Now inside the gag lab and in uniform, the two siblings joined their friend who looked a little impatient as he tapped his finger on the desk. "You alright?" Abby asked, staring as his hand. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a little nervous. The director sounded so, I don't know, scared? I guess that's a good way to describe it." As Lab Rat finished speaking, Hermes came out from his hiding spot in his hoodie and leaped onto his hand, successfully stopping it. This caused them all to laugh until they heard the sound of the monitor turning on.
"Agents! Thank goodness you're finally here!" The Director spoke, the fear Lab Rat had talked about evident in his voice. "Yes sir. What's wrong?" Ty asked. "There has been, um, an incident down in the neighborhood near the skate park. I need you two to go check it out and then check back with me with what you find." "Um, alright Director but what's so big about it that you had to have all three of us here?" Abby questioned, gesturing to the three of them. "Well...the victim of this crime is unfortunately...dead." As the Director said this, the color drained from his face and he looked like he might faint. He placed a hand to his head. "Just check it out and check back with me." He ordered before the monitor turned off.
The three friends looked at each other before Lab Rat gave a long whistle. "Wow, we haven't dealt with a death in, well, I don't think we've ever dealt with death before!" The other two nodded. "Yeah, it's going to be one heck of an experience. C'mon, Ty, let's go." Abby said before she took the keys to the GRS 1 and they rode off.
When they arrived, they were greeted by the Detective who had a grim look in place. "Ah, Grossologist, nice to see you've arrived." "Hey Detective. What's up with the victim? How'd they, you know, kick the bucket?" Ty asked, trying to glance past the detective to where a group of police officers were gathered around. None of them were getting close though and they were all covering their noses and mouths.
"Well, it looks like an animal attack but the specialist who came says they cannot identify what animal. Three big, precise slices down at an angle. Poor kid was dead before he could even hit the ground." As the detective spoke, he grimaced, imagining how this whole attack must have played out. "Well, that's a crime alright but why were we called? It doesn't seem like a very gross crime." Abby asked, a hand on her chin. "Well, you wouldn't have been called if not for the smell coming from the body. None of the officers can get close enough to examine and the specialist practically fainted because he got too close. So, you two were called since you've dealt with real nasty smells before." The two nodded and the director finally showed them to the victim.
He looked to be around their age, a skater kid with his gear still on. Three distinctive claw marks that were long and pretty far apart from each other. One slashed straight through his throat while the other had ripped over his stomach and the last one practically severed one of his legs. Abby and Ty had to take a moment to collect themselves, both taking a deep breath before starting to examine the body. Just as they got close, though, they were practically slapped in the face by the god awful stench.
"Oh wow! Ack! That's really disgusting!" Ty said, coughing. Abby nearly gagged but held it back. "No kidding. Wow. What is it though?" Ty shook his head to clear it and said "Not sure. It smells like decomposition but after a long period of time. This body is still fresh. Didn't it happen just last night?" The detective as well as the cops nodded. "Yup. Some of the people in the neighborhood said they heard the boy scream before he was just silenced. Most thought it was just him rough housing with his usual group of friends who are known for roaming out late at night here."
"Well, looks like tonight just wasn't his night." Abby said as she reached to check inside his stomach for anything that could tell them who or what did this. After a moment, she noticed a few of the insides were either missing or half eaten, razor sharp teeth being the tool used. "I think whatever did this had started to eat his insides but stopped. Maybe it got full or something but...these teeth marks. What kind of an animal was this?" She held up what looked like it used to be the spleen to the animal specialist who was leaning against one of the cops for support.
He shook his head, his glasses nearly falling off. "I'm not sure. But I could take it back to my lab to check." He took the organ and put it in a plastic bag before heading to his car. "Could you kids do us a huge favor and help us wrap up the victim to take back to our station?" The cop that the animal specialist had been leaning against asked, one hand still covering her mouth. She looked kind of shamed to be asking. The two nodded, Abby helped to put the boy in a body bag while Ty collected samples for them to take back to the gag lab.
When everything was done and taken care of, the two were standing alone next to the Detective. "You kids alright? I know this might be a bit much for you two. You've never seen a corpse before." They both nodded in agreement before Abby spoke up. "Yeah but, well, it was bound to happen eventually, no? We're going to be adults at some point and have to deal with adult things like this." "Besides," Ty continued. "More experience for us. Plus, I'm so curious as to what did this. It doesn't look like any animal I've seen before."
Abby agreed along with the director. "C'mon, let's get back to the gag lab and show Lab Rat. He's going to really want to hear about this." The two told the Detective goodbye before they left too.
Back in the gag lab, Lab Rat had been reading something before the two came in. "Oh, hey guys, you-" "Hold up whatever you're saying Lab Rat," Abby interrupted. "And listen to this." Ty held up the samples and continued. "The victim was a guy about our age and was killed by three long claw marks down his body. Killed him in an instant. Plus, whatever killed him started to eat his insides before it left.
"But how is this a gross crime?" Lab Rat asked, taking the samples and looking at them. "The smell coming from the body was too horrible for the cops and specialist to take so they called us to come and help them check it out. It nearly knocked us off our feet to though! It was bad." Abby spoke with shock because, in all honestly, she was still shocked about how bad it was. Lab Rat gave a contemplative "Hmm" before he started analyzing the samples.
Once done, he said "I'm going to put the teeth and claw marks through the system to see if they can match them up with any kind of animal." They all watched the monitor as it went from animal to animal until it came up with a blank page that said "No Known Species Match" "What?!" Lab Rat shouted, staring wide eyed at the screen. "Wow. That's not scary or anything." Ty said sarcastically, glancing at the screen nervously.
Abby frowned, tapping her chin before saying "It must be a hybrid. Someone out there must have created something to attack people." "But why? What's the purpose?" Ty asked. "I don't know but what else could it be?" Lab Rat and Ty glanced at each other before shrugging. "Well then, I say we interrogate a few people that deal with mutation, DNA splicing, stench, and animals." Abby stated, her hands on her hips. Ty counted her lists on his fingers while muttering to himself before saying "That would be Insectiva, Lance Boil, Sloppy Joe, and Darko Crevasse." "Exactly." Abby said, snapping her fingers. "They're who we're going to go after and question first."
"Okay. Sounds like a plan. Also, as I was saying before you two interrupted, Ty, you dropped this when you left." Lab Rat stated, holding up the invitation to Paige's party. "I was just reading it. Sounds like it's going to be a good time." Ty took it and frowned. "How'd you know it was me." "The invitation is a personal invitation. As in your name is inside and everything. I didn't know you guys had become friends with Paige." "We aren't. She's just inviting the whole school because of her dad or something. I'm still suspicious about it though." Abby said as she crossed her arms.
"Hey, you said you would come along!" Ty said, nudging Abby in the side. "I know. I know. I still am. I'm just going to be cautious." "But then how are you going to have a good time?" Ty whined, mimicking Abby's pose and expression. "You can't have a good time if you're going to be like this the whole time." Lab Rat laughed and said "Look, he looks just like you now. He even got your pouting mouth right." Abby looked at Ty and started laughing too. He looked funny.
"Do I look like that when I'm angry? Gosh, I hope not." She thought to herself before smacking Ty with his own invitation. "Stop it. C'mon, let's get back to school." "Okay." Ty said, chuckling as he dropped the pose. "Before we go, though, do you wanna come to the party too Lab Rat. I'm sure if Paige is inviting the whole school, she won't notice if one more person is coming." Lab Rat shook his head. "Thanks Ty but you know me. I don't like going outside. I think I'll just spend my Halloween in here with Hermes like I always do. Safe and Sound." He leaned back against his chair and sighed.
The siblings rolled their eyes good naturedly before leaving back to school.
