by Prax Venter
“The name's Adam Rockwell, Private Investigator, and this is my crime board,” the mysterious man said as he picked up a red wax pencil and crossed off one of the black-and-white pictures. “I am attempting to solve my client's murder.”
“I'm Mark, and this is Ahnix, Vale, and Roo. Good to meet you, Adam.”
“We help you solve your murder, and you give us directions?” Vale asked.
“That's the deal, little lady.”
Adam walked over to a photo of a smartly dressed blonde woman and tapped his pencil on her face.
“This was Miranda Rossi. When she came to my door, her eyes were a regular waterworks over the death of her fiancée.” Adam moved his arm up and tapped on a sharp-looking man who had a 'born rich' air about him.
“This is Alexander Wolfe, Miranda’s fiancé. She paid me five hundred big ones to hunt down his killer. A day later, she winds up dead in an alley- stabbed once in the heart. I was the last person who saw her alive, so the boys in blue finger me as the main suspect.”
Adam pulled out his cigarettes and matchbook again. He struck the match, puffed until the cherry began to glow and then shook out the match, smoke curling around the brim of his angular hat. There was nowhere for the smoke to go in the enclosed space, and Mark felt Ahnix become annoyed from the cloud of acrid ash particles hitting her sensitive nose.
“I ain't her killer. But I will damn sure find the one responsible- if you'll pardon my language.”
He tapped his pen on the photograph he had just crossed off. The image was of a man with a ridiculously long mustache and dressed in a flamboyant costume.
“Eddy the Eye wasn't a real suspect in this case, but half of these men deserve to be dead for their own reasons. Noir City is better off without Eddy and his men.”
Mark exchanged looks with his girls. They were all thinking the same thing- the bone-armored creature they fought was nothing like this stereotypical fortune teller in the photo.
“Okay, now what?” Mark asked, getting the feeling that another quest was coming up.
“Now that I know you kids can handle yourself in a real fight, you are going to help me run some errands.”
“Errands?” Roo asked.
“The deli, first.”
Mark sighed. “An escort quest.”
Adam Rockwell continued. “Yeah. You and these lovely ladies'll escort me while I work some leads. No one gets dumped in an alley in this city without involving Brass Tony. I've been sticking my nose in his operation, and he ain't too fond of my efforts. Between him and the cops, this city is gunning for yours truly. First stop is Chuck's Deli. Maybe get a pastrami? Let’s go.”
They followed him out of the rusty door, back through the dockyard and to the city. The weak yellow sun had risen as Mark and his girls returned from the amusement park, giving him the sense that time was presented differently within the Adventure Dome.
By the time they were back between the tallest chalk-drawn skyscrapers, the sun had moved above the dirty blanket of low-hanging clouds. They rounded a corner and faced a group of four bone-shooting zombies standing in the street, and they all fired on their escort quest NPC at the same time.
Vale activated Perfect Cover and instantly appeared in front of Adam, taking the hits while Roo shot one monster with a needle and Mark launched a glowing orb from his crossbow, vaporizing two others. After the explosion cleared, Ahnix teleported behind the last one, quickly cutting it to pieces with her claws and Retracting back next to Mark. The fight was over in an instant.
Adam put his unfired gun back into his side holster and whistled.
“Looks like I backed the right horse with you kids.”
After a few more blocks, they stood in front of what was clearly a deli with long cheeses and sausages hanging in the window, but the name and address were only smears of chalk on blackboard walls.
“Chuck and I go way back,” Adam said, looking up at the illegible letters above the entrance. He pulled open the glass door, triggering a small bell to ring.
Inside the air-conditioned deli were an array of meats and cheeses, a plethora of potato and macaroni salads under a glass counter, and a giant jar of foot-long deep green pickles. Otherwise, the store was empty.
Adam walked right up to the counter and began having a one-sided conversation.
“Good to see you too, Chuck. Listen, I'm here on business- No thanks, maybe my associates would like one?”
He turned around to look at Mark and his girls, expectantly. When no one spoke, he returned his attention to the counter.
“Nah, we're all good. Tell me something- you missing a paring knife by chance?”
There was a longer pause this time, and Mark was getting mixed emotions from his Enthralled as they watched this broken AI run through its pre-destined existence.
Adam continued. “I see. Maybe your son, Danny, saw something.”
Another long pause and the dull anger radiating out of Ahnix caught Mark's attention. While her focus was on the NPC, he laced his fingers through hers as she had done many times for him in the past when his mind had gone somewhere unpleasant.
She turned to look at him, her dark, exotic eyes softening as he sent her thoughts of calm. Her dancing tail slowed to a few hops before she let out a long breath. Mark could tell the scripted life of this barely intelligent entity was really bothering her.
“Let's go,” Adam said, pushing past them and out into the street. Mark and his girls followed the PI as he strode down the sidewalk with purpose.
“What now?” Mark asked, keeping up with him.
“Bald Ron the Barber. Chuck's kid has been hanging around the place, and Bald Ron is known to have ties with Tony. Lots of unsavories, maybe a few answers.”
They walked for four blocks and then stopped in front of a store with a red, white and blue striped barber pole. As soon as Adam pulled the door open, an inside-out creature burst through the opening, its gore dripping everywhere. The disgusting thing grabbed Adam's arm and opened its jaw with a silent, single-minded determination to eat his stubble-covered flesh.
Ahnix reacted the quickest, teleporting inside the store behind it and shredding its squishy exposed organs with her claws. When its health depleted, the creature and all of its blood evaporated into the air with an updraft of golden shimmer.
Adam straightened out his clothes and entered the otherwise empty store. Locating his target, he rushed to stand by one of the barber chairs and seemed to be grabbing an invisible person by the scruff of their collar.
“You don't want my new friends here to make a mess of your shop now, do you?” Adam threatened thin air. “Tell me who Chuck's kid has been pal’n around with, and we can skip the real close shave.”
A silent moment later, he said, “Rabid Axle? Never heard of him, and what do you mean 'crisp clean money'?” He pantomimed tossing someone to the floor with disgust. “Fine, you keep your nose clean. You hear?”
P.I. Adam Rockwell straightened his hat before he turned and moved with long strides back out of the store.
“Let's move,” he said. “I need to make a withdrawal from the bank.”
Adam was practically running as they flew down the gritty street toward their next destination. Bone bullets zipped at them from alleys or behind parked cars as they advanced, but Roo or Ahnix were quick to spot them and eliminate the threats efficiently.
Other than the occasional gory zombie, the city was empty.
Their escort NPC slowed as he approached a corner and peeked his head out first instead of just dashing out into the street.
“Damn,” Adam said. “Cops crawling all over the place.” He pulled back with a grim look on his shadowed face. “I don't want to risk fighting the cops, but I need answers.”
Mark moved up to the blackboard wall to peek around the corner himself and saw an empty, chalk-drawn street.
“Okay, I think I got a plan, but it might take some work,” Adam began. “First, we sneak into the Bank Manager's house t
his evening and nick his key, then we-”
“I have a better plan to get us in,” Ahnix said, cutting him off and grabbing Adam's arm. She looked at Mark. “Hit me.”
Mark, Vale, and Roo knew what she meant, and they reached out to touch the black-and-gold cat-girl. Mark pumped her teleport with power and an instant later they were all standing inside the empty bank.
Adam pulled away and said, “What?” before he seemed to freeze impossibly still.
“Oh...” Roo said. “Did we break him?”
Mark was beginning to think she might be right when he jolted back to life.
“Good work. That'll keep them busy for a while. We have about five minutes before the fire truck gets here.”
Mark and his girls exchanged looks again as Adam Rockwell dashed off into one of the offices. By the time Mark entered the file room, the PI was already fingering through a drawer full of files.
Adam paused when he found the document he was looking for and pulled it halfway out of the filing cabinet. The man's eyes darted back and forth as he absorbed the contents of the file. His posture went slack, and it appeared that the investigator found something that troubled him.
“Did you get what you came for?” Mark asked.
“Rabid Axle is Alexander Wolfe. He's still alive, and the evidence points to him being the one who murdered my client... Miranda.”
Mark felt like the revelation was supposed to carry more weight, but he just assumed that they were missing a large part of the story.
“Um, then you can tell us where... Vale, what was the address?”
“1500 Main Street.”
Adam Rockwell let out a sad chuckle. “Figures, it's where I’m headed now. That's Brass Tony's nightclub. Alexander is in there somewhere, I feel it in my gut. He killed his fiancée, my client, for poking around his faked death... Let's just say I also have business at this location.”
He closed the drawer and headed out of the bank.
After a short run through the dirty streets of Noir City, they found themselves at the base of the largest building in the city. The jittery chalk outlines raced up blackboard walls until the towering structure became lost in the gray, low-hanging clouds.
“Look,” Adam began. “It'll get hairy in here. You sure-”
“Yes,” Ahnix said, interrupting him again.
“We are going to the thirteenth floor,” Vale said, pushing past him and putting her hand on the door. “You're welcome to follow us if you like.”
With that, she pulled her shield from her back and opened the door.
Adam nodded and straightened his hat, a crooked smile cracking his usually stoic features.
“Ladies first,” he said, extending his hand.
Vale, Roo, and Ahnix entered the dark and silent building, and Mark followed behind them.
The first thing they saw was a spacious reception area and coat-check booth. The walls were coated in black lacquer and silver lines accented everything. The place had a luxurious, timelessly classy feel. There were double doors with diamond windows straight ahead, and Vale moved to carefully peek through the one on the right.
“Sounds like the place is in full swing,” Adam shouted, like he was trying to be heard over music no one else could hear.
Mark could feel Vale grow tense from what she saw. The alarm in her mind faded, and eventually, she turned around.
“Well, there are a lot of monsters in there. But they are all motionless.”
“Motionless?” Adam yelled. “With all that arm flapping and rug-cutting going on in there, we can probably make it to the stairwell unnoticed.”
“Rug-cutting?” Roo asked, tilting her head.
“You know, the two-step.” She still looked confused, so he continued, “Quit pull'n my leg. A gal with long, beautiful gams like those must have seen the top side of a dance floor a time or two.”
The velvet girl looked over at Mark. “Actually...”
“Later, Roo,” Ahnix said, ending the line of conversation. “We're on a mission.”
“Only one way to go,” Vale said, pointing her weighty shotgun at the set of double doors. “Get behind me.”
Slowly, the giant naga covered in legendary black armor pushed open the swinging door with the muzzle of her weapon. Not getting a reaction, she moved fully into the room with everyone else following closely behind her.
It was like they stepped into a nightmare locked in a freeze-frame. The furniture and decorations were that of a swanky nightclub with a massive bar that ran the length of the building: hundreds of round tables, a main dance floor, and near the back, a stage with a lounge singer draped over a piano.
The only issue was that the hundred or so patrons and staff were all inside out, bloody, human organ monsters. Some were dancing, locked cheek-to-cheek, some were sitting and drinking, long stem martini glasses held between skeletal fingers, yet all were frozen in time.
Mark flinched when Adam Rockwell yelled out “The stairs are back there,” and they all turned to look at him pointing to the white door with flanking bone-armored guards.
Carefully, Vale led them through the mass of monsters towards the indicated target.
“If they all come alive, grab me,” Ahnix whispered as they moved slowly, and they all knew she was planning their escape. And she was right, if every gory creature in this room suddenly turned on them- Mark and his girls would probably be overrun in seconds.
Mark could feel the tension vibrating along their bond and tried to absorb their fears, keeping his own tucked away.
It took longer than he expected, but they made it across the room without touching a single one of the monsters. Vale eyed the two guards standing by the door before moving past them.
Like all the rest, they seemed to be humans with no skin or muscles, just bloody organs. These particular monsters had the tube-like stubby arms that Mark knew could shoot a stream of sharpened bone shards. Parts of their legs and shoulders were covered in a light bone armor and gave Mark the impression that they were on tougher side of enemies found in Noir City.
Mark was staring at the one on the right when Vale reached out for the door's silver handle. The moment she made contact all hell broke loose. Every creature in the place lurched as if time had caught up with them. Every last one turned their bloody skeletal heads to face them.
“Move!” Vale yelled, slamming her shield into the guard on the left before pushing the door open.
Ahnix severed the head of the guard on the right as she passed through and everyone else moved in after her.
Adam pulled the door closed behind them, and Roo launched what looked like a thicker than normal needle into the door frame.
Mark had a flashback to when she pulled the same trick when they met for the first time, locking him in the center of the house dimension with her.
The door started to vibrate from the impacts on the other side, and Mark knew her brace wasn't going to hold forever.
Spinning, he noticed that they were in a large kitchen, metal pots and racks were everywhere with a long grill along the back wall. To his left were a broad set of stairs leading up to the next floor.
“There is a hotel above us,” Adam said, his gun drawn. “Brass Tony's personal office is somewhere in this building. My money's on the thirteenth floor.”
Vale nodded and quickly wove her body up the stairs, Mark and the rest following close behind her. As soon as she hit the landing and turned to go up the next flight, Mark felt the giant naga pulse a vibration of alarm along their bond. Shortly after, she fired her massive shotgun up the stairs, blowing the bloody creature coming at her to glowing dust.
“Keep moving,” she said, setting a quick pace as they raced up the switchback stairs. On the next floor, Mark saw a door with a single chalk smear that had probably been a '2'- indicating the floor level. He counted in his head as they continued upward.
A few more organ zombies came down the stairs to greet them, but Vale or Roo took them out with barely a
pause.
“This one is twelve!” Mark called out, breathing heavily, as they made another turn to go up the final flight of stairs. He was right behind Vale as she slithered up to the landing halfway between floors twelve and thirteen, but what Mark saw as he looked up took his brain a moment to process.
The whole wall of the thirteenth floor was gone, and the stairs seemed to lead into a large room that was covered in a writhing mass of flesh, organs, and blood.
Moving slowly, Mark crawled up the stairs next to Vale as they tried to see exactly what it was they were up against. As he peeked over the last stair, he saw a flash of light near the back wall and witnessed a new, inside-out blood zombie created from nothing and lurch out into the gore-filled room. After his brain caught up with what was happening, he recognized the process as being similar to the crafter that Johnson had demonstrated in the cargo bay.
His thoughts were scattered when Vale appeared a few stairs up, in front of him, activating Perfect Cover to intercept a hail of bone bullets raining down on them.
Mark pressed his stomach on the sharply angled stairs to duck under Vale's shield and get a bead on the machine spawning more monsters. That thing had to go. He lined up his shot and squeezed the trigger, causing a magnificent explosion in the back of the room.
“Wolfe is mine!” Adam shouted as he sprinted up the stairs.
“Wait!” Vale commanded, but the mysterious man in the trench coat didn't stop and she followed him in.
With Vale's round bottom out of his way, Mark got a clear view of the room and watched as Adam Rockwell fired his gun at one of the walls. He hadn't really noticed at first, but there were partially formed people randomly wedged into the bloody flesh that coated the room. Roo followed Vale and launched a needle into one of the horrible faces buried in the walls.
Between Vale's shotgun, Roo's needles, Adam’s gunfire, and a blast from Mark's crossbow, they made quick work of the partially formed-creatures.
The last shot came from Adam's pistol and, the final silently screaming skeletal face disintegrated. A moment later the whole room was awash in golden particles as every bit of gore and blood vaporized into the air.