Chapter One: The Folder
"Come on you can't wear jeans every day, Juli!" Whined one of Juli's close acquaintances. Kidman never had any "friends" but to keep her appearance in society somewhat normal she allowed random people to enter her life. Alice Mathers was one of them. She was girly with bright eyes and red hair. She was annoying but always had time to spend with friends. She had a boyfriend and worked at a perfume counter and her favorite word in the entire world was "like."
"Like, how about this?" Alice pulled out a short blue summer dress buried in the depths of Kidman's closet. Juli scowled and snatched it from her hand. "Fine." She muttered, going to her bathroom to change.
"You're going to look beautiful!" Alice called out in a singsong voice.
Alice had the day planned; she, Megan, and Juli would go to the farmer's market until noon and then shopping downtown and then to the bar! Yay!
So onto their adventure they went. Kidman walked far behind the other girls as they shopped for random fruits and vegetables. She never really liked crowds and this situation was no different. People barged through, pushing her around the maze of carts and tents.
Suddenly someone hit her harder than anyone else and she fell onto the ground. Kidman whipped around and grabbed the woman's hand. She turned around gently and stared at Juli. She had long brown hair with big glasses and what seemed like a vintage nurse's costume. Her dark eyes were like a prison keeping Kidman in her place. The nurse shuffled blindly through a leather purse before pulling out a large manila folder and holding it out to Kidman. "You know what this means, Juli Kidman." She said, pushing it into Juli's hand. Before she could say anything the nurse disappeared. Into the hundreds and thousands of other people.
Kidman was left with her bare ass on the pavement as this alien of a folder sat on the splayed blue gingham of her sundress. "Hey there!" said an old man in a cheerful voice. She looked up, pushing away her bangs to see the man at his stand of apples, "You looking for a shady place?" He asked. "Go ahead and camp out here for a minute, you're sweating more than a whore in church little lady!" Juli merely nodded before looking back down at the folder. He quickly checked behind her to make sure the old man wasn't spying and then opened the cover.
It was a case record. A young man stood in a picture covered in gashes and burn scars. The sight was sickening. How could this guy still be alive enough to take a picture – especially to appear to seem so painless in the image.
The only name given was in bold print just below the picture. Ruvik. The information was scarce.
Rukik
Age: 37
Status: Aware
Family: None.
Sex: Male
Height: 178 cm
Weight: 71 kg
Assumed to be armed and dangerous. Creator of S.T.E.M.
Kidman turned the page to another record. This picture stared a pretty young woman with long black hair and a youthful smile.
Laura Victoriano
Age: 17
Status: Deceased
Family: Deceased
Sex: Female
Height: 167 cm
Weight: 46 kg
Dangerous. Working with Ruvik, however there are reasons to believe she is a double agent.
What kind of nonsense was this? Some kind of joke? Kidman scoffed, this had to be some game of Alice's with her role-play games. Juli was about to throw away the dumb idea when a name caught her eye as she flipped to the next page.
Juli Kidman
Age: 27
Status: Unknown
Family: None.
Sex: Female
Height: 175 cm
Weight: 56 kg
What the hell? What were these records? They included her work with KCPD. With Mobius. This wasn't a game. Neither were the other pages. Detailed documents on Juli's co-workers, Sebastian and Joseph. What was this?
"Hey, Jules! What are you doing?" Alice suddenly appeared out of no where,
"That's not work stuff is it? What did I say? It's your day off, no working!"
"I'm sorry, listen this is important." Juli stood to her feet, "I need to go, I'll make it up to you but this is really, really important." Alice understood and hugged goodbye before Kidman dashed to a cab. Her destination was downtown to a famous hotel was. Sebastian and Joseph were conducting some pointless investigation and were staying a few nights there.
Juli got out of the cab before the car even came to a full stop. She dashed through elevators and halls until the arrived at the room. She pounded her fist on room 402 until it swung open. It was Joseph who stood there with a confused look on his face as he adjusted his glasses.
"Is everything alright, Kidman?" he asked as she barged in.
"No, no you two need to look at this." Juli spread the files over the desk and waited for the men to come look.
Sebastian shrugged as he sipped from his flask. "What are these? Records?"
"I'm not understanding." Said Joseph, "What is so important about what – medical records of some sort?" He sat down a mug of coffee and took his own file in his hand.
Kidman looked to him, waiting for his reaction. Joseph's brows furrowed as he peered closer at the document. "Where did you get these? There's information in here that should be and –" he turned the document towards the others, "What does 'Status: Unknowing' mean?"
Kidman described how she came along the file and how the situation didn't sit right with her.
"Well it explains the dress." Sebastian chuckled but he only received a dirty look. "Sounds like a prank," he continued, "I mean look at this guy, Ruvik? He looks like a Halloween costume."
Juli crossed her arms over her chest, "No. You have to believe me, this is serious – I just know it." Joseph seemed more keen to agree that something was definitely off about the situation. He mentioned that this Ruvik fellow looked too realistic to be a Halloween joke, and besides – it was May, not October.
"Okay, so let's say this isn't a joke," Sebastian sighed, looking at Ruvik's document, "then what do we do about it? There's no case."
"Seb…" Muttered Joseph, "Look at your file." He handed it over to his partner. From the second Sebastian read the first few lines his face went pale. There was strange information and then to top it off, detailed information about his family… about Lily. What the hell was this?
Juli strolled over to the window and held a file to it.
"Ruvik.
Age: 37
Status: Creator."
"Creator?" Asked Joseph, stepping behind her, "Creator of what? Why are all of our 'statuses' unknown? I don't understand any of this-" Suddenly the building shook and a huge boom crashed through the room.
Kidman and Joseph were thrown forward against the window, having it crack against her head. She winced and tried to see through the new-found smoke and debris. Through the ash and clouds something in the distance caught her foggy vision. A man, dressed in rags of white. Was that…?
"Kidman! Joseph!" Sebastian ran to their side through the heavy smoke. He was able to make out Joseph, whom seemed alright besides a few scratches but it soon appeared that it was Kidman that needed help.
She stood back and immediately fell on the floor. "Shit," Said Sebastian, "She's bleeding. Joe, call for help." However Joseph was already at his cell phone.
"Did you see him?" Slurred Juli, eyes fluttering as she tried to focus on the window. "That's a lot of blood…"
Sebastian gently slapped her cheek, "Hey, stay awake, help is on the way." Kidman found strength to lift her heavy arm to the window where her blood stuck files to the glass.
"It was him. He set off a… bomb or something." A high pierced ring screamed through the room.
"Fuck! What is that?" Sebastian swore, clamping the hand not around Kidman over his ear.
"Must be an alarm." Groaned Joseph, in clear pain from the sound, "Or something from the aftermath?"
Juli pushed herself from Sebastian's grasp and rushed back to the window. She rubbed the blood smear from the glass and looked outside. The man she saw was gone now, replaced with corpses and flames.
