Chapter 5: Chapter Five

The time after we found Verdant's body was kind of a blur. I'd done quite a few things since I got my powers. Going to the WCP, Vengiello's, and The Night Market. I'd begun to think of myself as a pretty worldly guy in most ways. Seeing that mutilated corpse brought that impression of myself crashing down in the most dramatic way. I wasn't worldly, I was a total rookie, I'd never seen a body before, much less someone killed like that. Was this something common? Were there lots of murderers like that on Callus and the Unity just covered it up?

I was escorted back to the HQ and taken back up the invisible staircase, but I stopped halfway up as Captain Polaris continued upwards, presumably to see his mother. I pulled back my hood and stepped through the door to what looked like a meeting room and was immediately bombarded by a wailing blonde. "Shane! Revenant, it's so good to see you! I have no idea what's going on. They just grabbed me from home and brought me here, saying something happened to my brother! That he's dead! Do you know what's going on?"

I winced at her teary eyes and the fear and hope that shone in them. Leaving me with the victims grieving sister without telling her how he died was a dick move on their part. I put my hands on her shoulders. "Whoa, Jessie slow down, lets take a seat. I don't know much, ok? I was there when we...found him. But I'm just as in the dark as you are, so lets wait for them to fill us in ok?" I absolutely did not want to tell this sweet girl what had been done to her brother, she didn't deserve those nightmares. Hell I didn't deserve those nightmares, not that it would keep them at bay.

She took a shuddering breath as I sat her down, wiping her teary eyes. "Sorry, I'm just sobbing all over you and we don't know each other that well. It's just so nice to see a familiar face. It's been so scary in here, thinking about my brother being gone and not seeing anybody." She burst into tears again. "I can't believe Alan is gone! I just talked to him this morning." I reached out to offer a hug and she hurled herself into my arms, her body shaking with huge wracking sobs.

I couldn't even imagine the pain she must be going through. I gave her a squeeze, but I had no clue what to say. I just sat there and let her cry on for what felt like forever. I was bad with comforting other people. Emotions in general weren't my strong suit, and the only person I'd lost was my mother, or at least I'd been told I'd lost her. Turned out even that wasn't true. Still, Jessie was a sweet person and she was clearly hurting, if just being here helped her then that's what I'd do.

Finally the door opened, and Captain Polaris stepped in, wincing as he saw the state Jessie was in. He walked over to the other side of the table and sat down. Looking uncomfortable, he interrupted the crying girl. "Jessica?" She sniffed and stirred slightly, leaning back to look over at him. He gave her a kind smile. "I'm Ian. Alan and I were friends. He talked about you all the time. He was very proud of you, you know? He never missed a chance to tell everyone about his genius little sister."

Jessie's eyes began to overflow again but she kept her grief in check, swallowing hard. "Ian, yeah Alan mentioned you a few times. I didn't realize you were Captain Polaris. It's...it's nice to meet you." She giggled wetly. "And yeah, I know. He always made sure I knew how proud he was. He could be a bit of a stiff sometimes but he really loved me. Our parents died when we were younger and Alan raised me. Now..." Her eyes filled with despair. "Now I'm all alone. Red Revenant, what am I going to do?"

Captain Polaris-no, Ian, reached out to take her hand. "Hey, you are not alone." He gave her a weak smile. "They don't call us "The Social Club" the Unity is a family, and it's yours now too. We always take care of our members' loved ones, especially when they're members themselves. Your brother did a lot of good for this city." His face became blank. "Which is why I'm here. I just went to see my mother and had a talk with her. Normally this wouldn't be something either of you would come into contact with, but I talked her into giving permission to hear the details of this case. If you want to."

I must have looked confused because he shot me a half smile. "Solomon, the main reason, you're getting this offer is that I, along with all the other executives, have been shifted to this case for the time being. You can back out, but you'd need to wait for any mentoring, this is all hands on deck. I'll be partnered with one of our G rank executives on this and if you agree to work on it you'll be shadowing both of us." He turned to Jessie. "As for you Jessica, I think you deserve the truth about what happened. If you want it. But you'd be on the case too if you choose to hear what really happened. Keep in mind once you both know there's no backing out."

I looked at Jessie, who looked determined. I was pretty sure I got why Ian was doing this. Jessie only had her brother, and if she went off searching for the truth she might end up dead too. By doing it this way he could bring her into it through me and bring me into it as a trainee. She'd be able to look into things with the maximum amount of protection without him having to worry about her getting killed. He was making the best of a bad situation and trying to keep everyone safe, and I respected that.

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I considered it. Honestly I didn't need this mess. I could just do my thing and grant wishes to get stronger, but I would feel like shit about it. First of all because Jessie would either be alone searching for her brothers killer with the executives or locked out of the whole thing because we were a package deal. Secondly there was a serial killer running around offing powerful Ascendants, and I was trying to become one of those. And thirdly I was pretty sure catching someone like this would give me a huge boost to every one of my stats. I took a deep breath, squeezed Jessie's hand, and nodded to Ian. "I'm in." Jessie's shoulder seemed to sag with relief, and I felt confident I'd made the right choice.

She didn't even bother vocalizing, just nodded, and Ian took a deep breathe. "Ok then." He reached into a case he'd been holding that I hadn't even noticed when he first came in, and took out a picture. Not one of Verdant, thankfully, but a dead cape all the same. He laid it down in front of us and pushed it toward us. His whole demeanor changed, slipping back into that Captain Polaris persona in a way almost too subtle to describe. He gestured at the picture, showing that same open bloody eye with a smiley face pupil.

The body was mostly out of frame thankfully, but I could see an absolutely mangled arm and I winced as I saw Jessie pale. Cap, however, just kept talking. "This is Errant, he was an H ranker with a heavy Might emphasis. His ability allowed him to absorb impacts to empower his muscles, and he was, without a doubt, one of our most combat capable H rankers. He was murdered in cold blood about a year ago, and was the first victim of a serial killer who calls himself "The Evil Eye".

He reached back into the case, dropping picture after picture onto the table. "Sidewind, Shockvault, Red Argent, all of these and more, the Evil Eye has claimed a total of twelve victims to date, almost all of them ranking from low to high H rank. He takes independent capes who work alone, and their strength varies wildly. We've been keeping the killings under wraps because the more word gets out the stronger he's going to get. But killing a G ranker like Verdant is a clear escalation. He's gotten stronger, and we need to put him down as fast as humanly possible."

I winced. That wasn't good news. "Well, what do we know about him? I'm sure you've had people look over the bodies. Do we know what his power is? How he kills? Any details at all would probably be helpful." They both stared at me and I shrugged. "I watch a lot of crime shows, sue me. My point is that there's no such thing as too much information, so do we have any information at all? If this killer isn't registered, then that brings the government into play doesn't it?"

Cap sighed and shook his head. "It's not that simple. The method of execution is mundane. A knife through the brain stem, slipped into the soft part of the skull. The mutilations happen sometimes before and sometimes after but there's no energy or elemental attacks involved. It's pure blade work. Which granted implies a physical power, but the options are endless. Not to mention we don't KNOW if they're registered with us. Second identities are complicated but they can be done for a short while."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "So we have no information at all aside from that the killer uses a knife, which may or may not even be their real primary weapon? Do we at least know their rank? You said they killed mostly H rankers, but had just jumped up to G rank. Does that mean they're a G rank Ascendant now? Or were they always G rank? Is there some other way they could be performing the killings?" There were just so many questions to ask and so few answers for any of them.

Sure enough, Cap just shrugged. "We don't know anything really. The Evil Eye is a master at covering their tracks. We suspect some kind of presence erasing artifact. As for the rank, well they could be G rank now, or they could be H rank and using powerful items to make up the difference. Killing up ranks is difficult, but at the early levels it can be done. Impact is the main defense of an Ascendant and H to G is the shortest that gap will ever get. Eight points of Impact can be offset with a sufficiently powerful weapon or even a strong enough ability."

Which made me incredibly curious. All these potential options had to do with artifacts, and I happened to have an in with the one place in the city where those artifacts would be sold. I made a mental note to check the WCP for any news about possible murder weapons. My mentor continued, sounding exhausted. "I just don't know what to do Solomon. Granted this isn't our first serial killer, or even the only one active, but they're targeting our own. The more we try to keep this under wraps the more it leaks out in the wrong places. They have to be getting stronger."

He offered a sad smile. "I honestly don't know if I can keep you two safe on this, but then, I don't know if anyone is safe anymore. In the meantime you're going to be working with me and with our youngest G rank executive, so I can't think of many threats in the city aside from maybe the big three who could be a legitimate threat, and they aren't willing to cross my mother by attacking any of our people much less me." He exhaled again, clearly troubled, but stood up and waved to us. "Well then, I suppose we should get you introduced to our new partner. Well, get her introduced to you. I imagine you both already know all about Nightstrike."

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