This chapter is brought to you by ShadowMajin
Videl climbed out of the car the first chance she got. All morning long she had been listening nonstop to her new "partner," something she wouldn't wish on her enemies right now.
"Oh boy, our first investigation together!" Hercule exclaimed as he slammed his car door shut. "What do you think they have for us? A robbery? Hit-and-run? A political assassination?! Oh, I hope it's the last one, I could use the excitement!"
"You know, normal people usually don't wish for those things," Videl deadpanned.
"And if everyone was normal, then there wouldn't be crimes and we'd be out of a job. I can't help it if I want something worth the trouble of investigating."
That...was actually a legitimate point. Damn this man for making her agree with him once!
"Let's just get this over with," the dark-haired woman grumbled as she marched around the car and headed for the crime scene. Ever since she had found out this Hercule guy was her partner, Videl had been questioning her choice of cover. Seriously, this guy did not shut up, even to take a breath. In fact, Videl was pretty sure the guy hadn't taken one the moment his mouth opened.
It had been a godsend when they were assigned this case. Jumping in the detective's car, the young woman had figured the guy would be business now instead of spewing his self-absorbed drivel. No such luck as it turned out. Turned out this Hercule fellow knew no time, day or night, that wasn't fit for him to talk about his biceps or the best way to keep his afro maintained. The urge to shoot him had been unbearable when he tried giving her tips on how to properly trim her toenails.
Kami help the next person who heard that talk.
Reaching the crime scene, Videl shoved her hands into her pockets as she quickly located an officer, one of the first responders. "So what's the deal," she called out once she reached the man.
The first responder glanced at her, easily recognizing her before he began to report, "Mugging gone wrong, ma'am. The vic is a 30 year old male, Chuckie Sollis. He was robbed at gunpoint, shot, and left for dead, which Sollis eventually did. We've got a couple eyewitnesses that saw the whole thing, so this should be an open-and-shut case for you."
Oh good, an easy case. Videl could live with that for—
"Or that's what they want you to think."
Oh dear, sweet Kami, no.
"Sir?" the first responder questioned, looking at Detective Satan bewildered.
"I've seen this a hundred times," Hercule boasted. "Ya see, this isn't some robbery—this was a cold-blooded murder made to look like a robbery."
"Ugh...I did say there was a murder," the first responder began.
Only to be interrupted. "Now, at first glance, I can see why you would think this was a mugging." Hercule began to pace around the scene, one of his beefy hands raised up and cupping his chin, his other arm crossing over his chest and propping up the elbow of his extended arm. "What first tipped me off was the location. I mean, look around, this place isn't all that great of a place to rob someone. It's too open, too exposed to do it effectively."
Videl gave a cursory look at the area around them and found herself...completely disagreeing with her partner. The place was remote, next to an alleyway for the muggar to hide until the last moment and spring his attack.
"The second thing I noticed was the victim's tattoo." At this, Hercule pointed down at a noticeable tattoo on Sollis' hand. "You see that? That's the emblem of the Illuminati, which means this man is not an innocent victim, but a man in over his head in an Illuminati plot."
"That is the most ridiculous thing I've—" Videl began to say.
Only to be cut off by her partner. "He's probably been on the run for some time now. I don't envy him, ya know, always having to look over his shoulder for a threat, only for it to come right in front of him. In fact, I'd bet you this mugger was only a distraction. The 'muggar' pops out, demands money, which makes our Illuminati guy here look in front of him. Meanwhile, a second perp shows up and shoots him in the back. Of course, in order not to be spotted by our eyewitnesses, the second shooter has to be out of sight, so he's most likely a sniper and a good one at that."
Looking down at the body, the dark-haired woman looked at the blood stains on the back of the victim, quickly coming to the conclusion that the holes were exit wounds and not the point of entry, what with the pieces of tissue and organs sticking out of the bullet wounds.
"Is he normally like this?" the first responder asked Videl, leaning towards her as he murmured his question.
"Honestly, I'm getting the feeling that this isn't normal for him," she replied. "He's much, much worse, I fear."
"So...we can just ignore whatever he says, right?"
"I would, assuming you can. If you figure out how to shut his voice out, please let me know. I'd kill for that secret."
"Hey!" Hercule suddenly shouted, anger in his voice. "You two aren't listening! I'll have you know that's very unprofessional, ya know! Now listen up cause I'm only gonna say this once, got it?!"
"I wish you only spoke once," Videl muttered.
"Now where was I?" the buffoon questioned out loud before he found his place. "That's right, the clocktower!"
"What does a clocktower have anything to do with this?" Videl protested then, throwing her arms out to either side of her exasperatedly.
"Well, if you had been listening, you'd know it has to do with everything," Hercule reprimanded her. "After all, the clocktower is a well-known symbol of the Night Watchmen, the rival group to the Illuminati. They would've hid in the tower until our vic was here, come out, and kill anyone and everyone to make sure the vic was dead."
I'm going to strangle him, Videl seethed in her head. I'm going to suffocate him tonight with his pillow and bury him in wet cement so that his idiocy doesn't get the chance to produce offspring.
"Okay, partner, can you tell me where the clocktower is? Surely it has to be close by," she said snarkily.
"Right you are, Sweetpea," Hercule replied. Videl's eyebrow twitched at the nickname, her fingers spasming before tightening together to form fists. "And that tower is...is…"
"Nowhere," Videl growled out lowly. "There isn't a clocktower because it doesn't exist, just like your insane conspiracy theory. This was a simple mugging gone bad, nothing more, nothing less, you dolt."
In response, Hercule jabbed a finger towards her. "That's what they want you to think."
"Satan...get back in the car."
The afroed man's eyes narrowed. "Are...are you...one of them too?"
"Someone lock this idiot in his car," Videl ordered loudly.
"You sure you want to do that?" a forensic tech asked. "It's getting kinda hot out here and if he's in his car, he could fry."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Videl retorted.
The other officers at the scene looked at each other before collectively shrugging their shoulders. Faintly, Videl heard one of them say, "She's got a point."
"Hey, I am in the middle of an investigation here!" Hercule roared. "And I won't be shoved aside because no one else can see the obvious cover-up going on here!"
"Just get back to the car," Videl groaned. "I promise, I'll get you an ice cream when I'm done here."
That seemed to make Hercule pause. "You...you mean it?" he questioned slowly.
"Yeah, I do."
"Yes! Ice cream! I'll be in the car!" And with that, a grown-ass man took off from the crime scene, running full out. Just watching her partner racing off made the young woman realize the growing migraine forming in her head. Videl had been through a lot in her life, some good, some bad. This...this was probably worse than all of that combined.
What did she do to deserve this?
…
"You said we'd get ice cream," Detective Satan whined very, very loudly. "You lied. You said we'd get ice cream and you lied."
"That's because you kept misbehaving," Videl retorted as kindly—motherly even—as she could. Since she arrived at the station, it was kinda like babysitting a manchild. A big, hairy, annoying, overgrown manchild. Whoever let this guy out of his parents' house was next on Videl's list of people to visit, though unlike her top priority, she didn't intend on being so nice with them.
"But I was good!" Hercule continued to protest. "Honest!"
"Really? Then why did you drive me halfway across the freaking city because you thought you saw—actually I have no clue what your delusion was, but you ended up wasting half the afternoon chasing it. That is how you misbehaved."
And that had been another headache. Out of nowhere, her insane partner damn near swerved off the road and went on a chase over some stupid shadow or something. The chase ended at a deli where Detective Satan ended up frightening the manager. It took a free foot-long sub and Videl literally twisting his ear to drag him out of that place. The dark-haired woman was pretty sure there was a lifetime ban mentioned, but that went over her head considering the embarrassment she was feeling at the time.
"Sounds like you've been babysitting, Tanas," a nearby officer called out, a joking tone in his voice.
Videl merely looked at him, her face displaying just how amused she was at the remark. Fortunately the officer seemed to get the hint that he shouldn't have have stuck his neck in something he had no part in. Unfortunately, Videl was currently wishing she wasn't apart of this partnership.
"Now you listen to me," Satan spoke up then, his voice heated. "I am a grown man and I refuse to be treated like a toddler! You hear me?!"
Videl completely ignored her partner, opting to march towards the forensics side of the room. Unfortunately, this didn't shut up the afroed man as he gave chase. "Did you hear me? I'm a seasoned detective with more years on this force than you have since the day you were born! Hell, I've got chest hair older than you!"
"Gross," the dark-haired woman grumbled as she reached the forensic lab. "Harper!" she shouted, causing a short, bald man to jump in his seat and then spin around to look at her. "Tell me you have your report on my homicide."
Immediately the man snatched up a brown folder and pushed off on the floor, sending his rolling chair sliding across towards Videl and Hercule. "Here you go, Detective," he said as he handed the file to the woman.
Snatching it up, Videl opened it and then stuck it in Detective Satan's face. "Read. If you still think your conspiracy theory is true, this completely destroys it."
Reaching up, her partner grabbed the folder and pulled it away from his face so he could read it. His face scrunched up the more he read until he slowly lowered it down, an apologetic look on his face. "I guess I may have been off on a couple things," he admitted.
"Yeah, a couple." Videl then pulled the file away from the man and began walking to the unit lieutenant's office. She completely ignored Hercule meekly following her as she reached the door, strolled right up to Hoss' desk and slammed the open folder right in front of the older man. "See this," she stated more than asked.
Hoss glanced down at the file before his eyes flickered up to the door, spotting Hercule peeking in. An aggrieved sigh came from his lips as he asked, "What did he do this time?"
"He—" Videl suddenly went quiet as she considered those words. Again? That moron's done stuff like this before? Dear Kami Almighty. "The detective ran roughshod on my investigation, L-T. He ignored evidence and eyewitness testimony because he believed some secret organization performed a hit."
Hoss stared at her before he pressed a hand to his face. "Just because he was right that one time," he muttered.
"What was that?" Videl questioned. "You mean there was some mystery group doing hits? Since when?!"
"That was a long time ago, Detective," the police lieutenant replied. "And I'll tell you like I've told his other partners: just ignore them. I know he can be tough to work with, but police policy states that all junior officers must be partner with a senior officer or below—and that includes you. I've let you work solo because he was incapacitated, but now you have to work together."
Ugh, Videl had forgotten about that policy. Damn it, why hadn't she made herself a senior officer when she applied for this job? This cover was starting to become a hindrance now.
"L-T, if I may say something?" Hercule suddenly spoke up as he stepped into the office. "I'm not meanin' to make anyone's life tough; it's just that I feel like I have something to prove after I was attacked by those fifty guys at my apartment. That kind of thing makes a man want to show he's still worthwhile and all. I promise to tone it down a little for my new partner here."
The two police officers stared at the man for a moment before Hoss looked to the dark-haired woman and asked, "Well, how about it? Give it one more shot?"
Uhh, how about "Hell no."? That's what Videl wanted to say before the phone went off, naggingly ringing off its stand. "You two make up, I don't care how," Hoss then ordered as he began shaking his hand at them, prompting them to leave. "Now get out of my office."
"Fine," Videl said through gritted teeth as she turned and stomped her way out of the office, a happy-looking Hercule leading the way.
"Now, I know we got off on the wrong foot, but we can put that all behind us," Hercule spoke, sounding as if nothing had ever happened. Perhaps in that dying ball of tissue he called a brain, perhaps it never had. "I just know, if we stick together, we can catch all sorts of bad guys. The limit's the sky for us, baby!"
"Don't you mean the sky's the limit?" Videl asked, instantly regretting it.
"Exactly! I knew we were on the same page!" Satan praised.
Then, out of nowhere, Hoss popped out of his office. "Tanas!" he called out, causing the two dark-haired detective's to stop. "I just got a call from the brass. You're being transferred to North City."
It was as if a choir of angels began to sing, a heavenly glow falling over Videl. Oh thank you, thank you Baby Dende. She didn't praise the Son of Kami all that much, if ever, but she was suddenly glad that he allegedly died for her sins. "You sure, L-T?" she asked, a hint of hopefulness in her voice.
"Of course I'm sure. Apparently someone in North City was impressed with your work that they wanted to hire you on and arranged something with the commissioner. Now pack your desk; they're expecting you soon."
...
It took about twenty minutes to leave BSPD, all because a certain someone broke down into a crying tantrum. Upon hearing the news that she was free, Hercule had burst into tears and latched onto the smaller woman, whining how it wasn't fair and how much he was going to miss her. Then he went on some tirade about all the great work they had done, things that they had never, ever done. Videl suspected most of them came from action movies, but she wasn't completely sure about it.
Regardless, the moment she stepped through the station's doors, a cardboard box under her arm, she couldn't help but suck in the air, scented with what she could best describe as freedom. Finally, she could get back onto her primary objective without having to worry about acting like a responsible member of society.
And wouldn't you know it, her car pulled right up to the curb in front of the station. Descending down the steps, she walked straight to the car and opened the passenger door, slipping in and slamming the door shut.
"You're a godsend, Janus," was the first thing out of the dark-haired woman's mouth the moment the door was shut. In the driver's seat was the older woman, who immediately pulled out onto the street and began driving away from the police station.
"Sounds like you were being tortured," Janus spoke up, being mindful of the traffic around them.
"Believe me, you have no idea." Looking out of the windshield, Videl soaked in the relief she felt. "I'm assuming you were the one that arranged the transfer."
Janus changed lanes before she answered, "Actually no. I'm just the getaway driver."
That made Videl frown. Suddenly, she did not like this lucky break of hers. "What's going on…?" she spoke slowly, her hand inching towards her gun holster.
"I was trying to make some headway on my son," the older woman began. "And I kept hitting roadblocks. Specifically, I was trying to figure out how he was traveling to North City. I figured if we had a mode of transportation, we could triangulate where he arrived in the city and work from there."
"I take it you weren't able to find anything," the younger woman summarized.
"Unfortunately, yes. My husband trained him too damn well at covering his tracks. I don't know if he's flying, driving, or taking the train. The possibilities are endless at this point."
"That still doesn't explain my sudden transfer," Videl pointed out.
"Well, during my search, I encountered another one of us—Maid."
That made the dark-haired woman narrow her eyes. After everything the two of them had said in Maid's hospital room, the blonde still hadn't disappeared. What the hell was that girl doing? Damn it, Videl had destroyed police evidence to help her out!
"As you can imagine, Maid didn't take kindly to running into me," Janus continued as she changed lanes again. "And since I couldn't afford to let her go after seeing me, the two of us had a...conversation."
"And what was in this conversation?" Videl pressed.
"An exchange of sorts."
"That being?"
"Well, let's just say that we're a trio now."
Videl sat in her seat numb. No way, this couldn't be. There was no way Maid could be in on this operation of theirs. It was one thing with Janus joining because she had a vested interest in seeing Gohan alive. Maid didn't have that. For all the dark-haired woman knew, the blonde was out for revenge. Not exactly something they needed on the team.
"And you didn't consult with me on this why?" she practically seethed.
"Because I know you two work well together," Janus answered simply. "And we need to spread out our search. We can't do that with just you running around North City and me handling logistics. Since Maid did all that with the agency, she can do it for us now."
"And she knows we're looking for Gohan? Are you nuts?!"
Finally Janus had the good sense to look guilty. "I didn't exactly tell her what our goal was," she replied sheepishly.
"Then you know we have to tell her," Videl pointed out. "If Maid is going to be effective, she has to know who the target is and at this point, why. And in case you didn't know, she and Gohan have met and that meeting didn't go too well for her."
"How so? She's still alive, isn't she? Besides, she was the one who arranged your transfer. Did it faster than I could have, so that has to count for something."
That made the younger woman pause. Janus did have a point there; Gohan could have killed Maid after he kidnapped her to learn the location of Royal & Rayne. Then again, who knew if the blonde was carrying a grudge. This new situation beginning to show signs of volatility that Videl wanted no part of, but had been conscripted into—damn it.
This had better not come to bite them. Videl hadn't spent all this time just to be hamstrung at the last second. "If Maid is going to be involved, then all she has to know is that we're working together for your reasons. I'm helping you find your son—that's all."
That made the older woman raise an eyebrow. "And nothing about your personal reasons?" she inquired.
"You're the one who brought Maid on, not me. And if it had it my way, she wouldn't be apart of this either. So if you want her on, she only knows about you, got it?"
Janus nodded. "Fair enough."
Videl just stared at the other woman through narrowed eyes. It seemed she was going to have to keep a closer eye on her so-called partner...partners. The less control she had, the worst this could end and she didn't want that to happen.
Not ever.
…
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