Holiday Wars Chapter 1
Cold Turkey
written by Kevin Bell (Death Star)
Holiday Wars Chapter 1
Cold Turkey
written by Kevin Bell (Death Star)
4:40 PM, Galactic Standard Time
Gordon Paladin craved a cigerrate, Lord God Almighty forgive him. Looking down at the dead 18 year old girl before him, face down on the ground, her back blackened from the attack, smelling burnt like a cooked turkey. Which is what he should be having, alone in his room, today - on this day of days. Thanksgiving. Leyaeh circled the body with her people, clicking her tongue against her teeth, her famfrit ears twitching.
"It looks like someone hit her with a fire attack against the back. Either a fire weapon, or a fireball, or some sort of explosive that erupted fire outward into her back," Leyaeh noted methodically. Keeping the emotion out of her voice, even though it showed a little in her face. It was why Paladin liked to work with her - she was a professional.
Standing up and adjusting his Suisen uniform, he crossed his arms. "So not a blaster?" he asked calmly.
"No."
"Could it have been energy weapon?"
"Possibly," Leyaeh said slowly, dubiously. "But it doesn't look that way. The burn marks do not match that pattern. An autopsy can tell us more, but if an energy weapon killed her and the person burned the body afterwards to cover the wounds up..."
"To hide the damage done. Yeah." Lord Jesus, did he want a cigerrate now. He prayed to the True God, not the fake ones that ran around these days; the one the Empress was married to, or the ones that controlled the water or fire or moon or all that fake stuff. They would come and go, but the One True God would always remain in the end. And when he died, he would be with his savior.
"You know who probably did this," Paladin said to her slowly, turning to Leyaeh.
"Cheryl wouldn't kill an unarmed girl," Leyaeh said flatly."
"This unarmed girl killed her daughter a few weeks ago," Paladin reminded her. "And she threatened to kill her if we released her a few days ago." He brought the memory up as clear as day. Cheryl in his office, saying that if they released The World - name unknown - she would kill her the second she was free. Practically promised it. That they either left her in jail to rot or executed her herself. Which they couldn't do - it would set an unfair unprecedent. All the Arcana had to go free, or none of them.
Besides, the girl had been used and abused and forced to do what she did - and feeling guilty about it or not, it didn't matter. Likely the girl was incapable of feeling such feelings anymore after being tortured into a weapon since a pre-teen. Not all of them could bounce back as easily as Butterfly, or Mute, or Hei did. Many of them would take years worth of counseling and watching to make sure they make productive members of society and not pyschopaths who killed with conventional weapons now that they had lost their powers. Hell, one was pregnant, and they had no idea who the father was - poor bastard child.
Either way, he owed it to this dead girl to find her killer and made sure they got thrown into jail for the rest of their lives. See, while she may have been inadvertantly responsible for Taiga's death - Cheryl's daughter - they had brought her back, somewhat. Breaking God's rules of nature and using science, they had used a clone and her memories to bring her back. Cheryl had rejected the clone so far and insisted her daughter was dead. And if Cheryl was the killer of this girl when she had a chance to reconnect with the clone, well, Paladin would not show her any mercy.
He somehow knew his turkey would be cold when he got home.
* * *
6:00 PM, Galactic Standard Time
Paladin began his investigation, while Leyaeh handled the autopsy and other end of the investigation on the PAX, at the Nue Mansion, where Cheryl should still be at before going to the Island. He hoped and prayed to catch her still there as proof of her guilt before she departed to join the rest of the Nues on their vacation. Moving around the house silently, he saw little sign of life at first, but then noticed that the house did still have occupants.
Taking out a lock device, he began to work the side lock and work his way inside the house, wanting to catch them by surprise, using his jurisdiction as a Suisen Empire Judge and EarthGov being part of the Suisen Empire as the means for entering.
Pushing open the door, Paladin slowly worked his way through the guest kitchen, glancing over at the various fruits laid out by Lemon for the day and other food groups she had planned to cook, a maid outfit and sexy panties, making a slight face, then worked his way upstairs to the guest wing, hearing voices through the door - two female voices. Pausing a moment, he realized it was Cheryl and Chii.
"I am thinking about moving back to the old Cran mansion now that no one is living there. I like it here with everyone but it might be nice to have our own space again," Cheryl was saying to Chii slowly.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, it's nice being in a big mansion with everyone but I want our own place again. I can set up teleporters between the mansions," Cheryl responded.
Paladin lifted up a datapad and scanned the two through the doorway, wanting to get their body heat, position, and to see how long they had been in the bedroom. It would help to determine if Cheryl was the killer. As he got the data he transmitted it to Leyaeh for her to translate the information.
"If that's what you want, Cherry."
"I think I'd like a fresh start," Cheryl admitted. "I can still work on the Reality Strikers and get things done from Mega City just as well as here. I'd like to see about getting Asteroid C back and running and Mega City might be the place to get our funds back and running."
Paladin's device came back with the readings. They had had sex 1 hour ago and been laying in the bed since then. So unless Cheryl killed the girl and went and fucked Chii immediately afterwards, that means she was in the bedroom having sex with Chii. Either scenario was plausible. She could have killed the girl and gone to fuck Chii out of guilt - it was a Christian and a non Christian thing to do. Or she could have been fucking Chii at the time of death, since the readings were not accurate. She was having sex around an hour ago and had been in the room since then, likely cuddling.
He put the device back into his pocket and walked out of the mansion, musing. He couldn't eliminate Cheryl from the suspect list, but this also meant that Cheryl could be bumped down from the number one slot as well - but who else could have wanted The World dead. Another Arcana? Did she know something she shouldn't have known? Or someone else that was upset over Taiga's death? One of her friend's? Who else was not taking her death well?
Taking the datapad he looked up to see who Taiga had been interacting with based on school log information and saw that she had not spent much time with certain people she had before - Kitty, Jade, Lenneth, Mitsu, Zuzu, other members of her family. The list was too big. However, many of them were on vacation, so he could eliminate most of them. Going after Lenneth would open too big of a situation - and a quick check with CHIP showed she was with Erevis for the family meal anyway - so that left Jade with a question mark there. Paladin put her far down the list anyway.
If it was someone who didn't want The World getting information she might know out there, Paladin would need to talk to the other Arcana. Adjusting his coat, he walked across the snowy landscape of the old Vatican City, refusing to referring to it as PAX City in his mind.
* * *
7:30 PM, Galactic Standard Time
It took a little time to gather the girls - most of them didn't have families anymore and so they have been placed into foster homes for the time being. Hie, once known as Hierophant, sat on a stool, kicking her legs, while the girl with the baby, known as Emp, rubbed her stomach. Butterfly and Mute were there, Reno and Eluere present as their guardians.
Paladin sipped his black coffee, peering at each of them with his hard look. Butterfly hid behind Reno while Mute rubbed her hands together. Hie didn't respond, peering down at the ground quietly. "Do any of you know why anyone would want her dead?" he asked them quietly, trying to be as gentle as he could be, but trying to drive the point home.
Hie spoke bitterly before anyone else could. "Isn't it obvious? They hate us." She said, the little waif of a girl, flat chested despite her age - which they couldn't determine but they though she was about 15 years old like some of the others. She clenched her fists together, some tears in her eyes. "No matter what we do, we are bad guys."
Paladin watched her and wondered if she was mimicing the feelings of everyone in the group - despite the fact they removed her tarot card from her, Hie was the only one who's powers partially remained - her ability to mimic personalities and some power from anyone she countered. For good or ill, she would keep that little power forever it seemed.
"Do you really believe that, Hie?" he asked.
"Why else? The World didn't do anything - except get that one girl killed. But she was unharmed you said and was shot in the back. They're going to kill us all. They hate us for getting their leader killed. We can't redeem ourselves," Hie said, and she sounded depressed, like perhaps she thought she could be redeemed and become something more.
"So you think it was a revenge killing, nothing more?" Paladin asked, looking at her, then at the others.
"What else could it have been?" Emp asked.
"Did she know something that she shouldn't have known?" Paladin asked.
"I've been out of the loop a long time, but they never told any of us anything that someone else might not know," Butterfly said slowly, as if timid and afraid to speak up. Mute nodded in agreement.
"She's right. I was told to do this and how to do it and that was it," Hie spoke up timidly, rubbing her hands together and peering away. Emp nodded her ascent.
"It seems to me," Reno spoke up before Paladin could ask anymore questions, "that the girls were used as separate entities - break down one unit and they couldn't give away the game plan of another unit."
"It makes sense," Eluere agreed. "They were like terrorist cells. Take down one cell and the others could keep going."
Paladin leaned back, desperately wanting that cigerrate now. Because if that was the case, and no one from the past organization wanted the World dead, then it was someone from their group who killed her. And that meant it was a revenge killing. Or some other type of killing he couldn't understand.
"I see; then I am going to have to get a list of everyone's whereabouts from 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM and then systematically break down any reason they might have to kill The World," Paladin said finally.
* * *
11:00 PM Galactic Standard Time
Paladin leaned back, rubbing his eyes, smoking a cigerrate. He could ask for absolution of his sins later. At this point, everyone had been enjoying their thanksgiving meals throughout the day - his plate of turkey sat next to him, untouched and uneaten, cold and dried out.
He had been going through the lists of each group of people and from there had been using the computer to eliminate them. The Nue Family was on Cheryl's island at the time of the killing - Isis, Miyuki, Kasha, Hi, and all their kids. The Giblin Family was in the Everglades - X, Delano, Tomoe, Kitty, and Winston. The Zhenmei family was up in 1B getting their dinner on - Erevis, Lenneth, Ama, Tsukiyomi, Ako, Iko, Jaime, Tel, Thara, Inari, and so on. And of course the computer checked out Leyaeh as being at work.
Next, he had checked out people who were at work that day. Pio was running her bar with JM and Katrina. And Ouka was running the bakery, having finished it minutes after the murder. Angela and her family was preparing Thanksgiving dinner and could check each other out - Angela, her wife, Si, and Cheria.
From there, there Paladin would have to spend the next few days going to each person and checking out their alibis.
Cheryl and Chii were in their home at the time of the murder, just two blocks away, having sex, or having sex right after.
The Hale Family was scattered about - Jade's whereabouts unknown, Em was scouting in the area for a new resturant location, and Hale was working his job by patrolling the area.
John was in his office but could not be verified. Lorelei was on commiunications duty but went offline during that period for 20 minutes.
Taiga was at the park 2 blocks away according to cameras but they lost track of her and next to the water, kneeling in the cold water and touching it, looking sad and lost.
Ash was not on duty but was reported in the area. Aurica was reported to be on the Interceptor, but she would have to be asked, or another Reality Striker.
Josephine was reported to be in her house according to cameras but needs to be verified. Same with James in his school where he is now a puppet.
As for anyone else, there is no information on their whereabouts at all. Those on the PAX would be easy to track down eventually at least.
Paladin leaned back and blew out smoke when Leyaeh buzzed him, done with her thanksgiving meal, that the autopsy was done. He put the cigerrate out in the ashtray and stood up, saving the data and heading down to security.
* * *
11:30 PM, Galactic Standard Time
Leyaeh stood there with Cuddles beside her. Paladin slowly walked up beside them and both of them sniffed the air in his direction, noses crinkling - no doubt smelling the cigerrate smell on him. He made a note to pray to church leader tomorrow to absolve his sins. "You have something?"
"Yeah, we--" Leyeah began when Cuddles cut her off in her usual abrupt way.
"You mean I found something. I began to examine her body to see what was up with these burn marks - to see if it was a fire attack or simply fire used to cover up an attack. And I can safely say it was an indeed a fireball like attack that hit our victim, a powerful one, that hit them just right and killed them," Cuddles began."
"So are we talking about like a fire launcher, flame thrower, fire user...?" Paladin asked slowly, grasping for more details.
Cuddles shrugged. "Good question, but I did find traces of mystical energy in it. That could mean magical, ninpo, or spiritual. It definitely wasn't a normal fireball."
"If I remember right, Cheryl can use fireballs," Paladin notes, having looked at her file.
"A lot of people can," Cuddles points out. Paladin had to concede that. "If you go with the ninpo route, you have a lot of 'fireball' ninpo users. If it's mystical or magical, well, who knows."
Paladin rubbed his chin, ignoring that. The chances of such an element were slim, unless someone was really trying to frame Cheryl for some reason. No, this was personal, or emotionally motivated. The World posed no threat, and the only reason to kill her was to gain something, however illogical. Which points to an emotional attack. He may not be solving this today, but he could eliminate a lot of people today
"You did good. Leyaeh, make sure to store this information and let the goddess know. I want this case file kept open for when we bring the killer in," Paladin noted.
Leyaeh's ears twitched, but she nodded. Paladin turned and walked out of the room, but instead of lighting up his cigerrate he headed back to his room to get his turkey, to finish up his Thanksgiving and salvage what he could. And made a vow, to himself and before god, that he would find the killer. And bring them to justice.