Exposure
Alex's Apartment - Day 7, 9:25AM
Alex sat eating some fried eggs he made for breakfast. He was absolutely famished after his business last night. It was exhausting work, but Anna was hopefully safe. He was a little upset that she aided in Reza's getaway. Perhaps Viper should have a talk with her about that.
Before he could take his second bite, the doorbell rang. Sebastian stepped through before he could even stand. A hardened look plagued his features. He took Alex's hand and started dragging.
"Whoa, Sebastian, what's this about?!" Alex tore his hand away.
"Alex, come with me. The chief wants to talk to you." Sebastian growled. That was the first time he'd ever done that.
"Can you at least explain what the hell is going on first?"
"He'll explain everything when we're there. Now hurry up, we don't have the time." Sebastian took Alex's wrist again. They ran along with another word. Or rather, Sebastian ran while Alex tried to keep up. No wonder his species were called 'runners'...
Bryce's office carried a grim silence. The Chief himself watched something on his computer, his face dark. The door quietly swung open, with Sebastian walking through first.
"Chief? I have Alex." The runner said.
"Bring him in." Bryce ordered, still watching. Alex came in and was sat down in front of him. "Alex, you should know why you're here."
"I'm afraid I don't. What's going on? Why is everyone so angry?"
Bryce motioned him over to look at his monitor. On screen was CCTV footage of the production facility during last night's shootout. He had his gun trained on Reza. Anna presumably pulled the fire alarm and activated the sprinklers. Reza ran, and so did he.
"I imagine that refreshed your memory?" Bryce growled.
"No. I'm surprised Reza was at the production facility in the first place. That person, though..." Alex brought his face closer.
"Don't play stupid with me! You know damn well that was you last night." Bryce slammed a paw down, using it to prop himself up.
"Bryce, I genuinely have no idea this happened! That person must've snuck over." Alex argued hastily.
"Oh really?"
"Yes."
"I don't believe you."
"Why? Reza's dangerous, and he shot me before. Why would I want to get into another firefight with him?"
"You have a motive. You want to see him caught, and so you've gone and done this vigilante bullshit. Now normally, I'd let you go with a slap on the wrist. Tell you not to do our jobs for us. But you've got two assault charges for that little stunt you pulled against Anna and her assistant."
"I'm telling you I didn't-" A knock cut Alex off mid-sentence. A tense silence lingered as Bryce collected himself.
"I'm with someone! Just wait outside!" Bryce called out. The only response he got was the door opening.
"Hey, he's..." Sebastian trailed off, stepping away from his position to have a look. "What the heck?"
"For fuck's sake. I don't have the time or patience for jokes right now..." Bryce pinched the bridge of his snout. "Go out and tell whoever did that-" A loud, shriek from Sebastian made them both jump out of their skin. "What?! What happened?!" Bryce yelled himself.
"Something just grabbed my tail!"
"You sure you didn't just brush it against the plant?"
"Yes! Something grabbed it and pulled it!"
"Sebastian, please don't do this right now. I don't need this kind of-" It was Bryce's turn to jump out of his seat next. His big tail suddenly slammed against the ground, scaring everyone in the room.
"What the hell happened?!" Alex squeaked, clearly panicked from all the jump-scares.
"What the heck did you do to my tail?!" Bryce accused.
"Nothing! I was literally just sitting here recovering from Sebastian."
"Yeah right. I've got my eye... on..." Bryce gazed in horror as a chair leaned back by itself. Sebastian started moving for the door, ready to run screaming at a moment's notice. The chair whipped around and landed backwards.
A figure materialized in front of the officers' eyes, clad in all black with a knee on the chair. Their suit was form-fitting with a tactical-sportswear mix appearance. They wore a futuristic helmet to conceal their identity. On their back and thigh were weapons quite similar to what was seen on the camera footage. The camera footage... this was the vigilante in question.
"Morning boys. You wanted to talk to me?" Viper spoke in Bryce's voice. Both officers and the ambassador looked on in shock before Bryce's face contorted into an enraged snarl.
"Get 'em!" He commanded right before lunging for the trickster. They dodged out of the way with great agility, leading into a back-flip when Sebastian tried his luck. Both dragons collapsed into a heap on the ground. Alex whipped out his pistol, being countered and disarmed before being slammed into a wall.
"What a shame," Viper began. "If you can't catch me, you won't stand a chance against Reza. Best you leave him to me." With that, they disappeared right before their eyes.
"What the fuck...?" Bryce glanced over to the others. Sebastian readjusted his cap whilst Alex rubbed at his arm. Seemed it got hurt during his little scuffle. "Alex, answers. Now..."
"Okay, so here's the deal. My hometown – Onyx - has had a vigilante problem for a few years now. That was the vigilante." Alex, Bryce and Sebastian all sat in a readjusted Chief's office. Bryce's demeanor was very similar to that of Onyx's chief whenever his officers came back unsuccessful. Needless to say, he wasn't happy.
"So how'd he get through? There's supposed to be a patrol on duty guarding the portal." Bryce rumbled angrily.
"You saw them. They can disappear at a moment's notice. It's likely that they made their entry by making it look like a portal malfunction. I don't know how, I don't know when. I only know what Chris told me about them."
"And what did this Chris tell you? Actually, who is Chris?" Sebastian asked.
"He's my friend back in Onyx; a lieutenant in the police department." Alex explained.
"Great. So we get him over here. If he's the only one who knows anything besides you, we're going to need him." Bryce rumbled with conviction.
"I'll start writing one out so I can deliver it. Stay with Bryce, Alex. You're the only one who knows anything right now. We can't have anything happening to our chief." Sebastian ordered.
"Understood."
After a few minutes, Sebastian was out the door with his sealed letter. Now all they had to do was wait. or rather, that's what Alex was thinking until Bryce dragged him to the production facility. It seemed he had some investigating to do there...
Anna and Damion waited outside their lab. When Alex rounded the corner, he could see the distress on their faces. Damion's was straighter than Anna's, which was mixed with fear and simmering anger.
"What're you doing here?" Anna spat as soon as he was within speaking range.
"He's with me. Seems your problem is ours, now." Bryce spoke in Alex's place.
"Uh huh. Sure. Do you normally return criminals back to the scene?"
"He's not a suspect anymore. The person you saw last night snuck into my office this morning, and with him in there, no less." Bryce pointed to the little human adjacent.
"I call bullshit."
"I know what we saw. He's not guilty."
"Whatever." Damion piped up. "Anna, can you please explain what you saw so we can get back to work? I have enough of a headache as is."
"Fine. Jeez, you're on one today. So, Alex snuck into the lab last night. He knocked out Damion and grabbed me, told me that Reza was here, then choked me out. When I woke up, I saw them shooting at each other. That's when I pulled the fire alarm and got out. I found this on Damion when I saw him." Anna explained in as much detail as she could. Bryce hummed in thought before opening his mouth.
"And the other person I saw? The one that this vigilante shot?"
"I... didn't even know there was someone else there. Maybe he could tell you." She jabbed a clat at Alex.
"I don't know why you're blaming me so adamantly. We're all dealing with the same problem here." Alex finally shot back.
"Yeah; you! I don't know why the fuck you get off playing police officer, but I hope you get caught red-handed!" Anna snapped at him.
"For god's sake, I am not-"
"Will both of you shut up!" Bryce shouted, finally stopping the argument. Both aggressors and Damion took a step back out of surprise. "We have more than enough on our plate right now without you starting shit, Anna! Just give me your statement and keep your opinions to yourself!" Bryce was huffing by the time he finished, as though that one outburst took up all of his breath.
There was a long pause as everyone calmed down. The air was so tense that everything threatened to explode with the slightest jostle. Everyone stared at Bryce, either in shock or concern, before looking back to each other. Alex and Damion glanced at each other first. Damion clearly hadn't seen an outburst like this before. Or at least, not in a long time. Alex, meanwhile, shifted his gaze to Anna. Hers was more shock and awe than anything else. The explosion might've stunned her into silence.
"Let's go, Alex. Someone else will get her statement." Bryce muttered. Alex started after him before looking back. They were still there in their paralysis as he rounded the corner...
The political district was deathly still compared to the police station. A few dragons milled about, some with papers, and some on calls. One in particular stood out from the rest. An older earth dragon, decorated with jewelry awaited them on a park bench; Emera. Alex fell behind to check if he had any weapons on him. It was more than likely that she noticed one of his hints and got spooked. Now they had to face the consequences.
"Good morning Chief, Ambassador." Emera greeted in a funny way. Alex was immediately suspicious, but kept a straight face. Outside of potentially being freaked out, something seemed off...
"Greetings, Minister. Shall we head inside for our business?" Bryce welcomed back alongside a slow nod from the ambassador.
"No need. I've got everything I need right here, plus a little something that requires your attention." Emera pulled a black card in the shape of a snake head from a manila folder next to her.
"Curious. What is this, and where'd you find that?" Bryce took it from her, glazing it over.
"It was stuck on my fridge this morning, along with a page from my book."
" I know what you've done. Well, that's not ominous at all. And you say you found it on your fridge?"
"Yes. I don't know who might've left it or what that even means."
"Hold on. Bryce, let me see that." Alex motioned for him to hand it over before giving it a once over. It was definitely his card, and now it had his fingerprints on it. He paid it no mind for now. "This card... this is just like the ones I'd find my daughter with sometimes."
"What do you mean?" Bryce asked.
"She'd sometimes get herself in trouble. I'd find her at her mom's house with one of these addressed from 'a guardian angel'. I'd always turn them in to the police as evidence. They say they're from that same vigilante we saw."
"Okay, so that means they've been to Emera's. But why target her specifically?"
"Wait a minute, wait a minute. Who the heck are you talking about here?" Emera piped up, confusion plaguing her features.
"Some punk from Alex's world who's decided to make their appearance known only now." Bryce spoke darkly.
"And I imagine that this-" She took the card back from Alex. "-is their doing?"
"It seems like it. Emera, I don't know why they're targeting you, but they usually do it to criminals or bad people. Especially those who've hurt someone they've sworn to protect." Alex warned.
"You believe they've gotten to know someone here, and Emera somehow caused them harm?" Bryce asked.
"Perhaps. But they can't really show themselves whenever. It may be more likely that they were spying on someone here, and they saw Emera do something."
"Well that doesn't sound suspicious at all. How do I know it wasn't you who left the note?" Emera chimed in, pointing the card at him.
"Me?! Oh, for fuck's sake..."
"That's already been debunked. We believed it was him at the production facility hunting Reza last night, until the actual criminal showed up in my office." Bryce swiftly advocated for Alex, adopting a hardened look.
"It sounds like Alex may be the one being spied on. We may need more security if that's the case. I will need security if I'm being targeted." Emera deduced.
"We could give you an escort."
"That's great. You could do it." She suggested. Bryce let out a sheepish groan. He really wanted to stay on this case.
"Let's discuss that at another time. I think we should do something about the 'grim reaper' first." Alex spoke up, wanting to get off that topic as soon as possible, for both his and Bryce's comfort.
"Very well. Does anyone have any immediate ideas?" Emera glanced to the two of them. It took a few moments, but Bryce ended up with a couple of cents to throw in.
"What if we bait this vigilante into going back to Alex's world?" He spoke cautiously.
"What do you mean?" Alex spoke up with suspicion.
"We send you back to your world, wait for them to leave with you, and then just have you come back. Disable the portal or something after."
"Bryce, that idea is completely insane." Alex deadpanned. His dragon shrugged.
"Got anything else?"
"Not really..."
"Then we work with that. We just need you as bait, then you can come back."
"Chief. What's going on here?" Sebastian rolled up just in time to hear the last of it.
"Perfect timing, Sebastian. I need you to take Alex to the portal and-"
"Hold on, Chief." Emera butted in. "I'm in charge of Alex's stay, I feel like I should hear his counter argument before we just ship him off. Alex?" The whole group turned to him. He suddenly felt tense with all the eyes on him. He took a moment to gather himself before opening his mouth.
"I appreciate the concern, Minister. Let me start by saying that this is the Grim Reaper of Onyx we're talking about. From what my friend in the OPD told me, this person will not easily shift focus once they've set their sights on something. It's more than likely that they'll simply shift focus exclusively to Reza if I leave. They'll stop at nothing to stop him. People who get in the way will either be incapacitated, or if they're fighting with him, killed. It may be safer to keep me here. Keep their focus away from exclusively hindering the police and stopping Reza.
Emera closed her eyes in deep thought. She remained like that for a few moments before nodding. "Ambassador Alex stays." She said. Bryce and Sebastian's eyes lowered to the ground, them both relenting. "We'll both need extra security. Long days are endemic in my line of work, so I'll need an escort on a nightly basis if I'm being targeted by this 'Grim Reaper' fellow." She turned to Bryce. "Now what of the hunt for Reza?"
"We continue our hunt for him day and night. As a matter of fact; this one has been helping us do so for the last week." Bryce nodded to Alex.
"I see... interesting. And how do we know Alex is truly on our side?"
"Part of my job here was to make sure Reza didn't try anything stupid." Alex rasped. "If I were secretly on his side, all of the investigations that've happened so far would be sabotaged in some way."
"They did go bad, though." Bryce added.
" Regardless. There would be evidence of it by this point. Reza wouldn't have tried to debilitate me, for one." Alex flashed his scarred arm.
"That's nasty. Could've been from anything, though." Emera brushed him off.
"It's a bullet wound, minister. Maverick will have the same scar when he heals. Bryce too if he doesn't get shot somewhere vital."
"I wouldn't talk about the chief getting injured if I were you." Emera's eyes narrowed.
"I was speaking hypothetically. Don't tell me what I can and can't say." Alex growled.
"You're in my world, human. I will tell you whatever the fuck I want to." Emera jabbed into his chest, sending him a step back.
" Okay! Let's not fight, I don't want to put you both in cuffs." Bryce got between them. Alex and Emera immediately backed off. Their glares didn't. "We should go inside. I think the heat is getting to both of you." He sneered. Alex relaxed his stance slightly whilst Emera only conceded with a slit-eyed glare. It was clear from that point on; Bryce had been messed with enough...