(Officer Veil POV)
I was still in the evidence locker. I kept looking through the evidence that I had been given by Xeta. There was enough here to get a number, and maybe even a location for these so called reapers. After everything that's happened, it's obvious that something terrible had been done. Experimentation, murder, unusual torture, they have a lot going against them. The problem is however is how we're supposed to pin it on them.
Sure I have a number, and maybe even a location, the best I could do is warrant a search, and that takes time and money to perform. Even still, we have enough riding here to get a lot of filth put away for good. That being said, I have a terrible feeling we're going to lose our-
Suddenly the door to the evidence room burst open, another officer meeting me here.
"Officer Veil sir!" The officer in question was my friend Donny, officer Don was our nickname for him, short black hair with blue eyes looking at me in a simple police uniform.
"Yes Don what is it?" I asked.
"They're here sir! And I doubt they aren't going to leave empty handed!" He said concerned.
OH SON OF A… Damnit I knew that wouldn't take long, seems our good old friends the government finally arrived.
"What are we gonna do?" Don asked me.
"I'm gonna speak with them, and while I'm at it get guards on all the cells for the creatures, you will NOT let them near them, they probably want to make this just go away nice and clean, and I won't let them!" I threatened.
"You got it sir!" Don said running out.
I followed suit and headed towards to the entrance. The thing about my station and authority was that I was well known here. I was friends with about everyone here, not that I want to scare anyone or anything like that, we have respect for one another, if they don't think what I'm doing is right they will stop me from doing it.
I headed to the gate, and what I was greeted with was a man and woman in suits, armed with a side arm and taser. My fellow officer closed the door behind them.
"Hello there, my name is Ryan, this is my partner Riva," the man introduced to me.
"Hello, may I ask what business you have here?" I asked in a sarcastic tone, acting as if I didn't already know.
"Ma'am we are here to take the creatures into custody, we thank you for your service for holding them but they can no be handed over to us." The woman Riva spoke.
"That's very kind and dandy of you to take them off our hands, but we have everything under control here, we've been gathering evidence behind the culprits of these events, so if you would please allow us to con-" I tried to speak my mind but Ryan cut me off.
"Find the culprits? You have them, these creatures need to be neutralized as soon as possible." Riva spoke.
"May I indeed correct your statement?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" The woman asked.
"From the evidence I have gathered the creatures we have in custody, have been determined to be former humans, and they will be treated as such." I said simply.
"Wait! What did you just say!?" Ryan seemed to be rather intimidated by my remark.
"It seems someone didn't care to do research, from our questionings of the one who cooperated, Xeta, himself, and the others, were all originally humans." I spoke.
"How is that… You're lying!" Riva had also started to get flustered.
"And you two haven't done your job, you came here to get rid of the problem not handle it, you were going to kill humans who have all been wronged and tortured!" I said angrily.
The two looked at one another.
"Our apologies, please, explain the situation to us, and we'll call in." Ryan said.
I told the officers to watch them as I went to get copies of the evidence. I came back and gave them a folder of the info. They took their time looking through it, and their shock grew more as they continued reading.
"A testimony of seeing one change, and another about those other animals being killed at the school." Riva said.
"My guess is that the two original ones were humans forced into a position they couldn't have backed down from," I said inquisitively.
"This is absurd, whoever heard of a human turning into something else?!" Ryan questioned.
"Trust me, I was in the same boat of thinking before I found this out, and it is peculiar on one part, we had originally had a body in custody, of the first case, Xeta I should say. Later on however someone snuck in and stole the body of the killer… We don't know how they got it, but we had already settle the case, it was something we didn't know how to handle," I explained.
"They stole the body of someone? What are you gonna do with a body?" Riva asked.
"No idea, but I have a theory it had something to do with the grave robbers soon after the first attack on the school… It's all very confusing to me, I'm not exactly sure what it means however," I explained to them.
"I'm going to go ahead and call this on, our original orders were to take in the creatures, after this however I think we're gonna need more people on this," Ryan said, and got on his phone.
I was worried about this, if more got involved it could go two ways, one we could have more control over the situation, or worse we're forced to give up this entire case.
"Ok I'm done on the phone… Lucky enough you are completely in the go on this investigation, there is only one stipulation." Ryan said.
"And what would that be?" I asked.
"They want photos of each of the creatures you have here, and the ones you have of those who died." Ryan said.
It was a peculiar task, but one that could be done.
I started by showing them the bodies of those we had. I started by bringing out one of the ice creatures. It was the male one, it's windpipe was crashed, but his body was still in tact.
"Ok, this one is from the first school attack correct?" Riva questioned.
"Indeed." I replied.
"And the other of the pair?" she asked.
"Uh… About that, that one is indistinguishable," I explained.
"How so?" Ryan questioned.
"It no longer has a head," I said.
They took that as an answer and we continued.
The next creature was one neither were prepared to see. It's wounds clearly visible, but it's body still intact. It was a creature clad in black, with white hair or fur flowing from the top of it's head. It's arms much larger than its legs, which looked as though they belonged on a different creature.
"What… is this thing?" Ryan questioned.
"We aren't sure, we weren't able to get much a visual on it before it was killed, but from what we could tell it was sure dangerous." I answered.
"These creatures don't look real, especially this one," Riva said quietly.
"Trust us, everyone here feels the same here," I said.
As we finished in the morgue I took them to see the first of the live creatures. I took them to the first area where we kept a live creature. We walked by a room made with strong walling, and bullet proof glass, and as we walked up to a something rammed head first and slammed the glass, causing the two next to me to jump back, I however had already been scared by this thing more than once, so I was quite used to it.
The creature in question was this dragon looking thing. It stood on two legs with faded purple skin. Had a tail of a shark, a fin on its back, and the head of a hammer head. This creature would rather be known as Bruce Welner.
"What…. Is that!?" Riva said in short breaths.
"This… Is Bruce Welner, one of the creatures from the second attack," I explained.
"Bruce Welner? It has a name?" Ryan asked.
"Yes, I only know this from my questioning, the description of the creature Xeta described was the same as this one, it makes sense this is him," I explained.
Bruce stared at us, waiting to try and get to us, but he wasn't able to thanks to the glass. He started pacing, his eyes not leaving us as he did.
"Why does it have a name… wait from your reports on Xeta he said Bruce had died, why is he still standing?" Ryan asked.
"That is something I am unsure of as well, from what Xeta told me Bruce was changing throughout his fight, so I'm not exactly sure what this means… I will have to question Xeta about that to see if he knows anything on this, also we should go so that he becomes uninterested," I explained.
They took their photo and we started walking, leaving Bruce in the cage, his movement started to calm after we had left.
"How do you keep him fed?" Ryan asked.
"We wait for him to fall asleep at night, then we toss food in there," I explained.
"Wait so, you said you questioned one of the creatures, but he shows to act like a wild animal, why is that?" Riva asked.
"That is another thing I am unsure of, all the creatures act different, Bruce as you saw is no longer able to come up with speech or show emotion, it's like he's acting off of instinct, and it's uncertain we'll ever be able to question him at this rate," I admitted.
They didn't know what to say after that, so we just continued on, we headed our way over to the next cell, which housed, something that caught the two by surprise.
"Yeah, this is the one we were the most surprised about as well," I said.
The creature in a normal cell was what appeared to be, well somewhat human. It had a feminine physique, it looked like it was wearing a white dress, but it looked to be connected to her body. A red scale was sticking out from her back and chest, and it had almost a green helmet in the shape of hair around it's head. It's eyes were open, the pure red looking down on the ground as she just sat there.
"Woah…" Riva said.
"This is… She's not even in the same league as that other one," Ryan said.
"Each of them look completely different from the other, it caught off guard with her though, cause we originally thought she was human," I explained, "But once we got a closer look we realized she was… what she is," I explained.
"These creatures… they are…" Riva was speechless.
"Yeah, there are no words to describe them," I stated.
"She's so calm, and quiet…" Ryan said.
"Yeah, she's been like that since she got here, she only really interacts when she eats or wakes up," I explained.
We decided that was enough talking, and Ryan took the picture of her. The flash shone into the cell and creature jumped a bit from it. We started walking but then Ryan stopped, and seemed to be struggling?
"HEY! Wha-what the?!" He seemed to be fighting with his camera, it was almost like it was pulling at him more than he was pulling at it.
"Ryan what's going on?!" Riva questioned.
Suddenly the camera was snatched from his hands, and it was… floating? It floated, and starting moving itself into the cage, Ryan looked inside and we came to see what was happening as well.
The creature was still sitting there, but it's arm was outstretched, and was now looking at the camera moving towards her. A few second later the camera was in her small hands, if they could be called hands. The two, and more so myself were stunned by this interaction.
She held the camera inquisitively, very intrigued by the item. Her face, no longer showing no emotion, but she now seemed interested, she looked like a person visiting a city or locale they are seeing for the first time. She just, stared at, and inspected the camera. It was a very appealing scenario, we needed the camera, but she wasn't harming it, she was just inspecting it, curious on what it was.
Ryan was the first to speak, "Hey I… I need that back!" He said quickly.
The creature looked toward us, in a very confused manner. She looked at us, looked back to the camera, then back to us. She then slowly got up, her slender legs easily picking herself up off the ground. She then took her time, slowly walking towards the edge of the cage, and the slowly putting her hands through to present the camera.
Ryan took it, "T… Thank you."
The creature seemed confused on that expression, her eyes moving back and forth. It surprisingly, seemed to understand the gesture, and quietly nodded, and it slowly walked over to it's bed, and sat down. We quietly then walked and took our leave.
I exhaled, "What the… I've never seen her do that."
"That isn't normal?!" Ryan asked.
"No, I didn't know she could do that, and I have never seen her want to interact with anyone outside of eating, what was that?! She made the camera float right?!" I questioned.
"Yeah, I saw her do it too!" Riva said.
I thought Bruce was our only issue, but now we are also holding a creature who can control things, supposedly with her mind. I didn't know what to think anymore, it was so unreal to actually see it's real.
"Ok… let's go ahead and move on to the next one, I apologize about that, I had no idea she could do that!" I explained.
"Dont worry about it, we weren't expecting it either," they explained.
We moved onto to the next cell. Inside on the bed, was a canine like creature. It had pure white fur, covering most of its body, and it was noticeably thicker on the upper part of its body. It had long, dark grey claws, and a tail seemingly made of the same material. It's face was covered in a similarly colored grey fur, and a small spot on it's head sported it as well. To finish off the look, on the right side of it's head, formed a horn that resembled a long scythe or sickle.
"This one we really have no information on, and secondly it hasn't woken up since we found it," I explained.
"It's asleep?" Riva asked.
I replied, "Yes, it's asleep, again we have no info outside of what it looks like, we're not even sure where it came from."
"That's odd, wait has not eaten at all?" Ryan said.
"It seems fine, it's only been about a few days, I do however expect them to be hungry once they do wake up," I explained.
"Any info on what it can do?" Riva asked.
"No, it's been asleep since we found it, no other info outside of that," I replied.
"It seems to fit better with what I expected, but again it's not too abnormal," Ryan said.
"Yes, it looks very similar to a normal canine, with a few additions, thankfully it's too big to fit through the bars, so it won't escape if it does wake up," I explained.
We decided to leave it at that, and move onto the last creature, Xeta. We walked into the interrogation room, and they saw it sitting there in a chair, his eyes were closed, but his head turned in our direction through the one sided glass.
"Woah," Both of them said.
"He can see us," I explained.
They were both scared by my tidbit.
"He has the ability to see your presence from what he's explained, it's not like he has X-ray vision, he can just, well, see your soul," I said.
"That's… creepy," Ryan said.
"You get used to it, anyways, let's go in," I said.
"What?!" They both asked.
"It's fine, I promise," I said.
We entered and I greeted Xeta to the two.
-Hello… Rika, Ryan,- I heard his voice in my head, and I'm guessing they did too cause they jumped.
"What was that?!" Ryan said.
-I'm sorry... I should have mentioned, I'm technically able to speak, well more or less you're hearing my thoughts,- Xeta said again.
Both of them turned their heads towards Xeta, "That was you?"
-Yes, I'm Xeta,- He said. His demeanor was the same, he seemed very emotionless still, but it seemed to have surprised him to see new faces.
"Xeta… It's nice to meet you," Rika said while the shock in her voice was still very present.
He simply nodded.
"Xeta?" I started, "Would it be alright if they took photos of you? It will only take a second."
-Oh… Yeah I don't mind…- He agreed.
They quickly took their photos.
"Thanks for the photos Xeta," Ryan said.
He just nodded at them, and then we started to move out of the room. After stepping out of the waiting room entirely, they started speaking.
"One that's feral, one that shows signs of intelligence, and one that truly has intelligence… This is crazy." Ryan said.
"It's something that I don't think any of us are able to really handle, and us knowing that it's confirmed that two if not all of them are human, it just makes this whole situation even worse than it already was." I explained.
"No kidding, wait does he know of the others?" Rika said.
"No, just Bruce, I don't think he realizes the other two are here," I said and we then were quiet.
We stood in silence for a good moment, not knowing what else to do. So I started up the conversation with a question.
"Say, when you guys start analyzing that evidence, can you do me a favor?" I asked.
"What's that?" Rika asked.
"Make double sure you research on a group called the reapers, Xeta in there gave us a lead that they could possibly be responsible for all of this," I explained.
"Reapers? Where is that said?" Ryan asked.
"It's in a file regarding a cell phone, I have my guys already looking into said group, but if we have more people looking into it we may be able to find the real culprits behind this," I stated.
"Well alright then, we'll keep in touch, make sure to pick up if you see this number," They handed me a phone number on a card.
"Got it, I'll be sure to be on watch, let me know if anything changes, please?" I asked.
"We will, don't worry," Rika explained.
I then helped lead them out, and Don came to meet up with me after they had taken their leave.
"So we have the clear?" he asked.
"For now at least, thankfully we've got more time, and we have some backup for now," I explained.
"Really, that's great!" Don said.
"Yeah, but now, I think I need to figure out the last of what happened with Xeta, get his full story, we need as much info as we can get," I explained.
"Alright, we'll keep watch, and make sure no one gets in, and I'll let the others know to start checking evidence again!" Don exclaimed.
"Got it, I'll go back to questioning Xeta, hopefully this will be the last time I have to," I said. I then took my time to head back to the interrogation room, now that we have more hands on deck, we just might be able to get everything we need to take these so called Reapers down.