The Unnatural Murder

In the dark alleyway shrouded in shadows, Detective Harris looks down at the body. Male, 27 years old, 5’7”, Cause of Death: Unknown. Blood was dripping from the body from a cut in the middle of the guy’s chest.

“This cut was clearly caused by a knife. No other signs of a struggle though. It’s as if this cut was made postmortem. Place the tape around the body and prepare for transport. We’re going to get an autopsy of the victim.”

The forensics officers saluted, “Sir”, before heading off to get the necessary tools. While they were doing that, the detective spots a bloody scalpel. He picks it up with his gloved right hand and places it in a biohazard bag. “Rather odd choice of weapon,” observes Detective Harris as his fellow officers start placing tape around the body. Once that was done, they load him up onto a stretcher and leave for the nearest hospital. While walking in, the news was on in the lobby with the reporter stating, “The village of Malhoroot in North Korea is still under investigation as to the cause of the sudden death of all its inhabitants.” They walk into the morgue where a doctor, who Detective Harris called in advance, was on standby. He started his work on the corpse.

He comments, “Odd. There’s no source of injury on these organs. No traces of poison either. The cut was made postmortem as indicated by the lack of scarring on the sides of the cut. This is rather odd. The way I see it, he died of natural causes.”

“Natural causes!? But that’s impossible. What could possibly kill without leaving a…”

He trails off as he recollects the case of the Scythe, specifically the memory of when his coworker died when he accidently touched it with his gloved hands letting out an unearthly scream before going limp with several officers pulling him away from said cursed object. And to think he was only two months away from retirement. Harris asks in the present, “What about his brain?”

He removes the top of the victim’s skull and takes a look at the brain and remarks, “There’s a section of the frontal lobe missing. No average murderer would remove human grey matter.”

“Do you have a scanner?” questions Detective Harris.

“No. The closest one is at Cellulose Labs.”

Harris gets out his cell phone and dials Cellulose Labs. “Hello, this is Detective Harris of the Greensburrow police. I need a scanner, fast!”

Within half an hour, a helicopter arrives at the hospital and out comes a scientist by the name of Brandon Elric with blond hair and green eyes. Harris grunts, “Oh, not you again!”

“Last I checked, you were the one who called me. So do you want your scanner or not?” retorts Elric annoyed.

Detective Harris sighs and reluctantly says, “Follow me.”

They lead him into the morgue and he pulls out a portable scanner. Not as advanced as the one he brought to the Scythe case, but it required significantly less setup. He waves it over the victim’s body and organs and says surprised, “That…shouldn’t be possible.”

“Is it there?” asks the Detective.

Elric grimaces and turns his head slowly to Detective Harris. “Yes. The Insta-Death Particle.”

In no time at all, the two find themselves on a helicopter heading to Cellulose Labs. The ride was awfully silent, with both parties deep in thought. The helicopter landed and they both got up. The automatic doors open and Elric walks up to the receptionist. “This is Detective Harris of the Greensburrow Police Department. I want a special visitor pass for him with access to the scythe containment area.”

The receptionist glances at Detective Harris before turning her head back to Elric and nodding. She typed up some parameters in her computer and got out a visitor pass and scanned it. Afterwards, she hands it to Detective Harris and the automatic doors open up into the metallic, dark hallway. They go through several of these doors until they reach the end of the hall and wander into a gigantic room with a large cylindrical machine in the center with the scythe in the same glass container used to transport it to Cellulose. Many scientists are scattered across all ends of the room gathered around the various computer monitors on the wall, their blue hue shining on their face.

“Everyone, halt the experiment!” orders Brandon Elric.

Everyone stops and gazes at the two of them, many of their glasses provided a harsh glare and many others’ faces obscured by the shadow of their hair. This makes Harris a little bit nervous, but Elric is unfazed and declares, “I need logs immediately of who’s been in here and who hasn’t along with the security tapes of…File, please.”

Elric extends his hand and Harris gives him the case file. Elric quickly glosses over it and finishes, “of the last week.”

He closes it and hands it back to the detective. One person with black hair and glasses, but significantly younger than Elric turns back to his computer and prints out the logs of the past week. The two go up to them and Elric states, “Make sure to print two copies. One for the Detective’s records.” The list prints and Elric glances at it as the second copy prints. Reading rather quickly through the long list, he says, “Nothing out of the ordinary here. All the names on here belong to this department.” The second copy finishes printing as somebody walks up to Elric and whispers to his ear, “They’re here.”

“Today? Out of all possible days?” whispers back Elric.

The messenger nods in affirmation. Elric sighs and says, “I have to take care of some business on the other side of the lab. Go ahead and view the tapes. I’ll be right back.”

Elric walks out of the lab instantly triggering Harris’s suspicion. But he can’t afford to overlook what could be crucial evidence, so he turns back around and watches the tapes. The scientist fast-forwards through the footage when a particular clip catches his eye, “Wait, stop there.” The scientist, unusually nervous, pauses the video and plays it.

“Experiment 9274: Recreation of the Insta-Death particle, commence.”

The cylindrical machine turns on and electricity is channeled through the two tips of the machine creating an odd electrical distortion. “Now introducing the life-form.” One scientist carefully opens a compartment on the machine and using tongs, places a rat inside the machine on a pedestal. He closes it and the pedestal rises into the electrical field and the rat lets out an unearthly scream on contact.

In the present, Harris looks at the scientist and says angrily, “You!...” He stops and after a couple of moments of reflection asks angrily, “Where is Elric!?” He stomps out of the lab as the scientist goes, “Sir, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Sir? SIR!”

Harris goes through several automatic doors before he sees Elric talking to some military personnel. He overhears, “What!? Do you realize the kind of danger that poses to our project? There’s already a detective here investigating a death with said stolen weapon, and he was involved with the original scythe case!”

The one in front asks while pointing at Detective Harris, “Is that him?”

Elric turns around slowly and sees Detective Harris who demands, “Elric! What is going on around here!?”

“I can’t really tell you anything as that’s classified information.”

“Classified information, my ass! You found a way to recreate the Insta-Death Particle and somebody has been murdered with it! It is absolutely my business to know!”

The guy behind Elric walks up to Detective Harris and states, “It seems like we have a similar problem. How about we help each other?”

“And who might you be?” questions Detective Harris.

“I am General Troy. However, before we continue. I must warn you that this case contains classified information, so I’m going to need you to sign an NDA stating that you’re not allowed to divulge any information from this case and failure to adhere to this NDA will result with you being placed in front of a firing squad to be killed.”

As the general was talking, he pulls out some paper and places it in front of the Detective.

“And if I don’t sign it?”

“From the sounds of it, we’ll have to put you in front of the firing squad anyway for knowing too much.”

The Detective looked at the General stunned and took the paper. He searches his coat for a pen, but can’t find anything and asks, “You got a pen?” The General pulls a pen out of his front shirt pocket and Harris begrudgingly signs it, not wanting to die tonight. He hands the document back to the General who looks at it for a brief second. He gives it to one of his personnel and says, “Let’s go to the conference room and get you briefed.”

They walk through the automatic doors turning the corner when they’re in front of the Scythe Containment Room and going a couple of doors down into they entered a brightly lit conference room. The light nearly blinding Harris for a minute there. Elric gets out a remote from his pocket and turns down the room’s brightness. “Sorry, some of our researchers like the brightness up to the max.”

They sit down and the General gets straight to business, “So how much do you already know?”

The Detective slides the case file across the table and begins, “The victim was killed yesterday sometime between the hours of 4 and 5. There was a scalpel on the scene coated in the victim’s blood. He had an incision made postmortem that never healed due to the victim’s untimely demise. He also has a section of his frontal lobe removed and traces of the Insta-Death particle have been detected on his person. After my arrival here, I reviewed the security cameras and witnessed one of your experiments to recreate said particle.”

“Less than I thought, but we would have still had to put in front of a firing squad just for knowing that. No matter.” The general slides over a file labeled “Project Scythe”. “I will be sticking primarily to the relevant information. In your hand is the abridged version of the project on the off chance that we had to bring this to local law enforcement, which sadly appeared to be the case.”

Harris grumbles and opens up the file. He sees pictures of the particle experiment. New kinds of weapons like gigantic guns and a design document showing that it generated massive amounts of electricity in order to recreate the Insta-Death Particle.

“Project Scythe, as we’re calling it, is a project utilizing the scythe you found during that case in order to create new technology that will keep our country safe from any invaders.”

“Safe, my ass! It’s a weapon of mass destruction! The only differences between this and the atomic bomb is it’s more subtle and actually leaves the place somewhat hospitable!”

“Grievances aside, last night one of our weapons was stolen from the test facility and we have reason to believe that the individual in question is responsible for the murder you are currently investigating.”

“One problem. The weapon itself seems quite unwieldy unless you suppose the individual in question is a Super with enhanced strength.”

“Yes, that is exactly what I’m proposing.”

Harris put his hands to his forehead and mumbles agitated, “Great”.

“We have combed through many hours of footage and entry logs and have identified the individual in question. These files are included in this document.”

He slides over a second folder containing both several entry logs and discs.

“I’m surprised you didn’t use USB to store these,” comments Detective Harris.

“We found DVD to be more suited for our purposes,” replies the general.

“So who’s the suspect?” asks Detective Harris.

“Maverick O’Ryan. You’ll find his profile in that folder.”

Harris moves the entry logs aside and see Maverick’s profile. Male, 30, green eyes, awful glare, scar across his left eye that looks like a millipede, black hair.

“This looks like someone who should be in jail many times over.”

“Looks can be deceiving. A fact you should know all too well.”

Harris nods in affirmation, tipping his hat.

“May I ask how he got this scar?”

“Classified.”

“And what isn’t classified with you guys?”

“Literally nothing except what’s already public knowledge.”

Harris grumbles and says, “So do you have any specifics on when this weapon was stolen?”

“Last night. The timestamp states around 2 pm.”

Harris goes deep into thought and mutters, “That must mean that your base is decently close to Greensburrow. But with a weapon this big, it wouldn’t be easy to lug it around unnoticed. In fact, it would be near impossible unless arrangements were made beforehand.”

“Yes, we agree on that point. That’s why we have our guys currently reviewing the satellite footage to figure out where he went.”

“Satellite footage!? So it is true that you monitor our every action.”

“You guys make it so easy with your smart phones nowadays.”

“Jokes on you. I still use a flip phone.”

The general looks at him in either disgust or confusion. Maybe a bit of both. “How do you live on this planet?”

“Very well, thank you very much.”

The general looks back in awe and clears his throat with an awkward silence for a brief moment.

“So uh…as I was stating…we got some of our personnel reviewing the satellite footage, but the feed around Greensburrow is cut upon his arrival at this point. We are trying to discern the cause, but it’s not looking good thus far.”

“What position did he work at?”

“He was stationed in Experimental R&D.”

“In that case, it’s entirely reasonable to presume that he knows your systems inside and out making it relatively easy for him to block the signal.”

“On a satellite!?”

“If a storm can disrupt a satellite feed, why not something closer to the ground?”

The general is utterly flabbergasted as his phone rings. He answers it.

“Sir, we found out the cause of the cut feed. He took one of the masking devices in addition to the weapon. All chances of tracing him through satellite are now nonexistent.”

He hangs up and mumbles, “Well, that son of a gun.”

“How’s that satellite surveillance working for you?” sarcastically asks Detective Harris with a smug smile on his face.

“Oh shut up!” shuts down the General.

“So tell me, do you know how he transported the weapon?” asks the Detective.

“From the base to Greensburrow, we suspect he commandeered a helicopter as our inventory indicates one missing. However, transport within the city itself is unknown,” answers the General.

Detective Harris goes deep in thought and after a moment of silence, Elric chimes in, “Is it possible that he has an accomplice?”

Detective Harris answers, “I wouldn’t rule out the possibility, but we have no evidence suggesting it yet. You have any to present?”

Elric looks down at the desk defeated, “No.”

They go back into thought and Detective Harris asks, “I don’t know much about machines. Is this ‘masking device’, you call it, capable of interfering with the city’s public camera system.

The General responds, “It shouldn’t if the connection is hardwired. However, if it uses microwave signals then it will cause problems for it.”

Detective Harris stands up. “In that case, let’s go.”

He walks out of the conference room, out of the building, and both him and the General board a helicopter back to Greensburrow. Harris makes a phone call to the Greensburrow Traffic Department on the way there. Upon arrival, in a small room filled with various monitors showing live footage of the various streets of Greensburrow.

“Sadly, there’s not many busy streets here in Greensburrow as we’re kind of a small suburban town.”

“I wouldn’t call our town small.”

“Legally speaking, it is. But I digress.”

The General chimes in, “I don’t care about the size of your town. Did you find the culprit?”

“Thanks to Detective Harris’s description along with the other oddities of this case, combined with the fact that the airport is on one of the busiest streets in the area, I believe we found him.”

The Transportation Dept. Manager boots up a video on one of the monitors that show somebody matching Maverick’s description including the scar hoisting some giant object covered in a white cloth. It’s loaded into the back of an armored car and Maverick closes the doors and hops in the driver’s seat in the front. The car drives away. On another monitor, Maverick can be seen stopping and getting out of the car. At the edge of that screen, he is seen conversing with someone matching the physical details of the victim. The victim goes into the alley as Maverick opens the back of the truck and grabs the clothed object before walking off-screen. The manager fast-forwards the video a few minutes where Maverick can be seen exiting the alleyway holding the clothed object and a biohazard bag that wasn’t there previously. He loads the clothed object back into the armored car, closes the back door, and hops back into the driver’s seat closing the door, and drives off. They track it as far as the cameras allow, but lose sight of it.

“As you can see, we lost sight of him after he left the town. But thankfully, some people spotted the car at the nearby warehouse district not far from here. We have successfully identified the vehicle by its license plate number.” He hands Detective Harris a slip of paper. “This is the exact address the vehicle is located in.”

“Thank you very much. This is valuable information. General, if you please.”

Harris tips his hat as he turns around and he and the General walk out of the room. While driving there, Harris gets off the police radio.

“Why aren’t we having backup show up there?” questions the General.

“I am well aware of how the Insta-Death Particle works. If we show up there with every officer we got, there will be many causalities as supported by the schematic you’ve provided. In addition, Chief Johnson also knows about the dangers of the Insta-Death Particle and has been alerted with the necessary information, which you gave me permission to divulge just now for the sake of the case,” answers the Detective.

“Why are you reiterating that last part when it just happened?” questions the General.

“For legal reasons. After all, I don’t want anyone thinking I broke our NDA outside of necessary circumstances. Anyway, the two of us will have a much higher chance of surviving since we know exactly what we’re dealing with. Which you remember what I told you?”

“Yeah, I’ll contact the base right away and let them know to forward the document to Chief Harry Johnson on the off-chance we meet our horrible demise.”

The car speeds along. They arrive at the warehouse district and open the doors of the police car. They climb out and look at a concrete landscape as the wind blows stirring a few weeds seeping out of the cracks. They spot the armored car and start walking to it.

“Before we go in, what’s your powers?”

“None. I’m a Nonsuper.”

“You’re a Null!?”

“Watch your tongue!” Harris enunciates slowly.

The General grumbles and they end up next to the car. It’s empty and they see the warehouse right next to it. The wind blowing its solemn breeze. The clouds cover the sun creating an overcast climate. Thunder could be heard above. “What about you? What’s your power?”

“Sonic vocals. I can yell at supersonic frequencies. You’d be surprised the hell I went through just to talk at a normal volume.”

Detective Harris gets out a Heckler and Koch HK45 from his inside jacket pocket and arms it. They open the sliding warehouse door with a grating noise. The inside lights barely light up the room with several flickering. They see a lawn chair in the middle of the warehouse in front of a small TV emitting blue light from its screen. On the chair they see somebody sitting down but can only see his legs. Next to the chair, they see an odd clothed object. Harris and the General nod at each other and start walking towards the chair from opposite sides, their footsteps echoing in the warehouse. A hand grabs the cloth and removes it revealing a gigantic, futuristic, cylindrical, metal device with a circular dish on one end that obscured the other side. The guy gets up from his lawn chair revealing a tuft of black hair. He hoists the strange object on his shoulders revealing a smaller cone on the inside of the circular dish with a pointed tip. He aims it at Detective Harris and a meter slowly fills up on the side as electricity builds up at the tip creating a loud buzz. It fires at Detective Harris and it misses creating a small electrical dome, or perhaps a sphere that would be invisible to the naked eye. A weed growing in the corner of the warehouse droops down, turns brown, and dies. Harris sees this and looks back at Maverick yelling aiming his HK45 at him, “Freeze Maverick O’Ryan! You are under arrest for 1st Degree Murder.”

“Oh, that troll,” says Maverick, “I wouldn’t even consider him human. He was just god-awful. Always chewing with his mouth open, being nothing but cheerful, constantly pestering me. He deserved to die!”

“That is one petty reason to kill a man,” states Detective Harris.

“Pssh.” Maverick waves his left hand in a downward wave. “You wouldn’t get it. You had to be there for yourself.”

He aims the gun at Harris and starts charging it.

“THAT’S ENOUGH!!!” A Supersonic blast hits the gun and pierces it causing it to explode.

The shockwaves causes the air to rush all around but luckily the explosion was rather small. When the smoke cleared, all that remained was a red pool of blood, guts, and metal debris. Harris looks at the pile of gore and then at the General who is just as stunned. “That was…my bad. I wasn’t aiming to kill, only disarm.”

Harris makes a phone call and says, “He’s dead.”

A bit later, a helicopter comes down at the warehouses to pick up the General. The General says, “Well, I guess this is goodbye.”

They shake hands. “As a reward for your service, you will not be placed in front of a firing squad. However, do you have any idea how he managed to accomplish this?” asks the General.

“Indeed I do. He had very petty reasons for not liking the victim. Since he was working at Experimental R&D, he had access to all your experimental weaponry including the gun in question. His super-strength allowed him to carry and wield the gun without any issues. As for getting it outside, all he had to do was claim that he was going to conduct maintenance on it allowing him to get out of the base with it with no problem. He used his military status in order to clear the airport and secure an armored vehicle. Before he left the base, he also made sure to grab a masking device so he can keep out of your eyes. However, he made one simple oversight, he forgot that the masking device does not work on the traffic cams allowing us to track him down later. The individual was on his day off and he coincidentally met up with him, and told him that he wanted to show him something. Once he lured the victim into the alley, he took the gun out of the back of the truck and fired it. Since the gun’s only sign of firing is the loud buzz it creates, it was ideal for staging a murder despite its unwieldy nature. However, his curious side was his downfall as he wanted to examine the insides of a human who was killed using the Insta-Death Particle. He made incisions in order to view the insides of the victim and removed a portion of his frontal lobe for study as that’s where the particle is usually detected. However, he knew that he couldn’t hide it as dying of natural causes anymore, so he left the scalpel at the scene. There were no fingerprints on it because he wore gloves like any good doctor should while performing the operation. After the deed was done, he put the cloth back on his gun, loaded it back into the truck, and drove here to lay low until the heat died down,” explains Detective Harris.

“And you figured all that out during this investigation?”

“That is correct.”

“I am impressed,” says the General with a smug smile, “I misjudged you earlier and I apologize for my rude comment.”

The Detective shakes his head, raises his hand, and leaves. Once he’s out of earshot, the General tells his soldier, “Keep an eye on Detective Harris and the Police Chief Harry Johnson. They know too much.”

The helicopter takes off.