Before you say it, I know, I know, you want to know what happened with those streaks in the sky, and honestly, it wasn’t that big of a deal; in fact, it was quite boring; a group of villains hijacked a bunch of missile’s and sent them our way, something that while annoying was easy to deal with between Emilia’s barriers, and my Geo-Bullets.
Sorry to disappoint, but there was no large-scale battle, and in the end, it was but a minor inconvenience that scared the shit out of all the Graduates and Headmasters.
Luckily, I had multiple contingency plans in place for such scenarios, so it was dealt with before you could even know what happened; thus, I chose to skip ahead to the good stuff starting in April, four months later.
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This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.
*April 20th 2011*
*Rush Lake, Atlanta Michigan*
CREEAK Slam
’So you still haven’t told me why you dragged me across the country to rural Michigan, forcing me into a 26-hour road trip out of nowhere, let alone why I am wearing a fucking pencil skirt suit.’ Clearly agitated, Xilia complained as she slammed Baby’s door with a loud crash, which drew the attention of all the nearby law enforcement officers.
’Hah, look, just play along, alright? This is something I’ve been tracking for years, and now it’s started back up again.’ Massaging my temples and smoothing out the sleeve of my suit jacket, I took a slow breath and began walking in the direction of a cluster of people who appeared to be in charge.
"This is an active crime scene, and I know for a fact neither of you two are cops from around here, so who the hell are you guys." A man wearing a heavy jacket and a police uniform stated in a hostile and accusatory tone.
So, without hesitation and appearing totally in my element, I reached into my jacket pocket, retrieved a small leather-bound wallet, and flipped it open, revealing authentic credentials.
"I’m SSA Bennington, and this is my partner, SA Williams," I pointed behind me to Xilia, who had also drawn out her badge and credentials to flash them for the Officer.
"And before you say it, Yes, I look young; no, I’m not actually, just have good genes." Noticing the Officer in charge’s hesitation to accept me as an FBI agent, considering I seemed to be in my early 20s, I was quick to begin scanning everyone’s minds to learn all they had.
"If…you say so, anyway, I’m Detective Hawthorne, so what is the FBI doing out here? I can’t say there’s anything out of the ordinary; a hiker slipped and fell into the river, then drowned and was found by some local fishermen." Turning around and leading us toward the river fed by Rush Lake, Detective Hawthorne explained the situation until we came upon a body covered by a small tarp, out of the riverbank and on the shore.
"You really don’t see the similarities here, do you, Detective? Let me ask you something: have you guys not received the documents pertaining to a string of serial killings all across the Rural Midwest?" Crouching beside the covered body, I lifted the tarp and took a mental snapshot of the bloated and purple corpse.
At a glance, I could tell all the features linking this murder to dozens of others were present, a young man in decent shape of College age. Add in the fact that he was found floating face down in a body of water, and the puzzle pieces were nearly complete, with only one missing.
"Wait, you’re saying this is the work of a Serial Killer…here….in Atlanta, Michigan…really." The Detective muttered with a look of shock plastered across his face.
"Wouldn’t be here if I didn’t assume it was the case, Detective Hawthorne," Releasing the tarp so that it fell back and covered the corpse, I dusted the dirt off my hands and stood up while taking in my surroundings.
"How long will it take your medical examiner to get me an Autopsy report?"
"Uh, maybe a day or two, seriously though…a serial killer?"
’Yeah…the fuck? So you dragged me all the way out here to hunt a serial killer?’ Xilia snorted with her hands on her hips.
"That’s correct; however, odds are this is a dump and ditch, and given the fact that there have been numerous other cases just like this all over the Midwest, I doubt we will have much to go off of." Scanning the horizon, I turned around and ignored Xilia’s pouting.
’45 murders, all young, mostly white males of college age, disappeared after a night of drinking only to be found dozens, sometimes hundreds of miles away, dead and face down in a body of water. Accompanying the bodies, somewhere within a few hundred yards, will be a symbol made with red spray paint of a smiley face; go and look for it.’
Filling Xilia in, that reoccurring feeling something was off about this whole situation set in again as it had for years when this case was updated; sure, there were a lot of bodies in this string of murders in the Origin Timeline, but the rate of killing had accelerated, meaning there was interference somewhere along the line.
Not only were the men different this time around, but the dumpsites didn’t match up with the ones I knew at all, and since I knew my memory wasn’t the problem, it could only mean one thing.
The Smiley Face Murders…were executed by someone who had lived through the Descent of Arkadia and had returned to the past. The proof was, in fact, that the alleged final kill happened in 2016, kill number 45, yet by my estimates, this person or persons had been killing someone every two months, six a year, since 1997, making this new body…number 80, nearly double the number of linked murders from the origin timeline.
’Found it, just like you said, red spray paint, but I wouldn’t exactly call it a smiley face, like the yellow circle ones; it looks more like a symbol to me.’ Given her speed and perception, it didn’t take Xilia long to locate what I asked, and when she did, I told her to call it out aloud to make it look believable.
"OVER HERE! Bennington, Detective, I found something!"