Open Plot On The Trail

[Trys Aran]

Trys couldn’t believe she was away from Coruscant once more. This time she was called out to some obscure planet like Dathomir. The only reason she was out here was because there had been reports of some similar attacks on Coruscant. The Dathomir one had been in a dingy and forgotten prison, and she the results had been gruesome.

The families of the guards were in hysterics, and she had to get to the station through the crowds. She was in over her head, and the damn flower serial killer was still on the loose. Trys kept being pulled into critical matters that only allowed the killer to continue leaving bodies behind. This time she had actually asked for a partner on the case, wanting to avoid solely taking this on.

Moments after she arrived on the scene, Trys asked for access to the security footage. In the meantime, she found one of the officers that had returned the following day. He looked shaken and rattled as she approached, and just the sight of that alarmed her.

“What happened exactly?”

“I-I don’t even know what I saw in that footage,” He said, his voice shaking, “Avik was there and then...then something just shot out from the prisoner's hands and Avik just...just fell and started smoking like he got cooked!”

“Hold on, start from the beginning. Tell me about the prisoner.”

“6’3 male we caught for theft and he had a lightsaber on him,” The officer explained, “We confiscated that and held him in the cell. He had displayed violent tendencies. We have a profile of him and mug shots, of course, but we never could have anticipated what he was. We only have footage of his accomplice, but not as thorough of a profile on him."

Trys was noting all of this down while waiting for her assigned partner to arrive on the scene. Right away she could tell this wouldn’t be a quick case by any means.

@Orbit

 

[Duke Winters]

Duke arrived at the station a little later then Trys, able to see the families crowd outside the doors as multiple officers held them back and tried to calm them down. They wanted answers and they couldn't be provided yet, he couldn't blame them for being angry but they were going to do their damndest to find out what happened. A few moments were spared for himself before he finally started heading towards the station, keeping his head down at first so he was able to cut through the crowd without being harassed too much. Once he crossed the officers he was safe but it definitely earned a slight rise from the families as Duke didn't have his badge out to distinguish himself except only to flash it quickly to the officer by the door.

Once he was inside he found Trys, at least the back of her as she was busy questioning a guard. Duke glanced around to access the scene, seeing forensics walk down different hallways with crates of equipment. He had been briefed on what happened but the full story was never revealed in just the file. Duke approached Trys once she was finished, "Wish we could have seen each other under better circumstances but glad to work with you again." His hand extended out for a quick shake before retreating back to his side as he started to pull off his coat and fold it. "He give you anything of worth?"

A few moments into the witness' story, one of the technicians quickly turned the corner and approached the two of them, "Hey, we got something. You're going to want to see this." Duke glanced over to Trys before extending his arm for her to lead the way. The technician led them to the security room, opening the door where there were multiple screens of different angles being recorded by securities cameras placed throughout the entire building. "They never managed to shut off the security system. We pretty much got all of it on the footage. Some of it's a little fuzzy but with a little magic in the tech department we can clean it up soon." He sat down in a chair before spinning to face the screens as others around sitting down worked on the footage as well.

The footage was pulled up on the main screen, showing a figure walking down the cells until he stopped across the one with the inmate that the witness told Trys about. It continued to play and after a few moments Duke spoke up, "Pause and rewind." The technician followed his command and rewound it, "Stop, slow it down and hit play again." Once that was done, it showed the cell bars being pulled apart by an invisible force, letting the inmate just simply step out of his cell. "I've never seen that before." It was true, he was used to dealing with criminals and even assassins on his craziest days but nothing where metal could be bent easily without it being touched.

 

[Trys Aran]

Trys turned to regard her partner, and her eyes lit up when she realized it was a familiar face, “Winters!” She said with a grin, “The unsung hero of Nar Shaddaa,” A title she fashioned after she had walked away from the job out there. It haunted her, but she didn’t regret it. Trys knew when she was in over her head, even if others didn’t.

“How’d that job turn out?” She asked very briefly before they were distracted by the current situation. When he asked what she had learned so far, Trys grimaced, “The officer is spooked as hell,” She explained, “He’s gotta be over 6 ft and 200 pounds and he was shaking life a leaf telling me what he saw.”

Trys followed the others towards the footage, and her eyes widened at what she saw. She had heard rumors of things like that, but she had never seen anything like that firsthand.

“What the kriff…” She said quietly, “Not too long ago, we had a statement from a crook we picked up at a warehouse in Coruscant. He sounded pretty crazy, actually, but now…” Trys asked as she watched the footage replayed, “...maybe not so much.”

The trail of the prisoner wasn’t too easy to follow after they had headed out of the prison. The prison was in a very isolated area, and they would have to comb the facility thoroughly to get any clues. It also wasn’t entirely clear if there was a connection between this incident and the one at the warehouse. The prisoner didn’t appear to really fit the profiles described back in Coruscant.

 

[Duke Winters]

Duke couldn't help but smirk, "Oh, I wouldn't go that far. I just know how to hold a gun and flash a badge." The last time they met, they both had been nearly killed by an assassin or something along with that nature. He was happy to still see that she was alive and well. "Well, it's providing interesting leads but that's it, just leads so far." It would be a painful process and there were heavy implications, but it was too much to talk about there.

When they went into the security room and watched the footage, it seemed Trys had a previous encounter with this type of... "power" before on Coruscant. Duke glanced over at her and then back at the screen, the footage now silent and just playing through as they watched the carnage unfold. "And now here on Dathomir. So that must mean there are a lot more of these... people out there then we think." Placing a hand on the technician's shoulder, "Clean all of the footage and analyze. See if you can get a clear shot of the man who broke him out and find a name. If you find anything else let us know." Duke turned to face Trys, "Let's go see the armory, they cut through there and maybe left something we can use." This was a lot to process and having seen nothing like that before, he just relied back on his training and went through the normal flow of what to do on a crime scene to at least keep his mind in focus on what to do.

As he walked with Trys towards the cell, he started to speak out loud, "There are things happening we don't know about. I've near heard of telekinetic... wizards moving and bending objects with their mind. With this and apparently what you found on Coruscant, something has to be stirring the pot." There were criminals and police, that was the spectrum that Duke knew but this completely flipped all that. When they approached the armory, the guard placed his keycard against the reader and opened the door for them. It revealed a scene of cut down droids with wires hanging out from their wounds.

Duke stepped inside the armory and stared down at the droids, "Well, they're certainly dangerous." He placed his fingers through his beard and held up his chin as he glanced over to Trys, "What happened on Coruscant? Are the two instances connected or separate in your opinion?" Walking over to one of the droids, he covered his hand with his sweater before picking up one of the droid's arms and attempting to lift it up. When it practically wouldn't budge, Duke gently placed it back where it was before looking back to his partner, "And their quite strong. I wouldn't even be able to lift and throw a security droid." There weren't any blast marks on it so he wouldn't be surprised if they used their telekinesis on them as well.

 

[Trys Aran]

Trys followed Winters towards the armory, coming across the droids. They were short circuiting, but the heads were intact. She called forward an analyst, “Try and pull data from there,” She said, “We should be able to get some data from it. I don’t know how reliable it’ll be, but it’ll be more than nothing.”

She turned to Winters, shaking her head, “It sounds similar, but I don’t know if they’re connected. The people at the warehouse doesn’t match this guy’s profile,” Trys thought back to the details, “On Coruscant there was some sort of incident. One of the thugs from the incident was captured and he coughed up some information about seeing people waving around laser swords and moving things with their mind. It sounded completely nuts and he was actually sent to the mental ward. He desperately wanted to go there because he thought he was crazy.”

Trys sighed, “I don’t know how credible his testimony is, but this footage and evidence is undeniable,” She pulled up the datapad she had on her, “The autopsy lines with what’s in the footage - severe burns throughout the body. Their skins pretty much melted and it was all caused by something that came from the suspect’s hands.”

The analysts were brushing the walls and everything else for fingerprints. They had collected shoe sizes, but nothing else obvious outside of that thus far. Trys rubbed her chin in thought, watching as the droids were sent into the labs for slicing.

“The trail runs cold outside of the armory,” Trys mused aloud, “Both of them took the saber that was collected and left,” She paused, “Wait a minute,” She walked towards the open cabinet and directed an analyst over, “This will for sure have some prints. They had to open it to get the saber out. We’ll have the picture, prints and other critical data to get a file on this guy.”

 

[Drow Venn]

Drow Venn liked to think of himself as a good Jedi. And being a good Jedi meant keeping your ear listening closely to rumors and horror stories in cantinas and gambling dens. It was how he'd managed to hear of those Devlikk slaver ring. Having been criminal scum in the past himself, Drow knew firsthand how much information similar slimeballs could have. And it seemed that assertion was being proven again. He'd heard musings and rumors of strange criminal happenings. Happenings that sounded a whole lot like a Force user. Informing the other Jedi that he intended to investigate, Drow had set out for Dathomir.

It'd been hard getting in, of course. Drow didn't exactly have a badge to flash and his mercenary past meant he wasn't exactly a welcome face to law enforcement. Still, a Jedi could find a way and though he was a new one, Drow was still a Jedi. The officer guarding the crime scene had, of course, stopped Drow at the door. Mind tricks were never his forte so Drow had to ask the guard four times before he finally relented and let the Ishi Tib Padawan inside. There, he saw two investigators...investigating.

"Pardon me, the name's Drow Venn. I'm a Jedi. I might know a little something about the person you're trying to find."

 

[Duke Winters]

Duke listened to Trys explanation of Coruscant but with it having no connection to their current case, it snuffed out that thread and left them back picking up the pieces at the prison. "That came from the suspect's hands... what kind of holo movie shit is this?" He pretty much asked himself the question. There was a difference between a person being shot and a person practically being melted from another's hand. "Let's hope tech can clean it enough to find out who the accomplice was then." The droids were lifted out in the meantime and that's when Trys realized that the two suspects left their fingerprints all over the weapons cabinet.

The analyst nodded at her before walking over to the cabinet with a handheld bag, pulling out a duster and other equipment as he would begin to clean and find any usable prints for them. While they waited and discussed what to do, a random officer approached both of them with his thumb pointed in the direction of the front door, "Somebody is insistent on getting in. He says he knows about the man you guys are chasing." Duke glanced over to Trys before shrugging his shoulders, wondering who would possibly be out here to help them "Let's go meet him and see who this is."

When they started to head that way, they already found Drow walking through the building and towards him. At least he guessed it was him because he was headed straight for them. The Ishi Tib introduced himself and casually dropped that he was a Jedi, making Duke's eyes widen slightly as he stared at Drow before glancing over to Trys then back to Drow once again, "We'll skip over the Jedi part for now but we'll definitely come back to it. You actually know anything about the man that escaped or are you some nutcase just trying to see the crime scene?" It would definitely explain the Jedi part.

Duke has dealt with reports and just random passersby sneaking onto a crime scene to get a better look but this was the first someone ever said they were a Jedi. He's heard stories about such warriors but just that, stories. But after witnessing the footage of the inmate escaping and all the evidence they collected, he would really believe anything at this point. If Drow would/could actually help, then Duke would listen with all ears.

 

[Trys Aran]

Trys was distracted when there was word of someone coming in to ‘help’ on the case. From the sounds of it, he kept insisting until the officers up front relented for some reason. Puzzled, she followed Winters out to the front. When he opened up with the Jedi bit, her eyebrows rose straight up. She opened her mouth to talk, Duke spoke before she did. He echoed her perplexed reaction, and she couldn’t help but agree with everything he said.

Weren’t the Jedi just a myth? She crossed her arms over her chest, her skepticism clearly visible on her face. Trys eyed the man curiously, wondering how he managed to even get in. There were caution tapes out at the front, the families of the dead were gathered up front and media was on the scene trying to catch a glimpse.

“You’re not media, are you?” She had to ask, looking around to see if he had some sort of lanyard on him or a camera crew lurking somewhere. Trys had dealt with many ‘informants’ that ended up being phonies that wanted to get some attention. How did he even know what the team had stumbled upon in here?

Regardless, she would hear the man out.

@Fantasy Liver @Orbit

 

[Drow Venn]

"This look like a media camera?"Drow asked, taking out his lightsaber and showing it to the two officers. He hoped that was enough to sate their doubt. Not that Drow didn't understand the doubt. He remembered his mercenary days where him and his buddies would stay up late drinking and boasting that they'd surely be able to take on a Jedi, were they still alive, little realizing that the Force wielders were out there.

"I understand the doubt and I'm sorry for mind tricking your officer but I really want to help. The person you're looking for? Sounds a whole lot like a Force user. I can help track him and take him out if you're willing to deputize me. Or at least make me an informant." Drow offered, wanting this killer to be brought to justice but also hoping the two wouldn't run a background check on him. He'd changed his ways but that didn't mean they'd believed he had.

 

[Duke Winters]

When Drow asked if something looked like a camera, Duke's hand instinctively hovered his blaster and ready to pull it out, still not trusting the man. But when the Jedi pulled out his lightsaber and proved his claims of what he was, he immediately pulled his hand away from his blaster and grabbed Drow's hand before shoving the lightsaber back into his clothes and stepping closer to him to block the view from anyone else. "Let's go somewhere else." He stepped away from the Jedi and led him and Trys to a different room so they had some privacy.

Maybe it was just his time on Nar Shaddaa but he considered a Jedi, if Drow was one, something you show out in the open. A lot of guards and officers could always be on payroll and this couldn't be spread from here. When they arrived in another room and the door was closed, Duke walked over to a table before sitting on the edge with his arms crossed as he stared at Drow. Duke glanced at Trys, suspicious of this whole thing but still willing to roll with it as he looked back to the Jedi, "You're not getting deputized, we just met. We can work with you being an informant but that only works if you actually can provide assistance."

Duke's eyes went towards the lightsaber, wondering what to think. When stories are heard of the Jedi, their "blades of light" are the first thing that listeners would think of. While it was big sign he could be what he is, he needed to fully vet him to make sure Drow really what he was. "As much as I respect your weapon, I'm going to need more proof. You could just be someone who managed to stumble upon a weapon like that." He glanced around slowly, finding an empty glass right behind him on the table.

Duke stared at Drow as his fingers wrapped around the glass and he gave the man a nod, "Catch," He whipped the glass around his body and straight toward the Jedi's head. There was enough force behind it that if it connected with his face, it would shatter into shards and make the damage even worse. Duke didn't really want to hurt him but he needed to know and if the man wasn't a Jedi and a slight danger to the throw would make rely on his instinct. If he wasn't what he said he was, Duke fully expected him to duck and the glass to hit the wall behind him.

When he watched the footage of the escape earlier, he saw fully metal cell bars be bent out of place from thin air like it was a wet paper. Hopefully, Drow would be able to catch a simple glass before it hit him if he really was like a Jedi like he claimed.

 

[Trys Aran]

OoC: Sorry Fantasy, but you’re slowing down this thread and plot. PM us if you want to continue at a speedier pace.

Trys was more than a little curious to see how Duke would handle the strange man that claimed to be a ‘Jedi’. After they went over to the new room, she couldn’t have predicted what came next. Trys had to fight hard to keep the grin from her face, watching Duke play out some pure comedy in handling the ‘Jedi’.

She saw him fling the glass and whipped around to see what he did. To her surprise, he simply stood there, getting conked on the head and promptly hitting the ground with a thud. An awkward silence hung in the air as it was clear he was out cold.

Crickets chirped somewhere in the distance. Someone coughed in the next room.

“Well then,” Trys said finally, trying to pretend there wasn’t someone on the ground with a saber, “Um… yeah, let’s get back to work I suppose,” She said awkwardly, walking back towards where the armory was. It was the room with all the prints, and she would help collect them and any other findings that could help trace where the culprits went.

 

[Duke Winters]

Duke was expecting for Drow to duck, he was hoping that he would somehow stop it midair and prove that he could actually help the pair in capturing whoever escaped. But instead, the glass soared and hit him straight in the forehead, thankfully not shattering but bouncing off and shattering on the ground. "Oh sh.." Duke extended his hand out to reach for him, "Wait." But Drow fell like a log and in a straight plank, landing with a loud thud as the table near him started to wobble for a second. The Ranger just stared down at the "Jedi" blinking a couple of times before pulling his hand back and putting it in his pocket.

"Guess that, uh, answers that." Duke just gave Trys a slight nod before taking a quiet and long step over Drow and heading to the exit of the room. When they were in the hallway, he gave a quick glance around to see if anybody was nearby before just shutting off the lights to the room and closing the door behind them, leaving Drow in there to rest for the time being. When they reached the armory, he walked over to one of the chairs and sat himself down, just inspecting the overall scene. "So, where would you go after you escape a prison such as this one?"

That's when footsteps could be heard down the hall and coming towards the armory, it one of the technicians and holding a datapad in his hand. "Ma'am, we managed to get a full print for both of the men. This is what we could pull about them, it's somewhere to start." He handed over the datapad before giving a nod to both and exiting the room. Duke peered over to Trys with a curious eye, "Anything that helps?"

 

[Drow Venn]

OOC: Sorry dealing with some family stuff this weekend. Back to normal now.

Drow frowned at the idea of proving his mettle. He could have easily dodged the glass or caught it in midair but he felt a more impressive show of his Force abilities was necessary to prove himself to these two skeptics. No stranger to pain, Drow tensed up, preparing for the hit. He felt the shards rip through his face, falling to the floor. However, the two of them just left him! He got to his feet and rushed after them.

"Wait! You want proof?" Drow asked the two of them, coming up from behind them. He closed his eyes, focused as hard as he could on his face, on the pain he was feeling, on his fresh wounds, and on the Force swirling around him and went to work. It took a moment but his Force Healing began to do its thing and soon his bloody face was now healed. Wiping the last of the blood from his face, Drow stood a bit taller and looked at the two Sector Rangers.

"Call me an informant or call me a deputy. Hell call me an idiot if you'd like. It makes no difference to me - I just want to help." Drow said.

 

[Trys Aran]

Trys almost drew her gun and shot the ‘Jedi’ as he abruptly came back to life and followed them. God damn this guy was relentless! She was about to say something, but she noticed him scrunch up his face. He looked like he needed to use the restroom very badly for a moment, and she looked awkwardly over at Duke. However, when she looked back, the injuries on the man’s face were rapidly disappearing.

“What the kriff…” She whispered under her breath, her gun lowering and her eyes wide. She couldn’t help but have her mouth hanging open at the sight. He wasn’t lying...he did have those strange abilities. Trys barely heard the rest of what he said, and she immediately felt guilty.

“I’m...I’m sorry about what happened earlier,” She said, sheepishly running her fingers through her hair, “As you can imagine, my colleague and I get a lot of fanatics that try to butt into scenes,” Trys couldn’t remember the last time she felt like such an ass.

She looked over at Duke and shrugged, “Well, we’re hitting a dead end, so no harm in you seeing the footage I guess,” With that, she led the ‘Jedi’ back to where they had seen the footage. She played it for him, and he would see the use of lightning and red sabers on the guards.

“Can you explain what the hell is going on here?”

@Fantasy Liver @Orbit

 

[Duke Winters]

Out of nowhere, suddenly Drow was back up and on his feet, his face cut up slightly from the glass shards and instantly made him feel guilty about what happened. Try's gaze would meet Duke's as he gave her the same awkward glance about the situation. He asked if they wanted proof and he provided it, the cuts on his face miraculously healing and stitching themselves up like it was nothing. "And you didn't just want to catch the glass?" Drow was certainly what he said he was and there was no denying that no.

Trys, gave an explanation and he simply just jutted his thumb to her as support behind her words. "Sorry about that... thought you wouldn't actually get hit." With the apologies out of the way, Trys suggested having Drow look over the footage and he was fine with that, most likely needing a fresh set of eyes to get a crack in this.

When they arrived in the security room, Duke leaned against a table behind them with his arms crossed, staring at the screen as the footage was played once more. Something big had to be coming, he had a bad feeling about this and he wondered if the Jedi could shed some light on all this or only a sliver.

@Fantasy Liver

 

[Drow Venn]

Drow nodded appreciatively when the two elected to believe his story. He didn't necessarily mind taking another glass to the face but all things considered, he'd prefer to avoid getting glassed. He was further appreciative that they were on the same side; too often Drow had been on the wrong end of the law. As they showed a security footage, the Ishi Tib Jedi clucked his tongue when he saw the grim figure.

"Hmm...it's no Jedi I've ever met that's for sure. I doubt he's a Jedi at all judging from what he's doing in the vid. But he's definitely using the Force. And he's been well-trained...I just don't know...I've heard stories of people being able to shoot lightning out of their fingertips from the old days. But those people were Darksiders from what I remember."

"If you had a vague idea of where he might be, I could help sense him through the Force. I could even send out a signal for other Jedi to come help - Force users don't go down easy."

 

[Duke Winters]

Well Drow at least confirmed that the ones who bore the red lightsabers weren't Jedi but a different sect entirely. They still used the "force" however and the only difference he could only see between them so far is the fact their weapons were different colors. Darksiders, is what they're called apparently and the name fits well with the fact they were watching one of them melt the face off a security guard to escape.

Duke gave Drow a nod as he stepped forward, "So you need to be close in order for you to help us. Understood, whenever we catch another lead on the Darksider then we'll contact you again or one of your associates." They have collected everything they could from the scene without forming their own theories that could hurt the case. They had enough information either way to give them a suitable start and they need to chase down this Darksider soon enough.

/endthread