties came to a table, wooden rickety table set in the drug lab. Toothbreaker Jones and his Skulls henchmen set their way to another side, and the Family underbosses to another.

 

“Think about it Jones, good business is built on future planning. You get greedy now, you lose significant future opportunities. You were broken out jail a few weeks ago? How long you think-”

 

“CAPE!!!”

 

Someone shouted from the main entrance of the drug factory. The people in the factory got alerted, grabbing their weapons and getting up, rushing to the main entrance. A large, metal door bolted shut.

 

The negotiating parties revealed their weapons, too. But stayed at the table, looking at the entrance. Skull henchmen and Death Heads were getting ready to shoot whoever would make their way through the door.

 

SLAM!

 

A large dent appeared in the door.

 

WHACK!

 

The door jolted, and almost came off its hinges as someone pounded the door from the outside. Toothbreaker Jones had dealt with heroes in his past, and it seemed there was only one coming through the door at the moment. Smug smile on his face, he started to stroll to the door.

 

W H A M !

 

The Family underbosses went another way, leaving the building quietly through the back door. Toothbreaker Jones, looking at the firepower gathered at the entrance, took a pack of smokes of his pocket and lit one. He was going to see another lone hero shot death at his very door.

 

S L A M M M !

 

The last blow to the door loosened the hinges, and the large metal door collapsed on the floor in front of the Skulls, making a cloud of dust as the hero, or heroine to be exact, walked through the doorway.

 

But she didn't look like a hero.

 

Skulls, who were ready to shoot, were surprised stunned and didn't know what they were looking at.

 

“What the...” mumbled Toothbreaker Jones as his lit cigarette fell on his chest.

 

Nikki padded, slinked silently barefeet in her traditional attire into the drug factory, looking around, how many gunbarrels were pointed at her. She also had expected to be shot at sight. But when the Skulls were just ogling her with disbelief, she took the opportunity:

 

“I am Oryx Girl. I'm here for Toothbreaker Jones. Surrender him to me peacefully, or there will be... trouble.”

 

“Awwww.. come on!!!”

 

The Skulls started laughing and shooting. Nikki guarded her face and her chest with her arms because the bullets hurt! But although the bullets hurt, they didn't do much on her bare skin than mere bruises at worst.

 

“What the hell? Shoot that thing!”

 

Another rain or bullets hit her, but she advanced to the nearest Skulls and took guns away from them, grabbed them and threw the goons into a wall. A Death Head shot magic at her, that also HURT. Nikki leaped to that Skull and punched him to the ground.

 

Shooting and punching continued and Toothbreaker Jones decided to escape. After the initial daze of Oryx Girl's appearance, he knew not to underestimate an opponent because of their appearance. Earlier, he had had an encounter with a hero in a bunny suit.

 

In a BUNNY SUIT.

 

He had underestimated that bunny hero, and had paid the price. A mistake he was not going to repeat.

 

He pulled a door open into back corridor and hurried his step towards the back entrance. He heard some yells and shouts behind him, then the shooting stopped. Toothbreaker Jones, slowed his speed to walk, and then stopped and turned back, to return to the entrance. Maybe the loincloth clad hero was shot dead? She had been alone, not very large, and not intimidating at all.

 

Toothbreaker Jones put on a smug smile. With all that firepower he had, it was stupid for him to run away. Of course the hero would be shot down. He swaggered from the back corridor back to the scene, arrogantly:

 

“Someone tell me what the hell was that?!”

 

He stated when he marched back in, but only to see loincloth clad tribal girl, covered in dust, with her white body paint smeared, holding up one of the Death Heads up in the air with only one hand. Other Skulls laid defeated on the floor. Seeing that Toothbreaker Jones had returned, she let the Skull she had on her grasp fall down on the ground and started walk toward Jones.

 

“Toothbreaker Jones, you are under arrest.”

 

Toothbreaker Jones turned on his heels and tried to escape, but the girl got him from behind, and lifted him up. The he was thrown through the air, landing in one of the tables filled with lab equipment. Scratched and slit by shards of the glass test tubes and vials, he fell on the floor and tried to get up, but the girl got to him first and pulled him up.

 

“But first tell me, where were you the night of April 26^th, Jones?!”

 

The breath of the girl was horrid and even Jones had to turn his face away, when he was held up near to the girl.

 

“Home”, he snorted.

 

“You got your facts wrong, psycho! You took front teeth of one Thorns who shot you! We got your blood sample. You are going into prison anyway for your other crimes, tell me about the energy weapon you used!”

 

“Energy weapon? What energy weapon?! I haven't been to Perez Park in ages! What the hell you talking about, dogbreath?!”

 

Holding up Toothbreaker Jones up with her left hand, Nikki seached Jones's pockets with her right hand and found a pouch, that felt it was holding some teeth inside.

 

“Here, Jones. Here! I swear if any of these teeth match the murdered Thorns you are so busted.”

 

The next day detective Nikki Voss and detective Dave Styles were hunching over a desktop computer, refreshing lab results page. Few more refresh, and the results of teeth found on Toothbreaker Jones would match the murder victim in Perez Park...

 

...turned out to be negative.

 

“What?! And the blood sample?”

 

“Sorry Nikki, that's negative too. No match. Jones is not our murderer. He hasn't been to the Perez Park crime scene.”

 

Nikki turned an office chair around and sat in it.

 

“If Jones is not the murderer, who is?”

 

Dave shrugged: “A teeth collecting psychopath like Toothbreaker Jones, well, ain't all the Skulls wearing skulls of the deceaced as masks anyway? Could be any of his followers, fan-boy copycats... or just someone as mentally disturbed as him?”

 

“Great. Another psycho. With hi-powered energy weapon.”

 

“And how is this all linked to the genie you saw? What about those broken vases?”

 

Nikki shrugged: “Maybe I need go ask around. Again.”

 

“I heard Pierce already has a hunch. I don't know what, but he is on to something. If you are planning to beat his pace, you have to speed up yours.”

 

Okay holla everyone! Who would Nikki go to for answers? If you have an idea you want to RP, let me know! If you are too shy to post public reply, send a DM!

Edited February 19, 2023 by Munkar

[Munkar]

And we are back! Thanks to Arch-Lich Jooknar to help Nikki with her investigation! The mystery has unravelled, by the most parts! Just one more post (after this!) and we're done!

 

25^th May, Steel Canyon university

 

Detective Nikki Voss was wearing her snappy dark gray dress. Her tribal knife bounced up and down on her belt when she walked up the stairs, and navigated through walls of bookshelves to a strange looking male, who was reading a book.

 

Nikki double-clicked with her tongue and attracted attention of Arch-Lich Jooknar:

 

”Can I help you, miss?”

 

”Hello! I Nikki Voss, Atlas Park PPD. Are Arch-Lich Jooknar?”

 

”I just go by Jooknar most often. But yes.”

 

Nikki showed her detective badge on her belt next to her knife. Arch-Lich Jooknar is more interested in the knife than the badge.

 

"I swear I recognize that style..."

 

Nikki became a bit nervous about that remark and changed the subject: ”'Nxa! May I ask you questions about genies? I have a case, in which they are involved.”

 

”Ah, the old djinn? Of course! I've known quite a few back in the day. So rare to meet one lately...

 

Nikki rested her hand on her knife, little bit concerned about the remark: "You know what this knife mean?"

 

”I feel as though I used to. It's been a long, diffcult torpor the past two hundred years.”

 

Nikki made a brrrr-sound with her larynx, thinking... "I am in impress. There no way to find out history to that long period of Mbwala, they don't keep history longer than one man age, except... the traditions. Of course. My tribe, but I dik-gress!”

 

Arch-Lich Jooknar smiled and waited patiently, letting Voss work through her thoughts. Nikki continued:

 

”In this case, of genies, night of 26th April, Perez Park, two genies emerged. A male, and a female. I got to the scene 27th morning. The male genie apparently emerged close to Circle of Thorn ritual, killed all of them, took teeth of one as trophy. We know of the male genie that he is 6 feet tall male, about 185lbs. We know not how he looks like.”

 

Arch-Lich Jooknar thinks carefully, crossing his arms and looking down. "Where did you keep the bodies of these Thorn Mages? I can speak to them for details if that would be permissible.

 

”...errrmmm... that could *tongue-click* be very difficult to arrange. If not impossible.”

 

”Well fiddlesticks. What about the place they died? It would be more difficult to reach them from there, but not unreasonably so.”

 

”We could do that! The crime scene is no longer of restricted area.”

 

”By all means then! Leave the way! I'm not currently occupied, assuming you have time.”

 

”I have car outside.”

 

”I have other means of transportation. Lead the way, I will join you in Perez Park.”

 

After a car travel filled with honks and near-misses, Nikki finally arrived to Perez Park. Leaving car near the park entrance, she lead Jooknar to the place where the homicide had taken place. The placid park didn't seem eerie at that hour of the day.

 

Nikki walked up a little hill, surrounded by trees of Perez Park.

 

Arch-Lich Jooknar Arrived by arcane teleport in a hooded robe

 

”Hmmm. I'll see what I can do. How long ago did you say they died?”

 

”Almost a month ago. 26th of April.”

 

Arch-Lich Jooknar kissed teeth. "Blast. It will be very difficult to reach even an echo at that length of time. But I will do my uttmost.”

 

”Thank-you! The male genie supposible, emerged near their circle of ritual, in here...and the Circle of Thorn apparently, started blasting the genie from on top of that hill.”

 

Arch-Lich Jooknar begins casting several minor spells in preperation for his communion ritual.

 

”We're in luck. I do have an echo. Not the full spirit, but at least it's something. We only have a few questions we can ask before it wears out. What specifically would you most want to know?”

 

”What happened in here? Why the firefight?”

 

The spirits of the deceased talked to him. After listening to them, Jooknar told Nikki:

 

”The mystery male was the aggressor. He came upon the mages by surprise. I have an imprint of the mage's last sight of the man. He was stark-white of complection, stitched face as though grafted multiple times. His hair, such as it was, was tossled, unwashed, and of raven hue. He wore black leather. And and even in their shock, the mage who's echo I see knew he died by true pure magic.”

 

”Oh! A Vahzilok genie?”

 

”Vahzi-who? I don't know for certain that it WAS a djinni. But he certainly was magical. The fire was sorcery.”

 

”Themmm. The Vahzilok are followers of doctor Vahzilok. Relatively new villain association of Paragon City. Ahah! The man description not very genie like?”

 

”Unlike any I knew. Djinn are typically much darker of complection. To meet one stark-pale only happened once. And that one had been slain and restored by necromancy. Not mine. Most Djinn share your complection, or close to it.”

 

”Like the genie I saw in person. Do you have time to look at the place of emerge of the other genie? It is near by.”

 

”I will try, but pure divination without a spirit to commune with is further from my speciality that I'd like. But I can try.”

 

The two walked the same path Nikki had walked a month earlier. Through blocking vegetation to an abandoned amphitheatre.

 

”It is here.”

 

Climbing up the stairs to the stage of the theatre, Arch-Lich Jooknar releases the echo with an arcane phrase.

 

”The female genie, of arab skin tone, on her kneels, wearing gold bikini top, harem pants, white veil covering her face. Crying in despair”, Nikki described.

 

”How long ago?”

 

”Same date, but morning of 27th April. I saw this one in person. When I realized she had same shards of clay of a vase in her feet, I told her to stay put. But she tried to escape. I wrestled her to the ground, handcuffed her and arrested her. She looked at me very weird after I handcuffed her.”

 

”Actually....” Jooknar spent a moment thinking, ”May I call in a more direct specialist? One of my undead friends is also a mage, and has more knowledge of pure divination than I do.”

 

”By all means, yes.”

 

”Just so you do not startle, he is a lich as I am, though younger. Only three thousand years dead. Hahaha!”

 

Brave Oryx makes a low brrr-sound with her larynx: "Brrrrrr... Oh-kay..."

 

”Psusennes! Pharaoh and mage-king! I require your aid!” Jooknar raised his hands and summoned a dark-clad lich.

 

”You called, my friend?” The summoned lich said.

 

Nikki was a little bit alarmed!

 

”Yes, my friend, you were always the more powerful diviner of the two of us. We're looking for any information we can find about what might have been an un-chained djinirri here one moon-cycle ago.”

 

Psusennes considered deeply: ”I will do as you ask. She was here a moon ago? Trivial. The stones remember.”

 

Psusennes kneeled and touched the stone gingerly, whispering soft phrases. Gentle light played across the stone as he concentrated.

 

”You did find a true dinirri here. Which is in itself unusual. The female counterparts of the more common djinn are vanishingly rare outside of their sacred realms. Few are captured in objects of the very few who come to our world. But despite that, she was clearly in that unusual caste. She was distraught. Her charge -the mortal she'd been serving- was gone or lost. She was alone and terrified of the strange world she found herself in.”

 

”What more would you like me to ask the stones?”

 

”Oh! But these vases.” Nikki pulled out prints of 3D constructed image of Yemeni vases.

 

”These were found around both these appearances, the male and the female. Are these the 'lamps' the prisons of these genies? Now they are shattered, they were found shattered near their point of appearance. And half of the shards were no-where to be found.”

 

Nikki showed the prints to both of the lich.

 

Psusennes looked at the prints.

 

”An excellent theory. My first thoughts were similar. But it seems we were both incorrect in our guess. These were gate-keys. Objects made and broken to plane-shift from one reality to another. They were made quite recently and I do not feel ever housed a djinni or djinirri”

 

”Both the male and female used similar means of transportation? And only the female is an actual genie?”

 

Jooknar took part in conversation:

 

”As far as we can tell, yes. I would need to call in a conjuration specialist to map the planar journey taken, if it's even possible after so much time has passed.”

 

Psusennes said: ”I know one, but I'm dubious about how much she'll be able to learn.”

 

”Okay, maybe that is not needed, but... the male escaped by foot, the female just poofed away...after I asked her to disappear. My.. bad.” Nikki sighed.

 

”I could tell you more if I had access to the mages' bodies. And don't torture yourself over such a mistake. Djinn djinir are notorious for being literalist about granting wishes.”

 

Nikki looked at the print: "She granted me a wish? But these broken vases are not their lamps?"

 

”You misunderstand. Djinn do not act quite as the modern european twists on the legends say they do. They bond with their charges for the full life of the mortal, and grant as many wishes as they please. Though they are nowhere near omnipotent.”

 

”O-kay... is there a way for me to find either of these reality-travellers? Can you give me a clue where they went?”

 

Arch-Lich Jooknar looked to the younger lich.

 

”Might we?"

 

Nikki realized:

 

”Wait, full life of the mortal? I did not rub any lamp? I just found her.”

 

Psusennes: ”Quite so. Both were distinctive, and such planar magic lingers long on the being using it.”

 

Jooknar: ”You needn't worry. Only the wielder of their bonded object is their actual charge. And only if the djinni should chose that mortal.”

 

”But they freely grant wishes as suits them to anyone, when the wish is to their benefit.”

 

Psusennes: ”Shall I attempt to divine the location of the two erstwhile planar travlers?”

 

”If it is possible, yes. There is a murder case, I need to find out where the murderer escaped.”

 

The younger lich drew symbols in the air and turns slowly in a circle, their eyes glowing white.

 

Psusennes: ”I have bad news and I have ambiguously good news. As for the male, he's exceedingly skilled and directly blocking my powers. As for the djiniri... she's... quite close. You may want to brace yourself.”

 

Nikki squinted.

 

”She is... hiding within your soul-space. She goes where you go. Though now that she knows we know, she may act up.”

 

”...what?! Why? How?”

 

Jooknar: ”How is easy. A simple spell for a djiniri to slip into a forbidden space. As for why, ask her. Djinn and djinir are notoriously capricious.”

 

Nikki looked around, perplexed

 

”I can't see her, how... how to ask?”

 

”Just ask. She can hear. She's right here.”

 

Nikki cleared her throat: "Ahem. Why do you reside in me?"

 

Shen she heard something, her eyes widened: "W H A T ? ! ! !"

 

Nikki heard something again, talks to thin air: "But this is slavery, I do not allow it."

 

Hearing something again, she scoffed.

 

Nikki raised her finger again, talking to the Lich again: "Yes, she is within me. She seems not to be evil."

 

Psusennes: ”I concur. I felt no such darkness within her.”

 

”But I can't just be a master. I am very much against slavery!”

 

Nikk heard something again, and spoke into the air: "No, it is unacceptable. I will not allow it."

 

”It isn't. The djinir chose their masters freely.”

 

"Oh. But... no. Can't you just appear?"

 

Nikki heard something and talks back: "No. We continue later."

 

”Arch-Lich Jooknar, mister Pharaoh. You have been truly helpful.”

 

”Of course! We're both happy to help.”

 

[Munkar]

And we are done! Thanks for everyone involved! Mystery will now totally unravel and in this final, we find who dastardly escaped his demise in 2012! End credits song by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Heads Will Roll" 

 

Later that day, at Atlas Park PPD police station

 

CCTV camera showed an interrogation room with a table and two chairs. On the other chair, a woman with long, dark brown hair, wearing white, loose and thin pants and a gold bikini top, sat down. Waiting. The other chair was empty.

 

Nikki turned her eyes off the TV monitor attached to a wall on the other side of one-way mirror, and looked the genie through the mirror. The scene on the other side of the one-way mirror was unchanged. The genie looked at the mirror, and she should have seen only her own reflection, but Nikki thought the genie was looking straight at her.

 

Detective Dave Styles joined Nikki in the dark room next to the interrogation room, closing the door to the corridor behind him.

 

”You found the genies?”

 

”This one, yes. The other one, who is not a genie per say, is still at large.”

 

Dave squinted, and looked at Nikki.

 

”Nikki. What happened to your speech impediment?”

 

”I had an opportunity to wish it away.”

 

Nikki pointed at the genie and carried on:

 

”She is Mariana Al-Amah. At least she told me that. There is no way to prove that, because in this reality, she does has not existed, not until the moment she transferred herself here. From another time, from another world.”

 

Dave shooked his head: ”Right... Nikki, I'm glad you can talk normally now, but it feels really strange. That, you suddenly...”

 

”...can speak proper English. Yeah. Anyway, this is going to be even stranger. Because she, Mariana, is really a genie. But, she didn't kill anyone.”

 

”It was the other genie, right?”

 

”That other one is not a genie. It is, from what she told me, a Vahzilok zombie, by the name...”

 

”Patchup”, said the genie, the from other side of the one-way mirror. Both Nikki and Dave looked upon the genie. Nikki walked to wall-mic and pushed the button to talk to the other side of the mirror:

 

”Mariana, you can hear us?”

 

”Yes I can.”

 

Nikki looked at the genie again, and then pushed the button to talk.

 

”Didn't I handcuff you to the table?”

 

Mariana, the genie, raised a pair of handcuffs, holding them in her hand.

 

”Put those back on.”

 

The handcuffs appeared back onto Mariana's wrists, attaching her to the table again. Nikki sighed.

 

”Nikki, if she can hear us, and the handcuffs don't do any good, what's the big idea to have her there?”

 

”She technically fled after been arrested.”

 

”Where did she go.”

 

Nikki was silent for a moment, and answered:

 

”Nowhere. I mean, she is with me. Or in me? Practically, I'm her vessel. Her lamp now. She resides in me and that what we see in there is her pseudo-physical manifestation.”

 

”It's really strange to hear you speak like that.”

 

Nikki scoffed at Dave's remark: ”She explained everything in detail. And I asked to be able to understand... then I understood.”

 

”I advised you to be careful with your wishes, mistress Voss”, said Mariana from the other side of the mirror.

 

”Wait, you are her mistress now? But you didn't rub any lamp? Her lamp was broken?”

 

”No, Dave, those were not lamps. They were temporal catalysts to invoke inter-worldly travel upon breakage. She travelled here from the past, from November 30^th, 2012, to escape the end of the world.”

 

”But the world didn't end November 30^th.”

 

”In her reality, from where she came from, it did. She made two vases, one for her master, and the master's wife. But then, that Vahzilok zombie stole one of the vases, and her master didn't want to separate from his wife. That is, he commanded Mariana to break the last remaining vase and save herself.”

 

”And the master and the wife?

 

”Both ceased to exist in 30^th November, when the world ended.”

 

”Deep.”

 

”That is why Mariana was very upset when I first met her. She had just lost her master forever. And when I wrestled her down and arrested her, I accidentally defeated her and became her new mistress.”

 

”Wait, doesn't that mean that you can wish for anything?”

 

”Yes, and no. There are limits to her power. And I am not insane, I would not want to risk to rep-”

 

”Mistress. Please.”

 

Upon hearing Mariana saying those words, Nikki closed her mouth.

 

”What was that?”

 

”Nothing. Back to the case, the one who killed the group of Circle of Thorns in Perez Park, he is called Patchup. According to her, Mariana. He is six feet tall, 185lb, 20-30 years old, pale skin complexion, dirty black hair, usually dressed in makeshift black clothes patched together from whatever he finds from trashes.”

 

”Hence the name?”

 

”No. He is mostly makeshift himself. Assembled from other people, living and dead. His face is a collection of skin- and body parts of others, stitched together.”

 

”Doctor Vahzilok created him?”

 

”Nobody knows. That man just appeared. In the other world in the past. Mariana and her master had several encounters with him. Mariana could not tell for sure how that man came to be, but he is supposed to be a very bad person.”

 

”He is a monster”, said Mariana from the other side of the one-way mirror.

 

Dave was about to say something, but he got a phonecall. After a short conversation on the phone, he nodded to Nikki: ”We got a security camera recording of someone, just came in. I think you need to see this.”

 

A few moments later Nikki and Dave were in a dark studio room with flat screen displays and watching a video CCTV recording playing on one of them. The view was on a street, aimed at a window of a pawn shop from outside. A man of the exact description of Patchup staggered next to that window, stopped and turned to face the window. There was an arrow shot through his head, from mouth to the back of his neck.

 

”Bingo”, whispered Dave, ”A pawn shop in Steel Canyon, Fools Gold District. The owner had this video for over a month, but because that man didn't do anything to his shop, he wasn't sure what to do. Eventually, he took the video to the Steel Canyon PPD. We just got it from there.”

 

The two looked at the man on the video gazing himself from the reflection of the window, and then starting to yank and pull the arrow in his head. Dave pulled a wry mouth.

 

”Wasn't he not supposed to be invulnerable?”

 

”Mariana said he can be stopped, he is not unkillable. And that he is a... monster.”

 

”A monster, right? Because he has a collection of body parts of his victims?”

 

”No. He does not have a collection of body parts of his victims.”

 

It was Mariana, who had just suddenly, without any warning, appeared in the same room with Nikki and Dave. Both of the two almost jumped up from their chairs, but Mariana didn't care of them becoming startled, she walked very close to the display playing a video of Patchup, who was pulling the broken arrow off his head, taking something small from his trenchcoat side pocket and putting fingers of his both hands into his mouth, doing something.

 

”He is the collection of body parts of his victims. He regenerates. The parts grow into him. He gains more powers like that. The powers of his victims.”

 

”Oh-oh”, said Nikki.

 

Patchup, on the video, took his hands off his mouth, looked at his own reflection on the window, tilted his head, and walked few steps away from the window... when he noticed the security camera filming him.

 

O-oh

 

Pathup turned to the camera, walked a few steps closer, becoming larger on the screen Nikki, Dave and Mariana were watching.

 

Oh-oh

 

Patchup brought his scarred, stitched-up face as close as possible to the camera.

 

Off, off, off with head

 

Then he put the index fingers of his hands into his mouth, and stretched his lips open, revealing the motley row of his teeth.

 

Two of his front teeth looked shinier than others.

 

 

 

Almost like they were new.

 

Dance, dance dance til you're dead
Off, off, off with your head
Dance, dance, dance til you're dead
Off, off, off with your head...