Author's Note: I am not good at writing for Big Guy. I never got a handle on his character. So I'm not going to use him as much as everybody else. The same goes for Chuck. That's why I placed the story in the latter season of EE. Sorry to all Big Guy and Chuck fans. I didn't want to write them and have you all be disappointed because they were OOC. Thanks to all reviewing and Reading. I apologize for the delay. I was working on another story called "The Companions". It's a Doctor Who fan fic.
And now your feature presentation.
Magnus walked into the meeting room and stared at all the sleepy heads nodding off. She walked to her desk and grabbed the stack of files she left there for the meeting. Turning she marched purposefully to the coffee table and dropped them. They landed with a resounding thud.
The Big Guy, Henry, Will, and Kate jumped. The four of them exchanged guilty glances and mumbled something about "not really sleeping."
"Now that you're all done with your little nap," Magnus said, "We can get down to business. A corner store video camera caught a picture of a full grown Siborus." Magnus passed out the copies of the files with the pictures of the Siborus.
Will whistled appreciatively.
"Exactly," Magnus said.
Henry couldn't stop smiling. "That is so cool," Henry said, "It looks just like the Lizard."
Everyone gave him blank faces, except Big Guy who chuffed in agreement. "You know, Kurt Connors… the scientist who discovered a drug therapy to transform him into a giant lizard creature… Wow you guys are clearly not Spiderman fans."
Magnus cleared her throat, eager to get the conversation back on track, "Yes, well. It has already killed two boys, maybe more. The picture was taken in a highly populated area of Chicago. We need to go in and extract it."
"Piece of cake," Will said.
The Sanctuary Crew, minus Big Guy who stayed to watch the Sanctuary, gathered on the Chicago Tarmac waiting impatiently for their luggage. It seemed to Magnus that the universe had a law: The Improbability Factor in Luggage Location which states the more certain you are in your luggage's final destination the less likely it is to be there. This law never failed Helen Magnus. She always planned her trips with an hour specifically allotted to find the luggage.
"This is taking forever," Kate grumbled.
"Well we could always do without our toothbrushes," Will offered unhelpfully.
"And our boxers," Henry muttered to himself. He immediately began to blush when he realized everyone heard him.
"Or we'll just wait here until it comes," Magnus suggested.
"Oh look there's our luggage," Henry exclaimed just too emphatically, "We better leave now."
Everyone was exhausted by the time they pulled up to the Chicago Sanctuary. Will wearily clambered out and looked around in the dazed confusion of someone who's coming off a twenty four hour shift.
Behind stood the imposing Sanctuary. It could look like just another of the impressive, massive, beautifully and ornately decorated Catholic Cathedrals that dotted that section of Chicago. If you dismissed the lasers, razor wires, guard perches, motion sensors, barred windows, and security cameras it could be called inviting. The only thing the Chicago Sanctuary would need to be fully prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse is cricket bats.
Kate and Henry slid out of the car yawning and rubbing sleep from their eyes. The only person who looked fully rested was Magnus. She could make a killing teaching a class about retaining your composure no matter the circumstance. She stood there cool and poised not a single strand of hair out of place.
The Chicago Head, Dr. Dinah Ross, came out to greet them. Everyone exchanged pleasantries and Dr. Ross showed them to their rooms. After everyone settled in comfortably, Dr. Ross and Magnus entered Dr. Ross' office.
Dr. Ross' office was the polar opposite of Magnus'. Instead of being large it was small. While Magnus took a certain pride in cleanliness- it was next to Godliness in her philosophy, if her philosophy allowed for Godliness- it seemed as if Dr. Ross was waging a war against the janitorial staff. Her desk was cluttered in paper work. She had stopped trying to keep a clean desk and was now just trying to maintain a clean floor. Even the two visitor chairs were drowning in a sea of paper.
Dr. Ross sheepishly apologized as she hastily cleared off one of the chairs: she casted about looking for a place to drop the large stack. She finally dropped it on the floor.
"Sorry."
"Quite all right, you should see Will's office," Magnus said light heartedly sliding into the cleared off chair- possibly the only time in that chair's history.
"Thank you so much for coming. This Sanctuary just isn't equipped to handle this mess. An illegal shipment of Cordyceps Siberienses, sure. There just a bunch of mushrooms anyways. But a full grown Siborus? No. Most of the people working here are just a brunch of noobs. We're just getting back on our feet after the whole Cabal incident."
"I understand."
"Right. Now I've set up your up as special investigators. We're well in with the local police so we have free run of the crime scene and full access to the morgue." Dr. Ross turned gloomy, "We told the family that their boys were killed by a voodoo cult."
"I wish you hadn't done that. Cult killings generally attract unwanted media attention," Magnus pointed out.
"It was a decapitation and huge chunks were torn out of the boy's bodies! The media's gonna grab a hold of this story no matter what we say. What would you have liked we told them? That their precious boys were partly devoured by a large lizard monster running around downtown."
Magnus looked at her.
"Sorry, abnormal," Dr. Ross said, but you could tell that she didn't mean it. It made no sense to her. Two boys were brutally murdered-two human boys- and Magnus was asking like the damn monster was more important. It made her blood boil. Dr. Ross wanted to take her rifle and blow the freaking things brains out. Not tranquilize it and transport it to its natural environment so it could live out a cozy existence. The boys' parents deserved closure and they would never get that Dr. Magnus' way. But who was she to disagree with the Great Freaking Helen Magnus? Just an inept Sanctuary Head.
"Just give me whatever you have," Magnus said.
Dr. Ross nodded. "Just catch this thing before it kills again," she said before handing over a file.
"We'll do our best," Magnus said accepting the folder.
