The Question/Detective Chimp: Runaway Brains

By Deadpoolzilla

Question's journal entry 268, case number 148 part 7

It's been almost two weeks now and I still have yet to find so much as a single clue on this new case. For nearly ten days now I've been following a series of murders on the homeless all along Hub City, the travel pattern has no connection, the hours are never same and victims range from both young and old regardless of gender.

The only thing tat remains the same in these murders is that the victim's scalps have been cut off and their brains have been removed. Every crime scene is also the same as well, no fingerprints, no use of chemicals to clean up any evidence left behind (which there is none) and still have yet to have a single suspect to follow.

The police are working on the case, but the mass killing of homeless people isn't the highest priorities to them, leaving me to pick up the pace in the shadows, but I've come to the conclusion that I can't do this alone, so I've decided to call in some help from a friend who I've traded notes with on previous cases in the past, but now I need his help more than ever if I'm to stop these killings from continuing, however the question is: will he help me?

Vic Sage sat at his computer in his apartment, waiting for his friend to show up online since he lived on the opposite side of the world. Once he did, the hero of Hub City rang him up.

Chimp: *over a web-camera* Do you know how late it is over here Vic?

Vic: I know Chimp, but I need your help

Chimp: is this about the homeless murders you told me about? I've given you all the help I can on that

Vic: I've hit a dead end Chimp; I need your help on this case personally

Chimp: Have you lost your bloody mind? I'm in London! You can't seriously expect me to drop everything and go to Hub City just like that!

Vic: These murders are out of control, I can't get so much as a clue to help me solve this case, but you've dealt with strange murders all over Europe

Chimp: Why not call Batman? He's closer to you

Vic: I don't trust Batman

Chimp: That's fair; he doesn't trust you either. He thinks you're crazy

Vic: Right, because the guy who dresses up in black tights and jumps off of rooftops with a little boy is the sane one

Chimp: Besides, Scotland Yard keeps me far too busy to leave London

Vic: That's funny, because I looked up your rotation and you've got some vacation time coming up right about…now

Chimp:…I hate you….

Vic: Be seeing you soon Chimp *turns off the web-cam*

It was a cold night as the Question waited for his partner to arrive. He stood on the roof of his apartment complex, wondering to himself if Chimp would even come to his aid. Just then he heard the sound of something scaling up the building's fire escape, sure enough, it was a chimpanzee wearing clothing similar to Sherlock Holmes with very annoyed look on his face.

Chimp: I just took a fourteen hour flight (in baggage might I add), got harassed by airport security for an extra four hours, could not get a taxi for the life me, add eighteen kids want to take a picture with me and spent nearly an hour and half trying to find this damn building! So for your sake Sage this case better be worth my bloody vacation time or so help me god I will fling my feces in your face so hard, it'll feel like a cinderblock hit you!

Question: Nice to see you to Chimp

Chimp: spare me the formalities, where do we start?

Question: a nineteen year old girl was murdered earlier tonight at the local park; the police should be leavening the scene right about now, we should start our investigation, there

Chimp: Then by all means, lead the way

Once two unorthodox detectives made it the crime scene, the police and left the area with the body in tow, giving the duo a chance to get a closer look at the scene without any hindrance.

Chimp: *takes out a magnifying glass and examines the ground* It's just as you said my boy, not a drop of blood or chemicals to be found, this is most interesting

Question: I'll find it interesting after we've caught the guy who did this

Chimp: oh don't start going all 'John Mcclane' on me, you're above that *sees something in the tree* wait a tick-I believe we have something!

Question: What is it?

Chimp: We have a witness *begins to climb the tree*

Question: How, there's no one up there

Chimp: I said we had a witness Question, I never said we that he was human now did I?

The ape detective then pulled back one of the branches blocking the human's line of sight to reveal their witness to the crime: an owl. At first Vic was confused by this, but then he quickly remembered his partner's uncanny ability to communicate with any species of animal from the largest whale to the smallest ant.

Chimp: *to the owl* good evening sir, I'm sorry to bother you on this night, but did you happen to see what befell the human girl that was killed here?

Owl: Hoot

Chimp: You did? Excellent! Could you please tell us what you saw?

Owl: *begins to hoot repeatedly*

Chimp: Really? That's interesting….*tips his hat to the owl* thank you, sir, have a good night *jumps down from the tree*

Question: What did the owl say? *pauses for a second* there's a sentence I never thought I'd say

Chimp: He told me that he saw the girl talking to a man in a leather jacket. The man then suddenly pulled out some strange deceive from his jacket and forced the girl onto the ground where the then forced the device onto the girl's head, which then pulled off her scalp and removed her brain from her skull, he then put the device away into his jacket and took off into the night

Question: did he get a good look at the man or the thing he used to take the girl's brain?

Chimp: Sadly no, he said that he didn't get a good look at the man's face; but he said the machine looked like a silver cap shaped machine

Question: Well that's not much, but it's a start

Chimp: I'd like to take a closer at the body, perhaps we're missing something

Question: Then we better get going to the city morgue

Chimp: Tally ho my boy!

As the two left for the morgue, a man watched the duo from his car that was parked on the other side of the park. He didn't like the fact that the Question was still on his and his bosses trail and now that he had help, it was starting to make him worried. So in an act of desperation, he called his boss to get his next set of orders.

Man: Boss, I just saw the Question, investigate another crime scene and he had some kinda monkey with him too

?: That must be the great Detective Chimp I heard about, if he's friends with the Question then it's only a matter of time before they find us and bust our operation

Man: What should I do boss?

?: Follow them for now, but if they get too close, kill them both

Man: Got it boss *hangs up*

Josephine Evart was a 34 year old forensics expert who specialized in the most strangest cases of death Hub City had to offer her, but this missing brain, killing had been even perplexing, even to her, however her night got even stranger when a faceless man in a blue trench coat and a fedora with a chimpanzee wearing Victorian-era clothing walked into her examination room.

Question: Leave. Now.

Josephine: *quickly nods in response and runs out of the room*

Chimp: good, now we can work in peace *jump onto the table and pulls out his magnifying glass to look inside the empty skull* good lord-it's a clean cut, there's not a spot of blood or brain tissue to be seen! How can anyone make off with a brain like that?

Question: Isn't that the question of the day?

Chimp: Did you really just a make a pun about your name?

Question: It was by accident

Chimp: right… anyway, as I was saying there's not a spot of evidence to go one in this empty skull

Question: *sees something in her shirt pocket* Hang on, what's this? *pulls out a small card from the pocket* this looks like some business card

Chimp: What does it say?

Question: it says Angel's escort services. In other words, this girl was a prostitute

Chimp: What kind of escort service has their girls carry around business card?

Question: I have no clue, but this gives a lead; we can trace this girls list of clients, I'm betting that her last one was the last person she saw alive

Chimp: *jumps off the body and unto a desk to look at the clip board* it says here the girl's name was Lola Montez (which I highly doubt is her birth name by the way) and she was indeed an escort and judging by her blood tests a meth addict as well, poor thing

Question: our killer is stepping up his game, he's going from homeless to hookers, and soon he'll going after bigger game

Chimp: then we'd best put a stop to this mess before-

The ape's words where cut off by a powerful explosion that knocked the heroes unconscious and left buried under rubble. As the smoke cleared, a large figure in a white suit walked in with a man in a black jacket standing next to him, the man in white was heavy-set and had chalk white skin with gold teeth in his mouth as well as gold and jewels that adorned his fingers.

?: get 'em outta here

?: yes boss *picks them both up*

There were more times than Vic Sage could count when he woke up in handcuffs and sometimes more than others it wasn't necessarily a super-villain that hands held him down, but this wasn't one of those more enjoyable kidnappings. He found himself handcuffed back-to-back with Chimp on folding chairs in what looked like a warehouse.

Question: you awake Chimp?

Chimp: I've been awake for six minutes, you snore by the way

Question: Any idea where we are?

Chimp: Well obviously it's a warehouse

Question: I know that, I meant where do you think we are in the city?

?: Don't worry about it, you two won't live long enough to care

The two heroes turned to see their captor and his gang standing behind him.

Question: Tobias Whale

Chimp: Who?

Question: A crime lord that got kicked out of Gotham after a mob war with Maroni and lost *to Whale* I thought you died in that gang war

Whale: Rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated, now I'm in the organ selling business; you know how much a brain is worth on the black market? A lot more than anything I tried to sell before in Gotham

Question: So it's safe to say that it's you that's been doing all the brain stealing lately

Whale: Well not me personally, but my new right hand man over here *points to the man in the black jacket* is former surgeon who got a hold of some experiential surgical devices from S.T.A.R labs. We've been selling brains left and right ever since, but now that you've stumbled into my little operation, it looks like you'll be target practice; any last words

Question: Yeah, you're an idiot

Whale Huh?!

Question: Chimp and I would've spent another five hours looking for clues, but you and your boys blew a hole into the side of the morgue and found us instead and it's typical bad-guy fashion you just blurted out your evil plans and you want to know something else?

What: What?

Question: We picked the locked in the handcuffs while you were talking

Whale: Uh-oh…

Vic and Chimp shot up from their seats, making the thugs too shocked to grab their guns. Question picked up his chair and hurled it right in one of the hired men's faces, knocking him out on impact. Chimp leapt at another man and began to bite and claw at his face, making him shoot blindly into the air until the intelligent ape knocked him out with a blow to the head. Another man tried to shoot the Chimp from behind, but was quickly taken out by a strong punch across the face. The final man dropped his gun and surrendered, not wanting to be beaten down, leaving only Whale and his right hand man left alone.

Whale's assistant: What do we do boss?

Whale: I don't know about you, but I'm getting the hell outta here! *tries to run*

Question: Oh know you don't!

The faceless hero picked up the chair once more and hurled it at the one great crime lord, knocking him down with a blow to the back. Vic then walked over to the large albino and bashed him in the face repeatedly until his enemy was finally unconscious. However as he beat the crime lord senseless, he failed to notice Whale's right hand man pick up of the guns on the floor and aim it at his head. Suddenly a pile of feces came soaring through the air and struck him in the face, blinding him on contact, this gave Question enough time to see the gunman and take him out with a roundhouse kick across the jaw.

Question: *looks over to Chimp* did you seriously-

Chimp: *Angrily* yes I did and I hate it! It was spur of the moment! Now let's go before the police arrive!

Question: You don't need to stay in the shadows like I do Chimp

Chimp: I'm not doing this for you; I'd rather not talk to the police and the press with crap all over my hands!

Question: Well in any case, thanks for the help Chimp, what do you say we celebrate and-

Chimp: If you say go get some banana splits I will rip your balls off

Question: Never mind

Next Issue: After the fallout of New Titans #8, Beast-Boy is on a quest to find Raven, but his search is sidetracked when he sent to aid Batman in a battle against an old foe of his. Can this unlikely dynamic duo work together or will they both die at the hands of Madame Rouge!